Both BjÞrn StÊrk and Emmanuel Goldstein â that isn't a combination you see every day! â have taken dispassionate looks at a couple of influential Lefties' indulgence in racism. Both are clean hits, drilled 'em right through the brisket. That ear over in the corner belongs to the Swede, I think, and the teeth belong to the BBC wiener...
Posted by: Fred Pruitt ||
05/16/2002 03:15 pm ||
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Eighteen army medical staff serving in Afghanistan have been struck down by a mysterious illness that has forced British troops to close down their field hospital at the Bagram airbase outside Kabul. Two soldiers, described as "very seriously ill", were evacuated for treatment. One has returned to Britain and the other is recovering at a US military hospital in Germany. The remainder, who are all suffering from diarrhoea, vomiting and fever, which are classic symptoms of typhoid fever, are being kept in quarantine until the illness can be identified and treated. The Armyâs 34 Field Hospital has been closed to all but similar cases to stop the contagious disease spreading among the thousands of British and allied troops stationed at the former Soviet airbase. Virtually eradicated in the West, typhoid is still found in less developed countries where they have more important things to do than worry about disease control.
Posted by: Fred Pruitt ||
05/16/2002 10:31 am ||
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A provincial governor and a warlord from a part of eastern Afghanistan where Osama bin Laden and Taliban leader Mullah Mohammad Omar were once believed to be hiding said on Thursday they thought the pair may still be alive. Well, we're pretty sure Mullah Omar is, unless he fell off his motorcycle. If Binny's still alive, he's probably on his last legs.
Governor Taj Mohammad Wardak of Paktia province, scene of fierce U.S.-led fighting in March and bordering the mountainous Tora Bora area which was heavily bombed by U.S. planes, said he believed the al Qaeda leader and reclusive Taliban chief were in Pakistan. Wardak said as the noose tightened on the Taliban late last year, Mullah Omar fled to tribal areas of Pakistan's Baluchistan province while bin Laden made his way to eastern Afghanistan before escaping into Pakistan's Waziristan tribal area. "As I know it, bin Laden is in Waziristan and Mullah Omar is probably in the Quetta area," Wardak told Reuters in an interview in Paktia's capital Gardez. We guessed that...
Pakistan's government says it is confident the pair are not hiding in its territory, saying it has not only sealed its borders but also engaged local tribal leaders to help ensure the two find no sanctuary in Pakistan. Oh, of course. Sure. Uhuh.
Warlord Padshah Khan Zadran, who is involved in a bloody feud with Wardak over who controls Paktia Province, said he did not know exactly where bin Laden, chief suspect for September 11's suicide plane attacks on the United States, and Mullah Omar were. "But according to my knowledge they may be alive," he told Reuters in a separate interview at his isolated headquarters near Gardez. He also believed the pair were probably in Pakistani tribal areas but was not as specific as Wardak.
Posted by: Fred Pruitt ||
05/16/2002 11:24 am ||
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A man convicted of raping and killing a 19-year-old college student in 1991 was executed by injection Friday night. Leslie Martin, 35, made no final statement but, after the drugs were injected, could be seen mouthing the words "You're fired," to his defense attorney who watched the execution. "And I don't want to see you at the funeral, either, dammit!"
Posted by: Fred Pruitt ||
05/16/2002 03:44 pm ||
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#1
Jeeze talk about black humor! Mary Lu
Posted by: Mary Wehmeier ||
05/16/2002 18:46 Comments ||
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Two American FBI agents were cross-examined Thursday by Pakistani lawyers representing four men on trial for the murder of US reporter Daniel Pearl. Chief prosecutor Raja Qureshi said the cross-examinations were lengthy, but would not go into detail. Reporters are barred from the trial. Defence lawyers Abdul Wahid Katpar and Rai Bashir said they had exposed flaws in evidence given by the FBI agents, who have been identified as John Falgan and Ronald Joseph. Falgan had testified about a video showing Pearl's execution by Islamic extremists, while Joseph had given a technical analysis of emails showing images of Pearl in captivity. "And what was Mr Pearl doing when you killed him, Agent Starchedshirt?"
"I didn't kill him. Your client did."
"Objection, yer honor! Hearsay evidence!"
"I heard it from your client when he confessed!"
"But did you witness the killing?"
"Of course not!"
"Yer honor, I move the witness be disqualified because he wasn't a witness."
Posted by: Fred Pruitt ||
05/16/2002 10:31 am ||
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Pakistan has sent more than 1,000 troops near Afghanistan's borders as it steps up its search for suspected al-Qaeda and Taleban militants. The move comes shortly after US press reports said that Washington was not pleased with Pakistan's efforts in the region. That'll make the fundos squeal like piggies, but it might stop the U.S. from just tromping through without asking. They're rotating the 82nd Airborne into Afghanland to replace the 101st, and they're gonna want something to do...
This is the first time in more than 50 years that such a large number of Pakistani troops have gone into a semi-autonomous tribal region, where the writ of the federal authorities has not been accepted since the British colonial days. "Welcome to the 18th Century! Wanna see my scimitar?"
Some US personnel are working with Pakistani troops there, but they say it is frustrating not to be able to send a larger conventional force into the area. Depending on what happens in the immediate future, it might not be good to frustrate us...
Posted by: Fred Pruitt ||
05/16/2002 11:05 am ||
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United Jihad Council, a militant alliance in Kashmir vowed on Thursday to continue its armed struggle against Indian troops as New Delhi contemplated its response to a bloody attack in the state. The statement by the United Jihad Council — a conglomerate of over a dozen militant groups — came as Indian ministers and Army commanders met to devise a response to Tuesday's attack by militants on a bus and an Army camp in Jammu, which killed 35 people. With the Indos on the verge of declaring war, their response is to call for more of the same. What does that say their objective is? It looks like it has more to do with Islamabad than Srinagar.
The council warned those who it said were trying to derail the "ongoing freedom struggle by paving way for the upcoming state polls for their personal gains. These people can't escape from their horrible ends." That means they're going to kill them. Slowly, if they can.
Elections are due in Kashmir later this year. Leaders of the dominant rebel group Hizbul Mujahedin have already said they will boycott the polls, which separatists say will be rigged by India. All they're asking is the right to rig it themselves.
The council is headed by Syed Salahudin, who is also supreme commander of Hizbul Mujahedin. Unless he's been fired.
Posted by: Fred Pruitt ||
05/16/2002 11:38 am ||
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Three new suspects in the slaying of Daniel Pearl directed police Thursday to a body they claimed was that of the murdered Wall Street Journal reporter. Police unearthed the body which had been buried in an open field in a poor neighborhood on the Western edge of Karachi. The body was kept at the site while tests were conducted to determine the identity, said a senior police official, who spoke on condition of anonymity. No details were immediately available about the three new suspects, who were arrested Thursday. Four Islamic radicals have been on trial since April 22 on charges of murdering and kidnapping Pearl. They have pleaded innocent. Seven other men suspected of holding Pearl hostage and being involved in the killing were being sought, but police didn't say if the three new suspects were among them. No idea yet whether this is good information or another goof. There have been several so far.
Posted by: Fred Pruitt ||
05/16/2002 06:12 pm ||
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Somalia's transitional government (TNG) accused Ethiopian troops of murdering a loyalist Somali militia commander they had allegedly taken prisoner on Somali soil. Colonel Abdurisak Issak Bihi, commander of a wing of the Somali National Front (SNF) that supports the TNG, "was captured by Ethiopian troops and was murdered in the outskirts of Bulohawo late on Wednesday," TNG Information Minister Abdurahman Ibrahim "Ibi" told AFP. "Sorry. My bad. Thought he was just another thug..."
The incident took place after clashes between rival wings of the SNF, one of which supports an Ethiopian-backed coalition of warlords opposed to the TNG, in the southern Gedo region. "The TNG learnt the sad event from people who were at the scene where Bihi was murdered while defending his country from outside aggression," the minister said. He said Ethiopian troops also machine-gunned to death a prominent elder, Hassan Nur Moalin, alongside Bihi hours after capturing both men. An official of a warlords' coalition, the Somali Restoration and Reconciliation Council, said Bihi had been captured but did not comment on the claim that he had been killed. Damn those Jews Ethiopians! Anyway, don't know what the problem is. It's not like they don't have lots more warlords back in Somalia.
The clashes, which began on April 11, prompting 10,000 civilians to flee across the nearby Kenyan border, claimed seven lives. Ibi said "shameless" Ethiopian troops "supported by tanks and heavy artillery ... killed innocent people, tortured civilians and destroyed property by burning on Wednesday." In Nairobi, Ethiopian diplomats vehemently denied that Ethiopian troops were involved in the fighting. "Asfaw! Was that you?"
"Nope. Wudn't me."
Ethiopia has repeatedly denied charges of wanting to topple the TNG, which controls only parts of Mogadishu and little else, or of seeking to destabilise Somalia. In January, the foreign ministry in Addis Ababa rejected claims, by the UN among others, that it had deployed troops in Somalia. Officials in Addis Ababa held an urgent meeting to discuss why Somalia thinks it's important enough for Ethiopia to waste military resources on it. The meeting ended without reaching any decisions.
Well, maybe he's not that dead...
"He is not killed but the man is a prisoner of our faction and he would face charges related to his misdeeds," Colonel Mohamed Ahmed Ali, the Nairobi spokesman of opposition wing of the Somali National Front (SNF) said Thursday of Colonel Abdurizak Issak Bihi. Earlier Thursday, the transitional national government (TNG) in Mogadishu claimed that Bihi, who leads a rival, pro-TNG wing of the SNF, had been captured and killed in the southern Gedo region by Ethiopian troops fighting alongside the opposition group. "I talked to his guards Thursday afternoon, he is a prisoner," Ali told AFP. Ali also denied charges that he is an Ethiopian.
Posted by: Fred Pruitt ||
05/16/2002 11:08 am ||
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The multifarious Palestinian security services, whose members are accused by Israel of involvement in attacks, will be the first objects of the reforms promised by Palestinian leader Yasser Arafat, officials say. This should be good. Might even be hee-hee-larious...
Arafat said in a speech to the Palestinian parliament Wednesday, "I will present a new formula for the administration of the Palestinian Authority (PA) and its ministries and security apparatus in order to rebuild it on a firmer basis." Does that mean there's gonna be a distinction between cops and robbers?
A Palestinian official, who preferred not to be identified, out of fear for his life and limb
told AFP that while there had been no strong indication of Arafat's intent to make real changes to other institutions, "preparations and contacts are under way to restructure the security services." Yasser's not real interested in things that don't involve guns and explosives.
The official said Tuesday's visit to Arafat's headquarters in Ramallah of the head of Egyptian intelligence, General Omar Suleiman, "reflects the coordination between Egypt, the United States and the Palestinian Authority to prepare the reform of these services". No details have been released of Suleiman's talks, but the head of the Palestinian preventive security in the Gaza Strip, Colonel Mohammad Dahlan, a close aide of Arafat, accompanied him back to Egypt to continue their discussions. That also gets Dahlan out of range of explosives for awhile...
Dahlan suggested last week that the number of security services be reduced to one or two by a series of mergers. There are currently some 10 different security bodies, with a total of 40,000 members. They include the preventive security, Arafat's personal guard known as Force 17, intelligence agencies and the national security, or police. Didn't Parkinson's Law say something about when the number of agencies increases, the accountability of any single agency decreases?
Palestinian sources said the United States, the European Union and Israel all wanted one strong Palestinian security force, essential to control the situation on the ground and ensure the relaunching of the peace process. Aides to US President George W. Bush say the current labyrinthine security structure lacks transparency and accountability because of its multiple centres of authority. Now, we're not sayin' it was designed that way for that purpose, but...
Since the beginning of the Palestinian uprising at the end of September 2000, Israel has frequently accused members and officers of the various forces of involvement in anti-Israeli attacks by various radical groups. Force 17 and other units were singled out in Israeli reprisals for such attacks, with bombing raids on their various bases, and last month's massive operation in the West Bank virtually destroyed their infrastructure and left many policemen dead. "Surely it was by accident," an IDF spokesman said, piously.
"The debate currently under way concerns several proposals, including whether to have a single authority for security or two," the Palestinian official said. Anydbody want to be they'll go for the higher number that's available?
A member of the Palestinian parliament, Hatem Abdel Kader, confirmed to AFP that the Palestinians were working with the Americans and Egyptians on this matter, but added, "We will resist any change which would not be against the interests and security of the Palestinian people." Into which category he manages to lump all change...
Posted by: Fred Pruitt ||
05/16/2002 10:30 am ||
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Armoured vehicles moved into Ramallah for the first time since lifting the month-long siege on Arafat's offices there on May 2, entering a civilian building and killing Mohammed Ghanam, a policeman on Israel's wanted list. Three members of Arafat's elite Force 17 guards were also arrested. Witnesses reported an explosion inside the building as the Israelis withdrew. "Dammit, Bernstein! I told you not to smoke in their kitchen!"
Later Israeli special forces snatched Jordanian passport holder Ahmed Dhibi, 27, from his supermarket workplace in Ramallah. "Gimme a pound of veal and some of those plums. And is your RDX fresh today?"
In the central Gaza Strip an unarmed Palestinian civilian was killed near the Jewish settlement of Kfar Darom. An Israeli army spokesman said soldiers opened fire after a mortar round fired by Palestinians struck near the settlement without causing damage. Does "unarmed" mean he'd expended all his ammunition?
In the southern Gaza Strip a Palestinian man was wounded by machine-gun fire from an Israeli helicopter in Khan Yunis. Israeli forces also staged a dawn raid on a village near Nablus, imposing a curfew and rounding up at least 20 residents. The army said it had arrested a Palestinian who had planted a bomb near a checkpoint north of Jerusalem. "The bomb was found and defused," a statement said. "Okay, Achmed, is that your bomb?"
"No! Not my bomb! Mine's green!"
Posted by: Fred Pruitt ||
05/16/2002 10:31 am ||
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Palestinian legislators are working today on a proposal for sweeping reforms in the Palestinian Authority - in response to Chairman Yasser Arafat's statement Wednesday that he was open to changes, including preparations for elections. Under a plan proposed by legislators from Arafat's Fatah movement, municipal and parliamentary elections would be held in the fall. A prime minister would be placed in charge of day-to-day government operations, and several rival branches of the security forces would be merged into one service. What is this? Real actions?
US President George W. Bush views Arafat's promise as positive but wants "to see action more than words," said White House spokesman Ari Fleischer. Arafat promised in the past to change his autocratic leadership style and share some of the power, but never kept his word. His Palestinian critics said were skeptical about his new promises, noting that they had no means to force reforms. Autocrats tend to give up power about the same time the embalmers arrive...
In Ramallah, legislators met for a second day today to put together a reform proposal to be submitted to Arafat. Hatem Abdel Khader, a Fatah legislator, said he and his colleagues would not settle for cosmetic changes this time. "President Arafat will stay the president and the symbol of our authority, but he has to distribute some of his responsibilities," Abdel Khader said. Yow. The crowbar corps' gonna be looking for him!
Others said they were skeptical Arafat would carry out any reforms, noting that the Palestinian leader has resisted change. "Yasser Arafat loves only Yasser Arafat, and his looking for personal benefits," said legislator Hassan Khreisheh. And his car's toast. And him with it. And maybe his kids, too...
Posted by: Fred Pruitt ||
05/16/2002 03:15 pm ||
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The IDF and the Shin Bet security services have arrested or killed almost all of the Hamas terror cell from Tul Karm that was responsible for the Seder night suicide bombing at the Park Hotel in Netanya on March 28, in which 29 people were killed and 150 were injured. This is a good, one might almost say a spectacular sweep. It tells other cells the same thing could happen to them...
Investigations into the Netanya bombing revealed that the same cell was also behind a suicide bombing in Netanya's market on March 4 2001 in which 3 people were killed and 55 injured, and third attack in Netanya on March 18 2001, in which five people were killed and 74 injured. So it wasn't their first hit. They really liked hitting Netanya...
The cell's leader Abbas Said was arrested together with several other members of the cell during a four-day incursion into Tulkarm in early May. Said went into hiding following the assassination of a senior member of the cell, Fuaz Badran, in July last year and of Amar Hadari, a bomb maker, the following month. Knew he was on the list, did he?
After the assassination of Badran and Hadari, the Shin Bet arrested several of the people connected with the cell in Tulkarm and obtained intelligence that two suicide bombers from the cell, Abed Ouda and Nidal Kalk were to carry out further attacks. Their names were handed over to the Palestinian Authority, but the PA did nothing to stop them from going ahead with their plans. Ouda carried out the Park Hotel attack and Kalk was arrested during Operation Defensive Shield. Made a list, checked it twice, went to work on it. The key is to never take anyone off the list until they're dead...
In January this year the Shin Bet received information that Hamas operatives in Nablus had succeeded in transferring a bomb to the Tul Karm cell. During March the Shin Bet managed to put together a partial picture of the planned attack, but details were insufficient. On the day of the bombing they received information of the planned time of the bombing but not the location and police failed to apprehend the bomber. That's frustrating as hell, knowing it's going to happen and even knowing when, but not knowing where.
Ouda was driven to Netanya in a car with Israeli license plates by Fathi Hatziv, a Hamas activist from Kafr Kafin, who was arrested at the beginning of Operation Defensive Shield. Ouda was dressed as a woman and carried an Israeli identity card. Bet he felt really heroic, wearing ladies' underwear...
Said revealed during his interrogation that the Park Hotel bombing was planned over a long period of time but that he had frozen plans for the bombing for several months. However when he saw that Fatah was carrying out attacks inside Israel and that Yasser Arafat had not given orders not to carry out attacks he decided to act. Said told the Shin Bet that he received $10-13,000 a month to finance his operations from Hamasâs Damascus headquarters and that he believes the money came from the United States or Europe. This is all just so inspiring. We knew all along, except for those among us who impose their own blinders, that Yasser was colluding and encouraging the bombings. The money flow from Damascus isn't a surprise, either. Islamic Jihad is controlled from there — and is actually based there, and it's the entry point for the money pipeline for Hamas. Nor is the money originating in the U.S. and Europe a surprise.
Posted by: Fred Pruitt ||
05/16/2002 08:47 pm ||
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Four people were killed and 14 injured when a bomb exploded at a marketplace in the northeast Algerian town of Tamzalt. Medical sources quoted by the official APS news agency earlier put the death toll at five, with 30 injured. The bomb went off on the weekly market day in the small town in the Bejaia region, about 260 kilometres from Algiers. Three of those killed, a boy aged 10 and two men aged 20 and 60, have been identified. The identity of a fourth person, whose body was torn apart in the explosion, was not yet known. Such attacks are generally blamed on Muslim fundamentalists fighting the secular regime. The attack is the first to deliberately target civilians in a public place in the mainly ethnic Berber Kabylie region since Algeria's civil war began in 1992. I wonder if that's because the Berbers â who were there before the Arabic speakers â have been dumping Islam in favor of Christianity, which was also there before the Salafists?
Posted by: Fred Pruitt ||
05/16/2002 10:41 am ||
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Eight people were killed when unidentified gunmen burst into a restaurant in the western port city of Buenaventura and began shooting indiscriminately. Provincial police colonel Javier Dario Pareja, who was unable to say whether the assailants belonged to any rebel or paramilitary group, said the gunmen fled after firing a volley of shots from a car and a motorcycle. The individuals "fired indiscriminately at people who were in the restaurant killing eight people," Pareja told reporters. An army spokesman told AFP that between four and six men were involved in the shooting, in the attack which occurred around noon Wednesday. More pointless violence. It doesn't even matter who gets shot, as long as somebody does. It's tiresome, except to the people getting shot up and their survivors...
Posted by: Fred Pruitt ||
05/16/2002 08:50 pm ||
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A multi-volume chronology and reference guide set detailing three years of the Mexican Drug War between 2010 and 2012.
Rantburg.com and borderlandbeat.com correspondent and author Chris Covert presents his first non-fiction work detailing
the drug and gang related violence in Mexico.
Chris gives us Mexican press dispatches of drug and gang war violence
over three years, presented in a multi volume set intended to chronicle the death, violence and mayhem which has
dominated Mexico for six years.
Rantburg was assembled from recycled algorithms in the United States of America. No
trees were destroyed in the production of this weblog. We did hurt some, though. Sorry.
