KUWAIT CITY - Kuwait's first Guantanamo returnee, who was injured during the US-led war on the former Taleban regime in Afghanistan, claimed Wednesday he was subjected to psychological torture at the US detention camp in Cuba. "It was more of a psychological than physical torture. In the beginning, they prevented us from sleeping. They gave us little food and they charged me with being a member of Al Qaeda," Nasser Najr al-Mutairi told AFP outside a Kuwaiti court.
"... and then they laughed at my doinker. It was brutal, I tell you, brutal!"
Right. An Arab in Afghanistan, lugging a gun around now, why would they think he might be al-Qaeda?
Looking frail and weak, Mutairi still has his left foot and ankle in bandage because of wounds he received during US raids on northern Afghanistan in late 2001. "Fighters loyal to (Afghan warlord Abdulrasheed) Dustum shot at us randomly while US warplanes pounded us... I was hit in the back, on my left foot and lost a toe in the attack," he said.
In 2001? Must be a slow healer.
Isn't that awful when they shoot at you randomly while US warplanes pound you, and all you were trying to do was defend Konduz?
Mutairi, who was repatriated in January, was released on a 680-dollar bail by Kuwait's criminal court on April 13 and was banned from leaving the emirate. On Wednesday, the court allowed Mutairi's lawyer to take photocopies of reports of the investigations conducted by US interrogators in Guantanamo Bay and set the next hearing for June 15. Mutairi is charged with working for a foreign country and committing an act of aggression against a foreign nation, thus endangering Kuwait's relations, and training in the use of arms. He has denied the charges and claimed that he went to Afghanistan as a relief worker and that he does not know how to use arms.
"Lies! All lies!"
This article starring:
NASER NAJR AL MUTAIRI
al-Qaeda
Posted by: Steve White ||
06/02/2005 00:00 ||
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#3
He has denied the charges and claimed that he went to Afghanistan as a relief worker and that he does not know how to use arms.
If he was really "pounded" by US jets, he's lucky he can even try to use his arms (much less his wounded feet/legs). Sorry, couldn't refuse the pun!
Posted by: BA ||
06/02/2005 7:55 Comments ||
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#4
Seafarious: This quote in your link defines it: Cue the Family Affair theme. Dosaris and Mutairis are almost as common in the Wonderful World of Terror⢠as the al-Ghamdis.
To assess the nature and likely development of terrorist threats to Uzbekistan in the wake of the Andijan massacre, we must determine what exactly happened there on May 12-13 and place this massacre — which may have taken as many as 1,000 lives — in context. [1] Uzbekistan, China, Russia, and other Central Asian governments quickly blamed the uprising on Hizb ut-Tahrir (HT), the Taliban and other Islamist movements outside of Uzbekistan. This, of course, is the standard response by all these regimes to any disturbance within the CIS and it is not just an ignorant pro forma response that is exculpatory, but it is also utterly self-serving. Hizb ut-Tahrir, not surprisingly, proclaimed that the events in Andijan had nothing to do with it and were a provocation by Islam Karimov's government intended to discredit it, an equally exculpatory and self-serving response. Many foreign analysts, human rights organizations and local reporters tend to discount claims of HT involvement and accuse Karimov's regime of overreacting to the demonstration. While they are correct, their analysis too is clearly incomplete.
However, we can place what is known of events there in a context that can explain how and why they occurred and their significance for the future. First and foremost, the demonstrations that prompted the violent reprisal were only the latest in an increasing and apparently escalating series of attacks and popular demonstrations against the regime, its economic misrule, and repression. In 2004, there were at least four episodes of either terrorist bombings or popular unrest directed at the regime and its notoriously corrupt police. All these events highlighted the erosion of popular support for the regime, the hatred of the police, the pervasive corruption of the regime, and the real possibility of growing support for groups like HT. In all cases, the government blamed HT for these events. In a further sign that popular discontent with the Karimov regime is growing, on May 3, 2005 demonstrators marched in front of the U.S. embassy in Tashkent against the regime only to be forcibly dispersed.
While all these cases show a rising tide of disaffection, not least due to the widespread economic misery and corruption of the regime, it is also quite likely that HT's influence is growing. Many observers and foreign experts believe that particularly in the Fergana Valley, where Andijan is located, HT and IMU (Islamic Movement of Uzbekistan) influence is growing due to the repression of religion, dissent, and the regime's economic autocracy. Certainly for the last two years press reports indicate a growing fear among Kyrgyz officials, both before and after Kyrgyzstan's revolution, of HT's rising influence and presence. Similarly, neighboring governments like Kazakstan and Kyrgyzstan have expressed rising concern about Karimov's policies and their potential fallout for their own government. For example, a trial in Kazakstan of 16 men who are accused of some of the bombings in 2004 in Tashkent is currently taking place, indicating the spread of Uzbek-based terrorism to Kazakstan. [2]
Continued on Page 49
Posted by: Dan Darling ||
06/02/2005 16:37 ||
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The gunmen who carried out the bloody school siege in Beslan in September 2004 also planned other attacks, including powerful car bombs in southern Russian cities, the sole surviving suspect of the raid told a court on Thursday.
Nur-Pashi Kulayev said he had heard the leader of the armed gang whom he called "Colonel" discussing a plan that envisaged setting off the explosions, AP reported. "Colonel" was talking about placing trucks rigged with explosives near police and security headquarters in Chechnya's capital Grozny and the cities of Vladikavkaz and Nazran in the neighboring provinces of North Ossetia and Ingushetia.
Kulayev, whose trial at the North Ossetian Supreme Court in Vladikavkaz began earlier this month, has pleaded not guilty to charges including terrorism, murder and attacking law enforcement officers during the raid on Beslan school. He was the only militant to survive the raid. He could get live imprisonment if convicted.
This article starring:
NUR PASHI KULAIEV
Chechnya
Posted by: Dan Darling ||
06/02/2005 16:31 ||
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MOSCOW, June 2 (UPI) -- Russian Prime Minister Mikhail Fradkov has been treated for a possible case of rabies after being bitten by a wild cat.
The Russian daily Nezavisimaya Gazeta reported Thursday a wild cat had bitten Fradkov while visiting his country residence in late May.
Now that is devious. I have enough trouble keeping the cats off the counter, much less training them to attack a specific person.
The prime minister's security detail was able to capture to the cat for medical examination.
"Yurgi, go grab that crazed rabid cat, will you?" "Say what?"
Kremlin medical officials are taking Fradkov's misfortune seriously due to a recent outbreak of rabies in the Moscow region that has claimed three lives this year. The prime minister's press service has denied repeated media claims Fradkov is in poor health.
"He's perfectly fine, just foaming at the mouth."
Posted by: Steve ||
06/02/2005 15:26 ||
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#1
Russian PM treated for rabies
How could they tell? ;-)
Posted by: Barbara Skolaut ||
06/02/2005 16:39 Comments ||
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#2
Not a Fun Thing to get treated for ... he has my sympathies.
Posted by: too true ||
06/02/2005 17:14 Comments ||
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From East Asia Intel, subscription req'd/
SEOUL — A senior Japanese official's comments about Washington's loss of confidence in the South Korean government has signaled a major shift in the traditional U.S. "trilateral cooperation" with Tokyo and Seoul on combined policy toward North Korea.
South Korean officials responded with fury to remarks by Japan's Vice Foreign Minister Shotaro Yachi, that the United States no longer trusts South Korea. For that reason, Yachi told visiting members of South Korea's National Assembly, Japan is reluctant to provide South Korea with intelligence information on North Korea. Cause, meet effect. The SKors want to appease the Norks, Japan cuts off the teletype.
Yachi poured oil on the flames with what was viewed here as a patronizing rejoinder when he said it was "regrettable if the remarks have invited a misunderstanding by causing an argument of various forms in South Korea."
Yachi blamed publicity-hungry South Korean politicos for publicizing his comments out of context, saying he was "embarrassed by the fact that the comments, which were made in an informal exchange of views, have been made known externally."
Finally, a Japanese foreign ministry official added to the controversy when Asahi Shimbun quoted him as saying, "If things like this happen, we will no longer be able to hold unofficial talks."
South Korea's foreign ministry issued a flat rejection of Yachi's half-hearted "regret," stating: "Our government will not view the remarks as an individual issue, and will study the future direction of Korea-Japan relations by considering them comprehensively together with other remarks distorting the history."
The problem was exacerbated when Seoul reportedly suggested postponing trilateral consultative talks on North Korea's nuclear weapons for an indefinite period.
Nihon Keizai Shimbun, Japan's financial newspaper, said Japan is eager for the talks, scheduled to resume in June. Seoul, however, is cold-shouldering Japan while smoldering over Yachi's remarks. The talks were last held in Seoul on Feb. 26.
Sources in South Korea have long said the United States is holding back on critical intelligence material for fear leftists in South Korea's government would share it with radical politicians and professors having ties to North Korea. A justifiable fear, after the way Pres. Roh has been acting.
Although U.S. officials have steadfastly denied any lack of cooperation, the sense of unwillingness to let South Korean officials in on some of Washington's best-kept secrets about North Korea has been growing ever since Kim Dae-Jung flew to Pyongyang for the first and only inter-Korean summit on June 15, 2000.
The South Korean government, cooperating with North Korea on a huge fifth anniversary celebration next month, reportedly wants to wait until the flurry of visits is over before participating in trilateral talks, the brainchild of U.S. diplomacy. Roh has sh*t in his messkit, already.
So deep is the impasse that South Korea's Deputy Foreign Minister Song Min-Soon, chief negotiator for South Korea in talks with the North, has let it be known he has no intention of meeting Kenichiro Sasae, Japan's chief negotiator on North Korea, even though they will both be in Washington this week. Not much to say after the trust is lost.
So Christopher Hill, assistant secretary of state for East Asia and the Pacific and chief U.S. negotiator on North Korea, has to hold hands separately with each of them to try to get the trilateral process going again. Trilateral is dead. Bilateral is alive.
Yet another factor delaying a trilateral meeting is the upcoming summit between President Roh Moo-Hyun and President Bush. Roh flies to Washington on June 9 and meets Bush at the White House the next day for the specific purpose, according to sources here, of trying to get Washington and Seoul on the same wavelength when it comes to dealing with North Korea. To get on the same wavelength, someone will have to get 180 deg out of phase. I do not see President Bush doing an about face, especially after the failure of Clinton's carrot deal. Roh has set his agenda, so he is not going to change. Nothing will happen. The Love is gone.
Diplomatic sources believe the U.S. and South Korea have actually begun to engineer a grand compromise — the U.S. is no longer so hard-line vis-Ã -vis North Korea, and South Korea pays at least lip service to U.S. demands for North Korea to give up its nuclear weapons program. IMHO this is BS speculation based on hope.
But Bush and Roh are expected to be far apart when it comes to deciding what to do if North Korea continues to stonewall on the next round of talks. South Korea opposes taking the issue to the United Nations Security Council for debate on sanctions. China and Russia — permanent members of the Security Council along with France, Britain and the U.S. — are expected to oppose the idea as well. The UNSC, whatever.....nothing will happen there anyway.
Under these circumstances, diplomatic sources say, neither the U.S. nor Japan is going to provide South Korea with the most sensitive intelligence material on North Korea. THAT is the bottom line. [*snip*]
Posted by: Alaska Paul ||
06/02/2005 18:08 ||
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#5
Although Roh is not an ally, the U.S. has friends in South Korea. Our nation has paid a blood price to keep a portion of the Korean people off a subsistence diet of bark and grass. It is abhorrent to think of righting off the value of that sacrifice within hours of celebrating Memorial Day, just because there resides in South Korean universities and in one of its political parties the same collection of boneheads that resides in our own universities and one of our political parties.
Not sharing sensitive intelligence with the Koreans is an excellent idea. Assume that Roh will place any military technological secrets shared under the purveiw of his Commerce Department to facilitate transfer to the PRC.
Hopefully the majority of South Koreans will collectively retain the memory that they paid a several million bodybag downpayment on this whole freedom idea, themselves. If a half century is enough for their majority have forgotten what it is like to be ruled by someone like Kim, then it looks like they will be sampling ranch dressing on Bermuda. Nothing we say or do will help, It would be better if Kim didn't receive Aegis technology along with his additional loyal minions.
Posted by: Super Hose ||
06/02/2005 20:39 Comments ||
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#6
They don't know, which is exactly the problem. The Norks are obviously insane and pretty close to foaming at the mouth, but the Japanese treated the Koreans like animals, at best, in WWII. That's not forgotten, by a long shot.
#7
Super Hose has good points. However, it is prudent to withold sensitive intelligence at this time. We may have great relationships with the Korean military people, but SKor government people have their agenda. I do hope that SKor comes around. Their actions are contributing to propping up Kimmies regime, and that is not right.
Posted by: Alaska Paul ||
06/02/2005 20:50 Comments ||
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#8
Super Hose, I understand your POV and mostly share it. But we also need to realize that sunk costs are sunk .... if we can still gain benefit from the sacrifice of so many brave American troops, we should do so. But if not, we do them no honor by remaining in a situation that is fruitless ... if fruitless it should prove to be.
I agree WRT the Japanese treatment of Koreans in WWII. Had a team of programmers once that included a female Korean engineer, a Japanese guy and a Taiwanese guy. All native born in those countries. It was an eye opener ....
Posted by: too true ||
06/02/2005 20:50 Comments ||
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#9
TT, I agree with your sunk cost statement, but I wouldn't ever write-off a free people until the point at which that people no longer value freedom above the inconveneince and risk of protecting that freedom. It is tempting to write-off whole continents like Africa and South America, but that type of thinking left the American democracy very lonely in 1940.
AP, I think that we should share intelligence with SK, carefully. My Commerce Dept scenario was a vague illustration that our own government can't be painted with a broad brush any more than the SK can. I agree with what the Japanese gentleman told the Roh staffer in confidence who, predictably, went for the Stephanopolous option.
The historical aspect of Sino-Japanese-Russo-Korean relations ought to make the odds of sucess for these six-party talks a pretty steeply against. I don't know what better option is available, though.
Posted by: Super Hose ||
06/02/2005 21:46 Comments ||
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#10
I see opportunities to put the "poofie!" back in Kim Jong Il's hair. When you know your info's being fed to the enemy, you don't stop sending, you adjust accordingly. Let KJI know taht his closest competent advisors are planning a coup...watch the fun!....pass the popcorn!
Posted by: Frank G ||
06/02/2005 21:50 Comments ||
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#11
#6 They don't know, which is exactly the problem. The Norks are obviously insane and pretty close to foaming at the mouth, but the Japanese treated the Koreans like animals, at best, in WWII. That's not forgotten, by a long shot.
Devil, or deep blue sea? Lady or Tiger?...
Yes, the Japanese were horrible in the past, but if the South Koreans want to use that as an excuse to pretend the Japanese are horrible now and the North Korean government OK because at least they're the same ethnicity as the people they're forcibly starving, then they are extremely blind.
They're also likely to wind up with precisely the sort of Japanese government they're pretending exists now.
Posted by: Phil Fraering ||
06/02/2005 21:54 Comments ||
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#12
Anyone with a sense of history knows that bilateral talks is a non-starter.
Posted by: Captain America ||
06/02/2005 22:59 Comments ||
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#13
SH: It is tempting to write-off whole continents like Africa and South America, but that type of thinking left the American democracy very lonely in 1940.
Actually, it's *always* very lonely and usually, the only way you can get other countries to join in is if they are already under attack. Do you sincerely think that if the US had attacked Japan and Germany by its lonesome, that anyone would have joined us? The only major Allied combatants in WWII not in danger of being overrun were the US and Canada. Everyone else fought because they had to.
Germany was bogged down big time in the Soviet Union at the time of Pearl Harbor. We should have let them knock the stuffing out of each other instead of putting our thumb on the scale in the Soviet Union's favor. Germany declares war on Uncle Sam and we promptly devote 3/4 of our war effort against a country that never attacked us? Who cares about a declaration of war? Bin Laden declared war on us way before 9/11. Did we invade the country that granted him sanctuary? No - we refused to let them extradite him on grounds that we had nothing to charge him with. We could have smacked the Japanese big-time for Pearl Harbor and then just backed off. The Philippines was scheduled to be given its independence, anyway, so that was no big loss. All this stuff about WWII being due to American indifference is crap. Europeans made their bed and complained when they had to lie in it.
#14
ZF: Europeans made their bed and complained when they had to lie in it.
Just as the South Koreans will when we abandon them. I can take the heat. Better that Korea be unified than a single additional GI die for ROK. Now that would be a insult to the memories of the GI's who died during the Korean War, that we made the mistake of sending additional troops to die for what had become an enemy country.
June 2, 2005: Starvation has the North Korean government very scared. More urban dwellers are now being sent to the countryside to help out with farming. It's a normal practice for communist nations to send people from the cities to the countryside to help with the planting and harvesting of crops.
This follows from the normal practice of Communist leaders to starve their people into submission.
But this year, an even greater number of "volunteers" are being sent, apparently every physically able adult except for those caring for young children, those who are members of the security forces, or "essential" members of the government.
The Politburo members are, unfortunately, indispensible and can't cut sugar cane harvest crops.
Some 70 percent (15 million) of the population lives in cities. It appears that over twenty percent of the urban population is being sent off to do agricultural work.
Only 18 percent of the land in mountainous North Korea is fit for farming. In the last few years it's been noticed that, where possible, urban inhabitants are growing food on any available land.
"We're growing food on top of Uncle Kim's head. He don't mind, really."
Since 2003, the government has legalized black markets for food. Currently, it costs about 30 percent of the average monthly wage to buy a pound of rice at those markets. The government only provides about nine ounces of grain per person a day, at subsidized (affordable) prices. That's less than a thousand calories. For the average North Korean, that's a starvation diet. South Koreans who can travel to North Korea have noticed the children are smaller than in the south, and the young men entering the army in the last few years are noticeably smaller than those of the previous generation.
The famine began in the early 1990s, when the end of the Cold War brought an end to socialist fraternalization food imports from Russia. This was compounded by several years of bad weather, and failed crops, in North Korea. A generation of North Koreans has grown up on short rations.
Not a word about mismanagement and the effects of state-sponsored terror.
Many countries have sent food to North Korea, but that has been reduced in the last two years because of North Korea's hostile foreign policy, insistence on going forward with its ballistic missile and nuclear weapons programs and evidence that much of the food aid was being diverted to the military, or the black market.
Light bulb is just beginning to blink on. You mean Communist governments don't care about their people?
North Korea has tried to open up its economy, but most available resources have gone to industry, not agriculture. This year, however, the government has said it is increasing investment in agriculture by 29 percent. North Korea's GDP increased 1.8 percent in 2003 and 2.2 percent last year.
Doesn't anyone remember how the Soviets lied through their teeth about GDP growth? And how gullible American politicans and economists bought the lies? Oh, the powerful Soviet Union and its mighty economic engine. Feh. The Norks are trying to pull the same trick here. GDP growth? Really? Why's everyone starving then?
But without more food, this growth will come to a halt. North Korea has been trying to trade a reduction in its weapons programs for more food and economic aid from its neighbors, and the United States. But the north is playing hardball and hard to get. The north wants a lot, probably more than the potential donors are willing to give.
In the end, do we really need an agreemment with the Norks? I think that's what the Bush admin is getting at here. We're doing the dog-and-pony show with the Norks because the South, the Japanese, Russians, Chinese, UN, MSM, etc. all expect us to 'negotiate in good faith' and all that balderdash. But we don't need the Norks to cork the nuclear genie. Build 10, build 100 bombs. Go ahead. But use ONE, ever, at any time, and you're all dead.
Now, about food: you guys say you're hungry, eh ...
The communist government is also worried about maintaining public order. In the last decade, over a million North Koreans have risked prison or execution to flee to China. The government is concerned that, instead of trying to flee, the population will simply turn on the government, as happened in Eastern Europe in the late 1980s. If such a revolution comes, it won't be difficult for the people to pick out those who belong to the government leadership. They are the ones who look well fed.
And we ought to find ways to nudge the people into doing just that.
Posted by: Steve ||
06/02/2005 11:54 ||
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#3
They're sending the strong and healthy out of the cities in an effort to avoid protests, riots, and possibly open revolt.
Posted by: DO ||
06/02/2005 13:25 Comments ||
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#4
the role of S Korea in this situation is difficult to understand
if SKorea wanted to it could accept all refugees that made it to China
SKorea has one of the lowest birthrates in the world and needs the people; one could argue that the SKors are afraid they would be forced to reunite the peninsula and don't want to accept all those people but that is not an argument anyone in SKor has, to my knowledge, made
but instead they seem to be trying to send just enough food to the North to keep the govt from falling
#5
mhw, I think the SKors saw what the Germans went through with reunification, and seeing as N Korea is way, way worse off than E Germany ever was, they don't want any part of it.
Posted by: Steve White ||
06/02/2005 14:12 Comments ||
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#6
steve white
I would believe that also except that I've never seen any Skor politician say that or write that.
Assuming I'm right that no one has said this and assuming you are right that they all think it, it leads to the conclusion that self censorship is at unheard of levels in SKor
#9
North Korea has tried to open up its economy, but most available resources have gone to industry, not agriculture.
First I've heard that they are trying to open their economy. Detachment from international currency trading, goods exchanges etc. has been a central part of their ideology for decades. It's a major reason they are exporting so much in the way of weapons and nuclear materials ... that and drugs are the hidden ways the regime gets cash.
Posted by: too true ||
06/02/2005 15:39 Comments ||
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#10
Why doesnt kimmie get some decent duds, he always wears that dumbass jumpsuit thing. Even a $75 off the rack Men's Wharehouse suit would look better that that shit he struts around in.
#12
I would believe that also except that I've never seen any Skor politician say that or write that.
No South Korean politician would ever say or write that reunion with the North would be worse than the German reunification. At least not any politician with a sense of self preservation.
#13
'moose---the SKors have recently given the Norks 200K tons of fertilizer valued at about $89.5 million. The total fertilizer given has been over 1.55 million tons. Kimmie has a good scam going.
Posted by: Alaska Paul ||
06/02/2005 21:19 Comments ||
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EFL:Is Mucky writing for KCNA now?
SEOUL (Reuters) - North Korea called Vice President Dick Cheney a "bloodthirsty beast" on Thursday, in response to Cheney saying the North's leader Kim Jong-il was irresponsible and ran a police state. "Cheney is hated as the most cruel monster and bloodthirsty beast, as he has drenched various parts of the world in blood," a North Korean Foreign Ministry spokesman was quoted as saying by Pyongyang's official KCNA news agency.
Washington and North Korea have been in the midst of a war of words in recent weeks, with President Bush calling the North's Kim a tyrant. Pyongyang has shot back calling Bush a half-baked man and a philistine.
Cheney said in a TV interview with CNN aired on Monday that Kim was "one of the world's more irresponsible leaders." "He runs a police state. He's got one of the most heavily militarised societies in the world," Cheney said. "He doesn't take care of his people at all. And he obviously wants to throw his weight around and become a nuclear power."
The North Korean spokesman said Cheney's comments showed that the United States wanted to scuttle six-party talks aimed at ending Pyongyang's nuclear weapons programs in exchange for security guarantees and economic assistance. "What Cheney uttered at a time when the issue of the six-party talks is high on the agenda is little short of telling the DPRK not to come out for the talks," the North's spokesman said.
Kimmie's shorts are riding a little high this morning, eh?
#1
And you guys need to factor that into your strategic planning. But quit worrying about Cheney for now and go get yourselves a nice juicy T-bone.
Posted by: Matt ||
06/02/2005 11:41 Comments ||
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#2
You know, we are going to be done in Iraq in a couple of years. When that happens I bet kimmie will shut his flapping mouth about as fast as he opened it when we got bogged down in the sand.
#3
cyborg not beest kimmy. tho ima feelerin yoo payne:
I'm So Ronery
I'm so ronery
So ronery
So ronery and sadry arone
Get no one
Just me onry
Sitting on my rittle throne
I work very hard and make up great prans
But nobody ristens, no one understands
Seems that no one takes me serirousry
And so I'm ronery
A little ronery
Poor rittre me
There's nobody
I can rerate to
Feer rike a bird in a cage
It's kinda sihry
But not rearry
Because it's fihring my body with rage
I work rearry hard and I'm physicarry fit
But nobody here seems to rearize that
When I rure the world maybe they'rr notice me
But untir then I'rr just be ronery
Rittre ronery, poor rittre me
I'm so ronery
I'm so ronery
President Bush on Tuesday said there were still diplomatic options available to persuade North Korea to abandon its nuclear ambitions without having to resort to a military strike. "It's either diplomacy or military. And I am for the diplomacy approach," Bush told reporters at a news conference in the White House Rose Garden. "And so for those who say that we ought to be using our military to solve the problem, I would say that while all options are on the table, we've got a ways to go to solve this diplomatically," he said. Bush said he was not going to give a timetable for when the diplomatic option might run out. "It's very important for our partners to understand that I believe the six-party talks can and will work."
China, as an ally of North Korea, is viewed as pivotal to influencing Pyongyang. Some critics have questioned whether Beijing was exerting enough pressure on North Korea. "Sometimes people move a little slower than American society and the world, and, you know, sometimes expectations around the world are maybe different from ours," Bush said. "But fortunately, we've got everybody on the same page that says that the idea of North Korea having a nuclear weapon isn't good. And so it's a matter of continuing to send a message to Mr. Kim Jong-Il that if you want to be accepted by the neighborhood and be a part of those who are viewed with respect in the world, work with us to get rid of your nuclear weapons program."
Posted by: Fred ||
06/02/2005 00:00 ||
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#1
So the "Ultimatum" is still considered a diplomatic option then?
#8
Oh no, TGA. I meant that diplomatic options can, er, be dispensed with, when it comes to Belgium. In fact, maybe we can get a French country to pave it over...
From Geostrategy-Direct, subscription req'd. I would like to see some verification of this claim, as it is very serious. U.S. intelligence officials have told President Bush news that has left him stunned: Iran has completed all of the elements required for an atomic bomb. The intelligence information asserted that North Korea this year transferred components to Iran to assemble a plutonium-based nuclear warhead. The components were believed to have originated in Pakistan. The new Axis of Evil Schizophrenics
The development suggests Iran now has the capability to launch a missile tipped with a nuclear warhead. That will put Israel on a hair trigger. The distances between Iran and Israel are too short. Israel has to assume a nuclear attack if they detect an MMM (Mad Mullah Missile).
I'd be careful with the weather balloons around there ...
"It's an incredible piece of intelligence that overshadows everything we thought we knew on Iran's nuclear program," one U.S. intelligence source said.
The data we have on Iran's nuclear program shouldn't be that fragile. If it is, we're doing something seriously wrong, which would probably be relying too much on HUMINT.
For the last two years, the CIA has been tracking Iran's efforts to enrich sufficient uranium for a nuclear warhead. All of the CIA's assessments on Iran's nuclear weapons program were based on how much technology and enriched uranium Iran had obtained for its first nuclear warhead. The CIA, while dismayed by Iranian efforts, was confident that Teheran needed at least another three years to assemble a nuclear bomb. They went down several routes, including the Kahn turnkey route, IMHO.
Instead, the entire Iranian uranium enrichment effort appears to have concealed a much more immediate aim. The clerical regime in Teheran did not plan to wait several years for a nuclear option and obtained plutonium and components from North Korea. In late 2004, the Iranian Revolutionary Guard Corps tested a command and control network that would permit a nuclear weapons warhead to be placed on an enhanced Shihab-3 intermediate-range missile. How many nuclear warheads could Iran produce immediately? The CIA has learned that Iran could assemble several nuclear warheads for the Shihab-3 arsenal. This means that U.S. forces in Iraq and southern Europe are under immediate Iranian threat. Israel and Saudi Arabia are already under Iranian nuclear threat. Everyone is under the threat, including the EUniks, welcome to the club.
In 1994, the CIA obtained the first reports of Iran obtaining plutonium components from North Korea. But the latest information comes from a new and far more reliable source. Intelligence sources won't elaborate, but stress that the source is from a "hostile" state, a reference to either Iran or North Korea. Maybe a Nork or even an Iranian mole?
Posted by: Alaska Paul ||
06/02/2005 00:00 ||
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#1
Would like to see verification before I start jumping up and down like an organ grider's monkey, but my surprise meter would register 0 if true.
#2
I am a little curious as to why everyone seems to be pursuing the enriched uranium bomb when plutonium weapons seem more appropriate for missile launch. Is there something significantly more difficult about creating a plutonium device?
Posted by: DO ||
06/02/2005 0:48 Comments ||
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#3
This would be very, very, very, very bad.
Bush's Iran strategy -- to punt -- would have totally failed.
#4
yeah, no doubt Bush is as stunned as we are. Bush, is of course to blame, as the world is a much simpler place if you just blame Bush for all that is wrong in the world. It's deep....so deep...to do so.
#5
Do, although both types of bombs are technically difficult a plutonium bomb is more difficult than a uranium bomb and potentially more destructive. With a uranium bomb you need a critical mass basically devided in half. The two halves are then slammed together in a bomb to start the chain reaction that leads to an explosion. In a plutonium bomb a sphere of plutonium is incased in explosives that, when ignited, compress the plutonium. The result of pressing all those plutonium atoms so closely together breaks down their atomic structure thereby releasing the energy. Thats the short, simple explanation. You can then add tritium at the instant of explosion to greatly increase the explosive force. Much more technically difficult.
Posted by: Deacon Blues ||
06/02/2005 7:14 Comments ||
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#6
See also BLOOMBERG.COM - the US claims it has intercepted 11 WMD shipments bound for North Korea and Iran over the past nine months. ARE YOU READY FOR A WAR!?
#7
The rogue nations are going the enriched uranium route because they lack (for now) the facilities for plutonium. These facilities are also impossible to hide.
With the Uranium enrichment, they need a source of uranium ore and an enrichment facility containing a centrifuge cascade. This can be hidden underground.
For Plutonium, they needs a reactor, its Uranium fuel and additional facilities for reprocessing the spent fuel rods and separating the Plutonium.
The reactor is typically heavy water moderated and this requires large plants for the heavy water production.
If you go down the Plutonium route, you need complete fuel cycle technology, from ore to fuel reprocessing/vitrification.
Apart from (apartheid era) South Africa, nations have not gone for the simpler Uranium gun assembly type weapon.
The rogue nations have the same Chinese design. It uses Uranium but is a more sophisticated implosion type bomb.
Posted by: john ||
06/02/2005 8:50 Comments ||
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#8
Uranium is essentially easier to obtain, and requires something analguous to the "shotgun" type device that was used in the Trinity test. Theres very little doubt such a device would work too. The problem with enriched uranium is that you need a pretty significant amount of it even these days to make a nuke, with plutonium you need I think as low as 2-5kg to make the warhead, although the implosion device involved is quite a bit more complicated and has tighter tolerances.
No amount of pressure generated chemically can break atomic structure. Not even the pressures at the core of Earth. What you describe is what happens in neutron-stars.
Plutonium bombs work through the same principle than uranium bombs: neutrons splitting atoms who in turn deliver more neutrons. If you don't have critical mass neutrons escape from material at a higher rate than they create new neutrons. If you have critical mass then the creation of new neutrons exceeds the number of those who escape and the process begins to grow exponentially so you have a bomb.
Both in uranium and plutonium bombs explosives are there just to press tightly the subcritical masses into a critical one for the short time needed for the reaction starting.
#12
JFM, that's what I meant, I just didn't say it right.
Posted by: Deacon Blues ||
06/02/2005 16:02 Comments ||
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#13
An implosion type bomb can use Uranium 235, Uranium 233 or Plutonium 239.
Because of U232 isotope contamination, U233 is generally not used (one of the daughter nuclides is a hard gamma emitter).
A gun type bomb can use only Uranium.
U233 has similar critical mass to Pu239
U235 requires more material.
Actual amounts of fissile material required are dependent on the skill of the designers.
The Chinese designed weapon given to Pakistan and subsequently supplied to North Korea and Iran is an implosion type device.
The Pakistani attempts to purchase triggered spark gaps (used in medical lithotripters) show that their Uranium device is uses implosion lenses (they are using the spark gaps to trigger the lenses).
The plans discovered in Libya (sold to them by the Pakistani proliferation network run by AQ Khan) showed an implosion type weapon.
It may use Uranium but is not the crude gun design. It is second generation Chinese and designed to fit on top of a ballistic missile.
Posted by: john ||
06/02/2005 16:16 Comments ||
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#14
"You have to get the explosive "lens" for the plutonium bomb just right, or bits of it pre-detonate and you get a big, radioactive mess."
This would suit their purpose just as well in their minds.
#15
Also, there is no need to test this design.
The Chinese have already done all the work.
Advances in computers have made much testing unneeded (especially for an unboosted fission weapon)
The presence of Pakistanis at one test at Chinese Lop Nor test range indicate that they probably tested a Pakistani assembled weapon in the 80's.
The 1998 Pak tests were done without any measuring equipment. They basically dug a tunnel, emplaced the weapon and set it off. There was no desire (or need) to obtain data. The test was a political act. The Paks probably lack the scientific talent to actually design (or modify) a nuclear weapon.
As this article points out In the first 48 years Pakistani universities produced very few PhDs. In the last 50 years several hundred thousand students have graduated in various disciplines. However the output of PhDs from universities and research institutions remains very low. During the first 40 years, all the universities and research institutions in Pakistan produced only 128 PhDs in scientific disciplines. Of these 89 were produced in 1982-86.
Most of these PhDs were in chemical and biological sciences. Physics, a subject essential for developing a nuclear energy programme, has been a neglected science in Pakistan. In the first 40 years, Pakistani universities and research institutions produced less than a dozen PhDs in this field.
The Chinese had to provide detailed engineering drawings , with copius notes, to explain the fabrication of the weapon components.
Any North Korean or Iranian weapon will be a copy of the Pak suppied Chinese design. They will not need to test.
Posted by: john ||
06/02/2005 16:29 Comments ||
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#16
AQ Khan Labs worked on a Uranium implsion bomb.
PAEC (Pakistan Atomic Energy Commission) under the late Munir Khan, using separate Chinese designs) worked with both Plutonium and Uranium. Munir Khan was in charge of the team that built Kahuta plant and cold tested the Pak bomb in 1983.
If the design passed to the Iranians is one using Plutonium, then a second proliferation channel exists (the AQ Khan network is the first).
Posted by: john ||
06/02/2005 16:40 Comments ||
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#17
Thanks for the info. I wasn't aware a uranium design could be made small enough for the small to medium sized ballistic missiles these dopes have. I guess we now know which commentors are with, or might have been with, one of the National Labs. ;^)
Posted by: DO ||
06/02/2005 17:02 Comments ||
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#18
You can use smaller amounts of Uranium 235 if your pit is a "composite" one that includes Plutonium 239.
I've read that after the Trinity test, it was suggested that the Uranium in the gun type weapon be instead fabricated into composite cores. This would have increased the number of bombs available. The proposal was rejected.
Posted by: john ||
06/02/2005 17:38 Comments ||
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It is very unlikely any more Little Boy-type bombs would have been used even if the war continued. Little Boy was very inefficient, and it required a large critical mass. If the U-235 were used in a Fat Man type bomb, the efficiency would have been increased by more than an order of magnitude. The smaller critical mass (15 kg) meant more bombs could be built. Oppenheimer suggested to Gen. Groves on July 19, 1945 (immediately after the Trinity test) that the U-235 from Little Boy be reworked into uranium/plutonium composite cores for making more implosion bombs (4 implosion bombs could be made from Little Boy's pit). Groves rejected the idea since it would delay combat use.
The improved composite core weapon was in full development at Los Alamos when the war ended. It combined two innovations: a composite pit containing both U-235 and Pu-239, and core levitation which allowed the imploding tamper to accelerate across an air gap before striking the pit, creating shock waves that propagated inward and outward simultaneously for more rapid and even compression.
The composite pit had several advantages over using the materials separately:
* A single design could be used employing both of the available weapon materials.
* Using U-235 with plutonium reduced the amount of plutonium and thus the neutron background, while requiring a smaller critical mass than U-235 alone.
The levitated pit design achieved greater compression densities. This permitted using 25% less than fissile material for the same yield, or a doubled yield with the same amount of material.
Posted by: john ||
06/02/2005 19:44 Comments ||
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AUSTRALIA is bracing for a backlash as Prime Minister John Howard warned the nation's reputation had been damaged by the terror threat targeting the Indonesian embassy in Canberra.
A water cannon has been set up outside the Australian embassy in Jakarta and security is being reviewed amid fears extremists will seek revenge. Indonesian authorities have also promised to boost security for Schapelle Corby at her Bali jail after the terror threat was linked to community outrage over the 20-year jail term she received for drug smuggling.
Mr Howard said the letter, which was written in Indonesian, appeared to be linked to Corby's 20-year jail sentence for drug smuggling. "It's hard to escape the belief that there was a connection, let's put it that way," Mr Howard said.
He said there was a chance that terrorists could hit Australian interests in revenge for the intimidatory action.
The fallout from the incident is already being felt. Indonesian legislator Joko Susilo, who sits on Indonesia's House Foreign Affairs Committee, today urged his Government to issue travel warnings advising Indonesians not to travel to Australia. Vice-President Jusuf Kalla rejected the call, despite Mr Susilo warning the incident proved Australians were capable of committing their own acts of terrorism.
Three Indonesian National Police officers and an Indonesian agriculture ministry official have joined the hunt for the hoaxer, who could face up to 10 years in jail for the crime. "The sending of that particular letter was designed to cause major disruption and instil fear," ACT chief police officer John Davies told reporters.
Opposition foreign affairs spokesman Kevin Rudd meanwhile visited Indonesian ambassador Imron Cotan today and said the relationship between the two countries was strong enough to survive the fallout from the incident. But he said some people would always be critical of Australia.
going to do more to fight gang crime in Copenhagen, monitoring and registrating all immigrants who are gang members
Here's an idea - DEPORT THE BASTARDS!
Just a thought.
Posted by: Barbara Skolaut ||
06/02/2005 16:30 Comments ||
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#4
Oh, heck. You *don't* want Danes arming themselves. That can turn real Viking in a hurry, which is what I suspect is going to start happening. Imagine a gang of Thor or Tyr cultists armed with swords hacking apart a gang of "immigrants" armed with knives and clubs.
Posted by: too true ||
06/02/2005 19:55 Comments ||
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#8
I wonder if there is any strong blood left in the Scandanavians or if all those with any fire emigrated a long time ago.
Posted by: too true ||
06/02/2005 19:58 Comments ||
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#9
even us emigree stock still have that fire. Ask the asshole who told me his failure to properly review my technical studies meant my project would be delayed two months - he's the asshole with scorched hair, one butt cheek, an incontinence problem, and one step on the unemployment line. My Norwegian/Basque heritage is unable to be contained at times
Posted by: Frank G ||
06/02/2005 21:10 Comments ||
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Swiss prosecutors said Wednesday that they had suspended a three-and-a-half-year investigation into a Swiss-based Egyptian businessman, Youssef Nada, who was suspected of having financial ties with Al Qaeda.
The Swiss Federal Criminal Court last month ordered the federal prosecutor's office to decide by the end of May to either press charges or suspend the procedure. "We haven't dropped the case; it has been suspended," said a spokesman for the Swiss federal prosecutor's office, Hansjuerg Mark Wiedmer. He added that the case could be reactivated at any time if new evidence emerged.
The authorities did not provide details on why the investigation into Al Taqwa Management Organization, which was renamed Nada Management Organization, had been stopped. The United States accused the company of helping fund Osama bin Laden's terror network. The company has been under investigation since shortly after the Sept. 11, 2001, attacks in the United States.
Company officials repeatedly denied having links to terrorism and accused the Swiss authorities of taking part in a U.S.-led anti-Muslim campaign. The company, which operated on Islamic principles, was based in the southern canton of Ticino until being liquidated in December 2001. Al Taqwa organization was founded in 1988 by Nada and his Syrian-born associate, Ali Himmat. The Swiss authorities blocked the accounts of the company and the personal accounts of board members, and Liechtenstein froze the accounts of an affiliate firm, the fiduciary company Asat Trust. But the prosecutor's office never filed charges or made arrests.
This article starring:
ALI HIMAT
Al Taqwa Management Organization
spokesman for the Swiss federal prosecutor's office, Hansjuerg Mark Wiedmer
YUSEF NADA
al-Qaeda
YUSEF NADA
Al Taqwa Management Organization
YUSEF NADA
Nada Management Organization
Al Taqwa Management Organization
Asat Trust
Nada Management Organization
Posted by: Dan Darling ||
06/02/2005 15:55 ||
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#1
typical Swiss, aiding and abeting mass murderers.
#2
I guess the Swiss finally came to the conclusion that they were funding the political wing of Hamas. Europeans are soooo much smarter than us, I'm suprised it took them 3-1/2 years to botch the case,they probably could have let them off the hook in a lot less time than that.
From the "Things I never expected to see in my lifetime" file:GRAFENWOHR - Former Cold War enemies Russia and America launched their first joint military exercises on German territory on Thursday. The exercises took place at the US military base in Grafenwohr in the southern state of Bavaria, and involved around 500 soldiers from both countries. Armoured tanks carried out manoeuvres on terrain used by the US army for warfare simulations and to test new weapons. Better meeting at Graf than in the Fulda Gap.The name of the joint operation was 'Torgau 2005', inspired by the eastern city of Torgau where the World War Two allies met on 25 April 1945, shortly before defeating the Nazi regime. Camp Grafenwohr was one of the Hitler's army's main training grounds during the Nazi period.
A US officer taking part in the exercise commented "We want to remove the barriers so we can co-operate more in the future", in remarks quoted by Deutsche Welle. The joint exercises started last month at a camp located near Moscow.
Posted by: Steve ||
06/02/2005 12:14 ||
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#1
Wow. I wonder who played the "Red" force. ;)
Posted by: Laurence of the Rats ||
06/02/2005 12:51 Comments ||
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#2
The part I have the hardest time believing is that the Germans allowed the Ruskies in, with weapons......
#4
I read somewhere that as soon as both forces left their LD's (Line of Departure) the French embassy faxed in their official surrender of France signed by Chirac himself.
The US and Russian govenments then faxed back a message that they will appoint Chirac
"Occupation Minister for Life" and that all Rusain and US troops/civilians are henceforth forbidden to enter France indefinitly.
#5
LotR:
It must have been complicated. In Soviet terminology, the Reds are the "good guys" while Blue is the enemy.
This terminology goes back before WWII. (I have reports from the pre-invasion wargames.)
The rebel Kurdistan Workers Party (PKK) said yesterday it was ready to declare a cease-fire and offered to begin peace talks with Ankara. "We appeal to the Turkish government, asking it to please PLEASE stop kicking our asses end military operations in order to open the path of dialogue, and we are ready, on our side, to decree a ceasefire," said leading party official Murad Karialan. The outlawed rebel group, which last year called off a five-year-old unilateral ceasefire, has been holding a congress in the northern Iraqi village of Lijwa, close to the border with Iran.
Posted by: Fred ||
06/02/2005 00:00 ||
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#1
Did'nt work so good for Arafat, maybe they'll have better luck.
The top leadership of Amnesty International USA, which unleashed a blistering attack last week on the Bush administration's handling of war detainees, contributed the maximum $2,000 to Sen. John Kerry's presidential campaign.
Federal Election Commission records show that William F. Schulz, executive director of Amnesty USA, contributed $2,000 to Mr. Kerry's campaign last year. Mr. Schulz also has contributed $1,000 to the 2006 campaign of Sen. Edward M. Kennedy, Massachusetts Democrat. Also, Joe W. "Chip" Pitts III, board chairman of Amnesty International USA, gave the maximum $2,000 allowed by federal law to John Kerry for President. Mr. Pitts is a lawyer and entrepreneur who advises the American Civil Liberties Union.
Amnesty USA yesterday told The Washington Times that staff members make policy based on laws governing human rights, pointing out that the organization had criticized some of President Clinton's policies. "We strive to do everything humanly possible to see that the personal political perspectives of our leadership have no bearing whatsoever upon the nature of our findings and the conduct of our work," a spokesman said.
Amnesty International describes itself as nonpartisan. Disclosure of the leadership's political leanings came yesterday as the Bush administration continued to lash out at the human rights group for remarks last week by Irene Khan, Amnesty's secretary-general.
Mrs. Khan compared the U.S. detention center at U.S. Naval Base Guantanamo Bay, Cuba, where more than 500 suspected al Qaeda and Taliban members are held, to Soviet dictator Josef Stalin's "gulag" prison system. At the same time, Mr. Schulz issued a statement calling Defense Secretary Donald H. Rumsfeld and other top administration officials "architects of torture." Mr. Schulz suggested that other countries could file war-crime charges against the top officials and arrest them.
Since Sunday, Air Force Gen. Richard B. Myers, chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff; Vice President Dick Cheney; and President Bush have accused Amnesty International of irresponsible criticism. Yesterday, it was Mr. Rumsfeld's turn. "No force in the world has done more to liberate people that they have never met than the men and women of the United States military," Mr. Rumsfeld said at the Pentagon press conference. "That's why the recent allegation that the U.S. military is running a gulag at Guantanamo Bay is so reprehensible. Most would define a gulag as where the Soviet Union kept millions in forced labor concentration camps. ... To compare the United States and Guantanamo Bay to such atrocities cannot be excused."
Mr. Rumsfeld said "at least a dozen" of the 200 detainees released from Guantanamo "have already been caught back on the battlefield, involved in efforts to kidnap and kill Americans."
Mr. Schulz posted a statement yesterday on Amnesty's Web site (www.amnesty.org) that said, in part, "Donald Rumsfeld and the Bush administration ignored or dismissed Amnesty International's reports on the abuse of detainees for years, and senior officials continue to ignore the very real plight of men detained without charge or trial."
Posted by: too true ||
06/02/2005 09:45 ||
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#1
what a shame. A once great institution who helped people in dire need is now reduced to political hacks.
I look forward to the day when we get to see if there are connections to Soros, or other anti-us forces who have made a concerted effort to invade institutions like the Ford Foundation, some of our Universities, Amnesty, etc to co-opt the public and charity funds to use against the united states, or if this is all just a sad and sorry state set of a spoiled and over-pampered generation.
You look at Kerry, who aided and abetted the North Vietnamese and you wonder just how deep the rot goes. Did outside forces use these ambitious but weak individuals to permeate our institutions, or is it all just a sad sign of our times?
I believe that the anti-war movement in the 60s was funded in part by foreign governments, likely USSR, China or East Germany. We know now that top leadership in anti-war and leftist "movements" in the USA had met with the East German STASI in the 60s, and I believe the STASI may have been active agents for a foreign government.
If any of the above is true then the crimes committed then are still being comitted now, that is to say, a conspiracy is ongoing, which means if we can't get them for treason we can at least get them for any number of other laws NOW ON THE BOOKS, for giving aid and comfort to an armed enemy of the United States.
There has never been a satisfactory explanation how those people could take off work or whatever was in their lives to take part in the protests and all the other activities including seditious activities without receiving some sort of aid.
I seriosuly doubt that individuals in the US who gave to the anti-war movment in large amount were not funded by foreign governments.
After 40 years of actively trying to undermine our military efforts I want answers to these and related question because I believe the answers will prove my theory. I need to be proven one way or the other.
#6
Badanov -- all the pro-Saddam "peace" marches were organized by ANSWER, the Stalinist front organization. I wouldn't be surprised if they were funded by China, France, Iran, and some of our other enemies.
Posted by: Robert Crawford ||
06/02/2005 13:59 Comments ||
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#7
RC:
I thought the Workers World Party (aka ANSWER) was Trotskyite, rather than Stalinist. I can't keep My commies straight.
Of course, they're all murderous bastards. Probably even worse than the jihadis. They will at least let you live if you convert.
#8
frontpagemag.com had some good stuff awhile back about how many of these groups all operate out of the same offices in new york. The list of players between them was so incestuous and outright communist that it was very interesting. Code Pink, Rukas Society, Mothers against guns, Answer, move.on etc.
It's time that our government agencies stopped simply monitoring this ad nasuem and actually let the people of this country know about these groups.
I don't think that everyone who works for them is a communist or is even aware that they are useful idiots, but it's time we let the people know who is funing the progressive agenda.
#10
AI is the only 'political' organization I have ever been a member of. That makes 3 of the regulars ex-AI members (I think it was Desert Blondie who said yesterday she was). Interesting that 3 regulars come from a concern for individual human rights background, which is what AI used to stand for.
#12
I have seen several arguments that Bush made AI a credible source by using AI reports that were critical of Cuba, NK etc.
Using AI was probably a mistake, but mostly the users were the State Department which sometimes seems to operate more as a lefty 527 than as an arm of the executive branch of the US Governament.
Posted by: Super Hose ||
06/02/2005 21:23 Comments ||
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SNIP
He said, "Pinches gueros culeros que no quieren que progrese la raza (Damn white boys, they don't want us to make progress)," and "Que mal les hace uno (What harm do we do them)?"
And here I thought "La Raza" means race.
You need the white man to progress, what does that say about your socioeconomic policies? I'm getting tired of getting blamed for frog/spik colonialism.
SNIP
was in a bar with my friends, drinking and joking around until the soccer game on the TV was interrupted by a news flash about the Minuteman. Everyone gathered around this older man who said he was a lawyer. "The only thing that these people are doing is pissing off the narcos, the coyotes and the Mara Salvatrucha (a gang that spans Latin America)," he said. Some of the folks laughed.
In the neighborhood where I was raised in Oaxaca, the narcos have a pretty strong following. They are thought to be generous with their allies and dangerous to their enemies.
Even though people know the narcos are up to no good, the drug lords are thought of as people who don't forget where they came from, and don't forget their folks.
Before he left he bar, the lawyer said, "El narco no perdona, y la sangre va a tener que ser derramada (The narco doesn't forgive, and blood will have to be spilled)." The room cheered. Copyright PNS
They really are clueless moonbats, aren't they? At some point we will not tolerate drug lords taking our people out.
I remember Kiki Camerena and what happened when we closed the border.
#2
I have a really, really bad feeling that Mara Salvatrucha is well on the way to becoming the next al-Qaeda. It is spreading now over two continents, and while al-Qaeda worships death and chaos out of religion, MS does so out of the pursuit of money and power.
#3
I read a technothriller in the 90s about mexican narco gangs being the pretext for a US invasion of Mexico. How much of a fight could Mexico put up?
MIght be the best thing to happen to the people of Mexico if we invaded, cleaned the place up, and set up a proper government.
#7
the Mexican's crossing the border has been tolerated because for the most part, they are not violent and they are hard workers who contribute to our society.
Good grief, people, take a lesson from history now and then. Attack America if you feel like having us descend on you and crush you.
#10
Mexico needs to have adult supervision rammed down their fake-nationalistic machismo throats. Either by US intervention or uprising - with all it's uncontrolled possibilities
Posted by: Frank G ||
06/02/2005 20:18 Comments ||
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#11
MIght be the best thing to happen to the people of Mexico if we invaded, cleaned the place up, and set up a proper government.
I'd be in favor of a punitive expedition. Go in, break a LOT of shit, then leave and let the rest of Central America divide it up between themselves.
I am afraid that you will need to adjust your statement---Mexicans used to make contributions to the economy and used to be fairly law-abiding (with the exception of the illegal bit). We are now seeing that they have discovered the Welfare State and are hard at work taking advantage of the system. At this point each immigrant is prbably taking 1.1 times what they contribute . . . if they are here legally. The illegals take about 2.5 of what they contribute. It is choking CA hosptials to death. How long before it begins to choke the healthcare systems in other states?
Time to take care of the problem, one way or another.
#18
I'd like the liberation of baja - nice beaches, surf and once you get past the border (hustlers), the people are really nice. A one-time strike makes me wanna get my Wild Bunch DVD out (again) for review :-)
Posted by: Frank G ||
06/03/2005 0:01 Comments ||
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WASHINGTON (Reuters) - The Pentagon on Wednesday postponed by more than a week the release of military recruiting figures for May, as the Army and Marine Corps struggle to attract new troops amid the Iraq war. The military services had routinely provided most recruiting statistics for a given month on the first business day of the next month.
Air Force Lt. Col. Ellen Krenke, a Pentagon spokeswoman, said the May numbers for the active-duty and reserve components of the all-volunteer military will be released on June 10. "Military recruiting is instrumental to our readiness and merits the earliest release of data. But at the same time, this information must be reasonably scrutinized and explained to the public, which deserves the fullest insight into military performance in this important area," Krenke said.
Asked whether the move would simply delay the release of bad news, Krenke said, "That's not necessarily true," noting that "we expect the numbers to improve during the summer months."
Don't play games with the numbers, guys, it never works and just makes people mad.
Military recruiters have said potential recruits and their parents were expressing wariness about enlisting during the Iraq war. They said improving civilian job opportunities also were affecting recruiting.
The regular Army missed its recruiting goals for three straight months entering May, falling short by a whopping 42 percent in April. The Army was 16 percent behind its year-to-date target entering May, with a goal of signing up 80,000 recruits in fiscal 2005, which ends Sept. 30. The Marine Corps missed its goal for signing up new recruits for four straight months entering May and was 2 percent behind its year-to-date goal. It hopes to sign up 38,195 recruits in fiscal 2005.
Posted by: Steve White ||
06/02/2005 00:09 ||
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...This is exceptionally bad. During my time as a USAF Recruiter (89-93), delay of the previous month's data was a sign that something had happened to embarass the leadership, and they were A)trying to manipulate the data to show something it didn't, or B)spin the hell out of it. My guess is that not only did none of the services make their numbers, they missed 'em by a country mile. Sadly, the only real response from the services will be to pick a few poor bastards at random from the offices and 86 their careers - "pour encourager les Outres..."
Mike
Posted by: Mike Kozlowski ||
06/02/2005 0:36 Comments ||
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#2
I hope not, Mike.
Look, of COURSE the numbers are bad. With the MSM constantly playing up casualties and violence and downplaying the stable parts of Iraq, the progress there and most importantly the THREAT to us, why would people risk their lives?
Every one of us needs to work around the MSM to make sure our friends, neighbors and relatives understand what is at stake here. I know some of my family don't and it's not easy to have those discussions. At times I'm discouraged and tired and just want to give up. But if you and I give up, there won't be a free society to defend 20 years from now ... we'll all either be Chinese-speaking dhimmis or we will have descended into barbarity ourselves when we finally wake up and have no options other than massive use of force, i.e. nuclear or other.
Posted by: too true ||
06/02/2005 6:38 Comments ||
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#3
At what point do the actions of the press cross over into treason?
Posted by: Robert Crawford ||
06/02/2005 7:51 Comments ||
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#4
A point so long ago I can't remember it.
Posted by: Mrs. Davis ||
06/02/2005 8:38 Comments ||
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#5
Recruitment has historically been tied to the economy rather than military actions. While Iraq may be a factor in this, the economy is doing just fine, regardless of the lies distributed by the Dems and their DNC talking points agents in the MSM since before the November elections. Add to the additional increase of 24,000 more Army personnel in the recruitment pool with the, late as usual in rebuilding the force, authorization in the FY2005 budget, and I don't know how anyone expected to achieve goal. Just with the good economy I'd doubt they could make FY2004 numbers. The effect of Iraq will be seen more in retention. Of that, how much loss can be accredited to the constant tempo driven by 6 and 9 month rotations? They may need to rebracket the time frames and replacement process.
#6
This is a collective effort. The MSM amplifes the Dummycratic messsage, the universities, but also the favorable economy.
Posted by: Captain America ||
06/02/2005 9:06 Comments ||
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#7
The US needs to establish a foreign legion - it would be far more useful than the French one.
Posted by: Homer ||
06/02/2005 9:37 Comments ||
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#8
The effect of Iraq will be seen more in retention
I'm hearing about a lot of guys changing their minds about enlisting because of parental pressure based on TV images of Iraq - the "mom factor". The economy isn't all that working here ....
Posted by: too true ||
06/02/2005 9:39 Comments ||
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#9
18, 19, 20 year old momma's boys probably are not the basic material you want for the kind of work that needs to be done. There's a difference between respect and pandering.
#10
The best thing the services could do is up the pay rate, and I don't mean a measly 4 or 5 %. I mean big time. Make it a profession competitve with civilain wages. You will then see enlistments up in response.
Posted by: Bill Nelson ||
06/02/2005 12:20 Comments ||
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A few weeks ago, there were stories about out-of-college hiring being up 19% or so this year. Probably similar numbers of out-of-high school hiring, and the draw into college is probably also up.
It doesn't help that the press is trying to create another Vietnam loss, of course, and I think they should be held accountable for it. Perhaps some GIs should start a class-action suit against the press for defamation.
Posted by: Robert Crawford ||
06/02/2005 13:56 Comments ||
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Bill,
They do 'up' the pay but through bonuses and those have gone way up and far across the skill listings. There is a reason why they prefer bonuses to base pay. Its retirement costs projected out in twenty years with 50% of base pay, not housing, not uniform, not bonuses. Manpower is the single biggest cost to DoD. Both parties had reduced the Army after Gulf War I from 750,000 to under 500,000. Now they discovered they cut too deep. When the war is stablized to a level of minding the injuns on the reservations, they can't demobilize like after GWI, Vietnam, or WWII. However, they can cut back on bonuses, which will be another 'peace dividend' till the next flare up. What they'll have on hand is what they will need for a long time and the retirement costs will eat the budget up if they put it all in base pay. Military retiree pay is accounted for in the defense budget now and it isn't small. The alternative would be to switch new generations out of the retirement program and just pay them the big bucks up front. That has its own personnel problems.
For everyone else this is something the republic has to pay attention to carefully. The cost of maintaining a highly professional volunteer force is expensive and one of the underlying issues that undermined another historic republic. That expense is one but not the only reason so many Democrats sponsor legislation to return to the draft. Slaves are cheaper than free men. Less defense spending particularly in the form of pay means more money for bread and games to support their power base.
A UN official has been fired by Secretary-General Kofi Annan for misconduct in the Iraq oil-for-food program. Joseph Stephanides is the first U.N. official to be fired following an investigation into charges of wrongdoing in the program. UN spokesman Stephane Dujarric told reporters on Wednesday that Annan was dismissing Stephanides for interfering in the competitive bidding process for an Oil-for-Food contract. He said another official charged with misconduct in the program, Benon Sevan, wouldn't be punished until further investigations are conducted. The two officials are both Cypriot and both claim they are innocent.
Posted by: Fred ||
06/02/2005 00:00 ||
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keep chopping of heads, annan - it's a nice warm up for the final act when we get to see yours on the platter.
Malaysia's new coastguard and search and rescue body is expected to be set up in November of this year. The country's Maritime Law Enforcement Organisation will initially draw about 4,000 personnel and at least five patrol vessels from navy, customs and fisheries authorities and the air force. The new maritime enforcement unit will take over security patrols in the Malacca Straits.
Malaysia is also in talks with Indonesia and Singapore to address the issue of 'hot pursuit' of pirates into each other's territorial waters, thereby enhancing the chances of catching them. At present, the three countries' security patrols are prohibited from crossing national boundaries. It is not known when this change of policy might be achieved.
#1
This measure should sound the death-knell to the Malaysian drug business. By adding another agency to bribe the govt. will take all the incentive out of drugs,piracy,poaching.
June 2, 2005: One reason Iran, despite it's attempts to create nuclear weapons, wants to make nice with the European Union, is so that the Iranian tank force can be upgraded. Currently the Iranians have about 2,000 tanks, all of them rather out of date, poorly equipped and not in the best of repair. The Iranians have a plan. There are many excellent upgrades available for older tanks, and they want access to the European firms that do this work.
The largest assortment of upgrades are available for the Russian T-72 tank. Iran has about 900 of these, of several models from the 1970s through the early 90s. The next most common tanks are nearly 600 T54/55 T-59: (a 1950s design). Upgrades are also available for this one. The rest of Iran's tanks are an odd assortment of vehicles not present in sufficient numbers to do upgrades. These include 75 Russian T-62s (not much better than the older T-55), 100 Shir Irans. These are locally developed, from the 1970s project based on the Chieftain (1960s vintage British tank). There are also 150 American M-60A1 (1960s era tank), 168 M-47s (1950s era American tank), and 100 Zulfigar (a locally designed tank, not as good as the T-72).
The principal upgrades are improved fire control (computerized, with laser range finder), more armor (ERA, which is explosive reactive armor) and better ammo (the Chinese even sell depleted uranium shells). Improved communications gear is another useful upgrade, as well as new engines and the replacement of many other parts that have worn out after two decades of embargoes.
Iran often talks about, and acts on, efforts, to build its own tanks. Two efforts at this have been dismal failures (although Iranian media said otherwise, professionals in the Iranian, and foreign militaries know better.) Buying new tanks in any quantity is not possible, but upgrades are. With these upgrades, Iran will dominate most local forces. Only the United States, and its thousands of M-1 tanks, would remain a threat. But that's what the nukes are for.
Posted by: Steve ||
06/02/2005 11:59 ||
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IIRC most of those Russian tanks are the so-called 'Jack in the Box' variety, right?
#2
Pretty much. Even with the upgrades, their tank forces suck money butt. Turkey has upgraded tanks, the Saudis have M1A2s and apachies, the Afgans have us and the Iraqis will soon have much better stuff.
#3
Soviet tanks are good primarily to intimidate your own population. They don't have the air superiority required to stand a chance against the US. Upgrade all you want.
Abu Ghannam: You belong to a bygone era. There are no people like you left in the world. You are not legitimate, you are terrorists. We consider you to be terrorists against us, against our people. Nothing is left to chance in Assad's Syria - everything is planned in advance by the security apparatuses. The 1,200 or 1,250 Ba'thists who will convene are required to serve as a "rubber stamp" on the plans made by the security apparatuses. Then they have to chant "Long live the leader, Bashar Assad," and declare their allegiance to him for all eternity, just as they chanted "with soul and in blood" for his father before him. This is what will happen in the (Ba'th party) convention. Can we expect anything from you? No. We are not deluded.
We all know Hafez Assad was no more that a bloodthirsty dictator, who ruled by steel and fire, and you called him "the leading father" or "our eternal leader." I blame you. You are responsible for what will happen to Syria. You are leading Syria to the same fate that has befallen Iraq.
Al-Hajj Ali: Hafez Assad was shocked by the defeat of June 1967, and three years later, he led the "Reform Movement" (i.e. coup) and restored balance to the country. Three years later, he led the greatest Arab war in the modern age — the October 1973 war, with all its significance. This war saw the largest tank battle in history! What are you laughing at?! Thousands of martyrs! Where are your martyrs?
Abu Ghannam: How much longer will we be controlled by the secret police? What kind of country is this, where you need a security permit to open up a hair salon or a falafel stand? I don't know. I don't know what this is. This has become a country in which Bashar Assad can give parts of it to his uncle and cousinâŠ
Al-Hajj Ali: What you're saying is disgraceful and shamful!
Abu Ghannam: Excuse meâŠ
Al-Hajj Ali: Don't cross the line into forbidden territory! Bashar Al-Asad is above accusations!
Abu Ghannam: As far as you're concerned.
Al-Hajj Ali: As far as I and the whole world are concerned. The first to refrain from accusing him is America!
#1
the October 1973 war, with all its significance. This war saw the largest tank battle in history!
which was fought between Israeli and EGYPTIAN tanks. As Israel sent its armor to Sinai, since Syrian troops were beaten relatively easily. How easy it is to forget:)
Iranian presidential election frontrunner Akbar Hashemi Rafsanjani said yesterday he was in favor of ending a quarter of a century of estrangement with the United States, but Washington needed to make the first move. "If they make a positive sign, I am one of those who believes that we need to sort out this problem," Rafsanjani said.
We haven't turned Iran into a large, slightly irridescent flat spot. Consider that the first move. Fatty.
"I am convinced that it is the Americans who need to show their goodwill so that relations can resume," the top cleric and former president was quoted as telling a gathering of university professors. "They need to deal with us as equals and renounce their animosity."
Y'all just keep on jumping up and down and spewing spittle and hollering about the Great Satan for now. We'll deal with you later.
Iran and the United States cut off diplomatic relations in 1980, after revolutionaries stormed the US Embassy in Tehran and held 52 US personnel hostage for 444 days. But Rafsanjani, seen as a savvy deal-maker who favors closer ties with the West, has been playing up the issue in the run-up to the June 17 presidential poll — an apparent bid to draw support from many Iranians keen to see the US problem resolved.
'Nother words, it's all for internal consumption only. Somehow, I guessed that.
His comments came the day after he called on the 26-year-old Islamic government to undergo a radical rethink of the way it deals with the international community and how it relates with its own burgeoning youth population. "There are new demands. Nobody should think that we can act by employing the same literature, the same policies or the same attitudes that we had at the beginning of the revolution or at the end of the (Iran-Iraq) war," Rafsanjani said in a televised campaign broadcast. His comments were a marked departure from the usual stance from a government totally at odds with the United States and much of the international community — and also in contrast to the perceived opposition of Iran's supreme leader, Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, to any talks of resuming ties with America. According to informal opinion polls in the Iranian press Rafsanjani currently leads the eight government-approved candidates hoping to succeed incumbent reformist President Mohammad Khatami. While Khatami has promoted detente and urged a "dialogue among civilizations", he has also failed to break the ice with Washington.
Posted by: Fred ||
06/02/2005 00:00 ||
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âThey need to deal with us as equals and renounce their animosity.â
Yeah, right. Lessee'...#1 economy and democracy in the world, #1 military superpower in the world, #1 contributor to the UN's budget (not that that's anything to really brag about), #1 scientific & technical paper producer in the world, #1 in virtually any aspect I can think of vs what - a 3rd World, 7th Century theocracy whose only real attribute is that it sits on top of an ocean of oil, nuclear wannabe', Wahhabi-ridden dictatorship.
How does that make the US and Iran equals?
The animosity is a product of the Ayatollahs and their Revolutionary Guards' rhetoric, not something the US actually did to them. But then, to the Iranian government, it;s always the Great Satan's fault, isn;t it?
Iran needs to be careful that we don;t treat them like the enemy of our interests (and those of our allies) they actually represent or the only equality they'd be likely to receive is the equality of being reduced to a mushroom cloud the size of Nebraska (to misquote a favorite movie).
TEHERAN - Iranian presidential candidate Akbar Hashemi- Rafsanjani said that censorship was no longer working in Iran, local media reported on Wednesday.
Torture and repression, however, work as well as ever.
Speaking late Tuesday during a meeting with Iranian film and music artists, Rafsanjani said that Iran was in the era of "data transfer" and that authorities were powerless to stop the "explosive flow" of information. "Therefore the mechanism of censorship and physical control is no longer working," added the 70-year-old cleric, who is regarded as the favourite to win June 17 presidential elections.
"We can no longer censor the news, but we can manage it. I'm pleased to announce that effective today, the Islamic Government of Iran has hired as our agents the New York Times, the CBS Evening News, the ... what is it ... speak fast ... what? ... what do you mean, they already work for us? ..."
The conservative clergy in Iran has in the last eight years imposed suppressive measures on the country's press and ordered the closure of almost 100 publications. Numerous political websites are blocked upon judiciary order. "Today's censorship system is either useless or has a reverse effect, therefore we need new mechanisms," Rafsanjani said.
Posted by: Steve White ||
06/02/2005 00:00 ||
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I can remember when Khomeini died and Rafsanjani became president the first time, he was a major A-hole then , and I can't believe he doesn't still secretly chant "death to America" in his basement when he is at home. Why are we to believe that someone with the guardian councils express permission to run for office would be anything less than the radical freedom hating fundamentalist that he is and always will be.
That's a correct statement, but not in the way they intended ...
Syria's Interior Ministry has blamed the murder of an outspoken Kurdish Muslim religious leader on criminals, while Kurdish parties charged he was tortured and killed by the authorities. Tens of thousands of mourners, meanwhile, turned out for the funeral of Sheikh Mohammad Maashuq al-Khaznawi near Qamishli in northeast Syria, Kurdish officials said. The sheikh had gone missing on May 10 and was believed to have been detained by Syrian police, according to Kurdish parties. The body was handed over to his family by the authorities early Wednesday. The 46-year-old Khaznawi "was killed at the hands of Syrian authorities," a spokesman for the banned party Yakiti said in a statement received by AFP in Beirut.
But an Interior Ministry official in Damascus, quoted by Syria's state news agency SANA, said the sheikh was kidnapped and killed by a criminal gang. "Five people kidnapped Sheikh Khaznawi in Damascus and took him off to Aleppo (to the north) where they killed him," the unnamed official said, without giving a motive. "The gang has been arrested," he said.
However, an official of the Kurdish Democratic Party in Syria, Nazir Mustapha, said the sheikh was seen at a military hospital in Damascus with "traces of torture" on his body. "The authorities should show the gang on television," said Mustapha.
And an autopsy report, with photos ...
The sheikh was widely popular in Syria, and was known for teaching that Islam and democracy are compatible. He was last seen leaving Damascus's Islamic Studies Center, of which he was vice-president. Human rights groups announced the disappearance of Khaznawi, while the authorities denied holding him. Syrian lawyer and human rights activist Anwar Bunni had said the authorities would be held responsible for his life.
Posted by: Fred ||
06/02/2005 00:00 ||
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And Amnesty International had anything to say? I mean, anything relevant to say...
Free Patriotic Movement leader Michel Aoun formally unveiled a political alliance with his one-time pro-Syrian rivals, in a bid to weaken leading opposition figure Walid Jumblatt in what is expected to be the main electoral battle of Lebanon's crucial polls. With much at stake in the Baabda-Aley district of Mount Lebanon, which is made up of Maronites, Druze and Shiite voters, both Aoun and Jumblatt have sought the backing of pro-Syrian forces, each hoping to trump the other and gain extra seats in the new Parliament. Jumblatt's list in Baabda-Aley, which is also backed by pro-Syrian groups, in his case Hizbullah, is expected to be announced in the next 24 hours.
But the resistance group is also supporting Aoun's candidates in Kesrouan-Jbeil and Zahle districts in addition to being aligned with Amal, and Jumblatt's Progressive Socialist Party and Hariri's Future Movement in the Western Bekaa. This latest round of dealmaking between political parties was sharply criticized by the influential Maronite Christian Bishops' Council, which said: "The chaos within the ranks that we are seeing indicates a neglect of national principles and a lack of clarity of options." It added Lebanon's elections had been "transformed into a competition of interests and personal rivalries."
From here it looks like the oligarchs are doing some fairly significant realigning. But watching sausage being made is more appetizing and easier to follow.
Posted by: Fred ||
06/02/2005 00:00 ||
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Al-Qaeda's peculiar constitution as an organization and its proven ability to plan and execute mega-terror attacks makes it the most likely candidate to pull off the world's first serious terrorist attack involving weapons of mass destruction. [1] Al-Qaeda's attempt to cause massive destruction would serve all the traditional purposes of terrorism: symbolism, propaganda and psychological impact, irrespective of the failure or success of the mission. Precisely because of pervasive speculation surrounding WMD terrorism, it would be more surprising if terrorists didn't try to acquire these weapons. While it is generally agreed that a mass-casualty terrorist attack involving WMD is inevitable, the precise timing of the assault depends on the dynamics determining the balance between motivation and capabilities.
Weapons of mass destruction — biological, chemical, radiological and nuclear weapons — are not easy tools to handle. Consequently there have only been two cases of attacks involving WMD: the Aum Shinrikyo case in Tokyo in 1995, and the anthrax letters in the United States in the fall of 2001. These basic and crude attacks neither resulted in mass casualties nor had a massive political impact. A successful attack causing mass casualties and generating catastrophic political and social instability is dependent on acquiring high technical expertise and having the motive and capability to destroy masses of civilians and possibly obliterating entire human communities. There is little doubt that al-Qaeda qualifies for the latter requirement, but its ability to acquire in-depth technical expertise is much in doubt, not least because for now at least the organization is on the defensive.
Invisible weapons
The most suitable weapon of mass destruction for terrorist purposes would be biological, radiological or chemical. Nuclear weapons are more difficult to develop, or to obtain by buying. In March 2005, a jihadist forum al-Ma'sada published a-do-it-yourself plan to make a dirty bomb. [2] This is an indicator that the broader Salafi-Jihadist tendency that takes inspiration from al-Qaeda's ideological and methodological example is exhorting jihadists everywhere to endeavor to develop WMD. But given the sheer complexity of developing or acquiring WMD and then successfully deploying it against suitable targets, it is unlikely that freelance jihadists or even associated organizations will be able to execute a WMD attack. The attack will likely be carried out by the hardcore of al-Qaeda for primarily two reasons: firstly the network has nearly 15 years experience of being at the cutting edge of terrorism and secondly it alone has access to the most competent and accomplished human resources.
Nuclear or radiological weapons don't have the same fear-effect as biological and or chemical weapons. Moreover chemical weapons are easier to produce than biological weapons, but their capacity to cause mass-casualties is much smaller. A biological weapon would be the best choice for al-Qaeda, considering its potential to cause mass casualties and spread infectious over vast distances.
The employment of mass-casualty terrorism conforms to the agenda and worldview of the increasingly rootless global Jihadism theorized by the al-Qaeda ideologue, Dr. Ayman al-Zawahiri. A few decades ago the main purposes of terrorists were to gain attention and propagandize, while causing mass destruction was simply not an option. In the worldview of rootless Jihadists however, the audience is now superfluous; what matters is to cause mass casualties and create the greatest amount of instability possible, irrespective of the consequences . In this context discussions about motives to deploy WMD are irrelevant. No matter how complex the deep principles or incentives behind WMD terrorism, the only reliable motive is an unflinching desire to slay blindly.
Motivations and capabilities: Present imbalance
The most important capabilities of terrorist groups could be divided into three parts: financial, technological and psychological. Al-Qaeda's liquidity situation is thought to be favorable, not least because the network continues to receive funding from various sources. [3] A successful WMD attack would also require enormous technological resources. Globalization facilitates access to advanced technologies in a dualistic way: both terrorists and counter-terrorism agents benefit from this. Psychological capability is the third prerequisite for a successful attack and at the same time, a compulsory quality for terrorists. In the case of WMD terrorism, psychological incentives have to be immense.
Given the difficulty of developing WMD, al-Qaeda may opt to buy these weapons from rogue arms merchants or other criminal networks. But even in the event of acquiring these weapons, their successful dispersion requires sophisticated technical capabilities. In the case of biological or chemical weapons, a small blush of wind or other disturbing factor can destroy the whole project.
Al-Qaeda & WMD
Although Al-Qaeda clearly has an interests in WMD, the group hasn't directly threatened a WMD attack. The first Islamist ruling about the use of WMD was published in May 21, 2003 by the Saudi Sheikh Naser bin Hamad al-Fahd. [4] Al-Fahd is one of the young leading Salafi clerics of the Saudi Islamist opposition who supports the culture of global jihad led by Osama Bin Laden.
There has been at least one relatively well documented case of an al-Qaeda directed and funded plot to attack the U.S. homeland with a "dirty" bomb. The plot revolved around Jose Padilla (also known as Abdullah al-Muhajir), a U.S. citizen of Puerto Rican origin, who was detained by U.S. federal agents at Chicago's O'Hare airport in May 2002. Padilla was allegedly flying into Chicago from Pakistan to conduct a reconnaissance mission on behalf of his al-Qaeda task-masters in Karachi. Much confusion surrounds the Padilla case, but it has been repeatedly claimed that the mission had been originally commissioned by Abu Zubaydah, al-Qaeda's former senior operational planner, who was arrested in March 2002. It is unclear if information gleaned from Abu Zubaydah's interrogation directly led to the abrupt disruption of Padilla's mission.
Currently the central question revolves around the operational viability of al-Qaeda after the consistent and catastrophic setbacks the organization has had to contend with since late 2001. While the long silence since the mega-terror attacks of 9/11 have been interpreted in the context of al-Qaeda's possible operational demise, it is worthwhile to remember that al-Qaeda follows a logic of its own and is not influenced by any particular audience, let alone a western one. Moreover, the recent video and audio messages of Bin Laden could be interpreted as completing a WMD warning cycle. In other words, al-Qaeda is giving the West a final chance to correct its behavior in the Muslim world before it launches a catastrophic attack.
In recent months much speculation has surrounded the nature of the relationship between Abu Musab al-Zarqawi's insurgent organization in Iraq and the hardcore of al-Qaeda. Besides his now legendary exploits in Iraq, Zarqawi has been accused of organizing a failed millennium attack in Amman, organizing the assassination of the American diplomat Lawrence Foley in October 2002 and masterminding a foiled plot to attack the headquarters of the Jordanian intelligence service with crude chemical weapons. [5] If Zarqawi survives the Iraqi insurgency, he may be a likely candidate to lead an al-Qaeda backed WMD attack on the United States homeland or on U.S. interests in different parts of the world. There are two reasons to be fearful: firstly Zarqawi, despite all the legend and misinformation that surrounds him, has proven himself an extraordinarily accomplished and resourceful terrorist; secondly the Zarqawi organization is now staffed mainly by local Iraqis who have more reason than most Islamists to hate the United States. Indeed the radicalizing experience of the Iraq conflict and the fact that a substantial element in Iraq's Arab Sunni community harbors revenge against the United States for the humiliation which they believe has been inflicted on their country, may lead some Iraqis to take drastic action against their tormentors. While it may only be a matter of time before radicalized and revenge-seeking Iraqis attack U.S. interests outside of Iraq, the real potential for a catastrophic WMD attack planned and executed by this constituency is a sobering thought indeed.
There is already some reports that Iraqis have begun to deploy crude WMD weapons against U.S. forces in Iraq. In the beginning of 2005, the Iraqi correspondent of Mafkarat al-Islam reported that fighters fired mortar rounds containing chemical substances at the U.S. al-Habbaniyah base. [6] There has also been speculation that Iraqi guerrillas fired rockets loaded with Sarin gas at a US base near Falluja in February 2005. [7] While neither of these reports have been confirmed, there can be little doubt that Iraq is still a repository of some WMD material, despite the fact that none have been found since the ouster of Saddam Hussein. In an ironic twist of catastrophic proportions the U.S. invasion and occupation of Iraq may result in exactly the kind of attack that it was purportedly designed to prevent in the first place; namely a WMD attack on U.S. interests by Iraqis.
Posted by: Dan Darling ||
06/02/2005 16:43 ||
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The desire is definately there, but given their craven nature and past actions, I would look for WMD attacks on rival muslims or "sympathizers" in the middle east. The prospect of soft targets, though the reasoning sometimes seems dubious,appeals to extremests. They blow up their own people and the people hate us for it. The security situation, especially in Iraq and Afghanistan, seems chaotic enough to capitalize on. Let's face it, if they can touch off a WMD anywhere we'll get the heat. The ACLU,Newsweek and Amnesty INTL will come running to blame it on us.
I Can't Decide Who the Biggest Assholes Are. The Terrorists or the Assholes that go to the matt for them.
The following article is the second and final part of a series on sectarian organizations in Pakistan linked with international terrorism. The first part, Sipah-e-Sahaba: Fomenting Sectarian Violence in Pakistan, appeared in Terrorism Monitor Volume 3, Issue 2.
In the dizzyingly diverse universe of Pakistani Islamic militancy, one organization stands out for its secrecy, lethality and unrelenting pursuit of its core objectives: namely the eradication of Pakistan's Shi'a community and the eventual transformation of the country into a Taliban style Islamic state. Lashkar-e-Jhangvi (LeJ Jhangvi's Army), firmly allied to the Taliban and the Islamic Movement of Uzbekistan (IMU) and with loose links to al-Qaeda, is undoubtedly the most prolific and callous terrorist organization in Pakistan.
The suicide bomb attack at the Bari Imam shrine near the diplomatic quarter of the Pakistani capital, on May 27 which resulted in the deaths of at least 20 Shi'a worshippers (most likely carried out by a LeJ suicide bomber) underscores the intractable intensity and lethality of Pakistan's sectarian conflict. While focused primarily on Shi'a s, the LeJ often targets western interests in Pakistan and moreover its activities are part of a much broader constellation of Islamic militant agitation in the country which in the mid- to long-term threatens to overturn Pakistan's military dominated and ostensibly pro-western political system.
Origins
Ostensibly a break-away faction of Sipah-e-Sahaba Pakistan (SSP), LeJ was founded in 1996 by an extremist triumvirate within SSP namely Riaz Basra, Akram Lahori and Malik Ishaque. Inspired by the ideals of SSP's founding leader Maulana Haq Nawaz Jhangvi, Basra and his followers accused the SSP leadership of not following the ideals of its slain leader. Another plausible reason for the emergence of LeJ was the rising violence of Sipah-e-Mohammed Pakistan (SMP), a Shi'a organization formed in 1994, ostensibly to target the leaders of SSP. Many top leaders of the SSP, including Israr-ul-Haq Qasmi and Zia ur-Rahman Farooqi were assassinated by SMP extremists in the following years.
However it is widely believed that the split of 1996 was manufactured to protect the political integrity of SSP and enable the so-called breakaway faction to transform itself into a purely paramilitary-terrorist organization.
However it is widely believed that the split of 1996 was manufactured to protect the political integrity of SSP and enable the so-called breakaway faction to transform itself into a purely paramilitary-terrorist organization. In any case, events since 1996 have proved beyond doubt that the LeJ constitutes the armed wing of the SSP and is ultimately controlled by the leaders of that powerful and Saudi-backed sectarian organization.
In the years since 1996, LeJ has developed into a formidable terrorist organization; according to one estimate, until 2001 LeJ had been involved in at least 350 violent incidents. [1] However the organization has had to contend with severe setbacks. In 2002, more than 30 Lashkar-e-Jhangvi militants were killed in numerous shootouts that resulted in the deaths of senior leaders. These included Riaz Basra, who was killed along with three associates near Mailsi in Multan on May 14, and LeJ chief Asif Ramzi, who was slain with six accomplices near Allahwala Town in Karachi. The slayings of Basra and Ramzi dealt a severe blow to the foundation of LeJ and its mother organization, Sipah-e-Sahaba Pakistan.
A visible crack in the ranks of the organization developed during the Majlis-e-Shura (Supreme Council) held in its former HQ near Kabul, Afghanistan on December 27, 2000. The divisions revolved around the personal ambitions of Qari Abdul Hai, a senior LeJ leader (and a commander of training camps in Sarobi, Afghanistan) who accused Riaz Basra of financial misappropriation. [2] However, the situation normalized with the interference of the Taliban regime and involvement of Jaish-e-Muhammad, but the operational differences remained until the killing of Basra in May 2002. [3]
Presently the LeJ is led by its Saalar-i-Aala (Commander-in-Chief), Akram Lahori, one of the founding leaders of the armed group and erstwhile bodyguard of Maulana Haq Nawaz Jhangvi. Lahori was sentenced to death along with his two associates on three counts of sectarian murders by an anti-terrorism court in Karachi in April 2003, but was later acquitted in one of the cases. The court gave him the benefit of the doubt in the murder case of the Pakistan State Oil Managing Director Shaukat Raza Mirza, who was killed on July 26, 2001. Lahori admitted his involvement in some 38 cases of sectarian killings in Sindh including the June 14, 2002 car bomb blast outside the US Consulate in Karachi, and remains in police custody.
Operational Distinctions
The LeJ differs from many of the other Islamic militant organizations in Pakistan insofar as it shuns media exposure and tries to operate as covertly as possible. Its only outlet to the outside world is occasional faxed messages accepting responsibility for terrorist outrages and through its publication Intiqam-i-Haq. [4] Lashkar-e-Jhangvi has focused most of its attention on Pakistan's Shi'a minority and Iranian interests.
Some of the more prominent recent attacks on Shi'a s include a July 2003 suicide attack on a Shi'a mosque in Quetta, which resulted in the deaths of over 40 worshippers. A letter issued by the LeJ claimed responsibility for the carnage, indicating that the attack was a protest against Iran, Pakistani Shi'a s, President Pervez Musharraf and the United States. Eight months later, in March 2004, LeJ terrorists bombed another Shi'a mosque, this time slaughtering 47 worshippers. In similar attacks on the Hyderi mosque in May 7, and the Ali Raza mosque on May 31, suspected LeJ suicide bombers killed more than 40 worshipers.
Since the late 1980s a secret war has been taking place in major Pakistani cities, pitting the SSP/LeJ against the Iranian intelligence services and their local Pakistani agents, both Shi'a and Sunni. [5] This war intensified in February 1990 with the assassination of the SSP's most influential founding leader, Maulana Haq Nawaz Jhangvi, allegedly carried out by Iranian intelligence agents. This assassination had many repercussions, the most important of which was the creation of LeJ in 1996.
In June 1994, as part of its campaign of revenge for the assassination of Jhangvi, SSP militants took this secret war into Iranian territory for the first time by bombing the Imam Reza shrine in Mashhad, killing 26 Iranian Shi'a worshipers. The Iranian authorities reflexively blamed the main Iranian opposition group, the Iraqi-based and formerly armed Mojahedin-e-Khalq for the atrocity, but the Iranian intelligence services drew their own conclusions and in subsequent years assassinated several leading members of SSP/LeJ. There is no indication as of yet that the intensity of this secret war between agents of a foreign power and Pakistani religious fanatics is diminishing. Indeed, in early 2005, a Pakistani Intelligence agency report submitted to the Interior Ministry indicated that LeJ cadres have bought weapons from arms smugglers in the North West Frontier Province (NWFP) and may be preparing suicide missions against Iranian and Shi'a targets in various cities of Pakistan.
Aside from attacks on Pakistani Shi'a s and Iranians, LeJ is also known to have targeted leaders of the Pakistani establishment and western interests. The three most high profile targets of LeJ have been President Pervez Musharraf and two former Prime Ministers of Pakistan Nawaz Sharif and Mir Zafarullah Khan Jamali. Since 1998, LeJ has been trying to assassinate Sharif without any success; the closest they got was in January 1999 when LeJ militants attempted to blow the bridge on the Lahore-Raiwand road while Sharif was passing. Eid Muhammad, the explosive expert of LeJ, was alleged to have rigged Chaklala Bridge, Rawalpindi, with explosives in an attempt to assassinate President Pervez Musharraf on December 14, 2003. An attack on another former premier, Mir Zafarullah Khan Jamali, was also foiled with the arrest of an LeJ cadre on April 1 2004.
LeJ began to target Western interests in Pakistan after the United States toppled the Taliban regime in Afghanistan in late 2001. The Taliban was a firm ally of SSP/LeJ and allowed the latter to establish training bases on is territory. Indeed LeJ is believed to have been headquartered near Kabul until the collapse of the Taliban. LeJ militants are believed to have been involved in the kidnapping and subsequent murder of U.S. journalist Daniel Pearl in early 2002. The LeJ was also behind the bomb attack on May 8, 2002 in Karachi which killed 16 persons, including 12 French nationals. In another attack, near the U.S. Consulate in Karachi on June 14 of that year, 12 persons were killed. At least five of the 10 terrorists identified by the Pakistani government are believed to be LeJ cadres.
While there have been reports that al-Qaeda has used LeJ to attack western interests in Pakistan (particularly the ones listed above), there is little reliable evidence pointing to a contemporaneous relationship between the hardcore of al-Qaeda and SSP/LeJ. It seems that al-Qaeda's access to LeJ was severed after the slaying of Riaz Basra in May 2002. Basra allegedly maintained contact with al-Qaeda commanders through Harakat Ul Ansar (yet another Pakistani Islamic militant organization).
Interestingly the LeJ has forged a strong operational relationship with the Islamic Movement of Uzbekistan (IMU). These links were forged in Afghanistan when both organizations were fighting the Northern Alliance on behalf of the Taliban. Further and more recent evidence pointing to a strong relationship emerged form investigations into LeJ's endeavors to train female suicide bombers to attack the female quarters of Shi'a mosques. Pakistani intelligence reports have allegedly revealed that Aziza, a woman cadre of IMU has been imparting fidayeen training. [6]
According to Pakistani law enforcement agencies, the LeJ organization is made up of small cells that do not exceed seven members. A majority of LeJ's cadres are drawn from the Sunni madrasas in Pakistan. Almost the entire leadership of LeJ is composed of veterans of the Afghan Jihad. Moreover, prior to the collapse of the Taliban, the outfit imparted training in the hard terrains of Afghanistan and later deployed its militants all over Pakistan. LeJ training camps in Afghanistan was located near the Sarobi Dam, Kabul. Organizationally, LeJ is widely dispersed with cells and units all over the country, particularly in Punjab.
Notwithstanding its proscription in August 2001, LeJ remains as active as ever; last week's suicide bombing at the Bari Imam shrine underscores the organization's lethality and callous disregard for the national unity of Pakistan. There is no doubt that there is widespread revulsion in Pakistan for the type of mindless sectarian violence that LeJ inflicts on fellow Pakistanis. For instance former ISI chief General Javed Ashraf Qazi once dismissed LeJ and similar outfits as "zombies that kill their fellow Muslim brothers". [7] But despite this popular revulsion, the Pakistani authorities are unlikely to be able to contain LeJ unless they decisively move against its mother organization; Sipah-e-Sahaba Pakistan (now ostensibly named Milt-e-Islamia Pakistan). This is unlikely, given that the latter is a large and powerful organization that benefits from the patronage of the Saudi Arabian establishment. Furthermore sectarian violence is likely to increase as Islamization deepens in Pakistan and the country's establishment continues to atrophy.
This article starring:
AKRAM LAHORI
Lashkar-e-Jhangvi
ASIF RAMZI
Lashkar-e-Jhangvi
Bari Imam shrine
Daniel Pearl
EID MUHAMAD
Lashkar-e-Jhangvi
former ISI chief General Javed Ashraf Qazi
ISRAR UL HAQ QASMI
Sipah-e-Sahaba Pakistan
MALIK ISHAQUE
Lashkar-e-Jhangvi
MAULANA HAQ NAWAZ JHANGVI
Sipah-e-Sahaba Pakistan
Mir Zafarullah Khan Jamali
MIR ZAFARULLAH KHAN JAMALI
Lashkar-e-Jhangvi
Nawaz Sharif
Pakistan State Oil Managing Director Shaukat Raza Mirza
QARI ABDUL HAI
Lashkar-e-Jhangvi
RIAZ BASRA
Lashkar-e-Jhangvi
U.S. Consulate in Karachi
ZIA UR RAHMAN FARUQI
Sipah-e-Sahaba Pakistan
Harakat Ul Ansar
Islamic Movement of Uzbekistan
Jaish-e-Muhammad
Lashkar-e-Jhangvi
Milt-e-Islamia Pakistan
Mojahedin-e-Khalq
Sipah-e-Mohammed Pakistan
Sipah-e-Sahaba Pakistan
Posted by: Dan Darling ||
06/02/2005 16:41 ||
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There is no doubt that there is widespread revulsion in Pakistan for the type of mindless sectarian violence that LeJ inflicts on fellow Pakistanis.
If they're so reviled by the masses, why don't they rat them out and get the F@#K rid of them? They protect the A-holes both there and around the world. It takes scores of supporters to organize,recruit,solicit funds and coordinate the daily activities of an extremist outfit. You cant tell me that the communities they infest don't know that they are there. The muslim mindset would rather tollerate them than help to disperse the radical elements for fear of a muslim being persecuted Thats why the terrorist cell in Buffalo NY was such a sensational story, it was the first time a muslim community ratted terrorists out. That is the only example I can think of though. On the whole they seem to want to
protect them. I guess thats one benefit of being a
dumb old hillbilly, nobody can hold you to a higher standard.
A Saudi citizen was the suicide bomber who blew himself up at a mosque in the southern Afghan city of Kandahar on Wednesday, killing some 21 people, including the Kabul police chief, the Saudi newspaper Al-Watan, reported Thursday, citing the Kandahar press. The bomber was identified after his remains were analysed, the reports said.
Shortly after the attack, Afghan officials, including the governor of Kandahar, said they believed it had been carried out by a member of al-Qaeda, of Arab origin, because of the documents found on the bomber's body.
The attack happened at the end of a ceremony to pay respects to the senior anti-Taliban cleric Mawlavi Abdullah Fayaz, who was murdered by two men on a motorbike, as he left his office on Sunday. Witnesses say the bomber was dressed in a police uniform and helped the police chief, General Mohammed Akram, by pretending to prepare his shoes for him as the mourners filed out of the service, before detonating his explosives.
The Afghan police are now looking for possible accomplices who helped prepare the attack, which was the worst Afghanistan has suffered this year.
Posted by: Dan Darling ||
06/02/2005 16:19 ||
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Quelle surprise.
Of course he was.
The worthless loser.
Posted by: Barbara Skolaut ||
06/02/2005 16:36 Comments ||
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The last time a separatist leader from Indian Kashmir went to Pakistan and advised militants it was time to end the armed struggle and begin negotiating he was assassinated six months later.
Abdul Gani Lone, a senior leader in the All Parties Hurriyat (Freedom) Conference, was shot dead by unidentified gunmen in Srinagar, the summer capital of India's Jammu and Kashmir state, in May 2002 as India and Pakistan came close to a fourth war.
Three years on, with South Asia's nuclear rivals' seeking lasting peace, Lone's torch has been picked up by other members of the Hurriyat alliance of separatist parties, who began a trip to Pakistan-held Kashmir on Thursday.
"It is Lone's message. There is more and more recognition among moderates and within the Hurriyat that a negotiated settlement is preferable to armed struggle," said Samina Ahmed, Pakistan director of the Brussels-based International Crisis Group think tank.
Ahmed saw the visiting Hurriyat leaders firstly seeking to forge a stronger sense of unity with moderates in Pakistan's side of Kashmir, and the next step would be to take the message to militants to wind down a conflict that has cost more than 45,000 lives since it began in 1989.
The United Jihad Council, a loose alliance of around a dozen militant groups, ruled out meeting the Hurriyat leaders, who are coming without Syed Ali Shah Geelani, the leader of its hardline faction.
But the Hurriyat moderates can still meet leaders of the insurgency individually, a council member told Reuters.
"If the group has a meeting with leaders of militant organisations, it could be really important," commented a Western observer familiar with the India-Pakistan peace process.
Certainly, the timing to get across any message is more propitious than when Lone made his pitch to Pakistan's jihadis, or holy warriors, two months after al Qaeda's Sept. 11, 2001 attacks on the United States.
Whereas the Hurriyat leaders visiting the Pakistan side go with India's blessing, Lone was permitted to go for the marriage of his son Sajjad to the daughter of Amanullah Khan, chairman of the Pakistan-based Jammu and Kashmir Liberation Front (JKLF).
After the feasting in Pakistan's army garrison city of Rawalpindi was over, Lone met militant leaders.
"Abdul Gani Lone told them that militancy had done its job by re-invigorating the issue of Kashmir. It had given new life to the issue at national and international levels. They should now proceed towards the political process," Khan recalled.
The jihadis were too stirred up to heed Lone's words, incensed by President Pervez Musharraf's decision to join Washington's global war on terrorism -- a decision that brought his government into conflict with several militant groups it had supported in Afghanistan and Kashmir.
Less than two weeks ago, thousands of Kashmiris commemorated the anniversaries of the killings of the popular Lone and Mirwaiz Mohammed Farooq, the spiritual leader of Kashmiri Muslims, who was killed by unidentified gunmen in 1990.
Both were killed on May 21 -- though 12 years apart.
Sons of both slain men, Bilal Gani Lone and Mirwaiz Umar Farooq, were on the bus to Pakistani Kashmir on Thursday.
"We will try to talk with political and militant leadership across the other side and seek their opinion," Mirwaiz Umar Farooq, the chairman of Hurriyat's moderate faction, told Reuters earlier this week.
Posted by: Dan Darling ||
06/02/2005 16:17 ||
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Abdul Waheed Baghrani, 51, a diminutive, soft-spoken man, has more the air of a religious leader than a wanted terrorist.
Yet he is the highest-level Taliban commander to accept the government's recent amnesty offer, coming down from the mountains after three and a half years on the run from U.S. forces.
"My message to those still fighting is they should take this golden chance and come back and build the country," he said in an interview late last month.
"We have an Islamic country and Shariah law, and we should accept the rule of the government," Baghrani said to his former allies.
The U.S. military and the Afghan government have greeted his decision as a sign of the success of the amnesty in undermining the Taliban insurgency. In response, U.S. forces have organized aid shipments to his region and offered to undertake new reconstruction projects.
But the killing Sunday of an anti-Taliban cleric, Maulavi Abdullah Fayaz, and the devastating bombing Tuesday at his funeral, seem to indicate that the Taliban have yet to be vanquished and that speaking against them, as Fayaz did the week before he was fatally shot, remains dangerous.
Also, the ease with which Baghrani evaded U.S. forces and the Soviet army before them, protected by his tribesmen in the mountains of southern Afghanistan and escaping a dozen raids on his home, is a sign of how simple it remains for insurgents to evade capture in this part of the world. "My home is very mountainous," Baghrani said. "I went up to the mountains and never left the country.
"I was among my people, my tribe, and they are very loyal to me," Baghrani explained.
He named half a dozen other senior Taliban commanders who he said were still at large.
The U.S. military once suspected Baghrani of harboring the top Taliban leader, Mullah Muhammad Omar, in Baghran, his home region, in northern Helmand Province. He denied that, adding that Omar was from a different tribe and would never have trusted his life to a tribe other than his own. He said he did not know where Omar or the Qaeda leader, Osama bin Laden, were hiding, but suggested that they took refuge in neighboring Pakistan after the fall of the Taliban government in late 2001. Wherever bin Laden was, Baghrani predicted that he would be caught one day, because he was not among his own people and, as a result, risked betrayal.
Although he is a close associate of Omar, Baghrani is a renowned tribal chieftain and resistance leader in his own right. He goes by the name Rais-da-Baghran, or Chief of Baghran, the 160-kilometer long, or 100-mile-long, mountainous valley of northern Helmand where he lives. He fought the Soviet occupation for 10 years and joined the Taliban in the early days of the movement, he said, in the interest of national unity. "Afghans were fighting each other, and Afghanistan faced breaking up into several parts," he said. "As a national leader, I had to join them."
But, he said, he grew disillusioned with Al Qaeda's growing influence over the Taliban leadership. "In the beginning they stood for peace and stability," he said. "But then later there was a lot of foreign interference, and we tried a lot to persuade them to come over to the right way."
Baghrani never held an official post in the Taliban regime but supported its push to gain control of the whole country, sending his fighters into battle in northern Afghanistan.
His high standing in the regime became clear when he was asked by Omar in December 2001 to carry a message of the Taliban surrender to Hamid Karzai, who was then in the mountains north of Kandahar with U.S. Special Forces. "Mullah Omar sent me to Shah Wali Kot," in the mountainous region, Baghrani said. "I had to go two times to work out how to surrender Kandahar in a peaceful way."
The Taliban leadership signed a letter of surrender, agreeing to quit the city, the Taliban's last stronghold, in three days, he said. Omar left on the first night, he said, and on the third day, Baghrani set off for his home valley. He said he stayed there until the Americans started tracking him in 2003, because local rivals informed against him. "I was not opposed to Karzai or his government, but unfortunately after 25 years of war," he said.
He narrowly escaped capture in February 2003 when U.S. forces raided his village and called in airstrikes along the mountain ridges. A State Department official said at the time that Baghrani had escaped to Pakistan. But he said he stayed in the mountains, living with villagers and accompanied only by his second son, Muhammad Ibrahim, 21, and two or three men. "To have taken more men would have been dangerous," he said. He sent his three wives to stay with their fathers.
The Americans came through the valley about 20 times, he said. "Often they would come close to me, and I would watch them from the mountaintop with binoculars. They would camp out in my house."
When the Karzai government announced an amnesty early last month, he was one of the first to come in, going to Kabul to meet with Karzai. Last month he registered as a candidate for the parliamentary elections in September in Helmand Province. He said he wanted the U.S.-led forces to stay until Afghanistan could defend itself and maintain internal peace, but he demanded that they cease unilateral actions and stop raiding people's houses without being accompanied by Afghan troops.
This article starring:
ABDUL WAHID BAGHRANI
Taliban
RAIS DA BAGHRAN
Taliban
Posted by: Dan Darling ||
06/02/2005 16:13 ||
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He denied that, adding that Omar was from a different tribe and would never have trusted his life to a tribe other than his own.
This is a tantalizing hint, no? Kinda narrows down where to look. unless its pure disinfo.
#2
Also, the ease with which Baghrani evaded U.S. forces and the Soviet army before them, protected by his tribesmen in the mountains of southern Afghanistan and escaping a dozen raids on his home, is a sign of how simple it remains for insurgents to evade capture in this part of the world.
Simple to evade capture, huh?
Omar left on the first night, he said, and on the third day, Baghrani set off for his home valley. He said he stayed there until the Americans started tracking him in 2003, because local rivals informed against him. "I was not opposed to Karzai or his government, but unfortunately after 25 years of war," he said.
Am I, like, the only one who sees a contradiction here?
A new online posting purportedly by the al-Qaeda group in Iraq has declared the creation of a new cell of suicide bombers and claimed it has already carried out a number of attacks.
It wasn't possible to verify the authenticity of the four-minute-audio tape, which appeared on Tuesday on an Islamic web site known as a clearing house for al-Qaeda-linked material. Al-Ansari said that the cell came in response to bin Laden's call to attack US troops in Iraq. According to the message, Bin Laden urged insurgents to ``terrorize the crusaders and their followers by striking their castles and destroying their spirits through suicidal attacks.'' The cell had launched a series of suicide attacks in Iraq, the man said.
This article starring:
ABU DUJANA AL ANSARI
al-Bara Bin Malek brigade
ABU DUJANA AL ANSARI
al-Qaeda in Iraq
ABU MUSAB AL ZARQAWI
al-Qaeda in Iraq
al-Bara Bin Malek brigade
Posted by: Dan Darling ||
06/02/2005 15:54 ||
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Ever get the feeling that al-qaida works in unison with natural selection? We just need to get them to blow themselves up in the middle of the desert.
Authorities say they believe foreign operatives linked to Al Qaeda were responsible for Wednesday's suicide attack that killed at least 19 people and wounded 50 at the funeral of a prominent Muslim cleric in the southern city of Kandahar.
Security officials said the mosque blast was a sign that the terrorist network was still a major force in Afghanistan, intent on staging major attacks, and that it was employing more aggressive tactics.
The explosion killed Kabul's newly appointed police chief, Akram Khakreezwal, and several other police officers.
More than 200 mourners had gathered for the early morning funeral of Mawlavi Abdullah Fayaz, the head of Kandahar's Cleric Council and a prominent critic of the former Taliban regime.
Fayaz was killed Sunday by gunmen on a motorcycle.
"This was a well-chosen target for the rebels, one of a higher level," said Nick Downie, who heads an independent body that advises aid organizations on security in Afghanistan. "They knew that important political and security officials would be there for the funeral."
President Hamid Karzai called the attack on the mosque "an act of non-Muslim and defeated terrorists." In a statement, he called on the Afghan people to be vigilant against foreigners conspiring against the country's national security.
Government officials said two of Karzai's brothers were expected at the funeral but had not arrived.
The Karzais are from Kandahar province and they usually attend high-profile events in the area.
The suicide bomber was reportedly wearing a police uniform and entered the mosque posing as a government security officer, authorities said.
"Our investigation so far gives us strong reasons to believe that this suicide bombing was the work of foreign operatives," said Zaher Azimy, a spokesman for the Ministry of Defense.
Azimy declined to give information about the identity of the bomber, but the governor of Kandahar, Gul Agha Sherzai, was quoted by journalists as saying "definitely it was Al Qaeda, I can say he was an Arab."
Many government officials believe the representatives of the former Taliban government were not responsible for the attack.
"The Taliban have killed a lot of people but they would not attack a mosque and Muslims, especially while they are praying for the dead," said a resident of Kandahar who did not want to be identified.
Azimy said insurgents were trying to undermine the government.
"The recent talks about a strategic partnership with the United States and the development of the parliamentary elections are both steps toward an independent and legitimate government for Afghanistan," Azimy said. "The violence is to get people fearful of these processes."
Posted by: Dan Darling ||
06/02/2005 15:52 ||
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June 2, 2005: As video cameras, and digital storage devices (like the iPod), grow smaller and cheaper, they have become useful as a military intelligence tool. The latest example of this is a lightweight video camera that can be attacked to a helmet, and the video stored on a 30 gigabyte hard drive the size of an iPod. That provides enough storage for 2-46 hours of video (depending on the resolution.)
It was civilian security personnel, former military people, who first started doing this sort of thing. Small vidcams attached to the dashboard, were used to photograph a mission. Reviewing the tapes later would often reveal an attempted attack, or some other danger that needed to be studied, and dealt with in the future. Now a British company, Double Vision (DV), is producing wearable vidcam systems for police, journalists, military personnel and athletes. The DV systems can be worn via a headband type device, with the iPod size storage device stuck in a pocket. The vidcam picks up sound and video, and DV provides cables and software for quickly transferring the material to a computer for editing or viewing. The Double Vision unit also comes with a hand held flat display for checking what is being recorded. This is useful when you want to get specific details. For the most part, though, what you see is what you are getting.
The DV gear costs from $1-2,000, and some troops have already improvised similar gear. Actually, this was first done by an enterprising journalist back in 2003, who got some troops to attach a lipstick vidcam to his helmet, sending the video to a tape recorder attached to the soldiers belt. Some pretty scary, exciting and profane video resulted when the soldier got involved in a firefight.
The U.S. Army actually plans to equip all combat troops with this sort of capability, some time in the future. The idea is to have all these vidcams connected via a battlefield internet, so that an individual soldier can punch a button on his control panel (worn on the forearm), and send what he sees back to headquarters, or just other members of his unit. Having someone running a vidcam during a patrol serves another purpose, a more detailed memory of what was seen and heard. Once back from a patrol, the troops can go through the video and grab material that might be of use to the intel people, or you want to keep for future reference (like the next time you patrol that neighborhood.) The troops take quickly to this sort of thing, and it's changing the way combat units operate.
Posted by: Steve ||
06/02/2005 12:11 ||
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One element of Future Combat System.
Posted by: too true ||
06/02/2005 15:26 Comments ||
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From May 28th, I don't recall if this has been posted:VIRGINIA BEACH — From 20,000 feet above Baghdad, Iraq, the fighter/attack jet pilots from Oceana Naval Air Station scanned their cockpit television screens, focusing on the images of the hunkered down insurgents on the ground. It was about five in the afternoon, recalled Capt. Pat "Irish" Rainey, commander of Air Wing Three, just back from deployment aboard the aircraft carrier Harry S. Truman. "You could see where they had laid their weapons on one side of the building. And you could see how many guys were up on the roof; who was crouching down; who was sitting behind a wall.
"Pretty phenomenal," said Rainey, admitting even he was impressed at being able to safely see crisp, clear subjects from nearly four miles up and 30 miles away. An infrared targeting system his planes used magnified an image in the night by 30 times. In daylight a television camera can magnify it by 60 times. "They are awesome," Cmdr. Norm Weakland said of the Advanced Targeting Forward-Looking Infrared (ATFLIR) that gives today's F/A-18 Hornets their ability to see targets on the ground three to five times better than earlier models of the system. Variants of the system go back to 1997, when the Navy approved full development. Using the wing-mounted devices to locate enemy targets while U.S. forces are nearby has saved untold American lives, said Weakland, commanding officer of the "Gunslingers" of Strike Fighter Squadron 105.
It is helping Navy and Marine Corps carrier-based pilots become experts in carrying the fight from the air to a close-quarters urban environment without killing friendly troops, the returning pilots said.
The only downfall is there are not enough of them in the air wing's inventory, they said. There's a loud cry, from junior officers to admirals, to buy more of the $1 million-plus systems. Seven pods had to be rotated among the 33 Hornet aircraft aboard the Truman. They are needed for Urban Close-Air Support, or Urban CAS, an emerging type of warfare not practiced with such precision before, the pilots said. It is becoming more commonplace during military operations in Iraq and Afghanistan.
Hornets are orbiting above cluttered cities such as Baghdad, Fallujah and Mosul where friend and foe are normally hard for a pilot to distinguish as coalition troops and enemy insurgents dart through darkened alleys and atop blackened rooftops. "I remember a specific incident where I watched five of our friendly vehicles take down a house," Weakland said. "They tasked me with watching the back door, just to see if any guys are running from the house while they are starting to surround the front. "That is the type of stuff we were doing on a regular basis and it was working like a champ," he said.
Continued on Page 49
Posted by: Steve ||
06/02/2005 11:18 ||
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Tom Clancy drool-fest, if ever there was!
Posted by: Mike ||
06/02/2005 11:38 Comments ||
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Wow. The tech is awesome and the cooperation extraordinary. Nice to see the latter becoming more common, perhaps in spite of the leadership of the services, but credit where due: they're doing it. Bravo and kudos to all involved.
#3
âYou were not allowed to drop any weapon off your airplane unless both air crew, whether a Tomcat or an F-18, or a pair of them, were in complete agreement and both your systems agreed with what you were looking at and both of you had focused situational awareness as to who was who on the ground,â Rainey said.
Take em out? Take em out!
Posted by: Red Dog ||
06/02/2005 12:31 Comments ||
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Fighting Words, Hidden Pacts
The Pakistani military establishment's fondness for Islamist fundamentalists, jihadists and rightwing groups remains as strong as ever, and the May 15 Convocation of Deeni Madaris (religious seminaries), as well as the May 18 edict against suicide attacks provide the latest evidence to this effect. On May 15, Wafaqul Medaris Al Arabia (a coalition of more than 9,000 Deobandi seminaries that claims to be the original patron and creator of the Taliban) organized a grand convocation in the immediate vicinity of the Parliament, Presidency and the Prime Minister's House at the state-owned Convention Center, with the full patronage of the present regime. Venomous speeches against the US were made on the occasion; jihad was glorified; government policies in Afghanistan, Iraq and Kashmir were condemned.
The May 15 Convocation was both unusual and, in many respects, incredible. The state owns and runs the majestic Convention Center that is used for high-profile activities like South Asian Association for Regional Cooperation (SAARC) Conventions. It is the most elite venue in Islamabad. Securing access for a programme is no easy matter, and it is not the kind of place that has often lent itself to extremist political or religious outburst. This is the first time that this facility was extended to such an organization, and to give vent to their fury against the US. It is clear that two powerful players continue to dominate Pakistani politics - the Army and the mullahs (clerics). The mullahs, it appears, are the Army's 'B' team, and are bound to become stronger in future with the establishment's patronage.
"Politics is the governance of a society the rules of which were set by Koran and propounded by the holy Prophet. Therefore, the Prophet was the greatest politician and statesman. Muslims are bound to follow him in all respects of life. Since the mullahs are the true disciples of the Prophet, politics is their religious right. And by doing politics, the mullahs are carrying forward the Prophet's mission."
The Convocation, ostensibly intended to award outstanding clerics, sent out a strong message, emphasized particularly in speeches by Qazi Hussain Ahmed, Fazl ur Rehman and Samiul Haq: politics and religion are intrinsically linked and cannot be analysed in isolation; and the mullahs are the greatest custodians of politics. As Fazl-ur-Rehman declaimed: "Politics is the governance of a society the rules of which were set by Koran and propounded by the holy Prophet. Therefore, the Prophet was the greatest politician and statesman. Muslims are bound to follow him in all respects of life. Since the mullahs are the true disciples of the Prophet, politics is their religious right. And by doing politics, the mullahs are carrying forward the Prophet's mission. Politics is surely not the business of the Army."âŠ
Insisting that it was not the seminaries that were extremist or terrorists, he declared, "What the US has done in Afghanistan and Iraq sufficiently proves the fact that there is no terrorist/extremist bigger than America. The inhuman policies of the US are pushing the Muslims to extremism."
The convocation passed a 14-point resolution, which included:
* The five wafaq (coalitions) of religious seminaries should be given the status of a board and their degrees/certificates should be recognized at the national level.
* Seminaries are not involved in any act of terror. Such propaganda is a Jewish conspiracy.
* We condemn the Agha Khan Board (AKB) and demand that it should be immediately banned.
* The proceedings of all the government and private events should start with the recitation of Koran and it should be made part of the law.
* The government should stop patronizing the Hindu and European culture in the country and ban such NGOs that are involved in this crime.
* The state-media should stop promoting nudity.
The May 15 Convocation was extraordinarily well-organised. A media cell, equipped with computers, internet connectivity and photocopiers had been established at Lal Masjid; security was tight, and nobody was allowed entry without invitation. The proceedings of the Convocation were transmitted live through the internet at Defenders of Islam. Some clerics who could not make it to the Convention Center participated online. Several observers were inclined to some skepticism regarding the administrative skills of the clerics, and suspicions were voiced that the 'ISI has sponsored this show.'
Arif Jamal - a prolific writer on jihad and rightwing politics - observed: "The Convocation marks a new beginning of relations between the Musharraf government and the Deobandi ulema. The conflict between the Musharraf government and the Pakistani Deobandi ulema that started with the fall of the Taliban government in Afghanistan and reached its climax with the attempts on the life of General Musharraf appears to be over. The Musharraf government's reconciliatory efforts towards the ulema in general and friendly acts towards the Deobandi ulema in particular have finally convinced them that the government is not hostile towards ulema.
Jamal notes, further, "The government has been going slow on its reform agenda for the madaris for the last one year. It has considerably reduced its interference in the affairs of the madaris. It has also stopped issuing any hostile statements against the ulema and madaris. It has also exempted them from mandatory registration under the Deeni Madaris (Voluntary Registration and Regulation) Ordinance, 2002, which was an important demand of the madaris. It withdrew cases against some of the leading Deobandi ulema as a part of its reconciliation effortsâŠ"
The regime's efforts to secure support from the Islamist right were also at least partially visible in the fatwa (edict) of May 18, issued by a group of 58 ulema, against suicide attacks in the country. Significantly, the fatwa exempted the masterminding of suicide attacks against 'foreign occupation', including such attacks in Palestine, Iraq, Afghanistan and Kashmir.
"The suicide attacks are not haram [forbidden in Islam] but are the supreme form of jihad. There should have been an edict against Bush - that whoever will kill him will go to the heaven."
The impact of the fatwa, however, is expected to be negligible, since it has little backing from scholars of repute. As the Daily Jasarat columnist, Shahnawaz Farooqi, noted, out of the 58 ulema who issued the fatwa, 57 had no standing. "We have heard their name for the first time in our life. There is only one familiar name - Mufti Muneebur Rehman." Interestingly, Mufti Muneeb's colleague Sarfraz Naeemi also disagreed with his fatwa:
"The edict will benefit unbelief. The entire world knows the motives behind the edict. The greatest benefit will reach to the murderers of the Muslims - India, Israel and the US. At the moment, the Muslims are being massacred all over the world. Instead of issuing the edict of jihad against the butchers of the Muslims, Musharraf has bribed the ulema to get an edict against suicide attacks. The suicide attacks are not haram [forbidden in Islam] but are the supreme form of jihad. There should have been an edict against Bush - that whoever will kill him will go to the heaven."
This article starring:
Arif Jamal
EJAZ UL HAQ
Learned Elders of Islam
Former Prime Minister Shujaat Hussain
HAMID GUL
Learned Elders of Islam
Information Minister Sheikh Rashid Ahmad
Lal Masjid
MAULANA FAZLUR REHMAN
Learned Elders of Islam
MAULANA SAMIUL HAQ
Learned Elders of Islam
MUFTI MUNIBUR REHMAN
Learned Elders of Islam
QAZI HUSEIN AHMED
Learned Elders of Islam
SARFRAZ NAIMI
Learned Elders of Islam
Shahnawaz Farooqi
South Asian Association for Regional Cooperation
Wafaqul Medaris Al Arabia
Posted by: Paul Moloney ||
06/02/2005 00:07 ||
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#1
It is interesting, striking in fact, how they can take to the modern technology, organize per Western media techniques to disseminate their dogma, make demands to be legitimized (degrees & certs), etc -- yet remain rooted in the distant barbaric past regards the details and minutia of their dogmatic belief system. Everything is there, Jooo conspiracies, Muslim "massacres", suiciders are waaay cool, the whole nine yards.
Pretty amazing balancing act when you think about it. Obviously, they can justify anything that suits or serves them - and blithely damn anything that inconveniences or offends. None of it matters in the least, of course, as it will change as soon as the cirsumstances do - to fit to advantage. And what a zoo of participants, all grinding away at their partcular angle.
#2
#1.It is interesting, striking in fact, how they can take to the modern technology, organize per Western media techniques to disseminate their dogma
The difference between goals and means to a goal, .com
#3
As Fazl-ur-Rehman declaimed: "Politics is the governance of a society the rules of which were set by Koran and propounded by the holy Prophet. Therefore, the Prophet was the greatest politician and statesman. Muslims are bound to follow him in all respects of life. Since the mullahs are the true disciples of the Prophet, politics is their religious right. And by doing politics, the mullahs are carrying forward the Prophet's mission. Politics is surely not the business of the Army."
Like I said previously, the Life of Mohammed serves as a set of templates that muslims follow, based on the circumstances at that moment. Mohammed is the ultimate success story, with Allah playing Horatio Al-Giers and recording that successful life in the Koran and the Hadiths.
#4
The Israelis are gritting their teeth and trying their level best to get the hell away from these guys and build their divider wall.(It looks just like the one we need along our border) Ol' Sharon is performing like a trained poodle for bush, but we(?) are the victims of the zionist masters(he,he). I find it hard to believe the even common paleos believe the bullshit that the mullahs spew out.
A team drawing up an interim constitution for Sudan has agreed that a traditional Islamic phrase will appear in the text for the Muslim north but not for the non-Muslim south to bridge a sensitive religious divide. Southern Sudanese leader John Garang told reporters in Cairo, other than the Islamic preamble, the texts for the two regions would be the same. "We are working in order not to divide the Sudan. We want unity in diversity," he said when asked whether the compromise was a sign the country was heading towards division.
'Tain't gonna work. Islam can brook no opposition...
Garang's Sudan Peoples Liberation Movement (SPLM) fought a 21-year war with the government of the mainly Muslim north that was partly sparked by the imposition of Islamic Shariah law over the country, including the largely Christian and animist south. The two sides signed a peace deal in January that includes dividing wealth and power, and giving southerners the right to hold a referendum on secession after a six-year interim period. It also involves splitting state and religion so Shariah law would not apply in the south. A 60-member constitutional commission has been working on an interim constitution. The SPLM wants no religious references in the constitution, which has caused some tensions with the Islamist government.
Posted by: Fred ||
06/02/2005 00:00 ||
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Palestinian leader Mahmoud Abbas underwent a heart procedure to open clogged arteries Wednesday at a hospital in Jordan, a senior Palestinian official said. Abbas was taken to a hospital in Amman, Jordan Wednesday complaining of fatigue, where he underwent angioplasty, said Tayeb Abdel Rahim, a top Abbas aide.
He said the procedure was successful and 69-year-old leader was expected back in the West Bank on Thursday as planned.
Since succeeding the late Yasser Arafat in January, Abbas has appeared in good health and has not canceled or postponed meetings. Palestinian officials said Abbas has high blood pressure and had previously battled cancer and eye ailments. Over the past month he as made two long trips abroad, including stops in Asia, Russia and the Arab world his first lengthy journeys since assuming office.
This article starring:
TAIEB ABDEL RAHIM
Palestinian Authority
Posted by: Fred ||
06/02/2005 00:00 ||
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Egyptian journalists and demonstrators angrily protested against the interior minister Wednesday, demanding he be fired over allegations he permitted sexual assaults on female journalists and protesters during last week's referendum vote. The women were beaten, groped and sometimes stripped of their clothes while protesting or covering the May 25 referendum that approved a constitutional amendment allowing for multi-candidate presidential elections, witnesses said.
The approximately 1,000 protesters carried posters of Interior Minister Habib el-Adly, with an X across his face and the words: "Make him resign." The also carried black banners reading "Fire the minister of interior" and "Put these criminals on trial and punish them." The Interior Ministry would not comment on the protest when contacted by The Associated Press. But a government official said Egypt's general prosecutor had opened an investigation into the alleged assaults and had begun questioning victims and eyewitnesses. During the referendum, protesters were set upon by gangs of men chanting slogans in support of President Hosni Mubarak. The beatings took place in the presence of plainclothes security men, uniformed police and officials of the ruling National%
Posted by: Fred ||
06/02/2005 00:00 ||
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Yeah. Right. That'll work... Sigh. Go ahead. Give it a try. But it's still too early...
Posted by: Fred ||
06/02/2005 00:00 ||
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#1
Any rational person would figure that examples of all the various "negotiations" that have been conducted and the current state of affairs in Iraq would be enough with which to draw a logical conclusion, but nooo....
#3
Seriously, this is part of the concept called divide and conquer.
If anyone is interested, I just finished a book by Victor Davis Hanson called "Ripples of Battle". Highly recommend it. Reason I mentioned it is because one of the sections detailed the problems in the South in the aftermath of the civil war. I couldn't help but notice the similarities between the reluctance of the defeated south (and its own insurgency) to be brought back into the political fold, and todays issues with the 'No more the top dogs' Sunnis.
#4
Most likely those that opened the channel know what the results will be as well. But it's all part of the routine of horse-trading and influence-buying.
#5
Personally, I think the insurgency is a thing of beauty. It draws all our enemies from all over the arab (small a ) world to our Army (big A) and makes them available to kill. Terrorists are a notoriously hard bunch to engage, but now they are flocking to Iraq to kill other arabs and expose themselves for our troops (or even better Iraqi troops) to kill. It not only gets them out in the open, it draws them away from the U.S. and into a place where professional soldiers can deal with them. Think about it .
#2
The real question is whether the Iraqi govt hangs him or flinches at the last minute to avoid antagonizing the Sunnis.
Posted by: too true ||
06/02/2005 9:45 Comments ||
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#3
Spot-on, tt. The entire re-entry into the game by the Sunnis, despite having voluntarily opposed it and boycotting, is a mistake. The Sunnies are apparently centuries behind the Shi'a - who are centuries behind the Kurds. They can break and / or mangle the system if the Shi'a allow them - and it certainly appears they haven't the stones to stand up to them. Cowed too long? I dunno, but there are troubling signs, IMHO.
Posted by: Mrs. Davis ||
06/02/2005 10:30 Comments ||
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#5
The problem with leaving him alive is that terrorists minutemen and patriots will take hostages and demand his release. Even if we don't blink, that means more dead hostages.
JERUSALEM - Israel will free 400 Palestinian prisoners on Thursday in what Prime Minister Ariel Sharon has called an attempt to boost moderate Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas ahead of a Gaza withdrawal.
Palestinians have dismissed the long-delayed release as a public relations stunt, complaining that Israel refused to give them a say in who would be freed, and prisoners they most wanted released would stay in jail.
Well then, I guess the Israelis should just shoot them all ...
The Israeli army said on Wednesday the mass release stemmed from approval granted earlier this week by the cabinet and reflected "ongoing cooperation with the Palestinian Authority".
"Especially Mahmoud the Weasel ... really, we couldn't have done it without him," the spokesman added.
Israel freed 500 prisoners in February after Abbas and Sharon announced a ceasefire, but Sharon later suspended the promised release of 400 more, saying Palestinians had not done enough to disarm militants. None of the prisoners slated for release on Thursday had been convicted of attacks that killed or injured Israelis, officials said.
And the Israelis have co-opted a bunch of them ... oops, wasn't supposed to reveal that.
Sharon has said he wants to bolster Abbas ahead of a pullout from all 21 Jewish settlements in Gaza and four of 120 in the West Bank that is slated to begin in August as part of Sharon's plan to "disengage" from conflict with the Palestinians. The Jewish state is hoping that Abbas, elected to succeed Yasser Arafat on a platform of non-violence, will keep militants from carrying out attacks during the pullout. Abbas coaxed militants into the shaky truce he agreed with Sharon.
The militant group Hamas, sworn to Israel's destruction and the biggest rival to Abbas's ruling Fatah party, has said continuing the truce is partly contingent on prisoner releases. About 8,000 Palestinians are held in Israeli jails.
Posted by: Steve White ||
06/02/2005 00:00 ||
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#1
Trackers installed? Check.
Star of David tatoos? Check.
Circumcised? Check. Well, if they were more than an inch long, yeah.
#2
I thought Muslim boys were circumcised? Certainly whe trailing daughter #2 was born in Germany, we were told only Muslims and Jews committed the barbarism of clipping the foreskins of their male babies. (Yes, barbaric was the exact word the doctor used.
#3
yes according to Islam male circumcision makes for purity (fitrah)
other things that make for fitrah are:
- shaving the hair near the genitals
- cutting fingernails
- plucking airpit hair
- neatly trimming the mustache
As Dave Barry might say, I'm not making this up, it is from one of the innumerable reported sayings of Mohammat and reported in several of the most revered collections of hadiths.
#4
other things that make for fitrah are:
- shaving the hair near the genitals
- cutting fingernails
- plucking airpit hair
- neatly trimming the mustache
what about for the men?
Posted by: Frank G ||
06/02/2005 9:03 Comments ||
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#5
- shaving the hair near the genitals
- cutting fingernails
- plucking airpit hair
- neatly trimming the mustache
do they do this to one another, like chimps, who preen each other in the wild?
#6
Hang on there - something's a little out of whack here... in conversation with at least 2 "friends" I got a dose of "good natured" shit for 2 things: my untrimmed mustache (which they could see) and being circumcised (which they inquired about). Hmmm, perhaps some of the 27 tribes on the peninsula didn't subscribe to the odd minor tenet of Islam as dictated.
They were definitely jealous of the Yosemite Sam 'stache I sported back in '92 and this was also something that made me "known" to the Saudi immigration and customs guys - every time I boogied across the causeway to Bahrain they would recognize me and (apparently) enjoyed talking to me as they would wave me out of line to come to their station.
Hey, I read the qu'uran pedantry about how one should prepare for prayers / generally keep clean - and can attest to the extensive ablutions performed before prayers, some utterly disgusting shit like climbing up on the counter and washing their feet in the sink at Aramco - even though they had their own restrooms (labeled Eastern and Western "hammams") with foot-wash thingys. I prudently chose not to bring a coffee cup to work because there was no safe place to wash it out. I particularly found it fascinating to see them snorting snot out of their noses onto the restroom floor, and those cute little dish-sprayers that were attached to the toilets - on the left side, of course... shall I go on? The restrooms at Aramco smelled worse than any gym locker room I had ever encountered. The second time I went over they had bought a clue, sort of - they would "medicate" the air so heavily that it caused your eyes to sting for the first few weeks - till you became immune or your corneas dissolved.
Hey, I dunno if there's lockstep on every single minor detail, prolly this sort of thing might have a fetish aspect with some imams or tribes. On the whole, however, I can say without hesitation that life in the Magic Fucking Kingdom is a trip.
#7
here's some more about the little niceties that .com observed,
-----------
On waking up, clean your hand before putting it in a pot of water. You never can tell where your hands lay during sleep.
Do not discharge urine on the floor of the toilet, especially when it is made of soil.
When passing stools or urine, do not sit facing the direction of Qiblah, nor with your back to Qiblah. Having relieved yourself, use a clod or water to clean the private parts or purify yourself with water only. Do not use the dung, bone or charcoal for cleaning purposes. When the private parts have been cleaned, scrub your hands with soap or earth and wash them.
Do not sit down to eat when your bowels are under pressure. Relieve yourself of urine or stool, before eating.
Use your right hand in eating as well as in performing ablution. For cleaning the private parts of the body or for cleaning the nose, use your left hand only.
Discharge urine on soft ground, so that its drops do not splash around. Always pass the urine in a sitting posture. However, if the ground or some real hardship prevents from sitting down, you may urinate in a standing posture. Otherwise, in normal circumstances, it is a very dirty habit and should be strictly avoided.
Do not sit down to answer the call of nature on the riverside, the quay, on the thoroughfares or in shaded places. Such a practice causes inconvenience to others and is derogatory to rules of propriety and good manners.
Put on shoes and cover your head with a cap etc. before going the lavatory and read the following prayer on your way:
Allahumma inni a'udhu bika minal khubthi wal khaba'ith.
"God ! I seek thy Protection against the devils of the masculine as well as the feminine species."(Bukhari-Muslim)
On emerging from the lavatory, read this prayer :
Alhamdu lillahi-l-ladhi adhaba 'annil adha wa'afani.
" I thank the lord who relieved me of the burden and granted me ease. " (Nisai. ibn-e-Majah) [this has some similarity to the Jewish prayer after using the rest room except the Jewish prayer is longer]
Discharge your nose or phlegm with care in a spitoon, or do so in a place out of the sight of people.
Avoid putting your finger in the nostrils and clearing the wax of your nose too often. Clear the nose and clean it well out of the sight of people, whenever the need arises.
Strictly avoid the practice of spitting phlegm into the folds of a handkerchief and rubbing them together. This is a despicable habit and must be avoided except when it cannot be helped.
While chewing betel leaf. do not talk in such a manner as to splash saliva on the person you are talking to, thus causing discomfort to him. if you chew tobacco or betel leaf frequently, you should take great care in observing the rules of oral hygiene. Beware also, lest you should talk with your mouth too close to the person addressed.
Perform ablution with great care and try to keep in a state of ablution most of the time, if not at all hours. Where water is not available, you may perform Tayammum. Recite :
Bismillah hirrahma nirrahim.
In the Name of Allah, the Most beneficent, the Most Merciful.
at the beginning of ablution and say the following prayer in the course of its performance
Ashhadu an la ilaha illallahu wahdahu la sharika lahu wa ashhadu anna Muhammadan abduhu wa rasuluhu. Allahumm aj'alni minat-tawuabina awj'alni min-al-mutathhirin.
" I bear witness that there is no god save Allah and He has no partner. And I testify that Muhammad is the servant of God and His Messenger. God ! join me with those people who repent most and take great care in keeping themselves pure and clean ".
When the ablution is over, say the following prayer :
Subhanak-allahumma wa bihamdika ashadi an la ilaha illa anta astaghfiruka wa atibo ilaika.
"God ! Thou art Pure and Supreme in Thy Praiseworthiness. I Testify that there is no deity beside Thee. I seek Thy forgiveness and I appeal to Thee. (Nasai)
You must bathe at least once a week. Make it a point to bathe on Friday and join the congregation in clean and neat dress.
Do not go into or pass through the mosque in a state of impurity If no alternative the mosque or passing through it.
Dress your hair with oil and comb. Trim the overgrown hair of your beard with scissors ; apply collyrium to your eye ; and clip your nails and finger-nails clean. Adorn yourself with propriety, simplicity and moderation.
Cover your face with a handkerchief on sneezing, so that the excretion is not splashed on to anyone else. After sneezing say : Alhamdu lilah " Praise be to Allah" !
the listener should say: Yarhamukallah " May Allah show you Mercy " !
In response to this, you should recite: yahdikallah " May Allah guide you " !
The Holy Prophet ( Peace and blessing of Allah be upon him) was very fond of perfume. After performing the toilet on arising from sleep. the Holy prophet ( Peace and blessing of Allah be upon him)
invariably used perfume.
#8
Wonder if the males would like the rough, loose, raw and rugged Yukon Women�
Posted by: Alaska Paul ||
06/02/2005 10:58 Comments ||
Top||
#9
On waking up, clean your hand
this practice is followed by traditional jews as well. IIUC, you leave a little bowl of water by your bedside, and wash your hands with it on waking. Youre not really washing your hands, only ceremonially dipping your nails in it, so its call "nagelwasser" (nail water) in Yiddish.
#10
You must bathe at least once a week. Make it a point to bathe on Friday and join the congregation in clean and neat dress.
In pre-modern, Christians apparently often did NOT bathe this often. Jews normally bathed every week, before Sabbath. Some say this explains lower Jewish death rates from various plagues. Even today, when like other modern people, we bathe every day, traditional Jews will go to a Mikveh, ceremonial bath, on Friday.
Now THATS obviously not from the Hadiths, which were all written well before 1000 AD, unless the muslims had discovered America and forgot to tell anyone.
#12
I always have thought that the early kosher and halal laws were put in place to improve the health and viability of the faithful. But after a while it just turned into a power trip, with increasing numbers of rituals and requirements that kept the peasants in thrall to the 'learned ones.'
Also, Big Mo was just freaky afraid of everything "down there." He was totally Howard Hughes back in the 7th century.
smoking tobacco should, IMO, logically be forbidden in both Islam and Judaism because both religions prohibit intentional harm to health (with specified exceptions)and there rulings to this effect
notwithstanding this it is almost ubiquitous in much of the Islamic world and even in some Haredi neighborhoods
#14
thern anything about changing yer bong water? i just refill as necessary, is there maybe a friday thing?
Posted by: abu half ||
06/02/2005 19:20 Comments ||
Top||
#15
a clean bong is the 15,765th holiest place in Islam
Posted by: Frank G ||
06/02/2005 20:40 Comments ||
Top||
#16
*Shudder* I apologize to everyone who has not posted to this thread for innocently turning it. And I am once again profoundly grateful to be a Westerner living in the West, where cleanliness is so taken for granted that we don't bother to think up any regulations beyond, "When you need to, use the available facilities."
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.
KUWAIT CITY - Kuwait's first Guantanamo returnee, who was injured during the US-led war on the former Taleban regime in Afghanistan, claimed Wednesday he was subjected to psychological torture at the US detention camp in Cuba. "It was more of a psychological than physical torture. In the beginning, they prevented us from sleeping. They gave us little food and they charged me with being a member of Al Qaeda," 
President Bush on Tuesday said there were still diplomatic options available to persuade North Korea to abandon its nuclear ambitions without having to resort to a military strike. "It's either diplomacy or military. And I am for the diplomacy approach," Bush told reporters at a news conference in the White House Rose Garden. "And so for those who say that we ought to be using our military to solve the problem, I would say that while all options are on the table, we've got a ways to go to solve this diplomatically," he said. Bush said he was not going to give a timetable for when the diplomatic option might run out. "It's very important for our partners to understand that I believe the six-party talks can and will work."
U.S. intelligence officials have told President Bush news that has left him stunned: Iran has completed all of the elements required for an atomic bomb. The intelligence information asserted that North Korea this year transferred components to Iran to assemble a plutonium-based nuclear warhead. The components were believed to have originated in Pakistan.
The rebel 
A UN official has been fired by Secretary-General 
Iranian presidential election frontrunner 
Free Patriotic Movement leader 
A team drawing up an interim constitution for Sudan has agreed that a traditional Islamic phrase will appear in the text for the Muslim north but not for the non-Muslim south to bridge a sensitive religious divide. Southern Sudanese leader 
Palestinian leader 
Egyptian journalists and demonstrators angrily protested against the interior minister Wednesday, demanding he be fired over allegations he permitted sexual assaults on female journalists and protesters during last week's referendum vote. The women were beaten, groped and sometimes stripped of their clothes while protesting or covering the May 25 referendum that approved a constitutional amendment allowing for multi-candidate presidential elections, witnesses said.
