WASHINGTON: An elite group of Native American trackers is joining the hunt for terrorists crossing Afghanistan's borders. The unit, the Shadow Wolves, was recruited from several tribes, including the Navajo, Sioux, Lakota and Apache. It is being sent to Tajikistan and Uzbekistan to pass on ancestral sign-reading skills to local border units.
In recent years, members of the Shadow Wolves have mainly tracked smugglers along the US border with Mexico. But the Taliban's resurgence in Afghanistan and the US military's failure to hunt down Osama bin Laden - still at large on his 50th birthday on Saturday - has prompted the Pentagon to requisition them.
US Defence Secretary Robert M.Gates said last month: "If I were Osama bin Laden, I'd keep looking over my shoulder."
The Pentagon has been alarmed at the ease with which Taliban and al-Qa'ida fighters have been slipping in and out of Afghanistan. Defence officials are convinced their movements can be curtailed by the Shadow Wolves.
The unit has earned international respect for its tracking skills in the Arizona desert. It was founded in the early 1970s to curb the flow of marijuana into the US from Mexico and has since tracked people-smugglers across hundreds of square kilometres of the Tohono O'odham tribal reservation, southwest of Tucson.
Harold Thompson, a Navajo Indian, and Gary Ortega, from the Tohono reservation, are experts at "cutting sign", the traditional Indian method of finding and following minute clues from a barren landscape. They can detect twigs snapped by passing humans or hair snagged on a branch and tell how long a sliver of food may have lain in the dirt.
Some military experts want the Shadow Wolves to help to track down bin Laden. Despite a $US25million bounty on his head and the use of billions of dollars worth of sophisticated equipment, US forces have so far failed to fulfil President George W. Bush's promise to capture bin Laden "dead or alive". But a senior US official insisted last week that bin Laden's trail had "not gone stone cold". Vice-Admiral Mike McConnell, the new US director of national intelligence, told a Senate committee that bin Laden and his lieutenant, Ayman al-Zawahiri, were setting up new training camps in northwestern Pakistan.
#1
They're gonna stick out like sore thumbs walking around the mansions of Rawalpindi military cantonment.
Posted by: John Frum ||
03/11/2007 13:43 Comments ||
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#2
:-)
Posted by: Frank G ||
03/11/2007 14:03 Comments ||
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#3
I'm sure they're well trained in setting tiny little electronic targeting devices that cruise missiles can home in on. "Good morning, Mullah bin Lad (BOOM!!!)...
Posted by: Old Patriot ||
03/11/2007 14:15 Comments ||
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#4
These guys would probably blend in, and do the job, but not too many around these days.
#7
Not to take anything away from the Shadow Wolves but if we were truely serious about finding the bad guys we should sic the student loan people on them.
Posted by: Alaska Paul ||
03/11/2007 16:24 Comments ||
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#9
You never know how much spirit these fine people can find unless you employ it. For this is one of Americas finest Assets. Connect, they do. Find they will.
All I can say is, if the Jihadi's think they can scare us by sending us videos of people getting their heads wacked off, they ain't seen nothing yet until they see a dead person without a scalp. There is something horific about a face with an exposed shiney white skull above the eye brow line.
There were but two beneath the sky -
The thing I came to kill, and I.
I, under covert, quietly
Watched him sense eternity
From quivering brush to pointed nose
My gun to shoulder level rose.
And then I felt (I could not see)
Far off a hunter watching me.
I slowly put me rifle by,
For there were two who had to die -
The thing I wished to kill, and I.
I offer this to the First Nations people helping in the WOT, Kulelomok. Good luck!
A top Taliban commander threatened on Saturday to kill a kidnapped Italian journalist unless the movements arrested spokesmen were freed and a date was set for the withdrawal of Italian troops from Afghanistan.
Mullah Dadullah, speaking on telephone from an unknown location, said the militia had set a seven-day deadline for the demands to be met otherwise we will slaughter this man. The Italian embassy in Kabul said it wanted proof from whoever was holding the 52-year-old Repubblica correspondent Daniele Mastrogiacomo that he was still alive before it would consider entering into any negotiations. But later on Saturday the Italian government confirmed that Mastrogiacomo was still alive. A Foreign Ministry statement said Mastrogiacomo was alive and the Italian government had credible information on those who carried out the kidnapping. Dadullah said: We have no enmity with the Italians. If they set a date for their withdrawal, we will release the Italian.
Our spokespersons should be released and our news should be allowed to be disseminated without censorship, Dadullah added. If our demands are not met within seven days, we will slaughter this man.
Posted by: Fred ||
03/11/2007 00:00 ||
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#1
I'll be real glad when Dadullah gets his JDAM delivered. He's grown tiresome
Posted by: Frank G ||
03/11/2007 9:48 Comments ||
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#2
Notify Italy, Not us.
Posted by: Redneck Jim ||
03/11/2007 11:50 Comments ||
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KANDAHAR, Afghanistan - Six people have died after being wounded in the bombing of the armoured vehicle of an Afghan elder who played a key role in dealing with the Taleban, police said Saturday. A remote-controlled roadside bomb ripped through the vehicle of Mullah Naqeeb, an influential pro-government tribal elder on Friday, injuring him and nine others, including two of his sons. Six died later in the hospital, including one of the sons, provincial police commander Ismatullah Alizai told AFP.
A Taleban spokesman said the group was not involved in the blast, which was just outside the southern city of Kandahar, the city most hit by Taleban attacks. The spokesman blamed personal rivalry.
"Wudn't us."
Naqeeb was a commander in the 1980s resistance to the Soviet occupation and negotiated the peaceful handover of Kandahar to the Taleban in their ascent to power in the early 1990s. He was also instrumental in persuading the Taleban to give up control of Kandahar province peacefully as they were being pushed from power in a US-ledinvasion in 2001.
Posted by: Steve White ||
03/11/2007 00:00 ||
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KABUL, Afghanistan - A remote-controlled bomb exploded next to a police vehicle in eastern Afghanistan on Saturday, killing four policemen, an official said. The attack happened in the eastern province of Khost, close to the border with Pakistan, said Arsallah Jamal, provinces governor.
Posted by: Steve White ||
03/11/2007 00:00 ||
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KABUL - The US-led coalition said it carried out a precision air strike Saturday on a Taleban militant who had been helping to move anti-aircraft weapons in southern Afghanistan. The coalition did not say how many people may have been killed in the strike on a Taleban weapons facilitator in Helmand province, with a battle damage assessment still under way.
Won't really matter how many were killed as long as the procurer is one of them.
The purpose of the strike was to destroy a command element of the Taleban terrorist organisation which was responsible for facilitating the movement of anti-aircraft weapons in southern Afghanistan, it said in a statement. The air strike, using precision-guided munitions, targeted the suspected terrorists vehicle where he stopped to meet with other suspected terrorists in an isolated area.
Zap!
The strike was in the Gereshk district in the centre of Helmand.
There have been suspicions that the militants, who are said to be allied with Al Qaeda, are trying to acquire anti-aircraft weapons for their fight against NATO and coalition troops but this has not been confirmed. We do know that the enemy is trying to get their hands on shoulder-fired air defence weapons, International Security Assistance Force (ISAF) spokesman Colonel Tom Collins told AFP. I am not aware of any confirmed reports that they have received them. We certainly know that they want them. To my knowledge there has not been a single helicopter that was knocked down (in Afghanistan) by a surface-to-air missile.
He said forces in Afghanistan had counter measures should such weapons be acquired.
Posted by: Steve White ||
03/11/2007 00:00 ||
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#1
All right, I'm embarrassed to admit that I don't recognize that missile. Is it an AIM-7? The mid-body fins look too large for an AIM-120 and an AIM-9 doesn't have the white nose.
Whatever, it doesn't really appear to have the form factor of an air to ground jobber. Those are usually fatter.
Posted by: Frank G ||
03/11/2007 11:34 Comments ||
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#4
That's definitely, a Sparrow should be a -7M - I would have probably worked on that particular missile, as that's a 27th TFS bird from the mid-80s.
Mike
Posted by: Mike Kozlowski ||
03/11/2007 12:29 Comments ||
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#5
I'm just impressed that the Taliwhackers do not have the ordinary, run-of-the-mill 'gun-runners'; no, they have the full up "weapons facilitators."
The Dreaded Spring Offensive must be what brings out the A Team.......
(SomaliNet) An Ethiopian army convoy was hit by a bomb explosion in lower Shabelle region, southern Somalia on late Saturday attacks against foreign troops continue in Somalia as remnants of the toppled Islamists regroup.
There is no immediate casualty on the latest bomb blast. The explosion took place in No.60 town, some 60km southwest of the capital as a convoy of dozens of Ethiopian military vehicles was passing there. It is not known whether it was a roadside bomb or a rocket. Some reports say it was a roadside bomb aimed to explode on the convoy.
Sounds like the Islamic Courts are picking up tricks from their cousins in Afghanistan and Iraq ...
Shortly after the explosion, the Ethiopian military convoy stopped and the soldiers began searching the area looking for suspects but they held no one for the attack so far. The soldiers were heading to Mogadishu.
Posted by: Steve White ||
03/11/2007 00:00 ||
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DERA ISMAIL KHAN: Assailants shot dead two members of Shia community in a remote town where four people have died in sectarian violence in three days, police said on Saturday. In the latest two attacks, unidentified gunmen killed a retired Shia soldier overnight in Dera Ismail Khan and a government employee from the community in the same region on Saturday. Police identified the ex-serviceman as Munir Hussain, 45, and the government employee as Mohammad Safdar, a worker from the state-run electricity company.
Safdar was buying milk from a shop in the main market when he was attacked by two gunmen on a motorbike early on Saturday, local police officer Aslam Khattak said. The gunfire also injured the shopkeeper. Hussain was attacked when he was returning home on Friday night, Khattak said. His body was lying on the roadside when police found him after people reported hearing gunshots. The murders appear to be sectarian terrorism, Khattak said, adding police had beefed up security at public places in the town, which borders on the Taliban-infested Waziristan tribal region.
Posted by: Fred ||
03/11/2007 00:00 ||
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The Bangalore police will approach a New Delhi court seeking the custody of Tariq Dhar, an alleged Lashkar-e-Taiba operative, who has been arrested by the New Delhi police in connection with the blasts at Sarojini Market in that city. According to sources, the suspected terrorist, Imran Jalal, who was arrested here some time ago, had revealed during narco analysis that he has his links with Tariq Dhar. "Nacrco analysis" is giggle juice, of course...
The police want to take Tariq Dhar into custody to ascertain whether he had a role in the attack on the Indian Institute of Science (IISc), Bangalore, which took place on December 28, 2005. His interrogation would also help the police in corroborating certain information revealed by Imran during the narco analysis, the sources told The Hindu. Earlier, a Delhi court rejected the petition filed before it by the Bangalore police seeking Tariq Dhar's custody. Thus, the police are now approaching a higher court.
This article starring:
IMRAN JALAL
Lashkar-e-Taiba
TARIQ DHAR
Lashkar-e-Taiba
Posted by: Fred ||
03/11/2007 00:00 ||
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A Lashkar-e-Taiba (LET) terrorist was killed in an encounter with security personnel in Anantnag district on Thursday night. Acting on a tip-off about presence of militants at Dachan-Jullian, jawans of the Special Operations Group jointly carried out a search operation in the village. LET is a Pakistan based Terrorist Organization that has been waging "Islamic Jehad" against non muslims in Jammu & Kashmir. The ultras opened fire on the search party and in the return fire a Lashkar militant was killed, as reported by PTI.
A Central Reserve Police Force constable was killed in a powerful grenade explosion in Srinagar's Noor Bagh area. A CRPF head constable and a constable were injured in the explosion. "The two injured were taken to the hospital, where head constable Mukesh Kumar Sharma succumbed to his injuries," a CRPF spokesman told rediff.com. No militant outfit has claimed responsibility for the blasts. The police have cordoned off the area and are conducting searches.
This article starring:
head constable Mukesh Kumar Sharma
Posted by: Fred ||
03/11/2007 00:00 ||
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ISLAMABAD - Pakistani security forces killed three suspected Islamist militants in a clash in the North Waziristan region on the Afghan border on Saturday, the military said.
The clash took place near a border checkpoint when militants in three vehicles tried to enter Pakistan from Afghanistan, military spokesman Major-General Waheed Arshad said in a statement. The vehicles were signalled to stop at the checkpost but they did not stop and started firing on security forces personnel, he said.
Next time you start shooting before they do, it's safer that way ...
One soldier was killed. Several militants managed to escape and security forces were searching for them Saudi-style, Arshad said.
Posted by: Steve White ||
03/11/2007 00:00 ||
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President Bush has approved adding 4,400 more U.S. troops to a force buildup already ordered to try to bring security to Iraq, the White House said today. Bush formally requested about $3.2 billion to pay for the additional deployment, even as he and Democratic lawmakers battle over his Iraq strategy.
In January, Bush said he would deploy 21,500 more U.S. troops to Iraq to try to stabilize Baghdad and restive Anbar province. The new U.S. military commander in Iraq, Gen. David Petraeus, has since said more troops will be needed in support of that troop buildup. Gordon Johndroe, spokesman for the White House National Security Council, said the extra troops would include up to 2,400 military police to handle an anticipated increase in Iraqi detainees.
Posted by: Fred ||
03/11/2007 00:00 ||
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#1
Didn't think I would be, but I'm impressed with General Petraeus so far. He's taking the fight to these murdering bastards and the butchers bill is climbing very high for them. Yes Mr. Rumsfeld, MORE troops, LESS diplomacy, and more dead bad guys. That's the ticket. You heard it time and time again, now see it live!
#3
Most anybody can run a backhoe with about a half-hours training, it's not hard. I see no reason the MP's can't learn very shortly.
Posted by: Redneck Jim ||
03/11/2007 12:01 Comments ||
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#4
Surprise, surprise! Despite the MSM's ironclad certainty that our mission is doomed, DOOMED! we may indeed succeed in achieving our objective in Iraq:
BAGHDAD - Suicide bombers attacked army checkpoints in Baghdad on Saturday, killing 28 people while foreign envoys held peace talks just three kilometres (two miles) away, a security official said. Six soldiers were among 26 killed when the attacker rammed a military position guarding the entrance to the east Baghdad Shia enclave of Sadr City as part of a city-wide operation to quell sectarian violence, he said.
The attacker struck on a bridge leading from Palestine Street in central Baghdad to Mudaffer Square on the edge of Sadr City, spreading devastation over a wide area, and triggering a fire.
A vehicle attempting to manoeuvre through an Iraqi army checkpoint just south of the Sadr City security district was halted by soldiers manning a checkpoint, a US military statement said. After stopping, the explosives in the vehicle were detonated, it said. Iraqi army soldiers manning the checkpoint reported the incident and additional soldiers from the Iraqi army unit quickly set up a cordon, securing the immediate area from any additional threats, it added.
The US statement spoke of only six dead soldiers and 20 wounded civilians, but a doctor at the Imam Ali hospital in Sadr City said medics had received 18 bodies and treated 40 wounded. Meanwhile, an official at Ibn Nafees Hospital said it had seen at least four wounded from the same attack.
Posted by: Steve White ||
03/11/2007 00:00 ||
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What do you in Gaza on Saturday night?
A senior Hamas operative was killed and another three wounded on Saturday night during a shootout with Fatah gunmen in the Gaza Strip town of Beit Hanun, marking the first fatality since the two rival Palestinian groups signed a peace treaty in Mecca last month. But, hopefully, not the last
#4
Beit Hanun has long been a trouble spot. Give them all plenty of ammo and let them destroy one another. As Avi Dichter said, "turn Beit Hanun into a ghost town."
#7
Saturday Night,
Saturday Night,
We'll all get together on a Saturday Night,
Shooting, and A-Bombing and we'll die all night,
When we go out on a Saturday Night.
Posted by: Redneck Jim ||
03/11/2007 12:07 Comments ||
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#8
Dancing belles ain't cheap, this is a minamalist celebration.
Posted by: Shipman 2007-03-11 10:57
How about a photo of a stuffed animal with the stuffing hanging out in two or three places? Kinda symbolic, don't you think? Perfectly appropriate in this kind of situation.
Posted by: Old Patriot ||
03/11/2007 14:29 Comments ||
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#9
Whatever happened to the truce negotiated in Saudi Arabia? It strikes me that Palestinians have a problem with truces, period. It's not just truces with Israel.
ISRAEL would be able to face any Iranian nuclear threat alone if international sanctions failed to yield results, Minister for Strategic Affairs Avigdor Lieberman said overnight. "Israel is capable of dealing alone with the Iranian threat even if sanctions don't work," the ultra-nationalist minister said in an interview with Channel 2 television. "Israel is prepared to face the Iranian issue even if it remains alone," said Mr Lieberman.
Mr Lieberman however endorsed international economic sanctions, saying they can be very effective. "Unlike North Korea, Iran has a financial community which counts some 50 or 60 families on which the sanctions must be focused," he said.
Mr Lieberman was last year assigned by Prime Minister Ehud Olmert with the new portfolio which focuses mainly with the Jewish state's efforts to counter Iran's nuclear programme. Believed to be the region's sole if undeclared nuclear power, Israel has accused Iran of trying to make an atomic bomb under the guise of its nuclear programme, which Tehran insists is for peaceful purposes.
Israel considers Iran's nuclear programme to be an "existential threat" after its hardline President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad repeatedly called for the Jewish state to be wiped off the map.
#3
I feel the anticipation inside me, knowing that one day I'll hear the beautiful words over the television
'Irans nuclear program has been taken out by...'
It's all quite exciting!!!
#4
I hate to disagree but Israelis have told me that a couple of accurate heavy missiles could take out half of Israel's electrical resources. In that event, they would have to weigh the fact that they would be destroyed if rebuilt. Either Hizbollah and Ayatollah power is totally destroyed by 2008, or Israel's days are numbered. I am concerned about moronic defenses of Shiite power, as championed by the Wall Street Journal and other effetes. Shiites are the worst enemy that America has ever faced. The Nazis and Communists did not have the will to face US retaliation. It is time to undo Jimmy Carter's scorpion feeding and rid the world of Ayatollah power.
#5
I dunno about that. AQ and the Talibunnies are Sunni. I don't there is much difference between Sunni and Shiite, compared with the vast gulf between Islam and any decent social order.
It's like communism. Does it really matter if it's a Maoist or Stalinist regime setting up the death camps?
#6
as if you even know what a toilet seat is...troll
Posted by: Frank G ||
03/11/2007 11:37 Comments ||
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#7
TROLL ALERT, CLEANUP AISLE 6
Posted by: Redneck Jim ||
03/11/2007 11:43 Comments ||
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#8
Mr Lieberman however endorsed international economic sanctions, saying they can be very effective. "Unlike North Korea, Iran has a financial community which counts some 50 or 60 families on which the sanctions must be focused," he said.
This is an easy military situation but a tricky diplomatic one. I believe we are waiting for them to over step the line.
There's always middle man to bypass that sanctions, and 60 rich families won't be firing nuclear missiles.
We need to declare Irans President an outlaw if he continues to develope in less than a month.
Then after a fair warning and more intelligence, to directly blow up their nuclear facilities and expect a counter-attack.
As of now, the US needs to shore up more diplomatic support to justify it.
If that's the best you can do, go back to bothering goats. You're wasting our time.
Posted by: Barbara Skolaut ||
03/11/2007 11:53 Comments ||
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#10
Justice: RTST, take note -- each and every time you post here you'll be banned. We're quite happy to out-last you just as our forebears did in Al-Andalus. Ciao.
Posted by: Steve White ||
03/11/2007 12:02 Comments ||
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#11
You're a DEAD people.
Posted by: Redneck Jim ||
03/11/2007 12:08 Comments ||
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#12
Hey JUSTICE,
Fuck with the best, Die with the rest.
Posted by: Redneck Jim ||
03/11/2007 12:20 Comments ||
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#14
He just "Aint got much Smarts", Don't Wanna Learn, Hafta Be Kicked around some more.
Posted by: Redneck Jim ||
03/11/2007 12:28 Comments ||
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#15
Troll,
no way will I ever be scrubbing your toilet seat, nor will I ever be a sweeper / sweepress. (you even use a toilet seat?)
Using your logic, God made everything and everybody. So why is it you want to destroy a people that God created. Who made you judge and jury?
I truly feel very sorry for you that you probably will never finger figure it out.
Posted by: Jan from work ||
03/11/2007 13:53 Comments ||
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#16
Trolly,
The fact that you would expect us to take your views seriously, on subjects upon which the greatest minds in history have disagreed, is evidence of narcissism on your part. Reasonable people tend to look at what sorts of societies different philosophies have produced. It is hardly likely that many reasonable people would consider Islam to be particularly superior. If more Muslims would make as much effort improving their own societies as they do telling everybody else what to think and do, they might not spend such a large portion of their lives simmering in a state of self-pitying rage. Think about it, Trolly.
#18
Ignoring the troll for a minute, do you really think that Olmert will ever allow the IDF to unleash their weaponry, prior to a firsdt strike by Iran or Syria? I do not think so, so for all the good Strategis Affiars Minister's statements, he is not the top dog; maybe one of the smartest, but not the toppest. Now if Olmert leaves office, by whatever means, then I should think the bad guys better move their own personal Doomsday clock a bit closer to midnight, because I think the gloves will come off. Quickly.
Attn. Trailing Wife
(IsraelNN.com) Despite the difficulties faced by combat troops in Lebanon during last summer's war against Hizbullah terrorists, more IDF inductees signed up for spots in Golani combat units than for positions in other units. IDF statistics for the newest round of inductees, which begins this week, shows that there were 2.7 applicants for each open spot in Golani brigades. In second place was the Nachal brigades, with 2.3 applicants for each open spot.
A senior IDF official said that while many in the media expected the motivation of youth for enlisting in combat units to go down after last summer's war, it had actually gone up. "The war united the country. It's clear to the youth that their role in the army is important, and there have been no reports of draft resistance," the official said.
#1
How thoughtful, gromgoru. Thanks! Not surprising, the youngsters who'll inherit the mess want to fix it themselves. This speaks as well to the soul of the people, who clearly aren't so tired of fighting for their existence as Olmert had thought. Same in the US, where tip-of-the-spear units are oversubscribed, while the support functions -- the ones that provide training for similar civilian jobs -- languish.
My neighbor boy, first born son of a man quite successful in the corporate world, gifted intellectually and musically (they measured -- he was waaay off in the right tail of the bell curve), applied only to Annapolis with the goal of becoming a Navy Seal. At his high school graduation party he explained to me that after 9/11 he could make no other choice. I was in the high school the other day, and noticed a small poster for the Seals hanging in a stairwell; Most of the tear-off strips with the contact phone number had been torn off. It's little things like this that give me hope that the noisiest here are considerably less representative than they appear.
The military on Friday claimed to have captured four "major" bases of the Tamil Tigers north of Trincomalee even as the LTTE complained of displacement of 70,000 civilians in areas under its control in the Batticaloa district due to intense and indiscriminate shelling by the military.
A Defence Ministry statement said the Tiger cadres at Peraru jungles in the north of Trincomalee fled after the army launched a 48-hour humanitarian operation which ended successfully. It said they had four major bases around 30 km north of Trincomalee town and were posing a major threat to the passengers on Anuradhapura-Trincomalee road and Trincomalee-Pulmudai road and civilians. The Ministry said over 150 cadres had been holding these bases and the search operations suggested that either many Tigers were killed or evacuated after being severely injured. "The Army troops have started consolidating in the captured areas and have recovered a large number of warlike items and equipments left by the Tigers on the run. The troops are on the pursuit of the desperate cadres."
The LTTE said intense artillery fire from the Webber stadium military camp resulted in fainting of students of the nearby Vincent Girls School. The Tigers said people had been forced to flee due to artillery fire.
Posted by: Fred ||
03/11/2007 00:00 ||
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#1
Hahahahahahaha. We need a contest for top 10 RB illustrations of the year. That's got my #3
#3
Besides the magic and therapeutic varieties, there is a vast amount of tattooing whose ostensible purpose is to beautify thc wearer. Most Arab women, at least outside the cities, are so tattooed. Not only the face and hands are decorated, but arms and feet, back, thighs, chest, and abdomen.
Click HERE for recently released thigh and chest tattoos of unexploded ordance (UXO) lady pictured above.
An Iranian general who defected to the West last month had been spying on Iran since 2003 when he was recruited on an overseas business trip, the online edition of The Sunday Times quoted Iranian sources as saying.
Former colleague says Ali Rez Asgari left Turkey with documents, maps that shed light on Revolutionary Guards' links to Hizbullah, Islamic Jihad; defector was privy to confidential information regarding Irans plans in case of conflict with US, he adds
This weekend Brigadier General Ali Reza Asgari, 63, the former deputy defense minister, is understood to be undergoing debriefing at a Nato base in Germany after he escaped from Iran, followed by his family, the UK-based newspaper said.
It is unclear which intelligence organization he was spying for, the report said. He probably was working for Mossad but believed he was working for a European intelligence agency, an Israeli defense official was quoted by the Times as saying.
According to the Times, a daring getaway via Damascus was organized by western intelligence agencies after it became clear that his cover was about to be blown. Irans notorious secret service, the Vavak, is believed to have suspected that he was a high-level mole, the report said.
The Iranian sources told the Times that the escape took several months to arrange. At least 10 close members of his family had to flee the country, they added. The Times said Asgari has two sons, a daughter and several grandchildren and it is believed that all, including his daughters-in-law, are now out of Iran. Their final destination is unknown.
Asgari is said to have carried with him documents disclosing Irans links to Hizbullah, Islamic Jihad and other terror groups based in the Middle East.
According to the report, Asgaris escape has provoked alarm in the Iranian regime. Asgari is a gold mine for western intelligence, an Israeli defense source was quoted by the Times. We have been following him for years, especially since the late 1980s when he was commander of the Revolutionary Guard in Lebanon.
The report said that in 1997 he was appointed deputy defense minister in charge of internal investigations. He uncovered several cases of embezzlement in the Republican Guard that made him unpopular. He was pushed aside after President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad came to power in 2006. The two had been rivals for many years and Asgari realized that his days were numbered, according to the Times.
During an overseas business trip in 2003 he is said to have met a new business partner, who turned out to be a foreign intelligence officer. Ali Reza was a wealthy man even before 2003, an Iranian source told the Times. Since 2003 he has become a very wealthy man.
On February 7, four days after arriving in Damascus and having been assured his family was safe, Asgari boarded a flight to Istanbul, the report said. He was given a new passport and left Turkey by car.
#1
Iranian military professionals have never been happy with Basij' intrusions on their affairs. And they would be well aware of the billions stolen from the Treasury by the Ayatollahs. That sick system cannot yield refined gasoline or diesel. But as long as the clerics get their tax (khumus) they could care less about economic decline.
#4
Meanwhile, a Shiite has propagated a plan for multi-culturalist subversion of the West. First they build segregated communities where they speak Arabized English, and remain relatively passive until they have the numbers, then its final jihad. These savages trampelled the Byzantine, Persian, Babylonian, Egyptian and Indian Empires.
Please embed links properly or don't paste them in; long links break our formatting. AoS.
#6
Sneaze, honey - type a word to represent the link's subject (or just use "link"), highlight it, click on the "link" button below the comment box, and paste the url into the window that pops up. Link
Check in preview to make sure it's OK, then submit.
Nothin' but love for ya', honey. :-D
Posted by: Barbara Skolaut ||
03/11/2007 10:57 Comments ||
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#7
Article: He probably was working for Mossad but believed he was working for a European intelligence agency, an Israeli defense official was quoted by the Times as saying.
Excellent. A false flag operation. Now that he's come in from the cold, he probably doesn't care, anyway.
#8
I don't know about you guys but I have a odd feeling that this was a well planned snatch and grab of a very high ranking officail. He disappears in Turkey then all the sudden his family disappears. I remember awhile back of US interrogators using certian news articles placed in the dorms of AQ at Guantonomo.
Imagine if you were a Iranian hop general just got yoked up all the sudden news, papers, everything show you as a traitor sell out confirmed by your family showing up. You can either work with the infedels fully or they may just accidentally leak to the Quds force were you or your family are being held.
You better have a dam good cover story if you are going to go around snatch and grabbing top leadership of a foreign nation in todays PC world.
#9
C-Low: I don't know about you guys but I have a odd feeling that this was a well planned snatch and grab of a very high ranking officail. He disappears in Turkey then all the sudden his family disappears. I remember awhile back of US interrogators using certian news articles placed in the dorms of AQ at Guantonomo.
Imagine if you were a Iranian hop general just got yoked up all the sudden news, papers, everything show you as a traitor sell out confirmed by your family showing up. You can either work with the infedels fully or they may just accidentally leak to the Quds force were you or your family are being held.
You better have a dam good cover story if you are going to go around snatch and grabbing top leadership of a foreign nation in todays PC world.
Very, very unlikely. Effective police states keep their minions in line by holding family members hostage. If a senior official is out of the country, his family members can't leave. That way, if he defects, they can wreak their vengeance on his family, up to, and including, executing them en masse. His family members probably got out by bribing various border officials, who are likely to have not have recorded their departure from Iran (the better to not leave any tracks for what might be the capital offense of helping a spy to defect).
The problem with a kidnap scenario is that many committed patriots would rather die than give up the goods. And if the family wasn't going along, they could always return to Iran and reveal that they (and the family patriarch) were kidnapped. Which would be a green light for Iran to start kidnapping senior American officials.
I actually agree and withdraw my speculation. When I posted that I was running off the info from yesterday and not the added facts that this guy had not just immediate, but multiple family members pulled out. To scoop that many people at the sametime in a police state would be impraticle, just getting that many people together in one place for voluntary extraction is a feat in and of itself.
On the rest of your guess, true a patriot would not just give up the goods BUT the muslim world is a patriarch family center belief. The Dictators of the region are very very effective at breaking radicals by capturing threating thier family lines. Some even use family members to pressure surrender of radicals. I would agree that those type tactics are dirty but you cannot refute thier effectivness, and we do live in a dirty world.
As far as returning home to refute he was a sell out after this media blitz, right the Mullahs would forgive him then execute him just in case.
DAMASCUS, Syria - Defence ministers from Iran and Syria on Saturday discussed strengthening cooperation between the two Middle East allies and their armies, Syrias official news agency, SANA, reported. SANA said Irans Minister of Defence Mostafa Mohammad Najjar, who arrived in Damascus late Friday, also discussed with Gen. Hassan Turkmany the latest developments in the Middle East. The agency did not provide more details.
Nonsense. Najjar is trying to figure out just what the heck happened with Ali Rez Asgari between Damascus and Istanbul Constantinople -- who did he talk to while in Damascus and a minute-by-minute map of where, with whom and how. And the Syrians can't be too happy being under the microscope, and they'll be even less happy if it turns out that one or more Syrians helped Asgari slip his leash. Najjar gets their attention, and the 'delegation' that came with him is doing the shoe-leather work.
This article starring:
Ali Rez Asgari
Mostafa Mohammad Najjar
Posted by: Steve White ||
03/11/2007 00:00 ||
Comments ||
Link ||
[5 views]
Top|| File under:
#1
No doubt about it, the rats are scurrying to determine how much damage might be done when the foundations they've built are exposed to the opponent.
If this general has held his office for many years, lets just say he Knows Stuff. Planning execution, capabilities post facto etc.....
#2
Maybe we should start rumors that Najjar may defect once his plane leaves Syria after the *body cavity search* of said country.
Posted by: Alaska Paul ||
03/11/2007 13:46 Comments ||
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#3
Have there been any million-dollar mansions bought with cold hard cash recently in Alaska, AP? Couple have sold around here - near the Broadmoor, in the Black Forest, etc. Somebody is preparing for multiple snatches/defections. Wonder who will be next? Perv? Rasfanjani? Maybe one of the Saudi princes?
Posted by: Old Patriot ||
03/11/2007 14:45 Comments ||
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#4
OP---Not lately, that I know of. There used to be some expensive houses on the Hillside that were paid for by cash by drug dealers, but they stick out like sore thumbs. One doctor is building a $2.5 million log house with a boat dock and a lift for bringing his float plane out of the water and into its hanger.
Posted by: Alaska Paul ||
03/11/2007 16:28 Comments ||
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#5
AP, are you implying the doctor was a drug dealer?
#3
Daylight Savings Time is a communist plot to destroy the purity of our essence. Did you realize that DST applies to schools? Little children's school times, Mandrake?
(I'm so glad Arizona doesn't have it.)
Posted by: General Jack T. Ripper, USAF ||
03/11/2007 8:46 Comments ||
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#4
Yo ho! Yo ho! A pirate wife for me!
Posted by: Rob Crawford ||
03/11/2007 9:31 Comments ||
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#5
"is that a peg leg in yor pantaloons or are ya jus happy to see me?"
Posted by: Frank G ||
03/11/2007 9:43 Comments ||
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#6
Ummm, Both.
Posted by: Redneck Jim ||
03/11/2007 11:45 Comments ||
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#7
Daylight saving time---just what we need near the Arctic Circle, like a moose needs a hat rack.
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A top Taliban commander threatened on Saturday to kill a kidnapped Italian journalist unless the movements arrested spokesmen were freed and a date was set for the withdrawal of Italian troops from Afghanistan.
KANDAHAR, Afghanistan - Six people have died after being wounded in the bombing of the armoured vehicle of an Afghan elder who played a key role in dealing with the Taleban, police said Saturday. A remote-controlled roadside bomb ripped through the vehicle of Mullah Naqeeb, an influential pro-government tribal elder on Friday, injuring him and nine others, including two of his sons. Six died later in the hospital, including one of the sons, provincial police commander Ismatullah Alizai told AFP.
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The Bangalore police will approach a New Delhi court seeking the custody of Tariq Dhar, an alleged Lashkar-e-Taiba operative, who has been arrested by the New Delhi police in connection with the blasts at Sarojini Market in that city. According to sources, the suspected terrorist, 
A Lashkar-e-Taiba (LET) terrorist was killed in an encounter with security personnel in Anantnag district on Thursday night. Acting on a tip-off about presence of militants at Dachan-Jullian, jawans of the Special Operations Group jointly carried out a search operation in the village. LET is a Pakistan based Terrorist Organization that has been waging "Islamic Jehad" against non muslims in Jammu & Kashmir. The ultras opened fire on the search party and in the return fire a Lashkar militant was killed, as reported by PTI.
ISLAMABAD - Pakistani security forces killed three suspected Islamist militants in a clash in the North Waziristan region on the Afghan border on Saturday, the military said. 
President Bush has approved adding 4,400 more U.S. troops to a force buildup already ordered to try to bring security to Iraq, the White House said today. Bush formally requested about $3.2 billion to pay for the additional deployment, even as he and Democratic lawmakers battle over his Iraq strategy.
BAGHDAD - Suicide bombers attacked army checkpoints in Baghdad on Saturday, killing 28 people while foreign envoys held peace talks just three kilometres (two miles) away, a security official said. Six soldiers were among 26 killed when the attacker rammed a military position guarding the entrance to the east Baghdad Shia enclave of Sadr City as part of a city-wide operation to quell sectarian violence, he said.
The military on Friday claimed to have captured four "major" bases of the Tamil Tigers north of Trincomalee even as the LTTE complained of displacement of 70,000 civilians in areas under its control in the Batticaloa district due to intense and indiscriminate shelling by the military.
DAMASCUS, Syria - Defence ministers from Iran and Syria on Saturday discussed strengthening cooperation between the two Middle East allies and their armies, Syrias official news agency, SANA, reported. SANA said Irans Minister of Defence 
