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Al-Oufi dead again
Today's Headlines
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Page 1: WoT Operations
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-Short Attention Span Theater-
Diaper Sparks Bomb Alert in Germany...
Posted by: RG || 08/18/2005 15:45 || Comments || Link || [0 views] Top|| File under:

#1  This story is full of crap
Posted by: Yosemite Sam || 08/18/2005 16:36 Comments || Top||

#2  WMD if ever there was one.
Posted by: MunkarKat || 08/18/2005 16:38 Comments || Top||

#3  "malfunctioning diaper"

You do not want to go there.... ;-p
Posted by: Barbara Skolaut || 08/18/2005 17:25 Comments || Top||

#4  Jeeez, an electronic diaper -- I feel so old.
Posted by: Darrell || 08/18/2005 18:18 Comments || Top||

#5  I don't want to brag but my kids has some really smelly diapers that I know wouldn't get past security today. The parents should keep the article to show before dates and at family reuions.
Posted by: Cyber Sarge || 08/18/2005 18:19 Comments || Top||

#6  Hint: The "12-15 lb." on the box does not refer to capacity.
Posted by: Jackal || 08/18/2005 20:51 Comments || Top||

#7  a friend of ours once referred to one of his kid's diapers as being "in violation of the Geneva Convention."
Posted by: mom || 08/18/2005 20:56 Comments || Top||


Arabia
Breaking: Shootout at the Riyad Corral
Saudi security forces clashed with gunmen north of the capital Riyadh on Thursday, Al Arabiya television reported. The Saudi-owned channel was quoting its correspondent, who said police had cordoned off a district in north Riyadh where they were battling the gunmen.

Earlier this month, Washington closed its diplomatic missions in Saudi Arabia for two days due to an imminent threat against U.S. government buildings in the kingdom. Britain also warned that militants were in the final stages of planning attacks in the kingdom, and Australia said it had received "credible reports" Islamic extremists were planning strikes in the near future.

Followup: Fox News sez the Soddies claim al-Oufi is dead again in the shootout. More as available...

From al-Jizz:
At least two suspected rebels have been killed in a gunfight with Saudi security forces north of the capital Riyadh. Police on Thursday surrounded a house in a district north of Riyadh and exchanged fire with several wanted armed men inside, killing two, a security source said. The gunfight lasted four hours starting 6:00 am (0300 GMT). Saudi Interior Ministry spokesman General Mansur al-Turki confirmed a security operation was taking place in the area. "The police are trying to apprehend one or more individuals who are putting up some resistance," he said, but did not give further details.

Dubai-based Al-Arabiya satellite television had initially said four suspects were killed in the exchange of fire. It later reported the death toll was two, saying another one rebel had been wounded while another was captured. An interior ministry spokesman said "no security force members were wounded". Clashes also erupted between police and suspects in the southwestern holy city of Medina, with security forces detaining an unspecified number of people, the satellite channel said without identifying those held.

al-Qaida Leader in Saudi Arabia Killed
Al-Qaida's leader in Saudi Arabia was killed Thursday during clashes with police in the western city of Medina, the Interior Ministry said. Saleh Mohammed al-Oufi was among six al-Qaida-linked militants reported killed during police raids on numerous locations in that holy city and the capital, Riyadh, Interior Ministry spokesman Mansour al-Turki told The Associated Press.

Additional: In a statement, a senior official at the Interior Ministry said security forces launched a number of early morning attacks in Riyadh and Medina as King Abdullah prepared to make the first official visit of his reign. Abdullah, who is expected to visit Medina later Thursday, assumed the throne of the House of Saud when his father, King Fahd, died earlier this month. The raids targeted suspected al Qaeda hideouts, the statement said, and resulted in a number of arrests as suspects barricaded themselves inside and opened fire.
Six raids resulted in nine arrests, the statement said, and the seventh ended in a gunbattle that left Oufi and another suspect dead. Another suspect was wounded and arrested. A civilian resident and one of the security forces were severely wounded during the shooting, the statement said.
The statement also said they had found scattered body parts after a shootout during a raid in a Riyadh residential area, apparently the result of a bomb. The statement said the bomb may have killed "one or more, which we are still investigating to identify them." A security force member was slightly injured during that gun battle, the statement said, and the forces found "several guns, explosives, documents and money" inside the home when it was over.
Posted by: phil_b || 08/18/2005 02:18 || Comments || Link || [0 views] Top|| File under:

#1  Talking of Riyad, The "Religious Policeman" has popped up again at muttawa.blogspot.com . However he's working in the UK which seems sensible given what is going on.
Posted by: Padraigh || 08/18/2005 6:07 Comments || Top||

#2  It's not over until the Fat Lady takes a curtain call?
Posted by: Seafarious || 08/18/2005 9:46 Comments || Top||

#3  I wonder how many people have that name? It's sort of like the way everyone over there started naming their babies OBL. Maybe one day, we'll catch him! lol.
Posted by: Rosemary || 08/18/2005 10:08 Comments || Top||

#4  Maybe other people have the same name, but this is the only guy in town with an infidel's head in his refrigerator. All the boyz down at the mosque were sooooooo envious!
Posted by: Fred || 08/18/2005 11:44 Comments || Top||

#5  I think I've figured this out! See, if 72 virgins await each and every single jihadi "shaheed," then there must be a catch other than merely becoming a martyr.

Perhaps the proviso is this: You must die TWICE, not just once. So these Jihadis gunned down in Soddy by the Soddies are dead again.

Hell, it's a theory. Where's my morning gin?

Posted by: The Angry Fliegerabwehrkanonen || 08/18/2005 12:13 Comments || Top||

#6  Thanks, Padraigh, for letting us know that the Alhamedi is back.
The gunfight lasted four hours starting 6:00 am .... How convenient for them. They must have waited until after the first daily prayer, Fajr. I wonder if they schedule all gunfights around the daily prayer times.
Posted by: GK || 08/18/2005 13:39 Comments || Top||

#7  Oh yes, the Religious Policeman is back and in fine form too, praise Allan.
Posted by: Seafarious || 08/18/2005 13:50 Comments || Top||

#8  Say what? On re-reading this article I noticed this gem: Abdullah, who is expected to visit Medina later Thursday, assumed the throne of the House of Saud when his father, King Fahd, died earlier this month. Another expert on the Magic Kingdom writes for us, the unwashed.
Posted by: GK || 08/18/2005 15:49 Comments || Top||

#9  brother, dad, kissing cousins.. it doesn't really matter cause it's good to be king.
Posted by: 3dc || 08/18/2005 16:32 Comments || Top||


Caucasus/Russia/Central Asia
One Azeri soldier dies in mine blast
BAKU (KUNA) -- An Azeri soldier was killed and another suffered injuries in a landmine blast in a frontier region with neighboring Armenia, the defense ministry said in a statement on Wednesday. The statement said the incident occurred in the region of Tirtir, adding that this region had witnessed a series of identical incidents in the past, taking lives of troops and Azeri shepherds.
Posted by: Fred || 08/18/2005 09:46 || Comments || Link || [0 views] Top|| File under:

#1  Godspeed.
Posted by: Rosemary || 08/18/2005 10:16 Comments || Top||

#2  uh.
Posted by: MunkarKat || 08/18/2005 13:44 Comments || Top||


Europe
Russian Uranium Seized in Turkey, Dealers Detained
Turkish security forces seized 173 grams of medium-grade uranium from two men arrested in Istanbul. Authorities fear the dangerous substance smuggled from Russia could have landed in the hands of terrorists, Turkish media reported. Two people who were planning to sell the substance in a glass bottle for $7 million were detained. The detainees said that they had smuggled the substance from Russia. Sources in the Turkish security forces noted that the substance had the capacity to meet one-year electricity requirement of New York city of the United States, Turkey’s Anatolia news agency reported.
Meanwhile, Turkish Atomic Energy Agency experts, after examining the substance, said it contained 17 per cent of the U-235 isotope. The remaining 83 per cent is mostly the U-238 isotope which does not contribute directly to the fission process. Uranium found in nature consists largely of two isotopes: U-235 and U-238. The energy production in nuclear reactors is from the “fission” or splitting of the U-235 atoms, a process which releases energy in the form of heat. U-235 is the main fissile isotope of uranium. Under the Treaty on the Non-Proliferation of Nuclear Weapons (NPT) signed also by Turkey, sale, purchase and transportation of any amount of uranium are subject to international restrictions.
The two men, whose identities are not revealed, were detained by police who acted as would-be buyers of the uranium. A spokesman for the Turkish security services said: “The only place where the uranium could eventually land is in the hands of terrorists,” the Itar-Tass news agency reports.
Posted by: Steve || 08/18/2005 09:37 || Comments || Link || [0 views] Top|| File under:

#1  whhhewwww
Posted by: Glinter Ebberenter3959 || 08/18/2005 10:11 Comments || Top||

#2  17 percent is pretty damn rich. They got this one, but I'm sure many, many more have gone through.
Posted by: gromky || 08/18/2005 15:16 Comments || Top||

#3  the substance had the capacity to meet one-year electricity requirement of New York city of the United States, Turkey’s Anatolia news agency reported.
Can we have it? Save us a lot of money on power.
Posted by: plainslow || 08/18/2005 15:48 Comments || Top||

#4  the substance had the capacity to meet one-year electricity requirement of New York city of the United States, Turkey’s Anatolia news agency reported.

Groan. 173 grams at 17% enrichment is equivalent to 9.25 lbs of natural uruanium (.7% U-235), or 208,000 KW-Hours of electricity (1 ton natural uranium will produce 45 million KW-Hours). The average US home uses 1.0 KW. So it is enough for 24 homes for 1 year.
Posted by: ed || 08/18/2005 16:55 Comments || Top||

#5  24 House for 1 year = New York City.

Same reason 25 million for OBL is maybe not workig. 25 million US is an unbelievable number. Promise 10,000 dollars, green card, 12 freshly oiled AK-47s and a bodyguard of close relatives. 32 goats and several high quality rugs.


Posted by: Shipman || 08/18/2005 20:12 Comments || Top||


Man held in Spain over IRA attack
A north Belfast man arrested in Spain is to face extradition proceedings to Germany where he is wanted over an IRA bomb attack almost two decades ago. Leonard Hardy, 44, was arrested at a hotel in the resort of Torremolinos. Spanish police were acting on a warrant issued by the authorities in Germany where he is wanted over an IRA attack on a British army base in 1989. The PSNI has been made aware of developments and said it is monitoring the situation. It is reported Mr Hardy had been under surveillance for days. Reports from Spain said he will be taken to Madrid pending an extradition case.

In 1990, Leonard Hardy was sentenced to five years in prison in the Republic after being caught with explosives getting off a ferry in Rosslaire. It is understood he is being sought for questioning about a bomb attack on the Osnabruck military base. The base was badly damaged in the attack in June 1989, but no-one was injured.
Posted by: Steve || 08/18/2005 09:35 || Comments || Link || [0 views] Top|| File under:

#1  good
Posted by: Phinemble Angolugum2154 || 08/18/2005 20:36 Comments || Top||


Oslo teenager dies 'making bomb'
A 17-year-old has died after explosives he appears to have been trying to make in his Oslo flat detonated. The blast blew out some windows in the block and left the victim's 19-year-old brother injured. Three other friends escaped unhurt. Norwegian police said internet instructions on how to make explosives and some powder were found at the flat. Police are questioning those present but are not reported to think they had links to any extremist groups. Other apartments in the three-storey block were evacuated after the blast. "At the scene we found written instructions on how to make explosives and some powder that the youngsters had mixed," Inspector Vidar Hjulstad told Norwegian public radio NRK. The powder has been sent for analysis.
Posted by: Steve || 08/18/2005 09:32 || Comments || Link || [0 views] Top|| File under:

#1  Question not answered in the BBC coverage:
Was the dumbass a blue eyed lad, first name Olav, or an immigrant living on a stipend provided by the Norwegian government, living in the "Little Karachi" neighborhood named Sead.
Or am I just a facist for feeling there would be a difference in the way I process the information?
Posted by: Capsu 78 || 08/18/2005 9:59 Comments || Top||

#2  if you are, then so am I. Youthful prank gone wrong? Or another in a series of road bumps in jihad? One - I feel a twinge of sympathy, teh otehr, I hope some of their friends caught shrapnel too.
Posted by: Frank G || 08/18/2005 10:03 Comments || Top||

#3  Excellent, Smithers. I see the "bogus explosives recipe on the internet" strategy has snared another victim.
Posted by: Mr. Burns || 08/18/2005 10:09 Comments || Top||

#4  Was the dumbass a blue eyed lad, first name Olav, or an immigrant living on a stipend provided by the Norwegian government, living in the "Little Karachi" neighborhood named Sead.

Looks like great minds think alike:

Police said at a Thursday press conference that the three men present when their homemade bomb detonated were preparing a crime scheme from a recipe downloaded from the Internet. The explosion killed a 17-year-old boy of Syrian origin. He and his 19-year-old brother were awaiting trial on a number of charges of crime for profit, including emptying slot machines.
A 20-year-old friend of the brothers has been charged with illegal handling of explosives and was being questioned on Thursday afternoon. This person is of Pakistani origin, police said. "I will not say if these three have blown up other ticket machines but explosives have been used to this end in this part of the city a few days ago," said police inspector Terje Kristiansen of Oslo police. The deceased teenager had been convicted of over 20 offenses, most committed when under compulsory placement in child welfare institutions in Oslo and Arendal. In his last conviction in June 2004 he was sentenced for 17 car thefts, threats, robbing a store, drug abuse and violence against a civil servant. The status of the 19-year-old is still serious. He suffered face and head injuries and numerous fractures in the blast.
Posted by: Steve || 08/18/2005 10:14 Comments || Top||

#5  Suprised? Survey says .... NOOOOOOoooooooo!
Posted by: MunkarKat || 08/18/2005 10:21 Comments || Top||

#6  I have been praying for this. I want suicide bombers to commit suicide without hurting anyone else. Good job, God! Stupid person, jerk.
Posted by: Rosemary || 08/18/2005 10:21 Comments || Top||

#7  Why yes Rosemary it is a good day when sub-humans only do themselves in..and many more happy returns for our splodydope Islamic friends.
Posted by: Dog, Red || 08/18/2005 10:46 Comments || Top||

#8  including emptying slot machines
Thanks for the link Steve.
Funny little translation here for us Yanks...The slot machines are actually the ticket kiosks for the transit system and are all over the place on Oslo.
Here in the States, "blowing up" a slot machine will get you an audience with Robert Di Niro, Joe Pesci and a baseball bat.
Posted by: Capsu 78 || 08/18/2005 10:55 Comments || Top||

#9  Well, folks, justice is swift and sure, and self-generating---though a bit messy. Let this be a warning call to the Norwegians that they have an infestation of non-assimilating foreigners in their midst. Have to place long odds on that, though.

Thanks to the Army of Steve™ for getting the info on the explodee!
Posted by: Alaska Paul || 08/18/2005 11:27 Comments || Top||

#10 






Posted by: sea cruise || 08/18/2005 11:57 Comments || Top||

#11  Oh, he blowd up reeeeeal good!
Posted by: Rex Mundi || 08/18/2005 13:36 Comments || Top||

#12  Now if we could find a way to get that popular teen choking game recipe up on the Internet Jihad, think of the possibilities:

Hundreds of young Norwegians (snark, snark) have died in recent weeks not from choking their chickens, but their necks.

One last musing: Is this blowed up good dumfart up for a ....drum roll please ... DARWIN AWARD?
Posted by: The Angry Fliegerabwehrkanonen || 08/18/2005 13:53 Comments || Top||

#13  Funny how the original link from BBC didn't mention their ethnicity or country of origin. Maybe the BBC would like to see a worldwide caliphate? Except for the fact that they would be shut down and beheaded as apostates, it would be a pretty good deal for them. I guess I'll be the one to say it out loud, Muslims are becoming a scourge all over the world, and that dog bites the hand that feeds it.
Posted by: bigjim-ky || 08/18/2005 14:06 Comments || Top||

#14  I agree BigJim problem is where from here? Concentration camps? Gulags? Gas Chambers? Believe if I could blink and make the bad ones go away. The fundamental question is how do you make them turn on their own. Just like how do you get American teens to rat out which ones have the drugs, supply the drugs and push the drugs. They won't. The disgrace in their peer group is to high. They'll be labelled a narc or a kiss-ass. Muslims don't want to risk being Apostate. Tough problem. One proposal is if convicted of terror related activities - death - no appeals to 15 years and then the needle. Immediate death by firing squad. Outside of that, I just don't know.
Posted by: Rightwing || 08/18/2005 14:12 Comments || Top||

#15  bigjim-ky:

The problem is not limited to the Jihadi murderers. Ever notice how local news will not mention the race or ethnicity of a suspect unless police request a BOLO with such specifics? I kid you not. There are times here in DC when the local news mentions a crime, a suspect still on the loose and they give you the height, weight, color of clothing and hair, and sex, but guess what's missing???????
Posted by: The Angry Fliegerabwehrkanonen || 08/18/2005 14:16 Comments || Top||

#16  TAF - Thhat's PC at its worst, but I doubt it matters, at least in most places, and particularly in DC.

When the media don't give the race of someone the police are looking for, everyone - including black people - pretty much assume the wanted person is black.

I guess that's not nice, but since they have no problem giving the race if he's white....
Posted by: Barbara Skolaut || 08/18/2005 15:55 Comments || Top||

#17  Oops - hit "submit" too soon. (Note to self: don't hover the mouse over the "submit" button while proofreading entry.)

"Thhat's" obviously should be "That's" and the last line should read "I guess that's not nice, but since they have no problem giving the race if he's white, what are normal people supposed to think....?
Posted by: Barbara Skolaut || 08/18/2005 15:58 Comments || Top||

#18  It's the PC BBC they will never give out the racial group or national origin. They think it's gastly the way the US media gives out detials of crimes. Like it should be secret. They arre always on the perps side until he is caught and in the dock then 75% of the time they still are. I knew at once this was a "asian."
Posted by: Sock Puppet 0’ Doom || 08/18/2005 16:10 Comments || Top||

#19  including emptying slot machines

Bolt cutters dimwits, bolt cutters! Whata bunch of maroons.
Posted by: Blue Eyed Kook || 08/18/2005 16:12 Comments || Top||

#20  Another nail in the coffin of multi-culturalism, keep it up MSM, you're making a dozen new converts every time you publish a story like this.

TAF - what does BOLO mean?
Posted by: Tony (UK) || 08/18/2005 18:11 Comments || Top||

#21  Thank you, sea cruise. I usually post a "Blow'd up good, blow'd up real good" on these stories, but you did me one better.
Posted by: Xbalanke || 08/18/2005 18:27 Comments || Top||

#22  Be On Look Out for....
Posted by: Frank G || 08/18/2005 18:55 Comments || Top||

#23  BOLO Be On (the) Look Out http://www.acronymfinder.com/af-query.asp?String=exact&Acronym=bolo&Find=Find
Posted by: SwissTex || 08/18/2005 19:06 Comments || Top||


Southeast Asia
An update on the Thai Jihad
EFL
The Thai authorities continue to face difficulties in their efforts to bring the activities of the jihadi terrorist elements under control in Southern Thailand. The current wave of jihadi terrorist violence in the three Muslim majority southern provinces, which started in January last year, has already cost over 800 lives of Government servants, innocent civilians and suspected Muslim militants. Like all jihadi terrorist movements, whether in Afghanistan, Iraq, Chechnya or elsewhere, it has already passed through two stages and is presently in its third stage. The first stage saw attacks on the security forces, including village defence elements, partly to demonstrate their mobilisation power and partly to capture arms and ammunition. The second stage saw targeted attacks on individual government servants and teachers and non-governmental elements with the help of the arms and ammunition secured by them during the first stage. The third stage has been seeing increasingly indiscriminate attacks on innocent civilians through the use of hand-held weapons as well as improvised explosive devices (IEDs) and targeted attacks on alleged agents of the police and the security forces and local Muslims perceived as co-operating with the Government. The idea is to create doubts in the minds of the local population about the ability of the Government to protect them.

Their present tactical objectives seem to be to radicalise the local Muslim population, to promote feelings of Islamic solidarity and Islamic consciousness, to create a mental and emotional divide between the Muslims and the non-Muslims, mainly the Buddhists, and to prepare the ground for a sustained jihad. What is their strategic objective--- greater autonomy for the Muslim-majority provinces or an independent Muslim homeland to ultimately form part of an Islamic Caliphate for the whole of South-East Asia? The answer is not clear from the reports emanating frm South Thailand, but in the madrasas and mosques of Bangladesh and Pakistan from where the ideological inspiration and material support for the movement are coming, the strategic objective is projected as an independent Pattani homeland. In Bangladesh and Pakistan, the Thai Muslims are referred to as the Pattanis. The external inspiration has so far been mainly from Bangladesh and Pakistan, the main motivating organisations being the Harkat-ul-Jihad-al-Islami (HUJI), which has a presence both in Bangladesh and Pakistan, and the Lashkar-e-Toiba (LET), which has a presence only in Pakistan and not in Bangladesh.

The extensive media reporting in Pakistan on the presence of foreign students in Pakistani madrasas, which followed the reports of the involvement of three British citizens of Pakistani origin in the London explosions of July 7,2005, has revealed the presence of nearly a thousand Pattanis in the Pakistani madrasas. This has been a surprisingly large number. Till the Pakistani media gave an estimate of the number of Thai students in their madrasas, one was under the impression that the flow of Thai Muslims to the madrasas in Pakistan had considerably declined after the arrest of the brother of Hambali, the operational chief of the Jemaah Islamiya (JI), and some other Indonesians and Malaysians from madrasas in Karachi controlled by the LET and their deportation to their respective countries in 2003. One does not know when the flow of the so-called Pattanis to the Pakistani madrasas was resumed. Even the American intelligence agencies, which have a large presence in Pakistan, seem to have missed the enrollment of such a large number of Thai Muslims in the Pakistani madrasas. Many of these Thai Muslims have enrolled themselves in the madrasas of the North-West Frontier Province (NWFP) and Balochistan, which are the hotbed of the activities of the Taliban and the Wahabi-Deobandi organisations of Pakistan. Some of them have also undergone training in the jihadi training centres of the Taliban and Gulbuddin Heckmatyar's Hizbe Islami (HEI) and have been participating in the current Taliban-HEI-Al Qaeda offensive in Afghanistan from sanctuaries in the NWFP and Balochistan.

While there are reports of a creeping Arabisation of sections of the Muslim youth of Southern Thailand, similar to what one had seen in Indonesia, there are as yet no trends which could be described as the possible Talibanisation of the youth. Recent developments such as the orders by the Muslim militants to all commercial and other establishments to close down on Fridays and even Thursdays are indicative of a greater radicalisation, but not necessarily of Talibanisation. The two most important characteristics of Talibanisation are attacks on places of entertainment such as movie halls and video parlours, and radio and TV stations and greater restrictions on the personal lives of women. One has not seen reports of any such trends in Southern Thailand so far. There has been considerable fraternisation of the Thai Muslims in Pakistan with the Taliban, the HEI and the remnants of the Al Qaeda. While this has strengthened their motivation and feelings of Islamic solidarity, this influence has not led to the Thai Muslims doing a copycat of the mass casualty reprisal terrorism of the Al Qaeda brand in Southern Thailand. The Al Qaeda's main strategic interest in cultivating the Thai Muslims and helping them is in using them for possible acts of maritime terrorism in the Malacca Straits. The importance of the Malacca Straits from the point of view of the global jihad is one of the lessons taught in the madrasas and jihadi training centres of Pakistan.

From the reports available so far from Southern Thailand as well as Bangladesh and Pakistan, it has not been possible to establish the identity of the organisation behind the current jihad in Southern Thailand. Is it the Pattani United Liberation Organisation or is there a new organisation behind it? The prestigious "Daily Times" of Lahore has reported that the decision to launch a jihad in Southern Thailand was taken at a meeting of the jihadi leaders held in Lahore, but it has not indicated when this meeting was held and who attended it. There is still a window of opportunity for the Thai authorities to dilute the feelings of alienation in the Muslim population so that their support could be enlisted in the counter-terrorism operations. The difficulties for the Thai authorities are likely to multiply when the Thai Muslims presently in Pakistan and Bangladesh start returning. They have to tone up their counter-terrorism set-up and policies without any further delay.
Posted by: Paul Moloney || 08/18/2005 00:43 || Comments || Link || [0 views] Top|| File under:


Israel-Palestine
77 injured in Kfar Darom clash, evacuation completed
Seventy-seven people were injured, two moderately, during clashes on the rooftop of the Kfar Darom synagogue, which was overcome on Thursday night.

Sixty-six soldiers and police officers and 11 right right wing activists were taken to Soroka Medical Center in Beersheba. The majority of them were released from hospital after receiving a brief treatment.

Police said that about 120 demonstrators were arrested in Kfar Darom.

OC Southern Command Maj.-Gen. Dan Harel accused the protesters of using acid in an attempt to deter the forces from reaching the rooftop.

Police Inspector General Moshe Karadi was furious after the violent clash, which left some of his subordinates with light injuries sustained from acid. "We will prosecute each and every one of them," he vowed.

Karadi said the security forces' patience had worn thin after the display of violence at Kfar Darom. After two days of gentle persuasion, "from the moment when the dialogue ended, restraint also ended."

National Religious Party MK Shaul Yahalom slammed the behavior of the youth saying that it "shamed religious Zionism and the kippot on their heads."

Yahalom said that the NRP distanced itself from this action, and that these youth were "wild weeds" on the fringes of the national religious camp and do not represent it and only cause it harm.

On the Synagogue's roof, Col. (res) Moshe Leshem told The Jerusalem Post that "we're learning our lessons on how to fight this struggle and you can be certain to see them in Netzarim, [West Bank settlements] Sanur and Homesh.

The activists seemed to anticipate every police tactic. Some of them stole motor oil from the Kfar Darom military base to cause police and soldiers scaling ladders to slip. They prepared Y-shaped pikes to shove away the steel cages and used doors hauled up to the rooftop as shields against water canon.

By late Thursday night all Kfar Darom's residents had either been loaded onto buses or reached arrangements with the IDF to leave with their belongings. Residents and activists spent much of the day haranguing soldiers, beseeching them to disobey their orders.

After four failed tries a force of Israel's Swat Team both scaled the roof in ladders and landed in steel shipping containers fashioned into portable cages.

Kfar Darom's Rabbi Gabi Shreiber ruled that there was to be no violence. And after the Swat Team stormed the rooftop, the activists resisted only passively.

The unarmed Swat members elbowed their way into the thick of the crowd, as activists sprayed them with insulating foam. They wrestled in the 2-inch deep muck that accumulated on the roof – a combination of blue water, motor oil, acid and mashed onions.

It took the police several hours to convince, shove, and tug the 150 people on the roof – women among them – to depart on cages that shuttled up and down the building.

For the better part of the afternoon, activists pelted police and army forces with eggs, paint bombs, even watermelon and potatoes they had stored on the roof.

The military fought back, as a Psy-Op unit reiterated that all was lost and that even Neveh Dekalim had succumbed to one of Israel's largest military operations.

More gut wrenching for the evacuating troops was the removal of settlers from their homes. "Just rape us," screamed Orly Manovich into the face of a soldier standing guard near her sister-in-law's house, "I am sure if you got an order to do that you would do it too."

Soldiers all over the community huddled to cry together or marched off, hat concealing their face for a private sob

more at the link. what is shameful and outrageous is that most of these actions come from west bankers who moved in for the action
Posted by: leader of the pack || 08/18/2005 19:21 || Comments || Link || [0 views] Top|| File under:

#1  These outside(west bank) folks are mostly followers of banned sect founded by a certain NYC "rabbi". They get no sympathy from me. Israel can return to her 1967 borders. Once she does she will not have to exercise restraint when attacks from the Paleos come.
Posted by: Sock Puppet 0’ Doom || 08/18/2005 19:42 Comments || Top||

#2  Restraint? Counter-fire at will with the biggest things you have, Ariel.
Posted by: Frank G || 08/18/2005 20:01 Comments || Top||

#3  LGF has reports that the acid claim is flase.
Posted by: Scooter McGruder || 08/18/2005 20:11 Comments || Top||

#4  That claim might be false makes a difference? Not to me. Did you see the images of sand and oil being dumped on the cops in hopes it would get in someones eyes? I did. I also saw clear fluids being dumped on them that could have well been acid. These folks are radicals and as bad as some Paleos are in my eyes.
Posted by: Sock Puppet 0’ Doom || 08/18/2005 20:23 Comments || Top||

#5  That job that the Israeli soldiers did was probably one of the toughest and gut-wrenching that they ever did. They did their best in doing their duty. I feel sorry for the settlers that had to leave, but my heart goes out to the soldiers that had to do this job with as much restraint as they could muster.
Posted by: Alaska Paul || 08/18/2005 22:41 Comments || Top||

#6  Amen AP - The soldiers did a professional job in the face of the worst emotional and religious provocation. I have NO DOUBT that 105% of the Paleo security forces would fail the same test, with MSM excuses and enabling
Posted by: Frank G || 08/18/2005 22:56 Comments || Top||


Afghanistan/South Asia
Pakistan says has arrested senior Taleban figure
PESHAWAR, Pakistan - Pakistan has arrested a purported senior figure in the Taleban militia near the border with Afghanistan, officials said on Thursday. An intelligence official said Ustad Mohammed Yasir was arrested last week along with another man near the northwestern town of Nowshera. Interior Minister Aftab Khan Sherpao confirmed the arrest but did not give any details.
"I can say no more"
The intelligence official said Yasir had been a spokesman for fugitive Taleban supreme leader Mullah Omar after the ouster of the hardline regime in late 2001.
Guess he'll be looking for another mouthpiece
However, Yasir was not a ranking Taleban member during its rule, although he had served on a prominent council of Islamic clerics at that time.
Never got to be a #3. Don't they have an 'up or out' policy in the Taliban?
The intelligence official said that Yasir, in his 50s, was previously a close aide of an Afghan Islamist faction leader, Abdul Rasul Sayyaf, but joined the Taleban rebels after Sayyaf decided to back U.S.-supported Afghan President Hamid Karzai.
Posted by: Steve || 08/18/2005 15:19 || Comments || Link || [0 views] Top|| File under:

#1  Probably a smart move by Abdul.
Posted by: bigjim-ky || 08/18/2005 16:20 Comments || Top||

#2  When do the arrest the ISI Taleban movers and shakers?
Posted by: 3dc || 08/18/2005 16:35 Comments || Top||

#3  Pakistan: liars. Pay no heed.
Posted by: Mark Z. || 08/18/2005 21:37 Comments || Top||

#4  "but joined the Taleban rebels after Sayyaf decided to back U.S.-supported Afghan President Hamid Karzai."

Sayyaf: "I'm just an old wrinkled rebel, come'on really, what am I going to do with 72 hot virgins? No thanks, I won't join you. I just want to live a few more years. Besides, they won't be virgins after I get through with them, so I don't mind waiting"
Posted by: Poison Reverse || 08/18/2005 21:50 Comments || Top||


Africa: North
Morocco detains 131 Islamic terror suspects
In a major sweep for extremists, Morocco has detained 131 suspected Islamic terrorists, judicial officials said. Those arrested were identified as members of Salafia Jihadia, an Islamic militant group believed linked to Al Qaida that was blamed for deadly attacks in Casablanca in 2003. The Rabat public prosecutor's office said in a statement late on Tuesday that six of the suspects were arrested in Algeria and turned over to Moroccan authorities. More raids followed, leading to the detention of seven others in the Moroccan city of Sale, near Rabat. Moroccan newspapers said the sweep took place last month. In Algeria, the six allegedly received military training from Algeria's Salafist Group for Call and Combat, known as GSPC, which has declared allegiance to Al Qaida. Mustapha El Khayri, believed to be the head of a nascent terrorist cell, was among those detained in Algeria. The suspects, aged 18 to 31, are accused of possession of weapons, theft and forming a group to prepare and commit terrorist acts in Morocco.
Posted by: Seafarious || 08/18/2005 15:15 || Comments || Link || [0 views] Top|| File under:

#1  Good, you have pin-pointed the problem. Step 2 is hang the bastards.
Posted by: bigjim-ky || 08/18/2005 16:16 Comments || Top||


Israel-Palestine
Former AIPAC officials plead not guilty in secrets case
Posted by: DepotGuy || 08/18/2005 11:56 || Comments || Link || [0 views] Top|| File under:


Iraq-Jordan
Iraqi Good News Last Week
Ya gotta admit, some of this stuff IS boring....
Posted by: Bobby || 08/18/2005 12:28 || Comments || Link || [0 views] Top|| File under:


Africa: North
Algerian troops kill 10 gunmen
ALGIERS, Algeria, Aug. 18 (UPI) -- Algerian troops attacked hideouts of Muslim extremists in eastern Algeria, killing at least 10 suspected militants, reports said Thursday. French-language daily L'expression quoted sources as saying that the operation started Tuesday in the Wadi Annab region where troops conducted large-scale searches for gunmen belonging to the Salafi Organization for Daawa and Fighting.

The sources said the army was tipped by a gunman captured last week about the hideout where 30 extremists were believed to be hiding. The army dropped bombs on one of the positions killing at least 10 gunmen, the sources said, adding that the operation continued.
Posted by: Steve || 08/18/2005 12:28 || Comments || Link || [0 views] Top|| File under:

#1  Ten less ... ah, a good day.
Posted by: The Angry Fliegerabwehrkanonen || 08/18/2005 14:17 Comments || Top||


Afghanistan/South Asia
The Islamic Bomblets of Bangladesh
August 18, 2005: Bangladesh witnessed a unique form of Islamic violence on August 17th, when over 200 small bombs went off, within minutes of each other, all over the country, killing two people and wounding over a hundred. No one took credit for the attack, but at the scene of many of the bombings, police found leaflets from the banned (last February) Islamic radical group Jamaat-ul-Mujahideen. Police have arrested nearly a hundred Islamic militants, as suspects, so far. The police had received information about such a mass bombing, that was supposed to take place in mid August, but did not take it seriously. No one believed that any Islamic terror group could pull off such a widespread and well coordinated operation. They do now, and people are scared.

The bombs were placed in the street, in front of government buildings, train stations and commercial enterprises (including market places). The placement, and small size of the explosives, appeared aimed at causing panic, not mass murder. There have been some 400 similar bombings since 1999, mostly unclaimed and low powered. But never have there been so many bombs going off at once. Bangladesh has long history of political violence, mostly in the form of violent demonstrations. These are in the name of democratic parties contending for votes. But Islamic radical groups like Jamaat-ul-Mujahideen are advocating the establishment of an Islamic Republic in Bangladesh, and throughout the world.

Five unexploded bombs were recovered. All used a battery powered timer, attached to a small quantity of explosives (think several large firecrackers tied together.) Many were contained in small paper bags, and witnesses remember seeing young men leave them behind shortly before they went off.

The current government of is a coalition, which contains several Islamic conservative parties, and is seen as reluctant to crack down on the growing number of Islamic militant groups. This may change now, as this mass bombing certainly terrorized a large number of people. The current mayhem in Iraq, with hundreds of civilians killed by Islamic terrorists each month, is widely publicized in Bangladesh by the Islamic media. This violence has horrified people, and discredited Islamic extremists.

Despite the violence, the democracy in Bangladesh works. Despite the Islamic conservatives in the current government, there are crack downs on Moslem schools that teach intolerance towards the ten percent of the country's 141 million citizens who are not Moslem (most of these are Hindu). Culturally, Bangladesh is closer to Indonesia than Pakistan. This means that the Islam is less radical to begin with, and Islamic radicals stand out more starkly in a country that is less tolerant of extremism. But the Islamic radicals do have a following. Bangladesh is a poor, corrupt country, and the Islamic radicals promise clean government and public safety. It remains to be seen if these promises can outweigh the distaste for Islamic terrorism.
Posted by: Steve || 08/18/2005 10:22 || Comments || Link || [0 views] Top|| File under:

#1  Strategypage doesn't acknowledge the ethnic cleansing that has taken place in Bangladesh since 1970. At that time about 30% of the population was non-Muslim. They have gradually been choked, beaten down, abused, oppressed, etc.

He also doesn't acknowledge the continuing oppression of the Ahmadiyas (who consider themselves Muslim but who aren't considered so by the Sunnis). This oppression has had, on occasion, govt. support.
Posted by: mhw || 08/18/2005 10:43 Comments || Top||

#2  At independence, Pakistan was 18% Hindu. Now it is less than 1%. Is their a pattern I detect?
Posted by: ed || 08/18/2005 11:08 Comments || Top||

#3  The lands that make up Egypt, Syria, Turkey, Lebanon, Libyia, Morocco, etc. were once majority Christian.

Yeah, there's a pattern.
Posted by: Robert Crawford || 08/18/2005 12:53 Comments || Top||

#4  First the Sihks, Christians and Hindus, then the Ahymaddis.
The Shia will be next.
It will then be the turn of the Barelvi Sunnis.
Only the rabid Deobandis and Wahhabis will remain in the Lands of the Pure.


Posted by: john || 08/18/2005 13:23 Comments || Top||


Iraq-Jordan
Four suspects held in connection of Wednesday's deadly bombs in Iraq
BAGHDAD (KUNA) -- Iraqi Interior Minister Bayan Baqer Jabr said Wednesday that four people were caught in the vicinity of the three major bombs that were detonated in Baghdad and killed close to 75 people while injuring 95. Among the dead were 20 women and five members of the Iraqi police while the injured included dozens of women and 11 policemen. The four suspects had remote controls that could have been used in detonating the bombs. "The suspects are still being questioned," the minister said in a news statement.

A committee has been formed to investigate the circumstances of the entry of small cars to the Nahda bus station, where one of the attacks took place. Iraqi Presidential Spokesman, Kamram Qaradaghi, had condemned the attacks and so did a spokesman for the Iraqi government, Laith Kubba. For his part, newly-appointed British Ambassador to Iraq, William Patey, deplored the attacks in a talks show Wednesday. "I don't think what is required is more troops, more coalition troops. This is going to take a sustained effort; I think we have seen a short term increase in terrorist activity. We think the trend over last few months has been relatively stable, we see a consistent level of attacks, with some days worse than others," he said about the escalation of violence.
Posted by: Fred || 08/18/2005 09:27 || Comments || Link || [0 views] Top|| File under:

#1  I do hope they've been Mirandized ...
Posted by: Ebbager Unort9150 || 08/18/2005 13:16 Comments || Top||

#2  Yea, they got the right to be tortured in silence.
Posted by: Captain America || 08/18/2005 19:29 Comments || Top||

#3  3/8" drillbits in those new Craftsman cordless drills we sent over to build a better Iraq
Posted by: Frank G || 08/18/2005 19:56 Comments || Top||


Afghanistan/South Asia
Deported Cleric, his son arrive back home from the US
ISLAMABAD (KUNA) -- A Pakistani Islamic cleric and his son, deported from the United States for violating their visa terms, arrived back home late on Wednesday escorted by the US Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) officers, sources said. Mohammad Adil Khan, 47, and his son Mohammad Hassan Adil, 19, arrived back home from Toronto in eastern Lahore city, about 370 kilometers from here, airport security sources told KUNA. They said they were taken into custody by Law-Enforcement Agencies (LEA) immediately after their arrival for further interrogation.

According to the ICE press release, posted on its website, the deportation of the cleric and his son followed an immigration hearing July 15 in which the pair announced they were abandoning their legal fight to remain in the United States and would return to their native country. Kahn and Adil were taken into custody by ICE on June 6 for violating the terms of their visas, said the release. Khan is a citizen of Pakistan and a trained Muslim cleric, the release said, adding that he first entered the United States in April 2001 to perform religious services at the Lodi Muslim Mosque near Sacramento. A second cleric who was arrested on immigration violations in connection with the same investigation, Shabbir Ahmed, is also to arrive back home next week, said sources.
ADDITIONAL: LAHORE, Pakistan - Pakistan has started questioning a Muslim cleric and his son who were deported from the United States on immigration charges earlier this week after the father was accused of having terrorist links, the interior minister said on Thursday. Muhammad Adil Khan and his son, Muhammad Hassan Adil Khan, arrived late on Wednesday in the eastern city of Lahore after being deported on Monday from Lodi, California.

Intelligence agents were interrogating the two men, who resisted arrest on returning to Pakistan, at an undisclosed location in Lahore, one agent said on condition of anonymity, as he is not authorized to speak to the media. Interior Minister Aftab Khan Sherpao confirmed that the men had returned to Pakistan, and said the “process” of questioning them had begun.
"Ahmed, the Number Seven truncheon, please. Only the best for our guests from America."
The elder Khan was among five men arrested at a Lodi mosque in June after US authorities infiltrated the local Pakistani community and secretly recorded dozens of conversations over three years. The Khans and another Pakistani cleric, Shabbir Ahmed, agreed to be deported by not contesting US immigration charges.

An FBI agent had testified that Ahmed was acting as an intermediary for Osama bin Laden and other terrorists. The agent refused to testify whether Ahmed was a member of a terror group, saying that information was classified. Another FBI agent testified that Khan got orders from Jalaluddin Hoqqani, a Taleban commander tied to bin Laden and passed them to Ahmed. The agent provided few details of the training camp that was alleged to be part of a planned religious school in Lodi, but said “individuals would be taught ... to commit acts of violence against the US
Posted by: Fred || 08/18/2005 09:09 || Comments || Link || [0 views] Top|| File under:

#1  Shame they weren't booked on a Venezualen or Cypriot jet.
Posted by: JerseyMike || 08/18/2005 9:35 Comments || Top||

#2  Or a Russian sub.
Posted by: BH || 08/18/2005 9:48 Comments || Top||

#3  They should not have been deported, instead they should have been brought before a firing squad. Their purpose in America (along with the elder Adil's protege Shabbir Ahmed) was to establish madrassas to recruit muslims for jihad in America, just as they did in Pakistan for jihad in Afghanistan.
Posted by: ed || 08/18/2005 10:17 Comments || Top||

#4  Good riddance. Now tell us who the rest of them are!
Posted by: Rosemary || 08/18/2005 10:38 Comments || Top||

#5  PS. I agree with above comments. All of them!
Posted by: Rosemary || 08/18/2005 10:39 Comments || Top||

#6  Sometime around 3am, they will both be taken to recover their arms caches. Of course, their fellow gang members will open fire and the poor dears will be "crossfired". Several round of bullet and shutterguns will be recovered.
Posted by: sparks || 08/18/2005 14:51 Comments || Top||

#7  More likely they'll be turned over to the ISI for debriefing and perhaps promotion.
Posted by: Shipman || 08/18/2005 16:04 Comments || Top||

#8  Roger, roger Shipman. I'll go with you. It's a debreifing session and window dressing. I want to know why we don't prosecute and deport instead? I think this is a loosing deal. These guy are heros now.
Posted by: Sock Puppet 0’ Doom || 08/18/2005 16:17 Comments || Top||


Bangladeshi Police Question 50 Detainees
Police questioned about 50 people in connection with a series of more than 100 explosions that shook nearly every major city in Bangladesh, killing two people and wounding at least 125. The homemade bombs _ many packed only with sawdust and planted outside government offices or courthouses _ were apparently intended to cause limited damage, authorities said. "We are working hard and our investigation is moving positively," Dhaka Metropolitan police official Mohammed Mazharul told The Associated Press. "We are adequately alert and have put necessary security measures in the capital."

Fifty suspects were arrested on Wednesday hours after the near-simultaneous bombings rocked the country, state news agency Bangladesh Sangbad Sangstha reported. A bicycle-rickshaw driver and a 10-year-old boy were killed in separate blasts, and at least 125 people were injured. Most of the wounded were believed to have suffered minor burns, the Bangladesh Sangbad Sangstha said. No claims of responsibility were made, but leaflets from a banned Islamic group — the Jumatul Mujahedin — were found at the scene of all the explosions, officials said. The group wants to establish an Islamic state in Bangladesh, an overwhelmingly Muslim nation governed by secular laws.
Posted by: Fred || 08/18/2005 09:03 || Comments || Link || [0 views] Top|| File under:

#1  WHat's the RAB up to? I'd love to find out.
Posted by: WhiteCollarRedneck || 08/18/2005 11:51 Comments || Top||


Two U.S. Soldiers Killed in Afghanistan
A roadside bomb explosion in southern Afghanistan on Thursday killed two U.S. soldiers and wounded two, the U.S. military said. The soldiers were traveling in an armored vehicle north of Kandahar, part of a convoy supporting a road construction project, the U.S. military said in a statement. The two wounded soldiers were evacuated to Kandahar Airfield for medical treatment. Both were in stable condition, the statement said.
Posted by: Fred || 08/18/2005 9:05:04 AM || Comments || Link || [0 views] Top|| File under:


Iraq-Jordan
After Bombs Kill 43 in Baghdad, Broadcasters Air Citizens' Frustration
hat tip Lucianne
In the hours after a triple car bombing in the Iraqi capital Wednesday, state television broadcast a montage of faces of random children -- some appearing solemn, some smiling, some slyly glancing up at the camera. In the background, mournful music swelled, and the faces gave way to the bright flash of a car bomb, shown in slow motion.

"They were young but were turned to pieces of flesh," the singers lamented, as the network then broadcast footage of previous attacks showing limp children, wailing men and distraught women dressed in black abayas pushing through crowds. "Oh, oh Iraq, the land of bloodshed."

The deaths of at least 43 Iraqis in the three car bombings Wednesday brought an outpouring of grief and anger rarely shown on state television, as broadcasts for the first time focused solely on the violence and call-in shows allowed citizens to voice their sorrow and frustration. The attacks targeted a police station, a crowded bus terminal and a hospital where many of the victims had been taken. Most of the victims were civilians.

"When will Iraqi blood stop being spilled?" asked a caller identified only as Um Hassan, or Mother of Hassan. As she spoke, the footage from the bombings hours earlier showed a man raising the arm of a lifeless boy.

The killings were among 54 reported across the country Wednesday, including the deaths of two U.S. soldiers in separate attacks.

In Baghdad, weeping families drove away from morgues with the coffins of loved ones killed in the blasts strapped to the rooftops of their cars. Other families searched burned hulks of buses for signs of the missing. As Iraqiya TV broadcast the scene, angry, weeping callers dialed in to the station, using the country's now ubiquitous cell phones. Call-waiting signals beeped on-air through their sobs. Martial footage of Iraq's new military and music videos of past bombings played throughout the day.

Coming in the middle of high-stakes talks among Shiite Arab, Sunni Arab and Kurdish leaders over the country's new constitution, reaction to the bombings quickly became politicized.

"We put responsibility on the occupation forces," Jaleel Musawi, a spokesman for Moqtada Sadr, a rebellious Shiite cleric and political leader, said in a statement. It accused U.S.-led forces of failing to turn over full intelligence responsibility to Iraqi forces and for allowing detained insurgents to go free.

The Iraq Islamic Party, representing the mainstream of the Sunni minority from which many insurgents are drawn, condemned the bombings, as did Air Force Gen. Richard B. Myers, chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, who was in Baghdad to review the U.S.-led effort to quell the revolt against the U.S. presence and the government it supports.

The bombings targeted a neighborhood in eastern Baghdad where an open-air bus terminal is located, a place where crowds gather to travel to and from the predominantly Shiite south.

Witnesses said the bombs went off in the space of a half-hour. The first, a suicide car bomb, went off outside a police station across the street from the bus terminal, witnesses said.

Ten minutes later, another suicide attacker drove a car into the terminal and blew it up, according to Capt. Ibaa Abdul Hakim of the Iraqi army. Most of the deaths occurred there, Hakim said.

As policemen and bystanders scrambled to take the dead and wounded to Kindi hospital, only 200 yards away, a third car loaded with explosives detonated along the curb near the hospital's side entrance, Hakim said. The fatalities there included people wounded in the first two bombings.

"This was a well-concerted, triple-bomb attack," Hakim said.

Space in the morgue soon ran out, and emergency workers lined up corpses on the ground. When no more sheets were available to cover the dead, workers split open cardboard boxes and placed them over bodies in pools of gelling blood or dangling from gurneys.

"This is the most cowardly attack anywhere," Kassim Abdul Hadi, 47, a teacher who was traveling by bus to Baghdad on Wednesday, said from the hospital where he was being treated for wounds to his leg and abdomen. "Do they call this holy war, killing civilians in a bus terminal? They are simply criminals."

Passengers speculated that the terminal was targeted because it served mostly Shiite passengers.

"But how can we stop these attacks?" asked a woman who identified herself as Um Karim, a passenger in a bus that had just turned out of the terminal onto a main street when the third bomb exploded. "We have a saying in Arabic: 'It's hard to catch the thief if he is a member of the family.' That's our predicament."

A separate bombing in the heavily Sunni city of Fallujah killed three people, including two children, news agencies reported.

Near the northern city of Kirkuk, gunmen killed six military recruits, all cousins, authorities said.

The U.S. military reported the deaths of two soldiers. One was killed Tuesday when a roadside bomb exploded near his patrol in Baghdad. The other was hit by insurgent gunfire Monday in northern Iraq.

The bombings in Baghdad were the deadliest in weeks, and the first resulting in high casualties in days, after five months in which attacks killed thousands.

Baghdad residents, accustomed to endless cycles of attacks and lulls, had been nervously expecting a surge of bombings timed to coincide with the last stages of negotiations to craft a constitution. On Wednesday, the waiting ended.

State television for the first time cleared the day's programming and devoted morning and afternoon airtime solely to footage of the day's victims and rescue efforts, to new videos of mourning and violence, and to the call-in shows. A black band signifying mourning sliced across one corner of the screen throughout the day.

With the heat, fuel rationing and violence keeping many Iraqis off the streets this summer, the programming found a rapt and responsive audience. "These men that kill 100, 50 and 70 men a day -- have they been put to death?" a caller who identified himself as Abu Abbas asked. "How many have been put to death? How many? The National Assembly is supposed to represent the Iraqi people. All I hear is we will do this and we will do that."

Later in the day, the network interrupted the program to broadcast the arrest of four suspects in the bombings. The suspects were found with remote-control triggering devices and other materials, according to the government.

At one point during the broadcast, the anchorman sought to reassure viewers that the haggling of the parallel political talks was constructive. "It is a dialogue. They did not pull out guns and shoot each other," he said of Iraq's politicians.

At times, the state-televised outpouring of emotions seemed aimed at the country's Shiite majority, now the dominant political force. The song bewailing the killing of children closed with a mention of the 680 killing of the prophet Muhammad's grandson, Hussein, on the plains of Karbala in southern Iraq, commemorated each year in a traditional Shiite holiday of grief. "By what right are they slaughtered?" the singers asked. "All the wounds gathered in my country. Oh, every day we have Karbala."
Posted by: .com || 08/18/2005 03:56 || Comments || Link || [0 views] Top|| File under:

#1  "We have a saying in Arabic: 'It's hard to catch the thief if he is a member of the family.' That's our predicament."

Well one has to look at who gasins by these attacks? If you do that you have to look towards Iran as well as at Sunni terrorists. You also have to look a Tater and his tots.
Posted by: Sock Puppet 0’ Doom || 08/18/2005 6:28 Comments || Top||

#2  "When will Iraqi blood stop being spilled?"
When you stop it.
Posted by: plainslow || 08/18/2005 9:01 Comments || Top||

#3  We have a saying in Arabic: 'It's hard to catch the thief if he is a member of the family.' That's our predicament."
-----------------
Well said Um Karin. The family is Islam. The victims are muslims.
Posted by: mhw || 08/18/2005 10:24 Comments || Top||

#4  "We have a saying in Arabic: 'It's hard to catch the thief if he is a member of the family.' That's our predicament."

Time to make a choice: is it going to be family, or law and order?
Posted by: Bomb-a-rama || 08/18/2005 14:25 Comments || Top||

#5  Bomb-a-roma is right. They have to help themselves.
Posted by: plainslow || 08/18/2005 14:49 Comments || Top||

#6  Bomba-a-Roma

Noooooooooooooooooooo!
Posted by: Chef Boyardee || 08/18/2005 16:13 Comments || Top||

#7  Other than the Tater Tot nitwit, it struck me that these comments are basically universal. Were the same thing happening almost anywhere else and street interviews conducted - the comments would surely be almost identical. Sure, they must actively help the authorities (or act themselves) if they want the attacks to stop, but I believe some do - just not enough. Particularly interesting, to me, were those who blame the Govt for not doing enough / stopping the attacks. How familiar.

It's difficult to state strongly enough how rare true individualism and self-reliance are. The brass to act, without official sanction, whether in self-defense or defense of those who are unable is apparently rare. We (the US) have obvious examples, The Minutemen being a recent but instant classic, that indicates we have a healthy percentage of these individuals. We are fortunate, indeed.
Posted by: .com || 08/18/2005 19:04 Comments || Top||

#8  Very good .com. Wish they (The Iraq people), could understand what you said. You were so right with the mention of the minuteman and all.
Posted by: plainslow || 08/18/2005 23:37 Comments || Top||


700 More Troops to Be Sent To Iraq
Responding to an appeal for more forces in Iraq to help manage a rising number of detainees, the Pentagon is dispatching an additional 700 troops from the 82nd Airborne Division, defense officials said yesterday. The previously unscheduled deployment is intended specifically to bolster prison operations, the officials said. It is not part of a temporary increase in U.S. troop levels in Iraq that commanders have said is likely to enhance security for a planned constitutional referendum in October and governmental elections in December. "The basic fact driving this deployment is the steady rise in the prison population," said Lt. Col. Barry Venable, a Pentagon spokesman. "There need to be some additional resources devoted to this."

The number of prisoners held in U.S. military detention centers in Iraq has more than doubled since the autumn, climbing from 5,400 in September to more than 10,800 now, according to the latest Pentagon figures. The surge has filled existing prisons to capacity and prompted commanders to embark on an unanticipated prison expansion plan. Military officials have attributed the influx of detainees to intensified counterinsurgency operations by Iraqi as well as U.S. forces. But the burgeoning prison population also appears to reflect the persistence of the insurgency itself.
Also means less catch-and-release.
A formal request for more security forces came in May, officials said, and approval was granted last month. An announcement by the 82nd Airborne Division's headquarters at Fort Bragg, N.C., on Monday saying that the 1st battalion, 504th Parachute Infantry Regiment, will be going to Iraq contained no information about the unit's mission. Pentagon officials said the unit will not necessarily provide prison guards but rather engage in a number of detention-related operations, such as securing the area around a prison compound or transporting detainees from one prison to another. "They're going to assist however they're needed," Venable said. "But it's best to think of them as a security force, not as prison guards, although some things they might do could bring them into proximity with prisoners."

The U.S. military runs three main detention centers in Iraq: Camp Bucca in the south and Abu Ghraib and Camp Cropper in the Baghdad area. But anticipating a continued influx of detainees, a fourth prison, called Fort Suse, is being built on the site of a Russian-built former Iraqi military barracks near the northern city of Sulaymaniyah. Defense Secretary Donald H. Rumsfeld, during a visit to Iraq last month, expressed interest in handing responsibility for detainees to Iraqi authorities "as soon as is feasible." But no date has been set for such a transfer.
Posted by: Steve White || 08/18/2005 01:05 || Comments || Link || [0 views] Top|| File under:

#1  It must be driving up demand for women's panties. And with the Olympics rapidly approaching, the human pig pile could be approved as a new event.
Posted by: Captain America || 08/18/2005 2:43 Comments || Top||

#2  It always amazes me how blantantly antiwar the WaPo is. Every article of this nature has a blazen section at right featuring "Military Fatalities"
Posted by: Captain America || 08/18/2005 2:45 Comments || Top||

#3  Military officials have attributed the influx of detainees to intensified counterinsurgency operations by Iraqi as well as U.S. forces. But the burgeoning prison population also appears to reflect the persistence of the insurgency itself.

This is the *same exact line* they use when trying to explain US crime figures -- they never can quite figure out that locking up people makes it difficult for them to victimize innocent people.
Posted by: Robert Crawford || 08/18/2005 7:37 Comments || Top||

#4  ya know I tend to believe yesterday's asertion(think it was yesterday)that these additional troops are for a unit that wiil be used exclusivly for anti-terr ops.Using the 82nd as prision gaurds...I don't think so!How can these WaPo wankers stand the smell,that has to be the nastest colin on the planet.
Posted by: raptor || 08/18/2005 7:44 Comments || Top||

#5  At the end of the op they will hav e taken a lot of p[risoners who will need to be guarded. The WaPo was just giving us the Reader's Digest version.
Posted by: Mrs. Davis || 08/18/2005 9:25 Comments || Top||

#6  Funny, I didn't see the the Readers' Digest version of unending Abu Ghraib photos and stories put out by WaPo. Or, should I say the paper for fish wrap.

Get real, the juxaposing of "U.S. Fatalities" with "700 More Troops to be Sent to Iraq" is no accident. Last I checked, Readers' Digest doesn't do that.
Posted by: Captain America || 08/18/2005 12:02 Comments || Top||

#7  To put this into perspective, these are US military prisoners. What percentage are they compared to the number of "ordinary criminal" prisoners held in a country with 25 million people?
Posted by: Anonymoose || 08/18/2005 16:55 Comments || Top||


Afghanistan/South Asia
Registration of seminaries made compulsory
PESHAWAR — The registration of religious madrassas (seminaries) in NWFP has been made compulsory by the signing of the North-West Frontier Province Societies Registration (Amendment) Ordinance 2005 yesterday.

The amendment ordinance, which was signed here by Governor Khalil-ur-Rehman, includes a new section called “ Registration od Deeni Madarsi” and has been added to the Societies Registration Act, 1860. According to an official handout, the amendment makes it compulsory that “all religous schools cannot operate in the province without being registered under this act and shall be subject to the provisions of this Act in addition to what is provided in its existing relevant sections”.
No home-schooling in Peshawar!
The amendment makes it incumbent upon all seminaries that they should submit annual report their activities and performance to the registrar. Similarly, every religious school shall also have to maintain accounts of its actual expenses and receipts and is obliged to conduct audit of its accounts by an auditor and submit its audited accounts to the registrar. The amendment also bars all such schools in the province from publishing “any literature which promotes militancy or spreads sectarian or religious hatred”. Leaders of ruling Mutahida Majlise Amal, however, have expressed certain reservations about the new law about the new amendment.
Posted by: Steve White || 08/18/2005 00:52 || Comments || Link || [0 views] Top|| File under:

#1  Wow!Thats all I can say.
Posted by: raptor || 08/18/2005 6:55 Comments || Top||

#2  Once Perv is deposed, this ordinance can be used to make sure all schools teach Salafist extremism.
Posted by: Jackal || 08/18/2005 8:35 Comments || Top||

#3  ???
Posted by: Rosemary || 08/18/2005 10:44 Comments || Top||


Israel-Palestine
Israeli troops set to oust Jews from Gaza synagogue
NEVE DEKALIM, Gaza Strip - Israeli troops prepared to oust hundreds of young radical Jews from a Gaza synagogue on Thursday, one of the biggest obstacles so far to the end of Israel’s 38-year Gaza occupation.

Before dawn, forces also rolled up to the outlying settlement of Kfar Darom, where some of the toughest resistance to evacuation has been expected from residents and hundreds of youths who slipped in to reinforce them.

After two false starts on Wednesday that triggered a standoff on the lawn of the synagogue in the biggest enclave of Neve Dekalim, soldiers had plans to try to negotiate one last time early on Thursday and then sweep in. Troops in Neve Dekalim and several other settlements dragged out residents and protesters screaming and sobbing on Wednesday, the first day of forcible removals under Prime Minister Ariel Sharon’s plan to disengage from Palestinians in Gaza. Soldiers, sometimes teary eyed, hugged more compliant settlers as they escorted them away.

Soldiers and special police removed nearly all hardline residents from Neve Dekalim and completely emptied six of the 21 Gaza settlements, often by breaking down doors and bodily carrying diehard inhabitants into waiting evacuation buses. Hundreds of young squatters, often from radical West Bank settlements, filled Neve Dekalim’s synagogue to reinforce the resistance of Gaza settlers to evacuation.

While welcoming any outside assistance they could get for opposing the pullout, which they see as a betrayal of a gift from God, the residents have often objected to the violent and aggressive behaviour of the youths. “Even if this is the end now, this experience has made us stronger and drawn the lines for the next round in Samaria (the northern West Bank),” said Nitta, a 19-year-old ultranationalist youth from Beit El in the West Bank.

After dark, large numbers of police vehicles waited on the main road outside the entrance to the settlement. Teenagers lounged on the lawn in front of the synagogue, enjoying a warm, muggy evening, while prayers were taking place inside. “The hundreds of youngsters in the synagogue will be dealt with tomorrow morning,” an Israeli army spokesman said late on Wednesday. “If we need to, we will forcibly evacuate them. We will have a last effort at negotiations before forcible evacuation but our aim is to do this tomorrow. We don’t want to lose momentum.”

Military buses pulled up in darkness outside the settlement of Kfar Darom, a frequent target of Palestinian militants during an uprising since 2000 and where defiance of Sharon’s plan runs stronger than anywhere. Skull-capped youths gathered in readiness to oppose the troops, but the army did not say whether it aimed to enter on Thursday.

Officials said by late afternoon on Wednesday more than 60 percent of Gaza’s 8,500 residents had left or been evicted and evacuation was going faster than expected and could be over in two days. More than 50,000 police and soldiers were deployed in Israel’s largest military operation other than in wartime.
Posted by: Steve White || 08/18/2005 00:47 || Comments || Link || [0 views] Top|| File under:

#1  If we are serious about fighting a war against terrorism, then this is a travesty! Please read Possible Palestinian-al Qaeda Ties. I am so angry, I could...I could...well just know that I could!
Posted by: Rosemary || 08/18/2005 10:48 Comments || Top||

#2  Rosemary---These are very tough and wrenching days for Israel. From my reading, it appears that the Gaza pullout is a strategic withdrawl by Sharon for more defensible borders. Nature abhors a vacuum, so since the PA is weak/duplicitous, the terrs will rush in to fill the vacuum. Now the only thing that will save Israel is the equivalent of counterbattery fire when the terrs start launching rockets over the wall into Israel from Gaza.

If Sharon does not fire back (and that is going to be into bases surrounded by civilians and children), then Isreal will bleed from a thousand wounds and she will be finished.

These are indeed wrenching times.
Posted by: Alaska Paul || 08/18/2005 11:35 Comments || Top||

#3  wrenching images as well - watched it on Fox this AM. - soldiers getting grief coming and going....staying professional. I'd have taken apart a couple of the "settlers" who were whacking the soldiers with anything handy, but then again, that's what they want - PR images of martyrs
Posted by: Frank G || 08/18/2005 11:52 Comments || Top||

#4  You are absolutely right Frank G. Those soldiers showed the utmost in restraint. It's a tough situation for the soldiers to be in. I think we all need to say a little prayer that it stays relatively peaceful.
Posted by: AllahHateMe || 08/18/2005 13:06 Comments || Top||



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Two weeks of WOT
Thu 2005-08-18
  Al-Oufi dead again
Wed 2005-08-17
  100 Bombs explode across Bangladesh
Tue 2005-08-16
  Italy to expel 700 terr suspects
Mon 2005-08-15
  Israel begins Gaza pullout
Sun 2005-08-14
  Hamas not to disarm after Gaza pullout
Sat 2005-08-13
  U.S. troops begin Afghan offensive
Fri 2005-08-12
  Lanka minister bumped off
Thu 2005-08-11
  Abu Qatada jugged and heading for Jordan
Wed 2005-08-10
  Turks jug Qaeda big shot
Tue 2005-08-09
  Bakri sez he'll be back
Mon 2005-08-08
  Zambia extradites Aswad to UK
Sun 2005-08-07
  UK terrorists got cash from Saudi Arabia before 7/7
Sat 2005-08-06
  Blair Announces Measures to Combat Terrorism
Fri 2005-08-05
  Binori Town students going home. Really.
Thu 2005-08-04
  Ayman makes faces at Brits

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