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Rafsanjani to al-Sadr: Fight America, the "Wounded Monster"
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Arabia
Another Saudi Shootout
Saudi security forces and wanted militants exchanged gunfire Monday in Riyadh, the capital, officials and witnesses said. Smoke was seen rising from Riyadh's eastern suburbs where the shootout began during the afternoon, security officials told The Associated Press, speaking on condition of anonymity. Large numbers of police cordoned off the area and ambulances went to the scene, the witnesses said. There was no immediate word of any casualties, and it was not yet clear who the militants were or for what they were being sought.
Or if there really was a shootout, or if it was Monday, or...you get the idea.
The fighting, which continued into the night Monday, was the second round in two weeks. A wanted militant was killed in a shootout last week and a companion was wounded.
And we still don't know who he was.
Posted by: Steve || 04/12/2004 2:30:02 PM || Comments || Link || [0 views] Top|| File under:


Qatar Opens Trial in Yandarbiyev Murder
The trial opened here yesterday of two Russian secret agents accused of the February murder of a former Chechen president in Doha, where he was living in exile. Other than the two defendants present at the criminal court hearing, presided by judge Ibrahim Saleh Al-Nisf, Russian lawyers advising the defense lawyer, Qatari Mohsen Al-Suwaidi, attended the opening session. The defendants, Anatoly Vladimirovich Bilashkov and Vassily Anatolyvich Pokchov, stand accused of ten charges, including the Feb. 13 assassination of Zelimkhan Yandarbiyev. They are also accused of attempting to kill Yandarbiyev’s 13-year-old son and of smuggling arms into Qatar, according to the formal accusations read out in court by a representative of the prosecutor general. Quoting “confessions by the accused”, the representative also said the arms used in the killing came overland in a diplomatic car.

The first attempt to kill Yandarbiyev on Feb. 6 failed because he was delayed in the mosque after Friday prayers, the representative added. The next hearing was set for April 25 when witnesses will be called to testify in order to allow the defense to review the case. In accordance with Qatari law, “only Arab lawyers can participate in pleading before the court,” a judicial source said. However, lawyers from those countries that have a reciprocal agreement with Qatar, which allows lawyers from the Gulf state to take part in court hearings abroad, can also go before a Qatari court, the source added. In what has escalated into a diplomatic row between the emirate and Russia, Qatar expelled the first secretary of the Russian Embassy late last month after detaining him and the agents in connection with the murder Yandarbiyev in a car bomb. Qatar’s expulsion announcement was made just hours after the return to Doha of two Qatari nationals who were released by Moscow. The two members of the Qatari wrestling federation were arrested in transit at Moscow’s Sheremetyevo airport on Feb. 26 on suspicion of carrying undeclared foreign currency.
Posted by: Fred || 04/12/2004 11:18 || Comments || Link || [0 views] Top|| File under:


Britain
Associates of terror suspects may be jailed in UK
DAVID BLUNKETT was warned last night that he could drive moderate Muslims into the arms of extremists after he floated a plan to jail the associates of terrorist suspects or organisations.
I think I’d rather take the risk of additional terrorists, then go after them, rather than continually trying to placate them.
The Home Secretary believes that every known contact of a terror suspect or extremist Islamic group should be given a formal warning. Those whose names were found on seized mobile phones, computers or e-mails and who tried further contact would find themselves facing prison. Mr Blunkett is looking for ways to stop those on the fringes of extreme groups from being sucked into terrorism but civil liberty organisations last night forecast that it would have the opposite effect. The scheme is the latest idea suggested by Mr Blunkett in an attempt to deal with the new level of terrorist threat facing Britain. It would work much like Anti-Social Behaviour Orders designed to keep troublemakers away from areas where they are known to cause problems. His plans to allow phone-tapped evidence in court and to allow evidence to be given direct to a judge to protect sources were given a rough ride and now form part of a consultation.
Sounds like a good plan to get rid of Hamza et al, at the very least.
Posted by: Lux || 04/12/2004 6:55:38 AM || Comments || Link || [0 views] Top|| File under:

#1  moderate muslims have nothing to worry about - should they exist
Posted by: Frank G || 04/12/2004 8:10 Comments || Top||

#2  If they aren't citizens, deport them. If they have visas that are already expired, then deport them immediately. If they have valid visas, then cancel the visas and deport them.
Posted by: Mike Sylwester || 04/12/2004 8:57 Comments || Top||

#3  I think the proposed law is a wider net than just visa holders/illegal immigrants. It will also apply to born-in-the-UK citizens, for which deportation makes no sense - hence jail.
Posted by: Lux || 04/12/2004 9:50 Comments || Top||

#4  Last Occupation?
Terror Associate

Associate? Did you have hire/fire?
No, Mostly fire.


Posted by: Shipman || 04/12/2004 17:37 Comments || Top||


UK imam linked to 3/11
Spanish police are investigating possible links between the group which carried out devastating bomb attacks on Madrid trains a month ago and a Muslim preacher in England, the daily El Pais newspaper said yesterday. Quoting sources close to the investigation into the bombings, the paper said that presumed terrorists who blew themselves up in a suburb of Madrid on April 3 rather than face arrest had telephoned the preacher, or imam, shortly before doing so. Investigators were not sure of the name of the preacher involved, but believed it may be a man named Ben Salawi, the paper said, whom it described as a "very radical imam." The paper said investigators believed that the presumed perpetrators of the attacks "were receiving support and orders from an Al Qaeda leader residing in England," although it was not clear whether this was the same person to whom the presumed terrorists telephoned.
Britain's starting to look like the veritable hub of Islamist activity. It's HQ for Hezb ut-Tahrir and al-Muhajiroun, home to Abu Hamza and Abu Qatada, the Movement for Islamic Reform...
Posted by: Dan Darling || 04/12/2004 12:20:32 AM || Comments || Link || [0 views] Top|| File under:

#1  "were receiving support and orders from an Al Qaeda leader residing in England,"

Does it matter a tinker's damn what his name was? He preaches in a mosque. I guess it's asking too much to arrest them all isn't it? But, if you did you would have all the guilty ones. Simple deduction and I did it without Dr. Watson. Chine
Posted by: Chiner || 04/12/2004 4:24 Comments || Top||

#2  This is another example of how western countries are not yet taking the threat seriously. I agree there should be a general roundup of suspect imams, and a mass deportation at a minimum.
Posted by: virginian || 04/12/2004 7:14 Comments || Top||

#3  Today's Monday. The UK should resolve all asylum petitions by the end of business on Thursday. All applicants whose petitions are rejected should be prepared to depart from the country by midnight on Friday.
Posted by: Mike Sylwester || 04/12/2004 9:23 Comments || Top||

#4  The UK better get this Islamist threat under control. It is almost at the metastasizing stage. We here in the US better start, too, especially at the Wahabbi-financed mosque level. Jeeze Louise, there ought to be plenty of evidence of Saudi duplicity to limit Saudi entry into the US and keep diplomats on a very short leash in this country, at least that as a start. The 9-11 lawsuit against the Saudis is a start, just a start.
Posted by: Alaska Paul || 04/12/2004 11:37 Comments || Top||


Caribbean-Latin America
Tracing the Aristide and Chavez money trails in DC
EFL

Venezuela has retained the Washington law firm Patton Boggs to give its image a Washington make-over. "We are advising them to improve U.S.-Venezuelan relations," a consultant at the firm says.

-snip-

U.S. Justice Department records show that the firms of Mr. Dellums and of Ms. Ross-Robinson and Mr. Kurzban’s law firm were all big beneficiaries of Mr. Aristide’s influence buying in Washington. The Washington Times has reported that Mr. Dellums, who threw his weight around with the Congressional Black Caucus on Mr. Aristide’s behalf, received $571,326 in 2001 and 2002 from the Western Hemisphere’s poorest country. The story also said that Ms. Ross-Robinson took in $367,967. Still, those two were under-performers compared to Mr. Kurzban, whose work for Mr. Aristide from 1997 through 2002 yielded, according to the Times report, $5.38 million.

Lobbyists make their livings lobbying, of course. But these sizable fees paid by a desperately poor nation hearken back to Christopher Caldwell’s observations on Mr. Aristide as a Washington operator in the July 1994 American Spectator. In that story Mr. Caldwell detailed the Haitian’s skill in working the U.S. capital: "How the administration came to condone and promote this kind of slow-motion Great Terror -- that is, how Aristide’s policy became our policy -- is a story of the distortions that result when virtually the entire budget of a sovereign nation is funneled into a massive Washington lobbying and public-relations campaign."

Mr. Chavez has big bucks too and far more dangerous predilections. Like Mr. Aristide he has armed paramilitaries to enforce his rule. But there are also reports that he has been giving safe haven to Colombian guerrillas inside the Venezuelan border, and that he has been funding radicalized Indian militants in Bolivia. The evidence spilling out in Washington suggests that the Patton Boggs strategy involves getting policy makers to disbelieve what has been reported from the region. The consultant I spoke to said the plan involves lobbying U.S. congressmen and "could" involve calling on the State Department, the Department of Defense, the Drug Enforcement Agency and the Bureau of International Narcotics and Law Enforcement Affairs.

It’s pretty clear, though, that Patton Boggs sees Senate Democrats as the flabby, soft underbelly of U.S. foreign policy, starting with Connecticut Senator Chris Dodd. As the ranking member on the Senate Foreign Relations subcommittee for the Western Hemisphere, Mr. Dodd defended Mr. Chavez in April 2002 when the Venezuelan military removed him rather than follow his orders to attack a crowd of civilian demonstrators. When an Inspector General’s report cleared the Bush administration of any role in that event, Mr. Dodd retreated in silence on the subject of Venezuela.

Dispassionate observers give chances for the Patton Boggs mission long odds. U.S. policy makers will balance the lobbyist claims against all the evidence that trusting Hugo Chavez is a bad idea. Nevertheless, it’s an election year and Democrats have a mighty interest in restoring their power. That means they need money and they need to show that George Bush is in trouble in the world. What is worrying is that Mr. Chavez might be able to help them with both.
Posted by: Super Hose || 04/12/2004 9:48:18 PM || Comments || Link || [0 views] Top|| File under:

#1  If I were in Las Vegas - I'd see Mr. Chavez as a reeeally big long shot with a teeny tiny payout compared to the bid.

I guess the world is full of idiots willing to piss away their money.
Posted by: B || 04/13/2004 15:27 Comments || Top||

#2  It’s pretty clear, though, that Patton Boggs sees Senate Democrats as the flabby, soft underbelly of U.S. foreign policy

That certainly describes their role for the last thirty-odd years.
Posted by: Robert Crawford || 04/13/2004 15:48 Comments || Top||


U.S. knew of Cuba bioweapons effort
EFL from Cubanet

"Incredibly, a major U.S. intelligence analysis in 1998 concluded that Cuba did not represent a significant military threat to the United States or the region ... Why did it underplay the threat Cuba posed to the United States?" he asked. "A major reason is Cuba’s aggressive intelligence operations against the United States, which included recruiting the Defense Intelligence Agency’s senior Cuba analyst, Ana Belen Montes, to spy for Cuba."

Bolton said the convicted spy had a hand in drafting the 1998 Cuba report and participated in interagency coordination of a national intelligence estimate on biological weapons. He said Montes passed some of the United States’ most-sensitive information about Cuba back to Havana.

"Monte’s espionage materially strengthened Cuba’s denial and deception efforts; the data Montes passed gave Havana ample opportunity to generate controlled information that could, via defectors and émigrés, reach Washington," he said.

Bolton also accused Cuba of collaborating in biotechnology -- including extensive dual use technologies -- with state sponsors of terror.

"... I believe the case for the existence of a developmental Cuba BW R&D effort is strong," he said. "The administration believes that Cuba remains a terrorist and BW threat to the United States. The Bush administration continues to watch this rogue state very closely."

The Bush administration differentiates between a weapons "effort" and a weapons "program."

Carl Ford, assistant secretary of State for intelligence and research, told Senators in 2002, "A program suggests to us something far more substantial than what we see in the evidence. But we feel very confident about saying that there is ... an effort that would give them a limited BW capability."

The issue is a prickly one in Washington because of calls by some lawmakers to normalize ties with Havana. Many weapons experts have openly questioned the veracity of Bolton’s claims, which were first made in 2002. The Center for Defense Information, a non-profit Washington institute, sent a team to Cuba soon after those allegations and said it found no evidence of a biological weapons effort.

"What we did find was what appeared to be a very ambitious medically related biotech industry that created dozens of vaccines and other pharmaceuticals largely for domestic use," Glenn Baker, author of a report on the trip, told United Press International.

Baker said the Bush administration’s phrasing of the allegations gives it enough room to maneuver on the claim.

"The written statement is carefully worded enough so they can get away it," he said. "They talk about the possibility of an effort. They are really parsing the words here."

A State Department official defended the claims, however. The official said Bolton’s speech had the support of top intelligence agencies.

"Bolton’s claims were cleared by the highest levels of the CIA," the official told UPI.

In 2001, Bolton first asked the U.S. intelligence community to look into the biological weapons efforts of several countries, including Cuba, the official said. His subsequent references to Cuban research efforts were backed by the intelligence community, which had published similar findings.

"What he said was nothing new," the official said.

Bolton’s remarks first stirred up a controversy in May 2002 during a speech to the Heritage Foundation, a conservative Washington think tank."The United States believes that Cuba has at least a limited offensive biological warfare research and development effort," he said.

Although top officials, including Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld, distanced themselves from the comment, the State Department official said that since the 2002 speech, the United States has more evidence of a Cuban biological weapons effort.
"Since Heritage, he (Bolton) has seen intelligence that he believes strengthens his claim the Cubans have covert bioweapons research and development effort," the official said.
The official said the United States would use the findings to keep the pressure on the Castro regime. "We hope they’ll come clean and abandon their efforts," the official said.

Critics, however, say the evidence to back up the accusations is slim. "There has been no evidence and it is widely assumed the motive is political," John Steinbruner, director of the Center for International and Security Studies at the University of Maryland, told UPI. "Frankly I think it’s irresponsible."

Steinbruner said Cuba’s extensive biotechnology complex, which is used to make vaccines for its people and for sales overseas, would have the appropriate technology to make biological weapons, but the odds were against it. "The incentives are overwhelmingly against that," he said. "They’re trying to legitimize the complex in the eyes of the rest of the world. It would be devastating to have the charges believed."

David Isenberg, a weapons of mass destruction analyst at the British American Security Information Council, which describes itself as "a progressive and independent analysis and advocacy organization," told UPI Bolton had little evidence to support his claims. How can you be an independent advocacy organization?

"Bolton is tied in to Madam Cleo’s psychic hotline to know the things he does," he said. "Every now and then in the context of broader electoral politics...stuff like this crops up. There is no incriminating evidence ... to support it."

Posted by: Super Hose || 04/12/2004 8:45:49 PM || Comments || Link || [0 views] Top|| File under:


China-Japan-Koreas
Airbus wins $1.2bn China order
Fifteen of the aircraft will be Airbus A320s China Southern Airlines said it has agreed to buy 21 planes from European plane-maker Airbus in a deal worth about $1.2bn (£654m). China Southern will take 15 A320-200s and six A319-100s under an agreement signed by its president Yan Zhiqing and Laurence Barron, head of Airbus China. The planes will be delivered in 2005 and 2006.
Guess the French-Chinese love fest is paying off.

Meanwhile, Boeing goes unnoticed while the US$ +120 BILLION Chinese trade imbalance remains of little consequence. Garsh, let’s stop buying stuff from them!

Posted by: Zenster || 04/12/2004 10:19:12 PM || Comments || Link || [0 views] Top|| File under:


Europe
Three Kurdish militants killed
Turkish troops killed three Kurdish militants and arrested one in a four-day military operation in southeast Turkey, a military source said on Sunday. Two soldiers were wounded in the clashes in the southeastern provinces of Tunceli, Siirt, Sirnak and Bingol, once a stronghold of Kurdistan Workers Party separatists, and the operation is still under way, the source said. More than 30,000 people, most of them Kurds, died in three decades of armed conflict between Turkish security forces and Kurdish separatists in southeast Turkey, but the PKK said it would focus on political means to achieve its goals after the arrest and imprisonment of PKK leader Abdullah Ocalan in 1999.
Posted by: Fred || 04/12/2004 11:30 || Comments || Link || [0 views] Top|| File under:


More Suspects Arrested in Madrid Bombings
Spanish authorities investigating last month's Madrid train bombings jailed a Moroccan engineering student allegedly linked to the attacks' suspected ringleader and arrested three more suspects, court officials said Monday. The electrical engineering student, Fouad Almorabit, 28, was jailed Monday on charges of collaborating with a terrorist organization. During hours of questioning by Judge Juan del Olmo, Almorabit admitted knowing suspects in the March 11 attacks that killed 191 people but denied having any role in them, the officials said.
"No, no! Certainly not!"
Almorabit was first arrested March 24, released and then arrested two more times, including Thursday, for further questioning. During that first arrest, authorities also seized Almorabit's roommate, Basel Ghayoun, a Syrian now jailed as a prime suspect. Del Olmo's decision to jail Almorabit raises to 18 the number of people charged in the case. Six are accused of mass murder and 12 of belonging to or collaborating with a terrorist organization. Fourteen of the 18 people charged in Spain's worst terrorist attack are Moroccan. The Spanish government says the focus of its probe is the Moroccan Islamic Combatant Group, which has links to al-Qaida and is related to an organization blamed for last year's suicide bombings in Casablanca, Morocco, that killed 45 people, including 12 attackers.
Posted by: Fred || 04/12/2004 11:12 || Comments || Link || [0 views] Top|| File under:


Al-Qaeda chemical weapons threat worse than suspected
Terrorists plotting to use chemical weapons in Europe have more advanced plans than security services previously suspected, a senior French counter-terrorism official has warned. Small groups of chemicals experts have been detected in several European countries and have developed ways of communicating with each other that allowed them to avoid being exposed. "We have underestimated the terrorists' willingness and capacity to develop chemical weapons," the French official told the Financial Times.

He said a recent wave of arrests in Britain and France has revealed how far they had developed their plans. The groups appear to operate separately from other cells planning attacks using ordinary explosives. Several of them are believed to have links to Islamic militants in the breakaway Russian republic of Chechnya. Western intelligence services allege that extremists linked to al-Qaeda have carried out experiments in chemical warfare in Chechnya. In January French anti-terrorist police arrested five people in the Lyons suburb of Venisseux - three of them from the same family - on suspicion of involvement in planning terrorist attacks. Nicolas Sarkozy, then interior minister, said that one of the detainees, Menad Benchallali, "was trained to produce chemical substances". Two of the detainees admitted a plan had been devised to attack Russian targets in France using ricin poison and botulinum bacteria. French officials say Mr Benchellali received chemical weapons training in Georgia's Pankisi Gorge, a haven for Chechen fighters.

On April 6 British anti- terrorist officers uncovered a possible plot to use osmium tetroxide in an attack. The chemical can cause death or blindness if dispersed in an explosion. UK security officials have refused to comment on the alleged plan, though US officials said it was in its early stages. The alleged plotters were reported to have been in direct contact with extremists in Pakistan, as the plot was discovered when their telephone calls were monitored by GCHQ, the UK government's electronic surveillance centre. "The Pakistani element [in developing these weapons] was also totally underestimated, as was the experience developed in Chechnya," said the French official. He added that militants within the Pakistani Islamist group Lashkar-i-Taiba, which has close links to al-Qaeda, had helped develop chemical weapons skills now dispersed to several parts of the al-Qaeda network. "The thing that is most clear is that the people with the knowledge of chemicals are very organised," the French official said. "There are links between the groups that have chemical expertise. These groups are not present everywhere, though Chechnya is where they learned this skill." The arrests in January in Venisseux led to the discovery of vital clues about the links between alleged extremists with knowledge of chemicals and experts trained in Chechnya and Afghanistan. "The group arrested in Venisseux has links to Chechnya, but also to Abu Musab al-Zarqawi," the official said.
Posted by: Dan Darling || 04/12/2004 12:29:54 AM || Comments || Link || [1 views] Top|| File under:

#1  I wonder if there's going to be a European clean-up in Chechnya Aisle 3?
Posted by: Anonymous2U || 04/12/2004 1:48 Comments || Top||

#2  I want to know when the free world is going to bother putting in place a credible deterrent to terrorism.

Such a thing must exist. I've been supporting a fairly radical version of it lately. I'm open to other less drastic solutions, but I would really like to see some suggestions.

The only way to disable terror is to hold hostage something or someone so dear to them that they will not act. The deterrent has to be in the form of a devastating response. Just like a SWAT sniper at an ongoing crime scene.

There must be a retaliation for this random violence. Moslem terrorists seek cultural genocide against all but Islam. There is no negotiating with such a cancer. To do so encourages metastasis. A diseased thing like this can only be excised, poisoned or irradiated. If Islam is unwilling to shun such malevolence, they themselves will stray into the crosshairs of terror's interdiction.

Terror must be stopped. Prevention is incredibly expensive. The ratio of personnel to terrorists is orders of magnitude. Where is it writ large that terrorists deserve to have so much wealth ill-distributed solely because of their psychotic behavior? Our world must fight AIDS, famine, disease, illiteracy and communism, not terrorism.

Islamist terrorism represents an enormous hole in the fabric of global progress. Not since the Cold War's end has such a virulent threat overhung our world. It impedes every other form of religious, political, sexual, commercial and intellectual freedom known elsewhere on the entire planet. Jihadist Islamic fundamentalists represent such a small proportion of our earth's population that the asymmetrical impact they have is utterly preposterous.

No individual society can endure terrorism's sort of interruption to its daily function. There is no reason why our global economy should tolerate the presence of such an overhead intensive threat either.

It is regretable that any established faith should be saddled with a faction of psychopathic fanatics. In this case, Islam is. It is becoming vividly apparent that the Muslim community neither possesses the will or potentially even the means to moderate its internal fanaticism. There has been no outpouring of anti-jihadist clerics and Imams into the extremist regions risking martyrdom to make clear the blasphemy of terrorism. If the more moderate factions do not quickly assume the responsibility of reining in their violent brethren, then they cannot wail about the consequences of others doing it for them.

As a credible deterrent, I suggest that announced or unannounced biochem attacks should result in a reciprocal action. There would necessarily be a few moderated stages. I can only hope that no escalation would be needed at all. These scenarios apply to biochem attacks only since that is the lead article's theme.

A.) Even if no attack warning was given by the terrorists, the first retaliation would be preceded by an announcement. The response would be to dust Medina just before the Haj with whatever same agent was used in the biochem terror attack. All of the Muslim world will be denied their pilgrimage's second-most Holy site for that year.

B.) Next biochem attack. Dust Medina for one entire year. No off season Haj circuit either, not for almost twelve months. The vacancy sign will come in time for next year's Haj.

C.) Next biochem attack. Dust the most Holy site of Mecca just before the Haj.

D.) Next biochem attack. Dust Mecca all year.

E.) After that. Continuously contaminate both sites until the attacks have stopped for over twelve calendar months. Site visits are denied to all unless they sufficiently repress psychotic factions of their faith. A single attack begins the cycle all over again at step A.

I don't like this idea of dusting the Islamic Holy land one bit. Even less do I like the idea of our world's economic growth and social advancement being stifled during this crucial period of progress. We are finally reversing every sort of disease and ecological plunder. We have all the technology, skill and money to avert the looming ecological and population meltdowns. This will not happen if we must divert asymmetrical assets to the war on terror.

Once again:

Minuscule factions of a secondary religion must not be permitted to obstruct overall global progress. By doing so, they declare war on the entire world, one and all, nation, state and person alike. No country is immune to this threat and all are at risk of monstrous attack. No further persuasion is needed, just an implacable desire to end this absurdly festering disruption and an equally determined sense of fairness.
Posted by: Zenster || 04/12/2004 4:53 Comments || Top||

#3  Excellent comment, Z. I agree more drastic action is needed, including more pre-emptive action. One thing we could do is cut off their funding by taking the Saudi oilfields. I think somehow we need to dismantle the Wahabi global network, and perhaps drying up the funding is a way to do it. Something also needs to be done about the Iranian nuke program, but we may not know where all of their secret projects are located. Anyway, I fear we will wait until another catastrophic attack before we escalate to the next level.
Posted by: virginian || 04/12/2004 7:07 Comments || Top||

#4  Moslem terrorists seek cultural genocide against all but Islam.

This was previously considered an unacceptable conclusion, but I have noticed that it is not considered that any longer. Anyone who is paying the slightest attention or isn't busy grinding their anti-American or Jew axe understands this statement to be the truth. I think it is good that everyone is finally addressing the issue head on.

You made excellent points - Z - but I have to take issue with your solutions. I still cling to the hope that we have moved beyond the stage of warfare where we cut off the leg to rid the body of gangrene in the toe. While Islam may indeed have become a petri dish for Islamofanaticism, I still believe that most of the people living under it are basically good and do not deserve to be punished for the crimes of the terrorists anymore than you or I do.
Posted by: B || 04/12/2004 7:30 Comments || Top||

#5  B, do you feel that terrorism can be countered without a credible deterrent? If so, how? If not, what sort of deterrent do you suggest?

I'm just trying to come up with some sort of viable solution. I refuse to advocate prohibition of Muslim worship or any kind of madness like that. I merely seek a way to avert any further atrocities.
Posted by: Zenster || 04/12/2004 8:14 Comments || Top||

#6  B - the issue of a peaceful silent majority of muslims is just that - there's no outcry against the Islamofascists from within Islam, is there? CAIR and the other "victim" organizations certainly pay only lip service, if that
Posted by: Frank G || 04/12/2004 8:18 Comments || Top||

#7  agreed. But I'd like to think that we've moved beyond Hiroshima (sp?) and have advanced to where we can pinpoint the true evil doers and vaporize them from space. There are many good Islamic people in this world and dusting off friendly Grandmas is not productive towards the cause of world peace.

It's not to say that I don't think we need to take on the Madrassas or that I don't understand your point that their silence speaks volumes.

Just allow me my dreams that we can advance civilization to where we don't have to bomb an entire city full of chubby babies and happy children to eliminate the handful of badguys who make it all happen.
Posted by: B || 04/12/2004 8:28 Comments || Top||

#8  Before we start taking hostages and threatening to bomb religious sites, let's first rachet up our diplomatic and moral pressure way, way up. We need to launch a very public, aggressive and constant criticism on fundamentalist Islam, similar to our past criticism of Communism.

To take a small example, our US representative at the UN ought to deliver a daily speech against honor killings, female circumcision, and forced marriages of girls in the Moslem world. We ought to repeatedly propose UN condemnations of these Moslem practices.

We ought to repeatedly propose UN condemnations of the lack of freedom of religion in Moslem countries. The US should start making a very big public stink about this issue in general and about every little violation in particular.

We ought to make a similar stink about Arab mistreatment of non-Arabs and about Sunnis' mistreatment of non-Sunnis, and so forth.

We need to knock Moslems off their high moral horse, just as we knocked Communists off theirs. We need more presidential declarations along the lines of Reagan's "evil empire" characterization of the Soviet Union. Bush ought to start using the expression "axis of evil" regularly again.
Posted by: Mike Sylwester || 04/12/2004 9:18 Comments || Top||

#9  Mike, that's good advice. You have to wonder why they haven't already done it!!
Posted by: B || 04/12/2004 9:31 Comments || Top||

#10  excellent string..but instead of Medina , too many religous issues, just announce the intention of destroying tehran (and few other miliary/polictical complexes in iran) with nukes. this will get the attention of the mullas.
Posted by: Dan || 04/12/2004 10:44 Comments || Top||

#11  Mike Sylvester: Excellent response--nothing like turning on the light to make the cockroaches scuttle away. If what you said would happen, AND HAPPEN FAST starting now, a lot would change.

Zenster: I've been following your comments for several weeks now, and I don't buy you and what you're saying--everything always sounds great, but something doesn't add up. I still wonder why you don't support President Bush and Tony Blair. Is there another agenda or viewpoint your haven't disclosed?

If you render the Islamic sites unusable, you've just killed your only bargaining chip, and invite retaliation of the greatest magnitude. Political, rather than religious targets would be more sane. I understand the "swatting at flies" issue, but learning more about how the terrorist networks operate, and then educating and convincing the public about the realities and parameters of the threat would have to be successful in order to enforce the kind of ultimatum you suggest. Public humiliation and condemnation would go a long way, and would rally more support regarding any actions we take.

Posted by: ex-lib || 04/12/2004 12:04 Comments || Top||

#12  ahhhh...so we have a little subvertive troll do we. Jeesh..and I thought I needed to get off the computer and get to my life.

You got issues Zenster. Get help.
Posted by: B || 04/12/2004 12:07 Comments || Top||

#13  Don't worry I'm just circlin around, real trolls tend to thrash.
Posted by: Shamu || 04/12/2004 16:22 Comments || Top||

#14  Has anyone seen a stray orca swimming about? I have a personal score to settle with one of the old mackerel breaths.
Posted by: Super Hose || 04/12/2004 19:09 Comments || Top||

#15  I think Mike's suggestions are cogent, and should happen now. Of course the U.N. is powerless and becoming more so.

To reframe the problem: Islomofascists are planning to kill us, as many at a time, as they can manage. Each attack need only kill or maime one Westerner to achieve "redemption." The killers want/are content to lose their lives in the attempt. The next attack may happen tommorow.
What message can we send immediately to Islam, to help them save themselves?
Posted by: geoffg || 04/16/2004 9:57 Comments || Top||


Al-Qaeda provided assistance in 3/11 plot
Spanish investigators said they now believe that the leader of a cell that carried out the March 11 bombings of four rush-hour commuter trains in Madrid sought the assistance of al Qaeda in the months preceding the deadliest terrorist attack in Spain's history, but said they have no evidence that al Qaeda directly participated in the operation.
The media really needs to get over this idea that al-Qaeda members wear these secret decoder rings. We have Zougam, who works for Yarkas and, further up the food chain, Zarqawi. How is any of this remotely unclear?
Rule #19 from the Evil Overlord rules: "My undercover agents will not have tattoos identifying them as members of my organization, nor will they be required to adhere to any dress code."
The investigators said the cell leader, Sarhane Ben Abdelmajid Fakhet, a Tunisian immigrant, traveled to Turkey in late 2002 or early 2003 and met with Amer Azizi, whom they described as a senior al Qaeda operative in Europe. At the meeting, according to the investigators, Fakhet outlined plans for an attack in Spain but told Azizi he needed manpower and other support to carry it out. Spanish officials declined to say how they learned of the meeting or what was discussed. Azizi, who had fought alongside Islamic militants in Bosnia and Afghanistan and is now a fugitive, was said to respond that al Qaeda could not offer direct assistance but expressed support for the plan and told the Tunisian that he could assert responsibility for the attack in the name of al Qaeda. Authorities also said Azizi offered the name of a Moroccan immigrant living in Madrid, Jamal Zougam, who co-owned a cell phone business with his half-brother. A senior Interior Ministry official said in an interview last week that Fakhet and Zougam formed the "central nucleus" of the group that carried out the bombings, which killed 191 and injured more than 1,800, making them the worst terrorist attack in Spain's history.

Court officials said the main investigating judge in the case, Juan del Olmo, is seeking to determine whether there are any ties between Moroccan immigrants arrested since the bombing and the Moroccan Islamic Combatant Group, a militant group blamed for a series of suicide bombings last May in Casablanca that killed 33 people in addition to the assailants. The group has long-standing ties to al Qaeda. The Interior Ministry official, however, speaking on condition that his name not be used, said, "We have yet to find evidence that al Qaeda directly participated in the March 11 bombings."

In the month since the explosions, Spanish investigators have described how they believe Fakhet, who had no criminal record, orchestrated the attack. They said he carried it out with a core of North African immigrants like himself, who had lived in Spain many years, drawing on their knowledge and materials acquired locally to assemble explosives and detonators stuffed into backpacks and stealing the bombmaking materials from a quarry. The case underscores the challenges for anti-terrorism efforts throughout Europe, where investigators have increasingly uncovered threats from homegrown extremists.
Somehow I don't think that you can call these folks "homegrown" ...
I'd call them "transplants", though the local soil seems to be quite hospitable to them.
Or you could call them sleepers, in this case...
Only a handful of the Madrid bombing suspects had raised flags for security agencies, according to investigators. According to a neighbor, Fakhet, who had lived in Spain for eight years, appeared on the police radar screen just after the Sept. 11, 2001, terrorist attacks in the United States, when authorities made inquiries about him in the neighborhood. "The police came after September 11. They asked the postman who lived here," said Andres, a retiree who lives in the building where Fakhet shared an apartment with his 16-year-old bride. "It looks like they were just scouting out people. But there was nothing suspicious here," said Andres, who asked that only his first name be used, for fear of reprisal.

Zougam, the cell phone vendor, was known to Spanish police. His name surfaced in an earlier probe into possible Spanish links to the Sept. 11, 2001, attacks. Last September, a 700-page indictment detailing al Qaeda operations in Spain characterized Zougam as a follower of Imad Eddin Barakat Yarkas, who has been imprisoned since November 2001 on suspicion of being the leader of an al Qaeda cell in Spain. Police searched Zougam's house, but he was not indicted or taken into custody. The Interior Ministry official said Fakhet and Zougam were at the center of an ad hoc but closely knit "compact cell" that drew support from Spain's large North African immigrant community. "The Spanish cell shares al Qaeda's objectives," the official said.
Maybe that's cuz Binny owns their native mob? Nah ...

During interrogations of the 17 people now in custody in the case, he said, investigators have developed three distinct suspect profiles. "Those that were religious fundamentalists, whose motives were purely religious" include Fakhet, the official said, adding that others "were motivated by purely political radicalism, such as Jamal Zougam." Still other suspects, members of what he called the "lower tier of the cell," were young North African immigrants "who were recruited and brainwashed into participating."
Those failing to see a difference between the 3 types raise your hand ...
Much of what investigators have learned about militant cells in Spain has come from interrogations of a key member of al Qaeda, Khayata Kattan, a Syrian who was arrested in Jordan and extradited to Spain earlier this year on a warrant issued in an ongoing investigation into the 2001 attacks. Kattan made a lengthy declaration to investigating judge Baltasar Garzon on Feb. 4-5, portions of which were made public. Kattan identified Azizi -- the man who allegedly met with the Madrid bomb leader -- as a key al Qaeda operative in Europe. In the declaration, Kattan told the judge that the al Qaeda cell in Spain financed itself through drug-dealing and stealing credit cards from the mail. Fakhet arrived in Spain eight years ago with a scholarship to study economics at Madrid's Autonomous University. Four years ago, he enrolled in religion classes at a mosque that Spaniards call the M30 after a road it overlooks, according to a report in El Mundo newspaper. He quit after concluding the instruction was too moderate. At about that time, Fakhet moved into a walk-up apartment building on Francisco Ramiro Street in a working-class Madrid neighborhood and sold real estate. Neighbors characterized him as a devout Muslim and said they occasionally heard him praying, sometimes with late-night guests. Neighbors said Fakhet spoke Spanish and wore Western dress, and they described him as polite. Last year, he married a 16-year-old Moroccan who neighbors said veiled herself head-to-toe in traditional black Islamic dress.

One day in early March, neighbors said Fakhet went down the stairs carrying suitcases. The neighbors later recognized him and some of his visitors from newspaper photographs of the leading suspects in the March 11 bombings. Fakhet's wife has disappeared, but investigators are examining reports that one of her brothers, Mustafa, is in jail in Morocco on suspicion of involvement with last year's suicide attacks in Casablanca. "We are aware that some of the bombers had relations with other members of terrorist organizations," the Interior Ministry official said. "But up to now this is in terms of 'familiar links,' people that knew each other from the same town or went to the same school. But these links do not directly point to financial or logistical support." Fakhet and his wife were married at the Estrecho mosque where she took sewing classes on Fridays. Ryad Tatari, the mosque director who signed their wedding registration, said he did not know Fakhet well but described him as a quiet and relatively successful man who was not a regular member of the mosque.
Skipping past the account of how Fakhet assumed room temperature ...
In the debris, police found a damaged videotape they said was likely recorded on March 27. Investigators salvaged images from the tape that they said showed militants, their faces covered and brandishing an assault weapon, warning of more attacks unless Spain pulled its troops out of "the land of the Muslims," an apparent reference to Iraq and Afghanistan. Evoking the history of Christian wars that drove Muslims from Europe, the speaker on the video said, "We all know about the Spanish crusades against the Muslims, the expulsions from Al Andalus and the tribunals of the inquisition," according to a transcript of the recording released by authorities. The statement echoed aspirations of other Islamic militants, including al Qaeda's leader, Osama bin Laden, who in a taped message evoked "Al Andalus," the ancient name for the area. "For us Muslims, the history these people refer to is just romantic ideas," said Malik A. Ruiz Callejas, president of the Granada mosque. "We try to address the problems of the present time. The idea these people have makes us look like we are locked in a museum. We have no use looking back in the past."

"In general, in the Arab population, I don't think Al Andalus represents anything," said Josep Ramoneda, director of the Center for Contemporary Culture in Barcelona and an expert on terrorism. He said he believes the willingness of militants to attack in Spain is more a matter of opportunity: its proximity to North Africa, its many Muslim immigrants and the fact that Spanish intelligence services have until recently been more focused on fighting Basque separatists than Islamic militancy.
Posted by: Dan Darling || 04/12/2004 12:09:55 AM || Comments || Link || [0 views] Top|| File under:

#1  --"For us Muslims, the history these people refer to is just romantic ideas," said Malik A. Ruiz Callejas, president of the Granada mosque. "We try to address the problems of the present time. The idea these people have makes us look like we are locked in a museum. We have no use looking back in the past."--

Then quit acting like it and demand change.
Posted by: Anonymous2U || 04/12/2004 1:50 Comments || Top||


Fifth Column
WTF?
Hat tip LGF
A Japanese Reader 4/8/2004 08:03PM PST

It seems like you guys aren’t aware that these 3 Japanese civilians are anti-war lefties, actively against Japanese troop deployment in Iraq. Members of a non-profit organization. They remind me of Rachel Correy. One of them is a journalist(by contract) from Weekly Asahi (Asahi is kinda like BBC...anti-Japan/America, Pro-north korea/china). Noriaki Imai, 18 year-old student activist, has his own group against war. Here’s his homepage in Japanese... if you read in translation, you will know that he and others had same interest as the terrorist who kidnapped them.

And here is the link of Nahoko Takato (the kidnapped woman) translation work - " letters from Iraq". Again in mostly in Japanese, but you can read English part of it.

Whatever their opinions are, kidnaping is kidnaping. Yet Japanese government is showing a strong attitude against those terrorists, which I think is great. That besides, public opinion in Japan seems to split in two. Anti-war/Anti-deployment people who want the troops to come back to Japan. The type of person who’d say, " if those 3 civilians get killed, it’s Koizumi’s fault!". There are also conspiracy theories all over Japanese-internet that these 3 individuals are complicit in their own kidnaping.

some point out this --Noriaki Imai posted in a thread, with the title "Big secreat Plan!" on April 7, 2004 09:57: " I have met the freelance journalist from Weekly Asahi today! After we chatted a while, he told me a big plan! It might be great. I think this will be a great achievement in history, and miss takato is also interested, so I think it’s worth doing" (translated by me).

The source I got this information does not provide the link to this thread, so it’s up to you to believe it or not.
Posted by: tipper || 04/12/2004 12:17:32 AM || Comments || Link || [0 views] Top|| File under:

#1  This is hilarious. If true, I fell for it hook, line and sinker.
Posted by: Rafael || 04/12/2004 0:25 Comments || Top||

#2  Hmph -it's been discussed on LGF too ...
Posted by: Edward Yee || 04/12/2004 0:39 Comments || Top||

#3  Domo arigato Japanese reader.
Posted by: Evert Visser in NL || 04/12/2004 3:15 Comments || Top||

#4  Ah, and here is the Corbomite mentioned in the article.
Posted by: Evert Visser in NL || 04/12/2004 3:24 Comments || Top||

#5  DOH!
Posted by: Evert Visser in NL || 04/12/2004 6:04 Comments || Top||

#6  ..from Weekly Asahi (Asahi is kinda like BBC...anti-Japan/America, Pro-north korea/china).

I thought Asahi was beer......? ;)
Posted by: Bomb-a-rama || 04/12/2004 11:46 Comments || Top||

#7  "I thought Asahi was beer......? "

Well, it's a lefty, all-organic, Vegan sort of beer, made with synthetic yeast (yeast is a living organism, doncha know...)


Actually, when they say that the Asahi Shimbun is "left", that does NOT mean it is like one of those pamphlets handed out at ANSWER marches; it is more "left-liberal" like the LA Times, etc...

IOW, it is a real newspaper with a certain editorial slant...

Posted by: Carl in N.H || 04/12/2004 12:25 Comments || Top||

#8  Well, the probability is that the whole thing started as a hoax, (not that it will finish as a hoax) so why is Cheney going to all this trouble
Posted by: tipper || 04/12/2004 12:51 Comments || Top||

#9  I used to drink a bunch of Asahi when I was there - Asahi dry was my favorite.
Posted by: Jarhead || 04/12/2004 13:53 Comments || Top||


Home Front: Politix
"Candidate John Kerry . . . openly proclaims his love for France"
Ce n’est pas une plaisanterie! Elle est de l’issue d’avril du "France Today." On lui dit que John Kerry est hautain et ressemble à un Français. Voyez, il est vrai!

Candidate John Kerry, on the road to the Democratic nomination for president of the United States, openly proclaims his love for France, much to the distaste of many U.S. Republicans.

Kerry has good reasons. The 61-year-old Senator from Massachusetts is of French heritage and speaks the language of MoliÚre fluently. His mother, Rosemary, was a daughter of the wealthy Forbes family with roots in Saint-Briac, an upscale spa town on Brittany’s Emerald Coast. Here, in the spacious family home he still visits from time to time, the young Kerry spent most of his vacations immersed in the French way of life. One of his playmates was his first cousin, Brice Lalonde, who went on to become a leader of the French ecology movement and Minister of the Environment under Mitterrand!

An avid reader of Gide and the French philosophers, the candidate for Democratic nominee makes no secret of his affection for the culture and cuisine of the Hexagon. His speech is often peppered with French phrases and expressions, to the delight of his wife Teresa, widow of ketchup mogul John Heinz and herself a passionate polyglot who learned French.

Not surprisingly, the French appreciate the elegant style of Senator Kerry, who would seem the ideal "son-in-law" for a healthier era in Franco-American relations! But while transatlantic tensions persist, these influences are ammunition for adversaries who seek to delegitimize his program and even compare him to French President Jacques Chirac. France and its cultural values, a point of pride for Kerry and those close to him, become a shameful vice in the eyes of his detractors.

To learn more about the candidate’s French roots -- his childhood, family and region in Brittany -- as well as the latest attacks by his anti-French adversaries, stay tuned to [France Today] for fresh installments of the story of John Kerry and his Francophile world.

Je vous ai dit! John Kerry est un weasel!

(English to French translation courtesy of Babel Fish.)
Posted by: Mike || 04/12/2004 8:49:25 PM || Comments || Link || [0 views] Top|| File under:

#1  "I'm George Bush and I approved this message."
All the more reason to vote Republican this year.
Posted by: whitecollar redneck || 04/12/2004 21:25 Comments || Top||

#2  No shit!

(Well, actually, Kerry is full of shit.)
Posted by: Barbara Skolaut || 04/12/2004 22:37 Comments || Top||


Home Front: WoT
Boucher addresses Warden System
EFL from State Department daily press brief.

MR. BOUCHER: I don’t know exactly how many families we’re in touch with. We are generally getting in touch with the families of those who have been reported missing. And we’re trying also, through our registrations of Americans in Baghdad, our Consular Officer in Baghdad is reaching out to the various Warden systems and other networks that we have to try to ascertain the welfare and whereabouts of all the Americans we know about in Iraq.

QUESTION: Is it your understanding that these people were registered in the Warden system?

MR. BOUCHER: I don’t know if these particular seven who have been reported missing were registered or not.

QUESTION: Okay. Does the State Department advise people who are working as contractors, in whatever capacity, for the CPA or various -- to register, civilians?

MR. BOUCHER: We advise every American civilian who is in Iraq to register with our Consular Officer so that we can not only look for them if they go missing, but also keep them up to date on the kind of information that we put out on threats or advisories.

QUESTION: What’s your understanding of the reason why, on Friday, that when the -- when the Consular Officer in Baghdad did an initial check and the initial reports came back from the companies that they had, in fact, no information about anyone missing. And it looks like today, there’s seven. Can you explain how that happened?

MR. BOUCHER: No, I can’t. That’s not a question for the Consular Officer or for me, that’s a question for the companies on what information they had at different points.

QUESTION: Well, no, no, it goes to the point of whether these people actually did register, did follow the advice and register with the Embassy -- or the Consul, sorry.

MR. BOUCHER: No, it doesn’t. If people are registered with us, we may have a direct contact number or phone number, email address. In any case, the Warden system relies on various nexus and clusters of Americans, be it a company or a division within a company or some other group that’s organizing their activities.

So through those -- that Warden system, we’ll get to people who didn’t necessarily register with us who were part of those groups.

QUESTION: Do you know if an effort -- do you know if there’s been an effort made to go out and make sure that all these contracting companies have, indeed, given you -- or given the Consul the list, the list of their U.S. citizen employees?

MR. BOUCHER: I think -- again, we -- people register with us as individuals. In addition, through their various organizations and employers, we have a Warden network that we think gets to as many Americans as we can in that country. And if we call a company, and then they might be responsible for calling 20 people on their list and it cascades out.

QUESTION: Are you aware of any company that has refused or that has not taken -- that has refused the suggestion to register its employees, particularly these contract -- contract employees who are --

MR. BOUCHER: It’s not a company to register its employees. It’s employees, individuals, who can register directly with us so that they receive materials directly from us with a degree of certainty that’s greater than if they rely on the network established through their company.

Posted by: Super Hose || 04/12/2004 10:22:18 PM || Comments || Link || [0 views] Top|| File under:


Southeast Asia
Islamists murder Christians, Falsely reported as "ninjas"
The Australian Press Council has issued a statement warning media outlets not to use the word "Islam" in conjunction with stories on terrorism, for fear of whipping up Islamophobia (after many complaint letters from Islamic lobby groups). Here you can see the first disgusting example of this from a previously free tabloid news source: The Daily Telegraph. Note how Islamists attacking and killing Christians becomes "clashes" and "fighting" as though the Christians are fighting back, when every bit of factual news in the story only describes Islamists killing/shooting Christians.

Not only this they describe the Islamists (fundamentalists using Islam as a political doctrine) as Muslims (people who happen to follow Islam as a religion)- who are our best allies in the WOT. So the backlash will be against innocent moderate muslims because people are kept ignorant of the real perps. Blaming two sides equally when only one side is to blame is biased misreporting and is completely disgusting.


Police no wiser on ninja gunmen
From Rob Taylor in Jakarta April 12, 2004
INDONESIAN police today admitted they had few clues about the identity of three masked "ninja" gunmen who sprayed automatic gunfire into a crowd of Easter worshippers in central Sulawesi, sparking fears of renewed religious bloodshed. Hundreds of police Mobile Brigade reinforcements were flown into the town of Poso this afternoon to prevent further clashes between Christians and Muslims After Islamists shot at Christians having a peaceful religious ceremony after seven people were wounded in the Saturday night shooting attack. The three gunmen, mounted on a single motorbike and wearing black clothes and masks, opened fire with M-16 assault rifles on the Tabernacle church in Kilo village, near Poso, and then fled before local police could arrive.

The churchgoers, who had been singing an Easter hymn, dived under pews to escape the hail of bullets. Police blamed the attacks on "armed troublemakers" who they said were probably attempting to stir up fresh religious tensions in the divided township, where Islamic terror network Jemaah Islamiah is said to be regrouping and training fresh recruits. "We cannot tell who it was yet. It is still under investigation," local police chief Abdi Dharma said. "All we know is that this was an ISLAMIST armed terror group." Fighting in the Poso area first flared in 1999 after a religious war erupted in the nearby Maluku islands, and only subsided in 2001 after more than 2000 deaths and a government-brokered peace deal.

But sporadic fighting murders/massacres has continued and last October gunmen killed 10 people in attacks on mainly Christian villages. Last month, gunmen shot dead a local clergyman, Reverend Freddy Wuisan, in Tomura village and a female university lecturer was wounded in another shooting in March. Police arrested five men after those attacks, including one said to be of Arab descent. Dharma said the situation was under control and Christian residents had been urged not to retaliate. but we won’t even name those who were to blame nor urge Islamists to stop killing Christians. Just keep sitting there and being shot like good little dhimmis. A recent International Crisis Group report on Poso warned JI and other extremist groups, including one new militant outfit named Mujahidin Kompak, may be recruiting in the region and aiming to provoke fresh fighting.

Meanwhile, some candidates in Indonesia’s recent national elections warned fresh fighting could also occur in the Maluku capital of Ambon after voting split between the main Christian party and the conservative Muslim PKS, instead of large secular parties. M Junis, the Ambon leader of Indonesia’s largest Muslim organisation, the 30 million strong Nahdlatul Ulama, said both parties would have to work together to prevent religious fanaticism.
Why not email the editor and tell him what you think? Spread it far and wide: freedom of the press in Australia is a JOKE

letters@dailytelegraph.com.au
Posted by: kanga || 04/12/2004 4:44:39 AM || Comments || Link || [0 views] Top|| File under:

#1  Amish terrorists? Buddhists, maybe?
Posted by: mojo || 04/12/2004 12:10 Comments || Top||

#2  Did anyone tell Frank J about this?
Posted by: Anonymous4119 || 04/12/2004 12:26 Comments || Top||

#3  And these fucking idiots what us to take them seriously and show them respect? Fat chance. Especially when they're allied with Arabs, too.

Get out of the 4th Century or die, you ignorant losers. You're pathetic.
Posted by: Barbara Skolaut || 04/12/2004 19:03 Comments || Top||


Philippines hunt for fugitives
The Philippine President, Gloria Arroyo, has given her security forces permission to seal off an entire province in the south of the country in their efforts to kill or recapture 19 escaped prisoners. Fifty-three prisoners escaped from a jail in the province of Basilan on Saturday, including at least eight suspected members of the Abu Sayyaf.
Who trained your jailors? Yemen?
The authorities say they have since killed nine of the fugitives and recaptured 25.
Huuum, shot escaping, huh? If it turns out that the 9 deaders include all 8 of the Abu gang I may have to revise that Yemen crack.
In a written statement, President Gloria Arroyo told the security forces to get the fugitives first and argue later about who was to blame for their escape. She said that if it was necessary to cordon off the entire province of Basilan, so be it.
Gloria is pissed.
She's still burning from al-Ghozi getting away.
Troops and police are continuing their search for the missing prisoners, several of whom are believed to have fled towards the mountainous forested interior of the island, where the Abu Sayyaf once had their headquarters. Several of the prisoners who have been killed or recaptured by the security forces are suspected Abu Sayyaf members, but so are some of those still at large.
Uh huh, wonder if they have a GPS chip imbedded in their heads.
Mrs Arroyo has ordered an investigation into the mass escape. The armed forces have said that they had previously warned the jail authorities that an escape attempt was imminent.
It's a Philippine jail, of course a escape was imminent.
Posted by: Steve || 04/12/2004 8:42:46 AM || Comments || Link || [0 views] Top|| File under:

#1  Details: Armed Forces of the Philippines (AFP) spokesman Lt. Col. Daniel Lucero said the military had warned officials at the Basilan jail that the Abu Sayyaf suspects were planning to escape. Lucero said military officials had asked that additional guards be posted at the jail, but it wasn’t immediately clear if their warnings were heeded. Akbar, for his part, said the jailbreak would not have occurred had the BJMP facilitated the immediate transfer of detained Abu Sayyaf members. Akbar said the provincial government made several requests to the BJMP to relocate the Abu Sayyaf detainees to join their 122 comrades at Camp Bagong Diwa in Taguig.
But because of budgetary constraints, Akbar said their request for the transfer of Abu Sayyaf detainees was shelved, forcing the provincial government to finance their continued detention at the provincial jail. Akbar said the provincial jail could only accommodate 40 inmates but it had to receive the 137 Abu Sayyaf bandits who are facing trial on charges of murder and kidnapping.
The military reported that four more escapees were recaptured yesterday, bringing the number of recaptured inmates to 22. Eight of the inmates have been killed, five of whom were confirmed Abu Sayyaf members. Basilan provincial police director Senior Superintendent Bensali Jabarani identified four of the recaptured Abu Sayyaf members as Guillermo Sabtula Salcedo, Abdul Rahman Ismale Diolagla, Abtullah Apah Masmoud and Hadji Amar Ngaya. Authorities identified the three of the nine escapees killed in the pursuit operations as Boy Flores, Siddik Ahamad and Momud Indana, all facing charges of murder. Lucero said the police and military have consolidated their forces to ensure that all the remaining 34 escapees are recaptured. Officials were trying to determine how many Abu Sayyaf bandits were among the escapees as security forces continued a massive hunt for them. One of those who led the escape was identified as Abu Blak, an Abu Sayyaf sub-leader accused of beheading 10 people and kidnapping of 30 villagers in Balobo, Lamitan town in Basilan, in 2001.
"I’ve lost men in capturing some of those who escaped, a lot of efforts were exerted," said Lucero, who was an Army battalion commander in Basilan before being designated as a military spokesman. "This will greatly affect the momentum in our fight against terrorism, particularly in Basilan, but this should not deter us from recapturing them." Provincial officials said a pistol had been smuggled into the jail and was used by a prisoner to seize guns from guards to launch the breakout. Akbar said initial investigations showed there was "laxity among the guards." Provincial jail warden Chief Inspector Jumaril Sali admitted that the jailbreak turned "uncontrollable" because guards on duty were overpowered. Sali said he has ordered the 21 guards who were on duty during the Black Saturday jailbreak to explain their side. Akbar, on the other hand, reported the progress of the manhunt for the remaining fugitives, citing reports from the police forces and government militia forces who joined the pursuit operations. Akbar said the escapees split into several groups fleeing toward known Abu Sayyaf lairs.


Looks like overcrowding in the local slammer was a big problem, plus mixing terrorists with general population.
Posted by: Steve || 04/12/2004 9:34 Comments || Top||

#2  Yeah, mixing thugees terrorists with thugs isn't a good idea.
Posted by: Kathy K || 04/15/2004 14:05 Comments || Top||

#3  good reason not to capture them. Kill. Them.
Posted by: Frank G || 04/15/2004 14:21 Comments || Top||


"Lost" Malaysian soldiers released by Thailand
Five Malaysian soldiers who were detained after crossing the border into neighbouring Thailand during a patrol have been released, Malaysian Prime Minister Abdullah Ahmad Badawi said Monday.
Hummmm
"I thank him (Thai Prime Minister Thaksin Shinawatra) for his cooperation. They have been released," Abdullah told a news conference after holding talks with Thaksin on southern Thailand's security situation. The four sergeants and a corporal had strayed some 300 to 500 metres into Thai territory while on a routine mission to pick up supplies last Thursday.
4 sergeants and 1 corporal? A rather odd makeup for a patrol.
The five, reportedly clad in T-shirts and not wearing their military identification tags, were then picked up by the Thai military after local villagers sighted them.
T-shirts and no ID? Methinks somebody was up to no good.
Posted by: Steve || 04/12/2004 8:35:56 AM || Comments || Link || [0 views] Top|| File under:

#1  An odd makeup for a patrol, but the perfect composition for a bunch of nominally Islamic noncoms busted while trying to score beer on the wrong side of the international border.
Posted by: Mitch H. || 04/12/2004 17:56 Comments || Top||


2 rubber workers killed in southern Thailand
Two rubber plantation workers were killed in Yala province yesterday morning in what authorities believe to be part of on-going terror campaigns by Muslim separatists. Narathiwat's Rusoh district police station chief Colonel Sombat Boonpho said the two workers had been identified as Chomyae Kathong, 51, and Madaoh Dokho, 52. Chomyae came from Ubon Rachathani, while Madaoh was from Yala's Raman district. They worked at the plantation in Rusoh district of Jittra Chaimongkol. Sombat said the two left their living quarters to work in the plantation early in the morning but were found dead at 7.30am. Their throats had been slit and they had been stabbed repeatedly. Sombat said separatists had attacked rubber plantation workers before Rusoh, Raman and Pattani's Kapho district as part of ongoing terror campaign.
Posted by: Dan Darling || 04/12/2004 12:34:39 AM || Comments || Link || [0 views] Top|| File under:

#1  I know where this is - and who owns the rubber plantations. And I know they will have serious problems filling the teaching positions mentioned at the end of the article.

Thailand, meet Malaysia. Meet Islam.
Posted by: .com || 04/12/2004 1:49 Comments || Top||


Gunmen open fire on Easter church service in Sulawesi
Hundreds of police reinforcements flew into Indonesia’s Sulawesi island today, after gunmen opened fire on an Easter church service, wounding seven people. Saturday’s attack sparked fears of a return to open fighting between Muslims and Christians that erupted in 1999, killing about 1,000 people. More than 300 members of the Mobile Brigade paramilitary police unit are arriving in the region. No-one has been arrested over the shooting in the town of Poso in central Sulawesi 1,000 miles north east of Jakarta. Two of the injured remain in hospital, although their injuries are not believed to be life-threatening. Police have declined to speculate on the identity of the attackers, who wore black uniforms and were armed with automatic weapons.
Posted by: Dan Darling || 04/12/2004 12:25:38 AM || Comments || Link || [0 views] Top|| File under:

#1  Police have declined to speculate on the identity of the attackers, who wore black uniforms and were armed with automatic weapons.

Hmmm, lets see now. Must have been gunmen from the Rev. Billy Graham's terrorists group. Who else could it have been? Will we ever find out????
Posted by: Chiner || 04/12/2004 4:50 Comments || Top||

#2 
The Australian Press Council has issued a statement warning media outlets not to use the word "Islam" in conjunction with stories on terrorism, for fear of whipping up Islamophobia

The terrorists themselves use the word "Islam." Is the word supposed to be removed from their declarations, even from the names of their organizations?
.
Posted by: Mike Sylwester || 04/12/2004 9:33 Comments || Top||


Syria-Lebanon-Iran
IRAN OPERATES 18 SPY CENTERS IN IRAQ
Iranian intelligence has been operating at least 18 covert centers in Iraq as well as targeting Shi'ites deemed as aligned with the United States in a nearly $1 billion effort to prevent the spread of democracy in that Arab country. A former Iranian official in Teheran's intelligence community publicly disclosed the first details on Iran's intelligence presence in Iraq. The defector said Iran has bolstered its intelligence presence throughout Iraq where Teheran has sought to exacerbate ethnic tensions and encourage a nationwide revolt against the United States. The centers have been located in Baghdad, Basra, Karbala, Najaf, Nasseriya and Suleimaniya, the Iranian defector said. The centers, operating under the cover of charities, have also been used to recruit Iraqis to spy for Iran. The defector, identified as Haj Saidi and who fled Iran in late 2003, told the London-based daily A-Sharq Al Awsat on April 3 that Iran has sent hundreds of intelligence agents into Iraq over the last 18 months. Many of them came under the guise of Iranian pilgrims and Iraqi refugees. He said more than 300 Iranian agents -- benefiting from about 2,700 safe houses in 14 cities -- were operating in Iraq.
Posted by: Fred || 04/12/2004 11:36 || Comments || Link || [0 views] Top|| File under:

#1  Ralph Peters is reporting a direct attack by Iranian agents against at US convoy in Northern Iraq:

http://www.nypost.com/postopinion/opedcolumnists/22552.htm
Posted by: Matt || 04/12/2004 11:52 Comments || Top||

#2  Methinks it is time (actually, way PAST time) to take the fight to the mullahs in Iran. If the Mad Mullahs want a conflict, give them a conflict.
Posted by: Bomb-a-rama || 04/12/2004 12:43 Comments || Top||

#3  Easily said but AFAIK you don't have the troops to battle Iraq and Iran (and Syria) at the same time.
Posted by: Aris Katsaris || 04/12/2004 13:43 Comments || Top||

#4  Don't need all sorts of troops. The Iranian population is, from all appearances, tired of being under the mullah's collective thumbs, and are quite capable of doing the jobs themselves.
Posted by: Bomb-a-rama || 04/12/2004 14:06 Comments || Top||

#5  Lets give the Iranian folks who are mullah-weary a boost, and take out that nuke plant. That would help us in the long run as well---
Bad stuff is going on there - - -
Posted by: Anonymous4052 || 04/12/2004 16:37 Comments || Top||

#6  Opportunities abound.

(via Roger Simon)
Posted by: Bomb-a-rama || 04/12/2004 16:46 Comments || Top||

#7  This defector is telling us what we want to hear. So did Chalabi. Iran is a regional problem for Turkey and Greece to take care of unless they move against Israel that would piss me off.
Posted by: Super Hose || 04/12/2004 18:22 Comments || Top||

#8  I've been trying to point you folks to Tehran. They pay the bills for Hezbollah and Hamas, and bankroll the radical fringe Shia in Iraq. They have the most to lose: if Iraq succeeds as a relatively secular democracy, they wil be handed their heads by the Iranian middle class.

Our mistake: not closing down the borders quickly, especially Syrian and Iranian.

Hose: You are dead wrong. This is a regional problem and neither Greece nor Turkey is capable of handling it nor do they have anything at stake. And like it or not, we are in the center of that region and are dealing now with the consequences of not dealing earlier with the Iranian Fundie Shia Terrorist problems.
Posted by: OldSpook || 04/12/2004 22:45 Comments || Top||

#9  Old Spook, if I was serious about cleaning up Iran with local forces, do you really think I would have included Greece? Unless you include Macedonia as part of Greece, they haven't been an offensive force since the Trojan War.

To your point, how can we get control of the Iranian border at this point? Is the Pershmerga force large enough to help us out on the border?

Alone, I don't think we can stop the flow with a defensive posture. We would have to make an incursion to a natural chokepoint.

It would be easier if some of the Shiites were not funded from Iran. Sadr killed the only non-Iranian guy rather quickly.
Posted by: Super Hose || 04/13/2004 0:24 Comments || Top||


SYRIA SMUGGLES MISSILES, WMD TO SUDAN
Posted by: Fred || 04/12/2004 11:36 || Comments || Link || [0 views] Top|| File under:

#1  Western intelligence sources said the regime of Syrian President Bashar Assad has been flying shipments of Scud C and Scud D extended-range missiles as well as WMD components to warehouses in Khartoum since at least January 2004. The sources said the Syrian shipments to Khartoum were placed on civilian airliners but authorized and directed by the Defense Ministry.

Spreading the assets around for storage, or making them available for the genocide assault on Darfur?

"There is widespread concern in the Syrian regime that Damascus will be the next to face heavy U.S. and international pressure to open its WMD facilities in the wake of the Libyan example," a senior intelligence source said. "The Syrians have decided that they want to take some of their assets out of the country."

Perhaps we can program a few cruise missiles to hit the right spot in the Sudan this time.
Posted by: Steve White || 04/12/2004 12:08 Comments || Top||

#2  This one sounds doubtful. Sudan is known for having continually courted teh US and is in the midst of civil unrest - a bad place to store anything yet alone WMD keepsakes that no one is going to believe that the Sudanese made themselves.
Posted by: Super Hose || 04/12/2004 18:27 Comments || Top||


Saudi national arrested outside Ain al-Hilweh
A Saudi national, named only as Ahmed S., was arrested as he was about to enter the Ain al-Hilweh Palestinian camp.
Now why would you arrest him?
He was dressed in Saudi national attire and attracted attention as he stood outside the camp.
"Hey, who's the guy in the white robe?"
He was questioned by camp officials and found to have Saudi ID papers all perfectly in order. He appeared to have entered the country legally and had come to Ain al-Hilweh in order to "struggle for the sake of God and against the enemy."
He had a real Saudi ID card and entered the Lebanon legally? No wonder he stood out.

Ahmed had entered Lebanon by road from Syria. He said he had come to Ain al-Hilweh because he had heard so much about it.
"He heard all about Ain al-Hellhole and he still came here? Guards, arrest this man!"
Just another pilgrim to the last resting place of Abdullah Shreidi...
Posted by: Steve || 04/12/2004 11:13:38 AM || Comments || Link || [0 views] Top|| File under:

#1  Hmmmm - as if the presence of this Saudi could make the hellhole worse?
Posted by: Frank G || 04/12/2004 11:36 Comments || Top||

#2  O Brother Palestininans
I am a Saudi National
that has journeyed far and wide
to visit your village
and to learn of your struggle
against the hated Zionists.

What can I do to help
in your glorious struggle
against the enemy of the
great and noble Palestinian People?


"Well, how much money youz got in yer wallet, fer starters?. It has been pretty lean since Saddam (may he be free again)and his stash dried up. Iran is kicking some in, but the mail takes so long, nowadays."

I have no money to give
But I have my delicate hands
that have seen no work
And my life if need be
But I would rather spare it
If it please your excellency

Guards, arrest this man, he is worthless. Take his robe and give him this dirty nightshirt. He is a nutcase. By the way, do you do fatwas?

No

Then he is really worthless. Mamoud, lock this nut up.


This is the beginning of a cantata I am composing for Ain al-Hellhole in my spare time.
Posted by: Alaska Paul || 04/12/2004 11:49 Comments || Top||

#3  That's RB's Al-Aska Paul...mufti, bush pilot, poet.
Posted by: Seafarious || 04/12/2004 12:00 Comments || Top||

#4  Ein el-Hellhole is the 9th holiest site in all Islam. Everybody knows that...
Posted by: Fred || 04/12/2004 14:47 Comments || Top||


Hezbollah Sponsoring Anti-Israel Attacks
Posted by: Fred || 04/12/2004 11:15 || Comments || Link || [0 views] Top|| File under:

#1  "We are receiving funding from Hezbollah because we have no other option."
Uh, I think they'd take money from anyone, infidel, jihadi, even Martians - as long as they could use it to buy the stuff they need to keep slaughtering the innocent in the name of their false god and exaggerated causes and claims.

And as for the surprise meter I bought after I started posting, I'm seriously considering returning it; it's not registering anything.
Posted by: The Doctor || 04/12/2004 18:11 Comments || Top||


U.N. Nuclear Inspectors Arrive in Iran. Again.
Posted by: Fred || 04/12/2004 11:10 || Comments || Link || [0 views] Top|| File under:

#1  "Avon calling..."
Posted by: Seafarious || 04/12/2004 15:15 Comments || Top||

#2  Instead of playing the three walnut shell halves and the pea underneath shell game, the Iranians are saying, "Get the f--k out of here, boy, yuh bother me!"
Posted by: Alaska Paul || 04/12/2004 19:50 Comments || Top||


Rafsanjani to al-Sadr: Fight America, the "Wounded Monster"
Providing yet more evidence that Iran is actively supporting the Shiite guerrilla forces battling U.S.-led coalition, former Iranian President Ayatollah Akbar Hashemi-Rafsanjani said the American military forces are vulnerable, describing them as a "wounded monster," and suggesting defeat would provide a "valuable lesson" for the West. Rafsanjani, chairman of the powerful Expediency Council in Iran, says America’s vulnerability in Iraq makes Iran stronger. During Friday prayers, broadcast live by Iranian radio, Rafsanjani said deep relations between the people of Iran and the people of Iraq are causing problems for America.
So, Iranian intervention is somehow, NOT meddling.
"America had entered the region in order to set up a base right outside our borders, but such a base will no longer materialize," he said. "We have small accounts with the Americans which we must settle one day and bring the issue to a close."
Is that a declaration of war?
Rafsanjani praised Moqtada Al-Sadr’s "heroic" Mahdi militia... As WorldNetDaily reported, last April, an Iranian cleric, Kadhem al-Husseini al-Haeri, issued a religious edict distributed to Shiite mullahs in Iraq, calling on them "to seize the first possible opportunity to fill the power vacuum in the administration of Iraqi cities." The edict, or fatwa, issued April 8, 2003, showed that Shiite clerics in Iraq are receiving significant direction from Iran. The edict said Shiite leaders have to "seize as many positions as possible to impose a fait accompli for any coming government..."
I don’t hear anything about investing in Iraq’s reconstruction.
So, where do we hit these bozos, first?
Posted by: Man Bites Dog || 04/12/2004 4:49:58 AM || Comments || Link || [0 views] Top|| File under:

#1  All the more reason to whack this clown al-Sadr and stick his head on a pike in the public square.

C'mon, Rafsanjani: give us an excuse to declare war on you. You know you want to. As Christopher Lowell would say, "You can do it!"
Posted by: Dave D. || 04/12/2004 10:33 Comments || Top||

#2  And it would have worked to if it weren't for those meddling marines......
Posted by: CrazyFool || 04/12/2004 10:34 Comments || Top||

#3  Is that a declaration of war?

I wish to hell someone in authority would ask him that question.
Posted by: Robert Crawford || 04/12/2004 10:35 Comments || Top||

#4  "We have small accounts with the Americans which we must settle one day and bring the issue to a close."

Yes we do have accounts to settle with these bastards.
Just wait till after november! Too bad we cannot go sooner but the dems have really mucked up the traction we have gotten with these countries since 9-11.
Posted by: Dan || 04/12/2004 10:59 Comments || Top||

#5  Destruction of Iran's known nuclear facilities via aerial bombardment would be a good little "message" to send.
Posted by: Bomb-a-rama || 04/12/2004 11:01 Comments || Top||

#6 
We have small accounts with the Americans which we must settle one day

Let's settle that Khobar Towers account one day very very soon.
.
Posted by: Mike Sylwester || 04/12/2004 13:01 Comments || Top||

#7  And our embassy. Don't forget about the embassy. I want it returned, rehabbed, re-fitted, scrubbed clean until it sparkles, and a personal apology extended to every American who was held hostage. And Mr. Rafsanjani on one knee, offering a new set of keys to a returning American Ambassador would be a nice touch, also.
Posted by: Sgt. Mom || 04/12/2004 15:03 Comments || Top||

#8  describing them as a "wounded monster"

Rafsanjani must not be up on his monster movies, everyone knows a wounded monster is gonna get up and kick your be-turbaned ass.
Posted by: Steve || 04/12/2004 15:27 Comments || Top||

#9  Why is it just WND reporting this? Argh! The media is pissing me off!
Posted by: whitecollar redneck || 04/12/2004 19:08 Comments || Top||

#10  If WND is the only place reporting it, forward the link to your Congressman. Perhaps he is briefed on this sort of thing if he is on the right committee. But maybe he's not. What you know you can tell someone else.

I've long since given up on "the media"--that is Old Media being television news, dead-tree news outlets, most radio network news--as a source for anything. Other than high blood pressure, that is. I've felt vastly better since gathering the news myself via pages such as this.
Posted by: eLarson || 04/12/2004 19:45 Comments || Top||

#11  "We have small accounts with the Americans which we must settle one day and bring the issue to a close."

What, like the invasion of International soil that the Emabassy takeover in Tehran embodied?

Posted by: Zenster || 04/12/2004 21:03 Comments || Top||

#12  Don't worry Bomb-a-rama, As we speak, the Isrealis will take care of the matter for us. It'll happen soon; daytime our time (US). The NSA will track it 'with notification' but with plausible deniability. It will occur before the election! The 'trip wire', watch for the movement of one Carrier closer to the region and shored Anti Missile batteries!
Posted by: smn || 04/12/2004 23:16 Comments || Top||

#13  Let the idiot get carried away with himself Wounded...pssssfffff
If this country ever get's "wounded", all bet's are off. When the US Military decides to go hot, you can forget about what anyone say's. Whatever it was that wounded "us" is going to be annihilated.
"Just Win"




Posted by: Long Hair Republican || 04/12/2004 23:24 Comments || Top||

#14  Any of you bozos BEEN in Iran? Make no mistake, they are ratbags and sponsors of terrorism but there are indeed a few little issues.

Lets just ask a coupla questions here. Have any IRANIAN air force pilots shot down a US civil airliner full of civilians space and then been decorated for good service?

Have any IRANIAN governments toppled a US government and installed a puppet government over the USA?

Have any Iranian governments encouraged Iraq to invade the USA, causing years of war and millions of casualties? I have a colleague who carried his children nightly to bomb shelters in Teheran as the AA barrages opened up against Iraqui planes.

Has Iran confiscated billions of dollars from the US in legitimately-held foreign accounts?

The mullocracy are a bunch of jerks who have driven the country into the ground, but it is quite true that Iran have small accounts to settle to bring the US issue to a close.
Posted by: chrisper || 04/15/2004 22:55 Comments || Top||

#15  Hey Chrisper-- less ranting, more thinking. I can't tell what the hell you're saying, or what side you're coming down on.

Iran nationalized the oil. Lots of people were out lots of money. Then the 'tollahs were downright nasty. Did you know that at all, or is this what you were trying to get at?
Posted by: therien || 04/19/2004 0:12 Comments || Top||

#16  Fair enough!

When I read these comments above I see that people seem to have NO idea that there are a number of legitimate grievances of Iran against the US. For Rafsanjani to say there are 'small accounts' is for them a very moderate expression of fact.

I am 100% for winning in Iraq. I have spent 4 months in Iran and saw some pretty rough things there, but despite the horrors they are a mix of good and bad people same as everywhere and deserve the respect of being seen as people.

Posted by: chrisper || 04/19/2004 21:25 Comments || Top||

#17  blame is the name of the Muslim game, isn't it crisper. Apparently you have NO idea that there are a number of legitimate grievances of the US against Iran.

See the thing is, we don't care anymore. It's like a shrew wife - at first, you care that she doesn't like your car, your clothes, your mother or your friends and you try to make her happy. But after awhile, not only do you not care what she thinks, since nothing will ever make her happy, but you notice all the things you never liked about her in the first place.

We're there. We don't care. Blah, blah, blah, blame, blame, blame, yada, yada, yada.
Posted by: B || 04/19/2004 21:33 Comments || Top||

#18  I remember the whole yellow ribbon thing, the botched helicopter mission and all. The support of the Hezbollah terrorists in Lebanon alone is enough to dislike the Iranian government. You are completely correct that some people forget the US has its own small accounts.

I also remember when Iraq invaded Iran, expecting to see the free world respond to this aggression. Six years later I realised that I had forgotten to hold my breath on it.

Don't get bogged down here; the job now is winning in Iraq. I was just responding to the tone above.
Posted by: chrisper || 04/20/2004 21:28 Comments || Top||


Iraq-Jordan
Bad guys smuggle supplies into Fallujah
Sunni insurgents are smuggling weapons and fighters into Fallujah in aid convoys and ambulances, making it difficult for U.S. troops to stem the flow of weapons, Marines said Monday. On Monday alone, U.S. troops in Fallujah uncovered anti-aircraft guns buried in a load of humanitarian aid and saw an ambulance pull up to two shot insurgents and take away their weapons — leaving the casualties lying there. "One guy was found hidden in a sack of grain in the back of a truck," apparently intent on joining fighters in the city, Army Military Police Capt. Kurt Barclay, 38, from Ridgeway, Pa., said at a checkpoint on a desert road leading into Fallujah.

Humvees blocked the road as troops checked through a line of cars, buses and trucks loaded with sacks and boxes of food, medicine, blood plasma and blankets. Using sniffer dogs, Marines and MPs poked through truck cargo holds and car trunks. But the understaffed troops waved some vehicles through after only a cursory look. They said they don't have enough personnel or the right equipment, such as large x-ray machines, for comprehensive checks of every vehicle. "There was bus with a false bottom filled with assault rifles and rocket-propelled-grenade launchers," Marine 1st Lt. David Denial said. But the bus — with the weapons undiscovered — made it through the checkpoint. Troops inside the city happened to stop the vehicle and found the stash, Denial said. The anti-aircraft gun stash hidden in a truckload of aid also slipped through the cordon but was discovered in the city later, he said.

Up to 100 vehicles have been ferrying aid into Fallujah every day since Friday, when U.S. forces halted major attacks on Sunni Muslim insurgents after five days of fierce fighting, Denial said. U.S. forces have set up checkpoints on all roads leading to the city, 35 miles west of Baghdad. Iraqis, many outraged by the bloody Marine siege of the city, have been sending donations of food, fuel, medical supplies and other aid in convoys organized by relief organizations, religious groups and private individuals. But rebels have been exploiting the relative calm to smuggle in the supplies they will need if fighting resumes, Marines say. Inside the city, insurgents have been using ambulances to transport weapons between neighborhoods, Marine Lt. Col. Brennan Byrne said. On Monday, Marines shot and killed two insurgents seen setting up a machine gun near their position, Byrne said. An ambulance wheeled up, and a man got out to collect the machine gun, leaving the men, he said. The ambulance man also was shot and killed. "We have to be careful because ambulances are being used for legitimate purposes, but we are also treating them with suspicion," Byrne said.

Troops at the roadblocks barred many military-aged men from entering, fearing they were coming join the battle against Marines as the fight for Fallujah becomes an anti-American rallying cry. Denial said his troops turned back a seven-vehicle convoy claiming to be from an Islamic aid group, Denial said. "Their credentials were shoddy. There were 36 men of military age," he said. "The head guy said he was a doctor with a white coat. We caught him in a lie. He tried to pass off his driver's license as a medical ID." The men were not detained and later left the area, he said.

Most people waiting at the roadblocks to get into the city were there to bring much-needed supplies to Fallujah's residents. Jamah Abdullah, 42, an ambulance driver for the Red Crescent Society, said he had been into the city several times in the past few days delivering aid. "There are many people dead. Many wounded. Houses destroyed, damaged. I am doing this to help," he said
Posted by: Phil B || 04/12/2004 8:56:52 PM || Comments || Link || [0 views] Top|| File under:

#1  Jamah Abdullah, 42, an ambulance driver for the Red Crescent Society, said he had been into the city several times in the past few days delivering aid. "There are many people dead. Many wounded. Houses destroyed, damaged. I am doing this to help," he said

My dream answer: "No problem. Your vehicle will be searched first. THOROUGHLY. And if something is found that you shouldn't have, that'll be all she wrote for you."
Posted by: Bomb-a-rama || 04/12/2004 21:32 Comments || Top||

#2  We need some video of this so that we can show it on the news. This is also a PR war as well as a military war.

A video of an ambulance stopping to pick up a machine gun and leaving the dying or one of the anti-aircraft gun would do a lot to show how things really are. (on the other hand the media probably wouldn't show it....).
Posted by: CrazyFool || 04/12/2004 21:40 Comments || Top||

#3  CrazyFool has it right. Even if the media messes with us by omission, we need to document this stuff. We need to thoroughly check the stuff, or if we can't check the stuff we need to not let it in. The women and children can come out if they want. The insurgents want the weapons and materael, and if they can't get it, they want suffering and death in the civilian population, both are useful tools of war with them. One other thing we need to do is to either jam the equipment or kill the Al-Jazz correspondents, or throw their asses out of the war zone. They are combatants just as much as the weapon-carrying jihadis. We have to be hardnosed in this battle or we are going to lose it.
Posted by: Alaska Paul || 04/12/2004 21:47 Comments || Top||

#4  I am so disappointed in our side. I'm trying to imagine, even now, the early romans allowing food and "humanitarian" aid through at the Masada encirclement, as they slowly advanced the seige on the Zealots...I can't!
Posted by: smn || 04/12/2004 22:18 Comments || Top||

#5  I don't know if I would go that far. Hopefully, the militants will remain well fed. I don't want to encourage them to surrender. The fewer prisoners taken the better.

I would make double sure that the same guy who drives the truck in is the same one that dives the truck out. I once knew a woman that worked at Payless Shoes and told me that there were two fundemental rules to her business:

1. greet the customer when he or she enters the store.

2. visually verify exactly what shoes they wear in to the store against what they wear out of the store.

Maybe they can be named Winona's Laws
Posted by: Super Hose || 04/12/2004 22:54 Comments || Top||


Arab TV: 11 Russians Kidnapped in Iraq
Posted by: Super Hose || 04/12/2004 20:27 || Comments || Link || [0 views] Top|| File under:

#1  This is really getting good. Americans, British, Japanese, Chinese and Russians. Next time out, guys, kidnap some Gurkhas, Fijians, Mongolians, and any Sikhs you can find. Do we have any Apaches or Comanches serving in Iraq?

The guys doing this must be working for that ace Syrian intelligence officer, Achmed the Slow Witted.
Posted by: Matt || 04/12/2004 22:00 Comments || Top||

#2  What, they kidnapped their second-best buddies? Is this a wise move, Sad Sack Sadr?
Posted by: Barbara Skolaut || 04/12/2004 22:52 Comments || Top||


Belmont Club may be on to something here!
Posted by: Phil B || 04/12/2004 20:21 || Comments || Link || [0 views] Top|| File under:


Arab TV networks accused of fueling violence in Iraq
Looks like some people are starting to grow a clue
The US-led coalition and its Iraqi allies accused the Arab world’s two biggest television news stations of fanning anti-US sentiment and sectarian violence in Iraq with their reporting. "Anti-US sentiment has been heightened by Al-Jazeera and other anti-coalition media reporting" on the closure of a Shiite radical newspaper and the siege of the insurgent bastion of Fallujah, the coalition’s deputy director of operations, Brigadier General Mark Kimmitt, told a news conference. "We have reason to believe that several news organizations do not engage in truthful reporting," coalition civilian spokesman Dan Senor said. "In fact it is no reporting."

Qatar-based Al-Jazeera and its Dubai-based rival Al-Arabiya, have been providing graphic images of the devastation and casualties in the Sunni stronghold of Fallujah during fierce fighting between US forces and insurgents last week. Al-Jazeera has also been giving significant prominence and airtime to supporters of Shiite radical leader Moqtada Sadr, who is wanted in connection with the murder of a rival cleric last year. Both Al-Jazeera and Al-Arabiya have also been the exclusive broadcasters of several videotapes of foreigners kidnapped by insurgents in Iraq.

Iraq’s National Security Advisor Muaffaq al-Rubaie, a Shiite, lashed out at what he called "false reports" by both channels Sunday that he resigned from the council in protest against fighting between US troops and Sadr’s supporters that has left many civilians dead in Baghdad and the south. "I am so upset and so angry about what has been reported on Arab media and television about my resignation," Rubaie told a press conference in Baghdad. He said he left his position in the council which is legislative in nature to take an executive post as national security advisor as part of the transfer of power by the US-led coalition to a caretaker government on June 30. "I warn the Arabic media: Iraq’s patience has reached its limit and they will regret what they are doing," said a visibly angry Rubaie. He accused both channels of inciting violence between the country’s ethnic groups with their reporting. "This media is not happy with the end of the sectarianism in Iraq with the fall of Saddam Hussein, so they lie, lie and lie," said Rubaie. He warned both television stations and other "irresponsible" Arab media that they would be shut down and banned from reporting from Iraq if they did not change their ways. "All they have to do if they want to continue working in Iraq is to abide by the international and basic rules of reporting and refrain from using these facts and semi-facts to incite sectarian violence," he said.

But Al-Jazeera, which has been in hot water many times before regarding its reporting in Iraq, insists on its professional standards. "Al-Jazeera is regularly the butt of criticism, often misplaced," spokesman Jihad Ballout told AFP. The widely viewed channel is merely "reporting events objectively, which cannot possibly please everyone," he said. "Al-Jazeera is not in the business of politics. It is a professional news outlet ... which is neither with nor against anyone." Ballout said he hoped Rubaie would not carry out his threat to shut down the station’s operation in Iraq, saying that such a move would "harm not just Al-Jazeera ... but also the Arab viewer and press freedom."

Al-Arabiya, which was banned from reporting in Iraq for more than two months at the end of November on charges on inciting murder, was not immediately available for comment. But in a sign of Al-Jazeera’s popularity, Japanese reporters slammed their diplomats in Jordan Monday, saying that they were left with reports by Al-Jazeera and other Arab media as the sole source of news about three Japanese hostages held by insurgents in Iraq. "We end up getting our only news from Al-Jazeera," said Yoichi Koizumi, a reporter with Fuji Television News Network.
Posted by: tipper || 04/12/2004 8:04:41 PM || Comments || Link || [0 views] Top|| File under:

#1  I find it distinctly disturbing that the spokesman has the first name "Jihad." But more than that is the obvious omission of CNN as a culprit of this biased reporting . . .
Posted by: The Doctor || 04/12/2004 20:42 Comments || Top||


IRAQ - WHAT TO DO: DROP THE HAMMER NOW
ON Saturday, Iranian agents ambushed an American convoy on the road between Mosul and Akre in Iraq. The attack did not go as planned: Our troops responded sharply, killing two Iranians, wounding a third and capturing two more. They were carrying their identity documents.
They don't seem to have been the smartest of Iranians...
And you haven’t heard a word about it. The administration doesn’t want to admit how much American blood Teheran has on its hands. To be absolutely scrupulous, this report comes from a single, if impeccable, regional source. I hope other journalists in Baghdad and Washington will press to verify the incident. The American people have a right to know. As this column reported last week, the extent of Iranian involvement in the recent revolt goes very deep. The facts that follow have been confirmed by at least two sources exclusive to The Post.

Moqtada al-Sadr is Iran’s man in Shi’a Iraq. Several months ago, he slipped across the border to meet with Hezbollah terror chiefs that Teheran had invited from Lebanon. The factions struck a deal to cooperate against the Coalition in Iraq. Hundreds of Iranian agents and fighters have been confirmed to be in Iran. The actual number is probably in the thousands. They’ve swelled the ranks of Sadr’s "Mahdi Army" and stiffened its backbone. Nor is Sadr’s band of thugs composed entirely of religious radicals, as media reports suggest. The Islamic fanatics are a minority in Sadr’s militia. Sadr began building up his forces immediately after the fall of Baghdad. (If the civilians in the Pentagon didn’t have a plan, Sadr did.) The cleric issued a fatwa - which he lacked the authority to do - announcing that looting was acceptable as long as a fifth of the goods or profit was donated to a "religious institution." Guess which one. He enriched his organization and gained recruits from Iraq’s underclass and the criminals released en masse by Saddam before he fell. But those criminals, petty and otherwise, are only the foot-soldiers. As the months went on, Sadr recruited unemployed - and impoverished - Ba’ath Party activists, the old regime’s security thugs, survivors of Saddam’s Fedayeen and gullible young people (those last being the few who truly believe they’re serving a holy cause).

Sadr worked with the Iranians to help them broadly infiltrate the country with Teheran’s Revolutionary Guards and intelligence operatives. His Shi’a faction also built bridges to the Sunni insurgents in the cities of central Iraq. Hezbollah took care of the coordination with international terrorists. The administration knows much - probably all - of this. And more. When Sadr encouraged his "army" to rise up last week, he thought he was ready. But once again a gangster in search of a throne underestimated G.I. Joe.

Wherever his thugs rose up, our soldiers shut them down. Efficiently, effectively and courageously. But now, in the face of a Coalition victory, a cancerous danger threatens. President Bush is on the verge of making the same mistake his father made at the end of Desert Storm and that his Pentagon advisers encouraged him to make last year - stopping half-way. Moqtada Sadr’s organization must be destroyed. Sadr must be captured or killed. If he hides in a mosque, go in after him. We’re not impressing our enemies with our restraint - they play the religion card as the ace that never fails. And the parallel operations in the Sunni Triangle must be pursued to the complete subjugation of Fallujah and the defeat of any terrorist who raises a gun.

Our president must make no mistake: Any "settlement," any halt short of the annihilation of the killers who want to destroy the future of Iraq, will be read throughout that troubled country and the greater Islamic world as a resounding victory for the terrorists. They’ll be viewed as having defeated the U.S. military, stopping it in its tracks. Reality is immaterial. In the Middle East, perception trumps facts. Only uncompromising strength impresses our enemies. The president can’t afford to listen to the counsels of caution. Nor can we afford to listen to Arab opinion, as we did in 1991 with disastrous results. Doubtless, Hosni Mubarak, Egypt’s "president," will tell Bush to stop the operation in Fallujah during his visit this week. The apologists for terror are piling on, from the hateful rhetoric of al-Jazeera, which encouraged attacks on Americans all week, to the corrupt sheiks of the Persian Gulf who are responsible for so much of the decline of the Arab soul. If we do not pursue our enemies unto their deaths while we have the chance, Fallujah will prove to be Bush’s Mogadishu. And the forces of global terror will have won again.
Ralph Peters is the author of "Beyond Baghdad: Postmodern War and Peace."
Posted by: tipper || 04/12/2004 7:40:53 PM || Comments || Link || [0 views] Top|| File under:

#1  Ralph's an advocate of stick, more stick, and big stick before a nibble of carrot
Posted by: Frank G || 04/12/2004 19:58 Comments || Top||

#2  I pretty much agree with him here, Frank, but old Ralph gets carried away often.
For a mild-mannered guy, he's pretty hot-headed and frequently takes this "Kill them all and let God sort them out" attitude.
Even a broken watch is right twice a day...
Posted by: Jen || 04/12/2004 20:02 Comments || Top||

#3  Speaking of hammers, folks, either the US, Israel or both are going to have to drop the hammer on the Bushehr reactor before it is loaded with fuel, which is estimated in June. This may be like hitting a yellojacket nest with a stick, but it will have to be done sooner rather than later, or the ante and the possibility of widespread radioactive contamination will be greatly increased.
Posted by: Alaska Paul || 04/12/2004 20:31 Comments || Top||


Fallujah resistance vows to continue fight
EFL
The young man did not want to leave Fallujah where he has been fighting American troops for a week. But as the oldest son, he was responsible for getting his mother and grandmother out of the besieged city and the current cease-fire offered the chance to get the family’s women and children out of harms way and into a relative’s home in west Baghdad. It took the family five hours to cross what is normally a 35-mile trip down a modern highway east to Baghdad because they had to swing wide through the desert. Despite the cease-fire, they had to avoid U.S. military checkpoints because the Americans were not letting men of fighting age out of the city. And Ahmed, not his real name, is a member of the Army of Mohammed, the Fallujah-based Sunni insurgent group doing battle with U.S. Marines in and around the restive city of about 200,000 people. The siege is a week old and came after the brutal killing and mutilation of four U.S. security contractors.
Which was almost certainly a deliberate provocation.
Ahmed wears a gold silk dishdasha -- or traditional Arabic robe -- that belies the family’s wealth. He claims to be unemployed, which might be true but between the garments and the comfortable house that his family has taken refuge in, it’s clear that at least under the old regime this family did well.
Let’s pause in disbelief as a journalist actually thought to include such details.
"Shit on Bush because he made this crisis," she continues. "What does he want? Why have these people come all the way from America to do this to us? Why is he doing it? Did we knock on his door? Bush comes and barges in to our house and we’re not to fight?"
Baathist indoctrination leaves little room for the whole cause/effect thing.
Ahmed hushes his mother and tells the story of the last week. After Sunday when U.S. forces cut Fallujah off from the rest of the world, the fighting came quickly and seemed to be everywhere. "There is no place in Fallujah without a fight," he says. "The Americans have snuck snipers all over Fallujah and everyone can be hit anytime.
Cool!
We only can work at night, but during the day, they kill the civilians. I saw them shoot a family just for trying to run to a car to leave part of the fighting."
After being told to stay inside no doubt.
"Once they blocked the roads, they began throwing bombs anywhere in the city," the mother interrupts. "They came from the towns outside (Fallujah, which is surrounded by small farming towns populated by staunchly anti-American residents) where they had taken one after another, killing all of the towns."
Or at least the military age men with the RPGs.
"I have seen their snipers kill women and children," Ahmed says. "The hospital is full of their bodies, all shot in the heart or the head," the mother adds. "The hospital isn’t even a hospital, it is mosque where we treat the hurt and tend the dead," the mother adds.
In fact it’s a veterinary mosque for baby ducks.
When asked why he started fighting, Ahmed says it is his duty and a desire to return to the previous regime. "If we didn’t have the women, we would have never left. Even the children will fight. When it began, we formed the Army of Mohammed. We didn’t care who the leader of Iraq would be, we just wanted the Americans out," he says. "We don’t want the American’s freedom, we don’t want democracy. We prefer a dictator. Now we know what we lost when Saddam was gone. But the Americans said they wanted Saddam. They got Saddam, now why don’t they leave?" Sitting under a picture of the mosque in Mecca, the holiest site in Islam, Ahmed interrupts the conversation and points to the television, which is on Al-Jazeera, the Arabic news channel. On the screen is a montage of President George Bush with the leaders of various Arab leaders and with Israeli Prime Minister Ariel Sharon. "All of them are Jews, spies and traitors," he rails. When asked which is which on the screen, he replies he was only talking about the leaders of the Arab countries, not Bush and Sharon. He’s angry that the other Arab countries have not come to the support of the insurgents. But there are foreign fighters in Fallujah from around the Muslim world, and Ahmed won’t talk about them.

In another interview the previous day, a wounded fighter told United Press International about the role of the foreigners: He was wounded helping them and had to be evacuated to a friend’s house in Baghdad. Calling himself "Abu Freedom" or "Father of Freedom" -- a wry joke pointed at the Americans -- the 20-year old fighter was hit while trying to save two Syrians that had been fighting with his men, also in the Army of Mohammed. Surrounded by 15 of his brothers in a house used as a safe house by the resistance, Abu Freedom is wounded in his torso and legs. "We were sitting in a house waiting to be given an operation," he explains. "Then orders from our chief came that we had two Syrian Fedayeen fighters in a house, one wounded and one dead. We were sent to rescue them."

"Nearby the house, an American sniper was using (a) minaret of a mosque to shoot people," he says. "When the commanders issued the code word, someone killed the sniper, then it was my job to hit the minaret with my (rocket propelled grenade) so the Americans couldn’t use it again. Nearby we found the Syrians," he continues. "The dead one, the Americans had desecrated his body. They cut off his hands, head and took his eyes out and left him in a bag. So we helped the wounded guy and took the bag with us to bury him."
Huh.
"As we ran out of the house, someone said they saw a tank," he says. "I heard a tank and a boom and was injured. Two others I was with got wounded; two were dead." When asked why he fought, Abu Freedom is clear. "Because I hate the Americans and hate the invaders," he says. "I don’t want to see Americans in charge of my country."
Or the Shia. Or an elected parliament of my fellow citizens.
In the other house on Monday, Ahmed is more eloquent on how the fighting can end and peace can come to Iraq. "God willing Bush will fall down by the hands of Fallujah," he says, combining military and political rhetoric. "If John Kerry wins the election and withdraws the Americans troops from Iraq, and maybe just leaves a few in bases, then we will not fight. But Bush we will always fight."
Somebody @ Kerry HQ needs to explain to this guy how to use talking points. Sublety is supposed to be an Arab trait.
Posted by: JAB || 04/12/2004 6:51:26 PM || Comments || Link || [0 views] Top|| File under:

#1  Talk is cheap, and this is yet another example of Arab "warriors" talking big and fierce. I don't have to remind you of the incident the other day (reposted right here on Rantburg) when some jihadi and his buddies were talking just such big talk but headed for the tall grass in a panic as soon as a US helo made its appearance.
Posted by: Joe || 04/12/2004 19:13 Comments || Top||

#2  I'd consider this article to be a good argument in favor of slaughtering them to the last man.
Posted by: Fred || 04/12/2004 19:55 Comments || Top||

#3  Fred's right - there's no rehab for this cancer
Posted by: Frank G || 04/12/2004 20:05 Comments || Top||

#4  Most Westerners can't cope with this sort of evil. Their minds just shut down.

The culture is just too evil. Just too zero sum. All this talk about the enlightened Abbasids and Ummayids is just BS. This is where despotism was invented 6,000 years ago. The whole concept of God-King originated in Mesopotamia. It's always been one fat guy in a jeweled turban shitting on a grand vizier and a grand bashir, who in turn shit on their subordinates and so on down to the most humble dhimmi or fellah.

The West has progressed almost to the stars during the past 500 years while the Arab Muslim world has stagnated. In all truth, we are as culturally and intellectually advanced over the Arabs as the Europeans settlers were over the Indians when they first arrived. Cultural relativism be damned.

There isn't a lot of common ground between two cultures so widely separated.

There will be more attempts to reach out and communicate and convert them to our way of thinking. These will fail. Eventually some American, Russian, Indian, or Chinese version of Andrew Jackson will come along and crush them. Those left will end up on reservations like the Native Americans.

Talk all you like about "melting pots" and "tossed salads," the reality is this: a turd in a stew or a salad is still a turd. It adds no value to the mix. It in fact subtracts value.

There are good people in every culture. The numbers of exploiters is usually quite small. I hope that the silent majority in places like Pakistan, Iran, and Dar al Arab (in deference to Liberalhawk) rise up. I suspect that their culture, their language, their religion, and their traditions will prevent this, leading to conflict and destruction.

EOR
Posted by: 11A5S || 04/12/2004 21:31 Comments || Top||

#5  Of course they will resist, there are still more women and children to hide behind.
Posted by: whitecollar redneck || 04/12/2004 21:35 Comments || Top||

#6  Nearby we found the Syrians, They cut off his hands, head and took his eyes out and left him in a bag.

Hands for fingerprints, head for photo line up? Assuming of course there is .05% truth in this story, that's what I'd collect if I found a dead person of interest.
Posted by: Steve || 04/12/2004 21:54 Comments || Top||

#7  Get his address. Mail the head home to mom.
Posted by: tu3031 || 04/12/2004 23:45 Comments || Top||

#8  troops in the field get lonely - who wouldn't want a little head now and then?
Posted by: Frank G || 04/12/2004 23:47 Comments || Top||


Abizaid and Sanchez comment on Iraqi security forces
EFL
Abizaid: Well, the fact of the matter is that some of them did very well and some of them did not. And in the south, a number of units, both in the police force and also in the ICDC [Iraqi Civil Defense Corps], did not stand up to the intimidators of the forces of Sadr’s militia and that was a great disappointment to us. In other places, such as in and around Fallujah, we’ve had good, strong performances by several units, and we’re satisfied with that. With regard to the new Iraqi army, I think we can look for better performance in the future once we get a well established Iraqi chain of command. The truth of the matter is that until we get well- formed Iraqi chains of command, all the way in the police service from the minister of interior to the lowest patrolman on the beat in whatever city it may be, and the same for the army, from private to minister of defense, that it’s going to be tough to get them to perform at the level we want. The good news is, we’re working on those chains of command, and I’m confident that with work on our part and work on their part, we’ll have better performance.

SANCHEZ: I think for some time now we have been stating that it was going to take us some time to stand up credible and capable Iraqi security forces that would be able to assume the internal and external security missions in the country. Clearly, what we faced here in the last week to 10 days is a challenge that we’ve got to confront directly. We’re in the process of doing that, but it’s still going to take us a significant amount of time to ensure that they are properly equipped, properly trained and credible and capable with their countrymen, to bring us security and stability.
Posted by: Domingo || 04/12/2004 3:03:59 PM || Comments || Link || [0 views] Top|| File under:

#1  I would try a regimental system based on tribal lines and just integrate platoons. The officer corps and NCO's would be fully integrated. That type of system has drawbacks but does breed espirit-de-corps. Note - The officers and NCOs would have to be outstanding leaders.
Posted by: Super Hose || 04/12/2004 17:03 Comments || Top||


Al-Jazeera reports on the "horrors" of Falluja
Lurid tales of the ongoing atrocity . . . from one of the world’s leading purveyors of lurid atrocity stories. Salt recommended. Ruthlessly EFL’d. Hat tip to the Brothers Judd.
As we drive through the back roads on the way to Falluja, US jets are pounding the area around the tiny village of Garma. The sight of US reinforcements flying into the area and the continuous sound of explosions and gunfire proves too much for my driver. He pulls into the village, unwilling to go any further.
Smart man.
. . . I call an Aljazeera cameraman in Falluja to check on his safety. My colleague’s voice is panic-stricken as he describes the scene, . . . "There are images we can’t show because it’s just too gruesome. I have never seen anything like this before," he says. "There are bodies everywhere, and people can’t go out to retrieve them because they’re too afraid of being blown away themselves. I can’t believe the number of children here, we were at the hospital and it’s full of dead and wounded kids. . . ."
"No men of military age, though. Nope. Not a one to be found anywhere in town. They’re all . . . up at the lodge near Mosul, hunting elk."
"Back at our office the Americans are shooting at us. I walk out of the bathroom and a laser is pointed at my chest," he says, referring to US sharpshooters in the area.
He’s obviously lying. If a U.S. sharpshooter had a bead on him like that, he’d already be dead.
"We’d just bought cigarettes from a store across the street; no more than ten minutes later it was bombed."
"Damned USMC tobacco lawyers!"
Posted by: Mike || 04/12/2004 3:38:48 PM || Comments || Link || [0 views] Top|| File under:

#1  "We’d just bought cigarettes from a store across the street; no more than ten minutes later it was bombed."

Drat the lousy timing! Come on, devildogs!
Posted by: BH || 04/12/2004 16:05 Comments || Top||

#2  "Hey, Odai, great report! Send us some film to back it up."

"No can do, boss. It's ... It's... It's gruesome! Yeah, that't the ticket, way too gruesome! For for our viewers' delicate sensibilities, you know."
Posted by: Matt || 04/12/2004 16:14 Comments || Top||

#3  There are images we can’t show because it’s just too gruesome.

I believe that's the first time that sentence has ever been uttered on Al-Jazeera...
Posted by: snellenr || 04/12/2004 16:18 Comments || Top||

#4  Damn the Marines are taking the anti-pogey bait campaign to a new level!.
Posted by: Shipman || 04/12/2004 16:37 Comments || Top||

#5  Conviently Al-Jitzzz does not show the 'wounded and dying kids'....

If you go to their homepage and click on the 'In pictures: Falluja after the siege' link (I cant link to it here since its some javascript code or something) it will show some pictures which call this article a lie. No dead chicks, ducks or puppies, no wounded kids.

And dont think for a miniute Al-Jitzz wouldn't show them.
Posted by: CrazyFool || 04/12/2004 16:38 Comments || Top||

#6  "Back at our office the Americans are shooting at us. I walk out of the bathroom and a laser is pointed at my chest," he says, referring to US sharpshooters in the area.
I'm not 100% certain, but I think that all of the US sighting and distance finding lasers are infrared, i.e. not visible to the naked eye.
Posted by: 11A5S || 04/12/2004 16:54 Comments || Top||

#7  Nice catch 11A5S; Jarhead, et al, can you confirm about the laser sight ? Is this stuff invisible, or is the Al-Jizz "reporter" making this sh!t up from the last Hollywood movie he saw ?
Posted by: Carl in N.H || 04/12/2004 17:16 Comments || Top||

#8  This sounds an awful like when the muderous zionists entered that peaceful playground in Jenin. I remember the class we had in basic: 'Killing chickens, chicks, and kids for the fun of it.' Second day was: 'Laser pointing on media crews and news whores.' I am glad that this is now in the open for all to see. BTW he didn't say why they bombed that store accross the street? Was it also a pet store or baby food store? Perhaps it doubled as a mosque?
Posted by: Cyber Sarge (VRWC CA Chapter) || 04/12/2004 17:18 Comments || Top||

#9  I find it unlikely that snipers would use an indicator that can be seen by the target. The beauty of the Aegis naval technology is that the scan radar is also the fire control radar so the target cannot determine whether it needs to take evasive action. Note - this is not exactly how the system works but that is how it gets the missile into terminal phase.

At a certain point AJ cameramen are going to get whacked because they are often present and filming ambushes.
Posted by: Super Hose || 04/12/2004 17:32 Comments || Top||

#10  To #8 - Cyper Sarge : The cigarette store was actually a "Baby Milk Plant", with a "Pesticide Manufacturing Facility" in the basement. Or, maybe Al-Jazeera is implying that the US Surgeon General has his own special forces in Iraq to handle tobacco outlets?
Posted by: Anonymous4052 || 04/12/2004 18:03 Comments || Top||


A day inside Fallujah with Marines -- how they are living
ELF

snip
Troops holed up in evacuated neighborhoods and dug in around the city’s edge used the calm to rest, reflect and wash up, not knowing if or when they would be sent back in the streets to take Fallujah block by block.

"I’ve had better Easter Sunday’s" said Pfc. Joe Smethurst, a machine gunner from Fox Company, 2nd Battalion, 1st Marine Regiment who spent most of Sunday relaxing in a commandeered Iraqi home in a Northwest Fallujah neighborhood. "But this is all right for now, for here."

When they weren’t on watch looking for snipers and sneak attacks, Smethurst and about 25 other members of Fox company blasted rock music while they lounged in couches and spread out on foam mats on the floors of an abandoned two-story house, The Marines took over the house on Friday to gain a view over their sector of the flat, dusty city along the Euphrates River.

Sgt. James Hollon, Deer Park Texas, 24, was the first to take a bath in a tub filled with the first running water the Marines have had in a week. Got to see the pic to appreciate!

"I could sit here all day," Hollon said as he scrubbed away, the envy of the group.

As the Marines sang along to recordings from the groups Red Hot Chili Peppers and Staind, some of their counterparts took turns watching for snipers and sneak attacks.

Rubble crunching beneath their boots, young officers crisscrossed the rooms with maps and radios, coordinating with the rest of the Marine units spread along the northern section of the cordon.

Tossing a radio to another Marine about to go on guard, Lance Cpl. Aaron Westlund, 20, of Rochester, Minn., slumped back to his place on the floor.

Lost in a tune by Nirvana, he sat hunched over, gobbling a grilled beef patty with cheese spread and barbecue sauce on two slices of wheat snack bread ---- one of the prized combinations from the Marines’ menu of packaged rations

"We don’t know what’s next," Westlund said, licking the cheese and sauce dripping from the edges of his make-shift cheeseburger. "Everything’s up in the air right now."

The troops from Fox Company fought their way into the first few blocks of the city on Tuesday. They continued to battle small bands of insurgents throughout the week to keep their foothold and to act as bait to draw insurgents out so that U.S. helicopters and jets could strike from the air.
snip

Posted by: Sherry || 04/12/2004 2:35:24 PM || Comments || Link || [0 views] Top|| File under:

#1  Good luck, good hunting, and come home safe.
Posted by: Mike || 04/12/2004 17:06 Comments || Top||

#2  small mistake but anyway:

The 3rd pic at the page depicting the woman nad child says "U.S. soldier", but it looks to me like one of the local forces operating with us.
Posted by: Carl in N.H || 04/12/2004 17:09 Comments || Top||

#3  Can someone forward this to Andy Rooney? These messages don't seem to be reaching his outpost in the sea of blather.
Posted by: Super Hose || 04/12/2004 17:42 Comments || Top||


Afghanistan/South Asia
Police Seize Six in Group Suspected of Car Bomb Attack
Police Monday arrested six men who allegedly belong to an Islamic militant group suspected of a weekend car bombing that killed one person and injured six others, an official said. Officers made the arrests during a raid on a house in an eastern suburb where they also found grenades, pistols, timers and detonators, chief investigator Fayyaz Leghari said.
Yup, those sound like islamic holy relics to me.
Leghari said the suspects belong to Harkat-ul-Mujahedeen al-Alami, an outlawed Islamic militant group believed to be behind several recent attacks in Pakistan's commercial capital of 14 million. Saturday's blast killed a 30-year-old man and injured six people, including two children, outside a golf club staging an outdoor concert. Police ruled out a suicide attack, saying no one was in the car when it exploded.
Holmes, how do you do it?
Leghari said the group is the prime suspect. "We suspect this group. The investigation continues, and we do not want to pinpoint anyone (conclusively)," Leghari said. The men were arrested after nine other members of the same group, already in custody, gave investigators information on their whereabouts, Leghari said. He declined to identify them.
More fabled Pak truncheon work.
Leghari said investigators will compare photos of the arrested men with sketches of suspects wanted for other attacks in Karachi. Among the nine arrested last week was a man who allegedly sent suicide bombers on an attack that killed 12 Pakistanis outside the U.S. Consulate in Karachi in 2002. The city has been the scene of militant attacks against the government and Westerners in apparent reprisals for President Gen. Pervez Musharraf's alliance with the U.S.-led campaign against terrorism in neighboring Afghanistan. On Friday, security forces seized a rocket launcher and mortar shells that police said were being stored by an unidentified militant group for an attack in Karachi.
"That rocket launcher? It's a family heirloom, my grandad left it to me."
Posted by: Steve || 04/12/2004 2:15:41 PM || Comments || Link || [0 views] Top|| File under:


Iraq-Jordan
Pentagon’s Israeli-Trained Hit-Squads Assassinating Iraqi Scientists and Academics
From Jihad Unspun, back on line.
.... many thousands of foreign fighters have indeed come "flooding" into Iraq - not terrorists sent by Bin Laden but mercenaries hired by the occupation authorities. Their role is to carry out dangerous tasks, to help reduce US army casualties. This is in addition to the Pentagon’s Israeli-trained special assassination squads. Iraqis now believe that some of the recent assassinations of scientists and academics were perpetrated by these hit-squads. A similar campaign of assassinations in Vietnam claimed the lives of 41,000 people between 1968 and 1971. .... Sharon-style tactics and brutality are now the favoured methods of the US-led occupation forces - including the torture of prisoners, who now number well over 10,000. ....

What has changed is that many Iraqis have decided that the peaceful road to evict the occupiers is not leading anywhere. They didn’t need Sadr to tell them this. They were told it loudly and brutally a few days ago by a US Abraham tank, one of many facing unarmed and peaceful demonstrators not far from the infamous Saddam statue that was toppled a year ago. The tank crushed to death two peaceful demonstrators protesting against the closure of a Sadr newspaper by Paul Bremer, the self-declared champion of free speech in Iraq. The tragic irony wasn’t lost on Iraqis. ....

It is ironic that, had Sadr’s political and social programme (towards the Kurdish people and women, for example), as distinct from his very popular anti-occupation stance, been more enlightened, he would have been much more popular. Indeed, he would probably have seen his Mahdi army grow to millions before Bremer’s resignation on June 30.
Posted by: Mike Sylwester || 04/12/2004 1:15:19 PM || Comments || Link || [2 views] Top|| File under:

#1  Ohh - They forgot to mention we are targeting Baby Milk Factory managers, Baby Duck farmers, and blind children too.
Posted by: Yosemite Sam || 04/12/2004 14:04 Comments || Top||

#2  WTF's an "Abraham" tank?
Posted by: Robert Crawford || 04/12/2004 14:05 Comments || Top||

#3  Something driven by the 16th President, obviously...
Posted by: Raj || 04/12/2004 14:26 Comments || Top||

#4  WTF's an "Abraham" tank?

An Abrams with the protective muzzle-cover on its 120mm gun trimmed back?
Posted by: snellenr || 04/12/2004 16:16 Comments || Top||

#5  It is ironic that, had Sadr’s political and social program (towards the Kurdish people and women, for example),

Never heard about his social programs for Kurds and women. The Western media has once again failed to get the good news out for one of the good guys just trying to help others out.
Posted by: Super Hose || 04/12/2004 18:01 Comments || Top||

#6  This story was circulating a month or so back, but the speculation was that Russia (and possibly France) were covering their tracks over their aid to Saddam's WMD programs.
Posted by: Phil B || 04/12/2004 20:19 Comments || Top||

#7 
#5 We had that sometime last year. Kurds, Christians, whoever, were required to abide by the rules Moq set for Shiites. Covered faces, no booze, that sort of thing.
Posted by: Fred || 04/12/2004 20:27 Comments || Top||

#8  The Mossad. So much to do... so little time.
Posted by: tu3031 || 04/12/2004 23:51 Comments || Top||

#9  An Abrams with the protective muzzle-cover on its 120mm gun trimmed back?

Bwahahahahahaha!!!
Posted by: Zenster || 04/13/2004 3:39 Comments || Top||


Senior cleric says Shi'i militia foiled "terrorist" plots
Text of report by Iranian Students News Agency (ISNA) web site, salt to taste:
Tehran, 12 April: The political adviser to Abd al-Aziz al-Hakim has said: The Badr Corps has taken appropriate security measures and foiled terrorist attacks and prevented explosions planned over the last two days and prior to the Arba'in ceremony [anniversary of the fortieth day after the anniversary of the martyrdom of the third Shi'i Imam, Imam Husayn] in Karbala.
Well, that's nice of them.

Announcing the news in an interview with the correspondent of the Iranian Students News Agency (ISNA), Sayyid Abd al-Aziz al-Hakim, who is a political adviser to the chairman of the Supreme Council for Islamic Revolution in Iraq [SCIRI], Sayyid Abd al-Aziz al-Hakim, said: As a result of this measure, the Badr Corps managed to discover 10 Katyusha rockets, a large quantity of TNT and C-4 and explosives which were going to be used in Karbala.
Badr Boyz being the Sistani backed mob. Wonder if someone was planning on booming more Shiites and trying to pin it on the US?
Posted by: Steve || 04/12/2004 12:43:17 PM || Comments || Link || [0 views] Top|| File under:

#1  This also seems like a way to say Sistani is a legitimate authority in a chaotic area ....
Posted by: rkb || 04/12/2004 13:45 Comments || Top||


Sadr supporters, occupation forces agree on ceasefire in Najaf
The truce in the Iraqi town of Fallujah has been extended until Monday night, with the agreement of both US forces and Iraqi resistance, a mediator said. "The ceasefire was extended by 24 hours last night, so it is supposed to last until Monday evening," Alaa Makki, a senior member of the Iraqi Islamic Party which was leading the mediation attempt, told AFP.
IIP was also noted yesterday as the bunch who planned the festivities in the first place...
"It had initially been due to last until today morning, but the two sides agreed to 24 hours" more, he said. Meanwhile, Iraqi police deployed in the central holy city of Najaf following an agreement, involving the US-led occupation, for the withdrawal of armed militiamen from the streets, police said. "An agreement has been reached between the coalition and the office of (Shiite leader Moqtada) Sadr," conveyed Najaf police chief Ali al-Yaseri. Under the terms of the agreement, occupation troops will not enter the city, which will be under Iraqi security control, said Yaseri, according to AFP.
Posted by: Fred || 04/12/2004 12:17:18 PM || Comments || Link || [0 views] Top|| File under:


Militia Leaves Najaf Government Buildings
NAJAF, Iraq - A radical Shiite cleric has pulled his militiamen out of police stations and government facilities in this holy city, partially meeting a U.S. demand for ending the standoff in southern Iraq, cleric's represenative said Monday.
"Boss, the jig's up! We gotta go!"
Police on Monday were back on the streets and in their stations for the first time in days since the al-Mahdi Army militia of cleric Muqtada al-Sadr took control of the facilities last week. "Al-Sayed al-Sadr issued instructions for his followers to leave the sites of police and the government," said lawyer Murtada al-Janabi, one of al-Sadr's representatives in negotiations with Iraqi Shiite political parties on ending the U.S. standoff with the cleric and his forces.
"C'mon, Boss, lookit the size of that tank barrel!"
One of the U.S. demands in the talks was the return of police and government control in all three cities al-Sadr's militia took over, Najaf, Kufa and Karbala, according to negotiators. The Americans, who are not taking part in the talks, also demanded the dissolution in the al-Mahdi Army.
"We gotta lie low a while, Boss. Besides [sniff] we all need showers. Let's go home!"

"Boss? Boss? Hey, where did he go?"
Posted by: Steve White || 04/12/2004 12:05:47 PM || Comments || Link || [0 views] Top|| File under:


Iraq Gunmen Batter American Supply Lines
FALLUJAH, Iraq (AP) - Gunmen battered American supply lines Monday, torching armored vehicles and looting a supply truck on its way from the Baghdad airport. The military said about 70 Americans and 700 insurgents had been killed this month, the bloodiest since the fall of Baghdad a year ago. Two U.S. troops and seven employees of American contractor Kellogg, Brown & Root were missing, Lt. Gen. Ricardo Sanchez said Monday.

More U.S. forces maneuvered into place around Fallujah, and the military has warned it will launch an all-out assault on the besieged city if talks there between pro-U.S. Iraqi politicians and city officials fall through.

The military has been trying to regain control of supply routes after several convoys were ambushed at least 10 truck drivers kidnapped. Nine were released, but an American - Thomas Hamill of Macon, Miss. - remained a captive. On Monday, a convoy of flatbed trucks carrying M113 armored personnel carriers was attacked and burned on a road in Latifiya, 20 miles south of Baghdad. Witnesses said three people were killed.
What the hell? Where's the force protection?
A supply truck was also ambushed and set ablaze Monday on the road from Baghdad's airport. Looters moved in to carry away goods from the truck as Iraqi police looked on without intervening. Securing roads has now become a top priority for the military, U.S. Brig. Gen. Mark Kimmitt said Monday. "Over the past 24 hours we have put significant amount of combat power on both areas of operation to open up those lines of communication so we can not only resupply our forces in Fallujah, Ramadi and our forces down south, but also make those roads safe for travel," Kimmit said.
So what happened to the M113's?
Three U.S. Marines were killed Sunday in Anbar province, the area that includes Fallujah, the military said Monday without giving further details. An attack on an Army patrol in Samarra, 60 miles north of Baghdad, killed a soldier from the 1st Armored Division and injured four others on Sunday.

Kimmitt on Monday released the first full casualty statistics since widespread fighting erupted on April 4. "The coalition casualties since April 1 run about 70 personnel. ... The casualty figures we have received from the enemy are somewhere about 10 times that amount, what we've inflicted on the enemy," he told a Baghdad press conference.

Sanchez, the top U.S. commander in Iraq, acknowledged that a battalion of the Iraqi army refused to fight in Fallujah - a sign of Iraqi discontent with the siege. Asked about the battalion's refusal on NBC's "Meet The Press," Sanchez said, "This one specific instance did in fact uncover some significant challenges in some of the Iraqi security force structures ... We know that it's going to take us a while to stand up reliable forces that can accept responsibility." Some 900 members of the Iraqi Civil Defense Corps are with three battalions of Marines.

The goal of the separate talks in Fallujah and the south - all conducted by Iraqis, with no Americans participating - was unclear. U.S. commanders demand that control of Iraqi police and U.S.-led coalition forces in the cities be restored and that insurgents in Fallujah lay down their arms and hand over Iraqis who killed and mutilated four American civilians on March 31. Iraqi Governing Council members, who have harshly criticized the U.S. offensive, are seeking a way to extend the truce and resolve the violence.

In Fallujah, hardly a shot was heard Monday morning, more than 36 hours after insurgents in the city said they were calling a cease-fire. The Marines have halted offensive operations since Friday. Despite the truce, guerrillas overnight made sporadic attacks, said Byrne. Marines killed two insurgents setting up a machine gun near a patrol and others were fired on by gunmen hiding in a school, he said.
Good!
Byrne said U.S. Marines would not withdraw from their positions in Fallujah. "Diplomacy is just talk unless you have a credible force to back it up," he said. "People will bend to our will if they are afraid of us."
That sounds like a Marine talking.
Most of the Iraqis killed in Fallujah in fighting that started last Monday were women, children and elderly, said al-Issawi, the Fallujah hospital director. Byrne cast doubt on the numbers and said he was confident troops in his 1st Battalion, 5th Regiment had not killed any civilians. "Just because (the Iraqis) say it's so, doesn't meant it's so," he said.
Think the press can remember that?
Posted by: Steve White || 04/12/2004 11:59:43 AM || Comments || Link || [0 views] Top|| File under:

#1  Think the press can remember that?

No. This single Iraqi has been quoted in almost every single article I have read today.... with not an shread of evidence and apparently no confirmation. But it meets the 'hate america' agenda of the press so it gets front/center coverage.
Posted by: CrazyFool || 04/12/2004 12:24 Comments || Top||

#2  Amazing. 10 to 1 kill ratio for the US, and they still managed to frame it negatively. Absolutely amazing.
Posted by: BH || 04/12/2004 12:36 Comments || Top||

#3  I don't understand why we aren't linking this to the ceasfire in Fallujah proper (if that's the right word to use...). The gunmen are obviously working in tandem... if they are shooting *anywhere*, then they are breaking the ceasefire. Let's quit treating this like a bunch of independent gangs, and more like an organized insurrection (which it is).
Posted by: snellenr || 04/12/2004 12:53 Comments || Top||

#4  Hang on:

The article says in the beginnning that about 70 Americans have been killed this month, but Kimmitt said, "The coalition casualties since April 1 run about 70 personnel"

It's that "casualties" vs "killed" thing again. Do we have 70 dead or 70 dead and wounded ?

Posted by: Carl in N.H || 04/12/2004 13:04 Comments || Top||

#5  [Off-topic or abusive comments deleted]
Posted by: Antiwar TROLL || 04/12/2004 13:34 Comments || Top||

#6 

"Diplomacy is just talk unless you have a credible force to back it up,"
he said. "People will bend to our will if they are afraid of us."


Camp Pendleton Marines will tear this place apart if the Army lets them.1982-1984 in Lebanon still holds meaning for these guys. The enemy then was the Syrian and Irianian supported Druze. Today its the same Syrian and Irianian backed local militia.

20 years later and the enemies are the same. The Marines understand this and want to teach some respect.

Posted by: ZoGg || 04/12/2004 13:36 Comments || Top||

#7  No, AntiWar, it hasn't. Go back to your little pro-fascist tea party peace protest, please.
Posted by: Robert Crawford || 04/12/2004 13:44 Comments || Top||

#8  Hey Antiwar, all cool? I see the PMS is acting up again.
Posted by: Evert Visser in NL || 04/12/2004 13:52 Comments || Top||

#9  Carl, a quick reading of the Centcom casualty reports suggests 61 KIA since April 1-- but I may have double counted because of the way the reports are arranged. centcom.mil look at the bottom of the page.
Posted by: Matt || 04/12/2004 13:54 Comments || Top||

#10  Hey Antiwar - atleast give an alternative solution if you are going to through stones.
Posted by: Yosemite Sam || 04/12/2004 14:15 Comments || Top||

#11  Is Antiwar suggesting that we feed the insurgents to the dogs? That's pretty harsh but I think it sends the right message.
Posted by: Super Hose || 04/12/2004 18:08 Comments || Top||

#12  Antiwar - ok if war is not the answer then what is? the problem is that you and your type have no answer. We cannot continue with the wayt the 90's were. this is serious and we will continue. people die in war and there is nothing that can be done about that. just because there is death and destruction (coalition included) is no reason surrender. it means we fight harder.

AND YOU ARE NOT VINDICATED! But we will when the 4th ID rolls into tehran and finally takes care of this bullshit. We will still have terrorism but the head will gone.
Posted by: Dan || 04/12/2004 18:37 Comments || Top||

#13  In separate news, Dewey Defeats Truman!
Posted by: Tibor || 04/12/2004 18:52 Comments || Top||

#14  Just remember the defeatist comments made by antiwar and others in November. I know I will.

You can vindicate our dead and help those wounded recover by voting against Kerry and his socialist ideas.
Posted by: badanov || 04/12/2004 19:29 Comments || Top||

#15  Auntie War, SADDAM is the one who made a "dog's breakfast" out of Iraq.
We're rebuilding it to be the greatest democracy in the Middle East and soon it will regain the glory it had as ancient Babylon.

And my name is JENNIE, like Sir Winston Churchill's mother, Jennie Randolph Churchill (not Jennifer).
Posted by: Jen || 04/12/2004 19:43 Comments || Top||

#16  I SAID the coalition had made a dog's breakfast out of Iraq.This has been vindicated.
Posted by: Antiwar || 04/12/2004 13:34 Comments || Top||


Israel-Palestine
Surprise! Al-Jazeera, Al-Manar reporters aided terrorists
JPost - Reg Req’d
The Samaria Military Court on Thursday indicted Daib Abu Zeid, a reporter for Hizbullah’s al-Manar television for transferring funds on behalf of the Hizbullah to Palestinian terror cells in the West Bank and recruiting Israeli Arabs to Hizbullah’s ranks.
busy little beaver
Also on Thursday, security services arrested a correspondent of the Al-Jazeera Arab satellite television network suspected of aiding Palestinian terrorists.
twitch twitch? nope
Dib Abu Zayad, 38, from Jenin, was arrested three months ago in Nablus. According to the Shin Bet, Zayad supplied terrorists with weapons, money, clothes and modes of transportation.

Zayad served as a liaison between a Fatah leader in Lebanon and Fatah cells in the West Bank and Gaza Strip, passing money and information between the two countries.

Dib Abu Zayad was among 8 Palestinians arrested by the Shin Bet under suspicion of aiding and abetting terrorists. The security services were unable to divulge further details regarding Zayad’s arrest.
"I can say no more™"
In the last few days the security establishment received 60 terror alerts on average every day. At least three major attacks were thwarted.

Also Thursday, soldiers from an elite IDF unit arrested Muhammad Fukayat, a senior Hamas fugitive, in Ramallah.

According to Palestinian reports, troops entered a Palestinian government ministry in the city and arrested Fukayet, an executive in the Palestinian Prisoners Office, which deals with aiding released prisoners.
Hmmmm executive in a gubbamint ministry?
Palestinians added that during the operation, IDF troops conducted a search in the chambers of Fatah official Kadura Fares, a Palestinian parliamentary deputy.
jus’ having a look around since they’re already there....
A short time earlier, Palestinians opened fire on Israeli troops near the West Bank settlement of Kadim. No one was injured and no damage was caused in the incident.

Across the West Bank, the army arrested 27 wanted Palestinians overnight Wednesday. Palestinian officials said two of those arrested were female students from the Al Quds university in Nablus, a known hotbed of militant activity.
boomerettes?

Posted by: Frank G || 04/12/2004 11:22:23 AM || Comments || Link || [0 views] Top|| File under:


Iraq-Jordan
Iranian bassijis Killed in Karbala by Polish Troops
Overnight clashes between Polish and Bulgarian troops and Shi'ite militiamen in the shrine city of Karbala killed 15 Iraqis, and six Iranian bassiji pilgrims were shot dead at a Polish checkpoint, police and doctors said on Friday.
I'm sure they were innocent,of something.
The violence on the edge of the southern city erupted a day before millions of Shi'ites are expected to converge on Karbala for the Shi'ite holy day of Arbain. The U.S.-led administration has warned it cannot guarantee the safety of pilgrims. Suicide bomb attacks during a similar Shi'ite religious event last month killed 171 people.
Ya want to go for a new record?
The overnight clashes between foreign troops and followers of Moqtada al-Sadr, a radical cleric whose militiamen are fighting U.S.-led occupation troops in several Iraq cities, also wounded 21 Iraqis, said Saleh Mahdi, head of Karbala's health department. The six Iranians were killed on the road between Babel and Karbala as their car approached a Polish checkpoint, a Karbala police spokesman said. Five Iranian bassijis were killed in a similar incident earlier this week.
Guess bassijis don't think checkpoints apply to them.
Posted by: Steve || 04/12/2004 11:29:36 AM || Comments || Link || [0 views] Top|| File under:

#1  Guess bassijis don't think checkpoints apply to them.

Maybe if they barked instead of yodeling.... ;)
Posted by: Bomb-a-rama || 04/12/2004 14:11 Comments || Top||

#2  6 dead Iranian militants.... check.
Posted by: Super Hose || 04/12/2004 18:14 Comments || Top||

#3  Thanks, Poland! More like these, please. (Lots more!)
Posted by: Barbara Skolaut || 04/12/2004 18:56 Comments || Top||


Afghanistan/South Asia
Taliban say kill Afghan spy chief
Remnants of Afghanistan's ousted Taliban have killed a top intelligence chief, a spokesman for the Islamic militia said on Monday. Taliban fighters killed Ahmadullah, intelligence chief of Uruzgan province in central Afghanistan, and were planning to step up attacks on Afghan government officials and the U.S. military, said the Taliban spokesman, Abdul Latif Hakimi. The Taliban have declared a "jihad", or holy war, against foreign and Afghan government troops and aid organisations. Since August last year, more than 600 people have been killed in violence, much of it blamed on the Taliban. Ahmadullah was captured on Thursday with two of his bodyguards near his home village of Tirin Kot, about 350 km southwest of the capital Kabul. "We killed him and his bodyguards after he refused to cooperate with us," Hakimi said. "We will not hand over their bodies until Uruzgan authorities hand over the body of a Taliban who they killed recently." Uruzgan officials were not immediately available for comment, but have confirmed the Taliban kidnapped Ahmadullah.
Posted by: Fred || 04/12/2004 11:39 || Comments || Link || [0 views] Top|| File under:


Iraq-Jordan
Fresh fighting in Fallujah
Posted by: Fred || 04/12/2004 11:39 || Comments || Link || [0 views] Top|| File under:


Israel-Palestine
Jordanian captive on 18th day of hunger strike
The Jordanian prisoner, Sultan Al-Ajloni, detained in Zionist jails for 13 years for killing a Zionist soldier in the early nineties in a cross border attack has entered his 18th day of strict hunger strike.
Good move. Wouldn't want him to be too porky when he departs this vale of tears. Interferes with frolicking with the doe-eyed maidens, y'know...
Palestinian sources said that Ajloni, who is currently detained in the Hadarim prison, was on strike since 25th March and refused to end his strike unless his demands were met.
Demand and be damned.
The sources noted that Ajloni, who suffers numerous diseases, has asked to meet one of the Jordanian diplomats in his country’s embassy in Tel Aviv. Lawyer of the Palestinian prisoners supporters society in Ramallah, Raed Al-Desouki, has said in press statements that he tabled a request to visit Ajloni on 6th April and was not granted permission so far. Desouki underlined that the Jordanian prisoner’s health condition could not endure a long period of such a strike in which Ajloni does not eat, drink or take medicine.
No great loss I can see. They don't tell you that part when you're signing up for jihad, do they?
Posted by: Fred || 04/12/2004 11:35 || Comments || Link || [0 views] Top|| File under:

#1  "Palestinian sources said that Ajloni, who is currently detained in the Hadarim prison, was on strike since 25th March and refused to end his strike unless his demands were met."

How about....no?
Posted by: Frank G || 04/12/2004 12:03 Comments || Top||

#2  Want some of this barbecue? I can't eat it all. Gotta save room for pie!
Posted by: Fred || 04/12/2004 14:45 Comments || Top||

#3  Good riddance to bad rubbish. Make sure to wrap the corpse in pigskin before burying.
Posted by: Barbara Skolaut || 04/12/2004 18:23 Comments || Top||

#4  If a North Korean detainee went on a hunger strike, how would anybody know?
Posted by: Super Hose || 04/12/2004 18:29 Comments || Top||

#5  Here is another hunger striker that doesn't seem to be getting much press. I wonder why?
Posted by: Super Hose || 04/12/2004 21:28 Comments || Top||

#6  I suppose they could force feed him, but...NAH.
Posted by: tu3031 || 04/12/2004 23:58 Comments || Top||


PA lawmaker underscores connection between events in Iraq and Palestine
On Saturday, television screens around the world showed a number of Iraqi fighters holding several foreign hostages, including at least one American mercenary. The armed men identified themselves as “the regiments of the Martyr Sheikh Ahmed Yasin,” a reference to the founder and spiritual leader of Hamas who was assassinated by Israel on 22 March. The symbolic identification with Hamas, a Palestinian political expert contends, underscores the “growing connection between what is happening in Palestine and what is happening in Iraq.”

“The message is very significant. It shows that at least some resistance fighters in Iraq consider Israel and America as two sides of the same coin,” said Ziyad Abu Amr, a Palestinian lawmaker and Professor of Political Science. He told PIC Sunday that Israel hoped that Iraq’s gates would be wide-opened for Israeli companies, diplomats and even Mossad agents. “Now, it seems, these hopes are evaporating and Iraqis, irrespective of their religious and political affiliation are burning the Israeli flags along with the American flags and identifying with Hamas and the Palestinian struggle.” Abu Amr called the Iraqi “Intifada” a “turnabout in the Iraq people’s collective consciousness.” He opined that the Iraqi people would never allow an American puppet Iraqi leader to rule them after what has happened in Falluja and other Iraqi cities. “I am convinced that the Iraqi people will never be cordial toward those who slaughtered their children and women at Falluja, Ramadi and Baghdad. There is already a gulf of blood between the Americans and the Iraqi people.”
Actually, I'm convinced that if we brutally suppressed the Iraqi people, grinding them into the dirt and killing them in large numbers, they'd turn out in the streets to sing our praises and chant "America, we'll defend you with our blood!" They did it for Sammy, after all.
Asked to explain the dramatic escalation of the Iraq resistance during the past few weeks, Abu Amr cited the “intrinsic contradiction between the occupier and the occupied.”
Could also have something to do with that meeting in London and some Iranian money...
“Of course there are some more direct reasons. However, the fundamental reason lies in the intrinsic contradiction between the occupied and the occupier, the rapist and the rape victim, the oppressor and the oppressed.” Amr, who had written extensively against the hapless Oslo agreement between Israel and the PLO, predicted that the planned handover of authority to an Iraqi government by the end of June would not bring about any substantive change in the Iraqi scene. “This is a big deception. What does it mean to hand over authority or sovereignty to a government or a governing council that is acting at the American occupier’s beck and call. It is a big joke.”
Posted by: Fred || 04/12/2004 11:32 || Comments || Link || [0 views] Top|| File under:

#1  They continue to prove the case that Hamas and Hezzbollah are tied to international terrorist activity. Hopefully, Kerry will be forced to choose to support or condemn Palestinian terrorist groups during the debates. It seems like a losing proposition for him. Even he chooses to answer ambiguously he will appear weak on defense.
Posted by: Super Hose || 04/12/2004 18:36 Comments || Top||


Afghanistan/South Asia
Differences within MMA widen
Differences within the six-party religious alliance, Muttahida Majlis-e-Amal (MMA), are widening after Hamidul Haq Haqqani assumed charge as chairman of the National Assembly’s standing committee on local government and rural development. Hamidul Haq Haqqani is the son of Maulana Samiul Haq, who is the chief of the MMA faction, Jamiat Ulema Islam-Samiul Haq (JUI-S). “The MMA leadership was upset because Maulana Samiul Haq’s son, Hamid, accepted the chairmanship of the standing committee of the lower house of the parliament,” MMA sources told Daily Times on Sunday.
"Ow! My ego! It's all bruised!"
The MMA’s supreme council had constituted a committee headed by Professor Sajid Mir, the president of Jammiat Ahle Hadis (JAH), in a meeting in Islamabad, to resolve the problems of smaller parties, especially the concerns of the JUI-S. “But Mr Haqqani accepted the post before the JUI-S consultation process was started,” sources said. “The MMA leadership has also claimed that the JUI-S was given the chairmanship of the standing committee under a deal with the government.” The leaders of the six-party religious alliance have communicated their concerns to Maulana Samiul Haq regarding his son’s acceptance. “Hamid accepted the chairmanship of the committee because the standing committee plays a role of an accountability forum to keep a check on government policies,” Maulana Haq said in his son’s defence. “Hamid made efforts to get this position and was lobbying for this portfolio.” The government did not oppose him from becoming the chairman of the standing committee, he said.
Posted by: Fred || 04/12/2004 11:27 || Comments || Link || [0 views] Top|| File under:


JI won’t let Pakistan become US slave: Baloch
The government is trying to make Pakistan a slave to the United States but the Jamaat-e-Islami will stop this, Jamaat Punjab Ameer Liaqat Baloch said at a convention in Mansoora on Sunday. Mr Baloch also accused the government of promoting “vulgarity” by taking Quranic verses out of the school curriculum.
Liaqat seems to be doing more of the mouthing off talking for JI lately. I wonder if Qazi's health is finally on the downward slide?
Posted by: Fred || 04/12/2004 11:26 || Comments || Link || [0 views] Top|| File under:


10 cops recalled for questioning in Musharraf assassination attempt
Ten Rawalpindi district police officials have been recalled by the investigation team probing the December 25, 2003, attempt on President Pervez Musharraf‘s life.
The tip of the iceberg surfaces.
The recalled include three inspectors Khizer Hayat, Javed Tanoli, Khurished Abbasi, four assistant sub-inspectors Kaim Ali, Wazir Ali and Khushal Khan and three constables. They will reappear before the investigation team and record their statements, sources told Daily Times. These police officials have been directed not to leave their present postings and not leave the city without informing the investigation team, sources said. The police officials had been posted at Airport Chowk, Khanna Chowki, Gulzar-e-Quaid and Lethar Road on the day when there were two attempts on the president’s life. The investigation team called in several police officials to probe vigorously with truncheons the matter and gleaned painfully information about terrorists who could have been involved in the incidents in which more than 16 people died and several others were injured. The recalled police officials recorded their statements and they have been recalled after their statements were investigated. The investigation team expressed some doubts about their statements and thus recalled them for cross-examination, sources said. The investigation team is also contemplating recalling Islamabad Police officials whose statements appear dubious, sources added. Rawalpindi District Police Officer Syed Murvat Ali Shah said that he has no information about the development.
Posted by: Fred || 04/12/2004 11:24 || Comments || Link || [0 views] Top|| File under:

#1  Truncheon - Check
Craftsman Plier Set - Check
Infedel DieHard - Check
Power Inverter - Check
Czecks - Check
Cheap Headphones - Check
Gogi Grant Greatest Hits - Check.

Commence the probe!
Posted by: Shipman || 04/12/2004 17:29 Comments || Top||

#2  Shades of how Sadat got whacked?
Posted by: Not Mike Moore || 04/13/2004 1:04 Comments || Top||

#3  Yes, NMM, Sadat was assassinated by Islamic Jihad. radical Muslims, for his "complicity" in the Camp David peace talks...
was that your point?
These jihadis are just murderers. Period. Of the great and the not so great.
Posted by: Jen || 04/13/2004 2:04 Comments || Top||


Peaceful solution on its way: jirga
Two members of the tribal jirga said on Sunday the jirga had made progress towards a peaceful solution to the issue of handing over foreign terrorists and their local supporters to the government. In a joint statement issued here, Senator Mateen Shah and Malik Inayat Khan said the jirga had separately met with elders of three Zalikhel sub-tribes - Utmankhel, Kakakhel and Sheikh Bazid - who agreed to form their own lashkars (army) to carry out operations in their respective areas against foreign terrorists. The elders also assured the jirga that no foreigners would be allowed to live in their areas and action would be taken against the sub-tribes in whose areas any foreigners were found. The elders also said they would meet with the political administration today (Monday) to restore confidence between the administration and the tribes.

Meanwhile, tribal elders have welcomed the deployment of Pakistani troops in Mohmand Agency. “In the backdrop of a border dispute between Pakistan and Afghanistan, which surfaced some time ago in Mohmand Agency, the Pakistan Army and paramilitary have been deployed in the area and local tribal elders have welcomed this move,” reported a BBC correspondent after visiting the agency. The report said Badezai area in Mohmand Agency is disputed between Pakistan and Afghanistan. Last year the Pakistan Army and paramilitary were deployed there and they set up posts in the entire area. But the Afghan government objected over the deployment. The report said, “We visited different localities of that area and met several tribal elders and also visited the Afghan border. We came to know that there is no current dispute as tripartite meetings between Pakistan, Afghanistan and the US are regularly held.”

The report also said, “Different people talked about their problems. First, they said that their area was quite backward, but many of their problems have been resolved after the deployment of Pakistani soldiers there. Law and order has improved. There was no drinking water, roads, schools, hospitals and electricity. But now all these developmental works are continuing. Earlier, they were opposed to the establishment of girls’ schools but now every village is demanding schools for girls.”
Posted by: Fred || 04/12/2004 11:21 || Comments || Link || [0 views] Top|| File under:

#1 
Different people talked about their problems. First, they said that their area was quite backward, but many of their problems have been resolved after the deployment of Pakistani soldiers there. Law and order has improved. There was no drinking water, roads, schools, hospitals and electricity. But now all these developmental works are continuing. Earlier, they were opposed to the establishment of girls’ schools but now every village is demanding schools for girls.

The tide is turning.
Posted by: Mike Sylwester || 04/12/2004 12:33 Comments || Top||

#2  Guess this damn meter ain't busted!
Posted by: raptor || 04/12/2004 17:41 Comments || Top||

#3  Show me the Money!!!!!!!!!!
Posted by: Anonymous2U || 04/12/2004 21:58 Comments || Top||


Jihadi group’s involvement in blast suspected
Gee! Golly! Really? Y'think?
A senior investigator said on Sunday a banned jihadi group, mainly based in central parts of the city, might be behind the blast that killed one person and injured nine others on Saturday. “We are investigating and have so far not formed any concrete opinion,” Sindh Inspector General Syed Kamal Shah told Daily Times on Sunday. According to him, the sketch of one of the two carjackers who had snatched the car of a citizen, Rashid Ali Khan, from Gulshan-e-Iqbal just an hour before the attack, had been prepared. Although, he does not suspect any specific group behind the incident, another senior official said the Harkatul Mujahideen al-Aalmi based in the city’s central district, might be behind the blast. Police arrested nine HMA activists including its ringleader Sohail Akhtar, alias Mustafa, on Tuesday and recovered a large number of arms and explosives from them.
Posted by: Fred || 04/12/2004 11:20 || Comments || Link || [0 views] Top|| File under:


Africa: North
Thousands of Libyans Protest US Occupation of Iraq
Thousands of Libyans demonstrated in Tripoli yesterday against the US-led occupation of Iraq and voice their support for the residents of the Iraqi city of Fallujah, an AFP reporter witnessed. “Death to America, long live the people of Iraq,” the protesters shouted, carrying banners hailing “the resistance of the Iraqi people,” while a succession of speakers called on Iraqis to “unite against the invaders.” The demonstrators, who also carried photographs of Fallujah residents killed in clashes, burned a US flag outside the offices of the United Nations. Thousands also paraded in Benghazi, Libya’s second city, the report said. In mosques prayers were said for the dead, said to number more than 400 killed in six days of fighting between insurgents and US forces. Libya on Saturday proclaimed a day of mourning for the “martyrs of Fallujah”, state television put out its programs in black and white and newspapers carried black-bordered pages.
Feeling Arab, are they? Sure hope we don't stumble too badly in Iraq, or Muammar will forget which side his bread's buttered on...
Posted by: Fred || 04/12/2004 11:17 || Comments || Link || [0 views] Top|| File under:

#1  Damn--and I thought Tony Blair was just there--to declare "Mission Accomplished!?"
Posted by: Not Mike Moore || 04/13/2004 1:07 Comments || Top||

#2  NMM, You Leftist Libs are so jealous and bitter about President Bush's landing and speech from the aircraft carrier!
I love it.
Go GWB!
And Tony Blair should take a good part of the credit for accepting Libya's voluntary surrender of its WMDs.
Let the natives demonstrate all they want--their leader doesn't have his arsenal anymore.
After all, we let you peaceniks demonstrate here, too and it's equally moronic!
Posted by: Jen || 04/13/2004 2:00 Comments || Top||


Afghanistan/South Asia
Factional Fighting Spreads in Afghanistan
This involves cannon fodder that could be much more effectively expended potting Pashtuns across the border from Waziristan...
Factional violence spread across Afghanistan on Sunday, with gunbattles in the north between militias of two powerful warlords leaving up to three fighters dead, rival groups said Sunday. Forces loyal to Abdul Rashid Dostum and his rival, Atta Mohammed, battled overnight in Kod-e-Barq, an area about 190 miles northwest of the capital, Kabul. About 500 fighters from Mohammed's faction looted houses belonging to Dostum and leaders of his faction, a spokesman for Dostum said. Three of Dostum's men were killed and about 15 were injured, the spokesman, Akbar Boy, said. Mohammed Shafi, a senior commander for Mohammed, confirmed the clash, but said only one of Dostum's men was killed. Two of his own men were injured, he said. Shafi claimed Dostum's militia, armed with rockets, attacked the area in preparation for a move on Mazar-e-Sharif, a major northern city where the two militias jostle for control. Local residents resisted them, he said. "The people rose up. There's at least one Kalashnikov in every house there, and Dostum's people retreated," Shafi said.
Posted by: Fred || 04/12/2004 11:15 || Comments || Link || [0 views] Top|| File under:


Afghans begin new Qaeda hunt
Hundreds of Afghan and American soldiers are engaged in a new hunt for Osama bin Laden and other terror suspects in a mountainous region bordering Pakistan, the Afghan military said Monday. The operation began Friday in Spera, a border district in Khost province, 90 miles south of Kabul, Afghan military commander Zakim Khan said. The 700 troops, including 100 American soldiers backed by U.S. helicopters, blocked off a potential escape route for militants who could be hiding on the Pakistani side of the frontier, Khan said. "We have reports that this was a route used by both Taliban and al-Qaida," Khan said. "I don't know how many came and went here, but now they have one option less." Khan, the commander of the Afghan 822nd border battalion, said that caves in the region were used during the war against Soviet occupation in the 1980s. "I'm very optimistic we'll find something because the main road is covered with Afghan checkpoints," he said. The area is across from Pakistan's Waziristan tribal region, long considered a possible hide-out for bin Laden and al-Qaida No. 2, Ayman al-Zawahri.

U.S. military spokesman Lt. Col. Matthew Beevers would not comment on any operations involving the 13,500 U.S.-led coalition in Afghanistan, saying it could jeopardize their success. American officers have said they are confident that bin Laden, Taliban leader Mullah Omar and rebel Afghan warlord Gulbuddin Hekmatyar will be caught, but last week backed off previous forecasts that it would be this year.

In Pakistan, the government has given tribesmen in the Shawal border area until April 20 to hand over al-Qaida suspects or face a fierce crackdown. Senior Pakistani officials initially thought they had al-Zawahri surrounded during a March operation in South Waziristan that saw 160 militants arrested and 63 killed. Some 50 Pakistani troops also died, as well as a dozen civilians. The U.S. military has said it saw no increase in militants' movements along the border during that operation, but that it expects Pakistan to keep up the pressure.
Posted by: Fred || 04/12/2004 11:13 || Comments || Link || [1 views] Top|| File under:

#1  I'm a waiting with baited breathe.

Posted by: Shipman || 04/12/2004 17:32 Comments || Top||

#2  bated breath
Posted by: Grammar Police || 04/12/2004 19:38 Comments || Top||

#3  That's not grammar that spellin.
Posted by: Shipman || 04/13/2004 7:02 Comments || Top||


Iraq-Jordan
Around 770 Dead in Recent Iraq Fighting
About 70 U.S.-led coalition troops and 700 Iraqi insurgents have been killed in fighting across Iraq since April 1, but there is no authoritative figure on Iraqi civilian deaths, U.S. Brig. Gen. Mark Kimmitt said Monday. By an Associated Press count, at least 62 U.S. troops, two non-U.S. coalition soldiers and around 882 Iraqis have been killed across the country since April 4, including in Fallujah. Kimmitt's comments Monday were the first full casualty statistics released by the military since a bloody uprising by a radical Shiite militia started April 4 and U.S. forces began their siege against Sunni insurgents in Fallujah early April 5. "The coalition casualties since April 1 run about 70 personnel. ... The casualty figures we have received from the enemy are somewhere about 10 times that amount, what we've inflicted on the enemy," Kimmitt told a news conference.
Posted by: Fred || 04/12/2004 11:11 || Comments || Link || [0 views] Top|| File under:

#1  As someone asked in another article's comments, "casualties or dead?"

If Kimmit means deaths, he should say deaths.
Posted by: Kathy K || 04/15/2004 13:54 Comments || Top||


Germany Warns Citizens to Leave Iraq
Posted by: Fred || 04/12/2004 11:09 || Comments || Link || [0 views] Top|| File under:

#1  Germany has no troops in Iraq.

And still it doesn't stop them from killing the Germans. There is a lesson in there that they just don't seem to get. How long before Germany gets hit. Chances are as good as anywhere else, if you ask lil ol' me.
Posted by: B || 04/12/2004 16:45 Comments || Top||

#2  Run Away! Run Away! [aside: We don't risk a frontal assault- That Rabbits dynamite!]
Posted by: Comment Top || 04/12/2004 18:04 Comments || Top||


Afghanistan/South Asia
Breakaway Faction of Tamil Tigers Retreats
A renegade group of the Tamil Tigers were retreating Monday from an offensive by the main rebel group, renewing hopes that the cease-fire in Sri Lanka's civil war would remain intact, military sources said. The sources were not sure if renegade rebel leader Vinayagamoorthy Muralithanran — also known as Karuna — had fled the area or remained holed up at his base in Thoppigala, about 75 miles north of Colombo. "According to information we have received, Karuna seems to have given up," Eric Solheim, a key broker for the Norwegian-backed peace process, told The Associated Press. "We are still uncertain about Karuna's destiny."
Well, that's a hell of a thing. What about fighting to the last man and the last bullet? What about taking ten of the enemy with your when you peg out? Let's get some corpses going there!
Worlds going straight to hell. Nobody wants to fight to the death any more.
The popcorn has lost its flavor, hasn't it?
He said rebels from the main Liberation Tigers of Tamileelam had requested a meeting with European cease-fire monitors, the first since the feud between the two guerrilla groups broke out last month. Hagrup Haukland, the monitors' deputy chief, said talks were scheduled for Tuesday. Fighting between the two rebel factions is believed to have killed nearly three dozen fighters and had cast doubt on whether a two-year truce between the government and the main guerrilla outfit could survive. The Tamil Tigers launched an offensive Friday to regain control over some 6,000 breakaway fighters in the east. Military officials have given an unconfirmed death toll of 33, including civilians. Thousands of residents have fled.
That's it? 33 dead guys? That's a pretty piss poor internecine conflict, I'd say.
Posted by: Fred || 04/12/2004 11:04 || Comments || Link || [0 views] Top|| File under:


Iraq-Jordan
Nine Hostages Said Freed
Posted by: Fred || 04/12/2004 11:00 || Comments || Link || [0 views] Top|| File under:


Afghanistan/South Asia
Pakistan jails opposition leader
A court in Pakistan has found a prominent opposition leader guilty of inciting mutiny in the armed forces. Javed Hashmi, president of the Alliance for Restoration of Democracy, was given seven prison terms totalling 23 years. Mr Hashmi, who is expected to appeal, will serve a maximum of seven years as the sentences will run concurrently.
The ARD is an alliance of Benazir Bhutto’s Pakistan People’s Party and nawaz Shariff’s Pakistan Muslim League. Since they are both in exile, he was their main representative.
He was arrested last year after distributing a letter, allegedly written by army officers, which was critical of President Pervez Musharraf.
Accusing him of being a ’slave to the Americans’ and the like. Of course he was accused of forging the letter, since no one in the Pak Army could have those opinions.
Posted by: Paul Moloney || 04/12/2004 9:26:17 AM || Comments || Link || [0 views] Top|| File under:


Iraq-Jordan
Mahdi Army and Army of Fallujah join forces
Leaflets handed out on the streets of Baghdad yesterday suggested growing co-operation between Sunni and Shia guerrillas amid signs that Iraqis are beginning to unite against a common American foe. The handouts carried a "joint statement" by the Mahdi militia, loyal to the radical Shia cleric, Moqtada al-Sadr, and the "Army of Fallujah", fighting US forces in the besieged Sunni city 30 miles west of Baghdad. They were distributed in the capital's al-Ala'am suburb and declared six districts of Baghdad a "military area". People living locally were warned not to approach US forces or drive their cars. The road linking the capital with the holy city of Najaf, where Sadr is believed to be hiding, runs through this zone. The statement gave warning that mujahideen guerrillas would lay ambushes for the "despicable occupying forces" on this highway. "We want our patient people to stay away from the occupying forces and not to drive civilian cars on this road for their safety," said the leaflet. "God will grant victory to those who resist the occupation."

Guerrillas operating in the area where the handouts were distributed are largely Sunni. They appear to be preparing to help Sadr by obstructing the route that US forces would take in an attack on his Najaf stronghold. About 20 Iraqis who received the leaflets as they queued at a bakery murmured support for the gunmen. "God help them," said one man. "The Americans deserve it. We gained nothing from them."
We've still got Sammy. Maybe you'd like him back?
General Ricardo Sanchez, commander of the US-led coalition forces in Iraq, said co-operation between Shia and Sunni guerrillas was taking place at a "tactical level." "Calls for unity between Shia forces and Sunni forces are not unexpected," he said. "It's clearly an attempt to take advantage of the situation."
Posted by: Dan Darling || 04/12/2004 8:53:35 AM || Comments || Link || [0 views] Top|| File under:

#1  Mahdi Army and Army of Fallujah join forces

Yeah, what's left of 'em may have joined forces.
Posted by: Parabellum || 04/12/2004 9:41 Comments || Top||

#2  In other words, they're running out of Jihadi's.
Posted by: Charles || 04/12/2004 9:53 Comments || Top||

#3  In this case it looks like they expect our forces to move south to beat up the Mehdi Army and they want to do terrible things to us on the way.
Posted by: Fred || 04/12/2004 11:08 Comments || Top||

#4  I have been watching the TV footage Al-Jazzera is showing of Ambulances transporting injured Iraq's in Falluja. You can plainly see weapons in the back of the Ambulances. You can plainly see people riding in the Ambulances with weapons. What a joke.
Posted by: Patrick || 04/12/2004 13:35 Comments || Top||

#5  How do they propose to coordinate military actions of their joint operations? Do we have a bomb that will track to cell phone communicationss yet?
Posted by: Super Hose || 04/12/2004 18:47 Comments || Top||


Sadr's offices leveled in Nasiriyah
Italian soldiers of the US-led coalition destroyed the office of radical Shiite cleric Moqtada Sadr in this southern Iraqi town, a day after Italian Premier Silvio Berlusconi visited the contingent. Residents said the Italians used explosive charges to level the building at dawn in the wake of bloody clashes between Sadr's banned Mehdi Army militia and coalition forces. There was no immediate reaction from Sadr loyalists in the town where Italian soldiers have increased patrols. Berlusconi, a close Washington ally, spent several hours here on a surprise morale-boosting visit to his troops Saturday, telling them their presence was proof that "Italy is a nation capable of carrying through the world the values of justice and civilization."
Posted by: Dan Darling || 04/12/2004 8:49:45 AM || Comments || Link || [0 views] Top|| File under:

#1  I also believe Berlusconi was the one who came up with the suggestion to level Sadr's office.Way to go.
Posted by: tipper || 04/12/2004 10:19 Comments || Top||

#2  Now, to level Sadr himself.....
Posted by: Bomb-a-rama || 04/12/2004 11:06 Comments || Top||

#3  Looks like the Italians know what to do about their countrymen being take hostage and killed.
Posted by: Kathy K || 04/15/2004 13:57 Comments || Top||


Ceasefire Follies - USMC
CAMP FALLUJAH, Iraq –– Marines reinforced positions in here today, adding to the cordon encircling the city. Marines are also maintaining their defensive positions in accordance with a unilateral suspension of offensive operations. The Coalition directed that offensive operations in Fallujah be temporarily halted to facilitate dialogue between Iraqi leaders of Fallujah and a delegation from the Iraqi Governing Council.

The Marines operating in Fallujah received consistent enemy fire throughout the day. Immediate, precise fires were returned against enemy positions. Defensive engagements resulted in a significant number of enemy dead. Approximately 20 anti-Iraq forces were detained.

A Marine AH-1W Super Cobra helicopter also returned fire against two structures where anti-aircraft fire was originating in Fallujah. The aircrew launched rockets and missiles against the site, hitting their targets.

Iraqi Police and Iraqi Civil Defense Corps units also are supporting Operation Vigilant Resolve. Iraqi police near Ar Ramadi discovered two “daisy-chained” IEDs and reported them to Marines in the area. Both were detonated after the Iraqi police cordoned the site without any injuries.

Iraqi police near Hit in the western region of Al Anbar conducted a raid on a suspected terrorist’s house. They captured two suspects inside, one considered a high-value target involved in planning and executing attacks against Coalition Forces.
Posted by: Chuck Simmins || 04/12/2004 8:31:55 AM || Comments || Link || [0 views] Top|| File under:


TGIF-USMC
CAMP FALLUJAH, Iraq – Coalition forces initiated a unilateral suspension of offensive operations in Fallujah Friday at noon to allow meetings between members of the Iraqi Governing Council and Fallujah leadership, for delivery of additional humanitarian supplies and to allow residents of Fallujah to tend to wounded and dead.

During this suspension period, coalition forces retain the inherent right of self-defense and will remain fully prepared to resume offensive operations unless significant progress in the discussions occurs.

Since the suspension, the Marines have sustained one Marine killed and one wounded in Fallujah.

Marines are allowing women and children to leave the city and humanitarian supplies – such as food and medical supplies – to be brought in after being inspected, but enemy combatants in Fallujah dropped mortar rounds on the convoys delivering the supplies Friday morning.

Marines near Fallujah came under fire by a group of four enemy combatants, quickly reinforced by another 12. Marines returned fire and the enemy forces fled to a nearby cave. An AC-130 was called in to engage the enemy holed up in the cave with 105 mm fire, and Marines also called in two 500-pound laser-guided bombs. The bombs hit right on target.

Near Ramadi, soldiers with the 1st Brigade of the 1st Infantry Division assigned to 1st Marine Division captured a man believed to be responsible for repeated mortar attacks against U.S. bases. He was taken into custody after a local Iraqi gave the soldiers a tip.

Soldiers with the 1st Brigade also detained one man near a checkpoint after three males were observed near a truck alongside a road near Ramadi. Two fled, but the third was captured. Soldiers also recovered a complete 60 mm mortar system, 40 60 mm rounds and a rocket-propelled-grenade launcher. Two hundred 1 oz. detonation primers and 12 RPG primers were also recovered. Another man was detained after soldiers scoured the nearby area for the fleeing suspects.

At another checkpoint near Ramadi, soldiers recovered an RPG launcher from a car after the driver fled on foot. Two improvised explosive devices were discovered. One consisted of two 120 mm rounds with a detonator, and the other was a 155 mm artillery round.

In the western region of Al Anbar Province, a Marine light-armored vehicle convoy repulsed an enemy ambush, capturing 15 of the attackers. Two individuals suspected of violent anti-Iraq activity were detained at a vehicle checkpoint.

Approximately 20-30 enemy forces near Husaybah ambushed a convoy of Marine light-armored vehicles on the Syrian border. The Marines made several passes through a gauntlet of fire, killing 10-12 of the attackers.
Posted by: Chuck Simmins || 04/12/2004 8:30:19 AM || Comments || Link || [0 views] Top|| File under:

#1  but enemy combatants in Fallujah dropped mortar rounds on the convoys delivering the supplies Friday morning

They appear to want a classic siege.

Give them one.
Posted by: Robert Crawford || 04/12/2004 8:49 Comments || Top||

#2  You would think that the ambushers would begin to worry when the convoy made its third pass through their ambush. Someone should tell them that Marines like to shoot back and are very good at it. That's why they award and wear marksmanship medals.
Posted by: RWV || 04/12/2004 10:37 Comments || Top||


Fallujan insurgents give 12GMT deadline for retreat of USMC snipers from town
Newflash - no link as yet.

If this is true, then the ceasefire will be over within the hour and the pounding can restart.
Posted by: Lux || 04/12/2004 7:01:37 AM || Comments || Link || [0 views] Top|| File under:

#1  Iraqi guerrillas in Fallujah have given US forces until 1pm British time to withdraw from the war-torn city.

The reported ultimatum was given by a cleric, who said failure to abide by the demand would result in an immediate "all-out offensive".


link
Posted by: Lux || 04/12/2004 7:24 Comments || Top||

#2  wasn't that nice of them to give us the go ahead?
Posted by: B || 04/12/2004 7:35 Comments || Top||

#3  "An immediate 'all-out offensive'" with what?

Note to self: do not issue ultimatum from position of weakness. It makes you look bad.
Posted by: Mike || 04/12/2004 8:25 Comments || Top||

#4  It's WW1 tactics. Run screaming towards your enemy and hope you get there without getting killed. Which is fine, since none will make it to the Marines line alive.
Posted by: Charles || 04/12/2004 9:58 Comments || Top||

#5  We better clear out... they might bleed on us again!
Posted by: CrazyFool || 04/12/2004 10:09 Comments || Top||

#6  They are using the classical French gambit from the venerable strategy text of Monty Python and the holy grail.

And we will taunt you again. Launchez la vache!
Posted by: capt joe || 04/12/2004 10:09 Comments || Top||

#7  I hope we know where this cleric's target's mosque fort is.
Posted by: Tom || 04/12/2004 11:18 Comments || Top||

#8  Is Baghdad Bob on the loose again?
Posted by: TomAnon || 04/12/2004 11:59 Comments || Top||

#9  Maybe the cleric was misquoted, and they're actually threatening an immediate "all-out defensive" instead?
Posted by: snellenr || 04/12/2004 12:50 Comments || Top||


Moderate Shiites (i.e., friendlies) take control in Karbala
by Dan Murphy, Christian Science Monitor
EFL; hat tip: Brothers Judd.
The city of Karbala observed the holiday of Arbain this weekend. It marks the end of a 40-day period of mourning for the martyrdom of Imam Hussein 1,350 years ago, in the power struggle that created Islam’s Sunni-Shiite divide. . . . But most telling in Karbala this weekend was who was not in charge: the militia of radical cleric Moqtada al-Sadr. Instead, two moderate, cooperating Shiite militias set up layered cordons throughout the city. . . . After a week of fighting between followers of Sadr militants, on the one side, and Bulgarian and Polish troops on the other, milder Shiite militias pushed Sadr’s militia either out of the city or deeply underground.
’Bout six feet under, I would hope.
The vacuum has been filled by the Badr Brigades, controlled by the Supreme Council for the Islamic Revolution in Iraq;
(which does not sound all that friendly)
and militia close to Iraq’s establishment Shiite hierarchy who sometimes call themselves the Helpers of Sistani, after Grand Ayatollah Ali Al-Sistani, a moderate and Iraq’s most widely respected cleric. . . . Unlike Sadr’s men, these militias aren’t likely to make a grab for power by force. But their sponsors do have political demands - and are increasingly weary of the US occupation. Grand Ayatollah Sistani has repeatedly complained that Iraq should have elections much sooner than the current US timetable, scheduled for January 2005. Leaders of SCIRI also say they would like big changes in the US transition plan. They say they worry that Iraq’s Shiites won’t be granted sufficient influence in the transitional government.
The Shiites have been repressed for decades by the Ba’athist-Sunni elite, so that feeling is entirely understandable.
Posted by: Mike || 04/12/2004 6:33:06 AM || Comments || Link || [0 views] Top|| File under:

#1  If Sadr is defeated only with help from SCIRI, then SCIRI will simply become the next Islamofascist wannabe-rulers-of-Iraq...
Posted by: Aris Katsaris || 04/12/2004 10:05 Comments || Top||

#2  Aris, don't think so, SCIRI (despite the name) is a fairly moderate group. I expect them to play the political game. Their milita has been a defensive one -- gots ta have a milita if yas wants respect, ya know -- but their words consistently have been moderate, political, let's work with what we have, etc. I think (don't know, of course) that their thought is that if they can just get to elections, they'll do well and then they can push their agenda.
Posted by: Steve White || 04/12/2004 11:53 Comments || Top||

#3  I kind of lean toward Aris' take. SCIRI may not come out of the gate acting like the Iranian mullahs do, but I suspect that Sistani and any other Shiite with political power would succumb sooner or later to the temptation to try to impose their own view of political order on the rest of Iraq, with the inevitable consequences.
Posted by: Carl in N.H || 04/12/2004 12:48 Comments || Top||

#4 
"the
Supreme Council
for
the
ISLAMIC REVOLUTION
in
Iraq."


Hmm. Don't much like the sound of that. Either a.) Aris is right, or, b.) They have to call themselves that to rally any substantial support. Sure hope it's b.)

I'd like it better if they called themselves:

"The Democratic Council for Education, Freedom, and Pluralism in Iraq"

or something of that sort.



Posted by: ex-lib || 04/12/2004 13:34 Comments || Top||

#5  Somehow, someway, these private militias need to be disbanded. If we can think of a way to set up provinical militias as we did w/the beginnings of our own country & based on geographic areas vice one leader's own personal bodyguard - this would be a step in the right direction.
Posted by: Jarhead || 04/12/2004 13:58 Comments || Top||


Italian Troops Greet Berlusconi, Demolish Sadr HQ, Ice 15 Jihadis
Good news from AFP, no less. Maybe a non-jihad mole has infiltrated their staff.
Italian soldiers of the US-led coalition destroyed the office of radical Shiite cleric Moqtada Sadr in Nasiriyah, a day after Italian Premier Silvio Berlusconi visited the contingent. Residents said the Italians used explosive charges to level the building at dawn in the wake of bloody clashes between Sadr’s banned Mehdi Army militia and coalition forces.
American sappers used a Cat D-9 to demolish the Sadr office in Mosul the other day, I guess we could say it was "Corried."
There was no immediate reaction from Sadr loyalists in the town where Italian soldiers have increased patrols.
These two things may not be coincidence.
Berlusconi, a close Washington ally, spent several hours here on a surprise morale-boosting visit to his troops Saturday, telling them their presence was proof that "Italy is a nation capable of carrying through the world the values of justice and civilization."
The more I hear about Berlusconi, the better I like him. He has some serious cojones for showing up right in the middle of the hot zone during the jihadi uprising.
Tuesday, fighting between Italian troops and Sadr militiamen left 15 Iraqis dead and 37 wounded. A dozen Italians were slightly injured.
The toll of jihadis this week has been enormous, possibly the biggest rat-kill since the height of the Afghan campaign. The media have reported the numbers, but they receive little emphasis in the rush to conform to the freshly minted Tet2 meme.
Last November, 19 Italian paramilitary officers, soldiers and civilians died here in a truck-bomb attack that also killed nine Iraqis.
Payback continues, with exhorbitant interest.
Italy maintains a 3,000-strong battalion in Iraq.
The Italians are hanging tough in Iraq, in defiance of their huge and powerful communist party and its moonbat allies. Italy did the same during the Cold War, despite an even larger fifth column in those days and a chaotic political system.
Posted by: Atomic Conspiracy || 04/12/2004 6:04:06 AM || Comments || Link || [0 views] Top|| File under:

#1  "Corried his ass"

Me like

The Carrabenirie also put a serious hurtun on the Mafia.


Posted by: raptor || 04/12/2004 7:38 Comments || Top||

#2  These two things may not be coincidence.
heh, heh.
Posted by: B || 04/12/2004 7:46 Comments || Top||

#3  WTG MARINES! Too bad 'Fathead' (Sadr) wasn't in the building. The he would have ben corrified as well. The main reason for the cease fire was to allow non-combatants a chance to flee.
Posted by: Cyber Sarge (VRWC CA Chapter) || 04/12/2004 10:48 Comments || Top||

#4  I love Berlusconi. He's got a real set of stones on him. If only France and Germany had leaders with balls (and consciences)!
Posted by: Tibor || 04/12/2004 11:23 Comments || Top||

#5  They've got their muslim problem, too, wonder if the soldiers are getting their own back because one filed to remove the cross from all schools and they know the Pope (whoever he shall be) is on the hit list.
Posted by: Anonymous2U || 04/12/2004 22:46 Comments || Top||


U.S. Targeted Fiery Cleric In Risky Move
Too long to post, but an excellent analysis.
Posted by: tipper || 04/12/2004 2:51:41 AM || Comments || Link || [0 views] Top|| File under:

#1  Reads like Sadr's Political (or personnal)Obit. Holdiays over, time to get to work.
Posted by: Anonymous4117 || 04/12/2004 3:08 Comments || Top||


New fighting in Falluja as truce falters
Iraqi guerrillas and U.S. Marines fought in the city of Falluja overnight as an informal truce faltered, residents said on Monday. Beginning late Sunday, the sound of explosions and gunfire echoed from one area of Falluja, and U.S. helicopters were overhead. Iraqi fighters accused U.S. forces of breaking the truce. The U.S. military says its soldiers in Falluja are only fighting in self defense. The U.S. military has laid siege to Falluja for a week, blocking roads in and out and sending battalions into the city. Several Marines and hundreds of Iraqis have been killed. U.S. forces announced a unilateral suspension of hostilities on Friday and suggested a bilateral cease-fire on Saturday, but neither move halted the fighting. An informal truce was agreed on Sunday, which halted most fighting during the day.
Posted by: Phil B || 04/12/2004 2:43:25 AM || Comments || Link || [0 views] Top|| File under:

#1  Good. Now let's finish it.
Posted by: someone || 04/12/2004 2:51 Comments || Top||


Afghanistan/South Asia
3 top Pak militants killed by drowning
Security forces and police, in a rare action of its kind, today killed three top Pakistani militants of Lashkar-e-Taiba (LeT) outfit including a commander Khalid alias Ceera 7 without firing even a single shot in Kreeri Pattan area of Baramulla district in the Kashmir valley. Official sources said the operation was carried out in a house after Baramulla police developed an information about the presence of three top LeT militants at Kreeri Pattan this morning. After taking a close view of the house located in Zargar Mohalla, the security forces and police came to know that the militants were hiding in a Z type well dug tunnel inside the house. "When it became 100 per cent sure to security forces and police that three top militants were hiding inside the tunnel, they decided not to allow them to come out and kill them inside", the sources said, adding the security personnel filled the tunnel with water. All the three militants were drowned inside. Their bodies were later fished out from the tunnel. They have been identified as Khalid alias Ceera 7, a commander of the outfit, Inayat and Saddam, all Pakistanis. Security forces and police didn’t suffer any casualties in the operation.
Posted by: Paul Moloney || 04/12/2004 1:38:36 AM || Comments || Link || [0 views] Top|| File under:

#1  Liquidated 'em, eh? (Sorry, couldn't resist)
Posted by: PBMcL || 04/12/2004 1:43 Comments || Top||

#2  They don't only live the same way as rats, they die is the same way.
Posted by: Charles || 04/12/2004 2:11 Comments || Top||

#3  "The operation whent swimingly"
Posted by: raptor || 04/12/2004 8:28 Comments || Top||

#4  "And away go troubles down the drain!"
Posted by: Steve || 04/12/2004 10:52 Comments || Top||

#5  Water they think they're doing? I wash my hands of this whole rant.
Posted by: Tom || 04/12/2004 11:06 Comments || Top||

#6  They weren't in their element, so they must not have been Pisces. Heh heh.
Posted by: Alaska Paul || 04/12/2004 11:29 Comments || Top||

#7  "this is the dawning of the Age of Aquarius..."

(rimshot)
Posted by: Querent || 04/12/2004 12:15 Comments || Top||

#8  Each will be pleasured for eternity by 72 virgin fish.
Posted by: Mike Sylwester || 04/12/2004 12:36 Comments || Top||

#9  Each will be pleasured for eternity by 72 virgin fish.
This brings up an interesting point, Mike: The Quran says that those that "die in combat advancing the Faith shall be rewarded in heaven with 72 doe-eyed virgins, which shall be found pleasurable to them". It doesn't specifically state 72 doe-eyed virgin MAIDENS, or women... Wonder if Allah has a sense of humor, and supplies....

Sheep?
Camels?
Donkeys?
Goats?
Aardvarks?
The (non-human)creature of your choice?

Could prove interesting... 8^)
Posted by: Old Patriot || 04/12/2004 14:13 Comments || Top||

#10  their women but all look like janet reno.
Posted by: muck4doo || 04/12/2004 14:15 Comments || Top||

#11  Thanks Mucky for that image. Eeeeeee-yeeeeetch!
Posted by: Steve White || 04/12/2004 16:02 Comments || Top||

#12  I'm closing on you M4D, I'm waiting till I have an airtight, perfectly logical case. Worry about my perfect hydrodynamic bod. Ask SH he know all is resistless.
Posted by: Shamu || 04/12/2004 16:16 Comments || Top||

#13  Security forces and police didn’t suffer any casualties in the operation.

I would have hoped not.
Posted by: Rafael || 04/12/2004 16:47 Comments || Top||


Iraq-Jordan
Fragile Cease-Fire Holds in Fallujah
EFL to just the Fallujah story
A fragile cease-fire held between Sunni insurgents and U.S. Marines on Sunday in the besieged city of Fallujah, where Iraqis said more than 600 civilians were killed in the past week. Sporadic battles in Fallujah wounded two Marines, and the bodies of 11 Iraqis were brought to a mosque being used as a clinic. A Marine spokesman said troops responding to Iraqi fire killed "a significant number" of fighters. A Cobra helicopter fired rockets and missiles after it came under ground fire, he said. But Fallujah was still the quietest it has been since the U.S. offensive began. Hundreds of Marine reinforcements moved in around Fallujah, joining 1,200 Marines and 900 Iraqis already there. The military has warned it may resume an all-out assault against Sunni insurgents if negotiations focused on extending the cease-fire and restoring police control of the city fall through.

The Washington Post on Monday reported that U.S. troops found evidence of suicide squads and foreign fighters at an abandoned factory in Fallujah. Among the items U.S. troops found Sunday were sacks full of chemical-coated rocks, leather belts stuffed with explosive putty, boxes of batteries with wires taped to them and bomb-making instructions. Islamic books, pamphlets, tapes and farewell letters in Arabic also found suggested that some of the men were not Iraqis, but foreign Sunni Muslims who came here to fight in a holy war. It quoted an unidentified U.S. Marine captain as saying a 16-member terror cell was operating from the site.
Bet there's a few more of those cells within the city limits.
Over a third of the city's 200,000 residents fled the city during the lull, Marines said. Fallujah hospital's al-Issawi said the number of Iraqi dead in the city was likely higher than the 600 recorded at the hospital and four main clinics in the city. "We have reports of an unknown number of dead being buried in people's homes without coming to the clinics," he said. Bodies were being buried at two soccer fields. At one of the fields, dubbed the "Graveyard of the Martyrs" by residents, an AP reporter saw rows of freshly dug graves with wooden planks for headstones over an area about 30 yards wide by more than 100 yards long. Asked about the report of 600 dead, Marine Lt. Col. Brennan Byrne said, "What I think you will find is 95 percent of those were military age males that were killed in the fighting. The Marines are trained to be precise in their firepower .... The fact that there are 600 goes back to the fact that the Marines are very good at what they do."
As Fred noted yesterday, the women and kiddies in the cemetery very likely were used as shields.
Posted by: Steve White || 04/12/2004 1:21:03 AM || Comments || Link || [0 views] Top|| File under:

#1  I am more convinced than ever that this is a ruse engineered by Sunni sympathizers on the Iraqi Council to save the Sunni forces from complete destruction.
All over the world, the lying prostitutes of the Islamo media are crowing about the triumph of the jihadi forces in Fallujah for holding the world's most powerful military at bay for a week. Never mind that hundreds jihadis have been killed, and the pace of the attack was deliberately slowed to minimize damage and casualties. Never mind that the cease-fire was called for humanitarian reasons. It is still a victory for the jihad cannon-fodder and their allies. These people are devils, lying devils, and their media whores are probably the most evil and morally bankrupt large group of people in all of history.

Worse than the SS? Probably, they just don't have the power of Hitler's minions, unless you count the media-devils' power of incitement, which trumps all previous instumentalities of murder and violence in its ability to spread chaos and death in the service of mentally diseased elitist
gloating. I hate these sons of bitches, they are worse than the terrorists, for the terrorists are nothing without media rationalizations and defeatist propaganda.
Posted by: Atomic Conspiracy || 04/12/2004 1:47 Comments || Top||

#2  Spot-on analysis / rant, AC. Dead solid perfect.
Posted by: .com || 04/12/2004 1:52 Comments || Top||

#3  Women and children either used or went willingly.

Just because one is a woman or a child - depending on the age, does not mean one is innocent.
Posted by: Anonymous2U || 04/12/2004 1:52 Comments || Top||

#4  "We have reports of an unknown number of dead being buried in people's homes without coming to the clinics," he said.

As someone pointed out earlier, "an unknown number" could also include ZERO. (or ONE, for those of you who don't include zero as a number).
Posted by: Rafael || 04/12/2004 2:02 Comments || Top||

#5  Atomic Conspiracy: "Putting the rant back into Rantburg"

As a side note, I'm really liking Lt. Col. Byrne. He appears to be stating that 600 dead is a small fraction of what would have been seen had the Marines not been so discriminating in their application of firepower.
Posted by: Classical_Liberal || 04/12/2004 2:27 Comments || Top||

#6  "sacks full of chemical-coated rocks" does anyone here have a clue to what is that about?
Posted by: Evert Visser in NL || 04/12/2004 3:31 Comments || Top||

#7  Many thanks, .com and others. I was feeling a little miffed today after watching all the variations on the defeatist Tet2 theme from the fifth column media. They are trying to follow in the footsteps of Walter Cronkite and other revered authorities from the high-water mark of institutional media: the aftermath of the 1968 Tet offensive when they turned the Communists' tremendous defeat into a decisive victory.

I think they will fail, this isn't 1968, the idea of a journalist being the "most trusted man in America" is laughable, and there are many many alternate sources of information. The decisive factor may well be the public's ability to make daily direct contact with eyewitnesses in Iraq, Israel, and Afghanistan and anywhere else in the world.

It is no exaggeration to say that 10 people controlled the flow of information in the US in 1968.
Today, that kind of monopoly is impossible and the media-lords are really feeling the heat.
Posted by: Atomic Conspiracy || 04/12/2004 5:07 Comments || Top||

#8  "sacks full of chemical-coated rocks"

Hmmm, a new chemical delivery system for Palestinian jihadis?
Posted by: Atomic Conspiracy || 04/12/2004 5:09 Comments || Top||

#9  sacks full of chemical-coated rocks

Someone painted some rocks?
Posted by: Robert Crawford || 04/12/2004 10:10 Comments || Top||

#10  Evert-
What I'm thinking on the 'chemical coated rocks' is that the Paleos had a habit of dipping nails and other goodies in rat poison and sticking them in the belts for shrapnel. I'm wondering if the Fallujah Finks were trying a variation on that...

Mike
Posted by: Mike Kozlowski || 04/12/2004 10:19 Comments || Top||

#11  Chemical coated rocks...well what we have here is CLEAR evidence that Dear Leader's boys are involved. There is not a group out there that knows more about rocks. Heck, I'm betting that DL's team is going to give the Fallujah Jihadis the secret to surviving on grass to extend the siege. Rocks, grass, Islamo-nutcases...throw in a little juche and the Marines are really going to be up against it!
Posted by: remote man || 04/12/2004 12:24 Comments || Top||

#12  You are absolutely right, AC. The "established" press will become more and more shrill as their influence shrinks. Their descent into tabloidism would be amusing if so much wasn't at stake.

I think that so many members of the Western intellectual elite are Islamists in the sense that they are looking for someone or something to submit to. When the communists were bullying so much of the world, they wanted to submit to the USSR for the sake of "world peace." Now that Islamo-facism threatens, they would submit to it to "reduce violence and prevent senseless killing."

I suppose that at some level, the elites believe that they are indispensible -- that if the commies or Islamists did win, they would still need the Western intellectual elites to run things. This attitude makes them quislings, eager to swap one power structure for another as long as it advances their own position. I hope that the Internet will make all of this more and more apparent to the voters.
Posted by: 11A5S || 04/12/2004 12:49 Comments || Top||

#13  Among the items U.S. troops found Sunday were sacks full of chemical-coated rocks,

Head for the hills it's NORK Tech!
Posted by: Shipman || 04/12/2004 14:02 Comments || Top||

#14  "I suppose that at some level, the elites believe that they are indispensible -- that if the commies or Islamists did win, they would still need the Western intellectual elites to run things. This attitude makes them quislings, eager to swap one power structure for another as long as it advances their own position" and sells papers and/or air time.

They think this way, absolutely, without a doubt. Actually, it's more like a religion for them. And they are the fanatics of that religion. Way to go, 11A5S!
Posted by: ex-lib || 04/12/2004 17:08 Comments || Top||


Blasts at U.S.-Led Coalition HQ in Iraq
As of 12:45 AM EDT.
Three loud explosions occurred Monday in a large compound in central Baghdad that houses the headquarters of the U.S.-led coalition in Iraq. White smoke came from the area and a siren was sounded. A U.S. official in the compound said it was not clear if the explosions were controlled blasts of old ordinance or an attack.
Posted by: Steve White || 04/12/2004 1:03:58 AM || Comments || Link || [0 views] Top|| File under:


Afghanistan/South Asia
Hek sez he wants to be an Afghan Sadr
Gulbuddin Hekmatyar, an Afghan warlord named as a terrorist by the U.S., called on Afghans to fight the U.S.-led coalition in the country in a similar uprising to the insurgency in Iraq, the Associated Press said. ``Everyone believed that Afghans would be ahead of Iraqis in starting a popular uprising to evict the foreign occupiers,'' AP cited Hekmatyar as saying in a statement obtained by the news agency. Afghans, like Iraqi fighters, ``will choose the way of uprising against the occupiers.''
I don't think anyone's ever believed the Afghans to be ahead of Iraq in anything, let along uprisings.
The statement was delivered to AP by one of Hekmatyar's aides, who lives in visited Peshawar in Pakistan, which lies 30 kilometers from the Afghan border.
Posted by: Dan Darling || 04/12/2004 12:16:58 AM || Comments || Link || [0 views] Top|| File under:

#1  Do Sadr's boyz throw grenades like little girls too?
Posted by: Frank G || 04/12/2004 8:05 Comments || Top||


Yadokhel tribe refuses to help in al-Qaeda hunt
The tribal elders Sunday held talks with the Zalikhel leaders during a jirga called to convince the sub-tribes of Zalikhel to hand over the wanted local harbourers of al-Qaeda and Taliban suspects hiding in the area under their control. The elders of one sub-tribe, Yadokhel, refused to extend their cooperation in locating Nek Muhammad, Muhammad Sharif, Abdul Aziz and Gul Islam, government-wanted sympathizers of suspected militants and their consequent handover to the political administration, saying they are unable to do something in this regard. During the jirga, the leaders of Usmankhel, Kakakhel, Sheikh Wazirkhel and Yadokhel tribes apprised the jirga about their replies to the government requests about cooperation in dislodging al-Qaeda and Taliban suspects allegedly hiding in the Afghan-bordering areas controlled by them.

Sardar Malik Behar Khan, the chief of Kakakhel tribe, said the government wants one man of his tribe for providing sanctuary to the suspected militants. He held out an assurance to the jirga that the wanted man will be handed over to the political administration shortly. He said all the demands and conditions of the administration will also be effectively met in the future. Sardar Malik Behar said no suspected militant will be left in the area under their control ...
"They'll go visit my second cousins in my half-brother's nephew's clan in Waziristan, next province over!"
... and the tribal people will extend maximum possible support and cooperation to the government in flushing out militants from the area. Elders of the Usmankhel tribe also came up with the same standpoint against al-Qaeda and Taliban suspects and their local sympathizers. However, Yadokhel tribe refused to extend their cooperation in handing over Nek Muhammad, Muhammad Sharif, Abdul Aziz and Gul Islam, who are accused of harbouring suspects in the area. They expressed their helplessness in the matter, saying they were unable to arrest them.
"Y'see, they have lots more guns than we do. We feel ashamed to admit this, y'know."
The elders sought help of another tribe, Ahmedzai Wazir, in the fight against militants allegedly hiding in the troubled area, where the military forces carried out strong crackdown against alleged al-Qaeda and Taliban suspects recently. Meanwhile, the jirga decided that another meeting will be held in Wana today (Monday) to settle the dispute with South Waziristan administration. People are anticipating a big military offensive in the area if the tribal jirga fails to sort out the imbroglio.
Posted by: Dan Darling || 04/12/2004 12:14:33 AM || Comments || Link || [0 views] Top|| File under:



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Two weeks of WOT
Mon 2004-04-12
  Rafsanjani to al-Sadr: Fight America, the "Wounded Monster"
Sun 2004-04-11
  Khatami backs off from Sadr
Sat 2004-04-10
  IGC calls for immediate ceasefire
Fri 2004-04-09
  Rafsanjani Butts In
Thu 2004-04-08
  8 Koreans, 3 Japanese Kidnapped in Iraq
Wed 2004-04-07
  House to house, roof to roof
Tue 2004-04-06
  Al-Sadr threat comes to a head; Marines in Fallujah
Mon 2004-04-05
  Fallujah surrounded; Sadr "outlaw", Mahdi army thumped
Sun 2004-04-04
  4 Salvadoran, 14 thugs dead in Sadr festivities
Sat 2004-04-03
  Sharon Says Israel Will Leave Gaza Strip
Fri 2004-04-02
  The trains in Spain are mined with bombs again
Thu 2004-04-01
  Hit on Jamali thwarted?
Wed 2004-03-31
  Savagery in Fallujah
Tue 2004-03-30
  Major al-Qaeda bombing foiled in the UK
Mon 2004-03-29
  Mullah Omar wounded in airstrike?

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