Afghan President Hamid Karzai's chief of staff, Jawed Ludin, said on May 10 that the administration expects Islamabad to clarify its position on the accusation made by a Taliban commander that Pakistani intelligence had a hand in the recent killing of an Indian engineer in southern Afghanistan, Tolu Television reported.
A Taliban commander wishing to remain anonymous previously told Tolu that Amir Khan Haqqani, whom he identified as the military commander of Taliban fighters in Zabul Province, opposed killing K. Suryanarayan, who was abducted by the Taliban in Zabul on April 28 (see "RFE/RL Newsline," May 2, 2006). The source alleged that Suryanarayan was eventually killed by Mullah Latif, a militiaman under the command of Mawlawi Mohammad Alam Andar, on orders from Pakistan's Inter-Services Intelligence (ISI). "One thing I would like to mention is that an Afghan national cannot commit such a crime," Ludin told Tolu.
Suryanarayan was beheaded, while Afghan officials have blamed decapitations and suicide bombings on non-Afghans. "The reports on Pakistani ISI involvement in the incident are very important" to Afghanistan, Ludin said, adding that Kabul expects Islamabad to "clarify its stance on the issue."
Posted by: john ||
05/12/2006 21:10 ||
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Some details changed to protect the privacy of captured Taliban, in accordance with the Geneva conventions.
Canadian soldiers in Afghanistan have captured 10 suspected Taliban fighters. The capture came as Canadian troops were escorting a convoy to Gumbad, north of Kandahar, where Canada maintains a forward operating base. The soldiers noticed two groups apparently conducting a reconnaissance of the area. CBC correspondent Peter Armstrong reported from Kandahar that Canadian units had been scouring the hills trying to flush out Taliban fighters. The Canadians were given a tip that a group was hiding in a compound, "so troops moved in and essentially, without firing a shot," captured the men, Armstrong reported.
"Sergeant Major!"
"Huh? Sir, the sergeant major's..."
"Bring up the death ray!"
"The... what?"
"We quit! We're coming out!"
Members of 1st Princess Patricia's Canadian Light Infantry carried out the raid. Ten suspects were subsequently handed over to the Afghan National Police. "We've taken some bad guys off the street," Maj. Marc Theriault told a news briefing in Kandahar.
"Book 'em, Mahmoud!"
A photographer with Agence France-Presse was embedded with the unit and captured images of Canadian troops processing the detainees and taking them into custody. At first, the Canadian military asked the photographer not to publish the images.
"Careful with those photos, eh? They're dangerous!"
"Who the hell are you?"
"Jones, Attorney at Law, representing the prisoners!"
Military officials said their lawyers reviewed the photos and thought they might be in violation of the Geneva Conventions, which says that a picture holding up a prisoner to ridicule may not be released. Article 13 of the convention states: "Prisoners of war must at all time be protected, particularly against acts of violence or intimidation and against insults and public curiosity."
"Sergeant Major!"
"Uhhh... Sir!"
"Is the death ray ready?"
"No. Wait. I've changed my mind, eh? You can use the photos. They're just routine stuff."
However, the military later said it was up to the various news agencies to decide whether they wanted to publish the images. Good news, bad news? Make what you will of this. At least the headline seemed exciting.
(SomaliNet) The death toll in the latest flare up of heavy clashes in the Somali capital of Mogadishu rose, with the latest causality figure tells that more than 25 civilians have been killed in indiscriminate mortar fire in the northern part of Mogadishu on Thursday. Hundreds of people were killed and wounded as shells crashed into their homes in Huriwa and Yaqshid districts of north Mogadishu,
"Hundreds" would imply that 135 deaders is a low number. "135" would imply that there weren't hundreds killed, but maybe "lots."
where the rival militias clashed exchanging gunfire, mortars, rocket-propelled grenades and anti-aircraft fire.
They use the AA as artillery. Nice, big rounds, lotsa boom, not a lot of accuracy on a level trajectory.
You wouldn't want to be in the way, however ...
Health officials in Mogadishu hospitals said at least 28 people were killed as gunmen, manning checkpoints and racing through the streets in pickup trucks mounted with heavy guns, fought on through the night.
"[BANG!] Take that, warlord scum!"
"[BOOM!] Take that, Islamist offal!"
The toll in five days of heavy fighting mounts more than 135, with most of the dead are civilians and the latest fatalities included a pregnant woman and three children whose houses were hit by mortar fire. There seem no efforts of negotiations between the warring parts.
"Aaaar! Yer mudder wears combat boots!"
"A curse on yer moustache!"
The fighting intensified and spread into areas in the capital in fifth day after both sides ignore the ceasefire. Residents say neither side has gained the upper hand in heavy fighting that underlines the anarchy that has gripped Somalia since warlords ousted dictator Mohamed Siad Barre in 1991 before turning against each other.
And a wonderful time was had by all, except for the dead guys and the maimed.
Posted by: Fred ||
05/12/2006 00:00 ||
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#1
the latest causality figure
Causality and Somalia?... How long you got?
Posted by: Howard UK ||
05/12/2006 6:45 Comments ||
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They use the AA as artillery. Nice, big rounds, lotsa boom, not a lot of accuracy on a level trajectory.
?
#3
....Yes, excuse me please, I am looking for a book entitled "Contemporary Africa, The Rule of Law in Civilized Society." I'm sorry sir that book has yet to be written.
#7
1. Somalia is a failed state, where there has been significant AQ activity, and certainly coalition Spec Ops activity. Whats happening there is as an topic as anything.
2. While Africa has lots of problems, and few bright spots (and they have a nasty tendency not to stay bright - take Ivory Coast, for ex) there arent too many countries even there quite like Somalia
3. Even Somalia has some bright spots - they just dont want to stay part of Somalia. Look at Puntland and Somaliland.
Yemeni security forces captured suspected Al-Qaeda member, one of inmates who escaped from a detention facility of the secret service, security sources said Thursday. The defense ministry's SeptemberNet website quoted the sources as saying the security forces captured Ali Abdullah Al-Rimi, who was condemned for four years on terrorism chrages. Al-Rimi was captured in Ma'reb governorate, 180 kilometers East of Sanaa, after the security forces received information from the intelligence about his whereabout, said the sources. Al-Rimi is "one of the most dangerous of the 23 Al-Qaeda militants who escaped from the political security prison in Sanaa last February," they added.
But he only got four years in jug. Go figure.
The militants escaped through a tunnel they dug between the prison and a nearby mosque. The tunnel is 44-meter long and three-meter deep. With Al-Rimi now under custody, the number of Al-Qaeda arrestees rises to nine. The government of Yemen set a bounty of USD 600,000 for information leading to the capture of those escaped.
Posted by: Fred ||
05/12/2006 00:00 ||
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I mean considering the fact this guy is such a dangerous terrorists, its a good thing he will be free by 2010............................................................................................... yeah not really.
Two of the suicide bombers behind last years deadly London transport attacks likely had contacts with Al Qaeda, but British security lacked resources to stop the atrocity, said an official report on Thursday. The report, by an influential parliamentary committee, cleared intelligence services of any culpable failings in preventing the four bombers carrying out Britains worst terror attack, which killed them and 52 other people.
In the first full account of the events before and after the July 7 blasts, the document said Mohammad Siddique Khan (30) and Shehzad Tanweer (22) had appeared only vaguely on Britains intelligence radar. They were considered peripheral figures at the time and were not pursued, with agents pre-occupied with more pressing priorities, the report found. Afterwards, it emerged they had been to Pakistan. Khan visited in 2003 and again, this time with Tanweer, between November 2004 and February 2005. It has not yet been established who they met in Pakistan, but it is assessed as likely that they had some contact with Al Qaeda figures, the 44-page report by the Intelligence and Security Committee said. The two men, whose identities were only established after July 7, probably received operational training there, it added.
Nevertheless, the committees chairman Paul Murphy said the intelligence services were not to blame. There was no evidence that these two men were involved in attack planning against this country, he told a press conference. There was no culpable evidence of failure on the part of the agencies. Our view is that it was understandable that the leads were not taken any further. Things may have been different - but they may not have been. He denied criticism that the report amounted to a whitewash.
Posted by: Fred ||
05/12/2006 00:00 ||
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#1
The security forces were provided with everything they requested in the last public spending round. This is more about a reluctance to round up young British Muslims for fear of alienating ethnic communities. Whenever we try to round them up the Human Right's Lawyer's and Islamonazis cry foul and the Labour government backs down - hardly surprising when the PM is fanny-whipped by his HR Lawyer wifey.
The result of this diffidence : 50 dead Londoners. Could anyone in the UK really give a fuck? No.
Please stop the country I want to get off.
Posted by: Howard UK ||
05/12/2006 3:52 Comments ||
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Deepest sympathies, Howard. That just depresses the hell out of me. Time to leave, maybe? Good swimmer / got passage? You know you'd be welcome among the Cowboys.
#6
Let us put this thing in a proper perspective. Consider a butch of radioactive material. Can you reasonably blame anyone for failing to predict which particular atoms will emit radiation at a particular time?
ISTANBUL - Unknown assailants, shouting God is greatest, lobbed a percussion bomb at the office of Turkeys most staunchly secularist newspaper on Thursday, the third attack on the paper in just a week. The device exploded but nobody was hurt, though some glass was blown out of windows by the blast, the chief editor of Cumhuriyet, Ibrahim Yildiz, told Reuters.
Somebody yelling God is greatest hurled the percussion bomb at some readers who had come to show us support after the attacks of the last few days, Yildiz said. Security guards gave chase to the would-be bomber and his two accomplices, but lost them, he added.
Stay tuned for a new edition of Crossfire: Istanbul ...
Percussion bombs make a loud noise but do not usually cause serious damage. It is not so uncommon for militant groups in Turkey, including Islamists and far-leftists, to use them.
CNN Turk television reported similar attacks on Thursday in the Black Sea town of Ordu against the headquarters of two nationalist groups. Two people were hurt in those attacks.
Posted by: Steve White ||
05/12/2006 00:08 ||
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The agency's third ranking official, Kyle "Dusty" Foggo, has been under investigation by the FBI, IRS, Defense Criminal Investigative Service and the CIA's inspector general, said FBI spokeswoman April Langwell in San Diego. Under a sealed warrant, officials searched Foggo's Virginia home and his office at the CIA's Langley, Va., campus, Langwell said. She could provide no other details.
#4
Holy Shmoley! It's seemed to me for a long time that we have a very serious mole in the intelligence services - and not just re: news leaks. All the biggest of the bigs getting away just in the nick of time - every time.
SECOND OPINION: Sorry, your extremism is showing! Khaled Ahmeds Review of the Urdu press
How is extremism born? Now that our great cricketer Saqlain Mushtaq says music is banned, the masses should gather and destroy all TV stations broadcasting music. This has been done in the past, by the Taliban in Afghanistan and Lashkar-e-Tayba in Muridke
On Tuesday last a seminar in Peshawar came to the unanimous conclusion that there was no extremism among Muslims and Pakistanis, and that the perception of it abroad was based on a misrepresentation of facts. Had the seminar read just one days Urdu press it would have thought otherwise. The Muslim mind has two qualities: extremism and denial, two concepts based on exaggeration and falsehood.
Quoted in Khabrain (17 March 2006) several clerics condemned Lahores famous novelist and social worker Bushra Rehman for joining the Hindus to celebrate the festival of holi. Maulana Abdul Malik said that she should not have accepted a tilak on her forehead and thrown colour as that was tantamount to shirk for which she should do tauba.
PML women politicians too became pious. Mehnaz Rafi said that she should not have done the ritual of aarti. Qudsia Lodhi said she should not have worshipped. Nighat Parvin said she was no longer a Muslim. Bushra Rehman said that she did not give up her Islamic faith and added that all claims of tolerance were hypocritical in Pakistan.
This incident is shocking in the extreme because Begum Bushras condemnation came from women politicians who pretend not to be extremists. What would they say about Jinnahs joining the Christians in their celebration of Christmas, which he did to the last moments of his life? That the PML women condemned Bushra is shameful because the party pretends to agree with Musharraf that Pakistan needs to shun extremism.
Talking to Nawa-e-Waqt magazine (12 March 2006) Pakistans greatest spin bowler Saqlain Mushtaq said that music was haram (banned) in Islam and therefore he never listened to music. He said that the only perfume he liked was the smell of ghilaf-e-Kaaba (cover of Kaaba). The best cities in the world are Makka and Madina although people say Lahor Lahor Ai. He said if Pakistan wanted to make progress it didnt have to go forward. It had instead to move backward about 14 hundred years.
Our sportsmen who provide us entertainment and relief from the rigours of extremist religious thought are joining the devil too. How does extremism spring? Now that Saqlain says music is banned the masses should gather and destroy all TV stations broadcasting music. This has been done before, by the Taliban in Afghanistan and the Lashkar-e-Tayba in Muridke.
According to Khabrain (14 March 2006) the town of Jatoi came to a standstill with fears of large-scale destruction after a contractor on the highway blasphemed against Prophet Muhammad (peace be upon him). The incident took place when a tractor driver crossed the barrier without paying the toll. The contractor ran after him and caught whereupon he took the name of the Prophet (peace be upon him). The contractor blasphemed in the presence of the students of a madrassa.
The news spread like wildfire and the cities in a radius of miles began to close down. People came out in Jatoi ready to destroy public property because of their love of the Prophet (peace be upon him). Students from all colleges blocked the traffic on all the roads. The police was activated and had registered a case.
The man who allegedly blasphemed should have been handled differently. Why block roads and threaten the lives of innocent people not connected with the incident? But much acclaim is showered on ashiqan rasul (lovers of the Prophet) so that more extremist behaviour is resorted to.
Columnist Nazeer Naji wrote in Jang (16 March 2006) that all countries of the EU were making changes in their immigration laws to make the entry of Muslims into Europe virtually impossible. Also new laws were on the anvil to keep an eye on the private activities of the Muslims already resident in the EU.
There may soon come a time when EU will not allow any Muslim to visit Europe and no European would want to visit Pakistan. Extremism on the roads of Pakistan therefore should be avoided. Most Pakistanis who were not given to extremism must secure the true spirit of Islam against the extremism and violence of a few among them.
Extremism among expatriate Pakistanis is rising in complete disregard of the legal and constitutional action Europe can take against them. People break all sorts of barriers to get to Europe, then adopt extremist conduct as a way of life.
Quoted in daily Pakistan (13 March 2006) the wife of Hafiz Saeed, leader of the banned Lashkar-e-Tayba, told a gathering of women in Lahore that Muslim women in Pakistan should tie bombs around their bodies to defend the honour of Islam. She said only thus would the honour of the Holy Prophet (peace be upon him) be protected in the world.
What more evidence does one need of extremism? And what more proof is needed about who is spreading it? If after this the UN Committee on terrorism in the Security Council places a ban on Jamaat Dawa what moral defence would Pakistan have of its decision to keep the organisation alive as a jihadi option?
According to Nawa-e-Waqt (18 March 2006) Jamaat Dawa, formerly Lashkar-e-Tayba banned by the UN Security Council as a terrorist organisation, made its show of strength in Lahore with a rally of 20,000 dedicated to the honour of the Holy Prophet (peace be upon him). It called on the Muslims not to tolerate insult to the Prophet PBUH (peace be upon him) and refuse the slavery of the United States.
Chief of Jamaat Dawa Hafiz Saeed said that the Muslims should make a United States of Muslims and get out of the UN. Maulana Samiul Haq said that the Muslim ummah had woken up after the Danish cartoons. Hafiz Hussain Ahmad said that the Americans were trying to grab the resources of the Muslims. Hameed Gul said that the Muslims were at war because the West had attacked the honour of the Prophet (peace be upon him). Hafiz Idrees said that the flag of jihad will not be lowered. Mujibur Rehman Shami said that Muslim governments were no longer representative of the Muslim masses and had to be changed.
Hafiz Said is the last panjandrum of jihad that Pakistan has decided to go down with. Here is an example of how extremism can lead to terrorism. About the United Nations of Muslims, allow one to say that the OIC states could not get together enough money to fund the salaries of the Hamas government in Palestine, which is now on European and American dole. *
It has been one month since a suicide bomber executed an attack at Nishtar Park during a prayer gathering on April 11, decimating the entire top leadership of the Sunni Tehrik and many others. So far, however, the police and investigating agencies have yet to make any breakthroughs.
That tells me that either they don't want to make a breakthrough, or that the guys what dunnit were more than the routine krazed killers Karachi is so famous for...
However, all efforts have not been in vain, the police said that some useful pieces of information have come to light. For example, more than 50 activists from different religious parties and jihadi groups were interrogated which lead the police to a gang of six activists of the banned Lashkar-e-Jhangvi. Thus, while the police were not able to nab anyone directly involved in Nishtar Park, it was able to unearth the culprits of 11 target sectarian killings since 2001.
Posted by: Fred ||
05/12/2006 00:00 ||
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Suspected militants have slaughtered nine people in Kotli and Mirpur districts of Azad Kashmir over the last two weeks. Those murdered include, women and children, said Ishaq, a resident of Kotli. The killings could be described as acts of terrorism, he said, suspecting that the killers were Indian agents or terrorists trained in Afghanistan. He said that forces behind such acts were against the Pakistan-India peace process, reunion of Kashmiris and opening of the Line of Control (LoC). He said that the killings had spread panic among local people, who were now keeping arms with them for personal security.
When I saw this headline, it looked like just another Kashmir Korpse Kount. We're back to sinister Afghan-trained terrorists, dispatched by masterminds in New Delhi. I believe this is a process called "projection."
Posted by: Fred ||
05/12/2006 00:00 ||
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well it is odd to see a terror attack on the Paki side of the LOC. Somethings up, dont know what.
A headless body was found on Wednesday in Bajaur Agency in the FATA, said officials. Officials said that the body had been found in a ditch in Mamond area, 12 kilometres west of the main town of Khar. The killers also took away the man's shoes.
Bet he went through his pockets for loose change, too...
The headless body was brought to Khar for identification but was buried after police failed to identify it.
"How do we know who it is? He ain't got no head!"
Officials suspected that the body could be of an Afghan national. In the nearby Waziristan, suspected Islamic militants have carried out such beheadings of people accused of spying for either the government or the US.
Posted by: Fred ||
05/12/2006 00:00 ||
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Clearly a birth defect
Posted by: Captain America ||
05/12/2006 12:43 Comments ||
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At least six constables were killed and 13 injured in a series of explosions at a police training school here on Thursday morning. Balochistan Police Inspector General (IG) Chaudhry Muhammad Yaqub said that five booby trap type devices had exploded when young recruits of the Anti-Terrorism Squad were engaged in morning training. He said two suspects had been arrested. He said foreigners involvement could not be ruled out. He said the Balochistan police had clear evidence that certain foreign elements were using Afghans for sabotage activities. He described the incident as a terrorist act, adding that the police were also investigating if nationalists were involved.
Dr Fazal Rehman from Quetta Civil Hospital said most of the injured had sustained damage to their ears and eyes. He said 11 of the injured were critical. An elderly man, Abdul Sattar, was crying over a body in the hospital. His 25-year-old nephew Naseebullah, who had recently joined the training school, had been killed in the blasts.
Agencies add: No one has claimed responsibility for the explosions AFP reported, but police blame the Baloch Liberation Army (BLA). It is clear that BLA militants are behind this. They have planted mines throughout Balochistan after they were banned and declared a terrorist organisation, Reuters quoted the IG as saying. Relatives of the injured flooded the hospital, where the government has declared an emergency.
Posted by: Fred ||
05/12/2006 00:00 ||
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Investigators are focusing on almost 200 phone calls made from Pakistan to Mohammad Siddique Khan in a bid to uncover his links to Qaeda, said officials on Thursday. One of the bombers may have also travelled to Waziristan, they added. British Home Secretary John Reid said Khan and Shahzad Tanweer are "likely to have met Qaeda figures" during their visit to Pakistan.
Why else make the trip? To visit the old family homestead? To marry Cousin Lulu?
Later, Brigadier Javed Cheema, head of the national crisis management cell, said, "We have seen the British report and Khan and Tanweer, were from Pakistani parentage but second generation British-born, bred and educated in England." There is no denying the fact that these terrorists visited Pakistan but their association with militant organisations here has not been established, he added.
I think, since they did explode, that I'd start from the premise that they did, and try to put together an itinerary to either prove or disprove it. If they came back to marry Cousin Lulu and their little Islamic hearts were broken, causing them to go back to Britain and explode, so be it. If they spent the time chatting with bearded holy men in Muzzafargahr, then so be it. My guess leans much more toward the bearded holy men, probably affiliated with Hafiz Saeed.
The Brits allowed Tanweer's remains to go home to Pakistan for burial. I hope they took notes on who attended.
Posted by: Fred ||
05/12/2006 00:00 ||
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I wonder if George Bush and the NSA could have helped the Brits prevent the London train bombings by the use of their top secret spying program in England.
I guess we will never know now.
Since the liberal media has now broadcast our top secret proram all over the world we will never know if it could have stopped future attacks here.
I don't like liberals because they are going to get us killed!
#2
"We have seen the British report and Khan and Tanweer, were from Pakistani parentage but second generation British-born, bred and educated in England."
We've got second generation Indians in this country, don't see them blowing up - wonder what the connection is...
"The Brits allowed Tanweer's remains to go home to Pakistan for burial."
Oh how 'sensitive' of us.
Posted by: Tony (UK) ||
05/12/2006 1:36 Comments ||
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"The Brits allowed Tanweer's remains to go home to Pakistan for burial." After spraying them well with pork lard I hope.
Posted by: SPoD ||
05/12/2006 1:54 Comments ||
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Tanweer got a martyr's funeral as well - seemed the whole valley turned out to celebrate. Britain lays the Golden eggs for the Pakis and cops all their shit too... I suggest immediate deportation for the families of the bombers, their associates, imams, fellow worshippers, close the mosques they attended etc... time to cut the cancer out and provide a warning to others.
Posted by: Howard UK ||
05/12/2006 5:52 Comments ||
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The London bombings were 10 months ago. On something as big as this the 200 calls should have been fully investigated by the end of 2005.
Up to three armed men were arrested in the northern Iraqi city of Mosul during Operation Cool Spring, the Multi-National Forces said. A statement for the Multi-National Forces said Thursday that Iraqi army troops along with soldiers from Task Force Band of Brothers carried out Operation Cool Spring in south Mosul. It added that the three insurgents arrested are on the Iraqi government's wanted list and are all "previously identified by the unit as possibly being in the area and having connections with known terrorist organizations." According to the statement, "The Iraqi brigade demonstrated their military planning skills by formulating the mission, issuing appropriate orders to its subordinate units, and over watching the conduct of the operation."
Posted by: Fred ||
05/12/2006 00:00 ||
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Three-armed men, go figure.
Posted by: Captain America ||
05/12/2006 0:17 Comments ||
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If the MNF ever has an Operation Cool Breeze I'll be there.
Up to five people were killed and two others were injured Thursday in a bomb explosion in the western district of the Iraqi capital Baghdad, the Iraqi police said. An Iraqi police source told KUNA that an explosive device planted on a roadside blew up in Al-Mansour area in western Baghdad during which five people were killed and two others were wounded.
Posted by: Fred ||
05/12/2006 00:00 ||
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Unknown assailants shot and killed Thrusday police chief of the Meqdad police station in the city of Kirkuk Lt.Colonel Yaseen Jamal Hussein, police told KUNA. The killing took place in the green zone in Kirkuk. Investigations into the incident have been started and police is on the lookout for the perpetrators.
Posted by: Fred ||
05/12/2006 00:00 ||
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US and Iraqi forces Thursday rescued seven Sunni Arab men seized by suspected Shiite militiamen near Baghdad, part of a campaign to suppress sectarian death squads responsible for hundreds of deaths this year. Iraqi police said the trouble started when dozens of gunmen, some of them wearing military uniforms, raided two Sunni villages near Khan Bani Saad, 40 kilometres northeast of Baghdad, and abducted 10 young men. Village leaders and clerics alerted police and US soldiers, who rushed to the scene, clashed with the gunmen and rescued seven of the hostages, police said. Three others were missing and presumed taken by some of the gunmen who got away, police said.
US troops killed at least one of the kidnappers and wounded another, Lt. Col. Thomas Fisher, commander of the 1st Battalion, 68th Armour, said. Some of the hostages had been severely beaten, Fisher told Associated Press TV News. More than 30 people were taken into custody, Iraqi police said, and interrogators were trying to determine their identities. Some of the gunmen told police they belonged to the Shiite militia loyal to radical cleric Moqtada Sadr and had come from Baghdad, Iraqi authorities said.
Posted by: Fred ||
05/12/2006 00:00 ||
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Some of the gunmen told police they belonged to the Shiite militia loyal to radical cleric Moqtada Sadr and had come from Baghdad, Iraqi authorities said.
Posted by: SPoD ||
05/12/2006 2:48 Comments ||
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So were the abductees all named Omar? Connected to former(?) Baathist groups or families? Or just Sunni men.
What is the criminal penalty in Iraq for wearing military uniform while acting as if military and committing crimes? Sounds like it ought to be pretty severe to me, but it's a different culture over there.
NABLUS, West Bank A Palestinian was killed early Friday in a large Israeli raid in the West Bank city of Nablus. Gunfire rang out as Israelis troops searched buildings in the old city, witnesses said.
Palestinian officials identified the dead man as Raed Tubela, 26, a militant in the Al Aqsa Martyrs' Brigades, a group linked to President Mahmoud Abbas' Fatah party. The Israeli army said it sent troops into Nablus to arrest a Fatah activist, and they returned fire from the direction of an armed man they recognized. He died later in a hospital, the army said.
MILITANT:
Main Entry: mil·i·tant
Pronunciation: -t&nt
Function: adjective
1 : engaged in warfare or combat : FIGHTING
2 : aggressively active (as in a cause) : COMBATIVE
The Snocaps are for Robert; everyone else hands off.
Factional feuding rages in Gaza camp
by Sir Edward Bulwer-Lytton
JABALIYA REFUGEE CAMP, Gaza StripIt was a dark and stormy night. Suddenly A vengeful dread fell upon Kamal Adwan Hospital last night as a fifth bleeding body was rushed through its emergency doors, an angry mob in its wake.
"Doc! Doc!"
"What is it, Festus!"
"It's a fifth bleeding body! Down t' the emergency doors!"
"Is there an angry mob in its wake?"
"Yeah, Doc! How'd yew know?"
"Another Saturday night in Dodge City!"
Another Palestinian gunman. Shot through the right arm by another Palestinian gunman.
"Go fer yer guns, Mahfooz! [BLAMMO! KERBLAMMO!]... Ow. Y'got me!"
Another day of factional infighting lighting up the northern Gaza Strip mere hours after leaders from all sides declared an end to self-inflicted pain.
"Awright. It's a deal then? No more shootin' as of 5 p.m. today! Soon's they put their guns down they're toast! We'll murderlize 'em! Heh heh! They won't know what hit 'em!"
"What's that you're muttering in your beard?"
"Nothing. Just a prayer."
This night's victim, Mohammed Tana, 25, belonged to an armed wing of Fatah, the movement displaced to opposition status in the January electoral earthquake that placed Palestinians' future in the hands of militant Islam. "Hamas shot my brother," a voice in the crowd cried out. "Those sons of bitches will pay."
"Yeah! Rat bastards!"
"Swinehounds!"
"Ugly puds!"
"Get a rope!"
But Hamas had paid already, with the legs of Mohammad Hassan Rajab, 30, who was ambushed earlier in the nearby town of Beit Lahiya by gunmen.
"Let 'im have it, boyz!"
[BANG! BANG! BANGETY BANG!]
No mere bystander, Palestinian witnesses and doctors said Rajab was the target of clear intent to maim. The gunmen sprayed more than a dozen rounds into his upper thighs at close range.
"Aaaaaiiiieeee! My upper thighs!"
He will survive.
"I will?"
It remains unclear if he will walk again.
"Maybe you should think about getting a desk job?"
The doctors at Kamal Adwan Hospital are accustomed to removing bullets from the people of destitute Jabaliya, the largest of the Palestinian refugee camps. But until now it was always Israeli bullets. "Believe me, I don't know what is going on. All we see are wounded patients. Why? We don't know. Who's responsible? We don't know. It is not normal," said nursing director Mishal Abu Raya.
"We just can't figure it. Paleostine is usually so peaceful!"
"In the attacks before, from Israel, we received patients from Fatah, Hamas, Islamic Jihad, all peoples. It is better to treat people injured by the Jewish, not by us, because the Jewish are our enemies.
"It's not like any of us Paleos ever did anything to make 'em shoot the place up!"
"But we are not enemies. We have to be relatives and friends. We have to work together."
"I mean, what'd Hamas ever do to us?... Except win that election... Oh."
Medical workers, who remain among the 165,000 civil service staff going on three months without pay from the bankrupt and internationally boycotted Palestinian government, are operating under the assumption the battle may yet spill inside the hospital doors. "We have to be afraid," Abu Raya said.
To avoid such confrontations, doctors now are processing patients according to faction. One side's casualties get the briefest of triage at Kamal Adwan before being moved to other hospitals, the rest are admitted for full treatment. None appear interested in playing politics with a scalpel. They simply don't know what else to do.
"Nurse! This man's got a subdural haematoma! We'll have to operate, stat!"
"This man's got a sucking head wound, Doc!"
"Whoa! Look at that sucker squirt! Give him a bandaid and send him over to Khan Younis Memorial!"
There is a tribal undercurrent to the latest round of factional violence, which has left three dead and at least 15 wounded since a clash of Palestinian regional clans erupted one week ago near the volatile southern Gaza city of Khan Younis. But as the violence fanned north to Gaza City, and further still yesterday to Beit Lahiya, the tit-for-tat revenge attacks now are driven by factional momentum.
"Y'll never make me talk, Mahmoud!"
"Ugh! Turn fork-tongue Hamas over to women!"
"Are those... barbecue forks?... Why are they ululating?"
Many Palestinian observers sense deliberate provocation on the part of certain factions within the fragmented Fatah movement. It has not gone unnoticed that many of the gunmen behind the Khan Younis violence are known to be loyal to former Palestinian security chief Mohammed Dahlan, whose status has fallen to simply opposition parliamentarian in the wake of Hamas' political breakthrough. "Some people in Fatah just want their power again, so they are creating problems," said Asad Abu Shark, a political analyst in Gaza. The intention, said Abu Shark, is to further undermine a fledgling Hamas government already burdened by financial meltdown by showing it is unable to maintain any semblance of law and order.
"Pete! Take a half dozen boyz over to create problems in the Tataglia territory!"
"Sonny, if we do that...!"
"Just do it, Pete! Pop would want it that way! I'll send Luca to soften them up!"
Though some commentators have been quick to throw up the prospect of civil war, Abu Shark said the phenomenon of Palestinians turning on themselves is likely to be contained neither boiling over, nor blowing over in the foreseeable future. "Nobody wants to see a coup d'état. If the Hamas government fails to do any good, let us decide things in another four years with an election," he said.
"I mean, this ain't that different from a year ago, is it?... Duck!"
The pre-eminent Palestinian leaders President Mahmoud Abbas, representing Fatah, and Prime Minister Ismail Haniyeh, representing Hamas remain the two most trusted Palestinian political figures, according to recent polls in the territories. Though they stand as philosophical rivals, Abbas and Haniyeh have found common cause in their call for unity above all. The question now is whether that call will take hold not only with everyday Palestinians, but also the gunmen in their midst.
#3
"Hamas shot my brother," a voice in the crowd cried out. "Those sons of bitches will pay."
"In the attacks before, from Israel, we received patients from Fatah, Hamas, Islamic Jihad, all peoples. It is better to treat people injured by the Jewish, not by us, because the Jewish are our enemies.
"But we are not enemies. We have to be relatives and friends. We have to work together."
#4
President Mahmoud Abbas, representing Fatah, and Prime Minister Ismail Haniyeh, representing Hamas remain the two most trusted Palestinian political figures, according to recent polls in the territories.
Why? It's not as if either of them has demonstrated so much as a scintilla of trustworthiness.
#15
I'll have some Raisinets, since Seafarious is being selfish about the Sno-Caps -- lots of iron in the raisins, and isoflavins or something in the chocolate. As for the poor gentlemen shot in the upper thigh... in traditional literature it either meant that which was sat upon, if behind, or no worries about being unable to support too-numerous offspring, if not behind. Walking/not walking probably isn't the gentleman's greatest concern, I fear.
Despite new Israeli and American criticism, the Hamas-led Palestinian Authority's new 3,000-strong police force, under the proposed command of one of Israel's most wanted terrorists, is set to formally become operational in Gaza this Sunday.
The designated head of the unit is Popular Resistance Committee leader Jamal Abu Samadana, who is not only wanted by Israel but is also linked to the bombing of a United States Embassy convoy in Gaza in October 2003 in which three Americans were killed.
"It's like hiring a mob boss as chief of police," Asi Shariv, spokesman for Prime Minister Ehud Olmert, said of Samadana.
"If Hamas wants to be taken seriously, it must first renounce terrorism... and looking at the people they are putting in these positions is discouraging," said Stewart Tuttle, the US Embassy spokesman in Tel Aviv.
Palestinian Authority chairman Mahmoud Abbas had vowed to veto the establishment of the new force, but some of its members have in fact already been sent into action. On April 24, for instance, when gunmen from a splinter group of Fatah's al-Aqsa Martyrs Brigades stormed the Health Ministry offices in Gaza, members of the new unit surrounded the ministry and ordered the gunmen to surrender. The resulting shootout left three Fatah men wounded and four in custody.
The vast majority of recruits to the new force come from Hamas and from the Popular Resistance Committee, which has been involved in firing rockets at Israel, sniping at Israeli army jeeps and even kidnapping Palestinian officials.
A spokesman for the PA's Hamas-run Interior Ministry, which controls the 65,000-strong Palestinian security forces, said the force was essential to bring law and order to Gaza. "We have to act now to prevent total chaos. The Police Support Unit will be our most important tool," said the spokesman, Khaled Abu Hilal.
Members of the unit are being outfitted with special uniforms and will receive the base salary of regular cops, about $400 a month. They are to be posted in five major population centers - Gaza City, Khan Yunis, Rafah, Deir el-Balah and the strip's northern farmland villages.
#1
Three thousand new policemen, with brand new uniforms and $400/month salaries? I thought the PA bank accounts are empty -- do they want more people marching in the streets demanding back pay?
#3
"Attention, citizens of Gaza. Tickets for the Paleo Policeman's Ball go on sale right after Friday prayers. Your generosity will be noted. That is all."
Al-Aqsa Martyrs Brigades, the military wing of Fatah Movement, declared its responsibility for striking on Wednesday the Israeli military site of Kissufim in eastern Khan Yunis in south Gaza. A statement for the brigades said Thursday that one of its military groups launched two Aqsa-3 missiles against the site. It affirmed that it will continue its resistance in retaliation of the continuous Israeli crimes against the Palestinians.
Meanwhile, several Israeli military patrols deeply penetrated into the city of Jenin in Ramallah. According to Palestinian sources, the Israeli forces opened fire against school students during which two students were wounded.
The sources added that the forces besieged the house of Saleh Al-Saadi in the eastern district of Jenin, claiming that wanted suspects are dwelling inside. The Israeli army seized several houses and transferred them into military barracks. Israel Radio reported that 23 Palestinian were arrested by the Israeli army in several cities and villages in the west bank.
Posted by: Fred ||
05/12/2006 00:00 ||
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#1
Israel deeply penetrated Palesotinian sites, leaving the Paleostinians stirred up, yet strangely unmoved. Upon urgent troop movements to and from the territories, the Paleos' political wing decried their previous dissatisfation and urged a fevered push towards resolution. The Israeli troops, after several maneuvers, declared operations finished, upon which the Paleostinean hierarchy said "it's always about you" and slunk off to Gaza to smoke a cigarette
(lucky there's no gasoline?)
Posted by: Frank G ||
05/12/2006 0:11 Comments ||
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Frank G. Thanks for the best laugh I've had in a while. A "penetrating" analysis me thinks...
Two members of Al-Aqsa Martyrs Brigades, the military arm of Fatah movement, were shot and wounded on Thursday by unknown gunmen in northern Gaza Strip, announced Palestinian medical sources. Witnesses said the gunmen riding in two cars opened fire on the victims' car on a road leading to the residence of a key leader in the brigades, who is believed to be the main target of the attack.
In a press release, Al-Aqsa Martyrs Brigades said the attack was part of the continuous attempts to create disorder and internal conflict in Palestine, pledging to pursue and punish the attackers. The brigades called on the Palestinians to be cautious and not get carried away by suspicious acts, noting that such acts aim at targeting and ending the Palestinian resistance. The medical sources said the victims, who are the two brothers of the brigades' key leader, were moderately wounded in the attack.
Posted by: Fred ||
05/12/2006 00:00 ||
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#1
head injuries? How long will our popcorn and food graphix be held hostage to the RC diet???
Posted by: Frank G ||
05/12/2006 0:20 Comments ||
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"... noting that such acts aim at targeting and ending the Palestinian resistance."
Witnesses testified on Wednesday that some of the men charged with firing rockets at two US warships docked in Aqaba were at the scene a day before the attacks. A Syrian accused of masterminding the Aug. 19 attacks, Mohammed Hassan Sahli, 53, visited the port four days before the rocket attacks and again the day before, according to testimony by his business partner, Jalal Darwish.
Darwish told the State Security Court that he accompanied Sahli to the port four days before the attacks to collect some cars they imported from Korea. He said he met Sahlis sons and three other people during the visit, and later recognised their photos on television after the attacks. Sahli told Darwish he returned to the port again the day before the attacks, he added.
Another witness said he was guarding a metal workshop the day before the attacks when three men approached with a long pipe and asked him to cut it into six pieces. After the attack, when security officials came to the shop and showed me photos of some of the defendants, I recognised them immediately, the unidentified witness said. Two other metal workers testified that three defendants came to their shops with similar requests. Of the 12 defendants charged with involvement in the attack, six pleaded not guilty last month. The other six remain at large and are being tried in absentia. The trial is scheduled to resume on May 17.
Posted by: Fred ||
05/12/2006 00:00 ||
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They look like the 'before' pics for the Hair Club for Men ...
Three suspected Hamas members on Thursday confessed on Jordan TV that they were recruited by a Syria-based leader of the movement to kill intelligence personnel and others in the Kingdom. The TV, which broadcast accounts of the three-member group that is part of 20 suspects arrested for smuggling arms from Syria into Jordan and plotting to carry out attack, also showed footage of seized weapons, including dozens of handgrenades, Iranian-made Katyusha rockets, Light Anti-tank Weapon rocket launchers and machineguns. Some of the weapons were wrapped in plastic and hidden in an olive grove in northern Jordan. The three men said they were involved in surveillance operations and assassination plots.
In his confession, leader of the group, Ayman Naji Daraghmeh, 34, a resident of Hashmieh town to the east of Zarqa, spoke about his links to Hamas, trips to Syria and monitoring of a General Intelligence Department (GID) officer, who lives in Salt. Daraghmeh met during Umra (Lesser pilgrimage) in Saudi Arabia another Hamas operative, identified as Abu Hassan, who told him that the officer harmed the Hamas. Daraghmeh, who said he received military and intelligence training in Syria, met Abu Hassan in Amman and took photos of the officers house. Daraghmeh said he delivered a camera disc to Wael Abu Hantash, a Hamas member in Damascus. Daraghmeh, arrested on April 18, said he later met in Zarqa a bus driver and took from him arms he smuggled from Syria.
A second suspect, Ahmad Mohammad Abu Rabie, 27, said he was arrested on May 6. Abu Rabie said he was recruited by Daraghmeh to buy weapons for Hamas and conduct surveillance of a bus that transported GID personnel. Both suspects said they planned to attack the bus. Abu Rabie also said Daraghmeh told him to carry out surveillance of tourists in Aqaba, with the aim of carrying out attacks there.
A third suspect, Ahmad Nimir Abu Thiyab, arrested on April 18, was a mosque imam in Mafraq. Abu Thiyab, who received a 20-day military training in Syria, said he got weapons and ammunitions for Hamas in Jordan, and that some of the arms came from Iraq. He was tasked by Daraghmeh to monitor foreign tourists in Aqaba and a Jordanian businessman, identified as Sami George Khouri, who owns a farm in Mafraq. Abu Thiyab said Daraghmeh thought the businessman was a Jew, but he was actually a Christian. I told them hes a Jordanian Christian and I had a good relationship with him, but Daraghmeh said hes a Jew and a target for us, Abu Thiyab said, quoting Daraghmeh as telling him that the mission was for the sake of God and Islam.
Abu Thiyab added that Daraghmeh offered him money to accept the assignments. He knew I was having family problems because of [lack of] money. He encouraged me to leave my [Ministry of Islamic Affairs and] Awqaf job, which paid me JD100 a month and promised to give me JD150, Abu Thiyab said. Sometimes, they threatened me. They said I was involved in this and if they get caught, I will be arrested with them.
Earlier Thursday, Government Spokesperson Nasser Judeh said a Palestinian security team headed by intelligence chief Major General Tareq Abu Rajab wrapped up a visit to Amman, where they were acquainted with the details of the case. Judeh told reporters on Wednesday that investigations also revealed attempts to bring recruits from the Palestinian territories to send them to Syria and Iran to receive military, security and intelligence training. But he did not accuse Syria or Iran of involvement in arms smuggling or training of suspects.
Agence France-Presse quoted a top Jordanian official as saying that Jordan is not accusing Iran of implication in this affair, nor is it accusing Syria. We have established that the Hamas elements who were arrested came from Syria and that certain arms were of Iranian-make, but our accusations centre on Hamas, on which we place full responsibility for these attempts to destabilise Jordan.
Meanwhile, Hamas Spokesman Mushir Masri told AFP that the Jordanian government was trying to exaggerate the situation by causing an uproar but this will have only minimal consequences, adding that he regretted the means used by Amman. The Hamas-led government had refused to send delegates with the Palestinian team. After the discovery of the arms cache, Jordan cancelled a planned visit by Palestinian Foreign Minister Mahmoud Zahar.
Also Thursday, acting Lower House Speaker Nayef Fayez said in remarks to the Jordan News Agency, Petra, that the House categorically rejects any attempt by any party to destabilise Jordan. He voiced the Houses full support for the government and the security services dedicated efforts that led to the discovery of the plots.
Posted by: Fred ||
05/12/2006 00:00 ||
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Quick, send the Hamsters more $$$ so they can feed their habit.
Posted by: Captain America ||
05/12/2006 0:22 Comments ||
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#2
Sounds like Jordan's lost their sense of Paleo humor....Black June?
Posted by: Frank G ||
05/12/2006 0:23 Comments ||
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Fox showed the arms haul on Special Report...bigtime catch!
Posted by: Frank G ||
05/12/2006 0:25 Comments ||
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"I told them hes a Jordanian Christian...but Daraghmeh said hes a Jew...telling him that the mission was for the sake of God and Islam."
You have to know these self-loathing slugs really have these kinds of conversations.
"Wait!..he's a Christian." "No...he's a Joo." "Really...do ya think?" "Yeah...besides, it's God's will." "Alright then...fuck it, lets do this!" "JIHADAYEEEEEEEE!"
COLOMBO, Sri Lanka - At least 15 Sri Lankan navy sailors were missing after their patrol boat was sunk on Thursday by Tamil Tiger rebels off the northern coast, the navy said. In retaliation, the navy sank five rebel vessels, it said, in a sharp escalation of violence between the two sides.
The air force also bombed areas near the rebels northern headquarters, a rebel spokesman said.
The patrol boat was part of a convoy escorting a troop carrier that was attacked by the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam rebels, navy spokesman Commander D.K.P. Dassanayake said. About 15 LTTE boats including suicide boats attacked one of our vessels transporting 710 soldiers, Dassanayake said. Navy fast-attack boats escorting the vessel engaged the Tiger boats and one of them was destroyed by a suicide boat, he said. There were 15 to 20 sailors in the boat.
The military sank five rebel vessels in retaliation, it said.
Helen Olafsdottir, spokeswoman for the European-led Sri Lanka Monitoring Mission, said a truce monitor was in the vessel with the soldiers. Other details were not immediately available, she said. In a statement, the monitors accused the rebels of violating their 2002 cease-fire agreement with the government and said they considered the attack a direct threat to their mission.
The LTTE has made what SLMM feels are threats to our monitors, warning them not to participate in patrols in navy vessels, the monitors said. This sort of reckless behavior can only lead to a dangerous escalation resulting in growing hostilities and jeopardizing any possibility for future peace talks, they said.
Gee, no kidding. You Euros might want to skedaddle for a while ...
Posted by: Steve White ||
05/12/2006 00:31 ||
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Pakistan's former army chief says Iranian officials came to him for advice on heading off an attack on their nuclear facilities, and he in effect advised them to take a hostage - Israel.
Retired Gen. Mirza Aslam Beg said he suggested their government "make it clear that if anything happens to Iran, if anyone attacks it - it doesn't matter who it is or how it is attacked - that Iran's answer will be to hit Israel; the only target will be Israel."
Since Beg spoke in an interview with The Associated Press, echoes of his thinking have been heard in Iran, though whether they result directly from his advice isn't known.
Mohammad Ebrahim Dehghani, an Iranian Revolutionary Guards commander, was quoted last week as saying that if "America does make any mischief, the first place we target will be Israel." The threat was disavowed the next day by Brig. Gen. Alireza Afshar, deputy to the chief of Iran's military staff, who said it was Dehghani's "personal view and has no validity as far as the Iranian military officials are concerned."
And on Tuesday, Israel's vice premier, Shimon Peres, warned that "Those who threaten to destroy are in danger of being destroyed."
In the AP interview that took place several weeks before these threats were exchanged, Beg said a delegation from the Iranian Embassy in Pakistan had come to his office in January, seeking advice as Western pressure mounted on Iran to abandon its nuclear effort. Beg said he offered lessons learned from his experience dealing with India's nuclear threat.
He said he told the Iranians, whom he did not identify, that Pakistan had suspected India of collaborating with Israel in planning an attack on its nuclear facilities. By then, Pakistan had the bomb too. But both countries had adopted a strategy of ambiguity, he said, and Pakistan sent an emissary to India to warn that no matter who attacked it, Pakistan would retaliate against India.
"We told India frankly that this is the threat we perceive and this is the action we are taking and the action we will take. It was a real deterrent," he recalled telling the Iranians.
He said he also advised them to "attempt to degrade the defense systems of Israel," harass it through the Hamas government of the Palestinian Authority and the Hezbollah movement in Lebanon, and put second-strike nuclear weapons on submarines.
Although analysts are divided on how soon Iran might have nuclear weapons, Beg said he is sure Iran has had enough time to develop them. But he insists the Pakistani government didn't help, even though he says former Prime Minister Benazir Bhutto once told him the Iranians offered more than $4 billion for the technology.
Ephraim Asculai, a former senior official with the Israel Atomic Agency Commission, said he didn't think Beg's remarks reflected official Pakistani policy.
Asculai said he believed Iran learned more from Iraq than from Pakistan, recalling that as soon as the 1991 Gulf War broke out, Saddam Hussein fired missiles at Israel, even though it wasn't in the U.S.-led coalition fighting Iraq.
Beg became army chief of staff in 1988, a year after Pakistan confirmed CIA estimates that it had nuclear weapons capability. He served until 1991 and now runs his own think tank. He speaks freely and in detail about the nuclear issue, but many critical blank spots remain and the subject remains one of great sensitivity, clouded by revelations in 2004 that A.Q. Khan, who pioneered Pakistan's nuclear bomb, sold nuclear technology to Iran, Libya and North Korea.
The bigger picture has also changed radically. Pakistan is now a U.S. ally in the war on terrorism, and Asculai said "Pakistani government officials have often suggested that they would be willing to have ties with Israel under certain conditions."
In the AP interview, Beg detailed nearly 20 years of Iranian approaches to obtain conventional arms and then technology for nuclear weapons. He described an Iranian visit in 1990, when he was army chief of staff.
"They didn't want the technology. They asked: 'Can we have a bomb?' My answer was: By all means you can have it but you must make it yourself. Nobody gave it to us."
The United States imposed sanctions on Pakistan in 1990, suspecting it was developing a nuclear bomb. In 1998, confirmation came with Pakistan's first nuclear weapons tests.
Although Beg insisted his government never gave Iran nuclear weapons, Pakistan now acknowledges that Khan sold Iran centrifuges to produce weapons-grade uranium, though without his government's knowledge.
In a televised confession Khan insisted he acted without authorization in selling nuclear technology to Iran, Libya and North Korea, saying the proliferation took place between 1989 and 2000.
Khan has been pardoned by President Gen. Pervez Musharraf, and Pakistan has refused to hand him over to the United States or the U.N. nuclear watchdog agency for questioning.
According to Beg, Iran first sent emissaries to Pakistan in the latter years of its 1980-88 war with Iraq with a shopping list worth billions of dollars, mostly for spare parts for its air force. It offered in return to underwrite the development plan of Gen. Zia-ul Haq, then Pakistan's ruler.
"Gen. Zia did not agree," he said.
Much of what Beg says cannot be independently confirmed, and the U.N.'s International Atomic Energy Agency did not respond to repeated requests for comment on Beg's version of events.
Another angle on these early contacts comes from Tanvir Ahmed, Pakistan's ambassador to Iran from 1987-1989. He said he had a rare meeting with Iran's nuclear inner circle in January 1988.
"It was the only time I was allowed in the inner sanctum of the nuclear discussions. I was asked to a lunch. ... they wanted to know whether Pakistan would help them on the nuclear side. They never said they wanted nuclear weapons. They said they wanted to master the nuclear cycle," Ahmed recalled.
Ahmed said he told them it was unlikely, but promised to relay the request to Zia. He said Zia told him: "You gave them the right answer."
Posted by: john ||
05/12/2006 17:51 ||
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#1
"Pakistani government officials have often suggested that they would be willing to have ties with Israel under certain conditions."
ties meaning weapon sales (preferably as aid)
Posted by: john ||
05/12/2006 18:11 Comments ||
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#2
And Pakistan advising Iran thusly makes them our ally exactly how?
#3
"They didn't want the technology. They asked: 'Can we have a bomb?' My answer was: By all means you can have it but you must make it yourself. Nobody gave it to us."
No, nobody gave it to you. You paid for the plans after Khan made the materials using technology that he personally stole:
"Around this time [1974], Dr. A.Q. Khan had privileged access to the most secret areas of the URENCO facility as well as to documentation on the gas centrifuge technology. A subsequent investigation by the Dutch authorities found that he had passed highly-classified material to a network of Pakistani intelligence agents..."
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Abdul_Qadeer_Khan
#4
An important point is that Iran is not scared of Israel, but it is scared of the US. For this reason, their primary goal is to drive the US out of the ME. If they can do this, then they figure they can whittle away at Israel, even if it takes years. And from then, they would dominate the region.
This means that, like the pre-WWII Japanese, they want to take away the USs will to force project. This means an attack on one or more of our carrier groups, with the idea that it be done in such a way that the US cannot counter-attack Iran with certainty.
In turn, this means using al-Qaeda as a proxy with a nuclear weapon, far away from Iran. About the limit to doing this would be in the Mediterranean, most likely near Italy or Turkey, both of which have considerable Islamist undergrounds. The Med is also suitable in that it has large amounts of surface traffic at close quarters, in which a nuclear device could be smuggled, yet kept under protection until detonated or not.
Of course the bomb would be under Iranian control at all times, with al-Qaeda just taking credit for it, and Iran would vigorously deny any responsibility to every other country on the planet.
Ideally, I suppose, it would be detonated upwind of Israel, for the purposes of fallout, but that is far less important than to destroy a US fleet.
From Geostrategy-Direct, subscription.
TEL AVIV Syria has accelerated production of missile and rockets.
Israeli military sources said the regime of President Bashar Assad has been investing in the development of missiles and rockets. The sources said the Syrian effort has been facilitated by Iran.
On April 26, military intelligence chief Maj. Gen. Amos Yadlin said Damascus has been developing and producing extended-range Scud ballistic missiles. Yadlin told an audience of former intelligence officers that Syria was producing 200- and 300- millimeter rockets with a range of up to 100 kilometers.
Yadlin said some of these rockets have been transferred to Hizbullah. He cited a convoy of trucks sent from Syria to Lebanon in February 2006.
In 2005, Syria fired a Scud D in an attempt to expand production of an indigenous model of the extended-range ballistic missile. The missile landed in Turkey. Oops....
The general said Syria has sought major weapons platforms amid an increase in revenue. Damascus has not conducted a major aircraft or main battle tank purchase in more than 20 years.
On May 2, the London-based Al Hayat daily and Dubai-based Al Arabiya satellite channel quoted Iranian military sources as saying that Teheran has obtained information that the United States was planning a strike on both Iran and Syria. The sources said the United States was drafting options to topple the regimes in both Damascus and Teheran. I would imagine that that report of planning is true. I would expect nothing less from our government. I'm sure that missiles are being transported down to the south Lebanon border area. This while thing with Iran, Syria, and Israel is headed for a showdown.
Posted by: Alaska Paul ||
05/12/2006 15:52 ||
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Damascus has not conducted a major aircraft or main battle tank purchase in more than 20 years.
Purchase? I thought most of Syrias stuff was gratis from the Soviets.
#2
Iran is convinced that missiles are the ultimate weapons. Same with North Korea. Ergo, some of our top priorities is to defeat 200% of their overkill(*) with reserve systems still unused. These anti-missile systems also have to be able to defeat multiple missile salvos, and in a 180 degree to 270 degree arc around the entire launching nation. Finally, to assume that both nations could launch missile strikes simultaneously.
Fortunately, we have advanced far beyond the singular use of anti-missile missiles, and have several other tools at our disposal. We also have the supreme advantage of advanced satellite reconnaisance to detect the missile-alert-launch sequence that will both permit pre-emptive counterattack against launch sites, and launched missile tracking and targetting control. Possibly even detection of decoy weapons.
It is also important that the other nuclear powers also have similar satellite capabilities, so that with a missile-alert-launch, pre-agreed protocols will automatically come into effect. Their own satellites will confirm the use of ballistic missiles to start a war, leaving our enemy exposed for "retaliation without complaint."
(*) Overkill with missiles is correctly defined as having enough missiles to achieve 100% coverage of targets, assuming that some missiles just won't launch, some will detonate on launch, some will be destroyed in their launch area before launch by enemy fire, some will fail in flight due to mechanical malfunction, some will be intercepted due to enemy action, some will significantly miss their target area, and some will just not detonate on landing or will not MIRV properly.
#4
SYRIA = PAKISTAN = PALESTINE = LEBANON, etal > are all SSSSSSSSSSSHHHHHHHHHHH future provinces of Iran, whether they like it or not, know it or not. Iran will not destroy the Muslim ME - Iranian-controlled/supported armed Militia-Terror groups will, ergo Tehran cannot be blamed by anyone.
#6
think Israel wouldn't shoot it down before it ever made the border?
Posted by: Frank G ||
05/12/2006 21:01 Comments ||
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#7
I'm certain they would but did you check the list of destination cities? A few well-scheduled delays and Iran could easily deliver a half-dozen or more Fatman / Little Boy sized bombs to western cities and even explode them at altitude for the greatest effect.
The U.N. atomic agency has found traces of highly enriched uranium at an Iranian site linked to the country's defense ministry, diplomats said Friday. The finding added to concerns that Tehran was hiding activities that could be used to make nuclear arms.
The diplomats, who demanded anonymity in exchange for revealing the confidential information, said the findings were preliminary and still had to be confirmed through other lab tests. But they said the density of enrichment appeared close to or beyond weapons grade the level used to make nuclear warheads.
#11
well Iranians jumped up and down on national TV with vials of the stuff it aint no secret
having said that this kind of story is exactly the problem with the public relations campaign of the administration, hope they don't fall for it again.
You don't argue to go to war because you might find wmd/enriched uranium - because if you don't that gives your opponents a chance to shout 'liar'.
You argue to go to war because the opposition will sooner or later get some and they will be a threat. And they will. Remove the regime before they get the stuff. and advertise as such, don't leave an opening for the enemy PR machine.
#12
"well Iranians jumped up and down on national TV with vials of the stuff it aint no secret"
Not exactly. Enriched uranium and highly enriched uranium are two very different things.
What the Iranians claimed to have achieved was enriched uranium-- uranium in which the level of U-235 isotope (the active stuff) has been increased from its natural level of 0.7% up to between 3% and 5%, making it usable as fuel in a power-producing nuclear reactor.
What this article is saying is that the IAEA found traces of highly enriched uranium-- bomb-grade material enriched to between 85% and 95% U-235.
You can make a nuclear reactor using enriched uranium, but not a bomb; for that, you need highly enriched uranium-- and making bombs is the only use for HEU.
If true, this is a pretty disturbing development.
Posted by: Dave D. ||
05/12/2006 11:42 Comments ||
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question
Note the Iranians will claim this is contamination on equipment from Pakistan. But its STILL incriminating cause it was found in a place what wast supposed to have ANY enrichment equipment, IIUC. And it was a Defense Ministry site.
#14
What happened to the price of oil after releasiing that story?
The more the oil market reacts to these types of stories, the more of them we are going to see.
#15
I would be surprised if the iranians don't already have enough HEU for a few bombs made by thousands of centrifuges humming away while the USA fiddled with one finger up its ass.
Posted by: ed ||
05/12/2006 12:17 Comments ||
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#16
Your right TMH. All they have to do is rattle the sabres. Won't even have to fire a shot.
Ok to all the naysayers, what do you say now that your "maybe in a decade" predictions are wrong? Lefties wanted to use this to undercut Bush and all they have done is put us ALL at risk. And what wil they say? Oops?
That doenst f*cking cut it.
NOW you know why anyone with experience (and non-left leaning politics) says we had to play this in a near-worst-case way, so we coudl be ready to move instead of being caught flat footed.
Hold the "In 10 Years" crowd accountable. THEY held us up while this was going on. Its akin to distracting the cops wile a rape is going on - they are aiding and abetting an enemy.
#20
I get the feeling that this probably is leftover Paki uranium and will lead to nothing in terms of getting the world to come around to the U.S. side of this.
Unfortunately it doesn't matter where or when it was found. The only thing that may help is finding enough HEU to build a bomb, and I don't expect the Iranians to make it that easy for us.
Posted by: Mike N. ||
05/12/2006 15:11 Comments ||
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#21
This isn't old news and I doubt it's left behind by the Pakistanis. The Pakistanis didn't provide highly enriched uranium, only plans.
This is obviously the proof that the Iranians are building a bomb, if true.
#22
Plutonium and other reactor-bred radioactive materials are normally traceable to the reactor that bred them via other radioactive trace elements found in the mix. Given that each ore deposit will vary somewhat in composition, is HEU traceable to the original ore deposit from whence it came? If so we should know shortly whether or not the HEU traces found in Iran are home cookin'.
#23
Spring, you're right the Paks did not provide HEU, but it does appear that they provided some equipment they had previously used to enrich uranium for themselves.
I'm not saying that we shouldn't drop about 5,000 bombs on Iran. What I am saying is that I don't expect this new finding to matter to the rest of the world.
Posted by: Mike N. ||
05/12/2006 15:52 Comments ||
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#24
NIE was politically influenced by hedgers.
3 years shoudl have been the "most probable" number and that number would have been used to plan and act.
Anytime you give a politician or commander a long timeline, they tend to stretch it to the furtherest end if they have wiggle room and they do not like the facts you are raising. Thats why a good analyst has to be solid with the numbers and emphasize the best ones. You canot always depend on the recipient of analysis product to properly grasp it with the context an expert would, nor can you expect politically minded people in authority positions to be able to think, much less act, in contravention to their biases.
I've seen it in briefings before. Brass gets it this way "I wouldnt do it that way and I can see no reason why THEY would do it that way, so I'll just push your numbers where I want them to be to back up what I already had in mind."
That happens far more often than you'd think. From wargames to training to intelligence. The innovators always surprise the crap out of the complacent.
Thats why SOCOM works so well- people there act differently: instead of the above, you get stuff more like:
I woudln't do it that way because I knwo XYZ works well for us - but lets see what would happen if I did and I was thinking like Haji Jihadi - hmmm that might be wild enough to work, lets do a wargaming/exercise dry-run and try it that way to see if its viable and then see what countermeasures we can prepare."
Thats what Intelligence used to be all about - get into the other guys head, figure out where he is going and help our guys (to quote Nathan Bedford Forrest) "Get there the firstest with the mostest" while being flexible enough to spring into other contingency plans if the situation is changing its shape.
Thinking differently is always a big military advantage, from Cannae's manuver, to Henry V's longbows, to napoleons genius for battle, to Guderians use of tanks, to the blindsiding left hook in GW1. Thats why 9/11 worked so well for Al Qaeda - nobody in a position to decide or act could conceive that AlQ would want to do that - I'm sure our politicos in the 90's thru 2001 thought that they'd do a big bomb again (like in 93 WTC), or hostages etc. Becasue thats all they knew the other side was doing, and they would think the same way. Like "set a bomb, and get out" is thinkable to politicos and westerners, not "become a suicide bomb and get my virgins in Allah's palace" , which is far beyond the moral thought processes of most people. The analyst has to get into the other guys head - those are thoughts and places few people can put themselves in and come back from sanely. That is also why good analysts are worth their weight in gold, but are hard to keep in a "Politically Correct" environment - they say things people cannot understand and do not want to hear. Thats why our anaysts failed - because in the 90's the "odd" ones got weeded out by PC-ness and risk aversion in their political managers.
War changes that, and hayden needs to clean out those tht forced out the good ones, and maybe talk some of those odd but good analysts into coming back.
#25
"well Iranians jumped up and down on national TV with vials of the stuff it ain't no secret"
I saw clips of the yellowcake party on LINK TV's Mosaic News. Honest to God, it was a huge yellow cake with what at first looked like two missiles, but after pausing TIVO, they were indeed phallic symbols!!! Sending his message to President Bush, it was neither Freudian slip nor a reflex finger salute, but blatantly prominent, and about the same time all the other tapes and videos appeared. Ahmadinejad is so volatile he even has the UN scared...hope Condi comes to the rescue soon.
#27
Pakistanis provided used centrifuges so the contamination could possiblky be from there.
Amazing that they claim AQ Khan did this without permission.
How does equipment like this leave a Pak military facility and end up in Iran without permission?
Posted by: john ||
05/12/2006 17:15 Comments ||
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#28
Iranian nuke within six months. The only question remaining is where they test it -- someplace inside Iran, Tel Aviv, or NYC.
Posted by: Robert Crawford ||
05/12/2006 18:14 Comments ||
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#29
In all seriousnes...the letters to GW gain a whole knew level of significance in light of this. The letters were a direct threat to GW, the US and its allies. Now that we have rejected islam, Ahmadinejad is free to (try to) anhialate GW, the US, and its allies. I truly believe he thinks allan will intervene.
#32
The pace is quickening. Clearly, Ahmamadnutjob is building up to something-- but what? Does he figure we're like Spain, and one good strike with a nuke and America will go running home from Iraq with its tail between its legs?
I don't put ANYTHING past this crazy asshole.
Posted by: Dave D. ||
05/12/2006 20:26 Comments ||
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#33
"The only question remaining is where they test it -- someplace inside Iran, Tel Aviv, or NYC."
Baghdad. If the rantings about the 12th iman are acccurate.
#34
Now, now, the US Ninth has ruled that America is an illegal and unconstitutional nation, a decision which the Ninth is not nor will not take action or demand action to enforce vs not enforce, ergo the USA per se has no standing, right, or venue to make decisions affecting the International community, obey or disobey the UNO, nor prosecute Saddam, nor invade anyone. HECK, THE USA HAS NO STANDING, RIGHT, OR VENUE TO DEFEND OURSELVES FROM INVASION - ANY NATION OR GROUP OF NATIONS CAN RIGHTFULLY INVADE CONUS ANDOR WAGE WAR AGAINST EACH OTHER ON CONUS AND NORAM SOIL PER SE, BUT THE "USA" HAS NO STANDING TO INTERFERE WITH THE DECISION OR ACTIONS OF "LEGITIMATE SOVEREIGN NATIONS" ON ITS OWN SOIL, ON ITS OWN CONTINENT OR NEIGHBORHOODS.
#35
This finding was from a site that was decked some time ago (last year). Since then they have been using a proxy location, so you realize the "findings" were left from over a year ago or more.
Posted by: Captain America ||
05/12/2006 23:22 Comments ||
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A VIDEO by an al-Qaeda member posted on the Internet overnight calls on Muslims to attack Denmark, Norway and France for publishing cartoons of the Prophet Mohammed.
"Muslims avenge your Prophet .... We deeply desire that the small state of Denmark, Norway and France ... are struck hard and destroyed," said Libyan Mohammed Hassan, who escaped from US custody at Bagram airbase in Afghanistan last July.
"Destroy their buildings, make their ground shake and transform them into a sea of blood," said Hassan, dressed in military fatigues and a black turban, and holding an assault rifle.
Hassan, also known as Sheikh Abu Yahia al-Libi, was one of four Arab terror suspects who broke out of the high-security detention facility at Bagram, the main US military base in Afghanistan.
It was unclear when the 35-minute video, produced by al-Sahab, a media organisation close to Al-Qaeda, was recorded.
The posting of the video comes three week's after al-Qaeda leader Osama bin Laden's call in a video to boycott products from the US and European countries which supported Denmark over the publication of the cartoons.
Posted by: Dan Darling ||
05/12/2006 03:20 ||
Comments ||
Link ||
[1 views]
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#1
Drink more Tuborg, eat more bacon, watch more porn.
Posted by: Howard UK ||
05/12/2006 3:53 Comments ||
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#2
A VIDEO by an al-Qaeda member posted on the Internet overnight calls on Muslims to attack Denmark, Norway and France for publishing cartoons of the Prophet Mohammed.
Allan wills immediate airborne assualts on Denmark, Norway, and France from 400 ft AGL using asshats as parachutes.
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.
(SomaliNet) The death toll in the latest flare up of heavy clashes in the Somali capital of Mogadishu rose, with the latest causality figure tells that more than 25 civilians have been killed in indiscriminate mortar fire in the northern part of Mogadishu on Thursday. Hundreds of people were killed and wounded as shells crashed into their homes in Huriwa and Yaqshid districts of north Mogadishu,
Yemeni security forces captured suspected Al-Qaeda member, one of inmates who escaped from a detention facility of the secret service, security sources said Thursday. The defense ministry's SeptemberNet website quoted the sources as saying the security forces captured 
Two of the suicide bombers behind last years deadly London transport attacks likely had contacts with Al Qaeda, but British security lacked resources to stop the atrocity, said an official report on Thursday. The report, by an influential parliamentary committee, cleared intelligence services of any culpable failings in preventing the four bombers carrying out Britains worst terror attack, which killed them and 52 other people.
The agency's third ranking official, Kyle "Dusty" Foggo, has been under investigation by the FBI, IRS, Defense Criminal Investigative Service and the CIA's inspector general, said FBI spokeswoman April Langwell in San Diego. Under a sealed warrant, officials searched Foggo's Virginia home and his office at the CIA's Langley, Va., campus, Langwell said. She could provide no other details.
SECOND OPINION: Sorry, your extremism is showing! Khaled Ahmeds Review of the Urdu press
It has been one month since a suicide bomber executed an attack at 
Suspected militants have slaughtered nine people in Kotli and Mirpur districts of Azad Kashmir over the last two weeks. Those murdered include, women and children, said Ishaq, a resident of Kotli. The killings could be described as acts of terrorism, he said, suspecting that the killers were Indian agents or terrorists trained in Afghanistan. He said that forces behind such acts were against the Pakistan-India peace process, reunion of Kashmiris and opening of the Line of Control (LoC). He said that the killings had spread panic among local people, who were now keeping arms with them for personal security.
A headless body was found on Wednesday in 
At least six constables were killed and 13 injured in a series of explosions at a police training school here on Thursday morning. Balochistan Police Inspector General (IG) Chaudhry Muhammad Yaqub said that five booby trap type devices had exploded when young recruits of the Anti-Terrorism Squad were engaged in morning training. He said two suspects had been arrested. He said foreigners involvement could not be ruled out. He said the Balochistan police had clear evidence that certain foreign elements were using Afghans for sabotage activities. He described the incident as a terrorist act, adding that the police were also investigating if nationalists were involved. 
Investigators are focusing on almost 200 phone calls made from Pakistan to 
Up to three armed men were arrested in the northern Iraqi city of Mosul during Operation Cool Spring, the Multi-National Forces said. A statement for the Multi-National Forces said Thursday that Iraqi army troops along with soldiers from Task Force Band of Brothers carried out Operation Cool Spring in south Mosul. It added that the three insurgents arrested are on the Iraqi government's wanted list and are all "previously identified by the unit as possibly being in the area and having connections with known terrorist organizations." According to the statement, "The Iraqi brigade demonstrated their military planning skills by formulating the mission, issuing appropriate orders to its subordinate units, and over watching the conduct of the operation."
Up to five people were killed and two others were injured Thursday in a bomb explosion in the western district of the Iraqi capital Baghdad, the Iraqi police said. An Iraqi police source told KUNA that an explosive device planted on a roadside blew up in Al-Mansour area in western Baghdad during which five people were killed and two others were wounded.
Unknown assailants shot and killed Thrusday police chief of the Meqdad police station in the city of Kirkuk Lt.Colonel Yaseen Jamal Hussein, police told KUNA. The killing took place in the green zone in Kirkuk. Investigations into the incident have been started and police is on the lookout for the perpetrators.
US and Iraqi forces Thursday rescued seven Sunni Arab men seized by suspected Shiite militiamen near Baghdad, part of a campaign to suppress sectarian death squads responsible for hundreds of deaths this year. Iraqi police said the trouble started when dozens of gunmen, some of them wearing military uniforms, raided two Sunni villages near Khan Bani Saad, 40 kilometres northeast of Baghdad, and abducted 10 young men. Village leaders and clerics alerted police and US soldiers, who rushed to the scene, clashed with the gunmen and rescued seven of the hostages, police said. Three others were missing and presumed taken by some of the gunmen who got away, police said.
NABLUS, West Bank A Palestinian was killed early Friday in a large Israeli raid in the West Bank city of Nablus. Gunfire rang out as Israelis troops searched buildings in the old city, witnesses said.
But Hamas had paid already, with the legs of 
The doctors at Kamal Adwan Hospital are accustomed to removing bullets from the people of destitute Jabaliya, the largest of the Palestinian refugee camps. But until now it was always Israeli bullets. "Believe me, I don't know what is going on. All we see are wounded patients. Why? We don't know. Who's responsible? We don't know. It is not normal," said nursing director Mishal Abu Raya.
Many Palestinian observers sense deliberate provocation on the part of certain factions within the fragmented Fatah movement. It has not gone unnoticed that many of the gunmen behind the Khan Younis violence are known to be loyal to former Palestinian security chief 
Though some commentators have been quick to throw up the prospect of civil war, Abu Shark said the phenomenon of Palestinians turning on themselves is likely to be contained neither boiling over, nor blowing over in the foreseeable future. "Nobody wants to see a coup d'état. If the Hamas government fails to do any good, let us decide things in another four years with an election," he said.
Despite new Israeli and American criticism, the Hamas-led Palestinian Authority's new 3,000-strong police force, under the proposed command of one of Israel's most wanted terrorists, is set to formally become operational in Gaza this Sunday.
Al-Aqsa Martyrs Brigades, the military wing of Fatah Movement, declared its responsibility for striking on Wednesday the Israeli military site of Kissufim in eastern Khan Yunis in south Gaza. A statement for the brigades said Thursday that one of its military groups launched two Aqsa-3 missiles against the site. It affirmed that it will continue its resistance in retaliation of the continuous Israeli crimes against the Palestinians.
Two members of Al-Aqsa Martyrs Brigades, the military arm of Fatah movement, were shot and wounded on Thursday by unknown gunmen in northern Gaza Strip, announced Palestinian medical sources. Witnesses said the gunmen riding in two cars opened fire on the victims' car on a road leading to the residence of a key leader in the brigades, who is believed to be the main target of the attack.
Witnesses testified on Wednesday that some of the men charged with firing rockets at two US warships docked in Aqaba were at the scene a day before the attacks. A Syrian accused of masterminding the Aug. 19 attacks, 
