DHAKA - Bangladesh on Monday banned Harkatul Jihad Al Islami, the third Islamic militant group to be outlawed this year, branding it a âself-confessed terrorist outfitâ. âBased on the existing information, the Bangladesh government has banned Harkatul Jihad Al Islami,â the home ministry said in a statement. âHarkatul Jihad Al Islamic is a self-confessed terrorist outfit. Its activities are very sensitive and it is identified as a terrorist outfit,â it added.
The ban follows the October 1 arrest of alleged leader of the organisation Mufti Abdul Hannan from a residence in the Bangladesh capital Dhaka. Hannan fought in Afghanistan against the Soviet invasion during the 1980s and was alleged to have been involved in a plot to blow up former prime minister Sheikh Hasina Wajed in 2000. He is also being questioned about nationwide explosions on August 17, which killed three and wounded more than 100.
Bangladesh police said they were also looking for âmujahedinâ who fought in Afghanistan with Mufti Abdul Hannan. Afghan war veterans form the leading ranks of Harkatul Jihad and are suspected of involvement in bomb explosions at three separate courts on October 3 in Bangladesh.
Police also suspect the Jihad were behind the 400 small bombs that were detonated almost simultaneously across the country on August 17. The banned group was one of 15 on a list the British government published last week and asked parliament to outlaw as part of an anti-terror crackdown.
Posted by: Steve ||
10/17/2005 12:20 ||
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There is a security alert at Newforge Lane in south Belfast. The police were called out after a telephone bomb warning was made on Sunday night. A controlled explosion was carried out on a suspicious object found near the top of the road. Army bomb experts are still at the scene. A number of homes were evacuated. Residents were taken to the nearby Newforge Country Club. They were all later allowed to return home. The alert began at about 2130 BST on Sunday. A helicopter with a spotlight was used during a search of the area. Malone Road and Balmoral Avenue had been closed for a time, but the roads were later reopened. Newforge Lane is still cordoned off.
An Islamic leader and five other people detained for questioning in a bombing outside a nightclub in the Caribbean island of Trinidad were released on Sunday, police said. Friday's explosion was the fourth bombing in the capital Port-of-Spain in as many months. Ten people were injured in the latest explosion. Jamaat al-Muslimeen leader Yasin Abu Bakr, 63, and four teenagers spent 36 hours in police custody for questioning, Trinidad Police Commissioner Trevor Paul said. Another man detained near the scene of the blast was also released. "We have released them, but our investigations are ongoing," Paul said, declining to give further details.
Abu Bakr, who led a failed 1990 coup, was detained along with the four teens late Friday. Phone calls to Abu Bakr's office seeking comment went unanswered Sunday. Kala Akii Bua, a senior Jamaat member, accused police of detaining Abu Bakr without reason. "Every time a bomb goes off, the Jamaat is blamed for it. We will not be used as a scapegoat," Akii Bua told reporters Saturday. In 1990, Abu Bakr's group bombed police headquarters, stormed Parliament and took the prime minister and his Cabinet hostage in a rebellion that left 24 people dead in Trinidad. The rebels eventually surrendered and were later pardoned.
Posted by: Fred ||
10/17/2005 00:00 ||
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#1
Actually they released the hostages in exchange for an amnesty signed by Trinidad's acting president.
They were promptly arrested but were freed several months later on a habeas corpus motion accepted by a judge. Their lawyer, the aussie QC Geofrey Robertson quoted Alexander Hamilton's writings to show that a pardon to quell insurrection was valid.
Trinidad's highest court, the Privy Council in London ruled the pardon invalid since the muslims had not followed the stipulated conditions. The habeas corpus stood however and they remained free men.
The jamaat has since eveolved into a narco trafficking - kidnap - murder for higher outfit. The ruling party sought its help in slum areas during the last election.
Posted by: john ||
10/17/2005 14:02 Comments ||
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The Trinidad newspaper carried verbatim reports of the arguments to the court.
The Trinidad government claimed the pardon was invalid since it was granted under duress.
Robertson then quoted Alexander Hamilton. The 200 year old argument was simply awesome.
One Judge of Trinidad's appeal court exclaimed that he did not want to hear of Hamiliton for the rest of his life. He gave up. He could not rule against the argument, it was so compelling. He hated releasing the terrorists but could see no other way.
The Privy council in London was far more astute. They were unwilling to validate a pardon and so give a precedent througout the commonwealth and were not willing to send men granted a pardon to the gallows so they came up with a political judgement- they invalidated the pardon on the grounds that conditions were not met (release of hostages by a certain time) but upheld the habeas corpus thus preventing rearrest or retrial.
The QC Robertson is now a UN appeal judge for the war crimes tribunals. He has trained the judges for Saddam's trial.
Posted by: john ||
10/17/2005 17:45 Comments ||
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Not fair, john -- you're making the Law sound fascinating, and I just don't have the energy to study something new!
President Vladimir Putin vowed to show no mercy toward insurgents and praised law enforcement agencies for their ruthlessness in quashing a raid by scores of militants in the Kabardino-Balkarian capital of Nalchik.
Defense Minister Sergei Ivanov on Sunday rejected Chechen rebel claims that they had participated in Thursday's attacks and said the gunmen were "local bandits," not Islamic militants.
Eyewitnesses reportedly saw Chechen warlord Shamil Basayev among the attackers, and rebel envoy Akhmed Zakayev said Basayev had traveled to the republic three days before the attacks.
Authorities on Friday declared that order had been fully restored in the North Causasus city of 240,000, but not before well over 100 people -- the vast majority of them raiders -- had been killed. Among the dead were 24 law enforcement officials, including 19 local policemen, and at least 12 civilians.
A total of 94 raiders were killed, including the suspected leader, Ingush militant Iless Gorchkhanov, and at least 15 others were detained, officials said.
"In the future, we will act in the same way against those who take up arms to threaten the lives and well-being of our citizens and the integrity of the Russian Federation,'' Putin told Ivanov, Interior Minister Rashid Nurgaliyev and Federal Security Service First Deputy Director Nikolai Klimashin during a Friday meeting in the Kremlin shown on state television. "We will act as toughly and consistently as we did on this occasion."
Putin called the Nalchik operation a shining success. "It's great that all of the law enforcement and power agencies acted in a coordinated, effective and ruthless manner," he said. The so-called power agencies include the Defense Ministry and the Federal Security Service, or FSB.
He again praised law enforcement agencies for their "well-coordinated action" during a meeting with security officials on Saturday.
The group of raiders -- which the regional Interior Ministry put at 150 men -- launched a series of near-simultaneous attacks on police, security and military installations in Nalchik at about 9:30 a.m. Thursday. Fierce fighting rattled the city throughout the day, and by evening, law enforcement officials had cornered a handful of remaining fighters in a police station and a souvenir store across the street from the regional FSB headquarters.
At about 9:30 a.m. Friday, soldiers shot grenades through the barred window of the store and used an armored personnel carrier to smash through the store's wall to save two hostages and kill three militants, Deputy Prosecutor General Vladimir Kolesnikov said.
At about 2 p.m., security forces killed 10 militants holed up in the police station, Deputy Interior Minister Andrei Novikov told reporters in Nalchik. "Nine hostages were freed. They are alive and well," he said.
He also said four police officers were rescued from militants who were trying to escape in a van. The militants were killed.
In all, about 20 people were taken hostage and most were freed alive during the two days of fighting. The Associated Press reported that among them were an unspecified number of children.
Novikov said that Gorchkhanov, the militants' suspected leader, was killed in the fighting and that authorities were trying to identify other slain attackers.
Kolesnikov said Thursday that the attacks had been organized by Gorchkhanov and Anzor Astemirov, head of a local Islamist group. Both were wanted on suspicion of attacking the regional anti-drug agency's offices in Nalchik last December.
Novikov said the majority of the militants, mostly between the ages of 20 and 30, were local residents, while the rest were from other Caucasus republics.
He said they had attacked in six groups of eight to 15 people.
Novikov also said 85 law enforcement officers had been wounded during the fighting.
Conflicting official casualty counts put the number of dead civilians at 12 to 18. Kabardino-Balkarian Prime Minister Gennady Gubin said 120 civilians were injured.
Security forces combed Nalchik for militants over the weekend. Putin on Thursday had ordered the city sealed and that anyone resisting arrest be shot.
As many as 1,500 troops and 500 riot police officers were dispatched from other regions to Kabardino-Balkaria to participate in the manhunt, Nurgaliyev told reporters.
Dhamilya Khagarova, the republic's presidential press secretary, said Sunday that 15 suspected militants had been detained.
But Novikov put the figure much higher, saying 36 were detained Friday alone. Regnum news agency, citing a local police source, said two more were held Sunday.
Authorities initially linked the raid to a police standoff with a group of suspected militants in a forest near Nalchik, but the region's top prosecutor, Yury Ketov, rejected that Saturday, saying the attacks were "a carefully planned and prepared operation," Interfax reported.
"The attacks must not in any way be considered as a response by rebels to the police special operation a day earlier," he said.
Kabardino-Balkarian President Arsen Kanokov agreed, saying in an interview published Saturday in state-owned Rossiiskaya Gazeta: "It was a thoroughly planned action. They prepared for it for a long time."
But the defense minister said Sunday that the militants had been forced to "act spontaneously" after law enforcement officials uncovered the group.
Ivanov also said the militants were exclusively "local bandits."
"There was no invasion in Nalchik," Ivanov said in televised remarks in New Delhi, India, where he was attending Russian-Indian joint military exercises. "This is complete nonsense. ... Local bandits carried out the raid."
He said Nalchik would be cordoned off "until the police check every house."
Contradicting Ivanov, Kanokov earlier said the attackers included local Wahhabis, followers of a fundamentalist strain of Islam, as well as extremists from outside the republic.
The Chechen rebel web site Kavkaz Center claimed in a statement posted Friday that Chechen rebels had led the raid and that it had been organized by the Caucasus Front, an umbrella group of radical Islamist networks in the North Caucasus.
Nalchik eyewitnesses were quoted in national newspapers as saying that they had seen Basayev among the attackers. Zakayev, the rebels' envoy in London, told Kommersant that Basayev had traveled to Kabardino-Balkaria last Monday. The whereabouts of Basayev, who has long evaded authorities despite a $10 million bounty on his head, were unclear Sunday.
Despite his praise for a job well done, Putin also rebuked law enforcement officials for not preventing the raid. "It is a bad thing that bandit raids like this are still possible. It is a great tragedy that we are bearing losses among law enforcement officers and the civilian population," he said during the televised part of Friday's meeting.
The State Duma approved a motion to summon Prime Minister Mikhail Fradkov and senior law enforcement officials for a closed hearing this week. Duma Speaker Boris Gryzlov told reporters that deputies wanted to know why the raid and the subsequent two days of fighting could have happened.
Kanokov, a wealthy businessman and former Duma deputy whom Putin appointed as president of Kabardino-Balkaria last month, blamed a growing extremism brought on by the region's poor social and economic conditions. "Low incomes and unemployment create fertile soil for waging an ideological war against us by religious extremists and other destructive forces," he said, Interfax reported.
Kanokov's predecessor, Valery Kokov, ruled the region with an iron fist for 15 years and spent most of the past year out of office due to poor health.
The slow collapse of the local government is largely responsible for the growth of Islamic extremism, said Nikolai Silayev, a researcher with the Center for Caucasus Studies at the Moscow State Institute of International Relations. "There has been a power vacuum in the region in recent years, and Moscow made no effort to fill it in a timely manner," he said.
Silayev said corruption was also contributing to extremism, noting that all local businesses were in the hands of several powerful clans and very few opportunities remained for the majority of the population.
Nalchik authorities will pay a compensation of 50,000 rubles ($1,750) to the families of those who died in the attacks, Itar-Tass reported.
Posted by: Dan Darling ||
10/17/2005 01:50 ||
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#1
Basayev sighted amongst Nalchik attackers
Me too, he stepped that little peg on my blue suede shoes.
/thankyouverymuch
Posted by: Elvis ||
10/17/2005 2:21 Comments ||
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#2
Gimp should be careful. Too much hobbling around could beget a stump revision. I'd suggest that they work from the top down though since that little brain of old Pegleg's is surely only a little stump of a brainstem with a little evil murderous sociopathic part attached. Nothing else left in that empty and unusually thick skull.
#8
It's your turn Marlin, Ima sitting this one out. Have you got him yet?
Posted by: Jim in the Helicopter this Time ||
10/17/2005 16:59 Comments ||
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#9
To change the order of two key statements in the article: [A]bout 20 people were taken hostage... among them were an unspecified number of children.
[M]ost were freed alive during the two days of fighting
Hundreds of black-clad, mostly elderly people gathered Sunday outside the prosecutors' office in the southern Russian city of Nalchik, demanding the release of the bodies of relatives killed during a raid by alleged Islamic extremists. Many feared they would never see their relatives' bodies. According to Russian law, terrorists' bodies are not returned to their families and some in the crowd alleged that their relatives had been unfairly identified as participants in the militant raid. "Give back the bodies of our children so that we can bury them," said a petition the crowd passed to prosecutors.
The demand came two days after militants attacked police and government buildings in Nalchik, sparking fighting that killed at least 139 people, including 94 alleged attackers, according to official tallies. Asya Zhekamukhova, 21, said she wanted to collect the body of her 26-year-old husband, Vadim Zhekamukhov, who worked as a driver for a veterinary clinic. When the shooting started, he rushed to a nursery school to pick up his nephew and was killed, she said. "He was not a Wahhabi. He despised them," Zhekamukhova said, using the usual term for Islamic extremists in Russia. "He never carried any guns, but when we found his body there was a gun lying nearby."
A delegation of three elderly men presented the petition to prosecutors. Deputy regional prosecutor Asker Masayev asked the crowd to return home and wait until Monday because investigators were still working to separate the bodies of the attackers from other victims, said Mukhamed Zhekamukhov, one of the three elderly men and a relative of the slain driver.
At Nalchik's main morgue, another crowd of hundreds of agitated relatives waited for victims to be identified or to collect their bodies for burial. Police and security officers stood by. Nalchik is the capital of the Kabardino-Balkariya region, which has been long rattled by spillover violence from nearby Chechnya, as well as local criminal elements. Earlier this year, Nalchik police twice launched assaults on alleged Islamic militants holed up in apartments. Some Muslims accuse law enforcement authorities of persecuting innocent people who worship outside officially sanctioned mosques, falsely branding them militants and planting compromising evidence such as drugs or weapons to ensure their prosecution.
Thursday's assaults in Nalchik were the first such brazen raids in the region, with scores of young men launching a daylight attack, apparently seeking to seize weapons and ammunition. A similar nighttime attack occurred last year in another Caucasus city, Nazran. Most raiders in Nalchik apparently were local. "All the militants were already in Nalchik as 'peaceful citizens,'" Russian Defense Minister Sergei Ivanov was quoted as saying by the ITAR-Tass news agency, apparently denying Chechen rebel claims of involvement. "No one had arrived in Nalchik from the outside or brought weapons there," said Ivanov, who was in India attending joint military exercises. "That was certainly the underground. Someone gave an order, Kalashnikov guns were taken out and militants got in their Zhiguli (cars) and rushed to neighboring areas as ordered."
The regional president's spokeswoman, Dhamilya Khagarova, said 94 militants were killed and 15 suspects detained. Russian Interior Minister Rashid Nurgaliyev said Sunday on state-controlled television that 33 law-enforcement officers and 12 civilians were killed.
Posted by: Fred ||
10/17/2005 00:00 ||
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STOCKHOLM, Sweden (Reuters) -- A visiting Somali has been arrested in Sweden after exiles denounced him as a war criminal, police said Monday.
Swedish authorities did not name the 57-year-old man, who was held in the university town Lund late Sunday and taken to the city of Gothenburg for questioning, they said. But a Somali legislator identified him as Abdi Awale Qaybdiid, an ex-police officer associated in the past with some warlords and now an aide to the Somali parliament's speaker.
A former colleague of Qaybdiid, who also asked not to be named, said he was accused of ordering a mortar attack that killed 10 people in a Mogadishu market in 1996. "The guy came here for a conference and some other Somalis in Sweden went to the police in Gothenburg and told them about him and brought a video tape," Hans Olvebro, head of the Swedish national police's war crimes unit, told Reuters. Sweden's Foreign Ministry said the man was part of a six-person Somali delegation led by parliament speaker Sharif Hassan Sheikh Adan.
Wonder if they forgot to fill out the paperwork giving him diplomatic immunity?
The speaker, Hassan, leads a Mogadishu-based faction of the interim Somali government, which was formed in neighboring Kenya in 2004 and relocated home earlier this year. The split has stopped the government from imposing authority in the Horn of Africa nation run by warlords and their militia since they ousted ex-dictator Mohamed Siad Barre in 1991.
Qaybdiid was a police officer under Barre. After 1991, he worked for warlords including Mohammed Farah Aideed, whose 1993 clash with U.S. troops was made into the film "Black Hawk Down". Qaybdiid's ex-colleague, talking to Reuters in Nairobi, said he was remembered for the 1996 attack on Bakara market, which killed some 10 people, while working for warlord Osman Ali Atto. The legislator close to Hassan, also speaking in Nairobi, said the arrest was inspired by supporters of the opposing government faction, based in Jowhar outside Mogadishu. "We appeal for the immediate release of Abdi Qaybdiid," he added.
The legislator added that Hassan's delegation had also been troubled on a recent trip to the United States where some people called police to denounce them as "terrorists".
Fred, was that you?
A spokesman for Somali Prime Minister Mohamed Ali Gedi in Nairobi said he could not confirm the arrest. "I have heard the rumors but I cannot comment or deny it," the spokesman Abdirahman Meygag told Reuters.
Some human rights groups estimate 500,000 Somalis have been killed since Barre's toppling plunged the nation of 10 million people into anarchy. The United States and United Nations intervened in 1992-1993 but withdrew by early 1995. Sweden is involved in the Somali peace process.
The weekend conference about "Good Governance and Rule of Law" in the Horn of Africa was supported by local authorities in southern Sweden and the Swedish foreign development agency.
So, it's a Science Fiction convention?
The Somali speaker was due to visit the Foreign Ministry in Stockholm this week but a spokesman said the visit was in doubt.
Posted by: Steve ||
10/17/2005 09:48 ||
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International bureaucrats and assorted countries are struggling to wrest control of "Internet governance" from that old unilateralist bogeyman, the United States. There's one big problem with this picture: Cyberspace isn't "governed" by the U.S. or anyone else, and that's the beauty of it. But if the United Nations gets its way in the coming month, the Web will end up under its control. Uh-oh is about right.
Internet governance, such as it is, currently falls under the purview of a California-based nonprofit called the Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers. Better known as Icann, it was created by the U.S. Commerce Department in 1998 to administer the "root zone file," the master list of all Web addresses world-wide, which the U.S. has kept since the creation of the Internet in the 1970s. Ensuring that any given Web address, or domain name, is assigned to only one Web site is a key reason why the Internet has become such a powerful tool.
Maintaining the root zone file involves assigning -- or, more commonly, accrediting other companies to assign -- domain names, such as our OpinionJournal.com. Icann also manages the top-level domains such as .com and .org. This includes the 248 country-specific ones -- from .ca for Canada to .aq for Antarctica, and everything in between. Local authorities set policy for their country-specific extensions, conferring with Icann to make sure everything works smoothly.
And that's it. Real "governance," on the other hand, could bring oversight of content and even transactions by a new international body -- two jobs that Icann explicitly doesn't perform. For an example of how the Internet is governed, look no further than the strict limits China -- one of the main proponents of "internationalizing" the root zone file -- places on Web sites that promote or even discuss democracy.
But if China and other countries already do this now, why would they be pushing for change? Good question. So far, exactly what this new intergovernmental body would look like or do remains worryingly vague. According to a report of the U.N.'s Working Group on Internet Governance, this body could be a Global Internet Council to which Icann reports; or it could keep Icann in place and simply make recommendations; or it could take over Icann's duties and relegate the private sector to "providing advice."
The working group's report says the governing body would respect freedom of expression. At the same time, it holds as one of its "key principles" the "respect for cultural and linguistic diversity as well as tradition [and] religion." On the Internet, it says, "that translates to multilingual, diverse and culturally appropriate content" (our emphasis). And who decides whether content is culturally, or otherwise, "appropriate"? Today, no one. Tomorrow, Tehran, Beijing or Brussels.
One constant -- and this is where vagueness becomes an even bigger danger -- is that a U.N.-run oversight body would address "public policy issues that currently do not have a natural home or cut across several international or intergovernmental bodies." In other words, it could do darn near anything it wanted.
It's no surprise that supporters' bureaucratic web of choice is the U.N., which cloaks its designs on Internet control in language about such niceties as bridging the "digital divide." Spreading Web access is a worthy goal, but centralizing control runs directly at odds with that aim. The phenomenal growth of email, e-commerce and e-everything else is directly attributable to the Internet's decentralized nature. One area where a U.N.-run Web might very well expand its reach is into the taxpayer's pocket. Kofi Annan and Jacques Chirac have long dreamed of a global "solidarity" tax on online financial transactions. This could be their vehicle for doing so.
By no means is Icann perfect. The main gripe is that the agency is subject to occasional political pressure from Washington. In August, Assistant Commerce Secretary Michael Gallagher objected to Icann's plans to introduce a .xxx top-level domain for pornographic Web sites. This political misstep, while hardly the norm, undermined Icann's independence and gave ammunition to the multilateral-at-all-costs crowd. The Administration can neutralize its opponents by moving ahead quickly with plans to grant Icann its full independence next year.
Without U.S. support for the U.N.'s Web "governance" campaign -- withheld so far -- the current system can't be changed. But Washington doesn't hold all the cards here. Countries could create parallel Internets. The same Web address might take users in China and the U.S. to different Web sites -- a nightmare outcome for online business as well as the vibrant marketplace of ideas that the Internet has fostered. Perhaps our friends at the European Union, who last month turned against the U.S., will realize that their sudden push for "control" over the Net carries a high price.
This is gonna get really ugly.
Posted by: Captain America ||
10/17/2005 14:17 ||
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#1
It's time to pull the plug on the international idiots in Turtle Bay. The US can simply shut down all Internet access in any country that pushes this plan. It's not that difficult. Yes, they can create their "own" Internet, but either it will use TCP/IP, or the whole thing will have to be engineered from the ground up. It took us 40 years to get where we are today. Without US software (patented), the Internet would stop, period. While some countries would like that, they don't understand the economic destruction that would cause THEM. We can live with it, but the majority of the world cannot. It's time for the US to take the gloves off, and start ACTING like a superpower - not by bullying, but by standing up for what it considers its rights, privileges, duties and responsibilities. The first place to show such toughness is by shutting down the open sewer at Turtle Bay.
Posted by: Old Patriot ||
10/17/2005 14:35 Comments ||
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#3
Well said, Old Patriot! everyone harunph Old Patriot! Hopefully there will be a major pudh to get the UN out of New York. We may still need to be a member, which is dubious, but we need that "August Body" out of our country.
Posted by: Deacon Blues ||
10/17/2005 15:13 Comments ||
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#4
Dang, my spelling is rotten today.
Posted by: Deacon Blues ||
10/17/2005 15:13 Comments ||
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#5
Ladies and gentlemen - What do we think about this?
#6
The whole beauty of the net is its openness and distributedness. Decentralization is the future, asshats. The EU, UN, China etc. are afraid and envious (thou shalt not covet thy neighbor's internet). Under the banner of whatever leftist drivel they can come up with, they want to censor and tax. It's an elitist power grab pure and simple. The net is real power to the people. Let's keep it that way.
#7
As much as I was initially thrilled by it, I'm beginning to think the Bolton approach is the wrong approach. We need to bring all of our U.N. delegation "home" except for one lowly clerk who is empowered solely to attend all General Assembly and Security Council meetings and veto everything in sight. Then drop our annual payments to two cents, because we are only there to put in our two cents worth.
#8
The EU, UN, China etc. are afraid and envious (thou shalt not covet thy neighbor's internet). Under the banner of whatever leftist drivel they can come up with, they want to censor and tax.
I'm not sure about their ability to censor under any circumstances but there's no doubt this is an another end around attempt at gaining an international tax.
#9
First of all, a harunph of support for Old Patriot. ;-)
Secondly, President Bush has historically been keen on dotting i's and crossing t's before doing what he was going to do anyway. Bolton was sent to Turtle Bay to clean things up. Once he's demonstrated that isn't doable, then Bush will withdraw from the U.N., not before. In my humble opinion, of course.
#10
I wonder whether, given how badly all the Oil for Food investigations are going not only for Kofi's friends, but also for the diplomatic elite of certain countries, this loudly trumpeted grab for control of the internet isn't actually intended to distract us from continuing to uncover what had been discretely buried? If so, they misjudge us, as we have actually a surplus of good people to carry on both efforts simultaneously and effectively, but they couldn't and so wouldn't expect us to.
#13
First thing the UN controlled Internet would do would be to enforce restrictions on what it considers to be racial provocations and hate speech. Having done this it would move to expel or shut down any Israeli use of the Internet because in their minds, Zionism is racism and support of Israel is hateful speech.
#14
Damn, and I just got a hot lead that ROPMA.com might be available.
Posted by: Jim in the Helicopter this Time ||
10/17/2005 17:02 Comments ||
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#15
Is it too late to request a change of venue for this post to Page 3, or maybe page 4?
Posted by: Phil Fraering ||
10/17/2005 17:02 Comments ||
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Folks, this comes down to a show down over national versus international sovereignty rights. The donks have an interesting decision to make on this, given their willingness to defer rights to the UN, etc.
One thing for certain: the Internet cuts across all aspects of the US (Red, Blue, etc., etc.). The pols better watch it on this one.
The Internet argument is not much different than the ones being waged over Koyoto and the ICC.
Posted by: Captain America ||
10/17/2005 17:09 Comments ||
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#17
You know they would demand Rantburg, WindsOfChange, and the Whitehouse website itself be shut down on the spot.
#18
Without a fool in the WH, we will not give up anything - anything at all - to some obviously malignant and asinine international cabal.
So, what will happen when they get a simple "LMAO - STFU, it's NOYB, FOAD &, BTW, HAND" response? That is the only issue in play at this time. 2008 will quite possibly be very very different - if the latte / limo libs get their way.
#20
Consider that in China, a policeman is able to request a suspect's email address and then scroll through the last several dozen emails sent or received at that address.
DO WE REALLY WANT CHINA HAVING THE LEAST SAY ABOUT ADMINISTERING THE INTERNET?
Had the UN been responsible for inventing the Internet, it would have been strangled in the cradle innumerable times already. These f&*kwits are merely looking for another fatted calf to slaughter upon the altar of their corruption and greed.
I will personally learn how to crack & hack in order to attack UN based servers should they wrest control of the Internet from its rightful owners.
#21
I haven't heard one thing of this in the MSM. You'd think when a couple of countries out there want to deny American's their right to free speech there would be more of an outcry. Are the MSM and Libs soo anti Bush/Cheney that they'd sacrifice the constitutional right to free speech?
#26
"Are the MSM and Libs soo anti Bush/Cheney that they'd sacrifice the constitutional right to free speech?"
Somehow I can't see the Markos "Screw Em" Kos folding his tent politely at the whim of the UN either. This issue may follow the Law of Unintended Consequences and unite previously disparate and antagonistic forces AGAINST the "Jobs Program for 3rd World Bureaucrats."
#29
BTW, this is like the 10th story on this issue that Rantburg has run.
Shouldn't there be a Google, Yahoo search function to search for repetitive posts, lest the posters be exposed as just above car swarmers (TM - and DynoMite!!!!!!)
But even given the (light) criticism, I still bow down to the temple of Rantburg.
#30
Mizzou Mafia, an amazing number of Rantburgers (in cluding Master Fred) are programmers of one kind or another (not me, that's much too like real work for me!). This sort of thing (sorry!)really punches all their buttons. The rest of us just go on to the other articles. ;-)
#31
There is an archive search on the upper-right. I generally do a quickie to look for the last name of a terrorist that got whacked or something like that.
I don't think it will search for the URL of the posted article, and since the wire services carry everything around to local newspapers' pages, I don't think it will help much. Yesterday, I posted the exact same article as someone else, but My source was the WaPo, while his was the AP or something like that.
#32
MM - some of us get swamped at work and don't get to visit Rantburg every day. So some repetition of important stories is OK.
If something was posted previously - or if the headline doesn't interest you - skip over it and go on to the next story. I do.
Posted by: Barbara Skolaut ||
10/17/2005 21:32 Comments ||
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#33
You guys had better care about the U.N.getting control,if they do you can kiss the free exchange of information,news and ideas goodbye. the power of bloggers to effect events and call asshats on thier shinannigans(Swift Boats,H. Rienes,J.Blair,D.Rather) will be gone.First hand reports of what is going on in the world will be history.We will be stuck getting spoon fed by the MSM agin.That is why Fred and co. keep posting these articles.I say keep it-up guys,say load,say it often,and spread it wide.
#34
Raptor, it is an article of faith to me that should the U.N. actually get possession of the internet, our clever programming types (two of whom are siblings of mine) will invent something even better for us to use in its place. Granted I am a Pollyanna, but from what I hear, the internet is being improved all the time. So why couldn't we just abandon the current system and go to Internet 2.0 (or whatever number is appropriate), and leave the U.N. to watch their new acquisition crumble into the dust? Of course, this does mean keeping a sharp eye on events, so that we (the programming community, I mean) know when to take that step.
#35
nose of the camel under the tent is nothing to welcome or accept TW
Posted by: Frank G ||
10/17/2005 22:18 Comments ||
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#36
and leave the U.N. to watch their new acquisition crumble into the dust?
I'm not so sure that would happen. The Europeans are smart enough to pull this off, and make their internet a real competitor. Just look at their mobile phone network. It's better than the crap here in North America. Hell, we've got competing TV standards, phones, region specific DVDs/DVD players, voltage, some of them even drive on the wrong side of the road (sorry UK)... what's one more ubiquitous behemoth, the Internet.
Posted by: Rafael ||
10/17/2005 22:37 Comments ||
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#37
True enough, Rafael. Their problem would be that their 'Net would be controlled by politicians, ours by technologists. They would have to steal improvements, not that they wouldn't, but the number of people who'd lose access to the free flow of information would be huge. In my not even remotely humble opinion, this move would be more insidious and more harmful to more people than any of the "isms" we've faced, before. This power grab is one of the darkest, most obviously evil, ideas I've ever heard.
If it happens and the split occurs - and persists, I believe that someday a war will be fought with this (or its future equivalent) as a primary reason.
#38
Well, darn, this is almost as good as my marriage! (We planned our fights -- over kids' curfews and daughters' dating age -- before we were even engaged.) Ok, so the order of the next couple of wars is:
WWIV, or the War Against Islamofascism (currently being fought)
the War Against Expansionist China (formerly known as Communist/Red China) one to two decades hence
the War for Control of the Internet (time to be determined, X number of years after the U.N. manages to get control of the current set-up)
I bought an old-fashioned rotary lawnmower, so I'm doing my bit for WWIV ;-) , and I've two siblings who are programmers, which is my "contribution" to the Internet war, but how can I help against the Chinese, besides not buying stuff at Wal-Mart?
This is indeed a continuing saga. This particular article, while a repeat topic, brings some fresh perspectives.
For example, I don't believe the Kofi/Chirac "pity tax" surfaced from previously posted articles, as being a motivation for the takeover. Nor have previously posted articles delineated present day "Cyberspace isn't governed" versus the implications of "governed".
This is a very significant development, one that bears ongoing vigilance.
Posted by: Captain America ||
10/18/2005 0:00 Comments ||
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A lawyer for Tariq Aziz has denied a British newspaper report that the former Iraqi deputy prime minister will testify against Saddam Hussein.
"Nope. Nope. Ain't gonna do it."
The lawyer, Badie Izzat Aref, said Mr Aziz would not give evidence against the former leader, whose trial is set to begin on Wednesday. Separately, Human Rights Watch has warned the proceedings might not meet international standards. Saddam Hussein's trial will be taking place in an undisclosed location.
"International standards" require that bloody-handed tin-hat dictators go into exile in the south of France, there to plot their return to power, rather than getting a bullet to the back of the head when pulled out of their ratholes...
The Sunday Telegraph said in return for his testimony, the main charges against Mr Aziz would be dropped and he would be allowed to live quietly and plot his own return to power work on his autobiography. Mr Aziz has so far not been charged with any specific crimes. He has been held at a secret location since his surrender in April 2003. A US official told the paper: "Things are very delicate and a plea bargain is never sealed until the witness takes the stand and delivers his side of the deal."
They're making the assumption that Tariq's testimony would be necessary and that he wouldn't lie through his teeth as he was noted for doing. Not only is neither self-evidently true, both are unlikely.
His lawyer, Mr Aref, said of the Telegraph report: "It's completely false, I have always said that Tariq Aziz never had any intention of testifying against Saddam." He added: "What I told the British newspaper is that during a questioning session, Tariq Aziz was asked about who in Iraq took sovereign decisions like declaring war, suppressing a revolt or a civil mutiny. Tariq Aziz's answer was that sovereign and political decisions were in the hands of Saddam and he had nothing to do with them."
"He was just a toady. Everybody knew that."
Human Rights Watch on Sunday voiced concern over the possibility that the trial might not be fair.
They weren't too concerned over the fairness of the trials, if any, Sammy gave his opponents, starting with his first party congress, when he shot a few of his rivals himself...
It fears the death penalty might be applied, and highlights the defence's claim that it has not had enough time to prepare its case.
"How long do you need?"
"Sixty years oughta do it!"
It is also worried about the possibility of political interference and the fact that the burden of proof does not have to be beyond reasonable doubt. Five judges will open the proceedings against Saddam Hussein and seven associates accused of killing more than 100 civilians in the Shia Muslim village of Dujail in 1982. It is not clear what other charges will be filed. The start of the trial has been delayed several times, amid criticism of the tribunal's legitimacy and fears for the security of its judges.
Why didn't the lawyers use that time to get their case together?
Speaking on the BBC's Sunday AM programme, lawyer Abdul Haq al-Ani, who says he is authorised to speak on behalf of Saddam Hussein's defence team, said he had no evidence that any of the deposed leader's former colleagues would testify against him. He said the trial had no jurisdiction as it had been set up by an occupying power which was not entitled to change the legal system of an occupied country. "Saddam Hussein is entitled to a fair trial. This won't be a fair trial because it has been created to fit the offence," he said.
Posted by: Steve ||
10/17/2005 08:45 ||
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#2
Thirty years later when the final appeal to the high sharia court of petty folly in the caliphate of Belgium is exhausted, the sentence of bad things (reduced from original sentence of death due to human rights concerns over the impact of a death sentence upon Saddam's sense of self-esteem) will be suspended because of humanitarian concerns for the poor health of Saddam and the psychological damage that the administrator of the sentence might possibly suffer if required by the caliphate to inflict the evil torture of incarceration upon an old man. The court will order Iraq to pay the 15 billion euro tab for the court costs or else face the most severe admonishment.
#3
Speaking on the BBC's Sunday AM programme, lawyer Abdul Haq al-Ani, who says he is authorised to speak on behalf of Saddam Hussein's defence team, said he had no evidence that any of the deposed leader's former colleagues would testify against him. He said the trial had no jurisdiction as it had been set up by an occupying power which was not entitled to change the legal system of an occupied country. "Saddam Hussein is entitled to a fair trial. This won't be a fair trial because it has been created to fit the offence," he said.
Wonder how much Saddam is paying this legal team. The defense sounds like it was created by a random word generator. On the other hand, some of it sounds very original, if humorous.
The story has not been confirmed by AP's al-Quaeda stringer so it is only attributed to the US pending authoritative confirmation. Clearly all killed wer innocent Iraqis; no militants, insurgents, rebels or Voldemorts.
BAGHDAD, Iraq -- U.S. helicopters and warplanes bombed two villages near the city of Ramadi, a hotbed of Sunni-Arab insurgents west of Baghdad, killing around 70 Iraqis, the military said Monday. The military said all the dead were militants Is the military calling them that now? They should move to Voldemorts., though witnesses said at least 39 were innocent bunnies and civilians.
The violence on Sunday occurred a day after Iraq voted on -- and apparently passed -- a landmark constitution that many Sunnis opposed. On referendum day, a roadside bomb killed five U.S. soldiers iin a vehicle in the Al-Bu Ubaid village on the eastern outskirts of Ramadi.
On Sunday, a group of around two dozen Iraqis gathered around the wreckage of the U.S. vehicle and were hit by the airstrikes by U.S. warplanes, both the military and witnesses said. I know if I were an innocent civilian who had been in Iraq the last two years, the first thing I would do when I saw an American vehicle hit would be to run over and rubberneck.
The military said in a statement that the crowd was setting another roadside bomb in the location of the blast that killed the Americans. F-15 warplanes hit them with a precision-guided bomb, killing around 20 people, described by the statement as "terrorists." Did the statement use quote marks?
But several witnesses and one local leader said the people were civilians who had gathered to gawk at the wreckage of the U.S. vehicle or pick pieces off of it -- as often occurs after an American vehicle is hit.
The airstrike hit the crowd, killing 25 people, said Chiad Saad, a tribal leader, and several witnesses who refused to give their names fearing
The other deaths occured in the village of Al-Bu Faraj. The military said a group of gunmen opened fire on a Cobra attack helicopter that had spotted their position. The Cobra returned fire, killing around 10. The men ran into a nearby house, where gunmen were seen unloading weapons. An F/A-18 warplane struck the building with a bomb, killing 40 insurgents, the military said.
Witnesses said at least 14 of the dead were civilians. First, one man was wounded in an airstrike, and when he was brought into a nearby building, warplanes struck the building, said the witnesses, refusing to give their names for concern about their safety.
Ramadi, 70 miles west of Baghdad, is a stronghold for Sunni insurgents, and few people cast ballots there during Saturday's referendum -- either out of fear of militants' reprisals or out of rejection of the new constitution.
A U.S. Marine was also killed by a bomb Saturday in the town of Saqlawiyah, 45 miles west of Baghdad, the military said. The weekend's U.S. military fatalities brought to at least 1,976 the number of U.S. service members who have died since the war began in 2003, according to an Associated Press count.
#2
The men ran into a nearby house, where gunmen were seen unloading weapons. An F/A-18 warplane struck the building with a bomb, killing 40 insurgents, the military said.
Witnesses said at least 14 of the dead were civilians.
The press needs a short lesson in the facts of war: When an unlawful combatant hides behind civilians, the deaths of those civilians is HIS FAULT.
Posted by: Robert Crawford ||
10/17/2005 8:49 Comments ||
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While conducting a combat air patrol, crewmembers from an F -15 observed 20 men arrive in four vehicles at the crater site of a previously-detonated IED which had killed five U.S. and two Iraqi Soldiers on Oct. 15. The terrorists were in the process of emplacing another IED in the same spot when the F- 15 engaged them with a precision-guided bomb, resulting in the death of terrorists on the ground.
At approximately 7:30 p.m., a UH-1N Huey and AH-1W Cobra helicopter team on patrol north of Ramadi had been observing a group of military age males gathered at a suspected terrorist safe house. After realizing their position had been compromised, the terrorists fled the scene and engaged the Cobra with small arms fire. The Cobra returned fire with 20 mm. munitions, resulting in the death of an estimated 10 terrorists. At approximately 7:50 p.m., a team of F/A-18âs resumed observation at the suspected safe house where they found an additional 35-40 terrorists loading their vehicles with weapons and driving to another location to unload the weapons. The F/A-18 targeted the terrorists with a precision-guided bomb, killing terrorists on the ground. The combined strikes resulted in approximately 50 terrorists killed.
#4
bout time, I always wondered why they let the Terrorist dance around our burning vechles for the cameras. If you are praising and showing out were a US vehicle is destroyed you are a enemy or at the least a enemy supporter. period. I am still waiting for another thing I have been wanting to see that is carpet bombings of those freeken enemy protest were they burn flags march dressed in suicide belts ect...anyone at those protest are eiter enemy enemy supporters or maybe some of our spys gathering intel (they could be advised to miss a day), when those can be bombed it will be a good day for us and bad for our enemy.
a team of F/A-18âs resumed observation at the suspected safe house where they found an additional 35-40 terrorists
At what altitude do these F/A surreptitiously conduct observation so that they can count up to 35-40 terrorists loading vehicles? Could there be another source of intelligence we do not wish to disclose?
#6
At what altitude do these F/A surreptitiously conduct observation so that they can count up to 35-40 terrorists loading vehicles? Could there be another source of intelligence we do not wish to disclose?
As I recall, there's a camera pod on those planes that's simply stunning.
Posted by: Robert Crawford ||
10/17/2005 9:53 Comments ||
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#7
With real time cockpit display? I'm going to start being more careful when I load the pickup.
#8
The F/A-18âs are probably using ATFLIRs with a unclassified range of over 45 miles (probably for a tank sized target) and well out of range for someone to see or hear the aircraft. The F-15s would be using the older LANTIRN pods.
Posted by: ed ||
10/17/2005 10:04 Comments ||
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#9
From Strategy Page: The call for F-18s to scan the ground below is all because of the new Advanced Targeting Forward-Looking Infrared (ATFLIR). This $1.2 million device, which is considered about five times more effective than earlier models, can clearly see people on the ground from 40 kilometers away, and 6-7 kilometers up. Pilots can see people with guns hiding on roofs, or behind buildings, waiting to ambush approaching coalition or Iraqi troops or convoys. Magnification at night is 30 times, and 60 times during the day. But at night, the ATFLIR gets sharper images because it is sensing differences in heat below. Things cool off rapidly in Iraq after the sun goes down, everything except the few people running around at night.
Posted by: Steve ||
10/17/2005 10:45 Comments ||
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#10
Now, if I saw a Cobra flying by, I'm pretty sure I wouldn't fire on it. But I don't have a death wish.
#15
Time to reintroduce napalm to the battle plan, and use it for car swarms and other "insurgency" gatherings. Screw the Geneva Convention, primarily introduced to defang the US and Britain in the first place. After using it in Vietnam Iraq, we should pump a few million gallons into the UN and light it off there.
Posted by: Old Patriot ||
10/17/2005 14:38 Comments ||
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#16
Like WhiteCollarRedneck said -
"After realizing their position had been compromised, the terrorists fled the scene and engaged the Cobra with small arms fire."
#17
But I heard on CNN that these were in fact just crippled children trying help stray puppies find their way home. They were just loading the puppies in the pickup of a man who was on his way to place flowers on his Mother's grave, but stopped to help because he is (or was) a member of the "Religion of Peace"!
#18
Seems to me whenever there's an effective airstrike the press always is able to find a witness who testifies that most of the victims were women, children and handicapped orphans.
#20
My only question: Did the jahadis splat, bounce, or thud?
Posted by: Captain America ||
10/17/2005 17:11 Comments ||
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#21
Cap, some went splat, some bounced and some thudded, and some did a combination of these.
Posted by: Ol Dirty American ||
10/17/2005 17:41 Comments ||
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#22
The losers whacked by the Cobra with the 20mm chain gun went 'splat' for sure.
Anybody got a link to the video of the jihadis caught dropping an RPG launcher in the field by a hovering Cobra? It's pretty messy, even through a night vision sight.
#26
The BBC is claiming it mass murder and they were all, of course, innocent. Not one jurno understands the tech which allows those pilots to be certain they are engaging foes. They are still stuck reporting war as if it was 1950. That is to say "stuck on stupid."
#27
Spot-on, SPo'D. Effectively, the modern battlefield has been utterly ceded to the US - and we are working very hard to push the edges in every way possible. One of the real surprises, to me, anyway, in that long UK MoD document posted here not long ago, regards the UK's dumping military interoperability with the US in favor of the EU Rapid Vacation Farce, was that they were, basically, Luddites when it came to C&C & battlefield info systems / communications. And they field the only credible force in Europe.
So where is everyone else?
My guesses, in order of sophistication, and the "decade" that seems to best fit their regular (deployable now) conventional force capabilities...
UK: 90s
Israel: 90s
Other Europeans: 90s, but irrelevant - numbers & will missing
Russia: 80s (same problems as circa Afghanistan, methinks)
China: 80s, maybe 70s
PackiWakis: 70s
Iran: 70s
The MSM: Heh, too easy - Vietnam, of course, so 60s
Jihadis: 50s + 7th century
U.S. warplanes and helicopters bombed two villages near the restive city of Ramadi, killing an estimated 70 militants, the military said Monday, though witnesses said at least 39 of the dead were civilians.
"Women, children, sweet old granny ladies who used to make cookies, puppies, kittens, fluffy bunnies and baby ducks... Oh, the carnage! Oh, the humanity!"
On referendum day, a roadside bomb killed five U.S. soldiers in a vehicle in the Al-Bu Ubaid village on the eastern outskirts of Ramadi. On Sunday, a group of about two dozen Iraqis gathered around the wreckage.
"Hey, Mahmoud! Y'wanna go dance on the wreckage?"
They were hit by U.S. airstrikes, the military and witnesses said.
"Hey! No fair!"
The military said in a statement that the crowd was setting another roadside bomb
"Huh huh! This is gonna be soooo neat!"
when F-15 warplanes hit them, killing around 20 people,
"Aaaaaiiiieeee!"
described by the military as "terrorists."
That was before they got dumped on. Now they're described as "dead guys."
But several witnesses and one local leader said they were civilians who had gathered to gawk at and take pieces of the wreckage, as often occurs after an American vehicle is hit.
It won't occur as often in the future, of course...
#6
a nice FAE drop would send the eyepiece of the videocam through the back of the "filmmaker's" head
Posted by: Frank G ||
10/17/2005 8:51 Comments ||
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#7
I could care less whether they were planting a bomb or just gawking. This lesson should have been taught a long time ago. I hope this is a new policy.
While we are on the topic of roadside attacks, there is another issue that usually goes without comment, save for a few remarks by Lt. Col. Ralph Peters (U.S. ARMY retired) on FOXâs âThe OâReilly Factorâ last month: The ghoulish celebrants that gather at the site of practically every wrecked Coalition (re: U.S.) vehicle must be punished. In the Middle East, perception is everything. And scenes of heavily-armed Iraqis hamming it up for the cameras while American vehicles (and on some occasions, bodies) burn only serve to goad would-be Jihadis and insurgents alike. These images convey American weakness and embolden the enemy. From the outset we should have made it clear in Arabic-worded leaflets, radio and televised broadcasts, and posted-signs that any persons seen celebrating at the scene of any damaged or destroyed Coalition vehicle would be considered hostile and dealt with in a most pitiless and ruthless manner. Whether its Hellfire missiles, .50 caliber rounds, time-on-target mortar or artillery fire, M1A1 tank fire, Bradley 25 mm cannon fire, or 5.56 small-arms fire, these miscreants should be mowed down without mercy. If you are going to gloat over American deaths, do it in the privacy of your miserable hovel. It is particularly galling to watch Iraqi barbarians brandishing AK-47s and R.P.G.s dancing, singing, and shouting Islamist victory slogans with complete impunity. War is Hell, so why not make it so for your enemies? I have yet to read or hear a single compelling argument against this proposal. Spare me the nonsense about it âgenerating more enemiesâ or âinciting more hatredâ; I saw plenty of hatred on September 11, 2001 when not a single American soldier was inside Iraq. This admittedly SS-style harsh policyâs payoff comes in the form of fear and respect, and yes, scores, perhaps hundreds of dead insurgents. A few clear messages get etched in stone: âYou dance, you dieâ and âyou mess with us, you die.â Think these are the ravings of an armchair general? Think again. No less than Walter Russell Mead and John Lewis Gaddis expressed similar sentiments. Writing in the Weekly Standard, Adam Wolfson noted justifications for the Iraq War in his review of several post-9-11 books:
âAnd still yet another rationale was that of ending a brutal and sadistic tyranny and spreading democracy throughout the Middle East. These were all acceptable reasons for war, but largely left out was the vital argument that, as Mead writes, âthe United States needed to make a powerful statement to its enemies in the Middle East. . . . This was a war, and the enemy had to learn who was the strongest and, if it came to that, the most ruthless.â In partial agreement with Mead, Gaddis comments that a deeper purpose served by the Iraq war (like the earlier Afghanistan campaign) was, possibly, âthe psychological value of victory--of defeating an adversary sufficiently thoroughly that you shatter the confidence of others, so that they'll roll over themselves before you have to roll over them.ââ
Right now, with each and every unpunished post-IED attack celebration, the insurgents, Jihadis, and Al-Sadr-inspired scum roll over themselves in laughter.
#11
Burning Car Dancers Explode
Glenmore..kool headline.
This admittedly SS-style harsh policyâs payoff comes in the form of fear and respect, and yes, scores, perhaps hundreds of dead insurgents. A few clear messages get etched in stone:
"SS like" is a streach. If Coalition soldiers were to round up civilians in a town, and kill them as a reprisal for actions by terrorists near by, then it would pass for "SS like".
Posted by: Red Dog ||
10/17/2005 13:44 Comments ||
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#12
"SS like" is also a Stretch.
Posted by: Red Dog ||
10/17/2005 13:55 Comments ||
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#13
Red Dog:
You're right. It is a stretch and what I had in mind were the hyper-sensitive, super-caring, liberals who would be aghast at the suggestion that we make Jihadi dancers go KABOOM.
You see, you goota be gentle with these emotional types or they'll hit you with their latte cups.
#14
I don't call killing swarmers anything but practical. If they are partying it up, stop the party. They can't be on the side of Iraq if they are swarming. Send them to hell.
#15
As the local latte liberal, id say im of two minds about booming car dancers - well purely for car dancing (in this instance the Centcom says the dancers were planting another bomb, and I will take Centcoms word for it - which means we were attacking fighters engaged in an act of violence, not just gawkers)
I certainly think the point about not letting gawkers dance, etc is well made - its a propaganda thing. But OTOH in cases where we dont have reason to think they are planting another bomb, theres a potential backlash. I wonder if we could drop some kind of crowd control thingie, tear gas, or the lack - that serve to deter, without leaving us as open to charges related to deaths.
#22
If by "crowd control", you mean delivering the maximum number of Iraqi terrorists into the "control" of worms and maggots, I'm with you all of the way.
Think of this as a way to edumahcate Iraqis about the danger of remaining in an area where petrol tanks or live ammunition might cook off.
#1
With all the whinning and bitching the liberal front has been doing, we forget how quickly the Iraqis have progressed through their struggle for independence. How many years did it take for the United States to ratify our constitution? ANSWER:
From July 4, 1776 when we declared our independence, to the constitutions ratification completed, June 21, 1788. The Iraqis have done it in less than four years. My hat off to them.
#3
Of course we (and as an American I can use that pronoun, although my parents arrived on this continent in 1946 and 1958, respectively) had to hammer the whole thing out from first principles, whereas the Iraqis have the benefit of our experience. Nonetheless, a very promising step on the part of the entire country. This whole democracy thing seems to have caught on.
#4
Actually we got a few hints from the Greeks, Venetians, Dutch, English and Montesque. Oh, I almost forgot, the Iriquois Nation, too.
TW, none of that although stuff here. Like most immigrants, your parents were probably Americans before they got here. That's why they came instead of staying in whatever place they were fleeing. Being an American is as much a state of mind as a matter of geography. AFAIAC all who share it are welcome.
#5
Throgum Elmoluse7582, that's the wonderful thing about being American. Especially as, to tell the truth, neither of my parents intended to come here. Mama was brought by her parents (she turned 21 a month after landing in New York City) because they'd given up on Europe after the war. Daddy came here from Israel to teach biochemistry for a few years at Wisconsin University @ Madison, but accidentally found a new direction for his research (oncology) and a wife. Nonetheless, both became enthusiastic Americans, and acquired citizenship as soon as they were able. In fact, Daddy was aghast that Mr. Wife would move us to Germany. "Why would you want to live anywhere else? Don't you know that America is the best place in the world to live??" quoth he.
Given what might have been, I am truly appreciative of my luck having been born an American. I suppose I should be glad Rachel Carson's book came out when it did, preventing Daddy from taking the profits on his DDT-enhancement patent back to Israel as he originally planned (there to have it taxed out of existence under the Socialist governments they had for four decades).
Daddy is still annoyed with RCarson -- he only profitted for one year. And Aedes egypti and her sisters have been flourishing ever since. I have the bites to prove it, darn it!
The Web site run by al-Qaida in Iraq was strangely quiet during the referendum on the new Iraqi constitution. There were no threats against voters, no boasts of disrupting the vote. And now we know one reason why. A top propaganda agent for al-Qaida in Iraq, known as Abu Dijana, was captured shortly before the vote. Abu Dijana was responsible for much of what has appeared on the Web site called "al-Qaida in Iraq," including provocative videos of suicide bombings and crucial communications to al-Qaida fighters.
Here is how the al-Qaida Web site works: On any given day in Baghdad, Baquba, or any of a dozen cities, a suicide car bomb explodes. The target is an American convoy, local Iraqi police or perhaps civilians exiting a mosque. Within minutes, a report is sent out by news services like The Associated Press and MSNBC.com. But, the news also circulates on a fascinating and, some would say, disturbing Web site operated by al-Qaida. The "al-Qaida in Iraq" Web site immediately takes "credit" for the bombing. In one typical case, just three hours after an attack, the site showed video of a man identified as the suicide bomber Abu Musab al-Iraqi, who says, "I have dreamed about this moment. I am sure if my family is watching this they will be more proud of me." Musab's words are followed by a video of a car he is said to be driving, blowing up in the midst of an American convoy. The incident is replayed again and again with more of Musab's speech superimposed over the ball of flames and smoke rising above the U.S. convoy. "Thank God this day I went to kill many crusaders." His declaration ends, "Today I will be in heaven."
Among propagandist Abu Dijana's responsibilities, say his American captors, was to gather information of impending attacks and provide equipment to his cell members to record attacks. Afterward, Dijana collected the photographs and video for distribution through the "al-Qaida in Iraq" Web site. The images, also distributed to local newspapers, are meant to intimidate Iraqi citizens and security forces, according to a statement released by the American military command.
The Web presentations could also be meant to inspire more young men to sacrifice their lives for al-Qaida's cause. Videos show upbeat smiling young men deciding who among them will be the next suicide bomber. The atmosphere is more akin to deciding who gets tickets to the weekend's big football game. The "al-Qaida in Iraq" site claims there is a backlog of 12,000 such volunteers, in what it calls a âsuicide brigade.â
In the unique environment of the Iraq war, the Web serves also as a vital communications link for an organization paranoid about using telephones or meeting in large numbers for training. That's why the "al-Qaida in Iraq" site, available to members only, features highly detailed tutorials on bomb-making, strategy for assassinations, and even a workshop on hacking into secret American government Web sites. The Web site claims it has 4,000 members. For reasons of security, each new member of the site must be approved by a committee of existing members. "It's full of intelligence information and the enemy might use it against us," one member said.
With as many as 1,500 members logging on in a single day, the Web site is also an effective security tool for al-Qaida. When its operatives get word of an impending U.S. raid, it puts out flash security warnings to fighters who might be targets. Ironically, propaganda chief Dijana was caught in just such a raid, one of a series which recently captured or killed more than a dozen key aides of Iraq's top terrorist, Abu Musab al- Zarqawi.
The Web siteâs home page features pictures of Zarqawi and Osama bin Laden. It still brags about bin Laden's biggest operation, saying "he leads us with the power of faith. With commercial planes we turned America into hell." The Web site also publishes detailed analyses of the sometime cryptic statements released by the two al-Qaida leaders.
Several other Web sites operated by local Iraqi insurgents are open to the public. They are primarily propaganda tools in the battle for the hearts and minds of the Iraqi population. Unlike al-Qaida, which justifies its war as a defense of the religion of Islam against western infidels, most local insurgents use Web sites to appeal to political and nationalist sentiments, arguing the new Iraqi government is allowing outsiders to dictate the future of the nation.
The "Albasrah" Web site, for example, is sympathetic to insurgents who are former members of Saddam Hussein's Baathist regime. They praised as "patriotic" the March 2005 assassination of Azzad Ahmed, one of the judges on the tribunal that will try Saddam for war crimes, genocide and crimes against humanity, beginning this week. Depending on a Web surfer's point of view, these Web sites could be called the tools of âfreedom fightersâ or âterrorists.â But, it is safe to say that most Iraqis who log on to the publicly available sites support the insurgency. And some are likely active in the fight. All of which raises the interesting and secretive prospect that American security experts are monitoring and hacking these Web sites to gather up both information and members of the insurgency and their supporters. That might explain why one of the top propaganda operatives of "al-Qaida in Iraq" was caught by the Americans and why his Web site was so quiet during the referendum.
Posted by: Dan Darling ||
10/17/2005 01:33 ||
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#1
What? You mean there's no WiFi in Abu Grahib prison? Why, that's a human rights violation! Quick, call the UN!
/sarcasam
Posted by: Mike ||
10/17/2005 6:05 Comments ||
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#4
Can't one of you computer guys put a trojan on these guys? We'll take their credit card numbers and go to the strip club, have a keg party, mail 10,000 bibles to Saudi Arabia, ect.
US forces here said Sunday they arrested a leading Al-Qaeda member during an opeation in Karabla near the Iraqi-Syrian borders last month. The US army said in a statement it arrested Yasser Khodhr Mohammad Jassem Kerboli, nick-named Abu Dejana, who is responsible for propaganda for Al-Qaeda in western Iraq. Abu Dejana was leading a cell responsible for filming and taking photos of military operations against civilians and security forces in western Iraq, namely in Haditha, Hassiba and Karabla. There are close contacts between Abu Dejana and Al-Qaeda leaders in Iraq, said the statement. It added that the arrestee knew in advance about many Al-Qaeda operations.
#1
It added that the arrestee knew in advance about many Al-Qaeda operations.
And this lucky contestant has won a fully paid fun vacation in Gitmo, the super inclusive Carrib resort just in time for the fall celebrations and games, with free legal representation by the ACLU.
#2
Or maybe he is one of the very few who get to ride the Ghost Plane, rumored to land only on a desert island in the midst of one of the oceans, whose passengers are never seen or heard from again.
#3
Or maybe he is one of the very few who get to ride the Ghost Plane, rumored to land only on a desert island in the midst of one of the oceans, whose passengers are never seen or heard from again.
Young lady, you must be refering to Fantasy island..or as we say in the trade..Goat Island.
#6
Nope. There really is (or used to be, earlier in the Iraq War) a so-called Ghost Plane for the really truly evilest, most knowledgeable captives. They were put onto this airplane by the military (or perhaps the CIA?), sent off for questioning, and never seen or heard from again. Having them learn to fly at 35,000 feet (or whatever) is not commensurate with getting information out of such people... in my amateur opinion.
#9
tw - Sorry - I thought the flying lessons, sans parachute, would make the point. You need 2 or 3 people from the opposition: 1 who has the info (you believe) and 1 or 2 others to convince him you really want to know what he knows.
Israel suspended contacts with the Palestinian Authority on Monday and slapped tough travel restrictions on the West Bank after Palestinian terrorists gunmen killed three young Israelis and wounded five in two drive-by shootings near Jewish settlements. The attack near the Gush Etzion block of settlements on Sunday was the deadliest since July. It followed Israeli intelligence warnings that Palestinian terrorists militants, who claim they drove Israel out of Gaza by force, would now shift their focus to the West Bank. Israel pulled out of Gaza in September in a unilateral move.
The Al Aqsa Martyrs' Brigades, a terrorist militant group with ties to the ruling Fatah party, claimed responsibility. However, security officials said they believed the Islamic terrorists militants Hamas might have been involved. The attacks renew international pressure on Palestinian leader Mahmoud Abbas, who meets with President Bush later this week, to crack down on terrorists militants, something he's been reluctant to do. Involvement of terrorists gunmen with ties to Fatah in Sunday's attacks would underscore his failure to impose control.
Palestinian negotiator Saeb Erekat called the shootings "unfortunate that they killed so few jooos" and accused the terrorists gunmen of trying to sabotage efforts to revive peace talks. He urged Israel to reconsider the travel restrictions and suspension of contacts, saying "angry messages, collective punishment and violence will just add to the complexities of killing joooos." Erekat said Israeli negotiators failed to show up for a meeting Sunday evening on the reopening of the Rafah terminal on the Gaza-Egypt border. The opening of the crossing is crucial, along with a miracle for the economic recovery of Gaza.
Israeli Foreign Ministry spokesman Mark Regev initially said all contacts with the Palestinian Authority had been halted, but later said this applied only to committees on specific issues, such as prisoner releases, security and customs at border crossings. "In Israel, we have no desire to return to a reality of daily attacks against Israeli civilians," Regev said. "We want to send a very strong and sharp message to the Palestinians, and the temporary suspension of talks is that message."
Israel also responded with tough new measures limiting movement in the West Bank, security officials said, adding that the restrictions would be in place for a long time. The West Bank towns of Hebron and Bethlehem, closest to the Gush Etzion attack, were sealed, and private Palestinian-owned cars were barred from the West Bank's main north-south road.
Security officials said Israel is planning to impose permanent traffic separation in the West Bank, with Israeli motorists using main highways and Palestinians largely forced to explode drive on back roads. Arrest raids will be stepped up, security officials said. In the past month, Israel has rounded up some 700 terrorists activists in Hamas and Islamic Jihad, disrupting Hamas' preparations for Jan. 25 parliament elections. Overnight, soldiers arrested 19 wanted Palestinians in the West Bank, the army said.
The decisions to restrict movement in the West Bank were made at high-level consultations led by Defense Minister Shaul Mofaz. They reversed a relaxing of restrictions gradually implemented since a February cease-fire. The limitations, in place for most of the past five years of fighting, crippled the Palestinian economy and caused widespread hardships. And money skimmed off by Arafat had nothing to do with it.
Israel has demanded the Palestinians dismantle terrorist militant groups if it wants to restart peace talks. "The Palestinian Authority has to move from the talking stage to the action stage," Mofaz said. "We will not be able to continue in this process if the Palestinian Authority does not start taking concrete actions against the terror groups."
In the first attack, terrorists militants racing by the Gush Etzion junction in a car opened fire at Israelis waiting at a bus stop and at others in nearby cars. Israeli rescue services said one Israeli died at the scene and two others died in the hospital. Two were young women, cousins ages 23 and 21, from a nearby settlement, and the other was a 15-year-old boy. Four Israelis were wounded. On Monday, hundreds of settlers built a makeshift memorial at the spot by piling up stones and affixing Israeli flags. Shmuel Jeselshon, 37, from the nearby Rosh Tzurim settlement, said the Gaza withdrawal has encouraged Palestinian terrorists militants. "Under pressure, we left Lebanon. Under pressure, we left Gaza. And they (the terrorists militants) think that under pressure we will leave here. That's a mistake."
The second attack took place near the settlement of Eli in the northern area of the West Bank. Rescue services said one Israeli was seriously wounded.
Also Sunday, Israeli troops killed an Islamic Jihad terrorist militant in the northern West Bank.
#1
If the Isrealis just forcfully expelled the Paleo's out of a brorder town with Isreal proper in responce with a statement that every attack will equal more loss of territory cosiquences are a bitch. A small town to start with but as the attacks continue step it up to larger and larger solidify the border along the disputed areas. At some point the Paleo's would either get the point and quit or thier would be no more left in the W bank. How things are currently going why should the Paleo's quit attacking the Isrealis, they have given them S. Lebanon, Gaza, A a paper Paleo State, a regular army cough state terrorist, huge amounts of EU economic aid and recognition, damm if it was you would you stop? I would be stepping it up.
#4
Palestinian negotiator Saeb Erekat called the shootings "unfortunate" and accused the gunmen of trying to sabotage efforts to revive peace talks. He urged Israel to reconsider the travel restrictions and suspension of contacts, saying "angry messages, collective punishment and violence will just add to the complexities."
#6
Ptah, it took me a long time to get to the place you were in 2003. But after reading your linked post, I shall engrave "No Peace, No Land" in gold upon my heart.
#7
With the handover completed, all further attacks should result in slight but increasing deviations in how far remaining sections of the wall encroach upon Palestinian terrortories. For each attack, another acre of land is taken. For each death, ten acres are absorbed.
Perhaps, when the Palestinians have lost all the land they gained they will begin to reconsider the wisdom of their perfidy. If the fence is completed and the attacks continue, then it is time to begin securing Jerusalem one block at a time.
The only thing held precious by the Palestinians is their land. Take it from them and may they rot in everlasting hell.
#8
With the handover completed, all further attacks should result in slight but increasing deviations in how far remaining sections of the wall encroach upon Palestinian terrortories. For each attack, another acre of land is taken. For each death, ten acres are absorbed.
Perhaps, when the Palestinians have lost all the land they gained they will begin to reconsider the wisdom of their perfidy. If the fence is completed and the attacks continue, then it is time to begin securing Jerusalem one block at a time.
The only thing held precious by the Palestinians is their land. Take it from them and may they rot in everlasting hell.
The Israeli occupation army has sealed off a Palestinian village and arrested six Palestinians in West Bank raids. Israeli forces on Sunday imposed a curfew on the Palestinian village of Kufr Kalil south of the West Bank city of Nablus, and no one was allowed to enter or leave, Aljazeera's correspondent in the West Bank reported. Israeli forces surrounded a house in the village, searching for suspected activists of the al-Aqsa Martyrs Brigades, the correspondent said. Majdi Amir, an alleged local commander of the Brigades, was captured during the operation, according to Palestinian and Israeli security sources.
Palestinian village of Kufr Kalil???
Also on Sunday, the Israeli army detained five members of the Palestinian resistance movement Hamas in the southern West Bank. The Hamas activists were detained in the village of Dahariya, close to the city of Hebron, an army spokesman said.
Posted by: Fred ||
10/17/2005 00:00 ||
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Three soldiers and an undetermined number of communist rebels were killed in separate clashes in the southern and central Philippines on Saturday, officials said yesterday. Troops clashed with the New Peopleâs Army (NPA) guerrillas late Saturday afternoon in Singalat village in Calamba, Misamis Occidental, killing a still undetermined number of insurgents, said Maj. Gen. Gabriel Habacon, commander of the Philippine Armyâs 1st Infantry Division. He said the soldiers pounced on rebels in their lair following a tip-off by villagers. He said there were no casualties on the military side. âWe still cannot say how many insurgents were killed and wounded, but troops are pursuing those who escaped.
In Cebu province in central Philippines, rebels swooped down on an army detachment near the hinterland village of Sumon in the town of Tuburan late Saturday and killed three soldiers, police said. Military spokesman Col. Tristan Kison said about 30 guerrillas mingled with a crowd in a public market in the village, then walked slowly toward an army detachment before opening fire, killing three of four soldiers. They fled with eight assault rifles from the detachment and were being pursued by army troops, the spokesman said. Eight other soldiers left the detachment hours before the attack to hold regular security consultations with residents of another village, Kison said. The place of attack was about 96 kilometers northwest of Cebu City, police said. The military blamed NPA leader Roy Erecre for the attack. It said the soldiers were involved in humanitarian missions in Tuburan town.
Posted by: Fred ||
10/17/2005 00:00 ||
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Damascus, 17 Oct. (AKI) - Syria's State Security tribunal has sentenced two men belonging to the country's Kurdish minority to two years in jail each for belonging to a banned organisation and promoting secessionist policies. Idris Muhammad and Mustafa Khalaf were found guilty of belonging to the the Kurdish Democratic Opposition Union and of plotting the breakaway of part of Syria from the rest of the country.
The wake of the sentencings, the watchdog group Syrian Organisation for Human Rights, denounced the arrest last week of another Kurdish activist, Adnan Bashir Rasul, a member of the Kurdish Democratic Alliance in Syria, demanding his release. The Kurdish Democratic Opposition Union says some 150 of its members are being held in Syrian jails, many of them still awaiting trial. The Union, which used to be the Syrian branch of the mostly Turkey-based Kurdish Workers' Party (PKK), was banned in 1999 by authorities in Damascus after PKK leader Abdallah Ochalan was arrested by Turkish security forces in Kenya.
Posted by: Steve ||
10/17/2005 10:45 ||
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Kurdish jailbreak when the US crosses the border?
PARIS (AP) - Police arrested a former Syrian intelligence officer who is considered an important witness in a U.N. investigation of the assassination of former Lebanese Prime Minister Rafik Hariri, officials said Monday. Mohammed Zuhair Al-Siddiq was taken into custody Sunday in the Paris area by France's DST counterintelligence service, police said. He was the subject of an international arrest warrant and is expected to be extradited, the officials said. The arrest warrant, issued by Lebanese Magistrate Elias Eid, accused Al-Siddiq of giving false testimony and misleading the U.N. investigation, judicial officials in Lebanon said.
Al-Siddiq has been billed by Arab media as being a leading witness in the inquiry by chief U.N. investigator Detlev Mehlis of Hariri's Feb. 14 killing. Lebanese Minister of Youth and Sports Ahmed Fatfat, a close Hariri ally, said Al-Siddiq's testimony was inaccurate "perhaps because he wanted it this way, either for personal interest or perhaps because he was planted to mislead the investigation." "It will all show in court," he told Voice of Lebanon radio, after being asked about the arrest. Beirut newspaper Al-Mustaqbal went further, alleging that Al-Siddiq was an accomplice in the planning and execution of the bombing that killed Hariri. The newspaper is owned by the Hariri family.
The Syrians have sought to discredit 45-year-old Al-Siddiq as being a wanted man at home for fleeing his military service and for fraud, according to media reports.
Better put him on "suicide watch", if you get my drift
Hariri and 20 others were killed by a bomb that blew up his motorcade in central Beirut. The killing touched off a groundswell of protest in Lebanon and internationally, forcing Syria to withdraw all of its thousands of troops in Lebanon and end nearly three decades of domination of its tiny neighbor. The Mehlis team has named four Lebanese generals, all close to Syria, as suspects in the assassination. Lebanon has arrested them. Last week, one of seven Syrian officials who was questioned by the investigation, Interior Minister Ghazi Kenaan, was wacked committed suicide.
Posted by: Steve ||
10/17/2005 09:10 ||
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Lebanese Minister of Youth and Sports Ahmed Fatfat
Top Iranian officials said Sunday they suspected British involvement in a double-bomb attack in the ethnic-Arab dominated city of Ahvaz, despite furious denials and condemnation of the attacks from London. Two bombs exploded outside a crowded market late Saturday in Ahvaz, capital of the oil-rich Khuzestan province adjacent to British-occupied southern Iraq. Five people were killed and more than 100 injured, according to the latest official toll. "Since there are British troops present alongside our border, there is a concern over their involvement in the explosions in Ahvaz," Aalaeddine Borujerdi, the head of the Iranian Parliament's foreign policy commission, told the student news agency ISNA. "We have information on their previous involvement in the unrest in Khuzestan," he was quoted as saying, even though the British Embassy in Tehran had swiftly condemned the attacks and denied any involvement.
"The explosions in Ahvaz had a British accent," the head of Iran's Basij volunteer militia, Brigadier General Mohammad Hejazi, was quoted as saying by ISNA. "It's a conspiracy," Hejazi alleged.
Iran's Interior Minister Mustafa Pour-Mohammadi also told ISNA that "usually this kind of insecurity comes from the other side of the border and is guided from there."
And Deputy Interior Minister Mohammad Hussein Mousapour told the Mehr news agency that "most probably those involved in the explosion were British agents who were involved in the previous incidents in Ahvaz and Khuzestan."
The blasts occurred shortly before dusk when shoppers crowd commercial areas to buy food for iftar - or the breaking of the daily fast during the Muslim holy month of Ramadan. The province has been hit by a wave of unrest this year, including riots in April and a series of car bombings prior to Iran's presidential elections in June. Iranian hard-liners have already alleged a British link to the simmering unrest.
Posted by: Fred ||
10/17/2005 00:00 ||
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#1
Liam is a car-bomb specialist and Trevor handles the recruitment, funding, and propaganda videos.
Posted by: John in Tokyo ||
10/17/2005 3:55 Comments ||
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#4
Makes perfect sense if you're a little paranoid or have the ability to score PR points with the home crowd on the basis of spoon fed nonesensical BS. But hey, hypnotizing chickens is a virtue in some places. Add this to the Anglican apology list please. So sorry that about you being nutters and all mullah muhsta-boom.
#9
I really doubt a western intell service would be taking the risk involved in something like this (like undermining the whole WOT) for the sake of a minor explosion in a minority province on the periphery of Iran. I mean really. If the US or Brits really have a network in Iran, there are many much more valuable things they could be doing, Im sure.
At least four people were killed and some 70 injured in two bombs that rocked Iranian southwestern city of Ahvaz Saturday, Al-Alam satellite news channel reported. It quoted the city's governor as saying the blasts, five minutes apart, were caused by bombs placed in a garbage container in a market in Ahvaz, in Khuzestan province. The province is near the Iraqi borders. No organization claimed responsibility for the attacks.
Some 21 people are reported to have been killed after a group of Somali migrants on board a boat in the Gulf of Aden rebelled against the people smugglers who were transporting them. According to the Qatari news agency around 50 immigrants were on board the craft, seeking to reach the Gulf countries. When the traffickers tried to force their 'human cargo' overboard, to avoid being intercepted by the Yemeni coast guard, the passengers refused, given the distance from the shore, and the smugglers opened fire. Despite being unarmed, the immigrants managed to gain possession of some of the smugglers' weapons and in the ensuing battle 21 people - six crew and 15 migrants - were killed.
Here's hoping the "smugglers" died slowly and painfully
Last month at least 45 Somalis and Ethiopians died at sea while crossing the Gulf of Aden in an attempt to reach Yemen aboard smugglers' boats from Somalia. "People are drowning not because they have been denied access to protection or to the territory of Yemen, or because they fear interception at sea, but because they are desperate and at the mercy of ruthless smugglers," commented Ron Redmond, spokesman for the UN High Commissioner for Refugees, in Geneva. Redmond said that four boats, carrying up to 400 Africans, had sailed from Bossasso, in north-eastern Somalia. Off the Yemeni coast, survivors said they were told to jump into the sea and swim to the shore.
Every year, thousands of Somalis and Ethiopians fleeing poverty and, in Somalia's case, insecurity, including desperate refugees trying to escape persecution and violence, fall prey to unscrupulous traffickers in the hope of reaching Yemen, from where many seek to make their way into Europe.
Posted by: Steve ||
10/17/2005 10:49 ||
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shark's gotta work hard to get fll eating Somalis and Ethiopean smugglers
Posted by: Frank G ||
10/17/2005 20:39 Comments ||
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Afghanistanâs election authority announced final results for two of the countryâs 34 provinces yesterday as hundreds of protesters blocked roads in two key cities alleging fraud in the count. Results from the Sept. 18 legislative elections had been finalized for Nimroz and Farah provinces, an official said, with others expected to be completed by the monthâs end. The results confirmed a seat in the new Parliament for firebrand activist Malalai Joya, from Farah, who rose to prominence in conservative Afghanistan when she dared to criticize a feared warlord in a public meeting two years ago.
The elections for the Parliament and provincial councils were the first in the battered country in more than three decades and a key step in a transition to democracy mapped out after the hard-line Taleban regime was removed in late 2001. Joint Election Management Body (JEMB) chief of operations Richard Atwood told reporters the count had taken longer than anticipated mainly because of the time it took to investigate allegations of fraud. Most allegations could not be substantiated and the fraud that had been uncovered was not systematic or widespread, he said.
Nonetheless votes from about 680 polling stations, under three percent of the total, had been excluded from the count because of irregularities such as ballot stuffing, he said. About 50 of the hundreds of thousands of elections staff had also been sacked after allegations were made against them. Many of the complaints were from some of the more than 5,700 candidates who were clearly not going to win any of the nearly 670 seats up for grabs.
Posted by: Fred ||
10/17/2005 00:00 ||
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A multi-volume chronology and reference guide set detailing three years of the Mexican Drug War between 2010 and 2012.
Rantburg.com and borderlandbeat.com correspondent and author Chris Covert presents his first non-fiction work detailing
the drug and gang related violence in Mexico.
Chris gives us Mexican press dispatches of drug and gang war violence
over three years, presented in a multi volume set intended to chronicle the death, violence and mayhem which has
dominated Mexico for six years.
Rantburg was assembled from recycled algorithms in the United States of America. No
trees were destroyed in the production of this weblog. We did hurt some, though. Sorry.
An Islamic leader and five other people detained for questioning in a bombing outside a nightclub in the Caribbean island of Trinidad were released on Sunday, police said. Friday's explosion was the fourth bombing in the capital Port-of-Spain in as many months. Ten people were injured in the latest explosion. Jamaat al-Muslimeen leader Yasin Abu Bakr, 63, and four teenagers spent 36 hours in police custody for questioning, Trinidad Police Commissioner Trevor Paul said. Another man detained near the scene of the blast was also released. "We have released them, but our investigations are ongoing," Paul said, declining to give further details.
Hundreds of black-clad, mostly elderly people gathered Sunday outside the prosecutors' office in the southern Russian city of Nalchik, demanding the release of the bodies of relatives killed during a raid by alleged Islamic extremists. Many feared they would never see their relatives' bodies. According to Russian law, terrorists' bodies are not returned to their families and some in the crowd alleged that their relatives had been unfairly identified as participants in the militant raid. "Give back the bodies of our children so that we can bury them," said a petition the crowd passed to prosecutors.
A lawyer for 
U.S. warplanes and helicopters bombed two villages near the restive city of Ramadi, killing an estimated 70 militants, the military said Monday, though witnesses said at least 39 of the dead were civilians. 
The Web site run by al-Qaida in Iraq was strangely quiet during the referendum on the new Iraqi constitution. There were no threats against voters, no boasts of disrupting the vote. And now we know one reason why. A top propaganda agent for 
US forces here said Sunday they arrested a leading Al-Qaeda member during an opeation in Karabla near the Iraqi-Syrian borders last month. The US army said in a statement it arrested 
The Israeli occupation army has sealed off a Palestinian village and arrested six Palestinians in West Bank raids. Israeli forces on Sunday imposed a curfew on the Palestinian village of Kufr Kalil south of the West Bank city of Nablus, and no one was allowed to enter or leave, Aljazeera's correspondent in the West Bank reported. Israeli forces surrounded a house in the village, searching for suspected activists of the al-Aqsa Martyrs Brigades, the correspondent said. Majdi Amir, an alleged local commander of the Brigades, was captured during the operation, according to Palestinian and Israeli security sources.
Three soldiers and an undetermined number of communist rebels were killed in separate clashes in the southern and central Philippines on Saturday, officials said yesterday. Troops clashed with the New Peopleâs Army (NPA) guerrillas late Saturday afternoon in Singalat village in Calamba, Misamis Occidental, killing a still undetermined number of insurgents, said Maj. Gen. Gabriel Habacon, commander of the Philippine Armyâs 1st Infantry Division. He said the soldiers pounced on rebels in their lair following a tip-off by villagers. He said there were no casualties on the military side. âWe still cannot say how many insurgents were killed and wounded, but troops are pursuing those who escaped. 
Top Iranian officials said Sunday they suspected British involvement in a double-bomb attack in the ethnic-Arab dominated city of Ahvaz, despite furious denials and condemnation of the attacks from London. Two bombs exploded outside a crowded market late Saturday in Ahvaz, capital of the oil-rich Khuzestan province adjacent to British-occupied southern Iraq. Five people were killed and more than 100 injured, according to the latest official toll. "Since there are British troops present alongside our border, there is a concern over their involvement in the explosions in Ahvaz," Aalaeddine Borujerdi, the head of the Iranian Parliament's foreign policy commission, told the student news agency ISNA. "We have information on their previous involvement in the unrest in Khuzestan," he was quoted as saying, even though the British Embassy in Tehran had swiftly condemned the attacks and denied any involvement. 
At least four people were killed and some 70 injured in two bombs that rocked Iranian southwestern city of Ahvaz Saturday, Al-Alam satellite news channel reported. It quoted the city's governor as saying the blasts, five minutes apart, were caused by bombs placed in a garbage container in a market in Ahvaz, in Khuzestan province. The province is near the Iraqi borders. No organization claimed responsibility for the attacks.
Some 21 people are reported to have been killed after a group of Somali migrants on board a boat in the Gulf of Aden rebelled against the people smugglers who were transporting them. According to the Qatari news agency around 50 immigrants were on board the craft, seeking to reach the Gulf countries. When the traffickers tried to force their 'human cargo' overboard, to avoid being intercepted by the Yemeni coast guard, the passengers refused, given the distance from the shore, and the smugglers opened fire. Despite being unarmed, the immigrants managed to gain possession of some of the smugglers' weapons and in the ensuing battle 21 people - six crew and 15 migrants - were killed. 
Afghanistanâs election authority announced final results for two of the countryâs 34 provinces yesterday as hundreds of protesters blocked roads in two key cities alleging fraud in the count. Results from the Sept. 18 legislative elections had been finalized for Nimroz and Farah provinces, an official said, with others expected to be completed by the monthâs end. The results confirmed a seat in the new Parliament for firebrand activist 
