An accused in college student Momin murder case was killed in a 'crossfire' between the Rapid Action Battalion (Rab) and his gang in city's Kafrul early yesterday. The dead, Shah Alam alias Haji Shah Alam, 25, was the number two accused in the case filed for the murder of Dhaka Commerce College student Kamrul Islam Momin. Former officer-in-charge of Motijheel Police Station AKM Rafiqul Islam is the prime accused in the case. A close associate of top criminal Kala Jahangir, Alam stood accused in 16 cases including five for murder and four for robbery.
"I have the death sentence on twelve systems."
Hasibul Haque Johnny, detained in connection with Momin killing, told a magistrate under 164 of the Code of Criminal Procedure (CrPC) that someone had hired Alam to kill Momin.
Momin's family has all along been alleging that OC Rafiq had paid the Alam gang to kill Momin over a land dispute between Rafiq and Momin's family.
Nothing like a good, old-fashioned range war between clans
Momin's brother Shamsul Islam said if Alam were alive, he could have helped in identifying the mastermind behind the killing. "Rab told me that they tried to nab Alam alive, but failed," Shamsul told The Daily Star.
Ok, by the numbers.
I:
A team of Rab-4 arrested Alam at the north gate of Baitul Mukarram Mosque on Monday afternoon.
II:
During interrogation by Rab he spoke about his accomplices, arms and ammunition, said a Rab press release.
III:
Following up the information, Rab men took him to Bou Bazar Dhal in Kafrul area at around 4:00am yesterday to recover firearms.
IV:
As the Rab team reached the area, Alam's accomplices opened fire on them.
V:
The law enforcers under attack returned fire, setting off a fierce shootout, added the press release.
VI:
At one stage, Alam got in line of fire while trying to escape from Rab.
VII:
He received five bullets in the chest and died on the spot.
"...rose..bud.." VIII:
Police recovered the body of Shah Alam at about 10:00am and sent it to Dhaka Medical College Hospital morgue for autopsy.
IX:
Rab recovered one firearm, three bullets and two empty bottles of phensidyle from the scene.
Posted by: Steve ||
11/16/2005 14:11 ||
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Hasibul Haque Johnny
What's he, like the shoeshine boy who had all the good info for the private dicks in those 30's movies?
Police in Bangladesh are hunting about 2,000 potential suicide bombers from three banned militant groups demanding the introduction of Islamic law in the mainly Muslim democracy, a senior officer said on Wednesday.
He said many of the militants had trained in Afghanistan under the Taliban and might be preparing more attacks after two judges were killed in a bomb blast this week.
"They have assembled in the country to destabilise democracy," said the police officer, who asked not to be named.
"All the country's law enforcement and intelligence agencies have been ordered to put concerted efforts into capturing the members of the suicide squad," he told Reuters.
Bangladeshi police acknowledged for the first time the presence of home-grown potential suicide bombers after the two judges were killed on Monday by a bomb thrown at their car in the coastal town of Jhalakathi, 250 km (155 miles) from Dhaka.
A wounded young man detained at the scene told interrogators at a Dhaka hospital he was a member of the suicide squad of the outlawed Jamaat-ul-Mujahideen group.
"I was assigned to kill and die," the man, named Mamun, told a private television channel at the hospital where he is being treated for multiple injuries from the blast.
"I wished to be a martyr in my efforts to establish sharia-based Islamic rule in Bangladesh," he added.
Police have arrested 14 suspects, including Mamun's elderly father and a younger brother, after the deadly blast. Local experts said the bomb that killed the judges was the most powerful locally made explosive device ever used in Bangladesh.
Police said a 2,000-strong "suicide squad" was drawn from members of Jamaat-ul-Mujahideen and two other banned groups, Jagrata Muslim Janata Bangladesh and Harkatul Jihad.
"We are determined to find each member of the suicide squad, especially those who have returned from Afghanistan," Inspector General of Police Abdul Quayyum told reporters late on Tuesday.
Bangladesh has been hit this year by a series of bombings blamed on Islamic militants who have threatened judges in their campaign for the introduction of sharia law.
Bombs exploded in three district courts outside Dhaka on Oct. 3, killing two people and wounding more than a dozen, while 500 small bombs went off across the country on Aug. 17, killing two people and wounding about 100.
Posted by: Dan Darling ||
11/16/2005 10:37 ||
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Hopefully they'll all be in one spot. Mind if I light a cigerette?
#2
Average 12 DOB (Dead on Boom) victims per boomer, which translates to 24,000 people, mashed to bits. Not mentioning the injured, that would be in 50,000 range. Allan the Satan is deliriously happy with the prospects.
Posted by: Shep UK ||
11/16/2005 12:24 Comments ||
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If I were in charge in Bangladesh, I'd start by yanking a bunch of mullahs out of their mosques, searching them for weapons and explosives, and hanging any mullahs from mosques where they were found. The rest would "only" get a light to moderate thrashing, a strong lecture ("if we have any sh$$ out of you, you get what the others got"), then return them to their mosques via catapult. I'm SURE the "level of violence" would greatly diminish.
Posted by: Old Patriot ||
11/16/2005 14:00 Comments ||
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OP---Good point. Actions--->Consequences aimed at the instigators of the insanity. A couple of WAMs (Wack A Mullah) and the rest will toe the line. They are spittle generators and cowards. The question is whether the respective governments have the will and the fortitude to attack the problem head on. Most govt's do not.
Posted by: Alaska Paul ||
11/16/2005 15:12 Comments ||
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British officials ordered a British computer specialist Babar Ahmad extradited to Connecticut to face terrorism charges Wednesday, a decision announced after sixth months of deliberation. Connecticut investigators say Ahmad ran several Web sites, including Azzam.com, which investigators say was used to recruit and raise money for the al-Qaida network, Afghanistan's ousted Taliban regime and Chechen rebels. A judge ruled May 17 that the 31-year-old could be sent to the United States to face charges of supporting terrorism, conspiring to kill Americans and running a Web site used to fund terrorists. But the extradition had to be approved by Home Secretary Charles Clarke, Britain's top law-and-order official, who made his decision Wednesday.
"We are very pleased with the home secretary's decision, which represents yet another important step in our efforts to bring Babar Ahmad to justice," said U.S. Attorney Kevin O'Connor, Connecticut's top federal prosecutor. "We will continue to work closely with our counterparts in London to secure his extradition." Ahmad's arrest last year capped a multiyear investigation by Connecticut's anti-terrorism team.
Investigators said Ahmad had obtained classified documents discussing a U.S. Navy fleet's vulnerability to attack. Ahmad's family said it would appeal Wednesday's decision, setting up a High Court challenge to contentious new rules that allow American authorities to seek extradition without producing evidence of a crime. The case is proceeding under new extradition rules that lessen the burden of proof in some cases, allowing certain countries — including the United States — to provide "information" rather than evidence that a crime has been committed. Some lawyers and civil libertarians are alarmed by the "fast-track" procedures, which are not reciprocal because the U.S. Senate has not yet ratified the extradition treaty. A petition calling for Ahmad to remain in Britain gathered thousands of signatures.
Ahmad's lawyers have 14 days to appeal. They said if evidence against him existed he would have been charged in Britain. British police arrested Ahmad on suspicion of terrorism offenses in December 2003, but released him a week later without charge. "If our government has any evidence of wrongdoing on the part of Babar Ahmad, then he should be charged in this country and put on trial here," said Iqbal Sacranie, secretary-general of the Muslim Council of Britain.
In a statement posted on the Web site www.freebabarahmad.com, Ahmad said Clarke's decision "should only come as a surprise to those who thought that there was still justice for Muslims in Britain." The lawmaker for Ahmad's home district in south London, Sadiq Khan, also said he should face trial in Britain. "Mr. Ahmad's family and the local community are extremely concerned that he will not be subject to a fair trial in the United States," Khan said.
In May, Judge Timothy Workman allowed extradition after receiving assurances from U.S. authorities that they would not seek the death penalty or declare Ahmad an "enemy combatant," a category applied to detainees at Guantanamo Bay in Cuba. British law forbids the extradition of suspects who could face capital punishment. Workman called the extradition bid "a difficult and troubling case," and said it raised complicated issues that the High Court should explore. Before the new rules were introduced, several high-profile U.S. extradition bids fizzled out when authorities were unable to back up their charges of terrorism with evidence.
In April 2002, Workman dismissed a U.S. extradition bid against Algerian pilot Lotfi Raissi, who was arrested shortly after the Sept. 11, 2001, attacks and accused of being a lead trainer for the suicide hijackers. Workman ruled that the United States had offered no evidence to link Raissi to terrorism. The same year, U.S. authorities failed in a bid to extradite Egyptian Yasser el-Sirri, who allegedly funded terrorist activities targeting the United States, after the British government decided there was not enough evidence.
Posted by: Dan Darling ||
11/16/2005 10:24 ||
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Sorry 6 months after a judical ruling is unbelievable. Maybe he needs bigger ears so he can hear this is a war on terror and this little prick was sending manpower to the bad guys. Clarke is as foolish as he looks.
ALLEGED terrorist leader Abdul Nacer Benbrika appears to have embarked on a distorted and fabricated concept of jihad, according to Melbourne's senior Muslim cleric.
Sheikh Fehmi Naji el-Imam yesterday said Benbrika's views were damaging Islam and Muslims and poisoning the minds of his followers. Sheikh Fehmi said several families of the men charged alongside Benbrika with participation in a terrorist group had been dismayed by their alleged involvement.
"If it is true what is said about this man, then when he (Benbrika) says he is calling for Islamic jihad, he is calling for his own, fabricated jihad," Sheikh Fehmi said.
"Also, Islamic jihad does not call for killing innocent men, women and children, and to think nothing of it.
"Islamic jihad does not call for the destruction of monuments and to annihilate or kill whoever is inside, known or unknown (to the bomber)."
The Melbourne Magistrates Court was told last week that Benbrika was the key link and inspiration behind terrorist groups in Melbourne and Sydney.
The Sydney Central Local Court was told that Benbrika discussed jihad with two followers who visited him in Sydney. Police said Benbrika was recorded telling one of them: "If we want to die for jihad, we have to have maximum damage ⊠damage to their buildings, everything. Damage their lives to show them."
Some of the Sydney suspects were said to have attended training camps in outback NSW and to have stockpiled chemicals to make explosives.
All told, 18 men, including Benbrika, have been charged with belonging to a terrorist organisation. Benbrika has also been charged with directing a terrorist organisation.
Sheikh Fehmi told The Age that Benbrika should wage a personal jihad to correct his thinking.
"Islamic jihad asks for this man to do jihad first and foremost on himself to purify his thoughts, his mind, his intentions towards his country which sheltered him, protected him and allowed him to reside here peacefully and gave him a chance to earn an honest and honorable living, and when unemployed it fed him and his children with the Centrelink offerings," he said, referring to Benbrika's life in Australia after fleeing Algeria. "Islam teaches this man to be grateful to those who treat him well, and says that the reward for good deeds is offering a better good deed, and not to incur maximum damage camouflaged by maximum jihad to public buildings or innocent people."
Sheikh Fehmi intervened on Benbrika's behalf when he was attempting in 1994-95 to persuade the Migration Review Tribunal to grant him residency.
About the same time, Benbrika was reportedly becoming radicalised after a visit by Abu Qatada, now the spiritual leader of al-Qaeda in Europe and then a close friend of controversial Sheikh Mohammed Omran.
Sheikh Fehmi said he hoped reports of Benbrika's statements had not been exaggerated to create a distorted picture of Islam and the views of Australian Muslims.
"We care about the safety of every citizen, whoever they are, and we have a great faith in the fairness of the judicial system of this country, and we call on our people to be law-abiding citizens all the way," he said. "If it is true what is said about this man, then this man is damaging us, damaging the principles of our life and our religion."
Posted by: Dan Darling ||
11/16/2005 10:13 ||
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A SYDNEY man has been committed to stand trial on charges of lying to the national intelligence agency ASIO about contact he had with French terrorist suspect Willie Brigitte. Abdul Rakib Hasan, a butcher from Lakemba in Sydney's southwest, is charged with two counts of making false or misleading statements to the Australian Security Intelligence Organisation (ASIO) under questioning in 2003. Hasan, 36, appeared in Sydney's Central Local Court this morning via video link and indicated through his lawyer that he would plead not guilty to the charges.
"Nope. Nope. Never happened."
Magistrate Allan Moore today committed Hasan to stand trial on both charges. "It looks like the evidence is capable of satisfying a jury beyond reasonable doubt," Mr Moore said. An Australian Federal Police (AFP) fact sheet tendered to the court said Hasan helped Brigitte, whom he knew as Jamal, find accommodation on three occasions while the Frenchman was in Australia between May and October 2003. When questioned under an ASIO warrant in November 2003, Hasan initially said he did not know Brigitte was staying at the first address until the Frenchman told him. But later in the same hearing he said he had arranged for Brigitte to stay there.
"I arranged it, but I din't know he dunnit, see?"
Between June 12, 2003, and September 30, 2003, Hasan and Brigitte had 24 telephone conversations, the AFP document said. According to the AFP, Brigitte made 42 calls to Hasan at his work but he was only there to answer them 24 times. "On 24 of those occasions the defendant was at work and had a conversation with Mr Brigitte," the document said.
"But they ain't nothin' wrong with that! He wuz interested in meat!"
But during the November 2003 hearing, Hasan said he only spoke to Brigitte three times during that period.
"Each conversation was split up among a dozen phone calls, see? So I only talked to him three times..."
Hasan will be arraigned in NSW District Court on November 25.
Germany has charged three Iraqis with plotting to kill former Iraqi Prime Minister Ayad Allawi during a state visit to Germany last year, federal prosecutors announced Wednesday. The three are suspected of being members of the radical Islamic group Ansar al-Islam. Prosecutors said they filed the case Nov. 10 with a state court in the southern city of Stuttgart.
The suspects _ identified as Ata R., 31, Mazen A. H., 23, and Rafik M. Y., 31 _ were arrested Dec. 3 on suspicion of planning an attack on Allawi, who was in Berlin at the time. The three, all German residents, were charged with membership of a foreign terrorist group as well as conspiracy to kill Allawi. Ata R., the alleged ringleader, and Mazen H. also were charged with breaking German export laws in connection with suspected fund-raising for the terror group, prosecutors said in a statement. Ata R. allegedly was Ansar al-Islam's top official in southern Germany, had close contacts to its leaders and carried out logistics for its operations in Iraq and Iran, prosecutors said.
In describing the alleged plot, prosecutors said Rafik Y. decided to try to kill Allawi during a scheduled event at a branch of Deutsche Bank AG in downtown Berlin on Dec. 3. They said he telephoned the other two suspects, more senior members of the group, to ask for approval. They gave their consent in a call on Dec. 2 along with a pledge of financial help. Rafik M. then inspected the scene of the planned attack.
Frauke Scheuten, a spokeswoman for federal prosecutors in Karlsruhe, said there was no maximum sentence for the conspiracy charge. The charge of membership in a foreign terrorist organization carries a maximum sentence of 10 years.
Posted by: Steve ||
11/16/2005 09:34 ||
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Slovenian police have recently arrested five members of an international gang that has been smuggling weapons and explosives of the same type used last year in Madrid's bombings, said on Tuesday Slovenian Interior Ministry Spokesperson Robert Marvljak. In a phone call, Marvljak told Kuwait News Agency (KUNA) that two days ago, the police arrested two Slovenians, two Croatians and a Bosnian among a multinational band smuggling weapons and explosives including Goma-2 Eco, which is a type of high explosive chiefly manufactured for mining purposes and was used by terrorists in Madrid's trains attacks in March 2004. Marvljak noted that among the confiscated weapons were guns made in Israel.
The Slovenian police, he said, released the Bosnian suspect without allowing him to leave the country until the court would decide on his allegations, but the other four suspects were kept detained to continue the interrogations, which have been believed to include the participation of neighboring states. The investigations revealed that the smugglers have not targeted any locations in Croatia, Slovenia or Bosnia, he said. They, however, were planning to smuggle the now confiscated explosives to Italy as well as other Western Europe states, and maybe to terrorist groups in other states, he explained. Marvljak said the successful arrest came as a result of security coordination between several states without revealing any further details about the operation.
Posted by: Fred ||
11/16/2005 00:00 ||
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France's lower house of parliament has cleared the first step for an extension in emergency powers to quell an unprecedented wave of urban unrest, after the prime minister toured a riot-hit suburb. A majority of 346 deputies voted on Tuesday in favour of the bill drawn up by Prime Minister Dominique de Villepin's government, and 148 against.
Villepin had told parliament disorder of "unprecedented gravity" justified extending emergency powers for three months. "The situation remains serious in a great number of districts. We cannot accept that more than 200 cars burn each night," he said, adding that nearly three weeks of rioting had destroyed 8500 vehicles and 100 public buildings. About 2800 people had been detained and 600 jailed, he said.
The Senate, or upper house, debates the law on Wednesday. Passage of the law seems certain because the ruling centre-right party dominates the two chambers of parliament. The government approved emergency powers including curfews last week that went into force on 9 November for 12 days, although only few areas have imposed curfews.
Posted by: Fred ||
11/16/2005 00:00 ||
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We cannot accept that more than 200 cars burn each night,
Drudge excerpt of Cheney's speech tonight
Excerpts As Prepared For Delivery Tonight by Vice President Cheney
THE VICE PRESIDENT: "As most of you know, I have spent a lot of years in public service, and first came to work in Washington, D.C. back in the late 1960s. I know what itâs like to operate in a highly charged political environment, in which the players on all sides of an issue feel passionately and speak forcefully.
In such an environment people sometimes lose their cool, and yet in Washington you can ordinarily rely on some basic measure of truthfulness and good faith in the conduct of political debate. But in the last several weeks we have seen a wild departure from that tradition.
And the suggestion thatâs been made by some U. S. senators that the President of the United States or any member of this Administration purposely misled the American people on pre-war intelligence is one of the most dishonest and reprehensible charges ever aired in this city...
Some of the most irresponsible comments have, of course, come from politicians who actually voted in favor of authorizing force against Saddam Hussein. These are elected officials who had access to the intelligence, and were free to draw their own conclusions.
They arrived at the same judgment about Iraqâs capabilities and intentions that was made by this Administration and by the previous Administration. There was broad-based, bipartisan agreement that Saddam Hussein was a threat ⊠that he had violated U.N. Security Council Resolutions ⊠and that, in a post-9/11 world, we couldnât afford to take the word of a dictator who had a history of WMD programs, who had excluded weapons inspectors, who had defied the demands of the international community, who had been designated an official state sponsor of terror, and who had committed mass murder.
Those are facts.
What weâre hearing now is some politicians contradicting their own statements and making a play for political advantage in the middle of a war. The saddest part is that our people in uniform have been subjected to these cynical and pernicious falsehoods day in and day out. American soldiers and Marines are out there every day in dangerous conditions and desert temperatures â conducting raids, training Iraqi forces, countering attacks, seizing weapons, and capturing killers â and back home a few opportunists are suggesting they were sent into battle for a lie.
The President and I cannot prevent certain politicians from losing their memory, or their backbone â but weâre not going to sit by and let them rewrite history.
Weâre going to continue throwing their own words back at them. And far more important, weâre going to continue sending a consistent message to the men and women who are fighting the war on terror in Iraq, Afghanistan, and many other fronts.
We can never say enough how much we appreciate them, and how proud they make us. They and their families can be certain: That this cause is right ⊠and the performance of our military has been brave and honorable ⊠and this nation will stand behind our fighting forces with pride and without wavering until the day of victory.
Developing... bout f*&kin time!
Posted by: Frank G ||
11/16/2005 19:48 ||
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Start running those commercials on the tube, day in and day out. Let's see some footage and hear audio of their own words.
(2005-11-16) â Special Prosecutor Patrick Fitzgerald, who secured grand jury indictments against a top Bush administration official last month, today announced he may be close to discovering who told Valerie Plame that she was an undercover CIA agent.
Mr. Fitzgerald refused to release any names, but sources close to the probe said evidence indicates that the Washington Postâs Bob Woodward may have revealed Ms. Plameâs covert status to her.
The prosecutor declined to comment on Mr. Woodwardâs possible connection to the case, instead he focused on Ms. Plameâs apparent ignorance of her role at the Central Intelligence Agency.
âIn the months, and even years, leading up to July 2003, Valerie Plame was not behaving like someone who knew she was a covert agent,â said Mr. Fitzgerald. âThe woman friends knew as Mrs. Joe Wilson seems to have learned of her undercover status at about the same time a reference to her appeared in Robert Novakâs syndicated column.â
The prosecutor said it may be a violation of federal law to reveal a CIA agentâs covert status to the agent.
âWeâre looking at whatâs called âdeep deep coverâ in the intel community,â Mr. Fitzgerald said. âIn other words, the CIA unwittingly may have been using Mrs. Wilson as an undercover agent without her knowledge, or the knowledge of anyone else at the Agency.â
Meanwhile, as former vice presidential chief of staff I. Lewis âScooterâ Libby awaits trial on five counts of hindering the CIA leak probe, Mr. Novak and Mr. Woodward remain at large.
Posted by: Steve ||
11/16/2005 19:39 ||
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excellent! but the "scrapleface alert" was omitted
Posted by: Frank G ||
11/16/2005 19:46 Comments ||
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Wait a minute Bob Woodward is this the same Bob Woodward that had the Bush/attack book??? Ohhhh yeahh Bahhahahaha
I hope the Bush and crew go full alt I think just like the LLL's are always screamin for "investigation" "charges" "trial" for every little thing I beleive it is way past time for the Bush team to counter with the same. I want to see "sedition trials"(these would be those who openly attempt to subvert our war effort LLL's "Intellegence Leak trials"(these would be on Rockefellar giving Syria pre-Iraq-invasion heads up hes on the freekin intellegence committee not to mention his leak of a spy sat earlier all are leaks at best outright TREASON at worst, how about Berger getting the book up side his head for his stealing confidential documents that were realevant to the situation we find ourselves in today Hmmmm) It is time to go on the offensive heads need roll or at least the impression made that such will not be tollerated that we are not the paper tiger but the Barbarians stories like this at Aljiz
Stories like this are A+ moral boosters for AQ. We need to make the impression that it aint goinin to happen. Even when Bush goes at the end of his term the next guy is going to be full alt offensive aswell until VICTORY is acheived nothing less. Stories like these of no end to US offensive until victory will rip what is left out of the AQ heart. Every moron knows AQ cant face the US straight up or even proven now in a insurgency war in thier home turf, when the only chance of victory they have left is proven dead (the exit of Bush and the loss of morale and heart or will to fight with a mere retreat with no thouht of even repeating the Iraq style operation or even declaring victory and going back to the Clinton fog were we just ignored the rising threat until it cost us 3000 civilians). Bush shaming the LLL's and going offensive even making examples of some of the worst by procecution will get Bush screams of Nazi/faciast but it will give our enemy the undeniable fact that thier last hope just died.
The United States has detained more than 83,000 foreigners in the four years of the war on terror, enough to nearly fill the NFL's largest stadium. The administration defends the practice of holding detainees in prisons from Afghanistan to Guantanamo Bay as a critical tool to stop the insurgency in Iraq, maintain stability in Afghanistan and get known and suspected terrorists off the streets. Roughly 14,500 detainees remain in U.S. custody, primarily in Iraq.
It's a start
The number has steadily grown since the first CIA paramilitary officers touched down in Afghanistan in the fall of 2001, setting up more than 20 facilities including the "Salt Pit," an abandoned factory outside Kabul used for CIA detention and interrogation. In Iraq, the number in military custody hit a peak on Nov. 1, according to military figures. Nearly 13,900 suspects were in U.S. custody there that day _ partly because U.S. offensives in western Iraq put pressure on insurgents before the October constitutional referendum and December parliamentary elections.
The detentions and interrogations have brought complaints from Congress and human-rights groups about how the detainees _ often Arab and male _ are treated.
"Waaaaaaa!"
International law and treaty obligations forbid torture and inhumane treatment. Classified memos have given the government ways to extract intelligence from detainees "consistent with the law," administration officials often say.
On Capitol Hill, Sen. John McCain, R-Ariz., is leading a campaign to ban cruel, inhuman or degrading treatment of prisoners in U.S. custody. The administration says the legislation could tie the president's hands. Vice President Dick Cheney has pressed lawmakers to exempt the CIA. "There's an enemy that lurks and plots and plans and wants to hurt America again. And so you bet we will aggressively pursue them. But we will do so under the law," President Bush said last week.
Some 82,400 people have been detained by the military alone in Afghanistan and Iraq, according to figures from officials in Baghdad and Washington. Many are freed shortly after initial questioning. To put that in context, the capacity of the Washington Redskins' FedEx Field, the NFL's largest, is 91,704.
Many of those attending Redskins games this year have a pretty good claim to "cruel, inhuman or degrading treatment" as well.
The second largest, Giants Stadium, holds 80,242. An additional 700 detainees were sent to Guantanamo Bay, Cuba. Just under 500 remain there now.
Where they have more rights than Cubans on the other side of the wire.
In Iraq, the Defense Department says 5,569 detainees have been held for more than six months, and 3,801 have been held more than a year. Some 229 have been locked up for more than two years. Many have been questioned by military officials trained at the main U.S. interrogation school, Fort Huachuca in Arizona. Pentagon officials say those mistreated are relatively few when the sheer numbers are considered.
Yet human rights groups say they don't know the extent of the abuse. "And there is no way anyone could, even if the military was twice as conscientious. It is unknowable, unless you assume that every act of abuse is immediately reported up the chain of command," said Tom Malinowski, Washington director for Human Rights Watch.
So, if it's "unknowable", we must be guilty
As of March, 108 detainees were known to have died in U.S. military and CIA custody, including 22 who died when insurgents attacked Abu Ghraib and others who died of natural causes. At least 26 deaths have been investigated as criminal homicides. Last week, Senate Armed Services Chairman John Warner, R-Va., said that more than 400 criminal investigations have been conducted and 95 military personnel have been charged with misconduct. Seventy-five have been convicted.
Through the CIA, a much smaller prison population is maintained secretly by the agency and friendly governments. A network of known or suspected facilities _ some of which have been closed _ have been located in places including Thailand, Central Asia and Eastern Europe.
Located? Reported maybe, but I don't recall anyone being able to find one
The governments of Thailand and a number of Eastern Europe countries have denied the CIA operated prisons within their borders. The agency consistently declines to comment.
About 100 to 150 people are believed to have been grabbed by CIA officers and sent to their home countries or to other nations where they were wanted for prosecution, a procedure called "rendition." Saudi Arabia, Jordan and Egypt are known to cooperate.
This used to be called "extradition"
The practice has taken on a negative connotation, but that wasn't always the case. In a December 2002 speech touching on intelligence successes, former CIA Director George Tenet said the agency and FBI had "rendered 70 terrorists to justice."
Rendered: to melt down ; also : to extract by melting b : to treat so as to convert into industrial fats and oils or fertilizer
While officials won't confirm the number, another two to three dozen "high-value" detainees are also believed to be in CIA custody. Among them, Khalid Shaikh Mohammed, an alleged mastermind of the 9/11 attacks.
They just disapeared into a Black Hole, rumored to be in the middle of the Indian Ocean
As House Intelligence chairman in 2004, CIA Director Porter Goss took a strong stand on some of the gray areas of detention practices. In an AP interview, he said, "Gee, you're breaking my heart" in response to complaints that Arab men found it abusive to have women guards at the Guantanamo Bay prison camp.
Before Goss took over the agency, its inspector general completed a report on the treatment of detainees, following investigations into at least four prisoner deaths that may have involved CIA personnel. To date, one agency contractor has been charged. The inspector general's report discussed tactics used by CIA personnel _ called "Enhanced Interrogation Techniques." Former intelligence officials, who spoke on condition of anonymity because the practices are classified, say some interrogation techniques are well-known: exposing prisoners to cold, depriving them of sleep or forcing them to stand in stressful positions.
All of which are legal under international law
Perhaps the most publicly controversial technique is waterboarding, when a detainee is strapped to a board and has water run over him to simulate drowning.
Posted by: Steve ||
11/16/2005 15:01 ||
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big catch for such a short time, cool
Posted by: Shep UK ||
11/16/2005 15:22 Comments ||
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Fox Butterfield is the NY Times reporter who always marvels at the fact that crime is going down as the prison population is going up. They'll probably assign him to analyze this story.
It's inconceivable to me that detaining that many suspects has not disrupted planning and communications for Al Queda and contributed to the fact that the US has not been hit for a while. It will happen, of course, but the must severely reduce the frequency.
#4
Fox finally retired, but they could bring him out one last time, I guess
Posted by: Frank G ||
11/16/2005 16:23 Comments ||
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The important number is the 14,500 still in custody. Add those to the 50,000 KIA in Iraq, perhaps 15,000 KIA in Afghanistan, and maybe another 10-20,000 KIA around the world.
In other words, we have eliminated the better part of 2 CORPS of enemy from a dozen countries in this fight, and to a great extent, Islam's most potentially dangerous and belligerent.
In the last month of the Sami Al-Arian trial, the judge has been keeping a close eye on the defense table. Al-Arian's defense attorney, William Moffitt, occasionally has had difficulty staying awake. It was so conspicuous that the judge addressed it from the bench. Several times, U.S. District Judge James S. Moody Jr. spoke to Moffitt and his co-counsel, Linda Moreno, when the jury was outside of the courtroom. About a month ago, when Moffitt appeared to be losing the struggle to stay awake, Moody said: "Ms. Moreno, when I pull on my right ear, you step on his left foot." Since then, Moody periodically has pulled on his ear to signal Moreno, who then nudged Moffitt.
Last week, Moody interrupted defense closing arguments to address the issue. "Mr. Moffitt, do whatever you have to do," Moody said Nov. 7. "If you have to get up and walk around, do that. If you need to leave the courtroom, go ahead." When jurors re-entered the courtroom, Moffitt had left.
On Sunday, Moffitt spoke in an interview with the St. Petersburg Times about the reason for his problems staying awake: "I've given everything I can for this trial and I have nothing left. I am totally exhausted from the long hours. And, I have knee problems and kidney problems," said Moffitt, a well-respected lawyer from Washington, D.C., who is past president of the National Association of Criminal Defense Lawyers. Moffitt, 56 , said he would not go into details about his kidney problems, except to say he has lost more than 30 pounds in the past few months. Moffitt said he is distressed over his "emotional and physical exhaustion" but strongly believes it has not affected the defense of Al-Arian. He said he never considered stepping down. "I have no doubt in my mind that I did the best job for Sami that I could," he said. "I would not want to be unfair to him. I would rather die."
Over the trial, many in the courtroom have fallen asleep during the more mind-numbing testimony, which has included discussions of wire transfers, visa forms and translations of documents. But Moffitt also appeared to doze when attorneys for Al-Arian's co-defendants gave their closing arguments.
"I'd like to imagine that he was exhausted during the defense closing arguments because he delivered such a powerful closing argument himself," said [Sami's son] Abdullah Al-Arian. "We're extremely proud of him and our father and the way Bill (Moffitt) spoke of him. We felt we were living in an historical moment."
The issue of attorneys falling asleep in court has come up in other trials, including the 2000 case of a Texas defendant who landed on death row after his lawyer slept through much of his trial. The defendant appealed on the basis of ineffective counsel and won a new trial. Moffitt weighed in with an opinion on that case, commenting to the Independent newspaper in London on the judge's decision to give the man a new trial: "This is a wonderful development for Texas in that there is someone looking out for the citizens and trying to keep them alive in the face of bad lawyering."
#1
On Sunday, Moffitt spoke in an interview with the St. Petersburg Times about the reason for his problems staying awake: "I've given everything I can for this trial and I have nothing left. I am totally exhausted from the long hours. And, I have knee problems and kidney problems," said Moffitt, a well-respected lawyer from Washington, D.C., who is past president of the National Association of Criminal Defense Lawyers. Moffitt, 56 , said he would not go into details about his kidney problems, except to say he has lost more than 30 pounds in the past few months. Moffitt said he is distressed over his "emotional and physical exhaustion" but strongly believes it has not affected the defense of Al-Arian. He said he never considered stepping down. "I have no doubt in my mind that I did the best job for Sami that I could," he said. "I would not want to be unfair to him. I would rather die."
LOL, another lawyer who climbed up the cross. what a hoot! Ima sure the sympathy cards will bury him!! thx Sea
Posted by: Red Dog ||
11/16/2005 2:45 Comments ||
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#2
Giving your all for a scumbag and helping him make a political trial out of it begets little sympathy. Brother Moffitt - coffee and dictation of a motion to withdraw as counsel would be in order. Get another clown lined up to take the yolk and extricate. After that take off you criminal defense hat and ponder what you do.
#3
It's a lawyer trick to get another trial. If his lawyer was nodding off then he did not have competent counsel. It is also a sign that he has lost the case and he knows it.
#5
Ima not impressed. Ima takin notes for my Jury Dooty next week.
Posted by: Alaska Paul ||
11/16/2005 15:14 Comments ||
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#6
Mr. Moffit should be required to quit the bar if he can't provide adequately awake councel. He's gaming the system for a retrial. Even sleep apnea is no excuse...
Posted by: Frank G ||
11/16/2005 16:20 Comments ||
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#7
Tomorrow on Court TV, Bill Moffit and Linda Moreno sing a duet of show tunes...
Five Marines killed, 11 injured, in firefight in W. Iraqi town of Obeidi while searching a farm house. Sixteen insurgents died in the same incident. I wonder if they were defending a high priority target.
US and Iraqi forces fighting terrorists insurgents near the Syrian border encountered fierce resistance on Tuesday, with troops encountering 107 explosive booby traps and killing at least 30 terrorists insurgents, a military statement said.
The US command said on Tuesday that three US Marines have died in combat RIP, brave warriors. while trying to clear the town of Obeidi as part of Operation Steel Curtain since Monday. At least 80 terrorists insurgents have been killed, mostly in air strikes, in the same period, the statement said. âIraqi and coalition forces continue to clear the city house-by-house, occasionally encountering buildings that are rigged with explosives and triggered to detonate upon entering the building,â the statement said. âNumerous weapons caches have also been seized, to include several that contained suicide vests and bomb making material.â
The US-Iraqi attack on Obeidi was the latest stage of an offensive to clear Al-Qaeda-led terrorists insurgents from a string of towns and cities in the Euphrates River valley near the border with Syria and seal off a major infiltration route for foreign terrorists fighters sneaking into Iraq. âIntelligence reports indicate that the strong resistance to the Iraqi and Coalition push into the city is due in large part to the fact that terrorists insurgents believe they are trapped and have nowhere else to go,â Cue the nanoviolin. the military report said. âSeveral detainees were captured trying to sneak out of the area by crawling among a flock of sheep.â Though why they had their pants around their ankles...
When it comes to the spook business, terrorist Abu Musab al-Zarqawi runs circles around the U.S. and fledgling Iraqi intelligence services trying desperately to track him down.
The "good guysâ continue to fail to get their hands on the brutal al-Qaida mastermind responsible for butchering hundreds of his fellow Muslims. Zarqawiâs organization has repeatedly targeted Iraqi civilians who tried to assist in U.S. attempts to capture him, thus frightening off other potential informants, U.S. officials told the Los Angeles Times.
"There is a huge network of intelligence operatives over there who are watching our every move," a U.S. Justice Department counter-terrorism official familiar with the campaign to track down Zarqawi told the Times. "And they are watching every time we recruit an Iraqi to come back and inform to us about where he has been and what he has seen. And every time we have been able to do that, the person has ended up dead."
Despite a number of successes in the campaign to nab Zarqawi - a number of his top lieutenants have been killed or captured in a spate of "near missesâ - the murderous 39-year-old Jordanian has eluded capture. A $25 million bounty remains on his head.
In one near miss last February, the Times recalled that Zarqawi jumped out of the back of a truck at a U.S. checkpoint near Ramadi before U.S. troops were able to search the vehicle. Officials told the Times troops captured his driver and bodyguard and recovered a large sum of cash and a laptop computer believed to belong to Zarqawi.
"Several times we have showed up at places where we know he was hours or days earlier. But the intelligence we get is never fresh enough," a senior U.S. intelligence official told the Times.
His ability to elude capture, the newspaper said, has allowed Zarqawi to move in and out of Iraq with relative ease. Sources told the Times that intelligence reports have revealed that he has traveled to Jordan, Syria and Iran to bolster his ranks and raise money.
U.S. officials from the four agencies involved in the hunt for Zarqawi told the newspaper their failure was not from a lack of trying.
At least two top-secret, multi-agency commando teams have been assigned solely to track Zarqawi and mobilize quickly to pursue him into the most unstable areas of Iraq where he is believed to be hiding.
There are also dozens of special forces commandos and military intelligence gatherers on the hunt for him. The Times reports that the CIA has deployed dozens of case officers and analysts, the FBI has flown in special agents and bomb experts, and forensic money-trackers from the Treasury Department are trying to monitor the flow of illicit funds into and out of Iraq as a way of cornering Zarqawi and his top aides.
Eavesdropping satellites, unmanned drones and even U-2 spy planes are gathering intelligence on the insurgency, some of them specifically watching for Zarqawi. "It's not like John Gotti running around Manhattan in fancy suits and limousines," a Justice Department counter-terrorism official told the Times, referring to the late mob boss.
"We are talking about a man who is operating in an area that is extremely primitive, in a very clandestine manner and with a huge network of people that do his communications for him and surround him and protect him."
Some U.S. military commanders, however say a noose is gradually tightening around Zarqawi's neck in the wake of raids in the last year that have captured or killed a number of people identified as his top lieutenants.
"We truly believe that Zarqawi's days are limited," Army Maj. Gen. Rick Lynch, deputy chief of staff of the multinational force in Iraq, told the Times. He pointed to a hexagon-shaped chart that showed tiers of what he said were senior Zarqawi operatives who had been killed or captured. The chart showed:
Seven "Tier 1" operatives, or those defined as having direct ties to Zarqawi, including Abu Azzam, described as the "emir of Iraq"; Abu Abdallah, a military leader in Ramadi; Abu Umer a-Kurdi, considered a master builder of homemade bombs in Baghdad; and leaders of Zarqawi's organization in Mosul and Haditha and western Al Anbar province.
As many as 38 "Tier 2" operatives killed or captured and 71 in "Tier 3," many of them Iraqi and foreign fighters or leaders of cells.
"Given [the] many, many sources of intelligence and information, we have great success at killing or capturing his leaders, his cell leaders, his coordinators and his lieutenants, and this chart just continues to expand, and eventually, he's going to be on this chart," Lynch said.
Efforts to build an Iraqi intelligence arm capable of handling problems such as Zarqawi have proved difficult, in part, the Times reported because of Zarqawi's campaign of violence targeting those working against him.
"There's no upside for helping the Americans," one U.S. counter-terrorism official told the Times. "Even if you were willing to make a personal sacrifice" to help the U.S. effort, "they'll go after your family. Actionable intelligence is a challenge in any country, but particularly so in Iraq."
Posted by: Captain America ||
11/16/2005 18:40 ||
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#3
Sooner or later he'll slip up and that will be that. Building an intel network isn't something that happens on Internet time, so what's necessary is maintaining patience and staying the course. Zarqawi can't kill everyone.
The US-led force in Iraq has announced that US troops caught a top al-Qaeda officer in western Iraq on 7 November, following a tip-off from local residents. Kuwaiti news agency KUNA reports that Sadik Iyad Hussein, the al-Qaeda commander in the town of western town of Saada, was captured in a raid on a house. According to a military statement, Hussein was responsible for planning and coordinating all terrorist operations in the town and surrounding areas, as well as overseeing the smuggling of foreign militants into Iraq from Syria.
KUNA also reports that the multinational force has accused insurgents in Iraq of using civilians as shields in the military offensive launched against them in the town of Obeidi. "The terrorists keep fighting in a way that compromises the safety of civilians in the area," a statement said. It pointed out that "militants are barricading in civilian homes and using them as a base for attacks against joint forces."
It gave as an example a recent incident in Obeidi where the US and Iraqi forces were fired at from a compound. When coalition aircraft were called in to attack the building two men came out with white flags and fled to a nearby building while a group of 15 civilians, including women and children left the compound, and were then led to safety by Iraqi troops.
Posted by: Dan Darling ||
11/16/2005 12:10 ||
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#1
Extract info from him, then shoot him in the street and toss his carcass to the dogs.
#2
this will be all over the news tonight - oh wait goodnews dosn't qualify thesedays. On another note nice to see they surrendered and didnt go out with a bang, send in the probe from star wars - the one that gets princess leahah :)
Posted by: Shep UK ||
11/16/2005 12:23 Comments ||
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#3
Just remember guys: Red is Positive and Black is Negative. But maybe they will just ask him "pretty please with sugar on top" and he will spill everything he knows.
#4
Take a nice white ash baseball bat, cut it down to 26 inches in length, turn it to 1.5" in diameter, with a lip 6" from the bottom as a hand guard. Drill three 3/8" holes in the bat at 120-degree angles from one another, one just above the lip, one midway, and one 1" below the top. Run barbed wire through the holes and wrap it around the upper portion. Attach eight or nine #8 treble snagging hooks to the barbed wire at various locations between the lip and the top of the bat. Dip it in ketchup, shake off the excess, and walk into the interrogation room with it. He'll talk. You won't be able to shut him up.
Posted by: Old Patriot ||
11/16/2005 14:22 Comments ||
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#5
I see OP has given this a great deal of thought!
#8
ElvisGone, I'm sure that making it is half the fun!
Posted by: Brian H ||
11/16/2005 16:17 Comments ||
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#9
Oops, I meant tu3031.
Posted by: Brian H ||
11/16/2005 16:19 Comments ||
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#10
Wake me up with Zarq gets his.
Posted by: Captain America ||
11/16/2005 18:43 Comments ||
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#11
Take a nice white ash baseball bat, cut it down to 26 inches in length, turn it to 1.5" in diameter, with a lip 6" from the bottom as a hand guard. Drill three 3/8" holes in the bat at 120-degree angles from one another, one just above the lip, one midway, and one 1" below the top. Run barbed wire through the holes and wrap it around the upper portion. Attach eight or nine #8 treble snagging hooks to the barbed wire at various locations between the lip and the top of the bat. Dip it in ketchup, shake off the excess, and walk into the interrogation room with it.
Dang nabbit, thems top secret specs, Old Patriot. Thank goodness the Brits will never win a single cricket match with such a bat.
Despite the recent arrest of one of his would-be suicide bombers in Jordan and some top aides in Iraq, insurgency mastermind Abu Musab Zarqawi has eluded capture, U.S. authorities say, because his network has a much better intelligence-gathering operation than they do.
Zarqawi's organization has been particularly successful because it has repeatedly targeted Iraqi civilians who tried to aid the American effort to capture him, frightening off other potential informants, U.S. officials said Tuesday.
"There is a huge network of intelligence operatives over there who are watching our every move. And they are watching every time we recruit an Iraqi to come back and inform to us about where he has been and what he has seen," said one U.S. Justice Department counter-terrorism official, who is familiar with the campaign to track down Zarqawi. "And every time we have been able to do that, the person has ended up dead."
Officials from several U.S. agencies said Washington had dramatically intensified its effort to catch Zarqawi over the last year as his network, which he calls Al Qaeda in Iraq, had launched a series of deadly and audacious attacks against civilian and military targets.
U.S. authorities say they have captured several of Zarqawi's top aides and have nearly seized the 39-year-old Jordanian himself on at least three occasions. But Zarqawi, despite a $25-million U.S. bounty on his head, has outwitted his pursuers.
Along the way, he has gained worldwide notoriety, support and funding for his war against the United States and its allies and has begun to strike targets outside Iraq, as evidenced by last week's deadly attacks on three hotels in Amman, Jordan, that killed 58 people.
U.S. officials from four agencies involved in the hunt for Zarqawi said their failure was not for lack of effort.
At least two top-secret, multi-agency commando teams have been assigned solely to track Zarqawi and mobilize quickly to pursue him into the most unstable areas of Iraq where he is believed to be hiding, several U.S. officials familiar with the units said. One of them is called Task Force 626, which was established last year by the Pentagon.
There are also dozens of special forces commandos and military intelligence gatherers looking for him. The CIA has deployed dozens of case officers and analysts, the FBI has flown in special agents and bomb experts, and forensic money-trackers from the Treasury Department are trying to monitor the flow of illicit funds into and out of Iraq as a way of cornering Zarqawi and his top aides, those officials said in interviews.
Eavesdropping satellites, unmanned drones and even U-2 spy planes are gathering intelligence on the insurgency, some of them specifically watching for Zarqawi, the officials confirmed.
U.S. forces are also trying to set up allied agencies within the fledgling Iraqi government. But many of the American officials complained that the Baghdad government had failed to establish a functioning intelligence agency. They said it had been unable to establish even an informal network of local informants who could help tighten the net around Zarqawi, as a joint U.S.-Iraqi intelligence effort did around former President Saddam Hussein and his inner circle of Baath Party members.
The Iraqis are trying, the U.S. officials stressed, noting that building such an intelligence capacity can take years and vast sums of money.
Making the task more difficult, many former Iraqi military and intelligence officials experienced in such matters are either actively supporting Zarqawi or refusing to get involved. And Zarqawi's network is a harder target than Hussein's deposed regime, in part because it is composed mostly of foreign fighters and Iraqi civilians, rather than former Baghdad government officials who were long known to U.S. authorities.
Zarqawi's group was originally thought to comprise mainly non-Iraqis, but over the last year, he has been able to recruit many Iraqis as well as more foreigners after a string of successful attacks. He is believed to command perhaps 1,000 fighters and a much larger group of sympathizers.
U.S. authorities believe Zarqawi has become an even more prolific fundraiser than Al Qaeda leader Osama bin Laden. "Right now, Zarqawi is fighting the war, and [Bin Laden] is not," said one senior U.S. intelligence official. "Who would you give money to?"
U.S. officials said they hoped to glean more about Zarqawi's operations from Sajida Rishawi, a 35-year-old woman from the Iraqi insurgent stronghold of Ramadi who has confessed to trying to blow up one of the Amman hotels last week, along with her husband and two other Iraqi men.
Jordanian officials have said that Rishawi's brother was a senior Zarqawi lieutenant who was killed in the Iraqi city of Fallouja, although it is unclear whether she had any direct contact with the insurgent leader.
Several U.S. officials said Rishawi was cooperating and providing details about how she and the three men were picked up by a driver, taken across the border and supplied with explosives. Rishawi's explosives failed to detonate, and she fled and was arrested.
Even though Rishawi and some senior Zarqawi aides have been captured, the U.S. officials said his network had remained extremely disciplined and security-conscious. The militant leader has been able to disappear for long stretches at time, even immediately after nearly being captured.
"It's not like John Gotti running around Manhattan in fancy suits and limousines," the Justice Department counter-terrorism official said, referring to the late mob boss. "We are talking about a man who is operating in an area that is extremely primitive, in a very clandestine manner and with a huge network of people that do his communications for him and surround him and protect him."
Some U.S. military commanders have spoken optimistically about a noose gradually tightening around Zarqawi in the wake of raids in the last year that have captured or killed a number of people identified as his top lieutenants.
"We truly believe that Zarqawi's days are limited," Army Maj. Gen. Rick Lynch, deputy chief of staff of the multinational force in Iraq, said Friday, pointing to a hexagon-shaped chart that showed tiers of what he said were senior Zarqawi operatives who had been killed or captured.
The chart identified seven "Tier 1" operatives, or those defined as having direct ties to Zarqawi, including Abu Azzam, described as the "emir of Iraq"; Abu Abdallah, a military leader in Ramadi; Abu Umer a-Kurdi, considered a master builder of homemade bombs in Baghdad; and leaders of Zarqawi's organization in Mosul and Haditha and western Al Anbar province.
It also listed 38 "Tier 2" operatives killed or captured and 71 in "Tier 3," many of them Iraqi and foreign fighters or leaders of cells, Lynch said.
"Given [the] many, many sources of intelligence and information, we have great success at killing or capturing his leaders, his cell leaders, his coordinators and his lieutenants, and this chart just continues to expand, and eventually, he's going to be on this chart," Lynch said.
U.S. operatives swarmed one restaurant where Zarqawi allegedly had been seen dining, and a hospital where he was believed to be seeking treatment, but came up empty-handed.
In February, Zarqawi jumped out of the back of a truck at a U.S. checkpoint near Ramadi before U.S. troops were able to search the vehicle, several American officials said. They said they captured his driver and bodyguard and recovered a large sum of cash and a laptop computer believed to belong to Zarqawi.
On several other occasions since then, officials say, the U.S. military has raided Zarqawi safe houses and found evidence that he had recently been there.
"Several times we have showed up at places where we know he was hours or days earlier. But the intelligence we get is never fresh enough," said the senior U.S. intelligence official.
That has allowed Zarqawi to move in and out of Iraq with relative impunity, say U.S. officials who cite intelligence reports that he has traveled to Jordan, Syria and Iran to bolster his ranks and raise money.
Electronic surveillance has made it increasingly difficult for Zarqawi to communicate with his network of supporters, and U.S. authorities say last year's military offensive in Fallouja took away his main base of operations.
But U.S. officials said they were losing the battle to establish desperately needed on-the-ground intelligence, in part because of Zarqawi's campaign of violence targeting those working against him.
"There's no upside for helping the Americans," one U.S. counter-terrorism official said. "Even if you were willing to make a personal sacrifice" to help the U.S. effort, "they'll go after your family. Actionable intelligence is a challenge in any country, but particularly so in Iraq."
Posted by: Dan Darling ||
11/16/2005 10:17 ||
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#1
when this cockroach is crushed...the dominoes will start falling as nobody wants to be the bag holder.
#2
From an article in the Washington Post,
"...sources say that thanks in part to tips from Jordanian intelligence, U.S. forces captured Zarqawi at least twice over the past several years but let him go because they failed to identify him." Not confident it's true, but .....
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2005/11/15/AR2005111501318.html
#3
I just spent about 15 minutes dissecting this article to show why this is just a very carefully worded piece to make it sound like ol' Sparky's still around - and I could do a darn good job of communicating it to you, if I wanted to spend another 15 minutes to make my point crystal clear.
But there must be some reason why both sides play this ridiculous game of "searching for Where's Waldo
Elvis Zarqawi" when we know he was seriously injured and most likely died (I suppose it's possible he was captured too but the initial reports last summer indicated dead)
So, from this point forward, I'm just going to give it up and allow everyone to see what the writer wants you to see in this article. Let the game of charades continue. Far be it from me to want to spoil a good party.
#5
It would be irritating to confirm that this mutt is still vertical. Best approach - remove his identity COMPLETELY from all further press reports. Have his name die off - who cares about the cripple himself. Without a reputation, this scumbag is a nobody. Let him die as a nobody, whose corpse goes out with the trash.
#7
good comments all. I guess in the game of cross, double cross, triple cross and quadruple cross, there is advantage in manipulating the truth to any benefit you can eek out of it.
I like this idea best: Have his name die off. ha, ha. Then he'd just be nothing ....or they would have to name a successor, whom we would promptly wack. But then, we've done a pretty good job of wacking his senior advisors anyway.
As what's her face used to always say, whatever. The truth may be out there - but we aren't going to get it anytime soon.
Terrorists cells planning to assassinate a foreign diplomat and forge local currency notes have been uncovered and their members arrested, the Iraqi Ministry of Defense announced on Tuesday.
It did not indicate the name of the diplomat or his country but said he worked for a âfriendly countryâ.
Security forces searched a terrorist hideout and arrested armed men including 5 fugitives from justice wanted for taking part in distributing counterfeit Iraqi Dinars.
More than forty terrorists were arrested, including four leaders of the cell, and a large cache of weapons was confiscated.
Iraqi officials used the term âfriendly countryâ to refer to neighboring states. Earleir this month, Al Qaeda in Iraq had issued a statement on the internet calling for all foreign diplomats to leave the country or face death.
Posted by: Dan Darling ||
11/16/2005 10:14 ||
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#1
Show a stance!! KILL THESE F*&KERS!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
This for that. They wanna play kill the diplomat? I say KILL EM'!!!!!
#2
Hang them where everyone can see them. Don't cover their heads - let the whole country gaze upon their purple, bloated faces. Leave them hanging for a month. Put big plackards at their feet - "these perverted people want to kill you and end your freedom". Many people will be disgusted. Even more will tell you where the other cockroaches are.
Posted by: Old Patriot ||
11/16/2005 14:29 Comments ||
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November 16, 2005: For two years, the ten kilometer road from Baghdad to the airport was the site of constant combat, as terrorists set off roadside bombs and shot at coalition and Iraqi troops. This was embarrassing, as everyone leaving Baghdad via the airport got a vivid example of something the U.S. Army was NOT able to control. From a military standpoint, it should not have been impossible to make the road safe. But it wasnât until the Summer of 2005 that someone was put in charge, who knew how to get the job done.
The job was given to Lt. Col. Michael Harris, commander of the 3rd Infantry Division's 6th Battalion, 8th Calvary Regiment (the divisional reconnaissance battalion). Harris quickly sized up the problem. First, there was the problem of roadside bombs. These came from teams of terrorists who crossed about 75 meters of open ground from the villages along the smaller parallel road, to the multilane airport road, and set up the bombs. Over the last two years, this had become a lot more dangerous, because of regular UAV and helicopter patrols. But the air cover was not there 24/7, and the more persistent terrorists would wait for when there was nothing the air, and make their move. As planting roadside bomber became more difficult, suicide car bombers got onto the highway in greater numbers, because the access roads were not guarded all the time.
The solution, it turned out, was the increasing availability of reliable Iraqi soldiers and police. Harris arranged for the Iraqi police to set up 24/7 check points on all access road to the airport highway. There were now enough Iraqi police to patrol the villages along the highway, and American troops were made available to back up the Iraqi cops if they ran into large groups of terrorists (who, in the past, were assembled to chase the police out of a village or neighborhood.) The people in the villages, as they grew more confident in the abilities of the police, were more inclined to report terrorist activity.
Harris also took advantage of the better training and tactics of American troops and had them slow down when traveling on the highway. This made it easier to spot any roadside bombs, before they could go off. There werenât many bombs along the road anyway, and if they could be spotted, they could be disabled or destroyed. By slowing down, the troops also reduced traffic accidents, which caused a lot of injuries and damage.
In October there was only one injury along the road, from enemy attacks. There were more losses from traffic accidents. The Iraqis benefited the most from this, because most of the losses on the road this year had been Iraqi civilians. The troops were ready and able to defend themselves, the civilians werenât. The resources had been there for a while to make the highway safe, but it took one officer with sufficient insight and leadership skills to make it happen.
Posted by: Steve ||
11/16/2005 09:42 ||
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#1
The solution, it turned out, was the increasing availability of reliable Iraqi soldiers and police.
Well I never...
Posted by: Howard UK ||
11/16/2005 11:06 Comments ||
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#2
QUAGMRIRE, VIETNAM, LIES, HALIBURTON, ROVE, LIBBY, PLAME, WMDS, PBS, CBS, FNC, MICKEY MOUSE!
BTW good job Col Harris.
#3
The road to the airport's safe? When did that happen? They never mentioned that on the news. Or maybe I was too trashed when they did.
Looks like it's time to catch a flight home and sign that book deal. I'll call it "War Is Hell!".
On second thought, I got a little time. Doubles for everybody, Mahmoud! Put it on my tab. I'll expense it when I get home. I'll send you your tip. Promise.
#4
Let's find out if it really is safe. Send, unannounced, John McCain from the Airport to the Green Zone in an unescorted Super Shuttle. That was his definition of success, wasn't it?
#5
They mentioned it Grizzeled. It was on 60 minutes, as to how bad it was. Next morning, I first heard how safe it was. Don't know if 60 minurtes will redo thier story. The reporter kept trying to get the miltary to say it was a failure. Can we get them to say thier report was a failure?
#6
Remember, positive developments simply make a topic disappear. A few weeks ago I saw a few western reporters nearly bristle with challenges when a the head of the military press center mentioned the near-total absence of attacks on Route Irish in recent months. I still wish we'd just closed it to non-Coalition traffic and used the resulting stupid attempts to attack it as harvesting and demonstration opportunities ....
#7
plainsow - more likely they rushed to get their negative propaganda out in front of the good news they knew was about to air.
Verlaine - A few weeks ago I saw a few western reporters nearly bristle with challenges What's sad about that comment is that it doesn't make the surprise meter budge. It's just accepted that reporters work against our interests. That should be shocking - but it's not.
November 16, 2005: American smart bombs and missiles have been getting a major workout during the last few months of fighting in western Iraq, and have been about 75 percent accurate. The air force controllers, who travel with ground combat units, have used new equipment, and lots of combat experience, to get smart bombs on target within minutes. The air force controllers, and the bombers overhead, are getting smart bombs on target so quickly and accurately, that ground commanders are favoring the bombs over calling their artillery. This is partly because of the new 500 pound JDAM, which is a one shot solution to the typical terrorist tactic of running into a building to make a glorious last stand. The enemy gunmen never seem to catch on to the fact that going into a building, simply brings down a smart bomb within ten minutes. One bomb, one building. Artillery requires several shells to do the job, and our troops know that the enemy is more likely to survive a shelling than a bombing.
There have been no serious friendly fire casualties. Troops often like to get as close to the target as possible, so they can rush it once the bomb goes off, to get any survivors (before they escape), or simply to occupy a new position before any nearby enemy fighters get their bearings again. In addition, there is also some use of Maverick and Hellfire missiles by helicopters and aircraft. But the smart bombs are preferred, because they leave the bombers immune to any ground fire.
Posted by: Steve ||
11/16/2005 09:40 ||
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#1
One shot kill with 100% fatality rate is always prefered. Artillery is going the smart route too, with GPS and laser guided shells. They are more expensive, but you need fewer of them and they don't break stuff you don't want broken, so the cost evens out in the long run.
It's a kind of war issue. In a conventional war, artillery is probably going to have a lower cost per boom because of the number of targets. High fixed cost, low variable cost. But in a guerilla war, which is essentially what we have now, the target density calls for a system that can respond to a lot of locations infrequently due to the target dispersion. So a low fixed cost high variable cost solution is actually cheaper.
#6
Fly boys have been putting artillery out of business for 70 years. However, let me go out on a limb with a prediction. In 20 years, a manned warplane will a thing of the past, whereas arti will still be going strong (hint: there are such a thing as non-PC wars against competent---AA wise, enemy).
#7
I am very sceptical of the manned or UCAV putting the artillery out of business in the long run. As the range and accuracy of artillery increases the factors of reduced risk to air crew will eventually come into play. One thing I am surprised we have not seen in Iraq is the return of the firebase concept in some areas. This could be accomplished in a number of different ways from mobile batteries of 155mm SP guns to orbiting BUFFs in areas where ground troops are conducting operations. The smaller aircraft are limited in their ordance capacity and loiter time unless refueling is an option. As to smart mortar rounds I would think that GPS and laser guided should be possible but what would the cost be compared to a TOW????????
#8
"so your grandfather was a kamikaze pilot, huh?
Bet he has a lot of stories"
"nope"
Posted by: Frank G ||
11/16/2005 17:01 Comments ||
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#9
Let's just remember that artilley ahs a far shorter reaction time (tens of seconds, instead of tens of minutes) than aviation. If the ennemy is harrassing you with mortar fire and you have artillery (nowadays that means radar-controlled artillery) he will be able to shoot only once
AL QAEDA IN IRAQ EMIR OF SADAH BAGGED What's the bag limit on Emirs?
BAGHDAD, Iraq â Multi-National Forces used multiple intelligence sources and tips from concerned citizens to locate a known al Qaeda in Iraq safe house harboring terrorists and foreign fighters Nov. 7. Once again, official announcement a week or so after capture. I wonder if he spent it as a guest of US or Iraqi wardens?
Upon arrival at the terrorist safe house, Multi-National Forces detained numerous terrorists and foreign fighters; among them was Sadiq Ayadah Husayn Matar (aka Abu Ahmed), the al Qaeda in Iraq Emir of Sadah.
Abu Ahmed admitted to being the al Qaeda in Iraq Emir of Sadah. He was responsible for all terrorist operations in Sadah. He also coordinated and conducted terrorist operations in the surrounding areas within the al Qaim region. He was in charge of directing, planning and executing bombing, mortar attacks, and ambushes against Iraqi security and Coalition Forces.
Abu Ahmed, as one of the five senior al Qaeda in Iraq terrorist leaders in the al Qaim region, which includes Husaybah, Karabilah, Sadah, Ubaydi, and al Qaim, was connected to numerous al Qaeda in Iraq senior terrorist leaders. He admitted associations, as well as conducting coordinated terrorist operations, with other senior terrorists and foreign fighters in the region. These senior terrorists were responsible for all terrorist and foreign fighter activities in the region to include the smuggling of foreign fighters into the al Qaim region from Syria.
BAGHDAD, Iraq - The unprecedented U.S. raid on an Iraqi detention facility filled with malnourished torture victims appears aimed in part at scoring points among Sunni Arabs, whose participation in next month's parliamentary election is key to an American exit Iraq.
Sunni Arab politicians have complained for months about arbitrary arrests, torture and assassinations of Sunnis, allegedly at the hands of special commandoes of the Shiite-dominated Interior Ministry, who are at the forefront of the battle against the largely Sunni insurgents.
The discovery Sunday night of 173 malnourished prisoners - some of them bearing evidence of torture - in an Interior Ministry lockup appeared to vindicate many of the Sunni Arab claims. Most of the prisoners are believed to be Sunnis.
One Sunni politician, Mohsen Abdul-Hamid, said he had personally told Prime Minister Ibrahim al-Jaafari about conditions at detention centers, including the one seized by American forces Sunday night. Other Sunni leaders who meet regularly with American officials have been outspoken in complaints about Interior Ministry forces.
But the need to address Sunni Arab grievances has taken on new urgency as the Dec. 15 parliament election draws near and as Congress is demanding a greater role in Iraq policy.
Most Sunni Arabs boycotted the January parliamentary election - a move that shut them out of power, worsened sectarian tensions and stoked the insurgency. This time, more Sunni Arab politicians have entered the race, and changes in the election law guarantee Sunnis a stronger voice in the next government.
The Bush administration hopes that a broad-based democratic government will in time undermine the insurgency, enabling the United States to begin drawing down its 150,000-strong military force starting next year.
A low Sunni Arab turnout would raise doubts about the minority community's commitment to a political process that U.S. commanders say is the best way to beat the Sunni-dominated insurgency. The legitimacy of Sunni Arabs elected to parliament would be in doubt.
With stakes so high, Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice, British Foreign Secretary Jack Straw and U.N. Secretary-General Kofi Annan have all visited Iraq within the past week. Each encouraged a big Sunni Arab turnout.
For their words to have meaning, however, moderate Sunni Arab leaders must convince their people that their interests are better served by the ballot than the bullet. That task becomes difficult if rank-and-file Sunnis believe the Americans ignore them in favor of the majority Shiites and Kurds.
It is unclear if such raids alone will win over disaffected Sunni Arabs, and insurgents may argue that the findings justify their attacks on Shiite civilians.
The perception of U.S. favoritism to the Shiites and Kurds, who suffered the most under Saddam Hussein's Sunni-dominated regime dates, from the beginning of the occupation in 2003.
It was fueled by U.S. decisions to disband the Sunni-led Iraqi army, to endorse Shiite moves to purge the bureaucracy of former Saddam party members and to change the political roadmap to accomodate the views of the top Shiite cleric, Grand Ayatollah Ali al-Sistani.
Iraqi army and Interior Ministry troops are mostly Shiites and Kurds, despite recent overtures to Sunni ex-officers to return to the ranks. Since most of the insurgents are Sunnis, U.S. and Iraqi military operations are concentrated in areas where Sunnis live.
Raiding the Interior Ministry is an attempt to redress the balance. U.S. officials appear to be gambling that al-Sistani, who aides say is alarmed by rising sectarian tensions, won't complain about a move to stop torture.
#1
I've heard rumors that a Sunni mother asked the US forces for help with her 15 yr old son who was illegally being held. An American General who went to inspect, was denied access, then said "the HELL I AM" and barged in finding the prisoners in bad shape. There is speculation that this was the responsibility of Badr Brigade elements.
We know the Badr brigades and Peshmerga have secret prisons and that they regularly engage in torture, or at least we suspect it and don't bother to confirm it. Turning a blind eye as it were, but payback's a bitch, and I can't say that I'd do much of shit to stop the Kurds and Shiia after some of the heinous shit I've seen that Saddam's secret police did to them.
But this looked like an agregious and very public situation, and examples have to be made for peace's sake.
#7
The unprecedented U.S. raid on an Iraqi detention facility filled with malnourished torture victims appears aimed in part at scoring points among Sunni Arabs, whose participation in next month's parliamentary election is key to an American exit Iraq.
That doesn't make any sense. While it may foster goodwill towards the US, it doesn't logically follow that it would impact participation among Sunni Arabs in the next election. Maybe I'm wrong - but I don't think the Americans will be voting in that election.
It's total nonsesne. kinda like:
A policeman released a man who was being held and tortured by his brother. The action appears to be aimed in part at scoring points among the victims family, whose participation in next month's Thanksgiving dinner is key to disbanding the police department.
#8
The discovery Sunday night of 173 malnourished prisoners - some of them bearing evidence of torture - in an Interior Ministry lockup appeared to vindicate many of the Sunni Arab claims. Most of the prisoners are believed to be Sunnis.
Actually, the raid was intended to apprehend more suspected terrorists.
#9
The discovery Sunday night of 173 malnourished prisoners - some of them bearing evidence of torture - in an Interior Ministry lockup appeared to vindicate many of the Sunni Arab claims. Most of the prisoners are believed to be Sunnis.
Actually, the raid was intended to apprehend more suspected terrorists.
Pentagon officials acknowledged Tuesday that U.S. troops used white phosphorous as a weapon against insurgent strongholds during the battle of Fallujah last November. But they denied an Italian television news report that the spontaneously flammable material was used against civilians. Lt. Col. Barry Venable, a Pentagon spokesman, said that while white phosphorous is most frequently used to mark targets or obscure a position, it was used at times in Fallujah as an incendiary weapon against enemy combatants. "It was not used against civilians," Venable said.
The spokesman referred reporters to an article in the March-April 2005 edition of the Army's Field Artillery magazine, an official publication, in which veterans of the Fallujah fight spelled out their use of white phosphorous and other weapons. The authors used the shorthand "WP" in referring to white phosphorous. "WP proved to be an effective and versatile munition," the authors wrote. "We used it for screening missions at two breeches and, later in the fight, as a potent psychological weapon against the insurgents in trench lines and spider holes when we could not get effects on them with HE (high explosive)" munitions. We fired `shake and bake' missions at the insurgents, using WP to flush them out and HE to take them out." The authors added, in citing lessons for future urban battles, that fire-support teams should have used another type of smoke bomb for screening missions in Fallujah "and saved our WP for lethal missions."
The battle for Fallujah was the most intense and deadly fight of the war, after the fall of Baghdad in April 2003. The city, about 35 miles west of Baghdad on the Euphrates River, was a key insurgent stronghold. The authors of the "after action" report said they encountered few civilians in their area of operations.
Italian communists held a sit-in Monday in front of the U.S. Embassy in Rome to protest the reported use by American troops of white phosphorous. Italy's state-run RAI24 news television aired a documentary last week alleging the U.S. used white phosphorous shells in a "massive and indiscriminate way" against civilians during the Fallujah offensive. The State Department, in response, initially denied that U.S. troops had used white phosphorous against enemy forces. "They were fired into the air to illuminate enemy positions at night, not at enemy fighters."
The department later said its statement had been incorrect. "There is a great deal of misinformation feeding on itself about U.S. forces allegedly using `outlawed' weapons in Fallujah," the department said. "The facts are that U.S. forces are not using any illegal weapons in Fallujah or anywhere else in Iraq."
Venable said white phosphorous shells are a standard weapon used by field artillery units and are not banned by any international weapons convention to which the U.S. is a signatory. White phosphorous is a colorless-to-yellow translucent wax-like substance with a pungent, garlic-like smell. The form used by the military ignites once it is exposed to oxygen, producing such heat that it bursts into a yellow flame and produces a dense white smoke. It can cause painful burn injuries to exposed human flesh. Burn Em Out, shoot em when they run!
#1
More much ado about nothing. "Insurgents" tend to be combatant civilians who look a helluva lot like noncombantant civilians when pacified -- ie killed. Noncombatant civilians were given ample opportunity to exit Fallujah. Next "atrocity"....
#3
Maybe we should have just levelled the place and avoided the controversy over Willie Pete. No, then we would have been criticized for indiscriminate bombing. Maybe we should have blocked off the place, no water, no food and starved them out. Hmm...that does not bear up to criticism either. Maybe we should have given them all doughnuts and coffee. No, too many trans fatty acids. I dunno. It's a quagmireâ¢.
Posted by: Alaska Paul ||
11/16/2005 1:01 Comments ||
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#4
WTF -- they're gotta die anyway. Better them than us.
Posted by: Captain America ||
11/16/2005 1:06 Comments ||
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#5
Phospherous is used by all armys from marking low and high points of a target (bracketing) just before firing on the enemy's position to being used in many high explosives.
Goof balls are trying to say that stuff is all of a sudden banned chemical weapons.
#6
At first it seemed that the esteemed Italian 'intellectuals' had confused phosophorus with phosgene. Although phosgene was banned by the Hague Convention of 1907, use of white phosphorus is not specifically banned by any treaty. Then it came clear that the anti-war anti-US commies are just picking at us for not signing the 1980 Convention on Conventional Weapons (Protocol III) which prohibits the use of incendiary weapons against civilian populations.
#7
Next bogus claim: US uses lead, a known toxic agent, in Iraq. If it's toxic, it must be a chemical weapon, right commies?
Posted by: Dave ||
11/16/2005 5:48 Comments ||
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#8
...Well, a great deal of this comes from the fact that
1)it's almost impossible to find a reporter who has ANY significant military experience, so their chances of actually knowing what's being referred to here are slim and none.
2)it's almost impossible to find a reporter who is willing to do the heavy lifting to research if something like this is actually true. (And when you consider that 'heavy lifting' means Googling, for God's sake, you see how bad this is.)
3)it's almost impossible to find a reporter who doesn't loathe the military enough to just simply pass something like this on.
Legend has had it for nearly 40 years that the press lost us the war in Vietnam. One can argue that point, but if we lose here, there will be NO question the Media led the way.
Mike
Posted by: Mike Kozlowski ||
11/16/2005 7:25 Comments ||
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#9
The tought of willie-peter on a terrorist instead of a 5.56mm is kinda good. I suspect the terrorist pucker factor goes up sharply at the thought of the wp in a closed room providing a psychological advantage.
#10
From Vietnam: "Willie Peter--makes 'em a believah!"
Posted by: mac ||
11/16/2005 7:46 Comments ||
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Because of this, WP has long had a secondary role as an incendiary, either directly or more usually as a "first fire" material. Contrary to another popular myth, it does not burn particularly fiercely, especially in comparison to other incendiaries like thermite. As an incendiary, it is most effective against highly flammable targets like very dry vegetation or petrol, oils and lubricants. However a WP fire does have the special difficulty that if extinguished with water, even to the point of being quite cold, it may reignite later when it dries out and exposes the WP to the air again.
The use of incendiary bombs against civilian targets or concentrations of civilians with no military function is forbidden by Protocol III of the 1980 Convention on Certain Conventional Weapons. Although the US ratified Protocols I and II of the Convention, it does not appear to have adopted Protocol III into US law.
Even looking at Protocol III, though, one gathers the use of WP in Fallujah would be permissible.
I. 1. (b) Incendiary weapons do not include:
(i) Munitions which may have incidental incendiary effects, such as illuminants, tracers, smoke or signalling systems;
II.
1. It is prohibited in all circumstances to make the civilian population as such, individual civilians or civilian objects the object of attack by incendiary weapons.
2. It is prohibited in all circumstances to make any military objective located within a concentration of civilians the object of attack by air-delivered incendiary weapons.
3. It is further prohibited to make any military objective located within a concentration of civilians the object of attack by means of incendiary weapons other than air-delivered incendiary weapons, except when such military objective is clearly separated from the concentration of civilians and all feasible precautions are taken with a view to limiting the incendiary effects to the military objective and to avoiding, and in any event to minimizing, incidental loss of civilian life, injury to civilians and damage to civilian objects.
#16
WP is great for destroying weapons too. Also good for clearing out a room. Throw a WP grenade in there and watch 'em run! Of course, you have covering fire on all exits to mow 'em down as they flee...
#17
WP is great for clearing bunkers and caves. The dense white smoke penetrates vents and escape routes, and marks their locations on the surface with plumes. Can't be breathed, burns, good marker; what's not to like? A couple of things - it can drift back onto you, and the grenades are heavy, limiting throw range. Long-fused too, if I recall.
Posted by: Whiskey Mike ||
11/16/2005 9:59 Comments ||
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#15 As a Man who was in Fallujah last November, I can say I saw its use, and I approve of its use! Crispy Critters, Eat them up, Yum Good!
Posted by Bamaman 2005-11-16 09:34|| Front Page|| ||Comments Top
___________
Hey Bamaman: If you were with the MARINES, and I'm assuming you were, do you know Cpl. Ryan D. Groves? Lost a leg to an RPG around late October 2004 just on the outskirts of Fallujah.
#19
Ah yes, to fight the "good" fight, and be PC.
We need to allow our military to fight without getting their hands slapped.
Haw, AP, if we would have blocked food and water, someone would have insisted on tube feeding them.
Posted by: Jan ||
11/16/2005 10:28 Comments ||
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#20
Why did I not give a sh*t, besides 'they're the enemy' and desensitization to the MSM's latest memes?
#23
The loonies are in an absolute frenzy over at Huffnpuff's. Calls for trying the soldiers who used this "chemical weapon" as war criminals and equating the use of willy pete with saddam gassing the Kurds. It's really hard to believe the level of insanity over there.
Posted by: Deacon Blues ||
11/16/2005 12:32 Comments ||
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#24
The stuff coming out of the collective mouth of the liberal demos sounds a lot like treason.
#26
WP = chemical weapons = WMD to the MSM.
No real story here just the one the MSM is predictably trying to create.
Sorry but I have to keep repeating this. Reporters are the enemy. You attack the enemy. You don't make excuses for them. The MSM wants AQ to win. OBL is a hero to them. They can't be allowed to use "freedom of the press" as a refuge. Just because 1/10 of 1% of them "are on our side" doesn't give them a free ride and free reign to be part of our destruction.
"American Armed Forces Admit to Killing Enemy Combatants and Breaking Things Since the Founding".
Posted by: Special Rapporteur ||
11/16/2005 15:17 Comments ||
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#28
this 'lawfare' stuff is getting tiring, sighs. i wish someone in the pentagon would just say grow up to the little commie's.
Posted by: Shep UK ||
11/16/2005 15:26 Comments ||
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#29
Gletch,
That's because it is treason. The liberal media are solidly against the US in this war. That includes Time, Newsweek, ABC, NBC, CBS, NPR, the NYT, the LAT, and the BBC. I wouldn't blame Marines who punched out reporters from any of these outfits. The ink-stained wretches are more dangerous in the long run than Al-Qaida because this war, like Vietnam, will be won or lost in America, not overseas. If we find the guts to stick it out over there it will be in spite of all the MSM could do to persuade us to quit--and because of blogs like the 'Burg managing to get a lot of the truth out to the public.
Posted by: mac ||
11/16/2005 15:32 Comments ||
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#30
...blogs like the 'Burg managing to get a lot of the truth out to the public.
More than 170 malnourished detainees found at an Interior Ministry detention centre in Baghdad appear to have been tortured, the Iraqi prime minister says. The announcement by Prime Minister Ibrahim al-Jaafari on Tuesday came two days after US troops surrounded and took control of an Interior Ministry building in the Baghdad neighbourhood where the detainees were found. "I was informed that there were 173 detainees held at an Interior Ministry prison and they appear to be malnourished. There is also some talk that they were subjected to some kind of torture," al-Jaafari told reporters.
Al-Jaafari said said an investigation had been launched. An Iraqi Interior Ministry official also said on Monday that an investigation will be opened into allegations that ministry officers tortured suspects detained in connection with the country's on going fight against the foreign military presence in the country. Al-Jaafari said the detainees were moved into a better location and "medical care will be given to them".
The Interior Ministry is controlled by the majority Shia. Sunni leaders have accused Shia-dominated security forces of detaining, torturing and killing hundreds of Sunnis simply because of their religious affiliation. The prime minister did not say where the prison was located, but Major General Hussein Kamal, the Interior Ministry's undersecretary for security, said it was in the basement of a building in Baghdad's neighbourhood of Jadriyah.
Posted by: Fred ||
11/16/2005 00:00 ||
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#1
Part of me believes this is real, and the other part says the Shia would never get caught doing such a thing. Yes they would do such a thing, but they'd never get caught.
#2
I've got to stop reading the news. Upon seeing this headline my first thought was, "I wonder if it's ours, theirs, al Qaeda's, the former regime's, ...."
#3
"Part of me believes this is real, and the other part says the Shia would never get caught doing such a thing. Yes they would do such a thing, but they'd never get caught"
Unless Jaafari has it in for the Interior Minister, whos from SCIRI IIRC. Or unless Khalilzad and the Americans had it in for the Interior Minister, and wanted to improve relations with Sunnis.
#4
Coming from Al-sleeza, I'm prone to believe it is crap. Howerver, old habits die hard and I can believe a few bad apples in the Iraqi army haven't given up the bad habits yet. Time for a public hanging if true.
More details coming to light MOMENTS after the deadly blast shook the Amman SAS Radisson on Wednesday night, Sajida Mubarak Atrous al-Rishawi ran out of the hotel.
"I am outta here!"
She frantically hailed a cab and rushed back to her rented apartment in the Jordanian capital.
"[PHWEET!] Taxi!"
There was blood on the Iraqi woman's clothes.
"Out, out, damned spot!"
As she remained holed up in her room, the landlord became suspicious.
"Fatimah, I'm really suspicious about that woman in 102!"
"Me, too, Mahmoud. She's got blood all over her and she didn't tip the taxi guy."
During that time, Jordanian police launched a massive hunt for suspects.
"Calling all cars! Be on the lookout for a woman with blood all over her! That is all!"
The Al-Qaeda in Iraq claimed that a husband and wife team were among the bombers - but police found only three male attackers' bodies.
"Any luck yet, Dr. Quincy?"
"Not yet, Sam. All of these guys have doinkers."
"Well, that's all the pieces they could find."
"Something doesn't add up, Sam!"
So word went out that the authorities were looking for a woman. That's when the landlord called the police.
"Hello? Police? There's a woman staying in my spare room. She's covered with blood and keeps hollering 'Out, out, damned spot!'"
Two days before the blasts, an Iraqi man approached the husband of landlady Umm Mahmoud al-Fayoumi, asking to rent a basement apartment for himself, his wife and two other Iraqi men in their building. Said Madam Mahmoud, 47: ''They said they were here to receive fertility treatment.
"I mean, with a face like she's got, we just can't get the room dark enough to conceive, if you know what I mean..."
"I remember asking myself, 'If that's the case, who were the two other men and why were they here?' ''
"Oh, them? They're here to shove me into the bedroom."
It was one of at least two apartments that the group rented in Tlaa' Ali, a middle-class area with a large Iraqi community. Sajida was caught in the second apartment rented by the group. On 9 Nov, the four Iraqis caught taxis to their targets. They would end up killing 60 at three different hotels. The apparent leader of the cell was Sajida's husband, Ali Hussein Ali al-Shamari. Wearing 10 kg explosives-packed belts wrapped around their waists, the couple entered the Radisson, which did not have metal detectors at the entrance.
I can remember the days of my lost youth, when a statement like that wouldn't have elicited a mental "Why not?"
They lingered outside the Philadelphia Ballroom, where Mr Ashraf Akhras and his bride, Nadia, were celebrating their wedding with some 300 Jordanian and Palestinian guests. They drew the suspicion of a hotel clerk, who asked what they were looking for. Ali Hussein replied that they were Iraqis and had never seen a Jordanian wedding party and asked if they could have a look, the security official said, citing witnesses and video camera footage obtained from blast site.
Interesting. They didn't just walk in on the wedding party at random; they actually wormed their way in.
Once inside, they staked out different parts of the ballroom. Ali Hussein took up position on the right, where men were sitting in the gathering, which was segregated in line with conservative Islamic tradition.
So they knew damned well it wasn't a Christian or Jewish or Buddhist or what-have-you wedding...
He was talking on his handphone constantly, witnesses told police.
Hope they can trace that call, might have just been to one of the other boomers to coordinate their strikes though
His wife, meanwhile, found a seat on the left, near chatting women and a handful of playing children. But when the moment arrived for her to trigger her explosives belt, there was a problem. She gestured to her husband that it wouldn't explode.
"Honey? It's busted. I think we should take it back to the store."
The couple met up near the doorway to the ballroom, and guests told the police they saw the husband angrily gesture towards the woman, telling her to leave.
"If you ain't gonna explode then beat it!"
As she moved towards the door, the lights went out and her husband jumped up onto a nearby dining table and detonated his belt, sending the ceiling crashing down and spraying ball-bearings across the room. It was not clear why the lights went out just before the blast, which killed at least 36 people, including the fathers of the bride and groom.
I'd guess that hubby was talking to a controller or accomplice, who cut the power as a signal. That'd imply he/she/it was in the room, by the light switches, or in the basement, next to the breaker box. My guess would be the latter. In either case, it would imply that the wedding (and likely some of its guests) was the target, which'd mean Debka was right again.
In a televised confession aired after her arrest four days later, Sajida said, ''My husband detonated (his bomb), I tried to explode (my belt) but it wouldn't.'' After running out to the street, Sajida hailed a taxi and told the driver to head to her apartment, but was confused about the address. She was able to navigate by landmarks to the second apartment rented by the group. When she was caught, the unexploded vest was still with her.
I wonder if she was still wearing it, hoping it would work?
Between the attacks and her capture, however, Sajida tried to find an escape, getting in contact with the family of her sister's Jordanian husband, Nidal Arabiyat. Nidal was the chief bomb-maker for Abu Musab al-Zarqawi, Al-Qaeda's leader in Jordan. He was killed last year fighting US troops. Sajida's two brothers were killed in US operations. It's said she was seeking revenge for their deaths.
Posted by: Steve ||
11/16/2005 15:43 ||
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The Al Q is losing the hearts and minds battle with old Zarky Malarky in charge of things, methinks they he be dealt with by his own if'n he don't start producing real Al Q attacks on soldiers and Americans.
All I can think of when watching the news coverage of this is that I wish this had been the Jordanian wedding old Zark was attending in that oft replayed video of him at the wedding.
What was this couple's crime, too western? Too Islamic, too convenient?
Fuckin ridiculous hypocrisy old Al Q under Zarky is, religious zealots my ass.
#5
Splendid! Clear proof that the selection of a fellow Muslim wedding party was completely intentional. No Christians, no Druze, no Copts, no Greek Orthodox, no Janeists, no Hindus, no Pagans, no Wiccans, (sorry, got carried away there), but most definitely Muslims.
Somewhere, as in "every major city", we need billboards (preferrably outside of each major mosque) with a rolling odometer-style counter showing the number of Muslims killed by other Muslims.
When our world finally understands just how cheerfully Islam kills its own en mass, maybe there'll come some dawning awareness of what awaits us unbelievers. Until then, faster please.
Jordan's security forces are questioning the Jordanian relatives of an Iraqi woman who took part in last week's triple suicide bombings that killed 54 people in Amman hotels, security sources said on Wednesday.
They said several Jordanians were being "interrogated for possible strong links" with the bombers belonging to al Qaeda in Iraq, which is led by Jordanian militant Abu Musab al-Zarqawi.
They said Sajida al-Rishawi, who confessed on television on Sunday she had tried to blow herself up alongside her husband, had gone to the city of Salt near Amman after the bombings.
"She went to seek Jordanian relatives of a sister who had married a Jordanian militant who died in Iraq and we are now interrogating people who contacted her," one source said.
The source, who asked not to be named, did not say how many people had been detained as suspects in Salt.
Jordanian officials who announced Rishawi's arrest on Sunday identified her as a sister of Samir Mubarak Atrous al-Rishawi, a former Zarqawi aide who was killed by U.S. forces in Iraq.
The woman bomber's sister was married to Nidal Arabiyat, a Jordanian militant from Salt who was killed in clashes with U.S. forces in Iraq in 2003, security sources said. They said Arabiyat was an explosives expert who had been with Zarqawi in northern Iraq before the U.S.-led invasion.
Officials have also said the bombers acted on their own and deliberately avoided contact with Jordanians to evade the security services. It was not clear whether those arrested in Salt were now suspected of prior involvement in the plot.
Police have stepped up searches in Salt, a city that has earned a reputation for Islamist militancy over the years after scores of volunteers secretly left to fight against the Soviet army in Afghanistan and U.S.-led forces in Iraq.
Al Qaeda in Iraq has said in a statement that three Iraqi men and the wife of one of them had bombed the hotels.
"This statement was crucial. It gave us leads that helped us capture the woman," said another security source.
Most of those who died were Jordanians attending weddings at the hotels, which are also frequented by diplomats, aid workers, journalists and security contractors working in Iraq.
Officials have said the team entered Jordan four days before the blasts, rented a flat in a middle-class district of Amman and used belts packed with 5-10 kg (11-22 lbs) of explosives.
Posted by: Dan Darling ||
11/16/2005 10:16 ||
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The would-be suicide bomber in the Jordan hotel attacks wasn't arrested in Amman, as officials previously said, but in the northeastern city of Salt, where she sought help from "relatives," the prime minister said Wednesday. Prime Minister Adnan Badran said that after the failed detonation, Sajida Mubarak al-Rishawi fled to a furnished apartment that she and the other three Iraqis involved in the suicide attacks had rented in Amman's suburbs.
"She (later) went on to Salt because one of her relatives" lived there, Badran told reporters. While in Salt, "they reported about her and she was seized there," he added. He could not say whether it was her relatives who reported her to authorities
"I can say no more"
Al-Rishawi confessed on television Sunday to planning to blow herself up in one of the three Amman hotels struck in last week's attacks in the Jordanian capital that killed 61 people. Her husband detonated his belt of explosives in the Radisson SAS hotel, but al-Rishawi told viewers that her detonator failed to activate.
Police believe al-Rishawi may provide vital clues to al-Qaida in Iraq and possibly al-Zarqawi's whereabouts. But her interrogation is going slowly among an increasing sense she played only a small part in the operation. The questioning is expected to last a month and she will be tried in a Jordanian military court, where she could be charged with conspiring to carry out a deadly terrorist attack, a crime that can carry the death penalty.
Security officials say al-Rishawi's sister was married to a Jordanian who lived in Salt, 15 miles northeast of Amman. A security official has identified the Jordanian husband of al-Rishawi's sister as Nidal Arabiyat, who was reported killed in fighting U.S. troops West of Baghdad in February 2004.
Cue "Family Affair" theme music
When Nidal's father, Sheikh Mohammad Arabiyat, was asked Tuesday whether al-Rishawi had contacted the family for help, he refused to comment, telling The Associated Press: "Check this with the Intelligence Agency." Badran also reaffirmed that the security services believe no Jordanian was involved in the Nov. 9 attacks.
But Jordan's King Abdullah II said he was not so sure in an interview with Corriere della Sera published Wednesday. Asked whether any Jordanians were involved, the king told the Italian newspaper, "Maybe."
"Now we know a lot more. There might even be more people involved whom we are hunting for," he added.
Posted by: Steve ||
11/16/2005 09:30 ||
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#1
While in Salt, "they reported about her and she was seized there
Family turned her in, eh? That just heightens my suspicions that she is a ringer whose sole purpose was to get caught and to provide misinformation regarding the true nature of the attack. She sure has been just a bit too good to be true, hasn't she? And no...I don't think the Mossad did it.
#2
I think 'Family Affair' by Sly & the Family Stone would be better, actually.
"One child, grows up to be,
Somebody that just loves to learn.
Other child, grows up to be,
Somebody that just loves to burn.
But Mama loves the both of them,
See, it's in the blood.
And both kids are good to Mama,
Blood thicker than the mud.
It's a Family Affair."
#3
I think 'Family Affair' by Sly & the Family Stone would be better, actually.
"One child, grows up to be,
Somebody that just loves to learn.
Other child, grows up to be,
Somebody that just loves to burn.
But Mama loves the both of them,
See, it's in the blood.
And both kids are good to Mama,
Blood thicker than the mud.
It's a Family Affair."
A Palestinian 16-year boy was intercepted trying to smuggle an explosive vest past the Hawara checkpoint south of Nablus Wednesday.
The vest was made of six pipe bombs. The barrier was shut down temporarily for its examination
Posted by: Steve ||
11/16/2005 09:09 ||
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#1
dang surprise meter ain't working. reading zero.
And, I suppose this the very first child the paleos have used as a pack mule for explosives.
#2
Update Palestinian caught may had fake bomb
IDF soldiers manning the Hawara checkpoint outside of Nablus insist they prevented a powerful bomb attack inside Israel, after nabbing a 28-year-old Palestinian carrying an explosives belt on Wednesday afternoon.
However, shortly after sappers blew up the belt they examined the remains and found no trace of explosives. While samples were taken for testing, officials did not rule out the possibility that the Palestinian was taking it elsewhere to be filled with explosives in preparation for an attack.
#3
Hokay, so it was a "shell" destined for final "tamping" elsewhere. And this changes things exactly how?
The Palestinians eat their young. What more proof does anyone need with respect to their utter worthlessness as any sort of valid culture? They nurture a virulent and toxic meme that transcends all life-promoting concepts. These maggots need corpses to feed upon. Fresh food would poison their puss-adapted digestive tracts.
War is hell. But itâs worse when the Marines bring out their new urban combat weapon, the SMAW-NE. Which may be why theyâre not talking about it, much.
This is a version of the standard USMC Shoulder Mounted Assault Weapon but with a new warhead. Described as NE - "Novel Explosive"- it is a thermobaric mixture which ignites the air, producing a shockwave of unparalleled destructive power, especially against buildings.
JPGA post-action report from Iraq describes the effect of the new weapon: "One unit disintegrated a large one-storey masonry type building with one round from 100 meters. They were extremely impressed." Elsewhere it is described by one Marine as "an awesome piece of ordnance."
It proved highly effective in the battle for Fallujah. This from the Marine Corps Gazette, July edition: "SMAW gunners became expert at determining which wall to shoot to cause the roof to collapse and crush the insurgents fortified inside interior rooms."
The NE round is supposed to be capable of going through a brick wall, but in practice gunners had to fire through a window or make a hole with an anti-tank rocket. Again, from the Marine Corps Gazette:
"Due to the lack of penetrating power of the NE round, we found that our assaultmen had to first fire a dual-purpose rocket in order to create a hole in the wall or building. This blast was immediately followed by an NE round that would incinerate the target or literally level the structure."
The rational for this approach was straightforward:
"Marines could employ blast weapons prior to entering houses that had become pillboxes, not homes. The economic cost of house replacement is not comparable to American lives...all battalions adopted blast techniques appropriate to entering a bunker, assuming you did not know if the bunker was manned."
The manufacturers, Talley, make bold use of its track record, with a brochure headlined Thermobaric Urban Destruction."
The SMAW-NE has only been procured by the USMC, though there are reports that some were 'borrowed' by other units. However, there are also proposals on the table that thousands of obsolete M-72 LAWs could be retrofitted with thermobaric warheads, making then into effective urban combat tools.
But in an era of precision bombs, where collateral damage is expected to be kept to a minimum, such massively brutal weapons have become highly controversial. These days, every civilian casualty means a few more "hearts and minds" are lost.
Thermobaric weapons almost invariable lead to civilian deaths. The Soviet Union was heavily criticized for using thermobaric weapons in Afghanistan because they were held to constitute "disproportionate force," and similar criticisms were made when thermobarics were used in the Chechen conflict. According to Human Rights Watch, thermobaric weapons "kill and injure in a particularly brutal manner over a wide area. In urban settings it is very difficult to limit the effect of this weapon to combatants, and the nature of FAE explosions makes it virtually impossible for civilians to take shelter from their destructive effect." The thermobaric weapons used in Afghanistan by the Russians were far more destructive. Things such as air-dropped propane munitions that would kill everyone out in the open over a half-square mile area. No comparison.
#1
Reminds me of a joke that was going around when I was in the Corps. Something about the reason the USMC doesn't have nukes is because they'd try to make hand grenades out of the damned things.
#3
Actually the most brutal weapon the Marines have is the Drill Instructor.
Of course to the article has to whine about the "brutalness" of the weapon. It is war jackass. You try to kill the other guy and keep your guys alive. Use anything to make this happen. Period.
#7
Thermobaric rounds are also in use for smaller rounds like shotguns, and will be extremely useful for clearing rooms and such when closer combat is required.
#13
But in an era of precision bombs, where collateral damage is expected to be kept to a minimum, such massively brutal weapons have become highly controversial. These days, every civilian casualty means a few more "hearts and minds" are lost.
Losing the "hearts and minds" of people who dance around buring troop carriers doesn't strike me as being very high on our list of concerns.
Making a nest of terrorist gunmen collapse upon itself sounds just ducky. Hiding indoors is going to lose a whole lot of its appeal in very short order. Just think of it; House by to house interdiction of insurgent militias. What's not to like?
"Got 'em? Good. Okay, Jake, now flatten the next one!"
Just think of it as an extremely compact and readily portable D-9. This is precisely what the technology invented by our free nation was designed to do for us. All whiners, please report to the SMAW -NE testing grounds for human factors efficacy verification.
#14
Well, bless my soul, Ship. A Davy Crockett nuclear recoiless rifle. That appears to be the M-28 version, 120mm, 116 pounds with a 1.5 mile range. Just a pipsqueak of a warhead, only a yield of 40 tons of TNT. Still, it will remodel the neighborhood.
Posted by: Steve ||
11/16/2005 20:01 Comments ||
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#15
nice response to a Paleo Qassam tho' heh heh
Posted by: Frank G ||
11/16/2005 20:06 Comments ||
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#16
I don't suppose anyone is about to place an IED detector on the market. Take IEDs away from Iraqi terrorists, and then all they have is suicide-torpedos.
#20
The problem with the Davy Crockett was that its range was substantially less than a Sov tank column could cover in, say, five minutes. And since the Sovs were going to make the first move, the Davy Crocketts would have been either destroyed or turned around.
Posted by: Richard Aubrey ||
11/16/2005 20:21 Comments ||
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#21
That M-28 looks like something straight outta Michael Nesmith's "Neighborhood Nuclear Superiority" skit.
Government troops have captured two camps belonging to the Abu Sayyaf bandit group, but bad weather has slowed down the offensive against the fleeing gunmen that has cost the lives of at least four soldiers, the military said yesterday.
Troops pursuing the Abu Sayyaf and followers of jailed Moro leader Nur Misuari reported they recovered ammunition for rockets, mortars and grenade launchers from two camps in Indanan town on Jolo island late Monday.
One of the camps belonged to Misuari loyalists in Marang village and the other was a âforward baseâ of the Abu Sayyaf in Bud Kapuk, both in Indanan town.
The military yesterday released a revised casualty figure, reporting that four Marines had been killed and 12 other Marines and 10 Army soldiers had been wounded since a gun battle erupted late Friday followed by sporadic clashes in Marang village between government troops and a combined force of the Abu Sayyaf and the so-called Misuari Breakaway Group (MBG).
It had initially reported that seven soldiers were slain.
There were no encounters reported yesterday.
At least 17 Moro gunmen, including Abu Sayyaf leader commander Mammah, were killed, the military said basing its figures on radio intercepts and ground reports.
But Southern Command spokesperson Colonel Domingo Tutaan said no bodies were found at the Abu Sayyaf camp, only bloodstained backpacks and personal belongings.
He said soldiers later destroyed several bunkers and trenches in the encampment.
Brigadier General Alexander Aleo, commander of the anti-terror Task Force Comet in Jolo, said heavy rains were affecting the offensive.
Aleo said the Abu Sayyaf gunmen were allegedly aided by followers of Misuari, who signed a peace accord with the government in 1996.
Armed Forces spokesperson Colonel Tristan Kison told reporters in Manila that the dense jungle of Jolo, where visibility is often limited to 10 meters, was also hampering the operation.
Lieutenant Colonel Pablo Lorenzo said the heavily fortified base in Bud Kapuk belonged to the group led by Umbra Jumdail, alias Doc Abu.
Lorenzo said the encampment had 15 bunkers, which could accommodate from 80 to 100 persons.
Col. Juancho Sabban, 3rd Marine Brigade commander, said the MBG camp belonged to the group of Khaid Adjibun, Misuariâs chief of staff in Sulu province, and could hold up to 500 people.
In Cotabato City, MNLF chair Hatimil Hassan urged the military to halt the offensive, saying the fighting has already displaced at least 200 civilians.
A man and his wife were wounded by shrapnel, the only civilian casualties reported so far.
Hassan said he had sent emissaries to Sulu to convince Ustadz Habier Malikâs group to stop the fighting.
Lt. Col. Mark Zimmer, public affairs officer of the Joint Special Operation Task Force Philippines (JSOTFP), said US soldiers conducting humanitarian work in the province would not be pulling out even as tensions mounted in Sulu.
Aleo said no US personnel were involved in the Indanan operation. At least 30 US servicemen have been in Sulu since last month.
Posted by: Dan Darling ||
11/16/2005 10:28 ||
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Three men detained as part of Indonesian police raids last week in which a top Asian militant was killed have been named suspects over October's bombings on Bali island, an officer said on Wednesday.
They are the first suspects named in the wake of the suicide bombings at three restaurants on the Indonesian resort island on October 1, which killed 20 people.
Police said the men were recruits of Malaysian Azahari bin Husin, a master bombmaker, who was killed last Wednesday in a shootout with police in East Java province. Police have already linked Azahari to the latest Bali attacks.
The three men were picked up in the central Java city of Semarang last week.
Asked by reporters if they were the first suspects in police custody, Bali police spokesman Antonius Reniban said: "At this moment, those we have in Bali are these three."
Reniban said they were being investigated under the anti-terrorism law on suspicion of providing assistance to the bombers who blew up their explosives-laden backpacks on October 1.
"These three people were arrested in Semarang. They have been brought here so we can intensify the investigation in relation to the cases at Kuta and Jimbaran," Reniban said, referring to the locations of last month's attacks.
Posted by: Dan Darling ||
11/16/2005 10:11 ||
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Suspected Islamic militants linked to al Qaeda fired shells at Philippine troops on Wednesday as the rebels fled their hideouts in another part of the southwestern island of Jolo, army officials said.
About 29 people, including four soldiers, had been killed and dozens wounded in three days of fighting with members of the Abu Sayyaf group in mountains near the town of Indanan, said Colonel Domingo Tutaan, an army spokesman in the southern Philippines.
"Our troops came under heavy mortar fire this morning," he told reporters. "We did not suffer any casualties. The projectiles did not hit their targets. Unfortunately, a mosque and several houses in the area were destroyed."
Tutaan said the first barrage came when soldiers were having breakfast in the town of Panamao in another part of Jolo island. Two hours later, mortar shells rained down on a marine battalion's base in the area, he said.
After rebel shelling early this week, the community around the military camp was abandoned before the latest mortar attack, Tutaan said. Dozens of houses made of light materials were damaged or destroyed.
Tutaan said army soldiers and marines stumbled upon a hastily abandoned rebel camp in Indanan town, the scene of three days of fighting since last week. Thousands of empty shells, food and clothing were found in foxholes and bunkers, he said.
It was the third in a network of rebel hideouts to fall under government control. The base had deep trenches and a mess hall able to hold more than 50 people, Tutaan said.
Fighting around Indanan began on Friday when soldiers on a mission to capture Radullan Sahiron, a one-armed Abu Sayyaf commander, ran into a large group of militants.
An estimated 25 guerrillas were killed in the clashes, but only three bodies were found at the scene. It was not possible to independently confirm the rebel or military casualties.
Posted by: Dan Darling ||
11/16/2005 10:10 ||
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#1
"The projectiles did not hit their targets. Unfortunately, a mosque and several houses in the area were destroyed."
Posted by: ed ||
11/16/2005 10:19 Comments ||
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#3
Say, could we maybe get those guys over to our field of operations to (Mis)Direct our arty fire toward a couple of mosques?
(Oops, soo sorry, didn't mean it, just an error)
Posted by: Redneck Jim ||
11/16/2005 20:04 Comments ||
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A CONFESSED terrorist whose group allegedly plotted bomb attacks in Metro Manila has admitted that Osama bin Ladenâs al-Qaeda international terror network was directly funding the Abu Sayyaf bandit group and had bankrolled the activities of his own group, the Rajah Solaiman Movement. Malik Alimuddin last week turned state witness in the case against his fellow members in the RSM, a group of Christians who had converted to Islam. He was arrested in a police raid last month along with RSM founder Ahmad Santos (also known by the aliases Hilarion del Rosario Santos/Abu Hamza/Abu Hamid al-Luzon).
In a sworn statement to state prosecutors, Alimuddin said he had maintained an account in the state-run Land Bank of the Philippines where money from the al-Qaeda-linked Jemaah Islamiyah Southeast Asian terror group and other âforeignâ supporters was being wired to finance their operations. The account was opened in the Landbank branch in Zamboanga City on the instructions of Abu Sayyaf chief Khadaffy Janjalani and Hilarion Santos, he said. âFunds from the Jemaah Islamiyah and the al-Qaeda were being sent to that account. The money that goes to that account is used by the Abu Sayyaf and the RSM in their armed struggle against the government,â Alimuddin said.
He agreed to open the bank account to government investigators. Alimuddin said the Abu Sayyaf had tapped Santos to form the RSM to encourage Christians to turn against the government. Intelligence agencies have identified the RSM as a major threat because many of its members can blend in easily in Manila to hit âsoft targets.â It is not known how many members the group has. Alimuddin said the brothers Hilarion and Dawud Santos (also known as Tyrone del Rosario) were active RSM members.
Last February 14, the Abu Sayyaf, with the help of Alimuddinâs group, staged three simultaneous bomb attacks in the Makati financial district and in two Mindanao cities, killing six and wounding more than 100. Shortly after, troops recovered a ton of explosives from Dawud Santos. The explosives were allegedly for a truck bomb attack on the United States Embassy. âThe Abu Sayyaf and the RSM have long had connections with the Jemaah Islamiyah and al-Qaeda. The people who trained us in bomb making are foreign members of the JI,â Alimuddin said. He said local terror groups also received support from some policemen and even media people in Mindanao and Manila.
Senior State Prosecutor Emmanuel Velasco yesterday submitted Alimuddinâs extrajudicial confession, which he made on October 17, to the Makati Regional Trial Court which is trying the Santos brothers, Janjalani and 18 others for terror activities, including the Valentineâs Day bombing in Makati. Velasco also submitted to the court the sworn statement of Abu Sayyaf member Gappal Bannah, alias Boy Negro, who had also turned state witness. Bannah claimed that Dawud Santos was one of the people who delivered to him the bombs that were used in the Valentineâs Day bombing.
Court proceedings against the alleged RSM members were suspended yesterday after defense lawyers told the court that one of the accused was a minor. Makati Judge Encarnacion Moya suspended the hearing and ordered the defense to submit proof that the accused was under 18 years old. Moyaâs court, a regular trial court, does not have jurisdiction over cases in which minors are involved. Cases involving minors, whether as accused, witnesses or complainants, are to be tried in designated family courts. Moya said the question of whether her court had jurisdiction over the case must first be resolved.
Velasco said that other than causing a little delay in the caseâs progress, the transfer to a juvenile court would not affect the governmentâs case. The minor, who is said to be 17 years old, is in the custody of the Intelligence Service of the Armed Forces of the Philippines after she was arrested in Zamboanga last month along with Alimuddin, Hilarion Santos, his wife Hannah Santos, Nururrija Amdal, Mursidi Balao, Ismael Idiris and Bodot Abdullah. The other accused include Dawud Santos, who is out on bail while being tried on charges of illegal possession of explosives, and Abu Sayyaf leaders Khaddafy Janjalani and Jainal Sali, alias Abu Solaiman, who are both at large.
Posted by: Dan Darling ||
11/16/2005 10:07 ||
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#1
Saudi is funding AQ. When are we going to deal with the root cause. Saudi money and support for AQ.
At least nine villagers have been shot dead and nine others wounded in a raid by suspected Islamic militants in Thailand's troubled south.
Hand grenades and guns were allegedly used in the attack on several homes in Narathiwat province, witnesses said . Officials claimed the victims were targeted because they had co-operated with the government in its crackdown on the ongoing Islamic insurgency.
The ambush took place in a village in the district of Rangae early on Wednesday morning. About 10 armed men entered the homes and killed four men, one woman and four children, said Police Lt Jenwit Hunsiem. Nine others were admitted to the local hospital, he added. "It's the really brutal work of militants," Narathiwat regional governor Pracha Tearat told the AFP news agency . "They kill everyone if they learn that those people take sides with the government."
Two weeks ago, suspected militants placed bombs at a restaurant, a prison and power plants in Narathiwat's state capital, which bears the same name as the province. One person was injured in the attack on the prison.
Posted by: Steve ||
11/16/2005 08:53 ||
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#1
"At least nine villagers have been shot dead and nine others wounded in a raid by suspected Islamic militants in Thailand's troubled south."
WTF! You mean no beheadings! Ahmed! That is unacceptable! There must be at least one beheading per raid!
"Suspected Islamic militants terrorist murderers?" Nah ... it may have been those nasty Norwegians again!
FOUR Australian women have been detained while trying to board a plane in Syria, reportedly after gun parts were found inside a child's toy.
The Department of Foreign Affairs (DFAT) said two women from Victoria and two from NSW were with two Iraqi women when they were detained at Damascus airport on Tuesday.
All six were of Iraqi origin, the department said.
A DFAT spokesman would not confirm media reports that the group was detained after a disassembled gun was found inside a toy being carried by a child with the women.
The ABC has quoted a Syrian police source and a diplomatic source as saying the women entered the airport in the Syrian capital with a child.
They said the women were detained after the gun parts were found in a toy the child was holding.
The women were reportedly trying to board a flight bound for Australia.
The DFAT spokesman said one of the Australian women was accompanied by her son.
"Consular officials from Cairo are seeking to confirm the reports and to provide consular assistance to the group," he said.
Syrian police were questioning the women, the ABC reported.
#1
Typical dummies. You are traveling as a group, so you break up the gun among you. Dumb. If one of you gets nicked, they search all of you.
What you do is get objects that have parts that look like gun parts normally, and replace them with gun parts. A barrel is like a tube, a spring is like a spring. Unless they are looking for gun parts, they see what they expect to see.
Tehran, 16 Nov. (AKI) - The sole defendant in the trial for the death of Canadian photo-reporter, Zahra Kazemi in Tehran in July 2003, has been acquitted by an appeals court. The court has absolved Reza Ahmadi, "because the inquiries carried out to date on other accused have not been satisfactory, it is not possible to condemn one of the co-defendants". Kazemi, 54, a Canadian of Iranian origin, was arrested in June 2003 after taking photos of demonstrations outside a Tehran prison.
She died in a Tehran hospital on 10 July 2003 after falling into a coma, having received head injuries during more than three days of interrogation.
Zahra Kazemi's son, Stephan Hashemi, contacted by phone in Canada, said the sentence was "not surprising, given that we are talking about justice in a country where reading a book is a crime punishable with prison or torture". Hashemi told Adnkronos International (AKI) that he did not expect anything from the Tehran courts. "What I want is an international trial against the murderers of my mother, whose only crime was to conduct honestly her profession as photo-reporter".
In April this year, the Iranian Judiciary rejected the Canadian demands to return Kazemiâs body and to hold an independent autopsy, arguing that Kazemi was Iranian and that only the Iranian judiciary had jurisdiction in this case. According to a parliamentary inquiry, carried out under the previous legislature, the orders to kill Zahra Kazemi came from Tehran's chief prosecutor, Saiid Mortazavi.
OK, Canada, what ya gonna do?
Posted by: Steve ||
11/16/2005 15:24 ||
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Canada well they will just seeth. It's a lesson they learned from their state supported islamo-fascist "immigrants."
Rantburg: Galloway speech is a Shame for Every Honest and Free Man
President Bashar al-Assadâs speech is a pride for every honest and free Arab, British MP said in a dialogue symposium in Damascus University yesterday. "Pressures which Syria is exposed to comes in the framework of the US-Zionist schemes to hegemony the region and size its treasures,â George Galloway added, stressing that no free Arab country can accept the aggression on Syria . â It is the time for all honest all over the world to stand by Syria to confront such pressures and deluding campaigns she is facing due to her principled national stances.â He noted.
Galloway criticized report of the UN investigation committee on assassination of former Lebanese Premier Rafik Hariri, saying: â The report was prepared in advance as it was planned to and to the assassination crime by Syria âs enemies.â He also criticized those who call themselves as â Syrian oppositionâ clarifying that the real national opposition is to stand by your country and not against it to serve own interests at the expense of the peoples blood.
Then his lips fell off
â The strong national unity and religious coexistence that Syria enjoys will be a well-fortified front in the face of all the greedy who work to draw a new map for the region through dividing it into small conflicted states easy to be controlled on the pretext of spreading democracy.â Galloway said.
He renewed criticism of the war on Iraq, inquiring why the U.S., as long as it claims democracy, didnât stop its war on Iraq in spit of all anti-war demonstrations all over the world. â The US administration has lost its credibility and popularity in front of the US and world public opinion, â he added, indicating that most of its members and army officers are prosecuting because they lied on the people and the same thing is applied to the British government. The MP warned against the mass media deluding campaigns aim at obliterating the Arab culture and the national identity of the Arab Nation, affirming that this stage necessitates more wisdom for facing the dangerous challenges.
Posted by: Steve ||
11/16/2005 13:57 ||
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glad to see he's dropped all pretenses. Now the British can understand exactly what their choices are.
An authoritative source told KUNA that security authorities have been searching the plane to know whether the Iraqi gunman was accompanied by others. The gunman is being questioned to know his real motives.
Gun found in bag of Iraqi woman, plane flies safely
A Gulf Air passenger plane took off to Manama safely from Damascus International Airport on Tuesday after the flight was delayed due to location of a gun in a bag, a Bahraini diplomatic source said. The source told Kuwait News Agency (KUNA) that the flight was delayed after the Syrian authorities detained seven Iraqi women who tried to board the plane with a gun concealed in one of their bags.
Preliminary interrogations revealed that a man, who did not show up at the air facility, was expected to accompany them on the flight. The women and the suspicious male carried Australian passports. The gun was laden into a toy in one of the bags of the women. Earlier reports indicated at arrest of a man who tried to fly aboard the plane with the concealed gun.
Posted by: Fred ||
11/16/2005 00:00 ||
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#1
I wonder why Syria apprehended these Iraqis?
"The gunman is being questioned"
Without physical or mental duress or threats, and with his attorney present? For sure, at least if paths lead back to Syrian Baathists.
Morocco's intelligence services are carrying out a major crackdown against suspected Islamic militants, and have formed squads of tribal leaders and vendors of "moderate" literature and tapes to people outside mosques, a message posted to Islamist websites on Wednesday warned. Headed 'Latest News from Morocco' it tells the "mujahadeen" to be "very careful". "The biggest US secret services operation in Africa has long been stationed in the city of Tangiers," the message says."In Morocco, people are happy to accept religious observance, especially young men and women, who have recently begun to wear the veil. Victory is close at hand if God wills it," the message concludes.
The message, signed by a certain Abu Musab al-Iraqi, is apparently targeted at jihadists abroad who may be planning terrorist attacks in Morocco - a NATO partner country and one of the United States' allies in its war on terror, as well as an exponent of moderate Islam.
Young Moroccans are favourably disposed to radical Islam and al-Qaeda leader Osama bin Laden's jihadist message, according to al-Iraqi. The message is likely to increase Moroccan intelligence services' already heightened state of alert. Analysts believe Morocco is third on al-Qaeda's list of target countries, after Saudi Arabia and Jordan, according to Moroccan daily al-Alam, which quotes unnamed Moroccan secret service sources. Earlier this month, immediately after the end of the fasting month of Ramadan, a number of messages, signed by the Moroccan Armed Islamic group, which threatened the 'apostate' government of Morocco, appeared on Islamist websites.
Posted by: Dan Darling ||
11/16/2005 12:40 ||
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Young Moroccans are favourably disposed to radical Islam and al-Qaeda leader Osama bin Laden's jihadist message, according to al-Iraqi.
What kind of f*cked-up, bass-ackward civilization produces young people who want more rules?! The perversity of Islam knows no bounds.
November 16, 2005:A former detainee at Guantanamo Bay, Rasul Kudayev, was recently detained by Russian security forces for his part in planning attacks on police in the Kabardino-Balkariya region in the Northern Caucasus (the most famous hotbed of Islamist violence is in Chechnya), which killed 45 people (not counting the 94 attackers). This detainee was captured in Afghanistan in October, 2001, and was released in 2004.
This is not the first time releasing an al-Qaeda member has come back to haunt the world. In 2001, an Iraqi member of al-Qaeda by the name of Ahmed Hikmat Shakir was captured in Qatar. A search turned up contact information for the safehouses used in the 1993 bombing of the World Trade Center and information on Project Bojinka, an al-Qaeda plot to blow up a dozen airliners in 1995. Shakir had also attended the January 2000 al-Qaeda summit where the attacks of September 11, 2001 were planned (he was working as a greeter at the Kuala Lampur airport â a job acquired through the Iraqi embassy), was released shortly afterwards, and was recaptured in Jordan and interrogated. After pressure from Amnesty International, he was released, and fled to Baghdad.
This is something often ignored in the media, which has pushed the âprisoner abuseâ issue at Guantanamo Bay and in Iraq (most notably the Abu Ghraib scandal). Human rights groups will probably not discuss the 45 deaths that a former detainee is responsible for, nor will they even admit that there is another side to the issue of detainees. Kudayev is not the first detainee who has resumed fighting for al-Qaeda after being released. The Department of Defense is aware of at least a dozen others who have been re-captured, having re-joined al-Qaeda in its fight against coalition forces in the war on terror.
This places the people running Guantanamo Bay in a conundrum. On one hand, they get flak from human rights groups and the media over the rights of detainees captured while engaged in hostilities against coalition forces in the war on terror. On the other hand, when detainees resume fighting for al-Qaeda, there is a chance coalition troops will be killed, and that will often lead to criticism for letting the detainee go â sometimes from the same people who criticized the existence of the camps at Guantanamo Bay in the first place. The case of Rasul Kudayev will not be the last time that a detainee will re-join al-Qaeda. The only question is when the next situation will occur.
Posted by: Steve ||
11/16/2005 09:37 ||
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#2
Human rights groups will probably not discuss the 45 deaths that a former detainee is responsible for, nor will they even admit that there is another side to the issue of detainees.
But...they mean well, dammit! And that's the important thing! 45 dead folks is a small price to pay for an assuaged ego!
Unless, of course, you're one of the dead...
#4
I still like my idea of putting implants in these guys before releasing them. Secretly - feed them something that gives them a belly ache, then 'remove their appendix', and neglect to remove (malpractice suit!!!) a microphone and transmitter (and remote-release poison?) Think of the potential.
Or maybe, don't implant anything, just tell them you did, and let them have septic surgery when they get home. But alas, I don't think it would pass the Senate torture & interrogation restrictions.
KABUL, Afghanistan (AP) - Osama bin Laden's al-Qaida network has increased its activities in Afghanistan, smuggling in explosives, high-tech weapons and millions of dollars in cash for a resurgent terror campaign, the defense minister said Wednesday. A number of Arabs and other foreigners have entered Afghanistan to launch suicide attacks, Defense Minister Rahim Wardak said in an interview with The Associated Press.
His comments came after an unprecedented series of suicide assaults - the latest on Wednesday when a bomber attacked a U.S. military convoy, killing three civilians. "There has been ... more money and more weapons flowing into their hands in recent months," he said. "We see similarities between the type of attacks here and in Iraq."
Wardak said al-Qaida militants and other foreign Islamic extremists had teamed up with local Taliban rebels. "There is no doubt that there is a connection between Taliban and al-Qaida and some other fundamentalists," he said. "In most cases, the suicide bombers are foreigners ... from the Middle East, from neighboring countries. ... It is a new trend."
Where the hell has he been? We could have told him that
But he said not all the suicide assailants were extremists and that some had been duped into carrying explosives. "There have been some cases where people have been used without knowing that they are being fixed with explosives and someone else detonated it from a distance," he said. Until two months ago, suicide bombings were relatively rare in Afghanistan, unlike in Iraq. But since then, nine such assaults have been used nationwide.
Wednesday's attack in Kandahar, a former Taliban stronghold, which also wounded four civilians, came two days after militants used twin suicide car bombs to attack NATO peacekeepers in the capital, Kabul, killing a German soldier and eight Afghans.
Posted by: Steve ||
11/16/2005 09:12 ||
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I would bet you these "arabs" are entering via Iran.
A Sudanese decision to allow into Darfur 105 armoured personnel carriers, to protect civilians and aid workers, has been welcomed by the African Union. The authorities changed their mind on their deployment in the troubled region, after pressure by diplomats. The AU has nearly 7,000 peacekeeping troops in the region, trying to monitor a tattered ceasefire. The vehicles should begin arriving on Friday. The AU said it would give them more mobility to respond to incidents.
At the moment peacekeepers travel in the back of pick-up trucks making an easy target for Darfur's many armed groups. Early last month four Nigerians were killed when they came across a truck being looted. Then, to great embarrassment, 40 peacekeepers were taken hostage by a rebel group and ended up being rescued by a rival one.
Canada's offer of the APCs has been waiting approval by the Khartoum government for over two months. They wanted just 35. Now following intense international lobbying, the vehicles should begin arriving.
A spokesman for the African Union in Khartoum said improved security for the peacekeepers would allow the mission to better protect both civilians and humanitarian convoys. Two million people are still living in Darfur's overcrowded camps, prevented from returning home by continuing violence.
Posted by: Steve ||
11/16/2005 08:50 ||
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Three persons are understood to have been detained in Srinagar by Delhi Police in connection with the serial blasts in the national capital. A team of Delhi Police picked them up over the last three days on the basis of leads provided by Tariq Ahmed Dar, the alleged Lashkar-e-Taiba terrorist who masterminded the October 29 serial blasts and was arrested on November 10, sources said. While Hanief Ahmed Dar was detained from Kawdara area in downtown Srinagar on Sunday evening, Imtiaz Ahmed was held from Chanpora area in the city on Monday morning, the sources said. The identity of the third man was not known. The three had been taken to Delhi for further questioning, the sources said. However, senior officials of the Delhi Police's Special Cell, which is conducting the investigations into the blasts, were tight-lipped about the entire episode. Dar, who also functioned as the spokesman of LeT in the Kashmir Valley, had told his interrogators that the RDX used in the blasts had been smuggled into Jammu and Kashmir from across the Line of Control, sources said. All of the [suspects] were believed to be Pakistanis and security in markets in Delhi and the Metro had been increased after it emerged that they had identified eight places in the city to carry out a second string of explosions, the sources said.
The Lashker-e-Taiba terrorists, who carried out the serial blasts here on October 29, had planned another strike in the capital soon and had identified seven places and the Metro rail as targets. Investigations after the arrest of Tariq Ahmed Dar, the alleged LeT terrorist who had masterminded the attacks, revealed that the group was ready to carry out another string of blasts at various places including crowded markets, police sources said on Tuesday without specifying the targets. In view of the revelations, security at these places had been stepped up considering that all the four terrorists who triggered the October 29 explosions were still at large. All of them are Pakistani nationals and are believed to be still somewhere in the country, the sources said. Delhi Police are also believed to have detained three people in Kashmir and are questioning them. Delhi Police expects to extract a lot of information about LeT's plans from Dar as he is believed to be ranking very high in the outfit's hierarchy. Dar, who was acting as a 'spokesman'' for LeT in Kashmir, had direct contacts with the outfit's chief Hafiz Mohammad, who is based in Muridke near Lahore in Pakistan. The two have been telephonically in touch. He had been taken to the sites of the blasts in Delhi to verify his statements. He may also be taken to Jammu and Kashmir soon for the same purpose and to identify more of his accomplices.
An ethnic rebel group claimed responsibility for a car bombing Tuesday in downtown Karachi that hit a KFC restaurant and rattled the offices of a state-run petroleum company, killing at least three people. Police were investigating the claim made by the Baluchistan Liberation Army, which is demanding more revenues for gas extracted from its impoverished corner of southwestern Pakistan. The blast marked the first time the group has claimed responsibility for an attack outside Baluchistan, where it has launched occasional bomb and rocket attacks against security forces and gas pipelines.
"We did it to protest, and we did it to pressure the government to get our rights," Chakar Azam, a spokesman for the Baluchistan Liberation Army, said in a phone call to The Associated Press. The bomb, concealed in a stolen car parked outside the KFC, went off Tuesday morning as commuters were heading into downtown Karachi, Pakistan's business hub and largest city. In addition to the three people killed, 22 were injured.
Posted by: Fred ||
11/16/2005 00:00 ||
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A self-styled Taleban spokesman took officials and journalists in the North Western Frontier Province by surprise when he surfaced briefly to hold a press conference. The spokesman calling himself Dr. Hanif, claimed that "Taleban proudly claimed responsibility for the Kabul blasts" in an impromptu press conference and bravely quickly disappeared. He also listed the actions taken by Taleban have taken against the ISAF (International Security Assistance Force) operating in Afghanistan. He said Taleban were mainly targeting the ISAF and the National Assembly of Afghanistan.
"We dunnit and we're glad!"
The claims brought about an irate response from NWFP officials, who said that these statements were highly irresponsible, especially at a time when most of the NATO troops based in Afghanistan have been deployed in Pakistan to provide medical and technical assistance to the Oct. 8 earthquake victims.
They haven't gotten their relief check yet, I see...
Reacting to this report, a senator from the province, Waqar Khan, said these elements are friends of nobody. "In my constituency, that is Dera Ismail Khan, neighboring Waziristan, such militants who claim to be Taleban or so-called freedom fighters are properly chased and arrested."
"Not very often, of course, but quite properly..."
An MPA (Member of Provincial Assembly) from the Frontier, Zar Gul Khan, condemned Dr. Hanif's statement and said these terrorists should not use the soil of Pakistan for their inhuman activities.
"You're gonna get us all in trouble! Wait until the check clears!"
Other politicians were of the view that these elements are trying to spoil the warming relations between Pakistan and the Karzai administration while trying to jeopardize the Pak-Afghan efforts to curb terrorism in the region.
Gee. Golly. Shucks. Y'think?
Posted by: Fred ||
11/16/2005 00:00 ||
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Let me just get this out of the way.
Brave Sir Hanif ran away.
Bravely ran away away.
When danger reared it's ugly head,
He bravely turned his tail and fled.
Yes, brave Sir Hanif turned about
And gallantly he chickened out.
Bravely taking to his feet,
He beat a very brave retreat.
Bravest of the braaaave, Sir Hanif!
Posted by: Scott R ||
11/16/2005 1:15 Comments ||
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Bravely taking to his feet,feets don't fail me now!
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.
Murder accused killed in Rab 'crossfire'
British officials ordered a British computer specialist 
A SYDNEY man has been committed to stand trial on charges of lying to the national intelligence agency ASIO about contact he had with French terrorist suspect 
Slovenian police have recently arrested five members of an international gang that has been smuggling weapons and explosives of the same type used last year in Madrid's bombings, said on Tuesday Slovenian Interior Ministry Spokesperson Robert Marvljak. In a phone call, Marvljak told Kuwait News Agency (KUNA) that two days ago, the police arrested two Slovenians, two Croatians and a Bosnian among a multinational band smuggling weapons and explosives including Goma-2 Eco, which is a type of high explosive chiefly manufactured for mining purposes and was used by terrorists in Madrid's trains attacks in March 2004. Marvljak noted that among the confiscated weapons were guns made in Israel.
France's lower house of parliament has cleared the first step for an extension in emergency powers to quell an unprecedented wave of urban unrest, after the prime minister toured a riot-hit suburb. A majority of 346 deputies voted on Tuesday in favour of the bill drawn up by Prime Minister 
The US-led force in Iraq has announced that US troops caught a top al-Qaeda officer in western Iraq on 7 November, following a tip-off from local residents. Kuwaiti news agency KUNA reports that 
Pentagon officials acknowledged Tuesday that U.S. troops used white phosphorous as a weapon against insurgent strongholds during the battle of Fallujah last November. But they denied an Italian television news report that the spontaneously flammable material was used against civilians. Lt. Col. Barry Venable, a Pentagon spokesman, said that while white phosphorous is most frequently used to mark targets or obscure a position, it was used at times in Fallujah as an incendiary weapon against enemy combatants. "It was not used against civilians," Venable said.
More than 170 malnourished detainees found at an Interior Ministry detention centre in Baghdad appear to have been tortured, the Iraqi prime minister says. The announcement by Prime Minister 
MOMENTS after the deadly blast shook the Amman SAS Radisson on Wednesday night, 
A CONFESSED terrorist whose group allegedly plotted bomb attacks in Metro Manila has admitted that Osama bin Ladenâs al-Qaeda international terror network was directly funding the 
Tehran, 16 Nov. (AKI) - The sole defendant in the trial for the death of Canadian photo-reporter, Zahra Kazemi in Tehran in July 2003, has been acquitted by an appeals court. The court has absolved Reza Ahmadi, "because the inquiries carried out to date on other accused have not been satisfactory, it is not possible to condemn one of the co-defendants". Kazemi, 54, a Canadian of Iranian origin, was arrested in June 2003 after taking photos of demonstrations outside a Tehran prison.
An authoritative source told KUNA that security authorities have been searching the plane to know whether the Iraqi gunman was accompanied by others. The gunman is being questioned to know his real motives.
Headed 'Latest News from Morocco' it tells the "mujahadeen" to be "very careful". "The biggest US secret services operation in Africa has long been stationed in the city of Tangiers," the message says."In Morocco, people are happy to accept religious observance, especially young men and women, who have recently begun to wear the veil. Victory is close at hand if God wills it," the message concludes.
Three persons are understood to have been detained in Srinagar by Delhi Police in connection with the serial blasts in the national capital. A team of Delhi Police picked them up over the last three days on the basis of leads provided by 
The 
An ethnic rebel group claimed responsibility for a car bombing Tuesday in downtown Karachi that hit a KFC restaurant and rattled the offices of a state-run petroleum company, killing at least three people. Police were investigating the claim made by the 
A self-styled Taleban spokesman took officials and journalists in the North Western Frontier Province by surprise when he surfaced briefly to hold a press conference. The spokesman calling himself 
