An alert by El Salvador and Nicaragua on the possible presence of two al-Qaida terror suspects was a false alarm, U.S. officials said Tuesday. "The Department of Homeland Security has no specific intelligence to support this claim, or previous claims that al-Qaida is active in Central America," said spokesman Brian Roehrkasse. Another government official, who spoke on condition of anonymity, said the alert was the result of a mixup that apparently occurred when a representative of the Nicaraguan Interior Ministry attended a recent anti-terrorism seminar during which routine information about the two suspects was given out. The information was then delivered back through the Nicaraguan government and distributed publicly in a press release, the official said. The Nicaraguan press release "erroneously stated that two suspected members of al-Qaida were believed to be in Central America," the official said.
Officials in El Salvador and Nicaragua said earlier Tuesday they were on the lookout for a Yemeni man known only as Altuwiti and Ahmed Salim Swedan, a 36-year-old Kenyan on the FBI's list of most wanted terrorists. Nicaragua's Interior Ministry, which is in charge of internal security, announced earlier Tuesday that it had alerted all border posts because the two suspected terrorists were "possibly" in Central America. Nicaraguan Deputy Interior Minister Avil Ramirez said his country received the report from El Salvador, the only Latin American country with troops in Iraq and which in the past has received al-Qaida-type threats. El Salvador said it issued a similar alert based on information from "international intelligence organizations, and since Monday, all immigration officials have been alerted and have their photos and their names to avoid that they enter the country."
This article starring:
AHMED SALIM SWEDAN
al-Qaeda
ALTUWITI
al-Qaeda
Posted by: Dan Darling ||
05/25/2005 09:32 ||
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The first drops of crude will snake their way along a pipeline that traverses some of the most unstable and war-ravaged countries on earth. This is the oil flow that was meant to save the West, and this morning the taps were turned on.
Only 42 inches wide, the Baku-Tbilisi-Ceyhan was supposed to alter global oil markets forever. The 1,000-mile project has transformed the geopolitics of the Caucasus and its impact is now being felt in the vastness of central Asia.
Output is supposed to reach one million barrels a day - more than 1 per cent of world production - from an underground reserve that could hold as many as 220 billion barrels.
#4
"...one million barrels a day - more than 1 per cent of world production..."
A good start, but not exactly a poke in the eye to Saudi Arabia and Iran.
Posted by: Tom ||
05/25/2005 10:19 Comments ||
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#5
This article was written by leftist pussies. Remember, this is Fisk's paper.
#6
So, Jackel, do you think maybe they wrote the story to help terrorists know where to set their bombs? :-(
Posted by: Barbara Skolaut ||
05/25/2005 11:02 Comments ||
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#7
What Tom said. This isn't trivial but it's also not enough to make any real difference to either the oil price or our dependence on the middle east.
Look at the #'s: Caspian pipeline's total capacity = 1 million bpd. Our total imports in Q1 2005 were 10.1m barrels per day (bdp). Even if we got all of the caspian output, which wont happen, this would only amount to less than 10% of our import requirements.
In reality we won't get anywhere close to all of this oil, or even most of it. First in line are the west Europeans (aside from the UK and Norway, major oil producers in their own right), who will certainly get a large amount of Caspian crude passing through the mediterranean. These include Germany (total imports per day of ~2.5m bbl), France (~2m bpd imported), Italy ~1m bpd), Spain (~1m bpd).
Secondly, the Japanese (~5m bdp in imports) and China (~4m bdp in imports) will surely get a large piece as well, perhaps as much as we will. Add India (~2m bpd imported) and other emerging economies and it's hard to see US imports getting more than maybe 20-30%, max, of the Caspian total. Which would represent not more than 2-3% of total US oil imports, absolute maximum. That's nice, but not enough to free us of dependence on the House of Saud or the FunHouse of Chavez.
One other slight problem is that the Caucasus is a tinderbox. These nations, if one can call them that, are basically agglomerations of mountain fiefdoms run by various gangster types. Plus you have eastern Turkey, which may well become a war zone if the notion of greater Kurdistan gets legs.
Add to the tinderbox ethnic and tribal and other feuds and you see a region that's hardly anymore stable than it was in the days of Tolstoy's Hajii Murad.
I'll get excited when/if we get oil flowing from Sakhalin in the Russian Far East. I'd rather trust the USN (and the Japanese) to deal with N Korean potential threats than rely on a nightmare region like the Caucasus.
#8
N.B.: Right now, there are pipeline projects going on all over the place. Periodically I've been posting mention of these to RB, but nowhere I've seen a comprehensive list, which would be a real eye opener. The oil must flow.
Posted by: Fred ||
05/25/2005 00:00 ||
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#1
it's not "win-win." Putin sees oil as one of the few remaining strategic levers he has, and is determined to use it for maximum leverage in international relations. Which means that he'd rather not tie his nation's exports to the US market, in fact would be more likely to try to withhold them from the US as a means of punishing us for our encroachments in his backyard. BTW, Russia's national treasury is rolling in money now, and more importantly, Putin's cronies and FSB handlers are enriching themselves at the till as well.
Russia could certainly use massive amounts of investment in its oil drilling and refining infrastructure, but this is a long term need. There is no compelling need now for Russia to increase exports, certainly not to the US. Russia's most urgent economic need is to create a legal climate that will support the growth of new manufacturing firms, not resource extraction firms.
Bottom line is that there will be no progress on PSA legislation or the investment climate so log as Putin's in power (at a minimum), and probably much longer.
#4
Russia's national treasury is rolling in money now When did this happen?
When oil rose above $30/bbl. Each $1 rise in the oil price adds another $1B each month to Russia's hard currency reserves.
#5
Russia's economy is schizoid: extraordinarily deep resources, both natural and human/scientific, and yet its manufacturing and agricultural base is an unmitigated disaster. A combination of Caltech and Nigeria. A westernized boomtown, Europe's 2nd largest (Moscow), surrounded by third world poverty everywhere else. About 40 individuals own over one third of the nation's wealth; no real middle class to speak of outside MoscowBabylon; and an entire generation of impoverished Russians (50+) steadily drinking, smoking and stressing themselves to early death.
In short, a living example of the curse of oil wealth.
Making his first trip abroad since a bloody crackdown on protesters, Uzbek President Islam Karimov left Tuesday on a visit to China, which has provided a rare note of support for the authoritarian Central Asian leader. Karimov, who has rebuffed international calls for an independent inquiry into the May 13 bloodshed, apparently looked to his trip to underline that China is on his side. On Tuesday, Beijing said it "firmly" backed his actions in crushing anti-government demonstrators.
Posted by: Fred ||
05/25/2005 00:00 ||
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#1
How appropriate. Don't forget to take a food-taster along.
From East-Asia-Intel, subscription req'd.
Japan is preparing to deploy Patriot-3 missiles at its military base in the Tokyo metropolitan area to intercept any ballistic missiles from neighboring North Korea, a Japanese newspaper reported May 19.
The Sankei Shimbun reported that one of the PAC-3 (Patriot Advanced Capability-3) air defense artillery brigades to be stationed across the country would be deployed at Fuchu Air Base in Tokyo.
Patriot-3 missiles must be located near Tokyo because their maximum intercept range and altitude is 30 kilometers, giving them only seconds to intercept ballistic missiles headed toward one of the world's largest population centers. We are talking hair triggers here.
The PAC-3 battalions with new Patriot missiles can intercept and destroy ballistic missiles, cruise missiles and enemy aircraft.
Japan has missile units at six sites nationwide and plans to equip three of them with PAC-3 missiles late next year. Anti-air missiles are stationed at four sites around Tokyo, including Iruma Air Base in Saitama Prefecture.
The Japanese government decided in December to introduce the U.S.-developed missile defense shield. Tokyo's Defense Agency has pushed for a sharp increase in spending on ballistic missile defense to cope with missile threats from North Korea.
The agency plans to buy seaborne Standard Missile (SM-3) missiles, upgrade land-based PAC-3 anti-missile systems and remodel Aegis destroyers, according to defense officials. SM-3s intercept ballistic missiles when they reach their highest point outside the atmosphere, while PAC-3 missiles are used to finish off the missiles that have escaped SM-3 attacks.
The Japanese navy plans to conduct the first SM-3 missile tests in Hawaii by March 2008 to prepare for operating the ballistic missile defense systems. Tokyo is also considering a partial lifting of its long-standing ban on arms exports to facilitate greater military cooperation with the United States. More fallout from the Chicoms not reigning their little mad Kimmie dog.
Posted by: Alaska Paul ||
05/25/2005 21:10 ||
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#1
the start of the start- nice job ChiComs - you just lost Asia
Posted by: Frank G ||
05/25/2005 22:01 Comments ||
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#2
So it's good enough for the Japanese, but not good enough for the Canadians? I assume the ostrich remains the national bird of Canada.
#3
TW: not the ostrich; rumors of it hiding its head in the sand are Greatly Exaggerated.
A better candidate for National Bird of Canada is the dodo. The dodo, having lived happily on its little island for millennia, didn't know a predator when it saw one. Rats and pigs raided its nests and the dodo didn't know what they were.
#4
"Always improve your defensive position." Words of infantry wisdom definitely apply here. With such a serious threat, Japan's emphasis should be on layer after layer of defense, culminating in a shoot-down capability on Nork soil, on detection of missile-alert-launch. Their layered defense also must be dense, working off the assumption that the enemy might have just one more weapon then you have anti-weapons.
The obvious.. Japan has very strong friend(US). Japan also has it's own world class engineering & technology and a research system that produces evermore of the same.
Japan also has large reprocessing facilities, spent fuel stocks, and reactor grade plutonium.
So given that they have us for a partner, knowhow of their own, and a historical adversarial relationship China...*GO FIGURE*....it's inscrutably stooopid.
Posted by: Minni Mullah ||
05/25/2005 23:17 Comments ||
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#6
I certainly take your point about the dodo, mom, whose cluelessness led to its extinction, but the mental image of a Maple Leaf flag with head-buried ostrich athwart was just too, too piquant to pass up. A dodo would be mistaken for an undressed penguin in such a situation. ;-p
SEOUL - North Korean officials denied reports that the communist regime was preparing to conduct a nuclear test, a Czech delegation told Yonhap news agency Tuesday following a visit to Pyongyang this week. "North Korean officials said the reports of a nuclear test is nonsense," Lubomir Zaoralek, gullible chairman of the lower house of the Czech Parliament, said in an interview with Yonhap.
Zaoralek and his team stopped over in South Korea following a four-day visit to North Korea, Yonhap said. The six-member Czech delegation met with North Korean leaders, including Pyongyang's number two Kim Yong-Nam and Choe Tae-Bok, chairman of the North's Supreme People's Assembly, it said.
The North Korean officials dismissed speculation that Pyongyang was preparing a nuclear test as Washington's ploy to further isolate the communist state, Zaoralek said. "But Choe Tae-Bok told me that North Korea does not want the situation to worsen," he said, adding Pyongyang reaffirmed a return to six-way nuclear talks only if Washington drops its "hostile" policy.
He said talks with the North Koreans reassured him that North Korea was willing to resolve the crisis peacefully.
Posted by: Steve White ||
05/25/2005 00:11 ||
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Pyongyang reveals its hand North Korea will keep the nuclear weapons it already claims to possess but is prepared to rule out the enlargement of its arsenal by negotiating a freeze - provided that the US gives up any hint of regime change. And this is straight from the horse's mouth. - Selig Harrison
Posted by: john ||
05/25/2005 20:41 Comments ||
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North Korea on Tuesday refused to rule out a pre-emptive attack, even amid signs it may be willing to return to the nuclear bargaining table. The North poured out anti-American rhetoric _ a tactic it has used in the past before entering negotiations _ by claiming that Washington's "hostile policies" led it to develop nuclear weapons as a deterrent and warning against any attack to dislodge its leadership. "The United States should be aware that the choice of a pre-emptive attack is not only theirs," the North's official news agency quoted the state-run newspaper Minju Joson as saying. "To stand against force with force is our unswerving method of response." The commentary came amid a flurry of contacts aimed at convincing the North to resume six-nation talks, suspended since the third round ended in June, on its nuclear program.
Posted by: Fred ||
05/25/2005 00:00 ||
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#2
How boring. Who cares? A One Trick Pony - and we've seen it numerous times. We certainly shouldn't pay to see it again. I'm thinking no food aid, no oil, nothing, zip nada zilch. In fact, we should notify their Mommy that we're losing interest in the endless "talks" game, period. Don't call us, we'll call you.
The way it is doesn't work. Shake it up. IF we ever talk with these parties again, it makes sense to dis-invite SKor from sitting on our side of the table. They're doing everything possible to prop this POS regime up and undermine the US position. I'd say it's time to put them on the NorK side of the table. Only Japan seems to have its shit wired tight.
This game has no point and just isn't worth the time. Shake it up. Put them on the defensive for real. We should withdraw US troops from SKor and set the stage so they can have a real reason to spew. They know we won't do anything with our "hostages" still in SKor. This is all so pointless as it is. Shaken, not stirred, is the next step.
#4
And the fact that the Norkies broke the Pyongyang Accord during the Saint Great Clinton admin, and before 9-11 even occurred, doesn't matter since its only the USA that has to make concessions anyways!?
#5
And like any medieval warlord or predatory bandit-slaver, what matters more is the level of slave tribute and the quality of their weapons versus those of the King's Army or the local Sheriff!
#7
T Bone Juche? Methinks he values his own pathetic life a little more than the rhetorical growling suggests. The future isn't so bright and pretty for beloved leader #2 and he knows it well. Mayhaps he feels that there is in the end no deal to be struck which could save his butt in the long run. He's looking for more leverage anywhere he can find it but all he's got are words for the most part. I wonder whether or not those around him really care to go down with lil Kim's ship of fools when the pumps and foreign aid plugs can't keep up with the water pouring into the rotten worm riddled hull. Headline should read "Lacking Any Real Options, Lil Kim Says He Won't Rule Out Suicide."
Posted by: Captain America ||
05/25/2005 18:15 Comments ||
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#4
The EUcrats only accept that yes is the right answer, that is BS. Claims that this will hurt "investment" is also false. Whet will hurt investement is a continuation of the same old policy of the EU and the EU states that have little or no growth.
Italian journalist Oriana Fallaci, who has made waves for denouncing Islam in her books, is to face trial for allegedly insulting the Muslim faith in her latest work, a court in northern Italy ruled yesterday. A judge refused a request by prosecutors to have the case, brought by the president of the Muslim Union of Italy, Adel Smith, thrown out, ordering magistrates to proceed in the matter.
They now have until Thursday to formally charge Fallaci, the author of "Rage and Pride," a post-Sept. 11 polemic over the dangers of extremism, with "insulting religion." The accusations stem from her last book called "La forza della ragione," which translates as The Force of Reason. Smith holds the book — not yet available in English — contains "words that are without doubt offensive toward Islam."
Posted by: Fred ||
05/25/2005 00:00 ||
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#1
I have got some offensive language for the Italian Judge that is letting this proceed. Stupidity.
#2
Conservative Islam means never having to read a book other than the Koran. It is no wonder therefore that such conservatives seemingly have no sense of irony, humour or compassion for their fellow man. I think this should serve as a warning to us in the UK to completely scrap any plans to implement the Incitement to Religious Hatred Bill. The courts of this fair nation will be full of one-eyed crazed mullahs trying to prosecute authors, journalists, politicians, anyone for the slightest criticisms of Islam (and pronouncing fatwahs should they fail). Another step toward the Caliphate of Europe.
Posted by: Howard UK ||
05/25/2005 4:27 Comments ||
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#3
Is this what you kno about Islam???
I'd say: If you REALLY want to understand yourself, you better start by understanding "The Other".
Posted by: Howard UK ||
05/25/2005 8:33 Comments ||
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#8
I'm pretty sure that the title here is wrong.
I don't think the muslim union is suing in the tort sense. I think the muslim union is trying to have Oriana convicted of a criminal offense. Given that the prosecutors themselves asked that the case be dismissed, things look pretty bad for the muslim union on the criminal matter. Of course that means they will seeth.
#10
I'd like to see Mr. Adel Smith learn the true meaning of the word: "backlash". She will take his testicles (assuming he has any) in verbal combat. I look forward to it
Posted by: Frank G ||
05/25/2005 9:31 Comments ||
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#11
WTF? You can get sued for insulting a concept? I mean, I can understand getting sued for libel or slander, but for this?
Posted by: Dar ||
05/25/2005 9:45 Comments ||
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#12
Yep, Dar. Welcome to the wonderful world of Political Correctness. Been to a college lately? "Inappropriate laughter" can get you kicked out or sentenced to Maoist sensitivity training. Look at Canada.
Of course, Christians are just dumb Bible-thumpers, so it's OK to have taxpayer-funded "art" like Piss Christ. And Joooooos aren't really human...
#13
we all need to understand the other, that is true.
To do so we need to be able to speak in freedom. I dont think a suit against Ms. Fallaci will accomplish that. While Im no fan of Ms. Fallaci or her book on Islam, to censor her would have a chilling effect.
Posted by: O. Fallaci ||
05/25/2005 13:41 Comments ||
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#17
Everything I ever needed to know about Islam I learned on 911.
Re-learned after Bali.
And Madrid.
And Beslan.
And the Nord-Ost massacre.
And almost daily in Iraq, where Muslims are being killed, so they can never be free -- to the silence, assent even, of the rest of the Muslim world.
Posted by: Robert Crawford ||
05/25/2005 13:48 Comments ||
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#18
AU's basic premise is fine enough though you don't need to ponder a cultural train wreck (islamic) in progress all that long to learn what not to do and to understand who you are.
A controversy has erupted in Italy over a court ruling ordering a state kindergarten to remove crucifixes from its classrooms. A judge in the central town of L'Aquila upheld a complaint by an Italian Muslim leader, Adel Smith.
He's the Michael Newdow of Italy. Kick his ass, Oriana.
#22
HOW DO YOU INSULT A STUPID IDEA? That's exactly what islam is.....a STUPID idea! It's OK though, for them to call Jews monkeys and the like. But, heaven forbid, that someone should tell the truth about their STUPID F**KING IDEA.
muhammad was the "michael jackson" of his day. A goofy, phony, lying, pedophile.
Cockroaches hate it when you shine a light on 'em.
Posted by: Tom Dooley ||
05/25/2005 23:30 Comments ||
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#5
At least the U.S. and Israel are not # 1 & 2, I guess that is called progress. No mention of the slave labor in North Korea and PRC, but I guess they don't count.
#8
Amnesty urged Washington to shut down the prison at the U.S. Navy's base in Guantanamo Bay, Cuba, where some 540 men are held on suspicion of links to Afghanistan's ousted Taliban regime or the al-Qaida terror network.
Tell ya what, we'll compromise. We'll blow it up with everybody in it. And we'll make sure we take no more prisoners. Sound good, Amnesiacs?
#9
Hmmmm....how about we move them all to the top floors of the TransAmerica Tower in the Peoples Republic of San Franciso.
http://dpsinfo.com/trips/ca802/photo21.html
Then we'll send a remote control airliner with the last batch into the floors immediately below. People like AI will forget about the whole thing in 4 years or so.
#11
Relax Muck. Yezhov is being facetious. Yezhov was the head of the NKVD (before Beria) and lead the great purges of the '30s. Trotskyite Deviationist Wrecker was the last thing poor Ivan six-pack wanted to be accused of. Alas, Stalin took a permanent dislike to poor Yezhov.
Posted by: ed ||
05/25/2005 21:49 Comments ||
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#12
ah. im see now. mebbe im shuld hed to bed now.
Shortly after President Bush finished his talk about Social Security, he took the time to meet with the families of two area servicemen killed in Iraq. Lance Cpl. Brian Schramm, 22, of Greece, was hit by shrapnel in October; Spc. Matthew Koch, 23, of Henrietta, was killed by a bomb that detonated near his vehicle in March.
Keith and Mary Ellen Schramm, Brian's parents, were sitting in the fourth row at Greece Athena when they and four family members were whisked into a nearby classroom for a private conversation with the president. "He introduced himself to us individually, and he offered us his condolences for our son and thanked us for his service," Schramm said.
They shook hands, hugged and had their pictures taken with the president. The Schramms also got Bush to autograph a couple of books they took along, one a pictorial journal about the war in Iraq. "It was great that we got to meet him," Schramm said. "I'm very honored to have had the opportunity. It made our day."
Koch's mother, Diane Worman of Henrietta, and her husband, James, and stepson John, sat with the Schramms during Bush's talk and also got to meet with the president one-on-one in a separate classroom. "We thought they were going to put us together (with the Schramms), but they put us in two rooms so we had his undivided attention," Worman said.
Bush signed a book — his mother's memoirs — and presented her with a presidential coin. She talked about her son's dedication to the children in Iraq, and she showed him a flier with her son's picture on it and a charity (Help the Iraqi Children) started after his death. Bush looked at the flier and put it in his coat pocket.
"He was definitely concerned when I got emotional and started to cry. His eyes welled up with tears," she said. "He makes you feel comfortable, makes you feel like a next-door neighbor. He said Matthew's death will not be in vain."
WASHINGTON, May 24 - The Ohio Republican whose opposition to John R. Bolton as United Nations ambassador nearly stalled his nomination in committee took a new swipe at him today, circulating a letter urging colleagues to vote against Mr. Bolton when his name reaches the Senate floor, possibly this week.
The letter from Senator George R. Voinovich was sent to all senators, but it was aimed particularly at fellow Republicans in a chamber in which the party holds a 55-44 majority (with one independent). In the letter, Mr. Voinovich said that while he had been "hesitant to push my views on my colleagues" during his years in the Senate, he felt "compelled to share my deep concerns" about Mr. Bolton's nomination. "In these dangerous times, we cannot afford to put at risk our nation's ability to successfully wage and win the war on terror with a controversial and ineffective ambassador to the United Nations," Mr. Voinovich wrote. He urged colleagues to "put aside our partisan agenda and let our consciences and our shared commitment to our nation's best interests guide us."
The White House remains strongly in favor of Mr. Bolton's nomination, and it is unusual for a Republican to break ranks so publicly by circulating a letter opposed to a Republican president's agenda. A copy of Mr. Voinovich's letter, dated May 23 but not circulated until Tuesday, was provided by a Senate Democratic aide opposed to Mr. Bolton.
Continued on Page 49
Posted by: Steve White ||
05/25/2005 00:00 ||
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#1
I'd suggest a full-scale effort to "scrag" Voinovich. And I don't mean all nicey-nicey Senate-style, I mean lay waste to the sumbitch. He's up for re-election in 2006, I believe. Get on the stick and find a candidate who is worth his salt then take this whore out with extreme prejudice.
#2
Now now, let's not throw out the baby with the bath-water. He's generally a reliable Pub, and we need them. We certainly don't want Ohio to go blue in '06. I vote for probation and an electronic neck-collar.
Posted by: Steve White ||
05/25/2005 0:58 Comments ||
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#3
If he is anti-Bolton, then he's the wrong person - and I believe this is an excellent litmus test to see who's a flaming Moonbat disguised as a sane person. He's outted himself. Fine, now we know. Ohio's got a shit-load of folks. Bound to be 5-10 potential winners in there to replace him with, no? He doesn't deserve one cent of Pub money, IMHO - and I won't give to the RNC if they intend to share with the RINOs. If there's a good alternative presented, I'll sure as hell send money his way - directly.
#4
I couldn't care less about pubs or dems. this is about reform of the UN. Voinovich is hindering reform of that sinkhole in Turtle Bay, and needs to be taken down. Stakes are much much bigger than that idiot's career, or even Ohio.
#7
We certainly don't want Ohio to go blue in '06.
We already have; our RINO senators have turned into Donks.
Surely, Ohio contains more worthy candidates.
Sec. State Blackwell, for one. The speculation is he wants to run for governor, as a stepping stone to president, but if he ran against DeWine or Voinovich, I'd back him as much as possible.
I've written Voinovich's office a couple times, explaining that he was elected AS A REPUBLICAN to represent Ohio, not the UN. No doubt I've been written off as a nutcase, but he'll learn my sentiment's not rare.
Posted by: Robert Crawford ||
05/25/2005 7:32 Comments ||
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#8
Sen. Voinovich was elected to his current term in 2004, so he's in until 2010. I understand he does not plan to run again due to his age.
Posted by: Mike ||
05/25/2005 12:17 Comments ||
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EFL
Fort Huachuca, a 150-square-mile U.S. Army base in Arizona just 20 miles north of the Mexican border, has become a popular corridor for illegal migrants headed to America. Law-enforcement authorities and congressional investigators said the illegals — some in groups of up to 60 — routinely wander through base housing units, drink from hoses and pools, and trample through the yards of military families and other private areas en route to nearby highways, where they catch northbound rides. Officially, 3,086 illegal aliens were detained by U.S. Army personnel on the base last year and turned over to the U.S. Border Patrol. Illegal immigration has been described by base officials as "a problem."
But a report written for the Congressional Immigration Reform Caucus as part of an assessment of the Minuteman Project in Arizona last month called Fort Huachuca "surprisingly ... disturbingly, the most undermanned federal entity in the area in terms of being able to adequately meet the threat waves of illegal immigrants." Perhaps the border patrol assumes the Army should be able to properly guard its own installation?
If they are like the bases around here, the gates are mostly guarded by civilian contract guards. SP/MP forces have been cut way back, I'll wager most are deployed overseas.
Fort Huachuca spokeswoman Tanja Linton said base security is a top priority, noting that military personnel constantly patrol the perimeter of the sprawling facility to guard against intrusions. She said 201 illegal aliens were detained on the base last month during the Minuteman border vigil and 513 in March.
It's a huge base, most likely they have a few roving patrols covering the likely entry points.
Fort Huachuca lies near the Coronado National Forest and Coronado Memorial National Park, major routes for illegal aliens looking to catch rides from smugglers along State Highway 90 — which runs north and south along the east side of the base. Illegal aliens cross over the base to make connections that will take them 35 miles north to Interstate 10 — a major cross-country east-west highway.
Noting that Fort Huachuca is located in the Border Patrol's Tucson sector, which accounted for more than 40 percent of the 1.15 million aliens apprehended last year, Ms. Linton called the Fort Huachuca detentions "a drop in the bucket." In addition to having the nation's premier military intelligence school, Fort Huachuca hosts several other key military training commands and units from the Homeland Security Department.
#1
Good ol' Fort Chewbacca. More weird-looking antennas giving off weird radiation per square foot outside of a DARPA lab. BTW, one of the reasons it is so "unprotected", is, if you look at it on a topo map, you'll notice a whole lot of closely-spaced brown lines just south of post.
http://www.topozone.com/map.asp?lat=31.551784&lon=-110.347231
#6
The Apache reservations have an employment problem. The Border Patrol needs more bodies. Me thinks it is time to revive the o'Apache Scouts. Para-military training at Ft. Bliss, deployment to Huachuca, but under the DHS to get away from the Posse Comitatus limitations. About two brigades worth.
FBI Director Robert Mueller told lawmakers Tuesday he still doesn't know how much it will cost to complete the bureau's computer overhaul, already well over budget and behind schedule.
Unknown cost, over budget and behind schedule, yup, typical government computer program.
I heard from someone who says he knows, that the problem isn't the technical end, it's getting them to decide what they want the system to do and then staying with it.
He also refused to state publicly the cost of the initial phase of the Sentinel system, the planned successor to a failed project that was supposed to greatly improve management of terrorism and other criminal cases.
Sentinel, someone at the FBI has been reading too many X-Men comics.
I want to see the file they've got on Skeletor...
"There are certain sensitivities involved," Mueller told the Senate Appropriations Committee's Commerce, Justice and Science subcommittee, explaining that the FBI soon would invite contractors to compete for the work.
There ya go, Fred. The bids are open, just ask for the standard blank check.
Surely brooding Castle Rantburg could use a new portcullis and a moat upgrade...
The guards uniforms are looking a little shabby as well..
My little project here at Aberdeen just went online world-wide, basically for the cost of an Oracle license and my salary. I'm prob'ly not expensive enough for them...
The FBI has yet to estimate Sentinel's total cost, he said.
"Cost... Cost... Lemme see, here... How much you got?"
The explanation did little to mollify skeptical senators who have severely criticized the FBI's computer problems. "I'd suggest stonewalling the staff up here is not the way to do it," said Sen. Patrick Leahy, D-Vt.
Why not, seems to work just fine when you use it on nominees for the federal court
Mueller had said a cost estimate would be ready in early spring for a new system to replace the Virtual Case File, which has cost taxpayers more than $100 million. Virtual Case File was to have been the final piece of the FBI's upgrade of its antiquated computer system, an instantaneous and paperless way for agents and analysts to manage all types of investigations. After the attacks of Sept. 11, 2001, Mueller made improvement of the agency's computer systems a priority.
And, shucks, it's only been three years. No. Four...
Members of Congress and the independent Sept. 11 commission said the overhaul was critical to enabling the FBI and intelligence agencies to "connect the dots" in preventing attacks.
"Critical" seems to have a fluid definition.
The first two phases of the "Trilogy" project — deployment of a high-speed, secure FBI computer network and 30,000 new desktop computers — have been completed. But the upgrade already is 2 1/2 years behind schedule and, at nearly $600 million, more than 25 percent over its initial budget. The Sentinel system will not be done until at least 2008, Mueller has said.
Oh. Well. We have to manage the hardware, too? That means I'd have to hire a few guys.
Posted by: Steve ||
05/25/2005 12:51 ||
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The continued presence of this incompetent fucking hack at the top of the FBI is one of my few major complaints about GWB. I was willing to admit that - given his having started his job about 2 weeks before 9/11 - he needed some time to shake stuff up.
What's happened? Zip point shit. No mass firings of the senior managers at DC HQ who impeded field investigations of Arab flight students - investigations that, given management support, might have prevented 9/11 altogether. No investigation of the probable corruption of Arabic translation services by pro-Islamist Arab-Americans and Arab immigrants working at the Bureau. And no overhaul of Lousy Louis Freeh's 1992-vintage computer system.
Just what the hell HAS Mueller been doing for the past four years, other than rolling over, whimpering and baring his belly every time Islamist fifth-column Arab civil rights groups like CAIR bark at him? Fire his useless time-serving ass and send Rudy Giuliani to work, with a mandate to kick asses and clean house.
Posted by: Ricky bin Ricardo (Abu Babaloo) ||
05/25/2005 20:45 Comments ||
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What Abu Babaloo said....plus after observing the Fumbling Bunch of Idiots (management)for the last__years I'm still somewhat concerned
about the agency *rolling over* for Congressional PC assbites(ie.John Conyers etc.)who would then redirect the FBI mission to include free speech guidelines...race sensitivity, Dhimmitude, and whatever new moonbat claptrap they can dream up.
BTW One of my favorite uncles worked for the FBI retired '87.....great bank robber collars.
Posted by: Minni Mullah ||
05/25/2005 21:33 Comments ||
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RbR - Now that's an idea! And long overdue, as the man says. I dunno if Rudy would take it, but there's zero doubt the work described needs doing and Rudy could and would get it done. Dubya's most galling failing is having faith in subordinates in spite of the evidence to the contrary. I truly respect bona-fide loyalty, smart delegation of authority, and a manager who knows that shit doesn't happen overnight - but on that last point, he is too damned forgiving of those who are afraid or unable to achieve results in a reasonable timeframe. Goss is the right kind of guy, Mueller's clearly not up to the tasks at hand. I hope someone is listening...
Pfc. Lynndie England yesterday surrendered her right to challenge the seven charges she faces in the Abu Ghraib prison abuse scandal, moving her one step closer to a new military trial. Her defense attorney, Capt. Jonathan Crisp, would not provide details as to why he decided not to go forward with the Article 32 hearing — the military equivalent of a grand jury proceeding. He said only that it was part of an "evolving trial strategy."
Now the decision on England's charges goes to Lt. Gen. Thomas Metz, Fort Hood's commanding general. He'll decide whether she'll face any or all of the charges. Crisp said the waiver was not part of a deal with prosecutors. He said he did not think the sides would reach another plea agreement after England's initial guilty plea was rejected by a judge this month. Prosecution spokeswoman Maj. Rose Bleam said that if Metz orders a trial it could start as soon as next month. England could face up to 11 years in prison. She faces two counts of conspiracy to maltreat detainees, four counts of maltreatment and one count of committing an indecent act.
Posted by: Fred ||
05/25/2005 00:00 ||
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No wonder they are retraining the recruiters. This idiot is the poster child for everything wrong with the way the Army is bringing in new recruits. Sometimes the MSM gets it right and the idiots that did Abu Graibh prove it.
Posted by: Jack is Back! ||
05/25/2005 9:21 Comments ||
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Sometimes the MSM gets it right
Even a stopped clock is correct twice a day.
Posted by: Mrs. Davis ||
05/25/2005 9:26 Comments ||
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[May 21 2005] at 0330 LT in position 05:34.5N - 099:51.0E, 21nm NW of Penang Island, Malacca Straits. A craft doing over 20 knots approached a product tanker underway. When craft came within 0.5nm crew mustered, activated fire hoses, directed searchlights and switched on lights. Craft followed for 20 mins and moved away.
[May 18 2005] at 0325 LT at Callao Anchorage no.8, Peru. Robbers boarded a tanker at forecastle. They stole ship's stores and escaped.
The European Union will offer Iran a detailed proposal by the end of July on how to resolve their differences over Tehran's nuclear program, Iran's chief negotiator Hassan Rohani said on Wednesday.
After which they'll be ready to begin talks on what shape the table should be for their next round of talks.
At the end of three hours of talks in Geneva, Rohani said that he was confident a final deal between the sides could be achieved in a reasonably short time.
in the geologic timeframe...
"We believe that we could reach a reasonable agreement within a reasonably short time," he said, adding Iranian negotiators would be reporting back to the Tehran government on the EU offer.
"Of course, if they make unreasonable demands, like us stopping nuclear development, all bets are off."
In return, Iran gave guarantees in the meeting with the foreign ministers of Britain, France and Germany that it would stick by an accord not to resume sensitive nuclear activities. "We will remain committed to all our promises," Rohani said.
And we all know he's a man of his word
Iran says its nuclear program is purely for generating electricity. But the United States says Iran is using its nuclear program as a veil to develop atomic weapons. The EU, led by Britain, France and Germany has tried to mediate. Washington wants Tehran referred to the United Nations Security Council for possible sanctions if it does not agree to give up the program.
Posted by: Steve ||
05/25/2005 12:23 ||
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#1
The enabling parent:
There is absolutely no way you can have a pony.
Your not getting a pony.
Not that your getting a pony, but if you were, what kind of pony would you want.
Ok. Maybe I'll give you a pony, if your good.
I promise you, you can have any pony you want, if you will just do what I say.
Alright already, your getting the pony I promised you, what kind of barn and tack do you want to go with it.
Ok here is your pony, your barn, the tack, I'll even feed the pony for a year.
Ok, all the pony stuff you asked for and I'll also give all your friends ponies too. Now leave me alone.
Posted by: DO ||
05/25/2005 17:25 Comments ||
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#2
Lol, DO! Dat be da Pony Post to end all Pony Posts!
#3
EU hates Israel, wants Iran to have nukes. A nuclear Iran reduces Israel's latitude for action, bluster and veiled threats. EU wants the Muhammadans to finish Hitler's final solution.
#6
This is just an out so that negotiations can continue after the Iranian election = the thought being that even the reformists are saber-rattling with respect to this issue as the Iranian populous is in favour of maintaining their right to have a bomb if Israel can have one.
I don't really get why elections are a big issue in a country where real reformists will be barred from participation and the turnout will be low.
Posted by: Super Hose ||
05/25/2005 20:35 Comments ||
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GENEVA - The foreign ministers of Britain, France and Germany meet here Wednesday with Iran's top negotiator Hassan Rowhani for crucial talks aimed at avoiding an escalation of Tehran's standoff with the West on its nuclear program after Iran warned there was a high risk of deadlock. "The talks between (Iranian and European) experts have been difficult and complicated, they haven't been promising and if they go on like this, the risk of a deadlock in the negotiations Wednesday is high," said Ali Agha Mohammadi, one of the Iranian negotiators currently in Geneva.
He was speaking to AFP after official-level talks in Brussels to prepare for the formal negotiations in Geneva between the foreign ministers of Britain, France and Germany and Rowhani. Iran has described the meeting in the Swiss city as a "last-ditch meeting" to avoid referring Iran to the UN Security Council — and into Washington's diplomatic line of fire — if the talks fail. "It is our only hope that the three European ministers who proposed this meeting will try to lead the negotiations out of this situation so we can make reasonable progress," said Mohammadi on Tuesday. "In spite of this situation we will take part in tomorrow's meeting because the meeting was proposed by the three European ministers and we are the guests of these negotiations," he added. The 25-nation EU has warned that it could refer Iran to the UN Security Council if the talks fail.
They could but they won't.
And if they do France and Russia will swing into action...
"Nobody wants a crisis on our side. We want the talks to continue," one EU diplomat said earlier, ahead of Wednesday's meeting, due to start at 2:00 pm (1200 GMT), which will also involve EU foreign policy chief Javier Solana.
Solana's sitting in? They're doomed.
The so-called EU-3, representing the full 25-member EU, called the talks after a series of recent threats from Tehran to resume key nuclear activities, in breach of an accord to suspend them last November. In contrast to the United States which strongly suspects Tehran of wanting to build and then use nuclear bombs, the EU-3 is seeking to engage the Islamic state, using a carrot of possible trade and other benefits to persuade it to curb its nuclear plans. Nevertheless a top US official backed the EU efforts for now, until it's clear that the Euros have failed beyond any redemption. "The US supports the EU-3's negotiating efforts to end Iran's nuclear weapons ambitions. Iran must not be allowed to acquire a nuclear weapons capability," US under secretary of state Nicholas Burns said. "Iran has an obligation to demonstrate to the world it is not doing so."
Did Burns open the door a crack by not excluding all nuclear programs?
In a letter to Rowhani, calling for the talks, the EU-3 said that "Iran should be in no doubt that any such change to the suspension would be a clear breach of the Paris agreement" of last November. "It would bring the negotiating process to an end. The consequences beyond could only be negative for Iran," added the letter, sent on May 13 and a copy of which was obtained by AFP. Iran has warned bluntly that the talks are the "last chance" for the Europeans to offer it enough of an incentive to stop it resuming uranium enrichment activities, as threatened. Enriched uranium can be used for civilian as well as military purposes. According to the Washington-based Carnegie Endowment for International Peace, Tehran is notably planning to partially resume activities at a plant in Ispahan, central Iran, followed by another site, Natanz. In return Iran would pledge not to acquire nuclear arms and would authorize the permanent presence of IAEA inspectors at Ispahan and Natanz, according to documents obtained by the Carnegie Endowment and confirmed by Iranian sources. The Iranians also want the EU to help them build nuclear reactors, and to guarantee them supplies of nuclear fuel for future reactors.
Posted by: Steve White ||
05/25/2005 00:13 ||
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Oh for pete's sake. No one can talk like a EUroweenie. Hey let's refer it to the UNSC so we can talk some more!
BEIRUT - Many of the young people preparing to vote in Lebanon's elections feel cheated by politicians' promises of change in the heady days of protest after former premier Rafiq Hariri's assassination. Feeling "wooed, used and abused", Lebanon's young voters, who need to be at least 21, fear the four-stage polls starting on May 29 will be a farce. Some say they will cast a blank vote or not bother to take part. "Honestly, I am disgusted. It is as if I am watching a play and the actors remove their masks. Our politicians are running after their own interests, ignoring our dreams and ambitions," said 23-year-old Cosette Salibi.
Never trust anyone over 30, Cosette.
Salibi, like thousands of other university students, responded to calls by opposition politicians and joined mass rallies in February and March that ended 29 years of Syrian domination over their country. "The opposition used Hariri's assassination to get elected and win people over. They will never be united because there are too many religious factions, and the truth of it is each one hates the other," said Hamad Jabak.
Haggling over election boundaries fractured the opposition, reviving tensions and threatening the delicate coexistence among Lebanon's Christian and Muslim communities. "History is repeating itself," said Marie-Therese Ghiyeh, 24.
A survey conducted by the weekly student newspaper of the American University of Beirut (AUB) a few weeks after Hariri's assassination, showed mitigated support for the opposition. Out of 600 students polled, 37 percent said they did not trust the opposition while 44 percent said they did. "Thirty-seven percent is more than one third of the student body. And one third is a lot, so the opposition cannot ignore it," said staff writer Lynn Zovighian, 18. Like many youths in Beirut, she firmly believes Lebanon "lacks a sense of direction" and that the opposition has failed to come up with a concrete platform because they speak in too many tongues. "I don't trust them any more," added Rouba Maarawi, 21. During a group chat with soon-to-be graduates at the Lebanese University's faculty of human sciences, students laid down their demands. "We want democracy, honesty, rule of law, and real independence this time," one said.
And instead you're getting Wally, Mike, Knobby, and, of course, Hezbollah.
Posted by: Steve White ||
05/25/2005 00:00 ||
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Hell, I don't trust our politicians here in the US. Nothing new here, politicians are working for their own pockets and re-elections. Same story, different country.
Iranian hard-liners yesterday agreed to allow two reformists to stand in next month's presidential election amid fears their disqualification could provoke a mass public boycott of the polls. The U-turn by the Guardians Council, a powerful political watchdog, came in response to a demand from Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei and warnings the 26-year-old Islamic government was facing a crisis of legitimacy. The head of the Guardians Council, Ayatollah Ahmad Jannati, was quoted as writing to Khamenei that "as you consider it desirable that all people in the country from different interests have the opportunity to take part ..., the competence of Moin and Mehr-Alizadeh is recognized".
Mostafa Moin was the candidate chosen by the main reformist party, the Islamic Iran Participation Front (IIPF), and is seen as the only credible pro-reform figure trying to run for president on June 17. Mohsen Mehr-Alizadeh is currently a vice president in incumbent reformist President Mohammad Khatami's Cabinet, and is running as an independent. Their addition to the ballot sheet brings to eight the number of candidates approved to stand. The other six are powerful former President Akbar Hashemi Rafsanjani, four hard-liners — Mohammad Baqer Qalibaf, Ali Larijani, Mahmud Ahmadi Nejad and Mohsen Rezai — and the moderate former Parliament Speaker Mehdi Karoubi. Rafsanjani has been promoting himself as a moderate and had been seen as the frontrunner, although the scandal surrounding the initial blocking of Moin may now give the reformists a boost.
Posted by: Fred ||
05/25/2005 00:00 ||
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It's a scam to keep a boycot of the election from taking place. This doesn't change the outcome.
Signaling the breakup of the anti-Syrian coalition, Christian leader Michel Aoun announced yesterday he will field his own candidates in upcoming parliamentary elections and lashed out at his Muslim opposition allies for helping Syria dominate Lebanon in the past decades. "We are the only ones who are not Syrian symbols. The rest are all one way or another Syrian symbols," said Aoun, who returned May 7 from 14 years' exile in France.
The split between one-time allies is not likely to alter results, which experts expect to end in the defeat of the pro-Syrians, but it could spell the end of the unusually strong cooperation across sectarian lines that helped drive Syria out. It is also sure to energize a so far stale campaign marred by withdrawals of candidates and triumph of others uncontested. Aoun, a former army commander who fought and lost a "war of liberation" against the Syrian Army in Lebanon in 1989 before going into exile, regards himself as the "real opposition" — in contrast to politicians he has said were Syria's allies but turned on Damascus because of recent changes in popular sentiment.
At a packed news conference at his home northeast of Beirut, Aoun said he will run for a seat, but did not say where. "We've decided to wage the election and the decision will be for the Lebanese," said Aoun. The anti-Syrian opposition, which united Christians and Muslims against Syria after the February assassination of former Premier Rafik Hariri, is now hoping to end Syria's control of Parliament. The staggered elections begin Sunday and run through the following three Sundays. The elections are Lebanon's first parliamentary vote since domestic and international pressure forced Syria to withdraw its troops and intelligence agents from its tiny neighbor.
Another case of "I'd rather be right than win..."
Posted by: Fred ||
05/25/2005 00:00 ||
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This is good because there's absolutely no chance that Iran would lie to them, right? I mean, right?Just think of the consequences Europe could lay on them if they did? Right? Right? Hello...hello...
EFL: Another nutbag county heard from...
CHICAGO (AFP) - Nation of Islam leader Louis Farrakhan called for a congressional investigation into reports of desecrations of the Koran at the Guantanamo Bay detention facility in Cuba.
"As Muslims, we say enough is enough," the influential African American leader said from the pulpit of his south Chicago mosque. No math today, Louie?
Farrakhan said a delegation of Muslim, Christian and Jewish leaders should participate in the investigation.Farrakhan also demanded that the US military either charge and try the detainees at Guantanamo Bay or release them to their families. Yeah, we'll get right on that, Louie. Just for you.
Farrakhan said Muslims in the United States are suffering from persecution and an "atmosphere of hatred" that is being preached from the pulpits of Christian churches and is being fueled by the media. Getting on the gravy train, Louie?
He lambasted the deportation, arrest, and freezing of assets of Muslims who donated money to support the Palestinian intifada or groups like Hamas and said he was fearful that Muslims in the United States could end up in detention camps similar to those that Japanese Americans were sent to during World War II.
"It is the policies of the American government that have incensed the Muslim world," he said. "It's in the government's interest to change policies that are unjust." Hey, what did you think about that news about Malcolm? Or is that why you helped blow him away?
Fugitive Taliban leader Mullah Mohammad Omar accused Afghanistan's Western-backed president of selling the country to the United States and urged Afghans to resist, a Pakistan-based news agency said on Wednesday. The accusation followed the signing this week by President Hamid Karzaiof a broad "strategic partnership" agreement with President Bush covering security and other issues and allowing U.S. forces continued freedom of action. "The land of Afghanistan has been sold to the Americans for an indefinite period of time," Omar was quoted as saying by the Afghan Islamic Press news agency on Wednesday.
The news agency, based in the northwestern Pakistani city of Peshawar, said the statement, said to be from Omar, was read by a senior Taliban official over the telephone. The United States commands a foreign force in Afghanistan of about 18,300, most of them American, fighting Taliban insurgents and hunting militant leaders, including Osama bin Laden and Omar. Both bin Laden and Omar are believed to be hiding along the rugged border between Pakistan and Afghanistan but there has been no definitive word of their whereabouts for years. Under their partnership agreement, U.S. forces will continue to have access to their main air base at Bagam, near Kabul, and other facilities "as may be mutually determined," the agreement says. U.S. forces will continue to have freedom of action, despite a call from Karzai for more Afghan control of U.S. operations. "In my view, any heart which has an iota of faith and valor in it will not tolerate such a sale agreement and would openly oppose it," the statement attributed to Omar said. "This is not just the issue of the Taliban, rather every independent Afghan's conscience."
Posted by: Fred ||
05/25/2005 14:27 ||
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May 25, 2005: The next big thing in news headlines denouncing the American military will be horror stories about how Iraqi soldiers and police treat terrorism suspects. While the Iraqi security forces have been given training, by Americans, on how to be kind and gentle with the suspects they pick up, old habits die hard. In the Middle East, actually, in most of the world, brutal treatment of prisoners is pretty routine. But because American troops are working with the Iraqis, the Americans will be blamed for any bad treatment (by Western standards) terrorist suspects get. Journalists love stories like this, because if the Americans did try and control the way Iraqi police dealt with suspects, the Americans could be accused of "interfering with Iraqi sovereignty." In a practical sense, the American troops could not stop what the Iraqi cops and troops do to prisoners, because there are not enough American troops to be there for every arrest, and watch over the prisoners as long as they are in custody, and at risk.
U.S. troops have been told to get out of the way when Iraqi cops or soldiers "interrogate" prisoners. American officers and NCOs serving as advisors in Iraqi police and army units are told to, well, advise the Iraqis that there are better, and less brutal, ways to get information from prisoners. This won't get American troops off the hook with the media. In fact, there's no way that the army can win in this game of guilt by association. So don't be surprised when the stories begin to appear later this year.
Posted by: Steve ||
05/25/2005 09:21 ||
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I've already seen a couple. The quote from the NCO was, "It is their country. We just advise, we don't order them around." Of course, the AP guy cruisified the army for that. We are seen as horrible people for letting it happen, and seen as horrible people for making it stop and being an occupying forgien power. Damned if you do and damned if you don't.
Goddamn liberal journalists....
#2
On the FoxNews.com site today there was a picture of a GI using a Sharpie to label a prisoner's forehead, which I can imagine is going to lead to even more seething. I can just picture some Mo screaming to Al-Jiz, "They wrote 'Pig F*cker' on my forehead in permament marker!" I bet you this happens within the next week.
Posted by: Dar ||
05/25/2005 10:03 Comments ||
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#3
prisoners should enjoy it while it last. While I hope not, it's highly possible that the Iraqi soldiers will soon be engraving it with a different type of "sharpie".
#4
The best part is that Iraqis can now pick up terrorist sympathizers journalists and interrogate interview them. Drink up fast al-Rashid Lounge Lizards, last call is here.
Posted by: ed ||
05/25/2005 10:47 Comments ||
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#5
I prefer to think of this as "showing cultural sensitivity."
"Hey, I didn't want the Iraqi Wolf commandos to string this guy up by his dingus, but then I remembered my diversity training and thought, 'Who am I to judge?' That had to hurt, though."
Posted by: Matt ||
05/25/2005 13:08 Comments ||
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#6
Seems like a foregone conclusion to me. Remember El Mozote? Salvadorean counter-terrorist units trained by the US? I think the answer is for the Iraqi government to get on with the swift, sure, and transparent administration of righteous justice leading to the televised execution of captured insurgents.
May 25, 2005: In April, 2004, former professional football player Pat Tillman, an infantryman serving with the Rangers, was killed in Afghanistan. Later, it was revealed that he was the victim of friendly fire. This became something of a media controversy, with the army accused of attempting a cover-up, and less charitable observers saying Tillman was killed by American troops on purpose. What was missed in all this was the historical reluctance of combat troops to admit to friendly fire, or even talk about it. This goes back to colonial days. Battlefields are chaotic places, and "friendly fire" has always been yet another danger in an already risky business. When the friendly fire came from people who knew the victim, there was a temptation to cover it up. Not so much to avoid punishment, that was rarely a consideration. The main reason was to spare the victim's family the additional grief, and to make it easier on the guys who caused the death (or thought they did.) There were other deceits on the battlefield, like the delay in reporting a missing (and most likely dead) man as dead. This allowed his wife or family to continue getting his pay for a while. When the death was finally reported, the dead man's friends would often lie to the next-of-kin, saying that they found the body and buried it (rather than reported "missing and presumed dead.")
In combat, an infantry soldier survives with the help of the other grunts in his unit. Squads and platoons are like families. Individuals may have their differences, but when in danger, everyone pulls together. It's like the team spirit in athletics, but much more so. Combat is all about the real and immediate danger of death or mutilation. Stress is high, and desperate men will do desperate things. These lies and deceptions are not the sort of thing veterans will talk openly about. But the tradition, so to speak, continues. It's much more difficult to cover-up a friendly fire incident these days. There are far fewer combat deaths, and the army surgeons will usually note, and report, evidence that an American soldier was killed by American weapons. There's also a lot more media in the combat zone, although the soldiers who knew a victim of friendly fire are likely to clam up when a reporters shows up. Friendly fire not only kills the victim, it's a major emotional hit to all the victims fellow soldiers.
Posted by: Steve ||
05/25/2005 09:19 ||
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May 25, 2005: The U.S. Army is equipping its M1 tanks with new features to make them more effective when fighting in urban areas. The upgrade, called TUSK (Tank Urban Survival Kit), is being implemented gradually, with new features added as quickly as items can be purchased. For example, 130 armored shields, for the 7.62mm machine-gun on the top of the turret, have been shipped to Iraq so far. This machine-gun is normally operated by the 120mm gun loader. The tank commander operates the other gun up top, a .50 caliber machine-gun.
The gun shield is transparent ballistic glass, so the loader doesn't have his vision blocked. This is important for street fighting. The loaders machine-gun is also equipped with a thermal sight, making it more deadly at night. The commanders .50 caliber machine-gun is also being equipped with CROWS, a system that allows the gun to be operated remotely, while the tank commander is inside the turret. This is particularly useful if the tank is taking a lot of small arms fire.
Other components of TUSK are reactive armor panels for the side and rear of the tank, to provide added protection from RPGs. There will also be a telephone added to the side of the tank, so that infantry can more easily communicate with the crew when the crew are all inside the tank.
As I recall, the M-60 series had a telephone on the rear of the tank.
Posted by: Steve ||
05/25/2005 09:13 ||
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You are right. The old timers bitched about the lack of communication since there were a lot of times they worked under radio silence. The old tankers also hated the fact the M-1 didn't have a door under the tank. The M-60 had an access hatch underneith that allowed them to escape, take supplies and relieve themselves without exposing themselves to small arms fire. It did make the crew a little more exposed to anti-tank mines, but they figured it was worth the trade off.
#6
Oops--thanks, Steve--missed that line. I guess it's better than nothing, but putting one on the side means either the tank has to expose its flank or the grunt has to expose himself to fire to use it. And the phone itself would seem to be exposed to fire/collision/elements on the side unless well-shielded. Anyone got a link to a picture of this implementation?
Posted by: Dar ||
05/25/2005 10:00 Comments ||
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#7
I hate it when I've just gotten into the shower and the tank starts ringing...
The phone is in the rear right. They wouldn't put it on the side. It would get shot off or torn off. They also put slat armor over the exhaust, though I can't see any reactive armor in the rear (not that if I were an infantryman, I want to be any near it, cool phone or not).
http://3ad.com/history/cold.war/article.pages/scans/m1a2.update.2.jpg
Posted by: ed ||
05/25/2005 10:29 Comments ||
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#9
ed -- Cool--Thanks for the link!
Posted by: Dar ||
05/25/2005 11:11 Comments ||
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#10
Whining from the MSM that Rumsfeld didn't plan for this in 5...4...3...
Posted by: Robert Crawford ||
05/25/2005 13:53 Comments ||
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#14
Whining from the MSM that Rumsfeld didn't plan for this in 5...4...3...
I've tried to reconstruct Rummy's daily schedule from MSM reports, and as far as I can tell all he does is order fiendish tortures for innocent young Islamists who have been picked up by US forces for no reason whatsoever. Occasionally he takes a moment out to desecrate a Koran or two.
Posted by: Matt ||
05/25/2005 14:33 Comments ||
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#15
The AN/VIC-2 tank intercom system (used on vehicles such as the M-60A1/A3, M1/M1A1, AAVP7 and others) has a connection for a "grunt box". As far as I recall (being an old USMC radio tech) the M1A1's engine heat prevented the instalation of a grunt box on the rear.
The grunt box was pretty cool, as it allowed for grunts to talk directly to the vehicle crewmembers (via intercom), or over their radio (over a preset frequency).
Posted by: Eric L. ||
05/25/2005 14:51 Comments ||
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#17
Eric L., did you go to B.E.S, and grunt radio at MCRD in San Diego?
I was there from Nov.'64 to Aug.'65 for grunt radio tech schoo-MOS 2841.
Posted by: Bill ||
05/25/2005 20:56 Comments ||
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#18
A friend/correspondent of mine who's in the Army once wrote a paper on modifications to the M-1 for (among other things) Urban Warfare that included the phone and a diesel engine. I need to see if the paper's available online.
Posted by: Phil Fraering ||
05/25/2005 22:40 Comments ||
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#19
The phone on a tank idea was present in the old M-60A1E2 tank. This phone was encased, if I recall correctly, the same material as helmet liners of the day. On the M-60s it was on the left rear.
Baghdad, 23 May (AKI) - The number two of the al-Qaeda network, Ayman al-Zawahiri, visited Iraq under a false name in September 1999 to take part in the ninth Popular Islamic Congress, former Iraqi premier Iyad Allawi has revealed to pan-Arab daily al-Hayat. In an interview, Allawi made public information discovered by the Iraqi secret service in the archives of the Saddam Hussein regime, which sheds light on the relationship between Saddam Hussein and the Islamic terrorist network. He also said that both al-Zawahiri and Jordanian militant al-Zarqawi probably entered Iraq in the same period.
"Al-Zawahiri was summoned by Izza Ibrahim Al-Douri — then deputy head of the council of the leadership of the revolution - to take part in the congress, along with some 150 other Islamic figures from 50 Muslim countries," Allawi said.
According to Allawi, important information has been gathered regarding the presence of another key terrorist figure operating in Iraq - the Jordanian militant Abu Musab al-Zarqawi.
"The Jordanian Abu Musab al-Zarqawi entered Iraq secretly in the same period," Allawi affirmed, "and began to form a terrorist cell, even though the Iraqi services do not have precise information on his entry into the country," he said.
Allawi's remarks come after statements to al-Hayat by King Abdallah II of Jordan over Saddam's refusal to hand over al-Zarqawi to the authorities in Amman.
On this question Allawi said: ''The words of the Jordanian King are correct and important. We have proof of al-Zawahiri's visit to Iraq, but we do not have the precise date or information on al-Zarqawi's entry, though it is likely that he arrived around the same time."
In Allawi's view, Saddam's government "sponsored" the birth of al-Qaeda in Iraq, coordinating with other terrorist groups, both Arab and Muslim. "The Iraqi secret services had links to these groups through a person called Faruq Hajizi, later named Iraq's ambassador to Turkey and arrested after the fall of Saddam's regime as he tried to re-enter Iraq. Iraqi secret agents helped terrorists enter the country and directed them to the Ansar al-Islam camps in the Halbija area," he said.
The former prime minister claims that Saddam's regime sought to involve even Palestinian Abu Nidal - head of a group once considered the world's most dangerous terrorist organisation - in its terrorist circuit. Abu Nidal's organisation was responsible for terrorist attacks in some 20 countries, killing more than 300 people and wounding hundreds more.
He added that Abu Nidal's refusal to cooperate with Islamist groups was the reason for his death in Iraq, in the summer of 2002.
#3
Arabs have a little fury for everything under the sun it seems. It's a fatal operating system flaw. You'll never in twenty lifetimes ever see the headline "Arabs react with calm rational reflection to news of (insert anything in the news)."
#4
The frenzies over PissKoran and SodomBriefs may represent a tipping point in one sense: perhaps now the US public will finally realize that the PR campaign to win over muslim hearts and minds is pretty much hopeless. Victory on the battlefield matters. Support for democracy matters.
But censoring our speech (Bush's ROP mantra, for ex) so as to avoid all injury to muslim "sensitivities" does not make any difference whatsoever to the opinions toward us of 90% of the world's muslims.
#5
I wonder what kind of shorts he wore in La'iba al-Waladaani (The Two Boys Played).
The reviews were so touching (not)
"Saddam's acting in the picture is actually quite good," al-Sabah notes. "One scene, in which he buries his face in a pillow and cries, is so touching you almost can forget you're watching a low-budget sexploitation film."
#6
or, OTOH, you could count the thousands of muslims cities where there were NO riots in response to PissKoran. Even in Afghanistan, there were many towns where there were no demonstrations. What was the total attendence at the demonstrations compared to the total population of Afghanistan?
Of course I suppose you could use THAT as further evidence of the unimportance of the hearts and minds struggle. Starts to look like an unfalsifiable proposition.
Everything ive read about counter insurgency says that hearts and minds matter. As long as we fight this as a counter insurgency operation, and one largely reliant on local muslim forces, hearts and minds will matter.
Now that leaves open the question of what the most important drivers of hearts and minds are. I tend to lean toward the view that local matters are more important (ie Opium in afghanistan, jobs for ex-baathists and restraint in house searches in the Sunni Triangle in Iraq, support for Mubarak in Egypt, etc) rather than the abuse scandal, or the Palestinian question. Nonetheless the abuse scandal does hurt, at the margin, and progress on the Israel-Pal question WOULD help. And trashing of Islam in the west does NOT help. Does. Not. Help.
I think in this Bush's rhetoric has been largely correct. The ROP usage went a bit too far - its fairer to say that Islam is a diverse religion, and some elements in it are not peaceful. Which I think is more the direction of admin rhetoric recently. In some ways it would be much better if we could just come out and say "Wahabism is the problem" - it would avoid alot of dancing around and confusion, and would clarify A. That religion IS a problem - its not just a handful of terrorists and B. That Islam in GENERAL is not the problem. '
Unfortunately there are genuine reasons to want to maintain good relations with the House of Saud. Whether those reasons trump the reasons not to, Im not sure.
Posted by: Mike ||
05/25/2005 12:11 Comments ||
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#8
Can't argue with most of what you say, LH, esp the importance of local issues. I'm arguing for a change in emphasis above all.
The problem is that it's 100 times easier for lazy, Bush-hating journos and editors/producers to file their 37th story on Abu Ghraib All the Time than to do any digging into local issues in Samara or Kandahar.
#9
In some ways it would be much better if we could just come out and say "Wahabism is the problem"
Ignoring the Iranians?
Posted by: Robert Crawford ||
05/25/2005 13:50 Comments ||
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#10
Religion does matter, though. We face the "better a bad believer than an unbeliever" effect. (The more radical folks seem to reverse this.) And I think the Israel issue has a religious dimension: the "uppity Jews" turned the proper (divine) order of society upside down; and that in a land Muhammadans can call holy. [because of its association with Abraham and the appropriated Jewish prophets, though of course the Jews never lived in Palestine, right? . . .]
Posted by: James ||
05/25/2005 14:27 Comments ||
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Posted by: Ken Ragif ||
05/25/2005 15:34 Comments ||
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#14
James, I believe the holiness of Israel is because Mohammed supposedly snuck out one night and with his horse flew up for a visit to Heaven -- his jump-off point was the Temple Mound platform in Jerusalem (of which the Wailing Wall makes up one side of the base). A small rock sticks out from the platform, around which the Al Aqsa Mosque was built some centuries later.
And of course, all lands that were ever part of the Ummah must remain Muslim forever more.
Five employees of the German television network ARD were detained for several hours on Monday in Cairo after filming activities of the Kifaya movement, which is campaigning for a change in government. ARD's Joerg Armbruster said fellow correspondent Alexander Stenzel, a driver and three other ARD employees were held more than three hours at a police station and their film confiscated. Egyptian human-rights activists said five other people - all Egyptians - were hauled away as Kifaya, which means 'enough', was handing out leaflets. It was not known where the five Egyptians were taken, the activists said.
How do you say "The Hole" in Arabic?
The Kifaya movement, the Muslim Brotherhood and several other opposition parties have called for a boycott of Wednesday's constitutional referendum. The vote is to decide whether the presidential referendum should be replaced with elections that opposition candidates could contest. The opposition objects to the referendum because it charges the governing National Democratic Party with formulating the change to the constitution in a way that allows no real chance for challengers of President Hosny Mubarak.
Tom DeLay was in charge of the redistricting...
The Muslim Brotherhood has been passing out leaflets for a few days in mosques calling for a boycott.
The number two of the al-Qaeda network, Ayman al-Zawahiri, visited Iraq under a false name in September 1999 to take part in the ninth Popular Islamic Congress, former Iraqi premier Iyad Allawi has revealed to pan-Arab daily al-Hayat. In an interview, Allawi made public information discovered by the Iraqi secret service in the archives of the Saddam Hussein regime, which sheds light on the relationship between Saddam Hussein and the Islamic terrorist network. He also said that both al-Zawahiri and Jordanian militant al-Zarqawi probably entered Iraq in the same period.
"Al-Zawahiri was summoned by Izza Ibrahim Al-Douri — then deputy head of the council of the leadership of the revolution - to take part in the congress, along with some 150 other Islamic figures from 50 Muslim countries," Allawi said.
According to Allawi, important information has been gathered regarding the presence of another key terrorist figure operating in Iraq - the Jordanian militant Abu Musab al-Zarqawi.
"The Jordanian Abu Musab al-Zarqawi entered Iraq secretly in the same period," Allawi affirmed, "and began to form a terrorist cell, even though the Iraqi services do not have precise information on his entry into the country," he said.
Allawi's remarks come after statements to al-Hayat by King Abdallah II of Jordan over Saddam's refusal to hand over al-Zarqawi to the authorities in Amman.
On this question Allawi said: ''The words of the Jordanian King are correct and important. We have proof of al-Zawahiri's visit to Iraq, but we do not have the precise date or information on al-Zarqawi's entry, though it is likely that he arrived around the same time."
In Allawi's view, Saddam's government "sponsored" the birth of al-Qaeda in Iraq, coordinating with other terrorist groups, both Arab and Muslim. "The Iraqi secret services had links to these groups through a person called Faruq Hajizi, later named Iraq's ambassador to Turkey and arrested after the fall of Saddam's regime as he tried to re-enter Iraq. Iraqi secret agents helped terrorists enter the country and directed them to the Ansar al-Islam camps in the Halbija area," he said.
The former prime minister claims that Saddam's regime sought to involve even Palestinian Abu Nidal - head of a group once considered the world's most dangerous terrorist organisation - in its terrorist circuit. Abu Nidal's organisation was responsible for terrorist attacks in some 20 countries, killing more than 300 people and wounding hundreds more.
He added that Abu Nidal's refusal to cooperate with Islamist groups was the reason for his death in Iraq, in the summer of 2002.
Posted by: Dan Darling ||
05/25/2005 00:03 ||
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A government-appointed panel plans to review strict Islamic laws in Pakistan which rights activists say discriminate against women. The Islamic Hudood Ordinances were passed in 1979 under the military rule of General Zia-ul-Haq. One of their most controversial provisions is that a woman must have four male witnesses to prove rape, or face a charge of adultery herself.
The new reforms will make that ten, including a holy man.
... who's not a participant.
Men and women found guilty of adultery also face stoning to death or 100 lashes, although such punishments have never been executed after being handed down by a court. The Islamic Ideology Council, a government body made up of clerics and lawyers charged with ensuring that laws confirm with Islam, has decided to review the controversial laws. Its chairman, Mohammad Khalid Masood, said the council would consult scholars from Muslim countries attending a conference on Islamic criminal law this month in Islamabad. "We have the power to review laws in the country. We have reviewed many other laws and we plan to look into these laws as well," he told Reuters.
"We got all the best Muslim scholars coming in from Iran, Sudan and Mauritania!"
He said the council would make recommendations to the government but any change in legislation would be a matter for parliament. President Pervez Musharraf, who espouses a moderate and modern Muslim state, has long called for a review of Islamic laws but has faced stiff opposition from powerful religious groups.
"It is as it was, and ever will be."
Secular political parties, civil rights and women's groups say the numbers of rapes and violence against women have soared since the laws were passed. Women's groups say many rapes go unreported, partly because of the difficulty of proving the crime under the Hudood laws.
And partly because of the fear of being killed by the rapist and his many cousins.
Posted by: Steve White ||
05/25/2005 00:00 ||
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UNITED NATIONS - Saddam Hussein probably lied about his weapons of mass destruction because of pride and to protect himself from perceived Iranian attacks, a former US and UN weapons inspector said on Tuesday.
Charles Duelfer, head of the CIA's Iraq survey group that hunted weapons after the 2003 Gulf War, said the threat from Iran was very real to Saddam, who wanted to create an impression he had more armaments than he really had. "There was a greater concern than we could appreciate sitting here in Washington of the threat posed by Iran," Duelfer told the Council on Foreign Relations. "Our gut feeling was not the same as the gut feeling one would have sitting in Baghdad."
Iraq and Iran fought a bloody war from 1980 to 1988 and kept up a low-level conflict after that. Suspicions were rife that Iran was developing weapons of mass destruction. "Saddam was certainly aware of the WMD assessments of Iran and he created a certain ambiguity about what his capabilities were," Duelfer said.
Duelfer reported last October that Saddam did not have weapons of mass destruction for more than a decade before the 2003 US-led invasion of Iraq. But he said Saddam hoped in the future to reconstitute his unconventional arms programs and refused to let skilled scientists leave the country.
In a rare on-the-record talk, Duelfer said narcissism and pride played a large role in Saddam's obfuscation of his weapons, since he wanted to be a leader in science and technology, which meant nuclear capabilities.
Duelfer was the deputy executive chairman of UNSCOM, the UN Special Commission, which fielded inspectors in Iraq from 1991 to 1998. Iraq denied it had any unconventional weapons programs but shown proof to the contrary, Saddam's government allowed many to be destroyed but refused to account in detail what happened to all the armaments.
While President George W. Bush used Iraq's alleged weapons to justify the 2003 invasion, Duelfer said Saddam also had a "key intelligence failure" by not understanding that the United States would follow through on its threats after the Sept. 11, 2001, attacks on New York and Washington.
Saddam in 1991 established as a priority to get UN sanctions lifted, imposed after the 1990 Gulf War when his troops invaded Kuwait. He tried to hide his arms programs, particularly biological and chemical weapons materials that are easier to conceal than nuclear facilities or missiles. Duelfer said Iraq resented inspectors prowling around, actions that immediately created mistrust between Iraqis and the UN teams. But in 1998, Iraq decided that "no matter what they did the United States in particular as not going to climb off on resolving the sanctions issue" and so Baghdad cut off cooperation with inspectors, Duelfer recalled. Saddam then tried to erode the sanctions by exploiting splits among the major powers and bribing politicians around the world.
Which will never stop Kos and Atrios from telling everyone that Saddam was never a threat to us.
Posted by: Steve White ||
05/25/2005 00:00 ||
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Jamhoori Watan Party chief Nawab Akbar Bugti told Senator Mushahid Hussain on Tuesday that decisions made in the Dera Bugti accord were not being implemented while paramilitary forces had started taking certain unilateral decisions in Dera Bugti. Senator Mushahid Hussain of the ruling Pakistan Muslim League (PML) visited Sui and Dera Bugti on Tuesday to monitor the implementation of the accord between the federal government and Nawab Akbar Bugti. Mushahid Hussain was heading the implementation and monitoring committee formed especially for Dera Bugti after Bugti tribesmen and Frontier Corps officials exchanged fire on March 17 in which many were killed and injured. Mushahid told reporters that he delivered PML President Shujaat Hussain's message to Nawab Akbar Bugti and inquired about his health. He said that he found certain encroachment in Dera Bugti.
Posted by: Fred ||
05/25/2005 00:00 ||
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FBI agents operating in Pakistan "repeatedly interrogated and threatened" two US citizens of Pakistani origin who were "unlawfully detained and subjected to torture" by the Pakistani security services, according to Human Rights Watch (HRW). The New York-based group said on Tuesday that the brothers and Kashan Afzal were abducted from their home in Karachi at about 2 a.m. on August 13, 2004. They were released on April 22, 2005 without having been charged. During eight months of illegal detention, Zain Afzal and Kashan Afzal were routinely tortured by Pakistani authorities to extract confessions of involvement in terrorist activities. "During this period, FBI agents questioned the brothers on at least six occasions. The FBI agents did not intervene to end the torture, insist that the Pakistani government comply with a court order to produce the men in court, or provide consular facilities normally offered to detained US citizens. Instead, they threatened the men with being sent to the US detention facility at Guantanamo Bay if they did not confess to involvement in terrorism."
"It is outrageous that Pakistan abducts people from their homes in the middle of the night and tortures them in secret prisons to extract confessions, all the while ignoring court orders to produce their victims in court," said Brad Adams, Asia director of Human Rights Watch. "The United States should be condemning this, but instead it either directed this activity or turned a blind eye in the hopes of gaining information in the war on terror."
Posted by: Fred ||
05/25/2005 00:00 ||
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#1
That pic brings back memories of my ex. and me?
#2
WTF? US citizens nabbed by Pakis in Pakistan and the FBI has interrogated them 6x? Well, they're living in Pakiland, nabbed in Pakiland by Pakiland coppers...we wouldn't want to act unilaterally/like a cowboy in other's lands, now would we, HRW? (/sarcasm off/). Note they "threatened" to send 'em to Gitmo...yeah, must've been SOME torture if the "threat" is to send you to get some panties on yo' head!
Posted by: BA ||
05/25/2005 8:46 Comments ||
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The Palestinian Authority yesterday dismissed a promise by Israeli Prime Minister Ariel Sharon to release 400 Palestinian prisoners as little more than "propaganda" to impress Washington. "This comment is pure propaganda because he is in the United States," Planning Minister Ghassan Khatib told reporters. "Sharon was supposed to release 400 prisoners under the Sharm El-Sheikh agreements but he didn't. We don't believe what Sharon says, it is what he does on the ground that counts."
Khatib was reacting to a promise by Sharon, who is currently in Washington for talks with Jewish American groups, to release some 400 prisoners on his return to Israel in a bid to "help" Palestinian President Mahmud Abbas. The 400 prisoners were due to have been released by Israel as part of a confidence-building package agreed by Sharon and Abbas at a summit in the Egyptian resort town of Sharm El-Sheikh on Feb. 8, at which the two leaders announced an end to hostilities. Israel committed to free some 900 prisoners in all but has so far released just 500 after Sharon announced in early May that further releases were on ice. "Since Sharm El-Sheikh, Israel has arrested more than 400 Palestinians," Khatib charged. Sharon's announcement came just two days before Abbas is due at the White House for his first talks as Palestinian leader with US President George W. Bush. Abbas said he would ask Bush to "stick seriously" to a Middle East peace plan and avoid promises to Israel over the outcome of negotiations. Palestinians welcome an Israeli plan to pull out of Gaza but bristle over continued expansion of Jewish settlements in the West Bank following a Bush assurance that Israel would not have to cede the entire territory under any realistic peace deal.
Posted by: Fred ||
05/25/2005 00:00 ||
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#1
Okay, boys. Looks like it's time for another "hunger strike"...
Either that, or because you're a dipstick. I think it may be the latter.
Posted by: Fred ||
05/25/2005 00:00 ||
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#1
"It's all about me!" he declared. "They're out to get me! It's not 'cause I'm paranoid, it's because I'm important and smarter than them and cooler and I get more girls . . . hey! Notice me! Notice me, damn your eyes! . . . ."
Posted by: Mike ||
05/25/2005 10:03 Comments ||
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Liberia's exiled former president, Charles Taylor, received money recently from an al-Qaida operative and is trying to destabilize west Africa, prosecutors for Sierra Leone's U.N.-backed war crimes tribunal said Tuesday. Chief prosecutor David Crane said Taylor harbored members of al-Qaida including those who allegedly took part in the bombings of the U.S. embassies in Kenya and Tanzania in 1997, and was allegedly in contact with a member of the terrorist network as recently as last month. "Al-Qaida has been in west Africa. It continues to be in west Africa, and Charles Taylor has been harboring members of al-Qaida," Crane said, adding that he believes west Africa is going to become the next Afghanistan. Crane called for Taylor to be handed over for prosecution for war crimes and crimes against humanity to prevent further destabilization in the region, especially in Guinea.
Posted by: Fred ||
05/25/2005 00:00 ||
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A multi-volume chronology and reference guide set detailing three years of the Mexican Drug War between 2010 and 2012.
Rantburg.com and borderlandbeat.com correspondent and author Chris Covert presents his first non-fiction work detailing
the drug and gang related violence in Mexico.
Chris gives us Mexican press dispatches of drug and gang war violence
over three years, presented in a multi volume set intended to chronicle the death, violence and mayhem which has
dominated Mexico for six years.
Rantburg was assembled from recycled algorithms in the United States of America. No
trees were destroyed in the production of this weblog. We did hurt some, though. Sorry.
An alert by El Salvador and Nicaragua on the possible presence of two al-Qaida terror suspects was a false alarm, U.S. officials said Tuesday. "The Department of Homeland Security has no specific intelligence to support this claim, or previous claims that al-Qaida is active in Central America," said spokesman Brian Roehrkasse. Another government official, who spoke on condition of anonymity, said the alert was the result of a mixup that apparently occurred when a representative of the Nicaraguan Interior Ministry attended a recent anti-terrorism seminar during which routine information about the two suspects was given out. The information was then delivered back through the Nicaraguan government and distributed publicly in a press release, the official said. The Nicaraguan press release "erroneously stated that two suspected members of al-Qaida were believed to be in Central America," the official said.
Making his first trip abroad since a bloody crackdown on protesters, Uzbek President 
SEOUL - North Korean officials denied reports that the communist regime was preparing to conduct a nuclear test, a Czech delegation told Yonhap news agency Tuesday following a visit to Pyongyang this week. "North Korean officials said the reports of a nuclear test is nonsense," Lubomir Zaoralek, 
North Korea on Tuesday refused to rule out a pre-emptive attack, even amid signs it may be willing to return to the nuclear bargaining table. The North poured out anti-American rhetoric _ a tactic it has used in the past before entering negotiations _ by claiming that Washington's "hostile policies" led it to develop nuclear weapons as a deterrent and warning against any attack to dislodge its leadership. "The United States should be aware that the choice of a pre-emptive attack is not only theirs," the North's official news agency quoted the state-run newspaper Minju Joson as saying. "To stand against force with force is our unswerving method of response." The commentary came amid a flurry of contacts aimed at convincing the North to resume six-nation talks, suspended since the third round ended in June, on its nuclear program.
Italian journalist 
WASHINGTON, May 24 - The Ohio Republican whose opposition to John R. Bolton as United Nations ambassador nearly stalled his nomination in committee took a new swipe at him today, circulating a letter urging colleagues to vote against Mr. Bolton when his name reaches the Senate floor, possibly this week.
FBI Director 
Pfc. 
The European Union will offer Iran a detailed proposal by the end of July on how to resolve their differences over Tehran's nuclear program, Iran's chief negotiator Hassan Rohani said on Wednesday. 
GENEVA - The foreign ministers of Britain, France and Germany meet here Wednesday with Iran's top negotiator 
BEIRUT - Many of the young people preparing to vote in Lebanon's elections feel cheated by politicians' promises of change in the heady days of protest after former premier 
Iranian hard-liners yesterday agreed to allow two reformists to stand in next month's presidential election amid fears their disqualification could provoke a mass public boycott of the polls. The U-turn by the 
Signaling the breakup of the anti-Syrian coalition, Christian leader 
Fugitive 
Five employees of the German television network 
UNITED NATIONS - Saddam Hussein probably lied about his weapons of mass destruction because of pride and to protect himself from perceived Iranian attacks, a former US and UN weapons inspector said on Tuesday.
FBI agents operating in Pakistan "repeatedly interrogated and threatened" two US citizens of Pakistani origin who were "unlawfully detained and subjected to torture" by the Pakistani security services, according to 
The Palestinian Authority yesterday dismissed a promise by Israeli Prime Minister 
Liberia's exiled former president, 
