Over at another site I post on, Bloviating Inanities, I just witnessed the most annoying and amazing thing Iâve seen in a while.
A two month old post got targetted by a comment spammer. Not once, not twice, but almost 50 times. In four seperate waves. Using, at final count, four different IP addresses. Been seeing an upsurge in onesie/twosie comment spams for a few weeks, spread over different posts, but this was unreal!
Hereâs the wierd part - the third and forth waves began immediately after I banned the previous IPs. And the fourth wave of three spams came in AFTER the comments were disabled on the target post, and it was rebuilt. I finally had to manually delete the target post to get it to stop. (Or apparently stop - things have been quiet for 30 minutes now)
It almost seemed like someone was manually directing the effort...or that the auto poster in use was extremely agile. I considered that the last few incomings were simply mail lags, but, the turn time from the site for comments has usually been under 5 minutes, and these streamed in a full 30 minutes AFTER I shutdown the comments and rebuilt the entry. And the third and fourth waves seem to have triggered when I bbanned the initial two IPs, and posted the WHOIS printout for the originating site.
China is considering expanding its one-man assistance force in Afghanistan to include more police trainers, the Afghan Foreign Ministry said on Wednesday - another hint that the worldâs most populous country is becoming more assertive in its foreign policy.
How do you expand a one-man presence? Buy him extra groceries? Send him pies in his CARE packages?
More cooperation between the two neighbours on anti-terrorism efforts is also in the works, Afghan officials said. Omar Samad, a spokesman for Afghan Foreign Minister Abdullah, said the Chinese indicated during a meeting on Wednesday that they might send more people. Abdullah was in Beijing on an official visit that ends on Thursday. "The good news is that the Chinese are seriously considering adding to the number of police officers," Samad told The Associated Press. He said the Chinese would be coordinating with Afghanistan and with German forces that are coordinating security in the Afghan capital. "We welcome the Chinese move in this direction," Samad said. "Itâs a testament to the fact that the international effort in Afghanistan is so widespread that even the PRC is willing to chip in. China is faced with the same phenomenon of international terrorism as Afghanistan. We have spotted in the al-Qaeda set-up several Chinese belonging to this organisation (who) have been captured. We will be having discussions of this issue in the future, also in terms of how to expand cooperation and make sure any of these militant terrorist organisations are unable to carry out their activities."
China has one police trainer in Afghanistan not technically a peacekeeper, but a show of interest from a country whose far west shares a 50-kilometre border with Afghanistan. The Chinese government has increasingly used military assistance as a diplomatic tool. Late last year, it sent a military technical team to Liberia after the West African nation switched diplomatic ties from Taiwan to the mainland.
Posted by: Dan Darling ||
03/11/2004 12:53:25 AM ||
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#1
Lol! Does anyone buy the thin notion that The Chinese Guy⢠is a "police trainer"? *snicker* Woot! Woot! That's just precioussss! This is the recon guy figuring out the lay of the land in Afghaniwanistan to placate the bean counters back home. So, uh, Peking Doods, when does the rest of the Spy Police Team show up?
I'll bet the hang up is the report filed by The Chinese Guy⢠in Afghaniwanistan. He prolly told ya that you need to provide spiffy new SUVs and $500 USD per diem for each team member so they can circulate properly with the NGOs and Warlords, not counting bribes and protection money and such... Prolly just too cheep to ante up.
#2
The funny thing is that this guy's probably too busy arranging opportunities for graft to have much time to spend spying. This is probably why the Chinese want more people on the ground - so they can keep an eye on each other. I hope the CIA is at least tryng to turn this guy - you never know where he'll end up.
North Korea has threatened to boost the nuclear deterrent it says it has and blamed the U.S. stance in recent six-party talks for forcing its hand. Washington swiftly dismissed the apparently tougher line from secretive Pyongyang as abject silliness rhetoric. The North Korean statement on Wednesday followed similar shows of defiance since six-way talks involving the two Koreas, China, the United States, Japan and Russia in Beijing last month that have contrasted with a U.S. assessment of progress. "The reckless U.S. stance only pushes the DPRK to further increase its nuclear deterrent force," the state-run KCNA news agency cited a Foreign Ministry spokesman as saying. The impasse in talks "does nothing bad to the DPRK as it will have time to take more necessary steps with increased pace", he said.
"We will order double-juche to achieve the required pace!"
In Seoul, South Korea's chief nuclear negotiator voiced hopes that initial working group meetings, which were agreed at the Beijing talks, could be held between April and June before a new round of six-party talks. "We will make our best efforts to get the North Korean nuclear issue to a settlement phase through a third round of talks after holding one or two working group meetings during the second quarter of the year," Yonhap news agency quoted Deputy Foreign Minister Lee Soo-hyuck as saying.
Sure, keep the rope-a-dope working.
In Washington, Deputy Secretary of State Richard Armitage said North Korea's latest statement did not reflect the position Pyongyang took at the negotiations. "Very often their statements are belied by actions," he told reporters. "Those statements were not made at the negotiating table. I don't know why they are making them unless they're just nuts as usual." The United States has said it is in no hurry to put together a deal because it wants to take time to come up with an accord that will stick. However, analysts on North Korea said the administration of President George W. Bush, who has branded North Korea part of an "axis of evil" with Iran and pre-war Iraq, could be incapable of reaching a deal and might prefer to intensify pressure. "The administration seems incapable of making any kind of deal or doing serious negotiations," said Daniel Pinkston, a North Korean expert at the Monterey Institute's Centre for Non-Proliferation Studies in California.
Wonder if Danno gets any funding from the Tides Foundation?
Posted by: Steve White ||
03/11/2004 12:37:37 AM ||
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"The administration seems incapable of making any kind of deal or doing serious negotiations,"
Well done Rooters you managed to get 'balance' in the article by finding someone who'd give you a quote that makes the USA look equally ideologically driven and irrational as the Norks.
The subtext of this report is glaring. The Norks are trying to claim time is clearly on their side when it clearly aint. The USA is doing exactly the right thing by drawing out the negotiations and giving nothing away. My prediction is if Bush gets re-elected they cave in big time. I'm talking a Ghaddafi style cave in. In return for a promise of non-aggression from the USA.
Posted by: Phil B ||
03/11/2004 1:47 Comments ||
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Phil_B - By golly, that makes some big-time sense. The only fly in the ointment is Dear Leader. The guy is in Stalin's league - well beyond Saddam The Butcher. I believe the suffering he and his Soviet gutter-spawn Father, Great Leader, have caused is beyond the pale. He's gotta die for what he's done to the NorK people. Ain't no fixin' this cretin, IMHO.
One way to wash away the Cult of Stupidity of the last 50+ years is to let them deal with him ala Nicolae Ceausescu. They will chase out their own demons when they get their hands on him and disprove his divinity.
A SUICIDE bomber was on one of the four trains ripped apart by co-ordinated blasts in Madrid, Spanish radio station Cadena Ser reported on its Web site, citing unnammed anti-terrorist officials. But a spokesman at the Spanish interior ministry said "there is nothing to indicate there was a suicide terrorist."
Posted by: Dan Darling ||
03/11/2004 6:02:55 PM ||
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So he left several bombs throughout the train and went to Allan with the last one? Lots of small bombs vs. one or two big ones. I guess they've learned something from cluster munitions.
The simultaneous bomb blasts that ripped through commuter trains in Madrid on Thursday did not bear the hallmarks of Basque separatist group ETA, the head of the European Unionâs police agency said. "It could have been ETA... But weâre dealing with an attack that doesnât correspond to the âmodus operandiâ they have adopted up to now," said Europol director Juergen Storbeck, who was in Rome to talk to an Italian parliamentary committee. "In the past ETA has always attacked individuals, and if they saw any danger for the public they gave a warning... Itâs not yet clear they were the authors," Italian news agency Ansa quoted him as saying. Despite Spainâs recent successes against ETA, "there could still be other cells that have not been brought under control and could have become more extremist," he said.
I think we can probably assume by now that it was turbans, not ETA. If ETA was involved, it was as a local subcontractor.
Posted by: Dan Darling ||
03/11/2004 3:55:13 PM ||
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#1
Agreed. Al-Queda claimed responcibility in a newspaper today and described the targets as trains. The newspapers are still writing about the ETA...rantburg is just too fast!
#2
DD is too fast! Well covered here and at Regnum Crucis. Many thanks.
Posted by: Mr. Davis ||
03/11/2004 16:58 Comments ||
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Not so fast. ETA was caught (by a tipoff I think) attempting the same thing last December - multiple bombs in commuter train baggage compartments. If that had gone through we would have been saying all this three months ago.
There was also the half-ton of explosives intercepted last month. ETA had never played with so much explosive before.
Someone in ETA could well have decided to play by different rules.
The London-based Arabic newspaper Al-Quds al-Arabi said Thursday it had received a claim of responsibility issued by The Brigade of Abu Hafs al-Masri in the name of Al-Qaida for the Madrid terrorist attacks that killed at least 190 people and wounded 1,247. The claim received by email at the paperâs London offices said the brigadeâs "death squad" had penetrated "one of the pillars of the crusade alliance, Spain."
"This is part of settling old accounts with Spain, the crusader, and Americaâs ally in its war against Islam," the claim said. Referring to Spainâs Prime Minister Jose Maria Aznar, the statement asked: "Aznar, where is America? Who will protect you, Britain, Japan, Italy and others from us?" Earlier Thursday evening, police probing the attacks found a van with detonators and an Arabic-language tape with Koranic verses, and officials donât rule out any line of investigation, said Interior Minister Angel Acebes. The van was found in the town of Alcala de Henares outside Madrid following a tip from neighbors. On the front seat police found seven detonators and the tape, Acebes told a news conference. "Because of this, I have just given instructions to the security forces not to rule out any line of investigation," Acebes said. He said the armed Basque group ETA remained the "main line of investigation" in the deadly blasts. Three of the four trains bombed Thursday originated in Alcala de Henares and one passed through it, the state rail company RENFE said.
Posted by: Dan Darling ||
03/11/2004 3:48:04 PM ||
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#1
This may force the French to raise their alert level to White.
Posted by: Yosemite Sam ||
03/11/2004 15:54 Comments ||
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This certainly sounds like the retoric that we have heard from Al-Quiada in the past, even-so I'm still not convinced that it is them though.
#4
check the thugburg link "The Brigade of Abu Hafs al-Masri" is only known based on faxes and letters to arab media outlets claiming AQ credit for various horrors, notably the Istanbul bombings and the Baghdad bombings last summer.
#8
This is 100% Al-Qeada! ETA don't do these mass simultanious killings. Spain was the HQ for 9/11 planners, there's plenty of tunsian, algerian, arab killers there.
#9
"St. James and close in Spain!" At least that's what a book tells me. That was an old battle cry of the Spanish military order of Santiago during the Reconquista.
Posted by: Christopher Johnson ||
03/11/2004 16:58 Comments ||
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#10
Did you know the Redcoats used to wear red so that if an officer was shot the blood wouldn't show as much so as not to freak out the troops.
And that is why French officers wear brown trowsers to this day.
#11
Correction - ETA did do this on occasion, one being a carbomb in front of a Bilbao supermarket.
ETA did try to do this exact thing last December, with multiple bombs - not as many though.
#13
Santiago is the patron of Spain. It is also a popular name between Spanish.
Now Yosemite Sam, ruprecht and others as someone who is half Spanish and has lived hours of anguish about my relatives in Spain I would tell you that this is no moment for jokes.
#16
As much as I dislike the French politcal class and French military duplicity during the Yugoslav bombings, I don't believe the French troops are cowardly. I just think that French and American calculations are so far apart that I would not trust any French institution.
Posted by: ed ||
03/11/2004 21:52 Comments ||
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Well, there's a letter, currently Spain aligned itself w/US, we can kill their children but they can't kill ours, yada, yada, yada
And they're STILL pissed they lost Andalusia to the Crusaders centuries ago.
Fox News -- just hit the âNet.
Al Qaeda has reportedly claimed responsibilty for a series of bombings Thursday that left at least 190 people dead and 1,240 wounded. According to wire reports, Al-Quds Al-Arabi â a London-based Arabic newspaper â reported the terrorist organization said it was behind the the 10 bombs that rocked three Madrid train stations during the height of the morning rush hour. . . . After an emergency Cabinet meeting, a somber Prime Minister Jose Maria Aznar called the attacks "mass murder" and vowed to hunt down the attackers. He reaffirmed his policy of not negotiating with ETA. "No negotiation is possible or desirable with these assassins who so many times have sown death all around Spain," Aznar said. He has the right idea. Viva Espana! Mansoor Ijaz, a foreign-affairs analyst for Fox News, said the attacks had many of the hallmarks of an Al Qaeda operation. He said it was evidence the pan-Islamic terror organization may be "joining hands with local terrorists."
ETA-Al Qaeda makes a goofier match than Iraqi Baathists-Al Qaeda...
"This represents a dangerous mutated version of what Al Qaeda has been doing in other parts of the world," Ijaz explained, "hitting three simultaneous targets, not necessarily in the same city but in the same area, with multiple explosions at each location." Ijaz said Madrid was part of "an emerging pattern," citing recent multiple bombings in Iraq that may have been Al Qaeda-inspired. He noted that Spain has been a staunch supporter of U.S.-led military efforts in Iraq.
Posted by: Mike ||
03/11/2004 3:44:20 PM ||
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He said it was evidence the pan-Islamic terror organization may be "joining hands with local terrorists."
How is this new?
Posted by: Robert Crawford ||
03/11/2004 15:47 Comments ||
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So who is it who calls Al Quds and makes the claim, and how does Al Quds verify that he represents Al Qaeeda?
Im serious - Binny is either dead or or on the run, Zawahiri is presumably on the run in Pakland or Afghan, and the operatives in Iran are supposedly under in custody, and the guys in europe are low level (and presumaby deep under cover) So if abu from Kabobs 'r us calls up an Arabic paper in London do they just accept that? or was it a call from Teheran?
#3
Al-Qaeda has front orgs throughout the UK like HuT, al-Muhajiroun, Supporters of Sha'riah, FIS, the ARC, MIRA, ad infinitum. Any one of them could have made the call to al-Quds without them compromising the security of the Iran-based leadership.
This assumes, moreover, that the call didn't come from a country like Qatar, where the interior minister is on Binny's payroll.
Posted by: Dan Darling ||
03/11/2004 15:53 Comments ||
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question asked and answered
"The five-page e-mail claim, signed by the shadowy Brigade of Abu Hafs al-Masri, was received at the paper's London offices"
In other news, Al Quds also reports that Dr Zawahiri sent it info on how to get cheap prescription drugs, on low mortgage rates, and on a new way to enlarge the male organ.
1. Saudi Arabia's varous royal nutcases
2. Iran
3. Drugs
The drug connections are tough ones to disrupt. They are significant, getting more significant, but my intuition says they are secondary to 1 and 2. So dealing with 1 and 2 is going to be the issue that we will have to face to stop the Islamic terrorists and their carnage. The question is HOW and WHEN and NOT IF.
Posted by: Alaska Paul ||
03/11/2004 16:00 Comments ||
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Ok dan, and how do they get word from HQ? (this is rhetorical, if you knew youd be telling people other than me) I mean havent we disrupted comm networks?? And it has to be fast, since this just happened. Presumably the Londonistan groups werent told in advance (now THAT would be terrible tradecraft - AQ operates on need to know, IIUC) And how does Al Quds know for sure which groups are bona fide in contact with headquarters, and which are just making claims to boost their own importance?
Im not heading anywhere in particular with this, just reflecting on the implications and ambguities of saying "al qaeeda claimed X" when in actual fact some group of London based Jihadis made the claim on AQ's behalf.
#7
Communication within the network has been disrupted ... to a certain degree, but they still use the internet and other means like human couriers to communicate. One common trick employed by the cells is registering a Hotmail or Yahoo! account and then sharing the password between 2 or more people and writing messages back and forth in the Draft folder. Since no message is actually sent, there's no message that is actually sent for the US to intercept.
Another method employed is sending images with messages encoded inside of them. This isn't exactly rocket science either - there is software right now that'll let you do it.
My guess is that the London groups knew that something big was going to happen in Europe through the jihadi rumor mill (a la the February 3 attack that was supposed to wipe out the US) but they didn't know exactly what so that if they were ever arrested. This basically seems to have been what happened with regard to 9/11 and is the whole basis behind monitoring terrorist chatter to begin with.
Posted by: Dan Darling ||
03/11/2004 16:08 Comments ||
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Dan, Dont forget CAIR in your list of 'front groups'....
Looks like its time to bring back the Spanish Inquisition......
However, CAIR exists in the US, not in London, IIRC.
Posted by: Dan Darling ||
03/11/2004 16:28 Comments ||
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Ok so they use the stegawhatevergraphy to send a message from wherever in Iran the Operational directors are to Londonistan - Since they know NSA is probably trying to check every internet communication moving in or out of Iran for Stegawhatever, they just say - something big will happen on 3/11 (also a gfoo dprecaution if the recipient in London is arrested, or is turned, or is just sloppy) So when the boom happens on 3/11 as promised, Abu from HuT, say, calls Al Quds and says AQ did it. OK.
But what if Abu at HuT's rival across the street decides that he doesnt accept leadership from the ops director in Iran - heck, how does he know who has the other end of the line, how does he know he isnt getting a message from Iranian Intelligence, who may REALLY (as far as he knows) really have the AQ ops in custody? And so he starts listening to some other AQ operative on the loose - in say Yemen, or wherever. How does Al Quds know that whos really passing on messages from HQ in Iran, and whos playing games? And how the heck does ANYONE - Londonistan, Al Quds, or us - know who's really on the other end of the line in Iran?
#11
and lets say, for the sake of argument, that the CIA has a mole in Iranian Intell. HE could be sending the messages to Londonistan. Or, given the nature of the internet, he doesnt need to be in Iran at all. someonee could send an email from Langley, coded to look like it came from Iran (with the cooperation of various internet backbone firms)
Seems to me that without actual human couriers, comm is impossible. This isnt just a couple of guys shooting emails back and forth - these are guys who have the full brainpower (such as it is) of western intell working against them. Internet comm simply cant be reliable under those circumstances.
#12
LH: You can't discount the possibility that these guys have developed "one-time" pads with pre-arranged duress codes. A message from Julie Smith to Maria Espinoza that they'll meet in the New Delhi train station on April 4th, could mean to execute the op. A misspelling could indicate that it was sent under duress. Given that these messages would be sent from the very places that backpackers would normally be sending them, internet cafe's, I think that it would be pretty easy to use the internet securely. And that's just something that I dreamed up. There's bound to be others.
#13
I don't know the answer to all of your questions, in large part because I don't have access to anything outside of open-source intelligence ;)
While most (as in 90%, it seems) of the remaining top leaders are based out of Iran, I don't think that they'd be issuing claims of responsibility to begin with, they're far too plotting Dire Revenge(TM) to concern themselves with such things. So they delegate it to their subordinates - the regional operators - to see to this kind of stuff after the booms occur. A fair number of the regional ops seem to be based out of more or less "safe" places like Pankisi, Mindanao, Sulawesi, Yemen, Saudi Arabia, Qatar, UAE, Sudan, ect from which they can send and receive messages without any fear of action against them by the authorities. Also, in the case of claims of responsibility, a bonafide al-Qaeda frontman like the late Yandarbiyev in Qatar, al-Hawali in Saudi Arabia, Mullah Krekar in Norway, Captain Hook in the UK, et al wouldn't care if the US intercepted the message - the US already knows damned well who they are but is unable to deal with them cuz of politicks, so they can do as they please. Keep in mind that most of the "bin Laden" or "al-Qaeda politburo" statements throughout 2002 claiming credit for various attacks on US and allied nations were written by one ideologue, Yousef al-Ayyeri, from the comfort of his villa in Saudi Arabia
In this particular case, some reports are saying that it was a letter, others an e-mail. If it was an e-mail, presumably the al-Quds editors would be able to test its reliability using one particular standard the same way their al-Majallah equivalents did in May 2003. Abu Mohammed al-Ablaj and Thabet bin Qais's gloatings about coming attacks looked a lot more credible after the major bombings in Riyadh, Chechnya, and Casablanca - I'm assuming the al-Quds folks are using the same standard here. Also, the jihadi grapevine is hardly an accurate thing - the intended al-Qaeda attacks, IMO, were intended to nail us on X-Mas (hence the flight delays), not on February 3, but it is a general barometer that the Londonistan crowd was anticipating a major attack on the US, perhaps involving airliners.
Another thing that I've noticed (and Saad al-Faqih over at MIRA is remarkably up-front in this regard) is that since the London crowd is pretty much the HQ of the group's political wing is that they understand the group's core strategy as far as being willing to ally with anybody who hates the US as much as they do, certainly better than a good number of pundits I've seen on TV.
As far as the Net goes, I think they use it in addition to human couriers, not as a substitute for it. And any type of Hotmail arrangement that I discussed earlier would generally require knowing the folks that you're talking to online before leaving to another country. As far as what 11A5S brought up, go search for Mohammed Mansour Jabarah and you'll see that such a code already exists. More to the point, the type method I outlined above is one that is exceedingly difficult to track given that no actual message is sent to begin with - it all stays in the Draft folder.
Posted by: Dan Darling ||
03/11/2004 17:08 Comments ||
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#14
Remember, you can make a reasonable one-time-pad just by ensuring both sides have copies of the same CD.
Posted by: Robert Crawford ||
03/11/2004 20:41 Comments ||
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Spainâs interior minister said a suspect van had been found on Thursday near Madrid, scene of bombings that killed 190 people, containing seven detonators and a tape in Arabic language. Interior Minister Angel Acebes said the tape had recordings of verses from the Koran. Spain has so far attributed the attack to Basque separatists, but Acebesâ remarks appeared to raise the possibility of a link to Islamist militants. Still way to early to tell and news like this is questionable when it first comes out but from when I first heard about it this attack sounded like the MO of Islamists, not Basque separtists to me...
#7
If people think it's the Islamists,then there might be a backlash against Aznar's PP,for allying with the US and "provoking" the attacks.Remember that the Iraq war was extremely unpopular in Spain to begin with.I think ETA is trying to influence the elections with this.
Posted by: El Id ||
03/11/2004 15:43 Comments ||
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#8
22:39 Al-Qaida letter calls Madrid attacks `Operation Death Trains`; says `we succeeded in infiltrating heart of crusader Europe`
#10
the modus operandi of Al Quaida is the SUICIDE bomber.
Al Qaeda has conducted suicide bombings where this was *necessary*, typically with heavily-guarded targets or when piloting airplanes into buildings. Where it was not, it has staged ordinary terror attacks with one distinction - it has attempted to inflict mass civilian casualties where most non-Muslim terrorist groups have tended to target government officials or landmarks *after* phone calls are made to get civilians out of the way.
#11
My personal opinion, it's Islamofascists. Also my personal opinion, it's time to start cutting off heads, beginning with the Madrassas and Islamofascist "preachers" in the heartland - Saudi Arabia. I think eliminating the house of Saud, crushing the entire arab world from Egypt through Iraq and down through Sudan, Yemen, and Jordan, taking out Syria, and putting the Paks and Iranians on notice, will do a lot to stop this nonsense. Unfortuantely, we need a slightly larger Army than we now have. I think it's absolutely stupid that the rest of the world (especially "old" Europe) can't see the necessity of this. All right, if you don't wish to fight to secure your civilization, don't come whining to us when you have a boot on your neck, or we've succeeded and not cut you in on any profit. It's time to declare you're part of the team, or we'll decide you're part of the problem. Spain, Great Britain, and a few "new" European countries understand, and have joined us. The rest of you have some serious choices to make. There are no fence-sitters or kibbitzers this time 'round.
Posted by: Old Patriot ||
03/11/2004 17:52 Comments ||
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JUS has learned the Lions of al-Mufridoon has claimed of responsibility for the attack. Previously unknown, the group is suspected of links to Al-Qaida. Spain has been warned of their involvement with the "Crusader" army of George Bush and Tony Blair in previous Al-Qaida statements and more recently in both the last statements issued by Osama bin Laden and Dr. Ayman Al-Zawahiri, which followed the attack on the Spanish embassy in Iraq. ... Spain has been the most vocal supporter of the "War on Terrorism" with troops still inside Afghanistan and currently 1400 soldiers fighting in Iraq. It is thought that if this latest attack is attributed to the war in Iraq that it could collapse president Jose Maria Aznar's vote in Sundayâs general elections.
Posted by: Mike Sylwester ||
03/11/2004 8:42:25 AM ||
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#1
A horrific event. This may be a wake up call for Europe.
#6
I doubt this has anything to do with the arabs. Looks like ETA has screwed up and promptly swallowed its tongue.
Posted by: Howard UK ||
03/11/2004 9:50 Comments ||
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#7
Thanks for fixing the link, Bulldog.
Posted by: Mike Sylwester ||
03/11/2004 10:11 Comments ||
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#8
Howard, what do you mean, "ETA screwed up" ?
They planted at least six explosive devices..Whoever did it, it was a safe guess that this would involve lots of casualties.
#10
OK, by'screwed-up' I meant that they've been extremely succesful (perhaps too successful)in achieving their aims. I don't think we'll see them proudly boasting about it in the media, however. Similar to the IRA losing credibility after the Omagh bombing.
Posted by: Howard UK ||
03/11/2004 10:45 Comments ||
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#11
Screwed up in that any gains they might have made in the past decade are gone and they may have just given the Conservative Party a landslide in the local elections. Even if they are not responsible, their timid rejection and the ETA fellows caught trying to do a similar attack for Christmas will be fresh in everyones memory when they go to the polls this week.
If it was Al Queda or one of their little gang of thugs they made a big mistake. Europe is filled with commuter trains in way the US liberals could only drool over. Every commuter is gonna watch this and realize their vunerability. European centrists might start to think this is an actual war and not an extravigent police action.
Of course the European left will probably suggest abandoning Spain since it was once Islamic and the illegal Spanish occupation only incites more violence, but that's them. They hate civilization.
#12
ruprecht - alternatively, Europe could look at this and decide its time to distance themselves even further from the United States and any hint of helping in Afghanistan or Iraq.
#14
Mufridoon is a rare Arabic form, so rare that it may actually be a bad translation from another language, and it can also mean Separatists.
I would suggest the following: this was either ETA or al-Qaida. The Separatists label certainly suggests ETA. If ETA, then they are either deliberately suggesting that they have ties to al-Qaeda or that they identify with al-Qaeda. That would be stupid. So it may be that some anti-ETA folks sent in this claim to responsibility to try to give the bombing an Islamic context, stirring up already profound anti-Arab racism in Spain and also drawing the attention of those of us concerned about Islamic terror. The alternative is that this was al-Qaeda and they're trying to force an ETA alliance by adopting their cause.
The bottom line: using this name was smart if done by al-Qaeda but dumb if done by ETA.
Explosions rocked Madridâs railway system, killing five people Thursday, three days before a Spanish election that has focused on the ruling partyâs tough line against the armed Basque separatist group ETA. State television, citing witnesses, said five were killed after three explosions at railway stations in southern Madrid. Police said at least three were killed in the blasts, which took place on packed trains during the morning rush hour. Spain, which has long had a problem of Basque separatist violence, holds a general election Sunday. The ruling center-right Popular Party is campaigning in part on its tough line against ETA and its defense of Spainâs constitution in the face of demands for greater autonomy from the Basque country and Catalonia. Police were evacuating Madridâs main Atocha train station after the blasts.
Posted by: True German Ally ||
03/11/2004 2:44:46 AM ||
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The Spanish "Periodista Digital" speaks of "at least" 15 dead and 50 wounded, death toll probably a lot higher.
#5
Lets say that for sake of arguement Madrid caved and granted full independence to the Basques and Catalans. Just how long before the remnants of the ETA would be booming again. But then is really the work of the ETA or have they forged any AL Queda links? If they have I've got the feeling they are well and truely fucked
#7
I wouldn't jump to the conclusion its ETA. Remember Spain was a prominent supporter of the Iraq war.
Posted by: Phil B ||
03/11/2004 6:24 Comments ||
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#8
Latest link:
The Spanish government won't cave to these savages.
Many characteristics have been attributed to the Spanish leadership over the centuries, but "easily frightened" isn't one of them.
#9
Eta planned to blow a major skycrapper in Madrid in 2000. Estimated death toll was around 3000. Spain would have suffered her own 9/11 had it not been thwarted by the police.
ETA people are in the same class than Al Quaida for ruthlessness and savagery.
#10
Much more likely to have been ETA than A/Q given the interception of a Madrid-bound ETA explosives delivery two weeks ago, and the arrests of two suspected ETA bombers in the city on Christmas Eve. ETA are on the ropes, and desperate. This oversized atrocity like the lashing-out of a wounded animal.
Simply being a member of a terrorist organisation ought to result in natural-life imprisonment, IMO.
#11
I've just gone numb after 9/11, the Intifada, Iraq and the Bali bombings...the horror.
Al Queda is involved, I just know it: it's too coordinated and sophisticated.
Basque homeland=Palestine, Kashmir, Chechnya
The Islamists want Spain back and have it as it was when they ruled Moorish Spain and before they were ignominiously kicked out in 1492, the year Columbus discovered America.
#12
On Christmas Eve, Spanish police intercepted 2 ETA thugs trying to bomb a train station.
The elections are 3 days away. How to deal with ETA has been a major issue.
I think the voters have their answer now.
Then again, as a socialist direct-action front, ETA would naturally be in solidarity with oppressed Saddamites, downtrodden Paleo-boomers, and persecuted Hezbollah butchers. ETA could conceivably have developed connections with them through the murky underground of European terror gangs.
#13
Bulldog - "Simply being a member of a terrorist organisation ought to result in natural-life imprisonment, IMO."
Regards keeping them alive - I must ask why? To what end? Terrorists, as the name implies, deal in death to innocents to put pressure upon those who are sworn to protect the citizenry to further some cause. Whether caught before or after a terrorist attack, if proven part of the org, their lives should be forfeit. Paying for their continued existence is just an added insult to their victims. Sorry, but this seems so obvious to me that your comment demanded I say something! Cheers & Regards - and it's damned good to see you back!!! :-)
#14
Body count is up to 173 now according to Reuters and CNN, I hope the Spanish government has the balls to deal with these A**holes in the only way that works, pursuing the perps and all those who assist them to the end of the earth and then some.
Condolences to all the people who have lost a loved one today in this despicable act.
#18
Yes, rkb, but they've found lots of reasons to make common cause.
And pulling off an attack like this in the USA is too hard. (Thank God!).
God rest the souls of the victims.
#19
OTOH, Jennie, I think it's a mistake to see all terrorism as Islamofascist and all Islamofascists as associated with al-Qaeda. What is happening around the world is really a fight between those who want to move into a freer, more prosperous future and those who wish to retreat to a medieval mindset and localized power / control. ETA really doesn't need any help from alQ to plan or carry out its attacks - their murderous ideology has been fostered and acted on for decades now.
We really are in a war to preserve civilization from ALL these groups IMO.
#20
"Regards keeping them alive - I must ask why?"
Hey, .com! I'm suggesting life-imprisonment as the minimum penalty for anyone involved in groups, like ETA, which pursue lethal violence for political ends. That includes not only the active elements but fundraisers, quartermasters, trainees etc. - not just the killers (who should be subject to this minimum sentence, or exectution if applicable). IMO, the only sensible way to treat organisations like these is to unreservedly demonise them, and to isolate them from their potential source base by making membership of, or association with, them as unappealing as possible.
Re. the death penalty: for commonly perceivedly 'romantic' causes such as Basque independence which recruit primarily from the so-called idealistic and hot-headed youth in a community, I am sure that a life wasted behind bars would provide more of a deterrent than a glorious martyrdom. And when I say wasted, I mean wasted. Total exclusion from society and all its benefits...
#21
I agree completely, rkb; terrorism is terrorism and the name of the "group" perpetrating it is becoming increasingly irrelevant.
(But I think that Islamofascist terrorists, particularly Al Queda are masterminding it and have the "learning curve" on things like bombs and strategy.)
For updates from Spain, check out John's Iberian Notes.
#22
rkb - Agree entirely. Acting like A/Q doesn't mean operating with A/Q. Simultaneous attacks aren't just a hallmark of A/Q - they make good operational sense. Besides, A/Q prefers symbolic targets - in this respect it's not got their signature.
Three days from the Spanish elections, and within three months of two other thwarted ETA attacks on the city? My money's still on Basques.
#23
OTOH, Jennie, I think it's a mistake to see all terrorism as Islamofascist
OTOH its a mistake to try and assign blame elsewhere in the mistaken idea of being fair and balanced.
I'm willing to bet that there are islamofacist hands behind this even if the perpetrators are ETA.
Posted by: Phil B ||
03/11/2004 8:54 Comments ||
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#24
Bulldog - Ah, gotcha now. I certainly agree with everything you say up to the death penalty, anyway. I can accept your view. Here in the US, the concept of crime and punishment has been usurped by the social twits - it's now crime and rehabilitation, followed by more crime. The notions of these Ketchup-Girl style idjits are not supported by fact - recidivism rates prove it's a joke in a significantly high percentage of cases, but PCism doesn't let mere facts get in their way - they're right, just cuz they're so special! I say, in my simplisme fashion: If it's all grown up and it's broken, you're just gonna have to kill it. Because it will repeat.
If Eeeewwww countries gave stiff sentences - and the convicts had to serve the entire sentence, I'd sign onto your idea more readily. They don't do either one. Here, we give stiff sentences in most cases involving violence, but we often don't follow through and let them out far too soon - while they're young enough to do more damage and after they've had a nice refresher course in new techniques from other hardcases. The systems both suck. Mine is guaranteed to work - if you have the right guy, which improving modern forensics is making more certain all the time. Off with their heads! Uh, oops, sorry 'bout that! ;->
It is also clear that ETA planned several murderous attacks which were foiled including bombing the other major Madrid railway station ChamartÃn. Those could have killed hundreds as well, so the break from the "usual pattern" of targeted "small and announced bombings" does not come as a surprise.
The leftist Basques will of course not accept ETA as the perpetrators of this attack as this is certain to "help" Aznar's conservative Partito Popular in the upcoming election. An islamist attack might instead (so they think) help the Socialists who disaproved Aznar's stance in the WOT and Iraq and think Spain should have stayed out of all this. The Spanish people did oppose the Iraq war with a 70% majority but recent polls showed that the Socialists haven't been able to instrumentalize that war opposition very much.
Herri Batasuna, the "political arm" of Basque separatists, has denied that ETA has anything to do with it, which is rather understandable. What we could have here is a extremely radical faction of ETA doing the massacre.
There is another lead that should be followed. Only a month ago Aznar pledged his support to Colombia's president Uribe to eliminate the FARC. It is known that ETA members have trained with Colombian guerilla in Colombia.
In 1492 Christians entered Granada. In that same year Jews who refused to convert were thrown out of Spain in the name of religious unity. I don't remember if same measure applied immediatey to Muslims or only after several uprisings. However a few decades later the converted Muslims were expulsed too. One of the reasons was that Spain was at war with Turkey and couldn't afford to have a minority acting like a fifth column, the other was the pressure of Old Christians. During centuries the Christians living in occupied Spain had seen their properties stolen through the discriminations set by Sharia (for instance if one brother converted to Islam he got all the heirloom from his parents with the Chritians getting nothing): they were not happy when they saw Muslims being able to keep their ill gotten gains through conversion real or feinted.
While I disagree in the "ignominous" character of Muslim expulsion it is true that Spain is a thorn in the heart of the Islam-fascists with both the Saudi royalty and Ben Laden having expressed sorrow about the fall of Spain to Christian hands.
#27
Good background history, JFM (and you can call me "Jen"--I apologize for not having returned your email. My bad. I will write back, I promise!)
I'm listening to BBC World News online for whatever that's worth.
A terror "expert" just commented that ETA wasn't known for carrying out attacks on this scale and with huge amounts of explosives...and then there's the simultaneous timing, etc.
If it turns out to be ETA, they certainly had some coaching and expertise help from somewhere.
Anyway, we're all Spaniards today and send them our prayers and condolences and our solidarity in fighting terrorism wherever it strikes in the world.
Eta hasn't carried attacks in this scale. But they have altready tried mass murder for New Eve 2000. If plan had worked the death toll would have been in teh same order of 9/11. It was foiled. And in the last weeks the Spanish police has been intercepting massive shipments of explosives by ETA. I really don't believe it was Al Quaida.
#30
JFM + Others. Do a goggle search on ETA and you will find apparently credible commentators who say ETA has no more than 20 active members. Suddenly ETA is executing sophisticated coordinated bombings far from their home base.
Sorry, but I don't buy it.
Just watched the BBC and there was a whole procession of Euro politicians blaming ETA but so far no evidence.
My read on this is that the Euros are desperate to blame anyone except Islamicists because that would mean an Euro 911.
Posted by: Phil B ||
03/11/2004 10:32 Comments ||
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#31
The spokesman of the now illegal Herri Batasuna said that it probably was "un operativo de sectores de la resistencia árabe".
Gotta love it: "Arab resistance". Must be honor among terrorists...
Andrea Mitchell on NBC now, saying that American intelligence will have to be convinced that this was ETA, particularly given the size of the blast.
She points out two things that perk my ears up: First, there still hasn't been a claim of responsibility. Apparently ETA always claims responsibility. I didn't know that, but what I do know is that al Queda never takes responsibility: it's part of their operational doctrine in fact.
Second, she notes that al-Zawahiri's last tape had included Spain on the list of possible targets.
Far, far, too little to be sure of anything right now, but I will also say that the fact that it was Spain perked my ears up some. To Western ears, Spain is one of a cluster of European countries. To bin Laden's boys it's a beachhead in time, a marker: Spain is as far as Islam reached in the West and where they lost their ground and if the theoretical posture is "that which was Muslim must be Muslim again," (what one author described as "an Islamic Brezhnev Doctrine") then you realize Spain has a certain emotional resonance for the bastards.
Or, ETA just got inspired and decided to try their hands at a mass casualty attack.
Wonder if AQ may have subcontracted a plan dreamed up by AQ or hired freelance ETA personnel to act as mules and maybe trigger pullers under AQ supervision.
Posted by: Mr. Davis ||
03/11/2004 10:38 Comments ||
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#33
Phil B, as sad as this sounds all this attack needed were some pretty good logistics. But a dedicated cell of 5 people could do the job.
Btw, El Periodista Digital has the headline: "El 11-M español".
But this is not Al Qaeda. ETA has guys who know how to fabricate bombs. It never had problems to get huge quantities of explosives. The rest is some clever planning and a few "mules" to plant the bomb.
Unfortunately it's really not that difficult.
And ETA definitely has more than 20 active members. Don't believe everything you can google.
I agree it's likely it was ETA. However, likelihood doesn't mean certainty.
Hey, wasn't an Al'Jazeera editor arrested in Spain for his connections to terrorists? Didn't Atta do some of his planning and meeting in Spain?
Posted by: Robert Crawford ||
03/11/2004 10:52 Comments ||
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#35
phil_b
If we were talking about Chirak I would believe he would be afraid of pointing at Al Quaida. But we are talking about Aznar and this guy has far more balls than all other euro-politicians put together.
#36
I've already read one report where an ETA type said the attacks were probably done by the "Arab Resistance."
To Jen: the ETA is already quite adroit at terrorism, even if the attack fits AQ's "simultaneous attacks" pattern. Although I suspect this might be some sort of "lie down with dogs and wake up with fleas" type situation. I've always gotten the impression that the ETA doesn't really care about Basque independence, and they're just another group like the Red Army Faction (but better at terrorism) espousing communist ideology with Basque independence "flavor sprinkles." The "Arab Resistance" line bothers me.
Posted by: Phil Fraering ||
03/11/2004 10:57 Comments ||
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#37
TGA I sorry but it does require money, people and logistics like safe houses in order to achieve these kinds of coordinated attacks. BBC is now reporting 13 bombs.
If you think 20 people living in hiding could achieve this outside their home base then I think you are being naive.
Posted by: Phil B ||
03/11/2004 11:05 Comments ||
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#38
Well, good points, Phil.
What should worry us all is that terror groups everywhere--those who choose to murder innocent civilians--are now making it a point to meet, exchange info, perhaps get funding, have access to training grounds, etc.
ETA, Al Queda, FARC, the IRA, Jemayah Ismalaya. Hezbollah--have I left anyone out?
It is too easy for an ETA spokesman to blame it on "Arab resistance," but I get the feeling that if a fellow European like TGA says "Oh, yeah, it's ETA and no-one else" that this allows him and other EU citizens to dismiss the incident as just "a Spanish thing" and decide that Terrorism won't hurt them.
The ETA has now moved itself into the "as bad as" Al Queda territory: they use mass murder to attain political (if not religious) ends.
In this respect, they are virtually identical.
At this point, whether ETA and AlQ have joined common cause is almost academic.
#39
Phil B, I might be anything but not naive, believe me.
The explosive mix used was typical ETA: Titadyne Dynamite and Nitroglycerine.
We might agree that ETA copied from Al Qaeda.
#40
Jennie, no. I believe that tomorrow we could have a 9/11 anywhere in Europe, this is not the point.
But I object to the fact that every boom now automatically gets attributed to Al Qaeda. Let's face it, Al Qaeda is more or less a "trademark" we invented because the enemy is so shady.
But if tomorrow the same happens in Belfast, you'd first look for the home grown boomers.
#41
Don't know about the explosive mix, TGA, but my understanding is that ETA usually bombed a judge's car and didn't use dynamite on civilian commuter trains filled with women and children (and poor people--apparently, the trains hit were from Madrid's poorer neighborhoods).
If AQ didn't know the ETA groups before, they will now.
They would love to pull off an attack just like this.
The US already has one Islamist in jail who tried to bomb the NY subway in 1998.
They just had a subway blast in Moscow by "Chechen" terrorists who are linked with Al Queda.
The Left here is still trying to maintain that Saddam didn't have connections to AQ and/or 9/11, so why should they agree that AQ is involved here, even peripherally?
The pacifists and other anti-West/Leftist types will just call these "isolated incidents" by separate "separatist" groups of "militants."
Maybe I should be wearing a tin foil hat, but maybe people like me are right, too.
I hope that the US sends an FBI investigatory team to help out the Spanish just the same.
#42
Phil B, Jennie, you're running away with your own assumptions here. There is NO evidence suggesting this was the work of Islamists, whatsoever. There is, though, plenty of circumstantial evidence pointing to ETA, and, as TGA now indicates (gotta link, TGA?), material.
Simultaneous bombs = looks like A/Q. Could be any other group though, frankly. No one's talking about suicide bombers. The target's not a symbolic building. Europeans blaming ETA is not a result of us trying to evade the truth, as you think. It's simply the most likely explanation.
#44
TGA, I agree with you about AQ being a trademark, but I never mention AQ. If a similar attack occured in Belfast (and I suspect i am much more familiar with Belfast than you are) then I would suspect a non-IRA source. The only incident I can recall where there were coordinated attacks specifically targeting civilians was in Dublin in 1972 and protestant terrorists were responsible and incidentally I was within earshot when one of the bombs exploded.
And Bulldog I think the Euro politicians are far more guilty than me and Jennie of running away with their assumptions.
Posted by: Phil B ||
03/11/2004 11:38 Comments ||
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#45
I find it curious that they weren't suicide bombers also, but maybe the group is small (both to start and because Spain has rounded up a lot of them), they can't spare the guys.
I don't think the target of the attack always has to be "symbolic buildings," though--in this case, it was a --if you'll forgive me--"target-rich" environment.
You have to admit, the images are almost as shocking as 9/11.
The impact is pretty devasting which is what they want.
Lee Harris calls it terrorist "theatre" which is based on their fantasy ideaology.
It's ennerving for me, because although we haven't had a major attack in the US, this one in a major capital of "civilized" (Old) Europe now shows that the Bad Guys are still out there and won't hesitate to hit us (Western Civilization's defenders) at home, as it were.
As I said before, if ETA hasn't met AQ yet, they will.
And that goes for the IRA, too.
Word has it that all these terror groups are training in the Three Borders area in South America, perhaps with FARC hosting.
#46
Spanish reports say that they are looking for two suspects with rucksacks boarding and leaving the respective trains in short intervals. Doesn't look like suicide bombers.
Bulldog, I can't link because the info is behind subscription but google for "titadine" + "Eta" and lots of Spanish sites come up. The stuff was piled up by etarras in Southern France where they seem to move a bit easier.
The "reason" for the multiple explosions was that they should happen inside the main railway building Atocha which might have caused the building to collapse. What that means in rush hour you can only imagine. It's a big railway station.
Btw Atocha is only a short walk away from the Spanish "Cortes" parliament.
#47
Phil B, the "simultaneity" plank of the A/Q theory falls away if you consider the possibility that terrorist groups are capable of adopting new techniques. In particular, a technique that has been repeatedly demonstrated for all the world to see over the last few years.
There are a lot more than 20 members of ETA, and you don't need local safehouses or heavy logistics to execute bombings like this. Potentially, one or two vehicles could even have travelled overnight from the Basque region down to Madrid's suburbs in time for the bombers to have boarded this morning's commuter trains.
#48
TGA, it had occurred to me that stations might have been the (symbolic) targets, but if so, all three attacks failed to reach their termini. The reason for the multiple placings of bombs on each train might simply have been to cause the maximum possible number of casualties on a linear target. Would these bombs really have brought the stations' roofs down?
#49
Bulldog, you have to ask yourself "Why would they change tactics now?"
ETA members were only found with big amounts of explosives in the last 4-6 months.
Why aim for so many casualties?
Why no phoned-in warning beforehand, as is their wont?
Finally, why risk their certain political (if not physical) death?
The Spanish government will go after them with a vengeance and any credence their "cause" had with the Spanish people just went to zero.
This is about something much bigger than "Basque separatism."
#50
It's a steel and glass structure... imagine sharp broken glass falling down from great heights and at 8pm you can barely move in the crowd. A 1000 people dead...minimum.
#51
Jennie,ETA are escalating their tactics for the same reason the "Real IRA" did with the Omagh bombing and the terrorists in Iraq with recent attacks:they're desperate.
Why?In recent years,the attack one-person-at-a-time strategy has only lead to increasing numbers of ETA members being sent to jail.The Basque terrorists' strategy depends on their ability to intimidate the Spanish government.Faced with diminishing numbers of hard-core terrorists,they need to prove they still have hope.Thus the one-upmanship.
Only this time,ETA have thrown the biggest card they have on the table.If it doesn't win,they're fucked.
Posted by: El Id ||
03/11/2004 12:32 Comments ||
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#52
OK, TGA, sorry, forget what I said about stations - the bombs do seem to have been intended to detonate just as the trains arrived inside the termini. According to the BBC, three did go off in Atocha. Not sure how bad the structural damage was, though.
Jennie, If you posit that ETA, for whatever reason, did decide to 'suddenly' shift up a gear, most of your answers can be answered in one. A (panicky?) desire to try to remove support for Aznar in the upcoming elections? Most likely, IMO. It is possible that ETA have been liasing with Islamist terrorists, but there's currently no evidence for it. Don't expect rational behaviour from terrorists. As people have mentioned above, ETA has tried to cause mass destruction, on scales as big as this, before.
#54
It amazes me how people assume 'sophistication' in an attack when all it requires is someone who knows how to set a freaking alarm clock. Look people, despite what the doe-eyed reporters what us to thing, this is not rocket science. Now, I'm not saying this is AQ or ETA. I don't know, but to assume (like phil_b and Jennie seem to be doing) it is AQ based on some illusory sophistication is being naive. You are also completely neglecting the fact that other organizations besides AQ can adapt and change techniques. Also you are neglecting the fact that this atrocity bears no more of AQ's MO than it does ETA's MO. Terrorism does not exist in a vacuum, there surely is communications between seperate terrorist organizations. ETA has been caught red-handed trying for a mass-casualty attack very recently. And phil_b, until I see proof there are no more than 20 ETA members I won't believe that! So to summarize, to assume, is to make an ass out of u and me. So don't do it.
#56
Knowing ETA was busted a while back for plotting to blow up a train in Madrid, maybe this was al Qaeda trying to throw the Spanish authorities off the trail.
Posted by: Tibor ||
03/11/2004 13:55 Comments ||
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#57
Two weeks ago the Spanish newspaper "El PaÃs" had the title: "Goodbye Eta". ETA had lost pretty much any support and appeared to be thoroughly weakened. That may still be so.
That's why they decided to imitate the Arab terrorists. They knew that they were finished politically".
The government initially blamed Basque separatists for the worst terrorist strike in Spanish history. But the interior minister said other lines of investigation were opened after police found a van with detonators and an audiotape of Quranic verses near where the bombed trains originated.
[EFL]
Police found a van with detonators and an Arabic-language tape with Quranic verses in the town of Alcala de Henares, 15 miles east of Madrid, Interior Minister Angel Acebes said Thursday night, saying all lines of investigation were open.
A van with detonators and an Arabic-language tape of Koranic verses were found near Madrid, Interior Minister Angel Acebes said Thursday, opening new lines of investigation into the train bombings. So far, the probe has focused on the Basque separatist terror group ETA (search).
#63
I placed my bets with ETA,so I'm sticking with it:the tape was planted to throw the cops off track.The Jihadi angle is there to discredit Aznar gov's involvement in the Iraq war.That's why the Batasuna leader blamed "Arab resistance".They want to throw the election to the Socialists by implying Aznar provoked this attack by supporting the US.
Posted by: El Id ||
03/11/2004 15:15 Comments ||
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#64
A claim of responsibility from Al Qaeda has been received by the Al-Quds paper (London).
1. ETA, trying to hurt the Spanish Conservatives
2. ETA, trying to hurt the Spanish left (saw that on another site)
3. ETA, irrational, lashing out in desperation
4. AQ - to distance Spain from the US over Iraq
5. AQ - Andalusia, kill infidel, etc
6. AQ - trying to press ETA into a link with AQ
7. Rightists, trying to help Spanish Conservatives (yeah, it was a commie who posted that one)
8. Islamists other than AQ - for reasons not entirely clear, but presumably related to Iraq
#66
If I remember well Al Qaeda also claimed responsibility for the recent big blackout in the U.S.
If you want your name in the press, this is the time to come forward and claim something.
Although I agree that investigations should always check out every possibility. Some of the WTC conspiracy theories originated in the fact that U.S. authorities knew so damn fast who exactly did it. A few details did sound strange then.
#67
LH, point 1, 3 and 6 are interesting. Although I would right now go for this:
9) ETA, bombing Spain to achieve a Spanish wave of oppression to refuel lost sympathies for "Independent Euskadi" cause (mix with your point 3). That's the old "red" terrorist strategy in democracies: Once people "understand" how "repressive" the system is they live in they will rise up against it.
#68
TGA - does that not also mix with point 2? If the PSOE wins, and compromises with the Basque equivalent of Gerry Adams, that takes the air out of ETA, no? So plant a bomb to get everyone mad and get PP reelected. Problem with that is that PP was ahead anyway, why take risks to get that? So maybe forget 2.
#71
The link in post 65 says police say bombs detonated by remote control. I smell Paleo involvement here.
Posted by: Phil B ||
03/11/2004 19:30 Comments ||
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#72
.com: Regards keeping them alive - I must ask why? To what end?
As to keeping these scum alive, there are at least 2 good reasons. Like Bulldog said " I am sure that a life wasted behind bars would provide more of a deterrent than a glorious martyrdom." there's that reason. The reason I believe to keep these scumbags alive is: Make these pieces of trash work for the rest of their miserable lives doing menial stuff. Make 'em contribute back to the society(ies) they've tried to or have damaged. Possible jobs being things that can be filled by people with education no higher than HS, such as: collecting trash off the side of the road; loading blank license plates into a license plate machine and so on.
Once these barbarians have been sentenced to doing this kind of stuff for life, then their earnings from these jobs should be contributed to funding schools, hospitals, and other worthy social programmes.
#73
.com: Regards keeping them alive - I must ask why? To what end?
As to keeping these scum alive, there are at least 2 good reasons. Like Bulldog said " I am sure that a life wasted behind bars would provide more of a deterrent than a glorious martyrdom." there's that reason. The reason I believe to keep these scumbags alive is: Make these pieces of trash work for the rest of their miserable lives doing menial stuff. Make 'em contribute back to the society(ies) they've tried to or have damaged. Possible jobs being things that can be filled by people with education no higher than HS, such as: collecting trash off the side of the road; loading blank license plates into a license plate machine and so on.
Once these barbarians have been sentenced to doing this kind of stuff for life, then their earnings from these jobs should be contributed to funding schools, hospitals, and other worthy social programmes.
#74
.com: Regards keeping them alive - I must ask why? To what end?
As to keeping these scum alive, there are at least 2 good reasons. Like Bulldog said " I am sure that a life wasted behind bars would provide more of a deterrent than a glorious martyrdom." there's that reason. The reason I believe to keep these scumbags alive is: Make these pieces of trash work for the rest of their miserable lives doing menial stuff. Make 'em contribute back to the society(ies) they've tried to or have damaged. Possible jobs being things that can be filled by people with education no higher than HS, such as: collecting trash off the side of the road; loading blank license plates into a license plate machine and so on.
Once these barbarians have been sentenced to doing this kind of stuff for life, then their earnings from these jobs should be contributed to funding schools, hospitals, and other worthy social programmes.
#75
.com: Regards keeping them alive - I must ask why? To what end?
As to keeping these scum alive, there are at least 2 good reasons. Like Bulldog said " I am sure that a life wasted behind bars would provide more of a deterrent than a glorious martyrdom." there's that reason. The reason I believe to keep these scumbags alive is: Make these pieces of trash work for the rest of their miserable lives doing menial stuff. Make 'em contribute back to the society(ies) they've tried to or have damaged. Possible jobs being things that can be filled by people with education no higher than HS, such as: collecting trash off the side of the road; loading blank license plates into a license plate machine and so on.
Once these barbarians have been sentenced to doing this kind of stuff for life, then their earnings from these jobs should be contributed to funding schools, hospitals, and other worthy social programmes.
#76
Sorry about the 3 repeat posts. My computer kept giving me an error msg, so I had to reload this discussion thread. When I did, there were 4 copies of my post.
The suicide bombing attack against a Masonic Lodge in Istanbulâs Kartal district was a work of amateurs and not organised terrorists, according to Provincial Governor Muammer GÃŒler. Of the 14 home made bombs the two attackers were carrying when they entered the building only four exploded, GÃŒler said. Two people, including one of the attackers, were killed in the incident, and another six wounded. One of the attackers was captured though seriously wounded. GÃŒler said the attack could have been even worse that it was, with a number of plastic bottles containing petrol found at the scene. âOne of the terrorists tried to ignite one of the bottles but failed,â GÃŒler said. Authorities are still investigating the incident, though announced that both attackers were wearing flak jackets. âThe terrorists gave the impression of being members of a religious terrorist group,â GÃŒler said. This actually sounds a lot like what the Great Eastern Raidersâ Front used to do back in the 1980s.
However, he denied having identified the dead terrorist involved in the suicide bombing, though the man captured was provisionally named as Abdullah slam. GÃŒler said that the attack on the restaurant section of the lodge first involved the terrorists spraying bullets around the room and then detonating hand made pipe bombs. When asked whether there was a possible link to the terrorist group al Qaeda, GÃŒler said that prosecutors from the State Security Court were investigating.
Posted by: Dan Darling ||
03/11/2004 1:06:15 AM ||
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According to an indictment filed in U.S. District Court in Manhattan, Lindauer made multiple visits from October 1999 through March 2002 to the Iraqi Mission to the United Nations in Manhattan. I just want to check out your handmade rugs.
There, she met with several members of the Iraqi Intelligence Service, the foreign intelligence arm of the government of Iraq that allegedly has played a role in terrorist operations, including an attempted assassination of former President George H.W. Bush, the indictment alleged. And as long as Iâm here lets talk politics.
The government said she accepted payments from the Iraqis for her services and expenses amounting to a total of $10,000, including $5,000 she received during a trip to Baghdad in February and March 2002, where she met with Iraqi intelligence officers. Itâs so nice there this time of year - they wonât mind if I go enjoy myself.
#2
including an attempted assassination of former President George H.W. Bush
Here's how I would write the headline:
"DEMOCRAT STAFFER INDICTED IN BUSH ASSASSINATION PLOT"
Posted by: Robert Crawford ||
03/11/2004 12:43 Comments ||
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#3
I can see the protest signs now...FREE LINDAUER
Posted by: john ||
03/11/2004 14:40 Comments ||
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#4
Saw her being hauled away on Fox News. She was making deranged statments about how she tried to stop war between Iraq and the US. Also, about how she was such a patriot for working with the Iraqis and how she was against all war.
A Maryland woman was arrested on Thursday on charges she gave secret information to Iraqi intelligence agents and was paid $10,000 for her services, federal prosecutors said.
Susan Lindauer, 41, also known as Symbol SUSAN, was arrested in Takoma Park, Maryland, on charges contained in a federal indictment filed in federal court in Manhattan. She is expected to be presented later on Thursday in court in Baltimore.
The charges against Lindauer are included in a case against two sons of a former Iraqi diplomat. The indictment against them, filed last year, charges Wisam Noman al-Anbuke and his brother, Raed Roman al-Anbuke, with passing information to Iraqi intelligence agents about Iraqi dissidents living in the United States.
The case focuses on activity between the first Gulf War in 1991 and March 2002, a year before Iraqi President Saddam Hussein was ousted by a U.S.-led invasion.
Lindauer is charged with conspiracy, acting as an unregistered agent of a foreign government and taking money from a government that supports terrorism. If convicted of all counts, she could face 25 years in prison.
The two other defendants previously pleaded not guilty to the charges. Although court documents spell their last name as al-Anbuke, a defense lawyer in the case said the men go by al-Anbuge.
The brothers are the sons of Rokan al-Anbuke, who was deputy permanent representative to Iraqâs U.N. Mission until Aug. 1, 2000, when he returned to Iraq. His sons remained in New York.
The indictment accuses them of conspiring to act as agents of the Iraqi Intelligence Service, or IIS, and failing to register with the Justice Department as an agent for a foreign government.
Prosecutors said the intelligence service had helped carry out terrorist operations, including the attempted assassination of former President George H.W. Bush and attempted bombings during the 1991 Gulf War. They said that the Iraqi service has also "located, intimidated and killed Iraqi defectors and dissidents living abroad."
A spokesman for the U.S. attorneyâs office in New York would not comment on Lindauerâs relationship to the two brothers or about her employment.
The expanded indictment charges that Lindauer made multiple visits to the Iraqi Mission to the United Nations in New York and met with several members of the IIS from October 1999 through about March 2002. It charges that Lindauer received payments from the IIS for her expenses in return for her intelligence services.
It is also charged that Lindauer traveled to Baghdad in February or March 2002 and met with several IIS officers.
The indictment charges that Lindauer was paid more than $10,000 by the IIS and brought some of the money back to the United States. That action violates a law that bars transactions with a government that sponsors international terrorism.
It also charges that Lindauer delivered a letter last year to the home of a U.S. government official in which she said she had access to members of the Saddam Hussein regime. Prosecutors said the letter was an unsuccessful attempt to influence United States foreign policy. WOW!
(If you do the search, you'll also see a lot of references to the other Susan Lindauer--a championship backgammon player in Michigan, and probably a very nice person.)
Posted by: Mike ||
03/11/2004 11:56 Comments ||
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#3
She, or someone with the same name, was involved in the Lockerbie trial. In this story she is identified as a congressional aide.
Here this person is listed as an aid for Rep. Ron Wyden. Here it says she was a US New reporter.
Susan Lindauer, a reporter with U.S. News & World Report from 1990 to 1991, has switched Democratic offices within the Oregon congressional team. She's jumped from the office of Peter DeFazio, where she had been Press Secretary, to handle the same duties for Ron Wyden.
#4
If this is the same person, she was an aide or spokesperson for several members of Congress and a Senator during the time she is alledged to have been spying for Saddam. The arrest being a result of the paperwork collected in Baghdad, you suppose?
#6
The local DC news just did a long stand-up outside her house in (I am so surprised) lefty-leaning Takoma Park, Maryland. Her car has two bumper stickers: "War is not the answer" and "Peace in Iraq through Change at Home". Thesecond sticker has a website:
She must have turned green and purple when she saw all those $millions$ being carted out of Sammy's palaces...
#11
The Smoking Gun has the paperwork up:
http://www.thesmokinggun.com/doc_o_day/doc_o_day.html
Posted by: Frank Martin ||
03/11/2004 13:00 Comments ||
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#12
Only one question remains unanswered . . . does the backgammon player work for the Albert Einstein Health Network?
Posted by: Mike ||
03/11/2004 13:11 Comments ||
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#13
"Lindauer made multiple visits to the Iraqi Mission to the United Nations in New York "
"Her car has two bumper stickers: "War is not the answer" and "Peace in Iraq through Change at Home". "
Pardon me, but doesnt this seem like absolutely lousy tradcraft??? I mean doesnt everyone know that UN missions are watched?? Why didnt they establish a secure maildrop for her?? And a secure contact? And why would somebody engaged in espionage parade their political beliefs??? Soviet agents were pretty discreet - some even went so far as to pretend to be political right wing. Something fishy here - or else Iraqi Intell was really Keystone Cops - definitely not Moscow Centre material.
#14
"in which she said she had access to members of the Saddam Hussein regime" Unless all that was DELIBERATE, to establish cover so she could offer herself to US intell, and then work instead for Iraqi intell, either by feeding false info to US intell, or by finding out what US intell wanted and taking "backbearings". Is Iraqi Intell that clever??? And how much of her leftiness was real, and how much was cover?
#15
Just read the indictment at the Smoking Gun. She's toast. The "anti-war" movement was plainly riven with traitors, but this one really screwed the pooch with her visits to Iraqi intelligence and trip to Baghdad.
#17
LH -- I don't know what your point is. I think it's quite likely her politics drove her treason, rather than her treason driving her politics. She certainly didn't take a boatload of cash, and her being a leftist, pro-fascist, stupid traitor doesn't (IMHO) conflict with her politics at all.
Posted by: Robert Crawford ||
03/11/2004 13:29 Comments ||
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#18
RMcLeod -- I cannot wait to see what more research on her activities in the "peace" movement turns up.
Posted by: Robert Crawford ||
03/11/2004 13:30 Comments ||
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#19
Lindauer worked at Fortune, U.S. News & World Report and the Seattle Post-Intelligencer before beginning her career as a political publicist. She worked for then U.S. Rep. Ron Wyden, D-Ore., before joining the office of former Illinois Sen. Carol Moseley-Braun as press secretary in 1996.
Chris Fitzgerald, a spokesman for Wyden, now a senator, said the office had heard Thursday of Lindauer's arrest and expected to issue a statement later in the day.
"She worked for us a short period of time," he said.
Moseley-Braun's current spokesperson, Loretta Kane, said the former senator does not remember Lindauer.
My guess is the press is starting to smell blood( and headlines).
Posted by: Frank Martin ||
03/11/2004 14:08 Comments ||
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#21
Here's a news story from 4/20/2002. A Susan Lindauer was a spokesperson for Cal. Senator Diane Feinstein.
San Francisco International Airport officials are asking the federal government to delay a June deployment of its new security screeners to buy time for the immigrants who now work as checkpoint guards to become citizens.
The request came to light yesterday as religious and labor groups intensified their fight to prevent 1,200 noncitizen security screeners at Bay Area airports from losing their jobs. Under legislation passed after the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks, noncitizens are barred from joining the new Transportation Security Administration's screener force...
Yesterday, Feinstein said she is working to "build Republican support" for her bill. "It's going to be an uphill battle, but we're going to keep at it."
Lofgren's bill has drawn 28 co-sponsors, including some Republicans, spokeswoman Susan Lindauer said.
"Raising the issue puts the (Immigration and Naturalization Service) on notice that we're committed to helping people who have done excellent work protecting our airports keep their jobs," Lindauer said.
#22
LiberalHawk, I've heard the acronym MICE used to explain why people betray their country: Money, Ideology, Compromise (e.g., blackmail), and Ego. From what I've read so far, this woman is a combination of money + ideology.
Or, the money may have been the hook the Iraqis used to fix her once she betrayed us the first time: get a photo of her taking the money and then let her know that she's yours forever, otherwise the FBI gets a letter. In which case ideology brought her in and compromise kept her there.
Posted by: Steve White ||
03/11/2004 14:13 Comments ||
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#23
LH, forgot to add a useful URL on why spies do what the do: find it here.
Posted by: Steve White ||
03/11/2004 14:14 Comments ||
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#24
My bad. The story wasn't clear. #20, Frank's link, points out that she worked for Democratic Rep. Zoe Lofgren. If this is the same woman that they arrested.
#26
Someone's got a lot of explaining to do. I'd love to see what Zoe has to say. I had the dis-pleasure of meeting that bitch(Zoe), and I can honestly say she is one of the most repugnant people I've ever encountered.
Posted by: Lil Dhimmi ||
03/11/2004 14:22 Comments ||
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#27
RC and SW - im NOT questioning that a spy might be motivated by money, or might be stupid. Im questioning the way here Iraqi controllers ran her.
Woman walks into embassy - hey, I work in Washington, I might be able to find something interesting for you.
Iraqi controller - ok, we'll take any help we can get, and give you some money for your trouble. But you dont know any espionage tradecraft, and WE DO. So hows here you operate. First, dont walk up to the Mission again, its watched. You want to contact us, you call this number here and ask for a "felafel to go" we'll let you know (by means we cant tell you know) what to do next. If you give us enough material, we'll set you up with microdots,etc. By the way, you dont happen to be open about being pro-Iraqi do you? Cause if you want to work for us, thats not a particularly good idea.
Either Iraqi intell was too stupid to do something like this, or lacked the resources. In either case there wasnt much threat from Iraqi intell, in the US at least.
Did like Kim Philby go around with a "ban the bomb" bumpersticker?? I dont think so. yet he was ideologically motivated.
I HOPE we have agents in Iran, Syria, etc. I hope they DONT participate in prodemocracy marches, and other activities that would call attention to themselves.
#28
look, that a lady who visited the Iraqi mission several times wasnt checked out by the FBI doesnt make sense.
Let me tell you some personal history. When I was in high school I was a subway buff (alias trolley jolley, etc) I wrote to several foreign missions in New York for info on their country's metro systems. (The French, BTW, invited me to use the French Cultural Center in Manhattan) Among others I wrote to the Soviet Mission (they were completely UNcooperative, of course) A little while later my parents got a visit from - you guessed it - the FBI (i was in school, and they didnt tell me about this till years later) Apparently they just routinely followed up on ANYONE who sent a letter to the Soviet Mission.
I have a hard time believing that there was no follow up here.
Something doesnt add up. I dont know what - im NOT driving at ANYTHING in particular - just something doesnt add up.
#29
How old are you, LH? Things may have changed quite a bit in how the FBI handles these things.
And let's be honest -- if the FBI started snooping around the staffer of a hard-left congressthing, there would be screaming from the rooftops. She may have been handled poorly by the IIS, but she was also a "peace" activist, and that would serve as functional cover quite well, IMHO.
In any case, it's quite obvious she's as dumb as a post. The bad tradecraft may have been her idea. After all, I have no doubt she doesn't consider ANYTHING she's done to be wrong in any sense, let alone criminal.
Posted by: Robert Crawford ||
03/11/2004 15:15 Comments ||
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#30
Old enough that the cold war was still very much on, I admit. Still, I only wrote a letter, i didnt visit.
Why would there be screaming from the rooftops - you are surely aware how much vetting is done of all kinds of people who want to work for the US govt, or for govt contractors???
As for Lofgren being hard left, I'll have to check sources on that.
Dumb as a post - maybe. But then is it smart to give $10,000 bucks and to open up the possibility of scandal (had she been caught PRIOR to March 2003) to somebody that dumb? Again I presume our intel operatives are trained NOT to run agents who are too dumb to be trusted.
My points then boil down to this
1. IIS handling was extremely dumb.
2. She managed to "slip through the net"
I suppose these arent that big a deal. Im not 100% sure though.
#31
Why would there be screaming from the rooftops - you are surely aware how much vetting is done of all kinds of people who want to work for the US govt, or for govt contractors???
Yes. Is that level of scrutiny applied to Congressional staffers? I, for one, would be shocked if it is. I mean, Christ, there are elected officials who couldn't pass a background check; do you think they'd let their staffers be subjected to the process?
Dumb as a post - maybe.
She's a "pacifist" -- proof positive that she's dumb as a post.
Posted by: Robert Crawford ||
03/11/2004 15:39 Comments ||
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#32
LH... let's go back to the Soviet Mission thing. It's been awhile, is your story the same? Why didn't you visit? Was there a payphone nearby perhaps (Yes! there was!). It's not to late LH to come clean. BTW check under your bed tonight. ;>
#34
LiberalHawk, the FBI would indeed have been aware of her contacts with the Iraqi mission right from the beginning.
This is not illegal in and of itself. Her status as a peace activist and Congressional staffer would help mitigate suspicion about her actual intentions.
Beyond that, Lindauer would undoubtedly be familiar with the careers of such LLL luminaries as Jane Fonda, Ramsey Clark, and Barbara Lee.
This being the case, it is understandable that she might think there was nothing wrong with acting as an enemy agent or, at the very least, that the standard shrieks of "McCarthyism" etc. would provide an infallible blanket of immunity.
#35
Best link so far, via the great Glenn Reynolds:
http://silflayhraka.com/archives/003919.html
notice the method behind the process via saddam to journalists!
Money Quote from saddam:" "Compared to tanks, journalists are cheap--and you get more for your money."
Posted by: Frank Martin ||
03/11/2004 16:05 Comments ||
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#36
Seattle PI fesses up - headline as of 1:00 -
UPDATE - 12:43 PM
Former NW journalist charged with being Iraqi spy
Susan Lindauer, who once worked for Post-Intelligencer and The Herald of Everett, was arrested today on charges she acted as a spy before and after the U.S. invasion of Iraq.
#39
LH, bad tradecraft but the anti-war/america people don't think of themselves as spies. They think they are simply doing the work of the left that needs to be done. They have a lot in common with the Arab charities that think raising money for bombing Israel is not Terrorism. Also I rememeber one guy we caught spying in plain sight. He didn't think we were smart enough to catch him! LH, they (lefties) all think that way.
#40
Gleaned from - http://www.komotv.com/stories/30246.htm
Quote from Perp: I'm an anti-war activist and I'm innocent," Lindauer told WBAL-TV outside the Baltimore FBI office. "I did more to stop terrorism in this country than anybody else. I have done good things for this country. I worked to get weapons inspectors back to Iraq when everyone else said it was impossible."
Lindauer's father owned newspapers in Alaska. After his defeat in the governor's race, he pleaded no contest to two charges related to his campaign finances. He received probation and a fine.
Lindauer is also a distant cousin of White House chief of staff Andrew Card, said White House press secretary Scott McClellan.
Posted by: Frank Martin ||
03/11/2004 18:47 Comments ||
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#41
Alaska? Why isn't Paul, our man in Alaska, all over this??? Sleeping on the design table while treason's going on?
Posted by: Frank G ||
03/11/2004 19:48 Comments ||
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#42
I was wondering the same thing. Paul turns his back for two seconds and BANG, stuff happens.
anyway - heres a quick look around the publically available info on Susan Lindauer and her family connections:
Susan Lindauer -
media watch 1993 article where she is selected by peter defazio
http://secure.mediaresearch.org/news/mediawatch/1993/mw19930901rd.html
1994 jumps to Ron Wyden.
http://secure.mediaresearch.org/news/mediawatch/1994/mw19940301rd.html
susan lindauer on "CIA Leak"
http://www.sundayherald.com/8759
reports "Congressional aide Lindauer, who was involved in early negotiations
over the Lockerbie trial, claims Fuisz made "unequivocal statements à to me that he
has first-hand knowledge about the Lockerbie case". In her affidavit, she goes on:
"Dr Fuisz has told me that he can identify who orchestrated and executed the bombing.
Dr Fuisz has said that he can confirm absolutely that noLibyannationalwas involved in
planning or executing the bombing of PanAm 103, eitherinanytechnicalor advisory
capacity whatsoever
(found link on www.nogw.com)
John Lindauer :
A political profile of john lindauer
http://edition.cnn.com/ELECTION/1998/states/AK/G/john.lindauer.html
Dorothy Oremus - wife as of 1995
Oremus and her family own Prairie Material Sales, a $300 million concrete producer
headquartered in suburban Chicago. It is the largest privately held construction
materials maker in the Midwest. Oremus, who married Lindauer in 1995, is also a board
chairman of a bank.
a breakdown of the failed campaign for gov of alaska:
http://www.ptialaska.net/~crayola/lindauer.html
the money quote:
The Saturday before the election the Anchorage Daily News reported that when
Lindauer tried to get organized labor's support in July, he got lobbying help from
Ernest Kumerow, son-in-law of Chicago mob boss Anthony "Big Tuna" Accardo.
The Laborers International Union classified Kumerow, a former head of the Chicago
District Council and a friend of the Oremus family, as "an associate of the Chicago Outfit."
more on this angle :
http://www.freerepublic.com/forum/a363b53c2667a.htm
I'm still trying to find what she wrote when she worked for the seattle PI and the everette herald and for fortune magazine.
Posted by: Frank Martin ||
03/11/2004 20:22 Comments ||
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#43
and on to the others mentioned as her operators:
when i saw the "raed", I asked my self if this was the famous raed of "where is raed" website. it seems to be......
I give a link to the great Den Beste on the subject:
http://www.denbeste.nu/cd_log_entries/2003/04/WheresRaed.shtml
Posted by: Frank Martin ||
03/11/2004 20:40 Comments ||
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#44
BTW - Albert Einstein was a pacifist. Im not one, but i hardly think everyone who is one is dumb as a post.
Einstein was a genius at physics. That doesn't mean he wasn't dumb as a post about other things.
But you maybe right -- a better description of pacifists is amoral cowards who hide behind those willing to actually defend civilization. There are exceptions, of course -- those who are willing to work in non-combat roles. Those seem to be as common as hen's teeth nowadays.
Posted by: Robert Crawford ||
03/11/2004 20:54 Comments ||
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#45
If she is guilty (I think she is, but YNK), I hope she gets to spend a few years with some ODCs (Ordinary Decent Criminals).
LUBBOCK, Texas (AP) -- A former Texas Tech University professor who started a bioterrorism scare when he reported plague bacteria missing last year was sentenced Wednesday to two years in prison. Dr. Thomas C. Butler, 62, also was fined $15,000 and ordered to pay restitution of $38,000. He earlier had agreed to retire from the school and surrender his medical license.
Butler gave no reaction when the sentence was read. He remains free on bond, but must report to federal authorities on April 14.
Idjit. Threw it all away for what?
The father of four had faced up to 240 years in prison and millions in fines for convictions that stemmed from an investigation after his report that 30 vials of the bacteria were missing from his lab in January 2003. He later said he accidentally destroyed the samples, but during his trial he testified he had no clear memory of destroying the vials and that they could have been destroyed during his cleanup of an accident.
I clean-up after myself in the cell culture lab too. I have yet to throw out vials of anything important, let alone controlled materials like this. Perhaps I'm just a neat-nik.
Butler's attorneys had sought to unload this case on the public defender's office probation.
In January, after his conviction, Butler agreed to pay $250,000 to the school and retire. Last month, Butler voluntarily surrendered his medical license to the Texas State Board of Medical Examiners.
In December, a jury found Butler guilty of mislabeling a Fed Ex package that contained plague samples he sent to Tanzania and their unauthorized export to the African country. The jury also found Butler guilty of theft, embezzlement, fraud, and mail and wire fraud charges pertaining to shadow contracts prosecutors claimed he had illegally negotiated while at Tech. The settlement with Tech pertained to these charges. He was acquitted of the most serious charges of smuggling and illegally transporting the potentially deadly germ and charges of lying to federal agents about the missing vials.
Now he can do rectal exams in the federal slammer. Good riddance.
Posted by: Steve White ||
03/11/2004 12:43:53 AM ||
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#1
Weirdness. This story makes no sense to me.
So, uh, he had a secret contract to sell plague bacteria to someone in Tanzania. He first reported the vials missing - later says they were destroyed? WTF?
For now I'd have to guess, from the given info, that FedEx / bank records and such paper trails were discovered during the "missing vials" investigation. I'm not sure that anything else makes any sense!
Most of the remaining tidbits of it (e.g. embezzlement!) don't fit, though.
There's definitely some missing linkages here. He really did throw his life away - so I doubt that we know the full extent of this bizarre tale.
#2
I wonder if he was considering or caught in a scheme to blackmail the feds.... or if he was tried on legitimate charges which were unrelated to the real crime.
#3
You guys don't seem to know any doctors. A significant number tend to be paranoid flakes. Its probably a combination of the 'god complex' and pharmaceuticals abuse.
Posted by: Phil B ||
03/11/2004 8:13 Comments ||
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#4
I happen to know Butler, though not well. Phil may be closer to the truth, can't say much more.
Medan Police chief Sr. Comr. Bagus Kurniawan said on Wednesday that the police were focusing their investigations into the discovery of five live bombs in a Medan mall on two distinct groups. The two groups in question were the terrorist group allegedly led by Dr. Azahari and the rebel Free Aceh Movement (GAM). "Itâs probable that one of these groups is responsible for the bombs," he said.
Bombs are regularly discovered in Medan, the capital of North Sumatra. Packs of explosive were found at the Sukaramai market in January. Seven GAM members were arrested and another one was shot dead in connection with the explosives. In January 2000, several homemade bombs were found in three churches in the city. Abu Yasar, an alleged member of the Jamaah Islamiyah terrorist group, is still awaiting trial in the Medan District Court in connection with the planned church bombings. Bagus said that police investigators were now preparing sketches of those whom they believed were connected with the bombs in the Medan mall. "We have questioned 10 witnesses, and are making our sketches based on their descriptions," he said.
Posted by: Dan Darling ||
03/11/2004 1:21:14 AM ||
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He doesnât think his day job, as a Shia Muslim cleric who happens to be one of Iranâs six vice presidents, should keep him from sharing intimate thoughts with the world. So he has a personal Web site, where he writes a daily blog and keeps a photo diary that provides a comic view into Iranâs government.
The jovial, bearded cleric sets the tone on his home page: "Let me be myself - Mohammad Ali Abtahi - in this website; regardless to my official and governmental status." Above that mantra is a photo of Abtahi flashing a wide grin.... "For a long time, I felt that my official responsibilities were like a prison," Abtahi, the vice president for parliamentary and legal affairs, said in an interview. "The demands of my job were distancing me everyday from the people, so I decided to start this Web site."
The site - in English at www.webnevesht.com/en/ - became an instant hit when it debuted in December. It gets 15,000 visitors a day and is among the most popular of thousands of Iranian blogs that have become a major way to vent frustration at Iranâs rule by unelected clerics. Islamic hard-liners have not cracked down on the Internet in Iran as they have on pro-reform newspapers, of which they have closed dozens since the late 1990s. Still, Abtahiâs site has drawn the clericsâ wrath. Conservative newspapers regularly accuse Abtahi of demeaning his political post and his religious rank (he is a hojatoleslam, one level below an ayatollah). ...
Abtahi has been able to speak his mind despite pressure from conservatives because he has been one of Khatamiâs closest aides for 20 years. In Khatamiâs first administration, he served as the presidentâs chief of staff. Abtahi insists that he personally answers all the mail sent in by his readers - 30 to 40 messages a day. Some ask him to help solve problems with government agencies; others argue with his politics or just express their support.
Posted by: Mike Sylwester ||
03/11/2004 10:48:11 PM ||
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A letter purporting to come from Osama bin Ladenâs militant Islamist al Qaeda network said a big attack on the United States was in the final stages of preparation, a London-based Arabic newspaper said on Thursday. "We bring the good news to Muslims of the world that the expected âWinds of Black Deathâ strike against America is now in its final stage... 90 percent (ready) and God willing near," the letter said. Not very subtle--or creative--when it comes to naming their operations, are they
The letter, signed by the Abu Hafs al-Masri Brigades which said it is part of al Qaeda, was sent to the London-based al-Quds al-Arabi newspaper. A copy of the letter was faxed to Reuters in Dubai. It was not possible to independently authenticate the letter.
#1
I meant "Qaeda." The El Queda group, led by Asama Ban Leden, is currently the target of a trademark lawsuit brought by Al Qaeda in the court of crazy-ass fanatics disputes resolution.
#3
AllahHateMe: As far as I'm concerned, they already gave us a reason. Another big attack, and I'm not so sure we'll settle for just the fascists among them.
#4
Oh, I don't know, "Winds of Black Death" is up there on the list of ominous code names.
Posted by: Carl in N.H ||
03/11/2004 19:34 Comments ||
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#5
sounds like a hint they'll infiltrate from the mexican border. You know the havoc Tex-mex food can play on an unprepared system
Posted by: Frank G ||
03/11/2004 19:36 Comments ||
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#6
Winds of Black Death was a kick-ass band. What a shame their bass player choked to death on a bowl of rat anuses.
Posted by: Robert Crawford ||
03/11/2004 20:37 Comments ||
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#7
blah,blah,blah....if they were really ready to hit us, we wouldn't be hearing nonsense like this. The US is strong enough to telegraph a punch, AQ isn't.
#8
blah,blah,blah....if they were really ready to hit us, we wouldn't be hearing nonsense like this. The US is strong enough to telegraph a punch, AQ isn't.
#9
blah,blah,blah....if they were really ready to hit us, we wouldn't be hearing nonsense like this. The US is strong enough to telegraph a punch, AQ isn't.
#10
blah,blah,blah....if they were really ready to hit us, we wouldn't be hearing nonsense like this. The US is strong enough to telegraph a punch, AQ isn't.
The Kurdistan Democratic Partyâs newspaper "Al-Taâakhi" published a report on 10 March claiming that some 300-400 individuals from a Yezidi village in northern Iraq have been poisoned.
The newspaper reported that terrorism is suspected, because pamphlets posted on walls in and around the city of Mosul said that whoever kills Yezidis will be rewarded by God.
Meanwhile, Londonâs "Al-Quds al-Arabi" reported the same day that the Iraqi Communist Party has issued an appeal for aid for the village of Khanik, where the poisoning cases were first reported. The appeal claims that the Kurdish authorities "have shown no interest," adding that the situation is extremely serious as the villageâs only physician has died from poisoning. The appeal said that Yezidi farms were poisoned, and a second statement by the Communist Party posted on albasrah.net said the villageâs water supply was also poisoned. The appeal noted that the Yezidis are a peaceful sect "that has never harmed anyone" and is "the only remnant of the religious and ethnic groups of the Sumerian civilization." It referred to attempts to obliterate the sect as genocide and "a major conspiracy against the ancient heritage of Iraq."
Encyclopedia article
The Yazidi are adherents of a small Middle Eastern religion with ancient origins. They are primarily ethnic Kurds, and most Yazidis live in Iraq and Syria with smaller communities in Turkey and Armenia. There are also Yazidi refugees in Germany. The Yazidi worship Malak Taâus, apparently a pre-Islamic peacock god with links to Mithraism and, through it, to Zoroastrianism. The Yazidi maintain a well-preserved culture, rich in traditions and customs.
In the region that is now Iraq, the Yazidi have been oppressed and labeled as devil worshippers for centuries. During the reign of Saddam Hussein, however, they were considered to be Arabs and maneuvered to oppose the Kurds, in order to tilt the ethnic balance in northern Iraq. Since the 2003 occupation of Iraq, the Kurds want the Yazidi to be recognized as ethnic Kurds. ...
Yezidi faith contains elements of Manicheism, Islam, Christianity, Judaism and Gnostic and pre-islamic beliefs. It might be based on the original religion of the Kurds. In about 1162, Sheik-Adi Ibin Mustafa radically reformed the religion, so that some believe the previous form was a different religion from current belief. Different clans may also have different interpretations.
Posted by: Mike Sylwester ||
03/11/2004 10:11:46 PM ||
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This article is noteworthy for two reasons. One is that the real issue is not mentioned, which is the money is drying up for the Paleos and there is no real economy to speak off. It's a state literally built on handouts. The other is that it re-inforces my view that paleos are renting themeselves out as boomers for hire and this is why I think they could behind the Madrid bombs.
After three years of Israeli-Palestinian fighting, 40 percent of Palestinians in the West Bank and Gaza Strip donât have regular access to the food they need, and another 30 percent are at risk of losing that access, a UN report has found. The UN Food and Agriculture Organization said that while food is generally available in the Palestinian territories, residents have limited access to it because of their dwindling personal finances and Israeli security measures, such as curfews, closures and the creation of a security barrier in the West Bank. In a report dated Thursday, the agency said the food security situation in the territories had "considerably deteriorated" over the past three years, with rising unemployment and increasing poverty levels eroding the ability of the 3.5 million Palestinians in the area to buy enough food.
After violence erupted in September 2000, Israel banned most Palestinians from working in Israel, cutting off a main source of income. Also, Israel imposed roadblocks and other travel restrictions, claiming the measures were necessary to stop Palestinian attackers. According to the data, per capita incomes among Palestinians fell 23 percent in real terms in 2001 and by the same amount in 2002. That increased the share of the population below the poverty line - calculated at US$2.10 per day - from just over 20 percent in 1999 to around 60 percent in early 2003. The United Nations compiled the data at the request of the Palestinian Authority, conducting an assessment of the food and nutrition situation in the West Bank and Gaza from February through July 2003. Year old data. I expect its got worse since.
The FAO recommended several ways to improve residentsâ economic access to food, including a call for a jobs creation program, a public works program to rebuild damaged roads and buildings, and a program to compensate farmers and fisherman for losses during the fighting. I.e. the solution is to give them more money. So whats an unemployed and flat broke boomer to do? Rent himself out of course. We saw a similar thing with IRA boomers after the IRA ceasfire.
Posted by: Phil B ||
03/11/2004 9:03:37 PM ||
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#1
Something doesn't follow. If food is generally available in paleostine (the territories), then the wall wouldn't matter nor would curfews (shop during the day). If the problem is lack of income and lack of services, I wouldn't be surprised: nobody seems to want to be the first one to start a local economy.
#2
I don't see the renting out, Phil - there's plenty of nutcase Algerians, Yemenis, Soddies floating around Europe. It would be easier to get a Paleo from Ein-El-Hellhole than one from Gaza or West Bank. You may be correct tho'....
Regards the food production in Paleostine: those that used to cross the border to work and earn food money have been harmed by the splodeydopes blowing up at the crossings -i.e.: their own f*&king people.
I can see the beginnings of a moral equivalence argument using the Nazis and Warsaw Ghetto...I'd put money on it
Posted by: Frank G ||
03/11/2004 21:44 Comments ||
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#3
I do not see what the problem is----they have a booming economy. *rimshot*
Posted by: Alaska Paul ||
03/11/2004 21:46 Comments ||
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#4
I think the Warsaw Ghetto analogy will pop up, but it won't fly. If anything, the Israelis are the besieged, and cutting supplies to the besiegers is a classic tactic for breaking a siege.
EFL
Many Palestinians here are brooding about the prospect of a sudden Israeli withdrawal, I hate it when the enemy leaves, donât you Abdul?
even though they have fought for the removal of Jewish settlers and soldiers for years. Perhaps because that wasnât what they were really fighting for?
Armed militant organizations such as Hamas built their empires on the destruction of resistance to Israel, attracting legions of youths willing to die in often-suicidalfutile attacks aimed at killing all forcing Israelis out of the Gaza Strip, which Israel seized from Egypt in 1967. Few of the 1.3 million Gazans have experienced life without a "Zionist enemy" to fight. Amid factional fighting and Israeli attacks, the Palestinian Authority is ill-prepared to take control should Israel leave. Many Palestinians say they worry that the evacuation is aimed at starting a Palestinian civil war. I knew those Jooos had something sinister up their sleve.
Continuing Israeli military strikes and land grabs add to their doubts. "If Sharon considered this withdrawal as a benefit for Palestinians, he wouldnât be doing it, unlike Arafish who does stupid things not in our interest all the time" said Talal Okal, a Gaza-based analyst for Al Ayyam, a leading Palestinian newspaper. "The price is very high for this withdrawal, but we donât have a choice. Itâs something that is being imposed on us." We are eternal victims
Worried about public apathy and the power vacuum Isnât Yassir the man with the power?
that could result from Israelâs withdrawal, the Palestinian Authority, run by Yasser ArafatâsFatah political movement, is meeting with rival political parties and militant groups almost daily to figure out what to do.
"They're leaving, Mahmoud. What the hell do we do now?"
Posted by: Mr. Davis ||
03/11/2004 6:46:43 PM ||
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#1
Many Palestinians say they worry that the evacuation is aimed at starting a Palestinian civil war.
Why would it? With no Joooooos to oppress Gaza I'd expect the area to be flush with duckies and bunnies and daisies and...
It's not called the religion of peace for nothing. Right?
Posted by: Scott ||
03/11/2004 18:58 Comments ||
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#2
I can't wait,I'll buy the beer.
TGA I know what you German Elitists think of American beer.Give me a couple of German brand names and I'll try tofind some.
#3
These guys should be overjoyed that the Israelis are leaving. It is their "victory." Unfortunately, they are too stupid to do anything with it other than destroy themselves through infighting. What can one say about maroons? Now that they are out of money, they are s--t out of luck.
Posted by: Alaska Paul ||
03/11/2004 19:10 Comments ||
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#4
I think the words be carefull what you wish for may apply here.
Of course there might be a civil war. What do you think Rantburgers are stocking up on popcorn and beer for?
#5
It's not a victory for the Paleos if the Joooos are still alive. The Death Cult will devour it's own. I hope we can resist the call for targets international peacekeepers
Posted by: Frank G ||
03/11/2004 19:28 Comments ||
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#6
This is like a Scrappleface parody: We are victimized by the occupation, but would be victimized worse by a withdrawal. I guess the only other alternative is to drop a nuke on the whole crappy Gaza strip.
#8
One theory about why the first Intifada was started was that the Israelis were winning the culture war. They were giving the Pals decent jobs, sewers and schools. The PLO and the Islamists were losing followers. Their only choice was to radicalize both the Israelis and their own people by continually upping the ante in an endless game of tit for tat. I'm still not sure why Israel plays along. The wall should have gone up during the first Intifada and the jobs and subsidies should have stopped. If the Israelis need manual laborers, the last time I checked Vietnam, India, and the Philipines have plenty of hard working people who don't have anything against Jews. I think that the settlements are a tactical error. They dilute combat power and serve no strategic purpose. They obviously serve an Israeli political/symbolic purpose that I can't even begin to claim I understand. I will therefore defer my opinions on that issue to the Israeli electorate.
#9
I've started reading Ion Pacepa's "Red Horizons", and one of the things that gets said about the PLO -- almost constantly -- is that they're a revolution, not a government, and that they know only how to destroy, not how to govern.
Some people may doubt Pacepa's accuracy or motives, but it sure as hell looks like he nailed that one.
Posted by: Robert Crawford ||
03/11/2004 20:34 Comments ||
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#10
Palestinians worry that Israeli withdrawal could lead to anarchy
One word: tough. They had their chances and squandered them, so they're going to have to settle for whatever comes their way. If what's on the horizon is bad, well, that's their problem.
Posted by: B ||
03/11/2004 22:03 Comments ||
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#12
CF - you took the words from my mouth. This is such a giant wake-up for these people. HELLOOOOO! Shouldn't you have thought this through a bit sooner -
Posted by: B ||
03/11/2004 22:07 Comments ||
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#13
Jesus, these miserable loser fucks just can't win can they?
Yeah, my heart's breaking...
#14
Hamas isn't talking about a defeat.On the contrary, they have been calling the unilateral retreat a victory..It might be a bad thing for moderate Palestinians though..Who is this analyst actually ?
Security officials arrested a suspected terrorist on Wednesday after raiding his hideout near the Afghan border, sparking a shootout that killed a boy and wounded two others, a government official said. It was not immediately clear what prompted security officials to conduct the raid on a shop in Chaman about 120 kilometres from Quetta. Saqib Aziz, a government official in Chaman, said the suspect appeared to be an Afghan. He said the casualties occurred because of shooting by the suspect and that the victims were Pakistani teenagers trapped in the firing. He gave no other details and only said authorities were questioning the suspect.
Posted by: Fred ||
03/11/2004 6:35:22 PM ||
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#1
"my #3 truncheon if you please?"
Posted by: Frank G ||
03/11/2004 19:29 Comments ||
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Beginning this month, leathernecks from the 1st Marine Expeditionary Force will return to Iraq, replacing elements of the Armyâs 82nd Airborne Division. The return of the Marines is surely bad news for those desperate to undermine the liberation of Iraq. Not to take anything away from the U.S. Army â its soldiers have performed magnificently, and will no doubt continue to do so â but Americaâs enemies have a particular fear of U.S. Marines... Good article, read the rest of it. The Sunni Triangleâs my guess at where theyâll be deployed. Time to buy some new underwear, jihadis!
#2
As late as 1997, Assistant Secretary of the Army Sara Lister took aim at the Marines. "I think the Army is much more connected to society than the Marines are." Lister said before an audience at Harvard University. "Marines are extremists. Wherever you have extremists, you've got some risks of total disconnection with society. And that's a little dangerous."
That language sounds like what you'd expect from a Democrat political hack....not a career service person. Yasssssss, the armed services are nothing more than a branch of the HHS Dept. Cheezus K. Reist. These are the people who say the know best how to lead the nation in the WOT? Sorry, but bending over doesn't seem like a winning strategy to me.
Posted by: Rex Mundi ||
03/11/2004 16:42 Comments ||
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#3
It does if you want to work for Clinton
Posted by: Mr. Davis ||
03/11/2004 16:55 Comments ||
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#5
Sara was lead "agent of change" in the attempted pussification of our military. The armed forces will always be a tempting toy for the "social engineers" - because they have to obey orders.
Posted by: Frank G ||
03/11/2004 17:39 Comments ||
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#6
If you look at a map isn't Baghdad about equidistant between Damascus and Tehran?
Posted by: Matt ||
03/11/2004 17:42 Comments ||
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#7
IIRC Lister was soon out after her remarks. I called my Senator's office (J. Glenn - OH) to bitch about her. At the time he was on the Armed Services Committee and I was put through to talk to Big John. Glenn was so PO'd he was screaming about her - one of his aides came on the line and said something like "the Senator shares your concerns." Politics aside, he's still a Marine.
Besides, truth be told, combat Marines are extremists - Thank God.
#8
Doc you have a good memory. Just Googled and got this: Assistant Army Secretary Sara E. Lister, a Washington lawyer who successfully pressed the military to open more jobs to women, abruptly resigned yesterday(Nov. 14,1997), attempting to quell a furor she created by branding the Marines "extremists." Lister, the service's top personnel officer and a confidante of Army Secretary Togo D. West Jr., quit her Pentagon position a week ahead of schedule after her apologies failed to allay the firestorm of demands for her ouster.
Two days ago, three Iraqi civilians were killed and one wounded when they were stopped in northern Mosul at a traffic control point. After resisting questioning and opening fire on an Iraqi police officer, one of the Iraqis in the car attempted to throw a grenade at the checkpoint, but the grenade exploded in the car, killing two of the occupants and wounding two more who were taken to the hospital under guard. One died yesterday of wounds. Further research found that the four individuals were directly involved in the assassination of a city council member, Tillal al-Khalidi (ph), in November of 2003. Proving, yet again, the superiority of baseball skills over soccer skills while handling explosives
There were two attacks yesterday in Iraqi police stations. In the first incident, the Balbuto (ph) police station in central Mosul was attacked with small arms fire and grenades. Three Iraqi police and four officials were wounded. All of the wounded were treated and released from local hospitals. In the second attack, drive-by shooters attacked a police station of Biaj (ph) two days ago. Police on duty returned fire, wounded the attacker. He was taken into custody and placed in a local hospital.
Two days ago, Iraqi Civil Defense Corps soldiers reported that the imam of the Al Qubasi (sp) Mosque, Ali Hassan Hussein Al-Dhabi (sp), was murdered. Coalition forces sent a patrol to investigate and confirmed that he was shot by four unknown individuals driving a brown BMW or Opel on 7 March.
In the western zone of operations, coalition forces received information from the border police that two males wearing black masks and driving a white four-door Nissan pickup had kidnapped a border policeman in Husbayah (sp). The source helped identify the truck. An OH-58 confirmed its presence at a target location. Soldiers and Marines conducted a cordon-and-search of the target house and captured 10 enemy personnel.
In the southeastern zone of operations, Iraqi police officers last night were engaged with small-arms fire from a mob of approximately 50 personnel in An Nasiriyah. Coalition forces responded to the scene and were at some stage involved in the firefight as well. The Iraqi police withdrew to an NGO compound, and a quick reaction force and an unmanned aerial observer vehicle were launched to assess the situation. The incident resulted in four Iraqi police killed, two Iraqi police wounded, no civilian casualties, and nine Iraqi(s) were arrested. In addition, one coalition soldier was wounded and evacuated to a medical facility.
The training program we have for new Iraqi police officers right now is an eight-week training program thatâs conducted in Baghdad or in Jordan at the International Police Training Center there. And the more rapid, expedited training program is for Iraqi police officers who served as police officers in the former regime. And while the basic police skill training isnât as critical for them, they do have a three-week training program, what we call the TIPPs program -- Transition and Integration Policing Program. And that program is focused on policing in a democracy, human rights, professional investigative skills, those sorts of things.
We have roughly 9(,000) to 10,000 Iraqi citizens, people holding Iraqi passports, currently in detention as security detainees or as criminal detainees. I donât have the exact numbers -- we can give them to you right after this -- in terms of which are under each category.
With regards to women, out of the more than 10,000 persons we hold in detention, I believe the latest number is less than 20 of those are female. Some are being held as criminals. Some are being held as security detainees. Two of them are being held being part of the top-55 list of high-value detainees.
What I said in northeastern Mosul was that we picked up 14 persons -- five of them primary targets -- that we believed to have possible connections to the Ansar al-Sunna group. But thatâs going to be over the next couple of days as we talk to these people, as we have a chance to find out their past affiliations and past associations, weâll be able to make a better determination of whether they in fact are members of the organization. But itâs still too early to tell. The intelligence is what led us to picking these people up. The interrogations will bear out whether the intelligence we had prove that these people were in fact members of the group.
#1
The bits reporting attacks are sounding more and more like the daily police blotters of Capone's Chicago. I wonder what a current comparison of Baghdad and, say, Washington DC would reveal? Quagmire - in DC?
#4
LOL! Chuck and Ship - you guys are too fast on the draw!
Ship - I be theenking you be right!
Chuck -- Prolly too early since "end" of war was approx mid-April to have anything reliable on Baghdad civilian stats - and prolly unfair to even begin keeping them and thinking it's apples vs apples until the July 1st Iraqi takeover.
#5
On the subject of statistics, there has only been one US combat death in the past 7 days. Last November there was over 100 for the month, and an average of 30 per month since liberation. Whatever is being done, casualties are being reduced.
Of course, one is too many, and the families of the dead heros have my sympathy.
Posted by: Man Bites Dog ||
03/11/2004 16:59 Comments ||
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Task Force Ironhorse soldiers from 1st Battalion, 68th Armor regiment discovered seven improvised explosive devices during a convoy west of Tarmiya Monday. Five of the devices consisted of 130 mm mortar rounds and two were 155 mm rounds. Firing mechanisms varied and included electronic blasting caps, daisy chains and detonation cord. Explosive ordnance disposal personnel destroyed the IEDs.
Task Force Ironhorse soldiers with 244th Engineer Battalion captured one individual and confiscated 1.7 million dinar along with 1,000 electric blasting caps during a search of a house located just north of Taji Monday. The individual and contraband were turned over to the 3rd Brigade Combat Team.
Iraqi police conducted a raid on a mosque in the town of Hib Hib Monday. They discovered the targeted individual, Tariq Abu Abdullah, making an improvised explosive device. The individual was taken to Khalis jail and will be transferred to the 2nd BCT detention facility for questioning.
Task Force Ironhorse and soldiers from the Iraqi Armed Forcesâ 1st Battalion conducted a joint raid south of Mandali Monday that resulted in the confiscation of one AK-47 assault rifle, one shotgun and two grenades.
4th Infantry Division soldiers at a traffic-control point southwest of Abu Sayda were attacked with small arms fire from a white Kia Monday. The soldiers returned fire, killing the driver. The two passengers were captured. No soldiers were injured and no equipment was damaged. The Kia, car of choice for all good martyrs
Task Force Ironhorse soldiers from 1st Battalion, 27th Infantry Regiment captured two targeted individuals, Hawas Maneh Salleh and Makmed Mohammed Hussein, in a raid near Huwijah. The targets were suspected of attacking coalition forces. The Monday midnight raid also resulted in the confiscation of two heavy machine guns, a spare barrel, nine rocket propelled grenade launchers, seven RPG rounds, six antiarmor RPG rounds and 7.62 mm and .30 caliber ammunition.
#1
Iraqi police conducted a raid on a mosque in the town of Hib Hib Monday. They discovered the targeted individual, Tariq Abu Abdullah, making an improvised explosive device. The individual was taken to Khalis jail and will be transferred to the 2nd BCT detention facility for questioning.
MOSUL, Iraq - Soldiers from 3rd Brigade, 2nd Infantry Division (Stryker Brigade Combat Team) detained personnel suspected of anticoalition activities and conducted ongoing weapons-collection operations in northern Iraq Tuesday and Wednesday. Coalition soldiers also foiled the sabotage of power lines in Mosul.
The Stryker Brigade Combat Team is under the operational control of Task Force Olympia.
A patrol from 1st Battalion, 37th Field Artillery Regiment pursued five suspects who attempted to cut down power lines outside Mosul. The suspects fled when they were approached by the patrol. The unit found two roles of wire and a set of wire cutters at the scene.
Soldiers from 2nd Battalion, 3rd Infantry Regiment apprehended nine people suspected of anticoalition activities, including three targets suspected of involvement in planning attacks on coalition forces, during a series of operations conducted early Wednesday morning.
Members of the Coalition for Iraqi Unity, a concerned group of citizens in northwestern Iraq, approached 1st Squadron, 14th Cavalry Regiment near Sinjar and turned in four rocket-propelled-grenade launchers, three RPG sights, 60 37 mm high-explosive tracer rounds, 133 60 mm mortar rounds, 167 82 mm mortar rounds, 28 120 mm mortar rounds, 12 rifle smoke grenades, six 115 mm rounds, 18 100 mm rounds and 2100 14.5 mm rounds.
Another concerned Iraqi citizen in Rabiyah approached 1st Squadron, 14th Cavalry Regiment soldiers and turned in 726 rifle grenades, 182 hand grenades and 52 60 mm mortar rounds.
A concerned group of citizens turned in weapons to 1st Squadron 14th Cavalry Regiment headquarters in Tall Afar. The weapons included 112 90 mm recoilless-rifle rounds, 26 mortar rounds, one complete 60 mm mortar system, 50 hand-grenade fuses, 40 hand grenades, three 57 mm rockets, one 68 mm rocket, two 81 mm mortar rounds, five 100 mm artillery rounds and four boxes of 14.5 mm rounds.
Well-known Kashmiri expatriate Dr Ayub Thakur, 55, died on Wednesday in London. He was in a coma since a month. His funeral prayers will be held on Friday. Dr Thakur was the founder and chairman of the World Kashmir Freedom Movement (WKFM) and considered a leading sponsor of jihadi funds.
Outstanding contribution to civilization: hoovering up money to buy exploding yokels. His Mom must have been so proud!
The Indian government wanted him in a number of cases. Mr Thakur fell unconscious last month when he was making arrangements for a Kashmiri leadersâ conference. He was also named in Hawala scandal. Indian Prime Minister LK Advani took up the issue of Dr Thakurâs deportation with British Prime Minister Tony Blair during his visit to the United Kingdom last month. In a case filed against him under the Prevention of Terrorism Act (POTA), the Indian government charged him with funding Kashmir-based journalist Imtiaz Bazaz through a charity, Mercy Universal. Mr Bazaz was charged with terrorism.
Posted by: Paul Moloney ||
03/11/2004 3:07:00 AM ||
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Graham E. Fuller is a former vice chairman of the National Intelligence Council at the CIA (This Guy at least has some credentials). This is not heavily edited for length. It appeared in todayâs LA Times, which unfortunately requires a short registration to access entire article.
Still, the salient point is...that the violence isnât pointless, and what is most worrisome to me is that, just beyond the reach of my normal consciousness, this thesis makes some sense...and there is the worry that the war in Iraq will in fact result in a growing Hegemony within Islam...Which like the war itself, over time, may prove out to be good or bad for the West. It is simply too early to tell if a Hegemonic tendency will develop within Islam...but even if so, greater internal control could be beneficial. Though, all in all, I think that I prefer a fragmented Islam...lol
As Iraq descends into ever greater bloodletting â mostly now visited by Iraqis and outsiders upon other Iraqis â it is tempting to describe all this violence as "mindless," a spasm of senseless nihilism. Yet, sadly, there is a fairly coherent rationale behind these ugly events and their ruthless perpetrators. And even though, fortunately, fewer Americans are dying these days, there can be no doubt that Washington itself is the sole focus of the campaign, regardless of how many Iraqis die.
From day one of the American occupation, radicals â both secular/nationalist and Islamist â had two strategic choices. The first was to limit their targets to U.S. forces and facilities in Iraq, making it abundantly clear that the United States is the sole overwhelming threat to Iraq and the Muslim world. The second was to attack anyone and anything that facilitated any aspect of the U.S. operation, even if it was providing benefits to the Iraqi public. Thus the United Nations and the Red Cross became valid targets, not for their services but because they furthered the broader American game plan for power in the region. In the same vein, Iraqi-staffed police and security officials became part of the American infrastructure of power and control and now are being targeted. Clearly, this second strategy has prevailed â an astonishingly bloody-minded vision that says a lot about the current defensive state of mind of the region as a whole. But regardless of who the actual targets are, itâs clearly a message being directed at the United States. The bolder the scope of the U.S. master plan â quite bluntly described by top U.S. policymakers as a bid to "remake the face of the Middle East" â the harsher the response from the radicals. It makes no difference to them whether innocent Iraqi civilians pay the ultimate price for associating with the U.S. The whole point is to make sure that the U.S. learns that such interventionist projects are flights of dangerous folly. Radicals seek to drive home the point that Americans should never contemplate for even a moment the ambition of visiting American military force against the Muslim world ever again. If Iraq has to twist in the wind in tortured chaos for a year, so be it if that is what it takes to ensure that the U.S. will be permanently traumatized by messing with Islam. And this remains my real problem...Will the results of this Iraqi War limit the ability of the United States to act in the future? (You can say all you want that Kerry is a weasel, Bush is Strong, ect, ect, but these seeds are being planted now, in the manner this war was fought and way the peace, whatever that may be, is secured.
Sadly, this entire rationale and state of mind may now be taking root across the region. If this happens, the radicals will have won a truly major victory. In their calculus, the price paid by a few thousand sad victims might be relatively modest if the long-range result is to crimp any future American plans for invasion and occupation of Muslim lands anywhere. What bigger victory could the radicals hope for? How many in the West, especially in the U.S., will be eager for a reprise of the Iraq experience? Once the United States is deterred from its efforts to control the region, then Muslims can set about dealing with their own regimes and building their own future. But in the radical view, the building phase can come only after the region is cleansed of foreign power, whatever the attendant human costs.
Vicious and bloody-minded, yes, but this vision is hardly nihilistic. It represents a radical reading of the course of contemporary history in the Middle East. It helps turn fashionable debate over a "clash of civilizations" into a self-fulfilling prophecy. Few if any Muslims wish to perpetuate a Pax Americana in the region, even if they deplore the violence of Iraqis upon Iraqis. And even though discomfited by the ugliness of such radical tactics, nearly everyone understands the rationale for rejection of the invader. Sadly, Muslims donât have to be terrorists to have some sympathy for keeping the U.S. out of their face, even if they flinch at the cost. It is still entirely possible that the interim Iraqi Constitution and government will hold good through the elections scheduled for early 2005. The elections may even go well and the violence will abate somewhat. I have been sympathetic to the "Cut and Run," arguments made against Bush&Co...but, I could be wrong, it may be time to exit as gracefully as possible and hope that the New Iraqi Government will not prove to be only a replay of the Weimar experience in Germany after WWI, (a weak Government only giving cover for the rise of a Virulent Fascism...which, heaven knows, Islam already has a marked tendency toward).
Posted by: Traveller ||
03/11/2004 2:45:03 AM ||
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#1
oh please spare me--the blowback from this jihadi fantasy will crush them--a co-opted "new iraq" mukhabbarat will clean their clock --the quietist school of shia political thought from the howza will alienate the salafi/wahabbi dingbats who will have the influence of bin laden in a cave over the future of iraq--don't buy into this moongod baba ganoush
Posted by: SON OF TOLUI ||
03/11/2004 3:22 Comments ||
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#2
Okay, I'll grant you that I did take the, as you so nicely put it, "jihadi fantasy," to the next level...But I still think that the signifigant question is, "Is this what is going on in their heads?"
Or, or even more import, "Is this what is going on in the heads of the general Iraqi Population?" even as some vague thought in the back of the mind?
I take it...reading again your response that your answer would be, "No," doubled or cubed.
#3
I'm with SoT on this. The notion that protracted guerilla warfare primarily killing civilians can bring down a state is just recycled marxist phantasies. I am quite certain Iraq is well past the point that they could trigger chaos. There may well still be civil war in Iraq but the Jihadis won't be the cause. The cause will be good old fashioned ethnic rivalries.
Posted by: Phil B ||
03/11/2004 3:40 Comments ||
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#4
I think that we are talking at cross-purposes here. I don't see the article as being one concerning protracted guerilla war, or even killing civilians, (though of course that is part of the practical effect), but rather by at least bruising the American Psyche, the US decides to stay out of the Muslim East.
And here's the really deceptively tricky part...the American Psyche need not even be bruised...it can be triumphant in the United States, even generally so seen in much of the West...It is the perception within the Muslim World that America has been bruised that counts, and this need not even be true to be effective for the Jihadist...
And this is what so far so irritates me in our approach to Iraq...it is my understand that we still don't have a large Media outlet, TV & Radio, opperating out of Iraq and beaming a signal all across the Middle East. I believe that the funding was cut for this essential project upon which so much hinges.
It is the Arabic perception that America had a hard time that they are trying to control. Or that's how I read the article.
#5
The problem is the USA is going after the enemy a tiny piece at a time. Taking out the Iraqi regime while leaving Syria and Iran unmolested, is the equivalent of having waged WWII by going after Italy -- the weakest Axis power -- while leaving Germany and Japan to the diplomats, the League of Nations and the will of God. Every Islamic Fascist regime, Islamic theocracy, wahhabist madrassah and radical mosque must be pacified.
#6
I wouldn't jump the gun. There other Arab States which need to be watched, even acted on in the near future, but if you take a look at the map, we've just split the Islamic World in 1/2 by taking Iraq and the reason the Arab world is complaining so loudly is their really just scared sh*tless of the US's awesome power and most are not sure of our intensions. A year later, we're fortify our new terrority and building up the Iraqi economy and democracy. Things look good. If we start the war machine too soon, we'll never hear the end of it, but the Iraqi people know our intensions now and word-of-mouth spreads quickly to other parts of the Middle East. Not possible if we took over Syria and Iran in one big swoop because we'd be too busy fighting the whole world politically and trying to secure conquered land. Also I wouldn't worry, Germany and Japan were protected by natural borders and proxy countries, in Iraq these problematic Arab states are next door, we've got them in CHECK! We can handle the Arab world. God Bless America!
#7
Traveller - your general point is good - If the Arab "street" percieves the US as deterred by the aftermath of the war, that could represent an AQ victory.
OTOH Im not sure that the steady build up of the new Iraqi state, accompanied by 20-50 American deaths a month, accomplishes that. In Afghanistan they showed the Soviet Union as defeated, because the Soveits failed to remake Afghan society, withdrew, and saw the pro-Soviet regime collapse shortly after said withdrawl. As others have said, not likely to happen in Iraq. In Kosovo, OTOH, the US won. But without a single American casualty. Which AQ proclaimed as evidence of US weakness, an unwillingess to take casualties. Paradoxically, by taking casualties in Iraq, we are putting the lie to AQ's assertions.
I agree that the admin has been deficient in public diplomacy, etc, and these are points we should be making and probably arent. I dont see evidence that the Arab street now is moving in the direction you fear - at least not yet. They WERE impressed by the conventional victory, (which led to movement on reform, and Arab-Israeli peace in the months immediately after the war) now they are waiting to see how the occupation plays out - with resulting stalemate in many areas where there had been signs of progress.
#8
Graham Fuller's bio: Graham Fuller is a former Senior Political Scientist at the RAND Corporation in Washington D.C. and former Vice-Chairman of the National Intelligence Council at the CIA. In 1982, he was appointed as the National Intelligence Officer for the Near East and South Asia at the CIA. While working for the CIA he was responsible for long-range Intelligence Forecasting. In l986, Mr. Fuller was named Vice-Chairman of the National Intelligence Council, with overall responsibility for all national level strategic forecasting. In early 1988, Mr. Fuller joined the RAND Corporation; his primary work was on the Middle East, Central Asia, ex-Soviet nationality affairs, Russian-Middle East relations, Islamic fundamentalism and problems of democracy in the Middle East.
He is also the author of various books, including Islamic Fundamentalism in Afghanistan: Its Character and Prospects and A Sense of Siege: The Geopolitics of Islam and the West.
I wonder if Fuller was behind the analysis that the US should not retaliate against Iran for the Marine barracks bombing that killed over 200 US servicemen. This was the decade that saw hundreds of Americans killed by Arab and Iranian terrorists, even as Reagan, with a few exceptions, appeased their Arab and Iranian sponsors. The '80's were not a good decade for American deterrence vis-a-vis terror-sponsoring Muslim nations. Was Fuller partially responsible, with his appeasement-oriented policies?
#9
LH -- they're not waiting to see how the occupation turns out, they're waiting to see how the election turns out. If Kerry wins, they know they're all off the hook and everything outside of Iraq is back to pre-9/11 -- and the terror funding and support will go through the roof.
If Bush wins, they'll know they have four more years of hard times to get through, and may make some real changes to improve their chances of survival.
(Unfortunately, I think Syria, Iran, and the Saudis are going to try to destabilize Iraq no matter who wins.)
Posted by: Robert Crawford ||
03/11/2004 10:48 Comments ||
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#11
Garrison - the US for now has to approach this war piecemeal...divide and conquer.....if we were to take all on at once then we would need the draft..could you imagine what the left would do with that...
Zang - the cold war was to the overriding constraint in the 80's......
do not be fooled, especially with Bush re-elected, sryia/lebannon is next then iran..unless iran unleashes attacks unparralled...regardless of the what the un will say...actually sryia may prove to be the issue that re-unites the West.....
Posted by: Dan ||
03/11/2004 15:00 Comments ||
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EFL.
All but nine of 24 suspects in last weekâs deadly blasts targeting Shiite Muslim pilgrims have been released, a top US military official said Tuesday. Those still in US custody are Arabic speakers believed to be Iraqis. However, five of the foreigners arrested who spoke either Farsi, the language of Iran, or Dari, which is common in Afghanistan, have been freed, according to Brig. Gen. Mark Kimmitt, spokesman for the US military command in Baghdad. I myself have noted that if the LeJ members who spoke Dari were arrested after the attacks they might well be mistaken for Farsi-speakers. Interesting that we let them go.
Five other suspects arrested near Karbala a few hours before the attacks were originally said to have been foreign fighters but are now believed to be Iraqis, Kimmitt said. That group, said to have been planning an attack on Shiite pilgrims, remains in US custody. Asked about progress in the investigation, being led by the FBI, Kimmitt reported little headway. "I know the interrogations are still going on," he said during a press briefing. "Thatâs what we have. Weâre going to keep working on it at this point." In Najaf, two Iraqi men who surrendered last week to Iraqi police and were handed to the US military remain in custody, Kimmitt said. The pair were said to have confessed involvement in the Karbala bombing on behalf of al-Zarqawiâs network, said Iraqi police Maj. Mohammed Dayekh. Separately, Kimmitt reported that raids near Taji, north of Baghdad, captured a suspect in recent rocket attacks in Baghdad. Fourteen others were captured in the raids, which also turned up CD-ROMs with Osama bin Ladenâs name on them. Kimmitt said interrogations had yet to reveal much about the detained men, who were thought to be Iraqi.
Posted by: Dan Darling ||
03/11/2004 1:28:20 AM ||
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A total breakdown of law and order is reported in Darfur, western Sudan, as militias roam the region in gangs of hundreds, attacking one village after another. The entire Jabal Si area, previously home to about 70,000 people living in over 119 villages, had been cleared of civilians, the UN said following an assessment. Many of the displaced, over 90 percent of whom are women and children, have fled to Kabkabiyah town in Northern Darfur. All along the road between Tawilah and Kabkabiyah, aid workers had observed "nothing but burned and abandoned villages" and a large number of abandoned donkeys roaming around water points, it said.
Some civilians, living in a state of constant terror, had resorted to paying the Janjawid militias not to attack them. In Birkat Saira, a village about 75 km from Kabkabiyah, residents have paid the militias about US $7,000 since August, according to the deputy community leader there, who keeps the accounts. Two residents said they had individually paid $326 and $96 to the Janjawid. Others are paying the Janjawid to allow them to farm their own land, or to return to their home villages. UN staff observed over 100 armed Janjawid on camels and horses outside Kabkabiyah town. In Nyala, Southern Darfur, several hundred government-aligned militiamen were reportedly recruited by the army last week, an eyewitness told IRIN.
Two uniformed men, who described themselves as members of the Popular Defence Forces (PDF) - paramilitary units used by the Sudanese government - told the eyewitness that they were new recruits waiting to be given arms. They, along with scores of others, camped in the town close to a military base for three or four days last week and then left. The distinction between the army, PDF and Janjawid militias, all accused of committing atrocities against civilians, is at times blurred as the different groups often wear army uniforms, according to observers.
Is "blurred" the same thing as "non-existent"? Who's standing up, by the way, and hollering that Sudan's government is in the same category as Sammy's or Slobo's were? Or is it just me that feels that way?
Posted by: Dan Darling ||
03/11/2004 1:23:31 AM ||
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#1
How would anyone notice a dfference?
BTW: "Anarchy Reigns" - nice oxymoron!
Magomed Khambiyev, a former aide to Chechen rebel leader Aslan Maskhadov, has turned himself in to the federal authorities. Some reports suggest the ex-defense minister of the self-styled Chechen republic of Ichkeria was actually forced to surrender as a result of an operation carried out by the son of Chechnyaâs pro-Moscow president. Even if that proves to be the case, the Chechen authorities will most probably amnesty the rebel warlord in an attempt to encourage other rebels to lay down their weapons.
Sounds like a game of tag to me. Now he's tagged, he has to sit out the game.
Khambiyev, who also commanded the eastern front of the Chechen resistance movement, may be released shortly. At the end of last week he turned himself in to the pro-Moscow Chechen authorities. It seems very likely that he will be exempted from criminal liability under an amnesty scheme developed for rebels who lay down their arms voluntarily.
Everybody he's killed is now resurrected, and the people he's maimed have grown new limbs...
No special amnesty act will have to be adopted in order to release Khambiyev, a source in Chechnyaâs prosecutorâs office said on Tuesday. Articles 208 and 222 of the Russian Criminal Code, which stipulate punishment for participating in illegal armed formations and the illegal possession of weapons, state that a person who voluntarily withdraws from an illegal armed group and surrenders his weapons is exempt from criminal liability. Those provisions may well be applied to Magomed Khambiyev, the source said.
Magomed Khambiyev has proved one of the most consistent separatists. Ever since he was appointed defense minister in the Chechen separatist government and a brigade general in 1997, Khambiyev commanded the so-called eastern front, defending the important rebel strongholds of Kurchaloi, Nozhai-Yurt and Dargo. Throughout the years Khambiyev remained loyal to Aslan Maskhadov and, unlike Shamil Basayev, implicitly obeyed all the presidentâs orders. Khambiyev fell out with Basayev at the beginning of the second Chechen war, and the two clashed openly several times, exchanging insults and, according to some reports, even gunfire.
Oooh! The cockles of my heart are so warm!
In February 2002 Khambiyevâs house in Gudermes was destroyed in a blast, the organizers of which still remain unknown.
Duhhhh... Lemme guess who it mighta been... Nope. Nope. Don't tell me, now!
Although nothing has been heard of Khambiyev for the past 18 months, his surrender is the first important achievement of Akhmad Kadyrovâs presidency. In the run-up to Chechnyaâs presidential elections last October he stated several times that he would convince all separatists to surrender. Kadyrov had, from time to time, also mentioned talks with rebel warlord Ruslan Gelayev, until he was shot dead by two Russian border guards earlier this year.
Put a stop to those negotiations, didn't it?
Khambiyevâs alleged complicity in serious crimes has yet to be established, the prosecutor of Chechnya, Alexander Nikitin, told the press. An investigation has already been launched and he is currently being held at a remand centre in Tsentoroi. The prosecutor did note, however, that neither Khambiyev nor his aide Kharon Bikbulatov, who surrendered with him, is suspected of any crimes currently being investigated in the republic.
Commanding the Eastern Front apparently isn't a crime, no matter how many people get bumped off at Nozhai Yurt...
The final decision on Khambiyevâs release will be passed either by the prosecutorâs office of the republic or by the Federal Security Service directorate for Chechnya with the prosecutorâs officeâs consent. However, judging by earlier statements on Khambiyev made by the Russian military and the pro-Moscow Chechen authorities, there is enough evidence to instigate criminal proceedings against him under several articles. For instance, the military said earlier they suspected Khambiyev of masterminding an assassination attempt on Akhmad Kadyrov when he still held the most senior clerical post in Chechnya. Also, the Russian authorities openly accused Khambiyev of organizing an attempt on the first pro-Moscow mayor of Grozny, Supian Mokhchayev, and Sergei Zverev, the then-deputy to Vladimir Putinâs plenipotentiary to the North Caucasus, in 2000. Both men survived the attacks. ââFrom the very beginning and to this day Khambiyev has always been a staunch opponent of Wahabbism. He was never involved in abductions, murders of civilians and the clergy,ââ Kadyrov told Interfax.
Then what was he doing hanging around with Shamil?
Ilya Shabalkin, chief spokesman for anti-terrorist operations in the northern Caucasus, cautiously noted that ââso far it is a bit too early to talk of amnesty for the so-called Defense Minister of Ichkeria Magomed Khambiyev.ââ According to official reports Khambiyev surrendered following talks with the elders of the village of Benoi, where he was hiding, and with Ramzan Kadyrov. However, those talks were preceded by a special joint operation carried out by Akhmad Kadyrovâs security forces under the command of his son Ramzan and special-purpose OMON police forces, Kommersant Daily reported on Tuesday. The rebelâs house was initially surrounded, but he somehow managed to escape through the window and leave undetected.
"You men! Surround the house! And don't let me catch you wasting time looking at the windows!"
Kadyrovâs men then detained all the male occupants of Khambiyevâs house. A rebel web site confirmed that report in a statement released by the so-called Foreign Ministry of Ichkeria, which said that the Russian military had taken 16 members of the Khambiyev family hostage and demanded the voluntary surrender of Magomed Khambiyev and his brother Umar, a foreign emissary of the separatists, in exchange for the lives of their relatives.
What would have happened if Mogomed had surrendered and Umar hadn't? They'd have shot half the hostages? What if they'd had an odd number?
Shabalkin also indirectly confirmed that report, saying that on 5 March 21 members of Khambiyevâs unit surrendered their weapons. ââApparently, that is what prompted Khabiyev to surrender to the republican authorities,ââ the official said. Almost all of them were released shortly afterwards so that his relatives could persuade the general to surrender. On the following day one of the relatives disclosed Khambiyevâs whereabouts to Kadyrovâs men.
Posted by: Dan Darling ||
03/11/2004 1:15:48 AM ||
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Police have averted a major terrorist act in Chechnyaâs Nadterechny district. The press-centre of the regional operational headquarters for control over the counter-terrorist operation in the North Caucasus told Itar-Tass on Wednesday that police found and confiscated a self-made explosive device near the administrative building of the Selkhoznetkhnila enterprise in the Znamenskoye village on Tuesday. The explosive device was made of 2.5 kilogrammes of TNT, five rounds to grenade launcher, three electric detonators, 400 metres of wire and an alarm clock. The explosive device was found on tips received from local residents. Bandits planted it in the place where a considerable number of people have been gathering of late preparing for the spring sowing campaign. The explosive was turned over to the Nadterechny police precinct for investigation.
Posted by: Dan Darling ||
03/11/2004 1:12:21 AM ||
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An attempt on the life of representatives of the Argun administration has been carried out in Chechnya. A spokesman for the Chechen Interior Ministry reported on Wednesday that at 1015 on Tuesday a roadside bomb exploded in the town of Argun on Sakharozavodskaya Street when two UAZ cars with staff members from the townâs administration and the Russian Interior Ministry were passing by. There were no reports of casualties. One of the cars was slightly damaged. An investigation has begun.
Posted by: Dan Darling ||
03/11/2004 1:11:09 AM ||
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A rebel group commander has been killed in Chechnya, Chechen presidential security service chief Ramzan Kadyrov said on Wednesday.
That's Ahmed's kid. He's learning the family business...
"An armed clash with an illegal armed group took place during a large-scale special operation involving units of the presidential security service and the Chechen Interior Ministry. Six rebels were killed and another four injured. Aslan Gazuyev, commander of the Riada-as-Salikhin rebel group, which was part of Shamil Basayevâs unit, was killed as well. The clash occurred between the villages of Shuani and Yalkhoi-Mokhk in the Kurchaloi district," Kadyrov said. Another 17 rebels have surrendered to the Chechen authorities. A total of 15 rebels were killed during the 10-day operation.
Posted by: Dan Darling ||
03/11/2004 1:10:03 AM ||
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The United States Deputy Defence Secretary, Paul Wolfowitz, has accused Pakistan of turning a blind eye to Taliban activity in the campaign against terrorism. Mr Wolfowitz says Pakistan must help wrap-up Taliban elements, ahead of the Afghan elections scheduled for mid-year. Mr Wolfowitz says there is a view in Pakistan that the US is only concerned with Al Qaeda. In an interview with the Far Eastern Economic Review he said the Pakistani military is cooperating in the hunt for Al Qaeda, but it is not cooperating with getting the Taliban. He said that is now an issue because of the Afghan elections in June. He also said that after the US Governmentâs lenient response to Pakistani physicist Abdul Qadeer Khanâs admission to selling nuclear secrets, Pakistan was now indebted with what he said is clearly a kind of âIOUâ and there must be a full accounting of everything that has happened.
Posted by: Dan Darling ||
03/11/2004 1:02:18 AM ||
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#1
Wow, old Wolfie is making it public. Funny thing about certains parts of the world: you can make almost any deal, and everyone will figure it out and know that there is a quid pro quo - but you're not allowed to speak it aloud or publicize it in any way. Even PakiWaki's have a "face" game.
Or maybe providing cover for Pak actually cooperating in tracking Taliban - If I was Perv, and I WAS cooperating against the Taliban, Id WANT Wolfie to say this, for obvious reasons.
#3
And what about Pak's help in getting the Afghies rid of former USSR and later being being dumped and left high and dry w/o any support against the indies? And the American's leaning towards the Soviet's former biggest aly and stopping the sale of F16s and Awacs to Pakis? Although Pakis did receive few F16s despite paying for the full order.
Since they again require Pakis help so they r now showering them with favors, albeit quite vocal about scratching each others back kinda thing.
#4
Obvious? Wha? Sorry, but I think not. ISI was certainly quick to disclaim any quid pro quo for US soft-peddling on Khan -- right?
So how is it obvious that Wolfie putting Perv on the spot will help?
On the contrary, IMO - the PakiWakis are VERY big on being a major player and being shown major player respect. They want to sit at the Big Table VERY badly. Saying this looks like the US is ordering Perv and PakiWakis around. Or am I missing some nuance here?
Show me where I'm wrong - I really want to know. In 2000 words or less, please! :-)
Perv has little real support outside the army, and thats limited. He is threatened by the Islamists. The more it appears that hes helping the US against the Taliban, the more certain elements in the population rally around the Islamists. This way he can say - see im NOT helping the Americans, look how mad at me they are. Now if you think anyone in Pakistan who might at all dislike Pak army going after the Taliban is already firmly anti=Perv, then my analysis makes no sense of course.
#6
So we agree (I think) that Perv cannot be seen helping us against Taliban - else it will be acceeding to Wolfie's (angry) charge / assertion that the Pakis owe it to US.
So - where the hell can it go from here that helps US if Perv doesn't fess up to the deal made over Khan? That's what confused me.
But now that's not all that is confusing. Your last sentence is an interesting riddle... I break it down and answer with:
a) the Islamists wouldn't like the Paki Army going after the Taleban
b) and they're not Perv's buddies
EFL, getting at the new information.
The hunt for bin Laden is an unprecedented confrontation between 21st-century technology and age-old guerrilla tactics. While the elusive terror chieftain hides in mountain caves and scurries along mule trails, Task Force 121 "bytes" away at him and his chief deputy, Ayman Al-Zawahiri, with the best the Information Age has to offer. Using powerful software called Analystâs Notebook, which helps to piece together data on criminal and terror networksâSpecial Forces command just ordered up more copiesâmilitary and intelligence officials are increasingly confident they are narrowing bin Ladenâs whereabouts.
Itâs a classic cat-and-mouse game in which tactics abruptly shift on both sides. In years past, U.S. officials listened in on bin Ladenâs cell-phone conversations. But he apparently no longer dares to use electronic means of communication. So McRaven and his hunters are now trying to snare his couriers in transit. They scored a major victory two months ago with the capture of Hassan Ghul, a Qaeda operative who was carrying what U.S. officials say was a strategic memo from Abu Mussab al-Zarqawi, the mysterious terror leader allegedly behind the bombings of Shiites in Iraq. Ghul also yielded intel on bin Ladenâs position. Key to the search is "accumulated humint," or human intelligence, says one insider. Other officials tell NEWSWEEK that an increasing number of "data points"âreports of sightingsâhave created an ever-clearer picture of bin Ladenâs area of operation as he appears to shuttle between Pakistan and Afghanistan. Now theyâve focused that picture to the point where they have been able to send in Predator unmanned aerial vehicles to search for him.
If the hunters are getting closer to their prey, itâs also thanks to a renewed effort by Pakistani President Pervez Musharraf to infiltrate the border regions sympathetic to Al Qaeda. On Saturday, the BBC reported that bin Laden narrowly escaped one such Pakistani raid, and NEWSWEEK confirmed that such an incident occurred. Within the past few weeks, some intelligence sources say, a U.S. Predator also spotted a suspect believed to be Al-Zawahiri somewhere in the border area. Some Afghan and Pakistani sources, however, insist that bin Laden is several steps aheadâand that he will continue to outsmart his pursuers. A Taliban official in Pakistan, contacted by NEWSWEEK, says heâs heard that both top Qaeda leaders moved to more secure and separate locations in January, before the spate of publicity about an American "spring offensive." The Taliban official learned that, he said, from a ranking Qaeda operative, a Yemeni who told him that other Qaeda and Taliban fighters had moved into Afghan provinces more than 100 miles from the Pakistani border. "We decided to leave the dangerous zone for safer areas," the Arab told the Taliban official, who goes by the nom de guerre Zabihullah. "The sheik is now in the most secure area he has ever been in," the Arab said, referring to bin Laden. "We were all laughing at all these recent reports that the Americans had our sheik cornered." Zabihullah also said he received an encrypted e-mail last Thursday from a senior Qaeda source in Saudi Arabia. The Qaeda operative told him not to be taken in by the American "psychological warfare" campaign about bin Ladenâs imminent capture. He assured Zabihullah in the e-mail that "the sheik is in a safer place than ever and is more healthy than heâs ever been." I hate to be the pessimist here, but we might do well to recall that the Mansoor Ijaz account later backed up by the Financial Times said that Binny and Ayman had body doubles running around the Afghan-Pakistan border while they were in Iran.
McRaven could be using psyop to flush bin Laden and others out of their hiding places. But the real key to success, the Task Force 121 commander knows, may be the "hammer and anvil" of converging U.S. Special Forces teams in Afghanistan and some 70,000 Pakistani forces in the border areas. In one recent operation in Waziristan, Pakistani security forces arrested several women married to foreign fighters, hoping for a lead on bin Laden. Similarly, they have destroyed the houses of tribesmen suspected of sheltering Qaeda fugitives. Pakistani officials said the tactic has worked, providing valuable information while apparently helping to drive Qaeda and Taliban fighters back across the Afghan borderâinto the hands, they hope, of Task Force 121. The standing U.S. offer of $25 million for bin Ladenâs head provides an extra incentive. "We now have all the ingredients in place for more effective operations in the days to come," says a senior Pakistani official. The man whoâs been tasked with blending those ingredients together, Bill McRaven, is betting on it.
Posted by: Dan Darling ||
03/11/2004 1:00:57 AM ||
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#1
Let me ask again. I was late on the last post re: nailing OBL. Is all this universal information plotting the takedown strategy helping our effort? Maybe it's an integral part, I don't know, but it seems the whole damned planet knows how, when, where, and by what means we're trying to bag this guy. What am I missing here?
#3
Just like the U.S. paid the $25 mil reward for the guy who turned in Saddam. Oh, wait, the reward was never paid. The Justice Department has a really bad record for paying rewards. There's always a lawyer who can point out how you didn't really help.
#6
Correction: The reward was paid for Saddam's hellspawn. The US Army tracked down and captured Saddam without any help, so no reward needed to be paid.
Authorities warned tribesmen on Wednesday of harsh action if they failed to hunt and hand over seven people wanted for providing shelter to al-Qaeda members in remote areas bordering Afghanistan.
"Hand over the seven people who sheltered al-Qaeda terrorists or get ready to face harsh consequences," local administration official Rahmatullah Wazir told a meeting of tribal elders in a Jirga.
"Don't make us come in there!"
The tribesmen have offered assurances of their cooperation, and the elders, while addressing the meeting said they would form an armed force of 600 people on Thursday to hunt down the wanted men, Wazir said and added that the elders also assured that their force would demolish houses of the wanted persons if they were not found during the search operation.
The tribal elders had asked the government at a meeting on Tuesday to set free their four leaders unconditionally. These four men were arrested for not co-operating with authorities in operations against Taliban and al-Qaeda suspects.
The elders said that their release was necessary to enlist people to a tribal force called Lashkar to hunt al-Qaeda harbourers.
"We'll cooperate with you after you give us everything we want. Ain't that right, Mahmoud?"
"E-e-yeah, huh huh, dat's right!"
Posted by: Dan Darling ||
03/11/2004 12:51:46 AM ||
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United States forces in Afghanistan have been absolved of all blame following an investigation into the killing of nine Afghan children in a US airstrike last December. US spokesman Lieutenant-Colonel Bryan Hilferty says the investigating officer has found the military used appropriate rules of engagement and followed what he has called the law of conflict. However, he has also admitted the military's rules of engagement have been changed since the incident in Ghazni province, but declined to give further details. An A-10 tank-buster aircraft had attacked the compound of a suspected militant, killing nine children aged between nine and 12-years, and a young man. The day before in a neighbouring province, six children and two adults were found dead under a collapsed wall after another US attack on a compound. Both attacks failed to kill their intended targets.
Posted by: Steve White ||
03/11/2004 12:33:52 AM ||
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#1
I hope some details about the reasoning are forthcoming.
Posted by: Mike Sylwester ||
03/11/2004 0:43 Comments ||
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Zimbabwe's government Wednesday accused U.S., British and Spanish spy agencies of helping dozens of suspected mercenaries detained this week in Harare in a plot against Equatorial Guinea's government. "They were aided by the British secret service, that is MI6, ... American Central Intelligence Agency and the Spanish secret service," said Zimbabwe's Home Affairs Minister Kembo Mohadi, reading a prepared statement at a news conference.
"Plots! Deep-laid plots!"
He said the heads of the police and army in the tiny but oil-rich central African nation of Equatorial Guinea had gone along with the plot against the government of President Teodoro Obiang Nguema Mbasogo. "The Western intelligence services persuaded Equatorial Guinea's service chiefs not to put up any resistance, but to cooperate with the coup plotters," Mohadi said. He said the heads of the two services had been promised posts in a post-coup Cabinet as a reward.
"See there! That's a deep-laid plot if I ever saw one! And I've lived in Zimbabwe all my life, I know deep-laid plots, believe you me. "
The Zimbabwean government of President Robert Mugabe did not immediately offer any evidence to support its accusations of the involvement of Western intelligence agencies.
"We don't need no stinking proof!"
Mohadi said Zimbabwean authorities had obtained the information from Simon Mann, who was detained in Zimbabwe Sunday as he waited to meet a plane carrying 64 men who were held as suspected mercenaries. Zimbabwe claims Mann is a former member of Britain's elite Special Air Services.
Posted by: Steve White ||
03/11/2004 12:28:21 AM ||
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#1
Dictatorships, particular left wing ones, need conspiracy stories.
#3
Well, Kembo, if I was you, I'd be a little bit nervous about that. I'd at least move my secret bank accounts with the graft money in 'em out of the country.
Gunmen disguised as police shot to death two American coalition officials and their Iraqi translator south of Baghdad after stopping their car at a roadblock, the Polish military said Wednesday. The Americans were the first U.S. civilians from the occupation authority to be killed in Iraq. L. Paul Bremer, the top administrator in Iraq, has requested that the FBI investigate the slayings of the Americans late Tuesday on a road outside the town of Hillah, 35 miles south of Baghdad, said Dan Senor, spokesman for the U.S.-led coalition.
FBI?
It was not known whether the gunmen were specifically targeting coalition officials. "We're starting to form views on that," Senor said.
Not surprising if the jihadis are looking for softer targets -- civilian workers with no/little protection are certainly soft.
And it was unclear if the Americans were traveling with security. Coalition guidelines discourage the movement of staffers after dark. The roads around Hillah have seen a number of attacks on vehicles, some of them fatal. An officer with the Polish military, which patrols south-central Iraq, said the gunmen were disguised as policemen and stopped the Americans' car at a checkpoint. The attackers shot the passengers and took the vehicle, Col. Robert Strzelecki said. Polish troops later intercepted the car, arrested five Iraqis in it and found the bodies inside, said Strzelecki, speaking from the Camp Babylon headquarters of the Polish-led multinational force in Iraq.
"You boys are in a heap o' trouble now!"
The Americans, who were Defense Department employees, were the first U.S. civilians from the Coalition Provisional Authority to be killed in Iraq, Senor said.
Condolences to the families. And those five Iraqis should be meat on a stick.
Posted by: Steve White ||
03/11/2004 12:02:52 AM ||
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#1
Cruising in the stolen car, bodies Still Inside. This takes the cake thus far for Irak's Stupidest Criminals / Wannabee Jihadis. It sounds like they were free-lance jihadis and thought they'd get a fat reward from someone for the bodies.
If just thugies stealing a car then they are the dumbest killers ever. Credit to Dr Steve for how they should meet their fate:
Hillah Main Moskkk. Friday. One hour before mid-day Prayers. Red Hot pokers inserted from both ends. A bullet KGB-style when they stop screaming.
If jihadi wannabees, I hope they're being grilled, literally, for info regards where they were taking the bodies and from whom they expected their reward. After drained dry as the desert, see above for Big Finish.
Condolences to the families of all three. Puhleeze follow common sense and prescribed security, people. This is not DisneyLand, yet. Damn, this sucks.
#3
Has anybody heard of what we are doing with these guys when we catch them? I bet you this is one of the main reasons we are pushing to get the Iraqi Gov't up and running. I am guessing at this point due to Geneva Issues we cannot easily try/execute these bastards. Once the Iraq Gov't is up we can hand these criminals over to them and it is now a internal Iraqi issue and these thugs are no longer POW's but crimininals. Most of these thugs we have have caught are guilty of murder (or attempted murder). During the WWII occupation of Germany the local commanders were able to handle their own local Trials/Executions and that quickly led to a end of resistance. From what I can see we can only throw these guys in Prison and wait. Not much of a deterent if you ask me.
Posted by: Patrick ||
03/11/2004 9:56 Comments ||
Top||
#4
Patrick - Check out the CPA Briefing article - 10,000 Iraqi passport-holders in custody. Being a criminal courts judge in Iraq certainly looks like a job for people with a strong constitution (pun intended)! I'd guess the hangman will also be very busy - starting July 1st.
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