The Guardian reports that Britain has been in secret discussions with Saudi Arabia over a major arms deal for the Eurofighter Typhoon, said to be worth up to GBP 40 billion (USD $71 billion, EUR 59 billion). Talks are said to be stalling, however, after Riyadh asked for three "tricky" favors.
The newspaper said Britain's defense minister sought to persuade Prince Sultan, the crown prince, to re-equip his air force with the Eurofighter Typhoon. The Royal Saudi Air Force currently operates three major fighter types: the Boeing F-15C/D/S Eagle, the Tornado F3 air defense variant, and the F/RF-5 Tiger II. The move would lessen the RSAF's dependence on American F-15s in light of increasingly strained relations with both sides of America's political spectrum, and probably replace the F-5s entirely.
Yet negotiations are said to be stalling because the Saudis are demanding three favors:
That Britain expel Saad al-Faqih and Mohammed al-Masari, two Saudi dissidents. Britain has become something of a hotbed for Islamist activity in Europe; Faqih, who has asylum in Britain, is accused of being involved in a plot to assassinate King Abdullah and has publicly supported terrorist activity. Masari apparently fled Saudi Arabia in 1994 for Britain, and claims to be only a peaceful dissident.
That British Airways to resume flights to Riyadh, which have been cancelled because of fears of attacks by Wahabbi terrorists. British airways had hoped the measure would be temporary, but a lack of willing passengers means there are no plans to resume soon.
Finally Saudi Arabia asked that a corruption investigation implicating the Saudi ruling family and BAE should be dropped. Crown Prince Sultan's son-in-law, Prince Turki bin Nasr, seems to be at the center of a "slush fund" probe by the Serious Fraud Office. Last month it made a fresh round of arrests for questioning.
Neither Blair's offices in Downing Street or the Ministry of Defense would comment on the report.
Posted by: Steve ||
09/29/2005 09:06 ||
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Have the Brits toss in some free liver transplants. That might get the deal done...
#2
£40 billion??? A Typhoon lists at £45 million and the Saudis were talking about 50-70 planes. Unless they have increased their numbers by 10X with ground support and tech support, there is some serious princely hooker money wiggle room in those numbers.
Posted by: ed ||
09/29/2005 10:21 Comments ||
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The Custodian of the Two Holy Mosques King Abdullah bin Abdulaziz and Crown Prince Sultan held talks with Karen Hughes, US undersecretary for public diplomacy and a close confidante of President George W. Bush, in this eastern Saudi city on Tuesday. During the meeting, also attended by Saudi foreign minister Saud al Faisal and other high-ranking officials, Hughes conveyed the presidentâs warmest regards to the Saudi monarch. She also praised King Abdullah for promoting tolerance and dialogue in Saudi society. She expressed her happiness at visiting Saudi Arabia and hoped she could contribute to strengthen relations between the two allies. The undersecretary commended Saudi Arabiaâs efforts in the fighting terrorism. âI salute the Kingdomâs efforts to work with us to combat terrorism,â she said. Her comments came as the White House released a memorandum by President Bush to Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice indicating, âI attest to that Saudi Arabia is cooperating in the global war on terrorism.â
Hughesâ visit is part of a listening tour of the region which includes stopovers in three Middle Eastern countries, Egypt, Saudi Arabia and Turkey following her appointment to improve the image of the United States and to listen to a wide spectrum of opinions on the current administration. Hughes arrived in the coastal city of Jeddah late Monday from the Egyptian capital accompanied by a number of US journalists and immediately met with Saudi Minsiter Information, Iyad Madani.
On Tuesday, the undersecretary held a 90-minute open discussion with several students and faculty members from Dar al Hekma, a private college for women in Jeddah, to inquire about their views of America and hear their criticisms and objections to US policies. The discussion centered on womenâs rights and the importance of work and education. Members of the audiences remarked Hughes shied away form responding to questions on US plans to improve its reputation in the region and address Arab and Islamic concerns.
Yeah, balah blah blah. It's a barely rewritten press release. Y'gotta do this now and then. She also beat 'em up over the hate literature they're supplying to the fundo schools in the U.S., but the press release doesn't dwell on that.
And we are addressing Arab concerns. See the liberation of 19 million Arab people in Iraq. See the on-going liberalization of Arab society in places like Bahrain, Qatar and Lebanon. See a whole region of people beginning to ask, with American assistance, the question every dictator dreads: "you know, you're kinda stupid. Who put you in charge?"
Posted by: Fred ||
09/29/2005 00:00 ||
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She also praised King Abdullah for promoting tolerance and dialogue in Saudi society.
She also praised King Abdullah for promoting tolerance and dialogue in Saudi society
âI attest to that Saudi Arabia is cooperating in the global war on terrorism.â (True enough, she didn't say on which side)
This is why I'll never seek a State Department job, I could never have told those whoppers without either snickering, or breaking into a whole hearted Belly-Laugh.
Posted by: Redneck Jim ||
09/29/2005 0:58 Comments ||
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Did she bring Jim Baker's briefcase with her on this trip?
Cocaine has allegedly been taken at the Labour Party conference.
A newspaper investigation reportedly discovered traces of the class A drug in toilets used by MPs, journalists and lobbyists.
London's Evening Standard said swabs from five lavatories near parties at the five-star Grand and Metropole hotels, had tested positive.
Asked about the report, a Labour spokesman said: "We would always encourage a newspaper to pass such evidence to the police so that they can judge the right course of action."
Sussex Police spokesman said they were conducting a "counter-terrorism operation" and not "routine drugs searches".
One swab was taken on Tuesday night from lavatories opposite the Metropole Hotel's Viscount Suite, where MPs and activists from the North East were celebrating with Tony and Cherie Blair.
The paper quoted one un-named partygoer as saying: "Cocaine is the drug of choice for many people in the Westminster world of politics, PR and media and among the metropolitan elite.
"It's a very Islington and Notting Hill thing. During Labour conference Brighton becomes Islington and W11-on-sea and people take their pleasures with them.
"What's amazing is that people are prepared to take the drug inside one of the most heavily policed areas of Britain."
Posted by: too true ||
09/29/2005 12:54 ||
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I see the Sun has commenced to head south again, just like last year.
HE CLAIMS to hate everything the West stands for. But yesterday it emerged that Osama bin Laden sought asylum in Britain even as he was planning the September 11 attacks on the US.
The al-Qaeda leader wanted to abandon his base in Sudan at the end of 1995 and asked some of his followers in London to sound out whether he would be able to move to Britain.
Michael Howard, who was then Home Secretary, recalls how his aides told him of the asylum request from the Saudi-born militant of whom the world knew little of ten years ago. A number of his brothers and other relatives, all members of the wealthy bin Laden construction empire, owned properties in London by the mid-1990s.
The teenage bin Laden had reportedly toured Europe with his family and became an Arsenal fan, though there is no record of his ever having been to a match at Highbury.
The astonishing approach to the British authorities happened only months after bin Laden had secretly organised a terror summit in Manila in January 1995 to begin planning how hijackers would turn passenger planes into flying bombs. He called it the âBojinka plotâ, which is Arabic slang for an explosion.
By this time bin Laden had also transferred some of his considerable personal fortune to London for his followers to establish terror cells here and across Europe.
His name rarely appeared in the British media even though by late 1995 his network had already bombed a number of US army bases abroad and plotted assassination attempts against Pope John Paul II and President Clinton.
Mr Howard said yesterday: âIn truth, I knew little about him, but we picked up information that bin Laden was very interested in coming to Britain. It was apparently a serious request. He already had people operating here, and who knows how history could have been rewritten if he had turned up here?â
Bin Laden never got a chance to make a formal application as Home Office officials investigated him and Mr Howard issued an immediate banning order under Britainâs immigration laws.
It was not until June 1998 â two months before attacks on US embassies in Africa â that bin Laden was placed on the FBIâs most wanted list.
Mr Howard said: âIf he had come here to plot the attacks on the twin towers and the US had subsequently asked for his extradition, then by then, under the Labour Governmentâs laws, he could not have been sent because they refuse to extradite to a country which has the death penalty.â
Bin Laden had, according to Home Office officials, used a Saudi businessman, Khaled al-Fawwaz, to sound out his chances of coming to Britain.
Fawwaz, 41, had arrived in 1994 and was described by security chiefs as his âde facto ambassadorâ in Britain.
Intelligence experts say that at the time of the asylum request, bin Laden was not enjoying his exile in Sudan, where he had moved after fleeing Afghanistan. The Sudanese authorities were making noises about expelling him.
The CIA and MI6 first came across the former civil engineer in the 1980s, when after the Soviet invasion of Afghanistan he fought alongside the Mujahidin and was on the same side as Western powers who were to become his avowed enemies. Bin Laden had returned to Saudi Arabia in 1989 supposedly to work in the family construction empire, but by 1991 he was under house arrest in Jedda because of his opposition to the Royal Family.
In 1991 he fled to Afghanistan and then to Khartoum, where a fundamentalist Islamic regime had come to power. He lived there for five years until Sudan expelled him and he slipped back to Afghanistan.
Posted by: Dan Darling ||
09/29/2005 00:52 ||
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So let me get this straight. Ariel Sharon won't travel to Britain for fear of getting put in jail, but Osama can not only travel freely but organize his terror cells. What's up with this!
Posted by: Jan ||
09/29/2005 15:58 Comments ||
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Rhein-Main Air Base in Germany, for decades the U.S. military's "Gateway to Europe", ceases operations on Friday, a U.S. Air Force spokesman said. The last regular military flight took off on Monday but a number of special flights will continue through the end of this week. The storied base, near Frankfurt, played a key role in the Berlin Airlift in 1948-49 and has been the U.S. Air Force's main hub in Europe throughout the Cold War. U.S. and German authorities signed an agreement in 1999 to close and return the base to Germany by the end of 2005. A formal closure ceremony is set for October 10.
The U.S. Air Force said it was shutting down the base because of operating costs, necessary infrastructure improvements, and the planned expansion of adjacent Frankfurt Airport - Germany's biggest commercial airport. Rhein-Main's strategic U.S. airlift capability is being shifted to Ramstein and Spangdahlem air bases in the western German state of Rhineland-Palatinate. The cost of the move, nearly USD 500 million, is being covered by the German government and NATO.
Matthew Summers, the public affairs spokesman at the base, said he would shed a tear when it was time to go.
Me too. I've lost track of the number of times I've flown in or out of there. From 89-91 I lived just down the road in Morfelden-Walldorf and rode my bike over to shop at the BX.
"As members of the military, we're used to moving. But the history of this base...," his voice trailed off. "It's the most significant air base in Europe. Nearly all the U.S. military personnel stationed in Germany have passed through Rhein- Main Air Base. We have touched more lives than any other air base in Europe," he said. Rhein-Main's host unit, the 469th Air Base Group, supports more than 3,000 military, civilian, contractor and family members. The military personnel will be reassigned to other locations in Europe and around the world.
A German air base before U.S. forces occupied it in the waning days of World War II, Rhein-Main was the port of the dirigible Hindenburg, which exploded over New Jersey in 1937. It was the main western base for the U.S. airlift to Berlin from June 1948 to September 1949, when the city was starving because of a Soviet blockade.
Situated about midway between the U.S. East Coast and Southwest Asia, Rhein-Main has been a major hub for U.S. forces and equipment headed to Iraq and Afghanistan. It has also delivered large amounts of humanitarian aid.
There are currently about 68,000 U.S. troops stationed in Germany which makes the country the main headquarters for a total of 102,000 American troops based in Europe.
Three years at V Corps in Frankfurt am Main - spent more than one lazy Sunday at Rhein-Main watching C5-A's [I think that's what they were called - it's been over 30 years] take off and land. Their wings appeared to actually flap (though they didn't really) - IIRC, they had wheels on the end of the wings because they drooped so much under their own weight. They were humongous MF's at the time; everybody stopped what they were doing to watch.
(So sue me - there wasn't much else to do there on a Sunday. Except drink. Which we did too. ;-p)
Fond memories, fond memories. But past time to move on.
Posted by: Barbara Skolaut ||
09/29/2005 16:18 Comments ||
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It's a good thing for Rhein-Main to close. Frankfurt really needs to modernize it's airport. Also I never thought Rhein-Main was defensible located on the other side of the runway from Frankfurt International Airport. If the balloon had ever went up in Europe, I thought a lot of transports would have been left smoking ruins in the tarmac.
Posted by: ed ||
09/29/2005 16:55 Comments ||
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Went through there twice once on leave. Fond memories and I am glad that Bush has figured out an exit strategery for Germany. For too long the occupation forces have trampled on the poor people of Frankfurt. Man I drank some beer when I was there, or at least I remember drinking something.
#4
Barbara, B52's had landing wheels on their wingtips.
Posted by: ed ||
09/29/2005 17:02 Comments ||
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#5
Thanks, ed - it was over 30 years ago. And I worked for the Army (not the AF).
Do you know anything about the C5-A's (or whatever that hugh honkin' transport of the time was called)?
Posted by: Barbara Skolaut ||
09/29/2005 18:32 Comments ||
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Got medevaced to Rhein-Main and spent a few minutes lying on the tarmac while they futzed with the ambulance. All I remember was that it was friggin' cold and snowing.
#7
I remember a picture from the Berlin airlift of two airmen standing next to their plane while it was being unloaded. A small German girl wearing a tattered dress was offering them her rag doll as gratitude for the supplies they were delivering. It was the moment before "the moment".
#8
Barbara,
Not really. I flew mostly in C-141s. I was in the C-5 only once. Still, walking into the C-5's cargo hold was damn impressive. For basic C-5 info, try http://www.airforce-technology.com/projects/c5/
Posted by: ed ||
09/29/2005 20:45 Comments ||
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Rome, 29 Sept. (AKI) - A leading anti-terrorism prosecutor says reports of a 'school for suicide bombers' in Northern Italy, leaked to the press by Italian military secret services (SISMI) in the aftermath of July's London's bombings, were unreliable and without foundation. The director of SIMSI - general Niccolò Pollari - had at the time personally reported the threat to the parliamentary committee that oversees the intelligence services. However, prosecutor Armando Spataro on Wednesday told the committee that police investigations had revealed the SISMI source as "a man with alcohol, drug and psychological problems". Teddy Kennedy?
In July, Italian newspaper La Stampa splashed on its front page the findings of the Italian intelligence services (SISMI) about an alleged terrorist training centre in the northern Italian region of Lombardy. The "school for suicide bombers" had reportedly been under observation for several weeks, well before the 7 July London bombings, and SISMI had compiled a detailed dossier, with names and operational information. However, there had been no related arrests. The report spoke of 'trainers' who had arrived from abroad and were planning attacks in Italy. Armando Spataro, who has coordinated various inquiries into Islamic terror cells in Italy, told the parliamentary committee that the alarm was 'completely unfounded'.
After the coordinated bombings of London's transport system, Italy - one of the countries with the largest number of troops in Iraq - fears it might become al-Qaeda's next target, as underlined on several occasions by the country's interior minister Giuseppe Pisanu. This week Pisanu said Italy will be under the threat of terrorism for the next fifteen years. That's a reasonable estimate
Italy had remained on high anti-terror alert since the 11 September 2001 attacks on the United States and the bomb attack on the Italian military barracks in Nasiriya, Iraq, in November 2003, in which 17 Italian soldiers and two civilians died.
Posted by: Steve ||
09/29/2005 12:36 ||
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Parents are worried about the Pass or Boom grading system.
The talk with Al-Qaeda and extremists is no longer a taboo subject in the United States with academics setting the change in tone, experts said on Wednesday, September 28.
âThe evolution is doubtless the result of a worsening of the situation in Iraq and Afghanistan. The lessons of the attacks in London have also been learnt: the threat (of terrorism) can resist the formidable security deployment,â Francois Burgat, a leading expert on the Arab world at France's national research institute (CNRS), told Agence France-Presse (AFP).
He said the change in tone was âthe start of a critical reassessment of the logic of the whole security policy.â
Burgat was commenting on a controversial Boston Globe article by Harvard University professor and prominent expert on Al-Qaeda Mohammad-Mahmoud Ould Mohamedou under the title âTime to Talk to Al Qaeda?â
âWith the conflict viewed largely as an open-and-shut matter of good versus evil, nonmilitary engagement with Al Qaeda is depicted as improper and unnecessary,â wrote Mohamedou in the September 14 article.
âYet developing a strategy for the next phase of the global response to Al Qaeda requires understanding the enemy -- something Western analysts have systematically failed to do.â
Mohamedou, associate director of the Program on Humanitarian Policy and Conflict Research at Harvard University, said it is high time the West put into consideration demands of extremists.
âSince the attacks on New York and Washington, Osama bin Laden and Ayman al-Zawahiri have delivered, respectively, 18 and 15 messages via audio or videotape making a three-part case: The United States must end its military presence in the Middle East, its uncritical political support and military aid of Israel's occupation of Palestinian territories, and its support of corrupt and coercive regimes in the Arab and Muslim world,â he said.
Allen Zerkin, an expert in responses to disasters at New York University, said that governments would have to seek a truce with Al-Qaeda sooner or later, seeing eye to eye with Mohamedou that neither side can win the war.
âTo be sure, the terrorists can't win this war, but neither can we,â he told AFP.
Derided by critics as an apologist for Al-Qaeda, Mohamedou said neither side can defeat the other.
âThe United States will not be able to overpower a diffuse, ever-mutating, organized international militancy movement, whose struggle enjoys the rear-guard sympathy of large numbers of Muslims. Likewise, Al-Qaeda can score tactical victories on the United States and its allies, but it cannot rout the world's sole superpower,â he wrote.
âNo longer able to enjoy a centralized sanctuary in Afghanistan after 2002, Al- Qaeda's leadership opted for an elastic defense strategy relying on mobile forces, scaled-up international operations, and expanded global tactical relationships. It encouraged the proliferation of mini Al-Qaedas, able to act on their own within a regional context.â
A research by Robert Pape at Chicago University has also challenged the commonly held belief that the motivations for terrorism are religious fanaticism, AFP said.
Pape said he was âsurprisedâ to discover from the study of 463 suicide bombings that âwhat over 95 percent of all suicide attacks around the world since 1980 until today have in common is not religion, but a clear, strategic objective: to compel a modern democracy to withdraw military forces from the territory that the terrorists view as their homeland.â
In his article, Mohamedou also cited the analysis of the former head of the âBin Laden unitâ at the CIA, Michael Scheuer, who is now a fierce critic of the Bush administration and its âWar on Terrorâ policy.
During a recent speech at the US Army War College, Scheuer said that both militant and non-militant Muslims hated the United States âfor what we do in the Islamic world, not for our democratic beliefs and civil liberties.â
One of the four would-be London bombers told investigators they were motivated by the Iraq war and not by religious fervor, denying any link to Al-Qaeda network.
In an obvious retreat from his earlier stance, British Prime Minister Tony Blair recently acknowledged that the Iraq war was being used to recruit terrorists.
The London-based Royal Institute of International Affairs, known as Chatham House, further said the Iraq war has given a momentum to Al-Qaeda's recruitment and fundraising and made Britain more vulnerable to terrorist attacks.
Posted by: Dan Darling ||
09/29/2005 00:40 ||
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Wow, so much crap packed into a single article...
The talk with Al-Qaeda and extremists is no longer a taboo subject in the United States with academics setting the change in tone, experts said on Wednesday, September 28.
Then in the next sentence he quotes... another academic. A single academic, let me point out.
Burgat was commenting on a controversial Boston Globe article...
Self-explanatory...
âYet developing a strategy for the next phase of the global response to Al Qaeda requires understanding the enemy -- something Western analysts have systematically failed to do.â
I understand the enemy well enough - they want us to die in large numbers or convert to Islam. How are you gonna 'negotiate' around that wall, Francois?
The United States must end its military presence in the Middle East,
I thought it was only to remove our presence from Saudi Arabia. Give an Arab an inch, he'll take the whole friggin' Middle East.
One of the four would-be London bombers told investigators they were motivated by the Iraq war and not by religious fervor, denying any link to Al-Qaeda network.
Adding to your list of greivances, real and perceived - an enemy you simply cannot placate, therefore impervious to negotiaion.
#2
Those that can, do. Those that can't, teach. Those that can't teach become "academics" at Harvard and get to write op/ed pieces for The Boston Globe.
#3
âThe United States will not be able to overpower a diffuse, ever-mutating, organized international militancy movement, whose struggle enjoys the rear-guard sympathy of large numbers of Muslims.
How 'bout we just give it try first and see what happens.
#4
Where does it say in our Constitution that a bunch of long-haired post-1960's academics have any authority to make federal policy? I've read the document many times, and I don't remember any such clause. US "academics" can say anything they want, can "call upon" the US Government to do this or that, and it has just as much weight as any other citizen.
To counter these loonies, I call for the United States to "facilitate" a regime change in Saudi Arabia, Syria, Egypt, Iran, Sudan and Indonesia, using "any and all means available to the government and people of the United States, without exception".
"Would you like a FATWA with that????"
Posted by: Old Patriot ||
09/29/2005 14:22 Comments ||
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According to Ho Chi Minh own words:
After Tet the North-Vietnamese were on the verge of conceding defeat. It was the sight of the protesters in the US who incited them to persevere.
#7
I think the lesson to be learned from this war is that we need to find a way to DEFEAT Al Qaeda, because if we don't, if we negotiate or some such crap, we will just encourage the next international stateless terror organization to have a go at us. (End of statement of the blindingly obvious.)
Posted by: jolly roger ||
09/29/2005 18:59 Comments ||
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âTo be sure, the terrorists can't win this war, but neither can we,â he told AFP.
The solution is simple: when an Al Qaeda member is found, kill him. Repeat as many times as necessary.
Four years after the nation's deadliest terror attack, evidence is accumulating that a super-secret Pentagon intelligence unit identified the organizer of the Sept. 11 hijackings, Mohamed Atta, as an Al Qaeda operative months before he entered the U.S.
The many investigations of Sept. 11, 2001, have turned up a half-dozen instances in which government agencies possessed information that might have led investigators to some part of the terrorist plot, although in most cases not in time to stop it.
But none of those leads likely would have taken them directly to Atta, the Egyptian architecture student who moved to the U.S. from Germany to take flying lessons and later served as Al Qaeda's U.S. field commander for the attacks.
Had the FBI been alerted to what the Pentagon purportedly knew in early 2000, Atta's name could have been put on a list that would have tagged him as someone to be watched the moment he stepped off a plane in Newark, N.J., in June of that year.
Physical and electronic surveillance of Atta, who lived openly in Florida for more than a year, and who acquired a driver's license and even an FAA pilot's license in his true name, might well have made it possible for the FBI to expose the Sept. 11 plot before the fact.
Atta is presumed to have been at the controls of American Airlines Flight 11 when it struck the north tower of the World Trade Center on Sept. 11, 2001.
The FBI has reviewed the voluminous records of its extensive Sept. 11 investigation and can find no mention of Atta before Sept. 11, a senior FBI official said. If the Pentagon knew about Atta in 2000 and failed to tell the FBI, the official said, "It could be a problem."
Anthony Shaffer, a civilian Pentagon employee, says he was asked in the summer of 2000 by a Navy captain, Scott Phillpott, to arrange a meeting between the FBI and representatives of the Pentagon intelligence program, code-named Able/Danger.
But he said the meeting was canceled after Pentagon lawyers concluded that information on suspected Al Qaeda operatives with ties to the U.S. might violate Pentagon prohibitions on retaining information on "U.S. persons," a term that includes U.S. citizens and permanent resident aliens.
The Washington-based FBI agent who was Shaffer's liaison has recalled, in interviews with her superiors, that Shaffer told her his group had unearthed important information on suspected Al Qaeda operatives with links to the U.S., but without mentioning Atta's name.
When Shaffer, who is also a lieutenant colonel in the Army Reserve, asked to whom at the FBI that information should be communicated, the agent gave him the name and phone number of an official at FBI headquarters, according to the senior FBI official.
Shaffer explained in a telephone interview that although Able/Danger never had knowledge of Atta's whereabouts, it had linked him and several other Al Qaeda suspects to an Egyptian terrorist, Sheik Omar Abdel-Rahman, who had been linked to the 1993 World Trade Center bombing and later was convicted for conspiring to attack the U.S. Atta arrived in the U.S. some seven years after that bombing. But Shaffer and his attorney, Mark Zaid, emphasize that Able/Danger never knew where Atta was, only that he was connected to Abdel-Rahman and Al Qaeda.
"Not to say they were physically here, but the data led us to believe there was some activity related to the original World Trade Center bombing that these guys were somehow affiliated with," Shaffer said.
Asked by Sen. Arlen Specter (R-Pa.), chairman of the Senate Judiciary Committee, at a hearing last week whether Atta, who lived for 15 months in Florida under a temporary student visa, was a "U.S. person," a senior Pentagon official answered, "No, he was not."
The official, William Dugan, was asked why the Pentagon had not given the Able/Danger data to the FBI.
"We're a lot smarter now than we were in 1999 and 2000," replied Dugan, who testified that the Pentagon instead destroyed the huge volume of material gathered by Able/Danger, which was disbanded in late 2000.
Erik Kleinsmith, a former Army major who worked with Able/Danger, testified at the hearing that he continued to wonder whether, if Able/Danger "had not been shut down, [whether] we would have been able to assist the United States in some way" to prevent the Sept. 11 attacks.
Zaid, who also represents James D. Smith, a private contractor employed by the Pentagon to work on Able/Danger, said that until last summer Smith had on his office wall a copy of a chart of Al Qaeda suspects, produced more than a year before Sept. 11, that had Atta's name and photograph.
"He showed it to anybody who came by--`Look what we had,'" Zaid testified. "And he would just shake his head, `What if, what if, what if....'"
Specter sharply criticized the Pentagon for refusing to allow Shaffer, Phillpott, Smith and others who recall seeing the chart to appear and answer the committee's questions.
"It looks to me as if it could be obstruction of the committee's activities," the senator said.
Specter added that he was especially "dismayed and frustrated" by the committee's inability to hear from Shaffer and Phillpott, whom he described as "two brave military officers [who] have risked their careers to come forward and tell America the truth."
Following the hearing, Specter announced that the Pentagon had agreed to allow Shaffer, Phillpott and three other witnesses to testify in public next month, though a Specter aide said Tuesday that the Pentagon now insisted the hearings be closed.
The Defense Department initiated its own investigation of Able/Danger's activities several weeks ago. After more than 80 interviews with Pentagon personnel, investigators reported that two individuals in addition to Shaffer, Phillpott and Smith recalled seeing the Atta chart before Sept. 11.
Kleinsmith, who is no longer affiliated with the Pentagon, testified that he was ordered by a Defense Department lawyer to comply with Pentagon regulations by destroying the Able/Danger data. He said he did not remember seeing Atta's name or photo on the materials he destroyed, but that he believed Shaffer, Phillpott and the three other employees "implicitly when they say they do."
Shaffer said that before Sept. 11 neither he nor anyone else associated with Able/Danger attached any special significance to Atta, or to any of the other Al Qaeda suspects the intelligence effort had unearthed.
Nor would they have had reason to. In early 2000, when Shaffer said he first saw Able/Danger charts identifying suspected Al Qaeda members with links to the U.S., Atta and two other Sept. 11 hijack pilots, Marwan al-Shehhi and Ziad Jarrah, were living and studying in Hamburg, Germany.
"I was the one that carried the charts down to Tampa, to Capt. Phillpott," then Able/Danger's operations officer, Shaffer said.
Able/Danger was an experiment in a new kind of warfare, known as "information warfare" or "information dominance." One of the program's missions was to see whether Al Qaeda cells around the world could be identified by sifting huge quantities of publicly available data, a relatively new technique called "data mining."
The data miners used complex software programs, with names like Spire, Parentage and Starlight, that mimic the thought patterns in the human brain while parsing countless bits of information from every available source to find relationships and patterns that otherwise would be invisible.
Over its 18-month lifetime, Able/Danger gathered an immense amount of data, the equivalent, Specter said, of one-quarter of the contents of the Library of Congress.
Although data mining can be a powerful technique, there is a danger that false connections will be made along the lines of "six degrees of separation," the popular theory that any two people on Earth can be linked through their relationships to no more than six other people.
The Atta-Al Qaeda connection, Shaffer said, was made by Smith, who then worked for a Pentagon contractor named Orion Scientific. Atta's photo, Shaffer said, was obtained by Smith from someone in California who had connections to "a foreign source" who monitored radical mosques in Europe.
"J.D. Smith took eight data points that were common to the original World Trade Center bombers in 1993," with whom Abdel-Rahman had been associated, Shaffer said. "From those eight data points, he matched the profile."
Atta, whose full name was Mohammed El-Amir Awad el Sayid Atta, called himself Mohamed el-Amir while living in Germany, and thus would not have been readily identifiable as "Mohamed Atta."
He switched to the surname Atta as he prepared to move to the U.S., according to German police documents. A Senate aide said Specter was negotiating with the Defense Department over the conditions under which Shaffer and the other Pentagon witnesses would be permitted to appear before the Judiciary Committee and answer the senators' questions.
"I think the Department of Defense owes the American people an answer about what went on here," Specter declared.
Posted by: Dan Darling ||
09/29/2005 00:55 ||
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I agree with Sen. Spector. Americans need more truth and less bloviating.
#4
What bothers me the most is that Able Danger was shut down and the data collected was destroyed, just about the time George Bush was elected president. I wonder WHY? What else did they discover that someone in Washington wanted to keep covered up? This is just the kind of meddling in intelligence collection and dissemination that crippled us prior to 9/11. I hope SOMEONE has recreated this type of intelligence collection, and is using it. Perhaps they are, clandestinely - we haven't had a successful terrorist attack in the US since 9/11.
Posted by: Old Patriot ||
09/29/2005 15:34 Comments ||
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'But he said the meeting was canceled after Pentagon lawyers concluded that information on suspected Al Qaeda operatives with ties to the U.S. might violate Pentagon prohibitions on retaining information on "U.S. persons," a term that includes U.S. citizens and permanent resident aliens.'
Yeahhh....alrighty then. It's just Bin Ladens boys...not gonna break protocol for that. Lunch anybody?
#4
If they have to release them, couldn't they wait a few more years until our guys are out?
Or only have the military folks review them.
For the sins of a few, our guys on the front lines will see the brunt of this. Thanks ACLU
Posted by: Jan ||
09/29/2005 15:50 Comments ||
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#7
We're not dealing with rational actors either in the form of foreign fighters captured in Iraq, the ACLU, or this Judge. Yep, time to invoke 'in adhering to their Enemies, giving them Aid and Comfort'[see Senate Joint Resolution 23 of September 2001]. Impeach the judge and arrest the petitioners. Why should one soldier die because these legal yahoos can't understand common sense.
#8
I didn't really understand the blackmail statement of the judge. Was it to imply it was ok to kill troops or that the judge was just befuddled and mixt the case up with another?
NEW YORK (CNN) -- A controversial proposal for an International Freedom Center adjacent to the planned memorial at the World Trade Center site has been abandoned.
New York Gov. George Pataki on Wednesday announced the change of plans he once championed. "There remains too much opposition, too much controversy over the programming of the IFC and we must move forward with our first priority -- the creation of an inspiring memorial to pay tribute to our lost loved ones and tell their stories to the world," Pataki said in a written statement.
A growing chorus of September 11 victims' family members had objected to proposed exhibits that would cover subjects in American history unrelated to the 2001 terrorists attack. Some also objected to the center occupying an eight-story cultural center in the southwest quadrant of the 16-acre site where the memorial will be centered. "Therefore, the IFC cannot be located on the memorial quadrant," Pataki said.
Pataki said he wanted the Lower Manhattan Development Corporation, the city-state agency overseeing rebuilding on the site, to explore other locations for the center. But the center immediately issued a statement saying it did not see "a viable alternative place." "We consider our work, therefore, to have been brought to an end," said the center's chief operating officer, Richard Tofel.
Oh. Darn. Shoot. Drat. Fudge.
Hundreds of September 11 families protested the plan in recent weeks, staging demonstrations at Ground Zero to "take back the memorial" and circulating petitions. They contended the freedom center would detract from the necessary, singular focus on the terrorist attacks that toppled the Twin Towers and claimed 2,749 lives in Lower Manhattan.
Debra Burlingame, a World Trade Center Memorial Foundation board member whose brother was a pilot on the plane that al Qaeda hijackers crashed into the Pentagon on the same day, helped lead the protests and applauded the decision. "The terrorists who killed our loved ones are the ones who turned it into a cemetery. We want to turn it into a incredible memorial," Burlingame said. "That story will be a story of loss and inspiration. Now it will be undiluted without distraction."
Pataki and freedom center supporters had argued that al Qaeda attacked the United States because of its freedoms of religion and speech, its tradition of democracy and support for human rights. "The celebration of freedom is not inconsistent with the goals of memorializing our nearly 3,000 lost heroes," Pataki said. "The creation of an institution that would show the world our unity and our resolve to preserve freedom in the wake of the horrific attacks is a noble pursuit.
"But freedom should unify us. This center has not," he said.
Because in the end it was all about the freedom to blame us for our freedom.
The rest of the article has the usual reactions.
Posted by: Steve White ||
09/29/2005 00:00 ||
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Close down the pity party tent, the moonbat carnival has skipped town.
Posted by: Captain America ||
09/29/2005 1:04 Comments ||
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Cindy Sheehan's next protest target in 5... 4... 3...
Posted by: Chris W. ||
09/29/2005 9:32 Comments ||
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Move the damn IFC to Governor's Island near Ellis Island. Run the tour boats so the vistors get to see both the tribute to the Great Immigration and then their American Indian Holocaust display in the IFC. Perspective. Message - history is not clean. There is often no perfect in real history. Way too often it is a choice between lesser of two evils [like supplying Stalin against Hitler]. However, we all know the IFC was declared by its backers as an all or nothing for Ground Zero, so it will die the ugly death it deserves.
#5
"There remains too much opposition, too much controversy over the programming of the IFC and we must move forward with our first priority -- the creation of an inspiring memorial to pay tribute to our lost loved ones and tell their stories to the world,"
I applaud Pataki for making the right decision, but his reason is so mealy-mouthed and wishy-washy as to be worhty only of a sleazy politician. How about opposing it on its lack of merits?
#6
THis would never have happened without the blogosphere. Ten years ago this thing would have been built and none of us would have known a thing about it until it was done. The left just can't get away with their crap anymore. We need to keep up the pressure on them, on all fronts. This is just the first victory of many to come.
#7
Exactly, remoteman. Through Michelle Malkin's site, I learned about the plan for the PA memorial and wrote a protest letter. From there I learned about and signed the NYC 9/11 survivors' petition on the use of Ground Zero and forwarded the petition on to dozens of friends to sign, too-friends of all political stripes. We ain't gonna let a memorial to 9/11 be an arena for diminishing America. Find someplace else for that.
U.S. intelligence officials and counterterrorism analysts are questioning whether a slain terroristâdescribed by President Bush today as the âsecond-most-wanted Al Qaeda leader in Iraqâ â was as significant a figure as the Bush administration is claiming.
In a brief Rose Garden appearance Wednesday morning, Bush seized on the killing of Abu Azzam by joint U.S-Iraqi forces in a shootout last Sunday as fresh evidence that the United States is turning the tide against the Iraqi insurgency. âThis guy was a brutal killer,â Bush told reporters in remarks that were also carried live on cable TV. âHe was one of [Abu Mussab al-]Zarqawiâs top lieutenants. He was reported to be the top operational commander of Al Qaeda in Baghdad.â
Bushâs comments came one day after Gen. Richard Myers, the outgoing chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, told reporters at the Pentagon that the U.S. military considered Abu Azzam the âNo. 2 Al Qaeda operative in Iraq, next to Zarqawi.â But veteran counterterrorism analyst Evan Kohlmann said today there are ample reasons to question whether Abu Azzam was really the No. 2 figure in the Iraqi insurgency. He noted that U.S. officials have made similar claims about a string of purportedly high-ranking terrorist operatives who had been captured or killed in the past, even though these alleged successes made no discernible dent in the intensity of the insurgency.
âIf I had a nickel for every No. 2 and No. 3 theyâve arrested or killed in Iraq and Afghanistan, Iâd be a millionaire,â says Kohlmann, a New York-based analyst who obviously reads Rantburg tracks the Iraq insurgency and who first expressed skepticism about the Azzam claims in a posting on The Counterterrorism Blog (counterterror.typepad.com). While agreeing that Azzamâalso known as Abdullah Najim Abdullah Mohamed al-Jawariâmay have been an important figure, âthis guy was not the deputy commander of Al Qaeda,â says Kohlmann.
Three U.S. counterterrorism officials, who asked not to be identified because of the sensitivity of the subject, also told NEWSWEEK today that U.S. agencies did not really consider Abu Azzam to be Zarqawiâs âdeputyâ even if he did play a relatively high-ranking role in the insurgency.
The characterization of Abu Azzam as No. 2 to Zarqawi is ânot quite accurate,â said one of the officials. According to this official, it would be more correct to describe Abu Azzam as a âtop lieutenantâ to Zarqawi who was involved in ârunningâ terrorist operations in Baghdadânot all of Iraq. Other top lieutenants operate in other parts of the country, the official indicated. Two other officials agreed that Abu Azzam was a senior figure, perhaps the emir (leader), of Al Qaeda operations in Baghdad, and that he was of critical importance in moving funds to insurgent operatives in the Iraqi capital area. âHeâs a money guy,â one official said. âHe is significant but not No. 2 [to Zarqawi],â said another official.
One reason to question the official Bush administration portrayal of Abu Azzam is that we can't help ourselves recent Al Qaeda statements and audio recordings have described another Iraqi insurgent leaderâa man who goes by the nom de guerre Abu Abdelrahman al-Iraqiâas the groupâs âdeputy commander,â Kohlmann says. Another Iraqi national, known as Abu Usaid al-Iraqi, has been described in these statements as directly under him in the Qaeda structure as the commander of the groupâs military wing. Neither man has been reported to have been captured or killed by U.S. or Iraqi forces, Kohlmann adds. Even the U.S. military in recent months have seemed to attach greater significance to other figures in Zarqawiâs network. Last July, for example, Coalition forces in Iraq issued a statement asking for help in finding yet another insurgent leaderâAbu Thar al-Iraqi, who was described as âAl Qaedaâs chief bombing coordinator for Baghdad.â As Kohlmann sees it, the Zarqawi network in Iraq is far more amorphous and loosely structured to accurately place any particular figure in a hierarchical structure. âThese arenât Fortune 500 corporations,â he says.
Continued on Page 49
Posted by: Dan Darling ||
09/29/2005 01:00 ||
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General, Colonel, Lt Colonel, Major, Captain, Leutenant or common foot soldier.
Who gives a damn, he's dead, and that's good
Posted by: Redneck Jim ||
09/29/2005 1:21 Comments ||
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The notion that anyone would take Newsweak as anything other than "odd" is, well, rather odd.
No offense, but MSM jurnos look at everything through an anti-administration prism.
Evan K is a credible source and I agree that knocking off #2 or whatever will not diminish the number of bombings (which are performed by the fungible).
Still, doing in Abu Azzam is a positive development on two fronts: (1) disrupting command and control, and (2) positive PR to counteract the constant drum beat of bombing deaths, etc.
BTW - References to "two other officals" and other such unnamed sources raises by bullshit meter signficantly.
Posted by: Captain America ||
09/29/2005 1:56 Comments ||
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Agree with redneck: One less Islamo-cockroach to procreate, and breathe good oxygen. I hope he is enjoying his first week in Hell with allan.
#4
there are ample reasons to question whether Evan Kohlmann was really a veteran counterterrorism analyst of worth and many important high up important people who wish to remain anonymous due to the sensitivity of the matter, question whether anyone really reads NewsWeak or cares if their made up experts are real or just figments of their weak imaginations.
We just want to know who he was, where from, and what he did, then we'd know the signifigance.
Thanks
Newsweek creates controversy within their stories, when there's a much more interesting battle happening at this moment. Newsweek's narrow stories are just a tidbit of what's happening in this struggle for freedom, it's sales above journalism, because attacking the government is so damn interesting to readm, however I'm tired of it, but it's a good chuckle.
I recommend this blog entry:
Who was Abdullah Abu Azzam al-Iraqi?
By Bill Roggio
KANDAJAR (ROOTER) In telligence officials, speaking on condition of anonymity, doubt that the capture of Osama bin Laden and several top aides along with approximately 67.3 gigabyte of files and saved emails dating back to 1999, will have much effect in the war on terrorism.
"We can't win this war," said intelligence official M Albright, whose name has been change to protect her identity...
The characterization of Abu Azzam as No. 2 to Zarqawi is ânot quite accurate,â said one of the officials. According to this official, it would be more correct to describe Abu Azzam as a âtop lieutenantâ to Zarqawi who was involved in ârunningâ terrorist operations in Baghdadânot all of Iraq. Other top lieutenants operate in other parts of the country, the official indicated.
So he was A #2, just not THE #2.
Christ, these people would have bitched that Yamamoto being shot down was meaningless, since he wasn't actually in command of a fleet in the middle of battle at the time, and besides, why haven't we gotten the Emperor yet?
Posted by: Robert Crawford ||
09/29/2005 7:29 Comments ||
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1) Kohlmann does not give us his pick for #2.
2) Unnamed sources - always sets off the BS Meter.
3) Previously mentioned articles discuss us nailing 'right hand man' and 'top leaders', which doesn't seem to be in dispute but portrayed as badly as possible. It also escapes the writer's notice that 'top leaders', after getting captured or waxed, get replaced so there are always 'top people' to be had.
4) Al-Quesadilla's denial of Azzam as its #2 is obvious disinformation / icing on the cake.
#11
Hell, if I were the actual #2 of al Queda, I'd invent two or three "seconds-in-command" for the Americans and their running dogs to go chasing around. I'd probably meet with fellow-travellers and insurgents of dubious reliability under one or another of those names every once in a while, just to add some versimilitude.
Nobody eludes capture like a phantom. You just have to hope that the enemy doesn't figure it out, and starts inventing fictional raids that "captured" both abu Illuminati and al-Bilderberg. Although I suppose you could just keep on inventing new abu Smokeandmists and al-Rheinwatches, and let the authorities multiply their fake captures and shootings until someone in the media twigs to the whole charade.
Posted by: Mitch H. ||
09/29/2005 14:08 Comments ||
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Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas, saying Hamas is partly to blame for the latest bout of violence in Gaza, has sought to enlist Egypt's help to halt the rapidly deteriorating situation in Gaza and the West Bank. "The situation is deteriorating very gravely and if it does not come under control, it will be complicated and a third party, such as the Quartet, should intervene to stop the escalation of the events," chief Palestinian negotiator Saeb Erikat said on Wednesday after two hours of talks between Abbas and Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak. The Quartet refers to the EU, UN, US and Russia, who back the road map peace plan for the Israelis and Palestinians. Erikat said the two leaders discussed "the continued [Israeli] settlement activities, the ongoing building of the separation wall and the grave deterioration in the situation in Gaza".
Israel on Wednesday widened its five-day campaign against Palestinian fighters, firing artillery shells into the Gaza Strip for the first time and shutting down 15 West Bank offices suspected of distributing money to families of bombers from the Hamas and Islamic Jihad groups. Israeli aircraft also fired missiles at several Gaza targets, knocking out power in Gaza City for most of the night. In the West Bank, Israel rounded up 24 suspected fighters, bringing the number of people arrested since the weekend to more than 400. Palestinian policemen also exchanged fire with armed men who approached the Gaza Strip's border with Israel on Wednesday, the first domestic clash since Israeli soldiers completed a pullout from the territory this month. Witnesses said the armed men wounded two policemen and took at least one more hostage near Karni border crossing. The identity of the armed men was not immediately clear, nor their reason for approaching the border.
Posted by: Fred ||
09/29/2005 00:00 ||
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Translation, Egypt please come and be our scapegoat those nasty Israellis are shooting back. (How dare they figure out our "Shoot and Cower behind a Cease-Fire ploy")
Please, please Egypt, we need someone else to blame for our Crimes, and hurry up about it.
Posted by: Redneck Jim ||
09/29/2005 0:35 Comments ||
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#2
"Help, help Husni, I'm drowning".
"Just a second Abu Masen, let me finish washing my hair."
#3
"Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas, saying Hamas is partly to blame for the latest bout of violence in Gaza,"Hamas f**ked up with their parade. Bad enough they killed 16 of their own. Then they say Israel did it, and PA contradicts them. Then they fire at Israel, and Israel comes down hard on them, and lots of Pals blame Hamas, not Israel (see a very interesting BBC article from Tuesday)
Note in addition to arresting and killing Hamas leaders, Israel is ALSO arresting Hamasniks who were set to be candidates in the Pal elections. You think Abbas minds about that? I dont think so.
As for Egypyt, Hosni doesnt like the Muslim Brotherhood, why should he want their Pal equivalents to take over in Gaza? This is a call for Egyptian support in putting down Hamas, I think.
Look at the following Palestinian policemen also exchanged fire with armed men who approached the Gaza Strip's border with Israel on Wednesday, the first domestic clash since Israeli soldiers completed a pullout from the territory this month. Witnesses said the armed men wounded two policemen and took at least one more hostage near Karni border crossing. The identity of the armed men was not immediately clear, nor their reason for approaching the border.
SUPPORT for terrorism among previously moderate Muslims in Southeast Asia is increasing, according to Australian Federal Police intelligence that warns Australian interests will remain vulnerable for at least a decade.
The AFP's counter-terrorism manager, Ben McDevitt, told a conference of army chiefs that the successes of police and intelligence forces around the region in disrupting operations of groups such as Jemaah Islamiah - responsible for the Bali bombings in late 2002 - were not replicated in the "war of ideology".
Mr McDevitt told the conference that in the eyes of al-Qaeda "Australia is a clear and perhaps vulnerable target".
"It seems more likely than not that Islamist terrorism in Southeast Asia will impact on the region for at least the next decade," he said.
"Terrorism in the region appears to be self-sustaining and it could be argued sympathy for the terrorists, if not for their methods, seems to be growing."
Mr McDevitt said appeal for the extremist Islamic ideology was growing among Muslims who saw modernisation as a threat to the traditional values of Islam.
He said claims that the war on terror was actually a war on Islam appeared to have found favour in the region.
Intelligence on terrorist groups showed that they were becoming looser alliances with global support networks.
But he said police forces could get clues to a potential terrorist act because terrorists had to commit crimes in the lead-up to the act in order to prepare and fund themselves.
"Investigators working on money laundering, drug trafficking, people smuggling and other crimes need to constantly be sensitive to any possible indirect or direct links to terrorism," he said.
Mr McDevitt's comments were supported by a new study on radical Islam in Indonesia that found, despite the decimation of the JI leadership, that it continued to pose a significant threat to Australians.
The Australian Strategic Policy Institute study, Local Jihad, finds that in Indonesia JI is now deeply split between those who favour large-scale jihadist attacks and supporters who want to return to the organisation's roots and the long-term campaign for an Islamic state in Indonesia.
"It would be wrong to assume that a divided JI would mean a greatly reduced terrorist threat," ASPI concludes. "If JI is fragmenting, this may result in a more diffuse pattern of terrorist activity, rather than one focused on a single terrorist organisation."
The ASPI study, written by Greg Fealy from the Australian National University and ASPI's Aldo Borgu, argues that the global terrorist challenge requires flexible policy responses from the Australian Government. They say that as much as JI sees itself as part of the global jihadist movement, it also regards itself as the heir to Darul Islam, the radical Indonesian group that fought for an Islamic state from the late 1940s and helped inspire JI.
"The global war on terror has limited application in determining what our response should be to counter extremist Islamist terrorism in Indonesia," they say.
Posted by: Dan Darling ||
09/29/2005 00:42 ||
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KUALA LUMPUR, Sept 28 (Bernama) -- Malaysia will not hand over the 131 Southern Thai nationals to the Thai authorities following the violence in Thailand's restive Muslim province until their human rights are assured and not infringed upon. Deputy Prime Minister Datuk Seri Najib Tun Razak said however to date the government had not decided on the next move...
He said whatever decision to be taken by Malaysia on the status of the 131 Thai nationals, such as sending them to a third country, would be based on the principle held by this country, that is the principle of human rights and rule of law.
Najib said the understanding between Malaysia and Thailand were also based on the principle. He said Malaysia maintained that the problem in Southern Thailand should be seen as a political issue and not merely a security or military problem. Hence, the matter should not be resolved through military means alone, but must be seen from a wider perspective...
Najib said Malaysia had always taken a position to cooperate with neighbouring countries and would try to solve whatever problems that arose.
WASHINGTON - Rifaat al-Assad, the uncle of Syria's current leader, is putting himself forward as a possible successor to his nephew, prevailing upon friends in Saudi Arabia and Iraq's transitional assembly to press his case to a wary Washington.
Earlier this month, Rifaat, who is the exiled brother of Syria's former strongman, Hafez al-Assad, told some Lebanese papers that he was planning on making a triumphant return to Syria. His brother kicked him out of the country shortly after letting him return to Damascus for his mother's funeral in 1992. In August and September, Rifaat met with members of the political party of Iraqi politician Ayad Allawi in an effort to gain an audience with a high-ranking Bush administration official. Rifaat al-Assad is also said to have helped procure a witness, former intelligence officer Mohammed Saddiq, in the United Nations investigation into the murder of a former Lebanese prime minister, Rafiq Hariri. Mr. Saddiq, who the Syrians claim is a fraud, fled to France earlier this year.
Interesting. Cut the legs out from under his nephew, then ride in to take his place
On Monday, the former director of the congressional task force on terrorism and unconventional warfare, Yossef Bodansky, virtually announced Rifaat's candidacy to head Syria. Sitting across from Rifaat at a Paris restaurant, Mr. Bodansky said on the John Batchelor program on ABC Radio that his dinner companion enjoyed support from America and Saudi Arabia as the heir apparent to the crumbling Baathist regime in Damascus.
Yossef also wrote the report on the upcoming "Great Ramadan Offensive", for what it's worth.
Yesterday two American officials denied these claims. "We have no interest in a dialogue with Rifaat al-Assad," one American official said. But nonetheless, the search for a replacement for Bashar al-Assad is clearly on the minds of top policymakers in Washington and Riyadh. Saudi diplomats have quietly already told their Gulf counterparts that they would support the conclusions of the United Nations report due next month, wherever it leads. This is code, one diplomatic source said, for supporting the policy of isolation that helped pressure Syrian troops to exit Lebanon earlier this year.
Meanwhile, in Washington over the weekend Deputy Secretary of State Robert Zoellick told an audience at an off-the-record retreat for the Washington Institute for Near East Policy that America was indifferent to the fate of Syria's rulers. "The United States is interested in behavior change, but if regime change would occur, so be it," he said, according to three people in the room for his comment.
Rifaat al-Assad has been angling for a way to take over Syria since 1983, when his brother first exiled him after he amassed a militia in the streets of Damascus with rumors circulating that the leader was deathly ill. Over the years, the Assad family's black sheep has had intermittent meetings with Western and Arab intelligence services and claimed, according to one former CIA official, that he could foment a military coup with his contacts in the military and security services in Syria. The deputy director of the Washington Institute for Near East Policy, Patrick Clawson, said yesterday, "Rifaat at various times in the last decade has tried to propose himself as a more reasonable alternative to other members of his family."
Don't you just love Middle Eastern politics? It's so medieval
One of Rifaat's possible selling points to the Americans is also one of his liabilities. In 1982, he led the military campaign that crushed the Syrian Muslim Brotherhood in Hama, a massacre that claimed as many as 40,000 lives. In this respect, he can claim experience that will serve him in putting down the jihadist movement in Syria at war with Iraq's first representative government. Yet at the same time, because he is both an Assad and a Baathist with blood on his hands, support for him would severely undermine America's public case that it is supporting the transition to democracy in the Arab world.
It would give him credibility for those in Syria who think Bashar al-Assad is a wimp and long for the good old days.
One democratic opposition leader, Farid Ghadry, who has been quietly meeting with opposition groups in Europe for the past two months and has had some meetings with American policy-makers, says that he is wary of any efforts to supplant Bashar al-Assad with another dictator. "If Rifaat Assad wants to help Syria and wants to be part of a democratic process then let him say so," Mr. Ghadry, who is the leader of the Reform Party of Syria, said Tuesday. "The solution to all of our problems is democracy, not another dictator or someone to use violence to stop violence."
Salameh Nematt, the Washington bureau chief for al-Hayat, an Arabic newspaper, said yesterday, "Americans and Saudi leaders want to see a smooth transition in Syria from those tainted with the murders in Lebanon to people who can look at a new page. Rifaat is universally seen as not acceptable for the job nor supported by the majority of the Syrian people, but he is clearly promoting himself to the Americans and Syria's neighbors."
A political science professor at Florida Atlantic University and an expert on Syrian politics, Robert Rabil, said flatly, "Rifaat is not going to work in Syria." He said that Rifaat al-Assad has too many enemies in the country ranging from the Muslim Brotherhood to loyalists to his brother. "He has a terrible past and is accused of corruption throughout Syria," he said.
Posted by: Steve ||
09/29/2005 09:40 ||
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Welcome home, Uncle Rifaat! I have your limo for you right here.
No, no. This one, not that one...
Syria denied on Wednesday accusations by Lebanese Defence Minister Elias al-Murr, once a staunch ally of Damascus, that Syria's former intelligence chief in Lebanon had threatened his life. Murr told the Lebanese Broadcasting Corporation on Monday that Rustom Ghazali, intelligence chief at the time, had made verbal death threats long before the minister survived a bomb blast that targeted his motorcade in Beirut in July.
Murr, speaking from Europe, said he had decided to stay abroad because he did not trust Lebanon's security agencies to protect him. "Murr is rushing to join the dominant chorus which is throwing accusations at Syria left and right," said al-Thawra newspaper, a government mouthpiece. Al-Thawra and two other state-owned newspapers quoted an official source as dismissing Murr's charges as "full of lies".
"Lies! All lies!"
Posted by: Fred ||
09/29/2005 00:00 ||
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Iranian lawmakers on Wednesday agreed to urgently debate a bill demanding that the government suspend cooperation over inspections by the U.N. nuclear watchdog. If approved, the bill will oblige the government to suspend the implementation of the Additional Protocol to the Nuclear Nonproliferation Treaty, which grants U.N. nuclear experts unfettered inspections of Iran's nuclear facilities at short notice. "The parliament intends to block the misuse of the Additional Protocol," Speaker Golam Ali Haddad Adel said. The move by parliament is likely to place the government under pressure to maintain, and even further harden, its stance on its nuclear program. Iran insists that the program is for peaceful purposes, but the United States suspects Iran's Islamic regime is seeking nuclear arms capability. The additional protocol requires any signatory country to report all its nuclear facilities to the International Atomic Energy Agency. It also obliges signatories to admit short-noticed intrusive snap inspections of the facilities.
Posted by: Fred ||
09/29/2005 00:00 ||
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Moolah mania. Given that the regime has been hiding shit for over two decades, more bluster..
Posted by: Captain America ||
09/29/2005 0:32 Comments ||
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by Prakriiti Gupta, Middle East Times EFL. Hat tip: Kathy "Relapsed Catholic" Shaidle.
Women in Jammu and Kashmir have now picked up guns against Islamic militants to protect their homes.
At least 30 Muslim women in the disputed region to the north of India and Pakistan have constituted a separate all-women Village Defense Committee (VDC) and are operating with the Indian army in the forested mountains of Surankote in the Poonch district bordering the Pakistani side of Kashmir to fight militants.
"Now militants do not dare enter our village," said 18-year-old Nishat Bee, the youngest member of the group. Her companion, however, corrects her by saying, "In fact militants have not been this way since we picked up guns against them."
On a visit to the twin villages of Marah and Kulali, one finds tall, slender Muslim women sporting rifles on their shoulders while grazing cattle alone in deep forests or standing on top of the roofs of their homes to keep a watch on militants.
"I am proud to fight a Jihad [holy war] against marauders who have cheated us of our dignity and honor," says Shamima Akhter, the 30-year-old commander of this particular women's group.
"Militants who would force us to provide them shelter, food and at times to entertain them physically were harassing us physically and mentally. If we opposed them they would commit rapes or kill our family members. We wanted to confront them and the only way to do it was to acquaint ourselves with the basic functioning of guns and grenades," she added. . . .
. . . Tahira Begum, wife of VDC member Tahir Hussain Choudhary and mother of three says, "we want to live with honor and dignity and [for that] we have waged a war against these gun trotters [who are] a blot on the name of Islam.
"It is an amazing feeling to hold a gun in one's hand for a noble cause," Begum added. "On several occasions in the past eight months I have come across jihadis in the forests who are scared and who go into hiding. I am proud to be fighting a jihad against these marauders who cheated us of our dignity and honor."
The Second Amendment . . . it's a beautiful thing.
Trained in the firing, basic handling and cleaning of weapons, as well as in battle craft and field craft drills, nearly every month these women go to nearby army camps to polish up on their shooting skills and to update their knowledge of weapons used commonly by terrorists.
"They have an extraordinary learning zest," said Indian army Public Relations Officer R.K Chhibber.
"Not only that, but the single women . . . their boyfriends are so well behaved, you'd just be amazed how polite they are!"
Posted by: Mike ||
09/29/2005 16:09 ||
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Meanwhile
Top Hizbul militant surrenders in J-K
Soon after his infiltration from across Pakistan occupied Kashmir, a top Hizbul Mujahideen and Afghanistan trained militant surrendered before troops at a forward post on Line of Control in Poonch district of Jammu and Kashmir on Wednesday night, officials said.
Identified as Mohmmad Ayoub of Banpat village in Poonch district, the militant entered the Indian territory from Pakistan occupied Kashmir side and went to the forward post and surrendered before the troops on LoC in Poonch district.
"Instead of escaping from the area, he surrendered before the troops," officials said adding the militant also handed over one AK rifle, one pistol, 4 magazines, 5 IEDs and 137 rounds.
Posted by: john ||
09/29/2005 17:52 Comments ||
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#2
Let's hope this concept spreads.I find the idea of an AK packin women protecting hearth and kin inspiring(and scary).
September 29, 2005: The fight against terrorism in Iraq has drawn lots of the headlines and protests, but one of the other theaters where al Qaeda is being fought is the Horn of Africa. This is one battle that al Qaeda has been losing, much as it is losing in Iraq and Afghanistan. Joint Task Force Horn of Africa is also training local military forces, including the Kenyan and Yemeni Coast Guards. Military-to-military training has been going on with Yemen, and is starting with Uganda and Tanzania. One of the few places they have not had much luck is Eritrea, which has been locked in a dispute with Yemen over the Hanish Islands in the Red Sea and which fought a two-and-a-half year border war with Ethiopia.
In the Horn of Africa, the major âcombat unitsâ are not special forces or infantry. Instead, these forces tend to be doctors, engineers, and even veterinarians. Very rarely are shots fired in anger. Instead, soldiers are often spending their time drilling a well in Djibouti or carrying out other projects that the local leaders think will help make life for their villagers easier â like building libraries and hospitals. Another initiative in Nairobi, by the name of Golden Spear, coordinates disaster relief in the region. These efforts today might not seem like much, but the effect is huge.
This theater of the war has a grand total of 1,400 personnel operating in an area five times larger than Iraq and Afghanistan combined. Yet, these 1,400 personnel are dealing al Qaeda serious strategic blows in a major offensive that is just as important as those in Iraq and Afghanistan. The organizations that have affiliated with al Qaeda need recruits, due to the fact that they are suffering heavy casualties in Iraq and Afghanistan. Villagers who have had their goats treated by American veterinarians or who have seen American soldiers spend five months drilling a well, are not likely to flock to the banner of al Qaeda. They will be just as likely to tell the Americans, who came to help them improve their lives, that there have been terrorist recruitment efforts. The recruiters will then be followed, and more intelligence will be acquired before various al Qaeda cells get rolled up.
The war on terrorism has taken many forms â some of it is major combat as has been seen in Iraq and Afghanistan. In other places, it has been cooperation with local authorities, as has happened in Yemen. In the case of the Horn of Africa, a region is being systematically closed off to al Qaeda with few â if any â shots being fired through ânation-buildingâ five years ago. Here, the battle is for hearts and minds, and it is being decisively won without fanfare or even notice, yet this offensive and the battles fought are arguably as important as any fought in Iraq or Afghanistan.
Posted by: Steve ||
09/29/2005 09:31 ||
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#1
The real Peace Corps at work.
Posted by: Curt Simon ||
09/29/2005 11:16 Comments ||
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#2
Yes but at one point gathering intelligence has to stop and bombs begin to fall on the discovered AQ cells
On September 29, Algerians will vote on President Abdelaziz Bouteflikaâs proposed Charter for Peace and National Reconciliation, a policy that would provide amnesty for most of the one-thousand Islamic terrorists the government believes are still hiding in Algeria and neighboring countries. Between three hundred and five hundred of the terrorists still at large belong to the Salafist Group for Preaching and Combat (GSPC). This cadre of Afghanistan-trained, al-Qaedaâlinked militants was behind the September 24 ambush of a police patrol east of Algiers that killed eight people. These holdouts have shown no interest in a government amnesty, despite the Algerian populationâs clearly waning interest in Islamist-inspired political violence.
In addition to their domestic terrorist campaign, radical Algerian Islamists constitute the largest national grouping in al-Qaeda behind Saudis and Yemenis. Algerian jihadists have been involved in successful or thwarted attacks in the United States, Britain, France, Germany, Italy, Afghanistan, Chechnya, and Iraq. The connections these Algerians made in Afghanistan span the globe, while the weakening of the original al-Qaeda leadership has created an opportunity for local âfranchiseâ groups to take the initiative in global jihad. As al-Qaeda decentralizes, the GSPCâs network in northern Africa and the Middle East is expanding and now poses a serious international threat.
Unregulated borders, weak institutions, inadequate policing, and smuggling networks characterize the Muslim-majority Sahel region and make it a natural staging ground for the GSPC. Several high profile examples of GSPC activity south of Algeria in the last two years illustrate the ease of movement terrorists enjoy in this region. In separate incidents in February and March 2003, the GSPC took a total of thirty-two European tourists hostage in southern Algeria. The perpetrators then took the hostages to northern Mali, where Mohktar Benmokhter, a key leader of GSPC, is believed to have married the daughter of a local tribal leader earlier in 2003. The hostages were held there for six months until they were released in Gao, Mali. The perpetrators then fled through Niger to Chad, where GSPC leader Ammar Saifi (also known as Abderazzak el Para) was captured by a Chadian rebel group and ultimately extradited to Algeria.
Many Algeria watchers believed that the capture of Saifi effectively neutralized the GSPC. However, military encounters with GSPC militants in several Sahel countries throughout 2004 and 2005 suggest the groupâs continued activity in the region. In March 2004, the Chadian army engaged remnants of the group on the Libyan border, killing twenty-eight terrorists. The next month, police in Niger arrested one and killed three GSPC militants traveling through the country, and in the autumn of that year the GSPC clashed with the Malian army on the Mali-Algeria border. The most dramatic GSPC attack so far in 2005 was the June 4 raid on a Mauritanian military base in Lemgheitty, in which up to 150 terrorists burned military vehicles and killed fifteen Mauritanian soldiers. The militaries of Mauritania, Mali, and Algeria have since been pursuing the perpetrators across national borders. In July, the GSPC shot down an Algerian military helicopter on a reconnaissance flight over Mali.
While it pushes south, the GSPC has become increasingly active in Syria and Iraq. The group has provided propaganda and ideological support to the Iraqi terrorists as well as sending cadres to engage in terrorist operations there.
More worrying, however, are reports that Algerians are heavily represented among foreign fighters in Iraq. In June, the U.S. military announced that approximately 20 percent of suicide bombers there are Algerian. Another 5 percent are Moroccan and Tunisian, and arrests in Algeria this summer suggest that the GSPC may be helping funnel some of these North Africans into Iraq. In August, Algeria extradited six Moroccans who allegedly traveled to Algeria to join the GSPC network and whom police believe are linked to an Algerian operative until recently based in Syria. Ten Tunisians were arrested in Algeria on similar charges in 2004, and their fate is still being negotiated by the Algerian and Tunisian governments.
The nature of the GSPC network became clearer in July, when an Egyptian known as Yasir al-Misri (also known as Abu Jihad) was detained in Algeria on charges of using his travel agency as a front to send foreign fighters to Iraq via Syria since April 2003. The allegations against him got a boost from the announcement by Syrian police that in the first six months of 2005 they had deported 150 Algerians suspected of attempting to join the Iraqi insurgency. In September, Syria extradited an Algerian named Adil Sakir al-Mukni (also known as Yasir Abu Sayyaf) whom police suspect of facilitating the transfer of foreign jihadists into Iraq to join the Zarqawi network. Intelligence gleaned from al-Mukni may have helped break up the Moroccan cell that had traveled to Algeria this summer to join the GSPC.
The GSPC has become active well beyond its original base in Algeria. The most immediate threat is to Algeriaâs neighbors in the region, whose proximity to the center of conflict and domestic conditions make these countries vulnerable to terrorist penetration. The GSPCâs cross-border activity in Mauritania demonstrates the potential for even low-intensity operations to destabilize the area. Mauritaniaâs crackdown on Islamists before and after the June attack was a factor in the August coup against President Maaouiya Ould Taya. Disturbingly, just as the GSPC is becoming more active in the Sahel, Mauritania is scheduled to begin exporting oil in large quantities. Mauritania expects to pump 75,000 barrels per day as early as November 2005, with production increasing to 250,000 barrels per day in the next two years (at $60 per barrel, that would eventually be worth more than $4 billion a year to a country with a 2004 GDP of just over $5.5 billion).
In response to the threat in Africa, in June the U.S. military began training soldiers from nine northwest African countries in border security and counterterrorist tactics. The participants will meet again in early 2006. The Trans-Sahara Counter-Terrorism Initiative is designed to help prevent the GSPC and other radical groups from making further inroads across the region. The initiative is a sound first step in developing security capability in the participating countries, but its benefits will be fully realized only if the countries concerned are able to go on the offensive against the terroristsâwhich, for some of the poorer countries involved, may require more direct counterterrorism assistance.
Posted by: Dan Darling ||
09/29/2005 01:05 ||
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A suicide bombing outside an army base in the Afghan capital Kabul killed nine people and injured 28 yesterday, raising fears that insurgents are importing ruthless Iraqi-style tactics into Afghanistan.
"Oh, hold me, Prudence!"
"I'm so afraid, Chauncey!"
A motorbike-mounted bomber struck during the evening rush hour, as officers and soldiers waited outside the camp for a bus home. The charred remains of three army buses bore witness to the attack outside the Jalalabad Road training centre last night as Nato peacekeepers blocked off the area. Witnesses described a scene of carnage. "I saw the bodies of badly mutilated soldiers and buses were on fire," a soldier, Khalil Muhammad, told the Associated Press news agency. There was no immediate claim of responsibility for the bombing, which came 10 days after landmark parliamentary elections and just months before British troops are due to significantly increase their commitment in the country.
Iraq has suffered suicide bombings against members of its fledgling army for months, but such attacks were almost unknown in Afghanistan. Afghan officials believe al-Qaida has renewed its ties with the Taliban. Suspicions were first aroused last June after a suicide bomb in a mosque in the southern city of Kandahar killed 20 people. Since then insurgents have intensified roadside attacks on US and Afghan forces, using increasingly sophisticated remotely-triggered bombs. In an interview published this week, a Taliban commander boasted he had trained in Iraq for several months and was now bringing his expertise home. "I want to copy in Afghanistan the tactics and spirit of the glorious Iraqi resistance," Muhammad Daud told Newsweek.
Hours before yesterday's blast the Afghan intelligence agency, the NDS, told security groups that al-Qaida had formed a new group, named Fedayani Islam (Sacrifices for Islam), and sent suicide bombers into southern Afghanistan, seeking "targets of opportunity". An aid agency security group, Anso, described the information as "fairly accurate".
Posted by: Dan Darling ||
09/29/2005 00:58 ||
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If by "afraid" they mean "gleeful," then yes. They are afraid al-qaeda's renewed its ties to the taliban.
Teacher Mohamed Alouani hopes a national referendum on Thursday on a partial amnesty for hundreds of Islamic militants will finally bring peace to Algeria's most dangerous province.
Boumerdes will be a true test of whether President Abdelaziz Bouteflika's referendum will end an Islamic uprising that has cost between 150,000 and 200,000 lives.
More than 18 million Algerians are eligible to vote on the "charter for peace and national reconciliation", which will offer amnesty to rebels still fighting or in jail. The government expects a massive 'yes' vote.
"A mayor, two policemen, two soldiers, and a municipal guard were killed in the last 10 days in this area. Several businessmen were also blackmailed by the terrorists. We live in hell," Alouani, a 42-year-old Arabic teacher, told Reuters.
"We need quick results, people can't wait any longer."
About 1,000 militants, largely belonging to the much-weakened al Qaeda-aligned Salafist Group for Preaching and Combat (GSPC), remain and still carry out sporadic attacks, mostly in Boumerdes province.
The new charter will enable the state to free most jailed militants and offer amnesty to those who surrender. However, rebels responsible for massacres will be excluded.
"Enough is enough. We must turn the page of more than a decade of blood and tears," Bouteflika said at a campaign rally.
"We do have financial means to solve all our problems. But we can't do it as long as peace is not fully restored."
Algeria's economy has gradually improved since Bouteflika came to power. Foreign currency reserves exceed $40 billion, inflation is low, unemployment has fallen to below 20 percent and foreign investment is returning.
"Most voters will back the plan for fear of a new wave of violence," said Mahmoud Belhimer, professor of political science at Algiers University. However, he questioned the need for a referendum, saying the state was dealing with the rebels.
"I am ready to vote in favour of the charter for my young son to live in peace," said Souad Zafar, who survived a massacre in the Bentalha on the outskirts of Algiers in 1997.
"But I won't forgive," she said, adding that seven of her relatives died the night rebels killed about 400 residents.
Human rights groups and some parties accuse Bouteflika of using the referendum to strengthen his grip on power.
A leading opposition figure, Hocine Ait Ahmed, called for a boycott and said the charter would clear the government of any responsibility for what happened during the conflict.
The charter says: "The Algerian people praise the Algerian National Army, the security forces as well as all the patriots and anonymous citizens who...saved Algeria and its institutions."
Amnesty International said this amounted to exonerating the security forces from accountability for serious human rights abuses. It also criticised the charter for sweeping under the carpet other abuses, which should be investigated.
The families of thousands of Algerians who disappeared after being questioned by police will receive financial compensation.
"I do not want the government to give me money to compensate the lost of my son. I want it to tell me the truth, and why the security forces kidnapped him. This is what I want. Not more but not less," said Cherguin Jguiga, 65.
Madani Mezrag, the amnestied ex-leader of the armed wing of the FIS, told Reuters: "The armed struggle is finished."
Posted by: Dan Darling ||
09/29/2005 00:45 ||
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"The armed struggle is finished."
"...until we've finished stockpiling for the next round!"
Voters in Somaliaâs breakaway republic of Somaliland on Thursday cast their ballots to elect members of parliament with the hope the exercise will boost its chance of world recognition as a state independent of a nation in chaos. Since the region declared its independence from Somali proper in 1991, the election is the third since multiparties were allowed in 2000 and the first to elect members of parliament.
Amid high police deployment, days after police raided an alleged Al-Qaeda base in the capital Hargeisa, about 800,000 out of Somalilandâs estimated 3.5 million population are eligible to cast their ballots to elect 82 MPs. Some 985 polling stations open at 6:00 am and close at 6:00 pm, according to Somaliland Electoral Commission (SNC) Chairman Ahmed Adami. More than 100 accredited observers from South Africa, European Commission and other independent monitors will participate in the exercise, the poll panel said.
Officials said police officers have been deployed across the region to beef up security, nearly a week after authorities arrested a senior Al-Qaeda operative allegedly planning to organize attacks on local leaders and foreigners. âMore police officers have already been deployed and many more will patrol the streets in case of electoral violence or saboteurs plan nasty acts,â said one top police official, who is charged with ensuring that the voting is smooth.
Some observers expect the exercise would help Somaliland to gain international recognition as an independent state, free from Somalia proper where a growing dispute over the seat of that government hampering efforts to restore a functional administration to end 14 years of disorder. In the past, the international community has repeatedly spurned Somalilandâs quest for recognition, fearing this could exacerbate instability in the already highly volatile Horn of Africa. The ruling party Union of Democrats (UDUB) and the opposition groups the Hisbiga Kulmiye (Solidarity Party) and Justice and Welfare Party (UCID) -- which lost in the 2003 presidential elections -- agree that it is time to recognise their nation. All sides claim credit for Somalilandâs decision to secede from the fractured larger state in May 1991 after the ouster of strongman Mohamed Siad Barre plunged much of the country into a patchwork of unruly fiefdoms run by fractious warlords and their militias. On other matters, the UDUB and its political foes rarely see eye-to-eye.
Posted by: Dan Darling ||
09/29/2005 00:41 ||
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..In just the past eight weeks, Indian soldiers have recovered 3,000 kilograms of explosive material in the Kashmir Valley, a record haul that exceeds the entire quantity discovered between January and end-September 2004. Terrorist groups have also demonstrated considerable inventiveness in bypassing Indian counter-measures, rendering at least some well-established defensive postures redundant. New tactics for penetrating the fence along the Line of Control (LoC) have also been adopted. All of these are signs that the severely-degraded leadership of terrorist groups, notably the Hizb ul-Mujahideen (HM), is starting to get its house in order once again. Most of the new explosives recoveries have consisted of freely-available chemicals like potassium permanganate and aluminium powder. Although devices made with these substances are, kilogram for kilogram, less effective than conventional military explosives, their effectiveness has been demonstrated around the world - presently and notably in Iraq, where they have been used with considerable effect. Officials worry that that the shift away from military explosives like RDX is designed to lend credibility to Pakistan's claims that it is not giving military support to terrorists in J&K.
India's defence establishment is also discovering that the new fence along the LoC is not quite the infiltration-proof barrier it was advertised to be. As Prime Minister Manmohan Singh recently noted, cross-border infiltration has declined in recent weeks. However, this was preceded by unusually high levels of infiltration this spring when terrorists took advantage of weather damage to the LoC fence. Yet, the problem goes deeper. In a remarkably candid interview to Frontline magazine, the XV Corps commander, Lieutenant-General SS Dhillon, noted that infiltrating terrorist cadre were now equipped with barrier-penetration tools, and had received training on mock versions of the fence in camps in Pakistan. One common expedient, for example, was to clip a bypass on to the electric trip-wires laid through the fence's concertina rolls, and then cut a way through. As a consequence of the high early-summer infiltration, violence has risen this summer - relative, that is, to the quiet of spring - a fact Prime Minister Singh also expressed concern over.
To some in the security establishment, the message is clear: J&K's largest terrorist group, the HM, is slowly recovering from the decimation of its field leadership in 2003 and 2004. Ibrahim Dar, who handles the HM's current Srinagar-area operations, and who recently returned to J&K from Pakistan, is believed to be working to insulate his organisation from Indian communications intelligence penetration, notably by using couriers to send messages rather than rely on wireless or cellphone traffic. Sohail Faisal, an HM operative with over a decade of field experience, who was recently appointed its south Kashmir 'divisional commander', has made similar efforts to revive the HM's shattered organisational apparatus. How serious, though, is the threat? Indian intelligence and defence analysts are divided, along predictable lines. Some believe that the intense western pressure on Pakistan, coupled with its internal ethnic, political and economic crises, make it unlikely that it will allow a significant escalation of the jihad to take place. Others, however, believe that Pakistan wishes to continue to use the jihad as a source of leverage within J&K, and is in the process of finding means through which its secret war against India can be made self-sustaining. History, certainly, suggests that the second proposition is not as strange as it might at first seem. Contrary to popular perception, the jihad in J&K did not begin in 1990; only one phase did. Pakistan-backed covert groups operated with some success in the State through the 1950s, with minimal external support. So, from mid-1960 to 1972, did the Master Cell and al-Fatah, which had considerable political impact, despite the limited scale of their military operations. It is worth noting that many of those who became senior leaders in the ongoing jihad, cut their political teeth - and learned their operational skills - in these earlier ventures. It is, of course, entirely possible that what we are witnessing in J&K might just be the death throes of a war that history has already passed by. It costs nothing, however, to at least consider the possibility that the lull now being experienced is just the eye of the storm.
Posted by: Paul Moloney ||
09/29/2005 00:33 ||
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Tensions between Indiaâs Congress-led government and its communist allies are expected to erupt on to the streets on Thursday during a nationwide strike by more than a million bank and airport workers against the administrationâs economic policies.
The four Left parties that provide the government with a majority in parliament Wednesday also stepped up their calls for India to reverse its âshamefulâ and âpro-USâ decision to vote against Iranâs nuclear programme at last weekendâs IAEA meeting.
"Nope, nope, can't have none of that cooperation with the 'mer-cans, nope, nope."
Banking unions are protesting against finance minister P. Chidambaramâs call for consolidation among weaker public sector banks, while aviation sector employees are opposed to the private operators taking over Delhi and Mumbai airports. The protests reflect the severe constraints facing economic reformers within the government, which has started to come under attack from business leaders concerned at the apparent policy-making paralysis in New Delhi.
âWe are not convinced by the explanation [of the Iran vote] given by the government and our differences remain. India should have abstained,â Communist Party of India (Marxist) leader Sitaram Yechury said after meeting Prime Minister Manmohan Singh.
"What's wrong with allowing a bunch of mullahs who hate Hindoos to have the bomb?" he added.
Iranian officials had taken the gaspipe reacted strongly to Indiaâs decision to line up with the European Union and US, which drew up the resolution saying Iranâs nuclear activities may cover a weapons programme and require referral to the UN Security Council.
Javad Vaeedi, deputy for international affairs of Iranâs Supreme National Security Council, said Tehran would review its relations with New Delhi. Ali Larijani, head of the SNSC, earlier linked energy supply to countries stance on the nuclear issue. However, after talks between Shyam Saran, Indian foreign secretary, and Iranâs ambassador to India, the foreign ministry yesterday denied there was any threat to a $22bn gas purchase agreed in June or to a $4bn-$5bn pipeline to India via Pakistan.
It said in a statement: "We're angry but we need dollars." âWe have seen remarks made by the Iranian spokesman concerning economic co-operation with countries that had voted in favour of the resolution on the Iranian nuclear programme at the IAEA.â
It added: âWe have been given no indication in these interactions of Iranâs intentions to review its long-standing and extensive co-operation with India which is of benefit to and in the interest of both countries.â
India reiterated yesterday that it was not in favour of the Iran nuclear issue being referred to the UN Security Council and that it had persuaded the EU-3 to agree to a resolution providing more time for it to be resolved within the IAEA itself.
Posted by: Steve White ||
09/29/2005 00:00 ||
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Some 100 journalists and lawyers staged a rally in Islamabad yesterday against a seven-year jail term handed down to Al-Jazeera reporter Tayseer Alouni by Spain this week for collaborating with Al-Qaeda. The protesters termed the Spain court verdict as politically motivated. Dozens of reporters, cameramen, photographers, journalistsâ trade union leaders and lawyersâ representatives took part in the rally. âTayseer is a journalist not a terrorist,â read one banner, as protesters wearing black arm bands marched toward Parliament square chanting slogans including: âDo not demonize Muslimsâ.
How many were tehre demanded we not demonize Beelzebub?
Later they handed a memo of protest to the Spanish Embassy in Islamabad. âItâs utterly shameful that a so-called civilized country has convicted a journalist who was performing his duty,â said Fauzia Shahid, president of Pakistanâs National Press Club. Alouni, who is Syrian-born but a naturalized Spaniard, was jailed by a Spanish court at the end of Europeâs biggest Al-Qaeda trial which began last April. He interviewed the groupâs leader Osama Bin Laden in Afghanistan weeks after the Sept. 11, 2001 attacks in the United States.
Posted by: Fred ||
09/29/2005 00:00 ||
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A multi-volume chronology and reference guide set detailing three years of the Mexican Drug War between 2010 and 2012.
Rantburg.com and borderlandbeat.com correspondent and author Chris Covert presents his first non-fiction work detailing
the drug and gang related violence in Mexico.
Chris gives us Mexican press dispatches of drug and gang war violence
over three years, presented in a multi volume set intended to chronicle the death, violence and mayhem which has
dominated Mexico for six years.
Rantburg was assembled from recycled algorithms in the United States of America. No
trees were destroyed in the production of this weblog. We did hurt some, though. Sorry.
The Custodian of the Two Holy Mosques King Abdullah bin Abdulaziz and Crown Prince Sultan held talks with Karen Hughes, US undersecretary for public diplomacy and a close confidante of President George W. Bush, in this eastern Saudi city on Tuesday. During the meeting, also attended by Saudi foreign minister Saud al Faisal and other high-ranking officials, Hughes conveyed the presidentâs warmest regards to the Saudi monarch. She also praised King Abdullah for promoting tolerance and dialogue in Saudi society. She expressed her happiness at visiting Saudi Arabia and hoped she could contribute to strengthen relations between the two allies. The undersecretary commended Saudi Arabiaâs efforts in the fighting terrorism. âI salute the Kingdomâs efforts to work with us to combat terrorism,â she said. Her comments came as the White House released a memorandum by President Bush to Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice indicating, âI attest to that Saudi Arabia is cooperating in the global war on terrorism.â 
NEW YORK (CNN) -- A controversial proposal for an International Freedom Center adjacent to the planned memorial at the World Trade Center site has been abandoned.
U.S. intelligence officials and counterterrorism analysts are questioning whether a slain terroristâdescribed by President Bush today as the âsecond-most-wanted Al Qaeda leader in Iraqâ â was as significant a figure as the Bush administration is claiming.
Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas, saying Hamas is partly to blame for the latest bout of violence in Gaza, has sought to enlist Egypt's help to halt the rapidly deteriorating situation in Gaza and the West Bank. "The situation is deteriorating very gravely and if it does not come under control, it will be complicated and a third party, such as the Quartet, should intervene to stop the escalation of the events," chief Palestinian negotiator Saeb Erikat said on Wednesday after two hours of talks between Abbas and Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak. The Quartet refers to the EU, UN, US and Russia, who back the road map peace plan for the Israelis and Palestinians. Erikat said the two leaders discussed "the continued [Israeli] settlement activities, the ongoing building of the separation wall and the grave deterioration in the situation in Gaza". 
Syria denied on Wednesday accusations by Lebanese Defence Minister 
Iranian lawmakers on Wednesday agreed to urgently debate a bill demanding that the government suspend cooperation over inspections by the U.N. nuclear watchdog. If approved, the bill will oblige the government to suspend the implementation of the Additional Protocol to the Nuclear Nonproliferation Treaty, which grants U.N. nuclear experts unfettered inspections of Iran's nuclear facilities at short notice. "The parliament intends to block the misuse of the Additional Protocol," Speaker Golam Ali Haddad Adel said. The move by parliament is likely to place the government under pressure to maintain, and even further harden, its stance on its nuclear program. Iran insists that the program is for peaceful purposes, but the United States suspects Iran's Islamic regime is seeking nuclear arms capability. The additional protocol requires any signatory country to report all its nuclear facilities to the International Atomic Energy Agency. It also obliges signatories to admit short-noticed intrusive snap inspections of the facilities.
A suicide bombing outside an army base in the Afghan capital Kabul killed nine people and injured 28 yesterday, raising fears that insurgents are importing ruthless Iraqi-style tactics into Afghanistan.
Voters in Somaliaâs breakaway republic of Somaliland on Thursday cast their ballots to elect members of parliament with the hope the exercise will boost its chance of world recognition as a state independent of a nation in chaos. Since the region declared its independence from Somali proper in 1991, the election is the third since multiparties were allowed in 2000 and the first to elect members of parliament.
Some 100 journalists and lawyers staged a rally in Islamabad yesterday against a seven-year jail term handed down to Al-Jazeera reporter Tayseer Alouni by Spain this week for collaborating with Al-Qaeda. The protesters termed the Spain court verdict as politically motivated. Dozens of reporters, cameramen, photographers, journalistsâ trade union leaders and lawyersâ representatives took part in the rally. âTayseer is a journalist not a terrorist,â read one banner, as protesters wearing black arm bands marched toward Parliament square chanting slogans including: âDo not demonize Muslimsâ.
