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Today: 64 articles and 216 comments as of 15:33.
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Syria loyalists shoot up Beirut Christian sector
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Europe
Swiss Seize Five Suspected Extremists
Swiss authorities said Friday they have detained five Islamic extremists suspected of using the Internet to show the killing of hostages — which reportedly included the beheading of an American — and to give bomb-making instructions.
All the usual webzine stuff...gardening tips, recipes, celebrity gossip.. .
"The sites — which were actively exploited by at least one of the arrested persons — included numerous videos showing the putting to death of hostages and the mutilation of human beings," said a statement by the Federal Prosecutor's Office. All the suspects were "of the Islamic faith, with extremist leanings," the office said. It did not identify any of them, but said they came from Tunisia and Belgium and were legal residents of Switzerland. They are under investigation for incitement to crime and for supporting a terrorist organization, it said. The office cited the now-closed Web site www.islamic-minbar.com, saying its forum published letters claiming responsibility for a suicide bomb attack in Pakistan in July 2004. "The forum of one of the sites was often used by the Islamist movement as a communication and propaganda tool," the statement said, adding that the investigation covered Arab-language sites. The forum also contained threats against European governments and information relating to two French reporters, Christian Chesnot and Georges Malbrunot, who were held by Islamic militants in Iraq for four months before being released in December. The prosecutor's office did not elaborate.
They don't need to by now...
According to Swiss media reports after the site was shut down, its postings included a video showing the beheading of American Paul M. Johnson Jr., who was kidnapped and killed in Saudi Arabia in June, as well as a threat to kill Italian aid workers Simona Pari and Simona Torretta, who were abducted in Baghdad on Sept. 7 and freed Sept. 28. Other postings included a sermon by an Iraqi Islamic cleric urging Muslims to behead Jews and fight a holy war against unbelievers; pictures of terror mastermind Osama bin Laden fighting in Afghanistan; and graphic images of a man being beaten to death during Christian-Muslim violence in Indonesia.
All the very latest in death pr0n, only a keystoke away.
The five suspects were detained Feb. 22 in anti-terrorism raids in the capital, Bern, and nearby Fribourg, the prosecutor's office said. Police used force during the operation in Fribourg, the office said without elaborating.
Hope it still hurts.
Three of the suspects are still in custody. The other two have been released but remain under investigation, the office said. Police also seized computers, software, video recordings and images. "The police action was preceded by investigations which lasted several months," the statement explained. "They were able to identify several people who spread fundamentalist Islamist ideas on the Internet." The www.islamic-minbar.com site — launched June 21, 2004 — was closed by its Swiss Internet service provider in September because of its content. "Another site was then opened" outside Switzerland, the prosecutor's office said, but did not identify the site.
"We're still watching that one."
Swiss authorities have sought international judicial assistance to have the new site shut down, the office said, without identifying the country involved. Swiss media previously have identified the founder of www.islamic-minbar.com as Moez Garsallaoui, a Tunisian who was based in Lausanne. A woman who answered the telephone at Garsallaoui's listed number in the Swiss city said he did not live there.
"Not since the cops came by."
"Tell 'em I'm not home, honey! Tell 'em I don't even live here!"
In September, Garsallaoui was quoted as telling the Swiss weekly SonntagsZeitung that his site was dedicated to "political discussion." "If terrorists want to use this site to publish things, I can't do anything about it," he was quoted as saying. "I don't have any control over that."
"Allan helps those who can't help themselves..."
Posted by: Seafarious || 03/05/2005 00:00:00 AM || Comments || Link || [0 views] Top|| File under:

#1  "Allan helps those who can't help themselves..."

that one cheered me up!
Posted by: Angash Claque7723 || 03/05/2005 3:25 Comments || Top||


Great White North
Canadian police seizes laptop from daughter of Qaeda leader
Canadian police have seized a laptop computer from the daughter of a suspected terrorism financier because they believe it holds vital information about Al Qaeda operations, the Toronto Star reported on Thursday, citing court documents, Zaynab Khadr, 25, a Canadian, is being investigated by a unit led by the Royal Canadian Mounted Police under anti-terrorism laws introduced after the September 11, 2001, attacks in the United States.

Khadr's computer, cell-phone and handwritten documents were seized at Toronto's Pearson International Airport when she arrived in Canada from Pakistan two weeks ago. Her father, Ahmed Said Khadr, is suspected of funneling money to Al Qaeda through a charitable organization he ran. He died in an October 2003 gun battle in Pakistan. In an earlier interview with the Star, Zaynab Khadr denied that her family was involved with Al Qaeda and played down the significance of Osama Bin Laden's attendance at her 1999 wedding.
This article starring:
AHMED SAID KHADRal-Qaeda
ZAINAB KHADRal-Qaeda
Posted by: Fred || 03/05/2005 00:00:00 || Comments || Link || [0 views] Top|| File under:

#1  Dosen't the Binster attend everyones wedding?
Posted by: Angash Claque7723 || 03/05/2005 3:19 Comments || Top||

#2  That's why Muslims see us as weaklings: We let Moslims live normal lives amongst us. If it was the other way round, a Christian living in a Muslim country, the Muslims would have had slashed her throat a long time ago.
Posted by: Glereper Craviter7929 || 03/05/2005 10:46 Comments || Top||


Syria-Lebanon-Iran
Shooting erupts in Beirut Christian sector
BEIRUT, Lebanon -- Gunfire erupted Saturday in Beirut's anti-Syrian Christian sector after pro-Syrian protesters arrived in the area, witnesses said.
Oh, real smart
Volleys of gunfire were heard shortly after a convoy of cars carrying pictures of Syrian President Bashar Assad, which had earlier demonstrated in Muslim south Beirut, headed later to the Christian sector of Ashrafieh, a center of anti-Syrian sentiment.
The Klan comes to Harlem, film at 11.
People in the cars exchanged insults with about a dozen men. Gunmen then opened fire from the cars as they drove around, the witnesses said. There appeared to be no casualties.
That'll change
Elsewhere in the city, including the main Martyrs' Square, protests for or against Syria continued peacefully amid heavy Lebanese army presence. Many Lebanese blame Syria for the Feb. 14 assassination of their former prime minister, Rafik Hariri, and and nations around the world have demanded that Syria withdraw its 15,000 troops. Assad on Saturday announced a two-stage pullback of Syrian forces to the Lebanese border, but failed to address broad international demands that he completely withdraw the troops after nearly 30 years in the country.
Posted by: Steve || 03/05/2005 5:37:43 PM || Comments || Link || [3 views] Top|| File under:

#1  The Klan comes to Harlem. LOL!
Posted by: 2b || 03/05/2005 17:57 Comments || Top||

#2  Martyrs' Square? Nice name - seems prophetic.
Posted by: Raj || 03/05/2005 18:06 Comments || Top||

#3  Mmmm. Got my buttered popcorn right here.
Posted by: Mrs. Davis || 03/05/2005 18:20 Comments || Top||

#4  Actually, I'd prefer the christian Maronite minority not be killed, Mrs D.
Posted by: Frank G || 03/05/2005 18:43 Comments || Top||

#5  as a matter of fact, Mrs "can't we all get along" D - your cavalier attitude says hypocrite all over it, dammit. Think again before you post that shit

got my back up - I have friends and relatives at risk here
Posted by: Frank G || 03/05/2005 18:46 Comments || Top||

#6  Not all people in Ashrafié are Maronite. My 2 daughters went in a Catholic school for a year there.(1969-70)
Posted by: Cleremp Ebbiling6222 || 03/05/2005 19:56 Comments || Top||

#7  fair enough - CE, as am I - I doubt you'd consider them Islamic combatants? Me neither. Mrs D was off target on this one
Posted by: Frank G || 03/05/2005 20:12 Comments || Top||

#8  I like my new name :) I don't know how I got it!!
(ex SwissTeX)
Posted by: Cleremp Ebbiling6222 || 03/05/2005 20:33 Comments || Top||

#9  ST - You cleared out your Cookies - including your Rantburg Cookie... So Fred made one up! You can resume your previous life as ST just by changing the posting name on your next comment, but you're right: Fred's naming algorithm is pretty spiffy, heh.
Posted by: .com || 03/05/2005 20:39 Comments || Top||

#10  .com - You'r right. I just recuperated my PC after a spectacular CRASH due to my stupidity (I insisted to install the *ç%&ã SP2 of the èü?¨"* W.xp)
Posted by: SwissTex || 03/05/2005 21:04 Comments || Top||

#11  Lol! I dunno what it was, but it bit ya big-time, huh? We all sympathize, believe me.

I try to think positively about these things... I just consider all the crap I got rid of, lol!
Posted by: .com || 03/05/2005 21:07 Comments || Top||

#12  Maronites are Catholics although not under the Roman pope.
Posted by: phil_b || 03/05/2005 22:13 Comments || Top||

#13  It is plain as day to see what Baby Face is trying to do here. He is sending his thugs to cause trouble, clean up his self mandated uprising, so he can play hero and prove to the world that Lebanon is out of control without an abusive/intrusive dictator.

Well Baby Face, I got news for you. We've playing this game for more than a year now in Iraq and also, we got the GPS coordinates to your villa's, if you don't cut the crap. BTW, that's an order not a request. My name is George Bush and I approved this message.
Posted by: Poison Reverse || 03/05/2005 22:24 Comments || Top||

#14  People in the cars exchanged insults with about a dozen men. Gunmen then opened fire from the cars as they drove around, the witnesses said.

Note that the "pro-Assad" "demonstrators" were armed.

And that they fired first.

Charming people. What a pity they didn't all end up dead.
Posted by: Robert Crawford || 03/05/2005 22:57 Comments || Top||


Iran has completed heavy water factory
VIENNA - Iran, at loggerheads with the United States and European Union over its nuclear activities, has completed a heavy water production plant built to supply a nuclear research reactor, which could make plutonium for atom bombs, a think tank said late on Friday. Providing satellite photos to back up its assertion, the Institute for Science and International Security (ISIS), also quoted Iranian security official Hassan Rowhani saying on February 7: "We may be able to produce heavy water soon, within the next few weeks."

According to the ISIS the heavy water would supply a 40-megawatt reactor being built despite objections from the Vienna-based International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA), which is investigating Iran on the US charges that Tehran is secretly developing nuclear weapons. "Adjacent to the reactor construction site is the heavy water production plant, which is anticipated to supply the necessary heavy water for the heavy water reactor," ISIS said, explaining three crystal-clear satellite photos taken by the US commercial firms Space Imaging and DigitalGlobe.
Bet the Israelis have better pictures.
It said the photographs had been taken on February 17 and 27, 2005 and on February 29, 2004. ISIS president David Albright, a former UN weapons inspector, said he also had ground photos, some sent to his institute anonymously, which showed the Iranians already testing the production plant as there was steam coming off pipes. "It looks like the plant is completed," Albright said. He said the "huge" facility, its towers for distilling heavy water clearly visible in the satellite photos, has been under construction for several years.

AFP had revealed Thursday that Iran was already pouring the foundation for the reactor, citing diplomats working from satellite photos, and this is also clearly visible in the ISIS-supplied images. Albright said there was even progress being made in the images 10 days apart, although the foundation was not yet completed. Work on the reactor could be completed in 2009.

The construction work for the reactor began in September, just after the IAEA had asked Iran to refrain from building it as a "confidence-building measure" to show it does not seek to make nuclear weapons, a diplomat who asked not to be named told AFP. IAEA deputy director Pierre Goldschmidt had Tuesday told an IAEA governing board meeting in Vienna that Iran was pressing ahead with work on the Arak reactor but he gave no details.
Because he doesn't have any.
Goldschmidt said IAEA inspectors had not visited the site since the agency's board adopted a resolution on September 18 calling on Iran "voluntarily to reconsider its decision to start construction of a research reactor moderated by heavy water."
Posted by: Steve White || 03/05/2005 00:00:00 AM || Comments || Link || [0 views] Top|| File under:

#1  As I gaze into the space time continuum, a Dooming natural disaster Looms.
Posted by: Icanseeformilesandmiles || 03/05/2005 3:47 Comments || Top||

#2  Maybe more of a Booming disaster..
Posted by: JerseyMike || 03/05/2005 7:13 Comments || Top||

#3  Now they can make Kaliphate KoolAid.
Posted by: .com || 03/05/2005 7:20 Comments || Top||

#4  Kaliphate KoolAid. haha.
Posted by: 2b || 03/05/2005 9:24 Comments || Top||

#5  No way is Iran gonna be allowed one of these babies. Will it be Israel again, or the US this time to blow it up? Just wait till they've invested enough resources so it's a drain to build another one.... BOOM!

But one problem: reactor or not, it is just a matter of time before Islamofascist nuts get their hands on nukes.

It's a race isn't it: can we modernise and moderate them (and uproot the death cult of Islamonazism) before they get the ability to murder millions of our people?

Because if we lose the race and they nuke us, we are going to have to respond.

And the only response possible then will be millions of theirs for millions of ours and a sea of glass covering Mecca.
Posted by: anon1 || 03/05/2005 10:14 Comments || Top||

#6  The Iranian government has a death wish and is soon going to die. I believe that it's only a matter of the final timing at this point. I hope that we can spare as many innocent Iranians as possible, but the Iranian government and nuclear facilities need to be obliterated in a decisive blow that will make those who do not respect us at least live in constant fear our wrath.
Posted by: Tom || 03/05/2005 10:47 Comments || Top||

#7  Oh Look! A new target!
Posted by: CrazyFool || 03/05/2005 11:37 Comments || Top||

#8  There is a lot of intel we do not know about. And that is good, because it means that we can keep some secrets now. Hacks Journalists like Seymour Hersch are useful idiots. All this brouhaha about drones, clones, and tapped phones becomes a spike in the news and disappears from the screen in a week. Bush makes friendly conversation with the Euros and the appeasement negotiaons with the MMs of Iran continues. Meanwhile, the REAL work continues: recon, targetting, planning, surveillance. The rest is a smokescreen for the gullible. President Bush said that Iran will not get nuclear weapons. He has pretty much kept his word on everything else. I do not see this situation with Iran as an exception.
Posted by: Alaska Paul || 03/05/2005 11:39 Comments || Top||

#9  After reading the article, a little tune started running through my head. (if there's a copyright problem with this post, please remove it with extreme prejudice)

They burned down the gambling house - It died with an awful sound
Funky & Claude was running in and out, pulling kids out of the ground
When it all was over, we had to find another place
Swiss time was running out - It seemed that we would lose the race

Smoke on the water - A fire in the sky
Smoke on the water


Words & music by Ritchie Blackmore, Ian Gillan, Roger Glover, Jon Lord and Ian Paice
Posted by: mrp || 03/05/2005 20:07 Comments || Top||


Army finds rockets aimed at Israel
Lebanese soldiers found two Katyousha rockets primed for launch toward Israel after receiving a tip Friday, security sources said. An army patrol found the rockets near the southern village of Markaba, and afterward conducted a search for those who might have planned to launch the rockets. Small Palestinian groups have, in the past, fired or attempted to fire rockets into northern Israel, prompting the Lebanese Army to arrest a few Palestinian gunmen. However, Palestinian officials denied any involvement in the matter.
"Nope. Wudn't us."
Khaled Aref, Palestine Liberation Organization secretary in the southern Palestinian refugee camps told The Daily Star: "none of the Palestinian factions own this brand of rockets."
"We get all of ours from Acme by mail order..."
Hizbullah, which has posts in South Lebanon, has rarely fired rockets at Israel since the Israelis pulled their forces from most of the South in 2000. Hizbullah had no comments on the matter. On Wednesday, Hizbullah's Marjayoun-Hasbaya MP Ali Hassan Khalil said that a large part of both the Lebanese opposition and the authorities agreed on the fact that the group remains a resistance force, a hint at keeping Hizbullah's arms. However, pressure has been mounting after a U.S.-French backed UN resolution was issued last year calling for disarming and dismantling of all militias.
Posted by: Fred || 03/05/2005 00:00:00 AM || Comments || Link || [0 views] Top|| File under:

#1  interesting.
Posted by: 2b || 03/05/2005 10:00 Comments || Top||

#2  Katyousha... musta been Russian Budhists.
Posted by: .com || 03/05/2005 18:22 Comments || Top||


Afghanistan/South Asia
3 LT members killed in Delhi
Indian police on Saturday killed three militants belonging to the Lashkar-e-Taiba (LT) group in New Delhi and arrested two others, police said. The Press Trust of India said a big haul of explosives and some AK-47 rifles were seized from the militants. A television news channel said they were planning to attack a military training academy in Dehradun, 200 kilometres northeast of Delhi.
Posted by: Fred || 03/05/2005 8:42:51 PM || Comments || Link || [0 views] Top|| File under:


Pakistan Kills Two Al Qaeda Suspects, Arrests 11
Pakistani soldiers killed two foreign al Qaeda suspects and arrested 11 people on Saturday in a remote northern village bordering Afghanistan, senior officials said. The militants were hiding in Devgar village in North Waziristan, roughly 185 miles southwest of the capital, Islamabad, a senior official said on condition of anonymity. "Two foreign militants were killed in the exchange of gunfire with the security forces. Eleven others, including at least three foreigners, were arrested," he said.

It was not immediately known whether any al Qaeda leaders were among the dead or the arrested men. Witnesses said that troops moved into the small village after midnight and surrounded a mud-and-brick house, where the militants were hiding. "But the shootout started early in the morning which lasted for more than two hours," one witness said. "One woman and at least three security personnel also suffered minor wounds," he said. Another official, who also asked not to be named, said that the two dead al Qaeda suspects appeared to be Arabs. "The arrested men include two Sudanese and one Qatari national," he added. "The rest are locals." The arrested men were hand-cuffed and swiftly moved to an undisclosed location for interrogation, witnesses said.
Posted by: Fred || 03/05/2005 5:05:16 PM || Comments || Link || [0 views] Top|| File under:


Israel-Palestine
Palestinians Seize Weapons in New Crackdown
Palestinian police seized bombs and other weapons in the West Bank for the first time in more than four years on Saturday, a senior Palestinian security official said. The official Told Reuters that police raiding the West Bank town of Dura, south of Hebron, also arrested 16 suspects in the start of a new crackdown by the Palestinian Authority against lawlessness in its territories. While the action seemed a move toward ieeting the demands of Israel and a U.S.-backed "road map" peace plan for Palestinians to disarm gunmen, it was not clear whether any weapons seized had belonged to militants involved in attacking Israel.

Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas has vowed to end armed chaos in the Palestinian territories but has previously sought to do so through dialogue with gunmen rather than use force. Jihad Abu Omar, a senior Palestinian security official in Dura, said that Palestinians targeted in Dura were "fugitives of the law" suspected of torching three Palestinian Authority vehicles, including a bulldozer, and stealing cars.

PALESTINIANS CAMPAIGN "TO PUT AN END TO THE CHAOS"
"More than 120 Palestinian security officers from all the security forces began a campaign to put an end to the chaos ... criminals and those who have vandalized public institutions and public property," Abu Omar said. He said police had "seized ammunition and bombs and some weapons" during the raid ordered by Abbas and his reform-minded Interior Minister Nasser Yousef. Abu Omar said it was "the first time" Palestinian police had confiscated weapons or ammunition since Sept. 2000 when Palestinians launched their uprising. "These are gangs that challenge the authority," he said. "The campaign is not going to end, it is going to move from one town to the other."

Saturday's raid followed an escalation in recent days in violence by armed Palestinians against deputies of Abbas, a moderate elected in January to succeed Yasser Arafat, whose new government was approved by Parliament last month. Palestinian militants wounded a Palestinian policeman on Friday, shooting at a police station in the West Bank city of Nablus after police refused them permission to see a prisoner. Another policeman was injured in a separate incident on Tuesday in the West Bank town of Jenin when a gunman opened fire near Interior Minister Yousef's motorcade complaining he had not coordinated his visit with the militants.
Posted by: Fred || 03/05/2005 5:00:05 PM || Comments || Link || [0 views] Top|| File under:


Explosion Rocks Refugee Camp in Gaza
An explosion rocked the Rafah refugee camp in the southern Gaza Strip on Friday, wounding four people, witnesses said. There were no details on the cause of the explosion. The Israeli army did not immediately comment. Rafah, located along the Egyptian border, has been a frequent flashpoint of fighting between Israeli troops and Palestinian militants. But Gaza has been largely quiet since Palestinian leader Mahmoud Abbas deployed thousands of police throughout the area several weeks ago.
Posted by: Fred || 03/05/2005 00:00:00 || Comments || Link || [1 views] Top|| File under:

#1  Red and black are difficult to resolve in less than perfect light. Vitamin deficits could contribute.

Posted by: Shipman || 03/05/2005 9:29 Comments || Top||


Iraq-Jordan
Police chief shot dead in Iraqi town
A police chief has been gunned down near his home in south-central Iraq, said the Polish military, which is deployed in the region, while one person was killed and three were wounded in a car bomb in Baquba. "Today in the morning hours, al-Budair police chief Colonel Ghaib Hadab Zarib was killed," the military said in a statement on Friday. "His body was found near his house. The unknown attackers shot at him using an AK-rifle." Al-Budair is 45km east of Diwaniya in south-central Iraq, where Polish forces are deployed.
Posted by: Fred || 03/05/2005 00:00:00 || Comments || Link || [0 views] Top|| File under:

#1  I hate to be so repetitive - but these guys are just stupid. They'v'e lost the war and the only reason they haven't been hung from lampposts and their children cut into tiny pieces is because the Americans are there. So what do they do, they go around really pissing off the people who will soon have the guns and the means to dispose of theirs and their family's bodies without anyone knowing where they went. Hey Mohammed, you seen Ahab lately? No, I haven't seen him, or the wife, kids, aunts uncles and grandpas since ol' Mo over there heard someone knock on his door at midnight. Say, wasn't he one of those guys who was associated with the guys who blew up the police station?
Posted by: 2b || 03/05/2005 9:14 Comments || Top||

#2  The terrorists have lost the war, so all they can do is strike out at people in the hope of bringing the whole shebang down on everyone. Now THAT, folks is one hell of a plan!

Like everything, that kind of behavior has a tipping point with the majority. If the nutcase Sunni Clerics Trade Association has any rational thought left in them, they better rein in these nutcases and self-police, or rat out the terrorists, or the clerics will become lampost wind chimes themselves. Time and patience is running out quickly for them.
Posted by: Alaska Paul || 03/05/2005 11:29 Comments || Top||


Afghanistan/South Asia
Nuggets from the Urdu Press
General Zia killed Mengal's son
Writing in Jang Hamid Mir stated that Sardar Ataullah Mengal was alienated from Punjab because he thought that it remained passive when the Baloch were being persecuted. He told the columnist that when in 1958 old friends Iskander Mirza and Ayub Khan fell out, the former asked the Khan of Kalat to revolt against the army, but Mengal was of the view that now that Pakistan had come into being the Baloch sardars should accept it. The columnist recalled that Mengal's son was killed by General Zia when he was army chief under Bhutto. He did a commando operation in Karachi at Mir Balakh Sher Mazari's house to capture him for investigation but the boy got killed during exchange of fire. Later when Bhutto was accused of killing Asad he wrote in his prison memoirs Facts and Fiction that it was actually General Zia who had done it and then asked him to hush it up. Mengal did not know where his son was buried.

Be tough with non-Muslims!
Writing in Nawa-e-Waqt Dr Hussain Ahmad Paracha said that the Quran had ordained that Muslim (Momin) should be kind to the Muslim but hard with non-Muslim. After that Allama Iqbal too had written his couplet that had asked the Muslims to be smooth as silk to other Muslims but hard as steel to non-Muslims. But today in Pakistan 'enlightened moderation' meant being hard on the Muslims and soft on the non-Muslim outsiders.

Lack of wisdom of clerics
Writing in daily Pakistan, Dr Israr Ahmad stated that the movement of reshami romaal (silk kerchief) of Sheikhul Hind Maulana Mehmoodul Hassan, leader of Deobandi Muslims, failed like many other movements led by clerics because of their lack of realism. Abul Kalam told Sheikhul Hind that he should fight against the British inside India but he thought he could go to the Turks and ask them to attack India as Darul Harb (home of war). He went to Arabia and met Sharif of Mecca who captured him and handed him over to the British. He was sent to Malta as a prisoner and the movement collapsed. After returning from Malta, Sheikhul Hind admitted that Abul Kalam was right and he was wrong.

Thus spake Mufti of Kaaba
Sarerahe praised the khutba of hajj of Mufti of Kaaba in Nawa-e-Waqt which said that Muslims had allowed the Christians (ahle tathlith) to become their masters. The Christians had become a torture (azaab) and the Muslims had forgotten the Message. The khateeb said that dajjals were assaulting the Muslims like locust swarms. Instead of being model to the world which was their mission Muslims had become the lowest of the low.

Women can't be president in Iran
Writing in Jang Irshad Haqqani stated that recently Tehran appeared to be in favour of letting women run for the post of president in the coming election, but the Guardian Council soon clarified that this was not possible. The clergy based its reasoning on the word rijl meaning man but many other clerics say that rijl can mean man and woman both in certain contexts. The columnist thought that Iran could show independent thinking and remove the word rijl from the constitution and make it possible for women to run for the office of the president.

Taliban caught in Quetta
According to Jang, 23 Taliban were caught by the police in Quetta, including deputy governor of Helmand province Mullah Khushdil and IG police Kabul Mullah Ibrahim. The other big personalities were Mullah Abdur Razzaq and Mufti Rahmatullah.

Spies versus Pakistan
Columnist Irfan Siddiqi wrote in Nawa-e-Waqt that an Indian consulate had opened across the Chaman border in Kandahar. Additionally, Donald Rumsfeld had created a new spying agency which was spreading its wings in Afghanistan. In tandem with it, KHAD and MOSSAD were active against Pakistan, while America was sharpening its teeth to attack Iran.

Marathon against Islam
Quoted in daily Insaf, Punjab Jamaat Islami leaders Liaquat Baloch and Farid Paracha said that Lahore's international marathon on January 30 was against Islam because women were allowed to run in it together with men in public view. Women and men running together was against Islam. Also women running in public without proper hijab was against Islam.

What happened in Balochistan
Historian Raja Anwar wrote in Khabrain that Khan of Kalat gave Jinnah funds after weighing him in silver because he wanted to remain free in Balochistan while accepting Pakistan's suzerainty. Eleven years after partition Balochistan was attacked and 'conquered'. General Ayub brought a law that enabled him to depose and appoint Baloch sardars. He removed Ataullah Mengal and replaced him with his uncle but the Mengal tribe beheaded the new incumbent. General Ayub hanged the family of Sardar Nauroz Khan Zehri and thus bought the hostility of the Zehri tribe. After 11 years, General Ayub called off the army and sent in police and rangers who were cut down by the Baloch like gajar mooli (carrots and radishes). In 1973 started another operation in Balochistan after taking into confidence Sardar Bugti, the Khan of Kalat, the Raisanis of Sarwan, the Magsis, Sardar Doda Khan Zehri of Jhalawan, Jam of Las Bela and Abdus Samad Khan Achakzai. After overthrowing Bhutto, General Zia had dinner with the Baloch sardars Bhutto had jailed in Hyderabad and killed Bhutto after two years.

Suicide bomber identified
According to Jang, the suicide bomber who tried to kill prime minister Shaukat Aziz last year at Fateh Jang was one Muhammad Irfan from Shish Mahal Road Lahore. He was the son of a tailor master and had taken his early training in a religious seminary. He passed his B. Com and then started working at a four-star hotel in Lahore. He was recruited by one Zeeshan Mehmood of Anarkali Lahore. Zeeshan had been to Afghanistan to train with Al Qaeda and was an accused in the attempt to kill President Musharraf in the tutelage of the key Al Qaeda agent Amjad Farooqi since killed in Hyderabad. Zeeshan got Irfan to meet Amjad Farooqi who brainwashed him and got him to blow himself up next to the car of the prime minister near Attock. Daily Insaf recorded the reaction of 'Hafiz' Irfan's neighbours and relatives. Everybody vowed that he was a most peace-loving and God-fearing person and was killed by the government unfairly. (Irfan's father later identified his severed head and owned up the act. The family was asked to approach the court for getting possession of the head, the only remaining part.) According to Jang, the head of Hafiz Irfan was brought to his family by the police in a bucket. His neighbours did not accept that he was a terrorist as he used to lead the namaz at the local mosque. His funeral at Data Sahib was attended by a mammoth crowd Daily Pakistan reported that he had told his family before disappearing that the police would kill him.

Confusion over Balochistan
Writing in daily Pakistan Abdul Quddus Minhas stated that in Balochistan the political parties were behaving in a confused fashion. While the MMA was opposed to military operation in the province, its ministers were present in the Quetta cabinet meeting in which the provincial government asked the centre to deploy troops in Sui. The PPP was opposed to the military operation but its real worry was about the gathering strength of the Baloch nationalists. PMLQ and MQM were opposed to the military operation but were present in the cabinet session in which action in Balochistan was decided.
Posted by: Fred || 03/05/2005 00:00:00 AM || Comments || Link || [0 views] Top|| File under:

#1  the head of Hafiz Irfan

...Sounds like the title of an Eric Ambler novel..

Mike
Posted by: Mike Kozlowski || 03/05/2005 0:42 Comments || Top||

#2  "Bring me the head of Hafiz Irfan!"
Posted by: Fred || 03/05/2005 9:07 Comments || Top||


Dhaka Grills Three More Militants
Bangladesh has frozen the accounts of Ahle Hadith Andolon Bangladesh (AHAB) against the backdrop of its suspected links withoutlawed Islamist militant outfits. The move came just one day after the closing of the personal account of Dr. Asadullah Al-Ghalib, chief of the banned Jamaatul Mujahedeen and also the chief of a faction of Ahle Hadith Movement now arrested and undergoing intensive interrogation by army-led Joint Interrogation Cell in Dhaka.

Meanwhile, three aides of Dr. Ghalib were sent to Dhaka from Gopalganj on Thursday for interrogation at the Joint Interrogation Cell. All the three men, Abdus Samad Salafi, A.S.M. Azizullah and Nurul Islam, were being interrogated at the cell yesterday. The outcome of the interrogation could not be known as the investigators remained tight-lipped. However, a source said that the investigators were examining the computer disks and documents seized from the Ahle Hadith office in Rajshahi on Wednesday. The police were also in the hunt for recovery of more documents from the office in Rajshahi and elsewhere in the northern region. Heavy police guard had escorted the three aides of Ghalib to Dhaka. The three arrestees were brought to Gopalganj from Rajshahi jail on Tuesday and the police took them on a 10-day remand on Wednesday. They were shown arrested in a case filed with Kotalipara police station of the district in connection with a robbery at an office of leading development organization Bangladesh Rural Advancement Committee (BRAC) in January.

Meanwhile, the militants of Bangla Bhai, another aide of Ghalib, sent letters to 10 journalists of Lalmonirhat district with death threats. Receiving the letters, the worried journalists registered a general diary with Lalmonirhat police station seeking security for them.
If they're actually doing terrible things to the right people, this is as significant as Lebanon.

This article starring:
ABDUS SAMAD SALAFIAhle Hadith Andolon Bangladesh
ASADULLAH AL GHALIBAhle Hadith Andolon Bangladesh
ASADULLAH AL GHALIBJamaatul Mujahedeen
A.S.M. AZIZULLAHAhle Hadith Andolon Bangladesh
BANGLA BHAIAhle Hadith Andolon Bangladesh
BANGLA BHAIJamaatul Mujahedeen
NURUL ISLAMAhle Hadith Andolon Bangladesh
Ahle Hadith Andolon Bangladesh
Jamaatul Mujahedeen
Posted by: Fred || 03/05/2005 00:00:00 AM || Comments || Link || [0 views] Top|| File under:



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Chris gives us Mexican press dispatches of drug and gang war violence over three years, presented in a multi volume set intended to chronicle the death, violence and mayhem which has dominated Mexico for six years.
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Two weeks of WOT
Sat 2005-03-05
  Syria loyalists shoot up Beirut Christian sector
Fri 2005-03-04
  Pro-Syria Groups in Lebanon Press for Unity Govt
Thu 2005-03-03
  Lebanon Opposition Demands Total Syrian Withdrawal
Wed 2005-03-02
  France moving commando support ship to Med
Tue 2005-03-01
  Protesters Back on Beirut Streets; U.S. Offers Support
Mon 2005-02-28
  Lebanese Government Resigns
Sun 2005-02-27
  Sabawi Ibrahim Hasan busted!
Sat 2005-02-26
  Rice demands Palestinians find those behind attack
Fri 2005-02-25
  Tel Aviv Blast Reportedly Kills 4
Thu 2005-02-24
  Bangla cracks down on Islamists
Wed 2005-02-23
  500 illegal Iranian pilgrims arrested in Basra
Tue 2005-02-22
  Syria to withdraw from Lebanon. No, they're not.
Mon 2005-02-21
  Zarq propagandist is toes up
Sun 2005-02-20
  Bakri talks of No 10 suicide attacks
Sat 2005-02-19
  Lebanon opposition demands "intifada for independence"

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