Yemen has curbed al Qaeda's activities in the Arab state but more attacks there remain possible, the Yemeni foreign minister said on Sunday. "Yemen has taken great strides in fighting terrorism and has been able to limit al Qaeda's activities (in the country) until now," Abubakr al-Qirbi told al-Thawra newspaper. "But this does not mean that there is no possibility of a terrorist attack happening in Yemen or in any other country."
Posted by: Dan Darling ||
09/12/2005 00:25 ||
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Scotland Yard was thwarted yesterday in its attempt to seize a former senior Israeli army officer at Heathrow airport for alleged war crimes in occupied Palestinian lands after a British judge had issued a warrant for his arrest. Missed him by that much.
British detectives were waiting for retired Major General Doron Almog who was aboard an El Al flight which arrived from Israel yesterday. It is believed he was tipped off about his impending arrest while in the air and stayed on the plane to avoid capture until it flew back to Israel. Scotland Yard detectives were armed with a warrant naming Mr Almog as a war crimes suspect for offences that breached the Geneva conventions.
The Guardian understands police would have arrested him if he had set foot on British soil. The arrest warrant was issued on Saturday at Bow Street magistrates court, central London. It is believed to be the first warrant for war crimes of its kind issued in Britain against an Israeli national over conduct in the conflict with Palestinians. But I bet it won't be the last.
Just a matter of time before someone gets a warrant for one of our generals for fighting terrorists in Iraq.
Despite the alleged offences occurring in the Gaza Strip, war crimes law means Britain has a duty to arrest and prosecute alleged suspects if they arrive in Britain. You remember how they arrested Castro and dozens of members of the former communist regimes in eastern Europe. Don't you?
The warrant alleges Mr Almog committed war crimes in the Gaza Strip in 2002 when he ordered the destruction of 59 homes near Rafah, which Palestinians say was in revenge for the death of Israeli soldiers. The warrant was issued by senior district judge Timothy Workman after an application by lawyers acting for Mr Almog's alleged Palestinian victims. According to legal sources, before granting the warrant Mr Workman decided his court had jurisdiction for the offences; that diplomatic immunity did not apply; and there was evidence to support a prima facie case for war crimes.
If Mr Almog had been arrested he would have loaded onto a train to a concentration camp been bailed on condition that he did not leave Britain. The attorney general would have to have sanctioned any prosecution against him for war crimes.
Last night the Israeli foreign ministry, said: "In the past extremist Palestinian organisations have tried to manipulate legal processes in Europe for their own cynical ends. We have no faith in these groups but we have a lot of faith in the British legal system." I don't.
#1
Just a matter of time before someone gets a warrant for one of our generals for fighting terrorists in Iraq.
You mean like in April 2003?
Mr. Fermon said the complaint will ask an investigative magistrate to look into whether indictments should be issued against Gen. Franks. If an indictment is filed against the general and other U.S. officials, they could be convicted and sentenced by a Belgian court.
"Belgium could issue international arrest warrants, but I don't think we have the balls to do it will get to that point," Mr. Fermon said. If arrest warrants were issued, U.S. officials could be arrested on entering Belgium.
=====
The Israelis should look at arrest warrants for all the terrible things done to the Argies in 1982 or the horrible human rights violations of blanket suspicion and deportation for Preaching While Muslim after 7/7.
Posted by: ed ||
09/12/2005 13:26 Comments ||
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#2
The British are digging their own graves now.
The Mooslims in Leeds must be chortling with Joy.
Those who ignore history are doomed to repeat it.
How do we spell "Ayatollah" in cockney ???
Posted by: Elder Of Zion ||
09/12/2005 15:08 Comments ||
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I wonder if a "war crimes suspect for offences that breached the Geneva conventions" can even be tried if the governmnet of that person is not a signatory to that part of the convention? I have my doubts, but this is the second anti-semitic act in the last few days the UK has tried to pull off.
Get a grip on your politicians UK citizens, they are going over to the dark side.
ADVISERS appointed by Tony Blair after the London bombings are proposing to scrap the Jewish Holocaust Memorial Day because it is regarded as offensive to Muslims. [certainly it offends those Muslims who were or are pro Nazi or who buy Holocaust denial books by the truckload]They want to replace it with a Genocide Day that would recognise the mass murder of Muslims in Palestine, Chechnya and Bosnia as well as people of other faiths....The recommendation, drawn up by four committees including those dealing with imams and mosques, and Islamaphobia and policing, has the backing of Sir Iqbal Sacranie [the suicide bombing apologist who argued that a simple killing of Salmon Rushdie would be too merciful], secretary-general of the Muslim Council of Britain.
#1
Let's cut to the chase Abul and replace God Save the Queen with the Adhan (muslim call to prayer).
Posted by: ed ||
09/12/2005 13:09 Comments ||
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#2
Please show us the mass graves and Crematoriums used for the "massed killing" of Paleos. Total bullshit TRANZI bullshit. This angers me. I don't care how good a ally the UK is screw this PC lie.
Yesterday it was "remove the Holocaust day coz' it offends us pious muslims"...
By the way, it appears that suggestion was the brainchild of Tarik Ramadan, grandson of the muslim brotherhood's founder (and the de facto dawa mouthpiece of the org in Europe, while his bro Hani is more of a jihadee and has been linked to AQ), takia specialist and proponent of the "european islam"... that is a "modernized" islam that islamize the west.
Ramadan is a bigshot of french islam, though he is somehow contested by the radicals, and euro-pols can't get enough of him, even though he is a gentle-looking fundie; he used to be Romano Prodi's adviser for the EU commission, before being Blair's. The USA have sensibly choosed to deny him entry in the US for a teacher post in a... catholic school (the Church also has plans for him).
By Toby Helm
Tony Blair decided to wage war on Iraq after coming under the influence of a "sinister" group of Jews and Freemasons, a Muslim barrister who advises the Prime Minister has claimed.
Ahmad Thomson, from the Association of Muslim Lawyers, said Mr Blair was the latest in a long line of politicians to have been influenced by the group which saw the attack on Saddam Hussein as a way to control the Middle East.
A Government spokesman confirmed last night that ministers and officials consulted Mr Thomson on issues concerning Muslims but refused to be drawn on his views. "We talk to a lot of people, including many whose views we do not necessarily agree with," she said.
Mr Thomson said: "Pressure was put on Tony Blair before the invasion. The way it works is that pressure is put on people to arrive at certain decisions. It is part of the Zionist plan and it is shaping events."
Mr Thomson wrote a book in 1994 in which he said Freemasons and Jews controlled the governments of Europe and America and described the claim that six million Jews died in the Holocaust as a "big lie". In The Next World Order, Mr Thomson, a Muslim convert who was born Martin Thomson in Rhodesia, wrote: "When the majority of people in a predominantly Christian society cease to worship God, the result is fascism.
"When the people in a predominantly Jewish society cease to worship God, the result is either communism or capitalism. A predominantly Christian society is concerned primarily with establishing a political ideology, whilst a predominantly Jewish society is concerned primarily with establishing an economic system."
This, he suggested, led to the rise of Adolf Hitler. Mr Thomson, who was called to the bar in 1979, wrote: "The fascism of Hitler was the Christian element in the increasingly "Jewish" environment in which he and his followers found themselves."
He also wrote that the Jews have no right to live in "the Holy Land" because they are not a pure race and therefore not the true biblical Israelites and that Saddam was used as an excuse for US troops - "including thousands of Jews" - to occupy Saudi Arabia.
A Government source said: "It is by talking to people with varying views that we find out what the range of opinions is. It doesn't mean we agree with what they are saying."
#5
It's disengenuous to say that this guy is an "advisor" to Blair. That kind of anti-Blair spin gets in the way of an otherwise important story about the levels of sheer lunacy that permeate the supposedly "moderate" circles of prominent Muslims. Yes, Blair should be asked called to answer if this clown has ever had anything to do with any of his initiatives. But he's clearly not an "advisor" in the typical sense, as the Torygraph is clearly and deviously trying to imply. I hate it when our own leftist media pulls these tricks, so I won't forgive it, even when it's British Conservatives.
Posted by: John in Tokyo ||
09/12/2005 10:42 Comments ||
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#6
Isn't it a waste of tax-payers money to hire a lunatic, anti-semitic muslim advisor when you already have Cherie Blair?
#7
Ya know, I could almost believe that "Freemasons and Jews controlled the governments of Europe and America..." and if so, they're doing a fair job of it in the US and a mediocre one in Europe.
But when the same sentence says "... and described the claim that six million Jews died in the Holocaust as a "big lie"....
I've been to the Holocaust Museum - twice, because I couldn't get it all in in one afternoon. And if it's a conspiricy, it's incredible how vast it is! Pictures, artifacts, testimony, video, and ... shoes. Thousands of pairs of shoes, 'supposedly' from the camps.
I can still smell the shoes....
Posted by: Bobby ||
09/12/2005 12:24 Comments ||
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#8
I accidently clicked on a Google Ad on the righr of this post and this is the load of garbage I came up with.
Is there no place safe anymore from left-wing, moonbat, lunacy?
They were on about the book "Bin Laden in the suburbs"
"The authors show how current values, brittle with fear, are stitch by stitch unpicking the thread of multiculturalism not only in Australia, but in the UK and North America as well.
"Military metaphors predominate in reporting Arab crime and those committing such crimes are reported as young men âlost between two culturesâ, thus laying easy blame on the âfailureâ to assimilate.
"This is an empowering book because it gives readers the skills to overturn such shrill nonsense. It moves between global and local events to show how news reports and political reaction misrepresent and mislead, demonize and distort, and how wise words from the well informed can foster not exclusion of the other, but its embrace. Robust, fair and accessible, Bin Laden in the Suburbs is an excellent source book to pull the plug on the media bile of otherness." George Fisher reviewing Bin Laden in the Suburbs in the New Internationalist magazine Jan/Feb 2005. It received 4-stars.
"Contain the Arab or exterminate the Arab? A 'tolerable' presence in the suburbs, or caged in a concentration camp? ... The politics of the Western post-colonial state is constantly and dangerously oscillating between these tendencies today. It is this dangerous oscillation that is so lucidly exposed in this book"
Ghassan Hage, from the foreword, Bin Laden in the Suburbs
#9
I must be the last living remnant of this "sinister group of Jooooos"
Didn't I always want to Roooooool the World ???
God I'm beginning to frighten myself........
Stop me..... Stop me before I rooooooool the world...
Question : if we jews are so sinister and so allmighty how come we cant stop the fucking Pali's from desecrating and burning down the sinagogues left in Gaza ???????????
Yisrael, Please arm the "Zionist Death Ray" I think I have the coordinates of a certain British Judge.........
Posted by: Elder Of Zion ||
09/12/2005 15:19 Comments ||
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Curses their on to what happens during lodge meetings!
Marking the fourth anniversary of the Sept. 11 terrorist attack in the U.S., Russian deputy prosecutor general Nikolai Shepel, who heads the working group investigating the Beslan tragedy, said the school siege was the work of international terrorists, Itar-Tass news agency reported.
According to him, all the evidence gathered in the course of the investigation points to this conclusion. Among it is a video cassette which shows a recorded instruction session held for the Jamaat Caliphate group which carried out the attack on the Beslan School No. 1. Its work was coordinated by the Arab mercenary Abu-Dzeyt, who was on the international wanted list and was killed on Feb. 16, 2005, in Ingushetia, and the leader of the Chechen terrorists Shamil Basayev.
The investigation also has testimonies from rebel gunmen, who say that the former Chechen rebel president Aslan Maskhadov, killed in March, personally briefed the group that carried out Russiaâs worst terrorist act.
Shepel said that to date, 22 of the 32 hostage-takers taking part in the attack have been identified. The identification of the remaining 10 is still being ascertained. Circumstantial evidence shows that the terrorists entered Russia illegally. The Prosecutor Generalâs Office has sent requests to international organizations for the relevant information.
Shortly after Nikolai Shepel made his announcement, the Beslan Mothers Committee said it was outraged by his words.
Member of the committee Ella Kessayeva described the statement as a continuation of a string of lies. She said the gang included inhabitants of neighboring republics, but not international terrorists. Kessayeva also noted that no one was going to answer for international terrorism, and that this was not what people in North Ossetia expected after the recent meeting between representatives of the Beslan Mothers and Vladimir Putin.
Ella Kessayeva stressed that their group would now press for Shepelâs dismissal.
Posted by: Dan Darling ||
09/12/2005 03:29 ||
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More than 2,000 orange-clad opposition members rallied in the Azerbaijani capital Saturday, demanding that President Ilhan Aliev resign and that authorities ensure that parliamentary elections in November are free and fair. Mounting pressure on authorities has led some observers to predict the oil-rich Caspian nation could see a popular uprising similar to those that have taken place in the former Soviet republics of Ukraine, Georgia and Kyrgyzstan.
Yelling "Resign" and carrying orange flags and banners in Russian and English, the government opponents railed against Aliev. "We have shown our strength and this is only the beginning," said Sardar Jalaloglu, a top leader with the opposition Democratic Party of Azerbaijan, which is one of three parties making up the opposition Azadlig bloc alliance. The crowds responded, yelling: "Tents on the Square" â a reference to the tent camp that sprang up in the Ukrainian capital of Kiev during the mass demonstrations last year that came to be known as the Orange Revolution. Azadlig has borrowed its campaign color from Ukraine.
Azerbaijan formally launched the election campaign Wednesday after authorities registered more than 2,000 candidates running for 125 parliament seats in the Nov. 6 vote. Of 2,059 candidates registered, 432 belong to the ruling Yeni Azerbaijan party that controls parliament. Azadlig and the Yeni Siyaset party are seen as the leading challengers. Opposition parties have rallied almost weekly amid fears that Aliev's government could try to rig the vote. The October 2003 presidential vote, in which Aliev succeeded his late father, Geidar Aliev, was widely alleged to have been fraudulent, triggering clashes between police and demonstrators.
Posted by: Fred ||
09/12/2005 00:00 ||
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There are a lot if links in the story, so I recommend going to the source.
âSir, if I got my news from the newspapers also, Iâd be pretty depressed as well.â â Captain Sherman Powell to Matt Lauer, Today, 8/17/05
If you were to believe what you read in the papers, Iraq has become a horrendous quagmire, with soldiers being killed almost on a daily basis, for what turns out to have been a lie about weapons of mass destruction. To top it off, after having nothing to do with terrorism, Iraq has now become a training ground for al-Qaeda. But maybe not. The media has gotten things wrong before. Just look at Dan Ratherâs story about the memos concerning President Bushâs service in the Texas Air National Guard, or how the battlefield victory of the 1968 Tet Offensive was turned into a defeat with a few words from Walter Cronkite.
What is happening in Iraq is a failure by the media to give the American people relevant information. This has probably colored public opinion on the liberation of Iraq. The mediaâs failure has come in two areas. First, it has failed to provide the news in context, often focusing on negatives. Second, it has not brought evidence to the American people that would place the initial decision to go in into context. Both of these failures have occurred often enough that one cannot be blamed for wondering if a pattern of deception, by omission, is not occurring.
The term âdeception by omissionâ might sound harsh, but it is accurate. Deception does not need the active misrepresentation of facts, it can occur when someone fails to reveal something relevant to the situation â particularly when the people leaving out some of the facts are advocating a specific course of action (such as withdrawal from Iraq ).
For instance, the media has often failed to report many of the successes. This was a major complaint voiced by at least two columnists who have served in Iraq. In the first case, the complaint is about the lack of good news ( schools opened, rehabilitation of infrastructure neglected by Saddam Hussein, and other news items that donât have the suddenness and shock value of a car bombing). The second complaint is that the âpolice blotterâ coverage often obscures the âbig pictureâ of what is going on. This is quite important as well. The insurgents offer little more beyond murder, mayhem, and terror.
The second, and more serious matter is the fact that the media has flat-out omitted several pieces of information that tend to back up the decision to go to war and put to rest claims that President Bush lied. Stephen F. Hayes of The Weekly Standard has documented the connections between Saddamâs regime and al-Qaeda. This has been a constantly repeated pattern.
In April, 2003, a pair of journalists discovered a memo in which the Mukhabarat wanted to bring over a representative of Osama bin Laden to discuss âthe future of our relationship with himâ. The memo in question went through five translations before the article was published, and the reporter in question, Mitch Potter, admitted that he had been skeptical of the claims.
o Other memos show Iraq not only having terrorist connections (English translation here), but attempting to acquire mustard gas and anthrax, and seeking a means to attack American forces in Somalia. Note that the published WMD articles are from 2000. These were carefully vetted by the news agency that did this. Contrast these first two efforts with the efforts made by CBS to vet the memos concerning President Bushâs service in the Texas Air National Guard.
o Ahmed Hikmat Shakir is someone else who has been ignored, except to be dismissed as a case of mistaken id entity. Yet looking closely at the circumstances of his capture (with contact information for safe houses used in the 1993 World Trade Center attack and information on the 1995 plan to destroy airliners of the Pacific), and how he got his job as a greeter at the airport in Kuala Lampur, one has to wonder just what the deal was with him.
o Richard Clarkeâs e-mail opposing a U-2 mission over Afghanistan was also swept under the rug. The rationale: It would warn bin Laden of an attack and âold wily Usama will likely boogie to Baghdadâ (Chapter 4, 9-11 Commission Report). Note that Clarke claimed in 2004 that there was no connection at all. Yet this 180-degree shift in his position never drew any notice in the outlets that initially published the charges.
o Finally, there is an evidence summary for an al-Qaeda detainee currently being held at Guantanamo. The summary, reprinted in a report by Hayes in the Weekly Standard, indicated that the detainee traveled to Pakistan with an Iraqi intelligence agent in 1998 for the purposes of carrying out a chemical mortar attack against the U.S. and British embassies in Pakistan. Even though this attack was not carried out, it was precisely the scenario that both President Bush (âIraq could decide on any given day to provide a biological or chemical weapon to a terrorist group or individual terrorists.â) and then-Secretary of State Colin Powell (âOur concern is not just about these elicit weapons. It's the way that these elicit weapons can be connected to terrorists and terrorist organizations that have no compunction about using such devices against innocent people around the world.â) warned about in the run-up to the war.
These four instances would clearly exonerate the President and his national security team of the most serious charges laid against them by the anti-war movement. To wit, they prove that the rationale for going to war was based in fact, not lies. Knowing that the threat was real would certainly have an effect on public opinion.
In essence, the coverage of Iraq that people have been getting from the media is a distorted picture that has characterized by a distinct pattern of omission of facts that would support the Administration. Given the call by Greg Mitchell for media outlets to editorialize in favor of a withdrawal from Iraq, there is a serious question as to whether or not these omissions are deliberate. If so, then the media is guilty of deception by omission.
Posted by: ed ||
09/12/2005 12:57 ||
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#1
The media is guilty of aiding an enemy and treason since they only report stuff to further their own goals, which often is at the expense of American lives and security.
#2
Of course if you take the position that the media is deliberately distorting the news to aid their allies (Al-Qaeda) their coverage makes perfect sense....
The left would claim that they really mean only that 'there is no link between Iraq and 9/11' then go on to proclaim that [since there is no proven link between Iraq and 9/11] there is no link between Iraq and Al-Qaeda.
#3
I've been lurking on a "Global Journalist" listserve for a few months. Many of the posts to the list are interesting, but lately there's been a loonbat spouting all the loonbat talking points. On a hunch, I googled the LB's name and sure enough, it has a website. When I go to the website, it says:
This site has been experiencing technical problems, for which I apologize. I suspect, but cannot prove, sabotage by opaque right-wing political power. I will persevere.
Needless to say, this LB is especially venomous toward the US military and writes for the Progressive Populist.
#4
The antidote for lies is truth. Since the MSM has pulled almost all of its embeds out of country, and most of the remainder stay in their hotel in the Green Zone, in future, someone has to take their place.
The only one who could do this is the Pentagon. Before a future conflict, it needs to create a large permanent pool of MSM and independent journalists who will be assigned to units when they are deployed, under pre-agreed OPSEC rules. The difference will be that the journalists will be paid by the Pentagon, from an escrow account not in their wartime control.
If their unit deploys for combat operations in other than a covert operation, the journalist is brought along, and the meter is ticking. He is given all the perquisites of the soldiers, commo support for his job, and a paycheck.
As long as those journalists stay with their units, they don't even have to write copy, they are paid just to be there as independent observers. If they leave, they are no longer paid. If they do write copy, they can sell it to whoever wants to buy it and keep 100% of what they can get.
This means that the MSM can no longer claim that there just isn't any qualified journalist there gathering the news. If they want news, they pay for it just like all the other stringer news they routinely pay for.
The MSM also cannot claim that the news is biased, just because the journalists (with the old and honorable label "war correspondents", instead of "embeds") are paid by the Pentagon. The Pentagon has agreed ahead of time to only "fire" them immediately if they violate OPSEC, *not* for printing negative stories.
Other rules, of course, would apply, such as Geneva Conventions limits.
The MSM would have to submit personnel for this pool, too. Personnel capable and willing of dropping whatever they are doing and deploying. Any late comers would be restricted to higher headquarters, though they could come along, too. They just can't run out there, grab the indy's microphone, do their story and run away, ripping him off of his story.
Pool "memberships" could be for a given time, a few weeks or months, so that the Pentagon could *eventually* eliminate purely hostile or incompetant reporting. A journalist can turn down a deployment, but he will forfeit his slot to another journalist.
Last but not least, indy journalists could set up a corporation to market their news over the Internet, so even though the MSM would get a crack at it, they could not censor it by refusing to publish. Somebody, think Rush Limbaugh, would pick it up and blow the scoop. And they could clearly state that it was available, but the MSM intentionally ignored it.
#5
Is there a question? MSM can't and won't cover any portion of Bush's years in office in a positive manner. They aren't reporting... Seems I learned in school, the who, what, where, when and how.
And now, we got the "Attack of Katrina" that rather than report the most incredible response to a national disaster that we have ever faced, 90,000 square miles (oh.. they are now stating, "the alleged 90,000 square miles) is there any question that there is bad reporting?
Only problem is, I'm getting extremely nervous, that they are winning.
They have really succeeded in erasing the last 20-30 years of our race issue.
And today during the Senate hearings for Judge Roberts... one has to wonder, were the hearings about Roberts or Katrina? Wonder who an Excel spreadsheet would show had the most mentions? Roberts or Katrina.
I'm one of Fred's folks getting burned out. And I hate that. I watched this happening during the Vietnam days, and often have stated, I refuse to let that happen again. But, it is.
And I don't know what to do to stop it. I don't spend any money in support of them.... but yet, they are still the "voice" we are hearing.
How can we defeat this? We didn't win in the 60's and the stakes are even higher these days.
Los Angeles Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa said Sunday that authorities didn't know of any "credible threat" to the city after ABC News aired a threatening video in which a masked speaker claiming to represent al-Qaeda warned of terrorist attacks on Los Angeles and Melbourne, Australia.
"Bombastic pronouncements are expected on the anniversary of terrorist incidents like Sept. 11," Villaraigosa and Police Chief William Bratton said in a statement. The video, they said, "was meant to instill fear."
"The best thing any Angeleno can do is go about his or her daily life as you normally would," they advised.
In the 11-minute video, a masked man speaks â in fluent English â of the "blessed raids on New York and Washington" four years ago. He says that "Allah willing," Los Angeles and Melbourne will be hit. "Don't count on us demonstrating restraint or compassion," the speaker warns.
Brian Ross, a reporter for ABC, said the tape was delivered to one of its offices in Pakistan on Saturday. It was shown to federal intelligence officials before ABC broadcast its report Sunday morning. Those officials, Ross said, "say without a doubt it's the same guy" who was in another taped threat obtained by ABC last October. Officials remain "95% certain" the person in that first video was California native Adam Yahiye Gadahn, Ross said.
Michelle Neff, a CIA spokeswoman, told USA TODAY that the agency could confirm only that it was "aware of the tape." She wouldn't discuss any details.
Gadahn, about 27, has been sought by federal officials since early 2004. In May that year, he was among seven people suspected of being associated with al-Qaeda who FBI Director Robert Mueller warned were "armed and dangerous" and who had allegedly made terrorist threats.
Gadahn grew up on a goat ranch in Riverside County, Calif. He converted to Islam when he was about 17 and soon after left the USA, the FBI said.Villaraigosa and Bratton said they discussed the video with Homeland Security officials. In Melbourne, police spokesman Craig Walsh told the Herald Sun that officials want to examine the video before commenting.
Posted by: Dan Darling ||
09/12/2005 03:14 ||
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We should never forget the unknown, quiet, good people all over our country who serve and protect.
ABOARD JAYHAWK 6028 (AP) - Petty Officer Wayne Weschrek thought he'd long ago put the dangerous stuff behind him. Yet here he was, aboard a Coast Guard helicopter hovering at 50 feet. Weschrek, 28, clipped a metal cable onto his flight jacket, the instructor gave a final tug to his flight suit, and Weschrek slid out, riding the cable to the ground below at the Coast Guard's Cape Cod air station.
Eight years ago, after his daughter was born, Weschrek transferred out of the Coast Guard's law enforcement side, from ship boardings and drug interdiction missions, and became an environmental officer, a ``duck scrubber'' who contained oil spills and saved wildlife.
Then came the 2001 terrorist attacks. The Coast Guard became the nation's largest Homeland Security agency and Weschrek's duties changed again. He became a boarding officer, a member of the armed teams that search foreign ships entering U.S. ports.
The Coast Guard's duties are growing faster than its ranks and officers like Weschrek who were saving seals, breaking ice or repairing harbor lights are being retrained. ``If you're part of the Coast Guard today, you have to understand that we have two priorities: search and rescue, and security,'' said Capt. Peter Boynton, commander for all of Long Island Sound, which includes Weschrek's unit based at New Haven, Conn. ``We still do everything else, but those are the main acts.''
Today, ``everything else'' includes helping victims of Hurricane Katrina. Rescue crews on other Jayhawk helicopters were among the first to respond and the Coast Guard is credited with saving thousands from rooftops of flooded homes in New Orleans. Coast Guard personnel also run medical centers and head up shelter operations.
And on Friday, Coast Guard Vice Adm. Thad W. Allen was named to replace Federal Emergency Management Agency Director Michael Brown as commander of the New Orleans relief efforts.
Cross-training like what Weschrek has undergone is happening across the country, officials say, as the Coast Guard races to keep up with its changing job description. Even though its active duty rolls grew by 13 percent since 2001, the average work week at many stations was 83 hours last year, a fact the General Accounting Office attributed to the growth in homeland security missions.
A Department of Homeland Security inspector general's report last year said the many new demands were jeopardizing the Coast Guard's ability to keep up its traditional missions and respond to crises. ``They need more personnel and they need more assets,'' said Rep. William Delahunt, D-Mass., a former Coast Guard officer. ``Not only have they acquired more tasks, but the order and magnitude of those tasks is multiplying exponentially.''
Cadets get the message from the day they arrive at the academy. Undergraduate courses now include discussions on building security, terrorism, ship tracking and satellite mapping. Participation in a weeklong disaster drill, called the ``New War Threat Exercise,'' is now required of all seniors.
``I thought I'd be on a boat doing (search) patterns, looking for fishing vessels,'' said Ensign Joan Pavlish, a member of last year's graduating class. Instead, she was one of the boarding team members who got airborne training last month.
Like Pavlish and Weschrek, many officers embraced their new roles. Others weren't so enthusiastic, officials said. But that's changing with each recruiting cycle and new academy class. ``Their whole perception of what the Coast Guard is is anti-terrorism,'' said Cmdr. Glenn Sulmasy, a professor at the Coast Guard Academy in New London, Conn. ``Now, it's much more saying 'It's part of who we are. It's interwoven in what we do.'''
Posted by: Steve White ||
09/12/2005 00:00 ||
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#1
So sad that the press had to get hung up on 30,000 people at the SuperDome out of over a million souls that Katrina effected, thus forgetting that the true heroes of this disaster is our Coast Guard.
We should all be wearing Coast Guard hats, similar to NYPF FDNY hats. But because our press (our job is to be skeptical) focused on those 30,000, these heroes of the Coast Guard didn't, and still are not, getting the hero worship they deserved.
They never stopped working, even during the storm.
As others have said, "I'm embarrassed for America." I'm embarrassed at the coverage our media has chosen. I'm embarrassed at the story they have chosen to tell. I'm embarrassed, that they couldn't just be Americans and tell the story of Americans helping Americans.
There were real stories in those first few days, yet, they focused on those 30,000 at the Superdome over the other one million stories to be told, and this media needs to take full credit for the image of American that was beamed throughout the world.
Why didn't they focus on the rescue mission of the Coast Guard?
I will blame our next terrorist attack on "our" media, cause they have chosen to show, not the real story of Americans helping Americans, our strength, but a focus on a few, when many were in need and the help, aid and just good ole hugs were there.
#2
Let me guess, these increased responsibilities will come with no extra funds or equipment. I agree it's sad that the Coast Guard is looked upon as the bastard stepchild of our armed forces.
#5
Time to stop starving the Coast Guard, upgrade their equipment, ships and helos.
They have proven themselves time and again as the first line of defense.
Posted by: Captain America ||
09/12/2005 20:35 Comments ||
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#6
they've been life-savers here in San Diego, and their upgrades seem to only come from War on Drugs attention. Agreed, time to value them for all their services/missions
Posted by: Frank G ||
09/12/2005 20:57 Comments ||
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The United States National Counter-Terrorism Center (NCTC) said there are 11 foreign and indigenous terrorist groups operating in the Philippines, the most among eight countries in Southeast Asia and Oceania.
Citing the NCTC report, Cebu Rep. Eduardo Gullas, former House majority leader and principal author of the antiterrorism bill, said the agencyâs Worldwide Incidents Tracking System, made public last July through the centerâs Web site, documented 51 terrorist attacks in the Philippines in 2004.
The 51 attacks, Gullas said, claimed a total of 446 victims including 225 people killed, 215 injured and six held hostage.
The deadliest attack was the bombing of the Super Ferry 12 ship in Manila on Feb. 27, 2004 which killed 132 people. The NCTC blamed the incident on Islamic extremists.
âFrom January to May this year, the NCTC has posted at least 25 terrorist attacks in the Philippines, but no other details were readily available,â he said.
Gullas identified nine of the terrorist groups as the Abdujarak Janjalani Brigade, the Abu Sayyaf Group, the Alex Boncayao Brigade, the Free Vietnam Revolutionary Group, the Indigenous Peopleâs Federal Army, the Jemaah Islamiyah, the Moro Islamic Liberation Front, the New Peopleâs Army and Osama bin Ladenâs Al Qaida network.
The NCTC listed a total of 786 terrorist groups worldwide, including 38 operating in Southeast Asia and Oceana, the region to which the Philippines belongs.
The other countries in the region and the number of terrorist groups active in them are Indonesia, nine; Malaysia eight; Cambodia, three; Australia, two; and Papua New Guinea, Singapore and Vietnam with one each.
The region with the most number of terror groups is Western Europe with 232; followed by the Middle East-Persian Gulf with 134. East-Central Asia has the fewest with 18, while North America has 51.
Very recently, National Security Adviser Norberto Gonzales said four Indonesian âsuicide bombersâ have been in the Philippines, while six others have been arrested by the Indonesian police last month.
Gonzales said authorities are now hunting the four Indonesians, among them two who are feared to be plotting suicide bombing attacks in Metro Manila.
With the NCTC report, Gullas said it has now become imperative for the country to pass a tough antiterrorism law, adding that there would be dire consequences for the Filipinos if no such law is passed.
âThere would be dire implications once we get left behind. Terrorist groups fleeing other countries that adopt vigorous new antiterrorist measures will find refuge here since we will be perceived as a relatively safe haven,â he said.
Gullas said the US State Department has criticized the Philippines for failing to enact a strong new antiterrorism law that would enable the police to crack down on the financiers of local terrorist groups.
Posted by: Dan Darling ||
09/12/2005 03:30 ||
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The US ambassador to Iraq, Zalmay Khalilzad, fired a strong warning to Syria yesterday over help that Washington accuses Damascus of giving to radical groups in Iraq. "Our patience is running out with Syria," Khalilzad told a press conference. When asked how the United States could respond, he said "all options are on the table," including military. "I would not like to elaborate more, they should understand what I mean," he added.
Posted by: Fred ||
09/12/2005 21:00 ||
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I would not like to elaborate more, they should understand what I mean
Syria vowed yesterday to cooperate fully with the head of the UN probe into the murder of former Lebanese Premier Rafik Hariri, saying it was in the interests of Damascus to uncover the truth. âDetlev Mehlis arrives in Damascus tomorrow... Syria will cooperate with him and extend all possible facilities to the international commission of inquiry,â said the official news agency SANA. âIt is in the interests of Syria to reach the truth on the crime of Haririâs assassination.â
Official daily Ath-Thawra said Syria would âcooperate in a serious and responsible mannerâ with Mehlis, who is visiting Syria as part of his commissionâs probe which has seen the arrest of four top pro-Syrian Lebanese security officials. âMr. Melhis will discover that Syria is more committed than the UN to the security and stability of Lebanon,â the daily said. âThe judicial and technical evidence will prove Syria had nothing to do with this horrible crimeâ. However, Ath-Thawra expressed âfear that the Mehlis mission could become politicized ... to achieve political objectives that threaten the security of the region and its futureâ. The paper referred to âIsraelâs longstanding objectives for which it has worked so hard by planning and practicing terrorismâ.
On the other hand, since Irael has zip to do with the Hariri assassination, maybe changing the subject won't work.
Posted by: Fred ||
09/12/2005 00:00 ||
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Baby Assad digs in his heels. I predicted yesterday he won't last out the year. Clock's ticking. With the possible exception of the ayatollahs, these are the only friends he has left in the world...
Syrian President Bashar Assad met Saturday with leaders of 10 militant Palestinian groups based in Syria, defying U.S. pressure to crack down on these groups. The meeting came as Syria is facing international demands on another front â that it cooperate with a U.N. probe into the assassination of former Lebanese Premier Rafik Hariri. Amid the pressure, Assad decided not to attend the world summit at U.N. headquarters in New York next week. Assad also received a U.S. snub when it was announced in Washington Wednesday that the Syrian leader will not get an invitation for a gathering of European and Middle Eastern leaders hosted by Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice next week in New York.
The United States is also pressuring Syria to make greater efforts to prevent anti-U.S. militants infiltrating across its border into Iraq and to crack down on militant Palestinian factions based in Damascus. In Saturday's meeting, Assad urged the radical Palestinian leaders â including Khaled Mashaal, the political leader of the militant Hamas group â to close ranks and continue the struggle in order to achieve their goal of an independent Palestinian state, Syria's official news agency SANA reported. The Palestinian leaders expressed their "appreciation of Syrian support for the Palestinian cause and stressed their desire to restore their rights, especially the right of return," SANA said.
Posted by: Fred ||
09/12/2005 00:00 ||
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#1
That joker on the left looks like his uniform is several sizes too big - and baby Assad looks like a stick figure. They definitely don't inspire confidence;)
#5
Step 1: Coordinated air strikes from US carrier in Med, Israeli Air Force, and Iraq-based US fighters reduce the Syrian air defense and destroy the Syrian Air Force on the ground.
Step 2: Air strikes on Damascus target Syrian Government buildings and Palistinian terrorist headquarters in the city.
Step 3: Iran launches terror attacks in Iraq, hoping to divert attacks on Hezbollah, receives a big piece of bottled sunshine in downtown Tehran.
#7
How long can this pinhead continue to hedge his bets? Last year Deputy Secretary of State Richard Armitage relayed the US expectations for Syria in no uncertain terms. Ole Dick was as subtle as a turd in a punchbowl. Assad tacitly gave modest assurances of cooperation yet played to his domestic audience with obligatory defiance. Damascusâs reserved gestures regarding border security with Iraq were just enough to garner sham press releases. But the bulk of insurgent support through Syria continues to be thwarted on the Iraqi side. Realities on the ground allowed Syria to withdraw troops from Lebanon without the appearance of acquiescence. Yet that didnât stop the Syrian regime from speculating out loud that it was Israel that had the most to gain from Haririâs assassination. Assad tries to portray himself as a responsible broker in the region. At the same time he continues to collaborate with the most destabilizing forces in the neighborhood. Condeeâs refusal to even seat him at the kiddy table shows how marginalized he has become. He better slide his chips âall inâ one side or the other or they will soon be extracting DNA from chunks of his scalp.
#8
How long can this pinhead continue to hedge his bets?
Historically it's right up to the moment the next Fearless Leader walks into the palace and puts a pistol to his head. Young Master Assad isn't clever enough to change the paradigm, I fear.
India is to bolster its navy with the purchase of six Franco-Spanish submarines in a deal worth $1.8bn (£985m, 1.4bn euros). The announcement came as India's Prime Minister Manmohan Singh met France's President Jacques Chirac in Paris. India plans to build six diesel-powered Scorpene SSK-class submarines at a naval dockyard in Mumbai (Bombay). The deal is the latest in a series of military purchases by New Delhi aimed at modernising India's armed forces. India is currently the developing world's leading buyer of military equipment, according to a report for the US Congress. New Delhi spent $5.7bn on arms last year, taking it past China and Saudi Arabia, the Congressional Research Service said in August.
President Chirac welcomed the deal, describing it as "a measure of the friendship, trust and cooperation" between India and France. The submarine deal follows the announcement last week of India Airlines' plan to buy 43 Airbus passenger jets in a deal worth $2.2bn. Speaking at the time, British Prime Minister Tony Blair said the purchase was a "welcome sign" of developing relations between India and the European Union.
And in totally unrelated news:
France supports India's bid for permanent seat in UNSC
Paris: France today came out strongly in support of India's bid for a permanent seat in an expanded UN Security Council, saying its aspiration was "legitimate" and hoped it would be realised. Welcoming Prime Minister Manmohan Singh at the Elysee Palace here, President Jacques Chirac also expressed his determination to move forward for cooperation in the field of nuclear energy.
Emphasising that for France, India was a "major buyer of French arms partner" of the world today, he said "and this is the reason why France has always supported India's positions, in particular her legitimate aspiration for a seat at the UN Security Council as a permanent member" as long as the checks keep coming.
Memo to Turkey: there's a lesson here; can you learn it?
Posted by: Steve ||
09/12/2005 12:11 ||
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#1
Hmmm. I wonder how China's ASW training is going. Hard to make all those cheap goodies when the oil tankers can't make it to port.
The ghost of Nelson will sink them all off Trafalgar.
Posted by: Robert Crawford ||
09/12/2005 16:01 Comments ||
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Some allege that the modular construction of the Scorpène would allow for the installation of a nuclear propulsion system.[21] It is unclear to what extent DCN might be involved in such an adaptation. France has never exported nuclear propulsion systems.[3] However, as India has been pursuing this capability independently for years, DCN may only be providing implementation assistance without a direct sale of a complete reactor. The French Navy operates the world's smallest nuclear submarine class, Le Rubis. With a submerged displacement of 2,680 tons, it is not significantly larger than a Scorpène-class boat of up to 2,000 tons.[22] The latter with its modular design could potentially incorporate a small reactor with a design similar to the one used in Le Rubis.
Posted by: john ||
09/12/2005 17:27 Comments ||
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#4
As part of the deal, the submarines will be armed with EADS SM-39 Exocet anti-ship missiles.
Posted by: john ||
09/12/2005 17:36 Comments ||
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September 12, 2005: Thereâs growing agreement in the Pentagon that the key problem in the war on terror is poor leadership in the Arab world, in particular, and the Moslem world in general. Youâre not going to hear an official announcement on this subject, but a quick look at the history of the Islamic world since World War II shows one constant; poor leadership. There are exceptions. Turkey, starting in the 1920s, sought to reform and modernize its governmental and cultural institutions, including a clear separation of church and state. Malaysia, after a chaotic beginning (in the 1950s), sorted itself out and created an efficient government (especially by Moslem standards) and adopted much of the English common law used when Britain was the colonial ruler of the area. This included a rather incorruptible, especially by local standards, judiciary. This gave Malaysia a big economic advantage, and led to rapid economic growth, despite some loud political squabbles. Islamic radicals never got a foothold in Malaysia, although some exist there. But Malaysians in general, and local counter-terrorism forces in particular, are not hospitable to Islamic terrorists.
The situation is quite different in most other Islamic countries, especially the Arab ones. Corruption and inefficient government have been the norm for Islamic states since World War II (and long before that when they were ruled by the Turks). This has led to poor economic performance, and an unhappy population. The current world wide Islamic terrorist threat began, three decades ago, as a movement to clean up corrupt governments in Islamic nations. That proved impossible to do, except in Iran. There, the uncharacteristically well organized (by Moslem standards) religious establishment took advantage of the chaos created by an Iraqi invasion in 1980, and basically hijacked the government. The religions leadership elbowed aside the democrats, and replaced the aristocrats who had recently been overthrown.
In the rest of the Islamic world, the people in power know how to stay in power. While the details varied somewhat from country to country, the winning formula was a combination of propaganda and terror. Some rulers relied more on one, than the other. Saddam Hussein, for example, used a lot more terror, although he turned out the propaganda like a champ. On the other extreme you have nations like Saudi Arabia (a monarchy), which uses propaganda and cash to keep control. Egypt uses more persuasion and propaganda to keep âpresident for lifeâ Mubarak in office. Egyptian police were quick to move when Islamic terrorists did try to operate. The police operations were aided by a media campaign that painted the terrorists as evil men, worthy of any punishment they got.
One unfortunate side-effect of this approach is that these Islamic tyrants help keep themselves in power by promoting Islamic terrorism, as long as it takes place elsewhere. While most Islamic governments say, especially in English, that they are against Islamic terrorism, they tolerate popular support for it. This is particularly the case if the victims are Israelis. Political leadership in Islamic nations failed miserably in dealing with the establishment of the state of Israel in 1948. Time after time, Moslem leaders shot themselves in the foot when it came to Israel. Meanwhile, they cranked up the propaganda machine to create more and more outrageous lies to explain away their incompetence. In effect, they painted themselves into a corner with their tacit, and often open, support of the Islamic terrorist goal of destroying Israel by any means available. For many Moslems, it was difficult to separate encouragement for terrorism against Israel, and preaching against using terrorism against other infidels (non-Moslems). And this often led some Moslems to believe that terrorism against their own corrupt rulers was justified.
This conundrum is at the core of the problem Moslem nations are having dealing with Islamic terrorism. When those terrorists act up locally, itâs easy enough to mobilize public support against them. But that anti-terrorist attitude is worn lightly, and fades as soon as the local terrorism is eliminated. Actually, Islamic terrorism helps keep all these Moslem tyrants in power. The antics of the terrorists distracts Moslems from the problems they are having in their own neighborhoods. Thatâs why the invasion of Iraq was so strenuously denounced by nearly every Moslem leader. Establishing a democracy in Iraq would make it clear to Moslem people throughout the Middle East that Arabs could handle democracy, and prosper without a strong man to âmaintain order.â
The Pentagon actually has an excellent record, going back over a century, in dealing with guerilla, terrorist and irregular warfare. Itâs not been politically correct to dwell on that, but thatâs another story. The problem with the current campaign against Islamic terrorism is that the cause of it all is within the Islamic community, and changing perceptions in the Moslem world takes time. The U.S. government know this, and knew it on September 11, 2001. It was stated back then that the war on terror would be a long one. Everyone nodded in agreement at the time, but the fact of the matter is that Americans tend to lose patience with any war effort (a custom going back to the American Civil War) after about three years.
The Islamic world has been screwed up for centuries, and you canât expect to fix it very quickly. Attempts to improve the quality of Moslem government, and quality of life for Moslems began to grow in the 19th century. Out of the ashes of the Ottoman empire in the 1920s, there arose several vigorous attempts at reform. The Turks established a democracy. Iraq tried a constitutional monarchy. By the 1950s, all the Moslem nations were free of colonial rule, and independent. Most went with democracy, and most ended up with dictatorships. Democracy doesnât really take hold unless everyone, especially the most powerful families (the potential warlords and tyrants) agree to play by the rules. This did not happen in most of these new Moslem nations.
After decades of falling for the âour problems are caused by colonialism and imperialismâ line, more and more Moslems are openly pointing out that, for most of the past thousand or so years, most Moslems were ruled by other Moslems, and the cause of their own problems. Moslem journalists and academics are now saying out loud, what many kept to themselves for a long time, that the problems in the Islamic world were created by internal, not external, forces. But the predominance of public opinion still clings to the âitâs not our faultâ model. Many Moslems will go to great lengths, and very twisted logic, to explain how Islamic terrorism cannot exist.
That fantasy has been severely damaged by what is going on in Iraq. Given a choice, the Iraqi people voted, literally, for democracy. In response, Islamic radicals openly declared democracy âun-Islamicâ, and unleashed a terror campaign against the Iraqi people. All this does not fit with the party-line Moslem dictators have been feeding their people for generations.
Moslem dictators are afraid of Islamic terrorists, as well they should be. Al Qaeda has openly declared these tyrants are their main target. Going after the West is, for al Qaeda, an attempt to deprive Moslem tyrants of a strong ally. But how do Moslem dictators fight Islamic terrorists without seeming to admit that Western plots and intrigues are not the cause of Moslem woes. Well, the Moslem dictators are doing it. This leads to, by Western standards, some bizarre reporting and editorializing.
People have always been willing to die for what they believe in. They will do so even if what they believe in is false or illogical. In the last century, over a hundred million people have died because of bizarre fascist and communist beliefs. The Islamic radicals are not nearly as well organized, or as popular, as those two movements. But the Islamic terrorists are out to kill, and they will keep trying until they are destroyed, or deprived of popular support.
Posted by: Steve ||
09/12/2005 09:12 ||
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Thereâs growing agreement in the Pentagon that the key problem in the war on terror is poor leadership in the Arab world, in particular, and the Moslem world in general.
Before easing his machine forward, the Afghan motorcyclist sits back from the throng and nods to a Pakistani border guard. His hand goes into his pocket as the guard raises two fingers. They shake hands and a tight wad of cash is exchanged. As the guard pockets the money, the Afghan throttles up and enters Pakistan in a cloud of dust. Just 30 minutes at the Waish border crossing, in this south-eastern corner of Afghanistan, reveals all of Islamabad and Kabul's hand-wringing about tighter border security as a joke at Washington's expense - there is virtually no border to secure.
And now the laughs could be on Canberra too. As Australian troops join the hunt for Taliban and other anti-Kabul forces in the treacherous mountains of Afghanistan's Uruzgan and Zabul provinces, Waish is a frontier funnel through which their enemies come and go with abandon. The farce unfolds under the watchful eye of officials from both countries who sit in a cluster of buildings that fly their respective national flags. Despite a sign that says "only for passport holders", hundreds amble through with no documentation - and without challenge. Heavily laden trucks and utilities, many without numberplates, stream in both directions. None is searched.
Robed men on horseback and dilapidated donkey carts don't even acknowledge the guards. Dozens going both ways wear jet-black turbans, which at the very least indicates they may be Taliban sympathisers. They waltz through as untouchables. In a matter of minutes we witness one green-bereted guard pocket three bribes, prompting a local to volunteer that all of six or eight Pakistani guards on duty this morning are on the take. Shortly after our arrival, the Pakistanis rough up a few travellers. One of the guards angrily kicks three big cartons from the back of a bicycle, but he doesn't bother to look inside them, and a handful are pushed back into Afghanistan.
Continued on Page 49
#1
This sounds like an excellent spot to train coalition snipers. The proverbial "target rich environment." Make it known : anything not searched, and anyone who passes without documentation - proceed to be "terminated with extreme prejudice." So too, the border officials.
Well past midnight one morning in early December 2001, according to American intelligence officials, Osama bin Laden sat with a group of top aides - including members of his elite international 055 Brigade - in the mountainous redoubt of Tora Bora in eastern Afghanistan. Outside, it was blustery and bitterly cold; many of the passes of the White Mountains, of which Tora Bora forms a part, were already blocked by snow. But inside the cave complex, where bin Laden had sought his final refuge from the American war in Afghanistan - a war in which Washington, that October, had struck back for the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks - bin Laden munched on olives and sipped sugary mint tea. He was dressed in his signature camouflage jacket, and a Kalashnikov rested by his side. Captured Qaeda fighters, interviewed separately, told American interrogators that they recalled an address that bin Laden had made to his followers shortly before dawn. It concerned martyrdom. American bombs, including a 15,000-pound "daisy cutter," were raining from the sky and pulverizing a number of the Tora Bora caves. And yet, one American intelligence official told me recently, if any one thing distinguished Osama bin Laden on that cold December day, it was the fact that the 44-year-old Saudi multimillionaire appeared to be supremely confident.
Posted by: Dan Darling ||
09/12/2005 03:34 ||
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As much as I would like to have Osama cuffed and perp walked or his head on a pike. I think it's better to lose Binny and not lose Afghanistan and Pakistan. Those are higher priorities and I think the Bushies felt the same way so far things are coming along as well as could be expected for 2 countries full of violence and insanity.
Americans who don't read Rantburg will remain generally unaware that the Islamists suffered a setback in Pakistan and they probably don't know that the Taliban rebels get repeatedly shellacked by U.S. and Afghan Government forces. The media has been feeding us the line about "The Taliban Resurgence" for 3 years now. While their attacks actually have resurged of late, I see no evidence that this has had any sort of effect.
Sheuer is obviously knowledegable but I suspect that he's aggrieved that his "Get Binny" mission was subordinated to "Get Afghanistan" and "Don't Lose Pakistan" mandates.
#3
âIt was not until this spring that the Pentagon, after a Freedom of Information Act request, released a document to The Associated Press that says Pentagon investigators believed that bin Laden was at Tora Bora and that he escaped.â This sounds just like an Intelligence Analyst assessment and not any kind of fact. Since they could not account for Bin Laden, they assume he was at and then escaped from Tora Bora. I also heard that story from the CIA guy who claims that Bin Laden was there for the taking. Neither has clear proof that he was at or even near the place but only assume this because they have no other logical place for him. Well if I have a custom made hideout that EVERYONE knows about, people chasing me that have big bombs, and they will probably use all their force to kill me I would go ANYPLACE other than that hideout. Unless they found dated pictures, DNA, or believable sources I would not put a lot of stock in the theory that Bin Laden went to and escaped from Tora Bora.
#4
We should always trust the words of captured terrorists over someone like, say, General Tommy Franks, for they are always more accurate and credible.
Sheesh...
Newsflash: Binny's Great Escape was from Sudan and again three times during the late-90's while basking in the glo of the terrorists hunting camps. -- Surprise, the NY Slimes musta forgot those....
Posted by: Captain America ||
09/12/2005 13:47 Comments ||
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Twelve Jordanian militants hailed the September 11 attacks against the United States at the end of a trial that saw them jailed on Sunday for up to three years for plotting to kill members of an American dancing group.
Before the state security court passed sentence, ringleader Sheikh Abed Tahawi and his followers celebrated the fourth anniversary of the September 11, 2001, attacks that claimed more than 2,700 lives in the United States.
"September 11 was a great day when we made America weep and rubbed Americaâs face in the dirt," the 50-year-old bearded militant, his legs chained, shouted from inside the caged dock of the court.
The eleven militants also prayed for Osama bin Laden , the leader of al Qaeda who is accused of masterminding the attacks.
"God protect the Sheikh of the Mujahideen (Muslim holy warriors) Osama," they chanted.
Four years after the attacks, Americans paid tribute to and held memorial ceremonies for the victims of the hijacked plane strikes in New York, Washington and Pennsylvania.
Tahawi, a fiery preacher who was imprisoned in Saudi Arabia before coming to Jordan in 1992, was found guilty along with his 11 comrades of "conspiring to carry out terrorist attacks against U.S and Western targets."
They had been charged with plotting to kill members of a U.S. dancing troupe at a concert last year.
But the court failed to provide evidence the group -- whose sentences ranged from one and a half to three years -- possessed weapons despite prosecution charges Tahawi sent some of the young militants for training last year in Iraq âs former rebel sanctuary of Falluja and in hideouts in Yemen.
Four others were acquitted in the trial that began in March.
The group planned to bomb a hotel in the northern city of Irbid that had Israeli patrons, according to the prosecution.
They also scouted several sites including camps where Western archaeologists worked and tourist groups frequented.
The militants hurled abuse at the military court, saying they did not recognize its legitimacy, saying it followed the orders of Israel and Washington, the sworn enemies of the Islamists.
"Our lord is Allah and your lord is America. You and your masters are slaves of (Israeli Prime Minister Ariel) Sharon and (U.S. President George W.) Bush," they chanted.
Prosecutors say the militants are part of several fundamentalist underground cells uncovered in the last year in Jordan, which has seen a rise in the number of arrests of militants plotting attacks on Americans, Israelis and Westerners.
Senior officials in Jordan, a staunch U.S. ally, say the rise in militancy is tied to growing anti-American sentiment after the U.S.-led invasion of Iraq in March 2003.
Posted by: Dan Darling ||
09/12/2005 03:21 ||
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Tahawi, a fiery preacher who was imprisoned in Saudi Arabia before coming to Jordan in 1992, was found guilty along with his 11 comrades of "conspiring to carry out terrorist attacks against U.S and Western targets."
They had been charged with plotting to kill members of a U.S. dancing troupe at a concert last year.
But the court failed to provide evidence the group -- whose sentences ranged from one and a half to three years -- possessed weapons despite prosecution charges Tahawi sent some of the young militants for training last year in Iraq âs former rebel sanctuary of Falluja and in hideouts in Yemen.
Four others were acquitted in the trial that began in March.
The group planned to bomb a hotel in the northern city of Irbid that had Israeli patrons, according to the prosecution.
They also scouted several sites including camps where Western archaeologists worked and tourist groups frequented.
that'll teach 'em! sure to be rehabilitated when they walk/get out.
Posted by: Red Dog ||
09/12/2005 13:42 Comments ||
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Though Pakistan and US appear to be in sync over the hunt for Osama bin Laden and other al-Qaeda leaders, lack of cooperation at the operational and tactical levels by the Pakistani army and intelligence is proving a major stumbling block. In fact, Indian and US intelligence and investigation agencies increasingly believe General Pervez Musharraf is no longer in absolute command of his army and the all-powerful ISI.
The recent bulldozing of all tender norms by his chief of general staff, Lt-Gen Tariq Majeed â who is next in command after Musharraf âs vice-chief Gen Ahsan Saleem Hayat and is due to retire in December 2007 â is a case in point. In June 2005, Majeed ordered 900 sub-standard G-2 night-vision devices fitted with thermal image sights for the armyâs main battle tanks from French firm Thales. These were overpriced by an extra $37 million and flouted all technical qualifications. When Majeedâs attempts to procure the night-vision devices were foiled at the last moment, mainly due to fierce opposition from his juniors, he ordered the immediate procurement of five LUNA unmanned spy planes from German company EMT at a price exceeding $27 million. The order, placed late last month, came despite objections in Islamabadâs military intelligence circles over their inadequate electronic counter-measures.
All this took place without Musharraf âs knowledge, demonstrating his lack of control over his immediate juniors and the decision-makers in the Pakistan army. CIA director Porter Goss, who believes Laden is still in Pakistan, has recently gone on record as saying certain âweak linksâ â namely Pakistan â need to be strengthened if the manhunt for the al-Qaeda leader has to culminate in his capture. His comments are echoed by US intelligence and defence officials now active in Pakistan.
Highly-placed sources say while some key al-Qaeda operatives have been picked up by the Pakistani security agencies, its top Arab leaders are still at large. Those arrested included Abu Zubaydah, Ramzi bin-al-Shibh, Khalid Sheikh Mohammed, Naeem Noor Khan, Ahmed Khalfan Ghailani and Abu Farj-al-Libi. The question being raised in informed circles is how some top Arab al-Qaeda leaders are still evading arrest despite the scale of the manhunt. This, they say, is not possible unless they are being provided protection by a powerful section in the security and intelligence agencies.
Posted by: Dan Darling ||
09/12/2005 03:19 ||
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#1
Mushy left for New York this week. We'll soon see if anything is afoot. I don't think he would have left the country if he didn't have at least some confidence in his own level of control.
#5
Propping up the Dick-Tator.
Dollars and Support : another thought...
Musharraf continues to play the West. He does it by playing the 'Dutch boy'.
He really is in control of the ISI and it's assets, but by using well crafted leaks convinces the West he's our man in Paki-Waki-Land holding back Holy Hordes⢠[ISI proxy assets]with his stinkin little finger.
Posted by: Red Dog ||
09/12/2005 12:53 Comments ||
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#6
Musharraf is the world possible leader of Pakistan, ..... until you consider the alternatives.
#7
We're used to the idea that dictators command the absolute obedience of their subordinates. The reality is that divine right of kings aside, most dictators are always horse-trading with their direct reports. Mao did away with many of his rivals before they could depose him - but they were genuine threats to his rule. Stalin was the same way - but he did to them before they could do to him. This was why Saddam was always offing his subordinates - Saddam was also a subordinate once, before he took power by knocking off his betters. Mao and Stalin had Marxism and Saddam had Baathism as ruling ideologies to unify their followers.
Musharraf's rule is purely based on his being in the right place at the right time. His rule is more like that of the Roman emperors - a delicate balancing act between contending factions - note how even a gifted politician and military man like Julius Caeser was assassinated. He will be lucky to die a natural death.
EFL.
The joint operation has been heavily covered on state-controlled Iraqi television. For two days, the Al Iraqiya channel has frequently shown footage of Iraqi soldiers kicking in doors as they hunt for rebels in Tall Afar, which had been the site of insurgent attacks on American and Iraqi forces.
In Baghdad, Iraqi officials have provided regular updates on the fighting and announced plans to push into other cities along the border with Syria, including Sinjar, Rabia, Qaim and Akashat.
The offensive was assailed by some government critics. They charged that such operations served more to exacerbate tensions in a city with a mixed Shiite and Sunni Muslim population and divert attention from the government's failure to rebuild the country than to defeat the insurgency.
"What is going on there is nothing but a sectarian purge within an official cover," said Adnan Dulaimi, a Sunni Arab leader. "This kind of policy would bring nothing but more bloodshed, more chaos and more destruction to Iraq."
But in a televised news conference Sunday, Defense Minister Saadoun Dulaimi praised the offensive and the conduct of Iraqi troops.
"What is happening in Tall Afar is an example of what should happen in other troubled places of Iraq," said Dulaimi, a member of the same large tribe as Adnan Dulaimi. "The Tall Afar operation is a quality operation by all measures."
The government's upbeat assessments were reflected in the images on state-controlled television. Iraqis often criticize the nascent armed forces for firing their weapons wildly into the air.
But Sunday night, Al Iraqiya showed Iraqi soldiers in desert camouflage alertly marching through empty Tall Afar neighborhoods and calmly guarding about 20 bound, blindfolded suspected insurgents.
The station showed a demonstration of about 150 Tall Afar residents holding banners declaring: "We call on the government to kick out terrorists from Tall Afar."
One young man told an interviewer, "What we want from the Iraqi government is to kill those terrorists."
Inhabitants of the camp outside the city described dire conditions, with more than 550 families crowded into 500 tents set up by overburdened relief workers. They spoke of demolished homes and said children were killed in the fighting. They also complained of being harassed by Iraqi soldiers and going without medical care in the camp, which they said soldiers would not let them leave.
"The American forces and Iraqi soldiers ordered us to leave our houses," said Khudair Yas, a 50-year-old Tall Afar resident living in the camp.
"We left without extra clothes or food to a camp which has become like a prison."
A U.S.-led assault on Tall Afar almost a year ago also aimed to drive out insurgents. The government says foreign fighters have again turned the city into a haven.
Dulaimi, the defense minister, said "all terrorist infiltrators" had entered the country across Iraq's nearly 400-mile border with Syria.
But Iraqi President Jalal Talabani, speaking on CNN during a visit to the U.S., said the Syrian government was feeling pressure to crack down on Islamic militants.
"I think Syrians are also starting to feel that terrorism is their enemy also, and there are some activities of terrorists inside Syria," he said.
Maj. Gen. Adnan Abdul Hamza, a high-ranking Interior Ministry official, was gunned down Sunday morning as he headed to work from his home in the capital's Ghazaliya neighborhood, a site of frequent sectarian violence. A roadside blast in Fallouja killed an Iraqi soldier and injured four.
The U.S. military announced that its forces had killed an Al Qaeda operative nicknamed "Abu Zayd" during a raid near Mosul.
A news release said the man had coordinated "kidnappings, extortion, murder, intimidation of Mosul citizens and attacks against Iraqi security and coalition forces."
Posted by: Dan Darling ||
09/12/2005 03:17 ||
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LA Times. Gotta have some heart-wrenching stuff....They spoke of demolished homes and said children were killed in the fighting.
And just who is "they"? Seems like the reporter sort of "summinng up".
Posted by: Bobby ||
09/12/2005 7:43 Comments ||
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#2
Gut wrenching, indeed. Especially as it's equal odds the terrorists did the house demolishing, and better odds they were the ones whose bullets hit the children. After all, the Iraqi troops have been doing actual target shooting under the sharp eyes of American NCOs.
A four-year worldwide manhunt has delivered some hard blows to Al Qaeda, but its strength now lies in the fact that it needs no organised network to be a deadly threat, analysts and experts say.
The London terror attacks in July showed how apprentice terrorists are acting on their account. One of the alleged perpetrators of the failed July 21 attack on the London transport network, Hamdi Issac, told investigators after his arrest in Rome: âWe had no contact with the organisation of (Osama) Bin Laden. We knew it existed - we accessed its programmes through the Internet - but nothing directly.â
Though international secret services say a hard core of experienced terrorists remains, waging an international jihad and still formidable even as they are being hunted down, the main danger comes from the force of inspiration Al Qaeda represents.
âIt is more a state of mind, an ideology, than a physical entity,â said Magnus Ranstorp, director of the centre for the study of terrorism and political violence at the University of St Andrews in Scotland.
âIt is like an amoeba: it takes on a multiple life form that can quickly crystallise and quickly dissipate. It is like a ghost: it pops up everywhere and yet itâs nowhere. It is now an inspiration, that will last long after Bin Laden: it is going to be here for decades.â
In the northern English city of Leeds, home to three of the four July 7 London bombers, who killed 56 people including themselves, 54-year-old Pakistani immigrant Ejaz Hussain organised marches of sympathy for the victims a day after the attacks. Speaking of the bombers, he pointed to his head and said: âAl Qaeda is inside.â
Jeremy Binnie, an analyst with the London-based Janeâs defence publisherâs terrorism and insurgency centre, said: âTo be Al Qaeda, all you have to do is go out and do something, do an act of violence. You donât actually have to have any contact with Bin Laden and other senior commanders,â he said.
âIncreasingly, these kinds of major attack have been perpetrated by grassroots guys who donât have the kind of connections that we would have seen maybe in the previous generation of what would be described as Al Qaeda.â
The bombers who killed hundreds of people in simultaneous blasts at US embassies in Dar es Salaam and Nairobi on August 7, 1998, could be described as âclassic Al Qaeda,â Binnie said.
âWhereas these guys (behind the latest attacks) are a sort of a new generation of people who are radicalised much more locally and they attack much more locally as well, which is a pretty worrying development in terms of how many other guys are out there.â
Bin Laden, forced to avoid modern communications that might betray his whereabouts, may have no significant operational capabilities, but he no longer needs them.
The Al Qaeda leader represented a deadly threat because he had the terrifying power of being able to inspire through his use of words and ideas, said Brian Jenkins of the Rand Corporation think tank.
French criminologist Xavier Raufer, co-author of the recent work âThe Al-Qaeda Enigmaâ, believes the gravest problem is that the West has not learned from its mistakes.
âIf you look at the major attacks since September 11 you can see that there has been no progress. It is a disaster. We run after people, capture them, they spend their lives in prison, but it does not matter. They are kamikazes anyway.
âThe basic strategy is âknow your enemy.â So long as we fail to understand that the terroristsâ grievances are mostly political and that we have to look at the problem from a political standpoint, we wonât stand a chance.â
Posted by: Dan Darling ||
09/12/2005 00:18 ||
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I have to agree that al-Qaeda exists in cells, connected by internet ideology. Ergo: ban all pro jihadi websites. And I would include jihad unspun.
Posted by: Vlad the Muslim Impaler ||
09/12/2005 2:00 Comments ||
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#2
I haven't read this particular book about AQ, but Xavier Raufer seems to know his stuff, judging from what I read from him before.
#3
âThe basic strategy is âknow your enemy.â So long as we fail to understand that the terroristsâ grievances are mostly political and that we have to look at the problem from a political standpoint, we wonât stand a chance.â
So Mr. Raqufer believes we only have a chance if we turn over Israel, kill all the jews and convert to Islam? I think we understand them. This will end only when they understand us.
#5
There should be a a screen saver like Seti@Home, that sends DOS attacks to all listed islam sites while the computer is idle. I bet that would put a dent in recruitment via internet.
Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak pledged yesterday to pursue political reforms after sweeping to a fifth term in office in an election widely criticized by his opponents. âThe true victory is the victory for democracy and pluralism,â Mubarak said in his first speech since his victory in Wednesdayâs first multicandidate presidential election in the most populous country of the Arab world.
I hate to say this, but it's not "pluralism" when you get the same guy in charge until he dies of old age or he's carried off by djinns...
Mubarak, who won 88.6 percent of the votes, will be sworn in on Sept. 27 at a big ceremony at the lower house of Parliament. The president will shortly form a new Cabinet that is expected to see some of Egyptâs old guard replaced by younger reformists allied to his son, Gamal.
I understand some of the "old guard" have actually been around since the '50s.
Mubarak told members of his ruling National Democratic Party (NDP) that more political and social reforms would be carried out. Egypt, he said, had reached a âturning-pointâ.
They haven't turned enough to extend individual freedom to their citizens, but they're thinking of putting on a show of democracy...
âThe pursuit of reforms is irrevocable,â he said. âWith all determination and persistence, I will work on creating a modern society for free citizens in a democratic country,â Mubarak told hundreds of NDP members.
Good. Institute freedom of religion or the lack thereof. Crack the heads of those who violate it, anywhere. Then we'll believe you.
Posted by: Fred ||
09/12/2005 00:00 ||
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A Pakistani anti-corruption court has ordered the arrest of former Prime Minister Benazir Bhuttoâs husband for failing to attend hearings in trials over charges that he skimmed off kickbacks in awarding government contracts, a lawyer said yesterday. The court issued a warrant for Asif Zardari on Saturday in Rawalpindi, a city near the capital Islamabad, Zardariâs lawyer Farooq Naek said. âWe filed an application that Zardari has had a heart operation and that he cannot come, but the court rejected it,â Naek said.
Zardari is at a US hospital after undergoing angioplasty, said Nazir Dhoki, a spokesman for Benazirâs Pakistan Peopleâs Party in which Zardari is a senior figure. The former lawmaker and government minister was released last December from eight years in prison over other corruption cases after the Supreme Court granted him bail. He later traveled to Dubai, United Arab Emirates, where Benazir had been living since 1999 to escape arrest at home for corruption cases against her. Benazir was twice elected prime minister in the 1980s and â90s â but both times her government was dismissed over allegations of misrule and corruption.
Posted by: Fred ||
09/12/2005 00:00 ||
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President General Pervez Musharraf will go through a tightly laid-out schedule when he lands in New York on Sunday to address the UN General Assembly session, officials said. During his stay in New York, Musharraf will also preside over two top-level meetings on the sidelines of the event. Officials said the president will chair summit meetings on Science and Technology for Development and a session of the bureau of the Economic and Social Council (ECOSOC), a major organ of the United Nations. Pakistan is currently the president of ECOSOC. The two meetings are set to take place on September 15, a day after the opening of the summit marking the 60th anniversary of the world body.
The honour extended to Musharraf reflects the prestige Pakistan enjoys at the United Nations, officials said. In addition, Musharraf will hold a number of bilateral meetings with heads of state or government, including President George W. Bush, Russian President Vladimir Putin, Indian Prime Minister Manmohan Singh, British Prime Minister Tony Blair and Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad.
Posted by: Fred ||
09/12/2005 00:00 ||
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All the loons are flocking to NYC for the grand poopa UN convention. Ya got cASStro, Perv, Hugo and all the others.
Posted by: Captain America ||
09/12/2005 2:45 Comments ||
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All those dictators and dictator wannabes, all those cameras...
The Rantburg sash, sprocket, and pointless gewgawery alert level will be raised to Code Orange on Thursday, Code Red on Friday.
#3
The Pakistani military must hand out medals for learning how to wipe.
Posted by: Robert Crawford ||
09/12/2005 12:00 Comments ||
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What is that beauty queen sash for?
All those medals. An army that has never won a single war. One that lost half their country's land mass.
One medal may be for genocide. On the orders of dictator Zia Ul Haq, a Pak SSG officer led a group of Arab fighters against the Shia muslims in Gilgit. The Arabs were commanded by Osama Bin Laden. Pervez Musharraf was the SSG officer.
Posted by: john ||
09/12/2005 17:57 Comments ||
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The idea is to get as much metal as possible hanging over your heart. Standard dictator survival gear. The ribbons and sash are probably Kevlar. Looks like body armor under the shirt too.
Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas has said that his forces are able to ensure that armed groups do not take over empty Jewish settlements in the Gaza Strip. In an interview with Newsweek magazine to be published on Monday, Abbas said the Palestinian Authority would ensure that Hamas did not take over the settlements, which the Israeli army left on Sunday after a 38-year presence in Gaza. "We are ready to control the whole security situation," Abbas told the magazine. "We will not allow anybody to rush into the settlements."
He said the next step in the peace process with Israel was to return to the stalled internationally-backed road map peace plan. "There was an agreement that the Israelis would evacuate [some West Bank] cities... This was not implemented. We talked about prisoners, and they didn't release any. Of course, we want them to freeze [West Bank] settlement activities and [the building of] the wall."
Posted by: Fred ||
09/12/2005 00:00 ||
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Mobs are burning synagogues and schools. But Abbas vows not to let anybody in.
http://www.jpost.com/servlet/Satellite?pagename=JPost/JPArticle/ShowFull&cid=1126405205939
Other classics:
"The check is in the mail."
"You may have won the lottery!"
"Don't worry - I'm on the pill."
#2
Scooter,
Abbas doesn't know yet what's waiting for him.
IMHO after the "heros" of the Hamas fire the Second Kassam rocket over the border (and believe me they will) the IDF (and IAF) gloves are going to come off.
I think right now some people are preparing some JDAM detonators somewhere in the south part of the country.
Posted by: Elder of Zion ||
09/12/2005 3:54 Comments ||
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What is it that the Pals don't understand about the concept of a free fire zone?
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.
Yemen has curbed al Qaeda's activities in the Arab state but more attacks there remain possible, the Yemeni foreign minister said on Sunday. "Yemen has taken great strides in fighting terrorism and has been able to limit al Qaeda's activities (in the country) until now," Abubakr al-Qirbi told al-Thawra newspaper. "But this does not mean that there is no possibility of a terrorist attack happening in Yemen or in any other country."
More than 2,000 orange-clad opposition members rallied in the Azerbaijani capital Saturday, demanding that President Ilhan Aliev resign and that authorities ensure that parliamentary elections in November are free and fair. Mounting pressure on authorities has led some observers to predict the oil-rich Caspian nation could see a popular uprising similar to those that have taken place in the former Soviet republics of Ukraine, Georgia and Kyrgyzstan. 
The US ambassador to Iraq, Zalmay Khalilzad, fired a strong warning to Syria yesterday over help that Washington accuses Damascus of giving to radical groups in Iraq. "Our patience is running out with Syria," Khalilzad told a press conference. When asked how the United States could respond, he said "all options are on the table," including military. "I would not like to elaborate more, they should understand what I mean," he added.
Syria vowed yesterday to cooperate fully with the head of the UN probe into the murder of former Lebanese Premier 
Syrian President Bashar Assad met Saturday with leaders of 10 militant Palestinian groups based in Syria, defying U.S. pressure to crack down on these groups. The meeting came as Syria is facing international demands on another front â that it cooperate with a U.N. probe into the assassination of former Lebanese Premier Rafik Hariri. Amid the pressure, Assad decided not to attend the world summit at U.N. headquarters in New York next week. Assad also received a U.S. snub when it was announced in Washington Wednesday that the Syrian leader will not get an invitation for a gathering of European and Middle Eastern leaders hosted by Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice next week in New York.
Before easing his machine forward, the Afghan motorcyclist sits back from the throng and nods to a Pakistani border guard. His hand goes into his pocket as the guard raises two fingers. They shake hands and a tight wad of cash is exchanged. As the guard pockets the money, the Afghan throttles up and enters Pakistan in a cloud of dust. Just 30 minutes at the Waish border crossing, in this south-eastern corner of Afghanistan, reveals all of Islamabad and Kabul's hand-wringing about tighter border security as a joke at Washington's expense - there is virtually no border to secure.
Egyptian President 
A Pakistani anti-corruption court has ordered the arrest of former Prime Minister 
President General Pervez Musharraf will go through a tightly laid-out schedule when he lands in New York on Sunday to address the UN General Assembly session, officials said. During his stay in New York, Musharraf will also preside over two top-level meetings on the sidelines of the event. Officials said the president will chair summit meetings on Science and Technology for Development and a session of the bureau of the Economic and Social Council (ECOSOC), a major organ of the United Nations. Pakistan is currently the president of ECOSOC. The two meetings are set to take place on September 15, a day after the opening of the summit marking the 60th anniversary of the world body.
Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas has said that his forces are able to ensure that armed groups do not take over empty Jewish settlements in the Gaza Strip. In an interview with Newsweek magazine to be published on Monday, Abbas said the Palestinian Authority would ensure that Hamas did not take over the settlements, which the Israeli army left on Sunday after a 38-year presence in Gaza. "We are ready to control the whole security situation," Abbas told the magazine. "We will not allow anybody to rush into the settlements." 
