Congressman Brian Baird (D-3 Vancouver, Washington) hosted a town hall tonight at Fort Vancouver High School. It was Bairds first appearance in front of his constituents since reversing his position on the war. ALTHOUGH hes been an adamant critic of the warhe voted against the war and the surgehe announced last week that he thinks the surge is working and he wants to give it time. . . .
He was hammered by Jon Soltz,[note 1] the young, good looking, charismatic chairman and co-founder of political action committee VoteVets.org. Soltz is also an Iraq war veteran, having served in 2003. "A former Miss America, Soltz enjoys writing poetry, caring for animals, and long walks on the--HEY! Who said that? Whaddaya mean, I'm not objective?"
Speaking calmly and to raucous applause, he said Baird (who recently returned from a visit to Iraq) was fooled by a dog and pony show and is unfortunately providing cover for President Bush. "Deviation from acceptable Party discourse will be punished by reeducation!"
"Hey, waitaminute, I thought dissent was the highest form of patriotism."
"Yes, we in the antiwar movement are dissenters, and that makes us patriotic. If you oppose us, that makes you the opposite of patriotic, which is unpatriotic. So, you unpatriotic filth, do you want to be shot for treason? No? Then shut up!"
Another speaker who brought down the house was Zanne Joi, a Vancouver activist with Code Pink Women for Peace. Joi called Baird arrogant for trying to dictate how Iraqis should govern themselves and said the war was only about American oil profit.
A third speaker, who also spoke to tremendous applause, was Jane Lustig from Vancouver, whose main complain was that Baird was not representing his constituents point of view.
I also talked to several people as they left the auditorium and asked them if they found Bairdwho was there to explain his new positionto be persuasive. To a person, everyone shook their head no way, including Doris Holmes, active member of the 18th district Democrats, who said, He lied. Hes toeing the Bush party line. I cant believe hes a Democrat.
The facts on the ground don't seem to matter to Baird's critics. Many observers are saying, not just Baird, that the military/security situation in Iraq has improved due to the surge and they have statistics to back this up. The possibility that Baird's new position could be sincere, perhaps even more correct than the anti-war Democrats' insistence that the war is lost, cannot be admitted by his critics.
You say you want politicians who stand on principle, who are independent, who call things the way they see them. And then you pounce. Maybe you need to be rethinking your stance, not trying to bully this politician out of his.
Baird is an idiot for changing his mind about the Iraq War simply because the situation on the ground improved. Progressives need to put the pressure on so that even a simpleton like Baird will toe the party line and agree to a complete and immediate pullout in order to give the US the defeat it deserves. Giving him a lashing like this one in Vancouver is a great start.
(Not sure if that last one was being ironic or not.)
Posted by: Mike ||
08/28/2007 11:18 ||
Comments ||
Link ||
[3 views]
Top|| File under: Iraqi Insurgency
#1
In ain't called the Left Coast for no reason. I wonder how Soltz, who did serve in Iraq, can sleep at night. I guess he's like Kerry, he knows he's better than all of us and that makes it easy on his conscience. All I know is that he is wrong.
Posted by: Jack is Back! ||
08/28/2007 12:49 Comments ||
Top||
#2
From Wikipedia's entry on Jon Soltz:
"served in the Kosovo Campaign as a Tank Platoon Leader between June and December 2000. From May to September 2003, Soltz served as a Captain during Operation Iraqi Freedom, deploying logistics convoys with the 1st Armored Division in Iraq."
I think it is safe to say he was LLL before he joined the Army, and joined only to advance his political career. It is also safe to say he has never been in combat, and his knowledge of Iraq today is minimal.
Al
Posted by: Frozen Al ||
08/28/2007 13:53 Comments ||
Top||
#3
Baird, however holds great sway. Whenever a person changes his stance, his reasons are considered relavent.
And, that last comment had to be dripping with snark. No doubt a feeble attempt to show the anti-war donkeys how idiotic they look.
I suppose some get it some of the time.
#4
In any other nation, actively working for your nation's defeat in a war would be considered treason. Of course, the dummycritters refuse to believe we're in a war, and that Iraq is a central part of that war. These people need to hang by the neck from the Golden Gate Bridge.
Posted by: Old Patriot ||
08/28/2007 16:50 Comments ||
Top||
#5
He was hammered by Jon Soltz, the young, good looking, charismatic chairman and co-founder of political action committee VoteVets.org. Soltz is also an Iraq war veteran, having served in 2003. Speaking calmly and to raucous applause, he said Baird (who recently returned from a visit to Iraq) was fooled by a dog and pony show and is unfortunately providing cover for President Bush.
If you do anything today, you should go see John Stolz. John Stolz is the young, good looking, charismatic chairman and co-founder of political action committee VoteVets.org. John Stolz has things to say. John Stolz says things you should hear.
Hey, who was that guy?
John Stolz.
"served in the Kosovo Campaign as a Tank Platoon Leader between June and December 2000. From May to September 2003, Soltz served as a Captain during Operation Iraqi Freedom, deploying logistics convoys with the 1st Armored Division in Iraq."
But did he spend a memorable Christmas in Cambodia?
#8
Seafarious - there is a Vancouver, Washington as well as the one in British Columbia. Vancouver, WA is just across the Columbia River from Portland, Oregon; both cities are Politically Correct sewers, by the way.
#9
I worked in Beaverton, Oregon back in 1990. The people there were very friendly and always asked if I wanted to stay in Oregon. When I said I'd like to they welcomed me. They did not like Californians moving in. They raised housing prices and brought their Liberal political views. At least that's what I was told. Back in 1990 I found Oregon, except for the property taxes, to be a lot like Alabama in how the people viewed the role of the Government. I guess the Californians took over.
Posted by: Deacon Blues ||
08/28/2007 19:51 Comments ||
Top||
#10
Lessiirree, DUBYA > WARNS ABOUT [consequences of]US RETREAT FROM MIDDLE EAST + WARNS IRAN ABOUT INTERFERENCE IN IRAQ; versus MOUD > NUCLEAR ACTVITIES HAVE NOT STOPPED. * ISN SECURITY WATCH > GLOBAL NON-US/USN CARRIER CONSTRUX > means US NAVAL POWER IS DECLINING/WEAKENING; + YOUTUBE > US CONTROLLER SAYS USA FACES IMMINENT COLLAPSE DUE TO EXCESSIVE DEBTS. US debts will weaken AMer + induce "young turk" powers to become milpol stronger and aggressive agz America.
WORLD NEWS > ITS TOO LATE TO STOP NUCLEAR IRAN.
Sooooooo, Dubya = USA must now PUBLICLY decide to PC accept a Nuclearized Iran, and by extens Nuclearized Radical Islamism-Terror, or STOP IRAN VV MILITARY FORCE, AND LIKELY BEFORE 2008. With or without any anti-US OWG-SWO, IMO I don't think Moud is gonna stop nuclearizing nor stop its Regional-Global agendas. IFF ITS NOT CLEAR BY NOW, IT SHOULD BE TODAY THAT ONLY WAR = ARMED FORCE WILL STOP RADICAL IRAN = NUCLEAR ISLAMISM-TERRORISM.
U.S.-led and Afghan troops battled suspected Taliban insurgents in southern Afghanistan on Tuesday in ground clashes and airstrikes that left over 100 militants dead, the coalition said.
In eastern Afghanistan, a suicide bomber attacked NATO troops helping to build a bridge, killing three American soldiers, a U.S. official said. The official spoke on condition of anonymity because not all families had been notified.
The battle in southern Kandahar provinces Shah Wali Kot district started after the joint force was ambushed by a large group of insurgents who tried to overrun their position several times, before being strafed by airstrikes, the statement from the coalition said.
Coalition aircraft destroyed the reinforced enemy emplacements and sniper positions as well as two trucks used to reinforce and re-supply the insurgent force, the statement said.
More than 100 suspected insurgents and an Afghan soldier were killed, the coalition said. The casualty figures could not be independently verified due to the remoteness of the area.
The clash also left three coalition and three Afghan soldiers wounded, the statement said. The nationality of the coalition soldier was not disclosed, but the vast majority of them are American.
Violence is soaring in Afghanistan. This year more than 3,900 people most of them militants have died, according to an Associated Press tally of casualty figures provided by Western and Afghan officials.
Also Tuesday, U.S.-led and Afghan troops raided a house near Kandahar city, killing two suspected militants and detaining five others, a coalition statement said.
Those targeted in the raid were accused of facilitating bomb attacks against coalition and Afghan forces in Kandahar, the statement said. The people detained in the raid will be questioned at a military facility before being turned over to Afghan authorities, it said.
In the Taliban-held Musa Qala district of Helmand province, militants ambushed the joint U.S.-Afghan force Monday, another coalition statement said.
The joint force fought back, targeting militants who were using several compounds and trenches for cover, the statement said. It said about a dozen militants were killed in the clash.
Militants have been running Musa Qala since last years controversial peace deal between local elders and Afghan government officials, supported by British troops in the province. The deal effectively turned over Musa Qala town and surrounding areas to Taliban control.
Also Monday, coalition and Afghan troops spotted a group of 20 insurgents preparing an ambush in the Shah Wali Kot district, the coalition said.
The troops attacked the insurgents and killed seven, while the rest fled, the statement said. There were no reports of coalition or Afghan troops killed or wounded in either clash.
In the eastern province of Nangarhar, a roadside blast hit a vehicle carrying Afghan soldiers on Monday, killing four, a statement from the Defense Ministry said.
#1
Sounds like the dumbasses tried to mount a conventional military attack. Now I wonder who advised them to try that? Bet it was some military officer from one of two countries.
#2
"Violence is soaring in Afghanistan. This year more than 3,900 people most of them militants TERRORISTS have died, according to an Associated Press tally of casualty figures provided by Western and Afghan officials."
GHAZNI, Afghanistan - The Taliban agreed Tuesday to free 19 South Korean church volunteers held hostage since July after the government in Seoul pledged to end all missionary work and keep a promise to withdraw its troops from Afghanistan by the end of the year. The Taliban originally seized 23 South Koreans, but have since killed two of the hostages and released two others.
Direct talks between Taliban negotiators and South Korean officials in central Afghanistan led to the agreement to end the hostage crisis, which had exposed the growing security problems facing Afghanistan.
Qari Yousef Ahmadi, a Taliban spokesman, said South Korean and Taliban delegates at face-to-face talks Tuesday in the central town of Ghazni had "reached an agreement" to free the captives.
South Korean presidential spokesman Cheon Ho-sun said the deal had been reached "on the condition that South Korea withdraws troops by the end of year and South Korea suspends missionary work in Afghanistan," he said.
In reaching the deal, South Korea did not appear to commit to anything it did not already plan to do. Seoul has already said it would withdraw its 200 non-combat troops by the end of the year and has also sought to prevent missionaries from causing trouble in countries where they were not wanted.
"We welcome the agreement to release 19 South Koreans," said Cheon.
The government and relatives of the hostages had insisted that the 19 kidnapped South Koreans were not missionaries, but were doing aid work.
The Taliban had initially demanded the withdrawal of South Korean troops from the country and the release of prisoners in exchange for freeing the hostages, but Afghan officials had ruled out any exchange, saying it would only encourage further kidnappings.
Taliban spokesmen have previously said they had no interest in a ransom payment.
Presidential spokesman Cheon told The Associated Press that he was informed by South Korean officials in Afghanistan that money was not discussed during negotiations with the Taliban, which were mediated by representatives of the International Committee of the Red Cross. "We are sorry to the public for causing concern, but we thank the government officials for the (impending) release," Cha Sung-min, whose 32-year-old sister Cha Hye-jin was being held, told The Associated Press."Still, our hearts are broken as two died, so we convey our sympathy to the bereaved family members," said Cha, 31, who has served as a spokesman for the hostages' relatives.
Abductions have become a key insurgent tactic in recent months in trying to destabilize the country, targeting both Afghan officials and foreigners helping with reconstruction. A German engineer and four Afghan colleagues kidnapped a day before the South Koreans are still being held.
#1
In reaching the deal, South Korea did not appear to commit to anything it did not already plan to do. Seoul has already said it would withdraw its 200 non-combat troops by the end of the year and has also sought to prevent missionaries from causing trouble in countries where they were not wanted.
This is eyewash. Anyone who has dealt with Koreans know that this is a major loss of face for them. Whether or not they planned to do it anyway, it appears to the world that they buckled under to blackmail from a bunch of savages and are shown to be cowards.
#4
I'll be interested in seeing what kinda reception they get when they get back to Seoul. I remember how the Japanese treated some of their yahoos that got themselves kidnapped and released when they got back. They weren't too happy as I remember...
The US-led coalition in Afghanistan accused Taliban militants on Monday of falsely reporting civilian casualties to discredit Afghan and international forces, as five Western soldiers, including three Americans, were killed in a string of Taliban attacks in eastern and southern Afghanistan, officials said on Monday. The coalition launched the accusation after Afghan elders alleged that international troops killed up to 18 civilians late on Sunday in Helmand province, a Taliban stronghold.
Capt Vanessa R Bowman, a coalition spokeswoman, said credible intelligence suggested the claims were fabricated as part of a propaganda war. The insurgents continue to follow their pattern of falsely reporting civilian casualties, she said. NATO-led forces, whose operations in Helmand are being supported by US-led coalition troops and aircraft, insisted on Sunday that no non-combatants were killed in the fighting. The claims could not be independently verified due to the remoteness of the area where the clash took place. Reports of civilian casualties at the hands of foreign forces are highly sensitive in Afghanistan. President Hamid Karzai has repeatedly deplored such deaths, saying they undermine efforts to win the trust of the people.
The Americans were killed along with two Afghan soldiers in a Taliban ambush on Monday in Ghazi Abad district of eastern Kunar province, near the border with Pakistan, the district police chief told reporters. NATO officials in Kabul said earlier that two soldiers had been killed while on patrol on Sunday, one in an attack in eastern Afghanistan and the other in the south. NATO did not identify the victims. However, the Netherlands military said a Dutch soldier had been killed overnight by a bomb in southern Afghanistan. The 30-year-old sergeant was in a unit searching for explosives in the province of Uruzgan when an improvised device exploded, Chief of Staff Dick Berlijn told a televised news conference. A 23-year-old corporal was injured, Berlijn said.
Posted by: Fred ||
08/28/2007 00:00 ||
Comments ||
Link ||
[1 views]
Top|| File under: Taliban
#1
With new communication networks in Afghanistan, there is no good reason why Taliban activities are not passed on to NATO command. So why the complicity? Pashtos are using the GWOT as a cover to continue the drug trade, and Karzai - a Pashto - is impeding NATO efforts at fighting the trade. This madness is giving the Euros yet another reason to attack the GWOT.
Non-Pashto Afghans are somewhat supportive of the occupation; Pashtos are not. They supported the Taliban when it was in power; they support Taliban operations. We are giving them aid and comfort by allowing UN support of refugee parasitism in Pakistan (the source of terror) and withholding opium eradication in Pashto areas. This is a catastrophic error. We are effectively subsidizing terror and fueling Euro-leftism.
#2
10-4 McZoid. Not only that but we are pussy-footing the 5th column stuff - I mean the way the media is played like a big bass fiddle by the Taliban and our other enemies. If only Capt. Bowman would step up to the mike in every briefing and say instead that:
"The insugents, knowing how gullible and willing the world press is to publish anything anti-american, anti-bush and pro-Islam, continue to follow their pattern of falsely reporting civilian casualties".
But who the hell would report that?
/not Pinch
Posted by: Jack is Back! ||
08/28/2007 8:27 Comments ||
Top||
Unidentified assailants killed a coalition soldier in Afghanistan while local troops destroyed a heroin laboratory after battling Taliban fighters guarding the facility, NATO said Monday. The heroin lab in restive Helmand province contained large amounts of opium-processing chemicals as well as weapons, insurgent propaganda and explosive materials, according to a statement from NATO's International Security Assistance Force. Afghan troops "defeated" Taliban fighters guarding the facility before destroying it on Sunday, the statement said, without saying if there were any casualties.
Afghanistan accounts for more than 90 percent of the world's heroin supply, and a significant portion of the profits from the $3.1 billion trade are thought to flow to Taliban fighters who tax and protect poppy farmers and drug runners.
Also Sunday, a soldier from the 37-nation strong security assistance force was killed by small arms fire during a foot patrol in eastern Afghanistan, the statement said. It did not identify the nationality of the dead solider or who the assailants were. Insurgent attacks on Afghan and Western troops are running at their highest level since US forces invaded the country in 2001 to oust the hard-line Islamic Taliban rulers, who had harbored al-Qaida leaders following the attacks on the United States on Sept. 11, 2001.
Posted by: Fred ||
08/28/2007 00:00 ||
Comments ||
Link ||
[1 views]
Top|| File under: Taliban
#1
Leftists like to claim that Taliban banned the opium trade. Never happened; in fact they took a 15% cut of profits when they were in power. However, as for "heroin" labs, these did NOT exist in Afghanistan until Karzai took over. For decades, Afghans - mostly in Helmond district - produced raw opium that was processed in Iran, Turkey, Italy or elsewhere. Currently, some Afghans are using the counter terror war as a cover for the drug trade.
#2
But isn't it mostly people who lean left, or are left, or if they had any ambition would be left, that are hooked on drugs? Maybe this, like abortion, is working in the favor of the WoT, in a way. Kill off the internal opposition by their friends and leave it to the righteous God-fearing patriots to finish the job once for all.
Posted by: Jack is Back! ||
08/28/2007 8:29 Comments ||
Top||
Sudan has expelled the top official in Sudan of the US-based aid group CARE, the director said on Monday. Country director Paul Barker told Reuters the Sudanese governments Humanitarian Aid Commission had given him 72 hours to leave the country without giving reasons for the decision. Barker is the third prominent foreigner expelled from Sudan in less than a week. On Thursday Sudan told diplomats from Canada and the European Union to leave but it later allowed the EU ambassador to stay until his term expires next month. Officials were not available to comment at the commission, the government body that monitors humanitarian work. But copies of its 72-hour order to Barker were printed in local papers. I am in the process of being expelled. Ill be here for another 12 hours, said Barker, a US citizen. This has come as a huge surprise to us. I am very disappointed with the governments decision, which I believe was based on information that was taken out of context. I am still hopeful though, as there are appeals being made. Barker said the director of the Humanitarian Aid Commission called him in on Saturday.
Posted by: Fred ||
08/28/2007 00:00 ||
Comments ||
Link ||
[1 views]
Top|| File under: Govt of Sudan
#1
Ooops! Wrong CARE / CAIR - "You're outta here!"
Five of the 11 Bahrainis arrested on suspicion of belonging to a terrorist group have been released while investigation with the remaining six will continue, legal sources on Monday told Gulf News. The 11 people, all Bahrainis, were arrested earlier this month on suspicion of funding a banned organisation abroad.
Few details have emerged about the arrest and quizzing of the suspects amid calls by the public prosecution to the press to avoid sensationalism and mixing personal interpretations and analyses with facts. A suspect in the alleged security-related crimes has been transferred from custody to a hospital after doctors said that the man, in his fifties, needed urgent medical attention because of a heart surgery he had before his arrest.
Fareed Gazi, a former MP and the lawyer for one of the suspects, said that he was planning to see his client today to discuss his statements and the progress of the investigation. The public prosecutor also allowed the family of one of the suspects to visit him. However, claims by lawyer Abdullah Hashem, representing some of the suspects, that the authorities had a list of 30 people linked with the case were denied by public prosecutor Wael BuAllay as "lacking credibility."
"He may have based his claims on personal interpretations, but they are unfounded," Bu Allay said in a press statement.
Posted by: Fred ||
08/28/2007 00:00 ||
Comments ||
Link ||
[5 views]
Top|| File under: Takfir wal-Hijra
#4
Linley Desire Jose Anthony, 20, of Yagoona, did not apply for bail on one count of conspiring to possess an explosive device with intent to damage property when he faced Sydney's Central Local Court. Bail was formally refused.
The three other men charged so far - named in court papers as Fadi Bassil, Badawi Nassour and Elias Taouk - are due to appear in the same court on Wednesday.
A van that exploded in northeastern Spain was detonated by members of the Basque separatist group ETA when they realized police were on their trail, Spain's Interior Ministry said Monday.
ETA had planned to use the van in an attack but were thwarted when police in the town of Les Coves de Vinroma became suspicious, said an Interior Ministry spokesman, under customary condition of anonymity.
He said the van had been stolen by alleged ETA members who, feeling cornered by police, blew the van up Sunday in an olive grove on the outskirts of town. No one was hurt. ''The car was going to be used very soon,'' the spokesman said. ''It had a large quantity of explosives.''
The target of the planned bombing was unknown, he said. The owners of the van, Spanish nationals who were on vacation in the area, had been kidnapped Friday and were released on Monday in France.
On Friday, a van packed with an estimated 80-100 kilograms (175-220 pounds) of explosives blew up in Spain's northern Basque region outside a a police station, destroying cars, shattering windows and slightly injuring two policemen. Authorities said it was ETA's first serious attack since it called off a cease-fire in June.
Also Monday, Spanish anti-terrorism experts were to visit Portugal to investigate the latest bombing and share information with Portuguese counterparts. They want to determine whether ETA has set up bases in southern Portugal.
Armed Basque separatist group ETA may have established an operational base in Portugal from where it planned a recent bomb attack, Spain's Interior Minister said. Alfredo Perez Rubalcaba, speaking on state broadcaster RNE, said there was evidence ETA had acquired vehicles in Portugal that were used Friday in a terror attack in the Basque city of Durango. The attack injured two Spanish police officers, destroyed cars and shattered windows.
''There is a possibility that ETA might have a small infrastructure in southern Portugal, probably in the Algarve,'' Rubalcaba said.
A van packed with an estimated 80-100 kilograms (180-220 pounds) of explosives blew up outside Durango's police station, and a second car with Portuguese license plates was used by suspected separatists as a getaway.
It was the second incident leading Spanish officials to suspect a link with Portugal. In June, an abandoned car holding explosive material and a bomb-making manual in the Basque language was found on a road near the town of Ayamonte, near the border with Portugal. Police said the car had been rented in Lisbon, and likely was abandoned after its driver was alerted to a police checkpoint ahead.
Spanish anti-terrorism experts are to visit Portugal on Monday to investigate the latest bombing and share information with Portuguese counterparts to determine whether there were ETA operations in Portugal. Spain and Portugal may soon sign an anti-terrorist accord to expand police cooperation, Rubalcaba said.
ETA has often used France as a base, and on Saturday a backpack filled with explosives was found in Souraide _ near the Spanish border in the French Basque country _ which could have been linked with the armed separatist group, French police officials said.
Posted by: Redneck Jim ||
08/28/2007 6:09 Comments ||
Top||
#2
I still say that ETA, IRA, FARC, et. al. are all working together via Internet, telephony, couriers, etc. and are all part of WoT. Someday it will come out that AQ has tenacles in all these orgs and have created sleeper cells out of them. I will even venture that here in the USA, outside the normal nest of Islamic radicalism indoctrination (prisons) the latino gangs are ripe with sleepers. Whatever can happen in Spain, Portugal, Germany, France, Ireland, etc. can happen here (eventually) if we don't keep watching and observing agressively.
/not William Kunstler
Posted by: Jack is Back! ||
08/28/2007 8:34 Comments ||
Top||
#3
There are people in ETA who have converted to Islam and others who advocate close links with Islamist terrorists.
Also about the Madrid bombings the ooficail investigation has turned into a farce with lie after lie having been exposed in the maedia or in court. My belief is that ETA was at the very least providing support and technical assiatance to Islamist groups. A few weeks after the bombings there was an attempt to bomb the Spanish high speed train but this was with the Far West method of match and fuse: ie the islamists by themselves weren't able to trigger the bomb remotely by themselves. In just a month they had forgotten the technique. That is if you are to believe the official thesis that the perpetrator of teh Madrid bombings were islamists and ETA was completely and absolutely innocent.
Three bomb blasts in Bolan district damaged the railway track causing railway communication to remain suspended.
According to railway sources, unidentified miscreants planted explosive materials at three different places on the railway track in Pinar an area between Mach and Sibbi which exploded with a big bang damaging the railway track.k. Due to the damage to the track, the Chilton Express schedule from Quetta to Lahore, Balochistan Express from Karachi to Quetta, Bolan Express and the Jaffar Express from Rawalpindi were affected badly, railway sources disclosed.
Railway authorities said the repair work on the damaged track would soon be completed to restore the communication of trains. Meanwhile, four bomb blasts occurred in Quetta, Much and Kalat late Sunday night, which shattered the windows of nearby buildings.
Panic prevailed in the areas following the blasts and local police have arrested five suspected persons and initiated investigations. The bomb blast in Quetta occurred near a gas pipeline, in Angalzai the militants threw a hand grenade before escaping and a homemade bomb was blown up in Kalat.
Banned organisation the Balochistan Liberation Army (BLA) has accepted responsibility for these blasts.
Posted by: Fred ||
08/28/2007 00:00 ||
Comments ||
Link ||
[1 views]
Top|| File under:
SOUTH WAZIRISTAN: Nineteen Pakistan army personnel, including Lt Col Shahid, kidnapped by Taliban a few days ago, will be released on Tuesday. A 21-member peace committee headed by MNA Maulana Miraj-ud-Din Qureshi held successful negotiations with Taliban leadership on Monday. MNA Akhtar Mangle and Senator Maulana Saleh Shah participated in the meeting.
Posted by: Fred ||
08/28/2007 00:00 ||
Comments ||
Link ||
[1 views]
Top|| File under: Taliban
#1
That must have been an expensive deal - I wonder what Pakistan gave up? And how soon we will be facing it in Afghanistan.
#2
Pakistan didn't give anything up. It sent the ISI guy who is the Taliban controller in South Waziristan to remind them who they worked for and not to do this again.
Posted by: Jack is Back! ||
08/28/2007 8:36 Comments ||
Top||
DERA ISMAIL KHAN: Pro-Taliban militants have released a video of an apparently teenage boy beheading one of 16 Pakistani soldiers kidnapped in a restive tribal area bordering Afghanistan. The gruesome recording, a copy of which was obtained by AFP, will likely put further pressure on President Musharraf to crack down on Islamist violence in the NWFP.
But only brief pressure. The Rantburg Rule of Evanescent Attention Span says that a month from now the only people who'll remember the incident are the murderer, the guy whose head was chopped off, and his Mom. And maybe not the murderer.
The 35-minute video entitled Revenge first shows the 16 soldiers, all of them in uniform, who were taken hostage on August 9 in South Waziristan. Four teenage boys with Kalashnikov assault rifles, daggers and headbands with jihadi slogans are then shown along with one of the soldiers kneeling in front of them. One boy cuts off the soldiers head using a knife and holds it up for the camera.
Brutal little beast. Let him get caught red-handed in Afghanistan, of course, and end up in Gitmo, and the usual suspects will be out in force, deploring applying any kind of punishment to a lad of such tender years.
The soldiers body was recovered on August 14 from a nearby town. The video shows the victim saying that security forces should not fight against the Taliban.
I'm still not too sure about the logic that sez one side shouldn't kill fellow Moose limbs, while the other side gets to chop the heads of their fellow Moose limbs. It's too subtle for my mere 3-digit IQ to handle.
It proves that they are terrorists. It is an act contrary to tribal customs and is also a cowardly act to kill an unarmed human being, ISPR Spokesman Major General Waheed Arshad said.
This article starring:
ISPR Spokesman Major General Waheed Arshad
Posted by: Fred ||
08/28/2007 00:00 ||
Comments ||
Link ||
[3 views]
Top|| File under: Taliban
#7
If the Pak military has any brains that kid who did the beheading will end up starring in a well-distributed DVD that shows him choking to death on his own genitals.
Security forces arrested a local doctor and the wife of an Arab Al Qaeda explosives expert in a pre-dawn raid on a house here, triggering protest from Jamaat-e-Islami (JI) which termed the arrests as American agenda, officials and eyewitnesses said. We foiled a subversive act, Dir Lower District Coordination Officer Dr Attaur Rehman told reporters as JI activists blocked Chakdara Road to protest the raid, which also resulted in the arrest of paediatrician Dr Muhammad Rasool.
Four suicide jackets, a Kalashnikov, a rifle and explosives were seized in the joint raid that included both paramilitary and army soldiers, Rehman said. We had actionable intelligence that Muhammad Yousaf alias Abdur Rahim, a Saudi Arabian national, was in the house but he fled before we conducted the raid, he added. A night watchman of the area where the raided house is located was also arrested for questioning. Daily Times learnt that the wife of the suspected Arab and his child were also taken into custody at an undisclosed location by authorities.
A colleague of Dr Rasools said the man had not been involved in politics and had been a regular member of preaching groups. I am surprised he was arrested in connection with Al Qaeda, he told Daily Times on condition of anonymity. Dir Lower district is regarded as the stronghold of outlawed Tehrik Nifaz Shariah Muhammadi of jailed leader Sufi Muhammad. The organisation mobilised thousands of volunteers to fight for Al Qaeda-backed Taliban in Afghanistan after 9/11. It was not immediately clear whether Dr Rasool had been directly charged for links with Al Qaeda or the Arab suspect was just using his house.
Posted by: Fred ||
08/28/2007 00:00 ||
Comments ||
Link ||
[1 views]
Top|| File under:
#1
Suggestion: let the beheaded soldier's family hold them for a week or so....however long it takes
Posted by: Frank G ||
08/28/2007 8:27 Comments ||
Top||
#2
Security forces arrested a local doctor and the wife of an Arab Al Qaeda explosives expert in a pre-dawn raid on a house here...
Hmmmmm? Not her husband?
That's not very sharia. Someone's probably got a lotta splainin to do...
U.S. troops raided a Baghdad hotel Tuesday night and detained about 10 people. A U.S.-funded radio station said the group included six members of an Iranian delegation here to negotiate contacts with the Iraqis.
The Iranian Embassy said seven Iranians including an embassy employee and six members of a delegation from Iran's Electricity Ministry were staying at the Sheraton Ishtar Hotel, which American forces entered late Tuesday.
Videotape shot by Associated Press Television News showed the Americans leading about 10 men blindfolded and with their hands cuffed out of the hotel in central Baghdad.
Other U.S. soldiers were seen leaving the hotel carrying what appeared to be luggage and at least one briefcase and a laptop computer bag.
U.S. military spokesman Lt. Col. Christopher Garver declined to comment, saying the action was part of an ongoing operation.
FIND MORE STORIES IN: Iraq | Tuesday | Baghdad | Iran | Iran | United States | Embassy | Irbil | Sheraton Hotel
The website of Radio Sawa, an Arabic language station financed by the United States, said the Iranian delegation was in Baghdad to negotiate contracts on electric power stations. The report said the Iranians were detained and taken to an unknown location.
An Iranian diplomat told The Associated Press that Tehran's embassy had notified Iraqi authorities about the Radio Sawa report. The diplomat refused to give his name.
Tension between the United States and Iran is running high with the Americans accusing Tehran of arming Shiite militias in Iraq, a charge the Iranians deny.
On Jan. 11, U.S. troops detained five Iranians in the northern Iraqi city of Irbil. U.S. authorities have said the five included the operations chief and other members of Iran's elite Quds Force, which is accused of arming and training Iraqi militants.
The five remain in U.S. custody.
HT to AOSHQ
Posted by: Frank G ||
08/28/2007 18:38 ||
Comments ||
Link ||
[2 views]
Top|| File under:
#1
Why precipitate a diplomatic incident? Maybe to send a message to Ahmadinejad? (Or perhaps this is for Maliki's consumption?)
Posted by: Jonathan ||
08/28/2007 18:44 Comments ||
Top||
#2
as Allahpundit noted, Bush also said today: "I have authorised our military commanders in Iraq to confront Tehrans murderous activities,
perhaps, he meant it?
Posted by: Frank G ||
08/28/2007 18:50 Comments ||
Top||
#3
perhaps, he meant it?
It would not be the first time GW has confused his opponents by saying something and then doing exactly that.
#4
Other than the fact that these "diplomats" were most likely al-Quds, who had been actively managing AIF from their (guess what, bugged) HQ at the Sheraton, I imagine that their computer was also full of all sorts of other goodies.
We have probably had them under intense surveillance ever since they landed in country, and can show the Iraqi government enough damning information so that they won't even "officially deplore" the incident very loudly.
#6
Funny how this is happening right after Sarko threatened the Iranians. Wonder if the French will be filing a protest with the Iranians about this hotel incident...Crickets.
#10
Videotape shot by Associated Press Television News showed the Americans leading about 10 men blindfolded and with their hands cuffed out of the hotel in central Baghdad.
Heh. Wonder if the Iranians are smart enough to get the symbolism.
444 days from today is when?
LOL!!! Wouldn't surprise me if that's exactly what GWB intends to do.
Posted by: Dave D. ||
08/28/2007 21:36 Comments ||
Top||
#11
After the interrogations are finished all of these guys need to be on the same bus when it mysteriously catches fire and they slowly roast to death.
Fighting erupted Tuesday between rival Shiite militias in Karbala during a religious festival, claiming 51 lives and forcing officials to abort the celebrations and order up to 1 million Shiite pilgrims to leave the southern city.
Security officials said Mahdi Army gunmen loyal to radical cleric Muqtada al-Sadr fired on guards around two shrines protected by the Badr Brigade, the armed wing of the Supreme Islamic Iraqi Council.
Residents of Karbala contacted by telephone said snipers were firing on Iraqi security forces from rooftops. Explosions and the rattle of automatic weapons fire could be heard during telephone calls to reporters in the city 50 miles south of Baghdad.
In addition to the deaths, security officials said at least 247 people were wounded, including women and children.
The clashes appeared to be part of a power struggle among Shiite groups in the sect's southern Iraqi heartland, which includes the bulk of the country's vast oil wealth.
Interior Ministry spokesman Maj. Gen. Abdul-Karim Khalaf said entrances and exits to Karbala "have been secured and more forces are on the way from other provinces." Officials said buses were sent to evacuate pilgrims from the city, which includes some of the world's most sacred Shiite shrines.
Gunfights also broke out Tuesday between Mahdi militiamen and followers of the Supreme Council in at least two Shiite neighborhoods of Baghdad and in Kut, about 100 miles southeast of the capital, police said.
Extra police took up positions in the center of another Shiite city, Diwaniyah, after gunmen fired on a mosque associated with the Supreme Council, police said. A curfew was clamped on the Shiite city of Najaf after a mortar round exploded on a major square, causing no casualties, officials said.
The trouble started in Karbala late Monday as tens of thousands of Shiites were streaming into the city for the Shabaniyah festival marking the birth of Mohammed al-Mahdi, the 12th and last Shiite imam who disappeared in the 9th century. Devout Shiites believe he will return to Earth to restore peace and harmony.
Scuffles broke out between police and pilgrims as the crowd tried to push through the security checkpoints near the Imam al-Hussein mosque, the focal point of the celebrations. At least five people were killed, police said.
Early Tuesday, crowds of angry pilgrims chanting religious slogans surged through the streets, attacking police and mosque guards, witnesses said. Two ambulances were set ablaze, sending a huge column of black smoke over the city.
Gunmen appeared, firing automatic rifles, rocket-propelled grenades and mortars at security forces and sending panicked pilgrims fleeing the area, police and witnesses said.
A member of the city council said the center of town was in chaos, with pilgrims running in all directions to escape the gunfire.
"We don't know what's going on," said the councilman, who wouldn't allow use of his name for security reasons. "All we know is the huge numbers of pilgrims were too much for the checkpoints to handle and now there is shooting."
Some rounds struck fuel tanks on the roofs of three small hotels, setting them ablaze, police said.
With the situation spiraling out of control, police ordered pilgrims out of the center of the city, effectively canceling the celebrations which were to reach their climax Tuesday night and Wednesday morning.
"The area where they (the pilgrims) were gathering has been evacuated in order to control those (criminals)," said Khalaf, the Interior Ministry spokesman. He said the gunmen were gathering in three areas in the old town and security forces were chasing them.
In Baghdad, a senior government security official blamed the fighting on al-Sadr's followers, saying they provoked the confrontations Monday night and were responsible for the shooting Tuesday. The official spoke on condition of anonymity to avoid enflaming the situation.
Tensions have been rising in southern Iraq as rival Shiite groups maneuver for power, especially in the oil-rich area around Basra, Iraq's second-largest city.
Concern over Basra is mounting as British forces prepare to evacuate the last of their forces from the city and redeploy to the airport 12 miles to the north.
On Tuesday, Hakim al-Miyahi, head of the security committee of the Basra municipal council, told The Associated Press that Iraqi forces were incapable of maintaining order in the city once the British leave and that the Baghdad government should send reinforcements.
Posted by: Frank G ||
08/28/2007 17:24 ||
Comments ||
Link ||
[3 views]
Top|| File under:
#1
Whaddya got, Muldoon?
Don't know for sure, sarge, but I think it's multiple cases of Not Muslim Enough.
Okay, I'll send out Quince...
#2
I wonder if there is a connection between this activity and the Iranian 'delegation' arrest in the story above? (I am not a big believer in coincidence.)
#3
That'll proved beyond any shadow of doubt that Muqtada al Sadr holds the hearts and minds of his people. Truly, what a Noble Lion of [Shiite] Islam is this son of his respected father!
#4
Let's face it, no Islamic festival would be complete without the crowd being sprayed with some automatic weapons fire. Sadr really knows how to keep his name in the headlines. You'd think that some restless Iraqis would have capped his worthless ass by now.
#5
Interesting absence of any blame of US/coaliition forces for failure to maintain security. IIRC, after several car bombings in prior years, the locals/MSM/permanently disgruntled types were all to eager to point fingers - perhaps it's a bit more difficult when it's pure and naked intra-sectarian strife, aka gang warfare.
Also very interesting concluding notes about Fallujah and Basra respectively.
This surge business seems to have seriously altered circumstances - wonder if anyone in DC notices this?
Another report from a blogger who's actually there.
. . . Most American soldiers I spoke to about the Iraqi Army and Iraqi Police, not just in Mushadah but also in Baghdad, have a dim view of their local counterparts. (The situation is strikingly different in Anbar Province, and Ill get to that in future articles.) I wanted to know what the colonel thought.
Do you trust them? I said.
He paused for a long time and answered very carefully.
We wont tell them about sensitive operations until the last second, he said. I trust some individuals, though, because I know them. Id share a foxhole with them as far as ideology goes, but Im not sure how good their skills are when they are shot.
Pride is much more important in Arab culture than it is in the West. Humiliation is therefore more painful. I wondered if this created problems when Americans train Iraqi soldiers and police officers. What must it feel like for local men to be yelled at by foreigners who showed up uninvited and knew their job better than they did?
Colonel Steele insists it isnt a problem.
They dont want to be babied, he said. They want to be treated as equals and adults. Their shame culture actually helps. Our new recruits recently complained about having sore feet during a march. When they noticed our female soldiers are in better shape than they are, they never complained again. Also, when we first had them try on our body armor, it nearly broke their spines. They want to be physically capable of wearing it, too.
Its at least possible that some of the infiltrators may be turned over time. Some former insurgents elsewhere in Iraq are now openly siding with the Americans.
There also is this: We give them rudimentary skills and a work ethic, he told me. They attend the same classes on character and honor and professional conduct becoming a soldier that our own people attend.
Is he optimistic?
I am optimistic, he said. But only for one single reason. Because I talk to the average Joe in Iraq. I meet the children and parents. Iraqi parents love their children as much as I love mine.
I knew what he meant. Counterintuitive and contradictory as it may seem, I never felt more optimistic in Iraq than I did when I walked the streets and interacted with average Iraqis. Iraq looks more doomed from inside the base than it does outside on the street, and it looks more doomed from across the Atlantic than it does from inside the base.
Major Mike Garcia said this view of Iraq is typical. Soldiers who dont leave the FOB [Forward Operating Base] are more likely to be pessimistic than those who go out on patrol. Theyre less aware of whats actually happening and have fewer reality checks on their gloom. . . .
Go read it all.
Posted by: Mike ||
08/28/2007 13:07 ||
Comments ||
Link ||
[3 views]
Top|| File under:
#1
Breaking through cultural molasses to find the hard working and respectable individual underneath is never easy.
You can't just tell them a better way, and show them a better way, then see if they can do it that way--it's not enough. If you turn your back on most people, they will go and do it the way they are used to doing it, even though they have seen and done it a better way. This befuddles many American trainers, who are used to American trainees doing it right once they know how.
You have to keep at them. Only with endless repetition, doing it right endless numbers of times, and catching them trying to do it the old way when they don't think you are watching, and correcting them on it, will you finally get through to them.
And their leaders have to be just as persistent as you, once you leave, in insisting they do it the right way, not the cultural way. Even at that point, it still takes generations of training to get it through to the culture as a whole. It is amazingly difficult.
On the plus side, for generations, parts of the Iraqi military will be like odd reflections of the professionalism of the Army, Marines and other US personnel who trained them. Osmosis from the Americans to parts of their military culture not in conflict with the old ways will be profound.
To their last day in uniform, there will be Iraqi officers and senior NCOs who will push hard to do things the American way in every way the Iraqis can. Literally thousands of things that both matter and are just decorative will be integrated into the Iraqi military way of doing military business.
#3
Our new recruits recently complained about having sore feet during a march. When they noticed our female soldiers are in better shape than they are, they never complained again. Also, when we first had them try on our body armor, it nearly broke their spines. They want to be physically capable of wearing it, too.
Pretty typical the world over when looking at soldiers vs western soldiers. Despite our soft lifestyle, our solders are well trained, physically fit and highly motivated.
#4
Despite our soft lifestyle, we generally accept whatever pain and injuries that result from a freely made choice as the cost of doing business. Mr. Wife is walking around these days with probable stress fractures in the fingers, hand and wrist bones of his right hand. He tried to punch through one board too many ten days ago at his Tae Kwan Do belt test... and he isn't nineteen any more. One of these days he'll go to the doctor to have it x-rayed, but in the meantime he wears his old wrist brace, takes some Tylenol, and looks forward to getting the new belt.
#5
Moud has just reportedly said that Iran is ready to step into any power vacuum in the ME left by the weakening USA - IOW, there will be no democratic Iraq, no "Iraq for Iraqis", etc. only an extension/proxy of Iran.
Comments by the head of the British army, General Sir Richard Dannatt, that his forces are stretched in Afghanistan and cannot deploy any more soldiers will only increase pressure on the British government to hasten its withdrawal from Iraq.
At the same time, the British plan to withdraw to a kind of redoubt at Basra airport is being mocked both by the militant cleric Moqtada Sadr, whose Mehdi Army militia has harried British troops in southern Iraq, and by those US military thinkers who want more commitment in Iraq, not less.
General Dannatt, speaking on a visit to Afghanistan, did not repeat the statement he made in October last year that Britain should "get out [of Iraq] sometime soon", but the thrust of British military thinking is clear enough - the key campaign is now in Afghanistan, and anything that can reduce and even eliminate the British commitment in Iraq can help in that task.
"The army is certainly stretched. And when I say that we can't deploy any more battle groups at the present moment, that's because we're trying to get a reasonable balance of life for our people" he told the BBC.
Britain is now down to about 5,500 troops in Iraq (compared to 7,000 when General Dannatt made his remarks last year), and intends to pull them back to the airport and hand Basra province over to Iraqi control, possibly this autumn.
The policy was defended by a British spokesman in Basra, Major Mike Shearer. "This is not a new plan at all. It's good for the Iraqis, it's good for us and we will eventually see here Iraqi solutions for Iraqi problems and that has to be the way ahead," he said.
This move has been derided by Moqtada Sadr, who regards American and British troops (and al-Qaeda fighters) as invaders. "The British are retreating. They know they will be leaving soon. They have realised this is not a war they should be fighting or one they can win," he told The Independent newspaper.
And in the United States, there are signs of a backlash against the British at a time when the Bush administration is shaping up to continue with its so-called surge of troops into Iraq.
The Sunday Telegraph reported that the senior British officer in Basra, General Jonathan Shaw, got short shrift when he started lecturing American officers on counter-insurgency. "It's insufferable, for Christ's sake," was the reported reaction of one senior figure closely involved in US military planning. "He comes on and he lectures everybody in the room about how to do a counter-insurgency. The guys were just rolling their eyeballs. The notorious Northern Ireland came up again."'
In some quarters, the British pullback is seen as unhelpful to the surge. Stephen Biddle, a senior military commentator at the US think tank, the Council on Foreign Relations, said that the British withdrawal would be "ugly and embarrassing". Mr Biddle has previously called for a policy of getting even more involved in Iraq or getting out. He wants the US to reduce the training of Iraqi forces, and to support some forces in Iraq's civil conflict and oppose others, instead of trying to hold the ring.
Meanwhile more than 100 leading foreign policy experts in the US have been surveyed about the war in Iraq and other security issues by the Center for American Progress and Foreign Policy magazine.
Oh gee, let me guess the results of the survey ...
A summary of the findings stated: "[The] experts see a world that is growing more dangerous, a national security strategy in disrepair, and a war in Iraq that is alarmingly off course." More than half say that the surge is "having a negative impact on US national security," according to the summary.
In mid-September, Washington will disclose its next moves, with a report being drawn up on the advice of its commander in Iraq General David Petraeus and its ambassador Ryan Crocker. However, the indication is that President Bush is not inclined to put the brakes on yet. In a telling phrase in his weekly radio address on 11 August he stated: "The surge is still in its early stages."
The Americans could probably live with a British pullback. They would probably object to a British withdrawal.
#2
Be nice Jim. It's not Britain's war. They could have sat on the sidelines and sniped like little bitches as did much of the rest of NATO.
The question for Americans is why are we spending resources to strengthen muslims who by definition call for our subjugation? Why not take the land and resources for our war effort?
Posted by: ed ||
08/28/2007 19:12 Comments ||
Top||
The assault that killed 33 insurgents north of Baghdad began before dawn on Monday when a joint force was landed by helicopter in the village of Gubbiya, 10 miles east of Khalis. The assault force killed 13 fighters and attack aircraft killed 20 others, the military said. The area WAS is known to be controlled by al-Qaida in Iraq. Khalis, 50 miles north of Baghdad, has been the scene of repeated Sunni insurgent bombings and mortar attacks. Gubbiya's sister city is Virginville.
"The objective of the mission was to open the spillway, which regulates water flow to the town of Khalis, restoring the essential service of water," the statement said. The jihadi spillway was opened releasing 2376 virgins.
The assault uncovered three weapons caches, led to the capture of three men and "water is currently flowing unimpeded to Khalis," the military said. The statement did not say if any U.S. or Iraqi soldiers were killed or wounded.
Posted by: GolfBravoUSMC ||
08/28/2007 09:38 ||
Comments ||
Link ||
[2 views]
Top|| File under: al-Qaeda in Iraq
#1
33, put yourself in al Q's place for a sec.
At this time, 33 is a serious loss. How much longer can they get recruits ?
This rates with the Donkey Island Smackdown.
#2
It really reflects the cultural mindset of the enemy, something we must not overlook. Despite crushing defeats and our overwhelming air power, they keep trying to fight set-piece battles.
#3
all virgins rate---> 3rd and 4th class, exrta Back Hair and BO Plenty!
Eeeuurrp!
Posted by: Red Dawg ||
08/28/2007 12:52 Comments ||
Top||
#4
They have no problem recruiting. Its the logistics that we need to focus on for now. We need to work backwards. First lets kill the ones that are there. Next lets close all the routes. Then go after the madrassas in London, Rotterdam, Islamabad, Bosnia, etc. Thats what the CIA is for - extreme iman prejudice. I believe one way to fight this thing is destroy the motivation - the mosques and schools. In other words - don't assinate world leaders but the imans, sheihks and mullahs.
Posted by: Jack is Back! ||
08/28/2007 12:56 Comments ||
Top||
#5
Agreed, Jack, but how do we get in there and kill Imams ?
The ability to do so has never been the problem. We could wipe out every last stinking one of them, preferably beginning with Tater.
The WILL to do so is the problem. A military bound by a country of wimps, and a PC political system run amok, will never be allowed to do what is necessary.
A suicide bomber detonated an explosives belt among worshippers at evening prayers Monday in Fallujah, killing nine people, including the mosque preacher who had been an outspoken opponent of al-Qaida, police said.
Posted by: gromgoru ||
08/28/2007 00:00 ||
Comments ||
Link ||
[1 views]
Top|| File under: al-Qaeda in Iraq
#1
I'm pretty sure that this would be an Al Q attack on a Sunni mosque.
MAHMUDIYAH, Iraq - Iraqi Soldiers of the 2nd Battalion, 4th Brigade, 6th Iraqi Army Division, investigated the origin of a three-round rocket attack the evening of Aug. 24 in Mahmudiyah, Iraq. After three rockets impacted near the Iraqi Army Compound, Soldiers from 2/4/6 IA investigated the point of origin. They discovered two Iranian rockets set on timers.
A quick-reaction force of the 2nd Battalion, 15th Field Artillery Regiment, 2nd Brigade Combat Team, 10th Mountain Division (Light Infantry) out of Fort Drum, N.Y., and an explosive ordnance disposal team were prepared to respond but stood down when the Iraqi troops said that they had dismantled the timers and launchers and were taking them back to the compound for destruction. They seem not to have functioned as intended; maybe they should be returned to the manufacturer?
#3
Unfortunately, it looks like, we are going to have to see a major Iranian weapon aided slaughter of Shias before the major Shia politicos are willing to take on the issue of Mullah assisted violence in Iraq.
Given the centuries old anti Persian sentiment among Arabic speaking Shia, it might be a political winner to do this but so far the politicos have been ducking this.
So easy even a cave man can do it?
ISKANDARIYAH, Iraq - With help from the concerned citizens of Jurf as Sakhr, Iraqi and Coalition Forces identified and destroyed an enemy fighting position and safehouse Aug. 25 as part of Operation Gecko.
Paratroopers from 1st Battalion, 501st Airborne, 4th Brigade Combat Team (Airborne), 25th Infantry Division acted on a lead from a concerned citizen on a known enemy fighting position suspected of containing a mortar tube with ammunition. Once the location was identified, OH-58D Kiowa Warrior helicopters engaged the location with one missile, rendering the position useless to the enemy, and the Paratroopers of 1-501st Abn. destroyed the remains of the bunker.
Continuing to follow the lead of the concerned citizens, Paratroopers were then taken to an al-Qaeda safehouse where five armed terrorists were hiding. The location was marked and destroyed with a 1,000-pound bomb, killing the five al-Qaeda militants. A reasonably safe assumption, though they might have a hard time finding enough matching pieces to be sure.
Operation Gecko is systematically cleaning up the area, removing deadly roadside bombs and capturing or killing the terrorists and militiamen responsible for the violence and chaos that had blanketed the region. Peace through superior firepower.
Posted by: Glenmore ||
08/28/2007 00:00 ||
Comments ||
Link ||
[1 views]
Top|| File under: al-Qaeda in Iraq
The Palestinian Authority will close 103 charities in the West Bank and Gaza Strip, ... There's a good chance a few of them were on the list of receipients of CAIR funds- that would be sweet
... a minister in PA Chairman Mahmoud Abbas' government said on Tuesday, Hamas will assume this is directed against them by Fayad
... in an apparent attempt to weaken Hamas Islamists...The bank accounts of al-Salah Association, one of the largest Islamic charities in the Gaza Strip, were frozen earlier this month by Palestinian banks after the U.S. government designated it a "key support node for Hamas".
Hamas official Sami Abu Zuhri said the decision to close the charities is part of an attempt by the leadership of the Palestinian Authority to "uproot the Hamas movement" and that it would only cause hardship among Palestinians.
We can only hope it's going to decrease contributions to the Widows Ammunition Fund ...
About 2,400 charities operate in the Palestinian territories. Probably about 60% operate, at least partly, in Gaza and these will undoubtedly not be affected.
GAZA CITY - Israeli warplanes carried out an air raid in the northern Gaza Strip on Monday without causing casualties, the army and witnesses said. The IDF (Israel Defence Forces) carried out an aerial attack in the north of the Gaza Strip region, targeting a Qassam launcher, an army spokesman said, referring to homemade rockets fired by Gaza militants into Israel.
No one was hurt in the attack near the northern town of Beit Hanun, witnesses said, where the previous day Israeli planes launched a strike on a rocket launcher, also without causing casualties.
Posted by: Steve White ||
08/28/2007 00:00 ||
Comments ||
Link ||
[1 views]
Top|| File under: Hamas
#1
so you destroy a launcher and none of the perps.
What does that accomplish past one day?
Gaza's Islamic Hamas rulers ordered striking doctors to shut down their private clinics on Monday, in a challenge to Palestinian Authority Chairman Mahmoud Abbas that threatened to deepen hardship in the long-suffering territory. The faceoff has largely paralyzed Gaza's medical system, putting it at the mercy of the rivalry between Hamas and Abbas' Fatah movement.
Hospital doctors across Gaza launched a work slowdown earlier this month to protest the arrest of a prominent physician allied with Fatah. On orders from Abbas' West Bank government, which pays their salaries, most curtailed their daytime hospital schedule to three hours a day, receiving patients afterward in expensive private clinics.
Hamas struck back Monday by ordering the immediate shutdown of the clinics. Doctors who do not comply will be fired, and clinics will also be scrutinized to ensure they are properly registered and licensed, Hamas officials said. "We are not going to play with the health sector," said Khaled Radi, a spokesman for the former Hamas-run health ministry.
In the West Bank, Information Minister Riad al-Malki accused Hamas of playing politics with people's health. "Hamas is not interested in the quality of medical service," he said. "We stand behind all these doctors and are ready to provide support."
Patients complained they were caught in the middle of the rivalry between Hamas and Abbas. Salma Taleb, 55, a breast cancer patient, recounted standing in line 50 minutes at the Shifa Hospital pharmacy in Gaza City recently to buy critically needed medications, only to be told to come back the following day because she reached the counter five minutes after the 11 a.m. closing time. The next day she arrived late and was turned away again - provoking her to file a complaint with the health ministry. "Workers at the health sector are making us victims of a political game between Gaza and Ramallah," Taleb said.
And 'death to Israel', right Salma?
Gazans generally seek medical care in hospitals, where visits are covered by monthly health insurance, which costs about $12 (9) to $15 (11). Private visits cost $7 (5) to $17 (12.50) - a sizable sum in Gaza, where 70 percent of the territory's 1.4 million people live on less than $500 (370) a month, according to a recent survey.
Most hospital doctors are affiliated with Fatah. One, who identified himself only as Dr. Nabil, for fear of Hamas retribution, said doctors would resist the shutdown of their clinics. "The aim of the work slowdown is to protest the harassment that we face from the Hamas government in Gaza, and their policy of stripping away our authorities and giving them to Hamas-allied doctors," he said. "We will not allow them to close the clinics down," he said, adding, "We will stop the strike if Hamas stops its harassment."
The independent Al Mezan Center for Human Rights urged that the health sector be removed from any political influence. And it called on doctors to end their strike. "The strike will push the level of health services to an even lower point at a time when it is already verging on collapse," Al Mezan said.
Posted by: Fred ||
08/28/2007 00:00 ||
Comments ||
Link ||
[1 views]
Top|| File under: Hamas
#1
I thought it was common knowledge that the plight of the Palestinians was caused by the Occupation and was so desperate it couldnt get any worse than under the merciless Zionist boot. Hmmm.
Posted by: Baba Tutu ||
08/28/2007 3:12 Comments ||
Top||
#4
"Workers at the health sector are making us victims of a political game between Gaza and Ramallah," Taleb said.
A "victim" is the unwilling recipient of evildoing. By dint of electing a terrorist government and their own complicity in attempting genocide against Israel, all Palestinians are not victims of any sort. At worst they themselves are terrorists and at the very least they are willing pawns. Victims? NEVER.
The Islamic Jihad lashed out at the Palestinian Authority security personnel who rescued an IDF major from a lynch mob in Jenin on Monday, saying that their actions prevented the group from kidnapping the Israeli officer. "We were successful in trapping a uniformed Israeli officer," a statement released by the group read. "We were surprised when [PA security forces] thwarted our efforts by surrounding us and taking control of the soldier. In a matter of minutes, four IDF jeeps arrived at the scene and were given the soldier." The Islamic Jihad statement further condemned the PA security forces, saying that they should work to protect the "Palestinian people instead of soldiers of the Occupation."
The officer in question, a major in the IDF's central command, narrowly escaped the lynching after he accidentally entered the Palestinian town of Jenin, in northern Samaria, earlier Monday. The officer, a staff officer at Central Command headquarters, was traveling from the settlement of Shavei Shomron to Mevo Dotan when he accidentally made a wrong turn and found himself driving unarmed and in uniform in downtown Jenin. After coming under a hail of stones, the officer was pulled out of his car by a Palestinian mob. Seconds later, Palestinian policemen arrived at the scene and rescued the officer, who they evacuated to the nearby Mukata government building.
Senior Central Command officers said that the officer was very close to meeting the same fate as two reservists who were lynched and beaten to death after accidentally entering Ramallah in October 2000. "He was very lucky since this could have ended much differently," Lt.-Col. Fareis Atilee, head of the Jenin-area IDF Liaison office, told The Jerusalem Post. "It was not far from turning into the same outcome as the Ramallah lynch."
Atilee praised the PA police's quick and responsible response. Atilee added that he had received a phone call at 12:30 p.m. that an IDF officer - unarmed and in uniform - was in Jenin. "We began coordinating his rescue with the PA and at the same time sent large forces to the city in the event that we would need to save him," he recalled, adding that the quick coordination between the IDF and the PA was made possible due to the recent change in Israeli policy vis a vis the Palestinian government in Ramallah led by Salaam Fayad. "There is better coordination today due to the change in Israeli policy and the Palestinians did what they needed to do," he said. "They also did what was in their interest."
Foreign Minister Tzipi Livni praised Palestinian Authority Prime Minister Salaam Fayad for the actions of the PA security forces. "This kind of action proves that the Palestinian government and its forces are growing stronger against terrorism, which is continuing to try and derail the efforts of moderates in Israel and the PA to better the security situation," Livni said.
Meanwhile, MK Ahmed Tibi (UAL) criticized the IDF, saying the events in Jenin only serve to highlight IDF abuses against Palestinians. "IDF is shooting and wounding Palestinian citizens and the PA risks lives to save a soldier. This is food for thought for the general public." Tibi was quoted as saying.
Posted by: Fred ||
08/28/2007 00:00 ||
Comments ||
Link ||
[1 views]
Top|| File under: Islamic Jihad
#1
I think Zippy and the Israelis are taking the "Enemy of my Enemy is my Friend" just a wee bit too far.
Posted by: Jack is Back! ||
08/28/2007 8:39 Comments ||
Top||
#2
It must have been a Palestinian that called the IDF liaison office, and other Palestinians who rescued the soldier from certain death at the hands of a mob. Well worth a few public, but in the end empty, words of praise. And hopefully a few private, heartfelt words of thanks.
#3
agreed TW - someone at the PA made the right decision, for whatever reason. Good on them
Posted by: Frank G ||
08/28/2007 19:08 Comments ||
Top||
#4
Liberalhawk has pointed out in the past that the IDF has a surprising number of sympathizers and informers on the Palestinian side of the wall -- else they wouldn't be able to target their attacks against the terrorists so precisely. This seems a perfect example thereof. A single beam of light in the inky darkness, but still.
A Muslim woman was killed in a drive-by shooting in this southern border province Tuesday morning. Police said Wanida Madee, 40, was shot at her head on a village road in Luboh Kayoh village in Tambon Bannang Sata of Bannang Sata district at 6:30 am.
Police said Wanida was riding her motorcycle to a rubber plantation when two men on a motorcycle caught up and opened fire at her. Her pillion rider, Makallasong Samoh, 41, was slightly injured after the motorcycle fell down.
A bombing incident and multiple arsons has forced schools in Yala and Pattani to close.
In Yala, two bombs exploded in front of Banphaphoo-ngo School in Raman district early Monday. The first bomb went off at 5.20 am, while a second bomb was detonated as security personnel arrived to investigate the initial bombing. The second explosive device was hidden inside the defence volunteers kiosk, only 10 metres from the site of the first bombing. While no one was wounded in the incidents, police believe that the second bomb targeted the security response team. The school closed on Monday after the bombing.
In Pattani, three schools and a child development centre in Saiburi district were torched and two schools in Kapo district were set ablaze. The arsons prompted administrators to close all schools in the two districts on Monday.
In Pattani's Yarang district, three schools have been closed for an indefinite period due to security concerns after the director of Bansanor Phitthayakom school was killed last Friday.
The schools will likely reopen next week if more security measures are put in place. In the latest development, another teacher was killed by suspected terrorists insurgents in Pattani on Monday. Kesinee Pimthep, 42, was shot dead in a drive-by shooting as she got off a bus in front of a school in Saiburi district.
Fresh fighting between troops and separatist Tamil Tiger guerrillas has killed nine insurgents and wounded five soldiers in the islands northwest, the military said on Monday.
Troops fought two separate battles with rebels on Sunday in the northwestern district of Mannar and on the border of neighbouring Vavuniya, where fighting is now focused after the fall of the rebels last bastion in the east. Our troops confronted two batches of LTTE cadres coming towards their front line, said military spokesman Brigadier Prasad Samarasinghe. Nine of their cadres were killed. Five soldiers were injured.
Samarsinghe said 1,258 military personnel, police and village guards have been killed since December 2005 and more than 2,000 Tiger fighters have died as the island slid back into a two-decade civil war that has killed nearly 70,000 people since 1983.
Sundays fighting came as security forces defused three suspected Tamil Tiger rebel bombs, including one in the ancient central hill capital of Kandy where thousands of people are attending a Buddhist pageant.
Posted by: Fred ||
08/28/2007 00:00 ||
Comments ||
Link ||
[1 views]
Top|| File under:
Iran summoned a Swedish diplomat to its Foreign Ministry on Monday to protest against a blasphemous cartoon of Holy Prophet (PTUI PBUH) in a Swedish newspaper, the Swedish Foreign Ministry said.
Gunilla von Bahr, Swedens charge daffaires, was summoned to the Iranian Foreign Ministry today where she received a protest from the Iranian government, Foreign Ministry spokeswoman Anna Bjoerkander said.The Iranian government told Von Bahr the cartoon was offensive to Prophet Muhammad [PBUH], Bjoerkander said, refusing to disclose any further details of the meeting. The cartoon was drawn by Swedish artist Lars Vilks.
Posted by: Fred ||
08/28/2007 00:00 ||
Comments ||
Link ||
[7 views]
Top|| File under: Govt of Iran
Permit me to observe that in light of how offensive Iran's sponsorship of the Holocaust denial cartoons was, this is less than even weak tea. Yet another well-justified reason on the ever-lengthening laundry list of reasons to kick Iran's worthless ass back to the stone age Pre-Cambrian Period.
#3
Sweden is a swamp of Islamic radicalism and they just can't bring themselves to do anything about it. We have a friend who is a doctor (OB/GYN) in Malmo and she is petrified everytime a muslim woman comes into her clinic. Of course, the reason is the woman brings her man and he has to be dealt with first. If it was up to our friend (a very typical liberal Swede) she would deport them all just so she can get a good nights sleep and not have to worry about having her throat cut if she somehow ended up insulting the man by asking him to leave the room for the examination.
Posted by: Jack is Back! ||
08/28/2007 8:44 Comments ||
Top||
Iran has resolved questions posed by the UN's nuclear watchdog about its plutonium experiments, Tehran says.
The claim was made in a text outlining a timetable for co-operation with the International Atomic Energy Agency, which was agreed at talks last week. It would be the first serious issue closed by the IAEA during its four-year inquiry into Iran's nuclear activities. It said the IAEA accepted that "earlier statements made by Iran [on the issue of plutonium] are consistent with the agency's findings, and thus this matter is resolved."
Iran also said it would co-operate on resolving concerns over documents that allegedly show Iran has a secret military project for developing nuclear arms. However, it dismissed the claims as "politically motivated" and "baseless allegations".
Last week, Iran and the IAEA announced that they had agreed a timeline for implementing a plan to clarify Tehran's nuclear programme, first announced in July.
However, US envoy to the IAEA, Gregory Schulte, said the plan had "real limitations" and accused Iran of manipulating the IAEA as a way to avoid harsher sanctions. He said Iran was still defying the UN's key demand for it to halt its uranium enrichment activities and said the US would continue to push for a third round of sanctions.
#2
Oh, I forgot, Iran is building a heavy water reactor. Which means that it can run on natural un-enriched uranium, but produces plutonium. So why do they need the enriching stations again?
#3
And by the way, why do they always say the same thing. Same words even, "politically motivated" and "baseless allegations". And the hell of it is that it still works after all this time.
Style book. You'd have to revise all the AP/APF/NYT/Rooters style books and protocols on reporting the religion of peace, Iran and WoT issues. That would cost money and they don't really have that much anymore.
Posted by: Jack is Back! ||
08/28/2007 8:47 Comments ||
Top||
#5
FREEREPUBLIC > BUSH WARNS OF ME REGIONAL HOLOCAUST IF IRAN GETS NUKES; + RIAN > MOUD - IRAN'S Nuclear dossier is closed, a pre-emptive US attack on Iran is unlikely, Busheshr nuke plant construx will be finished.
Three Lebanese soldiers were killed in fighting with Islamic extremists at a Palestinian refugee camp in northern Lebanon, a day after the families of the militants were evacuated, the military said Sunday. The army said the soldiers were killed Saturday at the Nahr el-Bared camp. It did not say how they were killed. Two more soldiers were killed on Friday when the battle resumed after the evacuation of the civilians.
The deaths raise to 148 the number of soldiers who have died since fighting between the army and al-Qaida-inspired Fatah Islam militants erupted three months ago.
On Friday, the families of the besieged militants who had been caught inside the camp 25 women and 38 children were evacuated, clearing the way for a final military assault against remaining fighters inside. Fighting between the militants and the soldiers resumed following the evacuation.
A senior military officer told The Associated Press Saturday that the decision to finish off the gunmen still holed up inside Nahr el-Bared has been taken. "They have no choice but to surrender or we continue our operations," he said.
An estimated 70 fighters now remain holed up deep inside the coastal camp, just outside the northern port city of Tripoli. The fighting that has raged since May 20 is Lebanon's worst internal violence since the 1975-90 civil war. The army has refused to halt its offensive until the militants completely surrender, but the gunmen have vowed to fight to the death.
The prosecutor-general last week charged 107 detainees with membership of the group. Most were Lebanese and Palestinians but they also included Saudis, Syrians, a Tunisian and an Algerian. Another 119 are wanted on the same charges, including 38 Saudis and 11 Syrians.
Posted by: Fred ||
08/28/2007 00:00 ||
Comments ||
Link ||
[7 views]
Top|| File under: Fatah al-Islam
Gunmen fired at the residence of Lebanon's Mufti of Mount Lebanon, Sheikh Mohammad Ali el Jouzu in Jiyeh Hills area , but neither he nor any members of his family were injured in the attack, according to security sources The identity of the gunmen is not known as of this date according to the same security sources.
Security forces have surrounded Jouzu's residence to investigate the attack . Sheikh Mohammad Ali el Jouzu is one of the most outspoken clerics against the summer war between Hezbollah and Israel. He criticized on several occasions the kidnapping by Hezbollah of the Israeli soldiers, which triggered the war. He is also an outspoken critic of Syria and its agents and allies in Lebanon.
Posted by: Fred ||
08/28/2007 00:00 ||
Comments ||
Link ||
[5 views]
Top|| File under: Govt of Syria
The Worldwide Obesity Epidemic continues...
SAN JUAN, Puerto Rico - The commander at Guantanamo Bay denied reports that the physical and mental health of an Al-Jazeera cameraman held there is deteriorating. A defense attorney earlier this week said Sami al-Hajj, one of the highest-profile detainees at the U.S. naval base in southeastern Cuba, has lost 40 pounds since late last year and developed intestinal problems. Al-Hajj has been on hunger strike, lawyer Clive Stafford Smith said. Geez, Clive's a lyin sack of shit? Now there goes all my faith in "human rights" lawyers.
But in an e-mail sent late Friday to The Associated Press, U.S. Navy Rear Adm. Mark H. Buzby said al-Hajj is actually 20 pounds heavier than when he arrived at the U.S. military prison in June 2002. Woah, Sami! Better lay off that banana cream intravenous!
"Contrary to allegations, there have been no indications that he developed intestinal problems and no indications that his mental health has recently deteriorated," Buzby said. He insisted al-Hajj is currently at "102 percent of his ideal body weight" and is seen by medical personnel daily at Guantanamo Bay, where the U.S. holds about 355 men on suspicion of terrorism or links to al-Qaida or the Taliban. We'd put him on the treadmill, but Human Rights Watch sez that's some kinda torture...
Al-Hajj was first reported to be on hunger strike in early January by his network's Arabic-language Web site, which said he may be suffering from various health problems. Buzby did not disclose al-Hajj's weight or confirm that he is one of the hunger strikers. In recent months, the number of hunger strikers at Guantanamo has grown to about two dozen. Long-term hunger strikers are force-fed by the military. "Long term hunger strikers". Somewhere in Wormland, Bobby Sands wishes he was imprisoned by Americans...
Stafford Smith did not immediately respond to calls for comment on Buzby's letter. Yes, well, obviously a lying facist jack booted thug...
International human rights and press freedom groups have condemned al-Hajj's imprisonment. Yeah? What about Weight Watchers?
Posted by: Deacon Blues ||
08/28/2007 9:06 Comments ||
Top||
#8
An urban legend has frequently been circulated that Zadora once starred in a production of The Diary of Anne Frank, in which her performance was so bad that an audience member yelled "She's in the attic!" when the Nazis showed up. Zadora has, in fact, never acted in a production of The Diary of Anne Frank.
A multi-volume chronology and reference guide set detailing three years of the Mexican Drug War between 2010 and 2012.
Rantburg.com and borderlandbeat.com correspondent and author Chris Covert presents his first non-fiction work detailing
the drug and gang related violence in Mexico.
Chris gives us Mexican press dispatches of drug and gang war violence
over three years, presented in a multi volume set intended to chronicle the death, violence and mayhem which has
dominated Mexico for six years.
Rantburg was assembled from recycled algorithms in the United States of America. No
trees were destroyed in the production of this weblog. We did hurt some, though. Sorry.
The US-led coalition in Afghanistan accused Taliban militants on Monday of falsely reporting civilian casualties to discredit Afghan and international forces, as five Western soldiers, including three Americans, were killed in a string of Taliban attacks in eastern and southern Afghanistan, officials said on Monday. The coalition launched the accusation after Afghan elders alleged that international troops killed up to 18 civilians late on Sunday in Helmand province, a Taliban stronghold.
Sudan has expelled the top official in Sudan of the US-based aid group CARE, the director said on Monday. Country director Paul Barker told Reuters the Sudanese governments Humanitarian Aid Commission had given him 72 hours to leave the country without giving reasons for the decision. Barker is the third prominent foreigner expelled from Sudan in less than a week. On Thursday Sudan told diplomats from Canada and the European Union to leave but it later allowed the EU ambassador to stay until his term expires next month. Officials were not available to comment at the commission, the government body that monitors humanitarian work. But copies of its 72-hour order to Barker were printed in local papers. I am in the process of being expelled. Ill be here for another 12 hours, said Barker, a US citizen. This has come as a huge surprise to us. I am very disappointed with the governments decision, which I believe was based on information that was taken out of context. I am still hopeful though, as there are appeals being made. Barker said the director of the Humanitarian Aid Commission called him in on Saturday.
A van that exploded in northeastern Spain was detonated by members of the Basque separatist group ETA when they realized police were on their trail, Spain's Interior Ministry said Monday.
Three bomb blasts in Bolan district damaged the railway track causing railway communication to remain suspended.
DERA ISMAIL KHAN: Pro-Taliban militants have released a video of an apparently teenage boy beheading one of 16 Pakistani soldiers kidnapped in a restive tribal area bordering Afghanistan. The gruesome recording, a copy of which was obtained by AFP, will likely put further pressure on President Musharraf to crack down on Islamist violence in the NWFP. 
Security forces arrested a local doctor and the wife of an Arab Al Qaeda explosives expert in a pre-dawn raid on a house here, triggering protest from Jamaat-e-Islami (JI) which termed the arrests as American agenda, officials and eyewitnesses said. We foiled a subversive act, Dir Lower District Coordination Officer Dr Attaur Rehman told reporters as JI activists blocked Chakdara Road to protest the raid, which also resulted in the arrest of paediatrician Dr Muhammad Rasool. 
Comments by the head of the British army, General Sir Richard Dannatt, that his forces are stretched in Afghanistan and cannot deploy any more soldiers will only increase pressure on the British government to hasten its withdrawal from Iraq. 
The assault that killed 33 insurgents north of Baghdad began before dawn on Monday when a joint force was landed by helicopter in the village of Gubbiya, 10 miles east of Khalis. The assault force killed 13 fighters and attack aircraft killed 20 others, the military said. The area 
GAZA CITY - Israeli warplanes carried out an air raid in the northern Gaza Strip on Monday without causing casualties, the army and witnesses said. The IDF (Israel Defence Forces) carried out an aerial attack in the north of the Gaza Strip region, targeting a Qassam launcher, an army spokesman said, referring to homemade rockets fired by Gaza militants into Israel.
Gaza's Islamic Hamas rulers ordered striking doctors to shut down their private clinics on Monday, in a challenge to Palestinian Authority Chairman Mahmoud Abbas that threatened to deepen hardship in the long-suffering territory. The faceoff has largely paralyzed Gaza's medical system, putting it at the mercy of the rivalry between Hamas and Abbas' Fatah movement.
Iran summoned a Swedish diplomat to its Foreign Ministry on Monday to protest against a blasphemous cartoon of Holy Prophet (
Three Lebanese soldiers were killed in fighting with Islamic extremists at a Palestinian refugee camp in northern Lebanon, a day after the families of the militants were evacuated, the military said Sunday. The army said the soldiers were killed Saturday at the Nahr el-Bared camp. It did not say how they were killed. Two more soldiers were killed on Friday when the battle resumed after the evacuation of the civilians.
Gunmen fired at the residence of Lebanon's Mufti of Mount Lebanon, Sheikh Mohammad Ali el Jouzu in Jiyeh Hills area , but neither he nor any members of his family were injured in the attack, according to security sources The identity of the gunmen is not known as of this date according to the same security sources.
