The Rantburg editorial staff is pleased to invite the Rantburg community to the Inaugural Rant-a-Palooza!
Date: Saturday, January 22
Time: 1 p.m. 'til last call
Where: Chinatown, downtown Washington DC. Exact name of watering hole to be provided later.
Metro: Chinatown-Gallery Place on Red/Yellow/Green lines
We'll raise a glass to "four more years of tax cuts and dead terrorists." Then we'll raise a glass to the best damn website in the Blogosphere. After that, it's up to you!
Fred, myself, and Dan Darling will be attending, and I'm waiting to hear from Dr. White. Steve sends his regrets, and says the first round's on him.
Please email me at seafarious@yahoo.com to let me know if you're coming, or leave a note in comments. If you want to come in from out of town, let me know.
Thanks and we are looking forward to meeting you!
UPDATE: Dr. White informs me that he will be "washing his hair" that weekend and thus will be unable to attend. He has promised to send a life-size cardboard cutout of himself for photos.
#1
Nice! That's walking(er...stumbling)distance from my shoebox apartment. I have a date to attend W's inaugural ball, but perhaps I'll stop by before in my tux to class up the joint.
#6
There is (or was a couple of years ago) a really cool Irish pub in Chinatown. It was supposedly moved brick-by-brick over the Atlantic. I'll try to get the name of it, it's pretty big, might be a good spot.
#7
If the fates allow, I may be in Northern Virginia at that time, and if so, I will definitely down more than a few with the lot of you. Just promise to call a cab for me (dont want to wreck the rental I'll be driving).
Posted by: Rafael ||
12/20/2004 18:31 Comments ||
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#10
I already posted this in the O'club... I may be going to Texas between ex-mas and New Year's; if anyone's interested in any meetings or anything during that time period let me know.
Posted by: Phil Fraering ||
12/20/2004 18:31 Comments ||
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#11
Don't say anything to the old lady, but I'll be there for certain.
Posted by: Mr. Davis ||
12/20/2004 18:34 Comments ||
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#12
Mum's the word, Mr. D, mum's the word.
Rafael, we'll have to run it past Homeland Security, of course, and make sure that your I.C.E. registration is up-to-date, but with a one-month lead, a ladder to get you over the Friendship Fence, and a nice bouquet of flowers, it shouldn't be a problem. Insh'allah.
#17
You stole me thunder, Fred! That was the question I was going to ask, but I was posting a detailed missive on apathy in another article.
Posted by: Alaska Paul ||
12/20/2004 19:54 Comments ||
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#18
I'll be there unless I have to work that night. I work for the White House Military Office and we get tapped for a lot of folks for this event as you can imagine.
#19
Krimeney! I take the kid to Cub Scouts, come back, find out you guys are having a party and have invited that two timing, no good scoundrel Mr. Davis. And then Fred suggests he bring that brazen hussy Gentle. Well! I hope she brings her other sugar daddy, Murat, along and they install sharia in that bar. It would serve you infidcels right!
Posted by: Mrs. Davis ||
12/20/2004 20:55 Comments ||
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#20
Heh. A bar that operates under sharia dicta. No fried pork rinds for you!
Is old Mr. D up to date on all his child support obligations, alimony, palimony, conditions subsequent to a duly executed contract, or other such things? Do you need a declaratory judgment, an injunction, or will just money damages do? Remember, even if the heart balm laws are all out of favor, we can still âget âem!â
As for RB, it is sooooo hard âbeing thereâ for __both__ sides of a warring couple. Iâm sure no harm was meant . . .
#25
My broken wrists should be able to lift a pint by then.
Posted by: Billy Hank ||
12/21/2004 0:42 Comments ||
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#26
If the fates allow, I may be in Northern Virginia at that time, and if so, I will definitely down more than a few with the lot of you. Just promise to call a cab for me (dont want to wreck the rental I'll be driving).
#27
If the fates allow, I may be in Northern Virginia at that time, and if so, I will definitely down more than a few with the lot of you. Just promise to call a cab for me (dont want to wreck the rental I'll be driving).
Two Kuwaiti men were jailed on Monday for conspiring to forge hundreds of passports in what New Zealand police said was the biggest fake document operation they had ever seen. Fahad Jaber Ajeil, 29, found guilty on 14 charges at trial in October, was given a five-year sentence in the Auckland District Court. Riyad Hamied Sultan, 30, who was cleared of 16 charges by a jury but found guilty of conspiring to commit forgery with Ajeil, will go to jail for two years, Radio New Zealand reported.
You want forged passports done right, hire a Pakistani.
At trial, police said they found hundreds of false passports and other doctored travel documents relating to 17 countries in October 2003 when they raided an Auckland apartment occupied by the pair. The prosecution named a third man, Dr. Salam Abu-Shaaban, as being involved in the conspiracy, and defence lawyers for the two accused men claimed he was the mastermind in the passport operation. The jury took nearly four days to reach their verdicts, after the defence claimed the pair were innocent stooges in a plot that was directed from Kuwait.
"Lies! All lies!"
Posted by: Steve White ||
12/20/2004 12:31:00 AM ||
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#1
So Salama Dama Ding Dong Shaaban walked? The "mastermind"? Lol - and that's after the second one was nailed only for conspiracy? Yeah, they're stooges, alright. In more ways than one.
#6
The Mossad? Why? Story from a couple of months ago, two Israelis got busted for trying to get some New Zealand passports. NZ's Dear Leader Helen got her tits in a uproar, declaring it was a Mossad plot.
Posted by: Steve ||
12/20/2004 11:55 Comments ||
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#7
How come the Anzacs don't call out the Kuwaiti government like they did Israel over the Mossad agents with NZ passports. Again the double standards are nauseating.
TWO Albanian hijackers who held 23 passengers hostage on a bus in Greece apologised to the Greek people in court today, saying it was a "stupid act", a judicial source said. The two gunmen appeared before an investigative magistrate who ordered they be imprisoned until their trial. "Their actions are condemned not only by society but also by me personally," lawyer Stefanos Lyberopoulos, defending one of the men, said after the hearing. Lyberopoulos said his client, Leonard Murataz, had repeatedly apologised for his actions which were caused by what the gunman said were psychological problems. "He is very sorry for what he has done. I believe that the time he will spend in prison will help him to come around and realise the dimension of the wrongful action he committed," Lyberopoulos said, before police drove the two handcuffed men to Athens' top security Korydallos prison. Murataz's accomplice, Elton Resulaj, who had no legal representation, told the magistrate he apologised to all Greeks and Albanians.
"He told the magistrate he wanted to apologise to Greeks and the hundreds of thousands of his fellow Albanians living in Greece for what he said was a stupid act," a judicial source told Reuters.
Apology accepted. Now back in the hoosegow.
Posted by: God Save The World ||
12/20/2004 4:10:08 PM ||
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#1
If every Albanian in Greece would give me just 10 percent of their paycheck I can get these guys off and return to the investors a solid 50 percent on their principle. Or of their principal, which ever comes first.
An Islamic militant facing treason charges denied allegations at the opening of his trial Monday that he masterminded a failed plot to crash an airplane into the mausoleum of the founder of secular Turkey.
"Nope."
"Wudn't me."
Metin Kaplan, dubbed the "Caliph of Cologne" by his supporters, told the court that Islam opposed terrorism and that he was not involved in any kind of terrorist activity.
"Certainly not."
"I am a Muslim ... no Muslim can be a terrorist ... Islam means peace," said Kaplan who also quoted excerpts from the Quran about peace.
"Moose limbs are by definition not terrorists, no matter what they do. Everybody knows that."
Including this little tidbit: "Islam cannot be dissociated from politics," Kaplan told the court. "If there is an Islamic state, you have to protect it -- otherwise you have to create it. It is a mission of any Muslim... to propagate Islam," he said.
"Islam is all about pieces, er...peace, Yer Honor"
The court adjourned the trial until April 4, 2005. By that time, new amendments in the Turkish penal code will go into effect and Kaplan's lawyers are hoping for lighter punishment if he is convicted. EU requirements for scaling back torture -n- death penalty stuff snipped.
No connection has been established between Kaplan's group and the Sept. 11 attacks. But German investigators have said that some members traveled to Afghanistan to meet with supporters of alleged mastermind Osama bin Laden in 1996 or 1997. Turkish authorities allege Kaplan plotted in 1998 to fly an explosives-laden aircraft into Mustafa Kemal Ataturk's mausoleum, which covers an entire hilltop in Ankara, when thousands of officers, students and foreign dignitaries would be visiting the site for a ceremony marking the 75th anniversary of the founding of the secular republic. They say the plot was foiled when Turkish police arrested 23 suspected members of Kaplan's group the day before the ceremony.
And no doubt gave them Dove Bars and jellybeans until they 'fessed up...
Kaplan, flanked by paramilitary police, told the court that allegations against him were based on testimonies of suspected Islamic militants questioned under "torture."
No, it was the facials and the whirlpool pedicures that turned your pals, Metin.
Kaplan is accused of "armed attempt to overturn the constitutional order," a charge that amounts to treason. If convicted, he could face life in prison. Kaplan said his earlier call for jihad, or "holy war," against the secular Turkish republic was misunderstood. "Jihad is a word with several meanings. Jihad does not necessarily mean war," Kaplan said.
"Just most of the time, and especially when we're at full seethe. It's kind of a David Banner/Incredible Hulk thing. You infidels just wouldn't understand."
Kaplan was extradited to Turkey after a lower court in Germany rejected a bid to restore his status as a political asylum seeker — capping a long-running drive by German authorities to deport him.
Posted by: Seafarious ||
12/20/2004 11:32:02 AM ||
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German intelligence services have deciphered secret codes used by the Ansar al-Islam organization which is suspected of being behind many of the kidnappings and terror attacks in Iraq, according to German news magazine Focus. In a report, Focus quotes police and intelligence authorities as saying the arrest of a man believed to have been planning an attack on Iraq's interim Prime Minister Iyad Allawi in Berlin earlier this month has led to the codes being deciphered.
Thanks for letting them know, asshole
Franz-Hellmutt Schuerholz, president of Baden-Wuertemberg state police department, is quoted as saying: "We have managed to break the structures of the terrorist organization from the outside." The report said that with the help of the arrested suspect authorities deciphered coded email and mobile telephone messages going right to the top of the organization.
"Ouch, OK, it's a subsitution cipher, the key is in the bottom of my shoe, just put "THAT" away!"
"And 'THOSE' too!"
"And get 'THEM' outta here!"
Three men are detained in Germany on grounds of belonging to a terrorist organization following their arrests shortly before Allawi's visit to Germany on December 3. They are believed to be members of the banned northern Iraqi Kurdish group Ansar al-Islam.
Posted by: Steve ||
12/20/2004 10:42:52 AM ||
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#1
WTF! - they *told* them they broke the codes?
Is this some weird double-triple-cross thing?
sheesh!
Posted by: Tony (UK) ||
12/20/2004 11:00 Comments ||
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#2
Just friken great. Idiot politicians blowing away a vital intellige source/method and doing it just so he can brag. Wottanass.
This is rerunnign in my head the idiot who "leaked" the "we are listening in on the satellite phones" story that caused us to lose a very good source on AlQ/BinLadin in the late 90's. That guy should have been forced to attend every one of those 9/11 funerals - the reporter too.
I hate politicians and reporters who have no idea what harm they are doing.
Stopped invasion of Port Moresby (Battle of Coral Sea)
Stopped invasion of Midway and sank four carriers
Intercepted and shot down Yamamoto's plane
Here's the kicker from the history article I linked to:
Much to the shock of US naval intelligence, the newspaper THE CHICAGO TRIBUNE published a story that said the Americans had known about the Japanese [Midway invasion] plans in advance, which was effectively saying in public that the US had broken JN-25. Fortunately, the Japanese never found out about the article. The leak was traced to the former captain of the YORKTOWN, who shared a cabin on ship with a reporter and talked too freely. He was not brought up on charges, but his career was quietly sidelined.
"Sidelined"--that's a nice way of putting it. Herr Schuerholz should find himself in a similar situation.
Posted by: Dar ||
12/20/2004 12:18 Comments ||
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#6
German intelligence cracks terror group's codes
DRINK MORE OVALTINE
Posted by: Laurence of the Rats ||
12/20/2004 13:31 Comments ||
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#7
LOTR, You'll shoot somebody's eye out!
Posted by: Mrs. Davis ||
12/20/2004 13:50 Comments ||
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#8
24 hr marathon, on TNT I think either Thursday or Friday this week. :)
Ah luv dat movie.
Posted by: Laurence of the Rats ||
12/20/2004 13:54 Comments ||
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#9
I like the pre/sequel better... the Phantom of the Hearth?
#10
Shipman, THANKS. I've got tapes of about 50 radio shows, but I'd never heard of that one. Guess it must have been after I abandoned TV.
Posted by: Mrs. Davis ||
12/20/2004 14:16 Comments ||
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#11
My mother was one of the Navy Waves that spent their entire enlistment during World War II in Washington, DC, desciphering JN-25 and a half-dozen other Japanese naval codes. She knew her brother's ship had been sunk a full seven days before the Navy admitted it - she'd decoded the message from the submarine that did it. I didn't find any of this out until I was 15, when I started writing to a Japanese penpal. She sent me some pictures with stuff written on the back in Kanji. My mother read it to me. You can't believe how shocked I was! She didn't talk to me about it much until the last ten years. She died last year, and I still only know half her story.
Posted by: Old Patriot ||
12/20/2004 14:37 Comments ||
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#12
his career was quietly sidelined.
Well, somebody has to count all those penguins!
Posted by: Steve ||
12/20/2004 14:43 Comments ||
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#13
My educated guess is that there was a very good reason for that "leak".
#14
OP--Fascinating account. I'm sorry to hear you lost her so recently and that the other half of that story is probably lost with her, too. She contributed to a great cause that shortened the war and saved thousands--if not HUNDREDS of thousands--of Allied lives.
What became of her brother/your uncle? Did he survive the sinking?
Posted by: Dar ||
12/20/2004 14:57 Comments ||
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#15
That's a hell of a story OP!
Mrs D:
American Playhouse - Produced for PBS by WGBH, Boston
"The Phantom of the Open Hearth" (1976)
Starring: David Elliot, Barbara Bolton, James Broderick
"The Great American 4th of July and Other Disasters" (1982)
Starring: Matt Dillon, James Broderick, Barbara Bolton
"The Star-Crossed Romance of Josephine Cosnowski" (1983)
Starring: Pete Kowanko, James Coe, Katherine Kamhi, Barbara Bolton
"Ollie Hopnoodle's Haven of Bliss!" (1989)
Starring: James B. Sikking, Dorothy Lymon, Jerry O'Connell.
Shepherd wrote, narrated, and plays Mr Scott - the Boss!
Posted by: Dar ||
12/20/2004 18:09 Comments ||
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#21
Dar - both of my uncles on my mother's side survived their navy careers in the Pacific and came home. Both have died in the last ten years. Dad and his brother survived Europe (Dad was in the 4th Armored, Uncle John was in the infantry). Mom was the only woman in either family to serve. I'll try to write something on my blog early next month about them.
Posted by: Old Patriot ||
12/20/2004 18:42 Comments ||
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#22
When do we start publicly beheading people who leak that we broke an enemy code?
Death is too good for those scum of the earth types.
#24
Just friken great. Idiot politicians blowing away a vital intellige source/method and doing it just so he can brag. Wottanass.
This is rerunnign in my head the idiot who "leaked" the "we are listening in on the satellite phones" story that caused us to lose a very good source on AlQ/BinLadin in the late 90's. That guy should have been forced to attend every one of those 9/11 funerals - the reporter too.
I hate politicians and reporters who have no idea what harm they are doing.
#25
Just friken great. Idiot politicians blowing away a vital intellige source/method and doing it just so he can brag. Wottanass.
This is rerunnign in my head the idiot who "leaked" the "we are listening in on the satellite phones" story that caused us to lose a very good source on AlQ/BinLadin in the late 90's. That guy should have been forced to attend every one of those 9/11 funerals - the reporter too.
I hate politicians and reporters who have no idea what harm they are doing.
The Dutch intelligence service employed as an informant and helped hide a Dutchman suspected of selling materials for chemical weapons to Iraq's Saddam Hussein, a daily newspaper reported Monday. The suspect was arrested on Dec. 6 and faces charges of helping Saddam commit war crimes and genocide by supplying him with chemical agents that were used to make weapons. Citing unidentified sources, De Volkskrant said the public prosecution's earlier attempts to arrest the man had failed as the Interior Ministry provided him with a "safe house" normally used for people who need protection such as witnesses. The AIVD intelligence service wanted information from the man on Saddam's weapons program, the paper said. The AIVD declined to comment on the newspaper report. The public prosecution service said it was not relevant for the case against the suspect.
That depends on when he became a informant, before or after he sold Sammy the chemicals.
The suspect was detained in Milan in January 1989 following a U.S. request but he was released after two months. He then fled to Iraq where it is thought he stayed until the U.S.-led invasion in March 2003 when he returned to The Netherlands. Krista van Velzen, a parliamentarian for the opposition Socialist Party, said there seemed to be a conflict of interest between the AIVD intelligence service -- which reports to the Interior Ministry -- and the justice authorities. "The AIVD wants to protect him, the forces of law want to sue him," she told De Volkskrant. "There was apparently a political decision to protect someone suspected of crimes as terrible as genocide. This is a threat to the rule of law." The Socialist Party has requested an emergency debate in parliament on the matter, the earliest possible date for which would be Tuesday -- the last day parliament convenes before it goes into recess until Jan. 17. The man, who has not yet been formally charged, was ordered into temporary detention for 30 days by a court earlier this month. A prosecution spokesman expected his temporary detention to be extended to the maximum 100 days. He is suspected of complicity in genocide over Iraq's use of chemical weapons in the 1980-1988 war against Iran and against the Kurdish population in northern Iraq, including the notorious attack on the town of Halabja in 1988 in which an estimated 5,000 people were killed.
Posted by: Steve ||
12/20/2004 9:55:59 AM ||
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Spanish police suspect that one of four Moroccans arrested in the Canary Islands is a leader of a Moroccan Islamic group that is believed to have ties to Al-Qaeda, it was reported. Hassan El Haski, 41, who was wanted for his suspected role in the 11 March attacks on commuter trains in the Spanish capital which left 191 people dead, was believed by Spanish police to be "the head at the European level" of the Islamic Group of Moroccan Fighters, the Spanish daily El Mundo reported. The group was founded in the 1990s by Moroccans who had fought the former Soviet-installed regime in Afghanistan.
Another Spanish daily, ABC, said he was also suspected of being behind the murder of the Dutch filmmaker Theo Van Gogh on 2 November in Amsterdam. It said police in the Netherlands "have informed the Spanish police of its suspicions that he could be the person who ordered or planned the attack".
The four Moroccans were arrested on Friday on suspicion of membership of a radical Islamic group. Investigators said the group was about to set up a logistical base in the archipelago off the coast of northwest Africa. It is believed to be part of the extremist Jihad Salafist Movement and to have ties to Osama bin Laden''s Al-Qaeda network, they added. The others arrested on the island of Lanzarote were the imam of the village of Puerto del Carmen, Abdallah Mourib, Ali Fahimi, 31, and Brahim Atia El Hammouchi, 40. Haski, who was born in Guelmin, Morocco, has been under investigation for his suspected ties to the Islamic Group of Moroccan Fighters, which is suspected of having carried out bomb attacks in Casablanca in May last year that killed 45 people. El Haski was transferred to Madrid late on Saturday in a military plane, with his three suspected accomplices. The four were expected to appear in Spain''s highest court on Monday. El Mundo said that his arrest came after a tip-off from French intelligence that a "potentially very dangerous" Islamic extremist was on the Canary Islands.
Nice work and co-operation from French intelligence. And El Haski, send our regards to Judge Garzon.
Posted by: Seafarious ||
12/20/2004 9:45:42 AM ||
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A Muslim scholar resigned his appointment to the University of Notre Dame on Tuesday four months after the Bush administration revoked the scholar's work visa before he could take up his teaching position. "I'm abandoning the idea of moving to the United States," Tariq Ramadan told The Associated Press from Geneva. "I want to maintain my dignity."
Ramadan notified the university on Monday, citing the stress on him and his family from the uncertainty of their situation, said R. Scott Appleby, director of Notre Dame's Kroc Institute for International Peace Studies. Ramadan, a Swiss citizen, was barred from working in the United States in August just days before he was to begin teaching at Notre Dame. The Department of Homeland Security cited security concerns but released no specifics. Ramadan's work visa was issued in May. Ramadan said Tuesday there is nothing in his past to justify the ban and demanded that U.S. authorities give details of its investigation of him in order to clear him of the "untrue and humiliating" claims that he was barred because of ties to terrorism. ...
Posted by: .com ||
12/20/2004 12:27:07 AM ||
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#1
Kroc Institute for International Peace Studies.
Aye, and well named it was, A crock, I reckon.
Posted by: Alaska Paul ||
12/20/2004 2:07 Comments ||
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#2
Didn't the Widow Croc recently donate a huge sum to NPR? (After which my local station sent a begging letter anyway, because the national organization isn't sharing the windfall with the local affiliates.)
"Here, boy! Take this grenade back and bring me a fresh one!"
A grenade was found inside the compound of the Hilton hotel in Jakarta on Monday and has been taken away by the Indonesian bomb squad, police said. The report comes just days after a warning by Western governments that militants might attack one of the three Hiltons in Indonesia over the Christmas and New Year period. "It's about the size of a fist. It has been taken away," Jakarta police spokesman Tjiptono told Reuters.
Posted by: Fred ||
12/20/2004 11:06:21 AM ||
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FRESH security concerns have swept Jakarta after a hand grenade was found hidden in a tin can beside the Hilton Hotel just days after Australia warned of a possible terror attack on the complex. The grenade, which was taken away by bomb squad officers, was found by a cleaner early this morning as he swept around the heavily-guarded hotel grounds.
Emeraldo Parengkuan, public relations director at the Hilton, said the grenade was inside a tin alongside the hotel fence, in the grounds of the adjacent Jakarta sports stadium. The grenade was found just days after Australian intelligence intercepts pointed to a possible attack on a major international hotel — possibly one of three Hiltons in Indonesia — during the Christmas and New Year period. "Since the warning we have very strong security in place, and all our staff were warned to look out for anything suspicious," Mr Parengkuan said.. "The cleaner found an object around 7am and we had many police here to investigate. "It just shows that the security we had in place worked."
A Jakarta police spokesman said the device was a pineapple grenade and bomb squad officers had been called to take it away. "It's about the size of a fist," he said.
Around 30 police had already been on duty at the hotel, including members of the elite detachment 88 anti-terrorist squad. Indonesia has suffered a series of deadly explosions blamed on Islamic extremists over the past few years, culminating in the September 9 bombing of the Australian embassy in Jakarta, which killed nine people and the bomber. The masterminds of that attack and the 2002 Bali bombings — Malaysian bomb technician Azahari Husin and Jemaah Islamiah top recruiter Noordin Top — are still on the run despite a massive manhunt across Indonesia.
Police fear the pair may be planning to repeat a wave of church bombings on Christmas Eve 2000 which left 19 dead. Officers found several makeshift explosives on a bus last week, but said a different group was responsible.
The hand grenade was found in a small patch of garden next to the back exit gate of the sprawling hotel complex in heart of the city, a police official said.
An Australian embassy spokeswoman said the find would not alter Australia's already tough travel warnings about Indonesia, which advised travellers to stay clear of the country. She said the warning about Christmas attacks, matched by Britain, New Zealand and Japan, remained valid. US State Department warnings also advise Americans to avoid non-essential travel to Indonesia, saying "the terrorist threat continues and may increase over the December-January holiday period."
Police have deployed an additional 18,400 personnel for Christmas and New Year to protect churches and entertainment centres. Mr Parengkuan said the hotel had not seen a mass exodus of guests, but that some groups had cancelled functions because of the threat.
It sounds to me like someone hid the grenade there for someone else to pickup later. Either it was found before it could be used, or the boomer got cold feet.
UPDATE: A grenade found in the parking lot of the heavily guarded Hilton hotel in Jakarta on Monday was old and a dud, and the device might have been there for a long time, Indonesian police said. "The grenade was not active and was corroded. There is a possibility it was there before the Hilton was built," Indonesian police spokesman Paiman told a news conference.
Another officer said the bomb squad were examining the device, which he called a pineapple grenade. It was found early on Monday morning by a sweeper.
Emeraldo Parengkuan, public relations director at the Jakarta Hilton, said a staff member found a suspicious package. "It was wrapped in a can," Parengkuan said.
Sounds like it was still in the original shipping container.
Posted by: God Save The World ||
12/20/2004 5:15:31 AM ||
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"New concern after Hilton grenade."
Sounds like the next season of The Simple Life just got a whole lot more interesting . . . .
Posted by: Tibor ||
12/20/2004 13:32 Comments ||
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PHILIPPINE authorities are investigating intelligence reports that the leader of the al-Qaeda linked Abu Sayyaf group has been killed in an air raid, a military official said today. One of the military's "informants" had claimed Khadaffy Janjalani's "body was severed (cut in half)" last month during an air strike on a rebel hideout in marshlands near the town of Datu Piang on southern Mindanao island, said Colonel Jerry Jalandoni, army chief in the area.
Please, Lord! Let it be true...
And we'd like to see both halves, just to be, ya know, on the safe side.
Then drive a stake through both halves before burning..
A couple of vital organs in glass jars filled with formalin would be sufficient for me.
He said the air raid took place on November 19, reportedly when Janjalani was meeting with members of regional extremist group Jemaah Islamiyah, he said. "They were supposedly having a meeting with the JI (group) involved in the Bali bombing in 2002," Jalandoni said, referring to the attack in the Indonesian island resort that killed 202 people, including 88 Australians. The Bali bombing was blamed on JI, the alleged Southeast Asian arm of al-Qaeda.
THE leader of the Abu Sayyaf group, Khaddafy Janjalani, may have been killed in a raid by military helicopters in Maguindanao last month, an Army commander said on Monday. Col. Jerry Jalandoni, a commander in Mindanao, said army informants had reported that Janjalani was among several suspected Muslim militants killed when helicopter gunships fired rockets on rebel hideouts in the Butilan Marsh in Datu Piang, Maguindanao, near the Linguasan Marsh in November. "I just want to emphasize that this is unconfirmed, because we do not have either half of his body," he told reporters. "We have informants who told us Janjalani is definitely dead."
"He is not merely dead,
But really most sincerely dead!"
The military said Monday it is still verifying reports about the real status of Janjalani. Jalandoni emphasized that while the reports were unconfirmed they stated that Janjalani's body was severed during an air strike in the Butilan Marsh in Datu Piang, Maguindanao.
Bet that hurt. Briefly.
He said the air strike was conducted by the Air Force's MG520 attack helicopter after receiving reports about the presence of members of the Jemaah Islamiah and Janjalani in the area.
Next budget year, guess what they're gonna buy more of?
Jalandoni said Janjalani and the Jemaah Islamiah members who were involved in the Bali bombing in Indonesia in 2002 were supposed to hold a meeting in Datu Piang on November 19, when the air raid took place. But he did not disclose what the agenda of the meeting was.
Prob'ly doesn't matter at this point, since they're dead...
"What is definite is that Janjalani was in the area when we bombed it," Jalandoni said.
"... and significant portions of him are reputed to remain!"
The US State Department labeled Abu Sayyaf a foreign terrorist organization in 2002 for its role in bombings and kidnapÂpings in the Philippines and for its suspected links with al-Qaeda. Janjalani, the younger brother of the late Abu Sayyaf founder Abdurajak Janjalani, is suspected of masterminding the 2001 kidnapping of tourists and workers, including three Americans, from a Philippine beach resort. One of the Americans was beheaded shortly afterward, and another was killed more than a year later during a rescue operation by Philippine soldiers. Janjalani claimed responsibility for planting a bomb that sank a ferry near Manila in February, killing more than 100 people. The government played down the claim at first, but said in October that the Abu Sayyaf carried out the attack.
Jalandoni said soldiers had been sent to scour the marshy area near Datu Piang town in Central Mindanao to find more proof that Janjalani had been killed. An Army official said the military had been able to pinpoint Janjalani's location using signal and electronic intelligence provided by US soldiers based in Mindanao. The Philippines and the United States have been conducting joint intelligence exercises in the south to hunt down Abu Sayyaf and Indonesian militants hiding in Central Mindanao. Lt. Gen. Efren Abu, the Armed Forces' chief of staff, said two weeks ago that the Abu Sayyaf and members of a JI cell were taking advantage of government peace talks with the Moro Islamic Liberation Front to hide in the rebel group's known strongholds.
Posted by: tipper ||
12/20/2004 3:52:04 AM ||
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via NRO's The Corner. All I want for Christmas is the 2 big Z's -- Zawahiri and Zarqawi.
I HEARD A RUMOR [Jim Robbins]
Al Aribiyah TV reports arrests of six al Qaeda operatives in Lahore, Pakistan. Ayman al Zawahiri said to be among them. This isn't the first such rumor about Zawahiri -- it usually turns out to be somebody else. Posted at 02:28 PM
Posted by: Tibor ||
12/20/2004 4:39:20 PM ||
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#1
Well, if its La Whore, anything's possible.
Posted by: Capt America ||
12/20/2004 17:42 Comments ||
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#6
I think the guy top right is the veggies mgr at my local Smith's grocery store. I could be wrong. I know the one bottom right is in the Oracle DBA Group at Aramco. Prick wouldn't implement my schema without fiddle-dicking with it for a week - stretching out the work, as usual, the slacker.
Iraqi citizens have led US troops to a suspected mass grave in northern Iraq containing an estimated 50 bodies. A US military spokesman Master Sergeant Robert Cowens said Iraqis brought a US combat patrol to a possible mass grave site near Kirkuk. "They cordoned off the area. They expect approximately 50 human remains are in the area," Master Sergeant Cowens said. Estimates of the number of those killed or who disappeared during Saddam Hussein's rule range from 300,000 to over a million. There are about 40 known mass graves in Iraq. The Kirkuk area was subjected to Saddam's policy of Arabisation that saw thousands of Kurds forcibly expelled from their homes in the oil-rich region after Saddam's Baath party came to power in 1968.
Saddam, currently in a US detention centre, faces seven charges of crimes against humanity including a 1987-1988 offensive that saw Kurdish villages razed and the gassing of the village of Halabja that left 5,000 people dead. In October, forensic experts digging for evidence against Saddam near Mosul carried out their first full exhumation of a mass grave filled with the skeletons of scores of women and children, many shot in the back of the head. The bodies were believed to be those of hundreds of Kurds killed by the regime in the late 1980s.
Posted by: God Save The World ||
12/20/2004 4:12:09 PM ||
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#1
It's unlikely the UN had anything to do with this, I will examine your links if you have any.
#4
"Michael Moore had no comment. Apparently no kites were found in the mass graves"
Posted by: Frank G ||
12/20/2004 21:45 Comments ||
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#5
Also, I like to see the maaasss graves opened up in Syria/Lebanon, Egypt, and Iran. Lets' show the world what these dicktators are all about, not that it will make a difference.
Micheal Moore found his wardrobe in mass graves, obviously, looking for kites.
SRINAGAR, India - A senior militant commander was shot dead by the army and two civilians were killed by suspected rebels in Indian-held Kashmir Monday, police said. Indian troops shot dead Hafiz Bhat, a senior commander of dominant rebel group Hizbul Mujahedin, in the southern district of Doda late Sunday, police said. Hizbul wants to secede Kashmir from India and join it with neighbouring Pakistan. Nuclear-rivals India and Pakistan each hold Kashmir in parts and claim it in full.
Separately, suspected rebels overnight shot dead a member of the ruling pro-India party in southern Kashmir district of Pulwama, while a Muslim woman was killed in Udhampur district, further south, a police spokesman said. Rebels often target people just for the hell of it they see as collaborating with the Indian government. Also in the district of Pulwama four villagers were injured and six houses damaged in an explosion at the former residence of an active Hizbul commander late Sunday, police said. "The militant commander's house was totally damaged while five other houses suffered partial damage," a police spokesman said. Residents held a protest demonstration accusing Indian security forces of blowing-up the house. Police denied the allegation saying the explosion took place when a bomb concealed in the house by the militant himself went off.
Posted by: Steve ||
12/20/2004 12:55:44 PM ||
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PESHAWAR, Pakistan - A 12-year-old boy died when a home-made bomb exploded outside a religious school in a turbulent Pakistani tribal area on the Afghan frontier, an official said Monday. The young tribesman died minutes after Sunday's blast in Lalazai, near Wana, the main town in South Waziristan region, the military official said. Pakistani forces are in the area hunting Al Qaeda-linked militants. It was not clear whether the young tribesman was carrying the device or he stepped on it near the Islamic seminary, known as a madrassa, he added.
Bringing it for "show-and-tell" or was it his homework assignment?
Posted by: Steve ||
12/20/2004 12:49:31 PM ||
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#1
Calling Mike Scumvester!! Mike, quick, how about a nice quote to deflect from the tragedy?
Police arrested six suspected militants Monday, including the Pakistani aide of a Libyan al-Qaida operative accused of masterminding two assassination attempts a year ago against President Gen. Pervez Musharraf, an official said.Malik Tehsin, 31, was among the six men nabbed in the eastern city of Lahore, said Shafqaat Ahmed, a senior police superintendent. Ahmed told a news conference that Tehsin had arranged accommodations, transportation and other aid for Abu Faraj al-Libbi, a Libyan terror suspect who is among the most wanted men in Pakistan. Al-Libbi is accused of organizing the two attempts to assassinate Musharraf in December 2003. The Pakistani leader was unharmed, but 17 people died in the second attempt to blow up his motorcade in Rawalpindi, a city near the capital, Islamabad. Musharraf has become a marked man by Islamic extremists for his strong support of the U.S.-led war on terror in neighboring Afghanistan.
Posted by: Steve ||
12/20/2004 9:53:13 AM ||
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#1
bad day to be Malik
Posted by: Frank G ||
12/20/2004 9:59 Comments ||
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Do we have to call these mooks "aides"? It's too much dignitas for them. Maybe "flunky" or "butt-boy"....
A vehicle carrying a group of suspected Taliban fighters attacked a military checkpoint in southern Afghanistan, sparking a firefight that left six dead and at least four wounded, police said Monday. Kandahar police chief Khan Mohammed said the attack occurred at 6 p.m. Sunday in Maivand district, 90 miles west of Kandahar city. The exchange of gunfire killed four soldiers and a civilian, and the attackers left behind the body of one fighter as they drove away, police said. Security forces were pursuing them.
In a separate incident, two American soldiers were wounded Saturday when their patrol came under small arms fire northeast of Shinkay, in adjacent Zabul province, U.S. Maj. Mark McCann told reporters. Both were evacuated after the firefight and are in stable condition awaiting transport to a U.S. medical facility in Germany, he said. It was unclear how many attackers were involved, but McCann said it likely was no more than five. Also Monday, international peacekeepers said they had found one of the largest ammunition caches yet at a storage facility on the southern outskirts of the capital. A Canadian explosives disposal squad that went to the site after a tip from a local man found more than 500 rockets and mortar rounds. The weapons will be destroyed. "We are seeing this type of thing occurring more frequently where Afghans are disclosing the location of these weapons" said Lt. Cmdr. Ken MacKillop, a spokesman for the International Security Assistance Force. "This is an indication that the Afghan people are feeling safer now and that they believe that they no longer need to rely on the use of these weapons and ammunition in order to survive."
Posted by: Steve ||
12/20/2004 9:19:11 AM ||
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Iraqi authorities detained 50 suspects in connection with an explosion in the Shiite holy city of Najaf that killed at least 54 people and wounded 142, and thousands of mourners attended funerals for the victims on Monday. Car bombs tore through a Najaf funeral procession and a main bus station in the nearby Shiite city of Karbala on Sunday, where at least 13 people were killed and 33 were wounded. The deadliest attacks in Iraq since July were a bloody reminder that the Shiite heartland in the south — and not just the Sunni regions of central and northern Iraq — is vulnerable to the mainly Sunni insurgents aiming to wreck the country's key elections scheduled for Jan. 30. ...
Posted by: .com ||
12/20/2004 5:43:42 AM ||
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#1
Hmm. The optimal suspects, or all the available suspects?
#2
Aside from danger at the polls, I would think that this would actually encourage Shiite voting. The sooner they have legitimate power, the sooner they can clean up their way. Compare to 9/11 galvanizing the U.S.
Posted by: Tom ||
12/20/2004 8:24 Comments ||
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Israel agreed to release 170 Palestinian prisoners yesterday as a gesture of goodwill to Egypt and the new Palestinian leadership. The announcement came as the Labour and Likud parties concluded negotiations on a unity government. Ariel Sharon, the Israeli prime minister, is expected to present the new government on Thursday. Labour will received eight ministerial positions and its leader, Shimon Peres, will become deputy prime minister with responsibility for the evacuation of settlements in Gaza and the northern West Bank.
Labour's entry into the government will give Mr Sharon more power to carry out his disengagement plan. His coalition was split by opposition to the plan from two rightwing parties. He will also be able to ignore Likud rebels who oppose evacuating settlements. The prisoner release, which comes ahead of Palestinian presidential elections next month, was part of a prisoner swap with Egypt this month that brought home an Israeli jailed by Egypt on espionage charges. Mr Sharon called the decision "a gesture of goodwill, friendship and appreciation to the Egyptian president, Hosni Mubarak, on his decision to free Azzam Azzam," the accused spy sent home this month after eight years in prison.
But a senior Israeli official acknowledged the release was also aimed at the interim Palestinian leader, Mahmoud Abbas, who is seeking election in the January 9 presidential vote. "It gives them an indication that we want to have an atmosphere of reconciliation," he said. He added that Israel would consider further releases if the Palestinians acted against militants. The Palestinians said the release was limited. Israel holds more than 7,000 Palestinians in its prisons. "We consider this step a cosmetic one," said Radi Jaraie, the deputy Palestinian minister of prisoner affairs.
Posted by: .com ||
12/20/2004 12:45:04 AM ||
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#1
Tit-for-tat,Mr.Abbas,Your turn.We are waiting for the tat,please.
#2
At first, I used to get very angry when Israel releases this many prisoners at once or release them at all. But, I now realize that, even though these Paleo terrs are released, they are NEVER free. The IDF knows every move they make, can "re-gather" or use the hellfire cattle prodder to eliminate, which is comforting to me.
#4
Labour will received eight ministerial positions and its leader, Shimon Peres, will become deputy prime minister with responsibility for the evacuation of settlements in Gaza and the northern West Bank
"sure, Shimon, I hve an interesting assignment for you"
Posted by: Frank G ||
12/20/2004 9:52 Comments ||
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The African Union said on Sunday one of its helicopters had been shot at over Darfur, showing that a ceasefire was not holding between the Sudanese government and rebels in the troubled western region. "One of our helicopters has been shot. They are firing on our helicopters. This shows that the ceasefire is not being observed. They did not comply. They have not stopped fighting," AU spokesman Assane Ba told reporters in Abuja on Sunday evening.
He gave no further details. It was not clear who had shot at the helicopter, or when. Sudan said on Sunday it would immediately and unconditionally cease hostilities in Darfur and asked the United Nations and the AU -- which is mediating in talks in Nigeria between Khartoum and Darfur rebel groups -- to ask rebel forces to do the same. But Ba had said earlier that the AU force commander in Darfur, Nigerian General Festus Okonkwo, had had told mediators that government forces had attacked the village of Labado on Saturday in defiance of an AU ultimatum.
Posted by: .com ||
12/20/2004 12:41:06 AM ||
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Iraqi security forces have captured rockets smuggled by rebels from a nearby nation with the aim of attacking polling stations and elections centers during the run-up to general elections, interim prime minister Ayad Allawi said. Allawi did not specify the type of missiles involved nor did he name the country from which the rockets were allegedly smuggled into Iraq. But he said Sunday that several government ministries are preparing a security plan to prevent attacks during the electoral campaign for a new legislature. "We captured (the rockets) at the beginning of this week. They were supposed to be fired by remote control. They were directed at election centers," Allawi told the Baghdad's Iraqiya television network in a live interview. "Information came from citizens who reported them to special telephone numbers at the Interior Ministry, the intelligence department and the Ministry of Defense Ministry. We did not capture (the rebels) but we seized the weapons. They are, in fact, very modern weapons and harmful at the same time."
French or German?
Allawi's comments came just days after he accused Syria of harboring senior officials from the ousted regime of former President Saddam Hussein, including his half brother, Sabaawi. Iraq's Defense Minister Hazem Shaalan accused Iran and Syria on Thursday of supporting terrorism in Iraq. "Regrettably I cannot name it, but we know these weapons were smuggled from a nearby country," Allawi said. "These weapons are usually used by armies and we have contacted the concerned country and we are waiting for an explanation. Our initial information shows that (this nation's government) had no knowledge" of the smuggled weapons.
Posted by: Steve White ||
12/20/2004 12:15:35 AM ||
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#1
The fact that they have to smuggle in ordinance is a good sign. I guess the Giant Ammo Dumps are finaly shrinking to the point that they can be protected from midnight requisitions by the Enemy.
Posted by: N Guard ||
12/20/2004 0:47 Comments ||
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GMTA N Guard. Also noticing that a lot of the RPG rounds are semi-homemade now.
#3
Allawi seems to be getting a little irratated with Iran/Syria.Wonder what he has planned for after the election,I would think a little pay back is in order.
#4
I'll tell you what is encouraging to me, this story has Iraqi's seizing rockets. And there is the other story where the Iraqi's are arresting people for the bombings in Najaf. The Iraqi's. Not the US. Small steps, but steps in the right direction.
Sammy, Binny and their murdering band of thugs need to go back to the drawing board. They don't get it, because they grew up under dictatorships, but the people WILL show up to vote. It's just a fact, Al Jack. All they are doing is ticking off the Iraqi's who will be, how shall I say, less restrained once their government is elected by the people and the American Occupier's influence wains.
#6
2b---the Iraqis ratting out the terrorists is a good sign all right. The Afghans are doing it, too. It takes time to round up all the arms and explosives in Iraq. Just boggles the mind thinking about the tonnage that was hanging around the country!
Posted by: Alaska Paul ||
12/20/2004 10:00 Comments ||
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I hate night shift.
What does GMTA stand for, Ship? and the improv RPG rounds are interesting in their own right. Typicaly the warhead is replaced with a ~60mm mortar bomb to gin up some light arty.
I have a Lebaneese (Christian of some sort, I think) co-worker who tells stories from the 75-85 civil war. He says that typicaly they woud fill the hollow cavity of the RPG heat round with diesel or gasoline to enhance the incindiary F/X. I have no Idea, but I suspect that either he's BSing, or only saw from a distance. such a mod would prolly have all kinds of bad F/X on the ballistic perf of the weapon.
And it is heartening to see the Iraqis starting to take care of themselves. Its such a joy to watch them grow up, [SNIFF. wipes tears and blows nose.]
Posted by: N Guard ||
12/20/2004 12:02 Comments ||
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If the country of origin of these little puppies can be determined, I'd suggest that a little message be sent via OUR version of "rockets". Namely, about twenty of them, and placed appropriately in certain strategic locations.
#9
Actually N. Guard your friend is pretty accurate as far as the effects go (dunno about the range though with such a warhead). AP/HEAT rounds of RPGs aren't very effective when you want to cause as much damage (collateral) as possible. I've got a friend over in Balad whos been saying that of late the RPGs and rockets they've been seeing come over seem to be the armor piercing/HEAT variety rather than general high explosives and prox fused ones for anti-personnel, these dont cause as much shrapnel to go flying about unless they hit a vehicle he says.
Anyway the article says its a bunch of rockets captured, and it makes wonder what TYPE of rockets are we talking about here. It sounds like they were modified FROGs or some other variety to me but hopefully they know which country sent them and are planning some serious payback.
At least 67 people were killed and many others injured in car bombings in the Iraqi holy cities of Karbala and Najaf on Sunday, according to reports. In Najaf, a suicide car bomber rammed his vehicle into a funeral procession and exploded it just yards from the Imam Ali shrine, killing at least 51 people. CNN quoted Najaf police chief Ghalib Jazairi as saying that an Iraqi suspected of being involved in the attack was arrested. The suspect was picked up trying to escape the city in a car full of explosives, Jazairi said. The Karbala attack, which took place near the Bab Baghdad bus station -- killed 16 people and wounded 37. One of Najaf's leading Shia clerics, Grand Ayatollah Mohammed Said al-Hakim, denounced the bombings. He said they aimed to "incite sectarian sedition" and that god would "avenge and compensate" the victims.
Posted by: .com ||
12/20/2004 12:18:15 AM ||
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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.
Two Kuwaiti men were jailed on Monday for conspiring to forge hundreds of passports in what New Zealand police said was the biggest fake document operation they had ever seen. Fahad Jaber Ajeil, 29, found guilty on 14 charges at trial in October, was given a five-year sentence in the Auckland District Court. Riyad Hamied Sultan, 30, who was cleared of 16 charges by a jury but found guilty of conspiring to commit forgery with Ajeil, will go to jail for two years, Radio New Zealand reported.
PHILIPPINE authorities are investigating intelligence reports that the leader of the al-Qaeda linked 
A vehicle carrying a group of suspected Taliban fighters attacked a military checkpoint in southern Afghanistan, sparking a firefight that left six dead and at least four wounded, police said Monday. Kandahar police chief 
At least 67 people were killed and many others injured in car bombings in the Iraqi holy cities of Karbala and Najaf on Sunday, according to reports. In Najaf, a suicide car bomber rammed his vehicle into a funeral procession and exploded it just yards from the Imam Ali shrine, killing at least 51 people. CNN quoted Najaf police chief Ghalib Jazairi as saying that an Iraqi suspected of being involved in the attack was arrested. The suspect was picked up trying to escape the city in a car full of explosives, Jazairi said. The Karbala attack, which took place near the Bab Baghdad bus station -- killed 16 people and wounded 37. One of Najaf's leading Shia clerics, Grand Ayatollah Mohammed Said al-Hakim, denounced the bombings. He said they aimed to "incite sectarian sedition" and that god would "avenge and compensate" the victims.
