WASHINGTON Military planners now think they may need to send more than double the number of extra troops initially believed needed to help fight the war in Afghanistan. The buildup in the increasingly violent campaign could amount to more than 20,000 troops rather than the originally planned 10,000, two senior defense officials said Wednesday on condition of anonymity because no new figures have been approved.
The newest calculations reflect growing requests from field commanders in recent weeks for aviation units, engineers and other skills to support the fighting units, the officials said. Officials had been saying for months that they needed more people to train Afghan security forces and two more combat brigades a total of some 10,000 people. Commanders later increased that to the trainers and three combat brigades or some 15,000, when extra support is included.
Now, military planners say that the number may have to grow yet again by another 5,000 to 10,000 support troops. They would be helicopter units, intelligence teams, engineers to build more bases, medical teams and others to support the fight in the undeveloped nation, where forces have to work around rugged terrain and a lack of infrastructure.
The growing numbers being quoted for the buildup in Afghanistan are not unusual. President Bush announced in January 2007 that he would send up to 20,000 additional troops to Iraq for what since has become known as the "surge." But the number eventually grew to 30,000 by the time commanders added requests for all the military police, additional aviation needs and other support they wanted.
In Afghanistan, it is far more difficult for troops to operate in the undeveloped nation, which lacks roads, runways and facilities to support troops. And commanders in Afghanistan do not consider this a short-term surge in troops but rather the number that will be needed over a longer period, one official said.
It is unclear whether the number will win approval. Some officials believe it's unwise to build too large a force in Afghanistan, where there is long-held hostility to the presence of foreign forces. If that large a force is approved, it's also unclear where the Pentagon would get that many extra troops for the Afghan campaign and how quickly they could be sent.
The Defense Department already has approved the deployment of about 4,000 people one additional Marine combat battalion and one Army brigade to be sent by January. But with some 150,000 forces committed in Iraq, the U.S. has not had the available troops to send to Afghanistan. Adm. Mike Mullen, chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, has often noted that in Afghanistan "we do what we can, in Iraq we do what we must."
The military shortfall in Afghanistan has been a common complaint from commanders. The number of U.S. troops in Afghanistan has grown from fewer than 21,000 two years ago to more than 31,000 today.
At a Defense Department press conference later Wednesday, press secretary Geoff Morrell didn't offer a number. In response to a question about the latest figures, he became animated in defending Pentagon efforts to get commanders more troops. "Unfortunately, we don't have them all ... sitting at the ready, waiting just for the beck and call and we can send them overnight," Morrell said, adding officials must weight needs in Afghanistan with needs globally."They are coming," he said of the reinforcements. "They have been coming. They will continue to come. It would be a mistake to suggest that we have been sitting on our hands while the commanders in Afghanistan have been screaming for more forces," Morrell said. No mention on how many NATO is sending. And wasn't that a big surprise...
#1
We have learned in Iraq that if we don't send enough people to protect the locals from the terrorists, they don't have a choice - they will cooperate with the terrorists or be killed, usually in a gruesome fashion. The Mongols had a cost-effective method for dealing with insurgencies - they killed the entire town. Given modern sensitivities, we'll have to make do with protecting/walling off the local population from any terrorists among them. That requires manpower.
#2
Afghanistan is a very different place than Iraq. The same policies will not work as well their, if at all. Petraeus knows this and will do something different. I suspect he also knows what happened to Elphinstone.
#3
The Mongols had a cost-effective method for dealing with insurgencies - they killed the entire town.
I'm not necessarily either for or against that approach, but I do believe we need to make those hosting the Taliban, willingly or not, very uncomfortable. I'd like us, just once, to use a massive display of airpower, and completely wipe out a Taliban "village", followed by leaflet drops stating that those cooperating with the Taliban can expect more of the same. Explain to them that tribal behavior is ok up to a point, but it doesn't do much good when we wipe out your entire tribe and a few of the neighbors, just for good measure. We're failing because we haven't made these people more afraid of us than they are of the Taliban. Let them see the "good" side after they fully understand we're not going to put up with any crap, including anything that harms our people.
Given modern sensitivities
"Modern sensitivities" need to be shoved where they belong - DEEP within the sewers. Preferably by axehandle across the bridge of the nose of those overly "sensitive". You don't win wars by being nice. You win wars by making the other guy so terrified of you he quits fighting. Ask Japan, circa 1945.
Posted by: Old Patriot ||
10/29/2008 14:44 Comments ||
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#5
Afghanistan is the real quagmire. Too tribal, too remote, too landlocked (with re-supply route through enemy territory). We are not going to turn these people in any kind of reasonable time frame. The Euros are not going to be much help either. Lets get out, but leave with a very clear message that if bad things happen to our people because of something that originated there, then we put OP's strategy into play...on more than one village.
#6
Petraeus knows this and will do something different.
Scalp bounty and smallpox blankets.
Posted by: ed ||
10/29/2008 17:44 Comments ||
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#7
Please quit passing on the "smallpox blankets" bullshit. <:-(
Posted by: Barbara Skolaut ||
10/29/2008 19:06 Comments ||
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#8
Gee, should I have added a smiley face to preempt your frowny face? The gist of the matter is Pontiac's Rebellion was defeated with a minimum of wasted British and colonial lives and resources. Not so fortunate for the Indians. Frontier wars were extremely brutal.
And no, Gen. Amherst did not distribute the infected blankets, though he did discuss the possibility.
Posted by: ed ||
10/29/2008 19:32 Comments ||
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#9
Frontier wars were extremely brutal.
On both sides. Note that it wasn't European forces who scalped captives.
The US agrees to drop the name of the Taliban leader, Mullah Omar from the terror list ahead of talks with the insurgents, an official says.
"US intends to remove Mullah Omar from the black list in a bid to provide a suitable seedbed for holding contacts with the Taliban," said Sunday, the US Deputy Assistant Secretary of State in the Bureau of South and Central Asian Affairs Patrick S. Moon.
Moon added that during his upcoming visit to Kabul, he will fully support the idea of negotiated settlement with the Taliban militants to end the violence in the region. He also reiterated that the talks with the Taliban insurgents were possible within the Afghan Constitution.
Also, the Wall Street Journal reported on Tuesday that the United States was considering taking part in talks with Taliban in a sharp change in tactics in Afghanistan.
The developments come at a time when US, British and NATO forces are experiencing some of the most violent attacks since the 2001 invasion of Afghanistan.
Posted by: Fred ||
10/29/2008 00:00 ||
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#3
Blinky and his bunnies would never have been targeted in the first place if they had been willing to give up bin Laden. I'd talk - if they'll give up al Qaeda.
#10
I'm saying weakness, because the whole justification in overthrowing the Afghanistan was based on the fact the Omar was the guy protecting AQ. It would have been one of the last negotiating items on the table, I'd think.
#11
A Google search shows PressTV Iran, that paragon of independent media, to be the only outlet running with this. Perhaps it is, how you say...bullshit?
#12
They dropped Mullah Omar in anticipation of Obama (Peace be Upon Him) winning next Tuesday. Obama (Peace be Upon Him) plans on making him Secretary of Agriculture.
The Taliban swiftly rejected a Pakistan-Afghanistan mini-jirga's call for dialogue on Tuesday, with a spokesman saying it was 'worthless'. "This jirga was founded by the Americans. It has no power, no respect," Zabihullah Mujahid, a Taliban spokesman, said by satellite telephone from an undisclosed location. "We will not hold any dialogue while foreign troops commanded by the Americans are in our country," he said. Afghanistan took a first step towards opening talks with the Taliban with a meeting in Saudi Arabia last month between a group of pro-government Afghan officials and former Taliban officials. But the Taliban dismissed those talks too.
Posted by: Fred ||
10/29/2008 00:00 ||
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#1
Give us everything we want, then we'll negotiate!
Posted by: Bobby ||
10/29/2008 6:15 Comments ||
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Posted by: Richard of Oregon ||
10/29/2008 10:24 Comments ||
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#4
WORLD AFFAIRS BOARD FORUM > CHINA INDICATES MOST TERROR ON ITS SOIL COMES FROM PAKISTAN, includ LOCAL ATTACKS BY CHIN GROUPS INFLUENCED OR ARMED FROM PAKISTAN; + TOPIX > TALIBAN, ISLAMISTS DEMAND INDEPENDENT FOREIGN POLICY FREE FROM USA.
Pakistani and Afghan leaders on Tuesday agreed to make contact with insurgent groups, including the Taliban, in a bid to end bloodshed and violence in their troubled border regions.
Leaders from the neighboring states reached the decision here at the end of a two-day Pak-Afghan jirgagai, or mini-tribal council, which was attended by 50 officials and tribal elders from both sides.
The meeting was held as a follow-up to a grand tribal jirga held in Kabul in August 2007. "We agreed that contacts should be established with the opposition in both countries, joint contacts through the mini-tribal council," said Abdullah Abdullah, the leader of the Afghan delegation and the former Afghan foreign minister.
Abdullah said that the door for negotiations was now open for opposition forces in Afghanistan.
When asked to clarify whether the opposition included the Taliban and other militant groups, Owais Ghani, the leader of the Pakistani delegation and governor of the troubled North-West Frontier Province, said, "Yes, it includes all those who are involved in this conflict situation."
"We will sit, we will talk to them, they will listen to us and we will come to some sort of solution. Without dialogue we cannot have any sort of conclusion," Ghani said.
Posted by: Fred ||
10/29/2008 00:00 ||
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#1
I dont know about the need to talk to olve the problems, but there is one thing that works pretty gpod. Armed drones can help the peace talks along.
Posted by: Richard of Oregon ||
10/29/2008 10:18 Comments ||
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NYT: Somalia: Rape Victim Executed A woman was stoned to death for adultery on Monday in an Islamist-controlled region of Somalia. Somali human rights officials said the woman, 23, had been raped, but the Islamist authorities determined that she was guilty of adultery. She was buried up to her neck and stoned after a crowd of thousands gathered at a soccer field in the town of Kismayu, which is controlled by the Shabab, a radical Islamist group.
Main article snippet (Globe and Mail):
The 23-year-old woman was executed late on Monday in front of hundreds of people in the southern port of Kismayu, which the Islamist insurgents captured in August, witnesses said. Guards opened fire when a relative ran forward, killing a child, they said.
"A woman in green veil and black mask was brought in a car as we waited to watch the merciless act of stoning," one local resident, Abdullahi Aden, told Reuters.
"We were told she submitted herself to be punished, yet we could see her screaming as she was forcefully bound, legs and hands. A relative of hers ran towards her, but the Islamists opened fire and killed a child."
Posted by: ed ||
10/29/2008 06:34 ||
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#1
It has been common practice at rape trials here to 'accuse the victim', but at least we don't kill them.
#3
Killed a child? If the child was female at least she won't need to fear genital mutilation in adolescence, stoning as an adult. What's wrong with these people? They need a good dose of Kurtz and Colby.
#4
But when the good ol' USA executes (after fastidious due process) a child killer who just happened to enter the counytry illegally, the rest of the world clucks its collective tougue at the savage, bloodthirsty Amurricuns. What goes down in pisslamic lands, it don't bother their refined eurine sensitivities, not so much...
Posted by: M. Murcek ||
10/29/2008 10:12 Comments ||
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EDDAH: Russia renewed its commitment to stronger ties with the Muslim world, vowing respect for religious values and a stronger voice for Islamic nations on the global stage at a forum with Muslim leaders here yesterday.
President of Tatarstan Mintimer Shaimiyev took a friendly dig at all those who have a habit of blaming Muslims for everything that goes wrong in the world.
Thank God, Islam is not being blamed for the global financial crisis, Shaimiyev said, speaking to reporters on the sidelines of the fourth meeting of the Russia-Islamic World Strategic Vision Group at the Jeddah Conference Palace.
He said Russia has become a natural partner of the Muslim world. One can say that Russia has clearly defined its strategic path in the Muslim East. It has become a natural partner of the Muslim world, he said.
Shaimiyev, one of the groups Russian co-chairmen, noted the meeting is primarily about restoring the required level of trust and predictability in our relations, as well as making clear that the aspiration to develop long-term cooperation with the Islamic world is not just a politically expedient issue for Russia.
Tatarstan is one of the republics of the Russian Federation. Shaimiyev said there is mutual interest in developing cooperation between Russia and Muslim countries.
One should bear in mind the fact that a strategic partnership with Russia, which seeks a multi-polar world order and does not encroach on values, traditions, authenticity or sovereignty of countries of the Muslim East, is very important for Muslim countries as well, he said.
Russia always occupied a special place in the Islamic world. In Soviet times, global problems were not solved without Russia. Today, the situation has changed and it is necessary to direct affairs using the intellect rather than weapons as it used to be. Tatars have a proverb: The one who is strong will beat one, and the one who is clever will beat a thousand. Our age is an epoch of rivalry of wits and modern technologies, Shaimiyev added.
"During the years of Perestroika, Russia's positions in the Islamic world considerably weakened. Now the role of Russia has grown noticeably ... This will certainly positively affect the influence of the Islamic factor on world politics," Shaimeyev added.
The forum is being organized by the Saudi Foreign Ministry and is specifically discussing Custodian of the Two Holy Mosques King Abdullah's initiative for interfaith and intercultural dialogue.
In an address from Russian President Dmitry Medvedev read by Shaimiyev at the event, Medvedev wholeheartedly supported King Abdullah's initiative.
"Russia, a country with observer status in the Organization of the Islamic Conference, intends to abide firmly to its course to expand active interaction with the Islamic world. In this connection, I think a broad discussion of the initiative to further develop interregional dialogue proposed by King Abdullah is of crucial importance," he said.
"I am also convinced that the implementation of the Russia-proposed idea of forming a consultative council of religions under the UN aegis will help strengthen the moral principles of world politics, facilitate deeper interconfessional communication and, in a broader context, promote the dialogue of civilizations," the Russian president wrote.
"The illusion of the unipolar world is becoming a thing of the past in front of our eyes. This strategic forum can contribute significantly to the search for ways to make the situation in the world healthier and to attain a new level of global partnership," Medvedev wrote. "I am convinced that Russia's active interaction with the Islamic world will help build a fairer system of international relations, where the factor of force will finally stop playing the role of a universal instrument to settle all emerging problems," he said.
Minister of State for Foreign Affairs Nizar Obaid Madani said: "We highly appreciate Russia's interest in the development of long-term and multifaceted cooperation with the Islamic world."
The president of Tatarstan later called on Makkah Gov. Prince Khaled Al-Faisal at the Makkah Governorate on Madinah Road. "You look very much like your late father, King Faisal," Shaimeyev told Prince Khaled. During the course of his discussion with the governor, Shaimiyev reminisced about King Faisal's visit to Russia in the 1960s. He also presented the governor with a CD highlighting that visit.
The Russia-Islamic World Strategic Vision Group was created in 2006 as an advisory body to increase cooperation in all fields between Russia and Islamic countries.
#3
President of Tatarstan Mintimer Shaimiyev took a friendly dig at all those who have a habit of blaming Muslims for everything that goes wrong in the world.
That's funny, considering they believe the exact same thing about Jews.
#5
Maybe the internal review of the Georgian operation and the economic spreadsheet from the new KGB showed that 'hard' diplomacy wasn't in the cards in dealing with the muzzies for the near future, so he's following the 'soft' diplomacy of the other Euros. Someone else learned that pissing off the big boys to the west and fighting the threat to the east at the same time isn't a good game plan.
#6
Sheer demography works against ethnic russians (IE the muslim part of the russia federation is young and rapidly growing, while the white european russkies are aging and depopulating), russia already is a member of the islamic conference organization, and has a long-standing run of having muslim countries and terror orgs as clients.
So, it' s only very natural russia plays the muslim card against it's "ennemies", it's the only one they've been dealt with. putin is stuck in the "Evil Empire" thought mode, he's a nostalgic of the USSR (whose fall was according to him the "greatest tragedy of th e20th century"), his regime is very busy rehabilitating stalin, making the West as a scapegoat and a scarecrow in a fascistic national-communism fashion... no wonder he's so popular with the french wingnuts who dream of having russian tanks sweeping through Europe to purge it of its decadence... In a very short time span, muslim men will be an absolute majority in military service age group, and china will have colonized de facto the russian far east, but, hey, putin is the blue-eyed blond guy who's turning russia into a "world power", whereas the USA are "stuck in a downward spiral of capitalist-induced decadence "...
#7
Also, china too is using muslim as proxies, politixcal and possibly military, just as russia does. Just remember the 2001 "anti-racism" durban UN conference which turned into an anti-Western, anti-US, anti-joooo hatefest. The goal of china is to overthrow the western world order in term of values and rules, the dumb muzzies are great footsoldiers for them, from pakistain to iranians.
#8
when did muslims become the scapegoats for everything that went wrong in the world?Last time i checked scapegoats monthly the americans and jews where in 1 and 2 spots
Posted by: chris ||
10/29/2008 10:31 Comments ||
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#9
Good job, Vladdy. That Beslan thing? Just an "aberration" I'm sure...
#12
WORLD MILITARY FORUM > RETURN OF RUSSIAN FLEET AIMS AT FINDING NEW NAVAL BASES [post-2017 Sevastopal] IN INDIAN OCEAN [Arabian Sea]. Besides TARTARUS, Syria + returning to their former Cold War SOUTH YEMEN Base, RUSSIA MAY ALSO BE CONSIDERING TO SET UP IN HONG KONG = widening the parallel port of LATAKIA???
Despite repeated pledges made by the interim government early last year to punish the masterminds and patrons of outlawed Islamist militant outfit Jama'atul Mujahideen Bangladesh (JMB), no effective measures have been taken so far.
Some high-level officials in the law-enforcement agencies involved in investigations into rise of militancy and its patronisation say the existing laws are not adequate to bring the patrons or masterminds to book.
"We need new laws or amendment to some existing laws to take legal actions against the patrons," says a top official desiring not to be named.
Continued on Page 49
Posted by: Fred ||
10/29/2008 00:00 ||
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Britain will publicly list and ban entry of more than 200 people whose extremist views and "violent messages" are a threat to national security, the home secretary said Tuesday. The plan announced by Home Secretary Jacqui Smith would group together Muslim extremists, animal rights protesters, anti-abortion activists, neo-Nazis and others she said "encourage or spread extremism and hatred through preaching violent messages." The list would include only people from abroad.
Smith said publishing the names--roughly 230--amounts to a toughening of existing exclusion orders that already list and ban certain groups from Britain. Authorities expect to publish the list on the Home Office Web site in the coming months.
The U.S. terror watch list, which is not public but reportedly has contained an estimated 1 million names, has caused many people to be wrongly stopped after they were listed.
Continued on Page 49
Posted by: Fred ||
10/29/2008 00:00 ||
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#1
Britain should list, target and kill more than 200 people whose extremist views and "violent messages" are a threat to national security. They can make the list public after business is dealt with.
#2
ISRAEL MILITARY FORUM > COMMANDER: IRAN ARMING MIDDLE EAST "LIBERATION" ARMIES; + IRANIAN FOREIGN MINISTRY OFFICIAL CALLS FOR ATTACK IN UK, to deter the US from attacking Tehran = Iran, + DOCS INDICATE IRAN IS CONTIN ARMING MILITIAS IN IRAQ.
QUITO, Oct. 28 (Xinhua) -- The Ecuadoran government Tuesday denied the alleged existence of 16 camps of Colombia's largest rebel group on its territory. I am absolutely clear in saying that reports show there are not any presence of irregular forces at those 16 locations," Ecuadoran Defense Minister Javier Ponce told local media.
He was referring to the Colombian allegation which said the Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia (FARC) has set up 16 camps in Ecuador and used them "for drug trafficking and terrorist attack planning."
Ponce also said that actually "five of those camps are on the Colombian territory" and thus the Colombian government "should be requested to analyze the issue with a little more good faith."
Since they aren't in your country, you won't mind if the Colombians destroy them ...
The minister said the Ecuadoran army has implemented appropriate measures in the border region with Colombia to prevent incidents similar to the one on March 1, when Colombia launched a cross-border attack on FARC, prompting Ecuador to break off its diplomatic ties with Colombia two days later.
Ecuadoran President Rafael Correa said on Monday that he does not have any interest to resume ties with Colombia.
Posted by: Steve White ||
10/29/2008 00:00 ||
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#1
If these camps don't exist, then Correa wouldn't mind a few international inspectors, would he?
Posted by: Richard of Oregon ||
10/29/2008 10:32 Comments ||
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#2
Bomb the camps and move the Columbian border markers to include them.
Posted by: ed ||
10/29/2008 11:21 Comments ||
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(AP) - North Korean leader Kim Jong Il appears to have recovered enough from a stroke to run the country without difficulty, South Korea's spy chief said Tuesday, but Japan's prime minister said he likely is issuing orders from a hospital bed.
Prime Minister Taro Aso told lawmakers in Tokyo that his government had information that Kim likely remains hospitalized. "His condition is not so good. However, I don't think he is totally incapable of making decisions," Aso said.
"Nurse! He's doing it again!"
The head of South Korea's National Intelligence Service, Kim Sung-ho, told lawmakers in Seoul that the North Korean leader is "not physically perfect" but appears to remain in command.
South Korean and U.S. officials say Kim, 66, suffered a stroke, reportedly in August. North Korea has strenuously denied there is anything wrong him. On Tuesday, North Korea's military warned the South to stop its "smear" campaign designed to discredit Kim and the Stalinist nation, threatening to reduce the country to rubble. "The puppet authorities had better remember that the advanced pre-emptive strike of our own style will reduce everything opposed to the nation and reunification to debris," the North's military said in a statement.
The threat comes a day after North Korea demanded during brief talks at the Demilitarized Zone that South Korea stop activists from sending balloons filled with anti-Kim leaflets across the border. The South Korean government says it cannot prohibit them, citing freedom of speech.
The North also criticized remarks earlier this month by South Korea's Gen. Kim Tae-young, who told parliament that the military was prepared to attack suspected nuclear sites if the North tries to use its atomic weapons on the South.
Tensions on the divided Korean peninsula have been high for months with Pyongyang embroiled in an international standoff over its nuclear program and concerns mounting over the North Korean leader's health.
Kim disappeared from public sight in mid-August, missing a September military parade commemorating the 60th anniversary of the country's founding and sparking rumors about his health.
Posted by: Fred ||
10/29/2008 00:00 ||
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#1
ION WORLD MILITARY FORUM > TAIWAN TO GIVE UP CHEQUEBOOK DIPLOMACY, i.e. exchangement of Taiwanese Govt. $$$ international aid for Taiwan-specific Diplomatic=State recognition by foreign powers. NEWS SHOULD NE SEEN IN THE BROAD GEOPOL SCOPE/LIMELIGHT OF THE RECENT US RAID IN SYRIA + AIR STRIKES IN PAKISTAN - AS PER THE AFORESAME RECENT US RAIDS/MIL STRIKE, THE US HAS DRAWN A SPANKIN' NEW "LINE IN THE SAND" VEE RADICAL ISLAMISM IN ASIA, AND IS INTENSIFYING ITS ENTRENCHMENT EFFORTS ON THE ASIAN MAINLAND + LITTORALS.
MILPOL DIALECTICISM + US ASIA-FOCUSED "CLOSET/COVERT IMPERIALISM" > iff the US = US-Allies cannot successfuly halt the Islamist rampage andor pan-Islamist Nuclearization, it may be willing to do the alternative and USE/CONVERT ANY ISLAMIST-INDUCED BREAKUP OF THE OLD ASIAN ORDER TO REMOLD OR RESHAPE DESTABILIZED ASIA TO THE US-WESTERN AGENDUM, i.e. "IFF YOU CAN'T BEAT 'EM, USE 'EM"??? IOW, THE US = US-ALLIES WILL ALLOW RADICAL ISLAM AND ALIGNED TO ATTACK AND DESTABILIZE ASIA, BUT COME IN AFTERWARDS TO CLEAN THINGS UP IN THE AMER MIRROR!?
#2
Might wanna put the accordion lady on standby...
SEOUL, South Korea New South Korean intelligence indicates that ailing North Korean leader Kim Jong Il suffered a serious setback in his recovery from a stroke and has been hospitalized, a newspaper reported Wednesday.
The report in the Dong-a Ilbo newspaper cited an unnamed government official in saying intelligence obtained Sunday suggested "a serious problem" with Kim's health. The report did not elaborate, and South Korea's National Intelligence Service and Unification Ministry said Wednesday they could not confirm it.
Kim, 66, reportedly suffered a stroke and underwent brain surgery in August. A Japanese TV station says his eldest son went to Paris to recruit a neurosurgeon who was flown back to Asia to treat Kim. Japan's Fuji television reported Monday that Kim's eldest son, Kim Jong Nam, flew recently to Paris to recruit a neurosurgeon to treat his father. Japanese Prime Minister Taro Aso told lawmakers Tuesday that the French doctor got on a plane for Beijing, perhaps en route to North Korea. South Korea's NIS chief Kim Sung-ho also said the son was believed to have traveled to France recently.
Roux denied Wednesday that he was on a secret mission to North Korea to treat Kim. Reached by The Associated Press on his cell phone, the physician said he was in Beijing for a meeting of neurosurgeons "nothing extraodinary. If I was at Kim Jong Il's bedside, I wouldn't be answering the phone," Roux said. "I am in Beijing. I am staying in Beijing."
Roux told the AP that his trip to China has no link with Kim. He blamed the confusion on "a Japanese TV station (that) has done some brainwashing, some manipulation," apparently referring to the Fuji television report.
Posted by: Fred ||
10/29/2008 00:00 ||
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#1
NORTH KOREA has reportedly declared jihad agz CELL/MOBILE PHONES international utility [signal block] in order to stop any news of alleged WORSENING FOOD-POLITICAL CRISIS from being known to the world.
Also, TOPIX > US RENEWS CALLS FOR NORTH KOREAN CONTINGENCY ACTION PLANS.
* WORLD MILITARY FORUM/SINANET > SOUTH KOREA EXPRESSES ANGER AT DEPICTIONS OF KOREAN HOMELESSNESS IN SINGAPORE PRIMARY SCHOOL TEXTBOOKS + RISE OF US-STYLE FEDERALISM: SOUTH KOREA IS THE STRONGEST DEMOCRATIC FEDERAL POWER IN ASIA OTHER THAN JAPAN [also steadily Federalizing vee US-style,] + DESPITE DISASTROUS DEVALUEMENT OF THE WON DUE TO US CRISIS, SOUTH KOREA'S ECONOMY IS TOO STRONG TO BECOME ANOTHER SINGAPORE OR FINLAND, + CHINA OFFERS NORTH KOREA PLA-CONTROLLED FOOD, ECONOMIC ASSISTANCE.
GUAM PDN > WEBSITES OFFER CITIZENSHIP - seems a couple of Korean-targeted websites are offering women to come to GUAM to deliver their babies, complete wid US Birth certificate, citizenship and passport docs, before leaving Guam again to travel God-knows-where in the world.
An Australian man who spent time at an al-Qaida training camp and met Osama bin Laden in Afghanistan was sentenced Wednesday to nine months in prison but freed because of time already served.
Joseph Thomas, a 35-year-old Muslim convert dubbed "Jihad Jack" by the Australian media, last week was found innocent at a retrial of receiving funds from a terrorist group but guilty of falsifying his passport. Thomas concedes he went to Afghanistan in early 2001 with the intention of helping the hardline Islamist Taliban regime but says he changed his mind after the Sept. 11 attacks and has since renounced extremism.
The trial was the second time Thomas faced the charges. He was initially convicted and sentenced to five years in prison for accepting cash and a plane ticket from a man prosecutors said was a senior al-Qaida figure in Pakistan, and on a passport tampering charge. An appeals court overturned the conviction after finding prosecutors had incorrectly relied on an interrogation of Thomas by Australian police in Pakistan, where he was held for six months without charge.
Thomas' lawyers had argued he had no connection to the terrorist group and had changed his passport -- sticking a Pakistan visa over one for Afghanistan issued by the Taliban -- because he feared he would be treated with suspicion for having it. A jury last week found Thomas not guilty of the terrorism charge.
In sentencing Wednesday, Justice Elizabeth Curtain said she had taken into account the more than five years it had taken to resolve Thomas' case, his mental state, lack of prior convictions and admission to altering his passport. She said Thomas was unlikely to re-offend and had good prospects for rehabilitation. She sentenced him to nine months in prison -- the period he served before the appeals court overturned his earlier conviction -- and Thomas walked free from the courtroom.
#1
I may be crazy but I question anyones "Mental State" that travels to Pakistan to study Islam. It would be like traveling to Nazi Germany to study government. So everyone knows the intent of the travel it is just a matter of how far he went legally.
#2
If he has truly renounced terrorism doesn't that make him a target of the terrorists? I think he should be monitored closely for the forseeable future and if he slips off the path....well, use your imagination.
#3
surely they will monitor him. Halfway big drug dealers usually get some kind of monitoring after they leave prison here whether just a local cop being nosey. I'm sure time was well spent in that pakistani jail too learning all kind of stuff about islam
Posted by: chris ||
10/29/2008 10:24 Comments ||
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Pakistan has been forced to halt the construction of lavish new military headquarters in Islamabad as the nuclear-armed nation desperately fights to stave off bankruptcy. The move by General Ashfaq Kayani, the country's army chief, was widely seen as a message to President Asif Ali Zardari, who faces calls to bring back millions of dollars that his family allegedly has in foreign bank accounts.
The military was due to complete its unpopular move from the garrison city of Rawalpindi to the capital Islamabad by 2012, at a cost of more than £475m.
"The army chief has taken this decision in view of the economic situation in the country," chief Pakistani military spokesman Maj Gen Athar Abbas said.
A military statement said that Gen Kayani, who took over from former President Pervez Musharraf as army chief last November, was "cognisant of the financial crunch being faced by Pakistan".
The new headquarters complex had prompted complaints from ordinary Pakistanis because of its huge cost, its site on a chunk of prime real estate and the likelihood that it would be targeted by militant attacks.
Gosh, who would do a thing like that ...
Pakistan is in talks with the International Monetary Fund to secure up to £3.2bn and has discussed with the United States a loan of £10bn to avoid defaulting on its foreign debts. It has also been hit by skyrocketing inflation, while the stock market and the Pakistani rupee have both collapsed since the start of the year.
German Foreign Minister Frank-Walter Steinmeier said on a visit to Islamabad that Pakistan must secure IMF funding within six days to avoid a financial crisis.
The economic troubles have piled pressure on the government of Mr. Zardari, the widower of slain former premier Benazir Bhutto, who also faces a surge in violence by Taliban and Al-Qaeda militants near the Afghan border.
Congrats Gomez, you wanted to be president, now you're president. Sure hope you get 10% of the IMF rescue ...
Gen Kayani's attempt to show that the powerful military feels the pain of Pakistan's 170 million people follows calls by opposition leaders for Mr Zardari and other politicians to bring foreign currency deposits back home. Unlike previous army chiefs, who have ruled Pakistan for more than half its existence, Gen. Kayani has publicly kept out of politics but still wields a powerful behind-the-scenes influence.
Posted by: john frum ||
10/29/2008 06:57 ||
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#1
Such an interesting parallel: Pakistainis suffered extreme angst and deprivation while Perv the dictator held sway, and everyone just knew the sun would surely shine again when he was gone. Jus like in iran before / after the hated Shah. It's all worked out so well...
Posted by: M. Murcek ||
10/29/2008 10:09 Comments ||
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#2
Pakistan, a key ally in the US-led "war on terror", is in talks with the International Monetary Fund to secure up to £3.2bn and has discussed with the United States a loan of £10bn to avoid defaulting on its foreign debts...Pakistan must secure IMF funding within six days to avoid a financial crisis...Gen Kayani's attempt to show that the powerful military feels the pain of Pakistan's 170 million people follows calls by opposition leaders for Mr Zardari and other politicians to bring foreign currency deposits back home.
Great place to start. Or we could charge 28% interest like the credit card companies do.
A government spokesman has deeply regretted the statement of Ameer Jamaat-e-lslami Qazi Husain Ahmed that appeared in a section of the press in which he has alleged that the Army is on its way to disintegrate the country to accomplish "the US agenda" in the region.
The government spokesman said the institutions responsible for national security should be kept beyond such political statements, which are only issued for vested interests and to gain political mileage.
The spokesman said Qazi Husain's statement itself accomplishes an anti-state agenda that seeks to create a wedge between the civilians and the military and also aims to lower the morale of the security forces.
The spokesman said instead of levelling allegations, Qazi Husain should play his role in helping the government in its efforts for resolving the issue through peaceful means. It is unfortunately out of political expediency that the JI Ameer has left the country at the mercy of terrorism and extremism, the spokesman said. The security forces are carrying out operations on the directives of the government to restore its writ in the FATA and Swat, the spokesman concluded.
Posted by: Fred ||
10/29/2008 00:00 ||
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[4 views]
Top|| File under: Jamaat-e-Islami
BAGHDAD (AP) -- Engineering student Haifaa Salman has discarded the Islamic head cover she started wearing two years ago after militants threatened to "punish" her if she kept showing up at college with her hair uncovered. "I was forced to wear it," the 22-year-old says, recalling the day in 2006 when two men on a motorbike stopped her outside campus to deliver the threat. But, she adds, "It's different now. Life is normal again. College women wear what they please. The extremist groups are gone."
The decision by some women to shun the Islamic head cover, or hijab, is just one of the signs that Baghdad residents are growing increasingly confident in the past year's security gains. Children with backpacks can be seen walking to school. Sidewalk cafes remain open after dark. Families stroll through parks in the sunset.
But after five years of violence, many people are hesitant.
"Things are much better now," said Ziad Mohammed, a 49-year-old government employee who lives in Karkh, a mainly Sunni Arab district on the west bank of the Tigris. "But fear is still inside me," he added. "I want to get rid of it. Maybe it will happen next year."
For now, Mohammed continues to escort his children to school and picks them up because he fears they could be kidnapped.
Baghdad remains a very dangerous place, and much of the capital looks like a city at war. Giant billboards appeal for information to help arrest militants accused of "crimes against the Iraqi people," with grainy images of fugitives, mostly bearded men in their 20s and 30s.
"I will always be here," declares a reassuring message on other billboards depicting an Iraqi army soldier towering over two boys in the background.
Miles of concrete blast walls and dozens of fortified checkpoints dissect the city. Some neighborhoods remain almost entirely walled off, and sectarian hatreds that boiled over into a bloodbath in 2006 and early 2007 simmer below the surface.
A cautious Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki rejects calls to remove the blast walls, which have been so effective in curtailing violence. "We will not take that risk," he said this month. "It can be a very costly gamble. They will stay until we are satisfied that we have total control over security."
He is not the only skeptical about the durability of the drop in violence in Baghdad -- overall attacks dropped to about 100 last month compared with nearly 650 during September last year, according to the U.S. military.
"I don't want to remove a barrier and find out later that I had done so prematurely," said Col. Mark Dewhurst, the U.S. Army brigade commander in charge of most of Rusafa, the mainly Shiite half of the city on the eastern bank of the Tigris. "I will only remove them if I can help the traffic flow and at the same time retain the same level of security," said Dewhurst, an Altus, Okla., native with the 10th Mountain Division.
The director of Baghdad's National Museum, looted after the U.S. captured Baghdad in 2003, also remains skeptical. Amira Eidan says the museum will stay closed to the public for up to two more years, until security in Baghdad is better.
Even some of the women who are doing without the hijab fear the militants. They take the head cover off only in certain neighborhoods.
The secular look of liberal-minded women has not escaped notice. "The clothes of female university students these days are shameful and more revealing than party dresses," Sheik Muhannad al-Moussawi said in a Friday prayer sermon in Baghdad's Sadr City district.
Suheir Abbas, a 20-year-old Arabic literature student at Baghdad University, doesn't like that some of her female classmates come to class in revealing clothes. "We live in a free country and everyone is free to wear whatever they want," she says. "But we live in a Muslim country, and the feelings of others must be respected."
Muslim/Islamic Military History > will likely return one day, sooner than later, to refight the WAR/CAMPAIGN FOR IRAQ, etc. in order to regain Muslim-perceived "lost honor". AND AGAIN, IFF THERE IS ANY ISLAMIST HIDDEN IMMAM-MADHI, HE CAN'T ASK FOR BETTER LOCAL-GLOBAL CONDITIONS TO MAKE AN "APPEARANCE".
* STONEWALL JACKSON > DEFEATING THE MASSIVE UNION ARMY OF THE POTOMAC IS SECOND-FIDDLE TO HIM FINISH SUCKING ON HIS FAVORIITE LEMON/CITRUS.
#2
D *** NGED UNION CANNON FIRE TAINTED THE LEMONY FLAVOR > NOW HE'S REALLY PO'ED, which the Yankees didn't want Stonewall to be iff they could help it!?
Guess the Israelis changed their minds. Better to have all your enemies in one place ...
A boat carrying 27 international activists sailed into the Gaza Strip on Wednesday to draw attention to the blockade sanctions on the Hamas-controlled territory.
Israel had threatened to block the boat, but navy ships did not intervene, and the boat sailed unhindered into a Gaza harbor, where it was greeted by Hamas policemen and a small group of Palestinian activists. The 66-foot yacht, Dignity, sailed from Cyprus on Tuesday with a shipment of humanitarian supplies. So they didn't sail in on the SS Minnow, did they ...
Among the 27 passengers on board the boat were five physicians, 1976 Nobel Peace Prize winner Mairead Maguire, who has been involved in the protests at Nil'in, MK Jamal Zahalka (Balad) and Palestinian Legislative Council member Mustafa Barghouti. "The government of Israel cannot cut off Gaza forever. We will come again and again," Maguire said. Here's an idea. Stay there for a coupla months.
The activists - who also include Italians, Israelis, Palestinians and Americans - are scheduled to remain in Gaza for four days. Wow. Four whole days. That oughta cover your self righteousness quota for at least the rest of the year. Barely enough time to do all their shopping ...
Maguire was wounded at an April 2007 demonstration against the West Bank security barrier when a rubber bullet fired by police hit her in the leg. Aim higher.
The Dignity was chartered by the US-based Free Gaza group, which sailed two similar boats into Gaza in August. Israel let those boats through, saying at the time that ignoring them would deny the protesters the publicity they were seeking. The Foreign Ministry initially said Israel would not allow this one to dock, but spokesman Yigal Palmor said the decision was changed late Tuesday. He would not comment further.
Israeli activist Gideon Spiro said he joined the boat to express his opposition to his government policy toward Gaza. "It is collective punishment against people who did not do anything wrong, especially children, women, elderly people, and I think that's not the way to handle it and that's why I'm here," he said. I don't see why collective punishment is wrong in this case. After all, everyone in Gaza is united in wanting to fight and kill the evil Joooooz. You fight together, you suffer together ...
Jamal Khoudary, one of the Palestinian organizers of the protest, said the boat would take 10 Gazans back to Cyprus, including students and patients needing medical care. Israel and Egypt control who enters and leaves Gaza, and it was not immediately clear whether the boat would be permitted to sail. He said plans were under way for more boats and for a flight into Gaza to break the air blockade. "We are not going to give details, but preparations are under way," he said. It'll be a short and exciting flight ...
IsraelNN.com) Heavy rainfall on Tuesday led to flooding in various parts of Gaza. Hamas officials said more than 115 houses were damaged, mainly in Khan Yunis, and in some areas the sewage system had collapsed. Damage was also reported in the Shiekh Radwan and Zeitun neighborhoods of Gaza City and in Jabalya in the north.
Hamas officials warned that more rain could cause a humanitarian disaster in the area. Gaza's infrastructure is not prepared to handle heavy rains, they said. The warning came just hours after Israeli intelligence sources reported that much of the cement sent to Gaza for humanitarian purposes has been used to build underground tunnels and ammunition bunkers.
Awwwww, that's too bad. Did your new friends bring you any?
(AKI) - A human rights group has asked the Indonesian President, Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono, to commute the death sentence of the three Bali bombers who face imminent execution and instead sentence them to life in prison. The Bali bomb attacks were the worst terrorist act in Indonesian history. The twin attacks which occurred on 12 October 2002 in the tourist district of Kuta on the island of Bali killed 202 people and injured more than 200 others.
"Your Excellency, we understand that the three men have refused to ask for clemency, yet we urge you in the strongest terms to use your powers to halt the executions of Amrozi bin H. Nurhasyim, Ali Ghufron and Imam Samudra," said the US-based Human Rights Watch, in a letter to Yudhoyono. "Rather than allow the executions to go forward, you should commute the men's sentences to life in prison."
The three men were tried and sentenced under terrorism laws introduced after the bombings.
"The International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights, to which Indonesia is party, prohibits in article 15 the retroactive application of penal legislation....the basis for the death sentence in these cases--should not have been applied to Amrozi, Ghufron, and Imam Samudra," said the letter.
The three bombers - Mukhlas, Amrozi and Imam Samudra - convicted over the attacks have been sentenced to death by firing squad.
"Human Rights Watch deplores acts of terrorism and recognises the government's duty to bring to justice persons responsible for such serious crimes," the organisation said. "We condemn the 2002 Bali bombings as horrific and inexcusable attacks, and believe that the perpetrators should be held to account. We strongly believe, however, that the death penalty is not an appropriate sanction, particularly in this instance."
Posted by: Fred ||
10/29/2008 00:00 ||
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[2 views]
Top|| File under: Jemaah Islamiyah
Also, more info on the MV Iran Deyant.
TEHRAN, Oct 29 (Reuters) - Iran's main shipping firm has told its vessels to install barbed wire on their decks and put crew on watch against pirates in the Gulf of Aden, it said on Wednesday.
The bulk carrier Iran Deyanat, owned by Islamic Republic of Iran Shipping Lines (IRISL), was hijacked on Aug. 21, one of numerous ships hijacked by pirates in the waters off the Horn of Africa. It was freed on Oct. 10.
One report suggested the Iran Deyanat had been carrying arms to Eritrea, and a Kenyan-based shipping organisation suggested the ship was carrying a "dangerous chemical" that had injured and killed Somali pirates. IRISL denied both allegations in a statement on Wednesday. It said the Iran Deyanat had sailed to Salalah, Oman, after its release and was now in the Mediterranean, heading to Rotterdam. "The cargo was loaded in China under normal circumstances and there is no danger associated with it," IRISL said. "We didn't go to Eritrea with any weapons," Captain Majid Ensan Najib of IRISL told Reuters. Oh...well. I'm convinced.
Najib, the head of IRISL's maritime affairs department and emergency response committee, who was involved in Iran Deyanat's release, said the ship's manifest had listed only minerals and industrial goods, not chemicals or arms. See. It says so right here on the manifest. So...go away now.
He said IRISL had instructed its ships to take extra precautions in the region."We are protecting boarding areas of the ship with barbed wire. We are keeping personnel on standby on deck day and night when passing through the Gulf of Aden," he said. They gonna be armed?
Syria denied on Tuesday that a U.S. raid inside its territory had targeted an al-Qaeda operative, as the cabinet decided to shut down an American school and an American cultural center in Damascus, the official SANA news agency said, two days after the deadly raid.
Syria said the Sunday strike in the border village of al-Sukkari killed eight civilians while a U.S. official said the raid was believed to have killed a major al-Qaeda operative who helped smuggle foreign fighters into Iraq. "What they are saying is just unjustified. I deny it totally," Syrian Foreign Minister Walid al-Moualem told Reuters.
SANA said the cabinet also decided to postpone a Syrian-Iraqi bilateral committee meeting which was scheduled for Nov. 12- Nov. 13 in Baghdad.
Moualem has characterized the attack as a "terrorist aggression" and said if repeated, Syria would defend itself. He has called for a U.S. and Iraqi investigation into the attack.
Syria said four U.S. helicopters attacked the border region in eastern Syria. Iraq, which said the raid targeted staging grounds used by militants, denounced the air strike. France and Russia have also condemned the attack.
An unnamed U.S. official told Reuters on Monday that the raid was aimed at Abu Ghadiya, a former lieutenant of Abu Musab al-Zarqawi, the leader of al-Qaeda in Iraq who was killed in a U.S. air strike in 2006.
"What they are saying is not accurate," said Moualem, who is on a visit to London. "Do you imagine that a man and his three children are terrorists?" he said, referring to one of the people Syria said was killed in the raid.
He said the people killed were innocent civilians, and repeated his accusation that the attack was a "terrorist act" by the United States. "This is a war crime attempt by the United States against Syria," he said.
Posted by: Fred ||
10/29/2008 00:00 ||
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[4 views]
Top|| File under: Govt of Syria
#1
Aw..
Maybe they want the Syrian immigrant Rezko back.. from jail so he doesn't sing about Obama?
Posted by: Formerly Dan ||
10/29/2008 12:14 Comments ||
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#3
Moualem has characterized the attack as a "terrorist aggression" and said if repeated, Syria would defend itself.
We should start flying F-15's over their airspace and breaking the sound barrier like the Israelis do whenever they want. Flip them the supersonic bird, if you will...
Iran's Navy Commander says the new naval base in the strategic port of Jask will be used to block the Strait of Hormuz in case of war.
In a Tuesday interview, Chief Navy Commander Habibollah Sayyari said the presence of foreign forces near Iranian waters prompted the army to expand its strategic positions in the Sea of Oman. "The newly-inaugurated naval base offers a new defensive front to the east of the Strait of Hormuz," said Rear Admiral Sayyari.
He stressed that the base would become an impenetrable barrier in the event of war, blocking the entry of enemy naval units into Persian Gulf waters.
Washington and Israel have threatened to strike the Islamic Republic, under the pretext of preventing Iran from developing nuclear weapons. A US attack on the Syrian village of Sukkariyah on Monday, has raised speculation about the likelihood of a unilateral strike on the Islamic Republic.
Tehran has warned that in the event of war, it would not hesitate to close the Strait of Hormuz, through which 40 percent of the world's sea-transited crude oil passes.
In a Sep. 11 report, the Washington Institute for the Near East Policy says that in the two decades since the Iran-Iraq War, the Islamic Republic has excelled in naval capabilities and is able to wage unique asymmetric warfare against larger naval forces. According to the report, the Islamic Revolutionary Guards Corps Navy (IRGCN) has been transformed into a highly motivated, well-equipped, and well-financed force and is effectively in control of the world's oil lifeline, the Strait of Hormuz.
The study says that if Washington takes military action against the Islamic Republic, the scale of Iran's response would likely be proportional to the scale of the damage inflicted on Iranian assets.
Posted by: Fred ||
10/29/2008 00:00 ||
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[9 views]
Top|| File under: Govt of Iran
#1
"Jask" is the Iranian word for "A hole so big you cannot see the other side."
Posted by: Richard of Oregon ||
10/29/2008 10:26 Comments ||
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#7
ION IRAN, WAFF > TUNNEL LEADS TO IRAN NUCLEAR SITE/UNDERGROUND TUNNELS LEADING TO DEEPLY ENTRENCHED ENRICHMENT FACILITIES. various Posters strongly doubt US-Israeli air strikes will be able to successfully destroy Tunnels andor NucFacs.
U.S. troops in helicopters flew four miles into Syrian territory over the weekend to target the leader of a network that channels foreign fighters from Syria into Iraq, killing or wounding him and shooting dead several armed men, U.S. officials said Monday.
U.S. officials have long complained that the Syrian government has allowed Arab fighters to pass through the country to enter Iraq, but since last year, top military leaders have praised Syrian efforts to curb the flow. In recent months, officials have estimated that as few as 20 fighters a month have been crossing into Iraq, down from more than a hundred a month in 2006.
But officials said the raid Sunday, apparently the first acknowledged instance of U.S. ground forces operating in Syria, was intended to send a warning to the Syrian government. "You have to clean up the global threat that is in your back yard, and if you won't do that, we are left with no choice but to take these matters into our hands," said a senior U.S. official, who spoke on the condition of anonymity because of the sensitivity of the cross-border strike.
The United States has offered similar justifications for recent cross-border strikes in Pakistan, where it has launched missile attacks and at least one air assault against suspected members of Afghanistan's Taliban insurgency. "As targets present themselves, and are identified . . . they become more and more at risk. Just like in Pakistan, there will be steps taken to deal with it," the senior official said.
Syrian Foreign Minister Walid al-Moualem called the operation Sunday a "criminal and terrorist aggression" that killed seven civilians. Speaking to reporters in London, he said Bush administration officials were following "the policy of cowboys" and noted that the United States has been unable to seal its own border with Mexico.
The office of French President Nicolas Sarkozy issued a statement expressing "serious concerns" about the raid and the loss of Syrian lives. Syria has lately embarked on policies that France and other Western governments have viewed favorably, including indirect peace talks with Israel. Russia also voiced concern about the operation.
In the raid, four helicopters carrying U.S. troops flew into an isolated area of scattered residences and buildings in search of an Iraqi insurgent whom the U.S. Treasury designated in February as a key facilitator of the transfer of weapons, money and fighters into Iraq. Treasury officials gave his full name as Badran Turki Hishan al-Mazidih and his nickname as Abu Ghadiyah, and said that the founder of the insurgent group al-Qaeda in Iraq, Abu Musab al-Zarqawi, had named him the organization's commander for Syrian logistics in 2004.
On the ground, U.S. troops disembarked and opened fire to kill "several armed males who posed a threat to U.S. forces," according to the senior official. The official declined to say whether Mazidih was killed or injured in the fighting. Other unnamed U.S. officials were quoted in news media accounts Monday as saying he had been killed.
Moualem said U.S. troops landed at a farm where they killed a father and his three children, the farm's guard and his wife, and a fisherman.
The network run by Mazidih has smuggled hundreds of foreign fighters into Iraq, including many who became suicide bombers, officials and analysts said. "He ran one of the largest and most productive foreign fighter networks out of Syria" and was "directly responsible for hundreds of foreign fighters who killed thousands" of Iraqis, the senior official said.
The U.S. military has shown patience, the official said, but "eventually you can't wait for guys like that to come back across the border and kill scores of Iraqis or, worse, your own forces."
Posted by: Fred ||
10/29/2008 00:00 ||
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[6 views]
Top|| File under: Govt of Syria
#1
MOUD = IRAN + REST ASIA must be feeling a little like a proverbial "fish in abarrel" - WHETHER FOR THE US OR AGZ THE USA OR NEUTRAL/NON-ALIGNED [NAM], THEY MUST SEE US = US-ALLIED FLAGS PROPPING UP ALL OVER THE MAP OF ASIA + AROUND THE GLOBE.
#7
A summer 2007 U.S. military raid on a suspected al-Qaeda in Iraq house in the Iraqi town of Sinjar, near Syria, yielded a wealth of information about alleged Syrian smuggling networks used to move foreign fighters into Iraq.
The documents included al-Qaeda in Iraq records of more than 500 foreign fighters who had entered from Syria, according to the Combating Terrorism Center at the U.S. Military Academy at West Point, N.Y., where civilian analysts are examining the documents. A July report made public their latest findings.
The documents indicated that at least 95 Syrian "coordinators" were involved in moving the foreign fighters. Many of the coordinators were from smuggling families in Bedouin clans and other Syrian tribes. A number of them appeared to be cooperating with al-Qaeda in Iraq for pay rather than out of ideological sympathy.
Many recruits reported to their handlers in Iraq that they had passed through Damascus, Syria's capital, and then an area near the Iraqi border called Abu Kamal. Sunday's raid occurred in Abu Kamal.
Best wishes crossing out numbers 2-95 on that list.
Posted by: ed ||
10/29/2008 11:51 Comments ||
Top||
#8
My 14 year old son would call this a Bitch slap.
Posted by: 49 Pan ||
10/29/2008 16:03 Comments ||
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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 US agrees to drop the name of the Taliban leader, Mullah Omar from the terror list ahead of talks with the insurgents, an official says. 
The Taliban swiftly rejected a Pakistan-Afghanistan mini-jirga's call for dialogue on Tuesday, with a spokesman saying it was 'worthless'. "This jirga was founded by the Americans. It has no power, no respect," Zabihullah Mujahid, a Taliban spokesman, said by satellite telephone from an undisclosed location. "We will not hold any dialogue while foreign troops commanded by the Americans are in our country," he said. Afghanistan took a first step towards opening talks with the Taliban with a meeting in Saudi Arabia last month between a group of pro-government Afghan officials and former Taliban officials. But the Taliban dismissed those talks too.
Pakistani and Afghan leaders on Tuesday agreed to make contact with insurgent groups, including the Taliban, in a bid to end bloodshed and violence in their troubled border regions. 
A woman was stoned to death for adultery on Monday in an Islamist-controlled region of Somalia. Somali human rights officials said the woman, 23, had been raped, but the Islamist authorities determined that she was guilty of adultery. She was buried up to her neck and stoned after a crowd of thousands gathered at a soccer field in the town of Kismayu, which is controlled by the Shabab, a radical Islamist group.
Britain will publicly list and ban entry of more than 200 people whose extremist views and "violent messages" are a threat to national security, the home secretary said Tuesday. The plan announced by Home Secretary Jacqui Smith would group together Muslim extremists, animal rights protesters, anti-abortion activists, neo-Nazis and others she said "encourage or spread extremism and hatred through preaching violent messages." The list would include only people from abroad. 
QUITO, Oct. 28 (Xinhua) -- The Ecuadoran government Tuesday denied the alleged existence of 16 camps of Colombia's largest rebel group on its territory. I am absolutely clear in saying that reports show there are not any presence of irregular forces at those 16 locations," Ecuadoran Defense Minister Javier Ponce told local media.
(AP) - North Korean leader Kim Jong Il appears to have recovered enough from a stroke to run the country without difficulty, South Korea's spy chief said Tuesday, but Japan's prime minister said he likely is issuing orders from a hospital bed. 
An Australian man who spent time at an al-Qaida training camp and met Osama bin Laden in Afghanistan was sentenced Wednesday to nine months in prison but freed because of time already served.
Pakistan has been forced to halt the construction of lavish new military headquarters in Islamabad as the nuclear-armed nation desperately fights to stave off bankruptcy. The move by General Ashfaq Kayani, the country's army chief, was widely seen as a message to President Asif Ali Zardari, who faces calls to bring back millions of dollars that his family allegedly has in foreign bank accounts.
A government spokesman has deeply regretted the statement of Ameer Jamaat-e-lslami Qazi Husain Ahmed that appeared in a section of the press in which he has alleged that the Army is on its way to disintegrate the country to accomplish "the US agenda" in the region.
BAGHDAD (AP) -- Engineering student Haifaa Salman has discarded the Islamic head cover she started wearing two years ago after militants threatened to "punish" her if she kept showing up at college with her hair uncovered. "I was forced to wear it," the 22-year-old says, recalling the day in 2006 when two men on a motorbike stopped her outside campus to deliver the threat. But, she adds, "It's different now. Life is normal again. College women wear what they please. The extremist groups are gone."
Iran's Navy Commander says the new naval base in the strategic port of Jask will be used to block the Strait of Hormuz in case of war. 
U.S. troops in helicopters flew four miles into Syrian territory over the weekend to target the leader of a network that channels foreign fighters from Syria into Iraq, killing or wounding him and shooting dead several armed men, U.S. officials said Monday. 
