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ETA head snagged in La Belle France
Today's Headlines
Headline Comments [Views]
Page 1: WoT Operations
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Caucasus/Russia/Central Asia
Russia nabs 25 Hizb-ut-Tahrir members
Nizhny Novgorod authorities have detained 11 men accused of being members of an extremist Islamic group that the Uzbek president claims inspired deadly attacks in Uzbekistan this year, officials said. The men, all age 25 or older, are accused of being members of Hizb-ut-Tahrir. The group, which originated in the Middle East and whose Arabic name means Party of Liberation, claims to disavow violence in its quest to create a worldwide Islamic state. It has been banned in Uzbekistan and Kyrgyzstan and since February 2003 in Russia, where it is branded a terrorist organization.

One of the suspects detained in Nizhny Novgorod by police and officers of the Federal Security Service, or FSB, is an Uzbek citizen, FSB officials said Friday, Itar-Tass reported. Some of the others are foreigners, Itar-Tass said. Authorities have opened a criminal case based on suspicion of terrorism, Itar-Tass quoted the FSB as saying, but it said officials were still trying to determine the intentions of the detainees and the location of any other Hizb-ut-Tahrir members. Interfax said they could face charges of instigating or aiding in terrorist crimes.
Continued on Page 49
Posted by: Dan Darling || 10/04/2004 1:13:57 AM || Comments || Link || [3 views] Top|| File under:

#1  "Misha get my pliers and a #8 trunchon."
Posted by: Sock Puppet of Doom || 10/04/2004 3:20 Comments || Top||

#2  "and extra propane for the blowtorch....think I'll start on that unibrow"
Posted by: Frank G || 10/04/2004 10:23 Comments || Top||

#3  Now now, let's not forget that an effective method of punishment...err interrogation is Dentistry...and we have all these students needing practice. Of course they don't need drugs for the pain, these are super tough jihadis. They laugh in the face of dental drills.
Posted by: Silentbrick || 10/04/2004 14:33 Comments || Top||


Europe
Terror suspect linked to freed Utrecht family
Claims surfaced on Monday that a terrorist suspect detained in Utrecht over the weekend is related to the Moroccan family arrested there late last month on suspicion they were in possession of explosives.
What are the odds of that happening, 90 - 10?
A spokesperson for the public prosecutor's office said the 30-year-old man was arrested on Saturday night and he is being questioned about the alleged movement and possession of explosives.
He is allegedly a relative of the Moroccan family arrested on the night of 26 September in the Bucheliusstraat in the city. The father, mother and their 19-year-old son were arrested in a high profile police operation. But they were released several days later and are reportedly no longer under suspicion.
Key word being "reportedly"
The couple's 17-year-old son told news agency ANP on Monday that the 30-year-old man arrested on Saturday is his uncle. The man, who lives in Belgium, was visiting the family on Saturday and was arrested when he left the family home. The 17-year-old is confident his uncle will be proven innocent, newspaper De Telegraaf reported.
"He's as innocent as we are.."
The prosecution has refused to confirm the claims and has not revealed the nationality of the man. Despite this, prosecution has confirmed the man is not a resident of Utrecht, Dutch public news service NOS reported. A decision will be made this week whether the man will appear before a judge, the prosecution said on Sunday. Meanwhile, a Rotterdam judge extended the remand in custody of a terrorist suspect by 10 days on Friday. The 37-year-old man was arrested in Utrecht also on 26 September. The man is also suspected of transporting and possessing explosives and his arrests stems from the same investigation that netted Saturday's suspect. The Moroccan family was also arrested as part of the same investigation. No explosives have been found in the family's house or the 37-year-old's home, newspaper NRC reported.
Posted by: Steve || 10/04/2004 2:25:03 PM || Comments || Link || [0 views] Top|| File under:

#1  you guys are jumping to conclusions. Look. He's Moroccan. Clearly, then, he's Muslim. As I understand it, he's required to posses explosives.
Posted by: PlanetDan || 10/04/2004 15:29 Comments || Top||

#2  Man I'm a worried about the collection plate in the mosskks. Got change for a fiver takes on a whole new meaning.
Posted by: Troon Snorong Shipman || 10/04/2004 16:28 Comments || Top||


Alleged Leader of ETA Is Captured in France
The alleged political leader of the armed Basque separatist group ETA and his partner were arrested Sunday along with 19 other accused ETA members during a police sweep in southwestern France, Spanish authorities said. Calling the raid "historic," Spain's interior minister, Jose Antonio Alonso, said it had netted Mikel Albizu Iriarte, 43, who he said has run ETA since 1993.

Mikel Albizu Iriarte was arrested with 20 other suspects. Albizu's partner, Soledad Iparraguirre, 43, is accused of involvement in at least 14 murders and is considered by authorities to be the highest-ranking woman in ETA. She is also suspected of collecting, managing and distributing money the group raises through kidnappings and extortion of businesses. The couple, who appear on wanted posters in government buildings throughout Spain, were caught with their son in a house they used sporadically in the French town of Salies de Bearn, authorities said. The 19 other people arrested were described by authorities as part of the logistical support network for the outlawed group.

Continued on Page 49
Posted by: Steve White || 10/04/2004 12:00:58 AM || Comments || Link || [5 views] Top|| File under:

#1  heh..heh ...if I were them - I'd claim responsiblity for the Madrid bombings - just to screw Anzar.
Posted by: 2b || 10/04/2004 0:08 Comments || Top||

#2  as someone of French Basque descent, I'm ashamed of the terrorism perpetrated in an ill-considered and futile attempt to achieve independence from France and Spain. With both countries being such pussies, terrorism isn't necessary, just good politics and strong local support
Posted by: Frank G || 10/04/2004 22:45 Comments || Top||


French Perfidy Fails Again
Brief followup to a story we've been following, source: Debka.
A failed scheme by Chirac to free two French hostages in Iraqi hands while using them to upset US-Syrian military cooperation to seal border against infiltrators — key to coming Fallujah offensive. Scheme was foiled by last Thursday's US air strike against Iraqi Baath convoy that turned out to be secreting the two French journalists to Syria...
A lovely story full of spy novel intrigue and the French screwing up again--a happy ending.
Posted by: Anonymoose || 10/04/2004 12:00:37 AM || Comments || Link || [1 views] Top|| File under:

#1  Just finished reading it. When are we going to have an operation on Chirac?
Posted by: 3dc || 10/04/2004 0:21 Comments || Top||

#2  It's Debka; salt to taste.
Posted by: Pappy || 10/04/2004 2:13 Comments || Top||

#3  I would love to believe it but I am on a salt restriced diet.
Posted by: Sock Puppet of Doom || 10/04/2004 2:33 Comments || Top||

#4  WTF? US-Syrian military cooperation?
Posted by: Spot || 10/04/2004 9:33 Comments || Top||

#5  US-Syrian military cooperation?

Parallel units patrolling along the Syria-Iraq border, perhaps.
Posted by: trailing wife || 10/04/2004 10:13 Comments || Top||

#6  I just read articles in Le Monde and Liberation re the trip by Julia and his entourage. He's a French MP of the UMP, which I believe is Chirac's party. According to the papers, he went on his own, thinking his contacts with syrian intel would be more productive than the official operation cell at the French embassy in Amman.

Long story short, apparently his private diplomacy has made everything a hash, and the hostage holders and French officialdom are perturbed. Nothing about the convoy.
Posted by: Chicago Mike || 10/04/2004 13:58 Comments || Top||

#7  Re-post of a posting by TGA yesterday:
#3 Oh THAT Philip Brett. A rather shady figure of French intelligence. He created the Office français pour le développement de l'industrie et la culture (Ofdic) which served as a pompous cover for introducing medium sized French companies in Iraq and all sorts of intelligence operations there. He seemed to have got along very well with Saddam's intelligence. He is a key figure in French-Iraqi relations, even during the embargo.

Something's VERY fishy here
Posted by: True German Ally 2004-10-03 3:40:59 PM
Posted by: lex || 10/04/2004 14:13 Comments || Top||

#8  This is more than meddling; it's pretty clear that Chirac is on the other side. Probably hoping for a ba'athist restoration and a humiliating US withdrawal. In other words, a Kerry victory
Posted by: lex || 10/04/2004 14:15 Comments || Top||

#9  Deep laid plots indeed...
Nothing is murkier than French intelligence operations.
Posted by: True German Ally || 10/04/2004 14:16 Comments || Top||

#10  TGA, any good online sources (not French media but blogs etc) for french intelligence doings?
Posted by: lex || 10/04/2004 14:18 Comments || Top||

#11  Not much... this is offline and Hushmail territory.
Posted by: True German Ally || 10/04/2004 15:35 Comments || Top||


Home Front: WoT
Alleged Shoebomb Conspirator Indicted
British terror suspect Sajid Badat has been charged with conspiracy and attempted murder in a U.S. indictment that links him to admitted "shoebomber" Richard Reid. The indictment was unsealed on Monday. The indictment, released at the U.S. Justice Department, alleges that Badat conspired to destroy an aircraft, conspired to commit homicide and attempted murder. Badat was arrested Nov. 27, 2003, in Gloucester, England, and has been held in a top security prison in Britain. He is set for trial there in February 2005 after pleading not guilty to an accusation of conspiring to place a potentially destructive device aboard an aircraft.

Reid, a follower of al Qaeda leader Osama bin Laden, was jailed for life in January 2003 in the United States after admitting to trying to blow up a transatlantic airliner using explosives hidden in his shoe. The indictment against Badat alleges he conspired with Reid to obtain shoebombs to attack American interests, "including, but not limited to bombing American aircraft in flight." Badat obtained his shoebombs in Afghanistan, the indictment said. The indictment noted that Badat's bombs were similar to those confiscated from Reid on Dec. 22, 2001, after Reid attempted to detonate custom-made explosives concealed in his shoes on an American Airlines Flight from Paris enroute to Miami. The plane was diverted to Boston and Reid was arrested there.
Posted by: Steve || 10/04/2004 4:01:07 PM || Comments || Link || [0 views] Top|| File under:


Southeast Asia
Indonesian jugs Jakarta boom mastermind
Indonesian police have arrested the alleged mastermind of a blast that killed three people at a McDonald's restaurant in the South Sulawesi provincial capital of Makassar in late 2002, an officer has told media. Islamic militant Agung Hamid -- who may also have a tie to last month's bombing at the Australian embassy in Jakarta -- managed to evade a police hunt for almost two years before he was nabbed in the central Java city of Yogyakarta on Sunday, Antara national news agency reported on Monday. Hamid cursed the United States and clenched his fist in the air on Monday when he was about to be transported to Sulawesi island, Jakarta-based news radio station El Shinta said.

South Sulawesi police chief Saleh Saaf told reporters Hamid might also have played a role in the September 9, 2004 bombing in front of the Australian embassy that killed nine people. "Agung Hamid is also being investigated over suspicions of involvement in the bomb because, from our information, he has communicated with Azahari, the Malaysian who is accused of being the brain behind several terror bombings in Indonesia," Antara quoted Saaf as saying.
Posted by: Dan Darling || 10/04/2004 9:36:54 AM || Comments || Link || [2 views] Top|| File under:


Down time...
Down time tonight was on the service provider end, not the server. Naturally, it had to fall while the debate was on. Sorry for the inconvenience...
Posted by: Fred || 10/04/2004 9:45:47 PM || Comments || Link || [0 views] Top|| File under:


Iraq-Jordan
40 Foreign Fighters Said Captured in Iraq
Iraqi National Guard forces have captured 40 foreign fighters in Samarra since reclaiming the central city from insurgents in a two-day assault with U.S. troops last week, Defense Minister Hazem Shaalan said in remarks broadcast Monday. Speaking to the Dubai-based Al-Arabiya satellite news station, Shaalan said the captives included Egyptians, Sudanese and a Tunisian. "They were handed over to coalition forces and after they are interrogated they will be handed over again to Iraqi forces," he said.

But he said "many" insurgents managed to escape from the city. "We could have killed more, but we wanted to liberate the city," he said. "We will fight them if they don't come back to their senses." The minister said foreign fighters constituted "a dangerous link" to rebel operations taking place in Baghdad and other areas of the country. The countries of the foreign suspects want them to stand trial at home, but Iraqi courts will "take part in the investigation and the verdicts," Shaalan said without providing details.
Posted by: Fred || 10/04/2004 9:18:16 PM || Comments || Link || [2 views] Top|| File under:

#1  "They were handed over to coalition forces and after they are interrogated they will be handed over again to Iraqi forces,"

Hmmmmmm decisions, decisions--Talk or else
Let's see here: I rather be questioned by the CF than handed over (never to be seen again) to the IF.
Posted by: Poison Reverse || 10/04/2004 22:12 Comments || Top||


Isn't this cute?
Today's banner from Arab News. Notice the cute way the "11" forms a Star of David as it spins into view...





Posted by: Fred || 10/04/2004 7:37:25 PM || Comments || Link || [0 views] Top|| File under:

#1  The 9 emerges from just under the US, and the 11 from Israel, too. And Bush looks like a chimp. And bin Laden like a secondary character to the aggressive Bush. And the pall from the Twin Towers blows across the whole as if to suggest a smokescreen...

Not very subtle, are they?
Posted by: Bulldog || 10/04/2004 20:09 Comments || Top||

#2  I think it is time to start considering the media as combatants. Pen/sword and all that.
Posted by: 2b || 10/04/2004 20:14 Comments || Top||

#3  I'm just changing my name and setter the cookie.
Posted by: Shipman || 10/04/2004 20:24 Comments || Top||

#4  Goebbels smiles from Hell....
Posted by: borgboy || 10/04/2004 22:07 Comments || Top||

#5  The banality of evil?
Posted by: Anonymous6092 || 10/04/2004 22:14 Comments || Top||


Afghanistan/South Asia
Latest wave of al-Qaeda leaders are Pakistanis
After leaving university, Atta-ur Rehman traded his jeans and T-shirts for a beard and cap, his civil-service aspirations for a martyr's spot in heaven. He used to spend his time playing cricket, but he is now in a Pakistani jail facing a death sentence on terrorism charges. Mr. Rehman, along with nine other "comrades," is charged with carrying out a deadly June attack against a senior Pakistani Army general in Karachi. The general escaped narrowly but 10 people, including seven soldiers, were killed. Rehman's circle call themselves Jundullah (God's Army) and have close ties to Al Qaeda. Most are young, educated men, whom Rehman allegedly sent to training camps in Pakistan's remote tribal areas.

Continued on Page 49
Posted by: Dan Darling || 10/04/2004 4:03:29 PM || Comments || Link || [2 views] Top|| File under:


Iraq-Jordan
Iraqi Sunnis threaten to start "great jihad"
The Islamic Theologians League of Iraq has threatened to declare "great jihad" in response to massive killings "perpetrated by the occupation troops in the cities of Falluja and Samarra." Muhammad Bashar al-Faydi, official representative of the League, said so at a press conference in Baghdad, the mass media reported on Monday. He described as massacre the combat operations, staged by the U.S. Air Force in those cities. He cited examples of unprovoked murder of children and old people. "Our impression today is that our creed and the very existence of the Iraqi nation are in jeopardy. The only thing left to us is to declare 'great jihad'," al-Faydi said.
New, improved "Great Jihad"! Now with more spittle!
The Islamic Theologians League of Iraq believes that severe repressions against the Iraqi population are aimed at "pacifying" the people during preparations for the elections, which are scheduled for early 2005.
Works for me.
"Iraqis will not accept the results of the elections, the road to which is paved with sculls and flooded with blood," said Muhammad al-Faydi. The Islamic Theologians League regards as "absolutely wrong" the reliance on armed force, displayed by the military, and threatens that the use of armed force will not help resolve the existing problems. Moreover, it will bring about irreparable consequences.
Posted by: Steve || 10/04/2004 11:45:17 AM || Comments || Link || [1 views] Top|| File under:

#1  The Islamic Theologians League of Iraq has threatened to declare “great jihad” in response to

this is also known as macro F5 in Islam
Posted by: mhw || 10/04/2004 12:05 Comments || Top||

#2  mhw - ROTFLMAO

I assume these guys took the same position on all those elections Saddam won.
Posted by: Matt || 10/04/2004 12:19 Comments || Top||

#3  “Iraqis will not accept the results of the elections, the road to which is paved with sculls and flooded with blood,” said Muhammad al-Faydi.

Was he breathing heavily, anticipating a meeting with virgins...

The Islamic Theologians League of Iraq
Posted by: BigEd || 10/04/2004 12:23 Comments || Top||

#4  do they have superpowers too?
Posted by: Frank G || 10/04/2004 12:26 Comments || Top||

#5  Do they row the sculls in the flood of blood?
Posted by: Classical_Liberal || 10/04/2004 12:29 Comments || Top||

#6  paved with sculls and flooded with blood

Gee, that sounds awful slippery. Gotta be an OSHA violation, or something.
Posted by: SteveS || 10/04/2004 12:29 Comments || Top||

#7  The Islamic Theologians League of Iraq

League?

Soccer - Basketball - ICE HOCKEY? HA HA HA
Posted by: BigEd || 10/04/2004 12:31 Comments || Top||

#8  paved with sculls...

Can you imagine all the people on their hands and knees digging out the gold from teeth...

A new cottage industry - Neighborhood Gold Broker
Posted by: BigEd || 10/04/2004 12:34 Comments || Top||

#9  Anyone up for the Great Crusade and Payback? Just read that jihad is great for the economy, then why shouldn't a Crusade be even more lucrative? All that untapped wealth and all those untapped virgin daughters just going to waste in the middle east. Though Americans are first in line for payback, there are more deserving folks in need of your wealth. There are millions of unemployed Sudanese, Congolese, Nigerians, and other Africans who have undergone genocide by the hands of muslims for hundreds of years. And they also deserve a little vengeance and booty. Hell, Sierra Leone alone has a huge untapped potential for chopping off hands, heads, etc. All the booty and muslim women they can carry away. Are you up for the game mullahs?
Posted by: ed || 10/04/2004 12:57 Comments || Top||

#10  life was so much better when i went sculling. OTOH kayaks are cool, too.
Posted by: Liberalhawk || 10/04/2004 13:32 Comments || Top||

#11  "The only thing left to us is to declare ‘great jihad’"

Oh, shut up.
Posted by: Dave D. || 10/04/2004 13:38 Comments || Top||

#12  "The only thing left to us is to declare ‘great jihad’"

So, that would be a great spiritual enlightenment through peaceful inner struggle?
Posted by: jackal || 10/04/2004 13:43 Comments || Top||

#13  Headline: Iraqi Sunnis threaten to start “great jihad”

You mean what they're currently doing isn't already a great jihad? It seems to me that if they have to start threatening to do it, they've pretty much done all they can.
Posted by: Zhang Fei || 10/04/2004 13:54 Comments || Top||

#14  Is Sean Connery the head of this thing? Kind of sounds like the Leauge of Extraordinary Gentlemen.
Posted by: anymouse || 10/04/2004 14:02 Comments || Top||

#15  "New, improved "Great Jihad"! Now with more spittle!"

Very, very funny. Nice work Steve.
Posted by: rjschwarz || 10/04/2004 14:28 Comments || Top||

#16  I think the women of Iraq are the only ones getting what they want. Less stupid Iraq men.
Posted by: plainslow || 10/04/2004 14:50 Comments || Top||

#17  Iraqi Sunnis threaten to start “great jihad”

What is needed is assembly line efficiency. Line 'em all up from Fallujah to Samarrah, and we'll drop them as they march in. Deal?
Posted by: Bomb-a-rama || 10/04/2004 16:07 Comments || Top||

#18  They're threatening jihad?

What the hell do they call what they're doing now? Afternoon tea?

Morons.
Posted by: Barbara Skolaut || 10/04/2004 17:52 Comments || Top||

#19  Great Jihad™: meet Great JDAM.

I sure wish that I knew Arabic and all its nuances. It would be a hoot to read their stuff before translation to get the full flavor (blech!) of their rants.

Then I could write better fatwas, if I was so inclined.
Posted by: Alaska Paul || 10/04/2004 18:48 Comments || Top||

#20  Of course, all this is published by Tass which ranks somewhere between the National Enquirer and Debka for accuracy. Before I started reading Rantburg I was blissfully unaware that self-parody was an Arab art form.
Posted by: RWV || 10/04/2004 18:57 Comments || Top||

#21  "Before I started reading Rantburg I was blissfully unaware that self-parody was an Arab art form"

If that is so, it must be well developed on a subconscious level only. Them Arabs are seriously serious.
Posted by: Memesis || 10/04/2004 19:05 Comments || Top||

#22  "great jihad” in response to massive killings

Son, you ain't seen massive killin's....Yet.
Posted by: whitecollar redneck || 10/04/2004 21:31 Comments || Top||


MARINES CAPTURE FOREIGN FIGHTERS IN AL ANBAR
Marines from Regimental Combat Team 7, 1st Marine Division, captured three foreign fighters Sept. 29, near Al Qaim. One Palestinian and two Syrians were taken into custody along with other local anti-Iraqi militants during the raid on a safe house near the Syrian border. In a related incident near Ar Ramadi Oct. 3, Soldiers from 2nd Brigade Combat Team, currently attached to the 1st Marine Division, discovered more than $350,000 in U.S. currency, more than $250,000 in U.S equivalent currency from 15 countries and several passports during a routine vehicle search.
Posted by: Steve || 10/04/2004 10:09:42 AM || Comments || Link || [0 views] Top|| File under:

#1  Shoulda shot the guys dead and relieved the Iraqi government of the burden of feeding these lowlifes.
Posted by: Bomb-a-rama || 10/04/2004 10:27 Comments || Top||

#2  Maybe I am thinking this because I used to be a member of the lower-wage military. But why can’t the military take a cut out of each cash cache they find. Split it down the middle with the Iraqis and then spread it amongst the troops stationed in Iraq. Call it hostile fire pay plus or a finders fee. At the end of your tour you get a cut of the money confiscated from terrorists. This would be prorated (downward) based on rank and proximity to the live fire. So a Private E-1 grunt patrolling Fullujah would get more than a REMF Captain in the supply depot. The bonus would only cover the time for which soldiers were on the ground in Iraq, relative to the money taken in. Like I said I am biased and think that these troops deserve any break or financial incentive we can give them.
Posted by: Cyber Sarge || 10/04/2004 11:07 Comments || Top||

#3  Amen, what an idea, Sarge! I'm sorry to say that I never thought of it!
Posted by: Edward Yee || 10/04/2004 11:09 Comments || Top||

#4  CS,
I agree, but the liberals will raise an uproar.
They will say, the money should go Mercedes driving-food stamp recipients here in the U.S.

Oh....the humanity, if the soldiers receive some extra money.(snicker)
Posted by: Poison Reverse || 10/04/2004 11:16 Comments || Top||

#5  i assume the money is going to the Iraqi govt.
Posted by: Liberalhawk || 10/04/2004 11:25 Comments || Top||

#6  Not all of it man.
Posted by: Oddball || 10/04/2004 11:34 Comments || Top||

#7  Imagine the local outrage if American soldiers raided a mosque and put mosque funds in their own pockets. Any money captured should not go to the people doing the raiding. Using the money to rebuild the local community is far wiser.

I agree our soldiers should receive better rewards for dangerous duty. These rewards should be paid for by a grateful America.

I also support more research to help veterans who have been crippled. With advanced biotech the lives of some vets could be significantly improved. We owe it to them.
Posted by: Anonymous5032 || 10/04/2004 11:49 Comments || Top||

#8  A5032, I was wondering when some tofu-eating liberal weenie would suggest that our troops would pull some 'Kelly's Heroes' type raid against a holy site. Where would you get some basis for a theory such as that? Where have our troops EVER done anything approaching what you describe? Only a liberal would think about sacking a church for funds, not anyone I served with. FYI, the goverment does the best they can for us (veterans) and this veteran has no complaints. And if I did, I would bring them up to the Goverment and not whine to some liberal wonk that wants to belittle whomever just happens to be sitting in the White House. Oh and BITE ME!
Posted by: Cyber Sarge || 10/04/2004 12:19 Comments || Top||

#9  just ask Oddball
Posted by: Frank G || 10/04/2004 12:25 Comments || Top||

#10  I am not familiar with military history, but the British employed a similar scheme on the high seas (privateers). Professor Dan Benjamin and Chris Thornberg published one of their analyses of this system in Explorations in Economic History. Interestingly, it disappeared around the age of steam. But, in brief, one does not want soldiers doing what has the highest private dollar payoff, but what has the highest military value.
Posted by: Curt Simon || 10/04/2004 12:56 Comments || Top||

#11  "Dinking some wine, eating some cheese, catching some rays...."
Posted by: Yosemite Sam || 10/04/2004 12:59 Comments || Top||

#12  Only a liberal would think about sacking a church for funds, not anyone I served with.

Sings: Im henry the eigth i am, im henry the eigth i am.
Posted by: Liberalhawk || 10/04/2004 13:00 Comments || Top||

#13  temporary spelling disability?
Posted by: Liberalhawk || 10/04/2004 13:01 Comments || Top||

#14  In the Sunni areas of Iraq, Wahabbi clerics instigate violence, recruit local fighters, and provide training and funding. Weapons, bomb making supplies, and funds are kept in some mosques. Iraqi troops under US supervision are raiding mosques in Samarra this week looking for such caches. (An Iraqi mosque is not an American church and a Wahabbi cleric is not a Baptist minister. Cultures are quite different.)

Make it US policy that soldiers can keep captured booty and stories about “sacking a church for funds” will be spread and believed. That will mean fewer locals willing to point out the bad guys. And that will mean more US soldiers dying. Spread those same funds in a local rebuilding effort and more locals will aid the US.

Cyber Sarge, you keep fighting and I’ll applaud your efforts and thank you. However, I’m glad you aren’t setting US military policy.

(As for my being anti-Bush…I hope you are better able to distinguish friend from foe during a firefight.)
Posted by: Anonymous5032 || 10/04/2004 13:26 Comments || Top||

#15  we three kings be stealin' the gold
Posted by: FWTB-DLTR || 10/04/2004 13:36 Comments || Top||

#16  "Dinking some wine, eating some cheese, catching some rays...."

"No negative vibes, man"
Posted by: Steve || 10/04/2004 14:02 Comments || Top||

#17  what is with this "capture" shit?! You Iraqi? No? Bang.
Posted by: Grorong Jorong5743 || 10/04/2004 14:42 Comments || Top||

#18  "Woof, woof, woof! That's my other dog imitation."
Posted by: Robert Crawford || 10/04/2004 15:40 Comments || Top||

#19  ...and the Phrench think sKerry is DeGaulle.
Posted by: Rex Mundi || 10/04/2004 15:46 Comments || Top||

#20  Hell, I'd settle for DeGaulle in a heartbeat in leu of j Fn K
Posted by: Shipman || 10/04/2004 16:39 Comments || Top||

#21  I think there might be a return for certain part of Saddam's prisons, but only for foreigners caught in combat like that. Its a rumor that Allawi is getting set to declare a lot of civil rights for Iraqis that are captured, but foreign Jihadis will have no rights, and may be disposed of in the field by Iraqi units.
Posted by: OldSpook || 10/04/2004 22:08 Comments || Top||


21 killed in Baghdad car boom
Insurgents exploded two car bombs at the gates of the main U.S.-Iraqi headquarters in Baghdad and near major hotels Monday, killing at least 21 people and wounding 96. In Fallujah, U.S. warplanes struck what the military called terror hideouts, killing 11, according to doctors who said women and children were among the dead.

The two car bombs ripped through central Baghdad streets about an hour apart. In the first explosion, a four-wheel-drive vehicle packed with explosives detonated outside the heavily fortified Green Zone, the seat of the U.S. Embassy and key Iraqi government offices, Interior Ministry spokesman Col. Adnan Abdul-Rahman said. Yarmouk Hospital received 15 bodies and 81 wounded from the explosion, said Sabah Aboud, the facility's chief registration official.

Continued on Page 49
Posted by: Dan Darling || 10/04/2004 9:41:32 AM || Comments || Link || [2 views] Top|| File under:


Afghanistan/South Asia
4 hard boyz toes up in tribal areas
Pakistani troops on Monday killed four foreign militants believed linked to Al Qaeda after skirmishes in which five troops were injured near the Afghan border, the military said. "Four militants have been killed in an exchange of fire with security forces early Monday," military spokesman Major General Shaukat Sultan told AFP. "Security forces have captured two bodies of miscreants, while they saw miscreants dragging the two bodies while escaping. The miscreants killed are believed to be foreigners," he said, without giving their nationalities.
Posted by: Dan Darling || 10/04/2004 9:32:24 AM || Comments || Link || [3 views] Top|| File under:

#1  4 less cockroaches crawling around.
Posted by: anymouse || 10/04/2004 12:24 Comments || Top||


Iraq-Jordan
Abu Maysara al-Iraqi is Zarqawi's spokesman
He calls himself Abu Maysara al Iraqi, and he's a master at being everywhere and nowhere in the virtual world, constantly switching his online accounts and taking advantage of new technologies to issue his communiques to the world. American Internet sleuths know next to nothing about him, whether Abu Maysara is his real name, whether he's an Iraqi or even whether he's in Iraq. What is clear is that he is one of the most important sources of information from the country's insurgency, getting his message out through the Internet. His updates, terse and businesslike, are released several times a week on radical Islamic Web sites. Acting as a spokesman for Abu Musab al-Zarqawi, the most wanted guerrilla leader in Iraq, he variously reports attacks on U.S. soldiers and killings of hostages. His words and images reach millions of people when they open their newspapers, turn on their TVs or go online. "There's no way of stopping it anymore," said Evan Kohlmann, a counterterrorism consultant. "It's extremely frustrating. They can send out quality videos to millions of people uncensored."

The Bush administration finds itself in a propaganda war, trying to promote a picture of security and progress in Iraq. But Abu Maysara's Internet communiques convey another image. Abu Maysara declared in a Sept. 19 posting that he issues his reports so that his perspective "does not become lost in the media blackout that America imposes in order to deceive its people and its allies." The Internet has emerged as a prime tool of Islamic radicals. They use its anonymity to coordinate operations secretly and to get their message to the public sphere with little fear of detection. Half a dozen U.S. agencies have assigned teams to monitor sites that carry postings from Abu Maysara and other radicals. The Justice Department has tried, with limited success, to use the authority of the USA Patriot Act to shut down Internet sites that carry such postings, on grounds that they incite violence. The government's aggressive pursuit of Web hosting services, as well as the people who post the material on them, has led civil liberties groups to protest that security initiatives are impinging on free speech. Another problem is that U.S. legal authority stops at the borders. Many of the sites with the target postings are located in other countries, so American officials must depend on the good will of foreign governments to shut down the sites.
Continued on Page 49
Posted by: Dan Darling || 10/04/2004 1:24:32 AM || Comments || Link || [2 views] Top|| File under:

#1  Come on you guys and gals.. Get the bugger. You did it regards CBS and Rather. This shit should be easy. The Nerd name is at stake here. Go to it!!
Posted by: Dave || 10/04/2004 9:36 Comments || Top||


US, Iraqi forces victorious in Samarra
Bloodied by weeks of suicide bombings and assassinations, Iraqi security forces emerged Sunday to patrol Samarra after a morale-boosting victory in this Sunni Triangle city, and U.S. commanders praised their performance. American and Iraqi commanders have declared the operation in Samarra, 60 miles northwest of Baghdad, a successful first step in a major push to wrest key areas of Iraq from insurgents before January elections.

But locals were angered by the civilian death toll.
Let the seething commence!

Continued on Page 49
Posted by: Dan Darling || 10/04/2004 1:21:34 AM || Comments || Link || [3 views] Top|| File under:

#1  To mis-quote Colonel Whats-his-name at Omaha Beach:

"There's only two kinds of people in Fallujah - those that are dead, and those that are gonna die."

Get out now. Walk if you have to. Go to the roadblocks and be processed through. Fallijah is a tougher nut than Samarra, and it will be treated harsher before it's pacified. Leave now, or take your chances.
Posted by: mojo || 10/04/2004 1:35 Comments || Top||

#2  The media should replay what the wonderful people of Fallujah did to Americans, and keep showing it. How soon so many forget.
Posted by: Mark Espinola || 10/04/2004 1:38 Comments || Top||

#3  We've learned our lesson: We MUST completely, and unequivocably, destroy all resistance. Failing to do so will inevitably lead to a real "quagmire" No negotiations and absolutely no interest in the caterwauling of the defeated. Screw them. The locals will ALWAYS be angered. That's not the point.

We don't care if they're angry. All we care about is that they are frightened to death of what will happen if they continue to resist. That's all they understand. That's all ANYONE "resistance" movement ever understands.
Posted by: RMcLeod || 10/04/2004 3:12 Comments || Top||

#4  Aunty Beeb was screaming 'massacre' and baby ducks this morning but little is featured on their website. I notice there have been no pictures on British T.V. of the battle for Samarra or its aftermath - Good. We need the same in Fallujah - complete press black-out and hit it extremely hard.
Posted by: Howard UK || 10/04/2004 5:43 Comments || Top||

#5  RMcLeod: We've learned our lesson: We MUST completely, and unequivocably, destroy all resistance.

I think you're missing the point. We cannot take a city until we have reliable Iraqi troops available to garrison the place. Fallujah failed, but it was a useful experiment because it provided an answer to the question of whether we could rely on former Iraqi army troops to garrison Iraqi cities - the answer was no. It does not make sense for Americans to garrison these cities because we don't have the manpower to do this and fight the insurgents at the same time.

In South Vietnam, it was always South Vietnamese forces that acted as garrison troops while US forces sought out the enemy. Locals are far better at distinguishing between friend and foe. Garrison troops also take a lot of casualties. South Vietnam lost 250,000 troops compared to our 58,000.
Posted by: Zhang Fei || 10/04/2004 11:56 Comments || Top||


Africa: North
2 GSPC killed in Algiers
Two Islamic militants were killed and two policemen seriously injured in a rare gunbattle in central Algiers on Sunday afternoon, security sources said. The sources said rebels suspected of belonging to the al Qaeda-aligned Salafist Group for Preaching and Combat (GSPC) fired with automatic weapons on a police patrol in the city before escaping. State radio said army anti-terrorist units tracked down the militants, who had taken refuge in a building in the poor Belcourt district. "We're relieved. We wiped out two terrorists," said a policeman at the scene. Several officers and one civilian were injured. Rebel attacks have significantly fallen in the North African country in recent years but usually intensify ahead of the holy month of Ramadan due to start this month. "Special security measures will be implemented during Ramadan to counter any terrorist threat," a security source said. "There is a belief among terrorists that killing during the holy month of Ramadan gets you closer to God," the source said.
As if they need an excuse.
Almost 50 security force members and civilians were killed by rebels in September, the source said.
Posted by: Dan Darling || 10/04/2004 12:47:59 AM || Comments || Link || [2 views] Top|| File under:


Israel-Palestine
Israel Targets Hamas Leader in Missile Strike
Israeli aircraft fired two missiles early on Monday, targeting a Hamas military leader east of Gaza City, medics and witnesses said. Witnesses said the air strike on the militant stronghold of Shijaiya targeted the senior Hamas figure as he stood in a street near a mosque with another militant. Medics at Shifa Hospital said two militants were in serious condition undergoing surgery. The Israeli army declined to comment.
Whadaya wannem to say, "We missed."?
Posted by: Mrs. Davis || 10/04/2004 7:24:04 PM || Comments || Link || [0 views] Top|| File under:

#1  Try again.
Posted by: Mark Espinola || 10/04/2004 1:33 Comments || Top||

#2  All is no lost. He can still die on the table. Can I get an Amen for Pali quack medicine?
Posted by: ed || 10/04/2004 6:32 Comments || Top||

#3  Veggies wouldn't be that bad either.
Posted by: Memesis || 10/04/2004 6:42 Comments || Top||

#4  To the other ed...All is not lost. He can still die on the table. Can I get an Amen for Pali quack medicine?

To Quote Dr Loveless from the movie, "Wild, Wild West";
Even when we lose a lung, a spleen, a bladder, thirty-five feet of small intestine, two legs, and our ability to reproduce all in the name of the south, do we EVER LOSE OUR SENSE OF HUMOR?!
Posted by: BigEd || 10/04/2004 11:58 Comments || Top||

#5  I vote for sepsis....and group A Streptococcus
Posted by: Frank G || 10/04/2004 12:24 Comments || Top||



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Two weeks of WOT
Mon 2004-10-04
  ETA head snagged in La Belle France
Sun 2004-10-03
  Arafat calls on world to end Israeli campaign in Gaza
Sat 2004-10-02
  109 Terrs Killed in Samarra Offensive
Fri 2004-10-01
  IDF force with 100 tanks enters northern Gaza
Thu 2004-09-30
  Sudan's Bashir accuses U.S. of backing Darfur rebels
Wed 2004-09-29
  Baghdad terr snagged with women's underwear on his head
Tue 2004-09-28
  Johnny Jihad Appeals for Early Release
Mon 2004-09-27
  Hamas: Arab State May Have Helped in Syria Killing
Sun 2004-09-26
  French national killed in Saudi Arabia
Sat 2004-09-25
  Sudan foils Islamist coup plot
Fri 2004-09-24
  Maskhadov sez Basayev should be tried for Beslan
Thu 2004-09-23
  Noordin Mohammed Top not in custody
Wed 2004-09-22
  Spiritual leader of al-Tawhid killed
Tue 2004-09-21
  2nd US Hostage Beheaded in Two Days
Mon 2004-09-20
  Afghan VP Escapes Bomb


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