Hi there, !
Today Sun 06/08/2003 Sat 06/07/2003 Fri 06/06/2003 Thu 06/05/2003 Wed 06/04/2003 Tue 06/03/2003 Mon 06/02/2003 Archives
Rantburg
531702 articles and 1855993 comments are archived on Rantburg.

Today: 25 articles and 88 comments as of 14:44.
Post a news link    Post your own article   
Area:                    
Boomerette Kills 15 in North Ossetia
Today's Headlines
Headline Comments [Views]
Page 1: WoT Operations
1 00:00 Watcher [] 
0 [] 
0 [] 
6 00:00 Jack Bross [] 
4 00:00 Celissa [1] 
9 00:00 Yank [] 
3 00:00 Raj [1] 
3 00:00 Douglas De Bono [] 
0 [] 
4 00:00 Raptor [] 
4 00:00 Hiryu [] 
4 00:00 Yank [] 
6 00:00 Alaska Paul [1] 
1 00:00 Tibor [1] 
2 00:00 Rifle308 [] 
3 00:00 Yank [1] 
9 00:00 JP [] 
2 00:00 liberalhawk [] 
2 00:00 Chuck [] 
6 00:00 Anonymous [] 
4 00:00 Anonymous [] 
2 00:00 Anonymous [] 
6 00:00 Yank [] 
7 00:00 closet neo-con [] 
0 [] 
Afghanistan
Up to 40 Taliban Guerrillas Are Killed in a Major Defeat
Up to 40 Taliban guerrillas and seven Afghan government soldiers have been killed in the Taliban's worst defeat since it was driven from power by an American-led coalition in 2001. The seven-hour battle took place on Wednesday in southern Afghanistan, about 20 miles northeast of the border town of Spin Boldak, the main crossing point to Pakistan, a senior government official in Spin Boldak, told Reuters today. "We surrounded an entire group of Taliban and killed about 40 of them after heavy fighting," the official, Syed Fazal Din Agha, said. Troops were sent in after the guerrillas attacked the district commissioner's office in the Loi Karez area. Seven soldiers were killed, he said.
Yep, they got kilt by Afghansoldiers.
It's the same forty that were bumped off in yesterday's article, but I'll leave this one in — to gloat!
Posted by: growler || 06/05/2003 12:57 pm || Comments || Link || [0 views] Top|| File under:

#1  Leave 'em in the open. It's a nice welcome mat tor the jihadists crossing over from Pakland.
Posted by: Rex Mundi || 06/05/2003 15:48 Comments || Top||

#2  Save The Pygmies! Send these fast food orders to Congo
Posted by: Frank G || 06/05/2003 21:45 Comments || Top||

#3  Clearly some of that aid money is getting results!
Posted by: Steve White || 06/05/2003 22:00 Comments || Top||

#4  About a week or so ago, I noted that the Afghan army had grown to include an armored battalion as well as six or seven light infantry battalions.

This is a result. Please also note that the death toll is one-sided, as I would expect with U.S. trained troops.
Posted by: Chuck || 06/05/2003 13:28 Comments || Top||

#5  an even more fascinating twist -

from the BBC

"After a fierce battle near the southern Afghan border town of Spin Boldak, Afghan officials sent more than 20 bodies over the border, saying they were not Afghans. They were among at least 46 people killed in the battle.

But Pakistan has refused to accept them, saying they are not Pakistanis and warning that the Afghan refusal to take back the bodies may spark tension in the border region. "


reportedly the bodies are still lying in the open.

Posted by: liberalhawk || 06/05/2003 13:42 Comments || Top||

#6  Ants an' vultures gotta eat too...
Posted by: mojo || 06/05/2003 13:48 Comments || Top||

#7  Bury them in bacon and set an ambush for whomever tries to dig them up and buy them properly.
Posted by: Yank || 06/05/2003 14:12 Comments || Top||

#8  This is the story I reported yesterday. There were about 100 Afghan troops involved, they lost 7 men and killed all 40 Taliban. Good job.
Posted by: Steve || 06/05/2003 14:13 Comments || Top||

#9  Bury them in bacon and set an ambush for whomever tries to dig them up and bury them properly.

To quick to dismiss the preview.
Posted by: Yank || 06/05/2003 14:14 Comments || Top||


Afghan leader flies in to ask for more aid
Afghanistan's finance minister warned last night that the money given by the international community to rebuild his country was "running out" and that a further $15bn (£9bn) would be needed.
At least the Afghan finance minister knows his job. He's got his hand out!
Ashraf Ghani said unless Britain and others made a long-term commitment to supporting Afghanistan, it stood no chance of "getting out" of poverty. The cash donated by the west after the fall of the Taliban in 2001 was not enough for reconstruction. The same message will be delivered to Tony Blair over lunch today by Afghanistan's president, Hamid Karzai - that unless Britain and other western governments step up their assistance the country is in danger of collapse. Mr Ghani said: "Britain has been generous and supportive. But the international community has given us the lowest amount of per capita assistance of any post-conflict country."
"What's wrong with us? Cripes, you gave the Bosnians more than you gave us!"
His remarks came on the eve of a two-day state visit by Mr Karzai to Britain. Afghanistan is nearly bankrupt. Officials said the original estimates for rebuilding the country were wildly optimistic. They said the UN in Afghanistan had consumed much of the $5.1bn given so far because of its profligate running costs. One senior official said: "Most of the money given by the international community last year went back into the international community's pocket. We got very little."
No twitch on the surprise meter there.
Mr Karzai is now seeking an additional $15bn over five years. Britain has promised £200m, with £110m donated so far. But the government remains vague as to how much more will be forthcoming. Last month Mr Ghani warned that Afghanistan would turn into a "narco-mafia" state, run by warlords and drug barons, unless more aid was donated.
"You want us to be next Myanmar? The next Pashtunistan? The next Afgha ... um, fork over some dough!"
"Afghanistan is at a turning point. Either we go towards a virtuous circle or a vicious circle," he said. "We are seriously concerned that in terms of the people of Afghanistan we have to deliver, and deliver rapidly, or there will be a possibility of descending into a vicious circle." Mr Karzai would also urge Mr Blair to step up Britain's contribution towards eradicating opium production in the country. Afghanistan is now the world's largest producer of heroin. Measures taken by Britain have had little impact so far. Afghanistan's opium farmers are poised over the next few weeks to bring in another bumper crop.
Wonder if the North Koreans have their hooks in this somehow? White skag going overland to the Paks, thence to Karachi and a dilapidated NKor ship.
Mr Karzai is also likely to ask the prime minister to send more troops to Afghanistan. He has repeatedly asked the international community to beef up the 5,000-strong peacekeeping International Security and Assistance Force which is currently restricted to Kabul. A spokesman for the Afghan foreign ministry said: "Afghans continuously ask us for the presence of more coalition forces, and in particular for UK troops. British soldiers have a very good reputation in Afghanistan." British Foreign Office sources yesterday indicated that Mr Karzai's plea stood little chance of success. British officials said about 70 British troops would be deployed in the city of Mazar-i-Sharif, in the north, to protect officials of the Department for International Development as well as other civilians working on reconstruction projects. Said Tayab Jawad, Mr Karzai's chief of staff, said last night that Afghanistan saw Britain as a trusted ally. "There is a very good chemistry between President Karzai and Tony Blair," he said. "They are very good friends. They keep in touch outside official contacts."
"So please give us more money!"
Posted by: Steve White || 06/05/2003 12:31 am || Comments || Link || [0 views] Top|| File under:

#1  I'm not sure the drug mafia would be worse than the UN mafia.

These guys should make their first demand that the UN be run out of town on a rail. Maybe Halliburton could help...
Posted by: someone || 06/05/2003 1:09 Comments || Top||

#2  This is serious, Afghanistan and Iraq need to be made shining examples of prosperity after US intervention. That would shut the gobs of anti-Americans everywhere.

Can the UN be thrown out? Can they be made accountable?

Can donated moneys be distributed via an alternate system to that of the UN, and kept wholly separate from teh UN and out of their grubby hands?

people this is really important to crushing Islamofascism in the heartland: the minds of the muslim people around the world who watch and judge. A good job means Islamofascism is dead in the water and they will all love America. A bad job will be like cutting a head off a hydra.
Posted by: Anon1 || 06/05/2003 5:07 Comments || Top||

#3  No one outside the US will ever love America because everyone hates the thing that is more successful than they are. Doesn't matter how good of a job America does, in anything.
Posted by: RW || 06/05/2003 5:56 Comments || Top||

#4  I would say a good place to start would be an publuic audit of the U.N.'s books.
Posted by: Raptor || 06/05/2003 6:24 Comments || Top||

#5  anon1 is right - its too easy to win the war and lose the peace. The admin record on winning the peace is not nearly as bad as the left would have it, but its approach is sporadic enough to make one nervous. Wolfie certainly understands the importance of winning the peace - im not sure anyone of cabinet rank or above in this admin is quite clear on it though.
Posted by: liberalhawk || 06/05/2003 9:01 Comments || Top||

#6  I just might agree with liberhawk on this one. The one cabinet level exception may be Powell, but I think State is way to soft to do anyhting but give in to every bad guy that complains, and that's probably worse than not caring, becuase it cost billions to accomplish nothing.
Other than the Wolf, I think Rice has a good handle on it, she just doesn't get put in front of the public enough for people to see how good she really is. In fact, I think the Elephants 2008 Presidential ticket should include her.
Posted by: Mike N. || 06/05/2003 9:39 Comments || Top||

#7  I once spent an instructive evening with a Japanese family: the grandfather first embarassed the hell out of his son by saying that, "when I was 18, my only ambition in life was to kill Americans." Then he explained what the occupation brought: massive land reform that transformed his family from tenant to owner status. Ever since then, he has loved the USA. We proceeded to drink a lot of sake -- it was one of the high points of my life.
Posted by: closet neo-con || 06/05/2003 11:10 Comments || Top||


Arabia
Kingdom’s Leading Executioner Says: ‘I Lead a Normal Life’
No hot needle in Saudi.
Saudi Arabia’s leading executioner Muhammad Saad Al-Beshi will behead up to seven people in a day. “It doesn’t matter to me: Two, four, 10 — As long as I’m doing God’s will, it doesn’t matter how many people I execute,” he told Okaz newspaper in an interview.
How's he get paid? By the hour? By the head?
He started at a prison in Taif, where his job was to handcuff and blindfold the prisoners before their execution. “Because of this background, I developed a desire to be an executioner,” he says. He applied for the job and was accepted.
Civil Service? Is there a test?
His first job came in 1998 in Jeddah. “The criminal was tied and blindfolded. With one stroke of the sword I severed his head. It rolled meters away.” Of course he was nervous, then, he says, as many people were watching, but now stage fright is a thing of the past.
He wasn't nearly as nervous as the blindfolded guy. And glad to hear he got over that stage fright thing.
He says he is calm at work because he is doing God’s work. “But there are many people who faint when they witness an execution. I don’t know why they come and watch if they don’t have the stomach for it. Me? I sleep very well,” he adds. Does he think people are afraid of him? “In this country we have a society that understands God’s law,” he says. “No one is afraid of me. I have a lot of relatives, and many friends at the mosque, and I live a normal life like everyone else. There are no drawbacks for my social life.”
I'm just a normal guy who beheads people.
Before an execution, nonetheless, he will go to the victim’s family to obtain forgiveness for the criminal. “I always have that hope, until the very last minute, and I pray to God to give the criminal a new lease of life. I always keep that hope alive.”
But usually...it's the cold chop.
Al-Beshi will not reveal how much he gets paid per execution as this is a confidential agreement with the government. But he insists that the reward is not important. “I am very proud to do God’s work,” he reiterates. However, he does reveal that a sword will cost something in the region of SR20,000. “It’s a gift from the government. I look after it and sharpen it once in a while, and I make sure to clean it of bloodstains. It’s very sharp. People are amazed how fast it can separate the head from the body.”
Look sharp, feel sharp and cleanliness is next to godliness. The mottos of the humble executioner.
By the time the victims reach the execution square they have surrendered themselves to death, he says, though they may hope to be forgiven at the last minute. “Their hearts and minds are taken up with reciting the Shahada.” The only conversation with the prisoner is when he tells him to say the Shahada. When they get to the execution square, their strength drains away. Then I read the execution order, and at a signal I cut the prisoner’s head off.”
...Next!
He has executed numerous women without hesitation, he explains. “Despite the fact that I hate violence against women, when it comes to God’s will, I have to carry it out.” There is no great difference between executing men and women, except that the women wear hijab, and nobody is allowed near them except Al-Beshi himself when the time for execution comes. When executing women he will use either gun or sword. “It depends what they ask me to use. Sometimes they ask me to use a sword and sometimes a gun. But most of the time I use the sword,” he adds.
I don't see "lethal injection" on the list. Wonder what Muhammad would think of that option?
As an experienced executioner, 42-year-old Al-Beshi is entrusted with the task of training the young. “I successfully trained my son Musaed, 22, as an executioner and he was approved and chosen,” he says proudly. Training focuses on the way to hold the sword and where to hit, and is mostly through observing the executioner at work.
Damn nepotism! It's everywhere!
An executioner’s life, of course, is not all killing. Sometimes it can be amputation of hands and legs. “I use a special sharp knife, not a sword,” he explains. “When I cut off a hand I cut it from the joint. If it is a leg the authorities specify where it is to be taken off, so I follow that.”
Just another day at the office.
Al-Beshi describes himself as a family man. Married before he became an executioner, his wife did not object to his chosen profession. “She only asked me to think carefully before committing myself,” he recalls. “But I don’t think she’s afraid of me,” he smiles. “I deal with my family with kindness and love. They aren’t afraid when I come back from an execution. Sometimes they help me clean my sword.”
Wanna get the hose, son? Gotta clean the sword. Busy day today at work.
A father of seven, he is a proud grandfather already. “I have a married daughter who has a son. He is called Haza, and he’s my pride and joy. And then there are my sons. The oldest one is Saad, and of course there is Musaed, who’ll be the next executioner,” he adds.
Seems like a nice enough guy...FOR AN EXECUTIONER!
Posted by: tu3031 || 06/05/2003 08:43 am || Comments || Link || [1 views] Top|| File under:

#1  Good to see another "G&S" fan on Rantburg! The Mikado is my all-time favorite, and my favorite character is the Lord High Executioner, especially the song "I've got a little list..."
Posted by: Old Patriot || 06/05/2003 17:38 Comments || Top||

#2  I bet his kids pay very close attention to his moods.
Posted by: Shipman || 06/05/2003 10:39 Comments || Top||

#3  Kids, the man is a professional...don't try this at home!
Posted by: JDB || 06/05/2003 10:50 Comments || Top||

#4  I heard his nickname is Lop.
Posted by: Chuck || 06/05/2003 13:45 Comments || Top||

#5  "To sit in solemn silence in a dull, dark dock,
In a pestilential prison, with a life-long lock,
Awaiting the sensation of a short, sharp shock,
From a cheap and chippy chopper on a big black block!"
-- The Mikado
Posted by: mojo || 06/05/2003 13:52 Comments || Top||

#6  You beat me to the punch, Mojo.....Great quote!
Posted by: Alaska Paul || 06/05/2003 14:30 Comments || Top||


Britain
WMD source ’was senior Iraqi officer’
EFL
A senior Iraqi officer on active service within the country's military provided British intelligence last August with the information that Iraq could fire chemical or biological warheads within 45 minutes of Saddam Hussein giving the order, according to senior Whitehall officials. The claim, contained in the government's dossier on Iraq's weapons of mass destruction, has become the chief test of whether ministers "duped" the British public over the need for war. Whitehall officials in two departments said last night the evidence of the 45-minute capability had come from a serving Iraqi officer with a record for providing reliable data over years. Intelligence sought to find a second source for the information and was unable to do so. However, the JIC was prepared to rely on a single source because the official was a senior figure in Mr Hussein's regime, not a defector. The information was analysed by Britain's Joint Intelligence Committee and immediately distributed to some cabinet ministers at the end of August, a few weeks before the compilation of the government's WMD dossier. Mr Blair remained confident that chemical and biological weapons would be found in Iraq, saying that the Iraq Survey Group - made up of 1,400 UK, US and Australian officials - were only now starting their work.
Posted by: JP || 06/05/2003 08:11 am || Comments || Link || [0 views] Top|| File under:

#1  Thanks JP. I thought maybe they were winked to the bottom of the deep blue sea!! :-)
Posted by: Anon || 06/05/2003 21:47 Comments || Top||

#2  I happen to believe that western intelligence was acting on information they believed to be true. There are several theories about why the WMD have not been found yet: Destroyed before we got there; Saddam thought he had them, but did not; exported to Syria or the "Ghost Ships".

I am starting to wonder if perhaps Saddam's intelligence people fed the coalition information they KNEW would cause a military strike, so they could be rid of Saddam once and for all. All of this evidence may have been fabricated, but not necessarily by any western sources. Couldn't it be that governmental sources in Iraq were so desperate to remove Saddam that they caused the invasion by fabricating their own intelligence?
Posted by: mjh || 06/05/2003 9:04 Comments || Top||

#3  Exiled Iraqi Chalabi may have been feeding Western Intelligence Iraqi informants and Defectors with false stories.
Chalabi had reasons to want a US invasion for his own political aspirations in a post Saddam Iraq. Bush had reason to want to beleive everything the defectors told him about a WMD program. It's a marriage made in heaven especially when the advice from the CIA is ignored.

Posted by: PAUL || 06/05/2003 9:25 Comments || Top||

#4  paul - the source mentioned in the post was NOT a defector, but a serving iraqi officer - didnt you read the post??

MJH - very interesting theory - i think you may be on to something. Its possible, even likely, that a combination is true - there WERE some weapons and development programs, (EG the mobile labs) but that folks inside Iraq exagerated them for a variety of reasons, one of which might have been to bring down the regime.
Posted by: liberalhawk || 06/05/2003 9:28 Comments || Top||

#5  I said "Informants" and Defectors. The serving Iraqi officer would fall under "Informant"

I think MJH theory and my Theory have a lot in common.
Posted by: Anonymous || 06/05/2003 10:50 Comments || Top||

#6  The Last Post was from PAUL
Posted by: PAUL || 06/05/2003 10:51 Comments || Top||

#7  You think a serving iraqi officer, a "senior figure in Mr. Husseins regime" was simply passing along items fed to him by chalabi??? I doubt that is true. I also doubt the CIA advised that it was true. I think this something very different.
Posted by: liberalhawk || 06/05/2003 11:29 Comments || Top||

#8  Has anyone heard what happened to the ghost ships? I have been very curious to know what they were all about, but I haven't heard anything since the report before the war that they were sailing in ever-decreasing circles. Inquiring minds want to know...
Posted by: Anon || 06/05/2003 12:35 Comments || Top||

#9  Anon -- maybe they kept sailing in ever-decreasing circles until they simply winked out of existence? (G!)

According to Taiwan News, "Western U.S., British and German intelligence services failed to confirm on Wednesday (presumably 02/19/03) the existence of three mystery ships suspected of carrying Iraqi weapons of mass destruction reported by a British newspaper (the Independent).

http://www.etaiwannews.com/World/2003/02/21/1045792101.htm
Posted by: JP || 06/05/2003 13:29 Comments || Top||


Down Under
Islamist terror groups plot against Aussie Jewish Businessman
Mining magnate Joe Gutnick says he no longer feels his life is in danger after learning he was the target of an assassination plot by al-Qaeda backed terrorists. Mr Gutnick, a prominent supporter of anti-Palestinian policies in Israel, also said he was not the sole target of the al-Qaeda backed assassination plot before the September 11 terrorist attacks in the US. "This same person was attempting to blow up the Israeli embassy in Canberra and the Israeli consulate in Sydney so I wasn't only targeted."

The Melbourne businessman said the other targets named made him doubt that he was singled out because of his support for Jewish settlements in Palestinian territories, or his financial backing of the Israeli government. "I think there was more than that," he told ABC's AM program. Mr Gutnick said he was told of the plan to bomb his house, synagogue or company offices in St Kilda, Melbourne, by Australian Federal Police (AFP) in December last year. Mr Gutnick, an orthodox Jew, told The Australian newspaper that one man had profiles on his companies, and knew where he lived and prayed. Maps and other evidence in the death plot were discovered during raids by ASIO on suspected members of Jemaah Islamiah in Melbourne, Sydney and Perth last October, the newspaper said.
Amazingly, on SBS television news, they did not even report that actual evidence of planning had been found. They made out like it was just the crazy unfounded claims of a "controversial businessman" which intelligence operatives found "surprising". They are constantly trying to play down the threat of Islamist groups to the point of flagrant self-censorship and the omission of fact.
The AFP declined to comment on the matter because it was the subject of court proceedings. Mr Gutnick, a former president of AFL club Melbourne, said he did not know why he was targeted. "You're dealing with maniacs and it could be for a multitude of reasons," he said. "Could have been at that time in the year 2000 I was high profile, it could have been because of my associations with Israel, it could have been because I was a well-known Australian and ... being Jewish." Although he was "more than a bit shocked and alarmed" by the plot, Mr Gutnick said he was in constant contact with the AFP and did not feel his life was in danger. "They did convey to me they were on top of the situation," he said. "If there was any danger now they'd act appropriately. I've got on with my life and my family have got on with their life and we have adequate security at this stage."

Mr Gutnick said he opposed United States president George W Bush's road map for peace in the Middle East. "Everyone hopes that it will lead to peace but I certainly think that it's not going to happen," he said. "It will take generations for these two people living side by side to come to a peace agreement. Only when violence will stop will there be a chance for peace."
SBS made a big deal out of his views on the roadmap, repeating twice for emphasis that he called it the 'roadmap to hell' and not really giving him a chance to explain what he meant by that.
Posted by: Anon1 || 06/05/2003 06:32 am || Comments || Link || [0 views] Top|| File under:

#1  Thanks for the offer Anon1...no offense, but I really hope you are female. I mean, if your not, I'm still down with that...you can look all you want (but please don't touch!) LOL!
Posted by: Watcher || 06/05/2003 20:53 Comments || Top||

#2  what is this ..so because Australia is threatened by Radicals in Indonesia you want Americasn troops in Darwin...cant you motherfuckers fight for your fuckin selves....die your own deaths and fight your own war/s.....Poor American troops from the southern states in America should not be dying for Aussies while they ( aussies ) are busy tanning in the summer heat....what a joke
Posted by: stevey robinson || 06/05/2003 22:12 Comments || Top||

#3  Indonesia is becoming radicalised and Australia is going to be in for a nasty shock one day.

USA: please bring your bases and 50,000 gorgeous young American men to Darwin please. I will personally move up there and make them welcome!

They are hot, polite, and did I mention hot? and fit. Bring them to Australia, please.
Posted by: Anon1 || 06/05/2003 6:44 Comments || Top||

#4  Aussies have been fighting our wars, Stevey. Have you forgotten which nations sent fighting force to Iraq already?! Get a grip. Australia's a huge, sparsely populated country with the world's most populous Islamic state on its doorstep. If any one of the coalition could benefit from US military presence on their soil, it is Australia.

Anon1, are you a sheila?! If not, I think you would be in for a bit of a disappointment if your welcoming reception was as enthusiastic as it sounds! ;)
Posted by: Anonymous || 06/06/2003 4:27 Comments || Top||


Europe
Belgium holds Iraqi over toxic letters
An Iraqi man has been arrested in Belgium in connection with a number of letters laced with toxic powders that were sent to the prime minister's office and the US and British embassies.
A 45-year-old man was taken into custody in the western town of Deinze, police said. The arrest came a day after police said they were investigating 10 letters containing harmful powders. The chemicals included phenarsazine, an arsenic derivative used in rat poison, and hydrazine, used as a rocket propellant, the health ministry said.
Posted by: Paul Moloney || 06/05/2003 07:22 pm || Comments || Link || [0 views] Top|| File under:

#1  Tap...tap...tap...nope, surprise meter still ain't movin'.
Posted by: Watcher || 06/05/2003 20:54 Comments || Top||


Moroccan Arrested in France Over Sept. 11 Attacks
A Moroccan man wanted in connection with the September 11, 2001, attacks on the United States has been arrested in France, a judicial source said on Thursday.
Karim Mehdi, 34, was arrested Sunday. Thursday, he was put under official investigation -- one step short of pressing charges in France -- for "participation in an association of criminals linked to terrorist activities." The source said Mehdi was connected to a cell in Hamburg accused of planning the attacks. The cell also included Mohamed Atta, who U.S. authorities say piloted one of the two planes that crashed into the World Trade Center in the September 11 attacks.
Posted by: Steve || 06/05/2003 02:22 pm || Comments || Link || [1 views] Top|| File under:

#1  More details: Mehdi, the first person to be arrested in France in an investigation into the attacks, was seized at Paris's Charles de Gaulle airport after arriving on a flight from Germany, the source said. He was waiting to fly on to the French-ruled Indian Ocean island of La Reunion.
Posted by: Steve || 06/05/2003 15:11 Comments || Top||

#2  Tit for tat? The Morrocans just nabbed a French citizen.
Posted by: Chuck || 06/05/2003 19:51 Comments || Top||

#3  Now the bad news: France won't extradite if there's the chance of the death penalty.
Posted by: Tom || 06/05/2003 19:55 Comments || Top||

#4  In France?
France?
I'm shocked!
Shocked I say!
Posted by: Celissa || 06/05/2003 14:57 Comments || Top||


India-Pakistan
’MMA ready to give Musharraf short time to shed uniform’
The Mutahidda Majlis-e-Amal (MMA) has said it is ready to give President General Pervez Musharraf "a short time" to take off his military uniform so that a national crisis could be averted.
I'm going to have a mental picture of a naked Perv in my head all day. Yuck.
"General Musharraf should accept our position, otherwise the PML-QA government will not be safe," Maulana Samiul Haq, central leader of the MMA, said in an interview. He hoped that the ruling Pakistan Muslim League-Quid-e-Azam would accept all the demands of the opposition.
That sounds like a "or else" to me.
He said he did not agree with the stance taken by some component parties of the MMA about the controversial LFO, which institutionalises military's role in the government, but he was in favour of arriving at a consensus with the government. Samiul Haq described MMA government's Islamisation policies in the NWFP as a step in the right direction.
Of course he does
He also claimed that the federal government was conspiring against them, and threatened "if they try to demolish our government, we will hit back in the Centre." Samiul Haq, who is also chief of his own faction of the Jamiat-e-Ulema Islam (JUI), said the resignation by district Nazims of the NWFP was part of the federal government's attempts to destabilise the MMA government in the province. "Why is the federal government releasing Rs 27 billion to the NWFP government?" he asked. He said he believed that Federal Minister for Water and Power Aftab Ahmad Sherpao might have instigated the Nazims' action.
Aftab better have somebody start his car for him.
Posted by: Steve || 06/05/2003 08:51 am || Comments || Link || [0 views] Top|| File under:

#1  I know others here disagree, but it would seem like MMA is getting a bit of the Juche-courage in their rants. They shouldn't make threats they can't deliver on, especially if they're jugged or dead. I wouldn't be surprised to see a purge of their backers in the ISI and army if Perv wants to stay in power
Posted by: Frank G || 06/05/2003 9:06 Comments || Top||

#2  When I read about things like the instability in Pakistan, Iran near having nukes, China and Russia still far from "democratic-market economy-stable-societies", continueing problems in Afghanistan and Iraq, etc.... I think about the beginnings of the 20th, 19th, and if memory serves, the 18th century. They all started with brushfire wars that eventually became full blown "forrest fire" wars that shook Western Civilization to its roots, and usually during the first two decades. And with each century more of the rest of the globe has been drawn into the flames. And that today the potential flames include those of the atom.
Just my pessimistic side thinking out loud.
Posted by: Rifle308 || 06/05/2003 11:32 Comments || Top||


Pakistan Peasants Dig in Against Army Offensive
Last week, hundreds of thousands of peasants in Okara in Pakistan's northern Punjab province, mourned the death of Amir Ali, 60 allegedly shot by the Pakistan Army, vowing to continue their movement for land-rights and fight Army repression. For the past three years, over a million peasants in Okara, 100 kilometers south of Punjab's capital Lahore, have been battling with the Army, which is attempting to grab the land they have been tilling since 1908. "The gory murder of Amir Ali can't frighten us. Such atrocities only boost our morale and strengthen our cause," declares the president of the peasants union, Anjuman Mazareen Pakistan (AMP), Liaquat Ali.

It was a dust bowl when the land was given to their forefathers by the Punjab government, but they were promised ownership in six years if they made it fertile. But after the farmers toiled and the amber waves of grain started flowing, the government decided the land was too good to be given away. In 1947, after India was partitioned into India and Pakistan, the Army "colonized" the land. And without any legal authority, the generals let it to the peasants for tilling under the Punjab Tenancy Act and started receiving a share of the produce. Until recently, the Army continued to receive its cut, which was, in fact, never deposited with the national exchequer. According to an estimate by the Punjab Board of Revenue (BoR), a sum of US $8.3 billion was allegedly embezzled in this fashion by the Army brass.

When the peasants got wind of the scam around three years ago, they raised the issue of ownership. But their claim to tenancy was challenged by the BoR since there were no entries in its records of the cut they had been giving the Army. The upshot: the farmers stopped paying the share and initiated a peaceful land-rights movement with the slogan, "Death or ownership." But high on paddy power, the generals were in no mood to give up their tax-free sinecure. They promptly sent in their troops, who have been besieging Okara for the past three years. For all practical purposes, the nearly one million people of Okara are currently under military occupation. Says renowned peace activist Pervez Hoodbhoy, "Roadblocks are everywhere, manned by soldiers with automatic weapons." Four-wheelers with mounted machine-guns prowl the dirt roads next to the irrigation canals, raising huge dust clouds as they move between villages. Apart from shooting at and killing protestors, the authorities have evolved other novel strategies to demoralize tenants.... The scale of torture can be gauged by the fact that almost every villager in Okara carries torture marks on his or her body. Says AMP's chief organizer Javed Dogar, "When it was pointed out to the Rangers, they said, 'These are self-inflicted wounds intended to defame the authorities, or were inflicted during factional clashes'."
Posted by: Paul Moloney || 06/05/2003 04:23 am || Comments || Link || [0 views] Top|| File under:

#1  "Kashmir runs through our veins. We will fight for the fellow muslims... Okra, what about Okra, Fuck Okra. Wip them, beat them, kill them all. Now as I was saying we muslims must stand together....bla bla, spittle, flame....."
Posted by: rg117 || 06/05/2003 17:13 Comments || Top||

#2  I have been to Okara. There are more "villagers" there then in Manhattan. "EVERY" one of them beard the marks of torture?
Bullshit and propaganda.
Posted by: Anonymous || 08/07/2003 15:03 Comments || Top||


Iraq
U.S. mobilizes for offensive against Saddam loyalists
Edited for brevity.
The U.S. military has launched a search-and-destroy offensive against Sunni fighters loyal to deposed President Saddam Hussein. Thousands of troops from the U.S. 3rd Infantry Division have been deployed in two Iraqi cities. One force, the size of two battalions, arrived in Falujah, some 65 kilometers west of Baghdad, on Wednesday. Another task force was deployed around two military airfields in the area of Habbaniyah. Falujah and Habbaniyah are major transit points from Baghdad to the Syrian border and are said to contain thousands of Saddam loyalists who fled the Iraqi capital during the war.

Sunni insurgents have repeatedly attacked forces from the 3rd Armored Cavalry Regiment, Middle East Newsline reported. "To address this threat we are applying additional military resources and forces to help us identify and decisively defeat these anti-coalition, and I might add anti-Iraqi, regime elements," Lt. Gen. David McKiernan, head of U.S. forces in Iraq, told a news conference in Baghdad on Wednesday. Officials said a search-and-destroy operation for Sunni insurgents could begin next week. They said the force has been bolstered by 88 M1A1 Abrams tanks and 44 Bradley Fighting Vehicles.

The United States has tried to quell unrest by banning heavy weapons stolen from Iraqi military arsenals. On June 1, U.S. military authorities announced a two-week amnesty in which Iraqis could turn in heavy weapons without penalty. But the response to the amnesty has been light. McKiernan said Iraqis handed over around 300 weapons around the country. The military has allowed Iraqis to keep such firearms as assault rifles and pistols.
Posted by: Dar || 06/05/2003 12:22 pm || Comments || Link || [1 views] Top|| File under:

#1  "Hulk SMASH!!"

I have to wonder if they're really prepared to do what needs to be done in order to find and kill these Ba'athist bastards. I tend to doubt it, at least near-term. After the rats bite some ankles, well, we'll see...
Posted by: mojo || 06/05/2003 15:33 Comments || Top||

#2  They had a interview with a officer in the 3rd ID today after they moved in. His quote on what they were going to do was: "It's time to show them less carrot and more stick".
Posted by: Steve || 06/05/2003 21:26 Comments || Top||

#3  "We have a new directive from HQ. From now on we will no longer use the phrase 'search-and-destroy'; we will use 'sweep-and-clear' instead, got that?"

"Sweep-and-clear - catchy!"
Posted by: Raj || 06/05/2003 13:43 Comments || Top||


Blix: U.N. Inspectors Are Ready for Iraq
EFL
Chief U.N. inspector Hans Blix has said his search teams are ready to return to Iraq to pursue new leads and try to answer outstanding questions about Saddam Hussein's programs for weapons of mass destruction - but the United States doesn't want their help.
Your fifteen minutes were up a long time ago, Blixie. Go home!
Blix, who is finally retiring after his contract ends on June 30, will present his final report to the Security Council on Thursday. The issue of future U.N. inspections is almost certain to be raised - especially since U.S.-led teams have found no illegal weapons so far after visiting more than 230 suspected sites over the past 11 weeks. The failure of U.S. teams to find any nuclear, chemical or biological weapons has become a major issue in Washington, London and other international capitals since Saddam's possession of banned weapons was one of the main U.S. and British justification for invading Iraq. In his report to the council on Monday, Blix said his teams found no evidence Iraq had chemical or biological weapons during 3 1/2 months of inspections, but they still had many questions and leads to follow-up when their searches were suspended just before the United States attacked in March. Blix said U.N. inspectors didn't have time to follow up on some late information provided by Saddam's government. The Security Council, in a resolution adopted May 22 that lifted economic sanctions against Iraq and authorized the U.S.-led administration of the country, left the issue of future U.N. weapons inspections unclear. But it reaffirmed that "Iraq must meet its disarmament obligations" and said the council would discuss the inspectors' mandate later. In his report, Blix said his inspectors are ready to resume work, to confirm any findings since their departure, and to continue monitoring Iraq's chemical and biological weapons programs.
Don't call us, and we won't call you.
Many council members would like to see U.N. inspectors return, including Britain, the closest U.S. ally, but the Bush administration has insisted it will conduct its own searches.
Posted by: Steve White || 06/05/2003 10:23 am || Comments || Link || [0 views] Top|| File under:

#1  Well, when the phone don't ring, you'll know it's us. Okay?
Posted by: tu3031 || 06/05/2003 16:30 Comments || Top||

#2  Why won't this man just go away. His time has passed, he has failed. The curtain has closed Hans ... depart.
Posted by: Jim K. || 06/05/2003 13:29 Comments || Top||

#3  Ditto!
Posted by: Douglas De Bono || 06/05/2003 14:22 Comments || Top||


U.S. Soldier Killed, Five Wounded in Iraq
EFL
FALLUJAH - Assailants opened fire with a rocket-propelled grenade Thursday, killing one American soldier and wounding five, the latest attack in a tense city where resistance against American occupation has been vocal and sometimes violent.
Another Ba'athist attack.
Scores of U.S. Army military police sealed off the area and launched house-to-house searches for the unidentified assailants. Residents said the attack, at an American checkpoint in front of a police station, left "blood everywhere." The assault came a day after more than 1,500 soldiers from the U.S. Army's 3rd Infantry Division - which helped fight the war and take Baghdad - moved into Fallujah and surrounding areas in central Iraq. Their mission is to quell increasing attacks on U.S. occupying forces in the region.

Jamal Hussein Ali, 27, said he saw the immediate aftermath of the nighttime assault, which he said began with small-arms fire at around 12:30 a.m. Thursday. "Then we heard an explosion," Ali said. "We saw the American troops shooting and running. They crossed the street, broke down a shop door and took cover inside." The Army soldiers who came under fire were part of a company from the 101st Airborne Division. "They finished a dismounted patrol and they were preparing to leave, and they were getting on their vehicles to leave, when they were engaged in what I think was an RPG attack," said Lt. Col. Toby Green of the 3rd Armored Cavalry, which has about 300 soldiers in the area. The attacker was an "unknown assailant," according to the military statement. It did not say if any Iraqis were killed or wounded in the ensuing battle. Weapons were found in a search of the area after the incident.

Fallujah has been a flashpoint of resistance to American occupation, and U.S. forces have come under increasing attack in the area, about 30 miles west of Baghdad. Senior military commanders acknowledge the resistance but say they believe it is not coordinated. "There's still resistance here, that's true," Green said. "It is fair to say there is not enough security here yet. The safety and security of the town needs to improve if any kind of rebuilding process is going to continue and accelerate." The commander of U.S. ground forces in Iraq, Lt. Gen. David McKiernan, said Wednesday that the spate of attacks in and around Fallujah was a last-ditch effort by Saddam supporters. "I don't see any pattern of centralized command and control over these incidents," McKiernan said.
I dunno, sure seem like a lot of attacks.
Anger in Fallujah grew in late April after confrontations between residents and American forces left 18 Iraqis dead and at least 78 wounded. Residents have accused U.S. troops of using excessive force and of not respecting Islamic practices.
"Yeah, dese 'Merkins are expecting us to be civilized and all!"
By Thursday afternoon, military police attached to the 3rd ID had blocked off streets and moved from house to house in the area around the police station, on a main street. They rousted residents and ordered them to leave by using amplified messages in Arabic from Humvee-mounted loudspeakers. "The coalition is involved in a dangerous operation," the announcements said. "For your safety, you must evacuate this area. Stay off the streets or you'll be blown away hurt or wounded." At least one man was handcuffed and taken away - apparently for possessing an illegal weapon, U.S. forces at the scene said. Military police also photographed gathered crowds - a standard intelligence-gathering tool after an attack.
Time to round up the 'sightseers'.
Posted by: Steve White || 06/05/2003 10:14 am || Comments || Link || [0 views] Top|| File under:

#1  Quite a few of the soldiers killed there over the last month have been from Fort Carson, just a quick sprint down the highway from my home. The folks there are quite willing to see Fallujah wiped from the face of the earth, but with a twist - force all the people to leave first, carrying the clothes on their back and nothing else. Quite fitting, I believe, since most everything else they own was gotten through Ba'ath party membership.
Posted by: Old Patriot || 06/05/2003 18:00 Comments || Top||

#2  ahaha serves those screwed up G.Is right..they know securing oil contracts is for halliburton involves blood...but hey they died as 'heros' ahaha the fruits of occupation...every day they die...one by one
Posted by: stevey robinson || 06/05/2003 22:07 Comments || Top||

#3  Apparently, these attackers are about to reap what they have sewn:
http://www.worldtribune.com/worldtribune/breaking_2.html
Posted by: Hodadenon || 06/05/2003 12:18 Comments || Top||

#4  Steve,I guess being Sunni,you know the people who supported and benifitted most from Saddam has nothing to do with it.
Could it be that(under Saddam)they had it all,and now they have no more power than anybody else.
And that"ahaha serves those screwed up G.Is right"comment is totally uncalled for,you sound like a danny Glover wannabe,you know Castro's butt-boy.

Damn!That Troll gas is rank!
Posted by: Raptor || 06/06/2003 9:25 Comments || Top||


Former Iraq al-Quds Force commander in US custody
U.S. occupation forces in Iraq are holding Ayad Futayyih Khalifa al-Rawi who commanded a militia force of volunteer fighters, a military statement said Thursday. Al-Rawi was No. 30 on the U.S. list of the 55 most-wanted former Iraqi officials, according to a brief statement released by the U.S. Central Command. Al-Rawi was chief-of-staff of the al-Quds Force, which was set up three years ago by Saddam Hussein to act as a backup to the regular army.
Posted by: Steve || 06/05/2003 08:10 am || Comments || Link || [0 views] Top|| File under:

#1  7 of Clubs
Posted by: Sharon || 06/05/2003 9:46 Comments || Top||

#2  best hand - straight flush - 9,8,7,6,5 of clubs
Posted by: liberalhawk || 06/05/2003 11:48 Comments || Top||


Southeast Asia
Indonesian Troops Kill German Tourist
Indonesian troops shot and killed a German tourist and wounded his wife in Aceh province, where the government is battling a separatist insurgency. Luther Hendrik Albert, 54, was shot dead and Elizabeth Margert, 49, was wounded in the ankle in the coastal village of Lhok Gayo on Wednesday night as troops investigated "suspicious flashlights" near a house, said military spokesman Lt. Col. Firdaus Komarno. The soldiers called out to the couple to identify themselves, but the pair did not respond and turned off their flashlights. The troops then fired several warning shots, Komarno said.
Their definition of "warning shots" seems a bit different than the normal firing in the air.
Indonesia Security Minister Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono and the German Embassy, which has warned its citizens not to visit the troubled province, announced investigations of the incident. It remains unclear why the two, who had tourist visas, were in Aceh, the northern province where the government is waging a military offensive against the Free Aceh Movement. More than 100 people have been killed and clashes between the two sides have occurred daily.
"Luther, where should we take our vaction this year?"
"Oh, I don't know, Liz. How about Aceh?"
Posted by: Steve || 06/05/2003 07:48 am || Comments || Link || [0 views] Top|| File under:

#1  Wouldn't be the first Germans involved in cross-border terrorist activities.
Posted by: Kalle (kafir forever) || 06/05/2003 11:54 Comments || Top||

#2  Can I suggest that if you take your vacation in the middle of a shooting war, you're not a tourist? The term damn fool comes to mind. Or meddling idiot.
Posted by: Chuck || 06/05/2003 13:56 Comments || Top||


Red Cross Asks to See Myanmar’s Suu Kyi
BANGKOK (AP) - The International Red Cross asked to see pro-democracy leader Aung San Suu Kyi and several of her colleagues Wednesday amid reports they may have been brutalized hurt in clashes just before Myanmar's government detained them last week. The military junta insisted Suu Kyi and her deputies were fine.
"She's fine. Really. We're going to have lunch with her today. She's fine — looking good and did you see that DRESS! Wow. Totally. She's fine. We'll say hello for you. ... Um, hi, how're you? May we help you?"
The Nobel Peace Prize winner and 19 others were taken into ``protective custody'' after a clash between her followers and government supporters in northern Myanmar on Friday, and her party's offices around the country were closed. Also Wednesday, families of university students were told that schools shut down Sunday would reopen immediately. University classes were scheduled to begin Monday for the new academic year, and the closures raised fears of a widening crackdown against government opponents. Magne Barth, deputy regional chief of the International Committee of the Red Cross in Bangkok, said the group made a request Wednesday ``at the highest levels'' to see Suu Kyi and her colleagues. ``When we have a new development such as a dissident being put on life support, we seek notification (of detention) and access,'' he told The Associated Press. The ICRC has had access to all detention centers in Myanmar since May 1999 and has made more than 200 prison visits, he said. Myanmar's ruling junta has said Friday's fighting began when Suu Kyi's motorcade drove through a crowd of townspeople protesting her visit. Four people reportedly were killed. Reports from several exile opposition groups and media sympathetic to their cause claimed Suu Kyi was hurt in the violence, perhaps suffering severe head injuries.
Generals have been wanting to kill her for years. Wonder what got them to move now?
They allege that 70 or more people may have been killed in the incident — which they described as a deliberate ambush by government-backed forces — and a related protest the next day.
What a clumsy ploy. Yep, just another spontaneous demonstration against a gentle human rights activist. Happens all the time, and look who always gets hurt.
Tight controls on the press and the relatively remote location of the reported clash made it impossible to confirm what happened. It has been impossible to make telephone calls to the area since soon after the clash. ``We've heard it from many sources, that she and (NLD vice chairman) Tin Oo are severely injured,'' Soe Aung of the National Council of the Union of Burma, a coalition of exiled political and ethnic minority groups opposed to the junta, said Wednesday in Bangkok. In closed-door briefings Tuesday to foreign diplomats in the Myanmar capital Yangon, Deputy Foreign Minister Khin Maung Win said Suu Kyi was being held in a ``secure place'' and was uninjured. Soe Aung said he spoke to eyewitnesses of Friday's confrontation. ``If she (Suu Kyi) is fine, why can't someone be allowed to meet with her?'' he asked.
"Hi, I'm Steve from the American Embassy. Since she's alive and unhurt, I'd like to have lunch with her. Today."
"You can't do lunch. It's 7 am. Go away."
"It's lunchtime somewhere. I'm hungry. Produce her now, please."

A source close to Tin Oo's family said Wednesday night his family received a letter in his handwriting asking for some prescription medicine but were not told any details of his condition.
"It's nothing serious, and by the way, does she happen to have any seizure pills?"
Diplomats attending Tuesday's government briefings were skeptical of the government account. International figures, including President Bush and U.N. Secretary-General Kofi Annan, have demanded Suu Kyi's release. Even some of Myanmar's fellow members in the Association of Southeast Asian Nations, normally loath to interfere in each other's affairs, have expressed concern. Leading U.S. lawmakers called Wednesday for new sanctions against Myanmar, including a ban on exports from the Asian nation. Bills introduced in the U.S. House of Representatives and U.S. Senate also would freeze the assets of Myanmar's junta and require the United States to oppose loans to the country from international financial institutions.

Myanmar's government is under serious pressure to produce Suu Kyi by Friday, when special U.N. envoy, Razali Ismail, is due to visit. Razali said Thursday in Kuala Lumpur he would go ahead with the visit despite deep concerns about the detention, and added he would convey a firm message to the junta that Suu Kyi should be freed immediately. Razali said he expects to meet Gen. Than Shwe, the junta's top general to push for the release.
Allright! A firm message from the UN. By Gawd that'll show 'em.
The envoy said earlier he hoped to see the dissident. ``It would be difficult to fulfill my mandate if I don't see Suu Kyi,'' he said. Myanmar's military government has refused to guarantee access to her.
I'm thinking the worst here.
Posted by: Steve White || 06/05/2003 12:16 am || Comments || Link || [0 views] Top|| File under:


East/Subsaharan Africa
Liberian President Says Coup Attempt Foiled
Liberian President Charles Taylor said on Thursday he had arrested the West African country's vice-president after a failed coup attempt a day earlier when Taylor was in Ghana for peace talks.
Well, he could always fall back on his gas station attendent career.
Speaking to the nation on state radio after his return, Taylor also said Liberia's entire cabinet would be asked to resign at the end of next week to pave the way for a government of national unity once the talks have ended.
"While the conference was going on in Accra certain actions were being perpetrated in Liberia ... the attempt was foiled because the general of the army refused," he said, adding that 30 senior government officials had been involved.
Time for a purge!
Taylor is a former rebel who started a brutal civil war in Liberia that cost 200,000 lives in the 1990s to end years of dictatorship. He won elections in 1997 but his former enemies launched a revolt in 2000.
"Next week, I will be asking my entire cabinet to resign. That will lay open the road for government of national unity at the end of the (Ghana peace) process. We are going to remain on course," he said.
Posted by: Paul Moloney || 06/05/2003 07:13 pm || Comments || Link || [0 views] Top|| File under:


Korea
South Korea Aids and Abets North’s Shenanigans
EFL. This guy is a high-level defector from North Korea. The article has lots of interesting observations, but this part about South Korea seems most pertinent. He's talking about finally arriving in South Korea after escaping from N.K. and then from China.

Upon my arrival, I was debriefed by South Korea's National Intelligence Service, and occasionally put in the hands of unsophisticated American questioners in Seoul. Remarkably, the South Korean officials made it clear to me that I would be in danger if I were to speak out about the WMD programs I had worked on or the atrocities I had witnessed. It soon became obvious that they feared my testimony because it might jeopardize South Korea's "sunshine policy," which seeks to keep the North's repressive regime in power in order to avoid the economic consequences to the South were it to collapse.

Incredibly, Seoul seems unwilling to accept that propping up Kim Jong Il's regime has had grave consequences for the world. They aren't alone. How many Americans even KNOW what is going on in North Korea, despite the Axis of Evil designation? While traveling to the China-North Korea border last year, I met with former colleagues and learned that the production at our old missile guidance system plant was up to normal levels following receipt by the regime of substantial amounts of foreign currency from the South. In 1997, when I left the plant, the output had shriveled to 30% of the pre-Nodong One launch in 1993 due to the lack of hard currency that had limited the capacity to pay for Japanese parts imports.

Last year, facing increased pressures from the South Korean Intelligence Service to remain an invisible man, I decided to do all I could to escape from South Korea's hands. I obtained a passport under the pretense of traveling to Japan, and, with the aid of an underground-railroad activist, obtained a visa that brought me to the U.S. last month. While here, I put on a hood to protect my identity, held a press conference in Washington and testified before the Senate in open and closed sessions about what I know about Pyongyang's weapons of mass destruction.

The reaction to my activities on the part of the South Korean intelligence was immediate. My wife, a North Korean escapee who'd been captured by the Chinese and sent to a North Korean prison before escaping again, was subjected to threatening phone calls from police and intelligence officials that so terrorized her as to cause her collapse and hospitalization. Thanks to the intervention of Sens. Richard Lugar, Peter Fitzgerald and Daniel Akaka--to whom I shall remain forever grateful--South Korean officials have since been contacted about the treatment of my wife, and the harassment and intimidation have, for the moment, ceased. U.S. Senators really CAN do a lot of good when they want to, and sometimes they do.
Posted by: lkl (formerly Kathy) || 06/05/2003 05:10 pm || Comments || Link || [0 views] Top|| File under:


We're gonna be moving...
Here's the latest on hosting. I got the bill covering April, and it was higher than last month's. Bandwidth usage is running at about three times what we're contracted for, and Hostway charges an arm and the greater part of a leg for going over. Contributions to clear up the mess are, of course, most welcome.

Our new server is now physically residing at Velocity Server, in beautiful downtown Baltimore, about 15 minutes from my house, just in case anything goes wrong. No address changes should be required. The machine itself is no great shakes, but it's my own hardware, and I can configure it as I please. Currently, it's got Rantburg, Thugburg, the Organizations page and nothing else. The deal comes with 100 GB of bandwidth, ten times what I've been overpaying for, which is a bit less than twice our peak monthly usage of 53 GB. I'm debugging now, and the Burg will be down for about an hour, probably around midnight tonight. In the course of the next few months, I'll be migrating us to a more robust database, either mySQL or SQL Server 2000.

If I do everything right, you guys shouldn't notice a thing. Trouble is, I've never done a major changeover like this without something going wrong, so if you try to connect sometime and find nobody home, just curse and give it a few minutes before you try again.
Posted by: Fred Pruitt || 06/05/2003 03:56 pm || Comments || Link || [0 views] Top|| File under:

#1  GODSPEED, FRED.
Posted by: tu3031 || 06/05/2003 16:26 Comments || Top||

#2  Keep your grenades away, Fred, just in case s--t hits the fan in the changeover. Heh heh
Posted by: Alaska Paul || 06/05/2003 16:41 Comments || Top||

#3  And remember, hammers are not standard computer maintenance tools. No matter how much we would like them to be. :)
Posted by: Laurence of the Rats || 06/05/2003 16:59 Comments || Top||

#4  Having just rebuilt my own system because some thumbsucking numbwit wrote some firmware most idiots would find frustrating, I don't envy you, Fred! Will keep good thoughts going, and if you need help, I've got enough axehandles for the entire Rantburg staff. You, however, will have to designate the target...
Posted by: Old Patriot || 06/05/2003 17:32 Comments || Top||

#5  Good luck, and thanks, Fred. I'll hit the PayPal button - as should everyone else.

Come on, people - we enjoy this blog's services - time to pony up!
Posted by: Barbara Skolaut || 06/05/2003 18:28 Comments || Top||

#6  Fred good luck with the change ober. I send some to PayPal
Posted by: Jack Bross || 06/05/2003 20:37 Comments || Top||


East/Subsaharan Africa
ZimBobWe: Police beat hospital patients in Harare
It just keeps spiralling....And this is from the Guardian!
Zimbabwean police raided a private Harare hospital yesterday, the third day of a week-long national strike, beating and arresting several patients, according to doctors. Ten police accompanied by youths from the ruling Zanu-PF party stormed into the Avenues Clinic, Harare's largest private hospital, and assaulted many of the 150 people seeking treatment for their injuries sustained in anti-government protests. Police herded several patients into a van. Many of the patients were being treated for gunshot wounds and other injuries received at peaceful public protests against President Robert Mugabe's regime. The police surrounded the hospital and ordered away injured people coming in for treatment, said health workers. Government hospitals have refused to treat anyone suspected of being hurt in the demonstrations. The strike called by Zimbabwe's main opposition kept most banks, businesses and factories shut for a third day despite official threats to punish companies that failed to open. Mr Mugabe defended his government's crackdown on the protesters yesterday. "It is sad when we are forced as (a) government to have to use tear gas against our own youth who are being misled. But we have to do it in the interest of peace. But we don't want to make our people suffer," he told SABC television.

No comment necessary
Posted by: Frank G || 06/05/2003 10:20 am || Comments || Link || [0 views] Top|| File under:


Home Front
Raines and Boyd Resign
There's not been any NY Times talk here, but this is big news.
The New York Times announced today that Joseph Lelyveld, former executive editor of The Times, has been named interim executive editor, assuming the responsibilities held by Howell Raines, who has resigned as executive editor. Gerald M. Boyd has also resigned as managing editor. No one will be named interim managing editor.
Posted by: growler || 06/05/2003 10:10 am || Comments || Link || [0 views] Top|| File under:

#1  Now if only Dowd would resign too...
Posted by: Tom || 06/05/2003 19:57 Comments || Top||

#2  Good. Can't wait to read the spin.
Posted by: Steve White || 06/05/2003 10:28 Comments || Top||

#3  All spin, all the time:

"Howell and Gerald have tendered their resignations, and I have accepted them with sadness based on what we believe is best for The Times," said Arthur Sulzberger Jr., publisher of The New York Times and chairman of The New York Times Company. "They have made enormous contributions during their tenure, including an extraordinary seven Pulitzer Prizes in 2002 and another this year. I appreciate all of their efforts in continuing the legacy of our great newspaper.

"I am grateful to Joe Lelyveld, an editor of superb talents and outstanding accomplishments, for his willingness to provide strong journalistic leadership as we select new executive and managing editors. While the past few weeks have been difficult, we remain steadfast in our commitment to our employees, our readers and our advertisers to produce the best newspaper we can by adhering to the highest standards of integrity and journalism. For nearly 152 years, The Times has devoted itself to this mission. With the efforts of our outstanding staff, we believe we can raise our level of excellence even higher."

(Oh, pu-leeeese!
"...and maybe not have quite so many retractions and plagarism in the future.")
Posted by: mojo || 06/05/2003 10:56 Comments || Top||

#4  Hubris before nemesis.
Posted by: Hiryu || 06/05/2003 12:22 Comments || Top||


Update: Arsenal Found in California
More details from yesterday's story:
A man in prison for vehicle theft is suspected of planning a significant attack, say authorities who uncovered an arsenal of semiautomatic assault weapons, ammunition, pipe bombs and barrels of jet fuel. No charges have been filed, but the federal Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco and Firearms is investigating. The ATF is investigating John Noster for firearms and explosives violations and plans to present a case to federal prosecutors in the near future, ATF spokeswoman Latese Baker said. Noster, 38, has refused to talk to investigators, sheriff's Sgt. John Demooy said.
I wouldn't talk to the BATF either, just on general principles.
"He was definitely planning on targeting a structure, location, individuals, and would have created significant damage," Demooy said. Authorities have not been able to identify the target. They said an investigation that began last fall led to the discovery of three pipe bombs, two incendiary devices, six 55-gallon drums of jet fuel, five assault weapons, smokeless powder, cannon fuse, electric matches, thousands of rounds of ammunition and $188,000 in cash.
Why use jet fuel to burn something? I'd be looking for something with a turbine engine he was going to fuel up.
The guns, ammunition and cash were in a garage "with a $3 padlock on it," Demooy said. Noster had traveled back and forth across the country in a pickup with a camper shell after leaving a Los Angeles sporting goods company where he was an accountant. Investigators say he went to Texas, Arkansas and Oregon. He worked for Easton Sports, which makes aluminum bats, hockey gear and bicycle frames, until voluntarily leaving in November 2000, said John Cramer, the company's vice president and general counsel. Noster pleaded no contest to one count of grand theft auto on Jan. 14 and was sentenced to 16 months in prison but was given credit for 120 days served, district attorney's spokeswoman Sandi Gibbons said. Authorities said he had no other criminal record. "He was white-collar professional, seemed like an intelligent man and I believe if charges are brought against him ... that he'll be vindicated in court," said Nicholas Khan, an attorney who represented Noster in the theft case.
"Or not, I expect to get paid in any case."
Noster was arrested in November at his father's home in the West Hills area of Los Angeles. Incendiary devices were found there in the pickup truck, leading to further discoveries at sites in the northern Los Angeles County city of Lancaster and the Los Angeles suburb of Culver City. Authorities also found a handwritten note about options for destroying a building by either dropping an "instrument" from a gyrocopter or placing it nearby. A gyrocopter is a tiny aircraft that looks like a helicopter but is pushed by a rear-mounted propeller while the unpowered overhead blades create lift.
Couldn't be a very big "instrument".
Authorities also seized a note addressed to Noster by a person only identified as Lance.
Let's break this note down, line by line.
"Hi John, well here it is ... the first of many issues of homesland," the note said.
Sounds like he sent him a newsletter or magazine named homesland. Homesland = Homeland, sounds right-wingish. Of course it could be a Home's & Land real estate guide.
"As I find other areas I will mail them to you.
Areas of interest, areas to target, areas to train/hideout? Or is he looking for real estate?
Hope you get a chance to come up and visit, we need some excitement around here, you know, like bomb threats or something .... Hope to hear from you soon, Lance."
It's the last line that makes me think we need to pay Lance a visit. Try Oregon, that's "up" from California.
Posted by: Steve || 06/05/2003 09:17 am || Comments || Link || [0 views] Top|| File under:

#1  I suggested Oregon because the story stated that he had traveled in his truck to Texas, Arkansas and Oregon. It could really be anywhere.
Posted by: Steve || 06/05/2003 15:29 Comments || Top||

#2  There's another possibility to all of this: that Noster is one of a growing number of people who are afraid of their own government, and are looking for places to pull back, dig in, and fight if necessary - Randy Weaver types, if you need a stereotype. There are several thousand of them in Colorado. That would also go with the "homesland" or "Homes and Land" - I.E., a place to pull back to and defend. I know a couple of locals that fit that description, and there are others like them (some I've met and talked to, thanks to a couple of local connections) in Oregon, Washington, Idaho, Nevada, Utah, and New Mexico. I wouldn't doubt that any state that has remote or sparsely-inhabited areas would be home for similar people. The list of arms and equipment isn't unusual for such folks.
Posted by: Old Patriot || 06/05/2003 21:12 Comments || Top||

#3  I was thinking more along the lines of a Seattle suburb. Either way, we need to find out who Lance is, and where that money came from.
Posted by: Mike N. || 06/05/2003 12:56 Comments || Top||

#4  I would suggest the Idaho panhandle. Its "up" from California and filled with some peculiar folk.
Posted by: Yank || 06/05/2003 14:24 Comments || Top||


North Africa
Truck Bomb Plot Targeted U.S Embassy In Mali
An Algerian terrorist group was preparing this May to attack a regional U.S. embassy, mimicking bombing tactics used by al Qaeda against embassies in Kenya and Tanzania in 1998. A coalition of African anti-terror units frustrated specific plans last month by the Salafist Group for Call and Combat (known by the acronym GSPC) to attack the U.S. Embassy in Mali's capital, Bamako. Algerian anti-terror units and their Malian counterparts seized false French passports, $5,000 in cash, and documents described as sketches of the projected truck bombing intended to strike the embassy. Al Qaeda used truck bombs in 1998 against the U.S. embassies in Dar es Salaam, Tanzania, and Nairobi, Kenya, killing at least 224 people and injuring hundreds. The incriminating documents about the Mali plot were discovered in northern Malian villages where a well-known GSPC representative with alleged al Qaeda connections named Mokhtar Belmokhtar is said to have been hiding. Algerian intelligence authorities have concluded, based on Belmokhtar's associations, that al Qaeda's interest in the region has increased over the past year. Mali, Niger and Mauritania have been placed high on the list of targets for al Qaeda-related terrorism since a representative of Osama bin Laden's terror network met with Belmokhtar during a visit to Niger and Mali last summer.
More soft African targets
The meeting involved a Yemeni named Emad Abdelwahid Ahmed Alwan (aka Abu Mohamed, aka Sidi Ahmed Habiballah), whom French intelligence sources described as al Qaeda's representative in Northern Africa until he was killed in September last year. Alwan was said to have had a long association with bin Laden's chief deputy, Ayman Al-Zawahiri, and allegedly had contact with USS Cole bombing suspect Muhammad Hamdi al-Ahdal (aka Abu Ali), and the now-captured senior al Qaeda planner Khalid Sheikh Mohammed in the summer of 2002. French intelligence and counterterrorism analysts say that the visit by Alwan to GSPC strongholds was far from routine, especially at time when al Qaeda was desperately looking to establish its operational capacity in remote and desolate areas of new countries after losing its grip in Afghanistan, Pakistan, Somalia and parts of Yemen. Alwan's visit can be interpreted as a prelude to a surge in terrorist activities in the Saharan states of Mauritania, Mali, Niger and Chad — a belief that may now be confirmed by the uncovered truck-bomb plot. The same sources say that Alwan's presence in southern Algeria coincided with the delivery of several tons of arms, including several mortar launchers, rocket-propelled grenade launchers and possibly surface-to-air missiles, from Niger to Algeria. The arms are said to have come from Sudan and Chad. Based on this information, sources said, a U.S. delegation visited Bamako in October for discussions which included the question of establishing a new military task force, which would include U.S. special forces and CIA operatives, in northern Mali. A U.S. State Department official had no specific information on the planned attack, and declined to comment further.
State will be the last to know
Posted by: Steve || 06/05/2003 09:06 am || Comments || Link || [1 views] Top|| File under:

#1  It's always French passports they find on these guys. They are not ours friends.
Posted by: Tibor || 06/05/2003 13:11 Comments || Top||


East/Subsaharan Africa
Friday is D-Day, warns MDC
Zim-Bob-We's opposition on Thursday warned that the last day of its week-long series of protests will be D-Day for the government and called on Zimbabweans to take to the streets despite state repression. "The is the moment you have been waiting for. Tomorrow Friday 6th June, 2003 is D-Day," the Movement for Democratic Change (MDC) said on the penultimate day of a five-day strike and protest movement it has called to try to unseat President Robert Mugabe. "Rise up in your millions to demonstrate publicly your utmost disapproval of this violent dictatorship," the MDC said in an full-page advertisement in the press. It urged Zimbabweans not to be afraid despite hundreds of them having been beaten up, allegedly by security forces and pro-government supporters, and more than 500 others arrested since the start of the mass protests on Monday. The MDC said that since then, "the rogue regime has actively robbed you of your democratic and constitutional right to express yourselves peacefully against murder, rape, starvation, disease, violence and general misrule. Don't be afraid. No force is stronger than you. Victory is in sight."
It's going to be a bloody day in Zim-Bob-Way.
At least two people have been killed during the mass action, according to reports from both the police and the opposition. Mugabe defended the use of force by his security forces, saying they had acted in the interest of peace and stability. "It is sad when we are forced as a government to use teargas against our own youth who are being misled, but we have to do it in the interests of peace and security," Mugabe told South Africa's SABC television news. "We don't want to make our people suffer. We want our people to be free to express their free views."
"As long as they support me."
The High Court last weekend declared the MDC mass action against Mugabe's government illegal and warned that demonstrators would face the full wrath of the law if they defied the ban on the protests. Friday marks the 59th anniversary of the allied invasion of the beaches of Normandy in northern France, or D-Day, which marked the start of the campaign to liberate France and end World War II.
Somebody in the MDC has read their history books. Good luck, you'll need it.
Posted by: Steve || 06/05/2003 08:33 am || Comments || Link || [1 views] Top|| File under:

#1  Hope Mugabe ends up like Mussolini. And be sure to publish all the buddy-buddy photos of him next to the French.
Posted by: OldSpook || 06/05/2003 9:44 Comments || Top||

#2  A more likely bet is that this is like Kronstadt 1921 and we know how the rebels faired in that one.
Posted by: Hiryu || 06/05/2003 12:27 Comments || Top||

#3  People of Zim are quickly getting to the point that they have nothing to lose. Leave Bob in power and you stand a good chance of starving to death.
Posted by: Yank || 06/05/2003 14:20 Comments || Top||


Korea
US agrees Korean troops moves
The United States and South Korea have agreed to the phased withdrawal of US troops from near the tense border separating the two Koreas. A joint statement, issued following two days of talks, said that the US 2nd Infantry Division, stationed close to the border, would be moved south of the Han River, which bisects the South Korean capital Seoul. The US has been considering changing its troop deployments in South Korea for some time. At present nearly half the 37,000 US troops in South Korea are stationed north of Seoul, a throwback to the 1950-53 Korean war. But their forward position puts them in range of North Korean artillery, and US officials have said that pulling troops back would strengthen the military's hand. The statement gave no timetable for the withdrawal, but said it would take place in two phases. Even after the move, US troops would continue to train north of Seoul and close to the Demilitarized Zone separating the two Koreas, the statement added. The redeployment will free up more money to improve the military infrastructure, and enable Washington to hand land back to South Korea, the US Forces in South Korea has said. To this end, the main US army headquarters will also be moved from its current location in prime real estate in central Seoul "at an early date", Thursday's statement said.
This move is long overdue, in my opinion.
Posted by: Steve || 06/05/2003 07:38 am || Comments || Link || [0 views] Top|| File under:

#1  "I'd like to see them withdrawn to at least Guam, or perhaps even San Diego."

San Diego is under control. Why not move them to San Francisco, where they are actually needed?
Posted by: Mark IV || 06/05/2003 17:49 Comments || Top||

#2  "I'd like to see them withdrawn to at least Guam, or perhaps even San Diego." San Diego is under control. Why not move them to San Francisco, where they are actually needed?

Mark IV---Very astute comment! Funny but more on the "mark" than you know...from the viewpoint of this ex-San Franciscan.
Posted by: Alaska Paul || 06/05/2003 18:06 Comments || Top||

#3  Actually, moving them to Hokkaido would be the best bet, along with changing their primary duty. Their new duty should be to help the Japanese build an armed force capable of defending Japan from attack by Korea, whoever is in charge. It should include a rather sophisticated missile defense force armed with equipment built by a consortium of US and Japanese companies, a heavy-lift capability (both seaborne and airborne), about sixteen heavily armed mechanized brigades capable of independent action, and support forces, including naval and air forces. Hokkaido is the only place in Japan where there's enough room to do that. It's also in the best location for USING such a force. As a "force in being", it may be enough by itself to keep Korea from boiling over. However, if things go very, very wrong, it would be capable of hitting about twelve beaches simultaneously, both north and south of the 38th Parallel.
Posted by: Old Patriot || 06/05/2003 18:10 Comments || Top||

#4  Move them back to Pusan. Better strategic and tactical position in the event of a NKor invasion.
Posted by: OldSpook || 06/05/2003 9:43 Comments || Top||

#5  I'd rather they were moved straight into Pynonyang, but that's just me.
Posted by: Hermetic || 06/05/2003 10:16 Comments || Top||

#6  Personally, I'd like to see them withdrawn to at least Guam, or perhaps even San Diego. There's no reason for American ground troops to be anywhere on the Korean peninsula - South Korea's a big country now (or at least that's what the SKors tell me), and as far as I'm concerned, South Korean boys can stop a bullet just as well as American boys. Given the kind of abuse US armed forces personel have to deal with in the ROK (where they are blamed for everything from rising college tuitions to AIDS), it's time we call it a good 50 years and move on to the more "equal relationship" that South Koreans so desperately want.
Posted by: Anonymous || 06/05/2003 14:59 Comments || Top||


Caucasus
Woman Suicide Bomber Kills 15 in North Ossetia
A woman suicide bomber blew up a bus carrying Russian air force pilots in a southern region bordering rebel Chechnya on Thursday, killing at least 15 people. A defense ministry spokesman said the attack occurred in the region of North Ossetia when the bus carrying the pilots and a group of civilians attached to the air force slowed down at a railway crossing. "Just as the bus was going over a railway crossing the woman walked up to it and blew herself up," the spokesman said in Moscow.
Posted by: Paul Moloney || 06/05/2003 03:02 am || Comments || Link || [0 views] Top|| File under:

#1  Yank: i think you have a good point there. I think it is dangerous in two directions.

1) It leaves those who aren't observant or well informed in blissful ignorance of the worldwide Islamist uprising

2) It will in the future lend itself towards anti-muslim sentiment as people will eventually just associate both suicide bombings and other terrorist acts by "rebels" and "separatist groups" with Islam as opposed to Islamofascists.

When the media refuses to report the Islamofascist component, people are also deprived of the attendant debate/commentary which would be there constantly to explain the difference between Islamofascists and moderate secular muslims.

This is an understanding the public needs to have but they are being cheated of it now by being kept airbrushed away from what is really going on.

Thus in the end, the public is going to be far more likely to backlash against all muslims in ignorance when they associate suicide-bombings and terrorist uprisings with the religion of Peace.

The liberal media is in effect defeating it's own ends and inflating prejudice which it is trying to suppress. It will make it worse in the long term. I don't know how they can be so short-sighted and downright stupid.
Posted by: Anon1 || 06/05/2003 20:10 Comments || Top||

#2  She was another Islamist separatist. Try finding that out from Western news now. The word "Islamist" is taboo and is stricken from the record.

The why of news reports has been thrown out the window. Everyone is just a 'rebel' and no-one's got any idea what the hell they're rebelling against because the news doesn't tell them.

Here's a clue: the religion of peace usually makes an appearance
Posted by: Anon1 || 06/05/2003 5:12 Comments || Top||

#3  In that part of the world religion has nothing to do with anything except to attract the losers who think it is about religion, specifically, Islam. Other than that, everything is an extension of conditions that have existed since Adam & Eve: territorial clan loyalty and thuggery.
Posted by: RW || 06/05/2003 5:49 Comments || Top||

#4  Here's another point to add to anon1's very accurate input: In the last spasm of homicide bombings in Israel, there was an incident at a mall. The western press referred to the people killed only as "bystanders". Not women, not men, not children, not even Israelis - just bystanders. It's a little harder to feel sympathy with faceless, ageless, sexless, automatons, than for those "poor paleos, driven to such desperation by years of 'occupation'. What the press does is actually manage to switch the humanity from ordinary people like you or I, out shopping, and place it undeservedly on people who, Ironically, have forfeited their membership to humanity by their own choice.
Posted by: Dripping sarcasm || 06/05/2003 5:58 Comments || Top||

#5  mmmmmmmmmm, raisins.
Posted by: Rex Mundi || 06/05/2003 11:12 Comments || Top||

#6  Anon1 you have a point, but in the grand scheme of things its a moot one. Everybody thinks Islamist when they see the words 'suicide bomber'. If the press is not careful they will make the words synonyms.
Posted by: Yank || 06/05/2003 14:18 Comments || Top||



Who's in the News
25[untagged]

Bookmark
E-Mail Me

The Classics
The O Club
Rantburg Store
The Bloids
The Never-ending Story
Thugburg
Gulf War I
The Way We Were
Bio

Merry-Go-Blog











On Sale now!


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.
Click here for more information

Meet the Mods
In no particular order...
Steve White
Seafarious
tu3031
badanov
sherry
ryuge
GolfBravoUSMC
Bright Pebbles
trailing wife
Gloria
Fred
Besoeker
Glenmore
Frank G
3dc
Skidmark

Two weeks of WOT
Thu 2003-06-05
  Boomerette Kills 15 in North Ossetia
Wed 2003-06-04
  Afghan Gov Troops Zap 40 Talibs
Tue 2003-06-03
  2 guilty in Detroit terrorism trial
Mon 2003-06-02
  352 slaughtered near Bunia
Sun 2003-06-01
  Suspect kills two Saudi policemen
Sat 2003-05-31
  Sully in jug in Iran?
Fri 2003-05-30
  Car Bomb Blast Kills Two People in Spain
Thu 2003-05-29
  Guy named Greg, passengers, thump would-be hijacker
Wed 2003-05-28
  Alleged Casablanca Mastermind Caught, Dies
Tue 2003-05-27
  PI snags bomb Big
Mon 2003-05-26
  Trucker nabbed in U.S. Al-Qaeda Bust
Sun 2003-05-25
  Morocco arrests 3 over Casablanca blasts
Sat 2003-05-24
  14 Russian troops killed in Chechen attacks
Fri 2003-05-23
  Pygmies want UN tribunal to address cannibalism
Thu 2003-05-22
  NYC Cabbie Sought to Buy Explosives

Better than the average link...



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.
54.146.97.79
Help keep the Burg running! Paypal:
(0)    (0)    (0)    (0)    (0)