Could Yemen follow on the heels of Afghanistan and Iraq as the third major venue in the war on terrorism? A bloody Islamist insurrection in the mountainous north which has cost more than 200 lives and a statement from an Al Qaeda group vowing to turn Yemen into a "quagmire" for the US would suggest that the remote country at the tip of the Arabian peninsula is gearing up for conflict. But instead of an Al Qaeda campaign against the US and the Yemeni government, a conflict in Yemen may involve a power struggle between militant Sunnis and Iranian-backed Shiites, analysts say.
Al Qaeda despises the Shiite branch of Islam as much as it hates the US. Therefore, analysts say, Iran may back Shiite groups to counter the spread of Al Qaeda's influence in Yemen, which would threaten the country's traditionally moderate Zaidi Shiite population. "I don't think Iran will allow Al Qaeda to set up a base in Yemen which could threaten the Zaidi Shiites," says Nizar Hamzeh, professor of politics at the American University of Beirut.
On July 1, the Abu Hafs al-Masri Brigade, an Al Qaeda affiliate, released a statement vowing "to drag the United States into a third quagmire, that is after Iraq and Afghanistan, and let it be Yemen, God willing." The brigade has previously claimed responsibility for the March 11 rail bombings in Madrid as well as numerous attacks in Turkey and Iraq. With the US military presence in Yemen minimal it seems unlikely that Yemen would become a venue for the war on terror. However, Yemen is the most populated and poorest country in the Arabian peninsula, with unemployment as high as 40 percent, making it fertile recruiting ground for Al Qaeda.
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07/12/2004 10:03:25 PM ||
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Al Qaida could drive the price of oil to $3 dollars a gallon in the United States. A leading U.S. energy analyst, Paul Michael Wihbey, told a Hudson Institute conference on Saudi Arabia that Al Qaida has already driven the price of oil to beyond $40 a barrel. Wihbey, president of Global Water and Energy Strategy Team, said Al Qaida could seek to drive this price to $60 a barrel by attacking Saudi oil infrastructure. Wihbey said Al Qaida has followed the communist example to erode the authority of the Saudi royal family, Middle East Newsline reported. He said Al Qaida has already shattered the image of the kingdom as a bedrock of stability and forced the departure of skilled foreigners in the energy sector. "The possibility exists that Al Qaida, with its intimate knowledge of the market, could spike prices up to as high as $60 a barrel," Wihbey told the conference on July 9. "This is a significant number, because it means $3 a gallon."
Posted by: Mark Espinola ||
07/12/2004 8:42:45 PM ||
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#1
Actually, I believe the Saudi cut-back in production, combined with more ravenous oil usage by China caused the $40 per barrel.
of course, the conflation of Al Qaida and Saudi Arabia was purely accidental, even if it has more than a grain of truth...
Now, do not forget that Islam is a religion of peace, fairness and equality, among other virtues!
Yemen has recovered 3,500 children smuggled into Saudi Arabia and other neighboring states for slavery and illegal adoption, a Yemeni legislator said Monday. Mansour al-Zanadani raised the issue of smuggling children before parliament, asking for the questioning of the interior minister, the minister of labor and human rights on the issue. Al-Zanadani produced official documents affirming that Yemen was able to recover 3,500 children who were smuggled to neighboring countries, especially to Saudi Arabia where they are being put up for adoption or sold into slavery. He said much more Yemeni children have been smuggled and never returned. Only last week, he said, authorities seized six children ages ranging between 6 and 13 whom gangs were trying to smuggle into Saudi Arabia.
#3
They'd better add organ transplant ripping and child prostitution to the list.
Smuggling for adoption purposes, uh huh. Citing adoption as the intended outcome of the smuggling is a certainly a convenient PR tool to make the PC international community back off.
Hello, International Court of Justice? Hello? Anyone there? You're busy with the wall?
SANAA - Fresh clashes broke out Monday between the army and supporters of a rebel preacher in Yemen, a military source said, as residents reported the soldiers were facing tough resistance. "The fighting resumed on Monday morning with supporters of Hussein Badr Eddin al-Huthi," holed out in his stronghold of Maran, in the province of Saada near the border with Saudi Arabia, the source said. According to the latest unofficial toll, some 200 people have been killed in the fighting since it began on June 18 in the vast rugged terrain of Maran. The source could not say if the latest exchange resulted in any deaths. Residents said the army has faced fierce opposition from Huthi's armed men, estimated to number up to 3,000. "For the past three days, the army has withdrawn from three positions at the top of the mountains because of the tactics adopted by Huthi's supporters," one resident said.
A good reporter would have told us what those tactics are.
"The army has suffered human losses in the fighting" over the past few days, another resident said, adding that dozens of wounded soldiers had been evacuated. The authorities have offered a 10 million rial (55,000 dollar) reward for information leading to the capture of the Zaidi preacher, a former MP whom they accuse of seeking to foment sectarian strife. The Zaidis are a moderate Shiite Muslim sect dominant in northwestern Yemen but in the minority in the mainly Sunni country.
He's a moderate? Oh wait, they said "moderate Shite", never mind.
Troops and police stepped up their offensive against the self-styled "Emir al-Mumineen", or Prince of Believers, after the abandonment of a mediation effort by MPs and other dignitaries on June 28. Earlier this week, President Ali Abdullah Saleh, who has accused foreign elements of supporting Huthi's uprising, called on the preacher to turn himself in, promising him a fair trial.
Since he's a Shite, I guess we know which foreign elements he's talking about.
According to Saleh, the preacher heads the "Faithful Youth" organisation, formed in 1997 as a breakaway from the Islamist opposition movement Al-Haq.
With 3000 members, that would make it a faction, too many for a splinter group.
The Popular Front for the Liberation of Judea, now there was a splinter group.
Posted by: Steve ||
07/12/2004 9:13:37 AM ||
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The Government's intelligence communications headquarters, GCHQ, is being foiled by a silent enemy in its attempt to attract potential recruits. GCHQ, which employs more than 4,000 of Britain's brightest minds, set a fiendishly difficult cryptic challenge on its recruitment website, testing mathematical prowess and intelligence. However, the spooks have been beaten by the power of the internet. Anyone logging on to chat rooms specialising in code-breaking can find many of the answers, courtesy of millions who revel in crosswords and mind teasers. Despite the challenge being posted on the home page of GCHQ less than three weeks ago, the agency has received hundreds of answers.
The experts who developed the crytography were so confident that it would be difficult they announced that a help page would be posted on Aug 2. Yesterday, GCHQ was trying to put on a brave face, saying: "We have had an excellent response." However, the experts who monitor internet chatter for the Government could not resist a giggle at their colleagues. Contestants are presented with a series of codes that represent extracts from written works. The challenge is to decipher the codes, identify the work, and find a six-letter word hidden in the answers. Some of the written works include a book from the Bible, a passage from a spy thriller that was turned into a film, and an extract from a Sherlock Holmes story.
Current GCHQ vacancies are for linguists fluent in Albanian, Arabic, Chinese, Korean, Macedonian, Nepalese, Persian, Russian, Turkish, Urdu and Punjabi. The organisation is recruiting information technology specialists for the twin roles of gathering signals intelligence and protecting government communication and information systems from hackers and maintaining the safety of power and water supplies and communications links. GCHQ reports to the Foreign Secretary and works closely with MI5 and MI6 but it also serves a wide range of other government departments. The role of the Cheltenham-based headquarters is endorsed by Tony Blair on its website. He says: "Secret intelligence gives the Government a vital edge in tackling some of the most difficult problems we face . . . intelligence forewarns us of threats to our national security; helps the Government promote international stability, provides support and protection to our forces; contributes to our economic health and strengthens our efforts against terrorrism and serious crime."
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Posted by: Mark Espinola ||
07/12/2004 10:11:29 PM ||
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MI5 is to call for a steel barrier to be erected around the Houses of Parliament to offer better protection from potential terrorist attacks. The BBC has reported that the dossier will recommend replacing the concrete blocks currently situated around the Palace of Westminster, which officers fear could become "lethal projectiles" in any attack. It is also claimed that there are concerns that St Stephen's Tower, the clock tower which houses Big Ben, could topple and cause large-scale damage if it is targeted in a bombing. A review of security measures in Westminster was launched following the purple flour bomb attack on Tony Blair inside the Commons chamber during Prime Minister's Questions in May.
The report follows claims that the security service is to create a new network of bases in the North West, West Midlands and other regions which are home to extreme Islamist groups. A Whitehall official said: "The scale of the terrorist threat is such that MI5 and the police need to be able to work together even more closely, which means that the Security Service must be dispersed in a different way." It is said that MI5 will place intelligence officers, surveillance teams and analysts across the country and set up a pilot scheme to test the proposal within months. The idea is thought to be a response to the emergence of connections between young Britons living outside London and international terrorist groups.
In a separate move, Ken Macdonald, QC, the director of public prosecutions, is understood to be seeking extended powers for prosecutors and police who deal with suspected terrorists. Sounds good to me.
Posted by: Bulldog ||
07/12/2004 8:43:38 AM ||
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#1
Yup it's Round Three. Hoist the barrage ballons and get filling those sandbags..
Posted by: Howard UK ||
07/12/2004 10:29 Comments ||
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#2
ball-oons.
Posted by: Howard UK ||
07/12/2004 10:30 Comments ||
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#5
This just in: The International Court has ruled the "Ring of Steel" ringing the British Houses of Parliament violates zoning laws and must be torn down.
Posted by: Steve ||
07/12/2004 12:28 Comments ||
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#6
trailing wife - barrage balloons were a familiar feature of life in WWII England, used to defend vulnerable targets from low-level enemy aircraft attack. They were smallish unmanned dirigibles tethered to the ground by wires at the optimum height to provide a verticle wire 'screen' and so deter the bombers or straffing aircraft. If a plane hit the wire, the wire would detach at the ground (and the balloon? I'm not sure) and the plane would fly on, hopefully uncontrollable, dragging the wire and possibly with a severely damaged wing and/or engine.
#12
Just remembered - the wire would detach at both the ground and the balloon, deploying small drogue parachutes at either end. Quite effective, but apparently not alway so.
#14
It is not a balloon, it is an AIRSHIP!
[/Graham Chapman]
As to the so-called "Ring of Steel." What Britain really needs is a "Rod of Steel" straight up its @ss to stop admitting slime bags like al Qaradawi. No wall or fence of any size (e.g., Hadrian's Wall) will protect Britain from the idiotic liberalism they constantly show towards these genocidal wife-beating thugs.
Hong Kong police responded Sunday to a terrorist threat on an Islamic Web site, saying security standards were high for ships using the city's ports. A group calling itself the Supreme Headquarters of Armed Islamic Warriors in Iraq posted an article online threatening to attack ships from Hong Kong, the United States, the Netherlands and South Korea, the South China Morning Post reported Monday. "Shipping companies which carry military supplies to Americans that are used to attack Islamic warriors will be our target," the group reportedly said on the Arabic site.
Hong Kong Police Commissioner Dick Lee said that maritime security had improved since the International Code for the Security of Ships and Port Facilities took effect on July 1. He said the marine department had a radar system to monitor the movement of vessels within Hong Kong waters, and that plans were underway to replace big police patrol boats with smaller, more efficient vessels. New technologies including thermal imaging systems were being introduced as well, Lee said. In April, U.S. FBI Director Robert Mueller warned that Hong Kong and other commercial ports could be targeted by terrorists.
Posted by: Mark Espinola ||
07/12/2004 9:47:20 PM ||
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Korean shipping companies are on alert following threats from an Islamic militant group. According to intelligence reports, the group is threatening to blow up ships including those operated by Korean firms if they are found carrying materials for the U.S. military. The National Intelligence Service said on Friday it has learned that terrorists are planning to blow up ships transporting U.S. military supplies and is following up on the lead. The agency says it is unclear for now if the threats are linked to the al-Qaida terror network. The government has warned all six Korean shipping firms with vessels running routes to the Middle East to be on high alert for possible sabotage attempts. According to industry sources though no Korean shipping firms are involved in delivering shipments for the U.S. military at present.
The warning comes while Korea prepares to send off two 25,000 ton ships loaded with materials and equipment for the Zayitun unit, the contingent of some three thousand Korean soldiers which will be sent on a reconstruction mission to northern Iraq. The Navy is planning to escort the two ships while authorities are stepping up security at domestic ports. Fears over terrorism have mounted in Korea since the gruesome killing of a Korean civilian late last month near the Iraqi city of Fallujah.
Posted by: Mark Espinola ||
07/12/2004 1:50:43 PM ||
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South Korean aviation authorities received a letter sent by e-mail saying a suspected terrorist linked to the al-Qaeda network plans to board a plane bound for the Asian country. The Civil Aviation Safety Authority said the Korea Air Traffic Control Center received an e-mail saying a suspect named as Abdul Rajak will come to Seoul today with an invitation to attend a Christian event. It didn't say who sent the e-mail or from which country the aircraft is flying. Safety authorities have increased security checks on all non- Koreans boarding flights to Seoul, as well as on cargo and luggage, said an official at the aviation agency, who declined to be identified.
Posted by: Dan Darling ||
07/12/2004 10:01:55 AM ||
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Belgian police reportedly arrested two suspected Sudanese members of Osama bin Laden's Al-Qaeda network at Brussels' main airport late on Friday, Belgium's VTM commercial television reported on Saturday. VTM said the two had flown in from Athens, Greece and were traveling on forged passports. A Belgian federal police spokesman said two arrests had been made, but was unable to give any further details. Hmmmm...Pre-attack surveillance??
Posted by: Mark Espinola ||
07/12/2004 10:00:10 PM ||
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(Is something going on here besides the high heat?)
The worst blackout in more than a decade hit Athens and southern Greece on Monday, leaving millions sweltering in a heat wave and raising concerns about whether the lights will go out at next month's Olympics. The government blamed the three-hour capital outage on "mismanagement" of the electricity grid. Still, officials promised the network was ready to handle the Aug. 13-29 Olympics. But it was yet another hurdle in Athens' attempt to convince the world it is ready to host well-run and safe games. Olympics preparations have come under criticism because of construction delays and concerns over security arrangements to stop terror attacks.
The blackout knocked out air conditioners as afternoon temperatures soared to 104 degrees Monday. The power failure created enormous traffic jams from failed traffic signals and stalled electric trolleys. Hundreds of passengers on the Athens subway were forced to leave trains and walk, and the fire department received hundreds of calls about people trapped in elevators. In one embarrassing moment for the government, Transport Minister Mihalis Liapis was making a test run to showcase a new Olympic rail link from central Athens to the airport - and got stranded en route when the power failed. Government officials said generators had to be pressed into service at Olympic venues. The domino-effect outages were traced to an imbalanced flow of electricity that shut down four power-generating stations, according to a senior government official who spoke on condition of anonymity. Quinn reports the Greek government has quickly issued assurances that a widespread blackout will not be repeated during the Summer Games. Greece's Public Power Corp. did not explain what caused the blackout, saying only that it knocked out four major plants. The company - an Olympic sponsor - blamed the state-owned grid operator for the outage.
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Posted by: Mark Espinola ||
07/12/2004 8:52:20 PM ||
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Spanish police have arrested a Moroccan-born Spaniard in connection with the Madrid rail bombings, a court official said Monday. Abderrameb Hammadi Afandi, 32, was arrested in Leganes, a small town near Madrid where seven other suspects in the March 11 attacks blew themselves up to avoid arrest on April 3. He was brought before Judge Juan del Olmo, the magistrate handling investigations into the attacks and the one who ordered his arrest. Authorities gave no details concerning the reason for his arrest or the role he is believed to have played in the attacks. Islamic militants with suspected ties to al-Qaida are blamed for the Madrid attacks, which killed 190 people. Fifty-one people have been detained, of which 16, mostly Moroccans, are in jail on provisional charges. After the Leganes suicide blast, Spanish officials said they believed the core members of the cell responsible for the attacks were either dead or in jail. More recently, however, they have acknowledged that several key suspects remain at large. In the attacks, 10 backpacks were placed on four morning rush-hour commuter trains, all exploding within minutes of each other.
Posted by: Mark Espinola ||
07/12/2004 1:01:51 PM ||
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EFL. ABC reports: News BY the gullible, FOR the gullible...
France and Iraq have restored diplomatic relations that were severed 13 years ago during the Gulf War and they plan to exchange ambassadors as soon as possible, the French Foreign Ministry said Monday. "The two governments are convinced this decision will contribute to closer ties between France and Iraq and will intensify exchanges to the greater benefit of the two countries," the Foreign Ministry said in a statement. Nope, france hasnât had any relations with Iraq for 13 years. If you buy this, france is also selling the Brooklyn Bridge.
Posted by: Chris W. ||
07/12/2004 11:57:52 AM ||
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#1
"I did not have relations with that country!" I guess it all depends on what your definition of "France" is.
#4
So what does diplomatic relations with a country that made billions off the lives of innocent Iraqis mean? It will be interesting to see how the Iraqis deal with a vermin country like France.
Posted by: Alaska Paul ||
07/12/2004 14:30 Comments ||
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#5
Let's qualify this: France has had extensive relations with the Saddam Regime since dirt.
Posted by: Capt America ||
07/12/2004 18:09 Comments ||
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A mother has had swastikas daubed on her stomach and her hair cut off by racist robbers in France. The attack has sparked outrage from politicians and religious leaders, with President Jacques Chirac expressing a sense of "dread". The woman, who is not Jewish, was attacked on a suburban Paris commuter train at 9.30am on Friday. She was with her 13-month-old son. The six robbers, all believed to be 15 to 20-years-old, threatened her with knives and grabbed her backpack and money. When they discovered she came from the the well-to-do 16th district of Paris, they insisted she must be Jewish and cut her hair "to keep a souvenir". They then opened her shirt and drew swastikas on her belly with a marker pen. Her son fell out of his stroller but neither her nor his mother was seriously injured. Sylvanian Zenouda, of the International League Against Racism, said: "To be Jewish today in France has become an aggravating circumstance." Commuters who saw the attack on the busy train are being urged to speak to the police. Hate crimes in France have been rising sharply during the past year with 135 anti-Jewish acts in the past month and 375 threats.
Posted by: Korora ||
07/12/2004 9:58:09 AM ||
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#1
In France today, most preaching of Islam is, in effect, an incitement to violence. Similarly, the Koran itself is an incitement to violence.
#3
repost from yesterday - see yesterday's for Mike Sylwester's apologist foolishness. Aaarrrgghh
Posted by: Frank G ||
07/12/2004 10:52 Comments ||
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#4
The attack has sparked outrage from politicians and religious leaders, with President Jacques Chirac expressing a sense of "dread".
"Dread"? This typically implies that something is coming and that little or nothing can be done about it. On the contrary, taking action can and should be done about this now, while it is relatively easy.
#5
Right, Bomb-a-Rama. Your comment and mine are connected. France is living in a dream world, quickly approaching re-entry to the real world--via Islamic violence. It's not that nothing can be done; it's that they WILL nothing to be done.
#7
B-a-r - I agree. I 'cringe' every time I hear poltiticans etc use sappy passive words like 'fear', and 'dread'. Personally, I find 'terrorism' regrettable - it may be the intent of the murders to sow terror in a population, but most societies exposed to prolonged 'terror' campaigns learn to live with it. The average Israeli couldn't be described as 'terrified', not could your average Northern Irelander have been, even when the troubles were at their worst. As a Brit, the IRA were supposed to have been 'terrifying' me for quite a few years. They never succeeded - they did anger me, though.
#8
What bothers me most about this attack is how a half-dozen passengers sat by and did nothing. It reminds me of the Kitty Genovese incident in New York a couple of decades ago.
Sure, fine, you don't think you can go mano-a-mano with several attackers. But can't you slip away and dial the police on your cell phone?
Someone needs to remind the Frenchies that civilization is something that everyone has to fight for, together.
Posted by: Steve White ||
07/12/2004 11:48 Comments ||
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#9
jules you need to add never use aggression to counter aggression except when the aggressor is a 4th rate
small african country
Posted by: Dan ||
07/12/2004 11:57 Comments ||
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#10
Hmmm, Dan. A reference to the history of the old empire or an interesting, more current tidbit?
#11
Read with interest that the woman wasn't a Jew, like it should even matter.
The thugs were mistaken, she wasn't a Jew. She was just an innocent citizen, wrong place, wrong time.
Dan, remember Atta's instructions to the doomed passengers on his flight of fake martyrdom, something like "stay in your seats, everything will be alright."
#13
jules - well i would say a reference to history and current affairs - when it is africa the french never complain and actually take the lead (un or without the un)..they have to it is their only prospect of winning over their foes.....the french do not know which way they are going...
#11 - those day's are over..as for me if i am on a plane that is hijacked i will not 'stay in my seat'...the day's of hijacking a plane for purely polictical reasons are over...at least in the mindset of the majority of americans, to us it is a purley military operation that needs to be confronted....
my apologies for ranting off topic of the post...
Posted by: Dan ||
07/12/2004 12:55 Comments ||
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#14
Expect lip service from Jacques the Worm and nothing else. My suggestion to him is STFU unless you are actually going to go after the cesspools in your country.
#17
Lucky-good point. Of primary importance to them-since they insisted she was Jewish and then committed the crime-was Jewishness itself.
danking70-It not PC to portray Muslims as terrorists. Yep. So they can't be shown as terrorists-funny how that PC code simultaneously serves the purposes of people who deny you can be Muslim and a terrorist.
#18
Re: #8
"About 20 people saw what happened, but none came to the aid of the victim, the police said, adding that only two passengers approached afterward."
Source: http://belmontclub.blogspot.com/
Posted by: Michael Sheehan ||
07/12/2004 13:41 Comments ||
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#19
Bernard Getz+Arizona gun law=dead assholes.
For those who do not know Getz was on a New york city subway when he was assaulted in an attempted mugging,he shot the f^&kers.However N.Y.'s gun law being just as stupid as Britain Mr.Getz spent a couple of years in prision for defending hisself.The bright side 2 or 3 punks ain't gonna bother no-one anymore.
#20
see yesterday's for Mike Sylwester's apologist foolishness. Aaarrrgghh
Frank, if I'm wrong I'll eat crow publicly. It won't be the first time in my sorry life!
.
Posted by: Mike Sylwester ||
07/12/2004 14:57 Comments ||
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#21
Lucky, Jules-- I'm in the sad position of almost finding myself willing to put $10 down on the possibility that France will try to tag the Jews so the "rightful anger" of the Islamists will have a more easily identified target. I don't see much in the reporting of the incident that indicates French anger at the underlying Antisemitism of the act, but rather at the fact that the woman was mistakenly targeted as a Jew. It's lip service against Antisemitism.
#23
I tried to post an article (actually just comments) about a Fox News interview with John Loftus.
He said that Khadafi will speak in front of the IAEA in September and give evidence/information about Khan's Nuclear Black Market.
Loftus then went on the say that the Intelligence buzz is that Khadafi will also state that Saddam outsourced his WMD programs to Libya in order to avoid scrutiny.
Did anyone else catch this show yesterday? I can't find a transcript.
#26
Danking...your post goes into the holding tank for review by a moderator. If it's ok, they'll put it up shortly. If it's not ok, I got no clue what happens to it. Prolly grind it up and feed it to the trolls in the sink trap.
The trains involved have video security cameras so all of this should be cleared up soon enough. Once again, I'm obliged to note that all of the vitriol directed at Mike S. during yesterday's feeding frenzy reduced Rantburg's overall tenor just that much more.
When posted online, threats of violence and the like merely come across as the usual tripe volcano. Facts are what spill best from a computer's keyboard.
#29
Commuters who saw the attack on the busy train are being urged to speak to the police. Would be nice if some bystander actually tried to help a young mother being meanced by six thugs. But I forget: 1) It happenned in France, and 2) The bystanders thought she was a Jew.
Posted by: A Jackson ||
07/12/2004 18:06 Comments ||
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#30
Frank, if I'm wrong I'll eat crow publicly. It won't be the first time in my sorry life!
Mike - I'll do the same
Posted by: Frank G ||
07/12/2004 18:26 Comments ||
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#31
mmmmmmmmmmmm.....crow........tastes like chicken!
Posted by: Alaska Paul ||
07/12/2004 18:39 Comments ||
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#32
Jules--Sprechen Sie Deutsch? :)
I doubt the "tag" would be anything as anachronistic as yellow armbands or tatoos, but I'm reluctant to put anything past the French. Recent efforts to convince Jewish males to wear baseball caps in lieu of more traditional headgear to avoid conflict hints at a sinister sentiment: Jews can't look like Jews and get away with it.
#35
Zenster4doo, there were no threats of violence directed against
Mike here and lots of links were 'spilled' from several keyboards to counter his (and now your) crap posted to counter his arguments.
Given reactions like his and yours and the CNN story you cite, I'm now beginning to see how stories about the Holocaust out of Nazi Germany weren't believed in WWII.
Shameful counterspinning on both your and MS's part.
Posted by: Jen ||
07/12/2004 21:06 Comments ||
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#36
Therien,
Welche Nationalitaet haben Sie? Die Name klingt wie Franzoesich aus, aber...
#37
TW--sorry, I'm American, but the name is essentially French-Canadian. Google just the name, go with the first thing you see that seems an interesting pursuit.
I'm really thinking of getting a new pseudonym, more in line with my very German/English name. Perhaps a partial anagram, "Asedwich."
Frankfurt's public prosecutors were studying video cassettes, computer data banks and other digital files Monday which were seized in a raid on an Islamic centre on suspicions that the centre's Korean school was teaching violence.
Korean? I think they must mean "Koran"
Chief prosecutor Doris Mueller-Scheu told Deutsche Presse-Agentur dpa that the materials were now being examined, but she cautioned that no quick conclusions would be drawn. "I don't think there will be any quick results, since everything must first be translated from Arabic," she told dpa. There were no arrests in the raid on Sunday on the Islamic centre, with authorities acting on a tip that pupils there were being shown materials glorifying violence. Officials at the centre quickly rejected the suspicions as being false.
"We're the Religion Of Peace, and we'll kill anyone who sez different!"
Germany's first television network ARD said it had information that one pupil at the school had told of a video showing a decapitation.
Ah, yes, another islamic snuff video.
The Frankfurt authorities were scheduled later Monday to give a briefing about the raid, in which police were shown on television carrying large quantities of documents away.
Posted by: Steve ||
07/12/2004 8:48:45 AM ||
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#1
Yeah? And what if they found something and prosecuted it through "conviction"? Any reason to believe the "sentences" wouldn't resemble our buddy, the cannibal's (8 1/2 years for murder), or overturned in favor of counseling, a la Sweden's Lindh murderer)?
#2
This is one of those places where 15 = life unless you kill a politician or rich person.
This stuff in Germany is window dressing. They like the French have to many Muslims in their counrty; which they need for a functioning state (due to the low birthrate of native Germans.) Mostly Turks. Those who are "refugees" are the problem. Some refugees= Islamisist who the Turkish will toss into jail if they return home. Some= students who actually are there to study Islam/terrorism and then go on to other european states or back home to put it into practice.
Posted by: Mark Espinola ||
07/12/2004 12:40 ||
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#1
Ironically, I think Boston will be far more chaotic than NYC, for LOTS of reasons.
If you were around back then, in 1968, there was little protest around the RNC; yet the DNC in Chicago is still remembered. And yet, the hatred of Richard Nixon by the left was palpable.
I have heard one old leftist say that "John Kerry is just like Hubert Humphrey, except without all that charisma." The extremists were able to force the convention to put up their boy, McGovern, instead of the pre-chosen one, Humphrey. The DNC just folded, and let the fruitcakes and screamers take over.
And they think they can do it again. Attacking the RNC is just an exercise in hate, attacking the DNC has a purpose.
Dave Eberhart, NewsMax.com
Tuesday, July 13th, 2004
Last week Sen. Jay Rockefeller, D-W.Va., said, "We in Congress would not have authorized that war — we would not have authorized that war with 75 votes if we knew what we know now."
ABC's Ted Koppel, host of "Nightline," decided to put the words of the senior Democratic member of the Senate Intelligence Committee to the test.
Koppel's findings, which aired on ABC Radio late Friday night, directly counter Rockefeller's suggestion that the Senate would not have strongly endorsed the war against Iraq.
Koppel reported: "We wanted to see whether the conclusions reached by the Intelligence Committee would have made any difference to the other senators who voted to authorize the war in Iraq, so we called them.
"Of the 42 we reached, only three said they would have changed their minds had they known then 'what they know now.'
"Among those who say they would not have changed their minds, a number of prominent Democrats, including Hillary Clinton, Joe Biden, Chuck Schumer and Tom Daschle."
Despite the media buzz last week that suggested the U.S. Congress may have been hoodwinked by the Bush administration and a politicized CIA into voting for the Iraq war, many leading Democrats apparently do not see it that way.
The 511-page report released last week by the Senate Intelligence Committee debunked much of what American intelligence had reported about Iraq.
As summarized by Republican senator and chair of the Select Committee on Intelligence, Pat Roberts:
"Here are some examples of statements from the key judgments. Iraq is reconstituting its nuclear program. Iraq has chemical and biological weapons. Iraq was developing an unmanned aerial vehicle, a UAV, probably intended to deliver biological warfare agents."
But the explosive committee report that lambasted U.S. intelligence about weapons of mass destruction in the hands of Iraq's Saddam Hussein, has not changed the mind of President Bush, who steadfastly maintained, "I chose to defend the country, and it's exactly what I would do again."
Bush has consistently argued that Saddam Hussein posed a threat to the United States.
But John Kerry's position on Iraq has vacillated â and may have put him at odds with Senate Democrats who told ABC News they still would have voted for the war.
Kerry, along with his running mate, John Edwards, voted for the war.
But during the Demcratic primaries, Kerry began distancing himself from his war vote and claimed the Bush administration had lied to Congress.
Appearing on "60 Minutes" last weekend, Kerry told Leslie Stahl: "I think the president made a mistake in the way he took us to war. I am against the war â the way the president went to war was wrong."
At the same time, Kerry said he voted to give Bush the authorization to go to war "as a last resort." He added, "I believe, based on the information we have, it was the correct vote."
But Kerry did not say, as Koppel asked knowing "what we know now," if he would still have voted for the war.
Kerry again claimed to Stahl that "the way [President Bush] went to war was a mistake."
But if the war is such a mistake, the question remains whether Kerry would have changed his vote.
Already the Bush administration has seized on Kerry's equivocating.
In a speech Monday, Vice President Dick Cheney chided Kerry for "simply trying to rewrite history for his own political purposes."
"When Congress voted to authorize force against Saddam Hussein, Senator Kerry and Senator Edwards both voted yes," Cheney said. "Now it seems they've both developed a convenient case of campaign amnesia."
Posted by: Mark Espinola ||
07/12/2004 11:54:29 PM ||
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Hat tip to LGF:Fringe elements are hoping to spark major disruptions at the Republican National Convention with a series of sneaky tricks - including fooling bomb-sniffing dogs on trains bound for Penn Station, the Daily News has learned. Internet-using anarchists are telling would-be troublemakers to decoy specially trained Labrador retrievers with gunpowder or ammonium nitrate-laced tablets in a bid to halt trains or even spur the evacuation of Madison Square Garden.
Or if they get enough false alarms, enable a real bomb to make it in.
Top cops are girding against the attempt to foil strong anti-terrorist strategies aimed at protecting conventiongoers - including President Bush - as well as peaceful protesters during the Aug. 30 to Sept. 2 GOP fete. "Where is the legitimate protest in trying to endanger the public?" an angry ÂPolice Commissioner Raymond Kelly told The News. "It is the height of irresponsibility," he added. "These hard-core groups are looking to take us on. ... They have increased their level of sophistication and violence."
They've been practicing at every WTO summit.
So in addition to guarding against the most vile, organized and destructive of terrorists, Kelly and company have to combat a shadowy, loose-knit band of traveling troublemakers who spread their guides to disruption over the Internet. The dog decoy ploy is the among most insidious in the fringe groups' bag of tricks - which includes throwing marbles under the hooves of police horses and using slingshots to pelt the animals.
Welcome to Chicago - 1968.
Wonder how PETA feels about endangering the animals?
"They're trying to use up our resources with false alarms. ... The sensitive dogs would become burned out with too many alerts," said a police source. Preliminary plans call for state and city cops with the dogs and hand-held chemical detection devices to board commuter and subway trains one stop before they reach Penn Station, under the Garden. The trains will be swept for suspicious packages and terror suspects before being allowed to continue into the station - the country's busiest, with about 600,000 passengers on a regular workday. "We're going to make certain there is absolutely no disruption of the train," Kelly said in announcing the procedures on April 28.
Two days later, an Internet posting detailed how to stoke disorder by miscuing the bomb dogs. The posting instructed people to "go to a rifle, pistol or skeet shooting range, spend an hour shooting to saturate clothing with smell of gunpowder, go directly to a New Jersey Transit, LIRR or subway train headed for Penn Station. "Try to have at least two people on a train in different locations, sit or stand near the doors as the train approaches the station, try to get near police and dogs, loiter as long as possible around the dog, try to pet it if possible. "If the dog alerts on your scent, do not leave or resist; the situation will cause a major disruption of the train schedule. ... If there is more than one person on the train that causes a dog to alert, you can bet that the train will not be going anywhere for a long time ... neither will any trains behind it." The message instructs to "Play dumb for as long as possible" before telling the police you unwittingly got the gunpowder on your clothes at a shooting range. "It is important that the police call in all possible resources to investigate the situation. ... With any luck, Madison Square Garden will be evacuated." "Rush hours are ideal, the final night of the convention, very good, too," the posting said.
After being alerted to the gunpowder posting, investigators uncovered Internet mentions of dispersing traces of ammonium nitrate on the trains. Ammonium nitrate is one of the most common farm fertilizers in the world. The dogs are trained to detect the fertilizer because it has been used in major bombings, from the 1993 World Trade Center attack to Oklahoma City to Bali, Indonesia. The NYPD also is preparing for possible "Black Bloc" tactics by small groups of anarchists, in which demonstrators wear black clothing and bandannas over their faces - and wield pipes, bottles and commit acts of vandalism against corporate "enemies" such as the Gap, Starbucks and McDonald's.
That'll go over well in New York, not!
Michael Moore lives on the Upper East Side, in case these guys need an address.
Cops have been trained to isolate violent individuals among peaceful protesters, and will employ an 1845 law that prohibits people from wearing masks in street gatherings, except for masquerades. The NYPD has sent cops to Philadelphia, Los Angeles and Miami, sites of previous political conventions, and to Boston, which will host the Democratic convention this month, to collect intelligence.
Although how much intelligence you'll find in Boston is open to question.
"There is the same hard-core element that we have seen move from city to city where violence has marred protests," another police source said.
And we keep coddling them, don't we?
Posted by: Steve ||
07/12/2004 2:13:05 PM ||
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#1
Is there any way we can nab these hillbillies, and send them to Singapore for an "atitude readjustment"?
#3
Hold the people and if a bomb gets in and kills anyone charge them with aiding and abetting an terrorist act -- send them to prison for 20 years....
I say we send them to the North Korean 'Workers Paradise'......
#4
""There is the same hard-core element that we have seen move from city to city where violence has marred protests," another police source said."
What about a good old fashion act of pre-convention "police brutality"/shit pounding. If they know who these creeps are. The Liberals will have no problem with that.
#5
As a NYer, I am sure I will be tempted to beat any jackass I see wearing a black mask or Palestinian kuffiyah or Phish t-shirt on my way to work. Good thing I don't have to commute through Penn Station.
Posted by: Tibor ||
07/12/2004 15:14 Comments ||
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bring in cops that were related to or friends of people who died in the 9/11 attacks. Issue them large batons, helmets, shields and loose ROE. Let the head-cracking begin!
Posted by: Frank G ||
07/12/2004 15:18 Comments ||
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#7
Things like this are why the GOP wanted a zone cleared of pedestrian traffic around the convention. Bloomberg the RINO would have none of this. Watch what happens if a terrorist attack actually occurs during the convention.
#9
I'm with Frank on this. We have neglected these children for too long and now we have to take these guys 'clubbing.' Let the Oakland PD in for fun, they are quick to reach for the baton. I would also suggest a large contingent of South Korean Police. They excel at kicking ass and taking names. Also private citizens should be allowed immunity from prosecution it they wail on one (or more)of these anarchists. Offering a bounty for each one turned in would also whittle down their number.
#10
Yawn! These "Black Bloc" idiots run at the first hint of the police. Question: if they run like hell from the San Francisco PD, how are they going to react to the NYPD? Answer: they aren't going to do a damn thing. Left Wing Anarchists are like an ocean storm: full of sound and fury signifying nothing.
Now, if it were Right Wing Anarchists threatening something it would be an entirely different matter....
#12
Anymouse,when they are arrested,they spend a night in jail,released on own recognizance,and get a suspended sentence and maybe small fine.To put a stop to most of the idiots they need to serve a 3-5yr.hard-time sentence.Make it a three strikes deal-get arrested three times for civil disobedience(anywhere US),get mandatory 3yr.jail time.
Posted by: Stephen ||
07/12/2004 17:54 Comments ||
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#13
I don't know if 3-5 years is really necessary. Even one month in a maximum security prison should be enough. Not a prison for stock fraud, but one with murderers and gang members.
This is your ass before prison -----> o
This is your ass after prison -------> O
#14
I DON'T see this as "Fury", I see this as the NYPD having their act together. Unlike Boston, which is cherry to this kind of event (and at which I think the gods of chaos are plotting against them), the New Yorkers are experienced and savvy to the hard cases.
When it has its act together, the NYPD is a formidable army. I imagine morale is still quite high--a holdover from Giuliani--which means that each and every cop will enthusiastically strive to maintain order. I mean, heck, they're so intent on keeping it together they are doing *research*, for crying out loud.
Look to Boston for disaster. Look to NY for a happy little gathering of friends.
The Senate vindicates President Bush and exposes Joe Wilson as a partisan fraud.
"The Committee did not find any evidence that Administration officials attempted to coerce, influence or pressure analysts to change their judgments related to Iraq's weapons of mass destruction capabilities."
So reads Conclusion 83 of the Senate Intelligence Committee's report on prewar intelligence on Iraq. The Committee likewise found no evidence of pressure to link Iraq to al Qaeda. So it appears that some of the claims about WMD used by the Bush Administration and others to argue for war in Iraq were mistaken because they were based on erroneous information provided by the CIA.
A few apologies would seem to be in order. Allegations of lying or misleading the nation to war are about the most serious charge that can be leveled against a President. But according to this unanimous study, signed by Jay Rockefeller and seven other Democrats, those frequent charges from prominent Democrats and the media are without merit. Or to put it more directly, if President Bush was "lying" about WMD, then so was Mr. Rockefeller when he relied on CIA evidence to claim in October 2002 that Saddam Hussein's weapons "pose a very real threat to America." Also lying at the time were John Kerry, John Edwards, Bill and Hillary Clinton, and so on.
Yet Mr. Rockefeller is still suggesting on the talk shows, based on nothing but inference and innuendo, that there was undue political Bush "pressure" on CIA analysts. The West Virginia Democrat also asserted on Friday that Undersecretary of Defense Douglas Feith has been running a rogue intelligence operation that is "not lawful." Mr. Feith's shop has spent more than 1,800 hours responding to queries from the Senate and has submitted thousands of pages of documents--none of which supports such a charge. Shouldn't even hyper-partisan Senators have to meet some minimum standard of honesty? In fact, the report shows that one of the first allegations of false intelligence was itself a distortion: Mr. Bush's allegedly misleading claim in the 2003 State of the Union address that Iraq had been seeking uranium ore from Africa. The Senate report notes that Presidential accuser and former CIA consultant Joe Wilson returned from his trip to Africa with no information that cast serious doubt on such a claim; and that, contrary to Mr. Wilson's public claims, his wife (a CIA employee) was involved in helping arrange his mission.
Posted by: Fred ||
07/12/2004 12:16:43 PM ||
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#1
between Byrd and Jay "dumb as a bag of" Rocks, West Virginia has a lot to apologize for....Now if we could only get rid of "rail accident" Boxer here in CA
Posted by: Frank G ||
07/12/2004 12:33 Comments ||
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#2
When Sen. Rockerfeller talks about pressure, he's talking about the mental telepathy kind.
Bush is pressuring these agencies with his patented Mind Beam from that big antenna we have on the moon.
#3
If the Senator from West Virginia proposes an amendment to an Intelligence appropriations bill for heavy duty aluminum foil, I'll be even more worried than I am now.
Which conclusion held the Senate Committee on Intelligence liable for hearing the same briefings but apparently sitting on any concerns until it was politically convenient to raise them? Must be in here somewhere...flip, flip...
#4
I tried to post an article (actually just comments) about a Fox News interview with John Loftus.
He said that Khadafi will speak in front of the IAEA in September and give evidence/information about Khan's Nuclear Black Market.
Loftus then went on the say that the Intelligence buzz is that Khadafi will also state that Saddam outsourced his WMD programs to Libya in order to avoid scrutiny.
Did anyone else catch this show yesterday? I can't find a transcript.
A senior House Democratic lawmaker was skeptical on Sunday of a Bush administration idea to obtain the authority to delay the November presidential election in case of an attack by al Qaeda, U.S. counterterrorism officials are looking at an emergency proposal on the legal steps needed to postpone the presidential election in case of such an attack, Newsweek reported on Sunday. "I think it's excessive based on what we know," said Rep. Jane Harman of California, the top Democrat on the House Intelligence Committee, in a interview on CNN's "Late Edition." Gee, ya think? No delays, no cancellation for sure. We had elections even during our civil war, a bunch of pig-ignorant savages won't stop one.
Posted by: mojo ||
07/12/2004 11:58:20 AM ||
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It's a worst case scenario, you look at it. The odds of it happening, probably zero.
But, of course, Snoozeweek's take is that the black helicopters are warming up on the White House lawn filled with the jackbooted thugs.
#2
mojo: No delays, no cancellation for sure. We had elections even during our civil war, a bunch of pig-ignorant savages wonât stop one.
It strikes me that some states would have to have been excluded from the Electoral College in 1864, given that they were under Confederate rule at the time of the elections. Will we end up doing the same if a major terror attack occurs?
#4
DPA: Yeah, let's bar berkeley, san francisco, seattle, portland and new york city from the elections as a matter of national security ;)
Actually, if NYC (the likeliest target) turns into a pile of ashes, I suspect that would mean that elections would go on, but without NYC. Would the electoral votes be parcelled out to the rest of the state or eliminated on a pro rata basis? This sounds ghoulish, but a lot of contingency planning is like that - planning for the unthinkable.
#5
You have to have some type of plan for a worse case scenario. What would have happened if the 911 attack had happened on an election day? No way people in NYC could have voted, they were too busy ducking for cover and trying to rescue survivors. So do you just tell them, "Sorry, you had your chance"? And the rest of the country was watching the attack on TV and waiting for the next shoe to drop. How many of them would have remembered it was a election day? Seems to me you need a plan, or at least have a discussion about the need for a plan to reschedule the election if needed.
Posted by: Steve ||
07/12/2004 12:43 Comments ||
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Actually, much of the country was in lockdown mode in the days after September 11. How does one conduct an election in the middle of all this? (In NYC, roads were closed and there was no subway or bus service for days).
#7
This seems to be the new darling of the American LLL. But you know what's strange here? I can't find any Republicans who are in favor of delaying the elections. And unless it's technically impossible to hold election on that day or seriously disenfranchising people in attacked areas I think nobody wants to mess with the elections.
I don't know but I'm sure that there are old plans stashed away about what to do in case of a Soviet attack, right?
#8
TGA: And unless it's technically impossible to hold election on that day or seriously disenfranchising people in attacked areas I think nobody wants to mess with the elections.
I think this will be the sticking point. Does NYC get to have a say in the presidential elections if it can't participate in the polls because the whole city is shut down? Confederate-controlled states weren't counted in the 1864 polls.
#10
Zhang Fei, it seems a bit too "German" for America trying to find regulations for really everything that might happen.
I mean, has anyone ever pushed for legislation to decide what steps to take should the big quake pulverize San Francisco or Los Angeles (which isn't such an absurd thought) one day before scheduled elections? Or what to do if Yellowstone erupts or a meteorite hits Chicago or floods drown New Orleans? And what does "postpone" mean? A day, a week, a month? And how big must a terror attack be? How many victims, how many areas concerned? Sorry folks, the Supreme Court could always rule on what to do in an emergency meeting. Yes, what if the Supreme Court is pulverized... Yes what if the sky falls down...
I think that discussion about delaying elections is just water on the mills of the LLL and their conspiracy theories. They already see the "Reichstag" burning.
What the administration should definitely not push for is to postpone elections thinking of Madrid. Trust the people to make the right choice. If elections are technically possible they should be held as scheduled. You don't want a bunch of terrorists to be the first to interrupt the democratic process in the USA.
Would Roosevelt have postponed scheduled elections, had Pearl Harbor happened a few days before? I doubt it.
LH, no official reaction, inofficial reaction: "not helpful" (read: "he missed a good opportunity to keep quiet"). Germany wants more NATO in Afghanistan and has been moving closer to US positions for months now (Schroeder had very positive things to say about Bush in Istanbul).
#11
"or a meteorite hits Chicago or floods drown New Orleans..." TGA, I wish those events were equally unlikely. We're losing 35 square miles of wetland a year down here.
This whole thing reminds me of those articles that appear from time to time in which a reporter discovers that in 1962 some junior officer in the Pentagon prepared a contingency plan to invade Madagascar.
Posted by: Matt ||
07/12/2004 18:52 Comments ||
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Matt, I somehow expect the Pentagon to do that. I bet they had one for Grenada well before they needed it.
But that election thing is something you can decide when shit has happened.
Yes I know, the scenarios for New Orleans or San Francisco aren't that absurd.
Posted by: Frank G ||
07/12/2004 15:41 ||
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"ComEd spokewoman Meg Amato says that it appears an O'Hare contractor may have dug into electrical equipment underground that belongs to O'Hare. ComEd is standing by to assist in powering up the terminals"
Posted by: Barbara Skolaut ||
07/12/2004 17:22 Comments ||
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#8
Danking70, I heard the show as well. Loftus has been saying this for months on the John Batchelor radio show. He was less sure of himself (or maybe just more careful) on FoxNews than he is on the radio.
Posted by: Tibor ||
07/12/2004 17:44 Comments ||
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Posted by: Mark Espinola ||
07/12/2004 13:48 ||
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#1
That's down at the end of the Blue Line (Metro) isn't it? (Franconia/Springfield)
Besides there being a Woodcraft store down there, I don't know much about the area. Hopefully concerned citizens will keep an eye on their little basement homo club think tank.
Springfield is home to numerous govt officials. The high school there Orange Hunt has a very high average SAT - also high rates of anorexia and suicide.
Workers began the cleanup on Sunday of a Florida building contaminated by anthrax in a series of incidents that rattled the United States shortly after the Sept 11, 2001 airliner attacks on New York and Washington. Gas pumped into the Boca Raton building that once served as headquarters for supermarket tabloid publisher American Media Inc. was expected to rid it of deadly anthrax spores, which killed a photo editor there and prompted a biological warfare scare nearly three years ago. "It's started," a Boca Raton police dispatcher said of the cleanup.
Robert Stevens, a photo editor at the AMI building, was the first of five people to die as a result of anthrax attacks in Florida, New York and the Washington area. Tainted letters were sent to media outlets and to government officials. The three-story AMI building, which housed the National Enquirer and other tabloids, was quarantined in Oct. 2001 and was sold to developer David Rustine for $40,000 in April 2003. In January, Rustine picked Bio-ONE, a partnership between Giuliani Partners, a consulting company headed by former New York Mayor Rudolph Giuliani, and Sabre Technical Services, to cleanse the building using chlorine dioxide gas. Bio-ONE was expected to use the building as its headquarters when the quarantine is lifted.
Posted by: Steve White ||
07/12/2004 12:53:25 AM ||
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So, FBI, how's that investigation going? Hello?
Posted by: Steve ||
07/12/2004 9:58 Comments ||
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pretty obviously, Steven Hatfill, by cleverly thwarting the lack of evidence, remains a "person of interest"
Posted by: Frank G ||
07/12/2004 10:06 Comments ||
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I think Mr. Jewel is taking revenge against the Fabuoous Bureau of Investigators.
The Pentagon announced three criminal charges yesterday against David Hicks, an Australian held at the U.S. military prison in Guantanamo Bay, Cuba, accusing him of conspiracy to commit war crimes, attempted murder and aiding the enemy. The move made Hicks, who was captured in Afghanistan in December 2001, the third captive at Guantanamo Bay -- and the first citizen of a U.S. ally imprisoned there -- to be charged with terrorism-related offenses. He will face trial under the controversial military tribunal process devised for some of those apprehended in government's war on terrorism.
According to the Pentagon charge sheet, Hicks, 28, a high school dropout and convert to Islam who has done stints as a cowboy, boxer, shark fisherman and kangaroo skinner, attended several al Qaeda training courses at camps in Afghanistan in 2001. Leaving the country briefly, he returned after the Sept. 11, 2001, attacks to fight alongside al Qaeda and Taliban members. Marine Maj. Michael Mori, a military lawyer representing Hicks, said his client has not committed any crime and would fight the charges. "What's not in the charges is almost more telling than what is," Mori said in a telephone interview. "There is no statement that David Hicks shot any service member or planted any bombs."
In outlining its case, the Pentagon said Hicks trained in Albania in 1999 with the Kosovo Liberation Army and fought for Albanian Muslims. He converted from Christianity to Islam and, in early 2000, joined an Islamic extremist group in Pakistan known as Lashkar-e-Taiba, or Army of the Righteous, participating in clashes with Indian forces in the disputed Himalayan region of Kashmir. In January 2001, Hicks traveled to Afghanistan to attend al Qaeda terrorist training camps, where he took courses on weapons, urban tactics, guerrilla warfare and other military-related subjects, the Pentagon said. As part of a course on information gathering, Hicks conducted surveillance of various targets in Kabul, including "the U.S. and British embassies," according to the charge sheet. At that time, though, neither the United States nor Britain operated an embassy in the Afghan capital. A spokesman for the military tribunals said yesterday that the reference was to buildings once used as embassies and still occupied, when Hicks allegedly spied on them, by employees of the United States and Britain.
Continued on Page 49
Posted by: Dan Darling ||
07/12/2004 12:33:28 AM ||
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I believe he's known in Oz as "The Wallaby of Islam"
#3
Dont bring him back to Australia to serve his sentence- he will only make a focal point for Jihadi recruiting in the prison population. This guy is hardcore until proven otherwise as far as I am concerned. Dont give Aussie mozzies a real live in country martyr to agitate around. And his ratbag father is another piece of work- using all of the lowlife legal tricks to attack the Australian government. Hicks needs to stay in Gitmo and work on his tan until WW12.
A Senate report detailing serious flaws in U.S. intelligence-gathering highlights the urgent need for a permanent CIA director given the current terrorist threat, leaders of the Senate Intelligence Committee said Sunday. "An acting director for the next six or seven months, during such a dangerous period for the United States, with all of these talks about attacks on the United States, is not acceptable," said West Virginia Sen. Jay Rockefeller, the committee's top Democrat. The chairman, Sen. Pat Roberts, said McLaughlin's ability to lead is limited as acting director even though he is "very skilled" and brings a lot of experience to the job. "I hope the administration will send somebody up," said Roberts, R-Kan. "It will have to be an extraordinary nominee. If that's the case, we will go full time into the hearings to get him or her confirmed." Committee members discussed several possible nominees: Deputy Secretary of State Richard L. Armitage; former Sen. Sam Nunn, D-Ga.; House Intelligence Committee Chairman Porter Goss, R-Fla.; and former Navy Secretary John Lehman, a member of the commission investigating the Sept. 11 attacks. The White House gave no indication Sunday about when Bush would name a permanent director. "Acting director McLaughlin is a strong and capable leader," said Erin Healy, a White House spokeswoman. "The president will make a decision on a new CIA director in due course."
More at the link.
Posted by: Steve White ||
07/12/2004 12:30:47 AM ||
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#1
No on Richard Armitage, who called Iran a democracy. Sam Nunn possibly; Lehman blew a gasket at the NY Police and Fire Fighters, a woeful move.
Posted by: Capt America ||
07/12/2004 1:53 Comments ||
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#2
Who ever it is , the decision shoulds be based on ability not Political Correctness
#3
I think it's time to get back to the old OSS days and choose a leader who is not afraid to get his hands bloody. Are there any aggressive ex-agents with paramilitary experience who have a knack for organizational and political skills.
Posted by: ed ||
07/12/2004 7:01 Comments ||
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choose a leader who is not afraid to get his hands bloody
I nominate Old Spook
Posted by: Steve ||
07/12/2004 8:29 Comments ||
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#6
Rockefeller and the dems just want political theater and W bashing in confirmation hearings. Acting Director is fine for that time when there's continuity. I agree, Armitage would spread State Dept disease
Posted by: Frank G ||
07/12/2004 9:53 Comments ||
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#7
If the Dems are looking for political theater, I'd predict that once again it will blow back at them come election time.
I certainly wouldn't look for any Democrat Senator who is up for re-election this year to make too much noise. If that fellow from Georgia could be unseated, it could happen to any of them, too.
#9
Since listening to Rockerfeller's disingenuous diatribe at the "official release" of the Senate Unintelligence Circus findings, I have elevated him to the level of the French Diplo Corps - whatever he's for, it's reasonable to begin with positioning yourself opposite. Since he's calling for the quick naming of Tenet's replacement...
BAGHDAD, Iraq - Iraq is currently detaining 99 foreign fighters, the majority of whom are Syrians, Iraqâs human rights minister said Monday.
Bakhtiyar Amin said the detainees include 26 Syrians, 14 Saudis, 14 Iranians, 12 Egyptians, nine Sudanese, five Palestinians, five Yemenis, five Jordanians, five Tunisians, one Lebanese, one Moroccan, one Turk and one Afghan. (No more jihad for these schmucks!)
Amin said last week that the government was holding just 29 foreign guerrilla suspects at the maximum security section of Abu Ghraib prison in Baghdad, a fraction of the 5,500 suspected fighters being detained.
The U.S. military said at the time that some 60 other foreign fighters were being held elsewhere in Abu Ghraib and at Camp Bucca in southern Iraq. (60 others, and how many more of these lice have already been wacked since the Iraqi ground war began?)
U.S. officials have long blamed the violence on foreign fighters who crossed into Iraq to wreak havoc. But military officials and analysts said recently the fighters are mainly Sunni Iraqis, angry at the defeat of their patron, Saddam Hussein.
Posted by: Mark Espinola ||
07/12/2004 10:49:06 PM ||
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"U.S. officials have long blamed the violence on foreign fighters who crossed into Iraq to wreak havoc." Excuse me? US officials have long blamed the violence on a COMBINATION of former regime elements AND foreign fighters (and once in a while think to throw in the substantial criminal component in much of the festivities).
There is no administration position/action WRT to Iraq or the WOT too small or mundane that it doesn't get distorted by Big Media. When is someone going to start up a serious wire service to replace the wrecks that once were AP and Reuters?
#2
I think there's a little disinfo going on here. Notice the careful choice of words: it doesn't say how many have been captured, just how many are currently being detained *in Iraq*.
(on a more brutal note, I think back to the time of Stalin, when he asked one of his chiefs how many political prisoners there were in Moscow, and he replied to Stalin and his guests "none". He was being quite honest, as Stalin had ordered all of the Moscow prisoners killed the week before.)
The Philippines said Monday it was taking steps to help the United States track down and freeze the assets of a Saudi Arabia-based Muslim charity and three people on suspicion they financed terrorists. The Philippine Anti-Money Laundering Council said it ordered government and private financial institutions to report any transactions involving the Al-Haramain Islamic Foundation, its founder Aqueel Abdulaziz Al-Aqil, and two other suspects -- Assad Amad Barakat and Hassan Abdullah Hersi Al-Turki. The U.S. government has asked authorities to check for the possible presence of Al-Haramain in the Philippines, and to look for and freeze any assets belonging to the three suspects.
Last month U.S. authorities closed down offices of the Muslim foundation in the United States on suspicions it bankrolled al-Qaida terror activities. Its branches in 10 other countries, mostly in Africa and Asia, were also shut down. Al-Haramain has repeatedly denied that it funds terror organizations. U.S. authorities have already frozen the U.S. assets of Al-Aqil, Barakat and Al-Turki, the anti-money laundering council said Monday. Al-Turki is an alleged leader of a Somali terror group called Al-Itihaad Al-Islamiya, which has been linked to al-Qaida, the council said. It said Barakat is suspected of supporting military operations of Hezbollah -- an Iranian-backed organization that has appeared on the U.S. State Department list of terrorist groups since the 1980s. The anti-money laundering council has powers to investigate and freeze bank and other financial accounts. It needs court permission to do so, unless the accounts are linked to kidnapping, drug trafficking, hijacking or terrorism.
Posted by: Mark Espinola ||
07/12/2004 1:13:44 PM ||
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Iranian troops killed two Turkish Kurdish rebels in clashes close to the Iraqi border, Tehran dailies said on Saturday, amid reports of a major offensive by Tehran on Ankara's behalf.
That, and the fact the Iranians have their own Kurdish problem.
The latest fighting took place on Thursday near the town of Baneh, in the far northwest of Kurdistan province, some 200 kilometres from the nearest part of Turkey, the papers said. "These people had illegally crossed the border, ruined border villages and extorted money from residents," the Hambastegi newspaper quoted an unidentified official as saying.
Or they were attacking Iranians who were oppressing Iranian Kurds.
The new fighting comes hot on the heels of deadly clashes near the Turkish border between Iranian troops and the rebels from the former Kurdistan Workers' Party, now known as Kongra-Gel. Deputy Interior Minister Ali Asghar Ahmadi said two Iranian soldiers and eight rebels were killed in the June 28 clashes. A pro-Kurdish news agency said 16 soldiers and four rebels died. The Germany-based MHA news agency said Iranian security forces had launched "a comprehensive operation" against the former PKK late last month after the rebels abandoned a five-year unilateral ceasefire with Ankara on June 1. Ahmadi is himself to travel to Turkey on Monday to discuss joint moves to tackle armed groups holed up in the mountainous border region. Turkish defence sources have already hailed what they described as a "large-scale" operation against the former PKK by the Iranian army.
Another example of the "enemy of my enemy is my friend" policy.
Posted by: Steve ||
07/12/2004 8:40:25 AM ||
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#1
So Steve: "enemy of my enemy is my friend", do you mean Iran is enemy of the US, so you can call the terrorist Kongra-gel (aka PKK) your friend?
Your terrorist is good, my terrorist is bad policy? As American policy has always been.
Posted by: Murat ||
07/12/2004 9:46 Comments ||
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#2
Actually the US (and Israel too for that matter) have helped Turkey (the Turkish Army mostly- much of the info resources bypassed the civilian govt)with material, logistics, satellite intel and other matters in Turkey's action against the PKK.
I don't think the US will help Iran because Iran can't be trusted. However, the PKK isn't going to get anything from the US. Remember the Iraqi based anti-Iran groups (which had both a terrorist component and a political component) have been quashed with US help.
#3
Murat,
It is TURKEY, not the US, who is who is praising IRAN. So which is it? Does democratic semi-repressive Turkey have a natural affinity for a dictatorial, repressive mullah ruled Iran, or is this a case of enemy of my enemy is my friend w.r.t Iran? Turkish defence sources have already hailed what they described as a "large-scale" operation against the former PKK by the Iranian army.
Wasn't it US intelligence who located where the head of PKK was hiding? If so, I welcome your thanks.
Posted by: ed ||
07/12/2004 9:55 Comments ||
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#4
I'm shamefully behind on Kurdish issues, but aren't/weren't the PKK a communist outfit? I wouldn't presume their actions were humanitarian any more than the Iranian forces' were. Too willing to use violence than is necessary. No good guys here?
#5
PKK is communist as they come and also supports suicide bombings. If they're fighting the mullahs, it's a shame that both sides can't lose.
Posted by: Dan Darling ||
07/12/2004 10:05 Comments ||
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#6
Murat, I never said the PKK wasn't a terrorist group, they are. I'm just pointing out the fact that the government of Turkey is hailing Iran for going after one terrorist group and keeping quiet on Iran harboring al-Qaeda groups which bombed your country.
Posted by: Steve ||
07/12/2004 10:09 Comments ||
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#7
Well Steve, America has pledged many times to move against the terrorist hideouts of the pkk in Northern Irak, but zip zero nothing has been realised so far. If Iran has the balls to act against those terrorists unlike the US we will hail them ofcourse, is that so hard to understand?
I think Turkey should pull back their troops from Afghanistan, why are we risking our boys against the alqaeda while the US ignores those PKK thugs.
Posted by: Murat ||
07/12/2004 10:31 Comments ||
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#8
Murat,
The US has helped Turkey against the PKK in the past - many times and with both material, satellite intel and humint (the latter passed from Israel).
It is true the US hasn't wiped out the PKK in Kurdistan. That's because we are fully engaged with other terrorists (who we haven't wiped out either). Having said that, the US and the Kurdish parties have put a lid on the PKK. The PKK is being monitored and to some extent controlled and intel is continuously being sent to Turkey.
Ironically, if Turkey would have let the US invade Iraq from its territory we would have neutralized a lot more Baathists and would be able to be more effective against the PKK. So, to that extent, its Turkey's own fault.
#10
..why are we risking our boys against the alqaeda while the US ignores those PKK thugs.
Ooooh, he wants reciprocal action! Say, what about that second front that we had wanted to open up in Iraq in the north? Did we get any cooperation from Turkey on that?
#11
Murat - your back with intelligent posts - actually the only reason turkey is in afganistan is to restablish it's historical influence in the region..
Posted by: Dan ||
07/12/2004 11:54 Comments ||
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#12
Murat, Iâve watched for over a year as youâve gleefully posted articles on US soldiers dying. Youâve been very effective at generating anti-Turkey feeling at Rantburg.
Fortunately, I went to school with a Turkish graduate student so you donât represent all of Turkey to me. Iâm aware that Turkey is in a tough political spot. As a secular Muslim country trying to enter the EU and having a large Kurdish minority, it is hard for Turkey to support the US in Iraq. Iâm also aware that Turkey has a long history of being a strong US ally.
The US needs Turkey and Turkey needs the US. Nobody needs Murat.
Guantanamo Bay detainees have given up intelligence that helped foil attacks planned for the upcoming Athens Olympics and possibly a dozen attacks elsewhere, a US daily said. The information was gathered recently from prisoners at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba, according to the Chicago Tribune newspaper, one of several US media outlets given access to the US navy base there last week. The daily did not elaborate on US military claims during an on-site "intelligence briefing," but noted that they were impossible to verify independently.
The Tribune reporter, along with a television reporter from CNN (Cable News Network) was given special access to Camp Delta, where about 600 "enemy combatants" have been held without access to legal representation for months, and in some cases, years. The report comes as the government prepares to allow some of those detainees to challenge their detention in US courts, following a Supreme Court ruling in their favor last month. Detaineesâ lawyers contend the government is inflating the value of the intelligence garnered from individuals at Guantanamo in order to buttress their case for denying the detainees due process in US courts. But military officials told the Tribune that intelligence they have gathered has yielded information about US terror cells within US borders and internationally, as well as the planning and financing of attacks on September 11, 2001.
Posted by: Mark Espinola ||
07/12/2004 9:41:39 PM ||
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BAGHDAD, Iraq (AP) - A militant group linked to Jordanian terror suspect Abu Musab al-Zarqawi claimed responsibility Sunday for a recent attack on a military headquarters in Samarra that killed five U.S. soldiers and one Iraqi National Guardsman.
The claim by al-Zarqawi's Tawhid and Jihad movement, which was posted on a Web site known for being a clearinghouse for such statements, claimed that dozens of Americans and hundreds of Iraqis died in Thursday's assault. The U.S. military has said insurgents detonated a car bomb and then fired mortars at the building used jointly by the 1st Infantry Division and Iraqi guardsmen.
"One of the lions of the martyrs' brigade, entered the building and destroyed it completely, plus six Hummers, including those who were inside them, thank God," the al-Zarqawi group said in its statement.
As soldiers tried to escape from the building, "the soldiers of God were waiting for them and rained those who came with mortar shells," the statement said.
The accuracy of the group's account could not be verified.
Iraq has been torn by a persistent insurgency since the fall of Saddam Hussein more than 14 months ago.
On Saturday, U.S. Marines clashed with guerrillas taking cover at a taxi stand in a stronghold of support for Saddam's ousted regime, killing three people and wounding five, military and hospital officials said.
Insurgents clad in black attacked the Marines in the city of Ramadi, a hotbed of anti-coalition sentiment. U.S. forces returned fire, blasting the stand into a twisted pile of molten metal. Blood pooled on the asphalt. At least one child was wounded in the crossfire.
The deaths came the same day four U.S. Marines died in a vehicle accident while conducting security operations in an area of western Iraq, the U.S. command said Sunday.
The Marines were killed in Anbar, a Sunni-dominated area west of the Iraqi capital that includes Ramadi, Fallujah and Qaim on the Syrian border. They were assigned to the 1st Marine Expeditionary Force.
North of the capital, insurgents blew up three liquor stores in Baqouba on Saturday, prompting concern that Islamic militants may be trying to impose their strict interpretation of Islam there, witnesses said. The blasts killed a passing taxi driver, said Dr. Nassir Jawad from Baqouba General Hospital.
Also in Baqouba, insurgents detonated two roadside bombs Saturday as a U.S. patrols passed. Two soldiers and one civilian were wounded in the two incidents. All were evacuated to a combat hospital.
Meanwhile, the fate of captured Filipino worker Angelo dela Cruz remained unclear. His captors demanded that the Philippine government withdraw its 51-member force from Iraq by Saturday or dela Cruz would be beheaded. Another 4,100 Filipinos work as key contractors on U.S. bases.
A spokesman for Philippine President Gloria Macapagal Arroyo said the country's small peacekeeping contingent would be withdrawn as planned when its stint ends Aug. 20, though no decision had been made on whether to send replacements.
Later, officials in the Philippines said dela Cruz was about to be freed. But a diplomat familiar with the talks in Baghdad remained cautious, and the Al-Jazeera television station, which broadcast the original tape showing dela Cruz surrounded by armed men, said it received a statement Saturday night from the group denying he had been freed and calling him a "prisoner of war."
"We are still negotiating," a diplomat familiar with the talks said Sunday. "We don't to derail the process of negotiation."
In the statement, the group called itself the Iraqi Islamic Army-Khaled bin Al-Waleed Corps and gave the Philippines an extension until Sunday night, according to Al-Jazeera.
In a video aired earlier Saturday on Al-Jazeera, the hostage urged his countrymen not to come to Iraq.
"I advise you not to come to Iraq because there are a lot of problems, and the Iraqi police won't be able to protect you, like what happened to me," he said, according to the announcer.
Meanwhile, Bulgaria expressed hope that two Bulgarian truck drivers also kidnapped by militants were still alive.
Al-Zarqawi's group threatened to kill the men if the United States did not release all Iraqi detainees - an ultimatum that has expired.
Bulgarian Foreign Minister Solomon Pasi suggested Saturday that the men were still alive, though he warned the information was "unconfirmed."
President Bush telephoned Bulgarian President Georgi Parvanov on Saturday to discuss the hostage situation.
Bush offered to assist but refused to negotiate with terrorists, the White House said. Parvanov affirmed Bulgaria's strong commitment to Iraq.
Elsewhere, insurgents slashed the throat of a translator working for American forces in the northern city of Kirkuk, the latest in a series of assaults on professionals supporting the multinational forces here.
The body of Hewah Omar, 28, was dumped by the side of a river flowing through the middle of the city.
"His throat was cut by a knife, and he was stabbed in the chest seven times," said police Col. Sarhat Qader.
Posted by: Mark Espinola ||
07/12/2004 10:54:38 PM ||
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Only the dogs heard them. Faces painted, duct tape concealing their names, two 1st Cavalry platoons swarmed into a dozen farm houses in the unruly marshlands south of Baghdad. They snatched any male they found and dumped him on a waiting flatbed. In their barracks before last week's pre-dawn raid, the men of Capt. Rex Blair's Dog Company, attached to the 1-8 Battalion, 1st Cavalry Division, slathered on green and black face paint. "It really wigs them out when they see that," Blair said. Face paint, covered up name-patches and no-names-asked abductions in the night are rarely used in "Big Army" units like the 1st Cavalry. But theirs is an elusive enemy that doe-eyed driver Pfc. Mark Wittemeyer calls "the ghosts."
Adrenaline pumped, because this time it was personal. On May 30, these "ghosts," or a cell of insurgents whose specialty is the remote-detonated roadside bomb, set off a 500-pound mine that crumpled Dog Company medic Charles Odums' armored Humvee. The blast ripped off the 19-year-old's legs and folded his remaining half over the back of the driver's seat. The raid in the bomb-infested al-Buetha region lasted more than 40 hours. The final yield was 37 men, 16 of them insurgents. Some were men who had bombed Iraqis and Americans, men whose backyards contained arsenals for guerrilla warfare.
While the 1st Cavalry, based out of Fort Hood, Texas, is the Army's largest division with 17,000 troops, it required only two platoons to clinch one of the division's most successful missions. Fearing that higher-ups would cancel the risky mission and its use of psychological warfare, Blair told almost no one about the raid. The sense of conspiracy piqued his troops' excitement. With their Humvee lights blacked out, Blair's two platoons crept up to a dozen houses. The troops were not knocking on doors. Instead they were kicking them in -- muzzles leveled at anything that moved. Going in, Blair instructed his men to expect anything. But the troops found their marks fast asleep.
Continued on Page 49
Posted by: Mark Espinola ||
07/12/2004 10:07:53 PM ||
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Rebels attacked a town in western Sudan on Sunday, abducting a key tribal leader and two other prominent figures, North Darfur state governor Osman Kibir said. The rebels snatched the three men in the town of Al-La'at in Darfur, stoking further tension in a conflict between Arab militias, the government and the rebels which has created what the United Nations says is the world's worst humanitarian crisis. The rebels and the government signed a cease-fire agreement in April but both sides say the other has frequently broken it.
... which is pretty much par for the Sudanese course...
The abducted men included Al-Sadiq Abbas, the leader of all the Arab tribes in eastern Darfur, a judge and the manager of the town's agricultural bank, Kibir said. He gave no other details of the attack.
Sounds like a pretty significant snatch. I wonder if they'll cut his head off?
Al-La'at is a small town to the east of the North Darfur capital, El-Fasher. Kibir said the rebels, from the Sudan Liberation Movement and the Justice and Equality Movement, had violated the truce in Darfur 50 times since April.
Did they actually shoot back that many times?
The government is under international pressure to disarm the Arab militias, known as the Janjaweed and is accused by the rebels of conducting a campaign of ethnic cleansing.
Kidnappers of a Filipino truck driver rejected an apparent ransom offer from Manila and said he had been taken to an undisclosed site for possible execution. Al-Jazeera television quoted the kidnappers yesterday as saying they had extended by 24 hours to Monday night the deadline for the Philippines to agree to their demand to withdraw troops by July 20. The Arabic satellite channel said Angelo dela Cruz had been moved âto the place of implementing the punishment and was given food and water.â
âHe asked his body to be handed over to his country as well as another day to send his last message to his president,â Al-Jazeera said, showing a letter it said it received from the group. The channel briefly showed a videotape in which it said Dela Cruz appealed to Philippine President Gloria Macapagal Arroyo to swiftly withdraw troops from Iraq so he could return to his family alive. Manila has said it will not change its plans to withdraw its 51 humanitarian troops on Aug. 20, and sent its top Middle East diplomat to Baghdad to negotiate for Dela Cruzâs release and has pleaded with the militants not to kill him. A diplomat in Manila earlier said the kidnappers had told Manila through intermediaries that a cash ransom was out of the question. It was unclear how much was offered. âThe captors are committed to their cause and said they cannot be bought,â said the diplomat, who asked not to be named.
Posted by: Fred ||
07/12/2004 9:24:57 PM ||
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#1
It's disappointing to see any sort of ransom being offered. Perhaps it is the result of a little too much leftover Spanish blood flowing in otherwise proud Philippine veins.
Arroyo should know better than to offer money. It just finances more terror. Paying ransoms only magnifies the number of people who get killed. You cannot fight terrorism by sponsoring its acts. The Philippine government has made good inroads on domestic "Kidnap-for-Ransom" syndicates like the notorious Pentagon Gang. Some roll backs of southern Islamic insurgencies have also helped decrease KfR in those areas. However, corrupt police and military elements still participate and thereby impede eradication of ransom gangs.
Because of these achievements, Arroyo should better understand the uselessness of negotiating with criminal or terrorist elements. Even if this is a ruse and Malacanang knew their offer in Iraq would be turned down ahead of time, it sends all the exact wrong messages.
No matter how politically expedient it might be to have made a play at negotiating, any degree of conciliation with terrorist demands is entirely unproductive. It only encourages more of the same and spreads a critically wrong message of apparent success to other fanatics.
Palestinian Authority Chairman Yasser Arafat has been confronted by a vigorous struggle by his ruling Fatah movement to reduce his powers as part of a reform campaign. Hundreds of Fatah members, including key veterans, have joined an effort for reform within the ruling Palestinian movement that would include elections and a significant reduction in Arafat's authority. The effort also envisioned the conversion of the Fatah-dominated Al Aqsa Martyrs Brigade into a political movement and a purge of most of Arafat's aides accused of corruption. The document was drafted and distributed in wake of Arafat's decision to end most of the funding to Al Aqsa.
Palestinian sources said Arafat significantly reduced funding to Al Aqsa in May after he agreed to a demand by donor nations to directly pay PA security forces through the Finance Ministry, headed by U.S.-educated minister Salam Fayyad. "Over the last two months, the entire attitude by Al Aqsa toward Arafat has changed," a PA official said. "As long as Arafat was paying the bills, Al Aqsa consistently pledged allegiance to him. Once the money stopped, Al Aqsa has been looking for options."
The 10-page document appeared to be part of an effort by Al Aqsa established by Arafat in 2000 to lead the Palestinian war against Israel to garner support from within the West Bank and Gaza Strip as well as from other insurgency groups. The plan called for the opposition Hamas and Islamic Jihad to join a national unity government in which Arafat would turn into a figurehead rather than the sole authority he has been since 1994. The document also asserted that the PA has been a vehicle for corruption by senior Fatah officials. Al Aqsa criticized the excessive lifestyle led by Arafat's aides and their families. "Wives and sons and daughters of officials are registered as employees and receive high salaries from the Palestinian Authority and are either at home or abroad," the document said.
Continued on Page 49
Posted by: Mark Espinola ||
07/12/2004 8:44:43 PM ||
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#1
would be too bad if one of the up-and-comers in the Paleo armed society decided Arafat had lived/stolen long enough?
Naaaahhhhhh
Posted by: Frank G ||
07/12/2004 21:01 Comments ||
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#2
Huh. I guess they aren't martyrs after all, just common mercenaries, not freedom fighters. Apparently they don't love death more than we love life, they love money. Anyone know how to do a diagonostic on a surprise meter? My needle must be stuck on zero.
Posted by: Scott R ||
07/12/2004 21:04 Comments ||
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#3
Almost any time there are a bunch of thugs and thieves in cahoots somebody gets pissed about the money. One party or another decides he is not getting his fair share and eliminates the other. The other reason for a falling out is power. One party decides he's not got his fair share of it.
Posted by: Deacon Blues ||
07/12/2004 21:13 Comments ||
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#4
Scott R---Since their real agenda is out, they should rename their outfit the Al Aqsa Mercinary Brigade. Hmmm....just does not have the Martyrs ring to the name.
It is very entertaining to see the dogs argue over the bones and start nipping at the master. Kinda like watching an Aardman Animations claymation flick. Popcorn anyone?
Posted by: Alaska Paul ||
07/12/2004 21:13 Comments ||
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#5
Splain to me the difference between Al Fatah and La Cosa Nostra?
Posted by: ed ||
07/12/2004 21:45 Comments ||
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#6
Fatah last names don't always end in vowels?
Posted by: Frank G ||
07/12/2004 21:54 Comments ||
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#7
No spaghetti?
Posted by: Fred ||
07/12/2004 22:02 Comments ||
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#8
La Cosa Nostra does have some moral standards.
Posted by: Barbara Skolaut ||
07/12/2004 22:11 Comments ||
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#9
With a predictability factor approaching unity this little gem is merely good for a laugh. The only people they are fooling is themselves. Well, that and most of Europe.
Car explodes in Gaza after grenades detonate too soon
A car exploded in Gaza City on Monday night after locally made hand grenades detonated prematurely, Palestinian security sources said. There were no immediate reports of casualties in the explosion, which eyewitnesses [obviously they werenât eyewitnesses because they got the story wrong - they are more properly called âdisappointed terrorist supportersâ ]
initially said was caused by an Israeli helicopter missile strike. darn those locally made hand grenades -
#1
stories like this give me sunshiney good warm feelings in my tummy
Posted by: Frank G ||
07/12/2004 15:51 Comments ||
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#2
The reporters were seen continuously glancing at their wristwatches, tapping their feet, and making nervous glances about.
"Where is that damned car Massoud called us in about? It should have been here and gone off already? I have a deadline and everyone is late! Damned Paleos cannot keep a schedule, so how will they make the buses run on time in Gaza? Well, we're outa here! Grab the video camera and audio gear and let's split. Hey, did ya hear a boom? Was that a boom I heard?"
Posted by: Alaska Paul ||
07/12/2004 16:23 Comments ||
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#3
Frank G-LOL. It gives me a real sense of pride when I think about the fine craftsmanship of those grenades. There might be a closet industry there-"fastest grenades in the West..."
EFL
Suspected Muslim guerrillas sliced off the nose, ears and tongue of a 14-year-old girl in Indian Kashmir on Sunday, believing her to be an informer for the Indian army, police said. Mariam Begum was abducted by a group of militants from her house in Doda district south of Srinagar, Kashmirâs summer capital. Just another day along the peaceful borders of the RoP. And as usual the UN condemned the action as did the Org of Islamic States as did the Arab League- all three of whom blamed the Israeli fence for inciting the action.
#5
Whenever I read about one more evil thing being done over there in the name of religion, I try to get a picture of what Islam's pearly gates would be. Instead of having Peter meeting dead Muslims at the gates, I envision instead 3 chimps in a row (just like the old drawing) serving as the admittance squad, one covering his eyes, one his mouth, and one his ears. That is the Islam of today to me-don't hear, don't see, don't question.
For this poor girl, that surely is what is Islam has become, too, in an ugly and permanent way.
Two human rights activists who have been refused entry into Israel petitioned the Tel Aviv District Court yesterday to overturn the Interior Ministry's decision to keep them out of the country. The activists - Jamie Spector, 32, from San Francisco, and Christina Grafer, 46, from the Netherlands - planned to demonstrate against the West Bank separation fence as part of their involvement with the International Solidarity Movement. Security officials asked the Interior Ministry not to allow them into Israel when they arrived at Ben-Gurion International Airport on Saturday, saying they constitute a "danger to state security." The Tel Aviv District Court yesterday issued injunctions delaying their deportation while proceedings in the case continue.
Spector and Grafer are not the first to be denied entry into Israel during the past two weeks on the basis of their left-wing activity. As fellow ISM activist Ann Robinson Petter did when she was denied entry to the country at the end of June, Spector and Grafer also refused to return to their respective countries, were arrested by the immigration authorities at the airport, and petitioned the court to let them in. Robinson Petter, a 44-year-old graphic designer from New York, has since appealed to the Supreme Court against last week's district court decision ordering her to keep away from Israel due to her activity in ISM. The Supreme Court will hear the case on Thursday.
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Posted by: Mark Espinola ||
07/12/2004 1:23:05 PM ||
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#1
They should stop them in their home countries. Stop them by putting up travel restrictions. You canât just book a flight to Israel and hop on over. Deny them a visa before the leave and save the world a lot of trouble. Ever notice that a great number of these âactivistsâ are female? Are they blind to the treatment of women by Arab men? Maybe they make a better protester?
#2
Methinks it's time to create a new "country"... Call it LoonieLand - or similar. Physically, it should be some far-from-the-shipping-lanes uninhabited island - there are hundreds / thousands to choose from. We would pay for the construction of a very rough landing strip - unsuitable for anything larger or less stable than an old Piper tail-dragger - AP can be more specific. If anything more substantial is constructed, it will be bombed and holed immediately.
For every incident like this, where some "internationalist" tool-fool of ANSWER / ISM / Soros / Whatever contests a nation's right to decide whom it will allow, or disallow, to enter, the intruder will not be deported to the country in their Passport, but to LoonieLand.
We don't want Petter or Spector back. Thank you. BTW, I suggest Soros can fund this new entity if the "internationalists" wish it to have life-sustaining facilities, which I consider to be optional and unnecessary.
#5
Besides all the aircraft strip dealings and details, what Israel needs to do is what Cyber Sarge suggested, and that is to deny these nutcases a visa in the first place. If they can't even get to Israel, then so much the better. Do not think for one minute that the ISMites are not trying to use the Israeli court system as a forum and a tool just like the LLL uses the US court system. I hope that Mossad keeps an eye on this group and their groupies, like they do terrorists, 'cause 'dozer Corrie and her ISM buddies are just terrorists lite.
Posted by: Alaska Paul ||
07/12/2004 16:17 Comments ||
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#6
Ever notice that a great number of these âactivistsâ are female? Are they blind to the treatment of women by Arab men? Maybe they make a better protester?
I guess Islamists are the only ones who will touch these skanks. Female 'peace activists.' I guess. will do anything or anyone for a roll in the hay. Ain't getting it in the USA, so they will go all the way to Moose Limb land and suffer the inevtiable abuse attendant to such a relationship.
#7
More like a combination of trying to get around Israeli security-profiling and possible propoganda use should any of these females beome a casualty.
#8
Badnaov, I think you hit the nail on the head. These skanks strive for a combative-dependant relationship. They need (crave) a good slapping around and some demeaning sex. The seem the type but I did not recognize it. Good catch.
#9
Jack, you brought up the fact Rachel Corrie was part of the ISM outfit. This is very alarming considering there are more of these lunatics lurking out there.
That little hate consumed girl was indoctrinated by her radical leftist parents.
The linked photo clearly shows her in frenzied rage ripping up a paper American flag surrounded by Arab children. Great example for little kids!
This type of extreme hate driven racialism is what the Boston & NYC police will be confronting at both conventions, although I feel their full wrath will be displayed in mid-town at the GOP convention.
In my opinion this crowd is the same as the jihadic enemy.
Posted by: Mark Espinola ||
07/12/2004 20:07 Comments ||
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#10
Let's send Israel some more Flaterpillars(TM) for dishing out some justice. These kooks don't even deserve their own isolated island.
Posted by: BA ||
07/12/2004 22:03 Comments ||
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#11
I hope that our law enforcement, crowd control, SWAT people, etc etc will be very proactive in nabbing the leaders and controllers of the planned demonstrations riots during the conventions. I hope that we have surveillance and wiretaps up the wazoo right now to nail these traitors.
Posted by: Alaska Paul ||
07/12/2004 22:09 Comments ||
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#12
Alaska, I fully concur.
If the premeditated acts by the 'protesters' amounting to blatant terrorist collaboration goes unpunished we shall have lost more then this nation can afford.
Maybe the Patriot Act can be tested the day before the convention making a surgical clean sweep of all those known to be involved in any aspect of creating multi-diversions for al-Qa'ida or another potential inflictors of broad based mass murder of innocent American citizens.
No more 9-11's! we have been through enough here!
Posted by: Mark Espinola ||
07/12/2004 22:28 Comments ||
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#13
AP and CS: unless things have changed since I went in '98, you don't need a visa to travel to Israel from USA - just a passport.
#14
What makes me feel REALLY good about this? The All-Stars Game commercial had one of the two cars (don't remember if it was American League or National League) plowing through a human peace sign ...
Posted by: Edward Yee ||
07/12/2004 23:41 Comments ||
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Officials said the U.S. embassy in Iraq will be one of the largest in the Middle East and will hire 1,000 Americans for the Baghdad facility. The United States plans to hire private contractors to provide security at the new embassy. U.S. officials said the State Department will not have access to sufficient military or government security personnel and as a result, will seek out private security firms, Middle East Newsline reported. The greatest challenge in the diplomatic transition will be ensuring the security of the embassy personnel in Iraq, officials said. They did not say how many security personnel would be needed for the embassy, headed by ambassador John Negroponte. "The fact is the number we're anticipating of Americans permanently assigned desks in the embassy is oscillating somewhere under 1,000," State Department official Frank Ricciardone said.
Speaking at a recent seminar at the U.S. Institute for Peace in Washington, Ricciardone said about 700 Iraqis would be employed by the embassy, housed in one of Saddam Hussein's former palaces. He said that as the security situation in Iraq improves, Iraqis would take over many of the jobs held by Americans. Ricciardone said the United States would establish a diplomatic presence in the Iraqi provinces. But he added that such a presence would be less visible than that of the defunct Coalition Provisional Authority. "We intend to have Americans working outside of Baghdad in the provincial areas, much as CPA has done, but quite frankly with a lesser footprint," Ricciardone said. "We are not the colonial administrators of this country. We are there as guests, as a supportive good friend."
Mick Kicklighter, a senior Defense Department official who serves on the Pentagon's Iraq Transition Team, said the insurgency war in Iraq was hampering the conversion of the CPA into a diplomatic presence. Kicklighter said the Pentagon and State Department were approaching the problem in an integrated manner. "Anyone who has served in the military knows that one of the most difficult operations you ever have to perform is the changing of an organization â withdrawal of an organization â in combat," Kicklighter said. "That's exactly what we're embarking on, changing the Coalition Provisional Authority into a U.S. mission."
Posted by: Mark Espinola ||
07/12/2004 1:07:38 PM ||
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#1
Do they need anyone to read Rantburg all day long for them? Just in case they need the latest signed edtorial from KCNA or an updated Kashmir Korpse Kount, or ... like, news 'n' stuff ...
Iraqi interim President Ghazi al-Yawer threatened Monday to use a "very sharp sword" to fight insurgents threatening the security of the country, a day after three U.S. soldiers died in attacks north of Baghdad. Al-Yawer spoke two weeks after the United States handed sovereignty over to an interim Iraqi government. The handover, however, has not quelled the violence that has wracked the country since the fall of Saddam Hussein's regime nearly 15 months ago. "Terrorism isn't just killing and blowing up bombs, whoever threatens the ordinary life of the people is a terrorist," al-Yawer told reporters. "We have a very sharp sword ready for anyone who threatens the security of this country."
Al-Yawer, who was meeting with Defense Minister Hazem Shaalan and National Guard Brig. Gen. Muther al-Rashardi, said the roughly 160,000 coalition forces led by the United States were required to stay here to fight the insurgents, but violent groups should not use this as an excuse to continue attacks. "Those who claim they are resisting the occupation, the occupation is over now," he said. "We want to tell anyone who wants to threaten the security of this country: 'Enough,' I say, 'Enough. Stop.'"
Security officials also sought to reassure Iraqis they were trying to restore order. Al-Rashardi said the national guard has divided the capital, Baghdad, into eight sectors to make it easier to control. "We have very big plans to follow this up," Shaalan said. "We are ready to sacrifice ourselves for our people." Al-Yawer, a prominent Sunni whose position is largely ceremonial, said the government planned to announce an amnesty soon for some of the insurgents. Al-Yawer appealed to insurgents to accept the amnesty and lay down their weapons. "This is your last chance, otherwise there will be the sword," he said.
Continued on Page 49
Posted by: Mark Espinola ||
07/12/2004 12:57:41 PM ||
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Libyan strongman Moammar Khadafy's government convinced city officials to drop more than $28 million in back property taxes against its diplomatic headquarters only to later renege on its end of the bargain, The Post has learned. Libya House, designed to serve both as the rogue state's diplomatic mission and as a commercial office tower, had racked up unpaid taxes dating back to 1980 until the Bloomberg administration finally agreed to wipe the slate clean two years ago. Libyan officials refused to pay a dime in taxes, claiming that U.S. economic sanctions first imposed by President Reagan kept them from ever using the 24-story building at 309 East 48th St. as commercial property. Three mayoral administrations refused to buy the argument. But the Bloomberg administration sat down with Libyan officials and the U.S. State Department, and then allowed the oil-rich North African state to get off the hook. "We received new information from Libya and the State Department showing no commercial activity at the property," said city Finance Department spokesman Sam Miller.
Miller said diplomatic facilities are not taxable. And if there were no private, commercial use of the building, the city had no choice but to remove the tax debt. As part of the deal struck two years ago before the recent thaw in relations between Libya and the United States Libyan officials agreed to let city inspectors enter the property to take a look around and make sure it was strictly diplomatic. But Libya reneged on that agreement, and has refused to let the city inside ever since "so we re-imposed the tax," Miller said. However, the city could only re-impose the tax for last year and this year about $2.5 million total. The bulk of the debt had been permanently wiped from the books. Libya's tax break came as city homeowners were socked with a roughly 20 percent property tax hike to help boost revenues during the last budget crunch.
Posted by: Mark Espinola ||
07/12/2004 12:50:47 PM ||
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#1
I'm having a Lucky moment.
I'm conflicted on this one.
A report published on the internet on the Holy Al Najaf website indicates that Muqtada Al Sadr has bee Wounded. Sources close to Muqtada al-Sadr's Office have said that al-Sadr was stabbed with a knife by some of members of his office following a dispute that flared up between him and the members of his office over the issue of his jurisdiction. The office pointed out that he [Al-Sadr] does not have the right to hold contacts with political leaders, movements, or currents, and that he is not entitled to make any decision without consulting with the members of the office.
That's very interesting. A public admission he's a puppet? Do those members of his office happen to speak Persian as their primary language?
The stab wound [he received] was due to contacting [Prime Minister] Iyad Allawi and some politicians in Baghdad without obtaining the approval of the members. The report claims that his injury is not serious.
JERUSALEM (AP) - Prime Minister Ariel Sharon on Monday invited the moderate Labor Party into his shaky coalition, and warned rebels in his Likud Party that he'll call early elections if they try to block the partnership. An alliance with Labor would boost Sharon's plan to withdraw from the Gaza Strip and four isolated West Bank settlements by 2005. Coalition hard-liners have been trying to sabotage a pullback.
Some sticking points remain in coalition negotiations, including wrangling over senior portfolios, particularly the job of foreign minister for Labor chief Shimon Peres. However, both sides said they expect a deal quickly.
The main threat to such a union appears to be coming from Likud hard-liners opposed to a Gaza withdrawal and senior Likud ministers who, fearing they'll lose their jobs, have threatened to stir a rebellion in the party. Sharon warned Likud legislators Monday that he'll call early elections if they make good on their threats. He told the legislators that he has no choice but to expand the coalition by bringing in Labor. "But if you don't want this or that, we can go to elections, that's the way it is," Sharon said. "I am saying this in the clearest possible way: This situation cannot continue."
The coalition talks were held as U.S. Mideast envoys were in the region to discuss the Gaza withdrawal plan. White House officials Elliot Abrams and Steve Hadley were to meet with Palestinian Prime Minister Ahmed Qureia on Monday and with Sharon on Tuesday, a U.S. Embassy spokesman said.
Sharon and Peres met privately for an hour Monday morning. Both sides said the talks had gone well. "He gave me a formal invitation to enter into negotiations to create a government including the Labor Party," Peres said at a meeting of Labor lawmakers. The party was expected to accept the invitation on Tuesday, setting the stage for negotiations to begin.
Sharon turned to Labor, which supports the Gaza withdrawal, after facing increasing opposition from far-right coalition partners and hard-liners in Likud. Defections have deprived him of his parliamentary majority. Many Likud hard-liners still oppose the union. "If the Labor Party enters the coalition it will bring a cancer into the Likud," said Uzi Cohen, a member of the party's powerful Central Committee. Senior Likud ministers fear for their jobs, particularly Foreign Minister Silvan Shalom. Finance Minister Benjamin Netanyahu also has expressed concern that Labor would hamper his economic reforms.
Peres said Monday that he would make a series of demands before joining the government, including resuming contacts with the Palestinians as the withdrawal proceeds. Despite their differences, officials from both sides said the main sticking point is what post Peres will fill. Peres, an 80-year-old former prime minister, wants to return to a position of power, while Sharon needs Labor to carry out the withdrawal. The two are the last members of Israel's founding generation still active in politics, and have been coalition partners before, despite their political differences.
Posted by: Steve White ||
07/12/2004 12:06:21 PM ||
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It's time for Likud to expel Sharon from the party. He seems to have concluded that concessions for Palestinians are the only way for him to stay in power. It's time Likud appointed Netanyahu the party leader.
EFL, Warning: Annoying pop ups at link.
When Justin Hunt first tried to join the Marine Corps, the recruiters didn't have a scale that could weigh him. So they simply estimated that he was more than 150 pounds above the maximum limit to join the service. Hunt, a hulking athlete then two years out of high school, didn't let that stop him. He worked out hard, changed his diet and shed the pounds so he could enlist. Now his family is trying to hold on to the memories of that hard-charging year as they grieve for the 22-year-old lance corporal who was killed in an explosion Tuesday in western Iraq. "I want everybody to know what a great guy he was," his mother, Debbie, said as friends and relatives comforted her at the family home in Wildomar, a community about 75 miles east of Los Angeles. We know, and thank you.
Posted by: Dragon Fly ||
07/12/2004 10:49:03 AM ||
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Iraqi interim President Ghazi al-Yawer has threatened to use a "very sharp sword" to fight insurgents and anyone else threatening the security of the country. "Terrorism isn't just killing and blowing up bombs, whoever threatens the ordinary life of the people is a terrorist," Yawer told reporters during a meeting with Defence Minister Hazem Shaalan and National Guard Brigadier General Muther al-Rashardi.
The country has been wracked by violence since the fall of Saddam Hussein's regime nearly 15 months ago. Foreign and local insurgents have launched numerous attacks on Iraqi civilian targets and against US forces in attempts to thwart the country's postwar reconstruction, killing US troops and hundreds of Iraqi civilians. "We have a very sharp sword ready for anyone who threatens the security of this country," Yawer said. "We want to tell anyone who wants to threaten the security of this country: 'Enough,' I say, 'Enough. Stop.'"
Yawer said the roughly 160,000 coalition forces led by the United States were required to stay in the country because of the danger posed by the insurgents, but violent groups should not use this as an excuse to continue attacks. "Those who claim they are resisting the occupation, the occupation is over now," he said. Security officials also sought to reassure Iraqis they were trying to restore order. Al-Rashardi said the national guard has divided the capital, Baghdad, into eight sections to make it easier to control and ensure security there. "We have very big plans to follow this up," Shaalan said. "We are ready to sacrifice ourselves for our people."
Hurry, please.
Yawer, a prominent Sunni whose position is largely ceremonial, said the government planned to announce an amnesty soon for some of the insurgents in the coming days. When the amnesty expired, however, he would work for the death penalty to be reintroduced here. Capital punishment was suspended during the US occupation. Under the previous regime of Saddam Hussein, some 114 offences could garner the death penalty. Yawer said the death penalty would be restricted to serious crimes, such as murder and rape, under the new government.
Posted by: Steve ||
07/12/2004 10:12:02 AM ||
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#1
I hope the Iraqi government is going to bitch-slap those fuckers hard. I also hope we get to help.
#2
Only if we help from the air in AC-130s... let the Iraqis take the risk. We've done enough and it's time for them to shoulder the burden... unless they need us.
#3
Yawer, a prominent Sunni whose position is largely ceremonial, said the government planned to announce an amnesty soon for some of the insurgents in the coming days.
This whole idea of an amnesty for their current situation is all so stupid. The only result of it would be to put certain undesirable elements in a position to become possible vanguards of a future insurgency. "Sleepers", by any other name.
In April, with anger swelling at the US occupation and a Marine-led assault on the Sunni city of Fallujah, thousands of Shiites provided assistance to their Iraqi brothers in the city. Adnan Feisal Muthar filled up his truck with food and drove it to Fallujah to help residents rendered homeless by US bombing. His uncle and two of his sons donated blood for the wounded. "We wanted to help the people there,'' says Mr. Muthar. "They were Iraqis and they were suffering."
But the city west of Baghdad is no longer a sympathetic rallying place for a unified Iraqi resistance. It is now seen as run by intolerant and exclusivist Sunni imams who are seeking to turn it into a haven for Al Qaeda ideologues. Fallujah is emerging as a symbol of the disparate nature of the overall insurgency inside Iraq. Many Shiites, like the Muthars, have stopped supporting it. Since two of Muthar's brothers and four of his cousins - all members in a family trucking cooperative - were tortured and murdered in the resistance stronghold three weeks ago, he's changed his mind about how the US handled Fallujah. "They should have done whatever it took to take that place over,'' Muthar says. "It's been left in the hands of people who call themselves Muslims but they're not. They're simply inhuman."
Posted by: Stephen ||
07/12/2004 1:03 Comments ||
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#4
You guys are underestimating what's happening in Iraq. The Iraqis will take care of the Fallujah problem themselves. Al Queda has no future in Iraq and they already know it.
#5
That's what I think, too. I think Allawi is going to bring the heavy lumber in right around the time of the election -- not because of election timing, but just because it's going to take a few more months for Fallujah to ripen.
Posted by: Steve White ||
07/12/2004 1:23 Comments ||
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#6
Isn't it also the blast-furnace heat, uber-sandstorm time of the year there?
Give Allawi 3 months to recall and re-assemble the 4 divisions and 1 special ops brigade he wants, then retrain and re-equip them (With US help), and then set up US air and artillery support for the Iraqi ops.
Early to mid Oct - perfect weather, fighting over by the end of Oct, and a big defeat for Zawqari and company. Probably kills od Sadr in the process. Only US troops involved are FACs and spotters, and maybe a few operators for quite dash and grab missions.
#8
Al Queda is finished in Iraq, and so are the Baathists. Ever since Fallujah, and especially since June 28, they are in a defensive posture, which is what they are worst at.
The Iraqis have learned first hand that Al Queda is no friend of civilized people. That's an extremely important lesson. This is one very positive consequence of Bush's Strategy to make Iraq a central part of the War on Terror. If we continue on with this strategy, helping Iraq to become a nation with representative democracy, we cannot fail in the Middle East. Because everyone else will get it: we ARE the good guys, not the turbans.
The sad thing is that the carpers, whiners, and fingerpointers that make up the anti-Bush crowd may succeed in pushing him out of office. I don't think John-John has the stomach to fight this war, which is why he is so very dangerous.
#9
This matter has been brewing for several weeks now. Al Qaeda do not make nice bedfellows. The weak-kneed Fallujah Brigade is way over-matched. This cancer will have to be removed in mass.
After the April seige, the terrorists were confined to the north and northeast sector of Fallujah, but now they are widespread.
Posted by: Capt America ||
07/12/2004 1:58 Comments ||
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#10
When Muslim terrorists feud, their non-Muslim targets die. It happened during the "intifada" competition between al-Fatah and Hamas. Given that the followup to a murder of an American in Iraq, is an immediate celebration by locals - covered by al-Jihadzeera - an appropriate counter-terror response would be to drop 5 or 6 500 pounders on the party area (after the bodies of the fallen are removed, of course).
#11
I don't think the Iraqi armed forces will be ready to clean up Fallujah by Oct or even Nov.
What will have to be done is to first cordon off Fallujah from the rest of Iraq, second, cordon off the lawful parts of Fallujah from the jihadi parts of Fallujah, third, cordon of the passive residential parts of jihadi Fallujah from the virulent parts of jihadi Fallujah, fourth, take bite after bite of what's left.
#12
USAtoday has good article on fighting in Ramadi. Ramadi is just as big as Fallujah, is the prov. capital, and is filled with ex-Rep Guard officers and ex-Iraqi Intell. "Ramadi must not fall" Marines have lost 30 dead, 175 wounded there, but have killed 400 of the enemy. Marines hold center, govt buildings, but since handover have left some of the toughest neighborhoods.
My armchair guess at strategy
1. Offer amnesty, try to strip away the less commited insurgents, clear the ground for the attack.
2. Marshall forces and tools - the new emergency rule bill, the best of the Iraqi forces, and the coalition forces.
3. First target restore as much security in Baghdad as feasible, given that Al Anbar hasnt been addressed yet.
4. Focus on other areas of Al Anbar first - clean out Ramadi, and villages between Baghdad and Fallujah. Isolate Fallujah, and reduce possibility of counter siege, before attacking Fallujah.
#13
Since two of Mutharâs brothers and four of his cousins - all members in a family trucking cooperative - were tortured and murdered in the resistance stronghold three weeks ago, heâs changed his mind about how the US handled Fallujah. "They should have done whatever it took to take that place over,ââ Muthar says. "Itâs been left in the hands of people who call themselves Muslims but theyâre not. Theyâre simply inhuman."
HAAAHAHAHAHAAAHAHAHAHAAAHAHAHAAAA!!!!!!!
The guy's tune-changing aside, I just can't manage any sympathy for this scumbag's obvious poor judgement that ended up needlessly costing the lives of his relatives. The real injustice, as I see it, is that Muthar's still alive.
1:51 pm PST, 11 July 2004
The Israeli Prime Minister, Ariel Sharon, says a bomb explosion that killed an Israeli in Tel Aviv occurred under what he called the patronage of the International Court of Justice. The court has ruled that the barrier Israel is building through Palestinian land in the West Bank was illegal and should be dismantled. Mr Sharon says that ruling encouraged last night's bombing, which was the first in Israel since March. And he reiterated his position that Israel absolutely rejects the International Court of Justice's ruling, saying it was one-sided and politically motivated.
Posted by: Mark Espinola ||
07/12/2004 12:25:49 AM ||
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Even though Sharon is right, the ICJ will never admit it.
Posted by: Charles ||
07/12/2004 8:30 Comments ||
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#2
So... how will the ICJ rule on the deliberate targetting and murder of innocent civilians?
The group led by suspected al Qaeda ally Abu Musab al-Zarqawi has said it carried out an attack in Iraq last week that killed five U.S. soldiers and two Iraqis. "On Thursday one of the lions of Islam from the 'martyrs' squadron' entered a citadel of the American forces and the so-called National Guard in Samarra, completely destroying it," the statement from Zarqawi's Tawhid and Jihad Group said.
Every time they say stuff like "lions of Islam" I squirt coffee out my nose...
The statement, posted on an Islamist Web site Sunday, said the Jordanian-born militant's group pounded U.S. and Iraqi forces with mortars when they rushed to the scene, and claimed a much larger death toll than that given by U.S. officials. The U.S. Army said Thursday that five U.S. soldiers and two Iraqi guards were killed in a mortar attack on the Iraqi National Guard headquarters in Samarra, north of Baghdad. It said 18 U.S. soldiers and four Iraqi guards were also wounded in the attack, in which mortar fire severely damaged the National Guard building, which is also used by U.S. troops.
Posted by: Dan Darling ||
07/12/2004 12:18:57 AM ||
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#1
The sooner this butcher's death wish is fulfilled in the form of a toe tag, the better for our troops, those of the Coalition and Iraq as a nation trying to rebuild itself from the years of Saddam.
Posted by: Mark Espinola ||
07/12/2004 0:24 Comments ||
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#2
The sooner this butcher's death wish is fulfilled
Too late. The ball is in the Iraqis' court, but they haven't learned to play yet.
Posted by: Rafael ||
07/12/2004 0:53 Comments ||
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#3
A mortar attack becomes a triumphant march into the "citadel of American forces" and it's "completely destroyed." Yeah. Zarqawi is such a dimwit. He can't help but take credit for a minor attack, one in which, by the way, he kills Iraqis. That's sure to get him in tight him to the home folks.
Sympathies to the families of the brave men who died because of this asshole.
Sooner, not later, someone is going to give the right people the right tip...and Zarqawi is vaporized, probably in Fallujah.
#6
How can it be the Iraqi Resistance when it is composed of foreign fighters? Oh, logic and truth are not your point. Well, quit typing and rush to join your brothers in arms.
Posted by: Don ||
07/12/2004 8:36 Comments ||
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#7
Presumably Anonymous also regards the Iraqi police as occupying forces. What a moron.
#13
Glad to see you may it past the drano antiwar!
I'm hearing the US crusaders are getting ready to start attacking kindergartens again and will most likely use mewling kittens to bring their innocent targets out in the open.
We know how you feel about kindergarteners... how do you feel about kittens?
Wash times today, indicates that US troops withdrew from Sammarra, and that Iraqi National Guard has been reluctant to challenge insurgents cordon, so Sammarra (or at least much of it) has effectively been in hands of (Baathist) insurgents. Within last couple of days US movement into Sammarra faced insurgents mortars, lost 5 Americans, insurgents attacked (no casualty numbers given) City is apparently currently be contested, as well as Baquba, and Ramadi.
#15
Nuke Mecca and Medina will rid us of this Moslem problem. Moslems are stupid as their prayers are not answered and they live in darkness praying to a God that does not exist. What morons!!!
#16
Destroying Mecca and Medina will prove that Islam is a false religion with Allah being a false god to these people. It is just another cult. Possibly one of the most violent threats to world peace. Everyone should read the Koran to see how much hate it teaches to kill Christian and Jews. This war is not going to stop for many years as the Moslems breed like flies by there treatment of women like breeding mares. They are causing their own hardship and misery by over population in arid lands putting more strain on very limited water and food supplies. The Palestinians are probably the worst at breeding like flies to cause their own misery blaming it on the Israelis. Stupid hypocrites! Then there is Arafat - a greedy terrorist/murder leading a hate filled people thinking he is so great while pocketing a billion dollars for himself. Give me a break! Many moslems say they will drive Israel into the sea. Well ignorance is bliss! Moslems are one of the least tolerant people in the world. They can only exist by themselves. The people of Europe are now learning this truth, especially in the Netherlands where the population is now 5.5 percent moslems. Many of these men are brainwashed by a belief you go to heaven by being a murder. How outlandish! This type of belief can only be stamped out by using a very strong hand to crush and kill such monsters. Hunt down terrorists killing them and taking no prisoners to let them fight another day. Until that attitude is taken this terrorist war is going to last many years. Because this hate is taught to the moslem children year after year creating the next generation of killers by studying the Koran. The only solution is to destroy there so-called holy cities to prove their little god Allah is a hoax like so many other world cults are. Only Hebrew God/man Yashua is the only Real God who created the universe and all things known by his Greek name Jesus along with his father Yahweh. Moslems are taught from the Koran that Yashua/Jesus is only a prophet and will kill you to say he is God. Many Jews think the same way!!! The United States military men were so humiliated by the Saudi government when not allowed to bring Bibles into Saudi Arabia during the first Gulf War with U.S. politicians so weak minded that they put up with such intolerant heathens as the Saudis to protect their asses from Saddam. The teachings coming from the Koran must be defeated or the world will be destroyed by this hate filled false religion out of Saudi Arabia. The Imans (religious leaders) fan the coals of hate constantly there. Until they are stopped this war will continue. The Israelis know how to deal with Arabs. The only way is with a strong hand, because moslems have no ability to forgive once wrong with their eye for an eye mentality. The only solution is kill all the men as was done in ancient times by the people of Israel. This taking of hostages is the same tactics used in ages past by them. They are simply brutal people filled with hate and jealousy blaming the west for all their ills.
Posted by: Truth ||
11/08/2004 1:28 Comments ||
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#17
Its about time someone said something worth reading like the big article above. So many Moslem men are assholes. God damn their souls! The women are not much better. Intolerant Intolerant Intolerant of other religions. Not much different than the Catholics during the Middle Ages. To much power corrupts.
Four Russian servicemen and two Russian police officers were killed in attacks and land mine explosions in rebel Chechnya over the past day, an official in the Moscow-backed Chechen administration said Sunday. Two soldiers died and eight were injured when Russian positions came under rebel fire, the official said, speaking on condition of anonymity. Another two soldiers were killed and three injured when their armoured personnel carrier hit a mine near Roshnichu in the Urus-Martan region. Another truck hit a mine near Argun, killing two police officers and wounding eight, the Chechen official said. Russia shelled suspected rebel positions in the Itum-Kale and Shali regions, and federal forces detained 150 people for further checks on suspicion of aiding the rebels, the Chechen official said.
Posted by: Dan Darling ||
07/12/2004 12:13:41 AM ||
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The amiable former Islamic teacher says he and his thousands of followers want to rid Bangladesh of bloodthirsty leftist rebels and gangsters but authorities say the man is a dangerous fanatic. Bangla Bhai, a bearded Muslim in his early 30's, who some reports say was a follower of Osama bin Laden in Afghanistan, has risen from nowhere to become one of Bangladesh's most notorious men in a matter of months. Originally Bangla Bhai -- a nickname meaning Brother of the Bangladeshi people -- and his followers were welcomed and quietly supported by police, who have for decades been unable to eradicate the rebels. But police soon realised he was out of control and dangerous.
#6
Bangladesh sits right in the crotch of the Bay of Bengal. Most of the land is of low elevation, so when a typhoon roars in, the land becomes a saline or brackish reservoir, being that it is at the logical end of the typhoon's path. And as an added feature, at no additional cost, many of the water wells are high in arsenic.
Posted by: Alaska Paul ||
07/12/2004 19:28 Comments ||
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Iraq's national security adviser said Sunday unconventional weapons material might have gone to neighboring states in the war and Jordanian militant Abu Musab al-Zarqawi is probably trying to get some. Mowaffaq al-Rubaie also said the Iraqi interim government had approved the transfer of all radioactive material in its possession to the United States, but said he could not be sure more material was not hidden inside Iraq by Saddam Hussein. Rubaie did not provide any evidence that unconventional weapons materials had crossed the border, or of attempts by militants to acquire them in Iraq.
Artillery shells found by Polish troops in Iraq in June contained the deadly nerve agent cyclosarin, the Polish army said last week. "Just imagine if these weapons of mass destruction or any of these capabilities of making a dirty bomb or a chemical weapon or anything like this, if it falls in the hands of Zarqawi's gangsters and Zarqawi's people and these global terrorists or Saddam's former regime, what will happen?" he said. "I have no shadow of doubt that..., with his evil mind, he (Zarqawi) will try to acquire these unconventional weapons," he told a news conference.
Asked if unconventional weapons material may already be in the hands of Zarqawi or others like him, Rubaie said: "We don't know. We have no intelligence information on that." But he said "many mistakes" were made in failing to secure sensitive sites after the U.S.-led war that toppled Saddam.
Rubaie said the transfer of about 1.8 tonnes of low enriched uranium and almost 1,000 radioactive sources to the United States involved everything collected in Iraq. But he said he could not be certain Iraq was free of weapons of mass destruction. "Whether he (Saddam Hussein) has smuggled these through the borders during the conflict of last year, whether he has hidden these weapons of mass destruction... we don't know," he said.
Rubaie said there were indications that some unconventional materials had crossed borders into neighboring states, and said Iraq would seek to have it returned if so. "There are some indications that these (unconventional materials) have gone that way during the conflict and immediately after the conflict," he said but gave no details.
Posted by: Dan Darling ||
07/12/2004 12:00:30 PM ||
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#1
There are reports that Zarqawi has started building a nuclear plant in Falluajah !
#2
If you have something that refutes this article, then say so. If you have something to say that adds to our understanding of this, then say so. Otherwise you contribute to this site about as much as Islam contributes to civilization and human advancement: nothing, but instead lives on the work and plunder of better societies, much as you do with Fred's bandwidth.
Posted by: ed ||
07/12/2004 6:53 Comments ||
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#3
You know Anony, you're really not. Given a reason and enough motivation, any Anony can be tracked. And the amazing thing is that players like you keep leaving tracks for future hunters to follow. Just hope that 'cause' never happens to motivate enough people to clean house. As Mom once said, people may think you're stupid, but you only have to open your mouth to remove all doubts.
Posted by: Don ||
07/12/2004 8:41 Comments ||
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#4
How is that possible? I read in MSNBC that there were no WMDs.
Posted by: Tibor ||
07/12/2004 15:22 Comments ||
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A multi-volume chronology and reference guide set detailing three years of the Mexican Drug War between 2010 and 2012.
Rantburg.com and borderlandbeat.com correspondent and author Chris Covert presents his first non-fiction work detailing
the drug and gang related violence in Mexico.
Chris gives us Mexican press dispatches of drug and gang war violence
over three years, presented in a multi volume set intended to chronicle the death, violence and mayhem which has
dominated Mexico for six years.
Rantburg was assembled from recycled algorithms in the United States of America. No
trees were destroyed in the production of this weblog. We did hurt some, though. Sorry.
