Government troops laid siege to three towns in southern Afghanistan where remnants of the Taliban were hiding Wednesday, engaging in a fierce gunbattle that left at least 40 Taliban fighters and seven soldiers dead. The fighting broke out at about 10 a.m. in Nimakai, a town about six miles north of Spin boldak, District Chief Fazaluddin Agha told The Associated Press. It quickly spread to the nearby hamlets of Populzai and Hassanzai, he said. "We were trying to find these Taliban and we got a tip that they were hiding in these villages," he said. He said several of the Taliban had been conducting hit-and-run missions against the Afghan troops in recent days. Guess they didn't run far enough
Agha said about 50 Afghan troops were originally sent to Nimakai, and reinforcements were brought in later that doubled that number. Some 20 Taliban fighters were killed in Populzai, and the rest killed in the other two villages, he said. Seven Afghan government troops were also killed in the fighting, which raged for nine hours. The Taliban used rockets and heavy machine guns against the government troops, Agha said. He said it was not clear who was commanding the Taliban fighters, or if any important fugitives were among those killed. "We don't know yet who was their commander because they were all killed and nobody is left," Agha said. Getting better all the time.
Posted by: Steve ||
06/04/2003 03:19 pm ||
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These guys are getting more effective by the week. No wonder that the warlords were willing to turn over their customs money to Karzai. He clearly has a "big stick" to back up his words. This is all EXCELLENT news.
Posted by: R. McLeod ||
06/04/2003 23:37 Comments ||
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An explosion damaged the home of a brother of Afghan President Hamid Karzai in Kandahar but there were no casualties. The blast from an unidentified explosive device on Sunday outside the house of Ahmad Wali Karzai shattered some windows in his three-storey home, his secretary Toor Jan said. âIt was an act of sabotage aimed at (Wali) Karzai himself,â Toor commented. âHe was in the building at the time of the explosion and we donât know who may have carried this out.â
Posted by: Fred Pruitt ||
06/04/2003 03:22 pm ||
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Some 500 US ground troops poured into a mountain village in eastern Afghanistan on a two-day mission aimed at routing a guerrilla cell thought to be operating in the area, but no combat occurred. The operation, dubbed Dragon Fury and reportedly one of the largest American operations launched since Anaconda, helped US forces capture four suspected Taliban in eastern Afghanistan.
Posted by: Fred Pruitt ||
06/04/2003 03:21 pm ||
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ap reports 21 arrested, say 150 italian troops also participated.
KABUL: A deal to rein in a powerful Afghan warlord by forcing him to move to the capital has fallen through. General Abdul Rashid Dostum, whose personal army frequently clashes with rival militias in and around the northern city of Mazar-i-Sharif, had been expected to join President Hamid Karzai in Kabul as an adviser on security issues. The transfer was announced after a meeting in the capital between Karzai and local leaders late last month, but no reasons have been given for the about face.
Karzaiâs spokesman Sayed Tayeb Jawad has played down the significance of Dostumâs decision to stay in the north. âHe advises the government on military and security issues, but for the time being his presence in Kabul is not needed. He will come to Kabul if the need arises,â Jawad said.
Posted by: Fred Pruitt ||
06/04/2003 03:19 pm ||
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i thought it was agreed that he didnt have to move - the new title being purely nominal - but he does have to give up posts in the North.
Saudi authorities in the southern province of Najran foiled 'a large operation to sell (illegal) weapons," last Thursday, a statement by the ministry issued Monday said. The authorities traced Saeed bin Faraj Al-Mihri, a Saudi national, as he was trying to sell a truck load of Kalashnikov rifles and ammunition in Najran, some 800 kilometers (500 miles) south of the capital, the statement said. Al-Mihri received 135,000 riyals ($36,000) for the 100 rifles and the ammunition. But he was encircled as he was working out the deal, and fired at the police, hitting one police vehicle. Al-Mihri was shot and died of his wounds in the hospital.
That's too bad. I hope it was painful, at least...
Posted by: Fred Pruitt ||
06/04/2003 01:17 pm ||
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Dan Darling picks up our discussion the other day on the al-Ghamdis and runs with it on Winds of Change, uncovering one I'd missed (Al-Walid, in Chechnya â damn the non-standardized spelling of Arabic names!) and fitting it a little more tightly together. This is the same phenomenon we've seen before of terrorism being a family affair, over and overagain. Dan equates the phenomenon to November 17th, which had the same blood ties, though Qaeda is on a much larger scale. It'd be interesting to trace the lines of marriage and other tribal ties among these guys...
Posted by: Fred Pruitt ||
06/04/2003 01:05 pm ||
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I agree with you about it being on a larger scale, but keep in mind that November 17 had to be more of a tight circle because most Greeks don't think of it as a good idea to go around assassinating people, whereas being mujahideen fighting abroad against the Great Satan (and associates) carries an aura of heroism to it within certain quarters of the Arab world, so more people can be included in the organization (in this case entire Saudi clans or tribes) without running a serious risk of compromise by the authorities. More to the point, because family, clan, and tribal ties are a lot stronger in the Arab world than any concept of extended families in the West, it makes recruiting additional remembers of your family for the group that much easier.
The Chechnya/Dagestan connection is interesting, though, because it would tend to back up Russian claims of how tight bin Laden and Khattab were (remember, Abu Walid was Khattab's second-in-command before he was iced) on more than just ideology. If a guy whose family members have been linked to at least three al-Qaeda plots is leading a group of Chechen jihadis, it helps to confirm what we already suspect about the nature of the Wahhabi internationale.
Posted by: Dan Darling ||
06/04/2003 16:31 Comments ||
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One need only follow who's getting prayed for on Fridays in Mecca to realize that the Chechens are part and parcel of the terror package. The money lines from the same charities, the links to al-Tawhid->Ansar al-Islam->Al-Qaeda running through Chechnya only reinforce the conclusion.
Posted by: Fred ||
06/04/2003 19:46 Comments ||
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Interestingly enough, wasn't Abu Walid's org (the Special Purpose Islamic Regiment) involved in the Moscow theaters festivities last September? Those would certainly put those phone calls to their controllers in the Gulf in quite a different context.
Additionally, the guy that JUS says is the "Amir of the Iraqi Mujahideen" is Abu Iyad, who was last cited, per TIME Magazine, in the Pankisi Gorge.
Posted by: Dan Darling ||
06/04/2003 20:20 Comments ||
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KUWAIT CITY: A 32-year-old American, identified only as Steven and working at Doha Camp, recently filed a complaint with police accusing two unidentified youths of attempting to run him down with their car, reports Al-Watan daily. The complainant told police he was replacing a flat tyre in Yarmouk, when the youths drove straight in his direction. Sensing trouble he dived to the side of the road to avoid being run down, but ended with bruises and injuries to his head, hands and knees. The victim who has been admitted to Al-Razi Hospital, has provided police with the car plate number of the culpritâs vehicle. A security source told the daily, investigations reveal the motorist of the vehicle is a Kuwaiti man who is wanted by law for several criminal offences. A case has been registered and police are looking for the culprits.
"Yup! I wuz just drivin' along, there was this infidel, changin' a tire by the side of the road, so I tried to run him over with m'car!"
"Hyuk! Hyuk! Oh, Mahmoud! Y'r such a card!"
Posted by: Fred Pruitt ||
06/04/2003 12:24 pm ||
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Having lived on the southside of Chicago during the 1990's, where such occurances are commonplace, I am reminded of the British remonstration that "the natives are restless, tonight"...
________________________borgboy sez that on the southside when you are in a crosswalk, the natives often tend to speed up...
EFL
A suspected Saudi militant who was shot dead by police this week was very close to Osama bin Laden and was a key member of his al Qaeda network in the Gulf region, an Arabic newspaper reported on Wednesday. The Saudi-owned Asharq al-Awsat daily quoted Islamists based in London and Cairo as saying Yousuf Saleh Fahd Al-Ayeeri was the Web master of "al-Neda" site, believed to be operated by al Qaeda, and was an aide to bin Laden when the two were in Afghanistan. "He was the main link between bin Laden and fundamentalist leaders in the Gulf," one of the Islamists said.
That makes him a key controller. For a place as important as Arabia, there will be redundant lines, but it's still worth ululating about...
Saudi officials said they were checking the report. The Saudi Interior Ministry said on Sunday police shot dead Eiery and arrested another Saudi man accompanying him after they hurled hand grenades at a police patrol. Eiery was named among a list of 19 men wanted for planning "terror" attacks and for having links to al Qaeda. Saudi security sources did not name Eiery as the mastermind of the Riyadh suicide attacks but his alleged links to al Qaeda, the main suspect in the blasts and the September 2001 attacks on U.S. cities, could strengthen the case against the network. Asharq al-Awsat said Eiery was known by several aliases, including Abu Qutaibah al-Mekki and Salaheddin. It said he specialized in writing statements about al Qaeda activities in Afghanistan and reports condemning the U.S.-led war on Iraq. Maybe he was Binny's ghost writer?
A Saudi newspaper said on Tuesday police had found on Eiery's body a letter allegedly written by bin Laden about six months ago. In February, an Islamist Web site broadcast a purported audio tape from bin Laden in which he urged Muslims to fight the United States to avert the war on Iraq.
And a little more, from Arab Times (Kuwait)...
Saturday's car chase began at a checkpoint outside Turba, 200 kilometers (124 miles) north of the northern city of Hail. The Interior Ministry official said that Alayeeri and his companion threw a hand grenade at the police during the chase, killing two officers and injuring two others. Alayeeri's companion was identified as Abdullah ibn Ibrahim ibn Abdullah Al-Shabrami, who escaped but was later arrested north of Hail. In an interview with the London-based Asharq al-Awsat newspaper, Alayeeri's father said he had not seen his son for years. "He is dead now, in a way that we wouldn't have hoped to see any of our country's son go," Saleh Alayeeri said from his home in Dammam, in the eastern part of the Kingdom.
Posted by: Steve ||
06/04/2003 08:24 am ||
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Oviously, I was wrong. The strikeout feature DOES work in all browsers!
EFL
A court in Kuwait sentenced a man to death Wednesday for shooting two Americans, one of them fatally, at a traffic signal near a U.S. base as the Iraq war loomed. The court sentenced three other Kuwaitis, including one who remains at large, to prison for the Jan. 21 ambush on the road leading to Camp Doha. Sami al-Mutairi, 25, was convicted of murder and attempted murder and sentenced to death. His lawyer claims his confession was coerced and plans an appeal. "We do not accept this verdict and will appeal," said the lawyer, Mohammed Minwer al-Mutairi. "This sentence aims to please public opinion and has nothing to do with the facts." "Lies, all lies!"
The court sentenced Badi Cruz al-Ajami and Khalifa Hilal Hadi Al-Dihani three years in prison each for providing Al-Mutairi with the gun and bullets for the attack. Abdullah al-Oteibi, who is still at large, was sentenced in absentia to eight years for training the defendant in the use of weapons. A fourth defendant, also tried in absentia, was found innocent. The shooting was one of a string of attacks on Americans as U.S. troops and equipment poured into Kuwait in preparation for the invasion of Iraq. Prosecutors said Al-Mutairi carefully planned the attack, waiting behind a hedge for an hour before opening fire on the men as their car stopped at a traffic light. In his court testimony last month, Al-Mutairi said he was forced to confess to the shootings. In a police tape played in court on April 16, Al-Mutairi said: "I'm convinced of what I did ... I don't regret it." Asked if he would do the same again if he were released, he replied: "Certainly." Al-Mutairi testified that police had prepared the confession and forced him to read it in front of a video camera. If this was Saudi, I might be inclined to believe him.
Al-Mutairi, who worked as a researcher at the Ministry of Labor and Social Affairs, fled to Saudi Arabia after the killing. He was arrested there and extradited to Kuwait.
Posted by: Steve ||
06/04/2003 08:14 am ||
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The part about aiming "to please public opinion" is interesting. Apparently this lawyer doesn't think Kuwaitis in general are as hostile to Americans as we are sometimes told they are.
Posted by: Dr. Weevil ||
06/04/2003 9:38 Comments ||
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Um, what IS the current method of pest control in Kuwait these days, anyway ... same as the Soddies? or something closer to the current century?
Posted by: Luigi ||
06/04/2003 16:50 Comments ||
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BRUSSELS - Belgian investigators found a nerve gas ingredient in letters addressed to the Belgian prime minister's office and several embassies, the government said Wednesday. The letters, some of which were intercepted by police due to anthrax fears, prompted an emergency meeting of the health, justice and interior ministers to assess the incident and consider extra security measures, a government spokeswoman said. At least 10 letters were mailed to addresses, including the U.S., British and Saudi Embassies in Brussels, as Belgium was trying 23 suspected accomplices of al Qaeda, the radical Muslim group blamed for the Sept. 11, 2001, attacks on the United States.
Posted by: liberalhawk ||
06/04/2003 10:15 am ||
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Must be a disgruntled Merkin. Anyone watching Hatfill since they hit him with the car?
Posted by: Frank G ||
06/04/2003 10:27 Comments ||
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bbc says one items was an aresenic derivative, other was hydrazine, used as an incapacitating agent. Apparently the latter is of more concern, as its harder to get ahold of. There were several other targets besides the embassies - some belgian transport facilities, and the PM's office. Its stated that neither agent is usually fatal - so doesnt sound like serious terrorism - not sure what is really going on.
#3
Details: "The brownish-yellow powder contained phenarsazine chloride, an arsenic derivative used in nerve gas, as well as hydrazine, an agent used as a rocket propellant, said Health Ministry spokeswoman Anne-Francoise Gally said."
A spokeswoman for the federal prosecutor's office said police suspected that the letters had one source. "There are clear indications that the sender of the letters is one and the same person," Lieve Pellens told VRT. "There are clear similarities among the letters." Pellens said some of them also contained a written message reading "International Islamic Society" and "Bastards."
Posted by: Steve ||
06/04/2003 12:01 Comments ||
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Hydrazine? They use that in rocket fuel. How the hell did they get hold of some of that?
Just in case anyone was wondering whether there were any voices of reason left in France. Slightly EFL
France's exhaustion with its unions has found its voice in a 21-year-old student, Sabine Herold, who is challenging the silent majority to revolt against the strikes crippling her country and causing havoc for travellers. With schools and government offices closed yesterday, Channel ferries halted, and airlines cancelling most of their flights to and from France, Mlle Herold called the union members 'reactionary egotists'. They "claim to defend public services but are just defending their own interests", she said. With her pale blue mascara and long eyelashes, she makes an unlikely Joan of Arc. But her words have found an echo in large protests by students and parents against repeated strikes by teachers and threats to disrupt this summer's exam schedule. She has also become an emblem for the many in French society who believe that economic reforms are long overdue. She blames President Jacques Chirac for caving in repeatedly during his career to union pressure.
Mlle Herold shot to prominence on May 25, when hundreds of thousands of union members marched through Paris to protest against the government's pension and de-centralisation reforms. She addressed 2,000 people in front of the Paris town hall. She pointed to where the unions were marching and to loud applause shouted: "We will not give up the streets to them. For once, we are going to tell them 'No'. "I have lessons and exams, but I have no bus service. I pay for my carte orange [a monthly public transport ticket] but I have no underground service. Later on, I will pay my taxes, but my children won't go to school. Like all of us here today, I am angry."
In the middle of the Iraq war, she and her friends demonstrated outside the American embassy in support of military action, a bold step considering the overwhelming opposition to the war in France. "There is a systemic opposition to America in France," she said yesterday. Mlle Herold, who attends the prestigious Institut des Sciences Politiques in Paris, said: "The Left in France used to be reforming, but has become conservative, while the Right has gone the other way."
Mlle Herold, however, is not alone in pining for change in France. Like many of her generation, she would rather go on to business school than the Ecole Nationale d'Administration, the civil servants' graduate school that trained most of France's current political and business elite, but is losing kudos as the French state loses respect. "There is no value put on work in France," she said. "I've just come back from Hong Kong where people love to work. In France they are always looking for a way to get out of it." During an exchange term at Birmingham University she was impressed not only by the beer but also by the British work ethic. "If people want to work, they can work. In France we have let the union minority take us all hostage." The question now facing Prime Minister Jean-Pierre Raffarin is whether Mlle Herold really does speak for millions. If so, he may be able to press through his changes. If not, and the strikes continue, he will be forced to resign. But will it be too much effort for the man on la rue to comprehend that someone not virulently anti-American is also a patriot who wishes the best for her country?
Posted by: Bulldog ||
06/04/2003 02:40 am ||
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I give her a lot of credit, but only a mass uprising by average people is going to make anything change...and they're not organized like the unions, which have had decades of practice blackmailing the weak-kneed government...which frankly, sympathizes with them.
Good luck, Mlle. Herold. We wish you well.
Posted by: R. McLeod ||
06/04/2003 4:29 Comments ||
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(old but correct) The longest journey begins with the first step. Any action will help
Posted by: Mike N. ||
06/04/2003 9:20 Comments ||
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In fact, that might be a way to improve relations between the nations.
"France and America. Partners in nudity"
"Today mark an historic day for our two Nations," "as our citizenry begins today our new program of Getting Naked for Closer Relations."
Posted by: Mike N. ||
06/04/2003 9:24 Comments ||
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It's all clear to me now. This entire time my politics have been wrong. Nudity is the key to peace. (or is that piece?)It's official, I'm now a liberal. Now if you don't mind, I'll be taking my clothes off. And I invite liberhawk to join me.
Posted by: Mike N. ||
06/04/2003 9:27 Comments ||
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Ladies and Gentlemen: Please realize that there are certain age and physical appearance limits when nudity becomes counterproductive. But, of course, to get over that cultural hurdle, we need to bare it all!
Posted by: Alaska Paul ||
06/04/2003 10:01 Comments ||
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OK...a little cold water on y'all - just imagine Jacques Chiraq naked.......
*shudder*
Posted by: Frank G ||
06/04/2003 10:14 Comments ||
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Strikes are like the national pastime over there. It'd be like trying to get rid of baseball over here. Good luck, hon. You'll need it.
...and hello to all my naked friends
#12
For anyone interested, the URL of her organization is www.liberte-cherie.com
On the left column of the home page there is a link titled Beloved Freedom that takes you to an English presentation (and , supposedly , to the English version of their whole page but this link did not work with me).
#14
She'll need political asylum in the US if she keeps this up.
Posted by: Ned ||
06/04/2003 12:18 Comments ||
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Ah, she won't be touring with the Dixe Chicks anytime soon. On second thought, they are not touring either.
Posted by: john ||
06/04/2003 14:46 Comments ||
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I think you guys are confusing Joan of Arc (burned at the stake) with Lady Godiva (naked on a horse). Even worse, the thought of a naked Jacques Chirac is an abomination that should be removed from this web page. FRED, FRED, SAVE US!
Posted by: Tom ||
06/04/2003 16:15 Comments ||
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What's the problem...I thought everyone already contemplates geo-politics and military affairs in the buff.
Long article; severely EFL; you really want to read the whole thing for an example of French fecklessness in dealing with a serious problem at their premiere language schools.
France's preeminent institution for Eastern language studies (INALCO), commonly knows as "L'Ecole des Langues O.", is falling prey to an unprecedented Islamist surge in its Arabic department. Students have described unimaginable incidents: students wearing burqas, women refusing to pass exams with male professors⊠The school president has yet to convene a meeting of the professors confronting such situations and is unaware of how they are reacting.
A host of problems have recently cropped up in the latter locale. AsniÚres, where 1,200 students are registered, is home to the school's Arabic department. A small minority of students â 2% to 3%, according to school president Gilles Delouche â are creating significant problems for the administration, professors and students. An Islamist influence is increasingly being felt within the department. An astonishing climate has settled upon the place where it is not uncommon to see women completely covered except for their eyes, a few burqas and even clerics. One of the letters addressed to INALCO's president describes a somber atmosphere for the students. It speaks of an "oppressive climate which allows for no dialogue" and a "threatening atmosphere." Some issues are not brought up for reasons of "personal safety." President Delouche was evasive as to how many letters he has received. "A certain number," he said vaguely.
A professor of Near Eastern contemporary history was told by some students that she did not have the right to quote or interpret the Koran during her classes. Their argument was that she is not a Muslim and therefore cannot talk about the holy book. Her classes touch upon sensitive issues in places like Israel, Palestine or Iraq. After her class, some students handed out partisan documents refuting the elements of her course. A meeting of all the professors of the Arabic studies department was held to discuss this incident. Some professors admitted that they practiced self-censorship to avoid such problems. A classical poetry professor confessed that he no longer taught secular poetry that spoke of wine, love or physical desire and that could "shock" some individuals. Self-censorship seems to be afflicting many professors and students. A 25-year-old Muslim student who arrived from an Arab country last year is flabbergasted by the problems encountered in France. "I've traveled 1,700 km so I don't have to see these people. And now I find them in Paris. It's crazy." he says. "You don't have these issues at the Arabic department of University of Paris IV. Why ? There's a striking complacency in AsniÚres." There's a lot more to this, and it lends credence to the argument that there is a revolution occurring in France right under the noses of the French elite.
Posted by: Steve White ||
06/04/2003 12:30 am ||
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Here is the problem in a nutshell: It only takes a very few militant people combined with a gutless government/leadership to take over. Very few people will put themselves on the line unless they're sure they've got support...
Very much what happened in Germany in the late 20s and 30s...and don't kid yourself, the same thing could happen here, thanks to political correctness and the "grownups" who cheer it on...
Posted by: R. McLeod ||
06/04/2003 4:32 Comments ||
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A professor of Near Eastern contemporary history was told by some students that she did not have the right to quote or interpret the Koran during her classes. Their argument was that she is not a Muslim and therefore cannot talk about the holy book.
The professor is extremely intelligent, knowing how much Muslim behavior is influenced by the Koran. This makes Wahabbi Muslims in particular predictable in certain areas, and thus vunerable. They know this, and thus try to gag her from revealing their archilles heel. This indirectly supports my thesis about the importance of being familiar with the Koran and the surrounding literature when dealing with Islamist extremists.
#5
Belligerent Muslims leaning on pussified Frenchmen and grabbing every edge they can get.
If you read the article, the belief is that a "preacher" is behind this little high school power play. Ah, the deranged mullahs. What would a story about Muslims be without them.
Frogistan. Sooner then you think.
EFL.The Seattle PD ought to be pretty good at this by now. They've had enough practice.
Police used pepper spray and rubber bullets to disperse a downtown march and rally last night by activists protesting an annual police intelligence-training seminar. Twelve people were arrested, according to a Seattle Police Department spokeswoman. No injuries were reported to police. SPD:12 Dimwits:0
The five-day Law Enforcement Intelligence Unit seminar, titled "Criminal Intelligence and the War on Terrorism," began yesterday at the Red Lion Inn.Protesters, who at one point numbered about 400 and had a permit for their march, rallied at Westlake Center, where the crowd listened to a variety of speakers denounce the Justice Department and the domestic war on terror. Did they point out the black helicopters flying overhead? You KNOW they had to be lurking around somewhere.
From there, they walked up Pike Street to the hotel on Fifth Avenue as some danced to the drums of the Infernal Noise Brigade. Horses carrying Seattle police officers left piles of manure along the sidewalk. One protester draped an American flag over a pile. Exercising his First Amendment rights. But, if you believe these people, he should've been shot. Might they be full of what he draped the flag over???
The protest crowd stood in front of the Red Lion Inn, where police in riot gear watched from behind steel barriers. The protesters were a mix of teenagers and twentysomethings who wore bandannas over their faces, and calm, older political activists. Wannabes and neverwases.
At about 8:30 p.m., police reported a segment of the remaining crowd was hurling sticks and bottles, police spokeswoman Deanna Nollette said. A fight broke out after police tried to arrest a protester in front of their "fence line," Nollette said, because the person had damaged property and possibly tried to start a fire. At that point, she said, the crowd surged.Police then used pepper spray and rubber bullets to break up the gathering. Showtime!
Nollette said the protest ended at about 9 p.m. Police, she said, worked hard to issue a permit with "rational parameters" for the protesters. But within five minutes, she said, the protesters violated the terms of the protest permit. For example, they did not adhere to the parade route, she said.
"It was the intent of some of the people there to force the issue," Nollette said. This is truly shocking news. Lyin' Lefties! Who ever heard of such a thing!
The LEIU is a group of intelligence agents from police departments across the country. This year's conference marks the first time federal intelligence personnel have participated. Tom Ridge, head of the Department of Homeland Security, is scheduled to address the conference.Scheduled seminar topics included bioterrorism, the current state of criminal intelligence, cybercrime, protecting U.S. borders, hate groups and outlaw motorcycle gangs. Could they add burnt out 60's derelicts and their deluded teenage worshipers to that list?
Luma Nichol, 50, of Seattle, a community organizer for the Freedom Socialist Party, called the LEIU an organization "that acts basically as a secret political police in the United States.Why are we here? Mostly to let them know that we know who they are and we object to their existence," Nichol said. ...speaking of burnt out 60's derelicts.
Elias Holtz, 20, of Seattle said the protesters had two goals: "We're here to protest the LEIU and pressure the City Council to force the Seattle Police Department to discontinue its membership in the LEIU." ...and maybe get high! And laid!
Posted by: tu3031 ||
06/04/2003 10:54 am ||
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It'd be worth it to fly a few unmarked black helicopters over them, taking pictures, just to feed the paranoia ;-)
Posted by: Frank G ||
06/04/2003 11:33 Comments ||
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"secret political police in the United States"
Hah - a secret police with openly announced membership & meetings, parade permits outside of them, press notices and publicly scheduled speakers and officials.
I wonder what the weather is like on these protestor's planets?
LAHORE: In a bid to woo PPPP, [Pak People's Party Parliamentarians] the government has sent its military and political emissaries to Benazir Bhutto in Dubai and her spouse Asif Zardari in Islamabad, highly informed sources told Daily Times. They said two senior ISI officers had had dinners with Mr Zardari during the last 10 days and remained with him for hours. âThey offered almost everything to him, except the return of his wife, in return for the PPPPâs support to the government. Mr Zardari refused these offers,â sources said. âLater, the ISI officers contacted Ms Bhutto in Dubai and sought time for a meeting but she refused to meet. âThey called on Mr Zardari again and asked him to persuade her for a meeting with the governmentâs military emissaries,â sources said. Mr Asif did so and a high-ranked officer left for Dubai on Monday to meet Ms Bhutto. âThe PPPP chairperson and the officer held talks on Tuesday,â sources said.
The government is also using the political channel to win the PPPPâs support on certain issues and has asked some politicians, who worked with the PPP, to talk to Ms Bhutto, Asif Zardari and PPPP President Makhdoom Amin Fahim. In the first phase, former Punjab chief minister Mian Manzoor Wattoo met Mr Zardari at the Accountability Courts in Rawalpindi on Tuesday. âIt seemed like a chance meeting, but actually it was a planned one,â sources said. They quoted Mr Wattoo as telling Mr Zardari, âI have advised the government to compromise with the PPPP as it is the largest party and the real political force in the country.â Sources said the government would send political leaders to Dubai and PIMS for talks. Mr Wattoo was not available for his comments.
This is a move Perv should have made a year and a half ago, rather than trying to build the PML-Q into more than it is. A Kemalist alliance with a secular party is a natural thing. The problem from Perv's point of view, I think (and I could be wrong) is that the Bhutto party's so heavily tarred with the corruption brush. But even Perv's got to see now that the Loyal Opposition in Pakland is more opposition than loyal, by a long shot. Perv's given in to them on many occasions, let them prosper when he could have smashed them, and they've consistently responded with venom. They want Pakland run by mullahs — period. All their occasional braying about democracy is lip service. They'd sooner have scrofula.
Posted by: Fred Pruitt ||
06/04/2003 03:00 pm ||
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#1
I never understood OBL's strategy. If I were him after 9/11, I would have ignored the Northern Alliance, gone for broke to get the Pak nukes and simultaneously disrupted the oil supply out of the Gulf. While things are as uncertain as ever in Pakland, everyone else in the game has adapted. India, Israel, the US and the UK probably all have contingency plans in case the Mullahs succeed. I wouldn't be surprised if the Russians have the Pak nuclear storage facilities targeted, too. (It's funny in a sick, Strangelovian way to contemplate three or four countries' warheads hitting the Pak nuke storage bunkers in short order.)
So did OBL fail out of cultural/religious bias? Did he really believe that the US would crumble after knocking down a couple of skyscrapers? Or was he just plain dumb? I never saw any evidence that anything was in place in Saudi or Pakistan to initiate any major operations after 9/11 so I'll toss out the option that some brilliant last minute CIA covert op shut down those possibilities.
#2
Perv's main problem is one that has been shared by the rest of the Pak Army for the last few decades, they are opposed on an ideological basis to the PPP's Liberal beliefs, but since every politician is willing to sell out their beliefs there, the real problem is that Benazir Bhutto doesn't think to highly of the army after they executed her father, assassinated her two brothers, and imprisoned her husband, as well as kicked her out of the Prime Ministership on two seperate occassions, even though she was democratically elected.
Posted by: Paul Moloney ||
06/04/2003 20:12 Comments ||
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Interesting perspective 11A5s (how about a name I can quote!).
Bin Laden was obviously NOT a strategic thinker. He had no knowledge of history beyond a very narrow understanding of early Arab history and he clearly believed his own propaganda that America was weak-kneed and would react in any significant way. And why not? Based on Clinton's actions, that was a reasonable idea...so long as you didn't know anything about the United States.
Another obviously shortcoming that is now evident in hindsight: Bin Laden had no one around him who knew the slightest thing about military strategy. Hell, he didn't even have anyone around him who understood small unit tactics. And why would they? His most "experienced" military guy, Mohammed Atef, was a formed Egyptian cop who spent two years in the Army...and he was killed early on in Afghanistan. And that was his best military mind. The Taliban were even worse, and dumber.
Obviously, in early October 2001, Binnie thought he was up against the Russians again. But it wasn't 1983 any more. Unlike then, it was his OPPONENT who had a lot of public support, thanks to the way the Taliban treated Afghan minorities and terrorized everyone else. That made serious guerrilla warfare impossible.
The warlords weren't on his side, because obviously, they could see who was going to survive and who wasn't. And, this time he didn't have a superpower providing key armaments. Outside help? Hah! This guy is an Arab and plainly didn't even understand that Arabs were NEVER going to come to his aid. Besides a few lunkhead Pakistanis, there was no way he was getting any help from the outside...and their help was useless.
Bin Laden really only had two choices in October 2001. Get the hell out of Afghanistan, send his guys underground, and try to reconstitute somewhere like NW Pakistan or Somalia.
But what does he do? He sets up his guys up in fixed defensive positions against the greatest military in history. Just brilliant.
The only "victory" his side had was our failure to totally annihilate them at Tora Bora. Judging by how well Al Queda is doing these days, bombing their OWN countries, I'd say that even that "success" was pretty marginal.
In the end, Osama Bin Laden has proved himself to be a first class, and dead, fuck up.
Posted by: R. McLeod ||
06/05/2003 1:17 Comments ||
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LAHORE: Five senior bureaucrats are being tipped as the most-favourite replacements to the top establishment slots, including that of the chief secretary and inspector general of police, in the Northwest Frontier Province (NWFP), Daily Times has learnt. Highly-placed Establishment Division sources said former Punjab Home Secretary Shahzad Hassan Pervez, a senior District Management Group (DMG) officer or the federal Economic Affairs secretary would replace NWFP Chief Secretary Shakeel Durrani while Ahsan Jhangir Khan, a senior officer of the Pakistan Police Services, is being tipped as a favourite to replace the inspector general of police, Saeed Khan. Two names of the senior-most police officers in grade 22 had also been sent to the Prime Ministerâs Secretariat for its final approval. The chances of governor rule would increase with the replacement of the top Frontier establishment. Sources said the decision had been taken because the NWFP establishment failed to stop the Muttahida Majlis-e-Amal (MMA) activists from destroying billboards with the images of women. Sources said the federal government had also decided to replace the chief secretary of Sindh.
Mohammad Kamran adds from Islamabad: Prime Minister Mir Zafarullah Khan Jamali held a meeting with the NWFP chief secretary and inspector general of police on Tuesday night. âThe prime minister discussed with them law and order situation in NWFP in view of the situation created by the workers and activists of MMA,â sources told Daily Times. They also discussed large-scale transfers and postings by the NWFP government and situation arising out of district nazimsâ resignations in the NWFP. Information Minister Sheikh Rashid Ahmed told journalists on Monday that the prime minister would himself announce top administrative changes in the NWFP within 24 hours.
Could it be that the turbans actually went too far this time? That their arrogance actually demonstrated to Perv & Co. that they intend to Talibanize the entire country, sideline the military, and put mullahs where now sit generals? Pakland's equilibrium is just about as steady as Zim-Bob-We's...
Posted by: Fred Pruitt ||
06/04/2003 02:42 pm ||
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Melbourne: Pakistan sent back on Tuesday an Australian cab driver who was arrested on 4 January, on suspicion of having links with al-Qaeda. Jack Thomas, an Australian cab driver was arrested in Karachi while trying to board a plane for Hong Kong. Interior Minister Faisal Saleh Hayyat said Thomas was alleged of getting training in an Al-Qaedaâs camps in southern Afghanistan but after investigation no charge could be proved against him.
"Y'got nuttin' on me, coppers! Nuttin'! All the witnesses is dead!"
Posted by: Fred Pruitt ||
06/04/2003 02:28 pm ||
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Man, that'll look good on the resume: deported from Pakland for being too nutty
Posted by: Frank G ||
06/04/2003 18:30 Comments ||
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KARACHI: The Anti-Terrorism Court on Tuesday turned down the application of defence lawyer Abdul Waheed Katpar that the Pervez Musharraf murder conspiracy case be moved to the session court. Announcing his decision, which he had reserved on Monday, Judge Aley Maqbool Rizvi said Section 61 of the Anti-Terrorism Court allowed the court to run the case. Katpar had filed an application on Friday arguing that the case did not qualify for trial in an anti-terrorism court because the motive of the killing was personal. He said police had given the reason that the accused intended to kill President Musharraf because they considered his policies anti-Islamic.
"It was just uhhh... personal, Mike."
Posted by: Fred Pruitt ||
06/04/2003 02:23 pm ||
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The central government in Pakistan has sacked two senior officials in North-West Frontier Province (NWFP), which voted to introduce Sharia law on Monday. Correspondents say the move is a sign of a growing confrontation between President Pervez Musharraf and the Islamist leaders in NWFP. This could be fun
The two sacked men are the head of provincial police and the chief civil servant. "The chief secretary, and inspector general of NWFP police have been asked to report to Islamabad," federal government minister Daniyal Aziz told reporters, according to the AFP news agency. "New officers will be taking charge in the province." On Monday the federal Minister for Information, Sheikh Rashid Ahmed, said Prime Minister Zafarullah Jamali would soon announce "administrative measures" for NWFP. He did not specify what they would be. NWFP's Chief Minister, Akram Khan Durrani responded by saying any such moves would be unconstitutional. Like that has stopped Musharraf in the past.
Posted by: Steve ||
06/04/2003 08:07 am ||
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Perv has no qualms about putting this down violently, just have to wonder how the ISI and army will react when the orders come down....civil war?
Posted by: Frank G ||
06/04/2003 10:21 Comments ||
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I don't think Perv does have the nerve to put it down, or maybe the realization that he must put it down for the good of his country. At this point, it looks like the Islamists are going to eat him up.
Posted by: Fred ||
06/04/2003 10:58 Comments ||
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oh no, Fred, NOOoo the Islamists can't eat Perv up because then fanatical Islamists would have control of a big country with NUCLEAR MISSILES.
What will the US do in that instance?
I hope India pre-emptively clocks it if that day ever comes.
#4
Anon1: I guess you now understand why Fred is always posting all these obscure articles about Paki crazies. Meanwhile, the US press waits with baited press for Martha Stewart to do the perp walk.
This is probably the first time that's been done by people who weren't heeled...
The Iraqi National Congress newspaper "Al-Mu'tamar" conducted an informal poll on the streets of Baghdad regarding the current situation in Iraq, the paper reported on 22 May. The daily claimed that some 620 citizens representing diverse backgrounds and age groups were asked their opinions regarding the deposed President Hussein and his regime, and the role of U.S. forces and opposition groups in the rebuilding of Iraq. According to "Al-Mu'tamar,"
62 percent of respondents said they opposed the war prior to its outbreak but
77 percent said they favored it after liberation.
Asked if coalition forces carried out hostile acts against Iraqis, 77 percent responded "no," while 23 percent said "yes."
Eighty-five percent of respondents said that they believed coalition forces "procrastinated and were indifferent to their concerns and problems and failed to maintain order, punish thieves, and protect public property," while 15 percent disagreed.
Asked whether coalition forces should leave Iraq, 65 percent said "no."
Asked about the cruelty of the Hussein regime, 90 percent of respondents said that the regime was cruel and condemned its actions against the Iraqi people, while 10 percent "held a different opinion," according to the daily.
Asked about Saddam Hussein, 53 percent said he should be tried in a court of law, 27 percent called for his execution, 13 percent called for his rehabilitation "on condition of dismissing him from power, and 7 percent had recently had him as a house guest declined to give an answer.
Regarding the role of opposition forces, parties, and organizations, 53 percent of respondents said that they do not trust the opposition, while 43 percent said they did trust them, and 4 percent declined to answer.
It is not widely reported, nor fashionable to say the Americans are loved and wanted in Iraq, but in fact as they were wanted before the war, they are wanted now.
"We hope they stay forever" is the true feeling of the silent majority in Iraq, contrary to what is reported.
The logic is very simple -- the Iraqis do not trust their leaders. Faced with a very complicated situation of a 60 percent Shiite majority, a former police state, Iran at their doorstep trying with all its might to destabilize their country, and desperately relieved and happy to be finally liberated from nearly 30 years of Saddam, they want the United States to stay.
[...]
The following is the translation of a letter being given out throughout Iraq in various forms.
"'In the name of God the most merciful and compassionate'
"Do not adorn yourselves as illiterate women before Islam (From the Koran)
to this noble family,
We hope that the family will stand with brothers of Islam and follow the basic Islamic rules of wearing the veil and possessing honorable teachings of Islam that the Muslims have continued to follow from old times.
We are the Iraqi people, the Muslim people and do not accept any mistakes.
If not, and this message will be final, we will take the following actions:
1. Doing what one cannot endure (believed to be rape)
2. Killing
3. Kidnapping
4. Burning the house with its dwellers in it or exploding it.
This message is directed to the women of this family.
Signed."
This message from a Shiite Islamic organization says it all and explains in a nutshell why, though finally liberated, the Iraqi people still live in fear.
The article is written by a guy who went to Iraq to be a human shield, but left when he saw firsthand what Saddam had done and was doing to his people. He goes on to list, and discuss in detail, seven things the U.S. shouldbe doing, but isn't. Go read the whole thing; it's well thought out and I wish someone with power would listen to this guy.
EFL.Looks like they're getting sick of the nickel-dime crap.
HABANIYAH, Iraq - In a high-profile show of force, the U.S. military poured more than 1,500 combat troops into a swath of central Iraq on Wednesday, signaling that any violent resistance to American occupation would be met with harsh punishment. U.S. troops, sweeping out dust and sifting through debris left by looters, set up their headquarters at two Iraqi air bases and a railroad station outside Fallujah and Habaniyah, cities where anti-American demonstrations and attacks have been particularly aggressive. Commanders have tripled the number of troops around the cities in a bid to quell supporters of Saddam Hussein'sBaath Party and decrease the sniping at American patrols that has killed two U.S. servicemen at a checkpoint. Conservative Sunni Muslims wield great influence in the communities. Go to the strongholds and show them you're they're to stay. In force.
No immediate problems were reported as the forces deployed. The combat troops from the 3rd Infantry Division's 2nd Brigade arrived to take over the area from the 3rd Armored Cavalry Regiment. Two battalion-sized task forces took up positions around the city of Fallujah, 30 miles west of Baghdad; another task force took over two military airfields in Habaniyah, five miles farther west.
Two major highways connecting Baghdad to Syria and Jordan run through the two cities, where about 300 soldiers from the 3rd Armored Cavalry Regiment have maintained a mostly symbolic presence. But after violent demonstrations and several attacks on U.S. troops, commanders decided to send in the battle-tested 2nd Brigade, which captured most of Baghdad during the war. In addition to patrolling the area, the brigade will also work with local leaders on community service projects at schools and hospitals to improve relations with residents. Maybe win some support from the locals who are undecided.
Lt. Gen. David McKiernan, commander of American ground forces in Iraq, said he doubted the attackers were coordinating their efforts. "These are localized, decentralized attacks by those who were part of the old regime. I don't see a national effort across Iraq," McKiernan said Wednesday. "I don't see any pattern of centralized command and control over these incidents." He said the spate of attacks signifies a last-ditch effort by Saddam's supporters â not a gathering resistance movement. "I see it as the completion of the removal of Saddam Hussein's regime," McKiernan said at a news conference in Baghdad. "They don't want a democratic Iraq to succeed because they don't have a role in it." I suppose it could have organized crime. Maybe they could do that? Worked for Sammy for a long time.
In Fallujah and the neighboring cities of Ramadi and Habaniyah, the streets were quiet Wednesday as soldiers from the 3rd Infantry Division went on patrol. Residents went about their business, passing American forces without incident. The road between Baghdad and Fallujah was crowded with U.S. Army trucks moving west. Anger in Fallujah grew in late April, when confrontations between residents and American forces left 18 Iraqis dead and at least 78 wounded. Residents accuse U.S. troops of using excessive force and of not respecting Islamic practices. Like what? Blowing people up?
As troops moved into Fallujah, other American infantrymen immediately began setting up shop at Habaniyah Air Base, built by the British in the early 1950s. Habaniyah grew up around the air base, where abandoned Soviet fighter jets and cargo planes still sit on the runway, slowly deteriorating. Uniforms left at the base have the insignia of Republican Guard troops, and hundreds of gas masks litter the barracks. The elite Republican Guard. I remember them. I wonder if they've stopped running yet...
An Iraqi special forces base was located northeast of Fallujah, and many military-age men in the cities, some in very good physical condition, have scowled or made obscene gestures toward U.S. troops. Might want to check some ID and make a up list. For future reference maybe.
"You can tell who used to be in the military," said Capt. Chris Carter, commander of A Company, 3rd Battalion, 7th Infantry Regiment, which is occupying the air base. At dawn Wednesday, the 2nd Brigade loaded 88 Abrams tanks and 44 Bradley Fighting Vehicles onto cargo trucks and dropped them off outside the two cities. The soldiers then drove the combat vehicles to their new positions and began establishing their bases. That's a pretty good amount of firepower. I'd be impressed. Maybe the ex-elite Republican Guardsmen might want to give the finger down the barrel of a 120mm Abrams main gun? That's if they don't start running again. Old habits die hard.
#1
So, if we start capturing prisoners, will the headlines read:
"US Military Takes A Baath, Prisoners Come Clean"
Hehehehehe...
Posted by: Ed Becerra ||
06/04/2003 15:40 Comments ||
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Time to break open Utley's book "Frontier Regulars" and put an old John Wayne movie [Fort Apache, Rio Grande, She Wore a Yellow Ribbon] in the player tonight. Whether its Baaths or Apaches, the routine will be the same again. Patrols, sniping, and run ins. This will go on till the rest of the territory is on its way to development and the jokers realize that its time to change or to be left behind in the post war Iraq. What will really get their attention will be a new Iraq military trained by the Americans, but without the American concern for these renagades self choosen bleak future. Adapt or perish.
Posted by: Don ||
06/04/2003 16:14 Comments ||
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WASHINGTON: The Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) has internal documents that make it clear Saddam Hussein is alive and hiding in greater Baghdad, protected by an underground resistance network of tribesmen and former Baath officials. âThere is a resistance network and it is stronger than we originally thought,â one administration source said. He added: âA lot of what is being reported in the press as âlootingâ is in fact sabotage by Baath party stay-behind groups.â The underground Baath resistance is made up of former party officials who are funded with money looted from the Iraqi treasury. âThere is credible evidence that Saddam is still alive and being sheltered,â said former CIA chief Vince Cannistraro.
We knew that...
Posted by: Fred Pruitt ||
06/04/2003 03:26 pm ||
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Edited for brevity.
Rail service is up and coming in this down and dirty city of 5 million people [Baghdad]. Trains have been running again only for the past two weeks, but already the Iraqi Railroad company has begun daily service from Baghdad to Basra, Mosul and the Syrian border. A passenger ticket for the 10- to 12-hour trip to Basra costs 1,000 dinars (about 75 cents), a first-class sleeper seat is 2,000 dinars and a bus ticket is 5,000 dinars.
"This was the first company back in operation since the war," said train engineer Jamal Abdalah, from his air-conditioned diesel-engine locomotive. It's the only air conditioning on the train. In the oven-hot passenger cars the only relief came from a window, which railroad workers removed as the train pulled out of the station. But the sand that poured in as the train barreled down the track made the air circulation a mixed blessing.
Though it's been reported that the U.S. Army is helping to get the railroads running again, Abdalah gave all the credit to his co-workers. The railway workers decided to get the trains rolling again on their own, Abdalah said, using fuel that was already in storage, although there is a shortage of engine oil. They are even getting salaries from the company. Engineers get about 200,000 dinars per month, about $150. This month's Trains magazine also has some coverage on Iraqi rail.
Posted by: Dar ||
06/04/2003 10:57 am ||
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#1
There's a lot of value in the Iraqis believing that most of what is done in Iraq is an Iraqi achievement. The more they believe in themselves, the better they'll do, and the more pressure they'll put on other countries in the region.
Edited for brevity.
U.S. Army engineers used bulldozers, backhoes and other equipment to dig through a rubble-filled crater Wednesday, trying to determine if Saddam Hussein died in an April 7 airstrike on a house where he was believed to be hiding. The site was attacked two days before U.S. forces took control of the capital. The U.S. military said at the time that it had reliable information that Saddam and members of his family and entourage were there. An engineering unit of the Utah National Guard was excavating the site and moving the rubble to an undisclosed location to be examined for human remains, Slaten said.
It was not clear what prompted the search of the rubble. For the six weeks that followed the end of fighting, the two-floor home in the upscale Mansour district - in which at least 14 civilians are believed to have died - was left mostly undisturbed. Now, crews were hard at work. Dozens of U.S. troops, three Bradley fighting vehicles and concertina wire protected the engineers clearing the debris. Officers said they expected to be done with excavation by June 11. Crews were expected to remain for another week to 10 days to repair nearby homes damaged in the airstrikes and to clean the site and surrounding street.
Posted by: Dar ||
06/04/2003 10:04 am ||
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#1
This looks like a nice move. A few days ago I spotted something here that said Sammy's entourage is moving from house to house and giving the occupants $50K to keep quiet, or else. If Sammy sees us doing this, maybe he'll slip up and let his guard down enough for us to capture him, if he's in fact not somewhere under those rocks.
Back on May 7 ABC's World News Tonight with Peter Jennings belittled the military effort to rescue POW Jessica Lynch from a Nasiriyah hospital, focusing on how the U.S. forces knew they would face no opposition, unnecessarily frightened the staff and caused a lot of damage, specifically by breaking door knobs. ABC's story was prompted by a Toronto Star story which suggested that the presence of video cameras with the rescuers suggested it was all a Pentagon propaganda effort. A few weeks later, the BBC checked in with a documentary accusing the U.S. forces of firing off blanks in the hospital, a sure sign it was all staged for the cameras to provide great propaganda video of military heroics. But now, several week later, NBC's Jim Avila and crew have gone to Nasiriyah and discovered that the truth seems to lie closer to the story initially conveyed by the U.S. military than to the anti-military tales spun by ABC and the BBC.
On Friday's NBC Nightly News, Avila reported that hospital staff "say the so-called blanks were actually flash-bang grenades used to stun and frighten hospital workers and potential resistance. No bullets or blanks were fired inside the hospital. And the Americans had every reason to expect trouble. Hospital workers confirm the Iraqi military used the basement as a headquarters." A doctor told Avila that "what he calls the big heads of the Iraqi army left just six hours before the raid." Avila added that "the Iraqis told NBC News the American soldiers' behavior was humane." For instance, when one of the physicians said the handcuffs "hurt and they were too tight," the "soldiers immediately loosened them." Avila didn't mention or show what obsessed ABC's David Wright: broken door knobs. I love it when they eat their own.
Posted by: Steve ||
06/04/2003 09:19 am ||
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Peter Jennings should make like Sammy Sosa and put a cork in it. The whole idea of staging a media stunt in a war zone is so ignorant to begin with, but then so many reporters are so ignorant of anything military they have no credibility--although they are great at getting in touch with their feelings, or the feelings of the eyewitness, which is always the yardstick by which a truly newsworthy story is measured.
Posted by: Dar ||
06/04/2003 9:41 Comments ||
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#2
This is the same lack of fact checking that has been discovered at the New York Times and Los Angeles Times. It is time that ABC, the BBC, and CNN look in the mirror, and admit that they carry a bias in their reporting. This however, isn't simply bias. They loath Pres. Bush, and will stop at nothing, especially telling lies, in order to harm the upcoming 2004 campaign.
#5
What the mass media has to realize is that they don't control information anymore. They aren't the only conduit. They can't smugly push their biases past people anymore and get away with it. Thanks to the net, there's a mountain of info out there from all sides of the spectrum and plenty of people around to explore it. Things will be checked out and the media will get called on it when they screwup or flat out lie because they twist what they report to fit their agendas. What amazes me is how slowly the mass media outlets and their people seem to be catching on to this fact.
Get your facts straight, folks. If you don't, someone WILL nail you for it.
If I could be sure it was for "journalistic integrity" and not to protect NBC's own upcoming, made-for-TV movie "Saving Jessica Lynch", then I'd be willing to grant some kudos.
Posted by: Dar ||
06/04/2003 10:51 Comments ||
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#7
Yes and does anyone remember about the fact they had to dig all the bodies of the other POWs with their bare hands while there? And most of all, how about that big floor map in the basement of this so called hospital? Seems to me they were quite prudent going in well armed even if there wasn't a lot of resistance. You just never know if the whole thing was a big trap.
Posted by: Phil ||
06/04/2003 13:19 Comments ||
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#8
To add to what Phil wrote, the hospital was also being used as a military HQ (at least the basement was) and was staffed up until six hours before the raid.
Posted by: Dar ||
06/04/2003 14:24 Comments ||
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BAGHDAD - More than a decade of suspicions about Iraq's missile industry and its capabilities for delivering weapons of mass destruction could be investigated quickly now that American forces control the country. But no U.S. weapons hunters or intelligence officials have visited the heart of Iraq's missile programs - the state-owned al-Fatah company in Baghdad, which designed all the rockets Saddam Hussein's troops fired in 1991 and again this year. Not only that, it's not even on their agenda. Okay, this sounds like someone screwed up.
``We have the most sensitive documents here,'' said Marouf al-Chalabi, director-general of al-Fatah. ``We were sure the Americans would target us but they haven't even dropped by.'' Looters, however, have ransacked the place. The three-building complex has been stripped of everything from drafting tables to light switches. Among the few things left behind, though, are what U.N. inspectors long believed existed but never obtained: design plans and test results for every missile system and warhead the Iraqis developed. You could FedEx them to Blix and he still wouldn't believe it.
Plans for rocket engines, guidance systems and even missile warheads are strewn across the dusty office floors and swirl in the parking lot outside. Some have been blown into nearby bushes. ``They're scattered everywhere,'' al-Chalabi said, marveling at the mess. American missile experts who have accompanied U.S. weapons teams in Iraq expressed astonishment this week when told that the design plans and engineers behind the Iraqi Scuds and other missile projects were available. The experts, who couldn't be identified for security reasons, said the al-Fatah company wasn't on any target list they had seen. The Pentagon referred queries about the al-Fatah missile plant to the U.S. military in Baghdad, which does not comment on such operations. At least send a squad over there to box everything up and ship it back to the States.
Al-Fatah drew the attention of the United Nations long ago. After reviewing a Dec. 8 weapons declaration submitted by the Iraqis, U.N. inspectors began inquiring about two newer missiles: the al-Samoud and the al-Fatah, which was under al-Chalabi's direct authority. Test results for the al-Samoud showed that it could be fired beyond the 93-mile range limit set by the U.N. Security Council after Iraqi troops were forced from Kuwait in the 1991 Gulf War. Although the Iraqis claimed the results were flawed because the tests were done without the missile's heavy anthrax payload, a panel of experts determined otherwise, and chief weapons inspector Hans Blix ordered them destroyed March 1.
Less certain about the al-Fatah, inspectors asked for more information. It wasn't forthcoming. ``We still needed more test data from the Iraqis to make a final determination,'' said Ewen Buchanan, spokesman for Blix's U.N. Monitoring, Verification and Inspection Commission. ``We never got it before we left.''
U.S. weapons hunters have found a few al-Samouds and about a dozen other missiles. But searches for the kind of long-range Scud missiles the Iraqis fired at Saudi Arabia and Israel in 1991 have been unsuccessful. On Monday, two search teams traveled 2 hours northwest of Baghdad to a suspected Scud storage site but found no evidence any missiles had been stored there recently. U.N. inspectors were always suspicious of Iraq's aims in the missile field, so much so that they visited al-Fatah - located among large homes in Baghdad's Amariyah neighborhood - four times during the 3 months they were in Iraq before the war. The facility also was inspected in the 1990s, and the visits paid off. Buchanan said U.N. inspectors repeatedly caught the Iraqis violating sanctions over the years when it came to rocket development. ``There were several projects which the Iraqis did ultimately disclose in the 90s, which had been aimed at producing missiles with ranges up to 3,000 kilometers (1,900 miles). Iraq always said those were only paper plans, but we had our doubts,'' Buchanan told The Associated Press. What this says is that the Iraqis might well have had a decent design team in place, even if they couldn't manufacture everything they needed. That's important news.
Whatever plans the Iraqis did have could be found today scattered inside - and outside - the al-Fatah offices. Werner von BraunRaad Mahmoud, who created the al-Samoud's guidance system, said the missile was never designed to exceed U.N. specifications. ``I was really angry when the U.N. started destroying them,'' he said outside the offices of the National Monitoring Directorate, a Saddam regime bureaucracy stacked with former weapons chiefs and set up to deal with U.N. inspections. The directorate's top official, Hosam Amin, is in U.S. custody. Several of his deputies who worked on chemical and biological weapons have been questioned by intelligence agents but, according to al-Chalabi, no one from the missile programs has been approached. The Bush administration said it went to war to destroy the banned weapons U.N. inspectors couldn't find and the Iraqis long claimed they didn't have. Over the past 11 weeks, U.S. search teams have visited more than 230 suspected sites from a list drawn up U.S. intelligence but found no weapons. Al-Chalabi, who studied engineering at the University of Colorado from 1964 to 1969, is convinced none will be found. He said he showed U.N. inspectors everything he had and was ordered by Saddam not to violate U.N. resolutions. Yeah, sure.
``We don't have those weapons. I think they must know this by now,'' al-Chalabi said. ``I even signed a paper that said I would be executed if I violated the range fixed by the U.N. resolutions.'' Then why are you still alive? Even Hans said your missile flew too far.
Posted by: Steve White ||
06/04/2003 12:10 am ||
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Hmmmm... Do you suppose that we were there with the looters? Disinterest on our part for this facility could mean we've screwed up. Or it could mean that we have everything we want already.
#4
The answer is painfully simple, we don't care because they aren't going to build any more missles. The Iraqi missile experts had better look for a new line of work.
Posted by: Steve ||
06/04/2003 10:55 Comments ||
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...Is it just me, or wouldn't you be a little suspicious of a building in Baghdad that says "AL-FATAH MISSILE COMPANY"? If there's any secret documents in there, I'd be extremely surprised. The 'blueprints' floating about the place are probably things we've seen already...
Mike
Posted by: Mike Kozlowski ||
06/05/2003 0:36 Comments ||
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Bali: THE air was icy when Ali Imron was unexpectedly called to the witness box to testify against his older brother Amrozi at his terrorism trial yesterday. The smiling bomber watched with increasing agitation as his brother detailed how he and Amrozi attended a planning meeting two months before the Bali bombing, at which tasks were assigned to each person.
Asked to respond to Imron's claims, Amrozi was at odds with his brother. He denied the meeting had anything to do with the Bali bombing, sarcastically commenting that his brother was often "sleepy" and hence would not know what was discussed. He was "Sleepy" and Amrozi was "Dopey"
"I want to say that my brother has habits — if he was at the meeting, driving a car or riding a motorcycle he is always sleepy," Amrozi said. Imron snapped back that he was not sleepy when he witnessed alleged Bali bombing field commander Imam Samudra order his brother to buy chemicals to make a bomb. Ouch! Whatever happened to the love and loyalty of the Islamic boomer family?
Posted by: Frank G ||
06/04/2003 11:30 am ||
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Ahhh..yes.. the old "habit of being sleepy" method of discrediting witnesses. I believe that was from an old episode of Perry Mason...
#2
"Oh wait...I remember now...I had been drinking a lot of iced tea waiting for that meeting to start, and I had to go see a man about a horse at that particular moment. (Yeah, that's the ticket! Worked for Al, right?) Or was that the meeting with the Buddhist monks?
International calls for the release of Aung San Suu Kyi, the opposition leader who has been held incommunicado by the Burmese junta since Friday, have gone unheeded. Khin Maung Wing, Burma's Deputy Foreign Minister, denied rumours that Ms Suu Kyi had suffered a head injury during a riot in northern Burma in which at least four people died. He told diplomats that "she was not hurt at all", and added that the 1991 Nobel peace laureate was being kept "temporarily" in an intensive care unit a secure place. The minister said the closure of universities and colleges was unrelated to Ms Suu Kyi's arrest, although analysts disagree. If she's dead, there's going to be a big riot.
Diplomatic sources said Ms Suu Kyi was being detained at a government guesthouse in Rangoon. Leaders of her National League for Democracy are also in custody. Because Ms Suu Kyi was not put under house arrest at her lakeside home in the capital, some supporters fear she might be badly hurt. Matter of time before the generals decide to whack her.
If so, they've been waiting for a lot of years to do it...
Unconfirmed reports circulating in the Burmese exile community in Thailand claimed her car was fired on, and that as many as 70 people died in clashes last Friday. The government denied this. President George Bush said Ms Suu Kyi should be released immediately. "We have urged Burmese officials to release all political prisoners and to offer their people a better way of life," he said. Kofi Annan called for Ms Suu Kyi to be freed and allowed to play a role in the country's stalled reconciliation process. The junta is likely to bar Razali Ismail, a UN envoy, from seeing the dissident leader when he arrives in Rangoon on Friday. Especially if she's on a ventilator.
Mr Ismail helped instigate a secret dialogue with the military that resulted in Ms Suu Kyi's release from house arrest in May last year. How 'bout that — UN got one right.
Posted by: Steve White ||
06/04/2003 12:20 am ||
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Did the change it back to Burma? Or is it still Myanmar? Maybe they can sell the naming rights.
Los Angeles County Sheriff's deputies plan to reveal details about a possible terrorism plot Wednesday morning uncovered in Southern California, according to NBC4.
Authorities began investigating a West Valley financial analyst for auto theft, according to NBC4, but began to suspect he was involved in a terrorism plot.
more will be revealed...
Posted by: jacques ||
06/04/2003 11:30 am ||
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MORE:
The suspect is in federal custody at this time, according to NBC4. Authorities said he had pipe bombs, jet fuel, ammunition, tracer rounds, how-to sheets, $188,000 in cash, and a stolen ID.
Deputies said the suspect was targeting a major financial institution.
A news conference is set for Wednesday morning.
Posted by: Frank G ||
06/04/2003 11:36 Comments ||
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Score one for the Goodguys(tm). All we need to know now, is the whereabouts of his other cell members. Or, maybe they're operating in cells of one now, to look less suspicious. Either way, we need to find out who helped him get the cash, and the tracer rounds.
Posted by: Mike N. ||
06/04/2003 11:56 Comments ||
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..pipe bombs, jet fuel, ammunition, tracer rounds, how-to sheets, $188,000 in cash, and a stolen ID.
Oh, come on. In L.A. ?? You need all that crap just to survive the freeway commute.
#5
Geez--from what material he's got, I bet his name is Rube al Goldberg.
Posted by: Dar ||
06/04/2003 14:27 Comments ||
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Honey, where's the jet fuel?
Doesn't everybody have some of that laying around the house?
Back to your homes, folks. Nothing to see here. Just a crazy white guy...
Hey, Dan! Something happened in Mauretania! (Can't be... Nothing ever happens in Mauretania...)
NOUAKCHOTT: Thirty-six people were charged Tuesday with âplotting against the constitutional orderâ and other offences, their lawyers said, in a government crackdown against Islamic militants. The suspects, arrested in early May, were also charged with incitement to damage security at home and abroad and of belonging to illegal organisations, said their lawyer Mohamed Mahmoud Ould Lemmatt. Last month, Mauritanian Prime Minister Cheikh El-Avia Ould Mohamed Khouna warned of the dangers posed by Islamic extremists and against youngsters being drawn to their cause. A number of Islamist activists, including some imams, religious leaders, were arrested and accused of ârecruitmentâ and âsubversive schemingâ. The prime minister said extremists hoped to use Mauritania as a new base, after being harassed out of other countries. âThey have profited from the spirit of openness and tolerance which our people displayâ. The latest charges carry sentences of up to 20 years hard labour. Among those charged were Jemil Ould Mensour, the mayor of Arafat - a district of Nouakchott - and Ould Mohamed Moussa, a former ambassador to Syria, police sources said.
Posted by: Fred Pruitt ||
06/04/2003 04:20 pm ||
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Not that I have any special expertise on Mauretania, but it sure sounds to me like "Islamist plot" is a convenient cover story for "credible threat to gummint in power". There are also lingering remnants of the Polisario Front (for independence for Western Sahara, now occupied by Morocco, once split between Morocco and Mauretania) and MOREHOB, a Tuareg ethnic guerrilla movement. The Mauretanian government gets a score of 6,5 from Freedom House, meaning that like Algeria, if there is an Islamist movement, it's a choice of lesser evils.
Posted by: Dan Hartung ||
06/04/2003 16:36 Comments ||
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Isn't slavery still practiced in Mauritania?
Posted by: Dan Darling ||
06/04/2003 20:21 Comments ||
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A Danish pastor in the state Protestant Church has been suspended from his job after admitting he does not believe in God. The Danish news agency Ritzau says Pastor Thorkild Grosboell revealed his religious beliefs, or lack thereof, in a newspaper interview published at the weekend. Bishop Lise-Lotte Rebel described the pastor's comments as totally unacceptable and suspended him for one week.
An entire week? That long? Isn't that pretty severe? I mean, it's only apostasy...
She says while the church has a lot of room for diversity, Pastor Grosboell's complete lack of faith has pushed things too far.
"There are limits to everything. Perhaps if he became a Druid, like that nice Archbishop of Canterbury?"
Pastor Grosboell has remained reasonably tight-lipped, saying he is sick and tired of preaching about his views.
Why'd he become a preacher then?
Posted by: Fred Pruitt ||
06/04/2003 04:10 pm ||
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Suspended a whole week for not believing in God. I'm guessing the Anglican church in Europe will snatch this guy up in a heartbeat.
Posted by: Christopher Johnson ||
06/04/2003 16:38 Comments ||
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The suspension gives them time to think about what to do next.
#3
Geepers Fred, you're slipping -- you only LINKED to our favorite Druid and didn't embed the picture. If this is because of the coming server bill, don't knock over the corner gas station, let us know.
Posted by: Steve White ||
06/04/2003 18:17 Comments ||
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Libhawk would say this post and the next have nothing to do with the war on terror. But he would be wrong. Jihadis look at this stuff and think that christendom is rotten to the core and would fall with one strong kick.
God knows we won't fall that easy, but evidently He thinks that we could use a kick or two.
Posted by: Scott ||
06/04/2003 18:35 Comments ||
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There's the boys. I knew they'd be around.
Maybe they'll claim this guy when he gets put on waivers by the Danes.
#6
By law can the pastor be denied his employment in his chosen profession based on his personal beliefs. This is the question? This should be a joke but in the current state of our culture this point will be considered valid.
Posted by: Dan Canaveral ||
06/04/2003 19:27 Comments ||
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By law can the pastor be denied his employment in his chosen profession based on his personal beliefs. You know someone will consider this a serious point.
Posted by: Dan Canaveral ||
06/04/2003 19:29 Comments ||
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A UN-mandated court has charged Liberian President Charles Taylor with war crimes allegedly committed during Sierra Leone's 11-year long civil war.
Chuck? War crimes? You can't be serious! (He'll have his boyz slaughter your family if you are...)
A court spokesman says President Taylor has been indicted for bearing the greatest responsibility for war crimes, crimes against humanity and serious violation of international humanitarian law in Sierra Leone, up to November 1996. Details of the indictment have been released in the Sierra Leone capital, Freetown. The Liberian President was already under UN sanctions for allegedly backing rebels from Sierra Leone's Revolutionary United Front (RUF). The rebels were notorious for recruiting child soldiers and hacking off people's limbs in the war which raged from 1991 until January last year, and claimed up to 200,000 lives. The RUF's leader, Foday Sankoh, is currently detained by the war crimes court.
Posted by: Fred Pruitt ||
06/04/2003 03:49 pm ||
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North Korea has been linked to a major drug haul in South Korea. South Korean authorities raided a ship docked in the southern port of Busan. They found 50 kilograms of methamphetamine. The ship had allegedly come from China via North Korea. In April, Australian Special Forces seized a North Korean cargo ship allegedly involved in smuggling heroin into Australia.
Posted by: Fred Pruitt ||
06/04/2003 03:46 pm ||
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The case against a Nigerian woman sentenced to death by stoning has been delayed after several judges were unavailable to attend the hearing. Amina Lawal is facing the death penalty for having a child out of wedlock but her case is now adjourned in the Islamic court in the northern Nigerian city of Katsina. She has been sentenced to death by stoning after being convicted of adultery in March last year. The 33-year-old nursed her daughter in the court as her appeal was put on hold. She was accompanied by her lawyers, friends and human rights activists. The case, which has attracted international attention, has been adjourned until August 27.
"It don't hardly seem like shariah if you can't stone somebody to death!"
Posted by: Fred Pruitt ||
06/04/2003 03:43 pm ||
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HOQUIAM, Wash. - A Hoquiam woman was cited for assault, trespassing and resisting arrest after she was discovered half-naked hanging upside down from a train ladder. Robin Bishop, 31, was taken into custody about 2:30 p.m. Monday, after an engineer on a Puget Sound & Pacific train discovered a woman hanging from the rear of the train as it approached a bridge here. "She was wearing jeans and nothing else," Hoquiam police Lt. Mike Whittaker told The Daily World of Aberdeen. "She was hanging upside down, topless, from a moving train."
"[Thhhp!] Hello [thhhp!] world! [Thhhp!] These are [thhhp!] my boobs! [Thhhp!]"
Police Capt. Jim Maloney said engineers stopped the train, which had only four or five cars, and approached the woman. She yelled at them and struck one with a rock before climbing to the roof of the car. "The officers thought she might have been under the influence of alcohol ..." Maloney said.
Or something stronger...
Police don't know how the woman got onto the train.
... and she's not too sure, herself.
Posted by: Fred Pruitt ||
06/04/2003 01:41 pm ||
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PS&P is a freight line, so she definitely hopped this illegally. Given her mental state, she was very lucky she didn't fall off while in transit or, if the train was in motion at the time, attempting to board. DeadTrainBums.com has some graphic pix of idiots who tried similar stunts and weren't so lucky. (WARNING: Did I mention it was graphic?)
Posted by: Dar ||
06/04/2003 14:18 Comments ||
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I guess you really can find anything on the internet. Dar, do you have a lot of time on your hands?
#5
Oh believe me there's much worse things than that on the web.
I saw a documentary once depicting a naked woman riding the rails. Wonder if that's the same one.
#6
Just doing my part to help spread the word about what even one empty railroad car (20 tons) can do to a body--like running over a wheel of cheese with your car. Speaking of cars, they don't fare much better when hit by a 200 ton locomotive.
Posted by: Dar ||
06/04/2003 14:43 Comments ||
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If you had ever spent any time in Hoquiam, you'd realize exactly what a horrific sight that must have been.......
Posted by: Luigi ||
06/04/2003 16:43 Comments ||
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I once had my car towed by a locomotive (switcher).
They used a 5/8ths nylon rope, tied it one end to the suspension of my car, and the other end to the hand-rail. Towed my car backwards. Yes, I wish I'd had a camera.
A Moroccan Islamist suspected of being part of an extremist group responsible for a series of deadly attacks in Casablanca last month, has been accused by the state prosecutor of "inciting violence." "Mohamed Fizazi, alias Abu Mariam, is part of a group of people who spread extremist ideas inciting Jihad (holy war) and violence," the public prosecutor was reported having said at the weekend when the suspect appeared before him. A former teacher from the northern Moroccan city of Tangiers, 54-year-old Fizazi "is considered as being a theoretician for the Salafia Jihadia [Salafi Jihad]" extremist group which has been accused of involvement in attacks that rocked Casablanca on May 16, the MAP news agency quoted the prosecutor as saying. Fizazi was arrested after the Asharqu al Awsat newspaper published an interview with him last Tuesday.
Posted by: Fred Pruitt ||
06/04/2003 01:21 pm ||
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They always have to shoot off their mouths after they pull a job. Yeah, this'll help me get the chicks!
Was he a "mastermind" or a "minormind"? Forget it, I think I already know.
Arab leaders will stand by Yasser Arafat as the âlegitimateâ Palestinian thug in charge leader despite his absence at a summit here with US President George W. Bush, Egyptian Foreign Minister Ahmed Maher said here yesterday. âArafat is the elected legitimate leader of the Palestinian people and Abu Mazen is the prime minister,â Maher told reporters as Arab foreign ministers prepared for todayâs summit in this Red Sea resort. Nope, the old surprise meter didn't twitch.
[snipped, rerun from yesterday]
Palestinian Foreign Minister Nabil Shaath said he expected Arab support for the full implementation of the road map. âWe hope President Bush is coming here not just to talk but to implement the road map except for the parts we don't like,â he added. Hey Nabil, plan on giving up the right of return?
US Secretary of State Colin Powell told reporters on the plane that the summit in Aqaba in particular would be a major moment for the reform-minded Abbas. âI think the whole world will be anxious to hear what he will do he has to say,â he said. âThis will be a chance for the president, Abu Mazen and Ariel Sharon to stand together and show their determination to move forwardâ at the summit in Jordanâs Red Sea resort, Powell added. Arafat played down his own exclusion from the two summits with Bush in an interview published on Sunday by the London-based Arab newspaper Al-Hayat. "O-v-e-r here! Lookie! I'm still important!"
Posted by: Steve White ||
06/04/2003 12:40 pm ||
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Zanu PF has bussed about 2 000 of its supporters into Harare to assist in putting down anti-government protests organised by the opposition Movement for Democratic Change (MDC), ruling party officials said yesterday. The ruling party supporters, brought into the capital city over the weekend, were brought in from rural areas close to Harare. They were yesterday camped at the Zanu PF headquarters and have, together with recruits from the controversial national youth service training programme, been assisting State security agents to deal with street demonstrations organised by the MDC. Several Harare residents and Daily News vendors yesterday complained of severe beatings and harassment by some of the rural Zanu PF supporters. They are said to have seized and destroying copies of The Daily News, accused of supporting the MDC mass action.
"Kids! Kids! The Brownshirts are back!"
Zanu PF secretary for information and publicity, Nathan Shamuyarira, said the youths had been employed to ensure peace during the mass action, which ends on Friday.
Brownshirts ensure peace by beating people up...
âWe brought them to protect the partyâs property from being destroyed by the MDC and to protect the people. We knew that the people would be attacked by MDC thugs, who were given money by the British to harass innocent Zimbabweans,â Shamuyarira said yesterday. The MDC denies that its supporters are planning to cause violence during the mass action. A Harare resident, Tapiwa Nechipote, said he lost two teeth when he was beaten up by ruling party supporters this week. âThey asked me why I was reading opposition newspapers and before I could answer, they were all over me. They were so shabbily dressed that I wondered where they could have come from.â
Posted by: Fred Pruitt ||
06/04/2003 12:19 pm ||
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Palestinian militant groups vowed Wednesday they would not disarm, defying an appeal by Palestinian Prime Minister Mahmoud Abbas issued at a U.S.-led peace summit with Israel. "We will never be ready to lay down arms until the liberation of the last centimeter of the land of Palestine," Hamas official Abdel-Aziz al-Rantissi said. Islamic Jihad, another group sworn to Israel's destruction, followed suit.
I don't think any of us here expected anything different. Maybe somebody at the State Department did...
But neither ruled out further talks with Abbas, who seeks a halt to militant attacks in a 32-month-old revolt for independence in the Israeli-occupied West Bank and Gaza Strip. He has sought to coax both groups into a cease-fire. Abbas met President Bush and Israeli Prime Minister Ariel Sharon in the Jordanian resort Aqaba Wednesday for talks aimed at advancing a U.S.-backed peace "road map" which envisages a Palestinian state co-existing with Israel. "The armed Intifada (uprising) must end and we must resort to peaceful means to achieve our goals," Abbas said.
Without Armed Struggle™, the gunnies will have to get jobs. Where's the glamor in that?
Any full-scale Palestinian crackdown on militants seems unlikely given concern it could spark civil war. But even an arms amnesty would be anathema to Islamic militants who consider themselves the vanguard of Palestinian nationalism. "(Abbas) spoke about stopping the resistance, collecting arms as if we were a state and not under occupation," Islamic Jihad official Abdallah al-Shami said. "He was not supposed to use such language." "Who does he think he is, Prime Minister?"
Both groups said it was first incumbent on Israel to withdraw from the West Bank and Gaza, which it captured in the 1967 Middle East war. Israel wants militants reined in first. Hamas and Islamic Jihad view Israel, as well as the West Bank and Gaza, as Palestinian land. They opposed 1993 interim peace deals and have waged several suicide bombing campaigns. But mindful of the suffering caused to Palestinians by Israeli army incursions, the militant groups have indicated willingness to suspend attacks inside Israel and thus help Abbas implement the road map. "We are in need of more time. I think that in the coming few days we in Hamas will decide on our objective, and then we will meet with Mr Abbas," Rantissi said. "If he's still alive"
Posted by: Steve ||
06/04/2003 12:09 pm ||
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Just signed their own death warrants. They just do not realize it yet.
#2
"We are in need of more time. I think that in the coming few days we in Hamas will decide on our objective, and then we will meet with Mr Abbas," Rantissi said.
The objective has not change: They want the complete and utter destruction of Israel. That may seem reasonable from a bunker in southern Lebanon, but it looks like the road map to peace just hit a major sink hole.
Posted by: Douglas De Bono ||
06/04/2003 12:55 Comments ||
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Re: Hamas and Hez:
1. The won't give up their weapons.
2. If they do not derail the Roadmap to Hell⢠Peace plan with booms and other mischief on the Israelis, they will just wait for another day to do it.
3. They will never submit to Abbas, and Abbas will never go for the gunnies, so Abbas is doomed.
What things really boil down to is this: Hamas and Hez and the Al-Aska Aksa Martyrs Brigade and all the other brigands have to be put out of business before we have peace over there. The only two entities that I know of that are willing/capable of doing so are the US and Israel. And that is where it is at. All the rest is window dressing and BS and wasted Jet A.
Posted by: Alaska Paul ||
06/04/2003 14:17 Comments ||
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this is abbas' real test: it's them or him. we'll know soon if he has the stuff to crush them. i was surprised by abbas' sensitivity to jewish suffering in his speech. a glimmer of hope.
Posted by: m rainey ||
06/04/2003 17:55 Comments ||
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PARIS: With distrust of world leaders great, and apparently growing greater, the Pew Global Attitudes Project decided to ask respondents to its latest poll whom they actually do trust in international relations. This should be good.
The poll yielded some surprising results. Respondents were read a list of 10 political leaders and asked how much confidence they had in each - a lot, some, not too much or none at all - "to do the right thing regarding world affairs." According to the survey:
Americans have great confidence in President George W. Bush, but they have still more confidence in Prime Minister Tony Blair of Britain. Not too surprising. Blair has a way with words that seems to elude the CIC. His domestic and economic policies on the other hand...
For the French, Chancellor Gerhard Schroeder of Germany inspires more confidence than their own president, Jacques Chirac. Must have been tough. Choosing one weasel over another.
The Germans trust Chirac, President Vladimir Putin of Russia and Kofi Annan, the UN secretary-general, more than they trust Schroeder. And you thought Germans were smart! (No offense intended True German Ally)
But from a Western point of view, the most unsettling result of the survey is the strong vote of confidence given in the Muslim world to Osama bin Laden. Unsettling? Yes. Surprising? No..
The Al Qaeda leader was chosen as one of the three men most trusted to do the right thing in world affairs by the people of Indonesia, Jordan, Morocco, Pakistan and the Palestinian Authority. **Yawn** Any NEW information?
Interpreting these results is tricky, but there can be no doubt that the high rating given to bin Laden - who may not even be alive - is a powerful signal of the enmity felt in parts of the Islamic world toward the United States. No, it's a powerful signal that Islam is rotten to the core and that it's NOT TRUE that a few "extremists" have hi-jacked the "Religion of Peaceâ¢".
As Steven Simon, an analyst of Islamic affairs at the Rand Corporation, commented: "Of all these Muslim leaders, which one has stood up to the United States?" Transaltion: "Of all these Muslim leaders, which has killed more infidels in one fell swoop?"
Another signal is the high rating scored by Chirac, whose confrontation with the United States over the Iraq war won him respect in many places. It wouldn't have anything to do with the rapid Shari'ahization that he is cheerfully welcoming in France, would it?
Chirac tied with Annan at the top of the ratings. Each was one of the three men most trusted by 11 of the 21 populations polled. The French leader came in first in four places: Lebanon, Jordan, Morocco and Germany. It ain't called "appeasement" for nothing.
Although Annan scored well overall, the dented credibility of the United Nations is also visible in the results. Pluralities in 10 of the 21 populations polled - Brazil, Russia, Turkey, Indonesia, Pakistan, Lebanon, Jordan, Morocco, Israel and the Palestinian Authority - had not much or no confidence in the secretary-general. Join the club.
In Indonesia, for example, Annan's ability to do the right thing internationally was rated lower than that of Yasser Arafat, the Palestine Liberation Organization leader, Crown Prince Abdullah of Saudi Arabia or bin Laden. Ouch! Sorry Kofi, word must have gotten around about Rwanda.
The Saudi ruler, whose government faced U.S. accusations of inadequate action against terrorism after the recent suicide bombings in Riyadh, was one of the three men most trusted by five populations: Indonesia, Kuwait, Lebanon, Pakistan and Turkey. That put Abdullah just behind Bush, who was among the three most trusted leaders in Australia, Canada, Israel, Kuwait, Nigeria and the United States. Nigeria?
Rated more highly was Blair, who was one of the three most trusted leaders in nine countries: Kuwait, Nigeria, Canada, Britain, Italy, Australia, Israel, South Korea and the United States. Arafat was rated in the top three in five places: Indonesia, Morocco, the Palestinian Authority, Turkey and Pakistan. Jordanians massively disavowed the PLO leader, with 75 percent professing little or no confidence in him. What up, Jordan? You're not kickin' it with your main terror man?
Ranking behind Arafat were Putin, who made the top three in Canada, Britain, Germany and Russia, and Schroeder, who was chosen among the top three in Spain, Brazil, Russia and France. Prime Minister Ariel Sharon of Israel was among the top three in only the United States and Israel itself, where his confidence rating was lower than that of Bush or Blair. Sharon is the Rodney Dangerfield of the Middle East...
Posted by: Celissa ||
06/04/2003 09:53 am ||
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Kind of a reminder that half the people in the world have 2-digit IQs, isn't it?
Posted by: Fred ||
06/04/2003 10:59 Comments ||
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Do I believe the Pew people? Grain of salt.
But anyone can see the strong feelings. But what are these people hearing? Like that french guy the other day saying he wasn't surprised at the anti-american attitude most french have, given the amount of anti-americanism in their press. We've seen that the truth really doesn't factor into Al-Jazeera's reporting.
I think maybe the arab press bears as much responsibility for inciting murderous attitudes as the preachers do. That press carries their message. Jihadi imams would be local phenomenons without the wider coverage. Maybe it's time to enlarge the target package.
Posted by: Scott ||
06/04/2003 19:04 Comments ||
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The European Union approved its first peacekeeping mission outside Europe and without help from NATO, deciding Wednesday to send troops to strife-torn Congo in response to a U.N. plea. HELP!!!!!!
EU ambassadors meeting in Brussels OKed the deployment after clearing up logistical questions, including how it will be financed, EU diplomats said on condition of anonymity. The operation will be dubbed Artemis after the Greek goddess of hunting. Artemis is a friend to mortals, and dances through the countryside in her silver sandals giving her divine protection to the wild beasts, particularly the very young. She rides her silver chariot across the sky and shoots her arrows of silver Moonlight to the earth below. Artemis is not skilled in warcraft but she can punish and kill as the will of Zeus dictates. Sounds like the EU, but who is their Zeus?
The French-led force of 1,400 - authorized by the U.N. Security Council last Friday - would be only the second mission undertaken by the EU. The bloc took over peacekeeping duties in Macedonia last March with about 400 troops, but received planning and logistical support from NATO, which includes the United States. A mission to northeast Congo, where tribal fighting over the past month has killed more than 500 people, would be a far bigger test of the EU's effort to develop a military wing independent of NATO to beef up its foreign policy ambitions. It also would involve considerably more risk than anything tried so far. ``The situation is anything but safe or stable at the moment,'' EU spokesman Diego de Ojeda said. Macedonians don't eat you for lunch
France, which has extensive experience intervening in African trouble spots, will supply the commander of the Congo force and about 700 troops. Britain, Belgium, Sweden and Ireland may also participate along with non-EU nations such as South Africa, Brazil, Canada and Ethiopia. This should be fun
The vanguard of the force is expected in the city of Bunia this weekend. France will hold a conference next Tuesday in Paris for countries that want to contribute troops. The final order to deploy and an operational plan should be approved by the next day, diplomats said, adding that both were considered formalities. The force will take over from about 750 beleaguered U.N. peacekeepers from Uruguay until Sept. 1, when a larger U.N. force led by Bangladesh is due to be in place. The EU began four years ago to put together a pool of 60,000 troops available at short notice for peacekeeping, humanitarian operations and regional crises. Defense ministers declared the rapid-reaction force ready last month, although hardware gaps remain. Like air transport
Diplomats said the EU force would be well armed, backed by mechanized units and would operate under robust rules of engagement to allow it to defend itself and civilians. Its main tasks will be to secure Bunia and its airport and protect aid agencies and tens of thousands of refugees around the city. Doomed!
Posted by: Steve ||
06/04/2003 08:50 am ||
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#1
Operation Artemis?! What moron decided that was a ggod name. "Let's go hunting in the jungle, Michel! Let's bag some pygmies!" Oh yes, it sounds very classical, sophisticated, educated. But what a stupid faux pas.
They shouldn't have too much trouble with airlift. There's at least one Ilyushin in the Congo that's eager for business.
#2
Diplomats said the EU force would be well armed, backed by mechanized units and would operate under robust rules of engagement to allow it to defend itself and civilians.
If this is the case and not just diplospeak bullshit, maybe, just maybe, they might accomplish something there.
#3
brits and french provide the cutting edge units, IIUC, the others (execpt maybe the Swedes?) are mainly peacekeepers, not peacemakers. Best French unit for stuff like this is the Foreign Legion, no? Are they in?
#4
Speaking of taking on additional projects like Operation Heart of Darkness Artemis, how are the Frenchies doing in the Ivory Coast?
Posted by: Alaska Paul ||
06/04/2003 10:43 Comments ||
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#5
The mission's going to require a catchy acronym in keeping with standard UN nomenclature, e.g. UNMOVIC, UNPROFOR. I propose UN/French-led Artemis: UNFART.
#8
Anon1---We are here to help you get through the heavy times. Bulldog lives near Stonehenge and I deal with Federal and State bureaucrats and bears in the neighborhood in Alaska, so we have a deep well to draw from. Heh heh....
Posted by: Alaska Paul ||
06/04/2003 12:40 Comments ||
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#9
I have this dream of mechanized units wandering through the jungle...oh wait, it's a nightmare.
Posted by: john ||
06/04/2003 13:05 Comments ||
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#10
The Irish are sending troops? Get out! Ireland is actually going to get involved in a fight outside the island? Canada is going to go in? For real? Brazil? I guess it's ok to kill people sometimes, eh boys? And you know, people WILL die, including civilians. Maybe hundreds of thousands of them.
And I ask you, are millions of lives really worth saving if even ONE civilian dies in a war?
The EU better be ready for the blowback from this. Colonial and white powers invading an African country rich in resources? Does anyone really believe this is about ending oppression and civil war? Who has the most to gain? This will be an occupation. A quagmire, I tell ya...
Where is Michael Moore and Noam Chomsky and Jose Bove when you really need them?
Posted by: R. McLeod ||
06/05/2003 0:17 Comments ||
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Reuters: "Oddly Enough".
A Japanese journalist was jailed for 18 months for blowing up a Jordanian airport security guard as he tried to show that a souvenir cluster bomblet from the Iraq war was harmless. Here...catch. Oh-oh.
The state security court Sunday sentenced Hiroke ("Dumbass") Gomi, 36, a photographer for Japan's Mainichi daily, to a reduced 18-month sentence after dropping charges of possession of explosives — an offence punishable by up to 15 years. Gomi was convicted on a lesser count of causing unintentional death and inflicting bodily harm in the blast at Amman's international airport on May 1 that killed Sergeant Ali Sarhan and wounded four others. Chief judge Colonel Fawaz al-Baqour said Gomi had behaved recklessly in seeking to prove to the security guards that the bomblet was safe before handing it over. "Instead of acting in a proper way to hand the bomb immediately to security without tampering with it, he began to toy with it to persuade them it was disused without taking the least precautions," he said. Bright boy.
"Although the court realizes he possessed explosives, it was clear he was not aware he was carrying any live explosives," he said. Gomi, who has covered Iraq for over a decade for his large circulation daily, found the cluster bomblet near a road in Iraq not knowing it was still active. Duh, I found this thing on the ground. Duh, I think it's a superball or something...
It was detected in his luggage by an X-ray machine as he prepared to board a flight en route to Tokyo. That could've been an interesting flight.
A charge of premeditated murder was dropped after the president of Gomi's newspaper met King Abdullah to personally apologize. Sarhan's family also limited their claims to financial compensation. Think this shows how up on military matters the media is? A cluster bomblet for a souveneir. Guess he couldn't fit a 105 round in his luggage?
Posted by: tu3031 ||
06/04/2003 08:30 am ||
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EFL
Zimbabwe's main opposition group says that one of its members has died after being tortured by police officials and soldiers. Tichaona Kaguru was taken away from the house of a Movement for Democratic Change councillor in Harare, and later died in a city centre hospital, the MDC says. Kidney failure?
The police have arrested more than 300 MDC supporters and officials during this week's strike, intended to drive President Robert Mugabe out of power. Most businesses in Harare and the second city, Bulawayo were closed on Wednesday for a third day. The government, however, says the Movement for Democratic Change protests have flopped because the security forces have prevented the mass demonstrations they had also called. State television says that security agents are investigating businesses which have shut down during the strike. The government has threatened to withdraw their trading licences. MDC activists and officials have been arrested throughout the country. In Bulawayo, opposition MPs have gone into hiding, reports the BBC's Themba Nkosi in the city. MDC spokesman for Manicaland, Pishayi Muchauraya, told the privately-owned Daily News: "The police have launched a door-to-door manhunt for known MDC supporters and they are harassing their families." On Monday, riot police used teargas, and soldiers in armoured cars fired guns to break up the demonstrations. On Tuesday, about 200 people tried to march into Bulawayo city centre but they were soon dispersed by riot police, our correspondent says. Bob was ready for this strike, don't think it's going anywhere.
But it's pulling the tipping point a little closer...
Posted by: Steve ||
06/04/2003 07:59 am ||
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Bob's smarter then we think. He's taking the opposition down a few people at a time and not a lot of people are noticing. Now, if there's a mass protest in the streets and his scumbag security people take out a couple of hundred people, that gets noticed. Then Bob's in the deep shit.
Update from the Congo.
Militia controlling the Congolese town of Bunia have attacked humanitarian workers and raped members of their families in the last few days and continue to execute members of other tribes during the night. At least five local aid workers have been badly beaten in their homes and a United Nations controlled refugee camp in recent days. The UN peacekeeping mission in Bunia said the militia were targeting humanitarian workers, the only people with large amounts of money in the pillaged town. Aid officials disclosed that four Congolese Red Cross officials were killed in last month's battle for Bunia as they attempted to bury some of the hundreds of bodies which littered the streets. Two of the victims were killed by ethnic Hema rebels, who seized control of the town three weeks ago, while the other two were murdered by rival Lendu militia.
An employee at the UN hospital, an aid colleague, two friends and his niece were subjected to seven hours of terror when Hema militiamen burst into his home on Sunday evening as they ate. "They made us lie on the floor and then beat us with the butts of their guns," said the hospital worker, his body covered in bruises and his arm in a sling. "They knew my name and position. They demanded $1,000 [£630] not to harm us." On discovering that the group only had $50, the militiamen continued to beat up their victims, and ransacked the house, stealing clothes, suitcases, watches, food, a television set and two motorcycles. They then raped the hospital worker's 16-year-old niece. Before leaving, one of the rebels put his rifle into the other aid worker's side and pulled the trigger twice. Miraculously it misfired.
Bunia has become a shell of its former self since Thomas Lubanga'sUnion of Congolese Patriots (UPC) forced Lendu militias out of the town on May 12. A population of 300,000 people two months ago has shrunk to roughly 40,000. The main street is still virtually deserted, more so since child soldiers as young as nine who, until Saturday marauded through the town, were confined to barracks away from the media. Looted buildings, pockmarked with bullet and grenade holes, line the streets. Aid workers said that on the outskirts of town the UPC had embarked on a policy of ethnic cleansing, drawing up lists of members of other tribes and Hemas accused of collaboration with the intention of executing them. Entire families in areas beyond the control of 700 Uruguayan peacekeepers are allegedly disappearing every night. "This is the killing fields," said an aid worker in Bunia. "Lumbanga is like Pol Pot. There are executions every day - all non-Hemas, aid workers and journalists are enemies." The UN Security Council has ordered an emergency intervention force into Bunia led by France, but with a sizeable British contingent. Its mandate authorises the use of force and it is expected to begin deployment within days.
As soon as they land, they should start shooting to kill. But they won't...
Posted by: Bulldog ||
06/04/2003 02:34 am ||
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To hear the African-American Studies academics talk, Africa is a gem of cooperative love and harmony in tune with the land....I guess when you're buried after getting hacked to death with a machete by a rival tribe, you do get in touch with the land. Conrad was right, this is the Heart of Darkness
Posted by: Frank G ||
06/04/2003 7:46 Comments ||
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The UN Security Council has ordered an emergency intervention force into Bunia led by France, but with a sizeable British contingent.
To what end?
Until Africa throws away its backward, tribalistic ways and warring culture, there's no saving it.
OOOPS!
That was racist and politically incorrect.
My bad.
#5
europe moved past its own tribalistic ways in part THROUGH its warring culture - wars against external enemies cemented national loyalties, in place of regional/ethnic/tribal ones. Also they had national linguistic standards, lots of time to build up their economies given low popular expectations, wars that thrashed out boundaries, etc. African states have artificial colonial boundaries, official languages are english or French (which are great for communicating with the outside world, but not so good for building up a nationalism to replace tribalism) lots of civil wars but few interstate wars, the example of wealth in the rest of the world that creates pressure for more modernization than some of these societies are ready for, etc.
Whether Celissas observation is racist or not depends on whether she is aware of the obstacles to state building in Africa. Which in turn depends on how much she knows about the process of state building in Europe. Too many people who make snide remarks about Africa and elsewhere dont really know much European history, and so dont know quite how Europe (and by extension European settler states) got to be the way they are.
#6
I'd hardly call it racist to observe that Africa as a whole has proven remarkably incompetent when it comes to establishing stable societies. The fact stems from a number of factors, including the ideologies into which the leadership was educated. Whether Christian or Muslim or animist, Bantu or Nilotic or North African Arab, hardly anybody seems to do it well. The occasional exception - Uganda prior to Idi, Kenya, Somaliland, Liberia prior to Sergeant Doe, a few others - suggest that it can be done, that there are competent people to be found, and that there's always somebody waiting in the wings to undo it. Africa as a whole is probably at the development point Europe was sometime between Merwig and Charles Martel. There will be more Emperor Freddies, Idis, and Bob and Graces for them to go through until eventually there are more Kenyas than Burkina Fasos.
That being said, there's a qualitative difference between near-anarchic political development and eating pygmies.
Posted by: Fred ||
06/04/2003 10:55 Comments ||
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Consider central Europe between 1618 and 1648: up to half of the population killed; marauding bands slaughtering civilians while spreading disease and starvation; foreign powers (France, Sweden)profiting mightily from the destruction, and doing everything to fan the flames of war; the battered hulk of an artificial state (the Holy Roman Empire) decaying past recognition -- gee, sounds a lot like the DR Congo at present. (OK, no cannibalism -- but it was still a heart of darkness.) Yet with the Treaty of Westphalia in 1648, the mass bloodshed was ended and the modern system of state sovereignty and diplomacy emerged. So I still hold some hope for Africa -- but not much.
#8
teh european state system had already gone pretty far by 1618, particularly on the Atlantic seaboard. The next 150 years still involved quite a bit of warfare,(the several greate power wars, the northern wars, the russo-turkish wars) if not as bad as 1618-1648 and largely carried out by mercenaries (not unlike Africa) There was also the Fronde rising in France, peasant revolts, the Chemielnicki uprising, and uprisings in the Hapsburg lands. All of which culminated in the bloodshed of the French revolution (virtually a civil war, really) and the revolutionary and Napoleonic wars. Europe didnt really settle down till 1815. And since they have suffered some extraordinarly bloody civil wars - Spain and Russia. And the Africans still havent been able to match WW1. and for ethnic butchery Africa cant match the 3rd reich.
But the state system was pretty much stable by 1815, and in the western seaboard by 1648, and sustained economic growth was a factor by the mid-18thc.
Id say the hundred years war was particularly signicant in cementing national identity in France and Britain. And again, there are many factors, including globalization and the relatively open world system (as compared with say, 1618, that work against state building today. So its actually pretty amazing that Uganda, kenya, etc have gotten as far they have.
#9
Nicely stated, Liberalhawk. But Africa's real political/economic success stories are Botswana, Namibia, and Mauritius -- certainly not Kenya. Unfortunately, AIDS is destroying all the gains made by Botswana and Namibia, whereas Mauritius is as much South Asian as it is African
#10
I suspect that AIDS will have the same effect on Africa that syphillis did on Europe during the time period you have been discussing. There will be large population die offs followed by a general tightening of public and private morality, Victorianism if you will.
#11
The big difference between mediaeval Europe and modern Africa is one of precedent. The "source code" for peaceful, affluent society is freely available. All that's needed is the will of the majority to implement it, plus (usually) a catalyst from outside to start things off...
#12
thats a mixed blessing, bulldog - they want 21st c Europe/America - but dont want to go through, say 17thc europe (aristocratic, modernizing, centralizing, autocracy, with no mass mobilization) to get there. Charles Tilly had a great book on this years ago, mainly a discussion of early modern europe, but with implications for modern LDC's.
#13
By the way, anyone notice who the NGOs are who have been getting killed? Local ones, that's who. So where is OxFam? Where is the International Solidarity Movement? Where are all those human shields? I promise you, there are no NGOs running around in white SUVs in the Congo loaded up with "committed progressives." No glamma and interviews on Euro TV in the Congo, just hard, dangerous work. Which is why they ain't there.
Posted by: R. McLeod ||
06/05/2003 0:25 Comments ||
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A multi-volume chronology and reference guide set detailing three years of the Mexican Drug War between 2010 and 2012.
Rantburg.com and borderlandbeat.com correspondent and author Chris Covert presents his first non-fiction work detailing
the drug and gang related violence in Mexico.
Chris gives us Mexican press dispatches of drug and gang war violence
over three years, presented in a multi volume set intended to chronicle the death, violence and mayhem which has
dominated Mexico for six years.
Rantburg was assembled from recycled algorithms in the United States of America. No
trees were destroyed in the production of this weblog. We did hurt some, though. Sorry.
