RIYADH â Four Saudis from the same family were killed in a crash trying to avoid a camel on the road leading to Abha. Two of the family were also injured in the accident on Saturday, but the camel escaped unhurt. 4 dead, 2 injured, but the the camel is OK. PETA would be proud.
Posted by: Steve ||
07/03/2003 9:38:48 AM ||
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Saudi Arabia said on Thursday a key suspect in the May 12 Riyadh bombings had blown himself up during a police manhunt. A Saudi Interior Ministry official told Reuters Turki Nasser al-Dandani died early on Thursday in northern Jouf province. "I can confirm that he blew himself up," the official said, adding that he did not have any more details.
"That's part of him, over there. An' I think this thing's part of 'im, too..."
That's handy, can't answer any questions and hard to get a positive ID, depending on the size of the blast.
Dandani's name topped a list of 19 suspected al Qaeda militants that was issued days before the triple suicide bombings in Riyadh. Anyone here be suprised if he gets better? Didn't think so.
Posted by: Steve ||
07/03/2003 9:58:57 AM ||
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President Jacques Chirac said on Thursday the French people must respect France's commitment to secularism, suggesting legislation could be used to ban Muslims from wearing headscarves in schools and at work. At a ceremony launching an official review of how to reconcile national unity with France's religious diversity, Chirac said secularism was the ''cement'' of the country's social cohesion and ''a duty...not just a right.'' I guess that means if you are religious, you're not doing your duty as a frenchman.
''In France, there are no rules superior to the laws of the republic,'' he said, adding that there was a need to ''put limits on the public expression of one's own characteristics, to understand others, and to put oneself in their shoes.'' So much for personal liberty.
Chirac's defence of state rules on religion came as France grapples with the question of how to uphold its constitutionally-enshrined commitment to secularism without alienating the country's four to five million Muslims. This should be fun, in a sick kind of way.
At Thursday's ceremony, Chirac appointed a commission to review how secularism fits in with everyday life in France and report to him by the end of the year -- a move that puts off any decision on how to resolve the explosive headscarf issue. However, he said any proposals by the commission could form the basis of legislation. The group is headed by Bernard Stasi, a former minister who has described himself as ''Christian, but profoundly secular.'' The debate comes amid growing calls for headscarves to be banned in schools, and as resentment among Muslims about the poor hand generally dealt to them by French society pushes more of them to view themselves as Muslim first, and French second. Can you say "timebomb"?
Teachers at a school in Lyon earlier this year went on strike over a Muslim pupil's insistence on wearing a headscarf.
With France's Muslim population and 650,000 Jews both the largest minorities of their kind in Europe, Chirac's government is eager to avoid a society dividing along religious lines. The centre-right government has tried to win over moderate Muslims with the launch of the faith's first ever national representational body and talk of state grants for new mosques. Other religions -- including the predominant Catholic faith and Judaism -- have in the past recognised the primacy of the state, either by surrendering church property to it or bowing to secular law over religious commands. Proponents of a headscarf ban say Islam should make compromises too. And there is the sticking point, Islamist's don't compromise.
Posted by: Steve ||
07/03/2003 3:35:50 PM ||
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Paris is launching a champagne and flowers charm offensive to woo U.S. tourists after France's opposition to the U.S.-led war in Iraq triggered a large drop in the number of transatlantic visitors. Around 100 hotels, restaurants, shops and other businesses will be laying on the bubbly, blooms and other treats for American visitors in a promotional campaign timed to coincide with the U.S. Independence Day celebrations on July 4. "This campaign is aimed at Americans who would like to visit France, but are worried about what kind of welcome they might receive," the tourist office said in a statement. They still don't get it.
Last year, Paris hosted 1.7 million tourists from the United States, more than from any other country, but in the first four months of this year numbers have slumped by almost a quarter. And that's not even the tourist season. Bet they looked at reservations for the summer and they are way down. Snicker.
Across the Atlantic, France last month launched a new promotional video, in which film director Woody Allen urged fellow Americans to visit France and eat French fries. Wonder what coffehouse this video is showing in? Has anyone out there seen it running on television, other than news reports about it?
I thought he urged them to stick their tongues in his daughter's wife's mouth...
Posted by: Steve ||
07/03/2003 2:01:16 PM ||
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Former Chief U.N. inspector Hans Blix will head a planned international commission on weapons of mass destruction, Swedish Foreign Minister Anna Lindh said Thursday. Oh goody.
The commission, which hasn't been established yet, would likely be based in the Swedish capital, Stockholm. Blix, who retired June 30 from the United Nations, was asked to lead the group, Lindh said. What, Scott Ritter was too busy?
"It is very gratifying that Blix has accepted the presidency. He has unique experiences and knowledge," she said. "We must do everything to counter the threats of weapons of mass destruction." Lindh said the aim of the commission, which will be financed by Sweden, is to provide new ways of fostering international cooperation for the disarming of weapons of mass destruction and to stem proliferation. The commission is expected to set up this fall and will issue its first recommendations sometime in 2005. Lindh didn't reveal any more details about the commission. "The more detailed shaping of the commission will be up to Blix, who will also decide on its name," Foreign Ministry spokesman Goesta Grassman told The Associated Press. Shall we help him pick a name? Remember, Fumbling Bunch of Idiots (FBI) is taken.
Posted by: Steve ||
07/03/2003 11:02:50 AM ||
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EFR
A court in Paris has ordered the release on bail of a leader of an Iranian exile group under formal investigation for alleged links to terrorism. Maryam Rajavi was arrested last month along with dozens of other exiles — a move which sparked widespread protests by Iranians across Europe. Mrs Rajavi leads the political arm of the Iranian People's Mujahideen (MKO) — a left-wing organisation designated a terrorist group by the US, the European Union and by Iran's clerical rulers. Mrs Rajavi's bail was set at 80,000 euros ($92,000), her lawyer said, and she is not expected to be released until Thursday or Friday. The court also ordered the release of eight other members of the People's Mujahideen who, along with Mrs Rajavi, were placed under judicial investigation last month. One, like Mrs Rajavi, will have to secure bail, while the others have been released without bail. The ruling was made against the recommendation of the public prosecutor, who on Tuesday asked that Maryam Rajavi be kept in jail.
Dozens of people who have been on hunger strike at her group's headquarters in Auvers-sur-Oise say their objective has been achieved and they will end their protest. Mrs Rajavi and more than 150 other group members were detained following raids on their headquarters last month by police who found about 8m euros there. A total of 17 people remain under investigation — a step short of being officially charged — on suspicion of associating with or financing terrorist groups. Mrs Rajavi and her husband Massoud have been long been high on the Iranian Government's wanted list, accused of waging an armed struggle against the authorities in Tehran.
Posted by: Bulldog ||
07/03/2003 6:06:48 AM ||
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German Chancellor Gerhard Schroeder demanded a full apology on Thursday from Italian Prime Minister Silvio Berlusconi after he compared a German lawmaker with a Nazi concentration camp guard. Ouch!!!
"This comparison is inappropriate and completely unacceptable," Schroeder said at the beginning of a speech in the German parliament. "I expect that the Italian prime minister will apologize fully for this unacceptable comparison," he said to applause. The German government on Wednesday called in the Italian ambassador to Schroeder's office to explain the comments.
Berlusconi made the remarks in a debate in the European Parliament in Strasbourg after a speech presenting Italy's priorities for its six-month presidency of the European Union, which began on Tuesday. He later said he did not mean to offend German feelings, but he declined to retract the comment or apologize. The German media slammed the comments on Thursday, stirring the row with some strong remarks of their own.
Franz Josef Wagner, a commentator for Germany's best-selling Bild daily, wrote an open letter to Berlusconi in which he praised Italian food and the country's rich cultural heritage, but said the Italian leader had done his country no favors: "You, Silvio Berlusconi, are currently the richest, most influential and most controversial Italian. But spaghetti Berlusconi won't feature on any menu. Spaghetti Berlusconi will not conquer the world. Spaghetti Berlusconi doesn't taste good." The stinging pasta references were burned into Berlusconi's brain forever - Oh the humanity of this tirade!! Who can stop the German press!!!!!!! Panzers of the pen!!!!
The respected heavyweight daily, the Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung, said the slur threatened rocky time ahead for Europe. What - more protest in Europe - say it ain't so - if half the "activists" were in the military they could conquer Willy Wonka's Chocolate Factory- Maybe!
"If the coming months are characterized by crashing, sweeping attacks and zealous hate campaigns, it's going to be difficult to complete the meddling, backbiting, whiningwork Europe has ahead of it," it said.
Oboy. Another politcal tempest in a teapot. Berlusconi was tactless and somewhat less than funny. The Fritzies are overly sensitive about what happened 60 years ago. Both ignore the fact that the SA wore brown shirts because the Italians had already bought all the nifty black ones.
I do think it's all a nice change from predigisted memospeak, though. If you say what you think, instead of what you're supposed to think, at least it shows you're thinking, if only of a snappy comeback. Bild's comeback was something less than Wagnerian, by the way. I'd expect to see the Italian press produce of flood of Verdiesque schnitzel wisecracks. Bild should try and find a writer named Mozart to out-spaghetti them at their own game...
Sometimes a nice verbal food fight is better than spending all one's time droning on about "harmony" and "shared goals" and "humanitarian principles." It clears the air, and then we can all go on to more important things â perhaps even things of substance.
Posted by: Fiddler ||
07/03/2003 4:09:57 AM ||
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Moved to Fifth Column from International. I'd have deleted it, but the comments are more interesting than the original opinion piece. (Sigh!) Since we're gonna keep it, I guess we'll have to feed it. My comments are interspersed...
Now that even hard core Republicans realize that Bush lied about the reasons for going to war with Iraq, Bush is grasping at the proverbial drowning man's straws in looking for the moral high ground as an excuse for mass murder. It's like he is trying to juggle three tennis balls, two rackets and a bowling ball as he stumbles head first down the darkened stairs into the basement.
Even hard core Republicans (and probably many Dems as well) have come to no such conclusion. To most of us here, the U.S. had the "moral high ground" in the war on Iraq. Bush committed no mass murders â in fact went out of his way to be easy on the Iraqis. Civilian casualties were extraordinarily low, as in fact were Iraqi military casualties. The mass graves, the casual videotaped sadism of the Baathists, and the kiddy jail negate your arguments. Better try and find a new schtick to beat the Bushes with...
Poor guy. Pathetic, really. Looks like he's trying hard though.
The same sort of people said Lincoln was stupid and not up to the job...
Now that we have it finally all straightened out that we invaded Iraq because Saddam Hussein was a bad guy and that nothing else really mattered, Bush must show the world that he is a man of his word and a consistent one at that (Come on, I can hear your snickering about a "consistent liar", but bear with me and let's give the guy the benefit of the doubt for a moment... again.)
I didn't snicker. Are you denying Saddam was a bad guy? Do you miss him?
It's time for Bush to take his place as the greatest American president in history to bomb more people into freedom and democracy. And in order to show that the US will not tolerate tyrants, our next target is the evil Charles Taylor of Liberia. Just like Saddam, Bush wants him out. Never mind that Charles Taylor is the duly elected president of Liberia, so what if the election was a sham? How about Florida in 2000?
Chuck was "duly elected" after about ten years of vicious civil war, part of it against the government, then against Prince Johnson. He's a crook, and he's a sadist in the same league as Saddam. He's been trying to extend his little empire ever since grabbing power, which has resulted in death and destruction (and lots of maiming) for his neighbors, most of whom were previously peaceful and even moderately prosperous countries â kind of like Liberia once was, before Chuck's prototype, Sergeant Doe.
And how about Florida in 2000? Seems like Mike's really sore the Dems didn't get to keep recounting and recounting until they could finally steal the election. You can bitch all you want that he was "selected not elected," but what you're really bitching about is that he was selected and not your boy.
"Bomb more people into freedom and democracy"? Do we have plans to bomb Liberia? We haven't heard about them here. On the other hand, the Liberians seem a lot more eager for us to come in than we are to go in. Liberia's a country that was founded by American blacks almost 200 years ago. Its flag is a replica of our own â one star instead of 50 â and its constitution used to be a replica of our own; I don't know if it still is. The place was an oligarchic democracy up until Sgt. Doe took over and made it a bloody-handed but incompetent dictatorship. Liberia still looks to us as the Mother Country, even though we've never ruled it and our relations with it throughout its fairly long history have been more polite than close.
Bush has said Taylor's gotta go. "This town ain't big enuff for the both of us." And George Bush said it so he's not the kind of drug store cowboy to turn on his word; just like with Saddam in Iraq, Bush said, "The only way to avoid war is exile." But that leaves us with the same problem as before the Iraq war: "What sane government would offer exile for that lunatic Bush?"
Mike is trying to be witty here and makes it... ummm... half way. He manages to get the cowboy taunt in, but he screws it up by calling him a "drugstore" (pretend) cowboy...
Now I won't confuse you, dear readers, about how Charles Taylor, like Saddam is a bad man. He may have even thought of WMD!....Oh sorry, we're not on that one anymore? Sorry. But how about those terrorists, eh? What? That's last month's news too? Sorry.
How 'bout the little kids with their arms hacked off with machetes?
Okay, how about this then; people are dying in Liberia. Charles Taylor is the only person in that general area that Bush can probably name (glad Bush bought those James Taylor albums back in those heavy coke days - you know, they still sound good today!) But perhaps the most damning thing about Charles Taylor is that he is currently the president of a country that was actively participating in human trafficking in the 1800's! (Never mind that it was the USA using Liberia as a port for shipping off Blacks to freedom in America in about 1816.) Also, and this is the killer right here: The American owned company Firestone owns much of the Rubber plantations and controls the rubber industry of Liberia. Tires! Bitchin'!
It's all about rubber? And that section of the African coast trafficked in slaves in the 1800s â before Liberia was founded â and it's Bush's fault? I thought he was younger than that?
The only name Bush knows in Africa? Quick, Mike! Who's the president of Guinea Bissau? And when was the first time you ever heard of Charles Taylor?
Well, that settles it for me and every other correct thinking patriot right there. I mean, 4.5 million people killed in Congo in the last 3 years? Congo!? What do they make there besides those little drum kits? I can't name one single item that comes from Congo besides little drum kits, can you? Sure they were cool on those Monkees songs, but people, please let's move on. To quote Rumsfeldt, "That was a different time, a different place. We all had flowers in our hair." (Okay, I added that last part.)
You also mispelled (intentionally, I think) Rumsfeld â to make it sound Jewish? Shades of "Franklin Delano Rosenfeld"!
Of those 4.5 million people killed in the Congo line, playing their congo drums, none were killed by us as far as I know. Liberia is bordered by Guinea, Sierra Leone, and Ivory Coast, and has no borders with either DRC or the Brazzaville Congo. None of the countries bordering it do, either. If fact, from Monrovia, it's probably about a 40 day hike to anywhere in either Congo.
And what about Myanmar?
Ummm... Okay. What about it?
Who knows how many millions have been "offed" there and right now they are detaining "for her own safety" Ang Syu Ki, a Nobel peace prize winner! Ok, ok, for you American readers, "Burma."
Most of us who read this page regularly can recognize Myanmar as Burma, a nation in southeast Asia with a population of 49 million, most of whom have recently been "offed" by U.S.-supported dictators who... ummm... No. We don't support the dictators in Burma. Never have, in fact.
Mike is referring to Aung San Suu Kyi, of course, though he can't seem to spell her name correctly. Once a great country that rivaled Thailand for regional power, Burma (Myanmar, to Mike) has been ruled by a military junta since shortly after independence, when it became an economic backwater. It has a continuing series of civil wars going with its ethnic Shan and Karen populations â we don't support them, either, though we're sympathetic to them, I think â and its Burman majority manages to at least mildly oppress its Mon minority. It also has a free-ranging drug industry that was started by cut off Nationalist Chinese troops in the aftermath of the Second World War. None of which has anything to do with Bush, at least not at the moment.
Well, let me try to wrap up this entire nonsense for you: Bush is desperate. He's grasping at straws. What little credibility he ever had is lost-er in space than Will Robinson, Doctor Smith, and the robot.
Since Mike seems to be in space, too, no doubt he sees them regularly...
The CIA and the military are hanging him out to dry. He's doing his best not to look too stupid, but I think if you thought Nixon was spouting off nonsense towards the end, just keep your video decks on for Bush in the next few months.
Hokay.
He's losing it. And losing it fast.
You just can't see it with the naked eye yet...
So here's my big punchline to finish off this already monstorous joke; Bush, in an effort to feel better about himself and "fill out his insides" goes into the local Donald McRumsfeldt and orders another Big Iraq with Freedom fries. He happily gets his order but later at home, he gets pissed off when he realizes that the Donald McRumsfeldt clerk forgot to give him a straw.
That doesn't make any sense.
- Mike Rogers (Mike-in-Tokyo) 7/3/03
Thanks, Mike. Don't post again, okay?
(I put out a daily political newsletter called,
The Real Shit
it's free, no advertising and dedicated to the truth. If you'd like to check it out, e-mail me: rogers@mub.biglobe.ne.jp
Well, the title's certainly apt...
Posted by: Mike Rogers ||
07/03/2003 5:11:08 AM ||
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What kind of a sick ungrateful world is this when people don't even appreciate a hijacking!!!
EFL
A Sikh man who once hijacked an Indian airliner says he is still waiting for recognition and gratitude from his community for his action. Tejinder Singh hijacked an Indian Airlines aircraft 19 years ago, to protest against the Indian army attack on the Golden Temple - Sikhism's holiest shrine. When the army stormed the Golden Temple to flush out armed separatists in June 1984, angry adherents of the faith protested against the action in a variety of ways. Hundreds of Sikh soldiers deserted. Prominent members of the community resigned top government positions. Others returned awards and decorations bestowed upon them by the Indian Government. Then only 19-years-old, Tejinder Singh remembers being furious at what he and many others like him, still view as a deliberate attack on the Sikh faith. "Every man expresses what he feels in one way or the other," he told BBC News Online. "Hijacking the Indian Airlines plane was our way of telling the world that the Sikh people were being subjected to grave injustices within their own homeland."
So was bumping off a Ghandi or two...
On 24 August 1984, Singh and six others commandeered an Indian Airlines flight, which was scheduled to fly from the northern city of Chandigarh to Srinagar, the capital of Indian-administered Kashmir.
"I just can't understand it. It was just an airliner filled with screaming non-combatants..."
Posted by: rg117 ||
07/03/2003 10:38:57 AM ||
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Determined to rid Pakistan of an image for lawlessness, President Pervez Musharraf told would-be investors on Thursday he was making an anonymous contribution of his own to upholding public order. ''I roam about the beaches of Karachi at night, incognito I mean, just to see,'' he told a conference of French business executives in Paris. We don't call him "Perv" for nothing.
Kinda like Haroun al-Rancid...
''There is no law and order problem in Pakistan. That is in the past now,'' he added, noting that its crime rates bore comparison with those of U.S. cities such as Los Angeles. Humm, I don't recall any drive-by RPG attacks in LA.
Hundreds of people have been killed in religious, ethnic and political violence in Karachi in recent years. Beside Muslim sectarian violence, Karachi has seen attacks on both Christian and Western targets in the past year. The attacks have been blamed on Islamic militants angry at Pakistan's support for the U.S.-led war on terror. Angry at pretty much everybody and anything.
Posted by: Steve ||
07/03/2003 10:35:19 AM ||
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Hindus were like Jews and they can never be the friends of Muslims, a leading Pakistan journalist was quoted as saying by a newspaper in Lahore on Wednesday. "Let us include Hindus in the list as there is no difference between Hindus and Jews," Majid Nizami, editor-in-chief of The Nation and president of Nazria Pakistan Foundation, was quoted as saying by the Pak Tribune. Referring to injunctions appearing in the Quran in which Allah has warned that Christians and Jews could not be friends of Muslims, he said sub-continental history and past experiences suggested the same scenario was equally visible between Muslims and Hindus. That's true, every time Muslims have attacked Hindus on the sub-continent they've got their butts kicked just like their muslim brothers in the middle east fighting the jews.
On Pakistan President Pervez Musharraf's controversial decision to retain the post of army chief, Nizami said: "If Musharraf believes that there would be no war between Pakistan and India then he should shed the uniform. Jihad is the motto of Pakistan Army and there should not be any attempt to change it."
"Instead of indulging ourselves in unnecessary troubles we should wait for the right time and eliminate our double standards," he said. He really wants Pakistan to become a glowing crater.
Posted by: Steve ||
07/03/2003 9:15:07 AM ||
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Pakistani troops at a remote northwestern tribal region along the Afghan border came under attack from unidentified forces in Afghanistan, sparking an exchange of fire, but neither side suffered casualties, Pakistan's military and officials said Wednesday. The gunbattle occurred Monday at the village of Yaqoobo, 100 kilometers northwest of Peshawar, the capital of Pakistan's deeply conservative North West Frontier Province, where a pro-Taliban religious coalition is in power.
It wasn't immediately clear who initiated the conflict. There were no Pak casualties, so it wasn't us. Maybe some tribal types who don't like government troops snooping around.
Pakistan's military in the capital, Islamabad, confirmed the shootout, but said it was just a minor clash. "We did not suffer any casualties," spokesman for Pakistan's military Gen. Shaukat Sultan told The Associated Press. However, Mohammed Iqbal, a government official in the Mohmand tribal region of the province, said Pakistan has sent extra troops. The situation is well under control, Iqbal said. "Nothing to see here, move along."
Pakistan, a key ally in the US war on terror, deployed troops in its tribal region last month to prevent insurgents from launching cross-border attacks against coalition and government forces in Afghanistan. It was the first time since Pakistan's creation in 1947 that soldiers were deployed in the region, where tribes have traditionally enjoyed great autonomy. At the time of the initial deployment, armed tribesmen shot and killed one soldier and wounded three others. Some tribesmen were also killed in the fighting. After talks with the troops, tribal elders agreed to provide access to the Pakistani forces in their regions, thought to provide hideouts for suspected Taliban and al-Qaida fugitives. Most tribesmen in the region share the Taliban's interpretation of Islam, which largely reflects their tribal traditions rather than the tenets of Islam. "We don't need islam to teach us to beat our wives and shoot people, it's a tradition here."
Posted by: Steve ||
07/03/2003 9:03:48 AM ||
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A day after President Bush asserted that coalition forces in Iraq were prepared to deal with any security threat, American troops came under attack again today, with 10 soldiers wounded in three separate incidents.
"We're still at war," Lt. Gen. Ricardo S. Sanchez of the Army, the commander of coalition forces in Iraq, said in a news conference today. While saying that the attacks did not appear to be centrally or even regionally coordinated, he asserted that there had been an "increase in sophistication of the explosive devices used" against American forces.
In a strategy apparently designed to undermine the resistance,
the American administrator of Iraq, L. Paul Bremer III, announced this afternoon that the State Department was offering a reward of up to $25 million for either the capture of Saddam Hussein or information confirming his death. The reward for similar information about Mr. Hussein's sons, Uday and Qusay, is $15 million apiece.
"Until we know for sure, their names will continue to cast a shadow of fear over this country," Mr. Bremer said in his weekly address to the Iraqi people.
The $25 million reward for Mr. Hussein is the same amount offered for Osama bin Laden, the leader of Al Qaeda.
This morning's attacks occurred in diverse locations: a Sunni area west of Baghdad that staunchly supported the former regime, a Shia neighborhood in Baghdad and the center of the city.
In the Baghdad neighborhood of Kadhimiya, a soldier from the First Armored Division on foot patrol at 2:30 a.m. local time was wounded after a gunman opened fire. The soldiers returned fire, killing the gunman and wounding a 6-year-old boy with him, according to an American military spokesman.
In the city of Ramadi, about 65 miles west of Baghdad, six soldiers were wounded when their two-vehicle convoy drove over an improvised explosive device at 6:30 a.m. The city's Sunni Muslim residents were among the core of Saddam Hussein's base of support, serving as army officers and officials in his government.
Ramadi has become a center of resistance to the American-led occupation. It is only about 30 miles west of Falluja, where an explosion at a Sunni mosque killed at least six people on Monday night. A coalition investigation blamed the explosion on a bombmaking class being held in a building adjacent to the mosque, but many residents accused the Americans of firing a missile into the mosque and promised revenge against American troops.
In Baghdad, just before 10 a.m. local time, a man on foot fired a rocket-propelled grenade at a three-vehicle military convoy moving down Haifa Street, a busy thoroughfare in central Baghdad. One Humvee was struck, wounding three soldiers, witnesses and a military spokesman said.
Witnesses also said that in response, soldiers in one of the other vehicles opened fire indiscriminately, seriously wounding, and possibly killing, at least one Iraqi driver nearby. Blood pooled next to the slain driver's blue Volkswagen Passat soon after the attack.
The attack suggested that the urban warfare that had so concerned military planners before the fall of the Saddam Hussein regime was materializing in unexpected forms. The attack against the three-vehicle convoy on Haifa Street was at least the second rocket-propelled grenade assault in broad daylight in Baghdad this week.
In both cases, the attackers escaped. Whether out of fear or sympathy for their cause, bystanders and witnesses have done nothing to help coalition forces apprehend attackers.
On Wednesday, President Bush challenged Iraqis who were attacking American-led forces and said the assaults would not cause the United States to leave prematurely.
"There are some who feel like - that the conditions are such that they can attack us there," Mr. Bush said. "My answer is, bring them on. We've got the force necessary to deal with the security situation.
Posted by: Mike in Tokyo ||
07/03/2003 11:29:35 PM ||
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There's been much speculation here and elsewhere about Iraqi WMDs. How accounts from the field never seemed to get confirmed and then dried up alltogether. Many theories have been proposed to account for this. I'd like to propose my own theory. You aren't hearing about WMDs because they are being classified as soon as they are found. The few stories that made it into the press were all from young captains and lieutenants who have now had big chunks torn out of their asses and will never talk to a reporter again on pain of losing their security clearances (and thereby losing their commissions).
WASHINGTON - The Bush administration and the U.S. intelligence community have had some success in finding Saddam Hussein's weapons of mass destruction, Sen. Pat Roberts said Thursday.
Roberts, chairman of the Senate Intelligence Committee, told reporters on a telephone conference call that he couldn't go into detail because the news is classified.
"It's classified information now - I am urging the administration and the intelligence community to make at least portions of that public," Roberts said. "We've had some success; I'm sorry I can't go into detail about that."
Roberts, R-Kan., traveled this week to Iraq and the Middle East with members of the Senate Armed Services Committee. [snip]
The U.S. government is offering a $25 million reward for information leading to the capture of Saddam Hussein or confirmation of his death, in addition to up to $15 million for information leading to his two sons, the occupation administration said Thursday. Better add a green card and safe haven in the US.
The offer was made in a prepared release by the U.S.-led Coalition Provisional Authority and applies to Saddam and both his sons, Udai and Qusai, said Sgt. Amy Abbott, a U.S. military spokeswoman in Baghdad. Saddam was last reportedly seen alive in the war's waning days in the Azamiyah neighborhood of northeastern Baghdad. At least two U.S. airstrikes targeted him during the war but it is not known if any were successful. I think Sammy is still breathing.
U.S. officials say capturing Saddam and his sons is crucial because the uncertainty surrounding his fate can be used as a rallying point for anti-U.S. forces.
Posted by: Steve ||
07/03/2003 10:51:14 AM ||
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At least seven US soldiers have been wounded in two separate attacks on troops in Iraq. The US military said that a two-vehicle convoy had been targeted by "an explosive device" which wounded six soldiers in Ramadi, 100 kilometres (60 miles) west of Baghdad. In a separate incident in central Baghdad, troops on patrol came under fire. One soldier was wounded before the gunman was shot dead. A six-year-old boy who was apparently with the gunman, was injured.
Posted by: Bulldog ||
07/03/2003 6:02:15 AM ||
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Better headline than "Poland Weighs the Risks of Peacekeeping" which was the Al-Guardian spin.
WROCLAW, Poland (AP) - Poland sent some 250 soldiers to Iraq to help set up a Polish-commanded postwar zone, embarking on a risky mission that will test the country's role as a U.S. military ally. Prime Minister Leszek Miller attended a tearful farewell ceremony Wednesday for the logistics unit and a group of officers, who will help prepare the ground for a desert mission expected to involve more than 9,000 troops from at least 15 nations. ``The Polish army today begins its most important operation since World War II,'' Miller said before the soldiers boarded two U.S. planes taking them to the region.
With American casualties in Iraq mounting, Polish leaders anxious to preserve public support for the mission insisted that their soldiers are well-prepared. Gen. Czeslaw Piatas, the Polish army chief of staff, acknowledged that the role would require major organizational skills from Poland, a former Soviet bloc nation that joined NATO only in 1999 and has pushed to modernize its armed forces. ``But our officers have such skills,'' Piatas said in Warsaw, the capital. Everything I've read says that's true.
The United States invited Poland to run one of the three sectors in Iraq, a central part wedged between U.S. and British zones, after Warsaw strongly backed Washington's hard line on terrorism and contributed some 200 troops to the military campaign to oust Saddam Hussein. Poland, Spain and Ukraine will each lead a brigade in the sector, under overall Polish command. Poland already has a military advance team and members of an elite commando unit in the region, where the full international force is expected to be in place by mid-August.
NATO and the U.S. military have promised to support the effort with communications, intelligence and vehicles - and Poland is looking to Washington and other allies to foot the bulk of the bill, estimated at more than $90 million for a year.
Yet the mission's risks have stirred little debate in Poland, where pride about the nation's new international responsibilities plays a strong role, and the deployment has broad support among the usually squabbling political parties. Poland's ambassador to NATO expressed concern that the public mood could shift once Polish troops start suffering casualties. ``For the time being, everything is going according to plan,'' Jerzy Maria Nowak told The Associated Press by telephone from Brussels, Belgium. ``But if somebody gets killed, the atmosphere will be different.'' I think the Poles are smarter than this; as noted they've been doing the peacekeeping thing for quite a while.
Poland is counting in part on long experience in peacekeeping, including the Balkans since the 1990s, where Poles have served alongside U.S. troops. The units being sent to Iraq all have peacekeeping backgrounds, officials said.
Capt. Grzegorz Studzinski's wife said she was afraid for his life as he prepared to board Wednesday's flight. ``It was our common decision, which we took in March when it was not so dangerous there'' said Joanna Studzinska, 28, who came to the airport with the couple's 4-year-old son. ``We thought it would be a peace mission - that he would go to help, not to fight,'' she said. ``Now I know he is going to war. It feels awful.''
For many Polish soldiers, though, the extra pay is worth the risk. Chief Warrant Officer Adam Hajkowicz, 35, said his soldier's pay in Iraq will be $1,200, compared to the equivalent of $490 in Poland. In central Iraq, Poland will contribute 2,300 soldiers to a brigade that also includes units from Bulgaria, Romania, Hungary and Lithuania. A second brigade will have 1,640 Ukrainians and the third 1,100 Spanish troops and units from Honduras, the Dominican Republic and El Salvador and Nicaragua. Thank you, Poland.
Posted by: Steve White ||
07/03/2003 2:36:09 AM ||
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The harsh prison sentences handed down in Laos to two European journalists and their American translator have focused attention on a shadowy legacy of the Vietnam War: the continuing struggle by members of the ethnic Hmong minority against the country's communist authorities. Still fighting after all these years.
Thierry Falise, 46, a Belgian freelance reporter, Vincent Reynaud, 38, a French cameraman and photographer, and US passport holder Naw Karl Mua were sentenced to 15 years in prison on Monday for obstructing security forces and illegal possession of weapons. The men were arrested on June 4 along with four unidentified Lao nationals while researching a story in northeastern Laos on the Hmong rebels, who were hired by the CIA during the Vietnam War to fight North Vietnamese and Pathet Lao troops. At their peak, more than 30,000 Hmong fought for the US against the communists in what became known as the "Secret War." Who we then abandoned.
The Hmong continued their insurgency after the communists took control in Laos in 1975 and small bands of rebels remain active today, particularly in the militarized Xaysomboun special zone, northeast of the Lao capital Vientiane. According to experts, up to 2,000 Hmong are currently pursuing the anti-communist insurgency which began in the 1960s. During its doomed military campaign in the region, the United States saw the mobile and independent Hmong -- who had fled persecution in China in the 19th century -- as a natural ally adept at insurrection in impenetrable forest.
Little information has filtered down from Xaysomboune in the past five months, but reports indicate at least three attacks have been carried out recently claiming more than 30 civilian lives. The attacks are seen as a response by the Hmong to a fresh government drive to crush the under-equipped rebellion. Despite official and unofficial support from Vietnam until 2000, Laos has failed to stem the insurgency.
Laos has tried to keep the lid on information about the struggle. When the attacks were revealed by the press, the government spoke of "bandits." It's the standard communist party line.
According to unconfirmed reports, the two European journalists and their American translator accompanied a group of rebels on foot into a mountainous area inhabited by the Hmong, encountering government militia in the village of Kai, in northeastern Xieng Khuang province. During an exchange of fire, one militiaman was killed. According to a foreign observer, speaking on condition of anonymity, Monday's verdicts were an attempt by the authorities to satisfy villagers enraged by the militiaman's death. "The people in the province where the militiaman was killed are very upset and the government was looking for people to punish," the observer said. "The Lao authorities thought that by giving this sentence, they would meet the demand of their domestic opinion and by commuting it later and expelling the foreigners, they would also meet the demand of the international community." It used to work, but times have changed.
Although diplomacy and appeal could secure their release, the sentences appear unduly heavy for the crime which they were convicted, particularly as the men were apparently unarmed and had only witnessed fighting. The harsh sentences have earned international condemnation and the observer said that Lao's leadership may have overstepped the mark. "They think they would satisfy everybody. They are mistaken. Before they will expel the three foreigners, there will be much more bad press about Laos than they ever expected." Yup, the times, they are a-changing.
That Vientiane is willing to risk international credibility by using three foreigners to assuage domestic anger shows the level of concern over the unrest. "The government is paranoid about any lack of control," the observer said. I think we get more news about what's going on in North Korea than we do about Laos.
Inter-ethnic relations in Laos are complex and several provincial governors, members of the government and even the powerful politburo are Hmong. "It is wrong to view the Hmong as a unified group," said a French specialist on Laos. "The community divisions go back to the beginning of the 20th century and many Hmong fought alongside the communists."
Posted by: Steve ||
07/03/2003 10:14:51 AM ||
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ZAMBOANGA CITY, 3 July 2003 â Security forces have captured a Moro Islamic Liberation Front (MILF) leader implicated in the series of bombings on Mindanao Island, officials said yesterday.
Sulaiiman Dimasalang, a commander of the Bangasamoro Islamic Armed Forces, was captured Tuesday afternoon inside a shopping mall in Cotabato City, a military spokesman Lt. Col. Daniel Lucero said. How embarassing
Lucero said the rebel was implicated in the bombings of the international airport and a pier in Davao City and is being interrogated in an undisclosed military base in central Mindanao. Ah yes, the world famous undisclosed location(tm).
Lucero said soldiers and policemen captured Dimasalang inside the Cotabato City Arcade around 1 p.m. after intelligence operatives positively identified him. He said the rebel, who has a string of criminal cases, tried to escape, but was overpowered by security forces. âHe is one of the most notorious MILF personalities that we are pursuing and we finally got him,â he said. "It's San Miguel Time!"
Seized from the rebel were 9 identification cards, a list of phone numbers of mostly MILF personalities and a photocopy of a bank check amounting to two million pesos ($37,000) and documents, whose contents were not disclosed by the military. 9 ID cards, yup, he's a islamic militant.
The MILF has strongly denied that Dimasalang was involved in terrorism. Spokesman Eid Kabalu said the rebel leader is even helping the police in its anti-illegal drug campaign in central Mindanao. âDimasalang is not a terrorist and we deny all accusations against him or against the MILF,â Kabalu said. "Lies, all lies!"
Posted by: Steve ||
07/03/2003 9:47:23 AM ||
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EFL
A terror suspect testifying in the trial of Indonesian cleric Abu Bakar Ba'asyir said there were connections between Jemaah Islamiah, the group suspected of the Bali bombing, and Muslim groups in the Philippines and Thailand. Ahmad Sajuli bin Adbul Rahman, a member of JI who was giving evidence via video-link from Malaysia, said he had sent fellow militants for training in the Philippines and Afghanistan. Mr Rahman echoed last week's testimony by three other witnesses, in saying that the elderly cleric became the head of JI following the death of the previous leader, Abdullah Sugkar, in 1999.
Mr Rahman said that JI's operations chief at the time, Hambali, had ordered the church bombings, but that Mr Ba'asyir would have approved the attacks. "An emir's approval is always sought," he said. It takes a holy man to approve the bombing of a holy place.
Both Mr Rahman and Agung Diyadi, another witness testifying from Malaysia, said that JI had also been involved in a Muslim-Christian war on Indonesia's Maluku islands, where about 10,000 people were killed between 1999 and 2002. Mr Diyadi, an Indonesian, said, however, that he had no knowledge of any plans by Mr Ba'asyir to overthrow the Indonesian Government.
He said JI gave "assistance to oppressed people and military assistance to fight people who oppress Muslims". Asked where, he replied: "The Malukus, Poso and the Philippines."
Poso in Indonesia's Central Sulawesi province has also been the scene of Muslim-Christian clashes. The southern Philippines is home to a Muslim insurgency and Islamic militants that have been linked to al-Qaeda. Militants in the Philippines are believed to have established terror training camps on remote islands. Mr Ba'asyir sat reading a copy of the Koran during Thursday's trial. His lawyers, who have disputed the use of witnesses from abroad, boycotted the hearing. If this was the states, he'd be able to get a retrial because his lawyers weren't there during the hearing. But it ain't, so he will just get a date counting muzzle blasts.
Posted by: Steve ||
07/03/2003 8:34:46 AM ||
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I'm posting this for Chuck, who is having "evil" browser problems which prevent him from posting it.
POLICE in Zambia have stormed a secret Islamic school in which 280 children were allegedly confined in cages and forced to study military tactics and Arabic, a police officer said today. The children, all of them teenage boys, were incarcerated at the school in a populous suburb of the capital, Lusaka, and also forced into studying Islam, one officer who took part in the operation said. The Religion of Peace? Military tactics? I...I...I'm stunned!
He said Iqbal Patel, an Asian man in charge of the school, was arrested and charged with "child abuse, confinement and failing to provide necessities to children". According to the police the boys were lured from rural areas in Zambia by a promise that they would be sent abroad after they received training at the school. Seven of the teenagers were very sick and unable to walk, police said. "[S]ent abroad" to martyr themselves killing infidels...then Allah will send them 72 broads. Nice recruiting theme they have there.
Posted by: Dar ||
07/03/2003 4:21:10 PM ||
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A faction of the Al-Aqsa Martyrs Brigades declared Thursday that it would no longer abide by the cease-fire agreed days ago by the major militant groups, following the killing earlier in the day of one of its activists by Israeli security forces
in Qalqailyah. Border Police troops arrested Ibrahim Mansour, the head of the Al-Aqsa Brigades in Qalqilyah, and shot dead his
aide, Mahmoud Shawer, during an early morning raid in the city.
"We in the Al-Aqsa Martyrs Brigades announce we are not
complying with the cease-fire as long as the occupation continues raiding our lands and killing our people," a local leader of the group shouted through loudspeakers as Shawar
was buried. "We warn [Prime Minister Ariel] Sharon's
government that our response will come quickly and will be like an earthquake within 24 hours." They're strapping on the belts.
The army said that both Palestinians had been armed. Palestinian sources said that Shawer been wounded in the leg during his escape attempt, and he was found dead with gunshot
wounds to the head once the troops withdrew. "You'll never take me alive.........."
The IDF had linked the two to a shooting attack on a car travelling inside Israel, just across the Green Line from Qalqilyah, some two weeks ago. A seven-year-old girl was killed in the attack and three of her family members were wounded.
Tayeb Abdel Rahim, a senior aide to Palestinian Authority Chairman Yasser Arafat, called Shawer's killing an "assassination" and accused Israel of trying "to bring us back to the cycle of action and reaction." No, it's the cycle of "cause and effect".
Posted by: Steve ||
07/03/2003 4:14:42 PM ||
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Long piece in the Economist, lots of good backround material.
West Africa's civil wars are usually reported as tragedies befalling individual states. This month, the spotlight is on Liberia. A couple of months ago, the conflict in CÃŽte d'Ivoire received more attention. Before that, it was Guinea, and before that, Sierra Leone. In fact, all these wars are intertwined, and it is impossible to understand one without reference to the others.
Go read the whole piece.
Posted by: Steve ||
07/03/2003 3:20:20 PM ||
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For those who read French: This report about yet another international Forum the whole purpose of which is to gang on Israel "with feelings".
(Par Anne Eckstein anne.eckstein@eis.be )
Thirty-one suspects were indicted Thursday in relation to a series of bombing attacks on US fast-food outlets and foreign-named supermarkets in Lebanon this year and were committed to trial before a Beirut military tribunal on charges punishable by up to life imprisonment. The indictment was announced by military examining magistrate Riad Talieh, capping a 3-month interrogation, A Nahar website reported. Most of the indicted suspects are Lebanese activists linked to Islamic factions operating from the Palestinian refugee camps of Baddawi in northern Lebanon and Ein El-Hilweh in the south. Targets of the bombing assaults included branch restaurants of McDonald's, Winners, Pizza Hut, KFC and Spinney's supermarkets in Beirut, Jounieh and Tripoli. Several people were injured in the attacks, but none were killed. I think the message here is that if you want to bomb infidel targets, do it in someone else's country. Lebanon is in the terrorism export business, dammit.
Posted by: Steve ||
07/03/2003 2:33:18 PM ||
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This is all over Fox News:
A car returned to a rental agency near LaGuardia Airport contained a suspicious package and a weapon, police said Thursday morning. The package and the automatic weapon were discovered by workers at the rental car agency on Ditmars Boulevard in Queens when they opened the trunk, said Police Commissioner Raymond Kelly. The car was parked on the second deck of a garage at the location. Police were summoned to the scene at about 10:45 a.m., with Emergency Service Unit squads dispatched to the business as well, said police spokeswoman Carmen Melendez. Bomb squad is there.
Police had no particulars on the weapon or the package. Reports are that there is a "automatic weapon" with a "device" attached. Why is it that the people who find these things never have seen a weapon in their life? I'll bet most readers could glance at this weapon and give make and model number as well as what is attached.
Posted by: Steve ||
07/03/2003 12:13:23 PM ||
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Hundreds of people demonstrated in Liberia's capital on Thursday in an unprecedented show of opposition to President Charles Taylor, a day after President Bush told him to leave the country. "Taylor must go" and "No more Taylor, we want Bush," chanted more than 400 people outside the U.S. embassy as American Marines in flak jackets and helmets kept watch from behind sandbagged posts on the roof. Across the battered coastal capital, a few hundred Taylor supporters gathered in a football stadium to show their support for a former warlord who never looked so vulnerable. Long regarded as the instigator of West Africa's tangled conflicts, Taylor has been indicted for war crimes by an international court and besieged by rebels who want him out. Even some of his own supporters said Taylor would have to step down, but they argued the U.S.-educated leader should be given time to leave and not pushed out abruptly. Unless you push, he's not going anywhere.
Bush has called on Taylor to quit Liberia, a nation founded by freed American slaves in the 19th century. The United States is considering sending troops to help ensure peace. Think hard before you do this.
Posted by: Steve ||
07/03/2003 12:02:44 PM ||
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The Student protests in Iran are entering their third week and it seems the situation is still far from being under control. Over the past two weeks, more than 8,000 students have been arrested during demonstrations against the regime and religious clerics. At an emergency meeting of the High Council of National Security which took place this week, President Khatami condemned proclamations of senior religious clerics to execute the student leaders, according to the London-based daily A-Sharq Al-Awsat.
"Apostates! Heretix! Agents of the Great Satan! We must kill them allllll!"
Participants at the meeting said Khatami gave a direct warning to the Judiciary Authority and an indirect warning to spiritual leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, stressing that he will not hesitate to give in his resignation âstraight to the peopleâ if the threat to the lives of the student leaders is not removed. During the meeting, Khatami harshly criticized Tehranâs Prosecutor General Said Murtadawi, also known as âThe Press Murdererâ. Murtadawi was appointed by Iranâs spiritual leader Ali Khamenei to thwart the activities of independent reform newspapers and incarcerate their editors. Murtadawi was recently given the unusual authorization to imprison people for long-terms even though the law does not allow detaining people for more than one day without presenting an indictment.
"Laws are for the common folk. We follow a higher authority..."
President Khatami delivered a speech on Wednesday during the opening session of the national judges seminar in which he stressed that the most important mission of a regime subordinate to God is to establish an efficient judiciary authority aimed at âcreating an insecure atmosphere for those who make society insecure.â He later clarified his remarks, saying that the worst danger posed to society is violating peopleâs rights and liberties. âPeople are free within the framework of the law and our duty is to promote their freedom,â the President told the Iranian national news agency.
"I think that's what I meant. Ask me again tomorrow..."
Khatami and his reform-supporting partners, among them head of Parliament, Mahdi Karoubi, are concerned about the fate of several detainees who were forced by Murtasawiâs people to âconfessâ on national television to ties with opposition elements abroad. They were also made to confess to supporting the contents of television and radio satellite broadcasts transmitted by Iranian opposition activists based in Los Angeles.
The concern of Khatami and his supporters has increased in light of sermons and declarations of senior religious clerics, broadcast continuously on Iranian television and radio. These sermons call for the execution of students and detainees in order to prevent a repetition of the demonstrations that occurred in July, 1999.
"Yes! Yes! We must kill them! God commands us to kill them!"
Khatami threatened to resign upon receiving information that the spiritual leader Khamenei approved the request of prosecutor general Mutasawi to execute at least four of the student leaders prior to the protests anticipated to be held on the 9th of July. Tick...tick...tick...........
Posted by: Steve ||
07/03/2003 11:40:42 AM ||
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"The devil dogs of the First Marine Expeditionary Force at Camp Babylon got a hand at clearing up some hidden mines, when a special team of mine sniffing dogs and civilian mine clearing experts based out of Mozambique came to their aid. The Quick Reaction Demining Force responded to Camp Babylon after three Marines were injured due to unexploded bombs. This team of mine clearing experts' mission is to clean up minefields and unexploded bombs around the world. Originally set up with the help of the United States State Department and the government of Mozambique, the QRDF has been getting rid of mine fields in hot spots all around the world. When Al Hillah became one of those hot spots, the coalition partners from Mozambique showed up at the Marines' front gate. Once the team was called, they cleared more than 100,000 square meters of ground in three fields and 150 mines in the Al Hillah area. According to Merlin Clark, project manager for the QRDF, a second team has already cleared more than 380,000 square meters near Baghdad.
Posted by: liberalhawk ||
07/03/2003 11:29:29 AM ||
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President Bush could announce later this week that he is sending 500 to 1,000 peacekeeping troops to Liberia, two senior officials told CNN. Bad Move George W - Put in a toe - the whole foot gets stuck there!!
Facing mounting international pressure to have the United States lead a Liberia mission that also would include West African peacekeepers, Bush discussed such a deployment Wednesday. U.N. Secretary-General Kofi Annan and others have talked of a U.S. deployment of 2,000 troops, but U.S. officials told CNN any deployment would be no more than half that. Of course - volunteer the US - Sometimes we don't like what we wished for - we may actually accomplish something in spite of the UN lapdogs!
The officials said the timing of the announcement could be slowed by efforts to get Liberian President Charles Taylor, who faces war crimes charges by a U.N. court in neighboring Sierra Leone, to step down and leave the war-torn country. The White House official line is that Taylor should leave now and face a war crimes trial later. But Bush used different language Wednesday regarding Taylor, saying simply that he should leave the country. Secretary of State Powell has been arguing in favor of a U.S. commitment, sources said -- citing recent peacekeeping commitments by France in the Ivory Coast and Great Britain in Sierra Leone. I say let the French handle it then - the Brits are busy with us in Iraq!
Posted by: Fiddler ||
07/03/2003 2:52:46 AM ||
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Thomas Foley, executive officer of the US Agency for International Development (USAID) in Jordan, was shot dead last year outside his home in a western Amman neighbourhood. The 60-year-old diplomat was about to enter his car when he was hit by a volley of bullets fired from close range. Soon after, Jordan and the USA charged Al-Qaeda with responsibility for the attack. In an audio recording released several weeks later, believed to be by Osama Bin Laden, the speaker mentioned Foley's murder among a list of other attacks committed by Al-Qaeda.
Yeah. You might consider that grounds for tying the killing to Al-Qaeda. So what's the problem?
However, the indictment specifies Al-Zarqawi, as the key figure behind the attack. Al-Zarqawi, a Jordanian national, together with 10 other defendants â Libyans, Syrians and another Jordanian â are charged with the murder of Foley and with plotting to commit other attacks against US and Israeli targets in Jordan. Only five of the 11 suspects are in custody, among them Saad Salem Bin-Suawayed, a 40-year-old Libyan, suspected to have been the gunman.
Still not sure I see a problem...
According to the indictment, Al-Zarqawi visited Syria last year, where he met the operatives involved in the plot. They were trained in Syria, supplied with guns and grenades, and then returned to Jordan with instructions to locate a suitable target. Suawayed and his accomplices began searching the diplomatic neighbourhood of Amman for possible targets. By chance, they spotted Foley's diplomatic licensed car and followed it until he arrived at his home. The team waited outside the house until Foley emerged again and then shot him. The indictment does not attribute the attack to Al-Qaeda, and regional intelligence sources have pointed the finger at Al-Zarqawi's own independent faction, Jund al-Shams. "The Jordanians are experts when it comes to Al-Qaeda," a senior intelligence source told JTIC. "If they say it's not Al-Qaeda -then it isn't." So Zarqawi is the emir of Jund al-Shams, and also of al-Tawhid, so are these different names for the same organisation, or are they independant of each other, with Al-Zarqawi as the glue that holds these and other small Jihadi groups in the region together?
In recent months, Israeli intelligence agencies have ceased the use of the term `Al-Qaeda' and began referring to what they call `World Jihad' - "a series of dozens of small affiliated organisations that operate in different levels of co-operation", according to a senior intelligence source who spoke to JTIC. "Al-Zarqawi embodies the complexity of this matrix," the source added. One only has to look at Thugburg to get a hint at the dozens of affiliated groups in the global Jihad, and for every one listed, there are probably at least a couple more still waiting to be noticed by the international media. I mean Pakistan alone has dozens of groups, and Indonesia probably has nearly as many. But they all want to see the Khalifate back, so they can get that permanant Jihad thing going until Dar-ul Harb becomes Dar ul Islam
They might consider calling it, ummm... the "World Islamic Front," in fact. That's what Binny called it in his declaration of war on us. I was under the impression Jund al-Shams was a false nose and moustache for Jund al-Islam, which was a separate group from Tawhid, but I could be wrong. It could be that when the same bunch meets on Mondays they're al-Islam, on Wednesdays they're al-Shams, and on Fridays they're Tawhid. (Tuesdays they're Ansar al-Islam, and Thursdays they go bowling.) Confuses the hell out of the poor analyst, especially when you add in the fact that some of them are also Ikhwanis and some are Hizb ut-Tahrir and some are adherents of Takfir wal-Hijra, and some are all of them at the same time...
I sometimes think there are a total of 150 Bad Guys in the entire world, all of them inbred related, grouped together in 115,765 different organizations. Each Bad Guy changes his name and his organization more frequently than he changes his underwear.
Posted by: Paul Moloney ||
07/03/2003 2:30:33 AM ||
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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.
