A terrorism suspect arrested in Britain this week was in Internet contact with a U.S. Navy reservist and had detailed information about the sailor's San Diego-based battleship carrier group, including its classified travel plans and its vulnerability to attack, British and American prosecutors said Friday. Babar Ahmad, a 30-year-old college employee arrested by British authorities Thursday, was described as a cousin of suspected Al Qaeda member Mohammed Naeem Noor Khan — whose recent arrest in Pakistan triggered a spate of terrorism alerts last weekend in New York, New Jersey and Washington.
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Posted by: Dan Darling ||
08/10/2004 12:57:07 AM ||
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One reason the retired sailor has not been charged with conspiracy is that investigators have not directly tied him to the e-mail exchanges, a senior military official said Friday on condition of anonymity.
Or maybe he was just a plant sending out "death to America" breadcrumbs to see how many rats would come up from the sewer.
Posted by: B ||
08/10/2004 10:36 Comments ||
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Another Queens, NY Pakistani arrested today in NC...
Posted by: jawa ||
08/10/2004 22:24 Comments ||
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Brazil has created a new police unit and will increase river and air patrols in its border region with Argentina and Paraguay to combat drugs and arms smuggling, federal police said on Monday. The United States has pushed Brazil to step up security in the Tri-border area, which has a large Arab community and is known for smuggling as well as money-laundering. Brazilian and Paraguayan police are adamant that the region's 12,000-strong Muslim community does not harbor militants, a view which U.S. authorities have come to accept. However, they suspect that funding is raised there for Islamic militants.
Posted by: TS(vice girl) ||
08/10/2004 12:44:53 AM ||
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But the pro-Kurdish MHA news agency reported receiving a telephone call claiming the bombings in the name of a Kurdish rebel group. "A person who called our agency and presented himself (herself) as an activist from the Kurdistan Freedom Falcons organization claimed responsibility for the acts in Istanbul which claimed two lives," the Germany-based agency reported. The caller said the attacks were carried out in retaliation for "recent operations in Kurdistan and the execution of Kurdish guerrillas," MHA said.
Contacted by AFP, the agency said the caller did not specify whether the group was linked to the outlawed former Kurdistan Workers` Party (PKK), which has waged a bloody 15-year campaign for self-rule in southeast Turkey. The PKK, now known as KONGRA-GEL, ended a five-year unilateral ceasefire with Ankara on June 1.
The two almost simultaneous explosions occurred at around 2:00 am in hotels in two tourist districts in the heart of Istanbul, Turkey`s biggest city, blowing out windows and starting fires. "For the moment everything is pointing to a terrorist attack," Istanbul police chief Celalettin Cerrah was quoted as saying by the Anatolia news agency shortly after the blasts. A Turkish and an Iranian national, staying at the Pars Hotel in Laleli, were killed and 11 others, all but one of them foreigners, were injured. The second targeted hotel, the Star Holiday, is located in the Sultanahmet district, near two of Istanbul`s top tourist attractions, the Blue Mosque and the Hagia Sophia Church. Woken by the explosions, half-dressed guests were seen running out from one of the hotels carrying their suitcases. An hour later two more bombs went off at a major liquefied gas storage site in Esenyurt, in Istanbul`s outskirts, causing damage but no casualties. A small fire was quickly put out.
"I can comment on the organization (behind the blasts) only after the laboratory examination of the explosives is completed ... No organization has been ruled out," Interior Minister Abdulkadir Aksu told reporters. He hinted, however, that the blasts might have been caused by Kurdish rebels, adding that the Istanbul police had recently arrested four suspected Kurdish militants.
Posted by: Dan Darling ||
08/10/2004 2:53:59 PM ||
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An Islamic website carried a claim for deadly explosions in Istanbul signed by the Al-Qaeda-linked Abu Hafs al-Masri Brigades and warning of more such attacks in Europe. "The Abu Hafs Brigades have carried out the first of a series of operations that will be launched in the face of European states...and the upcoming attacks will be more violent," said the statement posted on the website Tuesday. It said the strikes were ordered after "all European states rejected the truce offered by our sheikh," Al-Qaeda terror group chief Osama bin Laden.
I'd add salt, Abu Hafs tends to claim a lot of stuff.
Attacks targeting tourist hotels and a gas complex killed two people and wounded another 11 in Istanbul on Tuesday. "The bitterness that Muslims are tasting in Iraq and Palestine will be tasted by everyone living in Europe, in Istanbul, Rome and the rest of the countries that are following the policy of the United States," the statement said. A subsequent statement "will disclose the way the mujahedin (fighters) arrived at the site (of the bombing) and how they succeeded in planting the bombs and get away safely," it said.
They're waiting to find out so they can boast how clever they are.
It was the latest in a series of warnings attributed to the Abu Hafs al-Masri Brigades before and after the expiry of Bin Laden's truce offer on July 15, directed notably at Italy but also including Britain and Bulgaria. In a taped message broadcast by the Dubai-based Al-Arabiya television on April 15 the Al-Qaeda chief offered peace to European countries that refrained from aggression towards Muslims and pulled their troops out of the Muslim world within three months from its announcement. European leaders promptly dismissed the offer, saying the idea of negotiating with bin Laden was absurd. The Abu Hafs al-Masri Brigades claimed responsibility for the March 11 train bombings in Madrid, which killed 191 people, as well as for November 2003 bombings in Istanbul that killed 25 people.
Posted by: Steve ||
08/10/2004 11:36:51 AM ||
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Bombs have exploded at two small hotels and a gas plant in the Turkish city of Istanbul, killing two people and injuring at least nine.
We had a bit on this last night. This adds detail...
Two men, an Iranian and a Turk, died at the Pars Hotel in the Laleli district and the injured include Chinese, Dutch, Ukrainian and Turkmen citizens. The Pars received a warning by phone but had only 10 minutes to react. No group has claimed responsibility for the attacks in a city where Kurdish, Islamist and leftist militants are all active.
I don't recall any Islamist boomers ever giving warnings.
The latest blasts appeared "to be a terrorist attack," Istanbul police chief Celalettin Cerrah said, without giving further details.
How does he do it?
Four simultaneous suicide bombings by Islamist militants in Istanbul last November killed more than 60 people.
With no warnings
The Turkish government has also been on the alert for attacks by Kurdish separatist militants, who called off a cease-fire in June. Bombs went off at the two hotels at about 0200 local time. There were 37 guests staying at the Pars. The Laleli district is home to cheap accommodation and garment stores largely catering to East European tourists. The second blast hit the Star Holiday Hotel, in the main tourist area Sultanahmet, where 20 guests were staying. Streets there were strewn with glass and concrete. "There was a huge explosion and the glass started shattering," said Umut Akgul, who had been visiting a friend who works at the Star Holiday. Mr Akgul told AP news agency he ran to the back of the hotel and started to help tourists evacuate the building after the explosion, which ripped off the exterior walls of the top two floors of the hotel. An hour after the hotel blasts, two more bombs went off at a liquefied gas storage site in Istanbul's Esenyurt district. They caused some damage but a small fire was quickly extinguished.
Posted by: Steve ||
08/10/2004 8:52:46 AM ||
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Federal officials have charged a Pakistani citizen with immigration violations and said Tuesday the man was detained last month after being spotted taking videotapes of downtown skyscrapers. scouting sites for minarets for the coming caliphate no doubt. Kamran Akhtar, 36, was arrested July 20 after being taken in for questioning by Charlotte-Mecklenburg Police Officer Anthony Maglione. Charges against him were contained in indictments unsealed in federal court Tuesday. Akhtar is charged with violating federal immigration and naturalization laws and making a materially false statement, according to a news release by U.S. Attorney Gretchen Shappert. U.S. District Judge Carl Horn ordered Akhtar held in federal custody at a brief hearing Tuesday morning in federal court; he had been in the custody of U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement. He was being held Tuesday at the Mecklenburg County Jail.
"Bubba, this here's yer new cellmate, Kamran!"
"He's got a turban."
According to Charlotte-Mecklenburg Police Chief Darrell Stephens, Akhtar told Maglione at the time of his arrest that he was making videotapes for family members. "yes. my family loves buildings. we just love them. so cuddly. so warm. so, um, buildingy. and they don't talk back. what's not to like?" Continued on Page 49
#1
...Don't know how many of you have ever been to Charlotte, but the business district downtown is extremely compact - pulling a building down there might bring a couple more with them.
Beginning to think now we dodged a bullet - imagine what a bunch of major financial buildings going down just before the election would have done...
Mike
Posted by: Mike Kozlowski ||
08/10/2004 14:28 Comments ||
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Posted by: Fred ||
08/10/2004 14:55 Comments ||
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Yup, they're aiming at banks and other financial institutions if they're casing Charlotte.
MARTA and other mass transit too, huh. Sigh.
Posted by: too true ||
08/10/2004 15:06 Comments ||
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Mass transit, hydroelectric dams, large financial centers ... boy howdy, aren't those the jumpin' tourist hotspots? Couple this with illegal entry, false statements regarding citizenship and origination from a major terrorist country, I SMELL TERRORIST! If it quacks like a duck ...
#6
Major financial institutions etc, MARTA etc. Nothing would freak out Mom and Pa America like 12 jihadis with WalMart bought weapons running amuck in a big mall with a plan. Witness the twerp killers in Colorado when the police sat and thought hard about what do to for 30 minutes. 12 or 14 committed jihadis could hold off the police force of most towns under the size of 200,000 for days.
One of the key conspirators behind the Bali bombing could walk free if an application made by his lawyer to a Jakarta court today is successful. The defendant, known as Idris, is on trial for his central role in the Kuta bombings and in the Marriott Hotel blast in Jakarta nine months later. Idris's lawyer today told his trial that a recent Constitutional Court ruling means the charges against Idris for the Bali bombing should be thrown out. The ruling found a section of Indonesia's anti-terror laws could not apply retrospectively.
"An' since there ain't no laws in Indonesia against conspiracy and murder, yez gotta let 'im go, see?"
This is the first time that the ruling has been raised in court in the defence of a terrorism suspect. Idris, who is also known as Joni Hendrawan, helped plan the Bali attack. He obtained the vehicles and properties used, trained the Sari Club bomber and detonated the smallest of the three bombs himself. He is likely to face a verdict before the end of the month.
Posted by: Fred ||
08/10/2004 4:11:36 PM ||
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Let's not forget how Indonesian lawyers who defended Amrozi (the "smiling bomber") turned around and refused to defend Idris because his Jakarta attack killed only Muslims. Evidently, slaying hundreds of infidels is perfectly fine, but killing less than a dozen Muslims is worthy of censure. These shysters need to have their credentials revoked as enemies of the court. They are incapable of providing unbiased counsel.
A new portrait of Al Qaeda's inner workings is emerging from the cache of information seized last month in Pakistan, as investigators begin to identify a new generation of operatives who appear to be filling the vacuum created when leaders were killed or captured, senior intelligence officials said Monday.
Using computer records, e-mail addresses and documents seized after the arrest of Mohammed Naeem Noor Khan last month in Pakistan, intelligence analysts say they are finding that Al Qaeda's upper ranks are being filled by lower-ranking members and more recent recruits.
"They're a little bit of both,'' one official said, describing Al Qaeda's new midlevel structure. "Some who have been around and some who have stepped up. They're reaching for their bench.''
Posted by: Dan Darling ||
08/10/2004 12:07:38 AM ||
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He appears to represent what authorities said was a different kind of Qaeda recruit, a convert to Islam who did not appear to have been trained in Mr. bin Ladenâs Afghanistan camps.
According to this bio, al-Hindi was born into a Hindu household but âreverted to Islam at the age of 20.â He fought in the disputed Kashmir region in the mid-1990s before returning to Britain. After writing the manual, it says, he went to Afghanistan for a year and became a âtrainer in one of the many Mujahideen training camps.â
Posted by: Paul Moloney ||
08/10/2004 1:02 Comments ||
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"New al-Qaeda leaders emerging"
Why do I get this flash of the hothouse scene from "Invasion of the Body Snatchers"?
#3
Sort of like the new Hamas leaders that emerge from time to time. Trying to keep themselves anonymous before a Hellfire missiles forces them to step down (way down).
From Khilafah, crediting Albawaba.com
Sudanese Foreign Minister Musstafa Osman Ismail said Israel was escalating the situation in the western area of Darfur, stressing that his country had information to confirm latest media reports that insurgents there were supported by Israel. Ismail, in a statement to reporters upon arrival in Cairo Sunday to attend an extraordinary meeting of Arab Foreign Ministers to find a solution to the Darfur crisis, said,
"I'm sure the next few days would reveal that there is lot of contacts between Israel and the rebels." Moreover, he said that Israel had recently sought seriously to involve itself in the Darfur issue either through its extensive presence in Eritrea or activities of its missions in the hot regions that emerged lately. ....
Posted by: Mike Sylwester ||
08/10/2004 11:12:39 PM ||
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U.S. forces have pounded Shi'ite militia from the air and ground in the holy Iraqi city of Najaf and used loudspeakers to urge the defiant fighters to surrender and civilians to get away from the battle zone. U.S. warplanes attacked militia positions at sunset near the city's ancient Shi'ite Muslim cemetery, as fighting raged for a sixth consecutive day between marines and gunmen loyal to radical cleric Moqtada al-Sadr, witnesses said on Tuesday. Plumes of smoke rose from the cemetery, where Sadr's Mehdi Army have dug in and stored caches of weapons. Marines have thrown a tight cordon around the cemetery and the Imam Ali Shrine but have yet to make a full assault on fighters holed up in the sites, a move that would enrage Iraq's majority Shi'ites.
The fighting is the toughest test yet for the six-week-old administration of interim Prime Minister Iyad Allawi, who is also struggling with a spate of kidnappings aimed at pressuring foreign forces and firms to leave Iraq. An Islamist Web site carried a videotape on Tuesday purporting to show the beheading in Iraq of a man identified as an "Egyptian spy" working with U.S. forces.
But in a relief for the cash-strapped government, Iraq resumed full oil production in its southern oilfields after quickly repairing a pipeline valve blown up on Monday by saboteurs, an Iraqi oil official said. The official said both export lines from the fields in the Basra region now were exporting. The closure of one of the pipelines on Monday sent world oil prices to fresh record highs.
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Posted by: Dan Darling ||
08/10/2004 2:52:41 PM ||
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I suppose it would be politically incorrect to clean up the cemetery with napalm...
Posted by: Tom ||
08/10/2004 20:02 Comments ||
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"We will not allow them to continue to desecrate this sacred site, using it as an insurgent base of operations. There will be no sanctuary for thugs and criminals in Najaf," Haslam said.
I like to see our Marines making those statements clear and concise. Compare that with Kofi Annan's and EUnics statements. We need to keep up the momentum in the Najaf operation and complete the job to send a message to the terrorists, thugs, and criminals in a language that they understand. I hope that we will be allowed to do this. Tater needs to be mashed, french fried, or flaked. End of story.
Posted by: Alaska Paul ||
08/10/2004 20:21 Comments ||
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Seems a waste not to use any of our MOABs . . . and the Sadrites have thoughtfully gathered themselves in a cemetary, making their subsequent burials more convenient.
This is why they need more time...
Sudan has carried out fresh helicopter attacks in Darfur, worsening an already desperate humanitarian situation, while Arab militia targeted refugees trying to escape the conflict, the United Nations said. "Fresh violence today (Tuesday) included helicopter gunship bombings by the Sudanese government and Janjaweed attacks in South Darfur. The violence has already led to more displacement," the UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA) said in a statement from Geneva. "Janjaweed attacks on internally displaced persons in and around IDP settlements continue to be reported in all three Darfur states," it added.
Civilians have previously said Sudan used helicopters and other military aircraft to attack villages in Darfur, but there have been fewer reports of such attacks since rebels and the Government signed a cease-fire in April. Under a joint plan agreed with the United Nations last week, Sudan said it would establish safe areas for the displaced and cease military operations by its troops and rebels there. Despite recent pledges to cooperate to end the humanitarian crisis the UN has called the worst in the world, the UN said the Sudanese Government has hampered access to hungry Darfuris by restricting relief flights and causing "major delays" in deployment of aid workers. The world body also said Sudanese authorities were pressuring traumatised refugees to return to unsafe villages.
Posted by: Fred ||
08/10/2004 4:05:30 PM ||
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What model choppers are the Sudanese military flying? Do we have any we could paint up as Sudanese and sneak into theater to "accidentally" target the Janjaweed? Might slow things down a bit...
#3
Under a joint plan agreed with the United Nations last week, Sudan said it would establish safe areas for the displaced...
I suppose that if you're dead already, you're safe? That's the logic. God help good-hearted people survive this moron government and its scum janjaweed.
Some would like to forget that it was the US that pushed the UN to put up or shut up when mouthing its positions on world crises. We knew the UN was made up of mealy-mouthed hypocrits when we pushed for our resolution on Iraq; we knew in our hearts that France, Germany, and Russia, among others, would betray us, and this is what gave Bush little incentive to woo them early on for support.They paraded themselves as humane partners, then buckled, relented, and allowed us to take a flat blade of betrayal across the face, leaving our soldiers with few to help them lift the heavy weight of changing the world for the better. Time passed and the world conveniently forgot that the UN buckled, and instead tried to make out the US as a rabid aggressor in Iraq, an imperialist hog for oil. But as time passed and that argument grew thin, old, and unproven, Darfur sprang up to remind the world that the UN is still spineless, rotten, pitted through and through. These people of Darfur will likely die, like the Rwandans and Bosnians before them, and the UN will posture on. We need to smelt down the UN and put a new, stronger metal in its place.
#4
THE GODDAMN WORTHLESS PIECE OF SHIT u.n. !!!!! Is there no end to the bullshit that emanates from that cesspool? Is there no end to the "goodwill" they bestow upon the helpless people of the world? Hell, with friends like the u.n., who needs enemies enemas?
Posted by: Halfass Pete ||
08/10/2004 17:44 Comments ||
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What model choppers are the Sudanese military flying?
This is what the Sudanese supposedly have for helicopters. Quantities are estimates, and half of these may be grounded.
10 Agusta Bell AO212 (Italian built - supposedly transport types)
12 ICA IAR-330L (Romanian-built Pumas)
20 MBB Bo105CB
6 Mil Mi-8T Hip
6 Mil Mi-24 Hind-D
The last two types may have been financed by Iran in the late 80s/early 90s.
From The New York Times
American forces [in Najaf] besieging militiamen of a rebel cleric in a shrine and cemetery sacred to Shiite Muslims tightened their cordon on Monday, United States military officials in Baghdad said, and they warned the rebels that they could not receive any outside support. .... While senior American military officials in Baghdad appeared confident that they had Mr. Sadr's forces in Najaf contained, officers and soldiers on the front line painted a different picture. They said that rebels move freely between the cemetery and Najaf's old city, and that American forces do not fully control the cemetery, which is three miles long and two miles wide.
In Baghdad, American military officials announced a curfew of 4 p.m. to 8 a.m. in the capital's Sadr City neighborhood, home to more than a million Shiites and, with Najaf, a center of support for Mr. Sadr. The measure, the most stringent of its kind in the 16 months since the country fell to the American-led invasion, appeared to be aimed at regaining some control over Sadr City from Mr. Sadr's militiamen and preventing the area from being used for rocket and mortar attacks on the American military and civil headquarters. Despite the curfew, rebels resumed their shelling on Monday night. ....
Brushing aside the fact that most of the rebels in Najaf, Nasiriya, Basra and Sadr City, the areas worst affected by the fighting, have worn the black trousers and shirts of Mr. Sadr's militia, the Americans have said repeatedly during the five days of renewed fighting that they, too, had doubts that the cleric was the instigator of the violence. But some American military officers have said that this presentation of the situation was a convenient fiction, propagated by the Allawi government and the American command to allow their forces to hunt down as many of Mr. Sadr's fighters as possible while exempting Mr. Sadr from any deliberate attack. During the uprising by Mr. Sadr's forces in April, American commanders said they intended to kill or capture him, but that threat was dropped out of fear that any harm to the cleric could touch off a still wider conflagration among Iraq's majority Shiite population.
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Posted by: Mike Sylwester ||
08/10/2004 8:29:23 AM ||
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Somone really needs to put a bullet into Tater. An Iraqi someone.
#4
Just like the NYT to miss the obvious. The Marines and Allawi have been playing Sadr and his goons like a trumpet. They are using the cemetery like they used the "industrial area" in Fallujah, as a non-residential area kill zone. You don't occupy it, you keep luring hard boyz in so you can whack them away from human shields--and shrines.
And by slapping fat boy with one hand while offering him a place at the elections is also a good tactic, expecting that dumbsh*t will respond the way he does, with arrogant, alienating and ridiculous demands that other Iraqis will look at and wince.
Tater will end up as the last of Tater's followers, the rest either captured or pushing up daisies, as an Iraqi copper steps through the door and slaps on the cuffs.
#5
moose: Spot on regarding how the military is using the cemetary. Perfect spot for a kill zone!
The Times is pathetic - so much so that I'm not sure if they simply missed it or willingly spun the situation in order to get a cheap shot in.
Posted by: Rex Mundi ||
08/10/2004 11:19 Comments ||
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this story is cowritten by John Burns, whos generally been pretty insightful, and willing to defy NYT editorial views.
It may well be that the USMC is using the cemetary as a kill zone, but since no one at the USMC seems to have said so, thats just speculation. Very good for a Rantburg commentary, but not necessarily something the NYT should be filing in a news story.
#10
FoxNews just interviewed one of those retired Generals who confirmed that the word is out that Iran has been providing funding for 35,000 insurgents in Iraq for several months - and given the $70M number we've heard in the past, I'd say that the numbers jibe.
He also said that the Coalition Mil Cmd, or the US component anyway, has figured out that the nice-guy approach in Fallujah was a huge mistake - and it will not be repeated. Additionally, Allawi / Gawar have accepted the fact that Tater & The Tots have to go. They cannot ever have peace with him, since he's an Iranian agent provocateur. He's been offered the olive branch, but he's chosen to listen to his Teheran masters - and the Iraqi Gov't realizes it can't have this shithead popping up every 2 or 3 months - it has to be solved.
So the gloves are off. No more negotiating. Sadr will be toasted in this campaign. Not a big surprise, but good to hear, nonetheless.
I predicate everything above on this Ret. General's words - so it may not happen exactly that way - but the evidence seems to clearly support him.
1 - The intensity of the prosecution of Sadr
2 - The "permission" of the Govt to include the Ali Moskkk
3 - Sistani's "medical" leave
These all seem to add up to the doom of Tater & The Tots.
Good riddance - to Tater -- and to the sniping know-nothing pussy shitwipes who second-guess everything and snidely presume to critique every action they deem questionable - and complain regards every non-action they deem essential. FOAD.
But I have no strong opinions about them, of course.
#15
Spokesmen for the United States command say they have explicit authority from Dr. Allawi to enter the cemetery, where they claim to have killed more than 360 rebel fighters, and to advance on the shrine itself, if that proves necessary to dislodge the rebels.
EMPHASIS ADDED
I posted a similar article the other day, and this is the best news of all. One is obliged to think that Allawi is sending a warning shot Iran's way with this move. Shi'ite Iran has the most to lose if the Imam Ali shrine is hosed. The blame will fall squarely on Sadr's (and thusly) Iran's own shoulders should harm come to the shrine while dislodging Iran's paid thugs.
I'd still like to see them hit the shrine with sleep gas or an inert unbreathable atmosphere and just suffocate the f&%kers where they stand. One tanker truck of CO2 would probably be enough to displace the entire building's air supply.
#16
These guys (they big names) will usually say nothing of value, especially in public. They should be taken dead as a general rule. That way the few we do take alive would be more motivated to sing, in private only.
Posted by: Mr. Davis ||
08/10/2004 17:10 Comments ||
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#17
I'd say the delay on Tater has worked out pretty well for us. His stupidities seem to have managed to discredit the entire idea of Shiite theocracy... And given Iraqis a little taste of how shitty things still could be without free government.
#18
Remarkable thing is that Sistani hasn't said jack about Tater. How convenient that he is out of town just now.
I have a feeling his "heart condition" (notice the lack of details) was very convenient to get him out of the country at just the right time, and give Tater enough rope to hang himself.
Then Sistani comes in and picks up the pieces and gets credit for "calming down" the Tater-tots and other rebels - and turns HARD against the Iranians (Sistani has no love lost on those guys - long animosity against bowing to Iranian mullahs).
Red clouds of sand rose from beneath the horses' flying hooves. Their riders, clad in white turbans and robes, tore past rows of ramshackle grass shelters, scattering frightened figures as they went. Moments later, the five horsemen disappeared over a low ridge. These were Arab militiamen from the Janjaweed, and their sweep through Riad refugee camp in Western Darfur yesterday was a crude attempt to intimidate their already terrified victims, mainly women and children.
This is why the women need to be trained to handle carbines.
Rest at link
Posted by: Anonymous5089 ||
08/10/2004 7:57:16 AM ||
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"Sudan has three weeks to show the UN Security Council that it is serious about disarming the Janjaweed or face possible sanctions. But the Janjaweed menacing Riad clearly feel they have little to fear."
Another genocide disturbance that could have been quelled quickly if the UN was something other than a large expense account for incompetents.
Posted by: B ||
08/10/2004 10:19 Comments ||
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#2
Help the Dafur refugees - send piano wire.
Posted by: Super Hose ||
08/10/2004 17:06 Comments ||
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Four men accused of organizing a suicide bombing that killed 19 people on a bus near the Mozdok military base went on trial Friday at the North Ossetian Supreme Court, Interfax reported. Ingush native Magomed Kodzoyev, 29, North Ossetian native Issa Iliyev, 28, Kabardino-Balkarian native Arkady Arakhov, 28, and Chechen native Rustam Ganiyev, 25, are charged with terrorism and murder in the attack, which was carried out by a female suicide bomber on June 5, 2003. If convicted, they face sentences of up to life in prison. The suicide bomber detonated shrapnel-filled explosives near a bus carrying soldiers and civilians to work at a military airfield in Mozdok. Investigators say Kodzoyev and Ganiyev decided in April 2003 to stage an attack against federal forces participating in the military campaign in Chechnya. The two then hired Iliyev and Arakhov and recruited the female bomber, they say.
Posted by: Dan Darling ||
08/10/2004 12:52:42 AM ||
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Even the most savvy news watchers could be hard pressed to keep up with the recent spate of al-Qaida arrests in Pakistan and Britain. It all began with an announcement on July 29 by Faisal Saleh Hayat, Pakistan's interior minister that after a firefight in Gujrat, Pakistani security forces had captured Ahmed Khalfan Ghailani, a suspected conspirator in the 1998 bombings of the U.S. embassies in Kenya and Tanzania. Immediately following this, Tom Ridge, the secretary of Homeland Security issued alerts against possible terrorist attacks on financial centers in New York, New Jersey and Washington. Soon after, the New York Times, quoting unnamed sources mentioned that this alert was based on an arrest a few weeks before in Pakistan of an al-Qaida computer expert named Mohammad Naeem Noor Khan. Simultaneously, British officials reportedly apprehended a major al-Qaida figure named Issa al-Hindi, as well as another man named Babar Ahmad, who is supposedly a cousin of the Pakistani computer expert Noor Khan. Five other British suspects of Pakistani descent reportedly absconded. While these arrests do represent a sizable blow to al-Qaida's network in Pakistan and Britain, they also bring to the fore the organic and symbiotic nexus between al-Qaida and the Pakistani jihadist groups.
Following a US FBI and CIA demand for interrogating one-hundred-and-forty-five Pakistan-based terrorists, the Lashkar-e-Taiba and three other jihadi groups are making hectic plans to ship out their high-ranking cadres to East Africa. After October this year, General Parvez Musharraf is expected to gain full control of the government, with the exit of generals opposed to him and his pro-US policies, and the LeT and other terrorist groups fear a largescale crackdown then, and are evacuating their top cadres abroad preemptively.
I'd like to see Perv carry out a serious crackdown, and I'm sure that he will at some point. Of course, I'm also convinced that when my general level of antiquity starts leading me into the toothless stage I'll have periodic visits by the Tooth Fairy, which will give me something to get by on in my old age...
The US list of the most-wanted LeT and other terrorists was handed secretly to Pakistan, but leaked by Mahmoud the Weasel pro-jihadi generals to the groups, although Western diplomats say, it could also be a US ploy to disperse the ultras crowded in the country to far-flung places so that their plans to attack the American mainland before the November presidential elections are disrupted.
Sounds a little too subtle for us...
"It is almost certain that the US would have known its most-wanted list would be leaked by the jihadi generals," said a Western diplomat, "so I would assume the US wanted to scare off the terrorists before they could create terror in the presidential elections. The 145 men may not even be the most wanted, but they wouldn't want to risk being arrested by US authorities."
Posted by: Paul Moloney ||
08/10/2004 2:03:08 AM ||
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#1
Cadres to East Africa ya say. Great food and wonderful hotels. The most interesting views in the world, some say.
An Islamic website said the militant group of al-Qaeda's alleged chief in Iraq, Abu Mussab al-Zarqawi, had claimed Monday's suicide bomb blast north-east of Baghdad. "One of the heroes of the Martyrs' Brigade struck this morning a group of policemen in Baquba, including the city's deputy governor, killing and wounding some of them," said the military arm of the Tawhid wal Jihad group (Unity and Holy War) in a statement. The authenticity of the statement could not be verified. Six Iraqis, including five policemen, were killed and 16 wounded, including a provincial government official, in the suicide car bombing on Monday near the restive city of Baquba, police said.
Posted by: Dan Darling ||
08/10/2004 12:15:49 AM ||
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Nearly 1,000 computer disks were recovered last week as part of a series of arrests in the United Kingdom of alleged al Qaeda operatives, U.S. government sources have told CNN. Both British and American authorities are analyzing the information in the disks for any potential clues to possible al Qaeda attack plans.
Among those arrested last Tuesday were Esa al-Hindi">Esa al-Hindi, who is described by U.S. officials as a senior al Qaeda operative and someone who personally conducted surveillance in 2000 and 2001 of buildings in New York and New Jersey. A law enforcement source told CNN there was an intense search going on in the New York area for anyone al-Hindi and two associates, who allegedly did reconnaissance with him, may have met while in the United States.
Officials said they are investigating whether Muhammad Naeem Noor Khan, recently arrested in Pakistan, also visited the United States to do reconnaissance. So far, they said, there is no proof but they are not ruling it out. Information gathered from the arrest of Khan, a suspected al Qaeda operative, led to the arrests in Britain, Pakistani officials have said.
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Posted by: Dan Darling ||
08/10/2004 12:13:29 AM ||
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Leaked for a reason, I'm sure. But why?
To our advantage or not? Some day a history will be written.
#2
Reference to the Lashkar-e-Taiba story. They ARE running for cover, according to it ... perhaps this was for the same?
*remembers the time when Joseph Pistone was paraded through the streets as an FBI agent -- albeit that was to protect him from the mob, by invoking the "no cop-killing" clause ... did get Sonny Napolitano killed though, which I don't recall anyone complaining about ...*
Posted by: Edward Yee ||
08/10/2004 3:17 Comments ||
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Nearly 1,000 computer disks...
Wow. They still have those?? Could've put everything on one cdrom.
Posted by: rafael ||
08/10/2004 4:05 Comments ||
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#4
leaked for a reason??? rofl, more like incompetence
#5
Do not denigrate the tools of the trade, young ones... All things have their purpose. Those that fail to grasp the essence of the Net suffer from their ignorance and are at the mercy of the initiated, both good and evil. Do not mock them, but pity them, for they are lost and unable to find the good pr0n.
I don't know which way to go on this, if this "leak" screwed the pooch thats bad, but if it's was intentional what would be the reason? 1000 disks might well be CD-ROMS.
As the man says "meddle not in the affairs of Dragons for ye are crunchy and taste good with catsup."
#10
I don't know which way to go on this, if this "leak" screwed the pooch thats bad, but if it's was intentional what would be the reason?
This thing sort of smells bad right from the get-go. So the Paks just happened to pick up a very well-placed jihadi who just happened to flip? That's not the sort of thing I'd expect from a religious idealogue even under extreme duress but who knows.
If we burned him on purpose I can think of a bunch of possible explanations, e.g.: Maybe the Paks' sting was inadvertently endangering some of our guys/operations. Maybe we're playing the odds on a promotion favorable to us. Maybe we're recruiting the guy by taking away his option to remain both alive and where he is now (clearly there's no going back for him at this point). Maybe a Taliban / al Qaeda friendly part of the ISI was running a "sting" that wasn't really a sting that needed to be shut down.
Or maybe somebody just screwed up. On the other hand, there are an almost infinite number of possible reasons we'd do something like this on purpose.
#11
Are we sure the new of this was "leaked" and that that was a bad thing?
How would the MSM (Main Stream Media) have reacted if we'd nabbed Mohammed Atta and all his plans for the 9/11 attacks before it happened? Hmmm?
I *so* do not trust the media like CNN which I call Chicken Noodle News.
#12
You guys would believe the Pakis on this? Pakis had been using him in a "sting?" While we're on the subject, I've got some prime beachfront property at a bargain price for you...
#13
Since the Paks busted him, I figure it was a race between those in ISI who wanted to pick up his contacts and Mahmoud the ISI Rat to alert them. No way it could have been kept a secret very long.
Posted by: Steve ||
08/10/2004 8:34 Comments ||
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Authorities believe about 990 of the disks are pirate copies of 'Doom 3', and five other are really lousy "screener" copies of the movie 'Collateral', starring Tom Cruise.
Maybe an operation was in the final stages and it was Go Time.
An announcement and full alert may have let *some* guys get away, but at the same time, it may have scared away the bad guys. Another plus, it may flood the network with calls like, "Hasan! They have caught KHAAAANN!!! We should hideout at the stripclub for Allan" More stuff that would identify or verify intel contacts.
I don't buy the story of an "unofficial" leak. They're usually done to sell a story or make a name. And in this case, they've done neither. Unless it was just a giant fubar on some intel staffer's part. Someone got drunk at a bar and *leaked*
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