One person was killed when a device exploded in a downtown Toronto coffee shop on Sunday, and police said they had no clues on who the victim was or what exactly caused the blast.
Staff Sergeant Don Cole said the blast took place just after 1 p.m. EDT in the washroom of a Tim Hortons shop, a coffee and doughnut chain that was recently spun off from parent company Wendy's International Inc.
One man was killed.
"It appears there was a device, but we don't know whether the person brought it in with him, or it he was an innocent party, or if he was a suicide, we just don't know," he said.
"It's not something that just blew up by itself, it was some device."
Cole said he had no information about the man who died. Fire department spokesman Daryl Fuglerud told media at the scene that the man who died had burns to his body, although the explosion had not caused much smoke.
Hmmm what? They're still cleaning bits of person out of the bathroom, and already people are alluding to the Muslim manager being involved in a bombing of his own place of work, while he was there.
#6
Gee, Colt, if anything, you should be upset that this made Rantburg Page 1, WOT Operations. I was sort of wondering why until I hit the Amin Islam part.
#11
Curiouser and curiouser. More from lotp's second link:
A Tim Hortons spokesman confirmed the dead man was not an employee, but his identity was not immediately known.
Later Sunday, a second of the coffee franchise's outlets in Toronto was locked down after a suspicious package was identified there. Few details were immediately available, but police confirmed an emergency task force unit had been dispatched to the second location - just a few subway stations north of the first - and the area had been evacuated.
A second loud bang was heard in the area several hours after the first, but police would not immediately confirm whether it was the intentional detonation of remaining explosives on the scene, or an unrelated blast.
Officers in white hazardous-materials suits were also seen entering and leaving the store, it was not clear whether a potentially dangerous substance had been identified.
Police closed off a busy block close to one of Toronto's main shopping districts as they investigated the cause of the explosion and used a remote controlled device to trigger a second device after finding a suspicious package.
Erica Jong, author of the books Fear of Flying and Seducing the Demon, was on HBOs Real Time with Bill Maher Friday night. During the proceedings, Jong claimed that President Bush was aware of the pre-planning for 9/11, and intentionally did nothing to avert the attacks (hat tip to Ian Schwartz of Expose the Left with video link to follow). After Maher showed the famous picture of then White House chief of staff Andy Card telling the president that the nation had been attacked a picture that Maher quipped should be on the one dollar bill Jong said, I account for the seven minutes by the fact that he wasnt surprised, because he knew all about the planning for 9/11.
Maher interjected incredulously, Oh, come on. Thats ridiculous. Now, this is an interesting moment on cable television a Bush-hating guest on Real Time making an anti-Bush statement that Bill Maher doesnt agree with. In fact, Maher was so opposed to this theory that he continued to admonish Jong: Thats a scurrilous thing to say. I dont like George Bush, but youre telling me he knew the attack was going to happen?
Amazingly, Jong continued undeterred: Well, there are many people who are theorizing that he knew about it. And continued: He got briefs, he got presidential briefs that said Osama bin Laden wants to attack.
Maher interjected, Yes, we know hes not a good president. But thats a big difference.
Potentially this should be the new litmus test for extreme liberal media bias when even Bill Maher thinks your views are absurd.
Ammam - Iraq's resistance has replaced Jordanian-born Abu Musab al-Zarqawi as political head of the rebels, confining him to a military role, the son of Osama bin Laden's mentor told AFP Sunday in Jordan.
"The Iraqi resistance's high command asked Zarqawi to give up his political role and replaced him with an Iraqi, because of several mistakes he made," said Hudayf Azzam, who claims close contacts with the rebels. "Zarqawi's role has been limited to military action. Zarqawi bowed to the orders two weeks ago and was replaced by Iraqi national Abdullah bin Rashed al-Baghdadi," Azzam said.
Azzam, 35, whose father was known as the "prince of mujahedeens", said he regularly receives "credible information on the resistance in Iraq". He said Zarqawi "made many political mistakes", including "the creation of an independent organisation, Al-Qaeda in Iraq. Zarqawi also took the liberty of speaking in the name of the Iraqi people and resistance, a role which belongs only to the Iraqis," Azzam said. As a result "the resistance command inside and outside Iraq, including imams, criticised him and after long discussions demanded that he be confined to military action", Azzam said. "Zarqawi pledged not to carry out any more attacks against Iraq's neighbours after having been criticised for these operations which are considered a violation of sharia (Islamic law)," Azzam said.
Posted by: Captain America ||
04/02/2006
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Susan Rescorla said she was amazed at the turnout Saturday [1 Apr 2006] for the unveiling of a statue at Fort Benning honoring her late husband, Ia Drang Valley and 9/11 hero Rick Rescorla.
"I thought maybe 80 would show up," she laughed as a crowd of almost 500 begged her for autographs and asked her to pose alongside the statue, which is located directly in front of the National Infantry Museum.
#3
Echoes of COL Joshua Chamberlain, 20th Maine - "Fix bayonets......" No better place than the US Army Infantry School for such a memorial. Now "Follow Me" will have a battle buddy.
#4
Chamberlain, yes. That's mighty fine company, LR. Best of the best. Chamberlain was (and is) an amazing inspiration of the unlikeliest hero, the intelligent and courageous everyman. A true hero of the first order - Rescorla would certainly be proud and deserving.
#5
Here is a good post with many links on Rescorla.
I recommend reading it if you are unfamiliar with his life's story. He lived a truly amazing life and cannot be honored enough. It is remarkable to think that he was a hero of Ia Drang Valley, an early American battle in Vietnam, and -- as a civilian -- the 2 attacks on the WTC which were the first enemy actions on US soil in the GWoT. This should not be the only statue to honor him.
I became interested because his actions on 9/11 saved the lives of people I know.
For what it's worth, he immigrated to America as an adult. He chose to come here and fight for our country. This alone makes his story humbling to read.
#1
enjoyable song, great lyrics and not that smug...lol
the lefty loser comments on the site make that song sound even better. whatta bunch of maroons!
Recently citizen scientist Forrest Mims told me about a speech he heard at the Texas Academy of Science during which the speaker, a world-renowned ecologist, advocated for the extermination of 90 percent of the human species in a most horrible and painful manner. Apparently at the speaker's direction, the speech was not video taped by the Academy and so Forrest's may be the only record of what was said. Forrest's account of what he witnessed chilled my soul. Astonishingly, Forrest reports that many of the Academy members present gave the speaker a standing ovation. To date, the Academy has not moved to sanction the speaker or distance itself from the speaker's remarks.
If the professional community has lost its sense of moral outrage when one if their own openly calls for the slow and painful extermination of over 5 billion human beings, then it falls upon the amateur community to be the conscience of science.
Forrest, who is a member of the Texas Academy and chairs its Environmental Science Section, told me he would be unable to describe the speech in The Citizen Scientist because he has protested the speech to the Academy and he serves as Editor of The Citizen Scientist . Therefore, to preclude a possible conflict of interest, I have directed Forrest to describe what he observed and his reactions in this special feature, for which I have served as editor and which is being released a week ahead of our normal publication schedule. Comments may be sent to Backscatter . Shawn Carlson, Ph.D., Founder and Executive Director, Society for Amateur Scientists.
There is always something special about science meetings. The 109th meeting of the Texas Academy of Science at Lamar University in Beaumont on 3-5 March 2006 was especially exciting for me, because a student and his professor presented the results of a DNA study I suggested to them last year. How fulfilling to see the baldcypress ( Taxodium distichum ) leaves we collected last summer and my tree ring photographs transformed into a first class scientific presentation that's nearly ready to submit to a scientific journal (Brian Iken and Dr. Deanna McCullough, "Bald Cypress of the Texas Hill Country: Taxonomically Unique?" 109th Meeting of the Texas Academy of Science Program and Abstracts [ PDF ], Poster P59, p. 84, 2006).
But there was a gravely disturbing side to that otherwise scientifically significant meeting, for I watched in amazement as a few hundred members of the Texas Academy of Science rose to their feet and gave a standing ovation to a speech that enthusiastically advocated the elimination of 90 percent of Earth's population by airborne Ebola. The speech was given by Dr. Eric R. Pianka (Fig. 1), the University of Texas evolutionary ecologist and lizard expert who the Academy named the 2006 Distinguished Texas Scientist.
Something curious occurred a minute before Pianka began speaking. An official of the Academy approached a video camera operator at the front of the auditorium and engaged him in animated conversation. The camera operator did not look pleased as he pointed the lens of the big camera to the ceiling and slowly walked away.
This curious incident came to mind a few minutes later when Professor Pianka began his speech by explaining that the general public is not yet ready to hear what he was about to tell us. Because of many years of experience as a writer and editor, Pianka's strange introduction and the TV camera incident raised a red flag in my mind. Suddenly I forgot that I was a member of the Texas Academy of Science and chairman of its Environmental Science Section. Instead, I grabbed a notepad so I could take on the role of science reporter.
One of Pianka's earliest points was a condemnation of anthropocentrism, or the idea that humankind occupies a privileged position in the Universe. He told a story about how a neighbor asked him what good the lizards are that he studies. He answered, What good are you?
Pianka hammered his point home by exclaiming, We're no better than bacteria!
Pianka then began laying out his concerns about how human overpopulation is ruining the Earth. He presented a doomsday scenario in which he claimed that the sharp increase in human population since the beginning of the industrial age is devastating the planet. He warned that quick steps must be taken to restore the planet before it's too late.
Saving the Earth with Ebola
Professor Pianka said the Earth as we know it will not survive without drastic measures . Then, and without presenting any data to justify this number, he asserted that the only feasible solution to saving the Earth is to reduce the population to 10 percent of the present number.
He then showed solutions for reducing the world's population in the form of a slide depicting the Four Horsemen of the Apocalypse . War and famine would not do, he explained. Instead, disease offered the most efficient and fastest way to kill the billions that must soon die if the population crisis is to be solved.
Pianka then displayed a slide showing rows of human skulls, one of which had red lights flashing from its eye sockets.
AIDS is not an efficient killer, he explained, because it is too slow. His favorite candidate for eliminating 90 percent of the world's population is airborne Ebola ( Ebola Reston ), because it is both highly lethal and it kills in days, instead of years. However, Professor Pianka did not mention that Ebola victims die a slow and torturous death as the virus initiates a cascade of biological calamities inside the victim that eventually liquefy the internal organs.
After praising the Ebola virus for its efficiency at killing, Pianka paused, leaned over the lectern, looked at us and carefully said, We've got airborne 90 percent mortality in humans. Killing humans. Think about that.
With his slide of human skulls towering on the screen behind him, Professor Pianka was deadly serious. The audience that had been applauding some of his statements now sat silent.
After a dramatic pause, Pianka returned to politics and environmentalism. But he revisited his call for mass death when he reflected on the oil situation.
And the fossil fuels are running out, he said, so I think we may have to cut back to two billion, which would be about one-third as many people. So the oil crisis alone may require eliminating two-third's of the world's population.
How soon must the mass dying begin if Earth is to be saved? Apparently fairly soon, for Pianka suggested he might be around when the killer disease goes to work. He was born in 1939, and his lengthy obituary appears on his web site .
When Pianka finished his remarks, the audience applauded. It wasn't merely a smattering of polite clapping that audiences diplomatically reserve for poor or boring speakers. It was a loud, vigorous and enthusiastic applause.
Questions for Dr. Doom
Then came the question and answer session, in which Professor Pianka stated that other diseases are also efficient killers.
The audience laughed when he said, You know, the bird flu's good, too. They laughed again when he proposed, with a discernable note of glee in his voice that, We need to sterilize everybody on the Earth.
After noting that the audience did not represent the general population, a questioner asked, "What kind of reception have you received as you have presented these ideas to other audiences that are not representative of us?"
Pianka replied, "I speak to the converted!"
Pianka responded to more questions by condemning politicians in general and Al Gore by name, because they do not address the population problem and "...because they deceive the public in every way they can to stay in power."
He spoke glowingly of the police state in China that enforces their one-child policy. He said, "Smarter people have fewer kids." He said those who don't have a conscience about the Earth will inherit the Earth, "...because those who care make fewer babies and those that didn't care made more babies." He said we will evolve as uncaring people, and "I think IQs are falling for the same reason, too."
With this, the questioning was over. Immediately almost every scientist, professor and college student present stood to their feet and vigorously applauded the man who had enthusiastically endorsed the elimination of 90 percent of the human population. Some even cheered. Dozens then mobbed the professor at the lectern to extend greetings and ask questions. It was necessary to wait a while before I could get close enough to take some photographs (Fig. 1).
I was assigned to judge a paper in a grad student competition after the speech. On the way, three professors dismissed Pianka as a crank. While waiting to enter the competition room, a group of a dozen Lamar University students expressed outrage over the Pianka speech.
Yet five hours later, the distinguished leaders of the Texas Academy of Science presented Pianka with a plaque in recognition of his being named 2006 Distinguished Texas Scientist. When the banquet hall filled with more than 400 people responded with enthusiastic applause, I walked out in protest.
Corresponding with Dr. Doom
Recently I exchanged a number of e-mails with Pianka. I pointed out to him that one might infer his death wish was really aimed at Africans, for Ebola is found only in Central Africa. He replied that Ebola does not discriminate, kills everyone and could spread to Europe and the the Americas by a single infected airplane passenger.
In his last e-mail, Pianka wrote that I completely fail to understand his arguments. So I did a check and found verification of my interpretation of his remarks on his own web site. In a student evaluation of a 2004 course he taught, one of Professor Pianka's students wrote, "Though I agree that convervation [sic] biology is of utmost importance to the world, I do not think that preaching that 90% of the human population should die of ebola [sic] is the most effective means of encouraging conservation awareness." (Go here and scroll down to just before the Fall 2005 evaluation section near the end.)
Yet the majority of his student reviews were favorable, with one even saying, I worship Dr. Pianka .
The 45-minute lecture before the Texas Academy of Science converted a university biology senior into a Pianka disciple, who then published a blog that seriously supports Pianka's mass death wish.
Dangerous Times
Let me now remove my reporter's hat for a moment and tell you what I think. We live in dangerous times. The national security of many countries is at risk. Science has become tainted by highly publicized cases of misconduct and fraud.
Must now we worry that a Pianka-worshipping former student might someday become a professional biologist or physician with access to the most deadly strains of viruses and bacteria? I believe that airborne Ebola is unlikely to threaten the world outside of Central Africa. But scientists have regenerated the 1918 Spanish flu virus that killed 50 million people. There is concern that small pox might someday return. And what other terrible plagues are waiting out there in the natural world to cross the species barrier and to which scientists will one day have access?
Meanwhile, I still can't get out of my mind the pleasant spring day in Texas when a few hundred scientists of the Texas Academy of Science gave a standing ovation for a speaker who they heard advocate for the slow and tortuous death of over five billion human beings.
#3
Never that, Shep. Dr. Pianka is obviously Too Important to the Movement® to be among the casualties. Only the best and the brightest ought to survive, you know.
#5
I had a hard time believing this, for various reasons.
But then I found this account of Pianka's talk by someone who admired it. It pretty much jibes with Mims's recollections.
Here are course evaluations from 1998 which show that Pianka was harping on about ebola at least eight years ago. This 2004 course description witters on about the same thing.
Morality aside, I find it pretty shocking that a biologist can't grasp the fact that humans have, to an extent, risen above biology. A disease that wiped out humanity would have to spring up very fast, before we had time to study it, and kill even the young and healthy very quickly.
And, I'll point out, if he thinks that humans have little use for biologists now, just wait until there's only 10% of us left.
Still don't know what this is doing on Page 1, though.
#10
"...evolutionary ecologist and lizard expert..."
Figures.
Posted by: Dave D. ||
04/02/2006 15:27
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#11
Professor Pianka began his speech by explaining that the general public is not yet ready to hear what he was about to tell us.
Maybe that's because members of the general public might want to track down and kill someone espousing such dangerous and psychotic notions as an intentional pandemic release of Ebola.
Pianka hammered his point home by exclaiming, We're no better than bacteria!
Au contraire, I think a bacteria like brewer's yeast, for instance, serves a far more noble and valuable role in this world than does our lunatic Mr. Pianka. It is precisely full-goose-bozo wingnuts like this rectal cavity that propel the perjorative notion of the "mad scientist."
I would like to see this individual monitored and surveiled 24-7. His access to all microbiological R&D facilities and sequencing laboratories should be banned entirely. A thorough psychological review and personality index should be performed upon this individual immediately.
What we have is self-loathing brought to pinnacle elevation. This has nothing to do with ecology, liberalism or science.
He spoke glowingly of the police state in China that enforces their one-child policy.
You are staring into the face of naked elitism locked in the embrace of pure evil.
#13
We've been talking about this here for as long as Rantburg's been around -- this subconscious death wish that so many seem to have. And when someone gives voice to that death wish, he gets a standing ovation.
I almost wrote "this subconscious death wish that so many in the West seem to have." Then I pulled back and realized that it's almost everywhere. The industrialized countries aren't breeding. Dar al Islam is edging closer to Allah-daemerung every day. Africa is killing itself with AIDS. Scanning the whole world, only the US, India, Australia, and parts of Latin America seem to have escaped the death wish. Even in the US, the coastal elites would just as soon drag us down into the morass.
It's almost certain then, isn't it? The nexus represented by the Evironmental Liberation Front is at some point going to launch a war virus attack from within even while we battle Islamism in its quest to destroy itself and take the world down with it.
It will be interesting to see if the environmentalists try an indiscriminate attack or if they attempt to innoculate the "chosen" before releasing a weaponized agent. This reminds me a lot of the scenario in Vernor Vinge's Peace War, where environmentalists use weird physics and bio-war to reduce the human population and gain global dominance.
#20
OK, I'm going into full Joe M mode here. I don't know if I believe this myself, but I'm throwing it out there for discussion.
Education level seems to be the number one correlating factor for low fertility, both on an individual and national basis. What if that is masking a real correlation? What if the enviros are fighting a memetic war? Perhaps they have so infiltrated the educational establishment that the longer you are in it, the more you are exposed to their memes and the less likely it is that you'll reproduce?
I'll go even further out on a limb. We know from dealing with Salafism, that highly networked organizations tend towards multiple factions with common goals but different means. What if the militants in the environmental movement have lost faith with the moderates. What if they are tired of wandering around the wilderness and want the promised land right now, dammit!?
What would the promised land look like? If we take the 90% population reduction at face value and read between the lines of other environmentalist goals, then it would have a total population of 600M. The equatorial and polar regions would be human free and given back to "nature." The bulk of humanity would reside in the temperate zones. Of the remaining population, 2/3 to 3/4 would be farmers operating at a near subsistence level -- the indigenous peoples and peasants that the enviros always claim to be protecting. Above the peasant class, there would be another stratum analogous to the "bourgeoisie specialists" of the early Soviet era. They would only exist in numbers sufficient to keep the lights on, bits flowing, hospitals open and in general maintain a late 20th century quality of life for the elites.
The elites would certainly be no more than 100 million (though this could grow is they were open to allowing more modern farming techniques). They would be areligious, amoral, and free in their own minds to exercise whatever form of coercion necessary to maintain control over the lower social substratums. Their state would have totalitarian police powers. No dissent would be allowed on the basic social structure and the means required to maintain that structure. Otherwise, limited debate could be practiced. Technological progress would be zero.
#21
Our own home grown death cult. I agree that this guy should be denied access to microbio labs, and I'd flag his audience as suspicious also. The Unabomber only killed a few.
Posted by: James ||
04/02/2006 17:52
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#22
If you chart the statistics of lethal epidemics, it is obvious that they kill "from the bottom of the pyramid". This means that the poor, uneducated, in ill health, ill-fed, and in countries with poor sanitation and no concept of hygiene die off far more than healthy, educated people in wealthy and advanced countries.
I'm sure the "scientist" is aware of this fact.
So what he is really saying that he wants third and fourth world peasants to die. This is because he is an elitist pig who despises such people primarily because he is an elitist pig. He would hate these people just as much, and want them to die, even if there were only 10 million people on the planet.
He hates their races, their cultures, their very existence in nature--which he sees to be unnatural and destructive. They put "footie prints" all over his pristine sand dunes. They infect "his" nature with their presence, and they do not and cannot appreciate his evolved "aesthetic" of environmentalism.
In a manner of speaking, "he is not a vegetarian because he loves animals, he is a vegetarian because he hates plants."
When pressured, certainly he will point to *some* of the people living in developed countries that he believes need to die, too. These would be those "hoi polloi" living in red States, no doubt.
But invariably *none* of them will be in his personal cocktail circuit of "superior intellectuals" and armchair political activists.
Not surprisingly, however, nature has the last laugh on his clique, as while they might be credentialed from the finest schools, they are so sorely lacking in common sense and judgement that a healthy percentage of them, too, are culled when culling is in order.
Poetic justice, I suppose. You can't fool mother nature. She can spot defectives from a long distance.
#23
NS, I'd add another 5.4 for Denmark just on general principle.
Yes, DD, I thought that Tom Clancy did it better in Rainbow 6, although I think Michael Crichton's State of Fear is relevant too. Guys like this should be dropped naked and alone into the interior of New Guinea for about a year to get a feel for what the earth would be like without 90% of us.
#24
They would be areligious, amoral, and free in their own minds to exercise whatever form of coercion necessary to maintain control over the lower social substratums. Their state would have totalitarian police powers. No dissent would be allowed on the basic social structure and the means required to maintain that structure. Otherwise, limited debate could be practiced. Technological progress would be zero.
Read "Larry Niven, his Police Creation (The ARM) sounds just like this idea.
Posted by: Redneck Jim ||
04/02/2006 20:07
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#25
Rainbow Six:
"The cause of the sudden outbreak of terrorism is radical eco-terrorists, who are coincidentally owners of a large and successful biotechnology firm. They engineer a modified version of the Ebola virus, codenamed "Shiva"; they also engineer a vaccine for themselves. Their plan is to infect the world, killing everyone but their selected few, who will rebuild the world in a scientifically and environmentally friendly way."
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rainbow_Six_(book)
#27
No better than the Nazis and their eugenics. Just less straighforward about who they intend the master race to be.
Hint to the Biologists: you're going find the survivors to be the guys with the guns and the isolationist tendencies. Not exactly your ivory tower eletists who cannot survive otuside of modern society and all the scaffolding it requires "from the bottom tier".
"Iraqis are right to attack troops", say Islamic clerics and Two Christian archbishops
LONDON Two years after U.S. authorities ceremoniously declared Iraq to be sovereign again, top religious leaders say Iraqis remain under military occupation, have a right to fight foreign troops and still don't govern themselves. and by fatwa I have the right to piss on your ancestors graves.
Their statements, made at the conclusion of a peace® conference in London on Tuesday, provided a stampof approval from Iraq's most influential Sunni and Shiite Muslim clerics for their countrymen to step up attacks aimed at hastening the withdrawal of U.S., British and other troops.
Two Christian archbishops and ethnic Kurdish leaders, whose community has previously supported the foreign military presence, joined Jordan's Prince Hassan bin Talal in endorsing a communiqué underscoring the "legitimate right" of Iraqis to resist what they called the occupation.
A Defense Department spokesman, Air Force Maj. Todd Vician, praised the religious leaders for holding their dialogue in London because "when they're talking, they're not fighting." But he said it is important for them to understand "that the violence is brought about by the terrorists who try to attack Iraqi security forces, civilians and coalition forces as well." WTF?
IRAN said it had test-fired what it described as the world's fastest underwater missile during a week of war games in the Gulf, Iranian state television reported.
"The world's fastest underwater missile was successfully test fired on the third day of the Holy Prophet war games," state television reported in a caption without giving a source or details.
Western nations have been watching developments in Iran's missile capabilities with concern amid a stand-off over the Iranian nuclear program, which the west says is aimed at building atomic bombs. Iran says the program is civilian.
Iran's armed forces said last week they had successfully test fired a domestically produced missile from land which could evade radar.
Iranian state television had said that missile was called Fajr-3. But Hossein Salami, head of the Revolutionary Guards air force, did not name the new weapon or give the missile's range, saying it depended on the warhead weight.
He told state television it was a defensive weapon.
The US-based military affairs website globalsecurity.org describes the Fajr-3 as a 240mm artillery rocket with a 40km range, one of a group of light rockets Iran has developed mainly for tactical use on the battlefield.
However, it also says Iran has been working on another missile, called the Kosar, that would be undetectable by radar and designed to sink ships in the Gulf.
#2
I call BS on this one. They ain't got Shkval or anything even close to it, if for no other reason than the Russians know what would happen if we lost a carrier. And that radar evading missile? Ain't happening either, not as long as all of their missiles are still merely linear descendants of the V2.
Mike
Posted by: Mike Kozlowski ||
04/02/2006 12:26
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#3
Underwater missiles - don't we call those things torpedoes?
#6
They are clearly claiming they have Shkval. The other article quotest it has the exact same top speed. It could be bs, but they would be smart to develop this capability.
Can a Kilo handle a Shkval in its tubes or does it need modification?
#7
Mike,
I hope you're right.
The alternative is worrysome. They would have quite the dominating card over ports that we use on the other side.
I hope we're checking this activity out, and nipping it in the bud.
Posted by: Jan ||
04/02/2006 13:16
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#9
don't be so sure they don't have the Shkval, reports for a long time now in military circles and publications have been claiming chinese involvment with this carrier killing underwater rocket, but i do remember a few months maybe a year back DARPA said it had invented a system of 'acoustic defensives' for subs that would pre detonate an incoming torpedo warhead by slamming sound waves into it (i think i'm no tech guy though don't even have GCSE's lol). Im not sure how they would launch such a torp but i've a horrible feeling the Shkval can fit in standard russian torpedo tubes. Oh and i also think that a Shkval test caused the kursk to go boom but thats a nother argument alltogether i guess. I would also add that had they been firing these underwater super torps then anywhere in the gulf area im sure some other nations military would be watching the Iranians everymove and should already have a good idea from what vessel it was launched/fired from. Again though this is interesting stuff, i was only a child during the coldwar and only saw the 80's part of the cold war myself but to me this is like a wannabe cold war at the moment, wannabe because the Iranians simply don't have the bucks and materials and knowladge like the Reds did but to keep up. Of course all this modern day talk of miltarys need ing to be able to fight only terrorists is edging us futher and futher from the reality of real military threats such as China and Iran (if it dosnt get kicked in within a decade or so). To me thats what i find the scary part and i sure hope im wrong but its very bad if we lose track of the big picture as it were. Oh well theres another rambling post for all to absorb, till next time.
#10
just a quicky, yes unfortuantly it does fire from the standard size torp tubes so Iranian Kilo class subs could operate this weapon if they needed and wanted to. Oh not such a quicky i guess but wouldnt it be a real victory for Iran to put a couple of these into a US super carrier and watch it sink, 4000 odd people would be dead, billions of aircraft and the ship sunk - the ultimate propaganda but the worst bit is they could do it without using any nuclear weapons therefore keeping the confict conventional and not having there cities turned to glass. Basically they can now create as much upset without nukes as with nukes if this is true, to me its a like someone just handed Iran a new 'card to play' - who handed them the card - China i reackon
#12
sure they INTENDED it to be an underwater missile? LOL
Posted by: Frank G ||
04/02/2006 14:29
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#13
However, it also says Iran has been working on another missile, called the Kosar, that would be undetectable by radar and designed to sink ships in the Gulf
Should be easy to intercept, low mobility, and susceptible to joint failure
Posted by: Frank G ||
04/02/2006 14:34
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#14
Yeah, right. Advanced muslim technology. Uh-huh. Camel saddles to underwater missiles. Riiiiiiight.
I guess the Russians sold their (outmoded) stocks of this, ah-hem, weapon.
#17
good piont about coastal launches there - very hard to spot that sort of thing i'd imagine even with modern technolagy, what about even launching from civilian type vessels? i wouldnt put anything past the Iranians. Also after a bit of 'swatting up' on this old subject of rocket torps it would seem that later versions are somewhat guideable too and not just a point and shoot weapon, not sure how its guided, perhaps a wire guide using copper or fibre optic wiring or is it recieving signals from the firing boat or another set of eyes. Its short range too is also not a factor with later models which are said to be able to slow down to aquire the target which also implies using less fuel (ok not defenatly) and the torps may actually have thier own guidence system. Solid fuel rockets cannot be shut off and restarted right? but can liquid fueled rockets be throttled? i'd have thought they could but once again my knowladge is almost non-existenet on that subject. Ah armchair intel anyalists,lol, what would the world be like without us hehe. I'm wondering whats gonna come next from Iran - maybe some other exciting (and higly dangerous) weapons system. What 'card' are they gonna get next to add to thier collection and when will the big game begin???
#18
If the Iranians test fired a Shkval, the US Navy would know it. No way to hide that acoustic signature.
FWIW: UPI Hears No details were given of the torpedo production, but Western analysts nervously note that Iran is known to have acquired a number of Russian VA-111 supercavitating Shkval torpedoes, specifically designed to destroy aircraft carriers, and are worried that the Iranians now might be producing their own indigenous version.
Posted by: ed ||
04/02/2006 15:39
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#19
Interesting Shep. Any word if the Iranians are claiming it is domestically produced?
The original Skval was solid fueled and stable. The "improved" Skval that sank the Kursk used a combined liquid fuel and oxidizer (highly unstable). There is no hint that the Chinese and Iranians decided to buy into that "improvement".
Guess the US Nay will have to immediately destroy any Iranian ship, patrol boat or dhow that approaches within 10 miles.
Posted by: ed ||
04/02/2006 15:49
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#20
I guess we're double-extra-super doomed, now, huh?
If the inventory stocks suffice for our most indiscriminate war plan, well gosh, let's go ahead and get it on to make sure it's double-extra-super painful for em.
#21
Damn there good, everything is the world's best. Only the best for the holy profit war games.
Should we fold now?
Posted by: Captain America ||
04/02/2006 16:04
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#22
Yes, Captain America, please report to the Dhimmi Gate. And have your cape pressed and cleaned when you hand it over, you won't be needing it any more.
#23
If there's no one alive to issue the orders for launching these Koranic Kavitaters, then they're not much of a threat, are they? Decap. Just sayin'.
#24
rofl, the Koranimals at the gates of Dhimmi, cape being handed over pressed clean - that had me fckin laughing so much, Koranic Kavitaters too is a new instant classic. The Koranic Catipiler Drive is next :) Koranic egg thrower lol, sorry i've got the giggles bad now after reading those last few posts. Been a good thread this for sure. Wonder what suprises Mad Mullah Industries has install next?
#25
...Guess the US Nay will have to immediately destroy any Iranian ship, patrol boat or dhow that approaches within 10 miles...
Hit the nail right on the head 'ed', The US will only need to turn the 'dome' into a 'bubble'! Assign a jdam to anything larger than a canoe at 20 minutes out! Better yet, shut them down at the beach!
#27
Sky seem to be all ecited about this torpedo - serious faces all round in the news room as they struggle to tell us about it. running the report about every 30mins too. Hey another thought, what if they used it as there new wonder weapon in any 'Tanker wars' they might have planned - now surly one of these big sea slugs could smash right through a tanker or break its back clean in two if detonated under it! be a few bucks worth of crude down the drain not to mention a big old mess of the eco system and ducks and stuff. Kinda like when Sammy lit all the oil wells then opened others up to drain into the sea - which is a point if anyone else did that you'd never have heard the last of it but when does anyone ever mention Sammy fcking up a whole Eco system like that back in 1991 and why the hell isnt that act alone enough to convince the lefties out there just what a tosser he was and how much he needed taking out of power for the whole regions sake. sorry for going off topic there.
#28
Shep - I figure some sort of Dar al Doomsday thing will have to come next. Y'know, the one that would issue launch orders to the melted C&C circuitry.
#29
Bottom line is that Iran has several defensive capabilities we supressed or denied to Saddam during the "no fly" era:
1. Sunburn
2. Diesel Electric subs with Skval
3. SA300 missiles on order as part of an already integrated air defense system
4. A real, albeit somewhat antiquated airforce based so as to defend the nuke sites
5. Well engineered underground facilities
6. Theater ballistic missiles with supposedly effective guidance systems
Like Iraq, Iran has had a lot of Russian and Chinese help.
I'm not saying they're invincible, but I assume the Navy and Air Force are taking them seriously. I would assume they learned something when we sunk their last Navy.
I'm afraid the window for peaceful regime change is closed. The best thing we have going for us is that Ahmadinejad seems like he wants to start something a little too soon.
#32
Shep, you keep watching it, they'll keep running it. That's why the MSM is to be generally disbelieved, expecially when they're pimping for their Koranic Masters.
#33
The problem with cavitating torpedoes is that they are blind straight shot weapons like those old WW1 torpedoes point and shoot with either a timer or impact fuse. The cavitation bubble cancels out any sensors for guidance. That was the catch with this weapon.
A US super carrier will suck up multiple direct hits by the biggest torpedoes and I think the Russians and Chicoms were thinking nuke warheads were direct hits were unnecessary. Even if Irans got some primitive nukes they are not small enough or even if so numerous enough to risk putting in a torpedo that will be one of many on small attack boats that the majority of will be sunk before they even make deep water.
Another major problem is even assuming they have copied the tech and assuming they have deployed it in numbers wont get anywhere near a carrier. Our escorts will be on full patrol and those few loud Iranian subs are doomed if they dont have a sea Wolf tracking em as we speak waiting on the code. I would imagine the Persian Gulf would be a massive no goes zone for anything short approved tankers and Coalition warships. People dont understand what an effective if allowed area denial weapon our sea/air power is, expect that area to be the Persian Gulf in its entirety fisherman be dammed.
This is the big show boy. That is what has pissed me off so badly about the Iraq phase of the WOT. Bush not being able to rally and keep the people rallied means the LLLs have succeeded in setting the standard so high that even Iraq an incredible victory on all fronts by historical comparison is allowed to be played as a defeat.
Now with the big show looming the consequences of this failure will be seen full well as real casualties and losses of equipment and WAR cost start rolling in. When we lose a couple of ships and double digits of air craft on the first few days with more dead than the entire Iraq phase without even going into the land phase the screams from the LLLs will be deafening.
#34
Not sayin' it ain't BS, but be careful about those "advanced Muslim technology" jokes. They've got the money to buy plans and the insanity to use them. Half of my fellow graduate students in mechanical enginering in 1978-79 were Iranians. There were plenty over in electrical engineering too.
Scientists at the Naval Undersea Warfare Center in Newport, Rhode Island demonstrated in 1997, a fully submerged launch of a supercavitating projectile (with air injected in its nose) with a muzzle velocity of 5,082 feet (1,549 meters) per second, making it the first underwater weapon to break the sound barrier
#43
Darrell - I also had multi- Iranian co-students. How many of them were serious, or the best of class-types? They were just as bell-curved as anyone, and the one's that were top of class, stayed to make money
Posted by: Frank G ||
04/02/2006 19:39
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#44
Technological expertise is highly fungible. There is a vast worldwide network of specialized, in-depth experts, some with good some with bad motives.
We solved a leaky mechanical heart value by tapping into the expertise of an in-depth knowledge of submarine technology and sealants.
My own suspicion is that Iran is a proxy for Russia much as we used proxies in Afganistan. Russia has transferred the underwater missile technology to Iran and has helped them acquire the underlying expertise.
Posted by: Captain America ||
04/02/2006 20:17
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#45
So 40 or 50 cruise missiles get "lost" and take out Moscow. Oops and, BTW, fuck you Putin.
#46
Frank, it doesn't take top-of-class to make pirate copies. Bottom of class and some good machinists will do just fine. I say glass 'em before they get lucky.
just in.. Yahoo, sorry, but the ratchet up a know for Iran means an interesing week ahead.
TEHRAN, Iran -
Iran said Sunday it has successfully test fired a high-speed underwater missile capable of destroying warships and submarines.
The Iranian-made missile has a speed of about 222 mph underwater, Gen. Ali Fadavi, deputy head of the Navy of the elite Revolutionary Guards, said.
He called it the fastest underwater missile in the world but it has the same speed as the Russian-made VA-111 Shkval, developed in 1995 and believed to be the world's fastest.
It was not immediately known if the Iranian missile was based on the Shkval.
"It has a very powerful warhead designed to hit big submarines. No warship can escape from this missile," Fadavi told state-run television.
You may well get to test that claim much sooner than you think.
Mass burials are being considered by the Home Office as part of preparations for a possible avian flu pandemic.
A "prudent worst case" assessment suggested 320,000 people could die in Britain if the H5N1 virus mutated into a form contagious to humans, according to a confidential report seen by the Sunday Times.
That would lead to delays of up to 17 weeks in burying or cremating victims, the document - said to have been discussed by a cabinet committee - says.
It warns that the prospect of "common burial" would stir up images of the mass pits used to bury victims of the Great Plague in 1665.
But in fact it "might involve a large number of coffins buried in the same place at the same time, in such a way that allowed for individual graves to be marked".
Town halls - the report suggests - could deal with what it terms a "base case" of 48,000 deaths in England and Wales in a 15-week pandemic.
But it adds: "Even with ramping local management capacity by 100%, the prudent worst case of 320,000 excess deaths is projected to lead to a delay of some 17 weeks from death to burial or cremation."
Should the outbreak kill 2.5% of those who contract the flu, it warns, "no matter what emergency arrangements are put in place there are likely to be substantially more deaths than can be managed within current timescales".
Bird flu has already forced the slaughter of millions of birds across three continents since the deadly H5N1 strain emerged three years ago.
More than 100 humans have also been killed by it - all people who had been in close contact with infected birds. A pandemic would only become a possibility if the strain was able to mutate into a form that could be spread between humans. I'm surprised a company like Caterpillar hasn't already made a heavy piece of equipment designed just to quickly dig and liner a lot of individual graves. There are several that are close, but they aren't fast enough.
Caterpillar Tomb Tractor. A favorite of tyrants, despots and genocidal murders!! Purchase our Corrie Model NOW!! Call today and get a free body-bagging attachment for just an additional $99,999. Supplies are limited. Don't wait, it could soon be too late.
#3
2b: Such a vehicle would be very useful in natural disasters. Individual, marked graves, lined with cheap plastic support walls are far preferable to mass graves filled with body-bagged corpses, which are the current alternative.
You might even use plastic coffins, if there is a strong possible need for exhumation.
The important thing is to bury the bodies as quickly as possible, before you get a major disease outbreak.
#4
I know you are right, Moose. I was just having some snarky word fun. But be that as it may, after the Rachel Corrie affair, with its Seattle plays and global calls to boycott Caterpillar, I don't think it wise PR move for them just because it would be portrayed as a tool for the evil Zionists.
#5
Well, I was figuring that the sucker would be so large that it would be carried by the US Navy. It would probably be too heavy to be carried by a Chinook, so it would need open roads as well as a large open area to operate.
6' is probably too deep to core, so I am guessing it would have circling hoe heads. As soon as it had dug the hole it would insert an open plastic "box" in it to keep the walls from collapsing, then dump the dirt next to the hole and inserting an ID stake before moving on.
#8
6: Oh, god yes. Unburied bodies are a nightmare in the case of certain epidemics. Otherwise, they are just really stinky and nasty and breed insects like there is no tomorrow--also a good reason to bury them quickly. They are also far more difficult to handle once decomposition starts to work, with both the body digesting itself and bacteria going to work.
If properly buried in a plastic body bag, they will be a lot more identifiable as needs be, for a lot longer.
The former German government of Gerhard Schroder guaranteed a credit of one billion euros ($1.2 billion) for the Russian gas group Gazproms Baltic pipeline project, a German daily said in its Saturday edition, Deutsche Welle reported.
A few weeks before Schroeder stepped down as German chancellor following elections in September, his coalition of Social Democrats and Greens approved the billion euro ($1.2 billion) guarantee for Gazprom, the Sueddeutsche Zeitung said.
The gas company has since named Schroder as head of its supervisory board.
The report comes after Schroder was voted in Thursday as head of the supervisory board of a consortium that plans to build the natural gas pipeline under the Baltic Sea from Russia to Germany. Gazprom holds 51 percent of the consortiums shares.
While I was head of the government, I had no knowledge of such a proposition and therefore had nothing to do with it, Schroeder said in reaction to the report, which has since been confirmed by a Finance Ministry spokesperson.
The Russian gas giant said in December that it would hire Schroeder, sparking a controversy that several other reconversion bids had failed to ignite.
Schroeders critics lambasted him for accepting the position.
This affair stinks terribly, said Guido Westerwelle, head of the free market liberal opposition Free Democrat party, who has already been sued by Schroeder for previous attacks about this affair. He also said he would seek to clarify the issue with a parliamentary investigation if needed. Christian Wulff, a leader in current Chancellor Angela Merkels Christian Democratic Union and Schroeders successor as head of Lower Saxony, said the revelations were serious and required an explanation from the former chancellor.
If Schroeder has any respect for himself, he must immediately resign his post on the supervisory board of the gas consortium, said Reinhard Butikofer, a leader of the Greens party, which was in coalition with the Schroeder government. A German interministerial commission approved the credit guarantee on October 24, while Schroeder was still head of the government, but just after the parliaments budget commission was informed of the deal, the newspaper said, quoting sources close to the new Merkel government.
God, I miss True German Ally. He gave us great insights and the straight skinny on so much.
TGA - if you're lurking, please check in just to let us know you're OK.
Posted by: Barbara Skolaut ||
04/02/2006 14:00
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#2
"The former German government of Gerhard Schroder guaranteed a credit of one billion euros ($1.2 billion) for the Russian gas group Gazproms Baltic pipeline project, a German daily said in its Saturday edition, Deutsche Welle reported."
"The gas company has since named Scroeder as head of its supervisory board."
US Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice and her British counterpart Jack Straw make a surprise visit to Iraq, carrying a sharp message of international impatience with delays in the formation of a new government.
"I would assume that the fact that we are going out to have these discussions with the leadership is a sign of the urgency that we attach to the need for a government of national unity," she told reporters.
The weather forced the two top diplomats to take road transport under high security on the dangerous road between the airport and the heavily guarded Green Zone where they immediately plunged into talks with Iraqi officials.
Straw pointedly recalled the heavy investment the United States and Britain had made in Iraq in lives and resources since the March 2003 invasion to topple the regime of Saddam Hussein.
Asked whether the involvement could be sustained without greater effort from the Iraqis on the political front, he said, "We're committed to Iraq, very committed. But we need to see progress."
Rice and Straw were to confer with President Jalal Talabani, Prime Minister Ibrahim Jaafari and other leaders whose attempts to form a permanent government were stalled three and a half months after landmark legislative elections.
US officials have repeatedly called establishment of a government bringing in majority Shiite Muslims, Kurds and minority Sunnis, the key to their exit strategy for the eventual withdrawal of some 130,000 US troops in Iraq.
But the Iraqis have been squabbling over Jaafari's bid to stay on as prime minister as the candidate of the Shiite United Iraqi Alliance, which controls nearly half the seats in the 275-member parliament.
The discontent has now spread to Jaafari's own party, with several members for the first time at the weekend openly calling for the prime minister to step down so as to ease the arduous negotiations.
Leaders of four of the seven parties in the alliance have expressed their reservations over Jaafari's candidacy and have given him the next few days to placate his opposition or they will remove their support.
Kurdish and Sunnis leaders are opposed to Jaafari, arguing he has been unable to contain Iraq's raging insurgency and is too sectarian for a country seeking to avoid collapsing into a civil war.
Media reports have suggested that US President George W. Bush was seeking an alternative to Jaafari. But Rice and Straw insisted they had no intention of taking sides in the jockeying for power in Baghdad.
"We'll recognize and respect whoever emerges as a leader through this system," Straw said. "Our concern, however, is that they (the Iraqis) have to make swift progress to secure a leader."
The two chief diplomats also urged quick resolution of a dispute between Shiite and Sunni leaders over who would land the all-important job of supervising security forces in the troubled Gulf state.
The Iraqis appeared to have taken a large step towards settlement of the issue by announcing Saturday an agreement to put security in the hands of a committee that would be headed by the prime minister and his deputy.
The trip was Rice's third here since she became secretary of state in January 2005 and the third for Straw this year. Officials said the ministers had been speaking about a joint trip for two weeks and finalized plans only last Tuesday.
Officials acknowledged that it was a gamble to stage such a high-profile meeting at a critical time in the political process.
Bush has been lobbying for domestic support for his policies but Rice gave critics new ammunition on Friday when she said Washington had made "thousands" of tactical errors in Iraq. She said Saturday she was only speaking "figuratively."
#1
Yes, thousands of tactical errors. I think that the MSM could get the Bush Administration's attention if they showed how helpful they can be in reducing mistakes in other arenas. First, they could work on baseball. Even the greatest hitters of all time are a joke, only able to get a hit around 40 percent of the time. With 24/7 coverage , there should be no trouble raising batting averages to at least 60-70 percent (that is, a D or a C). Next, they should work on pro golfers. Those over-rated chokers sometimes miss putts of UNDER 2 FEET, when HUNDREDS OF THOUSANDS of dollars are at stake! The MSM should have no trouble raising the putting average to 90 percent for all putts within 10 feet. Then those uninformed, single-minded droids in the White House will have to pay attention and within two years, Islam and the West will be reconciled to a life of mutual respect, peace, and prosperity.
The suicide attack near the entrance to Kedumim on Thursday was a daring and audacious operation. It involved a young Palestinian from the Hebron area, who traveled to Nablus, picked up a bomb, crossed through an IDF checkpoint, disguised himself as a haredi and stood at a popular hitchhiking post where he caught a ride which ended up being his target.
Defense officials admitted that the attack was impressive but what concerned them the most, they said, was the group that claimed responsibility - the Aksa Martyrs Brigades armed branch of the Fatah movement.
While Fatah, the long dominant Palestinian party, has never completely abstained from terror activity and has been involved particularly in Kassam rocket attacks in Gaza, Thursday's suicide attack, officials said, was the first perpetrated by a Fatah affiliate since a February 2005 Palestinian cease-fire.
Fatah and Hamas, officials warned over the weekend, seem to have switched roles. While newly-installed Hamas Prime Minister Ismail Haniyeh called on its gunmen to stop marching around Gaza with weapons, Samir Masharawi - a senior Gaza-based Fatah figure - rejected the call. Hamas, a security official said, was trying to at least outwardly show itself as reforming and that it has cut back its terror activity in an attempt to establish itself as a non-violent government.
But Fatah, officials warned, might have other plans. With the disengagement from the Gaza Strip this past summer hailed as the result of terrorism, Fatah terrorists might be thinking that suicide attacks are the group's ticket back into office.
With Acting Prime Minister Ehud Olmert planning to pull out of much of the West Bank in the coming years, Fatah, security officials explained, might be trying to gain credibility with the public like Hamas did and create the impression that Israel is retreating under fire.
But whatever the case, Thursday's attack also demonstrates the new partnerships formed between the different terror groups. While the bomber, 24-year-old Ahmad Mashrake, was a Fatah operative, the bomb, officials said, was supplied by the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine (PFLP) Nablus infrastructure. The IDF's incessant operations in the territories, one military officer said, had terror groups under pressure and subsequently was creating interesting pacts and bonds between them.
The motivation was also coming from outside Israel, officials explained, with Iran, Syria and Hizbullah sending millions of dollars to the territories to fund the attacks. "Iran doesn't care to which groups the suicide bomber belongs," one official explained, adding: "As long as there is money, everyone will be vying for a piece of the action."
The IDF Planning Directorate has already begun drawing up plans in anticipation of an escalation, and predictions are that a third intifada will break out this summer. The Central Command is already sending battalions to urban warfare centers to sharpen soldiers' skills for the long operations that can be expected within Samarian terror capitals like Jenin and Nablus.
The West Bank, however, is not the army's sole problem. In Gaza, the army is waging a harsh daily battle against Kassam cells, but without much success. Even as Navy warships and IAF aircraft bombed launch sites on Saturday, the Palestinians still succeeded in firing four rockets - two of which landed near Kibbutz Zikim.
While the army doesn't like to talk about it, the Southern Command does have a contingency plan for a massive ground operation in the Gaza Strip. The Givati Brigade is currently manning the security fence and is on standby if OC Southern Command Maj.-Gen. Yoav Galant gets the green light from Olmert.
"We know how to enter Gaza in a ground operation," one field officer recently predicted. "The exact timing depends on the developments and when we will be fed up with the rocket attacks."
#1
Palestine has a government and a Terrorist Agency of Record rather than the government/opposition structure most democracies use. They flip in the same way after elections. Why the surprise?
But Fatah, officials warned, might have other plans. With the disengagement from the Gaza Strip this past summer hailed as the result of terrorism, Fatah terrorists might be thinking that suicide attacks are the group's ticket back into office.
With Acting Prime Minister Ehud Olmert planning to pull out of much of the West Bank in the coming years, Fatah, security officials explained, might be trying to gain credibility with the public like Hamas did and create the impression that Israel is retreating under fire.
The fantasy that Israels pull out is a success story for terrorism will kill them all. They are too blinded by their love of violence and death to see that the wagons are circling. The pull out hands Palestine a country all the official status and responsibilities and international agreements that come with status.
And the first aggression is an act of war. And the response will be overwhelming and very final. No more Palestine. Shortest country on record.
And with events escalating in the general region, but after the cartoon riots and Irans constant spewing of threats awaking a sense of these guys are nuts in the average westerner, there will be fewer tears than expected. And some sighs of relief.
#2
the Paleos will mewl and cry for someone to come to their aid when the consequences come down - to no avail - easier to pay the fodder to blow up Joooos than to committ your miserable little Arab armies to another ass-whupping
Posted by: Frank G ||
04/02/2006 13:40
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#3
"Is Fatah doing Hamas's dirty work?"
Probably - since they all have the same final solution goal.
So it's not really Hamas' "dirty work" - it belongs to all the inhabitants of paleoland. >:-(
Posted by: Barbara Skolaut ||
04/02/2006 18:32
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#4
Barb, I agree. Without a scorecard its hard to distinguish one thuggery from another. Its like the dance of a thousand veils. All with the same malicious intent and mission.
Posted by: Captain America ||
04/02/2006 20:29
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The Associated Press reported recently that a trailside memorial to an American soldier killed in Afghanistan had been vandalized. The memorial to Sgt. 1st Class Daniel Petithory, adjacent to the Ashuwillticook Trail in Cheshire, Mass., was defaced with the words "Oil," "Bush," "Christian Crusade" and other phrases.
Dan Petithory was one of my soldiers. He was an Army Green Beret and was killed on Dec. 5, 2001, north of Kandahar as he and his A-Team were closing in on the home of al-Qaeda and the Taliban leadership.
I attended Dan's funeral in Cheshire along with Sens. Edward M. Kennedy and John Kerry, as well as the archbishop of Chicago and other generals and government dignitaries, who honored Daniel and his family with their presence. Kerry gave the eulogy and moved us to tears, acknowledging that this war was one that we had no choice but to fight. Toward the end of the Mass we shook hands, giving the sign of peace. We then turned to Dan's wonderful parents, brother and sister to try to somehow alleviate their pain and suffering.
Months later, my wife, Bonnie, and I were honored to have the Petithorys as guests in North Carolina. Our hearts ached anew at their loss, and I promised to jog the Ashuwillticook Trail one day in remembrance of Dan.
I was a soldier in 1969, and I witnessed misguided students and adults attacking individual soldiers because of their disgust with national policy. In the '60s the purveyors of hate on the left were mostly resident on campus and could not differentiate between those responsible for policy and deception regarding the war in Vietnam and the young, honorable men and women who served in the military.
The vandals who struck the Petithory family were confused. Oil, Christian crusades and Bush were not issues during the fight in Afghanistan. We had consensus. Both sides of the aisle in Congress and the entire nation agreed that al-Qaeda had to be kept from continuing its attacks.
Sadly, the vandals' actions are illustrative of how we have squandered our opportunity to face terrorism with unified and coherent action. Saddam's actionsThe right's neocons orchestrated a war with Iraq that has destroyed national consensus and they are culpable for politicizing the individual soldier by repeatedly sending the message that to criticize policy equates attacking the soldier -- an allegation that is simply not true. Meanwhile, some on the left are returning to mindless violence.
So here I stand, waiting for my daughter to return from her voluntary tour in the Middle East with the U.S. Coast Guard, wondering if some cretin will spit on her. I pray that soon our leaders on the left, right and center will find a way forward, build a new consensus and reverse our growing polarization.
Meanwhile, I may take to long midnight walks on the Ashuwillticook Trail -- packing heat.
Me? Polarized? Count me in. Dan was a hell of a soldier from a great family.
The writer, a retired major general, commanded the Army Special Forces Command (Airborne) from 2001 to 2003.
#1
The right's neocons orchestrated a war with Iraq that has destroyed national consensus and they are culpable for politicizing the individual soldier by repeatedly sending the message that to criticize policy equates attacking the soldier -- an allegation that is simply not true.
I can't speak for anyone else but my main premise is that the debate on Iraq ended in October 2002. Iraq would be invaded as a part of our national security strategy. Like it or not every citizen from that point until the last soldier leaves Iraq has a solemn duty to get behind the president, as commander in chief, and every serviceman or woman here and abroad, to ensure they are not placed in danger over and above what they already face.
My idea was that the domestic opponents of the president were obligated to act as though they are US citizens and demonstrate that they are behind this effort inasmuch as they are against it.
The demonstration was for the benefit our of our enemies; to let them know we are a nation united against them.
But now we know the left wants Islamism to win, and not just because they believe international and hostile forces can return them to power, but because they believe Islam is similar to Marxism, their core beliefs.
And they are: both are death cults.
With all due respect to the general, he is plainly wrong blaming neo-conservatives for actions of their political opponents. It is easy to see why this absurd screed got published, but it is hard to understand someone from our very own military would come to such an egregious and eroneous error in logic.
Meanwhile, some on the left are returning to mindless violence.
Guess its time to start going to the range then, huh?
#2
Get the feeling of those other American officers? You know the ones in 1859 who were being dragged into the dirty little conflict between the issue of human freedom and slavery? You might want to sit down for a couple of hours and watch Santa Fe Trail, not just to see the future President of the United States, but to get a visceral feeling of what it was like among the officer corps back then, when you know, it was so detached from the politics of the nation. That was another time right. Its not like Americans are talking past each other today like they did back then.
#4
I have reached the firm conviction that 1 in 10 senior officers (O-6 and above) are bitter as hell.
At some point, they are filled with bile about something. The actual reasons vary, but are invariably petty, and their behavior from that point on is best described as schoolyard.
It is a good indicator that they need to be retired, however. And that fact, when it dawns on them, doesn't make it any easier. That, for all their hard work, expertise, accomplishments and hardships endured, that they are still as expendable as the greenest private. And the day after they are gone, they will not be remembered.
#5
"The vandals who struck the Petithory family were confused."
I'm sorry to have to say this, but it is the author of this article who is confused, not the vandals. The vandals are Leftists: haters following an ideology of hatred, alienation and envy. They are mentally ill, I'll grant; there is something profoundly fucked-up about them. But they are not "confused".
"In the '60s the purveyors of hate on the left were mostly resident on campus and could not differentiate between those responsible for policy and deception regarding the war in Vietnam and the young, honorable men and women who served in the military."
It isn't that they "could not" differentiate between the two; it's that they chose not to differentiate. It was a conscious, deliberate, knowing choice made with eyes wide open, by-- as the author correctly notes but apparently can't comprehend-- purveyors of hate.
"The right's neocons orchestrated a war with Iraq that has destroyed national consensus and they are culpable for politicizing the individual soldier by repeatedly sending the message that to criticize policy equates attacking the soldier -- an allegation that is simply not true."
Neither "neocons" nor the war in Iraq have "destroyed national consensus." What has destroyed national consensus is a Democratic Party determined to do exactly that.
Regime change in Iraq-- by force, if necessary-- had been U.S. policy since the Clinton adminstration; and the only way in which the Bush administration departed from the policy inaugurated by Clinton was to act on it instead of mouthing platitudes and nipping ineffectually at Saddam's shoelaces.
So don't blame "neocons" or Bush: it was the Democratic Party-- in a cynical, calculated effort to tap into the money and the political energy of its most extreme elements on the left-- that destroyed national consensus. And they did it for political gain.
"Meanwhile, some on the left are returning to mindless violence."
"Returning"? Sheesh...
Posted by: Dave D. ||
04/02/2006 10:46
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Pure intellectually lazy thinking on the author's part. Everyone that agrees with him but does atrocious acts is "misguided but goodhearted". Those with disagreement in their worldviews are guilty of doing things for outright evil or malicious reasons.
Posted by: Frank G ||
04/02/2006 12:27
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#7
Well, I can attest personally that I did hear and read from leftists massive criticism of the war back when it was _just_ Afghanistan and not Iraq. I also heard the "it's all about oil" bit then too.
(Just like I had heard it about the Balkans.)
And the "stupid Christian crusader" bit.
I heard that all within a couple weeks after 9/11. Some eighteen months before the decision to invade Iraq.
Posted by: Phil ||
04/02/2006 12:53
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#8
Sadly, the vandals' actions are illustrative of how we have squandered our opportunity to face terrorism with unified and coherent action. The right's neocons orchestrated a war with Iraq that has destroyed national consensus and they are culpable for politicizing the individual soldier by repeatedly sending ththe message that to criticize policy equates attacking the soldier -- an allegation that is simply not true.
He was making a lot of sense until that sentence. Nearly gave me whiplash when I read that.
#9
This is good propaganda and this useful idiot plays right in. He says don't politicize our soldiers, but "Sens. Edward M. Kennedy and John Kerry, as well as the archbishop of Chicago and other generals and government dignitaries, who honored Daniel and his family with their presence" which means it was a well organized photo op.
It wouldn't even surprise me if someone told me that they already knew of this useful idiot's views and had some democratic operative desecrate his grave just so they could publicize his views.
#10
The vandals who struck the Petithory family were confused. Oil, Christian crusades and Bush were not issues during the fight in Afghanistan. We had consensus. Both sides of the aisle in Congress and the entire nation agreed that al-Qaeda had to be kept from continuing its attacks.
BS. Remember when we were in Afghanistan for a pipeline?
Posted by: Robert Crawford ||
04/02/2006 14:36
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#11
Or "Bush went and used the word _crusade_"?
Posted by: Phil ||
04/02/2006 15:07
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Leaders of the Shiite Muslim alliance that governs Iraq have given Prime Minister Ibrahim al-Jafari until Sunday to convince his opponents he should retain his job in Iraq's next government or face being pushed aside, U.S. and Iraqi officials said.
In another sign that support for Jafari is weakening within his coalition, Qasim Dawood, an independent member of the Iraqi legislature, on Saturday became the first member of the alliance to publicly call for Jafari to withdraw his name for prime minister.
"I call on Jafari to take a courageous step and set a fine example by stepping down," said Dawood, according to the Reuters news agency. "We have stood behind him for 50 days, and today we have reached the conclusion that there should be a prime minister for all Iraqis, not just one group."
A senior adviser to Jafari, Adnan Ali Kadhimi, said no formal demand had been made for Jafari to step down, and he would not do so. "No one is saying, 'We are giving you an ultimatum,' " Ali said. "Dr. Jafari is not going to kneel to the demand of this person or that person. He is the candidate of the alliance. He got the most votes."
Violence continued across the country, meanwhile, with at least 20 people killed. The U.S. military said one of its helicopters had gone down southwest of Baghdad while on combat air patrol. The status of the crew was unknown, a military statement said.
Reuters reported that the Rashedeen Army, an insurgent group, said in an Internet posting that it had shot down a U.S. helicopter near the town of Yusufiyah, about 15 miles southwest of Baghdad, and that residents of the area had reported hearing gunfire. No further details were available.
In Ramstein, Germany, American journalist Jill Carroll disavowed comments she made in a video recorded the night before she was released from nearly three months in captivity in Baghdad. In the video, which her kidnappers posted on the Internet after Carroll was set free on Thursday, she expressed support for the Iraqi insurgency and criticized the American occupation.
But in a statement released Saturday by the Christian Science Monitor, her primary employer, Carroll said: "Things that I was forced to say while captive are now being taken by some as an accurate reflection of my personal views. They are not."
The 28-year-old reporter called the people who kidnapped her and killed her translator on Jan. 7 "criminals, at best . . . . They put me, my family and my friends -- all those around the world who have prayed so fervently for my release -- through a horrific experience. I was, and remain, deeply angry with the people who did this."
More than three months after nationwide parliamentary elections in which the Shiite coalition known as the United Iraqi Alliance won the largest share of seats, negotiations over the formation of a government have reached an impasse. Iraqi and U.S. officials have stressed that a government that represents all of Iraq's factions would be instrumental in stemming a recent wave of sectarian violence, but the factions have been unable to agree on who would be included -- or who would serve as prime minister.
In February, the Shiite alliance chose -- by a one-vote margin -- to nominate Jafari, who has been transitional prime minister for about a year, to head the next government. His selection immediately drew strong opposition from blocs representing Iraq's Kurdish and Sunni Arab communities and a slate of secular, independent candidates. They reaffirmed their desire for Jafari to be replaced in a letter to the Shiite alliance this week.
Within the alliance, some members -- particularly those from the Supreme Council for the Islamic Revolution in Iraq, which backs its own candidate, Adel Abdul Mahdi -- have criticized Jafari's performance as transitional leader, but none had opposed him openly. Four of the seven parties that make up the alliance, including the Supreme Council, told Jafari on Thursday they would withdraw support for him if he could not win over detractors within 72 hours, Shiite leaders and a U.S. official in Baghdad who spoke on condition of anonymity, said Saturday.
Jafari retains the support of the other three parties in the alliance, including his Dawa party and a group allied with the influential cleric and militia leader Moqtada al-Sadr, which helped secure Jafari's selection in February.
As negotiations to form a government languished, U.S. officials have stepped up pressure on Iraqi leaders to move more quickly. While Iraqi politicians say American diplomats have privately encouraged opposition to the prime minister, they have publicly maintained their neutrality.
The U.S. official said Saturday that any prime minister should be competent and able to unify Iraqi factions, and that Jafari might not meet that standard.
The potential alternatives could also pose problems. Abdul Mahdi, narrowly defeated by Jafari in the February balloting, is considered the most likely replacement. But his party, the Supreme Council, is perceived in some quarters as too cozy with neighboring Iran, and its militia, the Badr Organization, is accused by many Iraqi Sunnis of operating death squads tied to Iraq's Interior Ministry.
In the day's violence, at least 10 people were killed and 14 wounded when three car bombs exploded, just yards and moments apart, in the Abu Dsheer bazaar in the south Baghdad neighborhood of Dora, a predominantly Sunni area.
In Amiriyah, about 45 miles southwest of Baghdad, three "suspected terrorists" were killed and three others captured when coalition forces tried to raid a house that was a suspected haven for people bringing foreign fighters into Iraq, the U.S. military said in a statement.
Posted by: Dan Darling ||
04/02/2006
04:15 ||
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Khalilzad would be their best choice, of course. No axes to grind, doesn't need the / a job, and knows everything they don't about freedom and governance.
BSF director general AK Mitra has said the border force is facing a major challenge from Islamic terrorists from Bangladesh who are using eastern India to operate in different countries of the region.
Mitra, making his first visit to the country's eastern frontiers after assuming office, told reporters here last night that Indian insurgents were also using Bangladeshi soil to conduct subversive activities in the country.
Asked to comment on observations by defence experts that Bangladesh is emerging as "an exporter of global terrorism", Mitra said "the Islamic terrorists from Bangladesh have chosen a route through eastern India to enter into different countries. Our force is facing a major challenge to contain the menace."
BSF director-general also said "the 4000-km long eastern border is porous. So we are alert and would increase strength of forces in the border and modernise it with sophisticated gadgets".
He, however, added that although the Bangladesh government has recently taken some initiative against the fundamentalists in their country, "we have to remain alert about them".
Conceding that a large number of madrasas have come up on both sides of the border and also on the Indo-Nepal border, Mitra said he had "no direct evidence they are using them as the factory for producing Islamic militancy".
Posted by: Dan Darling ||
04/02/2006
04:13 ||
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Police and military forces on Saturday captured in the island of Basilan a suspected Abu Sayyaf member, whose group is tied to the al-Qaeda terror network.
Officials said Kahal Asmad alias Abu Asmad was nabbed by police and military agents near a market place in Isabela City.
He was arrested alright, and Kahal Asmad is included in the militarys order of battle. He is facing a string of kidnapping charges, said Inspector Romeo Tiera of the local police force.
Tiera said Asmad is a henchman of slain Abu Sayyaf leader Galib Andang, also known as Commander Robot, who was killed in a police assault last year at a prison facility in Taguig City.
It was unknown if security forces seized weapons from Asmad or whether he was planning an attack, but police said he did not resist arrest when captured around 8:30 a.m.
Asmads family disputed the charges and insisted the man was innocent.
Authorities have tightened security in the south after the National Intelligence Coordinating Agency in northern Mindanao uncovered a supposed plot Friday by the Abu Sayyaf group to hijack passenger ships.
We ordered a tightened security in all passenger ships in northern Mindanao. We have contingency measures and are ready to address any situation. We cannot rule out the possibility of a terror attack after the recent bombing in Jolo, said Chief Supt. Florante Baguio, commander of the regional police force.
Baguio did not say how the plot was discovered, but a report by the NICA claimed the Abu Sayyaf was also planning to abduct the passengers.
The report identified the leader of an 11-man Abu Sayyaf team that would carry out the hijacking as Abu Awillah, and that among the targets were Super Ferry vessels sailing from Manila to Mindanao.
Police have stepped up intelligence operation to track down members of the terrorist group in the region, said Baguio.
Authorities have tagged the Abu Sayyaf group in the February 2004 bombing of SuperFerry 14, which killed more than 100 people in the worst maritime terrorist attack in the Philippines.
The 10,192-ton ship was sailing out of Manila, with about 900 passengers and crew, when a television set filled with TNT exploded. The Abu Sayyaf owned up the bombing.
Since the bombing of the Super- Ferry 14, authorities have deployed secret marshals in passenger ships.
Posted by: Dan Darling ||
04/02/2006
04:11 ||
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#1
oh ace that cheered me up - thought we'd long heard the last about old Robot. :)
Where's the creativity and imagination in that? No wonder he was captured, he was probably hiding behind the living room drapes with his DayGlo Nikes sticking out and answered "No!" when the coppers demanded to know if anyone was there. Probably a future #3, too.
As a US tank comes into view on a street in Ramadi, west of Baghdad, three fighters in civilian clothes and headscarves aim their weapons and wait. They claim to be part of al-Qaeda in Iraq.
"This is a message to America," one insurgent says to the camera.
"Look at your might and power, yet you are unable to walk the streets of Ramadi, which belongs to the mujahideen."
He turns back to the tank, which has paused a few blocks away. "I swear by almighty God we will destroy them," the insurgent says.
We received this footage while making a documentary about the Sunni insurgency fighting the Coalition Forces in Iraq.
We had asked local fixers and stringers in Baghdad if they would be prepared to take a camera and a list of prepared questions into the heart of the Sunni Triangle to speak directly with insurgents. Few accepted such a dangerous task.
Of those that did, one person got past the roadblocks with the film of al-Qaeda in Ramadi.
Cases of US heavy handedness or the abuse in Abu Ghraib have provided fertile ground for the insurgents to recruit from.
"A number of the insurgents keep saying to me that this is what I was trained for," journalist Michael Ware explained to us.
"They say the next generation is going to be worse than we've ever been. And it's in this way that it's al-Qaeda that are one of the main beneficiaries of this war.
"The Bush administration is the midwife to the next generation of al-Qaeda. And that's a generation that is principally being shaped by Zarqawi," Mr Ware said.
The normal methods of making a documentary about the evolution of the Sunni insurgency are not possible in Iraq.
Our contact with the insurgency came in two other ways.
Firstly, through two journalists - Michael Ware, who has had contact with members of the insurgency from the very beginning; and Ghaith Abdul-Ahad, who has travelled throughout the Middle East to understand more about the foreign fighters coming to fight in this war.
And secondly we embedded with US and Iraqi forces. We filmed the raids they were making to counter the insurgency.
The officers we spoke to were exceptionally candid about the realities of the situation and the problems resulting from past mistakes. Something we were not expecting.
But what did we learn?
That the disbanding of the Iraqi army and the Baath Party had been a monumental mistake.
At the end of the war, there was a moment when a policy of inclusion might not have pushed people into opposition.
That the insurgency consists of three main groups - the foreign element led in part by Abu Musab al-Zarqawi; the nationalist element of former Iraqi soldiers and Baathists; and a middle ground of Iraqi Islamic nationalists.
That the insurgency has developed into an organised, structured force, leading an increasingly effective campaign.
"Falluja was a moment of transformation for the resistance. It became a secure area for the resistance to work," Abu Mohammed, a representative of the national resistance, told us.
A marriage of convenience between these groups took root during the first battle of Falluja in April 2004 when US troops could not take back the city.
We also leant that post-Falluja, this co-ordinated insurgency spread across Iraq.
Some cities fell completely under the control of the insurgents.
We travelled to Talafar, in the north of Iraq near the Syrian border, and spoke to residents who had lived through a horrific reign of terror when al-Qaeda ran the city.
"The terrorists shot my brother with two bullets in his stomach - they cut open his stomach and put explosives inside," said one man.
"My father wanted to go and pick him up. They blew up my father, beheaded him and put his head on his corpse."
Foreign fighters, estimated at only 15% of the insurgency, have had an enormous impact.
They have provided men, money and weapons to trained officers from the former Iraqi army.
And they provided an ideology that has struck a chord with some disenfranchised Iraqis.
An ideology witnessed by Ghaith Abdul-Ahad in Falluja before the Americans retook the city in November 2004.
"A Yemeni fighter would tell me about his pregnant wife, his children and the young daughter that he loves very much. And then you see tears running down his eyes and then he would dismiss this, oh no, no, this is the devil trying to tempt me away from my Jihad by reminding me of my family."
So would Iraq be better off if US and British troops withdrew?
It may remove one motivation for the insurgency.
"The resistance is a natural reaction to any occupation," says Abu Mohammed. "All occupations in history faced a resistance - this occupation is an insult to me and my people.
"Since I'm an officer, the responsibility falls on my shoulders. So I have to finish this occupation."
But above and beyond the motives of the nationalists, there is the "game plan" laid out by Zarqawi in a letter in early 2004.
One of the primary aims was to foment civil war between the Sunnis and Shias. Recent events in Iraq show this agenda is still being vigorously pursued.
An Iraqi officer we spoke to said that if the international coalition were to pull out of Iraq, "You can forget about a country called Iraq. There'd be massacres in the street - Sunnis will kill Shias and Shias will kill Sunnis".
"The Muslim will kill the Christian and the Christian will kill the Muslim. The Arab will kill the Kurd and the Kurd will kill the Arab. It is very, very important that the coalition forces stay in Iraq," the officer told us.
Posted by: Dan Darling ||
04/02/2006
04:09 ||
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#1
Lock thier journalists up in the Bay, no time for traiters specially when im partially payong for them!!!! furious.
#3
yes they came to that conclusion even before the war had started too! most odd, i often have seriously wondered if the BBC were being payed by the Baath party for pro Saddam reporting. I honestly wonder what will happen if i ever meet up with a BBC employee, hostage taking, a severe thrashing, murder? I guess they have to start expecting this sort of thing to happen when they choose to support the other side and align themselves with Saddamists. How long before anti AQ and Saddamist 'insurgents' and 'freedom fighters' start to target AL-BEEB?
#4
This kind of 'reporting' just bends my mind! I can't figure out what they're advocating. It's a given that the BBC hates Bush but there's a chicken/egg quality to this.
Al Qaeda is bad and Bush makes them worse (it's his fault after all) but if Bush surrenders then al Qaeda will go back to picking olives or will continue to impose their fascism and terror? US troops are heavy handed frat boy pranksters but al Qaeda shoots innocent civilians in the mouth. But the US is worse?
US law required regime change (yes-mission accomplished) yet displacing the Ba'athists screwed up the mission?
This shit is like a Buddhist koan (One hand clapping, etc). Are these BBC people serious journalists or sophmore potheads?
#5
Stuff like this is one of the reasons if anyone ever announces they work for the BBC in my presence I will beat them with in an inch of their misspent life.
They are not impartial. The BBC are anti american cheer leaders and enablers. Their offices should be burnt to the ground.
Posted by: SPoD ||
04/02/2006 6:38
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#6
It's not the BBC's opinions that are troubling. First, there is the complete and utter lack of comprehension of what is really happening. Readers of this website are familiar with truly thoughtful analyses such as those available at The Belmont Club, for example, and of the long post here at Rantburg yesterday. Second, the notion that there were opportunities to nip everything perfectly in the bud is the sheerest of speculation -- the enemy is thinking and intelligent, and can adapt as well. The relationship between reality and MSM's coverage is the same as that between reading Shakespeare and Classic Comics.
#7
I heard Ware on Hugh Hewitts show and I found his stance eye opening and scary at the same time. I though that LLL Moonbat reporters had limits, but this guy has no qualms about reporting from their side. I dont wish it, but a fitting end to him would be to be caught in the crossfire with insurgents and elements of the Iraqi, American, and British forces.
#8
re: BBC, MSM, General Michael Ware &
General Kevin Sykes.
2 Glory Whores who the MSM [BBC] proffer on a daily basis as Islamic tribal experts, Insurgency Geniuses, JAG Lawyers, Combat squad leaders, Company Comanders, Black Robed Judges from the Haig, The Second Comming of Carl Von Clausewitz, Logisticians or all of the above..
and Lucky for us, the bozos with ever so humble gratitude accept the mantle.
#9
CS - Ware is a tough guy who has been intimidated by Zarq's death threats. In his Devil's Bargain, he has opted to slant towards Zarq because to report the truth is more threatening to his personal safety than what the U.S. could possibly do to him for being Zarq's propagandist.
Posted by: Captain America ||
04/02/2006 15:57
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#10
As for BeBS, this is old spit in a different chalice.
Posted by: Captain America ||
04/02/2006 15:59
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#11
One can blame the Bush Administration for creating the next generation of Al Qaida.
One could also assume these guys would have remained mosque monkeys if the War on Terror never happened.
I would not be such a drunk if it wasn't for the damn beer producers.
Posted by: john ||
04/02/2006 16:39
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#12
CA, ALL the world has a vested interest in the West (and the U.S.) being successful in Iraq and Afghanistan. These organizations are no more powerful than the Leftist groups that were roamed the earth 1960-1990. The only thing that the Islamofacists have now is better PR and a willing press. The reason we no longer hear of the Red Brigade (et al) is that the press didnt go out of their way to champion their cause AGAINST the rest of the world. And yes there are enough leftists around to fund them if they had any kind of following. I have been to the Middle East and these radical clerics and their followers are a very small portion of the population, but the MSM goes out of its way to seek them out and glorify their position. Ware and his ilk have chosen sides so let them share the fate of their comrades.
Islamic extremists in Iraq are providing military training and other assistance to Taliban and al-Qaeda fighters from eastern and southern Afghanistan and Pakistan's tribal areas, U.S. intelligence officials told Knight Ridder.
A small number of Pakistanis and Afghans are receiving military training in Iraq; Iraqi fighters have met with Afghan and Pakistani extremists in Pakistan; and extremists in Afghanistan increasingly are using homemade bombs, suicide attacks and other tactics honed in Iraq, said U.S. intelligence officials and others who track the issue.
Several Afghan and Pakistani "exchange students" volunteered to join the fight against American and Iraqi forces in Iraq, but they were told to return to Afghanistan and Pakistan to train others there, two U.S. intelligence officials said. They and other officials spoke on condition of anonymity because the intelligence is highly classified.
Intelligence suggests that if the trend continues, U.S. forces, already contending with escalating violence in Iraq, could face the same thing in Afghanistan in the coming months, further complicating the Bush administration's plans to withdraw some troops.
"The worst case," one U.S. intelligence official said, "would be if the terrorists in both places are becoming more connected, and that they either want to take some of the heat off the jihadists in Iraq or that they figure we're stretched too thin in both places, so they're going to try to turn up the heat in both."
Seth Jones, a specialist on Afghanistan at the Rand Corp., a consulting firm that advises U.S. government agencies, said: "I think there is absolutely no question that the partial evidence strongly suggests that there have been increasing contacts between Afghan insurgents and Iraqi insurgents either in Iraq itself or in Pakistan; the trail is going in both directions."
Extremists traveling to or from Iraq mostly are making their way on routes used by drug traffickers and smugglers through Pakistan's province of Baluchistan, where government forces are facing a tribal insurgency, and southern Iran, the two American intelligence officials said.
They said there was no solid evidence that Iran's Islamic regime was arranging, financing or aiding what one of the U.S. intelligence officials called "terrorist Route 66."
Afghanistan has witnessed a surge in attacks by the Taliban, many of them apparently aimed at testing NATO troops from Britain, Canada and the Netherlands as they begin taking over security duties in the south from American forces.
Tactics that have proved effective in Iraq, especially homemade bombs, suicide and car bombs, and secondary ambushes - in which troops, police and emergency workers are hit as they respond to an initial attack - increasingly are being used in Afghanistan, they said.
"Everybody accepts that there has been a qualitative shift in the sophistication of these attacks," said Marvin Weinbaum, a former State Department intelligence expert who is now at the Middle East Institute, a nonpartisan research center.
Posted by: Dan Darling ||
04/02/2006
04:08 ||
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What? Things got a bit too "boring" in Iraq that they decided to move on to something "more exciting"?
Over the last three years, captured Sept. 11 mastermind Khalid Shaikh Mohammed has given his CIA jailers a tutorial on the inner workings of his network's clandestine tradecraft - and how to keep members in line. Mohammed's terror seminar is detailed in a 58-page summary of his CIA interrogations that was entered last week in Zacarias Moussaoui's death penalty trial.
Lesson one is loyalty.
For command and control of its fanatics, al-Qaida has revived the almost medieval rite of "bayat," described as a "solemn spiritually bonding commitment to obey the commands of a single leader, or emir."
That emir, of course, is Osama bin Laden.
To become "made" in al-Qaida, a member would vow to bin Laden, "I listen to you, to listen and obey, and to die in the cause of God," Mohammed told his interrogators.
Lesson two: Keep it simple.
Mohammed scoffed at the bureaucratic system in Western intelligence agencies.
"I know the materialistic Western mind cannot grasp the idea ... but we do not submit written reports to higher-ups," he said.
Mohammed said he would travel for days to brief bin Laden. "I conducted the Sept. 11 operation by submitting only oral reports," Mohammed boasted. "Sometimes I scratched my notes on a small piece of paper 10-cm long," the size of a playing card. "But in the end, the operation was a success."
Secrecy is also vital to al-Qaida's survival.
"When four people know the details of an operation, it is dangerous," Mohammed explained. "When two people know, it is good. When just one person knows, it is better."
The vow of "bayat" allowed Mohammed to send most of the 19 members of the Sept. 11 teams to the United States without telling them why.
He said one top operative helping the hijackers was sent to the United Arab Emirates and told to send them money. "I never told him anything about the nature of the (Sept. 11) operation," Mohammed wrote.
As an example of the "need to know" rule, Mohammed said that 10 of the "muscle" hijackers on Sept. 11 were trained by butchering sheep and camels with Swiss army knives. They were also taught when and how to assault an airplane cockpit.
To make sure even the hijackers didn't know what was being planned, they also learned to hijack trains and blow up trucks and buildings.
Another rule was to keep your enemies guessing.
"We sent meaningless letters of a few lines. We spoke nonsense on the telephone," Mohammed said, assuming someone was watching and listening.
Mohammed conceded that sometimes simple wasn't good. He admitted his frustration in trying to teach Muhammad al-Qahtani to use telephone codes and e-mail. But Qahtani was valuable because he was one of the few al-Qaida members who had a U.S. visa.
When Qahtani arrived at a Florida airport in 2001, he acted so suspiciously that he was sent back on the next plane.
Mohammed concluded that Qahtani was "too much of a bedouin" - a desert tribesman - to function well in the West.
Posted by: Dan Darling ||
04/02/2006
04:07 ||
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Explosions at gas pipelines and railroad tracks are common in this remote desert region. Now, roadside bombs and artillery shells are, too. More than 100 civilians have been killed in recent months, along with dozens of government security forces, local residents and Pakistan's Human Rights Commission say.
This is the other front of Pakistan's widening civil unrest, not the tribal areas along the Afghan border where the United States would like the government to press a campaign against Islamic militants, but the restive province of Baluchistan, home to an intensifying insurgency.
It is here, say local leaders and opposition politicians, that Pakistan, an important ally in the United States' campaign against terrorism, has diverted troops from the fight against Al Qaeda and the Taliban to settle old scores as it seeks to develop the region's valuable oil and gas reserves.
One visit makes it clear that, despite official denials, the government is waging a full-scale military campaign here. Rebel leaders say they have several thousand men under arms, fighting what they estimate are 23,000 Pakistani troops.
During a 24-hour trek on camel, horse and foot across the rugged, stony terrain in early March, the fighting was plain to see. Military jets and surveillance planes flew over the area, and long-range artillery lighted up the distant night sky.
This fight is altogether separate from the Taliban insurgency on Afghanistan's border or the Shiite-Sunni violence that sporadically flares in and around the provincial capital, Quetta, and it threatens to dwarf the nation's other conflicts.
It is about the ethnic rights and self-rule of the Baluch people, who are distinct among Pakistanis. They speak their own language, Baluchi, which has its roots in Persian, and are probably the oldest settlers in the region.
In particular, tensions have been aggravated by President Pervez Musharraf's determination to develop the area's oil and gas fields, the largest in the country, as well as his aim to build a pipeline across the region to carry oil from Iran and a strategic deep sea port to expand trade with China, local residents say.
They charge that General Musharraf has shown little regard for their concerns and that for years their province has received paltry royalties on its resources, while remaining one of the country's poorest regions.
The government has branded two of the rebel leaders, Nawab Akbar Khan Bugti, nearly 80, and Balach Marri, 40, "miscreants," outlaws who oppose economic development to retain a hold over their tribes.
In an interview under the shade of a rocky overhang, Mr. Bugti and Mr. Marri, who share the names of the tribes they lead, dismissed the charges. They are not opposed to economic development, they said, but rather to the Pakistani government's military campaign to suppress them.
"The military government has imposed military rule and this has forced the Baluch to defend their land and resources against the might of the armed forces of Pakistan assembled in our area," Mr. Bugti said, perched in a carved wooden armchair as tribesmen sat around him cradling Kalashnikov rifles.
"The dispute is about the national rights of the Baluch," he added, "and if the government accepted these rights then there would be no dispute."
Mr. Bugti and others said that the government was using its American-supplied jets and helicopter gunships against them. They said they had found bomb fragments with "Made in U.S.A." stamped on them.
Indeed, huge craters and fragments from American-designed MK-82 bombs lay beside a badly damaged school in the village of Mararar, the results of a bombing raid that the Baluch fighters said had occurred at the beginning of March.
Another bombing raid on or around March 14 hit two bulldozers building a road, the fighters said. A collection of bomb fragments gathered by tribesmen from other raids revealed a "valve solenoid" made in New York, and part of a gas generator made in Mesa, Ariz.
Last year, the Baluch political leaders presented a 15-point agenda to the central government. The demands included greater control of the province's resources, protection for the Baluch minority and a halt to the building of military bases that local residents say have proliferated here.
Concern over the issues had been building for years, said Suret Khan Marri, a historian living in Quetta, the provincial capital, and the concerns and violence reach far beyond the Bugti and Marri tribes.
"The movement is there," he said in an interview. "Sometimes it is crushed. Now it is the fifth insurgency, and it has spread all across the Baluch area."
Armed resistance by Baluch nationalists has been a repeating occurrence since the birth of Pakistan in 1947, when tribal leaders, Mr. Bugti among them, only grudgingly joined Pakistan after having ruled independent territories under the British.
The bitterness today is such that the tribal leaders compare the situation to the 1970's, when Bangladesh broke from Pakistan. "If grievances have come to this level that we do not mind if Pakistan disintegrates then things are bad," Mr. Marri, the rebel leader, said.
The terrain here is marked by harsh, rocky desert, rising into craggy mountains and cut through with narrow gorges that supply many hiding places for shepherds, or guerrilla fighters. In the summer, temperatures soar to more than 120 degrees.
The shadowy Baluchistan Liberation Army, one of three armed resistance groups born in the 1970's, has claimed responsibility for many of the recent attacks, including the killing of three Chinese engineers working on the deep sea port, at Gwadar. Mr. Marri said that he did not know who was leading the group, but that it was neither a Bugti nor a Marri.
The most recent violence has included summary killings of settlers from the Punjab, whom Baluch nationalists blame for stealing jobs and land.
Hundreds of political party members, students, doctors and tribal leaders have been detained by government security forces, many disappearing for months, even years, without trials in well-documented cases. Some have been tortured or have died in custody, say officials of Pakistan's Human Rights Commission.
A Baluch doctor, Bari Langove, 36, said he had examined a student leader, Dr. Allah Nasar Baloch, in a prison ward in Quetta six months ago and found him so debilitated that he could neither walk nor talk at first.
"He was mentally exhausted and wholly unable to speak," Dr. Langove said in an interview in Quetta. "We examined him and found he had post-traumatic stress disorder, symptoms of loss of short-term memory, insomnia, loss of appetite and energy."
In places like Dera Bugti and Kohlu, government forces have carried out reprisals against villagers, Baluch leaders and human rights officials say. In a case documented by the Human Rights Commission, the Frontier Corps, a paramilitary force commanded by army officers, killed 12 men from Pattar Nala on Jan. 11 after a mine explosion near the village killed some of its soldiers.
Two old men from the village who went to the base to collect the bodies were also killed. The next day, the 14 bodies were handed over to the women of the village.
Local fighters say the Frontier Corps has carried out 42 such reprisal killings in the last three months, the latest involving six villagers during the week of March 6.
The government offensive began after a rocket attack on General Musharraf as he opened a military base in Kohlu on Dec. 17 an attack for which officials blamed Marri rebels, and Mr. Marri in particular.
Shortly afterward, government forces stormed the town of Dera Bugti, Mr. Bugti said, adding that they were burning shops and houses there still, including his family home.
The government has played down the fighting, and denies that the Pakistani Army is even deployed in Baluchistan, saying that it is merely using the Frontier Corps to run a police operation to stem violence.
In interviews, the police chief, Chaudhry Muhammad Yakub, put the number of rebels at no more than 1,000. The provincial governor, Owais Ahmed Ghani, said 36,000 Frontier Corps soldiers were deployed in Baluchistan, with two-thirds concentrated along the Afghan border. Both predicted that the Baluchistan conflict would be over within two months.
In all this, Mr. Bugti is an unexpected participant. He has been a prominent player in regional politics for many years and was governor of Baluchistan. He has spent time in detention on charges of murder during a long and colorful life.
Educated under the British Raj, he is a man from a bygone era, who said he attended the coronation of Queen Elizabeth II in London in 1953.
Now, forced to flee his home, he lives an austere life, camping out under the stars with his loyal tribesmen, a Kalashnikov propped by his aluminum walking stick.
"I have had a good and full life," he said, unperturbed. "It is better to die quickly in the mountains than slowly in your bed."
He warned that the government would be foolish not to negotiate with the senior tribal leaders. "If we are removed from the scene, I can guarantee the government will have a heck of a time from the younger generation, because they are more extreme," he said.
One of his grandsons, Brahamdagh, 25, is commanding the Bugti resistance fighters, and he appeared silently every so often to brief his grandfather. He took to the mountains in 2002 with just 50 to 60 men.
Brahamdagh contended that he now had more than 2,000 fighters in Dera Bugti and thousands more civilian helpers. He said the Marris had roughly the same number in Kohlu. In addition, small cells of fighters are in every district of the province, he said.
"There are so many groups," he said. "Three to four guys get together and decide what to do, to hit a railway or a bus. We are showing our bitterness. We are fighting the government to show we are not happy with you and you should leave our homeland."
Mr. Marri, who arrived unannounced one afternoon, on foot and accompanied by a dozen armed fighters, is another of the younger generation. The third son of the leader of the Marri tribe, he has spent most of his life outside Pakistan.
In 2002, he returned to run for Parliament but spent most of his time in his home in Kohlu, the capital of the Kohlu district, until forced to flee by the government offensive. "If they think they can pressure us like this, then they don' t know us," he warned. "The Baluch people have woken up."
The Human Rights Commission and opposition political parties have urged both sides to seek a political solution to the conflict. Yet at the moment there is no dialogue.
Two parliamentary committees set up last year to look into Baluch grievances have stalled, and General Musharraf has been blunt in his determination to use force against anyone opposing his vision for the region.
In their mountain stronghold, Mr. Bugti and Mr. Marri, and a third leader, Ataullah Mengal, in his home in Karachi, are disparaging about talks with the government.
"They are not worth sitting with at the table," Mr. Marri said. "The general keeps offering peanuts when my rights are at stake. We are not against negotiations, but only negotiations that are worthwhile."
Mr. Bugti offered his own grim prognosis. "I don' t see it ending," he said.
Posted by: Dan Darling ||
04/02/2006
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The NYT must be creaming their jeans. Love the "Made in U.S.A." bomb fragments quote. That's where the woodie came from.
SPY chiefs have warned Tony Blair that the war in Iraq has made Britain the target of a terror campaign by Al-Qaeda that will last for many years to come.
A leaked top-secret memo from the Joint Intelligence Committee (JIC) says the war in Iraq has exacerbated the threat by radicalising British Muslims and attracting new recruits to anti-western terror attacks.
The four-page memo, entitled International Terrorism: Impact of Iraq, contradicts Blairs public assurances by concluding that the invasion of Iraq has fomented a jihad or holy war against Britain.
It states: It has reinforced the determination of terrorists who were already committed to attacking the West and motivated others who were not.
It adds: Iraq is likely to be an important motivating factor for some time to come in the radicalisation of British Muslims and for those extremists who view attacks against the UK as legitimate.
The memo was approved by Eliza Manningham-Buller, the head of MI5, John Scarlett, the chief of MI6, and Sir David Pepper, head of GCHQ, the governments eavesdropping centre.
The leak of the JICs official assessment marked top secret will alarm Blair as it appears to be directed at undermining the public statements in which he has denied that the war in Iraq has increased the terror threat from Al-Qaeda.
In a speech shortly after the London bombings last July, Blair blamed an evil ideology, not the war, for motivating the suicide bombers. He said: If it is Iraq that motivates them, why is the same ideology killing Iraqis by terror in defiance of an elected government? In a separate speech he dismissed claims that the London attacks were sparked by Iraq, saying: What they want us to do is to turn round and say, Oh its all our fault.
He added: The people who are responsible for terrorist attacks are terrorists.
At the same time Charles Clarke, the home secretary, accused those who said that the attacks were caused by the war of serious intellectual flabbiness.
The JIC report contradicts these ministerial statements. It says: There is a clear consensus within the UK extremist community that Iraq is a legitimate jihad and should be supported. Iraq has re-energised and refocused a wide range of networks in the UK.
Written in April last year and circulated to Blair and other senior ministers before the July attacks, it says: We judge that the conflict in Iraq has exacerbated the threat from international terrorism and will continue to have an impact in the long term. It has reinforced the determination of terrorists who were already committed to attacking the West and motivated others who were not.
The document says the war is providing an additional motivation for attacks against Britain; is increasing Al-Qaedas potential; and energising terrorist networks engaged in holy war. Equally worrying, Iraq is being used as a training ground and base for terrorists to return to carry out attacks in Britain and elsewhere.
The JIC is the senior intelligence body in Britain and is responsible for issuing assessments of the gravity of threats to Britains national security.
It says that while attacks outside Iraq since the war began in 2003 have not been motivated by the war alone, in some cases we judge that it has been a major additional motivation. It cited the example of the 2004 Madrid bombings in which 201 people died, even though, in a speech two months later, Blair denied that those attacks had been sparked by Iraq.
The intelligence committee named Abu Musab al-Zarqawi, the head of Al-Qaeda in Iraq, as a key figure behind the growing threat. It describes him as an increasingly iconic figure who is fast becoming the new [Osama] Bin Laden. It warns that Zarqawi is seeking to use his status in Iraq to co-ordinate attacks against other countries, including those in Europe.
The JIC analysis presents a disturbing picture of the growth of the terrorist threat and suggests that there is a regular flow of terrorists to and from Britain and Iraq.
Some jihadists who leave Iraq will play leading roles in recruiting and organising terrorist networks, sharing their skills and possibly conducting attacks. It is inevitable that some will come to the UK, it says.
A government report, compiled by a senior civil servant using intelligence from the security services and due to be published in the next few weeks, is also expected to recognise that the July 7 bombers were motivated by the invasion of Iraq.
Posted by: Dan Darling ||
04/02/2006
04:04 ||
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The Brits provoked the foreign and homegrown Fascists in World War II as well. That's something to be proud of.
The singer Billy Bragg, in a different context, had a lyric: "If you've got a blacklist, I want be on it"
Being on al Qaeda's 'black list' would leave me rather chuffed.
Tony's right in that if it weren't Iraq, it'd be something else so what's the difference?
The first official recognition that the Iraq war motivated the four London suicide bombers has been made by the government in a major report into the 7 July attacks.
Despite attempts by Downing Street to play down suggestions that the conflict has made Britain a target for terrorists, the Home Office inquiry into the deadliest terror attack on British soil has conceded that the bombers were inspired by UK foreign policy, principally the decision to invade Iraq.
The government's 'narrative', compiled by a senior civil servant using intelligence from the police and security services, was announced by the Home Secretary, Charles Clarke, last December following calls for a public inquiry into the attacks.
The narrative will be published in the next few weeks, possibly alongside the findings of a critical report into the London bombings by the Commons intelligence and security committee.
Initial drafts of the government's account into the bombings, which have been revealed to The Observer, state that Iraq was a key 'contributory factor'. The references to Britain's involvement in Iraq are contained in a section examining what inspired the 'radicalisation' of the four British suicide bombers, Sidique Khan, Hasib Hussain, Shehzad Tanweer and Germaine Lindsay.
The findings will prove highly embarrassing to Tony Blair, who has maintained that the decision to go to war against Iraq would make Britain safer. On the third anniversary of the conflict last month, the Prime Minister defended Britain's involvement in Iraq, arguing that only an interventionist stance could confront terrorism.
The narrative largely details the movements of the four bombers from the point when they picked up explosives in a rucksack from a 'bomb factory' in Leeds to the time when the devices were detonated on the morning of 7 July.
Alongside Iraq, other 'motivating factors' for the bombers, three of whom came from west Yorkshire and one from Buckinghamshire, are identified. These include economic deprivation, social exclusion and a disaffection with society in general, as well as community elders. A videotape of Mohammed Sidique Khan was released after the attacks, in which he makes an apparent reference to Iraq, accusing 'Western citizens' of electing governments that committed crimes against humanity. Osama bin Laden's deputy, Ayman al-Zawahiri, also appeared on the tape, repeating his claim that Blair's decision to go to war in Iraq was responsible for the outrage.
The Home Office account of the July atrocity also chronicles in detail the trips to Pakistan made by Khan and Shehzad Tanweer and is understood to confirm that the two met al-Qaeda operatives. However, the final report will not name the militants known to some of the London bombers in case criminal proceedings are taken against them.
Leaks last week from the intelligence and security committee similarly confirmed how Khan, the mastermind of July 7, slipped through a security net. MI5 called off surveillance on him in the months before the bombings, in which 52 people were killed. The Home Office narrative supports the parliamentary committee's general view that the security services are not to blame. Despite the trips abroad, however, the narrative says that the London suicide bombers were only ever peripheral players in terrorist organisations and that, on the whole, there was 'nothing exceptional' about them before the attack.
Recent letters to the Home Office from the law firm Leigh Day & Co - acting for the family of one victim - warned that an independent inquiry was essential to explore 'what could be done to prevent such attacks happening again, and how to protect and save lives in the future'.
Posted by: Dan Darling ||
04/02/2006
04:02 ||
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Or that it was a Thursday. Thursday is Saturday in Islam. Could've been that. Or that they were Muslims. Could've been that. Or that they agreed chocolate was their favorite flavor so they had to kill someone. It's all very complex.
#3
There was no Iraq war when the mooselimbs were shooting down passenger planes over Scotland, or flying jets into buildings in NY , or blowing up embassies in Africa. Just another justification to employ violence against civilians/nonbelievers. Islam is a scourge,in my considered opinion.
Indonesia tightened security in key places after the United States and Australia warned of possible attacks against Westerners in the country on Sunday, police said.
Authorities deployed additional police at potential targets in the capital Jakarta and were also on guard in the resort island of Bali, a popular destination among Western tourists that has been a target of bomb attacks in the past.
"Police have increased security at several vital places and police officers are scattered at places that are known to be centres for foreigners," said Anton Bachrul Alam, deputy national police spokesman.
Antonius Reniban, Bali police spokesman, told Elshinta radio that the situation in Bali was normal but police were on high alert, especially at major tourist sites and religious places.
"We are committed to secure the safety of people in Bali by increasing the number of personnel at several tourist sites such as Kuta, Sanur, and Jimbaran," Reniban said.
"We have also increased security at ferry ports and are checking every vehicle that enters Bali. As for the airport, it's not a problem because it has the necessary security equipment like metal detectors to avoid an unwanted situation."
The heightened security came after the United States and Australia said last week that Sunday could be a potential date for an attack against Westerners and Western interests in Indonesia.
However, they also said that attacks could occur at any time, anywhere in Indonesia.
Canberra told Australians to reconsider travel to Indonesia and Bali, saying Westerners were priority targets for attacks and kidnappings.
"We continue to receive a stream of reporting indicating that terrorists are in the advanced stages of planning attacks against Western interests in Indonesia against a range of targets," the Australian Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade said.
Posted by: Dan Darling ||
04/02/2006
04:01 ||
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However, they also said that attacks could occur at any time, anywhere in Indonesia.
As tensions increase between the United States and Iran, U.S. intelligence and terrorism experts say they believe Iran would respond to U.S. military strikes on its nuclear sites by deploying its intelligence operatives and Hezbollah teams to carry out terrorist attacks worldwide.
Iran would mount attacks against U.S. targets inside Iraq, where Iranian intelligence agents are already plentiful, predicted these experts. There is also a growing consensus that Iran's agents would target civilians in the United States, Europe and elsewhere, they said.
U.S. officials would not discuss what evidence they have indicating Iran would undertake terrorist action, but the matter "is consuming a lot of time" throughout the U.S. intelligence apparatus, one senior official said. "It's a huge issue," another said.
Citing prohibitions against discussing classified information, U.S. intelligence officials declined to say whether they have detected preparatory measures, such as increased surveillance, counter-surveillance or message traffic, on the part of Iran's foreign-based intelligence operatives.
But terrorism experts considered Iranian-backed or controlled groups -- namely the country's Ministry of Intelligence and Security operatives, its Revolutionary Guards and the Lebanon-based Hezbollah -- to be better organized, trained and equipped than the al-Qaeda network that carried out the Sept. 11, 2001, attacks.
The Iranian government views the Islamic Jihad, the name of Hezbollah's terrorist organization, "as an extension of their state. . . . operational teams could be deployed without a long period of preparation," said Ambassador Henry A. Crumpton, the State Department's coordinator for counterterrorism.
The possibility of a military confrontation has been raised only obliquely in recent months by President Bush and Iran's government. Bush says he is pursuing a diplomatic solution to the crisis, but he has added that all options are on the table for stopping Iran's acquisition of nuclear weapons.
Speaking in Vienna last month, Javad Vaeedi, a senior Iranian nuclear negotiator, warned the United States that "it may have the power to cause harm and pain, but it is also susceptible to harm and pain. So if the United States wants to pursue that path, let the ball roll," although he did not specify what type of harm he was talking about.
Government officials said their interest in Iran's intelligence services is not an indication that a military confrontation is imminent or likely, but rather a reflection of a decades-long adversarial relationship in which Iran's agents have worked secretly against U.S. interests, most recently in Iraq and Pakistan. As confrontation over Iran's nuclear program has escalated, so has the effort to assess the threat from Iran's covert operatives.
U.N. Security Council members continue to debate how best to pressure Iran to prove that its nuclear program is not meant for weapons. The United States, Britain and France want the Security Council to threaten Iran with economic sanctions if it does not end its uranium enrichment activities. Russia and China, however, have declined to endorse such action and insist on continued negotiations. Security Council diplomats are meeting this weekend to try to break the impasse. Iran says it seeks nuclear power but not nuclear weapons.
Former CIA terrorism analyst Paul R. Pillar said that any U.S. or Israeli airstrike on Iranian territory "would be regarded as an act of war" by Tehran, and that Iran would strike back with its terrorist groups. "There's no doubt in my mind about that. . . . Whether it's overseas at the hands of Hezbollah, in Iraq or possibly Europe, within the regime there would be pressure to take violent action."
Before Sept. 11, the armed wing of Hezbollah, often working on behalf of Iran, was responsible for more American deaths than in any other terrorist attacks. In 1983 Hezbollah truck-bombed the U.S. Marine barracks in Beirut, killing 241, and in 1996 truck-bombed Khobar Towers in Saudi Arabia, killing 19 U.S. service members.
Iran's intelligence service, operating out of its embassies around the world, assassinated dozens of monarchists and political dissidents in Europe, Pakistan, Turkey and the Middle East in the two decades after the 1979 Iranian revolution, which brought to power a religious Shiite government. Argentine officials also believe Iranian agents bombed a Jewish community center in Buenos Aires in 1994, killing 86 people. Iran has denied involvement in that attack.
Iran's intelligence services "are well trained, fairly sophisticated and have been doing this for decades," said Crumpton, a former deputy of operations at the CIA's Counterterrorist Center. "They are still very capable. I don't see their capabilities as having diminished."
Both sides have increased their activities against the other. The Bush administration is spending $75 million to step up pressure on the Iranian government, including funding non-governmental organizations and alternative media broadcasts. Iran's parliament then approved $13.6 million to counter what it calls "plots and acts of meddling" by the United States.
"Given the uptick in interest in Iran" on the part of the United States, "it would be a very logical assumption that we have both ratcheted up [intelligence] collection, absolutely," said Fred Barton, a former counterterrorism official who is now vice president of counterterrorism for Stratfor, a security consulting and forecasting firm. "It would be a more fevered pitch on the Iranian side because they have fewer options."
The office of the director of national intelligence, which recently began to manage the U.S. intelligence agencies, declined to allow its analysts to discuss their assessment of Iran's intelligence services and Hezbollah and their capabilities to retaliate against U.S. interests.
"We are unable to address your questions in an unclassified manner," a spokesman for the office, Carl Kropf, wrote in response to a Washington Post query.
The current state of Iran's intelligence apparatus is the subject of debate among experts. Some experts who spent their careers tracking the intelligence ministry's operatives describe them as deployed worldwide and easier to monitor than Hezbollah cells because they operate out of embassies and behave more like a traditional spy service such as the Soviet KGB.
Other experts believe the Iranian service has become bogged down in intense, regional concerns: attacks on Shiites in Pakistan, the Iraq war and efforts to combat drug trafficking in Iran.
As a result, said Bahman Baktiari, an Iran expert at the University of Maine, the intelligence service has downsized its operations in Europe and the United States. But, said Baktiari, "I think the U.S. government doesn't have a handle on this."
Because Iran's nuclear facilities are scattered around the country, some military specialists doubt a strike could effectively end the program and would require hundreds of strikes beforehand to disable Iran's vast air defenses. They say airstrikes would most likely inflame the Muslim world, alienate reformers within Iran and could serve to unite Hezbollah and al-Qaeda, which have only limited contact currently.
A report by the independent commission investigating the Sept. 11 attacks cited al-Qaeda's long-standing cooperation with the Iranian-back Hezbollah on certain operations and said Osama bin Laden may have had a previously undisclosed role in the Khobar attack. Several al-Qaeda figures are reportedly under house arrest in Iran.
Others in the law enforcement and intelligence circles have been more dubious about cooperation between al-Qaeda and Hezbollah, largely because of the rivalries between Shiite and Sunni Muslims. Al-Qaeda adherents are Sunni Muslims; Hezbollah's are Shiites.
Iran "certainly wants to remind governments that they can create a lot of difficulty if strikes were to occur," said a senior European counterterrorism official interviewed recently. "That they might react with all means, Hezbollah inside Lebanon and outside Lebanon, this is certain. Al-Qaeda could become a tactical alliance."
Posted by: Dan Darling ||
04/02/2006
03:58 ||
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Of course Iran is also planning to retaliate with al-Qaeda, Hezbollah even if the nuclear sites aren't attacked.... Difference is that in this case they will may give them nukes to play with.
#3
Folks, it is time to tell the world a very simple thing. Let US declare that the existence of Israel is openly threatened by Iran and Hezbollah and US has decided to let Israel use, unconditionally, the entire US military power, including all of its nuclear arsenals to protect Israel whenever it wants to use these even if used as the pre-emotive astride except in the situation when American interest is involved. You can not talk to the barbarians. Lets get over with it once and for all. at least, You will change the whole dialog in UN. Russia and China will pressure Iran and Hezbollah to behave once they belive what is going to happen. Folks,Israel is openly threatened, give Israel whatever support it needs and they will take care of this whole islamic terrorism. You listen to too many of the experts and you loose. Think about Afghanistan. The whole word expected that US will make Afghanistan a big dirt ball after 9-11. Unfortunately, US listened to the stupid experts and you all know what we got there - a whole bunch of our young kids killed just to support the same Taliban stupidity and the drug running warlords. In Iraq we lost thousands of our youngs for what - to let Iran control that country. This great nation has to know when stupidity is the stupidity.
#6
The sources said Iran has harbored leading Al Qaida operatives and enabled them to plan major attacks that would be launched upon Teheran's approval.
What message are we supposed to garner from this report? If Iran is either substantially threatened or outright attacked Tehrans proxies (Hezbollah) will unleash a bloody reprisal. Whoaa Nelly theres some expert insight! But wait theres more. Theres indication that AQ has broken falafel with the mullahs and have agreed to mount attacks post military assault on Irans fledgling nuclear facilities. While theres evidence of past collaboration between the Shiite and Sunni syndicates (ie. Bosnia), does AQ really need another impetus to strike western targets? Short of the usual We all agree we hate the Crusaders and Zionists more then we hate each other; the AQ types are most reticent about assisting a growing Shiite regional dominance. (If present day Iraq is any indication) Of course there is always the wild card possibility of the attack on Islam ideology that seems to bring vipers of different stripes together. In the end, Im leery of these recent reports regarding this subject. (Especially ones from Rodans boys about leaked classified information) Seems to me, hard evidence of Tehran giving AQ the green light would be an enormous breach of intelligence security compromising sources and methods.
My 2 cents.
This part in particular is something you may want to consider:
Iran is the second country that al-Qa'ida seeks to involve in this conflict. Iran expects that the United States and Israel will strike a number of nuclear, industrial, and strategic Iranian facilities. Abu-Mus'ab thinks that the US-Israeli confrontation with Iran is inevitable and could succeed in destroying Iran's infrastructure. Accordingly, Iran is preparing to retaliate by using the powerful cards in its hands. The area of the war will expand, pro-US Shi'a in Iraq and Afghanistan will suffer embarrassment and might reconsider their alliances, and this will provide al-Qa'ida with a larger vital area from which to carry out its activities.
If this is al-Suri's stated objectives, then it dovetails nicely with the objectives of the IRGC, since attacking the Iraqi Shi'ites would have the side-effect of radicalizing them in favor of individuals like Sadr who are far easier for them to manipulate and control. Regardless of Zarqawi's own stated prejudices against Shi'ites, al-Qaeda's endorsement of his activities as they relate to Iraq might well be considered not so much as an endorsement of his sectarian agenda as a calculated move on their part. From this perspective, Zarqawi, while entirely sincere in his "kill 'em all!" rhetoric, should not be seen as representative of the organization as a whole on this one - a position further supported by the dim view that al-Zawahiri took of his sectarian campaign in his letter from last summer.
Posted by: Dan Darling ||
04/02/2006 15:48
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What more clear statement of intentions do we need from Iran before we finally recognize Iran's declaration of war upon the United States as exactly that? This theater of the absurd needs to become a military theater with a very short run.
Iran's decades of incessant perfidy do not entitle them to any nation building, like we have so gallantly tried in Iraq. We go in, we break their face and we leave. If they install another mob of wingnuts, we go in and break their face too. We cannot wait for Iran to mount some dastardly proxy attack using a nuclear weapon. Their legs must be cut out from underneath them right away.
#12
nothing Zen. It's clear as glass to those who want America's best interests. I bet Dr. Dean. Harry Reid, and Pelosi would disagree...
Posted by: Frank G ||
04/02/2006 17:23
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'US has decided to let Israel use, unconditionally, the entire US military power, including all of its nuclear arsenals to protect Israel whenever it wants to use these even if used as the pre-emotive astride except in the situation when American interest is involved.'
Look, I like Israel and all, but that's just silly.
A rocket attack by pro-Taliban tribal militants near the Afghan border killed one Pakistani soldier and wounded four others, security officials said on Sunday.
The attack on Saturday night targeted a fort in the Dattakhel area, some 30 km (19 miles) west of Miranshah, the main town in North Waziristan, a semi-autonomous Pashtun tribal region at the center of the Pakistan armys campaign to drive out nests of al Qaeda and Taliban fighters.
"The dead man is a soldier of the Pakistan army, and among the wounded one are an army captain and three militiamen," an official, who requested anonymity, told Reuters.
Security forces returned fire but the attackers escaped in the darkness and it was unknown if they suffered any casualties.
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04/02/2006
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A Montreal resident was picked by al-Qaeda plotters to be a pilot in a second wave of suicide hijackings to follow the Sept. 11, 2001, attacks because he was a Canadian citizen, a deposition filed at the U.S. trial of terror suspect Zacarias Moussaoui alleges.
Abderraouf Jdey, a Montrealer of Tunisian origin who is now a fugitive, obtained his Canadian citizenship in 1995. He was selected along with Mr. Moussaoui, a French citizen, because they had passports from Western countries, since al-Qaeda planners expected tighter security after Sept. 11, the court document says.
Al Qaeda wanted the second wave operatives to carry French, Canadian, Malaysian, or Indonesian passports instead of Middle Eastern passports, the document says.
The 58-page document is the first detailed account of what Khalid Sheikh Mohammed, the alleged mastermind of the Sept. 11 plot, told U.S. interrogators after his capture in 2003.
The document says that Mr. Mohammed used only operatives from the Middle East for the first wave of attacks so as not to draw attention to the possibility of later hijacks by people using passports from other countries.
The deposition was filed at the U.S. District Court in Alexandria, Va., for the death-penalty trial of Mr. Moussaoui.
Mr. Jdey, whose name is also transliterated as al-Jiddi, is a shadowy figure who gained notoriety after the Federal Bureau of Investigation identified him as a terror suspect in 2002. A $5-million (U.S.) reward was offered for his capture.
The U.S. commission probing the Sept. 11, 2001, terrorist attacks first identified Mr. Jdey as a candidate for the 9/11 strikes or for a later attack, but did not elaborate.
The deposition explains for the first time that Mr. Jdey was picked because he had obtained Canadian citizenship, citing Mr. Mohammed, al-Qaeda leader Osama bin Laden and his top military lieutenant until 2001, Mohammad Atef, also known as Abu Hafs al-Masri.
Sheikh Mohammed, Abu Hafs and bin Laden agreed that finding non-Arab passport holders was a priority because it would be difficult for Middle Eastern passport holders to operate in the U.S. after 9/11, the document says.
It also gives specifics about the allegations against Mr. Jdey, who is identified by one of his pseudonyms, Faruq Al-Tunisi:
Mr. Jdey and Mr. Moussaoui were among three candidates to be pilots in the second wave of hijackings, which entailed the same steps as the Sept. 11 hijackers: getting flight lessons, purchasing knives, etc.
(Contradicting the deposition, which portrays him as an unreliable, problematic operative, Mr. Moussaoui claimed in court this week that he was supposed to hijack a plane on Sept. 11 and crash it into the White House.)
The second wave's targets were to be in the western United States, such as an unidentified bridge in San Francisco, but the Sears Tower in Chicago was also mentioned.
While the 9/11 operation evolved into an East Coast attack, bin Laden himself advised that a second wave attack should focus on the West, believing that security might be more lax there.
A few months before Sept. 11, Mr. Jdey withdrew from the plot. Faruq Al-Tunisi contacted Sheikh Mohammed from Canada during the summer of 2001 to back out, the filing says with no further explanation.
In any event, the second wave never took place.
Sheikh Mohammed had no idea that the damage of the first attack would be as catastrophic as it was, and he did not plan on the U.S. responding to the attacks as fiercely as they did, which led to the next phase being postponed, the deposition says.
While the document does not elaborate on how the second wave attackers would have trained, it offers fresh details on the preparation of the Sept. 11 operatives.
It says, for example, that the muscle hijackers, who were to take over the planes, butchered sheep and a camel with Swiss knives to prepare them for using their knives during the hijackings.
They were not immediately told of their targets and were also taught how to blow up buildings, trains and trucks to muddy somewhat the real purpose of their training in case they were caught while in transit to the U.S.
Mr. Jdey first came to the FBI's attention after he was among five men whose wills and martyrdom videotapes were found in the Kabul home of Mr. Atef, who was killed during the U.S. bombing campaign in Afghanistan in late 2001.
Mr. Jdey came to Canada as an independent immigrant, on a visa issued in Rabat, Morocco. He landed at Montreal's Mirabel International Airport in April of 1991. According to the U.S. State Department's Rewards for Justice program, Mr. Jdey studied biology while in Montreal.
Mr. Jdey lived in a modest apartment building in Montreal's east-end Rosemont district and is believed to have left Canada in November of 2001.
Posted by: Dan Darling ||
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Al Qaeda wanted the second wave operatives to carry French, Canadian, Malaysian, or Indonesian passports instead of Middle Eastern passports
Saudi Arabia has foiled about 90 percent of attacks militants had planned to carry out in the world's largest oil exporting kingdom, a top official said on Saturday.
"This is thanks to God and to detailed security effort and continuous tracking of terrorist cells," Interior Minister Prince Nayef told pan-Arab Al Hayat newspaper.
Nayef declined to say when he expected Saudi forces to end militant attacks in the country, which announced this week the arrest of 40 suspected militants and the seizure of an major arms cache.
Eight of those arrested were linked to al Qaeda's attack on the world's largest oil processing plant in Abqaiq in February.
Crown Prince Sultan has said authorities aim to end "terrorist activity" in the country within two years.
Saudi authorities were coordinating with their Iraqi counterparts to hand over any Saudi militant who had crossed into Iraq. "(They are used) as explosive devices or suicide bombers," Nayef said.
Western diplomats say up to 3,000 Saudis have sneaked through the porous borders to fight the U.S.-led coalition in Iraq.
Nayef said authorities will soon put on trial suspected militants and are setting up a special court that will ensure they have a fair trial. He did not elaborate.
Posted by: Dan Darling ||
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Well at least the vast majority of those 3000 terrorists are probably dead now...
ARAB PRESS MORE ANTI-SEMITIC THAN EVER
Jerusalem Post
By Hilary Leila Krieger
Apr. 2, 2006
The Muhammad cartoon controversy greatly increased the amount of anti-Semitic material in Arab and Muslim newspapers, according to a report issued by the Anti-Defamation League over the weekend.
The report highlighted cartoons and opinion pieces that demonized Jews, Israel and the Holocaust in media across the Arab world and in Iran.
The publications cited depicted Jews in "outrageous and deeply anti-Semitic caricatures and themes, including anti-Semitic conspiracy theories of Jews plotting to control US foreign policy and dominate the world," the report said...
... While anti-Semitic tropes have long filled the Arab media, ADL Israel office spokesman Arieh O'Sullivan said the intensity of such material "skyrocketed" when Muslim rage exploded over the controversial Muhammad depictions carried in the Danish press and elsewhere...
Posted by: Listen to Dogs ||
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...ADL Israel office spokesman Arieh O'Sullivan...
Faith, I wasn't expecting that family name for the ADL spokesman.
#2
And of course our own MSM won't report a word of this. Just as they don't report a word of prosecution of Christians and other non-muslims in muslims lands.
Or even the prosecution of non-arab muslims in muslims lands (i.e. Dafur).
If an infidel farts in the presence of the unholy Koran its front page news. If the 'religion of peace' burn down churches and murder christians its not worthy of page F-30...
#4
It is a total miscarriage of justice that world governments are not publicizing the malignant filth that passes for everyday political cartoons in the Arab world.
Bush unabashedly conceded a critical point of contention to the radical Muslims by not boldly taking them to task for doing themselves what they were so hypocritically protesting. Likewise for all Scandinavian countries and much of Europe.
Rantburg has long discussed how it is a common Muslim strategy to begin its infiltration by demanding preferential treatment, even when it flies in the face of established law and order of whatever host nation.
None of us could have hoped for a more sterling example of this treachery than the cartoon jihad. How is it that our leaders folded so completely in the face of a direct threat to freedom of speech, one of the hallmarks of a free and open society?
I'll repeat that Bush's overemphasis upon religiosity has come full circle to interfere with America's national security. To see such a crucial pivot point slip silently beneath the waves without the least hue and cry is simply disgusting.
Saturday, April 1, 2006
CHURCHS FURNITURE TORCHED IN PAKISTAN
By Sheraz Khurram Khan
Special Correspondent for Assist News Service in Pakistan
MULTAN, PAKISTAN (ANS) -- Some unidentified people attacked a church in Mianchannu, a small town of district Multan on Thursday night, March 30.
According to the AFP a group of people allegedly broke into the church and set to fire its furniture.
We have started an investigation into the incident but we think it was designed to create religious unrest in the area the AFP quoted a local police official as saying.
Amid the tense situation in the town a local Christian politician told the AFP that the attack was meant to create conflict between the local Christian community and Muslims. CAIR/ISNA: you have members from the Punjab. Tell us what you have done to prevent these attacks on Christians abroad. If someone sneers at a Muslim on a bus here, you call it: harassment.
In February, a churchs door and windows were torched in Sargodha, whereas a church was torched in Sukkur and the other was ransacked by a Muslim mob over rumors that Quran, the Muslim holy book had been desecrated.
The fresh attack on a church in Mianchannu situated in the eastern Punjab province of Pakistan calls for employing strict measures to thwart possible attacks on churches in the country.
Posted by: Listen to Dogs ||
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Egypt will not re-dispatch the ambassador to Iraq unless security conditions and stability are restored in this country, Foreign Minister Ahmad Abul Gheit said in remarks published on Saturday. Abul Gheit, in remarks to the mass-circulation Al-Ahram, affirmed that all Arab states intended to restore diplomatic representation in the Iraqi capital, "but the problem lies with the (recurring) explosions and killings taking place there. "We cannot send our diplomats there while the killings continue." The minister alluded in particular to assassination of the Egyptian ambassador in Baghdad, Iahb Al-Sherif, after he was abducted in the middle of last year. He added that Egypt, at the recent Arab summit in Khartoum, campaigned for boosting inter-Iraqi dialogue to restore normalcy to this Arab country.
The Israeli army said Saturday that four missiles were fired today on a number of Israeli towns from northern Gaza Strip. Spokesperson for the Israeli army said one of the missiles landed at sea, while the other three landed in vacant areas around Ashkelon leaving no property damage or loss of life. The spokesperson also said that four other missiles were fired today from Gaza Strip toward Naqab area in southern Israel but no damages or losses were recorded, noting that the Israeli tanks responded by firing over 100 shells at the missile launching sites in northern Gaza Strip. The source added that the Israeli warplanes bombed a building in northern Gaza Strip used by Palestinian resistance members as a missile launching site.
Posted by: Fred ||
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Custodian of the Two Holy Mosques King Abdallah bin Abdulaziz on Saturday warned of the dangers of deviant thoughts on the Islamic nation and the image of Islam.
"We're warning you! You'll grow hair on your palms!"
In a speech delivered on his behalf before the Learned Elders of IslamUnity of Islamic Nation gathering, organized by the Muslim World League, King Abdallah stressed the importance of Islamic scholars in uniting Muslims, protecting the youth against deviant thoughts, and confronting campaigns targeting Islam and its image. He touched on the Saudi vision for confronting such challenges through following the true teachings of Islam, improving relationships with world communities, and achieving Islamic unity.
"Da'wa, da'wa, and more da'wa, by gum," said the king. "A little more da'wa, and we'll have the world on a string!"
Mufti of Saudi Arabia and Head of the Establishing Council of the Islamic World League Sheikh Abdulaziz Al-Alsheikh said in a speech that the path to the nation's unity is through the true teachings of Islam. He stressed importance of the role of Islamic scholars and thinkers in uniting the Islamic nation and spreading the teachings of Islam, which are valid for every time and place and capable of handling any issue, even modern ones.
Good. Let's see one of those Islamic scholars plot us a trajectory or two to Jupiter.
"Well, maybe not *all* the modern issues, but us Elders don't really look at that as a problem," he added. "More like a challenge. We'll just have the Lions drag the world back to the Seventh century, or maybe the Sixth. We'll do it properly the next time, never fear."
The gathering is held with the participation of over 300 Learned Elders Islamic scholars and thinkers to reinforce solidarity among Muslims and unite the stands of their leaders and scholars.
#1
What a great deal. The Wahabis get to fund mosques and Islamic centers worldwide, while banning the preaching of other faiths in the desert kingdom. President Bush1 once had to vacate the kingdom, to celebrate Thanksgiving Day on a US aircraft carrier. Not much respect there.
#2
yep - those evil Bushes....still don't get it, do ya? OCD boy? The point of Fred's post is that "Islamic Scholar" is an oxymoron, unless we're talking medieval achievements and that the Saudi ruling circle aids this.
Posted by: Frank G ||
04/02/2006 1:08
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Innovation ("bidah") is a major offense in Islam, and the Muslim reluctance to any change leads to social stasis. Still Muslim clerics claim that Islam is a blueprint for utopia, and Western education is blamed for their current stagnation.
http://www.king.igs.net/~kassim/nyaraka/Elimu2.html
Seafarious: re. the above invitation (don't need it) to another juvenile attack-response thread, these impulse driven exchanges both alienate unique visitors and subvert the WOT focus.
A US military helicopter went down southwest of Baghdad on Saturday and it was unclear if there were casualties, the military said. A militant group said it shot down a helicopter in the same area and residents said they heard gunfire. A ... helicopter went down southwest of Baghdad at approximately 5:30 pm, the military said. The status of the crew is unknown. A spokesman declined to say how many were on board or the type of helicopter involved. The aircraft was conducting a combat air patrol, the statement said. In an Internet posting, a group calling itself the Rashedeen Army said it had shot down a US helicopter near the town of Yusufiya, an area that sees considerable Sunni insurgent activity just southwest of the capital.
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So, after decisive elections, reporters still refer to the terrorists as "insurgents." At least they haven't tagged them as "freedom fighters."
The largest Kashmiri militant group fighting Indian rule on Saturday derided a peace process between India and Pakistan and said separatists talking with the two governments were gaining nothing. The fact is that the ongoing dialogue process between India and Pakistan is useless, futile and a waste of time, Hizbul Mujahideen said in a statement. Those Kashmiri politicians who have joined this process are not going to get anything except breakfast, tours and media coverage, because India is not sincere in resolving this issue, the groups spokesman, Saleem Hashmi, said in the statement.
On Thursday, a local news agency published an interview with Sayed Salahuddin, leader of Hizbul Mujahideen, saying that the group could consider a truce only if India recognised Kashmir as disputed territory and Kashmiris were given a place at the table in peace negotiations. India considers Kashmir an integral part of the country.
Posted by: Fred ||
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He looks a lot like Chevy Chase in The Invisible Man.
Trade unions and students vowed Saturday to press ahead with strikes and demonstrations against a new youth jobs law despite a compromise plan by President Jacques Chirac to defuse the crisis. In a solemn address carried live from the Elysee palace on television and radio, Chirac said he would ratify the controversial measure but promised immediate modifications. I believe the First Employment Contract (CPE) can be an effective tool for employment, he said. But he said he had also heard the anxieties being expressed by many young people and their parents over the contract, which allows employers to fire under 26-year-olds during a two-year trial period without explanation. Chirac said he would ask Prime Minister Dominique de Villepin - who fathered the CPE - to take steps to ensure that in practice no contract can be signed that does not fully include these modifications.
Demonstrators rampaged through Paris and other cities until early Saturday to express their rejection of Chiracs move, made in an address to the nation late Friday. In the capital, protesters smashed store windows, damaged cars, threw bottles at police and attacked the offices of a member of parliament from the ruling UMP party during a march by more than 2,000 people across the city. Police said 107 people were arrested and two police officers were slightly injured.
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Jacques and Dominique (who is reputedly a man) need to surrender faster.
Security forces have seized modern lethal weapons including Stinger missiles and important documents from Bugti Fort in Dera Bugti, Geo television reported on Saturday. According to the channel, the documents found from Nawab Akbar Bugtis residence had all details of the weapons he was supplied for terrorism. Other ammunition seized from the Bugti Fort include anti-tank mines, anti-personnel mines, anti-tank rockets, detonators and weapons made for a regular army, the channel quoted reliable official sources. Various cheques were also found in the documents on which Akbar Bugti had drawn Rs 220 million from the National Bank of Pakistans Dera Bugti branch, the channel quoted sources.
Posted by: Fred ||
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operable Stingers? This find should let that myth be scratched in public light
Posted by: Frank G ||
04/02/2006 0:57
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Should be an easy confirmation, either they work or don't.
Look for abandoned stingers, or abandoned empty launch tubes.
Posted by: Redneck Jim ||
04/02/2006 11:40
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Stingers have been found before. The electronics was shot on all of them.
#4
LTD- Stingers have been found before. The electronics was shot on all of them.
It is a remarkably easy thing for someone with access to a WalMart to build a very good dummy Stinger launcher. (I know, I've done it, and was nearly court-martialed for it, but that's another story) Just imagine what kind of fakes - with booby traps - a government could build and then salt in the bad guyz' territory.
Mike
Posted by: Mike Kozlowski ||
04/02/2006 12:16
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heh heh - Mike, I'm glad you're on our side :-)
Posted by: Frank G ||
04/02/2006 14:28
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Frank-
Like all of us here at the 'Burg, I only use my powers for good.
Mike
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MULTAN: An Anti-Terrorism Court sentenced an activist of the banned Lashkar-e-Jhangvi to death on two counts and acquitted six other accused. Judge Amir Muhammad Khan gave sentence to banned Lashkar-i-Jhangvi activist Naveed Akhtar alias Mithu on two counts and fined him Rs 300,000. The court acquitted six accused Malik Muhammad Ishaq, Imran Ashraf, Abdul Rashid, Inamullah, Abdul Latif and Ahmed Rashid.
Court official said, Seven people opened fire at Syed Abid Hussains car, SLG 7222, on July 30,1997, killing Abid Hussain and his son, Haider Abbas, on the spot. Najaf Ali Mahay, public prosecutor, appeared on behalf of the state. Naveed Akhtar alias Mithu could appeal against the decision within seven days. Jail authorities shifted him to condemned cell on Saturday.
He'll get off on appeal, when the witnesses are all dead.
Posted by: Fred ||
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Fearing new temblors, survivors of three strong earthquakes spent a cold night outdoors as officials wrapped up rescue operations after pulling out 70 bodies from under the rubble and rescuing 1,200 others. "Rescue operations are over. The death toll will not increase nor will the figure for the injured," provincial governor, Mohammad Reza Mohseni, told state-run television Saturday. But Mohseni said relief workers have begun clearing the debris and providing survivors with temporary accommodation.
Iranian officials have not publicly responded to US President George W. Bush's Friday offer of assistance, but Mohseni's comments suggest that Iran feels it was able to cope with the late Thursday and Friday quakes without foreign help. The US offer was made despite more than 25 years of Iranian animosity towards America and the ongoing dispute over Iran's nuclear programme. Washington says Iran is trying to develop nuclear weapons. Iran denies the charge. The two countries have no diplomatic relations, but the US military provided aid to the residents of Bam after the Silk Road south Iranian city was devastated by an earthquake in 2003 that killed 26,000.
"Almost all the people spent the night outdoors fearing new quakes," Doroud resident Mahmoud Chaharmiri said Saturday. "It was a cold night but we slept without fear of being buried under the rubble," he told the Associated Press by telephone. "Local officials are saying new quakes are not ruled out. That's why people slept outdoors," he said.
Posted by: Fred ||
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Iran feels it was able to cope with the late Thursday and Friday quakes without foreign help.
An attitude they likely picked up from their northern neighbour.
#6
I had a good laugh courtesy of my local paper yesterday.
Two stories on page 3, section A (everything else on the page was ads) - one with a headline about this latest earthquake, the other directly below it with a headline about Iran test-firing their latest rocket.
Coincidence? Or a message from the layout editor?
I report, you decide. ;-p
Posted by: Barbara Skolaut ||
04/02/2006 14:04
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Indian national Sarabjit Singh, on death row for his alleged involvement in four bomb blasts in Pakistan, has sent a mercy petition to President Pervez Musharraf, seeking release on the grounds that he is innocent and wrongly implicated. The petition was sent to Musharraf last week both by post and through the high-security jail authorities where Singh is currently imprisoned. He has begged pardon under the powers granted to the president by the Constitution, Singhs lawyer Rana Abdul Hameed told the Press Trust of India on Saturday.
Hamid, who has been hired by a Canadian human rights group to defend Singh, said from Lahore over the phone that the mercy petition was filed after the Supreme Court last month dismissed his application, seeking a review of the death sentence given to him in a bomb blast case at Yakki Gate in Lahore in 1990. Three people were killed and several injured in that bombing. The Supreme Court is yet to give its verdict on another case against Singh in which he was accused of committing three more bomb blasts in Punjab. Fourteen people were killed in the four bomb blasts in which Singh is accused of involvement. Police allege that he was an Indian spy and entered Pakistan through the Punjab border.
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I will have no sympathy for Sarabjit Singh if he did what he is accused of. Terrorism is terrorism no matter who does it and for what ever reason.
An employee in the opposition Wafd Party died Saturday here from wounds he sustained when supporters of the party's president Noman Jumah opened fire at employees at the party's headquarters.
The supporters of the party's prez stormed...their *own* HQ?
Prosecutor Maher Abdulwahid issued a warrant to arrest Jumah and two of his supporters who participated in the raid as security forces surrounded the Wafd headquarters.
"Come out witcher hands up, Jumah!"
The incident was triggered earlier today when Jumah stormed into the headquarters and tried to force employees and journalists to leave the building.
"Out! Ever'body out! I'm takin' over!"
Faced with general refusal, Jumah and his supporters opened fire at the employees.
Howard Dean, call your office.
"Piss off! Who died and left you party president?"
Wafd Party is considered as one of the main opposition parties in Egypt.
Sounds like they even oppose themselves.
At the last legislative elections, November and December 2005, the party won six out of 454 seats in the People's Assembly. However, the party was split due to a major internal conflict as its leaders, Jumah and Mahmoud Abaza, went on a legal dispute over the Wafd presidency. The Egyptian Press Association condemned the violent events in a statement, calling for strict reaction to punish the aggressors and protect journalists.
Paramilitary forces and tribal police on Saturday took over the headquarters of cleric Mufti Munir Shakir in Nallah Kajori in Khyber Agency after his supporters left the premises hours before an imminent operation.
"Aaaarrr! The paramilitary forces and the tribal police are comin'! They're bringin' heavy weapons, boyz!"
"Ummm... I think I'll go get help!"
"I'll go wit' yez!"
"Me, too!"
All arrangements for an early morning operation against Shakirs supporters were finalised but the headquarters were vacated during the night, security sources told Daily Times.
"Curly-toed slippers, don't fail us now!"
Troops had closed entry and exit points to the area, but the operation was delayed at the request of tribal elders who wanted to give negotiations a last chance. The tribal elders ultimately convinced the clerics supporters to vacate the headquarters peacefully.
"What kinda heavy weapons?"
"Big ones!"
"We're outta here!"
"Bravely outta here! We ain't scared, mind yez!"
"No, no! Certainly not! Here's yer turban!"
It was hoped that normalcy would return to Khyber Agency with the government controlling the fort-like headquarters housing Shakirs supporters. Officials at the NWFP Governors FATA secretariat said that operation would continue until Doomsday complete peace was restored to the area. Mangal Bagh, head of the Islami Lashkar of Mufti group, left the headquarters to get help in Norway for an undisclosed location along with hundreds of his supporters, tribal sources said.
"Run away! Run away!"
According to sources, Bagh said that the decision to vacate the headquarters had been taken on the directives of Shakir to avoid bloodshed.
"Yeah! Ours!"
Bara had been held hostage to a tussle between Deobandi cleric Mufti Munir Shakir and Barelvi Pir Saifur Rehman for the last four months and the conflict had resulted in the loss of 28 lives.
None of them, as far as we know, holy men.
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psych warfare 101 - take over the enemies' HQ and make it your own. Hang flags...and opponents
Posted by: Frank G ||
04/02/2006 0:59
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LAHORE: Security forces raided a hotel on Abbot Road on Saturday afternoon and arrested seven men for alleged involvement in anti-state activities. The men were shifted to an undisclosed location. Eyewitnesses told Daily Times that security forces personnel wearing camouflage uniforms surrounded the United Hotel in Qilla Gujjar Singh at around 3pm. A few personnel entered the hotel and re-emerged shortly with seven men in blindfold. The hotel employees said that security forces personnel asked the receptionist whether the guests of rooms 125 and 127 were indoors, and immediately arrested them.
They said that the arrested men had arrived on Friday night and rented two rooms. The employees said that the security forces personnel also took into possession the hotels record of guests. However, the Qilla Gujjar Singh police station denied knowledge of the incident.
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A religious seminary teacher in village Kotla Raham Ali Shah (Jatoi) used an iron rod to punish a student and threw him out of the institution when he fainted. Mukhtar Ahmed, a religious seminary teacher, punished his student, Sultan Ahmed, with an iron rod and asked his students to throw him out of the seminary when he fainted. Sultans father, Wahid Bakhsh, registered a case against the teacher. However, no arrest was made. Sultan Ahmed alleged that the teacher asked them to steal woods from a sawmill but he could not do so because of the watchman. When he returned empty handed the teacher beat him with an iron rod.
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#1
how Islamic - no wood, get the iron
Posted by: Frank G ||
04/02/2006 0:49
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DIY'ers, buy your iron rods at either Home Depot or Lowe's, 10-foot lengths of 5/8" rebar give you the most for the buck, be sure to bring a hacksaw to cut them into handy lengths in the parking lot, before you drive back to the seminary. If your hands are delicate, add foam pipe insulation for hand grips & fasten with duct tape. Disciplinarians should note that the only difference between fainting and dying is that fainters wake up eventually...
#3
caeful to use OSHA-appproved mushroom safety caps for the exposed ends - so nobody is impaled - except when the Imam orders it
Posted by: Frank G ||
04/02/2006 1:10
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(from the Bulwar-Lytton bad writing contest)
Headmaster Hughes loved the popular misconception that he was a noble reformer and liberalizer of his public school, and he knew that none of his fat-cheeked little charges would dispute the fact, being terrified to incontinence at the thought of vicious canings during his insane rages, the pleasant "thwack thwack" driving him to states of total excitement.
It is also noteworthy that the great fictional character "Flashman", by George MacDonald Fraser, was the further adventures of the villain in "Tom Brown's School Days". One of the best historical novels ever written, in the form of an autobiography of Flashman himself, the luckiest cheat, braggart, scoundrel, swine, lecher, and coward to ever win every commendation offered by the British Empire at its peak.
Interior Minister Aftab Ahmed Khan Sherpao is scheduled to leave today (Sunday) for the United States to attend a meeting of the Pakistan-US joint working group on terrorism. Sherpao is accompanied by the directors-general of narcotics and the crisis management cell in his ministry, as well as an additional secretary. Meetings are scheduled for Monday and Tuesday at the FBI, the State Department and the Department of Homeland Security, and Sherpao is expected to meet Nicholas "Monty" Burns, the US assistant secretary of state for South Asia. They will review the joint efforts in the war against terrorism and propose additional measures if required.
Exxxxxcellent!
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An Iraqi policeman was killed and five others were wounded in a bomb explosion on Saturday at Mohammed Al-Qasem freeway near Baghdad's University of Technology. An Iraqi security source said the blast occurred when an Iraqi patrol passed by the university. The blast caused major damage to a number of vehicles and the injured were taken to Ibn Al-Nafees Hospital for treatment.
Meanwhile, an Iraqi Interior Ministry source told KUNA 42 unidentified human bodies that were shot dead were located in various parts of Baghdad. He said 10 bodies were found in Al-Shaala area west of Baghdad, another 10 were found in Al-Doura area south of Baghdad, six were found in Al-Sidia south-west of Baghdad and three in Al-Amin province south-east of Baghdad. Local police in Al-Mahmoudia south of Baghdad said it located 13 unidentified bodies that were shot dead in various parts of the town, the source added. The bodies were handcuffed and blindfolded, except for ten bodies who were found in Al-Shaala and seemed to have been shot dead in a mass execution. The bodies were taken to a medical center for identification.
Posted by: Fred ||
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#1
Does anybody ever identify these bodies? Just who is it that is being executed? That would be a start towards answering why they are being killed, and thus who is likely to be killing them. You would think that with a few dozen found daily somebody would be publically identified.
#2
dental records? Have you seen Moqtada Al-Sadr? He's in a position/wealth to have pearly whites, yet his mouth looks like Indian corn
Posted by: Frank G ||
04/02/2006 0:43
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Some ID's have been made.Omar Sittar, 23, a student at Baghdad University, said: "I will make two IDs: one with the name Ali for visiting Shia areas, and one with Omar for when I am at home."
AMMAN The State Security Court last week handed a reduced sentence to a 26-year-old man who was convicted of attempting to blow up the Aqaba Police Station last year. The tribunal first sentenced Mohammad Y. to five years in prison after convicting him of plotting subversive acts, but decided to immediately commute the sentence to half. The defendant has no previous criminal record and the court wants to give him a second chance in life, read the verdict, which was made available to the press on Saturday.
Read on. This is a pity verdict...
On Jan. 5, the defendant headed to the Aqaba Police Station to bail his father out, court transcripts said.
"I'm here to bail out Pop!"
"How much you got, kid?"
"Twenty bucks."
"Beat it."
Officers on duty rejected his request and he threatened to blow up the police station if his father was not released.
"Youse better let Pop go, or I'll blow this joint to kingdom come!"
The defendant left the police station and headed to a gas cylinder store, where he threatened the owner with a paper cutter and took a gas cylinder and returned with it to the police station, court transcripts said.
"Gimme a gas cylinder or I'll... ummm... give you a paper cut!"
"Take it and go!"
Mohammad climbed over a two-metre wall and entered the officers'' living quarters, where he placed the cylinder, set it on fire and fled, the court added.
"Ha ha! Yer toast, coppers!"
A police officer, who woke up to perform the evening prayers, saw the burning cylinder and managed to extinguish it before it exploded, according to the charge sheet.
"Zzzzzz... What? What?... Oh. Time to bonk my forehead on the ground already?... Hey! What's that? Holy shit! I mean, Allahu Akbar! Gimme the hose, quick!"
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Hamas vowed on Saturday to bring the "dangerous" situation on the streets of Gaza under control as the Islamist faction faced its first internal crisis after only three days in government. Palestinian Prime Minister Ismail Haniyeh vowed to end the security chaos "using law and order" and by "withdrawing armed civilians from the street to end this dangerous situation," he told journalists in Gaza City.
Funny, up until they won the election they were against taking the guns away from the hard boyz. Wonder what changed their minds, if any...
Because it isn't their flavor of hard boyz?
The declarations came after clashes between gunmen and supporters of moderate Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas on Friday left three people dead and 36 wounded. "There is an escalation against the Palestinian people aimed at breaking them and the government," Haniyeh said. "We ask all the countries in the world to assume their responsibility and face this escalation against our people," he said, adding that his internationally boycotted Cabinet had met late into Friday night to monitor the situation.
What's the rest of the world have to do with it? If you're a government, it's your responsibility to control your streets...
"The dominant [gun] culture of the Palestinian street over the past few years needs some time to change to a culture of protecting order, discipline and the law," Haniyeh said.
"How much time?"
"I'm guessin' about 700 years."
Friday's violence erupted after the commander of the Popular Resistance Committees was killed in a car bombing in central Gaza City that the group blamed on Abbas' security chiefs in collusion with Israel.
That's the guy Islamic Jihad rocketed Israel in revenge for.
But Samir Masharawi, a local leader from Abbas' Fateh faction that lost January's elections to Hamas but still largely retains control of the security services, said the onus was on Hamas to act. "When we feel that the government is starting to work for all the Palestinian people and not just for one faction or party then we will cooperate to end the presence of weapons on the street," he told journalists.
Somehow, I doubt that's gonna happen. They're all way too fond of hopping out of pickup trucks and waving guns. Impresses the hell out of the girlies, y'know...
The Palestinian parliament issued an appeal for calm and blamed Israel for the attack, though it did not present any evidence.
"They dunnit! We know they dunnit!"
Israel has denied any involvement in the assassination.
"Wudn't us."
"We appeal to the Palestinian people for calm and self-control," Palestinian Legislative Council Deputy Speaker Ahmed Bahar said. "Less than 48 hours after the new Palestinian government began work, the Zionist occupying forces have continued their daily crimes ... and assassinated the commander of the Resistance Committees," Bahar said.
... using a car bomb instead of an Apache or a tank.
Interior ministry spokesman Khaled Abu Hilal said his ministry was trying to defuse the crisis in Gaza, while highlighting the difference between renegade gunmen and "the resistance." The ministry "makes a distinction between the arms of the resistance which we know who they're aimed at and the arms of chaos and crime and destabilisation. We have made contact with the concerned parties on the ground to dissipate the crisis... and are continuing our work to defuse the crisis."
"Y'see, the resistance is noble fellows who belong to our party. The renegade gunmen don't belong to our party."
Israeli artillery, meanwhile, bombarded a unilaterally declared no-go zone in the northern Gaza Strip after Palestinians fired three rockets at Israel on Friday night, with fighter bombers hitting targets in Gaza City. Four more rockets were fired on Saturday afternoon without causing any casualties, the army said, while the air force dropped propaganda pamphlets in Arabic on the territory. "If the launching of rockets continues the military response will be increasingly tough," the pamphlets warned in the name of the Israeli military.
"You guys are so gonna get it!"
"We wudn't doin' nuthin'!"
The faction Islamic Jihad said, in a statement sent to AFP, that it had launched three rockets at the southern Israeli town of Ashkelon. A Katyusha rocket was fired from Gaza at southern Israel for the first time on Tuesday. Although it caused no injuries, Defence Minister Shaul Mofaz said it was "a serious development which demanded a strong and decisive reaction."
Katyushas actually Katyusha's descedants come from outside Paleostine. They're not locally manufactured.
Israel believes the Katyusha rocket was one of a batch smuggled into the Gaza Strip over its border with Egypt, a defence ministry spokesman said. The Russian-manufactured Katyusha rockets can cause much more damage and have a greater range and accuracy than the makeshift rockets normally fired by fighters based in the Palestinian territory.
Though not much more accuracy. In combat, they're normally fired in salvos of a dozen or more...
The US State Department announced on Friday that Washington had suspended all contact with the Hamas-led government until it renounced violence and recognised Israel, but would maintain contact with the Palestinian Authority's representative in Washington. Despite being behind the majority of suicide bombings during the five-year-old Intifada, or uprising, Hamas has not carried out any attacks since it announced a temporary truce early last year.
They're letting the al-Aqsa Martyrs take care of that chore.
The diplomatic Quartet on the Middle East the United States, Russia, the European Union and the United Nations was to meet in Amman on Sunday to discuss international aid for the Palestinian territories. The quartet has also called on Hamas to renounce violence and its call for the destruction of the Israeli state, warning that international aid is at risk.
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#1
the biggest clash will involve who gets the cash. Fatah's used to their share and Hamas/IJ will want their share now that Fatah's lost in elections. Think Chicago 1930's...?
Posted by: Frank G ||
04/02/2006 0:41
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#2
"We appeal to the Palestinian people for calm and self-control,"
#4
Well it sound like your typical political gun grab. I am thinking Hitler and all communists governments here. Got to grab up the guns because guns are power. Public safety is always the stated reason.
Posted by: SPoD ||
04/02/2006 6:32
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#5
SPOD: Well it sound like your typical political gun grab. I am thinking Hitler and all communists governments here.
I think it's more than a gun grab. It's more like the beginning of a massacre. Rabin signed a peace agreement figuring that the PLO would control or kill off its opponents, including Hamas. Instead, the PLO not only tolerated Hamas's existence, it joined Hamas in carrying out terrorist attacks against Israel. Having missed its chance to eliminate Hamas, the PLO will now discover that Hamas won't return the favor, now that it's in power. Iran's ayatollahs certainly wasted no time wiping out the Communists once they took power.
An Afghan couple, Dr Azizullah and his second wife Feroza, are missing since the last five months. The last time the couple contacted their family in Peshawar, they were in Kabul.
"Hello, Ma? Look, we're in Kabul. Can you send us some money?"
The suicidal Afghan couples whereabouts are still unknown, though unconfirmed reports said that they had committed a suicide attack in Afghanistan some months ago. There are unofficial reports that the couple has already committed suicide near the Pule-Charkhi prison outside Kabul, for which we are looking for evidence, said an official familiar with the case and its investigation, adding that the case would be closed if evidence were found.
"Nobody noticed a boom. We're checking on it, though."
The Taliban had delivered a CD to the couples family, in which they had been advised by Dr Aziz and his wife to not search for them, as they would reunite with them in heaven. Dr Aziz, a medical graduate from Afghanistan, was a tableeghi, but no clue was found to suggest that he was a Taliban member or inspired by the Islamic militias war against the US-led forces in Afghanistan.
Tablighi Jamaat is a loose organization of Islamic preachers who travel around spreading dawa and denouncing sin and stuff...
He has had three daughters from his first wife, but decided to remarry when no son was born to him. He has no children from his second wife.
"Was it good for you, too, baby?"
"Was what good?"
[Nine months later]
"No boy?"
"Sorry. No boy."
"I think I'll kill myself."
"I'll join you."
Pakistani security agencies are searching for information as to whether or not the Taliban were inspiring Pak-Afghans to become suicide bombers. A family member said Dr Aziz had grown a beard and wore a turban that the tableeghis, or preachers, normally wear.
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A European think-tank has slammed Pakistans post-earthquake policy of allowing Islamist radicals to bolster their presence in the affected areas of the North West Frontier Province and Azad Kashmir, warning that the move could ultimately pose threats to domestic and regional security.
According to an International Crisis Group policy briefing entitled Pakistan: Political Impact of the Earthquake, the fact that banned jihadi groups such as Lashkar-e-Taiba and Jaish-e-Muhammad are participating relief efforts either under new names or through front organisations, proves that their infrastructure remains in tact. To rebuild trust, the Pakistan government must disband the networks of these and all other banned organisations, asserted the policy briefing released on March 15 and obtained by Daily Times on Saturday.
Should jihadi groups that have been active in relief work remain as involved in reconstruction, threats to domestic and regional security will increase, the ICG warned. Although Pakistans decision to allow banned militant outfits to participate in earthquake relief efforts drew fierce criticism from the West, President Pervez Musharraf remained adamant that his government would not stop anyone from delivering relief to the victims.
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And here I thought Pakistan couldn't get any more screwed up than it already was. Silly me.
#2
Perv is raking in the bucks from both sides in this war on terror. His personal fortune must be an impressive sum by now. Where is it and what is he doing with it?
While Pak may be way down on the list of things to get around to cleaning up when we have time - I hope the biggest spanking of all is coming his way.
At least 12 suspects have been arrested in three different Iraqi cities and five Iranian nationals detained while attempting to cross the borders near the Halabja city in Kurdistan Iraq, the interior ministry announced on Saturday. Three suspects were arrested on the Najaf highway, a police statement said, noting that a Kalashnikov machinegun and live ammunition in the possession of the suspects were seized. Four other people were arrested in Mosul and weapons and explosives were seized in their possession, the statement said. In Baghdad, five suspects including an Arab national were detained in Karadah and Aazamiyah. According to the statement, Halabja city police patrols arrested five Iranian nationals while attempting to illegally enter the Iraqi territories.
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Halabja? Kurdish North? Is the southern border that heavily watched? Hope So
Posted by: Frank G ||
04/02/2006 0:48
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It is Al Qaeda policy to stage terrorist incidents in the West so that Western governments turn on Muslims, which will eventually radicalise the latter, bringing them on the same ideological wavelength as the organisation that Osama Bin Laden heads.
That's the standard objective of terrorism, to cause a state to become what the terrs already say it is. Objective One is to split the world into "us" and "them," with the "us" being defined as the terrorists' side. Read up on the FLN in Algeria. It's the classic case study. The state it led to was also a classic of brutality, not that Binny would be dwelling on that aspect of it with the Moose limbs.
Anatol Lieven, a former British journalist and now a resident scholar at a leading local think tank, speaking at an event at the Johns Hopkins University to launch Peter Bergens new book on Osama Bin Laden, said Al Qaeda colonised Afghanistan, taking advantage of the simplicity and naivety of the Taliban and their leadership, which was deeply deferential towards someone who hailed from Saudi Arabia, the heartland of Islam, and who also was wealthy.
They lorded it over the rubes, and the rubes ate it up. That Talibs had a harder time of it in the west and north of the country, which are rooted in Persian civilization. The pre-ayatollah Persians weren't nearly as impressed with the Arabs, since they had a genuine civilization of their own.
He said it should be remembered that the Soviet Union left Afghanistan not because it was driven out but because it was worn out. He said most Muslims, including Arabs, do not support the Al Qaeda philosophy or agenda.
But many sympathize with it, even if they don't overtly support it.
Lieven said alienated European Muslims, with their large population, are a danger to the United States. If the millions of Muslims who live in Europe become radicalised and democratic freedoms keep shrinking, that being the Al Qaeda objective, this large body of disaffected men would be a source of danger and instability to the West and the terrorist threat would become much worse than it is today.
The situation is reversed in Europe from what it was in Algeria. The pieds noires where a substantial minority, but they were still a minority. They now live in France. The European Muslims are a substantial minority, but if they push their collective luck they could end up living back in Ratholistan. They might not like it, but the ones who aren't slaughtered will be dumped. I'd say ask the Moriscos, but they are the Moriscos. They've just forgotten that part.
It is Al Qaedas strategy to keep hitting Western governments and societies so that they become radicalised and intolerant of Muslims, which, in turn, will pull Muslims into the Al Qaeda ideological net. This is the spiral that Al Qaeda wants Western Europe to get into, he added.
They're just not considering the possibility that they might lose the confrontation. I'm sure our grandchildren will be deeply ashamed of how barbaric we got, but if backed into the corner the Euros will fight them with the same viciousness they fought their historical wars.
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Stephen Hayes from the Weekly Standard has unmasked MSM crony, Peter Bergen. I recommend the following:
#3
Koran "prophecy" dictates Muslim optimism concerning an army arising in "Korasan" (parts of Iran and surrounding states), and defeating armies of the "Dajjal" (Anti-Christ), to the West. The fact that the West is allowing hostile Muslims to immigrate, en masse, and treating their inherent aggression as a free exercise of conscience, delivers them a salient. Western academics are finally discovering that fostering "democracy" where there are no constitutional protections of human rights, is indulgence of tyranny. Yesterday, I posted this cause of al-Qaeda terror: "...polarization of Muslims and Westerners, in context of the West's engorgement on multi-cultural poison." Thank you. Closed-minded Westerners who hold to untenable spin-fictions about the enemy, are al-Qaeda's player-pianos.
EFL - JPost Update
Following a deadly suicide attack on Thursday night and the continued Kassam bombardment of the western Negev, the IDF over the weekend stepped up its operations and pounded the Gaza Strip with missiles from aircraft and warships, while IDF troops sealed off Nablus from the rest of the West Bank. festering boil to be lanced?
Following an escalation on the Gaza front, which included last week's launching of a Katyusha rocket at Israel, the IDF decided over the weekend to step up its strikes on Gaza and, employing artillery forces as well as the IAF and the Navy, fired close to 200 shells at Kassam launch sites on Saturday alone.
Early Saturday, IAF missiles flattened a building in the northern Gaza Strip that functioned as a hideout for terrorists and a launch site for Kassam cells. Under construction, the tall building was supposed to draw tourists and serve as a casino on the outskirts of Beit Hanun. draw tourists? Bwaahahhaahahahaa
But those plans were thwarted on Saturday after the Southern Command's Intelligence Department recently discovered ditches built around the building which were used to provide cover for Kassam launchers. moats for tourist gondolas?
On Friday, Abdel Karim Koka, a senior commander of the Salah-a-Din faction of the Popular Resistance Committees in the Gaza Strip, was killed when his car exploded in Gaza City. The army denied its involvement in the explosion but said that Koka was responsible for numerous Kassam attacks against Israel. it was a Pinto....
In the past, IDF artillery fire against Kassam rocket cells targeted empty fields in the vicinity of the launch sites but not the precise position of the launchers. The bombings of the casino building and additional empty areas within Gaza City were meant to send a message, military sources said, to the newly formed Hamas-run Palestinian government that they would suffer if they failed to rein in terrorism.
The army also threatened to strike official Palestinian security personnel whose posts were often used as cover for Kassam launch cells. "We cannot promise that PA police will not be hurt during the strikes," one source said.
The army also engaged in psychological warfare and dropped thousands of flyers over the Gaza Strip calling on the Palestinian public to expel terror elements from within. "How long will you let terrorists control your lives?" the fliers asked, warning that Israel's military response would grow harsher as long as Kassam fire continued. that's psych warfare? How about Google Earth photos showing their buildings with crosshairs?
But despite the massive bombardment on Gaza, Kassam rocket fire continued. On Saturday night four rockets were launched from the northern Gaza Strip, with at least two landing near Kibbutz Zikim south of Ashkelon. On Friday night three rockets were fired from Gaza, landing south of Sderot.
Meanwhile Friday, Defense Minister Shaul Mofaz blamed the Hamas government for a suicide bombing a day earlier that killed four Israelis at the entrance to the Samarian settlement of Kedumim. "A government that engraves terrorism on its flag and does not order PA security forces to fight terror is accountable for this attack and every other attack that emerges from Palestinian territories," Mofaz said.
Mofaz ordered the IDF and the Shin Bet (Israel Security Agency) to "intensify their operations" in the West Bank and Gaza in an effort to crack down on terror infrastructure there.
In response to the suicide attack, the IDF on Saturday sealed off Nablus, deemed a "terror capital" by the IDF, and implemented a series of stringent regulations at nearby checkpoints. Palestinians between the ages of 16-32 were banned from traveling south of northern Samaria and checkpoints between Nablus and the Jordan Valley were closed off to Palestinian traffic.
Posted by: Frank G ||
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But despite the massive bombardment on Gaza, Kassam rocket fire continued. On Saturday night four rockets were launched from the northern Gaza Strip, with at least two landing near Kibbutz Zikim south of Ashkelon. On Friday night three rockets were fired from Gaza, landing south of Sderot.
#4
The problem here is actually not the Paleos. It is Israelis who are adamant against the use of force against Paleos.
The Israelis should just loudly announce a policy, that will take effect on a date certain. Any rocket fired from the Gaza Strip or West Bank will result in the Israelis confiscating 100 acres of adjacent-to-Israel Paleo lands in punishment.
The fence will then be extended around that 100 acres, and it will no longer be Palestinian land, but "held in trust" as unoccupied land--no development or residency permitted by either side, until the Paleos control the terrorists to the satisfaction of the Israelis.
Everything in that land will sit fallow and buildings will remain empty. Surveillance cameras will keep out anyone who tries to sneak in.
The next missile, 100 more acres. The shape of the 100 acres would vary, preferring non-residential lands, but it would be 100 acres, total.
And every statement of protest will be met with a simple message, "Stop the terror, and you get your land back. Continue the attacks and lose more land."
There would be no negotiations, since there is no one to negotiate with. So words and lies would no longer matter, only actions would matter.
One last thing: if the Paleos tried to mount a full-scale war, the Israeli response would be that they would be expelled from the country entirely. Pushed into Egypt and Jordan, never to return, and all their lands would become permanently Israeli.
#5
Anonymoose:
Disproportionate retaliation somewhat controls terrorism. When Israel was leveraged into ending the destruction of the homes of terrorists, terrorism escalated. In context of the West's acceptance of political Islam, Israel cannot implement effective counter-terror practises. For an authoritative account of the consequences of indulging political Islam, I recommend "Inside Sudan: Political Islam, Conflict and Catastrophe" by former US Ambassador to Sudan, Don Petterson.
#6
LTD: That is why drastic policies have to be implemented at such a time as it will lessen the impact. International distractors happen all the time.
The point to all of this is that nobody supports Israel outside of the US. And the USs support while nice, is not essential to Israel. If Israel offends the US, it just needs to wait for that friendship to be renewed, because it is the only true friend the US has in the region.
Israel is too concerned about being liked by countries that will *never* like Israel, no way, no how.
Were Israel to just kick out the Paleos, how long do you think it would be before the US and Israel would be friends again? One year? Two?
Would the US not defend Israel against its Arab neighbors in such a case? Hardly. It might deplore the Paleo expulsion for five years, but then it would move on to other things.
The Paleos would become residents of Jordan, Egypt and Lebanon, whether or not they were ever granted citizenship. And the remaining Israeli Arabs could join them unless they asserted their loyalty to Israel.
It is always easier to get forgiveness than permission.
#7
"How long will you let terrorists control your lives?"
Wrong question. It's:
How long will you live the lives of terrorists?
Pictures of Yassin, Rantissi et al should be attached to these leaflets.
Gotta agree with you, 'moose. Confiscation of the one thing the Palestinians want most desperately of all, namely land, is the way to go. Once they've crowded themselves onto a postage stamp they'll be much more easy to kill all at once to negotiate with.
#8
Moose, Israel exists only because the US demands that it continue to exist. If Richard Nixon had not unequivocally put the US behind Israel during the Yom Kippur War, it would have been overrun. SA-6 and SA-3 SAM batteries had shot down a third of the IAF in just three days. The IDF was running out of artillery shells. Israel was within a day of ceasing to exist. Nixon ordered the Navy to fly in whole squadrons of A-4s from the carriers in the Med. The Israelis gsve the Navy pilots tickets home, replaced US markings with the Magen David and were back in the fight. There was a massive outpouring of ammunition and other needed supplies from the US. The C-141s and C-5s were flying almost round the clock transferring munitions and supplies from US war reserves. When the Russians started making noises about it, Nixon put the US on DefCon 3. SAC was in posture 5, the crews were in the airplanes and the planes were prepositioned on the taxiways. The entire B-52G fleet was ordered back from Anderson AFB to the US to resume nuke alert. 186 bombers were airborne within 24 hours. As far as I know, there are no statues to Nixon in Israel, but there should be.
Times have changed, but one constant remains. Without the US, there is no Israel. Israel is neither economically or militarily viable without us.
#9
The Israelis were more than aware of this, and have done everything in their power to mitigate reliance on the US.
You mentioned the conventional war with multiple Arab nations attacking. Certainly we would continue to support them, even if they expelled the Paleos. However, short of a major conflict, I strongly doubt that the US would try to leverage Israel on behalf of the Paleos.
This is why I was very specific about what they would do: non-violently punish the Paleos for their violent attacks by placing parcels of their land in "trust". The Israelis could very firmly state that those trust lands remain the *property* of the Paleos, but the Paleos are denied their use until they renounce violence and control their fighters.
It is a carrot-and-stick approach that might work.
The Israelis could state that the only alternative to these land holdings would be to counter battery fire into populated areas. It could then say to the US "choose between land takings and killing civilians."
Eventually the Israelis are going to have to do something, because the number and quality of the Paleo missiles just keeps improving. Unless they can produce and field a low-cost anti-missile pulse laser, they may have no choice. Re-occupation accomplishes nothing except getting Israeli soldiers killed.
#10
Moose, when you're right, you're right. Even so, the US sends Israel the equivalent of about $500 for every citizen every year (~$3B). Doesn't sound like much until you figure how much the Israeli taxpayers would have to shell out to replace it.
#11
Moose back up and look at the Crusader states.
The muslims took their time and outlasted the European support. Centuries were nothing.
Israel will, unless Islam does the impossible and changes, be faced with the choice of a final soultion or the sea. Its just a matter of time and population demographics of a people with oil wealth supporters.
Just a matter of time. Either they can make the choice or they can't. If they make it they may need to make it repeatedly for a long time.
What they are doing now is not working. Endless war will destroy their mental health and their society. Its win or loose. There is no middle. The US has tried to push a middle for its own reasons but Israel has only 2 ways to go long term.
Local authorities dug up the grave of an Ahmadi girl in a Muslim graveyard in Chanda Singh village, Kasur, 10 days after her death and moved her body to an Ahmadi cemetery under pressure from clerics. Kasur DPO Captain (r) Mobeen Ahmed supervised the reburial on March 18, Daily Times has learnt. District police officials confirmed the report and conceded that it was done under pressure from the Majlis-e-Tahafuz-e-Khatam-e-Nabuwat and local clerics.
Nadia Hanif, 17, died of an illness on March 8. She had been running an SOS village school and used to teach kids the Quran. No one objected to her being buried here at the time, her elder brother told Daily Times. Several Muslims attended her funeral, he added, though the local imam refused to offer Namaz-e-Janaza for the girl. After the funeral, extremists started protesting against her burial in a Muslim graveyard. A local cleric also got a fatwa from Saadat Ali Qadri, who runs a seminary, stating that Ahmadis cannot be buried in a Muslim graveyard and digging up the body is permissible.
Really, these are people with very small souls. Infinitisimal. I'll bet they're so small God can't find them.
Posted by: Fred ||
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If things keep going the way they are no one, including God, will even be able to identify the atomic vapor that'll be left of them.
Israeli warplanes dropped thousands of flyers over Gaza Strip Saturday demanding people to cut off armed Palestinian factions especially those launching missiles against Israel. The flyers warned that there will be grave consequences, "destruction and devastation", if factions continue to launch missiles at Israeli towns from the Gaza Strip. It read, "The State of Israel has evacuated Gaza Strip and granted you an opportunity to live in peace and to manage your lives by yourselves, hence, until when you will allow terrorism to control your lives?" The Israeli army will carry out countering operations in case the missile attacks continue, it added.
This is not the first time Israeli planes drop such flyers warning the people in Gaza against Palestinian organization's missile attacks. The Israeli Army considers "launching raids inside Gaza City a strong message to the new Palestinian leadership headed by Hamas," an army spokesperson said on the radio. The army will expand its operations in the strip over the next few days on the pretext that "Palestinian security forces are not doing anything to stop terrorism." The Israeli forces will broaden assassination operations against Palestinian activists in an attempt "to increase pressure on Palestinian organizations and Hamas' government," the spokesperson said.
#2
I really think that Israel needs to drop a few atomic bombs in Gaza. They should borrow a few from US unless US has a self defeating policy. All this tit for tat policy will never work. The barbarians will never understand the civilized language. The best way is to talk to those who survived. You will have not much to do if none survived.
#3
Nuclear weapons in Gaza would be like burning down your house - and spreading longlasting poison on the site - to get rid of a serious termite infestation.
#4
I don't think harrowing up empty fields is the right answer to rocket attacks. Why should the Palestinians stop if there's no real cost to their little games?
#8
Al-Aska Paul has always said: shut off all power and water - message sent, then ramp up from there with building-clearing artillery moving the no-go-zone back a mile or two
Posted by: Frank G ||
04/02/2006 14:19
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#9
People that suggest that someone be nuked usually have no idea what that means. Those of us who were keepers of the fire during the cold war prayed every day that we would never have to use them. The following site contains the unclass version of The Effects of Nuclear Weapons http://www.cddc.vt.edu/host/atomic/nukeffct/#EONW77
This book came with a circular slide rule for calculating blast effects. If you are too young to know what a slide rule is, you probably don't know jack about nukes either. Peruse this site and think before you open your mouth the next time you are tempted to say "nuke 'em".
Three rockets were fired at the Israeli-occupied Majdal city on Saturday, the Palestinian Islamic Jihad announced today. A statement by the Al Quds brigades, the armed wing of the Islamic Jihad Movement said one of its groups fired three rockets "Al-Quds-3" at Majdal city, occupied by Israeli in the 1948 Arab-Israeli war.
The firing was filmed and would be circulated on the mass media, the statement said, noting that the attacking groups returned safely to base. Israel acknowledged that missiles have slammed in the city, the statement said, noting that the attack was in retaliation for the Israeli assassination of Abdelkarim Goga, a commander of the movement's Popular Resistance Committees in Gaza yesterday.
Posted by: Fred ||
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Why do you guys insist on quoting Arab propaganda? 'Majdal' is Ashkelon, and if it is 'occupied', then all of Israel is 'occupied'. There are plenty of sources reporting terrorist attacks on Israel that don't negate Israel's existance.
#2
Its OK Colt. Its an insistence on knowing what the other side is spewing as information and spin. We are not in the least taken in by the propaganda. Please do read on to other articles and posts for further reassurance. You will find the same local media reportages (and scathing deconstructions, not to mention the comments) that we need to keep an eye on the spew. Welcome and take a tour ;)
#3
Welcome, indeed, Colt. Are you one of our Israeli correspondents? While I didn't realize that Majdal=Ashkelon, I read anything labelled "occupied" as being properly Israeli, since the Arab/Muslim press labels any part of the Jewish State as such. We post counterbalancing articles from the Israeli press, too, and we've got a couple of Rantburgers who are serious JPost junkies.
#4
I post quite a bit from Kuwaiti News Service. I use them more for the diplo news, since they faithfully report every meeting between Arab foreign ministers, cables of condolences or congratulations sent by or to the Kuwaiti ruling family, important pronouncements of the Arab League, speeches by Arabian potentates. I know more about the daily doings of the dish towel and fan belt set than I do about our own Congresscritters. All thanks to KUNA.
Posted by: Frank G ||
04/02/2006 14:46
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#6
'We are not in the least taken in by the propaganda.'
You might not be, and many readers may not be. But some will. It is bad enough that Yesha was termed 'occupied', but Ashkelon is as Israeli as Tel Aviv.
Three people were critically injured when a van hit landmine in Pat Feeder in Dera Bugti on Saturday. In another incident, unidentified people targeted a security forces checkpost at Pathar Nala Dera Bugti. They launched 18 rockets, demolishing an adjacent mosques wall, but fled when security forces retaliated. Security forces also recovered a landmine planted near Kot Habib Lahi.
Posted by: Fred ||
04/02/2006
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Unidentified gunmen killed the speaker of a northern Afghan provincial legislature early Saturday after breaking into his home, police said. Sayed Sadeq, from northeastern Takhar province, is believed to be the first lawmaker killed since the October inauguration of the war-torn countrys first parliament and provincial councils in more than 30 years. He was killed early this morning, Takhar security director Gulam Hazrat told AFP. We dont yet know who killed him.
Takhar is relatively free of violence linked to a Taliban-led insurgency that sees nearly daily attacks in southern and eastern Afghanistan. The area is however plagued by rivalry between former commanders in the resistance to the 1996-2001 Taliban regime, some of whom still run private armies. Sadeq was a commander before winning the September election for the council.
It's relatively free from violence because it's relatively free from Pashtuns.
Posted by: Fred ||
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PESHAWAR: A man was killed and a cop suffered bullet injuries when police raided a mini-cinema as part of an anti-obscenity drive on Saturday. A police team headed by Banamari Police Station head constable Shah Jehan raided a video centre in the interior city and found a mini-cinema which was locked from inside. The police forced their way in, and two men inside opened fire. Shah Jehan was hit by two bullets, one in the head and the other in the chest. He was rushed to hospital where his condition was said to be critical. One of the accused, who was later identified as Akhtaray, alias Fouji, a resident of Karak, was killed when the police returned fire. The other accused, Mubarak Shah, a resident of Muslimabad, Peshawar, was arrested. Senior Superintendent of Police Saeed Wazir confirmed that a drive against obscenity was underway in the city. It will continue till the city is rid of the menace, he vowed.
"Goddammit! We said no titties! Go home an' read yer Koran!"
"He can't! He's dead!"
"How about him?"
"If I ain't mistaken, that's a sucking head wound."
Posted by: Fred ||
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#1
You get an AK + a full clip with every ticket and all of the regulars have at least one alias, of course. Titties are pretty menacing if you don't know how to handle them properly. I'm a Master Titty Wrangler. Pakis should leave it to the professionals, like me.
Hmmm. So Gaza has a new Fatah head bully. D'ya think Hamas will let him fester, like we did with Tater, or d'ya think Meshaal will have this boil lanced?
Dozens of gunmen fired wildly into the air as a Gaza Strip strongman on Saturday rejected calls for an end to public displays of weapons, raising the risk of new factional violence. Samir Masharawi, a senior member of the Fatah Party in Gaza, spoke a day after four people were killed and 36 wounded in political unrest sparked by the killing of a top, Hamas-linked militant in a car bombing. His followers accused the Fatah-dominated Preventive Security Service and top Fatah officials in Gaza, including Masharawi, of involvement.
Hamas' prime minister, Ismail Haniyeh, appealed for calm Saturday and pledged to remove rogue gunmen from the streets of Gaza. But Masharawi, one of the most powerful figures in Gaza, rejected the call. Returning to Gaza from Egypt in a heavily armed convoy, Masharawi told reporters that he was offended by the "baseless" allegations against security forces and Fatah leaders and he would not be able to persuade his followers to hide their arms. "It seems that the brothers in Hamas forget that they are in power and represent a Palestinian government and are responsible for defending security institutions," he said. As he spoke, dozens of bodyguards fired repeatedly in the air.
Israeli counterterrorism expert Boaz Ganor said Hamas is in a "Catch-22" situation, wanting to gain international legitimacy while not yet willing to abandon its violent ideology. "They are trying to hold the stick from both ends," he said. "Maybe they can stop their own fire, but they can't speak out against others."
Posted by: Frank G ||
04/02/2006
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The Government is to hold secret talks with defence chiefs tomorrow to discuss possible military strikes against Iran. A high-level meeting will take place in the Ministry of Defence at which senior defence chiefs and government officials will consider the consequences of an attack on Iran. It is believed that an American-led attack, designed to destroy Iran's ability to develop a nuclear bomb, is "inevitable" if Teheran's leaders fail to comply with United Nations demands to freeze their uranium enrichment programme. A high-level meeting will take place in the Ministry of Defence. Tomorrow's meeting will be attended by Gen Sir Michael Walker, the chief of the defence staff, Lt Gen Andrew Ridgway, the chief of defence intelligence and Maj Gen Bill Rollo, the assistant chief of the general staff, together with officials from the Foreign Office and Downing Street.
"C'mon guys, knock it off. At least for a day or two. The cash cows infidels are paying attention!"
TWO days after formally taking power in the Palestinian Authority, the Hamas government held an emergency meeting last night in the wake of factional violence that left four dead, and made a pledge to end public displays of weapons in the chaotic Gaza Strip. The meeting followed a day of unrest sparked by the death of Abu Yousef Abu Quka, a Palestinian militant with ties to Hamas, in a car bombing. His followers blamed security forces linked to the rival Fatah movement. Information minister Yousef Rizka said the government decided to form a committee to look into the killing. He also said the government pledged "to remove all armed men from the street".
Heh. Now we see if Fatah complains their human rights are being violated...
Gaza has been ravaged by a wave of lawlessness in recent months, with gunmen roaming the streets with apparent impunity. Many of the gunmen have links to Fatah.
#1
I'm sick to death of Hamas screaming that the international community must accept a terrorist government because it was "democratically elected" and that all current interal strife is the fault of the jooooos and the various-sized satans.
Palestinians freely choose terrorism as their path and will be treated as terrorists - self-identified and proud of it..
Three easy things to become a recognized goverment:
renounce violence
recognize Israel
keep to your agreements.
It's nothing more than is demanded of any other democractic nation.
2 out of 3 of those are just basic requirements for civility.
These sick pyschos can't see straight with all that blood and spittle in their eyes.
A rocky foreign terrain. Platoons of remotely controlled cyborg-insects sniffing out landmines, transmitting their location back to human handlers.
---------------------------------
Back in the lab, work is well-advanced on a biomimetic underwater robot that the agency calls the "robolobster." It mimics the action of its organic cousin, scurrying along the ocean floor, looking for mines and buried bombs.
Then, there's "BigDog," a "robotic beast of burden" that's being developed to haul over rough terrain at least 40 kilograms of supplies that soldiers have to carry.
And not least, the Raptor project, a "marsupial" robot aircraft that will command a squad of roving robots. In the military scenario, Raptor would be airdropped into enemy territory and, like a kangaroo spilling out her young, would release a squad of small robots. They would traverse unknown terrain using night vision lenses and laser radar and the intelligence they pick up communicated back to the Raptor for transmission to the humans at base.
Posted by: Captain America ||
04/02/2006
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I want one of these but plz lose the voice
and these Amazing Climbing Critter
http://www.ai.mit.edu/projects/sociable/videos.html
http://www.kawada.co.jp/global/ams/hrp_2.html
http://robots.net/article/1795.html
#2
I believe that it was Nova last week that featured a DARPA-sponsored robot-vehicle race that required traversing a tricky, twisting 150-mile course through the desert. In contrast to the prior year, in which no vehicle got more than 10 miles from the starting line, 5 (I believe) vehicles completed the race this last time around.
#3
That's true. One note, however: this year's Challenge was a bit different from the previous year This time around, they gave GPS 'way points' to reach. The previous year the vehicles had to figure out everything about their routes themselves.
From one point of view that made the Challenge a lot easier this year. However, it fits DOD's needs since in the short run, unmanned trucks that can carry goods along a route defined by way points would be quite useful.
#4
unmanned trucks that can carry goods along a route defined by way points would be quite useful.
You mean useless, just dump a big rock in the road where there is no way to go around, and the truck's stymied.
Loot or destroy it at your lesiure.
Picture a mountain pass, or a hill cut, put a rock in the road, truck stops, drop another behind, repeat until you run out of trucks or rocks.
Posted by: Redneck Jim ||
04/02/2006 19:51
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#5
You mean useless, just dump a big rock in the road where there is no way to go around, and the truck's stymied.
The autonomous vehicles can navigate to waypoints and *also* have collision sensors to avoid and maneuver around obstacles. Sure, it doesn't help if the pass or road is completely blocked, but that works against regular trucks too. The advantage in this case is that no humans die.
Don't forget that unmanned does not mean unarmed. Remember the tele-operated gun turrets (CROWS) we discussed awhile back? A vehicle in distress could also call for overwatching air support.
#6
Sure, you can do that. But that doesn't mean there aren't uses for such things.
Or so a whole bunch of military planners believe. And unmanned doesn't necessarily mean unmonitored or undefended. Think UAV escorts, for instance. ;-)
A multi-volume chronology and reference guide set detailing three years of the Mexican Drug War between 2010 and 2012.
Rantburg.com and borderlandbeat.com correspondent and author Chris Covert presents his first non-fiction work detailing
the drug and gang related violence in Mexico.
Chris gives us Mexican press dispatches of drug and gang war violence
over three years, presented in a multi volume set intended to chronicle the death, violence and mayhem which has
dominated Mexico for six years.
Rantburg was assembled from recycled algorithms in the United States of America. No
trees were destroyed in the production of this weblog. We did hurt some, though. Sorry.
Ammam - Iraq's resistance has replaced Jordanian-born Abu Musab al-Zarqawi as political head of the rebels, confining him to a military role, the son of Osama bin Laden's mentor told AFP Sunday in Jordan. 
Recently citizen scientist Forrest Mims told me about a speech he heard at the Texas Academy of Science during which the speaker, a world-renowned ecologist, advocated for the extermination of 90 percent of the human species in a most horrible and painful manner. Apparently at the speaker's direction, the speech was not video taped by the Academy and so Forrest's may be the only record of what was said. Forrest's account of what he witnessed chilled my soul. Astonishingly, Forrest reports that many of the Academy members present gave the speaker a standing ovation. To date, the Academy has not moved to sanction the speaker or distance itself from the speaker's remarks. 
The Israeli army said Saturday that four missiles were fired today on a number of Israeli towns from northern Gaza Strip. Spokesperson for the Israeli army said one of the missiles landed at sea, while the other three landed in vacant areas around Ashkelon leaving no property damage or loss of life. The spokesperson also said that four other missiles were fired today from Gaza Strip toward Naqab area in southern Israel but no damages or losses were recorded, noting that the Israeli tanks responded by firing over 100 shells at the missile launching sites in northern Gaza Strip. The source added that the Israeli warplanes bombed a building in northern Gaza Strip used by Palestinian resistance members as a missile launching site.
Custodian of the Two Holy Mosques King Abdallah bin Abdulaziz on Saturday warned of the dangers of deviant thoughts on the Islamic nation and the image of Islam. 
A US military helicopter went down southwest of Baghdad on Saturday and it was unclear if there were casualties, the military said. A militant group said it shot down a helicopter in the same area and residents said they heard gunfire. A ... helicopter went down southwest of Baghdad at approximately 5:30 pm, the military said. The status of the crew is unknown. A spokesman declined to say how many were on board or the type of helicopter involved. The aircraft was conducting a combat air patrol, the statement said. In an Internet posting, a group calling itself the 
The largest Kashmiri militant group fighting Indian rule on Saturday derided a peace process between India and Pakistan and said separatists talking with the two governments were gaining nothing. The fact is that the ongoing dialogue process between India and Pakistan is useless, futile and a waste of time, 
Trade unions and students vowed Saturday to press ahead with strikes and demonstrations against a new youth jobs law despite a compromise plan by President Jacques Chirac to defuse the crisis. In a solemn address carried live from the Elysee palace on television and radio, Chirac said he would ratify the controversial measure but promised immediate modifications. I believe the First Employment Contract (CPE) can be an effective tool for employment, he said. But he said he had also heard the anxieties being expressed by many young people and their parents over the contract, which allows employers to fire under 26-year-olds during a two-year trial period without explanation. Chirac said he would ask Prime Minister 
Security forces have seized modern lethal weapons including 
MULTAN: An Anti-Terrorism Court sentenced an activist of the banned 
Fearing new temblors, survivors of three strong earthquakes spent a cold night outdoors as officials wrapped up rescue operations after pulling out 70 bodies from under the rubble and rescuing 1,200 others. "Rescue operations are over. The death toll will not increase nor will the figure for the injured," provincial governor, Mohammad Reza Mohseni, told state-run television Saturday. But Mohseni said relief workers have begun clearing the debris and providing survivors with temporary accommodation. 
Indian national 
An employee in the opposition Wafd Party died Saturday here from wounds he sustained when supporters of the party's president 
Paramilitary forces and tribal police on Saturday took over the headquarters of cleric 
LAHORE: Security forces raided a hotel on Abbot Road on Saturday afternoon and arrested seven men for alleged involvement in anti-state activities. The men were shifted to an undisclosed location. Eyewitnesses told Daily Times that security forces personnel wearing camouflage uniforms surrounded the United Hotel in Qilla Gujjar Singh at around 3pm. A few personnel entered the hotel and re-emerged shortly with seven men in blindfold. The hotel employees said that security forces personnel asked the receptionist whether the guests of rooms 125 and 127 were indoors, and immediately arrested them.
A religious seminary teacher in village Kotla Raham Ali Shah (Jatoi) used an iron rod to punish a student and threw him out of the institution when he fainted. Mukhtar Ahmed, a religious seminary teacher, punished his student, Sultan Ahmed, with an iron rod and asked his students to throw him out of the seminary when he fainted. Sultans father, Wahid Bakhsh, registered a case against the teacher. However, no arrest was made. Sultan Ahmed alleged that the teacher asked them to steal woods from a sawmill but he could not do so because of the watchman. When he returned empty handed the teacher beat him with an iron rod.
Interior Minister 
Meanwhile, an Iraqi Interior Ministry source told KUNA 42 unidentified human bodies that were shot dead were located in various parts of Baghdad. He said 10 bodies were found in Al-Shaala area west of Baghdad, another 10 were found in Al-Doura area south of Baghdad, six were found in Al-Sidia south-west of Baghdad and three in Al-Amin province south-east of Baghdad. Local police in Al-Mahmoudia south of Baghdad said it located 13 unidentified bodies that were shot dead in various parts of the town, the source added. The bodies were handcuffed and blindfolded, except for ten bodies who were found in Al-Shaala and seemed to have been shot dead in a mass execution. The bodies were taken to a medical center for identification.
AMMAN The State Security Court last week handed a reduced sentence to a 26-year-old man who was convicted of attempting to blow up the Aqaba Police Station last year. The tribunal first sentenced Mohammad Y. to five years in prison after convicting him of plotting subversive acts, but decided to immediately commute the sentence to half. The defendant has no previous criminal record and the court wants to give him a second chance in life, read the verdict, which was made available to the press on Saturday. 
Hamas vowed on Saturday to bring the "dangerous" situation on the streets of Gaza under control as the Islamist faction faced its first internal crisis after only three days in government. Palestinian Prime Minister 
An Afghan couple, Dr Azizullah and his second wife Feroza, are missing since the last five months. The last time the couple contacted their family in Peshawar, they were in Kabul. 
A European think-tank has slammed Pakistans post-earthquake policy of allowing Islamist radicals to bolster their presence in the affected areas of the North West Frontier Province and Azad Kashmir, warning that the move could ultimately pose threats to domestic and regional security. 
At least 12 suspects have been arrested in three different Iraqi cities and five Iranian nationals detained while attempting to cross the borders near the Halabja city in Kurdistan Iraq, the interior ministry announced on Saturday. Three suspects were arrested on the Najaf highway, a police statement said, noting that a Kalashnikov machinegun and live ammunition in the possession of the suspects were seized. Four other people were arrested in Mosul and weapons and explosives were seized in their possession, the statement said. In Baghdad, five suspects including an Arab national were detained in Karadah and Aazamiyah. According to the statement, Halabja city police patrols arrested five Iranian nationals while attempting to illegally enter the Iraqi territories.
It is Al Qaeda policy to stage terrorist incidents in the West so that Western governments turn on Muslims, which will eventually radicalise the latter, bringing them on the same ideological wavelength as the organisation that Osama Bin Laden heads.
Local authorities dug up the grave of an Ahmadi girl in a Muslim graveyard in Chanda Singh village, Kasur, 10 days after her death and moved her body to an Ahmadi cemetery under pressure from clerics. Kasur DPO Captain (r) Mobeen Ahmed supervised the reburial on March 18, Daily Times has learnt. District police officials confirmed the report and conceded that it was done under pressure from the 
Israeli warplanes dropped thousands of flyers over Gaza Strip Saturday demanding people to cut off armed Palestinian factions especially those launching missiles against Israel. The flyers warned that there will be grave consequences, "destruction and devastation", if factions continue to launch missiles at Israeli towns from the Gaza Strip. It read, "The State of Israel has evacuated Gaza Strip and granted you an opportunity to live in peace and to manage your lives by yourselves, hence, until when you will allow terrorism to control your lives?" The Israeli army will carry out countering operations in case the missile attacks continue, it added.
Three rockets were fired at the Israeli-occupied Majdal city on Saturday, the Palestinian 
Three people were critically injured when a van hit landmine in Pat Feeder in 
Unidentified gunmen killed the speaker of a northern Afghan provincial legislature early Saturday after breaking into his home, police said. Sayed Sadeq, from northeastern Takhar province, is believed to be the first lawmaker killed since the October inauguration of the war-torn countrys first parliament and provincial councils in more than 30 years. He was killed early this morning, Takhar security director Gulam Hazrat told AFP. We dont yet know who killed him. 
PESHAWAR: A man was killed and a cop suffered bullet injuries when police raided a mini-cinema as part of an anti-obscenity drive on Saturday. A police team headed by Banamari Police Station head constable Shah Jehan raided a video centre in the interior city and found a mini-cinema which was locked from inside. The police forced their way in, and two men inside opened fire. Shah Jehan was hit by two bullets, one in the head and the other in the chest. He was rushed to hospital where his condition was said to be critical. One of the accused, who was later identified as Akhtaray, alias Fouji, a resident of Karak, was killed when the police returned fire. The other accused, Mubarak Shah, a resident of Muslimabad, Peshawar, was arrested. Senior Superintendent of Police Saeed Wazir confirmed that a drive against obscenity was underway in the city. It will continue till the city is rid of the menace, he vowed. 
But Masharawi, one of the most powerful figures in Gaza, rejected the call. Returning to Gaza from Egypt in a heavily armed convoy, Masharawi told reporters that he was offended by the "baseless" allegations against security forces and Fatah leaders and he would not be able to persuade his followers to hide their arms. "It seems that the brothers in Hamas forget that they are in power and represent a Palestinian government and are responsible for defending security institutions," he said. As he spoke, dozens of bodyguards fired repeatedly in the air.
The Government is to hold secret talks with defence chiefs tomorrow to discuss possible military strikes against Iran. A high-level meeting will take place in the Ministry of Defence at which senior defence chiefs and government officials will consider the consequences of an attack on Iran. It is believed that an American-led attack, designed to destroy Iran's ability to develop a nuclear bomb, is "inevitable" if Teheran's leaders fail to comply with United Nations demands to freeze their uranium enrichment programme. A high-level meeting will take place in the Ministry of Defence. Tomorrow's meeting will be attended by Gen Sir Michael Walker, the chief of the defence staff, Lt Gen Andrew Ridgway, the chief of defence intelligence and Maj Gen Bill Rollo, the assistant chief of the general staff, together with officials from the Foreign Office and Downing Street.
