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Iran kidnaps Brit sailors, marines
Today's Headlines
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Page 1: WoT Operations
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39 00:00 Chavilet the Bunyip4128 [4] 
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Page 2: WoT Background
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Page 3: Non-WoT
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8 00:00 Shipman [3]
6 00:00 Kalle (kafir forever) [3]
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18 00:00 Duh! [3]
2 00:00 rhodesiafever [3]
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3 00:00 Ex Astronaut Lisa Nowak [3]
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Page 4: Opinion
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Page 5: Russia-Former Soviet Union
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3 00:00 USN, ret. [3]
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1 00:00 John Frum [3]
4 00:00 trailing wife [3]
8 00:00 Frank G [3]
13 00:00 RD [4]
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10 00:00 trailing wife [3]
7 00:00 Besoeker [3]
12 00:00 Zenster [5]
Afghanistan
100 killed in Afghanistan
Almost 100 people, including 69 Taliban rebels, were killed in two days of fighting in Afghanistan, officials said on Friday. Afghan forces killed the rebels in an offensive in Girishk district of Helmand province on Thursday. Seven policemen were also killed, a Defence Ministry spokesman said. Meanwhile, Taliban attacked a convoy delivering supplies to foreign troops in Kandahar province, killing 17 Afghan security guards and drivers. Another four guards were missing. Elsewhere, coalition forces killed two children.
Posted by: Fred || 03/24/2007 00:00 || Comments || Link || [3 views] Top|| File under:


Africa North
Terrorist leader gets death sentence in absentia
An Algerian court convicted and sentenced to death a man considered to be the country's top terrorist and seven cohorts - all tried in absentia this week, the daily newspaper Liberte reported on Thursday. The French-language daily reported that Abdul Malek Dourkdel, who heads the Salafist Group for Call and Combat, or GSPC, was convicted Wednesday by the criminal court in Tizi Ouzou, in the Kabyle region east of the capital, where Islamic militants often operate.

Under the watch of Dourkdel, who is also known as Abu Mossaad Abd Al Woudoud, the GSPC has officially become linked to Al Qaida. It is the only Islamic insurgency group in the North African nation with sufficient organisation and operational skills to continue its offensive against the government. The eight, including Dourkdel, were convicted of forming an armed group, destruction of public property with explosives and attempted theft, Liberte reported.

Algeria has not executed anyone since 1991, but the sentence would be a significant symbol of the effort, now led by security forces, to stamp out the GSPC. In September, Al Qaida's No. 2, Ayman Al Zawahri, announced the "blessed union" with the GSPC in a video posted on the internet to mark the fifth anniversary of the September 11, 2001, attacks in the US.
This article starring:
ABDUL MALEK DURKDELSalafist Group for Call and Combat
ABU MOSAAD ABD AL WUDUDSalafist Group for Call and Combat
Ayman Al Zawahri
Salafist Group for Call and Combat
Posted by: Fred || 03/24/2007 00:00 || Comments || Link || [3 views] Top|| File under:

#1  I am sure that once he hears this news he will cut his own throat ASAP.
Posted by: Grumenk Philalzabod0723 || 03/24/2007 0:58 Comments || Top||

#2  Popular Country "Absentia"
Posted by: Redneck Jim || 03/24/2007 12:46 Comments || Top||

#3  I've always found it trying.
Posted by: Shipman || 03/24/2007 16:10 Comments || Top||


Arabia
Yemen says leading rebel among 15 killed by army
Yemen said on Friday 15 Shi'ite rebels, including a leader of the group, were killed in clashes with soldiers. A government official said eight soldiers were also killed in battles with followers of Shi'ite Muslim rebel leader Abdul-Malik al-Houthi in remote mountainous areas in the north of the country. "Yahya Khudhairi, who was one of the leaders of the Houthis, was killed," the official told Reuters. It was not immediately possible to get comment from Houthi's followers.

Sporadic fighting has continued since the beginning of the year despite government calls on rebels to hand in their arms, vowing they would not be held. Government officials say at least 290 rebels and 132 soldiers have been killed in the clashes this year. Houthi's followers say the official figures of rebel losses are inflated but have not given numbers of their own.
This article starring:
ABDUL MALIK AL HUTHIFaithful Youth
YAHYA KHUDHAIRIFaithful Youth
Posted by: Fred || 03/24/2007 00:00 || Comments || Link || [3 views] Top|| File under:


Caucasus/Russia/Central Asia
Amir Tahir has gone titzup
A representative of the Staff North Front AF CRI confirmed the death of the commander of NEF AF CRI Amir Tahir (Tahir Bataev).

According to the source, Tahir Amir arrived in Gudermes to operational objectives. March 21, Chechen commander accidentally stumbled upon an armed kafirs and their puppets and began fighting with them. They demanded surrendering of amir Tahir, but he opened fire. The battle continued about 1.5 hours. The fierce battle was unequal and Amir Tahir became Shahid (Insha' Allah), killing and wounding several invaders and hypocrites.

Tahir Bataev CRI native, born May 30, 1973 in the village of Shelkovskaya. He was Kumyk by nationality. He graduated from secondary school in Shelkovskaya. Then he was a student on the Law Faculty of Chechen-Ingush State University, and successfully finished it. He took active participation in the first and second war. With the start of the second war he has commanded by one of the combat units of Shelkovskoy jamaat. On 2003, he was appointed as naib (Deputy) to commander of the Northern Front Amir Kamal. After Amir Kamal has become Shahid (insha' Allah) on January 30, 2006, he was appointed Amir of Northern Front. Following the reorganization fronts AF CRI, he was appointed Amir of Eastern Front AF CRI. He was married, he had four children.
This article starring:
AMIR KAMALChechnya
AMIR TAHIRChechnya
TAHIR BATAEVChechnya
Posted by: Fred || 03/24/2007 00:00 || Comments || Link || [3 views] Top|| File under:

#1  "March 21, Chechen commander accidentally stumbled upon an armed kafirs and their puppets and began fighting with them."

Hey..it could happen..really.
Posted by: DepotGuy || 03/24/2007 10:27 Comments || Top||

#2  Practically a classic obituary. Did y'all notice that the good amir was a university graduate?
Posted by: trailing wife || 03/24/2007 12:46 Comments || Top||

#3  That graphic should come wrapped in brown paper...
Posted by: Capsu 78 || 03/24/2007 13:35 Comments || Top||


India-Pakistan
Al Qaeda's Pakistan Sanctuary (Roggio)
The security situation in Pakistan's North-West Frontier Province continues to deteriorate. Once again, Western pressure on the government of President Pervez Musharraf has failed to prevent Pakistan from handing over territory to the Taliban, this time to a group called the Movement for the Enforcement of Islamic Laws. On March 17, a Pakistani "peace" committee struck a verbal agreement with the Mohmand tribe, under which the government promised to cease military activity in Bajaur in exchange for the tribe's promise not to shelter "foreigners" or allow cross-border attacks into Afghanistan.

A look at the players shows this agreement to be another pact with the devil. The tribal militants are led by Faqir Muhammad, government sources told Dawn, an English-language Pakistani newspaper, the day the agreement was made. Faqir Muhammad is a senior leader of the Movement for the Enforcement of Islamic Laws, which provided the ideological inspiration to the Afghan Taliban in the 1990s. Faqir's group sent over 10,000 fighters into Afghanistan to fight U.S. forces during Operation Enduring Freedom in October 2001. His two sons and two cousins were arrested by Pakistani authorities after returning from Afghanistan.

The Jamestown Foundation refers to Faqir Muhammad as "al-Zawahiri's Pakistani ally." His home in the village of Damadola was targeted by a joint U.S.-Pakistani airstrike in January 2006 after al Qaeda senior leader Ayman al-Zawahiri was believed to have been there. Zawahiri and Faqir escaped death, but Abu Khabab al-Masri, the chief of al Qaeda's WMD program, and several other senior al Qaeda leaders were killed in the attack.

In October 2006, Faqir called Osama bin Laden and Mullah Omar "heroes of the Muslim world" and vowed joint efforts to fight the "enemies of peace" in Bajaur. Days later, the Chingai madrassa, which doubled as an al Qaeda and Taliban training camp, was hit by a U.S. airstrike, killing 84 Taliban, including Faqir's deputy, Liaquat Hussain. Faqir responded by attacking the Dargai military base with a suicide bomber.

Under the leadership of Faqir Muhammad, whom the Pakistani government refuses to arrest, Bajaur has become an al Qaeda command and control center for launching operations into eastern Afghanistan. Kunar, the adjacent Afghan province, is one of the most violent in the country.

None of this will come as a surprise to anyone tracking the situation in northwestern Pakistan. Since the signing of the Waziristan Accord on September 5, 2006, essentially ceding North Waziristan to the Taliban and al Qaeda, attacks in both Pakistan and Afghanistan have skyrocketed. Afghanistan has seen an increase in attacks of more than 300 percent, and battalion-sized groups of Taliban fighters have been hit while crossing the border from Pakistan. Cross-border raids are up more than 200 percent, and NATO forces have repeatedly engaged in hot pursuit across the Pakistani frontier. U.S. artillery has begun to strike at large Taliban formations in Pakistani territory. Suicide bombings in Afghanistan increased fivefold from 2005 to 2006. This year, there have already been more suicide attacks in Afghanistan than in all of 2006.

The situation has gotten so bad that in February, Lieutenant General Karl Eikenberry, outgoing U.S. commander in Afghanistan, called "a steady, direct attack against the command and control in sanctuary areas in Pakistan" essential to preempt the expected Taliban spring offensive. Senator Carl Levin, the chairman of the Senate Armed Services Committee, voiced similar concerns last month, saying, "Long-term prospects for eliminating the Taliban threat appear dim so long as the sanctuary remains in Pakistan, and there are no encouraging signs that Pakistan is eliminating it."

The rise of North and South Waziristan as hubs for Taliban and al Qaeda activity has not only damaged Afghan security and reconstruction. Unwilling to confine its activities to the border areas, the Pakistani Taliban also has designs on the settled regions of the North-West Frontier Province, an area the size of Florida. This was clear as long ago as March 2006, when Aftab Khan Sherpao, the Pakistani interior minister, sounded the alarm. "The Taliban's sphere of influence has expanded to Dera Ismail Khan, Tank, and the Khyber Agency, where clerics of the area have started to join them," Sherpao said. "There has been a sharp increase in attacks on heavily defended military targets in these areas as well."
Asfandyar Wali, leader of the secular, democratic Awami National party, has also been trying to arouse concern about the Taliban's growing power in the North-West Frontier Province. Wali recently went on Pakistani television and reported that the district of Kohat is now under Taliban control.

And in the last six months, the Taliban has conducted a concerted roadside and suicide bombing campaign in the settled regions of Pakistan. Suicide bombings have occurred in Islamabad, Peshawar, Quetta, Mir Ali, Dera Ismail Khan, and Dera Adamkhel. Pakistani security forces were attacked by the Taliban with roadside bombs and ambushes in Tank, Dera Ismail Khan, Bajaur, and North and South Waziristan. A Pakistani military base in Dargai was hit by a suicide attack, which killed over 45 recruits exercising outside the base. Faqir Muhammad was responsible.

Throughout the North-West Frontier Province, schools, nongovernmental organizations, foreign banks, barber shops, and music and video stores have received notices ordering them to shut down or face attacks--a standard Taliban modus operandi. Some shut down, others were destroyed by bombs.

All the while, the Taliban is working to consolidate its power by removing anyone who remotely opposes its radical agenda. Tribesmen are routinely found murdered, often with their throats cut, stabbed multiple times, or beheaded. They always have a note pinned to their body identifying them as a "U.S. spy." More than 250 "spies" have been murdered in the past year. The network of pro-Western tribal leaders in the region has essentially been dismantled, according to an American military intelligence official.

The mastermind of this terror and bombing campaign is Baitullah Mehsud, the most powerful Taliban leader in South Waziristan. He is estimated to have an army of over 30,000 trained fighters. The Pakistani government negotiated yet another of its "peace" deals with Baitullah back in 2005, in which he agreed to cease attacking Pakistani security forces and sheltering "foreign fighters." Baitullah never lived up to the agreement.

In January, one of Baitullah's training camps in the small town of Zamazola was hit by an airstrike, purportedly by Pakistani security forces. It is widely accepted, however, that U.S. Special Operations Forces conducted the attack. Baitullah then embarked on the recent suicide campaign, killing scores nationwide. "They launch airstrikes on us and we respond with suicide attacks," Baitullah told a crowd after the strike on Zamazola. He also promised to continue the fight in Afghanistan, saying, "The holy warriors will give a tougher fight this year than last year." Pakistani police traced the string of suicide strikes directly to Baitullah--yet the Pakistani government sent negotiators to meet with him, and they accepted his protestations of innocence. Baitullah is untouchable.

To illustrate just how badly the Waziristan Accord has failed, last week a powerful Taliban commander fought with an al Qaeda-linked Uzbek group in South Waziristan. More than 160 Uzbeks and Taliban are reported killed. The Pakistani government was quick to represent this fight as proof that the accord was working: In the government's version of events, pro-government tribes had battled foreign jihadists to enforce the agreement. But nothing could be further from the truth. The fighting began after Uzbeks killed an Arab al Qaeda fighter supported by the Taliban. To settle the conflict, the Taliban sent in senior commanders, including Baitullah Mehsud and Mullah Dadullah Akhund, military leader of the Afghan Taliban, to negotiate a truce between the factions.

Now, the Taliban and al Qaeda openly rule in the tribal lands. Terror training camps are up and running, secure from harassment by Pakistani security forces. Al Qaeda leaders are thought to be sheltered in the region, as Mike McConnell, the director of national intelligence, confirmed in February.

The Bajaur agreement signals once again that the Pakistani government is unwilling to police its own borders, and is prepared to hand over even more territory to the Taliban and al Qaeda. Behind the agreement is the hidden hand of General Hamid Gul, the former chief of Pakistan's shadowy intelligence service, the ISI.

Gul, an Islamist, is credited with laying the groundwork for the establishment of the Taliban and is said to be friends with Mullah Omar. The 9/11 Commission believed he had warned Osama bin Laden prior to the 1998 missile strike launched by President Clinton, allowing bin Laden to escape. Last year, Gul sought an injunction from the Pakistani supreme court to prevent Pakistani military action in Bajaur. President Musharraf's dismissal of the chief justice on March 9 is rumored to be related to this case.

The United States smashed al Qaeda's base of operations in Afghanistan in 2001, only to see it transferred to northwestern Pakistan. The refusal of the Musharraf regime to deal with this situation, and the active participation of elements of the Pakistani military, intelligence, and political elites in supporting our enemies, are worrisome for our efforts in the war on terror--and threaten the very existence of a non-jihadist Pakistani state.
Posted by: Brett || 03/24/2007 12:18 || Comments || Link || [5 views] Top|| File under:

#1  The Jamestown Foundation refers to Faqir Muhammad as "al-Zawahiri's Pakistani ally."

Afghanistan has seen an increase in attacks of more than 300 percent, and battalion-sized groups of Taliban fighters have been hit while crossing Cross-border raids are up more than 200 percent, and NATO forces have repeatedly engaged in hot pursuit across the Pakistani frontier. U.S. artillery has begun to strike at large Taliban formations in Pakistani territory. Suicide bombings in Afghanistan increased fivefold from 2005 to 2006. This year, there have already been more suicide attacks in Afghanistan than in all of 2006. the border from Pakistan.

In January, one of Baitullah's training camps in the small town of Zamazola was hit by an airstrike, purportedly by Pakistani security forces. It is widely accepted, however, that U.S. Special Operations Forces conducted the attack. Baitullah then embarked on the recent suicide campaign, killing scores nationwide. "They launch airstrikes on us and we respond with suicide attacks," Baitullah told a crowd after the strike on Zamazola. He also promised to continue the fight in Afghanistan, saying, "The holy warriors will give a tougher fight this year than last year." Pakistani police traced the string of suicide strikes directly to Baitullah--yet the Pakistani government sent negotiators to meet with him, and they accepted his protestations of innocence. Baitullah is untouchable.

The Waziristan Accord has failed to reduce attacks. [edit]

Behind the agreement is the hidden hand of General Hamid Gul, the former chief of Pakistan's shadowy intelligence service, the ISI. ;-)

Gul, an Islamist, is credited with laying the groundwork for the establishment of the Taliban and is said to be friends with Mullah Omar. The 9/11 Commission believed he had warned Osama bin Laden prior to the 1998 missile strike launched by President Clinton, allowing bin Laden to escape. Last year, Gul sought an injunction from the Pakistani supreme court to prevent Pakistani military action in Bajaur. President Musharraf's dismissal of the chief justice on March 9 is rumored to be related to this case. [plot thickens]

Staring Two Head Pounders:
NWFP: Faqir Muhammad
Waki Paki: General Hamid Gul
Posted by: RD || 03/24/2007 13:26 Comments || Top||

#2  A very useful and heartening addition to Brett's post, RD. Thank you both! Only, how many are in a battalion?
Posted by: trailing wife || 03/24/2007 14:22 Comments || Top||

#3  TW infantry battalions are smaller than yesteryear. The actual numbers always vary, "it depends" on several variables, to numerous to elucidate here.

Infantry battalions (Authorized Strength)
US Army approx 700 – 900 soldiers + -
US Marines approx 1000 + - somewhat larger

Infantry brigades will have around 3,300 troops and be equivalent to a light infantry or airborne brigade. [3 battalions each]

see how the math is funny. looong explanation. see organic, see attached, see someone smarter than me.

The Taliban are a very 'light' infantry,

Transportation: Motor scooters, Toyota pick ups and the Feets they were born with.
Arms: Light weapons. AK, RPG, rockets, mortars, some crew served guns.
Com: Cell phones, walkie talkies, "Hey Youse"

Logistics, Talibs carry what they need and scrounge the rest off locals. They are small but tough and hump the hills and mountains like little mountain goats. [helicopters are better tho]

TW, we have current RBees who are serving and could dial this in better.
Posted by: RD || 03/24/2007 20:09 Comments || Top||

#4  Sorry, RD; couldn't resist:

They are small but tough and hump the hills and mountains like little mountain goats.
Posted by: Jackal || 03/24/2007 22:37 Comments || Top||

#5  I blame the UN for maintaining Taliban controlled "refugee" camps. Cutting off aid would starve the jihad out of those savages.
Posted by: Sneaze || 03/24/2007 23:09 Comments || Top||


Threatening letters to schools
CHARSADDA: Suspected militants have now started sending threatening letters to owners of Internet cafés and video centres and principals of government and private schools in Charsadda, following similar incidents in other areas. The letters warn, “Do away with un-Islamic practices, otherwise you will have to face dire consequences.” It was written in the notes that all video centres and Internet cafes must be closed between March 23 and April 23. According to the letters, female students should start wearing veils or “face dire consequences”.
Posted by: Fred || 03/24/2007 00:00 || Comments || Link || [4 views] Top|| File under:

#1  "You are now entering Pakistan - please set your clock back fourteen centuries"
Posted by: DMFD || 03/24/2007 0:05 Comments || Top||

#2  DMFD. 14 centuries ago they didn't have suicide vests.
Posted by: gromgoru || 03/24/2007 8:30 Comments || Top||

#3  But they did have the cult of the Hashshashin (also Hashishin, Hashashiyyin or Assassins). It took the superpower of that day, the Mongols, to wipe them out [and taking a large number of other Muslims with them along the way]. The Persian historian Juvaini commented that 'the world had been cleansed'.
Posted by: Procopius2k || 03/24/2007 12:56 Comments || Top||

#4  'the world had been cleansed'

Apparently not permanently.
Posted by: gromgoru || 03/24/2007 13:11 Comments || Top||

#5  well, you clean the toilet, but eventually you have to do it again sometime
Posted by: Frank G || 03/24/2007 13:21 Comments || Top||

#6  Muslim phrase of the day: "Face dire consequences”.
Posted by: tu3031 || 03/24/2007 13:26 Comments || Top||

#7 
But they did have the cult of the Hashshashin (also Hashishin, Hashashiyyin or Assassins). It took the superpower of that day, the Mongols, to wipe them out [and taking a large number of other Muslims with them along the way]. The Persian historian Juvaini commented that 'the world had been cleansed'.



Nope. The Assassins survived ven if they changed a lot. Their modern name is Ismailites and they are (with the Ahmedistes) about the only Muslims who can more or less be told they have a Religion of Peace. Their women have unsuaual freedom, they don't turn towards Mecca for praying and compared to other Muslims give much less inmportance to Kuran and Muhammd's actions or sayings. Perhaps that explains why they are much less violent than mainstream Muslims.
Posted by: JFM || 03/24/2007 15:35 Comments || Top||

#8  Here is the excepts from "Storm from the East" by Robert Marshall:

"The Mongols' prime objective was the Caliph of Baghdad, but before confronting him they meant to eliminate the other major power in the region, The Ismailis or Assassins. They had emerged because of a schism in the Shia Muslim sect and established themselves in northern and eastern Persia by taking and controlling a series of mountain fortifications. Behind their walls they lived a contemplative life, producing beautifully wrought paintings and metalworks, buy beyond their retreats they terrorized those civilizations they deemed heretical and so earned the enmity not just of the rest of the Islamic world but eventually of Europe. Rather than confronting his enemies in open combat he preferred to sponsor a campaign of political murder, usually executed with a dagger in the back, as the means to his ends.

The Mongols has their own reasons for launching a campaign against the Assassins. First, they had received a plea of help from an Islamic judge in Qaswin, a town near the Assassins' stronghold at Alamut, who had complained that his fellow citizens were forced to wear armour all the time as protection from the Assassins' daggers. According to Rubruck, another reason that determined Mongol attitudes was the discovery of a plot to send no fewer than 400 dagger-wielding Assassins in disguise to Qaraqorum with the instructions to murder the Great Khan. The Assassins had encountered the Mongols once before, during Chormaghun's terror raid through northern Persia 1237-8, which led them to send an envoy to Europe to beg help.

...

On 1 January 1256 Hulegu's army crossed the Oxus River and brought into Persia the most formidable war machine ever seen. It possessed the very latest in siege engineering, gunpowder from China, catapults that would send balls of flaming naphtha into their enemy's cities, and divisions of rigorously trained mounted archers led by generals who had learnt their skills at the feet of Genghis Khan and Subedei. As news of Hulegu's army spread he was soon presented with a succession of sultans, emirs, and atabaks from as far apart as Asia Minor and Herat, all come to pay homage. Its sheer presence brought to an end nearly forty years of rebellion and unrest in the old lands of Khwarazmia, but to the inhabitants of Persia and Syria it was the dawn of a new world order.

The Mongols made first for the Elburz Mountains where the Assassins lay in wait behind what they believed to be their impregnable fortresses. With extraordinary ingenuity the Mongol generals and their Chinese engineers manoeuvred their artillery up the mountain slopes and set them up around the walls of the fortress of Alamut. But before the order was given to commence firing the Assassins' Grand Master, Rukn ad_Din signaled that he wanted to negotiate. Hulegu countered that he must immediately order the destruction of his own fortifications; when Rukn ad_Din prevaricated; the bombardment commenced. Under the most devastatingly accurate fire, the walls quickly tumbled and Rukn ad_Din surrendered. Hulegu took him prisoner, transported him to every Assassin castle they confronted, and paraded him before each garrison with the demand for an immediate surrender. Some obliged, as at Alamut; while others, like Gerdkuh, had to be taken by force. Today the spherical stone missiles fired by the artillery teams at the walls still litter the perimeter of the ruins. Whether each 'eagle's nest' surrendered or taken, the Mongols put all the inhabitants to the swords - even the women in their homes and the babies in their cradles.

As the slaughter continued, Rukn ad_Din begged Hulegu to allow him to go to Qaraqorum where he would pay homage to the great Khan and plead for clemency. Hulegu agreed, but when he got to Qaraqorum Mongke Khan refused to see him. It was effectively a sentence of death. On the journey back his Mongol escorts turned on the Grand Master and his attendants, who were 'kicked to a pulp'. The Persian historian Juvaini commented that 'the world had been cleansed'. Five hundred years later Edward Gibbon echoed those sentiments, claiming that the Mongols' campaign 'may be considered as a service to mankind'. It took two years for the Mongols to dislodge over 200 'eagle's nests', but in the process they virtually expunged the Assassins from Persia."
Posted by: Procopius2k || 03/24/2007 17:02 Comments || Top||

#9  This implies they can write.... who knew?
Posted by: Ebbairt Guelph1423 || 03/24/2007 17:31 Comments || Top||

#10  Sounds like the world needs another spring cleaning, brutal as it was.
Posted by: Alaska Paul || 03/24/2007 18:15 Comments || Top||

#11  Sounds like the world needs another spring cleaning, brutal as it was.

Need tickets! Will pay Cash!
Posted by: All your Unicorns || 03/24/2007 19:02 Comments || Top||


Saboteurs blow up electricity tower in Mohmand Agency
GHALANAI: Mohmand Agency plunged into darkness after unidentified saboteurs blew up an electricity tower on Thursday. Political administration officials said that the saboteurs destroyed an electricity tower near Pir Qilla, suspending power supply to Ghalanai and Lakrao grid stations. Tribal Electricity Supply Company (TESCO) Assistant Manager Jamshed Ali said that several areas were without electricity for some time, but the damage had been repaired and power supply restored.

Unidentified miscreants had sabotaged some towers in November 2006. The government included some areas of the agency in Peshawar and Charsadda districts about eight years ago and the residents of these areas have been protesting against this move since then. The move also led to the formation of a Mohmand Resistance Movement (MRM), which has given a wheel-jam and shutter down strike call on March 29 to protest against the inclusion of tribal areas into settled ones. The MRM has been blamed for previous sabotages of electricity towers and government officials have accused the organisation for this recent subversive activity.

However, the MRM has denied involvement in this incident, saying that the administration was making false allegations against the organisation to foil its March 26 strike. The MRM demanded that 25 villages, which were part of the agency and later included in the settles areas, be re-included in the agency.
Posted by: Fred || 03/24/2007 00:00 || Comments || Link || [3 views] Top|| File under:

#1  A wheel-jam and shutter down strike call?
Sounds like the Miscreants mean business...
Posted by: tu3031 || 03/24/2007 9:52 Comments || Top||

#2  We're in yur Agency
Jamin yur wheelz
Posted by: Shipman || 03/24/2007 10:55 Comments || Top||

#3  LOL!

Most Excellamenterrific, Mr Shipman, LOL.
Posted by: Nero Shuper3237 || 03/24/2007 14:42 Comments || Top||


Foreigners offered amnesty
NWFP Governor Ali Jan Orakzai said on Friday that foreign militants battling tribesmen in South Waziristan could still avail an amnesty offer if they surrendered to the authorities. Orakzai said clashes between foreign militants and local Taliban groups were spreading to other parts of South Waziristan, and fighting over four days had already killed 130 foreigners and 30 locals. “Around 130 foreigners were killed and 62 captured, and the clashes are now spreading to other areas,” he told reporters at Governor’s House.

The governor denied the government was helping tribesmen eliminate foreigners from the area, as accused by a Taliban commander. “Do not become a party to the conflict, otherwise we will sign out from the peace agreement we reached with the government (in November 2004),” Haji Omar, senior Taliban commander in South Waziristan, told a BBC correspondent by satellite phone. He denied the government’s death toll for foreign militants. Orakzai said there could be around 500 foreign militants still hiding in the area. Asked if the ceasefire brokered on Thursday was holding, the governor did not give a direct reply. “The situation is volatile ... it is sill not clear,” he said. A tribal journalist in Wana told Daily Times by satellite phone that the ceasefire was intact.

However, an ambush on a car carrying some Uzbek militants was reported from Speenkai Raghzai, but it could not be confirmed officially. Two Uzbeks were reported killed in the attack, indicating that the clashes were spreading from Waziristan. “The people of Waziristan have risen against foreigners on their own,” said the governor. “They have realised that the foreigners’ presence is troubling the local population. They were asked by the tribal people to leave, but they started fighting.”

The fighting started on March 19 after pro-government Taliban commander Maulvi Nazir took up arms against the foreigners, mainly followers of Uzbek militant Tahir Yuldashev.
Posted by: Fred || 03/24/2007 00:00 || Comments || Link || [3 views] Top|| File under:

#1  Either that, or they can kidnap an Italian "journalist"...
Posted by: tu3031 || 03/24/2007 9:54 Comments || Top||


Clashes resume in Waziristan
Clashes between foreign militants and local tribesmen in South Waziristan resumed on Friday after a jirga consisting of clerics and tribal elders failed to hold a ceasefire between the warring factions, Geo television reported. The channel reported that a jirga was convened in Wana to discuss the future of foreign militants in tribal areas. Some tribesmen suggested that the foreign militants should be disarmed and given asylum in the Mehsud area, but most participants rejected the suggestion, said the channel.
Can't do it. Dire Revenge™ is called for.
Posted by: Fred || 03/24/2007 00:00 || Comments || Link || [3 views] Top|| File under:


Iraq
Could Diyala be Al-Qaeda's Waterloo?
The U.S. military has developed battle plans designed to clear al-Qaeda out of Iraq.

High level military intelligence sources have told CBN News the offensive would target the Iraqi province of Diyala.

The province is located just northeast of Baghdad, along the Iranian border.

Many of al-Qaeda's forces in Baghdad moved there when the new troop surge was announced in January. Diyala is now a major launching pad for al-Qaeda suicide bombing attacks.

"If you want to diminish the amount of car bombers and suicide bombers, you have to take the fight right to the source. And in this case, the source is Diyala," said CBN News consultant Daveed Gartenstein-Ross.

Gartenstein-Ross says the Diyala offensive will be even bigger than the major U.S. operation in Fallujah back in 2004-which cleared out a city that had been a major insurgent stronghold.

Military sources say the Fallujah operation directly led to the success of the 2005 Iraqi elections.

Gartenstein-Ross said, "Here, the goal is going to be to drive these guys out of the country entirely."

Sources say the initial plans involve three distinct strikes from three different directions. The goal is to destroy enemy training facilities and prevent al-Qaeda forces from escaping.

"The insurgents are left with two choices--either to stand and fight or to retreat into Iran--at which point, they're Iran's problem," said Gartenstein-Ross. COOL

Al-Qaeda's leader in Iraq, Abu Ayyub al-Masri, has been laying mines and positioning anti-aircraft batteries to counteract the coming offensive. One of the U.S.military's goals is to take out these anti-aircraft groups. That will likely involve heavy us airpower. VERY COOL

If successful, this could have major benefits at home and abroad, according to retired U.S Colonel Bill Taylor.

"To the American public, it's a sign of progress. To our allies: maybe this effort is still worth supporting," said Taylor.

General David Petraeus has requested up to 3,000 additional troops for Diyala. The operation there can't move forward until his request is approved. SO CUT THE CRAP AND FUND THE TROOPS, DEMOCRATS!

Taylor says Petreaus - who was one of his students at West Point - is the perfect choice to lead America's efforts in Iraq. But he's worried about recent reports that al-Qaeda may be preparing chemical weapons attacks against U.S. troops..

"Iraq has traditionally, a pretty big chemical industry. There's nothing that says that maybe al-Masri and the al-Qaeda people can't get their hands on something like WWII chemical agents, mustard gas for example," he said.

And that brings up the question of casualties.

A major offensive in Diyala could potentially cause a number of civilian and military deaths, especially if al-Qaeda stands and fights.

But experts say that's a risk worth taking. They say a victory in Diyala could cripple al-Qaeda in Iraq and help shore up lagging support for the war at home.
Posted by: cajunbelle || 03/24/2007 14:26 || Comments || Link || [4 views] Top|| File under:

#1  Is Op-Sec Passe? wtf
Posted by: RD || 03/24/2007 17:45 Comments || Top||

#2  Ever heard of PsyOps? A feint?

Hammer (interior troops) meet anvil (fake out to empty the border area). Terrs caught in between, unable to stop running , unable to R3 (Reorganize Rally and Rest).

If he REALLY needed those troops there RightNow, there is a ready brigade in Kuwait, full up mech infantry ready to roll. Not to mention the Marines off the coast now, and 2 carriers to back them up.

In any event, there are a lot fo thigns going on over there, and the bad guys, for once, have no clue as to where we hit next, and no idea where to hide.
Posted by: OldSpook || 03/24/2007 17:53 Comments || Top||

#3  Box them into the kill zone and arc light them with B52s. We cannot hope to win this war with burning up our manpower in close up ground ops. Herd them where we want them to go and pulverize them. Word will get out that hell is upon them. We failed to take out 5k Taliban troops and ISI officers at Konduz, Afghanistan back in 2001 or early 2002 when we had the chance, with B52s overhead. And it cost us dearly. We must not fail again. Jeeze Louise, the insane ROEs drive me up the wall.
Posted by: Alaska Paul || 03/24/2007 18:21 Comments || Top||

#4  at which point, they're Iran's problem

But that wouldn't be the end of them. They'd just R3 there.
Posted by: gorb || 03/24/2007 18:35 Comments || Top||

#5  Chemical weapons are of little tactical value when the US forces can get effective protective gear quickly. It will however, change the complexion of battle from allowing al-Qaeda to flee into Iran, to "take no prisoners".
Posted by: Anonymoose || 03/24/2007 18:47 Comments || Top||

#6  "Allowing AQs to scurry to Iran... ahm... I'd agree provided that we have sufficient manpower at the border, in the following pattern ">". Then bullhorn everywhere: "Iran, the land of free AQs!"
Posted by: twobyfour || 03/24/2007 19:28 Comments || Top||

#7  Ever heard of PsyOps? A feint?

Like trying to explain knifework to the chainsaw-qualified.
Posted by: Pappy || 03/24/2007 21:22 Comments || Top||

#8  Like trying to explain knifework to the chainsaw-qualified.

A rantburg classic!!
Posted by: 49 Pan || 03/24/2007 22:15 Comments || Top||

#9  Ever heard of PsyOps? A feint?

Like trying to explain knifework to the chainsaw-qualified.


ahh you attempt a sharp rejoinder using the dullest of knives
Posted by: RD || 03/24/2007 22:24 Comments || Top||


Officials: 9 to be held to account on Tillman
Not being a warrior, I know nothing of the feelings of Tillman's fellow warriors, but something deep down inside tells me, he wanted nothing of this.... is there such a thing as maybe he understands what happened to him, just happens? Were it some other corporal, would this amount of punishment be rendered? I don't know. His choices and his life... led so quietly by him in his choices and his desire to be kept out of the limelight... But, I'm not a warrior, and I have no knowledge of the feelings about this by you warriors. Is this right? Is a punishment needed? I understand the taking responsibilty of your men, and value that as a virture to be admired, more so when it is actually put into practice as we are witnessing by our armed services.

And giving all this, his college roommate, another NFL player, just shipped out with Marines, with Tillman telling him to stay in the NFL long enough to get his retirement. Knowing what he knows about Tillman's death, he still became a warrior.

Do any of them deserve this? Or, is this a normal occurrence with a happening such as this, and it only enters into our news media because of who he is. (And, I just have to add, his death story so fits into the media's story of our war)

I'm needing a little help. Thanks in advance.


WASHINGTON - A Pentagon investigation will recommend that nine officers, including up to four generals, be held accountable for missteps in the aftermath of the friendly fire death of Army Ranger Pat Tillman in Afghanistan, senior defense officials said Friday.

The Defense Department inspector general will cite a range of errors and inappropriate conduct as the military probed the former football star’s death on the battlefront in 2004, said one defense official.

The official, who like the others requested anonymity because the Army has not publicly released the information, said it appears senior military leaders may not have had all the facts or worked hard enough to get the facts of what happened on April 22, 2004, when Tillman, a corporal, was killed by members of his own platoon.

Dozens of soldiers — those immediately around Tillman at the scene of the shooting, his immediate superiors and high-ranking officers at a command post nearby — knew within minutes or hours that his death was fratricide.

Even so, the Army persisted in telling Tillman’s family he was killed in a conventional ambush, including at his nationally televised memorial service 11 days later. It was five weeks before his family was told the truth, a delay the Army has blamed on procedural mistakes.

Tillman’s father, Pat, said Friday he had no intention of commenting on the inspector general’s report until he had heard the Army’s entire briefing on Monday and had analyzed it.

Tillman’s case drew worldwide attention in part because he had turned down a multimillion-dollar contract to play defensive back for the Arizona Cardinals in order to join the Army Rangers after the Sept. 11, 2001, attacks.

To date, the Army has punished seven people, but no one was court-martialed. Four soldiers received relatively minor punishments under military law, ranging from written reprimands to expulsion from the Rangers. One had his pay reduced and was effectively forced out of the Army.

The latest investigation has focused on how high up the chain of command that knowledge went.

Officers from the rank of colonel and up will be blamed in the report, according to one officer who has been informed of the findings.

According to the officials, the report will not make charges or suggest punishments, but it will recommend the Army look at holding the nine officers accountable.

Army plans to ‘take appropriate actions’
One defense official said it appears the inspector general will not conclude there was an orchestrated cover-up in the investigation.

The Army, which requested the inspector general review last year, said in a statement released Friday that it “plans to take appropriate actions after receiving the inspector general’s report.”

The commander of Tillman’s 75th Ranger Regiment was Col. James C. Nixon. Last year he was named director of operations at the Center for Special Operations at MacDill Air Force Base, Fla.

Nixon knew within about two days that Tillman’s death was fratricide, another officer involved in the investigations told The Associated Press on condition of anonymity.

The inspector general is expected to release its report Monday, and also speak to Tillman’s family about the results of the investigation.

Also to be released Monday is a report by the Army Criminal Investigation Command, which will focus on whether a crime, such as negligent homicide, was committed when Tillman’s own men shot him. One defense official said it appears the investigation did not find any criminal intent in the shooting.

Previous investigations of the case have focused on the facts of the incident and sought to answer questions of whether it was a fratricide.

The report’s findings were first reported on Friday by CBS News.

Tillman died in Afghanistan’s Paktia province, along the Pakistan border, after his platoon was ordered to split into two groups and one of the units began firing. Tillman and an Afghan with him were killed.

Since the incident, the Army has moved to improve the notification procedures and now requires an officer to review initial casualty information and verify that the families have been told the best, accurate information.
Posted by: Sherry || 03/24/2007 00:35 || Comments || Link || [5 views] Top|| File under:

#1  Sherry, it was a tangled web they wove. No one had the guts to tell the truth to Tillman's family until the lie was being questioned. Let this be a lesson to them.
Rangers are a pretty tight group, I doubt anyone of them feels good about friendly fire casualties (as opposed to fratricide, which infers a fragging).
Tillman, RIP. My hat's off to the talented who choose think of others before themselves.
Posted by: Xenophon || 03/24/2007 1:13 Comments || Top||

#2  From what I heard, Tillman took a patrol group up on a ridge. Shots were fired and a second patrol group assumed it was an ambush from above and launched some volleys. In World War 2 Burma, RAF bombers were pulled out of the front line fight after it was found they were killing more of their own than Japs.
Posted by: Sneaze || 03/24/2007 7:26 Comments || Top||

#3  My guess is Tillman did something a bit 'wrong' (against procedure, ill-advised, something) and got himself killed. Since he was a heroic figure nobody wanted to tarnish his image - or the reflection it had cast on the Army - so they let a more 'honorable' story go on how he was killed (sort of like that woman soldier who was captured & rescued in the early days of Iraq.) Those who knew probably figured it would be easier on everybody that way. Ordinarily they would have been correct. These are not ordinary times. Someone who did not like the Army got wind of the actual story and pushed for 'truth'. Other Army officers tried to control information flow and damage, but that only made it worse.
So here we are. Honorable careers wrecked. Army image tarnished. Genuine hero (life, if not battlefield) abused. Family's comforting illusion destroyed. Who 'wins' this exercise? The haters of the military. And to some degree, our enemies.
And don't give me the 'it needs to come out so we can prevent these friendly fire accidents in the future' - I am confident all that analysis was done anyway, but with public details 'sanitized.'
Posted by: Glenmore || 03/24/2007 10:53 Comments || Top||

#4  Coincidentally, The History Channel did a segment on Shootout about this very thing last night. According to them, there was a patrol of Rangers caught in the valley so Tilman, another Ranger, and an Afghan Ally managed to move ahead and yp the mountain. They ingageged the machine gun firing on the Rangers and that allowed one the leading vehicle to move out of the kill zone. The Rangers on the vehicle saw movement on the ridgeline, determined it was an Afghani, and opened fire thinking he was a combatant. He was killed. Tillman then stood up and began shouting to the Rangers but tehy couldn't hear du to the noise of their own weapons. Tillman then popped a smoke grenade and the firing stopped as the Rangers thought it was smoke from a mortar round. Tillman and the other Ranger, who was not identified in the story, then stood up and tried to signal again that they were friendlies. The Rangers in the vehicle the re-opened fire and Yillman was hit. The other Ranger was unwounded. What these Officers are accused of is trying to hide the fact he was killed due to friendly fire. His family wants the Rangers involved charged with involuntary manslaughter which is ludicrous and, unless they get a really anti-military Judge, won't go anywhere.
Posted by: Deacon Blues || 03/24/2007 10:58 Comments || Top||

#5  Sometimes it's the right thing to do...

Years later, Tom Doniphon dies, after leading a lonely secluded life, having loved Hallie from a distance to the end. Stoddard has told the story to the local newspaper editor, who refuses to publish it. "When the legend becomes fact," he says, "print the legend."

Especially in time of war.

See Colin Kelly...

In times of crisis and doubt, heroes offer hope and certitude. In the fog of the war's first days, a 26-year-old Florida farm boy provided a stirring measure of bravery to an America desperate for a hero: Colin Purdie Kelly, Jr. For the duration, editorial writers and war bond promoters summoned Americans to cherish his name and deed. Today, he is virtually unknown to anyone under age 70.

In the afterglow of Pearl Harbor, Japanese forces targeted the biggest prize in Southeast Asia, the Philippines. A series of land and aerial assaults quickly overwhelmed U.S. installations, deflating Gen. MacArthur's reputation and deepening American pessimism.

What happened on that fateful December day became embedded in military lore and popular culture. More than one movie script adapted the storyline, even as the story changed.

As Americans drank their morning coffee (soon to be rationed, along with the sugar that once came from the Philippines), they read the first Associated Press account of Kelly ordering his crew to parachute from a burning plane and how he piloted "his craft straight down at the enemy and released a stick of high explosives almost into the mouths of flaming Japanese guns."

Incredibly, Kelly saved his crew and then sank a Japanese battleship by ramming it with his plane The New York Times solemnized the moment and deed: "And the Philippines are producing something more powerful than victory itself, tradition. The tradition of Colin Kelly, who destroyed the Haruna . .
Posted by: Shipman || 03/24/2007 11:10 Comments || Top||

#6  this was a top down problem, hell they were watching the whole scenario unfold on the satelite , there's something that still smells in Denmark.
Posted by: George Grolurong3861 || 03/24/2007 11:43 Comments || Top||

#7  hey shit happens, The platoon on orders split into two groups. Add to that there was Talibs or A-Q fire, a Narrow canyon and a Humvee broke down. As always events with lots of people and machines in a combat zone are fluid.

Even though this is a CNN link I think the various versions sound reasonable. Likny RIP Pat
Posted by: RD || 03/24/2007 14:00 Comments || Top||

#8  The sad thing is that it was "investigated" period. The commander's report should have stood and the lawyers and Inspector Generals should have steered clear of it. Pentagon risk- averse (not on my watch) senior officers are to blame. Not the Rangers, not the people in the theater of operations. Vietnam was a war run from the rear, lest we forget.
Posted by: Besoeker || 03/24/2007 14:10 Comments || Top||

#9  Vietnam was a war run from the rear, lest we forget.

Indeed, Besoeker. That was the lesson I thought we had finally learned.

I've got nothing against those not on the front line, many find their way forward in due time, but they until they've been there and done that they should not be allowed to call the shots on these matters. Well said, all.

RIP, Pat.
Posted by: Nero Shuper3237 || 03/24/2007 14:50 Comments || Top||

#10  Tillman was a warrior and a good ranger, no question. Soldiers die from friendly fire, a sad fact of life. Combat is confusing, frightening, and in combat things like this happen. I just don't understand why the commanders allowed a questionable version out before they got to the bottom of it. By allowing a half truth out allows the left to tear at our integrity. If they knew it was frat, accidental or not, and the commanders covered it up they deserve to get hammered for their actions. Good bad or otherwise we only have our integrity as commanders and no matter the outcome integrity can never be compromised.
Posted by: 49 Pan || 03/24/2007 22:12 Comments || Top||


Iraqi police identify perpetrator of attempt on Al-Zobaie's life
(KUNA) -- The Iraqi security agencies managed to identify the perpetrator of the attempt on Deputy Prime Minister Salam al-Zobaie's life Friday afternoon. Wahb Saadi, a cook and one of Al-Zobaie's companions, is the suicide bomber who targeted the Iraqi senior official with an explosive belt, the police sources said, while other sources identified Saadi as one of Al-Zobaie's bodyguards.

While heading for the Friday noon prayers at a small mosque close to his house Al-Zobaie was targeted by insurgents using mortar shells, a car bomb and an explosive belt. The booby-trapped car, a blue Volkswagen, 1985 model, belonging to Saadi, went off at the garage of Al-Zobaie's home shortly after the first attack, KUNA quoted explosive experts as saying. Two mortar shells landed on the same site afterwards.

Iraqi police sources put the death toll of the tripartite attack at eight, including Al-Zobeie's adviser for the Affairs of the south Mufid Abdul-Zahra. Twenty-two others including Al-Zobaie, his brother, his secretary and several of his companions were injured in the attack.

Hit in the belly and the shoulder, the deputy prime minister is undergoing a surgery at Ibn Sina Hospital here. His medical condition is deemed serious, while the injuries of his brother and a third victim, are said to be life-threatening, according to medical sources.

Meanwhile, reports accuse a senior cabinet official of involvement in the attack on the life of Al-Zobaie. Prime Minister Nuri Al-Maliki called on Al-Zobaie at the hospital and ordered the urgent setting up of a committee to investigate into the grave attack which was described as a flagrant breach of the security guards assigned to protect Al-Zobaie. Member of the Accordance Front, Al-Zobaie chairs the service committee, one of the major committees of the ongoing Law Enforcement Plan in Baghdad.
Posted by: Fred || 03/24/2007 00:00 || Comments || Link || [3 views] Top|| File under:


26 Iraqi people killed or injured in market bombing
(KUNA) -- A bomb car explosion shocked a marketplace for used cars near al-Sadr City, east of Baghdad, on Friday, leaving four Iraqi people dead and 22 others injured.

Some seven cars parking near the bombing site were also seriously damaged in the bomb car blast, an Iraqi police security told Kuwait News Agency (KUNA). Earlier on Friday, Iraqi Deputy Prime Minister Salam al-Zobaie survived an attempt on his life as he was heading to the mosque for the Friday noon prayers. He and 22 others were wounded and eight of his convoy members and bodyguards were killed in the attack.
Posted by: Fred || 03/24/2007 00:00 || Comments || Link || [4 views] Top|| File under:

#1  Suicide bomber hits Sunni area in Baghdad; 11 dead

Butter. Must remember butter.
Posted by: gromgoru || 03/24/2007 8:27 Comments || Top||


Al-Qaeda umbrella group denies using chlorine in Anbar attacks
An al-Qaeda umbrella group in Iraq purportedly denied Friday that chlorine was used in recent bombings in Anbar province but warned that it would target all tribes and politicians supporting U.S. efforts in Iraq. The statement came a day after a rocket exploded 50 yards from the U.N. Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon during a news conference in Baghdad's Green Zone, causing him to cringe and duck just minutes after Iraq's prime minister said the visit showed the city was “on the road to stability.”

The Katyusha rocket was fired from a mainly Shiite area on the east bank of the Tigris River, not far from The Associated Press office. The heavily guarded Green Zone on the opposite bank is home to the U.S. Embassy, Iraq's government and the parliament. Iraq's Shiite-dominated government has been quietly pushing for a greater U.N. role and was banking on decreased violence in the capital to show that it was returning to normal six weeks into a joint security crackdown with American forces. “We consider it a positive message to (the) world in which you confirm that Baghdad has returned to playing host to important world figures because it has made huge strides on the road toward stability,” Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki told Ban moments before the rocket attack.

Ban's unannounced stop in the Iraqi capital Thursday was the first visit by a U.N. secretary-general since Kofi Annan, his predecessor, came to Baghdad in November 2005. The U.N. Security Council issued a statement strongly condemning the rocket firing as an “abhorrent terrorist attack.”

The United States has sent about 30,000 additional troops to support the efforts to pacify the capital, as well as Anbar. A roadside bomb killed a U.S. soldier Thursday in western Baghdad, raising to at least 3,228 members of the U.S. military have died since the Iraq war started in March 2003, according to an Associated Press count.

While the fighting in Baghdad has been between Shiites and Sunnis, it has been more of an internal struggle in the Sunni-dominated province that stretches west of the capital to the borders with Syria, Saudi Arabia and Jordan. The U.S. military said three suicide bombers driving trucks rigged with tanks of toxic chlorine gas struck targets in the Sunni insurgent stronghold west of Baghdad last week, killing at least two Iraqi policemen and sickening 356 people. The three bombings, which bore the hallmarks of Sunni insurgents, raised to seven the number of chlorine attacks launched since Jan. 28, causing the U.S. military to warn that insurgents are adopting new tactics in a campaign to spread panic.

The Islamic State of Iraq, which groups al-Qaeda in Iraq and several other Sunni extremist groups, said its duty was to “purify these tribes from those outlaws” who support the U.S.-backed government. But it denied using “poisonous gas” against civilians, calling the chlorine claims propaganda. “There are some people who choose to be helpers to the crusader occupiers and their stooges, those who try to save the crusaders and they were the last card used by the U.S. army in its war against the true mujahedeen (holy fighters),” the group said in an Internet statement. The statement could not be independently verified, but it was posted on a Web site commonly used by militant groups.

The group said it was targeting members of the Albu Issa tribe who had recently denounced al-Qaeda in a March 20 raid on a police station in Amiriyah, east of Fallujah. The military said the chlorine attacks occurred on March 16 in Amiriyah and two other areas, and it was not clear if the militant statement was referring to those or clashes that broke out on Tuesday in Amiriyah and Ramadi. It said “35 apostate policemen were killed and four pickups were seized,” in the attack, adding that “this is against what was mentioned by some satellite channels that the people were targeted by poisonous gas.”

The statement also singled out Iraq's Sunni Deputy Prime Minister Salam al-Zubaie and Sunni Vice President Tariq al-Hashemi, as well as the Anbar Salvation Council, an alliance of clans in the province backing the government. “We tell our people from the tribes and tribal leaders not to help the crusade occupier and its tails and do not allow your sons to join and become tools used by crusaders to fight the mujahedeen,” it said. “We tell the rest of the agents and stooges who have joined the crusaders and the “council of Anbar infidels” that their fate will be the same of those killed in Amiriyah.”

A video posted on the Internet Thursday also showed Abu Yahia al-Libi, an al-Qaeda militant who escaped from a U.S. prison in Afghanistan, urging Sunni militants in Iraq to join the terror group and claiming the U.S. military's security plan for Baghdad has failed.

The chief of police in the southern city of Basra, meanwhile, said a curfew imposed following clashes between Shiite militiamen loyal to radical cleric Muqtada al-Sadr and guards outside the headquarters of the rival Shiite Fadhila party has been lifted. The militiamen captured eight Fadhila members before the building caught fire and 12 Mahdi Army fighters were wounded in the gunbattle, police said, adding that clashes also had erupted between the two sides near the residence of Basra's Fadhila governor Mohammed al-Waeli. Police Chief Gen. Mohammed al-Moussawi said the curfew was lifted Friday morning and agreement had been reached for the detainees to be released.

In violence Friday, police found three bullet-riddled bodies, including two women, in Diwaniyah, 80 miles south of Baghdad, including two women a Shiite city that has seen recent clashes between militiamen and police.
Posted by: Fred || 03/24/2007 00:00 || Comments || Link || [3 views] Top|| File under:

#1  BS! AL-Qaeda operatives were trained in use of chemicals at the Taliban terror camps.
Posted by: Sneaze || 03/24/2007 7:28 Comments || Top||


Israel-Palestine-Jordan
Palestinian policeman found killed
(KUNA) -- A Palestinian Preventive Security Apparatus officer was found killed in Maghraka, southeast Gaza, on Friday. The Palestinian police accused Hamas activists of having kidnapped and then killed the officer, identified as only Nofal, and another policeman identified as Nabil Meqdad, who has not yet been found. "The officer Nofal was shot dead by the abductors who fired over three bullets at him," Palestinian medical sources were quoted as saying.

Earlier on Friday, the Palestinian Preventive Security Apparatus said in a release that the abduction of Nofal and Meqdad was a breach of the Makkah Agreement, which was reached between Fatah and Hamas in the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia last month.

Meanwhile, a Palestinian teacher was found killed in north Gaza Strip Friday evening, Palestinian medical sources said. Mohamed Eishan, 47, was killed by unknown gunmen, who left behind at Salatin, west Beit Lahia in north Gaza Strip, the sources said. Investigations are still underway to find the killers who immediately escaped the site after they had murdered Eishan, they added.
Posted by: Fred || 03/24/2007 00:00 || Comments || Link || [3 views] Top|| File under:

#1  shot dead by the abductors who fired over three bullets at him

that would be four or five or....why not just say so?
Posted by: Frank G || 03/24/2007 6:20 Comments || Top||

#2  one, two, three, many.
Posted by: gromgoru || 03/24/2007 8:28 Comments || Top||

#3  im surprised the festivities have restarted so fast.
Posted by: liberalhawk || 03/24/2007 15:56 Comments || Top||


Barghouti's son released on bail
Israel released on bail yesterday the jailed son of Palestinian uprising leader Marwan Barghouti, who is himself serving a life prison sentence. Qassam Barghouti, a student, was arrested in late 2003 after crossing from Jordan into the occupied West Bank. Israeli security officials accused him of complicity in Palestinian militant attacks, a charge his lawyer denied.

Israel's Prisons Service said Barghouti was convicted of weapons possession and freed after serving a 34-month term behind bars. But he remains on probation as an Israeli military court is still considering other charges against him. "Bail was posted, and Barghouti is required to stay in the area of [the main West Bank city of] Ramallah and report to our Binyamin station once a week," Prisons Service spokeswoman Ori Steltzer said.
Posted by: Fred || 03/24/2007 00:00 || Comments || Link || [3 views] Top|| File under:

#1  Beep...Beep...Beep...
Posted by: mojo || 03/24/2007 1:08 Comments || Top||


Southeast Asia
Jihadis kill 2 soldiers in southern Thai outdoor market
Suspected Muslim insurgents shot and killed two policemen Saturday at a crowded outdoor market in southern Thailand, police said.

The policemen, both Buddhists, had left their post in Narathiwat province's Bacho district to patrol the market. They had stopped to buy chicken from a vendor when at least six gunmen approached them and shot the officers at point-blank range, said police Lt. Surachai Kumthapnam. Shoppers fled in panic as the shots were fired and the attackers disappeared into the crowd, Surachai said.

More:

Police said two extremists who walked among the market crowd suddenly took out firearms and started firing at the two soldiers, hitting each with about two to three shots. Then they took the soldiers' guns before fleeing the scene. The shooting took place when more than 100 villagers were shopping at the market.

Both the troops were declared dead from wounds soon after arriving at Bacho hospital.
Posted by: ryuge || 03/24/2007 08:10 || Comments || Link || [3 views] Top|| File under:


Sri Lanka
Civil war spreads in Sri Lanka as more are killed
At least 26 Tamil Tiger rebels and three soldiers were killed in a battle in northwestern Sri Lanka yesterday, the military said, as analysts sounded a warning that renewed civil war is spreading. The army confirmed troops were trying to neutralise heavy rebel guns in Mannar district, but refused to say whether they had entered terrain the rebels control under the terms of a now-battered 2002 truce as the Tigers claim. "The LTTE is attacking with mortars ... without considering the safety of the civilians in the area. Three soldiers were killed and 4 injured," military spokesman Brigadier Prasad Samarasinghe said. "We have retaliated to neutralise them and we have observed more than 20 Tiger dead bodies."

In a separate incident, troops shot dead six Tigers who ambushed a route-clearing patrol in the eastern district of Batticaloa, taking the death toll in the past 48 hours to at least 42. The Tigers said they were fighting fierce artillery battles with hundreds of troops who had crossed into their territory in Mannar. The clash, 2km inside rebel lines, came as sporadic fighting continued in the east - where troops have evicted the Tigers from around 600 square km of land amid a declared drive to destroy them militarily. "This morning a contingent of army troops intruded into our parts of Mannar district ... and are holding 120 families in a village as human shields while they are firing at us," Tiger military spokesman Rasiah Ilanthiraiyan said earlier from the rebels' northern stronghold of Kilinochchi.
Posted by: Fred || 03/24/2007 00:00 || Comments || Link || [3 views] Top|| File under:

#1  Mario! Where ya been?
Posted by: tu3031 || 03/24/2007 9:57 Comments || Top||


Syria-Lebanon-Iran
Iran: British sailors 'bargaining chips'
An Iranian military official said Saturday afternoon that the 15 detained British sailors "confessed" to illegally entering Iranian waters.

The sailors, taken at gunpoint Friday by Iranian Revolutionary Guard and Al Quds soldiers were captured intentionally and are to be used as bargaining chips to be used for the release of five Iranians who were arrested at the Iranian consul in Irbil, Iraq by US troops, an Iranian official told the daily paper Asharq al-Awsat on Saturday.

In addition, a senior Iranian military official said Saturday that the decision to capture the soldiers was made during a March 18 emergency meeting of the High Council for Security following a report by the Al-Quds contingent commander, Kassem Suleimani, to the Iranian chief of the armed forces, Maj.Gen. Hassan Firouz Abadi. In the report, according to Asharq al-Awsat, Suleimani warned Abadi that Al Quds and Revolutionary Guards' operations had become transparent to US and British intelligence following the arrest of a senior Al Quds officer and four of his deputies in Irbil.

According to the official, Iran was worried that its detained people would leak sensitive intelligence information.


Analysis: Who knows who the waters belong to?

Teheran embassies prepare escape plans
Iran's semi-official news agency, Fars, reported that the 15 Britons have been transferred to the capital Teheran "to explain their aggressive action." There was no immediate official confirmation of the move.

The agency said the 15 included "some women." In Britain, officials told the Press Association news agency that at least one woman was among the group.

Navigational equipment on the seized British boats "show that they (sailors) were aware that they were operating in Iranian waters and Iranian border gurads fulfilled their responsibility," Fars quoted an unidentified official as saying.

Meanwhile, officials from Western countries expressed concern Saturday that Iran would engage in similar acts in the future in order to discourage the United Nation's Security Council from imposing further sanctions, reported Army Radio.

Iranian state television said, however, that this was "not the first time that British military personnel during the occupation of Iraq have entered illegally into Iran's territorial waters," the state TV quoted a foreign ministry official as saying. He was not identified by name.

Earlier, the British government summoned the Iranian ambassador, Rasoul Movahedian, to the Foreign Office for a meeting, which a department spokesman described as "brisk but cordial."

During the meeting, Sir Peter Ricketts, the senior civil servant in the department, demanded "the safe return of our personnel and equipment," the spokesman said, speaking on condition of anonymity under department rules.

Britain's Foreign Secretary Margaret Beckett demanded Teheran fully explain the detention, saying in a statement after Movahedian's summons that he "was left in no doubt that we want them back."

Iran later claimed that the British soldiers and marines have been "detained by Iran's border authorities for further investigation ... of the blatant aggression into Iranian territorial waters," the official also said.

Iran demanded an immediate explanation from London and "asked that this not happen again," the television said.

The foreign ministry conveyed Iran's "strong protest" to the diplomat, who was said to be the British charge d'affaires in the absence of a London ambassador to Teheran. The diplomat was also asked to "provide answer as soon as possible" from London.

Posted by: Frank G || 03/24/2007 12:41 || Comments || Link || [4 views] Top|| File under:

#1  I certainly hope that the CIA is able to sneak some good PSYOPS about this into the British press. It could start by suggesting that the sailors are being tortured, then move on to the other brutalities committed by the regime both to their own people and foreigners; and in their own territory and in other countries.

It would be a slow and gradual process to both convince the Brits that they need a better military, and to take a stronger posture against Iran.
Posted by: Anonymoose || 03/24/2007 13:29 Comments || Top||

#2 
I would raise then call.

Posted by: Master of Obvious || 03/24/2007 14:17 Comments || Top||

#3  I just saw Fox news footage of British soldiers walking with their hands behind their heads - are you fuc*in' kidding me? The Brits are putting up with this crap??
Posted by: cajunbelle || 03/24/2007 14:24 Comments || Top||

#4  I just saw Fox news footage of British soldiers walking with their hands behind their heads
Makin em do the purp walk; arrested for being infidel. Boy does Britain look weak.

Come on Tony have your troops mass the border and invite your American allies to join. (It's time you asked for a real favor instead of asking us to kiss up the UN). Time to draw a line in the sand, and if it's crossed, turn the sand to glass.
Posted by: regular joe || 03/24/2007 14:50 Comments || Top||

#5  If I were Britain, I wouldn't be talking. I would be sending every nuke submarine I had into waters adjacent to Iran, then I would deliver an ultimatum - either my sailors were returned IMMEDIATELY and UNHARMED, or several Iranian cities won't need electricity, ever again. I'd give them 24 hours to make a decision. Of course, that would mean Britain had a couple of people of Nelson's philosophy, and had returned to Disraeli's foreign policy, but in the end, it would be better for the entire world. People would understand they can't pull this kind of sh$$ on any nation and get away with it. The Iranians will keep escalating until they are hammered, or the entire world rolls over for them.
Posted by: Old Patriot || 03/24/2007 14:51 Comments || Top||

#6  The cassus belli bag be overflowin.
Posted by: Nero Shuper3237 || 03/24/2007 14:53 Comments || Top||

#7  We've gone from casus belli to weak bellies thanks to unanswered casi belli.

A number of targets in Iran should already have been destroyed in the last 24 hours. For the sake of peace.
Posted by: Kalle (kafir forever) || 03/24/2007 15:07 Comments || Top||

#8  Look for first class tickets for five Iranian prisoners guests "Ambassadors" from Kerplopistan to Teheran in the near future. The Brits have no stomach for this, and we owe them one.
Posted by: Alistaire Elmolurt6632 || 03/24/2007 15:10 Comments || Top||

#9  Flood the zone.
Posted by: Shipman || 03/24/2007 15:11 Comments || Top||

#10  Iran: British sailors 'bargaining chips'

I say give them more than they bargained for. Lots more.

The Iranians will keep escalating until they are hammered, or the entire world rolls over for them.

Word, OP. Start atritting Iranian assets, NOW!
Posted by: Zenster || 03/24/2007 15:33 Comments || Top||

#11  I'm with you on this one, Zenster. Bad behavior is best extinguished by immediate bad consequences.
Posted by: Darrell || 03/24/2007 15:52 Comments || Top||

#12  Y'all are such excitable boys. Do the naval blockade first. Draw down the gasoline stores. Make lots of unhappy citizens and no incoming petrodollars.

The Brits may not have the naval assets in theater to do this but we do. I'm willing to throw some of my hard-earned tax dollars into the pool. Us Crusaders gotta stick together!

Sun Tzu sez you can always blow stuff up later. And no, I'm not suggesting anyone torpedo the CdeG as a practical joke.
Posted by: SteveS || 03/24/2007 16:02 Comments || Top||

#13  I'm good with that SteveS. It also keeps the mullahs in place if there's no fuel to get the hell out
Posted by: Frank G || 03/24/2007 16:05 Comments || Top||

#14  AE - I think you're right - This is a brilliant move on their part to get their 5 boys back - If the US tries to play hard ball and not negotiate, we alienate the only allies we have left.
Posted by: Geoffro || 03/24/2007 16:29 Comments || Top||

#15  Ok, cave to the fascist criminals and their media backers and give back the captured agitators. Then, once the Brits are safely home, sink the entire Iranian navy.
Posted by: Atomic Conspiracy || 03/24/2007 16:33 Comments || Top||

#16  Step 1: Naval *AND* air blockade. No one gets in, no one gets out.

Step 2: Knock down rail bridges between Iran and Russia.

Step 3: Destroy sewage treatment plants.

Step 4: Destroy water treatment plants.

Step 5: Destroy power distribution (not generation) centers.

Step 6: Destroy power generation stations.

Step 7: Destroy POL storage.

Step 8: Destroy oil distribution junctions.

Step 9: Destroy oil extraction centers.

Do one step each week. Let them know that as soon as the prisoners are returned, we'll stop.
Posted by: Rob Crawford || 03/24/2007 16:37 Comments || Top||

#17  We should strike at their closest allies. Seize 500 media beasts and hold them until the sailors are released.
Posted by: Atomic Conspiracy || 03/24/2007 16:40 Comments || Top||

#18  Bad behavior is best extinguished by immediate bad consequences.

Well put, Darrell, and something long, long overdue.
Posted by: Zenster || 03/24/2007 16:49 Comments || Top||

#19 
Redacted by moderator. Comments may be redacted for trolling, violation of standards of good manners, or plain stupidity. Please correct the condition that applies and try again. Contents may be viewed in the sinktrap. Further violations may result in banning.
Posted by: Chavilet the Bunyip4128 || 03/24/2007 16:49 Comments || Top||

#20  Let's get straight to the point.

Iran has submarines?

That is, they still have submarines.

Why?
Posted by: Anonymoose || 03/24/2007 16:57 Comments || Top||

#21  Why do they still have submarines? Because the Western nations no longer have the balls to actually make WAR against a determined enemy.

We're much more comfortable taking teeny, tiny baby steps against the enemy.

Pfeh.

Posted by: Dave D. || 03/24/2007 17:05 Comments || Top||

#22  How the he11 would the sailors know where they were? They're just going along for the ride. Now if they got hold of a navigator, first officer, or a captain, maybe I'd believe it. But the rest could be 100 miles off course and they would not know the difference. Time to go pound some sand into somebody's a$$.
Posted by: gorb || 03/24/2007 17:05 Comments || Top||

#23  As Joe Mendiola might paraphrase Winston Churchill: Brit Weakness > The Middle of The Beginning of The End...
Posted by: M. Murcek || 03/24/2007 17:06 Comments || Top||

#24  Also consider, over at Samizdata, where the depradations of the British state are decried around the clock, Zip Zero Nada about this. I'll bet the kidnapping is being ignored in the british media...
Posted by: M. Murcek || 03/24/2007 17:15 Comments || Top||

#25  map
The Guardian seems to think it wasn't the open ocean, but the Shatt al Arab Waterway
Posted by: Bobby || 03/24/2007 17:22 Comments || Top||

#26  The British broadsheets+broadcast media are giving the matter decent coverage. Blighty's Conservatives and Libertarians have gone silent.
Posted by: mrp || 03/24/2007 17:25 Comments || Top||

#27  Interesting observation, MM. EUReferendum also has nothing beyond its initial, pre-confirmation flash report. The Brits should bet our before they hurt themselves as much as Israel did in Lebanon.
Posted by: Nimble Spemble || 03/24/2007 17:27 Comments || Top||

#28 
BBC is silent on the issue.
http://news.bbc.co.uk/ no hostage report.
Posted by: Master of Obvious || 03/24/2007 17:33 Comments || Top||

#29  We're much more comfortable taking teeny, tiny baby steps against the enemy.

Those "teeny, tiny baby steps" are "more comfortable" only because taking substantial strides is what can raise blisters and make your shoes pinch. The far greater discomfort of allowing our enemies to advance their evil agendas goes ignored as our leadership coddles its own self with the perks of place and power. Their luxury does not oblige them to share the daily risks of vest bombers, hijackings and car bombs that the great unwashed must endure.

This preference for political ease is contagious in that it bequeaths undue respite to those who should be brought up short for their affronts to humanity. Instead, we are treated to mincing diplomats who idly prink about with canapes in hand whilst bewailing how uncooperative the tyrants are that they stolidly refuse to punish.
Posted by: Zenster || 03/24/2007 17:33 Comments || Top||

#30  Drooling troll spill in aisle #19.
Posted by: Kalle (kafir forever) || 03/24/2007 17:34 Comments || Top||

#31  The Beeb has a current article up, but you have to work to find it :) Here

Posted by: mrp || 03/24/2007 17:39 Comments || Top||

#32  I expect current full-court suppression of the press coverage to allow Blair and Co to negotiate and spin this before the public outrage begins
Posted by: Frank G || 03/24/2007 19:09 Comments || Top||

#33  Do the have subs?

Yes.


Will they?


Gee we dont know what happned to them.

(Mk48 ADCAP doesnt leave much evidence)
Posted by: OldSpook || 03/24/2007 19:56 Comments || Top||

#34  From London Times:

A senior Iraqi officer appeared to back Tehran’s claim that the British had entered Iranian waters. “We were informed by Iraqi fishermen after they had returned from sea that there were British gunboats in an area that is out of Iraqi control,” said Brigadier-General Hakim Jassim, who is in charge of Iraq’s territorial waters. “We don’t know why they were there.”

But 'out of Iraqi control' does not necessarily mean 'out of Iraqi sovereign waters'.
Posted by: Glenmore || 03/24/2007 20:30 Comments || Top||

#35  JihadWatch has a report that Ahmanutjob is threatening to put the captives "on trial", calling them "insurgents" and saying they may be charged with espionage.

Posted by: Rob Crawford || 03/24/2007 21:43 Comments || Top||

#36  England has all ways been a great Friend to the US. This situation is definitly one that I hope will wake up the population Across the pond. I love Visiting London, Love the Clubs, the people, the resturants and the Football games. I hope the captured Sailors are returned. However, if they are put on trial and loose, they will be hung. The Arabs are not playing games. They do not care for the West, our freedoms, our religions nor our compassion. London is a prime target for a "Brief Case Nuke". I hope it never comes to such, but If the People Of England do not understand what "Evils" lurk in the belief in Islam, she will fall by the very sword that may "Behead" those great Saliors who risk their lives for the Union Jack and the Queen.
Posted by: USA || 03/24/2007 21:50 Comments || Top||

#37  Been wondering when that "Tonkin Gulf" moment would come, perhaps now?

Please?

Really, NOW!!
Posted by: TomAnon || 03/24/2007 21:53 Comments || Top||

#38 
Rantburgers will find this thread on BBC entertaining: http://newsforums.bbc.co.uk/nol/thread.jspa?threadID=5882&&edition=1&ttl=20070325034624

No spine. America alone. Multicultural relativism wins.


Posted by: Master of Obvious || 03/24/2007 22:44 Comments || Top||

#39  http://thumbsnap.com/v/sWXCvuFP.jpg
http://thumbsnap.com/v/wnq2xVbC.jpg
http://thumbsnap.com/v/MDfYmR5J.jpg
http://thumbsnap.com/v/89NEoOTL.jpg
Posted by: Chavilet the Bunyip4128 || 03/24/2007 16:49 Comments || Top||


Seized British Royal Marines and Sailors Transferred To Tehran
The 15 captured British naval personnel were today reported to have been moved to Teheran as Iran raised the stakes in the escalating diplomatic crisis.

The sailors and marines would be asked to explain their “aggressive action” in entering Iranian waters, the Iranian Fars news agency reported.

British commanders have insisted that their forces were in Iraqi waters in the Shatt al-Arab waterway south of Basra when they were surrounded by Iranian gunboats yesterday.

The border between Iran and Iraq runs along the waterway and the Iranians say that British had crossed onto their side, a claim supported by Brigadier General Hakim Jassim, the Iraqi military commander of the country's territorial waters.

"We were informed by Iraqi fishermen after they had returned from sea that there were British gunboats in an area that is out of Iraqi control," he said.

A British diplomat in Teheran denied the charge: "We still maintain they were in Iraqi waters when they were picked up."

Britain has demanded the immediate release of its forces and is expected to receive the backing of the European Union later today.

German Foreign Minister Frank-Walter Steinmeier said Berlin had obtained official confirmation that the troops were under arrest for an alleged border violation.

The Iranian foreign ministry said there could be no excuses for entering Iranian territory.

The IRNA news agency said the ministry had accused British forces of “illegal and interfering” entry into Iranian waters.

That was a “suspicious act and against international laws and rules”, the agency added.

It quoted Foreign Ministry spokesman Mohammad Ali Hosseini as saying: "Violating the territory of other countries and non-permitted entrance ... show unusual aims and is against international treaties and there are no excuses for ignoring and not accepting the responsibility for that."

Britain said two boatloads of Royal Navy sailors and marines had searched a merchant vessel on a UN approved mission in Iraqi waters when Iranian gunboats encircled and captured them.

Families and colleagues of the 15 captured personnel waiting anxiously for news.

The 15 - 14 men and one woman - were all stationed aboard the British warship HMS Cornwall, which is the base for coalition maritime security patrols in the northern Gulf area.

A BBC reporter on board ship said there was a "high level of anxiety" among the crew over the fate of their colleagues.
Posted by: mrp || 03/24/2007 09:43 || Comments || Link || [2 views] Top|| File under:

#1  Predictable.

British sailors admit entering Iran waters: Iran military

Mar 24 09:29 AM US/Eastern

Fifteen British sailors and marines detained off Iraq by the Iranian navy have admitted illegally entering Iranian waters, senior Iranian commander General Alireza Afshar said Saturday.
"They are currently being questioned and have admitted to violating the territorial waters of the Islamic repubic," Afshar, the official spokesman of the army chief of staff, told the semi-official Fars news agency.

He told the Arabic language service of state television: "We have solid evidence that they were detained in our territorial waters. They themselves have confessed and admitted their mistake."

http://www.breitbart.com/article.php?
id=070324132921.v0bpjlp8&show_article=1
(link doesn't seem to work for me, so I split it to preserve format - glue it back together to go there.)
Posted by: Glenmore || 03/24/2007 12:02 Comments || Top||

#2  Iran: Nuke 'em dead.
Posted by: Scooter McGruder || 03/24/2007 12:03 Comments || Top||

#3  Oh, God. I hope this isn't 1979 all over again; but I fear it will be.
Posted by: Dave D. || 03/24/2007 12:12 Comments || Top||

#4  Glenmore's LINKY
Posted by: RD || 03/24/2007 12:12 Comments || Top||

#5  Brace yourselves for the most painful bit. The PC hand wringing show about to commence by both Brit and US State Dept. types as they conduct business as per usual.

In particular, listen for the great Whooshing Sounds coming from Washington and London, SUCKING spit, prisoners and tersely written Demarches into one Wad.

/I suppose direct action is just too much to hope for.
Posted by: RD || 03/24/2007 12:27 Comments || Top||

#6  The whole world is watching, Tony.
Especially Moslem leaders.
Posted by: Kalle (kafir forever) || 03/24/2007 12:42 Comments || Top||

#7  Have heard anything out of Plains Georgia yet?
Posted by: Besoeker || 03/24/2007 13:44 Comments || Top||

#8  why, is there an anti-semitic angle to this story? can he blame Israel?
Posted by: Kalle (kafir forever) || 03/24/2007 13:55 Comments || Top||

#9  Whahahahahahahahaa ^5
Posted by: Besoeker || 03/24/2007 13:57 Comments || Top||

#10  Scalpel-sharp, Kalle.
Posted by: trailing wife || 03/24/2007 14:34 Comments || Top||

#11  Oh, God. I hope this isn't 1979 all over again; but I fear it will be.

You mean Brown's been in touch with Ahmedinajihad?
Posted by: Nimble Spemble || 03/24/2007 14:37 Comments || Top||

#12 
Note to Democrats: this is a military situation where a drop-dead date helps.
Posted by: Master of Obvious || 03/24/2007 14:51 Comments || Top||

#13  As Ayn Rand so succinctly pointed out, tryannies have no soveriegn rights. Why we give the slightest bit of respect or creedence to any trumpetings and blather spewing forth from Tehran defies all logic. They deserve none at all.

Don't even demand the sailors' return. Consider them to be POWs after a declaration of war and begin destroying vital Iranian assets like ships in harbor, gasoline refineries and Kharg Island's connecting infrastructure.

I repeat, we must take Ahmadinejad and Iran at their word. If they so dearly want war, then give them war. Like any Islamic ego, Iran is so incredibly fragile that even incremental attacks will produce dramatic results. We do not need to engage in a full-out military campaign. Just begin inflicting highly selective but exceptionally painful wounds to their brittle military-industrial infrastructure, then sit back and let economic gangrene set in.

It is long past tea for Iran's comeuppance. No further excuse or provocation is needed. We have all of the necessary military apparatus in place. USE IT, damnit! We're paying additional billions to park all this hardware on their doorstep, use the stinking stuff for a change!
Posted by: Zenster || 03/24/2007 15:11 Comments || Top||

#14  as i predcited, Iran claimed it was in their waters. This seems to be following the script.
Posted by: liberalhawk || 03/24/2007 15:52 Comments || Top||

#15  Zen we very infrequently agree - this time you're spot on, IMHO
Posted by: Frank G || 03/24/2007 15:54 Comments || Top||

#16  this is Pueblo Redux. Don't let it end the same way. Capturing them is an act of war. Parading them in front of cameras violates the "sacred" GC, IIRC. Iran has to pay hard for this
Posted by: Frank G || 03/24/2007 15:56 Comments || Top||

#17  Frank, I still maintain that we have a lot more in common than either of us might suspect. It's certainly encouraging to find we're in such agreement on this.

Why the Hell anyone continues to cede the least respect for Iran's tyrannical leaders goes beyond all comprehension. It is precisely this sort of unwarranted and unmerited recognition or validation that buys us much of this trouble in the first place. Tin pot dictators like Mugabe, Asad, Kim and their ilk deserve nothing more than the back of our global hand. Instead, we coddle, cajole and appease the precise bastids that destabilize and wreak havoc upon this planet's security.

The only explanation is that world leaders must feel as though they run a closed shop. They intensely dislike the notion of taking down other supposed "leaders" because it weakens their own status, elected or otherwise. It's time to gather up this world's legitimate leadership (i.e., ones that are constitutionally elected or govern benignly), and have them declare open season on all of these two bit thugs. Revoke their "sovereign rights" and begin enforcing severe trade sanctions to make their populations rise up. Arm the people's militias that agree to install peaceful constitutional democracy in place of these tyrannies and deal harshly with those who subsequently reneg on any agreements.

This crap has got to end. We are spiraling down a toilet bowl of niceity and diplomatic cordiality while our very worst foes giggle at the West's collective inability to slap down what are, in reality, truly minor threats. Threats magnified only by our unwillingness to address them in a timely fashion with sufficient political will.
Posted by: Zenster || 03/24/2007 17:12 Comments || Top||

#18  This is not 1979. This is a September 12 world and not everybody will sit still for this even if our elected representatives will do nothing.

While I would never condone direct action - and indeed I assume it would be illegal to do so - the fact is Iranians too can be taken hostage and, if the issue is pressed, butchered for the internet. I am amazed nothing of the sort has happened yet. But I suspect the grace period for our elected leaders to pull the thumb out is coming to an end.
Posted by: Excalibur || 03/24/2007 17:15 Comments || Top||

#19  Zenster, you are EXACTLY right. I cannot believe how the western governments coddle these dictators.
Posted by: jds || 03/24/2007 17:28 Comments || Top||

#20  Word, Excalibur. Every last letter and punctuation mark of yours is Spot-Fucking-On! Time for these thugs is running way short.
Posted by: Zenster || 03/24/2007 17:40 Comments || Top||

#21  I think Excalibur's idea would make a great, patriotic action movie --after the fact. You know, the kind that used to be made, telling the story of actual, heroic operations against the Nazis during WW II.
Posted by: Kalle (kafir forever) || 03/24/2007 17:48 Comments || Top||

#22  While I would never condone direct action

sarc correct?
Posted by: RD || 03/24/2007 20:48 Comments || Top||

#23  Whatever "sarc" tags not required. Eh, Excalibur? (No reply needed.)
Posted by: Zenster || 03/24/2007 20:58 Comments || Top||


Iran's President Cancels U.N. Appearance
UNITED NATIONS (AP) - Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad has canceled his trip to New York to address the U.N. Security Council before a vote on whether to impose further sanctions against his country for refusing to stop enriching uranium, the Foreign Ministry spokesman said Friday.
Mohammed Ali Hosseini, the spokesman, told Iranian state television that the trip was scrapped because of "America's obstruction in issuing visas" to the Iranian delegation that was to travel to New York.
Suppose there will be a denial issued?
A diplomat on the Security Council said Ahmadinejad would instead send his deputy foreign minister Saturday to address the Security Council before the vote. The diplomat spoke on condition of anonymity because there had not been an official announcement.
I guess there's no need for a denial. I'll bet Ahmanutjob is thinking "We kidnapped the Brits, so the US will obviously kidnap me!"
Mohammad Mir Ali Mohammadi, press secretary of Iran's mission at the U.N., told The Associated Press the U.S. did not deliver a visa to the U.S. Embassy in Bern, Switzerland, in time for the Iranian president to pick it up before for the council session Saturday.
Why don't you have your a$$-kisser go get them instead?
He said Russia and China were trying to postpone the session until Monday and if the session was put off Ahamdinejad would decide whether to come.
Put it off 'til Tuesday for all I care. I'm sure the UN will head the same wrong direction no matter which day it is on. They'll get an extra couple of days of dinners out of it, too!
Ahmadinejad had said he wanted to address the Security Council before it takes up a draft resolution seeking to pressure Iran to cease uranium enrichment, a process that can make fuel for civilian reactors or fissile material for a nuclear warhead.
Or be used to generate electricity for peaceful purposes in a country floating on petroleum reserves.
The five veto-wielding members of the Security Council want a vote on the resolution Saturday. However, diplomats said the vote could be delayed because negotiations were continuing in an effort to reach unanimity and give the sanctions more weight.
What? They haven't reached unanimity yet? Why? Isn't it obvious enough?
"Maybe we will vote tomorrow, maybe not because the priority is to make this vote unanimous," said Maria Zakharova, first secretary of Russia's U.N. mission.
And to give Iran a couple more days to think about paying up.
Iranian Deputy Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi had earlier claimed on Iranian state-run radio that the U.S. government had not issued a visa for Ahmadinejad.
Or maybe he noticed that the passports he got didn't have a "Diplomat" stamp in it? :-)
But Daniel Wendell, a spokesman for the U.S. Embassy in Switzerland said Ahmadinejad's and other Iranian officials' passports had been handed over in Bern on Friday. Another 31 other passports for support staff were to ready later in the day. The passports would then be taken by courier to Tehran in time for the Iranians to fly to New York.
That part was there so Al-Jizz would have something to conveniently leave out, I'm sure.
Zarif told reporters "the visas for (Ahmadinejad's) crew were not ready yet."
Forgot the ones for the ball-licker and the tinfoil hat folder?
The United States says Iran's nuclear efforts are cover for a weapons program, but Tehran insists it only wants electricity.
So what's all the fuss about? Get rid of 90% of those centrifuges and we'll talk!
In December, the Security Council voted unanimously to impose limited sanctions on Iran, ordering all countries to stop supplying Iran with materials and technology that could contribute to its nuclear and missile programs and to freeze assets of 10 key Iranian companies and 12 individuals related to those programs.
Darn! Now they'll have to get Euros to pay for operations straight from the Iranian government!
Iran responded by announcing an expansion of its enrichment program. Ahmadinejad has remained defiant and asked to speak to the Security Council just before it votes on the new draft resolution.
As long as those words are something like "You can't arrest me, I have a 'Diplomat' stamp in my passport!", I'm OK with it.
The new sanctions would ban Iranian arms exports and freeze the assets of 28 additional individuals and organizations involved in Iran's nuclear and missile programs. About a third of those are linked to the Revolutionary Guard, an elite military corps.
Hell, make the paperwork easier and freeze all of Iran's assets.
Several non-permanent members of the Security Council have resisted the draft resolution, agreed upon last week by the five council powers—the United States, Russia, China, Britain and France—along with Germany.
Who?
In an effort to overcome their concerns, Russia proposed a compromise Friday over a proposal by Indonesia and Qatar calling for the Middle East to be free of weapons of mass destruction and the missiles to deliver them. Including such an appeal could have implications for Israel, a U.S. ally widely believed to possess nuclear weapons, though it has never officially acknowledged it.
Israel is in the Mid East, but I get the idea. Does it come along with a non-aggression clause to keep the dogs off of Israel?
The Russian proposal would include a recognition that "a solution to the Iranian nuclear issue would contribute global non-proliferation efforts, including those in the Middle East."
Now they figure it out! What happened, Pootie?
France and Britain approved of the wording, while the United States was considering it, said Axel Crau, a spokesman for France's U.N. mission.
France approved? I'm suddenly skeptical.
"It's definitely a key point and probably the key to unanimity," Crau said.
Does it include the words "Severe Consequences"?
He said the resolution's co-sponsors—France, Germany and Britain—still wanted to call a vote Saturday but may delay it to seek consensus. "For the sake of unanimity we are willing to make some efforts because unanimity has a value," he said.
Consensus, eh? Better go get a couple more barrels of water to add to the agreement.
Alejandro Wolff, the acting U.S. Ambassador to the United Nations, said the nuclear debate should not be affected by the Iranian seizure of 15 British sailors and marines in the Persian Gulf Friday.
Could you please clarify your comments by specifying which country you are addressing, Mr Wolff?
Posted by: gorb || 03/24/2007 02:11 || Comments || Link || [4 views] Top|| File under:

#1  Cancel the fumigator...
Posted by: tu3031 || 03/24/2007 9:59 Comments || Top||

#2  I would have given 4-1 that he was going to come here and announce the release of the Brits. Ima think he's screwed up big-time. Now it Smellz like sabotage, losing control maybe.
Posted by: Shipman || 03/24/2007 11:15 Comments || Top||

#3  Maybe he's a bit nervous about leaving the zip code right now.
Posted by: JAB || 03/24/2007 11:37 Comments || Top||

#4  help help we're being oppressed
Posted by: Seafarious || 03/24/2007 11:53 Comments || Top||

#5  Hmm, I would have given 6-1 the Brits end up as human shields at some reactor complex.

Or, another possiblility is the old left hand don't know what the right hand is doing scenario. Maybe Almondinejihad is thinking "This business will get out of control. It will get out of control and we'll be lucky to live through it.
Posted by: SteveS || 03/24/2007 11:55 Comments || Top||

#6  Why is "UNanimity" such a big value?

When someone is wrong, dead wrong, what is the value of changing your position so much as to include the wrong one? wouldn't it always, by necessity, make your position wrong, too? and send the message to the irrational party that they can keep sabotaging everything because "unanimity" is more important to you than facts, reason, liberty, and life?

I think "unanimity" as a value is a recipe for failure and death.
Posted by: Kalle (kafir forever) || 03/24/2007 12:50 Comments || Top||

#7  Or, another possiblility is the old left hand don't know what the right hand is doing scenario

I lay new odds of 8-1 that you're right. Someones trying to trip up MA.
Posted by: Shipman || 03/24/2007 15:15 Comments || Top||

#8  Steve and Shipman,
I'll give you 8-1 odds Almond jihad was behind it. The last time we tried to work with "Moderate Iranian Mullahs" we got played for a fool.

Al
Posted by: Frozen Al || 03/24/2007 15:42 Comments || Top||

#9  1. Imanutjob aint coming over, cause he knows they'll lose the vote, so why be humiliated?

2. The sanctions, though not exactly killer santions, are substantive, and take things a couple of baby steps beyond the first sanctions res. More importantly they establish the principle that as long as Iran enriches Uranium, we ratchet up sanctions every two months. How long it will take to boil this frog, I dont know.

3. The folks keeping it from being unanimous are South Africa, Indon, and Qatar. The latter two to avoid looking to pro-Israel, and RSA to basically throw some weight around. Indon and Qat will be bought off with a reference to an old res calling for a nuke free mideast (since most of the region wont sit down with Israel to negotiate that, its a red herring) RSA Im sure will get some commas inserted, or the like, to save face.
Posted by: liberalhawk || 03/24/2007 15:49 Comments || Top||

#10  Dinnerjacket cancelled because he was afraid that we would take HIM hostage.
[/I wish]
Posted by: Alaska Paul || 03/24/2007 19:01 Comments || Top||

#11  thought experiment, or speculation; since 2006 I've read reports that the dinnerJacket was on the outs with certain factions, both ultra and moderate.

Think it's possible that some AS$$atollah Quds peckerwood ordered an Admiral to snatch these Brits without consultations with the dinnerJacket?
Posted by: RD || 03/24/2007 20:59 Comments || Top||


Good morning
Posted by: Fred || 03/24/2007 00:00 || Comments || Link || [3 views] Top|| File under:

#1  Rats, I was hoping that Lillian Bond might return for an encore

Posted by: Grumenk Philalzabod0723 || 03/24/2007 0:31 Comments || Top||

#2  Well guys, I have to tell you. In my days of early TV, watching the singing cowboys, including Dale and Roy Rogers (and one can't forget Trigger)... well, she didn't look like this on my parents' black and white TV! Sheezzz...
Posted by: Sherry || 03/24/2007 0:58 Comments || Top||

#3  She sure didn't look like that on the TV show...
Posted by: mojo || 03/24/2007 1:03 Comments || Top||

#4  *wistles*, damn thisn makes me suspicious of Roy, why would he spend all that time with Trigger and Bullet?
Posted by: RD || 03/24/2007 1:30 Comments || Top||

#5  *wistles* is a faster vershion of wist.
Posted by: RD || 03/24/2007 1:32 Comments || Top||

#6  I wonder if she had Roy stuffed and mounted the way Roy did with trigger.
Posted by: Zenster || 03/24/2007 2:04 Comments || Top||

#7  Chokers. They need to make a comeback.
Posted by: gorb || 03/24/2007 3:09 Comments || Top||

#8  I agree
Posted by: Albert DeSalvo || 03/24/2007 6:18 Comments || Top||

#9  Jeez Frank, and off to an early start.
Posted by: Shipman || 03/24/2007 6:42 Comments || Top||

#10  NOw you guys know why I have horses. Two words. Babe Magnet.
Posted by: Deacon Blues || 03/24/2007 10:46 Comments || Top||

#11  One thing I have learned from the Defender Scimitar is that Hedy Lamar and Christine Keeler (recently) were really, really hot. Today I learn that Dale Evans was quite a looker as well. I love history lessons.

Maybe we can see how Marlene Dietrich compares someday?
Posted by: JAB || 03/24/2007 11:47 Comments || Top||



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Two weeks of WOT
Sat 2007-03-24
  Iran kidnaps Brit sailors, marines
Fri 2007-03-23
  LEBANON: 200 KG BOMB FOUND AT UNIVERSITY
Thu 2007-03-22
  110 killed as Waziristan festivities enter third day
Wed 2007-03-21
  40 killed in Wazoo clashes
Tue 2007-03-20
  Taha Yassin Ramadan escorted from gene pool
Mon 2007-03-19
  5000+ kilos of explosives seized in Mazar-e-Sharif
Sun 2007-03-18
  PA unity govt to meet officially on Sunday
Sat 2007-03-17
  Gaza gunnies try to snatch UNRWA head
Fri 2007-03-16
  Syrians confess to Leb twin bus bombings
Thu 2007-03-15
  9 held in Morocco after suicide blast
Wed 2007-03-14
  Mortar shells hit Somali presidential residence
Tue 2007-03-13
  Lebanese Police arrest a Palestinian carrying a bomb
Mon 2007-03-12
  Talibs threaten Germany, Austria, Luxembourg, Mexico, Samoa
Sun 2007-03-11
  U.S. calls Iran, Syria talks cordial
Sat 2007-03-10
  Captured big turban wasn't al-Baghdadi. We guessed that.

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