The PHP version of the start page is (I think) done. It no longer shows all articles, but the comments tracking is improved, and it should be more stable than the ASP version. Your comments and suggestions are welcome, of course...
Posted by: Fred ||
05/09/2005 12:03:45 AM ||
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#2
Tell us all when you want us to bookmark the php version as the main portal to the site, as opposed to the asp version. It looks good, and I like the touch of having the latest commenter listed on the left.
Posted by: Steve White ||
05/09/2005 1:13 Comments ||
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#3
A favor, Fred? You once made the headline "hot" while within the comment page for me. That little goodie got lost - can you add it to the php version?
I do like the main page change showing the last commenter on the article - very very nice. *Kudos*
Posted by: Dave D. ||
05/09/2005 7:17 Comments ||
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#9
no O-club link? Blogroll?
Posted by: Frank G ||
05/09/2005 8:24 Comments ||
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#10
I rarely used the blogroll, but O-club's been handy
Posted by: Frank G ||
05/09/2005 8:26 Comments ||
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#11
Blogroll's on the way back. I'll add O Club today.
Posted by: Fred ||
05/09/2005 9:07 Comments ||
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#12
Given the sterling behavior of ASP lately, I'd say to bookmark the PHP version now. I'm getting tired of restarting IIS, and I'm firewalled off at work, so it requires a restart of the entire server. I haven't had PHP freeze on me yet.
Posted by: Fred ||
05/09/2005 9:27 Comments ||
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#13
I like it - loads faster
Posted by: Frank G ||
05/09/2005 9:29 Comments ||
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#14
O Club link is back...
Posted by: Fred ||
05/09/2005 9:53 Comments ||
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#15
I don't see an opinions page.Is this deliberate or is there something wrong?
#24
I think I'm going to leave it at this point until I get more time to work on it tonight. It's almost there, and I've got a backup in case it breaks again.
Posted by: Fred ||
05/09/2005 13:24 Comments ||
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#25
Can we do something about the "Opinion" page? The dumbest stuff gets posted on there. Bigoted, jaundiced cokeheads? WTF?
#26
It's on my list of things to do. Many of the posts are on-topic, but it's also the place where the trolls go. I don't know if I'm going to dump them or start a "Dumbass Corner"...
Posted by: Fred ||
05/09/2005 14:13 Comments ||
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#27
Fred - wd like to search by commenter/user. Also, what about a simple rating system so that really stellar comments can be saved and accessed later? Greatest Hits, so to speak... Over time, you'd build up a list of subject matter experts and their expert commentary. Just a thought.
Great work, thanks,
thibaud
#28
I don't know if I'm going to dump them or start a "Dumbass Corner"... How about calling it 'A Peek Under the Bridge'. BTW, I love the new front page.
#30
I like "Under the Bridge". But how about:
"Hole in the Fence" or "The Sausage Factory"? "My Cardboard Box"? (maybe I'll use the last one if I ever start my own blog...)
#35
Run it through Photoshop posterizer and call it a Ward Churchill Rantburg original.
Posted by: ed ||
05/09/2005 20:55 Comments ||
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#36
Oughtta call it "The Cretin's Corner"
Posted by: Dave D. ||
05/09/2005 21:07 Comments ||
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#37
Ok, Fred, I only see the pretty new set-up on pages 2 & 3. For what it's worth. But always, thank you for this site -- your improvements are icing on a 5-star cake.
A Kuwaiti criminal court sentenced 18 men to three years jail on Sunday for involvement in fighting US-led forces in Iraq. A court official, speaking on condition of anonymity, said another four people were fined up to 1,000 Kuwaiti dinars. Only one of the defendants, Abdullah Matar al-Shimmri, was in custody, five were on bail and the remainder are at large. Journalists were barred from attending the closed court hearing and officials ordered defence lawyers not to comment on the case. Five defendants were accused of leaving Kuwait intending to fight foreign forces in Iraq. It was unclear if they actually reached Iraq or fought there. The rest were charged with training others - including teenagers - to use weapons, or receiving weapons training knowing it would serve "an illegitimate purpose." Others faced counts of possessing and trading in unlicensed weapons.
This article starring:
ABDULLAH MATAR AL SHIMRI
al-Qaeda in Iraq
Posted by: Fred ||
05/09/2005 00:00 ||
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Recent attacks by Colombia's Marxist rebels display the training of IRA members captured in the country in August 2001, an army chief has said. Gen Carlos Ospina said there was no doubt Revolutionary Armed Forces (Farc) rebels were using IRA techniques in a counter-offensive launched in February. The three Irishmen were convicted of helping train Farc rebels in explosives and terrorist techniques. They are now on the run and thought to have skipped the country.
The armed forces chief said the Farc guerrillas were employing new technology in the home-made mortars they had recently used to bomb towns in the south-western province of Cauca. Security forces had seized rebel grenades that were copies of those manufactured by the Provisional IRA, Gen Ospina added. The guerrilla actions have caught the military by surprise. The three Irishmen caught the Colombian police similarly by surprise when they disappeared after their convictions.
Russian security services have detained a woman alleged to be in charge of training female suicide bombers, Associated Press reported. She was seized in the Chechen town of Urus-Martan late Saturday. Another alleged militant, detained in the republic's capital, Grozny, is suspected of blowing up vehicles from 2001-2004. This may be the Mysterious Veiled Lady(TM) we've heard so much about ...
Authorities also said Thursday they foiled a major terrorist attack in the republic, discovering a truck with more than a ton of explosives and a cache of poisons. They said two women who had planned to use the truck bomb in a suicide bombing were killed. A third suspected female suicide bomber was shot at a checkpoint in the Chechen capital Grozny late Friday.
Posted by: Dan Darling ||
05/09/2005 15:10 ||
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#1
the Ma Barker of suicidettes? Detained = future unsuspected "freak" heart attack in a couple days... and welded closed casket burial in an unnamed grave
Posted by: Frank G ||
05/09/2005 16:16 Comments ||
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#2
Another Black Widow (wife/sister of rebel who's jugged).
Posted by: too true ||
05/09/2005 16:29 Comments ||
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By definition, New York makes people around the world want a piece of it. And in this context, the thousands of Al Qaeda planners, bomb-makers, sleepers, and wigged-out suicide cadres strewn from Kuala Lumpur to the Sunni triangle are just wannabe New Yorkers, as delirious as any wet-eared Broadway gofer to see their work writ large across the skyline. "We know we're at the top of the Al Qaeda hit list," says Police Commissioner Ray Kelly in his trademark thirties-inflected copspeak. "The bombings in 1993 and 2001 and the landmarks plot showed that they came back here and would want to come back here."
And if the next 25 years are to be a football game in which the offense lobs bombs with an infinite number of clandestine delivery methods, then we're obligated to spend lots of time thinking about how and where. Understanding the where is paramount. Al Qaeda is sentimental, which is to say its planners and strategists follow their hearts. It keeps them consistent. This is what Kelly means when he notes that for the past fifteen years, they have been announcing that they will attack—and then attacking—New York.
The density and wattage of the human-target grid here—Shea on a summer night, JFK at Thanksgiving, Macy's on a Saturday, Times Square just about any time—make the city itself a meta-target and raise the value of each individual target in it. According to Osama's medieval worldview, more dead Crusaders and Jews means more dead Crusaders and Jews, so that any place attacked in New York has intrinsic value, but it doesn't get at the likelihood of what might be next. "What turns a thing into a target?" says Brian Michael Jenkins, Rand Corporation terror expert. "First, high symbolic value. Then, what do they want to accomplish with their home audience? Operations are as much for display—to attract recruits, financial support, and to establish credentials—as they are intended to hurt us. They're corporate communications."
Continued on Page 49
Posted by: Dan Darling ||
05/09/2005 15:16 ||
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#1
And if the next 25 years are to be a football game in which the offense lobs bombs with an infinite number of clandestine delivery methods, then weâre obligated to spend lots of time thinking about how and where.
Glad to see someone in the MSM get the fact that this is a generation-long struggle and we're just in the early stages.
Posted by: too true ||
05/09/2005 16:27 Comments ||
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Although heâs allegedly no longer in possession of a coherent personality as a result of his recent stresses in purgatory, KSM, as heâs called by U.S. officials,...
Now THAT is the nicest thing I've read in four years.
Mike
Posted by: Mike Kozlowski ||
05/09/2005 21:11 Comments ||
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YANGON (AFP) - Military-ruled Myanmar has imposed a blackout on news of casualties from Saturday's bomb blasts after official reports of 11 dead, but concern mounted that the toll was substantially higher. Security throughout the capital was also boosted amid fears of new attacks, with businesses ordered shuttered by 6:00 pm and stringent new measures put in place at government offices and banks.
Doctors at Yangon General Hospital, admitted they had been ordered not to speak to journalists about the numbers of dead, as others who had witnessed the blasts said it was unlikely that all 162 declared wounded had survived the bombings at two shopping malls and a trade centre. "A news blackout has been imposed," one doctor at the hospital told AFP on Monday. A senior health official compiling data from the blast added to the secrecy. "We are in no position to say anything at this point," he said when asked if the toll had risen.
Myanmar's junta routinely restricts information on sensitive incidents such as bombings, clashes between authorities and the pro-democracy opposition and even natural disasters if it feels the data would further harm the isolated government's reputation. Senior Thai officials in Bangkok said Monday 21 people, all Myanmar nationals, were killed in the blasts. "The death toll increased from 11 to 21, with 40 seriously injured and several others with minor injuries," a member of Thailand's National Security Council told AFP after the council was briefed on the Yangon attacks.
A Western diplomat voiced scepticism about the official toll. "Do these figures represent reality or just the start of reality? We do not know," the diplomat told AFP. "The toll might have changed but there have been no official communiques yet."
Within hours of the multiple bombings -- the worst to hit Yangon in decades -- witnesses at the three blast sites said they saw dozens of dead, including many with severed limbs and heads, and many more wounded. "I saw several truckloads of injured being taken away" from Junction Eight shopping centre, where one of the bombs exploded at a grocery store, the owner of a nearby shop said. He said police who had used his shop to phone in reports immediately after the blast put the preliminary Junction Eight death toll at six, but he added that the figure almost certainly climbed, especially given the grave condition of the wounded. Private clinics nearby were also ordered by government officials not to treat the blast victims but instead send all wounded to government hospitals, the shopowner said. "I am sure the government figure is very, very much deflated," he said.
Officials at eastern Yangon's North Okkalapa hospital, the other main facility taking bomb casualties, stuck to the junta's toll of three dead at that hospital. Yangon General had reported eight dead. On Sunday a doctor there said all 162 wounded were in good condition, but did not elaborate. Extra security had been posted at the two hospitals and some hospital staff at Yangon General told AFP they were under government orders to refuse to let family members transfer injured relatives to private hospitals.
Authorities, who have blamed the attacks on an alliance of ethnic rebel groups and pro-democracy exiles, have ordered all shopping centres in Yangon to remain closed this week. Compounding the tension, large businesses such as stores and restaurants were also ordered closed Monday by 6:00 pm, with late-night trade forbidden until further notice, a restaurant owner told AFP. Security was also tightened at state-run banks and government offices, where employees were being subjected to searches. The blast sites remained closed off, although shopkeepers at Junction Eight were allowed inside to assess damage to their property. Buddhist monks were also brought in to conduct a cleansing ceremony to rid the site of evil spirits after Saturday's carnage.
Posted by: Steve ||
05/09/2005 10:36:58 AM ||
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#1
Given Yangon's location, I'd be inclined to think it was a problem similar to Thailand's.
THERE are growing signs that Burma's hardline rulers have decided to crush their opponents by force once and for all, laughing off sanctions imposed by the West and turning to China for military aid to defeat rebel groups. Last week saw fresh witness and medical evidence pointing to the use of crude chemical weapons against ethnic Karenni fighters near the border with Thailand. A Belgian photojournalist, Thierry Falise, brought out testimony from two Burmese deserters who were told to take special precautions because they were handling chemical shells. They described artillerymen wearing masks and gloves to fire the munitions.
The uncompromising stance of Than Shwe, the supreme leader, seems to have followed the fall from power of Khin Nyunt, head of military intelligence. He was seen as the architect of truces between Rangoon and the ethnic groups who have fought for self-rule since Burma won independence from Britain in 1948. Most accepted, but the few groups remaining defiant face a military campaign that seems to have moved to a new level of ruthlessness. Falise interviewed teenage deserters from the army's 112th light infantry battalion who said their unit was using chemical shells transported in crates bearing a stencilled skull and crossbones sign. Myo Min, 15, who was press-ganged into service, said: "Our friends who fired the shells told us they had to wear gloves and a mask and that every fourth shell contained chemicals. The officers told us not to run away because if we did we would be caught by the rebels, cut up and then be eaten with salt on bamboo sticks."
The regime appears to have adopted an equally tough approach to Suu Kyi, even though her peaceful campaign for democracy poses no military threat. The grip on the opposition leader has become unrelenting, according to exiled sources and diplomats in Rangoon. They say there are indications her resolve has come under enormous pressure in recent months, perhaps in an effort to force her into exile.
Posted by: Paul Moloney ||
05/09/2005 05:13 ||
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Found it linked in this news release from Centcom. They also have the Arabic original, for those lucky few who understand Arabic.
Date: April 27, 2005
In the name of God the most merciful, the most compassionate.
A special message to the Sheik Abu Ahmad, may God protect and save him.
Thank God, God of the Universe who stated in his generous book I assure the believers a guaranteed victory; he who honors those who obey him and he who disgraces those who disobey him until the judgment day; may peace be upon the messenger that was sent as a mercy to the world, the prophet who had submitted the message and had struggled for the sake of God until the last moment of his life. So may God bless him with peace on his family, friends and followers until the judgment day; thereafter.
The Almighty God said "those who are believers beware of God and do not die unless you are Moslem." And, the Prophet had stated "the religion is an advice, we asked him, to how may it be? He replied, for the sake of God, the Prophet, the Holy Book, the Moslem Imams and the public." He said "if you leave Jihad then God will take away the mercy from you."
I advise myself firstly then I advise you [Sheik] to beware of God in secret and in the open. Do not be afraid of anybody. I advise you not to be stopped by anything from practicing Jihad for the sake of God and that is by depending absolutely on God. Whoever satisfies God rather than people, God will satisfy. All the Moslem nation is waiting to have an Islamic state implementing the rules of God, and are waiting for those men who are going to protect their dignity that are being abused everyday.
What has happened between myself and my brothers is a crime that cannot be forgiven, but God will eventually punish the oppressor. I could swear by God that you are asking about us and our situation in here; the morale has weakened and lines of the Mujahidin have become separated due to some leaders' actions, God does not accept such actions, and that will delay the victory. We do have big mistakes where some of us have been discarded.
To conclude what has happened with us, he said either you carry out a martyr operation or go back to your family. After, we were told this was an order from the Sheik. Indeed, some of the brothers had returned back, some were recorded as martyred and the rest were hanging around and did not know what to do, besides they were humiliated and immorally treated. Who is to blame, should it be the oppressor or the oppressed? We have brothers that were tortured and jailed. They are harmless and nobody is meeting with them or asks about them. It is unlike the case in Fallujah where you used to come and visit us, and we enjoyed your party. The situation has changed dramatically and that is not acceptable to God. The most important thing Sheik, is your existence is a thorn in the mouth of the Americans as well as the traitors, and may God protect you.
The most important issue here is, do not hear from just one side, even if that person was close to you. But hear from all sides so the facts will become clear to you.
We have leaders that are not capable of being good leaders. We are not accusing them without reason but we have tested them and found them incapable.
Thank God, Sheik, please test those who are underneath you. Some of them are in a rush, some are unfair and some have other issues.
My last request to you Sheik is that I need to meet with you to share a lot of unknown issues. And, to be honest with you, I really do not trust anyone anymore that says he is coming from your side. We have suffered a lot, but thank God. I ask the Great God to make the religion victorious and to bless the Mujahidin anywhere in the world and to disgrace the infidels, destroy America and its allies soon without any delay.
May grace be upon Mohammed and his family and friends until the judgment day. I attest that there is one God and I ask for his forgiveness.
Dude, we've got serious management problems out here.
Guys are running around without a clue, people are calling in sick when they ain't, we got blowhards in charge who wouldn't know their ass from a hole in the ground, on top of which they're pissing off the whole country with their moronic "operations."
And did I mention that the Americans are cleaning our clocks? We keep trying to take them head on and we get wiped out every time. You still want us to do that???
We need to talk, in person. Where are you anyway?
Best,
Your Lackey,
Abu âAsim al-Yamani, al Qusaymi
Al-Qaida Organization, Iraq Division
#6
The Sheik has to be wondering what hole he's going to hide in pretty soon. The way things seem to be shaping up, some Iraqi must be using Saddam's old pliers on some of the recent captives.
Posted by: Tom ||
05/09/2005 19:54 Comments ||
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A spate of attacks last year in Pakistan against key people and strategic interests forced President General Pevez Musharraf to negotiate a truce with al-Qaeda, which has made deep inroads among the country's jihadis. With the arrest of al-Qaeda operative Abu Faraj al-Libbi, the deal is in tatters...
Posted by: john ||
05/09/2005 16:26 ||
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The U.S. military this week has been issuing unusually detailed news releases from Iraq about intelligence gleaned from captured insurgents, part of a new information-operations campaign meant to drive a wedge of suspicion between anti-government fighters.
The disclosures are intended to encourage or hasten the implosion of the Iraqi insurgency, which has evolved into a loose confederacy: foreign fighters waging what they consider a holy war; Iraqi fighters loyal to the former regime; Iraqi mercenaries and criminals; and Iraqi nationalists who oppose the occupation, according to U.S. military officials.
By the U.S. military's reasoning, the group will eventually splinter and turn on each other as the factions have fundamentally different long-term interests and are only temporarily united by their common enemy: the United States and the fledgling government in Baghdad. Terrorist organizations are most often defeated because of internal squabbling, a military official said.
The main target of the information-operations campaign is Jordanian terrorist Abu Musab al-Zarqawi, al-Qaida's primary figure in Iraq. Zarqawi is believed to be the mastermind behind the wave of car bombings that have killed hundreds across Iraq in the last two years and more than 200 in the last two weeks.
By trumpeting what it has learned in as much detail as possible, the U.S. military believes it may force Zarqawi to second-guess his lieutenants, undermine his confidence in his safe houses and planned operations -- not knowing which have been compromised -- and withdraw from or do battle with Iraqi insurgents he suspects may be wavering.
Over the weekend the U.S. military detailed the intelligence gathered from two captured Iraqi figures with close ties to Zarqawi: Abu Zubaydah, aka Abu al-Abbas, in Baghdad May 5; and Ghassan Muhammad Amin Husayn al-Rawi on Apr. 26 in Rawah in northwestern Iraq.
According to the military, Abbas was allegedly the key planner for both the April 2 attack on the Abu Ghraib prison and the series of car-bomb attacks carried out April 29 within the vicinity of Baghdad. Abbas told interrogators that documents confiscated at his home contain plans and intelligence for the assassination of a prominent Iraqi government official, and he apparently has knowledge about Zarqawi's network members and the movement of foreign fighters into the country.
Amin coordinated meetings for other senior members of the network and facilitated movement and meetings for Zarqawi and foreign fighters in the Rawah region. He also provided information that led to the capture of Abbas, the military said.
"Both (Abbas and Amin) ... have provided Iraqi and coalition forces with significant insight into the Zarqawi network. The most notable details gained from these detained terrorists specifically concern the operations, logistics and locations of Abu Musab al-Zarqawi network members, foreign fighters and suicide bombers within Baghdad and the western corridor of Iraq," U.S. Central Command announced Sunday.
The accuracy of the information being released is intrinsic to it being effective in undermining Zarqawi's confidence in his network and associates; if he sees inaccurate or false information, he will recognize the bluff.
The detailed public release of intelligence is hoped to have the ancillary benefit of reassuring the Iraqi people -- who are increasingly bearing the burden of the violence in Iraq -- that the government and coalition forces are making progress against the insurgency.
It is also hoping to deflate Zarqawi's public image, from al-Qaida's "prince" in Iraq to a terrorist overseeing an organization that is coming apart.
Last week the military released what it says was a letter confiscated during a raid in Baghdad that shows the insurgency is weakening.
The letter was a request for an audience with Zarqawi to discuss operations and to complain about the incompetence of Zarqawi's lieutenants.
It references one leader in particular who told the fighters either they must martyr themselves or leave the insurgency.
According to Joint Staff Director of Operations Lt. Gen. James Conway, there are indications some recent suicide bombers may have been martyred against their will.
"We have seen some instances where an individual has obviously been detonated from afar; he has not pulled the cord or done the self-detonation thing," Conway said. "So we're asking ourselves: What's all that mean? And we don't have the answers yet."
Posted by: Dan Darling ||
05/09/2005 17:24 ||
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#1
This piqued my interest, so I went to the Central Command news releases and searched around. Some interesting stuff there.
Translation of a letter from Abu Asim al-Qusaymi al Yemeni to âthe Sheik.â
#3
It seems also, from the confessions on Iraqi TV that some of Zarqawi's minions are so devoted to Allah that after being caught they brag about what they were going to do --- even exagerating.
#5
I saw a report somewhere today that a recent suicide car bomb killed its THREE occupants! Why would it take three people to drive a suicide car bomb?
(Or maybe they just ESTIMATED three occupants, but the body parts were too small to be sure?)
BAGHDAD, Iraq (AP) - American troops backed by helicopters and war planes launched a major offensive against followers of Iraq's most wanted insurgent, Abu Musab al-Zarqawi, in a desert area near the Syrian border, and as many as 100 militants were killed, U.S. officials said Monday. Marines, sailors and soldiers from Regimental Combat Team 2, 2nd Marine Division, were conducting the offensive in an area north of the Euphrates River, in the al-Jazirah Desert, a known smuggling route and sanctuary for foreign insurgents, the U.S. military said.
The brief statement did not specify when the operation began, how many troops were involved, or whether there had been any American casualties. But U.S. military spokesmen later said the offensive started on Saturday and that it had killed as many as 100 militants. The military also reported that two U.S. Marines were killed in the area on Sunday and one on Monday. A senior U.S. military official said the operation is targeting a group of al-Zarqawi followers believed to be operating in the area. He spoke on condition of anonymity.
Al-Zarqawi, a Jordanian, is leader of the terrorist group al-Qaida in Iraq. He has declared allegiance to Osama bin Laden's al-Qaida network and is tied to many bombings and kidnappings since the U.S.-led invasion removed Saddam Hussein from power two years ago. Meanwhile, militants claimed in a Web posting they took a Japanese man hostage after ambushing a group of foreigners and Iraqi troops in western Iraq.
The Ansar al-Sunnah Army identified the Japanese hostage as Akihito Saito, 44, and posted a photocopy of his passport, including his picture, on the group's Web site. The group said Saito was seized after Ansar al-Sunnah fighters ambushed a convoy of five foreign contractors, protected by 12 members of the Iraqi security forces. It claimed all were killed in the fight except for Saito, who was ``severely injured.''
One of the posted ID cards belonging to Saito identified him as a security manager of Hart GMSSCO, a British-based security firm. Hart CEO Simon Falkner said in London that there was an ambush with casualties Sunday night involving Hart personnel, but would not confirm whether Saito was an employee and if he had been seized.
The group claimed it ambushed the convoy near Hit, west of Baghdad, and said a fierce battle erupted between the fighters and those in the convoy. Hit is about 80 miles from where U.S. forces have launched a major offensive against militants near the Syrian border. It was not known if the offensive had any connection to the ambush. Six bodies also were found Monday in Markab al-Tair village, near the Syrian frontier, police Col. Wathiq Mohammed said. He identified them as a senior Iraqi border policeman and five of his relatives.
The offensive is one of the largest involving U.S. troops since American and Iraqi forces took over the insurgent bastion of Fallujah in November. Two weeks ago, about 1,000 U.S. soldiers completed a four-day operation against insurgents north of Baghdad where a civilian helicopter was shot down. The military has stepped up raids on suspected hideouts across the country, including near the Syrian border, where U.S. and Iraqi officials say foreign militants are entering the country to attack coalition forces.
The Chicago Tribune reported that more than 1,000 U.S. troops supported by fighter jets and helicopter gunships raided villages Sunday in and around Obeidi, about 185 miles west of Baghdad, in an operation expected to last several days. The report, by a journalist embedded with the U.S. forces, said the offensive ``was seeking to uproot a persistent insurgency in an area that American intelligence indicated has become a haven for foreign fighters flowing in from Syria.''
Some U.S. forces were able to conduct limited raids north of the Euphrates and predator drones provided surveillance Sunday, but most troops were stuck south of the waterway as engineers tried to build a pontoon bridge there, the Tribune said. It also quoted some Marines as saying residents of one riverside town turned off all their lights at night, apparently to warn neighboring towns of the approaching U.S. troops. ``Our analysis is that there's a foreign fighter flow from Syria,'' Col. Stephen Davis, commander of Marine Regimental Combat Team 2, told the Tribune. ``The trademark of these folks is to be where we're not. We haven't got north of the river for a while.''
On Sunday, the U.S. military said coalition forces killed six insurgents and detained 54 suspects in raids targeting al-Qaida in Iraq, in Qaim, a Syrian border town about 200 miles west of Baghdad. Coalition forces said they acted on information received from Mohammed Amin Husayn al-Rawi, an al-Zarqawi associate captured April 26. The crackdown came amid insurgent violence that has killed more than 310 people since April 28, when a new Iraqi government was announced with seven positions left undecided. At least nine American servicemen were killed over the weekend.
Iraq's interim National Assembly on Sunday approved six more Cabinet members, including four more Sunni Arabs. But the Sunni man selected as human rights minister turned down the job because he didn't want to be chosen on a sectarian basis, tarnishing the Shiite premier's bid to include the disaffected minority believed to be driving the insurgency. The five new members were sworn in Monday. The rest of Cabinet also repeated the oath of office after new language was added at the request of Barham Salih, the Kurdish planning and development cooperation minister. The ministers pledged their allegiance to a ``federal, democratic'' Iraq, which Salih said brought the wording of the oath in line with language in Iraq's transitional law. Iraq's two main Kurdish factions, which hold 75 seats in the 270-member National Assembly, are pressing for a federal government that would give strong autonomy to the Kurdish north.
When complete, the new government is expected to include 17 Shiite ministers, eight Kurds, six Sunnis and a Christian. Three deputy premiers have been named - one each for the Shiites, Sunnis and Kurds, with the fourth held open for a woman. Prime Minister Ibrahim al-Jaafari pledged Sunday to take ``all necessary measures'' to restore security in Iraq and said the government could impose martial law to fight the insurgents.
Violence continued Monday with three Iraqis killed in a suicide car bombing at police checkpoint at a busy Baghdad intersection, said police Maj. Mousa Abdul Karim. The dead included two policemen and a civilian. Six other policemen and three civilians were wounded, he said. At least three other car bombs exploded in Baghdad later Monday, including one that wounded an unidentified number of Iraqi soldiers at a checkpoint, said U.S. military spokesman Master Sgt. Greg Kaufman.
The U.S. military said it had conducted several raids Sunday in and around Baghdad, detaining 13 suspected insurgents, some armed with rocket-propelled grenades. Two of the suspects were captured in a raid aimed at the leader of a terror cell believed to have plotted an April 20 assassination attempt against former Prime Minister Ayad Allawi, the military said. Allawi was unhurt, but at least one policeman was killed and two wounded by a suicide car bomb.
On Sunday, the Iraqi government said its security forces had captured another al-Zarqawi associate. He was identified as Ammar Adnan Mohammed Hamza al-Zubaydi, also known as Abul Abbas. Al-Zubaydi is accused of planning an April 2 assault by dozens of insurgents who blew up car bombs and fired RPGs outside Abu Ghraib prison, the Iraqi statement said. At least 1,603 members of the U.S. military have died since the beginning of the Iraq war in March 2003, according to an Associated Press count.
Posted by: Steve ||
05/09/2005 4:28:31 PM ||
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#1
Like the man said: Mess with the best, die like the rest.
#5
At least 1,603 members of the U.S. military have died since the beginning of the Iraq war in March 2003, according to an Associated Press count.
Hummm ---- just had to end with that line --- 1,600 of our guys -- and I weep over each one.... but, hey... let's count the bad guys in the last 2 weeks. It's getting close to that 1,600..... okay -- maybe the last 2 weeks is a bit much... so, let's count in the last month....
A Japanese employee of a foreign security firm was kidnapped in Iraq, Foreign Minister Nobutaka Machimura was quoted as saying by Kyodo News after an Al-Qaeda-linked group claimed to have a Japanese hostage.
Kyodo News said a Cypriot security firm had also confirmed the man was on its payroll. Prime Minister Junichiro Koizumi, visiting Moscow for World War II anniversary ceremonies, has been informed of the incident, public broadcaster NHK said.
An Al-Qaeda-linked militant group said it had seized a Japanese hostage during a "fierce battle" in western Iraq, in a statement posted on an Islamist website Monday.
Identity card photographs accompanying the statement from the Army of Ansar al-Sunna gave the hostage's name as Akihiko Saito, 44.
Japanese forces are on a historic mission to Iraq as it is the first time since World War II that Tokyo has deployed the military to a country where there is active fighting.
The Japanese forces have suffered no casualties, although in October an Al-Qaeda-linked group kidnapped and beheaded a 24-year-old Japanese backpacker, Shosei Koda.
Shibir cadre killed in 'crossfire' (Somewhere in a Bangladesh police station)
(There's a guy starting to realize)
(That eternal fate)
(Has turned its back on him)
(It's 3:30 am)
'An alleged activist of Islami Chhatra Shibir was killed in 'crossfire' between the Rapid Action Battalion and his associates at Chariya under Hathazari in Chittagong early Sunday, raising the crossfire death toll to 292 since June 2004. RAB sources said Dilwar Hossain alias Azrail Dilwar, chief of the Azrail group, also accused in half a dozen cases, including three murders, died in crossfire when they went to recover arms along with him in the area at around 3:30am. It's 3:30 am (it's 3:30 am)
The fear is gone (the fear is gone)
I'm sittin' here waiting (I'm sittin' here waiting)
The shutter gun they'll plant still warm (the shutter gun's still warm)
Earlier, a Chittagong RAB squad, on secret information, arrested Dilwar from the city's Laldighi area Saturday afternoon. A double cross messenger
All alone
Can't get no connection
Can't get through
Where are you
RAB claimed that after his arrest they took him to Chariya to recover arms according to his confessional statement. Well, the night weighs heavy
On his guilty mind
This far from the border line
When they reached Chariya High School premise, accomplices of Dilwar opened fire on RAB. The battalion men also fired gunshots on the criminals, RAB said. And when the hitman comes
More than 50 rounds of bullets were traded, of which RAB admittedly fired 19 rounds. He knows damn well he has been cheated
And he says
Dilwar sustained serious bullet wounds in the line of fire and was taken to Hathazari Health Complex where the doctors declared him dead.
Help, I'm stepping into the Crossfire Zone
The place is a mad-house
Feels like being cloned
My arms cache been moved
Under moon and star
Where am I to go
Now that I've gone too far
Soon you will come to know
When the bullet hits the bone
RAB recovered nine firearms, including four SBBL guns, three revolvers, two light guns and 73 rounds of ammunitions from the spot after the encounter. RAB said Dilwar was involved in extortion, robbery and rape in the city and accused in sensational murders taking place in the city. When the bullet hits the bone, ah-ah-ha
When the bullet hits the bone
Posted by: Steve ||
05/09/2005 11:18:32 AM ||
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#1
nice - at least it's an earworm I like :-)
Posted by: Frank G ||
05/09/2005 12:49 Comments ||
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EFL: BAGHDAD, May 8 -- Senior U.S. commanders say their view of the Iraqi insurgency has begun to shift, with higher priority being given to combating foreign fighters and Iraqi jihadists. This shift comes in response to the recent upsurge in suicide attacks and other developments that indicate a more prominent role in the insurgency by these radical groups, the commanders say.
Previously, U.S. authorities have depicted the insurgency as being dominated largely by what the Pentagon has dubbed "former regime elements" -- a combination of onetime Baath Party loyalists and Iraqi military and security service officers intent on restoring Sunni rule. But since the Jan. 30 elections, this segment of the insurgency has appeared to pull back from the fight, at least for a while, reassessing strategies and exploring a possible political deal with the new government, senior U.S. officers here say.
Acting on the assumption that foreign fighters and Iraqi extremists may now pose the greater and more immediate threat to security in Iraq, U.S. commanders have given orders in recent days to reposition some U.S. ground forces and intelligence assets in northwestern Iraq to further fortify the border with Syria and block suspected infiltration routes. They are also stepping up efforts to go after leading bomb-makers and key organizers of the suicide attacks. In interviews, several commanders and intelligence officers cautioned that their shift was still tentative and based more on fragmentary information and intuition than on solid, specific evidence. They said assessments differed among U.S. intelligence specialists.
But supporting the impression that a harder-core insurgent element has become more important, the officers say, is the fact that suicide missions have become more frequent and more ruthless -- many have been positioned and timed to kill civilians as well as Iraqi security forces. U.S. and Iraqi authorities say suicide drivers are invariably foreign fighters. Officers here said they knew of no documented case in which a suicide attacker turned out to have been an Iraqi.
A recent U.S. intelligence estimate also shows an increase last month in the flow of foreign fighters into Iraq, according to several officers familiar with it. "There seems to be an increasing foreign element to the insurgency," said Army Gen. George Casey, the senior U.S. commander in Iraq. With Baathist-led Sunni groups appearing to sit on the sidelines for now, some senior officers say the insurgency seems to have shrunk as its tactics have become more vicious.
"The base of the insurgency is getting very narrow, but it is still a fairly competent terrorist base," one commanding officer said on condition of anonymity. More than 300 people have been killed since the formation of Iraq's new government 10 days ago. The generals allow for the possibility that the apparent change in the nature of the insurgency may be only temporary. They noted, for instance, that a failure to draw the Sunnis into the new political process could again drive the Baathists into more violent opposition.
"They may have just taken a pause," said Army Brig. Gen. John DeFreitas III, the top military intelligence officer in Iraq. "I'm not sure they've quit the insurgency. They can certainly come back."
U.S. Officers In Iraq Put Priority on Extremists
Hussein Loyalists Not Seen as Greatest Threat
By Bradley Graham
Washington Post Staff Writer
Monday, May 9, 2005; Page A01
BAGHDAD, May 8 -- Senior U.S. commanders say their view of the Iraqi insurgency has begun to shift, with higher priority being given to combating foreign fighters and Iraqi jihadists...
#4
The hurt needs to be put on those elements in Syria that are backing the terrorism in Iraq. The only language they understand is personal hurt, just like G'daffy in the 80s. When it gets personal, the management will back off.
I wonder how much the Saudis are contributing to recent foreign terrorist fodder. They need to be dealt with, too.
Being nice and diplomatic about these killers is costing us casualties, as well as the Iraqis.
Posted by: Alaska Paul ||
05/09/2005 16:16 Comments ||
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#8
With regards to assorted Saudis having unfortunate accidents, an internal power struggle is generally an excellent opportunity for a little very discreet mischief-making.
U.S. forces tracked down a band of insurgents in eastern Afghanistan, killing about 12 in a battle that also left two Marines dead, the military said Monday. The military said warplanes also joined the clash with about 25 insurgents on Sunday evening in the eastern province of Laghman, an opium-producing region where U.S. forces regularly battle militants.
Marines "located the insurgents and an engagement ensued," the military said. "Two U.S. Marines were killed." The names of the dead were not released. U.S. spokesman Col. James Yonts said "about a dozen" rebels were killed but made no mention of injuries on either side.
Militants opposed to the U.S.-backed government of President Hamid Karzai have made good on threats to step up their three-year-old insurgency, carrying out assaults and bombings that have killed dozens of Afghan and U.S. troops and government officials in recent weeks. However, they have suffered heavy casualties in clashes where American warplanes have caught them in large groups on open ground.
The Marines died days after the bloodiest fighting in Afghanistan in nine months, when U.S. and Afghan forces including American warplanes clashed with large groups of insurgents in two southern provinces. Sixty-four rebels, nine Afghan soldiers and an Afghan policeman were reported killed, while six American troops were among the wounded.
American commanders insist they are wearing the insurgents down and persuading villagers along the Pakistani border to stop sheltering them. They have also suggested that the United States might withdraw some of its 18,000 troops in Afghanistan after the Sept. 18 parliamentary elections supposed to crown the country's democratic rebirth. But that depends on the success of a reconciliation plan which has prompted a string of former Taliban allies to give up the fight.
Sunday's deaths bring to 143 the number of American troops killed in and around Afghanistan since the start of Operation Enduring Freedom in 2001, according to U.S. Defense Department statistics. The last U.S. soldier previously killed in action in Afghanistan died April 26 when his unit was ambushed in central Uruzgan province. UPDATE: U.S. marines tracked down a group of insurgents in eastern Afghanistan and sparked a battle that left up to 23 rebels as well as two Americans dead, the U.S. military said Monday, in the latest sign of a revived Taliban-led insurgency. Acting on intelligence about the rebels' whereabouts, U.S. marines "located the insurgents and an engagement ensued," a brief statement from the U.S. military said. "Two U.S. marines were killed."
A second statement said "two insurgents were confirmed killed and another 21 suspected dead." The military said the marines initially came under attack with small arms and rocket-propelled grenades from insurgents who split into two groups, one of which fled to a village and the other to a cave on a nearby ridge. The two marines died while clearing the cave after A-10 ground attack planes had pounded the rebels holed up inside, the statement said, without elaborating.
Posted by: ed ||
05/09/2005 06:00 ||
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#1
Please fix the title to: 14 Killed in Fighting in East Afghanistan
Thanks.
Posted by: ed ||
05/09/2005 6:04 Comments ||
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U.S. forces have launched an offensive against insurgents in western Iraq near the Syrian border, and about 75 militants were killed in the first 24 hours, the military said Monday. It said the offensive, being conducted with U.S. air support in a desert area of Anbar province north of the Euphrates River, was targeting a sanctuary for foreign insurgents and a smuggling route. The brief U.S. statement didn't say when the offensive by Marines, sailors and soldiers had begun, how many were included, or whether there had been any American casualties.
The Chicago Tribune reported Monday that more than 1,000 U.S. troops supported by fighter jets and helicopter gunships had attacked villages in and around Obeidi, a city near the Euphrates River in western Iraq not far from the Syrian border, on Sunday. The report, by a journalist embedded with the U.S. forces, said the offensive "was seeking to uproot a persistent insurgency in an area that American intelligence indicated has become a haven for foreign fighters flowing in from Syria." It said the offensive was expected to last for several days.
Recently, U.S. troops appear to have stepped up their attacks on suspected insurgent strongholds, including some near the Syrian border, where foreign militants may be entering the country to attack coalition forces. For instance, on Sunday, coalition forces killed six insurgents and detained 54 suspects in raids targeting terror group al-Qaida in Iraq in Qaim, a city near Obeidi, the U.S. military said....
Posted by: ed ||
05/09/2005 05:56 ||
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#1
Hopefully, it's the hammer and anvil approach and the border is thoroughly sealed.
#2
See Chuck, the border isn't well marked and we lost our GPS stuff back in the desert so we ... just sort of ended up here at these interesting camps. You say they're in Syria??? Well fancy that.
Posted by: too true ||
05/09/2005 10:26 Comments ||
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#5
DUBAI (AFX) - The Al-Qaeda group of Iraq's most-wanted militant Abu Musab al-Zarqawi denied a US report on Monday that 75 insurgents had been killed in a sweep near the Syrian border. 'The adorers of the cross claim to have killed 75 Muslims at Al-Qaim. Once more, they are lying, because lying is their religion,' said the statement on an Islamist website, the authenticity of which could not be verified.
Must be hurting them bad. Faster, please!
Posted by: Steve ||
05/09/2005 13:42 Comments ||
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#6
al-Qaim: the 1426th holiest place in Christendom....heh heh
Posted by: Frank G ||
05/09/2005 13:55 Comments ||
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#7
Lol! I'm thinking like Frank's comment, nowadays. I want to turn this whole freakin' thing on its head. "That's all I can stands and I can't stands no more." No more explanations or stats or anything else for the MSM. Nothing. No apologies. It's a war. We will fight it as cleanly as we can, but it's war. Every spokesman in uniform should leave HQ and man a productive station, for a change.
One simple statement, given one time, no questions:
We will kill every last jihadi and jihadi supporter we can lay hands or laser designator on. Period. Whenever. Wherever. No place on this planet is safe haven. Now get the fuck out of Iraq by sunset tomorrow - as supporters you become fair game as night falls. And we own the night.
yes our night vision equipment is good but the IR signature of a person doesn't look so sharp in the summer
more important, our troops are required to obey the parameters set by negotiation between the coalition forces and the Iraqi govt. - we can't drastically change the ROE without them (and btw, the Iraqi SWAT teams have their own ROE which is more 'lenient' than ours)
we could however let it be known that the current ROE are allowing terrorist enablers to evade capture and let the Iraqi parliment take it up
#11
I am surprised no one on Rantburg has noticed where this action is taking place. There is a new article at Google now saying that 100 Terrorists are dead....and that this is taking place in the al-Jazirah Desert. .... part of the al-Jazirah Desert is in SYRIA. Could we be in SYRIA?
#12
Grins, baby, what makes you think we don't know where this is taking place? This story's been running a couple of days. If you look back on RB you'll see we're on top of it. Al Qaim is an old sore spot for infiltration - as well as being a main point for the smuggler's run which follows the Euphrates all the way to Fallujah. This is where the infamous supposed "wedding party" was bombed.
I've already recommended we obliterate it or give it the Fallujah treatment. Sound like Operation {mumble mumble] is short of wither, but effective enough to have the AlQ weenies shitting their britches. We gotcha covered, bro.
The investigations into the two unsuccessful attempts to assassinate Pakistan's President Gen.Pervez Musharraf in December, 2003, brought to light the penetration of jihadi terrorist organisations into the Pakistan Army and Air Force at the junior and middle levels... The leadership role in the planning and execution of this conspiracy was played by the LEJ and Al Qaeda, represented by Abu Faraj al-Libbi, the Libyan, who was arrested by the Pakistani security forces earlier this monthâŠThat there are apprehensions in the minds of those close to Musharraf over the role of sections of the intelligence establishment in the entire conspiracy and over the failure of the investigating agencies so far to unravel the entire conspiracy became evident from an interview given by Dr.Aamir Liaqat Hussain, Minister of State for Religious Affairs, to the prestigious "Daily Times" of Lahore, on May 5,2005. An advance summary of the interview was carried by the newspaper on May 6, 2005. This summary has quoted the Minister as warning that Musharraf had a lot of enemies 'within' who could make an attempt on his life again at any time. He said that there were certain elements within the forces who could attack the General. He added: "No common people could attack President Musharraf, but certainly there are elements in the forces who can launch yet another attack against him. There is an ISI within the ISI, which is more powerful than the original and still orchestrating many eventualities in the country." The Minister said he feared a threat to his own life because he supported Musharraf's call for an enlightened and moderate Islam and has been given the task of preparing the texts of sermons advocating enlightened and moderate Islam to be used at all mosques of the Armed Forces.
Well-informed sources in Pakistan say that apart from the failure of the intelligence establishment to identify and weed out the pro-jihadi elements in the Armed Forces and the intelligence establishment, another cause for serious concern is the continuing failure of the intelligence establishment to identify all the leaders of the highly secretive Hizbut Tehrir (HT) and its supporters in the Armed Forces and arrest them. This organisation, which has built up a world-wide presence since 1953, made its appearance in Pakistan for the first time in 2000. It had little role to play in the jihad of the 1980s against the Soviet troops in Afghanistan. Like Al Qaeda, it advocates an Islamic Caliphate in which the Sharia will be supreme, but says it wants to achieve it through peaceful mass agitations and not by resort to terrorism or other acts of armed violence. Even though it was born long before Al Qaeda, many believe that the HT now functions as the political wing of the Al Qaeda. What the Al Qaeda seeks to propagate through jihadi terrorism, it propagates through political means. There is nothing secretive about its ideological propaganda in favour of an Islamic Caliphate, which is open. What is highly secretive are details of its leadership, organisational structure, methods of recruitment, membership and sources of finance. What is equally disturbing is that the HT, while advocating open AGITPROP (Agitation-Propaganda) methods for spreading its ideology, lays equal emphasis on the importance of a clandestine penetration of the security forces since, in its view, it would not succeed in establishing an Islamic Caliphate if the Armed Forces remain opposed to it.
The HT ideology and operational methods were imported into Pakistan from the UK by its supporters in the Pakistani community in the UK. It is said that within five years it has been able to make considerable progress not only in setting up its organisational infrastructure, but also in recruiting dedicated members in the civil society as well as the Armed Forces. It is said that no other jihadi organisation has been able to attract as many young and educated members and as many supporters in the Armed Forces as the HT despite the fact that it has been present in Pakistan hardly for about five years now... There was no credible evidence of the HT's possible involvement in the anti-Musharraf plots of December, 2003, but its present call for "getting rid of such rulers", which is similar to the call issued in the past by al-Zawahiri, is ominous.
Posted by: Paul Moloney ||
05/09/2005 05:18 ||
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KABUL, Afghanistan - A UN engineer from Myanmar was among three people killed over the weekend when a suicide attacker walked into a Kabul Internet cafe and blew himself up, officials say, in the first fatal attack on a UN staffer in the capital since the fall of the Taleban in 2001.
The bombing Saturday followed a series of kidnap attempts on foreigners and the killing of a British development worker, deepening a sense of insecurity in the city just as a Taleban-led insurgency revives in the south.
The UN said it was concerned about increasing violence in Afghanistan, but a spokewoman for the world body, Ariane Quentier, said it would not curtail its activities here, including preparations for Sept. 18 parliamentary elections. UN Secretary-General Kofi Annan condemned the killings and called upon the government of Afghanistan and international forces here "to take the necessary measures to address the security situation," his spokesman Farhan Hag said in New York.
Afghanistan's top law-enforcer promised a thorough investigation and said police were erecting extra checkpoints around the country. "There are criminal elements who have a lot to gain by destabilizing Afghanistan and halting and reversing the progress the country has made," Interior Minister Ali Ahmad Jalali said on Sunday. "We will never allow that to happen."
The US ambassador condemned the targeting of an Internet cafe as an attack on "Afghans' desire to be part of the larger world." "The fact that this terrorist chose a place where Afghans and visitors visited to freely gather and exchange information is not surprising," Zalmay Khalilzad said. "These tyrants fear truth."
Officials said witnesses recalled a man entering the Park Internet Cafe in the upscale Shahr-e-Naw district on Saturday afternoon and going straight to the restroom. The explosion occurred just after he re-emerged. Quentier identified one of the victims as an employee of the UN Office for Project Services. She said the man was a Myanmar national, but did not release his name. The man had been working on a road project in southern Afghanistan, said Gen. Nazar Mohammed Nekzad, the lead Afghan investigator.
Another of the three victims appeared to be a suicide bomber, because of the severe mutilation of his body, Interior Ministry spokesman Latfullah Mashal said. The third fatality and five people wounded were Afghan customers.
Police detained five people, including the owner of the cafe, for questioning.
Posted by: Steve White ||
05/09/2005 00:00:00 AM ||
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Even the hardy souls who joined the civic polls in Kashmir to foster their political ambitions are now seriously thinking whether or not they took the right decision as death threats have thrown their routine haywire. The threats are not what the elected councilors conjure up, they are for real. The broad daylight murder of Mohammad Ramzan Mian the municipal chairman of north Kashmir Pattan town which also left his three body guards dead has jolted all the elected civic representatives who are now unable to attend to their new responsibility with the focus shifting from politics to survival.
The immediate fallout of Mian's killing had been the en bloc resignation of five councilors from the Pattan municipal committee. So far, more than half a dozen councillors have been killed and reprisal attacks against many continue to take place with impunity. The government here provided one personal security guard each for every elected municipal councilor, but such security arrangements are being described as "highly inadequate" by the elected representatives. "We cannot stick our necks out. Threats are aplenty, but security is scarce. What am I supposed to do when my family continues to live under the lurking danger from the militants," said a woman councilor here who requested not to be named.
The official decision to hold the panchayat elections in the state during the next two months has added to the problems of the elected councilors as the official security focus is now shifting from the municipal councilors to the prospective panchayat representatives. "It is not possible to provide foolproof security to each and every elected municipal councilor keeping in view their large numbers. It was for this reason that we had mooted the idea of providing pooled accommodation to the elected councilors," said a senior police official here. The experience of pooled accommodation for the councilors was that those who had opted for it had not been able to return to their homes for the past 18 years. Some councilors argue that once they moved into pooled accommodation they would not be able to attend to the civic problems of their respective areas in Srinagar and other towns.
Posted by: Fred ||
05/09/2005 00:00 ||
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A car bomb killed two tribesmen on their way to a village near Miranshah on Sunday, said government official Maqsood Hassan. Hassan said the explosion occurred before dawn on a road to Khushali Torikhel. Residents identified one of the victims as Samiullah and said the other man, Madakhel Wazir, was his guest. They were on their way to the village when the explosion occurred, said Hassan. No one had claimed responsibility yet and he said, "We are investigating whether the two men were carrying the bomb in the car or did somebody throw it at them."
"Dang, Samiullah! This road sure is bumpy! I hope this bomb don't go off!"
"Don't worry about it, Madakhel! I got another one in the trunk!"
Local tribesmen often carry rifles and other heavy weapons for security especially when travelling at night. Militants are also active in the region, which borders Afghanistan, and have been blamed for attacks against pro-government tribal elders in the past.
Posted by: Fred ||
05/09/2005 00:00 ||
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#1
Darwin nominees?
Posted by: Frank G ||
05/09/2005 12:09 Comments ||
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KHOST: Allied forces have arrested six people, including two Pakistanis, suspected of being involved in clandestine activities. According to an Afghan news agency, the arrests took place on Sunday in Deganor village, about eight kilometres from Khost. It is learnt that the two Pakistanis arrested were legal residents and had work permits. Local villagers claimed that security forces themselves hid explosives in the house where the arrests were made.
Posted by: Fred ||
05/09/2005 00:00 ||
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#1
Article: It is learnt that the two Pakistanis arrested were legal residents and had work permits.
Pakistanis are looking for work in Afghanistan? This is really sad.
Dealing a new blow to the already troubled peace process, Israeli Premier Ariel Sharon decided on Sunday, May 8, to put plans on releasing 400 Palestinian detainees on hold, drawing an angry rebuke from the Palestinians and Egypt. "We cannot approve any measures that ease the lives of Palestinians so long as they are not doing their part," Israeli daily Haaretz quoted Sharon as telling the weekly cabinet meeting.
The 400 Palestinian detainees were due to have been released as part of an agreement reached with Palestinian President Mahmmoud Abbas (Abu Mazen) at a summit in the Egyptian Red Sea resort of Sharm El-Sheikh three months ago. An Israeli government spokesman claimed Sharon has taken the decision because "Abu Mazen has not taken any action to decapitate the terrorism which is continuing." He told Agence France-Presse (AFP) that "when the Palestinians start to respect the commitments they made at Sharm El-Sheikh we'll do something, but not before". Israeli Finance Minister Benjamin Netanyahu argued it was an inappropriate time to be even thinking of releasing Palestinian detainees.
Posted by: Fred ||
05/09/2005 00:00 ||
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#2
No, Spot. Ya see, when the peas come in **contact** with the Acme peace processer, then, and only then, will they become Whirled Peasâ¢.
Posted by: Alaska Paul ||
05/09/2005 11:22 Comments ||
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#3
Dealing a new blow to the already troubled peace process, Israeli Premier Ariel Sharon decided..
Uht, uht, uht, uht.....How does Sharon "deal a new blow" to the peace process when the Paleos have done little to nothing on their part?? Peace is NOT a one-way street.
ALONE, unsupported, beaten and lost, Australian hostage Douglas Wood is waiting out his last full day before the expiry of the 72-hour deadline laid down by his captors for the withdrawal of Australian forces from Iraq. Manoeuvres and media messages, offers and pleas have come in a flurry, but nothing can change the hard facts of the hostage's plight: Wood is being held by a murky hard-line terror group which is blackmailing the Australian Government with its threat to take his life.
The atmospherics of his captivity have undergone a stark change since he was snatched a week ago. A second video of the hostage, screened on pan-Arabic Al-Jazeera TV early this weekend, showed Wood black-eyed, his fair unruly hair shaved off, making a last appeal. The group holding him insists its demand must be met by a deadline that expires early tomorrow. The consequences of refusal were not spelled out in the video, but they seem all too clear. In a bid to appeal to the humanity of his captors, the hostage's family last night released a poignant email sent by Wood to one of his daughters in July last year. The hope is that the email will show Wood as "an affectionate family man with a genuine interest in Iraq, working there on projects for the benefit of the Iraqi people".
In the email, which breathes with love for his children, Wood reveals that he turned down a construction job in Russia to go to Iraq. "I am doing OK in Baghdad," he writes, "renovating a seven-storey building, but am having difficulty with rheumatoid arthritis, and now my vision is only 10 per cent effective." He discusses his poor health, tells his daughter how green and lush the Tigris Valley looks, and adds, in words that seem especially haunting now: "I am careful about the security arrangements in Baghdad and stay off the streets after dark." Perhaps most tellingly, in a brief aside, Wood refers to the imminent transfer of power from the US-led Coalition Provisional Authority to an Iraqi interim government, and holds out the hope this will improve life in Baghdad. He describes the US troops as an "occupying force" - hardly the language of a convinced ideological servant of the Americans. The Wood family clearly hopes this email will stamp their brother as a humane, feeling and independent-minded man, and prove to his captors that he was not working for a Western government.
#1
This smells bogus!
1)Blackmail only works when the blackmailie accepts the demands of the blackmailers.
2)Why would a company hire and send a man in such"ill-health"to a place like Iraq.
3)If his eye-site is only 10% effective how can he know"how green and lush the Tigris Valley looks...".
#2
Doesn't matter -- it's purpose is to give the hostagetakers a reason to release him.
Posted by: too true ||
05/09/2005 8:13 Comments ||
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#3
The hope is that the email will show Wood as "an affectionate family man with a genuine interest in Iraq, working there on projects for the benefit of the Iraqi people".
Unfortunately the hostage takers are working at cross purposes.
Pakistani intelligence agencies have uncovered Al Qaeda plans targeting President Musharraf, the US and other embassies and high commissions in Pakistan during May and June. Reports given to the Interior Ministry stated that Al Qaeda operatives were planning rocket and car bomb attacks against the president, western and Pakistani targets and other diplomatic missions in Islamabad and provincial capitals, sources told Daily Times. Al Qaeda had hired the services of three people to buy the rockets from the tribal areas, sources added. The reports said Al Qaeda was reportedly hiring people for suicide attacks against the president and western diplomats, sources said.
"Hey, Mahmoud! You up for a suicide attack?"
"Yeah. What's it pay?"
"A thousand bucks, cash-on-delivery."
"Hokay, I'm in."
"I knew I could count on you, Mahmoud. You can pick up your check when you've finished."
Posted by: Fred ||
05/09/2005 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.
A Kuwaiti criminal court sentenced 18 men to three years jail on Sunday for involvement in fighting US-led forces in Iraq. A court official, speaking on condition of anonymity, said another four people were fined up to 1,000 Kuwaiti dinars. Only one of the defendants, 
BAGHDAD, Iraq (AP) - American troops backed by helicopters and war planes launched a major offensive against followers of Iraq's most wanted insurgent, 
Shibir cadre killed in 'crossfire'
Even the hardy souls who joined the civic polls in Kashmir to foster their political ambitions are now seriously thinking whether or not they took the right decision as death threats have thrown their routine haywire. The threats are not what the elected councilors conjure up, they are for real. The broad daylight murder of 
A car bomb killed two tribesmen on their way to a village near 
KHOST: Allied forces have arrested six people, including two Pakistanis, suspected of being involved in clandestine activities. According to an Afghan news agency, the arrests took place on Sunday in Deganor village, about eight kilometres from Khost. It is learnt that the two Pakistanis arrested were legal residents and had work permits. Local villagers claimed that security forces themselves hid explosives in the house where the arrests were made.
Dealing a new blow to the already troubled peace process, Israeli Premier 
ALONE, unsupported, beaten and lost, Australian hostage 
Pakistani intelligence agencies have uncovered Al Qaeda plans targeting President Musharraf, the US and other embassies and high commissions in Pakistan during May and June. Reports given to the Interior Ministry stated that Al Qaeda operatives were planning rocket and car bomb attacks against the president, western and Pakistani targets and other diplomatic missions in Islamabad and provincial capitals, sources told Daily Times. Al Qaeda had hired the services of three people to buy the rockets from the tribal areas, sources added. The reports said Al Qaeda was reportedly hiring people for suicide attacks against the president and western diplomats, sources said. 
