RIYADH, Saudi Arabia (AP) - Five militants killed during a three-day battle with security forces this week have been identified as al-Qaida members on the country's most-wanted list, the Saudi Interior Ministry said Thursday.
Comes as a surprise, doesn't it? They keep telling us that terrorism isn't associated with Islam, so I was expecting them to be Shriners...
Four policemen were also killed in the confrontation in the eastern Saudi city of Damman. The battle ended about midday Tuesday when special forces stormed the seaside villa the militants had taken over. "It became clear that five of the deviant group were killed and authorities proved through DNA testing that they were part of a group of wanted men previously announced," said the statement, which was carried on the official Saudi Press Agency. Saudi Arabia uses the term "deviant group" to describe al-Qaida.
The government is waging a campaign against Islamic militants who have staged numerous terror attacks since May 2003.
An occasionally desultory campaign, an often unfocused campaign, but still a campaign...
In a bid to cripple the economy, the militants have tended to target Westerners, who occupy important positions in the oil industry. King Abdullah, who ascended the throne in early August after the death of his half-brother Fahd, has vowed to push ahead with the crackdown. Al-Qaida seeks to topple the Saudi royal family because of its close ties with the West, particularly the United States. During the past year, Saudi forces have claimed a series of victories, killing or capturing all but one of the figures on the first list of 26 most-wanted militants, which was issued in December 2004.
... which has since been followed by, I believe, two subsequent lists of 36...
Posted by: Steve ||
09/08/2005 08:58 ||
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So by my count we now have at least 1 Bahrain royal, 2 Qatari princelings (including the interior minister!), 2 Kuwaitis MPs ... and we're supposed to believe that there's no ties whatsoever between al-Qaeda and any of the 6,000 or so Soddy princes?
The former head of the Kuwaiti security services, Mashaal Jarrah, has caused controversy in the tiny emirate with claims this week that two lawmakers are members of al-Qaeda. Kuwaiti newspaper Al-Seyasa reports that other members of parliament have avoided commenting on the statements Jarrah made to the US-funded Arab language TV station Al-Hurra.
He made the claims during the Majlis programme, stating that the al-Qaeda terror network had managed to infiltrate two of its members onto the parliamentary benches. Jarrah went on to denounce the presence of mosques in the emirate which are not controlled by the Kuwaiti authorities, and which he says are run by imams close to the terror network.
It is the first time a senior security official has made such serious revelations about the presence of al-Qaeda within Kuwaiti institutions. However, he exonerated the Muslim Brotherhood movement and the local Salafists from accusations that they were involved in terrorism.
The parliament is made up of 50 elected MPs, of whom 21 are Islamists. Despite tough opposition from the Islamist bloc, in May the parliament approved a new law giving women the right to vote and run in municipal and parliamentary elections. The approval came too late for them to participate in the municipal elections in June, but several women have already declared their intention to run in the 2007 parliamentary elections.
Posted by: Dan Darling ||
09/08/2005 00:34 ||
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A roadside bomb killed a Russian soldier in the turbulent Caucasus region of Dagestan on Wednesday, a day after three policemen were killed in an attack blamed on local Islamists.
The local interior minister said the soldier had been checking for bombs around a military camp near the town of Khasavyurt on the border with Chechnya when the blast occurred.
Attacks on police and soldiers are common in Muslim Dagestan, which has been rocked by the overspill of fighting from Chechnya where separatist guerrillas have fought Russian rule for a decade.
Interfax news agency reported fresh fighting in Chechnya on Wednesday, with pro-Moscow officials saying they had wiped out a rebel group near the village of Urus-Martan, south of Chechen capital Grozny.
Unknown gunmen killed the three Dagestani police on Tuesday as they drove along a road near the town of Izberbash, some 70 km (45 miles) south of the regional capital Makhachkala.
Local police blamed the attack on Islamist groups who have claimed some of Dagestan's bloodiest attacks -- including the bombing of a convoy in Makhachkala in July when 10 soldiers where killed.
Posted by: Dan Darling ||
09/08/2005 00:55 ||
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AUSTRALIA is to follow Britain and the US in cracking down on terrorism, with Prime Minister John Howard unveiling the toughest anti-terror regime in the nation's history.
Proposals for more security cameras, tougher jail terms for inciting violence, fines for leaving bags unattended at airports, and greater powers for federal police and spy agency ASIO, will be put to State and Territory leaders at a summit later this month.
Under the proposals, terror suspects could be electronically tagged for a year or held without charge for up to two weeks, while police and spy agencies would be given more scope to investigate threats.
Days out from the fourth anniversary of the September 11 terror attacks in the US, and two months after 56 people died in the London bombings, Mr Howard outlined his plan to fortify Australia.
The Prime Minister said the changes were needed to protect Australians' way of life.
"I think they are overwhelmingly essential, but they on their own cannot guarantee this country will not be the subject of a terrorist attack," Mr Howard said.
"I do however believe that they (are)...necessary weapons to strengthen the defence of our way of life and our right as individual citizens to be free as far as possible from terrorist intimidation and terrorist attack."
Mr Howard announced the changes 90 minutes after they were approved by a hastily arranged meeting of backbenchers.
He denied the proposals had been approved to divert attention from the Government's problems with the Telstra sale.
"That is a ridiculous proposition," Mr Howard said.
Civil libertarians meanwhile warned Australia was heading down the path towards becoming a police state.
"These are the sort of measures you see in regimes like apartheid South Africa, and are not the sort of things you should see in a free and democratic nation," Australian Council for Civil Liberties spokesman Cameron Murphy said.
Mr Murphy said a person who left a bag at an airport should be given a warning, not fined, and only persistent offenders should be prosecuted.
Under the proposals, more groups were expected to be banned for their terrorism links, and tougher criminal background checks would apply to new citizenship applicants, who would face a three-year wait for approval instead of the current two-year period.
Australian Muslim Civil Rights Advocacy Network convener Waleed Kadous said the laws would be open to abuse, particularly against Muslims.
"The laws are very open to abuse and the police don't have a great record on freedom from corruption in Australia," he said.
"I think that it will be used against the Muslim community, and I'm concerned it will affect the free speech of all Australians on such issues such as Iraq."
Mr Howard said the Government did not propose to put sunset clauses on any of the powers.
Attorney-General Philip Ruddock meanwhile said new control orders against terror suspects would work in a similar way to apprehended violence orders, but with stricter conditions, including tracking devices and travel limits on suspects.
Anti-terror law expert Patrick Emerton said the comparison with domestic violence orders was misleading.
"(Domestic violence orders) are about interpersonal disputes," he said.
"What the Government is proposing here is for it to pick out certain individuals it deems to be a risk, and to restrict their liberty or even lock them up.
The states will be asked to legislate to allow suspects to be detained without charge for up to 14 days.
Random bag searches would also be permitted, and a national closed-circuit television (CCTV) system would be put in place to monitor public transport hubs.
ASIO powers to record people's movements and conversations would be extended, while warrants allowing ASIO to access and seize property would be expanded.
Opposition legal affairs spokeswoman Nicola Roxon said Labor had yet to see the detail of the changes but would support any that were in the national interest.
Posted by: Oztralian [AKA] God Save The World ||
09/08/2005 05:40 ||
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As protests mounted on Wednesday over the sudden expulsion of a controversial Muslim preacher, press reports said the Interior Ministry was preparing to deport more alleged 'preachers of hate.'
Bouriqi Bouchta, the self-proclaimed imam of the northern city of Turin, was taken by police from his family home in the early hours of Tuesday morning and put on a flight back to his home country of Morocco.
It subsequently emerged that Italy had expelled another northern preacher, Litayem Amor Ben Chedli, earlier this month.
Italian newspapers reported on Wednesday that at least two other expulsions were planned and that up to 20 allegedly extremist Muslim preachers were on the Interior Ministry's list of potential deportees.
In a statement issued on Tuesday, the Interior Ministry said that "the ministry offices are examining the position of other foreign citizens with a view to the possible adoption of similar measures." It said the expulsions were in line with new emergency anti-terrorism norms, approved after the July terrorist attacks in London and Sharm el-Sheikh, Egypt.
The statement said Bouchta and Chedli had been expelled from Italy "for reasons of public order and security."
It said the decision to deport Bouchta had been taken after "thorough inquiries" by anti-terrorism officers and accused the imam, who was once accused of defending Osama bin Laden, of representing a "danger to state security."
Italy's anti-terrorism decree, approved last month, simplifies expulsion procedures for foreign nationals considered a terror risk or believed to be involved in aiding terrorist organisations or activities.
Bouchta had been living in Turin since 1986. The 40-year-old father of three, who ran a popular butcher's shop in the heart of Turin's mult-ethnic neighbourhood Porta Palazzo, had long been accused of radicalism.
He won notoriety in the wake of the September 11, 2001 terrorist attacks on the United States with controversial comments about al-Qaeda leader bin Laden.
He then came under fire for condemning the subsequent US-led invasion of Afghanistan, and demanding that Muslim women be allowed to appear in ID photographs wearing their veils.
He has also been under investigation for suspected links with extremist groups operating out of Morocco, Tunisia and Egypt but has never been formally charged with wrongdoing.
The Northern League, a populist party in the centre-right government which is often viewed as anti-immigrant, was one of the imam's fiercest critics and made frequent calls for his expulsion.
The League and Bouchta recently crossed swords after the party promoted Italian screenings of Submission, a controversial short film about abuse of Muslim women whose director, Dutch film-maker Theo van Gogh, was murdered by an Islamist.
According to press reports, Bouchta threatened "bombs" against anyone who watched van Gogh's film.
But members of Italy's Muslim community claimed that Bouchta was a moderate leader who promoted dialogue between Muslims and Christians.
They cited his active support last year for demonstrations in Italy aimed at obtaining the release of three Italian men held hostage in Iraq.
Bouchta's family told reporters of their concern for the imam, whom they have not heard from since he was taken away by the police. Bouchta's brother Abdrahmane said that "nobody has called us to tell us where Bouriqi is. They are treating us like criminals and persecuting a person just because of his views. That isn't the way to beat fear." Some supporters of the imam said they planned to hold a protest against his deportation in Turin on Saturday.
Several members of the centre-left opposition also condemned the Interior Minsistry's actions and demanded a parliamentary inquiry.
Green MP Paolo Cento said that "Bouchta's expulsion and the way it was carried out... are against human dignity and rights and do nothing to help the fight against terrorism." "If (Interior Minister Giuseppe) Pisanu intends to continue such acts against people who have not been charged with a single crime then the only sure consequence will be an increase in internal and international tensions," he said.
But the Northern League and the rightist National Alliance praised the expulsion measures, arguing that they showed the government's anti-terrorism decree was "an effective tool against the preachers of hate."
Tunisian national Ben Chedli, the treasurer and deputy head of an Islamic cultural association in Como, was deported last week to Tunisia. He was accused of recruiting Muslim militants and radicalism.
Ben Chedli's name surfaced last February in press reports linking him to a suspected al-Qaeda cell based in Turin and another imam, Fall Mamour, who was expelled in November 2003.
Senegalese Mamour, who had been living in the small town of Carmagnola near Turin, also had ties with Bouchta and once told the press that he was a "follower" of bin Laden to whom he was "bound by a blood pact."
An Italian court later ruled that Mamour had been "illegally" deported.
The regional court in Lazio ruled in December 2004 that Mamour had been wrongly expelled because his comments represented personal views only.
Last year, Italy expelled three other imams, an Algerian living in Rome, a Moroccan living in Varese and a Tunisian living in Como.
Posted by: Dan Darling ||
09/08/2005 00:46 ||
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#1
I keep wondering what "right" someone has to be resident in a country they are not native to or a naturalized citizen of? I believe the governmet can expel them for any reason or no reason. They have no right to stay in a country that doesn't wish them to stay or enter. The government says you must leave, you must leave, tough cookies.
#2
I agree - Governments should have the right to kick these vile evil creatures back to allah's hell. And i also believe that the Muslim women should be UN-veiled during photo id shoots.
To me it sounds like common sense, but to the Looselimb Muslims it seems to be out of their comprehension, beyond their mentality.
I look foward to hearing about more Muslims being expelled from the great Infidel lands.
Posted by: Oztralian [AKA] God Save The World ||
09/08/2005 6:06 Comments ||
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what "right" someone has to be resident in a country they are not native to or a naturalized citizen of?
I'm sure there's something in the UN Charter about that ...
Posted by: Steve White ||
09/08/2005 10:38 Comments ||
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If the turin imam's program is ever perfected the world will be covered in ever tinier holey Q'cram's
LYON (France) â An alleged firebrand imam faces expulsion from France as a threat to national security after police arrested him in the central-eastern city of Lyon on Tuesday, a local official said. âAbdallah Cam, 42, was arrested in Villeurbanne, where he lives, during a routine check. The police officers perceived that he was the subject of an expulsion order dated August 26 and took him to a detention centre,â said a Lyon police spokeswoman. The Turkish cleric, who is being held at a centre at Lyonâs Saint-Exupery airport, is among a number of radical imams who have been singled out for their âviolent and extremistâ preaching.
Posted by: Steve White ||
09/08/2005 00:07 ||
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An Indonesian militant received a seven-year prison sentence Thursday for his role in plotting last year's suicide bombing at the Australian Embassy, blamed on a regional terror group linked to al-Qaida. Abdul Fatah, alias Heri Segu, shouted 'Allahu akbar' or 'God is great' when the three-judge panel in South Jakarta District court handed down the sentence, the heaviest punishment yet in the attack. Judges said he helped build the bomb. 'He has never expressed any regret for his actions,' said presiding judge Asnawati, who like many Indonesians uses only one name.
His sentencing came on the eve of first anniversary of the Sept. 9, 2004, attack at the heavily fortified mission in central Jakarta, which killed nine victims. Police blamed Jemaah Islamiyah, also suspected in the 2002 Bali nightclub bombings that killed 202 people, mostly tourists, and a 2003 blast at Jakarta's J.W. Marriott hotel that killed 12. Fatah is one of six Muslim militants arrested as suspects in the embassy bombing. Two others were sentenced in July to 3 1/2 years and 4 1/2 years; prosecutors have asked for the death sentence for two of the others. Several other suspects remain at large. Fatah was arrested in November in west Java province, around 124 miles east of Jakarta. Police said he was carrying explosives and a book of bomb-making instructions.
Indonesia, the world's most populous Muslim nation, has arrested about 100 suspected terrorists and their sympathizers since the Oct. 12 Bali bombings. Two have been sentenced to death and at least 30 others have been given prison terms ranging from two years to life.
Posted by: Steve ||
09/08/2005 12:13 ||
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Wrist bone connected to the hand bone, connected to the finger bone...
"For years now, the Phalange Party has had its leadership on one side and its base on the other," said former President Amin Gemayel. "This form of division has always been the party's greatest handicap. It's high time for all this to end and for the party to reunite." During a news conference held at his home in Sin al-Fil, Gemayel forecast the future of the Phalange Party formed some 69 years ago by his grandfather, Pierre Gemayel. Alluding to an upcoming plan to reunify the party, currently divided between Karim Pakradouni's political leadership and the Gemayel family's patrimonial Phalange Reform Party, Gemayel described a growing need for a united Phalange Party to reassert its presence on the political scene.
Given that Lebanon is going through the most crucial and difficult time in its modern history, Gemayel said it was "unacceptable for the Phalange Party to remain isolated from the Lebanese political scene." "You know, in the past, the party was such a strong political reference," Gemayel added. "It was highly consulted whenever the country went through a crisis." A reunified Phalange Party, according to the former president, would "make sense."
"This reunification has to be spiritual and political," Gemayel said, adding that once united the Phalange Party would be "truly walking in the footsteps of its founder, Sheikh Pierre Gemayel." At Monday's politburo meeting a plan of action was implemented to place the party on the path to reunification. The plan's first step was the election of a transitional follow-up political committee to supervise the Phalange Party's political activities in a "democratic fashion," until November 12, when an election is to be held for the party's presidency.
Posted by: Fred ||
09/08/2005 00:00 ||
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#1
Ah ... so the Maronites are stepping up to challenge the Arabs again.
#3
Since this group doesn't breed as fast as Muslims do and they import people from Iran Odds are long against the Phalange in any form being a mover and shaker.
DC has received 146 evacuees from the Armed Forces Retirement Home in Gulfport, MS. As we all know, these evacuees are soldiers, sailors, marines and airmen that have retired many years ago, and the Armed Forces Retirement Home was their only home. Now "Hurricane Katrina" left them with nothing.
DC has rooms for these folks, however, the rooms are completely bare except for a single bed. The evacuees are in need of some basic necessities, as well as a few niceties. I am sending this e-mail with the link from the AFRH Home Page out of DC. There are links that give you two lists of items. They could use any of the items on either list.
Posted by: Fred ||
09/08/2005 13:15 ||
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Hey DC Rantburgers...let's pitch in on this. Put a note here if you've got some time this weekend. We owe these vets a debt of more than gratitude.
TAL AFAR, Iraq (AP) - U.S. and Iraqi forces have encircled the insurgent stronghold of Tal Afar, and the Iraqi military on Thursday announced the arrest of 200 suspected insurgents - most of them foreign fighters. The Iraqi military said 150 of those arrested Wednesday in this town near the Syrian border were Arabs from Syria, Sudan, Yemen and Jordan. The joint forces have reported heavy battles on the outskirts of the city and several bombings that have mainly killed civilians. Iraqi authorities reported most of the civilian population had fled the city, which is 260 miles north of Baghdad and about 35 miles from the Syrian border.
``Our forces arrested 150 non-Iraqi Arabs yesterday in addition to 50 Iraqi terrorists with fake documents as they were trying to flee the city with the (civilian) families,'' Iraqi army Capt. Mohammed Ahmed said. ``We ordered the families to evacuate the Sunni neighborhood of Sarai, which is believed to be the main stronghold of the insurgents,'' Ahmed said. Eight civilians were killed in the city Wednesday by a suicide car bomber at an Iraqi checkpoint, he said. On Thursday, the U.S. military said the combined American-Iraqi force had killed seven insurgents in the past two days.
Tal Afar is 90 percent Turkmen, and 70 percent of them are Sunnis. After the ouster of Saddam Hussein, the United States installed a largely Shiite leadership in the city, including the mayor and much of the police force. The Sunnis have complained of oppression by the government and have turned to the insurgents - who are mainly fellow Sunnis - for protection.
Early Thursday, a militant Web site carried a videotape showing the destruction of a U.S. Bradley Fighting Vehicle in Tal Afar. The video, emblazoned with the logo of al-Qaida in Iraq, claimed the armored vehicle was struck by a roadside bomb. A U.S. military official said two Bradleys had been hit by roadside bombs in recent days and a soldier was killed. Also Thursday, police reported finding 17 unidentified bodies - 15 near the farming town of Mahmoudiya and two on Baghdad's outskirts. The bodies found by soldiers and police near Mahmoudiya, 20 miles south of Baghdad, were in civilian clothes, with no identification documents, and had been shot to death, police Lt. Adnan Abdulla said. The two bodies found near a sewage plant on the outskirts of Baghdad were blindfolded and handcuffed, police said.
In central Baghdad, a suicide car bomber Thursday targeted a passing convoy of private U.S. security agents, wounding three passers-by. The blast near the heavily fortified Sadir Hotel sent a huge plume of smoke into the sky in Baghdad's busy Karradah neighborhood, a main shopping and commercial district. A Sept. 2 car bombing near the hotel killed an Iraqi security guard and wounded two. The Sadir is used by foreign security agents and other Westerners involved in rebuilding Iraq.
On Wednesday, the U.S. military, acting on a tip, raided an isolated farmhouse outside Baghdad and rescued an American businessman held hostage for 10 months. The kidnappers, who had kept their captive bound and gagged. Roy Hallums, 57, was ``in good condition and is receiving medical care,'' a military statement said after U.S. forces freed him and an unidentified Iraqi from the farmhouse 15 miles south of Baghdad.
Lt. Col. Steven A. Boylan, a U.S. military spokesman, said the tipster whose information led to Hallums' release was captured just a few hours before the operation. Hallums, formerly of Newport Beach, Calif., was kidnapped at gunpoint from his office in the Mansour district of Baghdad on Nov. 1, 2004. At the time, he was working for the Saudi Arabian Trading and Construction Co., supplying food to the Iraqi army. The kidnappers also seized a Filipino, a Nepalese and three Iraqis, but later freed them. ``Considering what he's been through, I understand he's in good condition,'' said Hallums' ex-wife, Susan Hallums, 53, of Corona, Calif. The family Web site was topped with a headline: ``Roy IS FREE!!!!!! 9/7/05.'' More than 200 foreigners have been abducted in Iraq since the war began in March 2003; more than 30 have been killed.
The rescue coincided with two deadly bombings detonated around the southern city of Basra. A roadside bomb killed four private American security agents working for the State Department Bureau of Diplomatic Security. And an Interior Ministry official said 16 people were killed and 21 were injured in a car bombing at a restaurant in a central market. Attacks against Americans around Basra, Iraq's second-largest city, are rare. The U.S. has only a minimal presence in the area, which is largely patrolled by British forces. Also, Shiites, who are the dominant population in the south, have found themselves the political winners as new government structures take shape after the U.S.-led invasion. In a statement posted on a Web site known as a clearinghouse of militant claims, al-Qaida in Iraq took responsibility for the attack.
The car bombing later Wednesday at a takeout restaurant in a central Basra market killed 16 and wounded 21, an Interior Ministry official said, speaking on condition of anonymity because he was not authorized to talk to reporters. The restaurant is in the Hayaniyah district market, a Shiite section of the city, police Lt. Col. Karim al-Zaidi said. Two police vehicles and several nearby shops were destroyed.
Despite a peaceful postwar history in the south, violence has spiked in the past two months with attacks on Britons.
Posted by: Steve ||
09/08/2005 12:00 ||
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The most remarkable part of this, mostly non-opinionated, story is that it was carried in the Guardian.
September 8, 2005: Thereâs an elaborate chess game going on in central Iraq, and along the Syrian border. Actually, itâs more of a âchase game,â as the al Qaeda and Sunni Arab terrorist groups attempt to maintain control of the shrinking number of areas where they can establish their safe houses and bomb making workshops. This process began last Fall, with the battle for Fallujah. While this left several thousand terrorists killed or captured, at least two thousand, including most of the terrorist leaders, fled Fallujah before the city fell. Over the next few months, the terrorists tried to take over another town, or portion of a city, like Mosul. This didnât work, although it generated some great headlines about a terrorist "comeback". If the terrorists tried to hold ground, American troops came in and killed or captured them. Increasingly, the Americans arrived with Iraqi police or soldiers along, who were able to quickly canvass the liberated area to find out who might be pro-government. There were always a few. Names were taken and phone numbers given out. Sometimes, cell phones were given out as well.
The enemy became like nomads, with their caravans of cars, SUVs and pickup trucks moving at night from one sort-of-safe area to another. Increasingly, the caravans of gunmen rolls into areas containing a higher proportion of people hostile to them. The Sunni Arabs have become anti-terrorist for very pragmatic reasons; money. When the caravan of gunmen shows up, they bring with them bullies, religious fanatics and, eventually, American smart bombs. But the terrorists, and their attacks on reconstruction efforts, have also brought over two years of poverty. The Sunni Arabs used to get most of the oil revenue, now they get practically nothing, because the terrorists wonât let any goodies in. Sunnis Arabs note that when the Americans come, they bring goodies. If the Americans stay, they bring in Iraqi cops and money for jobs and building things. This is another case of money as a weapon.
The terrorists fight back by making raids of their own. They will drive into a town or neighborhood in strength, usually a few dozen gunmen. They will stay for hours, days, or even a week if their presence is not reported (which quickly brings American or Iraqi troops, and damn smart bombs.) The terrorists will try to intimidate people, to encourage them not to call the government and report where the terrorists are. More and more Sunni Arabs know the Americans will pay for information, and what the phone numbers are to call. For this reason, the terrorists are very hostile to the spreading cell phone service. Cell phones too often mean death for terrorists, as they are used by angry Iraqis to report where the terrorists are hiding. Terrorists have long used cell phones in Baghdad to set off bombs, but in the towns outside of Baghdad, and along the Syrian border, where the terrorists like to hide out, cell phones are viewed with great suspicion.
The tips have led to more reports of smart bombs hitting safe houses in towns where there are not American troops or Iraqi troops. These 500 pound bombs often often arrive unexpectedly at night (to limit civilian casualties), and set off secondary explosions, as terrorist munitions explode. Another recent tip, from an arrested suspect, led to a hiding place for two kidnap victims, including an American contractor who had been held for ten months. Most of the kidnap victims freed are Iraqis, and these rarely get reported in the American media. But kidnapping rescues are big news in Iraq, because most of the victims are Iraqis.
Terrorists are spending more of their time running, and less time planting roadside bombs or attacking Iraqi police and government officials. In the last two weeks, attacks are down by about half. Some believe that the terrorists are massing their strength to try and disrupt next months voting. But on the ground, there are more and more towns are patrolled by Iraqi police, or pro-government tribal militia, and not al Qaeda or Sunni Arab terrorists. It's becoming more and more difficult for the terrorists to hold ground, much less build and use roadside or car bombs. The objective here is to turn central Iraq into an area where the terrorists are constantly on the run, and eventually run right into the ground and out of business.
Posted by: Steve ||
09/08/2005 09:22 ||
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#1
Obviously more propaganda from the Bush-controlled media. Oh, wait! It's Strategy Page!
One can only hope they got it right, and the MSM hasn't noticed/reported the reduction in attacks.
Posted by: Bobby ||
09/08/2005 10:54 Comments ||
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Great article.
I wish the mainstream news outfits, CBS, CNN , MSNBC and even FOX would cover more good news in iraq.
#3
There is another hidden problem for the baddies. Safe houses are often rentals, and when the pressure is on, the rental price gets exhorbitant.
This was the same problem encountered by the roving bank-robbery gangs in the US of the 1930s. Unless they had a family safe house, they had to pay astounding rents--and even then, with no guarantee that the renter wouldn't turn them in for the reward.
While there is a good flow of money from outside of Iraq, if the flow is interrupted for even a week or two, it will force all but the most connected to go on the road.
#6
Many Big Abus taken down in the last couple of weeks- Abu Ali, Abu Khalled, Abu Mohammed, Abu Islam. Looks more like hot pursuit than a chess game to me. If you want to use the chess analogy, you would have to say its the end game. The king is still on the board, tho.
#7
The high kill/capture rate is indicative of noobs with little leadership, probably being stabled in Tal Afar prior to being shipped to other handlers.
In turn, this backlog means that they can't get further forward, and are in the unlovely position of "You want to kill Americans? They are over there, on the far side of those houses. Go kill them."
A suspected Islamic militant, wanted in connection with making a car bomb used in a suicide attack three years ago that killed 15 people, including 11 French engineers, was arrested Thursday after a shootout, police said. Mufti Mohammed Sabir was arrested near a bus terminal after arriving from Rawalpindi, a city near the capital of Islamabad, Police Chief Tariq Jameel told a news conference.
I wonder if he's an actual mufti, or if that's just his personal name...
Sabir tried to flee and fired a pistol at police before he was arrested. Police returned fire but no one was hurt, Jameel said.
Typical islamic marksmanship
Explains why RAB never seems to get the miscreants' accomplices, doesn't it?
Easier to shoot them in the back of the head if they're tied down and not squirming so ...
Police seized explosives, other bomb-making materials, several rounds of AK-47 ammunition and two rocket shells from a bag that Sabir was allegedly carrying.
Coming back from an elk hunt?
"Are ya happy to see me or is that two rocket shells in yer bag?"
Sabir is believed to be a bomb maker and is suspected to have packed a car with explosives that were detonated in front of Karachi's Sheraton Hotel on May 8, 2002, killing the French nationals and four other people. The Frenchmen were helping to build a submarine for Pakistan's navy. A month later, another suicide bomber blew up a truck outside the U.S. Consulate in Karachi, killing 14 Pakistanis.
Is Sabir implicated? Or did you just notice that something else blew up around the same time?
Sabir, in his 30s, is alleged to belong to the outlawed Harkat Jihad-e-Islami militant group. A Karachi court has sentenced three other suspected group members to death for the Sheraton bombing. At least two more suspects remain at large, Jameel said. Karachi is believed to be a hotbed for Islamic militants blamed for terrorist attacks in the port city since President Gen. Pervez Musharraf allied Pakistan with Washington in the war on terrorism.
"Believed to be"? Karachi? Islamic militants? This is "believed to be" Rantburg. Today's "believed to be" Thursday. I'm "believed to be" fat. (Where do they get these people?)
Posted by: Steve ||
09/08/2005 09:19 ||
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(CNSNews.com) - Al Qaeda's plans for a series of spectacular terrorist strikes in October, targeting American interests as well as U.S. allies in Europe and the Middle East and said to be coordinated by Osama bin Laden and his top lieutenant in Iraq - Abu Musab al-Zarqawi -- are the subject of a non-public report issued by terrorism experts this week.
The attacks, planned to coincide with the Muslim observance of Ramadan and dubbed the "Great Ramadan Offensive," are designed to create a "fateful confrontation" with the U.S. and Israeli forces in the Middle East, according to a May 30 letter from Zarqawi to bin Laden. The contents of the letter are referenced in the report written by Yossef Bodansky, the former director of the U.S. Congressional Task Force on Terrorism and Unconventional Warfare.
The Sept. 2 report is accessible only to government officials on the Global Information System (GIS) database. Cybercast News Service obtained the report on the same day as its release. It warns of planned attacks in Western Europe, Russia and perhaps the continental U.S. The specific targets are believed to include airports at Schiphol in the Netherlands and Fiumicino in Italy. Italy remains on high alert and barricades have been placed around Rome's Colosseum. "Terrorism is coming home," the GIS report quotes one unnamed German senior official. "And it's coming home to those countries whose governments may have believed they were immune from terror because for years they have provided safe haven to notorious Islamic extremists."
An associate of Zarqawi named Abu Abdul Rahman al-Jazaeri, was said to be in Italy, but could not be located by authorities, according to Bodansky, who added that Jazeiri was believed to have recently received from a Zarqawi messenger "the definitive mandate to plan and carry out a major terrorist operation in Italy." In late August Italy announced that it was at an elevated risk for a terrorist attack. The country expelled 700 suspected militants and arrested 141 others. News organizations reported that locks to the entrances of 49 subway stations had been changed and metal barricades erected around the 2,000-year old Colosseum in Rome.
Details of the planned attacks were pieced together from intercepted communications between top al Qaeda leaders in the latter part of August, analysis of what counter- terrorism experts described as a dramatic increase in the volume of communication among jihad forces and the observation of an unprecedented movement of jihadists and messengers around the world apparently delivering instructions.
Uh huh, the fabled "buzz". Don't we go through this every year?
Zarqawi, linked to numerous bombings and the beheadings of several Western hostages in Iraq, reportedly titled his letter to bin Laden, "A Message from a Soldier to His Commander." According to the GIS report, Zarqawi's letter to bin Laden alluded to "the forthcoming grand offensive comprised of escalation in the Middle East and a series of spectacular terrorist strikes" meant to overshadow the impact of the Sept. 11, 2001 terrorist strikes in New York City and Washington, D.C. The letter also indicated Zarqawi was expecting bin Laden to approve and authorize the escalation: "I think that the plan for the next stage that was drawn up has reached you or is on its way to you. O God. Make the expedition of Osama proceed toward its goal ... We await your orders as to the next stage of the plan," Zarqawi wrote.
An Aug. 8 televised message from bin Laden's overall second-in-command -- Ayman al-Zawahiri - is now viewed as the approval Zarqawi was anticipating. "What you have seen, O Americans, in New York and Washington and the losses you are having in Afghanistan and Iraq, in spite of all the media blackout, are only the losses of the initial clashes ... You will see the horror that will make you forget what you had seen in Vietnam," Zawahiri said. The al Qaeda official's threat, according to the report, wasn't delivered until the jihad forces were organized and ready to strike.
The GIS report also cites an Aug. 21 message recorded by Zarqawi, which references the next phase of the terrorist jihad. "The [mujahedeen] in Iraq, have, praise be to God, moved the battle from the ground (in Iraq) to the land of the cross." Zarqawi's message claimed that "[J]ihadist units have been founded in all of Western Europe, to defend the powerless within the nation. For the crimes the Crusaders have committed against the Muslims, they will reap in their own homes, God willing." A few days later, according to GIS, a doctrinal statement from Zarqawi emerged, which stressed the priority of al Qaeda in Iraq establishing "another base that will export jihad to all parts of the world the same way the mother al Qaeda in Afghanistan was."
Bodansky's report states that "concrete preparations for the consolidation of Islamist-jihadist springboards against the heart and lair of the Great Satan are being completed -- for Western Europe in the Balkans, for Russian and Eastern Europe in Chechnya, and for the United States in the tri-border area in Latin America." Widespread anticipation throughout the Muslim world of the Great Ramadan Offensive was being picked up by intelligence analysts in August and then was reinforced by a slew of theological statements -- all buttressing what the GIS report calls "a forthcoming, well-coordinated global onslaught." The marked increase in the volume of communication, both encrypted and open, exceeded that of the months prior to September 2001, the report states.
Bodansky said there is a growing awareness among Western European intelligence services of the "chatter" and activation of jihadist units, led by veterans of Iraq and Chechnya. In early August 2005 Pakistanis arrested a senior operative called Osama bin Yussaf who had detailed maps of Italian, German and British cities stored in his computer. Germany faces the challenge of second and third generation immigrants inspired by the idea of a global jihad, the GIS report notes. Such young jihadists often hold down a regular job, have European passports and are valued assets due to their low profile, and easy mobility. Bodansky also points to the Aug. 23 decree by Islamist rebels in Chechnya establishing an "emergency government." Details of the decree, not previously reported, inidcate that a "war leadership council" was established and would likely "implement the next cycle of terrorist strikes against Russia" as part of the coordinated global attacks.
Terrorist leaders may also have taken the devastation wrought by hurricane Katrina as a symbol that God is pleased with their plans to launch the "Great Ramadan Offensive," according to the GIS report.
"Allah has punished America with winds and water," said one imam quoted in the report. America is under "the curse of the Jews," said another.
"It's clear the jihadists regarded Katrina as a sign from God they're doing the right thing," said Gregory R. Copley, president of The International Strategic Studies Association in Washington, D.C.
In a separate analysis, Christopher Brown, research associate with the Hudson Institute's Transitions to Democracy project, warned of the strategic opening that the hurricane aftermath offers jihadists. "If this attack is launched soon, the devastation to the American economy alone could easily far exceed that of the September 11th attacks and could be equivalent in terms of economic impact to the detonation of a small nuclear device on American soil," Brown said. He also suggested that the timing of Zawahiri's past video messages indicates a terrorist attack may be imminent.
His first messages, on Sept. 9 and Nov. 9 of 2004, preceded the Dec. 6, 2004 attack on the U.S. consulate in Jeddah, Saudi Arabia. Feb. 20 and June 17, 2005 video messages by Zawahiri preceded the July 7 series of bombings in London. A third set of messages - on Aug. 4 and Sept. 1 - also creates cause for concern, Brown contends. "If the pattern that has been outlined holds true," says Brown, "then al Qaeda is very likely about to launch a new major or series of major attacks within the next month." Copley agreed, telling Cybercast News Service that, "I think Europe is going to be a prime target, but I think there's no question the U.S. is very much on the schedule. "There will be big things happening over the next few months," he added.
Ramadan, a religious observance which includes a period of fasting, is scheduled according to the Islamic calendar. This year it is scheduled from Oct. 4 to Nov. 2. Muslim soldiers on the battlefield are exempt from Ramadan.
Posted by: Steve ||
09/08/2005 08:50 ||
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#1
Colleges are back in session, and the AQ fansites are heating up.
Posted by: Robert Crawford ||
09/08/2005 9:37 Comments ||
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don't we have the same warnings every muslim "holy day"
#3
I've heard they're going to be testing out a new weapon which affects the weather. Starting around October, they're going to lower the temperature to just above freezing across much of the northern United States.
Posted by: Frank G ||
09/08/2005 16:55 Comments ||
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AP reported that two bombs exploded minutes apart damaging a KFC and a McDonald's restaurant in the southern Pakistan city of Karachi. Could be low level boomers with nothing to do but blow the shit out of Infidel symbols. Maybe they just hate fast food. In any case it's not unusual to see these seemingly isolated but coordinated attacks as a precurser to much more spectacular detonations.
#9
But, Depot Guy, what will I do if they hit all the McDonald's and KFCs here? What will i eat? (/sarcasm off/)
Seriously, it does seem to happen every year around Ramadan time (which I believe is officially in November, I think). I just hope something happens at the hajj there in Saudi.
Posted by: Mikey Moore ||
09/08/2005 21:06 Comments ||
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Time to crank up a couple of napalm production facilities and reopen the neutron bomb assembly line. Let the "jihadis" and their families experience the "wrath of God" for themselves.
Posted by: Old Patriot ||
09/08/2005 21:37 Comments ||
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I'm still pissed we never got to see a real field test of the MOAB....
Posted by: Frank G ||
09/08/2005 21:42 Comments ||
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From Radio Free Europe / Radio Liberty
Kurdish security chief Masrur Barzani announced during a 6 September press briefing at the Pirmam summer resort that two terrorist groups have been apprehended in Irbil, peyamner.com reported the same day. Barzani described one group as a six-member group affiliated with Al-Qaeda; the second group consisted of three members and is affiliated with the Ansar Al-Sunnah Army. He accused the groups of attacks and the attempted killing of a number of Kurdish officers, as well as attacks on South Korean troops stationed in Irbil and for explosions near Salah Al-Din University.
Posted by: Mike Sylwester ||
09/08/2005 00:53 ||
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A coalition air strike has demolished what authorities believe was an al Qaeda-linked terrorist safe house in the western Iraqi city of al-Jaramil and a man believed to be a foreign fighter facilitator was killed, Multi-National Forces officials said early Thursday.
Abu Ali, described by the military as a "senior al Qaeda foreign fighter facilitator," was believed to be in the house at the time of the strike on Wednesday, authorities said.
They added Ali has been linked to other al Qaeda terrorists and facilitators in Hit, al Qaim, Karabila and Husayba. He also had al Qaeda connections in the Mosul area, officials said, including one man captured in June and another man killed in August.
Ali was also thought to have al Qaeda connections in Syria and Saudi Arabia where most of his foreign fighters were recruited, the military said in a written statement.
He was believed to have funneled the foreign fighters into Iraq and sent them to various terrorist groups, where they participated in attacks against Iraqi citizens along with Iraqi Security Forces and Coalition Forces, authorities said.
After the air strike, coalition forces saw large secondary explosions, indicating that a large weapons cache was destroyed, the military said.
Meanwhile, a car bomb detonated in a popular Basra neighborhood Wednesday evening, killing 16 civilians and wounding 21 others, authorities said.
Two women and two children were among the dead, according to an Iraqi army official said.
U.S. authorities also reported they had freed Roy Hallums, a U.S. contractor kidnapped in Baghdad 10 months ago.
Earlier Wednesday, four American private security contractors were killed when their vehicle, part of a U.S. diplomatic convoy, struck a roadside bomb in southern Basra, a western official in Baghdad told CNN.
The improvised explosive device detonated at the foot of the Ghazyza bridge about 8:30 a.m. (0430 GMT).
Three contractors were killed on the spot, the official said. One was flown to a hospital and later died of injuries.
The diplomats were attached to the U.S. consulate in Basra. No details are known about the convoy's mission.
A car bomb also exploded near a western convoy in central Baghdad Wednesday, injuring five bystanders, Iraqi police said. The convoy continued unharmed.
The parked car detonated around 9 a.m. in the capital's Karrada neighborhood.
Less than three hours later, an official with the Ministry of Defense was gunned down in a drive-by shooting in southern Baghdad's Dora neighborhood, police said. Killed in the attack was Hassan Umran. His driver was wounded.
At about the same time, police found the bullet-riddled bodies of three men near a water purification plant in the Rustumiye section of southeastern Baghdad. Police said the bodies were dumped without identification.
Iraqi police Wednesday said a U.S. Army Humvee was seen burning along the Mohammed al-Qasim highway in eastern Baghdad. A spokeswoman with the Army's 3rd Infantry Division said three U.S. soldiers were wounded when their convoy was hit by an improvised explosive device. At least one of the injured was in critical condition and medevaced to a field hospital.
Around midday, a top officer with Iraqi police commandos was killed after gunmen fired on his convoy in western Baghdad.
According to Baghdad police, Col. Imad Ismail Thyab was shot and killed in the Ghazaliya neighborhood when the attackers in two cars opened fire. Three other police commandos were wounded in the attack.
Amid the carnage Wednesday was some good news: Roy Hallums, an American hostage snatched off the Baghdad streets in November, has been rescued and freed.
Posted by: Oztralian [AKA] God Save The World ||
09/08/2005 05:37 ||
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#1
Something is not adding up to me. If our military lost as many senior people as these guys had,we'd be Muslim by now. Either someone is lying to us, or senior means over the age of 15.
#2
plainslow - I think the promotion plan works kinda like in law firms & Big Six accounting firms - up or out (i.e., make partner in 5-7 years or get lost).
#3
Your probally right Raj. Kinda like Churn and Burn
"There is a phrase amongst sales & marketing people known as "churn & burn". What it means is go find as many prospects as you can, tell them whatever you have to tell them to get the sale (the churn part) -- and then the customers are "burned" when they realize that the product or service will never do what the salesman said it would."
The probe into the August 17 countrywide blasts seems to stall as investigators are finding it almost impossible to get significant clues which may reveal the motive and detect the masterminds of the attacks. Some of the 300 suspects arrested in connection with the explosions have confessed to having links to the attacks. But they barely can name the leaders of their immediate upper tier, leave alone the masterminds, sources in the intelligence agencies said.
"Awright! Talk! Who's yer boss?"
"Aaaiiieee! Stop that! He's name's Herb!"
"Herb Who?"
"I dunno. Just Herb!"
Those who have admitted to having links to the blasts, which killed three people and wounded over 100, are members of the banned Jamaatul Mujahideen Bangladesh (JMB) and Jagrata Muslim Janata Bangladesh (JMJB). According to the confessions, they carried out the attacks at the call of JMB chief Abdur Rahman.
"Yeah! He made us do it!"
The home ministry at a recent meeting has discussed intelligence agency reports that said JMB and outlawed Janajuddha were involved in the blasts. Sources said if Janajuddha was involved, its second-in-command Saifuzzaman alias Shoaib alias Ripon, who died in Rab action on Monday, could have given important clues.
Gee. It's too bad he got bumped off in the crossfire by his accomplices...
Besides, there are allegations a large number of Jamaat-e-Islami and its student wing Islami Chhatra Shibir activists, who were arrested in connection with the blasts, were released without keeping records of their arrest.
"Yeah, I'm sure they're okay. Let 'em go!"
"Can we have our explosives back? We need 'em for... ummm... Friday prayers."
Initially, law enforcers were carrying out combing operations across the country to net the suspects. But now they look very reluctant despite reports that the JMB and the JMJB are recruiting members to form suicide squads. The Islamist extremists are also continuing their activities in the remote char areas in different northern districts, but the law enforcers are not raiding these areas.
"Do we look crazy? Those guys got guns!"
An intelligence agency official in Rangpur has recently told The Daily Star now the drive against the militants are totally controlled by the top officials in Dhaka.
That'll make it work better, by Gum!
The arrestees are field level JMB activists or cadres who were only assigned to plant bombs and blast those at the directives of their immediate bosses, another intelligence agency man said. The cadres or field level activists only know their immediate bosses as "responsible persons", the official said asking not to be named. If a field level activist dares to learn the identities of his upper level bosses, he is subject to severe punishment and torture like gauging out of eyes, the official said quoting a detained JMB activist.
That'd be shariah omerta, I guess...
Posted by: Paul Moloney ||
09/08/2005 01:12 ||
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No offence, Paul, but you might want to reword that headline.
#6
The Bangla website had a story a couple weeks ago asking how certain arrestees got loose from their handcuffs and walked out the front door of the jail...
Leading Somali Islamists have called for the formal introduction of sharia law to help impose order on the Horn of Africa nation whose 10 million people have been without government for 14 years. "We have a right to rule our people by Islamic law," said Abdulraman Farah, spokesman of the Islamic Congress meeting of more than 900 Islamists at a Mogadishu mosque.
They're absolutely intent on ruling people. They refuse to govern, yet they're under the impression they'd be good rulers. The mind, if any, boggles...
In the 14th attempt to reinstate central rule since dictator Mohamed Siad Barre was toppled in 1991, Somalia's Transitional Federal Government has relocated from Kenya but is struggling to establish its authority amid bickering and continued violence. Islamists, who have become more prominent in recent years during the absence of central authority, want the secular law in Somalia's transitional constitution replaced by strict Islamic law for the mainly Muslim population.
They're really into lopping people's heads off, though they have hard boyz who do the actual catching...
Sharia courts already function unofficially in Mogadishu. Hardline Islamists in Mogadishu have withheld their endorsement of President Abdullahi Yusuf's Ethiopian-backed government because it is not based in Islamic law. Although the new government's leaders are all Muslim, they are accused by their many foes of selling out by propagating Christian and anti-Islamic Western values.
I'm not sure about that. Can anyone recall hearing the words "liberty" or "individual freedom" ever escape the collective proto-government lip?
Currently, the sharia courts are the only form of semi-organised justice for Mogadishu's one million people. Clan rule also operates across Somalia. "Christians and Christian supporters have no chance of ruling in this nation of Islam," said a prominent Islamist, Sheik Mohamed Yasin, at the 9-day conference which ended late on Tuesday.
Who the hell said they wanted to?
Delegates at the meeting, including Hassan Dahir Aweis, head of the Mogadishu sharia courts, said it was the perfect opportunity to formalise sharia law. "This is the proper time to install Islamic administration in Somalia," said Ahmed Bile Ugas, an influential member of the al-Itihad organisation which Western security services view as sympathetic to terrorists. Al-Itihaad al-Islamiyyah is the local Somali arm of al-Qaeda based in Mogadishu, though the recent ICG report sez they've branched out to other countries as well. These are the same bastards who were responsible for the events of "Black Hawk Down" as well as the death of Dutch and Pakistani peacekeepers during the same period.
Posted by: Dan Darling ||
09/08/2005 00:49 ||
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"Christians and Christian supporters have no chance of ruling in this nation of Islam," said a prominent Islamist, Sheik Mohamed Yasin, at the 9-day conference which ended late on Tuesday.
A car exploded in a southern Afghan town yesterday, killing its three occupants and a passerby, in what appeared to be a bungled suicide attack, a provincial official said. Security has been stepped up across Afghanistan in the run-up to Sept. 18 elections that have been denounced by Taleban insurgents, who have been battling US and government forces since their ouster in 2001. The car was passing a policemanâs house in the town of Girishk when it exploded but that was not believed to have been the target, said Mohammed Wali Alizai, spokesman for the Helmand provincial governor. âIt seems their aim was to carry out a suicide attack on the Americans but it went off early,â Alizai said. âThe car was completely destroyed, itâs in pieces,â he said.
... dancing a clumsy, odd-looking jig on the hard boyz' graves...
The Taleban claimed responsibility. Abdul Latif Hakimi, a spokesman for the militants, said a Taleban suicide bomber set off the blast and eight Americans had been killed.
"Yep. Killed 'em all. They're all dead. None of our guyz are. That wuz the Merkins in the car."
The United States has 20,000 troops in Afghanistan, most of them are focusing on election security, as are 10,000 NATO-led peacekeepers and tens of thousands of government forces.
Not 19,992 troops...
In a separate incident, two Taleban fighters and four Afghan government soldiers were killed in a clash in Ghazni province to the southwest of the capital on Tuesday night, a provincial official said.
Posted by: Fred ||
09/08/2005 00:00 ||
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"The Taleban claimed responsibility."
Perfect. 'We claim responsibility for removing four of our retards fighters from the gene pool.' Also, seems like the Taliban PR department and the operations department were a little out of sync. Again, please.
Posted by: Whiskey Mike ||
09/08/2005 5:47 Comments ||
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The Afghan government announced yesterday that an advance guard of elite Australian troops has begun new operations against insurgents in Afghanistan ahead of elections. They will be joined soon by the rest of a 190-strong force of Special Air Services soldiers and commandos deployed to fight a resurgence in rebel attacks, Defense Minister Robert Hill told reporters in Canberra. Australia deployed some 1,000 troops in support of the US-led invasion of Afghanistan in 2001, but they were withdrawn toward the end of 2002. The new troops are believed to be in provinces along the border with Pakistan but Hill would not say where. âWe have an area of operations that has been particularly troubling for a long time in terms of Taleban activity. That continues to be so,â he said.
But not much longer.
Posted by: Fred ||
09/08/2005 00:00 ||
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Not a good omen for talibans, mate. Many toes-up blokes to come.
Posted by: Captain America ||
09/08/2005 2:37 Comments ||
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I've seen them Blokes in action in Iraq, true Warriors to the core. Mad Max don't hold a candle to the Aussie SAS when they get a wild 'Roo hair up their ass and decide to go take over a few grid squares. Fast, professional, deadly, and insanely Gung-Ho they are. Plus, they have the worlds' best field rats. (Except for that gawd-awful vegamite) Fatalistic Optimism to the end, all with a crooked grin on their sweat-stained faces. God bless them and their country.
#6
Yeah, they even have it at MacDonalds as a condiment.
Posted by: Mrs. Davis ||
09/08/2005 13:10 Comments ||
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From Google
What is Vegemite?
Vegemite is considered as much a part of Australia's heritage as kangaroos and the Holden cars. It is actually an Australian obsession that has become a unique and loved symbol of the Australian nation.
A Vegemite sandwich to an Australian kid is the equivalent of a peanut butter and jelly sandwich to an American kid - but the taste is QUITE different!
Vegemite is one of several yeast extract spreads sold in Australia. It is made from leftover brewers' yeast extract (a by-product of beer manufacture) and various vegetable and spice additives. It is very dark reddish-brown, almost black, in color, and one of the richest sources known of Vitamin B. It's thick like peanut butter, it's very salty, and it tastes like - well let's just say that it is an acquired taste!
Australian children are brought up on Vegemite from the time they're babies. It is said that Australians are known to travel all over the world with at least one small jar of Vegemite in their luggage, for fear that they will not be able to find it.
Posted by: Redneck Jim ||
09/08/2005 13:38 Comments ||
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Tell me about it, Jim. My niece from Sydney had the run of our apartment while we were on vacation and cleaned out my wifes Vegemite stash. Great wailings and gnashing of teeth did ensue.
#9
From memory, the SAS was given responsibility for about 40% of Iraq in the invasion. All the Western desert, at any rate.
No problems seem to have been encountered.
Unidentified men blew-up the railway track between Darvaish Lashari and Dera Ghazi Khan rail stations at midnight on Wednesday, shortly after the Lahore-bound Chiltan Express passes by. This was third blast on track in DG Khan this year. "A large area of the track between Kot Adu and DG Khan was damaged when a bomb exploded near level crossing no 218 some 90 miles west of Multan at midnight," Railways SSP Multan Ahmed Mukhtar said. "The track was repaired immediately and it is clear for traffic," Multan Divisional Superintendent Irfan Gauhar said.
Posted by: Fred ||
09/08/2005 00:00 ||
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SRINAGAR: A suspected Muslim militant was killed in a shootout near Jammu Kashmir's administrative headquarters in the heart of Srinagar, police said. The shooting broke out when police tried to stop two men riding a motorcycle near the tightly guarded Civil Secretariat that houses the offices of Chief Minister Mufti Mohammed Sayeed, cabinet colleagues and top bureaucrats.
Posted by: Fred ||
09/08/2005 00:00 ||
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BASRA: A car bomb shattered the relative peace of Basra after dark on Wednesday, killing 12 people and wounding 22 in a district packed with restaurants and a market, hospital sources said. A journalist saw at least five bodies at a local hospital. "It appears to have been a large vehicle bomb explosion in the city centre," said a spokesman for the British armed forces.
Early on Wednesday, four US security guards died when a bomb hit their sports utility vehicle near Basra, the US Embassy said in a statement. All four worked for a private security firm supporting the regional US Embassy office in Basra, it said, adding that no British or US troops were involved in the incident. Al Qaeda in Iraq later claimed that attack in an Internet statement.
Posted by: Fred ||
09/08/2005 00:00 ||
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LAHORE: Shahdara police registered a case against Maulana Irshad Ahmad, an activist of banned militant Sipah-e-Sahaba Pakistan (SSP), and others for fanning sectarian hatred. City SP Dr Usman said that they were conspiring against another sect at Qasr-e-Azam Mosque, Shahdara. He said the police registered a case but nobody had been arrested.
"Yeah. We registered a case, but they had somethin' to do, so we didn't take 'em in..."
Posted by: Fred ||
09/08/2005 00:00 ||
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U.S. warplanes bombed a house in an al-Qaida stronghold near the Syrian border Wednesday and a key terrorist operative was believed killed, the U.S. military said. It was the second day of airstrikes aimed at what American commanders say is an increasing al-Qaida presence in the area near the border city of Qaim. A U.S. military statement said Wednesday's attack was thought to have killed Abu Ali, a senior al-Qaida agent in charge of helping foreign fighters enter the country from Syria. He was believed in a house targeted in a Euphrates River village, the statement said.
Ali was "linked to other al-Qaida terrorists and foreign fighter facilitators in the Hit, Qaim, Karabilah and Husaybah areas," it said. He also was known to have al-Qaida connections in Syria and Saudi Arabia, where most of his foreign fighters were recruited, the military said. U.S. pilots reported several secondary explosions after their bombs destroyed the house, suggesting the structure held a large cache of armaments, the statement said. The target was just a few miles from the town of Husaybah, where residents said Wednesday that masked insurgent gunmen had taken control, setting up roadblocks and questioning people on the streets. They said snipers were atop buildings and gunmen roamed the streets.
Posted by: Fred ||
09/08/2005 00:00 ||
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A suicide bomber blew up his explosives-laden car outside a takeout restaurant in a market in this southern Iraqi city Wednesday night, killing at least 10 people and wounding 15, police said. The felafel restaurant is in the center of Basra's Hayaniyah district market, a Shiite Muslim section of the city, Lt. Col. Karim al-Zaidi said. Two police vehicles were destroyed in the blast. Police at first said at least 15 people died in the attack, but later explained some of those counted as dead were critically wounded.
Posted by: Fred ||
09/08/2005 00:00 ||
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Palestinian leader Mahmoud Abbas vowed to hunt down the killers of a powerful former security chief whose gangland-style slaying Wednesday laid bare Gaza's raging power struggles just days before Israel hands over control of the coastal territory.
I'd also say it laid bare Abbas' own impotence, as well as that of the Paleostinian Authority. I'd also guess that he's just passing verbal gas and doesn't have the capability of actually doing anything about it. Maybe in a couple years, if he lives...
In a brazen challenge to Abbas, a shadowy militant group claimed responsibility for killing Moussa Arafat, cousin of the late Palestinian leader Yasser Arafat, in a burst of gunfire. About 100 masked militants stormed Moussa Arafat's heavily guarded home in an upscale Gaza City neighborhood early Wednesday, sparking a 30-minute gunbattle with dozens of his bodyguards. The assailants burst into the home, dragged out Arafat in his pajamas and gunned him down in the dusty street. Arafat's oldest son, Manhal, a senior security commander, was kidnapped by the gunmen. Officials said negotiations, brokered by Egyptian security officials, were under way to secure his release.
The whole family seems to be in the ruling business. There could only be one Yasser, of course, so the rest of the family got to be "senior security commanders."
The killing raised new questions about the Palestinian Authority's ability to take control of Gaza after Israel completes its pullout next week.
Actually, I'd say it answers the questions. They've been raised since long before Yasser became stable...
It occurred a block from the headquarters of the Palestinian Preventive Security Service,
... which has so far failed to prevent anything at all...
which failed to respond,
"Captain Mahmoud! They're gunning Moussa down in the street a block away!"
"Ignore it, Ahmed! Look at the sign. It sez Preventive Security. How ya gonna prevent it if it's already happened?"
"Right. Maybe I'll just make a donut run."
and 400 yards from Abbas' Gaza residence, where he was spending the night. Palestinian officials said they viewed the killing as an attack on the government. "This is a very dangerous act," said Palestinian Prime Minister Ahmed Qureia.
I wonder if it took him all night to figure out that gunning prominent public figures down in the streets is a "dangerous act."
Abbas met with top security officials, placed his forces on high alert and said he would track down the killers. "This crime does not stop his efforts to maintain law and order," said a statement issued by Abbas' office.
Doesn't help them much, though...
Posted by: Fred ||
09/08/2005 00:00 ||
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#2
"dragged out Arafat in his pajamas",100+ automatic weapons firing for 30 minutes.Either this was the heavest sleeper in the world or he had way to much confidence in his security gaurds.
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.
RIYADH, Saudi Arabia (AP) - Five militants killed during a three-day battle with security forces this week have been identified as al-Qaida members on the country's most-wanted list, the Saudi Interior Ministry said Thursday. 
A suspected Islamic militant, wanted in connection with making a car bomb used in a suicide attack three years ago that killed 15 people, including 11 French engineers, was arrested Thursday after a shootout, police said. 
The probe into the August 17 countrywide blasts seems to stall as investigators are finding it almost impossible to get significant clues which may reveal the motive and detect the masterminds of the attacks. Some of the 300 suspects arrested in connection with the explosions have confessed to having links to the attacks. But they barely can name the leaders of their immediate upper tier, leave alone the masterminds, sources in the intelligence agencies said. 
Leading Somali Islamists have called for the formal introduction of sharia law to help impose order on the Horn of Africa nation whose 10 million people have been without government for 14 years. "We have a right to rule our people by Islamic law," said 
A car exploded in a southern Afghan town yesterday, killing its three occupants and a passerby, in what appeared to be a bungled suicide attack, a provincial official said. Security has been stepped up across Afghanistan in the run-up to Sept. 18 elections that have been denounced by Taleban insurgents, who have been battling US and government forces since their ouster in 2001. The car was passing a policemanâs house in the town of Girishk when it exploded but that was not believed to have been the target, said Mohammed Wali Alizai, spokesman for the 
The Afghan government announced yesterday that an advance guard of elite Australian troops has begun new operations against insurgents in Afghanistan ahead of elections. They will be joined soon by the rest of a 190-strong force of Special Air Services soldiers and commandos deployed to fight a resurgence in rebel attacks, Defense Minister Robert Hill told reporters in Canberra. Australia deployed some 1,000 troops in support of the US-led invasion of Afghanistan in 2001, but they were withdrawn toward the end of 2002. The new troops are believed to be in provinces along the border with Pakistan but Hill would not say where. âWe have an area of operations that has been particularly troubling for a long time in terms of Taleban activity. That continues to be so,â he said.
Unidentified men blew-up the railway track between Darvaish Lashari and Dera Ghazi Khan rail stations at midnight on Wednesday, shortly after the Lahore-bound Chiltan Express passes by. This was third blast on track in DG Khan this year. "A large area of the track between Kot Adu and DG Khan was damaged when a bomb exploded near level crossing no 218 some 90 miles west of Multan at midnight," Railways SSP Multan Ahmed Mukhtar said. "The track was repaired immediately and it is clear for traffic," Multan Divisional Superintendent Irfan Gauhar said.
BASRA: A car bomb shattered the relative peace of Basra after dark on Wednesday, killing 12 people and wounding 22 in a district packed with restaurants and a market, hospital sources said. A journalist saw at least five bodies at a local hospital. "It appears to have been a large vehicle bomb explosion in the city centre," said a spokesman for the British armed forces.
LAHORE: Shahdara police registered a case against 
U.S. warplanes bombed a house in an al-Qaida stronghold near the Syrian border Wednesday and a key terrorist operative was believed killed, the U.S. military said. It was the second day of airstrikes aimed at what American commanders say is an increasing al-Qaida presence in the area near the border city of Qaim. A U.S. military statement said Wednesday's attack was thought to have killed 
A suicide bomber blew up his explosives-laden car outside a takeout restaurant in a market in this southern Iraqi city Wednesday night, killing at least 10 people and wounding 15, police said. The felafel restaurant is in the center of Basra's Hayaniyah district market, a Shiite Muslim section of the city, Lt. Col. Karim al-Zaidi said. Two police vehicles were destroyed in the blast. Police at first said at least 15 people died in the attack, but later explained some of those counted as dead were critically wounded.
Palestinian leader 
