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Airstrike in South Afghanistan Kills 76
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Afghanistan
Airstrike in South Afghanistan Kills 76
More details:U.S.-led coalition aircraft bombed a rebel stronghold in southern Afghanistan, killing about 60 suspected Taliban militants and 16 civilians, an Afghan governor said Monday. The coalition confirmed the strike on the village of Azizi in Kandahar province late Sunday and early Monday and said about 50 militants were killed. U.S. commander Lt. Gen. Karl W. Eikenberry told The Associated Press the military was investigating whether some civilians had also died.

The new deaths brought the toll of militants, Afghan forces and coalition soldiers killed to more than 265 since Wednesday, when a storm of violence broke out in the south — among the deadliest combat in Afghanistan since the Taliban's ouster in 2001.

Kandahar Gov. Asadullah Khalid said 16 civilians were killed in Monday's attack and 16 were wounded and taken to hospitals in Kandahar city, a former Taliban stronghold. "These sort of accidents happen during fighting, especially when the Taliban are hiding in homes," he said. "I urge people not to give shelter to the Taliban."

U.S. military spokesman Col. Tom Collins said the coalition forces targeted a Taliban compound and "we're certain we hit the right target." "It's common that the enemy fights in close to civilians as a means to protect its own forces," he added.

Many of the wounded sought treatment at Kandahar city's Mirwaise Hospital. One man with blood smeared over his clothes and turban said insurgents had been hiding in an Islamic religious school, or madrassa, in the village after fierce fighting in recent days. "Helicopters bombed the madrassa and some of the Taliban ran from there and into people's homes. Then those homes were bombed," said Haji Ikhlaf, 40. "I saw 35 to 40 dead Taliban and around 50 dead or wounded civilians." Another survivor from the village, Zurmina Bibi, who was cradling her wounded 8-month-old baby, said about 10 people were killed in her home, including three or four children. "There were dead people everywhere," she said, crying.

A doctor, Mohammed Khan, said he had treated 10 people from the village. Moments later, a pickup vehicle pulled up at the hospital with five men lying wounded in the back. It was not possible for reporters to reach Azizi village because police and foreign troops had blocked off the area, which is about 30 miles southwest of Kandahar.

The village is also known by the name Hajiyan. It is made up of about 30-35 large mud-brick compounds, each housing an extended family with up to 50 members. The village has a mosque and one madrassa, where boys study. It has no electricity and relies on wells for water. The Taliban resurgence, despite the presence of more than 30,000 foreign troops, including 23,000 from the United States in Afghanistan, has halted postwar reconstruction work in many areas and raised fears for this country's future.

Meanwhile in other violence, Mohammed Ali Jalali, the former governor of eastern Paktika province, was found dead after being kidnapped Sunday, local police chief Abdul Rehman Surjung said. Jalali was a respected tribal elder and a supporter of President Hamid Karzai.
Posted by: Steve || 05/22/2006 07:51 || Comments || Link || [3 views] Top|| File under:

#1  Destruction of a madrassa? A religious school?? Expect choregraphed mass-seething from the Islamic world in 5.. 4.. 3..
Posted by: Howard UK || 05/22/2006 8:45 Comments || Top||

#2  I guess the real lesson here is that you don't want Taliban living anywhere near your house and kids. 500 meters away at least.
Posted by: bigjim-ky || 05/22/2006 9:07 Comments || Top||

#3  If they are giving sanctuary to the Taliban then they are collaborators, not civilians, plain and simple. We are fighting an insurgency, not a declaird military. The support structure for the insurgency, the sanctuary, comes from the villages that side with the insurgents. This makes them a fair target.
Posted by: 49 Pan || 05/22/2006 9:22 Comments || Top||

#4  In Afghanland many of the people who give the Taliban shelter do so because of coersion and in some cases the Taliban just take the shelter and essentially make the former tenants into hostages.

The death of such people is unfortunate. However, their death is not our fault -- it is the fault of the Taliban who, in no way, are operating under the laws of war.
Posted by: mhw || 05/22/2006 9:35 Comments || Top||

#5  mhw is right, often these civilians have no choice but to accept the Taliban, but their lives have to be weighed against the lives of other Afghan civilians who are being murdered by the Talib goons. Every Talib killed means civilians lived saved and future reconstruction projects secured.
Posted by: Apostate || 05/22/2006 9:55 Comments || Top||

#6  Forgive my nosiness, Apostate, and you needn't answer of course, but are you truly a Muslim apostate, or did you choose that nym (nic? I still am not sure of the appropriate terminology, sorry) for another reason? I ask only because if you are coming from a Muslim perpective, that puts a different colour on your comments than otherwise, just as anonymous5089's and JFM's comments about the situation in France weigh more because they are Frenchmen living there, or liberalhawk's, mhw's and Frank G's about Israel because they actually understand Israeli politics.
Posted by: trailing wife || 05/22/2006 11:49 Comments || Top||

#7  Trailing wife, I was born into a muslim family living in the West. I have never practised the muslim faith (or believed in Islam), but that doesn't stop me from being an apostate under Islamic law. I reckon there are many like me in the West, i.e. muslims who do not believe in the religion of their birth but don't shout about it so as not to upset their families. This is worth bearing in mind when you hear people mention "the fasting-growing religion" and similar phrases.
Posted by: Apostate || 05/22/2006 17:46 Comments || Top||

#8  Thank you, Apostate. Yours is an important voice here at Rantburg, to counter the fear that all those born Muslim are an active or supportive threat to our hard fought-for freedoms. Especially as we are deeply aware that the sentence for apostasy is not merely parental disappointment, but death.
Posted by: trailing wife || 05/22/2006 22:00 Comments || Top||

#9  Welcome from me too.
Posted by: lotp || 05/22/2006 22:15 Comments || Top||


50 (Taliban) dead in Afghanistan bombing
COALITION warplanes bombed a village in southern Afghanistan overnight, killing about 50 people, the US-led coalition and witnesses said today.

The coalition said the 50 were Taliban but residents said civilians were among the dead in the strike in southern Kandahar province. One witness said 26 of his relatives were killed and scores of people were wounded.

"I can confirm there was a coalition air strike against a known Taliban stronghold near the village of Azizi in the Panjwayi district and we believe more than 50 Taliban have been killed in the operation," coalition spokesman Major Scott Lundy said.

An Afghan intelligence officer confirmed the incident and said that at least 27 people were dead.

An AFP correspondent in Kandahar city, 35km east of the bombed area, saw severely wounded people being brought into the city's main hospital in civilian cars.

Five men arrived in a minibus with severe wounds apparently caused by fallen rubble. Another young man, his clothes burnt, was admitted with bad burn wounds on his head and face.

An elderly man from the village, Attah Mohammad, said at the hospital that 26 members of his family had been killed in the bombing and scores more people were wounded.

"They started to bomb our village at midnight and continued up to this morning," he said.

Major Lundy could not immediately say how long the air strike lasted.

The area was sealed off by foreign and Afghan troops, said Mr Mohammad, who had brought some of his wounded relatives to the hospital.
Posted by: phil_b || 05/22/2006 04:43 || Comments || Link || [4 views] Top|| File under:

#1  Apologies, my browser has been doing wierd things today. Please delete.
Posted by: phil_b || 05/22/2006 4:50 Comments || Top||

#2  No, wait! This one's better
Posted by: Howard UK || 05/22/2006 5:16 Comments || Top||

#3  Of course since they all dress like tribals that all are civilians to the "reporters." Agitprop is QED too.
Posted by: Sock Puppet of Doom || 05/22/2006 6:11 Comments || Top||

#4  CentCom follow-up press release seems to address the issue of civilian casualties raised in the AFP article. Sounds like they suspect they did inflict collateral damage but are explaining that it was not avoidable. 'Feels' true to me.

COALITION PROVIDES UPDATE ON AZIZI OPERATIONS
KABUL , Afghanistan – Coalition forces conducted a significant operation early this morning in the Kandahar region near the village of Azizi that resulted in the unconfirmed deaths of possibly up to 80 Taliban members.


This was the third such operation in this area within a week whereby Coalition forces, in support of the Government of Afghanistan, have confronted and attacked anti-government forces.

The purpose of this morning’s operation was to detain individuals suspected of terrorist and anti-Afghanistan activities. However, during the operation, Coalition forces encountered organized armed opposition.


Ground and close air support assets engaged the extremists, who were firing on Coalition troops and endangering innocent civilians.

The Coalition only targeted armed resistance, compounds and buildings known to harbor extremists. Coalition forces must retain their ability to defend against fire emanating from known enemy positions.
Posted by: Glenmore || 05/22/2006 18:32 Comments || Top||

#5  Villagers should do what they have always done when invaded: run for the hiils. To do otherwise is to get caught up in the fighting.
Posted by: ed || 05/22/2006 18:37 Comments || Top||


Car bomb kills 3 in Kabul, 1 French and 16 Afghans killed in Helmand
A car bomb possibly targeting a convoy of coalition troops killed three people in the Afghan capital yesterday.

One French soldier and 16 Afghan soldiers were killed and about 40 other troops wounded in two firefights in southern Afghanistan.

The car bomb exploded on a busy road that links several bases belonging to the US-led coalition and a separate Nato-led peacekeeping force, killing the driver of the car and two civilians.

In the southern Helmand province, which is under the command of British troops, a French soldier was killed and a French and an American soldier were injured during a gunfight on Saturday. Twenty-five Afghan soldiers were also hurt.

Earlier that day, the defence ministry in Paris announced the deaths of two special forces troops killed in neighbouring Kandahar province.

In a second battle in Helmand province on Saturday, 13 Afghan soldiers were killed and 15 hurt in an eight-hour battle in which at least nine Taliban militants were killed.
EU security chiefs, meanwhile, warned that hundreds of Islamic militants who had gone to Iraq to fight coalition forces were returning to Europe to wage "holy war".

Baltazar Garzon, the Spanish judge who has led the campaign against al Qaeda since the 2004 Madrid bombings, said "large numbers" of veteran fighters were trickling back from the Middle East.
Posted by: Dan Darling || 05/22/2006 00:59 || Comments || Link || [1 views] Top|| File under:


Afghan foreign minister sez Taliban, al-Qaeda attacks being planned in Pakistan
Leaders of the Taliban movement and Al Qaeda are living in Pakistan where they organise attacks in Afghanistan, the Afghan foreign minister said on Sunday, in the latest in a war of words between the neighbours.

"We know that the ideological leadership and also political leadership or military leadership of the Taliban and also other international terrorist groups ... are living in Pakistan," Foreign Minister Rangeen Dadfar Spanta told a news conference. Asked if militant attacks against Afghan and US-led troops were orchestrated in Pakistan, he said: "Exactly, that is the case."

Spanta, who became foreign minister last month, said he would travel to Pakistan in coming weeks and ask Islamabad to "decisively" campaign against the militants. He said Afghanistan wanted friendship with Pakistan and that was only possible with mutual respect and security.

Spanta said that both Afghanistan and India were victims of terrorism and organised crime and needed close relations. But he said Pakistan need not be alarmed by the close ties between New Delhi and Kabul. "Common risks, whether terrorism or organised crime, threaten both countries and for this reason the two countries should cooperate, strategically and defensively," he said.
Posted by: Dan Darling || 05/22/2006 00:49 || Comments || Link || [1 views] Top|| File under:

#1  This reminds me of kids chasing greased pigs at a rodeo. Chase them out of PAK they will run back to Afghan and then to Iraq and back to Pak.

The key here is to get at the funding for this. They are not trading goats for bombs, someone is funding this and that is where we need strategic strikes. These warlords will then go back to killing each other for goats and chickens. Iran has given us all the justification we need to take them out, funding Hamas, NUke building, funding AQ etc... Seize Iran's funding, blockade their ports and bomb their nuke facilities. Time to end this before any more of our soldiers die or they bring it home to us again.
Posted by: 49 Pan || 05/22/2006 11:58 Comments || Top||


Suicide attack kills two in Kabul
A suspected suicide bomber and one civilian were killed in a car bomb explosion in eastern part of Kabul, capital of Afghanistan on Sunday. Residents said it was a white Corolla car that exploded around 12 noon but the target was unknown as there was neither any Afghan nor coalition forces in the nearby area.

The road where the blast took place was leading to the US and NATO bases and it is believed that the attacker was awaiting his target when the explosives packed in his car went off prematurely. Identity of the driver, believed to be a suicide bomber, and the other civilian killed in the explosion, was unknown. Afghanistan Interior Ministry confirmed the attack and said it happened in the eastern part of the city before noon.
Posted by: Fred || 05/22/2006 00:00 || Comments || Link || [1 views] Top|| File under:

#1  ima wishn ta see more "sooiside attak killz one" artikles.
Posted by: muck4doo || 05/22/2006 13:45 Comments || Top||

#2  Muck do you know Monolito Montoya? Or his horse?
Posted by: 6 || 05/22/2006 17:01 Comments || Top||


Africa Subsaharan
32 Rebels, Five Soldiers Killed in Northeast Congo
Government troops have killed 32 rebels in northeastern Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC) in an ongoing 'Operation Ituri Explorer' mission ahead of general elections on 30 July, army spokesman Capt Olivier Mputu said on Monday. Five government soldiers were killed and 11 wounded, he added.

Close to 2,000 government troops, backed by 500 United Nations peacekeepers, launched the latest operation in Ituri District two weeks ago. The fighting has taken place in the community of Walendu Bindi, between Bunia, the district capital, and Lake Albert, on the border with Uganda. The army is trying to re-establish state authority in the area near the lake so that residents can vote in the upcoming presidential and legislative elections.

The operation aims to disarm the alliance of the Front de Resistance Patriotique en Ituri (FRPI), and the Mouvement revolutionnaire congolais, which is comprised of fighters from various armed militia groups that have disbanded. In the absence of government authority in the northeast of the country, these rebel groups have been attacking civilians. The UN estimated that there are between 1,000 and 2,000 militiamen in the region who have refused to integrate into the disarmament and reintegration process in DRC.

"We recovered several localities like Tchekele, Aveba, Kabona Bunga and Tcheyi," Mputu said. These areas are between 70km and 80km south of Bunia. Tcheyi is nearly 100 km south of Bunia by road. Most of Tcheyi's 4,000 residents had fled. "We have just been informed of a population movement in the direction of Komanda," Modibo Traoré, the head of the UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs in Ituri, said. Komanda is to 40 km west of Tcheyi.

A senior Congolese army officer, who did not wish to be named, said the loss of Tcheyi was a serious blow to the FRPI because the area had provided the rebels direct access to the Ugandan border, where they received weapons and ammunition. There is no independent confirmation of the militia's supply route.
In their retreat, the rebels abandoned 13 AK-47 assault rifles and some mortars. The army said the militia had retreated to Mount Hoyo, some 20km southwest of Tcheyi.

This is the fourth time the army has launched operations in this area against the armed groups. In all, six army brigades (that is some 18,000 troops), backed by some 4,700 UN peacekeepers, have set about disarming all irregular armed groups in Ituri.

[ This report does not necessarily reflect the views of the United Nations ]
Posted by: Steve || 05/22/2006 13:25 || Comments || Link || [1 views] Top|| File under:


Arabia
Yemen pardons al-Houthi lieutenants
Yemeni President Ali Abdullah Saleh has pardoned a Muslim preacher sentenced to death and another who was jailed for backing a rebel movement and spying for Iran, a government official said on Saturday.

Last year, a court ruled that Yehia Hussein al-Daylami, sentenced to death, and Mohamed Meftah wanted to overthrow the Arab country's government and supported radical Shi'ite rebels. Both were being freed under the pardon, the official said. Meftah's original jail sentence was eight years.

In March, Yemen freed more than 600 supporters of anti-U.S. Shi'ite cleric Hussein al-Houthi in an amnesty that aimed to put an end to two years of clashes, which have killed several hundred soldiers and rebels. After Houthi was killed in 2004, the government blamed his father, Sheikh Badr el-Deen al-Houthi, for a new round of clashes which erupted in 2005. Later, the elder Houthi agreed to stop fighting.
Posted by: Dan Darling || 05/22/2006 01:14 || Comments || Link || [2 views] Top|| File under:


Ansar Group members arrested in Yemen
Adjusting from a very odd Romanization ...
Seven persons suspected of forming an armed gang to do terror acts and planning to travel for Iraq to associate with armed operations were arrested, security source said.

The mouthpiece of the Yemeni armed forces 26 September quoted some sources as saying that the suspects formed the gang called "Aser Group" and started training on using different weapons and bombs in a suburb of the capital Sana'a.

Sources said that weapons and bombs were confiscated and the suspects referred to the Criminal Prosecution for investigations. Sources added that other 12 suspected of associating with al-Qaeda, out of 170 suspects, were also referred to the Prosecution to complete investigations.
Sources said that the files of 92 of al-Qaeda suspects were revised and that there have been no concrete evidences to prove their involvement in criminal and terror acts so the prosecution found no need to raise their files to the court.

On the other hand, informed sources said that president Ali Abdullah Saleh gave his directions to complete legal procedures for canceling sentences against Yahya al-Dailami and Mohammad Meftah who have been convicted of contacting with foreign powers, treason against the country and supporting al-Houthi rebellion in Saada on the occasion of 16th anniversary of Yemeni unification.

President Saleh ordered to reduce death penalty against al-Dailami to prison term and quitting Meftah.
The appeal court sentenced last December Al-Dailami to death sentence and Meftah to eight years in jail.
Posted by: Dan Darling || 05/22/2006 01:06 || Comments || Link || [1 views] Top|| File under:


Britain
230 of the 963 terror suspects arrested since 9/11 allowed to stay in UK
MORE than 230 foreigners identified by MI5 and Scotland Yard as suspected terrorists have been allowed to stay in Britain as asylum seekers.

Home Office records show that nearly a quarter of the 963 people arrested in counter-terrorism operations in England and Wales since September 2001 have claimed refugee status, saying their human rights would be violated if they returned to countries such as Algeria, Iraq and Somalia.

While their applications are processed, all are entitled to state benefits such as free housing and legal aid to pursue their claims that they would be persecuted in their home countries.

Critics say the figures make a mockery of a much trumpeted announcement by Tony Blair after last July’s London bombings that the government would automatically refuse asylum to anyone engaged in terrorism.

The disclosure will increase pressure on John Reid, the home secretary, who already faces claims that he misled the public over the affair of five Nigerians who were arrested last week working as illegal immigrants at the Home Office.

Reid boasted that the arrests showed that the system for detecting illegal migrants worked. But the company that employed them later revealed that the men had been working at the department for years.

With Reid due to be grilled by a Commons committee over the immigration debacles, the figures on terrorist suspects have reignited the debate over Britain’s “porous borders”.

Patrick Mercer, the Tory spokesman for homeland security, said terrorists were being wrongly led to believe that they could take advantage of Britain’s lax border controls.

The Tories want a US-style national border police to stop dangerous terrorists and criminals from entering the country.

Baroness Cox, a former deputy speaker of the Lords who has been pressing ministers to disclose the statistics, said that allowing so many terror suspects to seek asylum sent the wrong message.

“This is quite a signifiant group of people who could be a threat to society,” she said. “It shows a remarkable lack of due care and vigilance by the government.”

Sir Andrew Green, the former British ambassador to Saudi Arabia and chairman of MigrationWatch UK, an independent think tank, said: “This is clear evidence of the abuse of the asylum system by potential terrorists. We have long urged that we need a much tougher and more realistic approach to applications from countries we know to be potential sources of terrorism.”

Latest Home Office figures show that of the 963 people detained under Britain’s terrorism laws between September 2001 and November 2005, 232 were identified in the department’s records as having applied for asylum, 214 of them before being arrested.

Scotland Yard said an additional 34 people had been arrested as suspected terrorists in the period to March this year, bringing the total number to 997. If one in four has also claimed asylum, that would bring the total of asylum seeking terror suspects to about 240.

The Home Office says most of those arrested are never brought to court. More than half are released without charge while dozens more are charged under other laws with crimes such as murder, grievous bodily harm or the use of firearms.

Several men charged in an alleged plot to target Britain with the deadly poison ricin were asylum seekers. Among them was Algerian-born Kamel Bourgass, the ringleader. He was sentenced to life imprisonment last year for the murder of Stephen Oake, a Manchester special branch officer.

Abu Qatada, a radical Muslim cleric said to be Al-Qaeda’s “ambassador in Europe”, came to Britain as an asylum seeker from Pakistan in 1993. The Home Office is trying to deport him to Jordan, the place of his birth, claiming that his presence is “not conducive to the public good”. It has also emerged that two men charged over the July 21 attacks on London had come to Britain as dependents of asylum seekers from Somalia and Eritrea.

Lord Goldsmith, the attorney-general, said yesterday that he would ask the European Court of Human Rights to review its absolute bar on deporting people to countries where they could face death or torture. Goldsmith said the government wanted to be able to take into account British security considerations.

Experts warned that article 3 of the human rights convention, which is enshrined in the government’s human rights act, meant that it was almost impossible to remove people from Britain even if they were terrorists. “Tony Blair has quite deliberately misled the public in suggesting that we could just remove people suspected or found guilty of terrorism,” said Green.
Posted by: Dan Darling || 05/22/2006 02:11 || Comments || Link || [1 views] Top|| File under:

#1  This simply wouldn't be the case if they'd attacked parliament rather than tubes full of punters. Definite smell of lefty conspiracy here - the left are now suggesting an amnesty for ALL illegals! Sound familiar?
Posted by: Howard UK || 05/22/2006 3:40 Comments || Top||

#2  Sounds just like our state department and imigration and naturalization service but it would only apply to common criminals.
Posted by: Sock Puppet of Doom || 05/22/2006 4:11 Comments || Top||

#3  Here, too. Our county sheriff has been arresting illegal aliens for the past six months, and billing (unsuccessfully, thus far) the federal immigration department (U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement,ICE) for their incarceration. According to the local paper Saturday, the most recent arrestees were released, because the local police can't make arrests of those breaking federal laws. Not exactly Al Qaeda cadres, but the point about not being permitted to enforce the law was made.
Posted by: trailing wife || 05/22/2006 7:23 Comments || Top||

#4  I still maintain that our biggest threat is not from the Muslims - not even from the Islamists. Our biggest threat is from within.
Posted by: 2b || 05/22/2006 10:56 Comments || Top||

#5  Yes, me too, as I think islam is nothing more than a carrion, or if you wish, of an opportunist seeking advantage of the weakness of its archennemy... weakness bron from within.
Do you really think all of this would have been possible in the pre 1918 West? In the 40's, 50's? Any pre-1960's era? Compare the french handling of the algerian war with France's present appeasement and top-down multiculturalist, pro-islam de facto surrender.

All this is *suicide*.

Don't know if it's because of the WWI butchery, because it's a corrective mega-trend from an Elliot wave, because it's the neo-leftist of the Frankfurt school, or the result of the successful memetic war fought by marxism since the 30's (to me, communism has won the cold war, at least in the West), or a failure of modernity.

Either way, we're talking survival, and I wouldn't bet on us. But perhaps I'm so negative because I'm an euro, and the rot is much more deeper here, and because we're the Prize?
Posted by: anonymous5089 || 05/22/2006 12:16 Comments || Top||

#6  Well said. It's equally deep here, 5089. But America's a very big country - and sentiment is turning. Problem is that everyone likes to focus on some outside group of "others" instead of the kindly neighbor next door who often blindly marches to the beat of the enemy drum.

To win this war, we will have to fight a civil war of sorts to put down the framework and structure that makes it all happen - corrupt politicians, the media, University burn outs and "liberalism", a true faith religion of self-hate and blame whose followers seeks to elevate themselves as the righteous ones - much in the same way as the Islamists do.

I think there is still time. Americans can see what's happening in Europe and it's giving all but the most blind believer pause. And contrary what others may believe - I believe that it won't be anyone country or faith that will turn the tide on this - but ordinary folks globally, that seek to put down those who wallow in hatred and destruction.
Posted by: 2b || 05/22/2006 12:52 Comments || Top||

#7  Fred hasn't approved this yet, but via Lucianne and it's behind a wall:

Six years after Democrat Al Gore won the popular vote but lost the presidency to Republican George W. Bush, there's a new move afoot in the California Legislature and other states to ensure that such things never happen again. The linchpin is a proposed "interstate compact," designed to guarantee that presidents will be selected by popular vote, without amending the U.S. Constitution or eliminating the Electoral College.

Posted by: anonymous2u || 05/22/2006 17:20 Comments || Top||

#8  I forwarded it to the list. It's up now for comment here.
Posted by: lotp || 05/22/2006 17:24 Comments || Top||

#9  How about putting the URL inside a link? It's busted the page width, at least on my screen...
Posted by: Dave D. || 05/22/2006 17:26 Comments || Top||

#10  Fixed - I removed it from anon2u's post. Readers can find the article at the link in my comment above.
Posted by: lotp || 05/22/2006 17:28 Comments || Top||


Caucasus/Russia/Central Asia
Russian special forces kill latest Khasavyurt emir in Dagestan
Special forces killed two rebels on Sunday in the southern Russian region of Dagestan after a firefight lasting several hours, police said.

Three policemen were injured in an attack on the house in the town of Khasavyurt in western Dagestan, in which the gunmen had blockaded themselves earlier on Sunday, said Sergei Solodovnikov, deputy police chief of southern Russia.

"One of the two gunmen were killed included Bulat Abdullayev, who was recently proclaimed the amir (warlord) of the Khasavyurt district," he told reporters in the Dagestani capital of Makhachkala.

"This amir is responsible for at least 10 grave crimes."

Police used an armoured personnel carrier to quell the rebels' fire, Solodovnikov said. The two had been killed after the private two-storey house in which they had barricaded themselves was set ablaze. Blasts were heard inside, he said.

Gun battles are common in Dagestan, a patchwork of ethnic groups and powerful clans bordering Chechnya, where separatist guerrillas have fought Russian rule for more than a decade.

A policeman and two rebels were killed and at least nine other people were injured last Tuesday in a similar battle in Kizilyurt, a town northwest of the Dagestani capital, Makhachkala.

A day later, seven people, including a top local policeman, were killed when a car exploded in Chechnya's other neighbour, Ingushetia.

Rebels, often acting on a host of local and religious grievances, have increasingly taken up arms against local officials in Dagestan.

Russian officials blame the violence on Islamic militants and organised criminals.
Posted by: Dan Darling || 05/22/2006 01:21 || Comments || Link || [1 views] Top|| File under:


Beslan militant 'lived to kill again'
An Islamist militant who was supposedly killed during the carnage that ended the Beslan school siege has been "resurrected" by Russian investigators as a suspect in the assassination of a high-ranking government official. Ali Taziyev, also known by the codename Magas, was allegedly one of the 41 hostage takers who stormed school No 1 in Beslan, southern Russia, in September 2004. According to the official account of the siege, only one militant, Nurpashi Kulayev, survived. He was captured near the school and is almost certain to be found guilty on charges of murder and terrorism this week.
I thought he already had been?
The Kremlin has consistently claimed all other members of the gang - mostly from Chechnya and neighbouring Ingushetia - were killed. But investigators now suspect that Magas is one of two people involved in organising of the assassination of the Ingush deputy interior minister, Dzhabrail Kostoyev, who died in a suicide car bombing that killed six others last Wednesday. "It seems that in Russia the terrorists destroyed by the federal forces don't die but are transformed into zombies and continue executing their black affairs," one newspaper said mockingly.
We've told them to cut off their heads and drive a stake through their hearts, but do they listen?
Maybe now they'll at least try the silver bullets...
Police refused to comment on the investigation but earlier a senior officer told Itar Tass news agency they suspected Magas of involvement in Mr Kostoyev's killing. After the Beslan siege, Ingushetia's interior ministry said the gang leader had been a Chechen nicknamed Colonel, and one of his senior lieutenants was a former Ingush police officer, Ali Taziyev - Magas - who had joined the Chechen rebels.
Posted by: Steve || 05/22/2006 21:57 || Comments || Link || [2 views] Top|| File under:

#1  I'd say this adds another layer of truth to the rumors after the attack that some of the hostage-takers managed to escape despite the presence of Russian troops and angry North Ossetian locals. Magas was probably even more important to the actual seige than the Colonel, since he was the one who used his contacts in the Ingush police and interior ministry to get the Bad Guys into North Ossetia to begin with.

One question that the Russian government is not going to want to answer is why none of this came out in their official investigation, with the answer of course being that they had their story and were sticking to it so they could hang Kulayev (who is guilty of sin in any event) and declare that they had avenged the children of Beslan. I've noted on more than a few occasions that Putin is essentially what the looney left thinks Bush is, whether it be his autocratic tendencies, cynical manipulation of terrorist attacks to enhance his own power, and so on. Keep in mind that the Russian intelligence services still haven't had to publicly disclose the foreign intel agency they accused of providing support to the hostage-takers. I bet we can all guess who the likeliest suspect might be ...
Posted by: Dan Darling || 05/22/2006 0:58 Comments || Top||

#2  "If your head comes away from your neck, it's over". ---Juan Sanchez Villalobos Ramirez (Sean Connery)
Posted by: mcsegeek1 || 05/22/2006 9:00 Comments || Top||

#3  I bet we can all guess who the likeliest suspect might be ...

Anything to do with the Arab prayer session captured on video and retrieved at the end of the siege?
Posted by: Howard UK || 05/22/2006 9:26 Comments || Top||


China-Japan-Koreas
North Korea preparing to test-fire missile
North Korea has been able to test-fire a new long-range ballistic missile that could reach parts of the United States since last year, after completing most preparations that summer, military sources said Monday.

A Western source in Beijing said Pyongyang successfully tested the engine for the Taepodong-2 missile, which is believed to have a range of 3,500-6,000 kilometers, in 2004.

Little has become public knowledge about the Taepodong-2 missile, including the extent of its development. The missile -- believed capable of reaching Alaska, Hawaii and the western continental United States -- has never been tested.

Japanese officials said Friday that North Korea may be preparing to launch a long-range missile, but that the threat was not imminent.

Citing information from the U.S. forces in Japan, a source in Tokyo said Friday that increased movement of trailers and other vehicles was detected near a missile test site in northeastern North Korea.

North Korea shocked the world in August 1998, when it test-fired the 2,500-km range Taepodong-1, part of which flew over Japan and into the Pacific. Pyongyang said it was a rocket for sending a satellite into orbit.

Pyongyang has refrained from testing medium- or long-range missiles since then, abiding by a moratorium agreed to with the United States in 1999. But it has test-fired short-range missiles in recent years.

North Korean leader Kim Jong Il agreed with Japanese Prime Minister Junichiro Koizumi in a bilateral declaration in September 2002 to extend the moratorium past 2003.

The first Western source said North Korea had decided in 1995 to develop the Taepodong-1 in 2000 and the Taepodong-2 in 2008, and that the Taepodong-1 had been tested two years ahead of that plan.

''It is not impossible to test the second one, also two years earlier'' than planned, the source said.

On Friday, the United States urged North Korea not to break the missile-launch moratorium, saying it would be of major concern to the international community.

U.S. State Department spokesman Sean McCormack said a missile launch would throw into question North Korea's desire to engage with the international community.

It would ''contravene the letter and the spirit of the September 19 joint statement'' issued by the six parties to the talks on the North's nuclear ambitions, he said.

In the statement, North Korea agreed to abandon its nuclear programs, rejoin an international nuclear treaty and allow nuclear inspections in return for aid and security affirmations.

But the talks have stalled since the representatives of the six countries -- the two Koreas, the United States, China, Japan and Russia -- met in November, with Pyongyang refusing to return to the negotiating table.

North Korea has sought the lifting of U.S. sanctions on entities allegedly laundering money and counterfeiting for North Korea as a condition for returning to the talks. The United States says the sanctions are a law enforcement matter unrelated to the nuclear talks.
Posted by: Dan Darling || 05/22/2006 01:22 || Comments || Link || [1 views] Top|| File under:

#1  How are things at Fort Richardson AP?
Posted by: 6 || 05/22/2006 8:42 Comments || Top||

#2  Free test target for the Japanese BDM systems.
Posted by: Nimble Spemble || 05/22/2006 8:53 Comments || Top||

#3  This would be the ultimate time to unveil any space based weapons that we have. A mysterious laser pulse from some unknown celestial platform would really "freak them out".
Posted by: bigjim-ky || 05/22/2006 9:21 Comments || Top||

#4  Snooze.
Posted by: Perfesser || 05/22/2006 9:43 Comments || Top||

#5  I would prefer to zap it while still on the pad, much easier than trying to hit it later, and much more demoralizing.

You never know, they may think it a launch failure, and the analysis of residue will tell us if it was armed or not.
Posted by: Redneck Jim || 05/22/2006 10:21 Comments || Top||

#6  Things are fine at Ft. Rich, 6. They are also ready at Ft. Greely, up in Delta Junction, where the missiles are deployed. I have a feeling that they will be seeing a Nork missile in a test, at least heading in the direction of the US for a little intimidation. Kimmie needs some attention, and so far we are ignoring him.
Posted by: Alaska Paul || 05/22/2006 11:02 Comments || Top||

#7  True, but we may not choose to unveil our ABM capabilities on a test unless it a) we can do so without revealing JUST how good the system is and b) the context is likely to offer an object lesson rather than tempt every tom, dick and harry missile owner to jerk our chains regularly.
Posted by: lotp || 05/22/2006 11:25 Comments || Top||


Down Under
Racist attacks lead to debate over xenophobia in Germany
BERLIN - With the World Cup less than three weeks away, a spate of racist attacks has led to a debate whether Germany can live up to the tournament's motto: A Time to Make Friends.

In the latest case, a Turkish-born Berlin politician was hospitalized after being hit on the head with a bottle by two men who verbally abused him as a "damn foreigner, damn Turk." Giyasettin Sayan, 56, a naturalized German who has lived in Berlin for nearly 30 years and is a member of the local parliament, was attacked in the suburb of Lichtenberg - an area known for its neo-Nazi activity.

According to Germany's domestic intelligence service, the Verfassungsschutz, the number of neo-Nazis and other violent right- wing extremists has grown over the past year. In 2005, there were 4,100 documented neo-Nazis compared to 3,800 in the previous year, the newspaper Bild am Sonntag quoted from a Verfassungschutz report due to be released on Monday. The number of right-wing extremists prepared to resort to violence rose from 10,000 to 10,400, according to the report. Neo-Nazis reportedly plan to hold a series of rallies during the month-long World Cup, which kicks off in Munich on June 9.

One is planned for 10 June in the Ruhr area town of Gelsenkirchen, another for 21 June in the eastern city of Leipzig when Iran and Angola meet. The magazine Der Spiegel said the neo-Nazis wanted to use the Leipzig rally to demonstrate their sympathy for Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, who has been widely condemned by the international community for casting doubt on the Holocaust and denying Israel's right to exist.
Best wishes from one group of Brown Shirts to another
Deputy Chancellor Franz Muentefering called Saturday on Germans to combat right-wing extremism and hostility towards foreigners.
"We must never again give the brown shirts an opportunity," he said, referring to the uniform worn by the paramilitary organization of Adolf Hitler's Nazi Party. "No one should need to be afraid just because he is different to others. That has to be made perfectly clear in a society like ours," Muentefering told a meeting of the Berlin Social Democrats.

The current debate about hostility towards foreigners was triggered by a former spokesman for the German government under Chancellor Gerhard Schroeder who warned World Cup visitors to avoid parts of the state of Brandenburg because of racial attacks. "There are small and medium-sized towns in Brandenburg and elsewhere where I would not advise anyone with a different skin colour to go," said Uwe-Karsten Heye. "There is a chance they might not get out alive," Heye said in an an interview with German radio. Brandenburg, which surrounds Berlin, has the highest per capita rate of violent neo-Nazi crime in all of Germany's 16 federal states. Politicians initially criticized Heye for scaremongering and exaggerating the danger posed by extremists, but later admitted he had a point.

Early last week, a court in the Brandenburg town of Senftenberg handed down a 13-month jail sentence to a German neo-Nazi who goose- stepped up to a group of Polish tourists on the main square and began punching and kicking them. Three of the victims suffered head injuries. In another case, two men are in custody for the savage beating of an Ethiopian-born German citizen near Berlin last month. Federal prosecutors took over the inquiry amid national shock at the night- time beating in the Brandenburg capital of Potsdam.

The Central Council of Jews in Germany warned the country's politicians not to play down anti-foreigner hostility. "It is shocking to see that politicians are more concerned about the image of Germany during the World Cup than about protecting foreigners," said the organization's secretary-general Stephan Kramer. Hundreds of thousands of foreign tourists are expected to come to Germany for football's biggest event, which is being staged in 12 cities.
Posted by: Steve || 05/22/2006 13:20 || Comments || Link || [1 views] Top|| File under:

#1  smells like BS
Posted by: 2b || 05/22/2006 14:43 Comments || Top||

#2  a former spokesman for the German government under Chancellor Gerhard Schroeder who warned World Cup visitors to avoid parts of the state of Brandenburg

Whatever the trends in that area, the warning seems to be a political move.

That said, Leipzig is IIUC one of the eastern German cities that have massive unemployment and crumbling industry ... the skinheads have been active there for some time, I think.
Posted by: lotp || 05/22/2006 15:02 Comments || Top||


Europe
European governments sanctioned $45million in ransom
That's $45 million in the pockets of the jihadis and their ilk, boys and girls. Think about it.
FRANCE, Italy and Germany sanctioned the payment of $45 million in deals to free nine hostages abducted in Iraq, according to documents seen by The Times.

All three governments have publicly denied paying ransom money. But according to the documents, held by security officials in Baghdad who have played a crucial role in hostage negotiations, sums from $2.5 million to $10 million per person have been paid over the past 21 months. Among those said to have received cash ransoms was the gang responsible for seizing British hostages including Kenneth Bigley, the murdered Liverpool engineer.

The list of payments has also been seen by Western diplomats, who are angered at the behaviour of the three governments, arguing that it encourages organised crime gangs to grab more foreign captives.

“In theory we stand together in not rewarding kidnappers, but in practice it seems some administrations have parted with cash and so it puts other foreign nationals at risk from gangs who are confident that some governments do pay,” one senior envoy in the Iraqi capital said.

More than 250 foreigners have been abducted since the US-led invasion in 2003. At least 44 have been killed; 135 were released, three escaped, six were rescued and the fate of the others remains unknown.

A number of other governments, including those of Turkey, Romania, Sweden and Jordan, are said to have paid for their hostages to be freed, as have some US companies with lucrative reconstruction contracts in Iraq. At least four businessmen with dual US and Iraqi nationality have been returned, allegedly in exchange for payments by their employers. This money is often disguised as “ expenses” paid to trusted go-betweens for costs that they claim to incur.

The release this month of Rene Braunlich and Thomas Nitzschke, two German engineers, for a reported $5 million payment prompted senior Iraqi security officials to seek talks with leading Western diplomats in the capital on how to handle hostage release.

When the men returned home, Alaa al-Hashimi, the Iraqi Ambassador to Germany, revealed that the German Government handed over “a large amount” to free the pair after 99 days in captivity. The kidnappers are understood to have asked for $10 million.

Liam Fox, the Shadow Defence Secretary, called last night for an immediate end to the practice. “The idea that Western governments would have paid ransoms is extremely disturbing,” he said. “It is essential that governments never give in to blackmail from terrorists or criminals if security is ever to be maintained.”

Michael Moore, a Liberal Democrat foreign affairs spokesman, said: “These governments have created a kidnappers’ charter. Everyone from outside Iraq working in the country becomes more vulnerable as a result.”

Police say that about 30 people a day are abducted in Baghdad. Most Iraqis taken are returned once their families pay a ransom. An Iraqi counter-terrorism official, who asked not to be named, said that local experts are usually excluded from negotiations involving Westerners. He said: “Too often governments and their military keep secrets from each other , and certainly from us, and do what they want including paying out millions, no matter what their stated policy on ransoms.”

Western diplomats claim that the reason for their secrecy is the suspicion that some in the Iraqi security apparatus are too closely associated with militias and some of the criminal gangs to be trusted.

The family of Bayan Solagh Jabr, who was Interior Minister until the announcement on Saturday of a provisional government, was among the victims of the kidnap gangs when his sister, Eman, was abducted in January. She is said to have been freed a fortnight later after a ransom was agreed. Mr Jabr is now Finance Minister.

The mutual distrust is hindering efforts to wage an effective war against the underworld gangs responsible for most of the abuctions of Westerners, the Baghdad official said.

At least two crime gangs are alleged to have sold on some of their foreign captives to militant groups who use the hostages for propaganda purposes rather than obtaining ransoms.

Britain has never paid to free its citizens, despite pressure from the employees of some hostages, but is understood to have paid intermediaries “expenses” for their efforts to make contact with the kidnappers.

British officials have been criticised for giving the kidnappers of the peace activist Norman Kember time to escape to avoid the risk of a gun battle with Special Forces troops sent to rescue him and his two fellow captives from a house in central Baghdad in March.

Only when Jill Carroll, an American journalist, was freed eight days later did intelligence experts discover that she had been held by the same notorious crime family, who were working with Abu Musab al-Zarqawi, the wanted al-Qaeda leader in Iraq. That revelation infuriated US officials in Baghdad, who had let Britain take the lead in tracing and freeing Professor Kember, 74, and his two Canadian colleagues.

FBI agents are investigating claims that this gang sold some of its hostages, including American contractors and aid workers, to militant Islamic groups. The gang is reported to have had a hand in organising the abduction of three British hostages, Margaret Hassan, Mr Bigley and Professor Kember, and three Italian journalists.

Figures involved in secret talks to resolve hostage cases told The Times that Mrs Hassan, an aid worker who had converted to Islam and taken Iraqi citizenship, was murdered soon after Tony Blair made it clear in a television broadcast seen on an Arab satellite channel that the Government would not pay a ransom. Wealthy benefactors had signalled their readiness to pay for her release.

A key figure in brokering some of the deals has been Sheikh Abdel Salam al-Qubaisi, a militant Sunni cleric and senior figure in the Association of Muslim Scholars. Professor Kember and his party had just visited the group when he was abducted last November.
details of payments at the link
Posted by: lotp || 05/22/2006 07:37 || Comments || Link || [2 views] Top|| File under:

#1  Looks like we learned something from dealing with the IRA.
Posted by: Howard UK || 05/22/2006 7:48 Comments || Top||

#2  Odd hearing sense spoken by someone named Michael Moore.
Posted by: 6 || 05/22/2006 8:44 Comments || Top||

#3  My question is, are these ransom payments included in Iraqi GDP, or are they considered just a transfer?
Posted by: Perfesser || 05/22/2006 9:42 Comments || Top||

#4  Iraq should just turn back anyone with a German passport.










Posted by: Grunter || 05/22/2006 9:43 Comments || Top||

#5  Does this mean we can add France and Germany to the list of Terrorist organizations?

After all they are supporting the terrorists.
Posted by: CrazyFool || 05/22/2006 10:26 Comments || Top||

#6  And in addition to the payment of ransom, there was also all that disgusting psychodrama and acting out (demonstrations, big posters,...) like the LLL/Msm can do so well, in regards to thoses abducted french journalists... who were complete tools (one critical article about one of theses was titled "Malbrunot the friend of the arabs", and detailed his proactively anti-israeli stance while a correspondent in Israel), while their stringers were ex-baathists intelligence agents (now living in France as refugees, at least for one of them and his family).

Oh, and then there was the instrumentalization of that by the muslim authorities in France, which allowed the msm to play the "they're upstanding french citizens" card, with french foreign policy being outsourced to muslim holy men... and also the outcry of sympathy for France by the hizbullah, by yasser arafat, by kaddhaffi,... (shows well where France proudly stands, doens't it?)... the french pols crawling to al azhar or al jizz to gather support from the sunni brass... and the cloak and dagger stuff by the "old boyz" of the French Arab Policy(tm) networks, disavowed by the same Shiraq who sent them...

A real mess, ugly and a source of shame : not only did we pay, but in the process we acted like terrorized dhimmis.
Posted by: anonymous5089 || 05/22/2006 10:37 Comments || Top||


Court gunman, three others jailed in Turkey
ANKARA - The suspected Islamist assailant in a lethal attack on a Turkish court was jailed Sunday, along with three alleged collaborators, the Anatolia news agency reported. The attack provoked political tensions in Ankara as secularists displayed their anger and accused the government of creating an atmosphere in which such incidents could take place. A judge who questioned the four men decided they should be imprisoned, pending trial.
Oh, good decision.
"He might decide to shoot up my courtroom next"
Alparslan Arslan, a 29-year-old Istanbul lawyer shouted: "I'm a soldier of Allah" as he burst into Turkey's highest administrative court, the Council of State, Wednesday, plugging killing a senior judge and wounding four others. As he opened fire, he said he wanted to "punish" the judges for rulings upholding a ban on the Islamic headscarf in public institutions and universities in Muslim-majority but strictly secular Turkey, according to court officials.
Islamists regard this as an exchange of ideas...
He was arrested immediately after the attack. The three others along with Arslan allegedly hurled hand grenades at the Istanbul office of the secularist Cumhuriyet newspaper earlier this month. Two of them reportedly accompanied him in Ankara on the day of the court shooting.
So he wasn't a "lone gunman"
They were accused of attempting to overthrow the constitutional order, an offense carrying the life sentence, as well as of premediated murder, attempted premediated murder, use of explosives and breaches of the law on firearms, Anatolia reported. The prosecution will detail the charges when it draws up its indictment in the coming days. Five other men detained over the shooting were released.
... to see where they go and who they're associating with.
The unprecedented attack sparked mass pro-secular protests and triggered accusations against the Islamist-rooted government that its opposition to the headscarf ban and vocal criticism of court rulings had emboldened extremists. The headscarf is widely seen as a symbol of Islamist militancy.
You can't be a proper Islamic maiden without a headscarf. Everybody knows that. The scarf comes off, the pants do too. Next thing you know, you're going out on dates, disco dancing, and flinging your bra at a bandleader named Ramon.
In a newspaper interview Friday, Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan retorted lamely that the attack was "a great conspiracy" to discredit his government, which the secularist establishment, including the powerful army, suspects of seeking to reinforce the role of Islam in politics and daily life in Turkey.
"Everyone is out to get me!"
As soon as they trot out the conspiracies you know they're guilty.
There was no official word on the investigation, but Education Minister Huseyin Celik said Sunday the police were trying to determine the "puppeteer who pulled the strings" of the assailant. Erdogan said the probe was close to conclusion. "The links are being uncovered one by one and we are nearing the end," he said on the sidelines of an international gathering in Sharm El-Sheikh in Egypt, Anatolia reported.
"The Number 7, Captain?"
"This one is a bit tougher than most. The Number 4 truncheon, if you will"
If the pupeteers are Zionists, I'm throwing this tomato.
On Saturday, a former army officer said to be a key figure behind the court attack surfaced in an Istanbul hospital with a minor knife injury in the chest, believed to be the result of a suicide attempt.
"What's that you're doing there, Captain Tekin?"
"I'm cutting my heart out for love of Islam."
"Oh. Okay. Don't let us disturb you."
Questioned in hospital, Muzaffer Tekin said he knew the court assailant, but rejected allegations that he masterminded the attacks on the court and Cumhuriyet, police sources told Anatolia.
"We are just casual friends, I hardly know him, really"
Tekin, whom the gunman reportedly called frequently before the shooting, was flown to Ankara on a stretcher under heavy security measures Sunday.
Gee, those phone logs really do come in handy, don't they?
Four other suspects, including the owner of an Istanbul villa where Tekin hid after the court shooting and another person suspected of involvement in the attacks on Cumhuriyet, were sent to Ankara, the agency reported. Tekin was first reported to have been cashiered from the army for Islamist activities, but newspapers said Sunday he was expelled on disciplinary grounds and appeared to sympathize not with religious extremism but anti-Western Turkish nationalism.
Posted by: Steve || 05/22/2006 23:07 || Comments || Link || [1 views] Top|| File under:


Home Front: Politix
John Murtha, Today's Winner of JFK "Profiles in Courage" Award
Reading Profiles in Courage as a youth had a big impact on me. It's shameful how they have diminished its worth.

The first Vietnam veteran elected to Congress, Rep. John Murtha took pride in politicking quietly, behind the scenes, with Republicans and fellow Democrats alike. Washington has become more deeply partisan since Murtha was swept into office more than 30 years ago, and so has Murtha in a very public way.

On Monday, Murtha is to be awarded the John F. Kennedy Profile in Courage Award in Boston for his bold pronouncement that U.S. troops should be pulled out of Iraq a statement many say helped change the public debate over the war, because of Murtha's past as a Democratic hawk and retired Marines Reserves colonel who enjoyed easy access to presidents.

"There aren't many around like him any more," said Jack Johannes, a political science professor at Villanova University. "As a result, when the generations change, the environments change, even someone like John Murtha has to change."

Being honored along with Murtha on Monday is Alberto Mora, a former Navy general counsel who warned Pentagon officials that U.S. policies dealing with terror detainees could invite abuse.
Posted by: Captain America, esq || 05/22/2006 17:00 || Comments || Link || [1 views] Top|| File under:

#1  That whirring sound you hear in the east is JFK spinning in his grave.

Gotta figure out how we can hook up a dynamo....
Posted by: Barbara Skolaut || 05/22/2006 17:27 Comments || Top||

#2  Glad you liked it Capt. it did very well in middle schools, just like I intended.
Posted by: Ted || 05/22/2006 17:27 Comments || Top||

#3  Does anyone know a Marine vet that likes Murtha Harri?
Posted by: Cyber Sarge || 05/22/2006 17:43 Comments || Top||

#4  Mutha Murtha not welcome at my USMC reunion.
Posted by: Inspector Clueso || 05/22/2006 17:52 Comments || Top||

#5  Anyone who wants to read some real "Profiles in Courage" should pick up a copy of Home of the Brave by Casper Weinberger. Reading it is a humbling experience.
Posted by: Matt || 05/22/2006 18:03 Comments || Top||

#6  Murtha is a pig.

He claims that things are worse in Iraq now than under Saddam. I suppose that's because he never had the joy of watching family members killed by wood chipper, or nerve agent, or mass grave.

Then his claim is supported by comparisons of crude oil production under Saddam and post-Saddam. That tells us exactly what the war was about.

Or these Saddam supporters love to make comparisons of electricity availablity, but there is rarely a discussion of the fact that the Ba'ath NEVER improved or expanded the electrical grid. There is never a discussion about how outdated the system is. Same thing for water sanitation.

It's really too bad that his entire family was not murdered by the Ba'ath. Maybe then he'd get it.

Posted by: Azad || 05/22/2006 18:07 Comments || Top||

#7  This shows how far the Democratic party as fallen.

Kind of sad in a way.
Posted by: CrazyFool || 05/22/2006 18:07 Comments || Top||

#8  Does anyone know a Marine vet that likes Murtha Harri?

His good friend Scotty Ritter.
Posted by: Nimble Spemble || 05/22/2006 18:32 Comments || Top||

#9  ...Actually, it's only fitting: Some years back, it was pretty much determined that Ted Sorenson wrote 'Profiles' and JFK just put his name on it. A phony award for a fraud of a congressman.

Mike
Posted by: Mike Kozlowski || 05/22/2006 19:31 Comments || Top||

#10  Gawd this is depressing. This joker can't even find his way home and more than likely thinks we are still in Viet-Nam. JFK must really be feeling the shame.
Posted by: 49 Pan || 05/22/2006 21:15 Comments || Top||

#11  Iff IRAN-CONTRA = GWOT, Murtha = Ollie North??? save in reverse??? Notice that Danny Ortega is running for office again, and arguing that Nicaragua should keep all or most of its Soviet RPG's and SA anti air missles.
Posted by: JosephMendiola || 05/22/2006 22:10 Comments || Top||

#12  Well you never have to worry about Teddy winning one. He will show up for the party however.
My early pick for next year? He nominates his kid.
Posted by: tu3031 || 05/22/2006 22:16 Comments || Top||

#13  Since when does it take courage to "Cut and Run" ? !!!
Posted by: junkirony || 05/22/2006 22:19 Comments || Top||

#14  Murtha has an opponent this Fall, Diana Irey. Here's what she wrote me:
Thank you for your pro-American views of life. We face many serious challenges with the war on terror and trying to win the hearts and minds of millions of Muslims around the world through the concept of freedom. Little by little we gain support.

Unfortunately Mr. Murtha would rather publicly humiliate our men and women who serve our great country in the US Military than to afford them their constitutional right of due process.(I am referring to his last attack where he called our Marines “Cold Blooded Killers of innocent Iraqi citizens”) His continued attacks on our government, our military and our military leaders are shameful and can no longer go unchallenged. He needs to apologize to our men and women in uniform as well as to their families.

I plan to extend to Mr. Murtha what he is unwilling to grant our brave men and women who serve and that is due process. Mr. Murtha will learn first hand how due process works in America when his Pennsylvania 12th District sends him home (for good) in the November election.

People say there is no way to defeat Murtha. We have polling data that shows he can be beat if our message gets out to the voters. That is why it is so important for good people such as you to support my effort by contributing to the campaign and spreading the word.

Thank you for contributing to this effort.

Diana

Posted by: Chuck Simmins || 05/22/2006 22:27 Comments || Top||


RB Vets, listen up: your personal info may be compromised
By incompetence and sloppy security at the the Dept. of Veterans' Affairs.
Personal data, including Social Security numbers of 26.5 million U.S. veterans, was stolen from a Veterans Affairs employee this month after he took the information home without authorization, the department said Monday.

Veterans Affairs Secretary Jim Nicholson, who should resign effective today, said there was no evidence so far that the burglars who struck the employee's home have used the personal data — or even know they have it. The employee, a data analyst whom Nicholson would not identify, has been placed on leave pending a review. "We have a full-scale investigation," said Nicholson, who said the FBI, local law enforcement and the VA inspector general were investigating. "I want to emphasize, there was no medical records of any veteran and no financial information of any veteran that's been compromised."

"We have decided that we must exercise an abundance of caution and make sure our veterans aware of this incident," he said in a conference call with reporters.

The theft of stolen information comes as the department has come under criticism for shoddy accounting practices and for falling short on the needs of veterans. Last year, more than 260,000 veterans could not sign up for services because of cost-cutting. Audits also have shown the agency used misleading accounting methods and lacked documentation to prove its claimed savings.

On Monday, the VA said it was in the process of notifying members of Congress and the individual veterans about the burglary, setting up a call center and Web site if veterans believe their information has been misused. It also is stepping up its review of procedures for the use of personal data for many of its employees who telecommute as well as others who must sign disclosure forms showing they are aware of federal privacy laws and the consequences if they're violated.

Nicholson declined to comment on the specifics of the incident, which involved a career employee who had taken the information home to suburban Maryland — on disks, according to congressional sources who were briefed on the incident — to work on a department project.

The residential community had been a target of a series of burglaries and the employee was victimized earlier this month, according to the FBI in Baltimore, which was investigating the incident.

The material represents personal data of all living veterans who served and have been discharged since 1976, according to the department. The information was included the veterans' discharge summary that goes into a government database.
Posted by: Seafarious || 05/22/2006 13:52 || Comments || Link || [1 views] Top|| File under:

#1  ...When found, the data was untouched, but has confirmed that Senator John Kerry did indeed receive the two Navy Crosses and Medal of Honor that had been claimed during the early part of his Presidential campaign.
Posted by: Anonymoose || 05/22/2006 14:04 Comments || Top||

#2  Thanks S!!

First step is to put a credit block on your and your spouses SSN. I would also have any children over 18 do it also. The major credit orgs will do it for free and report any attempts on your credit. The block only lasts for three months. Don't be caught trying to repair your credit when you can defend against it.
Posted by: 49 Pan || 05/22/2006 14:06 Comments || Top||

#3  Smells funny. When did this moron take the disc home? If it wasn't MONTHS ago, then I don't buy the coincidence.

Another lefty wacko symp working to undermine our people and confidence, I think.
Posted by: random styling || 05/22/2006 14:12 Comments || Top||

#4  What a Deutschbag. If he's high enough up. NOTHING will happen to him. Just like Sandy Burgler.
Posted by: Whomolet Phonter2397 || 05/22/2006 14:16 Comments || Top||

#5  "...or even know they have it. "

I guess they KNOW about it NOW!!!

Sheesh!

-M
Posted by: Manolo || 05/22/2006 14:47 Comments || Top||

#6  When the civil service is PC correct and corrupt - what in the hell do you expect?
Posted by: 3dc || 05/22/2006 15:05 Comments || Top||

#7  Not all of them, 3dc. I know a big number of people in civil service who are bright, hardworking and take their jobs seriously. We're lucky to have them in those jobs, because every one of them could work elsewhere and in many cases for more money.

There are the lazy, the PC and perhaps the corrupt in some places. But not all, by any stretch of the imagination.

In this case, the VA employee clearly shouldn't have taken the info home. OTOH, note that the reason given was to complete a report ... at home. Flextime? E-commute? Or someone working on their own time to catch up? Can't tell from the article.
Posted by: lotp || 05/22/2006 17:22 Comments || Top||

#8  I for the state of Mexafornia so my data was already out there. We had a system breach last year. I called the credit company and put a lock on my SSN. Not much you can do beyond that. FYI if you put a lock on your credit then it's eral hard for anybody to "steal" your identify. Anyone is welcome to review my DD214 or any other Military records. Unlike JF Kerry I have nothing to hide.
Posted by: Cyber Sarge || 05/22/2006 17:23 Comments || Top||

#9  Do I have to assume being discharged before 1976 is no sweat, or is this anyone in the VA system is screwed?
Posted by: Inspector Clueso || 05/22/2006 17:46 Comments || Top||


Home Front: WoT
N.Y. HEZBOLLAH HUNT
The Hezbollah terror group - one of the most dangerous in the world - may be planning to activate sleeper cells in New York and other big cities to stage an attack as the nuclear showdown with Iran heats up, sources told The Post.
The FBI and Justice Department have launched urgent new probes in New York and other cities targeting members of the Lebanese terror group.

Law-enforcement and intelligence officials told The Post that about a dozen hard-core supporters of Hezbollah have been identified in recent weeks as operating in the New York area.

Sources said the activities of these New York-based operatives are being monitored by FBI counterterrorism agents as part of a nationwide effort to prevent a possible terror strike if the confrontation with Iran over its nuclear program spins out of control.

Additional law-enforcement attention is being centered on the Iranian Mission to the United Nations, where there have already been three episodes in the last four years in which diplomats and security guards have been expelled for casing and photographing New York City subways and other potential targets.
The nationwide effort to neutralize Hezbollah sleepers in the United States, being spearheaded by the FBI and Justice Department's counterterrorism divisions, was triggered in January in response to alarming reports that Iran's fanatical president, Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, met with leaders of Hezbollah and other terror groups during a visit to Syria.

Among those attending the meetings, according to reliable reports, was Hezbollah's chief operational planner, Imad Mugniyah - considered one of the most dangerous terrorists in the world - who is responsible for the bombings of the 1983 U.S. Marine barracks in Beirut and who, more recently, provided Iraqi guerrillas with sophisticated explosive devices.

U.S. officials stressed there is no intelligence information pointing to an imminent attack by Hezbollah. But officials said they have detected increased activity by Hezbollah operatives - including more heated rhetoric by its leaders and in Internet chat rooms as the U.S.-Iran diplomatic showdown heats up.

"Hezbollah is a group that the U.S. has to be concerned about in the current climate. Hezbollah is already coming under heavy pressure by the Cedar Revolution in Lebanon, and Ahmadinejad is under pressure on the nuclear issue," said Walid Phares, an outside terror expert who has briefed law-enforcement officials on Hezbollah in recent weeks.

"They are well funded, very well organized, and we assume that their penetration of the U.S. is deeper than al Qaeda's. It is only rational for the U.S. to think in pre-emptive ways. An attack here is clearly in the realm of the possible," Phares added.

A U.S. counterterrorism official called the latest effort a "major undertaking," with separate probes also under way in Los Angeles, Boston and Detroit.

Hezbollah has so far limited its activities in the United States to fund-raising and criminal enterprises. The FBI has already taken down two major rings, one in Charlotte, N.C., and one in Detroit, in which members were smuggling cigarettes, Viagra and baby formula, and kicking profits back to Hezbollah.

Posted by: lotp || 05/22/2006 12:57 || Comments || Link || [2 views] Top|| File under:

#1  Additional law-enforcement attention is being centered on the Iranian Mission to the United Nations, where there have already been three episodes in the last four years in which diplomats and security guards have been expelled for casing and photographing New York City subways and other potential targets.

Iran needs to be put on notice that any pre-emptive attack or retaliation for destruction of their nuclear program will result in additional carpet bombing of vital military and industrial facilities. The expanded list desperately needs to include the residences of all major mullahs in the top decision-making chain for these twisted f&cks. How anyone can remain unclear as to just how evil Iran's leadership continues to be is nothing short of astonishing. Universal condemnation is all they are worthy of.
Posted by: Zenster || 05/22/2006 13:09 Comments || Top||

#2  Dumb question by an uninformed person : could an attack by the hizbollah be considered an act of war by Iran? Or would "plausible deniability" works?
Posted by: anonymous5089 || 05/22/2006 13:10 Comments || Top||

#3  N.Y. HEZBOLLAH HUNT

Too bad for us the feds won't control our borders and a dozen other common sense actions.
Posted by: RD || 05/22/2006 13:18 Comments || Top||

#4  Why should it be an act of war? Iran (the current president in fact!) deliberately attacking the U.S. Embassy wasn't an act of war.

If they can hide behind so-called 'students' then they will probably be allowed to hide behind Hezbollah now.
Posted by: CrazyFool || 05/22/2006 13:32 Comments || Top||

#5  Why is it not illegal to be a member of a listed terrorist organization? It's not as though one might mistakenly join, thinking it a local branch of the community Symphony Club, or the Bridge Players Association, and somehow not notice the error.
Posted by: trailing wife || 05/22/2006 13:56 Comments || Top||

#6  "Dumb question by an uninformed person : could an attack by the hizbollah be considered an act of war by Iran?"

I imagine we would consider it as one, no matter what anyone else thinks.

"Or would "plausible deniability" works?"

If there's another 9/11-style attack, I suspect you'll see America go completely berserk-- totally, stark, raving medieval BUGSHIT. There won't be ANY deniability. None. Not for anyone.

"Why is it not illegal to be a member of a listed terrorist organization?"

Because we're not a civilized nation, that's why: we're an OVER-civilized nation which so far cannot even make up its mind to take common-sensical actions in its own defense for fear of "offending" Muslims or infringing their precious "rights."

Pfeh.

Posted by: Dave D. || 05/22/2006 14:13 Comments || Top||

#7  members were smuggling cigarettes, Viagra and baby formula,

iz allan kno bowt this?
Posted by: muck4doo || 05/22/2006 14:19 Comments || Top||

#8  Dave D. Optimist.
Posted by: gromgoru || 05/22/2006 14:46 Comments || Top||

#9  A regular Pollyanna, I am...
Posted by: Dave D. || 05/22/2006 15:03 Comments || Top||

#10  Who stole our Dave and what have they done with him????
Posted by: lotp || 05/22/2006 15:04 Comments || Top||

#11  Sources said the activities of these New York-based operatives are being monitored by FBI counterterrorism agents as part of a nationwide effort to prevent a possible terror strike if the confrontation with Iran over its nuclear program spins out of control.

How is this not a damaging leak?
Posted by: Mike N. || 05/22/2006 15:19 Comments || Top||

#12  They have an advantage on us. They can be in thier UN office, and have some rights to move about. We should demand the same rights with any country we have to afford those rights two. Having a office in Iran where they have to watch our people would be fun.
Posted by: plainslow || 05/22/2006 15:32 Comments || Top||

#13  we should carpet bomb Nasralah's and et al residence. Maybe buzz twice a day Bashar Assad's presidential palace..............
Posted by: Omomoque Jomoter1383 || 05/22/2006 16:17 Comments || Top||

#14  But New York voted for Kerry, Hillary, and Chucky. They should be perfectly safe.
Posted by: Perfesser || 05/22/2006 16:41 Comments || Top||

#15  Kill them before they kill us. This is war, a unilaterial war by Iran that started in 1979.
Posted by: Captain America || 05/22/2006 17:12 Comments || Top||

#16  Stow the carpet bombing. If we get attacked by any muzzies, we should take full advantage of that and declare them persona non grata. We should start by marching around their mosques with 'Allah go home' signs and force the debate to a head. In order to save our lifestyle, we will have to get roudy and drum up support. We need to get info on where are mosques and where the imams live and where the muzzies live. Let's prepare to scare the livin' shit outta these scum.
Posted by: wxjames || 05/22/2006 17:55 Comments || Top||

#17  I'd like to build a collection of kaffiyehs...
Posted by: random styling || 05/22/2006 17:59 Comments || Top||

#18  #17 rs - aren't you afraid of the cooties?
Posted by: Barbara Skolaut || 05/22/2006 18:27 Comments || Top||

#19  Once again, this is why Dubya & Admin + GOP Congress-NPE need to watch their six - SURVIVING GOP-CAUSED AMER HIROSHIMA(S) = SAVING AMERIKA _ + MOTHERLY SOCIALIST WORLD FROM GOP-CAUSED NUCLEAR WAR. The Clinton-led DemoLeft need PC = PDeniable justification for America to be under OWG and anti-Amer Socialist world order, and THEY DON'T HAVE IT YET. Commie Totalitarianism is the Left's PC response to honest mistake = wilful Male Brutish Imperialist GOP authoritarian "FASCISM". CLINTONISM > free America is an error-prone = arrogant SSSSSSSSSSSSHHHHHHHH SOCIALIST country whose national SOCIALISM is being misled = hijacked by Rightism-based Socialists. ONLY LEFTISM, COMMUNISM, ANTI-SOVEREIGNTY and REGULATORY TOTALITARIANISM-ABSOLUTISM CAN SAVE AMERIKA'S SOCIALIST SOUL FROM RIGHTIST SOCIALIST PERVERSIONS, CORRUPTIONS, DECEPTIONS AND "EVIL".
Posted by: JosephMendiola || 05/22/2006 22:59 Comments || Top||


Trespasser killed after security breach on Selfridge ANG base
Last night, a driver sped through a checkpoint at a US base and led security on a high-speed chase on the grounds before officers shot at him. The base is host to the 107th Fighter Squadron which flies the F-16 Block 30. The man, who police and base officials did not identify, later died at the hospital, according to a press release from the 127th Wing of the Michigan Air National Guard.

It was the second reported break-in in two months at the Selfridge Air National Guard Base, 30 miles northeast of Detroit. On April 4, a man led base security on a brief high-speed chase before he was caught. Abdallah Karadsheh, 21, of Macomb Township was charged with attempting to maliciously destroy military structures, a charge that carries a maximum penalty of 20 years in prison. No one was injured, and no shots were fired in that incident. The FBI determined that it did not involve terrorist activity.

In Wednesday's incident, an unauthorized vehicle forced its way onto the base just before 20.00h, evaded base security at high speeds and then crashed into a parked car. Officers fired shots at the driver when he tried to run over his pursuers, but he continued driving until being forced off the road, the statement said. The man was transported by ambulance to Mount Clemens General Hospital, where he died a short time later. Base spokeswoman Lt. Penelope Carroll couldn't say whether the man died from gunshots or whether he suffered injuries when his vehicle crashed after a subsequent chase around the base.
Wonder if this guy's an Iranian, too?
Posted by: zazz || 05/22/2006 00:00 || Comments || Link || [1 views] Top|| File under:

#1  Doesn't appear to be a terrorist strike
Posted by: tipper || 05/22/2006 1:18 Comments || Top||

#2  sounds like a normal fuzz ball got them self kilt.
Posted by: Sock Puppet of Doom || 05/22/2006 6:16 Comments || Top||

#3  This one looks like a looney.

The other one, however...

"The FBI determined that it did not involve terrorist activity."

Abdallah Karadsheh. So, um, what was the motive?

From Tipper's link:

"On April 4, Abdallah Karadsheh, 21, of Macomb Township led security on a chase around the base at 90 mph, authorities said.

Karadsheh said he was a 'security officer for God' and that if he could reach 120 mph, he would go straight to heaven if killed."


LOL. Remember kids, when in Detroit, don't drink the water.
Posted by: random styling || 05/22/2006 6:33 Comments || Top||

#4  Variant of 'suicide by cop.'
Posted by: glenmore || 05/22/2006 7:59 Comments || Top||

#5  Karadsheh said he was a 'security officer for God' and that if he could reach 120 mph, he would go straight to heaven if killed."

-the muslim version of 'back to the future.'

Remember kids, when in Detroit, don't drink the water.

-too late for me ;)
Posted by: Broadhead6 || 05/22/2006 8:35 Comments || Top||

#6  Detroit is a bastion of Islamic radicalism in the US. If they don't want to deal with it, expect more incidents worse than this one.
Posted by: mcsegeek1 || 05/22/2006 8:56 Comments || Top||

#7  Remember kids, when in Detroit, don't drink the water.

Or depend on the power grid.
Posted by: Rob Crawford || 05/22/2006 10:11 Comments || Top||

#8  Abdallah Karadsheh. So, um, what was the motive?

That's obvious, to check out the response times and effectiveness, bet he didn't plan on catching lead though. (Bit too effective)
Posted by: Redneck Jim || 05/22/2006 10:27 Comments || Top||

#9  The FBI determined that it did not involve terrorist activity.

The FBI is real quick on those disclaimers, just like the El Al counter shooting in LAX. What kind of fools do the FBI think that we are, anyhow?
Posted by: Alaska Paul || 05/22/2006 11:07 Comments || Top||

#10  120 to get to heaven?
and here all I thought that was required was 88 mph and a flux capacitor mounted in a Bricklin...
Posted by: USN, ret. || 05/22/2006 14:05 Comments || Top||

#11  The FBI determined that it did not involve terrorist activity...... but a shovel and some oats were found in the car and the bureau now has conclusive evidence of a link to the grave and demise of Jimmy Hoffa.

Good work "Special Agents."
Posted by: Besoeker || 05/22/2006 14:19 Comments || Top||

#12  Remember kids, when in Detroit, don't drink the water.

But I kinda like Stroh's.
Posted by: JDB || 05/22/2006 14:49 Comments || Top||

#13  Darwin award.
Posted by: gromgoru || 05/22/2006 14:54 Comments || Top||

#14  The CURRENT intrusion, the guy that got killed, seems to have been a run-of-the-mill nutjob out to commit suicide in an attention-getting way. The April 4 intrusion, by Karadsheh, looks more like an Islamic nutjob (redundency alert); that one may well have had terrorist implications, and I fail to understand why the FBI would determine otherwise so quickly.
Posted by: Glenmore || 05/22/2006 19:43 Comments || Top||


India-Pakistan
Pakistan sentences 4 to death for bid to kill PM
ISLAMABAD (Reuters) - A Pakistani court sentenced four Islamist militants to death on Monday for an assassination attempt on Prime Minister Shaukat Aziz nearly two years ago, the official news agency reported. An anti-terrorism court announcing the decision in Rawalpindi, a garrison town adjoining the capital Islamabad, also jailed three militant brothers for life while the eighth accused was acquitted, Associated Press of Pakistan said.

Aziz narrowly escaped assassination when a suicide bomber blew himself up next to his car in central Punjab province in July 2004. Aziz was finance minister at the time and was campaigning for a by-election to win a seat in parliament to enable him to become prime minister. An Islamist militant group with purported links to al Qaeda later claimed responsibility for the attack in which Aziz's driver and eight other people were killed.

The court announced the decision amid tight security in the presence of all eight men, the agency said.

Pakistan has seen a series of attacks by Islamist militants since President Pervez Musharraf joined the U.S.-led war on terrorism after the September 11 attacks on the United States in 2001. Musharraf himself has survived several al Qaeda-inspired assassination attempts while militants tried to shoot the army chief of southern Pakistan in June 2004. Pakistani security forces have arrested hundreds of al Qaeda militants and handed many of them over to the United States.
Posted by: Steve || 05/22/2006 16:58 || Comments || Link || [1 views] Top|| File under:


Haji Omar, leader of the Pakistani Taliban
At this point we seem to have a pretty good idea of what's going on with the Bad Guys openly taking control Waziristan and most of the rest of the NWFP/FATA as well. While al-Qaeda and the Taliban relocated en masse to the area in late 2001, this attempt to openly seize territory from the Pakistani government (as opposed to simply remaining icognito the way they operate in Azad Kashmir or Karachi) does seem to be a recent development, and may even have been prompted by the failed hit on Ayman in Damadola earlier this year that killed Khabab and several others. So far I've managed to identify Tahir Yuldashev, Matiur Rehman, and Jalaluddin Haqqani as the prime movers behind this (with them answering to Binny, Ayman, and Blinky respectively), with lesser minions like Haji Omar, Abdullah Mehsud, Sadiq Noor, and Abdul Khaliq doing the nuts-and-bolts work. As I noted a couple days ago, this is the reason why the Bad Guys have been able to reorganize to the point where they are now able to plan and coordinate attacks numbering as many as 400 fighters (something Zarqawi has never been able to do in Iraq) as well as the reason for the spike in Afghan violence. As with the Mogadishu fighting, these are areas of the war on terrorism that I am far more concerned than the US actually losing to al-Qaeda than Iraq.
Not many outside Pakistan's troubled tribal zone of Waziristan along the country's north-western border with Afghanistan will be familiar with the name of Haji Omar.

But in Waziristan, it is a name that is commanding increasing respect and awe with every passing day.

Haji Omar is the amir (chief) of the Pakistani Taleban that have risen over the last year to take control of large parts of Waziristan.

His writ runs virtually unchallenged in South Waziristan and he seems confident that his commanders will soon establish Taleban control in North Waziristan as well.

Meeting him in Wana, South Waziristan's largest town, was not exactly what I had expected when I sought an appointment with him through an intermediary in Peshawar.

He was, after all, a supposed al-Qaeda ally, a man on the run from Pakistani authorities who claim to be in control of South Waziristan.

Thus far, he has also successfully dodged the extensive American aerial and human intelligence network in the area.

I asked my escort where we were headed as we left Dera Ismail Khan - the second largest city in Pakistan's North West Frontier Province - at sunrise to meet Haji Omar.

"Wana, where else?" he grinned.

"We will send him a message when we get to Wana and he will come and meet us," the guide told me.

That was exactly how it happened.

Haji Omar drove up to the compound where I was in a simple pick up truck, the kind that one sees in the use of traders and merchants in Waziristan.

There seemed to be nothing remarkable about him - barring the formidable posse of Taleban guarding him.

This impression, however, was quickly dispelled as he started talking.

"Don't listen to anyone who says we have ordered people to grow beards," he laughed.

It was an easy, friendly kind of laughter.

"You don't have a beard and yet here we are sitting as friends, no?" he laughed some more.

Haji Omar is 55 but appears much younger, his looks belying the fact that he has spent half his life fighting on various fronts in Afghanistan.

Born in the village of Kalushah some 10km (six miles) from Wana, Haji Omar spent several years fighting the Soviets in Bagram and Kabul.

He was injured several times but disengaged from the war only when the Soviets withdrew.

Not wanting to be a part of the fratricidal war between various Mujahideen factions, he left for Dubai in the late 1980s.

Haji Omar returned to Waziristan and then went to live across the border in Kandahar when the Taleban took control of Afghanistan.

He remained there, serving as one of the many lieutenants of Taleban leader Mullah Omar, until the fall of the Taleban in November 2001.

Since returning to Wana in late 2001, he has been organising the Pakistani Taleban in Waziristan.

Haji Omar has two wives - one in Wana, and one he married later in Kandahar.

Tall and well built, he speaks halting, uncertain Urdu being more proficient in Pashto and Arabic.

There is nothing uncertain about his views though.

"Your government is very happy with us because we have established peace in South Waziristan," he says.

"It is only scared that we may enforce the Sharia [Islamic moral code] here."

Perhaps that is not the government's primary worry at this stage.

Intelligence officials dealing with the tribal areas had earlier told me that their real worries stemmed from the composition of the group calling itself the Pakistani Taleban.

One senior official had alleged that a large number of criminals had entered the Taleban ranks in order to make money from the Arab and Central Asian fighters seeking refuge in Waziristan.

"What do I need money for?" Haji Omar seemed genuinely surprised at the intelligence analysis.

"The government has destroyed my house. If I was getting money from the Arabs, I would have rebuilt my house by now. But I and my people are living in caves and tents," he said.

"Jihad is never for money. If I take money from anyone, I will suffer even in death," he added.

Irrespective of whether money is involved or not, foreign militants are the crux of the problem, aren't they? I asked him.

"The issue is the government's poor understanding of the issue," Haji Omar says.

"Afghanistan was an Islamic country with an Islamic system. It has now descended into anarchy.

"The only way for us to put an end to the anarchy there is to wage a jihad against the Americans and anyone who supports them."

That includes Pakistan, the key American ally in the region.

"Yes, we treat all American allies as enemy. We have caught many people who were trying to help the Americans, either directly or through Pakistan," he said.

What happens when they catch such people?

"We do not waste our bullets on them," Haji Omar said with a smile.
Posted by: Dan Darling || 05/22/2006 01:33 || Comments || Link || [1 views] Top|| File under:

#1  My question is how much do you trust the BBC? Think they might have an agenda here? The truth is in this. The question is just how much and where?
Posted by: Sock Puppet of Doom || 05/22/2006 4:25 Comments || Top||

#2  The Pakis at the Beeb having their usual anti-US bleat - God I'd love to see Whit City taken out in a series of Cruise missile attacks.
Posted by: Howard UK || 05/22/2006 4:31 Comments || Top||


Nuggets from the Urdu press
Pir Zakori Sharif in China
Writing an account of his visit to China in Jang, columnist Javed Chaudhry stated that in China women were running the markets while no children could be seen on account of China’s one-child policy. In Sinkiang he was entertained by Pir Sahib Zakori Sharif in the Pakistani delegation who sang songs like chitta kukar baneray tay to give evidence of his great talent. In Sinkiang the Chinese were found to be aggressive businessmen who weren’t always too honest but the Chinese slept at nine at night and woke up early morning. They ate moderately and were all slim around the waist. In contrast Pir Zakori Sharif did Pakistan proud by eating more than ten Chinese. His waistline could fill the room and you could make ten Chinese out of him.

Pakistan did the anti-US play
Columnist Masood Ashar said in Jang that when Sheema Kirmani of Pakistan took her anti-American play Harf-e-Nashunidah to India she was not allowed to stage it there. Back in Pakistan Madeeha Gauhar and Shahid Nadeem organised the Panj Pani Festival in which the play was finally staged. The play described the suffering of women and linked it to American imperialism.

India’s strategic blunder
Writing in Jang Ikram Sehgal stated that Pak-Bangladesh relations had improved tremendously, with trade keeping pace with the emotion of friendship. It was no longer like 1971 which was now a part of the forgotten past. It would have suited India to have an East Pakistan hating West Pakistan but it made a strategic blunder by breaking Pakistan up.

MQM hit Sunni Tehreek!
Quoted in Nawa-e-Waqt MMA and Jamaat e-Islami leader Qazi Hussain Ahmad said in Islamabad that the Eid Milad massacre in Karachi was no suicide bombing; people responsible for it were interior minister Rauf Siddiqi and governor Ishratul Ibad. He said the stage was blown up by a bomb fixed there to put an end to the Sunni Tehreek leaders who had been unhappy with the MQM over the past many years. According to Khabrain Hafiz Saeed of Lashkar-e-Tayba said that the Nishtar Park bombing was the work of a foreign hand aiming at destroying the country’s integrity.

Who was the suicide-bomber?
Quoted in Nawa-e-Waqt (13 April, 2006) a representative of Sunni Tehreek Shahid Ghauri said in Karachi that the Nishtar Park massacre of Eid Miladun Nabi was done to eliminate the leaders of Sunni Tehreek. He said this act was connected with the killing of the founder of Sunni Tehreek Salim Qadri who was murdered by Sipah Sahaba in 2001.

MQM killed Hakim Said!
Quoted in Nawa-e-Waqt Qazi Hussain Ahmad said that the MQM had killed Hakim Said of Hamdard after killing the well known editor of Takbeer weekly Syed Salahuddin; it was also responsible for the death of Aslam Mujahid in Karachi. The police officials, 30 in number, who had helped interior minister Naseerullah Babar to mount his campaign against the terrorism of the MQM were all killed by the MQM after it came to power in 2002. Now MQM was guilty of attacking Sunni Tehreek and it had killed many members of Sunni Tehreek in the past. He said the MQM was being patronised by President Musharraf who was covering up its crimes.

Who did Nishtar Park bombing?
Columnist Hamid Mir wrote in Jang that Pakistan’s government was calling the April 11 Nishtar Park Karachi bombing the work of a suicide bomber so that a sectarian colour could be given to it. But the enemy could use a Muslim to do suicide bombing by paying him a lot of money. The enemy was India. When India did terrorism in Pakistan, we think it is sectarian, but when something happens in India everyone thinks it is jihadis or Pakistan’s ISI. It was time we thought of naming India. Yet the March 2005 suicide bombing of the Karachi American Consulate was the work of Al Qaeda. But in India there was suicide bombing of Ram Mandir in 2005, followed by cycle-bombings in Lahore, followed by explosions in New Delhi. In 2006 there was bombing in Benaras which was followed by the suicide bombing of Nishtar Park. But the bombing of Jama Masjid in New Delhi after that could not have been the work of Pakistan; that was India warning the Muslims of India.

Musharraf was to be killed like Sadat
According to the daily Pakistan Sunday magazine Umar Sheikh had conspired in 2001 to kill President Musharraf while the latter was taking a 23 March Pakistan Day salute in Islamabad like the Egyptian president Sadat. Umar Sheikh had collected the money by looting a bank in Bahawalpur and bought ammunition and explosives from an agent in Mansehra, the centre of ISI-supported jihad. But the plan backfired and Umar Sheikh was arrested in 2002. The same material was used in 2003 when Musharraf narrowly escaped an attempt on his life.
Posted by: Fred || 05/22/2006 00:00 || Comments || Link || [1 views] Top|| File under:

#1  chitta kukar baneray tay
Catchy.

Superior, curry-nuggets today!
Posted by: 6 || 05/22/2006 8:55 Comments || Top||


Police Knit Web Around Three Muslim Legislators for Suspected Terrorist Links
The leaders of the state units of the Bharatiya Janata Party and the Communist Party of India-Marxist (CPI-M) have flayed the Congress-led Democratic Front state government in Maharashtra for its failure to order a thorough probe into the stay of three alleged Lashkar-e-Taiba (LeT) terrorists in the state legislators’ hostel here on May 10.
Yeah... I think that'd peg my eyebrows if I was a legislator. Or a cop. Or a citizen. Or awake.
Taking the state government to task, state BJP President Nitin Gadkari questioned as to how the alleged terrorists managed to enter and stay in the legislators' hostel and the names of the legislators that recommended their stay. "The state cannot be allowed to become a storehouse for deadly explosives and arms" Gadkari said.
"This is not Wazirstan, dammit!"
Mahindra Singh, city secretary of the CPI-M and state vice president of the party's trade union said "the government should immediately probe into the matter, particularly the terrorist-politician nexus. The trend has serious security implications".
He's a master of understatement...
The Anti-Terrorist Squad (ATS) Saturday night arrested Aquib from Aurangabad in connection with the explosive haul. This brings the total of people so far arrested to 13. Meanwhile, the Bombay police are close to solving the mystery concerning which legislator’s room the alleged terrorists had stayed at the state-run Akashwani hostel. The police are knitting the web around Rashid Shaikh, Congress legislator from Malegaon and Fauzia Khan, Nationalist Congress Party (NCP) legislator from Parbhani. Another Congress legislator Shaikh Abdul Sattar Abdul Nabi from Sillod also figures in the list of suspected legislators whose rooms in the hostel were used by the alleged terrorists.
Somehow I didn't figure they'd be shacked up with Buddhists or Jains or those guys who walk around mostly naked covered in ashes.
According to police sources, Shaikh's room N0. 501 and Fauzia Khan's room No. 403 were under the police surveillance. Police officials were instructed to question regular visitors to the three suspected legislators' rooms and also grill the staff at the hostel. However, the police so far have no concrete evidence of the involvement of any of the three legislators related to the recovery of explosives or connection with any terrorist outfits. Officially the police have disclosed the arrest of 13 alleged terrorists, but in fact several Muslim youths have been rounded up and detained for interrogation by the police. Based on the information gathered from the alleged terrorists during interrogation, the ATS has also sought the help of the Indian missions in the Gulf states, said police sources.
That being where the controllers are, of course...
Posted by: Fred || 05/22/2006 00:00 || Comments || Link || [1 views] Top|| File under:


22 hostages survive boat hijacking
MULTAN: All 22 passengers on a boat in the Indus River were released safely after the boat was briefly hijacked on Sunday. Unidentified men hijacked the boat travelling from Lundi Pitafi in Muzaffargarh to Jampur through the Indus River. Rai Tahir, the Muzaffargarh district police officer, said that the hijackers freed women and children. A police team was later dispatched to free the remaining passengers. The police team chased the boat and engaged them at the river bank in Rustam Leghari area, some 18 kilometres off Jampur, APP reported. The hijackers released the fled.
Posted by: Fred || 05/22/2006 00:00 || Comments || Link || [1 views] Top|| File under:


Blasts in Balochistan kill one, injure 10
A man was killed and 10 injured in bomb explosions and landmine blasts in the restive Balochistan province on Sunday. A man died and another was injured seriously in a landmine blast in the Pitokh area of Dera Bugti. “Bugti tribesman Wahid Bakhsh Bugti, who was working at fields with some other people in the Pitokh area, six miles from Dera Bugti, died when he walked into a landmine,” said Abdus Samad Lasi, Dera Bugti district coordination officer (DCO). He said that another man, Majeed Bugti, was injured in the blast, adding that the local administration was investigating into the blast. Separately, a bomb explosion outside a shrine in the industrial city of Hub wounded nine people, including three police constables.

A homemade bomb had been attached to a bicycle outside Pir Syed Shah Bokhari’s shrine that is located on Sakran Road. “The bomb exploded when the people were leaving the shrine after offering prayers,” an eyewitness told Daily Times by telephone. “It would be too premature to name anyone for the act,” said Pervaiz Zahoor, Khuzdar Range police deputy inspector general, adding that the police had arrested 10 Balochistan Liberation Army activists in connection with the explosion. He said that a mobile police unit was the target of the explosion. Moreover, gas supplies remained suspended to several areas on Sunday morning following an explosion at the main gas plant in the Suti area. “An explosion occurred at well number 50 of the plant, which resulted in suspension of gas supplies to several areas,” sources said.
Posted by: Fred || 05/22/2006 00:00 || Comments || Link || [1 views] Top|| File under:


3 Afghans arrested
Intelligence agencies and the Central Investigation Department personnel arrested three Afghans under suspicion of being linked with Al Qaeda in a successful operation on Sunday. The security personnel set up barricades after receiving reports that the suspects were in the locality. The detainees were arrested from a vehicle which was being driven suspiciously. They were take to an undisclosed place.
Posted by: Fred || 05/22/2006 00:00 || Comments || Link || [0 views] Top|| File under:


8 killed in attack on Srinagar rally
Suspected Islamist militants on Sunday hurled grenades and fired bullets into a crowd at a ruling Congress Party rally in Indian-held Kashmir, killing eight and wounding more than 20 people ahead of peace talks on the region, police and witnesses said. Police said that militants, one of them dressed in police uniform, opened fired into the gathering at Srinagar's Sher-i-Kashmir park, held to honour late Indian prime minister Rajiv Gandhi, who was assassinated on May 21, 1999. "We eliminated two militants," said Inspector General of the federal police force AP Maheshwari, who had led the operation against the militants.

Four workers of Congress party and two policemen also died, while two senior cops were among the wounded. Singh condemned the attack, saying that such incidents would not prevent efforts to bring peace to the disputed Himalayan region.

KUNA adds some...
Five including terrorists killed in attack on rally
At least five people including two terrorists were killed in a terror attack on a rally organised by the Youth Congress to mark the 15th death anniversary of former Indian prime minister Rajiv Gandhi at Sher-e-Kashmir Park in Srinagar, summer capital of Indian-administered Jammu and Kashmir. The terrorists hurled grenades and fired bullets into the crowd, killing one policeman and wounding at least seven people before the two attackers were killed, news agency Press Trust of India reported. Terror groups Al-mansoorian and Lashkar-e-Taiba have claimed responsibility for the attacks.
The usual suspects...
Five people including the terrorists have been declared dead, the news agency reported. The Inspector General of Police, Srinagar, K Rajendra and Deputy Superintendent of Police Faizal Ahmad have been injured in the gun battle. Srinagar's Deputy Inspector General of Police, Farooq Ahmad, told reporters in Srinagar Sunday that both the terrorist have been killed. He added that all the civilians present inside the park were evacuated safely. There were at least two terrorists inside the park where nearly 2,000 had assembled for the rally.
Posted by: Fred || 05/22/2006 00:00 || Comments || Link || [2 views] Top|| File under:


Iraq
Ramadi remains Iraq's most dangerous city
It's another sweltering afternoon in the most dangerous place in Iraq, and the men of Kilo Company, 3rd Battalion, 8th Marines, are looking to pick a fight. First Lieut. Grier Jones splits his 30-odd-man platoon into two squads and sets them loose on the streets of Ramadi. They run block to block, covering one another as they sprint across intersections. Insurgents bob their heads out of homes to catch a glimpse of the Marines--"turkey peeking," as the troops call it--a sign that they are preparing to attack."We come out here every day, and we get shot at," Jones tells an Iraqi woman who speaks American-accented English. "Where are the bad guys?" She falls silent. Outside, a blue sedan peels away. "Watch that car," a Marine yells, sensing a possible ambush.

His instincts are right. At the next intersection, the Marines duck into a house. Suddenly a machine gun lets rip, spewing bullets around them. "Where's it coming from?" a Marine yells. Immediately, shooting opens up from a second direction. Jones gets his men to the roof to repel the two-sided attack. "Rocket!" screams a grunt, unleashing an AT4 rocket at one of the insurgent positions. Men reel from the blast's concussion. The shooting from the east stops. But as Jones peers over a cement wall to locate the second ambush position, a 7.62-mm round whizzes by. "Whoa, that went right over my head," he says, smiling. As the Marines on the roof fire at the insurgents, Jones orders a squad to push toward the enemy position. Then the enemy weapons go quiet; the insurgents are apparently withdrawing to conserve their energy. Jones radios back to his commanders. "We saw the enemy do a banana peel back, then peel north." He chuckles. "This is every day in Ramadi."

There's no reason to believe that the Americans' battle against Iraqi insurgents is going to get better. With U.S. support for the war sinking, the Bush Administration is eager to show that sufficient progress is being made toward quelling the insurgency to justify a drawdown of the 133,000 troops in Iraq. The U.S. praised the naming of a new Iraqi Cabinet last week, even though it includes some widely mistrusted figures from the previous government. And even as commanders try to turn combat duties over to Iraqi forces and pull U.S. troops back from the front lines, parts of Iraq remain as deadly as ever. At least 18 U.S. troops died last week, raising the total killed since the invasion in March 2003 to 2,456.

Nowhere is the fighting more intense than in Ramadi, the capital of Anbar province and for the moment the seething heart of the Sunni-led insurgency. The city remains a stronghold of insurgents loyal to Abu Mousab al-Zarqawi, the leader of al-Qaeda in Iraq, who U.S. intelligence believes is hiding in an area north of the city. In recent weeks, the soldiers and Marines in Ramadi have come under regular assault, forcing commanders last week to order reinforcements to the besieged city. In the past year, the Army's 2/28th Brigade Combat Team, the unit the Marines are attached to, has lost 79 men in Ramadi--yet the brigade's commander, Colonel John Gronski, says, "The level of violence remains about the same."

TIME spent a week with Kilo Company, the 120-person unit that goes head to head with the insurgents every day. The goal is to lure al-Qaeda into attacks, which Kilo Company has been doing successfully: in a single week, five men were wounded, three foot patrols were ambushed, and there were unrelenting attacks from small-arms fire and mortars. The experience of the Marines in Ramadi illuminates some of the shortcomings of the U.S. strategy for defeating the insurgency. The commander has only one brigade to secure the town, even though U.S. officers say privately that at least three are needed. Among the troops, frustration is growing: many officers say that the U.S. is too lenient in its dealings with the enemy, allowing too many captured insurgents to go free, and that soldiers can do little more than act as international police. Others claim that superiors are overlooking their reports about conditions on the ground. If the U.S. and its Iraqi allies are making progress in eroding the appeal of the resistance, the men in Ramadi don't see it. Says an American officer: "This s___ ain't going anywhere."

From the instant Kilo Company set foot in Ramadi, the Marines knew they were in the middle of an insurgent hotbed. Lance Corporal Jose (Syco) Tasayco was on the unit's earliest patrol outside the wire in March. "The first day was an eye opener. We got contact, that first patrol. It was like, wow, we couldn't believe it, but we got outta there good. Nobody got hit," he says. The Marines are based in the battle-scarred Government Center in the middle of Ramadi, a magnet for al-Qaeda attacks--one of the few ways the Marines can find their enemy. The precarious outpost also protects the nascent local government, which operates out of its confines.

Sitting sentry in the center of town, the Marines are a ripe target for insurgent assaults. On April 24, mortars begin crashing down on the compound, and the shuddering impacts force the grunts to take cover in their rooftop bunkers. From an alley in the northeast, an insurgent fires a rocket-propelled grenade that slams a wall along the narrow mouth of a sandbagged gun pit. Shards of hot metal penetrate the opening, hitting Corporal Jonathan Wilson. Blood pours down his neck. "Corpsman up, corpsman up," he cries--asking for a medic to head to the roof. He runs downstairs and collapses into the arms of a sergeant.

Meanwhile, shrapnel has shredded the left thumb of Lance Corporal Adam Sardinas. But he keeps his finger on the trigger of a grenade launcher, and it's not until another Marine arrives to relieve him that he finally turns for the slit doorway. "Let me get outta here," he says. "I'm hit pretty bad." But the battle goes on: below the Marines' outpost, al-Qaeda fighters toting AK-47s dart in and out of view. As blood from Sardinas and Wilson pools at his feet, Sergeant William Morrow grips the grenade launcher. A fellow Marine spots an insurgent in the open. "Waste his ass," Tasayco urges as they open fire on the enemy below.

Despite heavy losses among the insurgents--112 were killed in one week in April--they have proved resistant to the U.S.'s onslaughts. Intelligence officials increasingly refer to them as a "legitimate local resistance," but it's al-Qaeda that drives them. Long ago, al-Zarqawi's network settled in Ramadi and, in essence, hijacked the homegrown fight. Although Iraqi groups have bucked al-Zarqawi's authority periodically--most notably in last year's referendum and December election, when they opted to vote, forcing him to stand idly by--al-Qaeda maintains its grip.

U.S. efforts to woo Iraqi groups were beginning to pay dividends, as the city's tribal and insurgent leaders gave their approval for young Sunnis to join the new police force. Recruitment mostly ran at about 40 a month, though in January, 1,000 showed up to join. But al-Qaeda responded by sending a chest-vest suicide bomber into the queue of applicants, killing about 40 Iraqis, wounding 80, and killing two Americans. When the recruits returned days later, al-Zarqawi followed up with a wave of seven assassinations of tribal sheiks. "That hurt us a lot," says Gronski.

Given the ability of al-Zarqawi's men to melt into the city, Kilo Company has few options but to search for the insurgents on block-by-block foot patrols through the worst areas. It's perilous work. On one morning this month, Tasayco and Corporal Nathan Buck take their squad out to commandeer a small shopping complex, which will give cover for the rest of the platoon to push east. On the roof, Buck, his helmet emblazoned with the words DEATH DEALERS in thick letters, warns his Marines to stay alert. When Tasayco sees movement in a nearby window, Buck rises to check it out. An insurgent sniper fires at his head, cracking a round into the lip of the cement wall in front of him. "I should be dead right now," Buck says to Tasayco with a laugh.

It's not long before another round flies over their heads, this time from a little farther to the east. The sniper is moving, hunting them. Minutes pass with no more firing. But Tasayco is uneasy. The order comes over the radio to move back to base. "Be careful, we're gonna get hit," a Marine says as the men drop to the pavement. It's only 150 yards back to the Government Center, but every inch is hard won. Lance Corporal Phillip Tussey pauses on the edge of a small alley. With another Marine covering him, he makes a dash to cross the five yards of open ground. He doesn't get more than a couple of steps when a shot rings out. He's cut down mid-stride, hit in the thigh. The men around him open fire. Within seconds, insurgents start shooting from the opposite direction. A Marine tries to drag Tussey by a leg toward a humvee but gets stranded out in the open. Tasayco bolts forward and grabs the wounded man by the arm. Someone else joins him. Still firing, they shove him into the vehicle. Tasayco takes cover and looks for the shooter. "Where the hell is this guy at?" he hollers. No one answers. "C'mon, everybody, let's go. Pick it up. Get the f___ out of here, man," Tasayco shouts. All his men can do is run.

So why does Ramadi remain beyond the U.S.'s control? Part of the problem, many officers say, is that the troops' authority to act is constrained by politics. Soldiers cannot lock up suspected insurgents without first getting an arrest warrant and a sworn statement from two witnesses. And those who are convicted often receive jail sentences that are shorter than a grunt's tour of Iraq. "We keep seeing guys we arrested coming back out, and things get worse again," says an intelligence officer.

The bigger problem, though, is one that few in the military command want to hear: there aren't enough troops to do the job. "There's a realization, as every military commander knows, that you cannot be strong everywhere," says Gronski of Ramadi. "In the outlying areas, we think in terms of an economy of force where we are willing to accept risk by not placing as many troops." But while Gronski says his fighting strength is "appropriate," other commanders bristle at the limitations. "I can't believe it each time the Secretary of Defense talks about reducing force," says a senior U.S. officer. War planners in Iraq say just getting a handle on Ramadi demands three times as many soldiers as are there now. Several U.S. commanders say they won't ask superiors for more troops or plan large-scale operations because doing so would expose problems in the U.S.'s strategy that no one wants to acknowledge. "It's what I call the Big Lie," a high-ranking U.S. commander told TIME.

To be fair, gains are being made in Ramadi with the Iraqi army, the police and the young provincial government. A brigade intelligence officer says that "we are not getting excited because this is a long process--though we are winning. The tide is turning." But for those in the midst of the battle, that can sometimes be hard to see. "No matter what they say about the rest of the country, it ain't like this place," says a battalion officer in the thick of the fight. "It's the worst place in the world."
Posted by: Dan Darling || 05/22/2006 01:05 || Comments || Link || [1 views] Top|| File under:

#1  Since Broadhead6 knows al Anbar, really knows, I'd rather hear what he has to say than rely on Time. I'll agree with one thing in this piece - the Law Enforcement approach does not work, anywhere, and is a dead end - for good people.
Posted by: random styling || 05/22/2006 1:43 Comments || Top||

#2  Time is doing a bit of agitprop here. It's telling the truth but it's also twisting and embelishing it to promote it's own agenda. An agenda that is happy each time a US Soilders is killed and pushing the story to make sure that George Bush and "his war" look bad no matter what.
Posted by: Sock Puppet of Doom || 05/22/2006 4:18 Comments || Top||

#3  In another war, in another time and place, a city like Ramadi would have been handled much differently - but although Berlin or Dresden treatment would quickly end the Ramadi battle it would seriously set back the efforts to stabilize and unify Iraq, and to modernize and integrate the 'moderate' Muslim world.
Posted by: glenmore || 05/22/2006 7:53 Comments || Top||

#4  Yup, and that approach had to be tried. If it fails over the next few years, now that there is an elected Iraqi government (no matter what their struggles about filling the defense and interior minister slots), the clock is ticking on our willingness to support the slow, painful way to change.
Posted by: lotp || 05/22/2006 7:56 Comments || Top||

#5  This post shows why there is reason to believe we've done it properly in Ramadi.

These aren't modern Germans or Japanese we're dealing with, either. So it should come as no surprise that it is taking a while to clean things up and make them modern.

The payoff will come down the road when we change the middle east. And if not, we'll be justified in whatever we then have to do. We're trying to change the whole middle east, not conquer it. Drogheda didn't solve England's problems in Ireland. It's unlikely a repetition would work now in the ME.
Posted by: Nimble Spemble || 05/22/2006 8:09 Comments || Top||

#6  Agreed, NS.
Posted by: lotp || 05/22/2006 8:17 Comments || Top||

#7  Good story however a few areas seemed painfully propopanga-ish in the beginning

no reason to believe,
Bush Administration is eager to show that sufficient progress,
even though it includes some widely mistrusted figures,
the shortcomings of the U.S. strategy

Posted by: Jesing Ebbease3087 || 05/22/2006 9:01 Comments || Top||

#8  "widely mistrusted figures" that would be anything the MSM reports.
Posted by: Bright Pebbles || 05/22/2006 9:46 Comments || Top||

#9  It takes until about 99.5% of the article is done until you get this section,

"To be fair, gains are being made in Ramadi with the Iraqi army, the police and the young provincial government. A brigade intelligence officer says that "we are not getting excited because this is a long process--though we are winning. The tide is turning."

It must have cause Time Warner much pain to write these words.
Posted by: mhw || 05/22/2006 10:02 Comments || Top||

#10  When the newspapers edit for length, they lop off the bottom part, (usualy just filler in the bottom third) it was put there deliberately knowing that many papers/media would exise it without reading it.
The propoganda is always in the top of the articles so it will remain behind, the truth is put at the bottom deliberately.
Posted by: Redneck Jim || 05/22/2006 10:39 Comments || Top||

#11  So why doesn't the new Iraqi gov
1) empty the town
2) burn it
3) salt the ground.
Posted by: mojo || 05/22/2006 11:19 Comments || Top||

#12  This thing is so packed with spin that you could use it to generate a tornado.

Never reports on success, none on the improvments, none of the battlefield kills of the bad guys, etc.

Just a contonuous and relentless negative spin on things right out of the liberal Vietnam press playbook.

Repeatedly portrays the Marines as passive, waiting on the enemy to do things to them, then helpless and ineffective in the response.

Just word choice alone betrays the HUGE amount of author's bias in this article.

"Rocket!" screams a grunt.

Screams? Wounded scream. Victims scream. Soldiers and Marines YELL.

There's no reason to believe that the Americans' battle against Iraqi insurgents is going to get better.

Oh really? Seems a LOT of better informed people think so, including the people fighting the battle, as long as you dont spin the story and selectively quote them. In other words: PROVE there is NO reason... The highlighted above sentence is pure unsupported OPINION -- its editorializing, not reporting at all. It had no place in the article without some independently verifieable facts to support it.


As an addendum - this article was written at the HEIGHT of an attempt by Al Qaeda to disrupt the formation of the first freeley elected constitutional government of Iraq - as of now (May), the attacks have tapered off dramatically, as has the casualty rate - showing that the author of this article was flat out LYING. Anyone want to bet Time never prints a retraction or correction?

At least 18 U.S. troops died last week, raising the total killed since the invasion in March 2003 to 2,456.

Again the numbers game. One thing - not all 18 casualties were from Ramadi like the biased wuthor implies. Nor were all incurred while on combat patrol and abushes. It is IEDs that do a lot of that. And the other error is that number is not the total "killed" - its total fatalities - including heart attacks, suicides, car accidents, and even the Marines who drown when they flipped their tank off a bridge into a canal (which has happpened several times). So another disingenuous statement and an attempt to spin.

The goal is to lure al-Qaeda into attacks, which Kilo Company has been doing successfully: in a single week, five men were wounded, three foot patrols were ambushed, and there were unrelenting attacks from small-arms fire and mortars.

Notice that the ONLY thing reported were US casualties? Nothign at all about how many enemy were killed captured and wounded in these actions, nothing about the effects on the neighborhoods (as seen elsewhere in Iraq, when engaged, the Jihadi's tend to die a LOT and the neghborhoods turn and support the US and ISF). So there you go - more spin - only US casualties mentioned, none at all for the enemy, and no reported effects of the combat other than casualties. Goes with the reporter's mem of "we are marching our troops into ambush and gettign them killed for nothing - its Vietnam" - severe bias well illustrated.

Others claim that superiors are overlooking their reports about conditions on the ground.

Followed by ...

Sitting sentry in the center of town, the Marines are a ripe target for insurgent assaults. On April 24, mortars begin crashing down on the compound, and the shuddering impacts force the grunts to take cover in their rooftop bunkers

Yep - Officers that arent listening, brass that is oblivious, and our guys are just sitting ducks.

The following was particularly bad - not the use of "cries" - I've NEVER heard a marine CRY for the Doc.

"Corpsman up, corpsman up," he cries--asking for a medic to head to the roof. He runs downstairs and collapses into the arms of a sergeant.

Ah yes -the poor Marine as a victim, swooning like Scarlett O'Hara into his Sgt's arms, after crying. Christ on a crutch - the reporter should report it as it is, not some damned pussified report. Marines *yell* "CORPSMAN UP". They don't *cry* it. And "collapsing in the arms of" is bogus as well, he probably went into a shoulder carry by the SGT to get him to the Doc.

This reported is a biased asshole - and a disgrace to the men he is reporting about.

Get the f___ out of here, man," Tasayco shouts. All his men can do is run.

And there we go with another obviously one-sided portrayal. If you read that, our marines cannot fight this uber enemy, they can do nothing but RUN AWAY.

. Intelligence officials increasingly refer to them as a "legitimate local resistance,"

The Marines are based in the battle-scarred Government Center in the middle of Ramadi, a magnet for al-Qaeda attacks--one of the few ways the Marines can find their enemy.

OK, now the build up the enemy, by obliquely referencing some unnamed anonymous source, and then stating that we CANNOT find the enemy except by waiting for them to come out and hit us.

BULLSHIT.

But straight out of the Press playbook in vietnam, and more spin from Time.

"It's what I call the Big Lie," a high-ranking U.S. commander told TIME.

OK now he's finally got the last of the old Vietnam horseshit out: the command is lying to the troops and the middle commanders are lying to the Command - the "Big Lie" has now come into play.


Its pretty obvious that if this guy cant find a Vietnam+Tet he will use his words to MAKE one - and fool the American people into giving up so the reporter's side will win - that's the Democrats and cut-n-run Kos kids, and unfortunatley, the terrorists win too. Thats a cost the reporter and his ilk are willing to accept - to them, their politics are more important than national survival and freedom. He slants his article, words and draws such a desolate one-sided picture that you'd think that all was lost over there.

Good thing one-sided spinning half-truth biased assholes like the moron who wrote that for time no longer have a monopoly on the news - and that the troops in contact can tell their won stories without such slant, spin and bullshit as this guy adds with his omission and his choice of words to load and shade the meaning of EVERYTHING in this article.

This wants a news piece - this was pure propaganda aimed at derailing the will to fight by drinaing the support and mis-representing the actinos of our troops in Iraq.

Ho Chi Minh would be proud of that author, and of Time Magazine for serviing as a propaganda organ for Al Qaeda and the Islamofascists.
Posted by: Oldspook || 05/22/2006 12:09 Comments || Top||

#13  Awesome knockout series of uppercuts and haymakers, OS.

*standing ovation*
Posted by: random styling || 05/22/2006 12:15 Comments || Top||

#14  I just checked the author.

Micheal Ware.

Figures that rat bastard would be the turd that would churn out a 4 page spin-o-rama piece of shit like this. And that Time would buy it.

Remember folks, this is they guy who reported favorably on the AlQaueda terrorists - by teaming up with them and going on ops with them for MONTHS. He has repeatedly taken up the bad guys side in this, and now this article is just aotner continuation of the same.

Not to mention his personal politics flavor everything he does - he is a lefty, and hates the US and Bush.

He is a mouthpiece for murderers.

Ware is a grade A asshole - the Marines should have done the world a favor and shoved him out the friken window into the middle of the ambush.
Posted by: Oldspook || 05/22/2006 12:19 Comments || Top||

#15  I do love a good fisking; well written, Oldspook.
Posted by: trailing wife || 05/22/2006 12:20 Comments || Top||

#16  theres some spin here (nothing showing things will get better, contrasted with the final paragraph) but the reporter is definitely not hiding in the Green Zone, and seems to be hearing what the Marines are telling him, both the frustration with not enough troops, AND with the constraining ROE.

Sounds to me like Centcom has made the strategic decision that the Baghdad must be made better at all costs, and that all they can do in Anbar, given the resources available, is hold, and keept things from getting much worse. Things will get better in Anbar when A. The new govt peels part of the insurgency away B. There are more trained IRaqi troops and police available and C. The situation in Baghdad quiets down enough to release more US forces for Anbar. Given that the insurgency in Ramadi is heavily AQish, i think the hope is more on B and C than on A.


Good luck to these Marines. Whether they "cry" corpsman, or "yell" corpsman, these guys are brave, and doing a very hard job with not enough resources to do it. I salute them.
Posted by: liberalhawk || 05/22/2006 12:43 Comments || Top||

#17  In a way this is a 'set-up' piece for the one to come on Haditha as soon as the investigation report is released (assuming that report is even remotely similar to what Murtha has been saying.)
Posted by: glenmore || 05/22/2006 12:45 Comments || Top||

#18  I stopped reading as soon as I got to paragraph 3. It started "There's no reason to believe that the Americans' battle against Iraqi insurgents is going to get better." Then I checked the link and it made sense. Another anti-American opinion piece from Time. Trying to pass this propoganda as news again. Their game is up tho. They only have a small circle of kooks that believe anything they write.
Posted by: Intrinsicpilot || 05/22/2006 15:08 Comments || Top||

#19  We're killing them at a rate of 10:1 or 20:1, and things aren't getting better? BS!
Posted by: Chuck Simmins || 05/22/2006 15:23 Comments || Top||

#20  I must be getting old. I did the same thing as IntrinsicPilot! Graph 3!

Mmmm. I hate the smell of b277sh5t in the morning.
Posted by: OregonGuy || 05/22/2006 16:16 Comments || Top||

#21  Oldspook nailed it.

As I said this before is agitprop. Some facts are there if you dig rally hard. So this is the "reality" someone less discriminating gets while they read this in their Dr Office waiting room. Crap with little basis in reality. "Blame Bush." "the war is going badly."

These people ought to be held to account for their sedition and treason.
Posted by: Sock Puppet of Doom || 05/22/2006 16:26 Comments || Top||

#22  You notice somehting about Ware?

He NEVER goes back out with a unit after he has written about them, other than the Fedayeen Saddam and Al Qaeda.

I guess Ware is a smart guy after all. He knows he'd get zero breaks in the field with a unit he just portrayed as incompetent, screaming crybabies who were losing the battle for Iraq. They are anything BUT that. And he is anything BUT a reporter.


This editorial content passed off as reporting has got to stop. Somone needs to hold Time and Ware accountable for the lies of omission and comission in that article.

Tell you one thing, I ever meet him, I'm going to smash him dead in the mouth with my walking stick. It'll be worth it to take a charlatain like him to task in the only way he can apparently understand things.







Posted by: Oldspook || 05/22/2006 16:49 Comments || Top||

#23  One of my pet peeves is foreigners providing US "news". Their loyalties do not lie with America. Their press, where they cut their teeth, are much more to the left of the US press. Nor do they even give lip service to the credo of a "disinterested press", but explicitly act as a propagandist for "their" side.
Posted by: ed || 05/22/2006 19:09 Comments || Top||


Al-Maliki vows to take on militias
THE Prime Minister of Iraq, Nouri al-Maliki, said yesterday that he was prepared to use “maximum force” to rein in Iraq’s militias as he promised to name his Defence and Interior Ministers to complete his Cabinet within “two to three days”.

He was speaking a day after announcing the country’s first democratically elected Government at the end of five months of factional negotiations. It came on a weekend in which there were more than 50 deaths in attacks as feuding Shia and Sunni politicians struggled to unite for the sake of their country.

Mr al-Maliki told reporters after the Cabinet’s first meeting yesterday: “We cannot imagine stability and security in this country with the existence of the militias who kill for their special interests.”

He had promised to restore security, root out corruption and promote reconciliation between Iraq’s ascendant Shia majority and one-time Sunni elite. The former Shia hardliner said he would rein in the Shia militias that have been linked to the Interior Ministry and are blamed for the deaths of thousands of Sunnis.

The formation of the national unity Government was hailed by President Bush as “a new day for the millions of Iraqis who want to live in peace”. He said: “I fully understand that a free Iraq will be an important ally on the War on Terror, will serve as a devastating defeat for the terrorists and al-Qaeda and will serve as an example for others in the region who desire to be free.”

Margaret Beckett, the Foreign Secretary, quashed hopes of a swift withdrawal of British troops, adding that allied forces would be needed for “quite a while”. First reports of the new Iraq Government raised hopes of an early withdrawal for the 140,000 US and British troops, but Mrs Beckett said that they would remain as long as they were needed.

“We are making some progress in both training and putting into place an Iraqi army, an Iraqi police force, who will increasingly take over some of these responsibilities,” she said on the Sunday AM programme on BBC One, “but I would envisage that even when responsibility is handed over to those Iraqi forces, they will probably want some outside support for quite a while.”

Mr al-Maliki’s determination to clamp down on militias marks a break from his Dawa party’s close ties with them and his past as a clandestine fighter against Saddam Hussein’s regime. “Weapons should be in the hands of government,” he said. “The militias and death squads are irregular and extraordinary.”

The filling of the Interior and Defence posts is critical to fighting the three-year Sunni insurgency and stopping the Shia death squads operating from inside the Interior Ministry.

Mistrust abounds between the Shia and Sunni political blocs, who failed to reach agreement on the two influential posts before Saturday’s parliament session. A dozen Sunni MPs walked out before the vote on the rest of the Cabinet.

The Sunni National Accord Front, with 44 seats, has drafted a list of candidates for Defence Minister, and the 128-seat Shia majority bloc has compiled names for the Interior Ministry, but they have failed to strike a deal. Frontrunners for the Interior Ministry were said to be the current national security adviser, Muawaffaq al-Rubaie, and a retired general, Nasser al-Amri. The Sunnis have shortlisted some generals from Saddam’s military and the current army.

Mr al-Maliki’s greatest challenge is to show that he can put an end to the worsening violence, in which 33 people were killed in attacks on Saturday and at least 24 yesterday.

William Patey, the British Ambassador, said that Mr al-Maliki was the right man, but experts gave a grim analysis of the situation. “There is not a lot of ground for optimism,” Joost Hiltermann, of the Brussels-based Crisis Group think-tank, said. “Fundamental questions remain unresolved.”
Posted by: Dan Darling || 05/22/2006 01:03 || Comments || Link || [2 views] Top|| File under:


Ramadi "Prince of IEDs" captured
Based on tips, coalition forces located and killed six terrorists, detained three and destroyed a safe house and multiple weapons caches in Ramadi during a search May 17 for a wanted terrorist known as the "Prince of IEDs," military officials in Baghdad reported today.

The troops began taking fire immediately upon their arrival at the site where the al Qaeda leader and his associates were allegedly building improvised explosive devices.

During the course of the fighting, the troops took direct fire from various areas. They neutralized the threat with small-arms fire, killing six and detaining three terrorists, one of whom was wounded and medically evacuated.

The troops ultimately destroyed the identified safe house, which contained a large amount of lethal material, with precision bombs.

The forces also attacked a second safe haven, neutralizing the threat by ground and damaging the structure with air strikes.

After securing the targeted safe house, the troops found one heavy machine gun, two medium machine guns, rifles, a pistol, artillery shells, IED material, large oxygen tanks configured as IEDs, a suicide vest, rocket propelled grenades and one launcher.

Large amounts of discarded automobile parts were also present in the structure further, indicating that cars were likely being configured into vehicle-borne IEDs in keeping with the tips provided to coalition forces.

Also, troops discovered equipment and material used for making remote-controlled IEDs. The terrorists' equipment, weapons and ammunition were destroyed by ground charges and air strikes.

The troops also found an unharmed 8-year-old boy inside the safe house after they either killed or detained the terrorists. He told the soldiers he was being held against his will by these terrorists who abused and made him conduct minor tasks.

The forces took the boy to their base, provided care, and then arranged for transportation to take him back to his residence.

The targeted " Prince of IEDs" is reported to be a financier, an IED maker and a bomb facilitator for al Qaeda in Iraq in Ramadi.

Coalition forces are currently assessing the identities of the dead and detained.

One terrorist received a gunshot wound to his shoulder and was evacuated to a medical facility for further treatment.
Posted by: Dan Darling || 05/22/2006 01:02 || Comments || Link || [1 views] Top|| File under:

#1  "...8-year-old boy ... told the soldiers he was being held ..."

OK, anti-war activists, explain to me again why it is wrong to fight against these bastards.
Posted by: glenmore || 05/22/2006 7:56 Comments || Top||

#2  Because anyone who opposes the West, Jews, Christianity and capitalism are on the GOOD side.

Sheesh. Don't you know ANYTHING? [/sarcasm]
Posted by: lotp || 05/22/2006 8:02 Comments || Top||

#3  "OK, anti-war activists, explain to me again why it is wrong to fight against these bastards."

Bushitler is doing it, therefore it's wrong.

[/moonbat]
Posted by: Dave D. || 05/22/2006 8:24 Comments || Top||

#4  If Bushitler were a Democrat, we would be upholding the highest values of the United States. As it is, he is the worst criminal in the history of the world.

*sigh*
Posted by: bigjim-ky || 05/22/2006 9:13 Comments || Top||

#5  Prince of IED's, meet 'Prince of Fire Ant mounds'.
Posted by: mcsegeek1 || 05/22/2006 12:34 Comments || Top||

#6  Next target the queen of IEDs.
Watch out for the lavender and paisley on Thursday's cammo.
Posted by: 6 || 05/22/2006 17:34 Comments || Top||


US army kills two Al-Qaeda members in south Iraq
Two Al-Qaeda members were killed last Tuesday during a military operation conducted to the south of the Iraqi capital Baghdad, the US army said Sunday. An Army statement indicated that based on "timely intelligence reports," the coalition forces were able to locate and kill two Al-Qaeda members during a raid for being involved in terrorist operations in Iraq. According to the statement, "one of the terrorists killed, Abu Ahad, managed foreign fighter facilitation and also provided a modicum of command and control between several terrorist cells operating throughout the vicinity of Fallujah, Baghdad, Yusifiyah, Taji and Mahmudiyah." The report added that the other member killed in the raid was unidentified but intelligence officials affirmed his involvement in coordinating terrorist operations "as well as his association with Abu Ahad."
Posted by: Fred || 05/22/2006 00:00 || Comments || Link || [1 views] Top|| File under:

#1  Too bad we couldn't take these guys alive for some torture questioning an roll up a few cells in the process.
Posted by: wxjames || 05/22/2006 7:28 Comments || Top||

#2  Neither this article nor the original CentCom press release noted the units involved in this action. Hmmm.
Posted by: glenmore || 05/22/2006 8:02 Comments || Top||


Restaurant bombed, 15 arrested in Iraq
A bomb blast took place in a restaurant in the southern suburb of Baghdad killing 13 people and wounding 17 others, Iraqi police said on Sunday. The police attributed the high human casualties to the crowded restaurant, which carries the name of Safwan.

Meanwhile, the Iraqi defense ministry announced the arrest of 15 gunmen in operations throughout Iraq. A ministry's statement mentioned that 12 were arrested in the areas of Badosh and Al-Mousil, southern Iraq and other three were capture in Al-Khaldia, west of Baghdad. Weapons and explosive devices were seized during the operations.
Posted by: Fred || 05/22/2006 00:00 || Comments || Link || [1 views] Top|| File under:

#1  Way to go, Colonel.
Posted by: wxjames || 05/22/2006 7:31 Comments || Top||

#2  The humus must not have been halal.
Posted by: bigjim-ky || 05/22/2006 9:25 Comments || Top||

#3  No, the pastrami was old.
Posted by: Perfesser || 05/22/2006 9:46 Comments || Top||

#4  Nope. Crappy Cous Cous.
Posted by: mcsegeek1 || 05/22/2006 10:40 Comments || Top||


Israel-Palestine-Jordan
Senior al Qaeda Iraq leader arrested in Jordan
The unidentified captive taken into custody by Jordanian intelligence is described as a senior aide of Abu Musab al Zarqawi, linked to last September’s hotel bombings in Amman that left 60 dead. He is also accused of complicity in the “kidnap of Jordanians and Arabs, robbing commercial trucks” plying between the kingdom and Iraq and several other crimes.
Posted by: Steve || 05/22/2006 20:41 || Comments || Link || [2 views] Top|| File under:

#1  that's what? 162 senior aides? His birthday party is gonna be kinda sparse
Posted by: Frank G || 05/22/2006 21:00 Comments || Top||

#2  Have they posted a name yet?
Posted by: Thavilet Gluger3137 || 05/22/2006 21:36 Comments || Top||

#3  This is like my bank. I know 8 vice-presidents, as well as the other 5 employees.
Posted by: plainslow || 05/22/2006 21:40 Comments || Top||


Gunfight erupts at near Palestinian parliament
One person has been wounded in exchanges of gunfire between members of the Palestinian security forces and Hamas followers near the Gaza City branch of the Palestinian parliament, AFP says, quoting security sources. The Associated Press reported that a firefight erupted near the Palestinian parliament building in Gaza City on Monday and quoted witnesses as saying that the shooting came from an area where a new Hamas militia has been posted. Witnesses said the incident began when members of a Hamas militia came under fire and sought cover in an abandoned building. The militiamen exchanged fire with those shooting at them, the witnesses said. At one point, a Palestinian police car tried to approach, but was shot at. Ambulances raced to the scene.
Okay, the ritual Cursing of the Mustaches has been performed. Now back to seething and kiling Zionists!
Earlier on Monday, a Palestinian fighter was shot dead in clashes in the Gaza Strip despite pledges by Palestinian leader Mahmud Abbas and the Hamas-led government to avoid escalation of violence. Mohammed Abu Taima, who belonged to al-Aqsa Martyrs Brigades, a paramilitary faction linked to Abbas' Fatah party, suffered fatal sucking head wounds after rival Hamas fighers opened fire in the southern Gaza town of Abassan. A Fatah spokesman blamed Hamas for the attack, which also saw another Brigades fighter wounded. Hamas said on its website that its fighters wounded two people while foiling an attempt by Fatah to kidnap one of their officers.

The head of the security services and one of the most powerful figures in Fatah, Rashid Abu Shbak, escaped unharmed on Sunday after a bomb was discovered outside his home in Gaza City. A day earlier, Palestinian intelligence services chief Tareq Abu Rajab was seriously wounded and his bodyguard killed in a blast in Gaza.
Posted by: phil_b || 05/22/2006 09:18 || Comments || Link || [3 views] Top|| File under:

#1  'Mixed emotions here: Joy, and Happiness.

Red on red - I love it. Quick - more bullets for both sides.

Remember boys - whoever lets the other side whack the last Hard Boy is a wuss. Gunsex between opposing muzzie asshat teams is cool and macho.

Break out the popcorn. Yeee-doggeeeee!!!!!!!!!!
Posted by: Lone Ranger || 05/22/2006 9:50 Comments || Top||

#2  Red on Red! It's a splendid Monday.
Posted by: Besoeker || 05/22/2006 10:14 Comments || Top||

#3  Lightly salted, and fat free butter flavored topping please.
Posted by: mcsegeek1 || 05/22/2006 10:29 Comments || Top||

#4  Hey, some of us are on restricted diets!
Now, if there is a veggie snax platter (carrots & celery stix--yum!) available...
Posted by: N guard || 05/22/2006 11:50 Comments || Top||

#5  Over on the sideboard, N guard. And a nice, healthy baba ghanoush to dip in, for those of like mind. ;-)
Posted by: trailing wife || 05/22/2006 12:35 Comments || Top||

#6  "Mahmoud don't like it when you laugh. He gets the crazy idea you're laighing at him..."
Posted by: mojo || 05/22/2006 13:19 Comments || Top||

#7 
Audio:Burns Snacks
by GreenTea955
Posted by: Anonymoose || 05/22/2006 14:24 Comments || Top||

#8  I'm going to try wasabi popcorn.
Posted by: gromgoru || 05/22/2006 14:47 Comments || Top||

#9  Mustard popcorn? I'm not sure the paleos are even worth trying this kind of stuff.
Posted by: anonymous5089 || 05/22/2006 14:53 Comments || Top||

#10  Yeah, paleos are definitely the light snack variety...
Posted by: mcsegeek1 || 05/22/2006 15:09 Comments || Top||

#11  I can see the future headine:
"Parliamentary Debate Erupts as Paleostinian Gunfight"

These people are damn near undredeemable.
Posted by: JAB || 05/22/2006 16:36 Comments || Top||

#12  Em, how much for the chicken wing concession?
Posted by: 6 || 05/22/2006 17:35 Comments || Top||

#13  Thanks nomoose lol
Posted by: pihkalbadger || 05/22/2006 23:14 Comments || Top||


Someone in Jordan Wants to Buy Swedish Anthrax
Posted by: ed || 05/22/2006 08:19 || Comments || Link || [1 views] Top|| File under:

#1  I'm sure they just want it for humanitarian purposes, to find a cure for the poor suffering flocks of sheep infected with the disease.
Posted by: lotp || 05/22/2006 8:52 Comments || Top||

#2  Bugs and gas I'm not terribly worried about. While certainly nasty, US Postal system as the exception, they are difficult to work with, disperse, etc. Nuclear weapons are certainly another issue.
Posted by: Besoeker || 05/22/2006 10:26 Comments || Top||


Al Qaida: We tried to kill Abu Rajab
A group calling itself al-Qaida in Palestine threatened on Sunday to assassinate Palestinian Authority Chairman Mahmoud Abbas and other leaders of his Fatah party.

The group also claimed responsibility for Saturday's attempt on the life of Tarek Abu Rajab, commander of the PA's General Intelligence Service, who was seriously wounded when a bomb exploded inside an elevator in his headquarters in Gaza City. One of his bodyguards was killed and 10 others were wounded in the blast.

Meanwhile, PA security officials revealed that Hamas was purchasing more weapons ahead of a possible confrontation with Fatah in the West Bank.

"They are buying weapons from various sources," said one official. "They are even buying large amounts of weapons from Fatah dealers and this is very worrying."

In a leaflet distributed in the Gaza Strip, al-Qaida in Palestine said: "We declare our full responsibility for this operation. Your warrior brothers managed to place a bomb in the special lift used by the apostate Tarek Abu Rajab, but were hasty in detonating the device which should have been triggered once the lift door was closed." The group also threatened to kill other "apostate" PA officials, including Abbas, former security chief Muhammad Dahlan and top Fatah leader Abu Ali Shaheen.

This is the first time that the group issued a direct threat against Abbas. Two weeks ago, another al-Qaida-linked group issued a leaflet in which it threatened to "slaughter" Dahlan and some Fatah leaders under the pretext that they were conspiring with the US and Israel to bring down the Hamas government.

The latest threat came as PA security forces announced that they had thwarted an attempt to assassinate Rashid Abu Shabak, the overall commander of the PA security services and a Fatah leader.

PA security sources said a large bomb was discovered on Sunday morning next to Abu Shabak's home in Gaza City. They said the 70-kilogram device, which was found alongside the road used by Abu Shabak's convoy, was safely detonated by bomb experts.

Following the incident, hundreds of Fatah gunmen took to the streets, firing into the air and shouting slogans in support of Abu Shabak and Abbas. The gunmen also expressed their readiness to volunteer for the PA security forces to protect their leaders.

Fatah's armed wing, the Aksa Martyrs Brigades, issued a statement in which they claimed that Israel was behind the growing tensions between the party and Hamas.

"There is no presence for al-Qaida in Palestine," the group said. "These are only Israeli claims. Israel and its agents are behind the recent confrontations in the Gaza Strip."

In a separate development, scores of Palestinians marched in Ramallah to protest the torching of three cars belonging to Al Jazeera on Saturday night. The attack was apparently carried out by Fatah activists who were enraged by the network's failure to cover a Fatah demonstration in the city earlier in the day. Fatah leaders have also expressed their dismay with the Qatar-based station for airing interviews with Hamas leaders and for carrying live coverage of Prime Minister Islmail Haniyeh's Friday sermons in mosques in the Gaza Strip.

In Gaza City, dozens of Palestinian journalists staged a sit-in strike to protest the attack on Al Jazeera and other assaults on their colleagues over the past few weeks.

On Saturday, several Palestinian journalists who arrived to cover the explosion at the headquarters of the General Intelligence Service in Gaza City were beaten by security officers. Fatah and Hamas leaders who participated in the protest condemned the targeting of journalists and urged the PA security forces to take immediate action against the perpetrators.
Posted by: ryuge || 05/22/2006 00:32 || Comments || Link || [1 views] Top|| File under:

#1  So they are boasting about failure. What an inspiration to Palestinian youths!
Posted by: trailing wife || 05/22/2006 12:10 Comments || Top||


Palestinian rockets hit Sderot settlement
Two Israeli women were injured when a rocket fired by Palestinian militants in Gaza Strip hit an area near Sderot in south Israel. The injured women were taken to a hospital for treatment, Israeli radio said.

Seperatley, Al-Quds Brigades, the military wing of the Islamic Jihad movement in Palestine, said two rockets, were launched towards occupied Al-Majdal city, south of Israel late Saturday. The Brigades fired four more local made rockets, Quds 3, towards Sderot early Sunday.

Israeli army spokesman said a Palestinian rocket hit a school in Sderot causing damage. The school was empty at the time and no injuries were reported, he added. The Brigade said the attacks came in retaliation of the assasination of group leader Mohammad Al-Dahdouh yesterday in Gaza.
Posted by: Fred || 05/22/2006 00:00 || Comments || Link || [1 views] Top|| File under:


Assassination attempt against security chief thwarted
Palestinian security forces thwarted on Sunday an attempted assassination that targeted the chief of Palestinian internal security colonel Rashid Abu Shbak. "Unidentified people planted a bomb yesterday near the Palestinian official's house in the region of Tal Al-Hawa south of Gaza," a security source who asked to be anonymous said. "Explosive experts who examined the area estimated the bomb weighed at 70 kilograms." the source added, indicating that it was defused.

No Palestinian organization has claimed responsibility for an assassination attempt that targeted the chief of intelligence administration, Tariq Abu Rajab, headquarters yesterday. The blast wounded him and 15 people.

Arab News adds...
Hundreds of Fatah supporters and newly recruited members marched to the preventive security headquarters to show their solidarity with Abu Shbak and his apparatus. Officials from Fatah accused Hamas activists of planting the bomb. Abu Shbak has been a central figure in the power struggle since he was appointed by Abbas as head of three Palestinian security services.

A previously unknown group that links itself to Al-Qaeda yesterday claimed responsibility for the failed attempt to kill Rajab on Saturday. In a statement posted on a website, the group said: “Your brothers in the Al-Qaeda in the Land of the Perpetually Aggrieved organization were capable of reaching the workplace of... Abu Rajab. The Mujahedeen were able to plant a bomb in the elevator.”

The statement said Abu Rajab survived because the militants detonated the explosives before the elevator door had closed. The group also vowed to target Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas and Mohammed Dahlan, a former security chief.
Posted by: Fred || 05/22/2006 00:00 || Comments || Link || [1 views] Top|| File under:

#1  Shuks. Better luck next time.
Posted by: gromgoru || 05/22/2006 14:55 Comments || Top||


Ahmed Saadat charged in Israeli military court
A top Palestinian militant seized during an Israeli army raid on a Palestinian jail last March was indicted in a military court on Sunday on 19 terrorism-related charges. Ahmed Saadat, leader of the radical Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine, was charged with a series of crimes, including belonging to an outlawed group, overseeing the PFLP's military operations, incitement and arms dealing. The gray-haired Saadat entered the court under heavy guard with his legs shackled in chains. He did not speak to reporters.
Posted by: Fred || 05/22/2006 00:00 || Comments || Link || [1 views] Top|| File under:

#1  bet you wish they'd done the deal right in the first place, huh? Livin large, then BOOM
Posted by: Frank G || 05/22/2006 21:12 Comments || Top||


Al-Qaeda sez they boomed Tariq Abu Ghajab
DEBKAfile Exclusive: Al Qaeda from its Samarra base in Iraq takes responsibility for attempt on life of Palestinian General Intelligence chief Saturday. Abu Mazen is next in line. DEBKAfile’s counter-terror sources report the bulletin, released from Abu Musab al Zarqawi’s main strongholds in Iraq Sunday at 8:22 am, claimed the attempted assassination of Gen. Tariq Abu Ghajab, GI chief, who survived the huge, remote-controlled explosion, which ripped through the fortified GI HQ building in Gaza Saturday, May 20, killing his bodyguard and injuring 9 officers. The notice contains circumstantial details of the attack, indicating its authenticity. Abu Ghajab was taken to Tel Aviv Ichilov Hospital in critical condition at Abbas’s request.

DEBKAfile’s sources explain the Zarqawi network’s first major operation in Gaza as an attempt to make a statement: the Palestinian people’s fate will not be determined between the Palestinians and Israel – in reference to the talks held Sunday at Sharm al Sheikh by Mahmoud Abbas and Israeli ministers Tzipi Livni and Shimon Peres, or Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak’s meetings with both sides - but by the will of al Qaeda. Israeli officials did their best to cast doubt on al Qaeda’s claim to have hit Abu Ghajab when it was first aired by Hizballah’s al-Manar television station in Lebanon early Sunday.

On April 28, DEBKAfile exclusively quoted the al Qaeda cell in Gaza as threatening attacks on Palestinian and Israeli targets as soon as final orders came through rom Abu Musab al Zarqawi, al Qaeda’s Iraq chief. The Palestinian targets named for the “traditional slaughter of the infidels” were Mahmoud Abbas and the Fatah leaders closest to him: former interior minister Mohammed Dahlan, West Bank spokesman Yasser Abd Rabbo, deputy director of preventive security in Gaza, Samir Mashrawi, and Fatah leader in Rafah, Abu Ali Shiahin.

On May 14, DEBKAfile disclosed the influx into Gaza of some 100 al Qaeda fugitives on the run from Egyptian security forces in Sinai. They were primed for terrorist operations against the Palestinians and Israel.

It is not yet clear whether al Qaeda or Hamas, which is locked in an armed leadership struggle with Fatah, planted the 70-kilo bomb aimed against another pro-Abbas security chief in Gaza, Rashid Abu Shebak, on Sunday. His security officials discovered the bomb in time and defused it.
Posted by: Steve || 05/22/2006 00:00 || Comments || Link || [1 views] Top|| File under:

#1  Why are they out to get Abu Mazen? He is an impotent, powerless, washed up, hasbeen. Unless its that $1B he has on his ATM card, but that wouldn't go to HAMAS by default anyway. These guys have lost sight of any goal they ever had, perverted though it was. They are just killing people now, any people.
Posted by: bigjim-ky || 05/22/2006 9:28 Comments || Top||

#2  Any people as long as they are paleos like here is just fine for me, thanks very much.
Posted by: anonymous5089 || 05/22/2006 9:30 Comments || Top||

#3  Wasabi popcorn
Posted by: gromgoru || 05/22/2006 14:56 Comments || Top||


Southeast Asia
Philippines JI said to have suffered major setbacks
The Jema'ah Islamiyah cell the country has suffered major setbacks, bringing it back to square one, according to national security intelligence sources.

A source from the intelligence community who requested anonymity told The Manila Times that based on their assessment, "Mahina na ang cells ng JI" (The JI cells are weak).

The terrorists he disclosed, are somewhere in Western Mindanao and are being relentlessly tracked down by government operatives.

He attributed the frailty of the organization’s "field operators" to sustained police and military operations.

"After the two attacks in Bali, they have been the subject of operations. They are not ready and are not, at this point, ready to wage a real jihad," the source said.

"While they are still there, they have pulled back to the preparatory stage of their struggle," he added.

The preparatory stage, he said, entails propagation of the terrorists’ ideology, organizational development and capability build-up.

"They have apparently decided to "pull back" on their offensives to ease the pressure on their organization," the intelligence source explained.

The JI cells have temporarily folded for lack of funds, he added, claiming that the effective partnership of freedom-loving countries involved in the war against terror has denied the terrorist organization its resources.

"Medyo hirap sila mag-access o mag-transfer ng funds," (They are finding it difficult to access or even transfer funds), the source stressed.

He said that a confluence of factors, including the arrest of key players of the JI and its local counterparts, the Abu Sayyaf Group and the Rajah Sulaiman Revolutionary Movement (RSRM) as well as the seizure of valuable resources has placed the extremists the defensive.

Once the ranking leaders who know the financial trail, are gone, their underlings in the field are at loss where to get the funds because the contacts are gone, the source said in Filipino.

The last major attack perpetrated by the JI was in Bali in October last year where a series of blasts killed 25 people three restaurants in Jimbaran Beach, Bali and in Downtown Kuta.

In the Philippines, the last known attack was on Valentine’s Day last year on several targets in Makati, Davao and General Santos Cities which killed eight people and injured 150 others.
Posted by: Dan Darling || 05/22/2006 02:08 || Comments || Link || [2 views] Top|| File under:


Schools closed in Thailand's troubled deep South
Bangkok - Thai education officials, intimidated by a recent kidnapping and beating of two teachers that left one in a coma, decided on Sunday to shut down 100 schools in the troubled, majority Muslim province of Narathiwat until security can be assured.

Pairuj Saengthong, director of the Narathiwat Office of Education, said 100 of the province's 199 schools would be closed 'for an indefinite period' starting from Monday.

Narathiwat is part of Thailand's majority Muslim 'deep South,' comprising the country's three southernmost provinces that border Malaysia that once made up the independent Islamic sultanate of Pattani.

On Friday, irate villagers in Rangae district of Narathiwat kidnapped two teachers as a reprisal against the government's arrest of suspected Muslim separatists in the area.

The two women teachers were severely beaten before security personnel could arrive on the scene, and one of them is in a coma and expected to succumb to her head injuries.

Many fellow teachers of the victims blamed Thai security personnel for arriving at the scene too late and for failing to coordinate better with teachers.

Pairuj said the Narathiwat schools will reopen if officials apprehend and punish those who had attacked the two teachers, investigate why officials on the scene had let Friday's situation get out of hand, and beef up security for teachers in the area.

Thai authorities have arrested two suspects.

More than 1,200 people have died in clashes, ambushes, shootings, explosions and beheadings in the deep South since January 2004, when the area's long simmering separatist struggle started to escalate.

The area, known in the Muslim world as Pattani, was first conquered by Bangkok in 1786 but only came under direct rule of the Thai bureaucracy in 1902.

Pattani's long-lasting separatist struggle has been fuelled by the local population's sense of religious and cultural alienation from the predominantly Buddhist Thai state.
Posted by: ryuge || 05/22/2006 01:00 || Comments || Link || [1 views] Top|| File under:

#1  More than 1,200 people have died in clashes, ambushes, shootings, explosions and beheadings in the deep South since January 2004, when the area's long simmering separatist struggle started to escalate.
And Thai authorities have arrested two. You had better get more than that and reverse this senseless slaughter.
Posted by: wxjames || 05/22/2006 7:26 Comments || Top||

#2  I posted a story here (a least a year ago) from the Thai press showing the Thai gov't groveling to the Islamists. They were boosting funding to the madrassas, and making all kinds of concessions...
Posted by: Seafarious || 05/22/2006 10:00 Comments || Top||


Manila Rejects Appeal to Free Misuari
The Philippine government yesterday rejected an appeal by the Organization of the Islamic Conference (OIC) to release a jailed Muslim leader to help boost peace efforts in the southern region of Mindanao. Presidential spokesman Ignacio Bunye stressed that only the courts could decide on the release of Nur Misuari, leader of the former separatist group Moro National Liberation Front (MNLF). "This is exclusively within the sole prerogative and wisdom of the court trying his case," he said. "On the part of the executive branch, it has extended all the medical assistance and humanitarian treatment to Misuari that is possible under the law, also in deference to the OIC. The rest is left to the independent judgment of the court," he said.
The last time he was out of jug, he decided to shoot up half of Midanao. Personally, I make it a point not to trust anybody with a brassiere cup on his head. I always wonder why he needs it.
An OIC contingent visiting Mindanao to check on implementation of the MNLF-Philippine peace accord on Saturday called on Arroyo to free Misuari, saying such a move would be a "catalyst" for lasting peace in the south.
Posted by: Fred || 05/22/2006 00:00 || Comments || Link || [1 views] Top|| File under:

#1  Lol, Fred... It's a WonderBra cup, so it makes him smarter. Or something. Y'know, he looks like a Big Blue City Councilman. Not sure who copied who.
Posted by: random styling || 05/22/2006 1:52 Comments || Top||

#2  I was there for that one with this jerk. He used women and children as human shields while he escaped like the coward he was. The Phils should have shot him when they had the chance.
Posted by: 49 Pan || 05/22/2006 12:13 Comments || Top||


Sri Lanka
Two soldiers killed, another injured in mine attack in Sri Lanka
Two soldiers were killed and one was injured Sunday in two separate mine attacks carried out by suspected Tamil rebels in Northern and Eastern Sri Lanka. News agency Indo-Asian News Service quoting an army spokesman, reported from capital Colombo that 20 to 25 soldiers who were on a road clearing mission were attacked by anti-personnel Claymore mine at in Vavuniya, about 250 kilometers north of the capital. One soldier was killed on the spot and another was injured, the spokesman said.

In another incident in the eastern district of Trincomalee, a soldier who was on a road clearing mission, was killed in the mine attack, the spokesman added. Over 250 people have been killed since the beginning of April, which has endangered the Norwegian backed ceasefire between the Sri Lankan government and Tamil rebels, the agency reported.
Posted by: Fred || 05/22/2006 00:00 || Comments || Link || [1 views] Top|| File under:

#1  Did a mental double-take at the headline, first thought was "What are they digging out of that Mine that's so valuable as to be a target?"

Can we say "Landmine" in the future?
Posted by: Redneck Jim || 05/22/2006 10:47 Comments || Top||

#2  Since when do Claymore mines attack people? In my ignorance I had supposed mines were poor, passive thingies that exploded when stepped upon by those ignorant of their presence or exact location.
Posted by: trailing wife || 05/22/2006 12:15 Comments || Top||


Syria-Lebanon-Iran
Debka: Bush To Do Iran One In The Eye, Arm Israel And Gulf States With Bunker Busters
The intention is to arm US allies with a deterrent against Iran by sharing with them the means for striking the Islamic Republic’s underground nuclear installations. This Massive Ordnance Penetrator – MOP – known as BIG-BLU - weighs in at 13,600 kilos and can destroy 25% of its targets in bunkers buried beneath 60 meters of reinforced concrete, a depth greater than any other bomb of its type.

DEBKAfile’s military sources note that this bomb in Saudi hands will also serve the oil kingdom as a deterrent against Israel’s atomic weapons program. In this way, the Bush administration demonstrates it is not solely targeting the military weapons activities of Muslim nations. The bunker busters will no doubt come with strings attached with regard to their use.
The only BIG-BLUs the Saudis will see will have their name on it
Israeli prime minister Olmert, who is due at the White House Tuesday, said he hoped Bush "will lead other nations in taking the necessary measures to stop Iran form becoming a nuclear power."

DEBKAfile’s Washington’s sources say the Bush administration has little faith in other nations, especially the Europeans, acting to stop Iran, and has embarked on preparations for action on its own initiative. In these circumstances, Israeli ambivalence would be the preferred public stance rather than explicit dependence on Washington.
Posted by: Anonymoose || 05/22/2006 18:12 || Comments || Link || [2 views] Top|| File under:

#1  WTF?
Posted by: 3dc || 05/22/2006 18:33 Comments || Top||

#2  WTdeliverysystem?
Posted by: Nimble Spemble || 05/22/2006 18:35 Comments || Top||

#3  C-130.
Posted by: ed || 05/22/2006 18:38 Comments || Top||

#4  DEBKA's been into the hashish again.

Although the Direct Strike Hard Target Weapon concept was unfunded as of 1997, in early 2002 it was reported that Northrop-Grumman and Lockheed Martin were working on a 30,000-lb. earth penetrating guided conventional weapon, said to be known as "Big BLU" or "Big Blue" [which is also the nickname of the 15,000-lb surface burst BLU-82]. Big BLU will be GPS guided and feature cobalt-alloy penetrator bomb body that enables it to penetrate to depths of up to 100 feet below the surface before detonating. The bombs are so large that a bomber such as the B-2 could carry one of them. As of March 2002 reportedly three Big BLUs had been ordered by the Air Force on an urgent basis.

BIG-BLU can only be carried by the B52 or B2. In order to penetrate deep enough, you have to drop it from on high.
Posted by: Steve || 05/22/2006 19:19 Comments || Top||

#5  it's called "playing with the mullahs' minds"

heh heh

you know they've been promised persaonal safety in deep bunkers by the crazy guy
Posted by: Frank G || 05/22/2006 19:24 Comments || Top||

#6  I heard this last week from debka, is it another, or the same article?
Posted by: Jesing Ebbease3087 || 05/22/2006 20:17 Comments || Top||

#7  This one is dated 22 May, may be reprint
Posted by: Steve || 05/22/2006 20:46 Comments || Top||

#8  Well, as part of the deal, maybe it comes with FedEx same day delivery, if you know what I mean and I think you do.
Posted by: Anonymoose || 05/22/2006 20:46 Comments || Top||


Terror Networks
Role of KSM nephew Ammar al-Baluchi in the 9/11 attacks comes into focus
Until recently, Ammar al-Baluchi was considered a peripheral player in Al Qaeda, a functionary who made travel arrangements and wired money for terrorists.

But new government disclosures place Baluchi in a larger role in the Sept. 11 preparations and rank him No. 4 among the conspirators captured by U.S. forces after the 2001 terrorist attacks.

Indeed, investigators say he was instrumental in acquiring a Boeing 747 flight simulator and a Boeing 767 flight-deck video for the hijackers to practice on before heading to the United States.

"He was turning up everywhere we looked — like a chameleon," recalled one federal agent who spoke on condition of anonymity because of ongoing investigations.

A man of many names, Baluchi seemed to have his hand in everything.

He allegedly served as travel agent, personal banker and mother hen for at least nine of the 19 hijackers, sending them off from Dubai, United Arab Emirates, for their fateful rendezvous in the United States.

Baluchi also reportedly sent onetime "dirty bomb" suspect Jose Padilla on his way to Chicago with thousands of dollars and travel documents, though Padilla was captured as he stepped off the plane.

He tried to sneak a terrorist into New York to blow up gas stations on the East Coast, according to evidence in another terrorism trial. And when he was captured in April 2003, he was found hiding in his native Pakistan with the man behind the suicide attack on the U.S. Navy destroyer Cole.

A few of Baluchi's activities were sketchily cited in the Sept. 11 commission report and elsewhere. He has been variously identified as Ali Abdul Aziz Ali and, more simply, as "Losh" in the Sept. 11 conspiracy. In the plot to blow up gas stations on the East Coast, he presented himself variously as "Habib" to one collaborator and "Mustafa" to another.

But it was not until the end of the sentencing trial of avowed Sept. 11 conspirator Zacarias Moussaoui that a clearer portrait of Baluchi emerged.

The last piece of evidence in the trial was a four-page document in which the government, for the first time, officially identified the six top Al Qaeda figures captured in the Sept. 11 plot.

The captives were listed in order of importance, and Baluchi came in at No. 4.

Believed to be in his late 20s, Baluchi was born into the business. The man at the top of the list, Sept. 11 mastermind Khalid Shaikh Mohammed, is his uncle. His first cousin is Ramzi Ahmed Yousef, architect of the 1993 World Trade Center bombing.

Baluchi's multiple identities kept investigators at bay. Finally, it was his own slip-up in providing personal contact information for a wire transfer to hijacker Nawaf al Hamzi that "helped the FBI unravel his aliases," the Sept. 11 commission said.

Others on the list: No. 2, Ramzi Binalshibh, and No. 3, Mustafa Ahmed al-Hawsawi, both Sept. 11 financiers; No. 5, Walid Muhammad Salih Bin al-Attash, also known as "Khallad," who helped formulate the Sept. 11 operation after his earlier success orchestrating the 2000 attack on the Cole; and No. 6, Mohammed al-Qahtani, the man now confirmed as the intended 20th hijacker who was denied U.S. entry by Customs officials in Florida shortly before the attacks.

Baluchi was reportedly hiding with Attash in Pakistan when both were captured in a raid by local officials in April 2003. A month earlier, Baluchi's uncle, Mohammed, was apprehended, and Baluchi and Attash were trying to take up his mantle and push ahead with new terrorism plots. One was the plan to blow up East Coast gas stations.

The government document described Baluchi as "a key travel and financial facilitator for the Sept. 11 hijackers," a role assigned to him by his uncle. His work on the Sept. 11 plot began as early as January 2000 when, at his uncle's request, "he purchased a Boeing 747-400 flight simulator" using the credit card of Marwan al Shehhi, who piloted the second plane into the trade center.

In spring 2001, Baluchi's uncle sent him to Dubai to organize "hotel reservations, future travel arrangements and local shopping needs" for the hijacking teams.

"In the end," the government said, "Baluchi assisted at least nine of the hijackers as they came through Dubai en route to the U.S. He helped them with plane tickets, travelers checks and hotel reservations. He also taught them everyday aspects of life in the West, such as purchasing clothes and ordering food."

The Sept. 11 panel said "Ali Abdul Aziz Ali," or Baluchi, also used funds from Shehhi's credit card to acquire a Boeing 767 flight-deck video and pilot literature, and had them shipped to his workplace, a computer wholesaler in the United Arab Emirates.

But the July 2004 commission report doubted that Baluchi was clued in to the magnitude of the Sept. 11 operation. Rather, the panel said, he would have "assumed the operatives he was helping were involved in a big operation in the United States." But "he did not know the details."

In footnotes referring to CIA and FBI intelligence documents, the commission said Baluchi asked his uncle if he could participate in whatever the suicide mission was. In May 2001 he "appears to have" contacted Mohamed Atta, the lead hijacker, "to join the operation," the footnotes state.

Baluchi did apply in Dubai for a U.S. visa on Aug. 27, 2001, listing his intended arrival date as Sept. 4 — one week before the hijackings. But his entry was denied because the U.S. viewed him as an economic immigrant coming here to stay.

In summer 2004, then-Deputy Atty. Gen. James B. Comey testified on Capitol Hill about the Padilla case. Padilla was arrested in May 2002 at O'Hare International Airport, after allegedly returning to this country from Central Asia to scout for fresh bombing targets.

Comey said Padilla told interrogators that Baluchi was Mohammed's "right-hand man." He said Baluchi gave him $10,000 in cash, travel documents, a cellphone and an e-mail address to notify him once he landed in Chicago.

"Padilla also said something else remarkable," Comey said. "He said that the night before his departure, he attended a dinner with Khalid Shaikh Mohammed, with Ramzi Binalshibh and with Ammar al-Baluchi. That is, the night before Jose Padilla left on his mission to the United States, he was hosted at a farewell dinner by the mastermind of September the 11th and the coordinator of those attacks."

And ultimately, there was the plot to blow up gas stations.

In November 2005, Uzair Paracha, a young Pakistani, was convicted in federal court in New York of conspiring to help Al Qaeda in its failed effort to bomb the stations.

At the trial, attorneys read written statements to the jury from secret interrogations with Baluchi and another Al Qaeda operative, Majid Khan, about a series of meetings over dinner and at an ice cream parlor in Pakistan with Paracha and his father, Saifullah Paracha. The father is now a detainee at the U.S. naval base prison at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba.

The government's case centered on Baluchi and Khan offering to pay the Parachas $200,000 if they would falsify visa documents to get Khan into the United States so he could bomb the stations.

In his statement, Baluchi said he kept his cover with the Parachas and they never believed him to be a bona-fide Al Qaeda leader. But after Baluchi's uncle was arrested and his photograph seen worldwide, Baluchi showed Saifullah Paracha the "famous picture of KSM's capture, and Saifullah Paracha was surprised to learn that KSM was as important a man as he was," Baluchi boasted in his statement.

A month later, Baluchi was taken into custody in a crackdown in Karachi, Pakistan. About 25 operatives were rounded up, including Attash, the man behind the Cole bombing.

It was the capture of Attash that seized the headlines that day. Even President Bush trumpeted the arrest, proclaiming: "He's a killer."

Baluchi went largely unnoticed.
Posted by: Dan Darling || 05/22/2006 01:15 || Comments || Link || [1 views] Top|| File under:


WND: Al-Qaida group funded by Christian-slave trade
Pakistani, American missionaries film purchase of 20 boys in sting
Two Christian men – one an American evangelist and the other a Pakistani missionary – have exposed a senior member of an al-Qaida-linked group behind a trade in Christian children by going undercover and secretly filming their purchase of 20 boys, age six to 12.

Gul Khan, a wealthy militant and senior member of Jamaat-ud Daawa, an Islamic organization declared by the U.S. State Department to be a front for another banned terrorist group banned in Pakistan for joining with al-Qaida in 2003 in an attempted assassination of President Pervez Musharraf, was filmed by a hidden camera accepting $28,500 from a Pakistani missionary posing as a businessman wanting to purchase boys to work for him as street beggars.

The two Christian men hatched their elaborate sting after seeing pictures of the abducted boys, taken from Christian villages in the Punjab, the London Times reported. During the months the two developed their plan, the American evangelist, who runs a small charity called Help Pakistani Children returned to the U.S. to raise funds. He asked to be identified only as "Brother Dave," His Pakistani counterpart took on the identity of a businessman named "Amir."

"We knew if we just purchased the boys, the slavers would just restock. We would be fuelling the slave trade," said Brother David.


Neither man knew when Amir made contacts in the black market to set up a meeting with the boys' abductors, the trail would lead to Khan or the JUD.

"We realized we were out of our depth," Brother David said. But they didn't give up – and they prayed.

Within a week, Amir had purchased three of the boys for $5,000 and paid a $2,500 deposit for the remaining 17. Amir was given two months to raise $28,500 to complete the purchase. Khan, he said, told him it would not be a problem if the deadline was missed – he could make more money by selling them for their organs.

While Brother David was in the U.S. raising the needed funds, Amir continued to socialize with Khan who always had a retinue of Kalashnikov-toting bodyguards. He also began to work with the police in hopes they would arrest Khan, but the authorities insisted that any transaction be secretly recorded for evidence.

Almost two weeks ago, Amir was summoned to meet Khan to complete the deal. Although police, disguised as laborers, were stationed close to the outdoor meeting site, Khan's agents took Amir and his assistant to a second location for the exchange.

To Amir's dismay, Khan took the bag of cash – and the assistant as a hostage – saying he would release the children and the assistant once he determined the currency was real. Khan was filmed driving from the meeting with a bag full of money to the JUD headquarters at Muridke, near Lahore.

In the late '90s, Osama bin Laden funded the building of JUD's headquarters. The group's assets were frozen last month after the U.S. Treasury Department declared the group a terrorist organization.

"I was so praying that your money was good," Amir's assistant told him later.

After several hours, the hostage and 17 boys were freed. They have been returned to their parents, many of whom had given up hope of ever seeing their sons.

The two Christian men are prepared to present their evidence and have demanded the prosecution of Khan and an investigation of JUD, but the police told them the reach of Pakistan's Islamic groups is too long for them to be dealt with directly. They continue to flourish, despite repeated "crackdowns" on extremists by the Pakistan government.

JUD's leader, Hafez Muhamed Sayeed, was accused of inciting riots earlier this year in connection with the cartoons of the prophet Muhammed published by a Danish newspaper.

"The slavers must be stopped and brought to justice," Brother David said. "I pray that a public outcry will arise in Pakistan and around the world that will put an end to their vile business."
Posted by: Spimp Greash3798 || 05/22/2006 00:53 || Comments || Link || [1 views] Top|| File under:

#1  20 boys, age six to 12. Now why would a nefarious arab asshole want to buy a bunch of pre-pubescent little boys.

Sick bastards. Shooting is too good for them. They deserve to be castrated with a rusty knife and left to die from lockjaw.
Posted by: bigjim-ky || 05/22/2006 9:19 Comments || Top||

#2  We debated this yesterday, but the comments were in line with yours, bigjim.
Posted by: phil_b || 05/22/2006 9:24 Comments || Top||

#3  LGF sez it's possibly a HOAX:

"An LGF reader has emailed, casting doubt on this story and pointing out that the author is Marie Colvin, one of the people who perpetrated the “Israeli Ethno Bomb” hoax."
Posted by: random styling || 05/22/2006 10:27 Comments || Top||


Rantburg Instalanche!
Incoming!

I DON'T THINK I'VE LINKED RANTBURG LATELY, but you should still be reading it, as it collects all sorts of war news in one convenient location.
Welcome, visitors! Take off your shoes and stay awhile.

Uhhh... And watch your hat and coat. And don't play with the beaver. He bites.

Posted by: Barbara Skolaut || 05/22/2006 00:00 || Comments || Link || [2 views] Top|| File under:

#1  Heh.
Posted by: Seafarious || 05/22/2006 0:11 Comments || Top||

#2  One day late. They missed a fabulous discussion yesterday.
Posted by: Phamp Elmereth7476 || 05/22/2006 0:17 Comments || Top||

#3  Fred's servers are gonna really be stress tested!
Posted by: DarthVader || 05/22/2006 0:25 Comments || Top||

#4  I think PE means this one.

Read the whole day here.
Posted by: phil_b || 05/22/2006 0:37 Comments || Top||

#5  don't forget the AQ organlegging little christian kids in pakiwakiland.
Posted by: 3dc || 05/22/2006 1:26 Comments || Top||

#6  Thats just the tip of the iceburg the human tissue sales 3dc. They will and are doing anything to fund jihad.

If you are not a muslim you don't count because you are not a human. That is what 99% of the non muslim people on this planet don't know but every muslim does. Your life is worthless and the taking of it in any way a muslim wishes is OK. They still get to go to islamic heaven.
Posted by: Sock Puppet of Doom || 05/22/2006 1:37 Comments || Top||

#7  Dang!

I was in the city all day yesterday and obviously missed out on a great debate!

I don't believe extermination of the entire muslim population is a viable option for any number of reasons.

I will post something more in opinions later.
Posted by: DanNY || 05/22/2006 8:33 Comments || Top||

#8  "I don't believe extermination of the entire muslim population is a viable option for any number of reasons."

Yeah, too smelly.
Posted by: mcsegeek1 || 05/22/2006 9:03 Comments || Top||

#9  I don't believe extermination of the entire muslim population is a viable option for any number of reasons.

DanNY is right on this point. But it's a bit of a red herring. The real issue is whether we will be forced to kill large numbers of Muslims and take official action against Islam - or at least against certain forms of Islam - as an ideology, in order to defend ourselves and our civilization.

I hope not.
Posted by: lotp || 05/22/2006 9:32 Comments || Top||

#10  Great stuff yesterday. I don't think any Westerner desires to exterminate an entire population, but the redical Islamo terrorists have defined this war, not us. We are backed into a corner of capitulation or respond with force. We have no other choice and that is frustrating. I still side with ol Alaska Pauls comments on our first strike should be at the money line. Taking away the funding and national leadership will take the weapons out of their hands will cripple their ability to hurt the US with another strike. I see the funding as the key logistical LOC that must be cut. Then we will isolate them and without funding they will wither away. Iran is still the center of gravity on this war and we should isolate and strike them. Only then will be in a position for the US to clip the radicals one at a time and keep this at bay.
Posted by: 49 Pan || 05/22/2006 13:15 Comments || Top||

#11  I still see the reality that large numbers "innocents" will have to pay for the actions and philosophy of fascists that have decided they are safest in hiding in their masses.

This is not a safe philosophy to let flourish and spread. Every day we put it off just means more will pay than need be. Every student in every Saudi funded madrasa is a jihadi in training for their war. Look at the results in Pakistan. The madrasas are spring up like wild fire all over the globe, even in the US of A. The time for setting around an navel gazing is over.
Posted by: Sock Puppet of Doom || 05/22/2006 16:35 Comments || Top||

#12  Yeah, too smelly.

Can you beleive that they smell just as bad on inside as they do on the outside?
Posted by: AlmostAnonymous5839 || 05/22/2006 17:27 Comments || Top||

#13  This entire topic has been ruminated upon several times hereabouts before now. In my own personal case, any support I used to feel for the so-called (and increasingly mythical) Moderate Muslim™ has been eroded nearly entirely by their collective Thundering Silence™. Look closely and you will find that the suicide murderers are not the sons and daughters of imams and mullahs, instead they are the children of those selfsame Moderate Muslims™.

They are part of a religion that greets apostasy with death fatwas. Until some small voice of reason tells them that this alone is reason to reject such a brittle and insecure faith, they are all entitled to what their religion dishes out in turn. It is this death-for-apostasy mentality that so perfectly reflects the zero-sum mentality noted in the linked thread. Any and all threats or competition are viewed by Islam as worthy only of death. Additionally, the culture is so void of progressive or innovative thought that they cannot possibly imagine any other mode of success save that of appropriating the wealth of others (much like Spanish colonialism). All of this points toward an entirely non-negotiable confrontation. What evidence has been given, to date, that Islam is prepared to compromise or negotiate? None, zip, zero, nada, zilch, bupkus.

Very soon, either al Qaeda or Iran will obtain nuclear arms. Just one single strike against the United States will thrust our economy back at least a DECADE. Glassing over the Middle East in retaliation will do nothing, repeat NOTHING, to reverse the deleterious effects of a terrorist nuclear strike upon American soil. An Islamic holocaust will prevent any further recurrence, but will not counteract the monstrous damage done to our nation should this come to pass.

Islam is in its "Golden Hour". Not its glory years, but instead that precious 60 minute interval whereby proper medical or surgical intervention can reverse impending fatality. The wounds that Islam currently accumulates are largely self-inflicted, merely regard the incessant Muslim on Muslim violence in Iraq or elsewhere throughout Islam's entire history. The last glimmer of hope for avoiding a catastrophic endgame in the Middle East is rapidly fading. For any of you who doubt this, I refer you to Wretchard's masterful summary of the implication of a nuclear exchange with Islam, "The Three Conjectures".

Link:

http://belmontclub.blogspot.com/2003_09_01_belmontclub_archive.html

If you have not read this superb piece and the two addenda that precede it on the page (scroll half way down to the main article), I urge you in no uncertain terms to read it now. Whether or not Islam succeeds in subjugating the United States, all that awaits them is extermination at the hands of the Russians or Chinese. We would be insane to ignore this fact and immolate ourselves upon the altar of "soft power" for the sake of proving whatever merits of this dubious point.

Islam seeks nothing short of Global Cultural Genocide™. It will not be satisfied with mere coexistence. Complete and total assimilation is what it requires. To recklessly cast off centuries of progress in the name of peacefully coexisting with a violent and regressive religion makes less than zero sense. Look around you, every single day another 9-11 happens. Another 3,000 people die , either directly at the hands of Islamists or because this minute fraction of Muslim fanatics have diverted such a outrageous sum of financial expenditure towards fighting their terrorism with heavy-handed security measures, that we now neglect far more important tasks; Such as fighting famine, disease, illiteracy or the ritualized abuse of women (this last is largely Islam’s fault).

Disregarding this brutal daily toll, consider what would happen if the Caliphate were installed. A regression back to the technology of 700 CE would entail the swift and tortuous death of half this world's population. Ignore the pogroms and jihads, focus only on the denial of so much "decadent" Western medicine that allows women to see male doctors. How many women would die of preventable illnesses due to the unavailability of female medicos? Now multiply this by all the other different culturally unacceptable factors that Islam finds inimicable about the West and the death toll skyrockets. The Caliphate would represent nothing more than Global Cultural Genocide™

How much longer shall we countenance these constant and daily 9-11s until all of us cry, “No more!”? Islam has already shown itself willing to embrace death on any scale imaginable so long as it attains even a shred of its aims. How much longer shall we watch our daily lives be eroded by the intrusion of needless security measures (were Islam not a threat) and diversion of vital capital from the betterment of our world? How much longer do we have before Iran, al Qaeda or some stateless terrorist proxy wreaks nuclear havoc upon Western civilization? We have already witnessed Islam’s willingness to incur incredibly lopsided death tolls in pursuit of their domineering agenda. What more indication do we need before we begin payment in kind?

A relentless program of exterminating those who preach violent jihad must begin immediately. Abu Hamza, Yusuf Qaradawi, Abu Bakr Bashir, Moqtada Sadr, Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, Hassan Nasrallah and all others who seek to re-ignite the Jewish Holocaust must be eliminated by hunter-killer teams. When those who would shout “Death to America” must first look over their shoulder, things will begin to progress. Only when advocating violent jihad brings swift and certain death will those who propel it begin to rethink their strategy.

America has received sufficient notice from the Muslim world that our way of life shall be forfeit in their hands. We must now show the steely resolve necessary to make Islam’s quality of life suffer in equal and advance measure to deter those who would inflict it upon us. Each day that we delay this brings closer an atrocity upon American soil by which 9-11 will pale in comparison. Islam’s obsession with holocaust and genocide must be laid at its doorstep with unmistakable repercussions for the least hesitation to abandon such. As shown in “The Three Conjectures”, this is Islam’s golden hour, they face their death knell by continued pursuit of dominance. Should the extermination of all Muslims be the price paid for ending this slow death of a thousand cuts, then so be it. My desire for such a holocaust is only in equal measure to Islam’s unwillingness to abandon its obsessive quest for violent conversion and Global Cultural Genocide™
Posted by: Zenster || 05/22/2006 22:39 Comments || Top||



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A multi-volume chronology and reference guide set detailing three years of the Mexican Drug War between 2010 and 2012.

Rantburg.com and borderlandbeat.com correspondent and author Chris Covert presents his first non-fiction work detailing the drug and gang related violence in Mexico.

Chris gives us Mexican press dispatches of drug and gang war violence over three years, presented in a multi volume set intended to chronicle the death, violence and mayhem which has dominated Mexico for six years.
Click here for more information

Meet the Mods
In no particular order...
Steve White
Seafarious
tu3031
badanov
sherry
ryuge
GolfBravoUSMC
Bright Pebbles
trailing wife
Gloria
Fred
Besoeker
Glenmore
Frank G
3dc
Skidmark

Two weeks of WOT
Mon 2006-05-22
  Airstrike in South Afghanistan Kills 76
Sun 2006-05-21
  Bomb plot on Rashid Abu Shbak
Sat 2006-05-20
  Iraqi government formed. Finally.
Fri 2006-05-19
  Hamas official seized with $800k
Thu 2006-05-18
  Haqqani takes command of Talibs
Wed 2006-05-17
  Two Fatah cars explode
Tue 2006-05-16
  Beslan Snuffy Guilty of Terrorism
Mon 2006-05-15
  Bangla: 13 militants get life
Sun 2006-05-14
  Feds escort Moussaoui to new supermax home
Sat 2006-05-13
  Attack on US consulate in Jeddah
Fri 2006-05-12
  Clashes in Somali capital kill 135 civilians
Thu 2006-05-11
  Jordan Arrests 20 Over ‘Hamas Arms Plots’
Wed 2006-05-10
  Quartet folds on Paleo aid
Tue 2006-05-09
  10 wounded in Fatah-Hamas festivities
Mon 2006-05-08
  Bush wants to close Gitmo

Better than the average link...



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