Saudi security force have killed two of the country's most wanted militant fugitives in fierce clashes in the northern town of Al-Ras, Al Arabiya television said on Tuesday. The Saudi-owned channel named the two men as Saud Homoud al-Oteibi and Moroccan Abdulkarim al-Mejjati, a suspected mastermind of suicide bombings in Casablanca in May 2003 who has also been linked to last year's Madrid train bombings.
Hurrah! I shall now spend the afternoon ululating...
Both were on a list of 26 most wanted militants published by the Saudi government, which has been battling a wave of violence by supporters of Osama bin Laden's Al Qaeda network since triple suicide bombings in Riyadh nearly two years ago. Officials were not immediately available to confirm the report, but their deaths would deal another significant blow to a militant campaign which has targeted Westerners and security forces in the world's biggest oil exporter.
And still somehow ticks along despite the corpse count...
Saudi Arabia's Interior Ministry said on Monday security forces had killed seven gunmen in the fierce gunbattles which broke out in Al-Ras, 300 km (180 miles) northwest of Riyadh, early on Sunday and raged on into Monday night.
We never see gentle gunbattles anymore...
An eighth militant was critically wounded and a number of security personnel were injured, though most had been released from hospital, a ministry statement said. A spokesman earlier said the suspected militants, holed up in a complex in the town's Jawazat neighbourhood, had hurled hand grenades at security forces during one of the longest and bloodiest confrontations in Saudi Arabia's two-year security crackdown.
"Harrr! Take that, coppers!... Hey, lady! Look out! [KABOOM!]... Sorry! Hope you're not a Moose limb!"
The battle erupted early on Sunday when security forces tried to raid a house where the suspects were staying. Witnesses said the house was secured by Monday morning but gunfire had erupted from a nearby building. "They were asked to surrender, but those people are known not to listen," local governor Prince Faisal bin Bandar bin Abdul-Aziz said, describing the gunmen as "terrorists". The town of Al-Ras is in the conservative Qassim province, the heartland of Saudi Arabia's Wahhabi doctrine, which some critics say has fuelled intolerance and anti-Western violence.
Kinda makes you wonder what the other critics say, doesn't it?
Saudi officials say the country's oil fields and refineries are well protected and Al Qaeda's network has been eroded over the last year. The deaths of Mejjati and Oteibi would leave just four suspects at large from the list of 26 top militants issued by Saudi Arabia in December 2003. Saudi newspaper reports have described Mejjati as an explosives expert and one of the most dangerous of the fugitives. Oteibi is believed to have moved between Yemen and Saudi Arabia before fighting in Afghanistan in the late 1990s.
UPDATE, EFL:
Saudi forces waging a fierce three-day battle with gunmen have killed a top militant suspected of masterminding al Qaeda bombings in Casablanca, security sources said on Tuesday. They said Abdulkarim al-Mejjati was one of 10 militants killed in the clashes which broke out on Sunday in Al-Ras, 180 miles northwest of Riyadh, and raged on into Tuesday.
"This is a monumental breakthrough for Saudi security forces," said Saudi security consultant Nawaf Obaid. "Not just domestically -- Mejjati was the subject of a major manhunt across Europe." Another militant was wounded and captured and one more surrendered to security forces, the sources said.
Mejjati, a Moroccan, was killed in Al-Ras alongside Saud Homoud al-Oteibi, they added. Both were on a list of 26 most wanted suspects issued by Saudi Arabia more than a year ago. Saudi officials had believed he was outside the country. The deaths of Mejjati and Oteibi would mean only four of the original 26 fugitives remain at large, including Saleh al-Awfi, believed to have taken over leadership of al Qaeda in Saudi Arabia in June despite being less experienced than the Moroccan.
"Mahmoud, I don't think we'll need the big conference room for our next meeting!"
This article starring:
ABDULKARIM AL MEJJATI
al-Qaeda in the Arabian Peninsula
HOMUD AL OTEIBI
al-Qaeda in the Arabian Peninsula
SALEH AL AWFI
al-Qaeda in the Arabian Peninsula
Saudi security consultant Nawaf Obaid
Posted by: Dan Darling ||
04/05/2005 12:24:18 AM ||
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Saudi security forces have killed seven insurgents in an ongoing siege in the northern town of al-Ras, according to security sources. Aljazeera said clashes were still going on as insurgents hurled grenades at police from their hideout in al-Ras in the al-Qassim region, 350km northwest of the Saudi capital Riyadh. A ministry statement said an eighth militant was critically wounded and a number of members of the security forces were injured, though most had been released from hospital. Security sources earlier said eight militants were killed. "Security forces are continuing mop-up operations at the site," it said about one of the longest and bloodiest battles in Saudi Arabia's two-year confrontation with al Qaeda supporters.
Witnesses said gunfire could still be heard on Monday morning in the neighbourhood of al-Ras which security forces had surrounded since early Sunday. Officials described the insurgents as "terrorists". Aljazeera has learned that at least one Saudi police officer was shot dead on Sunday and another 15 had been wounded by midday. Other sources said a total of 35 security personnel had been wounded.
Posted by: Fred ||
04/05/2005 00:00:00 AM ||
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#1
The beggining of the end for the magic kingdom?
#2
In the twilight of the desert kingdom came a sound of pocketa pocketa pocketa, as abu the revolutionaries' revolutionary disappeared into the dessert darkness. Pocketa, pocketa, pocketa.
At least 13 people including three soldiers were killed in two separate clashes in northern Yemen yesterday as government forces continued to hunt for militants loyal to a slain rebel cleric, tribal sources said. Three soldiers and four suspected members of the outlawed "Believing Youth" movement were killed in the Bani-Muadh suburb of the provincial city of Saada, 250 kilometers north of the Yemeni capital Sanaa, they said. Sources told Arab News six others were killed in a gunbattle between tribesmen belonging to a pro-government clan and others from a clan loyal to Al-Houthi. They said an ongoing vendetta between the two clans was believed to be behind the fighting, east of Saada, although they speculated that the government hunt for Houthi loyalists may have sparked further inter-tribe violence. Government sources said they had captured two militant posts during operations late Sunday in the Al-Shafiaa and Jabal-Ayoob districts, arresting dozens of armed suspects, and had encircled more rebel positions in the Um-Essa and Al-Ruzamat areas.
Posted by: Fred ||
04/05/2005 00:00:00 AM ||
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In a special operation in Chechnya, three militants from Shamil Basaev's and Doku Umarov's gangs have been detained and one was killed, the North Caucasian counterterrorist operation's press service said. One of the detainees from Magomed Vagapov's gang under Basayev, is being held on a number of crimes and is ready to cooperate with investigators.
"Owowowowowow! I'll cooperate!"
The 23-year old militant has disclosed whereabouts of a gang cache of two Kalashnikov assault-rifles and a big amount of ammunition, the service said.
Are they gonna take him there at 4 a.m. to retrieve them?
The service reported that active member of illegal armed formations Shamsutdin Yunusov, a member of Ayub Salimkhanov's gang, was killed in a recent special operation in the Urus-Martan district. "An AKS-74 assault rifle and a self-made grenade were confiscated at the combat site. Law-enforcement officials have information that Yunusov took part in the bandit raid in Ingushetia in June 2004," a service spokesperson said. In a special operation in the Shali district, a member of Akhmed Yunusov's gang, also linked to Basayev, was captured with an assault rilfe and a full magazine. A militant from Dzhambulat Khatuyev's gang, with ties to Umarov, was arrested in Achkhoi-Martan, in connection with a local armed raid. He was previously wanted for "banditry." The detainees are being kept in pre-trial detention centers, while their crimes are being investigated.
This article starring:
AIUB SALIMKHANOV
Chechnya
AKHMED YUNUSOV
Chechnya
DOKU OMAROV
Chechnya
DZHAMBULAT KHATUYEV
Chechnya
MAGOMED VAGAPOV
Chechnya
SHAMIL BASAEV
Chechnya
SHAMSUTDIN YUNUSOV
Chechnya
Posted by: Dan Darling ||
04/05/2005 1:01:49 AM ||
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LONDON - The BBC has broadcast harrowing footage that purportedly shows people being publicly executed by firing squad in North Korea for trying to flee the totalitarian regime. The pictures, filmed in secret just over a month ago in towns near the North Korean border with China, were obtained by the British broadcaster and shown on television late Monday night. They add to a mountain of evidence of massive human rights abuses by Pyongyang, which the government consistently denies. "Those who are to be executed are brought in a vehicle, they are gagged and half dead," one North Korean defector, Kim Young Soon, told the BBC. "Then they say you are being judged in the name of the people because you tried to escape. They fire a single shot and say you are being shot because you are an enemy of the people, then these people fall and die on the spot," she said, speaking through a translator.
Rat bastards.
What galls me is that, after NKor either falls apart or is taken apart, the shooters are going to get off. There'll be lots of people bitching about the injustices of "decommification."
In an exclusive report, the BBC showed shaky footage of prisoners standing in a field as an off-screen voice gave the order to take aim and fire. "Aim at the enemy. Single shot. Fire. Fire. Fire. Cease firing," the voice commanded, according to subtitles. Up to 1,000 local townspeople are forced to watch the executions and told that they too will be shot if they try to leave, said Kim Young Soon. The BBC said it was impossible to verify the authenticity of the tape due to the impenetrable nature of the regime, but the pictures corresponded with a wealth of witness accounts given by people who managed to escape the country. "It is very important that we now have this film footage because what we have been saying for years is happening," said Elizabeth Batha, an international advocate of the human rights organisation Christian Solidarity Worldwide.
If you're that determined not to believe it, the pictures aren't going to change your mind. The response I expect to see will be that the sympathizers simply don't say anything about it, in the expectation that it'll be forgotten in a month.
Bill Rammell, Under Secretary of State at Britain's Foreign Office, reiterated a call to the international community to consider tougher action against North Korea if it failed to make progress soon on human rights abuse.
Like what, exactly -- sic your big brother on them? Fred noted yesterday that "intolerable" means that you don't tolerate it anymore. You guys ready to find the NKors 'intolerable'?
"Some of the very credible reports that come forward about gas experimentation, about infanticide, about whole generations of families being locked up are absolutely appalling," he told the BBC, according to a separate transcript of the interview. "I think we're right to put pressure on the regime," he said. "I think the record, arguably, in North Korea is the worst in the world," said Rammell, who visited the Stalinist state in September 2004. Last week, the British minister confirmed that European countries were preparing to submit a resolution to the 53-member UN Human Rights Commission, which is meeting in Geneva, condemning abuse by Pyongyang and continuing the mandate of a UN rights expert to monitor the country. The Special Rapporteur, another Swede with a sinecure Vitit Muntarbhorn, was appointed last year but he has yet been granted access to the country.
So much for that bright idea.
Posted by: Steve White ||
04/05/2005 12:14:00 AM ||
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#1
The BBC puts this on but the EU they support wants to arm the NORKS primary sponsor and protector.
Intolerable yea. Put your army where your mouth is.
#5
Why just a boatload? Remove ALL of it, plus personnel. If the South can't or won't see the NorKs for what they are, then it's not in our interest to put our necks on the line for them.
#6
Total withdrawal. Hell, let the crazy bastards have the south, if they can take it. The V-8 economy they lust after will be the first casualty of Nork idiocy, which will make Japan very happy.
#7
Why just a boatload? Remove ALL of it, plus personnel.
It's a version of Chinese water-torture:
"That's the only boatload we're taking".
Two weeks later: "Well, we need another load. But this is the last one we're taking."
"Whoops! Did I say the other last month was the last one? THIS is the last one. But we need to borrow about 30,000 of our troops next week. They'll come back..."
#8
With permission from the copyright holder, JIN-NET, Life Funds for North Korean Refugees has posted the video from the public execution in North Korea that was secretly smuggled out on their website and included the English translation. The video clip shows 3 minutes from a DVD produced jointly by Life Funds for North Korean Refugees and Japan Independent News Net Co. Ltd.
http://www.northkoreanrefugees.com/dvd
The site also describes a DVD, which contains the complete videos taken of two executions in early March. The DVD will be shipped to interested parties for a donation of $30.
Posted by: Michael Sheehan ||
04/05/2005 21:21 Comments ||
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Former Guantanamo Bay detainee Mamdouh Habib has sacked the Sydney lawyer who spent at least three years working to secure his freedom.
Lawyer Stephen Hopper has told a community forum that Mr Habib - freed without charge in January after years in detention on suspicion of terrorism - had gone elsewhere.
"The Habib family have decided to go elsewhere as of today, so I wish them luck with their long struggle to obtain justice," he told the forum.
"I'm very happy to have worked on the case.
"But it's not really appropriate that I comment any further for the reasons why this may have occurred - that's for other people from now on."
He made the revelation at a community forum, titled Lies, Torture and Deportation, at the Pennant Hills Community Centre on Tuesday night.
Mr Hopper began representing Mr Habib as early as April 2002, when his client was in US custody in Afghanistan, suspected of training with the terrorist group al-Qaeda.
Mr Habib, who was arrested in Pakistan in October 2001, spent more than three years in detention - most of it at the United States military base at Guantanamo Bay in Cuba.
He was released without charge earlier this year, when US authorities said they would not pursue him.
Mr Hopper did not say who Mr Habib's new lawyer would be.
Next article: Crashed chopper's black box recovered
Posted by: God Save The World ||
04/05/2005 7:12:02 PM ||
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Two Iraqis detained in Sweden for almost a year were charged Monday with collecting and transferring money to terrorists, including Abu Musab Zarqawi, the most wanted terrorist in Iraq. Stockholm prosecutors said Ali Berzengi, 29, and Ferman Abdulla, 25, collected more than $148,000 and transferred it to Iraq.
The recipients included Ansar al-Islam, a group believed to have links with al-Qaida, prosecutors said. The suspects also transferred money to Zarqawi, whose al-Qaida in Iraq group is believed to be behind numerous deadly attacks on American troops and U.S.-trained Iraqi forces, prosecutors said. There is a $25 million bounty for Zarqawi. The men also sent funds "to persons in Iran for forwarding to Iraq," prosecutors said.
They said some of the money -- at least $70,000 -- was linked to Feb. 1, 2004, suicide bombings in the northern Iraqi city of Irbil that killed 109 people. Berzengi denies all the allegations, his defense lawyer, Peter Mutvei said. Abdulla's lawyer, Ola Salomonsson, said his client admits to sending money to Ansar al-Islam but thought it would go toward humanitarian aid operations.
They were arrested on April 19, 2004, along with another Iraqi, Shaho Shahab, and Lebanese-born Bilal Ramadan, in separate police raids in Stockholm and Malmoe, 375 miles southwest of the capital. Ramadan was released in September after a court found that there wasn't enough evidence to keep him in custody. Shahab was released in December after the government decided to deport him to Iraq. However, since Shahab risks receiving the death penalty in his home country, the deportation has not been carried out.
Prosecutors said Berzengi and Abdulla provided funds to terrorists through an informal money transfer system known as hawala. Berzengi also traveled to Iraq where he delivered some of the money personally, they said. The trial is set to begin on Thursday at Stockholm's district court.
This article starring:
ABU MUSAB ZARQAWI
al-Qaeda in Iraq
ALI BERZENGI
al-Qaeda in Iraq
BILAL RAMADAN
Ansar al-Islam
FERMAN ABDULLA
al-Qaeda in Iraq
Ola Salomonsson
Peter Mutvei
SHAHO SHAHAB
Ansar al-Islam
Ansar al-Islam
Posted by: Dan Darling ||
04/05/2005 12:46:56 AM ||
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A state prosecutor demanded life imprisonment yesterday for an Islamist charged with a plot to crash an aircraft loaded with explosives into a gathering of Turkey's political and military leaders. Metin Kaplan, nicknamed the "Caliph of Cologne", was handed to Turkey by Germany last October after he served four years in jail for ordering the murder of a rival religious leader. He is charged in Turkey in connection with a 1998 plan to crash the aircraft into the mausoleum of Kemal Ataturk, founder of the modern Turkish Republic, when the country's political and military leadership were attending a national event.
Turkey strictly separates state and religion, and Ataturk's mausoleum in the capital Ankara is revered by many Turks as a symbol of those secular values. The state Anatolian news agency quoted the prosecutor as telling an Istanbul court that Kaplan should serve a life jail sentence for attempting to change Turkey's "constitutional order by armed force". Kaplan headed a Cologne-based group known as the Kalifatstaat (Capliphate State), outlawed by Berlin in 2001. Germany only agreed to extradite him after Turkey scrapped the death penalty and introduced other human rights reforms as part of its drive to join the European Union.
This article starring:
CALIPH OF COLOGNE
Capliphate State
METIN KAPLAN
Capliphate State
Capliphate State
Posted by: Fred ||
04/05/2005 00:00:00 AM ||
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#1
So will this be a EU life sentence? 7 whole years?
Not all Hollywood stars are in the Michael Moore camp. Denzel Washington recently took time to visit some wounded troops back in the States for medical care. Random Probabilities is pleased to pass along and email and these photos taken by a soldier who was there.
Thought you all might enjoy these. Kudos to Mr. Washington for his support! (RTWT for details)
Posted by: Robin Burk ||
04/05/2005 9:15:49 PM ||
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#1
It takes a strong person to shake the hand of someone so horribly disfigured by burns. The mind reels, and you are confronted with the thought that "this is a human being", while another part of your mind rejects the idea. One can only imagine how it must be to work around such people, or to be condemned to live like that for the rest of your life.
A charismatic Islamic scholar and respected scientist who was "like a rock star" to young Muslims denounced the United States as "Islam's greatest enemy" and induced some of his followers to take up arms against U.S. forces, a federal prosecutor charged Monday.
The accusations, made in the opening arguments of a federal trial of Ali al-Timimi, a 41-year-old U.S. citizen from Fairfax County, Va., are at the crux of the government's case, which will test key free-speech protections of the First Amendment.
Edward MacMahon, the lawyer representing al-Timimi, noted that some of his client's oral and written attacks were "obscene and offensive" but those opinions were not illegal.
"Some of it is hate speech," MacMahon told the 12-member jury. "But it's not a crime to hold these beliefs, or express them."
The case centers on two social gatherings al-Timimi held with young Muslim men, several of them converts to Islam, in suburban Virginia in the days and weeks after the Sept. 11, 2001, terrorist attacks.
Al-Timimi was a spiritual adviser to many Muslims at an English-speaking Islamic center in Falls Church, where he was principal lecturer.
Five days after the Sept. 11 attacks, "with the World Trade Center still smoking," al-Timimi told six young Muslims over dinner that it was "time to go abroad, join the jihad and fight against the United States," Assistant U.S. Attorney Gordon Kromberg told the jury, using the Arabic term for "holy war."
Al-Timimi predicted an "end-of-times battle" between Islam and the West, the prosecutor said, and told his followers he could help them get military training in camps in Pakistan run by a terrorist group, Lashkar-e-Taiba. The group had attacked India in Kashmir and had close ties to the Taliban and al-Qaida in Afghanistan.
The young Muslims "loved him, revered him and listened to him," Kromberg said. "These guys were pumped up by what Ali al-Timimi said."
In response, at least three of the men traveled to Pakistan and received weapons training from the group, hoping to help the Taliban, according to prosecutors. But none made it to Afghanistan or attacked U.S. forces, which ousted the Taliban before the end of 2001.
Al-Timimi, who earned a doctorate in cancer research just as he was indicted, is charged with 10 counts, including soliciting others to commit crimes such as "conspiring to levy war on the United States" and providing material support to terrorist groups.
He could face life in prison if convicted.
Prosecutors linked al-Timimi to a loose band of "Virginia jihadists," including some young men who used paintball games for paramilitary training. Nine men have been convicted or have pleaded guilty in that case, and several are expected to testify against al-Timimi.
MacMahon portrayed al-Timimi as a recognized computer scientist and Islamic scholar who worked briefly for Andrew Card, who's now the White House chief of staff, at the Transportation Department in the early 1990s and had been invited by the U.S. military to talk about Islam.
"This man's life is an open book, and not one time has he advocated violence against anyone," MacMahon said. He said that after Sept. 11, al-Timimi was simply urging the Muslims to leave the United States for their safety.
U.S. District Judge Leonie Brinkema allowed prosecutors to include in evidence an e-mail al-Timimi sent to followers on Feb. 1, 2003, the morning of the shuttle Columbia disaster.
"There is no doubt that Muslims were overjoyed because of the adversity that befell their greatest enemy," wrote al-Timimi, who called the disaster a "good omen" that 500 years of Western supremacy would end and "this way, God willing, America will fall and disappear."
MacMahon sought to blunt the impact of such language, telling jurors: "You may hate Ali al-Timimi when this case is over, but you will acquit him."
Brinkema said the trial could last up to three weeks.
Posted by: Dan Darling ||
04/05/2005 12:58:39 AM ||
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Sooooo, how guilty is he, Johnny? Hiiiiiiiiyooooooo!
Posted by: Ed MacMahon ||
04/05/2005 13:26 Comments ||
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A high-ranking police officer has been named a suspect in a string of church attacks in Palu, Central Sulawesi province that injured three people, officials said Tuesday.
Gunmen on motorbikes opened fire on two churches on Dec. 12 as services were being held in the town of Palu. The attackers also hurled a bomb at one of the buildings.
The officer, who authorities have so far refused to name, has been detained because a bullet from his gun was found at the scene of the attack, said Sr. Comr. Zainuri Lubis, a spokesman for National Police headquarters.
"We cannot reveal the name but at the moment we areinvestigating him, his wife and another civilian in relation to the case," Lubis said. "We arrested the policeman because the bullet found in the location was alleged from his own weapon."
The attacks served to underscore the fragile nature of security in the province, which saw bloody battles between Muslim and Christians in the late 1990s that killed more than 1,000 people.
Large-scale violence has since ended, but there still are sporadic attacks, mostly on Christian villages and places of worship.
Palu is about 1,600 kilometers (1,000 miles) northeast of the capital, Jakarta. Unlike most of Muslim-majority Indonesia, Central Sulawesi's population is evenly divided between Muslims and Christians.
Posted by: Dan Darling ||
04/05/2005 1:03:32 AM ||
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Unlike most of Muslim-majority Indonesia, Central Sulawesiâs population is evenly divided between Muslims and Christians.
So, now we know how the rest of Indonesia become "Moslem majority".
A Filipino patrol boat searching for three Indon tugboat crew members kidnapped by pirates near the southern Philippines clashed with gunmen near Sibutu island, killing two of them, officials said. Philippine Navy regional commander Commodore Rufino Lopez said his men ordered two suspicious speedboats to stop for inspection, but its passengers opened fire on the patrol boat triggering a sea chase in the Celebes sea on Saturday afternoon.
The battle left two gunmen dead, but the others managed to escape on the second speedboat, Lopez said. "Two gunmen are dead and we have recovered their boat," he told the Arab News. It was unknown if the gunmen were part of a group that kidnapped on March 30 the crew of the Malaysian tugboat Bongagaya 91. The pirates hijacked the tugboat off Sabah, herded the trio and fled towards the scattered islands where Abu Sayyaf militants are known to actively operate.
Posted by: Fred ||
04/05/2005 00:00:00 ||
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The pirates hijacked the tugboat off Sabah, herded the trio and fled towards the scattered islands where Abu Sayyaf militants are known to actively operate.
Tamil Tiger rebels have opened fire on a Sri Lankan navy ship carrying an international cease-fire monitor, a military spokesman said. The monitor sustained minor injuries after diving for cover when the ship was attacked near the eastern port of Trincomalee, reports said.
"Duck!" (wack) "Ouch, boy, that's gonna leave a mark."
The Tigers have denied any involvement in the attack.
"Wasn't us, musta been them Eskimos again."
A cease-fire between the Tigers and the government, in force since February, 2002, has been under growing strain. Peace talks between the government and the rebels have been suspended since April 2003. The navy patrol boat was on a routine tour when the rebels shot "75 to 100 rounds of small arms fire" at it south-east of the main harbour of Trincomalee, military spokesman Daya Ratnayake said. The ship was flying with the Sri Lanka Monitoring Mission flag indicating that monitors are on board when it came under attack, Helen Olafsdottir, spokeswoman for the European-sponsored truce monitoring mission told the Associated Press news agency. "It's a very serious incident, we don't take this lightly," she said. "But we can't confirm that it was the LTTE (rebels) until more investigations are conducted."
Military spokesman Daya Ratnayake told the AFP news agency that the attack was a serious breach of truce between the government and rebels. The BBC's Dumeetha Luthra in Colombo says similar incidents have happened in the past, but this attack is significant because the navy boat was carrying an international monitor and a large number of rounds were fired. The head of the Tamil Tiger's political wing in Trincomalee has denied that the Tigers were involved in the incident, according to the pro-Tiger Tamilnet website. Last month, an attack on a top female Tamil Tiger leader in Sri Lanka raised fears of a return to violence threatening a fragile three year truce. The Norwegian-led peace monitors have expressed their concern over the rising violence. More than 60,000 people have died since the rebels began their fight for a homeland for minority Tamils in 1983.
Posted by: Steve ||
04/05/2005 8:38:18 AM ||
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BEIRUT: Lebanese troops took over a key Syrian checkpoint on the Beirut-Damascus highway on Monday and the Syrians, now committed to leaving Lebanon by April 30, prepared to abandon a nearby intelligence building. Witnesses said Lebanese soldiers were manning the roadblock at the eastern town of Shtoura in the Bekaa Valley, replacing Syrian intelligence agents who held it for nearly three decades. The Syrians also vacated their military hospital in Shtoura, moving out in 15 trucks and other vehicles, the witnesses said. Senior Syrian and Lebanese military officers were meeting in the Bekaa to agree on the details of Syria's plan to withdraw its remaining forces from Lebanon by the end of the month.
Posted by: Fred ||
04/05/2005 00:00:00 ||
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GREAT picture, Fred. Is it real (I hope) or 'shopped?
Posted by: Barbara Skolaut ||
04/05/2005 13:07 Comments ||
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#2
Talking about Al-pencilneck, why the hell is he going to Rome for the Pope's funeral? Is he defecting?
Posted by: Jack is Back! ||
04/05/2005 13:33 Comments ||
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#3
Dang Barb! You ruined it for me. It's gotta be a 'shop. I was had.
On February 24 the jihadist al-Qal'ah forum (www.qal3ati.net) ran a brief note on breaking events in Libya. Under the rubric: "Your brothers in Libya need your prayers," a contributor to the forum explained that: "For a week now, right up to the present hour, a wide-ranging house search campaign is underway in Libya, in the eastern territory ⊠comprising the cities of Derna, Benghazi and al-Bayda, against the mujahideen and their partisans. Preceding this campaign" the text continues, "were confrontations between our mujahid brothers and the tyrants in the security services, resulting in fatalities, martyrs and wounded. These are known as the events of Wadi al-Kouf. This area lies between Derna and al-Bayda, and is a rocky mountainous zone. We ask that our brothers come to aid of the mujahideen and support them."
Since 1995 the Libyan regime has been fighting low-level, intermittent insurgent activities of the Libyan Islamic Fighting Group, which was formed largely from Libyans who had fought against Soviet forces in Afghanistan. The Group's original aims were to replace the regime of Colonel Qadhafi with a government based on Shari'ah. Since failing in an assassination attempt against Qadhafi in 1996, and conducting a series of armed confrontations in the late 1990s, the Group has taken up the cause of global jihad under the banner of al-Qaeda. Because its strength is not precisely known, the level of threat posed by the present clash in the northeast sector of the country is difficult to gauge, particularly since the website of the Islamic Fighting Group (www.almuqatila.com) has yet to post up a statement concerning these developments. The website has not been regularly updated. This, according to the webmaster, is due to the "conditions of the media bureau in general, and the pressures it is under from periodic arrests from the forces of evil ⊠obedient to the orders of the enemies of our Nation, the Crusaders and Jews to suppress the voices [of criticism]."
Posted by: Dan Darling ||
04/05/2005 8:51:47 PM ||
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#1
IMHO, this sort of tactic will not likely work more than a couple of times. I suspect the SOP's have already changed. I suspect the Harriers and Apaches are on a pretty short leash along with the Predators.
If I were in charge of the virgin-making machine in "L-allah Land", I'd be warming it up, and calling in the minions for OT.
#4
It is getting harder and harder for the Iraqi insurgents to muster masses of men and materiel for an attack. It is shooting their wad for them. It takes much time and preparation to get everything together for such an attack. Their supply line is getting stretched and vulnerable.
As for the Israelis, they have been operating with one hand behind their back. Some Paleos and their terrorists friends stage a mass attack, the IDF would not be as surgical as they did on the Yassin strike. They will bring in the jet aircraft and level the place. There will be no refuge for Paleo terrorists, and hell will be delivered from above. Abbas and his PA juniors cannot afford to let ONE attack of this type happen on Israel.
Posted by: Alaska Paul ||
04/05/2005 21:57 Comments ||
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The specialised barge Swissco-12, tasked with laying optical fibre submarine cable to connect South Asia, the Middle East and Western Europe with the information super highway, will start its journey for Cox's Bazar today amid tight security. The barge, which had earlier come under attack from pirates twice on Friday, is now preparing at the Chittagong Dry Dock jetty for Cox's Bazar, Captain Quamrul Hossain, a member of operation of the Chittagong Port Authority, told The Daily Star. Cap Quamrul said the Navy and Coast Guard are actively concerned about the security of the specialised barge. "Ansar will remain on board to ensure security until it [the barge] finishes its mission," he added.
A gang of 50 to 60 armed pirates attacked the Chittagong Port-bound barge twice on Friday when it was crossing the Kutubdia channel on its way to the outer anchorage. The pirates injured 27 crewmembers and looted goods of little value, including ropes, sources said. Following the attack the barge, a Singapore flag carrier, was taken to the Dry Dock jetty on Saturday morning. Crewmembers at the time refused to sail with the ship to Cox's Bazar, citing safety reasons. Sources yesterday said the Prime Minister Office (PMO) has taken the matter seriously, ordering the Ministry of Home Affairs on Sunday to provide sufficient security measures so that the ship can soon sail. "As per the home ministry's measure, we are receiving 10 ansars, five members of the Armed Police Battalion and a patrol ship from the coast guard for our safety, and will leave Chittagong at 7:00 am tomorrow morning with them and hopefully reach Cox's Bazar before dusk," said Parvez Ahmed, the managing director of the barge's local agent, Mutual Shipping Lines Ltd. Parvez told The Daily Star that the foreign crew and other staff are now happy and convinced with the measures taken by the government. "I hope there will not be any further trouble," he said.
Fujitsu of Japan will install the 22.24 km-long submarine cable line on the seabed with assistance from Tyco Telecom of the United States of America and Otronix of South Korea. The installation work, originally slated to begin today, will now begin on the morning of Thursday, April 7, after completion of a one-day field survey, and will take 15 days. Setting up a base landing station with all necessary equipment will require an additional two months. Alcatel and Fujitsu will finish the cable laying by the middle of August to connect Bangladesh with the high-speed global telecom network by October 2005. Alcatel will set up the equipment at the landing station while Fujitsu will set up the transmission equipment at the branch line. Bangladesh will receive $60 million from the Islamic Development Bank under an agreement signed between the two sides in February this year for linking the country to the submarine cable. Bangladesh signed the 16-party consortium contract in Dubai on March 27 of last year for the transcontinental submarine cable, which will be around 20,000 kilometres long, including the main trunk line and branches, and cost about $500 million to install. BTTB, Singapore, Indonesia, Malaysia, Sri Lanka, Pakistan, United Arab Emirates, Saudi Arabia, Egypt, Italy, Thailand, Algeria, Tunisia and France, along with Indian private carriers Bharti and VSNL, are members of this consortium.
Posted by: Cyrus ||
04/05/2005 1:40:21 PM ||
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Cyrus?
Will the Bugtis ever get a decent information pipeline?
#1
But some analysts say the Predator poses ethical dilemmas about ''sanitized warfare." Predators are cheaper and less risky to fly...In the process, however, they make war appear bloodless from the American side.
Yes, images showing scores of US dead and wounded a la Vietnam is sooo preferable to the Boston Globe.
...some military strategists worry that the modern, remote-control approach to warfare may undercut international legal norms designed to reduce the casualties of armed conflict, such as the level of certainty required when deciding who will be targeted.
Wonder what these 'strategists' think about international legal norms with regard to someone blowing themselves up in a mess hall...
#2
''We have lawyers sitting right in the commander center," said Captain John Songer, a Predator pilot for two years, adding that great pains are taken to determine, for example, if ''that guy is smuggling rugs out of a truck is smuggling weapons."
#8
"The Predator has been involved in at least one case of mistaken identity, in 2001 when the CIA killed a Hollywood extra an Afghan shepherd who in height and weight resembled Michael Moore Osama bin Laden, at least as far as the agents monitoring the computers images could see."
#10
...some military strategists worry that the modern, remote-control approach to warfare may undercut international legal norms designed to reduce the casualties of armed conflict, such as the level of certainty required when deciding who will be targeted.
Anybody think an A-10 pilot will have any better shot at "certainty" in acquiring the target while simultaneously dodging AAA and SAM fire and trying to keep from smacking into the terrain at 200 kts?
Posted by: Mike ||
04/05/2005 11:36 Comments ||
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#11
Mike, stop using logic. That doesn't fit into the Globe's meme.
#12
Let's compromise. Instead of using Predators let's send the editors of the Boston Globe on recon missions. "Yeah, we think there's a sniper on a rooftop down that street. Just keep walking.... Man, I hate being right all the time."
Posted by: Matt ||
04/05/2005 12:53 Comments ||
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#13
Sending the lawyer out to lunch is to obvious. You need to sidetrack them with potential hi-visibility cases... Oh look on camera 7 in the other room I see a small child approaching Michael J. at Wonderland! Bet a lawyer could go miles with that.
#15
I can tell that all of the comments against the lawyers are made by folks who have never stood a watch in a command center.
Let me tell you folks, those legal beagles are there to protect our servicemembers. Yes, it may seem as if they are hindering the war effort, but as long as we have established ROEs and international conventions, the lawyers need to have their say. Why do you think every general and admiral in an operational command has one on staff?
#16
"Why do you think every general and admiral in an operational command has one on staff?"
Not to be flippant but how about assholes like Kofi and the UN, The EU and it press, the USAs own MSM and, politicians like Ted Kenedy and Maxine Waters for a start. No one else really gives a damm.
#18
Dreadnought is spot on. All major combatant commands have a JAG (or JAG's) available to assist the major combatant commander in the decision making process whether it is ROE, maritime law, or international relations.
#20
Freaked out by remotely piloted Predators, eh? Wait 'till they see the giant, killer robots attacking in autonomous waves. MWAHAHAHAA. Gort, klaatu barata niktu!
Three outlaws killed in crossfire
Apr 4: Three underground extremists died and 3 policemen were injured in gunfight in Jhenidah and Dahakula on Sunday night. Police said Shahidul Islam Shahid (35), Anisur Rahman (32) and Babar Ali (35), cadres of underground Gano Mukti Fouj, died in cross fire while fleeing in the melee of gunrunning with their supporters at 4am.
I love a good melee at 4am, don't you?
One police sub-inspector, an assistant sub-inspector and an ansar were injured during the half an hour gunfight.
Earlier on Sunday detective police arrested Anis and Babar from a hideout at Alampur.
"Stick em up, youse coming with us!"
After interrogation they were taken to their arms den at Dahakula.
Nice dark deserted brickyard at 4am
Gano Mukti Fouj cadres fired upon the two police teams in a bid to secure release of their comrades.
"It's the Cadres of Gano Muky...Gano Mufti....ah, screw it. It's the GMF, get um!"
Police returned the fire and in the melee the captives tried to flee but died in crossfire.
Like it was planned, or something
The extremists retreated leaving behind a shutter gun and four rounds of bullets. Police said Shahid Anis and Babar were wanted in connection with a dozen of criminal cases including murder.
Arms recovered from AL leader's house
Apr 4: The Rapid Action Battalion (RAB), Chittagong zone, arrested the Awami League leader and businessman Engineer Islam Ahmed alias Islam Engineer on charge of possessing illegal firearms at his house at Sadar Ghat road in the port city last night. The RAB also recovered firearms including most sophisticated firearms AK 22.
AK 22? WTF?
Sources said, the RAB officials were informed that Engineer Islam Ahmed possessed illegal firearms. A team of RAB raided his house at around 2 am last night. The team arrested him from his house.
According to RAB, they took him to their office at Patenga and interrogated. He confessed that he possessed illegal firearms and agreed to help the RAB to recover these. According to the statement of the arrested Islam Engineer, the RAB team raided his village home "Londoni Bari" at Kowaj Nagar under Karnafully thana at around 1 pm this noon. They recovered one 303 Rifle, one LG and bullets from the spot.
What? No cadres? No crossfire? They use up their quota for the week?
Later, the team raided the house of Deen Mohammad at the same village and recovered one USA made most sophisticated firearm AK 22, two magazines of AK 22 and bullets from the spot.
Looked it up, Armscor AK-22, it's a AK-47 look-a-like in .22 rimfire. This is what they consider a "most sophisticated firearm".
The RAB sources said, Islam Engineer was involved with terrorism, extortion and various types of crimes with illegal firearms. The RAB handed him over the to the Karnafully thana. Sources said, Engineer Islam Ahmed, son of Haji Alim Uddin of Kowaj Nagar village is an Awami League leader. He is also a well-known businessman of the city.
Businessman by day, at night he dons his mask and becomes "Islam Engineer", dread terrorist!
RAB, smugglers trade fire
Apr 4: RAB opened fire to repel the attack by alleged smugglers leaving a boy injured at Beledanga in sadar upazila on Sunday night. RAB seized 300 bottles of phensidyl and picked up Shahidur Rahman (12) with bullet injury, his father Korban Ali, Azizur Rahman and Abdul Kader who are known as smugglers.
Villagers alleged, in a midnight raid in border areas against identified smugglers RAB ransacked a number of houses in Parandah, Kadamtala, Kashempur and Beladanga. Police said RAB fired eight gunshots when came under attack by the smugglers, who also damaged a vehicle of RAB.
Crackers explode near BSS office
Unidentified miscreants yesterday hurled Cocktail crackers near the Head Office of national news agency-Bangladesh Sangbad Sangstha (BSS)- at Purana Paltan.
"You want some crackers with your cocktail?" "No thanks, got any cheese?"
Witnesses said the crackers exploded with a big sound, while the miscreants managed to flee before they could be identified by on duty police, guards and passersby. However, none was injured in the blast, which exploded at around 1.50 pm. Police recovered a part of small tin case from the scene.
When contacted, on duty police officials told BSS that they suspected that some miscreants might have thrown the crackers from a speedy vehicle.
Posted by: Steve ||
04/05/2005 9:16:58 AM ||
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The RAB must be finshed with the ethics and morality classes the all were required to take. They are back on the job with their usual efficiency.
#4
The last thing anyone will ever hear is any RAB getting killed. Heck these guys dont even get injured despite all that 'melee'. The US should hire them to fight the Talibs in Afghanistan? Bangladesh could do with some green's....
Posted by: Cyrus ||
04/05/2005 13:51 Comments ||
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#5
IIRC, in Britain and the Commonwealth, "Crackers" are fireworks, not edibles. Just another case of us being two civilizations separated by a common language.
Posted by: Old Patriot ||
04/05/2005 19:19 Comments ||
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April 5, 2005: Roadside bombs have been the major cause of American, and Iraqi civilian, casualties in Iraq. Part of this is do their widespread use against American support troops. Some 90 percent of IEDs are found or otherwise disabled before they can be used. But the Iraqis building them are not stupid. They keep coming up with new designs, and ways to use them.
IEDs started out as roadside bombs, the same kind of weapons encountered in Vietnam. But cell phones, and other wireless devices made them more lethal, and the many ammo dumps abandoned by Saddam's troops provided plentiful raw materials. The U.S. Army gave them a new name; IED (Improvised Explosive Device.) This led to variations, and more acronyms. Radio Controlled (RCIED) include a wide variety of devices have been found: car key systems, remote door bells, cell phones, etc. Vehicle Borne (VBIED) can be very large, usually suicide missions. Victim Operated (VOIED) better known as booby traps. The original wire detonated version has no acronym, and is apparently becoming less popular, as the guy pushing the button has to be nearby. Hostile Iraqis tend to stay as far away from armed American as possible.
While American troops have gotten very good at finding and defusing IEDs, the ten percent or so they do not avoid continue to cause casualties. There's also a "Darwinian" evolution of IEDs and defensive measures. Soon after new defensive measures are adopted, the Iraqis come up with new twists on IED design or employment. One recent trick is to locate them off the ground, on poles, roofs, guard rails. This increases the lethal area. And the higher up ones also have the advantage of hitting vehicles from the top.
About a third of radio controlled devices may be subject to some sort of jamming, and truck convoys routinely move with portable jamming devices turned on. There may be more that have been disabled, because an IED is not positively identified unless it goes off, or is seen and disabled by engineers. Iraqis are unhappy with this jamming, as it tends to disrupt cell phone service.
It's also suspected that some types of radio controlled devices may be subject to electronic interference that sets them off prematurely. The U.S. Army has conducted experiments in this area, and one incident, in Yuma, Arizona, resulted in malfunctions to garage doors, car alarms systems, remote door bell systems, and other remote electronic devices when the jamming device was apparently tested at too high a power level. The Israelis have long produced jammers that do this, and much of this Israeli technology finds its way into American military equipment (and vice versa.)
Posted by: Steve ||
04/05/2005 9:15:07 AM ||
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"Can you hear me now?"
Posted by: Frank G ||
04/05/2005 9:21 Comments ||
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#2
"Iraqis are unhappy with this jamming, as it tends to disrupt cell phone service."
We've heard your complaints and have placed you in our prestigious: "DO NOT CARE LIST!!!"
#3
Seriously - telemarketing calls to all new cell-phone numbers in a war zone. (At least for the first week) Once connected sending random button phones is not a bad idea either.
April 5, 2005: A two month old Iraqi television program, "Terror in the Hands of Justice," is proving to be a decisive weapon in the fight against terrorists and anti-government forces. The program shows captured terrorists confessing to their crimes, which are described in grisly detail. The show has to be one of the more useful applications of Information Warfare of late. Al Jazeera always played up Americans hurting Iraqis, when in fact most of the Iraqi casualties in the past year have been inflicted by Sunni Arab terrorists. Getting the captured terrorists on TV regularly resonates londly with most Iraqis. There may soon be a similar program doing the same thing regarding the criminal gangs, who pull off dozens of kidnappings, and even more robberies, rapes and burglaries each week. But for now, the idea is to get Iraqis believing that if they pass on information about the terrorists, the Iraqi cops can catch them. By letting everyone know that the terrorists are not invincible (which is the al Jazeera line), you get the tips needed to catch more of them. The show runs twice a day, and has been denounced by American liberals as encouraging vigilante justice by the Iraqis. That is does, and it works. By law, every Iraqi household can have one firearm (usually an AK-47), and these weapons are not being turned on the carloads of armed terrorists and criminals who used to boldly cruise through neighborhoods unhampered. Security, or the lack of it, is a major complaint among Iraqis. Now the terrorists and criminals are on the defensive. Disarming the Iraqi population won't be possible until there is a lot less crime. A lot of those weapons will have to be taken out of circulation eventually, if only to cut down on the family, and tribal, feuds that often turn into gun battles. But you've got to start somewhere, and expecting American troops to do it all by themselves was never a realistic possibility.
Sunni Arab Iraqis want the show shut down, fearing that it will inflame anti-Sunni Arab feelings. But the fact is that most of the current violence is committed by Sunni Arab terrorists and nationalists who want the Sunni Arab minority running the country again. Moreover, many Sunni Arabs are victims of the terrorist and nationalist attacks. The most valuable tips are coming from Sunni Arabs, fed up with the atrocities being committed in their behalf.
Posted by: Steve ||
04/05/2005 9:11:21 AM ||
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...denounced by American liberals as encouraging vigilante justice...
Quagmire! Quagmire! *yawn*
Disarming the Iraqi population wonât be possible until there is a lot less crime. A lot of those weapons will have to be taken out of circulation eventually, if only to cut down on the family, and tribal, feuds that often turn into gun battles.
Well, I guess we know how this author feels about gun control and giving the Iraqis their own version of the 2nd Amendment. I also like how he states his opinions as absolute fact. He's a subtle one...
Posted by: Dar ||
04/05/2005 10:17 Comments ||
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#2
"Bad boys, bad boys . . watcha gonna do when they come for you . . . "
#4
Gun grabbers can't resist pushing their agenda in every forum possible.
This show is apperently having the desires effect. Liberals who by and large hate the United States due to their deep psychological problems with the US being a great place to live and wonderful country, can't stand this.
April 5, 2005: More than two months after the January 30th election, the legislators have finally formed a government. The major problem was agreeing on a Sunni Arab to be Speaker of the Assembly. In a formula similar to that adopted by Lebanon (and many other ethnically divided nations), a Shia Arab was to be Prime Minister (the most powerful job), a Kurd the President (head of state, much less power) and a Sunni Arab the Speaker of the Assembly (also less power.) Ministry jobs were to reward everyone (including smaller minorities like Turks and Christians) in proportion. But the Sunni Arabs have an additional problem in that many of their prominent men are tainted by past association with Saddam or the Baath Party. Islamic conservatives are also avoided, as is anyone with too enthusiastic a history of corrupt behavior. All that narrows the field, and it took a long time to agree on an acceptable man. The Sunni Arab who became the Speaker, Hajim al Hassani, is a fifty year old investment banker who has spent the last 25 years living in the United States.
The Iraqi Sunni Arabs are still intent on regaining control of the country, and are now keen on doing it later, rather than sooner. The Sunni Arabs know they have an education and experience advantage over the more numerous Shia Arabs. They know that powerful Sunni Arab nations in the region, particularly Saudi Arabia, will back them in many ways. The fear of Islamic conservatism from Shia Iran can also be manipulated. With many experienced, loyal and capable Sunni Arab officers in the police and army, peace can be restored. The largely Sunni Arab terrorists are now fighting among themselves, angry at the failure of their bloody efforts, and not seeing any way out. Sunni Arabs see these radicals as impractical losers, and have turned on them. Now the more traditional Sunni Arab leadership sees a familiar path to power. A decade or so of peace and prosperity, followed by powerful Sunni Arab army and police commanders staging a coup. For the good of the country, or at least for the good of the Sunni Arabs.
Democracy will have a hard time surviving in Iraq. Most of the people are starting to understand what a working democracy means, and are wondering how some serious problems will be overcome. First, there's the corruption. Iraq is a nation of merchants, where everything is for sale. Everything. If you can sell or barter your daughters for a marriage, then why not a government job, or contract, or vote? "Honest government" is much easier said than done.
And then there are the tribes. The refuge of most Iraqis in the face of corrupt and tyrannical government, the tribal leaders shift support when they see it in their interests. Saddam was saved from a 1991 Shia Arab rebellion by a timely intervention of powerful tribal leaders (including some Shia ones). The tribes received some economic and political concessions. After Saddam fell, the tribes did not want to deal with foreigners. Two years later, they do. Alliances with al Qaeda, Baathists and Islamic conservatives have not worked. There's now an elected Iraqi government with access to billions of dollars in oil money, and a growing force of police and troops. The tribes are like ships at sea, they move in the direction the prevailing winds push them. Even if democracy takes hold in Iraq, the tribal connections will be meaningful for generations to come.
Posted by: Steve ||
04/05/2005 9:01:39 AM ||
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a nice strategy for the Sunni arabs, but I fear Saddam has ruined it, the way the 9/11 terrorists ruined it for your average joe "take this plane to Cuba" hijacker. Shiites who might sat back and were fatalistic during Sunni coups in the '50s and '60s are always going to worry that a Sunni coup results in another Saddamite horror. They'll resist as they didnt in the past - might result in a true civil war, worse than the current mess, but probably not an elegant coup d'etat.
The Tribes. That's where the real rub will come from, regards Iraq turning the corner on yesterday and adopting a successful democratic system, as almost everyone blindly defers to their tribal leaders. Indoctrinated even beyond their favored flavor of Islam. The sellouts and loyalty auctions that occur sound vaguely familiar - Braveheart, perhaps? Lol... Corruption and shifting loyalties are not unique in Arabia. But, indeed, the tribal system is the keeper of tradition, the enforcer of customs.
In the end, that's what it's about: customs, and Twain said it best:
"There isn't anything you can't stand, if only you are born and bred to it."
"Customs do not concern themselves with right or wrong or reason."
"Laws are sand, customs are rock. Laws can be evaded and punishment escaped, but an openly transgressed custom brings sure punishment."
"A crime persevered in a thousand centuries ceases to be a crime, and becomes a virtue. This is the law of custom, and custom supersedes all other forms of law."
After mulling it over for quite a spell...
That's a steep hill - and the longer we are there, the better, for we are the fly in the ointment, the sand in the well-oiled gears of their traditions, the logic that can't be completely ignored when we succeed acting in spite of, and in contradiction to, their customs - and show ourselves to be little different, otherwise, from them.
Where we stop being ourselves and cater to their dysfunctional societal customs, that soft-power approach so beloved of State and the Tranzis and people who wouldn't know an Arab from a organ grinder's monkey, we significantly diminish our greatest gift to them: a highly successful example of an alternative to their customs. Recall what you've read from the better-educated Iraqi bloggers and it rings true.
Time in-country and constant interaction will be the key. It won't magically happen overnight, but the children who are interacting with our military will see the differences and, in their turn, challenge and change the old ways. We just have to be there long enough for it to rub off on them as something more than a passing oddity.
I believe our military has demonstrated both here in Iraq and in Afghanistan just how powerful and influential their example can be - and it stands in stark contrast to the State, UN, and NGO looters and fools who don't have a clue what they're doing. The military will have the greatest peacetime impact - and as our ambassadors, they are far superior to the "experts". They just rock.
#3
Article: Now the more traditional Sunni Arab leadership sees a familiar path to power. A decade or so of peace and prosperity, followed by powerful Sunni Arab army and police commanders staging a coup.
The problem with the writer's thesis is that the Shiite-controlled government will mean a military dominated by Shiite recruits and officers. The writer is transposing American ideas of merit-based (ability-based) appointments on Iraq. Most non-Western governments around the world that are multi-ethnic or multi-religious do not appoint people into government positions based on ability. Thus, there is no danger of Sunnis being placed in positions where they can pose a danger to Shiite majority rule. This is why the Sunni remnants are fighting tooth-and-nail - because only token positions will ever be available to them.
Whether the Shiites recognize it or not, Uncle Sam is the ultimate guarantor of majority rule in Iraq. If they do recognize it and insist that Uncle Sam sticks around, there is *no* possible way a Sunni coup could succeed.
* Note that the solution in most non-Western countries to disgruntlement among ethnic or religious minorities has not been to appease, but to repress them. This repression usually succeeds, unless Uncle Sam intervenes, as it did in Yugoslavia, forcing the partition of that country. This is one reason Uncle Sam has attracted a lot of dislike around the world - every country has a digruntled minority, and the prospect of military intervention followed by territorial dismemberment by Uncle Sam in response to the country's repression of a rebellion is not particularly attractive.
#4
.com - this is Strategypage, not Stratfor. I'd be dancing in the street if Stratfor produced something as sane on the Shia question as this analysis, as little as I agree with it. Stratfor would be frothing about Iranian influence in Shia-dominated ministries, at the very least.
Posted by: Mitch H. ||
04/05/2005 14:22 Comments ||
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CAIRO, Egypt (AP) - A video posted Tuesday on the Internet showed purported al-Qaida in Iraq militants beheading a man said to be an Iraqi security force member. A statement shown on the video identified the Iraqi National Guard member as Jassim Mohammed Hussein Mahdi, who appeared to be in his early 20s, and the black banner of al-Qaida in Iraq, which is headed by wanted Jordanian militant Abu Musab al-Zarqawi.
The video, posted on a militant Web site that carries most al-Qaida in Iraq statements, could not be immediately authenticated. It showed an unidentified interrogator talking to Mahdi said he had received orders from his superiors "to kill the mujahedeen anywhere and without hesitation."
Mahdi was shown squatting on the ground in an empty room while wearing full military gear and his hands tied behind his back. He said he was a member of the Iraqi National Guard's 4th Brigade, but did not say when or where he had been captured by militants. Mahdi said he "regretted" working with the U.S.-allied Iraqi government and urged "all members of the police, National Guard and army to abandon this work, which is religiously prohibited."
"God's verdict against this renegade, who was tempted by dollars, has been carried out," said a statement shown on the video. "Let everyone who sold his religion and joined this unit know that he will have the same fate."
The video later showed Mahdi lying blindfolded on the ground before two masked men appeared. One held Mahdi's legs while the other severed his head with a knife with shouts of "Allahu akbar!" or "God is great!" heard from the background. Al-Qaida in Iraq has claimed responsibility for beheading Western hostages and many members of the Iraqi security forces.
Bastards
Posted by: Steve ||
04/05/2005 8:44:41 AM ||
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It would be time for showing some beheadings of Al Quaidists while people in the background shout in Arabic "Bin Laden has a small p...s". BTW France has some used guillotines for sale.
#4
The reason Madame la Guillotine was invented is that such sword work takes real skill, and a good, sharp sword. Madame is simple, effective, and in the end more humane than the unending hacking at a partially severed neck that was common using the traditional method.
#9
Looks like Al Qaeda has developed an addiction problem (how Western of them). Their addiction happens to be to painful, blood-spattered homicide. An irresistible desire to see the blood of humans being slaughtered makes them perfect candidates for an Islamic 12-step. Wonder how you make amends to a headless corpse.
#10
The French didn't invent the Guillotine, they perfected the technology already in use (Halifax gibbet, for example). Joseph-Ignace Guillotin promoted its use as a "humane instrument".
#11
In Saudi I understand that relatives of the condemend who care, pay a fee to the headsman to whet his sword on gold, so the cut will be swift and sure.
Prisoners at Iraq's largest detention facility protested the transfer of several detainees deemed "unruly" by authorities, throwing rocks and setting tents on fire in a disturbance that injured four guards and 12 detainees, the military said Monday.
Friday's protest was the first of at least three violent incidents at Iraqi prisons during the past four days, with the latest occurring Monday at the notorious Abu Ghraib facility. A suicide bomber driving a tractor blew himself up outside the prison, wounding four civilians.
On Saturday, insurgents attacked Abu Ghraib with rocket-propelled grenades and two car bombs, wounding dozens of U.S. service members and prisoners, the U.S. military said.
Friday's protest at Camp Bucca - which holds about 6,000 prisoners, nearly two-thirds of all those in Iraq - caused only minor injuries before being brought under control, authorities said.
Murtadha al-Hajaj, an official at radical Shiite cleric Muqtada al-Sadr's office in the southern city of Umm Qasr, near Camp Bucca, said several al-Sadr supporters were wounded during the confrontation. He said they were protesting a lack of access to medical treatment and claimed U.S. guards opened fire, although he did not know if they wounded prisoners.
U.S. military spokesman Lt. Col. Guy Rudisill said he did not know if the guards opened fire, but he denied that any detainee was deprived of medical treatment.
Last month, the U.S. military said guards discovered a 600-foot tunnel - dug with makeshift tools - leading out of Camp Bucca. The tunnel reached beyond the compound fence, with an opening hidden beneath a floorboard, but no one had escaped, authorities said.
The other facility targeted by insurgents, Abu Ghraib, was at the center of the prison abuse scandal last year after photographs were publicized showing U.S. soldiers humiliating Iraqi inmates, including having them pile naked in a human pyramid. The United States holds nearly 3,500 prisoners at Abu Ghraib and about 7,000 elsewhere in Iraq.
Rudisill said prison officials heard Monday's explosion, but he said it wasn't close enough to cause any damage to the prison. The blast killed the tractor's driver and injured four Iraqis, police 1st Lt. Akram al-Zubaeyee said.
Al-Qaida in Iraq said 10 of its fighters died in Saturday's assault on Abu Ghraib, while the U.S. military put the urgents' casualties at one dead and about 50 wounded. Forty-four American soldiers and 13 prisoners were injured in the fighting - the latest in a series of large-scale attacks by insurgents in Iraq.
In an Internet posting, Al-Qaida in Iraq claimed about 20 militants scaled the prison's walls and one of them reached a prison tower and yelled: "God is great!" It said two of its fighters were wounded and 10 were killed, including seven suicide bombers.
The statement, which appeared late Sunday, was impossible to independently verify, and it conflicted with the U.S. account.
The U.S. military denied anyone got inside the prison and said no inmates escaped. It said only one suicide bomber participated, while others fired assault rifles, mortars and rocket-propelled grenades.
Rudisill said he did not believe any attackers were captured. He said the wounded insurgents either escaped on their own or were dragged away by other militants.
The military said the insurgents staged simultaneous assaults on multiple locations at the prison, focusing on two guard towers and then using a car bomb to try to penetrate a gate.
Combat helicopters helped push back the attack, which was the largest at Abu Ghraib since insurgents fired mortar rounds into the compound nearly a year ago, killing more than 20 detainees and injuring nearly 100.
Also, the military said a detainee evacuated from an unnamed facility to the 115th Field Hospital died Monday after suffering gunshot wounds two weeks ago during an attack on U.S.-led coalition forces. The incident is under investigation, the military said in a statement.
Some Iraqi lawmakers have called for the release of the prisoners at Abu Ghraib, and the National Assembly's newly elected speaker, Hajim al-Hassani, told Al-Jazeera television the topic will be among the first discussed by lawmakers.
"There are some problems regarding the security issue and troubles concerning Abu Ghraib detainees," he said. "These issues will be the main subject we are concerned about in the National Assembly."
President Bush called al-Hassani on Monday to congratulate him on becoming parliament speaker.
"The two leaders expressed confidence that democracy will succeed in Iraq," White House press secretary Scott McClellan said. "The president reiterated our commitment of continued support for Iraq as they move forward."
Iraq's interim prime minister, Ayad Allawi, also congratulated al-Hassani, saying his election was "a hopeful sign as you begin the assembly's tasks, including laying down the constitution."
The selection of al-Hassani, a Sunni Arab, ended weeks of bickering and cleared the way for the formation of a government more than two months after Iraq's first free election in 50 years. Legislators next meet Wednesday, when they plan to name Kurdish leader Jalal Talabani as Iraq's president.
Defense Minister Hazem Shaalan said Monday that most of Iraq's neighbors - including Syria, Iran and Saudi Arabia - are helping Iraq's government fight terrorism.
"The terrorist attacks have been limited now because of the cooperation of the neighboring countries," said Shaalan, who previously accused Iran and Syria of supporting insurgents in Iraq.
He also welcomed an edict issued Friday by Sunni clerics that called for Iraqis to join the police and army. "The Iraqi army will accept the new waves of volunteers," Shaalan said.
The edict, read by a cleric in the Association of Muslim Scholars, instructed enlistees to refrain from helping foreign troops against their own countrymen. It said Sunnis should join to prevent the police and army from falling into "the hands of those who have caused chaos, destruction and violated the sanctities."
On Monday, a bomb exploded at a cafe in the northern city of Talafar, killing two civilians and injuring 13, local official Salem al-Haj Eissa said. He speculated the bomb was intended for Iraqi army soldiers who frequent the cafe but said no soldiers were thought to be there.
In the same city, on Saturday, an American soldier was killed and another was wounded by insurgent gunfire, the U.S. military said Monday.
Posted by: Dan Darling ||
04/05/2005 12:45:32 AM ||
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#1
crackdown needed - call it Attica II
Posted by: Frank G ||
04/05/2005 9:47 Comments ||
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Authorities have arrested three tribesmen in connection with the killing of a paramilitary soldier in a remote Pakistani district near the Afghan border, an official said yesterday. The soldier was shot by a tribesman when he was asked to deposit weapons at a checkpoint in Makin village of the restive South Waziristan region yesterday, the official said on condition of anonymity. Though the attacker fled, the authorities arrested three fellow tribesmen under the territorial responsibility law, after the soldier died from the gunshot wound, he said. "Troops had launched a search for the attackers who could have links with Al Qaeda militants, otherwise he would have not resisted depositing his weapons at the check point," the official said.
Posted by: Dan Darling ||
04/05/2005 12:34:08 AM ||
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The US military has claimed that about 50 Iraqi fighters were wounded in a failed attempt to enter the infamous Abu Ghraib prison west of Baghdad. Al-Qaida in Iraq posted a second Internet statement boasting that its fighters carried out the bold attempt on Saturday to force their way into the prison. The statement said two fighters were injured and 10 more were killed in battle, including seven bombers. The statement was impossible to independently verify, and it conflicted with the US account of the assault. US military officials said on Monday that only one bomber was used in Saturday's attack, along with gunfire, mortar rounds and rocket propelled grenades. At least one fighter was killed. More than 40 US service members and 13 prisoners were injured in the attacks.
Posted by: Fred ||
04/05/2005 00:00:00 AM ||
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#1
Now its 'wounded' without disclosing whether such a wound required evac. Spin, spin, spin.
#3
Most of the US WIAs were slightly injured and returned to duty almost immediately. The first stories on the attack mentioned no enemy killed/wounded -- that took 24 hours to get out. There's a major dysfunction here in getting out the basic facts on engagements. Take body-count syndrome (i.e., the refusal to report enemy body counts, almost regardless of the circumstances), add some internal malfunctions, and you've got the superpower unable to give out even basic info on its invariably successful engagements against a pathetic, losing foe.
#4
I am not sure it is just body-count syndrome at work here.
Colin Powell cut off GWI early becasue of his fear of the civilian reaction to the photographs of the Highway of Death which was really a Highway of Wrecks.
However, in other actions we have been getting casualty ratios of 50-1 and higher. If the frequency of these lopsided battles becomes general knowledge, the media will protray them as bullying and butchery. Or if we don't hit that ratio, the media will portray it as a defeat and incompetence.
The combat enemy knows how may they lost even if they don't have a good breakdown of killed, captured, and deserted. The media enemy does not need to know. And the media enemy can do a lot more damage to our military than the combat enemy.
Posted by: Mrs. Davis ||
04/05/2005 10:05 Comments ||
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#5
"Body count syndrome" is over-reliance on body counts, not the avoidance of body counts. The military doesn't count them because it doesn't want to get into the idiocy of Vietnam, where the body count was all and the mission was secondary.
We have a military that gets the mission done, not one that stops to count (enemy) heads. I happen to like it that way, and I think a lot of people agree.
The press, of course, is still locked into a body count mindset. Mainly because they're still locked into Vietnam.
Posted by: Robert Crawford ||
04/05/2005 10:20 Comments ||
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#6
The military doesn't count them because it doesn't want to get into the idiocy of Vietnam, where the body count was all and the mission was secondary.
It always seemed to me that the body count WAS the mission. Kill more of them than they can kill us. There was never an invasion of North Vietnam by American forces, so absent the traditional indicator of ground taken as progress, some other measuring stick ended up being used.
KARACHI: A former worker of the Mohajir Qaumi Movement and his son were shot dead in Garden area on Monday, the police said. Saleemudin alias Tunda, aged 45, and his son Ali, aged 18, were standing at a shop near their house on Ghulam Husain Qasim Road when two men riding a motorcycle opened fire on them. Saleem and his son were rushed to Civil Hospital where doctors pronounced them dead on arrival. A passerby, Mohammed Ali, aged 22, was wounded in the attack. The SHO Garden said Saleemuddin was involved in several cases of attack on offices and workers of the Muttahida Qaumi Movement. He was released from jail around one-and-a —half year back. Saleem owned around 12 shops in Ghulam Husain Qasim Road.
Posted by: Fred ||
04/05/2005 00:00:00 ||
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SRINAGAR: At least 300 people, many of them former militants, were taken into preventive custody on Monday amid extraordinary security precautions ahead of the launch of historic Srinagar-Muzaffarabad bus service across divided Kashmir, a security official said.
Security forces swept through held Kashmir on Monday, rounding up more than 300 people who authorities feared could join violence against the buses or passengers.
"Into the paddy wagon wit' yez! That means you, too, Mahmoud!"
Preventive arrests are fairly common in Kashmir, particularly on the eve of important events that authorities fear could be targeted by militants.
Sounds like good sense to me...
An ambulance and numerous armoured vehicles will accompany the two 19-seat buses that will make the trip from Srinagar carrying 24 passengers. Two similar buses will bring about that many passengers to Srinagar from Muzaffarabad. Indian authorities have also taken at least 21 passengers into protective custody, worried they could be targeted by militants.
"But I just wanted to go see Grandmaw!"
"It's for your own good. Into the paddy wagon!"
A booking clerk at the state road transport corporation in Srinagar said three of the 29 prospective passengers had bought tickets for the bus. A ticket will cost (Indian) Rs 750 as one-way fare, which includes travel charges and lunch on board, Kashmir Media Service reported. The Muzaffarabad Civil Administration on Monday approved the final list of people who will travel by the first bus.
Posted by: Fred ||
04/05/2005 00:00:00 ||
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MIRANSHAH: Suspected Islamic militants opened fire on a man in a crowded bazaar in this tribal town on Monday, killing him before fleeing, an intelligence official said. No one claimed responsibility for the shooting in Miranshah, the main town in North Waziristan. The official, on condition of anonymity, said that authorities found some evidence suggesting the man may have been killed on suspicion that he was spying for the United States on militants in the area. The 35-year-old local tribesman, identified as Fazal Rahman, was shot twice in the head by fire from an AK-47 rifle. No one was arrested and a probe into the shooting has been started, he said.
Posted by: Fred ||
04/05/2005 00:00:00 ||
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#1
Hauling an AK around in a crowded bazaar? Didn't it, uh, like stick out just a little? Knowing the proficiency of "Islamic militants" with weaponry, the shooter must've been within inches to get two head shots.
Prolly an inncocent unarmed man, as this is the norm for "Islamic militants". The only surprising thing might be that it wasn't a woman or a schoolchild.
If this had happened in Bangladesh, whoa baby, the RAB or the shoppers prolly would've clubbed the "Islamic militants" to death with their own AK.
#2
Didn't it, uh, like stick out just a little?
Dude, this is Waziristan. Not packing heat will get you noticed.
Posted by: Steve ||
04/05/2005 8:16 Comments ||
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#3
Lol - pretty funny picture there, Steve, and I'm sure you frequent the market regularly, lol... but the question persists...
Assuming "everyone's" packing heat...
Apparently the victim wasn't. And he's a member of the local tribe - probably known to some or many in the market. If he gets gunned down, and lotsa folks are armed, how did they get away unscathed (they shouldn't have) or, at least, trailed by a bunch of AK-packin' bros, cousins, and third wives - as this is unthinkable given the "crowded" adjective and that he's local?
In other words, something's just not right about this with the perps getting in 2 head shots (two!) and getting away clean in a crowded market full of his kin - armed to the teeth.
#4
was crowded, but necessarily any close relatives. Will a second cousin whos armed, but perhaps not the sharpest shooter, take on somebody whos just taken somebody out? Revenge is needed for honor, sure, but you go back and ORGANIZE revenge with your pals, dont you? You dont just go off shooting against somebody whose likely to kill you? "Bernardo is looking for Tony, and hes got a gun .... Somewhere, theres a place for us....." One local kills another local, the other locals try to look the other way I think. "well yeah, I heard a shot, detective, but i HAD to finish my lasagna - yeah i had a gun and I COULD have taken the killer down - but you see, when somebody rubs somebody out over calamari and chianti, theres usually somebody BEHIND the killer, ya see? Somebody I DONT wanna mess with, ya see? Im no coward, but Im no fool either"
#5
What LH said. Shooting starts, you hit the deck and ask questions later. If it was a "their tribe against our tribe" kind of hit, you seeth about it for a while, then pick out one of their clan to wack from behind.
If on the other hand, you find out it was somebody higher up in his own clan that took out the hit on Fazal, well, too bad. Life goes on.
Posted by: Steve ||
04/05/2005 10:42 Comments ||
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#6
Got the perps right in front of you and you're gonna get all a-skeered?
Lol! Some kinda tribal members youze guyz are. I'll take a Hatfield or a McCoy, thanks, heh.
Hey, who you calling a tribal member?
I'm just telling you how they think. This bloodthirsty 'merican is more likely to slap leather and drop ya where ya stand.
Posted by: Steve ||
04/05/2005 11:53 Comments ||
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#9
WTF? I was laughing and funnin' - do you have a burr up your ass?
COLOMBO: Suspected Tamil Tiger rebels shot dead a government official on Monday amid escalating violence in Sri Lanka's volatile east, the military said. T Kailanathan, 55, a director at the Ministry of Vocational Training, was having lunch when suspected guerrillas opened fire, said military spokesman Brig. Daya Ratnayake. The ministry falls under Douglas Devananda, who is also leader of the Eelam People's Democratic Party or EPDP, which bitterly opposes the Tigers. The attack was allegedly the third targeting EPDP supporters in less than a week.
Posted by: Fred ||
04/05/2005 00:00:00 ||
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A multi-volume chronology and reference guide set detailing three years of the Mexican Drug War between 2010 and 2012.
Rantburg.com and borderlandbeat.com correspondent and author Chris Covert presents his first non-fiction work detailing
the drug and gang related violence in Mexico.
Chris gives us Mexican press dispatches of drug and gang war violence
over three years, presented in a multi volume set intended to chronicle the death, violence and mayhem which has
dominated Mexico for six years.
Rantburg was assembled from recycled algorithms in the United States of America. No
trees were destroyed in the production of this weblog. We did hurt some, though. Sorry.
Saudi security forces have killed seven insurgents in an ongoing siege in the northern town of al-Ras, according to security sources. Aljazeera said clashes were still going on as insurgents hurled grenades at police from their hideout in al-Ras in the al-Qassim region, 350km northwest of the Saudi capital Riyadh. A ministry statement said an eighth militant was critically wounded and a number of members of the security forces were injured, though most had been released from hospital. Security sources earlier said eight militants were killed. "Security forces are continuing mop-up operations at the site," it said about one of the longest and bloodiest battles in Saudi Arabia's two-year confrontation with al Qaeda supporters. 
In a special operation in Chechnya, three militants from 
LONDON - The BBC has broadcast harrowing footage that purportedly shows people being publicly executed by firing squad in North Korea for trying to flee the totalitarian regime. The pictures, filmed in secret just over a month ago in towns near the North Korean border with China, were obtained by the British broadcaster and shown on television late Monday night. They add to a mountain of evidence of massive human rights abuses by Pyongyang, which the government consistently denies. "Those who are to be executed are brought in a vehicle, they are gagged and half dead," one North Korean defector, Kim Young Soon, told the BBC. "Then they say you are being judged in the name of the people because you tried to escape. They fire a single shot and say you are being shot because you are an enemy of the people, then these people fall and die on the spot," she said, speaking through a translator.
A state prosecutor demanded life imprisonment yesterday for an Islamist charged with a plot to crash an aircraft loaded with explosives into a gathering of Turkey's political and military leaders. 
A Filipino patrol boat searching for three Indon tugboat crew members kidnapped by pirates near the southern Philippines clashed with gunmen near Sibutu island, killing two of them, officials said. Philippine Navy regional commander Commodore Rufino Lopez said his men ordered two suspicious speedboats to stop for inspection, but its passengers opened fire on the patrol boat triggering a sea chase in the Celebes sea on Saturday afternoon.
BEIRUT: Lebanese troops took over a key Syrian checkpoint on the Beirut-Damascus highway on Monday and the Syrians, now committed to leaving Lebanon by April 30, prepared to abandon a nearby intelligence building. Witnesses said Lebanese soldiers were manning the roadblock at the eastern town of Shtoura in the Bekaa Valley, replacing Syrian intelligence agents who held it for nearly three decades. The Syrians also vacated their military hospital in Shtoura, moving out in 15 trucks and other vehicles, the witnesses said. Senior Syrian and Lebanese military officers were meeting in the Bekaa to agree on the details of Syria's plan to withdraw its remaining forces from Lebanon by the end of the month.
Authorities have arrested three tribesmen in connection with the killing of a paramilitary soldier in a remote Pakistani district near the Afghan border, an official said yesterday. The soldier was shot by a tribesman when he was asked to deposit weapons at a checkpoint in Makin village of the restive South Waziristan region yesterday, the official said on condition of anonymity. Though the attacker fled, the authorities arrested three fellow tribesmen under the territorial responsibility law, after the soldier died from the gunshot wound, he said. "Troops had launched a search for the attackers who could have links with Al Qaeda militants, otherwise he would have not resisted depositing his weapons at the check point," the official said.
The US military has claimed that about 50 Iraqi fighters were wounded in a failed attempt to enter the infamous Abu Ghraib prison west of Baghdad. Al-Qaida in Iraq posted a second Internet statement boasting that its fighters carried out the bold attempt on Saturday to force their way into the prison. The statement said two fighters were injured and 10 more were killed in battle, including seven bombers. The statement was impossible to independently verify, and it conflicted with the US account of the assault. US military officials said on Monday that only one bomber was used in Saturday's attack, along with gunfire, mortar rounds and rocket propelled grenades. At least one fighter was killed. More than 40 US service members and 13 prisoners were injured in the attacks.
KARACHI: A former worker of the 
SRINAGAR: At least 300 people, many of them former militants, were taken into preventive custody on Monday amid extraordinary security precautions ahead of the launch of historic Srinagar-Muzaffarabad bus service across divided Kashmir, a security official said. 
MIRANSHAH: Suspected Islamic militants opened fire on a man in a crowded bazaar in this tribal town on Monday, killing him before fleeing, an intelligence official said. No one claimed responsibility for the shooting in Miranshah, the main town in North Waziristan. The official, on condition of anonymity, said that authorities found some evidence suggesting the man may have been killed on suspicion that he was spying for the United States on militants in the area. The 35-year-old local tribesman, identified as Fazal Rahman, was shot twice in the head by fire from an AK-47 rifle. No one was arrested and a probe into the shooting has been started, he said.
COLOMBO: Suspected Tamil Tiger rebels shot dead a government official on Monday amid escalating violence in Sri Lanka's volatile east, the military said. T Kailanathan, 55, a director at the Ministry of Vocational Training, was having lunch when suspected guerrillas opened fire, said military spokesman Brig. Daya Ratnayake. The ministry falls under Douglas Devananda, who is also leader of the Eelam People's Democratic Party or EPDP, which bitterly opposes the Tigers. The attack was allegedly the third targeting EPDP supporters in less than a week.
