In a phone call with the Mujahideen inside Afghanistan in the city of Kandahar, they confirmed that the assassination attempt on the Afghan President Karzai in Kandahar on Thursday was carried out by the Mujahideen as they came to know about the date of Karzaiâs visit to the city and thus prepared for this important event. Prepared in the way Islamists know best...
However the first information concerning the results of this attack was not clear regarding Karzai. Yet the Mujahideen inside Afghanistan confirmed that there is very strong almost sure information that the ruler of Kandahar Gul Agha died subsequently due to the attack â a matter the media still doesnât disclose or report about. If they got Gul Agha, it's no great loss, but this could just be Muj rumor. The information on Karzai still isn't clear... That might have been him saying he was alive, but he coulda been lying. If they got Gul Agha, maybe they got him, too. In fact, they probably got lotsa people. In fact, I think they got me, too... Ow. That hurts.
According to these (Mujahideen) sources the death of Gul Agha in this incident was not revealed due to fears of its results on the public opinion inside and outside Afghanistan. If he has kicked it, the Karzai guys should be trumpeting it, flags a half mast, public mourning, the whole shebang. He'd make a heck of a lot better martyr than he does a governor of Kandahar...
The Mujahideen compared the assassination of Gul Agha with the killing of Ahmad Shah Massood as he was killed on spot by two Arab Mujahideen. However the Northern Alliance at that time didnât make public this event and stated that he was only injured in this incident and that he was being medicated. It was only after some days and under pressure from the media that the Northern Alliance confirmed the death of their leader in that attack which was carried out by the Arab Mujahideen just a few days before the September 11th attacks. Except that Masood was the heart of the Northern Alliance. Nobody gives a fert about Gul Agha, except for Gul Agha and maybe his Mom...
UPDATE: Karzai's on FoxNews, talking about the assassination attempt. But it's probably just a computer simulation. We do that all the time, y'know...
Posted by: Fred Pruitt ||
09/07/2002 06:18 pm ||
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The Afghan authorities have arrested 17 people in the southern province of Kandahar in connection with Thursday's failed attempt on President Hamid Karzai's life. Among the detainees is a local security commander said to have been in contact with the would-be assassin, who was killed by Mr Karzai's guards during the attack. A man has also been arrested in Kabul where a car bomb - also on Thursday - killed at least 26 people and injured scores more. That was the guy who owned the car, who could very well be pure as the driven snow...
The president has returned to Kabul where he insisted the attacks should be seen as isolated incidents. "These things are independent acts," he said. "They do not translate into violence all over the country." The president earlier told the BBC that he personally was used to living with danger. "I expect things like that to come across the way," he said. "I've been through it before." Once the Taliban had hung him, it was all gravy...
The BBC's Kylie Morris reports from Kabul that the president is showing determination in the aftermath of the attack, proceeding with scheduled talks with visiting Russian Defence Minister Sergei Ivanov. But Morris is probably lying, because the jihadis say he's probably dead...
Posted by: Fred Pruitt ||
09/07/2002 04:01 pm ||
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Hey, it could have happened! 'Course, it appeared in The Independent, so it probably didn't...
Weeks before the terrorist attacks on 11 September, the United States and the United Nations ignored warnings from a secret Taliban emissary that Osama bin Laden was planning a huge attack on American soil. The warnings were delivered by an aide of Wakil Ahmed Muttawakil, the Taliban Foreign Minister at the time, who was known to be deeply unhappy with the foreign militants in Afghanistan, including Arabs. That's why he led the charge to throw them out... Oh. Well, he was gonna, if we hadn't interfered...
Mr Muttawakil, now in American custody, believed the Taliban's protection of Mr bin Laden and the other al-Qa'ida militants would lead to nothing less than the destruction of Afghanistan by the US military. He told his aide: "The guests are going to destroy the guesthouse." They thought they owned the guesthouse...
The minister then ordered him to alert the US and the UN about what was going to happen. But in a massive failure of intelligence, the message was disregarded because of what sources describe as "warning fatigue". He means there were so many "warnings," pointing in so many different directions, that nobody took any of them seriously...
Mr Muttawakil's aide, who has stayed on in Kabul and who has to remain anonymous for his security, described in detail to The Independent how he alerted first the Americans and then the United Nations of the coming calamity of 11 September. The minister learnt in July last year that Mr bin Laden was planning a "huge attack" on targets inside America, the aide said. The attacks were imminent and would be so deadly the United States would react with destructive rage. Mr Muttawakil learnt of the coming attacks on America not from other members of the Taliban leadership, but from the leader of the Islamic Movement of Uzbekistan, Tahir Yildash. According to the emissary, Mr Muttawakil emerged from a one-to-one meeting with Mr Yildash looking shocked and troubled. Until then, the Foreign Minister, who had disapproved of the destruction of the Buddhist statues in Bamian earlier in the year, had no inkling from others in the Taliban leadership of what Mr bin Laden was planning. "At first Muttawakil wouldn't say why he was so upset," said the aide. "Then it all came out. Yildash had revealed that Osama bin Laden was going to launch an attack on the United States. It would take place on American soil and it was imminent. Yildash said Osama hoped to kill thousands of Americans." So much for Binny's "wudn't me" argument. But those tapes were doctored. Everybody knows that...
At the time, 19 members of al-Qa'ida were in situ in the US waiting to launch what would be the deadliest foreign attack on the American mainland. Whoa! Better act fast...!
The emissary went first to the Americans, travelling across the border to meet the consul general, David Katz, in the Pakistani border town of Peshawar, in the third week of July 2001. They met in a safehouse belonging to an old mujahedin leader who has confirmed to The Independent that the meeting took place. Another US official was also present  possibly from the intelligence services. Mr Katz, who now works at the American embassy in Eritrea, declined to talk about the meeting. But other US sources said the warning was not passed on. Kinda late now, I guess...
A diplomatic source said: "We were hearing a lot of that kind of stuff. When people keep saying the sky's going to fall in and it doesn't, a kind of warning fatigue sets in. I actually thought it was all an attempt to rattle us in an attempt to please their funders in the Gulf, to try to get more donations for the cause." Go ahead. Tell 'em the story about the Little Boy Who Cried Wolf...
The Afghan aide did not reveal that the warning was from Mr Muttawakil, a factor that might have led the Americans to down-grade it. That was stupid of him. Probably save Muttawakil's neck, but it was stoopid if he wanted to actually have somebody listen...
"As I recall, I thought he was speaking from his own personal perspective," one source said. "It was interesting that he was from the Foreign Affairs Ministry, but he gave no indication this was a message he was carrying." So they thought he was just some guy that walked in off the street...
Interviewed by The Independent in Kabul, the Afghan emissary said: "I told Mr Katz they should launch a new Desert Storm  like the campaign to drive Iraq out of Kuwait  but this time they should call it Mountain Storm and they should drive the foreigners out of Afghanistan. They also had to stop the Pakistanis supporting the Taliban." "Well, sure, fellah. We'll drop everything and do that. What'd you say your name was again?"
When Mr Muttawakil's emissary returned to Kabul, the Foreign Minister told him to see UN officials. He took the warning to the Kabul offices of UNSMA, the political wing of the UN. These officials heard him out, but again did not report the secret Taliban warning to UN headquarters. A UN official familiar with the warnings said: "He appeared to be speaking in total desperation, asking for a Mountain Storm, he wanted a sort of deus ex machina to solve his country's problems. But before 9/11, there was just not much hope that Washington would become that engaged in Afghanistan." That sounds about right...
Posted by: Fred Pruitt ||
09/07/2002 04:21 pm ||
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Pre-emptive strike on Afghanistan? Yeah, that would have been even less popular as a strike on Iraq.
Pakistani and Afghan Pashtuns in uniform border forces clashed at Torkham on Friday where Afghan Pashtuns guards fired rockets on the offices of Pakistani Pashtuns officials causing damage to the buildings and injuring two women. Afghan border guards reportedly beat a Pakistani carpet trader who was trying to cross the border. He was followed by an Afghan Pashtun guard even after he crossed the border into Pakistan. When they were arguing, Pakistani troops approached them and also tried to calm them down. "Hey, you guys! Stop jumping up and down and rolling your eyes and waving your guns! You're scaring the camels!"
Meanwhile, the Afghan Pashtun guard took a rifle and opened fire, which was retaliated by the Pakistani forces. "Cheeze! It's an argument! Duck!"
The Afghans then fired three rockets on Pakistani post causing damage to the building. "Take that! Our caliber's heavier'n your caliber!"
The incident created panic in the border areas. The international border between the two countries was also closed down. They closed the border, just over a little difference of opinion? Boy, ain't they touchy? Wonder if anybody taking part in the combat was injured with all those bullets and rockets flying?... Nah. Just a coupla women. They shoulda known better...
Posted by: Fred Pruitt ||
09/07/2002 04:57 pm ||
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UK Prime Minister Tony Blair has arrived in Washington for talks with President George W Bush on building an international coalition for possible military action against Baghdad. The two leaders are holding three hours of discussions at the US president's retreat, Camp David, to discuss what can be done to stop Iraqi leader Saddam Hussein from developing and using weapons of mass destruction. But while the UK Government has said the military option must not be ruled out, Mr Blair is also expected to urge Mr Bush to work through the United Nations Security Council to secure backing for tough action. And two other key European leaders, French President Jacques Chirac and Germany's Chancellor Gerhard Schroeder, have reaffirmed their opposition to a "unilateral US attack" on Iraq, after talks in Hanover. Blair has been a consistent surprise to me. I'd pegged him as a Brit Bill Clinton, only with his zipper up, until 9-11.
Posted by: Fred Pruitt ||
09/07/2002 03:56 pm ||
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Yes, me, too--about Blair, that is. A big surprise all the way. Except for Spain's Aznar, everyone else--across the pond and north and south of our border--is true to form, and disappointing, to say the least.
President Seyyed Mohammad Khatami in a message addressed to his Afghan counterpart, President Hamid Karzai, on Friday evening, condemned the failed Thursday evening assassination attempt against his life. President Khatami has in his message emphasized, "such terrorist attempts cannot create slightest doubts in resolute will of the exalted and brave Afghan nation that is determined to pave its path towards well being and success." If it had worked, he'd have shrugged and said, "Too bad. Would you like help establishing order in your country, President-for-Life Hekmatyar?"
The Iranian political leader has in his message also expressed delight over the failure of the terroristic incidence, wishing success for the Interim Afghan Government in serving its nation and strengthening the foundations of peace and stability in the region. The president has in the end hoped that the elements behind "the ugly event" would be all found and promptly punished. Probably Iran wasn't involved in the attempt. Hekmatyar's probably thrown in his lot with the Talibs and al-Qaeda remnants, or maybe taken them under his wing. That's not to say there's no involvement by the Iranian terror establishment. They and Hekmatyar probably see each other as useful tools that can be discarded if no longer needed. Probably both are correct, up to a point; it's more likely The Secret Army of Doom is riddled with Iranian agents than that the Iranian terror machine is riddled with Hekmatyar agents.
Posted by: Fred Pruitt ||
09/07/2002 03:55 pm ||
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Russia's interior minister said he reached an agreement with Georgian officials yesterday to conduct joint operations in the Pankisi Gorge after months of tension over the crime-infested area bordering Chechnya, but a Georgian official said no Russian forces would enter the gorge. Doesn't sound like much of an agreement, if one side agrees on it and the other one doesn't...
Russian Interior Minister Boris Gryzlov said he and his Georgian counterpart had agreed to conduct a joint search for militants in the gorge. But Georgian Interior Minister Koba Narchemashvili said, ''We can bring order [to the gorge] ourselves.'' It's worked well so far, hasn't it? And the Russers have done a bang-up job of keeping the Bad Guys from swarming over the border. On the other hand, combining the two might not result in much more than they've been getting done.
Posted by: Fred Pruitt ||
09/07/2002 05:58 pm ||
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A close adviser of Kyrgyzstan President Askar Akayev has been seriously wounded in a grenade attack. Officials said an unknown assailant had thrown at least one grenade at Security Secretary Misir Ashirkulov when he was returning home late on Friday in the capital, Bishkek. The attacker escaped and the motive behind the assault remains unclear. There has been a wave of civil unrest in Kyrgyzstan since March, when five people were killed in clashes with police during a protest rally. Terrorism? Or internal Kyrgyz politix? Wish we had better news sources in Central Asia...
Posted by: Fred Pruitt ||
09/07/2002 03:55 pm ||
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According to Ahmed Rashid:
The Western military presence due to the war has revived hopes for greater democracy among Central Asia's secular political forces, both at home and among exiled politicians. For the first time in a decade, presidents Nursultan Nazarbayev of Kazakhstan and Askar Akayev of Kirgyzstan face opposition political movements, street protests and open calls for their resignations
Posted by: Paul ||
09/07/2002 20:56 Comments ||
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A man accused of trying to help Islamic terrorists was injured in a fight with another prisoner at a Virginia jail. Ummm... Yasss... Terrible, that. More tea?
James Ujaama, 36, and an unidentified inmate got into a fight Wednesday in the gymnasium, Justice Department spokesman Drew Wade said Thursday. He said the men were fighting over a newspaper. Ujaama, an American Muslim activist from Seattle, suffered a lump on his forehead and an abrasion on a cheek, Wade said. Tusk tusk. Terrible. Try one of these sandwiches...
Ujaama family spokesman Leila McDowell said the injuries were serious and required medical attention. ''He deserves protection, as someone who is innocent until proven guilty,'' McDowell told the Rocky Mountain News. Mmmm hmmm. Mustard?
Ujaama, a Denver native, was not charged in the fight. The other inmate faces charges of assault on an inmate, fighting and creating a security disturbance. "Jones, I must punish you for thumping Ujaama, even if he is a terrorist-loving anti-American bastard."
"Yeah. Hokay. I dunnit and I'm glad. I'll take me lumps."
"No teevee for a week, Jones."
"But I ain't got a teevee!"
"Heh heh."
"Heh heh."
In Ujaama's most recent court appearance, his lawyer complained last week that a jail guard had referred to him as ''bin Laden boy.'' Ward said Ujaama is ''being given the same privileges as any other inmate who is not in solitary confinement.'' That sounds fair. If those privileges lead to a lump on the nut, too bad.
Posted by: Fred Pruitt ||
09/07/2002 05:09 pm ||
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The military troops blasted five more houses in the tribal area after failing to find the alleged terrorists at Janikhel village while several other houses were also damaged during the operation. The troops razed the houses to ground by planting explosive materials. The houses were owned by Maulana Shams-ul-Haq, director of a small local religious school and imam at the mosque of the village, Maulana Abdullah, Maulana Sher Ali, Imtiaz Ali and Sadar Hayat. Y'think the Army's about had it with these "holy men"?
About three thousand military troops are combing the area to find the alleged Al-Qaeda terrorists who were forcibly released by the villagers from the custody of Frontier Corps. The villagers claim that all the seven arrested persons were local teenagers studying in the madrassa while the troops claim that they were Arabs and were suspected for having links with Al-Qaeda. "Yeah. Just some local boys, studyin' to be holy men at the madrassah... Fonny assent? Whudja mean, 'fonny assent'? Dem boys got no fonny assent. Ever'body 'roun' here talks likka dat. You gotta fonny assent!"
Posted by: Fred Pruitt ||
09/07/2002 04:41 pm ||
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The provincial Amir of Jamiat Ulema-e-Islam and provincial president of Muttahida Majlis-e-Amal (MMA) Balochistan, Maulana Mohammad Khan Sheerani has vowed to wage a struggle to eliminate pro-American forces in the country. Addressing a news conference at JUIâs district secretariat and another gathering in Madressah Muftah-ul-Uloom Qasimia here Thursday, Maulana Sheerani has said that on October 10 the MMA would sweep the polls and thus democratically get hold of Federal Capital. "We're gonna win, and we're gonna win BIG!"
âThe historic day would prove the last day for the US basis in the country,â he vowed. Maulana Mohammad Khan Sheerani deplored that the US was trying to bring brothers at war against each other under its New World Order policy. He said the US government was trying to create tension in the Muslim world flaring the Shia-Sunni, Pashtu-Persian and Baloch-Pashtoon issues. We are? I thought that was Paks who were killing each other? Musta been mistaken...
Posted by: Fred Pruitt ||
09/07/2002 04:47 pm ||
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Dollars for dimes says that half of Sheerani's relatives either have immigrated to the U.S.A. or would like to. I'll bet that this skunk was more hospitable to the Arab parasites, who nearly destroyed his country. What if Americans didn't want alien Pakistanis in their midst?
Posted by: Allah the Dog Faced God ||
09/07/2002 19:12 Comments ||
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The Anti Terrorism Court-II here Thursday awarded two years jail term to Liaquat Baloch, Naib Amir of Jamat-e-Islami for not appearing in the Court. The Court, meanwhile, exonerated Maulana Amir Zaman in the same case. It is recalled that the police had registered a treason case against Liaquat Baloch and others for criticizing Musharraf regime on its blind support to US aggression against Afghanistan. Liaquat is Qazi Hussein Ahmad's second in command in the Jamaat i-Islami. If he were actually to do the jug time, it'd inconvenience Qazi somewhat. I don't imagine it'll actually happen, though, or if it does it'll be two years house arrest, with time off for good behavior...
Posted by: Fred Pruitt ||
09/07/2002 04:54 pm ||
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A two-car convoy carrying Abdul Rehman Sheikh, a nominee for a party representing lower castes in the state elections, was ambushed by insurgents while he was campaigning in the Kupwara District. Along with Sheikh, the candidate's driver and two nephews were killed, and at least one other person was injured. Sheikh was a candidate for the Bahujan Samaj Party. Sheikh's son Bashir Ahmad, who escaped the ambush, said in an interview that armed men jumped out of a cornfield as the convoy was passing. At least three of the gunmen were wearing Indian military fatigues, and Sheikh's drivers may have thought they were Indian soldiers. The gunmen ordered the seven bodyguards to drop their weapons, forced the group to line up, and opened fire on some of them. Military officials said they were searching for the attackers, who were believed to be homicidal maniacs Muslim insurgents. This has been going on for a good long time, and it won't stop after the elections.
Suspected guerrillas also fatally shot a Marxist party worker in Nilu, a village in Anantnag District, 40 miles south of Srinagar. And in Pattan, a town about 20 miles north of Srinagar, suspected militants opened fire during a party rally, and one man was killed when he was crushed by a fleeing vehicle. That sometimes happens in areas where homicide is a political tactic...
Posted by: Fred Pruitt ||
09/07/2002 05:36 pm ||
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Hizbullah warned Friday that it would hold Washington accountable if a military attack is launched against Lebanon. âWe clearly announce to the Ummah (community of Muslim believers) that the American administration will be held accountable for any offensive against Lebanon and we emphasize that we are in full readiness to confront any eventuality and defend our people,â the party said in a statement. That's what they're actually afraid of: that Iraq is only the first stop on the Grand Tour...
Hizbullah was responding to comments made Thursday by US Deputy Secretary of State Richard Armitage in which he claimed âHizbullah made the A-team of terrorists, maybe Al-Qaeda is actually the B-team... Weâre going to go after them just like a high school wrestler goes after opponents. Weâre going to take them down one at a time,â he said. My only gripe is that he's telling them ahead of time — though he's just trying to reassure those in this country who're paying attention...
His comments are among the strongest yet made against Hizbullah by a senior US official and have reignited fears in Lebanon of a military strike against the party, possibly by Israel in coordination with a US-led assault on Iraq. So now they can sit and stew, and while they do it they can either dismantle Hezbollah, change it fundamentally, or roll their eyes and wave guns. Any guesses as to which course they'll choose?
Posted by: Fred Pruitt ||
09/07/2002 03:55 pm ||
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I think the Ummah is starting to get a flying case of the ohshits. It's dawning on them that Afghanistan wasn't even the start of our war on terrorism, nor will Iraq be. Once Saddam's gone, that's when the real fun begins- no matter what the EU, the UN, or Tom Daschle says.
Posted by: Dave D. ||
09/07/2002 16:30 Comments ||
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Unless the Bad Guys can lobby a coalition together to gnaw Bush's feet off at the ankles...
Posted by: Fred ||
09/07/2002 16:48 Comments ||
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One Daisy Cutter, and the Hezbis are history.
Posted by: Allah the Dog Faced God ||
09/07/2002 19:14 Comments ||
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In the Gaza Strip, Israeli forces attacked Palestinian police posts while Apache helicopters fired missiles into a metal factory in the Khan Yunis refugee camp. The military said the foundry had been used to manufacture ammunition used by militants in their armed uprising, or intifadah. The situation was deteriorating so rapidly that Defense Minister Benyamin Ben-Eliezer declared that Israel will not go forward with a tentative peace initiative, negotiated last month, that would have handed responsibility for security in the Gaza Strip to the Palestinians. Prime Minister Ariel Sharon said there have been too many attacks and betrayals for Israel to countenance any future interim deals, such as the one negotiated Aug. 18, which had offered the first glimmer of hope in nearly two years. I think that's what we predicted at the time...
''Oslo no longer exists. Camp David no longer exists,'' Sharon said in an interview with Israel's Maariv newspaper, referring to the Norwegian and US locales of two major Israeli-Palestinian peace accords. Yeah, well, hold that thought, Ariel. Every time you forget it, you get another boatload of fertilizer from the Paleos...
Posted by: Fred Pruitt ||
09/07/2002 05:46 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.
