ABOARD THE BABUR, Arabian Sea - Pirates from two small skiffs seized the crew of a Japanese vessel off anarchic Somalia's coast. American forces fired on the skiffs and destroyed them. Now the navies of the U.S. and 19 other countries are after bigger prey.
The U.S.-led coalition working to secure sea lanes beset by pirates believe skiffs like the ones used in the attack on the Japanese ship must have come from elusive "mother ships." "The small boats which are used for piracy could not travel" from shore as far into the ocean as ships have been attacked, said Commodore Khan Hasham of Pakistan, one of the U.S. allies in the anti-piracy operation. "So they needed a mother ship from which the pirates could launch skiffs."
Aboard the Pakistani navy ship Babur, Pakistani special forces load their rifles and meticulously go through their drills, readying themselves to board suspicious vessels and search for weapons. U.S. Navy officers aboard swap theories with their Pakistani counterparts about where the mother ships could be.
Coalition officials are reluctant to name all the countries involved or the number of warships involved because of security concerns, and because cooperating with America is a delicate political issue in the tense oil states of the Persian Gulf.
This week, Pakistani sailors on the Babur and Americans on the USS John Leventhal waved at each other across the waves during a refueling exercise, their captains chatting over short wave radio.
Their patrols address a growing problem. The International Maritime Bureau has recorded 31 attacks off Somalia this year but believe many more go unreported. The 31 includes the seizure a month ago of a Japanese tanker carrying as much as 40,000 tons of highly explosive benzene in the Gulf of Aden.
Initially, American intelligence agents worried terrorists from Somalia's Islamic extremist insurgency could be involved and might try to crash the boat into an offshore oil platform or use it as a gigantic bomb in a Middle Eastern port. When the Japanese vessel was towed back into Somali waters and ransom demanded, the coalition was relieved to realize it was just another pirate attack.
The more recent attack on a separate Japanese vessel occurred some 85 nautical miles from Somalia in the busy lanes used by boats entering the Suez Canal too far for the two small boats carrying pirates to have come from shore. Some attacks are even farther from land, as much as 250 nautical miles, Hasham said.
The pirates boarded the Japanese vessel before their skiffs were destroyed and remain aboard. The U.S. Navy has in the past persuaded pirates to abandon ships they have boarded and still hoped to do so in the case of the Japanese vessel though that might be complicated now that the pirates no longer have skiffs on which to leave.
No warship has located a mother ship yet, although that could be due to the continuos radio chatter they put out to warn pirates that they are patrolling the area in an effort to deter attacks. However, numerous ship captains have reported seeing the bigger pirate vessels. "I thought it was an ordinary ship, then I saw two small fast motorboats coming from it toward us," Capt. Ling Xinshen, now safely in Mombasa, Kenya, said in recounting his vessel's seizure by pirates. He and his crew were held for ransom for seven months on the ship by pirates who killed one crew member. Ling said he never again sighted the mysterious mother ship that loomed up so suddenly the sunny afternoon his ordeal began.
Everyone has a theory about where the mother ships hide. Cmdr. Robert D. Katz of the USS Stout says Somali national waters remain a blind spot for the coalition forces because they are barred from patrolling that territory. International maritime law says a country is responsible for law enforcement within 12 miles of its own coast, but Somalia is a failed state. It has not had a functioning government since dictator Mohamed Siad Barre was overthrown in 1991. Now the weak transitional government and its Ethiopian allies are battling an Iraq-style Islamic insurgency. The chaos, combined with connections between the pirates and powerful figures in key Somali clans that receive multimillion-dollar ransoms, mean that pirate ships can cruise the ragged coastline with relative impunity.
Andrew Mwangura, head of the Kenya-based East Africa Seafarers' Assistance Program, says the mother ships melt into the ordinary shipping traffic without notice once they have disgorged their packs of speedboats. Coalition warships have frequently passed a mother ship without even realizing, he says. The mother ships don't carry weapons, he says, preferring to arm two or three smaller boats with anti-tank missiles, machine guns and rocket-propelled grenades. They leave the small boats at sea, possibly with another boat loaded with fuel. When a merchant ship comes into view, the small, fast boats attack as a pack. Mother ships simply blend in among the fishing vessels, Mwangura said. "They won't find it until there are no fishing vessels in Somali waters."
#1
Sounds like bullshit. Aerial survellance ought to spot it almost immediately, even if it is in somali territorial waters...
Posted by: M. Murcek ||
12/01/2007 18:21 Comments ||
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#2
The pirates boarded the Japanese vessel before their skiffs were destroyed and remain aboard. The U.S. Navy has in the past persuaded pirates to abandon ships they have boarded and still hoped to do so in the case of the Japanese vessel though that might be complicated now that the pirates no longer have skiffs on which to leave.
#3
combined with connections between the pirates and powerful figures in key Somali clans that receive multimillion-dollar ransoms, mean that pirate ships can cruise the ragged coastline with relative impunity.
until the entire port, and clan support facilities (i.e.: the warlord's compounds) for the "motherships" are completely destroyed from the air, this shit will continue. Time to put out bait and kill the flies it attracts
Posted by: Frank G ||
12/01/2007 19:41 Comments ||
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#4
Aerial survellance ought to spot it almost immediately, even if it is in somali territorial waters...
They would look like a fishing boat or a small coastal freighter. You'd have to either establish a 'directory' and figure out what ship(s) have a pattern of being at the right place.
Maybe better would be to cultivate intel assets at the Somali ports known for piracy. Get data of the vessels in port; track them when they sail. Time consuming, but more effective long-term than just reacting to pirate attacks.
#5
more effective, yes, but I'm constantly reminded about our poor humintel assets in the region (by the media, yes.....). Wouldn't backtracking sat observations help?
Posted by: Frank G ||
12/01/2007 22:53 Comments ||
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#6
I think the problem with backtracking sat pics is time and manhours.
Posted by: Mike N. ||
12/01/2007 23:04 Comments ||
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#7
Mike N. - then the government needs to let out some bids for a software package to preform that search.
#8
yup, but expending the effort a couple times and letting it be known (via awesome YouTube or LiveLeak pirate ship blowup vids, especially showing shark frenzy on the leftovers) might be cost effective ....just dreaming saying...
Posted by: Frank G ||
12/01/2007 23:16 Comments ||
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#9
Time to put out bait and kill the flies it attracts
It's been discussed here before. Q-ships were disguised military vessels used during WWI and WWII to bait and then attack subs. Same idea could apply to dealing with these pirates.
Police in the Shatoysky district of Chechnya have detained four young men who were allegedly preparing to join a guerrilla unit. All four detainees are residents of the city of Argun, and the eldest is 22. One of them is a student at a Grozny institute of higher education. The other three were working as labourers on construction sites.
A source in the law enforcement agencies says that the detainees are being held in the Chechen Interior Ministry's remand prison (IVS). They are being questioned in an attempt to ascertain the identies of people who are trying to recruit young men into the ranks of the guerrillas.
The detainees say that their main motivation for joining the guerrillas in the forest was the viewing of propaganda material and videos showing real-life operations conducted by the resistance forces. They claim that they were especially egged on to take this step by a man who was in contact with the separatists. None of the detainees was armed. They had been promised weapons as soon as they arrived at the guerrilla base in the forest.
On several occasions, the leaders of the guerrillas have announced that they don't have a shortage of manpower. It is by now no secret that the main core of the active forces in the guerrilla units is made up of young men aged 25-30. And the fact that the resistance is still attracting new members demonstrates that it is not only far from being broken but also able to conduct propaganda activity among the population.
Posted by: Fred ||
12/01/2007 00:00 ||
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[4 views]
Top|| File under: Chechen Republic of Ichkeria
The man who devised the Bush administration's Iraq troop surge has urged the US to consider sending elite troops to Pakistan to seize its nuclear weapons if the country descends into chaos.
In a series of scenarios drawn up for Pakistan, Frederick Kagan, a former West Point military historian, has called for the White House to consider various options for an unstable Pakistan.
These include: sending elite British or US troops to secure nuclear weapons capable of being transported out of the country and take them to a secret storage depot in New Mexico or a "remote redoubt" inside Pakistan; sending US troops to Pakistan's north-western border to fight the Taliban and al-Qaida; and a US military occupation of the capital Islamabad, and the provinces of Punjab, Sindh and Baluchistan if asked for assistance by a fractured Pakistan military, so that the US could shore up President Pervez Musharraf and General Ashfaq Kayani, who became army chief this week.
The man who devised the Bush administration's Iraq troop surge has urged the US to consider sending elite troops to Pakistan to seize its nuclear weapons if the country descends into chaos.
In a series of scenarios drawn up for Pakistan, Frederick Kagan, a former West Point military historian, has called for the White House to consider various options for an unstable Pakistan.
These include: sending elite British or US troops to secure nuclear weapons capable of being transported out of the country and take them to a secret storage depot in New Mexico or a "remote redoubt" inside Pakistan; sending US troops to Pakistan's north-western border to fight the Taliban and al-Qaida; and a US military occupation of the capital Islamabad, and the provinces of Punjab, Sindh and Baluchistan if asked for assistance by a fractured Pakistan military, so that the US could shore up President Pervez Musharraf and General Ashfaq Kayani, who became army chief this week.
Posted by: john frum ||
12/01/2007 07:24 ||
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[6 views]
Top|| File under: Govt of Pakistan
#1
Leave it to The Guardian to make such obviously necessary planning sound like another eeeeeevil Bush plot to take over the world.
#2
To any sane person the above reads like a rock solid game plan. The "US military occupation of the capital" needs to be a consistent feature of all other invasions in the MME (Muslim Middle East), with the notable exception of Iran. A special example needs to be made out of Tehran's mullahs. Lamp posts should figure prominently in their very near future.
Posted by: Peter Carroll ||
12/01/2007 15:11 Comments ||
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#4
Damn straight...
Neither Pakistan nor North Korea has manufactured a tractor or a high speed lathe... they possess nuclear weapons and ballistic missiles only because of China, which uses them as proxies to tie down its rivals in local disputes.
Having neither the scientific nor industrial basis for weaponry of this magnitude, nor a stable and sane government structure, both nations need to be defanged...
Posted by: john frum ||
12/01/2007 17:04 Comments ||
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#5
Are they Paki-nukes or Saudi nukes.
Its an important question.
#6
they possess nuclear weapons and ballistic missiles only because of China, which uses them as proxies to tie down its rivals in local disputes.
Something that China needs a major beatdown for. With Russia's triangulating assistance, they are repeating this pattern in Iran and still, somehow, the West just doesn't get it. We need to break China's economic back post haste before they can gin up yet one more threat to Western civilization.
Security forces continued their operation against militants in various areas of Swat district, while authorities relaxed curfew in Mingora city and adjoining areas to provide the people basic commodities. The curfew hours were relaxed from 7am to 4pm in Mingora city and its suburban areas during which government departments, educational institutions, banks and post offices were open. The public, however, faced problems because of low gas pressure. Several families that had moved to safer places returned to their homes after the security forces successful operation against militants.
Militants arrested: A Swat Media Information Centre spokesman told reporters that 11 militants were arrested at Ayub Bridge in Kanju and that the security forces had seized weapons and explosive material from their possession. The spokesman said around 50 suspects were also rounded up by the security forces in Mingora city. He said mobile phone service would be restored in a few days in areas where military operations had ended. He said the curfew would be relaxed today (Saturday) as well from noon to 5pm. The spokesman also urged militants and people to surrender their weapons to security forces, for which they would be rewarded. A media centre press release asked people to play an active role in destroying militants trenches and to identify ammunition dumps.
Posted by: Fred ||
12/01/2007 00:00 ||
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[3 views]
Top|| File under: TNSM
DARGAI: Militants here have threatened to bomb a co-education high school if the school administration does not drop all enrolled girl students. A letter from unidentified militants told the administration of Government High School Andar Gai Agra in Malakand Agency that if they did not drop girls from the school within one week, suicide bombers were ready to blow up the insitution. Co-education is unacceptable, the letter said. The school is the only one in an 8-kilometer radius. Girls in the area have two options, attend this school or remain illiterate.
Posted by: Fred ||
12/01/2007 00:00 ||
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[3 views]
Top|| File under: Taliban
MIRANSHAH: Security forces killed a militant and arrested another on Friday after returning fire from militants on their checkpost in North Waziristan, officials said. Security officials said the militants attacked Banda post, four kilometres south of Miranshah, injuring a paramilitary soldier. Security forces returned fire, killing a militant and arrested another, while also destroying their two vehicles, said officials who wished to remain unnamed.
Posted by: Fred ||
12/01/2007 00:00 ||
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Top|| File under: Taliban
Turkey's military said Saturday that it fired on a group of between 50 to 60 Kurdish rebels inside Iraqi territory, inflicting "significant losses," the Associated Press reported.
The military said on its website that the rebels were detected following intelligence work and that military operations in the region would continue if necessary, according to AP.
The military did not say whether its troops crossed into Iraq, AP reported.
Coalition forces capture two targeted suspects; disrupt criminal network
BAGHDAD, Iraq Coalition forces captured two suspected criminals Friday during operations in the Kadhimyah and Shaab areas, near Baghdad.
Intelligence reports indicate the captured suspect in the Kadhmiyah area was a weapons facilitator for Special Group criminal elements. His logistics supply network includes Basrah, many locations in the Maysan province, and Baghdad.
The second suspect was reportedly a Special Groups weapons facilitator and distributor, who transported weapons from Baghdad to Diyala Province. The suspected criminal provided improvised explosive device and mortar instruction to subordinates, operational guidance, and various types of munitions to multiple criminal element cell leaders.
The suspected criminals were also reportedly associates of several other senior-level criminal element leaders who were involved in attacks on Coalition forces. Both wanted suspects were captured without incident.
These criminal splinter groups are not honoring al-Sayyid Muqtada al-Sadrs cease-fire pledge, said Maj. Winfield Danielson, MNF-I spokesman. Their time has passed. Iraqi and Coalition forces will find these groups and systematically dismantle them. Every day there are another one or three captured. However, I have not seen any announced convictions in quite some time. No longer newsworthy? Or perps are looping through the revolving door?
#1
Cell phones and computers stripped of information, captives' brains ditto... Iranian Special Groups troops are legitimate prisoners of war if in uniform (unlikely), unquestionably spies otherwise. There ought to be a special prison for them, in which they might await events. In the meantime, I imagine that either each one leads to a few more, or the neighbors are turning them in, or both.
#2
I'm sure the fabled revolving door is well-oiled and spinning furiously. There ought to be a special gallows for Iranian infiltrators, to be used as often as necessary.
#3
At what point are we going to use the Arab worlds belief in the fantastic to leak work of US military Psy Corps mind reading interrogators? Just to screw with them.
Or simply release embarrassing details about folks along with some real intelligence. We captured this guy, he is one of Al-Sadr's male lovers according to DNA evidence.
#4
They already believe the pocket fingerprint reader/DNA sampler used by the US military implants a computer chip... or perhaps it's a tracer chip -- I don't quite remember.
#5
I've been out of the loop for a while, but the high-value guys were not eligible for review by Iraqi magistrates, thus could not be sprung. Don't know if that's still true. Hard to imagine these sorts are being kept or treated the same as the great unwashed seas of regular detainees.
Insurgent safe house, house-borne IED blown up
Multi-National Division Center PAO
FORWARD OPERATING BASE KALSU, Iraq An insurgent safe house and an anti-aircraft weapon gun were destroyed by Coalition Forces near Arab Jabour Nov. 29.
A Kiowa helicopter from the 3rd Combat Aviation Brigade took fire from an insurgent anti-aircraft weapon near a structure next to a palm grove. Three insurgents were seen leaving the weapon and entering the safe house. The building also had a machine gun nest on the roof.
Two U.S. Air Force F-16s engaged the enemy machine gun and safe house, destroying both. That's not a fair fight! Ref, the Air Force is cheating again!
The building was in the 1st Battalion, 30th Infantry Regiment, 2nd Brigade Combat Team, 3rd Infantry Division area of operations.
Later in the afternoon on Nov. 29, another building was destroyed in the area of Maderiyah. The building was believed to be rigged as a house-borne improvised explosive device. It was destroyed by a U.S. Air Force F-16. Secondary explosions were seen when the bomb detonated indicating explosives in the building. And I bet there were innocent women and children inside too!
The building belonged to al Qaeda in Iraq brothers who left the area earlier in the month after being wounded in attacks against Concerned Local Citizens and Coalition Forces.
Through intelligence provided by local Iraqis and patrols conducted by Soldiers from Battery B, 1st Battalion 9th Field Artillery, 2nd BCT, 3rd Inf. Div., it was confirmed the building was rigged as an HBIED.
The patrol noticed wires leading out of the windows of the building. Inside the building, multiple jugs of unknown bulk explosive were observed.
After it was confirmed the structure was rigged with explosives, the decision was made to destroy it.
When Capt. Ron Sprang assumed command of a company of U.S. soldiers operating on the outskirts of the Shi'ite militia stronghold Sadr City, he was walking into a street fight. This spring and summer the area was a battleground for the American Army and Moqtada al-Sadr's Mahdi Army militia. Sprang's men deployed by the dozens to conduct raids; in retaliation, local militiamen salted the roads with powerful bombs that crippled the heavily armored Bradley Fighting Vehicles used by the Americans. The result was the opposite of what the American troop surge was supposed to accomplish: instead of reassuring residents and improving their security, the neighborhood turned into a battlefield.
But late in the summer, the relationship between the U.S. and the militia changed. Members of the militia had grown weary of the destruction; and the Americans began reaching out to them. Bolstered by a national militia cease-fire declared by Sadr, the resulting cooperation has seen violence decline and a sense of normalcy return to the area. The question now is whether the militia's more conciliatory approach will last, especially when American troop levels begin to drop next year.
For now, at least, war weariness seems to be working in the Americans' favor. "The violence between us and the militia was hurting the residents around us," Sprang said. The last straw, he believes, came in August, when the militia blew up a police station just before it was scheduled to open. The blast killed a little boy and injured his mother. The incident, Sprang said, made residents even more eager for an end to the fighting.
Continued on Page 49
#1
twas a dark and stormy night
underneath the bright and happy surface lurked a vast darkness
I'll get fired if I don't keep to the narrative my edioters gave me.
These pieces are as funny as the economic news blurbs that they run on the radio on the half-hour. They are so over-eager to promote bad news that they just make people laugh out when they put their obligatory doom and gloom statements in.
#2
I think the peace will hold as long as oil stays above eighty bucks a barrel. These guys must see what the Gulf Arabs are raking in each week.
Besides, they need to remember that the next time it won't be a six way free for all. The sides are more well defined, and we will have another year of technology improvements.
Ma'an The Israeli High Court of Justice ruled on Friday that Israel's plan to restrict the supply of fuel to the Gaza Strip can go ahead as planned, but said it would give its ruling regarding a similar plan to partially cut off Gaza's electricity in 12 days.
The court was asked to rule on the proposed measures after human rights groups filed numerous petitions challenging the legality of imposing such restrictions. The measure is meant to stop the flow of homemade projectiles from the Gaza Strip into Israeli towns.
The Palestinian General Petroleum Corporation and the finance ministry of the de facto government in the Gaza Strip released a statement on Friday, saying they hold Palestinian Prime Minister Salam Fayyad responsible for the fuel crisis in the Gaza Strip.
According to the statement, the crisis originated from Fayyad's government haggling over payments owed to the Israeli fuel supplier, Dor, who supply fuel to the Gaza Strip. Meanwhile, the statement alleged that payments owed to Paz, the Israeli company that supplies fuel to the West Bank, had been paid.
The statement accused the West Bank-based government of paying fuel money collected from Gaza Strip companies to the West Bank fuel supplier. The ministry and the Petroleum Corporation said that Fayyad's government had received full payment for the fuel to be supplied to the Gaza Strip, but had deliberately avoided paying the Gaza Strip's fuel supplier.
The de facto finance ministry highlighted that fuel supplies to the Gaza Strip have been reduced at an unprecedented rate, causing further hardship to the poverty-stricken coastal region. The ministry announced last Wednesday that only 90 thousand litres of diesel, 20 thousand litres of gasoline and 3 truckloads of gas are being supplied per day.
Posted by: Fred ||
12/01/2007 00:00 ||
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Link ||
[5 views]
Top|| File under: Hamas
#1
It's not as if there is a long way to drive in Gaza.
#14
the way the Paleo MoleMen love to tunnel, inability to build underground fuel and powerlines isn't an excuse...cut em off!
Posted by: Frank G ||
12/01/2007 21:36 Comments ||
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#15
So who is managing the defense of Israel---the IDF, High Court or Ma'an?
IDF is under civilian control---as every other democratic country's military . Unfortunately, as is the case in in every other democracy, the judicial branch is controlled by tranzies and has been taking over powers that properly belong to executive/legislative branches for decades now.
Ma'an More than 30 Israeli military vehicles invaded Balata refugee camp near the West Bank city of Nablus on Friday morning. In the course of a five-hour incursion, Israeli soldiers stormed the Ibad ar-Rahman mosque and another mosque, breaking down the doors of both buildings. Witnesses said the soldiers destroyed several shops, including a United Nations-operated clinic, a private ph@rmacy, and a photo studio. The Israeli troops also ransacked several private homes, including that of Muhammad Al-Masimi, an activist with Fatahs armed wing, the Al-Aqsa Brigades. Soldiers entered the house amid heavy gunfire, but were unable to locate Al-Masimi, who they intended to detain, witnesses said.
Palestinian sources said that no one was seized during the incursion, but the Israeli army claimed to have detained two Palestinians. Separately, the Israeli army seized three Palestinians from their car in the West Bank city of Hebron, on charges of possession of homemade weapons.
This article starring:
Muhammad Al-Masimi
Posted by: Fred ||
12/01/2007 00:00 ||
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[4 views]
Top|| File under: al-Aqsa Martyrs
Philippine soldiers killed 15 Muslim rebels in clashes in the southern island of Jolo on Friday as hundreds of troops were rushed to secure Manila following a botched coup attempt, the military said. The military lost five soldiers in the clashes. The government put down a bloodless mutiny by a small group of renegade soldiers in a Manila hotel on Thursday and reinforcements were sent from other parts of the country.
In the south, where Manila is battling communist and Muslim insurgencies, Fridays hours-long gun-battle with insurgents in the jungles of Jolo overshadowed the attempted coup. We lost five men and 12 others were wounded, Colonel Cesario Atienza, a Marine brigade commander told reporters by phone, adding his troops recovered the bodies of six rebels and a cache of weapons and munitions. Lieutenant-Colonel Jonas Lumawag told reporters that intelligence reports indicated that 15 rebels were killed and 20 wounded, including a leader of the Moro National Liberation Front (MNLF) who held a Marine general in February on Jolo. Based on signal intercepts, three other sub-leaders were wounded in the fighting, Lumawag said.
Jolo, a base for Muslim militants in the largely Roman Catholic country, was the scene of one of the bloodiest days in recent Philippine military history, when at least 20 soldiers were killed in one day in August.
Hunt for more suspects continues: Philippine authorities launched a manhunt on Friday for more suspects accused of helping stage a dramatic but short-lived rebellion against the government that was put down by the military. The small band of primarily armed forces officers, who seized a luxury hotel on Thursday to demand the resignation of President Gloria Arroyo, were bundled off by police after a lightning raid, but officials said others were involved. Police chief Avelino Razon said documents found among debris in the Peninsula Hotel, which SWAT teams stormed in a hail of gunfire and tear gas to end the stand-off, indicated four groups took part in the mutiny. Officials said up to 20 other people who were not part of the hotel siege were under investigation, including politicians and businessmen said to have financed the rebellion.
This article starring:
Moro National Liberation Front
Colonel Cesario Atienza
Lieutenant-Colonel Jonas Lumawag
Police chief Avelino Razon
Posted by: Fred ||
12/01/2007 00:00 ||
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[3 views]
Top|| File under: MNLF
COLOMBO, Sri Lanka - Government forces killed 14 Tamil Tiger rebels in a series of attacks against the separatist group across northern Sri Lanka, the military announced on Friday. The fighting, part of an escalation in violence between the two sides in recent months, came amid a security clampdown on the capital, Colombo, following a pair of rebel bombings that killed 20 people.
The military released security camera footage Friday showing one of the attacks, a suicide bombing at the Colombo offices of a Cabinet minister that killed one person as well as the bomber. In the footage, the female bomber is seen patiently sitting in a chair on the other side of an officials desk in what appears to be a waiting room as people mill about around her. The bustle of the office quickly turns into a chaotic dash for safety when the woman detonates the bomb, which police say was hidden in her bra.
The bombings demonstrate how the rebels were suffering under a government offensive against their stronghold in northern Sri Lanka, security officials said. They were desperate and unable to face the security forces in the north, military spokesman Brig. Udaya Nanayakkara said.
On Thursday, troops killed four guerrilla fighters in a battle near the rebels stronghold in northern Sri Lanka, the military said Friday. Four others were killed in two separate battles in the region.
Soldiers killed six other rebels, also on Thursday, in three separate clashes in the Vavuniya district, just south of rebel-controlled territory, the military said in a statement.
Posted by: Steve White ||
12/01/2007 00:00 ||
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Top|| File under:
(AKI) - In the most recent audio tape purportedly by Osama bin Laden, the al-Qaeda leader accuses some European leaders of prefering to "live under the shadow of the White House."
"It is no longer a secret that (former British prime minister Tony) Blair, (British Prime Minister Gordon) Brown, (former Italian premier Silvio) Berlusconi, (former Spanish prime minister Jose Maria) Aznar and (French President Nicolas) Sarkozy and their ilk like to be under the shadow of the White House," the speaker said in Arabic. "They're not much different from many Third World leaders."
The tape was broadcast on the Al Jazeera television channel on Thursday. However on Friday morning several Islamist websites were running a complete version of the alleged speech by bin Laden translated in English, German and Pashtu. "The truth is as I said before that the events of Manhattan were in retaliation against the American-Israeli alliance's aggression against our people in Palestine and Lebanon, and I am the only one responsible for it. The Afghan people and government knew nothing about it. America knows that," the speaker said. "This is the reason why the Taliban government had asked the Americans to provide the proof that they were involved [in 9/11] before beginning their invasion of Afghanistan but they [the US] never provided any and then Europe, followed in the operation. You entered this war and US soldiers were exempted from accountability in European courts."
In another part of the tape, bin Laden accuses the Europeans of destroying the al-Qaeda training camps in Afghanistan. "You are responsible for two injustices. The first is for having gone to war in Afghanistan without any right, after not having made any case in any tribunal," he allegedly said. "On top of that you have destroyed al-Qaeda training camps and some of our members and captured some, particularly those in Pakistan. What have the Afghans done to be involved in this war other than being Muslim and this is proof of a hateful crusade against Islam and its people."
Posted by: Fred ||
12/01/2007 00:00 ||
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[7 views]
Top|| File under: al-Qaeda
#1
How would that brave "Lion of Islam" know?
He's living in a freaking cave at the asshole of the world.
#2
the al-Qaeda leader accuses some European leaders of prefering to "live under the shadow of the White House."
Europe is faced with a rather stark choice at present. The real "shadow" that they shall soon live under is Iran's atomic threat. Either they learn to huddle beneath America's nuclear umbrella or hope that their juvenile and fractious union can somehow find the unlikely strength to unite against even the most blatantly common foe.
#9
"They're not much different from many Third World leaders."
He's got that part right. England has decided to become a third world country and is importing the third world as fast as it can scramble off the boat and on to the dole queue.
#10
European leaders of preferring to "live under the shadow of the White House."
You just noticed this? They enjoyed living for decades under American Military Welfare. It's been no sweat off their brow to have the average American ship his tax burdened assets off to stand guard over the Euroweenies as their politicians built a cradle to grave nanny system with their resources. How many billions were spent and how many thousands of lives were lost in providing this 'shadow' for them? So, what do you expect guy? They're already trained for you to be docile when you get there. Remember, the first to go are the cartoonists.
Europe has literally no right at all to be proud of their "utopia" without copious thanks to the American taxpayer. Deep down inside they know this, and it gnaws at what passes for their souls (European 'burgers excepted).
Posted by: no mo uro ||
12/01/2007 12:44 Comments ||
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A multi-volume chronology and reference guide set detailing three years of the Mexican Drug War between 2010 and 2012.
Rantburg.com and borderlandbeat.com correspondent and author Chris Covert presents his first non-fiction work detailing
the drug and gang related violence in Mexico.
Chris gives us Mexican press dispatches of drug and gang war violence
over three years, presented in a multi volume set intended to chronicle the death, violence and mayhem which has
dominated Mexico for six years.
Rantburg was assembled from recycled algorithms in the United States of America. No
trees were destroyed in the production of this weblog. We did hurt some, though. Sorry.
Police in the Shatoysky district of Chechnya have detained four young men who were allegedly preparing to join a guerrilla unit. All four detainees are residents of the city of Argun, and the eldest is 22. One of them is a student at a Grozny institute of higher education. The other three were working as labourers on construction sites.
Security forces continued their operation against militants in various areas of Swat district, while authorities relaxed curfew in Mingora city and adjoining areas to provide the people basic commodities. The curfew hours were relaxed from 7am to 4pm in Mingora city and its suburban areas during which government departments, educational institutions, banks and post offices were open. The public, however, faced problems because of low gas pressure. Several families that had moved to safer places returned to their homes after the security forces successful operation against militants. 
DARGAI: Militants here have threatened to bomb a co-education high school if the school administration does not drop all enrolled girl students. A letter from unidentified militants told the administration of Government High School Andar Gai Agra in Malakand Agency that if they did not drop girls from the school within one week, suicide bombers were ready to blow up the insitution. Co-education is unacceptable, the letter said. The school is the only one in an 8-kilometer radius. Girls in the area have two options, attend this school or remain illiterate.
MIRANSHAH: Security forces killed a militant and arrested another on Friday after returning fire from militants on their checkpost in North Waziristan, officials said. Security officials said the militants attacked Banda post, four kilometres south of Miranshah, injuring a paramilitary soldier. Security forces returned fire, killing a militant and arrested another, while also destroying their two vehicles, said officials who wished to remain unnamed.
Ma'an The Israeli High Court of Justice ruled on Friday that Israel's plan to restrict the supply of fuel to the Gaza Strip can go ahead as planned, but said it would give its ruling regarding a similar plan to partially cut off Gaza's electricity in 12 days. 
Ma'an More than 30 Israeli military vehicles invaded Balata refugee camp near the West Bank city of Nablus on Friday morning. In the course of a five-hour incursion, Israeli soldiers stormed the Ibad ar-Rahman mosque and another mosque, breaking down the doors of both buildings. Witnesses said the soldiers destroyed several shops, including a United Nations-operated clinic, a private ph@rmacy, and a photo studio. The Israeli troops also ransacked several private homes, including that of 
Philippine soldiers killed 15 Muslim rebels in clashes in the southern island of Jolo on Friday as hundreds of troops were rushed to secure Manila following a botched coup attempt, the military said. The military lost five soldiers in the clashes. The government put down a bloodless mutiny by a small group of renegade soldiers in a Manila hotel on Thursday and reinforcements were sent from other parts of the country. 
COLOMBO, Sri Lanka - Government forces killed 14 Tamil Tiger rebels in a series of attacks against the separatist group across northern Sri Lanka, the military announced on Friday. The fighting, part of an escalation in violence between the two sides in recent months, came amid a security clampdown on the capital, Colombo, following a pair of rebel bombings that killed 20 people.
(AKI) - In the most recent audio tape purportedly by Osama bin Laden, the al-Qaeda leader accuses some European leaders of prefering to "live under the shadow of the White House."
