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Terror offensive in Riyadh
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Afghanistan
Kabul moves to gain provincial control-officials
President Hamid Karzai will attempt to seize the initiative in Afghanistan's lawless provinces this week by sacking regional officials defying his rule. Karzai plans to target civil, military and police officials in several key provinces from governor downwards, said one official. "The government will issue a statement in this regard in the near future. The aim is to improve working procedures and create good co-ordination between the centre and the provinces," a second official said.
Afghan downsizing and reorganization normally involves crew-served weapons.
Since replacing the fundamentalist Taliban in power in late 2001, Karzai has complained that several regional governors have paid more attention to strengthening their own rule than to the nation's interests and have failed to deliver vital tax revenue to Kabul. In the latest example of this, six people were killed on Sunday in a clash in the north of the country between fighters loyal to two commanders who hold senior positions in Karzai's government. Those killed southeast of Mazar-i-Sharif were all loyalists of Uzbek warlord General Abdul Rashid Dostum. Ahmad Khan, one of Dostum's commanders, blamed the clash on "expansionist moves" by the Ustad Atta Mohammed Jamiat-e-Islami faction.
Translation: Ustad is poaching on Abdul's turf, Abdul's boys got wacked, dire revenge promised. The Godfather with turbans.
Karzai announced the sacking of some provincial officials late last year but some ignored the order. Some regional rulers have private armies that allow them to defy Kabul and its attempts to re-establish central rule. One is Ismail Khan, governor of Herat province that borders Iran and Turkmenistan. He collects the bulk of Afghanistan's customs revenues but only a small proportion reaches Kabul.
He's not going to give that up without a fight.
Fighting has broken out between rival commanders in several provinces, southern authorities have failed to curb opium poppy cultivation and Taliban fugitives have stepped up attacks in recent months on government and U.S.-led coalition forces.
Just another day in the 'stan.
Officials declined to say which provincial rulers might be targeted by Karzai, whose power extends little beyond Kabul, which is protected by about 5,000 foreign peacekeepers. Efforts to establish his authority in the provinces have been hampered by the U.S.-led coalition's use of warlord soldiers in the hunt for Taliban and al Qaeda remnants. Some officials fear Karzai risks creating better conditions for Taliban guerrillas if he alienates regional leaders.
Memo to Karzai: Pick the strongest regional leader (warlord) who is opposing you and take him out. The others will notice and get back in line.
Posted by: Steve || 05/12/2003 12:02 pm || Comments || Link || [0 views] Top|| File under:

#1  "Memo to Karzai: Pick the strongest regional leader (warlord) who is opposing you and take him out. The others will notice and get back in line"

That would certainly be Ismail Khan, but I dont think Karzai has strenght yet to do that.

On the one hand im getting nervous about Afghan. 6 months ago I was patient - but now things really are moving too slowly - evidence that hardly any reconstruction being done outside Kabul and surrounding provinces. Mainly due to security situation, so more money (US or other) wouldnt help. I see argument for not adding more US troops - keep footprint light, avoid colonial situation. Use US troops only against Taliban. That leaves taking on warlords to Afghan National Army - growth of that entity frustratingly slow. What are constraints on more rapid expansion of ANA?
Posted by: liberalhawk || 05/12/2003 12:38 Comments || Top||

#2  Seems simple enough to me,a batallion of loyal Karzi troops.Backed-up with U.S.Air and SoF.
Take-out Ismail,disarm or kill the rest.

"I said your fired get out!"
Posted by: w_r_manues@yahoo.com || 05/12/2003 13:16 Comments || Top||

#3  not gonna use US air power and SOF against a warlord like Ismail - not just for the sake of customs revenues. Thats getting us too deep into local rivalries, "US is colonial murderer" "Karzai is US puppet"

We studied history of Soviet and UK interventions carefully before going in. We're not going to make those mistakes.
Posted by: liberalhawk || 05/12/2003 13:25 Comments || Top||


Arabia
US compound ’on fire after blasts’
AT least two explosions have been heard in the Saudi capital and have started a fire in a compound housing US nationals, witnesses said. They said the blasts were in eastern Riyadh and that at least one of them occurred inside the compound. An interior ministry source would not confirm the explosions and said only that an official statement would be issued later.

FOLLOWUP:
Residential complexes housing Westerners in the Saudi capital of Riyadh were bombed Monday, injuring an unspecified number of people, Fox News has learned. Americans were living in at least one of the three targeted buildings, according to State Department officials. The American embassy in Riyadh told Washington that there was no word of any American casualties. Fox News and Reuters news service were reporting that the attack involved three separate bombs on different residential buildings. The Associated Press reported that a car packed with explosives crashed into a compound and blew up. Saudi security officials said there were injuries but it was not known how many were wounded. The officials, speaking on condition of anonymity, said the car exploded after slamming into a residential compound in the eastern part of the Saudi Arabian capital.
Guess we know what happened to the 19 Bad Guys they were looking for last week. Radio said they shot it out with the Soddy security guards...

More followup:
FoxNews/AP reports a fourth explosion. At least 50 casualties taken to a single hospital... Sounds like Riyadh's under attack... Powell says he's going to go through with his planned visit tomorrow.
Posted by: JP || 05/12/2003 05:27 pm || Comments || Link || [1 views] Top|| File under:

#1  "Major Strasser has been blown up by alk runners - round up the usual suspects"
Posted by: Frank G || 05/12/2003 17:35 Comments || Top||

#2  Time to bring honor/shame into it -
"if you Soddys can't control your own country, why are we dealing with you?"
Sharpen the executioner's sword
Posted by: Frank G || 05/12/2003 19:27 Comments || Top||

#3  Shades of the strong horse. Now that the America has demonstrated it's strength in Afganistan and Iraq, the Soddi's suddenly look weak. Amazing what a little use of power will create.
Posted by: john || 05/12/2003 19:46 Comments || Top||

#4  This is where most of the 9-11 dirt bags came from. I guess it is getting too hot in other parts of the world.
Posted by: Douglas De Bono || 05/12/2003 20:35 Comments || Top||


Prosecutors seek 'maximum' for killing of Pouliot
A chief prosecutor called on a Kuwaiti court to issue the "maximum penalty" against a Kuwaiti on trial for killing an American civilian early this year. "We call on you, in the name of society, to return safety and security to this society by hitting hard against everyone who considers threatening it," Hussein Al-Huraiti said in his closing statement. He urged the court to hand down the "maximum penalty", without specifying the sentence terms, against 25-year-old Sami Al-Mutairi when it issues its verdict on June 4. Murder is punishable by death in Kuwait.

Mutairi is accused of carrying out a highway ambush in January that killed Michael Rene Pouliot and seriously wounded David Caraway, both contractors for the US army. Kuwaitis Badi Cruz Al-Ajmi and Khalifa Hilal Al-Dihani are also on trial for selling Mutairi the Kalashnikov assault rifle and ammunition used in the attack. The shooting was the second fatal attack against Americans in the country since last October and the first to target civilians. "Because of this crime, confidence in the country's security and stability was shaken," Huraiti said. He claimed Mutairi had planned the crime two months before carrying it out, watching the area and singling out his prey as they stopped at an intersection on their way back from the camp. Mutairi shot the two men and then went to a mosque to pray before he headed for his office where he heard on satellite television that his attack was a success, the lawyer added. After stashing the weapon and ammunition at his work place, he fled to Saudi Arabia where Saudi border guards arrested him two days after the attack, Huraiti said.
Posted by: Fred Pruitt || 05/12/2003 05:02 pm || Comments || Link || [0 views] Top|| File under:


Britain
Top IRA mole ’Stakeknife’ on the run
After decades of living under cover as the top British intelligence mole inside the Irish Republican Army, a man code-named "Stakeknife" has gone into hiding after being exposed. Newspapers in Dublin, London and Belfast identified the secret agent as Alfredo Scappaticci, the IRA's longtime director of internal security — making him responsible for identifying and killing traitors.
Faith! And what kind o' Irishman's named Alfredo Scappaticci, I ask yez?
Scappaticci is thought to have fled from his residence south of Dublin and gone into hiding, perhaps at the British military's Force Research Unit base in rural Dorset.
Hope they have a really good witness protection program. He just became the IRA's Most Wanted.
The Force Research Unit is the British army's Northern Ireland spy team. That unit's methods of operating in the troubled province have been under investigation by London police chief John Stevens since 1989. He's been looking into allegations the British military infiltrated, colluded with, and manipulated competing outlawed groups. The British allegedly went to great lengths to protect their highly placed mole. Learning in 1987 that the Ulster Defence Association, a Protestant group, planned to kill Scappaticci, the army used a mole inside the UDA to redirect the hit team to another IRA veteran with an Italian surname. Francisco Notorantino was shot to death in his bed. He had stopped being an active IRA member in the early 1970s.
"Are yez sure y'got the right man, Mike?"
"And how many spaghetti benders would we be findin' in County Cork, Pat?"
Stevens confirmed the existence of Stakeknife a month ago, saying he wanted to interview him about his work with the Force Research Unit and about his role in IRA murders. As the security chief of the IRA, Scappaticci would have had intimate knowledge of all personnel matters in the paramilitary group. The security unit he allegedly led would have selected prospective members, and would have tortured suspected traitors. IRA members or civilians found to have given information to the British were typically forced to record a confession, then were shot through the head, their naked and bound bodies dumped by country roadsides. Scappaticci, commentators say, would have been able to identify for the British every IRA member in Northern Ireland, and arrange for some to be promoted while others were killed.
Kill the best, promote the rest.
Posted by: Steve || 05/12/2003 01:50 pm || Comments || Link || [1 views] Top|| File under:


Clare Short Stamps her Foot, Resigns in a Huff
British Prime Minister Tony Blair's outspoken aid minister resigned from his government on Monday, angrily accusing him of breaking a promise that the United Nations should have a leading role in post-war Iraq. Clare Short, who fiercely criticized Blair's "reckless" stance over Iraq just days before British troops joined U.S.-led invasion to topple Saddam Hussein, said his approach to Iraq's reconstruction made her position impossible. She was the second senior minister to resign from Blair's cabinet over the war, which was opposed by many members of his ruling Labour party and which triggered a major parliamentary rebellion in March. Blair's office announced soon afterwards it was replacing her with junior Foreign Office minister Baroness Amos. The speed of the replacement suggested Blair had been preparing to remove her anyway and analysts doubted the exit of Short, 57, would have a major impact on the government.
Improves the smell, at any rate.
"As you know, I thought the run-up to the conflict in Iraq was mishandled, but I agreed to stay in the government to help support the reconstruction effort for the people of Iraq," Short wrote in her resignation letter to Blair. "I am afraid that the assurances you gave me about the need for a U.N. mandate to establish a legitimate Iraqi government have been breached," she said. She accused Blair and Foreign Secretary Jack Straw of secretly negotiating a U.N. resolution which contradicted assurances she had given to parliament about "the need for a U.N.-led process to establish a legitimate Iraqi government." "This makes my position impossible," she said.
Goodbye.
Posted by: Steve || 05/12/2003 09:32 am || Comments || Link || [0 views] Top|| File under:

#1  D'ya think she heard about Tony pretty much calling her a looney the other day?
Posted by: Parabellum || 05/12/2003 13:48 Comments || Top||

#2  Don't let the door hit yer brains, er, butt, on the way out.
Posted by: Ptah || 05/12/2003 9:38 Comments || Top||

#3  Only if Famous Amos is a she...
Posted by: Tadderly || 05/12/2003 10:35 Comments || Top||

#4  I hear Kofi is stewing over this. Has he not called for a UN resolution regarding Mr Blair's handling of the Clare Short issue.
Posted by: Lucky || 05/12/2003 10:44 Comments || Top||

#5  Oh God! This has got to be better than sex for Blair.

One of his communist weights had left government. In my opnion he is unbeatable agaainst conservatives right now.

Thanks;, Claire!
Posted by: badanov || 05/12/2003 17:39 Comments || Top||


Europe
Bardot decries ’Islamization of France’
Brigitte Bardot, French film goddess turned animal rights activist, was quoted yesterday as criticising the "Islamisation of France" in her latest book. The tabloid France Soir said Bardot, who has been fined twice for inciting racial hatred, made the comments in her book A Scream in the Silence. "I am against the Islamisation of France ... For centuries our forefathers, the ancients, our grandfathers, our fathers gave their lives to chase all successive invaders from France," the paper quoted her book as saying.
We might disagree on how sucessful they were at chasing invaders out, but you can't disagree with the point she is trying to make.
The comments are likely to create a stir in France, home to five million Muslims, where the rise of radical Islam in schools has already sparked a heated debate over the wearing of the traditional Muslim headscarf in the country's secular schools.
Brigitte Bardot.........Sorry, I was lost in..........thought, yeah, that's what it was, thought.
Posted by: Steve || 05/12/2003 01:29 pm || Comments || Link || [0 views] Top|| File under:

#1  Taking a trip down mammary lane, Steve?
Posted by: Alaska Paul || 05/12/2003 15:11 Comments || Top||

#2  Bardot's main... ahem... beef with the Moslems is that they slaughter lambs in a not so nice way. Remember, she cares about animals, not people.
Posted by: Kalle (kafir forever) || 05/12/2003 15:23 Comments || Top||

#3  At first glance, it's tempting to give two cheers to Bardot for saying something that most Frenchies don't have the guts to. After all her ridiculous PETA-like politics, maybe she's not so bad afterall.

Unfortunately, she is that bad. Look at her wording. She is nothing but an elitist, nationalist snob. She gives a bad name to critics of Islam and will probably only make it harder for other more sensible people to do so. It's not just that it's not PC. It's downright stoopid. She's a radical-idiotarian and there's no cause for celebration when she accidentally winds up on the right side of an issue. In fact, it's cause for cringing, as if you found Michael Moore had suddenly become a spokesman for a cause you support.
Posted by: Tokyo Taro || 05/12/2003 20:43 Comments || Top||


ETA torn apart by relentless losing streak arrests and defections
The first serious split in the armed Basque separatist group Eta for 20 years appeared as two veteran members reportedly demanded to be allowed to renounce the use of arms and leave the group. The reported challenge to the group's fierce disciplinary structure by Raul Angel Fuentes and Jose Maria Zaldua, who both have a record of violence, came as Eta hit its lowest point in 35 years with the arrest of seven depraved suspected terrorists killers members. Fuentes and Zaldua had alleged "exhaustion" with Eta's "lack of strategy" when they asked to leave the organisation. "There is increasing despair, disorganisation and disorientation inside the terrorist group," the Spanish interior minister, Angel Acebes, said. "The veterans realise there is no future and nowhere to hide in any other country."
"No pension plan, no 401k, no vacation, always on call, lousy pay, bad food — yep, ETA membership ain't what it used to be!"
It was unclear how Eta's leadership would react to the appeal. The last high-profile "desertion" from the group, by former senior member Dolores Gonzalez Catarain, led to her assassination in 1986 by an Eta punishment squad.
Seems clear to me!
Bomb-maker Zaldua, 53, is wanted in Spain for 15 killings. He recently rejoined the group's logistical unit in south-west France after a long period in hiding in Butthole, Uruguay. Fuentes, 38, is wanted for four killings. Both men are long-term members of Eta, which in recent years has seen the average age of its members driven down by arrests purges, and premature explosions. Among the four suspected Eta members arrested during a raid by French police in the south-western town of Saintes on Friday was a woman alleged to be in charge of Eta's active service units, 28-year-old Ainhoa Garcia Montero. Spanish police claimed she had been directly involved in the killings of five people — two Basque traffic police officers, a newspaper executive, a Basque business leader and a local police chief. "This is a very hard blow to the heart of Eta's operations in France," said Mr Acebes. More than 20 Eta suspects have been arrested this year. There has been one killing so far this year. In 2002, Eta killed five people, including a six-year-old girl, and had 185 suspected members detained. The police claim to have arrested those to blame for almost every killing over the past three years.
How about the one who killed the little girl? That terrorist should slowly roast.
The others arrested in Saintes were two Spaniards and a Frenchman. All were carrying forged identity documents and three of the four were armed. Police said they were picked up because they appeared to be preparing to flee their apartment for Butthole, Uruguay. The police operation continued yesterday with the arrest of two recent recruits in Bordeaux. A seventh Eta member, allegedly involved in preparing a bombing campaign against tourist targets, was arrested in northern Spain. The arrests came amid tension in the Basque country after Madrid banned more than 1,500 candidates from standing in municipal elections because of their alleged support for Eta. Up to 20,000 separatists took to the streets of Bilbao on Saturday in an illegal, though peaceful, protest. The Spanish constitutional court last week upheld the ban on the 1,500 candidates for the May 25 elections, calling them disguised members of the outlawed Batasuna political party.
"Yer disguise didn't work. Now git."
Washington said last week that it would seize financial assets held in the US by Batasuna and two predecessor groups — a step towards adding Batasuna to its list of foreign terrorist organisations. The EU is also being asked to add Batasuna to its list of banned groups.
Posted by: Steve White || 05/12/2003 12:26 am || Comments || Link || [0 views] Top|| File under:

#1  Gee, isn't it funny that they were hiding in


wait for it




France?
Posted by: Chuck || 05/12/2003 10:54 Comments || Top||


Fifth Column
Mickey Moore: Disney to finance new Bush-bashing documentary
Here's some CHOICE red meat!
DISNEY's modern-day magic kingdom has room for all: Now joining Mickey and Minnie and Pooh bear and Goofy — is Hollywood badboy Michael Moore, the DRUDGE REPORT explains. The WALT DISNEY CO. is set to spend millions financing a new explosive Bush-bashing documentary from Michael Moore [BOWLING FOR COLUMBINE] — a documentary which claims bin Laden was greatly enriched by the Bush family!
Looks like Disney has embarked on a corporate kamikaze mission. Is Mike Eisner on crack?
DISNEY, via subsidiary MIRAMAX, has agreed to cover the production costs, said to be in the millions, of Moore's planned FAHRENHEIT 911. "The primary thrust of the new film is what has happened to the country since Sept. 11, and how the Bush administration used this tragic event to push its agenda," Moore explains.
Mikey must think he's the new Oliver Stone.
FAHRENHEIT 911 will be released during the upcoming presidential election cycle. [More Moore in '04.] The director claims he will document on film how the "senior Bush kept his ties with the bin Laden family up until two months after Sept. 11." Moore will also scrutinize, in graphic detail, why America is so disliked abroad.
Maybe someday Mike will explore why most Americans thinks he's an asshole. I'd fo to see that.
With DISNEY financing now secure, Moore, who once railed against corporate media interests, may appear at this week's Cannes film festival in France.
Yeah, a real man of the people. Doesn't look the evil "blacklist" has gotten around to him yet.
Posted by: tu3031 || 05/12/2003 09:29 am || Comments || Link || [0 views] Top|| File under:

#1  Every time I read something about Michael moore, I have an incredibly strong urge to smack him in the head with a large chinese wok, since my wife won't buy me a gun.
Posted by: Wills || 05/12/2003 17:10 Comments || Top||

#2  I have to say again, I think Ray Bradbury should sue. Fahrenheit 911, indeed.
Posted by: Tadderly || 05/12/2003 10:38 Comments || Top||

#3  Miramax is run by Harvey Weinstein, who is a Democratic Party fundraiser. I imagine Moore was having a hard time choosing between Miramax & Dreamworks SKG -- given the material and Moore's successful fundraiser speech at the Oscars, it's surprising this isn't being funded by a consortium of production companies -- imagine "Michael Moore's The Titanic was sunk by George Bush"
Posted by: snellenr || 05/12/2003 10:50 Comments || Top||

#4  Makes that petition to have his documentary Oscar revoked all the more important huh?
Posted by: Frank G || 05/12/2003 11:37 Comments || Top||

#5  Indeed!
Posted by: w_r_manues@yahoo.com || 05/12/2003 13:17 Comments || Top||

#6  I think we should applaud Disney for letting this film be made. What better way to wreck an artists' career than to use the work they themselves produce.
Posted by: badanov || 05/12/2003 17:35 Comments || Top||

#7  The blowback to Disney over this will be intense. Disney is LEADING the charge in Congress for heavy handed copy controls on entertainment products and that Congress isn't controlled by Moore's friends.

I promise you, if this film is made it'll be funny and entertaining, and just as evil and boneheaded as Columbine was. The left will love it, but no one else will spend money to see it...Columbine wasn't exactly a big box office hit. This is a film for true believers in conspiracy theories and for Bush-haters. It won't have any impact beyond those who aren't going to vote for Bush ANYWAY.

Moore is an ass.
Posted by: R. McLeod || 05/13/2003 2:50 Comments || Top||


Sean Penn can sue for loss of film role
Here's a little Monday morning red meat.
Is there really a Hollywood blacklist against performers who don't support the Bush administration?
No.
The answer may lie in a Los Angeles courtroom. A California judge has ruled that actor Sean Penn can pursue a legal claim that he was fired from a film because of his piquant political views and a brief visit he made to Iraq last December. Los Angeles Superior Court Judge Irving Feffer, who categorized his decision as "a total farce" "easy," ruled Friday that Mr. Penn could sue film producer Stephen Bing. The case could boost cable news ratings present a dramatic legal tableau, though CNN legal analyst Jeffrey Toobin thinks the case won't make it to court. "In a Hollywood trial, the two sides will rattle on about the principle of the matter," Mr. Toobin said in an interview Friday, "but nine times out of 10, these things settle out of court because no one wants to risk looking like a greedy jerk total defeat. Fundamentally, this is a breach of contract case and a financial matter." Mr. Penn wants $10 million from Mr. Bing, who released the actor from a comedy film project in February. The actor said that the situation borrowed "a page from the dark era of Hollywood blacklisting," and that he was wrongly terminated.
Sean Penn in a comedy? That sucker was doomed from the start.
Mr. Bing, in turn, is suing Mr. Penn for $15 million, claiming the actor is trying to extort money and aspires "to turn their business dispute into a First Amendment crusade." "Penn crosses over a bright line into unprotected speech when he publicly advocated the violent overthrow of the U.S. government," Mr. Bing said in court papers, adding that Mr. Penn trashed "any standard of decency" by posing for photographs under a portrait of Iraqi dictator Saddam Hussein and meeting with regime officials during his visit to Baghdad.
That would make a comedy film harder to sell, unless the next scene shows Mr. Penn being spanked by Condi Rice.
Mr. Penn is currently at work on the film, "The Assassination of Richard Nixon," based on the true story of an insurance salesman who planned to kill President Nixon in 1974 by hijacking an airliner and crashing it into the White House.
"Fast Times at 12 o'clock High"?
Though he recently has dampened his political commentary after realizing that it was killing his career and making him look like a world-class wanker, Mr. Penn made much noise last year. Last October, he purchased a full-page ad in The Washington Post that accused the White House of ignoring diplomatic alternatives in the build-up to war in Iraq. During his Baghdad visit, Mr. Penn declared himself Jane Fonda a "patriot" and called the war "an unprecedented pre-emptive attack on a separate sovereign nation." The news media pounced, and "vilification began immediately from jingoistic media outlets," said Norman Solomon of Fairness and Accuracy in Reporting, a New York-based anti-censorship media watchdog group.
Who'll take the bet that Mr. Solomon's group is 1) a store-fron with a computer, a phone, and six members; 2) tied in some way to the usual anti-war, ANSWER, indymedia, etc., crowd?
Yes, to the second. Their talking head appears on the cable news shows periodically, saying the predictable thing.
Though a blacklist has yet to emerge, Tim Robbins, Susan Sarandon and Mr. Penn are depicted on a new "Deck of Weasels" card deck produced by the online news site "NewsMax" and meant as a companion to the Pentagon's official "Deck of Death" cards depicting fugitives from Saddam's regime.
Last time I checked, ridicule was still allowed under the First Amendment.
Mr. Bing, 37, and the heir to a $400 million real estate fortune, had his own tabloid travails after actress Elizabeth Hurley used DNA tests to prove in court last year that he had fathered her son.
Liz Hurley? Yeah, baby!
He was named in another paternity suit by MGM owner Kirk Kerkorian, who claimed Mr. Bing was the father of his ex-wife's daughter.
Posted by: Steve White || 05/12/2003 12:40 am || Comments || Link || [1 views] Top|| File under:

#1  You can sue ANYBODY for ANYTHING. This is America.

Doesn't mean you'll win, or even get a trial. Just means you're allowed to start proceedings.
Posted by: mojo || 05/12/2003 13:55 Comments || Top||

#2  "Elizabeth Hurley used DNA tests to prove in court last year that he had fathered her son."
If I had nailed Liz Hurley, I would of had T-shirts printed up.
Posted by: Steve || 05/12/2003 14:08 Comments || Top||

#3  "That would make a comedy film harder to sell, unless the next scene shows Mr. Penn being spanked by Condi Rice. "

There's something I'd pay to see.
Posted by: Kathy K || 05/12/2003 17:24 Comments || Top||

#4  Fairness and Accuracy in Reporting is a left-wing group that "monitors" the media looking for conservative bias. Unconnected to ANSWER, however.

One wonders though whether FAIR (cute, eh?)will say anything about Jayson Blair's lying and fabricated reporting at the New York Times. Don't hold your breath...and take a look at the links on their site...tells you plenty about what this group's "spin" is.
Posted by: R. McLeod || 05/12/2003 2:05 Comments || Top||

#5  Though a blacklist has yet to emerge...

It's on my refrigerator. Does that mean he can sue me?
Posted by: Laurence of the Rats || 05/12/2003 6:35 Comments || Top||

#6  First of all, the McCarthy-era "blacklist" did not deal with those who made public statements, only private associations, and second, one such breach of contract dispute doesn't even come close to implying any such "blacklist" exists.

Even if his whole career goes into the toilet now, and one can only hope, the case could be made quite impressively that his public statements made him box office poison, and the producers of a movie have no obligation to put up good money to make movies with such box office poison. Hollywood is all about image, more than anything else.

Ya see, Mr. Penn, when you cross that "bright line", people have long memories, and you are held accountable for your public statements. Don't be so stupid as to believe your public statements have no impact on your box office appeal.
Posted by: Jeff Brokaw || 05/12/2003 7:53 Comments || Top||

#7  A comedy starring Sean Penn about hijacking an airliner and crashing it into the White House. Gee, that's just got to be a howl... Everybody even slightly associated with this "project" has got to be a mental midget to start with.
Posted by: Dar || 05/12/2003 8:15 Comments || Top||

#8  If there's a blacklist, it's economic, not political. There isn't a more bottom line industry on earth then the entertainment industry. If you can't make them money, they don't want to know you. And if you piss off a large segment of the American public to the point where they won't support your projects, you aren't going to be making the studios and the moguls any money. They don't like that.
Posted by: tu3031 || 05/12/2003 8:17 Comments || Top||

#9  Penn's trying to follow in Dad's footsteps. His father was purportedly blacklisted for having no talent too HUAC accusations. Sean however thinks everyone should be forced to employ him when public displeasure at his stupid statements, actions in Iraq/ads could very well cost his employer a freaking lot of money. I really hope Bing has the cojones to go to the mat on this. How about a couple public opinion polls showing how Sean's image would impact the bottomline (of what's gotta be a piece of crap movie anyway)?
Posted by: Frank G || 05/12/2003 8:54 Comments || Top||

#10  Sean Penn goes to Iraq and tells Saddam to "tear down this wall". And now can't get work. So nearly broke he tries to clear his name...
Posted by: Lucky || 05/12/2003 11:25 Comments || Top||

#11  This is ridiculously easy to resolve... take him back into the movie, and give the job of re-writing Sean's part to those play-writing monkeys that were in the news this weekend, and tell him it's going to be a combination of "Rain Man", "I am Sam", and "Die Hard":

Actor: Look at that!
Penn: SSsssSSsSSssSSSsssSSSS
Actor: I agree totally. Should we steal this car?
Penn: SSSsssSS... kd j jkd lasjdkf ?
Posted by: snellenr || 05/12/2003 13:11 Comments || Top||


Iraq
The real scandal of Iraqi relief
From yesterday's New York Post. Didn't have time to do it justice...
THEY come from all over the world. Their supposed mission is to help the people of Iraq. Their concerned frowns and even their clothes all proclaim the message: "We're the good, caring people . . . and you're not."
Oh, dear! Of whom could he possibly be speaking?
But if actions speak louder than words, then many of the international charitable organizations called NGOs (non-governmental organizations) here are less interested in doing good works than in moral posturing and haranguing the army that won a war most of them opposed.
Oh, them? And this comes as a surprise?
Ask any soldier who patrols this city, and you'll hear the same thing: The NGOs have been here for weeks, but they're not out in the streets. They cite "security concerns" — though journalists and soldiers alike move around the city, using common sense and taking precautions. (This absence is also true of the United Nations, which has a fleet of $65,000 SUVs sitting uselessly in the sun outside its headquarters at the Canal Hotel. One U.N. program is active — the food program — but on its first day on the job, one of its workers was caught looting and arrested by the U.S. Army.)
Wait'll they set up the Food for Nooky Program...
TO catch the NGOs in "action," you must go to the daily meeting at 1700 hours at the palazzo occupied by CMCC — that's the Civilian Military Coordination Center. (It used to be CMOC — the civilian military operations center — but the NGOs complained that the name implied that they were operating together with the military!) At the meeting are NGO representatives, officials from the U.S. Organization for Reconstruction and Humanitarian Aid (ORHA) and Army officers from headquarters around Baghdad. At the head of a long table in the middle of the room sits an army "facilitator," Maj. Tony Coleman — a man with the patience of Job. On rows of gilt chairs on all sides of the table sit about 30 civilians and a sprinkling of soldiers. A few of the civilians are Iraqis. The rest are international bureaucrats, most of them shiny with privilege, all of them bursting with self-righteousness.
"We're from the Non-Governmental Organization. We're here to help..."
Army officers stand all along the walls. Compared to the aid workers (with their new clothes and expensive haircuts), they look dirty and tired. The soldiers must doff their rifles and sidearms before they enter the area because the NGO folk — who depend on these men and women for their protection — object to the presence of firearms.
A fastidious lot, aren't they?
Many other complaints follow the lines of: I was over there yesterday. You said it was safe but I heard a shot.
So file a complaint...
AFTER the official briefings on health, power, sewage, security and even subjects like animal welfare, you get to hear the long discussions of how the next meeting should be run: Certain topics must be highlighted; it's important that there be "break-out" sessions. It's there that you'll hear every shortage here blamed on the Americans and their war, even though there were severe problems here before March 20. "All they do is complain," said a colonel who attends these meetings. "And you know what, I'm getting school supplies here with the help of my church at home quicker than all these NGO guys. A lot of units here are doing the same. ALL these guys do is talk, talk, talk. The only NGOs I've seen out here are the ICRC — and they're driving around, not working. These guys are more bureaucratic than the Army!" (They're also more secretive, excluding the media from their meetings and trying to keep them out of the CMCC sessions.)

Certainly almost every question is delivered in accusatory tones. Indeed, more often than not they aren't really questions but statements: "You should understand that the military should not occupy schools because that's an abuse of civilian structures," admonished one NGO leader on Sunday. A little later, another informs the room that "we as an organization will adhere to humanitarian principles and not use any military aircraft. . . . It is unacceptable for humanitarian supplies to come in on military transport."
So buy some bicycles and bike 'em in...
The issue of moral pollution by contact with U.S. forces sometimes seems to be the NGOs' main focus. A Frenchwoman from Medecins Sans Frontieres embarks on a long rant: "We all know that this war has been planned for a long time. You cannot deny that. So why did you not plan medical assistance?" She said that MSF — whose Web site in any case says that there is no humanitarian crisis in Iraq — is pulling out.
"We shall be sulking in our tent. When you discover just how much you need us, call for an appointment."
LATER, a blond girl from a group called "Innocent Victims of War" asks a question basically accusing the armed forces of not caring or doing anything about cluster bomblets and the children they injure. A British engineer major then calmly explains that there are 10 unexploded-ordnance teams all over the city and that a special U.N. dog-team is coming into town next week. The task is huge because "this whole country is a vast ammunition dump, and a lot of the stuff is booby trapped." She doesn't relent: Next week "is a little unacceptable to me." The major moves the subject on, assuring her that the children injured by munitions are "something that truly pains us all."
There sure are a lot of things that're unacceptable. Wonder what really happens when the choice is to accept or go whistle?
ONE of the many sulky Frenchmen demands that the Americans remove the roadblocks on the road from the airport into town, only to be told by a bullet-headed Maj. Watkins that this simply won't happen: The Army has to keep its main supply routes secure.

Then an armor major stands up, says that there's a young girl in his area with a brain tumor, and asks: "Are there any NGOs out there who can arrange specialized treatment for her?" The answer is silence. The same thing happens when Capt. Cory Davis of the 2nd Armored Cavalry requests NGO help in resettling 400 families who've installed themselves in government buildings that will soon be taken back by the relevant ministries. "Look at Saddam City," a senior officer liaising with ORHA said to The Post, referring to the city's biggest Shiite slum, "There's 2 million people living in that little spot. It's so poor it reminds me of Haiti. That's where the NGOs could make a huge difference. But you know who's the only people coming in to help? The Iranians."

THE NGOs do have some legitimate gripes. ORHA is slow and bureaucratic. As an institution, it sometimes seems primarily concerned with its own comfort and safety. And as these meetings make painfully clear, there are no military officials who keep track of the whole city in matters of security, health, transportation, etc. And different parts of the Army here don't or can't communicate with each other. For instance, when the NGOs want to talk to someone who can arrange landing slots at the airport for humanitarian flights no one at the meeting knows who they should talk to. (The number some have been told to call at Doha, Qatar rings unanswered forever.)

Moreover, some of the big problems, like the shortage of fuel for automobiles, generators, etc. can only be solved by the U.N. Security Council, which has been inexplicably, cruelly slow when it comes to lifting sanctions and ending the suspension of the Oil for Food program.

The NGO folk come in various types. There are the churchy-hippie guys, like the bearded, earringed representative from Christian Peacemaker Teams. There are the sullen Frenchmen in linen shirts. There are the pretty, privileged-looking girls in clothes that wouldn't look out of place in the streets of SoHo. What they all seem to have in common is opposition to "George Bush's war" - and a desire, conscious or not, to justify that stance retroactively by finding fault with the American regime here.

They are entitled to their opinion. But the Iraqi people need help, regardless of whether that help comes from people in camouflage uniforms riding in dusty Humvees, or from elegant men in ponytails driving gleaming SUVs. It is fascinating to see how much more morally serious the people in the Humvees seem to be — and how much readier the people in the SUVs are to despise the Army than to effectively better the lot of the Iraqis.
Posted by: Fred Pruitt || 05/12/2003 08:26 am || Comments || Link || [0 views] Top|| File under:


Iranian "Secret Service" Office Closes in Kurdistan
An Iranian "secret service" office has closed in the northern Iraqi Kurd town of Dohuk at the request of the Kurdistan Democratic Party (KDP), a Kurdish source said Monday. "On May 8, the Iranians left an office they had in Dohuk at the request of the KDP," said Hussein Yazdanpana, secretary of the Union of Kurdistan Revolutionaries. Yazdanpana said the closure was a "normal event in the current situation in Iraq where the United States control the situation and prevent any interference by neighbouring states in Iraqi affairs." Iran had been running "three offices in northern Iraqi towns for seven years. These offices were not representing the Iranian government but carried out spying and surveillance in the region," he said.
Freelancers? It takes a bit of coinage to run an intel network. Sounds more like (barely) plausible deniability...
The United States has asked the KDP and the Patriotic Union of Kurdistan to bar the entry of Iranian officials into northern Iraq, Yazdanpana added.
Posted by: Fred Pruitt || 05/12/2003 09:47 pm || Comments || Link || [0 views] Top|| File under:


KADEK forces Threaten Retaliation if Attacked
The Kurdistan Freedom and Democracy Congress (KADEK), formerly known as Kurdistan Worker's Party (PKK), warned at the weekend that it would retaliate with force if either Turkey or the United States moved to purge Southern Kurdistan of its forces. "It would be misjudgment for Turkey to count on the United States against us... Turkey should not play with fire," Mustafa Karasu, a member of the KADEK's leadership council, told the Europe-based Medya-TV late on Sunday. "No force could expel us from here. That is day-dreaming... If they crack down on us, we will restart the war."

Karasu said KADEK fighters would only lay down their arms if there was a solution to the Kurdish conflict and that they were prepared to establish ties with regional powers to facilitate a settlement. "We will establish ties with anyone for the interests of our people. This could be the United States, this could be Israel, but the US should help the resolution of the dispute, not block it," he said.

The US Deputy Secretary of Defense Paul Wolfowitz has told the Turkish media last week that "PKK is a terrorist organization. I don't think we can tolerate a terrorist organization in northern Iraq. How we deal with that is a difficult issue ... but I think we are absolutely in clear agreement with Turkey and I think with the major Kurdish groups (in Southern Kurdistan ) see these people as terrorists and troublemakers and we don't need that kind of trouble." The American military has already disarmed the Mujahideen e-Khalq forces in central Iraq and issued a warning on Saturday asking "other armed groups" to follow the course of the Iranian guerrillas.
I don't think KADEK is going to do that, but I'll bet the Turks would be happy to help take them apart. I don't think they should be allowed to do so — if they're on Iraqi territory, they're an American (and Kurdish) problem. If it can be done with minimal bloodshed, as with the MKO, we should do it that way. But if we know where there's a concentrated terror organization, it should be wiped out. That's a task we've set ourselves, and there shouldn't be any exceptions.
Posted by: Fred Pruitt || 05/12/2003 09:42 pm || Comments || Link || [0 views] Top|| File under:

#1  Yep, 'bout time to turn Commander Gerbil into a hamster.
Posted by: Steve White || 05/12/2003 22:51 Comments || Top||


Sadr hard boys disrupt Hakim homecoming
THE triumphant return by Ayatollah Muhammad Baqr al-Hakim to Iraq after 23 years of exile encountered its first opposition yesterday when followers of his main rival disrupted his speech in the holy city of Najaf. The ayatollah abruptly ended an address in the golden-domed tomb of Imam Ali when 60 youths pushed through the crowd waving portraits of the martyred father of the young, ambitious Hojatoleslam Moqtada al-Sadr, chanting: “Yes, yes to al-Sadr.”
Wonder if Sadr's hard boys are going to try and run Hakim out of town?
Ayatollah al-Hakim, 66, Hojatoleslam al-Sadr, 30, and Grand Ayatollah Sayyed Ali al-Sistani, 73, are vying for the spiritual and political leadership of Iraq’s majority Shia community and for control of the country’s holy sites. Ayatollah al-Hakim arrived from Iran at the weekend and reached his final destination — Najaf, burial place of the Prophet Muhammad’s son-in-law and home of its religious authority, the hawza — yesterday.
Posted by: Fred Pruitt || 05/12/2003 06:57 pm || Comments || Link || [0 views] Top|| File under:

#1  We really don't like either by my take - put them in a stadium and let them have at it - then jug the survivors
Posted by: Frank G || 05/12/2003 19:28 Comments || Top||


Saddam in Country Under Special Protection: Chalabi
Grain of salt.
Ahmad Chalabi, president of the Iraqi National Congress, has said Saddam Hussein is moving around in the country under special protection. In an interview with Asharq Al-Awsat, a sister publication of Arab News, he said the people around Saddam had now abandoned him. “They don’t know about his whereabouts,” he added.

Chalabi said he was not surprised by the sudden fall of Saddam’s forces during the US-led war. “We told the Americans that neither the Republican Guards nor the army would fight in defense of Saddam,” he explained. He said those who had fought against the US/UK forces were people belonging to the special operation wing under the Iraqi intelligence agency. They included two women suicide bombers. He accused Saddam of killing more Iraqis per month than were killed in the US-led war.

Chalabi said his party played a role in handing over former Iraqi Deputy Premier Tareq Aziz to US forces. “The report that Aziz surrendered to US authorities of his own accord is not correct. We told the US authorities where he was staying,” he added. He said his men had also assisted in the arrest of many other leaders of the former regime, including Hussein Takriti, commander of the air defense forces.

He said the new Iraqi interim authority would be formed in a democratic manner. “We are now discussing this matter with all Iraqi parties. We are trying to reach out to a large number of Iraqi people including tribal and trade union leaders for consultation,” he said. Chalabi said he wanted the voice of more Iraqi personalities in various parts of the country to be heard.
He did not want to play a political role in the presence of Americans, he said. “Because, personally I don’t like to take instructions from others and I don’t want to be under the influence of any party. Otherwise people will have doubts who is the actual authority. But I want to have a role which will allow me to speak out in defense of the Iraqi people, their freedom and civil rights,” he added.

He said many leaders of the former regime were still in the country but revealed that Kamal Mustafa Al-Takriti, commander of the Republican Guards, and other senior military officers had left the country.

The Iraqi opposition leader also said the Badr brigade under the Supreme Council for Islamic Revolution was seeking to become part of the Iraqi armed forces. He opposed the presence of armed militias in the country. “We want to neutralize these forces and bring them under a single military force to stabilize the country,” he added. Chalabi denied reports that there were more than 100 American POWs in Iraq. “I don’t think so. According to our information their number is very small.”
Posted by: Tadderly || 05/12/2003 11:08 am || Comments || Link || [0 views] Top|| File under:

#1  He's moving around the country, but reeeaalll slloowww with his special earthworm/maggot protective detail.
Posted by: Watcher || 05/12/2003 21:54 Comments || Top||


Coalition Forces Take Custody of Iraq’s ’Dr. Germ’
Coalition forces have taken custody of the Iraqi scientist known as "Dr. Germ" for her work in creating weapons-grade anthrax, officials said Monday. Dr. Rihab Taha, who had been negotiating her surrender for days, turned herself in over the last 48 hours, said Maj. Brad Lowell of the U.S. Central Command.
Maybe she'll bunk with Mrs. Anthrax???
U.N. weapons inspectors nicknamed Taha "Dr. Germ" because she ran the Iraqi biological weapons facility where scientists worked with anthrax, botulinum toxin and aflatoxin. A microbiologist, Taha holds a doctorate from the University of East Anglia in Britain. She is not on the list of the 55 most wanted former members of Saddam Hussein's regime. But American forces have been trying to capture her and last month unsuccessfully raided her Baghdad home in the search for her and her husband. Taha is married to Amir Rashid, who held top posts in Saddam's missile programs and was oil minister before the war. Rashid surrendered to U.S. forces April 28, 12 days after that Baghdad raid.
Posted by: Steve || 05/12/2003 10:08 am || Comments || Link || [0 views] Top|| File under:

#1  So, was Debka wrong? Or is the timeline a little more fluid than this says?
Posted by: Frank G || 05/12/2003 10:13 Comments || Top||

#2  The headline should've been:
Coalition Continues Disinfection of Iraq
Posted by: Mike || 05/12/2003 10:43 Comments || Top||

#3  Debka might have been right and we might have kept Toxic Taha on ice for a week to ask some pointed questions.
Posted by: Douglas De Bono || 05/12/2003 12:25 Comments || Top||

#4  Update: Also reported captured was Armed Forces Chief of Staff Ibrahim Ahmad Abd al Sattar Muhammad al Tikriti, Pentagon officials said, citing initial reports from the region. He is No. 11 on a list issued last month of the 55 most wanted former members of Saddam's regime and the jack of spades in a card deck issued to troops looking for regime leaders. No details of his capture were available.
Posted by: Steve || 05/12/2003 12:52 Comments || Top||


Coalition frees would-be Baghdad Mayor
Coalition forces have released Mohammed Mohsen al-Zubaidi, two weeks after detaining the man who sought to govern Baghdad in the aftermath of the fall of Saddam Hussein, US Central Command announced Monday. "Prior to his release, al-Zubaidi admitted that he had over-stepped his authority and that his actions were contrary to Coalition efforts to secure and stabilize Baghdad," Centcom said in a statement datelined Baghdad. "Upon his release, al-Zubaidi issued a public statement affirming his support to the Coalition and pledging to work within the Coalition authority to enhance the reconstruction of Baghdad and Iraq," it added.
I guess we "explained" things to him.
However the retired US general appointed to administer Iraq, Jay Garner, announced on May 5 that Zubaidi had been freed just 48 hours after his arrest on April 27. The condition for his release was that he not resume his activity of asserting authority in Baghdad, the general told reporters on May 5. "I understand he was released after 48 hours," Garner said.
"48 hours or two weeks, when ever we get to it. Now if you'll excuse me, I got to pack."
According to Centcom, Zubaidi, who had announced he was setting up 22 committees to run Baghdad, including foreign affairs and defense, said in his statement: "My intent has always been to work in support of the Coalition. But I now realize that a number of my statements and actions have actually served to hinder progress in the very areas in which I was working to improve. I am not the mayor of Baghdad, nor am I interested in working independently of the Coalition to achieve what we all understand to be the same goal — peace and prosperity for all Iraqis."
"Is that OK? Can I go home now, please?"
Lieutenant General David McKiernan, commander for the Coalition Forces Land Component Command, said: "It is important that self-appointed leaders do not spring from the void formed with the removal of the regime. There will be officials elected and appointed who will represent Iraqis. I hope that, like we did with Mr. al-Zubaidi, we can work with those Iraqis who want a better future for Iraq."
"And if we can't, there is plenty of room at Gitmo."
Posted by: Steve || 05/12/2003 09:53 am || Comments || Link || [0 views] Top|| File under:


Syria, Iraqis and French passports
The former vice-president of Iraq is being sheltered at a military base in the Syrian capital Damascus, according to a Gulf diplomat, speaking to the British Telegraph newspaper. Izzat Ibrahim al-Douri is said to be under the protection of Syria's Republican Guard in a military base near the airport.

[snipped. A rehash from yesterday]
Posted by: rebel weasel || 05/12/2003 05:46 am || Comments || Link || [0 views] Top|| File under:


Southeast Asia
Aceh rebels say police "kidnap" their negotiator
Separatist rebels in Aceh province said on Monday that security forces had "kidnapped" their senior negotiator from a hotel where he was staying. "The colonial government of Indonesia must immediately release Amri Abdul Wahab... who was again kidnapped by Indonesian colonial security forces on May 12," Free Aceh Movement (GAM) spokesman Sofyan Dawood said in a statement. Wahab was one of the GAM negotiators who were arrested on Friday and subsequently declared suspects in bombings which police have blamed on GAM in Jakarta and Medan in North Sumatra. They were released Sunday on a guarantee from the Henry Dunant Center, which has mediated peace talks between Jakarta and the separatist rebels. More than 50 international peace monitors withdrew Monday from Aceh and a ceasefire agreement between the government and GAM, signed in December, was close to collapse.
Posted by: Tadderly || 05/12/2003 10:30 am || Comments || Link || [0 views] Top|| File under:

#1  No reason they shouldn't call the Indonesian gov't colonial; much of Indonesia has little in common with the dominant Javanese. Indonesia is a very very varied colonial empire that was basically inherited bu the Javanese from the Dutch. Much like India in this regard, though the Indians have done a better job of regional self-government that takes some of the sting out.
Posted by: buwaya || 05/12/2003 14:21 Comments || Top||

#2  actually colonial makes sense in some situations - the limitation of the world colonial to situations where 1st worlders repressed 3rd worlders was always arbitrary,and was done for the benefit of the old USSR and some 3rd world countries. Doubt it quite applies to Aceh, but Indonesian rule over Irian Jayan (western new Guinea) has strong overtones of colonialism.
Posted by: liberalhawk || 05/12/2003 12:43 Comments || Top||


International Monitors Move Out of Aceh
International monitors left Aceh province early Monday ahead of a deadline set by the Indonesian government for rebels fighting there to lay down their arms or face a military crackdown.
"Head for the hills, boys, the balloon's about to go up!"
The move came as negotiators held last-minute meetings with Indonesian government and rebel leaders to salvage a fragile five-month peace pact. The monitors departed apparently out of concern for their safety in light of a possible resumption of hostilities.
Apparently? They had no desire to be the jelly in the sandwich.
The 50 Thai and Filipino monitors were moved to Medan in North Sumatra, according to David Gorman, a negotiator with the Geneva-based Henry Dunant Center, which brokered the Dec. 9 peace agreement. ``They are being relocated until we see what happens ... If we have positive results they will come back. I'm trying to be hopeful,'' he told The Associated Press.
A Geneva based NGO, a hopeful but clueless westerner in an eastern land, rebels, gummint troops, and religion -- mix in a beautiful girl and I've got a direct-to-cable movie script already half-written.
In addition to laying down their weapons, the government wants the rebels to accept autonomy instead of full independence. Negotiators said rebel leaders have expressed some willingness to accept autonomy but are reluctant to lay down their arms until the government withdraws to defensive positions as required by the Dec. 9 pact.
"You go first!"
The pact to end the 26-year civil war — which has killed nearly 12,000 people on the northern tip of Sumatra island, about 1,200 miles northwest of Jakarta — has appeared to unravel in recent weeks. Last week the government announced it was sending more troops to the province and had readied a presidential decree allowing it to kill lots of rebels and anyone else nearby ``launch a security operation'' in the province. Parliament has expressed its support for a military crackdown. The country's military chief Gen. Endriartono Sutarto was to brief a parliament committee Monday. ``It seems to me that we will have a large scale military operation in Aceh and we support that,'' legislator Jacob Tobing said Sunday. ``We just want to guarantee the military has a good plan to minimize civilian causalities.''
Good plan to minimize civilian causalities? Good grief, man, this is Indonesia!
Rebels issued a statement calling on their fighters to return to their bases and for citizens to halt all activities starting Monday. The rebels have 3,000 to 10,000 troops in the province, while the government has more than 30,000 troops. The peace pact was signed with much fanfare, and in its first few months effectively ended the civil war. But violence has intensified in the past two months, with both sides accusing the other of violating the agreement. The government says rebels have used the halt in fighting to promote independence, while the rebels accuse the military of attacking supporters of the pact.
And both were right!
The presence of large reserves of oil and gas in Aceh has intensified the fight over who controls the region.
Ah, I knew we'd get to the heart of the matter at some point!
Posted by: Steve White || 05/12/2003 12:15 am || Comments || Link || [0 views] Top|| File under:


Iran
Khatami calls for Islamic vigilance to thwart conspiracies
Not only vigilance, but Islamic vigilance...
IRNA -- Iranian President Mohammad Khatami said Monday that Islamic countries should be vigilant against enemies' efforts to sow the seeds of discord among them.
Curses! Foiled again!
In a meeting with the Speaker of Lebanese Parliament Nabih Berri, he stressed strengthening of ties among the regional countries. "We should resist attempts to drive a wedge among Muslim nations specially in Lebanon," Khatami underlined. The fall of Saddam Hussein's regime in Iraq has provided a good opportunity in the region, "notably for the people of Iraq to determine their own future," Khatami underlined. Khatami further stressed the "need to be prudent on the part of Muslim countries by not providing a pretext to some powers to exert pressure."
"Yasss... They're nursing deep-laid plots, y'know..."
He hailed developments in southern Lebanon as glorious event for the whole Islamic world, Arabs and Iran. All Lebanese specially the Shia population played a crucial role in defeating the aggressors in the region. Terming the regional situations as "sensitive," Berri stressed the unity among Muslims and called for greater unity of Iran, Lebanon and Syria.
"I think we should get married!"
"Good idea. I'll get the guns, you order the cake!"
On the future of Iraq and "US goals in the region in securing Israeli interests," he said, "the US will attempt to create a rift between Tehran, Beirut and Damascus." He referred to the glory of freedom in the southern Lebanon adding the Shia population in the region are happy over the visit by the Iranian president to Lebanon. Khatami, heading a senior politico-economic delegation, arrived in Beirut Monday morning to review expansion of bilateral ties as well as the latest regional and international developments with high-ranking Lebanese officials.
Posted by: Fred Pruitt || 05/12/2003 09:26 pm || Comments || Link || [0 views] Top|| File under:


East/Subsaharan Africa
Thousands flee from massacre in DRC
EFL
Wielding machetes and rocket-launchers, hordes of tribal warriors and children have marauded through the Democratic Republic of Congo town of Bunia, unleashing an orgy of killing and forcing tens of thousands of terrified refugees across the Ugandan border.

United Nations officials have warned the Security Council that the crisis was potentially a genocide in the making, drawing parallels with Rwanda, where between 500,000 and 1 million people, mainly Tutsis, were killed by Hutus in 1994.

Reports from UN officials and aid workers said Uruguayan peacekeepers returned fire after gunmen believed to be from the Lendu ethnic group lobbed mortars at thousands of residents, mainly of the Hema tribe, seeking refuge in the UN compound.

There were no details about casualties, although two UN soldiers were said to be wounded. With only 600 troops in Bunia, a town of about 350,000 in the east of the war-ravaged country, the UN has been unable to control the deteriorating situation.

South African President Thabo Mbeki is expected to ask Mr Annan this week to extend the peacekeepers' mandate to allow them to return fire if civilians come under attack.

Lendu warriors reportedly smashed their way into a church and massacred 40 Hemas cowering inside. At least 50,000 civilians have been killed in the province in ethnic violence fanned by Uganda which, with Rwanda, invaded Congo in 1998 to try to topple dictator Laurent Kabila.

Uganda has exploited tribal differences between Hema and Lendu, successively arming both tribes. The subsequent instability provided "justification" for the continued presence of its troops in the mineral-rich province.
Posted by: Paul Moloney || 05/12/2003 07:46 pm || Comments || Link || [0 views] Top|| File under:

#1  South African President Thabo Mbeki is expected to ask Mr Annan this week to extend the peacekeepers' mandate to allow them to return fire if civilians come under attack.

Working through channels, I see...I hope that Mr. Mbeki gets the OK from Kofi in a timely manner. Man, I am sure glad that we did not wait for the OK from Kofi on Afghanistan and Iraq!
Posted by: Alaska Paul || 05/12/2003 20:14 Comments || Top||

#2  I've lost track. Have we been blamed for this already, or is that not until next week?
Posted by: Matt || 05/12/2003 20:59 Comments || Top||

#3  I think we're in line to be criticized for not doing anything on this one.
Posted by: Fred || 05/12/2003 21:11 Comments || Top||


Home Front
Former ELF spokesmen form new revolutionary group
Two former spokesmen for the radical Earth Liberation Front said Monday they are giving that up to form what they say is a "new revolutionary organization" called Arissa. Their news release said they have concluded "that more direct, strategic and severe action needed to be taken against the political structure itself in the United States." The telephone numbers on the Arissa release did not answer on Monday. The group's Web site does not specify the origin of the name "Arissa." The FBI labeled the ELF, which carries out sabotage against targets it considers environmentally unfriendly, as one of the nation's more dangerous terrorist organizations. FBI spokeswoman Jane Brillhart said the agency is aware of the new group but declined further comment. The ELF claims to have inflicted more than $45 million in damage to corporations, individuals and government agencies since 1997. Former spokesmen Craig Rosebraugh and Leslie James Pickering of Portland have denied being members of the shadowy group. They say that while they sympathize with it, their only role has been to relay ELF communiquès.
Oh, yasss... I'm sure they had nothing to do with ELF. No involvement at all... Nope.
Posted by: Fred Pruitt || 05/12/2003 07:12 pm || Comments || Link || [2 views] Top|| File under:

#1  I hope that the FBI is agressive with these guys as it is with al-Qaeda. A few ELF/and Arissa guys taken out would send the right message to the rest. I hope Craig and Leslie are being tailed and wire-tapped.
Posted by: Alaska Paul || 05/12/2003 20:10 Comments || Top||

#2  I don't know that I'd accept having them taken out by government agents...let the bears do that
Posted by: Frank G || 05/12/2003 20:34 Comments || Top||

#3  Arissa- because Altria was taken.
Posted by: Hermetic || 05/12/2003 21:52 Comments || Top||

#4  Great - the whackos that think ELF is too soft and cuddly.

Go get my shotgun, Martha!...
Posted by: mojo || 05/12/2003 23:16 Comments || Top||


Iran
US officials in secret talks with Iran to end 23-year impasse
HIGH-RANKING American officials have held secret talks with their Iranian counterparts to ease 23 years of diplomatic hostility and mistrust.
Gawd. I hope they didn't send them a cake...
The officials have met three times this year and are due to meet again in Geneva next week. The two sides have addressed Iraq and Afghanistan, Iran’s neighbours to the west and east, in unannounced meetings. They are held under the auspices of the United Nations, although UN officials usually leave both sides to conduct private talks. But both were at pains to emphasise yesterday, after the disclosure of their meetings, that they were not about to resume diplomatic ties, which were cut in 1980 after Iranian radicals held US Embassy staff hostage for 11 months.
I think I'd wait for awhile, see what happens...
Condoleezza Rice, President Bush’s National Security Adviser, said that there were “many, many barriers” to the resumption of diplomatic links with Iran, which is part of Mr Bush’s “axis of evil”. Influential figures in both capitals, however, are beginning to place the issue on the agenda. The former president Akbar Hashemi Rafsanjani proposed last month that his country hold a referendum on resuming ties with the US.
Posted by: Fred Pruitt || 05/12/2003 06:39 pm || Comments || Link || [0 views] Top|| File under:

#1  The former president Akbar Hashemi Rafsanjani proposed last month that his country hold a referendum on resuming ties with the US.

Yeah, right. If I remember, this is the same scumbag that said that Iran should develop its own nuclear weapons. Until ALL the mullahs are OUT of power, Iran should stay right where it is in the craphouse.
Posted by: Bomb-a-rama || 05/13/2003 0:40 Comments || Top||


East/Subsaharan Africa
Zimbabwe: three days of fuel left
Zimbabwe's national airline has just two or three days worth of fuel supply left, as a result of a critical liquid fuels shortage that has hit the country. Quoting airline spokesperson David Mwenga, the private Daily News said Air Zimbabwe is waiting to hear from fuel companies when more fuel will be delivered. "We have enough stocks for two to three days," Mwenga said. The representative added that an Air Zimbabwe flight from London to Harare had to make a stopover in the Zambian capital Lusaka on Sunday, to save the country's own dwindling stocks of fuel. Zimbabwe is in the grip of a crippling fuel shortage, caused by a lack of foreign currency needed to import the commodity. Most fuel stations across the country have run dry. There is also a shortage of coal in the country, which has affected industry, and the government has said that electricity power cuts are imminent due to the inability of the country to pay its debts to suppliers.
Posted by: Tadderly || 05/12/2003 03:49 pm || Comments || Link || [0 views] Top|| File under:

#1  Memo to Bob---Better save enough Jet-A for youreself to get out while the gittin' is good. You are just about out of time.
Posted by: Alaska Paul || 05/12/2003 15:58 Comments || Top||


Korea
NKorea Nullifies SK/NK Nuke Accord - U.S. has "Sinister Agenda"
EFL - spittle removal
North Korea said Monday a 1992 agreement with South Korea to keep the Korean Peninsula free of nuclear weapons was nullified, citing a "sinister" U.S. agenda. The accord was the last remaining legal obligation under which North Korea was banned from developing atomic arms. In January, Pyongyang withdrew from the Nuclear Nonproliferation Treaty, a global accord to prevent the spread of nuclear weapons.
Oooohhh sinister hmmm? I thought we were being pretty damn straightforward - no blackmail, no nukes, or no aid
"The joint (inter-Korean) agreement to keep the Korean Peninsula nuclear free was nullified because of a sinister and hostile U.S. policy against North Korea," the North's official news agency KCNA said. "We have realized that as long as the United States does not abandon its hostile policy against the North, efforts to keep the Korean Peninsula nuclear free is nothing more than an illusion," KCNA said. "We will further boost our already mighty military power." The two Koreas signed the agreement in January 1992, pledging to renounce hostilities and ban the development and deployment of nuclear weapons on the divided peninsula.
Only one side kept it's agreement
Monday's announcement came as South Korean President Roh Moo-hyun was in the United States on a weeklong trip that will focus on seeking a peaceful solution to the crisis over North Korea's suspected nuclear weapons programs. Roh, who is scheduled to meet President Bush at the White House on Wednesday, paid a solemn visit Monday to ground zero in New York City.
Posted by: Frank G || 05/12/2003 03:28 pm || Comments || Link || [0 views] Top|| File under:


East/Subsaharan Africa
SOMALIA: Kahin confirmed as president, opposition unhappy
For some reason, IRIN will not link to the full article

The constitutional court of the self-declared republic of Somaliland on Sunday confirmed the incumbent president, Dahir Riyale Kahin, as the winner of last month's presidential election. On 19 April, the Somaliland Election Commission (SEC) declared Kahin of the Unity of Democrats Party (UDUB) the winner of Somaliland's first multiparty presidential election, which was held five days earlier. According to the SEC, Kahin obtained 205,595 votes (42.08 percent of the poll), as opposed to 205,515 (42.07 percent) for Silanyo, out of a total vote of 498,639 votes cast - a difference of just 80 votes. The presidential candidate for the Kulmiye (Solidarity) Party, Ahmad Muhammad Silanyo — Kahin's main challenger — told IRIN at the time that his party "categorically rejected" the results of the elections. Kulmiye is said to be unhappy with the court's ruling, and "the party's top brass have been in meetings throughout the day to consider the next step", a Kulmiye official told IRIN. The official said that Kulmiye "does not recognise UDUB as the winner of the elections".

"The court's ruling is not based on the facts and is an injustice," he said. He added that the party leadership would issue an official statement "once consultations are concluded". Somaliland, a former British protectorate, declared independence from the rest of Somalia in 1991 after the collapse of the Siyad Barre government, but has not been internationally recognised. Over the past decade, it has moved away from conflict, while the rest of Somalia has been locked in civil strife.
I guess whether that trend continues depends on whether Kulmiye reaches for the AKs...
Posted by: Tadderly || 05/12/2003 03:01 pm || Comments || Link || [0 views] Top|| File under:


Iran
Tehran, Paris Seal Agreement on Guaranteeing Joint Ventures
*Sigh* No mweeping from any surprise meters here...
French Minister of States for Foreign Trade Francois Loos here Sunday said that Iran and France have reached an agreement to guarantee joint ventures, adding his country supports such an agreement between Iran and the European Union. Talking to the reporters, Loos said, the signature of the agreement will open a new phase in the bilateral ties.
Paris will hold a solo exhibition in Iran next autumn, he said, adding his country is interested in the expansion of cooperation with Iran in the fields of oil, gas, auto manufacturing, power generation, and telecommunication. Iran-France trade balance stands at 2.2 billion euros, two-thirds of which constitute Iran's imports from France and the rest Iran's exports to France, he added.
Touching the issue of the Airbus passenger planes already sold to Iran, he said, Paris is hopeful of finding a suitable way to supply them to Tehran, according to IRNA Persian Service. He added that there are already a number of Airbus planes among the Iranian passenger planes. We are trying to find some ways for the deal to be implemented, he said.
Posted by: Tadderly || 05/12/2003 02:11 pm || Comments || Link || [1 views] Top|| File under:

#1  How many times does France have to be on the losing side of a deal, before they learn their lesson??

Hussein, Mugabe, Iran...the list goes on. They are right up there with Saudi Arabia as a list of terrorist supporting nations...
Posted by: mjh || 05/12/2003 14:30 Comments || Top||

#2  How can the French not realize that this is the worst posible time to make deals with the soon-to-be-toppled mullahs? oh, I forget that Ayatollah Khomeini had his base in France while preparing the 1979 revolution... Maybe they think they'll be more successful in supporting the Iranian dictatorship than they were with the Iraqi one.
Posted by: Kalle (kafir forever) || 05/12/2003 15:21 Comments || Top||

#3  Key documents in the GWoT...
Chiraq's Rolodex.
Posted by: Dishman || 05/12/2003 18:16 Comments || Top||


Latin America
Haiti Arrests American on Arms Charges
Police have arrested an American man on charges of importing arms to Haiti illegally, a government spokesman said Saturday.
James White Glenn was arrested Friday in the coastal city of Gonaives, 60 miles northwest of Port-au-Prince, in possession of army uniforms, assault weapons, munitions, and grenade launchers, spokesman Mario Dupuy said.
Sounds like somebody was planning a little coup.
The U.S. Embassy said it was looking into the arrest but was not immediately able to confirm it. More details about Glenn and where he was from were not available. Glenn "had imported the material under cover of the Protestant mission he works for," Dupuy said, although he could not name the mission or Glenn's occupation. The material was seized, and Glenn was taken Saturday to the national prison in the capital, Port-au-Prince, Dupuy said.
Haitian prison, two words you really don't want to hear.
Posted by: Steve || 05/12/2003 12:57 pm || Comments || Link || [0 views] Top|| File under:

#1  ... in possession of army uniforms, assault weapons, munitions, and grenade launchers ...

C'mon, it's May, it's Haitian elk-hunting season. How are you going to hunt Haitian elk without a grenade launcher?
Posted by: Steve White || 05/12/2003 17:15 Comments || Top||

#2  I guess it's a weekend thing. Fly down to Port-au-Prince with the buddies and a small arsenal...occupy the Airport and the Presidential Palace (TM)
Posted by: Anonymous || 05/12/2003 19:30 Comments || Top||

#3  Naw...he was planning to properly celebrate the 200th anniversary of the Haitian flag on May 18th...
Posted by: seafarious || 05/12/2003 22:38 Comments || Top||


Home Front
Protest Planned Against Greenpeace’s ’Eco-Manslaughter’
Liberals vs. Liberals. Oh, the humanity!
An African American civil rights group is planning a Saturday protest against Greenpeace, alleging that the environmental group has committed "eco-manslaughter" through its support of international policies limiting development and the expansion of technology to the developing world's poor.
The Congress of Racial Equality (CORE) will conduct a counter demonstration at Greenpeace USA's "Run for Your Life" 5K road race at Liberty State Park in New Jersey. The Greenpeace event itself will be a protest, meant to "raise awareness of the serious threats posed by chemical plants to New York and New Jersey residents and workers."
Protestors protesting protestors.
CORE is using the event as an opportunity to confront Greenpeace activists about their opposition to infrastructure development projects in the developing world, opposition to genetically modified foods and the group's opposition to the use of the chemical DDT to kill malaria-ridden mosquitoes, particularly in Africa. "To serve its own ideological agenda, [Greenpeace] wants to keep the Third World permanently mired in Third World poverty, disease and death. So far, it has succeeded," said Niger Innis, national spokesperson for CORE. Innis believes that policies advocated by Greenpeace are keeping the developing world's poor from attaining running water, electricity and modern agricultural techniques that would allow more food to be grown on less land."It's time to hold these zealots accountable for the misery and death they cause," Innis stated.
Oh, my god! He called us "zealots"! Time for a teach-in to get his mind right? Rally the troops!
According to CORE, 2 billion people worldwide have no electrical power or clean water and are forced to use manure for fuel. CORE alleges that groups like Greenpeace are partly responsible for this as a result of their opposition to infrastructure development projects in the poorest regions of the world."Green radicals oppose all these projects and tell these destitute people they should be happy with little solar panels on their huts, now and for generations to come," a CORE press release stated. "People should be ashamed to support these fanatics and the eco-manslaughter they are perpetrating on the world's most destitute people. [Saturday's] protest is just the first step in bringing justice to the Third World," he added. Several calls to Greenpeace USA were not returned by press time.
They're probably in shock...
Posted by: tu3031 || 05/12/2003 11:58 am || Comments || Link || [0 views] Top|| File under:

#1  CORE is not your typical "civil rights organization," and can hardly be called "lberal" at all. Niger Innis is often pitted against left-leaning commentators when he's on TV.
Posted by: Tibor || 05/12/2003 15:46 Comments || Top||

#2  This is one of those times when conservatives should just shut up and let the looney left factions wreck each other. Enjoy the show.

I hope Green peas gets wrecked.
Posted by: badanov || 05/12/2003 17:32 Comments || Top||

#3  Did he just call me a Tree-hugger!
Did he just call me a Tree-hugger!
Did he just call me a Tree-hugger!

I'm gonna kick his ass!
Posted by: w_r_manues@yahoo.com || 05/12/2003 13:25 Comments || Top||


Middle East
Gaza Strip Sealed Following Attack - (Road map has a rest stop)
Israel sealed the Gaza Strip on Monday, imposing the most sweeping restrictions in years, and its troops killed three Palestinians in clashes there, as U.S. Secretary of State Colin Powell wound up a Mideast mission.
Can't have a peace mission without violence, can we?
POWELL HAD ASKED the Israeli and Palestinian prime ministers to move on the "road map" peace plan; Palestinians are expected to rein in militants, and Israel is to ease restrictions that have caused severe hardships for Palestinians through 31 months of fighting. However, the visit ended without visible results.
Except for a few bodies strewn here and there, of course...
Palestinian leaders expressed disappointment that Powell failed to prod Israel to accept the three-year plan. Israeli Prime Minister Ariel Sharon has expressed major reservations and was to air them in a meeting next week with President Bush. Before leaving for Washington, Sharon was to meet with his Palestinian counterpart, Mahmoud Abbas, in what would be the highest-level talks between the two sides in nearly three years.
Sounds like the same old routine, only with a different face here or there...
On Sunday, Israel lifted a closure on the West Bank and Gaza, allowing several thousands of Palestinians to return to jobs in Israel, while continuing to enforce travel restrictions between towns. But on Monday, the military barred Palestinians and all foreigners, with the exception of diplomats, from leaving and entering the coastal strip of Gaza. The open-ended travel ban marks the first time in years that foreign nationals, including journalists, are being kept out of Gaza for an extended period. "We've never seen anything like this," said Paul McCann, a spokesman for the United Nations Relief and Works Agency, which assists hundreds of thousands of Palestinian refugees. McCann said UNRWA's operations were being hampered considerably, adding that "this morning, we couldn't even get our diplomatic pouch out."
Too bad. That's what happens when boomers use your organizations to infiltrate...
The restrictions were imposed three days after the military announced that foreigners must sign security waivers as they enter Gaza and promise to stay away from "combat areas." Human rights groups have accused the army of trying to prevent monitoring of Israel military actions against Palestinians. The new rules were announced after two Britons traveled from Gaza to Tel Aviv, where one of the Britons blew himself up at a pub on April 30, killing three Israelis. His accomplice remains at large. In tightening restrictions, the military also referred specifically to keeping out members of the International Solidarity Movement, a pro-Palestinian group that has sent foreign volunteers to trouble spots to serve as buffers between troops and Palestinian civilians. Dozens of activists have been deported by Israel.
A move that looks like good sense from here...
In the first sign that a thaw might be developing, Israeli Maj. Gen. Amos Gilad met over the weekend with Mohammed Dahlan, minister in charge of security in the Palestinian Cabinet. Such contacts were a key element of interim peace accords but were suspended because of the violence, Israel Radio said. The question of whether Israel will accept the new road map, as Palestinian leaders have, may be clarified only when Sharon sees U.S. President George W. Bush in Washington on May 20. A senior U.S. official travelling with Powell said Bush remained committed to the plan. On Monday, Powell turned to Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak for help in improving Palestinian security forces in an attempt to encourage Israel to move ahead on the Mideast road map. After his meetings with Mubarak and other Egyptian officials, Powell takes the same message to Jordan later Monday and to Saudi Arabia on Tuesday.
Posted by: Frank G || 05/12/2003 11:18 am || Comments || Link || [0 views] Top|| File under:


#2  Given how legitimate Mubarak's elections are, Yasser's met the low standard for recognition. We do have leverage on Egypt though, about $2 Billion/year(?) worth? We need to do all we can to marginalize the yasshole
Posted by: Frank G || 05/12/2003 14:39 Comments || Top||

#3  Why isn't Powell asking for Mubarak's help to seal the tunnels from Sinai to Rafah to prevent smugling of arms, drugs, terrorists and prostitutes to Gaza strip?
Posted by: marek || 05/12/2003 11:52 Comments || Top||


Korea
Kimmie invents drink for "net nerds"!
I’m a nerd, I can say that.
North Korea, one of the world's poorest countries, claimed it has invented a drink to ease a health threat few outsiders would associate with the country: computer fatigue. Computers are a rarity among the communist country's hunger-stricken 22 million population. Visitors say the Internet is available only at a few hotels in the capital, Pyongyang. Still, North Korea's official KCNA news agency said last week that the drink, invented by the Institute of Plant Resources, was tested on computer users, and the "results show that the eye and mental strain has considerably been reduced." The drink, which ingredients have been extracted from "fruits of a tree," has a "good odor and sweet and sour taste," it said, without giving further details.
Great! Kimmie invented Orange Juche! What was I drinking before?!
Posted by: Tadderly || 05/12/2003 10:50 am || Comments || Link || [0 views] Top|| File under:

#1  Active ingredient; White Slag.
Posted by: tu3031 || 05/12/2003 11:00 Comments || Top||

#2  How was invention credit given to the Institute of Plant Resources? I thought Kimmie was the source of all thought, inventions, and general tasty goodness to come from NK
Posted by: Frank G || 05/12/2003 11:49 Comments || Top||

#3  Orange Juche? You were waiting for that wern't ya? LOL
Posted by: Shipman || 05/12/2003 13:16 Comments || Top||

#4  "The drink, which ingredients have been extracted from "fruits of a tree," has a "good odor and sweet and sour taste"
Well wotta ya know...Kimmie just invented Tang!...wait...uhhhh
Posted by: Watcher || 05/12/2003 21:51 Comments || Top||


Home Front
Md. Pond May Be Drained in Anthrax Probe
Maryland pond could be drained after federal agents suggested it may have been the site where anthrax used in a series of mailings in 2001 was assembled or where evidence was dumped. The FBI is considering draining a spring-fed pond that is up to an acre in size and 10 feet deep in Frederick Municipal Forest, Mayor Jennifer P. Dougherty said Sunday.The plan stems from a new FBI theory reported Sunday by The Washington Post that the person behind the attacks could have packed the deadly spores into envelopes under water without being infected or leaving traces on open land.
So their latest suspect is the Submariner?
The theory is based on evidence recovered from the pond this past winter, the Post reported Sunday, citing anonymous sources close to the investigation. FBI spokeswoman Debra Weierman, contacted Sunday by The Associated Press, declined to comment on the Post report or on searches conducted at a series of ponds in the forest. The attacks nearly 19 months ago killed five people and sickened 13 others. The pond findings offer physical evidence in a case that so far has been built almost exclusively on circumstantial clues, the Post quoted sources as saying. Two sources familiar with the items recovered from one of the ponds described a clear box, with holes that could accommodate gloves to protect the user during work, the Post reported. So-called glove boxes are commonly used to handle dangerous pathogens. Also recovered were vials wrapped in plastic.
So the FBI acually found something.
For protection against airborne bacteria, a person could put envelopes and secured anthrax powder into the box, then wade into shallow water and submerge it to put the bacteria inside the envelopes, some involved in the case believe, the Post said. Afterward, the envelopes could have been sealed in plastic bags before being removed from the underwater chamber. Other sources told the newspaper the work could have been done on land and the materials discarded in the pond.
I'd say dumping it in the pond is more likely.
The FBI has said nothing publicly about the material divers recovered during the December and January search missions. Sources close to the case told the Post that the discovery in the ponds was so compelling that the FBI now plans to drain one of the ponds of thousands of gallons of water for a detailed search this summer. Heather Lynch, a spokeswoman for the Maryland Department of Natural Resources, declined to comment on that plan Sunday. Dougherty said Sunday that draining the pond was "one of the possibilities." "Obviously, they want to find other evidence, and they think that, as I recall, they want to find other things being hidden by the muck," she said. The search of the ponds was based on a tip, the Post reported. Some investigators said the water theory is the result of the FBI's interest in Steven Hatfill, a physician and bioterrorism expert who formerly worked as a researcher at the U.S. Army Medical Research Institute of Infectious Diseases at Fort Detrick in Frederick. That facility is the primary custodian of the strain of anthrax found in the envelopes sent to the victims. Attorney General John Ashcroft has described Hatfill as "a person of interest" in the investigation. Hatfill formerly lived in an apartment outside Fort Detrick's main gate, about eight miles from the ponds. Hatfill's attorney, Thomas Connolly, called the water theory "far-fetched." He said Hatfill had nothing to do with the anthrax crimes.
Interesting.
Posted by: Steve || 05/12/2003 10:30 am || Comments || Link || [0 views] Top|| File under:

#1  Not to mention how long it's going to take for the envionmental impact statement on draining a wetland. They've had a very wet winter, too.
Posted by: Steve || 05/12/2003 13:43 Comments || Top||

#2  Yes, Steve, omitted that. Tack on 6 mo to a year for the EIS and the van to haul the rather large volumes to text around. Maybe longer if Greenpeace decides to send a rep, heh heh.
Posted by: Alaska Paul || 05/12/2003 14:08 Comments || Top||

#3  You know, the description of how this was supposedly done is SO Rube Goldberg! They might as well have postulated that the perp did it while standing on his head and using scuba gear.

It's kinda complicated to handle, but not this complicated. What about the Iraq connection?
Posted by: Chuck || 05/12/2003 10:59 Comments || Top||

#4  good luck draining a spring-fed pond. Gonna need big pumps to compensate for the inflow. Al-Aska Paul is the hydraulics guy here
Posted by: Frank G || 05/12/2003 11:26 Comments || Top||

#5  Chuck, obviously the FBI wants to avoid the Iraq connection. I think they have created the theory and refuse to back off in the face of overwhelming facts.
Posted by: Douglas De Bono || 05/12/2003 12:19 Comments || Top||

#6  Big Suction. Big Screen. Big Pumps. Big Hoses. Lots of Diesel. Hope you find something besides Big Water Source.
Posted by: Alaska Paul || 05/12/2003 13:29 Comments || Top||


"The Hardest Job in the Army"
A moving essay about the work of Mortuary Affairs troops in Kuwait City and at Dover AFB. Some excerpts:
At the gate, we come to a crossroads. One road goes to the military side of the [Kuwait City] airport. The other is traveled only by Mortuary Affairs personnel, who bring along the bodies of deceased soldiers in order to send them home. [Col. Richard] Dillon[, who commands the detachment,] made sure his people had access to a separate entrance, he says, because nothing shakes an incoming soldier's morale like seeing one of his fallen comrades returning home in a refrigeration truck.

The soldiers live in the space where they work. Descending into this subculture, one expects a certain amount of M*A*S*H-like black humor, for coping purposes, if no other. In advance of this visit, I have read a Gannett reporter's account of his travels with a forward collection team (the Mortuary Affairs troops who travel to the forward areas, so that individual units can drop off their deceased). Their helmet graffiti read "Don't Be the One" and "Smell the Dead." Here at Camp Wolf, these young soldiers also have pressure releases. They laugh about overweight reservists and assign vicious nicknames—"Juggernaut" to the sergeant with the large head, "PW" (for "P-- Whipped") for the officer they heard chatting up his girlfriend on the phone. But there is one thing the company commander, Capt. Brooks Brenkus, says is never, ever done: "We don't joke at all about remains." . . .

In another tent is a personal effects depot, where I watch a team go through belongings that a soldier left behind at camp—in this case, it was pocket change. They separate high-dollar items from low-dollar items, military possessions from civilian ones. Back in the processing tent is where they sort through whatever came in with the deceased. Every dollar will be registered by serial number, to make sure it all gets back to the family. All possessions are sent to a stateside depot to be cleaned. Nothing with blood on it will be forwarded to the family. Neither will anything that has the remotest possibility of upsetting a survivor—say, a photo of a woman other than the deceased's wife. To sequester these sensitive belongings, the Mortuary Affairs specialists, nicknamed "92 Mikes" after their Army job classification number, must fill out more paperwork. "There's a certificate of destruction that has to be filled out," says Col. Dillon. All of these records will be kept forever, since they still get family queries going back to Vietnam, Korea, and even the Civil War.

From there, the deceased are put in metal transfer cases and placed in refrigeration trailers until they can be flown out. . . . And all of this, the 92 Mikes will tell you with solemn pride, is done around the clock—sleep is often not an option--so that they can get their fallen comrades on a plane within 10 hours. . . .

Sometimes, it's not just the family members who need closure. At Camp Wolf in Kuwait, I met Staff Sergeant Carlos Roman, a former infantryman who now works the last leg on the Kuwaiti end of the Mortuary Affairs line. He double- and triple-checks that everything has been properly prepared. Then he puts his fallen comrades on a plane and prays over their transfer cases. Roman speaks with a thick Puerto Rican accent, and has a lineman's build, a bristly high-and-tight, and a pair of hard brown eyes that could intimidate an enemy into surrender.

Often, the easiest way to do his job is to make those eyes stop seeing. "When we get ready to work," he says, "It's like I'm standing here, and it's a different person who steps out. I'm seeing, but I'm not seeing what I'm seeing. I'm just there to do my job. And once I finish doing it, and I'm done with it all, they're in the transfer case, they're sealed, they're in the plane, they're gone—that's when I take my moment alone. Have I cried and shed tears out here? Yes I have. Many nights. But I've already said that regardless of what I see, I'm not going to stop working. Because I'm still here. My family has the privilege of still having me. The other family members of these service members that I'm seeing don't have that. It's not going to be possible, you understand? Some of them are just not going to be able to be seen. And I'm the one that has the final image of them--me. Somebody that doesn't even know them. I feel bad. Who am I to be able to see them in this last condition they're in? On the other hand, I wouldn't want my family to see me like that. So in a sense, I take that last look. And when I get my moment, I do my thing. I speak to God in my own way. I say the things I need to say. And I pray for all of them. I pray for their families."
Posted by: Mike || 05/12/2003 09:17 am || Comments || Link || [0 views] Top|| File under:

#1  Well worth reading the whole thing. I don't know how these people do it. God bless them that they do.
Posted by: tu3031 || 05/12/2003 16:31 Comments || Top||


North Africa
Search intensifies for Sahara tourists
Germany's foreign minister has arrived in Algeria to discuss efforts to find 31 European tourists, believed to have been kidnapped during excursions in the Sahara desert. Joschka Fischer's trip adds to growing European pressure for the Algerian authorities to resolve the mystery. He is due to meet President Abdelaziz Bouteflika. "It is important that we that we bring home our compatriots, safe and sound, as soon as possible," he said on arrival in Algiers. Some of the tourists have been missing since February. A spokesman at the Germany foreign ministry said "the efforts to shed light on the fate of those who disappeared in Algeria will be at the centre of discussions". German news magazine Focus on Monday quoted "security sources" as saying the alleged abductors had demanded direct negotiations with German officials but that the demand had been rejected by the government in Algiers. The magazine said Berlin was troubled by Algeria's decision not to use German troops trained to deal with hostage crises.
GSG-9 is standing by.
One Swiss media report suggests that the tourists are alive and a ransom was being demanded for their return by a radical group called the Salafist Group for Preaching and Combat (SGPC).
The group is allegedly linked to Osama Bin Laden's al-Qaeda network. Among the missing tourists are 15 Germans, 10 Austrians, four Swiss nationals, a Dutchman and a Swede.
Posted by: Steve || 05/12/2003 09:01 am || Comments || Link || [0 views] Top|| File under:


Korea
Seoul seeks Bush accord on diplomacy
What evidence does President Roh have that North Korea is ready for "peaceful change"? Does he see something positive in Kim Jong Il's desire for WMD's or in his export of illicit drugs.
President Roh Moo-hyun will urge President Bush to join him this week in a public promise to resolve growing tensions with North Korea by peaceful means, exempting the communist nation from the U.S. policy of "pre-empting" regimes that pursue weapons of mass destruction. "The mere thought of a military conflict with North Korea is a calamity for us," Mr. Roh told The Washington Times in an interview here Friday prior to his first face-to-face meeting with Mr. Bush, which will take place this week. "If possible, we think it is much more reasonable for us to induce North Korea to reform itself and to open up to the outside world," Mr. Roh said, citing a policy of social, political and economic engagement begun by his predecessor, Kim Dae-jung. "Of course," Mr. Roh said bluntly, "alongside pursuing the engagement policy we are fully prepared and fully braced for a possible calamity."...

"There are some Koreans who are afraid that President Bush's peaceful resolution principles may change at any minute," said Mr. Roh. The president gave his answers in Korean, which were simultaneously translated to English by his official interpreter. "So by agreeing at the summit on this peaceful resolution principle" to the crisis with North Korea, Mr. Roh said, he and Mr. Bush can calm the concerns of his countrymen. In turn, Mr. Roh said he would reassure Americans that during his five-year term, which began in February, South Korea will remain a strong and reliable ally: "I think that many Americans do not know me well and some of them may have doubts about me, and I will try my best to resolve all these doubts about me during this visit. I fully understand the mood and the circumstances that gave rise to [the pre-emption] doctrine. I would like to discuss with President Bush that the circumstances on the Korean Peninsula may not be appropriate for applying this principle."...

Of the Pyongyang government, Mr. Roh said: "Their ultimate objective is hard to understand, and the ways and means, the diplomatic and political ways of North Korea, to achieve their objective are unacceptable." He remains nevertheless convinced, he said, that North Korea is ready for peaceful change.

(con't see link)
Posted by: Anonymous || 05/12/2003 08:21 am || Comments || Link || [0 views] Top|| File under:

#1  North Korea, which launched a missile the day of Roh's inauguration, today embarrassed him again by pulling out of its last binding nuke treaty with South Korea at the same time he arrived in the US.

Roh is the Jimmy Carter of South Korean politics. We need to disentangle our policy from this loser's asap and move our troops south, to Japan or home.
Posted by: JAB || 05/12/2003 14:04 Comments || Top||

#2  Here's a good test: move all American forces OUT of S. Korea to Japan. Then announce that there will be no American defense of any hostile actions by the north, but that an attack on Japan will be met with massive retaliation. I wonder what would happen then....?
Posted by: Bomb-a-rama || 05/12/2003 14:37 Comments || Top||

#3  I would imagine that the SKor stock market would take a dive.............
Posted by: Alaska Paul || 05/12/2003 16:06 Comments || Top||

#4  Bush needs to read this puke the Riot Act. He's essentially Gerhard Schroeder with kimchee breath and fewer ex-wives. The RoK is wealthy enough and populous enough to provide for its own defense. Why should our troops be a speed bump to these ungrateful louts?

Memo to Roh: When Dear Leader invades and crushes schoolgirls under HIS tanks, who you gonna bitch to?
Posted by: Ned || 05/12/2003 17:27 Comments || Top||

#5  President Kim spent the last five years telling us how North Korea was changing, but we've seen precious little evidence of it. I know Mr. Roh was elected on a platform of engagement, but you would have thought that after five years of being tooled around by Pyongyang, Seoul would have learned to stop beating a dead policy horse.

Five more years of this crap... assuming I'm not nuked and/or invaded in the meantime.
Posted by: The Marmot || 05/12/2003 11:04 Comments || Top||

#6  Roh has built his theory on the assumption that NK is no real threat so matters of defense are not seen as relevant. Rumsfeld was right to call him on this earlier this year. He changed his tune for a while but has now returned to his delusions.

The SKs see our soldiers as nothing more than hostages preventing us from pursuing a confrontational policy with regard to NK. Many of Roh's younger, more nationalist supporters see the NK bomb as a long term benefit as they will inherit it upon reunification. China benefits from the fact that that the Sunshine Policy is driving a wedge between the US and SK that will force us off the peninsula one way or another. The NK bomb hastens this process.

Of course, none of the parties really care about the humanitarian crisis.

So, our fallback ally is Japan, which is showing signs of taking the threat seriously -- witness recent remarks from their defense minister. Still, you know its a bad situation when we the best we can hope hope for is a more aggressive Japan. We can all thank the delusions of SK voters for this pickle.
Posted by: JAB || 05/12/2003 18:17 Comments || Top||

#7  Roh will never let reality interfere with any of his ideas which make no rational sense to anyone but idiots.
His administration does not have enough information on human rights in NK to say if they are better or worse than the South.
He does want the US to play speed bump. I am making plans to get myself out of here as the government here is pretty much set on self destruction.
Posted by: Michael || 05/12/2003 22:44 Comments || Top||

#8  Michael makes a good point. SK is notoriously bad and finding out what is going on up north, though the north has had success penetrating SK and obviously has plenty of open source info. So any claims about what's happening up there are probably not based on very good intel info.
Posted by: JAB || 05/12/2003 23:00 Comments || Top||


Heroin Trail Leads to Hermit Kingdom
For nearly a month, agents of the Australian police had been shadowing three men, expecting them to receive a shipment of drugs — from somewhere. This seemed the night: Detectives had followed the three to a desolate, windswept beach on Australia's southern coast. As the suspects waited there in the midst of a storm, the worst in years, the agents peered through sheets of rain and saw an extraordinary sight: a North Korean freighter, maneuvering dangerously close to rocks and coral reefs. Soon a dinghy was fighting its way toward shore carrying 110 pounds of almost pure heroin, stamped with the best brand from Southeast Asia's clandestine drug labs. Proceeds from the drugs would go to prop up the impoverished North Korean government, they believe.

This was followed by a dramatic, four-day chase of the freighter through angry seas. By the time it ended on April 20 with Australian special forces soldiers sliding down ropes from a helicopter onto the ship's rolling deck, the vessel had become the centerpiece of a major diplomatic uproar and another obstacle to solving the tense standoff between North Korea and the United States over North Korea's nuclear program. U.S. officials say the capture is proof of their long-standing charge that the North Korean government has for years operated as a crime syndicate, smuggling drugs and counterfeit money around the world to generate income to keep itself alive. Secretary of State Colin L. Powell recently told a Senate committee the seizure shows that North Korea "thrives on criminality." Any conciliation with the communist state, he told reporters last week, must include an end to its nuclear program and "criminal activities."

(con't see link)
Posted by: Anonymous || 05/12/2003 08:03 am || Comments || Link || [0 views] Top|| File under:

#1  I'm not an expert but I think NKor is too cold, too wet and doesn't have enough sunshine to grow good opium poppies.
Posted by: Scooter McGruder || 05/12/2003 14:38 Comments || Top||

#2  And the Starving Masses™ would eat them
Posted by: Frank G || 05/12/2003 14:40 Comments || Top||

#3  From what I read in the article, it appears they're in the "transportation" end of the business. All this article needed was McGarrett and Dano reading WoFat his rights while they put him in cuffs.
Posted by: tu3031 || 05/12/2003 15:55 Comments || Top||

#4  Heroin sales are a form of hard currency conversion for the Nkors. Has anyone asked if the Nkor climate is condusive to cultivating large scale opium harvests. There has been a long standing suspicion that Pakistan has traded Afghan opium and Paki nuclear technology for Nkor missiles. The North Korean Advisory Group report pointed this out as far back as 1999.
Posted by: Douglas De Bono || 05/12/2003 12:24 Comments || Top||

#5  Don't hard currency is on the way courtesy of Orange Juche exports.
Posted by: Shipman || 05/12/2003 13:18 Comments || Top||


Syria-Lebanon
Shiites Greet Iran President in Lebanon
Tens of thousands of Shiite Muslims whistled, cheered and waved flags as Iranian President Mohammad Khatami drove through the streets of Beirut on Monday, making the first visit by an Iranian president to Lebanon. Khatami was met at Beirut airport by Lebanese President Emile Lahoud, Prime Minister Rafik Hariri and Cabinet ministers, and Sheik Naim Qassem, the deputy leader of Hezbollah.... In a commentary published in the Lebanese newspaper As-Safir on Monday, Khatami said the American and British troops should immediately withdraw from Iraq and allow the ``formation of a popular government.''
Like Iran has? Or like Iran would like to have?
Khatami said the coalition forces had suffered a moral defeat in Iraq. ``And the greatest mistake will be if the invasion forces attempt to impose on the (Iraqi) people a system that is immoral and alien,'' he said.
He's talking about individual liberty and freedom of religion and the right to be left alone...
He said the American people ``must not allow a special group with false ideas and dangerous ways of operating to use their national capabilities to preserve its own private interests.''
Posted by: Anonymous || 05/12/2003 07:57 am || Comments || Link || [0 views] Top|| File under:

#1  I always looked at it this way: in Iran, if the guy even remotely looks like Khamenei (or that jerk Khomeini when he was alive), then he's probably full of crap like most of the rest of the mullahs. As the saying goes, "birds of a feather.."
Posted by: Bomb-a-rama || 05/12/2003 14:29 Comments || Top||

#2  My apologies: I thought Khatami was an honest man. And my thanks to whoever said that Khatami was the good cop to the Mullahs' bad cop: Being freed from deception is one of the greatest gifts a fellow human being can give.
Posted by: Ptah || 05/12/2003 9:32 Comments || Top||


Korea
Lessons From Iraq Include How to Scare North Korean Leader
American intelligence officials have concluded that the North Korean leader, Kim Jong Il, went into seclusion during the final buildup to the war in Iraq because he feared that he too might be the target of attack. That judgment has led the Pentagon to consider new ways to hold him and his inner circle at risk as a way of bolstering deterrence on the peninsula. Mr. Kim vanished from public view for 50 days starting in mid-February, a time when the Pentagon also moved bombers into the Korean area of operations. Now, the military's ability to mount precision attacks on leadership targets in Iraq is being examined to see how it might apply in a tense standoff with North Korea, perhaps influencing North Korea's behavior without ever firing a shot.

A senior Defense Department official said that lessons from the attacks against Saddam Hussein of Iraq, including short-notice air strikes on suspected hideouts in the opening and closing days of the war, are shaping discussions of how best to re-arrange the American military presence in South Korea and nearby in the Pacific. The goal would be to assemble in the Korean region the same kind of detailed intelligence on high-priority targets — including the location of the adversary's leadership — and the ability to strike almost instantaneously with precision weapons should the need arise.

(con't see link)
Posted by: Anonymous || 05/12/2003 07:51 am || Comments || Link || [0 views] Top|| File under:

#1  After seeing how easy it is to strike a 'hardened' bunker, Kimmie wet himself. Funny how he wants to make nice after his recent hissy-fits over nothing.
American technology - 2
Evil Regimes - 0
Posted by: Cyber Sarge || 05/12/2003 17:38 Comments || Top||

#2  Perhaps the best result (of the many) to come out of the Iraq episode, is the way every evil and would-be evil despot on the planet has seen that you can't hide behind your population any more. There is no protection to be enjoyed behind the innocent masses, however many millions you have in your slave army, should the US military decide to go gunning for your worthless butt. This planet is not longer safe for tyrants.
Posted by: Bulldog || 05/12/2003 18:04 Comments || Top||


Glenn Reynolds to head Iraqi reconstruction effort
The Bush Administration today announced that Professor Glenn Reynolds, known on the Internet as the Instapundit, would replace Barbara Bodine as administrative head in Iraq. The surprising move was seen as an effort to counter perceptions that Iraqi reconstruction is sputtering, if not stalled. Reynolds, while clearly not the first choice of the Bush administration, is perceived as a credible and fair alternative to more senior diplomats, all of whom were seen as unacceptable to either the State Department or the Pentagon, bitterly at odds over policy in Iraq.

Reynolds, whose ironic web log observations are read by hundreds of thousands every week, pledged that he would undertake his duties in accordance with the principles found on his weblog, or blog, as the Internet diaries are popularly known. “Transparency, honesty and equity before the law will be the guiding principles of my term here,” said Reynolds, adding ironically that he did not expect to become a permanent fixture in Iraq.

Reached at his home in Tennessee, Professor Reynolds was packing for departure, primarily concerned with having his laptop loaded with functional audio and video blogging tools, as well as sound editing equipment. When asked if his wife, a documentary film producer, would accompany him, Reynolds said “Indeed.” However, he refused to say whether or not she would be filming in Iraq, or if in fact she would be staying for a prolonged period.
Now there's some great news to start your Monday morning off with (or a good chuckle over your coffee, anyway).
Posted by: Bent Pyramid || 05/12/2003 06:24 am || Comments || Link || [0 views] Top|| File under:

#1  If the Grand Mufti isn't wearing his burnoose and turban, is he "in mufti"?
Posted by: mojo || 05/12/2003 13:52 Comments || Top||

#2  divisio et imperio has generally been a smart strategy - some people in their rage would like to unite all our opponents and potential opponents.
Posted by: liberalhawk || 05/12/2003 13:59 Comments || Top||

#3  I wouldn't want to become my enemies, even if that *was* all that I had left. What would be the point?
Posted by: Aris Katsaris || 05/12/2003 16:38 Comments || Top||

#4  *snickers* If only...
Posted by: Ptah || 05/12/2003 7:30 Comments || Top||

#5  "In other news, a certain Fred Pruitt has been placed in charge of the impending de-Ba'athification of Iraq. When asked what methods he would use, he replied, 'Mustachios and truncheons.'"
Posted by: Crescend || 05/12/2003 8:02 Comments || Top||

#6  What is not funny is the fact that an overwhelming majority of blog operators and posters, are slavish supporters of a President who forced Americans to take an unnecessary trillion dollar economic hit, while he begged Muslims leaders to enable him to conduct limited war against select Islamofascists. Afghanistan and Iraq? Big deal. Those problems should have been handled by 9-21. The solution - pre-911 and today - has always been to force the liquidation of the entire jihadi movement on a global scale. Any mosque - including the (un)Holy Mosque, in Mecca and the (phony) Prophet's Mosque, Medina - which issues genocidal khutbah and fatwah should be turned into rubble. There shouldn't be one living supporter of HAMAS, Hizbollah, al-Fatah, al-Qaeda, Islamic Jihad, Muslim Brotherhood, etc in America. If that means shooting on sight, every member of the Islamic Society of North America and the Muslim Students Association, then that has to be done. TO HELL WITH AN ACCOMODATING PEACE. WAR ON ISLAM TODAY!

http://www.whitehouse.gov/news/releases/2001/09/20010917-11.html
Posted by: Anonon || 05/12/2003 11:02 Comments || Top||

#7  Great minds do think alike. On February 17, I nominated Glenn for Pasha of Baghdad. Of, course, I wanted to be Grand Mufti.

http://blog.simmins.org/2003_02_16_arch.html#89257035

For some reason, right now, the browser wants to try to add the Rantburg URL to any a href, so I'll not put the direct link.
Posted by: Chuck || 05/12/2003 11:06 Comments || Top||

#8  Among the many problems with the 'death to all members of all terrorist groups' is that among the members are informers/agents/liaisons paid by the US, Israel, Egypt, etc. This reminds me of the saying, "to every problem there is a straight forward and simple solution that is also wrong".
Posted by: mhw || 05/12/2003 11:12 Comments || Top||

#9  Reverse Jihad™ is always an option, but I would categorize it as a last resort. We do not want to become our enemies, unless that is all we have left. We have to fight smarter then our enemies.
Posted by: Alaska Paul || 05/12/2003 13:25 Comments || Top||


Caucasus
Many killed in Chechen blast
Slightly EFL
A lorry loaded with explosives has rammed into a local government building in Chechnya, killing at least 30 people. The suspected rebel attack occurred in the town of Znamenskoye, in the north of the republic. Local government chief Sultan Ahmetkhanov said a truck filled with explosives had damaged part of an administration building and the headquarters of the Federal Security Service in the town, as well as about eight houses. At least 30 people were killed and two to three times that number were injured. The incident occurred at 1000 local time. If it is confirmed that the bombing was perpetrated by Chechen separatists, it would be their deadliest attack since the December incident in Grozny. It would also be the most serious attack since a March referendum tied Chechnya firmly within Russia. The vote was seen as a victory for Moscow, which has sought for almost a decade to quell the separatist rebellion which has claimed thousands of lives. Correspondents say that northern Chechnya, where the bombing took place, is considered the most stable part of the region. It was the first area to come under the control of Russian forces that entered the republic in 1999, starting the second war in a decade.
Posted by: Bulldog || 05/12/2003 03:17 am || Comments || Link || [0 views] Top|| File under:

#1  The rebels were supposed to honor the referendum and pay attention to what the people said? I wonder who conditioned them to do Terrible Things (TM) like that?
Posted by: Ptah || 05/12/2003 9:27 Comments || Top||

#2  Latest reports have at least 40 dead and over 100 injured. Not going to make the Chechen rebels look very good to the people.
Posted by: Old Patriot || 05/12/2003 12:31 Comments || Top||



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Two weeks of WOT
Mon 2003-05-12
  Terror offensive in Riyadh
Sun 2003-05-11
  Bremer in, Garner out
Sat 2003-05-10
  India-US-Israel anti-terror axis?
Fri 2003-05-09
  MKO Negotiating Surrender
Thu 2003-05-08
  Bush and Blair nominated for nobel peace prize
Wed 2003-05-07
  Damascus: No secret contacts with Israel
Tue 2003-05-06
  Biggest bank job in history
Mon 2003-05-05
  Pak Will Destroy Nukes if India Does
Sun 2003-05-04
  Syria Paleos say no change after Powell trip
Sat 2003-05-03
  Syria to close Damascus terror offices
Fri 2003-05-02
  Afghan Governor Says 60 Taliban Arrested
Thu 2003-05-01
  France Ready for Postwar Role in Iraq. Really.
Wed 2003-04-30
  France denies giving information to Saddam
Tue 2003-04-29
  U.S. pulling out of Soddy Arabia
Mon 2003-04-28
  Paris and Berlin prepare alliance to rival NATO

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