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Afghanistan
Afghan interior minister blocked from post
Soldiers carrying rocket-propelled grenade launchers and police in riot gear blocked off streets surrounding the Interior Ministry in downtown Kabul Thursday, preventing Afghanistan's freshly minted Interior Minister, Haji Taj Mohammed Wardak, from assuming his new post for several hours. Wardak, a member of Afghanistan's largest ethnic group, the Pashtuns, was appointed yesterday by newly inaugurated President Hamid Karzai. The soldiers who blocked Wardak's way to the Interior Ministry confirmed they had fought for the Northern Alliance and that they disagreed with Karzai's replacement of Younas Qanooni. The standoff ended only after Wardak made concessions to the former Northern Alliance commanders that had run the ministry under Qanooni. A deputy minister in the department told United Press International under condition of anonymity, "Wardak will be a figurehead, but the Tajiks and former Northern Alliance commanders will have almost total control of the ministry."
We expected that would be the case, but that was pretty clumsy. It made Karzai look weak, which he is, and Qanouni look bad, which he's not.
Posted by: Fred Pruitt || 06/21/2002 06:38 am || Comments || Link || [0 views] Top|| File under:


Axis of Evil
Al Qaeda find Iraqi escape
Al Qaeda terrorists fleeing Afghanistan are using Iraq as an escape route, and an unspecified number remain in Saddam Hussein's country while looking for new bases of operation. Administration officials, citing intelligence reports, said there is insufficient evidence to confirm that the Iraqi dictator has created a safe zone for al Qaeda remnants. Iran's hard-line Islamic regime has welcomed al Qaeda fighters to cross the border from Afghanistan and either remain in the country or move on. Some analysts believe the presence of al Qaeda fighters in Iraq is one more argument for President Bush to order an invasion. Mr. Bush has threatened Saddam with military action on the principal argument that his weapons of mass destruction will one day fall into the hands of terrorists.
Doesn't sound like the brightest thing for Sammy to be doing at the moment, but he may know his number's coming up and want some "seasoned fighters" on hand to beef up his household troops. He's not noted for doing the brightest thing in a given situation.
Posted by: Fred Pruitt || 06/21/2002 07:56 am || Comments || Link || [1 views] Top|| File under:


Caucasus
Cops stop Argun bomb boys
The police of Argun, Chechnya, have prevented a major terrorist act. According to the Interior Ministry Department for Chechnya, acting on the information supplied by a detained bandit, the policemen found a large amount of explosives, in particular 400 g of hexogen, 1 kg of plastite, 2 kg of TNT and a personnel mine, in a ruined building in the city's centre. According to the information acquired by the police, the bandits had been accumulating the explosives for several days with a view to staging a major terrorist act against the local administration and Argun population.
Just another day in the on-going Armed Struggle®.
Posted by: Fred Pruitt || 06/21/2002 07:56 am || Comments || Link || [0 views] Top|| File under:


Five snuffies jugged, one iced
Federal forces blew away one gunny in Chechnya's Grozny district and detained five others. According to the Interior Department of the Chechen Republic, police and soldiers of the Grozny district military administration tried on Thursday to detain six members of a separatist gang. During the operation, one of the bandits resisted with fire and was waxed by the coppers, the other separatists surrendered. Two grenade-launchers, a Kalashnikov rifle, and ammunition were confiscated from the terrorists who turned out to be locals.
Meaning they weren't Arab mercenaries, as the coppers expected...
Posted by: Fred Pruitt || 06/21/2002 08:20 am || Comments || Link || [0 views] Top|| File under:


Russian cop assassinated in Grozny
Major Isa Timayev, deputy head of the district interior affairs department of Grozny, has been killed in Chechnya. After calling Timayev out of his house into the street, the criminals fired three shots from a pistol at him , reported the district police department on Friday. According to preliminary information from law-enforcement bodies, the murder was committed by several bandits, wearing fatigues and masks. After murdering Timayev they went to the house of Salavat Gabertayev, head of the administration of the town of Urus-Martan. However, stressed the police department, as soon as he noticed it, Gabertayev called for reinforcement from the military commandant's office, but the criminals managed to get away before the reinforcement arrived.
Important safety tip here: If masked men in camouflage carrying guns holler for you to come out of your house, don't do it.
Posted by: Fred Pruitt || 06/21/2002 06:48 am || Comments || Link || [0 views] Top|| File under:


India-Pakistan
Kashmir incursions 'nearly over'
India's defense minister says the infiltration by Pakistan-based militants across Kashmir's Line of Control "has almost ended," but said troops would not be withdrawn from the area yet. "The infiltration has almost ended and whatever is still taking place will stop too," George Fernandes told journalists at the inauguration of a Kashmir business summit on Thursday. "The troops will remain on the borders and we will wait, given the past experience," he said, referring to past pledges by Pakistan to rein in militants fighting New Delhi's rule in the disputed state of Kashmir.
If that's so, we should see the Korpse Kounts dropping... Guess it's gradual, huh?
Posted by: Fred Pruitt || 06/21/2002 07:56 am || Comments || Link || [0 views] Top|| File under:


Kashmir Korpse Kount
  • Two snuffies owing allegiance to Harkat-ul-Mujahideen were iced in an encounter with the troops/SOG at Bisran area (Gandoh) in Doda district yesterday. The police identified the dead guys as Shahnawaz and Shabir Ahmad. Recovery of 2 rifles, 4 magazines, a wireless set and 2 grenades was also claimed from the encounter site.
  • Gunmen whose identity could not be ascertained shot dead Ghulam Qadir Jahar and his wife Sara at Branwar Chadoora during the preceding night. Police have registered a case.
  • The BSF blew away a militant of Hizbul Mujahideen at Chatripora, Palpora (Pulwama) yesterday. The encounter left two soldiers critically wounded. A rifle, a pistol, a wireless set and 30 rounds of ammunition have been recovered from the site of the encounter.
  • The body of Fayaz Ahmad Mir was fished out of Jehlum near HMT today. Fayaz was abducted by Unidentified Gunmen™ a few days ago.
  • A gunny identified as Imtiaz Ahmad, aka Zeeshan, of Shangus departed this vale of tears in a brief but painful encounter at Renipora today. A house belonging to Muhammad Ismaiel Kuchay, two shops belonging to Abdul Rehman Kuchay and Muhammad Ayoub Kuchay and a cow shed belonging to Muhammad Sadiq Kuchay were destroyed in the incident.
    Took a lot to get that sucker, didn't it? The Kuchays really took it in the shortz.
  • Posted by: Fred Pruitt || 06/21/2002 08:16 am || Comments || Link || [0 views] Top|| File under:


    ˜Third Front' comes up in JK
    A conglomerate of several separatist leaders, including some from Hurriyat Conference, militant cadres, political and social outfits has taken shape in Jammu and Kashmir with an aim to solve the Kashmir problem through a series of steps including participation in the assembly elections.
    Those are the elections the gunnies were saying they'd kill people for voting in...
    The conglomerate has been named a 'third front'. Headed by moderate separatist leader of Sopore G.M. Naikoo, it has emerged after several meetings of moderate separatist leaders over the last four years and is scheduled to go public soon. The front wants prime minister Atal Bihari Vajpayee to announce a political package for Kashmir before taking up a multiple and step by step methodology to solve the J and K problem and in this direction, members of the front have already held meetings with some central government emissaries, and named former union law minister Ram Jethmalani as one of them, saying the meetings took place with him in Chandigarh, Jammu, Delhi and Srinagar recently.
    This is the time for a "peace front" to come forward. Just hope the gunnies are low enough on ammunition for something to come of it.
    Posted by: Fred Pruitt || 06/21/2002 03:20 pm || Comments || Link || [0 views] Top|| File under:


    Alert in Assam after infiltration reports
    An alert had been sounded in Assam, police put on maximum preparedness and vital installations protected, following reports that cadres of ISI-backed Pakistani militant outfits and al-Qaeda had sneaked into the state through Bangladesh, IGP (Special Branch) Khagen Sharma said on Friday.
    A "second front" attack on India, since Jammu and Kashmir are closing down for awhile?
    The alert was sounded following intelligence reports about efforts made by the ISI-propped outfits to infiltrate in a bid to divert the Centre's attention from Kashmir during the tense situation on the western borders, he said here. Intellegence reports also spoke about some al-Qaeda activists entering Assam early this month through Bangladesh where they had taken shelter since the US strikes on Afghanistan, he said, adding their exact number was not known. The al-Qaeda activists had mingled with the people, particularly in minority-dominated riverine areas, to resort to subversive activities in connivance with militant outfits operating in the state.
    About what we'd expect, even though we haven't heard much on the subject up until now...
    Sharma said that all precautionary measures against possible terrorist strikes were already in place. A massive manhunt has been launched to nab the infiltrators and security along the Indo-Bangladesh border has been stepped up.
    No telling at this point how serious this threat is...
    Posted by: Fred Pruitt || 06/21/2002 03:26 pm || Comments || Link || [0 views] Top|| File under:


    7 Arabs, 8 Afghans held for links with Al-Qaeda
    Law enforcement officials arrested seven Arab nationals and eight Afghans following raids. The Arabs and Afghans suspected to be members of the Al-Qaeda network were being questioned by the American FBI agency and local investigators. “We have arrested important members of a terrorist gang belonging to a banned sectarian group but cannot provide details at this stage as the investigations and search for their associates are continuing,” an official said. “We have recovered dozens of light machine guns, Kalashnikov assault rifles, grenades and explosives from their position.”
    The Paks do seem to get a little better when self-preservation's involved. Not much, but a little.
    “It was a big success. We are also investigating their possible involvement in recent terrorist attacks in Karachi or possible links with Al-Qaeda,” he said. A senior intelligence official confirmed that the number of FBI personnel has increased and around 100 of them arrived yesterday. He said that the FBI has ordered bullet proof cars and other equipment for probing terrorist activities in the city and even in other parts of the country, including Lahore and Islamabad.
    Tanks would probably be more to the point, but Caponemobiles are less conspicuous...
    The American ambassador-designate to Islamabad had said during her visit to Karachi on Tuesday that her country would extend all possible help to Pakistani authorities to apprehend Al-Qaeda members who seem to have spread all over the city. “They (Al-Qaeda) members have been active in Karachi and we have to carry out a combing operation” said a senior police official.
    Can we assassinate people? That's the only way to really control the nonsense.
    Two Arab nationals and their five accomplices were arrested Wednesday night from Kharadar, an old city area and the remaining two were taken prisoner from North Nazimabad. Their names and nationalities were being kept secret. The chief of Sindh police Kamal Shah claimed that the FBI was providing “technical assistance” while the main work was being done by the police and the local security agencies. Shah feared that more incidents of bomb blasts can occur in Karachi since the network has been fairly powerful.
    The FBI will be passing on any intel that Congressional committees haven't compromised, and helping with the roundup, just to make sure Mahmud the Weasel isn't on the flying squad. The Paks have to do all the hitting and hollering, or we'll end up with more Berkeley City Council resolutions.
    Posted by: Fred Pruitt || 06/21/2002 06:47 am || Comments || Link || [0 views] Top|| File under:


    International
    Soddies slur dead Briton
    Friends of Simon Veness, the British banker killed by a bomb placed in his Land Rover in Riyadh yesterday, blamed the attack on Islamic militants. But the Saudi authorities said it was the work of illegal expatriate alcohol traders. The attack was similar to seven earlier bombings that Saudi authorities blame on a feud among Westerners dealing in illegal alcohol. They have arrested five Britons, a Belgian and a Canadian. Two of the Westerners are reported to be facing the death penalty after making televised confessions to some of the attacks. These were retracted on the grounds that they had been obtained by torture. "We suspect that the explosion which killed Mr Veness has to do with alcohol smuggling because it is similar to a previous explosion that occurred in Riyadh," said a Saudi security official.

    But friends of Mr Veness were adamant that he was innocent of any wrongdoing. "He was an absolute gentleman," said one western friend. "It is inconceivable that he had any connection either to those under arrest or to alcohol smuggling. He had the highest moral standards." Another neighbour said: "Everybody knows that the alcohol claim is a smoke-screen. This was a terrorist attack against a western national."
    Yeah. You know those Westerners. They're excitable, always setting bombs and shooting at people. And when they're off their alk for awhile, they get worse.
    Posted by: Fred Pruitt || 06/21/2002 08:26 am || Comments || Link || [0 views] Top|| File under:


    Middle East
    Hamas, Jihad promise more mindless violence
    Hamas and Islamic Jihad vowed yesterday to hit back as Israelis launched more raids in Palestinian areas.
    What else is new? They vow the same thing almost every week.
    Rebuffing Yasser Arafat's appeal to cease violence against Israeli civilians, they said such attacks would continue as long as Israel kept killing Palestinian civilians.
    Does that mean Yasser's irrelevant? Y'mean they agree with the Israelis on something? COLIN! PLUG IN THE PEACE PROCESSOR!
    A pregnant Palestinian woman was killed in fighting between Israeli troops and Palestinian forces as clashes continued in Jenin, Qalqilya and Nablus. "Why should Israel be allowed to strike us in Nablus and Qalqilya while we are denied the right to strike them in Tel Aviv and Haifa?" said senior Hamas leader Abdel-Aziz Al Rantissi. "You cannot ask someone who is being slaughtered day and night to tie his hands and not to defend himself."
    Cheeze. Another point of agreement.
    Senior Jihad leader Nafez Azzam after the Palestinian president made his appeal following Jerusalem bombings: "We are in a process of legitimate self-defence. Israel is the one that kills innocent children and women. This war has been imposed on us by Israel."
    Yeah, yeah. That line was a snoozer some years back.
    Posted by: Fred Pruitt || 06/21/2002 07:57 am || Comments || Link || [0 views] Top|| File under:


    Oliver Stone Says Israel Has No Business in the West Bank
    llywood director Oliver Stone, who is currently preparing a movie about Palestinian President Yasser Arafat was quoted by the show business daily, Variety as saying that he understands why Palestinian bombers “feel the way they do.” His statement followed similar comments made by CNN chief Ted Turner, wife of British Prime Minister Cherie Blair and Britain’s Foreign Secretary Jack Straw.
    "Oh, really? Oh. We didn't realize... Guess we'll just pack up and leave, then."
    Posted by: Fred Pruitt || 06/21/2002 07:57 am || Comments || Link || [0 views] Top|| File under:


    Paleostinian snuffy kills mom, three kids
    Israeli tanks rolled into the West Bank town of Nablus hours after a Palestinian gunman invaded a Jewish settlement, killing five people, including a mother and her three children. Israeli authorities said the gunman went into the home of Rachel Shabbo and opened fire on the family, killing her and three of her sons, Neria, 16, Zvika, 12, and Avishai, 5. He then began firing wildly in all directions, killing Yosef Tuwito, a security officer at the settlement. An IDF paramilitary force stormed the house, killing one infiltrator. It was unclear who was behind the attack. Israel Radio reported that the Al Aqsa Martyrs Brigades claimed the attack, but earlier the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine took responsibility.
    Now, boys. Don't fight. There's enough atrocity for everyone, you cowardly rat bastards...
    Posted by: Fred Pruitt || 06/21/2002 07:57 am || Comments || Link || [0 views] Top|| File under:


    Yasser: 'Yes, thank you. We'd really like the Clinton plan.'
    Paleostinian Chairman-for-Life Yasser Arafat (1929-2002?) is prepared to accept a Mideast peace plan put forward by then-United States President Bill Clinton in December 2000. In an interview at his Ramallah headquarters, Arafat replied to Ha'aretz reporter Akiva Eldar that he would take the Clinton plan without changes. "I am prepared to accept it, absolutely," Eldar quoted Arafat as saying, and he endorsed the points of the plan one by one, Eldar said.
    And now wait for the punch line...
    Arafat, asked by reporters if he was now ready to accept the points of Clinton's plan, appeared puzzled, saying "Clinton? There is no plan for Clinton."
    Toldja his mind's going, if it's not gone already.
    "There were talks under the supervision of Clinton, and we reached very important and basic points in Taba (discussions that followed), and this is well known," he said before Friday prayers at his headquarters.
    "God, please don't let them shell my bedroom again!"
    Arafat aide Nabil Abu Rdeneh said the Palestinians "are dealing positively" with all past peace initiatives, including those by Clinton, but noted Israel's position changed after Israeli Prime Minister Ariel Sharon's election. The Palestinians want to pick up where those proposals left off.
    And see what else they can get. Perhaps they shoulda said so sometime last year...
    Arafat said Israel would receive sovereignty over the Jewish Quarter in the Old City of Jerusalem and the Western Wall, the last remaining remnant of the compound where the biblical Jewish Temples stood, Judaism's holiest site. Arafat said he would be prepared for modifications in the line between Israel and the West Bank and exchanges of territory with Israel, principles the Palestinians have balked at up to now. The official Palestinian demand has been that Israel must pull back to the 1949 cease-fire line, relinquishing all of the West Bank, Gaza Strip and east Jerusalem and dismantling all Jewish settlements there.
    105mm, HE, right through the wall, across the bedroom, out the opposite wall. Sounded like a very fast freight train...
    Arafat did not repeat the demand for the right of return of all the refugees and their families to Israel, Eldar said. Instead, he said, a solution must be found for the 200,000 Palestinian refugees in Lebanon, adding that he was calling on European and other world bodies to help. Israel has refused to take in large numbers of refugees. Lebanon says there are 350,000 refugees there.
    Those are all things that can be discussed. Normal people don't discuss things with dynamite.
    Posted by: Fred Pruitt || 06/21/2002 08:44 am || Comments || Link || [0 views] Top|| File under:


    Sharon: Stuff your Clinton plan
    "The Clinton plan is a nonstarter," said Raanan Gissin, spokesman for Israeli Prime Minister Ariel Sharon. "That's out of the question -- that plan is not on the agenda." Sharon insists that all violence must stop before peace talks resume, and then he would propose a long-term interim agreement, during which the Palestinians would maintain control over the areas they now have. The Palestinians have rejected the idea of another interim accord.
    "Fearless Leader? Is Sharon playing hard to get? Should we offer something to sweeten the deal?"
    "Rajoub, shoot him. He's lost him mind!"
    Posted by: Fred Pruitt || 06/21/2002 08:46 am || Comments || Link || [0 views] Top|| File under:


    Army issues limited call-ups to reservists
    The IDF began a limited call-up of reservists Thursday as it expanded its operations in the West Bank. So far, the call-up has been restricted to a few units comprising a few thousand reservists. Orders were due to be mailed out Thursday night. However, additional reserve units have been put on alert and their commanders have been warned they might be called up in the coming days. The IDF also canceled most officer training courses for the regular army and transferred several units to the territories, where they will participate in operations inside Palestinian cities. Defense sources said that if the terror attacks continue, there will be no choice but to call up additional reservists. Over the long term, they said, the current call-ups are far from sufficient for the planned tasks, which include entering several Palestinian towns and perhaps remaining there for extended periods.
    Having to go back in so soon after the last incursion, I'd expect them not to be as concerned about keeping enemy casualties down. That should be a good thing, though it'll make Mary Robinson and Ruud Lubbers pee themselves.
    Posted by: Fred Pruitt || 06/21/2002 08:48 am || Comments || Link || [0 views] Top|| File under:


    Four killed, 24 injured by IDF fire in Jenin
    Israeli forces fired on a market in the West Bank city of Jenin on Friday, killing four people and wounding at least 24 others after Palestinians mistakenly thought a curfew had been lifted. The dead were Ahmed Ghazawi, about 6, and his 12-year-old brother Jamil, as well as a 6-year-old girl, Sajedah Famahwi and Helal Shetta, 50, the deputy director of the city's department of education, a doctor at a hospital in the city said on condition of anonymity. Hospital sources said that six people were in serious condition. "People thought the curfew was no longer on. They got hungry and wanted bread, so they went to the market to buy some. The Israelis opened fire," Jenin's acting governor, Haider Irsheid, said. In response, the IDF said that the incident was being investigated and that an armored unit fired tank shells "not in order to harm, but to hold at bay." Security sources said that the troops did not notice that there were people in the area.
    Another incident the IDF will apologize for. Can't seem to recall ever hearing a Palestinian apology...
    Posted by: Fred Pruitt || 06/21/2002 03:28 pm || Comments || Link || [0 views] Top|| File under:


    Iran sent fighters, arms to Hezbollah
    Iran has sent fighters and arms to Lebanon's Hezbollah guerrillas, airlifting the forces through Damascus, Israeli public radio reported Wednesday. It said the information was passed on to parliament's foreign relations and defence committee in a meeting also attended by Israel's chief of staff General Shaul Mofaz. He stressed the danger posed to Israel by the reported growing strength of the Shiite Muslim fundamentalist Hezbollah, according to the radio.

    The report said Hezbollah was planning a major attack on Israel such as a strike on a border stronghold or an operation to kidnap soldiers, in a bid to provoke a major Israeli retaliation. If Hezbollah were to strike deep inside Israel with new weaponry, the Jewish state would hit back against Syrian territory, Mofaz has warned the United States. The United States said Monday it had sent diplomatic messages to Iran, Lebanon and Syria calling for the three countries to use their influence with Hezbollah to halt attacks against Israel.
    This sort of thing makes me want to swim against the mainstream of opinion and wish that Bush would hurry and push through the Paleostinian state, provisional or otherwise. That's what the Bad Guys are trying to avoid.

    We're looking at two separate currents in the Islamoworld: one is the aspiration for a Paleostinian state, the one that's being pushed for the marks, rubes, and other suckers in the street. They're eventually going to end up with it, because they've set up a culture — with the help of the rest of the Arab world — where they're not going to be Jordanians, Egyptians or Lebanese; that's their rock. They're also not going to kick the Israelis out and send them packing to Europe or southern California or someplace like that; that's their hard place. Instead, they're going to end up with their very own scrotty little dictatorship, their increasing poverty standing in stark contrast the the prosperity the Israelis are going to be able to grow next door. If they get what they want and give up "armed struggle" as a way of life, the only time we'll hear of them is when there's an African-style "food summit" that's designed to try and keep them from starving to death. This is the state the "useful idiots" like Edward Said are pushing.

    The other current doesn't want that Paleostinian state. They don't oppose it because it's a bad thing — the Islamic state they want to eventually impose is probably worse than the Ba'athist-style regime Yasser and his thugs will institute. But to them, for now and for the immediate future (translate that to read "as far as the eye can see"!) they want, nay, demand, Armed Struggle®. This current — Hamas, Islamic Jihad, and PFLP, for the most part, and probably part but not all of al-Aqsa — opposes each an every move that could result in attaining a state. The first three are the ones who periodically attend "summits" in Beirut or Teheran with Hezbollah, under Iranian tutelage.

    The results? Let's follow General Zinni, starting last December:
  • Zinni arrives 12/2/01, "boom!";
  • Zinni goes for a drive 12/10/01, "boom!"
  • Zinni leaves, then, in March, decides to come back, "boom!"
  • Zinni actually gets there, 3/17/02, and "boom!"
  • Israelis and Palestinians due to meet with Zinni, 3/20/02, and "boom".
  • Zinni's meeting with same ends early, 3/21/02. Why? "boom!" again.
  • Zinni's still there, and Cheney tries to broker a cease-fire, 3/22/02. So yet another "boom".

    One might ask "wuzzup widdat"? The answer's inescapable: a state is a threat. It's more of a threat to the terror machinery than it is to Yasser and his thugs, who stand merely to look incompetent. Without Palestine, all that's left to drive Armed Struggle® is Kashmir, which might be winding down, and Chechnya, which nobody cares about except the Russians. You can't have a seething Arab street without something to seethe about. Suckers rubes marks donors will kick on for oppressed Paleostinians groaning under the yoke of occupation. Nobody gives a crap about oppressed Iraqis groaning under the yoke of a government designed by the Marquis de Sade, or for oppressed Syrians, or for oppressed Libyans. Respectable holy men could be reduced to penury.

    So could international terror masterminds. Palestine represents a fertile breeding ground for jihadis, usually not the upper reaches of the heirarchy, though Abu Zubaydah made the big time, but respectably competent middle rankers. Even worse, a Palestinian state takes away something to fight about. All that's left is Chechnya and Kashmir, and a bunch of goofs trying to set up an Islamic superstate in southeast Asia while Indonesia breaks up around them and the prosperous burghers of Singapore and Malaysia look at them like they're nutz. Palestine represents one of the props of the Islamic terrorism machine. It represents the best chance for bringing on a general war between Islam and the West. Losing it would be a killer, and the Bad Guys can't let that happen.
  • Posted by: Fred Pruitt || 06/21/2002 10:23 pm || Comments || Link || [0 views] Top|| File under:

    #1  I dunno, Mr. Pruitt... I agree that our representatives are trying to go over to Israel to broker a land-for-peace deal, and that the Palestinians go boom when they come, but there need not be a connection. Maybe this is the Palestinian's way of flipping off Americans in general. "Hah! We be bad dudes!" And besides, if an actual state of Palestine finally comes into being, all that will happen is that the boomers will now have a state in which to build their bomb belts rather than a "refugee camp". So why would the terrorists care about the peace deal? If one passes, they don't seem to be in any different a position, and they'll still be attacking Israel until Israel is forced to attack them, and then we're back on the merry-go-round.
    Posted by: Just John || 06/21/2002 23:47 Comments || Top||


    Palestinian Public Figures, Intellectuals Issue Appeal to End Suicide Bombing
    A number of Palestinian intellectuals and officials made an “urgent appeal to stop suicide bombings,” in a statement issued yesterday. The signers included Sari Nuseiba, Hanan Ashrawi and Eyad Sarraj. The statement appealed to the “parties behind military operations targeting civilians in Israel to reconsider their policies and stop driving our young men to carry out these operations.”

    “Suicide bombings deepen the hatred and widen the gap between the Palestinian and Israeli people. Also, they destroy the possibilities of peaceful co-existence between them in two neighboring states,” the statement read. It also reiterated a position adopted by the Palestinian Authority stating that “these bombings do not contribute towards achieving our national project that calls for freedom and independence." Instead the bombings, "strengthen the enemies of peace on the Israeli side and give Israel’s aggressive government under Sharon the excuse to continue its harsh war against our people. This war targets our children, elderly, villages, cities, and our national hopes and achievements.”

    Despite the appeal, a large segment of the Palestinian society agree that Israel's brutality and massacres, in addition to the international community's failure to provide any forms of protection to the Palestinian people are the main causes of suicide bombings. While some say that suicide bombings are not a strategy as much as they are acts of “desperation,” others say that they meant to “embarrass” Arafat and the PA.
    Posted by: Fred Pruitt || 06/21/2002 09:01 pm || Comments || Link || [0 views] Top|| File under:


    Palestinians killed in border clash
    Three Palestinians were killed early Friday after one of them threw grenades at Israeli police guards at a checkpoint, between the Gaza Strip and Israel, and the guards returned fire, the army spokesman reported. The incident occurred at 6:30 a.m., when the militant joined workers waiting to enter the joint Israeli-Palestinian industrial zone at the Gaza Strip's northern tip. The attacker hurled three grenades at policemen, who shot back, a military source said. One Israeli was lightly wounded. A Palestinian security statement said the men killed were Palestinian workers shot as part of the tough measures Israel has imposed on the Gaza Strip.

    Palestinians officials said a 13-year-old boy was killed and five members of his family were wounded when the Israeli army blew up their house near the West Bank town of Jenin. The Israel Defense Forces spokesman, however, said he was not aware of any such incident.
    Posted by: Fred Pruitt || 06/21/2002 09:02 pm || Comments || Link || [0 views] Top|| File under:


    Southeast Asia
    Abu Sabaya: From Bad Guy to Dead Guy
    Philippine troops today recovered the body of senior Abu Sayyaf leader Abu Sabaya, who was killed along with two of his men in a high seas shootout, a military official said. The bodies of Abu Sabaya, Abu Musa and Ibno Hajim were recovered at sea off the town of Sibuco, Marine Colonel Juancho Saban told AFP. Four other gunmen - Abdurahman Ismael, Tommy Rahim, Hassan Samsi and Adzmar Aluk - were taken into custody after the dawn firefight, he added. Earlier, Philippines President Gloria Arroyo said in a statement that Abu Sabaya was thought to have been fatally wounded during the dawn clash between an elite Navy Special Warfare Group (SWAG) unit and seven gunmen on a motorboat.
    As of the time I went off noddy-bye last night, FoxNews was saying the hit was confirmed, but this morning CNN was saying they hadn't found the corpse. As long as they've got the carcass, and it's well and truly perforated, we can cross him off the list for good — unless he's like Riaz Basra — and move on to the next Bad Guy.
    Posted by: Fred Pruitt || 06/21/2002 08:08 am || Comments || Link || [0 views] Top|| File under:

    #1  Satan: Keep 'em coming. Have pitchfork, will poke!
    Posted by: RG Fulton || 06/21/2002 11:11 Comments || Top||


    Marohombsar’s escape bad news for 24 coppers
    Twenty four policemen are the first to get the axe in the aftermath of the escape of the suspected leader of a notorious Pentagon kidnapping gang from Camp Crame on Wednesday. The officers, who were assigned to the National Anti-Kidnapping Task Force (NAKTAF), were returned to their mother unit, the Special Action Force (SAF), police officials said yesterday. Faizal Marohombsar, whom police identified as the boss of the Pentagon gang, slipped out of the jail in the NAKTAF headquarters along with two of his men, Abdul Macaupang, and Rolando Patiño.
    Oh, and while you're at it, have a close look at their bank accounts, guys. Wake up and smell the flounder, 'cause we're all catching strong whiffs over here...
    Posted by: Fred Pruitt || 06/21/2002 08:11 am || Comments || Link || [0 views] Top|| File under:


    Timor thugs to go home
    Former commander of a East Timorese pro-Jakarta militia group (PPI) Joao da Silva Tavares and his almost 35,000 followers are expected to return home to East Timor soon. Tavares disclosed his intention during a secret meeting with chief of the Udayana Regional Military Command overseeing Bali, East and West Nusa Tenggara provinces, Maj. Gen. Willem T. da Costa, in the East Nusa Tenggara town of Atambua on Thursday. "Tavares seriously wants to return home. He plans to return to East Timor this month, but the East Timor government is still considering his demand for a transit camp for former PPI members and refugees," da Costa told the media. During the meeting, da Costa offered corn seeds, rice seeds, hoes and tractors to Tavares and his followers to start afresh in East Timor. Tavares said separately that the arrangement to return home was a final decision. "For sure, I and my supporters will return home soon. We shall await the results of negotiation and reconciliation in the next few days," he said.
    Posted by: Fred Pruitt || 06/21/2002 09:02 pm || Comments || Link || [0 views] Top|| File under:


    Terror Networks
    Moroccans talking to al-Haili
    A senior al Qaeda operations chief held by Moroccan authorities in connection with a conspiracy to bomb American and British warships is being questioned about other al Qaeda terrorism plans. Abu Zubair al-Haili, a Saudi Arabian arrested last week by Moroccan police, also is being asked about the identities and whereabouts of al Qaeda operatives, or cell members. U.S. intelligence officials have access to information from al-Haili, who is being interrogated by Moroccan officials, although they do not have direct access to the suspected terrorist.
    That could be because we're a squeamish lot, who don't like to hit people with truncheons. Or it could be that we're not, particularly, but that there's a horde of lily-livered enemy sympathizers who can't imagine someone blowing them up, ready to descend upon our guys at the first hint of hitting one of the sonsofbitches.
    Described as a close associate of Abu Zubaydah, the senior al Qaeda operational manager and key recruiter captured in March in Pakistan, al-Haili is believed to possess a vast amount of information about pending al Qaeda operations and the identity of cell members in this country and overseas. Authorities said al-Haili was responsible for recruiting would-be terrorists, arranging for their training at camps in Afghanistan and elsewhere and placing them in terrorist cells worldwide.
    So he's the next level down from Zubaydah, one of the capos. Nice snag.
    Posted by: Fred Pruitt || 06/21/2002 08:03 am || Comments || Link || [0 views] Top|| File under:



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    Meet the Mods
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    Two weeks of WOT
    Fri 2002-06-21
      Al Qaeda find Iraqi escape
    Thu 2002-06-20
      Abu Sabaya - doorknob dead!
    Wed 2002-06-19
      Riyadh frees 160 returnees from Afghanistan
    Tue 2002-06-18
      Soddies detain al-Qaeda thugs
    Mon 2002-06-17
      Morocco places limits on preachers Friday sermons
    Sun 2002-06-16
      Israel to start building fence
    Sat 2002-06-15
      Egyptian arrests founder of Gama'a al-Islamiya
    Fri 2002-06-14
      Karzai elected as Afghan leader
    Thu 2002-06-13
      Sudan Suspect Fired Missile at U.S. Warplane
    Wed 2002-06-12
      Karzai set to become head of state
    Tue 2002-06-11
      Boom boy fumbles the bag, and up he goes...
    Mon 2002-06-10
      Feds snag al-Qaeda 'dirty' bomber
    Sun 2002-06-09
      Palestinians reorganize cabinet
    Sat 2002-06-08
      Qazi warns govt against any change in Kashmir policy
    Fri 2002-06-07
      Two hostages die, another rescued in Philippines

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