The security service MI5 has drawn up a list of the country's 50 "preachers of hate" who face expulsion from Britain under tough new anti-terror rules.
Ten foreign nationals on the list have already been detained, pending deportation. MI5 has now passed a dossier of evidence to the government on other extremists who are considered to pose a threat.
Under measures announced last week by Charles Clarke, the home secretary, foreign nationals may be deported if they create "fear, distrust or division" with the intention of encouraging terrorism.
The government also plans to return suspects to countries which are known to torture detainees â providing it obtains assurances that the deportees will be safe. Any expulsions are likely to face costly challenges funded by the taxpayer.
However, Clarke is drawing up plans to deport individuals before they lodge appeals. It will mean that suspects are deported and will have to fight any subsequent legal cases from their home countries, as is already the case in France. However, they are still likely to be eligible for legal aid.
Further measures to restrict the preaching of hard-line foreign imams will include their vetting by a panel of Britain's Islamic leaders.
A separate panel of Muslim leaders, appointed by the Home Office and headed by Lord Ahmed, is likely to impose a standard qualification for all British-trained imams.
The list drawn up by the security services is understood to include Mohammad al-Masari, the Saudi dissident, Saad al-Fagih, a Saudi alleged to have links to Al Qaeda, and Yasser al-Siri, the Egyptian dissident. They all live in London.
Al-Masari runs a London-based website depicting beheadings and suicide bombings in Iraq. The US Treasury has said that Al Fagih's website, Movement for Islamic Reform in Arabia, has been used by Al Qaeda to communicate although he strongly denies any involvement in terrorism.
Al-Siri is a former leader of Islamic Jihad, the Eyptian fundamentalist group blamed for the assassination of Anwar Sadat, Egypt's president, in 1981. He denies any links to terrorism and says the authorities will find it "impossible" to deport him.
The government has previously been unable to deport some foreign nationals suspected of terror links because their home countries are known to torture terrorist suspects. Ministers are now obtaining "diplomatic assurances" from countries including Jordan, Egypt and Algeria, that those deported will be treated humanely.
Tony Blair is particularly enthusiastic about the new agreements. In past negotiations with Egypt to ensure that it would refrain from torture, he dismissed the idea of seeking too many commitments, writing: "This is a bit much. Why do we need all these things?"
His comments were revealed last year when Hani Youssef, an Egyptian, claimed that he had been unfairly detained by the British government during its failed attempt to deport him. The documents also revealed that the government's own experts doubted that the courts would accept these non-torture assurances.
However, Blair is thought to be confident that the agreements will be upheld because independent observers will have regular access to any suspects who are deported.
The government has already removed several failed asylum seekers to Algeria.
Although France is also subject to the European convention on human rights, it has regularly expelled foreign nationals supected of terrorism links. A French interior ministry official said: "We know that Britain is going through a reflective phase, but in France we are not asking too many questions."
Posted by: Dan Darling ||
08/28/2005 00:13 ||
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they are still likely to be eligible for legal aid. You've got to be kidding.
We need the 3H enema (high hot and hell of alot) here in America to rid itself of these folks too!
Posted by: Jan ||
08/28/2005 2:22 Comments ||
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#2
Where do these bloodthirsty holymen go with everyone is kicking them out of their country? Might be best to send them to Alan straight away-- once they have their 3-H, that is.
Posted by: Captain America ||
08/28/2005 2:57 Comments ||
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However, Clarke is drawing up plans to deport individuals before they lodge appeals. It will mean that suspects are deported and will have to fight any subsequent legal cases from their home countries, as is already the case in France. However, they are still likely to be eligible for legal aid.
At least the Brits got rid of half the PC. But legal aid? Lawyuh subsidy. They could tie up the courts for years.
Further measures to restrict the preaching of hard-line foreign imams will include their vetting by a panel of Britain's Islamic leaders.
A separate panel of Muslim leaders, appointed by the Home Office and headed by Lord Ahmed, is likely to impose a standard qualification for all British-trained imams.
Fox vetting the chicken coop. Sounds like the Brits need martial law before the Islamic terrorists totally infiltrate. Unfreakin' believable.
Posted by: Alaska Paul ||
08/28/2005 14:27 Comments ||
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A Saudi exile under threat of expulsion from Britain for running a militant web site said yesterday that he had shut his Internet page down, claiming he acted on his own and that British authorities had not contacted him.
Mohammed Al Massari, the Saudi dissident whose web site featured videotape of suicide bombings in Israel and Iraq and anti-Western and pro-Al Qaeda propaganda, posted an Internet âobituaryâ announcing his site had been a victim of the âmurder of âfreedom of opinion and expressionâ by the oppressive regime lead by Tony Blair, the liar and well-known war criminalâ. Al Massari, 58, who took refuge in London more than 10 years ago, said his web site had been âopen to anyone who wanted to post a message,â suggesting in a telephone interview with the Associated Press from London that he did not necessarily endorse everything that appeared there. He said he had temporarily shut the web site while awaiting clarification on his status in Britain. Otherwise, he claimed to have had no contact from the authorities, just âmedia reports and noiseâ about his activities.
Posted by: Dan Darling ||
08/28/2005 00:09 ||
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Pigs like him hate the West, but will do anything to stay here.
No Muslims, No Terror.
Posted by: Vlad the Muslim Impaler ||
08/28/2005 3:47 Comments ||
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So this jerk is a supporter of âfreedom of opinion and expressionâ. So when he takes over I can have my own website discussing why Mohammed was an epileptic pedophile, a liar and a rapist, and that will be just ducky with our Muslim overlords?
Just asking.
Posted by: Baba Tutu ||
08/28/2005 16:29 Comments ||
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CARACAS, Venezuela (AP) -- A street march by hundreds of Venezuelans opposed to President Hugo Chavez turned violent on Saturday, when people believed to be government supporters threw rocks and tear gas canisters at the protesters.
Roughly 1,000 demonstrators marched through the capital to demand that election authorities, who are viewed by government opponents as pro-Chavez, be replaced before upcoming congressional elections.
Six people were injured when people believed to be Chavez supporters attacked the march, launching powerful fireworks and throwing bottles, rocks and tear gas canisters at protesters, Caracas Fire Chief Delio Martinez said.
#1
pretty soon el maximo won't see the need for further elections....just another pipsqueak brownshirt dictator. Fidel's death should be marked by the simultaneous fall of El Presidente at his people's hands
Posted by: Frank G ||
08/28/2005 12:36 Comments ||
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Chvez ain't no Fidel and he won't last the new few years. He has tremendous opposition among the middile and upper classes and his policies will run the country into the ground.
It is only a matter of time before he goes.
Posted by: john ||
08/28/2005 14:21 Comments ||
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Hope you're right john but there's a hell of a lot of poor folks in Venezuela who love him. Course maybe when the goodies run out that will change.
On Tamerlan Satsayev's first day of school one year ago, he wore a new suit and a white shirt and carried a bouquet of flowers. Two days later, he escaped death, almost naked, in the arms of an unknown rescuer, his mother severely wounded in the debris behind him.
Tamerlan's mother, Natasha Satsayeva, 30, a former midwife, survived a month-long coma after terrorists seized Beslan School No. 1 on Sept. 1, 2004, resulting in a bloody confrontation. Shrapnel from a grenade struck Satsayeva in the head, neck and torso as she shielded Tamerlan and his two younger sisters. She suffered neurological damage and is now unable to walk; one of her legs shakes involuntarily; her left arm rests uselessly on her lap.
"Look. This is my life," she said bitterly, recalling the attack. Her 7-year-old son, silent and watchful, started, and she paused to check her harsh tone. She added softy, "I hope he can learn to live again."
A three-day siege by terrorists from the Russian republics of Chechnya and Ingushetia at the elementary school ended in an inferno of explosions, gunfire and flame, and has left a legacy of shattered lives. An explosion in the school gymnasium was followed by a series of other blasts, triggering a chaotic firefight and a raging fire that left 331 people dead, including 186 children.
The Mothers of Beslan, a local advocacy group that keeps a roll of the dead, said 22 6- and 7-year-olds, among nearly 90 first-graders, were killed in the siege. Thirty-one terrorists were also killed, according to Russian officials.
One year later, the children are preparing to go back to school, many for the first time since the siege. Tamerlan and his classmates are at the heart of Beslan's struggle to endure. The first-graders are the most vulnerable group in this small city, psychologists said, because the only school day they know is the day they and their families became hostages.
"School means death for them," said Fatima Bagayeva, a psychologist at the local hospital who has been working with the youngest survivors. "They have no other memory of school. They are living with terrible trauma and grief, but when they turn to parents or other relatives, they see that they can't cope, either."
Health professionals and educators, as well as the Health and Education ministries in North Ossetia, the Russian republic where Beslan is located, have been at odds through much of the year about how best to reintegrate surviving children into the education system.
The attack last September began just after the start of a schoolyard ceremony welcoming the youngest students, accompanied by their families. Men wearing camouflage uniforms and masks herded more than 1,000 hostages into the school gymnasium at gunpoint. The hostage-takers demanded the withdrawal of Russian forces from Chechnya, where the Russian military has fought two wars with separatists over the past 10 years.
Beslan still burns with anger over questions that may never be answered. How did so many well-armed terrorists move though an area with numerous police checkpoints? What triggered the first explosion, an action by one of the terrorists or, as the one surviving hostage-taker has alleged at his ongoing trial, a shot by a government sniper? Did government troops fire incendiary devices that swept through the school? Federal and local commissions have yet to report on Russia's worst terrorist act, but there is little faith here in any official findings.
"The authorities have no interest in the truth," said Zalina Guburova, whose 9-year-old son, Soslan, was shot and killed.
Arguments envelop even the opening of the new school year.
"Beslan is a very sick place," said Elena Morozova, a Moscow psychologist who has worked in the city for the last year. "These children need continued special attention and, without it, I don't think they will make it. We are looking at a lost generation."
With support from the Russian Health Ministry, Morozova sought to create special classes this September for last year's first-graders and gradually return them to regular school over the next couple of years in a program of combined play, counseling and academics.
But the Education Ministry rejected the plan, and is sending the children to one of Beslan's two new schools. The affected students will restart first grade in those state-of-the-art facilities, financed as a donation from the city of Moscow to replace the 19th-century, red-brick School No. 1, now a debris-strewn shell.
"We do not want to isolate stressed children, because we believe their psychological condition is very adaptable," said Larisa Khabayeva, coordinator of rehabilitation and social projects for the victims of Beslan at the Education Ministry in North Ossetia. "Our recommendation is that the children go back to normal school, and in the ideal situation, they won't have any problems."
Emilia Adyrkhayeva has already tried to go back. In March, the 7-year-old went to a combined kindergarten and elementary school, where, as at all schools in Beslan, local men now stand guard with automatic weapons. No one had prepared her for that. "She became very hysterical," said her father, Alan Adyrkhayev, a 41-year-old physician who quit practicing after the siege.
Several other first-graders left the same school after a daytime thunderstorm, according to the director, Yeza Tsgoyeva. "They were hiding under the desks," Tsgoyeva said. "They're still all very emotional. If you raise your voice accidentally, they get upset. Some of them get hysterical. I wonder if our authorities understand how deep the problems are."
When the explosions and shooting began Sept. 3, Adyrkhayev's wife, Irina, a nurse, fled the gymnasium to the school canteen with Emilia and their other daughter, Milana, 5. From there, in the middle of a firefight, Milana somehow escaped. Irina was killed. Russian special forces found Emilia, who suffered minor shrapnel wounds and burns, nestling by the body of her 29-year-old mother.
When Adyrkhayev asks Emilia if she wants to go back to school, the wonderful new one with the swimming pool and the big playground, she nods as if she knows the right response, but her downcast large brown eyes betray her doubts. Emilia never speaks about her experience, relatives said.
Her father, in turn, is a hollow-eyed, broken man who has refused to return to work. Instead, Adyrkhayev sits at his computer screen scrolling through the faces of the dead. "I would be lost without them," he said.
He has also recorded a video of Milana, a bright, smiling child, singing to a picture of her mother, and an audio clip that he plays on his cell phone when he wants to hear her voice.
"I know that she lives in the sky," the girl says on the clip. "They killed my mother. How can they be so cruel? They're all beasts."
Adyrkhayev twirled the cell phone in his hand, smoking a cigarette in the shade of an apple tree. "I think I'm losing it," he said.
As with the families of many other victims, relatives are providing care. Adyrkhayev's sister and parents have moved in with him to help with the children.
"The babushkas are holding the town together," said Bagayeva, the psychologist.
At the Satsayev household, Tamerlan's mother is cared for by his father, who quit his job. His grandmother, Nina Satsayeva, watches Tamerlan and his sisters. When Tamerlan returned to school in March, his grandmother sat beside him every day, squeezing herself behind a small desk. If Tamerlan jumped at a sudden noise from the nearby construction or began without any apparent prompting to cry, Satsayeva gripped his hand to steady him.
"He's afraid," said Satsayeva, 68. "He remembers everything."
The care of 7-year-old Georgy Sidakov, and his younger brother, David, 5, has largely fallen to their grandmothers.
Georgy's father, Albert, was shot and killed on the first day of the hostage-taking when the terrorists singled out and executed men who might represent a threat. The body of the 33-year-old customs officer, who had taken a day off from work to hear Georgy recite a poem at his first assembly, was dumped out a second-story window. Georgy's aunt was shot three times when the school was stormed; she lived, but is still recovering.
Georgy's mother, Zita, also survived, but still suffers from severe depression, according to the family.
The two boys, who suffered minor wounds, now spend most of their time at one of their grandparents' houses.
"They are so fragile," said Toma Andiyeva, Zita's mother. "If they wake at night and you come to their bed, they don't want you to touch them. They just curl up and say, 'Don't touch me.' It's horrible."
The grandmothers said Zita was adamantly opposed to Georgy, who has been at home for the last year, returning to school. "She says, 'Who will guarantee he will be safe? Will you?' And what can you say?" Andiyeva said. "She can't think about sending him to school. She refuses to talk about it."
The two women said they were trying to persuade Georgy to go against his mother's wishes. He shook his head as they raised the subject yet again.
"I don't want to go to school," Georgy said. "I don't want to be dead."
Posted by: Dan Darling ||
08/28/2005 00:28 ||
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Never forgive, never forget. Did I just make that up?
Posted by: Vlad the Muslim Impaler ||
08/28/2005 3:43 Comments ||
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#2
Wonder if the New York salon crowd will take up a collection for an International Freedom Center East on the school site which can feature a display of the long history of Russian and Soviet oppression? Nah, that's only for Americans. Not that such vulgar display of insensitivity would matter to them.
#7
So what happened to all the vows of Pooty Poot to bringing the perps down no matter where they are? The children and parents of Beslan will get no peace until these terrorists are taken out of the gene pool. Any comments on that, Cindy?????????
Posted by: Alaska Paul ||
08/28/2005 14:32 Comments ||
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The pic is heartbreaking, what a loss. RIP and God Bless the survivors.
Posted by: Red Dog ||
08/28/2005 15:22 Comments ||
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Our church sent money to the families of Beslan for several weeks after the initial attack, and one of the ministers of the Baptist Church there in Beslan came here to obtain treatment for his son who was severely injured. He spoke at our church, but I am sorry to say that I can't remember his name. This has bothered me for several months because this man lost some children there and his brother lost all his children. Every time I think of this I become very upset. I just pray for God's grace for all the people of Beslan. They have suffered enough.
Posted by: jesusland joe ||
08/28/2005 17:00 Comments ||
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#11
Who wrote this crap!?
Why didn't this piece mention that some of the children were rape and dismembered? Why was there no mention that this rock apes strung bombs over the children and throughout the school? Where is the photo of the head camel turd trader Basayev? Where are the mentions of other mass murders in Russian by the Islamic pricks? Why didn't the article mention that this was all done by Muslime terrorist who were killing to expand pIslam, the desert cult founded by a child raping Arab terrorist flim flam man?
Welcome to the MSM filtering of killings done to expand a fake desert pagan moon god religion of piss.
This isn't a war about America, Russian, of separation or about Israel. It's about Muhammad's (piece of pork be upon him) examples of theft, rape and mass murder to expand Islam. Just like the porKoran and Hadiths recorded.
I honestly expected more from this site. Enough of the PC bullcrap! We are at war with Islam and the leftist media chooses not to cover it. Deal with it.
Posted by: Pig God Allah Sucks ||
08/28/2005 17:22 Comments ||
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#12
Why is there no mention of the FACT that these were ISLAMIC TERRORISTS! Enough of this PC nonsense!
A passenger train was derailed by a bomb blast on a railway line on Saturday in Russiaâs southern Dagestan, near the border with the rebel region of Chechnya, Interfax news agency said. Itar-Tass news agency quoted local transport officials as saying unknown gunmen fired on a car from the FSB security service, wounding one officer who was on his way to the blast site. He was taken a nearby to hospital. Itar-Tass said no one was injured or killed on the train accroding to preliminary information. Two carriages and the locomotive were derailed in the blast. RIA Novosti news agency quoted a local official as saying unknown people had planted an explosive device on the tracks and it had exploded as the train passed.
Posted by: Dan Darling ||
08/28/2005 00:27 ||
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AUSTRALIAN nuclear experts working to prevent terrorists launching a regional "dirty bomb" attack have found large, unsecured sources of dangerous radioactive material in Southeast Asia.
In one case, radiation safety experts from the Australian Nuclear Science and Technology Organisation found a substantial piece of cobalt, used for medical therapy, which had been abandoned when a radiation therapy centre was closed.
A conventional bomb wrapped around a small stick of cobalt could contaminate a large area of a city, dramatically boost cancer rates and force out residents for decades, scientists say.
Another radioactive source, possibly also cobalt, was found in a second country in similar circumstances. About 25 other radiation centres are also being investigated in a third country.
"There are two countries where we have located quite large sources," ANSTO's chief of operations Ron Cameron said. He declined to identify them until the material had been properly secured.
ANSTO's concern came as intelligence reports from South Korea revealed that Australia had been listed by the al-Qaeda terror network as a prime target for an attack this year.
South Korea's National Intelligence Service last week told the country's parliament that a "senior" al-Qaeda operative arrested last month had made specific reference to Australia in a list of targets.
"According to NIS, this terrorist testified that South Korea, Japan and The Philippines are secondary targets, while the US, Britain and Australia are the prime targets for this year," a South Korean parliamentarian said yesterday.
Australian intelligence agency sources said they had not received any notification of a heightened threat to Australian interests in recent days, and that the threat level determined by ASIO remained at medium. A medium-level threat means a terrorist attack on Australian soil is likely.
"It (the Korean report) just confirms what we already know - we are a target," a senior government source said.
There has been no change in ASIO's threat assessment since the attacks on the US of September 11, 2001.
It is understood that the South Korean report originated from a recent security assessment considered by the Korean parliament and which also drew on published assessments of al-Qaeda capability from several months ago.
Mr Cameron said the ready availability of loose radioactive material suitable for dirty bombs had been a concern of Australia for the past year. Spurred by the September 11 attacks and working with US experts, Australian officials have been scouring the region for loose radioactive material. Secure storage areas have been built and systems created to track, control and secure radioactive material left over from medical and industrial use.
"The system is only as strong as the weakest link," Mr Cameron said. "If there's an area of the world where terrorists can get hold of the material then that's where they'll go."
Southeast Asia has already been shown to be a breeding ground for terrorists. "We've had Bali, so the question would be: How much worse would that have been if it had been a dirty bomb?"
Two of the key isotopes of concern are cobalt, which has been used to expose patients to gamma rays as part of cancer therapy, and caesium, which sometimes comes in powder form.
Wrapped in conventional explosives, cobalt or caesium would be effective "terror weapons" if exploded in a city centre or railway station, Mr Cameron said. The destructive power would be limited but the contamination - and potential harm from cancers - could be significant. "It would spread the radiation around so it contaminated people and places - now that is terror.
"It actually would not do much damage in terms of killing people because a dirty bomb is not a weapon of mass destruction - it's a matter of mass disruption."
The Federation of American Scientists gave examples to the US Senate in 2002 of the impact of dirty bombs made from both types of material.
A single 30cm rod of cobalt dispersed by conventional explosives in lower Manhattan would badly contaminate 300 city blocks. Residents who remained would have an increased risk of cancer for the next 40 years and demolition of parts of the city might be necessary, the scientists said.
A medical gauge containing caesium, exploded in 4.5kg of TNT, would create a radioactive cloud that would kill no one immediately but cause long-term health problems. In five surrounding city blocks, residents would have a one in 1000 chance of developing cancer.
ANSTO has spent the past year working with Asian and Pacific countries to identify radiation sources - mostly used by medical and manufacturing industries - and secure them or ship them back to their makers. Experts from 11 Southeast Asian countries will meet in Sydney today for an International Atomic Energy Agency-sponsored meeting on the best way to protect the material.
In one country, an entire radiotherapy machine was found with the radioactive source inside. In another case, the material was removed, put in a container, then "just abandoned".
While concern about dirty bombs remains high, some Western intelligence analysts are sceptical about al-Qa'ida's ability to launch another major conventional attack similar to that of September 11. Experts believe the leadership, currently in hiding, is unable to strike, leaving it to groups inspired by Osama Bin Laden to take the initiative.
Posted by: Oztralian [AKA] God Save The World ||
08/28/2005 17:06 ||
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A SUSPECTED member of Abu Sayyaf was arrested in Manila's Quiapo district on Friday, police said. Joint elements from the police and the Philippine navy arrested Tammy Imam alias Alex Cabuatan, 32, at the Islamic Center on Carlos Palanca Street at around 3:45 p.m., Chief Inspector Joselito Sta. Teresa, Manila police intelligence chief, said in a report.
Imam, a native of Marawi City, has a standing arrest warrant for murder issued by branch 54 of the Manila regional trial court, Sta. Teresa said.
On Friday, Australian Ambassador to the Philippines Tony Hely said his government remains "concerned" over the security situation in Mindanao, where the Abu Sayyaf and the JI are holed out.
Posted by: Dan Darling ||
08/28/2005 00:30 ||
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Funds are flowing in for terrorist operations in the Philippines, mostly from the Middle East, a senior security official said Saturday while admitting authorities were unable to stop it.
National Security Adviser Norberto Gonzales said the money could be going to Jemaah Islamiyah, an Indonesia-based terror group linked to al-Qaida that is accused of training terrorists in the Philippines.
Speaking on Vice President Noli de Castro's radio program, Gonzales said Indonesian authorities warned that 10 Jemaah Islamiyah members slipped into the Philippines for a suicide mission, with two believed to be in the capital, Manila.
"We have not yet captured the suicide bombers, and money continues to flow in that we cannot stop," he said. "I cannot say how we are able to find out, but I can say that money is coming in and (bombing) materials are being purchased."
He declined to give details but indicated couriers take advantage of the busy traffic between the Philippines and the Middle East, where hundreds of thousands of Filipinos work.
He told The Associated Press that both visitors from the Middle East and returning Filipinos serve as money couriers. "What we are looking at is the regularity of it, which means there is continuing operations now," he said.
Gonzales said he recommended that terrorism, including the arrest in the Philippines of some Saudi Arabian terror suspects, be included in talks between President Gloria Macapagal Arroyo and Saudi King Abdullah during her visit to the kingdom next month.
Two bombs wounded 30 people in southern Zamboanga city this month in an attack blamed on Abu Sayyaf, a Filipino separatist group with purported links to al-Qaida and Jemaah Islamiyah. The group has been blamed for many attacks, including a bombing that killed at least 116 people on a ferry last year.
In another development, a communist rebel group pledged to end its 36-year-old insurgency if the government accepts a peace proposal the guerrillas unveiled Saturday.
The National Democratic Front's offer calls for forming "a clean and honest coalition government" with "significant representation" of workers and peasants; canceling foreign debts; cutting military spending to provide funds for economic development; and trying government officials for corruption, treason and human rights violations.
The president's chief adviser on the peace process, Rene Sarmiento, rejected the idea of a coalition government, but he expressed optimism the proposal signaled a readiness by the rebels to resume peace talks that stalled last year.
"This (coalition government) is unacceptable because we have a process that we follow in our country," Sarmiento said. "If you want to assume governmental power, it should be through elections."
Posted by: Dan Darling ||
08/28/2005 00:25 ||
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A coalition government with the NPA would certainly end the Muzzi problem down south.
Posted by: 49 pan ||
08/28/2005 8:56 Comments ||
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Some 30 people were injured when a powerful explosion ripped through the passenger section of a ferry at a port on Basilan island in the southwestern Philippines, an army general said on Sunday.
Brigadier-General Raymundo Ferrer, the island's army commander, said the steel-hulled ferry Dona Ramona was boarding passengers in Lamitan port when a blast occurred near the vessel's cafeteria, triggering a small fire.
The blaze was contained within minutes, but blast damage was extensive.
"We're still trying to determine what kind of explosive device went off," Ferrer told reporters. "We have evacuated the ship and sent the wounded people to nearby hospitals"
He said investigators were collecting evidence at the blast site. It was suspected that a home-made bomb had been placed alongside rows of tanks of liquefied petroleum gas (LPG) in the ferry's pantry.
Jinmy Andong, a town official, said six passengers had suffered third-degree burns. He said the military were sending two helicopters to transfer the critically injured for treatment in the southern port city of Zamboanga.
Witnesses said passengers panicked after the explosion, some jumping overboard as fire raged in the ferry's kitchen on the lower deck.
Ferrer said no group had claimed responsibility for the attack on the ferry, which had been preparing to leave for Zamboanga, but Basilan is known as a hotbed of the al Qaeda-linked Muslim militant group, Abu Sayyaf.
Posted by: Dan Darling ||
08/28/2005 00:08 ||
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Al-Qaeda's leader in Iraq, Abu Mousab al-Zarqawi, was rumored to be gravely injured or dead just a few months ago. Since then, his organization is believed to have been behind barbaric attacks in Iraq and has even claimed responsibility for a failed rocket assault on a U.S. ship in the Red Sea. It's hard to separate the man from the mythology, but recent European intelligence reports reviewed by TIME suggest that al-Zarqawi's al-Qaeda franchise is expanding far beyond Iraq and that he now rivals Osama bin Laden in influence among Middle Eastern and European jihadists.
Al-Zarqawi has been overseeing preparations by highly trained operatives for a "large scale" terrorist attack in Europe, the reports claim. In communications with another al-Qaeda leader, he has spoken of sleeper cells in Turkey and Iran. The reports imply that these cells may be in contact with European jihadist groups that previously had no links to al-Qaeda. "The fear is we'll see these disparate, relatively inexperienced groups around Europe hook up with Afghan-trained terror cells, all under the influence of Zarqawi," says independent French terrorism expert Roland Jacquard, who says he has seen intelligence similar to that in the reports. "That could reverse the atomization of cells and networks that occurred after the invasion of Afghanistan."
European officials say the reports are based in part on U.S.
Officials' interrogation of suspected al-Qaeda deputy Abu Faraj al-Libbi, captured last May in Pakistan. (The CIA declined to comment.) Al-Zarqawi has written to al-Libbi about setting up camps in Jordan, Turkey, Syria or Lebanon, European officials say. He hoped the camps would provide instruction in European languages to facilitate jihadi attacks in Iraq and Europe.
For now, al-Zarqawi is still on the run from U.S. forces. So there are limits to how much global networking he can do. But he is a skilled delegator, says one French official. And he doesn't even have to contact far-flung cells to influence them; he just has to inspire them from afar.
Posted by: Dan Darling ||
08/28/2005 13:06 ||
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May his life be short...but his death slow and painful.
#3
DD: And he doesn't even have to contact far-flung cells to influence them; he just has to inspire them from afar.
It's not enough to inspire. Muhammad arguably inspires far more people than Zarqawi - he certainly got far better results. But the fact is that Islam's advance by conquest stalled centuries ago and has never really regained its momentum. For the jihadist, Islam has no shortage of inspirational figures - what it lacks today is people who can win on the battlefield against non-Muslims.
#4
When was the last time Time got anything that was original right?
As for this piece, and Dan knows this better than most, Zarqawi has for the last several years been a franchiser. He has long had operations in Europe and Syria.
Posted by: Captain America ||
08/28/2005 16:23 Comments ||
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#5
#2 Has Zarqawi taken credit for Hurricane Katrina yet?
Posted by WhiteCollarRednec
Good question but an even better one:
Has Cindy Sheehan blamed President Bush for Hurricane Katrina?
Fox News Channel reported the LA National Guard does not have enough military trucks to load up and evacuate thousands left stranded in New Orleans.
Prediction: Sheehan, Moore, Sharptongue, Jackson, Medea Benjamin, et al., will blame war in Iraq and Bush for this shortage.
#6
Zarkawi is waging World War 3 while his nominal counter-terrorist adversaries wage ineffective civil policing remedies. The only solution in the Middle East is the establishment of Secular allies.
Posted by: Vlad the Muslim Impaler ||
08/29/2005 0:03 Comments ||
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A suicide bomber blew himself up next to a bus at a station in the southern Israeli city of Beersheba on Sunday, wounding at least 10 people, officials said. The attack was the first since Israel's withdrawal from the Gaza Strip this month. Witnesses said the bomber was stopped by a security guard before he could board the bus. "I was suspicious of him. He had a large backpack and a plastic bag in his hand," a witness who identified himself as a bus driver named Rami told Israel Radio. "I pointed him out to the guard. He was about 20 meters (yards) from the bus when he blew up. It was a huge explosion, very big," he said, adding that two security guards had approached the bomber just before the explosion.
So presumably at least the security guards are toast...
There was no immediate claim of responsibility.
It'll come. They've got to crow. My guess would be Hamas or IJ, but it could be the al-Aqsa Martyrs...
The bombing rattled efforts to move the Gaza withdrawal forward to full-fledged peacemaking.
That's what it's supposed to do, of course...
"Israel has taken the necessary steps to further the prospects of peace with the Palestinians," said David Baker, an official in the office of Prime Minister Ariel Sharon. "This bombing ... is another indication that the Palestinian Authority must take proper steps against terror, and without these steps, there will be no progress."
The PA won't take the steps because it's afraid it'll lose the fight with the Islamists. So Abbas will continue to pretend he's in charge and the negotiators will attempt to use events they don't control as bargaining chips.
There has been a lull in attacks since Israel and the Palestinians declared a truce in February. But Palestinian militant groups vowed to attack Israel last week after Israeli troops killed five Palestinians in a raid in the West Bank.
Ummm... Weren't they making the same vows prior to the five guys being killed?
"We condemn this attack and call upon all to make a maximum effort in order to maintain the truce and quiet," Palestinian negotiator Saeb Erekat said. "Violence will bring more violence, and what Israelis and Palestinians need today is more peace and not violence." Police said they had raised the level of alert across the country.
#6
The Israelis are making a strategic withdrawl by vacating their Gaza settlements. The Paleos are using the withdrawl as a propaganda victory and look upon the Israeli withdrawl as a sign of weakness.
If Isreal does not use overwhelming force to put down the coming rocket attacks over the border, then she will die of a thousand cuts (read suicide bombers).
The day is coming for Israel to send the clear message to terrorists. If she does not, Israel is finished. Maybe on the installment plan, but still finished. The stakes have never been higher for Isreal.
Posted by: Alaska Paul ||
08/28/2005 15:00 Comments ||
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#7
AP, that's a bit of an exaggeration I think. Israel can ably protect itself and if it comes down to it, the next war may settle things for good. I'd say the stakes have never been higher for the Palestinians. If they screw this up by increasing their attacks on Israel, they will write their own epilogue, with a big "Q.E.D." at the end. Israel will have every justification to deal them the final blow.
In fact, the Israelis should do more for the Palestinians, as this will put them in a stronger position. It is already becoming clear that the Palestinians aren't interested in peace, if there were any doubts before. The only risk for the Israelis, is that Israel might lose the will to fight, becoming tired of so many years of conflict.
Posted by: Rafael ||
08/28/2005 17:19 Comments ||
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#8
...as this will put them [Israelis] in a stronger position.
Posted by: Rafael ||
08/28/2005 17:22 Comments ||
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#9
So presumably at least the security guards are toast...
'Toast'? WTF is wrong with you? One of the guards is near death, and the other in serious condition.
Time for the US to pressure Abbas and the Palestinians to publicly recognize Israel's right to exist. And not as a state on another continent or as some fuzzy principle with no land to make it real. Israel as a state in the Middle East.
#12
âIf the end of this war is mainly about creating a Palestinian state, then the Palestinians have shown in the midst of America's war against terrorism that terror has won. If the main result is the Arab world visibly accepting not only Israel's de facto existence, but accepting Israel as a Jewish state, than the West has won and Arab radicalism has lost.
"Which side is winning will be measured largely by whether the Arab side is compelled to put its peace cards on the table early, the way Israel has had to do by proving, over and over, that it supports Palestinian statehood.
"If Bush shies away from demanding that the Arab world give Israel a similar level of confidence that the end game is not some backdoor means of our destruction, it will show that the U.S. continues to show deference to a key plank of Arab radicalism.â
http://www.nationalreview.com/comment/comment-singer060203.asp
Bush must pressure Abbas to recognize that the existence of Hamas and other terrorist organizations will prevent the creation of a Palestinian state.
The EU envoy to the Middle East, Mark Otte, said in an interview appearing this weekend that Israel's recent uprooting of Jewish communities is a model for the rest of Samaria, Judea and Jerusalem.
"Our position regarding the West Bank and east Jerusalem is identical - they are occupied territories, and the future of Jerusalem will also be discussed in negotiations between Israel and the Palestinians," Mr. Otte told Al-Quds, a Jerusalem-based Arabic-language newspaper.
Where did they find this asswick?
Otte dismissed statements by Prime Minister Ariel Sharon that Israel will retain large blocs of Jewish communities in Judea and Samaria in any permanent arrangement with the Palestinian Authority. Such commitments, the European Union envoy asserted, are nothing more than "spin" intended for internal Israeli consumption.
The EU also does not take seriously Israel's demand that the PA fulfill its commitments to disarm Arab terrorist groups. According to the Al-Quds interview, Mr. Otte said the EU does not demand that the PA confront terrorist groups militarily, or that the PA initiate a civil war in order to carry out its obligations.
In June, Mr. Otte defended European Union contacts with Hamas representatives, despite the organization being listed as a terrorist organization in EU countries, by saying that "if they are duly elected in free and fair elections under international supervision, you have to know what to do with elected representatives."
Posted by: Captain America ||
08/28/2005 05:03 ||
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#1
No way not ever. Jerusalem is the Capitol of Israel. 3 wars of aggression against Israel shows that the Arabs have no right to make any claim on Jerusalem.
Send this ratbag Mister Otte packing back to the EU as a an undesirable person.
#2
Of course the elephant in the room that no one will admit to is that logic dictates Arab majority areas currently in Israel should be transferred to the paleo area in exchange for newly created jewish majority areas around Jerusalem. The mere mention of this would set off massive rioting in the Arab Israeli areas since they would be rightly appalled at the prospect living under a paleo Arab government. Nonetheless this is the end game.
#3
the EU - supplier of arms and money to Paleo terror groups. Who asked your opinion, boy?
Posted by: Frank G ||
08/28/2005 9:52 Comments ||
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#4
phil_b: you raise a very good point. Even in the Arab areas of Israel, the Arabs reproduce at such a rate that soon they will be as crowded as Gaza. This leaves the inevitable, and unenviable, choice to Israel of either kicking them out or carving out that part of Israel to become part of Paleo territory. I would propose that they have already decided on making emigration from Israel easy for them.
As far as Jerusalem goes, the only real question remaining is the disposition of the al-Asqa mosque. The Jews could solve that problem by discreetly creating a policy: any major act of war by any Arab country, and the mosque will be razed, followed immediately thereafter by the creating of the Jewish temple at that site. This will be assisted by the elimination of all Moslem heritage sites in all of Israel, and the expulsion of any Arab the Israelis see fit to expel.
#5
I would love to know at just what point Palestine is pressured to recognize the state of Israel? Israel is to give and give and get nothing in return? Why bother calling it negotiations, if that's the case?
Our Euro "friends" have a schizophrenia problem. 1) They see no problem dealing with Hamas. 2) One of the most celebrated leaders of Hamas just this weekend confirmed they still plan on eliminating the state of Israel from the map. 3) European "leaders" claim to be an impartial facilitator in bringing peace to both Israelis and Palestinians. They must mean the peace of the grave for Jews.
#6
Well, yes. The withdrawal is a model for Jerusalem, but just not in the manner that the EU expects. Israel will expel the Arabs from Jerusalem and only allow carefully supervised bus tours to the Dome of the Rock and the Al Aqsa. Any moslem who makes so much as a anti-Israeli remark is going to find himself dumped over the wall into Gaza.
#7
Israel's Euro friends have no problem -- Otte understands the consequences of his proposals. The Euros happily bought into the Palestinian view of things, and believe that Israel has no right to exist... which outcome they willingly work to achieve while mouthing pious platitudes. In fact, they consider Israel to be a colonial activity by Europe's Jews, and believe that the Jews should decolonize post-haste, and return to their countries of origin. The outcome of that being the Jews' problem, of course, and no concern of Europe.
#8
But no Temple will be built on the Temple Mount. Judaism evolved past needing or even wanting such a thing just about the time the one Jesus knew was destroyed by the Romans in 70 A.D.
#9
..."they consider Israel to be a colonial activity by Europe's Jews, and believe that the Jews should decolonize post-haste, and return to their countries of origin..."
An arguable position if your country of origin is Russia. If your country of origin is Israel?
Of course you're right, tw. Which is why someone in this administration needs to force Europe to define its role in the Peace Plan. Publicly pressuring the Pallies into recognizing the state of Israel will put European and Pallie hypocrisy in the glaring light of the media in one fell swoop. Either Europe will strive to separate itself from American evenhandedness, in which case their resilient anti-Semitism can be put out for international display and MSM indigestion, or they push the Pallies to do what they should have done long before the Gaza pullout.-recognize the state of Israel as the first step in any Peace Process America wants to associate ourselves with.
#10
The EU is still throughly anti-jewish. Don't hold your breath on a change. 60+ years after WW2 and they still hate the Jews. Many in the EU are quite sad that Hitler didn't get them all. Europe hasn't learned a thing. The EU has no moral or spiritual compass. As I said Israel ought to expell this Otte as an undesirable person.
But if that was true, then their interests should lie with the Israelis. More importantly they should be actively working with the Palestinians for peace.
The reason is...becoming tired of never-ending conflict, many Israelis are returning to their countries of origin, to the newly expanded EU territories. Meaning of course that there will be more Jews in Europe.
Posted by: Rafael ||
08/28/2005 17:47 Comments ||
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Note that the second article said PA, not PLO, although I can understand why you interchanged the terms.
That money is being extended from the US to the Palestinians gives us all the more reason to demand a Palestinian disassociation from Hamas, etc.
From your link:
"With U.S. oversight, the funds will be used to rehabilitate new housing for 6000 families, roads, water facilities, schools, and health clinics in Gaza to help ease the transition after the Israeli disengagement. "
American people will expect that oversight means these monies can only be used for the purposes stated.
Note that the second article said PA, not PLO, although I can understand why you interchanged the terms.
I.e., they are indistinguishable, in terms of ideology and practice, and virtually identical in terms of organisation.
American people will expect that oversight means these monies can only be used for the purposes stated.
First, there is no such thing as transparency in the territories. Second, even if this money is used for the intended purpose, it frees up money the PLO can use to carry out terrorist attacks.
Third, who cares what its for? You aren't going to argue that the U.S. should send millions to the 'social wing' of Hamas, are you?
#22
If you say that the PA and Hamas are one, then you can make that claim. I am not convinced you're wrong. The pressure now shifts to Abbas to prove otherwise.
And while there may be no transparency, Americans have eyes to see and brains to register what the effects of the disengagement of Gaza turn out to be. It will be up to all of us to shove examples of continued terrorism in front of all Americans' faces and then ask how they feel about funding the murder of other human beings (Israelis).
The hard part is having to watch it happen, step by step. We suspect in our bones what Abbas will do. It is a waste of lives that we have to do this dance to make the rest of the "peace" partners conscious and civilized.
That is the point at which you and I started to disagree.
#23
The PA and Hamas aren't one - at least not yet, as Abbas has been recruiting Hamas and PIJ in to the PA 'security forces'.
The PLO/PA is a terrorist organisation in its own right.
We suspect in our bones what Abbas will do. It is a waste of lives that we have to do this dance to make the rest of the "peace" partners conscious and civilized.
Guess what: dead Jews don't convince Europe of anything. It doesn't have much of an impact on the U.S. or Israeli governments, either.
#24
You are preaching to the choir. You say Europeans don't care. I would agree that many don't-they still have a very ugly skeleton they haven't made amends to in their closets. Does the fact that we agree change US or European policy? No.
What could change policy? Possibly the dissolution or transformation of the suite of "partners"?
#25
I think what Isreal sould do is tell the EU and the UN to stick it and just make a declaration that after every Palestinian attack Isreal would forcible take X acres of land. Starting with the cities on the border to solidify the Isreali border and strengthen security. At some point the Paleo's would either stop the terrorist and start being real negotiating partners or their would be none of them in Isreal.
#26
trailing wife: There is an orthodox movement to recreate the temple at that site. A red heifer would be needed for sacrifice for this rebuilding to begin. One has become available. For further information:
http://www.jewfaq.org/qorbanot.htm
"...Some time in 1997, a red heifer was born in Israel. This birth received quite a bit of press coverage, and I received many questions asking about the significance of it.
The ritual of the red heifer (in Hebrew, parah adumah) is part of one of the most mysterious rituals described in the Torah. The purpose of this ritual is to purify people from the defilement caused by contact with the dead. The ritual is discussed in Numbers 19. If you find it difficult to understand, don't feel bad; the sages themselves described it as beyond human understanding. What is so interesting about this ritual is that it purifies the impure, but it also renders the pure impure (i.e., everybody who participates in the ritual becomes impure).
It is believed by many that this ritual will be performed by the messiah when he comes, because we have all suffered the defilement of contact with the dead. Thus, the existence of a red heifer is a possible, but not definite, sign of the messiah. If the messiah were coming, there would be a red heifer, but there could be a red heifer without the messiah coming...
Sunni negotiators said Sunday they expect the draft constitution drawn up by the Shiite and Kurdish blocs to be "rammed through" parliament despite their objections and last-ditch U.S. efforts to secure a compromise. Sunni negotiator Sadoun Zubaydi said he expected the National Assembly to rubber-stamp the proposal. "They have told us it will be rammed through whether we like it or not," he said.
In a sign of the deepening crisis, five of the top Sunni Arabs in Iraq's coalition government â including a deputy prime minister â spoke out late Saturday against the draft. They said they objected to 13 provisions in the document. Although Cabinet members are not directly involved in the constitutional talks, the declaration indicated that Iraq's fragile government could fall apart if the draft proposal drawn up by the Shiite and Kurdish bloc is sent to the voters without the agreement of the Sunni negotiating team.
Sunnis account for only 20 percent of Iraq's 27 million people, but they are in a strong position to derail the constitution. If two-thirds of voters in any three provinces reject the charter in the referendum scheduled for Oct. 15, the constitution will be defeated, and Sunnis have the majority in at least four provinces.
After two months of talks, negotiators for the Shiite-Kurd bloc and the Sunnis remain divided over fundamental issues that include: whether Iraq should be turned into a federal state or decentralized by granting more power to provincial authorities; how the country's oil wealth will be divided; whether members of Saddam' Hussein's banned Baath Party should be purged; and whether Iraq will be considered an Arab or Islamic nation.
The deadlock in the talks came despite frantic efforts by the United States to secure a political consensus that would hopefully deliver a massive vote in favor of the charter â taking the steam out of the Sunni-led insurgency and enabling a drawdown of U.S. troops to start next year. U.S. Ambassador Zalmay Khalilzad met with various negotiators and parliament's speaker, Hajim al-Hassani, late Saturday trying to broker wording acceptable to the Sunnis.
"The demands from the Sunni Arabs continued until a very late hour," Jawad al Maliki, a Shiite member of the drafting committee, told state-run Iraqiya TV on Sunday. "They demanded that we do nothing unless we accept all their demands. So we insisted on refusing that."
On Saturday, after a flurry of final proposals and counterproposals for amending the document, the Shiite-Kurdish alliance said it would hand the draft on Sunday to the 275-seat National Assembly. The alliance enjoys an overwhelming majority in parliament due to the Sunni boycott of last elections last January.
Al-Hassani said Shiites and Kurds sought to address Sunni concerns by offering Friday to put off consideration of federalism's details until after a new parliament is elected in December, when Sunnis are expected to expand on the 17 seats they currently hold. Shiites and Kurds also acknowledged that many members of Saddam's party were not criminals and wouldn't be covered by a charter provision on purging Baathists from government and public life, he said.
Al-Hassani said he planned to convene the legislature Sunday, a workday here, but no hour was announced. It was not immediately clear whether lawmakers would vote on the alliance's proposal or simply refer it to voters for ratification in the referendum in October.
Sunni leaders said their people should oppose the charter peacefully by voting "no" in the referendum.
"The (Sunni) bloc should now convene a general conference to decide how to proceed," Zubaydi said. "Boycotting the referendum and parliamentary elections (in December) would be a lose-lose proposition. Our hope will be in the next parliament that will hopefully be more balanced than this one."
Posted by: Dan Darling ||
08/28/2005 04:33 ||
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Message to Baath Party and other Sunnis: PAYBACK IS A BITCH...HUH.
#2
Coming one way or another? Thats what happens sometimes when you are the minority. Should have taken the first elections seriously, but you didn't, now you want to cry like bitch-babies and stomp your feet. Problem is, I dont think the Shiites give a rat's ass if you're happy. Welcome to the world of democracy boys, you can't have it your way every time.
#3
But if the Constitution fails to pass, would there be civil war? What if 75% say yes, but the Sunnis shut it down in three provinces? *I* would be really upset, if I was part of the 75%!
Here's hoping it passes by a majority in ALL provinces - it's the best chance they've had in a long, long time!
Posted by: Bobby ||
08/28/2005 12:01 Comments ||
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#4
There are several groups that are hoping for civil war in Iraq: the Baathists, the Sunnis (but I repreat myself), al-Zarqawi, Sadr and his Tater Tots (bloody tools of Iran), Iran, Saudi Arabia, and Syria. I covered this on my blog last night. My suggestion: pass the damned thing, and let the chips fall where they may. It may be the only way to actually purge the country of all the ba$$$$$s that want to see democracy fail, and give the Iraqi survivors a chance for real peace and prosperity. We've built countries from scratch before, we can do it again.
Posted by: Old Patriot ||
08/28/2005 13:53 Comments ||
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#5
I read somewhere last year that there are 3 rules to follow when contemplating somebody elses civil war:
1. Don't get involved in civil wars.
2. If you must get involved, pick a side.
3. If you pick a side, make sure it wins.
To the extent this is right, we pick the non Sadr Shiites and make sure they win. Hopefully by then the central government is under the control of the reasonable shiites.
Posted by: Captain America ||
08/28/2005 03:52 ||
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#1
Pick one town in Gaza, and bomb it into dust. Then announce that the next attack of ANY kind will result in another Gaza town being ground down into powder. There's nothing left there to be concerned about, so the maximum pressure can be applied.
#2
two security guards had approached the bomber just before the explosion.
The two guards knowingly chose the risk to their own lives in order to protect others -- that is courage. The bomber gave up his life to murder innocents -- that is evil. It doesn't matter that he did so fearlessly. It was not bravery, it was not courage, and it is no way admirable.
#6
I don't understand? I thought the Gaza withdrawal would bring "peace in our time"? [/sarcasm]
Posted by: Dar ||
08/28/2005 8:35 Comments ||
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#7
I also thought the Gaza pullout will bring peace and overwhelming counter-fire if attacked. Maybe Sharon is waiting on permission from the State Dept. I will have to get some more popcorn, it got stale waiting on Sharon to act.
#8
Israel has many chemical plants. Napalm is easy to make (you can make it in a stainless steel kitchen sink, wearing a decent gas mask). It's time to start toasting some terrorists, not only in Israel but wherever they raise their ugly heads. All the PC bullshit needs to be flushed yesterday.
Posted by: Old Patriot ||
08/28/2005 15:02 Comments ||
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#9
I also thought the Gaza pullout will bring peace and overwhelming counter-fire if attacked.
With the pullout, there is no excuse not to retaliate big time. If the Israelis don't, then the notion of "disengagement" was a very big mistake.
Agreed. Here is the latest from, haaretzdaily.com.
"The man who carried out the Be'er Sheva suicide bombing was initially identified by Islamic Jihad as Ayman Za'aqiq, 25, of the village of Beit Umar, located between the West Bank cities of Bethlehem and Hebron. A statement by the group statement said he was an Islamic Jihad member."
As Ramadi goes, so goes Iraq, many top military analysts say. But a close look at the Sunni Muslim stronghold about 70 miles west of Baghdad reveals the daunting challenge confronting Marines from Camp Pendleton and their brothers in arms.
Gunmen have recently opened fire on Sunni Muslim leaders in the Iraqi city. Agents of al-Qaida in Iraq have posted threats on Ramadi's mosques vowing to attack anyone who participates in the October referendum to ratify the constitution, the drafting of which has already missed two deadlines in recent weeks.
About 5,000 residents filled Ramadi's streets last weekend to protest the draft constitution, which they say excludes them, and Sunni tribal leaders have ordered Ramadi residents to attack Sunni extremists in the city who oppose the upcoming vote.
Three car bombs targeting U.S. forces exploded in Ramadi on Wednesday, according to the Reuters news agency.
The violence still roiling in Ramadi ---- Sunni against Shiite, Sunni against Sunni, and anyone against the Americans ---- underscores the high stakes there as one Camp Pendleton Marine battalion struggles to contain the chaos long enough for Iraqi leaders and Iraqi security forces to gain a foothold in what analysts say is Iraq's most important Sunni city.
Camp Pendleton's 1st Battalion, 5th Regiment has been stationed there since March ---- the third Pendleton-based infantry unit to have responsibility for patrolling Ramadi since February 2004.
At least 14 of the battalion's men have died in efforts to quell the violence in the restive town, three of them within the last few weeks.
At least 80 local Marines, nearly a third of the fatalities from Pendleton, have been killed in or near Ramadi since the war began in 2003.
Ramadi, a city of about 350,000 on the banks of the Euphrates River, is the capital of the Al Anbar province, which borders on Syria, Jordan and Saudi Arabia.
It is the seat of power for regional Arab tribes such as the powerful Dulaim and Jabir tribes, and a base for many top clerics of Iraq's Sunni Muslim sect, which was favored by Saddam Hussein and his Baath Party.
Often called Iraq's gateway to Syria and Jordan, Ramadi has historically been a major hub of trade and ideas, including hard-line strains of Sunni Islam imported from Jordan and Saudi Arabia.
Because of Ramadi's strategic location and its importance as a political, religious and tribal center, analysts and U.S. military officials alike call Ramadi the contentious key to Iraq's Sunni heartland.
"If the new (Iraqi) government is going to succeed, it's gotta succeed in Ramadi," said Col. Larry Nicholson, the new commander of Pendleton's 5th Marine Regiment ---- the regiment that includes all three Marine battalions to fight in Ramadi.
The recent history of Ramadi offers clues to how it became such a make-or-break city for U.S. military forces and the fledgling Iraqi government.
After U.S. forces invaded Iraq and deposed Saddam Hussein in 2003, thousands of party and military members loyal to Hussein found refuge in Ramadi, which had long profited from Hussein's patronage and offered its progeny to his political and military machine.
Ramadi quickly emerged, alongside its neighbor Fallujah, as the center of gravity for the early insurgency led by Hussein loyalists, and then for Islamic fighters and foreign terrorists arriving from the west to wage holy war against Americans.
Violence there rivaled ---- some say exceeded ---- the fighting that erupted in Fallujah when the Marines took over from Army units in Al Anbar in early 2004.
When U.S. forces launched a huge offensive to clear insurgents from Fallujah in November, many insurgents shifted to Ramadi and other western cities and towns. Since then, Ramadi has been implicated several times for harboring terrorist leader Abu Musab al-Zarqawi.
Analysts say the Fallujah assault helped alienate Iraq's Sunni minority and led Sunni clerics in Ramadi and elsewhere to call for a boycott of the parliamentary elections in January. Only about 2 percent of Ramadi's eligible voters cast ballots during the Jan. 30 vote.
John Pike, a military analyst and director of the Virginia-based think tank GlobalSecurity.org, said the Sunnis in Ramadi and elsewhere feared that the Americans and their appointed Iraqi leaders sought to exclude the Sunnis from the new Iraq, and they opted to reject the political process altogether.
"They fear that they're going to get the short end of the stick," Pike said in a recent telephone interview.
The new Shiite-dominated government, he said, has proved to some that their fears were well-founded.
"The tribal leadership in places like Ramadi have to be convinced that they can still get a decent deal out of the new government," he said. "They have to be convinced that they'll have a place and that it will be around for a while before they'll invest in it."
Pike said the U.S. military has paid the price of not understanding the cultural dynamics of the Sunni heartland, which he calls "Sunnistan," at which Ramadi stands center.
In the years after the first Gulf War in 1991 and the U.N. economic sanctions that followed, Hussein held onto control by trying to co-opt and foster existing social movements, mainly Islam and tribalism.
Pike said culturally conservative Ramadi and Fallujah gained unprecedented prominence and became bastions of resistance against the American occupation.
"Everyone had been talking as though Tikrit (Hussein's hometown) was going to be the hard nut to crack, that it was going to be the last holdout," Pike said. "But it turned out to be these towns out west.
"Saddam did a big piece of social engineering after the first Gulf War," he said. "I just don't think anyone yet understands it."
At first military leaders insisted that the insurgency had to be defeated in Ramadi to achieve stability in the region.
When the American brass in Baghdad added several Army battalions to help the beleaguered Marine battalion in Ramadi last fall, they conducted large offensive sweeps to flush out insurgents. While they discovered large weapons caches and killed many insurgents, the military campaigns had little lasting effect.
The latest Marine battalion to take over there in March has also found Ramadi to be a tough, frustrating place.
A recent article in USA Today described the difficulties facing the newest Marines in Ramadi ---- at least 150 of whom are on their third tour to Iraq in some of the heaviest fighting in the country's most violent regions: first in Baghdad in 2003, then in Fallujah in early 2004.
The Marines say they think there are about 2,000 potential insurgents in Ramadi, led by a hard-core cadre of about 150 full-time fighters from Iraq and other countries who have expertise in weapons, bomb-making and guerrilla tactics.
Since they arrived in Ramadi in March, the battalion has lost at least 14 Marines and sailors in combat, mostly roadside bombs that do not give the survivors targets against which to fight back.
"I don't think the Battle of Ramadi can ever be won," said one company commander, according to the recent article. "I just think the Battle of Ramadi has to be fought every day."
Nicholson, the regimental commander back at Camp Pendleton, said the successions of local Marines who have patrolled and fought in Ramadi have worked and sacrificed for progress that is real but difficult to measure.
"Change has been glacial in Ramadi," Nicholson said in a recent interview at Camp Pendleton before leaving to check up on the Marines in Ramadi. "It's slow going. Tough going. You don't see change every day."
Despite the insurgency's grip on Ramadi, Nicholson said the Marines' mission will remain one of supporting the Iraqis so that maybe they can defeat the insurgency or at least sap its steam themselves.
"If we can keep the pressure off there, allowing the government to sink some roots, that's probably the only way they'll survive," Nicholson said. "The more the people of Ramadi see the Marines and the Iraqi forces working together, the more I think you'll see change."
Juan Cole, an Iraq expert who teaches Middle Eastern history and politics at the University of Michigan, said the U.S. cannot afford a bold military strategy or heavy hand in Ramadi, least of all now with the constitution and two upcoming elections in the balance.
After weeks of trying to keep the country from fracturing along ethnic and cultural lines ---- between the oil-rich Kurdish zone in the north, an oil-rich Shiite zone in the south, and an oil-poor "Sunnistan" in the middle ---- the Iraqi parliament failed to meet a deadline two weeks ago to draft a new constitution and then arrived at a draft last week that has yet to be approved.
Iraqis are scheduled to vote on the new constitution in October, when a two-thirds "no" in three of Iraq's 18 provinces would block it.
If the new document is ratified, Iraqis will then have a chance to choose a first full-term government in December.
Cole said Ramadi will be an important place to watch to see if attempts at democracy can survive.
"If you cannot get the Arabs of Ramadi to buy into it, you lose Anbar. And if Anbar province is lost to the government, then it means Iraq will be partitioned," he said, offering little hope that a breakup could be avoided.
"If there could be a breakthrough in Ramadi, then maybe there could be a breakthrough in other Sunni cities elsewhere. But I'm not going to hold my breath," he said. "I think the whole thing is going south." I'm shocked to hear that, coming from Juan Cole ...
Posted by: Dan Darling ||
08/28/2005 00:22 ||
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#1
Steaks, na, already eat.
everythingisgointohell v.108.2
Posted by: Captain America ||
08/28/2005 3:01 Comments ||
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#2
I didn't check to see, but I sure hope this wasn't an original from the North County Times. Normally that small paper has provided much better coverage (i.e., nothing from the idiot Cole and nothing from the generalist Pike, who merely recycles the glibbest tidbits of conventional wisdom).
Saddam didn't social engineer -- he merely went with the pre-existing tribal/regional flow, as he had to, post-1991.
Meanwhile, the "loss" of Anbar would be quite acceptable, if the major towns of the area were to be properly cordoned and anti-governmnet activity in the area suppressed. The war is and always has been 95% a civil war -- one which our de facto clients (Shi'a and Kurds) are exceptionally well-positioned to win decisively. A rare and happy arrangement -- though one that can only be exploited with the patience and sacrified the Marines have shown.
I'd bet at least $20 that in 10 years there will still be trouble in Ramadi and Anbar generally -- many countries are able to function fairly well while still containing some troublesome areas. Fortunately "Sunnistan" is, indeed, oil-poor. And the trucking companies of Kuwait and Turkey and Iran will not mind getting all that Aqaba-Baghdad business. If the new Iraqi government had the spine (and the ability to use our firepower), they could obtain Anbar's submission in far less time. But we've long since abandoned the only sensible strategy (break the will and capacity of the enemy to fight), and the other Iraqis apart from some Kurds have rarely shown any backbone.
#3
Thank you, Verlaine - it's refreshing to hear a calm and realistic view of the situation - and the players. First-hand knowledge of Arab behavior flips several Western assumptions on their heads. Sigh. Jafaari & Co aren't worth warm spit - to Iraq's future, anyway. I'm sure Tehran appreciates them - and no doubt they keep the Sunnis in stitches. Otherwise... Where's Allawi...
I appreciate and echo all of your comments, today. I would only presume to add 3 observations while strongly echoing you thoughts on the Sunnis...
1) The old international bugaboo, faux "stability" - combined with the idiot notion that anything but a "whole" Iraq is failure, is at the heart of the current wasted motion / treading-water approaches.
2) If none of the participants in the constitutional process is actually willing to step out of character and work for the good of all, if the participants can see no further than the interests of their own group, then the existence of "Iraq" is as artificial as "Yugoslavia". Make it so, number one.
3) There is a limit to the number of strategies we have the time and treasure to try.
Thanks for your posts - they insert a breath of reality that has been missing more often than not.
#4
Verlaine and .com are right and I would add that if the Sunnis want to boycot the referundum on the constitution then let them. It just means it will pass and they are screwed. Better practice herding goats for a living cos that will be the main source of Sunni employment thereafter.
#5
Oh, no, No, NO! Don't you see? The MSM has it right. EVERYONE must all follow the same theme, which (come to think of it), is the same as it is here. Follow MY theme!
Anybody remember that Bush won 52% to 48%, and if the Iraqis read the papers here, this country is torn by racial/political/economic divisiveness. Ask Al Sharpton. Ask Jesse Jackson. Ask Cindy was-her-face. Teddy, John-Boy, or Turan Dick. Why, this country is nowhere NEAR perfect!
If a 2/3's no vote was required in 10 states (3 of 18 provices ~ 10 of 50 states)to block something, John Roberts would be confirmed tomorrow, and ... and....
Is Las Vegas taking odds on the Iraqi Constitution passing?
Posted by: Bobby ||
08/28/2005 9:02 Comments ||
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#6
Sunnis are gonna stonewall themselves into a non-entity when it comes to players. Either sign the constitution or accept you'll be left out . assholes
Posted by: Frank G ||
08/28/2005 9:47 Comments ||
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#7
Anyone that quotes John Pike and Juan Cole has an agenda, and it's not pro-American. John Pike is also head of the Coalition of Concerned Scientists, which has pushed the Global Warming stupidity, and more conspiracy theories than Jesse Jackson. Juan Cole is just a pro-Arabist idiot.
There is still the option to use overwhelming force. Give the Sunnis a week to get their house in order. If they don't, pull back and let the entire city be bombed until the only thing the bombs do is churn rubble. Set up blocking forces to ensure nobody leaves. Let the entire WORLD know that our patience is limited, and we will use whatever force we believe necessary to accomplish our objectives. Too bad about the women, children, baby ducks and whatever: they had no choice. They're just as much the victims of Sunni stupidity as everyone else in Iraq. Too bad, so sad.
Posted by: Old Patriot ||
08/28/2005 14:21 Comments ||
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#8
The Iraqis have been given the chance of a lifetime to have a decent life. But so much is tribal. The Sunnis are in the middle of a sand pile, whereas the Kurds in the north and Shiia to the south have the oil in which to create wealth and a thriving economy.
Our main objective in attacking Saddam and Co and to overthrow the machine was to eliminate Iraq as a source of global terror and the resources to create terror and instability and the possibility of passing WMD to terrorist proxies worldwide. We have done that.
The terrorists thrive and move around only in a population that aids them. The Sunnis have aided and abetted the terrorists. However, they do respect power. Old Patriot is right. Only the intelligent and concentrated application of overwhelming force will break these nutcases' will to resist. If that is not done, then we are just mucking about, using up troops and national treasure in a futile attempt at nation building.
Germany and Japan had to have the will to fight broken before we could even think about rebuilding. The same with Iraq. Unfortunately we went the PC way, getting our knickers in a knot over Abu Grabass, too much or too little air conditioning at Club Gitmo, and the mishandling of Sauron's Operations Manual the Q'u'or'a'n.
Posted by: Alaska Paul ||
08/28/2005 14:49 Comments ||
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#9
Let's be realistic here. The enemy lost the war. The Sunnis, Baatists in particular, should no longer have sway. Moreover, the freely chose to vote with their feet and not vote.
Meantime, you have brave Iraqis who risked their lives in order to vote. This included old men who had to be carried to the voting stations in wheel barrows, etc. This is THEIR government and constitution. The elected officals are THEIR representatives. The Coaltion has lost many brave men and women so that these same people can determine their own destiny.
These are the same people who were killed in the millions under the Baatist/Saddam Regime. Damn it, let these people make their own determinations.
The Baatists were at a minimum willing accomplices to Saddam & Co. But the Baatist elements extend well into Syria. The insurgency and the terrorists stream into Iraq through Syria. Sure, it would be nice to recognize that Al Anbar province is a shit hole and leave it at that.
But the Coaltion should not leave Iraq unless and until adequate border security is provided for by trained and well equipped Iraqis and Syria has been cleaned out.
As for the political side. The Sunnis still live in DeNile and the atroscities they committed are still very fresh in the minds of Kurds and Shias. It may take a decade or more of good behavior by the Sunnis before they are capable of playing a meaningful role in the new federation.
Posted by: Captain America ||
08/28/2005 16:08 Comments ||
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A bomb killed an American soldier and wounded four others when it exploded near their armored vehicle in Paktika Province, near the Pakistan border, the United States military said Saturday.
The wounded soldiers were taken to nearby bases for treatment. One was in critical condition, one was in stable condition and two returned to duty, the military said.
It said the soldiers were providing security in anticipation of landmark legislative elections next month, which Taliban rebels have vowed to subvert. Paktika Province has been an active combat zone since American-led forces overthrew the Taliban in 2001. Since then, American and Afghan forces have conducted many sweeps in the region to try to root out fighters for the Taliban and Al Qaeda.
"Our forces have gained a great deal against the enemy, and our actions will ensure a safe and secure election next month," said Brig. Gen. James G. Champion, deputy commander of coalition forces in the country. "We will honor our fallen comrade by taking the fight to these cowards who are responsible for this attack."
Posted by: Dan Darling ||
08/28/2005 00:20 ||
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#1
Quagmire! Withdraw now! Cindy says blah, blah, blah, blah ... oh wait a minute, these are Iraq War talking points!
Like many of Baghdad's fiery Sunni clerics, Sheikh Omar Ibrahim al Duleimi was never afraid to stir things up at Friday prayers. When he urged his congregation to rise up and fight the American occupation, United States troops would routinely haul him in for questioning.
When he urged his congregation to register to vote in elections, the threat came from his compatriots - insurgents, who sent him warning messages that he ignored.
The sheikh has now paid the ultimate price for his defiance. Two hours before he was due to be interviewed by The Sunday Telegraph, armed men stormed his home in Baghdad and kidnapped him. His body was found in the capital yesterday with a single gunshot wound to the head.
The reason for his death was the subject he was about to discuss - his declaration that democracy, not the gun, is the best way forward for Iraq's Sunnis. Qassim al Janaabi, his assistant, said: "In the last two weeks he had been saying in prayers that all Iraqis should vote. He said if we get a government, president and constitution, the Americans will have no reason to stay. "Some groups sent messages to him saying, 'Don't be a traitor, if you carry on doing this you will die.' But he didn't care - he insisted that he would carry on with this subject. Then two cars full of men came and took him away."
Sheikh Omar, a former secondary school English teacher, was among a growing number of pro-insurgent Sunni clerics who had come to believe that the decision to boycott last January's elections was a disaster. It is a divisive issue among hardliners, with those who still reject the political process turning their guns on those who support it.
According to the Association of Muslim Scholars, a hardline Sunni organisation with ties to the insurgents, at least 23 Sunni clerics have been killed in recent weeks for espousing democracy. The issue has taken on added urgency with the protracted wranglings over Iraq's constitution, in which Sunnis have been able to play only a small role thanks to their minimal representation on the national assembly.
In what appeared to be another attempt to mollify Sunnis, the US military said that it had released almost 1,000 prisoners from Abu Ghraib in recent days. Yet even as they regained their freedom, Sheikh Omar was about to lose his life. His son, Hatem, 22, and his six-year-old sister, Sara, witnessed his abduction.
"At 2pm the door knocked and my little sister opened it," Hatem said. "Someone was asking for my father. My sister left the door open and then three masked men entered the house and put their rifles into our faces. They said, 'We want to take your father, he's a traitor.' His last words to us were, 'Stay here, I will be back. Let them take me and I will be back' ."
The family never had much hope of seeing him again. "The Mujahideen we spoke to said they didn't know anything about it," Hatem said. "We think these were people from al-Qaeda in Iraq." He still believes that his father was right. "The election is a new weapon we can use against the occupation," he said. "But these extremists refuse any kind of election. They are not Mujahideen, they are just terrorists."
The split among Sunnis over voting will come to a head in the referendum. Further elections for the country's first fully sovereign government are due in December.
Posted by: Dan Darling ||
08/28/2005 00:15 ||
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I am going to ask for a life line on these one.
Posted by: Captain America ||
08/28/2005 3:03 Comments ||
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#2
Muzzy attrition..how terrible..;)
Posted by: Red Dog ||
08/28/2005 3:41 Comments ||
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Is the sky blue? The Pope Catholic?
Mujahid Mohiyuddin insists that he and his district are innocent.
Speaking in his religious seminary, or madrassa, in the Mansehra district of northern Pakistan, the young cleric admitted receiving military training in 1996 from Harkat-ul-Mujahedeen, or Movement for Holy Warriors, a Pakistani group linked to Al Qaeda and the killing of the American journalist Daniel Pearl.
But he insisted that the group had disbanded and that training camps no longer operated in the district. "The government has imposed restrictions on the holy war," he said. "There are not any training camps in the country, especially Mansehra."
This picturesque area of rolling Himalayan foothills, thick forests and isolated farms is the focus of bitter charges that Pakistan continues to allow terrorist training camps to operate on its soil.
During the past year, Taliban prisoners captured in Afghanistan, opposition politicians in Pakistan and Afghan and Indian government officials have said repeatedly that training camps are active in the Mansehra district and other parts of Pakistan, while Pakistani officials vehemently deny they exist.
Last summer, a young Pakistani captured with Taliban forces in Afghanistan said in an interview with The New York Times that he was trained in the Mansehra district by the group Mr. Mohiyuddin said had been disbanded. An armed Pakistani captured in Afghanistan told a private Afghan television channel in June that he had been trained there.
In July, two militants told a Pakistani journalist working on contract for The New York Times that they met one of the July 7 London bombing suspects, Shehzad Tanweer, on a trip to a militant training camp in the Mansehra district last winter. Three Pakistanis recently sentenced to prison terms in Afghanistan for trying to assassinate the American ambassador said they had been trained in the district, an Afghan intelligence official said.
Another Pakistani captured in Afghanistan this month said he had been trained in the Mansehra district.
Sher Ali, a 28-year-old night watchman from Pakistan's North-West Frontier Province who was caught in July on his way to join the mujahedeen, described his training in an interview in a Kabul jail.
The interview took place in an office at the prison on Aug. 14, with no guards present. Mr. Ali described a seemingly underground system in Pakistan that trains fighters and sends them into Afghanistan. He said he met an Afghan at a friend's house in Miranshah, in Pakistan's tribal areas of North Waziristan, a lawless mountain region in which Pakistan says it has deployed 70,000 troops to hunt for militants.
After receiving directions from the Afghan, he journeyed alone to a camp hidden in the mountains above the Mansehra district. "Nowadays they don't have legal camps," he said. "I got the feeling it was a very secret place."
He was given directions and walked for three hours until he came to a small white tent pitched in a clearing. From there, two men took him on foot for another hour or two and he joined a group of 20 Pakistanis. Some, he said, were being trained to fight Indian forces in the disputed region of Kashmir and some were to go to Afghanistan.
There were no buildings, he said, and the men slept on the ground. Their trainer, whom they knew as Maksud, spoke Urdu, he said. "He taught us to use a Kalashnikov and a rocket-propelled grenade," he said. After just three weeks there, he set off for Afghanistan, he said.
But the Afghan police identified him as a Pakistani and detained him.
In southern Afghanistan, a Taliban commander who recently defected to the Afghan government, Mullah Sayed Mir, said a training program for new recruits was also being conducted in and around the southwestern Pakistani town of Quetta.
"The Taliban have rented houses in Pakistan, they live there and also get training there," he said in a recent interview in Zabul Province. "Then, they are sent to Afghanistan."
He said Pakistanis, including local policemen, aided the Taliban. "The Pakistanis would give us some equipment and money if we needed it," he said. "Also they were helping with renting houses in Pakistan for the Taliban." Once, he said, he and a group of 20 fighters had a Pakistani police escort to the border.
Pakistani officials deny aiding the Taliban and say they are aggressively cracking down on all militants. In an interview on July 29, Pakistan's president, Pervez Musharraf, said there were no training camps operating in Pakistan with government support.
This spring, some militant groups began using abandoned camps in the Pakistan-controlled portion of the disputed Kashmir region, he said, but government forces intervened.
"There were some vacant camps, and we got information they were being used," said General Musharraf. "We are now going to occupy them."
American officials have credited Pakistan with aggressively cracking down on foreign militants, particularly Al Qaeda.
At the same time, some Afghan and American officials say Pakistan is making little effort to fight the Taliban. Those officials say Pakistan is effectively holding that group in reserve, intending to use it to dominate Afghanistan once the United States withdraws its troops.
Independent and reliable confirmation of any claims about the camps is difficult, if not impossible, to verify.
Foreign journalists are not allowed access to the lawless tribal regions along the Pakistan-Afghanistan border and the Pakistani controlled portion of Kashmir, two areas where many of the camps are reported to be operating.
Pakistani officials also have begun issuing restricted visas that bar foreign journalists from traveling to Quetta and Peshawar, another place where there are said to be training camps. Pakistani officials say the restrictions are for their safety.
But foreign journalists are allowed to travel to the Mansehra district, an area only 60 miles north of Islamabad.
A one-day visit in early August produced ample evidence that militant training camps had operated in the area for years, but no proof that they are still active today.
Local politicians proudly declared that the area supported several training camps in the past 15 years, but those trained only young men fighting Indian forces in the disputed territory of Kashmir.
The government closed the camps, they said, when the India-Pakistan peace talks resumed in early 2004.
"There were camps," said Mohammed Yunus Khattack, the deputy chief of the hard-line Jamaat Islami religious party in the Mansehra district. "But now this is finished."
During the past two months, other reports of training camps in Pakistan have emerged.
In July, a reporter for one of Pakistan's leading news magazines wrote that he had recently visited a reopened training camp in the Mansehra district. The article in the magazine, The Herald, said 13 camps reopened in the Mansehra area in May, including one near the home village of Mr. Mohiyuddin, the cleric who said the camps had closed.
A Pakistani opposition leader, Maulana Fazlur Rehman, then accused the Pakistani Army of helping and training militants to fight in Afghanistan and of deceiving the West about its commitment to the campaign against terrorism, comments he retracted the next day. Mr. Rehman is the head of a coalition of six Islamist parties in Pakistan and the leader of an opposition bloc in the Pakistani Parliament.
On the road to Mr. Mohiyuddin's village, the seal of Harkat-ul-Mujahedeen was visible on several buildings, but district residents insisted the signs were old.
During a lengthy interview in his madrassa, Mr. Mohiyuddin again denied that training is occurring in the area and repeated the canard that American and Israeli intelligence operatives had staged the Sept. 11, 2001, attacks to create a pretense to invade Muslim countries.
Mr. Mohiyuddin, a small, charismatic man with a boyish face who said he was "about 30," also appeared to be very popular. Residents said that crime, which had flourished under corrupt local police and government officials, virtually disappeared after Mr. Mohiyuddin returned from Afghanistan.
Relaxed and confident, Mr. Mohiyuddin described himself as a pious schoolteacher and courageous local crime fighter. He said local politicians jealous of his popularity had unfairly placed him on a list of wanted criminals.
Asked about repeated reports that Harkat is still training militants here, he insisted that the group was no longer active.
"The government disbanded that organization," he said. "We people are now struggling for our living."
Posted by: Dan Darling ||
08/28/2005 00:10 ||
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"On the road to Mr. Mohiyuddin's village, the seal of Harkat-ul-Mujahedeen was visible on several buildings, but district residents insisted the signs were old."
Oh yeah, that's just some old, faded artwork we have not quite scrubbed off the walls.
#2
A Pakistani opposition leader, Maulana Fazlur Rehman, then accused the Pakistani Army of helping and training militants to fight in Afghanistan and of deceiving the West about its commitment to the campaign against terrorism, comments he retracted the next day. Mr. Rehman is the head of a coalition of six Islamist parties in Pakistan and the leader of an opposition bloc in the Pakistani Parliament.
Where are the Martin Luther King types, or better yet the Malcolm X types? Rehman tried to do the right thing, but must be scared of being eliminated. Not much backbone.
It is claimed that Al Qaeda aims to hit the US, England and Australia within this year.
The South Korean Deputy, who claims to be relying on South Korean intelligence services, said: âPriority targets of Al Qaeda this year are US, England and Australia. Its second level targets are South Korea, Japan and the Philippines.â
The deputy, who preferred to remain anonymous, said the intelligence service relies on a top level Al Qaeda member, who was arrested this year. But the deputy did not give details about who this person was and where he was arrested.
Franceâs top anti-terrorist judge, Jean Louis Bruguiere, said in his talk to a British newspaper yesterday that Al Qaeda is preparing attacks in Australia or in the Far East.
Posted by: Dan Darling ||
08/28/2005 00:07 ||
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Priority targets of Al Qaeda this year are US, England and Australia. Its second level targets are South Korea, Japan and the Philippines.â
Wishful thinking. Reverse the levels and you have it right.
Posted by: Captain America ||
08/28/2005 3:19 Comments ||
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#2
So they've given up on Afghanistan, Iraq, Israel and Saudi Arabia?
#4
I dont think Al Queda wants to attack us here at home. They are not stupid and by now must understand that the americans with public opinion solid after a attack is unbeatable and can and will attack. More like hit our allies to try to divide our alliance and further erode our support here at home by the we are alone.
A land mine damaged an Egyptian police vehicle in northern Sinai on Saturday, injuring a police colonel and a civilian helping police track the group suspected of seven bombings in the area, a security source said.
It was the third such blast in Sinai since police last week launched a large-scale search operation for the group, believed to be Sinai Bedouin under the influence of militant Islamists.
The security sources, who asked not to be named, identified the officer as Lieutenant-Colonel Rushdi el-Sayed and the tracker as Hassan Eid, a Sinai Bedouin.
The land mine exploded near Mount Halal, the area which has been at the center of the search, the source added.
Mount Halal rises to 892 meters (2,900 feet) and lies about 60 km (35 miles) south of the Mediterranean town of el Arish, the home area of several named bombing suspects.
Police say they were looking for the remaining members of the group which killed at least 98 people in bombings in the Red Sea resorts of Taba in October and Sharm el-Sheikh in July.
Land mine explosions in Sinai on Wednesday and Thursday damaged three police vehicles, killed two police officers and injured at least five policemen and a civilian.
Some 3,500 police with 20 armored vehicles are taking part in the operation, security sources said last week.
Parts of Sinai still have landmines from wars between Egypt and
Israel but the number of explosions this week suggests the fugitives laid them recently, a security source said.
Police held 34 local people for questioning on Friday but it was not clear if they were part of the group, the source added.
Egyptian Prime Minister Ahmed Nazif said this week the government was looking at social factors in north Sinai that might have contributed to inspiring people to become suicide bombers in Sharm el-Sheikh.
"We need to see why this happened and how this happened," he told Tuesday's New York Times. "Is it just people frustrated, or are they people with connections?"
He said the authorities were working with two theories about who was behind the Sharm el-Sheikh bombings -- either that security forces were so aggressive after the Taba blasts that they prompted retaliation by locals or that the group had international connections such as to al Qaeda.
Posted by: Dan Darling ||
08/28/2005 00:06 ||
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The U.S. military announced Saturday that it has released nearly 1,000 prisoners from Abu Ghraib prison in response to a request by Iraqi authorities.
Chris Hitchens challenges the anti-war left with this statement: "Prison conditions at Abu Ghraib have improved markedly and dramatically since the arrival of Coalition troops in Baghdad." There's no way anyone can argue against that. Yet HRW and The New Yorker never discussed very much at all the disgusting nature of Saddam's Abu Ghraib. The US is releasing 1,000 prisooners. Think we'll get any credit for this? Sure, just in the same way we got credit for cleaning up the appalling nature of Saddam's prisons.
The move, the largest prisoner release to date, followed appeals by Sunni representatives to start releasing thousands of prisoners who have been caught violating the rules of war and can righfully be summarily executed without civilian trial. languishing in the jail for months without being charged.
After a meeting with President Jalal Talabani Thursday, Sunni negotiator Saleh al-Mutlaq said the president agreed to release many detainees before the Oct. 15, referendum on the constitution. Al-Mutlaq said hundreds of detainees, most of them Sunni Arabs, were to be set free.
"This major release ... marks a significant event in Iraq's progress toward democratic governance and the rule of law," the U.S. statement said.
"Those chosen for release are not guilty of serious, violent crimes â such as bombing, torture, kidnapping, or murder â and all have admitted their crimes, renounced violence, and pledged to be good citizens of a democratic Iraq."
#6
Well, this whole business is high-risk, to be sure. I was there for the first stage of the release on Wednesday, and the guys didn't look very menacing. Each case must be decided by a 9-member board (3 MNF-I, 6 Iraqi). The prisoners actually appear before a magistrate and talk with an Iraqi investigative judge very quickly after arriving at Abu -- another feature that's rather amazing under the circumstances (and uh, no, you'll see no kudos from HRW, the ICRC, or certainly the media for that!).
I'm not in a position to judge the program, but I do have my concerns. (BTW, I think Yon reported that the one who wounded Kurilla was in fact a catch-and-release veteran) I'd much rather see an intense, targeted, but mass-scale preventive detention effort be the center-piece of our ops in violent areas. We've got the Ba'ath Party roster, we've got many of the intel service rosters and snitch rosters, we've got local sources.
Establish your criteria (party membership, known record of former regime involvement, age, gender - i.e. male - of suspect, tribal/family connections), pick your area (Samarra, Baqubah, select areas of Baghdad, eastern Mosul, many of the towns in the Lutufiyah area) and round up the likely suspects. Put our forces to work on roadblocks, cordons, searches and arrests, instead of force protection. Stand-up an Iraqi prison security force (OK, it'll be ugly, but worth it), house them in tent camps behind wire and mines.
Probably too late for this. But I get so sick of hearing about the latest teen fad -- winning hearts and minds through benevolent aid projects and reconstruction help -- when this war, in the key hard-core Sunni areas, is like every other war, only more so: to be won by breaking the will of the enemy to resist. I've yet to hear how an "insurgency" would operate if 90% of the most likely demographic for its personnel were out of circulation.
Instead, we have catch-and-release of people who were picked up for cause. Don't talk to me about "not enough troops" .....
#8
VII: Instead, we have catch-and-release of people who were picked up for cause. Don't talk to me about "not enough troops"
I think we can credit the establishment of the ICC, and the mess over Abu Ghraib, thanks to our zealous military prosecutors. Our generals don't want to do anything that might result in jail time for themselves. And I don't blame them - the whole country has let them down with our hysteria and willingness to criminalize these minor infractions. I wonder how many liberal lawyers Clinton promoted within the military during his 8 years in office. And I wonder how many of these lawyers GWB promoted or kept in their positions, just as he did with their civilian counterparts, only for them to stick to him (and America) every chance they got.
#9
Zhang, I don't think the ICC is a particular concern to us, since we didn't sign it and aren't held to it. Though I suppose some idiot country like Belgium (but I repeat myself) could try to arrest our personnel next time they rotated through NATO headquarters.
I agree with you that the hysteria over the Abu Ghraib nonsense last year has a lot to do with this. If I were in charge, I'd follow Verlaine's strategy. We've actually done something similar in the U.S. Notice how domestic crime has been going down, down, down? Think it has anything to do with keeping dangerous cons locked up for longer periods of time?
. I've yet to hear how an "insurgency" would operate if 90% of the most likely demographic for its personnel were out of circulation.
There's a lot of common sense in that statement.
Posted by: Steve White ||
08/28/2005 12:01 Comments ||
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#10
SW - the NYTimes continually runs stories about falling crime rates while also noting we continue to incarcerate at a high rate...they totally fail to see any connection or cause/effect.
Posted by: Frank G ||
08/28/2005 12:17 Comments ||
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#11
SW: Zhang, I don't think the ICC is a particular concern to us, since we didn't sign it and aren't held to it.
I'm aware that this administration hasn't signed it. What of future administrations? I don't think there is a statute of limitations on the charges that the ICC can bring forward. It's not even the threat of going to jail per se - it's the possibility of doing something today that could end their careers or tarnish their professional reputations a decade down the road. What the ICC has accomplished, despite our non-ratification of the treaty, is to have our military personnel look over their shoulders a little more. And we are too politically-correct, as it is.
Sure - with one privoso. If one of these "released" is ever caught again in any sort of questionable activity (like the one that shot LTC Kurilla and tried to kill the CSM), they will be summarily executed on the site after their identity is established.
#13
"What the ICC has accomplished, despite our non-ratification of the treaty, is to have our military personnel look over their shoulders a little more"
ZF,
It's not the ICC that did it. It's because of the wobbly moderate Republicans that decided to stab Bush in the back for selfish political reasons. No one in the US, even talks about the ICC anymore. Even the MSM doesn't bring it up anymore. I don't why you are bringing it up? The US will never sign it, end of story. Clinton tried to sneak it in while Congress was on vacation, the Senate caught him and never ratified it.
#14
The Sunnis are taking a page from American democracy. Like the Democrats, they are the party of convicted felons. The more jailbirds released, the more votes for them. In the future, the Iraqi police and the Coalition Forces should be more selective in who is taken alive.
#15
Been spending my time watching the hurricane approach New Orleans. I hope the catastrophe everyone's predicting doesn't happen, but my expectations aren't high.
I've been thinking about this: we can't kill these nutjobs in Abu Ghraib. We can't even legally hold them much longer. IF we let them loose, and they attack us again, we CAN kill them. If we catch them a second time, we also have something to hold them on. Maybe, too, we're trying to watch these scum to see where they go, who they visit, and who they associate with. Then we can hammer all of them.
Just a thought.
Posted by: Old Patriot ||
08/28/2005 21:18 Comments ||
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#16
Verlaine Im with you on the round up the lilkley suspects kill the prisoners found guilty after all the valuable intel is extracted to make room for more.
If we cant kill the SOB's I say we take GPS trackers like the ankle braclets and stick one in these guys body then release emm. That way when he does re-offend we just pull his history up to trace back his every step. Strap it to one of his bones with a small charge so if he tries to remove it the doctor is out of action (one handed doctor aint doin much) and if he did live he would be out of action for awhile. If he gets in a car wreck or whatever and it goes off acidental oh well "gotta break some eggs to make a omolet" besides if they were arrested they are not actualy "innocent" to begin with.
A lot of the reason this war is not going along even more one sided and faster is we fight with one hand tied behind our back. War is War and should always be faught like such. No stupid rules (cant bomb or raid mosque ect... catch and release...) one of the things needed to beat a insurgency is demoralize the enemy make him believe he has no chance of any victory Falluja should have been immediatley bombed into dust to show we would not lose at any price. That negotiation retreat moment of weakness whatever made the insurgent look feasable got them huge support and morale propoganda. Being overbairing and brutal would have maybe turned some against us but it would have made everyone respect us. We went into a nation that was run by a gov that used brutality to rule. That they understood this trying to be the good guy while fighting a war they dont just think it weakness.
Provide a source for your post. If you don't your post will be deleted. I just dumped the "Al Sharpton" post for precisely this reason.
We focus on the WoT and matters related to the WoT. That includes general thuggery around the world, such as Zim-bob-we, and the politics surrounding the WoT. The farther away it is from that, the less likely people here want to read it. We assume y'all read other weblogs for that stuff. Weird animal stories, of course, are always welcome: they go into the SAST as a 'non-WoT' item. But domestic issues in Australia, surface crawlers on Mars, and the general firmness of J Lo's butt shouldn't be posted here.
Please format the post. That means, help us make the post readable. Think of it as a chance to teach English composition to the MSM. Delete the fluff and the stuff we already know. If there are no line breaks, put them in. If there are too many line breaks, take some out. Some sources (e.g., BBC) think that each and every sentence should be a new paragraph. Other sources (e.g., myway.ap.news) think that an entire story is a single paragraph, three pages long. Some gentle editing to make a post readable really helps all of us, especially the moderators who then don't have to go back and re-edit stuff.
Your comments are in highlight (yellow) text. Start them on a separate line. Don't put a leading line space before or after. Strikout text is always fun, but many here complain when we use too much of it. Unless you've got a sure-fire 'mad-libs' winner, use strikeout text sparingly.
Check for duplicates before you post. I miss that one myself sometimes (thanks to Emily and Steve for the gentle 'gotchas').
And as always, thanks for all your support. You make Rantburg a special place.
Posted by: Steve White ||
08/28/2005 00:00 ||
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#1
ima liken posts on j-los butt. how bowt darwin award winnen storees?
Posted by: Captain America ||
08/28/2005 3:02 Comments ||
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#5
Is there a guide on how to do this stuff? I tried to put in a link the other day using the instructions below this text box, and the resulting post merely cut off everything starting with "a href" (not putting in html command so as not to cut off the message). Also, how does one type in yellow text?
Thanks
Posted by: Curt Simon ||
08/28/2005 8:30 Comments ||
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#6
Is there a way to put in comments to the mads mods that aren't "in-channel." For example, if you want to request a particular stock photo to be put in the article, but don't want that request to hang around as a comment?
Curt:
To do the yellow text, use the "highlight" codes below the submission box:
<SPAN CLASS=HILITE>Text to be put in yellow.</SPAN>
As for the link part, the only thing I can think of that perhaps you left off the closing </A> tag? Or maybe you didn't close the "quotes" (really apostrophes)?
#9
Yeah, I posted one the other day (Friday, maybe) and forgot to paste the linky in to the source box. Good to know that even 'burgers make mistakes sometimes!
Posted by: BA ||
08/28/2005 15:49 Comments ||
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Iraq's insurgency has concentrated much of its fight against U.S. and Iraqi forces in towns along the murky waters of the Euphrates River, beginning with Qaim on the Syrian border and running through towns such as Haditha, Haqlaniya, Hit, Ramadi and Fallujah. They're all in Anbar province, the heartland of Iraq's Sunni Muslim minority, which dominated the government under Saddam Hussein.
In the cities where U.S. forces have set up bases - such as Ramadi and Fallujah - the fighting has destroyed much of the infrastructure but failed to completely secure the areas. In smaller towns, American forces launch repeated raids to clear the streets of insurgents only to see them return as soon as the Marines and soldiers are gone. Three weeks of reporting embedded with American troops in Anbar's main centers of guerrilla resistance found that U.S. forces are failing to make headway, and some commanders fear that much of the military effort is wasted. "It doesn't do much good to push them out of these areas only to let them go back to areas we've already cleared," said Lt. Col. Tim Mundy, who commands the 3rd Battalion of the 2nd Marine Regiment. Mundy, 40, of Waynesville, N.C., whose battalion is based in Qaim, added: "We're successful at taking some of his equipment and killing some insurgents, but the effectiveness is limited because we can't stay ... we go back to camp and then we get reports that they've come back in."
- In Fallujah, a city that Marines and soldiers retook from insurgents last November in the heaviest urban combat since Vietnam, fighters have begun to return and renew their intimidation campaign. "As we all know, we have mujahedeen operating in small squads throughout the city," Marine Sgt. Manuel Franquez said before leading a patrol in Fallujah last week, using an Arabic term that means "holy warrior." On the city streets, Franquez's men passed just north of where a suicide car bomber had killed five Marines, including four women, in late June. Scorch marks still blacken the pavement.
Guerrilla fighters have blown up one police station under construction twice and kidnapped and executed a contractor who was involved in the project. At two other unfinished police stations, concertina wire and a series of observation posts manned by Iraqi soldiers with AK-47s protect the bricks. A series of checkpoints locked down the city after November's assault. Military officials called it the safest city in Iraq. Now the area is attacked four to nine times each day, including by roadside bombs, rocket-propelled grenades and sniper fire. Car bombs average two a week.
- Ramadi, the provincial capital, had a functioning downtown corridor two years ago, where parents walked with children and ate lunch at tables outside kabob shops. Today, the street is pocked with holes from bombs intended for U.S. convoys, storefronts are ripped by shrapnel, bullet holes tattoo walls, buildings have been blown to rubble by American missile strikes and insurgent mortar volleys, and roofs are caved in by U.S. bombing. At the main base in Ramadi, American artillery booms every night, sending more shells to pound insurgent positions in and around the city.
Insurgents attack about 77 times a day in Iraq, according to Maj. Gen. Rick Lynch, the top military spokesman in Iraq. In the Ramadi area alone, which has about 400,000 people, there are eight to 10 attacks daily, according to the office of Col. John Gronski, 49, of Moosic, Pa., who commands the Army task force that's responsible for Ramadi. Guerrilla fighters have badly damaged or destroyed eight of 10 police stations. The police force there has been scrapped and is being rebuilt. Col. Regis Cardiff, the deputy commanding officer of the U.S. Army task force that's responsible for Ramadi, the 28th Infantry Division, rode through downtown recently. The last time he'd left the base, a roadside bomb hit his convoy. A week earlier, an insurgent's 82 mm mortar round crashed into the chow hall where he eats. Watching the streetscape pass by, Cardiff muttered, "the wild, wild west."
"You hate to see anything like that. I'm sure this was a pretty city at one time," said Cardiff, who's from Pittsburgh. He acknowledged that if the fighting continues he's not sure whether a downtown will be left.
- In western Anbar, Marines have made a series of quick raids on towns including Karabilah, Haditha and Haqlaniya. But as soon as the Marines leave, typically after about a week sweeping through houses, the insurgents filter back in and set up base again, military officials said. "If you go to an area and you don't stay in that area, the insurgency will return to that area and intimidate the local population," said Lt. Col Lionel Urquhart, who commands the 3rd Battalion of the 25th Marine Regiment.
Urquhart said he didn't have enough men to maintain a permanent presence in places such as Haditha. "You're going to have this constant need to go back in and clean it up again ... we have to go back in and make it clear to everybody that the insurgency does not control this country," said Urquhart, 44, of Akron, Ohio. "Is that a good way of doing business? I'm not going to say that." When Marines re-entered Haqlaniya during a recent operation, virtually every downtown storefront had pro-jihad messages spray-painted on it: "Allah is our God, Jihad is our way"; "Long live the mujahedeen"; "Long live jihad"; "It is your duty to fight for jihad in Iraq"; "Death to those who collaborate with Americans."
North of Ramadi, Marines launched a major operation, dubbed New Market, to clean up Haditha earlier this year. The area has since returned to lawlessness, military officials said. Earlier this month, 20 Marines were killed just south of Haditha in an ambush and a roadside bombing. Since March, insurgents have killed or wounded more than a third of the men in the two companies in Urquhart's battalion that have been his main fighting forces for the past half-year. Lima Company, with 156 men, has had 22 killed in action and 31 wounded. Kilo Company, with about 150 men, has had four killed and at least 50 wounded. Many of the injuries have been serious: Only 47 of the 98 wounded men in Urquhart's battalion have returned to duty.
Down the Euphrates River from Urquhart, Army Sgt. 1st Class Tom Coffey commands a platoon from the Army's 28th Infantry Division along Ramadi's southern border. His men are hit by roadside bombs almost every day. "There's no way I can control this area with the men I have," Coffey, 37, of Burlington, Vt., said in a recent interview. "The reports are that the insurgents are using these southern control points because they're open. We can't keep them closed because I don't have the manpower." He said that in the previous week a sniper had shot an Iraqi soldier working with his company in the face and killed him. Snipers also shot two American soldiers, one through the hand and the other through the hand and gut.
A few minutes later Coffey's radio squawked. A rocket-propelled grenade had hit one of his Bradley Fighting Vehicles. Rushing to the scene, he found the driver and crew safe, but one of the soldiers in the vehicle looked at Coffey with large eyes and said, "I hate being up here by my f------ self." Without another Bradley or Humvee close by, it's easy for insurgents to pop up from behind, Coffey said. "I know there're caches and bad guys out there," said Coffey's commander, Maj. Jason Pelletier, 32, of Milton, Vt. "And they know that I don't have the manpower to get out there. You don't have to be that smart to realize that."
#2
Insurgency concentrated in areas along Euphrates River
No shit, Sherlock. Time for mass enemy casualties.
Turkey should tell the French to get bent over EU membership. Its warping their politics, as most things French do.
Posted by: Captain America ||
08/28/2005 3:13 Comments ||
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#3
What TW and CA said.
Three weeks of reporting embedded with American troops in Anbar's main centers of guerrilla resistance found that U.S. forces are failing to make headway, and some commanders fear that much of the military effort is wasted.
"It doesn't do much good to push them out of these areas only to let them go back to areas we've already cleared," said Lt. Col. Tim Mundy, who commands the 3rd Battalion of the 2nd Marine Regiment. Mundy, 40, of Waynesville, N.C., whose battalion is based in Qaim, added: "We're successful at taking some of his equipment and killing some insurgents, but the effectiveness is limited because we can't stay ... we go back to camp and then we get reports that they've come back in."
This Knight Ritter reporter failed to address our military strategy in Iraq. >Bide time while the Iraqi Government developes, which includes the INF, police and border guards who get stronger every day. [not to mention what a great job our soldiers & Marines are doing under the circumstances] And this little nugget: Three weeks of reporting embedded with American troops in Anbar's main centers of guerrilla resistance found that U.S. forces are failing to make headway.. says to me that three weeks of reporting didn't change the KR reporters biases.
Posted by: Red Dog ||
08/28/2005 4:22 Comments ||
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#4
"Not enough troops" -- in a limited sense, but much more importantly .... "wrong tactics". Bring in more troops from Iraq or elsewhere, but make the region pay the price. Kill/preventively detain many more people, cut the roads, strangle the region generally -- don't garrison the shit-hole towns. The Marine/Army officers quoted are the experts, not me, but I don't think we want to "clear" and "hold" areas -- we want to kill/detain certain people, and intimdate the rest into not supporting them. The enemy center of gravity is not geographic, it's personnel. Until we've figure out which mix will work best, cordon off whole areas best you can. They can have their elections in the future, when calm prevails. For now, they can sleep in the bed they've made for themselves.
#5
If they won't let them win the war morale is going to be low. It's like letting a team play basketball, but not letting them score. If you fought like a real war and called in the bombers, not f-16's with one bomb each, you could annihilate those fuckers. I'm talking daisy cutters here man, daisy cutters, moabs, hellfires, napalm, yeah, bring back napalm. This sounds just like veitnam, win all the battles, lose the war. The U.S has always sucked ass at fighting insurgentcies, because we are too pussy-ass to kill. Or at least the lying, spineless politicians are too pussy-ass to let them kill.
Ramadi, the provincial capital, had a functioning downtown corridor two years ago, where parents walked with children and ate lunch at tables outside kabob shops. Today, the street is pocked with holes from bombs intended for U.S. convoys, storefronts are ripped by shrapnel, bullet holes tattoo walls, buildings have been blown to rubble by American missile strikes and insurgent mortar volleys, and roofs are caved in by U.S. bombing.
This reporter goon actually openly admits longing for the day of Saddam's rule. Of course, Ramadi appeared in better shape, b/c they were in bed w/ Sammy (as Sunnis). No mention of the condition of the cities in the far south (Shia) and north (Kurd), though. Nope, can't show that to the world. What an @sswipe!
Posted by: BA ||
08/28/2005 16:15 Comments ||
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#7
Chill bigjim.
Get out copy of Fort Apache, Rio Grande or She Wore a Yellow Ribbon for a visceral feeling of what it was like fighting in real 'Indian country'. Much the same. If you want a good historical account, try Robert Utley's Frontier Regulars. People are so impatient. For a little perspective just read this.
Jordan wants Iraq to arrest three suspected al-Qaida-linked militants who purportedly fled to the neighboring country after staging a rocket attack that narrowly missed a U.S. warship in Aqaba, the interior minister said in remarks published Saturday. Awni Yirfas said his government was in close contact with Iraqi authorities over the Aug. 19 firing of three Katyusha rockets from the Red Sea port city, including one that missed a Navy ship but killed a Jordanian soldier when it slammed into a pier warehouse. Another landed in neighboring Israel.
Jordanian police have arrested one of four suspects, Syrian citizen Mohammed Hassan Abdullah al-Sihly. Three others, including al-Sihly's two sons and the alleged Iraqi leader of the al-Qaida-linked group, Mohammed Hamid Hussein, are believed to have fled to Iraq, Jordan said this week. "We will use all possible means to arrest those who committed the terrorist attack in Aqaba, including diplomatic channels between Jordan and Iraq," Yirfas was quoted as saying by Jordan's biggest two newspapers, Al Rai and Ad-Dustour.
On Tuesday, Yirfas said the rocket attacks were linked to Al-Qaida in Iraq, which is led by the Jordanian-born militant Abu Musab al-Zarqawi. On the same day, al-Zarqawi's group claimed responsibility for the attack in an Internet statement. Iraqi Interior Minister Bayan Jabr had been expected in Amman on Friday to discuss cooperation in the investigation with Yirfas, but his visit was postponed amid Iraq's constitutional dispute and continued violence. A news bulletin on state-run TV late Saturday alleged the detained Syrian, al-Sihly, had told interrogators that before the attack his cell had been in contact with its "leadership in Iraq," an apparent reference to al-Zarqawi's group. "They were using Iraqi mobile phones to call their leadership to receive instructions and keep it up to date on the (Aqaba) terror plot," claimed the news anchor without providing further details, including how the station obtained the information.
Posted by: Fred ||
08/28/2005 00:00 ||
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Suspected Islamic militants hiding in rugged mountains of Egypt's Sinai Peninsula and under intense pressure from 5,000 security forces sweeping through the region have begun mining the approaches to their hideouts, authorities said. One of the hard-to-detect land mines wounded a senior officer on Saturday, and police believe the devices also were responsible for explosions Thursday that killed a police major general and lieutenant colonel on the road to Sinai's Halal mountain.
In Saturday's attack, a mine concealed in an approach to Halal mountain, about 35 miles south of the Mediterranean coastal town of el-Arish, exploded when a vehicle carrying a police lieutenant colonel and a police informant drove across it, a police official said on condition of anonymity because he was not authorized to speak to the media. Sinai is littered with decades-old land mines from past Arab-Israeli wars, but that ordnance now is believed too old and unstable for use by militants. Security officials said they were concerned that new land mines may have been smuggled into the forbidding region by foreigners who have decided to help in arming local militants.
Posted by: Fred ||
08/28/2005 00:00 ||
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The rockets fired from Lebanon, one of which landed in the moshav of Margaliot adjacent to the northern border on Thursday, are Iranian-made Fajr 3 models, marking the first time shells imported from Iran were used against Israel. The report also indicates that armed groups have Iranian-produced weaponry at their disposal with which to fire across the northern border.
The Fajr 3 rocket measures 240 milimeters in diameter with a length of five meters. It weighs in at over 400 kilograms and its range can reach up to 43 kilometers, enabling it to reach the metropolitan Haifa area if fired from the Lebanese border. As opposed to the run-of-the-mill and even more inaccurate Katyusha rockets which are normally used by Palestinian organizations, the Fajr 3 can be fired by a lone agent.
The newspaper reported Friday that an investigation revealed the rockets were fired from the Marjayoun region in south Lebanon. Islamic Jihad issued a statement claiming responsibility for the shelling, adding that the attack was in response to the Wednesday night killing of five Palestinian Islamic Jihad members in the West Bank town of Tul Karm.
#3
Intentions can change very quickly, one good incident would be all it would take. Look at Britain and the radical clerics they protected for so many years. Iran is getting bolder by the day and some day we are going to kick them in the teeth.
The political administration of North Waziristan on Saturday raided a madrassa and two houses on intelligence that foreign terrorists were hiding there, BBC radio reported. A search operation was launched by the administration in Humzon village, in which two houses belonging to Maulvi Sadiq Noor and Maulvi Sadiq Khan along with a madrassa were raided. The administration was assisted by 200 members of the Khasadar force in the operation, which lasted two hours. However, it was not clear if any arrests had been made during the operation, BBC radio reported. The tribal elders of the area were also present during the operation, the report said.
Posted by: Fred ||
08/28/2005 00:00 ||
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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.
A Saudi exile under threat of expulsion from Britain for running a militant web site said yesterday that he had shut his Internet page down, claiming he acted on his own and that British authorities had not contacted him.
On Tamerlan Satsayev's first day of school one year ago, he wore a new suit and a white shirt and carried a bouquet of flowers. Two days later, he escaped death, almost naked, in the arms of an unknown rescuer, his mother severely wounded in the debris behind him.
A passenger train was derailed by a bomb blast on a railway line on Saturday in Russiaâs southern Dagestan, near the border with the rebel region of Chechnya, Interfax news agency said. Itar-Tass news agency quoted local transport officials as saying unknown gunmen fired on a car from the FSB security service, wounding one officer who was on his way to the blast site. He was taken a nearby to hospital. Itar-Tass said no one was injured or killed on the train accroding to preliminary information. Two carriages and the locomotive were derailed in the blast. RIA Novosti news agency quoted a local official as saying unknown people had planted an explosive device on the tracks and it had exploded as the train passed.
A SUSPECTED member of Abu Sayyaf was arrested in Manila's Quiapo district on Friday, police said. Joint elements from the police and the Philippine navy arrested Tammy Imam alias Alex Cabuatan, 32, at the Islamic Center on Carlos Palanca Street at around 3:45 p.m., Chief Inspector Joselito Sta. Teresa, Manila police intelligence chief, said in a report.
A suicide bomber blew himself up next to a bus at a station in the southern Israeli city of Beersheba on Sunday, wounding at least 10 people, officials said. The attack was the first since Israel's withdrawal from the Gaza Strip this month. Witnesses said the bomber was stopped by a security guard before he could board the bus. "I was suspicious of him. He had a large backpack and a plastic bag in his hand," a witness who identified himself as a bus driver named Rami told Israel Radio. "I pointed him out to the guard. He was about 20 meters (yards) from the bus when he blew up. It was a huge explosion, very big," he said, adding that two security guards had approached the bomber just before the explosion.
Sunni negotiators said Sunday they expect the draft constitution drawn up by the Shiite and Kurdish blocs to be "rammed through" parliament despite their objections and last-ditch U.S. efforts to secure a compromise. Sunni negotiator Sadoun Zubaydi said he expected the National Assembly to rubber-stamp the proposal. "They have told us it will be rammed through whether we like it or not," he said.
A bomb killed an American soldier and wounded four others when it exploded near their armored vehicle in Paktika Province, near the Pakistan border, the United States military said Saturday.
Like many of Baghdad's fiery Sunni clerics, Sheikh Omar Ibrahim al Duleimi was never afraid to stir things up at Friday prayers. When he urged his congregation to rise up and fight the American occupation, United States troops would routinely haul him in for questioning.
The rockets fired from Lebanon, one of which landed in the moshav of Margaliot adjacent to the northern border on Thursday, are Iranian-made Fajr 3 models, marking the first time shells imported from Iran were used against Israel. The report also indicates that armed groups have Iranian-produced weaponry at their disposal with which to fire across the northern border.
The political administration of North Waziristan on Saturday raided a madrassa and two houses on intelligence that foreign terrorists were hiding there, BBC radio reported. A search operation was launched by the administration in Humzon village, in which two houses belonging to Maulvi Sadiq Noor and Maulvi Sadiq Khan along with a madrassa were raided. The administration was assisted by 200 members of the Khasadar force in the operation, which lasted two hours. However, it was not clear if any arrests had been made during the operation, BBC radio reported. The tribal elders of the area were also present during the operation, the report said.
