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U.S. court upholds Qaeda conviction in Bush murder plot
Today's Headlines
Headline Comments [Views]
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Good... morning?
Posted by: Fred || 06/07/2008 17:09 || Comments || Link || [0 views] Top|| File under:

#1  Sexy yes! Somehow I am missing the gawky-look and horse face. I guess beauty is in the eye of the beholder.
Posted by: JohnQC || 06/07/2008 17:19 Comments || Top||

#2  The headline writer must've failed math. $45 trillion = 45,000 billion divided by 6 billion is $7,500 each. So they're not completely stoopid.

But ... considering that's ten years income in many countries, it's just as stupid as it is greedy.
Posted by: Bobby || 06/07/2008 18:58 Comments || Top||


Afghanistan
Paras Blast Talibs In Major Battle
In one of the biggest air assaults in their history, troops from the Parachute Regiment have spent the last four days deep in Taliban territory.

Breaking one of the last insurgent strongholds in southern Afghanistan, the "Battle of Qarat-e-Hazrat" in Zabul Province ended in an enemy rout.

The Daily Telegraph's Defence Correspondent Thomas Harding watched as British firepower finally turned the tide in the Taliban's own "back yard". Witnessing the firefight, he reports on a fight which destroyed the idea of Afghanistan's "mythical warriors".

Paratroopers fought their biggest battle in Afghanistan for two years as the Taliban attempted to push them out of their "backyard". But the inability of the insurgents to make an impact on the British force during its fourth day deep in enemy territory was demonstrated by a brutal rebuff which resulted in an enemy rout.

As last light crept in, a stream of red tracer bullets lit up the sky, zipping 10ft above heads of those in the mudbrick compound held by A Company, 3rd Bn The Parachute Regiment. "None of the British will leave that compound alive," local intelligence had reported a day earlier.

In reply to the threat, company commander Major Jamie Loden told a meeting of village elders that the Taliban "fight like women" and if they were men "they would dare to fight us".

Two hours later mortar rounds, heavy machine gun bullets and other weapons rained down on the Paras' positions but by the early hours of the morning the Taliban were a beaten force.

In one of the biggest air assaults in the regiment's history, the Paras have landed by helicopter deep in the heartland of Taliban territory in Zabul province to take on the last insurgent strongholds in southern Afghanistan.

For the last week the Paras have been relentlessly patrolling through pretty villages surrounded by apricot orchards and climbing mountains, redolent of wild rosemary, to provoke the Taliban into a response. In almost every village the local population still lives in terror of the insurgents denying that the Taliban operated in the area. With the insurgents murdering people who co-operate with security forces their lies were understandable but became more difficult to sustain after the major gunfight.

Using "dead ground" to get close to observation posts on a hill overlooking the Para's compound, the Taliban opened up from 800 yards with a heavy salvo. Enemy fire was coming in from all directions at a ferocious rate, said one of the soldiers.

Capt Andy Mallet, Patrols Platoon commander on the hill, said mortars landed 20 yards from his position and tracer rounds "were winging past my eyes".

With the enemy sneaking upon the rear position, the soldiers were taken by surprise and in the desperate opening moments of the firefight they struggled to hold them back.

Cpl "Jack" Russell helped lead the counter-attack by running back to his position to grab a GPMG machine gun as his comrades held off the enemy with small arms fire. "The enemy rounds were all around us," said Cpl Russell. "They were winning the firefight for a little while as they hit us by surprise. It was pretty hairy, like. When I was running back to my position the guys saw rounds landing by my feet."

With the enemy opening up a second front by firing from an orchard on a flank, the pressure intensified.

But the tide of the "Battle of Qarat-e-Hazrat" was turned as the Paras hit the Taliban with a barrage of 40 rounds from their 81mm mortars. It was followed up by machine gunfire and two £30,000 Javelin anti-tank missiles. The heavy and accurate fire the broke the Taliban will to fight and they fled ran.

At first they tried to drag back two badly wounded fighters but then abandoned them and another dead insurgent. Using thermal imaging equipment the troops spotted three heat sources on the ground. "We had two heat sources that were seen crawling on the floor and one that was static," said Capt Mallet. "After about 45 minutes all three sources then faded."

French Mirage fighters also circled over the scene but were not used as the Taliban withdrew.

Spent bullet casings and smashed apricot trees littered the battle area as the Paras went on dawn patrol.

Major Loden said the battle showed that "contrary to popular belief this confirms that the Taliban are not mythical warriors".

"This shows they cannot match us force on force. When they try and take us on they always lose. They start it we finish it."

He added: "The ethos of the Parachute Regiment is all about being deep in enemy territory surrounded and destroying them regardless of everything they throw at us. So morale is exceptionally high."

Capt Mallet added: "The blokes reacted exceptionally well – they are soldiers and paratroopers. You don't have to ask them twice to start returning fire. They are massively experienced and that showed last night.

A member of the mortars' platoon said: "The Taliban took us from the rear and we gave them a good spanking,"
Posted by: Anonymoose || 06/07/2008 16:01 || Comments || Link || [0 views] Top|| File under: Taliban

#1  Major Loden

A *perfect* name for a Para.
Posted by: Helmuth, Speaking for Thusoling9307 || 06/07/2008 16:29 Comments || Top||

#2  The Men in Skirts triumph again.
Posted by: Bright Pebbles || 06/07/2008 16:50 Comments || Top||

#3  Interesting that the Brits are now being effective in Afghanistan. And they are doing it all alone, according to Fleet Street. Well the French Mirage did help. But otherwise and all-Albion performance.
Posted by: Nimble Spemble || 06/07/2008 17:17 Comments || Top||

#4  No one does a breathless British battle report like the Telegraph.

patrolling through pretty villages surrounded by apricot orchards and climbing mountains, redolent of wild rosemary

Yar!
Posted by: George Smiley || 06/07/2008 18:02 Comments || Top||

#5  Finally, appropriate ROE:

You don't have to ask them twice to start returning fire.
Posted by: Harcourt Jush7795 || 06/07/2008 18:13 Comments || Top||

#6  The Taliban took us from the rear and we gave them a good spanking

Love it.
Posted by: DarthVader || 06/07/2008 19:54 Comments || Top||

#7  TOMMY

by Rudyard Kipling (1865-1936)



I went into a public-'ouse to get a pint o' beer,
The publican 'e up an' sez, "We serve no red-coats here."
The girls be'ind the bar they laughed an' giggled fit to die,
I outs into the street again an' to myself sez I:
O it's Tommy this, an' Tommy that, an' "Tommy, go away";
But it's "Thank you, Mister Atkins", when the band begins to play,
The band begins to play, my boys, the band begins to play,
O it's "Thank you, Mister Atkins", when the band begins to play.

I went into a theatre as sober as could be,
They gave a drunk civilian room, but 'adn't none for me;
They sent me to the gallery or round the music-'alls,
But when it comes to fightin', Lord! they'll shove me in the stalls!
For it's Tommy this, an' Tommy that, an' "Tommy, wait outside";
But it's "Special train for Atkins" when the trooper's on the tide,
The troopship's on the tide, my boys, the troopship's on the tide,
O it's "Special train for Atkins" when the trooper's on the tide.

We aren't no thin red 'eroes, nor we aren't no blackguards too,
But single men in barricks, most remarkable like you;
An' if sometimes our conduck isn't all your fancy paints,
Why, single men in barricks don't grow into plaster saints;
While it's Tommy this, an' Tommy that, an' "Tommy, fall be'ind",
But it's "Please to walk in front, sir", when there's trouble in the wind,
There's trouble in the wind, my boys, there's trouble in the wind,
O it's "Please to walk in front, sir", when there's trouble in the wind.

You talk o' better food for us, an' schools, an' fires, an' all:
We'll wait for extry rations if you treat us rational.
Don't mess about the cook-room slops, but prove it to our face
The Widow's Uniform is not the soldier-man's disgrace.
For it's Tommy this, an' Tommy that, an' "Chuck him out, the brute!"
But it's "Saviour of 'is country" when the guns begin to shoot;
An' it's Tommy this, an' Tommy that, an' anything you please;
An' Tommy ain't a bloomin' fool -- you bet that Tommy sees!

Posted by: doc || 06/07/2008 20:31 Comments || Top||


Africa North
Algerian blast kills six soldiers
Six Algerian soldiers have been killed and four wounded in a bomb attack in Cap Djinet, about 80km east of Algiers, the capital. The attack on Friday occurred as the soldiers were returning to barracks after a fishing expedition in the seaside town, security services said. Their vehicle struck a bomb buried in the road. Local newspaper reports blamed the attack on "Islamic militants" but did not specify which opposition group was responsible. Government officials were not immediately available for comment.

Two simultaneous bombings also occurred on Wednesday in Bordi El Kiffan, an eastern suburb of Algiers. One suicide bomber died in the incidents and six people were wounded. The attacks targeted a seaside cafe and a barracks.
Posted by: Fred || 06/07/2008 00:00 || Comments || Link || [0 views] Top|| File under: al-Qaeda in North Africa


Caucasus/Russia/Central Asia
Assailants attack police head in Russia's Chechnya
An explosion ripped apart a car carrying a district police chief in Chechnya on Friday and gunmen then shot at the burning vehicle, a source at the law enforcement agencies told Interfax news agency. Police chief Shamil Kutsayev and two other policemen were wounded in the attack and taken to hospital.

Russia is eager to present Chechnya as peaceful after two wars between rebels and federal forces since 1994. The Kremlin backs 31-yar-old Ramzan Kadyrov and his fighters to quash the remaining rebels, but low-level fighting continues to flare up.
Posted by: Fred || 06/07/2008 17:05 || Comments || Link || [0 views] Top|| File under: Chechen Republic of Ichkeria


Europe
Dutch police arrest Pakistani
Dutch police arrested a 26-year-old Pakistani man on Friday wanted in Spain on terrorism charges, according to the Netherlands’ prosecution service. “Aqueelur Rehman Abbasi was arrested on Friday in his prison cell in Vught where he was being held by the immigration and naturalisation services, at the request of Spanish authorities,” prosecution spokesman Frank Wattimena told AFP.
Posted by: Fred || 06/07/2008 17:05 || Comments || Link || [0 views] Top|| File under: al-Qaeda in Europe


Home Front: WoT
U.S. court upholds conviction in Bush al Qaeda plot
A U.S. appeals court on Friday upheld the conviction of an American citizen for plotting to assassinate President George W. Bush and conspiring with al Qaeda, rejecting his claims of torture by the Saudi police.

As part of its ruling, the appeals court based in Richmond, Virginia, overturned Abu Ali's 30-year prison sentence on the grounds it was unreasonably lenient and sent the case back for resentencing. "In this case, we are satisfied that Abu Ali received a fair trial, though not a perfect one, and that the criminal justice system performed those functions which the Constitution envisioned for it," the three-judge panel concluded.

Abu Ali's lawyers argued he had been tortured into confessing while he was held in Saudi Arabia, but the appeals court disagreed and concluded his statements were voluntary.

Abu Ali, who was born in Texas and lived in the Washington suburb of Falls Church, Virginia, was arrested in June 2003 while studying at a Saudi university and was held in Saudi custody for 20 months before being returned to the United States after being indicted.

In Saudi Arabia, he signed confessions and made statements admitting to the plot against Bush and to having ties to an al Qaeda cell.

But when the case went to trial, Abu Ali's lawyers said he made up the confessions after being tortured by the Saudi domestic security police.

Saudi officials denied Abu Ali's claims of mistreatment. U.S. prosecutors said there was no evidence to prove he had been tortured.
Posted by: Fred || 06/07/2008 00:04 || Comments || Link || [1 views] Top|| File under: al-Qaeda

#1  I knew he'd misled the nation based on false intel, but even I was surprised he was part of Al Qaeda. I shoulda known!

/Kos-Ariannasshole/moonbat
Posted by: Frank G || 06/07/2008 0:42 Comments || Top||

#2  Gotta like it. "you are guilty, but your sentence should be longer." Great appeal outcome...
Posted by: M. Murcek || 06/07/2008 10:29 Comments || Top||

#3  Actually, I would make it a very short sentence, thus preserving taxpayers money.
Posted by: twobyfour || 06/07/2008 16:42 Comments || Top||

#4  I mean, cost of bullets is still reasonable nowadays, init?
Posted by: twobyfour || 06/07/2008 16:44 Comments || Top||

#5  ...overturned Abu Ali's 30-year prison sentence on the grounds it was unreasonably lenient and sent the case back for resentencing

LOL. The appeals court thought the sentence ought to be longer. LOL again.
Posted by: JohnQC || 06/07/2008 17:10 Comments || Top||

#6  Heh heh heh - gotta love the 4th. :-D
Posted by: Barbara Skolaut || 06/07/2008 17:43 Comments || Top||


India-Pakistan
Tank-Wana road closed to traffic
The Tank-Wana road was closed on Friday following exchange of fire between peace committee members and militants in South Waziristan, Geo News reported. The channel quoted its sources as saying that the two sides used heavy and automatic weapons during the clash in the Jandola area. A local Taliban commander was also targeted by a bomb near Jandola, but no casualties were reported, the channel said.
Posted by: Fred || 06/07/2008 00:03 || Comments || Link || [0 views] Top|| File under: Taliban


Rocket kills two in Dera Bugti
A rocket fired by militants killed a newly wed couple in Dera Bugti late Thursday night, officials said. According to reports, the rocket hit the roof of the house where Amna and Dost Muhammad were sleeping. Both died at the scene. Area administration have registered a case against unknown militants.
Posted by: Fred || 06/07/2008 00:03 || Comments || Link || [0 views] Top|| File under:

#1  Bad enough firing AK-47s into the air to celebrate weddings, but rockets are worse.

Amna and Dost Muhammad were sleeping
Sure (newlyweds.)
Posted by: Glenmore || 06/07/2008 7:59 Comments || Top||

#2  You're right Glenmore. He was probably giving her a first beating.
Posted by: George Smiley || 06/07/2008 18:04 Comments || Top||


Girls' school blown up in Dir
Unknown militants on Friday morning blew up a Girls’ school in Upper Dir. However, no loss of life was reported. Local police officials said unknown militants detonated a four-room girls middle school, which completely destroyed the school building. Dir Bala police have registered a case and started investigation.
Posted by: Fred || 06/07/2008 00:03 || Comments || Link || [0 views] Top|| File under: Taliban


Four killed in DI Khan blast
ISLAMABAD: Four people were killed when two bombs exploded in Dera Ismail Khan on Friday. The first bomb exploded in the University Road area without causing any structural damage, but as police and civilians gathered at the scene, another bomb exploded killing four people, including two policemen, and wounding another nine, police official Mohsin Shah told Reuters.
Second bomb is always for the bystanders and rescue workers. Rat bastards.
ARY TV said five people including four policemen were killed in the remote-controlled bomb attack. The injured had been taken the District Headquarters Hospital and two of them were in critical condition, it added.

DI Khan District Police Officer Abdul Ghuffar told Dawn News that the first bomb had been planted on a bicycle and the attack targeted police. He said 15 people had been injured in the blast, nine of who were policemen. He said the area had been cordoned of after the incident.
Posted by: Steve White || 06/07/2008 00:00 || Comments || Link || [0 views] Top|| File under:


Iraq
Baghdad: Shiites Turn On Shiites
Five years after a war allegedly launched to liberate Iraq’s Shiite majority, American forces have been bombing Shiite neighbourhoods in Basra and Baghdad while their snipers and tanks remain on the ground in places like Sadr City.

Iraq seems to have emerged from the worst phase of its civil war, but the victorious Shiite factions have turned their arms on one another in a fight over the spoils, battling for political power in advance of the upcoming provincial elections.
Locals want economic development. I guess they won't get it until the election squabbles are settled.
But as the Americans attempt to secure an agreement with the government of Nouri al Maliki to legalise the long-term presence of troops in Iraq, Muqtada al Sadr and his followers remain a formidable obstacle. Whether or not Sadr has been weakened by the clashes in Basra and Sadr City, marginalising the Sadrists will be almost impossible, for they remain the only genuine mass movement in Iraq, with roots that long predate the fall of Saddam.

Until 2007 Sadr’s militia, the Mahdi Army, co-operated with the Badr Organisation, the armed wing of the Iranian-created Islamic Supreme Council of Iraq (ISCI), to purge Sunnis from Baghdad and Iraq. They were very effective, and their success is the best explanation for the decrease in violence.

There are fewer people dying today because there are fewer left to kill; Sunnis and Shiites now inhabit separate walled enclaves, run by warlords and militias who have consolidated their control after mixed neighbourhoods were cleansed along sectarian lines...
Two Iraqi parliamentarians visited the US this week to denounce the SOFA deal on US bases. I am concerned that the Mahdists might call jihad against SOFA, and end the rough peace that has been achieved. Would the Mahdists sacrifice human life in order to effect a US election result? Maybe. Unless Iraqis are sick of endless killing, and they ignore jihad fatwas.
Posted by: McZoid || 06/07/2008 07:27 || Comments || Link || [0 views] Top|| File under:

#1  Wassabi-jalapeno popcorn.
Posted by: g(r)omgoru || 06/07/2008 16:37 Comments || Top||

#2  There are fewer people dying today because there are fewer left to kill;

It is written in a lesser volume: even a blind muzz finds the ripe onion and unto him are not denied them wymens.

Allah AkaBar etc.! you can look it up.
Posted by: George Smiley || 06/07/2008 18:15 Comments || Top||

#3  Send more Shiites!
Posted by: doc || 06/07/2008 20:42 Comments || Top||


Habitat for Humanity Project - Apache style

Nothing like Urban Renewal to clean up a neighborhood and increase the property values.

Posted by: GolfBravoUSMC || 06/07/2008 03:33 || Comments || Link || [0 views] Top|| File under:

#1  The dialogue between the FO and the Apache is fun to listen to.
Posted by: RD || 06/07/2008 4:08 Comments || Top||

#2  The FO needs to go home, he's having waaaaaay to much fun.
Posted by: George Smiley || 06/07/2008 18:19 Comments || Top||


Iraqi woman describes daughter's descent into suicide bombing
The mother's voice lacks emotion as she recalls how her daughter became a suicide bomber.

"She wanted to die in the name of God," she says on a videotape, her face peering out from under a dark brown head scarf. "She told me she is sick of this life. ... So she spoke about the Americans. I told her, 'Where will you get Americans?' She said she will go after the Americans." Watch as the mother tells her story

The daughter is one of 19 female suicide bombers this year, a number much higher than in previous years. According to the U.S. military, women carried out eight bombings in all of 2007.

In the February 13 attack, the daughter posed as a journalist with an English-speaking male accomplice, claiming that they had an interview with a prominent Iraqi tribal leader who works with U.S. forces. Four guards protecting Sheikh Ifan al-Isawi were killed in the attack. Al-Isawi brought the mother in for questioning, and CNN obtained the video of the interrogation.

"God willing, she went to heaven," said the woman, whose son also was a suicide bomber in 2004. "She told me, 'Mom, I want to do it.' "

The latest bombing involving a female came Friday, when a man and woman targeted an Iraqi police checkpoint in Ramadi, west of Baghdad. The explosion wounded three police and two civilians, said an official with the Iraqi Interior Ministry.

Authorities said that al Qaeda in Iraq actively is recruiting women and that increasing numbers of women are offering themselves up for missions. The officials said the women are desperate and hopeless. Most have pre-existing ties to the insurgency, and their main motive is revenge for a male family member killed by U.S. or Iraqi forces in the war, authorities said.

"We do see certain members of cells attempting to persuade women, specifically in many cases wives or those who have been killed as terrorists, to conduct suicide operations," said U.S. Maj. Gen. Mark Hertling, whose area of operations includes the volatile province of Diyala. "Since October, there have been nine suicide bombers who were female, seven of whom were recruited in the last 90 days," Hertling said.

Hertling's troops in Diyala have launched operations targeting members of families of suspected female bombers trying to break up the rings that are recruiting the women and girls. The U.S. military said it has six females in custody who were would-be suicide bombers. The youngest is 14, one U.S. official said on condition of anonymity.

Intelligence gathered from detainees indicates that al Qaeda in Iraq is looking for women with three main characteristics: those who are illiterate, are deeply religious or have financial struggles because most likely they've lost the male head of the household. "They are also looking for someone who is young," Hertling said. "They will bypass an older widow."

Sheikh Adel Fahdawi, a Sunni leader, added, "If the woman's psychological state is bad, they try to lure her with the illusions that she will be going to heaven. ... All of them come from the families of terrorists, and they are being recruited and pressured."

In one bombing this year, a woman approached a police station in Diyala sobbing about her son. One witness said the woman referred to the local police commander as a "good man," adding, "I came for help." While she was being searched, her explosives detonated.

A woman who went to the bomb scene expressed outrage that another female would carry out such an attack.

Another female bomber used a similar tactic at an Iraqi army headquarters in Yusufiya, south of Baghdad, asking for the commanding officer, authorities said. As he approached, she blew herself up. The U.S. military detained a woman who it said confessed to being her handler. "She was the person on the ground responsible for coordinating the final day or two of the attack," Capt. Michael Starz said. "[She] helped her prepare the device. ... She helped her affix it to her body."

According to U.S. intelligence, al Qaeda in Iraq uses suicide missions carried out by women to pressure its male fighters to step up and offer themselves up for attacks. Classified documents given to CNN also indicate that the terrorist group is having increasing difficulty smuggling foreign fighters across the border from Syria after a recent military crackdown in the north.

The nationalities of most female bombers are unknown, but those identified in recent attacks are mainly Iraqi.

Females always have played a role in the insurgency in Iraq, helping feed militants, hiding them in their homes and helping sneak weapons around the country. They have proven to be highly effective in their operations as a result of the cultural convention that women are not to be searched.

Against a backdrop of such suffering and violence, U.S. and Iraqi officials said they fear that even more Iraqi women will turn themselves into bombs.

Fahdawi, the Sunni sheikh, said that more needs to be done to raise awareness through Iraq's imams, mosques and the media that al Qaeda in Iraq is preying on women. "They need to expose the crime of al Qaeda. It is like the whole world is targeting Iraq," he said.
Posted by: GolfBravoUSMC || 06/07/2008 03:22 || Comments || Link || [0 views] Top|| File under:

#1  A female suicide bomber results in an even better delta in the gene pool. If it weren't for the victims, there'd be nothing not to like...
Posted by: M. Murcek || 06/07/2008 9:53 Comments || Top||


2 Shia special groupie leaders surrender
BAGHDAD - The US military says two Shia militia leaders have surrendered during American raids on their homes south of Baghdad. A statement from the military says one of the men is suspected of ordering attacks on US troops, directing the kidnapping of Iraqis and smuggling Iranian weapons and Katyusha rockets into Iraq.

It says the other suspect tried to flee by wading through an irrigation canal, before surrendering Friday. The statement says the men are members of ‘special groups’ _ language the US uses to describe Shia fighters defying a cease-fire order by anti-American cleric Muqtada Al Sadr.
Posted by: Steve White || 06/07/2008 00:00 || Comments || Link || [0 views] Top|| File under:

#1  I can't help it. The use of the words "special" to designate people with a variety of disabilities by PC folks here in the US gives me a peculiar vision of these "special groups" folks in Iraq. Please help me! I've been brainwashed.
Posted by: Richard of Oregon || 06/07/2008 10:25 Comments || Top||

#2  No help needed, Richard. Just remember that "special" people here in the US mean people with physical or mental disabilities. In the Muddled East, it means someone with a religious disability - too much of the "wrong" kind.
Posted by: Old Patriot || 06/07/2008 15:35 Comments || Top||

#3  In the Muddled East, it means someone with a religious disability
^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^ummm.... that.
Posted by: George Smiley || 06/07/2008 18:24 Comments || Top||


Israel-Palestine-Jordan
Egypt deploys hundreds of policemen on Gaza border
Egypt deployed hundreds of riot police along the border with the Gaza Strip on Friday, fearing hundreds of Palestinian protestors may try to storm the Rafah crossing, security officials said.

One official said 500 policemen as well as scores of border guards were deployed at Rafah border crossing and along a concrete wall separating Sinai and the coastal strip.

"Hundreds of Palestinians are starting to gather in front of the main gate of the crossing on the Palestinian side demanding it to be opened," the official told Reuters on a customary condition of anonymity.

Another security official put the number of policemen at around 1,000, along with 500 border guards.

The Rafah crossing is the Gazans' main point of contact with the outside world because few of them are allowed through the passenger terminal at the Erez crossing with Israel.

All of Gaza's crossings have largely been shut since the Islamist group Hamas seized control of the coastal strip last June when its fighters routed the forces of Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas's Fatah movement.

Posted by: Fred || 06/07/2008 17:06 || Comments || Link || [0 views] Top|| File under: Hamas

#1  Here to think that 41 years ago one of the small solutions proposed by the IDF was the occupation of Gaza and holding them semi-hostage. Evidently someone on the IDF General Staff had read the Ransom of Red Chief. So the Joooooooooooos went from the passes.

Posted by: George Smiley || 06/07/2008 18:22 Comments || Top||

#2  I've loved that story ever since I came across it shortly after I learnt to read, George. An important lesson on assumptions running headlong into reality. :-) Go Israel!
Posted by: trailing wife || 06/07/2008 18:55 Comments || Top||


Israeli PM raises spectre of military operation in Gaza
Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Olmert on Friday raised the spectre of a full-scale military operation in the Hamas-run Gaza Strip despite Egyptian attempts to mediate a truce.
"According to the information as it is now, the pendulum is much closer to tough military action," Olmert told journalists on arrival in Israel following a three-day trip to the United States.

His comments came a day after a man was killed in southern Israel in a mortar attack claimed by the armed wing of Hamas, the Islamist movement that has run Gaza since it ousted forces loyal to secular Palestinian president Mahmud Abbas a year ago.

But Olmert also suggested that the door to a negotiated truce was not completely closed.

He said his government was still considering whether to avoid getting "into a violent and hard conflict with the terror organisations in Gaza" or to launch "operations that would be much more aggressive and hard."

Israeli forces launched several raids after Thursday's attack.


On Friday a military engineering unit operating armoured bulldozers on the Gaza side of the border was involved in a firefight with Hamas gunmen, the military said.

A member of the Ezzedine al-Qassam Brigades, the armed wing of Hamas, was killed in the exchange of fire, Gaza emergency medical services said, and an Israeli military spokeswoman said a soldier was wounded.

Earlier on Friday at least 10 Palestinians were wounded in an Israeli air raid on a Hamas police post in the north of the Gaza Strip, Palestinian medics said. The military said the raid was in reply to Thursday's attack.

Violence in and around the impoverished sliver of land has continued despite Egyptian efforts to mediate a ceasefire and slow-moving peace talks with Abbas, who has only held sway in the Israeli-occupied West Bank since his forces were ousted from Gaza.


At least 491 people, nearly all Palestinians and mostly Gaza militants, have been killed since Israeli-Palestinian peace talks resumed in November, according to an AFP count.

The Israeli military said on Friday that Palestinians fired more than 2,300 rockets and mortar bombs at Israel in the past six months.

"The sand in the hourglass is running out. We are at the last pinch of sand," the Yediot Aharonot daily quoted Defence Minister Ehud Barak as telling leaders of southern Israeli communities near Gaza.

The mass-circulation newspaper said it appeared likely that a major military operation in Gaza would take place within days.

Before leaving Washington on Thursday, Olmert played down the chances of achieving a truce in and around Gaza. "Israel's conditions for a truce are not bearing fruit in the way that could lead to a ceasefire," he said.


In exchange for stopping rocket attacks, Hamas has demanded an end to the blockade of Gaza which Israel says is aimed at forcing militants to halt their attacks on the Jewish state.

Israel has demanded an end to rocket attacks and arms smuggling from Egypt's Sinai peninsula, as well as progress in negotiations for the release of Israeli soldier Gilad Shalit, captured by Palestinian militants in 2006.

Egypt has been acting as mediator in the truce talks because Israel refuses to negotiate directly with Hamas, which it considers a terrorist organisation.
Posted by: gorb || 06/07/2008 03:20 || Comments || Link || [0 views] Top|| File under:


Israel retaliates for Hamas shelling, kills 1
Israel sent aircraft, tanks and ground troops to pummel the Gaza Strip on Friday, killing one Palestinian and injuring 17, a day after Palestinian militants killed an Israeli civilian in a mortar attack. Prime Minister Ehud Olmert warned that Israel was close to abandoning efforts to bring a truce to the volatile area and was seriously considering a large-scale incursion. "According to the information we have now, the pendulum is much closer to a decision on a harsh operation," Olmert said soon after returning from a brief visit to the U.S.

Egypt has been trying for months to mediate a cease-fire between Israel and the Gaza's Islamic militant Hamas rulers. But both sides have set tough conditions for a truce, and Israeli leaders are under pressure at home to respond militarily because the weapons in the hands of Gaza militants have become more deadly. Four Israelis have been killed this year in rocket and mortar attacks, out of a total of 16 killed since 2004.

Israel has been reluctant to launch a large-scale incursion for fear it would result in the deaths of a large number of Israeli soldiers and Palestinian civilians. Instead, it has been relying on pinpoint airstrikes and ground raids on militant rocket and mortar operations that have severely disrupted life in southern Israel.

One militant was killed and two were injured early Friday in a gunbattle that erupted after Israeli tanks and bulldozers crossed into central Gaza. The military said its forces entered to prevent rocket launches. Fifteen Palestinians — some Hamas militants, others campfollowers civilians — were wounded in a second aerial attack on a Hamas base in northern Gaza later Friday, doctors said. The missiles destroyed a building, witnesses said.

Hamas also fired four rockets toward Israel, the group said. One landed in the rocket-scarred town of Sderot, damaging six cars, the military said.
Posted by: Fred || 06/07/2008 00:04 || Comments || Link || [0 views] Top|| File under: Hamas

#1  If it were 1 thousand, it may've done some good.
Posted by: g(r)omgoru || 06/07/2008 5:24 Comments || Top||


Southeast Asia
Posted by: ryuge || 06/07/2008 09:04 || Comments || Link || [0 views] Top|| File under:

#1  Yep, agreed. Short but succinct.

Posted by: George Smiley || 06/07/2008 18:26 Comments || Top||

#2  I found it gripping
Posted by: Frank G || 06/07/2008 21:48 Comments || Top||

#3  ryuge? nice trick...
Posted by: 3dc || 06/07/2008 22:19 Comments || Top||

#4  The question is 'Where does delicious Thai food come from?'.

And, I'll take Compass Cuisine for 600, Alex.
Posted by: Adriane || 06/07/2008 23:08 Comments || Top||


Sri Lanka
Suicide blast in Colombo kills 21
There has been yet another bomb attack in the Sri Lankan capital by the LTTE which killed 21 and injured 47. This was the second attack on Colombo's public transport system in three days. On Wednesday, 18 passengers were wounded when a commuter train came under attack. Most of the killed and injured in Friday's blast were civilians.

The blast comes in the backdrop of a bloody battle between the Sri Lankan military and the Tamil Tigers in the country's north for the past six months.

The Tamil rebels have been fighting for a separate homeland since 1983. They have responded to the Sri Lankan military's push for a total victory in the north by attacking civilian targets in majority Sinhalese areas. The government has tightened security in the capital but more attacks are expected in coming weeks as the conflict in the north intensifies.
Posted by: Fred || 06/07/2008 00:04 || Comments || Link || [0 views] Top|| File under:


Tech notes...
For all those who kicked in when I blegged a couple weeks ago, thank you. I have now proceeded to piss it all away.

Our server, the venerable Shirley, is getting close to filled up, mostly with images, so I was going to take it offline and replace it with my development machine from home, to upgrade it at my liesure. All I had to do was put a bit more memory into the development machine and throw in a spare 200GB hard drive I've got laying around.

That worked well.

Given the relative costs, it made more sense to buy a brand new machine with three GB of memory, a dual core Pentium processor, and a 250 GB hard drive.

I will now begin the process of blowing away a brand new install of Windoze Vista and replacing it with Debian Linux, at least as soon as Comcast finishes whatever the hell it is that they're doing. I've been offline since late yesterday afternoon, forced to ride a corner of my next door neighbor's wireless that keeps fading out.

I'm going to take my time at it this time, since there's no great hurry. I think we've got 13 GB of hard drive space left, last I looked. There are a few things I'd like to experiment with and this gives me the opportunity. I expect to have the new machine ready to swap out in about a month. I'll post periodic progress reports and/or holler for help when I run into problems.
Posted by: Fred || 06/07/2008 13:45 || Comments || Link || [0 views] Top|| File under:

#1  ride a corner of my next door neighbor's wireless that keeps fading out.
You should talk to him about this, maybe leave a new antenna on his door stoop.
Posted by: George Smiley || 06/07/2008 17:59 Comments || Top||



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Sat 2008-06-07
  U.S. court upholds Qaeda conviction in Bush murder plot
Fri 2008-06-06
  Guantanamo arraignment begins for five accused 9/11 plotters
Thu 2008-06-05
  Iraq police arrest five Shias wanted for over 720 murders
Wed 2008-06-04
  US-Iraq Negotiating Status Of Forces Agreement
Tue 2008-06-03
  Norway, Sweden close Islamabad embassies in wake of Danish kaboom
Mon 2008-06-02
  Darul-Uloom Deoband issues fatwa against terror
Sun 2008-06-01
  Australia ends combat operations in Iraq
Sat 2008-05-31
  100 Talibs killed in Farah
Fri 2008-05-30
  Suicide bomber kills 16, injures 18 near Mosul
Thu 2008-05-29
  Lebanese president reappoints prime minister
Wed 2008-05-28
  Yemen reports crushing Zaidi rebels near capital
Tue 2008-05-27
  Leb: 9 wounded in gunfight between pro-gov't, opposition supporters
Mon 2008-05-26
  Lebanon Elects Suleiman President as Hezbollah Gains
Sun 2008-05-25
  Iraq says Qaeda cleared from Mosul
Sat 2008-05-24
  Second man arrested after Brit blast

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