Taliban guerrillas attacked a high school in southern Afghanistan yesterday, killing a guard and a male teenage student, a witness said.
Two attackers arrived at the school in Lashkargah, the capital of the troubled southern province of Helmand, just before noon, said the witness, Sargar Mohamed.
âThey shot the watchman and opened fire on some teachers but didnât hit any, but they shot dead an 18-year-old student,â Mohamed said.
They then went out firing into the air and called on people to obey their orders to shut down schools, saying they would be killed if they did not.
Helmand police chief Abdul Rahman Sabir confirmed that Taliban gunmen had killed two people in their latest attack on a school.
On Thursday, suspected Taliban guerrillas dragged a teacher from a classroom of teenagers in another district of Helmand and executed him at the school gate after he ignored their orders to stop teaching girls, police said.
President Hamid Karzai called the killing of the teacher a âheinous act of terrorismâ.
âI condemn it in the strongest terms,â he said in a statement. âThe enemies of Afghanistan must understand that their evil acts wonât close doors on schools in our country.â
The Taliban banned education of girls during their years in power before being overthrown by US-led forces in late 2001.
Meanwhile, hundreds of villagers clashed with police near Afghanistanâs capital to demand the release of six men they said were ordinary mullahs but whom police suspected were Taliban fighters, authorities said yesterday.
The villagers rioted in Logar province just south of Kabul on Friday, breaking windows and throwing stones, deputy police chief Abdul Rasoul said. Gunfire was also heard coming from the mob, he said.
The crowd claimed police had shot dead two of the protesters, Rasoul said, adding though that officers had only fired into the air and that no bodies had been found after the clash.
âWeâve seen some blood at the scene of the riot but not any bodies to back up their claims. We are investigating everything,â he said.
The protest erupted in the provinceâs Charkh district after police arrested the men, alleging they had been preparing to ambush a police convoy.
âFour men were arrested on Thursday and two others on Friday. We suspect that they have links to Taliban,â Rasoul said. The men were being questioned, he said.
âAn investigation will reveal whether theyâre Taliban or not.â
Posted by: Dan Darling ||
12/18/2005 01:25 ||
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Find these bastards and kill them on the spot, attacking schoolteachers is a blow against all free people.
Posted by: Redneck Jim ||
12/18/2005 9:18 Comments ||
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It was a serious crime prior to the Civil War in much of the US to teach slaves to read, but I don't believe it was a capital offense. The motivation was the same - keep people uneducated so it is easier to keep them subjugated.
A three-member Pakistani parliamentary delegation left for Kabul on Saturday to represent the country in the first meeting of the Afghan parliament, which is scheduled to meet on Monday, parliamentary sources said. National Assembly Deputy Speaker Sardar Muhammad Yaqub is leading the delegation. The other members of the delegation are MNAs Syed Javed Hussain and Maulana Ghulam Muhammad Sadiq. The delegation will stay in Kabul till December 22 and meet Afghan leaders.
"Youse guys remember who's yer daddy, right?"
Other foreign dignitaries including US Vice President Richard B Cheney will attend the opening session of the 249-seat Wolesi Jirga, the lower house. Security has been tightened for the event. A Taliban suicide attacker recently blew up a car near the parliament, killing himself and another man.
The imprisoned leader of Egypt's liberal Ghad party has been taken to hospital after his health deteriorated on the eighth day of a hunger strike. Ayman Nour is refusing to eat in protest at being detained on forgery charges, his wife said on Saturday.
Nour, who came a distant runner up in September's presidential election, is a diabetic, and doctors said the hunger strike could lead to a coma and eventually death as his blood becomes more acidic, damaging his vital organs. Gameela Ismail, Nour's wife and spokeswoman, said: "He has been moved to the prison hospital, suffering from a high level of acetone in his blood and urine, which eventually leads to a coma and threatens his life." Nour was imprisoned on 5 December for the duration of his trial, along with six others, on accusations they forged the papers required for his party to be officially recognised last year. The verdict is due on 24 December.
Posted by: Fred ||
12/18/2005 15:04 ||
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These days, there are few clear victories in the battle against terrorism. Instead, the effort is increasingly coming down to a series of arrests like the ones in Spain in early December. Police captured seven Algerians accused of stealing luxury goods from vacation homes along Spain's southern coast. Authorities say that the gang had infiltrated the high-end real-estate market to pick up tips on which homes to target. The real significance, however, is that the suspects were allegedly funneling the proceeds to other Algerian militants for attacks in Afghanistan and perhaps in Europe. But investigators do not know who would have carried out the attacks.
The bust of this alleged logistics cell follows a spate of recent arrests of Algerian militants in Spain, Italy, France, and even Canada. Authorities fear that they have unearthed only the tip of a larger network of North African militants in Europe, many of them tied to the Algeria-based Salafist Group for Call and Combat (known by its initials in French as GSPC). U.S. officials fear that these groups are becoming the new frontline troops in the al Qaeda movement.
For those in the U.S. government who track terrorism, it is getting harder and harder to figure out who, exactly, the enemy is. Ryan Crocker, the U.S. ambassador to Pakistan, suggested last week that Osama bin Laden no longer has operational control of al Qaeda. In fact, it's not clear that anybody does at this point. "Al Qaeda's central leadership has not directly orchestrated or even had foreknowledge of most of the antiwestern attacks since 9/11," a U.S. counterterrorism official tells U.S. News. The most prominent successor is Abu Musab Zarqawi and his network of foreign suicide bombers in Iraq, but attacks like the Madrid train bombings in March 2004 are of growing concern. Those blasts, which killed 191 people, have been tied to the Moroccan Islamic Combatant Group, a shadowy, loose-knit outfit even more mysterious than the GSPC.
Intelligence officials fear that these North African groups could be the future, more anonymous face of the terrorist threat. The GSPC, which grew out of Algeria's violent civil war in the 1990s, was once seen mostly as a local threat. But the group, which had developed an extensive European exile support network, now has much broader ambitions. "The concern is that they could link up with other extremists to launch attacks beyond Algeria, particularly on soft targets frequented by westerners," says one U.S. counterterrorism official.
U.S. News has learned that some U.S. officials now believe that the GSPC, after years of contacts with al Qaeda leaders, has formally allied itself with bin Laden. That conclusion is still under debate in the intelligence community, but the GSPC's public statements praise al Qaeda increasingly often. In addition, European officials believe that the GSPC has approached al Qaeda leaders with a proposal that it be assigned a mission in North Africa that mirrors Zarqawi's role in Iraq.
Not everyone is convinced the GSPC is that dangerous. A successful offensive by Algerian authorities has killed many militants and left GSPC's leadership in turmoil. Experts also suggest the group's interest is predominantly criminal--mostly smuggling cigarettes and drugs. It does not have a track record of using tactics like car bombs and has not been credited for many successful attacks.
But GSPC operatives have been implicated in several serious plots, including Ahmed Ressam's alleged attempt to blow up the Los Angeles airport in 1999 and one against the Christmas market in Strasbourg, France, in 2000. "The power of the GSPC is not what's in Algeria," says Evan Kohlmann, an international terrorism consultant who has tracked the group. "It's what's in Europe." European estimates suggest the group retains 800 to 900 operatives.
In Europe, officials are worried about the increasing contacts between militants from different groups, including the GSPC and the Moroccan network behind the Madrid bombings. In fact, formal groupings probably have less relevance. "The way to look at it is a collection of autonomous moving parts that sometimes mesh with each other and sometimes are completely independent," says Bruce Hoffman, a terrorism expert at the Rand think tank. "The terrorist groups may be the equivalent of holding companies, where the links are tenuous and changing." The GSPC has declared that its top external target is France, Algeria's former colonial ruler and home to millions of Muslims of North African descent. In September, French police arrested a group of GSPC-linked Algerians who allegedly were exploring attacks against the Paris subway.
U.S. military and intelligence officials are also monitoring the growing influence of a particularly violent GSPC cell in the Sahara desert south of Algeria. GSPC operatives have been retreating into the lawless rural areas of Algeria's neighbors like Mali and Mauritania. "They have set up shop there in what we're afraid will become the new Afghanistan," says a senior U.S. military specialist on the region. "We don't want them to become the training center of excellence for all the jihadists in the world."
Even more alarming, intelligence officials picked up signals this past summer that the GSPC was reaching out to other militants in a broad recruiting effort. There could be many opportunities for new recruits to gain real-world experience. In one of its boldest efforts, the GSPC kidnapped 32 European tourists in the Algerian desert in 2003. More recently, the group claimed responsibility for an attack on a remote Mauritanian Army post that killed 15 soldiers. "The quality of training videos on how to build bombs is just staggering," says the military official. "You combine that with a free-fire zone in the wild west of Mali, and you have a problem that is just overwhelming." This concern prompted the U.S. government to launch a trans-Sahara initiative that includes development aid as well as training for local security forces. This year the budget is only $20 million, but it could reach $100 million eventually.
Some experts have accused the U.S. military of exaggerating the threat. The International Crisis Group, a Brussels-based think tank, put out a report last spring concluding that the area is "not a hotbed of terrorist activity" but that U.S. military aid programs risk inflaming anti-American sentiment.
U.S. officials stand by their assessment, saying that they have also picked up signs that the GSPC and other North Africans are working with Zarqawi to direct foreign fighters to Iraq. U.S. intelligence has picked up actual routes and names of North Africans attempting to infiltrate. And there is a new theory creating even more concern. Some U.S. officials believe that there might be times when Zarqawi is receiving more foreign fighters than his group can safely absorb and that some could get diverted to North Africa to reinforce the GSPC.
Posted by: Dan Darling ||
12/18/2005 01:05 ||
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suggested last week that Osama bin Laden no longer has operational control of al Qaeda. In fact, it's not clear that anybody does at this point. "Al Qaeda's central leadership has not directly orchestrated or even had foreknowledge of most of the antiwestern attacks since 9/11," a U.S. counterterrorism official tells U.S. News.....The most prominent successor is Abu Musab Zarqawi and his network of foreign suicide bombers in Iraq, but attacks like the Madrid train bombings in March 2004 are of growing concern. Those blasts, which killed 191 people, have been tied to the Moroccan Islamic Combatant Group, a shadowy, loose-knit outfit even more mysterious than the GSPC......some U.S. officials now believe that the GSPC, after years of contacts with al Qaeda leaders, has formally allied itself with bin Laden. That conclusion is still under debate in the intelligence community, but the GSPC's public statements praise al Qaeda increasingly often. In addition, European officials believe that the GSPC has approached al Qaeda leaders with a proposal that it be assigned a mission in North Africa that mirrors Zarqawi's role in Iraq.
So....if I read this correctly - Nobody seems to be in charge of al Qaeda .. especially not bin Laden. Zarqawi is The most prominent successor. Now the GPSC, who after years of contacts with AQ leaders (who apparently are not in charge of AQ) has formally aligned themselves with bin Laden, who has not been in charge of anything to do with foreign attacks since 911. Now more Madrid type bombings, done by a even more mysterious group than the GPSC, are expected because European officials believe that the GSPC has approached al Qaeda leaders, who are not in charge, with a proposal that it be assigned a mission in North Africa that mirrors Zarqawi's role in Iraq.
#2
Nope, it's not just you.
It's clear that the enemy is disorganised and in retreat.
We've won, now is just mopping up the die-hards and wannabes.
Posted by: Redneck Jim ||
12/18/2005 9:22 Comments ||
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Redneck Jim:
AQ etc. may be disorganized in 'command and control' terms, and seem in retreat, but it is by no means a matter of "just mopping up." The Islamists still possess a powerful recruiting arm in the Wahabbi/Saudi funded mosques and schools, and a huge population of idle young men who are looking for a 'meaning' to their lives.
It can be a fine line between disorganization and decentralization: the ability of the US military to operate as small independent units in the absence of C & C has served it well (think Normandy landing) - they understand and stay on mission. The Islamists seem to understand their mission - kill Westerners - and don't need a whole lot of command and control to be very dangerous at it.
#4
Is you want to put it that way, I'll remind you that the "Mopping Up" in Germany post WW2 is still going on, but the actual fighting is long over.
Posted by: Redneck Jim ||
12/18/2005 9:48 Comments ||
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I find it hard to imagine we haven't broken some of their communications schemes by now and sent a few guys out on 'missions' where we could nab 'em. If not we certainly should be dropping rumors that we have been doing this for over a year and really screw with their brains.
My money's on Dawood Ibrahim's D-Company being behind this and as we can see there's all the usual al-Qaeda connections on the periphery. Maybe their buddy Viktor Bout's involved too ...
Companion piece for the article below also from Bangladesh Web.
It is learnt that the explosives and different highly sensitive bomb making materials recovered by the security personnel from the hideouts of the JMB were mostly Indian. Obviously those consignments were smuggled inside Bangladesh through different borders.
The security specialists are very much worried over an intelligence report about the large-scale smuggling of arms and explosives through the clandestine arms-route from China via Myanmar and India to support different terrorist groups specially the banned Islamist terrorist outfit Jamaat-ul Mujahideen Bangladesh (JMB).
Requesting anonymity a senior intelligence official told The Bangladesh Observer that "the caches of sophisticated arms, explosives and other bomb making materials recently recovered by the Bangladesh Rifles (BDR), Rapid Action Battalion (RAB) and Police in the hill districts and other parts of the country had the origin China and India".
The terrorist outfits active in the Chittagong Hill Tracts (CHT) region and the JMB have been collecting large-scale arms -ammunition and explosives through the international arms smuggling syndicate. Chittagong regional commander of JMB already confessed to the investigators that Sunny (arrested military commander of JMB and brother of most wanted JMB kingpin Shaikh Abdur Rahman) had collected the deadly explosive materials such as Power Gel, Water Gel, Ammonium Nitrate from India through some unknown sources.
Not only that sometimes they got training for using guns and making bombs. On the other hand, the security personnel recently recovered a huge cache of sophisticated arms and ammunition such as AK-47, AK-56, AK-25, M-16 assault rifles, grenades, grenade launchers, RDX, plastic explosives and mortars along with shells from the dens of insurgency outfits and terrorist groups in the hilly districts of Bandarban, Rangamati and Khagrachhari.
According to the intelligence reports, most of the arms and explosives recovered in the CHT were made in China. And the consignments of arms and explosives were brought inside the country through Myanmar bordering routes with the help of international arms syndicate.
Confident sources said that earlier China one of the biggest clandestine arms bazars had long been using Pakistan for supply of assault rifles, ammunition, rockets and explosives to the terrorist and insurgent groups in India. On the other hand, the terrorists and insurgency groups active inside the country had long been getting arms and explosive supply from India.
But, the international arms syndicate got a big hit when the INTERPOL had busted the Golden Triangle, notoriously famous for drug and arms paddling. And Indian security forces managed to bust another infamous arms route from Mizoram to China.
The security agencies of Bangladesh failed to bust the arms smuggling routes though they could unearth some hideouts of JMB and hilly insurgency outfits in the recent days, it is leant. Sources said that unloading of arms and ammunition in the mid-sea near the Chittagong Port and offshore of Cox's Bazar now has become expensive and as well as risky due to increased surveillance of Navy. For the said reasons, the international arms syndicate might have revived the old routes for supplying arms-ammunition to the terrorist and insurgent groups operating in South Asia.
The Bangladeshi intelligence agencies came to know about the revival of China-Myanmar-Bangladesh route following the recovery of huge ammunition for Chinese assault rifles and explosives from a truck near Bagura in Bangladesh last year. The consignment was probably sent to the Maoist groups operating in Nepal. It was also learnt that the arms peddlers failed to contact their Bagura agents (members of an Islamic terrorist group) for further transportation and abandoned the truck at Kahalu village.
According to an intelligence report, before kick-off the countrywide operation, Jamaat-ul-Mujahidin has trained several hundred militants at the secret camps in Rajsahi district with the help of foreign trainners. Later, training camps were opened in at least 25 districts when they got the arms-explosive supplies.
Sources said that international terrorist outfit Al-Qaeda is involved in running several training camps inside Bangladesh, specially along the Bangladesh-Myanmar border and a couple of places near Dhaka, where a few hundred JMB cadres got training on explosives and gun handling.
Posted by: Dan Darling ||
12/18/2005 01:44 ||
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According to the intelligence agencies, most of the sensitive bomb making explosives like Water Gel, Power Gel and Ammonium Nitrate recovered by members of the well-equipped Rapid Action Battalion (RAB) from the JMB hideouts were mostly brought into the country from India through organised gang of smugglers.
Smugglers, eh? Shifty types in it for the money, or pious types in it for a reward from Allan?
Northern Chapainawabganj border and eastern hilly Bandarban, Khagrachhari and Rangamati bordering areas the main routes of smuggling high- powered explosives and other bomb making materials into the country. âThe highly sensitive arms and explosives are being smuggled into the country through different organised gang of smugglers some of whom have link with international terrorist outfits,â intelligence sources said.
Chittagong regional commander of outlawed JMB outfit Javed Iqbal and Ataur Rahman Sunny, commander of its military wing already confessed to the investigators that the recently recovered deadly high-powered explosives and other bomb-making materials were collected from India through some unknown sources.
Not only that sometimes they got training for using guns and making bombs. On the other hand, the security personnel recovered huge cache of sophisticated arms and ammunition like shutter guns, AK-47, AK-56, M-16, AK-25 assault rifles, grenades, rocket launchers, plastic explosives and mortars with shells from the dens of insurgency outfits and terrorists groups in the hilly districts of Bandarban, Khagrachhari and Rangamati. Most of the recovered arms and rounds of bullet ammunition were made in China. And the consignment of such arms and ammunition were brought inside the country from Myanmar with the help of international arms syndicate, sources said.
And now today's bomb recovery report:
Police recovered huge quantity of explosives from Lalbagh area in Rangpur town on Saturday. Police also detained four people for quizzing in connection with the recovery. According to locals and police sources, being informed by those four men, police recovered the explosives wrapped into a sack from a road in Lalbagh. Later, the recovered explosives were taken to the local police station.
In Natore, Naldanga thana police arrested an activist of the outlawed Islamist outfit Jamaâatul Mujahideen Bangladesh (JMB) on Saturday early morning from Shakharipara village of the thana in Natore. The detained was identified as Murshed (22), son of Akbar Ali of Shakharipara village under Naldanga thana of the district. Police said Murshed is one of the close accomplices of Ataur Rahman Suny.
In Narayanganj, law enforcers recovered four bomb-like substances from Roushanbagh in Narayanganj on Saturday morning. The bomb-like objects wrapped with red adhesive tapes were found in an abandoned condition in the drains. A team of RAB rushed to the spot and recovered the objects.
Two bombs have been recovered from the rail track at Rail bazaar area in Chuadanga, police sources said. After being informed, Sadar thana police recovered the bombs wrapped with red scotch tape inside a milk-powder container. Later, police defused the bombs.
Posted by: Steve White ||
12/18/2005 00:59 ||
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Guessin' the money types know how to get the pious types askin' for materiel.
Mebbe even the holy men work both sides of the street with the money men to get the rubes all fired up...
KERANIGANJ, Dec 17: Police Saturday foiled an attempt allegedly to explode two bombs and detained one JMB operator in this connection from Aganagar area of Keraniganj, reports UNB.
According to police, on-duty police sergeant Arman detained young suspect Momin (18) as he was trying to blast two bombs near Kokil Community centre of Aganagar under South Keraniganj police station at about 2:00 pm. Sensing Momin''s motive, Arman caught him red handed and recovered two live bombs from his possession.
"Gotcha! I knew you were up to something!"
"What was it, copper, my shifty gaze, my nervousness, my skulking about?"
"No, it was the two bombs in yer hands!"
Arman later told UNB that JMB activist Momin came to Keraniganj 15 days ago and rented a room in Ispahani Road claiming himself to be a rickshaw-puller. The accuse Momin was handed over to South Keraniganj police ...
... so that the RAB can pay him a 'visit' ...
... along with the seized bombs which were kept in water bucket for expert examination.
Truly first-world bomb disposal technique on dispaly.
Posted by: Steve White ||
12/18/2005 00:50 ||
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Police in Bangladesh have seized a large amount of bombs and explosives and arrested four fighters in the second big success this week against radicals fighting for Islamic rule.
Another one? Cheeze. They must be tripping over them.
The elite Rapid Action Battalion (RAB) force uncovered the arms cache in Rajshahi city, 300km northwest of the capital Dhaka, on Friday. A spokesman for the RAB said on Saturday: "Two hundred bombs, 2000 detonators, 144 pieces of power gel explosives and bomb-making materials were seized from two hideouts late on Friday." The hideouts were raided after police had detained four fighters hours earlier.
I wonder if the raids took place at 3 a.m.? I wonder if the four "fighters" survived the experience?
And no shutter guns?
On Wednesday, the RAB arrested three leading fighters, including Ataur Rahman Sunny, an "operations commander", and seized 120kg of explosives, 27 grenades, dozens of detonators and 24 revolvers in Dhaka and southeastern Chittagong. Police said Abu Isha, one of the four detained in Rajshahi on Friday, was a regional operations commander. Bangladesh authorities blamed the banned Jamaat-ul-Mujahideen group for a recent wave of bombings that has killed at least 30 people and wounded 150 since 17 August.
In Rajshahi, RAB in separate lightning swoops, arrested four operatives of Jamaâatul Mujahideen Bangladesh (JMB) including its Rajshahi district commander and seized a large quantity of bomb-making materials. The arrested were identified as JMB district commander Mohammed Abu Musa alias Enamul, 27, Mohammed Ajmat Ali, 28, his brother Mohammed Hasmat Ali, 35, and Mohammed Abdul Wahab, 40. The recovered explosives and bomb-making materials include 2,000 electric bomb detonators and 144 pieces of power gel.
Tipped off, a team of the crack crime-busting force netted Enamul, son of Mohammed Abdul Karim Akand of Char Laxmipur under Belkuchi upazila of Sirajganj district, at around 1:00am at Katakhali in the northwestern divisional city.
Enamul admitted to his involvement in the August 17 bomb blasts on the premises of the Court of Chief Metropolitan Magistrate, Rajshahi.
"Ooch! Ouch! Stop that!"
Acting on his painfully extracted confession, the RAB team arrested Ajmat Ali, son of Mohammed Nazir, at their Naodapara house in the city at around 4:00am. On information extracted from Ajmat, the law enforcers found Hasmat Ali hiding in the attic with 64 pieces of power gel.
He was hiding in deoderant?
The base of Asadullah al Galib, chief of another Islamist outfit Ahle Hadith Andolon Bangladesh (AHAB), is also located at Naodapara under Motihar Police Station.
The same RAB team then arrested Abdul Wahab, son of Mohammed Jasimuddin Sheikh, from their house at West Banshbari under Putia upazila of the district at around 5:30am.
5:30 am is too late to set up a proper crossfire, so Abdul gets a day in the pokey. Until tomorrow night.
Searching the house, RAB members recovered 500 electric detonators and 80 power gels from inside a computer casing hidden in a haystack. The team found 1,500 more electric detonators in a sound box hanging from the ceiling of the house.
Sources said the detainees are being interrogated at the RAB-5 office and are coming up with information vital to national security.
And soon they'll try to escape.
Posted by: Fred ||
12/18/2005 00:00 ||
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"Power Gels?" got me, maybe they mean batteries, if so to put 500 detonators and 80 batteries in a computer shell means they have to be really small.
Something like pistol or rifle primers maybe?
Posted by: Redneck Jim ||
12/18/2005 9:29 Comments ||
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Apparently Power Gel is a brand name for a type of geletanized ammonium natrate explosive, and it comes in various grades. Google hasn't helped a great deal on finding out exactly what it is, but it's a Class-2 explosive, and probably nasty enough. It's aparrently very common in South Asia.
Posted by: Old Patriot ||
12/18/2005 15:43 Comments ||
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Does anyone besides me find the idea of a computer casing hidden in a haystack to be painfully suspicious?
Italian police on Friday raided apartments and shops believed to be linked to a 12-strong Algerian group suspected of financing and supporting extremist groups in Algeria. Fake documents, forged money and cell phones, which turned up in raids in the southern city Naples, were believed to be destined for the extremist organizations, said Italian police. These organizations include the Salafist Group for Call and Combat, which is believed to be linked to al-Qaida, and the radical Armed Islamic Group, according to police.
I thought GAI was out of business?
The preliminary investigation showed that the supplies were sent to Algeria on buses that drove from Naples to southern France and then crossed to the North African country. Police said they had stopped one such bus Friday near the border between Italy and France. Police had made no arrests during the raids, although some of the suspects were already detained on separate charges.
Posted by: Dan Darling ||
12/18/2005 01:10 ||
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the supplies were sent to Algeria on buses that drove from Naples to southern France and then crossed to the North African country.
#3
Probably they drove the busses onboard a ferry directly fron France and avoided the customs inspection at Spain's border.
That way it would eliminate at least one checkpoint, maybe two.
Posted by: Redneck Jim ||
12/18/2005 9:38 Comments ||
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French anti-terror judges Friday placed 11 suspected Islamic extremists under investigation for allegedly financing terrorism, part of a probe into a group suspected of using robberies to fund its plots.
Yes! Yes! Pro-o-o-o-o-be them!
Judicial officials said the 11 also were placed under investigation - a step short of being charged - for criminal association with a terrorist enterprise, a broad charge often used in France to detain terror suspects.
They need... Examined!
The 11 were among 25 suspects rounded up in police raids Monday. The 14 others were released without charge.
Drat. Bring them back in.
Agents arrested three other suspects Wednesday and seized guns, ammunition, dynamite and other weapons in a Paris suburb. Investigators believe the weapons were used to carry out robberies in France to finance jihad, or holy war.
Golly. Shucks. Y'think?
Two suspects, who were not named, also face charges of attempted armed robbery and destruction of goods by explosives. Among those who appeared in court Friday was Ouassini Cherifi, a French-Algerian suspected of heading the group. Cherifi, 31, was convicted in 2002 of trafficking phony passports.
I see whatever sentence he received, if any, went a long way toward changing his evil ways...
Investigators are trying to establish a link between Cherifi and a March 2004 attack on a Brink's truck that yielded more than $1.2 million. The funds were allegedly meant to finance the Moroccan Islamic Combatant Group, an organization with alleged ties to al-Qaida that was blamed for the 2003 Casablanca attacks that killed 45 people, including 12 bombers.
At the time, the name "Moroccan Islamic Combatant Group" never came up. It was Salafi Jihad, mostly...
The officials said several of those arrested admitted during questioning to being involved in an Oct. 7 attempt to hold up an armored car in the town of Beauvais, north of Paris. French Interior Minister Nicolas Sarkozy and the national police chief, Michel Gaudin, have said the suspects have had links to al-Qaida in Iraq. Judicial officials, however, have cautioned the links tend to be more ideological than operational.
I'd guess the operational links are more to whoever's killing people this week in North Africa...
Separately Friday, a court in northern France handed down a 30-year prison term to Lionel Dumont, the alleged co-leader of a group of Islamic militants that terrorized the Lille region in 1996. Dumont, 34, was found guilty of three attempted homicides against police and other attacks in 1996. On the first day of his trial Dec. 5, Dumont told the court he did not relate to "the image of jihadist" presented by officials and the press.
Posted by: Dan Darling ||
12/18/2005 00:51 ||
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Judicial officials, however, have cautioned the links tend to be more ideological than operational.
Abdullah Khadr, the eldest son of a reputed Canadian Al Qaeda financier, was arrested by the RCMP yesterday on terrorism-related charges at the request of American authorities.
The 25-year-old Canadian recently returned from Pakistan where he was held for 14 months without charge. He was arrested last night after agreeing to meet an RCMP officer at a McDonald's near his Scarborough apartment, his relatives said last night.
His mother, Maha Elsamnah tried to intervene in the arrest and was also taken into custody, but later released without charges. Khadr's brother, 22-year-old Abdurahman was also at the fast food restaurant and took pictures of the arrest with his cell phone camera.
An RCMP spokesperson confirmed the arrest last night but said they were only acting at the behest of American authorities.
âWe arrested Mr. Khadr on the grounds of a provisional warrant issued by the department of justice, after the US government petitioned the Canadian courts to allow for his arrest,â said Corporal Michele Paradis.
âThe process had nothing to do with the RCMP, we received it today and acted on it.â
But according to court documents the RCMP has been investigating both Khadr and his sister Zaynab, who also returned to Canada earlier this year, under terrorism provisions of the Criminal Code introduced in 2001.
Khadr's Edmonton-based lawyer Dennis Edney said last night Khadr now faces two charges: possession and use of a destructive device in furtherance of a crime of violence and conspiracy to murder a U.S. national outside of the U.S.
According to Western intelligence services, Khadr ran an Al Qaeda training camp in Afghanistan in the late 1990s. But in an interview with the Star he claimed he's not a terrorist and only attended the notorious Khaldan camp in Afghanistan when he was 13.
âI just want everybody to know I have nothing to do with anything,â he said in an interview earlier this month.
Khadr was detained by Pakistani authorities in October 2004. Until his return to Canada Dec. 2, his whereabouts had been unknown.
The Toronto Star revealed the fact that Khadr had quietly returned, accompanied by Canadian officials. He was questioned at the airport by RCMP investigators, then dropped off at his grandparents' home in Scarborough and told he was a âfree man,â according to his relatives and lawyer.
But a U.S. source told the Star that American authorities were looking to issuing a provisional warrant for Khadr's arrest.
The following week Khadr told the Star in an interview that he was tortured during the first 48 hours of his detention. He also described the visits he said he had from several Canadian and American security officials.
During that interview another lawyer representing Khadr, Nate Whitling, said if Khadr is charged, he would argue that any information provided during these interview sessions in Pakistan would be inadmissible due to his harsh treatment and the fact that he was never charged or provided a lawyer.
Khadr is the eldest son of Egyptian-born Canadian Ahmed Said Khadr, who was killed in a battle with Pakistani forces in 2003. There are six children in the family that was raised traveling between Scarborough, Pakistan and Afghanistan. They grew up alongside Osama bin Laden's children.
Khadr is being held at Toronto's West Detention Centre and will appear in court this morning for a bail hearing.
Posted by: Dan Darling ||
12/18/2005 00:33 ||
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I remember seeing an interview with this guy a year or so ago. He claimed he worked for the CIA and I think he said he acted as a prisoner at Guantanamo to try and get information for them.
EFL.
Al Qaeda terrorists captured in battle by members of our armed forces â the American soldiers they are trying to kill â would not only be protected from rough interrogation. They may very well have to be given Miranda warnings as well as free lawyers â underwritten by the Americans they are trying to kill.
Cynically tacked on to the 2006 defense appropriations bill (and thus holding hostage provisions for our troops in wartime), McCainâs amendment was approved by a 90-9 Senate vote on October 5, and a margin of 308-122 in the House on Wednesday. The landslides might well have gone the other way if adequate thought had been given to the (presumably unintended) consequences of the measureâs terms.
. . . Remember, constitutional rights are guarantees against our government. They are not rights we would ever have extended to the whole world. The world, after all, contains enemies who would destroy our rights. The very purpose of forming government was to secure those rights from such enemies. It is impossible to separate the substance of the Fifth, Eighth and Fourteenth Amendment protections from the fact that those protections are designed to benefit only people who have joined the fabric of our society. Their content would be very different indeed had they been intended to serve others, especially our enemies.
. . . [The amendment] would mean, for example, that an al Qaeda terrorist in the custody of our armed forces in Afghanistan would have more rights than a nonviolent illegal alien detained in Texas after being caught trying to sneak across the border.
. . . Al Qaeda terrorists captured on overseas battlefields would have to be given Miranda warnings before they could be interrogated. Forget about water-boarding. They would actually have to be advised that they are under no obligation to speak to interrogators, that if they do speak their statements can be used against them as evidence in court, and that they are entitled to have a lawyer â paid for by the American people â present and assisting them at all times during questioning. We would also theoretically have to provide such lawyers on request â lawyers who, naturally, would counsel their terrorist clients not to tell our government anything.
. . . Al Qaeda, which shouldnât even get Geneva Convention protections, will now be cloaked in the majesty of our Bill of Rights.
Posted by: ST ||
12/18/2005 13:14 ||
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McCain's a dead issue in '08
Posted by: Frank G ||
12/18/2005 15:35 Comments ||
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Unless he's angling for the Dhim nomination.
Posted by: ST ||
12/18/2005 19:33 Comments ||
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President Bush said yesterday that he secretly ordered the National Security Agency to eavesdrop on Americans with suspected ties to terrorists because it was "critical to saving American lives" and "consistent with U.S. law and the Constitution."
Bush said the program has been reviewed regularly by the nation's top legal authorities and targets only those people with "a clear link to these terrorist networks." Noting the failures to detect hijackers already in the country before the strikes on New York and Washington, Bush said the NSA's domestic spying since then has helped thwart other attacks.
Kudos to GWB for getting out in front on this one, something he has to do.
In his statement, delivered during a live and unusually long radio address, the president assailed the news media for disclosing the eavesdropping program, and rebuked Senate Democrats for blocking renewal of the USA Patriot Act, which gave the FBI greater surveillance power after Sept. 11, 2001, and which expires Dec. 31. "The terrorist threat to our country will not expire in two weeks," said Bush, calling a filibuster by Democratic senators opposed to the Patriot Act "irresponsible."
The speech represented a turnaround for a White House that initially refused to discuss the highly classified NSA effort even after it was revealed in news accounts. Advisers said Bush decided to confirm the program's existence -- and combine that with a demand for reauthorization of the Patriot Act -- to put critics on the defensive by framing it as a matter of national security, not civil liberties. The NSA "authorization is a vital tool in our war against the terrorists," Bush said. "It is critical to saving American lives. The American people expect me to do everything in my power under our laws and Constitution to protect them and their civil liberties. And that is exactly what I will continue to do, so long as I'm the president of the United States."
Congressional Democrats and some Republicans have expressed outrage at the NSA program, saying it contradicts long-standing restrictions on domestic spying and subverts constitutional guarantees against unwarranted invasions of privacy. Some of them were further incensed by Bush's remarks yesterday. "The president believes that he has the power to override the laws that Congress has passed," Sen. Russell Feingold (Wis.) said. "He is a president, not a king." Sen. Patrick J. Leahy (Vt.) said the administration "seems to believe it is above the law."
Sure Russ, but it's not like it was a campaign contribution to a challenger or anything.
Rep. Dan Burton (Ind.) was among Republicans responding. "The liberal media and its liberal allies are attacking the president" for spying tactics that are legitimate and legal, he said on the House floor yesterday afternoon. "The fact is, the president is defending the United States of America."
Either it was legal or it wasn't. Critics seem to have the onus on them to prove it wasn't.
The order signed by Bush, first reported by the New York Times online on Thursday, empowered the NSA to monitor international telephone calls and e-mails of U.S. citizens and residents without the warrant normally required by a secret foreign intelligence court. A cowardly high-ranking intelligence official who refused to be named but will stick his oar in anyway said yesterday that the presidential directive was first issued in October 2001, not in 2002, as other sources have told the Times and The Washington Post. And yesterday Bush said his directive came "weeks" after Sept. 11. The high-ranking official would not say whether the authority was changed or broadened significantly in 2002 or later during regular reviews.
Hundreds and perhaps thousands of people have been subjected to the surveillance, according to government officials. Officials have privately credited the eavesdropping with the apprehension of Iyman Faris, a truck driver who pleaded guilty in 2003 to planning to blow up the Brooklyn Bridge. Bush said other plots have been disrupted as well. "The activities I have authorized make it more likely that killers like these 9/11 hijackers will be identified and located in time," he said.
So the program saved lives. That's something that ought to be repeated daily.
Bush said the program is reviewed every 45 days by the attorney general and White House counsel and that he must then reauthorize it to keep it active. He said he has reauthorized it more than 30 times "and I intend to do so for as long as our nation faces a continuing threat from al Qaeda and related groups."
The president also said the administration has briefed key members of Congress on the program a dozen times. Classified programs are typically disclosed to the chairmen and ranking minority members of the House and Senate intelligence committees.
As I noted in the other post, this factoid seems to have escaped the liberal fringe. It was reviewed by the overight committees. If the Democrats had concerns or thought that this was blatantly illegal, that was the time to say so.
Bush justified his order on his presidential powers as commander in chief as well as his interpretation of the congressional resolution authorizing him to use force in response to the Sept. 11 attacks, passed days after the World Trade Center and the Pentagon were hit. But Bush did not explain his constitutional thinking, nor how the 2001 resolution gave him the authority to order domestic spying. He took no questions, and aides would not discuss the legal issues surrounding the program.
The NSA surveillance is the latest chapter in a growing political struggle over the contours of the administration's tactics against terrorism. Two days ago, Sen. John McCain (R-Ariz.) persuaded forced Bush to accept a new law explicitly outlawing the use of cruel, inhuman and degrading treatment of prisoners. Several senators are pressing the administration to provide information on secret CIA detention facilities overseas. And the debate over the Patriot Act centers on how far law enforcement can go in trying to find terrorist plots.
The president criticized the media for reporting on the NSA surveillance as well as the officials who "improperly" provided the information. "As a result, our enemies have learned information they should not have, and the unauthorized disclosure of this effort damages our national security and puts our citizens at risk," he said.
The libbies are glossing over this, questioning how revealing the program could put anyone at risk. They miss (deliberately) that by disclosing the existence of the program and the outline by which it works, it tells the terrorists where to look in their communications links for weaknesses. If the bad guys have been stoopid, the last thing you want is to let them know how they've been stoopid.
The White House decision to confirm the program was an extraordinary move by an administration that almost never publicly discusses such classified methods adopted in its battle against terrorism. The administration, for instance, has never publicly discussed the claimed existence of secret CIA prisons in Eastern Europe even after they were reported in The Post.
But in this case, with the Patriot Act renewal on the line, the president's advisers calculated that they should go on the offensive. "This directly takes on the Democrats and puts them in a box -- support our efforts to protect Americans or defend positions that put our nation's security at greater risk," said a senior administration official, who spoke on condition of anonymity to discuss political strategy. "We are confident most Americans support the president's actions."
Bush's confirmation of the NSA order, on the other hand, could embolden congressional critics to explore the extent of the program.
That it will, and the additional light shone on the program will kill it. As the libbies know.
Senate Judiciary Chairman Arlen Specter (R-Pa.) has already called such surveillance "inappropriate" and vowed to conduct hearings. It may prove harder for the administration to withhold information now that the president has publicly acknowledged its existence.
Posted by: Steve White ||
12/18/2005 00:16 ||
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"A cowardly high-ranking intelligence official who refused to be named"
of course he should be tried for treason
Posted by: Jan ||
12/18/2005 9:59 Comments ||
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lotp, thanks for the link.
While I feel that these issues need to be discussed and monitored by top security folks, for someone to leak this very important critical info should be charged with treason. The reporter as well.
I'm reminded of the cops paying off informants for tips to catch criminals. It seems to be turned around now, with the media paying off officials to get security news stories.
As much as I treasure my privacy, and I truly do, in these times, I feel we all need to accept the fact that monitoring is so very important. I wouldn't want this abused, and would like to see it continue to be monitored by the top officials, not blurted out all over the papers. I even worry about some of the items discussed here on the 'burg, that terrorists may be reading. I don't mean to get too paranoid here, but you can't be too careful.
Posted by: Jan ||
12/18/2005 10:50 Comments ||
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Look for Democrats to interpret the actions as illegal and move for impeachment proceedings if they get control of Congress. This is a very dangerous politicization of national security issues.
#5
If W gets out and aggressively defends this (as he appears to be doing) - he will leave the NYTimes, The Donks and that dickhead Arlen Spector holding the bag. "I did this and will continue to authorize it to save American lives. It is NOT illegal, and I briefed members of the opposition party, many times"
he should then call for investigations and prosecutions of those disclosing these plans - harming our national security and aiding our enemies.
Posted by: Frank G ||
12/18/2005 12:05 Comments ||
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but somehow I don't think he will, and I'm not sure why.
Posted by: too true ||
12/18/2005 12:08 Comments ||
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Bush is in front of this one. He should refues any new hearings. Tell these guys to show up at the periodic briefings that have already been held. Then release to the extent possible details of terrorist ops that have been stopped due to this program. Also explain how, had it been in place, this program would have stopped the 9/11 plot.
What the libertarians do not understand is that US citizens are still protected from any abuse of such a data gathering effort as evidence would not be permissible in a prosecution if it was obtained without proper warrants. Nobody's constitutional rights are trampled. Instead, it's essentially foreign intelligence.
We have military people fighting and dying across the world as we try get an edge against our enemies and these jackasses are on their high horses to stand up for the right for terrorists to make overseas calls without surveillance. It absolutely disgusts me. If I were Bush I would welcome the debate. It's time he pushed around the senate (R's and D's) and showed them for the gutless, media whoring opportunists that they are. None of these SOBs lies awake at night worrying whether he/she had done enough that day to thwart al Queda operations. In contrast the President and his team certainly do lose sleep at night. I do not envy them their jobs and will cut them plenty of slack in how they do them.
This posturing and the obviously questionable timing of it all absolutely piss me off.
#8
And another thing: Anybody who leaked this to the media needs to go to jail. In fact, the laws need to be changed so that the death penalty is more obviously applicable. There are channels for legitimate reporting of abuses. The NY Times is not part of such a process.
If there is one Senator left with a pair (I nominate my guy Kyl), he will be the one to spearhead the necessary hunt for the leaker. Unfortunately, if the exec branch handles it it will appear politically motivated in this political climate. Though I suppose the Plame precedent should apply and we can appoint a "special" prosecutor.
I usually read Rantburg for the news, but today I find myself Ranting quite a bit. This incident shows the worst in our government in both the security community and congress. We need to purge people who do not take the nature of the enemy seriously.
Posted by: Frank G ||
12/18/2005 13:43 Comments ||
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I could see Kyl leading it...
Posted by: Frank G ||
12/18/2005 13:45 Comments ||
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And the process is different from listening in on international drug trafficing that has been going on for well over a decade [re:Mr. Clinton's watch]?
#12
It would be particularly satisfying if Dubya was to insert into his speech some thing like:
"There is no 'news' nor 'crisis' here. If the Dhimmidonks would simply show up, sober, and stay awake through the critical National Security Briefings to which they are invited, then ask their respective staffs to explain it to them afterwards, in simplified terms they can understand, of course, well, I'm sure we could avoid little misunderstandings like this. On the other hand, we could just shoot them for being seditious traitors. I'm good to go either way."
#13
heh. I'd turn on the idiot box just to hear W say that. Hell, I'd pay to hear it!
Posted by: too true ||
12/18/2005 14:07 Comments ||
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President Bush NEEDS to clearly communicate the reason for monitoring and the threat to our security by the NYT leak has on our citizens tonight.
He needs to be concise, clear, and to the point. He needs to verbally B****Slap down these dems and Rinos doing this stuff. They are killing him with a thousand cuts, and need to be stopped. If the so-called Great Karl Rove⢠or his staff can't make a speech worthy of communicating the situation, then he better get the Rantburg Committee to whip one up, toot sweet!
I think that this Rove advice thing is way over rated. The President needed to go on the offensive YEARS ago, instead of being passive, when being attacked. Look how accommodation with the Dems has advanced the cause. Bush worked with Kennedy years ago on a bipartisan education bill. He reached out, and Kennedy thanked him by calling the President a liar in speeches in the Senate.
There is a time to ignore the pygmies and there is a time to fight. This is the time to fight.
**takes Zolof pill**
Posted by: Alaska Paul ||
12/18/2005 15:12 Comments ||
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AP
I suspect the 'problem' is not Rove. I think it is who George is and that is a Christian with a capital "C". He turns the check when it comes to slimy assaults like this all the time. However, when he sees a threat to that which he has been given stewardship over, he'll fight tough. Where to problem arises is his ability to grasp where the line is crossed and it is less a personal/political attack and something that directly hinders the safty of the nation with which he has been entrusted.
#16
Scorched eath. Crank up the Char-B-Q...the left is no longer a partner in this republic. They are an enemy in of themselves. Too bad that some good Dems will need to go down with that boat but ah well, such as it is. They can always come over and join the good fight. I've had it....enough with treason passing as politics as usual.
Posted by: Rex Mundi ||
12/18/2005 15:55 Comments ||
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SC1340---I have thought about that, and I think that it has played a part during the numerous conflicts with the Dems. The President needs to get "outside himself" and try to see the big picture when these conflicts are happening. He needs to understand that the MSM and Dems have teamed up to saturate the airwaves and other media and destroy him. One cannot sit by and wait it out. They have laid down the gauntlet and he needs to be on the offensive, and not just respond to the attacks. That is real leadership. In other words, he needs to be several steps ahead of them all the time. And that means communication to the people. By and large, that communication effort on the part of the Administration has been dismal, and has hurt the war effort. I know the MSM has been active in blocking his efforts, but that's still how I see it.
Posted by: Alaska Paul ||
12/18/2005 16:41 Comments ||
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A detainee at the U.S. prison for terror suspects at Guantanamo Bay pulled stitches out of his arm this week in what was at least his tenth suicide attempt, the Justice Department said. Jumaa Mohammed al-Dossary, a 32-year-old prisoner from Bahrain, was hospitalized Monday after pulling out his stitches for at least the second time, the Justice Department said in a letter released by al-Dossary's attorney Saturday. Al-Dossary also cut his bicep, the letter said, without specifying how. "The Guantanamo staff immediately intervened," Justice Department lawyer Edward H. White wrote. "He has been treated and is currently in stable condition."
Al-Dossary's attorney, Joshua Colangelo-Bryan, has asked for a court order easing conditions for his client, who has been held at Guantanamo since February 2002. Al-Dossary said in a meeting with Colangelo-Bryan before Monday's suicide attempt that, "he wanted to kill himself so that he could send a message to the world that conditions at Guantanamo are intolerable," according to declassified notes from their conversation, which the lawyer also released on Saturday.
Defense lawyers allege that al-Dossary, who has not been charged, has been in isolation for much of the last two years. The military has said he has regular contact with other prisoners. Al-Dossary had attempted suicide at least nine times before this week. The chief medical official at Guantanamo, Dr. John Edmondson, said in an affidavit filed last month in federal court in Washington said al-Dossary has undisclosed "mental health issues" and often has refused to take medicine or cooperate with therapists. In October, Al-Dossary slashed his arm and tried to commit suicide by hanging himself in an empty cell during a break in a meeting with his lawyer. He attempted to kill himself again by pulling out the stitches in November, the government has said.
Posted by: Fred ||
12/18/2005 00:00 ||
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Cutting -- isn't that the latest epidemic-of-concern amongst overstressed teenaged girls who aren't anorexic or bulimic? I'm afraid I feel nothing for this person; if he desperately doesn't want to be at Gitmo, all he has to do is tell the interrogators what he knows, and help them believe he's no longer infatuated with jihad. It doesn't even have to be true, others they've released went back to old habits when they got home. Perhaps we need a knew saying: A fool and his freedom are soon parted.
...No, truer would be, An evil, vicious fool and his freedom are soon parted.
Fresh American investigations underway against Dawood Ibrahim is being eagerly watched by Indian security apparatus, which is hopeful that the Don would finally feel the heat of growing global fight against terrorism.
But the investigations, which are part of a global effort to unravel the growing complex link between criminal syndicates and terrorism, are yet to show any impact on Dawood or his empire, according to sources.
In fact, in the past few weeks Indiaâs most wanted criminal has been travelling to Africa and Australia where he has extensive investments in mining and other businesses, say sources.
The influential US News and World Report last week reported that the Drug Enforcement Administration and Federal Bureau of Investigation are carrying out new investigations against Dawood. âUS officials now have him at the centre of two investigations: one, by the Drug Enforcement Administration, looking at his ties to the heroin trade; another, by the FBI, tracing his assets and ties to terrorist groups through a top Pakistani CD counterfeiter,â said the US report.
Dawood is among the worldâs leading crime lords providing logistical and financial support, believe US investigation agencies. âThe boss of Indiaâs top syndicate controls a criminal network that reaches into 14 countries, with a small army of contract killers, smugglers, and extortionists at his command. But there is another side to Dawood Ibrahim. The Muslim exile from Mumbai has thrown in his lot with Al Qaeda and other jihadists, according to the US and Indian governments, and has become one of the worldâs most wanted terrorists,â says the report.
The report also points out that âin Pakistan, Dawood has ties to several terrorist groups, including Lashkar-e-Toiba.â Dawood has âallegedly met with Al Qaeda leaders and even made a deal to share his smuggling routes with Al Qaeda operatives,â the report further adds. Indian officials say they have been sharing these and more information regarding Dawood with the US, UK and other foreign nations. New Delhiâs efforts have led to the US and UN naming him a global terrorist and issuance of an Interpol notice but Dawood continues to have cozy existence in Karachi.
DNA sources say that there is irrefutable proof that Dawood, despite his well-publicised presence in Karachi, has been having a âfree lifeâ. In the past few weeks, after his daughter's high-profile marriage to cricketer Javed Miandadâs son, there is credible evidence of him travelling to Africa and Australia.
âWhat is worrying is that none of the global efforts including the move by UN and US to declare Dawoood a global terrorist have had any impact on the Pakistani administration,â says a senior security official watching the Donâs empire. In fact, he says their calculation that Pakistan would force Dawood to lie low after his daughterâs marriage irrefutably established his presence in Karachi have proved wrong. âThe relation (between Dawood and Pakistani establishment) is more intense than what we know,â he said.
Indian agencies now believe that Dawoodâs empire is spread across South Asia, Middle-East, Africa, Australia and even in Europe. And thousands of people, including hundreds who may never know that they work for one of worldâs most ruthless terrorists and drug lords, are employed by him around the globe.
In October 2003, the US Treasury Department had designated Dawood a âSpecially Designated Global Terroristâ, and the United Nations followed suit later. But the fresh investigations by the Americans, growing criticism of International Coalition against Terrorismâs failure to check further spread of terrorism, growing impatience of countries like India towards American double standards are all expected to have better effect this time.
Posted by: Dan Darling ||
12/18/2005 00:46 ||
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Dan thanks for helping us stay on Dawood's tail.
Another four men were killed and three injured in armed clashes between two sub-tribes of the Masori tribe in Dera Bugti on Saturday. The latest clashes between sub-tribes in Dera Bugti raised death toll of those killed in gunbattles to nine. Reportedly an old land dispute is behind the clashes between the two groups. Eyewitness said that both parties were targeting each other with heavy weapons including rocket launchers. Those killed in the latest clash were Khawand Bux, Dil Murad, Qambar Ali and Maula Bux.
Posted by: Fred ||
12/18/2005 00:00 ||
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an old land dispute is behind the clashes
How old is "old" in this culture? Half a millenium like in the former Yugoslavia? Or a lifetime, like my cousin in Germany, who had been feuding with City Hall since the end of the Second World War until her death in 1997? Or, "He looked at me funny, so I hit him," like siblings in the back seat of the car?
Prominent Iraqi politician and Islamic thinker Iyad Jamal Eldin survived a failed assasination attempt in Nasiriyah. An armed grouped attacked his convey injuring a number of his guards.
Iyad Jamal Eldin is a member of Iyad Allawi's coalition. He is also a harsh critic of the current Shia parties and of Iran. Iyad belongs to the Shia school of thought that believes in seperation between religion and politics. Words cannot describe how great this man is and how intelligent his thoughts are. I am so glad he survived and I pray he stays away from harm. People like Iyad Jamal Eldin give me hope. If I were an athiest, people like him would make me think twice.
(original in Arabic at http://www.sotaliraq.com/iraqi-news/nieuws.php?id=13659 translated & referenced as cited below)
German archeologist Susanne Osthoff, who was kidnapped in Iraq last month, is free, Foreign Minister Steinmeier confirmed Sunday evening. Frank-Walter Steinmeier confirmed in an evening press conference that Susanne Osthoff had been freed. Since Sunday she had been in safety at the German embassy in Baghdad, and she was in good health, he said. The kidnappers had said they would also release her driver, he added.
Steinmeier said that in the name of the German government, he wished to thank everyone who had contributed to Osthoff's release. He took the opportunity to point out that hostages are still being held by kidnappers in Iraq.
Posted by: Fred ||
12/18/2005 16:32 ||
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Great. I wonder how much they paid. I wonder how many will die because this moron was puttering around acting the fool. Idiots and enablers.
Three day delay between event and official press release - just enough time to exploit follow-up opportunities (which we may hear about around Tuesday?)
MAJOR IED MANUFACTURING CACHE DISCOVERED
TIKRIT, Iraq â A large cache of IED components was discovered by Soldiers from Task Force Band of Brothers, Dec. 15 near Hawijah.
A pair of scout helicopters from the 101st Airborne Division spotted several individuals behaving suspiciously and the pilots radioed the location to a nearby patrol from the Divisionâs 1st Brigade Combat Team.
The pilotsâ instincts were confirmed when the patrol found a cache buried nearby in several 55 gallon drums.
The cache consisted of 414 two way radios, 48 circuit boards and more than 100 timing devices, all used as components in IED manufacturing. The cache also included small amounts of AK-47 ammunition, detonation cord, batteries and several bomb making manuals.
This is the second time in less than a month that 1st BCT has uncovered a major cache in its area. Soldiers discovered more than 4,200 mortar rounds in a single cache Nov. 27 near Kirkuk.
Posted by: Alaska Paul ||
12/18/2005 16:33 Comments ||
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A big problem in Iraq for IEDs is that Saddam had, as I recall, an estimated 1M tons of munitions, stored in caches across the country. Almost every pic i see of an unexploded IED is some crap-ass looking old artillery/mortar shell is poor conndition. I am not surprised that so many don't go off.
#4
Finding electronics really hurts. Not only are IEDs a LOT harder to make without them, but they are very traceable. Spooks will be alerted to backtrack them from point of manufacture, and could well lead to a network being busted.
A group that monitored the Iraqi parliamentary elections said preliminary findings show "there has been a significant increase in voter turnout" among Iraqi expatriates casting ballots in 15 countries across the globe.
The International Mission for Iraqi Elections, based in Canada, said in a Friday news release about 320,000 ballots were cast among Iraqi expatriates voting for the country's new parliament.
That figure would surpass the 265,000 votes cast in the January 30 vote for a transitional national assembly. There was no out-of-country vote for the October constitutional referendum.
This number is another indication of what U.S. and Iraqi authorities are calling a high voter turnout on Thursday for the four-year Council of Representatives, a 275-seat national parliament.
Iraqi election officials have been counting votes for two days but cannot yet provide results or vote percentages, even though media reports estimate that the national turnout could be as high as 70 percent, pushing the number of actual voters past 11 million.
This would exceed the January 30 vote toll, which was 8.5 million and the October 15 referendum, when more than 9.8 million Iraqis voted. There are about 15.5 million registered voters in Iraq.
Abdul Hussein al-Hindawi, an Independent Electoral Commission of Iraq official, told reporters on Saturday that "official results will not be complete before 10 days or more" and final results won't be approved until a variety of citizen complaints about elections have been answered.
Among the violations being probed are the destruction of posters, breaking the rules on media silence the day before election day, the conduct of electoral employees and campaign violence.
The IECI said that more than 6,200 polling centers were in operation across Iraq on Thursday. They were staffed by more than 170,000 workers.
"The polls generally opened on time and voting continued peacefully without major incidents," the IECI said in a statement.
They were "monitored by 120,000 observers, including 800 accredited by international observer groups, and 230,000 political entity agents..."
...Lastly the preliminary results of the present election are as follows:
The Iraqi Coalition (Hakem/Jafari) achieved 58-85% in 9 Southern provinces, in Baghdad and in Diyala.
The Kurdish Alliances achieved 65-80% in the 3 Northern provinces. Kurdish voters moved away from the Alliance to some other small parties which had more voices this time.
The National Iraqi List (Allawi) achieved the second to third place in some regions especially in some regions of Baghdad.
The major changes this time is in the Sunni parties by gaining a lot of voices in at least 4 provinces including Mosel and Kurkuk. They are the second in Diyala and in Basrah and some parts of Baghdad. The Sunni parties are now making one alliance and they will achieve much more seats than last time in the new Assembly. They may get something around 40 seats or even more.
One of the most noticeable things is that some of the Sunni leaders like Mithal Al-Alowsi party (the Party of Iraqi Nation) achieved quite considerable amount of voices in the Shiite regions. It was reported that it achieved the third place in Karbala where there are 100% Shiite population and many Shiite parties. This is a good indication that many Iraqis are not looking for the faith of the person but for his program. This is the issue for many like Al-Alowsi, Sadoon Al-Doliami, Sheikh Mahmood Al-Eisawi and many other Sunni Iraqis who are against terrorism.
We hope that the Electoral Department will announce the results sooner rather than latter.
US vice president Richard Cheney arrives on unannounced visit to Baghdad.
DEBKAfileâs exclusive sources report he has come to deal with the formation of the Iraq government coalition in the light of surprises emerging in the preliminary counting of Iraqâs general election results.
Our sources reveal early indications that the big winner is the Shiite Risaliya list headed by Ayatollah Taki Mudrassi, rival of Ayatollah Ali Sistani. Radical cleric Moqtada Sadr's list in the United Iraq Alliance bloc has performed strongly. Former prime minister Iyad Allawi's mixed Iraqi List has made solid gains of an estimated 30% of the Sunni Muslim vote and 20% among the Shiites. The Kurdish alliance appears to have lost ground but is still expected to hold the balance of power in the future National Assembly. Ahmed Chalabi's party appears to have fared badly.
Iraq Interior Minister Bayan Jabir said terror attacks in the country decreased by 70 percent and no escapee has been arrested at Syrian borders for two weeks.
In the statement to Kuwaiti reporters, Jabir indicates this figure was based on the latest statistics.
The decrease in the number of these attacks is a big success, the minister noted, declaring by the end of next year Iraqi army could take over security.
The US Army had declared after the months long operations against insurgents, suicide attacks had decreased to the lowest level in November and roadside bombings had been at its lowest level since last June.
Posted by: Dan Darling ||
12/18/2005 01:07 ||
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#1
If we have a 5% uptick in any week, we are told we are losing, it's a quagmire. Even though I don't think this means we won, why don't we hear the MSM declaring that. You'd figure they would'nt want to make it so obvious they want the US to lose.
#4
It is probably too early to cite this as good news because the terrorists might begin another offensive.
If the terrorist attacks are suppressed for 3 or 4 months and the Iraqi Parliment makes a dramatic declaration that because of the success the US can reduce forces by 30k as a result, even the NYTimes will have a hard time keeping it off the front page.
Al-Qaida in Iraq denied in an Internet statement Saturday that it had intentionally curbed violence during this week's elections, saying it carried out multiple attacks on U.S. and Iraqi forces. Five militant groups including the al-Qaida affiliate had issued a statement a day before Thursday's vote that condemned the elections but stopped short of threatening to attack polling stations. And election violence was low in what was perceived as an attempt to avoid harming members of the Sunni Arab community, who voted in large numbers. The turnout bolstered U.S. hopes that the polls would produce a broad-based government capable of ending daily violence.
There were still several attacks across the country. The U.S. military said Thursday that a mortar shell exploded near Baghdad's heavily fortified Green Zone as polls opened, slightly wounding two civilians and a U.S. Marine. Mortar attacks on polling stations in the northern city of Tal Afar and western Euphrates River valley town of Parwana killed six people, while a grenade killed a school guard near a voting site in the northern city of Mosul.
Al-Qaida in Iraq claimed Saturday that it attacked numerous locations in Samarra, 60 miles north of Baghdad, and conducted operations in Baghdad and Mosul, and in Anbar and Diyala provinces. The militant Ansar al-Sunnah Army, which has ties to al-Qaida in Iraq, issued a statement on the same Web site Saturday suggesting it halted operations during Thursday's polls but resumed them with a purported attack on a U.S. Humvee in Tikrit, 80 miles north of Baghdad.
Posted by: Fred ||
12/18/2005 00:00 ||
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Prime Minister Ariel Sharon was rushed to Hadassah Hospital Ein Kerem in Jerusalem after suffering a mild stroke on Sunday evening.
Deputy director of the hospital, Prof. Yuval Weiss related in a press conference that the prime minister remained conscious continuously since his arrival at 7:50 p.m. That announcement contradicted earlier rumors, according to which, Sharon lost consciousness on the way to the hospital and had to be brought in on a stretcher. Other sources revealed that the prime minister walked into the trauma room on his own.
Weiss added that Sharon's condition improved during his hospitalization. The hospital official noted that the prime minister did not require any invasive procedures. He was sent to the internal medicine department and although he was to remain in Hadassah overnight, he was expected to be released in the morning.
The prime minister was taken directly to the VIP section of the hospital's trauma room, probably because of its higher security precautions. Meanwhile, Hadassah was closed off to civilian entry by special police forces. The senior medical staff of the hospital was called in to treat him. Neurologists on staff were already looking after the prime minister.
Hospital deputy director Professor Shmuel Shapira said that Sharon's condition was stable, and that it was too early to know exactly what happened to him. Shapira would not discuss Sharon's condition further, saying the prime minister had a right to medical privacy. Unofficial sources revealed that the stroke was likely caused by a blot clot.
According to Channel 1, the prime minister felt unwell while on the way to Tel Aviv on the Jerusalem-Tel Aviv highway. Sharon told his son Gilad over the phone that he did not feel well, and Gilad ordered his security detail to take him directly to the hospital. MK Omri Sharon, the prime minister's other son, arrived at the hospital shortly after his father.
Posted by: Fred ||
12/18/2005 13:43 ||
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The success of the militant Islamic group Hamas in the latest round of Palestinian local elections is just the latest indication of the deterioration of the main Palestinian faction, Fatah, after the death of Yasir Arafat last year.
To some degree, the decline has been accelerated by the policy choices and the distant, uninspiring personality of Mr. Arafat's successor, Mahmoud Abbas. Without the binding charisma of Mr. Arafat, and without the ability or will to use his aggressive tactics, Mr. Abbas is struggling to manage a renewed struggle between his secular Fatah faction and the Islamists that Mr. Arafat repressed and delayed.
"The success of Hamas," said Khaled Duzdar, a Palestinian who is an analyst at the Israel/Palestine Center for Research and Information, "is only due to Fatah's failures."
Those failures long precede the death of Mr. Arafat. He relished the role of revolutionary, but he was no administrator, and his Palestinian Authority was criticized for corruption, indolence and a failure to care about ordinary Palestinians. And Mr. Arafat's decision to recognize Israel and negotiate with it over the 1993 Oslo accords, which allowed him to return from exile, did not produce a Palestinian state.
All that was ripe ground for Hamas, with its reputation for piety, its social-welfare network and its military wing, which carried out attacks on Israeli soldiers and civilians.
But Mr. Arafat was also revered by Palestinians as the founder of their nascent nation, the man who turned Palestinian from an adjective that included anyone who lived in the British Mandate for Palestine to a specific appellation for a people.
In Leon Uris's 1958 novel of the founding of the state of Israel, "Exodus," the Jewish hero, Ari Ben Canaan, is invariably referred to as "the Palestinian." It reads oddly today, largely because of Mr. Arafat, who took a scattered people and gave them a new identity.
Mr. Arafat was also willing to exercise a strong hand. He kept Hamas - created in 1987 as the fighting arm of the religious Muslim Brotherhood - in line and out of power. In negotiations in the early 1990's, he rejected proposals that Hamas join the secular Palestine Liberation Organization with up to 40 percent of seats, and he refused to give Hamas a share of power in the Palestinian Authority, which the P.L.O., dominated by Fatah, controlled.
Mr. Arafat always insisted that the P.L.O. was "the sole and legitimate representative of the Palestinian people" - specifically excluding Hamas and the other Islamists, like Islamic Jihad. And he cracked down intermittently on them.
His successor, Mr. Abbas, is entirely different, lacking the charisma of Mr. Arafat, a natural politician. A negotiator and man of logic, who opposes terrorism and the war against Israel as counterproductive, Mr. Abbas, at 70, carries all the weight of Mr. Arafat's failures without any credit for his successes.
Mr. Abbas has told intimates he feels lonely, with few real allies, in a Palestinian polity that sees little movement from Israel, that resents its powerlessness and despises its corrupt leadership. He has described himself as transitional, opening the gates to his rivals. Yet he has refused to jettison the old guard or to crack down and provide law and order in the streets.
The municipalities battle is only a forerunner to the battle for parliament in an election set for Jan. 25. And the battle for parliament is really a battle for the P.L.O., to which the Palestinian Authority is subordinate.
Still, Mr. Abbas believes that the politicization of Hamas is a great accomplishment, the only way to moderate the group, and that democratic politics are the only path to genuine national unity.
Many in Fatah, let alone in Israel, are unconvinced. Faced with the Hamas challenge, Fatah itself is splitting, with another long-repressed conflict coming into the open - the generational struggle between those who were Arafat cronies and went into exile with him and those in their 40's who grew up at home after the 1967 war, under Israeli occupation, learning Hebrew in Israeli jails and feeling excluded from power.
Led by Marwan Barghouti, who is serving five consecutive life sentences plus 40 years in an Israeli prison, the younger generation has its own slate in the January elections, a direct challenge to Mr. Abbas that he is trying to forestall.
On Saturday, negotiations were going on between representatives of Mr. Abbas and Mr. Barghouti about how to rally Fatah around a slate that gives the younger, indigenous generation more power and retires some of the old guard. Shaken by the Hamas surge, Fatah is finally seeing the value of unity.
Despite the threat, polls still show Fatah with an edge. So what would define success for Hamas in January? Forty percent of the vote could be seen as a huge accomplishment, even if Palestinian and Israeli analysts are talking excitedly about a possible Hamas majority. In any case, Hamas will have a much broader influence on Palestinian politics.
That already has Israeli politicians who are engaged in their own campaigns making broad statements about how a Hamas victory will mean the end of negotiations and the troubled peace plan known as the road map. On Saturday, Silvan Shalom, the foreign minister who is trying to win the leadership of battle to lead the Likud Party that Prime Minister Ariel Sharon has abandoned, warned that a Hamas victory could "put us back 50 years."
Mr. Shalom praised a resolution of Friday evening from the United States House of Representatives warning that the Palestinian Authority risks losing American aid if Hamas participates in an election that is only six weeks away. Hamas, after all, has carried out many attacks against Israelis, and it has been designated a terrorist group by Israel, Europe and the United States.
But the Palestinian election is also bound to be clarifying, a relatively realistic measure of Palestinian sentiment a year after Mr. Arafat's death. The election will also signify the reintegration of a significant minority of Palestinian opinion into politics and perhaps government.
In any case, a successful Hamas will have to adapt to a new role of responsibility, while accepting the previous commitment of the P.L.O. and the Palestinian Authority to a negotiated, two-state solution with Israel, even if it insists that Israel will be gone in the fullness of time.
Hamas, which believes, like Hezbollah in Lebanon, that politics and armed resistance must go hand in hand, may never give up its "right to resist" or its weapons, but it may find itself forced politically not to use them, or not very often.
Haim Malka, a permanent fellow with the Middle East program at the Center for Strategic and International Studies in Washington, argued in The Washington Quarterly of autumn 2005 that Hamas had already won a historic victory. He wrote that the group's agreement to participate in electoral politics on a national level was "nothing less than an earthquake in Palestinian politics, signaling the clear end of one-party rule."
A more representative Palestinian government is much more likely to stabilize Palestinian society, Mr. Malka said, and he maintained that it would also "ultimately strengthen any future agreement between Israel and the Palestinians."
Posted by: Dan Darling ||
12/18/2005 01:48 ||
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#1
a Hamas victory could "put us back 50 years."
OTOH it could bring the end game forward by a few years.
A Palestinian fighter has been killed in an explosion in a car in the southern Gaza Strip that Palestinian officials blamed on Israel. The Israeli army denied any involvement in the death on Saturday of Khaled Abu Sitta, a senior leader of the Abu al-Rish Brigades, who was killed when his car blew up as he drove at night between the southern Gaza cities of Khan Yunus and Rafah. Palestinian security sources and members of the Abu al-Rish Brigades said an Israeli missile fired from an unidentified aircraft hit Abu Sitta's car, killing him and turning the vehicle into charred and twisted metal.
The Abu al-Rish Brigades said they would avenge Abu Sitta's death. Abu Haron, a spokesman for the group, which is linked to the mainstream Fatah faction, said: "We do not forget the blood of our martyrs and our reaction will be strong and painful."
The Israeli army, which often admits to strikes on fighters' cars, denied involvement in the incident. "The Israel Defence Forces was not involved in this incident," an army spokeswoman said.
Posted by: Fred ||
12/18/2005 00:00 ||
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#3
Almost all materials have the potential of being formed into nanostructures like 'buckyballs' and nanotubes. The article is interesting, but I think it is mainly an 'ad' for funding. It is unlikely in the extreme that they are producing kilograms per day, unless they are calling 0.1 kg 'kg/day'. Look at the equipment. It is also extremely unlikely that their material will be lower in cost than carbon nanotubes. Look at the cost per gram of the base materials (carbon vs. anything else for one) and then factor in the fact that most nanostructures are made in CVD furnaces. The cost of the energy to produce the products usually swamps out the cost of the base material when dealing with carbon. It will be worse for less common base materials. The other way is to use supercritical fluids rather than CVD, but the energy cost is equivalent and cost of production hardware is higher. Yes, US firms are doing similar things. Different, but similar. Like growing very long carbon nanotubes 10-20mm long or more and weaving them together into a thread-like fiber that can then be utilized in conventional fabrication techniques. A material like the one highlighted in the article will transfer all of the projectile's momentum to whatever is on the other side (like your chest). Nice step in the right direction through. Hope they get their funding.
Posted by: Whiskey Mike ||
12/18/2005 13:10 Comments ||
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Posted by: Frank G ||
12/18/2005 13:28 Comments ||
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#6
The picture is of medieval armor, as the caption notes. It would likely represent a year's worth of production at their probable production rates. Expect the real armor to be segmented with replacable segments, forward-biased, covering the neck with spall shields, covering the exposed armpits of someone aiming a rifle, and having an 'assault plate' on the off-side arm of the shooter. If I can get some pics out, I will.
Posted by: Whiskey Mike ||
12/18/2005 13:32 Comments ||
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#7
There's a company in California that's making what's essentially scale armor out of ceramics. They say it's worked as well.
I also have some ideas I'd like to try out but I keep not having time to do anything with them.
Posted by: Phil ||
12/18/2005 15:29 Comments ||
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#8
I still wonder why they haven't fielded a transparent "rifle shield". It's a bullet and frag deflecting, lightweight fan that clamps onto the upper receiver, then 'fans' either 180 degrees over the top of the rifle, or 360 degrees around the rifle. It would be great face and neck protection in urban combat situations.
#9
I still wonder why they haven't fielded a transparent "rifle shield"
Cause the increase in protection/decrease in casualties is not enough to justify the expense/time. The shield is going to be heavy/awkward, with limited utility outside of an assult. IIRC, this concept has been tried repeatedly since at least the 1960's
BTW-- while I'm all for enhanced personal armor, I've noticed that the stuff is *heavy*. The full body suit a-la "starwars stormtrooper" looks to be rather unpleasant to waddle about in. Especialy in 130-deg. weather. Still, I hope the whole kit wont wind up weighing more than the current IBA I just spent a year in.
Posted by: N Guard ||
12/18/2005 17:17 Comments ||
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#10
Hi Phil, got a name on that CA company? Ceramic scales work fine, but are usually heavy. Nano over ceramic over titanium is light.
Posted by: Whiskey Mike ||
12/18/2005 18:39 Comments ||
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#11
N Guard: Ah, but the game has changed as far as materials go. The problem was caused by insisting that the materials had to be "bullet-proof", like bulletproof glass. But that is not what you need for a rifle shield. You just need to deflect the bullet or frag outward by from between 10 and 15 degrees.
Optimally, it is extended eye, face, and neck protection. Any protection beyond that is just a bonus.
Weight could be under 2 oz.
It does not have to be indestructible, either. Even if it was trashed with a single "hit", it would have saved a possible serious injury.
In the 180-degree mode it would be great to peek around corners and over ledges. 360-degree for active patrol.
Bandits killed a guard of President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad hours before the leader visited southeastern Iran this week, state-run television reported Saturday. The broadcast said another guard and a driver were wounded in Thursday's assault on a road 1,240 miles southeast of the capital, Tehran. The guards were making security checks in the area several hours before Ahmadinejad passed in a motorcade, the report said. The motive for the attack was unclear. Officials could not immediately be reached for comment.
Ahmadinejad provoked an international stir during the three-day trip to the region when he called the Holocaust a "myth" used as a pretext for carving out a Jewish state in the heart of the Muslim world. The interior minister said Friday that Western governments had "misunderstood" the comments.
The president ended his tour to the area Friday. Eastern Iran has been the scene of frequent police clashes with drug smugglers and bandits. Iran is located on a major drug route between Afghanistan, the world's largest supplier of heroin and opium, and Europe.
Posted by: Dan Darling ||
12/18/2005 01:12 ||
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#1
Actually, it was the Wicked Witch of the East...not bandits. NO...it was the flying monkeys!!
Either it was a Sunni hit on their Shiite oppressor or it was a Shiite who thought El Prez was doing something threatening to their local racket or; actually there are too many possibilities to list.
#5
"Bandits." Not a chance. A low key rebellion is ongoing in Balochistan Province of the terrorist entity of Pakistan. Many Balochis want their own state, void of Persian and Punjabi interference.
The outgoing chief of the UN investigation into the murder of Rafiq al-Hariri, the former Lebanese prime minister, has said he is convinced that Syria was responsible for the murder. Asked by the Arab daily Al-Sharq al-Awsat if he was "perfectly convinced of Syria's responsibility in the murder of al-Hariri," Detlev Mehlis, a German magistrate, said "yes".
"The Syrian authorities are responsible," said Mehlis in the interview published on Saturday. He refused to go into detail. On Thursday, Mehlis told CNN that there was an obvious link between the spate of assassinations to have hit critics of Damascus since al-Hariri's killing in February. Damascus has consistently denied responsibility for any of the killings. "We will have to look and we are looking for links between the assassinations as, pretty obviously, there are links between all these assassinations that happened after the death of al-Hariri," Mehlis said.
The UN investigator, whose mandate for al-Hariri's inquiry ended on Thursday, will stay on until a replacement is found. He released two reports into the assassination, in October and this week, which both cited evidence suggesting that Syrian and Lebanese intelligence officers were involved in al-Hariri's murder. The second report coincided with the murder in a devastating car bomb attack of anti-Syrian MP and press magnate Gebran Tueni.
Posted by: Fred ||
12/18/2005 00:00 ||
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Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad has ordered the conditional suspension of the additional protocol of the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA), the Fars news agency reported Saturday. In a written order to his vice-president Gholam-Reza Aqazadeh, who is also head of the country's Atomic Energy Organization, Ahmadinejad called for the implementing of the recently approved law to suspend all voluntary cooperation with the IAEA if the Iranian nuclear case is referred to the United Nations Security Council.
The Iranian parliament last month approved a bill urging the government to conditionally suspend the IAEA additional protocol. According to the bill, the government will be urged to limit or even stop IAEA inspection of Iranian nuclear sites if Teheran is referred to the Security Council. Ahmadinejad said last Wednesday that there should be no doubts whatsoever that the government will not retreat one inch from realising the legitimate right of the Iranian nation to have nuclear technology.
Experts from Iran and the European Union trio of Britain, France and Germany are scheduled to resume talks aimed at resolving Iran's nuclear crisis on December 21 in Vienna. The talks were suspended in August over Teheran's refusal to halt nuclear conversion, the first step in the nuclear cycle, at its Isfahan plant in central Iran. Iran says that it will not only continue the conversion process at Isfahan but will also push to start uranium enrichment at a neighbouring plant at Natanz.
Posted by: Fred ||
12/18/2005 00:00 ||
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#1
oooh...watch out, France and the Belgians might send him a nasty letter, although he might want to be a bit concerned that the Israeli's will deliver it...uh.. air mail.
#2
Lessee...One plant is at Isfahan, and a neighboring one at Natanz. Any others, hardboyz?
Posted by: Bobby ||
12/18/2005 14:08 Comments ||
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#3
Unless the people I know are on the job have totally screwed up, we know exactly where EVERY nuclear installation is, down to the inch. I'm sure there are Tomahawk cruise missiles that have those coordinates in their "brains". There may even be a set of Poseidon missiles targeted against them - it depends on how seriously the US plans to react. I'd also be fairly safe suggesting we'd shared some of that information with a certain middle east nation. The only thing left to do is to strap Jimmah to one of those and send him on his way to "observe".
Posted by: Old Patriot ||
12/18/2005 17:02 Comments ||
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#4
from your lips to .... ummm .... someone's ears
#5
The Iranians know that we know where everything is, or rather, everything important. Now it is a game of chicken on their part. It is their will versus ours and the Israeli's will. The rest is just a sideshow. The EU is a noise factory. The question is: are we and Israel noise factories, or will we do the right thing in a timely manner?
Posted by: Alaska Paul ||
12/18/2005 23:22 Comments ||
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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.
The imprisoned leader of Egypt's liberal Ghad party has been taken to hospital after his health deteriorated on the eighth day of a hunger strike. Ayman Nour is refusing to eat in protest at being detained on forgery charges, his wife said on Saturday. 
According to the intelligence agencies, most of the sensitive bomb making explosives like Water Gel, Power Gel and Ammonium Nitrate recovered by members of the well-equipped Rapid Action Battalion (RAB) from the JMB hideouts were mostly brought into the country from India through organised gang of smugglers.
KERANIGANJ, Dec 17: Police Saturday foiled an attempt allegedly to explode two bombs and detained one JMB operator in this connection from Aganagar area of Keraniganj, reports UNB. 
Italian police on Friday raided apartments and shops believed to be linked to a 12-strong Algerian group suspected of financing and supporting extremist groups in Algeria. Fake documents, forged money and cell phones, which turned up in raids in the southern city Naples, were believed to be destined for the extremist organizations, said Italian police. These organizations include the 
French anti-terror judges Friday placed 11 suspected Islamic extremists under investigation for allegedly financing terrorism, part of a probe into a group suspected of using robberies to fund its plots.
Another four men were killed and three injured in armed clashes between two sub-tribes of the Masori tribe in Dera Bugti on Saturday. The latest clashes between sub-tribes in Dera Bugti raised death toll of those killed in gunbattles to nine. Reportedly an old land dispute is behind the clashes between the two groups. Eyewitness said that both parties were targeting each other with heavy weapons including rocket launchers. Those killed in the latest clash were Khawand Bux, Dil Murad, Qambar Ali and Maula Bux.
German archeologist Susanne Osthoff, who was kidnapped in Iraq last month, is free, Foreign Minister Steinmeier confirmed Sunday evening. Frank-Walter Steinmeier confirmed in an evening press conference that Susanne Osthoff had been freed. Since Sunday she had been in safety at the German embassy in Baghdad, and she was in good health, he said. The kidnappers had said they would also release her driver, he added.
Al-Qaida in Iraq denied in an Internet statement Saturday that it had intentionally curbed violence during this week's elections, saying it carried out multiple attacks on U.S. and Iraqi forces. Five militant groups including the al-Qaida affiliate had issued a statement a day before Thursday's vote that condemned the elections but stopped short of threatening to attack polling stations. And election violence was low in what was perceived as an attempt to avoid harming members of the Sunni Arab community, who voted in large numbers. The turnout bolstered U.S. hopes that the polls would produce a broad-based government capable of ending daily violence.
A Palestinian fighter has been killed in an explosion in a car in the southern Gaza Strip that Palestinian officials blamed on Israel. The Israeli army denied any involvement in the death on Saturday of 
Bandits killed a guard of President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad hours before the leader visited southeastern Iran this week, state-run television reported Saturday. The broadcast said another guard and a driver were wounded in Thursday's assault on a road 1,240 miles southeast of the capital, Tehran. The guards were making security checks in the area several hours before Ahmadinejad passed in a motorcade, the report said. The motive for the attack was unclear. Officials could not immediately be reached for comment.
The outgoing chief of the UN investigation into the murder of 
Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad has ordered the conditional suspension of the additional protocol of the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA), the Fars news agency reported Saturday. In a written order to his vice-president Gholam-Reza Aqazadeh, who is also head of the country's Atomic Energy Organization, Ahmadinejad called for the implementing of the recently approved law to suspend all voluntary cooperation with the IAEA if the Iranian nuclear case is referred to the United Nations Security Council. 
