Four years after the overthrow of the Taliban, a new Afghan parliament will meet for the first time on Monday in the culmination of an international plan to bring democracy to the country following three decades of conflict.
Lineups of the 249-seat Wolesi Jirga, the lower house, and the 102-member upper house, or Meshrano Jirga, read like a Who's Who of protagonists of the bloody past -- to the bitter disappointment of many victims.
Former Communists, leaders of guerrilla groups which overthrew them and ex-Taliban will sit side by side in a parliament which emerged from U.N.- backed September elections.
Trying to limit their influence will be idealistic new politicians, including technocrats and women's rights activists.
The parliament is seen as a means of reconciliation and a potential counterbalance to the administration of President Hamid Karzai, installed after U.S.-led forces ousted the Taliban in 2001 and elected president last year.
Karzai's record has been patchy, but analysts say it remains unclear how much influence parliament will be able to exert.
"It is a very mixed group of people with very different backgrounds," said Niamatullah Ibrahimi of the Crisis States Research Centre.
"Many are not experienced in legislative and parliamentary issues and will have difficulties focussing on national agendas."
Self-styled opposition leader Yunus Qanuni has been seeking to create a front of support, but after an election held on an individual, not party basis, the assembly is expected to be a disparate body with a parochial focus.
Security will be tight for the opening after a wave of attacks blamed on Taliban insurgents and their al Qaeda allies.
The threat was underlined on Friday when a suicide attacker detonated a car bomb between two Norwegian peacekeeping vehicles near the parliament, killing himself and wounding two passers-by.
The Taliban said the bomber had intended to target the "bogus" parliament but took the opportunity to attack the peacekeepers. Spokesman Qari Mohammed Yousuf vowed more attacks to disrupt the parliament, "a symbol of American occupation".
In a country which has not seen a representative parliament since the 1970s, procedures still have to be laid down and what happens after the inaugural session is unclear.
It should sit for nine months, but may adjourn until spring, given logistical problems posed by winter and January holidays.
Parliament's first task will be to elect presidents of the two chambers.
More than a dozen people are vying to lead the lower house, including Qanuni, two women and several factional leaders dubbed warlords by their critics and accused of serious rights abuses.
The parliament must also endorse Karzai's cabinet.
Before the September vote, Qanuni predicted his National Understanding Front would win more than 50 percent of the lower house seats and said it might not endorse all Karzai's ministers.
Analysts say he appears short of his target, but he is not alone in criticising Karzai's administration, which many Afghans complain has failed improve their lives.
Tens of thousands of U.S.-led foreign troops and billions of dollars of aid have ensured relative stability and brought new prosperity to cities like Kabul.
But the Taliban insurgency has intensified and beneficiaries of the boom have been the already rich, while the poor struggle with soaring prices.
Plans to reform the judiciary and other parts of government have achieved little, and many people opted not to vote in polls critics say were marred by significant fraud and allowed many figures blamed for abuses to seek legitimacy and influence.
Human Rights Watch says up to 60 percent of deputies are warlords or their proxies, boding ill for efforts to account for abuses and to stamp out a huge opium and heroin trade.
Woman MP Safia Seddiqi, bidding for the lower house presidency, also vowed to oppose some cabinet members.
"We need to reform the entire structure of the government. Some ministers are not capable of doing their jobs. It is parliament's job to restructure the government and cabinet."
Even so, Karzai appears to have enough support to avoid major problems, although he will need to court interest groups, which could water down essential reforms further, analysts say.
While the United States and its partners will hail the new parliament as a success in countering Islamist radicalism, analysts say it is not the end of the story.
"I think the international community has a high motivation to portray the technical success of the elections as a sign of real victory," said Sam Zarifi of Human Rights Watch.
"But many Afghans see a failure of the political process. There will be a heavy burden to show this is not just a talkshop where warlords and druglords further their interests." "Can't you see that it's a futile effort, a quagmire, and that these people just aren't able to have democracy? Can't you? Can't you?"
A suicide bomber detonated explosives near a major shrine in a northern Afghanistan city yesterday, killing himself but causing no other injuries, police said. The bomber had explosives wrapped around his body and detonated them in a park beside a large shrine in Mazar-e-Sharif, the capital of Balkh province. He was outside the shrine when the explosives went off, according to Sheir Jahn Durani, spokesman for the local police. The bomberâs motive was not immediately clear.
Posted by: Fred ||
12/16/2005 00:00 ||
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what a waste of dynamite.
Posted by: Red Dog ||
12/16/2005 4:06 Comments ||
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#2
eh..no harm no foul.
Posted by: Red Dog ||
12/16/2005 4:21 Comments ||
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A repeat of the guy who tried to bomb the OU game.
Unidentified gunmen riding motorcycles yesterday shot dead a well-known pro-government Islamic cleric in Afghanistanâs volatile southern city of Kandahar, police said. Mulla Ahmad Shah, a member of Kandaharâs Ulema Shoura â a pro-government council of Islamic clerics, was attacked and killed when he was going to a mosque in the city center, police official Abdul Ahmad said. Shah was giving religious lessons to students in a mosque which was built by the Talebanâs fugitive leader Mulla Omar. Ahmad did not say who might have been behind the attack, but a similar killing on May 29 of a leading cleric was claimed by the Taleban fighters.
Posted by: Fred ||
12/16/2005 00:00 ||
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The Preliminary Court held its first session on Monday to trial two of the suspects involved in the assassination attempt on the former U.S. Ambassador to Yemen in December 2004. The sitting was chaired by Judge Mohamed Al-Baadani and the trial proceeded in the presence of representatives from the U.S. Embassy. The Secretary of the Judge read out the indictment against defendants Hizam Ali Hassan Al-Mas and Khalid Saleh Hadi Al-Halilah. The prosecution accused the two suspects of reaching an agreement to launch an offensive against the car of the U.S. Ambassador when it goes in Haddad Street escorted by a police vehicle. They learned that that former U.S. Ambassador used to shop from the Elegance and Beauty Shops in Haddah Street.
Defendant Hizam Al-Mas, 17, climbed the fence of the shop, attempted to enter with pistol, but was stopped by the guards of the building. He failed to attack the U.S. diplomat due to his quarrel with the policemen, and after the police opened fire on him, he fled the scene.
[BANG!]
"Stop or I'll shoot!"
The prosecution representative said that three suspects are involved in the case; one of them was cleared off due to lack of material evidence.
"Wudn't me."
"Hokay. Beat it."
The first suspect made a confession before the judge saying he suffers from neurological disorders and that he masterminded the attack against the U.S. Ambassador out of his own will.
"I dunnit, yer honor! But I'm a nut!"
"I'm depraved on account I'm deprived."
He said while he was chewing qat on Friday 24th December, 2004, he decided to attack the U.S. Ambassador and then he went to Jihana in Khawlan Tribe on the car of the second suspect Khalid Al-Halilah and bought a pistol and two cartridges.
"Like, wow, man! Listen to the colors! This is some really good qat! I think I'll go kill someone!"
Asked how he knew that there was a very important personality in the car he targeted, his response was: âI noticed a white car with a diplomatic plate and on it was an important person with his wife. I plotted to attack the car, but one of the guards noticed me as I was climbing the fence and then I was shot by the policemen.â
"They shot me here, see?"
"Oooh! That hadda hurt!"
"Nah. It was really good qat!"
âAfter they opened fire on me, I fled the scene and rode on a bus heading for Asser, west of the capital, but the bus was intercepted by a police vehicle and I was arrested,â he said.
"Yo! Bus driver! Stop or we'll shoot!"
[SCREECH!]
"You got any attempted assassins on this bus?"
"Nah, just some guy in the back, bleeding!"
âI was instigated and encouraged to launch the attack on the U.S. Ambassador by some Madaweâah (bearded men) who say that the U.S. is the big enemy of Islam and Muslims and it occupied Iraq and killed Muslims. All this made me decide to attack the Americans.â
"They wuz, like, really persuasive. Or maybe it was the qat..."
His response to what books he reads and cassettes he listens to was that he did nothing of these and he does not watch the television except in rare cases although he has a satellite in his house. He claimed that the T.V. and the space channels cause a big harm to the family, adding he was not instructed by any person except for once when he went with three of the callers to Islam. He said he did not remember their names.
"I mean, sometimes I'm not sure of my own name, yer honor!"
The top defendant confirmed to the Judge that he is psychologically ill, and said he attempted several times to infiltrate into the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia searching for work, but all his attempts have gone in vain. Asked by the judge whether he has an opportunity or a plan to visit the U.S in search of work, he replied: âI will visit the U.S. and work thereâ.
"Since I tried to kill their ambassador, I'm sure they'll be happy to have me."
The judge then documented confessions of the first suspect - with sound and photos - to be material evidence for his trials.
"You got all that on tape, Mahmoud?"
"Sure do, judge!"
Second suspect Khalid Al-Halilah, a secondary school student, affirmed that his work was merely a taxi driver and denied any charges directed at him.
"Nope. Nope. Never happened."
He told the court: âI was not with the first defendant when he launched the assassination attempt on the U.S. Ambassador, but I contacted him on Friday afternoon in his house, took the transportation fee and left. In my mind I bear no evil thoughts or hatred toward foreigners and Americans.â
"I am but a simple, but well-armed, taxi driver, yer honor!"
In the court, the two defendants were accompanied by a person under the name of Khamis Al-Mulaiki who was sent from Guantanamo Detention after being accused of sending a kilogram of drugs to Yemen. Prior to this, he was arrested in Pakistan and sent to Guantanamo bay and then was sent once again from Guantanamo to Yemen to be tried. The judge ordered that he should be taken out from the dock as the trial was devoted to the suspects accused of carrying out the assassination attempt on the U.S. Ambassador.
"Honest to God, yer honor! He ain't with us! We never seen him before!"
Concluding the session, the court decided to enable the first suspect to confirm the authenticity of his appeals that he suffers from psychological and neurological diseases, as well as to enable the defendants to name their defense advocates to defend them in next Sundayâs session.
Posted by: Fred ||
12/16/2005 00:00 ||
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That's three out of, I presume, four brothers, all in jug. And all of them holy men, too! Mom must be so proud!
Sunny hailed from Charshi Khalifapara, Jamalpur sadar. He passed Dhakil examination from Kamalkhan Hat Senior Madrasa. He started his academic life staying at the residence of his father Maulana Abdullah ibne Fazal at Naodapara in Rajshahi.
"When I grow up, Dad, I wanna be a holy man, just like you!"
While at the Islamic University, according to available disclosure, he switched over to militant activities of JMB headed by his brother Shaikh Rahman. He built up JMB network with Jamaat and Shibir activists. Then he started functioning as Commander of JMB's armed wing.
"I got me a shutter gun! Now I can be chief of the armed wing!"
Sunny acquired expertise through special training in bomb manufacturing and began leading JMB's suicide squad-or so the story runs.
I have my doubts he had any practical experience as a suicide bomber. I think he was all talk and no boom...
The arrested members of JMB suicide squad confessed to police that they had received training from Sunny.
"See? All you gotta do is press this here plunger, you blow up, and it's 72 virgins time!"
"Ummm... You didn't blow up."
"This is a training boom vest."
Sunny led the simultaneous serial bombings in 63 districts on August 17. He is also involved in the bomb blast in Chittagong. He took all the suicide attackers to Chittagong.
"Get on the bus! Get on the bus! We're goin' to Chittagong to explode! Oboy, oboy!"
Local people have heard that Sunny trained in bomb making in the once-Taliban-ruled Afghanistan.
"Another Banglaboy for boom training, Mahmoud!"
"Oh, don't he look ferocious in that turban!"
"Nice boom vest though."
In 2000, Sunny was arrested along with 18 other militants after a gun-battle between suspected JMB militants and police at Khetlal in Joypurhat when a conference of the JMB militants was underway. Later, he managed his release allegedly on the blessings of some influential Jamaat leaders and went into hiding.
The surprise! I can't take the surprise! My heart! I... [THUD!]
Since then, he continued underground activities. Before the August 17 bombings, he had set up a secret militant camp at the remote Gonarchar in Sharisabari of Jamalpur on the bank of Jamuna River. He used to stay in different districts, including Kushtia, Rajshahi, Joypurhat, Dinajpur, Rangpur, Bogra, Chittagong, Cox's Bazar, Comilla and Gazipur. "Nobody in Jamalpur has seen him in daylight for long," said many at his native place.
"Aye! He's a creature o' the night! Moves like a ghost, he does!"
It was learnt that he often visited Ahle Hadith Jame Mosque at Iqbalpur in Jamalpur and met with his brother Maulana Obaidur Rahman.
[KNOCK! KNOCK! KNOCKETY KNOCK!]
"Who's there?"
"It's me, Sunny!"
"What's the secret password?"
"Elephant!"
"Okay. You can come in... Gimme the secret handshake!"
[GRIP! GRIP!... GRIP! GRIP! BUMP!]
"Okay. It's him. Putcher guns down, boys!"
Russian officials faced international questioning Friday in the wake of an explosion at a nuclear plant in St. Petersburg that killed one worker. Officials say only a smelter at the plant was affected in the blast on Thursday and that radiation levels are normal. Officials say one worker died in the explosion and two others were badly burned. The Leningrad nuclear plant is close to the borders of both Estonia and Finland.
"There were no violations of safety levels and operating conditions of the energy units of the Leningrad nuclear plant," Russian nuclear authorities said in a statement. CBC News in London spoke with International Atomic Energy Agency officials in Vienna about the accident. They say they are in contact with authorities in Russia and are awaiting clarification on exactly what happened.
The plant has four units and the smelter affected was in the second one. It had been shut down since July for repairs, officials say. The Leningrad plant is the main supplier of electricity to the city of St. Petersburg. The plant is 30 years old, and one of its reactors is the same as the one at the Chernobyl nuclear plant in Ukraine. The Chernobyl reactor exploded in April 1986 in the world's worst nuclear accident.
Posted by: Rafael ||
12/16/2005 11:06 ||
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#1
Sorry, this should be on pg.3.
Posted by: Rafael ||
12/16/2005 11:12 Comments ||
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The plant has four units and the smelter affected was in the second one.
Is it just me or does the presence of a smelter in the midst of nuclear power generating equipment stand out like a whore in church?
Metallurigical refining in and of itself is a fairly accident prone process involving elevated temperatures, high power consumption and (ipso facto) molten metal. None of these are particularly good things to have mucking about while you're trying to moderate neutrons.
I'm confident that, with their usual hyper-pragmatic Soviet mentality, they decided to place a smelter right where electrical power would be most available, i.e., cheek by jowl with a nuclear reactor. Sheesh. Even if the smelter is for deprocessing of fuel rods or whatever, it would make a lot more sense to isolate these two hazardous functions by a kilometer or so.
FSB director Nikolai Patrushev reported that that special services in Dagestan had eliminated an envoy of the Al-Qaeda international terrorist network in the North Caucasus Abu Omar.
Al-Qaedaâs leading representative in the North Caucasus, international terrorism âideologistâ sheikh Abu Omar As-Seif was eliminated in Dagestan in November,â FSB director said at the meeting with leading media groups in Moscow on Friday.
According to him, the documents confiscated from Omar and planned for sending abroad, âoutlines his vision of prospects of the Islamic terrorist movement worldwide and offer recommendations concerning strategy and tactics for the development of the so called âgreen international.â
According to FSB, in Russia Abu Omar was sent to the North Caucasus nearly ten years ago by Osama bin Laden.
Omar helped organize underground terrorist cells in Dagestan, Chechnya and Ingushetia using the Al-Haramein Islamic Foundation international non-governmental organizations as a cover.
FSB spokesman said that Omar had been a so called âchairman of the Shariah judgesâ committee of the Chechen republic of Ichkeria in the last few years.â The late militant leader Aslan Maskhadovâs successor Sadulayev discussed with Abu Omar all appointments in the armed groups.
Abu Omar âreceived and distributed funds coming from abroad to stage terrorist attacks and acts of sabotage in Russiaâ, an FSB spokesman said. Abu Omar met with Maskhadov, Basaev, Hattab, Sadulayev and other leaders of the armed groups and financed their terrorist activity.
âThe Al-Qaeda envoy played an active part in plotting terrorist attacks as well as in promoting extremist religious and political ideasâ, the FSB representative said.
According to the Russian special services information, Omar lived in Ingushetia before 2005, but moved to Dagestan the same year âto tackle the strategic task of making this republic the main venue for terrorist attacks and acts of sabotageâ, the FSB representatives further said.
As was reported earlier, Omar, a Saudi national, was appointed Al-Qaedaâs envoy to Chechnya after another international terrorist, Abu al-Walid, was killed in April 2004.
Adam Dekushev, a suspect in the apartment bombings in Moscow and Volgodonsk, said the terrorist attacks had been masterminded by Omar. Dekushev confessed he was trained as a shot-firer in the Omarâs camp.
Posted by: Dan Darling ||
12/16/2005 10:47 ||
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#1
There are a lot of upper-management opportunities opening up in al-queer this year. I don't doubt that they will have to promote from within to keep the ranks filled.
New South Wales police have received reports that people armed with firearms and other weapons are planning to head for some of Sydney's beaches over the weekend to continue the ethnic violence, Assistant Commissioner Mark Goodwin says.
Police have arrested 19 people in Sydney overnight using new powers given to them by state Parliament on Thursday.
Officers stopped a car in Matraville just after midnight and allegedly found swords and a dagger.
A 17-year-old from Castle Hill was arrested and charged with possessing offensive weapons and the car was seized.
People are being asked to stay away from beaches at Wollongong, Cronulla, Sydney's east, Newcastle and the Central Coast.
"Some of those [reports] do involve firearms, mostly it involves baseball bats, sticks and weapons to have it out on the beach by both sides," Assistant Commissioner Goodwin said.
Police say there will be road blocks, as they use their new powers to lock down areas, and signs indicating which areas to avoid.
An extra 1,500 officers will be based between Newcastle and Wollongong on Saturday, with that number increasing to 2,000 on Sunday.
In other developments:
Some of Australia's most famous entertainers have gathered together to call for an end to the prejudice that led to violence across Sydney this week. (Full Story)
Two men charged with making explosives have been refused bail after appearing in a Sydney court. (Full Story)
Two men arrested in Australia's biggest terror swoop discussed assassinating the prime minister, killing policemen and even attacking crowds at sports events, a court was told on Friday.
The men, one a Islamic cleric, were part of a group of 18 Muslims arrested in police raids in Melbourne and Sydney in November and charged with being members of a terrorist organisaton and/or plotting a terrorist attack.
During a bail application in the Melbourne Magistrates Court on Friday, a prosecutor said the group's spiritual leader and a 20-year-old man discussed revenge attacks in Australia, Australian Associated Press (AAP) reported from the court.
Prosecutor Nick Robinson said police intercepted discussions between Muslim preacher Abdul Nacer Benbrika, 45, and Abdullah Merhi, where they discussed jihad, reported AAP.
Robinson said that in the conversation Merhi asked: "For example if John Howard kills innocent Muslim families do we...do we have to kill him and his family...his people like at the football?"
Benbrika allegedly replied: "If they kill our kids we kill little kids". Merhi then said "innocent ones" and Benbrika replied "innocent ones", according to transcripts of the discussions read out in court, reported AAP.
Australian radio reported from the court that the prosecutor said the men also discussed killing police, and families at a football match, in revenge for the deaths of Muslim families.
The Melbourne bail hearing is continuing.
In a Sydney court hearing in November, police said eight men arrested in the city may have been planning a bomb attack against the city's nuclear reactor.
A police document in court outlined how the men bought chemicals used in the London July 7 bombs, had bomb-making instructions in Arabic and videos entitled "Sheikh Osama's Training Course" and "Are you ready to die?"
The document also said six of the men went on "hunting and camping trips", which police described as jihad training camps, in the Australian outback in March and April 2005.
Posted by: Dan Darling ||
12/16/2005 00:13 ||
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#1
The men, one a Islamic cleric, were part of a group of 18 Muslims arrested in police raids in Melbourne and Sydney in November and charged with being members of a terrorist organisaton and/or plotting a terrorist attack.
#2
Accounts of this need to be posted outside of all Australian mosques so attendees will have at least some understanding of why their @sses are getting kicked around like so many hackysacks.
Any bets on a showing of outrage by Australian "moderate Mulsims" over radical Islamist plots to kill their host nation's elected leader?
French police have seized large quantities of military weapons and explosives as part of a probe into an Islamic militant group said to have indirect links to al Qaeda's leader in Iraq, officials said on Thursday.
Interior Minister Nicolas Sarkozy told reporters the arsenal was discovered on Wednesday in a lock-up attached to a block of flats in the Clichy-sous-Bois suburb north of Paris.
Judicial sources said the haul included assault rifles, dynamite and TNT.
Police also arrested on Wednesday two new suspects in addition to the 25 rounded up in a string of dawn raids in the Paris area on Monday.
Investigators believe the gang financed Islamic militancy by staging armed robberies and judicial sources said one suspect had admitted planning one such robbery in Beauvais, north of Paris, in October.
Sarkozy told parliament this week that those detained had indirect links to key al Qaeda leaders and Abu Musab al-Zarqawi, the organisation's leader in Iraq.
"Thanks to the arrests, an arms cache has just been discovered which reveals the seriousness of this matter. They are very determined people, with links between terrorist extremism and major crime," Sarkozy told BFM TV.
"We think they have indirect links, at a fairly high level, with al Qaeda," he said.
Four people have been released but police are still holding 23 people in custody on suspicion of terrorism-related offences.
They include Ouassini Cherifi, 30, who has just served a five-year jail term for trafficking forged passports used by armed militants.
Anti-terrorism magistrates are expected to place around 15 of the suspects under formal investigation on Friday. They must then be bailed or remanded in custody by a judge.
Judicial sources are cautious about the Zarqawi connection. So far, they have only linked the latest group to another disbanded by police in October and November. It was allegedly run by Safe Bourada, a French national implicated in a wave of Islamist attacks in France in 1995.
It is Bourada's group that has been linked to the GSPC, a militant Algerian Islamist group which western intelligence services say has contacts with Zarqawi.
The tough-talking Sarkozy, who wants to run for president in 2007, is steering a major anti-terrorism bill through parliament.
It sharply increases the use of closed circuit television surveillance, monitoring of mobile phone and Internet cafe connections and tougher sentencing for terrorism offences.
Posted by: Dan Darling ||
12/16/2005 00:32 ||
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#1
what about Australia? Chances are they have the same gear.
Garzon's been busy ...
Another Islamic fundamentalist unit, allegedly funding terrorism, was rounded up on the Costa del Sol by Civil Guards in the early hours of Friday morning last week. According to investigators the gang members had passed on âthousands of eurosâ to terrorists belonging to the Salafist Group for Preaching and Combat. These sums of money, which came largely from burglaries in luxury mansions on the Costa del Sol, were earmarked for financing Al Qaeda groups in North Africa.
The operation, dubbed âGreenâ, started a year ago and ended last Friday with seven people under arrest - five Algerians, one Kosovar Albanian and a Spanish woman - in the El Perchel and Churriana districts of Malaga, in Torremolinos, Benalmádena, Estepona, Monda and Marbella.
Anti-terrorism sources revealed that in the last year alone the unit had âamassed vast sums of moneyâ and jewellery that had been sent to Algeria. The Minister explained that the gang sent large amounts of cash to Al Qaeda bases in North Africa using a âcomplicated system of bank transfersâand that these funds included amounts for terrorist groups in both Mauritania and Libya. Sums of money were even sent to the taliban in Afghanistan. The sources explained that on occasions the gang members even gave money in large denomination banknotes of 500 euros to an Algerian cleric. The Minister added that this unit was identical to the one broken up in Alicante and Granada on November 23rd. In that case four people were sent to prison.
The gang members arrested were taken to Madrid where they gave statements to the National Court on Monday. They all denied the charges against them.On Tuesday three of the seven, all Algerians, were sent to prison without bail by the judge, charged with collaborating with an armed gang. A fourth, also Algerian, was allowed bail of 3,000 euros. The rest, a Kosovar Albanian, an Algerian woman and a Spanish woman, were released on remand with charges pending and ordered to report to the court regularly.
The Minister insisted that there was no evidence that the gang was planning an immediate attack.
Investigations by Dutch police into Van Goghâs murder led to a connection between Bouyeri, alias Abu Zubair, and other Islamic activists. Homes linked to Bislam Achamedovich Ismailov and Kabez Ismailov were searched. The former was arrested in France and extradited to Holland while the latter is serving a prison sentence in Peru.
Posted by: Dan Darling ||
12/16/2005 00:18 ||
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That appeasement thingy works sooo well.Doesn't it?
Someone threw gasoline-filled bottles Thursday at a polling station in a Stockholm suburb where Iraqi expatriates were voting in parliamentary elections. The bottles did not catch fire. Police said one man had been seen throwing them against a window but he was bravely able to escape before security guards could arrest him. A group claiming to be a Swedish branch of al-Qaida sent a letter to several media organizations in the country claiming responsibility but experts said they doubted the claim.
It does sound pretty weak, doesn't it?
Police issued an alert to other Iraqi polling stations but no further attacks were reported. Sweden has not been the target of a major terrorist attack for decades and security police said they were investigating whether a Swedish al-Qaida branch even existed. "Anyone can use the name al-Qaida, it is a marketable name," Magnus Norell, a terrorism expert at the Swedish Defense Research Institute, told television station TV4. "But I am doubtful that there are any developed cells here in Sweden." Sweden, with a large immigrant population, has more than 70,000 people of Iraqi descent, of whom 40,000 are Iraqi citizens. They voted in the capital, Stockholm, and Goteborg in the southwest.
Posted by: Fred ||
12/16/2005 00:00 ||
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#1
I suspect I know what happened. He stuffed rags in a bottle full of ice-cold gasoline, then lit the rags and threw the bottles against something equally frozen.
That just doesn't work. But being from a warm climate, he wouldn't know that cold gasoline is hard as heck to light.
#3
Time to amend the manual. "Pour gasoline into large saucecan, warm over medium/high heat, stir occasionally with a wooden spoon." That should fix the problem.
#2
Some people are just too stupid to be given any kind of power. Russ Feingold has proven time and again he fits that description. This man is an assault to public integrity.
Posted by: Old Patriot ||
12/16/2005 13:40 Comments ||
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#3
Um, only the new Patriot Act add-ons were shot down. The Patriot Act as it is now will probably be given renewal.
Posted by: Rafael ||
12/16/2005 13:58 Comments ||
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#4
"Feingold, Craig and other critics said those efforts weren't enough, and have called for the law to be extended in its present form so they can continue to try and add more civil liberties safeguards."
It's being spinned though as a major defeat for Bush, as if the entire Act was thrown out.
Posted by: Rafael ||
12/16/2005 14:00 Comments ||
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#5
When the Second Shoe drops -- Jamie Gorelick's Wall of Separation comes back in full force on January 1, 2006 -- we will know who to hold accountable.
(AP) -- Sixteen provisions of the USA Patriot Act expire December 31 if not renewed by Congress:
Section 201: Gives federal officials the authority to intercept wire, spoken and electronic communications relating to terrorism.
Section 202: Gives federal officials the authority to intercept wire, spoken and electronic communications relating to computer fraud and abuse offenses.
Subsection 203(b): Permits the sharing of grand jury information that involves foreign intelligence or counterintelligence with federal law enforcement, intelligence, protective, immigration, national defense or national security officials
Subsection 203(d): Gives foreign intelligence or counterintelligence officers the ability to share foreign intelligence information obtained as part of a criminal investigation with law enforcement.
Section 204: Makes clear that nothing in the law regarding pen registers -- an electronic device which records all numbers dialed from a particular phone line -- stops the government's ability to obtain foreign intelligence information.
Section 206: Allows federal officials to issue roving "John Doe" wiretaps for spy and anti-terrorism investigations.
Section 207: Increases the amount of time that federal officials may watch people they suspect are spies or terrorists.
Section 209: Permits the seizure of voicemail messages under a warrant.
Section 212: Permits Internet service providers and other electronic communication and remote computing service providers to hand over records and e-mails to federal officials in emergency situations.
Section 214: Allows use of a pen register or trap and trace devices -- a device that records the originating phone numbers of all incoming calls on a particular phone line -- in international terrorism or spy investigations.
Section 215: Authorizes federal officials to obtain "tangible items" like business records, including those from libraries and bookstores, for foreign intelligence and international terrorism investigations.
Section 217: Makes it lawful to intercept the wire or electronic communication of a computer hacker or intruder in certain circumstances.
Section 218: Allows federal officials to wiretap or watch suspects if foreign intelligence gathering is a "significant purpose" for seeking a Federal Intelligence Surveillance Act order. The pre-Patriot Act standard said officials could ask for the surveillance only if it was "the" sole or main purpose.
Section 220: Provides for nationwide service of search warrants for electronic evidence.
Section 223: Amends the federal criminal code to provide for administrative discipline of federal officers or employees who violate prohibitions against unauthorized disclosures of information gathered under this act.
Section 225: Amends FISA to prohibit lawsuits against people or companies that provide information to federal officials for a terrorism investigation.
#10
Rafael, I think the original Patriot Act had a 5 year life. By not renewing it, it effectively dies until the next mega atrocity.
Posted by: ed ||
12/16/2005 15:24 Comments ||
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#11
but they dont want to not renew it, they want to remove some provisions, thats why Craig, Feingold et al asked for a temp extension, so it stays in place till a compromise is reached.
#12
The donks are fucking pukes in tandem with the NY Slimes, who represents the donks public relations dept.
What good does three months do? What a joke, a bad one security wise.
Posted by: Captain America ||
12/16/2005 16:27 Comments ||
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#13
I'm with LH on this one. I don't like certain parts of the Patriot Act, and I've seen it, in general, as much as a power grab by bureauocrats as anti-terrorism.
Some parts of PA we need. But adding nonsense like the crystal meth provision causes me to see the PA with considerable skepticism. I'd prefer a more narrowly drawn extension and hope that now Congress will do just that.
Posted by: Steve White ||
12/16/2005 16:55 Comments ||
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#14
Fox expert just confirmed (in his humble opinion)that this is a leak from inside, designed to damage the President and the WOT. Ya think?
Posted by: Bobby ||
12/16/2005 17:10 Comments ||
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#15
hard to believe, but I'm with LH as well. The Meth/drug add-ons have no place in a terror bill, and should be able to stand on their own....we just won't have any cold meds ever again OTC
Posted by: Frank G ||
12/16/2005 17:11 Comments ||
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#16
The defeat of the Patriot Act was due to the Democratic Party in the United States of America aligning themselves with the Council of Islamic Relations. (CAIR)
#18
Council of Islamic Relations (CAIR) set up a blog specifically to target the Patriot Act, the Act they said was cowardly in itself for existing. The blog provided information on how to contact and exert pressure on each representative.
It also provides extensive event by event coverage of everything happening on the floor of congress regarding the patriot act.
There are other sources that are now discussing the effectiveness of CAIR's campaign against the Patriot Act via thier contacts with the Democratic Party.
#19
No need to melt down over this just yet. Frist voted with the Dems to preserve his right to reintroduce the issue. The current theory is that the House will call for adjournment, Frist will throw down the gauntlet saying the the Dems, "You're not getting 30 days to dither, either approve the extension or take responsibility for the Act's sunset on 1/1/06," and the Dems will fall meekly in line because, despite their posturing, they *really* want no part of the blame for the next major attack that could have been prevented. We shall see.
#20
I used to laugh at my father when he would rant about the world situation. He used to say, "I got so mad when I watched the news that I had to go buy another case of amunition."
A Jordanian man has pleaded guilty to his role in a conspiracy to smuggle fellow countrymen and Iraqis into the United States, officials said on Tuesday. Thaer Omran Ismail Asaifi, 35, entered his guilty plea in the US District Court in Washington. Asaifi and his wife, Neeran Hakim Zaia, were indicted in October on charges they illegally helped bring more than 200 Iraqis and Jordanians into the United States through Ecuador and Peru from 2001 until Zaia's arrest in September 2004.
Right. The nation really needed 200 undocumented Iraqis and Jordanians.
Authorities believe Asaifi and Zaia, a US citizen, were trying to make money from the operation and have discounted any ties to terrorism. Zaia, of Sterling Heights, Michigan, remains under indictment. The couple worked with travel agents in the Middle East and smugglers in South America, charging $5,000 to $10,000 a person, according to the indictment. The would-be immigrants travelled mainly from Jordan to various spots in South America. After a layover, they boarded flights to Dulles International Airport, just outside Washington, authorities said. An undercover US agent posing as a smuggler helped infiltrate the operation. Asaifi faces a prison term of six to eight years, after which he will be deported, officials said. Sentencing is scheduled for May.
Posted by: Fred ||
12/16/2005 00:00 ||
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Lions of Islam at work
A little girl, raped and humiliated, is on the run from terrorists. But there is no one to help her. Not even the police. In a blatant act aimed at browbeating an already troubled people into submission, Lashkar-e-Taiba terrorists in a remote village of Rajouri have pasted posters of a 14-year-old girl whom they gangraped for months but failed to keep in detention.They are now trying to hound her out. There is a reward of Rs 50,000 for those who provide information to pin down the hunted child. A public interest litigation filed in the J&K high court by advocate AK Sawhney here on Wednesday said the law had to take urgent notice of the case and look into the action _ or the lack of it _ taken by the police and civil administration. The girl, daughter of Ashiq Hussain, a villager from Laroti in Rajouri district, was kidnapped by Lashkar terrorists two months ago. Among the terrorists were three locals and six foreign mercenaries.
I'm not clear on what they want. Do they want their plaything back, or are they planning to try her for the crime of being an impure hussy who caused them to lose control and rape her repeatedly for months and months? Or both?
Posted by: john ||
12/16/2005 11:59 ||
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Posted by: john ||
12/16/2005 16:03 Comments ||
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#6
Hopefully, she is living in a townhouse in Chevy Chase working on reducing the backlog of untranslated intercepts.
Posted by: Super Hose ||
12/16/2005 16:40 Comments ||
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#7
Native Kashmiri speaker...not that useful. The terrorists from the Pak Punjab and Pak Kashmir speak Urdu and Punjabi. The freaks in the NWFP speak Pashtun..
Posted by: john ||
12/16/2005 17:27 Comments ||
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#8
Teach her a new language. I have a feeling that she will be very grateful and loyal to a country where she is not imprisonned for the purpose of sexual assault.
Posted by: Super Hose ||
12/16/2005 17:35 Comments ||
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#9
Perhaps she can speak to the UN.... a little humiliation to the Islamic sickf&ck culture is in order
Posted by: Frank G ||
12/16/2005 18:41 Comments ||
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#10
Iâve pondered, and pondered, why the National Organization of Women (etc.) havenât come out of the woodwork screaming about this kind of disgusting atrocity. I finally figured it out. NOW and ilk simply appreciate the cultural differences between that country and ours.
Hereâs how it works.
//NOW think ON// In that country women donât mind being forced into marriage. So, the little girl didnât mind being kidnapped for marriage. And, since one man can marry many women, in this case (probably because of a special fatwa, and special needs and circumstances), the little girl became the wife of many men. In marriage, in that country, there can be no rape -- so all the âhusbandsâ never raped the little girl, they were just being good husbands. Itâs what the little girl wanted and she canât say she was raped any more than Juanita Broaddrick, etc., could say Clinton raped them. Finally, leaving a marriage without permission is like adultery and results in death (if thatâs what the husband wants to have happen); so, when the little girl ran away from her âhusbandsâ she was just asking to be hunted down and killed. Well, put in the proper context, thatâs not so bad, is it? //NOW think OFF//
#11
I have supported NOW many times in the past and yet I find this story sickening and disgusting like the rest of you. I just wonder whether anyone who can do anything about it will do anything about it, starting with "even the police" and the the 'hallowed humanitarians of the UN'.
Western consciousness is indeed a precious commodity.
This is the tie-breaker for Emily's WakiPaki Irredenta contest.
FAISALABAD: A group of armed men led by a man claiming to be the Imam Mehdi
Last week he was Elvis. The week before he was Napoleon Bonapart.
hijacked a bus on the Motorway and demanded to speak to President Gen Pervez Musharraf on Thursday.
"Perv! We wanna talk to Perv!"
They later surrendered and gave up the hostages after the police arrested their leader,
"We quit!"
but not before a man was killed and three injured in a shootout.
Must not have been the real Imam Mehdi since he didn't use his mind-ray.
He did, but it only melted part of the police car.
Senior Faisalabad police officials said that at around 12:30pm on Thursday, 35 to 40 armed men wearing orange uniforms came to an anti-narcotics police station at Allied Chowk in two cars, one pickup van and a motorcycle, all equipped with loudspeakers.
Then the motorcycle got the cord to the loudspeaker caught in the chain...
They started airing a message over the loudspeakers: âOur leader Shahbaz Khan is Imam Mehdi and heâll grace the world at 4pm after a severe earthquake. All Muslims are directed to immediately contact him.â
Or at least throw cash.
The men proceeded to drive around while playing the message, and also fired bullets in the air, one of which hit a passer-by, Muhammad Younas, in the leg.
If they were firing bullets into the air, does that mean Muhammad was flying over them at the time?
We don't have a pic of circus clowns in a little car, but it seems appropriate here.
A police team started chasing them,
"You, there! Halt!"
and were later joined by police from Jhang, Toba Tek Singh, Chiniot, and Pindi Bhattian.
"Calling all cars! Be on the lookout for Imam Mehdi! That is all!"
The police surrounded the men near Kamalpur Interchange, where the men were beating up motorway staff.
"Drop the bludgeon, Muggsy! We gotcha surrounded!"
When they saw the police, they stopped a bus going to Lahore with 40 passengers and held it hostage. There was then a crossfire shootout in which four of the men â Sharif, Sheikh Tahir and Naveed â were injured.
"Ow!"
"Ow!"
"Ow!
"Ow!"
Sharif later died in hospital.
"Rosebud!"
Wonder if his mother knew he was an apostate?
Shahbaz Khan announced his message again and demanded a meeting with senior federal authorities and the international press.
"Oh, yeah? Where's the earthquake?"
Police said the men initially claimed to be from the Anjuman Sarfroshan-e-Islam sect, but later claimed they belonged to a ânew religionâ, Deen-e-Younas.
Rut-roh, better not let the Bugtis hear about this.
The police convinced Shahbaz that they were going to take him to meet journalists, but arrested him instead.
"Yeah! We're gonna take you to meet some nice journalists... right over... here! Get 'im, boys!"
His accomplices then surrendered. A total of 29 men, including Shahbaz, were arrested and Nishatabad police registered cases against them under sections of the Pakistan Penal Code and the Anti-Terrorism Act.
"Book 'em, Danno!"
Police seized 12 7mm rifles, one double barrel rifle, nine pistols, one dagger and bullets from them.
Posted by: Steve White ||
12/16/2005 00:00 ||
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KATMANDU- Soldiers killed about a dozen civilians returning from a festival near Nepalâs capital after mistaking them for communist rebels, an official said on Thursday.
The army opened fire at the people around midnight, said Bashanta Raj Bhattarai, the chief administrative official of Bhakatpur district. He said he was not sure about the exact number of casualties but witnesses said at least a dozen had died.
Other details were not available and the army did not immediately comment on the incident.
Posted by: Steve White ||
12/16/2005 00:00 ||
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Gates of Vienna has posted a lengthy link-rich primer to Pakistan, the "unruly tiger which Pervez Musharraf inherited and is attempting to ride." I found it quite interesting and would especially like to hear see john's thoughts, as well as those of other RB India-Pak experts.
Excerpt:
Since the 1980s Pakistan has allowed extreme Islamist groups to operate openly within its borders. Even proscribed terrorist organizations flourish; when listed by the U.S. State Department they tend to change their names so as to avoid a crackdown.
Pakistanâs intelligence service, the ISI, finds these groups useful, since they are instrumental for operations in Kashmir. The groups infiltrate India, inflame the sentiments of like-minded Muslims there, and organize terrorist attacks against Indian targets. They can also be useful within Pakistan itself...
#1
It is basically a reiteration of what I and others have been saying for years, the Jihadi organisations in Pakistan serve as a deniable and self-sustaining force to fight the Military's proxy wars in Kashmir and Afghanistan.
As long as the Generals perceive that the Jihadis advance Pakistan's strategic objectives in those regions, they will always allow the Jihadi infrastructure to exist in the country, whilst moving against the 'free agents' of Al Qaeda who aren't good at following orders.
Posted by: Paul Moloney ||
12/16/2005 1:29 Comments ||
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#2
especially like to hear see john's thoughts
me three Sea.
Posted by: Red Dog ||
12/16/2005 1:34 Comments ||
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#3
The jihadis are not simply a tool. Many in the pak elite share the jihadi mindset.
Even if Pakistan got Kashmir, Hyderabad, Sir Creek, Junagadh (all of which it considers "disputed") it would still be much smaller and weaker than India.
Pakistani identity lies in muslim superiority and the negation of India.
A Pakistani is (a) muslim and (b) NOT Indian.
The common culture, history etc are to be ignored.
As long as India exists in the current form, with even a greater muslim population than Pakistan, the "Land of the Pure" remains stillborn.
Rehmat Ali, who actually coined the term "Pakistan" had far more expansive plans
This is from the Pak editor Khalid Hasan:
"It was to include the entire northwest of India, Kashmir, the Kathiawar peninsula, Kutch, several enclaves deep within UP, including Delhi and Lucknow. There were to be two independent Muslim states besides Pakistan: Bangistan comprising Bengal and Assam in the east and Osmanistan in the south. These two were to form a federation with Pakistan. The 243 principalities or Rajwaras were to be divided among caste Hindus and "others" and then herded together in a ghetto called Hanoodia. As for the Sikhs, they were to be pushed into an enclave called Sikhia. Other races and religions were to inhabit an encampment by the name of Hanadika. Every non-Muslim was to remain subservient to the master race he called "The Paks". And yes, the subcontinent was to be renamed Dinia. "
The Pak strategy aims to dismember India. Only surrounded by a number of small weak states could Pakistan, and its army, flourish. It would dominate the subcontinent, recreating the fantasy of muslim superiority.
This is from Pak columnist Ayaz Amir:
"Islam was not in danger in pre-1947 India. Indeed, considering the sectarian violence and religious bigotry we face today, it was in better health then. Nor was democracy the issue because even if partition had not happened, India was getting democracy once the British left. The Indian Independence Act promised that.
So what was the compelling reason for the Muslims to insist on a separate homeland especially when there was no going around the uncomfortable fact that, no matter how generously the frontiers of the new state were drawn, an uncomfortably large number of Muslims would remain in India?
The purpose of Pakistan, transcending anything to do with safeguarding Islam or promoting democracy, was to create conditions for the Muslims of India, or those who found themselves in the new state, to recreate the days of their lost glory."
This is key to understanding "Pakistan Irredenta".
Posted by: john ||
12/16/2005 6:30 Comments ||
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#4
BTW holding the terrorists âby the scruff of the neck,â are actually Musharraf's words.
During the Kargil war, he visted China, hoping for support. The telephone in his Beijing hotel suite was tapped (by a country friendly to India) and his conversation with another General taped.
He was insistent he could control the jihadis. He had them by the neck and they would not dare act without permission.
Posted by: john ||
12/16/2005 6:41 Comments ||
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#5
One wonders if the Pak strategy could have succeeded.
Nehru believed that partition would be temporary.
In 1960 he said to the British writer, Leonard Mosley:
âWe expected that partition would be temporary, that Pakistan was bound to come back to us.â
Nehru was anti-military, not just from his pacifist beliefs but seeing the Indian army as a colonial force.
This is from an article by R V Parasnis, a former IAF Wing Commander:
"The roots of politicisation of the army are to be found in Nehru's hatred for the man in uniform. Soon after Independence the first commander-in-chief of the Indian armed forces, General Sir Robert Lockhart, presented a paper outlining a plan for the growth of the Indian Army to Prime Minister Nehru.
Nehru's reply: "We don't need a defence plan. Our policy is non-violence. We foresee no military threats. You can scrap the army. The police are good enough to meet our security needs."
He didn't waste much time. On September 16, 1947, he directed that the army's then strength of 280,000 be brought down to 150,000. Even in fiscal 1950-51, when the Chinese threat had begun to loom large on the horizon, 50,000 army personnel were sent home as per his original plan to disband the armed forces.
After Independence, he once noticed a few men in uniform in a small office the army had in North Block, and angrily had them evicted. "
Pakistan would have been well placed to finish the job of partition in 1965 if Nehru had continued.
The 1962 Indian-Chinese war put a stop to all this
This was Nehru, in a 1963 speech to the Rajya Sabha (the upper house of the Indian parliament)
"I remember many a time when our senior generals came to us, and wrote to the defence ministry saying that they wanted certain things... If we had had foresight, known exactly what would happen, we would have done something else... what India has learnt from the Chinese invasion is that in the world of today there is no place for weak nations... We have been living in an unreal world of our own creation."
Posted by: john ||
12/16/2005 6:59 Comments ||
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#6
I guess I kind of see the point of Pakistan's tame jihadis. They get money from across the globe. Muslims will donate money for a holy war in Kashmir. They're not going to donate money to the Pakistani military so it can become bigger and stronger. Using terrorists in Kashmir also gives Pakistan plausible deniability. If Pakistan actually attacked Kashmir directly, it would result in the Indian military pushing right back. By using terrorists against India, Pakistan gets some free hits without any Indian response. Pakistan is willing to fight to the last dead jihadi.
A similar type of reasoning applies to Muslim sponsorship for terrorist attacks against American targets. What many Muslim countries are angry about in the post-9/11 environment, because of Afghanistan and Iraq, is that they can't get free hits against Uncle Sam, except in those two countries. But that's expensive and involves heavy Muslim casualties. But what Muslims really like is to kill large numbers of American civilians. Unfortunately for them, they can't really do this any more. Unlike India, the US will strike out at the top several Muslim countries on its enemies list. And this impotence in terms of killing American civilians is what's getting Muslims riled up, more than anything else.
#7
nehru: I remember many a time when our senior generals came to us, and wrote to the defence ministry saying that they wanted certain things... If we had had foresight, known exactly what would happen, we would have done something else... what India has learnt from the Chinese invasion is that in the world of today there is no place for weak nations... We have been living in an unreal world of our own creation.
A lot of Indian history about British rule is fantasy. Why should fantastical defense policies be a surprise? India itself is an artificial country unified by British force of arms - against other comers, including Persia, Russia and China. For Nehru to decide that a military did not matter is sheer fantasy. Don't get me started about how Indian history portrays the British as exploiters and scum of the earth. They were there for a few hundred years and brought to India railways, sanitation, universal education, et al. What Indian rulers brought in their thousands of years of rule can be summarized by imperial palaces like the Taj Mahal. There is no despot like a native despot.
#8
For India, there is nothing "plausible" about the Pak deniability. They have intercepted enough radio traffic, captured enough jihadis and have enough spies to know exactly what is going on.
However the Pakistan military is a formidible opponent to a country like India. Unlike the USA, it cannot being overwhelming force to bear. It simply doesn't have the capability.
And since the early 1980s, courtesy of China, there have been nukes.
Pakistan has used its nuclear weapons as cover for the jihad.
The Pak columnist Ejaz Haidar talks about permanent "subconventional war". It can bleed India by "a war of a thouand cuts" while threatening to go nuclear if India crosses various "red lines".
Thus the Pak army can fire artillery barrages onto Indian positions as cover for the infiltration of groups of jihadis across the LOC.
This is unique for a nuclear power dealing with another nuclear power. Unheard of during the cold war.
The press will report this as India-Pakistan "trading fire" without actually stating the reason for the exchange.
And limited war is still a possibility. The Pak strategy is to grab territory for a later trade. They rely on the outside world to place enough pressure (arms and oil embargo by the UNSC against the combatants) on India that any war will be of short duration and limited in scope. War will bring outside mediation and "external balancing" - the influence of great powers and thereby force India to give concessions .
Posted by: john ||
12/16/2005 7:32 Comments ||
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#9
summarized by imperial palaces like the Taj Mahal.
The activities of muslim conquerors from Arabia and Central Asia can hardly be considered examples of native Indian rule.
Posted by: john ||
12/16/2005 7:41 Comments ||
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#10
John said:
The jihadis are not simply a tool. Many in the pak elite share the jihadi mindset....
Pakistani identity lies in muslim superiority and the negation of India.
A Pakistani is (a) muslim and (b) NOT Indian.
A few months go we had on Rantburg an atrticle where an article where a Pakistani political party prodly told it was the only paty who advocated giving every Pakistani an Indian slave after India had been conquered
Posted by: john ||
12/16/2005 7:53 Comments ||
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#12
A lot of Indian history about British rule is fantasy.
Sleeman gathered tons of evidence of the Thuggee cult. He had informers who identified not only other Thugs, but also led to the uncovering of victims' bodies. He put together intricate family trees showing the connections between the members, and those led him to new informers who provided more accurate information.
And most of the modern books you find that talk about the Thugs refer to them as a colonial myth, invented by Sleeman to justify British rule of India.
I don't blame the Indians so much as the whole post-colonial "blame the west for the rest of the world's problems" mentality.
Posted by: Robert Crawford ||
12/16/2005 7:55 Comments ||
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#13
Nobody disputes that a lot of the British legacy has been good. The Indian PM Manmohan Singh recently stated so in a speech to his alma mater (Oxford).
But there was a lot of bad also.
Some Indians have written that it was all worth it because colonialism finally removed the "yoke of muslim rule".
Whenever Islamic rule waned in the subcontinent, a fresh invasion restored it.
The conquests of Ranjit Singh (the Punjab and Afghanistan) and the Mahratta kings who drove the Mughals back may have been only temporary but for the Raj.
The sclerosis of the Ottomans and the British death blows to both the Ottoman and the Mughal Empires ended any hope for muslim domination (and set the stage for the current wave of islamism)
Posted by: john ||
12/16/2005 8:13 Comments ||
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#14
Pakistan can wait till after Iran is resolved. Then they'll be surrounded.
Police Thursday arrested a criminal, calling himself Imam Mehdi, along with his 25 accomplices after a shootout in eastern Punjab province that killed one and wounded three others, said police.
An hour-long shootout. One deader. Three winged. A bus full of hostages, and mass arrests. A good time was had by all.
Except the dead guy, of course.
The Inspector General and Senior Superintendent Police (SSP) of Faisalabad city, about 250 kilometers South of Islamabad, were on routine patrol when some unknown gangsters assaulted them with rifles, a local police official Mubashir Nazir told KUNA. Upon retaliation fire, which lasted for about an hour, the gangsters tried to escape, said Nazir. He said Police chased them and when they reached the Motorway, leading toward Islamabad, they stopped a bus on gunpoint and took about 40 passengers as hostages. Immediately after the incident, police called in more force from nearby cities and were negotiating the gangsters. The leader of the gangsters group, Shehbaz, called himself Immam Mehdi, and threatened police of dire consequences if they tried to arrest him or his accomplices. He demanded to call President General Pervez Musharraf in Faislabad and that he wanted to talk to the President directly.
"He's waiting for my call."
After negotiations of two and half hour, he said, Shehbaz gangster released all the bus passengers. There was an exchange of fire that killed one gangster and critically wounded three others, he said, adding that Police succeeded in arresting all 26 gangsters along with their leader. Rana Zahid Tauseef, the city mayor, said they were interrogating them and determining their identities as well as from where they got hold of weapons in such a huge quantity. According to Muslims faith, a cleric, Immam Mehdi, will come before the doomsday. Many people earlier had been claiming to be Immam Mehdi, but very few of them get up a posse and go about assulting the cops.
KUWAIT: Two Pakistani drivers died in a roadside bomb explosion in Iraq, a source said. Muhammad Asif, a resident of Lahore and another Pakistani driver were taking oil tankers from Kuwait to Iraq 24 days ago, when Muhammad Asifâs tanker skidded off the road due to over speeding ...
... there's bad luck ...
... and hit a road side bomb destroying the trucks and killing Asif.
... and real bad luck.
Muhammad Asifâs body would be sent to his native house Pakistan with in few days. There is no clue of the other driverâs body however.
Posted by: Steve White ||
12/16/2005 00:00 ||
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Italy's defense minister said Thursday the country will pull 300 more troops out of Iraq in January, continuing a gradual withdrawal begun earlier this year. Antonio Martino said the reduction would bring Italian troop levels in Iraq to 2,600, in comments confirmed by his ministry. The reduction follows the pullout of an initial batch of around 10 percent, or about 300 troops, in September, Martino said.
Premier Silvio Berlusconi, a strong U.S. ally, defied strong domestic opposition and sent about 3,000 troops to Iraq to help rebuild the country after the ouster of Saddam Hussein in 2003. Berlusconi's government has said any withdrawal would depend on the security situation in Iraq and be made in agreement with coalition allies and with the Iraqi government. Martino reiterated this position during talks with Defense Secretary Donald H. Rumsfeld in Washington last month. Following the visit, the Defense Ministry said the "gradual withdrawal of the soldiers will not amount to an Italian abandonment of the commitments made with the allies and the Iraqi government."
Posted by: Fred ||
12/16/2005 00:00 ||
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A leader from the radical Islamic Jihad movement escaped an Israeli assassination attempt when his car was hit by an Israeli missile, just hours after four militants were killed in a similar strike, Palestinian security sources said. The car was not completely destroyed and Islamic Jihad political leader Khader Habib escaped with only slight injuries and a change of underwear, sources in the radical movement said.
"Khader! Where's yer arms?"
"It's just a scratch, Mahmoud!"
The blast occurred in the eastern Al-Shejaiyeh district where the earlier explosion took place. Top Jihad official Mohammed al-Hindi condemned the attempted targeting of one of the movement's top political figures, and said the group would respond. "The attempted assassination of one of Islamic Jihad's political leaders is a very dangerous move," he told AFP. "It is our right to answer these crimes of the occupation."
"Yeah! He wudn't doin' nuttin'!"
The Israeli army had no immediate comment on the blast.
Of course not. They were gritting their teeth and muttering "Curses! Foiled again!"
Several hours earlier, four militants from the Popular Resistance Committees were killed and three others wounded when an unmanned Israeli drone fired two missiles at their vehicle. The army said the militants were on their way to carry out an attack at the Karni industrial crossing.
Now they're well on their way to decomposition.
Posted by: Fred ||
12/16/2005 00:00 ||
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#1
Of course not. They were gritting their teeth and muttering, "Bummer, Dude".
Another act of terrorism was thwarted early Thursday morning when IDF reserve forces arrested a Palestinian woman in the West Bank village of A-Sira A-Shamaliya suspected of planning to commit a suicide bombing. She was handed over to questioning by security forces.
On Wednesday, a massive explosion occurred in Gaza when the IAF launched a missile at a car that turned out to be laden with explosives. The incident triggered a barrage of Kassams from the Gaza Strip into Israel on Thursday.
Posted by: Fred ||
12/16/2005 00:00 ||
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The Philippine military chief, General Generoso Senga, says two Islamic militants who allegedly organised the 2002 Bali bombings are in the southern Philippines and are soliciting funds for future attacks.
The Indonesian men, Dulmatin and Umar Patek, are suspected members of the Jemaah Islamiyah extremist group.
Our reporter in Manila, Shirley Escalante, say the pair have fled to the southern Philippines from Indonesia and are on the run.
General Senga says security forces have stepped up their efforts to track down and capture the men.
Intelligence officials say Dulmatin and Umar Patek are being protected by the Philippine militant group, Abu Sayyaf.
They say reports that the men have cut their ties with Jemaah Islamiyah could be a ploy to reduce efforts by Indonesian and Philippine authorities to go after them.
The militants have reportedly communicated with Jemaah Islamiyah members on how they could continue their operations in the Philippines and Indonesia.
Posted by: Dan Darling ||
12/16/2005 00:44 ||
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Police have ordered churches in the Indonesian city of Solo to dig holes to throw away suspicious objects that might be bombs, a newspaper said on Friday, amid fears of Christmas-related attacks.
Police across the world's most populous Muslim country have been stepping up security measures ahead of the year-end holidays to avoid a repeat of 2000 Christmas Eve bombings of churches in several Indonesian cities which killed 19 people.
"If there is any suspicious object, whether it could be a bomb or not, it can be thrown straight away into the hole. After that, report to the police so that it can be investigated," Koran Tempo newspaper quoted Solo police chief Abdul Madjid as saying.
Madjid added that besides digging the one-metre (3 ft) deep holes, churches should tell their congregations to only bring essential items to Christmas events and avoid carrying backpacks.
Police in Solo could not immediately be reached for comment on the report.
Volunteers from Indonesia's largest Islamic group have said they would help police guard churches across the vast country during the holiday season.
Around 17,000 policemen are expected to secure Christmas celebrations in the capital Jakarta alone.
Around 85 percent of Indonesia's 220 million people are Muslim. Christians form the second largest religious group in the country as a whole, as well as in Jakarta.
Although Indonesia has been relatively calm in recent weeks, many security analysts say threats of militant attacks still run high because police have yet to catch one of the alleged masterminds of previous bombings, Malaysian-born Noordin M. Top.
Posted by: Dan Darling ||
12/16/2005 00:15 ||
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#1
Police have ordered churches in the Indonesian city of Solo to dig holes to throw away suspicious objects that might be bombs,
No dammit, not at roadside, further back, further than that, much further, no dammit go back more than three feet.
Posted by: Redneck Jim ||
12/16/2005 8:21 Comments ||
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#2
They already have all the holes they need.
Called mosques.
Posted by: Barbara Skolaut ||
12/16/2005 16:17 Comments ||
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Iran has bought 18 BM-25 missiles from North Korea which the Islamic Republic wants to transform to extend their range, the German press reported Dec. 16.
âIran has bought 18 disassembled BM-25 missiles from North Korea with a range of 2,500 kilometers (1,553 miles),â Bild newspaper said, citing a report from the German secret services.
It added that Iranâs ultra conservative President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad wants to have the range of the missiles âextended to 3,500 kilometersâ.
The newspaper said that until now Iran only had Shehab-3 missiles with a range of 1,300 kilometers.
It further cited the secret service report as warning that âwith a longer range, and the probability that (Tehran) would try to equip the missiles with nuclear warheads, there is the risk that Iran could strike at Israel and parts of central Europe.â
It added that according to the German intelligence services, Iranian experts were already working on fitting the missiles with nuclear warheads.
The report comes amid outrage at remarks by Ahmadinejad calling the Holocaust a âmythâ, and a warning from Tehran on Friday that it would respond in a âswift and destructiveâ way if attacked by Israel.
Posted by: john ||
12/16/2005 16:12 ||
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Gee, I wonder who they're thinkin' about hittin' with that 3500km range? London, perhaps?
#5
4000km is the magic number. That will hit all of Europe. 3500km will target all but Spain and the UK, including all the Russian population centers east of the Urals. Irian Ballistic Missiles see map at bottom
Posted by: ed ||
12/16/2005 17:44 Comments ||
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#6
west of the Urals
Posted by: ed ||
12/16/2005 17:44 Comments ||
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#7
The question is, when were these missiles bought and delivered?
#8
But, but, but, how could the Mad Mullahs work with those NKor Stalinists? I mean, can you say "Whoa! These are WAY different countries, so how could they work with each other"?
If this were true, then that means Saddam, a (aleged) mooslim, who hosted and paid known terrorists, who was known to have used and suspected of still having WMDs, could possibly, might have, maybe worked with Islamic terrorists? Like al-Queda? Naw, never happen.
HAMBURG - German intelligence believes Iran has now bought 18 longer-range missiles from North Korea, giving Tehran the capability to attack targets in central Europe, the German daily newspaper Bild reported Friday.
The study by the foreign intelligence service BND said the BM-25 missiles were being purchased from Pyongyang in the form of kit sets. The mobile missiles, which are based on the Russian SS-N-6 missile for submarine launch, will have a nominal range of 2,500 kilometres.
However it was possible to upgrade them to hit targets 3,500 kilometres away, the Munich-based BND said.
Iran already has Shehab-3 missiles with a range of 1,300 kilometres.
Bild quoted the BND dossier as saying: "Germany and other parts of Europe could be affected in the medium to long term by the Iranian missile programme."
It added: "With longer ranges in the future, combined with the apparent efforts to obtain nuclear warheads, Iran would be in a position to reach all of Israel and parts of central Europe.
Posted by: john ||
12/16/2005 18:41 Comments ||
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#10
Given the slow death that North Korea is living, it is a distinct possibility that both they and Iran will try it on at the same time.
The entire world still remembers 1968, when the US was so distracted elsewhere, and pretty powerless anyway, that the invasion of Czechoslovakia went off without serious repercussions to Russia.
It took us 23 years, and Ronald Reagan, to finally redeem that stain.
Posted by: Dave D. ||
12/16/2005 18:47 Comments ||
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#12
but cleansing....I see problems that won't last a a year before resolution
Posted by: Frank G ||
12/16/2005 18:51 Comments ||
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#13
The question now is.. what exactly did they get from AQ Khan either directly (from the network) or indirectly (from North Korea) ?
Pakistan traded the Chinese bomb design for North Korean ballistic missiles.
Iran has nothing that valuable to trade (technology wise) but has two things that North Korea wants badly - oil and hard currency.
Has North Korea sold the Chinese weapon designs to Iran?
What about Plutonium or Uranium?
Posted by: john ||
12/16/2005 18:54 Comments ||
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#14
I think you're right, Frank, though it's gonna be one of those "no way to go around it but to go through it" deals...
Posted by: Dave D. ||
12/16/2005 19:00 Comments ||
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#15
makes it easier to go through when there's already big smokin' holes...heh heh
Posted by: Frank G ||
12/16/2005 19:28 Comments ||
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#16
Israel needs to shove this over the tipping point really, really soon.
#20
"And that would be really good for the Dhimmicrats, right?"
The really pathetic irony of this whole thing is that if the Donks had made a decision back in late 2001/early 2002 to support the war wholeheartedly-- and stuck with that support through the 2004 election-- they would very likely have a majority in the House and in the Senate, and maybe even have the Presidency as well.
Can you imagine what their situation would be today if they'd taken the absolutely titanic amount of energy they've poured into bashing Bush and the war, and put it instead into coming up with an attractive (i.e., realistic, practical and effective) suite of domestic policy initiatives that actually addressed the real concerns of real Americans???
Instead, they decided to unleash the roaring tiger of MoveOn.org's and DU's BDS Brigades, and take a ride on it-- except that ride didn't take them to victory.
And now they can't even get off that tiger.
Poor, dumb fucks...
Posted by: Dave D. ||
12/16/2005 20:42 Comments ||
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#21
The long-range missiles are intended to be used by the Moolahs for generating nuclear energy, don't you know.
Just think, they plan to provide nuke energy for Israel and Europe. How generous.
Posted by: Captain America ||
12/16/2005 21:54 Comments ||
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#22
I would be absolutely amazed if Iran isn't Swiss cheese by the end of 2006.
Considering the timeline for their development of nuclear weapons I'd be somewhat amazed if that didn't happen in the next 90-ish days.
Anti-Syrian Lebanese figures including Walid Jumblatt, the Druze leader, and Marwan Hamadeh, the minister for telecommunications, are among six men on what a Lebanese newspaper said was a new hit-list. Al-Balad newspaper, quoting government and parliamentary sources, on Thursday named the other alleged targets "on the hit-list of people to be killed" as Wael Abu Faoor, Samir Franjieh, Elias Atallah and Farid Makari, all deputies.
The list was published a day after prominent anti-Syrian MP and press magnate Jebran Tueni was buried in a politically and emotionally charged funeral following his killing in a bomb blast, which many blamed on Damascus. The six people named on Thursday all belong to the anti-Syrian majority in parliament that swept the polls in June in the first election in Lebanon after Syria withdrew from the country, ending nearly 30 years of political and military domination.
Posted by: Fred ||
12/16/2005 00:00 ||
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Is Ass(w)ad going to go full-on until someone steps on him like a bug?
Yes, it's all he can do. Any sign of weakness, any pause, will result in revolution and revolt. As it is, he needs to be visited by a friendly tomahawk with a non-nuke lethal warhead - in the middle of a policy debate with his 'cabinet'.
Posted by: Old Patriot ||
12/16/2005 14:22 Comments ||
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U.S. officials are skeptical of a report on an Afghan news site about a new video showing Osama bin Laden.
The story from Pajhwok Afghan News, dated Tuesday, describes a new 30-minute tape with a message from Taliban commander Mullah Dodallah and the al-Qaida leader, according to the IntelCenter, a U.S. government contractor that does work for intelligence agencies.
A U.S. counterterrorism official, who spoke only on condition of anonymity in compliance with office policy, said the government could not confirm the tape's existence, but said officials are aware of the media report. U.S. authorities are viewing it skeptically, the official said.
Bin Laden has not been heard from since a December 2004 audio statement. That is the longest stretch the terror leader has been publicly quiet since the attacks of Sept. 11, 2001.
The IntelCenter also released an analysis Thursday of a new video from the group run by al-Qaida in Iraq's leader, Abu Musab al-Zarqawi.
The center said the 9-minute recording appears to be an effort to promote a new video about an April attack on Iraq's Abu Ghraib prison, which has been in the middle of the controversy over the U.S. treatment of detainees.
Posted by: Dan Darling ||
12/16/2005 00:40 ||
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*snicker* the 9-minute recording appears to be an effort to promote a new video about an April attack on Iraq's Abu Ghraib prison. The center said which has been in the middle of the controversy over the U.S. treatment of detainees
this is funny on so many levels...not the first of which is the image of a little test tube of blood and bone matter, with a little face on it, speaking to the camera. And...as for the rest of it, it must really suck to be a George Soros-esque liberal, trying so hard to believe.
#2
The center said the 9-minute recording appears to be an effort to promote a new video about an April attack on Iraq's Abu Ghraib prison, which has been in the middle of the controversy over the U.S. treatment of detainees.
New from K-Tel and Time-Life Video. Operators are standing by!
Also, nice swipe at Bush there...like Osama, Zawahiri & Co. give a rats' arse about the treatment of the detainees, other than their propaganda value. Jihadis are merely tools, and most of them are sent to Abu Ghraib with specific AQ training as to how to be a prisoner to maximize their propaganda value...stories of Koran flushing etc...
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.
A suicide bomber detonated explosives near a major shrine in a northern Afghanistan city yesterday, killing himself but causing no other injuries, police said. The bomber had explosives wrapped around his body and detonated them in a park beside a large shrine in Mazar-e-Sharif, the capital of Balkh province. He was outside the shrine when the explosives went off, according to Sheir Jahn Durani, spokesman for the local police. The bomberâs motive was not immediately clear.
Unidentified gunmen riding motorcycles yesterday shot dead a well-known pro-government Islamic cleric in Afghanistanâs volatile southern city of Kandahar, police said. 
The Preliminary Court held its first session on Monday to trial two of the suspects involved in the assassination attempt on the former U.S. Ambassador to Yemen in December 2004. The sitting was chaired by Judge Mohamed Al-Baadani and the trial proceeded in the presence of representatives from the U.S. Embassy. The Secretary of the Judge read out the indictment against defendants 
JAMALPUR, Dec 14: Just-held 
A group claiming to be a Swedish branch of al-Qaida sent a letter to several media organizations in the country claiming responsibility but experts said they doubted the claim. 
A Jordanian man has pleaded guilty to his role in a conspiracy to smuggle fellow countrymen and Iraqis into the United States, officials said on Tuesday. 
Police Thursday arrested a criminal, calling himself 
Italy's defense minister said Thursday the country will pull 300 more troops out of Iraq in January, continuing a gradual withdrawal begun earlier this year. 
A leader from the radical 
Anti-Syrian Lebanese figures including 
