The Anti-Narcotics Department at King Khaled International Airport in Riyadh arrested a group of drug traffickers and seized a large container with over a ton of Cannabis, Asharq Al-Awsat has learned. Authorities were alerted about the Cannabis shipment, which had recently arrived from the city of Dammam in the Eastern Province after receiving an anonymous "tip off". The source revealed to the Anti-Narcotics Department that a group of individuals would be arriving at King Khaled International Airport with a very large shipment of Cannabis. The Drug traffickers had planed on storing the drugs in a safe location before distributing the illegal substance all across the Kingdom.
Asharq Al-Awsat has also learned that the drug traffickers were Pakistani in origin, and had smuggled the drugs from Pakistan to the kingdom by way of the United Arab Emirates. Earlier this month a Saudi official told Asharq Al-Awsat that that drug smuggling, especially cannabis, from Iraq into Saudi Arabia has increased and that the Drug trade was financing militants fighting the Iraqi and multinational armies and facilitating the illegal entry of men into the country. It also supports al Qaeda's terrorist activities inside the Kingdom.
Posted by: Fred ||
09/27/2005 00:00 ||
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Earlier this month a Saudi official told Asharq "Al-Awsat that that drug smuggling, especially cannabis, from Iraq into Saudi Arabia has increased and that the drug trade was financing militants fighting the Iraqi and multinational armies and facilitating the illegal entry of men into the country. It also supports al Qaeda's terrorist activities inside the Kingdom."
My,my,my! Iraq IS starting to sound like a replay of Viet Nam, the war financed by drugs. Where is Air America HQ?
London police said Tuesday they had arrested a 36-year-old man in connection with the failed July 21 bomb attacks on three London subway trains and a bus. Four suspected bombers are already in custody over the attacks, in which no one was hurt. The attacks came two weeks after 56 people, including four bombers, died in blasts that also targeted three Underground trains and a bus.
The Metropolitan Police said the man was arrested by anti-terrorist officers just after 5 p.m. on suspicion of assisting an offender and alleged immigration offenses. He has not yet been charged and his name was not released. A police spokeswoman refused to say where in London he was arrested or give his nationality. She spoke on condition of anonymity, as is customary with British police officials.
"I can say nothing."
Ten other people have been charged with withholding information from police seeking the suspected bombers or with helping them evade arrest. All are awaiting trial.
One of the four suspected July 21 bombers appeared in court Friday, a day after he was extradited from Italy. Ethiopian-born Hussain Osman faces charges including conspiracy to commit murder, attempted murder and possession of explosives. That hearing came after a two-month legal battle to avoid extradition from Rome, where Osman fled after the attacks.
Posted by: Steve ||
09/27/2005 15:28 ||
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Shining Path founder Abimael Guzman, whose messianic communist vision inspired a rebellion that left almost 70,000 people dead, went on trial again Monday with his attorney predicting he'll receive the same life sentence that was thrown out two years ago.
About 18 police stood guard in the courtroom in the maximum security naval base prison in Lima's port of Callao, where the 70-year-old former philosophy professor has been held since April 1993. The retrial reunited Guzman with nine of his top commanders, including his longtime lover and second-in-command, Elena Iparraguirre. Guzman and the others are charged with terrorism for an array of massacres, car bombings and acts of sabotage that date back to the 1980 start of Shining Path insurgency.
Posted by: Fred ||
09/27/2005 00:00 ||
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This maoist scumbag is still around?
70,000 people dead and he deserves another trial?
Posted by: john ||
09/27/2005 18:22 Comments ||
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Gunmen launched two separate attacks in Chechnya , killing one police officer and wounding four others, Russiaâs Interior Ministry said Wednesday.
Also Tuesday evening, three unknown gunmen fired on guards outside a court building in the Chechen capital of Grozny, wounding one, he said.
Meanwhile, the Kremlin issued a letter Wednesday from President Vladimir Putin to Jordanian King Abdullah II. The message was delivered personally by Moscow-backed Chechen President Alu Alkhanov during his Middle Eastern tour.
But it added that "bandits and international terrorists still hoped to prevent positive changes and manipulate people using their religious feelings."
Jordan has a large Chechen Diaspora which, like most Chechens outside Russia and many in the Muslim world, are generally resentful of Russiaâs handling of the Chechen crisis. Alkhanovâs tour at the end of last week also included a visit to Syria.
Posted by: Dan Darling ||
09/27/2005 00:16 ||
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Former Labor foreign minister Gareth Evans says he believes the influence of the terrorist group Jemaah Islamiah in South-East Asia has been smashed.
Mr Evans, who now head the Brussels-based International Crisis Group, says the terrorist threat within Australia should be viewed as moderate rather than extreme.
In a speech delivered in Sydney last night, Mr Evans said the International Crisis Group had no information suggesting that JI had sleeper cells in Australia.
He said there was no question that Australia's support for the United States and the war in Iraq had raised the nation's profile in the Salafi Jihadi world.
But Mr Evans said his organisation was of the view that JI was no longer a serious threat to Australia's interests.
"The division of Jemaah Islamiah that was operating in Australia in a tentative sort of a way has clearly been effectively smashed by the Australian authorities," he said.
"Jemaah Islamiah itself has been significantly decimated in terms of its effective operation in Indonesia."
Speaking on the day state and territory leaders agreed with the Commonwealth on a new range of anti-terrorist measures, Mr Evans said the terrorist risk in Australia was "moderate".
"It's obviously appropriate that Australia respond with defensive measures and effective policing activity as it has but we should not go overboard," he said.
"The judgment I make from our work in the region, Indonesia in particular, for us [the risk] is real but it's basically moderate, not extreme."
However, Rohan Gunaratna, an expert on terrorism in South-East Asia, said JI remained a "credible threat" in the region.
"It is the most active terrorist group in South-East Asia today," Dr Gunaratna said.
"I think that Australian and Indonesian police have done a very good job in fighting JI but still JI key operatives are free and they are planning and preparing attacks."
Dr Gunaratna said he believed JI would mount an attack in the coming months.
"JI poses a threat to Australia because JI has intention of attacking Australian interests and if possible JI would like to attack inside Australia," he said.
"JI had a very significant network in Australia that was dismantled after the Bali attack, we must not forget that."
more at link
Posted by: Oztralian [AKA] God Save The World ||
09/27/2005 16:06 ||
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"Jemaah Islamiah itself has been significantly decimated"
So, one in ten are dead?
/pedant :-D
Posted by: Barbara Skolaut ||
09/27/2005 22:14 Comments ||
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AUSTRALIA faces a serious new home-grown terror threat, with ASIO estimating that up to 800 Muslim "extremists" living here could be motivated to carry out a London-style attack.
A year ago, the nation's security agencies revealed they were closely monitoring the activities of 70-80 Australians known to have trained with terrorist groups in Pakistan and Afghanistan.
But now, in the wake of the July 7 London attacks carried out by four suicide bombers previously unknown to British intelligence agencies, ASIO has identified a much larger number of Australians - between 700 and 800 people - who previously were not deemed a potential security risk.
State premiers and the two chief ministers were yesterday briefed on threats to Australia's security by ASIO director-general Paul O'Sullivan and Office of National Assessments chief Peter Varghese during the COAG terror summit in Canberra.
Another major security concern - which helped secure the unanimous agreement of the states and territories to a raft of new anti-terror legislation - is the resurgent strategic influence of Osama bin Laden's al-Qaeda network.
Security officials say al-Qaeda's "network of networks" continues to inspire, train and recruit new bands of terrorists around the globe, with the internet playing a vital role.
The need for enhanced surveillance of a big number of home-grown extremists is driving a further expansion of ASIO and the Australian Federal Police, as well as the new counter-terrorism laws agreed to yesterday.
The latest intelligence assessments also point to a possible direct role by al-Qaeda in the July 7 London bombings. Another looming worry for Australia's security agencies is the prospect of a chemical, radiological, biological or nuclear attack on Australia.
The risk of a so-called CBRN attack, particularly bio-terrorism, prompted the Prime Minister to announce yesterday the creation of a $20 million CBRN research facility, as well as a national network of analytical laboratories.
John Howard said terrorism had become the "shadowy, elusive and lethal enemy" confronting Australia and it had forced the Government to revamp its security regime in the wake of the London bombings.
Mr Howard, who was in London during the July 7 attacks, said the "chilling reality" that terrorism could be homegrown had a lot to do with the new wave of counter-terrorism legislation.
Posted by: Oztralian [AKA] God Save The World ||
09/27/2005 16:10 ||
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Here's an idea. Start killing them. knock off two or three a week and before you know it, they will disappear below the rug. If your pussy government has a problem with that, call me.
#2
Sometimes you need to take people out of circulation. So the majority can enjoy civil rights and freedom every now and then a rabid Islamist mullah needs to go missing.
Fear needs to circulate in the community that the reason he was taken out is his extremist preaching so Islamists are made to feel unwelcome. Some will leave, others will moderate or be driven underground where they will recruit fewer converts and do less ideological damage.
#3
Though I despise them, it is possible that racist skinhead type groups have a useful function in a democracy. Where the democracy is too weak to threaten those that seek to undermine it, the skinheads step in, make them feel unwelcome and force them to assimilate a bit.
THE nation's security would be boosted after state and territory leaders agreed to new counter-terrorism laws, which will be subject to review after five years, Prime Minister Minister John Howard said today.
The meeting of the Council of Australian Governments (CoAG) meeting in Canberra today also agreed to a 10-year sunset clause, one of the safeguards sought by states and territories.
"There has been unanimous agreement coming out of the meeting for major changes that will enhance the security of this country," Mr Howard said.
Mr Howard said the Federal Government would provide $20 million to fund a chemical, biological, radiological and nuclear research facility to be established through the Australian Federal Police.
It will sit alongside the existing Australian Bomb Data Centre which collates information on bomb incidents. "As part of this proposal we will establish throughout Australia a network of laboratories which will have the capacity to analyse chemical substances in the context of our counter-terrorism behaviour," he said.
"In addition we are going to ask the national counter-terrorism committee, which is chaired by Duncan Lewis, the deputy secretary of my department, to commence work on developing a chemical, biological, radiological and nuclear strategy, bearing in mind the potential challenge of those agencies and properties in the terrorist environment."
Mr Howard said the premiers had also endorsed recommendations from the recent Wheeler report into airport security. He said the premiers backed a plan by the Federal Government to set up a unified policing model at each of the 11 counter-terrorism first response airports across Australia.
The Federal Government will fund full-time community policing teams made up of Australian Federal Police officers at each of the 11 airports.
The officers will be under AFP commanders, who will be chosen by a panel made up of state and territory representatives.
Mr Howard thanked the premiers and chief ministers for backing the Commonwealth's tough security upgrades.
"We have agreed today on unusual laws for Australia, we have done that because we live in unusual circumstances," he said.
"In other circumstances I would never have sought these additional powers, I would never have asked the premiers of the Australian states to support me in enacting these laws.
"But we do live in very dangerous and different and threatening circumstances and a strong and comprehensive response is needed."
Mr Howard said the states and territories had agreed to the Commonwealth's proposals in relation to control orders and preventative detention, which will require special legislation from the states.
"We have agreed on a review of this legislation after five years and sunset clause after 10 years," he said.
As well, Queensland's Public Interest Monitor would provide a check on the laws in that state.
Mr Howard also won agreement on stop, search and question powers for police, as well as his other counter-terror initiatives, announced earlier this month.
Mr Howard said the new powers were necessary to ensure all Australians were better protected from the threat of terrorism. "I cannot guarantee that Australia will not be the subject of a terrorist attack, no law can guarantee that," he said.
"But I can say as a result of the decisions taken today that we are in a stronger and better position to give peace of mind to the Australian community, and that is our responsibility."
Victorian Premier Steve Bracks said the new measures were needed to plug the current gaps in Australia's laws.
He said state leaders were confident the new laws achieved the right balance, with adequate checks in place to protect civil liberties.
"I'm very pleased in the framing of these new laws, that individual liberties of Australians and Victorians have been protected," Mr Bracks said.
"Judicial oversight has been a principle which has been supported by the prime minister, the premier and the territory leaders, and there is complete judicial oversight over these new criminal sanctions which will be in place."
New South Wales Premier Morris Iemma said the safeguards agreed to were important to better protect all Australians' way of life.
"Our overriding responsibility is to protect our citizens, to better secure our citizens, and that's what today's outcome will do," Mr Iemma said.
"At the same time, we've proven that it is possible to get tougher laws on terror and at the same time protect individual liberties.
"We have a national agreement, a spirit of co-operation to have us with a set of laws that will better protect our citizens from the threat of terror and at the same time, protect individual rights."
Posted by: Oztralian [AKA] God Save The World ||
09/27/2005 00:48 ||
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This is going to piss off the muzzies big time.
Howard is the only leader I know of that understands that the WOT is war against Jihad and by definition against muslims and their apologists, i.e. the looney left.
Italian police smashed on Monday an alleged terrorist cell based in Milan, raiding the homes and businesses of 11 Algerian nationals with suspected terror links, local media reported. Police said the 11 men were suspected of having ties to a fundamentalist militant group known as the Salafist Group for Calland Combat.
Investigators said some of the men were under investigation for international terrorism and some were already in jail on other charges. They added that some of the Algerians were included on terror suspect lists drawn up by the European Union, the United States and the United Nations. The Algerians were accused of sending money to the Salafist Group - known by its French initials GSPC - which is fighting for the creation of an Islamic state in Algeria and has declared allegiance to Osama bin Laden's al-Qaeda terrorist network.
The offices searched on Monday included information technology firms and clothing import and export businesses owned or run by some of the suspects. Investigators said they found evidence of money transfers to Belgium, the United Kingdom and Spain. They also discovered a warehouse believed to be the cell's logistic base.
Posted by: Dan Darling ||
09/27/2005 00:13 ||
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The potentially lethal nuclear enrichment material that Bulgarian customs prevented from crossing into Romania is linked to Iran's nuclear quest, the Sunday Herald reported, citing Romanian sources.
"The sources could not give the intended final destination of the consignment, but the "working hypothesis" of Balkan police forces is that "it is linked to Iran's nuclear quest". Then again, there are always al-Qaeda armourers keen to buy dirty bomb material."
According to the reports an Arab-dominated Bucharest mafia was the inter mediary in the hafnium deal.
A week ago Bulgaria's police in the northeastern Danube city Russe nabbed 3.5kg of hafnium, a material that could be used in the manufacture of radioactive "dirty bombs".
The article raises a number of questions over the releasing of the smuggler's Romanian companions after the Bulgarian driver of the smugglers' car admitted that the hafnium consignment was his property.
"The sudden and unconditional freeing of the smuggler's Romanian companions raises justifiable fears about the financial clout of the mafias apparently involved, and the legendary corruptibility of Balkan police forces. Bulgaria, like Romania, is hoping to join the EU in 2007, but corruption is seen as one of the main stumbling blocks in its path."
Posted by: Dan Darling ||
09/27/2005 00:05 ||
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Hafium is a poor choice for a dirty bomb. But it is an excellent choice for lining control rods in a nuclear reactor. That fact suggests the most likely destination was Iran, for use in their nuclear weapons development program.
#2
Hafnium? I swear I wrapped it twice in aloca's best. No way it re-surfaces. Good heavens, this is bad juju. I stored it mainly in a klein bottle and flung it side armed out the waist of a Marlin. I'ts fuzzy after that. It was a long time ago. Things were different. Slower, in black and white, with rare KodaChrome. You know what I mean.
Concluding Europe's largest trial to date of alleged Al Qaeda militants, a Spanish tribunal today convicted 18 Muslim immigrants of terrorism charges, among them a purported ringleader found guilty of conspiring to plan the Sept. 11 attacks in the United States.
It was a rare conviction of anyone associated with the 2001 attacks in New York and Washington. But the Spanish court dismissed the most serious charges before it, in a stinging blow to efforts here and abroad to prosecute terrorism cases.
Among those convicted and sentenced to seven years in prison was the Al Jazeera television correspondent in Spain. Six defendants were acquitted of all charges.
The "mega-trial," as it was known in Spain because of its size and potential reach, was seen as an important test of the ability of a democracy to investigate alleged Islamic terrorists in its midst and bring them to justice without sacrificing civil rights.
Chief prosecutor Eduardo Fungairino said today's convictions confirmed the Spanish judiciary's contention that it is better to fight terrorism through the legal system than through "wars and detention camps."
Still, the penalties handed down today fell far short of what prosecutors had sought.
Only three of the 24 defendants were accused of being accomplices to the Sept. 11 attacks, and prosecutors asked that all three be given sentences of 74,000 years: 25 years for each of the nearly 3,000 people killed. The court threw out those charges, citing lack of evidence.
Instead, the key defendant, Syrian-born Spanish citizen Imad Eddin Barakat Yarkas, was convicted of conspiracy to commit murder for his role in arranging a meeting near Tarragona in July 2001 for Mohamed Atta. At the meeting, Atta is believed to have finalized his plans to fly hijacked airliners into the World Trade Center and Washington sites.
Barakat also was alleged to be the head of an Al Qaeda cell in Spain dedicated to promoting worldwide jihad and recruiting young European Muslims for it. Like all 24 defendants, he maintained his innocence throughout.
The court sentenced Barakat to 15 years for the conspiracy role and another 12 years for being the leader of a terrorist group.
One of the other men accused of involvement in the Sept. 11 attacks, Moroccan-born Driss Chebli, was cleared of the murder-related charges and instead will be jailed for six years for collaborating with a terrorist group.
A third defendant, Ghasoub Abrash Ghalyoun, was acquitted of all charges and freed. He had been accused of making a videotape of potential targets such as the World Trade Center; he maintained it was a video of his vacation. The tape showed him and his friends mugging for the camera and saying "Cheese" while visiting U.S. sites.
The verdicts, contained in a 445-page judgment, were read on live television at a special court on the outskirts of Madrid under heavy security. It was there that the "mega-trial" was held for nearly three months over the summer, after years of investigation. The three-member tribunal heard more than 100 witnesses and reviewed 100,000 pages of evidence.
While the case predated Madrid's own terror bombings of March 2004, judicial officials had hoped victory here would facilitate the upcoming prosecution of some 100 suspects in those attacks, which killed nearly 300 people riding commuter trains in Madrid.
All of the remaining defendants who were not acquitted received sentences from six to 11 years for collaborating with or belonging to a terrorist organization.
They included journalist Taysir Alouni, correspondent for the Arab satellite station Al Jazeera, who gained fame by broadcasting the first interview with Osama bin Laden, from Afghanistan, after Sept. 11.
Alouni has lived and worked in Spain for many years and was convicted for allegedly ferrying money to Al Qaeda operatives. He was sentenced to seven years. During the trial, he told the court they had put Spain's entire Muslim community under a dark cloud of suspicion.
His boss, Al Jazeera news editor Ahmed Sheikh, told his station that the conviction marked "a black day for Spanish justice." He later told CNN that while Al Jazeera respected the Spanish system, the trial was a politically motivated, unfair judgment based on circumstantial evidence.
Alouni will appeal, Sheikh said.
Posted by: Dan Darling ||
09/27/2005 00:02 ||
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French anti-terrorism police arrested nine people Monday suspected of planning attacks, including an Islamic militant previously convicted on terrorism charges and freed from prison two years ago.
That worked well, didn't it?
Authorities said the arrest of Safe Bourada, who had been under surveillance since his release in 2003, highlights potential risks posed by unrepentant militants being freed after serving prison sentences in connection with bombings in the 1990s.
They needed highlighting?
The nine were picked up in early morning raids west of Paris and in Evreux, 55 miles northwest of the French capital. Police in black hoods marched the suspects, their heads hidden under clothing, their arms pinned behind their backs, to waiting cars and carried out boxes of what appeared to be seized documents. Police trained to deal with chemical and biological agents were on standby â although none were found in subsequent searches, said a police official.
Investigators suspect Bourada, 35, was putting together a cell that intended to carry out attacks in France, the official said. The nine suspects initially will be kept for four days of questioning, which is expected to determine whether they had selected specific targets, the official said. Bourada was among 36 Islamic militants sentenced in February 1998 for providing support for bomb attacks that terrorized France in 1995. Bourada received the maximum 10-year sentence but won early release in 2003, the police official said. He said others in the group arrested Monday have also served jail time but not on terrorism-related charges.
Just your everyday crooks...
A judicial official said the nine are suspected of links with the Salafist Group for Call and Combat, a militant Algerian movement that has declared allegiance to Osama bin Laden's al-Qaida terror network and which is known by its French initials GSPC. The official spoke on condition of anonymity because French law bars disclosing information from judicial investigations. But the police official said any link appeared tenuous and that there is no clear indication that Bourada was acting on orders from the militant group or in its name. In an Internet posting in August, the group urged its sympathizers to act against French interests, said terrorism expert Jean-Luc Marret, author of "The Factories of Jihad."
He said Monday's arrests highlighted the potential risks posed by militants whose prison terms from the 1990s have come, or are coming to, an end. Specific figures were unavailable, but Marret estimated there are 30 to 40 such militants. "Because France started arresting these people ... because we faced this threat in 1995, then by definition the first jihadists coming out of prison are in France and these people have not necessarily changed their minds," said Marret.
Other recently released militants have also come to investigators' attention, said the police official. France is working on bolstering its already tough counterterrorism laws. An anti-terrorism bill to go before the French Cabinet next month would double the maximum penalty in the most common charge applied in terrorism cases to 20 years' imprisonment.
Bourada was formerly linked to the Armed Islamic Group, an Algerian group that claimed responsibility for some of the 1995 attacks. They began July 25, 1995, when a bomb exploded in a subway train at the St. Michel station in the Latin quarter. In all, nine people were killed and more than 200 wounded in the campaign to pressure France to cut ties with Algeria's military-backed government.
Separately, in Italy, authorities on Monday conducted raids of apartments and offices linked to 11 Algerians suspected of sending money to the Salafist Group for Call and Combat. No arrests were made. Algeria's government this weekend also announced the arrest of several Tunisians and five Moroccans suspected of membership in the militant group, Algerian media reported Monday.
Posted by: Fred ||
09/27/2005 00:00 ||
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Terrorist suspects eyed Paris Metro, airport as targets
PARIS, Sept 27 (AFP) - Suspected Islamic militants being questioned for a second day by anti-terrorist investigators had been looking at the Paris metro system, an airport and the headquarters of France's domestic intelligence service as targets, officials said Tuesday.
Nine people were detained in a series of dawn raids Monday in poor neighbourhoods of towns west of Paris. Officials said they were members of the Algerian Islamist organisation, the Salafist Group for Preaching and Combat (GSPC).
Suspicions over their intentions were based on telephone intercepts from Algeria, investigators said. However they said there was no evidence that an actual plan of attack was being formulated.
Monday's arrests came as interior minister Nicolas Sarkozy unveiled details of a new anti-terrorism law that is to be put to the French cabinet next month.
Speaking on national television, Sarkozy said that the terrorist threat in France was "at a very high level ... There are cells operating on our territory."
"New York, Madrid, London. Inevitably one thinks of Paris, Berlin, Rome. The designated targets are the democracies," Sarkozy said.
Suspected terrorist cell raided by French police
Sarkozy defends tough new anti-terror law
Metro bomber may finally be extradited to France
Sarkozy's draft law, which was drawn up after the July suicide bombings in London, authorises greatly increased video-surveillance in towns and cities as well as improved police access to Internet and mobile telephone records.
It will also oblige travel companies to provide the authorities with personal details of passengers, and increases the maximum sentence for terrorist association to 30 years.
"The first freedom is the freedom to take the metro or the bus without fearing for one's life," Sarkozy said.
Investigators have till Friday to question the nine detainees, after which they must be released or brought before an anti-terrorist judge.
Among those being held was Safe Bourada, 35, who was released from prison in 2003 after serving five years for helping organise a series of bomb attacks that killed nine people in France in 1995.
At his trial in 1997, Bourada was described as an important link with the Armed Islamic Group (GIA), the Algerian formation that was the main anti-government force during the country's long Islamic insurgency. The GSPC was born from a split in the GIA.
The investigation leading to Monday's arrests began when the newly-released Bourada was placed under surveillance, and there was a breakthrough two months ago when police made the chance arrest of a group of men holding up a Moroccan prostitute, officials said.
Investigators discovered these men had links with former members of the GIA, they said.
A week ago anti-terrorist police arrested six men in the northern Paris suburbs suspected of recruiting volunteers to fight against US forces in Iraq. They were all released without charge after the four days of questioning which is the maximum the law allows.
#2
Oh, goody. At least it's a change from the '90s, when French terrorists were in the habit of tossing bombs at the outdoor cafes as they drove past on their chic little motorcycles.
The pan-Arab TV channel Jazeera condemned a Spanish court's finding Monday that one of its journalists had collaborated with terrorists, accusing the judges of violating legal principles. âIt was a black day in the history of Spanish justice,â Jazeera news editor Ahmed Sheikh told the channel from Madrid minutes after the court sentenced Tayssir Alouni to seven years' imprisonment for âcollaboration with a terrorist organisation.â Alouni became famous in the Arab world as Jazeera's correspondent in Kabul during the US-backed offensive against the Taleban government in 2001. Shortly after the September 11 attacks on the United States, he interviewed Al Qaeda leader Osama Ben Laden.
A Syrian who also holds Spanish citizenship, Alouni was one of 24 defendants who stood trial in Madrid's national court on charges related to the September 11 attacks and membership in Al Qaeda terror network. He had pleaded innocent, denying that he ever belonged to Al Qaeda.
In a statement issued in Doha, Jazeera said it was âsurprised and deeply disappointed by the court's decision.â It said Jazeera would support Alouni and his family's decision to appeal the verdict and was in consultation with the defence team. âThe channel views the incident as a dangerous precedent for the profession of journalism and journalists across the world who go to great lengths on a daily basis to bring coverage on critical issues,â the statement said. âJazeera reiterates its support for Mr Alouni and his professional integrity and courage as a journalist.â The station also asked Spain's judiciary to release Alouni on bail for health reasons, saying he had a heart condition. Sheikh, the news editor, said Alouni's wife and a representative of the Arab Human Rights Organisation had already told the judge they planned to appeal.
Posted by: Fred ||
09/27/2005 00:00 ||
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The channel views the incident as a dangerous precedent for the profession of journalism and journalists across the world who go to great lengths on a daily basis to bring coverage on critical issues
I'm "down with that".
Posted by: Walter Duranty ||
09/27/2005 0:11 Comments ||
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#3
This ought to serve notice. Giving Terrorists a platfrom to speak from is support. Your ass will go to jail for it. This clown went even farther than that.
#5
As bad as being the mouthpiece of muslim conquest and the Al Qaeda vanguard, Alouni was not convicted of spreading islamic terrorist propaganda. He was convicted of running money for Al Qaeda. I don't believe that is in a typical journalist's job description, though I confess I'm not familiar with Al Jazeera's personnel policies. He was also accused of being a member of Al Qaeda and providing material support, such as satellite phones, though I don't know if the prosecution pursued that charge.
Posted by: ed ||
09/27/2005 8:11 Comments ||
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#6
âIt was a black day in the history of Spanish justice,â Jazeera news editor Ahmed Sheikh told the channel from Madrid minutes after the court sentenced Tayssir Alouni to seven years' imprisonment for âcollaboration with a terrorist organisation.â
It's always interesting to see how people from countries where stealing a loaf of bread will get your hand chopped off have so much to say about Western jurisprudence.
North American Muslims have issued a religious edict against extremism and terrorism to prevent disgruntled Muslims who might be tempted to use their religion to justify violence, says a pamphlet distributed at mosques and other religious places across North America.
The fatwa has been signed by representatives of more than 250 mosques and Islamic centres and endorsed by over 170 Muslim groups, leaders and institutions.
The American fatwa followed a fatwa issued in March by the Islamic Commission of Spain, which declared Osama bin Laden an apostate and urged other Muslims to denounce the Al Qaeda leader. In both the fatwas, Muslim clerics denounced terrorism in religious vocabulary, quoting from the Holy Quran and the Hadith to make their point.
âAs Muslims, we must face up to our responsibility to clarify and advocate a faith-based, righteous and moral position with regard to this problem, especially when terrorist acts are perpetrated in the name of Islam,â said the pamphlet distributed by the Islamic Society of North America, the largest Muslim umbrella group in this region.
Speaking at ISNAâs annual convention earlier this month, US public diplomacy chief Karen Hughes praised denunciation of violence by Muslim groups as âmuch welcomedâ.
âThose are the words the entire world needs to hear,â she said.
Ms Hughes was also urged by 30 Muslim leaders to give American Muslims more influence over US foreign policy.
Posted by: Dan Darling ||
09/27/2005 00:07 ||
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#5
Don't use your religion as a justification for violence. Use is as a justification for moving--back to the Islamist hellholes you oozed from. You're neither needed nor wanted in the West and you can take your taquyya edict and use it for toilet paper since that's about all it's good for.
Posted by: mac ||
09/27/2005 7:08 Comments ||
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#6
Do the pamphlets in Arabic still call for jihad?
Don't forget the sermons.
Posted by: Robert Crawford ||
09/27/2005 7:25 Comments ||
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#11
Four years after 9/11, they denounce terrorism. How sincere is that?
It's beginning to sink in that that the West are not the pussies they thought we were.
S**t they they might start to kick "us lucky ones", who are infesting the West, out of Paradise.
Better start getting with the agenda.
#12
in the world of public relations, this is actually a good start. The bad boys will use it for cover, but lots of ordinary mom and pop Muslims will believe it is true. That's a good thing.
#16
Well, they have the talk, in English. Now they have to walk the talk. Will that take another four years? We do not have the time to wait for results of that experiment.
Posted by: Alaska Paul ||
09/27/2005 11:44 Comments ||
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#17
I'll know we've got some moderate muslims around when you find a halal butcher with a kosher section. Yes, I know there are differences
Posted by: James ||
09/27/2005 12:11 Comments ||
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#18
*Smile*, James. Or products in regular grocery store that have both halal and kosher certifications on the same label. It wouldn't be hard to do technically; there is a lot of overlap... except for the certifying authorities, of course.
Baghdad, 27 Sept. (AKI) - Internet sites linked to Jordanian militant Abu Musab al-Zarqawi have announced the entry of a new terrorist group - the Zubeir Bin al-Awam Brigades - into the galaxy of al-Qaeda in Iraq. The group, which operates mainly in Baghdad and is still mostly unknown, has allegedly promised eternal loyalty to al-Zarqawi. Other small Baathist guerrilla groups are reported to be gravitating towards al-Qaeda.
Posted by: Steve ||
09/27/2005 15:49 ||
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#1
So? Do they want to die individually or as a tight AQ group?
Posted by: Captain America ||
09/27/2005 18:50 Comments ||
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"Eternal loyalty"? I'm not a Quranic scholar or anything, but that definitely sounds like shirk to me. And shirk on a pretty monumental scale, too. Shouldn't their eternal loyalties be reserved for Allah and Allah alone?
Yet more evidence that Zarqawi's branch of al Queda is practicing what can be best described as a sort of devil-worship. I mean, hell - the drugs, the homosexual orgies, the vile parodies of rites of marriage and the ritualistic blood-rites and knife-murders... Anton LaVey and Alistair Crowley would be green with envy, if they weren't already green with decay and decomposition.
Posted by: Mitch H. ||
09/27/2005 19:08 Comments ||
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I thought this was another 'Mother Cindy' article.......
A senior U.S. Marine commander said Monday that insurgents loyal to militant leader Abu Musab al-Zarqawi had taken over at least five key western Iraqi towns on the border with Syria and were forcing local residents to flee. In an interview with The Chronicle, Lt. Col. Julian Alford, commander of the 3rd Battalion, 6th Marines Regiment stationed outside the western Iraqi town of al Qaim, said insurgents in the area had been distributing flyers they called "death letters," in which they ordered residents of this western corner of volatile Anbar province to leave -- or face death.
"Basically, the insurgents say if they don't leave they will ... behead them," said Alford, who took command this month of about 1,000 Marines stationed in the dusty desert area populated by roughly 100,000 Sunni Arabs. "It appears that al Qaeda in Iraq is kicking out local people from a lot of these towns out there," he said. Alford said he did not know why the insurgents were forcing townspeople to leave, but he estimated that as many as 100 families per day were passing through a Marine checkpoint just east of the troubled area, their cars packed with their belongings as they flee east alongside the Euphrates River on the ancient Silk Road.
Nice of them to clear the civilians out of the target area.
Two weeks ago, Marine spokesmen denied initial reports that insurgents had taken control of the area and were enforcing strict Islamic law, whipping men accused of drinking alcohol, burning a beauty parlor and shops that sold CDs and executing government workers for collaboration with the Iraqi government. But Alford told The Chronicle that fighters linked to al-Zarqawi had been in complete control of these ancient smuggling communities for at least the past month, and that neither U.S. nor Iraqi forces held any sway over the swath of land that abuts Iraq's desolate, porous 450-mile border with Syria. Washington has repeatedly accused Syria of providing a safe transit route for foreign fighters headed for Iraq.
He estimated that between 300 and 400 insurgents were operating in the area. Most of them, he said, are foreign fighters who have crossed into Iraq through the border with Syria. "For the time being, they run these towns," Alford said. He said he could not confirm reports that insurgents had been executing suspected American sympathizers. "We have seen a number of extra graves when we fly over in a helicopter, usually after we have killed" insurgents, he said.
Marine units stationed outside al Qaim and four neighboring towns perched along the Euphrates River -- Dulaym al Husayba, Karabila, Sada to the west of al Qaim, and Al Ubaydi to the northeast -- do not venture into these towns, Alford said. Insurgents open fire at any Marine patrol that approaches the town lines. No Iraqi soldiers or police officers operate inside the towns. Marine units patrolling close to town limits "have seen a lot of guys in black pajamas and black ski masks and with weapons, and we've killed a number of them," Alford said.
Insurgent forces have in the past controlled major towns in Iraq, especially in the so-called Sunni triangle north and west of Baghdad, including Fallujah, Ramadi and, most recently, Haditha.
And that worked well, didn't it?
Alford believes that intensive attacks by U.S. forces on their strongholds in Ramadi and Fallujah, two Euphrates River cities, respectively, 120 and 140 miles downstream from al Qaim, has pushed fighters west toward the border with Syria. In the border area surrounding al Qaim, he said, "they found their last foothold."
Alford said he was expecting to launch a joint offensive against the insurgents holed up in al Qaim and the surrounding towns after the arrival of about 3,000 Iraqi soldiers in the area. He did not say when the Iraqi troops were scheduled to arrive, saying only that it would be "soon." "They're dangerous, and they're extremely adaptive, but they can't beat us and the Iraqi army," he said.
Alford said he wanted to make the area safe enough to set up polling stations ahead of the Oct. 15 referendum on the new Iraqi constitution.
Also, he said, insurgents have posted signs across the area warning residents not to participate in the referendum. Having areas where insurgents intimidate thousands of people against voting in the referendum significantly undermines the desperate attempts by the United States to engage Iraq's disenfranchised Sunni Arabs in the nation's political process.
Posted by: Dan Darling ||
09/27/2005 14:18 ||
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#1
I have great confidence in the USMC and US forces generally, but .... would it kill us to just ONCE maybe show a little razzle-dazzle .... instead of telegraphing every move weeks in advance, use our resources to surge large forces overnight and establish an instant cordon around a given town .... and rush in depending on chaos and superior training and equipment to harvest all the vermin, instead of just a %? If the nitwits are emptying the towns of non-combatants, it seems they're virtually begging to be slaughtered.
Unit rotations here are depicted in colorful graphics that detail all the movements of US forces in and out of the theater. Many of the larger units' movements are a amply publicized in the US and world media even before they leave CONUS. Would it be impossible to just bring in some combat power without warning? Either I'm missing something, or we've completely abandoned maneuver, surprise, and local concentration of superior force. I'm puzzled.
#2
We abandoned it long ago. Politicians and sleezy generals need sound bites don't ya know? I'm all for a sudden, unexpected and previously untelegraphed MRLS barrage on the towns followed by a swift assault by mechanized infantry. Kill 'em all (since the civilians are gone) and stack up the bodies. THEN bring in the press.
#3
Basically, the insurgents say if they don't leave they will ... behead them,
Would it help us with the MSM,if we did this?
After all, it's what "minutemen" do, I've been told by the Michael Moore's of the world.
#5
Actually telegraphing that we're going in and the scumbags not being able to do a damn thing about it is more demoralizing to their supporters than a quick lightning unannounced attack that they would spin into being an irrelevant victory for the good guys.
#6
Verlaine, if we were going to do that, why not, while we're at it, make it an even 100,000 new troops and STOMP DOWN HARD on the northwest area once and for all. I'm sick of this death by a thousand cuts strategy.
Posted by: jolly roger ||
09/27/2005 18:07 Comments ||
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#7
Zarq kicking the civilians out only means one thing: he is more concerned about them tipping off their location to the Coalition than he is concerned about having human shields.
Posted by: Captain America ||
09/27/2005 18:56 Comments ||
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I have a baaaaad feeling about this:
Normally, the Jihadis would PREVENT people from leaving, for the purpose of providing human shields, and as propaganda fodder when Americans accidentally kill civilians (trust the MSM to omit the fact that the Jihadis have killed more civilians than the Americans have). Why drive them away and INVITE the response that verlaine is pining for?
speculative scenario (that I hope is dreafully wrong): Saddam's WMD is about to turn up. American and Iraqui soldiers attack the town to eliminate the Jihadis, and they set the WMD off, taking themselves and lots of Americans with them.
#9
Meh, if they were concerned about civilians, they'd evacuate 'em back into Syria. Anyways, this is Zarqawi's devil-worshippers. Dead babies, mommas and grandpas make them giggle like schoolgirls. Why would WMD change matters? They planted a crude chemical-dirty bomb in Tal Afar in such a fashion as to encourage heavy civilian casualties.
No, this is them trying to drive out the local anti-al Queda tribe. I seem to remember hearing about the border in that area dividing up into a pro- and anti-Queda set of tribes. Sounds like the anti-Quedas have gotten their asses tanned.
Posted by: Mitch H. ||
09/27/2005 19:15 Comments ||
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#10
insurgents loyal to militant leader Abu Musab al-Zarqawi
Zark is dead.
#11
time to remind Syria what "hot pursuit" and "aiding and abetting insurgents against a sovereign country" means? Walk the artillery back to our front lines
Posted by: Frank G ||
09/27/2005 21:06 Comments ||
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#12
I detect a shrinking of the theater. Next week will it be three towns ? Two towns ? What will we do when our boots choke out their last breaths ?
from the September 27, 2005 edition - http://www.csmonitor.com/2005/0927/p01s03-woiq.html Good data, interesting article.
Iraq's foreign fighters: few but deadly
A new report says foreigners make up 4 to 10 percent of Iraq's 30,000 insurgents.
By Dan Murphy | Staff writer of The Christian Science Monitor
CAIRO - Much of the US effort in Iraq in recent months has been aimed at stopping the inflow of foreign jihadis. US warplanes have blown up bridges to deny insurgent infiltration routes, troops have occupied small towns thought to be crossing points for foreigners into bigger cities, and spy drones continuously buzz the Syrian border.
Even if the US can seal Iraq's borders, stopping the flow of foreign fighters would do little to eliminate most of the country's insurgents. Only 4 to 10 percent of the country's combatants are foreign fighters, according to a report from the Center for Strategic and International Studies released last week. But while they are a minority, says the report, they are a potent segment largely from Algeria and Syria.
"The fact that there are 3,000 foreign fighters in Iraq is cause for alarm, particularly because they play so large a role in the most violent bombings and in the efforts to provoke a major and intense civil war,'' write coauthors Anthony Cordesman, a former director of defense intelligence assessment for the secretary of Defense, and Nawaf Obaid, a Saudi national and security analyst. Based mostly on Saudi intelligence, they estimate that active members of the insurgency number about 30,000.
Since the fall of Saddam Hussein, the report says, Iraq has become one of the global centers for the recruiting and training of what Mr. Cordesman and Mr. Obaid term "neo-Salafi" terrorists. These are essentially Islamist fighters that share Al Qaeda's extreme rejection of non-Muslim "infidels" and seek to create Islamic states patterned after the Arabian peninsula of the 7th and 8th centuries.
Also, the large numbers of foreign fighters who may survive the conflict are likely to return to Saudi Arabia, Egypt, and Algeria carrying terrorism skills and highly radicalized world views with them, they write.
"They are also a threat because they give bin Laden and other neo-Salafi extremist movements publicity and credibility among the angry and alienated in the Islamic world, and because many are likely to survive and be the source of violence,'' in other countries.
Most of Iraq's fighters, they say, are Sunni Arab "nationalists" who distrust Shiites now in power. Foreign fighters, the report claims, are seeking to manipulate this distrust into a wider civil war.
The authors also point out that the "fly paper" theory about the Iraq war - that a limited global number of Islamic militants would be lured to Iraq and destroyed - is probably incorrect. Instead, they estimate that many of the foreigners fighting in Iraq were peaceful before the US invasion. I find this to be very interesting, and wonder if Iraq is a convenient excuse or a real motivator for the jihadi. Would they have gone to Afghanistan were we not in Iraq, would they be fighting the corrupt governments in their own countries? And Knowing the nature of the Muja tradition where farmers are fighterts and trade lives in shifts as it were, fighting one day, farming the next, what does peaceful really mean? That they never fought before, or that they were just on hiatus from their jihadi ways, and conveniently they have a new war to fight so they reactivate.
In particular, the authors find that the presence of Saudi militants in Iraq has been overstated - estimating they make up 1 to 2 percent of fighters there - but say that most of the young Saudis fighting in Iraq were not violent before the war.
One of their paper's "primary conclusions is the unsettling realization that the vast majority of Saudi militants who have entered Iraq were not terrorist sympathizers before the war; and were radicalized almost exclusively by the coalition invasion."
Relying on interviews with US and Saudi intelligence officials, as well as the findings of the Saudi National Security Assessment Project, which is directed by Obaid and is described as a private group, the paper says that Algerians make up the largest group of foreign fighters at 20 percent, followed by Syrians (18 percent), Yemenis (17 percent), Sudanese (15 percent) and Egyptians (13 percent). .This is the strength in this data right here. Telling information no doubt. Knowing the jihadis' origins can help us immensely in our deterrent activities, and may well be telling of the next hotspots in the larger jihadi conflict They train in Iraq today, they fight at home tomorrow. Algerians hey? Frenchies beware, the Algerians are preparing.
Because Turkey and Iran are less hospitable to foreign extremists, and the Saudi border is a well-patrolled harsh desert, Syria has been the principal means of entry for foreign fighters into Iraq. Notice the Iranians aren't mentioned because they A. Don't get caught
B. Work within Shiite groups already operating inside what is becoming the Iraqi government. C. Are not part of the insurgency in the traditional sense.
Syria's 380-mile border with Iraq is well traveled and porous. In a guide for would-be Jihadis posted on Internet forums, a "Mujahidin" who calls himself Al Muhaijar al-Islami, urges brothers to make the crossing along the Syria-Anbar Province border in Eastern Iraq, according to a translation of the document provided by Evan Kohlman, a New York-based terrorism consultant.
Al Islami says "close connections" among Sunni Arab tribes - like the Shamar who live on both sides of the border and whose influence stretches into Saudi Arabia - make passage easier, as does their disdain for the central Syrian government.
He says the large number of scattered villages there, and frequent engagements with US forces in cities like Al Qaim, make it possible to walk into Iraq in 30 minutes.
He warns militants to shave their beards, carry cigarettes (most Salafis don't smoke), and avoid shortening their robes after the fashion of Salafis.
Cordesman and Obaid's findings seem to back up Al Islami's advice. They point out that 270,000 Saudis visited Syria alone in the first half of this year.
"Separating the legitimate visitors from the militants is nearly impossible," they write. "The problem of successfully halting the traffic of Saudis through Syria into Iraq is overwhelmingly difficult, politically charged, and operationally challenging."
In the end, while they're worried about the potential for foreign fighters to spread terrorism and violence to their homelands once they leave Iraq, they argue that pacifying the country is now far from a simple counter-insurgency operation.
"The outcome in Iraq is going to be determined by how well Iraq's political process can find an inclusive solution to bringing Arab Sunnis, Arab Shiites, Kurds, and Iraqi minorities into a state that all are willing to support,'' they write. "Military action, counterinsurgency and counterterrorism cannot unite or build a country." Hearts and minds are needed to win, hearts and minds!
⢠To read the entire CSIS report go to www.csis.org/press/wf_2005_0919.pdf.
#1
Anthony Cordesman, a former director of defense intelligence assessment for the secretary of Defense, and Nawaf Obaid, a Saudi national and security analyst. Based mostly on Saudi intelligence,
As was posted here on a previous day (StrategyPage?), Cordesman (shame on him) is using garbage data supplied by the Saudis, who are desparately trying to minimize knowledge of the extensive involvement of Saudi terrorists.
Posted by: ed ||
09/27/2005 14:34 Comments ||
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ed,
I thought that the Saudi jihadi participation was understated as well.It just looked fishy. I wonder if he got a grant from a Saudi firm to produce this report as well?
Thanks for pointing out that they are bullshitting us on the Saudi data, it helps when deciphering the tons of info that comes across the MSM everyday.
I wonder what the integrity of the other data is here?
U.S. and Iraqi authorities said Tuesday their forces had killed the No. 2 official in the al-Qaida in Iraq organization in a weekend raid in Baghdad, claiming to have struck a âpainful blowâ to the countryâs most feared insurgent group.
Abdullah Abu Azzam led al-Qaidaâs operations in Baghdad, planning a brutal wave of suicide bombings in the capital since April, killing hundreds of people, officials said. He also controlled the finances for foreign fighters that flowed into Iraq to join the insurgency.
Abu Azzam, who an Iraqi government spokesman said was an Iraqi, was the top deputy to the groupâs leader, Jordanian militant Abu Musab al-Zarqawi. Abu Azzam was on a list of Iraqâs 29 most-wanted insurgents issued by the U.S. military in February and had a bounty of $50,000 on his head.
Al-Qaida in Iraq denied that Abu Azzam was the No. 2 leader of the organization and said âit was not confirmedâ that he was killed. âAbu Azzam was one of al-Qaidaâs many soldiers and is the leader of one of its battalions operating in Baghdad,â the group said in an Internet statement by its spokesman, Abu Maysara al-Iraqi.
It called the U.S. and Iraqi claims that he was the groupâs top deputy âa futile attempt ... to raise the morale of their troops.â
Elsewhere, a suicide bomber attacked Iraqis applying for jobs as policemen Tuesday in Baqouba, 30 miles north of Baghdad, killing nine and wounding 21.
The U.S. military also said a Marine was killed Monday by a roadside bomb in the town of Khaldiyah, west of Baghdad. The death brought to 1,918 the number of U.S. troops who have died since the Iraq war started in 2003, according to an Associated Press count.
Police found the bodies of 22 Iraqi men who had been shot to death in southern Iraq, many of them bound and blindfolded, said Maj. Felah Al-Mohammedawi of the Interior Ministry. Their identities were not immediately known, but the district â northeast of Kut, about 100 miles southeast of Baghdad â is mostly Shiite.
It was not immediately clear what effect Abu Azzamâs death would have on al-Qaida in Iraq, which has been one of the deadliest militant groups, carrying out suicide attacks that targeted the countryâs Shiite majority. The U.S. military has claimed to have killed or captured leading al-Zarqawi aides in the past and attacks have continued unabated â although Abu Azzam appeared to be a more significant figure.
Iraqi government spokesman Laith Kubba called the killing of Abu Azzam a âpainful blowâ to al-Qaida, but warned that the group would likely carry out revenge attacks.
Abu Azzam was killed early Sunday when U.S. and Iraqi forces raided a high-rise apartment building in Baghdad, Lt. Col. Steve Boylan, a U.S. military spokesman, told the AP.
âThey went in to capture him, he did not surrender, and he was killed in the raid,â Boylan said.
The Iraqi and U.S. forces targeted the building after a tip from an Iraqi citizen, Kubba said. During the raid, the troops captured another militant in the apartment with Abu Azzam, Kubba said.
Abu Azzam â whose real name is Abdullah Najim Abdullah Mohamed Al-Jawari â was the No. 2 figure in al-Qaida in Iraq, Kubba and Boylan said.
He had claimed responsibility for the assassinations of a number of top politicians, including a car bomb in May 2004 that killed Izzadine Saleem, the president of the U.S.-appointed Governing Council, and a July 2004 attack that killed the governor of Nineveh province, the military said.
He was the groupâs âamirâ or leader in Anbar, the vast western province that is the heartland of the insurgency, until spring, when he became the amir in Baghdad and led operations in and around the capital. He was âresponsible for the recent upsurge in violent attacks in the city since April 2005,â the military said.
âWe continue to decimate the leadership of the al-Qaeda in Iraq terrorist network and continue to disrupt their operations,â said Maj. Gen. Rick Lynch, Multi-National Force-Iraq spokesman. âBy taking Abu Azzam off the street, another close associate of Zarqawi, we have dealt another serious blow to al-Zarqawiâs terrorist organization.â
Abu Azzam âpersonally planned and ordered suicide car bomb attacksâ in Baghdad and was responsible for financing for the group and its âinternational communications,â Kubba said.
Abu Azzamâs death was followed by two other successes against al-Qaida in Iraqâs leadership, officials said â the groupâs leader in the northern city of Mosul surrendered to the Iraqi military, and its leader in the town of Karabila in the sensitive region near the Syrian border was killed.
The Karabila leader, identified only as Abu Nasser, died along with several others Monday in a raid on the groupâs headquarters in the city, Kubba told a news conference, without elaborating. Gen. Wafiq al-Samaraei, the Iraqi presidentâs national security adviser, said Abu Nasser was killed in a U.S. airstrike. The U.S. military confirmed an airstrike in the region Monday, but gave no details on casualties.
The area near the Syrian border is key to the infiltration of foreign fighters joining Iraqâs insurgency. Kubba acknowledged that âforeigners move freelyâ in the region.
The Baqouba suicide bomber slipped into a building where the Iraqis were applying to join Iraqâs Quick Reaction Police Force, said a commander who spoke on condition of anonymity because of concerns about his security.
Nine Iraqis were killed and 21 wounded in the blast, said Adhid Mitaâab, an official at Baqouba General Hospital.
The attack, along with the news of the Marineâs death, raised to at least 62 the number of people killed in the past three days in Iraq, less than a month before a national referendum on Iraqâs draft constitution.
In Baghdad, visiting NATO Secretary-General Jaap de Hoop Scheffer opened a long-awaited training academy for Iraqi military officers.
âThis center makes and marks a significant step toward a more secure Iraq,â de Hoop Scheffer said after hoisting a NATO flag over the center. âNATO is here to help the Iraqi government to develop the tools it needs.â
NATOâs role in Iraq has been limited to training Iraqi forces and supplying equipment, due to opposition for a wider role led by France and Germany.
Posted by: Dan Darling ||
09/27/2005 13:14 ||
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Who was it that surrendured in Mosul? Was it someone on the list of 29 most wanted?
#3
US forces nearly bagged Zarqawi, but he reportedly bailed out under a bridge while leaving his laptop in the car, both of which were later found. Could it be that Zarqawi not only let key data fall into coalition hands but didn't change the payroll around despite accidentally (by not grabbing his laptop) compromising his lieutenants??
Posted by: Edward Yee ||
09/27/2005 15:48 Comments ||
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#4
Had to dig, but I found the guy in Mosul; In north Iraq, a top aide to al-Zarqawi surrendered to police in the city of Mosul, Iraqi army Brig. Gen. Ali Attalah said Monday. The aide, Abdul Rahman Hasan Shahin, was one of the most wanted figures in Mosul, Attalah said.
Posted by: Steve ||
09/27/2005 15:49 Comments ||
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#6
Thanks Steve. I'd been looking for that all day. It doesn't appear that this guy is on the Iraqi gov't's February list of top 29 bad dudes, however.
#7
There is a guy named Abdul Rahman Yasin listed on the FBI's most wanted terrorists list. He was involved in the 1993 World Trade Center bombing and was believed to be hiding in Iraq. You think this could be the same guy? If so, that would be quite a coup.
There is a guy named Abdul Rahman Yasin listed on the FBI's most wanted terrorists list. He was involved in the 1993 World Trade Center bombing and was believed to be hiding in Iraq. You think this could be the same guy? If so, that would be quite a coup.
Hmm. The 1993 WTC bombing?
Posted by: Phil Fraering ||
09/27/2005 20:41 Comments ||
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Iraq's most revered Shiite cleric, Ali al-Sistani has denounced the vast, sudden and unexplained increase in the wealth of the family of Jordanian militant Abu Musab al-Zarqawi, leader of al-Qaeda in Iraq, in recent months, according to the Sout al-Iraq (Voice of Iraq) website. It speculates that at least some of the al-Zarqawi family's new-found wealth may have come from supporters of Iraq's defunct Baath party.
According to reliable sources in al-Zarqawi's hometown of Zarqa, recent months have seen his family's previously modest economic status rise to an affluence typical of businessmen and property owners, Sout al-Iraq says. "Some in the al-Zarqa neighbourhood of the city say that al-Zarqawi's family now has a lot of money obtained from various sources, but no-one can specify the identity and nature of these sources," the website claims.
Al-Zarqawi was born Ahmad Fadil Nazal al-Khalaylah in 1966, one of ten children (four boys and six girls) and raised in the rough al-Kasara suburb of al-Zarqa, a working class town. The family home has been described as being in a particularly unpleasant area near the town cemetery and an abandoned quarry. His father was a local tribal leader and retired army officer. When he died in 1984, 17-year-old al-Zarqawi dropped out of school and fell into a life of drinking, drug abuse and violence on the streets of Zarqa. He was jailed for drug possession and sexual assault and his criminal activities are thought to have led him to the town's Palestinian refugee camp where he was exposed to radical Salafist preachers.
Posted by: Dan Darling ||
09/27/2005 13:12 ||
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Gee, the family of a kingpin in pretty much continuous contact with gangsters, money men, and criminals suddenly develop an advanced case of affluence? Say it ain't so.
The fact that the relations of a devil-worshipping serial killer, poisoner, and persecutor of Muslims throughout the region still live in unburnt houses says all that needs to be said about the social attitudes of their friends and neighbors.
Posted by: Mitch H. ||
09/27/2005 13:35 Comments ||
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Posted by: Steve ||
09/27/2005 14:44 Comments ||
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#5
I can hear his accountants now, "Zarq, is this right? The invoice said the donkey's we bought from your brother were worth only $40 a piece, but we paid $10,000 each.
We have to talk about these no bid contracts Zarq!"
#6
We have to talk about these no bid contracts Zarq!"
"And who is this al-Hali Burton person?"
Posted by: Steve ||
09/27/2005 15:28 Comments ||
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#7
I dunno. This could be ominous. Paying the family of suicide bombers may indicate something big is in the works...just in case he doesn't make it out alive.
#8
I don't think this is skimming per se; Zark's just doing a job and his extended family/clan is getting paid for it.
The Saudis make an enourmous amount of money from the increace in oil prices that come from the insurgency's impact on Iraqi oil production... a small fraction of a percentage of that going back to take care of the rest of the clan is probably money well spent. It lets them buy a lot of loyalty and opsec as well.
#9
The family home has been described as being in a particularly unpleasant area near the town cemetery and an abandoned quarry
Wasnt' their a shootout over Zark's body between US troops and Zark defenders in a cemetery? This interests me because it makes me wonder if that was near his home.
Zark is dead. He's dead Jim. Perhaps the family is spending their inheritance.
Gunmen dressed as policemen shot dead five Shiite teachers and a driver in their school south of Baghdad yesterday, and a suicide bomber killed 10 people when he rammed a bus full of Oil Ministry employees. The attacks came as sectarian violence between Iraqâs main communities surges ahead of an Oct. 15 referendum on a controversial new constitution. Teachers have so far been largely spared from the violence. âThese men were terrorists in police uniform,â a spokesman for Babel police told Reuters after the teachers were killed in the town of Iskandariya. He said the gunmen arrived at the school in two civilian cars, led the teachers and the school driver to a part of the school where no children were present, and shot them.
Earlier, a suicide bomber rammed his car into a bus carrying Oil Ministry employees as it passed a police academy in Baghdad, killing at least 10 people and wounding 30, police and witnesses said. âWe heard the blast. They died,â said a dazed survivor, who stood in a hospital as victims of the blast were wheeled in on stretchers. He told Reuters Television the bus was carrying employees of a state oil exploration company. Oil is the main revenue earner for Iraqâs battered economy, and energy infrastructure and staff are frequently attacked by insurgents. It was not immediately clear whether the bomber was targeting police or the Oil Ministry. Police were not able to say how many of the dead and wounded were police and how many were from the ministry. Oil Minister Ibrahim Bahr Uloum told reporters he believed the bomber had aimed the attack at his staff. âUnfortunately these terrorist operations continue to target innocents,â he said.
Posted by: Fred ||
09/27/2005 00:00 ||
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Michael Moore's and A.N.S.W.E.R's Freedom Fighters[tm] at their finest. Think the NEA will protest? Nah, me neither.
The No. 2 al Qaeda leader in Iraq was killed Sunday night, U.S. officials say. Abu Azzam, reportedly the deputy to Abu Musab al Zarqawi, was shot during a house rain in Baghdad, according to Pentagon officials. As the aide to Zarqawi, Azzam was reportedly in control of financing foreign fighters coming into Iraq, CBS News national security correspondent David Martin reports. According to Pentagon officials coalition troops raided the house in response to a tip. When Azzam opened fire, these officials say, he was killed with troops' return fire.
1. "You'll never take me alive, coppers!"
2. "Hokay."
3. [BANG! BANG! BANGETY BANG!]
4. "Rosebud!"
What effect this will have on the insurgency remains to be seen. In the past, key Zarqawi lieutenants have been killed or captured without any decrease in the number of suicide bombings.
Probably there'll be a short-term drop-off, then things'll pick up again.
Also Sunday, at least 33 Iraqis were killed during a day of stepped-up violence. Gunmen loyal to radical Shiite cleric Muqtada al-Sadr ambushed an Iraqi patrol in an eastern Baghdad slum, and U.S. forces joined a 90-minute gunbattle, killing as many as eight of the attackers in the first significant violence in the neighborhood in nearly a year. There is no word as to whether these partrols were associated with the house raid that led to the killing of Azzam.
Posted by: Fred ||
09/27/2005 00:00 ||
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#1
I'm looking for work right now. I'll let you all know if I see that "Assistant Regional Manager" role for Al Queda in Iraq pop back up in Monster.com. It seems they just took the ad down about a month ago. That job must suck. The customers hate you, the boss is always hanging you out to dry and the competition is literally killing you. I guess he took it for the black eyed bennies.
#2
DEBKAfile: September 27, 2005: The Abu Azzam reported killed in Baghdad is not Zarqawiâs most notorious senior lieutenant. DEBKAfileâs counter-terror sources strongly doubt that the man reported dead is in fact the Abu Azzam believed in charge of financing and arranging the movement of foreign fighters into western Iraq from Syria and other countries. His death has in fact not been officially announced.
Funny, it looks official to me.
On March 19, coalition forces announced his capture in Baghdad. it was reported in DEBKA-Net-Weekly in the same week. He was then commanding Abu Musab al Zarqawiâs forces in the capital. Since then, according to our information, he has been held and interrogated by US forces.
Hummm, witness protection program, "crossfire" or DEBKA not knowing what they are talking about?
Posted by: Steve ||
09/27/2005 9:12 Comments ||
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Interesting comment, Steve. Since he was was reportedly in control of financing foreign fighters coming into Iraq I was just about to comment what a shame it is that they didn't get him alive. Here's hoping that they did.
Israeli aircraft fired a missile at an office of the ruling Palestinian Fatah faction in Gaza City early Wednesday, according to Palestinian sources and the Israel Defense Forces.
No casualties were reported. Further details were not immediately available.
Earlier, as Israel's defense minister promised to keep up the pressure on Palestinian militants, Israeli troops arrested 91 suspected militants in raids across the West Bank overnight, an IDF spokeswoman said Tuesday.
According to the IDF, all of those arrested were "wanted Islamic Jihad and Hamas terrorists." The raids took place in and around Ramallah, Hebron, Jenin, Bethlehem and Nablus.
The IDF called the raids the "continuation of activities against the terrorist infrastructure, following attacks on Israeli citizens from Gaza."
Over the last four days, Israeli forces have arrested 388 "wanted Palestinians" in response to dozens of Qassam rockets being fired into Israel.
Separately, the Israeli military launched an airstrike early Tuesday on three access routes in northern Gaza, which the IDF said was being used by Palestinian militants to launch missiles against targets in Israel.
According to the IDF, the strike was designed to prevent Palestinians from reaching an area east of the town of Beit Hanoun used as a launch site.
Palestinian sources said three missiles struck near bridges in Beit Hanoun and that no one was injured. They also said two missiles were fired at a Fatah office in Khan Younis, but no one was injured.
The IDF said one missile targeted a building used by Fatah in Khan Younis and a second hit a building used by Hamas militants as a money changing office.
The rounding up of suspected Palestinian militants in the West Bank and airstrikes into Gaza by the Israeli military continue two days after Hamas' leader in Gaza, Mahmoud al-Zahar, told reporters his militant group would stop attacks against Israelis.
It is an announcement that has failed to impress Israeli Defense Minister Shaul Mofaz.
"I am not satisfied with Mahmoud al-Zahar's declaration," he told Israeli Army Radio. "Hamas did unforgivable acts and we need to dictate new rules of the game."
Hostilities between Israel and Palestinian militants have escalated since an explosion at a Hamas rally on Friday in Gaza that killed at least 19 people.
Militants blamed the blast on Israel, which denied the claim. On Friday and Saturday, Palestinian militants fired at least three dozen Qassam rockets into the country, wounding at least five civilians, Israelis said.
Israel called it another example of Palestinian militants mistakenly setting off a blast that was intended to be used against Israelis. The Palestinian Authority announced that the blast was an accident, and was not Israel's responsibility.
"Hamas fired at Israeli sovereign territory after the disengagement, they killed innocent Palestinians at a rally and blamed Israel for it and to strengthen their lie they fired Qassam rockets on Sderot," Mofaz charged. "We will not let it pass quietly."
Israel's actions Tuesday came after Israeli Prime Minister Ariel Sharon won an internal party procedural vote.
The vote Monday was seen by many political observers as a referendum on Sharon's leadership and his decision to pull settlers and troops out of Gaza.
Posted by: Oztralian [AKA] God Save The World ||
09/27/2005 18:30 ||
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#1
"Hey Fatah! Here's one for you too!"
Posted by: Frank G ||
09/27/2005 20:04 Comments ||
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can I get nachos instead of popcorn?
Damn, Sharon is a good chess player. He got the settlers (hostages) out, built a wall, and laid the ground work to crush the Paleos. And all while the know-it all crowd yelled answers to the Paloes. It's not check-mate, but it's check.
Damn, he's good.
oh, and one last note to the Paleo's. He's not concered with getting re-elected. He's concerned with getting as much done now as he can. You're screwed.
#3
2b---I hope that it is that good. Sharon made a strategic withdrawl. The thing that I worry about is President Bush putting on the screws to heavy counterattacks when the Paleos attack Israel. If Israel is hamstrung by the US, Israel will be slowly defeated. Cause (Paleo rocket attacks) and Effect (Israel massive counterattacks) need to be literally hammered upon the Paleo terrorists until the get it or die, whichever comes first.
Posted by: Alaska Paul ||
09/27/2005 22:32 Comments ||
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#4
email your congresscritter and Senator to allow Israel to defend itself - or else
Posted by: Frank G ||
09/27/2005 22:47 Comments ||
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Israel fired live artillery shells into the northern Gaza Strip on Tuesday night in what Israeli security officials said was a symbolic act to warn Palestinian militants to halt their attacks on Israelis. Gloves Off ... Check!
The officials, speaking on condition of anonymity under department regulations, said four shells were fired into open ground from which Palestinians had earlier fired rockets into the nearby Israeli town of Sderot. Brass Knucks On ... Check!
No casualties were reported in either incident. Israel on Sunday fired non-exploding test rounds into the same area. Earlier Tuesday, the Israeli military said the air force bombed waste ground near the north Gaza town of Beit Hanoun that had been used for rocket launches. It was not immediately clear if the artillery fire was against the same site. Coupla fast right jabs to warm up ... Check!
Enough of the tit-for-tat crap. Casus belli is the new language. Abu Abbas is about to find out what happens when he lets a bunch of psycho hoodlums run around writing checks that his own @ss has to cash.
23:10 Islamic Jihad radio station in Gaza closes from fear of IDF strike
22:38 Islamic Jihad leader al-Hindi: We will halt rocket attacks against Israel (AP)
22:31 Islamic Jihad leader al-Hindi reiterates pledge to stop rocket fire (AP)
22:04 IDF artillery fires four shells into Gaza Strip areas for first time (Haaretz)
Keep that popcorn & caffeine coming!
Posted by: Evert V. in NL ||
09/27/2005 17:01 Comments ||
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#3
I love Haaretz flash:
22:04 IDF artillery fires four shells into Gaza Strip areas for first time (Haaretz)
22:31 Islamic Jihad leader al-Hindi reiterates pledge to stop rocket fire (AP)
22:38 Islamic Jihad leader al-Hindi: We will halt rocket attacks against Israel (AP)
23:10 Islamic Jihad radio station in Gaza closes from fear of IDF strike
Keep that popcorn & caffeine coming!
(This looks better)
Posted by: Evert V. in NL ||
09/27/2005 17:04 Comments ||
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#4
Did you get that part about us not firing any more rockets? Jus' making sure...
#10
Israel fired live artillery shells into the northern Gaza Strip on Tuesday night
I think I got a woody over that
Posted by: Frank G ||
09/27/2005 18:42 Comments ||
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What you really want, is Spot for Effect, which means calling in a battery's worth of white phosphorus rounds. 155mm shells throw out alot of little burning chunks of good old Willie Pete, making it VERY effective against infantry.
EFL: Jerusalem (CNSNews.com) -Palestinian rocket fire aimed at Israel is a 'cause for war,' an official in Prime Minister Ariel Sharon's office said on Tuesday. Israel dropped hundreds of thousands of leaflets into the Gaza Strip on Tuesday, warning residents to stay away from places from which rockets and mortars are being launched and telling them that the Israeli operations are not directed against the civilians but against the terror organizations, military sources said.
Israel has engaged in many military operations in the Gaza Strip during the last few years whenever there was a spike in terrorism or rocket fire, but Israeli officials said things are different now. Sharon's spokesman, Dr. Ra'anan Gissin said that rocket attacks and infiltrations across the Gaza Strip border constitute a reason for war -- just as if such attacks were conducted across the border of any sovereign state.
I believe we mentioned the same thing here, several times. The jaws of the trap are beginning to close
Israel warned prior to its withdrawal from Gaza that it would strike back hard against any terror attacks once the pullout was complete. If such attacks are being carried out without any provocation, Israel's response will be clear, said Gissin. "Our level of tolerance will be zero."
"New rules and a new reality will be set here." Israel's Defense Minister Shaul Mofaz said while touring artillery positions near the Gaza Strip. "If the children of Sderot are unable to sleep, Hamas and Islamic Jihad leaders will not get a night's sleep either," Mofaz said. "We will strike again and again until they realize that as a sovereign state, Israel cannot allow for this threat to civilians to continue."
Gloves coming off....
Mofaz said artillery has been placed close to the Gaza border, not just for decoration but to be used in response to rocket attacks. He also threatened to assassinate Hamas leaders if the firing of rockets did not stop.
.....and brass knuckles going on
State Department spokesman Sean McCormack said on Monday that Washington understood the situation in which Israel finds itself - "and we fully understand Israel's right to defend itself." Nevertheless, he urged Israel to consider the consequences any action would have on the future of the peace process.
Peace process? It's dead, Sean.
Hamas said earlier that it would abide by an agreement to maintain calm in the Gaza Strip; but after the statement was made, more rockets were fired at Israel. Gissin said that Israel's arrest of hundreds of Hamas and Islamic militants in the West Bank had put Hamas under pressure because it was harming their attempts to organize for upcoming parliamentary elections.
Palestinian Authority Chairman Mahmoud Abbas said that there had been "no justification" for the Israeli military operations and that they had "shot down the efforts to advance the peace process. Abbas cancelled a meeting with Sharon that was supposed to have taken place on Sunday after Israel cancelled a preparatory meeting for the summit.
Jordan's King Abdullah II also postponed a trip to Israel to meet with Sharon and Abbas that was to have taken place this week.
President Bush asked Abdullah last week to meet with Sharon and Abbas to discuss the peace process. Gissin said that he thought Abdullah would still come here but was waiting for a time when the situation would be "more stable."
"Stable" as in "Yasser"?
The Quartet -- the U.S., European Union, Russia and United Nations -- which penned the road map plan for Israeli-Palestinian peace, expressed its hope last week that Israel's disengagement from the Gaza Strip would help to jump start Israeli-Palestinian negotiations.
Posted by: Steve ||
09/27/2005 13:51 ||
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Yes!!!!! I have prayed that this was the long term strategy behind the forced Gaza (and partial West Bank) pullouts.
Ok, off to the store for some popcorn...
Posted by: Abu MacSuirtain ||
09/27/2005 14:20 Comments ||
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Hamas wants a hudna, PA is hiding their heads and Islamic Jihad is firing rockets... and perhaps some Al-Qaeda guys in the mix going to try their bag of tricks.
Perhaps I need to grab some extra popcorn.
Posted by: Abu MacSuirtain ||
09/27/2005 14:23 Comments ||
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#3
Israel doesn't give anything away for free. I see Sharon's logic now as well, and I totally agree with it, a sovereign state can be crushed if it doesn't live up to its responsibilities. So the new "Palestine" may live a short life of statehood in this scenario, too bad they never could get their shit together. Oh well, get ready for the fireworks Abu.
#6
Actually a "tit-for-tat+1" response is fine and dandy, as far as international law goes. The neat part about it, is that every nation on the planet has endorsed a "right of self-defense" that includes "if they throw something at me I can throw something about the same size back at them."
It strips the Paleos of any real defense to Israeli "aggression".
#7
Yep, the PA will no longer be able to hide behind the skirts of the UNO or any PA-sympathetic allies for its probs wid Israel. To be considered a legit Govt, ANY GOVT, INCLUDING BUT LIMITED TO THE PA, has to prove it is able to control the most radical or violent elements existing within its borders andor society, to control/disarm 'em or kick 'em out. For radical groups to be able to fire rockets ags Israel without any sort of intervention by the PA IS ONLY WETTING THE CHOPS OF THE IDF'S GENERALS AND SHARON. THE PA IS JUSTIFYING THE IDF INVADING THE PA STATE AND MILITARILY CONQUERING BOTH THE WEST BANK, GAZA, AND ANY PLACE IN THE SINAI WHERE ARMED RADICAL GROUPS ARE ALLOWED TO TRANSIT TO ATTACK ISRAEL! LIke Madman Dean, the PA is the Gift that keeps on giving in Israel's favor.
#8
Palestinian Authority Chairman Mahmoud Abbas said that there had been "no justification"
Right after such Abbas off camera of course thanked Allah that the Little Satan had the sack to do what he didnt. Also thanked Isreal cough allah for saving his bacon in the upcoming elections.
JERUSALEM (CNN) -- As Israel's defense minister promised to keep up the pressure on Palestinian militants, Israeli troops arrested 91 suspected militants in raids across the West Bank overnight, an Israel Defense Forces spokeswoman said Tuesday. According to the IDF, all of those arrested were "wanted Islamic Jihad and Hamas terrorists." The raids took place in and around Ramallah, Hebron, Jenin, Bethlehem and Nablus.
The IDF called the raids the "continuation of activities against the terrorist infrastructure, following attacks on Israeli citizens from Gaza." Over the last four days, Israeli forces have arrested 388 "wanted Palestinians" in response to dozens of Qassam rockets being fired into Israel.
Separately, the Israeli military launched an airstrike early Tuesday on three access routes in northern Gaza, which IDF said was being used by Palestinian militants to launch missiles against targets in Israel. According to the IDF, the strike was designed to prevent Palestinians from reaching an area east of the town of Beit Hanoun used as a launch site. Palestinian sources said three missiles struck near bridges in Beit Hanoun and that no one was injured. They also said two missiles were fired at a Fatah office in Khan Younis, but no one was injured.
The IDF said one missile targeted a building used by Fatah in Khan Younis and a second hit a building used by Hamas militants as a money changing office.
The rounding up of suspected Palestinian militants in the West Bank and airstrikes into Gaza by the Israeli military continue two days after Hamas' leader in Gaza, Mahmoud al-Zahar, told reporters his militant group would stop attacks against Israelis. It is an announcement that has failed to impress Israeli Defense Minister Shaul Mofaz. "I am not satisfied with Mahmoud al-Zahar's declaration," he told Israeli Army Radio. "Hamas did unforgivable acts and we need to dictate new rules of the game."
Hostilities between Israel and Palestinian militants have escalated since an explosion at a Hamas rally on Friday in Gaza that killed at least 19 people. Militants blamed the blast on Israel, which denied the claim. On Friday and Saturday, Palestinian militants fired at least three dozen Qassam rockets into the country, wounding at least five civilians, Israelis said. "Hamas fired at Israeli sovereign territory after the disengagement, they killed innocent Palestinians at a rally and blamed Israel for it and to strengthen their lie they fired Qassam rockets on Sderot," Mofaz charged. "We will not let it pass quietly."
Israel's actions Tuesday came after Israeli Prime Minister Ariel Sharon won an internal party procedural vote. The vote Monday was seen by many political observers as a referendum on Sharon's leadership and his decision to pull settlers and troops out of Gaza.
Posted by: Steve ||
09/27/2005 10:44 ||
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hell yeah maybe this is the final battle with these idiots
Israel launched more air strikes in Gaza despite Hamas saying it would halt rocket attacks, casting a shadow over Prime Minister Ariel Sharon's bid to stave off a leadership challenge.
Maybe it cast a shadow over it, but he somehow managed to survive...
The violence came as Likud's central committee was voting on a motion by Benjamin Netanyahu to advance a party primary election to November in protest at Sharon's removal of soldiers and settlers from Gaza this month. A weekend barrage of rockets into Israel from Gaza appeared to have strengthened Netanyahu, who argued that evacuating the territory would encourage more violence. Sharon's tough response could help shore up his position at the last moment.
Seems to have done so, assuming it was done for political reasons, which I don't think it was. Hamas has been aching for a resumption of festivities...
Yesterday's air strikes hit targets around Gaza City as well as the southern towns of Rafah and Khan Younis, in an upsurge of violence that has put in doubt an expected summit between Sharon and Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas. The attacks knocked out power to the eastern part of Gaza City and caused damage to several buildings, but no injuries were reported. The Israeli Army said its targets included an access road leading to a suspected rocket-launching site in northern Gaza, and weapons-manufacturing factories and storage facilities belonging to various militant groups. Later in the day, aircraft fired missiles at an empty field believed to be used by militants to launch rockets at Israel. The screw was also turned in the West Bank where a further 90 people were detained overnight, the day after more than 200 were arrested.
Israel's air campaign continued despite a call by Hamas leader Mahmoud Zahhar to end the group's rocket attacks. Zahhar said Hamas remained committed to a seven-month-old cease-fire and he wanted to prevent further Israeli attacks. "We call on our military groups to stop their operations against the enemy from the Gaza Strip," he said. A senior Palestinian official said Hamas bowed to an angry phone call by Abbas to its exiled top leader, Khaled Meshaal, and to Egyptian warnings to the group "that it had gone too far" with the rocket barrage.
But while Hamas drew back from launching rockets, other militant groups fired salvoes into Israel, causing no casualties, and vowed more attacks after the killing of a senior Islamic Jihad commander in an Israeli strike on Sunday. "There is no talk of a truce, there is only room for talk of war," said Islamic Jihad's top leader in Gaza, Mohammad al-Hindi.
Hamas, IJ, and the al-Aqsa Martyrs always do this. One or two say they're going to be good, and the third goes on merrily shooting and booming and rocketing everything in sight. It's a variation of good cop-bad cop, and the PA always pretends not to notice. I wouldn't mind seeing al-Hindi catching a Hellfire, myself...
Posted by: Fred ||
09/27/2005 00:00 ||
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Sounds like Ari's finaly called "bullshit" on the old Paleo 3-cornerd play. Good.
I know from a reliable Israeli source that Sharon was called AriK by his comrades in the Army. When you talked of Ari's seeing the light I first thought you were talking about Aris Katzaris and thought it is one of those rare days where pigs fly, wolves lie along sheep and water becomes wine.
#4
Let me get this straight - the terrorists have told Israel that they don't want to be killed, but Israel is *still* killing them? No wonder Israel is a pariah state!
Posted by: mac ||
09/27/2005 7:04 Comments ||
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#6
A weekend barrage of rockets into Israel from Gaza...
Apparently I misunderstood the meaning of "cease-fire". Hamas is allowed to shoot, but Jooos are not allowed to retaliate. Gotcha.
Posted by: Chris W. ||
09/27/2005 9:32 Comments ||
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#7
Chris, it was the whole "gotcha" strategy. Hamas fired rockets, THEN declared a ceasfire. When Israel responded, they could cry that the jooooos were being bad and the media had a proper anti-israel/jew slant to the story.
The only problem with the response by Israel is that the journalists are not being killed.
#8
actually the Israelis only killed an IJ leader so far, NOT a Hamas leader. it punishes IJ for taking the lead lately in attacks, and also serves as a warning to Hamas and of ocurse to Abbas (not that hed be targeted, but more Israeli attacks weaken him)
IIUC the Israelis are hinting they will kill a whole bunch of Hamas leaders. If i read it correctly, the dovish editora of Haaretz, are asking for restraint - as in dont kill TOO MANY Hamas leaders, keep it proportionate.
#10
Hamas leader Mahmoud Zahhar needs to receive a Hellfire or one of the newly imported JDAMs. That will send a message. No tit for tat. A simple message that all orgainzations suffer when one starts lobbing things over the border.
Posted by: Alaska Paul ||
09/27/2005 11:51 Comments ||
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#11
JFM, wolves are perfectly willing to lie down with lambs. Its the troublemaking lambs that balk.
Posted by: James ||
09/27/2005 12:56 Comments ||
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#12
Wow! A patience metre. Way cool. Perhaps I'll make a litter jumping gif for the computer lab.
Sixteen suspects and a Syrian linked to Al Qaeda's frontman in Iraq, Abu Mussab Zarqawi, pleaded not guilty of plotting attacks in the Kingdom at the start of their trial on Monday. The state prosecutor has accused the 17 men of conspiring to carry out âterrorist actsâ against Jordanian anti-terrorism officers and US forces training Iraqi troops in the Kingdom. The suspects, rounded up in July, were also accused on two counts of carrying out and plotting activity aimed at undermining Jordan's relations with another country, according to court papers.
The charge sheet, a copy of which was obtained by AFP, said the suspects were recruiting fighters and raising funds for Zarqawi's insurgency group in Iraq. They all pleaded not guilty when the president of the State Security Court read out the charges at the start of the trial, judicial sources said. The suspects face up to 15 years of hard labour if found guilty. The trial is set to resume Oct. 3. According to the charge sheet, alleged mastermind Motasem Suleiman was arrested in 2002 in Saudi Arabia and deported a year later to Jordan for trying to preach Islamic radicalism. A year after the start of the US-led war on Iraq in April 2003, Suleiman went to Iraq to fight US troops and actively tried to recruit fighters. âIn June 2005, the suspects agreed to carry out suicide bombings in Iraq and Suleiman got in touch with followers of Zarqawi in Syria,â the charge sheet said.
Posted by: Fred ||
09/27/2005 00:00 ||
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Philippine marine commandos captured seven suspected Islamic militants last week in a raid on a remote island along the maritime border with Malaysia, a navy spokesman said on Monday.
The Abu Sayyaf, a small radical group with suspected links to al Qaeda and Indonesian terror network Jemaah Islamiah, has strongholds in the southwestern Philippines and has been blamed for cross-border kidnappings in the area.
"We caught them by complete surprise," said Captain Geronimo Malabanan, the navy spokesman. "They did not offer any resistance. They were brought to a navy base for interrogation".
He said one of the seven arrested militants was identified as Jundan Jamalul, alias commander "Black Killer", who was suspected of involvement in a string of kidnapping, murder and extortion cases.
More than a dozen small guns were also seized in the raid on the island in the Tawi-Tawi chain, Malabanan said.
Posted by: Dan Darling ||
09/27/2005 00:20 ||
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let's keep them in a LOCKED jail cell out of reach of bribeable/sympathetic officers, k?
Posted by: Frank G ||
09/27/2005 19:33 Comments ||
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Beirut, 27 Sept. (AKI) - In Lebanon, despite the recent arrest of several former top security officials, a "Syrian-Lebanese network" continues to threaten the stability of the country, Lebanese Interior Minister Hassan Sabaa has warned. Sabaa made the remarks shortly after an emergency cabinet meeting late on Monday convened by Lebanese premier Fu'ad Siniora to discuss the wave of bomb attacks that has hit the country since the assassination of former premier Rafik Hariri in February.
"Even before 14 February [the day of Hariri's murder] we were aware of this plan to destabilise which is being carried out by a Syrian-Lebanese network," Sabaa said, adding that the four former top security officials arrested in July in connection with Hariri's killing were "only a component" of the network. The network was not only made up of military and security officials but also journalists and businessmen, Sabaa said, adding that these individuals "are certainly not in prison."
The cabinet meeting took place in the wake of a bomb attack on Sunday against a journalist from the LBC television station, May Shidiaq. The journalist, an outspoken critic of Syrian meddling in Lebanese affairs, had to have a leg and an arm amputated, because of the injuries she sustained.
Posted by: Steve ||
09/27/2005 16:01 ||
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BEIRUT, Lebanon (AP) - Lebanon's defense minister says Syrian intelligence officials in Lebanon threatened him months before an attempt on his life in a July car bombing. The allegation by Elias Murr, who is also deputy prime minister, was the first time that a traditionally pro-Syrian politician in Lebanon has accused Syrian officials of playing a role in the mysterious series of bombings that have occurred in the past year. Speaking by telephone from Switzerland where he is recovering from his injuries, Murr told LBC television channel he had decided to speak out because he has "had enough" after a Sunday bombing maimed well-known TV anchorwoman May Chidiac.
Being blown up himself wasn't enough?
Chidiac lost an arm and a leg in an explosion that devastated her car in the coastal town of Jounieh. She hosted political talk shows for LBC, which opposes Syria's role in Lebanon. Another anti-Syrian journalist and a politician have been killed in the bombings, while an anti-Syrian legislator was wounded in an October bombing.
Murr said that last year, while he was interior minister, he had an argument with Syria's intelligence chief in Lebanon, Brig. Gen. Rustum Ghazale, after the police had broken a ring of Islamic extremists, including al-Qaida elements, who had plotted to attack diplomatic missions in Beirut. Ghazale's intelligence apparatus then controlled almost every aspect of Lebanese political and military life. Murr left the Cabinet in October, but in January he got a warning.
"I received information about personal threats," he told LBC in the interview, which was broadcast late Monday. Murr did not identify the source of the threats, but the context made clear he was referring to Ghazale. Journalists have no access to Ghazale, as is the case with Syrian military intelligence officers. He has been in Syria since late April, when Syria withdrew its military from Lebanon. Syria has denied any involvement in the series of bombings, which it has condemned.
In April, Murr returned to the Cabinet. A new government was formed as the Syrians withdrew in the face of mass demonstrations and international pressure after the assassination of former Prime Minister Rafik Hariri in February. On July 12, Murr's car was heavily damaged by a bomb that detonated in an adjacent car on a road near his house. He received moderate wounds, but his two aides were seriously injured and the driver of a third car was killed.
The attempt to kill Murr ran against the trend of the bombings, which tended to target anti-Syrian personalities or Christian districts, which are strongholds of anti-Syrian sentiment. Murr comes from a political family that has traditionally been allied with Damascus. He is the son-in-law of President Emile Lahoud, Syria's top ally in Lebanon. Sunday's attack on Chidiac provoked wide indignation in Lebanon. Students protested Monday on two campuses and in a downtown Beirut. Interior Minister Hassan Sabei warned of a "terrorist plot" to destabilize the country and acknowledged the government was finding it difficult to break the chain of attacks.
Prime Minister Fuad Saniora said a team of U.S. experts was expected to arrive Tuesday in Beirut to help the investigation into Sunday's bombing.
Posted by: Steve ||
09/27/2005 14:15 ||
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BEIRUT - Lebanese security forces raided the offices of a mobile phone operator in Beirut on Tuesday in connection with a UN probe into the killing of Lebanese former Prime Minister Rafik Hariri, security sources said. The forces were accompanying investigators who copied data from the telephone records of MTC Touch and questioned three of its employees, the sources said on customary condition of anonymity. They did not elaborate.
"We can say no more!"
Reuters pictures showed Lebanese security forces taking several people away from the building in a security bus. It was not immediately clear why they were taken away.
Hummmm, for questioning, perhaps?
United Nations investigators were not involved in the raid but Detlev Mehlis, who is leading the international probe, was informed about the move and believed it would benefit his inquiries, a UN official in Beirut said.
MTC Touch , a network run by Kuwait-based Mobile Telecommunications Co, was not immediately available for comment. Lebanonâs Telecommunications Ministry declined to comment.
I'd say they're having a very close look at cell phone records.
Posted by: Steve ||
09/27/2005 11:16 ||
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MUNICH - Federal investigators in Germany have unearthed new evidence linking Iran to the 1985 bombing of a U.S. military base that injured 35 persons, according to a report Saturday. Iranian secret agents allegedly detonated explosives concealed in a vehicle at the Frankfurt post-exchange food store on November 24, 1985, said the report in Focus news magazine. Focus said investigators believe the agents were members of a hit squad working on orders from Tehran to eliminate dissidents living in Europe in exile. The hit squad was also responsible for the deaths of two dissidents, one in Hamburg in 1987 and one in Bonn in 1992, the magazine said, citing sources within the German federal prosecutor's office.
Investigators were quoted as saying the "credible new evidence" comes from a former Iranian secret service official. The federal prosecutor's office declined to comment on the report.
#4
I would like to see SOMETHING happening. Iran is emboldened by our lack of action in these historic bad deeds, as well as our lack of response to their meddling in Iraq. Ball is in our court, and we better hit it.
Posted by: Alaska Paul ||
09/27/2005 11:53 Comments ||
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#5
Spielberg's making a movie about this, ain't he? Perhaps this official wants to play himself in a Hollywood blockbuster.
#6
Spielberg's making a movie about this, ain't he?
Nah, he's making a movie about those zionist assasins killing misunderstood palestinian freedom fighters after that Olympics thing.
Posted by: Steve ||
09/27/2005 12:01 Comments ||
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#7
Nah, he's making a movie about those zionist assasins killing misunderstood palestinian freedom fighters after that Olympics thing.
And since he is Jewish himself, he is completely bewildered that most Jews don't agree with his take on the situation. Much like the former Mrs. Sheehan, in fact. (Were I her ex-husband, I would sue to require her to go back to her maiden name.)
India's vote "came as a great surprise to us", particularly since Tehran signed a $22bn liquefied natural gas deal with New Delhi this June
India's Vienna vote could well seal the fate of this heightened oil diplomacy initiated by the two countries in recent months. Mr Asefi on Tuesday said, "We will send a letter of objection to the countries that voted for the resolution," warning the 22 countries which voted for the resolution on Saturday, of economic consequences.
"Iran will revise these (economic and trade) relations and these countries will suffer. Our economic and political relations are coordinated with each other," Mr Asefi said. This echoes Iran President Mahmoud Ahmadi-Nejad's comment last month that, "economic ties are not irrelevant to political ties", with countries which "fail to recognise Iran's legitimate rights".
"India's vote was a blow to Iran's attempt to turn this into a developed world versus a developing world debate," US Under Secretary of State Nicholas Burns said over the weekend. This celebration of Iran's isolation from the world, deserted as it stands by known friends like India, has sent Iran into a defiant mode.
Posted by: john ||
09/27/2005 16:25 ||
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Iran has singled India out for criticism over Delhi's support for Iran to be referred to the UN Security Council over its nuclear plans.
India and Iran are in negotiations over a $7bn gas pipeline deal that would help India's energy supply problems.
Posted by: john ||
09/27/2005 18:04 Comments ||
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#4
The Iran(t)ians think they got indies over a barrow, literally. Oh, the sweet but rotting smell of blackmail.
Posted by: Captain America ||
09/27/2005 18:11 Comments ||
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#5
"The Iran(t)ians think they got indies over a barrow, literally. Oh, the sweet but rotting smell of blackmail."
Except that it's but a commodity on a world market. They have to sell to someone. My first guess is that the recent runup in world price has caused the Iranians to want to RENEGOTIATE the selling price more than anything else.
Posted by: Dave ||
09/27/2005 19:20 Comments ||
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#6
Iran is pissing off everyone in the world (except russia), I'm going to laugh out loud when someone sets their ass on fire.
#7
It's "Gaza Syndrome" -- the hardliners would rather take the whole country down with them than compromise with anyone on anything. The problem is that the U.N., the EU, and such have given the hardliners delusions of legitimacy instead of demanding civil behavior. Iran is the screaming child in the supermarket.
#8
It seems especially stupid for Iran to threaten anyone at this time. When you're a rogue pretending to be one of the boys, tis wise to sit with a poker face rather than react at all, no ?
#9
This Iranian pres is making our job so easy I wonder if he is not a Manchuring Canadite from the Bushitler ROVEEEVVVVVV alein Oil clone conspiracy...right
Ah but for real this guy is a idiot. You dont make friends by openly threating everyone and in this case the Iranians mistake was that they should have pulled a Saddam, oil development rights contracts to the boys. Saddam knew everyone has a price you just have to bid up to it. Hell just ask France, Russia, ect... Oh well I guess Russia did get the bid from Iran. The problem with Russia is they are well known through history of sellen out playin both sides against the middle and just aint what they used to be. China ehhh the US has a lot of ways to bribe them like not pinching off the IV they got stuck in our jugular vein sucking the life out of our Industry.
Two Afghan policemen and two civilians were killed by a landmine explosion today in the restive southern province of Helmand, a provincial official said.
The four were travelling in a car when the mine went off but it was not possible to say if it was newly planted device or one of the millions that litter the country after decades of war, said Haji Mohammad Wali, spokesman for the provincial governor.
Wali also said two Taliban fighters were killed in an overnight clash with security forces in another part of the province.
Posted by: Dan Darling ||
09/27/2005 00:09 ||
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An Internet video newscast called the Voice of the Caliphate was broadcast for the first time on Monday, purporting to be a production of al Qaeda and featuring an anchorman who wore a black ski mask and an ammunition belt.
The anchorman, who said the report would appear once a week, presented news about the Gaza Strip and Iraq and expressed happiness about recent hurricanes in the United States. A copy of the Koran, the Muslim holy book, was placed by his right hand and a rifle affixed to a tripod was pointed at the camera.
The origins of the broadcast could not be immediately verified. If the program was indeed an al Qaeda production, it would mark a change in how the group uses the Internet to spread its messages and propaganda. Direct dissemination would avoid editing or censorship by television networks, many of which usually air only excerpts of the group's statements and avoid showing gruesome images of killings.
The broadcast was first reported by the Italian Adnkonos news agency from Dubai. The 16-minute production was available on Italian newspaper Web sites.
The lead segment recounted Israel's withdrawal from the Gaza Strip, which the narrator proclaimed as a "great victory," while showing Palestinian Authority Prime Minister Ahmed Qureia walking and talking among celebrating compatriots.
That was followed by a repeat of a pledge on Sept. 14 by Abu Musab Zarqawi, the leader of al Qaeda in Iraq, to wage all-out war on Iraq's Shiite Muslims. An image of Zarqawi, a Jordanian-born Sunni Muslim, remained on the screen for about half the broadcast.
The masked announcer also reported that a group called the Islamic Army in Iraq claimed to have launched chemical-armed rockets at American forces in Baghdad. A video clip showed five rockets fired in succession from behind a sand berm as an off-screen voice yelled "God is great" in Arabic. The Islamic Army asserted responsibility last year for the killing of Enzo Baldoni, an Italian journalist who had been kidnapped in Iraq.
A commercial break of sorts followed, which previewed a movie, "Total Jihad," directed by Mousslim Mouwaheed. The ad was in English, suggesting that the target audience might be Muslims living in Britain and the United States.
The final segment was about Hurricane Katrina. "The whole Muslim world was filled with joy" at the disaster, the anchorman said. He went on to say that President Bush was "completely humiliated by his obvious incapacity to face the wrath of God, who battered New Orleans, city of homosexuals." Hurricane Ophelia's brush with North Carolina was also mentioned.
The name of the broadcast refers to the Islamic empire that emerged following the death of the prophet Muhammad in the 7th century, eventually stretching from Turkey to Spain and creating an era of Islamic influence that bin Laden has said Muslims should reestablish. According to credits following the broadcast, it was produced by the Global Islamic Media Front.
Numerous radical Islamic organizations, some claiming affiliation with al Qaeda, spread information, including photos and videos, by the Internet. Some evade ongoing efforts to shut them down by disguising their presence within innocuous Web sites.
Posted by: Dan Darling ||
09/27/2005 00:04 ||
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#1
"Good evening Mr. and Mrs. Muslim and all the ships at sea..."
#8
What, news and weather but no sports?
Assholes...
tu3031,
While your comment was made in jest, I think you are right about content. Sports are next, muslim kids love futbol, so the jihadis will target them with that medium.
They will target alll segments of muslim scoiety as time goes by and their sophistication grows. A Martha Stewart of Jihad will arrive soon to reach the jihadi women audience no doubt. "How to make snuggly suicide vests, while maintaining that uniquely Sunni style."
While they seem ridiculous now, don't doubt that such developments are bad news for us, as the elements of civil society develop within the jihadi culture. Such developments of these systems are indicative of larger participation and buy in of message, and they are telling of what is to come.
I am disturbed by the Italian distribution of these jihadi mediums though, they are damaging themselves and us with every disbursement of jihadi culture.
But seriously, these developments are disturbing and should be summarily crushed.
#9
So Air America has a TV station? "Today in we had a great victory over the Zionist contolled infidel Army. With our glorious forces sustaining just over 100 dead and the guts of the infidels roasting on our fires." BTW anybody seen Bahgdad Bob? This sounds right up his alley.
Ryan C Crocker, the US Ambassador to Pakistan, on Monday said that US President George Bush had accepted an invitation by President Pervez Musharraf to visit Pakistan. However, he said the schedule of the visit would be finalised later. Talking to reporters during a programme arranged by the Pakistan Red Crescent Society, the US ambassador said that President Musharraf had invited President Bush to visit Pakistan during his stay in the US. He said that President Bush would also visit India and he might go to Afghanistan as well before or after his stay in Pakistan. He also praised the Pakistan Red Crescent Society for providing relief for the victims of Hurricane Katrina.
That's guts. Every hard boy for hundreds of miles in every direction with a turban and bus fare is going to show up, determined to boom him...
To catch a big fish you have to use the right bait...
Posted by: Fred ||
09/27/2005 00:00 ||
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#2
Geeze. Like trolling for terrs. The planning and preparation for the trip will be horrendous.
Posted by: Alaska Paul ||
09/27/2005 11:39 Comments ||
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#3
"...he said the schedule of the visit would be finalised later..."
Schedule it for right after OBL is apprehended and all the madrassas are overhauled.
SRINAGAR, India - Two Muslim terrorists rebels were killed by Indian troops in a security sweep on the outskirts of Kashmirâs summer capital before the start of the autumn state assembly session, an army spokesman said on Monday. The terrorists rebels were killed in a gunbattle late Sunday in a raid on a suspected secret lair hideout, Indian army spokesman Vijay Batra said.
Security in Srinagar was increased at the weekend ahead of the new legislative session, which is a prime target for insurgent groups opposed to Indian rule, a police officer said.
Posted by: Steve White ||
09/27/2005 00:00 ||
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Faisal, an alleged outlawed JMB activist, who was arrested by Detective Branch (DB) of police from Tangail on September 18, Sunday gave confessional statement in Dhaka under 164 Crpc, reports UNB. Faisal was placed before a Dhaka Metropolitan Court Magistrate after completion of a 6-day remand and the magistrate recorded his statement. Sources in the DB said Faisal, a student of class VIII of Balla Aliya Madrasa in Tangail, in his statement confessed that he was introduced to JMB (Jamaat ul Mojahideen Bangladesh) leader in Tangail Shoeb Ahmed on June 4 last. He also came to know Ataur Rahman, brother of the wanted suspect and top JMB leader Shaikh Abdur Rahman.
In another development, two more JMB activists were arrested on Saturday from Bagerhat and Joypurhat districts in connection with the August 17 serial bombings across the country.
Posted by: Fred ||
09/27/2005 00:00 ||
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Paramilitary forces on Monday seized a huge weapons cache, including six anti-aircraft US-made Stinger missiles, during a raid on an isolated compound in Mohmand Agency near the Afghan border. âAll the Stinger missiles are unused. It is one of the biggest weapons haul ever outside Waziristan,â Frontier Corps (FC) Inspector General Maj Gen Tariq Masood told Daily Times after a briefing about the pre-dawn operation in Khazena Ziarat area of the Mohmand Agency.
It would seem to me that once they've been used they're... ummm... shrapnel.
He said that paramilitary forces had also seized 100 rocket-propelled grenades, 12 107-mm rockets, 331 anti-personnel mines, 1,487 fuses of all types, 45 pressure switches, 40 mine triggers, 210 ammunition of 20-mm guns, 437 current ignite missiles (large size), 193 mortar bombs of 60-mm, two guns of 12.7-mm, one battery charger and 42 boxes of rounds of 20-mm gun. âThe operation was bloodless and the security forces faced no resistance. We have arrested a 50-year-old tribesman Taj Muhammad and he is being interrogated,â said Maj Gen Tariq.
"He sez they're family heirlooms..."
Posted by: Fred ||
09/27/2005 00:00 ||
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#1
Stingers are almost certainly at least 15 yrs old. Their best use now would be as Paki wedding decorations. I wouldn't want to be standing anywhere close to the guy trying to fire one...
#2
Reminds me of a story quoted in an old programming book. THe software of a ground-air missile had a small bug who caused the missile to boomerang towards the launcher if the steep of the surrounding ground was at over 45 degrees. It went unnoticed for years until India and Pakistan went to battle in the Himalaya...
Is anyone hear familiar with Stinger programming? :-)
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.
The Anti-Narcotics Department at King Khaled International Airport in Riyadh arrested a group of drug traffickers and seized a large container with over a ton of Cannabis, Asharq Al-Awsat has learned. Authorities were alerted about the Cannabis shipment, which had recently arrived from the city of Dammam in the Eastern Province after receiving an anonymous "tip off". The source revealed to the Anti-Narcotics Department that a group of individuals would be arriving at King Khaled International Airport with a very large shipment of Cannabis. The Drug traffickers had planed on storing the drugs in a safe location before distributing the illegal substance all across the Kingdom.
London police said Tuesday they had arrested a 36-year-old man in connection with the failed July 21 bomb attacks on three London subway trains and a bus. Four suspected bombers are already in custody over the attacks, in which no one was hurt. The attacks came two weeks after 56 people, including four bombers, died in blasts that also targeted three Underground trains and a bus.
Italian police smashed on Monday an alleged terrorist cell based in Milan, raiding the homes and businesses of 11 Algerian nationals with suspected terror links, local media reported. Police said the 11 men were suspected of having ties to a fundamentalist militant group known as the Salafist Group for Calland Combat.
French anti-terrorism police arrested nine people Monday suspected of planning attacks, including an Islamic militant previously convicted on terrorism charges and freed from prison two years ago.
The pan-Arab TV channel Jazeera condemned a Spanish court's finding Monday that one of its journalists had collaborated with terrorists, accusing the judges of violating legal principles. âIt was a black day in the history of Spanish justice,â Jazeera news editor 
Iraq's most revered Shiite cleric, Ali al-Sistani has denounced the vast, sudden and unexplained increase in the wealth of the family of Jordanian militant Abu Musab al-Zarqawi, leader of al-Qaeda in Iraq, in recent months, according to the Sout al-Iraq (Voice of Iraq) website. It speculates that at least some of the al-Zarqawi family's new-found wealth may have come from supporters of Iraq's defunct Baath party.
The No. 2 al Qaeda leader in Iraq was killed Sunday night, U.S. officials say. 
Israel fired live artillery shells into the northern Gaza Strip on Tuesday night in what Israeli security officials said was a symbolic act to warn Palestinian militants to halt their attacks on Israelis. 
Israel launched more air strikes in Gaza despite 
Israel's air campaign continued despite a call by Hamas leader 
Sixteen suspects and a Syrian linked to Al Qaeda's frontman in Iraq, 
An Internet video newscast called the Voice of the Caliphate was broadcast for the first time on Monday, purporting to be a production of al Qaeda and featuring an anchorman who wore a black ski mask and an ammunition belt.
Ryan C Crocker, the US Ambassador to Pakistan, on Monday said that US President George Bush had accepted an invitation by President Pervez Musharraf to visit Pakistan. However, he said the schedule of the visit would be finalised later. Talking to reporters during a programme arranged by the Pakistan Red Crescent Society, the US ambassador said that President Musharraf had invited President Bush to visit Pakistan during his stay in the US. He said that President Bush would also visit India and he might go to Afghanistan as well before or after his stay in Pakistan. He also praised the Pakistan Red Crescent Society for providing relief for the victims of Hurricane Katrina.
SRINAGAR, India - Two Muslim 
Paramilitary forces on Monday seized a huge weapons cache, including six anti-aircraft US-made Stinger missiles, during a raid on an isolated compound in 
