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Today: 135 articles and 478 comments as of 12:42.
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Indonesia sends top team for Aceh rebel talks
Today's Headlines
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Page 1: WoT Operations
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Arabia
Hundreds reportedly rounded up in Oman
Omani security forces have reportedly rounded up hundreds of people suspected of planning bombings during the Muslim feast of Adha. The Saudi daily al-Hayat, which is monitored in Beirut, said Wednesday rumors have been going strong in the sultanate that a wave of arrests took place a week ago and arms and ammunition were seized from the suspects. The paper noted Oman's ruler, Sultan Qaboos, failed to show up at the Adha feast prayers in the province of Rustaq last week, and it quoted reports saying terrorists planned attacks in Muscat during the feast. Muslim extremists say the festival is immoral and contradicts Islamic norms.
"They're having fun! It's un-islamic!"
About 300 people, including prominent political and military figures, were arrested in the raids. The cache of weapons was found when a truck carrying them was involved in an accident.
Oh, don'tcha hate it when that happens?
Posted by: Steve || 01/26/2005 12:32:07 PM || Comments || Link || [1 views] Top|| File under:

#1  Qaboos - you da man! Oman is a fairly quiet place thanks to the hard work of your intel services. Anyone know if they have Sharia in Oman? If so perhaps they can cut off some trigger fingers.
Posted by: Rightwing || 01/26/2005 12:51 Comments || Top||

#2  Muslim countries shouldn't have a problem penetrating home-grown terrorist groups. After Oklahoma City, the running joke was that there were more FBI agents than bona fide members at militia meetings. And the FBI operates under all kinds of restrictions that Muslim governments laugh at. The only question is whether they really want to stop these things.
Posted by: Zhang Fei || 01/26/2005 14:12 Comments || Top||


13 Osamanauts referred to prosecution
Thirteen suspected Islamist militants arrested following separate clashes with security men in Kuwait have been referred to the public prosecution for questioning, a judicial source said Tuesday.

The source said the suspects, believed to be linked to the Al-Qaeda network, were referred late Monday and that a second group is expected to be transferred to judicial authorities on Tuesday.

The source did not state the charges levelled against the suspects by police but Al-Qabas newspaper said Tuesday that they are allegedly linked to militants in neighbouring Saudi Arabia and to the group of Iraq's most wanted man, Abu Musab al-Zarqawi.

The suspects were "plotting to attack US targets" and were "authorised to clash with Kuwaiti security forces if necessary", the daily said.

According to Kuwaiti law, suspects are referred to the judiciary by the police on the basis that they require questioning by a higher authority based on evidence supplied by the police.

The prosecution is at liberty to take a number of measures, including referring them to court or releasing them.

A January 15 gunbattle between militants and Kuwaiti security forces left one Saudi gunman killed in Umm al-Haiman, south of the capital near the border with Saudi Arabia.

The shootout near the largest US military base in Kuwait, came five days after another clash closer to the capital left two security officers dead.

The authorities have seized arms and explosives in subsequent raids around the tiny oil-rich emirate.

Two suspects, including the Saudi national, were killed in the two gunbattles, while at least 15 others, a number of them Saudi, were arrested, according to Interior Minister Sheikh Nawaf al-Ahmad al-Sabah.

Security forces are still hunting for an unspecified number of militants who fled after the clashes, which were strikingly similar to regular shootouts between Saudi police and presumed Al-Qaeda militants responsible for a spate of shootings and bombings in Saudi Arabia since May 2003.

The commander of Kuwait's National Guard, Sheikh Salem al-Ali al-Sabah, said the suspects were members of Al-Qaeda who had plotted to carry out terrorist bombings in the oil-rich emirate.

Kuwait has put its security forces on full alert, and security measures around oil facilities and vital installations have been raised to the maximum.
Posted by: Dan Darling || 01/26/2005 12:31:57 AM || Comments || Link || [1 views] Top|| File under:


Chechen deputy head of United Russia dead in Mecca
Deputy chief of the Chechen branch of United Russia party Lecha Magomedov died on Tuesday during a pilgrimage to places of worship in Mecca. Preliminary reports said Magomedov died of a stroke he suffered in Mecca, a source from the Chechen Mufti's office told Tass on Tuesday. The United Russia headquarters has been negotiating the return of the body to Chechnya although traditionally, a pilgrim who dies in Mecca is buried there. Lecha Magomedov was around 70 years old. He was one of the organizers of the United Russia branch in Chechnya and until recently, he had been Deputy secretary of its political council.
Posted by: Dan Darling || 01/26/2005 12:38:20 AM || Comments || Link || [0 views] Top|| File under:


Caucasus/Russia/Central Asia
Chechen hard boyz kill 2 women for refusing to give them cash
Militants in Grozny killed two local women, who refused to give them the money of Wahhabite "Jamaat", a spokesman for the press center of the Regional Operational Headquarters for Controlling the Anti-Terrorist Operation in the North Caucasus told RIA Novosti. "The murder was committed by members of the group of militants, headed by Isa Khatuyev from the Rizvan Chitigov criminal gang. The militants tried to find and take the money belonging to the Wahhabite "Jamaat" which was earlier headed by "emir" Mussa Akhmatukayev," the spokesman said.

According to the spokesman, four armed militants in masks penetrated the house on Uchenicheskaya Street in the Chechen capital and killed 41-year-old Raisat Israilova and 21- year-old Birlant Israilova. The spokesman explained that, according to local inhabitants, some time ago suspicious people visited that house several times and each time noisy scandals occurred. The neighbors heard in one of the conversations with Raisat Israilova she said that the visitors were members of the Isa Khatuyev criminal gang. "In investigating the crime, law enforcement officers established that both women were relatives of 24-year-old Musa Akhmatukayev, a member of the criminal gang, who was killed in Grozny," the headquarters spokesman added.

Investigators are considering the possibility that the militant received a big sum of money from the leaders of the criminal gang to use it to commit terrorist acts. However, he did not have time to spend it because federal forces killed him. "At that time, after a special operation, the money was not found in the house, though the law enforcement officers possessed the information about the scheme and the channels through which the Akhmatukayev criminal gang was financed. Presumably, his relatives could know the place where the money was hidden but preferred to keep silent and, as a result, were killed by Chitigov bandits," concluded the headquarters spokesman.
Posted by: Dan Darling || 01/26/2005 1:38:00 PM || Comments || Link || [0 views] Top|| File under:


More on the Nalchik seige
Russian police laid siege to suspected Islamic militants in the volatile Caucasus region on Wednesday, maintaining a tense stand-off after three similar sieges this month ended in gun battles. Local officials said up to five militants had barricaded themselves in an apartment block in Nalchik, capital of Kabardino-Balkaria region, along with some women, believed to be their wives or girlfriends.

Local Interior Minister Khochim Shogenov said the men were believed to be members of a militant Islamist group called "Yarmuk" which killed four people in an attack on an anti-drugs unit last month and also killed two policemen in September.

"We believe that it is those people, or even some of the leaders of the group we are looking for," Shogenov told state television.

Police evacuated residents after surrounding the building on Tuesday and began negotiating with the militants.

Interior Minister Rashid Nurgaliyev has branded the entire region a "breeding ground for Wahhabism", as Islamic extremism is known in Russia, and officials link the militants to Osama bin Laden's al Qaeda movement.

Police have already stormed three militant hide-outs in sieges elsewhere in the Caucasus this month. Despite using mortars and bazookas and a tank, they took more than 15 hours to subdue one gang, and at least four soldiers died in the sieges.
Posted by: Dan Darling || 01/26/2005 1:33:20 PM || Comments || Link || [0 views] Top|| File under:


Insurgents under siege in southern Russia
A group of up to eight Islamist insurgents remained besieged by police in two flats in a residential building in the capital city of Russia's southern republic of Kabardino-Balkaria's on Wednesday afternoon. The republic's interior minister, Khachim Shogenov, told journalists on Tuesday that the leader of the local "Yarmuk" Wahhabi group, Muslim Ataev, was among the trapped gunmen. Shogenov said Ataev was a major suspect in the December attack on the republican branch of Russia's drug-control service, in which four officers were killed and more than 250 firearms stolen.

Ataev and his Yarmuk group have been also accused in an attack on police near the republic's capital, Nalchik, last August, in which two officers were killed. The militants reportedly have been living with their families in the two rented flats in the besieged five-storey building. Police surrounded it late on Tuesday, demanding that the militants surrender. Other tenants were evacuated from their apartments. Negotiations - conducted via telephone - continued through the night and Wednesday. The militants, with Ataev's wife and a child, demanded safe passage from the city. That demand has been refused. Interior Minister Shogenov told journalists on Wednesday that the militants were ready to surrender, but that Ataev had forbidden them to do so. A source in the republican Interior Ministry told Regnum news agency on Wednesday afternoon that a radio exchange had been intercepted, in which other Yarmuk members were bidding farewell to their comrades trapped in the building.

Later on Wednesday, Shogenov told reporters that plans to storm the building had been set in motion for later on Wednesday. According to Russian security officials, Yarmuk was created by Balkar Wahhabis, followers of the austere fundamentalist brand of Islam, who fought against Russian troops in Chechnya under the command of the Chechen warlord Shamil Basaev. Balkars, an ethnic minority in Kabardino-Balkaria, were deported en masse by Joseph Stalin to Kazakhstan and Siberia in 1944, just like the Chechen, Ingush, and Karachai peoples. Representatives of these four ethnic groups form the backbone of the anti-Russian, anti-government insurgency in the Northern Caucasus.
Posted by: Steve || 01/26/2005 9:58:22 AM || Comments || Link || [2 views] Top|| File under:


Europe
Dutch Court Hears Van Gogh Case Testimony
The alleged killer of Dutch filmmaker Theo van Gogh ignored his victim's pleas for mercy and calmly shot him at close range before slitting his throat, prosecutors said at the first public hearing in the murder case Wednesday. In the most detailed account yet of the killing, prosecutors gave a play-by-play account of the morning of Nov. 2, when Van Gogh was shot while bicycling to work in a residential Amsterdam neighborhood. The suspect, Mohammed Bouyeri, 26, waived his right to attend the pretrial hearing and was represented by his attorney. "What's extraordinary is the calmness with which as he did this," said the prosecutor, identified only as F. van Straelen. "Several witnessed described how he coolly knelt next to Van Gogh's body and reloaded his gun."

Autopsy showed Van Gogh's throat had been cut nearly completely off with a kitchen knife, to the spinal cord. A note impaled in Van Gogh's chest threatened prominent politicians and vowed Islamic holy war or jihad, against nonbelievers. A bystander who witnessed the crime yelled at Van Gogh's killer "You can't do that!" to which the suspect replied: "Oh yes I can ... now you know what's coming for you."

Bouyeri allegedly then walked away, apparently in search of police officers, Van Straelen said. He opened fire at the first police car he found, injuring a police officer. In total, the gunman fired around 30 times in a shooting spree, Van Straelen said. Bouyeri faces charges of terrorism, murder, attempted murder, threatening politicians, possession of an illegal firearm and impeding democracy, and could be sentenced to a possible life sentence in prison if convicted. He is still recovering from a gunshot wound suffered during his arrest.
Continued on Page 49
Posted by: tipper || 01/26/2005 9:15:32 AM || Comments || Link || [1 views] Top|| File under:

#1  impeding democracy

That's not a crime - that's, well, its like what Boxer stands for, isn't it?
Posted by: Jack is Back! || 01/26/2005 11:11 Comments || Top||


France holds 7 on links to Iraqi al-Qaeda
Security agents have detained seven people suspected of being part of a network funneling French Islamic militants to Iraq, police said Tuesday. Two of the seven were women, according to the television station LCI. The seven, whose names were not released, were arrested Monday in Paris, the police said. Under France's anti-terrorism law, they can be held for up to four days before being released or placed under investigation.

On September 22, judicial authorities opened an investigation to determine whether a network for sending Islamic combatants to Iraq exists in France. The investigation was opened after the bodies of several French were discovered in recent months in Iraq. Experts in France have said in the past that they do not believe there is a substantial France-based network to help Muslim extremists make their way to Iraq to fight U.S.-led multinational forces there. However, there have been numerous arrests of suspected al Qaeda-linked cells in France. Six people are on trial in Paris in connection with an alleged al Qaeda-inspired plot to bomb the U.S. Embassy there. In neighboring Germany, numerous arrests linked to Iraq have been made recently. On Sunday, German security forces arrested two alleged al Qaeda members, an Iraqi and a Palestinian, accused of plotting an attack in Iraq. Earlier this month, German police arrested 22 people to break up an alleged network of Muslim extremists suspected of falsifying passports and spreading militant Islamic propaganda.
Posted by: Dan Darling || 01/26/2005 12:14:23 AM || Comments || Link || [1 views] Top|| File under:


German court remands al-Qaeda suspects in custody
Two men suspected of being al-Qaeda supporters have been remanded in custody by a German federal court in Karlsruhe, after they were arrested for allegedly plotting a suicide bombing in Iraq. Police say a 29-year-old Iraqi who had previously served as an al-Qaeda gunman in Afghanistan was believed to be recruiting for suicide attacks against US forces and the interim government in Iraq. A 31-year-old Palestinian medical student was believed to be the recruit who had agreed to "martyrdom" at the wheel of a car bomb.
He should really watch that VW Polo commercial before making a final decision...
German authorities say the Iraqi had attended al-Qaeda training camps in Afghanistan before the 11 September 2001 attacks on New York and Washington, and had spent a year in Afghanistan afterwards fighting US forces. Prosecutors said there was no indication the men were planning attacks in Germany, but they seemed to have used Europe as a safe haven in much the same way as the pilots who led the 9-11 suicide attacks on New York and Washington. In the western German city of Mainz where the Iraqi, identified as Ibrahim Mohamed K., was arrested Sunday, a police spokesman admitted to Deutsche Presse-Agentur dpa that K. had been vetted after the 2001 attacks, but police had missed warning signs. On SWR television, interior official Karl Peter Bruch said a tip- off from the public had led to months of surveillance of K. culminating in the arrest of the two men. Police discounted any connection with a visit to Mainz in four weeks by US President George W. Bush for talks with German Chancellor Gerhard Schroeder.
Posted by: Seafarious || 01/26/2005 00:00:00 AM || Comments || Link || [0 views] Top|| File under:


Fifth Column
Pakistani videotaper gets 6 months
via JihadWatch

Kamran Akhtar, suspected of having ties to terrorism after a police officer spotted him videotaping Charlotte's skyscrapers in July, was sentenced Monday to six months in prison.

Chief Judge Graham Mullen of the U.S. District Court in Charlotte gave the 36-year-old Pakistan native credit for the time he's already served in jail. That means Akhtar will now be turned over to immigration officials for deportation.

Akhtar has not been charged with any terrorism-related offenses, but he pleaded guilty in October to failing to leave the United States, possessing false identification documents and making false statements to investigators.

Akhtar turned down an opportunity to speak during Monday's sentencing hearing.

"Mr. Akhtar, do you have anything you would like to say?" the judge asked.

"No, sir," Akhtar replied.

U.S. Attorney Gretchen Shappert praised Charlotte-Mecklenburg police Officer Danny Maglione for spotting Akhtar filming uptown office towers.

"We deeply appreciate the vigilance of Officer Maglione in this matter and the subsequent work of federal law enforcement," Shappert said. "We will continue to pursue such matters whenever appropriate."

Defense attorney George Miller told reporters that Akhtar's wife and three children, who have been living in New York, will be reunited with his client in Pakistan.

"He definitely misses his family," Miller said. "It's been six months since he's seen his daughters."

Miller said he doesn't know how long it will be before Akhtar is deported.

"Nobody knows how long it will be before he's returned to Pakistan. It won't happen tonight. Hopefully, it'll happen very soon."

When Akhtar was detained in July, authorities announced that they had found a videotape in Akhtar's camera that showed the 60-story Bank of America tower and the former Wachovia Center, which houses the FBI's offices in Charlotte.

Authorities said Akhtar also had tapes showing buildings in the downtown areas of Atlanta, New Orleans, Dallas, Houston and Austin, Texas.

Akhtar's brother, Irfan Akhtar, told the Observer that Kamran Akhtar has been wrongfully accused and portrayed in the media as a terrorist. He said his brother is not a terrorist.

Irfan Akhtar, 33, said his older brother likes to take pictures of tourists spots and buildings and had been traveling the country after losing his job at a New York photo store.

Kamran Akhtar was indicted a month after his capture in Charlotte and charged with violating immigration law by failing to leave the United States in 1998 after a New York court found he was in the country illegally.

The indictment accused Akhtar of making false statements to investigators that he was in the United States legally, had a green card and had never been ordered deported. He also was charged with possession of false documents -- a New York driver's license and a Social Security card.

Federal prosecutors have said the investigation into Akhtar's activities is continuing.

But after Monday's sentencing, Miller told reporters he's confident Akhtar isn't involved in terrorism and doesn't think his client will be charged with any terrorism-related offenses.

The government, the defense lawyer said, has had six months to investigate Akhtar.

"They've checked out everything they could check out," Miller said. "They would have discovered something if there was something to find."
Posted by: ed || 01/26/2005 11:15:33 AM || Comments || Link || [0 views] Top|| File under:


Home Front: Politix
Condi Confirmed!
Condoleezza Rice won easy confirmation Wednesday to be President Bush's new secretary of state, despite strong dissent from a small group of Democrats who said she shares blame for mistakes and war deaths in Iraq. The Senate voted 85 to 13 to confirm Rice, who succeeds Colin Powell as America's top diplomat and becomes the first black woman to hold the job. Plans were made for her to be sworn in at the White House Wednesday night, take her place in the State Department Thursday morning and have a more elaborate swearing-in by Bush at the agency on Friday. The Senate vote showed some of the partisanship that delayed Rice's confirmation vote by several days. Twelve Democrats and independent James Jeffords of Vermont voted against Rice. The Democrats included some of the Senate's best-known members such as Massachusetts Democratic Sens. Edward M. Kennedy and John Kerry, who was the party's presidential candidate in last year's election. Thirty Democrats voted for her.
Posted by: Steve || 01/26/2005 12:25:37 PM || Comments || Link || [0 views] Top|| File under:

#1  I would look for a lot of votes to be around this count over the next couple of years. I was hoping that Boxer would break down in tears again and then stamp her feet. But I think Byrd and Teddy gave good performances.
Posted by: Cyber Sarge || 01/26/2005 12:39 Comments || Top||

#2  Over at DU, the moonbats are cursing any Dem who voted to confirm -- Barack Obama in particular -- as a sellout and a traitor and worse. One poster is touting Evan Bayh as Wesley Clark's (!) running mate for '08 because he was "courageous" enough to vote against Condi.

Condi in '08 -- Moonbatti delinda est!

Posted by: Mike || 01/26/2005 12:50 Comments || Top||

#3  "and John Kerry, who was the party's presidential candidate in last year's election"
He's getting closer to being a mere footnote with each passing week.
Posted by: Tom || 01/26/2005 12:55 Comments || Top||

#4  Good for Obama. The Senate's still no place to launch a presidential bid, but the young fella's showing a degree of intelligence that's rarely found among his elders in the Dem Party.
Posted by: lex || 01/26/2005 12:55 Comments || Top||

#5  Obama's a decent, honorable, rational member of the loyal opposition. Look for the moonbats to go after him with a vengeance -- with Robert Byrd (D-KKK) perhaps taking the lead.
Posted by: Mike || 01/26/2005 13:21 Comments || Top||

#6  Has Obama made any public statements about Condi? he should speak up, and start positioning himself as the rational alternative to Teddy/Kerry/Pelosi/Byrd
Posted by: lex || 01/26/2005 13:39 Comments || Top||

#7  Voted AGAINST:
Barbara Boxer, D-Calif.
Robert Byrd, D-W.Va.
Edward Kennedy, D-Mass.
John Kerry, D-Mass.
Carl Levin, D-Mich.
James Jeffords, I-Vt.
Jack Reed, D-R.I
Mark Dayton, D-Minn.
Daniel Akaka, D-Hawaii
Evan Bayh, D-Ind.
Frank Lautenberg, D-N.J.
Tom Harkin, D-Iowa
Richard Durbin, D-Ill.
Posted by: Tom || 01/26/2005 14:19 Comments || Top||

#8  Any chance of a headline tomorrow that reads "MASS SENATORS OPPOSE FIRST BLACK, FEMALE SEC STATE"?
Posted by: Robert Crawford || 01/26/2005 14:29 Comments || Top||

#9  lex, Obama spoke rather well during her hearings.

Kleagle, Dayton and Bayh all need to be remembered for this.
Posted by: Dishman || 01/26/2005 14:32 Comments || Top||

#10  It would be interesting to know if Sen KKK Byrd voted against Powell as he did Rice, Thomas, and Marshall.
Posted by: Mrs. Davis || 01/26/2005 14:34 Comments || Top||

#11  This will come back to haunt them next time they stand for re-election. Every single word. Bet.

Posted by: Mac Suirtain || 01/26/2005 14:34 Comments || Top||

#12  In your face, Boxer.
Posted by: Bomb-a-rama || 01/26/2005 15:02 Comments || Top||

#13  Looks like Master Rummy's been teaching Condi his secret "Eagle Claw" style...
Posted by: mojo || 01/26/2005 15:18 Comments || Top||

#14  Obama, known to Ginrose Ted as Osama (heh!) sounds like an independent thinker. The democrats desparately need people like him to survive politically and not go the way of the Whigs, for instance. If they give Obama too much crap, they will drive him to become a true independent or even a republican.
Posted by: Alaska Paul || 01/26/2005 15:39 Comments || Top||

#15  What? Comrad Murray (D-Wa) isn't on the list? I'm shocked!
Posted by: CrazyFool || 01/26/2005 15:53 Comments || Top||

#16  So Hilary voted Yes. As did DiFi, of course. And Chuck Schumer. And Lieberman, of course. And even Babs Mikulski. Obama was hardly alone, by any means.

Only disappointment was Evan Bayh. Angling for the Dean vote in 2008?
Posted by: Liberalhawk || 01/26/2005 15:54 Comments || Top||

#17  I hope so, AP, but Obama, Osama, come on pretty mama seems more like a typical mainstream Dem. Not a radical leftist like Boxer or Kerry, but not a centrist like Miller or (I hope) Salazar, either.
Posted by: jackal || 01/26/2005 16:18 Comments || Top||

#18  Moonbatti delinda est!

LOL! Your grammar sucks, Mike!

Moonbati delendi sunt!

or if you want singular:

Moonbatus delendus est!
Posted by: Sobiesky || 01/26/2005 16:38 Comments || Top||

#19  Could ya ask the cullid girl if this heah sheet makes me look fat?
Posted by: Senatuh Robert Byrd || 01/26/2005 18:00 Comments || Top||

#20  Sobiesky:

You coulda been a lot nicer about it.

;o)
Posted by: badanov || 01/26/2005 18:08 Comments || Top||

#21  DiFi is up for re-election in 2006. Unlike Babs 'Crybaby' Boxer she won't have Kerry's coattails to ride into office. Nothing against DiFi she is the smarter and more resonable of our two Commisars. I do hope the Republicans find somebody that can beat her, but i doubt it. The guy who ran against Boxer last year was on EVERY side of every issue and never took a stand. Kind of a Republican Kerry without the accent or money.
Posted by: Cyber Sarge || 01/26/2005 18:56 Comments || Top||

#22  Jim Jeffords true colors are coming through. Can't believe this guy used to call himself a Republican.
Posted by: Billy Hank || 01/26/2005 19:07 Comments || Top||

#23  Moonbat is then a default-masculine noun, Sobiesky? I would have assumed default-feminine, but its Trailing Daughter who is studying the language, not me. ;-)
Posted by: trailing wife || 01/26/2005 20:10 Comments || Top||

#24  TW, since it is a species that split/devolved from Homo Sapiens, then default-masculine would be in order. Of course, many fembats are represented, I would venture a guess that it is about 50 % of their population.
Posted by: Sobiesky || 01/26/2005 20:29 Comments || Top||

#25  I would guess that a fair percentage of the male moonbatus share a lot of common sensibilities (fashion sense? hairstyles?) with the females
;-)~
Posted by: Frank G || 01/26/2005 20:35 Comments || Top||

#26  Frank, usually also they indulge in all sorts of perforations with external implants, very often rings. Perhaps an expression of their yearning to be domesticated?
That would explain their leaning towards Islamofascists, as they may be perceived as ideal domesticators and excellent butchers.
Posted by: Sobiesky || 01/26/2005 20:51 Comments || Top||

#27  OMG! Frank, Sobiesky, I just nearly fell out of my chair because of you two. This is the other reason I can't stay away from Rantburg :-)))
Posted by: trailing wife || 01/26/2005 20:58 Comments || Top||

#28  we try. People are always telling me that I'm a trying guy....
Posted by: Frank G || 01/26/2005 21:07 Comments || Top||

#29  TW, glad to oblige. You've probably noticed that I enjoy your insights as well. ;-)
Posted by: Sobiesky || 01/26/2005 21:27 Comments || Top||

#30  At the pleading of my mother, some clarification:

Moonbatus is a second declension noun that can be used as either masculine or feminine depending on the subject, similar to canis, canis, m./f. The adjective delendus would therefore match the the noun in gender, so that depending on the subject described it would either be delendus or delenda. If you were anal about getting all the possible information into one sentence, I believe you would have to put in the pronoun illa, meaning she, or illus, meaning he. However, when we're talking about the Moonbatus delendus species, it would by default be masculine. So Sobiesky is right.

I'm currently carrying a 94 percent in my Latin I class. Were it not for the fact that I lose my homework my teacher would have entreated me to move up to Latin II. But I digress.
Posted by: Trailing daughter of the trailing wife || 01/26/2005 22:00 Comments || Top||

#31  Sobiesky, when you talk about perforations, implants and rings, you mean like this guy?
Posted by: Dave D. || 01/26/2005 22:16 Comments || Top||

#32  Ladies and germs, you see what I am up against here at home. And she is only 14. And has a younger sister. God help their husbands.

To conclude, Mike's sentence then should read either
Moonbatus delendus illus est.
or
Moonbatus delenda illa est.

Yes?
Posted by: trailing wife || 01/26/2005 22:16 Comments || Top||

#33  CAUTION! Rantburg is addictive.
Posted by: John Q. Citizen || 01/26/2005 22:21 Comments || Top||

#34  Jim Jeffords true colors are coming through. Can't believe this guy used to call himself a Republican.

He is from Vermont...
Posted by: Raj || 01/26/2005 22:43 Comments || Top||

#35  Kill the milk collective bill. Payback's a bitch, as these a-holes should discover. What are they gonna do? Hate Bush more?
Posted by: Frank G || 01/26/2005 22:50 Comments || Top||

#36  "What are they gonna do? Hate Bush more?"

Dude, that's a high bar. Hope they can do the Fosbury Flop.
Posted by: Raj || 01/26/2005 22:54 Comments || Top||

#37  TW, no. :-) That would be probably Latin II.

1. 'delendus' is a future gerundive participle, not an adjective.

The translation is roughly:
Moonbat must be erased.

Compare: Carthago delenda est.
(Cities/towns were female-default)

2. Since we are talking a species, default is masculine, as already agreed. There is not need to insert pronouns, they are used only when you point out something (with your index finger as it were, an emphasis, but then it will be in the first place in the sentence). It is often used when the noun has been mentioned in the previous sentence/paragraph and you don't want to repeat it as the context is clear.

So,

Moonbatus femina delenda est, in the case you want to make it clear that a single fembat is what you have on mind, or in plural: Moonbatus feminae delendae sunt.

That concludes today's Latin lesson. :-)
Posted by: Sobiesky || 01/26/2005 22:59 Comments || Top||

#38  Hmmm, I just did a long article about why the Dummycritters are in a death spiral from 50k to zero with no intelligent control, and then they do something like this in the Senate and verify everything I said. I also fisked Ted Kennedy's speech to the National Press CurbClub a little farther down (Ted Kennedy Wrong about Everything - again). Either yesterday or today, old Jonah sKerry was caught carrying bourbon and water for Kennedy on his Medicare for Everyone fiasco. You can only look at the Dummycritters and weep - that it's taking too long for these idiots to die off! The Dinosaurs went quickly, why can't these morons?
Posted by: Old Patriot || 01/26/2005 23:06 Comments || Top||

#39  spite?
Posted by: Frank G || 01/26/2005 23:07 Comments || Top||

#40  read your post Mike.
"The Democratic Party is still living in the 1960's. After 9/11, the 60's era politics have no relevance to the world we all have to live in"

true, but the primaries they have to win in - that's the activists, so you have a guy like Bayh, who's been fairly centrist and reasonable, shifting to his left to have a chance in the primaries in '08. That will undo him and others with the general electorate if the Reps offer a feasible acceptable alternative. They kill themselves until they realize their base SUCKS in the eyes of most Americans
Posted by: Frank G || 01/26/2005 23:12 Comments || Top||

#41  Dave D., yup, although it is usually somewhat milder version. This one is screaming "domesticate me!" from the top of his lungs.
Posted by: Sobiesky || 01/26/2005 23:16 Comments || Top||

#42  Sobiesky, I'll pass that information on to trailing daughter. She assumed without checking that delendus derived from whatever Latin word means lunatic, lit. Crazy Moonbat and took it from there, basing her argument on the formation of the species name homo sapian. She really is bad about forgetting her homework -- we've been fighting it for years. Probably one reason she's so good at this stuff is that she has to quickly re-do it so very often. (And of course, its approximately the 7th foreign language she's been exposed to, the 3rd she's studied formally, which makes it easier.) But it is lots of fun, so that's ok.

As for Dave D's picture, I'm surprised all that weight of metal hasn't caused his face to literally fall of his skull. (Ick)
Posted by: trailing wife || 01/26/2005 23:56 Comments || Top||


Home Front: WoT
A Pack, Not a Herd (not really WoT, but close)
EFL
Passengers jumped in to help restrain an unruly traveler on a flight from Philadelphia to West Palm Beach before the plane landed, authorities said.

A flight attendant on Southwest flight 2161 asked passenger Christopher Egyed, (37, of Philadelphia)to quiet down because he was disturbing other passengers, said Palm Beach County Sheriff's spokesman Paul Miller. What kind of a name is Egyed, I wonder?

The man later made threats and headed toward the pilot's cabin, and after a flight attendant tried to stop him in the aisle, a group of passengers helped detain him, Miller said.

Sheriff's deputies took Egyed into custody after the plane landed at Palm Beach International Airport Tuesday night. The FBI later arrested him on a federal charge of interfering with the operation of a flight crew.

No one was hurt during the incident.
Posted by: Trailing daughter of the trailing wife || 01/26/2005 11:17:22 PM || Comments || Link || [1 views] Top|| File under:

#1  What kind of a name is Egyed, I wonder?
TD, try Hungarian (Magyar).
Posted by: GK || 01/26/2005 23:47 Comments || Top||

#2  I believe Vincent Price played him on Batman in the 60's
Posted by: Frank G || 01/26/2005 23:51 Comments || Top||


Man arrested for Boston terror plot hoax
The man who gave San Diego FBI agents a phony tip about a terrorist plot in Boston is behind bars Tuesday, 10News reported. Mexican police arrested Jose Beltran Quinones in Mexicali, Mexico, Monday. Beltrans claimed that he helped a group of Chinese nationals illegally cross into the United States from Mexico. According to his tip, they were intent on detonating a dirty bomb in Boston. Beltrans is now being questioned by U.S. and Mexican officials about his motives.
Posted by: Dan Darling || 01/26/2005 1:23:30 AM || Comments || Link || [1 views] Top|| File under:


FBI: Boston Terror Threat Was False Alarm
The FBI said Tuesday that the possible terrorist plot reported against Boston by a tipster last week was a false alarm. A law enforcement official in Mexico said that a suspected smuggler made the story up to get back at people who failed to pay him.

"There were in fact no terrorist plans or activity under way," an FBI statement said. "Because the criminal investigation is ongoing, no further details can be provided at this time."

Jose Ernesto Beltran Quinones was detained over the weekend in Mexicali, a Mexican border town near San Diego. His son, also named Jose, was detained Monday. According to a law enforcement official there, the two men were involved in smuggling Chinese immigrants across the border and told investigators that smugglers had squabbled over a deal, and that one had anonymously called in the false tip to U.S. authorities as revenge. The source, who asked not to be named, did not say which smuggler had made the call. snip

The two were later released; relatives at their houses told reporters Tuesday that they were not at home.

The FBI statement did not say whether Quinones and his son had provided the information that allowed the threat to be ruled out, but the bureau did thank Mexican law enforcement agencies for their help. snip
Posted by: trailing wife || 01/26/2005 1:42:41 AM || Comments || Link || [0 views] Top|| File under:

#1  Michelle Malkin's blog had some interesting followup:
1. Afzal Hameed and Taylor were married in 1980 (they were 23 (Hameed) and 45 (Taylor) respectively. Green card marriage?).

2. Hameed, is president of Alpha Tango Flying Services in San Antonio, which trains pilots and mechanics. Alpha Tango Flying Services--which, by the way, caters to Saudi Arabian flight students.

3. Among their clients were three Arab flight students investigated by the FBI, including Al Qaeda operative Abdul Hakim Murad , who was arrested in Manila in 1995 and later convicted in New York of plotting to blow up a dozen U.S. airliners over the Pacific, then crash a suicide plane into CIA headquarters. The FBI has been keeping tabs on Alpha Tango since Sept. 11.
Posted by: ed || 01/26/2005 11:55 Comments || Top||

#2  Green card for him, love match (at long last!) for her.
Posted by: trailing wife || 01/26/2005 14:16 Comments || Top||

#3  A Mexican man who reported Boston was targeted for a terrorist nuclear attack confessed he fabricated the story to take revenge on a man who stiffed him in a deal to smuggle illegal aliens, a source said. ``He's admitted it's all a hoax,'' said a law enforcement source familiar with the investigation of Jose Ernesto Beltran Quinones, who was taken into custody Monday along with his son in Mexicali by Mexican police and interviewed by the FBI. ``He admitted he was trying to get back at his employer, who is a human smuggler,'' said the source.
FBI officials in Washington, D.C., released a statement saying Beltran's telephone report last week that two Iraqis and four Chinese nationals planned to detonate a nuclear device in Boston ``had no credibility.'' The FBI had no comment on whether Beltran will face criminal charges. An official in Mexico told the Associated Press that Beltran and his son Jose were released because they had obtained a court injunction preventing their arrest. According to a statement released last night by the Mexican Attorney General's Office, Beltran denied being a smuggler but admitted making the bogus 911 call to the California Highway Patrol Jan. 17. He said he was drunk and under the influence of drugs at the time but the call ``was only a joke.''
Posted by: Steve || 01/26/2005 14:36 Comments || Top||

#4  The FBI has been keeping tabs on Alpha Tango since Sept. 11
Riiiggght. Keeping tabs sounds very tough.

the bureau did thank Mexican law enforcement agencies for their help
But of course. If this tip had not turned out to be bogus, no doubt Meuller and Ridge would have thanked the illegal alien smuggler for his help, perhaps even recommending that he get the medal of honor.

This open borders crap makes me crazy. It is a tragedy that is waiting to happen and when it does the finger of blame should point directly at GWB's policy with Mexico. GWB is worse than Clinton ever was. GWB pretty much put out a welcome mat to illegals when he pre-prematurely announced his "compassionate" guest worker plan last January. GWB should have asked Germany and France about how wonderbar their guest worker programs turned out to be before announcing this doomed policy for his own country.

There is no other country in the world that tolerates the level of contempt for its sovereignity that Mexico shows America 24/7.

How can GWB speak with a straight face about threats to America from without while at the same time condoning a porous border with a nation that can be used as an easy conduit for nationals from S. America, the ME, and Asia that are rabidly anti-USA? Mexico itself has a growing population of anti-American folks and couple that with its nation's well known levels of corruption, is a recipe for a disaster.
Posted by: 2xstandard || 01/26/2005 15:04 Comments || Top||

#5  Green card for him, love match (at long last!) for her.

Thanks for the chuckle, TW.
Posted by: badanov || 01/26/2005 15:06 Comments || Top||


HarperCollins retracts book's claim on Saudi man
NEW YORK - HarperCollins Publishers Inc. Tuesday retracted allegations made in its book "The Terror Timeline" that accused a Saudi billionaire of helping fund al Qaeda and Osama bin Laden, saying it now has no evidence of any such connection. The allegations were made against businessman Mohammed Hussein Al Amoudi, one of the world's richest men, in the book "The Terror Timeline" written by Paul Thompson and published by HarperCollins's ReganBooks imprint last September. They "were based on previously published reports that were subsequently retracted," the publisher said in a statement.

HarperCollins, owned by the Rupert Murdoch-controlled News Corp., declined to answer questions about its retraction. Neither the author or representatives for Al Amoudi were available for comment. The book had been released despite the fact that publishers elsewhere who had made similar allegations against Al Amoudi had retracted them after being sued.

"HarperCollins is aware of no evidence to suggest that Mr. Al Amoudi has ever supported, advocated, or financed Osama bin Laden, the al Qaeda terrorist network, terrorism or terrorist groups," the publisher added. HarperCollins said it would print an errata slip for copies in bookstores and said it would delete any reference to Al Amoudi in a revised printing of the book. The company's statement did not say whether it would pay damages.
Sounds like a first-class screw-up on vetting. Wonder if Mary Mapes was involved?
On Jan. 27, 2004, British publisher Pluto Press withdrew from circulation its book "Reaping the Whirlwind Afghanistan," which made almost identical allegations against Al Amoudi. In its retraction, Pluto said, its allegations constituted "an extremely serious defamation of Mr. Al Amoudi." The publisher said it had agreed to pay "substantial damages."

Several large American newspapers, including USA Today and the Boston Herald, have corrected articles about Al Amoudi's business connections or alleged links to funding terror.
Posted by: Steve White || 01/26/2005 12:17:27 AM || Comments || Link || [0 views] Top|| File under:

#1  ... or maybe he threatened to sue them in the UK, where the truth is not a defense.
Posted by: Dishman || 01/26/2005 1:08 Comments || Top||

#2  he definitely threatened to sue them for libel in england where he also lives-- he wears a "golden chain" bigger than mr. T--fred--will you accept service of process for me?
Posted by: SON OF TOLUI || 01/26/2005 2:52 Comments || Top||

#3  Well there might be something about smoke being where fire is buried someplace in this story but it is behind this story perhaps.
Posted by: Sock Puppet of Doom || 01/26/2005 3:42 Comments || Top||


Judge bars terror evidence against Yemeni sheikh
In an important victory for a Yemeni sheik charged with financing terrorism, a federal judge yesterday prevented prosecutors from introducing what they have described as vital evidence during their initial presentation to the jury. The judge in federal court in Brooklyn, Sterling Johnson Jr., ruled that the prosecutors cannot display three items they have said are their only corroboration for secretly recorded conversations in which they say the sheik and an aide plotted to take money for terrorist organizations. In arguing unsuccessfully to persuade the judge to change his mind, a prosecutor, Kelly Moore, said the items the judge barred yesterday were "a significant part of the government's evidence in this case."

The ruling was important because the items the judge banned were the prosecutors' only way of proving that the defendants' supposed plan to take money for Al Qaeda and Hamas was part of a long-running effort to provide financial support to terrorist organizations. The sheik, Mohammed Ali Hassan al-Moayad, 56, and his aide, Mohammed Mohsen Yahya Zayed, 31 are charged with conspiracy and providing financial support for Al Qaeda and Hamas. The ruling, which created palpable anxiety among the prosecutors, said the prosecutors cannot show jurors an application of a mujahedeen fighter for entry into an Al Qaeda training camp. The prosecutors said the application, found in Afghanistan in 2001, listed Sheik Moayad as the fighter's sponsor. The ruling also stopped prosecutors from introducing into evidence address books taken from two Muslim fighters in Bosnia in 1996. The prosecutors said the books included entries for Sheik Moayad. Judge Johnson said that "we don't know what the source" of the Al Qaeda application was and that the address books were from a time too remote from the alleged fund-raising by the sheik in 2003. Judge Johnson said they dated back to before Al Qaeda was listed as a terrorist organization by the United States government.

The third item he banned during the prosecution's initial presentation was a videotape of a wedding in Yemen that the prosecutors said included images of Sheik Moayad cheering about the death of Jews in a Hamas terrorist attack in Israel. Focusing on a central vulnerability for the prosecutors, Judge Johnson noted that the videotape was taken by the prosecution's main informer, Mohamed Alanssi. Mr. Alanssi drew attention to a history that included bad debts and legal troubles when he set himself on fire outside the White House in November. After that act, the prosecutors suggested they would not call Mr. Alanssi as a witness. Yesterday, Judge Johnson said the prosecutors could not show the wedding videotape unless Mr. Alanssi testified. "If the informant wants to come in and testify as to what he saw and observed, I'll allow it," Judge Johnson said from the bench. Pressed by Judge Johnson, Ms. Moore said more definitively than she has before that the prosecutors were "not planning" to call Mr. Alanssi as a witness.
Continued on Page 49
Posted by: Dan Darling || 01/26/2005 12:12:40 AM || Comments || Link || [0 views] Top|| File under:

#1  Is that your traditional curved throat-cutting dagger, or are you just glad to see me?
Posted by: mojo || 01/26/2005 18:00 Comments || Top||


Southeast Asia
Thailand's most-wanted terrorist separatist arrested
Prime Minister Thaksin Shinawatra says Thailand's most-wanted man, an alleged Muslim separatist, has been arrested in neighbouring Malaysia and the kingdom will seek to extradite him. Authorities have alleged that Doramae Kuteh, also known as Chae Kumae Kuteh, was the mastermind behind a January 4, 2004 arms depot raid that reignited unrest in Thailand's Muslim-majority south.
Is a guy named Dora Mae kinda like a Boy Named Sue?
The unrest has left at least 570 people dead. "Absolutely we want him extradited back here as he has been involved with many incidents," Mr Thaksin said. "He has been the real mastermind [behind the unrest] including last year's robbery of government-owned weapons." He did not elaborate on how and when the suspect was arrested but confirmed that he was captured alone and under Malaysia's Internal Security Act, which allows suspects to be detained without trial, for also posing a threat there. "We are coordinating with Malaysia to determine his nationality but initially we will take part in investigations and we are now checking for evidence as well as on his Thai nationality," he said.

Doramae Kuteh is wanted for premeditated murder and inciting a guerrilla movement, and had a bounty of five million baht ($A169,000) on his head. Mr Thaksin says another alleged separatist known as Sapae-ing had, meanwhile, made contact with authorities here. "Sapae-ing has contacted authorities to turn himself in, but on condition of being granted bail. After the elections I will go to the south to personally oversee the crackdown," he said. Both developments are likely to mean an improvement in the restive southern provinces bordering Malaysia ahead of February 6 elections. Security forces have struggled to quell the Islamic insurgency that erupted in the area after the January raid. The unrest has comprised almost daily attacks on police, troops, government officials and teachers at state schools. Buddhist monks and villagers have also been killed. It also led to tensions with Malaysia after Mr Thaksin claimed in December that Thai militants were training in the neighbouring country's jungles. Mr Thaksin later backed off from the comments, claiming they had been distorted by the media.
Posted by: Steve || 01/26/2005 10:17:43 AM || Comments || Link || [0 views] Top|| File under:

#1  excellllenntt

(/monty burns)
Posted by: Frank G || 01/26/2005 12:15 Comments || Top||


US to back Philippines against MILF
The United States will back President Gloria Arroyo in the fight against breakaway Muslim militant groups threatening fragile peace talks in the southern Philippines, its envoy to Manila said on Monday.

US ambassador Francis Ricciardone said negotiations between the Moro Islamic Liberation Front (MILF) and the government were being made difficult by many groups claiming to be legitimate separatist rebels. While the ongoing peace negotiations brokered by Malaysia to end the MILF's 28-year insurgency were welcome, Ricciardone said Washington would provide military support against those continuing to carry out attacks.

He said 70 US military personnel were training troops in the southern Philippines in intelligence gathering, leading to the arrest or killing of "25 identified, known, no-doubt-about it terrorist leaders" last year.

Development assistance would also continue in the mostly poverty-stricken southern Mindanao island and in Muslim areas, he said.

"Our concern is not merely to get a piece of paper ... a peace accord. What we want to see is a peace (agreement) that will be durable and that will permit development to go ahead," Ricciardone told foreign correspondents.

But if certain elements of the MILF were "going to hide bombers from Bali, or train bombers or hide kidnappers, or get involved in the drug trade, the law enforcement and security forces of the Philippines are going to go after them and we are going to help them," Ricciardone said."We are going to help, we are going to keep making inroads, and the kidnappers and bombers at the end of the day are going to lose," he said. Renegade MILF rebels two weeks ago attacked and burned to the ground an army detachment in Mindanao, where the guerrillas have been waging a war for independence since 1978.

War games: The United States will drastically scale down its participation in annual joint military exercises with the Philippines as it diverts resources to relief efforts after the Indian Ocean tsunami, US officials said on Monday. zThe Philippines, fighting protracted rebellions by communist rebels and Muslim separatists, has cemented its close security alliance with Washington with the annual "Balikatan" (shoulder-to-shoulder) exercises.

US military spokesman Captain Dennis Williams told Reuters only 300 US soldiers are expected to participate in the exercises, likely to start around Feb. 13, down from the usual number of about 2,600.
Posted by: Dan Darling || 01/26/2005 12:46:17 AM || Comments || Link || [0 views] Top|| File under:


Sulu town mayor assassinated
Gunmen shot dead a town vice mayor and his security aide in the province of Sulu, some 950 kilometers south of Manila, in an attack blamed by the military on family feud.

Pata Vice Mayor Adjili Abbas and his bodyguard were killed on Saturday morning outside the official's house.

Authorities only reported the incident on Tuesday, but officials said security forces were sent to the town to track down the attackers.

"There is an going operation now. Soldiers and policemen were in the town to hunt the assailants," military anti-terror task force commander Brig. Gen. Agustin Dema-ala said.

He said Abbas rushed outside his house after hearing burst of gunfire, but was also shot by unidentified assailants.

His unidentified bodyguard, who came to help, was also shot dead, Dema-ala said.

The motive of the attack was still unknown, but Dema-ala said they were looking at the possibility that a family feud or personal grudge may have sparked the shooting.

"There is an investigation, the police are handling that case," he said.

It was not immediately known if the Abu Sayyaf group, which is known to actively operate in Sulu, had something to do with the murder.
Posted by: Dan Darling || 01/26/2005 12:43:32 AM || Comments || Link || [0 views] Top|| File under:


Philippines to deport Saudi man
The Philippine government will deport a Saudi man arrested in the southern Philippines on suspicion of having terror links. He was tagged as a financier for the militant group Abu Sayyaf, blamed by authorities for a spate of bombings and kidnappings in the strife-torn region, officials said yesterday.

Airport police and immigration agents, backed by marine soldiers, arrested Mohammad Abdullah Sughayer at the Zamboanga City International Airport when he arrived from Manila on Jan. 17, after his name was included in the government's watch list.

Filipino Immigration chief Alipio Fernandez said the Saudi national was positively identified by a detained militant Muhammad Umug as one of the financiers of Abu Sayyaf chieftain Khadaffy Janjalani.

Authorities linked Umug to a series of bomb attacks in the southern Philippines.

"Sughayer has been positively identified by one neutralized member of the Abu Sayyaf — Muhammad Umog — as the one who is also giving financial support to Janjalani's family (in Basilan island)," Fernandez said at a news conference yesterday in Manila.

Television footage yesterday also showed the heavily bearded Sughayer, clad in a dark-colored shirt and pants, covering his face with a newspaper while avoiding dozens of reporters and photographers, who waited for him at the immigration office in Manila. Two security men were spotted escorting Sughayer.

Police intelligence chief Ismael Rafanan cleared the foreigner and said they had no evidence to link him to Al-Qaeda or terrorist groups in the southern Philippines. "He is not a member of the Al-Qaeda and he is not a terrorist," Rafanan told reporters in Manila. But Fernandez said he would still deport Sughayer. "We have reports from the intelligence community about Sughayer, we should be extra careful here and we will deport him back to Saudi Arabia," Fernandez told Arab News.

He said Sughayer remains in the immigration blacklist and had violated immigration laws. "Sughayer is also facing administrative charges and enough grounds to expel him," he said without elaborating.

Sughayer, who claimed to be a businessman, was initially interrogated in Zamboanga City, but flown back to Manila a day after his arrest where he was further investigated. He was in Indonesia before he entered the Philippines, authorities said. A local newspaper Sunstar Zamboanga on Monday ran a story about Sughayer and linked him to the Al-Qaeda network. It said the man, described as a wealthy businessman, traveled to Zambonga to link up or help finance the terror activities of the local militant group Abu Sayyaf, tagged by authorities as behind the series of bombings, killings and kidnappings in the southern Philippines.

It quoted unnamed security sources as saying that Sughayer was an Abu Sayyaf financier. Other reports said Sughayer is the finance officer of the Al-Qaeda cells in Southeast Asia. He allegedly put up several non-governmental organizations in the Philippines which authorities said are being used to channel funds to terrorists in the south.
Posted by: Dan Darling || 01/26/2005 12:16:52 AM || Comments || Link || [0 views] Top|| File under:

#1  "Beat it. Don't come back. Our next conversation will be extremely short, and one-sided."
Posted by: mojo || 01/26/2005 2:12 Comments || Top||


Alert out on JI terrorists posing as fishers
Indonesian and Malaysian mem­bers of the militant Je­maah Islamiah are posing as fishermen to enter into the Philippines, Malaysian intelligence said. In a report sent to the military, the Malaysian intelligence service said the militants were arrested aboard Philippine-registered fishing boats off the coast of Indonesia's Sumatra Island. The boat carried registration documents issued by the maritime office in the Autonomous Region in Muslim Mindanao. "At least two had figured in the Bali incident and bomb attacks in Indonesia last year," a ranking military official told The Manila Times Tuesday. He said Malaysia has "advised" the Navy and the Coast Guard to inspect fishing boats and their crew to prevent foreign militants from slipping into the country. The Armed Forces disclosed an "unholy alliance" between the Moro Islamic Liberation Front, the Jemaah Islamiah—which seeks to establish an Islamic state in Indonesia, Malaysia and Mindanao—and the Abu Sayyaf. Jemaah Islamiah bomb experts have been training MILF fighters in using explosives; the MILF and the Abu Sayyaf provide security for the foreigners.
Posted by: Fred || 01/26/2005 00:00:00 || Comments || Link || [0 views] Top|| File under:


Syria-Lebanon-Iran
Syrian accused of funding insurgents, al-Qaeda
The United States on Tuesday accused a Syrian of bankrolling Al Qaeda and rebels in Iraq, a first step toward an international freeze on his bank transfers and travel. The US Treasury said Sulayman Khalid Darwish provides money and material to Al Qaeda and its group in Iraq, led by Abu Musab al-Zarqawi. "This terrorist financier is helping support Zarqawi, who has launched violent acts against our troops, coalition partners and the Iraqi people," Treasury Secretary John Snow said in a statement. "Identifying financial operatives and choking off the flow of blood money moves us closer to our ultimate goal of fracturing the financial backbone of the Iraqi insurgency and Al Qaeda," he said.

Darwish lives in Syria and is a member of Zarqawi's advisory council, the statement said. He was also trained in Afghanistan in weapons, topography, artillery, electronics and explosives, according to the Treasury, which also said he is an expert document forger. Darwish sent 10,000 to 12,000 dollars to Zarqawi in Iraq every 20-15 days, carried by suicide attack volunteers entering Iraq, the statement said.
Posted by: Dan Darling || 01/26/2005 12:03:31 AM || Comments || Link || [0 views] Top|| File under:

#1  Studious youth, wasn't he!
Posted by: trailing wife || 01/26/2005 20:33 Comments || Top||

#2  wouldn't it be better to assassinate him? Say, maybe, like... cut his head off on video? Then mail it Assad
Posted by: Frank G || 01/26/2005 20:39 Comments || Top||


Israel-Palestine
Police kill Hamas fugitive in Kalkilya
JPost - Reg Req'd - posting it all - Apparently some snuffies aren't exempt...
Israel Police special forces operating Wednesday in the West Bank city of Kalkilya killed Hamas fugitive Maher Abu-Sneineh and wounded two of his assistants. During the operation, security forces spotted Abu-Sneineh together with two others riding in a car in the center of the city. The troops identified Abu-Sneineh and one of the passengers as Fatah Tanzim fugitive Mohammed Hamis Yusef Amar. The forces chased the car in order to arrest them. When the car slowed down the fugitives ignored calls to surrender and attempted to flee. The officers then opened fire killing Abu-Sneineh and wounding Amar. A third passenger who was in the car with them, identified as Mohammed al Basha, was also wounded.
nice shooting Avner!
The two, who sustained serious wounds, were taken to hospital in Israel. According to the army, Abu-Sneineh, in the past, planned to launch a suicide bomb attack in Israel but after his Hamas commander was killed, he took over the role and was involved in recruiting others to launch attacks.

In response to the incident, masked Palestinians in Gaza who said they represented the Al Aqsa Brigades threatened to renew attacks if Israel did not stop such operations within 24 hours.
Posted by: Frank G || 01/26/2005 10:01:23 PM || Comments || Link || [0 views] Top|| File under:


Iraq-Jordan
15,000 hard boyz captured or killed in 2004
U.S. and Iraqi forces have killed or captured 15,000 people over the past year in their fight against an insurgency ravaging Iraq, the commander of U.S. forces in the country said Wednesday.

In the past month alone, they had seized around 60 leaders of the various Islamist and Baathist groups trying to drive the Americans from the war-torn country, General George Casey said.

Speaking on the deadliest day for U.S. troops since the invasion in 2003, Casey said the insurgency was limited to just four of Iraq's 18 provinces.

But he conceded that the number of car and suicide bombs had increased and that Iraqi security forces were not capable of dealing with the violence themselves.

"If you look back over the last year we estimate we have killed or captured about 15,000 people as part of this counter-insurgency," Casey, the only four-star American general in Iraq, told reporters.

"Just in this month we have picked up around 60 key members of the Zarqawi network and key members of the former regime," he said, referring to the group led by al Qaeda's leader in Iraq, Jordanian Abu Musab al-Zarqawi.

"The level of violence in 14 of the 18 provinces in Iraq is four incidents or arrests a day," said Casey, who commands 150,000 U.S. troops. "It is primarily confined to four provinces. It has not spread to 80 percent of the population."

He said the level of violence had subsided since its peak in November last year -- the deadliest month for U.S. troops since the campaign to oust Saddam Hussein began.

Casey, whose father was the most senior U.S. general to die in the Vietnam War, said he expected further attacks Sunday, when Iraq goes to the polls in a historic election Zarqawi and his followers have vowed to disrupt.

"I would see most of the violence in the Sunni areas and a good part of it in the Baghdad area," Casey said. "I would expect low levels of violence in the Shi'ite areas."

He said that while Iraq had 130,000 trained and equipped soldiers and police officers, they were not ready to take over from the Americans.

"Are they (the Iraqis) capable of taking over the counter-insurgency campaign today? The answer is no," he said. "And if you ask the Iraqis, they understand that."

Casey described the insurgents as an assortment of Islamists, Saddam loyalists, common criminals and foreign fighters -- although he said the foreigners numbered less than 1,000.

He scotched rumors, fueled by the refusal of the interim government to confirm or deny them, that Zarqawi had been captured.

"I don't have him," Casey said.
Posted by: Dan Darling || 01/26/2005 1:32:04 PM || Comments || Link || [0 views] Top|| File under:

#1  "I don't have him" at its broadest means "he's not in the custody of American forces". It could mean "he's still on the loose", "the Iraqis have him", "some other country has him", or even "he's gone to hell". It does not constitute "scotched".
Posted by: Dishman || 01/26/2005 13:43 Comments || Top||

#2  Seems like he would have said "We don't have him" if he intended to include the iraqi's. Of course, he could just be having fun with the press.
Posted by: Laurence of the Rats || 01/26/2005 16:39 Comments || Top||

#3  Since we're starting to play capture and release, the meaningful number is how many are deaders.
Posted by: Mrs. Davis || 01/26/2005 17:13 Comments || Top||

#4  of the 15,000, does anyone have a handle on how many have been released (even better, how many were released and rearrested)
Posted by: mhw || 01/26/2005 19:49 Comments || Top||

#5  "I don't have him" could also mean, "My people don't have him." It doesn't speak to the CIA, or even a special interrogation unit offsite somewhere (Ghost Jet, anyone?).
Posted by: trailing wife || 01/26/2005 20:21 Comments || Top||


Baathists allied with al-Qaeda to derail Iraqi elections
Al-Qaeda and Baathist supporters of ousted president Saddam Hussein have formed a "marriage of convenience" to mount violent opposition to Sunday's Iraqi elections, a top US commander said.

Major General John Batiste, commander of US troops in the sector north of Baghdad that includes many insurgent hotspots, also warned that more suicide bombs and other attacks were likely during the landmark vote.

Batiste, head of the 1st Infantry Division, said more than 750 insurgents, including members of Al-Qaeda and foreign fighters, had been detained since January 1 in the four provinces in the sector -- Salaheddin, Diyala, Sulaimaniyah and Kirkuk's Tamim province.

During an interview late Tuesday with reporters at his office in a Tikrit palace formerly belonging to Saddam, Batiste named Al-Qaeda and its frontman in Iraq Abu Musab al-Zarqawi as the biggest threats to the election.

He said Osama bin Laden's group and Zarqawi want "to destroy what is going on at all costs. They don't care what they do."

Former supporters of the fallen dictator, whose hometown was Tikrit, are also behind trouble in the sector, which includes insurgent troublespots Baquba, Baiji and Samarra.

"So there are marriages of convenience between those people and Al-Qaeda and Zarqawi."

The general said the Iraqi people should know that "a vote on the 30th is a vote for Iraq and a vote against the insurgency and people have just got to step out."

Many voters fear attacks however and Batiste admitted that he could not guarantee their safety.

"Absolutely not. I wouldn't even begin to say that. But the Iraqi security forces are doing a credible job of setting this thing up for success."

The election will be surrounded by massive security measures, with nearly all cars banned from the streets, a nightly curfew and other restrictions.

But the general said the threat from suicide bombers mingling with voters was a major concern for US and Iraqi forces.

"It is very possible that we will see some of that -- the suicide jackets and everything," he said.

On election day, Iraqi police will guard polling stations, with the Iraqi army forming an outer security cordon and US forces playing a support role.

"On election day we will be everywhere and US quick reaction forces, 25,000 strong, are committed to ensuring that we have a good, safe and secure election. We will do whatever we need to assist Iraqi security forces."

The general said that since the start of the month more than 80 weapons and ammunition caches had been seized. "We have killed and wounded a good number of insurgents," he added.

"So the idea is that we are piling on pressure (on the enemy), we are disrupting his activity so that come election day he is back on his heels."
Posted by: Dan Darling || 01/26/2005 1:29:57 PM || Comments || Link || [0 views] Top|| File under:


Terrorist Scorecard: Profiles of 15 Jihadis Who Went to Fight In Iraq
The Foreign Mujahideen "Martyrs" of Iraq: '03-'04
Courtesy of: Evan Kohlmann

During 2003-2004, hundreds--perhaps thousands--of foreign fighters from across the Middle East, Asia, and even Europe traveled to Iraq to join Abu Musab al-Zarqawi and other militants in a jihad against the U.S. and its coalition allies.

These men include both trained Al-Qaida veterans from conflicts like Afghanistan, and Chechnya, and also less-experienced but still quite zealous young recruits. A Globalterroralert.com dossier is now available for download profiling a group of foreign mujahideen killed in Iraq during 2003-2004--including top commanders, reputed suicide bombers, and even one of the masked executioners of U.S. hostage Eugene Armstrong.

Posted by: Captain America || 01/26/2005 12:29:05 PM || Comments || Link || [0 views] Top|| File under:

#1  The best line comes right off the top:
Date of Death.
Posted by: tu3031 || 01/26/2005 13:54 Comments || Top||

#2  at least they are serving a useful purpose now...as fertilizer.
Posted by: anymouse || 01/26/2005 16:25 Comments || Top||


Africa: North
Egypt Islamist strikes inside his cell
An imprisoned Egyptian Islamic leader is staging a strike behind bars to protest authorities' refusal obey a court order to release him. Saudi daily al-Watan reported Wednesday Tarek al-Zumur, a leader of the Jihad organization and the cousin of the group's chief, said he would refuse to deal with wardens or receive visitors.
That'll teach them
Zumur has been held about two years beyond his prison sentence and a court ruling in December ordered his immediate release, but he remains jailed. Zumur's defense lawyer, Mamdouh Ismail said he is going to sue Interior Minister Brig. Habib al-Adli for breaching the law and resisting a court ruling. Ismail also threatened to lodge a complaint against Adli with the European Tribunal for Human Rights. Zumur was arrested in 1981 and convicted of complicity in the assassination of former Egyptian President Anwar Sadat and of reviving an outlawed organization. He was sentenced to 22 years in prison, which he completed at the end of 2002.
Posted by: Steve || 01/26/2005 9:41:03 AM || Comments || Link || [1 views] Top|| File under:

#1  Okay. Lock him in the cell and leave him alone. Wouldn't want to violate his right to privacy and piss off Human Rights Watch. Just make sure to check on him every six months or so
Posted by: tu3031 || 01/26/2005 17:14 Comments || Top||


Afghanistan/South Asia
Tales From The Bangladesh Police Blotter
Outlaw lynched in Bagerhat
Jan 25: An underground terrorist was lynched by mob at Putiya in Fakirhat upazila early hours today. Police said the villagers held Russel (30), recovered home-made bombs and leaflets of Purbo Banglar Communist Party (ML-Nutun Bangla) and lynched him. He hailed from Rupsa of Khulna district. At least 60 underground terrors, extortionists and dacoits were killed in mob beating, crossfire or internal clashes in Bagerhat district during the last nine months.

Cab driver found dead
Shyampur Thana police recovered a body yesterday from Shyampur in the city.
The dead was identified as Russel (22), a CNG-run taxi cab driver, son of Bachchu Miah, a resident of 82/7 Rasulpur at Dania under Shyampur police station. He hailed from Alexjandra of Barisal. According to police, on receipt of information, a group of Shyampur Thana police recovered a floating body from a pond at Kuderbazar of Muradpur under Shyampur police station at around 3.30pm yesterday. The body was sent to the morgue of Mitford Hospital for autopsy.
Police suspected that he was a close associate of the snatchers who were killed in crossfire with Demra Thana police in the night of January 21.
Perhaps he ratted them out, or was thought to have.
Majibur Rahman, owner of the CNG-run black taxi cab, identified him as Russel who was a driver of his taxi cab.
"Yeah, dat's him. He's looked better."

Abul Kalam killed in crossfire
Munshiganj: Abul Kalam alias Kalam Master, 28, one of the listed top terrors in the district, was killed in crossfire between the police and terrors in the early hours of on Tuesday here.
Bangla night shift at work again

Police said acting on a tip-off, a team of Detective Branch (DB) of Police arrested Kalam from a slum in Binodpur area of the town on Monday.
"Stick em up, Kalam! Youse comin' wid us!"
Following his confession, a team of Munshiganj Police along with Kalam went to Hudpara area of the town to recover arms at about 2 am.
That's ALT - F7 on the Bangla police computers
As soon as the police reached the area, the associates of Kalam opened fire on the police. The police returned fire in self-defence.
Control - F8

At one stage of the shootout, Kalam received fatal injury while trying to escape the custody. He was declared dead on arrival at Munshiganj Sadar Hospital.
ALT - F10

During the shootout, three constables of the police-Nazmul Islam, Subed Das and Shawkat Ali received injuries. The police recovered one rifle and 15 bullets from the spot. Police said Kalam Master, son of Abdur Razzak of village Naluabagi under Galachipa Upazila of Patuakhali district, has been engaged in terrorist activities in Rampal and Brajrayagini union of the Sadar Upazila of the district for a longtime. He was a close associate of terrorist Kala Babul, killed in crossfire here last year.
It's so hard to keep track
He was an accused in seven criminal cases including two for murder. He was also the main accused of sensational Basir murder case. Locals said the death of Kalam Master in crossfire has brought a sigh of relief for the local people.
"Huzza! Kalam is dead, drinks all around!"
A case was registered with Munshiganj Sadar Police in this connection.
Posted by: Steve || 01/26/2005 9:18:15 AM || Comments || Link || [0 views] Top|| File under:

#1  At least 60 underground terrors, extortionists and dacoits were killed in mob beating, crossfire or internal clashes in Bagerhat district during the last nine months.

Sounds like the Bagerhats have bought into the WOT.
Posted by: Ptah || 01/26/2005 15:17 Comments || Top||

#2  It's not a lynching it's citizen justice.

Crossfires got to love them.
Posted by: Sock Puppet of Doom || 01/26/2005 17:08 Comments || Top||


Israel-Palestine
But let's give them a State anyway.
from Debka
DEBKAfile's intelligence sources expose a uniquely brutal Palestinian atrocity committed and videotaped last Friday, Jan 21, by Fatah-al Aqsa Brigades in the main square of the Balata camp south of Nablus. Mohammad Mansur, 23, accused of collaborating with Israel, was not shot dead as Palestinians claimed; he was slowly dismembered. Knives and axes were used to chop off his fingers and toes first, then his limbs. No ambulance permitted to collect his remains, which were thrown into a dumpster. Nablus governor and Fatah leaders issued dire warning against revelation of this horror
Posted by: Classer || 01/26/2005 4:53:32 AM || Comments || Link || [0 views] Top|| File under:

#1  What they do not have enough fresh meat for the table in the Balata Camp?
Posted by: TomAnon || 01/26/2005 11:38 Comments || Top||

#2  Nablus governor and Fatah leaders issued dire warning against revelation of this horror

Let us know when the promised reprisals begin.
Posted by: Bomb-a-rama || 01/26/2005 11:41 Comments || Top||

#3  Not only do these folks imagine themselves legitimate and worthy partners for delivering a state to Palestine and peace to the Middle East through that move, their colleagues and supporters in the US and Europe also see nothing wrong with meeting and negotiating with them. Did that sink in-shaking hands and making bargains with people who chop off body parts?

On other strands, I've noticed a kind of sneering attitude on the part of a very few Rantburgers who think a refusal on the part of the US to negotiate with animals such as these is naive. So be it. In my book, people who chop off body parts are not people the US should be talking to in any capacity. Forget the talking. If this story is proven true, I hope Israel finds every last stinking Al-Aqsa member and eliminates him. And I pray that this administration will stand firm on what it has been doing right-refusing to meet with animals like this (as was the case with his refusal to work with Arafat).
Posted by: Jules 187 || 01/26/2005 12:32 Comments || Top||

#4  hmmm... You sound like a Jules I once worked for....ps r anting away..
Its seems to just be "Lord of the Flies" world in these Islamotopias.
Posted by: 3dc || 01/26/2005 13:49 Comments || Top||

#5  It's possible, if you've ever worked or lived in Illinois, California, Washington, New York City, or Latvia.

BTW-What does "ps r anting" mean?
Posted by: Jules 187 || 01/26/2005 13:58 Comments || Top||

#6  Illinois, but you would know what it meant if I had worked for you.. (- anting)
Course in the days I worked for a Jules I was known as the "burn" of "crash and burn".
Posted by: 3dc || 01/26/2005 18:14 Comments || Top||


Iraq-Jordan
US hunting for Zarqawi in Fallujah
US and Iraqi forces were searching for Al Qaeda-linked fugitive Abu Musab al-Zarqawi in the former rebel stronghold of Falluja on Monday after hearing that he had entered the city ahead of the Jan. 30 election.

"We have heard he entered Falluja in a six-car convoy. We hear lots of rumours but we are not dismissing this," Marine Captain Leonard Coleman told Reuters. "We are on the lookout for Zarqawi as we continue protecting the people of Falluja."

An Iraqi officer said he and a group of Marines had searched for Zarqawi on Monday morning after receiving tips that he was traveling in a convoy that included a Mercedes and a BMW.

"We have been searching houses with those types of cars in front of them. We have also been taking photographs of anyone driving BMWs and Mercedes for analysis and recording license plates," said the officer, who asked not to be named.

A US Marine officer told his men to take the reports seriously and be on alert for attacks.

Earlier this year he was believed to be hiding out in Falluja, a rebel stronghold to the west of Baghdad. Marines led an assault on the city in November to take it back from insurgents and in the hope of catching Zarqawi.

But Zarqawi wasn't found and remains elusive. On Sunday, an audio tape was posted on the Internet, purportedly from Zarqawi, declaring "all-out war" on Iraq's elections in a warning intended to scare away voters six days before the poll.

"If he is back in Falluja that means we can expect bombings on election day," said the Iraqi officer. "If he is back in Falluja that means the insurgents will be back. If he is back, he is here to destroy the elections."

US and Iraqi forces have boosted security around the city, 50 km (30 miles) west of Baghdad, ahead of the vote, Iraq's first multi-party elections in half a century.

City officials will set up polling stations for Falluja residents who have returned to the city since the November offensive, but their location will remain secret until just before voting because of fears of attack.
Posted by: Dan Darling || 01/26/2005 1:17:47 AM || Comments || Link || [0 views] Top|| File under:


Iraqi exiles planning to vote in defiance of Zarqawi in Zarqa
At first Talib al-Duleimi did not bother to register to vote in Iraq's elections. The longtime exile changed his mind after Iraq's most feared militant declared war on the balloting.

"This is our country," said al-Duleimi, 38, a businessman who left Iraq after deserting the army in the 1991 Gulf War. "We should not listen to threats coming from this or that person. Iraq comes first."

That's not an easy position to have in this Jordanian desert city, the hometown of Abu-Musab al-Zarqawi, al-Qaida's top operative in Iraq. Yet in interviews Monday with some of the 60,000 Iraqis living in Zarqa, many said they planned to vote in defiance of al-Zarqawi.

In the United States, al-Zarqawi rivals Osama bin Laden as public enemy No. 1. But many people here -- not the least al-Zarqawi's family and friends -- take pride in his uncompromising and violent interpretation of Islam. They refer to him as "son of our town" or "our townman."

Al-Zarqawi's nephew, Mohammed Fawzi, scoffed at Sunday's elections as an American ploy to bring Shiite Muslims to power. The Jordanian terror chief is a Sunni, the minority in Iraq that held sway under Saddam Hussein but who are likely to lose power to the Shiites in this weekend's vote.

Attacks on Shiite Muslims in Iraq have increased in recent weeks as Sunni Arab insurgents try scare Shiites away from polls, the first independent ballot in Iraq in nearly 50 years.

"Shiites are infidels and they should be burned in hell," said Fawzi, who like the many strictly observant Muslims here was bearded and wore a knee-length robe. "They are spies and stooges and their blood should be spilled."

His comments echoed the latest threat attributed to al-Zarqawi, issued via an audiotape that aired Sunday. In the recording, a speaker who identifies himself as al-Zarqawi called those running in the elections "demi-idols" and vowed to disrupt the vote. The speaker railed against democracy for trying to supplant the rule of God with that of man and accused the United States of engineering the vote.

Just how deep Fawzi's loyalty to his uncle lies is unclear. Fawzi, who was released last week after four months under arrest following his return from a trip to Iraq, refused to say whether he joined the insurgency while there. It was one of two trips he said he has made to Iraq since U.S.-led troops toppled Saddam in 2003.

Most of the Iraqis in Zarqa live in low-income areas of the city, Jordan's second-largest with 800,000 people, including many Palestinian refugees. It is 17 miles northeast of the Jordanian capital of Amman.

Nearly 180,000 Iraqis live in Jordan. While many came after the U.S.-led invasion of Iraq in 2003, others have been here for years. Al-Duleimi, for instance, is married to a Jordanian. Jordan has always been Iraq's main outlet to the world.

Abu Anas, who became friends with al-Zarqawi in 1986 while the two were serving in the Jordanian army, praised him as "a symbol of all Jordanians." He said al-Zarqawi had a keen interest in weapons and combat techniques even then.
When the hell was Zarqawi in the Jordanian army? He dropped out of high school to fight in Afghanistan!
"You could realize right from the beginning that he was born to do that," said Abu Anas, who refused to give his full name.

Shiites make up the majority in Iraq and are expected to fare well in the elections, raising concerns in Jordan, as in Iraq's other largely Sunni neighbors, that candidates could align themselves with Iran's hard-line Shiite Muslim theocracy. Jordan's King Abdullah II has accused Shiite-dominated Iran of trying to influence the elections in Iraq. Iran denies that.

Al-Duleimi, himself Sunni, dismissed al-Zarqawi's attacks against Iraqi Shiites as bigotry.

"I am a Sunni, but I see this as really abhorrent," he said. "I am worried to see some people want to kill this experience (election) even before it is born."

Zuhair al-Samaraei, another Iraqi living in Zarqa, said many Iraqis have expressed similar defiance to al-Zarqawi's call for a boycott and have begun registering to vote. On Monday, several Iraqis registered their names in two balloting offices opened here by the International Organization of Migration, which handles Iraqis overseas balloting.

But al-Samaraei said that some Iraqis are being intimidated and that election billboards are being torn down.

Overall, turnout in registration for voting in Jordan and other countries neighboring Iraq has been low. Only about 16 percent of eligible Iraqi voters living outside their country had registered as of Saturday, the IOM said.

In Jordan, more than 14,000 or an estimated 8 percent of 180,000 expatriates have registered so far, according to the group.
Posted by: Dan Darling || 01/26/2005 12:59:42 AM || Comments || Link || [1 views] Top|| File under:


Hard boyz say they'll kill anybody who votes
The black sedan made its way down Madaris Street, the young men inside tossing leaflets out the window.

"This is a final warning to all of those who plan to participate in the election," the leaflets said. "We vow to wash the streets of Baghdad with the voters' blood."

Thus was the war over Sunday's nationwide elections crystallized in a single incident on Tuesday in Mashtal, an ethnically mixed neighborhood on the eastern edge of Baghdad, where many Iraqis say they would like to vote, and where a small, determined group of people are doing everything they can to stop them.

The leaflets, like many turning up on sidewalks and doorsteps across the capital, were chilling in their detail: they warned Iraqis to stay at least 500 yards away from voting booths, for each would be the potential target of a rocket, mortar shell or car bomb. The leaflet suggested that Iraqis stay away from their windows, too, in case of blasts.

"To those of you who think you can vote and then run away," the leaflet warned, "we will shadow you and catch you, and we will cut off your heads and the heads of your children."

The effect of such intimidation across the country will not be known until Sunday. Estimates vary, but Iraqi officials say they will be pleased if the nationwide turnout reaches 50 percent of the 14 million eligible voters. In some areas, like the Sunni-dominant cities of Ramadi and Falluja, even a meager turnout would be welcomed.

In Madaris Street, the men in the black sedan got a hostile reception: Iraqi police officers spotted the car and opened fire, killing two of the men, residents said. The rest got away, after killing three officers.

Guerrilla groups have vowed to step up attacks to disrupt the voting.

On Tuesday, in Al Jededa, in southeast Baghdad, gunmen shot and killed Qais Hashem al-Shamari, a senior judge in the Justice Ministry, as he drove to work, and wounded one of the judge's guards. Ansar al-Sunna, one of the most active insurgent groups, took responsibility for the attack in an Internet posting, claiming that the murder of Judge Shamari "would make God and the Prophet very content."

"Our heroes ambushed one of the heads of infidelity and apostasy in the new Iraqi government," the statement said.

Among the operations Ansar al-Sunna has claimed responsibility for is the suicide bombing last month of a mess tent in Mosul that killed 21 people, including 18 Americans, and wounded 69 others.

American commanders and Iraqi officials say they are preparing for a surge in attacks leading up to election day. Some are predicting that the worst of the attacks could happen before Sunday, when streets around the country will be closed to almost all vehicular traffic and an 8 p.m. curfew will go into effect.

On Tuesday the Islamic Army of Iraq, another insurgent group, called on its followers to unleash attacks to disrupt the elections. "O brave mujahedeen! O lions! O people of zeal! Go and fight and God will be with you," the group said in an Internet posting.

In the fighting around Baghdad on Tuesday, a total of 11 Iraqi police officers were killed and 9 were wounded, hospital officials said. One battle unfolded on Madaris Street, less than three hours before the black sedan came, when a bomb exploded in a school that was designated one of the capital's 1,200 polling sites. Schools will serve as polling sites across the country. American soldiers also found and defused a bomb near a primary school in western Baghdad.

In other aspects of the insurgency, an American taken hostage in November appeared on a videotape and pleaded for his life, according to news agencies.

The American, Roy Hallums, who was kidnapped during an assault on his compound in the Monsour district, sat cross-legged in front of a dark background, according to The Associated Press and Reuters. As he spoke, the barrel of an assault rifle hovered inches from his head.

The tape is the first to have surfaced of Mr. Hallums since he and five colleagues at a Saudi Arabian food contractor were taken from their compound on Nov. 1. Four have been freed; Robert Tarongoy of the Philippines is still missing.

In the tape, Mr. Hallums appealed to Arab leaders, including Col. Muammar el-Qaddafi of Libya, to help save him. "I have been arrested by a resistance group in Iraq," Mr. Hallums said. "I am asking for help because my life is in danger, because it has been proved that I work for American forces."

On Madaris Street on Tuesday, the threatening anti-election leaflets had an uncertain effect. Residents said they did not support the guerrillas, but some said they were terrified at the violence that election day might bring.

"I want to vote," said Khalidayah Lazem, a 40-year-old Sunni, standing outside her home. "But as you can see, the situation is getting worse. We see these leaflets every day."

Most of the Iraqis interviewed expressed disapproval for the insurgents. They said the men in the black sedan, for instance, had come from outside the neighborhood. And while some, like Ms. Lazem, were clearly frightened, others said they planned to vote, whatever the price. "We are not afraid of these leaflets," said Mohammed Adel, 24. "I must go to the polling center to vote. I want security and stability for my country."

A spokesman for Iraq's Electoral Commission said Tuesday that results would probably be known about 10 days after election day.

In other military news, American officials said six soldiers had been killed Monday in separate incidents in and around Baghdad. Five soldiers with the Army's First Infantry Division were killed Monday night when a Bradley armored personnel carrier rolled into a canal during a sandstorm near Khan Bani Saad, northeast of the capital, the military said. Another soldier died from wounds from a roadside bomb.

Also Tuesday, Prime Minister Ayad Allawi refused to set a date or a timetable for the withdrawal of American forces from Iraq. Dr. Allawi is running for the national assembly and is a possible candidate for prime minister. Some candidates have suggested that if they were elected, they would set a timetable for the pullout of American forces.

"Others spoke about the immediate withdrawal or setting a timetable for the withdrawal of multinational forces," Dr. Allawi said. "I will not deal with the security matter under political pretexts and exaggerations that do not serve Iraq and its people."
Posted by: Dan Darling || 01/26/2005 1:03:34 AM || Comments || Link || [1 views] Top|| File under:

#1  Big thing on NPR this afternoon about the upcoming vote. Lots of interviews with Iraqis from across the country who essentially said, "I'm afraid of being killed, but this is so important that all the voting age adults in my family are going to do it." Oh, yes, and "We've been arguing around the dinner table every night over who to vote for. NPR didn't even try very hard to make the story about insurgent violence and Coalition troop casualties.
Posted by: trailing wife || 01/26/2005 20:27 Comments || Top||

#2  Sorry -- forgot to close the quote. It should be, "We've been arguing around the dinner table every night over who to vote for." NPR... I think that will make a bit more sense.
Posted by: trailing wife || 01/26/2005 21:08 Comments || Top||


Full text of Iraqi Jaish Mohammed leader's confession
Interrogator: "What is your name?"

Muayed Al-Nasseri: "Colonel Muayed Yassin 'Aziz 'Abd Al-Razaq Al-Nasseri, commander of the Army of Muhammad, one of the resistance factions in Iraq. The Army of Muhammad was founded by Saddam Hussein after the fall of the regime, on April 9, 2003. At first, Yasser Al-Shab'awi was put in charge, until his capture in July 2003. Then Sa'd Hammad Hisham was in charge until December 2003. Then I was put in charge from January 2004 until now. The Army of Muhammad has some 800 armed fighters."

Interrogator: "What operations did you carry out? How many operations did you carry out?"

Muayed Al-Nasseri: "We carried out many armed operations against the coalition forces in all the districts. The operations included bombarding their military posts, their camps, and their bases, fighting these forces and planting explosive devices against their patrols and convoys."

Interrogator: "What was the nature of your organisation?"

Muayed Al-Nasseri: "The organisation was a military armed one, which operated according to a method of non-centralised command."

Interrogator: "How is the Army of Muhammad related to the Ba'th party?"

Muayed Al-Nasseri: "The Army of Muhammad is militarily independent. After Saddam Hussein's capture in December 2003, for a period [of] four months, the Army of Muhammad had no connections with the party, but after April 2003 there was a meeting with the party and we are currently coordinating with them.

In addition, Saddam Hussein distributed a communique via the party, back then, instructing all his supporters or whoever wants to fight the jihad for the sake of Allah, to join the Army of Muhammad because it is the army of the leadership."

Interrogator: "Who are the leaders of the Ba'th Party in Iraq?"

Muayed Al-Nasseri: "Today, the leader of the party is 'Izzat Ibrahim. He is the leader of the party in Iraq. Next in line is Fadhl Al-Mashhadani, who is responsible for the local organisations within Iraq. Then, there is Muhammad Yunis Al-Ahamd, who is responsible for the organisation outside Iraq. He is currently in Syria."

Interrogator: "Did you get support from the countries of the region?"

Muayed Al-Nasseri: "Yes, sir... Many factions of the resistance are receiving aid from the neighbouring countries. We in the Army of Muhammad - the fighting has been going on for almost two years now, and there must be aid, and this aid came from the neighbouring countries. We got aid primarily from Iran. The truth is that Iran has played a significant role in supporting the Army of Muhammad and many factions of the resistance. I have some units, especially in southern Iraq, which receive Iranian aid in the form of arms and equipment."

Interrogator: "You're referring to units of the Army of Muhammad?"

Muayed Al-Nasseri: "Yes. They received money and weapons."

Muayed Al-Nasseri: "As for other factions of the resistance, I have reliable information regarding the National Islamic resistance, which is one of the factions of resistance, led by Colonel 'Asi Al Hadithi. He sent a delegation to Iran from among the people of the faction, including General Halaf and General Khdayyer. They were sent to Iran in April or May and met with Iranian intelligence and with a number of Iranian leaders and even with Khamenei."

Interrogator: "You mean they personally met with Khamenei?"

Muayed Al-Nasseri: "According to my information, they met with him personally and they were given one million dollars and two cars full of weapons. They still have a very close relationship with Iran. They receive money, cars, weapons and many things. According to my information they even got car bombs."

Muayed Al-Nasseri "In addition, as I've told you, Syria [
]. Cooperation with Syria began in October 2003, when a Syrian intelligence officer contacted me. S'ad Hamad Hisham and later Saddam Hussein himself authorised me to go to Syria. So I was sent to Syria. I crossed the border illegally. Then I went to Damascus and met with an intelligence officer, Lieutenant-Colonel ' Abu Naji ' through a mediator called ' Abu Saud '. I raised the issues that preoccupied Saddam Hussein and the leadership. There were four issues: First, the issue of the media; second, political support in international forums; [third], aid in the form of weapons and [fourth], material aid, whether it is considered a debt or is taken from the frozen Iraqi funds in Syria."

Muayed Al-Nasseri: "Through the [Syrian] Ba'th party - the [Iraqi] Arab Socialist Ba'th Party operates in Syria with complete freedom. It maintains its relations and organises the Ba'th members outside Iraq. The Syrian government is fully aware of this and the Syrian intelligence, as well as the [Syrian] Ba'th Party cooperates fully in Syria.

As for the Ba'th Party, after we contacted them, they organised a meeting for me with a man named Fawzi Al-Rawi, who is a member of the national leadership and an important figure in Syria. The Syrian government authorised him to meet with me. We met twice. In the first meeting, I explained to him what the Army of Muhammad is, what kind of operations we carry out, and many other things. In the second meeting he told me that Syrian government officials were very pleased with our first meeting. He informed me that the Army of Muhammad would receive material aid in the form of goods, given to us for free or for a very low price, for us to sell in Iraq in order to support the Army of Muhammad. This was done this way due to Syria's current circumstances, international pressure and accusations of supporting the terrorism and resistance in Iraq."

Interrogator: "During our investigation we found a picture of a Syrian man. What is this picture?"

Muayed Al-Nasseri: "This is the picture of an Islamic preacher called ' Abu Al-Qa'qa', whose [real] name is Mahmoud Al-Agassi. He lives in Aleppo, Syria. I have met with him twice. He supported me and gave me $3,000. He also sent a sum of money with me for someone in the resistance here in Iraq.

Also, I forgot to mention that Fawzi Al-Rawi told me he had close connections with many factions of the resistance. He mentioned his Hareth Al-Dhari [leader of Iraqi Sunni Clerics Association], Mahdi Al-Sumayda'i, and other factions."
Posted by: Dan Darling || 01/26/2005 1:59:33 AM || Comments || Link || [0 views] Top|| File under:


Failed Saudi boomer angry at those who sent him
His head and hands were wrapped in bandages and his uncovered face looked like bubbled tar.

The young Saudi man told investigators this month that he wants revenge against the Iraqi terrorist network that sent him on the deadly mission that he survived.

Ahmed Abdullah al-Shaya, 18, told Iraqi investigators during an interrogation early this month that he was recruited to drive a car rigged with explosives to Baghdad and blow it up.

He said the objective was "to kill the Americans, policemen, national guards and the American collaborators." But Shaya said he was injured even before he went on the mission when insurgents detonated a truck bomb he was supposed to leave at a target site.

Shaya's statements were captured on a videotape made by Interior Ministry officials who interrogated him. It is not clear whether the video captures all of the interrogation or part of it. USA TODAY obtained a copy of the tape from an Interior Ministry official.

Shaya's video statement describes the journey of a young man ready to die in his zeal to drive Americans from Arab lands. Shaya says he left Saudi Arabia for Syria in late October, right after the holy month of Ramadan, which began in late October. A smuggler he knew as Abu Mohammed took him over the border into Iraq and into the hands of other Islamic extremists who call themselves mujahedin, or holy warriors.

In Iraq, he traveled first to Qaim, then Rawa, and finally to the insurgent stronghold of Ramadi, west of Baghdad, where he spent 1œ months with like-minded Muslims from Morocco, Jordan, Syria, Tunisia, Yemen and Macedonia. Most, however, were Iraqis, he says, gesturing with his gauze-wrapped arms.

While he was awaiting his mission, he says, he was told that Abu Musab al-Zarqawi, the leader of a terrorist network responsible for numerous bombings and beheadings, had been captured by Iraqi police only to be let go after seven hours because they didn't recognize him. Iraqi officials have declined to comment on previous reports that Zarqawi had been captured and let go.

Shaya moved to Baghdad in December to prepare for his final mission, which he expected to be as the suicide pilot of a bomb-laden car. But on Dec. 24, he was given a preliminary job of driving a butane-gas delivery truck that was rigged with bombs. It wasn't supposed to be a suicide mission. "They asked me to take the truck near a concrete block barrier before turning to the right and leaving it there. There, somebody will pick up the truck from you," they told him. "But they blew me up in the truck," he says.

When the gas truck ignited into a fireball near the Jordanian Embassy, nine people were killed, including a family of seven whose house collapsed on them. The explosion burned Shaya on his face and hands but he was thrown from the cab and survived. Authorities at first didn't know who he was. But then a local Baghdad newspaper carried a report from Saudi Arabia about his family mourning his martyrdom. Shaya told the interrogators that he regretted his mission now. "I want the Iraqi people to live in peace," he says, and he can no longer support Osama bin Laden because "he is killing Muslims."

As for the Zarqawi network that sent him on the mission that left him permanently disfigured and in prison, he says, "I want revenge for what they have done to me."
Posted by: Dan Darling || 01/26/2005 1:46:40 AM || Comments || Link || [0 views] Top|| File under:

#1  "But Shaya said he was injured even before he went on the mission when insurgents detonated a truck bomb he was supposed to leave at a target site"

I guess this means he was still in the truck!

""They asked me to take the truck near a concrete block barrier before turning to the right and leaving it there. There, somebody will pick up the truck from you," they told him. "But they blew me up in the truck," he says."

Now gather around all you young boomers and boomerettes, I got some sagely advice for you. NEVER GIVE UP THE REMOTE CONTROL!!
Posted by: TomAnon || 01/26/2005 19:35 Comments || Top||


Failed boomer sez may have been Zarqawi captured, released
A suicide bomber from Saudi Arabia, who survived a failed attempt to blow up the Jordanian mission Baghdad in December, alleges that Iraqi police may have captured, and then released, the most wanted terrorist in Iraq, Abu Musab al-Zarqawi, two months ago. Both U.S. and Iraqi officials could not confirm the claims made by the suicide bomber.

On a video disk provided by Iraq's interior ministry, the badly-burned man, identified as Ahmed Abdullah al-Shaiyah, tells Iraqi interrogators about his journey from Saudi Arabia to Baghdad between late October and December to volunteer for suicide missions.

He says he crossed into Iraq from Syria, where a smuggler met him at the border and eventually transported him to the town of Ramadi, in the restive Anbar province, to receive training from insurgents. Ramadi is close to Fallujah, which in late October and early November, was still a stronghold for the Jordanian-born terrorist, Abu Musab al-Zarqawi, and other militant Sunni Arab groups.

Mr. Shaiyah says he was in Ramadi during the November U.S.-led offensive in Fallujah. The ensuing two-week fire fight led to a decisive U.S. and Iraqi victory over the insurgents, but Zarqawi eluded capture.

When Iraqi interrogators ask Mr. Shaiyah if he knows anything about the fate of the terrorist, the Saudi man gives a startling answer.

"Do you know what has happened to Zarqawi and where he is?" an Iraqi investigator asked Mr. Shaiyah.

He answered, "I don't know, but I heard from some of my mujahadeen brothers that Iraqi police had captured Zarqawi in Fallujah." Mr. Shaiyah says he then heard that the police let the terrorist go because they had failed to recognize him.

A U.S. military official in Baghdad said he had no evidence to corroborate the allegations from the suicide bomber.

And, during a press conference Saturday, Iraq's interior minister, Falah al-Naqib declined to answer a reporter's question about the allegation and rumors that Zarqawi had been arrested.

REPORTER: "Can you just clarify a bit what you were just saying or not saying about Zarqawi?"

NAQIB: "I wouldn't like to comment for the time being. Let us see."

REPORTER: "Does that mean you have him in custody?"

NAQIB: "Pardon?"

REPORTER: "Does that mean he is in custody?"

NAQIB: "No comments."
Posted by: Dan Darling || 01/26/2005 1:44:40 AM || Comments || Link || [0 views] Top|| File under:

#1  Article: NAQIB: "No comments."

What he meant: "@$#T^%&(^%!#%*#%"
Posted by: Zhang Fei || 01/26/2005 12:35 Comments || Top||


Democracy taking root in Sunni town of Karma
The concept of democracy appears to have taken root in the dusty town of Karma, a predominantly Sunni community of 75,000 people about nine miles (15 kilometers) northeast of Falluja.

Karma sprawls for miles along the canals of the Euphrates River, with its little communities of sandy brick houses, each separated by the bright colors of laundry hanging out to dry. Patches of bright green grass dot the landscape. Herds of sheep and goats drink from the river while children run behind Humvees screaming "Mister! Mister!" as Marines on their daily patrols throw them candy.

Troops from the Regimental Combat Team 7 (RCT-7) of the 1st Marine Division meet with local leaders, sheiks and the people of Karma to try to gauge their sentiment about the upcoming elections. They distribute flyers that read: "Participate in the elections to build a strong Iraq" and "Vote! The future is in your hands."

But many villagers are not as interested in talking about the elections as they are about the lack of petrol, gas, electricity and work. They say they receive their information about the elections from TV and say no one has campaigned or even hung campaign posters in their community.

Although most say they don't know who the candidates are or where to go to vote, they say they will vote come January 30.

Shakir Jiyad Aswad, father of 10, said Karma residents want to elect a nationalist, someone to preserve religion and defend holy places. "We want one Iraq," he said. "I'll probably vote for [Iraq's interim President Ghazi] al-Yawar."

He took the opportunity to tell Col. Craig Tucker, commander of RCT-7, about the generator he said was bombed during the Falluja offensive in November. The colonel promised to send a civil affairs team to file a claim for him the next day.

Abd Al-rahman, a 24-year-old Iraq Force Protection Services employee says he'll vote for interim Prime Minister Ayad Allawi. He says he has received a 200,000 Iraqi dinar bonus from him.

Ghanem Juhayir, 20, says he's been out of work for months. He says Allawi harmed the community by allowing the Falluja offensive. "The Iraqi forces are worse than the Americans, and Allawi controls them," he explains. He says he expects to learn about the candidates on TV. And if not, he will probably vote for al-Yawar.

Farther down the road, Iraqis are also preoccupied with what's lacking. They tell Col. Tucker they want to vote but don't know who to vote for.

"We get our information from the TV. But then the power goes out and we have no TV," one man says. Abd Al-Khadar Ali Khayab, a butcher and father of nine, says he'll vote for one of the sheiks of his tribe he has heard is running. But he doesn't know which list he's on or who any of the others on the list are.

His white dishdasha is splattered with blood, having just slaughtered seven sheep for the Eid holiday. "Financially our situation is zero," he says, knives still in hand. "But we hope that things will get better after the elections."

Some displaced Fallujans now live near a canal in abandoned buildings and tents.

Abd Al-Khader moved his family of 12 out of Falluja and in with relatives in the area. He says there are 11 families living in three rooms and two tents. He made the trip back and found his home in the Andalus neighborhood destroyed.

"Of course I am going to vote. We need something to change, we can't live like this," he says. But he does not know whom he'll vote for or who the candidates are. A man standing near him said "Allawi, al-Yawar, it doesn't matter. I am not going to vote."

"Do you know when the elections are?" Col. Tucker asked a group of five men. "Yes, it's the 29th," one answered.

Thalab Sarbat Ali, the traditional community leader called the "Mukhtar," said he is encouraging people to vote. "It's simple," he says. "You just tick on a box and that's it."
Posted by: Dan Darling || 01/26/2005 12:53:33 AM || Comments || Link || [0 views] Top|| File under:


Africa: North
More on Sunday's Algiers bombing
Three women have been killed and five others wounded after a bomb exploded in a mausoleum near the Algerian capital, residents say. The device had been left in a bag in the mausoleum in the Ain Rumana cemetery near the town of Muzaia, 70km southwest of Algiers. It exploded on Friday afternoon as the cemetery was crowded with people praying for the dead during the Eid al-Adha (Day of Sacrifice) religious holidays, residents said. The funerals of the three women killed took place on Saturday.

According to an official toll and press reports, at least 34 people have been killed so far this year. Press reports said on Saturday three people were killed in separate incidents in Algeria involving various groups. In a separate incident a soldier had his throat slit when he was stopped at what was reported to be a fake roadblock at Adekar, 260km east of Algiers, and a young man was killed and two wounded when a group set on them with clubs at Kadiria, southeast of the capital, the report said.
Posted by: Dan Darling || 01/26/2005 12:51:32 AM || Comments || Link || [0 views] Top|| File under:


GSPC escalates attacks against security forces
Looks like Mokhtar Belmokhtar is trying to rally what's left of the group in an effort to prevent it from folding into irrelevance like the GIA has.
Algerian Islamic militants, stepping up attacks in recent weeks, have killed two policemen and injured one civilian in the restive Berber region east of the Algerian capital, media reported on Tuesday. Rebels suspected of belonging to the Salafist Group for Preaching and Combat (GSPC) attacked a foot patrol on Monday evening in Tizi Ghenif, a town some 100 km (60 miles) southeast of the capital Algiers, El Watan and other newspapers said.

The government has also proposed bringing in an amnesty for rebels if they surrender. However, analyst Mahmoud Belhimer said the fact that the attacks were continuing, showed the country was still unstable. "Attacks seem to have risen compared with recent months. This shows that the terrorist threat still exists and remains a factor of continued instability for Algeria," editor and university professor Belhimer told Reuters. "Unfortunately killing is part of these people's daily activities. It won't stop overnight," he said.

A soldier in civilian clothes was killed on Saturday evening when militants stopped a bus at a fake road block in the same region, known as a rebel hotbed. Suspected members of the GSPC, aligned to al Qaeda and listed by the U.S. State Department as a terrorist organisation, dressed as soldiers then set the bus alight and robbed passengers. Police estimate that between 300 and 500 rebels remain active, but many are believed to want to surrender if authorities offer an amnesty. Several hundred were killed or surrendered last year.
Posted by: Dan Darling || 01/26/2005 12:24:36 AM || Comments || Link || [0 views] Top|| File under:


Afghanistan/South Asia
Taliban kill 2 policemen, wound district police chief
Pakistani Fighters from Afghanistan's ousted Taliban militia killed two policemen and wounded a district police chief in an ambush in the south of the country, a local official said on Tuesday. Azim Jan, the police chief of Ghorak district in Kandahar province, was travelling with his bodyguards from the city of Kandahar to Ghorak on Monday evening when Taliban militants attacked his convoy, the district governor Easa Jan told Reuters. Two of the bodyguards were killed and the police chief was wounded in the ensuing firefight, Easa Jan said. "We have launched an operation to arrest the attackers and bring them to justice," he said.

Taliban spokesman Abdul Latif Hakimi said the militia had killed seven police in the attack and had possibly killed their commander. Two Taliban fighters were also killed, he told Reuters by satellite telephone. Another district police chief and three others were killed in the neighbouring province of Uruzgan on Saturday.
Posted by: Dan Darling || 01/26/2005 12:29:41 AM || Comments || Link || [1 views] Top|| File under:


Iraq-Jordan
31 marines die in chopper crash: TV
MORE than 30 US marines were killed in a helicopter crash in western Iraq, CNN reported.
US military officials in Baghdad said they could not immediately confirm the toll but acknowledged there were casualties.

Elswhere, four US marines were killed in the western province of Al-Anbar today, the military said in a statement.
Posted by: tipper || 01/26/2005 8:45:44 AM || Comments || Link || [0 views] Top|| File under:

#1  Freedom again claims it's price. Rest well Marines.

Eternal Father, grant , we pray,
To all Marines, both night and day,
The courage, honor, strength and skill
Their land to serve, Thy law fulfill;
Be Thou the Shield forevermore
From ev'ry peril to the Corps.
Amen.
Posted by: Doc8404 || 01/26/2005 10:27 Comments || Top||


U.S. Hostage Pleads for Life in Iraq Video
An American kidnapped in November pleaded for his life in a video aired Tuesday, and at least a dozen Iraqis died in Baghdad as political violence continued to plague the country five days before Sunday's crucial elections for a new National Assembly.

On a day the U.S. military announced that six American soldiers died, Iraqi police engaged in fierce shootouts with insurgents, including gunmen who were handing out leaflets warning Iraqis not to vote or risk seeing their families' blood "wash the streets of Baghdad."

Early Wednesday, a U.S. Marine helicopter crashed near the town Rutbah in western Iraq (news - web sites) while conducting security operations, the U.S. military said. There was no immediate word on casualties.

A military statement said the aircraft was transporting personnel from the 1st Marine Division. A search and rescue team has reached the site and an investigation into what caused the crash is underway, the military said.

In the hostage video, a bearded Roy Hallums, 56, speaking with a rifle pointed at his head, said he had been taken by a "resistance group" because "I have worked with American forces." He appealed to Arab leaders, including Libya's Moammar Gadhafi, to save his life.

Hallums was seized by gunmen Nov. 1 along with Robert Tarongoy of the Philippines at their compound in Baghdad's Mansour district. The two worked for a Saudi company that does catering for the Iraqi army. The Filipino was not shown in the video and it was not known when the video was made.

"I am please asking for help because my life is in danger because it's been proved I worked for American forces," Hallums said.

In Westminster, Calif., his daughter, Carrie Cooper, 29, said she last saw him at a family reunion last June.

"My heart's broken to see my dad with a gun to his head. ... He's fearless and he wanted to help the people there and rebuild Iraq," she told KNBC-TV.

Hallums' former wife, Susan Hallums, urged President Bush (news - web sites) to help the captive and urged the kidnappers to let him go.

"Please release him. He's never hurt anybody in his life. He's only done good things. He's a wonderful father and grandfather, and he's kind and I know that you can see that he's kind," she said at her home in Corona, Calif.

The U.S. military announced that a Bradley armored vehicle rolled into a canal northeast of Baghdad during a combat patrol Monday night, killing five American soldiers and injuring two from the Army's 1st Infantry Division. The accident, which was under investigation, occurred near the town of Khan Bani Saad during a sandstorm, it said.

A sixth U.S. soldier died Monday of wounds from a roadside bomb that blasted an American patrol in Baghdad, the military said.

At least 1,378 members of the U.S. military have died since the beginning of the Iraq war in March 2003, according to an Associated Press count.

There has been speculation that the new Iraqi government might ask the Americans to set a timetable for foreign troops to leave. But Interim Prime Minister Ayad Allawi said Tuesday it was too soon to do that, saying Iraq must first build up its security forces to confront the insurgents.

U.S. commanders are devising a plan for as many as 10,000 soldiers and Marines to accompany Iraqi units as advisers and trainers, defense officials in Washington said. That would be a substantial increase from the few thousand now doing such work.

Tuesday was the last day for Iraqis living outside the country to register for the weekend vote, and international organizers said less than 25 percent of those eligible had done so. The biggest turnout was among Iraqis living in Iran — more than 53,000.

Iraqi authorities blamed the low turnout on several factors, including the long distances that many had to travel in countries like the United States and Australia.

But Majeed al-Gaood, a member of National Front of the Iraqi Intellectuals, a Sunni Arab opposition group, said many chose not to register because of the country's continuing instability and the presence of U.S. troops.

"How can we expect Iraqis to take part in the elections while their country is under the control of foreign forces?" he said.

Meanwhile, an Internet posting in the name of one insurgent group, the Islamic Army of Iraq, ordered followers to "escalate their operations to the maximum" to stop "the infidel elections."

Its origin could not be authenticated, but Islamic militants have used the site to claim responsibility for attacks and to condemn Iraq's interim government and U.S.-led forces in Iraq.

Late Tuesday, people in Fallujah reported hearing bursts of heavy automatic weapons fire. The city was an insurgent stronghold until a U.S. offensive in November, but the assault did not clear out all the gunmen and others are believed to have slipped back with residents in recent weeks.

Several firefights erupted earlier in Baghdad's eastern Rashad neighborhood. In one, police fired at insurgents handing out leaflets warning people not to vote.

The leaflets, which did not bear the name of any insurgent group, said rebels would attack voters and polling stations with bombs, mortar fire and rockets.

"We promise to wash the streets of Baghdad with the blood of voters," the papers warned.
Posted by: tipper || 01/26/2005 1:51:49 AM || Comments || Link || [0 views] Top|| File under:


Iraqi violence round-up
At least 11 Iraqi policemen were killed in fierce clashes on Tuesday in eastern Baghdad, a hospital official said, and gunmen assassinated a senior Iraqi judge in a series of slayings that highlight the grave security risks in the run-up to this weekend's elections.

Fighting erupted in Baghdad's eastern Rashad neighborhood as Iraqi police fired on insurgents who were handing out leaflets warning people not to vote in Sunday's national elections.

About the same time and in the same neighborhood, insurgents opened fire on police who were checking out a report of a possible car bomb. Altogether, 11 policemen were killed in the various clashes, according to an official at Kindi Hospital. On Monday, Iraqi authorities announced they had in custody an Al Qaeda lieutenant who confessed to masterminding most of the car bombings in Baghdad, including the bloody 2003 assault on the UN headquarters in the capital.

The slain judge was identified as Qais Hashim Shameri, secretary general of the judges council in the Justice Ministry. Assailants sprayed his car with bullets in an attack that also wounded the judge's driver.

Assailants also shot dead a man who worked for a district council in western Baghdad as he was on his way to work, police said.

In a third ambush, gunmen firing from a speeding car wounded three staffers from the Communications Ministry as they were going to work, police Lt Iyman Abdul-Hamid said. Attackers also shot dead the son of an Iraqi translator working with US troops, police said. A police colonel was also gunned down along with his 5-year-old daughter on Monday as he was driving in southern Baghdad, officials said on Tuesday.

Northeast of Baghdad, a US Bradley Fighting Vehicle rolled into a canal during a combat patrol, killing five American soldiers from the Army's 1st Infantry Division and wounding two others, the military said Tuesday. Another US soldier died of wounds from a roadside bomb that blasted an American patrol in Baghdad, the military said on Tuesday.

The Al Qaeda bombmaker in custody "confessed to building approximately 75 percent of the car bombs used in attacks in Baghdad" since the Iraq war began, according to the interim Iraqi prime minister's spokesman, Thaer al-Naqib. Sami Mohammed Ali Said al-Jaaf, also known as Abu Omar al-Kurdi, was captured on Jan 15, a government statement said on Monday.

It said Al-Jaaf was responsible for 32 car bombings, including the bombing of the United Nations headquarters that killed the top UN envoy in Iraq, Sergio Vieira de Mello, and 21 other people.

US soldiers on Tuesday raided one of the biggest gas stations on Mosul's west side in search of the owner who they said they suspected of supplying fuel to insurgents in the restive northern Iraqi city.

Dozens of US soldiers from the 1st battalion 24th infantry regiment descended on Al-Nashima filling station in the Yarmuk neighbourhood, known as a haunt of insurgents, an AFP reporter witnessed.

A video distributed by insurgents showed an American citizen taken hostage by militants, putting the US administration under new pressure five days before Iraq's election. The videoshows a man identifying himself as US citizen Roy Hallams sitting crossed-legged on the floor against a black background and anxiously rubbing his hands together as he makes a desperate appeal to the camera.
Posted by: Dan Darling || 01/26/2005 12:18:01 AM || Comments || Link || [0 views] Top|| File under:


UK troops on alert for suicide bombings in southern Iraq
TEAMS of suicide bombers are heading from Baghdad to pick off soft targets in the British-controlled south of Iraq in the run-up to the country's elections, British forces believe.

Militants are also known to be crossing into Iraq from Kuwait, and there are reports of Semtex plastic explosives and other even more sophisticated weapons being smuggled across the Iranian border.

British forces have been put on alert and warned to be aware of the risk posed by suicide bombers ahead of the country's first democratic elections on Sunday.

Troops involved in policing the 80-mile border with Kuwait have mounted operations to attempt to stop terrorists crossing into the country, but some are believed to have managed to breach the defensive ditches and electric fences.

Soldiers serving with UK forces in Basra say they are concerned about the threat of more suicide bombings, after nine soldiers were injured in an attack on the main British base at Shaibah, near Basra, last week.

Suicide attacks on British troops based at Camp Dogwood in central Iraq last year led to a change in tactics.

British officers say the Sunni terrorists behind the attacks are becoming more professional, and although they still operate predominantly in and around Baghdad, they are increasingly capable of moving further afield to mount operations.

One officer said yesterday there had been reports of more attempts to move suicide-bomb teams south towards Basra, and soldiers said they believed Basra was now seen as a softer target.

British forces have been heavily involved in securing Iraq's borders with Saudi Arabia, Kuwait and Iran, working with Iraq's Department of Border Enforcement to plug many of the gaps.

Major Alan Richmond, the second in command of the Queen's Dragoon Guards, said that despite the army's good work there was evidence that extremists and weapons materials were still getting through.

"We have done some operations against militants coming in from Kuwait," he said, though he declined to elaborate.

He said that, while Iraq was already awash with guns, it was clear that more sophisticated weapons, including Semtex, were still getting in across the Iranian border.

The more porous Saudi and Syrian borders also remain a cause for concern.

The question of security is expected to play a significant role in turn-out for Sunday's elections, with one of the terrorists of most concern to coalition forces, al-Qaeda-linked Abu Musab al-Zarqawi, already warning that anyone going to the polls to vote is putting their life on the line.

But at Shalamacheh yesterday, the only official border crossing into Iran, people planning to vote said they would not be put off by the threats. Osama Abdul Karim, 30, from Basra, said he intended to vote for Grand Ayatollah Ali al-Sistani's coalition, despite the warnings.

"I am not scared about voting. We are going to vote anyway," he said. "Iraqis are not scared of these people coming in from outside. We need the election for the future. The election must succeed."

A SURVIVOR of a suicide bomb attack on British troops has spoken publicly for the first time about the moment the bomber struck.

Lieutenant Huw Longmore, 27, told how the bombers, who had travelled from Fallujah, planned to video the attack on a British checkpoint and how his squadron of light tanks headed them off, only for the bomber to detonate his device next to their vehicles.

He described how his driver, Trooper Lee Williams, was saved from taking the full force by luck, ducking down to pick up his rifle just as the bomb went off.

"His back was covered in flecks of suicide bomber," he said. "I felt the heat and the blast and there was black smoke everywhere."

Lt Longmore, from Cardiff, was a member of the 100-strong force of Queen's Dragoon Guards sent to Camp Dogwood near Baghdad.

The incident happened on 17 November.

Lt Longmore said he would like to know more about what had driven the bomber to carry out the attack.

"He was just a normal guy, about 20 to 30," he said.
Posted by: Dan Darling || 01/26/2005 12:15:33 AM || Comments || Link || [0 views] Top|| File under:


US cannot guarantee security in Sunni Triangle
The commander of U.S. forces in central and northern Iraq said Tuesday that he cannot guarantee the safety of Iraqis on election day, despite months of training Iraqi forces.

"I wouldn't begin to say that," said Maj. Gen. John Batiste, commander of the 1st Infantry Division, when asked whether voters would be able to cast ballots safely Sunday. "But Iraqi forces are setting them (elections) up well for success."

U.S. forces, about 22,000 soldiers in Batiste's area of responsibility, will be ready to help if violence mars election day.

Interim Iraqi Prime Minister Ayad Allawi conceded Tuesday that Iraqi forces will need U.S. assistance for the time being. Allawi said Iraq must build up its security forces to confront insurgents. "I will not set final dates" for the withdrawal of international forces "because setting final dates will be futile and dangerous," he said.

Allawi discussed preparations for the elections with President Bush, White House spokesman Scott McClellan said.

In Tikrit, Batiste said he was particularly concerned about someone setting off a bomb as people walk to polling stations. "It's very possible there will be some of that, the suicide vests and everything," he said.

Batiste said he expected the biggest threat to come from al-Qaeda supporters, some of whom back Jordanian-born terrorist Abu Musab al-Zarqawi. Batiste said those groups may launch large attacks early on election day or on Saturday to scare away voters.

There also are worries that some Iraqi security personnel guarding the polling places may be insurgents, Batiste said.

He said he expects trouble in particular in Samarra and Beiji, where Iraqi security services are weakest. Nine attacks Tuesday on U.S. and Iraqi forces in Samara were about double the usual number, he said.

Violence elsewhere claimed the lives of six U.S. soldiers and nine Iraqis. Among the incidents:

Northeast of Baghdad, a U.S. Bradley Fighting Vehicle rolled into a canal during a combat patrol near the town of Khan Bani Saad late Monday. Five soldiers from the Army's 1st Infantry Division were killed and two were wounded, the U.S. military said Tuesday. Another U.S. soldier died of wounds from a roadside bomb in Baghdad, the U.S. military said.

Three policemen were killed and nine injured in three incidents in Baghdad's eastern Rashad neighborhood. Police fired on insurgents who were handing out leaflets warning people not to vote. Insurgents fired on police who were checking on a possible car bomb. And gunmen fired on Iraqi and U.S. forces responding to a bombing at a secondary school.

Assailants fired on the car of Qais Hashim Shameri, secretary general of the judges council in the Justice Ministry. Shameri and his driver were killed. The Ansar al-Sunnah Army, an insurgent group, claimed responsibility.

Also Tuesday, an American hostage was shown pleading for his life in a videotape broadcast on Al-Jazeera television.

Roy Hallums, 56, said he had been arrested because "I have worked with American forces." Hallums was seized Nov. 1 with Filipino Robert Tarongoy from their compound in Baghdad. They worked for a Saudi company.

At least 10 Americans have been taken hostage. Only one has escaped.
Posted by: Dan Darling || 01/26/2005 12:10:58 AM || Comments || Link || [0 views] Top|| File under:


Israel-Palestine
Palestinian forces prevent mortar attack on Israel, seize weapons
GAZA CITY - Palestinian security forces in Gaza prevented a cell of militants from firing mortar shells into southern Israel late Tuesday, seizing their weapons, a Palestinian security source told AFP. "Members of the security forces in northern Gaza stopped militant group from firing three mortar shells into Israel," the source said. Following a heated argument with the militants, the forces confiscated the weapons and the cell left, he said.
Guess it was too much to ask the 'security forces' to detain the miscreants.
Five days ago, newly-installed Palestinian leader Mahmud Abbas ordered the deployment of around around 2,500 Palestinian police and security forces in northern Gaza to stop militants from firing a barrage of rockets and mortar shells at Israeli targets. The deployment has been accompanied by a marked lull in violence in Gaza.

Earlier Tuesday, top Palestinian and Israeli officials agreed to extend the deployment of Palestinian security forces to several flashpoint areas in southern Gaza with the aim of also preventing attacks in the south. By Thursday, troops are expected to be operating in the areas of Khan Yunis and Rafah from where militant groups have frequently fired rockets at Israeli targets.
Posted by: Steve White || 01/26/2005 12:06:29 AM || Comments || Link || [0 views] Top|| File under:

#1  the forces confiscated the weapons and the cell left
Must have had them surrounded.
Posted by: Spot || 01/26/2005 8:50 Comments || Top||

#2  so far, so good.

Yes, detaining the militants WOULD be too far for the ever cautious Abbas.
Posted by: Liberalhawk || 01/26/2005 9:44 Comments || Top||

#3  Not a bad thing. At least the mortars were not fired.
Posted by: Rightwing || 01/26/2005 9:46 Comments || Top||

#4  At least the mortars were not fired

yet
Posted by: Frank G || 01/26/2005 9:56 Comments || Top||

#5  I can imagine the heated argument..."Dammit Salim, there's no way you can hit the settlement from this far away! You need to move closer!" "Listen Muammar, I was firing mortars at the Jews back when you wore that diaper on your ass, not your head, so don't tell me I'm too far away." "So that's how you want to be? Well, I'm confiscating your mortar, and tomorrow my colleagues and I will set it up right on the border, so get lost."
Posted by: Captain Pedantic || 01/26/2005 10:32 Comments || Top||

#6  they came across the "militants" and said:

Not yet, my friend, not yet. You'll have your chance. allah akhbar

Posted by: PlanetDan || 01/26/2005 11:09 Comments || Top||

#7  I agree with lh and rw. We need Abbas to stay alive and for Palestinian policemen to have the confidence that they can do their jobs without being attacked by crowds or their family members being terrorized. Arafat and his corrupt thugs have used poverty and hatred to set the Palestinians on such a wrong course for so many years, that this situation cannot be corrected overnight.

I think we need to look at this incident as a glass of water half-full not as a glass have empty.
Posted by: 2xstandard || 01/26/2005 11:57 Comments || Top||

#8  You gotta be frickin' kidding me. Do you know how long it takes to set up a mortar tube? Not long. And they only had 3 shells? How long to fire them, would you guess? A minute or two? In fact, what this shows is that the "police men" knew exactly what was going to happen and when. They show up, talk to the guys who were setting up the tube (probably "cops" themselves) and say that they can't be doing that during the honeymoon.

OTOH, maybe this means that the cops are really going to use the fact that they know who perpetrates these attacks to try and stop them.
Possible propoganda, or a possible first step. Given the track record, I'm not holding my breath.
Posted by: Mark E. || 01/26/2005 15:38 Comments || Top||


Afghanistan/South Asia
More on Foopie being handed over to the US
"Ghailani has been handed over to US custody because he wasn't wanted in any crime over here," the Pakistani official, who declined to be identified, told AFP. He did not give any further details. Most have been handed to the United States and are thought to be held at Guantanamo Bay in Cuba. "We have no information on Ghailani's whereabouts," a spokesman for the US embassy in Islamabad said.
At the bottom of the Marianas Trench will do, I'd think...
Pakistani investigators told AFP that they transferred Ghailani to American custody despite earlier promising him that they would not do so. "He said he wouldn't be satisfied unless the person who was interrogating him takes an oath on the holy book (the Koran) that he would not be handed to the US," said another official speaking on condition of anonymity. Security sources said Ghailani was part of a "sleeper cell" and had received personal messages on computer discs from Al-Qaeda chief Osama bin Laden ordering him to carry out new attacks.
He'd already burned. He was wanted for his involvement in the embassy bombings. Nobody uses agents who've already been used as sleepers. Sleepers are supposed to become part of the national background noise, not have $5 million prices on their heads.
When he was arrested he was drawing up plans for a missile strike on an airliner at Nairobi airport in Kenya as well for attacks on London's Heathrow Airport and US financial institutions, the officials said.
He was doing that in his sleep, of course...

Continued on Page 49
Posted by: Dan Darling || 01/26/2005 12:06:45 AM || Comments || Link || [2 views] Top|| File under:


Iraq-Jordan
Kirkuk under curfew as poll centres hit
Posted by: Fred || 01/26/2005 00:00:00 || Comments || Link || [0 views] Top|| File under:


Afghanistan/South Asia
Night trains in Balochistan banned, rocket fired at military workshop
Railway officials on Tuesday banned all trains from running at night in Balochistan after a blast the night before tore apart a main line for the second time, while a rocket was fired at a military workshop but caused no casualties. Timetables have been changed and trains will only run in daytime to limit the damage from any further attacks by angry nationalist tribesmen in Balochistan demanding more political rights, jobs and royalties from the province's natural resources, AFP reported. Services between Quetta and Karachi resumed on Tuesday after engineers repaired tracks damaged by the bomb late on Monday. The same line was hit by another explosion on Saturday. "The timing has been changed due to security concerns and no train will operate at night," Railway Deputy Controller Ghulam Rasool told AFP. Mohammad Shoaib, another railway official, told Reuters the authorities had also changed train timings in other parts of the country.

Staff Report adds: Quetta Nazim Rahim Kakar said that the rocket fired on Tuesday landed near a workshop in the Alamo area behind a medical complex in Quetta, but did no damage. Rocket attacks in the Cantonment areas were routine in the past but had gone down, only to return after recent violence in Sui.
Posted by: Fred || 01/26/2005 00:00:00 || Comments || Link || [0 views] Top|| File under:

#1  Night Train to Balochistan? Was that Duke Ellington or Glen Miller?
Posted by: tu3031 || 01/26/2005 14:58 Comments || Top||



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