A U.S.-led coalition operation supported by NATO troops killed the Taliban's most prominent military commander, dealing the insurgency a "serious blow," a NATO statement said Sunday, confirming Afghan reports of Mullah Dadullah's death.
Dadullah, a Taliban commander who trained suicide bombers, was killed after he left his cave "sanctuary" in southern Afghanistan, according to a statement from NATO's International Security Assistance Force.
Dadullah, a Taliban commander who trained suicide bombers, was killed after he left his cave "sanctuary" in southern Afghanistan, according to a statement from NATO's International Security Assistance Force. It said the Afghan forces assisted in the operation. "Mullah Dadullah Lang will most certainly be replaced in time, but the insurgency has received a serious blow," it said.
Dadullah is one of the highest-ranking Taliban leaders to be killed since the fall of the hardline regime following the U.S.-led invasion in 2001, and his death represents a major victory for the Afghan government and U.S. and NATO troops. Dadullah, a top lieutenant of Taliban leader Mullah Omar, was killed Saturday in the southern province of Helmand, said Said Ansari, the spokesman for Afghanistan's intelligence service.
A second intelligence service official said Dadullah was killed near the Sangin and Nahri Sarraj districts of Helmand province, which have seen heavy fighting involving British and Afghan troops and U.S. Special Forces. Earlier Sunday, Kandahar Gov. Asadullah Khalid showed Dadullah's body to reporters at a news conference in the governor's compound. An Associated Press reporter said
The body had no left leg and three bullet wounds: one to the back of the head and two to the stomach.
the body, which was lying on a bed and dressed in a traditional Afghan robe, had no left leg and three bullet wounds: one to the back of the head and two to the stomach. Dadullah lost a leg fighting against the Soviet army that occupied Afghanistan in the 1980s. Cool ... just like CSI:(fill in blank)!
But Qari Yousef Ahmadi, a purported Taliban spokesman, denied that the Taliban commander had been killed. "Mullah Dadullah is alive," Ahmadi told AP by satellite phone. He did not give further details. "Yeah. They got somebody else. Prob'ly a civilian. An underage civilian woman, in fact. We really do all look alike, y'know."
Dadullah emerged as a Taliban commander during its fight against the Northern Alliance in northern Afghanistan during the 1990s, helping the hardline militia to capture the northern city of Mazar-e-Sharif. Since the Taliban's ouster in late 2001, Dadullah emerged as probably the militant group's most prominent and feared commander. He often featured in videos and media interviews, and earlier this year predicted a massive militant spring offensive that has failed to materialize. Actually, this is the massive militant spring offensive. They're better at bloodthisty threats and chopping people's heads off than they are at kicking NATO ass.
In an interview shown on Al-Jazeera on April 25, Dadullah claimed al-Qaida leader Osama bin Laden was behind the February attack outside a U.S. military base in Afghanistan during a visit by Vice President Dick Cheney — although the U.S. military this month claimed a Libyan al-Qaida operative, Abu Laith al-Libi, not bin Laden, was behind it.
Dadullah insisted bin Laden was alive and well. "Thank God he is alive. We get updated information about him. Thank God he planned operations in both Iraq and Afghanistan," he told Al-Jazeera in excerpts that were translated into Arabic. The interview was not the first time in recent months that Dadullah has said bin Laden is alive. On March 1, London television Channel 4 aired an interview in which he said the al-Qaida leader was in contact with Taliban officers. The station did not say when the tape was made.
Al-Jizz sez... Taliban military commander killed Mullah Dadullah, the Taliban's chief military commander, has been killed in southern Afghanistan according to government officials. James Bays, Al Jazeera's correspondent, was shown a body the authorities said was Dadullah's on Sunday morning. A sheet was removed from the body up to the knee to show that part of one of the legs was missing. Dadullah lost a leg fighting Soviet forces in the 1980s.
Bays says a Nato source had told him privately that there was still some confusion over the reports but that they did believe the body was Dadullah... The Taliban was still confused over whether Dadullah had been killed. Some sources had confirmed the body was his while some others said it was another military commander who also happened to only have one leg.
An Interior Ministry statement said Dadullah was killed in fighting with security forces in Helmand's Girishk district on Saturday night. Officials from Nato and the US-led coalition could not confirm it and Bays says a Nato source had told him privately that there was still some confusion over the reports but that they did believe the body was Dadullah.
Bays said the Taliban was still confused over whether Dadullah had been killed. Some sources had confirmed the body was his while some others said it was another military commander who also happened to only have one leg. A Taliban spokesman had earlier rejected the government's claim labelling it "propaganda".
Standing next to the body Bays said that although he had never met Dadullah face to face, the corpse was either him or someone bearing a striking resemblance to him. Television stations interrupted routine broadcasting to give breaking news of the killing.
#1
Shot in the back of the head? Either he was running away (and any shot to back of head is real lucky) or he was done in by his fellow asshats. I say he was done in by his replacement - sort of the Talibunny way of training your replacement so you can move on to higher things - like 72 raisins.
Posted by: Jack is Back! ||
05/13/2007 9:04 Comments ||
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#2
at least now he'll finally be able to talk to Bin Laden: "is it always this hot here?"
Posted by: Frank G ||
05/13/2007 9:14 Comments ||
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24 hour and/or official US military statement rule in effect, but I'm breaking out the good scotch just in case...
Another intelligence official said the one-legged Dadullah was killed in a clash with Afghan troops in the southern province of Helmand on Saturday night.
"We found only one leg so we think it was him..."
Apart from leading most Taliban attacks in the south, the notorious Dadullah was also believed to be behind a series of kidnappings of foreigners and Afghans. There have been several reports over recent years that Dadullah had been killed or captured.
Missed him by *that* much!
If confirmed, his death would be a heavy blow for the Taliban, fighting to regain absolute dictatorial power expel foreign troops since they were ousted in a U.S.-led offensive after the September 11, 2001, attacks.
Poor li'l beleaguered Talibunnies, bereft first of their Dignity™ and then of their spiritual guide. O whatever is to become of them?
He would also be the most important Taliban killed since then. In December, U.S.-led forces killed another top Taliban official, Mullah Mohammad Akhtar Osmani, in an air attack in the south of the country after a tip-off by Pakistan.
This article starring:
MULLAH DADULLAH
Taliban
MULLAH MOHAMAD AKHTAR OSMANI
Taliban
Saeed Ansari, spokesman for the intelligence department
Dadullah, a top lieutenant of Taliban leader Mullah Omar, was killed Saturday in the southern province of Helmand, said Said Ansari, the spokesman for Afghanistan's intelligence service.
"Mullah Dadullah was the backbone of the Taliban," Khalid said. "He was a brutal and cruel commander who killed and beheaded Afghan civilians."
Khalid showed Dadullah's body to reporters at a news conference in the governor's compound. An Associated Press reporter [NOOR KHAN?] said the body, which was lying on a bed and dressed in a traditional Afghan robe, had no left leg and three bullet wounds: one to the back of the head and two to the stomach.
The AP reporter [NOOR KHAN?] said the body appeared to be Dadullah's based on his appearance in TV interviews and Taliban propaganda videos.
A second intelligence service official said Dadullah was killed near the Sangin and Nahri Sarraj districts of Helmand province, which have seen heavy fighting involving British and Afghan troops and U.S. Special Forces. The official was not authorized to give his name. LINKY
btw, the usual Talib suspects sed that Peg Leg Dadullah was just fine but that his only wooden leg had termites.
**Dadullah's peg leg will make quite the trophy for U.S. Special Forces!
#3
Taliban spokesmen at first denied the report, obviously. But it's being reported on Al Jazeera Arabic that the Taliban is now confirming his death. Reporters from the BBC and other news agencies were shown the body and they're all saying it looks like Dadullah based on previous interview videos. I'd say it's safe to break out the scotch
#7
Two wounds in the stomach. One almost hopes the shot in the back of the head came several hours later.
Here's another good thought! Maybe one of the Brave Lions of Islam finished him off so he wouldn't squeal.
Posted by: Bobby ||
05/13/2007 6:35 Comments ||
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#8
Toe Tag for Mullah Dadullah?
A tragic loss of a great man, a source of personal
inspiration, gone to collect his 72 virgins (or maybe he ran out of Virgin frequent exploder points).
#11
We need to document the reporting...I have seen one report from AP in which they called him...impish. Another report from Der Spiegel gave him a glowing obit. Much wailing in the press this morning.
#12
And they layed the body in pink sheets (or is it salmon, as one of the Esteemed Mods delusionally insist it is?)... oh, I ask you, when will the Humiliation™ cease?
#14
Those sheets are lavender, and it looks good on him.
Posted by: Steve White ||
05/13/2007 10:18 Comments ||
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#15
A great way to start the morning with fresh cup of java. No better news could be had. This ugly ass made a real donkey look attractive. Good riddance.
#20
Hey, it's one-leegged! By Gwad, you're right! Sorry, but I'm totally oblivious to my environment, to the point of being actually unable to survive outside of my pr0n-bubble.
#38
Niiiice, Xbalanke. It's been a while since we've had original poetry... and I adore Dr. Zeuss. I can still recite his ABC from memory, although it's been 15 1/2 years since it was trailing daughter #1's favourite story... all the way from Frankfurt to Prague and back again in the car.
#41
Actually, that's a good start, Redneck Jim. :-) I like the images. I'd tighten the scansion so:
I'd comment much more, but his doom is complete
I'm happy he's gone in a manner most stable,
I'm sure he's in Hell and quite frequently singed, But would settle for gone, and forever unable.
I hope you don't mind -- I edit all the writers in my household, and it's become a bad habit.
A cute bit of doggerel, Jim dear. Not really Suess like, but it stands quite nicely on it's own.
KABUL - Afghan security forces and international troops have killed 70 Taleban rebels in a week-long push to drive the militants from a southern district, an intelligence department statement said on Saturday.
Dozens of Afghan soldiers supported by NATO-led military forces launched the hunt last Saturday in Nari Saraj district of insurgency-hit southern Helmand province, the statement said. Up to 70 rebels including five militant commanders were killed and more than 30 others were injured, it said.
Taleban militants “are now cleared” from the area, the statement said. It did not say when the district was overrun by the rebels.
Posted by: Steve White ||
05/13/2007 00:00 ||
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#1
How can Allah be on the side of monkeys and pigs and their marionettes? /sarc off
#4
Taliban have been raking in their 5% cut of the Helmand district heroin for the past 10 years. They haven't been targeted because we chose to look the other way, because the drug industry was a source of stability.
Again, locals are producing suicide bombers for the Taliban. Recruitment is made in the UN refugee camps in Balochistan. Suppress UN funding, and that source will dry out.
The Afghan police also captured a Canadian national of Pakistani origin on Wednesday in Kabul, interior ministry counter-terrorism chief Abdul Manan Farahi told AFP. The man had “illegally” travelled between Afghanistan and neighbouring Pakistan twice before being seized, he added. He said the suspect was currently being investigated in an interior ministry jail and Afghanistan had informed the Canadian foreign ministry.
The Canadian media reported on Friday that Afghan police picked up a 24-year-old Canadian national on suspicion that he had attended a militant training camp. He allegedly attended a camp in Waziristan, reported the Globe and Mail newspaper. Ottawa “is aware that a Canadian is detained in Afghanistan,” Ambra Dickie, a spokeswoman for Canada’s foreign affairs department, said on Friday. She refused to name him, saying only that Canadian consular officials had visited him in jail.
Posted by: Fred ||
05/13/2007 00:00 ||
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#1
A pak-canuck hybrid... is this like the Innsmouth look? I guess they start like normal canucks, then they devolve, and they finally renounce their humanity to join their brethen in pakiland, living in Jihad™ forever (well, until they're snuffed or caught, anyway).
#2
A5089 - it's more that he's a piece of pakscum trash that moved to Canada and took Canadian citizenship, or was the child of other pakscum that made such a move. It doesn't matter - his toenails are being extracted slowly and painfully at the present, under the watchful eye of someone tortured by the taliwhackers.
Posted by: Old Patriot ||
05/13/2007 14:15 Comments ||
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Afghan and US-led coalition troops have driven the Taliban from the Helmand province after a weeklong battle in which more than 70 militants were killed, an Afghan security official said on Saturday. Separately, eight policemen were killed when a roadside bomb blew up while Afghan police confirmed that they had detained a Canadian citizen with suspected links to “terrorist organisations”.
There were no casualties among Afghan and Western troops in the fighting in Nahri Saraj, site of a series of operations by foreign-led forces in recent weeks, the security official told Reuters. Five Taliban commanders were amongst those killed, the official said, adding there were no casualties among civilians. “We have driven out the Taliban from the district and it is under our control,” he said.
Foreign troops led by the US military and NATO and the Taliban could not be reached for comments on the battle. Nahri Saraj lies 25 kilometres from Sangin district where witnesses said more than 40 civilians were killed last Tuesday in an air strike by US-led coalition troops. The coalition has confirmed civilian casualties in the battle of Sangin.
Separately, an air attack by Western forces killed at least seven civilians, including women and children, in the Marja district of Helmand early Friday, witnesses said. Seven of the civilians wounded in the attack were brought to a government run hospital in Lashkar Gah, they said. “I know of six or seven deaths in my village,” a wounded woman said at the hospital. Afghan officials say US-led troops have killed scores of Afghan civilians in the past two months. A US commander apologised last week for the killing of 19 civilians by coalition forces in March. Meanwhile eight Afghan policemen were killed when a roadside bomb tore through their vehicle in the southern province of Kandahar on Saturday, a police commander said. The remotely detonated bomb went off near Zhari, provincial police chief Esmatullah Alizai told AFP.
Posted by: Fred ||
05/13/2007 00:00 ||
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(SomaliNet) At least four died and two others were seriously wounded on Saturday in a heavy explosion which happened in south of Somalia capital Mogadishu – all the dead who were driving on a truck were security personnel of the Somali transitional government. The blast caused by roadside a remotely controlled bomb. The explosion occurred on the main road to Mogadishu airport near KM4 roundabout and no one knows who carried out the bomb attack.
Samoans angry about the death of their king.
“It was a huge blast that deafened us and shook the ground. Soon after the explosion, I could see a government car went up and was cut into slices while parts of the bodies were scattered on the ground, I was few meters away from the site of the blast and I was really shocked,” one eyewitness Somalinet.
Two Somali government security officers were among the people killed in the blast including senior security department in the Mogadishu airport while the others were bodyguards. Shortly after the bombing the government forces along with the Ugandan peacekeepers sealed of the area and began investigations. No one has been arrested for the attack yet.
Posted by: Steve White ||
05/13/2007 00:00 ||
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Algerian security forces arrested three Libyan Muslim fighters planning to join al-Qaeda's North African wing, Algeria's official news agency APS said on Saturday. Police also captured an Algerian Muslim who was preparing to accompany the three to strongholds of the Algeria-based al-Qaeda in the Islamic Maghreb, the agency said citing security sources. APS did not say when the Libyans were arrested.
Their capture, in the capital Algiers, was made possible by information provided by a former member of the group who had surrendered to the authorities on May 1. The Libyan fighters, aged between 22 and 25, had been "recruited in Libya by extremist networks with international ramifications", APS said.
Al-Qaeda in the Islamic Maghreb, previously known as the Salafist Group for Preaching and Combat, or GSPC, claimed responsibility for the April 11 triple suicide bombings of the prime minister's office and a police station in Algiers that killed 33 people and wounded 57 others. The attacks were the deadliest in the region since 2002, and came as the North African nation struggles to come to terms with an uprising that has killed up to 200,000 people since 1992, but which has largely died down in recent years. According to media reports, Algerian security forces have arrested an unspecified number of suspects accused of "logistical preparations" for the attacks, and some of them have already reportedly been brought before prosecutors.
On Tuesday, al-Qaeda in the Islamic Maghreb said it would carry out more suicide bombings and urged Muslims to join its ranks as suicide bombers. Al Jazeera aired a video from the organisation purportedly showing how one of the April 11 bomb attacks was carried out. The brief video showed what appeared to be landmines and explosives being put together, followed by a large explosion. At the end of the aired segment, a bearded man said to be Abu Musab Abdulwadood, the leader of Algeria's main Islamic movement, called on young Muslims to join his group, join the "long list of martyrs" and carry out suicide bombings.
Security officials suspect the group is attracting growing numbers of Muslim youths in the region and providing them with military training. In late December Algerian newspapers reported that security forces had arrested two Tunisians "belonging to an international terrorist network".
Posted by: Fred ||
05/13/2007 10:24 ||
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Algerian troops, stepping up assaults on Al QaedaÂ’s north African wing after suicide bombings last month, killed seven members of the group in fighting east and west of Algiers, newspapers reported on Saturday. Troops backed by helicopters killed four militants believed to belong to the Al Qaeda Organisation in a big offensive in Tizi Ouzou province 100 km east of the capital Algiers, the El Watan and the El Khabar said. The offensive was launched in the Kabylie region on Tuesday and was still going on, they said, citing security sources.
The Liberte newspaper said one soldier was killed and one seriously injured in the skirmishes, which took place in the past two days. In a separate operation, the army killed three Islamic rebels late on Thursday in the western province of Saida, 435 km (270 miles) from Algiers, said the Liberte and the Le Soir dÂ’Algerie. The oil- and gas-exporting country has been on alert since a triple suicide bombing killed 33 people in Algiers on April 11. Al Qaeda in the Islamic Maghreb, previously known as the Salafist Group for Preaching and Combat, or GSPC, claimed responsibility for the bombings. The group said on Tuesday it would carry out more suicide bombings and urged Muslims to join its ranks as suicide bombers.
Posted by: Fred ||
05/13/2007 00:00 ||
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Eighty-nine people were killed in custody and 1,75,435 were arrested across the country during anti-crime and anti-corruption drives in the first four months of the state of emergency, proclaimed on January 11, said a report of the human rights coalition Odhikar. Forty-nine of the victims were killed by the Rapid Action Battalion, 23 by the police, seven by the joint forces, six by the army and three by the navy between January 12 and May 11. One person was killed in the custody of the Department of Narcotics Control, the report said.
And now, the list. Drum roll, please:
Of the 89 people, 47 were killed in RAB ‘crossfire’, two died in hospital after being picked up by the battalion, 12 were killed in police ‘crossfire’, five were tortured to death by the police, three were shot dead by the police, one died in police custody, two died in hospital after being arrested by the police, four died reportedly from torture by the army, one died when trying to escape from the custody of the army, one died in hospital after being picked up by the army, three were reportedly tortured to death by the navy, three were reportedly tortured to death by the joint forces, one was killed in ‘crossfire’ with the joint forces, one died in hospital after being picked up by the joint forces, one died when he allegedly jumped from a six storied building in the custody of the joint forces,
Missed the stairs, did he?
one died after being left at a police station by the joint forces and another was reportedly killed in the custody of the Department of Narcotics Control, the Odhikar report said.
And that's just in four months.
Eight of the 89 people killed during the period, four were activists of Bangladesh Nationalist Party, four of Awami League, six of outlawed Purba Banglar Communist Party (Janajuddha), four of underground Purba Banglar Communist Party, three of extremist Purba Banglar Communist Party (Red Flag), two of outlawed Biplobi Communist Party, one of extremist New Biplobi Communist Party, two of underground Gana Mukti Fauj, one of Jatiya Samajantrik Dal, three of Sramajibi Mukti Andolan and four of extremist Sarbahara Party, one was a freedom fighter, one was an indigenous leader and another was reportedly an operative of an extremist group, the report said.
Members of different bands of criminals were also among the people killed during the period. Three of them were of Gangchil Bahini, one of Masim Bahini, one of Haji Bahini and one of Salam Bahini.
Bahini clan seems to be big in the band "business"
Three suspected gunrunners, two alleged muggers, one alleged gambler, two alleged drug peddlers, 10 alleged robbers and 17 other criminals were among the persons killed. Others killed during the period included two farmers, a businessman, a police informer (source), a bus driver (as claimed by his family), a detained bus driver and one whose occupation was unknown.
"We don't know what he did, but he's still dead, Jim"
Odhikar demanded independent inquiries of all the extra-judicial killings or deaths in custody. It also demanded that the results of all such inquiries should be made public.
Odhikar is also trying to know the condition of freedom fighter Gazi Golam Dastagir, Quamrul Huda and other persons who remain without trace after being arrested or picked up by law enforcement agencies, said the report.
Odhikar also expressed deep concern over the ‘atrocities’ perpetrated on Khalishpur jute mill workers who went on strike demanding their unpaid wages and demanded release of the arrested workers and withdrawal of cases against them. The rights coalition also expressed concern at the ‘atrocities’ perpetrated on the students of Khalishpur who expressed solidarity with the striking jute mill workers.
"Jute workers of the world unite!"
Odhikar condemned the brief detention of journalist Tasneem Khalil for questioning by the joint forces as an ‘act of intimidation’ [against human rights defenders].
Odhikar conducted two fact-finding missions regarding the killings of ward commissioner Dulal of Charfasson (February 20, 2007) and Farid of Tazumuddin upazila of Bhola (March 21, 2007) in the custody of local naval force. OdhikarÂ’s acting director ASM Nasiruddin Elan was taken to the Naval Headquarters on 3 May, 2007 where Captain Zubayer, director of Naval Intelligence and three others intimidated and harassed him for preparing the reports on the incidents and threatened him with death, the report said.
Posted by: Steve ||
05/13/2007 14:19 ||
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#1
12 were killed in police ‘crossfire’
RAB sez hey john law, that's our method!
#3
>Eight of the 89 people killed during the period, four were activists of Bangladesh Nationalist Party, four of Awami League, six of outlawed Purba Banglar Communist Party (Janajuddha), four of underground Purba Banglar Communist Party, three of extremist Purba Banglar Communist Party (Red Flag), two of outlawed Biplobi Communist Party, one of extremist New Biplobi Communist Party, two of underground Gana Mukti Fauj, one of Jatiya Samajantrik Dal, three of Sramajibi Mukti Andolan and four of extremist Sarbahara Party, one was a freedom fighter, one was an indigenous leader and another was reportedly an operative of an extremist group, the report said. <
Wonder what the difference is between the Outlawed PBCP, the underground PBCP and the extremist PBCP? Different gang colors?
A homemade bomb left on a bicycle exploded at a market in the Turkish port city of Izmir, killing one person and injuring 14 others, the state-run Anatolia news agency said.
The blast Saturday occurred a day before a planned march in Izmir that was expected to draw hundreds of thousands of secular Turks to demonstrate against the Islamic-rooted government's attempts to raise the profile of Islam in the country. The blast occurred at a market in the Bornova district of Izmir, on the Aegean Sea, in the morning as vendors were setting up their stalls. One person who was seriously injured died at a hospital later, Anatolia said.
Posted by: Fred ||
05/13/2007 00:00 ||
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#1
Turkey: 1 killed, 14 injured in market explosion
Must have been a really bad batch of Szeged paprika. We all know that Islam couldn't have had anything to do with it.
It all began on a frigid January day with 10 bearded Muslim men huddled in the parking lot of a Circuit City debating who would go inside to have a copy made of a tape showing them firing guns and praising jihad. Eventually, the group - who'd been seen standing outside earlier that January 2006 week - selected two men to go inside while the rest waited in the parking lot, an employee who was outside smoking at the time recalled.
Once inside, the two men approached the television section of the electronics store where videos could be transferred to DVD and copies could be made. They handed the teenage clerk a mini-cassette tape from a camcorder and asked for a $20 transfer to be made to DVD. As they waited, the two men calmly walked around the store looking at televisions, video games and DVDs. What they didn't know was that they had sealed their ultimate fate.
When the teen and another employee went into a back room and began the conversion of the tape, they saw a group of bearded men wearing "fundamentalist attire" and shooting "big, f-ing guns," the teen later told co-workers. Throughout the 90-minute-long tape, above the booming gunfire at a Pennsylvania target range, the jihadists could be heard screaming "God is great!" The two employees "freaked out," their co-worker recalled.
At first, the teenage clerk didn't know what to do, his pal said. "Dude, I just saw some really weird s-," he frantically told his co-worker. "I don't know what to do. Should I call someone or is that being racist?" The fellow employee tried to calm his friend and told him that if what he saw terrified him so much, he should tell the police. The teen first consulted with a manager before making the 911 call.
FBI agents got a copy of the tape from Circuit City, and went to the teen's house and interviewed him at length. That call to authorities set in motion a 16-month undercover investigation in which six of the men caught on tape chillingly discussing killing soldiers "in the name of Allah." As the FBI continued its investigation, the clerk - who has not been identified - quietly went about his life, his co-workers said.
Then when news broke on Tuesday that federal authorities had arrested six foreign-born Muslims in the terror plot, the frightened teen decided to lay low - not coming to work or going to school until the situation blew over, his pals said. He was too terrified of reprisals to be interviewed by The Post yesterday.
Authorities have charged five of the six men, Mohamad Shnewer, 22, Serdar Tatar, 23, and brothers Dritan Duka, 28, Shain Duka, 26, and Eljvir Duka 23, with conspiring to murder U.S. military personnel. A sixth man, Agron Abdullahu, 24, was charged with aiding and abetting the others.
The feds, still investigating the plot, have said 10 men appeared on the firing-range DVD but that the six arrested men are the core group. Authorities believe the men were in the last stage of planning the attack.
A man is cleaning out his garage, and has a shovel in his hand, when he moves some old boxes and discovers a coiled rattlesnake...which begins to rattle!
Does the man... (a) kill the rattlesnake (realizing that even re-locating it will not ensure his family is safe) (b) think: "What will PETA think of me if I kill this innocent snake?"
While I doubt any NORMAL human would think twice in this scenario, it troubles me deeply that the young clerk even CONSIDERED not exposing this nest of rattlesnakes!
The Left has so infected the pysche of this country that some consider Political Correctness before Self-Preservation.
#4
Well, after CAIR sues the living shit out of him and hounds him with legal trouble for years, virtually ruining his life, others will be even less likely to report similar discoveries. After the airport passengers get identified and sued that will add to the anxiety that muslims need to give them room to breath while they operate.
#5
There was an article in SF Chronicle some months ago noting the rise in Muslim admissions to UC Berkely Law School. One of the admittees was interviewed and divulged the intention of Muslims to take advantage of the US judicial system "in a positive way beneficial for Muslims". They intend to coopt and petrify our court system. All their idiot cases ought to be thrown out the first day of hearing. The common sense of the judges is all that will prevent this takeover. I'm very worried. Depending on the quality of these judges is like jumping off a building and thinking you can fly like Superman.
#6
If we're smart we'll knock off every one of them before they become lawyers. (falsetto voice)Oh, but that would be doing something illegal, and we would never do anything illegal. Maybe if we opened a dialog.
(/pittiful snark)
#8
Let 'em bring their cases, hear 'em and then throw 'em out. Make 'em pay all defendant legal fees and court costs until every dollar we've sent to saudi for oil is right back here in America...
Posted by: M. Murcek ||
05/13/2007 12:52 Comments ||
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#9
Woozle Elmeter2970
The Muslims in the US Berkeley Law school may be, on the average, less anti-American than the other attendees.
#10
I could say a lot about this situation, the Minneapolis taxicab stupidity, CAIR, and 80% of all muslims, but I don't want to be banned for life! See, it's not just multiculturalism that's in play, it's the idea that criticizing muslims in a meaningful way isn't "nice". Frankly, the sooner we nuke the mme, the better off we'll be.
Posted by: Old Patriot ||
05/13/2007 14:24 Comments ||
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#11
OP and wxjames we all have the same fears and concerns for our Nation.
It makes me damn proud to know that there are many like us who Love Country, believe in Duty to it and Honor those who gave all for it.
Even these young American kids in the video store overcame years of mindless and wrong-headed brain-washing about race they were subjected to in school and thru TV programing.
#12
The rattlesnake metaphor is not quite complete. More than being concerned about an annoyance suit from PETA, there is a very real risk that the federal government would initiate a case for killing an animal on the endangered species list. Just as all the turtle and tortoise species are considered at minimum threatened, I believe that all the rattlesnake species are also listed.
#13
The thing I do not get is why the didn't rip it themselves - the equipment isn't that costly, and you know people in the store will view the vid..?
It seems more than stupidity.
#14
America wouldn't have as many of these problems if there weren't any Muslims living within our borders. Exactly how much strife, and I mean predictable and totally expectable set-your-watch-by-it strife, are Muslims going to have to cause here before we simply throw every one of them out of this country? Islam is wholly incompatible with Western civilization and constitutional law. The sooner this is recognized, the more quickly we can begin to save ourselves from this menace. I no longer have the least patience or tolerance for Islam. It is a Neanderthal creed that lacks any redeeming value and must be dismantled by force if necessary. Anyone with a brain knows that Islam will push things to the tipping point. It is only a matter of time and opportunity. We are idiots not to act pre-emptively. Any delay in doing so merely ups the death toll for Westerners and Muslims alike.
#15
If the jihadi's through CAIR sue this kid, we need to create the biggest PAC ever and fund the Pacific Legal Foundation and others like it to defend them, and to declare legal war on every thing CAIR does or says. Literally drive them out of business with nuisance suits of every description.
The Pakistani government authorized paramilitary troops on Sunday to shoot anyone involved in serious violence in Karachi, where 37 people have been killed over the past two days, an official said. But really, it's not a state of emergency...
On Saturday, 34 people were killed and more than 130 wounded in the country's worst political street violence in two decades, sparked when Pakistan's suspended top judge tried to meet supporters in the southern city. Violence between pro-government and opposition activists eased on Sunday but three people were killed in separate incidents and protesters set fire to several shops and cars.
Government attempts to remove Chief Justice Iftikhar Chaudhry over unspecified accusations of misconduct on March 9 have outraged the judiciary and the opposition. The judicial crisis has snowballed into a campaign against President Pervez Musharraf and is the most serious challenge to the authority of the president, who is also army chief, since he seized power in 1999. But the violence in Pakistan's biggest city sparked by the judge's visit has raised the spectre of bloody ethnic feuding that plagued Karachi in the 1980s and 1990s.
"We have increased the presence of Rangers in the city and have told them to arrest or shoot anyone involved in violence and riots threatening life or property," Interior Secretary Syed Kamal Shah told Reuters, referring to a paramilitary force. "The events of yesterday were very serious and violent. The whole city was paralyzed and many precious lives lost," he said. "We don't want a repeat."
Two political activists, one from an opposition party and one from the pro-government Muttahida Qaumi Movement (MQM), which runs Karachi, were killed on Sunday. The body of a third man, shot in the head, was found in a volatile neighborhood. Chaudhry, who denies wrongdoing and has refused to resign, flew into Karachi on Saturday, hoping to meet his supporters. But the violence prevented him from leaving the airport.
Musharraf condemned the clashes and criticized Chaudhry for ignoring a government appeal not to go to the volatile city. In a speech to tens of thousands of supporters in Islamabad on Saturday, Musharraf ruled out a state of emergency. "Really, there's a difference between 'state of emergency' and 'shoot on sight.'"
He said elections due this year -- first a presidential election followed by a general election -- would be on time.
Mourners at the funeral of two members of an opposition religious alliance shouted anti-Musharraf slogans and called for an Islamic revolution as the bodies, draped in party flags, were carried away for burial.
The police have been widely criticized for failing to stop the clashes between members of the MQM, which opposed Chaudhry's visit, and its old enemies including the religious alliance and former prime minister Benazir Bhutto's Pakistan People's Party Most of those killed were members of the PPP and the opposition Awami National Party (ANP), which represents ethnic Pashtuns. Provincial ANP President Afrasiab Khattak said he feared ethnic violence: "If they fail to control militancy it will divide Karachi on ethnic lines."
But a PPP leader played down the fear. "I don't think it's ethnic violence, it's government supporters trying to beat the opposition into submission," said Raza Rabbani, leader of the opposition in the upper house.
Lawyers are due to boycott courts on Monday and the Islamist alliance has called for a nationwide protest.
Posted by: Fred ||
05/13/2007 11:49 ||
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#1
Pak troops told to shoot rioters
About Goddam time.
Posted by: Redneck Jim ||
05/13/2007 12:06 Comments ||
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#2
Works with me, as long as the rioters can fire back.
"It's a pity they can't both lose".
#4
And the Balochis in turn liberate Iranian-held Sistan-va-Baluchistan, helping to solve another problem. I like it.
Posted by: Steve White ||
05/13/2007 13:41 Comments ||
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#5
Can we infiltrate a few hundred SOF to help stir the pot? Might be beneficial, especially if the "pot" happens to be Quetta, Rawalpindi, Karachi, Peshawar, and Islamabad.
Posted by: Old Patriot ||
05/13/2007 14:44 Comments ||
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Pro-government and opposition groups blamed each other Sunday for Pakistan's worst political violence in years, as new riots broke out and the toll from street battles in Karachi rose to 37 dead and over 150 wounded.
Security forces in armored personnel carriers and pickup trucks topped with machine guns patrolled the streets, which were largely deserted.
But gunmen traded shots between neighborhoods dominated by rival ethnic groups, and police found the bullet-ridden body of a pro- government activist. Firefighters were called after a funeral procession left a row of shops in flames.
A crisis has been brewing since President Gen. Pervez Musharraf suspended Chief Justice Iftikhar Mohammed Chaudhry on March 9 over allegations he abused his office. Critics accuse Musharraf, also army chief, of trying to sideline the independent-minded judge in case of legal challenges to efforts to prolong his nearly eight-year rule.
The push to reinstate Chaudhry as chief justice has galvanized Pakistan's opposition and amounts to the biggest challenge to Musharraf's rule since his 1999 coup.
Competing rallies timed for Chaudhry's planned visit to Karachi on Saturday sparked gunfights and clashes between rival political activists that left corpses in the streets and raised new fears for the nation's stability.
Opposition parties have accused the pro-government Mutahida Qaumi Movement party of initiating much of Saturday's violence.
"It appeared at times as if there was no government in Karachi and it was gunmen who ruled the nation's biggest city," the respected Dawn daily lamented in a Sunday's newspaper.
Officials contacted at four hospitals across Karachi said the casualty toll had risen to 37 dead and about 150 wounded.
Karachi police chief Azhar Faruqi said several people have been arrested in connection with Saturday's violence but gave no details. He declared that authorities were "now in control of the city."
On Saturday, officials said a security force of 15,000 was deployed in the city, but there was no sign of intervention in the violence.
Farhatullah Babar, a spokesman for the opposition Pakistan Peoples Party of former Prime Minister Benazir Bhutto, said the government and Musharraf were "equally responsible for what has happened."
"It shows that the government wanted to create a situation of civil strife to find an excuse for imposing an emergency and postponing elections," Babar said.
But in his own mass rally in Islamabad late Saturday, Musharraf insisted he would not declare an emergency, and said a presidential vote by lawmakers and parliamentary elections would go ahead as planned by year's end.
He urged opposition parties to stop protests in support of the judge.
"My heart was weeping when I saw that people were dying, they were being killed, they were being martyred," he told a crowd.
On Sunday, Minister of State for Information Tariq Azeem Khan said said there was no "definite proof" of who was involved in the rioting.
The exiled leader of the MQM, Altaf Hussain, blamed Chaudhry for the violence, saying he should have heeded warnings from officials to stay away from Karachi. He said the MQM, a Karachi-based party has a reputation for militancy, was attacked.
Opposition members and lawyers accused the MQM of launching the attacks with batons and guns as supporters of the judge attempted to greet Chaudhry on Saturday at the airport, ahead of a planned address to a gathering of lawyers in the city. Gunbattles broke out as MQM rivals retaliated.
A private TV network accused MQM activists of firing at its building because of its live coverage of the violence. The channel stayed on the air as rioters torched vehicles outside.
The violence trapped Chaudhry at the airport. He returned to Islamabad late Saturday without addressing the rally. An MQM rally went ahead as planned.
Fierce gun battles between rival political activists left 34 people dead and 100 wounded yesterday in the worst violence since President Pervez Musharraf suspended Pakistan's top judge two months ago. That's just in the runup. The festivities haven't actually started yet.
Most of the victims were opposition party workers headed for a rally in the volatile southern city of Karachi by Chief Justice Iftikhar Muhammad Chaudhry, who was trapped at the airport by roadblocks set up by Musharraf supporters. "Hrarrr! Block 'im in!"
Chaudhry, increasingly a symbol of defiance for those opposed to Musharraf's eight-year military rule, later abandoned his plans to give a speech and flew back to the capital Islamabad. "That does it! I'm leaving!"
Musharraf, who was due to address his own rival rally in Islamabad in the evening, ruled out declaring a state of emergency but deployed extra paramilitary troops in armoured cars in Karachi. "But it ain't a state of emergency, mind you!"
Black smoke billowed over the volatile commercial hub as
Mobs armed with assault rifles and shotguns fought pitched battles in the streets, opened fire on a private television studio and torched dozens of buses and cars.
mobs armed with assault rifles and shotguns fought pitched battles in the streets, opened fire on a private television studio and torched dozens of buses and cars. "At least 30 people died and more than 100 were injured in the violence," Sindh province interior minister Waseem Akhtar told AFP. "And a wonderful time was had by all. Except for the dead guys. And some of the more seriously wounded."
"The chief justice is responsible for these deaths, no one else is responsible, no political party is responsible," added Akhtar, a minister for the pro-Musharraf Muttahida Qaumi Movement (MQM) party. "Yeah! He dunnit! I seen him!"
A senior security official said most of the dead were from the Pakistan Peoples Party of exiled former premier Benazir Bhutto. Other officials said a policeman and a paramedic were among the victims. "Hrarrr! Kill the paramedic, possessor of infidel knowledge!"
The president, a key US ally, stupidly dismissed Chaudhry on March 9 over allegations that he had abused his power, turning the judge into a symbol of defiance and unleashing the most serious crisis of the president's eight-year rule since he seized power in a bloodless coup. Opponents say army chief Musharraf acted unconstitutionally in a bid to neuter the judiciary and make it easier to be re-elected as president by the current parliament before his five-year term runs out in November. Perv no doubt thought he was being so subtle no one would notice...
New York-based Human Rights Watch said Musharraf's government and its allies had apparently "deliberately sought to foment violence in Karachi," adding that police stood by as "silent spectators". ... while the MQM turned out its brownshirts to fight it out with the opposition brownshirts in a rerun of Weimar Berlin's original brownshirt versus commies routine.
An AFP photographer at the scene of the biggest clash said workers from the pro-Musharraf Muttahida Qaumi Movement (MQM) exchanged gunfire for an hour with activists from Bhutto's Pakistan People's Party. Private Aaj television, which has come under pressure from the government for its allegedly pro-chief justice stance, showed footage of gunmen firing at its office in Karachi and of its correspondents diving for cover. "Lies! All lies!"
"We got it on tape!"
Justice Chaudhry spent most of the day stranded at Karachi airport because government supporters used trucks with deflated tyres to block all main roads, including those leading to the airport. "I wanted to address the bar association. But they (the government) want my lawyers to go back and I wanted to go back with my team of lawyers," lawyer Imdad Awan quoted Chaudhry as saying at Karachi airport before flying home. Did that make sense, or was he gibbering with fear?
The MQM -- historically an ethnic party for people who migrated from India after partition in 1947 and which has been implicated in violence here during the 1990s -- held a large counter-demonstration in Karachi to rival Chaudhry's. Musharraf meanwhile was finally set to make his own show of strength with a rally late Saturday in Islamabad. Toldja this was just the runup to the festivities. Qazi's goons haven't deployed yet, either.
Several thousand government supporters, many bussed in from around the country, had gathered outside parliament, although there were far fewer than the 400,000 that the government had predicted. Musharraf was earlier quoted as saying by the state-run Associated Press of Pakistan that there was "absolutely no requirement and absolutely no environment" for declaring a state of emergency after rumours swept the country.
Posted by: Fred ||
05/13/2007 00:00 ||
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#1
I always wonder: is there a difference---except of size---between Pakistan and Paleostan?
The Islamic State in Iraq offered no proof for its claim that it was behind the attack Saturday in Mahmoudiya that also killed four U.S. soldiers and an Iraqi translator. But the Sunni area known as the "triangle of death" is a longtime al-Qaida stronghold.
If the claim proves true, it would mark one of the most brazen attacks by the umbrella Sunni insurgent group against U.S. forces here.
Maj. Gen. William Caldwell, spokesman for the U.S. military, said 4,000 U.S. troops backed by aircraft and intelligence units were scouring the farming area as the military made "every effort available to find our missing soldiers."
President Bush was also getting regular updates on the missing soldiers, said Gordon Johndroe, a spokesman for the White House's National Security Council in Washington.
The early morning attack on two U.S. military vehicles outside of Mahmoudiya, about 20 miles south of Baghdad, left the bodies of the four U.S. soldiers and their translator badly burned.
Caldwell said the bodies of the interpreter and three of the slain soldiers had been identified, but the military was still working to identify the fifth.
Later Sunday, the Islamic State of Iraq posted a brief message on a militant Web site saying it was responsible for the attack and held an unspecified number of U.S. soldiers. The group promised more details later.
The Islamic State is a coalition of eight insurgent groups. Late last month, it named a 10-member "Cabinet" complete with a "war minister," an apparent attempt to present the Sunni coalition as an alternative to the U.S.-backed, Shiite-led administration of Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki.
U.S. military officials said they had no indication of who was behind Saturday's attack.
"It's difficult to verify anything that al-Qaida in Iraq would say because they lie," said Lt. Col. Christopher Garver, a military spokesman. However, "it would not surprise us if it were al-Qaida behind this, because we've seen this type of attack, this type of tactic, before.
More AP drivel at link
Posted by: Bobby ||
05/13/2007 17:51 ||
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#1
If they kill the prisoners the US military and administration should say loud and publically that there is now a "No Quarter" policy in force in regards to al Qaeda and Taliban (or other) jihadis encountered in the field in accordance with the specifications of the Geneva Convention regarding non-uniformed enemy combatants.
#2
I agree totally. It is way past time to "go Roman"...but I guess it is never too late.
Surround the entire area where this took place, out as many miles as it takes, and then systematically tighten the noose destroying EVERYTHING in our path, until (a) we get the troops back or (b) we destroy EVERYTHING!
#3
When the US goes 'Roman', do so such as the siege of Masada by the ancient Romans, circle the area (inner ring and an outer ring), take your time,put the word out that anything larger than a rat, moving at night will be shot,bring the bloodhounds in also. shrink the ring. They'll find our guys dead or alive!
#5
The time has come to begin aswering Islamic barbarity in equal or greater measure. Inform the terrorists holding our soldiers that they have 24 hours to release them unharmed. If they do not, a Sunni majority city will be bombed into rubble. Should they be so unwise as to kill all four soldiers, then four Sunni cities are flattened.
I no longer care if the cities in question are in Iraq, Saudi Arabia or anywhere else. The Sunnis have worked very hard to breed up these terrorist scum and it is now time to pay the piper. Only when thousands of Muslims are dieing for each of our soldier's death will Islam sit up and take notice. It is long past tea for total war against Islam. David Yerushalmi's article and comments on Moderate Muslims is a must read. He concisely puts forth why Islam and Shari'a law are our deadly enemies.
Sunday, May 13, 2007; Page A01 WaPo Sunday front page. Happy Mother's Day. Old news edited out. I pray for those captured.
BAGHDAD, May 13 -- A massive aerial and ground manhunt involving hundreds of American and Iraqi troops was underway Saturday for U.S. soldiers missing after an organized assault on a military patrol south of Baghdad. The convoy was carrying seven U.S. soldiers and an Iraqi army interpreter, and the attack left five dead and three missing.
The pre-dawn attack occurred 12 miles west of Mahmudiyah, a volatile city nestled between the Tigris and Euphrates rivers within a rural region dubbed the Triangle of Death. It is known to be infiltrated by al-Qaeda fighters and other Sunni insurgent groups. As of early Sunday, no group had asserted responsibility for the attack, U.S. military officials said.
In the hours after the assault, and stretching into the night, American combat helicopters, surveillance drones and airplanes scoured surrounding areas, U.S. military officials said. Troops secured a wide perimeter, conducting door-to-door searches and erecting checkpoints to seal off roads and streets to prevent the missing soldiers from being transported out of the area. U.S. military officials also were enlisting local leaders in the search.
"Make no mistake," Maj. Gen. William B. Caldwell, the military's top spokesman in Iraq, said in a statement, "We will never stop looking for our soldiers until their status is definitively determined, and we continue to pray for their safe return."
A U.S. military source familiar with the manhunt said the two-vehicle convoy was struck with a roadside bomb, then was apparently ambushed by gunmen. Some of the soldiers had been shot. Flames consumed the vehicles, but it was unclear whether the explosion caused the fire or if it had been set later. "It was a planned, coordinated attack," the source said on condition of anonymity because he was not authorized to speak to reporters.
Several hours after the attack, the military had identified only one of the slain soldiers, a U.S. military official said on condition of anonymity because he was also not authorized to speak to journalists. This suggested that the corpses may have been difficult to recognize. "Something pretty horrible happened last night," the official said.
The attack was the latest in a series of targeted strikes against American soldiers in recent weeks that have generated high single-day death tolls. On April 23, twin suicide truck bombings killed nine soldiers and injured 20 at a remote combat outpost in Diyala province. Last Sunday, a roadside bomb struck a convoy in Diyala, killing six soldiers and a Russian journalist, among eight U.S. soldiers killed that day.
The casualties underscore the growing vulnerability of U.S. troops in Iraq as they increasingly live in and patrol hostile terrain under a new counterinsurgency plan intended to wrest control of areas from insurgents. But the offensive has also multiplied the risks for U.S. troops as their enemies use their knowledge of the land and sophisticated guerrilla tactics to target them. Not too much spin for WaPo!
Saturday's attack occurred in the same region as one last June in which insurgents ambushed three soldiers manning a vehicle checkpoint near a power plant in the town of Yusufiyah. Saturday's attack on the patrol began at 4:44 a.m. "A nearby unit heard explosions and attempted to establish communications, but without success," Caldwell said.
At 4:59 a.m., an unmanned surveillance aircraft relayed images of two burning vehicles. By 5:40 a.m., a U.S. quick-reaction force had arrived at the scene, secured the site and launched the hunt for the missing soldiers, Caldwell said. 56 minutes for the Quick Reaction Force?
The mayor of Mahmudiyah, Muaiad Fadhil Hussein, said the attack happened near the village of Beshesha, west of the city. He described it as "one of the most dangerous areas of the city, in which Arab and Iraqi terrorists exist, and not even innocent civilians can enter it." I don't think I've ever heard a better excuse for destroying Beshesha.
A curfew has been imposed on Mahmudiyah and surrounding areas, he said, adding that "we, as a mayoralty, are working to provide intelligence information and moral support" to the U.S. and Iraqi forces conducting the search.
Abdullah al-Ghareri, a well-known preacher in Mahmudiyah, said the forces, backed by helicopters and "tens of tanks," were conducting search operations into the night and had made some arrests. Residents said many insurgents had fled the city as U.S. forces entered it.
A senior Iraqi army official said he believed that the attack had been carried out by Sunni insurgents. "This area is really full of al-Qaeda members," the official said on condition of anonymity.
Mohamad al-Janabi, a reputed al-Qaeda member in the nearby city of Salman Pak, said in a telephone interview that he was unable to contact his comrades in Mahmudiyah to determine whether they were responsible for the attack. But he added: "I can assure you that we will start pressuring Bush in a new way at the same time he is facing pressures from the Democrats and the American people. And there will be no problem to sacrifice 10 soldiers in order to abduct a single American soldier and get him on television screens begging for us to release him." Someone has his name and phone number. What are we waiting for? Special correspondent Waleed Saffar and other Washington Post staff in Iraq including an Al-Qaeda mouthpiece contributed to this report.
Posted by: Bobby ||
05/13/2007 06:13 ||
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Waleed Saffar needs to be brought in and horse whipped until he rats out his AQ buddy with the phone. My God how the hell can you win when the media is plugging the bad guys and keeping you in the dark. Time to make the WaPo go KaPow!
Posted by: Jack is Back! ||
05/13/2007 9:11 Comments ||
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#2
sophisticated guerrilla tactics
I love it when journalists opine on the "sophistication" of jihadi tactics. The average journalist has a degree no more difficult to achieve than a home-economics degree; the only books they've ever read about war, tactics, or strategy are the ones lamenting the victory in WWII and crowing about the "success" of Vietnam, and yet they feel confident in declaring a bog-standard set-piece ambush to be "sophisticated".
"It was a planned, coordinated attack," the source said on condition of anonymity because he was not authorized to speak to reporters.
Here's an idea for a new law: if a "source" is not authorized to speak to reporters, the reporters are not authorized to quote them. If you can't name a source, then quoting that source is malpractice, and the public may sue you for libel, slander, disturbing the peace, and performing "interspecies erotica".
I'm 100% for free speech. But the idiots who have somehow gotten the role of being our primary conduits for information are worthless sacks of crap who don't have the brains God gave a pile of dog crap.
Posted by: Rob Crawford ||
05/13/2007 10:19 Comments ||
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#3
Once again, Al-Qaeda praises the Democratic Party.
#4
These guys will be found gutted and mutilated like the last two. The leadership in this area ought to have more sense after the first lesson. As someone commented yesterday, recon missions in this area should be in massive force formations where ambushes would be too risky for the ragheads or would result in immediate annihilation. Another of these episodes is just what the US Army needs to inspire confidence back home. Not a good way to promote the surge principle.
The "sophisticated" enemy - but Rob, this one is old, and in the past used to come from the military PA folks as well. I teased one of Col. Garver's predecessors when I got there that if what I'd been reading in the US for nearly a year were correct (about the "increasingly sophisticated" enemy tactics), soon the bad guys would be using space-based laser weapons, they'd been "increasing" their sophistication so relentlessly.
The idea of a phone interview with a named enemy figure is just breath-taking in several ways - all of them bad for the WaPo and the military. As Bobby asks, how could this guy (or his best friends, or military-age males of his family) be anywhere but behind wire answering questions within hours of this report being published?
But to me the biggest thing here is the age-old question about why any area "infested" (hell, even "lightly sprinkled") with enemy is allowed to function normally. Why there hasn't been preventive detention of every single guy ID'd by former regime payrolls as a member of the intel services, Ba'ath structure, Rep. Guard, etc. as determined by on-the-scene judgement. Why any place that even locals acknowledge is full of AQ is not locked down and taken apart (through detention, questioning, etc). Why many of the towns in the entire area weren't subjected to massive, unrelenting, and systematic detention, isolation, and if needed relocation (it sits astride the main road to the south) when it became clear (oh, probably about a month after things started getting nasty) that it was a hotbed of enemy activity. Why, in short, life was allowed to continued much as before, except that Coalition convoys and Shi'a communities were attacked whenever the enemy felt like it.
Not a single Sunni household in the area deemed relevant should have had a normal day since a few years ago when the enemy declared war on the new Iraq and us. Those inclined to switch and help our side would have done so much, much ealier - thus at much lower cost to all concerned - if the "incentives" to do so had been irresistible.
Some will point to the helpful mayor in this story and wonder whether a serious approach would have produced guys like him. No matter. The calculation is probably reliable: a quickly and thoroughly subdued enemy community is better for both sides, and lowers costs. A cooperative mayor in 2007, vs. a vanquished Sunni community in 2004, with rich demonstration effects on others of like mind, and with far lower casualties (friendly Iraqi and Coalition) since.
The Sunnis in the area are mostly invaders, implanted by the former fascist regime, Stalin-like, for strategic regime purposes. Their complete removal from the area should have been dangled, or test-demonstrated, from the outset (I'm sure a good JAG could come up with a Geneva-compliant rationale for such a displacement, esp. if no one else were allowed to move in when the former residents had been shipped out).
It might be a question of resources, but I wonder if it hasn't always mostly been a question of ROE and strategy. The spectacle of such a massively powerful, capable, and generally competent power playing cat-and-mouse with one of the weakest, most vile enemies in history is ridiculous, infuriating, and inexcusable (I refer here not just to AQ but the Sunni chauvinists in Iraq).
#6
At 4:59 a.m., an unmanned surveillance aircraft relayed images of two burning vehicles. By 5:40 a.m., a U.S. quick-reaction force had arrived at the scene
Seems like a long a time between detection of the ambush by unmanned aircraft and the arrival of the quick reaction force. A lot of unknowns.
#7
Looks like we've identified our ARCLIGHT representative target. Now all we need is someone with the guts to push it through and carry it out. One demonstration may be all that's necessary, if it's a good one. If our guys are still there, they'll receive a quick death, instead of a long, drawn-out, painful one.
Posted by: Old Patriot ||
05/13/2007 15:18 Comments ||
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#6: At 4:59 a.m., an unmanned surveillance aircraft relayed images of two burning vehicles. By 5:40 a.m., a U.S. quick-reaction force had arrived at the scene
"Quick" my ass, 41 minutes is 30 too long.
Posted by: Redneck Jim ||
05/13/2007 17:50 Comments ||
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#9
Makes me sick to my stomach. Nuke the bastards, one village at a time and fly everybody out at the same time, military, contractors, everybody. As the last C-17 reaches 30k feet, nuke the field it climbed out of, declare victory and be done with it the lot. The entire place isn't worth a warm pale of camel piss.
At least four people have been killed in a surge of violent clashes between rival factions in Gaza. A leader of the Fatah-linked al-Aqsa Martyrs' Brigades, Baha Abu Jarab, was ambushed and shot dead, along with his driver, in northern Beit Lahiya. Fatah blamed rival group Hamas, which denied the claim. At least two people died in gunfights after those killings. The attacks come days after the groups launched a major security operation to crack down on violence in Gaza.
Seems to be working as well as anything in Gaza
Following the shooting of Abu Jarab and his driver, two Palestinians were killed and nine wounded in clashes between Hamas and Fatah gunmen outside a mosque in Gaza City. Most of those wounded were members of Hamas, medical sources told AFP news agency.
I love the smell of popcorn in the morning
Later, three people were wounded during Abu Jarab's funeral procession in Jabaliya, witnesses said.
Back in Gaza City, masked gunmen abducted a Hamas religious scholar as he left a mosque, his family and Hamas officials said. Ali Sharif, a teacher at the Islamic University in his 70s, was taken outside his home in Sabra neighbourhood. The kidnappers opened fire when neighbours tried to rescue him, his daughter told Associated Press news agency.
It is the worst outbreak of fighting since a February ceasefire between the rival factions, who established a unity government in March.
Palestinian Information Minister Mustafa Barghouti called for the rival factions to control their armed forces. "Not only the future of the government, but the future of all the Palestinian people will be endangered if these bloody acts continue," he said.
Pass the butter
Last week, Hamas and Fatah launched a major security operation to crack down on violence and lawlessness in Gaza. As many as 3,000 police were reported to have taken part in the initial operations. Officials said that troops loyal to both Fatah and Hamas would now wear the same police uniform and answer to the interior ministry, which has been placed under the control of Hani Qawasmi, a political independent in the coalition government.
Up to 400 people have died in clashes between Palestinian factions since the Islamist Hamas won last year's parliamentary elections. Since the Israeli withdrawal from Gaza in 2005, the strip has seen a wave of infighting, armed robberies, deadly family feuds and kidnappings.
Posted by: Steve ||
05/13/2007 14:13 ||
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Wasn't it also gun clashes that preceded the gaza killings? Seems like this headline would have been accurate every day for the last ten or more years.
Posted by: Scott R. ||
05/13/2007 14:34 Comments ||
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as of about an hour ago, total wounded in past 24 hours was up to 14; total abducted in past 24 hours was 12
Suspected separatist rebels have killed five people in Thailand's troubled south, police said Sunday, as the Thai premier arrived on another peace-building mission.
Three Muslim rubber-tappers were shot dead in Yala province on Sunday afternoon, a local police officer said, just a few hours after Prime Minister Surayud Chulanont's plane landed in neighbouring Pattani province.
On Saturday night, a Muslim village chief was shot dead at a wedding party in Yala, while a Buddhist man was killed in a drive-by shooting in Narathiwat province, local police said.
Surayud arrived in Pattani accompanied by a delegation of ministers who are meeting with military and civilian officials. He has made frequent visits to the restive south, most recently in March.
The governments of Saudi Arabia and the US are working with other Middle East states to sponsor covert action against Iran, according to a report in the May edition of The Atlantic. The report also suggests that covert attacks are planned against Iran's oil sector.
David Samuels, in a lengthy article on Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice's diplomatic initiatives in the Middle East, reports that the US is promoting the direct action campaign against Iran. Last fall, he writes, "Rice and her colleagues in the administration decided to embark on a daring and risky third course: a coordinated campaign, directed with the help of the intelligence services of Saudi Arabia, Egypt, Jordan, Israel, and the United Arab Emirates... The bill for the covert part of this activity, which has involved funding sectarian political movements and paramilitary groups in Iraq, Iran, Lebanon, and the Palestinian territories, is said to amount to more than $300 million. It is being paid by Saudi Arabia and other concerned Gulf states, for whom the combination of a hasty American withdrawal from Iraq and a nuclear-armed Iran means trouble."
Samuels suggests Iran has already faced a variety of internal attacks as a consequence of this covert program: "They pointed to an upsurge in antigovernment guerrilla activity inside Iran, including a bomb in Zahedan, the economic center of the province of Baluchistan, that killed 11 soldiers in the elite Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps on February 14; the mysterious death of the Iranian scientist Ardashir Hosseinpour, who worked on uranium enrichment at the Isfahan nuclear facility; and the defection of a high-ranking Iranian general named Ali Asgari, a former deputy minister of defense who was also the Revolutionary Guard officer responsible for training and supplying Hezbollah during its war against the Israelis in southern Lebanon in the 1980s."
Samuels warns that these covert actions may soon target Iran's petroleum sector. "People focus altogether on the nuclear facilities and how difficult they would be to take out," he quotes former Secretary of State George Shultz as saying. "But itÂ’s not difficult for somebody to sabotage those refineries."
Samuels' report echoes an earlier story by the New Yorker's Seymour Hersh. "The clandestine operations have been kept secret, in some cases, by leaving the execution or the funding to the Saudis, or by finding other ways to work around the normal congressional appropriations process, current and former officials close to the Administration said," he wrote in the March 5 article.
Samuels full report is available to subscribers at The Atlantic's website.
Go here http://www.heritage.org/Research/MiddleEast/bg1982.cfm
for the most lucid policy analysis of taking on Iran and their so-called "oil weapon". Bush isn't running again and he is probably getting more immune to public opinion - so why not set the temperature a little higher and boil out these turds.
Posted by: Jack is Back! ||
05/13/2007 9:26 Comments ||
Top||
#2
$300M isn't enough. It just shows that the Saudis want to pester Iran, not destabilize it enough for political change. If they were willing to kick in $3B, they would see some real fireworks.
Posted by: Sherebmanper Scourge of the Platypi1150 ||
05/13/2007 11:16 Comments ||
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#4
It is being paid by Saudi Arabia and other concerned Gulf states, for whom the combination of a hasty American withdrawal from Iraq and a nuclear-armed Iran means trouble.
However, the dhemmirats are too busy trying to get elected to be concerned with Iraq. They are persuing the usual MO by declaring defeat and going home. There is no moralty left in the dhemmirat party. Co-conspirators, the left-wing media is eventually going to screw themselves.
If the dhemmirats forced a pull out, as they are trying, they would then own the "ugly baby." They are playing to the far left in the party (which so far as I can tell is most of the party). Any pullout would only embolden our enemies abroad and those sleepers that are in the U.S. Our credibility would be worth less than whale shit for decades to come.
#6
Oh, and did anyone notice that the USS Eisenhower has been relieved of duty by Nimitz and is headed back home? All that talk by the Russians of an imminent attack by three US carrier groups was bunkola.
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A U.S.-led coalition operation supported by NATO troops killed the Taliban's most prominent military commander, dealing the insurgency a "serious blow," a NATO statement said Sunday, confirming Afghan reports of 
Mullah Dadullah, the Taliban's chief military commander, has been killed in southern Afghanistan according to government officials. 
KABUL - Afghan security forces and international troops have killed 70 Taleban rebels in a week-long push to drive the militants from a southern district, an intelligence department statement said on Saturday.
The Afghan police also captured a Canadian national of Pakistani origin on Wednesday in Kabul, interior ministry counter-terrorism chief Abdul Manan Farahi told AFP. The man had “illegally” travelled between Afghanistan and neighbouring Pakistan twice before being seized, he added. He said the suspect was currently being investigated in an interior ministry jail and Afghanistan had informed the Canadian foreign ministry.
(SomaliNet) At least four died and two others were seriously wounded on Saturday in a heavy explosion which happened in south of Somalia capital Mogadishu – all the dead who were driving on a truck were security personnel of the Somali transitional government. The blast caused by roadside a remotely controlled bomb. The explosion occurred on the main road to Mogadishu airport near KM4 roundabout and no one knows who carried out the bomb attack. 
Algerian security forces arrested three Libyan Muslim fighters planning to join al-Qaeda's North African wing, Algeria's official news agency APS said on Saturday. Police also captured an Algerian Muslim who was preparing to accompany the three to strongholds of the Algeria-based al-Qaeda in the Islamic Maghreb, the agency said citing security sources. APS did not say when the Libyans were arrested.
Algerian troops, stepping up assaults on Al QaedaÂ’s north African wing after suicide bombings last month, killed seven members of the group in fighting east and west of Algiers, newspapers reported on Saturday. Troops backed by helicopters killed four militants believed to belong to the Al Qaeda Organisation in a big offensive in Tizi Ouzou province 100 km east of the capital Algiers, the El Watan and the El Khabar said. The offensive was launched in the Kabylie region on Tuesday and was still going on, they said, citing security sources. 
Eighty-nine people were killed in custody and 1,75,435 were arrested across the country during anti-crime and anti-corruption drives in the first four months of the state of emergency, proclaimed on January 11, said a report of the human rights coalition Odhikar. Forty-nine of the victims were killed by the Rapid Action Battalion, 23 by the police, seven by the joint forces, six by the army and three by the navy between January 12 and May 11. One person was killed in the custody of the Department of Narcotics Control, the report said. 
The Pakistani government authorized paramilitary troops on Sunday to shoot anyone involved in serious violence in Karachi, where 37 people have been killed over the past two days, an official said.
Fierce gun battles between rival political activists left 34 people dead and 100 wounded yesterday in the worst violence since President Pervez Musharraf suspended Pakistan's top judge two months ago.
At least four people have been killed in a surge of violent clashes between rival factions in Gaza. A leader of the Fatah-linked al-Aqsa Martyrs' Brigades, Baha Abu Jarab, was ambushed and shot dead, along with his driver, in northern Beit Lahiya. Fatah blamed rival group Hamas, which denied the claim. At least two people died in gunfights after those killings. The attacks come days after the groups launched a major security operation to crack down on violence in Gaza. 
