Remember, Abu Omar al-Saif is the money man for the Chechen Killer Korps, with Abu Hafs al-Urduni filling the role last vacated by Abu Walid al-Ghamdi. His denunciation of democracy is also quite telling as far as what he plans on setting up should the Chechens get full independence.
A 20:13 minute audio speech allegedly voiced by Muhammad Abu Omar al-Seif, a Saudi scholar who has been affiliated with al-Qaeda leadership in Chechnya, was issued yesterday, September 26, 2005 to password-protected al-Qaeda affiliated forums. Seif focuses his oration upon the mujahideen in Iraq, and speaks at length about the imminent danger of democracy in Iraq vis-Ã -vis Islamic shariâa, and the belief that it is incumbent upon the mujahideen in Iraq to amalgamate into a unified body and appoint an Imam, parallel to the âcrusaders and the renegade sects - have united their ranks and agreed to establish an infidel democratic government in Iraq.â
Seif argues seven points as to why democracy is incompatible with Islam, including: sovereignty is reserved for Allah alone, replacing shariâa with democratic elections is considered âan appeal to the devil and destruction of Allahâs rule,â democracy considers all people equal, âknowledgeable and the ignorant and Muslim and âinfidelâ alike, which is deemed anathema. Further, according to the speech, jihad is the solution, justified in its course because it means to defend Islam, âwhich the enemies are aiming to remove from the hearts of the Muslims and from their lives.â
Posted by: Dan Darling ||
09/28/2005 00:20 ||
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#1
It's a tough market for those seeking cash in lesser but longstanding jihadi lands. Further you are from Mecca the less you matter as a jihadi unless you're looking to kill American, Australian or European civilians. If you don't tow the idealogical line the cash will not be coming. These guys have done more to destroy any chance of Chechen independence than any OMON or Spetznaz unit ever could.
#2
Youâre right. Remember Omar: the small markets are much harder to franchise than the big ones. Still, the home office has a winning formula, so keep it up !
HELICOPTER-borne French troops have recaptured a French cargo ship that had been seized by striking workers to protest the privatisation of a state-owned ferry company.
Black-clad and masked commandos rappelled from five helicopters to the deck of the cargo-passenger ship Pascal Paoli as it tried to enter the port of Bastia on the French Mediterranean island of Corsica. The sources said the vessel was recaptured in 10 minutes, and then set sail for the mainland.
The hijackers were unarmed and it still took 10 minutes? Someone leave a plate of cheese in the wardroom?
The Pascal Paoli had been taken over Tuesday in the mainland port of Marseille amid rioting by ferry workers. About 30 masked but unarmed men from the Union of Corsican Workers (STC), believed to be close to a Corsican independence movement, had overpowered officers of the ship, which had been docked in the port and had no passengers on board.
About 50 members of an elite unit specializing in dealing with hijackings and kidnappings, the GIGN, took part in the operation along with navy commandos. It followed two days of violence over the sale of the debt-ridden National Corsica Mediterranean Company (SNCM) to a French investment group, with clashes earlier in the day between police and supporters of the striking ferry workers.
The unrest broke out on Monday in Marseille on France's Mediterranean coast. Riot police there intervened with tear-gas to clear port entrance gates after groups of masked men set fire to pallets and set up barricades.
Interior Minister Nicolas Sarkozy hailed the "fast and efficient" operation by the French troops. "The GIGN knew, in this sensitive time, to retake without violence the SNCM ship that had been seized illegally," he said.
Posted by: Oztralian [AKA] God Save The World ||
09/28/2005 04:17 ||
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#1
Who were those masked men?
I dunno, but since they were unarmed, the French kicked ass.
#5
Yep it is that Paoli, I don't understand how a French company, furthermore owned by the state can have one of its ships bear Poli's name. And please avoid making fun of the French GIGN (Gendramerie's SWAT units). They are good. BTW it was them who stormed the plane that terrorists planned to crash upon the Eiffel Tower
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.
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.
Posted by: Dan Darling ||
09/28/2005 00:13 ||
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FRANKFURT: Police in the western German state of Hesse mounted raids in six cities on Tuesday against suspected Islamic extremists accused of raising money to carry out terrorist attacks. "We have information that Islamic extremists engaged in petty crime are building a network and the logistics for terrorism," police spokesman Peter Liebeck said.
Searches in the neighbourhood surrounding the main train station in the business capital Frankfurt turned up evidence of drug violations, illegal immigration and passport counterfeiting, he said. More than 100 armed officers sealed off a street and stormed Turkish and Arab businesses. Liebeck said authorities believed that the extremists were using local snack shops and call centres as fronts. Police also searched homes and offices in the cities of Kassel, Dillenburg, Wetzlar, Marburg and Bad Vilbel.
Posted by: Fred ||
09/28/2005 00:00 ||
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Excerpt from opinion piece by Jeffrey Nyquist interviewing author Paul Williams on whether al Qaeda has nukes:
I asked Williams if he could prove that al Qaeda has nuclear weapons. âYes,â he said, âthere is undeniable proof that al Qaeda has nuclear weapons.
In December 2001, as U.S. troops combed the tunnels near an al Qaeda base in Kandahar, they discovered uranium-238 in a lead-lined canister. This was reported in every major U.S. newspaper, including The New York Times. In October 2001, an al Qaeda operative was arrested as he attempted to enter Israel through the checkpoint at Ramallah. The operative had a bomb strapped to his back that Mossad first believed was a radiological devise but later discovered, as verified by UPI, that it was a tactical nuke.
Early in 2001, two British agents, as reported by BBC on Nov. 26, 2001, managed to infiltrate an al Qaeda training camp in Afghanistan by posing as recruits from a London mosque. The agents eventually were sent to Herat where they saw nuclear weapons being manufactured. Finally, Dr. Mahmood and Dr. Majid of the A.Q. Khan Research Facility in Pakistan admitted upon interrogation that they provided assistance to al Qaeda in developing nuclear weapons and that at least one weapon was forward deployed from Karachi to the United States. You can check out this story by turning to A. Borchgrave, âAl Qaeda Nuclear Agenda Verified,â Washington Times, Dec. 10, 2001. There are numerous other instances in which proof has been provided but the above accounts should suffice to dispel all doubt.â Guys: what do you think would happen if al Qaeda nuked properly (not dirty nuke but hiroshima style) any of: New York, LA, Sydney, Melbourne, Washington, London, Berlin, Amsterdam etc in a co-ordinated attack?
Would we declare war on Islam?
Would we nuke Mecca to disprove the caliphate can ever exist?
Would we take it and submit to the Caliphate or the reduced living standards?
Would we have civil war in our own countries of left vs right if the government did nuke Saudi/Pakistan etc?
#3
If GOP controls teh White House at time of said nukeage....we implode into civil war. If the Dems control the White House..we'll make lots of glass parking lots. Why? No matter what the GOP does....it's a war crime - even when we have cities converted to radioactive dust. When the Dems are in control, well - Hillar could nuke Mecca and the MSM wouls swoon about what a courageous leader she is. That ground work was laid tonight.
Posted by: Rex Mundi ||
09/28/2005 3:01 Comments ||
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#4
civil war? Left v/s right? I don't think so. If they want to unite not only the left and right in this country, but makes us best friends with France, Germany and most other countries in the world, a nuke would do it.
#5
No. Hillary = Bill = both care about themselves too much to risk being glow-worm fodder. Hillary wants 8 years of Bill-style success and prosperity - you can tell since alternatist and bohemian "Reality Shows" are now = 1980's "MTV pop culture". The MSM > Prosperity and national wealth/abundance is for Democrats and Regulators, i.e Laissez Faire, sub i.e. SSSHHHHH, SOCIALISTS; while Problems, Defects and Failures are for Repubs and Conservatives. THE CLINTONS DO NOT WANT TO GOVERN OR PRESIDE OVER A DESTROYED OR ANARCHIC VIOLENCE/CIVIL WAR-INTENSIVE AMERICA - THEY WANT GOLDWATER, ROCKWELL, AND EISENHOWER'S, ETC. AMERICA, IN BY AND FOR THEMSELVES, EVEN AS THEY ARE KILLING AMERICA. Any new 9-11 or nuke terror is likely focused on the PC assassination of Dubya, his Admin. and the bulk of the [anti-/non-Clinton] Congress, be it GOP or Dems - remember, KERRY, GORE, and DEAN as POTUSES are there to make sure America and its trad Two-Party NPE fails, NOT win. NOLA > all about directly andor indirectly DISCREDITING THE USA's FEDERALIST SYSTEM and getting the Fed, AND ONLY THE FED, TO EXPAND AND EXPAND AND EXPAND OVER EVERYTHING AND EVERYONE ACROSS THE LAND, BUT NOT THE WORLD. THE DEMOLEFTIES HAVE NO PROBS WITH ALLEGED FASCIST AMERICA WARRING AROUND THE WORLD, A'ATTACKIN AND A'INVADIN', AS LONG AS AN ANTI-SOVEREIGN COMMUNIST AMERICA UNDER OWG AND SWO-CWO IS THE FINAL OUTCOME!
#6
If AQ had a nuke then there'd be a crater somewhere in the west by now... just like Gromky says. Personally, I don't ever remember a Paleo with a tactical nuke being caught entering Israel from the West Bank?!
Posted by: Howard UK ||
09/28/2005 5:41 Comments ||
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#7
Link not working, try here? (Warning: overactive imagination required)
Posted by: Howard UK ||
09/28/2005 5:50 Comments ||
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#8
If Al Crappa had one nuke they would IMO hold it back as a blackmail card. Because once you use it that's it. Personally I don't think they do but that's my opinion. But if they had multiple nukes they would of used them by now. The only question is where. Personally I think on 9/12/2001 GWB should of ordered the warheads removed from two Trident missiles and replaced with the test packages used for when the missiles have to be certified. Target Mecca, Medina, Qom, Tehran and a few other places. Let the Russians, Chinese, French and others know what is going on and fire the missiles. When the action is annouced simply say the bullshit stops now. We have had it with the whole Islamic world's juvenile behavior. But if they insist on continuing the way they are the next time there is an incident the warheads will not be blanks
#9
Rex-
Respectfully, I disagree with you. No matter who is in the White House, the keys will turn and there will be a nuclear response somewhere - look for it to be Iran. The question is the extent of the response.
Mike
Posted by: Mike Kozlowski ||
09/28/2005 7:11 Comments ||
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#10
I tried to google this, and all the articles I could find on the AQ backpack nuke at the Ramallah checkpoint circle back to Williams and Debka. The U-238 find was widely reported at the time, but the reports noted that it was the weak form of uranium, only suitable for dirty bombs, not nukes.
There was a long discussion quite some time ago here at Rantburg, with all the missile, explosive and nuke experts weighing in. (Me, I just read the posts and tried to grasp the details) The conclusion was that nuclear bombs/missiles are tricky things that must be maintained meticulously up until the time of use, something none here believed AQ technicians were capable of. And, to me the clincher, if AQ had a nuke of any sort, they would have used it immediately to the greater glory of Allah. Not used = don't have. Q.E.D.
Posted by: Howard UK ||
09/28/2005 7:57 Comments ||
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#12
2b -- I respectfully disagree. AQ murdered 3,000 people and in response the left has mired itself deeper and deeper into the world of sedition and treason. A stronger attack would provoke a stronger reaction from them.
Posted by: Robert Crawford ||
09/28/2005 8:14 Comments ||
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#13
There are evidently some who argue that AQ has already employed a suitcase nuke - see
It is an interesting read about the Bali blast, at any rate.
#15
I don't think they have any nukes. I firmly believe they'd have set one off by now if they did, in Europe at least if they couldn't reach the US. However...
If a nuke goes off in this country and we don't retaliate in an obscene manner... let's just say I won't tolerate it. From leftist traitors, any politician, subversive media, cultist colonizers, etc. In that situation, it means me and my family can be murdered at will and my government that is supposed to protect me, and not the enemy, has refused to do so.
Dire Revenge⢠ain't just for moon worshippers.
Posted by: Laurence of the Rats ||
09/28/2005 9:17 Comments ||
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#16
Another interesting discussion on this subject...
But I remember this quote: "The American people expect a disproportionate response."
--GW Bush
Posted by: Mark E. ||
09/28/2005 9:51 Comments ||
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#17
There is another name for U-238, it is called "depleted uranium." If this clown thinks a nuke can be built with depleted uranium he is totally clueless. Why is anyone taking this obvious nonsense seriously?
#19
In fact U238 is even a poor ingredient for dirty nukes. It emits less radioactivity than most ground locations while shielding from that same ground radioactivity and from cosmical radiation.
#22
liked the prior discussions HowardUK.
Don't think they used a nuke in Bali, Lone Ranger, we'd know if they did with forensics, Aussie coppers went over and took samples. It wouldn't be a secret.
But not so sure on logic of if Qaeda had'em they'd use 'em. Don't use = don't have.
They've shown the ability to have a long-term goal and work towards it. Took them years to plot train and crack the 9/11 attacks.
Not convinced they won't in future have nukes if they don't now: Pakistan has friendly ties. Pakistan has nukes. Unofficially some may go missing.
#23
Sometime ago I thought RB reported a tactical nuke intercepted in the Netherlands and possibly in South Africa. The 2-14-05 Time issue "The Merchant of Menace" about AQ Khan also said a rudimentary nuke could be made with an artillery tube. This really makes me nervous because Bush, Cheney, Rumsfeld, Gen Meyers and Abizaid looked awfully grim in the Rose Garden this morning and implored Congress to meet with them regarding a change of tactics but refused questions. Just finishing the post on AQ in Israel really disturbs me, especially after Zarq's family's new found wealth. Closing in on them may force them to play their aces.
#24
Mark E; Thankyou, that belmont site was a cracking good read.
"The so-called strengths of Islamic terrorism: fanatical intent; lack of a centralized leadership; absence of a final authority and cellular structure guarantee uncontrollable escalation once the nuclear threshold is crossed. Therefore the 'rational' American response to the initiation of terrorist WMD attack would be all out retaliation from the outset.
James Lileks and the Pew respondents would not lose America; but like the boogeyman in Seven, Islam would take it's soul. The most startling result of this analysis is that a catastrophic outcome for Islam is guaranteed whether America retaliates or not. Even if the President decided to let all Americans die to expiate their historical guilt, why would Islamic terrorists stop after that? They would move on to Europe and Asia until finally China, Russia, Japan, India or Israel, none of them squeamish ... and they, too, have WMD."
So the survival of large swathes of the Islamic world depend on Al Q NOT using nukes.
#25
I don't think they have a nuke in this country, at least not yet. The day I formed this opinion was during Ronald Reagans Funeral in Washington. Almost every western world leader was there, together in one room. Bush, Cheney, Powell, Rumsfeld, Bush 41, Clinton, Carter, Ford, Most of Congress, Supreme Court Justices, Tony Blair, Thatcher, Prince Charles, Schroeder, Canadian PM Mulroney, and lots of other western leaders. Even Gorbachev. Last I looked AQ didn't like the Soviets either.
If you don't explode one in Washington on that day you don't have one!
#26
I think if the West did have a nuke hit anywhere, the West would "get it's War on."
I don't *think* we would respond in a nuclear fashion, but we would go balls out in terms of conventional methods.
We haven't seen WAR, real Total War since WW2. It will be horrifying and awesome and it will reshape the face and map of the Middle East and SouthEast Asia. And there won't be any nation building until afterwards. It will be after we've kicked their dicks in the dirt and stomped on their necks.
That's just my take.
However, it hinges greatly on *where* the nuke goes off. I hope we would still have the moral courage to commit if/when something like this would hit the US. But I would think even most leftists and Spain would realize the gravity of the situation and ride with us.
#27
When we get hit, it won't be one nuke. Whether or not is a state actor (no state is so stupid to tell a terrorist client to light one nuke over NYC or DC), it will be with hundreds (e.g. every city > XX population) to achive a nation destroying effect.
Posted by: ed ||
09/28/2005 13:38 Comments ||
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#28
My comments are not meant to challenge anyone's expertise, simply to stimulate discussion. That being said:
While the guy they interviewed doesn't know his ass from a hole in the ground, I think he likes the whiskey too much myself, I think that the argument that Al Q doesn't have the technical capacity to keep a nuke up is off base.
I realize that damn near weekly maintenance is needed to keep a backpack nuke up after a 20 year threshold, that doesn't mean that Al Q can't do it.
After the fall of the soviet union more than 50,000 highly trained weapons specialists were suddenly without a job, So what did they do? Change their clothes and forget everything they knew about nukes and become radish farmers?
Not bloody likely! They lavish in the radish fields about their plight. They know damn well their skills were valuable, and while many of them are probably normal family people with a conscious who would never go to work for a terrorist group, others are likely not so ethical.
Hell, what about those honest people whose kids were starving, what do they do when one of their former colleagues approaches them with $10,000 cash and a new "technician job" that pays a lot more?
What would any desperate person do, they would take the job, probably never even knowing for sure if they were working for a terrorist. The Al Q has cash and to spare, and Saudi Arabia, Syria, and Iran would no doubt throw in some cash and or support to help the cause.
If backward ass Paki Wacki land can maintain a nuclear arsenal, then Al Q can. That's IMVHO, but that's the logical conclusion I come to. Al Q not only has as much money and support as some nation states, they also have the support of several nation states, nuclear and non nuclear who would no doubt be interested in a proxy group willing to hit the US and then take the brunt of the response. In my mind, that's the only way another country could ever participate in nuking the US without the fear of a guaranteed retaliatory strike.
A lot of the nuke, bio, and chem work done for Russia was done in the former republics as well right. You could probably trade a donkey for a functioning nuke in several of those shitholes right after the fall.
You could pay an out of work Soviet/Kazaki Nuke Team $1,000 bucks a week collectively and they'd be rich, and you want me to believe Al Q can't maintain or even build an improvised nuke, bullshit. I call bullshit on such assumptions. We as a nation should, and as a precaution, likely do, assume Al Q or another rogue enemy already has a nuke in their possesion.
That's precisely why we spent and will spend billions "protecting" The former Soviet Union's nuclear arsenal. We are buying their old nuclear material, and subsidizing repairs to facilities and no doubt paying those out of work weapon's scientists to stay "out of work" as it were.
So does Al Q have a nuke, maybe , maybe not. Could they, and would they? Plainly YES, as could anyone with enough cash.
#29
ed, hitting us with hundreds of nukes would take one serious bit of coordination. Not being detected by a radiation sensor anywhere?? Not being picked up by any intelligence?? Sounds unlikely. 2 or 3 would be all they could hope for...enough to set in motion events that would change the world forever. Our response would be massive. Most of the Muslim world would be leveled. There would be no talk of new governments or rebuilding or sensitivity. Total elimination of Islamists would be the only acceptable response.
#30
There is only one reason Al Q would not have used nukes by now, if they had them. That would be if they thot that they got more powerful as they aged (maybe ever year you waited the megs went up by 10), kind of like wine getting better as it ages. Somehow I don't think they are that stupid.
1st; President sends a letter to the UN, and the heads of state of each and every nation available through our ambassadors. Those countries without US ambassadors will receive letters via third party nation's ambassadors.
2nd; President then goes on TV. Announces that each and every nation that refuses armed investigation for nuclear weapons, research or development programs by quick reaction forces will lose their capital citys and military bases within the next 24-hours. A list of the first three countries to be inspected includes North Korea and Iran. Any country that refuses or interferes with inspections will lose its capital city and military bases within 24-hours of this announcement.
3rd; President warns that any country found complicit in attack will lose its capital city and military bases. Additional strikes to be determined as necessary.
4th; Explain that actions have outcomes. That there will no assistance to those countries that either participated, aided or abetted the attack. Their countries will be ruined. They will have no electricity or oil. They will not be allowed to reorganize their military. If their countries have resources needed by the United States, those resources will be confiscated as reparations. Countries that interfere will lose their capital and their military.
5th; The only way any country can avoid nuclear retatiation is an immediate and complete laydown of all political and military resources. Without complete and unconditional surrender, nuclear forces will be used for retaliation.
Thinking about the post-war, imagine Iran after 350 targets have been hit.
http://www.debka.com/article.php?aid=940
In a post MAD environment, the only deterrent is Complete Unilateral Destruction. Chew on that.
#32
James Lileks and the Pew respondents would not lose America; but like the boogeyman in Seven, Islam would take it's soul.
Y'know, I used to think that, and I melted down right here at Rantburg over it once or twice. But we survived the meat grinder invasions of both Western Europe and the Pacific without losing our souls as a nation, we survived the fire-bombings of German cities without losing our souls, and we survived dropping the first two working atomic bombs on Hiroshima and Nagasaki civilians without losing our souls. The thing about being a Jacksonian civilization is that we only go total ("balls out"?) when we agree that we are forced to the necessity. I've come to think that the only ones who might lose their souls over all-out war would be those who are fighting against Bush's intermediate steps now. And most of those would go chicken hawk, demanding inordinate response, anyway, then noisily regret what was done, afterward.
Certainly, I've decided that if the Islamofascist idiots refuse to take the opportunity we now offer, they will have chosen the alternative by default. It isn't like they haven't had plenty of warning -- the EU's diplomats keep threatening Iran and before that Saddam Hussein with the big stick of American warfare if they don't/didn't work with the EU's soft power (whatever that is).
#35
If and when a nuke goes off, the world will react with condemnation and demands of accountability. There will not be a counter strike unless a major nuke holder attacks another. The organization launching a nuke will become isolated and overrun and marched off to jail and a long useless trial. Reports of the damage and residual sickness will stretch into months of unnecessary carping. In the end, we will wish we never heard of nuclear weapons.
#36
wxjames
There would be a civil war in the US if the US gov did not respond to a nuking of a US city. It would be a short civil war/necktie party... followed by a massive response to the nukers of the city(s).
New York City police were led to a possible al-Qaida associate last month after a search of a federal terror database during a routine traffic search, National Intelligence Director John D. Negroponte said Tuesday.
In a speech at the annual conference of the International Association of Chiefs of Police, Negroponte offered the incident as an example of increasing cooperation between local law enforcement and federal agencies.
Negroponte spoke of success he said local law enforcement officials have had in working with the FBI-run Terrorist Screening Center, the government's new central database for terror suspects.
According to Negroponte, the New York City Police Department called the center last month because a routine search on a parking violation alerted officers that the individual might be a terrorist suspect.
``Sure enough, TSC database searches identified the subject as an alleged alien smuggler possibly associated with al-Qaida,'' Negroponte said. ``Identifying terrorists who wish to do us harm, intercepting them when necessary and preventing attacks before they occur is a tall order, but it is the right order.''
Negroponte said it was important for agencies from around the world to work together and share information. However, there are still issues that need to be addressed, including privacy and civil liberties.
The screening center was created in September 2003 by a presidential directive. It combines about a dozen databases from nine agencies that any government official - from a Customs agent at an airport to a state trooper watching for speeders - can consult to check the name of someone who has been screened or stopped.
Earlier this year, Inspector General Glenn A. Fine said in an audit that the database was missing some names that should be in it and had inaccurate information about others.
Donna Bucella, the center's director, has said the problems have been corrected.
Posted by: Dan Darling ||
09/28/2005 00:24 ||
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#1
``Sure enough, TSC database searches identified the subject as an alleged alien smuggler possibly associated with al-Qaida,'' Negroponte said.
Shut the f&*king border.
Posted by: Cato Dog ||
09/28/2005 0:50 Comments ||
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#2
Here's a hint: any search for warrants, which I believe is routine during a traffic stop, should also hit a database of people who are waiting for immigration hearings and/or skipped on their immigration hearings. If their hearing is still pending, and they're more than 100 miles from their port of entry, or if they skipped on their hearing, then they should be arrested, deported, and never allowed into the country again. If they get caught again, then they should spend a nice long time in jail before they get kicked back home again.
Anyone who's illegal and commits a crime FIRST serves their sentence, then gets booted home -- and their home country's legal immigration quota is reduced, one-for-one. The country of origin with the least amount of crime from its immigrants gets bumped by one, to make up for the difference.
For every 1,000 illegals coming from a given country, we PNG a diplomatic official -- and if it goes far enough, we start PNG'ing their UN staff. If we run out of diplomats, we start seizing the assets of government officials.
Posted by: Robert Crawford ||
09/28/2005 8:12 Comments ||
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#5
PNG Persona Non Grata, in plain english "Get out and stay out, RIGHT NOW
Posted by: Redneck Jim ||
09/28/2005 13:35 Comments ||
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#6
RC - I like your idea. And while they are waiting to be deported house them in relocation centers (which are based on their LEGAL STATUS and not their RACE / CREED / RELIGION / GENDER / etc...)
Unfortunately some 'sanctuary cities' explicitly FORBID their law enforcement officers from inquiring about a person's immigration status (or lack thereof) much less do anything about it.
I think also a city should forfit any and all federal funds if they refuse to enforce federal immigration laws.
SAN FRANCISCO: A US federal judge granted bail on Monday to a Pakistani-born California man accused of lying to federal investigators about his son traveling to Pakistan to allegedly train in terrorist camps. US Magistrate Judge Gregory Hollows ordered Umer Hayat released pending trial if he posts a $1.2 million bond and if he agrees to remain at his Lodi, California, home under electronic monitoring and permits his telephones to be tapped. Hollows wrote in his order that Hayatâs son, Hamid Hayat, would remain in detention âboth as a danger to the community and as a flight riskâ.
Hamid Hayat has been indicted on a charge of providing material support to terrorists. His father faces charges that he lied to investigators about his sonâs activities. US Attorney McGregor Scott said he would appeal the bail order for Umer Hayat on or before October 11 and requested a stay of the order. Hollows wrote that he doubted Umer Hayat would be a much of flight risk as he faces a modest prison sentence if convicted of lying to investigators and because his son remains in custody. The judge added that his conditions âwill ensure that Umer is a very watched person while out on pretrial releaseâ.
Posted by: Fred ||
09/28/2005 00:00 ||
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NAJAF, Iraq (Reuters) - A bomb exploded outside the house of a bodyguard of Shi'ite cleric Moqtada al-Sadr in the southern Iraqi city of Najaf on Wednesday, killing at least six people, an aide to Sadr said. Sahib al-Amiree said the blast also wounded eight people. The holy Shi'ite city of Najaf has been relatively calm compared to central Iraq, where a Sunni Arab insurgency is raging.
Couldn't have been us. We wouldn't have missed.
Sadr, a fiery cleric who has led fighters against U.S. troops, is a popular figure in Iraq. Najaf has been stable since his Mehdi Army militia fought U.S. troops in the city last November. Sadr's supporters recently clashed with fighters in the Iranian-trained Badr Brigade movement, which is linked to one of the Shi'ite parties leading Iraq's U.S.-backed government.
Posted by: Steve ||
09/28/2005 14:39 ||
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Mehdi Army militia vs. Badr Brigades? ifen so, loverly.
IOW Tater Tot Troubles!
/huumm..SAS?
Ima hopen it was the SAS!
Posted by: Red Dog ||
09/28/2005 14:59 Comments ||
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#2
Tater pissed someone off and they are sending a messsge. I bet they are Shiites too.
#3
Either he was an Iranian stooge, or he wasn't, and the Iranian stooges wanted him head, or one of the other Shiite factions wanted payback for his hanky-panky in past.
Posted by: Mrs. Davis ||
09/28/2005 18:34 Comments ||
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no, no, no. First of all, it was a bodyguard. That means it was a MESSAGE. If they wanted to target al-Sadr, they would have done that. Second, al-Sadr just CHANGED HIS MIND about the election. He was against it, now he's neutral (because the polls indicate BIG support). So --- who would want to give ole buddy Moqtada a warning, without hurting him, that this was a no-no? Does the name Zarqawi ring a bell?
A FEMALE suicide bomber blew herself up outside an army recruitment centre in the northern Iraqi town of Tal Afar today, killing at least seven and wounding 37. The recruitment centre, housed in a former US military base, had only opened today after a joint Iraqi-US military operation which US forces said had effectively rid Tal Afar of what they called "terrorists and foreign fighters". "A suicide bomber blew herself up in front of the recruitment centre. This centre was supposed to be open today for volunteers," Iraqi General Nejam Abdullah said.
Many people were waiting at the scene to sign up to join the army, police said.
Today's attack mirrored a suicide bombing of a recruitment centre in Baquba, 65km north of Baghdad, yesterday. At least 10 died in that blast, with around 30 wounded.
Posted by: Oztralian [AKA] God Save The World ||
09/28/2005 06:51 ||
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#1
One more example of the Islamists' warped sense of women's liberation.
"Hey toots, strap on this... errr....not that adult toy device, I mean this one(a bomber belt)," Yusef Kaboomie.
#2
A guy walks into a sex shop and asks the attendent for an inflatable doll. The chap behind the counter inquires, "Do you want a Christian doll or a Muslim doll?" The customer asks, "What's the difference?"
The clerk replies, "You have to inflate the Christian doll, whereas the Muslim one blows herself up."
A source in the Iraqi police has confirmed the detention of a leading member in the fundamentalist extremist group of 'Ansar Al Sunna', which is linked to Al Qaeda organization and is active in Iraq, in addition to Abu Mus'ab Al Zarqawi's group. Colonel Taha Abdullah, from Kirkuk police, said, "Kirkuk police managed to arrest Sami Ibrahim Jajan, one of the prominent leaders of Ansar Al Sunna organization in Iraq," while being at a transportation station in the center of Kirkuk city (225 km northeast of Baghdad). He added that Jajan, who is an Iraqi national and wanted, has been detained while being at a bus stop, intending to head to Baghdad. He pointed out, "Police elements managed to identify Jajan and chase him through images distributed on behalf of the American army."
It is worth mentioning that Kurdistan TV station, under the Kurdistani Democratic Party, headed by Masud Barzani, has televised the confessions of 12 elements from Ansar Al Islam and Ansar Al Sunna groups, who were arrested on behalf of the Kurdish security forces at an earlier time. The station stated, "These elements represent terrorist networks that executed all the operations in Erbil city (350 km north of Baghdad) and Dahuk (450 km north of Baghdad. Ansar Al Sunna group introduces itself as a coalition of Islamic groups linked to Al Qaeda organization.
Posted by: Dan Darling ||
09/28/2005 00:27 ||
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The top U.S. military intelligence officer in Iraq said Abu Musab Zarqawi and his foreign and Iraqi associates have essentially commandeered the insurgency, becoming the dominant opposition force and the greatest immediate threat to U.S. objectives in the country. "I think what you really have here is an insurgency that's been hijacked by a terrorist campaign," Army Maj. Gen. Richard Zahner said in an interview. "In part, by Zarqawi becoming the face of this thing, he has certainly gotten the funding, the media and, frankly, has allowed other folks to work along in his draft." The remarks underscored a shift in view among senior members of the U.S. military command here since the spring, as violence, especially against civilians, has spiked and as Zarqawi, a radical Sunni Muslim from Jordan, has aggressively promoted himself and his anti-U.S., anti-Shiite campaign. U.S. military leaders say they now see Zarqawi's group of foreign fighters and Iraqi supporters, known as al Qaeda in Iraq, as having supplanted Iraqis loyal to ousted president Saddam Hussein as the insurgency's driving element. Even with Zarqawi's growing significance, Zahner and other officers stressed that Iraq's insurgency remains a complex mix of elements. It includes a variety of factions, often with differing political, religious or tribal aims and sometimes with simply criminal intentions.
The Post musta cribbed this piece from the Rantburg archives. Next article...
U.S. and Iraqi officials Tuesday declared a major setback for the anti-government insurgency after the slaying of a man identified as the No. 2 operative of Al Qaeda in Iraq.But the death of Abu Azzam, who was tracked down and shot in a high-rise apartment building by joint U.S.-Iraqi forces early Sunday, brought no immediate letup of violence in and around his Baghdad base of operation.
In Baquba, 40 miles to the north, a suicide bomber charged a crowd of police recruits who had assembled for their first day of work Tuesday and set off explosives strapped to his body, killing 10 recruits and wounding 28 others. Also Tuesday, the bodies of 22 Shiites who had been shot in the head were found in a deserted area near Kut, a mostly Shiite district 100 miles southeast of the capital.
Al Qaeda in Iraq posted an Internet statement Tuesday saying Abu Azzam's death "was not confirmed." Some Iraqis, beleaguered by months of unrelenting car bombs and crumbling public services, voiced skepticism about the government's latest claim of success.
"Was this terrorist really killed, or is it just propaganda?" asked Suha Saeed Azawi, a Sunni Muslim member of the panel that drafted Iraq's proposed new constitution.
U.S. and Iraqi officials identified Abu Azzam as the insurgent group's "Emir of Baghdad," the day-to-day organizer of its terrorist attacks throughout the country and conduit of the money to pay its foreign mercenaries.
The group's estimated 1,000 fighters, led by the elusive Jordanian-born terrorist Abu Musab al-Zarqawi, is behind a series of beheadings, suicide bombings and other bloody attacks against U.S. forces and members of the Shiite Muslim majority that dominates Iraq's government.
U.S. officials have proclaimed the killing or capture of top al-Zarqawi aides several times over the past year, only to admit eventually that his organization is decentralized enough to absorb the blows. After a man identified as his chief bomb-maker in Baghdad was arrested in January, car bombings here increased sharply.
Some U.S. officials were more optimistic Tuesday, saying Abu Azzam was a more significant figure, harder to replace.
There were conflicting accounts of how U.S. and Iraqi forces found the insurgent, whose real name is Abdullah Najim Abudullah Mohamed Al-Jawari.
Iraqi government spokesman Laith Kubba said a "patriotic citizen" of Iraqi had phoned in a tip on the insurgent's whereabouts. Pentagon officials said the key information came from a detainee in U.S. custody. A statement by the U.S. military command in Baghdad cited "multiple intelligence sources."
A joint U.S.-Iraqi squad entered an apartment building in southeastern Baghdad and found Abu Azzam's hideout, officials said. "They went in to capture him, he did not surrender, and he was killed in the raid," said Lt. Col. Steve Boylan, a U.S. military spokesman.
The troops reportedly captured at least one other insurgent in the apartment.
"By taking Abu Azzam off the street . . . we have dealt another serious blow to Zarqawi's terrorist organization," said Maj. Gen. Rick Lynch, chief spokesman for the U.S.-led forces in Iraq.
Iraqi officials said Tuesday that a lower-ranking leader of the group surrendered in the northern city of Mosul and another was killed in Karabila, near the Syrian border.
Kubba cautioned that insurgents would likely carry out revenge attacks as they struggle to recoup their losses.
"They're going to have to go to the bench and find somebody that's probably less knowledgeable, less qualified" than Abu Azzam, said Gen. Richard B. Myers, chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff. "But over time they'll replace people."
An Internet statement attributed to the insurgent group's spokesman, Abu Maysara al-Iraqi, said Abu Azzam led "one of its battalions" in Baghdad and was being inflated in importance by U.S. and Iraqi officials in "a futile attempt . . . to raise the morale of their troops."
Whatever his rank, U.S. officials said Abu Azzam had brought trouble to Baghdad since his arrival last spring following a stint as "emir," or leader, of the insurgent group in western Al Anbar province.
Since April 1, Baghdad has suffered an upsurge of violence that has claimed an average of more than 100 lives per month, earning Abu Azzam a spot among Iraq's 29 most-wanted insurgents and a $50,000 bounty on his head.
In Baquba, the blast just outside police headquarters ripped apart bodies of police recruits standing near the black-clad bomber, who ran up on foot and made no attempt to conceal his suicide vest, witnesses said.
Car bombers have repeatedly attacked crowds of people lining up in unprotected public places for government jobs or services. Police in Baquba had tried to prevent such an attack Tuesday by barring vehicles from the streets near the headquarters.
Posted by: Dan Darling ||
09/28/2005 00:02 ||
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AMERICA! F*CK YEAH! SAVNIG THE MOTHERF*CKING DAY!
#2
Iraq Ansar al-Islam: Methinks we've penetrated the loop...most likely more ways than one.
al Qaeda member Sami Ibrahim Jajan in raid in Kirkuk September 27, 2005
al Qaeda member Operation Date/Link
Abu Azzam
Emir of Anbar Killed in raid in Baghdad 26 Sept 2005
Abu Nasir
Emir of Karabilah Killed in airstrike in al-Ushsh 26 Sept 2005
Shehab Hamed (aka Abu Ali)
Emir of Haditha Killed in airstrike in Haditha 19 Sept 2005
Taha Ibrahim Yasin Becher (aka Abu Fatima)
Emir of Mosul Captured in raid in Mosul 17 Sept 2005
Hamed Saeed Ismael Mustafa (aka Abu Shahed)
Emir of West Mosul Captured in raid in Mosul 17 Sept 2005
Abu Zayd
Emir of Mosul Killed in raid in Zanazil 10 Sept 2005
"The Sheikh"
Senior terror facilitator Killed in airstrike in Ubaydi 10 Sept 2005
Abu Ali
Senior terror facilitator Killed in airstrike in Jaramil 7 Sept 2005
Ayad Adnan Away Samir
Senior terror facilitator Captured in raid in Fallujah area 5 Sept 2005
Nawfal Muwafaq Ahmad âAbdullah
Terror cell leader Captured in raid in Mosul 3 Sept 2005
Abu Mujahir
Senior terror facilitator Killed in raid in Mosul 27 Aug 2005
Abu Khallad
Senior terror facilitator Killed in Mosul 26 Sept 2005
Abdallah Najim Muhammad Husayn (aka Abu Nijim)
Battalion commander Captured in raid in Mosul 26 Aug 2005
Bassam Muhammad Ahmad Sultan (aka Abu Shayma)
Terror Cell Commander Captured in raid in Mosul 26 Aug 2005
Durayd Jassar Khalifah Hamud (aka Abu Jabbar)
al Qaeda leader in the Ramadi based Nu'man Brigade Captured in raid in Ramadi 23 Aug 2005
Ali Husayn Muhammad Jasim (aka Khalid Nazal)
IED Cell leader in Ramadi Captured in raid in Ramadi 23 Aug 2005
Mohammed Salah Sultan (aka Abu Zubair)
Senior terror leader Killed in raid in Mosul 14 Aug 2005
haven't forgotten about Tater and his tots. Muqtada al-Sadr's Medi Army.
enjoy Mercenary Sniper in Iraq (2005) http: //www.ifilm.com/ifilmdetail/2677403?htv=12
Posted by: Red Dog ||
09/28/2005 2:03 Comments ||
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U.S. and Iraqi officials Tuesday declared a major setback for the anti-government insurgency after the slaying of a man identified as the No. 2 operative of Al Qaeda in Iraq.But the death of Abu Azzam, who was tracked down and shot in a high-rise apartment building by joint U.S.-Iraqi forces early Sunday,..
Here's a suggestion: less touting, more killing. These terror boyz don't respond to this media stuff, so the proper response then is to accelerate the thinning of their ranks.
#4
From JUS: In yet another desperate attempt, the crusaders and their tails, the apostates, announced again the capture or the killing of high ranking commander in Al-Qaida, or his deputy of Zarqawi or his right hand, etc. They are trying another theatrical propaganda stunt to uplift the moral of their soldiers who are trying to escape the quagmire they were sucked in, due to the constant attack targeting them by the Mujahideen, by the grace of Allah.
The latest from their failed propaganda is the killing of the second man in command for Al-Qaida in the Land of the Two Rivers. We say to these midgets your lies will not serve you.
The Mujahid Abu Aâzzam the Iraqi is one of the Al-Qaida soldiers and a leader of one of the units working in Baghdad, may Allah free him. The news that we can confirm is that a large number of crusaders surrounded the neighbourhood where he resides, supported by helicopters. The brother engaged the crusaders who tried to capture him; this is what we expect from the lion of Fallujah. There is no confirmation that he was killed, but if he was killed then congratulation for him in joining the Martyrs.
"He's dead, Jim"
Posted by: Steve ||
09/28/2005 14:39 Comments ||
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PARIS: About a dozen French youth are currently in Iraq preparing to become suicide bombers in the countryâs insurgency, French Interior Minister Nicolas Sarkozy said Monday. âAt this very moment, we know that there are a dozen French youth who are in Iraq, ready to become suicide bombers,â he told France 3 television. According to French intelligence services, seven French nationals have died in Iraq, in combat or in suicide attacks, and three are prisoners of the US-led multinational coalition forces.
âWe want to know who goes where, for how long and when he returns,â Sarkozy said in comments justifying a proposed anti-terror law in France that would require air and sea transport companies to provide information about their passengers. âWhen someone living in a neighborhood suddenly disappears to Afghanistan and returns four months later, it is right to ask him what he did, why he was there and how it happened,â the interior minister said.
They were working for NGOs. You know that.
In a suspected cell in the southern city of Montpellier which police dismantled a few months ago, âthere was the wife of a suicide bomberâ who died in Iraq, Sarkozy said. His comments came the same day that French police in dawn raids near Paris detained nine men suspected of belonging to an Islamist militant group that authorities said was planning attacks in France. The proposed new anti-terror law, drawn up following the July bombings in London, is to be brought before the cabinet on October 19 before starting its passage though parliament, officials said. Terror suspects detained in France had been eyeing up the Parisian metro network, an airport and the headquarters of the domestic intelligence service as possible targets, sources close to the investigation said Tuesday. The suspicions were based on an intelligence tip-off from Algeria and from telephone surveillance, although there is no hard evidence they had settled on a particular target, they said.
Posted by: Fred ||
09/28/2005 00:00 ||
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They're certainly going to blend right in among the population. Pardon me Amad, I need to use your cell phone for a quick call. Knock, knock.
A senior Hamas operative who served as the Jerusalem-based liaison between Hamas operatives in Saudi Arabia and activists in the West Bank is under arrest, Jerusalem police chief Ilan Franco said Tuesday.
Ya'akub Abu Assab, 33, of the east Jerusalem neighborhood of Souana was apprehended last month in a joint Shin Bet-Jerusalem police sting operation. A court-imposed gag order which was in place on the case was lifted Tuesday afternoon. "This is a very serious affair of a terror organization illicitly operating in east Jerusalem," Franco said.
During the suspect's interrogation it emerged that Assab served as the top Hamas official operating in Jerusalem and was the point-man between Hamas officials based in Saudi Arabia, with whom he was in Internet contact, and those in the West Bank, Franco said at a press conference at Jerusalem police headquarters. Assab has not been charged to date, but the police chief said that he faces multiple charges for his illicit activities.
Exploiting the freedom of movement afforded to him by his blue Israeli identification card, the top east-Jerusalem based Hamas official received hundreds of thousands of dollars from Saudi-Arabia-based Hamas officials, as well as directives for Hamas operations which he passed on to the activists in the West Bank, the police chief said. The money was transferred to Jerusalem via messengers as well as by money-changers and was used to support the families of Palestinian suicide bombers as well to fund its West Bank operations and its social and educational institutions, he added. Several hundreds thousand shekels were also transferred to two east Jerusalem based Hamas offices, which were illegally operating in the city. The offices were shut down last week by police in the wake of the arrests made in the case.
Posted by: Steve ||
09/28/2005 11:57 ||
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Doesn't go into how complicit Saudi Arabia was in all this. But I suspect he was in Saudi Arabia for a rea$on.
Israeli military intelligence AMAN chief reports influx of al Qaeda to Gaza Strip, confirming DEBKAfileâs earlier reports.
Maj.-Gen Aharon Farkas affirmed that al Qaeda operatives had taken advantage of the breakdown of controls on the Egyptian-Gazan border in the last 16 days since Israelâs pull-back to infiltrate the Gaza Strip. In a lecture at Tel Aviv University, the intelligence chief offered the view that Israel will have no option but to carry out further unilateral withdrawals. On the Iran question, he said the latest surge of international pressure may have held up Tehranâs nuclear weapons program by a year or two, but he did not believe it could now be stopped altogether.
The AMAN chief is the third Israeli official in the last 24 hours to speak of the inevitability of âunilateral withdrawals,â namely, the handover of territory in the West Bank. Earlier speakers were two of Ariel Sharonâs close aides, publicity adviser Eyal Arad and strategic aide Brig. (Res.) Eival Giladi. The prime ministerâs office hurriedly responded: with a denial: âNo further unilateral withdrawals are planned.â
Israeli air force and artillery bombarded Gaza missile sites for fifth day after Palestinians fired four Qassam missiles into Israel Monday and Tuesday despite pledge to halt fire
Tuesday night, Sept 27, after a missile landed on a residential street in Sderot, Israeli planes struck Hamas, Popular Committees and Jihad Islami premises in Gaza City and al Bureij, knocking out power in parts of the town. Helicopters struck a bridge leading to the missile launching sites near Beit Hanoun. No injuries reported. Across the West Bank, Israeli forces sealed 15 Hamas and Jihad Islami âcharityâ premises, detained 24 wanted men in the Ramallah and Hebron districts
More Palestinian Terrorists Stream toward Gaza, Undeterred by Israeli Offensive
War tensions between Israel and the Palestinians have been spiraling upward sharply in the last five days. Early Wednesday, 28 Sept, Israeli war planes sent rockets shooting against a Fatah-al Aqsa facility in the Bureij Camp in central Gaza and Hamas, Popular Committees and Jihadi Islami sites in Gaza City. Part of the townâs power supply was knocked out. The night before, after the fourth Qassam missile hit a Sderot residential street, following the Hamas pledge to desist from missile attacks, the artillery battery poised at Kibbutz Alumim boomed four times against missile sites in northern Gaza. No one was hurt in any of these episodes.
Amid the sound and fury, al Qaeda operatives are quietly creeping past the non-barriers on the Sinai-Gaza border to build up a malign presence in the Gaza Strip, as Israelâs AMAN military intelligence chief, Maj. Gen Aharon Zeevi, affirmed at a Tel Aviv University lecture Wednesday.
The tensions - which flared up after the Israeli pull-back from Gaza and the northern West Bank 16 days ago - are not confined to the Gaza Strip. The Hamas has branched out into a Zarqawi-style atrocity: the abduction, murder and display Tuesday, Sept. 27, of an Israeli, Sasson Nuriel, 50, blindfolded, bound and bloodstained, minutes before they killed him in a Ramallah hideout. The execution and disk appeared to have been prepared in haste. The Hamas was laboring under the pressure of mass Israeli military detentions across the West Bank. The kidnappers threatened to take more Israelis hostage and sentence them to death against the release of Palestinian prisoners. They claimed to have launched a new Hamas unit, the Ezz-a-Dine al-Qassam âPrisoner Release Group,â to carry out abductions on Israeli soil.â Their first victim was snatched in Jerusalem.
Aside from that new initiative, DEBKAfileâs counter-terror sources report major Palestinian moves on three additional fronts:
1. The Rafah border crossing between Egyptian Sinai and the Gaza Strip, which Egypt and the Palestinian announced Friday, Sept. 23, would remain open and unrestricted for two days only, is still doing a roaring trade. Egyptian border police and Palestinian officers are waving everyone through both ways without examining papers. Al Qaeda has no trouble slipping through. Palestinian leader Mahmoud Abbas, in Cairo Wednesday, Sept 28, will propose keeping the border open for a lengthy period when he meets the newly-sworn in president Hosni Mubarak. In other words, two signatories are scrapping the entire trilateral edifice agreed with Israeli prior to the Gaza evacuation. The Palestinians and Egypt are in cahoots to cut Israel out of any security oversight â even by an international body - and its role in the customs arrangements at the shared Rafah crossing.
2. The passage of smuggled terrorists and banned weapons shipments from Sinai to Gaza has been regularized: people cross through the Rafah crossing; âgoodsâ (arms) transit the gaps blown in the wall from day one. Egyptian and Palestinian officers perform only one task: they count the incoming crates and collect $50 toll per unit. In these circumstances, the border terminal Israel is constructing at Kerem Shalom is wasted effort.
3. Fresh fuel for a future conflagration is piling up with the movement of 1,200-1,500 Palestinian terrorists from the most radical organizations, exported by Syrian intelligence from the refugee camps around Damascus since last Friday, Sept 23, to two focal points in Lebanon: the Beqaa Valley and Sidon on the southern coast. Fighting members of the extremist Hamas, the Popular Front, the Democratic Front and the Abu Mussa splinter faction are put on civilian trucks hired by the Syrian army along with their weapons and command structures.
Revealing this, DEBKAfileâs intelligence sources report the Assad regimeâs motives are double: first, to pre-empt Mahmoud Abbasâ takeover of the Palestinian refugee camps and militias of southern Lebanon and, second, to get them out of Damascus and into Lebanon, whence they will be sent on to Sinai by sea. There, they can join the uncontrolled traffic heading into the Gaza Strip, to form a pro-Syrian Palestinian terrorist force or militia in the evacuated territory.
The Israel militaryâs seemingly broadened military offensive in the Gaza Strip is barely enough to slow down the Palestinian missile barrage on neighboring Israeli towns. Its current counter-terror measures fall far short of tackling the ingathering of virulently hostile terrorist forces heading in to the Gaza Strip from the north, the west and the south.
Posted by: Steve ||
09/28/2005 09:23 ||
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#1
Flypaper fodder for Israel's counterbatteries. If Al Qaeda or any of the other little terror clubs actually use their new toys, Sharon's "gloves off" approach will turn into real warfare. I don't think Egypt will enjoy that -- some of those missiles might be mis-programmed.
#2
I think Israel wants Egypt to slaughter them and Egypt wants Israel to slaughter them. Hopefully, it will devolve into a Gazan civil war really quick, so taht they will slaughter each other.
#3
Ifigure Ireal is letting the Pali put all thier eggs in one basket.The IDF has a big,heavy foot,only question is when/what will cause that foot to smash that basket.
EFL and removing WaPo biased handwringing paragraphs - RTWT Israeli aircraft unleashed a barrage of missiles early Wednesday and fired artillery into the Gaza Strip for the first time, pushing forward with an offensive despite a pledge by Islamic militants to halt their recent rocket attacks against Israel. no further news on those Wed shots, yet
Israeli security officials welcomed the cease-fire declaration but said they wanted to see concrete results before halting the offensive. As the militants were meeting, a rocket landed in the southern Israeli town of Sderot, causing no damage or injuries, the army said. No one claimed responsibility for the attack. Late Tuesday, the army fired live artillery shells into northern Gaza for the first time in what it said was a response to Palestinian rocket attacks. The shells landed in an open area that the army said was used to fire rockets. No casualties were reported. old news
Israel had previously refrained from retaliating against Palestinian attacks with artillery because it is more imprecise than missiles and could cause many casualties in densely populated Gaza. especially when they huddle around a warm Qassam
Posted by: Frank G ||
09/28/2005 00:00 ||
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could cause many casualties in densely populated Gaza.
I wouldn't use the word "densely" I think it would be better say that Gaza is populated with not very bright people.
#6
"And shall lay thee even with the ground, and thy children within thee; and they shall not leave in thee one stone upon another; because thou knewest not the time of thy visitation." Luke 19:44
I believe the Isreali are currently visiting Gaza.
#7
who cares if they pali civilians they don't think about that shit when shooting their kassam rockets into israeli settlements,,,,,, kill em all or send them tol jordan since they love them so much
Israel vowed on Tuesday to continue targeting members of radical Palestinian groups and carried out more air raids in the Gaza Strip despite a pledge by the factions to cease their attacks. Defence Minister Shaul Mofaz made the announcement on army radio after Israeli troops arrested 82 Hamas and Islamic Jihad members overnight in the West Bank. âYes. The Israeli army will continue to use all means necessary,â said Mofaz, asked whether Israel would continue targeted assassinations and bombing raids on the Islamist stronghold of the Gaza Strip.
Ibrahim Abu al-Naja, the head of a committee grouping representatives of the armed Palestinian factions, said the organisations had agreed to stop attacks from Gaza, where Israel ended 38 years of military rule two weeks ago. âAll factions on the steering committee have agreed to stop armed resistance operations from the Gaza Strip to protect the interests of our people,â he said. Naja said the deal - to be formally announced later on Tuesday â would protect Palestinians from a âcatastropheâ at the hands of the Israeli military. Hamas already announced on Sunday it had ordered a halt to rocket attacks from Gaza. A senior source at Islamic Jihad on Tuesday said its armed wing had followed suit.
Israeli air strikes have killed two Hamas and two Jihad militants since Saturday. The spike of violence began after Hamas blamed a blast at a rally in northern Gaza on Israel and began firing a salvo of rockets into the Jewish state. Fifteen Palestinians were killed at the rally in what both Israel and the Palestinian Authority said it was the result of a missile explosion in a Hamas jeep. Overnight, the Israeli air force carried out more raids on Gaza, including on three bridges in the northern Beit Hanun area, which they said militants used to access rocket-firing sites to strike Israel.
Palestinian militants struck back, sending another rocket crashing into southern Israel, the Israeli army said. Israeli media said a second rocket had hit some hours earlier. There were no casualties in any of the incidents. A militant wing of the Islamic Jihad claimed responsibility for the rocket, though another spokesman denied this. A Palestinian security official said one person was slightly wounded in a raid on the southern Gaza town of Khan Yunis, seriously damaging a building used by moneychangers and another by the ruling Fatah party.
Palestinian leader Mahmud Abbasâs spokesman Nabil Abu Rudeina condemned Israel for trying to destroy hopes of calm following its Gaza pullout and urged the international community to stop targeted killings. âContinued assassinations will explode the entire situation. We are asking the international community, especially the United States, to move immediately and put strong pressure on Israel to stop this,â he said. Mofaz said that even if Hamas had announced an end to the firing of rockets, it was secretly pressing other militant groups to launch attacks. âWe will not allow them to continue with that policy,â he said.
Posted by: Fred ||
09/28/2005 00:00 ||
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#1
The problem with being a little yappy dog comes when the big dog doesn't tuck his tail and run.
#2
I think indiscriminant killing would do more to end attcks on Israel. Most palistinians are very happy to see Hamas shooting at Israel, and while they don't like Israel shooting back, well, that's part of the game. Only when retaliation includes infrastructure and non-Hamas targets will palistinians be incented to stop terrorist attacks on Israeis.
#3
Israel vowed on Tuesday to continue targeting members of radical Palestinian groups and carried out more air raids in the Gaza Strip despite a pledge by the factions to cease their attacks.
Now that there's no more settlements and residents to worry about in Gaza, there should be a LOT more targets being considered.
Palestinian resistance movement Hamas has claimed responsibility for the kidnapping and killing of a Jerusalem businessman who was found dead on Monday. The resistance fighters said in a statement that they had kidnapped 51-year-old Sasson Nuriel, whom they had identified as a Shin Bet security service agent, on Wednesday. They had intended to trade him for Palestinian prisoners held in Israeli jails. However, after Israel began a series of arrest raids against West Bank resistance fighters, they decided to kill him, the statement said on Tuesday. Nuriel was found dead on Monday near the West Bank town of Ram Allah, and police said the attack appeared to be a "terror attack".
Posted by: Fred ||
09/28/2005 00:00 ||
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Philippine commandos seized sacks of bomb-making materials in a raid on a suspected hideout of Muslim rebels on a remote southwestern island yesterday, a senior navy official said.
âIt was very fortunate we seized a cache of explosives and weapons,â said Vice Admiral Ernesto de Leon, the navy chief. âMore or less, we have prevented the possibility of a large-scale bombing in the southâ.
He said a navy counter-terrorist team, acting on a tip-off from local residents, stormed the suspected Abu Sayyaf hideout on a remote island near Basilan island yesterday morning.
âThere was practically no resistance from a group of armed men guarding the warehouse. They fled even before our boys could reach the shorelines,â de Leon added.
Troops found hundreds of blasting caps, rolls of detonating cord, five small guns and 42 sacks of ammonium nitrate, an active ingredient in bomb-making, he said.
The navy said there were markings on the sacks indicating the ammonium nitrate may have been smuggled in from neighbouring countries, such as Indonesia or Malaysia.
Posted by: Dan Darling ||
09/28/2005 00:18 ||
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Like I said about Malaysia, their part of the problem!
#2
RE: "Malaysia's part of the problem". Don't forget Indonesia. They're far more likely to support Abu Sayyaf than Malaysia. They're also closer. They're also the source of the original Muslim "settlers".
Of course, the real problem is that a small group of Muslims are trying to "expand the Caliphate" by causing problems along the periphery wherever Muslims live. The solution is to whack 'em so hard they cease and desist - if there are any troublemakers left alive after the whacking. That brings us to whether the nations along the periphery of Islamic states have the power - both military and will, to do the whacking, or if they need (and can get) help.
Posted by: Old Patriot ||
09/28/2005 15:26 Comments ||
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Two suspected members of the al Qaeda-linked Abu Sayyaf Group were killed during an encounter with the Philippine Marines in Panamao, Sulu, before dawn Wednesday, ABS-CBN Regional Network Group reported.
Colonel Juancho Sabban, 3rd Marine Brigade commander, named the fatalities as Wedjimeh Sayad and Amad Sabudin. Sabban said the two are members of the band led by Abu Sayyaf chieftain Jumdam Jamalul who was recently arrested in Tawi-Tawi.
Sabban said the bandits came from Basilan and have been under surveillance for three weeks now.
The clash took place in Barangay Su in Panamao after elements of the 4th Marine Battalion engaged the bandits in a firefight. A Marine was wounded in the encounter.
Posted by: Dan Darling ||
09/28/2005 00:12 ||
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Sunday, 25 September: Beirut, Lebanon- The Lebanese authorities have been alarmed by a massive influx of arms and Palestinian guerrillas from Syria to Lebanon in recent days and army troops reinforced by police and state intelligence units deployed at key passes on the common border to curb the incursion, An Nahar reported on Sunday.The infiltrators belong to Syrian-backed Palestinian factions, mainly Ahmed Jibreel's Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine-General Command (PFLP-GC), which maintains border bases in Deir Al Ashaer and Sultan Yacoub in the Bekaa as well as the Naameh hills south of Beirut, An Nahar said.
Secondary source confirming DEBKA report. Also fits with story of Assad asking for help.
The army has intercepted dozens of PFLP-GC fighters trying to sneak illegally across the Bekaa with arms shipments to the Deir al Ashaer and Sultan Yacoub strongholds, the two main spots that remain a focal point of sovereignty dispute in the wake of Syria's evacuation of Lebanon in April. Many infiltrators were sent back to Syria, but An Nahar spoke of reports that undetected infiltrators managed to bring fresh arms supplies to the Naameh base as well as the Beirut Sabra and Chatilla refugee camps. There were earlier media reports that Jibreel's guerrillas were reactivating their Lebanon strongholds, bringing in arms and reinforcements under the guise of a rotation operation.
Jibreel, who served as a captain in the Syrian army and acquired a dual Syrian citizenship, is the most trusted Palestinian ally of the Assad regime in Damascus. All his moves are coordinated with the Syrian military intelligence apparatus, which makes the ongoing influx look like a prelude for uglier terrorist operations in Lebanon.
Yup
Syria does not want to give up on Lebanon. This is another one of their desperate moves to create instability in this country. Perhaps they know they will be named in Mehlis' report as the party behind Hariri's murder (as the Guardian has reported) and this is their way of revenge. This move by Syria may spell the end of the Assad regime.
Posted by: Steve ||
09/28/2005 13:56 ||
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#1
What's a palestinian without a couple light weapons, lots of rhetoric, and some heavily whipped up hatred?
#2
More actes by Syria and Iran to destablize Leabanon. Lebanon would be miles ahead and much safer if they started tossing all these Paleos into Syria or the ocean. The existance of armed foreign terrorists on thier soil is a danger to Lebanon. A bigger danger than Syria.
Deputy Defense Minister Ze'ev Boim told The Jerusalem Post Wednesday that Israel would "burn into the consciousness of the Palestinians that the rules of the game have changed."
Boim responded to a report leaked to Israel Radio by Palestinian sources on Wednesday, that Syrian President Bashar Assad met with representatives of Hamas and Islamic Jihad in Damascus on September 10 and asked them to increase their terror attacks against Israeli targets.
That fits the DEBKA report
According to the report, Assad told the Palestinian terror groups at the meeting that they had absolute freedom of action in attacking Israel. Assad was quoted as saying, "Syria is under siege. We are under international pressure. They're hounding us because of what's happening in Iraq and the investigation of the assassination of [former prime minister] Rafik Hariri in Lebanon. Do what you must in the territories. Draw fire away from us." Additional: Assad also reportedly praised as "a genuine leader" senior PLO official Farouk Qaddoumi, a main rival to PA Chairman Mahmoud Abbas and a longstanding advocate of continuing armed combat with Israel. Assad held talks with Qaddoumi three days before the September 10 meeting, the radio said.
Boim told the Post that Assad's support for terror was not new. "[Terrorism] is a regular way of life [for the Syrian regime], one which Assad the father began and Assad the son is continuing," he said.
"It is a fact that over the years, Syria has hosted these terror organizations. This gives Assad a direct connection to the snakes' heads, the heads of the terror organizations," Boim told the Post.
While Boim wouldn't say whether Israel had independent intelligence confirming the meeting in Damascus, Boim asserted that "you don't need special intelligence" to recognize the Syrian regime's connection to Palestinian terror.
Earlier this week, Assad arrived in Cairo for an urgent meeting called at Egypt's request. According to Palestinian sources, who reportedly also gave the information about the Damascus meeting to the Egyptians, Egypt's President Hosni Mubarak told Assad not to interfere in the Palestinian arena.
Boim added that while Israel would still hold the Palestinian Authority formally responsible for terror from its territory, "We don't care at this point exactly who is doing the shooting. Any missiles or Kassam artillery barrages will receive a response in kind. We will do what Abu Mazen [PA Chairman Mahmoud Abbas] refuses to do. Our hands will not be tied in any way.
"Abu Mazen made the greatest mistake he could," Boim continued, "when he invited Hamas into the political system without forcing it to take even the very first step toward participation in a democratic system: disarmament."
TEHERAN - Hundreds of Iranian Islamists on Wednesday pelted the British embassy in Tehran with tomatoes, stones and firecrackers in response to mounting pressure on the Islamic republicâs nuclear programme.
âDeath to America, Death to Britain, Death to Israel,â the university students chanted, also calling for the expulsion of Britainâs ambassador to Iran, Richard Dalton. Watched by dozens of police, they held aloft banners reading âBritain, France and Germany: Axis of Evilâ, and âNPT, we will leave you soonâ, referring to the nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty. Several windows were shattered by stone-throwers. The British embassy in Tehran has in recent years been regularly targetted by stone-throwers angered by Britainâs participation in the US-led invasion of Iraq.
Posted by: Steve ||
09/28/2005 10:23 ||
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#2
Since Iran long ago proved they don't protect or consider embassy territory sovereign, it's up to each and every country maintaining one to protect themselves. Arm well and use the weapons - don't make Carter's biggest mistake again.
Posted by: Frank G ||
09/28/2005 11:00 Comments ||
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BEIRUT, Lebanon (AP) - FBI agents on Wednesday joined the investigation into the latest of a spate of explosions in Lebanon - a move certain to unnerve Syria as it comes under stepped-up U.S. pressure to stay out of its neighbor's business. Until now, Lebanon had shied away from seeking direct U.S. assistance, although FBI agents investigated a bombing in June and a U.N. probe is under way in the assassination of former Premier Rafik Hariri. But the difficulty the government has encountered in identifying those behind the explosions since Hariri's murder in February has led authorities to look to Washington to help. No arrests have been made in connection with the blasts.
While the United States says it is providing purely technical assistance, the arrival of FBI agents to help in the investigation is also certain to shake the perpetrators. On Wednesday, FBI agents examined the site where a bomb tore apart a car Sunday, maiming May Chidiac, a prominent anchorwoman and talk show host for a popular TV station that had taken a line against Syria. Three men arrived at the site of Sunday's explosion near the port city of Jounieh north of Beirut to examine Chidiac's bombed-out vehicle. Wearing gloves, one sifted through debris and collected fragments while another shot pictures as an accompanying women took notes.
Journalists were kept behind a police cordon about 30 feet away and team members declined to respond to their attempts to get a comment. A black box carried by a team member was marked "explosives unit" with the Washington, D.C., address of the Federal Bureau of Investigation. Armed Lebanese police, who had sealed off the area since Sunday, provided security. A U.S. Embassy official declined to discuss the matter Wednesday, other than to say that "the U.S. is happy to respond positively to requests from the government of Lebanon." The official did not wish to be named, but U.S. Ambassador Jeffrey Feltman said Tuesday the U.S. team was to assist the Lebanese in the investigation and provide technical expertise.
Syria, which was forced to withdraw its army from Lebanon in April, has come under intense pressure from the United States. Washington has warned Damascus to stop interfering in Lebanese affairs. Syrian officials also are the target of the U.N. probe into Hariri's assassination.
The chief U.N. investigator, German prosecutor Detlev Mehlis, met with Prime Minister Fuad Saniora. Details of their discussions were not disclosed, but Mehlis met late Tuesday with Justice Minister Charles Rizk. "What Mr. Mehlis told me is of such importance," Rizk told reporters Wednesday, that he had asked Saniora to meet with the German investigator. He did not elaborate.
U.N. investigators returned to Lebanon on Friday after four days of questioning officials in Syria, whose army and intelligence units were in control of Lebanon when a massive bombing targeted Hariri's motorcade on a Beirut street, killing him and 20 others. Mehlis is expected to issue his report in late October.
The Hariri probe could possibly implicate Syria and some of its allies in Lebanon. Already four Lebanese security generals close to Syria are under arrest on suspicion of involvement. The possibility of the probe's findings reaching President Bashar Assad's regime in Syria has given rise to public fears of increased violence in Lebanon, where Saniora linked the spate of bombings to the U.N. probe and predicted there could be more attacks. Interior Minister Hassan Sabei has publicly warned of a "terrorist plot" to destabilize Lebanon and suggested the government was helpless to prevent more attacks.
The attempt to kill Chidiac, who lost an arm and a leg in the explosion, provoked wide indignation in Lebanon. The United States, the European Union and the United Nations joined Lebanese politicians in condemning the bombing, while students staged protests in Beirut. Anti-Syrian groups have blamed Syria for Hariri's assassination and the recent bombings. Damascus has denied involvement.
Posted by: Steve ||
09/28/2005 09:36 ||
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DEBKAfile Exclusive: Syria is pushing complete Palestinian battalions with their commands and weapons into Lebanon in the largest military movement since Syrian troopsâ May exit. DEBKAfileâs intelligence sources report the men are taken out of refugee camps near Damascus by Syrian intelligence agents and loaded on Lebanese civilian trucks hired by the Syrian army. In Lebanon, half are destined for the southern port town of Sidon and the rest for the Beqaa Valley. The estimated 1,200-1,500 men are operatives of Hamas, the Popular Front, the Democratic Front and the Abu Mussa splinter faction.
Moving their proxies in to threaten Lebanon?
Just reminding everyone who's still in charge ...
Posted by: Steve ||
09/28/2005 09:13 ||
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#1
More likely, just takin' out the trash...
Posted by: M. Murcek ||
09/28/2005 9:41 Comments ||
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#2
preparing for open war. A desperate move by the Syrian regime, with a UN report about to come blaming top figures in the regime for Hariris death, with the lebanese increasingly fingering the Lebanese security elements that contain the leave behind Syrian intel thats booming top Lebanese figures, folks are choosing sides. After the report, its possible the west, including France, will support the new Lebanese govt in taking on Hezbollah, the last real Syrian ally in Lebanon.
The Pal battalions would represent reinforcements for Hezb in this renewed civil war.
Lebanon and Syria are right in their backyard, they are normally correct on these matters. It's when they try to go further afield, say Iraq and Saudi, that they often fall flat.
Posted by: Steve ||
09/28/2005 10:36 Comments ||
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#4
Get the Lebanese outta Lebanon and there will be peace...
#6
JP:(Deputy Defense Minister Ze'ev) Boim responded to a report leaked to Israel Radio by Palestinian sources on Wednesday, that Syrian President Bashar Assad met with representatives of Hamas and Islamic Jihad in Damascus on September 10 and asked them to increase their terror attacks against Israeli targets. According to the report, Assad told the Palestinian terror groups at the meeting that they had absolute freedom of action in attacking Israel. Assad was quoted as saying, "Syria is under siege. We are under international pressure. They're hounding us because of what's happening in Iraq and the investigation of the assassination of [former prime minister] Rafik Hariri in Lebanon. Do what you must in the territories. Draw fire away from us."
Posted by: Steve ||
09/28/2005 13:46 Comments ||
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#7
It may be that baby Assad is miffed that Lebanon's Hizbollah isn't taking directions very well and baby Assad thinks they need new motivation.
Syrian authorities have arrested three women whose husbands are suspected Muslim radicals wanted over deadly clashes with police in the central province of Hama. "Syrian authorities arrested the wives of three men wanted in the Hama clashes, after they were not able to find (the suspects)," the Arab Organisation for Human Rights (AOHR) said in a statement on Monday. Two of the women are pregnant and the third has a four-month-old child, the group said.
"The detention of these women is a violation of human rights and violates the Syrian constitution which authorises only the arrest of those responsible for a crime and in accordance with an arrest warrant," AOHR said. Their husbands are said to be wanted in connection with a firefight that broke out between radicals and security forces on 2 September in the village of Jibril, 210km north of Damascus. Five men from the group Jund al-Sham (Organisation of the Soldiers of the Levant) were killed in the shootout.
The group only surfaced in March when an internet statement was posted in its name claiming responsibility for a bombing at a theatre in Qatar that killed a Briton. In late August, security sources said four policemen were killed northeast of Damascus during clashes with fighters from the group. Jund al-Sham also claimed the October bombings in the Egyptian Red Sea resort of Taba which killed 34 people, most of them Israeli tourists, and an oil refinery explosion in Texas that left 15 people dead. The authenticity of the group's claims could not be verified.
Posted by: Fred ||
09/28/2005 00:00 ||
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The Lebanese journalist May Chidiac critically wounded in a car bomb in Jounieh on Sunday night was in âa stable but critical conditionâ after undergoing several operations and losing her left hand and leg, doctors at Hotel Dieu Hospital announced on Monday. According to a medical bulletin read out to journalists at the Beirut hospital, the anti-Syrian journalist âwas critically wounded and suffering from a broken hip and minor injuries to her body.â Chidiac, 42, a leading newscaster at LBCI television station, had underwent nightlong surgeries and her âvital organs were stable but she requires constant monitoring for the next few days.â
Chidiacâs sister, Micheline, has yet to come to terms with the attack on the journalist. She broke down after every visit to the intensive care unit and silently referred to the amputation of Chidiacâs left arms and leg. âShe is unable to talkâ, friends maintaining a round-the-clock vigil since Sunday night said. Yvette, the wounded journalistâs mother was reported to be âcoping after being sedated.â The family source described how âShe lost consciousness when she first saw her daughter badly injured.â
Denise Rahme, a colleague at LBCI television, described to Asharq al Awsat how she was among the first to arrive at Our Lady of Lebanon hospital in Jounieh, where Chidac was first taken. âIt was my day off. My cousin called me and told me the news. I immediately headed to the station and then to the hospital where I arrived before her mother and sister. I didnât get too close to May and see for myself the extent of her injuries. I wanted to preserve in my head the image of May as always immaculately dressed. I heard her whisper, 'Help me, help me'. I am still haunted by her words.â
Meanwhile, the Lebanese Minister of Communication, Marwan Hamadeh, blamed Syrian intelligences services and Lebanon's President Emile Lahoud for the blast. Speaking to the press, Hamadeh said, âThose who attempted to kill May are the ones who tried to kill meâ. The Minister was the target of an assassination attempt in October 2004. âThe security services in Lebanon and Syria are responsible for this attackâ, he indicated. Hamadeh warned that arresting the country's four top security chiefs was not enough to halt the cycle of violence currently engulfing Lebanon since the assassination of ex- Prime Minister Rafik Hariri in February.
He's right, since they're not catching the boomers. Even Egypt does a better job.
Posted by: Fred ||
09/28/2005 00:00 ||
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Egypts boomers arent sent by a sovereign state.
This isnt about security service incompetence - its about Damascus orchestrated murder - though the Lebanese may not be ready yet to make that accusation in public.
CAIRO (Reuters) - Egyptian police in the Sinai peninsula shot dead on Wednesday one of the men suspected in the bombings which killed 67 people in the resort of Sharm el-Sheikh in July, the Interior Ministry said in a statement. The suspect, Moussa Mohamed Salem Badran, born in 1978 and a resident of the North Sinai town of El Arish, had refused to surrender and opened fire on a group of policemen who tried to arrest him in the Mount Halal area, it said.
"You'll never take me alive, coppers!"
"OK.....KAPOW!"
"Urp......rosebud.."
Ouch! The sucking head wound!
Badran was one of four men from whose families the police took DNA samples after the Sharm el-Sheikh bombings to try to determine whether they were among the suicide bombers.
"He refused to surrender and exchanged fire with police, wounding a policeman. With him were found two hand grenades, a pistol and the automatic weapon which he used," it added. "Badran played a prominent role in preparing and carrying out the Sharm el-Sheikh attacks," the statement said. Another suspect, Mohamed Fulayfel, was shot dead with his wife in an exchange of fire with police in August near the town of Suez, just across the Suez Canal from Sinai.
Yes, we've noticed you aren't taking many suspects alive. Not that there's anything wrong with that
The shooting on Wednesday took place in a mountainous area where police searched for bombing suspects and other outlaws for several weeks in August. It lies about 60 km (35 miles) south of El Arish, said to be the hometown of several suspects. The Egyptian authorities have said they believe the same group was behind the Sharm el-Sheikh bombings, similar bombings near the Red Sea resort of Taba in October 2004, and a small explosion that damaged a multinational observer force vehicle in northern Sinai in August.
They say the bombers are Sinai bedouin, some of them with Palestinian connections. The government says it has not seen any evidence that they are affiliated with any larger group.
See no evil, hear no evil, confront no evil
Posted by: Steve ||
09/28/2005 14:47 ||
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DHAKA - At least 15 pirates were killed and five Bangladeshi law enforcers wounded in gun battles in southern Bangladesh, police said on Wednesday. The clashes occurred Tuesday as police and coastguards pursued up to 50 bandits who had boarded two trawlers in the Meghna river close to the Bay of Bengal. The pirates opened fire after being challenged, slightly injuring three police officers and two coastguards, Assistant Superintenent of Police Bimol Kumar Das told AFP.
"Yar, give em a broadside, me hearties!"
Four pirates wounded in the shootings were arrested while the bodies of those killed fell overboard and were washed away by currents, he said.
"Yar...glub..rosebud.."
Bangladeshi waters are among the most pirate-infested in the world, according to the International Maritime Bureau.
Posted by: Steve ||
09/28/2005 10:19 ||
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Aye Mates, did we lose any of our beloved parrots in the gun-battle?
KABUL - Bomb blasts in Afghanistan killed three people and wounded five, including a Bangladeshi UN worker, officials said on Wednesday. Two policemen and a civilian died and four civilians were wounded in a suspected mine blast in the eastern province of Kunar on Wednesday, police said, adding that the device may have been planted by Taliban guerrillas. A Bangladeshi engineer working with the UN Office for Project Services was critically wounded by a roadside bomb on Tuesday while travelling in a convoy in adjacent Nangarhar province, a UN official said. He was taken for treatment to the US military base in Bagram, north of Kabul, said UN spokesman Samuel Hendricks.
Posted by: Steve ||
09/28/2005 10:17 ||
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KABUL - A suicide bomber on a motorcycle blew himself up at an army training centre in the Afghan capital on Wednesday, killing nine people and injuring 28, the defence ministry said. The blast in northern Kabul is the first major attack in Afghanistan since the war-scarred country held landmark parliamentary elections earlier this month, and follows a period of relative calm in the city.
âToday just after 4:30 pm (1200 GMT) a man riding on a motorbike carried out a suicide attack in front of the Kabul military training centre,â Defence Ministry spokesman Mohammed Zahir Azimi told AFP.
âOur initial reports suggest that nine people have been killed and 28 wounded. Four of the nine killed are Afghan National Army soldiers and the rest are under investigation,â he said. He said that the suicide bomber was wearing a military uniform. âThree vehicles were destroyed and the road is closed,â he added.
An eyewitness who asked not to be named said he saw the motorbike crashing into the parking area of the centre. âI saw an explosion and some casualties. Two buses were set ablaze,â he told an AFP reporter at the scene. âIt was rush hour and lots of officials and soldiers were leaving the base.â District police chief Colonel Mohammad Akbar also confirmed there had been a blast causing a number of casualties. âThe suicide bomber was riding a motorcyle and he crashed himself against an ANA training center,â he said.
A western military source speaking on condition of anonymity said the victims were all Afghans and none were serving with either the US military or with the NAT0-led peacekeeping force in Afghanistan.
Dozens of peacekeepers had been deployed near the site of the blast.
Posted by: Steve ||
09/28/2005 09:31 ||
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Pakistan's security forces say they have arrested a militant leader wanted in connection with attacks that have killed dozens of minority Shia Muslims. Asif Choto, said to be a senior figure in the Lashkar-e-Jhangvi Sunni Muslim group, was arrested close to the capital, Islamabad, officials said. Interior Minister Aftab Sherpao refused to confirm or deny the reports.
"I can say no more!"
The BBC's Aamer Ahmed Khan in Karachi says the arrest of Asif Choto would be a major coup for the Pakistani security forces. He says Asif Choto is credited with reorganising Lashkar-e-Jhangvi after its top figures were either arrested or killed between 2001 and 2003.
The details of Mr Choto's arrest remain confused. Some reports say he was detained in a raid on a home near the capital, others that he was arrested when a car was stopped on the road between Rawalpindi and Lahore. Police have linked Mr Choto to attacks on Shias in Karachi and Sialkot. The most deadly was the attack on a Shia mosque in Sialkot in October 2004 that left 30 people dead. The latest attack police have linked Mr Choto to is that on a Shia mosque in Karachi on 30 May this year. It sparked a riot that left six people dead in a KFC.
Police say they found a letter written by Mr Choto in the possession of one of the arrested mosque attackers. One security official told the AFP news agency: "He was the most wanted sectarian militant in Pakistan." He said another Lashkar-e-Jhangvi militant, named Rashid, alias Shahid Satti, was arrested with Mr Choto. Lashkar-e-Jhangvi, which was banned in 2001, has been held responsible for many attacks on Shias since its formation in 1996. Named after hardline cleric, Haq Nawaz Jhangvi, analysts say most of its fighters were trained in Afghanistan at the time of the Taleban regime. About 80% of Pakistanis are Sunni Muslim and almost 20% Shia. The schism dates to a 7th century dispute over the heir to the Prophet Mohammad.
Posted by: Steve ||
09/28/2005 09:05 ||
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An Algerian Islamist organisation, the Salafist Group for Preaching and Combat (GSPC), has issued a call for action against France, which it describes as "enemy No 1", intelligence officials said on Tuesday. "The only way to teach France to behave is jihad and the Islamic martyr," said the group's leader, Abu Mossab Abdelwadoud, also known as Abdelmalek Dourkdal, in an internet message earlier this month. He was quoted as saying: "France is our enemy No 1, the enemy of our religion, the enemy of our community."
Must be because of France's strong support for the war in Iraq.
France was mentioned 15 times in the text and the Algerian government was also targeted, said the officials. Nine people detained in a series of raids west of Paris on Monday are suspected members of the GSPC, officials have said. They were being questioned for a second day on Tuesday at the headquarters of the DST domestic intelligence agency.
Interior minister Nicolas Sarkozy said on Monday the risk of terrorist attack in France is "at a very high level... There are cells operating on our territory". The GSPC was created from a split in the Armed Islamic Group, the main force in Algeria's long insurgency, which was also responsible for a series of bombings in France in 1995.
IIRC, France foiled a GIA plot prior to 9/11 in which the terrs were planning to hijack a plane and fly it into the Eiffel Tower. There was a bit of bloody business in the plane on a runway that ended with a bunch of dead hijackers.
#1
Damn it man, I knew we should have signed Osama's peace deal last year. Now we are left with nothing to fire back with except cheese curls.
Yours,
Jacques C.
Posted by: Captain America ||
09/28/2005 9:18 Comments ||
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#2
Ah, why not indulge them further, offer more indirect political support and just watch and see how bold the jihadis become. It's hard to see how France earned the #1 spot though. Perhaps it was fixed with the judges as with iceskating. I suppose this would be seen by some there as being 110% the fault of Bush. Maybe this will help the French government wake up to face the facts of the threat to all civilized nations and especially it's EU partners.
#3
Why bother. Soon the muslims will demographically win Le Harem France.
Posted by: ed ||
09/28/2005 9:31 Comments ||
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#4
I know exactly how France became #1.
You can only terrorize the weak! Little Satan is a little to satanic in killing her enemies lately the Big Satan who after 8yrs of Clinton gays in the military, Somalia retreat, Cole, 93'World Trade, Numerous CIA agents killed around the muslim world, 2 Embasy bombings, attempted millinium plot, damm I can keep going to --- the terrrorist had pretty much put the US on the #1 spot for the weak, but then came the Bushitler and well 01' was the last attack on the US. Better to pick on our weaker allies, philipines, spain, ehh britian suprised em, than to pick on the great satan and turn the vice down another couple of turns, hell its damm damm tight right now, so much I can hear the screams over hear in the states. If we just had a media in this nation that would accept the fact that 1) they are americans 2) america is not really the big Satan 3) when someone tells you they want to kill you and your family you dont try to figure out WHY you just put a 22hallow in his ear and then see who else agrees with him.
We dont need them to love us or even like us just simple respect us or if nessecary Fear us.
#7
Don't underestimate the French when it comes down to low-down throat cutting. Remember that a goodly number of their rough boys come from Corsica and have a rep close to Sicilians for dirt dog mean.
This is not to say it would be official policy, more like a shadow war. But it would be right nasty.
An increase in attacks allegedly by Islamic militants ahead of Thursday's national reconciliation referendum have claimed at least 44 lives this month, including those of 24 soldiers, according to news reports. Groups such as the Armed Group for Preaching and Combat (GSPC) intend to boycott the referendum on a charter that offers a partial amnesty to Islamist rebels in exchange for laying down arms.
Er, in my dictionary 'boycott the referendum' means 'don't bother to vote', not 'kill all the voters.' I must need a new dictionary.
Algeria's president Abdelaziz Bouteflika hopes the amnesty will end the terrible violence that has cost hundreds of thousands of lives and establish the country as a peaceful state that is neither fundamentalist Islamic nor secular. The amnesty will free those imprisoned militants who were not involved in massacres, rapes and explosions in public places.
"Go forth, and jihad no more, my sons..."
Despite this, two 'patriots' (armed civilians) were killed and other wounded, on Sunday by an armed group in Layoune in the Aid Defla region, about 160 kilometres west of Algiers. Also on Sunday, one soldier was killed an five wounded when a bomb went off as a convoy passed it near Dellys in the Bourmerdes region, 50 kilometres east of Algiers. Two other policemen were killed near their barracks in Rebahia, near, Saida, some 430 kilometres southeast of the capital, Algiers, the Arabic daily al-Bayane reported.
Posted by: Dan Darling ||
09/28/2005 00:27 ||
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And in our country, we have cry babies that won't stand in line to vote if it is raining or if they have to stand for more than one hour.
Geezzzz ... oh, and then the whiners run off to the ACLU or NAACP or local Democratic Party hack and scream voting irregularities and of course, racism.
SRINAGAR, India - Indian soldiers have shot dead seven terrorists militants in three separate incidents in revolt-hit Indian-administered Kashmir, the army said on Tuesday. âThree of the terrorists militants were killed during a night-long fierce gunbattle in the town of Shopian,â army spokesman Vijay Batra told AFP. Shopian is an important town in the southern Kashmir district of Pulwama, about 50 kilometers (31 miles) from the Indian Kashmir summer capital Srinagar.
Batra said a soldier was injured in the fighting. âThe area is still under cordon and a search operation is on there,â he said.
In another incident, three terrorists rebels were killed Tuesday at the Line of Control (LoC), the de facto border dividing Kashmir between nuclear rivals India and Pakistan, Batra said. The incident happened at Machial, northwest of Srinagar, he added. âOne more terrorist militant was killed in a brief encounter with the army in Srinagarâs Bemina locality early on Tuesday,â Batra said.
Posted by: Steve White ||
09/28/2005 00:00 ||
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Photos of the COIN troops involved in the gunfight today.
They look mean
Posted by: john ||
09/28/2005 15:50 Comments ||
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Photos of the COIN troops involved in the gunfight today [Shopian]
Arjuna, incarnate.
John thanks for the pics, always look for your expertise and comments. elsewhere, I found this 10 page article on Siachen Glacier 2003..author illustrates the awsomeness of the place quite well...thoughts?
..WE WERE MARCHING up a strip of shattered rock laid out between two streams of the purest white, frozen highways extending in great ripples toward the head of the Siachen Glacierâthe largest alpine glacier on earth, nearly two trillion cubic feet of ice. The air was frigid and the light crackled with the crystalline clarity found only above 16,000 feet. The sky was an unusually deep blueâa blue that bordered on violet, a violet that shaded into black, a black that warned of cold that could snap bones and stop the dance of molecules dead in its tracks.
Up ahead rose a snowy 18,950-foot saddle that marked the end of the Indian subcontinent and the beginning of Central Asia. From its crest you could gaze into India, Pakistan, China, and Tibet. Surrounding us on all sides was an unbroken wall of pinnaclesâhuge cetacean humps barnacled with impossibly large cornices, seracs, and needlelike spires. "I am so happy to be in these mountains!" cried Mohmad Yaseen Khan, a 47-year-old Kashmiri Muslim who was serving as our Online Extra
Read more about the environmental devastation on the Siachen here
guide and cook. "The number of peaks I want to climb here is... is... well, I will have to make a special trip back just to count them. See how each one shines in a different way? See how their shapes are different? This is a place where a mountaineer would want to be buried."
Within a 25-mile radius of where we stood, 48 peaks rose above 19,000 feet; only 16 of these have names, and only six have been climbed. Above them towered 27 giants with altitudes exceeding 23,000 feet. Thirteen of these have never been scaled, and they include some of the greatest remaining prizes in Himalayan mountaineering: Saltoro Kangri II, four peaks in the Apsarasas group, and another three in the Teram Kangri group.
But there's a reason these mountains remain untouched: They sit in the middle of a 250-square-mile war zone where India and Pakistan have been fighting for the past 19 years as part of their intractable dispute over the state of Kashmir. What might be a climber's paradise is instead the site of a harrowing and improbable siege, the highest and coldest combat theater in the history of the world.
....In settings like this, suffering is often transformed into legend. The Pakistanis tell of a post beyond Sia La, at nearly 22,000 feet, that is said to have three separate cracks in the ice known as Three-Man Crevasse, Five-Man Crevasse, and Eight-Man Crevasseâeach named for the number of men who died falling in. Soldiers talk of men losing their minds and leaping from the posts to their deaths. Some say their tormented cries can be heard in the wind over the peaks. And then there's the story about the platoon killed in an early battle at Bilafond La, whose bodies froze into such grotesque positions that their corpses had to be hacked into pieces before they could be placed in helicopter panniers and brought down for return to their families.
Whether such tales are true is less important than what they symbolize about the futility of Siachen duty. "From what I've read, no one has ever been stupid enough to fight at this level before," an officer at Ghyari remarked one afternoon when none of his colleagues were within earshot. "I hope it won't be repeated again, because it's a waste. A big, bloody waste." The Coldest War
Posted by: Red Dog ||
09/28/2005 19:30 Comments ||
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#3
Siachen is of great strategic importance.
Musharraf has not gotten over the failure of his SSG unit to prevent Indian dominance of the high ground.
Deaths due to altitude have come down sharply as the Indian army learns more about high altitude warfare.
It now has an entire mountain warfare division acclimitized to high altitude on standby deployment.
Posted by: john ||
09/28/2005 21:19 Comments ||
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#4
...BEFORE LEAVING PAKISTAN, I heard quite a few remarks about Narinder "Bull" Kumar, a legendary Indian military man and mountaineer, and none of them were complimentary. "Colonel Kumar is the man who started all this," Major Tahir had fumed. "I have no wish to meet himâthat bastard."
The insults did little to prepare me for the bald, friendly man who was brimming with good humor and charm when we met at the New Delhi airport. Kumar, now 69, is short and powerful, still packed with thick muscle from his days as a climber. He has a thin white mustache, an endearing propensity for laughing at his own jokes, and an enormous fondness for beer. Kumar's family originally came from Rawalpindi and moved, just before Partition, to what is now the Indian state of Himachal Pradesh. After graduating from the Indian Military Academy in 1954, he joined the army and was earmarked for the cavalry. But in 1958 he got the chance to attend the Himalayan Mountaineering Institute in Darjeeling, run at the time by Tenzing Norgay, the Sherpa who summited Everest with Hillary. Inspired, Kumar flung himself into high-altitude mountaineering and began racking up notable achievements.
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.
FRANKFURT: Police in the western German state of Hesse mounted raids in six cities on Tuesday against suspected Islamic extremists accused of raising money to carry out terrorist attacks. "We have information that Islamic extremists engaged in petty crime are building a network and the logistics for terrorism," police spokesman Peter Liebeck said.
SAN FRANCISCO: A US federal judge granted bail on Monday to a Pakistani-born California man accused of lying to federal investigators about his son traveling to Pakistan to allegedly train in terrorist camps. US Magistrate Judge Gregory Hollows ordered Umer Hayat released pending trial if he posts a $1.2 million bond and if he agrees to remain at his Lodi, California, home under electronic monitoring and permits his telephones to be tapped. Hollows wrote in his order that Hayatâs son, Hamid Hayat, would remain in detention âboth as a danger to the community and as a flight riskâ. 
The top U.S. military intelligence officer in Iraq said Abu Musab Zarqawi and his foreign and Iraqi associates have essentially commandeered the insurgency, becoming the dominant opposition force and the greatest immediate threat to U.S. objectives in the country. "I think what you really have here is an insurgency that's been hijacked by a terrorist campaign," Army Maj. Gen. Richard Zahner said in an interview. "In part, by Zarqawi becoming the face of this thing, he has certainly gotten the funding, the media and, frankly, has allowed other folks to work along in his draft." The remarks underscored a shift in view among senior members of the U.S. military command here since the spring, as violence, especially against civilians, has spiked and as Zarqawi, a radical Sunni Muslim from Jordan, has aggressively promoted himself and his anti-U.S., anti-Shiite campaign. U.S. military leaders say they now see Zarqawi's group of foreign fighters and Iraqi supporters, known as al Qaeda in Iraq, as having supplanted Iraqis loyal to ousted president Saddam Hussein as the insurgency's driving element. Even with Zarqawi's growing significance, Zahner and other officers stressed that Iraq's insurgency remains a complex mix of elements. It includes a variety of factions, often with differing political, religious or tribal aims and sometimes with simply criminal intentions.
PARIS: About a dozen French youth are currently in Iraq preparing to become suicide bombers in the countryâs insurgency, French Interior Minister Nicolas Sarkozy said Monday. âAt this very moment, we know that there are a dozen French youth who are in Iraq, ready to become suicide bombers,â he told France 3 television. According to French intelligence services, seven French nationals have died in Iraq, in combat or in suicide attacks, and three are prisoners of the US-led multinational coalition forces. 
A senior Hamas operative who served as the Jerusalem-based liaison between Hamas operatives in Saudi Arabia and activists in the West Bank is under arrest, Jerusalem police chief Ilan Franco said Tuesday. 
Israeli aircraft unleashed a barrage of missiles early Wednesday and fired artillery into the Gaza Strip for the first time, pushing forward with an offensive despite a pledge by Islamic militants to halt their recent rocket attacks against Israel.
Israel vowed on Tuesday to continue targeting members of radical Palestinian groups and carried out more air raids in the Gaza Strip despite a pledge by the factions to cease their attacks. Defence Minister Shaul Mofaz made the announcement on army radio after Israeli troops arrested 82 Hamas and Islamic Jihad members overnight in the West Bank. âYes. The Israeli army will continue to use all means necessary,â said Mofaz, asked whether Israel would continue targeted assassinations and bombing raids on the Islamist stronghold of the Gaza Strip. 
Palestinian resistance movement Hamas has claimed responsibility for the kidnapping and killing of a Jerusalem businessman who was found dead on Monday. The resistance fighters said in a statement that they had kidnapped 51-year-old Sasson Nuriel, whom they had identified as a Shin Bet security service agent, on Wednesday. They had intended to trade him for Palestinian prisoners held in Israeli jails. However, after Israel began a series of arrest raids against West Bank resistance fighters, they decided to kill him, the statement said on Tuesday. Nuriel was found dead on Monday near the West Bank town of Ram Allah, and police said the attack appeared to be a "terror attack".
TEHERAN - Hundreds of Iranian Islamists on Wednesday pelted the British embassy in Tehran with tomatoes, stones and firecrackers in response to mounting pressure on the Islamic republicâs nuclear programme.
DEBKAfile Exclusive: Syria is pushing complete Palestinian battalions with their commands and weapons into Lebanon in the largest military movement since Syrian troopsâ May exit. DEBKAfileâs intelligence sources report the men are taken out of refugee camps near Damascus by Syrian intelligence agents and loaded on Lebanese civilian trucks hired by the Syrian army. In Lebanon, half are destined for the southern port town of Sidon and the rest for the Beqaa Valley. The estimated 1,200-1,500 men are operatives of Hamas, the Popular Front, the Democratic Front and the Abu Mussa splinter faction. 
Syrian authorities have arrested three women whose husbands are suspected Muslim radicals wanted over deadly clashes with police in the central province of Hama. "Syrian authorities arrested the wives of three men wanted in the Hama clashes, after they were not able to find (the suspects)," the Arab Organisation for Human Rights (AOHR) said in a statement on Monday. Two of the women are pregnant and the third has a four-month-old child, the group said.
The Lebanese journalist 
CAIRO (Reuters) - Egyptian police in the Sinai peninsula shot dead on Wednesday one of the men suspected in the bombings which killed 67 people in the resort of Sharm el-Sheikh in July, the Interior Ministry said in a statement. The suspect, Moussa Mohamed Salem Badran, born in 1978 and a resident of the North Sinai town of El Arish, had refused to surrender and opened fire on a group of policemen who tried to arrest him in the Mount Halal area, it said. 
DHAKA - At least 15 pirates were killed and five Bangladeshi law enforcers wounded in gun battles in southern Bangladesh, police said on Wednesday. The clashes occurred Tuesday as police and coastguards pursued up to 50 bandits who had boarded two trawlers in the Meghna river close to the Bay of Bengal. The pirates opened fire after being challenged, slightly injuring three police officers and two coastguards, Assistant Superintenent of Police Bimol Kumar Das told AFP.
KABUL - Bomb blasts in Afghanistan killed three people and wounded five, including a Bangladeshi UN worker, officials said on Wednesday. Two policemen and a civilian died and four civilians were wounded in a suspected mine blast in the eastern province of Kunar on Wednesday, police said, adding that the device may have been planted by Taliban guerrillas. A Bangladeshi engineer working with the UN Office for Project Services was critically wounded by a roadside bomb on Tuesday while travelling in a convoy in adjacent Nangarhar province, a UN official said. He was taken for treatment to the US military base in Bagram, north of Kabul, said UN spokesman Samuel Hendricks.
KABUL - A suicide bomber on a motorcycle blew himself up at an army training centre in the Afghan capital on Wednesday, killing nine people and injuring 28, the defence ministry said. The blast in northern Kabul is the first major attack in Afghanistan since the war-scarred country held landmark parliamentary elections earlier this month, and follows a period of relative calm in the city.
Pakistan's security forces say they have arrested a militant leader wanted in connection with attacks that have killed dozens of minority Shia Muslims. Asif Choto, said to be a senior figure in the Lashkar-e-Jhangvi Sunni Muslim group, was arrested close to the capital, Islamabad, officials said. Interior Minister Aftab Sherpao refused to confirm or deny the reports. 
An Algerian Islamist organisation, the Salafist Group for Preaching and Combat (GSPC), has issued a call for action against France, which it describes as "enemy No 1", intelligence officials said on Tuesday. "The only way to teach France to behave is jihad and the Islamic martyr," said the group's leader, Abu Mossab Abdelwadoud, also known as Abdelmalek Dourkdal, in an internet message earlier this month. He was quoted as saying: "France is our enemy No 1, the enemy of our religion, the enemy of our community." 
An increase in attacks allegedly by Islamic militants ahead of Thursday's national reconciliation referendum have claimed at least 44 lives this month, including those of 24 soldiers, according to news reports. Groups such as the Armed Group for Preaching and Combat (GSPC) intend to boycott the referendum on a charter that offers a partial amnesty to Islamist rebels in exchange for laying down arms. 
SRINAGAR, India - Indian soldiers have shot dead seven 
