Investigative reporters, including a couple from a major American TV network, are trying to dig up details of a claim made by a senior Foreign Office official in Islamabad that Pakistan spent thousands of dollars through its lobbyists on member of the 9/11 Commission to drop some of the reports negative findings about Pakistan.
If this claim turns out to be true, it might land Pakistan in trouble in this country because it would amount to an attempt to improperly influence public officials assigned with ascertaining the truth about the 9/11 terrorist attacks.
The story, which first surfaced in The Friday Times, Lahore, is based on testimony by Muhammad Sadiq, who was No 2 at the Pakistan embassy in Washington before being posted back to headquarters some months ago, before the Public Accounts Committee. Sadiq, who appeared before the Committee at the end of February this year, revealed that a lot of money had been spent to silence members of the inquiry commission and induce them to go soft on Pakistan.
According to Sadiq, as quoted by The Friday Times in its issue dated March 3-9, 2006, dramatic changes were made in the final draft of the Commissions report after Pakistani lobbyists arranged meetings with members of the investigation body and convinced them to remove anti-Pakistan findings. This information is also said to be available in the record of the Public Accounts Committee. The officer further claimed that Pakistan won the sympathies of 75 US congressmen as part of its strategy to guard the national interest in the US.
Posted by: john ||
04/08/2006 20:31 ||
Comments ||
Link ||
[0 views]
Top|| File under:
AIRFIELD, Afghanistan Afghan and Coalition offensives continued to maintain pressure on Taliban extremists this morning, striking a second blow to enemy leaders in southern Afghanistan.
The Coalition first reported a senior Taliban commander killed during offensive operations last night.
Then, during the early morning hours today, Coalition forces used close-air support to destroy an insurgent headquarters in the Sangin District of Helmand Province, killing a second known Taliban commander and one subordinate.
We conducted an air assault into the known enemy compound following the air strike to gather intelligence, said Army Maj Gen. Benjamin C. Freakley, commander of the Coalitions Combined Joint Task Force 76. Once our ground forces seized the objective, we confirmed that two Taliban were killed, and we captured two terrorists. These extremists offer nothing to the people of Afghanistan but violence, intimidation and fear.
There were no injuries to civilians, Coalition forces or the Afghan National Army forces that participated in the operation.
The operational-level terrorist leader promoted fear and intimidation and was directly tied to attacks on Afghan civilians and government officials. He was also linked to several improvised explosive device attacks targeting Afghan civilians, government security forces and Coalition forces in the region.
Afghan and Coalition forces have the initiative, and we will continue to conduct offensive operations in southern Afghanistan to disrupt and destroy Taliban leaders and their cohorts so long as they pose a security threat to the people of Afghanistan, Freakley said.
Coalition forces are confident that Taliban extremists in southern Afghanistan can be located, targeted and destroyed. This operation demonstrates the growing strength and capability of Afghan National Security Forces partnered with Coalition forces to systematically improve the security and stability of Afghanistan.
#1
It's the Brutal Canadian Offensive(TM). PM Harper visited with his troops there and changed their ROE so they could actually fight. Since his visit, lots of Taliban have gone tango uniform. And it looks as though Angela merkel's German troops have been mixing it up a bit more too...
Coalition forces killed a senior Taliban commander during an offensive in southern Afghanistan, the US military said. The commander 'was directly tied to dozens of improvised explosive device attacks that killed and crippled multiple Afghans since 2001, when the Taliban regime was ousted,' the statement said, adding that he was also responsible for the deaths of Afghan National Army soldiers and coalition soldiers. The shooting happened Friday in the Musa Qaleh district in southern province of Helmand. The US military did not provide the commander's name.
Posted by: Dan Darling ||
04/08/2006 01:59 ||
Comments ||
Link ||
[1 views]
Top|| File under:
#1
The US military did not provide the commander's name.
Once the DNA tests are in, a name will be released. Must be a big fish.
The defense ministry Friday confirmed injury of six German soldiers in two attacks in northern Afghanistan. A ministry statement said one of the attacks took place when a German military patrol was attacked. Three Afghan civilians were killed in the attack. The second assault happened when unknown gunmen hurled hand grenades at a military position injuring three soldiers. Around 2,500 German forces are stationed in Afghanistan working within the International Stabilization Assistant Force (ISAF).
Posted by: Fred ||
04/08/2006 00:00 ||
Comments ||
Link ||
[0 views]
Top|| File under:
#1
Fred's library of great pics continues unabated.
A suicide bomber set off his explosives-laden car outside a US military base in Afghanistan on Friday, wounding three Americans in the second attack on a US base in 24 hours.
The police chief of the southern province of Helmand, Abdur Rahman, initially said two British soldiers were wounded when the bomber rammed his car into their vehicle just outside their base in the provincial capital Lashkar Ghar. But the US military later said two US service members and a US civilian contractor were slightly wounded in the blast at the main gate of their base. "The suicide bomber was killed in the blast. A nearby pickup truck and the bomber's vehicle were destroyed," a US military spokesman said.
Posted by: Fred ||
04/08/2006 00:00 ||
Comments ||
Link ||
[0 views]
Top|| File under:
#1
A suicide bomber set off his explosives-laden car outside a US military base in Afghanistan on Friday
SUSPECTED Algerian Islamist militants shouting "God is Greatest" killed 13 customs agents in the north African oil producer's southern desert, a customs official said.
The official, who declined to be identified, confirmed media reports today that said the 13 were killed, and 10 wounded, in an ambush yesterday on a party of customs officials travelling in a convoy of all terrain vehicles 200 km from the country's biggest oil producing town of Hassi Messaoud.
One agent was also reported missing after the ambush in the southern province of Ghardaia, some 700 km southeast of the capital Algiers, state radio said.
It was the worst attack by suspected Islamist militants since the launch of an amnesty for rebels aimed at ending more than a decade of conflict in the OPEC oil-exporting country.
Those killed included senior customs officials including the regional director of the national customs service, Abdelkrim Khebouza.
Customs officials play a key role in security in the south, where groups of Islamist gunmen are believed to maintain links with bandits who run cross-border smuggling networks across Africa's Sahel region.
The radio did not identify the attackers.
Independent newspaper El Watan said the assailants were chanting "God is Greatest" during the attack on the agents who were heading for the oil area of Ouargla to attend a seminar.
The attackers escaped with the customs agents' weapons.
El Khabar said it believed smugglers rather than Islamist gunmen were behind the attack.
The two groups of outlaws have been known to coordinate such attacks in the past.
Authorities in Algeria have dismantled a network that helped Islamic militants enter Spain using fake passports and visas, Algerian French-language daily Liberte reported on Friday. The group of about 20 people is suspected of providing support for the leading Islamic insurgents' group in Algeria, the Salafite Group for Preaching and Combat (GSPC), and militants of the Armed Islamic Group (GIA), Said Rokbi, prosecutor in the Algerian suburb of Rouiba, told the AP news agency. These two groups have come under scrutiny in Europe for alleged involvement in attempted terror attacks.
The network allegedly started its activity in 2000 but was only discovered by Algeria's anti-terror forces two months ago. The group provided false documents to Islamic militants who were being hunted by Algerian police and helped them flee the country, said Rokbi, confirming the Liberte report. Members of the group were brought before prosecutors in Rouiba on Wednesday ahead of a trial. According to Liberte, the operation could have involved dozens of militants who could have set up terror cells in Spain and other European countries in the meantime.
The Armed Islamic Group (GIA) has been almost entirely dismembered by the Algerian military and the Salafite Group for Preaching and Combat (GSPC), which has sworn allegiace to al-Qaeda, has also seen its ranks reduced. A national reconciliation reform approved in September, more than a decade after the outbreak of Algerias 1990's civil war, allows militants to turn themselves in with impunity, provided they have not been involved in atrocities. Information provided by some of these militants reportedly helped the police track down members of the network.
Posted by: Fred ||
04/08/2006 00:00 ||
Comments ||
Link ||
[0 views]
Top|| File under:
#1
Militants?
n, A fighting, warring, or aggressive person or party.
Try more like terrorists:
n. One that engages in acts or an act of terrorism.
The article even says as much further down the page. "These two groups have come under scrutiny in Europe for alleged involvement in attempted terror attacks."
If we cannot even call them what they are, then there is little hope.
The press is supposed to REVEAL and INFORM, not DISTORT and DIFFUSE.
I am of the opinon that the press has become the enemy in part, mainly because it has no accountability. Each branch has a check and balance in the US. Governments are ultimately accoutnable to the people.
Who are the press accountable to? Where are its checks and balances?
#3
Spain is cruis'n for a bruis'n. They haven't quite grasped that when you welcome the fox into your hen house, that he will first eat the hens in whatever hen house he has been invited into and then move on to the next.
Gunmen attacked a convoy of customs agents traveling through the desert in southern Algeria on Friday, killing 13 and wounding eight others, the official APS news agency reported. One other person was reported to have disappeared in the attack in the Ghardaia region, 745 miles south of the capital of this North African nation, APS reported, citing local security sources. The attackers opened fire with machine-guns on vehicles transporting the customs agents to a seminar, then set the vehicles afire, according to a report on daily Liberte's Web site. The gunmen, whose numbers were not immediately known, then fled in two four-wheel drive vehicles.
Posted by: Fred ||
04/08/2006 00:00 ||
Comments ||
Link ||
[0 views]
Top|| File under:
#1
One other person was reported to have disappeared in the attack in the Ghardaia region.
And that would be the custom agent who arranged the slaughter.
Apr 7: Members of Rapid Action Battalion (RAB) arrested three persons for their involvement in Voice Over Internet Protocol (VOIP) from Agrabad area in the city on April 5 night. The arrested were identified as Mohammed Sohel alias Suja, Sayed Mohoshin Ali, owner of Chittagong Telicom Limited and Mohammed Ali Wahab.
Branching out from commies to hackers. Wonder when they'll crossfire an Islamonut?
Sources in the RAB said a team of RAB men acting on a secret information that three people involved in voice over internet protocol had been staying in Agrabad area in the city raided it and arrested the three people. The team recovered a quantum four port gateway, one computer with CPU, a monitor and a keyboard.
Send them to Yousef Islam, he's gonna need a new computer.
The arrested persons confessed that they got eight T&T telephone lines from Sanmar Properties Limited due to kinship. They were engaged in call diversion from foreign countries to local T & T phones by VOIP.
Posted by: Steve White ||
04/08/2006 00:19 ||
Comments ||
Link ||
[0 views]
Top|| File under:
#1
, one computer with CPU
!
Something new under the RAB sun.
The Supreme Court in the southern Russian republic of Ingushetia today convicted two residents of the neighboring republic of Kabardino-Balkaria for their involvement in attacks on Ingush law-enforcement agencies two years ago.
Dmitry Kurichev was sentenced to 10 years in prison. Rustam Kurozokov received a nine-year jail term.
Seventy-nine people were killed and more than 100 wounded in the series of raids in June 2004.
Russian officials say the assailants were linked to separatist fighters in Chechnya.
More than 20 other people from Ingushetia, Chechnya, and Kabardino-Balkaria have been sentenced to prison terms of up to 25 years for their role in the attacks.
Posted by: Dan Darling ||
04/08/2006 02:25 ||
Comments ||
Link ||
[1 views]
Top|| File under:
FOR years, Ahmad al-Hamwi has led an inconspicuous life like thousands of refugees from the Middle East who settled in Sydney's southwest.
But in fact Syrian-born Hamwi is anything but an ordinary asylum-seeker. An investigation by The Weekend Australian has revealed that he has alleged links to terrorist organisations spanning a good part of the globe.
Hamwi is allegedly connected to the international web of Osama bin Laden, and his terrorist arm, al-Qa'ida.
Hamwi has been accused of being a senior al-Qa'ida bagman linked to the 1993 World Trade Centre bomber, Ramzi Yousef.
Living for a decade in the southwestern Sydney suburb of Riverwood, he has admitted he was a confidant of some of bin Laden's closest lieutenants, and he is a relative by marriage to the world's most wanted man.
Since Hamwi, also known by the alias Abu Omar, was given asylum in June 1996, it has been revealed he was a key figure in a Manila-based charity funding Yousef's terrorist cell, which was conspiring to blow up US airliners and assassinate Pope John Paul II.
Hamwi was, by his own admission to the Refugee Review Tribunal, a key figure in the Islamic charity known as the International Research and Information Centre.
According to Philippines National Police intelligence reports obtained by The Weekend Australian, Hamwi and his two colleagues at IRIC were funding Yousef's plans, codenamed Operation Bojinka, which were a harbinger for September 11.
Research by world-renowned terror expert Zachary Abuza also alleges that Hamwi was an "important money man for the cell".
"He (Hamwi) was the hand-picked executive director of the IRIC, which had little in the way of charitable works and I refuse to believe he did not know what was going on," Abuza told The Weekend Australian yesterday.
"At the time, (in the mid-1990s) the IRIC was involved in funding the MILF (Moro Islamic Liberation Front), al-Qa'ida and Abu Sayyaf, the group involved in military training with Jemaah Islamiah operatives."
According to Abuza, Hamwi helped bin Laden's brother-in-law, Mohammed Jamal Khalifa, with introductions to set up al-Qa'ida's network in Southeast Asia, and then ran IRIC for him as a front for terrorist financing.
The pair lived together for years and married Filipina sisters, Nora and Alice.
For Khalifa, this was one of two wives - his other wife is Osama bin Laden's older sister.
But when the refugee tribunal granted Hamwi asylum in June 1996, they had scant details about his past, and he denied he knew Yousef or anything about the men involved in the Operation Bojinka plot.
Although Hamwi revealed to the tribunal he had shared the apartment with Khalifah, who has been named by the US State Department's co-ordinator for counter terrorism, Philip C.Wilcox, in a letter to a US court as a "terrorist financier", the tribunal was aware only that Khalifa was a suspected terrorist.
The tribunal asked ASIO whether Hamwi was "directly or indirectly responsible for any acts of terrorism", and despite Hamwi being interviewed several times by the intelligence agency, "neither ASIO nor DFAT could or would provide any evidence to the tribunal in this regard".
Rohan Gunaratna, head of the International Centre for Political Violence and Terrorism Research, told The Weekend Australian that Canberra had "in the past had a policy where people who were very much involved in terrorism could enter Australia".
But Gunaratna said this had now changed in the wake of the Bali bombings.
Abuza said that at the time sought a protection visa in Australia there was not much information-sharing between countries.
"I would be surprised if the Australians had any idea (about his background)," he said.
The Weekend Australian put detailed questions to Hamwi but he repeatedly refused to respond.
A spokeswoman for federal Attorney-General Philip Ruddock said that should an applicant for a visa be assessed as a risk to national security, the Immigration Department had no option but to reject it.
But it appears that the authorities may not have been told about claims, known by the Philippine National Police counter-terrorist unit, that Hamwi had been involved in radical activities in Turkey and was one of four foreign students banned by the Turkish government for their suspected involvement in a 1986 bombing.
He explained the Turkish visa in his passport by saying he told Syrian authorities that was where he was going to study to enable him to get a passport, but that he went to Pakistan instead.
He later turned up in The Philippines running the Islamic charity IRIC, a "three-man operation" with a tiny office in Manila, Abuza said.
One of the other men involved with the IRIC was Wali Khan Amin Shah, a close associate of Osama bin Laden who became a key planner in the Bojinka plot.
Wali Khan was arrested in February 1995. He was later convicted along with Yousef. He has since co-operated with US authorities.
Hamwi, when questioned by Philippine police, admitted he had known Wali Khan since 1993.
While Hamwi denied any involvement with terrorism to the refugee tribunal in 1995, The Weekend Australian has learned from US Court documents that when his former flatmate Khalifa was arrested in the US, he had letters on him on IRIC letterhead discussing funding the establishment of military training camps.
In Khalifa's defence, Hamwi, as director of the IRIC, wrote letters to the US Immigration Court considering Khalifa's deportation, denying any allegations that the IRIC was clandestinely funding militant training.
Khalifa now lives in Saudi Arabia and regularly protests his innocence.
Hamwi's role in the Manila al-Qa'ida cell was discovered after Yousef's Operation Bojinka was literally blown apart by an accidental explosion in Manila in January 1995.
It resulted in the subsequent arrest of cell member Abdul Hakim Ali Hasmid Murad, alias Abdul Murad, who later proved crucial to US investigators unravelling the September 11 plot.
Philippine senior counter-terrorist Police Superintendent Rodolfo Mendoza Jr, who led the manila investigation, found plans to bomb 11 US planes over the Pacific and to kill Pope John Paul II. Tragically, the plot had already had a dry run, when they bombed a Philippines Airlines flight to Tokyo, killing the Japanese passenger sitting over the bomb.
Mendoza's investigation fingered Hamwi for providing funding to Yousef for his terrorist activities through an intermediary, Carol Santiago (who revealed his name during interrogation), and her boyfriend, Wali Khan, who was Hamwi's offsider at IRIC.
Hamwi was questioned but never arrested for his role in the plot. Philippine officials later told Abuza that after the plot was discovered they realised they were ill-prepared to round up all the suspects, who soon fled the country.
Hamwi fled to Australia just months after the discovery of the plot.
Former ASIS spy Warren Reed said allowing Hamwi into the country was a "potentially dangerous situation".
Posted by: Dan Darling ||
04/08/2006 02:28 ||
Comments ||
Link ||
[0 views]
Top|| File under:
#1
So what I'm reading is blah, blah, if people had done their jobs, 911 would not have happened. So many good people would not have needed to jump from windows in the WTC.
But there were plans for 11 planes, so apparently someone did their job. Good for them. I guess not everyone fell down on the job.
A Syrian-born refugee living in Sydney's south-west is allegedly connected to the international terrorism web of al-Qaeda leader Osama bin Laden.
Living for a decade in the suburb of Riverwood, Ahmad al-Hamwi has been accused of being a senior al-Qaeda bagman linked to the 1993 World Trade Centre bomber, Ramzi Yousef, a newspaper reports.
Also known by the alias Abu Omar, Mr al-Hamwi was given asylum in Australia in June 1996.
Mr al-Hamwi has allegedly admitted he was a confidant of some of Osama bin Laden's closest lieutenants, and he is a relative by marriage to the world's most wanted man.
According to Philippines police documents obtained by the newspaper, Mr al-Hamwi was allegedly a key figure in the Manila-based Islamic charity called the International Research and Information Centre (IRIC) that funded Yousef's terrorist cell which conspired to blow up US airliners and assassinate Pope John Paul II.
Research by world-renowned terror expert Zachary Abuza alleges Mr al-Hamwi was an "important money man for the cell".
"He was the hand-picked executive director of the IRIC which had little in the the way of charitable works and I refuse to believe he did not know what was going on," Professor Abuza said.
The newspaper said it put detailed questions to Mr al-Hamwi but he declined to respond.
Posted by: Dan Darling ||
04/08/2006 02:07 ||
Comments ||
Link ||
[0 views]
Top|| File under:
#1
Syrian, huh? This guy seems to be about the right age. He could be a big wheel. When did he emigrate from Syria? Round about 1982? He's probably linked to Baathist Iraq, too.
#2
they seem to be wrapping up a very big sting. Should be interesting to get more details on the 1993 bombing and how it led into 911. Pity the poor folks who said, "Ah, yes, he has links to terrorists, but we shouldn't be hasty." They may have thought they were kind, multicultural sensitive folks, but history won't be kind to them - they were gullible and stupid and many people died horrible deaths because of them.
Some unknown militants, riding a bike, Friday hurled a hand-grenade inside the office of a US-based NGO, Save the Children (STC), in Southwestern Pakistani province of Baluchistan, said official sources. Sources told KUNA that there were no casualties but the explosion badly damaged the office, located in Chaghi district, about 335 kilometers west of Quetta, the provincial capital. They said explosion smashed window glasses, damaged walls and furniture of the office. Sources did not blame any group but pointed finger at nationalist militants.
Local Baluch nationalist militants carry such terrorist attacks on government and foreign buildings as well as security force for their cause of maximum provincial autonomy and increase in royalties.
Posted by: Fred ||
04/08/2006 00:00 ||
Comments ||
Link ||
[1 views]
Top|| File under:
ISLAMABAD: The Supreme Court on Friday rejected an appeal seeking the release of a Lebanese man accused of hijacking a Pan American aircraft after the court was told that Lebanon had acknowledged the nationality of the hijacker but had not sent his travel documents. In the last hearing the court had asked the federal government to submit a reply in a habeas corpus petition of Jamal Saeed Abdul Rahim alias Fahad Ali, who claimed to be a Palestinian. He was arrested by FIA on September 5, 1986 for his involvement in the hijacking of the American airliner. In his appeal, the hijacker had said that he was serving time even though he had completed his life sentence.
That would imply he's dead, wouldn't it?
On Friday, Deputy Attorney General Nasir Saeed Sheikh told the court that earlier no country had been willing to accept the convict and his nationality had been in doubt, but Lebanon had finally accepted Jamal Saeed as a national.
Posted by: Fred ||
04/08/2006 00:00 ||
Comments ||
Link ||
[1 views]
Top|| File under:
#1
Crap, Fred! Always with the logic!
Posted by: Frank G ||
04/08/2006 0:23 Comments ||
Top||
QUETTA: Five military personnel were injured when their vehicles stopped to re-open the Quetta-Karachi Road near Wadh, which had been blockaded by locals to protest the siege of Baloch nationalist leaders' houses in Karachi. Police were not able to confirm who had open fired on the vehicles, however local journalist Khan Muhammad said that the five military personnel were injured when their vehicle caught fire. A police officer said the injured had been admitted to a military hospital in Khuzdar. Balochistan government spokesperson Raziq Bugti said that he was waiting to receive details of the incident.
Posted by: Fred ||
04/08/2006 00:00 ||
Comments ||
Link ||
[1 views]
Top|| File under:
SUKKUR: Three men were arrested in a raid on the residence of Nawab Akbar Bugti in Jacobabad early on Friday morning. A rocket launcher and two rockets were also recovered from the men. According to sources, a heavy contingent of the police and Rangers, led by Jacobabad District Police Officer Muneer Ahmed, raided the residence of Jamhoori Watan Party chief Nawab Akbar Bugti and arrested three men, Arbab Ali Lashari, Yasir Ali Wagho and Ashiq Mirani.
Posted by: Fred ||
04/08/2006 00:00 ||
Comments ||
Link ||
[0 views]
Top|| File under:
#1
so what if he likes to get drunk (daily) and light off some fireworks?
Posted by: Frank G ||
04/08/2006 0:09 Comments ||
Top||
#2
so what if he likes to get drunk (daily) and light off some fireworks?
I can't wait until retirement.
#3
Are there people in Pakistan so stupid as stay, or even be in close proximity to, Akbar Bugti's house?
The prospect of a 1000 pound bomb dropped from a Pak warplane doesn't scare them?
Posted by: john ||
04/08/2006 14:44 Comments ||
Top||
#4
The bunny hutches and the baby chick incubators aren't really all that mobile, john. And Akbar's house isn't technically zoned for daycare and a preschool, but he runs one just the same.
Three suicide bombers dressed as women killed at least 79 people at a Shi'ite mosque on Friday, the bloodiest attack in Iraq for at least three months.
At least 140 people were also wounded in the attack in north Baghdad, the latest proof of how Iraq's leaders have been unable to tackle sectarian violence as they struggle to form a government.
"This is a cowardly act. Every time I see these bloody scenes it tears apart my heart," said fireman Jawwad Kathim, holding a severed finger.
A police official said the bombers were dressed in traditional Shi'ite women's black robes when they struck, two inside the mosque and one just outside. Some police sources said all of them were women. others that two were men.
Men screamed as bodies of victims were taken on wooden carts to ambulances at the complex, which belongs to SCIRI, the most powerful group inside Iraq's ruling Shi'ite Alliance.
People picked up pieces of flesh and placed them on trays.
"The Shi'ites are the target and it's a sectarian act. There is nothing to justify this act but black sectarian hatred," said SCIRI leader Jalal al-Deen, who was at the mosque during the explosions. He said he had counted 65 bodies.
He accused some Sunni newspapers of inciting violence by publishing reports that the mosque contained a detention centre where Sunnis were abused.
It was the biggest suicide attack on a Shi'ite target since November 2005, and the worst attack overall since at least January 5 when suicide bombers killed around 70 people in Ramadi.
"This was clearly perpetrated by those who wish to divide Iraq, who wish to encourage sectarian strife," US State Department spokesman Sean McCormack said in a statement.
"We are going to be working very closely with the Iraqi government to take appropriate measures to strengthen security to help to prevent similar types of attack in the future."
In New York, UN Secretary-General Kofi Annan also condemned the bombing and said it showed the urgent need for Iraq's political leaders "to resolve their differences in the best interests of the nation" his spokesman said.
The attack came a day after a car bomb exploded near a Shi'ite shrine in the sacred southern city of Najaf, killing at least 13 people.
Sectarian tensions have been running high since the Feb. 22 bombing of the Golden Mosque in Samarra, one of the holiest sites in Shi'ite Islam. This touched off reprisals and pushed Iraq to the brink of a sectarian civil war.
Hundreds of bodies have turned up on Baghdad streets since then with bullet holes, bound and blindfolded and showing signs of torture.
But there has been a lull in spectacular suicide attacks, which Iraqi and US officials say are part of a campaign by al Qaeda leader Abu Musab al Zarqawi to draw Shi'ites into sectarian civil war.
The attack could not have come at a worse time for Iraq's fractious leaders, who promised after December elections to tackle violence but are struggling to break a deadlock over a new government as the country keeps counting casualties.
Prime Minister Ibrahim al-Jaafari, a leader in the Shi'ite Alliance with SCIRI and other parties, refuses to heed calls to step down to end the political paralysis.
The Shi'ite Alliance faces an internal crisis if it drops Jaafari but will prolong the deadlock over a government if it keeps him, a dilemma the country cannot afford.
With Sunni Arab and Kurdish politicians refusing to work with Jaafari, pressure is mounting on the United Iraqi Alliance (UIA) to secure a breakthrough.
"It is regrettable that they have put themselves in a lose-lose situation," a senior source in negotiations on a government told Reuters.
"Not only is the UIA damaged but the country is losing and the political process is losing."
In Najaf, senior SCIRI official Sadr Eddine al-Qabanji said in Friday prayers that Iraq's political blocs should seek the help of top Shi'ite cleric Grand Ayatollah Ali al-Sistani on forming a government.
Sistani's calls for moderation are credited with restraining Shi'ites in the face of suicide bombings which have killed thousands of people in the 60 percent majority Shi'ite community.
The Iraqi Accordance Front, the three main Sunni parties, appealed for calm and blamed the Shi'ite-led government and US troops for the security crisis.
With no signs of a government being formed soon, Iraqis can expect more carnage like the scene at the north Baghdad mosque.
"My house is opposite to the mosque and when we heard the first huge blast I ran to make sure my father, who was praying there, was safe," said Naba Mohsin.
"When I entered the mosque a second huge blast occurred and I saw a big blast with flames, I was thrown, then I woke up in the ambulance. I want to know if my father is alive."
An elderly woman borrowed a mobile telephone from a reporter to call her son Abdullah, one of the worshippers in the mosque.
She wept as it kept ringing and ringing.
Posted by: Dan Darling ||
04/08/2006 02:05 ||
Comments ||
Link ||
[1 views]
Top|| File under:
#1
Aparantly, according to news this morning, there were 4 bombers and one was a woman. does the Boomer Babe get 72 stud muffins?
Posted by: Deacon Blues ||
04/08/2006 8:37 Comments ||
Top||
#2
Nope. Boomer Babes become one of the 72 virgins given to pimple-faced jihadi's.
The Mujahadeen Council, a leading insurgency group linked to al-Qaeda in Iraq, has announced the killing of a Christian in Mosul "for offending the prophet Mohammed." In a statement posted to the Internet, the group, whose military arm is still headed by Jordanian militant Abu Musab al-Zarqawi, said that on Tuesday it "eliminated" a Christian in Mosul. "We eliminated him, because this impure crusader offended our noble prophet Mohammed. We killed him in the al-Tahir quarter of Mosul" it read.
Posted by: Fred ||
04/08/2006 00:00 ||
Comments ||
Link ||
[0 views]
Top|| File under:
#1
Zarqawi is dead. He hasn't been seen since he was reported wounded in mid 2005. Now he's just a boogy man. This is just a "zarqawi group". Stick a stake in his heart and bury him. He's dead.
An Iraqi soldier allegedly shot and killed a U.S. Marine at a base near the Syrian border, the U.S. said Friday. Another American Marine then wounded the Iraqi soldier. The shootings occurred Thursday near Qaim, 200 miles west of Baghdad, the U.S. statement said. "An Iraqi army soldier allegedly shot and killed the U.S. Marine on a coalition base" near Qaim, the statement said. "The Iraqi soldier was shot by another U.S. Marine." The incident is under investigation, the statement said. No further details were released, and Pentagon officials said they had no information.
Posted by: Fred ||
04/08/2006 00:00 ||
Comments ||
Link ||
[0 views]
Top|| File under:
The Iraqi security forces arrested 115 suspected terrorists over the past 24 hours, the Interior ministry said Thursday. It added in a statement the arrestees were captured in different parts of the country such as Karbala, Samarra, Mahmoudia, and Shaab. The Defense ministry, which took part in the arrest campaign, said it captured 70 people out of the 115. The arrestees possessed arms and some had forged documents. Some of those captured were wearing women's clothes to evade the security forces.
Posted by: Fred ||
04/08/2006 00:00 ||
Comments ||
Link ||
[0 views]
Top|| File under:
#1
the cross-dressing Lions of Islam! Pussies
Posted by: Frank G ||
04/08/2006 0:08 Comments ||
Top||
#2
Oh Brave, mincing, Lions of islam.
I wonder how well they tackle eating spaghetti in a Burkha.
See The Religious Policeman for a clip (April 7) on how the real ladies handle a garment that isn't just a disguise, but their prison. Pathetic.
The Iraqi army commander in the northern city of Kirkuk was attacked on the Tikrit-Kirkuk road but escaped unscathed. A police source told KUNA the motorcade army commander in Kirkuk Air Vice Marshal Anwar Hama Amin cam under attack as he was inspecting army units stationed along that road. No casualties were reported in the attack. Only one vehicle was damaged.
Posted by: Fred ||
04/08/2006 00:00 ||
Comments ||
Link ||
[0 views]
Top|| File under:
An Iraqi civilian was kidnapped Friday by unknown gunmen in northern Kirkuk. Speaking to Kuwait News agency (KUNA), one of Kirkuk's police commanders said the kidnapped person was the son of an Arab tribal chief, adding that the abducted was taken to a village named Qaibah. The tribal chief, added the commander, was assassinated by unknown gunmen last year.
In another development, the source said that four senior officers in charge of protecting oil facilities were arrested by the Multi-National Force (MNF). He explained that the arrested officers were Colonel Ali Ahmad, who visited Syria lately, and three Iraqi army majors.
Posted by: Fred ||
04/08/2006 00:00 ||
Comments ||
Link ||
[1 views]
Top|| File under:
Israeli missiles slammed into a car in Gaza City on Saturday, killing two members of a Palestinian rocket squad in the second deadly airstrike since the Islamic militant group Hamas assumed power last week. The militants had just fired a rocket toward Israel and returned to their car when they were hit, the Israeli military said.
Very nice shooting, IAF.
The pair was from the Al Aqsa Martyrs' Brigades, a violent offshoot of Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas' Fatah Party. A third member of the rocket squad was wounded seriously.
Sepsis, pleez.
Gun sex and revenge in 3.. 2..
On Friday, a missile strike on a militant training camp in southern Gaza killed five Hamas-linked militants and a 7-year-old boy. Fourteen people were wounded, and six remained hospitalized Saturday. Training kids and bunnies are we?
Abbas, meanwhile, said Hamas has started to realize after just a week in power that it cannot govern without the world's recognition, but it is still grappling with the international community's demands that it moderate its positions. Cause and effect - brain freeze for Pals.
Hamas has sent conflicting messages in recent days. No kidding - not a coherent thought. Caught in their own trap of spew.
Palestinian Prime Minister Ismail Haniyeh has said the Islamic militant group will not comply with demands that it recognize Israel, renounce violence and accept existing peace agreements. However, Haniyeh has also said Abbas is free to negotiate with Israel, and others in the group have raised the possibility of accepting a Palestinian state alongside Israel. "You may notice some confusion in their political positions," Abbas told the British newspaper The Guardian in an interview published Saturday. confusion ROTFLMAO
"If Hamas does not change, nobody will deal with them. ... They came to understand it." Well, they are getting there anyway.
Hamas initially believed they could rule without foreign help, he said. "They started realizing that this is not doable," Abbas was quoted as saying. "But they are only a week in office, so let us wait. It needs time." Are they getting the fact that ONLY foreign help has kept them alive to this point? Only the money of their enemies keeps them alive. Arabs and muslims couldn't care less. You are pawns meant to die in the great takeover. Not live and claim precious land. Dregs of islam - kill, then die and begone.
On Friday, the European Union and the United States announced they were halting hundreds of millions of dollars in aid to the Hamas-led Palestinian Authority. Haniyeh denounced the decisions as "blackmail" and said Hamas would not change its positions. Yet Haniyeh has acknowledged that the government is broke and would have trouble paying the salaries of 140,000 government employees, who with their dependents make up about one-third of the population in the Palestinian territories. Government paychecks for March are more than a week overdue, and the new Palestinian finance minister has said he is still $85 million short, more than half the total needed. Rock and a hard place, Haniyeh.
On Friday, Abbas met with Haniyeh to try to settle some of the growing differences between him and the Hamas government. Abbas is a moderate who was elected separately last year. The two sides have been wrangling over authority and, earlier in the week, Abbas assumed direct control over more branches of the security forces.
Abbas, meanwhile, warned Israel it cannot solve its conflict with the Palestinians by drawing borders unilaterally, without negotiations. Israel can at best postpone the conflict for a decade, he said. Think again, Abbas.
"After 10 years, our sons will feel it (the border) is unfair and they will return back to the struggle," he said. Same old, same old.
Israel's designated prime minister, Ehud Olmert, has said he would try to resume peace talks with the Palestinians but has not said whether he would negotiate with Abbas even if Hamas does not change its views. The Palestinians fear that Olmert is not serious about reviving negotiations and that his real plan is to draw Israel's borders with a Palestinian state unilaterally. Olmert has said he wants final borders in place by 2010. No negotiations to revive - Pals have never been capable. negotiation is not on the plate. Time was up long ago.
Olmert, who is forming a ruling coalition, has said Israel wants to annex large areas the Palestinians consider their state, including east Jerusalem and large Jewish settlements in the West Bank a plan likely to be rejected by Palestinians. "Nobody will accept it. The struggle will continue," Abbas said. more same old, same old. it's why the unilateral move is the only sane thing to do. Ring you off and let you kill each other.
In other developments, two Palestinians were killed when the tunnel they were crawling through under the Gaza-Egypt border collapsed, Palestinian police said. The tunnel apparently caved in overnight but the bodies were found only after dawn Saturday, police said. The two Palestinians are from a family known for drug and food smuggling in the area, police said. All aid cut now. All.
#1
others in the group have raised the possibility of accepting a Palestinian state
You misspelled lie again.
"After 10 years, our sons will feel it (the border) is unfair and they will return back to the struggle," he said....
... "Nobody will accept it. The struggle will continue," Abbas said.
Otherwise (in a negotiated border) they Palios will never leave the struggle - and Israel will not have a wall to protect them.
In other developments, two Palestinians were killed when the tunnel they were crawling through under the Gaza-Egypt border collapsed
They didn't make an offering to St. Pancake for her blessings did they? Dipsh*ts.
#2
The point about Isrealis acting unilaterally, that "no one will accept", is that "no one" accepts the very existence of Israel, or that the Israelis should live in peace under their own rule.
Ergo, if you are utterly intolerant, you have no negotiating position. You have nothing to bargain with. So there is no other course of action for your enemies than to act unilaterally.
#5
I'll hazard a prediction. What does the EU really want? A new Arafat. What was Arafat's great innovation? The divide and conquer strategy. Hamas will divide into dove and hawk factions -- at least this is how it will "appear" to the EU. The dove faction will collect the dough, and the hawks will continue the war. Groundhog Day II, coming right up.
Eight Palestinians were injured in an Israeli artillery attack in northern Gaza Friday, according to Palestinian medical and security sources. They added that three Palestinian children were injured by a shrapnel.
Israel announced their tanks fired hundred of shells over the past two days on Northern Gaza and damaged farms. Palestinian militants retaliated and fired at Israeli targets. They said their attack was to answer the Israeli aggression.
The Palestinian Authority (PA) condemned, meanwhile, the Israeli air raid against Rafah in Southern Gaza killing six people and injuring 15 others. A PA spokesman said in a statement the air strike was an unforgivable crime, calling for intervention of the members of the Quartet and the international community to bring about a halt for the Israeli systematic aggression.
Posted by: Fred ||
04/08/2006 00:00 ||
Comments ||
Link ||
[0 views]
Top|| File under:
#1
"They keep hitting us back and that's not fair. Allan says they're all supposed to die and we get to kill 'em. So they can't hit us back."
The cause and effect thing still isn't sinking in. Muslim block with this.
GAZA CITY: At least six Palestinians were killed Friday night in an Israeli air strike on a training base of the militant Popular Resistance Committees (PRC) in the southern Gaza Strip, medical and security sources said.
An Israeli air craft targeted a training centre of the militant group in the town of Rafah, firing one missile at a vehicle and two missiles at a building with activits in it, Palestinian security sources said. Six people were killed in the raid, including a local PRC leader, Iyad Abu al-Aynin, and a child, said Ali Moussa, a doctor at the town's hospital. Fifteen others were also injured in the air strike, he said. Moussa was unable to confirm whether all the casualties were members of the PRC, which is an umbrella organisation bringing together secular and Islamist fighters.
Posted by: Fred ||
04/08/2006 00:00 ||
Comments ||
Link ||
[0 views]
Top|| File under:
#1
the ducks. What happened to the ducks and the bunnies? It's almost Easter for heaven's sake. The state of reporting has gotten so pathetic.
#2
I've been watching the Arab media and Palestine is pronounced as Philistine in Arabic.
And Philistine is the origin of Paleostine. It might help the west and UK to revert to this name and all it implies. And read up on the history - Pals in a nutshell.
There is a lot in a name. And this one ought to be paralleled in English with it's Arabic pronunciation and real identity.
#4
Yes, there are only 8 days left till the Vernal Fertility Festival (formerly Easter). Check out the latest Peep's Research here. Perhaps you and your children can do some reaearch of your own on the Peep's they score in next week's Outdoor Fertility Search (formerly Easter Egg Roll)
Posted by: Deacon Blues ||
04/08/2006 14:46 Comments ||
Top||
#7
Rip the blinkers off, folks.
Enlighten me, TW2412. Are you suggesting that the modern Palestinians are descended from Bronze Age Indo European tribes who invaded the Middle East and fought with the Hebrews and Canaanites?
What should we see when we 'rip off the blinkers'?
AUSTRALIA'S top cop has evidence that Osama bin Laden's al-Qaida group is infiltrating South-East Asia.
Mick Keelty yesterday warned that al-Qaida and Jemaah Islamiah cells were sharing expertise at terrorist training camps in the area.
The Australian Federal Police Commissioner revealed al-Qaida was forging links with other extremist groups in South-East Asia.
Mr Keelty hopes the AFP will become part of a permanent regional anti-terrorism taskforce to counter the threat.
A working party will meet in the region within weeks to discuss agencies joining to fight the common curse of terrorism.
"I am very keen for the AFP to play a major role in the proposed regional taskforce," Mr Keelty told the Herald Sun.
In an interview to mark the first week of his second five-year term as AFP Commissioner, Mr Keelty also revealed:
HIS personal opposition to the death penalty would not stop him or the AFP co-operating fully with police from countries that execute criminals.
IF another Bali Nine situation arose in a death penalty country, he would have no hesitation in again tipping off police in that country.
DEPORTED French terror suspect Willie Brigitte was a significant threat to Australia and was almost certainly establishing a cell in Sydney to commit terrorist acts.
AVAILABLE evidence would lead any reasonable person to conclude former Melbourne taxi driver "Jihad" Jack Thomas was an al-Qaida recruit who was setting himself up in Australia as a sleeper agent for future use by al-Qaida.
BURGEONING threats from terrorist and organised crime groups meant it was time to consider radical reforms to Australia's judicial system, because the odds were currently in favour of the accused.
AUSTRALIAN authorities should consider establishing special terrorism courts to hear terrorism cases.
IT was time to consider allowing courts and jurors to draw adverse inferences against those on trial who choose to hide behind their right to silence rather than testify or answer police questions.
SOME judges were ruling too much evidence as inadmissible, which was contributing to guilty people going free.
HE believed jurors were often embarrassed to find out after returning not guilty verdicts that they never got to hear damning inadmissible evidence that would have changed their minds.
INTELLIGENCE suggested the AFP's three most wanted men - terrorists Noordin Top, Dulmatin and Umar Patek - were hiding near the border between the Philippines and Indonesia, and were plotting attacks by keeping in regular contact with extremists in Indonesia and Malaysia.
TOP, Dulmatin and Patek were involved in many of the recent terrorist attacks in South-East Asia, including the 2002 Bali bombing which killed 202 people, including 88 Australians.
INFORMATION provided to the National Security Hotline has greatly helped AFP and ASIO agents identify suspects and make arrests.
IT was vital that Australians continued to use the hotline to report suspicious activity because it was almost impossible for agencies alone to stop a suicide bomber.
THE AFP is working closely with Australian kidnap victim Douglas Wood and Iraqi police to prepare a brief of evidence against his kidnappers, and is confident those responsible will be convicted.
WEST African crime gangs were focusing on Australia to commit fraud and to smuggle drugs.
THE mistaken belief by young Australians that it was relatively safe to take ecstasy and amphetamine-based tablets was by far the biggest drug problem facing the community and police.
Mr Keelty said he expected countering terrorism and international organised crime gangs would continue to dominate the AFP's activities during his second five-year term as commissioner.
"It is increasingly critical that police travel the world to gather evidence that may assist in prosecuting those engaged in terrorism and other forms of crime," he said.
"But we encounter a number of constraints imposed by laws relating to evidence that does come from overseas.
"I believe Australia's criminal justice system needs to allow courts to exercise even greater discretion to admit evidence acquired in circumstances which may not strictly conform to domestic requirements."
Posted by: Dan Darling ||
04/08/2006 02:19 ||
Comments ||
Link ||
[1 views]
Top|| File under:
THE administration of US President George W. Bush is planning a massive bombing campaign against Iran, including use of bunker-buster nuclear bombs to destroy a key Iranian suspected nuclear weapons facility, The New Yorker magazine reported in its April 17 issue.
The article by investigative journalist Seymour Hersh said that Mr Bush and others in the White House have come to view Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad as a potential Adolf Hitler. "That's the name they're using," the report quoted a former senior intelligence official as saying.
A senior unnamed Pentagon adviser is quoted in the article as saying that "this White House believes that the only way to solve the problem is to change the power structure in Iran, and that means war." The former intelligence officials depicts planning as "enormous," "hectic" and "operational," Mr Hersh writes.
One former defence official said the military planning was premised on a belief that "a sustained bombing campaign in Iran will humiliate the religious leadership and lead the public to rise up and overthrow the government," The New Yorker pointed out.
In recent weeks, the President has quietly initiated a series of talks on plans for Iran with a few key senators and members of the House of Representatives, including at least one Democrat, the report said. One of the options under consideration involves the possible use of a bunker-buster tactical nuclear weapon, such as the B61-11, to insure the destruction of Iran's main centrifuge plant at Natanz, Mr Hersh writes.
But the former senior intelligence official said the attention given to the nuclear option has created serious misgivings inside the military, and some officers have talked about resigning after an attempt to remove the nuclear option from the evolving war plans in Iran failed, according to the report. "There are very strong sentiments within the military against brandishing nuclear weapons against other countries," the magazine quotes the Pentagon adviser as saying.
The adviser warned that bombing Iran could provoke "a chain reaction" of attacks on American facilities and citizens throughout the world and might also reignite Hezbollah. "If we go, the southern half of Iraq will light up like a candle," the adviser is quoted as telling The New Yorker.
#6
ROFL. Not a single quote. Not one!! LOL!! We used to call these preacher's stories. Fantasies preacher's make up and present as real, to illustrate their sermon.
the report quoted a former senior intelligence official.
A senior unnamed Pentagon adviser
The former intelligence officials
One former defence official said
the report said.[from the New Yorker, from an unnamed source]
One .. options ..involves a nuclear weapon, Mr Hersh writes.
the former senior intelligence official said the .. nuclear option has created serious misgivings inside the military, and some officers have talked about resigning [but none did, did they Seymour?] according to the report.
strong sentiments within the military against .. nuclear weapons .." the magazine quotes .the Pentagon adviser as saying The a[unnamed] adviser warned
"If we go, the southern half of Iraq will light up like a candle," the adviser is quoted as telling The New Yorker.
"Damn, where do I sign up to get paid to write trash like this," said an unnamed blogger, known as 2b.
#9
But the former senior intelligence official said the attention given to the nuclear option has created serious misgivings inside the military, and some officers have talked about resigning after an attempt to remove the nuclear option from the evolving war plans in Iran failed, according to the report.
Probability that this is a load of bullshi*, between 99 and 100%. Thank you for the load Seymour, but I think your spreader has a couple of flat tires.
#10
This is illogical for one primary reason: the US doctrine on the use of tactical nukes is to *save* US lives. And not just a large number of lives, but a very large number of lives.
When push comes to shove, it really does boil down to this: is it worth the lives of a Division of soldiers to *not* use a nuclear weapon?
For example, all agreed that it would *not* be better to nuke Baghdad instead of to attack Iraq conventionally. That decision cost more than 2,000 US lives. And yet nobody in retrospect still thinks it would have been better with nukes.
So what is the alternative in Iran? Strategically, they have only one weapon: missiles. If we can counter their missiles, then the rest of their country can be pounded at our leisure. If one conventional bunker-buster won't do, then what about a dozen in the same hole?
The key to the whole thing is both that we destroy their immediate nuclear weapons capability, and we take away their ability to re-constitute it in the future.
This can only be done in one way: to annihilate their military and revolutionary guard, and to partition Iran, to deny them the resources to rebuild their program. Their military and RG must go, as they are what holds their country together by force in the first place.
This is a far easier proposition than going after their bunkers first. A 3-plane chalk of B-52s dropping a total of 153 - 500lb iron bombs will reduce about 1/2 square mile. Infantry on the ground will cease to exist.
But by partitioning Iran, in essence reducing it to Persia only, takes away what Persia would need to re-create its nuclear program. Especially the oil money in the Arab southwest.
So it is a three step plan: missile defense, extended conventional attack, and partition.
#14
ROFLMAO!!!Seymour has been had with a planted story designed to get the turbans tied a little tighter. Seymour's the best weapon in our psyops arsenal. Waytago Seymour!
#15
My advice would be to use the bunker-busting nuke warheads; but detonate them at night during a raining session to washback the fallout!! FAS has indicated that the resultant explosion if not reached to a depth of 400 feet would result in a crater blowout rather than an encapsulated crystalized dome, they assumed the US prefers!!
#16
"Seymour is an idiot, man never been right in his life."
I disagree. Hersh is no idiot. If anything, he has proven to be very skilled at manipulating reality to bolster his speculations. Rightly or wrongly, his reports carry more weight because of his perceived credentials. Also, other journalists that report on these issues would sever their own appendages to have access to half of his sources. However, I believe he has tarnished what credibility he had with his frequent denunciations of what he refers to as a neo-con agenda. Which in turn suggests that some of his reportage must be viewed as agenda driven prose.
#20
I saw the headline and was interested in the story, then saw Hersh's name and my interest just vanished.
Hersh is the King of unnamed (non-existant?) sources.
Posted by: Laurence of the Rats ||
04/08/2006 12:19 Comments ||
Top||
#21
The article by investigative journalist Seymour Hersh said that Mr Bush and others in the White House have come to view Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad as a potential Adolf Hitler.
Hersh or no, this would represent a desireable evolution in executive thinking. The more Islamists are equated with Nazis, inside and out of the war room, the sooner America will purchase a clue.
As to America making first use of nuclear weapons, it is clearly against our doctrine of "response in kind." As always, first use by the USA would also be an open invitation for any and all terrorist organizations to mount a nuclear attack against America. I do believe this is why they're testing a 700 ton fertilizer bomb in Nevada. Who needs nukes when similar effects can be obtained without any fallout? Yes, nuclear weapons would have greater concussive effects, which are quite good at cracking rock and, yes, drilling them in before detonation would be even more effective.
Still, however much I continue to question the overall intelligence or prudence of Bush, I am extremely confident that he understands the ramifications of first use by America and knows well enough that such a thing is verbotten.
#22
I think the stated desire to push Israel into the sea is what brings mention of nukes into the 'rumor'. After all, we could bomb Iran over a period of time without loses. Iran mush attack the oil shipping and oil fields or Israel to stay in the game. So, not to defend against our loses, rather to defend against mass loses by allies, we discuss the nuke option.
Faster please.
#24
Also, other journalists that report on these issues would sever their own appendages to have access to half of his sources.
Looking at what he wrote here, that really shouldn't be too hard for them. Everyone knows a former senior intelligence official, a senior unnamed Pentagon adviser, former intelligence officials and former defence officials, and some military officers. I could get you a quote from all of those sources myself, and I'm a nobody. Wouldn't mean jack, but the titles would be accurate.
#28
The administration probably leaked the "nuclear option" so they will seem more reasonable when they bomb the hell out of Iran's weapons facilities with conventional weapons.
Besides, I don't think we've actually built/tested the bunker buster nukes yet have we? Didn't they cancel that.
#29
The only Seymour worth anything is Seymore Butts!
Au contraire, I would nominate Seymour Cray for that position. Without that True American Genius the following would not be possible.
Besides, I don't think we've actually built/tested the bunker buster nukes yet have we?
My own personal Frink-O-Matic Probability Meter says "yes" to all of the above. Especially since we now have sufficiently high resolution supercomputers, like the Cray series, that can accurately simulate such an event. Given the fact that you could, literally, hide a B-52 underneath the "black projects" paperwork that crosses DARPA's desk each year, I'd also wager they've been built and tested in real life. Just because the program was canceled doesn't mean that all the related R&D died with it. I'd look up "Rapid Mountain Canal Deployment Technology - Compact Land Moving Devices - see Nuclear" for starters.
#30
"Besides, I don't think we've actually built/tested the bunker buster nukes yet have we? Didn't they cancel that."
I think what was cancelled (if it really was cancelled) was a deep-penetrator replacement for the B61-11 earth penetrator nuke (some info here) which entered service in 2001 as a replacement for the older B-53 bomb (a 9-megaton surface-burst device which destroyed buried structures by the sheer brute force of its enormous yield).
So we do have bunker-busters.
Posted by: Dave D. ||
04/08/2006 19:41 Comments ||
Top||
Iran has killed the leader and 11 members of a Sunni militant group responsible for murdering 26 people in southeastern Iran, press reports said.
"Abdolmalek Rigi, leader of the terrorist group, the Jundullah (Soldiers of God) ... was killed in an operation on the border with Afghanistan," Iran's hardline Kayhan daily said, quoting an unidentified source in the interior ministry.
The group had reportedly carried out an ambush in the southeastern province of Sistan-Baluchistan in March that left 26 people dead and another 12 missing, according to Kayhan.
In January, the group claimed the execution of one of nine Iranian soldiers it kidnapped along the Pakistani border a month earlier. The government said later that the other soldiers had been freed, according to AFP.
The report said the rebels had intended to ask for ransoms and the release of their men detained by the Islamic Republic.
The mostly Sunni Muslim province of Sistan-Baluchistan, in predominantly Shiite Iran, is notoriously lawless. It is a key transit route for opium and other drugs from Afghanistan and Pakistan headed for Europe and the Persian Gulf.
Posted by: Dan Darling ||
04/08/2006 02:29 ||
Comments ||
Link ||
[2 views]
Top|| File under:
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.
AIRFIELD, Afghanistan Afghan and Coalition offensives continued to maintain pressure on Taliban extremists this morning, striking a second blow to enemy leaders in southern Afghanistan.
Coalition forces killed a senior Taliban commander during an offensive in southern Afghanistan, the US military said. The commander 'was directly tied to dozens of improvised explosive device attacks that killed and crippled multiple Afghans since 2001, when the Taliban regime was ousted,' the statement said, adding that he was also responsible for the deaths of Afghan National Army soldiers and coalition soldiers. The shooting happened Friday in the Musa Qaleh district in southern province of Helmand. The US military did not provide the commander's name.
The defense ministry Friday confirmed injury of six German soldiers in two attacks in northern Afghanistan. A ministry statement said one of the attacks took place when a German military patrol was attacked. Three Afghan civilians were killed in the attack. The second assault happened when unknown gunmen hurled hand grenades at a military position injuring three soldiers. Around 2,500 German forces are stationed in Afghanistan working within the International Stabilization Assistant Force (ISAF).
A suicide bomber set off his explosives-laden car outside a US military base in Afghanistan on Friday, wounding three Americans in the second attack on a US base in 24 hours. 
Authorities in Algeria have dismantled a network that helped Islamic militants enter Spain using fake passports and visas, Algerian French-language daily Liberte reported on Friday. The group of about 20 people is suspected of providing support for the leading Islamic insurgents' group in Algeria, the Salafite Group for Preaching and Combat (GSPC), and militants of the Armed Islamic Group (GIA), Said Rokbi, prosecutor in the Algerian suburb of Rouiba, told the AP news agency. These two groups have come under scrutiny in Europe for alleged involvement in attempted terror attacks.
Gunmen attacked a convoy of customs agents traveling through the desert in southern Algeria on Friday, killing 13 and wounding eight others, the official APS news agency reported. One other person was reported to have disappeared in the attack in the Ghardaia region, 745 miles south of the capital of this North African nation, APS reported, citing local security sources. The attackers opened fire with machine-guns on vehicles transporting the customs agents to a seminar, then set the vehicles afire, according to a report on daily Liberte's Web site. The gunmen, whose numbers were not immediately known, then fled in two four-wheel drive vehicles.
Apr 7: Members of Rapid Action Battalion (RAB) arrested three persons for their involvement in Voice Over Internet Protocol (VOIP) from Agrabad area in the city on April 5 night. The arrested were identified as Mohammed Sohel alias Suja, Sayed Mohoshin Ali, owner of Chittagong Telicom Limited and Mohammed Ali Wahab.
Some unknown militants, riding a bike, Friday hurled a hand-grenade inside the office of a US-based NGO, Save the Children (STC), in Southwestern Pakistani province of Baluchistan, said official sources. Sources told KUNA that there were no casualties but the explosion badly damaged the office, located in Chaghi district, about 335 kilometers west of Quetta, the provincial capital. They said explosion smashed window glasses, damaged walls and furniture of the office. Sources did not blame any group but pointed finger at nationalist militants.
ISLAMABAD: The Supreme Court on Friday rejected an appeal seeking the release of a Lebanese man accused of hijacking a Pan American aircraft after the court was told that Lebanon had acknowledged the nationality of the hijacker but had not sent his travel documents. In the last hearing the court had asked the federal government to submit a reply in a habeas corpus petition of Jamal Saeed Abdul Rahim alias Fahad Ali, who claimed to be a Palestinian. He was arrested by FIA on September 5, 1986 for his involvement in the hijacking of the American airliner. In his appeal, the hijacker had said that he was serving time even though he had completed his life sentence. 
QUETTA: Five military personnel were injured when their vehicles stopped to re-open the Quetta-Karachi Road near Wadh, which had been blockaded by locals to protest the siege of Baloch nationalist leaders' houses in Karachi. Police were not able to confirm who had open fired on the vehicles, however local journalist Khan Muhammad said that the five military personnel were injured when their vehicle caught fire. A police officer said the injured had been admitted to a military hospital in Khuzdar. Balochistan government spokesperson Raziq Bugti said that he was waiting to receive details of the incident.
SUKKUR: Three men were arrested in a raid on the residence of Nawab Akbar Bugti in Jacobabad early on Friday morning. A rocket launcher and two rockets were also recovered from the men. According to sources, a heavy contingent of the police and Rangers, led by Jacobabad District Police Officer Muneer Ahmed, raided the residence of Jamhoori Watan Party chief Nawab Akbar Bugti and arrested three men, Arbab Ali Lashari, Yasir Ali Wagho and Ashiq Mirani.
The Mujahadeen Council, a leading insurgency group linked to al-Qaeda in Iraq, has announced the killing of a Christian in Mosul "for offending the prophet Mohammed." In a statement posted to the Internet, the group, whose military arm is still headed by Jordanian militant Abu Musab al-Zarqawi, said that on Tuesday it "eliminated" a Christian in Mosul. "We eliminated him, because this impure crusader offended our noble prophet Mohammed. We killed him in the al-Tahir quarter of Mosul" it read.
An Iraqi soldier allegedly shot and killed a U.S. Marine at a base near the Syrian border, the U.S. said Friday. Another American Marine then wounded the Iraqi soldier. The shootings occurred Thursday near Qaim, 200 miles west of Baghdad, the U.S. statement said. "An Iraqi army soldier allegedly shot and killed the U.S. Marine on a coalition base" near Qaim, the statement said. "The Iraqi soldier was shot by another U.S. Marine." The incident is under investigation, the statement said. No further details were released, and Pentagon officials said they had no information.
The Iraqi security forces arrested 115 suspected terrorists over the past 24 hours, the Interior ministry said Thursday. It added in a statement the arrestees were captured in different parts of the country such as Karbala, Samarra, Mahmoudia, and Shaab. The Defense ministry, which took part in the arrest campaign, said it captured 70 people out of the 115. The arrestees possessed arms and some had forged documents. Some of those captured were wearing women's clothes to evade the security forces.
The Iraqi army commander in the northern city of Kirkuk was attacked on the Tikrit-Kirkuk road but escaped unscathed. A police source told KUNA the motorcade army commander in Kirkuk Air Vice Marshal Anwar Hama Amin cam under attack as he was inspecting army units stationed along that road. No casualties were reported in the attack. Only one vehicle was damaged.
An Iraqi civilian was kidnapped Friday by unknown gunmen in northern Kirkuk. Speaking to Kuwait News agency (KUNA), one of Kirkuk's police commanders said the kidnapped person was the son of an Arab tribal chief, adding that the abducted was taken to a village named Qaibah. The tribal chief, added the commander, was assassinated by unknown gunmen last year.
Eight Palestinians were injured in an Israeli artillery attack in northern Gaza Friday, according to Palestinian medical and security sources. They added that three Palestinian children were injured by a shrapnel.
GAZA CITY: At least six Palestinians were killed Friday night in an Israeli air strike on a training base of the militant Popular Resistance Committees (PRC) in the southern Gaza Strip, medical and security sources said.
