Three Canadian soldiers were injured when a bomb detonated under their vehicle in southern Afghanistan, in what a journalist who was riding with them described as a "complete disaster scene." Tim Albone, a reporter with Global Radio News, said they were travelling in a lightly armoured vehicle through a dry riverbed about 90 kilometres west of Kandahar midday Monday when the bomb exploded under a front tire.
Albone said he turned to look for the soldier who had been sitting in a 250-kilogram gun turret, but saw that both the man and the turret had been ripped out of the vehicle by the force of the blast. He said the bomb destroyed the vehicle's engine, hurled the hood about 150 metres, threw a front tire 500 metres and sent plumes of black smoke into the air. Victims treated each others' injuries while awaiting rescue.
He said military officials later told him that the quartet only survived because of the armour on the vehicle, which was one of the Mercedes-Benz Gelaendewagens (known as "G Wagons") recently purchased by the Canadian military. Albone said it took about 40 minutes for medical crews to reach them, in part because they feared more bombs could be hidden in the area. He said he lifted up the turret that was trapping the gunner on the ground.
Then they pulled the two other soldiers out of the wreckage, splinting up one man's leg with a basic first aid kit they found in the G wagon. Two soldiers suffered broken bones. Once help arrived, they were taken from the site near the town of Maywand to a U.S. military field hospital in Kandahar. The Canadian Department of National Defence said Monday that they were in stable condition. Colonel Steve Bowes told CBC News that one soldier had a broken leg and another had a broken ankle and foot. He said the third soldier escaped with minor injuries.
All of the soldiers are with the 3rd battalion, Princess Patricia's Canadian Light Infantry, which is based in Edmonton.
Albone said coalition troops had arrested two people who were seen tearing away from the scene of the bombing on a motorcycle. He said they had been handed over to Afghan troops. Neither Canadian nor Afghan officials have confirmed the arrests.
#2
To its credit, Canada *did* try to send a sub first, but...
All kidding aside, those soldiers should by all rights be dead from an explosion that big. The G-wagen seems to have protected them well. I like the part where they treated each others' injuries as they waited for help.
#3
Notice how quickly Albone reverts to law enforcement termiology? I was shocked not to see "alleged" in there somewhere. I liked the part where the "perps" were handed over to Afghan troops. I guess the Kabul Times isn't as picky about prisoner mistreatment.
And who was Princess Patricia? And how did she get her own brigade?
#4
"...coalition troops had arrested two people who were seen tearing away from the scene of the bombing on a motorcycle. He said they had been handed over to Afghan troops."
Uh, oh. Looks like the Canadians are guilty of rendition! Are they sure the prisoners' human rights will be protected?
Posted by: Osama bin Here ||
12/13/2005 12:23 Comments ||
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#5
Grinerong, actually she has her own regiment. They, the Princess Pats, are a famous regiment in Canada and received the US Prisidential Unit Citation in Korea which I understand is rare for the US to give to foreign armies. The regiment was named after a British princess during the start of the WW1.
Seafarious, we wanted to send a sub but we don't have the strategic lift capability to put it anywhere in Afghanistan.
Osama, we have been accused of rendition a few times. There was a picture in the papers worldwide attributed to US special forces taking some bad guys onto a plane. Then it was discovered that it was a picture of Canadian commandos (JTF2) and the shit hit the fan domestically.
I am working on a letter to the editor (which will never be published) pointing out that as much as we (the Canadian left wing) bitches about the US military, it was American pilots who risked going to our help and an American hospital that is fixing up our guys...If we are going to bitch about the Americans we should at least be able to rescue our own guys.
Border guards have arrested two Saudis â one a former prison employee and another a teacher â who were trying to cross the border into Iraq, a spokesman for the Ministry of Interior said yesterday. âThe arrest took place on Friday after security officers at Shiba sector noticed a car which crossed the border into Iraq,â the spokesman said. âThe border guards informed the Iraqi authorities and the Iraqis stopped the car which was carrying two Saudis.â
The spokesman went on, âDocuments carried by the two Saudis showed that one of them was working in the prisons department and was suffering from psychological problems which led to him resigning from his job. The other Saudi works as a teacher.â According to the Saudi Press Agency, the Iraqi authorities did not say whether the two Saudis were carrying weapons, and the concerned authorities are investigating the matter.
#1
Cute Graphic. Reminds me of sign I saw several years ago along side a mountain road west of Colorado Springs. "KEEP OUT. Trespassers will be violated!"
LONDON: British police have charged three men under anti-terrorism laws, a spokesman said on Sunday. The men, aged 34, 39 and 42, will appear in court on Monday charged with conspiring to provide money or property "knowing or having reasonable cause to suspect that it may be used for the purpose of terrorism". The 39-year-old was further charged with "directing the activities of an organisation which is concerned in the commission of acts of terrorism".
A spokesman for London's Metropolitan Police said the men would not be named before their court appearance for "operational reasons". The charges were not linked to the July 7 attacks on London's transport network which killed 52 people and four bombers or a second wave of failed attacks two weeks later, a police source said. The men were arrested in Worcestershire, western England, on Dec 5. At the time of their arrests, police said they were being held as part of an investigation into "international terrorism overseas". Detectives did not say where the alleged activity had taken place or give the nationalities of those arrested. The men are due to appear at Bow Street Magistrates Court in central London on Monday.
Posted by: Fred ||
12/13/2005 00:00 ||
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#1
Lots of people are suddenly being charged as terrorists or with aiding/abetting. Are the police in Europe trying to clear the decks before the Christmas attacks?
A police officer was shot and wounded and two others were injured in the latest clashes in Dagestan, officials said Monday.
An unidentified gunman shot and wounded a police officer Sunday in the village of Novomekhelta, the regional branch of the Interior Ministry said in a statement. The assailant fled.
In a separate incident Sunday in Dagestan's eastern Khasavyurt region, near Chechnya, five Chechen men got involved in a brawl with two police officers, injuring them, the ministry said.
The ministry also said that police on Sunday found two caches of weapons and explosives near the border with Chechnya.
In a southern Dagestani district, the bodies of a school principal and his wife were found near a state-run farm near the Ashagastal-Kazmalyar settlement on Sunday, Itar-Tass reported. Police found the couple's 26-year-old son with gunshots to the head in their house about two hours later, the agency said.
The couple's 30-year-old son was found stabbed to death on a Makhachkala beach, also on Sunday, Itar-Tass said. It said police had identified a suspect.
Posted by: Dan Darling ||
12/13/2005 00:48 ||
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SYDNEY has declared war on all rioters after more than 48 hours of lawlessness and admissions from both the police and Muslim leaders that they have been unable to control the angry mobs of young men.
New South Wales Premier Morris Iemma announced a series of new police powers, including increasing the penalty for rioting from five years to 15, as the number of officers on the streets was trebled.
At dusk last night, an extra 450 highly mobile police and 20 dog-squad units were patrolling the hot spots in suburbs across Sydney as communities braced for a third night of violence.
The additional police powers will go before a special sitting of Parliament tomorrow.
They include allowing police to establish "lockdown zones" where officers can search people and vehicles at will; and powers to confiscate vehicles driven by those who are seen to be involved in rioting.
Mr Iemma, who was elevated to the top job five months ago, has vowed to "take back the streets".
"These criminals have declared war on our society and we are not going to let them win. I won't allow Sydney's reputation as a tolerant, vibrant international city to be tarnished by these ratbags and criminals who want to engage in the sort of behaviour we've seen in the last 48 hours."
Islamic leaders have warned that the race-related violence is symptomatic of a deep-seated racism in Australian society and could lead to the radicalisation of young Muslim men.
On Monday night, several thousand men met at Lakemba Mosque, where leaders urged them to keep the peace. Their calls were ignored, however, and 11 men were arrested after a second night of violence in Cronulla that left seven people injured, one of them a police officer.
Bats and iron bars were seized and police found a cache of Molotov cocktails.
Police are also now investigating bullet holes found in the cars of several staff members at St Joseph the Worker Primary School in South Auburn after a Christmas carols service on Monday evening.
Parents and children were abused by a group of young men of Middle Eastern appearance and gunshots were heard during the service.
In the southwestern Sydney suburb of Raby, some residents woke yesterday to find their vehicles damaged and sprayed with graffiti.
One car was spray-painted with the words "See ya Sunday ya wog c...", and at least one other car was set alight, police said.
Waleed Aly of the Victorian Islamic Association warned that events of the past few days could radicalise young Muslim men and encourage them to adopt more extreme forms of Islam.
"It's really hard to predict, because young guys involved in gang-type situations are often not the same guys involved in mosques and religious communities," he told The Australian.
"But extremist discourse feeds on persecution complex, so any kind of event which feeds into that narrative makes things worse in terms of the security issues."
Rahman Fadi, an Islamic youth leader, agreed that the situation was feeding extremist agendas.
"This is giving the cutting edge for people of such ideologies to say 'we told you so, they don't want us here'," he said.
One 20-year-old Lebanese man, who was arrested on Sunday night after the Cronulla beach riot, told The Australian the violence was "not a religious thing but pretty much came down to the fact that you are a wog".
Asked if the race-related riots would encourage more men to take up radical forms of Islam, he said: "It could happen to a minority.
"If you keep getting bashed and bashed and bashed, of course you will get more and more violent, of course that will be the case."
Their comments followed further denials from John Howard that the attacks that have taken place since a riot at Cronulla beach on Sunday reflect a racist element to Australian society.
"Violence, thuggery, loutish behaviour, smashing people's property, intimidating people - all of those things are breaches of the law and I don't think the actions should be given some kind of special ... status because they occur against the background of this or that," the Prime Minister said.
Sheik Shady, a cleric at Lakemba Mosque in Sydney's west, said Mr Howard was denying the truth about what was behind the violence.
"If you want to deny this, you are denying yourselves and that's total ignorance of the situation. That's not a solution to it."
He said he had urged young men at Lakemba Mosque on Monday night to let authorities deal with the volatile situation.
#1
Islamic leaders have warned that the race-related violence is symptomatic of a deep-seated racism in Australian society and could lead to the radicalisation of young Muslim men.
#3
Doesn't look that way ... notice it's only the violence of the last 2 days, when the whites Ozzies fought back, that the premier vows to crack down on.
Nothing about rapes, intimidation on the beach or any of the provocations that triggered that riot in the first place.
The Catholic Archbishop of Sydney, Cardinal George Pell, has blamed religious intolerance for a shooting attack on cars outside a Christmas carols ceremony in western Sydney last night.
Cardinal Pell says those attending the service at St Joseph's Primary School at Auburn were harassed as it commenced.
Towards the end of the event, the local priest heard gunshots.
In the morning, staff at the school found their cars had been peppered with bullets.
Cardinal Pell says he believes the harassment and the gunshots may be linked to recent ethnic tension in Sydney.
"This violence is unacceptable, as unacceptable as the violence perpetrated by Anglo elements at Cronulla beach on Sunday," he said.
"I'm deeply concerned about the targeting of Christmas celebrations at schools with students as young as five years of age."
A FIRE that destroyed a church in Sydney's inner west is being treated as suspicious, police said. The blaze broke out in the Uniting Church, on the corner of Helena and Harrow Roads, in Auburn about 1.30am (AEDT) today. It took about 30 firefighters up to two hours to control the blaze, which is still burning in small pockets this morning.
It follows two days of violent assaults, and smashed car and shop windows during violent ethnic clashes in Sydney. It is not known whether the fire, located near an Islamic centre, was linked to the violence.
The cause of the blaze is unknown, but it is being treated as suspicious, a police spokesman said. A crime scene has been established and inquiries into the blaze are continuing.
Posted by: ed ||
12/13/2005 15:18 ||
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#1
I'm surprised the headline didn't say "Drunken, White Fire Destroys Church"...
#3
"It's an accident, definitely not arson" Fire Marshal Bill was quoted as saying when he took the call. "Of course, when I get to the site, I'll be able to double-confirm that!"
Posted by: Frank G ||
12/13/2005 16:00 Comments ||
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#4
Was an SUV seen lurking anywhere near this church?
#5
Was an SUV seen lurking anywhere near this church?
No, but as the story notes, it's next to an Islamic Center. Not that that MEANS anything, of course. Any more than the reports of "Lebs" flashing guns yesterday, or:
It also follows an incident in nearby St Joseph the Worker Primary School where shots were fired into cars and parents abused during a Christmas carols service.
Note: people were "abused", shots were fired into cars, and there's no mention of who may have conducted the attacks. It's possible this Catholic school is for Lebanese Catholics (I assume there are some), but the lack of a description of the suspects makes me assume otherwise.
Posted by: Robert Crawford ||
12/13/2005 17:20 Comments ||
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#6
:| why mention the Islamic centre?
It's customary to mention the ignition source.
Posted by: ed ||
12/13/2005 17:30 Comments ||
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#7
White girls are coming out now saying that in the past they had been gang raped by Islamists near the Cronulla beach. They did not report earlier due to threats on thier lives. Some white surfers had left the beach to Queensland beach recently due to harrasement by these Islamic thugs.
SYDNEY has declared war on all rioters after more than 48 hours of lawlessness and admissions from both the police and Muslim leaders that they have been unable to control the angry mobs of young men. NSW Premier Morris Iemma announced a series of new police powers, including increasing the penalty for rioting from five years to 15, as the number of officers on the streets was trebled.
At dusk last night, an extra 450 highly mobile police and 20 dog-squad units were patrolling the hot spots in suburbs across Sydney as communities braced for a third night of violence. The additional police powers will go before a special sitting of parliament tomorrow. They include allowing police to establish "lockdown zones" where officers can search people and vehicles at will; and powers to confiscate vehicles driven by those who are seen to be involved in rioting.
Mr Iemma, who was elevated to the top job five months ago, has vowed to "take back the streets". "These criminals have declared war on our society and we are not going to let them win. I won't allow Sydney's reputation as a tolerant, vibrant international city to be tarnished by these ratbags and criminals who want to engage in the sort of behaviour we've seen in the last 48 hours."
Islamic leaders have warned that the race-related violence is symptomatic of a deep-seated racism in Australian society and could lead to the radicalisation of young Muslim men. On Monday night, several thousand men met at Lakemba Mosque, where leaders urged them to keep the peace. Their calls were ignored, however, and 11 men were arrested after a second night of violence in Cronulla that left seven people injured, one of them a police officer. Bats and iron bars were seized and police found a cache of Molotov cocktails.
Police are also now investigating bullet holes found in the cars of several staff members at St Joseph the Worker Primary School in South Auburn after a Christmas carols service on Monday evening. Parents and children were abused by a group of young men of Middle Eastern appearance and gunshots were heard during the service.
In the southwestern Sydney suburb of Raby, some residents woke yesterday to find their vehicles damaged and sprayed with graffiti. One car was spray-painted with the words "See ya Sunday ya wog c...", and at least one other car was set alight, police said.
Waleed Aly of the Victorian Islamic Association warned that events of the past few days could radicalise young Muslim men and encourage them to adopt more extreme forms of Islam. "It's really hard to predict, because young guys involved in gang-type situations are often not the same guys involved in mosques and religious communities," he told The Australian. "But extremist discourse feeds on persecution complex, so any kind of event which feeds into that narrative makes things worse in terms of the security issues."
Rahman Fadi, an Islamic youth leader, agreed that the situation was feeding extremist agendas. "This is giving the cutting edge for people of such ideologies to say 'we told you so, they don't want us here'," he said.
One 20-year-old Lebanese man, who was arrested on Sunday night after the Cronulla beach riot, told The Australian the violence was "not a religious thing but pretty much came down to the fact that you are a wog". Asked if the race-related riots would encourage more men to take up radical forms of Islam, he said: "It could happen to a minority. "If you keep getting bashed and bashed and bashed, of course you will get more and more violent, of course that will be the case."
Their comments followed further denials from John Howard that the attacks that have taken place since a riot at Cronulla beach on Sunday reflect a racist element to Australian society. "Violence, thuggery, loutish behaviour, smashing people's property, intimidating people - all of those things are breaches of the law and I don't think the actions should be given some kind of special ... status because they occur against the background of this or that," the Prime Minister said.
Sheik Shady, a cleric at Lakemba Mosque in Sydney's west, said Mr Howard was denying the truth about what was behind the violence. "If you want to deny this, you are denying yourselves and that's total ignorance of the situation. That's not a solution to it." He said he had urged young men at Lakemba Mosque on Monday night to let authorities deal with the volatile situation.
Posted by: ed ||
12/13/2005 15:14 ||
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#2
On Monday night, several thousand men met at Lakemba Mosque, where leaders urged them to keep the peace. Their calls were ignored, however...
Bullshit. They made no such calls. That meeting was pure incitement. You cannot tell me that people CALMLY gathered for a special service, listened to messages of peace, calm, and tolerance, THEN WENT OUT AND STARTED RIOTING.
The same thing happened here in Cincinnati. The thugs gathered at a rabble rouser's church, listened to what was touted as a call for calm and cool-heads, then marched to City Hall and started a riot.
No one dared note that one of the post-riot demands was to restart a government program the "Reverend" and his followers had been extorting.
Posted by: Robert Crawford ||
12/13/2005 17:14 Comments ||
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#3
Islamic leaders have warned that the race-related violence is symptomatic of a deep-seated racism in Australian society and could lead to the radicalisation of young Muslim men.
Sounds like a threat to me. The Ozzies had better go dhimmi, or else. Oz should tell them if they don't like it there they should go home. Plenty of other non-whites seem to be able to get along OK. Sounds like an ideology problem, not a race problem.
#4
"It's really hard to predict, because young guys involved in gang-type situations are often not the same guys involved in mosques and religious communities..."
Riiight, they just happened to gather outside Lakemba mosque with their Glocks at the ready by chance...
Posted by: Bolo ||
12/13/2005 23:06 Comments ||
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Dirty Deeds and they're Done Dirt Cheap
AN independent investigation has been ordered into whether the Defence Department tried to illegally buy secret US Stealth technology for RAAF aircraft. He's double dealin' with your best friend-
That's when the teardrops start.
Attorney-General Philip Ruddock launched the investigation after a Defence Department inquiry found $1 million had been paid to a US engineer, now imprisoned in Hawaii and facing espionage charges. Here's what you gotta do -Pick up the phone-I'm always home
Indian-born American Noshir Gowadia is facing 60 years' jail for allegedly selling classified B-2 bomber Stealth technology to foreign powers and corporations. Call me any time-Just ring-36 24 36 hey-I lead a life of crime
The technology is at the heart of the B-2's ability to evade heat-seeking missiles. An investigation by The Australian last month revealed that Mr Gowadia, 61 -- one of three lead engineers who developed the B-2 Stealth technology at the US-based Northrop Corporation -- co-owned a Canberra-based company with Australian defence employee and former navy lieutenant-commander Arthur Lazarou.
NTech Australia is one of two companies US prosecutors allege was central to the illegal sale of the technology. Pick up the phone-Leave her alone-It's time you made a stand
US media reports have named China and Australia as among the countries that may have acquired Stealth secrets. Several charges against Mr Gowadia relate to the passing of secret documents and classified information, through training courses, to foreign governments at the time Canberra was doing business with NTech. In response to questions from The Weekend Australian, the Defence Department said a preliminary investigation showed it paid $1 million to NTech between 1999 and 2003. "Defence purchased around $1million worth of services (for studies and training relating to defence projects) from NTech Australia between 1999-2003," it said. For a fee-I'm happy to be-Your back door man
The department said its investigation had yet to find "any evidence of illegality". But Defence Minister Robert Hill referred the matter to Mr Ruddock this week. "The Minister for Defence has written to the Attorney-General requesting an independent investigation to ensure that, in NTech's dealings with Defence, no disclosure of US classified information to Defence took place outside of established channels," the statement said. Dirty Deeds and they're Done Dirt Cheap
The department confirmed a report by The Australian last month that it had carried out testing of NTech's Advanced Infra-Red Suppression System (AIRSS) for the RAAF's Hercules C-130 transport aircraft. The AIRSS, according to a 2002 postgraduate thesis written by Mr Lazarou, 44, was developed by Mr Gowadia "in conjunction" with his work on the B-2 bomber. FBI documents used to support the charges against Mr Gowadia claim he marketed an infra-red military suppression system for aircraft "derived in whole or in part from his work on the B-2". Testing was called off in late 2002 after Mr Gowadia insisted on owning all intellectual property rights from the venture. After initially denying the charges, Mr Gowadia allegedly later admitted passing classified information to foreign countries. "At the time, I knew it was wrong and I did it for the money," he said. Dirty Deeds and they're Done Dirt Cheap
US Assistant Attorney Ken Sorenson has obtained from The Australian the university thesis by Mr Lazarou detailing NTech's dealings with Canberra. Concrete shoes, cyanide, TNT
Done Dirt Cheap
Neckties, contracts, high voltage
Done Dirt Cheap
Posted by: Fred ||
12/13/2005 9:12 Comments ||
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#4
Bobbie Jindal?
Posted by: Frank G ||
12/13/2005 10:52 Comments ||
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#5
I'm bloody glad if we DIDN'T get the secrets from the US: and I'm an Aussie.
I have more faith that the US will defend us with that technology if need be than that we would be able to keep it a secret from the Chinese.
Australia is raddled with Chinese spies. Over 1000 at last count.
Anything told to us goes straight to BEIJING.
PS: Anybody been watching the Aussie riots against the leb gangs? Lebanese Muslims from southwest Sydney (mainly Lakemba) have terrorised Sydneysiders for years. Last weekend 5000 angry locals had a riot over it at Cronulla Beach.
Then the lebs got out and trashed cars and smashed shops in Maroubra, Brighton le Sands and Cronulla.
Wish the 5000 Aussies would go RIOT IN LAKEMBA and target Lakemba Mosque: The epicentre of the trouble.
#7
Anon1, we covered that intensely yesterday. Four or five threads, I think, on pages 1 & 2. Did you know that the baseball bat was actually invented by the Yanks... to play a game called baseball? ;-)
A 39-year-old Swede accused of terrorism by the United States has been arrested in Prague. The man, who was not identified, is wanted by the CIA spy agency and the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI), which accuse him of being terror mastermind Osama Bin Laden's "man in Sweden", Swedish tabloid Expressen reported Tuesday.
The US has tried to obtain his extradition for several years, accusing him of setting up Al Qaeda training camps in the US state of Oregon in 1999, but Sweden has refused to hand him over, the paper said. The man was on a Czech Airlines flight from Stockholm to Beirut on Sunday, but never got there after stopping over in Prague, the paper said. The Swedish foreign ministry confirmed that a Swedish man was missing but would not confirm the newspaper's report. "The man's brother has asked us to look into the matter. He did not arrive in Beirut and the brother suspects that he got stuck in Prague," foreign ministry spokeswoman Miriam Mannbro told AFP on Tuesday.
However, the first secretary at the Swedish embassy in Prague, Leena Jaanson, told Expressen that the 39-year-old was arrested when he landed in the Czech capital. The paper said that the Swede was also accused of having links to the group that carried out the July 7 bombings in London.
Expressen met the 39-year-old earlier this year when he denied having anything to do with the London bombings. But he stressed that he "loved Bin Laden". "You don't have to be a terrorist to love Bin Laden," he told the paper. According to Expressen, the man was accused in Sweden of plotting terrorist attacks several years ago but was freed for lack of evidence. He was later sentenced to a year behind bars on a weapons offence.
Posted by: Fred ||
12/13/2005 10:20 ||
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French police claim to have smashed an Islamic terrorism ring in the greater Paris region, arresting about 20 people in a string of dawn raids.
Police described Monday's events as a "major operation aimed at disbanding an Islamist network linked to terrorism", conducted as part of a probe by Jean-Louis Bruguiere, France's leading anti-terrorism investigating magistrate.
Among those arrested were individuals linked to previous terrorism investigations and common crime, the police statement said. Those detained remained in custody and police were searching a number of premises and internet cafes.
The operation was carried out by the DST domestic intelligence service, detectives from the organised crime unit and members of the crack RAID intervention squad.
Despite its strong opposition to the US-led war in Iraq, France remains the target of Islamic militants because of its intelligence links with the United States and Britain. It also has troops in Afghanistan helping to combat Islamic militants.
The head of the French police service said last July that the GSPC, a radical Algerian Islamist group, had been in contact with al-Qaeda in Iraq leader Abu Musab al-Zarqawi, about launching attacks in North Africa and probably France.
France has been on red alert, the second highest security level, since Islamic suicide bombers killed more than 50 people in attacks on London transport on July 7.
Parliament is debating Interior Ministry Nicolas Sarkozy's anti-terrorism bill, which includes a sharp increase in the use of closed circuit television surveillance and monitoring of mobile phone and internet cafe connections.
It also extends to up to six days the period for which terrorist suspects can be held before being placed under official investigation, and tougher sentencing for terror-related offences.
Posted by: Dan Darling ||
12/13/2005 00:45 ||
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WASHINGTON: Militants have begun to open recruiting offices in North and South Waziristan to recruit fighters against the Pakistan Army and US forces in Afghanistan, asserts a report appearing in an American newspaper on Monday.
The Christian Science Monitor reports from Islamabad that videos released by the militants, and sold in local shops as part of their recruitment drive, show militants training openly. The militants have even held public gatherings, the most recent in October to mark the year anniversary since the Pakistan military bombed a militant camp in Dela Khula, killing 40 of their comrades.
Maybe they should bomb them again.
âMusic and TV have been banned. Women are confined to their homes. Shops must close five times a day for prayers, an edict enforced by armed religious police who patrol the streets.
âThese changes, say local residents and reporters, have come just within the past few months to Waziristan ⊠seen as a possible hideout for Al Qaeda leaders. Last year, under pressure from the US to clean up the semi-autonomous zone, Pakistan launched military operations that ended 10 months ago in a peace deal with some rebel tribes,â the report says.
The newspaper points out that the harsh edicts and an upsurge in violence suggest that Waziristan is far from pacified.
One might get that impression.
It quotes observers as saying that the area is slipping back into the hands of Al Qaeda and Taliban militants, despite the 60,000 Pakistani troops and paramilitary personnel garrisoned there. A journalist told the newspaper that since the deal the Pakistan governmentâs authority seems to have become weak, and the vacuum has been filled by the militants. More than 60 pro-government tribal and religious leaders have been killed, two local journalists have been gunned down, and hundreds have fled since February. A local newsman told the US newspaper, âThey do what they feel like doing and there is no one to stop them. And itâs the foreign elements among them who are calling the shots.â
Senior Pakistani officials say itâs too soon to jump to the conclusion that terrorists were behind last weekâs violence. âI donât think it should raise eyebrows or concern. It appears these incidents are more related to local politics between the tribes ⊠It is more related to that than terrorism,â according to ISPR chief Maj Gen Shaukut Sultan.
"Pshaw! It's just kids these days!"
However, writes the newspaper, âanalysts point out that tribal battle lines have been drawn of late between groups that allied themselves with the army, and those who sided with the militants.â There is increasing evidence that Arab, Uzbek, and Chechen fighters linked to Al Qaeda are operating in the area, according to some.
As part of the February deal, militants pledged to renounce violence and end attacks in Afghanistan. Yet Afghan officials in the three provinces that border Waziristan told the Monitor that the frequency and sophistication of cross-border attacks have increased. âThey launch suicide attacks, plant bombs, and launch ambushes. Increasingly, we see Arab fighters leading them,â Paktia police chief Aghul Suleiman Khan said.
Maybe we could train the Afghan army well enough to run some ops across near the border.
Posted by: Steve White ||
12/13/2005 00:18 ||
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#1
Music and TV have been banned. Women are confined to their homes. Shops must close five times a day for prayers, an edict enforced by armed religious police who patrol the streets.
Wow. And yet we stand in the way of such paradises...
Foreign militants suspected of having links with Al Qaeda escaped before a search operation by security forces in North Waziristan, a senior administration official said on Monday. "No foreigner was found in the two houses searched by the security forces," the official said.
Oh, I am so surprised!
"What about the other houses?"
"Umm, we didn't think to search them."
The houses of local tribesmen Khanan and Mian Gul in the Saidgai area close to the border with Afghanistan were searched early on Monday morning, where intelligence reports suggested the presence of foreign militants. Security forces found a few children in the two houses. The operation was called off at 1:00pm after nine hours, the administration official said.
Posted by: Fred ||
12/13/2005 00:00 ||
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A pleasant bit of detail on the arrest of "The Butcher of Ramadi" the other day...
Angry crowds in Iraq's violence-prone town of Ramadi captured a 30-year-old man known as The Butcher for the al-Qaida in Iraq terror group. Amir Khalaf Fanus was cornered by a vigilante mob who beat him before he was handed over to a passing patrol of U.S. Marines, Britain's Daily Mirror reported.
"Get 'im!"
"Aaaaargh!"
[THUMP! THUMP! PUMMEL!]
The crowd apparently turned on Khalaf after learning he was behind atrocities committed in his hometown. His arrest has been hailed as a major victory in the war against the insurgents. Khalaf earned the title of The Butcher because he would allegedly slice victims up while they were still alive, the report said. Khalif was on a most wanted list drawn up by the U.S. troops. He is believed to have killed many Iraqis and has been linked to Iraq's most wanted terrorist, Jordanian born Abu Musab al-Zarqawi.
"For us? Oh, why, thank you!... Saaay! Is that tar?... And those are...?"
"Duck feathers!"
"Verrrry classy!"
#3
Much like the proverbial 400 lawyers in a bus at the bottom of a lake, this too, is a good start. I'd say the crowd showed impressive restraint in not applying Fanus' favored methods to himself before handing his severed appendages him over.
#5
Amir Khalaf Fanus was cornered by a vigilante mob who beat him before he was handed over to a passing patrol of U.S. Marines, Britain's Daily Mirror reported.
They should have killed him themselves and saved their government the money for upkeep. But if he's tried and put to death for his crimes later on, that's perfectly fine.
#8
Aw hell, why'd they have to turn him over to our guys. Now we're going to have to put him up at the Ritz-Carlton for the rest of his life so Human Rights Watch is happy. Too bad one of the Marines didn't accidentally discharge his weapon.
Posted by: Matt ||
12/13/2005 16:50 Comments ||
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#9
Our troops have become the primary target of the insurgency. They are united against U.S. forces and we have become a catalyst for violence. U.S. troops are the common enemy of the Sunnis, Saddamists and foreign jihadists. -JOHN P "MELTDOWN" MURTHA
Looks like the local townspeople are the enemies of the same folks as our Marines are eh, Murtha?
The idea that the United States is going to win the war in Iraq is just plain wrong. (The President has a ) permanent commitment to a failed strategy - DOC HOWEY "YEARRRGH" DEAN
Yeah, we never taught those folks the effective methods in using Jihadis for a punching bag, they learnt it all on their own...
There is no reason, Bob, that young American soldiers need to be going into the homes of Iraqis in the dead of night, terrorizing kids and children, you know, women, breaking sort of the customs of the -- of -- of -- of -- historical customs, religious customs, whether you like it or not. Iraqis should be doing that. - JOHN "F'N" KERRY
In broad daylight the Iraqis corner and terrorize a terrorist in thier midst, then give him to the Marines for further "processing".
Our overwhelming military presence has inflamed the insurgency... - TED "FILOBUSTER BAGOGAS" KENNEDY
The only thing flaming going on in Ramadi is the searing pain of all those cracked bones Amir Fanus has...
There's three groups in Iraq and they all hate one another - the Kurds, the Shiites and the Sunnis . . . As long as these three groups are asked to come together in an army, they're not going to fight as a cohesive force - and it won't be a cohesive government. CHUCK "E. CHEESE" SCHUMER
His hopes are dashed a little as Sunni town Ramadi turns over a scuzzbag pigshit to our guys...
...the status quo is not working and that we need to have a plan that makes us safer and our military stronger and makes Iraq more stable. - NANCY "AM I IRRELEVANT?" PELOSI
Perhaps the Ramadi townspeople agree that the status quo wasn't working so they started to dig rats out of holes...
You know, I wish the world well. I want Iraq to have democracy and the Haitians to have democracy. - BARBARA "CLUELESS" BOXER
THE grand mufti of Fallujah, Sheik Hamza Abbas al-Issawi, knew he was risking his life by urging worshippers to vote in this week's elections in Iraq and by preaching against terrorist violence.
Refusing to be intimidated, he intensified his rhetoric after receiving death threats from radical Islamists for criticising Abu Musab al-Zarqawi, al-Qa'ida in Iraq's leader.
He challenged his shadowy enemies by declaring at prayers: "I know I am targeted."
Death came to the 70-year-old grand mufti 13 days ago, when he was gunned down in front of his teenage son by three masked men in a silver BMW.
Many inhabitants of Iraq's "city of mosques" intend to honour his memory by voting on Thursday.
Issawi was an influential scholar who castigated militants loyal to Zarqawi for "un-Islamic behaviour" and blamed them for provoking last year's US military offensive against the city.
He also encouraged local Sunnis to enrol in the police and military, fearing they could be needed to defend Fallujah in a sectarian war.
Despite advice from friends and family not to attend prayers, Issawi insisted he was a man of God who would not be cowed.
"He believed that Allah protected people and not bodyguards," a close friend said.
Following his assassination, the city held three days of official mourning.
Shops, schools and government institutions shut down to protest against his killing.
Thousands attended his funeral, with many chanting anti-US slogans.
But others vowed to avenge his death by hunting down Zarqawi loyalists.
"It is all Bush's fault," said Ahmad, who did not want his last name used.
"Under Saddam, al-Qa'ida would not have dared to raise their heads and now people are slaughtered and assassinated every day."
At the Mother of All Battles mosque, in the western part of the city, a cleric denounced the "murderers" and said believers had a responsibility to vote on Thursday.
Most of Fallujah's residents boycotted elections for an interim government in January, but they turned out in large numbers in October to vote against the proposed constitution. By going to the polls this week, they hope to increase Sunni influence over the new government, which could remain dominated by Shi'ites.
"We will not allow an Iranian-style country to be built over our backs. Our voices and votes were lost when we boycotted the elections," said a 30-year-old man who gave his name only as Mustafa.
"We are going to take our rightful number of seats in the assembly and the government. We refuse to remain shadows in our own country."
Families in Fallujah still recount how their homes were destroyed and their loved ones died when US forces cleared the city last year. Most people insist their votes should not be taken to mean that they accept the status quo, but rather that they intend to fight from within.
Iraqis have been inundated with election ads depicting in rose-tinted hues what the elections could mean -- a choice between violence and a democratic, if uncertain, future.
"If we enter the political process, we can push away the dangers we have faced in the last year -- the revenge, the torture," said the leader of one Sunni group.
He accused the Shia-led Government of attempting to "slip the noose tighter" around Sunni necks. "We can't let them destroy Sunni patriots."
In a startling move, an insurgent leader asked me last week whether his group should join the political process while continuing armed resistance against the occupation. He feared being left behind by events.
"The facts on the ground are moving very quickly and we have to read them and be prepared," he said, musing that elections would happen with or without Sunni participation.
"Boycotting them would be a form of war. It would be as if we were waging a war against our own people and depriving the Sunni community of making necessary political gains, no matter how small these gains are.
"If Sunni candidates lose, then we have lost nothing because our resistance will continue anyway. If they win, insurgents like me will gain by having people on the inside."
Posted by: Dan Darling ||
12/13/2005 06:26 ||
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#1
Oops! Guess all of those Mosque bombings (Shiite Mosques, but still), hospital bombings, and massacres of Muslim men, women, and children, not to mention that wedding bombing in Amman has cost Zarky Boy a few popularity points here and there.
#2
"If Sunni candidates lose, then we have lost nothing because our resistance will continue anyway. If they win, insurgents like me will gain by having people on the inside."
So I guess he's running "against Baghdad." That makes him the populist candidate. A regular William Jennings Bryan, is this guy.
#4
"If Sunni candidates lose, then we have lost nothing because our resistance will continue anyway. If they win, insurgents like me will gain by having people on the inside."
Not a problem. If every single Sunni candidate turn out to be subversives, the Shiites and the Kurds should be able to deal with that efficiently enough.
#5
I wouldn't put much stock in the locals remaining turned against Zark. Keep in mind that the Arab attention span has been show to be even shorter than --
Say! Is that Elvis over there?
Posted by: Fred ||
12/13/2005 13:14 Comments ||
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#6
"It is all Bush's fault," said Ahmad, who did not want his last name used.
I wonder if the Kurds and Shias would have the same view...Hmmm.
"Under Saddam, al-Qa'ida would not have dared to raise their heads and now people are slaughtered and assassinated every day."
No...You baathists and Sunnis slaughtered the Kurds and Shias. I think they may have a different opinion.
"We will not allow an Iranian-style country to be built over our backs. Our voices and votes were lost when we boycotted the elections," said a 30-year-old man who gave his name only as Mustafa.
Now...a voice of sanity and logical reasoning.
"If we enter the political process, we can push away the dangers we have faced in the last year -- the revenge, the torture," said the leader of one Sunni group.
Look out! Somebody's done woke up in Fallujah.
In a startling move, an insurgent leader asked me last week whether his group should join the political process while continuing armed resistance against the occupation. He feared being left behind by events.
If I kill Iraqis and the US miltary, will you still love me??
"The facts on the ground are moving very quickly and we have to read them and be prepared," he said, musing that elections would happen with or without Sunni participation.
"Boycotting them would be a form of war. It would be as if we were waging a war against our own people and depriving the Sunni community of making necessary political gains, no matter how small these gains are.
"If Sunni candidates lose, then we have lost nothing because our resistance will continue anyway. If they win, insurgents like me will gain by having people on the inside."
#7
"We will not allow an Iranian-style country to be built over our backs."
Translation: We will not allow the Shia to run this country, which has been ours since the British gave it to us. Note that in this usage, we/us means the Sunni Baathists (aka Saddamites), and the objection is to anyone else taking possession of their rightful property, Iraq.
Despite decreasing numbers, Al Qaida remains a major factor in the Sunni insurgency in Iraq.
U.S. military intelligence has determined that Al Qaida's presence has been reduced during the last half of 2005, officials said. They said many of the foreigners in Al Qaida have been replaced by Iraqi nationals.
"The influence of terrorists and foreign fighters is much greater than their numbers," an official said.
The officials said military intelligence estimates that no more than 1,000 foreign operatives remain active in the Sunni insurgency. But they said the contingent of foreign fighters caused a high percentage of casualties.
"Today most of the foreign fighters are suicide bombers and their job is to kill as many people as possible, whether civilians or soldiers," the official said.
Posted by: Dan Darling ||
12/13/2005 00:46 ||
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Al-Qaeda remains key factor in Iraqi insurgency
Translation for all Leftist asshats:
Unlike your beloved Vietnamese NLF, the Iraqi "resistance" is heavily influenced and led by non-Iraqi elements, i.e., Saudis, Syrians, Pals, North Africans, Yemenis. Some nationalist movement, right?
#4
tw, the Chinese Communists provided some equipment to the North Vietnamese but the main supplier was Russia. Neitheth Russia or China supplied combat troops.
Posted by: Deacon Blues ||
12/13/2005 16:29 Comments ||
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#5
Thanks, Deacon. I wasn't yet paying much attention to the great big world in those days. ;-)
WASHINGTON: An Iraqi search of a government jail in Baghdad operated by the Interior Ministry found 13 prisoners who had been subjected to serious abuse, The Washington Post reported on Monday.
An Iraqi official with firsthand knowledge of the search said at least 12 of the prisoners had suffered "severe torture," including electric shock, the newspaper said. "Two of them showed me their nails and they were gone," said the official, who spoke on condition of anonymity. The newspaper's Baghdad-datelined report cited an Iraqi Human Rights Ministry statement as saying 13 of the prisoners had required medical treatment and the findings would be "subject to an investigation."
This is torture, and this is wrong. No doubt Andy Sullivan will manage to blame George Bush for it.
The statement said 56 of the prisoners in the facility, inspected on Thursday, had been released immediately following the inspection and another 75 had been transferred to another facility.
A government spokesman, Laith Kubba, declined comment on the allegations that some prisoners in the facility operated by Interior Ministry special commandos had been tortured. The detention centre was the first examined as part of a government-ordered inquiry after US troops last month found another jail where cases of prisoner abuse have been confirmed by US and Iraqi officials.
Ibrahim Jaafari, one of the first to acknowledge that abuses had taken place at the prison, ordered the investigation, and the United Nations has also called for a thorough examination of prison conditions in Iraq, the Post reported. Lt Col Guy Rudisill, a spokesman for US military detention issues, said American authorities had already been aware that the prison searched on Thursday existed. US forces had not known about the previous facility. Prison inspectors from the Ministry of Human Rights and representatives of other ministries participated in the commando prison search, the ministry said in a statement. Authorities did not say whether any Americans were involved in the inquiry.
Investigators said they found 625 prisoners at the centre but declined to give details about them. US diplomatic and military officials said Iraqi officials were leading the investigation and declined to offer further comment.
Posted by: Steve White ||
12/13/2005 00:37 ||
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#1
"This is torture, and this is wrong. No doubt Andy Sullivan will manage to blame George Bush for it." Ummmm, I think Andy's posting has been pretty light since Brokeback Mountain came out. I've also heard he's been hanging out near suburban DC western wear shops. Howdy pardner!
Iraq's election for its first full-term parliament since Saddam Hussein's fall began on Monday with Iraqis in hospitals, barracks and prisons voting in a ballot Islamist militants branded as ungodly.
Voting started on a day that U.S. President George W. Bush gave a rare estimate of the number of civilians killed since U.S. troops invaded in 2003, acknowledging that 30,000 civilians had died in the violence.
Iraqi Prime Minister Ibrahim al-Jaafari defended his government's record on fighting militants but was forced to admit more abused prisoners had been found inside jails overseen by his own Interior Ministry.
Al Qaeda and other militants branded the election ungodly and vowed to turn Iraq into an Islamic state, although their statement was muted in tone compared to the threats of violence such groups issued before the last election on January 30.
In another contrast to the January vote, boycotted by most of Iraq's Sunni Arabs, over 1,000 Sunni scholars issued a statement urging the electorate to turn out in force.
Election day is on Thursday but the infirm, members of the security forces and prisoners were allowed to vote early, inking their fingers to guard against multiple voting before dropping their votes into plastic ballot boxes.
Former Prime Minister Iyad Allawi's office issued a statement as soon as polls closed claiming he had won the votes of police officers in the provinces of Anbar and Maysan.
Iraq's electoral commission dismissed the claim, saying it was far too early to know. Full results of the vote are not expected until the end of the year or even early January.
Allawi, a secular Shi'ite who led Iraq's unelected U.S.-appointed government from mid-2004, is leading a broad coalition vowing to curb the gunmen, kidnappers and suicide bombers who have made life a torment for many ordinary Iraqis.
He called Jaafari's government toothless, a charge rejected by the prime minister at a news conference on Monday.
"People realise clearly how the security situation has changed, and remember how things were at the start of 2005 (when Allawi was in power)," Jaafari said.
Bush also said the security situation was improving in Iraq although he acknowledged 30,000 civilians had died since U.S. troops invaded, 999 days ago on March 20, 2003.
Washington has often refused to discuss the Iraqi civilian death toll, saying it was impossible to measure.
The president's figure of 30,000, which his aides stressed was not official, was in the range given by Iraq Body Count, a U.S.-British non-government group, which currently says between 27,383 and 30,892 civilians -- not just Iraqi citizens -- have been killed since the invasion.
The moral authority of Jaafari's government was dealt another blow by its admission that more abused prisoners had been found at jails overseen by the Interior Ministry, which is run by the main Shi'ite party in the ruling coalition.
Some 625 prisoners were found in the jail during a raid by Iraqi inspectors, backed by the U.S. military, four days ago.
"Thirteen of them had been subjected to abuse, and this abuse required medical care," Jaafari's office said in a statement, adding that it had launched an investigation.
The government has been under pressure over its human rights record since U.S. troops stumbled across a secret bunker operated by the Interior Ministry last month.
The cramped jail held 173 prisoners, most of them Sunnis who said they had been beaten, tortured and deprived of food.
Some Sunni Arabs have accused the government of sponsoring Shi'ite militias to abduct, intimidate and torture them. The government, made up of Shi'ites and Kurds, denies the charge.
Jordanian militant Abu Musab al-Zarqawi's al Qaeda in Iraq and four other Sunni Arab groups, including the Army of the Victorious Sect and the Brigades of Islamic Jihad, dismissed Thursday's election as "a Crusader conspiracy".
"We declare that we will carry on our jihad in the name of God until an Islamic state ruled by the Koran is established," the groups said, without specifically threatening the kind of election day attacks they carried out in January.
A suicide car bomber targeted a U.S. patrol as it passed through the city on Monday, killing himself and injuring one U.S. Marine, the U.S. military said. Al Qaeda in Iraq claimed responsibility.
"A lion from the lions' brigade ... launched a new attack targeting crusaders in Falluja, may God free it!" the group said in a statement posted on the Internet.
Security measures are coming into force before Thursday's vote, seen as an important step for Iraq's fledgling democracy and a signpost on the way towards the withdrawal of U.S. troops.
They include travel restrictions, night curfews and closure of borders to foil any insurgent plans to disrupt the vote.
Posted by: Dan Darling ||
12/13/2005 00:40 ||
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#1
IMNHO,Jaffari admission and investigation is a good sign and not a body blow.It shows a willingness to acknowledge and correct the Justice Ministries wrong doing.Course the Libs won't see it that way.
#3
Bush also said the security situation was improving in Iraq although he acknowledged 30,000 civilians had died since U.S. troops invaded, 999 days ago on March 20, 2003.
The more important question is, at whose hands did these people die? The President shouldn't have even bothered dispensing any numbers at all. He needs to realize that anything he says is potential ammo to be used against him by the press.
Secular Iraqi insurgents warned al Qaeda and other militant groups on Monday not to mount attacks to disrupt this week's parliamentary election after the militants said anyone who voted would be an "apostate".
The position contrasted sharply with the bloody run-up to January polls, when Sunni Arab nationalist insurgents issued their own threats of violence against voters.
Sunni Arabs largely boycotted that election for an interim assembly and were thus significantly under-represented.
Abu Mohammed, a Saddam Hussein loyalist, said threats from Abu Musab al-Zarqawi, leader of al Qaeda in Iraq, and other groups, would not keep Iraqis away from the ballot box.
"We decided to boost the political process so that our people will have true representatives in the National Assembly," he told Reuters by telephone from Baghdad.
"Zarqawi is not a threat to us. We are more powerful and have a national goal to defend."
Al Qaeda in Iraq and other militant groups branded the landmark election as ungodly and vowed to keep up their jihad to turn the country into an Islamic state, according to an Internet statement dated Monday.
The statement was posted on an Islamist Web site often used by militants and signed by Zarqawi's al Qaeda and four other Sunni Arab groups including the Army of the Victorious Sect and the Brigades of Islamic Jihad.
"This so-called political process -- and those who take part in these apostate elections -- is forbidden by God's laws and goes against our Muslim constitution, the Koran," it said.
Abu Abdullah, an insurgent from the western town of Ramadi, said Zarqawi's al Qaeda militants would be asking for trouble if they attacked polling stations, as happened in January.
"We will defeat them if they dare to attack the polling centres and frankly speaking, in case they resort to attacking us or polling centers, we will react strongly," he said.
Zarqawi has followers who enter Iraq from across the Arab world to blow themselves up. He also has Iraqi supporters.
"What is going on in Iraq these days is a crusader conspiracy and this political process is nothing but a devilish project aimed against the mujahideen," the statement by Zarqawi's group and its allies said.
"We declare that we will carry on our jihad in the name of God until an Islamic state ruled by the Koran is established."
While Zarqawi and his ilk completely reject Iraq's U.S.-sponsored political process, Baathists in the Sunni Arab insurgency appear to want to use the elections to gain political clout, without showing any sign of willingness to disarm.
Iraqis vote on Thursday for their first full-term parliament since the U.S.-led invasion toppled Saddam in 2003. Violence has marred the run-up to the polls, with a spate of suicide bombings and abductions of at least eight foreigners in recent weeks.
Iraqi officials have said Zarqawi's al Qaeda is a major worry for security forces, which are also bracing for an increase in violence in the weeks after the election.
After January's vote for an interim government, there was a dramatic surge in attacks, many claimed by al Qaeda.
"We will work on reducing the possibilities of such attacks, Iraq should have a way out of this mess," said Abu Ali, another nationalist insurgent speaking by telephone from Ramadi.
Posted by: Dan Darling ||
12/13/2005 00:30 ||
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An empty minibus loaded with explosives detonated near a hospital in east Baghdad Monday, killing three people and injuring 13, police said. Other violence in and around Baghdad killed another six people, bring the total to nine. A total of 21 people were injured.
In the minibus attack, Lt. Mohammed Khayoun of the Baghdad emergency police said it exploded near the al-Kindi hospital and east Baghdad's Nadhaa bus station. The driver of the van abandoned it on the street and ran, he added. All three killed were Iraqi civilians, while the injured included five police officers, he said.
In Baghdad, police said that a number of clashes between the unidentified gunmen, police and the Iraqi army resulted in the deaths of two police officers and the injury of another nine. A police sergeant was reportedly killed by an American patrol, police Capt. Taleb Thamer said. In Muqdadiyah, about 90 kilometers (60 miles) north of Baghdad, a roadside bomb killed an Iraqi woman and injured five other people.
Police also reported that a businessman, identified as 43-year-old Mohammed Yousif, was kidnapped along with his 23 year-old son in Baghdad's upscale Mansour district. No other details were available. Another two people were killed in an early morning drive-by shooting in Baghdad southern Dora district.
Posted by: Fred ||
12/13/2005 00:00 ||
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BRITAIN and America are planning a phased withdrawal of their forces from Iraq as soon as a permanent government is installed in Baghdad after this weekâs elections.
In a move that has caused alarm in the outgoing Iraqi administration, American and British officials have made clear that they regard the end of Iraqâs two-and-a-half-year transitional period as the green light to begin withdrawing some of their combined force of around 170,000 troops as early as March. A senior Western diplomat in Baghdad said yesterday: âOne of the first things we will talk about (with the new Iraqi government) is the phased transfer of security, particularly in cities and provinces. It will happen progressively over the next year.â
America has more than 160,000 troops in central and northern Iraq, and Britain about 8,000 based in four southern provinces. Contingency plans are already in place for the small British contingents in the two provinces of Dhiqar and Muthana to go as early as the spring. The third to go will be Misan province, a far more restive region. A senior British officer said that Iraqi security forces might be able to âkeep a lid on the violenceâ by the end of this year.
The Americans have increased their troop levels to help to bolster security for the elections on Thursday. But they are planning to pull out 30,000 by the new year and may reduce their presence below 100,000 in the coming months. US forces have already handed over security in Najaf and Karbala provinces and in city centres such as Tikrit, Saddam Husseinâs home town.
The moves appear to run contrary to statements by President Bush and John Reid, the Defence Secretary, who insist that coalition forces will not âcut and runâ and will stay until the mission in Iraq is complete.
Hoshyar Zebari, the Iraqi Foreign Minister, told The Times yesterday that a hasty exit risked plunging the country into a new bout of violence.
âThose who advocate an early withdrawal do not know what is at stake. The huge investment in blood and money sacrificed by the US could be squandered.
âThere would be regional interventions by neighbouring countries and others. The fate of this country and the whole region could be endangered,â he said.
The move to hand over security to the 225,000 Iraqi soldiers and police who have now been trained for active duty comes in the face of mounting public pressure in both Britain and the US to disengage from Iraq, amid the rising death toll and spiralling costs. Zalman Khalilzad, the US Ambassador to Baghdad, said last week that the US military role would increasingly become one of supporting frontline Iraqi forces until it was merely âa reserveâ.
âOur goal will be to leave Iraq as soon as possible but without increasing insecurity,â he said. âOur strategic goal is Iraq standing on its own feet and American troops out.â
Such open talk of a substantial withdrawal rattles Iraqi leaders, who fear that Washington and London are growing weary of the bloody and costly commitment to Iraq and may be tempted to âdeclare victory and get outâ as some congressmen and MPs are recommending. They fear that a premature withdrawal of foreign forces could encourage the rise of militias, leading to sectarian strife and the settling of old scores.
An opinion poll conducted for the BBC in Iraq found that only 10 per cent regarded the removal of US troops from the country as the priority for the new government. The public has doubts about the ability of the Iraqi security forces, in particular the police, which is riddled with militia, and the army, which lacks equipment, training and leadership.
#1
I can't wait for the day when our troops are finally out of there - who will the media then blame when Sunnis continue to blow themselves up in crowds of Shia? Mossad? Aussie surfers?
Posted by: Filthy the Dog ||
12/13/2005 0:55 Comments ||
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Posted by: Red Dog ||
12/13/2005 1:12 Comments ||
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#3
It's not that kind of filth, Red ;-)
Posted by: Filthy the Dog ||
12/13/2005 1:49 Comments ||
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#4
Just a guess..but i think hear ya, I wouldn't trade one of ours [Marine, soldier, airmen, Navy] for all of theirs, sunni/shia and the msm.
btw i use that shampoo myself.
Posted by: Red Dog ||
12/13/2005 3:47 Comments ||
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#5
They fear that a premature withdrawal of foreign forces could encourage the rise of militias, leading to sectarian strife and the settling of old scores.
The MSM can't tell the truth which is that the Americans are stopping the large scale killing of Sunnis. Will it happen after the Americans pull back? Depends on how long it takes the Sunnis to cave in. My guess is we will see a few thousand dead before the rest get the message.
#6
"The MSM can't tell the truth which is that the Americans are stopping the large scale killing of Sunnis."
Sure they can. AFTER the fact. As in "George Bush is to blame for the large scale killing of Sunnis because he withdrew the troops." Once Bush does it, it's automaticly wrong!
#7
One problem is that our troops are needed precisely in places in which much of the population (being pro terrorist) doesn't want them and wanted in places (like the Kurdish areas) where they are unneeded.
#8
What's clear to me is that the Timesonline fuckwits are hoping to stir up some manufactured hysteria. We've said what we have to say, what we're gonna do, and that's that - and it's NOT what this wankpiece is peddling. Assholes.
#9
It's obvious, we will need to take direct citizen action (extra-judicial) against the MSM. Maybe some of those Hunter/Killer teams .com has advocated.
Me? I'm ALL for it, as I view these vermin as Traitors and enemies of the Country and the People.
I'm all for the First Amendment, but there needs to be some accountability for the press and enforcement of the sedition laws.
Giving the press carte blanche to do and say whatever they wish without regard for the truth is crazy, with or without the First Amendment.
#10
Duh. We artificially bump up numbers for the safe elections. Post elections, they should stay? Makes absolutely NO sense....typical MSM/Donk drivel to blame W no matter what he does
Posted by: Frank G ||
12/13/2005 10:21 Comments ||
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#11
Perchance this is an attempt to get the Sunnis to think a bit more rationally about continuing to pee in the charcoal?
"C'mon, boys! Settle up! The party's almost over!"
Posted by: Bobby ||
12/13/2005 11:51 Comments ||
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#12
Yep, downsizing after the short term retention for the election. Hey, but twist it anyway to make it a victory for the Party of Defeat[tm].
#13
BRITAIN and America are planning a phased withdrawal of their forces from Iraq as soon as a permanent government is installed in Baghdad after this weekâs elections.
Why is it necessary to make these kinds of damned announcements? Talking about this out loud isn't very smart. If the media comes around seeking details about ongoing plans and operations, tell them to GET PHUQUED.
#15
Ptah, I'm looking for one of Murtha's "redeployments". Say our boyz in Afghanistan "redploy" to Iraq and vice versa, over land of course. The Mad Mullahs(tm) would finally get what's comin'!
Posted by: BA ||
12/13/2005 13:47 Comments ||
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#16
Well there's no easy answer to the situation anyway. I mean, it was complicated to start with and now there's so many different motives involved that the most positive solution will be the one with least negative consequences...if that is possible...troops in there is problematic, but troops out could be as bad
The head of the Palestinian Authority, Mahmoud Abbas, has approved a new law, providing monetary grants to the families of suicide bombers. Abbas gave his approval just six days ago, a day before a suicide bomber struck the HaSharon Mall in Netanya, killing five Israelis and wounding scores of others. The legislation refers to the suicide terrorists as shitheads shahids (martyrs), a term generally applied to a person who dies in an operation fighting against Israel.
Under the new law, the terroristâs family will be paid a base sum of $250 per month. The law takes into account extended family arrangements commonplace in Arab societies. The families of married terrorists are entitled to an additional $50 per month, and $15 are added for each child, $25 for each parent, and $15 for each brother who lived with the terrorist prior to his death. The monies, to be paid out of the general budget of the Palestinian Authority, are significant sums for average Arab families living in Judea, Samaria, and Gaza.
Both Israel and the United States have taken legal action in recent years to shut down organizations that distribute money to the families of terrorists, especially suicide bombers. The budget of the Palestinian Authority is largely subsidized by grants from European nations and the United States. I've given up on decency out of the 'peons, but why are we still paying the enemies of civilization? We should be carpet-bombing the place.
Israel also regularly transfers money to the PA. Much of that money is collected as customs duties on goods entering Israel bound for the PA, or for Arabs living under its jurisdiction.
Below is an English translation of an overview of the new law, as published by the PA newspaper, Al-Hayat Al-Jadida:
"...The fifth clause of the draft law includes granting a monthly allowance to the family of every shahid, taken from the general budget of the [Palestinian] National Authority⊠The sum of the allowance is estimated to be $250, but if the shahid was married [at the time of death], another $50 are to be added to the sum mentioned above, and if the shahid had children, [an additional sum of] $15 will be allocated to each of them. In addition, if the shahid had a [living] father or mother, a sum of $25 will be allocated to each of them. If the shahid had brothers, whom he had been taking care of, each of them will be allocated [a sum of] $15... The transfer of the allowances to the families of the shahids is expected to be carried out by the Institute for the Care of the Families of Shahids, through special [bank] accounts [opened] for the eligible people...
#1
I sure am glad all of those billions the US, EU, and UN gave the Paleo's is being put towards peace and the two state solution. I thought the "cycle of violence" was Isreals fault. So glad to be proven right.
The sad part about this story is I have seen this at Drudge, LGF, now here yet I got $20 that says CNN, ABC, CBS, NBC wont even mention it and Fox may have a spit of a comment on it by a talking head. The Print media bahahahh they still think Arafat deserved Nobel Peace Prize.
EFL
In what is sure to be a major embarrassment for the Palestinian Authority, a group linked to PA President Mahmoud Abbas fired a Qassam rocket that landed yesterday just outside Israeli Prime Minister Ariel Sharon's ranch with the intention of killing the Jewish leader, a terror leader whose group also took part in the rocket launching told WND. "That rocket was fired by us in conjunction specifically with the united leadership of the Al Aqsa Martyrs Brigades. It was intended to kill Sharon, and thank God we are getting closer and closer to our target," said Abu Abir, spokesman for the Popular Resistance Committees. They are only embarrassed that they failed.
The Committees is a network of Hamas and Islamic Jihad terrorists that has taken responsibility for many of the rockets fired at Israeli towns the past few years and for more than a dozen suicide attacks. The Al Aqsa Martyrs Brigades was established in 2000 to serve as the military wing of Abbas' Fatah Party. Abir's statement marks the first time the Brigades has taken specific credit for a rocket fired toward Sharon's ranch.
The rocket last night slammed into a water pumping facility adjacent to Sharon's southern Negev ranch, causing damage but no injuries. The Israeli Defense Forces early-warning system had picked up the rocket's movement toward the populated Negev town of Sderot, and residents were instructed to take shelter. But the rocket flew past Sderot and hit across from Sharon's Sycamore Ranch.
Abir echoed remarks he made in a previous WND interview in which he warned the rocket fire would continue until every Jew leaves Israel, "including their bones and their graves."
"We have a very accurate map of Sderot, and of each and every street in and near the city, including Sharon's ranch," Abir said. "During the Intifada, we launched many rockets at the ranch, and thanks to God, every new rocket firing gets closer to its goal [of hitting Sharon.]"
"We shall use these rockets against Sderot, against Sharon's ranch and against every city in Israel any time there is need to do so. The Israelis shall wait for surprises from the Palestinian resistance. ... If there is need, Tel Aviv, Jerusalem and everywhere in Israel can become our target. Israelis must also know that we have already transferred the knowledge and the technology of producing rockets to the West Bank."
Last month, Israel said it caught members of the Committees crossing from Egypt into the northern Negev, and said interrogations revealed they received funds and training from Hezbollah to set up Qassam factories in the West Bank.
According to the Al-Mustaqbal Research Center in Gaza, Hamas and other "Palestinian resistance groups" will extend their rocket-producing capabilities to the West Bank since Israel's security barrier in the area has made terrorist infiltrations and suicide bombings difficult. "After the construction of the fence, [suicide attacks] have become extremely difficult. ... However, Qassam attacks cannot be stopped easily. ... [T]he fence is useless against such attacks," states the study, which said Palestinian groups will move mortars and rockets into the West Bank "in large quantities."
Gunmen opened fire on the main Palestinian security complex in the Gaza Strip on Tuesday, Palestinian witnesses said, in a sign of growing unrest in the territory following Israel's pullout in September.
Posted by: Fred ||
12/13/2005 11:26 ||
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#4
Israel can become our target. Israelis must also know that we have already transferred the knowledge and the technology of producing rockets to the West Bank."
Yea, you certainly are some high-tech bastards whahhahahaaaaaa.
Security forces arrested a British national, apparently a member of the pro-Palestinian International Solidarity Movement (ISM), who entered Israel in August with a changed name to avoid detection by Israeli border control, details released for publication on Monday revealed. The man, Andrew MacDonald, had previously visited Israel in 2003 and was expelled by the Interior Ministry after IDF soldiers arrested him while holed up in the home of a terrorist.
MacDonald changed his name and sneaked back into Israel this summer. Security forces detained him in early November in the Tel Rumeida neighborhood of Hebron after he assaulted a member of the security forces. He was released, but detained again on November 25. "Mr. MacDonald's entry and presence in Israel was done deceitfully and in contravention of Israeli law," a statement from the Prime Minister's Office said. Israel tried to deport MacDonald on November 30, but while on board he threatened to cause a disturbance and he was removed. He is currently being held by the Immigration Police awaiting deportation.
Posted by: Fred ||
12/13/2005 00:00 ||
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#1
"while on board he threatened to cause a disturbance and he was removed."
#2
Tattoo his hand, "Not permitted in Israel." Then charge his credit card for his return ticket, and the round-trip (1st class, of course) for his Mossad guard. Not forgetting to charge the ass for the guard's salary and benefits for the time period, as well, as the expenditures would have been unnecessary had the ass not snuck into the country illegally. And of course, add his name to the U.S. no-fly terrorist list. If he wants to go somewhere, let him take Air Salonika or some other puddle-jumping off-brand airline that doesn't take security precautions... and also doesn't clean the bathrooms often.
THE latest warnings from Australia and the US against travel to Indonesia could indicate Jemaah Islamiah (JI) is ready to strike again, a US intelligence group said today.
Private sector thinktank Stratfor said the warnings had been accurate in the past, and JI had traditionally attacked about once a year. But there were indications its attack cycle was shortening, it said.
Yesterday, the Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade (DFAT) released an updated travel advisory for Indonesia, warning terrorists were planning attacks over the holiday season.
Stratfor said the Christian holiday season in Indonesia should be a time of increased vigilance, as there was a history of tensions between Christians and Muslims which frequently erupted into violence in some parts of the country.
"A major attack during this year's holiday season would fit in with that precedent," it said.
"US and Australian warnings on Indonesia have been accurate in the past.
"Given the two countries' new specific warnings of attacks against Westerners, and the possibility that JI could be ready to strike again, Indonesia could see another major attack, probably against a soft target such as a church or hotel, in the near future."
In its warning yesterday, DFAT urged Australians planning a trip to Indonesia, including Bali, to reconsider their plans due to the very high threat level.
"We continue to receive a stream of reporting indicating that terrorists are in the advanced stages of planning attacks against Western interests in Indonesia against a range of targets, including places frequented by foreigners," the DFAT advisory said.
Stratfor said that came amid speculation JI could be close to mounting attacks to follow up on its Bali suicide bombings on October which killed 23 including four Australians and the three bombers.
On November 9, Indonesian police uncovered a cache of improvised bombs in central Java that were probably being prepared for an attack.
Stratfor said this discovery suggested the Indonesian forces disrupted an attack in the advance planning stages.
Stratfor said JI had struck at roughly yearly intervals â in Bali in October 2002, the Jakarta Marriott hotel in August 2003, Australia's Jakarta embassy in September 2004 and again in Bali in October this year.
"However, some aspects of the 2005 Bali attack suggest that JI has learned from past operations and improved its methods," it said.
"This has led to enhanced operational security (OPSEC), which has made it more difficult for counterterrorism personnel to track militants who are planning attacks or who are escaping after an attack."
Posted by: Dan Darling ||
12/13/2005 02:22 ||
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#1
As if they weren't before/after...plz
Posted by: Captain America ||
12/13/2005 8:59 Comments ||
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At least 2 soldiers were killed and a dozen more wounded in fierce clashes Monday between military and Abu Sayyaf forces in Jolo island, some 950 kilometers south of Manila.
The fighting erupted after troops attacked a stronghold of the Abu Sayyaf in the hinterland village of Tugus in Patikul town.
Fresh military reports said dozens of militants were believed killed and wounded in the fighting.
Clashes also erupted at the weekend in the village after soldiers, aided by civilian informants, tracked down a group of some 50 militants under Abu Sayyaf leader Radullan Sahiron.
It was not immediately known if Sahiron was in the village in the latest fighting.
Major Gamal Hayudino, a spokesman for the military's Southern Command, has confirmed there was fighting late Monday, but did not give details of the operations, saying "fierce clashes are going on since Sunday."
The fighting broke out a day after US and Filipino soldiers held a joint humanitarian mission in Jolo.
A small group of American troops is on the island, training RP soldiers in anti-terrorism warfare as part of a security assistance program to the Philippines.
A bigger exercise is expected to begin early next year in Jolo, where Filipino forces are still battling hundreds of Abu Sayyaf militants whose group is tied to al-Qaeda, and former Moro National Liberation Front (MNLF) rebels.
Weeks of fighting last month led troops to capture 5 major Abu Sayyaf and MNLF bases in Jolo. At least 6 soldiers and dozens of rebels were killed in the clashes that began in November 11 after gunmen raided military posts in the island's Indanan town.
But Brigadier General Alexander Aleo, Jolo military chief, accused MNLF members of aiding the Abu Sayyaf.
In many instances, Aleo said, MNLF forces fought alongside the Abu Sayyaf groups under Albader Parad, Radulan Sahiron and Umbra Gambahali, all included in Washington and Manila's terror lists.
The Abu Sayyaf has splintered into smaller groups and were hiding in areas in Jolo's Mount Tumatangis, a known MNLF stronghold.
The MNLF rebels, who used to be headed by Nur Misuari, signed a peace accord with Manila in September 1996. Many of them, however, were disgruntled with the accord and have joined the Abu Sayyaf to fight for the establishment of a strict Islamic state similar to Iran.
The military said MNLF leaders Haber Malik and Bashir Jailani were aiding the militants.
Malik has denied the allegations and said troops attacked their positions, in the guise of pursuing the Abu Sayyaf group, and that rebels were only defending themselves.
Governor Benjamin Loong, of Jolo island, said thousands of people have fled the fighting and appealed to the military for a halt in offensives to allow civilians to return home.
Posted by: Dan Darling ||
12/13/2005 00:50 ||
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WND. Salt as needed. EFL
Iran will reach the point of no return and possess the capacity to build nuclear weapons within three months, Israeli Defense Forces Chief of Staff Dan Halutz warned today. The ominous prediction comes just days after the London Sunday Times quoted Israeli officials who said Prime Minister Ariel Sharon has instructed the IDF to prepare a military strike against Iran by the end of March.
Addressing the Knesset Foreign Affairs and Defense Committee today, Halutz cautioned that after a three-month period, Iran may have a nuclear infrastructure in place. Still, he explained, Tehran would have to obtain enough nuclear materials to build weapons. "This fact does not represent a threat to Israel just yet, because Iran will have to overcome a few obstacles before it can put the weapons to use," Halutz said.
The IDF estimate was similar to the timetable offered earlier this month by Mohamed ElBaradei, head of the United Nations nuclear watchdog. A little red watchdog, with a bushy tail and chicken feathers on his whiskers. "I know they are trying to acquire the full fuel cycle. I know that acquiring the full fuel cycle means that a country is months away from nuclear weapons, and that applies to Iran and everybody else," ElBaradei said in an interview with the British newspaper The Independent.
Regarding Sharon's instructions the IDF prepare to strike Iran, the Times quoted unnamed defense officials who said Israel would use air and ground forces against several nuclear targets in a bid to push back Iran's nuclear program by several years. Ground forces??? Commando raids?
According to the report, which high-ranking security officials denied to WND, the level of preparedness of the Israeli Air Force has been moved up to the highest level in fear of Iranian retaliation or a pre-emptive strike.
#1
I suspect we will wake up one morning very soon and it will be all over. The muzzie pissing and moaning will last a week or two, then they'll be on to something else.
TEHRAN: Iran has successfully tested surface-to-sea missiles with a range of 110 kilometres, state television reported on Monday. The testing of the Silkworm missiles was the most important project of Monday's military manoeuvres in southern Iran, the television said. It said the Silkworms have a speed of 290 kilometres per second and a range of 110 kilometres. They can detect targets from a distance of 15 kilometres and have the capacity to destroy a warship.
The report did not say whether the missiles could carry nuclear warheads. Iran's armed forces began their biggest military manoeuvres on Friday in national waters in the Sea of Oman and Indian Ocean, close to Pakistan.
Posted by: Fred ||
12/13/2005 00:00 ||
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#1
"...290 kilometres per second..."
Iranians musta added some Acme sooooperchargers...
#2
It said the Silkworms have a speed of 290 kilometres per second and a range of 110 kilometres.
assuming it didn't melt and was stable aerodynamically, it would be out of fuel in less than a second, and the G forces to turn 1 degree would be astounding.
Posted by: Red Dog ||
12/13/2005 0:44 Comments ||
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#3
typical journalist ignorance...290m/s if the Silkorm name is correct refers to some SS-N-2 Stix modernised iteration (maybe chinsese)of an old big Soviet anti ship missile. Iraq attacked a US battleship in 91 with it, but a British Destroyer killed the missile with its mediocre Sea Dart anti aircraft missile . In technological terms it's inferior to an Exocet of the 80's.
It was a failure also in the first guided missile naval battle of history: Latakia Naval Battle 1973
http://www.jewishvirtuallibrary.org/
jsource/History/latakia.html
#4
A note about an incorrection in that web page: The Midawy was not a significant milestone in naval warfare concept. It was the Battle before it: Coral Sea
#5
The Silkworm has been around for decades. I'm guessing these are missiles left over from the Iran-Iraq war back in the '80s and 'successful test' means they didn't explode and martyr the launch crew.
#6
The Silkworm is a rocket-powered missile, but North Korea has built jet-powered versions using Russian helicopter engines to provide longer range. The Iraqis were working on this too, and during the 2003 battles hit a Kuwaiti shopping mall with one configured for land-attack (but I don't know about the engine).
Posted by: Phil ||
12/13/2005 1:22 Comments ||
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#7
The Silkworm is the Chinese version of the old Soviet Styx missile - see "http://www.fas.org/man/dod-101/sys/missile/row/hy-1.htm".
Not much of a threat to any ship armed with Standard
Mark 2, let alone the Mark 3.
#8
In 1971 the Pakistani destroyer Khaibar and the minesweeper Muhafiz were sunk by Styx missiles (two into the destroyer, one into the minesweeper) fired from the Indian Osa class missile boats Nirghat and Veer. The merchant vessel Venus Challenger, carrying a full load of US ammunition from Saigon for the Pakistani Army and Air force, was sunk by another OSA class boat, the Nipat, with a single Styx. Another Styx fired by the Nipat crippled the Pak destroyer Shahjahan.
The Nipat then locked onto a shore target and fired two Styx missiles. One struck the Keamari oil tank farm. The resulting fire destroyed the tanks and burned for days.
Posted by: john ||
12/13/2005 6:18 Comments ||
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#9
290 km/s comes out to about 29,000 mph. That's around Mach 38. Uh huh.
#11
I'd like to see Iran and North Korea designated as anti-missile laser testing ranges. Anything they launch more than 1,000 feet in the air should be used as a mobile target vehicle for tracking and engagement with shipboard or plane based HEW and DEW.
#15
I thought I read a silkworm was the missle used to sink the Brittish ship during the Falklands war. Can anyone confirm this?
Posted by: 49 pan ||
12/13/2005 21:00 Comments ||
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#16
On May 4, 1982, two Argentinean Super Etendard aircraft skimmed the ocean surface, avoiding the two British Harriers on combat air patrol and located the task force. Two Exocet missiles were launched, one of which devastated the HMS Sheffield. (Miller 196-7) On May 25, 1982, a low level Exocet attack was launched with the intention of sinking the two British carriers. Once again the Harrier combat air patrol failed to intercept the attack. However, the British had placed the carriers in a less obvious position, so the Argentines unknowingly sank the Atlantic Conveyor, a transport carrying the helicopters the ground forces planned on using for airmobile operations. (199) It is unlikely the British could have continued the war with the loss of one of its two carriers, and indeed they were quite lucky the Argentines had only a half dozen Exocets.
The task force was also unable to deal with attacks from the 1950s vintage A-4 Skyhawk dropping conventional bombs. Skyhawks attacked the landing force at San Carlos sinking the HMS Ardent and damaging the HMS Antrim. Later attacks damaged the landing ships Sir Bedivere, Sir Galahad, HMS Glasgow, and destroyed the HMS Antelope. (Dublin 32-3) On May 24th and 25th, air attacks damaged two supply ships, the Argonaut, the Broadsword, and sank the Coventry. (English 28-9) Many of the damaged vessels were hit with bombs which failed to explode because they did not have time to arm properly. Had these bombs detonated, the amphibious landings would have been a complete disaster.
Many of the ships' weapons systems were not effective. Hundreds of anti-submarine weapons were fired at sonar contacts, but the one Argentine submarine in the area was not sunk. (Hughes 236) British Type 42 destroyers were armed with Sea Dart medium range anti-aircraft missiles whose ancient vacuum tubes required warm up time before launch, making them useless against surprise Exocet attacks. The obsolete Sea Cat anti-aircraft missile was guided by crewmen who relied on visual contact, and the close-in anti-aircraft weapons were also obsolete. (English 135) Only two anti-aircraft Type 22 ships with their effective Sea Wolf missile system protected the vital carriers. (Miller 197)
On the whole, the Royal Navy was inadequate for the task, equipped with inadequate and often obsolete weapons. The Harriers shot down twenty Argentine aircraft while no Harriers were lost to enemy aircraft. (Braybrook 29) But the British had only twenty Harriers available and could not deal with the over 180 planes in the Argentine inventory. (Argentina A2) Ships of the Royal Navy shot down only 10% of the Argentine Air Force, (Hughes 162) but 75% of the British task force was damaged or sunk. (English 33) Surprisingly, luck made up for these deficiencies, and fortune favored the brave of the United Kingdom.
A Palestinian newspaper has reported that after a year of silence, Osama bin Laden will soon release a new audio message to be broadcast on television. The weekly al-Manar newspaper also says the al-Qaeda leader has decided "along with his aides, to carry out attacks in the New Year," and may strike Afghanistan, North Africa and countries from the former Soviet Union in particular.
The long article in the Jerusalem-based publication cites a source it describes as "well-informed and close to the Islamic terror organisation," and claims that when the US attacked Afghanistan, Osama bin Laden moved to a state in the Central Asia area, where he has been taken care of without the knowledge of the government. The source also says the Saudi terror leader receives regular reports from his collaborators in different countries around the world and is in contact with some of them, but never uses email or the Internet.
The source also reveals that al-Qaeda is re-establishing its cells in Afghanistan and has delegated its leadership to three people. "One of the members of this triumvirate is Afghan," al-Manar writes, "and has been given the task of looking after relations with the Taliban so that the two movements can coordinate over which targets to strike and the funding to raise."
However, according to the Palestinian weekly, funding is not a problem for al-Qaeda. "There are actually companies and businessmen who continually give the organisation economic support," the source said. "Al-Qaeda is part of several commercial companies who use frontmen." He also told al-Manar that bin Laden's group has formed cells within the security services of several countries, asking them to await further instructions. Secret armed groups also appear to have emerged in many other countries, but these do not use the name al-Qaeda and rely on the help of people who sell weapons on the black market.
The last message attributed to bin Laden appeared on 16 December last year. In it, he spoke about the militant attack on the US consulate in the Saudi city of Jeddah some ten days earlier, in which five non-American members of the consulate staff were killed and all the attackers were either killed or captured. Two weeks later militants launched a relatively unsuccessful attack on the interior ministry in the Saudi capital Riyadh, but al-Qaeda later admitted in a message that the aim had been to kill the interior minister and his son. Instead, police killed seven militants they said were involved immediately after the attack when they raided a house in the city.
The Palestinian newspaper reports that al-Qaeda recognises its failure in several of the attacks it has tried to carry out in Saudi Arabia. "Their bosses claim that so far they have not managed to strike Riyadh as successfully as they had planned," it says.
It goes on to cite the source as saying that in an internal reorganisation of the network, bin Laden has chosen eight of his aides to coordinate. Four of them are currently in different countries, two are by his side, while the other two operate as the links between bin Laden and his other aides.
Supporting theories that his long absence is just the prelude to a series of new attacks and that it has been caused by differences with his deputy, the Egyptian doctor Ayman al-Zawahiri, is the current Saudi ambassador to the United States, Prince Turki al-Faysal. In an interview several days ago for the Saudi newspaper al-Riyadh, the former head of the Saudi secret services said he believes bin Laden is still alive and is hiding near the border between Pakistan and Afghanistan, but "There are several indications of differences between bin Laden and Ayman al-Zawahiri," he said.
He also said he believes al-Qaeda is still capable of carrying out attacks though, and its members are still taking orders from bin Laden. However, his view is in sharp contrast to that of the US ambassador to Pakistan, Ryan Crocker, who said on Monday that he does not believe bin Laden still has operational control of the network. "I don't know if Zawahiri is heading al-Qaeda or not; what I do know is that al-Qaeda is in serious trouble these days," he said.
Posted by: Dan Darling ||
12/13/2005 02:26 ||
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#1
Why wait, use this simple device and you can get messages from bin Laden:
How To Use a Ouija Board
Your Guide, Stephen Wagner From Stephen Wagner,
Your Guide to Paranormal Phenomena.
A Ouija board can be an interesting experience. Some believe it is a doorway to another world and warn against its use, but most people see it as a harmless diversion, especially if it's not taken too seriously. Here are some guidelines.
Difficulty: Easy
Time Required: 15 minutes to 1 hour
Here's How:
1. It takes two to Ouija. Usually one person is not able to work the Ouija. Get a friend to use it with you. A male and female is usually recommended.
2. Timing. Most practitioners suggest using the board at night when, they say, less interference is in the atmosphere.
3. Create some atmosphere. The Ouija is more fun if you darken the room and light some candles. Turn off the TV and any music to minimize distractions.
4. Have a seat. The two users should sit facing each other, with knees touching if possible, with the board on their laps. Don't use a table.
5. Decide on a questioner or medium. Even though both people can ask questions -- or anyone else in the room can -- only one of the users should be the medium (the one to formally ask questions of the board).
6. Place your fingers on the planchette. You and your partner should place the fingers of both hands very lightly on the planchette, or pointer.
7. Move it. Purposely move the planchette around in a circle on the board for a moment or two to get it 'warmed up.'
8. Attitude. Don't let the board control the session. The medium should begin by announcing that the session will only allow an experience that is positive or toward a higher good and that negative energies are not welcome.
9. Begin simply. Start with a simple question, one that requires a yes or no answer.
10. Be patient. You might not begin to get answers right away. Give the board a chance to 'warm up.'
11. Be polite. When the board starts working, thank the board or entities for showing up and communicating with you.
12. Don't ask stupid questions. Avoid questions such as, 'When am I going to die?' If the board answers, 'in 6 months,' you might just worry about it needlessly.
13. Don't ask for physical signs. Many experienced users warn against asking for physical signs that the 'spirit' is real or present.
14. Don't believe everything the board tells you. Just as with any other source of information, don't accept whatever the board says to be the truth or accurate.
15. Close the board. This is an important step. When you're done with your session, slide the planchette to 'GOODBYE' and remove your hands.
Tips:
1. Have someone write down the answers. Sometimes the letters spell out very quickly and it's difficult to keep track of what's being said. A third person with paper and pen can write down the message as it comes.
2. Play sober. You'll get better results if you haven't been drinking or smoking.
3. Maintain control. If the board starts giving rude, vulgar, obscene or otherwise disagreeable responses, break off the session immediately by closing the board.
Posted by: bruce ||
12/13/2005 8:24 Comments ||
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#2
Yep, Paleo sources are big on the truth. Pure wishful thunking. Move on.
#3
"The last message attributed to bin Laden appeared on 16 December last year. In it, he spoke about the militant attack on the US consulate in the Saudi city of Jeddah some ten days earlier, in which five non-American members of the consulate staff were killed and all the attackers were either killed or captured."
"Militant attack?" When does the MSM ever call it a terrorist attack?
#4
IIRC he hasn't made any identifiable reference in much longer than that. It's all been: "our brothers in jihad striking the infidels in the land of two rivers....yadda yadda"
All he has to do is hold up a current NYTimes or even Al-Jizz....not so hard to do if you're not decomposing.
Posted by: Frank G ||
12/13/2005 10:51 Comments ||
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#5
... a source it describes as "well-informed and close to the Islamic terror organisation,"
So this source has no problem calling it a terror org while our MSM does.
#9
Bruce, Pen & Teller had a good ep on their show Bullshit about the Ouiji boards. Did you know that if you blindfold the guys using it and then flip the board upside down without their knowing it the ghosts will also not notice and will indicate where the NO used to be. Fascinating how easy it is to fool stupid ghosts.
Osama bin Laden has been forced to "hide so deep" that he is no longer in direct operational control of al-Qaeda militants, the US ambassador to Pakistan said yesterday.
The comments by Ryan C. Crocker coincided with continuing speculation among intelligence analysts over how close the US and Pakistan is to finding the Saudi-born militant, the target of an aggressive hunt for more than seven years.
These speculations were fuelled last week when General Pervez Musharraf, Pakistan's president, said he was "200 per cent" certain that Abu Hamza Rabia, the third senior most al-Qaeda figure after Mr bin Laden and Ayman Al Zawahiri, had been killed in an attack in a region near Afghanistan.
The news of Mr Rabia's killing led to claims by Pakistani officials that they might be nearer to finding Mr bin Laden dead or alive. US officials have long said they believe Mr bin Laden, mastermind of the September 11 2001 attacks, has been hiding along the rugged Pakistan-Afghanistan border since US forces failed to capture him after invading Afghanistan in late 2001.
Mr Crocker refused to discuss the operational details of any specific operation, including the one surrounding claims of Mr Rabia's killing, but said: "I really don't think that Osama bin Laden is any longer in operational control of al-Qaeda. He has had to hide so deep that he has been operationally cut off from his organisation."
Pakistani security officials said Mr Crocker's remarks confirmed their own assessment that al-Qaeda was in disarray and only capable of carrying out operations with its members banded together in small groups.
But European diplomats who routinely track terrorist movements warned that it was wrong to assume that an al-Qaeda in disarray was any less lethal than the group centrally controlled.
"For long, intelligence services have assumed that al-Qaeda has the capacity to operate in small cells which are independently motivated and capable of carrying out attacks. You could argue, bin Laden's value has been more symbolic than real for some time," said one.
Posted by: Dan Darling ||
12/13/2005 00:27 ||
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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.
Three Canadian soldiers were injured when a bomb detonated under their vehicle in southern Afghanistan, in what a journalist who was riding with them described as a "complete disaster scene." Tim Albone, a reporter with Global Radio News, said they were travelling in a lightly armoured vehicle through a dry riverbed about 90 kilometres west of Kandahar midday Monday when the bomb exploded under a front tire.
Border guards have arrested two Saudis â one a former prison employee and another a teacher â who were trying to cross the border into Iraq, a spokesman for the Ministry of Interior said yesterday. âThe arrest took place on Friday after security officers at Shiba sector noticed a car which crossed the border into Iraq,â the spokesman said. âThe border guards informed the Iraqi authorities and the Iraqis stopped the car which was carrying two Saudis.â
LONDON: British police have charged three men under anti-terrorism laws, a spokesman said on Sunday. The men, aged 34, 39 and 42, will appear in court on Monday charged with conspiring to provide money or property "knowing or having reasonable cause to suspect that it may be used for the purpose of terrorism". The 39-year-old was further charged with "directing the activities of an organisation which is concerned in the commission of acts of terrorism". 
A 39-year-old Swede accused of terrorism by the United States has been arrested in Prague. The man, who was not identified, is wanted by the CIA spy agency and the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI), which accuse him of being terror mastermind Osama Bin Laden's "man in Sweden", Swedish tabloid Expressen reported Tuesday.
WASHINGTON: Militants have begun to open recruiting offices in North and South Waziristan to recruit fighters against the Pakistan Army and US forces in Afghanistan, asserts a report appearing in an American newspaper on Monday.
Foreign militants suspected of having links with Al Qaeda escaped before a search operation by security forces in North Waziristan, a senior administration official said on Monday. "No foreigner was found in the two houses searched by the security forces," the official said.
An empty minibus loaded with explosives detonated near a hospital in east Baghdad Monday, killing three people and injuring 13, police said. Other violence in and around Baghdad killed another six people, bring the total to nine. A total of 21 people were injured.
Security forces arrested a British national, apparently a member of the pro-Palestinian 
TEHRAN: Iran has successfully tested surface-to-sea missiles with a range of 110 kilometres, state television reported on Monday. The testing of the Silkworm missiles was the most important project of Monday's military manoeuvres in southern Iran, the television said. It said the Silkworms have a speed of 290 kilometres per second and a range of 110 kilometres. They can detect targets from a distance of 15 kilometres and have the capacity to destroy a warship. 
A Palestinian newspaper has reported that after a year of silence, Osama bin Laden will soon release a new audio message to be broadcast on television. The weekly al-Manar newspaper also says the al-Qaeda leader has decided "along with his aides, to carry out attacks in the New Year," and may strike Afghanistan, North Africa and countries from the former Soviet Union in particular.
