I've probably screwed all sorts of things up, but I've added Page 3, which would be for non-WoT stuff, like our EU conversations, lurid scandals, and the SAST. I'm sure we'll be discussing Page 3 girls soon, but as yet I have no plans.
Page 2 will be for WoT-associated politix, diplomacy, financing, and military-related articles.
Page 1 will be reserved for WoT operations — attacks, shoot-outs, arrests, trials, and executions.
When I initially wrote Page 1/Page 2, I set it up as a binary, either WoT or not WoT. Naturally, I set WoT as 1 and Not-WoT as 0. I've redesigned and set all the 0s to 2, and 3 will follow naturally enough. But because I designed it one way, and now I'm building it another way, there'll be bugs crawling all over the place for a few days, until I can Flit them all.
To make matters worse, I've also done away with the physical Page 2. It's now all one page, only with different filters. Be patient...
On quite another subject, we've been getting an increasing number of spam postings. Today there was a link to a Paris Hilton porn site in Opinion. Most of the junk posts show up in the holding tank, where they can be gracefully deleted, so I'll be tightening up the security on the opinion page today, as well. My apologies for the crap.
I know spammers don't actually read the sites they infest, but the only advertising I'll accept is through Blog Ads and Google Ads. I don't allow NSFW. And if you want to advertise your dog products, don't do it in comments here.
Posted by: Fred ||
02/21/2005 12:01:07 AM ||
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#1
Fred, for those of us who are somewhat forgetful, please do me a favour and title the pages -- perhaps something along the lines of Page 1: WoT Violence, Page 2: WoT Other, Page 3: Of Interest.... Six months from now (when I remember) I'll be grateful. Thanks lots!
#6
Fred, I've yet to make it to through the new format without my ancient W98 machine locking up. Not saying it's the format, but it's either that, or some coding in Memri.org, or I've got an undetected virus.
#7
I'll ditto the request for more "user-friendly" names for the pages so their content will more readily apparent than by number. Of course, if page 3 will have "Page 3" girls, the name suffices as it stands!
Posted by: Dar ||
02/21/2005 9:46 Comments ||
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#8
gromky, click on "all articles." That will give you absolutely everything -- except opinion -- on one very long page. That's what keeps me from hitting the computer. ;-)
The link to Page 3 is on the left side. I don't think you'll enjoy it quite as much as I do, but that's how the wiring diagram is intended to work... i.e., it's not a bug, it's a feature, heh.
#11
Hmmm...that's a disappointing development for a few of us rantburg readers, who come here for a moment away from the MSM sexual fixation. Some rantburgers may seek a Page 4 soft porn page for women in the spirit of equality, but that wouldn't really spin my wheels. I come here for levity sometimes, but mostly for political discourse.
#13
I think the lock-up comes from photos. If they're hosted somewhere else there's a lag as they're pulled, barely noticeable if you're lucky. If they're not there, then your machine will keep trying to pull them until it gives up. That's more lag, and definitely noticeable.
It also takes longer to pull a very large picture. I try to keep the stock photos here under 15k.
Posted by: Fred ||
02/21/2005 10:39 Comments ||
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#14
And Page 0 is bugs... I gotta find them and kill them. Arrrr....
Posted by: Fred ||
02/21/2005 10:44 Comments ||
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#15
Jeez, fevered brows and everything! What a great site!
#16
Also, how do I tell Rantburg to always display articles with comments? I hate it when it collapses them because there's too many articles
When comments are collapsed, doesn't that actually use up more bandwith? I load through a lot of extra pages to see the comments. Sometimes I am not even really interested in the details of article in question. Perhaps there is a compromise where comments are either available longer before collapse or page can be requested with collapsed articles but all comments available. Also maybe only articles with many comments could be collapsed, showing a number of the first comments where we could perhaps see if comments are degenerating into a spat.
Posted by: DO ||
02/21/2005 12:20 Comments ||
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#17
The comments collapse after they've reached 200 on a page.
#18
I just reset it so that it won't fold up until the combined article and comments count reaches 500. With fewer articles per page (3 pages vice 2) it shouldn't be a problem.
I think.
Posted by: Fred ||
02/21/2005 13:28 Comments ||
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#19
Shipman, luv, I think when Rantburg manages to add flashing eyes and heaving bosoms... why then .com will never leave ;-) even if Fred does keep it safe for work and my quietly amused female wiring.
#20
Fred, can you have the front page (rantburg.com) actually redirect to the Page 1 viewing page? Clicking (non-comment) links from the front page makes it load the whole damn thing again instead of just plopping down to the relevant part of the page. In Firefox, at least.
#22
Got that one fixed, I think. Holler when something else goes wrong...
Posted by: Fred ||
02/21/2005 14:27 Comments ||
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#23
Dang, when I hit the precedent day on page 2 or 3 to review the page 2 or 3 of that said precedent day, it redirects me to that date's page 1 only. That's depressing, I think I'll go slumming on porn sites to cheer me up.
#26
Why Phil? Just print everything out each day and keep it in a big honking binder and do your own indexing on key words. I'm still working on "what" from three years ago. DeHaveline usered it a lot.
#29
hmmm - after starting, I think Ship was playing with you. I've got 10 pages each with "Ima" and "thinkr" links
Posted by: Frank G ||
02/21/2005 18:49 Comments ||
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#30
Format Changes- Fred I like the new look, I was going to suggest that to the web master/rant and rave designer. Yes, Save Paris Hilton type posting's for another life! Some of the W.O.T.
become depressing- I enjoy a "well rounded" choice of posting's. **THANKS**
Andrea
Posted by: Andrea ||
02/21/2005 18:50 Comments ||
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#31
Page 1, Page 2, Page3, Fred has quite the newspaper running here. Now all we need is sports....
Time to renew my subscription.
Posted by: john ||
02/21/2005 19:43 Comments ||
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#32
occasional glitches when I hit View All Day
Posted by: Frank G ||
02/21/2005 19:46 Comments ||
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#33
everything else - great!
Posted by: Frank G ||
02/21/2005 19:47 Comments ||
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#34
Thanks BD, I just tried and Google Advanced Search does find stuff in comments. Working currently, so I guess Fred didn't change any archive links.
Al Qaida might be shifting its strategy and preparing to attack so-called soft targets in Kuwait. Western diplomatic sources said the Al Qaida network has been foiled in several attempts to attack Western military personnel in Kuwait. The sources cited the arrest of nearly 200 suspected insurgents and raids against four strongholds in the sheikdom during January. "Kuwait has responded very well to warnings of Al Qaida attacks," a diplomat said. "Security forces have been acting on information and intelligence has been collecting new leads." On Saturday, Kuwait captured two Al Qaida suspects said to have planned strikes on U.S. interests in the sheikdom. The suspected operatives were identified as Kuwaiti nationals.
Posted by: Dan Darling ||
02/21/2005 12:33:02 AM ||
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Saudi security forces shot a man dead early on Sunday after he failed to stop at a checkpoint in the city of Jeddah, a security source said.
Golly, and they didn't even surround him first.
The Red Sea port city, scene of an al Qaeda attack two months ago, is on high security alert as it hosts a three-day economic forum grouping leaders including Afghan President Hamid Karzai and Pakistan's Prime Minister Shaukat Aziz. Interior Ministry officials were not immediately available to confirm the incident, which the source said occurred when a Chadian man drove through a roadblock in the centre of Jeddah at 1.20 a.m. (2220 GMT Saturday). He gave no further details and did not say whether the man was wanted in connection with a spate of attacks in Saudi Arabia since May 2003.
Posted by: Dan Darling ||
02/21/2005 12:28:57 AM ||
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#1
I hope all will be ok! The cops should use discretion and pay compensation to the dead gentleman's family ! He could be an innocent or maybe he wanted to make suicide ! Then he'll cremated by the State over his distraught family objections ! It's real sad !
#2
My goodness, I do hope A111111111 will be ok. S/he seems a trifle overwrought. Chamomile tea and a nice warm bath should help. Perhaps throw in some nice bath salts from the Dead Sea if it's a bad case. Do let me know, A1111 -- I've some other ideas, if that doesn't help.
It took Russian law-enforcement agencies some time to realize, whom they killed during the operation.
Pravda's take on today's report on the death of Abu Dzeit.
The leader of the so-called Ingushetian Jamaat, international terrorist Abu Dzeit, was killed in the republic of Ingushetia, the Northern Caucasus. The terrorist was involved in the incursion in Ingushetia in July and in the horrible hostage crisis in Beslan in September of the current year, Federal Security Bureau (FSB) said.
The headline suggested he was more than just involved.
The special operation to destroy Abu Dzeit was conducted on February 16th, although the information about it was exposed only today. Abu Dzeit, a national of Kuwait, was al-Qaida's high-ranking representative in Ingushetia. The terrorist, also known as Little Omar and Abu Omar of Kuwait, directly subordinated to Abu Khavs, who coordinated the entire terrorist activity on the territory of Russia. According to Russian special services, Abu Dzeit was trained in al-Qaeda terrorist camps in Afghanistan. The terrorist was later sent to Bosnia, where he committed several terrorist acts.
So his career was that he was trained in Afghanistan, and then went to Bosnia and later the Caucasus? There's something bugging me about this reporting... I searched on his name in the article database, and all that showed up were the two previous death notices Dan posted. I thought Basayev was supposed to be the alleged ringleader behind the terrorism in the region, but now it's this guy whose name hasn't shown up here?
And in case you're wondering, a quick search of english.pravda.ru didn't turn up any previous articles about him there either.
In the Northern Caucasus, Abu Dzeit was in charge of terrorist activities in the Russian internal republic of Ingushetia. The terrorist personally participated in the funding and planning of the armed attack on Russian police officers in the republic's capital, Nazran. Dzeit also took part in the organization of the monstrous terrorist act in Beslan, southern Russia, when hundreds of innocent children were taken hostage. Abu Dzeit was training suicide bombers and propagandizing the terrorist ideology in armed groups, spokespeople for the Russian FSB said.
Abu Dzeit was killed during a special operation conducted by FSB and Interior Ministry's special troops in Ingushetia. The terrorist and two other guerrillas were killed during the storming of the house, in which they were hiding. Abu Dzeit was staying in the basement of the house that was outfitted as an underground shelter. "When FSB soldiers found the entrance to the shelter, the Arab terrorist killed himself," a spokesman for the service said....
I think I saw that scene in Blazing Saddles.
...It was reported during the hostage crisis in Beslan that Arab terrorist Abu Dzeit could be one of the gunmen in the school. Spokespeople for law-enforcement authorities rejected the information, though. They said that the terrorist with such a name had been killed several months before.
This article starring:
ABU DZEIT
Ingushetian Jamaat
ABU KHAVS
Ingushetian Jamaat
ABU OMAR OF KUWAIT
Ingushetian Jamaat
LITTLE OMAR
Ingushetian Jamaat
Ingushetian Jamaat
Posted by: Phil Fraering ||
02/21/2005 10:46:32 PM ||
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An al Qaeda member known as Abu Dzeit has been killed in the Russian internal republic of Ingushetia. "A joint operation with the Interior Ministry was conducted in a private house in a village in Ingushetia on February 16," spokesman for the Federal Security Service Sergei Ignatchenko told reporters on Monday. "The operation first resulted in the death of two of his accomplices. Abu Dzeit hid in a special bunker built under the house. When the entrance was discovered, he blew himself up," Ignatchenko said. He said investigators identified the body as Abu Dzeit's.
Posted by: Dan Darling ||
02/21/2005 9:39:38 AM ||
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#1
big deal! another will take his place.
he is a martyr frolicking in heaven with his 72 virgins - de-flowering the virgins in a 24 hour sexathon with the force of "thump, thump..." as per the prophet's saying (hadith).
of course let's not forget the 10,000 slaves to cater to his comfort.
Posted by: abdul ||
02/21/2005 11:46 Comments ||
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#2
I would have preferred to see the pliers graphic here.
#3
raisins in hell more likely, stomach roasting, right Baghdad Bob?
Posted by: Frank G ||
02/21/2005 13:32 Comments ||
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#4
A friend of mine sent me a very funny email yesterday, with St. Peter telling Osama it was 72 VirginIANs. Email me if you'd like a copy.
Posted by: Old Patriot ||
02/21/2005 13:56 Comments ||
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If the 72 are indeed virgins in perpetuity, Abu Dzeit is no doubt now reaching the stage of perpetual sexual frustration, O Abdul, for by definition deflowering such is not possible. The 10,000 slaves sound like a necessity, under the circumstances. Truly, I would wither and die if I were not permitted to anything of use or accomplishment for brain and body, but then I am a Western woman, and thus abhor mere decorative idleness.
The gunmen, killed in Nalchik on Sunday, were members of armed gangs, subordinated to Basayev and Maskhadov, Russian Deputy Interior Minister Arkady Yedelev told reporters on Sunday. According to deputy minister, they are members of the Karachayevo-Cherkess jamaat and were on the federal Wanted List for committing terror acts in the Rostov Region and Stavropol Territory and were hatching new terror acts.
In Yedelev's words, new methods were used during the special operation: officially permitted Cheremukha-7 gas was used to neutralize the bandits who entrenched themselves in an apartment. "Gunmen suffered a serious blow" in the two-day operation. On Saturday, "a laboratory, producing various explosives, was busted at a garage in Nalchik. "The laboratory produced explosives of heat and push types as well as remotely controlled devices," the deputy minister reported. Great quantities of TNT, plastic, RDX, saltpeter ammonia, aluminum powder and 69 detonators were seized there. Apart from the above killed gunmen, another five members of the same group were arrested on Saturday in Kabardino-Balkaria. The investigation of this case is being continued.
Posted by: Dan Darling ||
02/21/2005 12:59:58 AM ||
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BAGHDAD â€" U.S. Marines stepped up operations against insurgents in Ramadi on Sunday, part of an effort to clamp down on rebel strongholds as Iraqis tried to determine the shape of their new government.
Marines set up checkpoints, began inspecting vehicles and imposed a curfew on the city, capital of Sunni-dominated Al Anbar province, where Iraq’s insurgents have been most active.
A Marine spokesman downplayed comparisons to the assault on the neighboring city of Fallouja in November, when more than 70 Marines and at least 1,200 insurgents were killed in an intense battle to expel guerrilla fighters.
The spokesman said the Ramadi operation was designed to ensure a peaceful transition from Iraq’s interim government to the transitional government now forming after a national election last month.
The Marines also set up similar security measures in nearby villages along the Euphrates River.
The operation "is designed to be more proactive as opposed to reactive," said 1st Lt. Nathan Braden, with the 1st Marine Expeditionary Force. "The extremists from Fallouja are not taking hold in Ramadi. The insurgency in Ramadi seems to be more criminal in nature."
Ramadi residents said the Marine positions around the town had frightened locals and emboldened insurgents, who could be seen running through the streets with AK-47s and rocket-propelled-grenade launchers.
"The city is paralyzed. All the shops and offices are closed. We are waiting for the security situation to get worse," said Abdul- Altif Abdullah, a 43-year-old provincial official, in a telephone interview.
City officials said there had been sporadic clashes in industrial areas in the eastern part of the city and a steady flow of helicopters and other aircraft overhead. They described a tense mood in the city.
"The citizens think that maybe this is part of an American plan to attack the city," said Saad Sayadh, 40, another regional official reached by phone.
The new operation came after two days of bloodshed that saw hundreds of Iraqis killed or wounded, most of them while celebrating Ashura, the most solemn day of the year for Shiite Muslims.
Sunday saw a marked decrease in the number of incidents. A car bomber blew himself up near a mosque in Kirkuk in northern Iraq late Saturday. Nobody else was killed or injured in the blast, an Iraqi police official said on condition of anonymity.
Two Kurds were also killed in Kirkuk when a fire broke out in an ammunition depot, apparently detonating some of the munitions.
Three other people were killed there by gunfire from an unknown assailant, said Iraqi Police Col. Sarhad Qadir.
Posted by: Mrs. Davis ||
02/21/2005 4:05:25 PM ||
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An Iranian national was arrested in Iraq on charges of smuggling foreign fighters and weapons into Iraq, the interim government said Sunday. Jaafar Sadeq Fetteh, also charged with sending Iraqis abroad to receive military training, was arrested near Balad Rose governorate last Thursday, the government said in a statement. It added the 45-year-old Fetteh was the leader of a "big terrorist cell" consisting of 100 persons. The cell members work on smuggling foreign fighters and weapons inside Iraq, as well as sending Iraqis outside the country to receive training to carry out "terrorist attacks" against the Iraqi security forces. The statement claimed that Fetteh admitted having links to the "Iranian intelligence," and that he had attempted to kill an intelligence officer and local dignitaries.
This article starring:
JAAFAR SADEQ FETTEH
al-Qaeda in Iraq
Posted by: Dan Darling ||
02/21/2005 12:54:01 AM ||
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nice catch....tape his intel spills for broadcast
Posted by: Frank G ||
02/21/2005 11:01 Comments ||
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But he had his "Matricula Consular" card signed by Ayatolla-President Khatami himself. Why are the Iraqis so upset??????
Maoist rebels attacked a convoy on a key highway west of Nepal's capital and killed a truck driver, an army officer said on Monday. The driver was killed on Sunday when the rebels hurled crude bombs and fired at the convoy at Charaundi, 80 km west of Kathmandu, to enforce a blockade roads linking the hill-ringed city with the rest of the country. "They fired at the convoy from the jungle along the highway," the army officer said. At least seven other people were injured in the first deadly attack on a convoy since the Maoists called the blockade nine days ago.
The guerrillas, who model their tactics on the Chinese revolutionary Mao Zedong but are disowned by Beijing, are protesting against King Gyanendra's Feb. 1 move to dismiss the democratic government. Army spokesman Brigadier General Dipak Gurung told Reuters more troops had been rushed to the site of Sunday's attack and highway patrols had been boosted. "We have definitely beefed up security along the highways and helicopters are providing air patrols," Gurung said. He said more that 200 vehicles had entered the capital on Sunday carrying essential goods and petroleum products under army escorts -- much less than on a normal day. Traffic on the landlocked nation's highways has come to a near halt as the guerrillas have set up road blocks and barricades to cut off supplies in their latest attempt to bolster their campaign for a communist republic. Residents in Nepalgunj, a business centre, said dozens of tankers loaded with petroleum products from India had been stranded because drivers were too scared to enter Nepal. The blockade sent prices of vegetables soaring in Kathmandu, but there was no sign of panic buying.
"Gee, Mother, this means I can't any brussel sprouts."
"Hush, child, there's always tree bark."
Officials said they had enough stocks of petroleum products and essential goods, mainly supplied by India, for a month.
Posted by: Steve White ||
02/21/2005 12:50:37 AM ||
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Insurgent attacks to disrupt Baghdad's supplies of crude oil, gasoline, heating oil, water and electricity have reached a degree of coordination and sophistication not seen before, Iraqi and American officials say.
The new pattern, they say, shows that the insurgents have a deep understanding of the complex network of pipelines, power cables and reservoirs feeding Baghdad, the Iraqi capital.
The shadowy insurgency is a fractured movement made up of distinct groups of Sunnis, Shiites and foreign fighters, some of them aligned and some not. But the shift in the attack patterns strongly suggests that some branch of the insurgency is carrying out a systematic plan to cripple Baghdad's ability to provide basic services for its six million citizens and to prevent the fledgling government from operating.
A new analysis by some of those officials shows that the choice of targets and the timing of sabotage attacks has evolved over the past several months, shifting from economic targets to become what amounts to a siege of the capital.
In a stark illustration of the change, of more than 30 sabotage attacks on the oil infrastructure this year, no reported incident has involved the southern crude oil pipelines that are Iraq's main source of revenue. Instead, the attacks have aimed at gas and oil lines feeding power plants and refineries and providing fuel for transportation around Baghdad and in the north.
In an indication of how carefully chosen the targets are and how knowledgeable the insurgency is about the workings of the infrastructure, the sabotage often disrupts the lives of Iraqis, leaving them dependent on chugging, street-corner generators to stave off the darkness and power televisions or radios, robbing them of fuel for stoves and heaters, and even halting the flow of their drinking water.
The overall pattern of the sabotage and its technical savvy suggests the guidance of the very officials who tended to the nation's infrastructure during Saddam Hussein's long reign, current Iraqi officials say.
The only reasonable conclusion, said Aiham Alsammarae, the Iraqi electricity minister, is that the sabotage operation is being led by former members of the ministries themselves, possibly aided by sympathetic holdovers.
"They know what they are doing," Dr. Alsammarae said. "I keep telling our government, 'Their intelligence is much better than the government's.' "
Sabah Kadhim, a senior official at the Iraqi Interior Ministry, said he believed the sabotage was part of a larger, two-faceted plan that included the terror operations that have killed so many Iraqis over the last two years.
The new pattern of sabotage, he said, lays the groundwork for chaos - a deeply resentful populace, the appearance of government ineffectuality, a halt to major business and industrial activities. The second side - the suicide bombings, assassinations and kidnappings - he said, is aimed in large measure at sowing discord among ethnic and religious groups.
"And I think they, honestly, stand a better chance with the first than the second," Mr. Kadhim said.
Whatever the source of the plan, it shows clear signs of being centrally controlled, Iraqi and American officials say.
"There is an organization, sort of a command-room operation," Thamir Ghadhban, the Iraqi oil minister, said Thursday in an interview. In his area of responsibility, Mr. Ghadhban said, "the scheme of the saboteurs is to isolate Baghdad from the sources of crude oil and oil products."
"And they have succeeded to a great extent," he said.
Mr. Ghadhban supported his assertions with a map showing that in November, December and January, in widely scattered attacks, insurgents simultaneously struck all three crude oil pipelines feeding the Doura fuel refinery in Baghdad. The refinery is the nation's largest producer of gasoline, kerosene and other refined products.
During that period, more than 20 attacks occurred on a set of huge pipelines carrying things like oil, kerosene, gasoline and other fuels to Baghdad from oil fields and refineries in the north.
In contrast, in the same region, the map shows an economically crucial crude oil pipeline - one that carries oil for export - was not attacked even once.
The map was prepared by his ministry by cataloging the exact coordinates, dates and nature of the attacks and combining that information with a detailed schematic of the web of pipelines, fuel depots, roads and refineries in and around Baghdad.
Those attacks caused widespread disruptions, including severe gasoline shortages. And Mr. Ghadhban said that when he tried to make up for the shortages by trucking the fuel in with tankers, saboteurs went after the fuel convoys and the bridges that they crossed to reach Baghdad.
After allowing a reporter to view on a computer screen the map and an array of other graphs and figures describing the pattern of sabotage, Mr. Ghadhban declined to provide a copy, but his ministry's analysis has circulated among other officials in Iraq, and one of them agreed to give a copy of the map to The New York Times.
Oil and transportation are far from the only infrastructure that the insurgents have struck to isolate Baghdad and deprive its residents.
In mid-January, a bomb hit a water main from a treatment plant that supplies 65 percent to 70 percent of the city's drinking water. It struck in just the spot that would lead to a collapse of water pressure in nearly the entire system. Most Baghdad residents were left with little or no running water for more than a week.
Attacks on carefully chosen targets were also a major reason that the output of Iraq's national electricity grid recently slumped below the amount it produced before the American-led invasion in April 2003, despite billions of dollars of projects aimed at repairing power plants and transmission lines, and adding huge new electricity generators.
And although the overall output has recently reached prewar levels, that qualified success has been punctuated by repeated blackouts caused by breakdowns, sabotage and other problems.
With all of their knowledge, and a seemingly unquenchable hatred for the people now running the government, the insurgents have transformed their initially generic brand of sabotage into a more subtle science, said Gal Luft, executive director of the Institute for the Analysis of Global Security in Washington, which closely tracks Iraq's oil infrastructure.
The attacks now aim to "prolong the destruction," Dr. Luft said. Insurgents achieve that aim by going after critical junctures in the pipeline system and focusing on equipment that is difficult to repair or remanufacture - even taking into account what stocks of spare parts may be low in Iraqi warehouses, he said.
The insurgents also skillfully play on what Dr. Luft calls the "chicken-and-egg relation" between fuel and electrical power: without oil there is no electricity, and without electricity, oil cannot be pumped or refined. So an attack on one area of infrastructure can disrupt another.
With all those moves at their disposal, the insurgents have turned away from a single-minded focus on blowing up pipelines that export oil, he said.
"I feel that this is a very different approach," Dr. Luft said. "The main thing today is isolating the Baghdad area and making sure there is not enough oil going into the refineries."
That pattern has not gone unnoticed by American military and government officials.
"I do think there is a Baghdad regional plan," said Lt. Col. Joseph P. Schweitzer of the United States Army Corps of Engineers, who before moving to a new assignment this week spent seven months as director of the Reconstruction Operations Center, an umbrella organization for military and civilian infrastructure work in Iraq.
"It's a chess game," Colonel Schweitzer said. "This is a very smart, adaptive enemy."
He said he doubted that the plan was unified throughout the country, but that the observed patterns provided clues on how to fight the insurgency. "It is something that we're studying intensively, and we have been studying," he said. "We've come to some conclusions, and we're taking actions.
But a spokesman for the American-led forces in Iraq, Col. Robert A. Potter of the United States Air Force, said in a statement sent by e-mail, "It would be speculative to affirm or rebut whether or not these attacks are random or specifically aimed to cause a specific effect."
Whatever script the insurgents may be following, their attacks have been prolific, said Mr. Ghadhban, the oil minister. His ministry registered 264 acts of sabotage against the petroleum infrastructure in 2004 and more than 30 so far this year, he said.
No one tactic could turn back what amounts to a siege on the great circulatory systems of a nation, Mr. Ghadhban said. But he has already solicited contracts for a vast protection system that would include fences on both sides of pipelines stretching for thousands of miles in the desert, with infrared surveillance cameras, sensors, airborne surveillance and a nimble security force.
Whether Mr. Ghadhban will have a chance to carry out his plan as the oil minister is another question. Although he won a seat in the new national assembly, the gasoline shortages, fairly or unfairly, have hurt his public standing in this political season.
"If I'm chosen, I will continue, definitely," Mr. Ghadhban said. "And I think we would do better."
Posted by: Dan Darling ||
02/21/2005 12:47:34 AM ||
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#1
This is where I am really mad at our government. When you have an insurgency you don't want heirarchial sources of anything (elect, water, fuel) . Rather you want everything as decentralized and anarchial as possible. That way when something is taken out it only effects small numbers of people and places.
The power restoration in Iraq should not have been centralize and distributed power. It should have been a mix of wind and solar that serve the local community. That way if the neighborhood looses its power. Tough. They should have protected it from terrorists and turned them in. Nobody is effected but the few people served by those units.
5 and 10 MW windmills scattered all over next to Iraqi villages would have helped. Places that need central power (like Baghdad itself) could then have resources to protect the infra-structure instead of protecting all the nation's infra-structure. This central way of thinking could be our downfall in Iraq.
#2
3dc
>Opinion..Lets get Iraqi's to sign the Kyoto treaty too!
and we can tell those rotten Sheikhs to start thinking GREEN and we could get Hollywood to pitch in and pay for all the windmills and get Jane Fonda and Michael-fatty-Moore to install them! and we...
#3
So we should have been building power plants from scratch instead of repairing and upgrading the wires going to the original plants?
Posted by: Phil Fraering ||
02/21/2005 1:47 Comments ||
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#4
This is a New York Times story, so salt to taste. The Times of late has been printing stories of the world as it wishes it were rather than as it is. This does howver represent new ground for them. They've moved beyond quagmire to inevitable defeat. As Bugs Bunny used to say, "What a bunch of maroons!"
#5
I didn't comment on the article initially because I didn't want to put "NYT, salt to taste" I have come to accept the NYT will not be happy until the US is destroyed and Western Civilization is a memory. NYT = enemy of the United States.
#6
3dc: This is where I am really mad at our government. When you have an insurgency you don't want heirarchial sources of anything (elect, water, fuel) . Rather you want everything as decentralized and anarchial as possible. That way when something is taken out it only effects small numbers of people and places.
Water doesn't come from too many places. Power is already decentralized via portable backup generators.
This is just another New York Times piece about quagmire in Iraq, just like they had pieces on the brutal Afghan winter way after the opposition had folded. The insurgency is chugging along at levels way below Vietnam, but only time will tell when it finally dies out. I expect we could lose another 1000 men before it's all over.
I had estimated about 3000 dead (max) during the invasion of Iraq. Turns out that bypassing the major enemy units instead of vaporizing them wasn't quite the way to go. Still, 3000 for Iraq vs 58000 for Vietnam seems like a decent comparison, given that the Gulf region is much more vital than Southeast Asia will ever be (until oil ceases to be a major energy feedstock).
#7
The post-invasion goal on the domestic side should have been to put the economy on a working basis, providing enough improvements to give the Iraqis a taste of the rewards freedom from tyranny brings. While this did/does require improving the previous situation -- so much of which was being held together by duct tape & baling wire and the sheer stubbornness of the engineers -- not to mention establishing cell phone and computer network infrastructures to enable communications and a real banking system, surely it is the choice of a free and independent Iraq to entirely re-work their entire energy system.
We know from reports coming out of the military -- both official and individual -- that the various units have been engaged in building and supplying schools and local gov't centers, digging wells, making proper roads, repairing bridges, etc, on top of dealing with bad guys and their and Saddam's weapons stashes. I have to think that the systems are actually less vulnerable to the kind of sabotage reported in this article than it was when we invaded... its just that more of the people have become less accustomed to doing without.
I remember the "Where is Rael" blogger (who is now writing for one of the English papers, if I recall correctly), who wrote before the invasion about having electricity for only a random few hours each day, hauling rationed water in plastic jugs, and not being able to afford much beyond the government food ration ... and he was a child of Saddam's privileged class! There were reports during the invasion of villages that hadn't received even jugged water for weeks, so the troops gave away their own supplies.
#8
TW...shhh...that's supposed to be a secret. We are supposed to think the soldiers sit around and laugh at "hapless" Down Syndrome suicide bombers and fear the quagmire created by the brilliant masterminds.
Hey 3dc - so you are mad at our government because they didn't provide them with solar power? I guess they should dug everyone their own well too. Funny, I would have blamed the insurgents for being ruthless, callous barbarians, who when not blowing up synagogues are busy attempting to cut off vital services to millions of women and children - but hey, that's just me.
This does however represent new ground for them. They've moved beyond quagmire to inevitable defeat We're doomed, doomed I tell ya!
#9
No. I am mad because even the block size generators require fuel which requires infra-structure to supply it.
Its likly to dusty for solar to really make it but wind could and cheap and if they broke it tough luck.
I don't like the idea of having to protect things like power lines crossing deserts and fields. Even long oil pipes.... Short and sweet and to the point. We don't need to give them a society with industrial sized power supplies. Just enough for stablity. The Iraqis should have been the ones to build protect, and pay for modern industrial sized centralized systems. It could have happened a much later date as such materal is just a magnet to terrorists.
Example: If we put 1 windmill in 1 small village not connected to anything but their well and some lights and told them: "This is all you got... protect it, maintain it or enjoy a dry darkness" we would find an Iraq today that much more stable... (maybe not truely willingly but after a few villages remained dark the lesson would sink in.)
#10
And as to gifts... we are giving them 88 billion ... just hope that the material in the 88 billion is not all blown up in 5 years...
If stuff is small then divide and conq. works better. For the Shia and Kurds it is not as important but in the Sunni desert areas it makes sense.. Think about it 2b before getting mad and assuming I am a raving eco-nut. I am not. I just want systems that you can tell somebody this is yours. Its all you get for free. It beats the stone age. You know, if any terror types are eying it you can point them out to us. Otherwise, remember to protect what's yours.
#11
you are right, 3dc...the little brown people will be just fine with a windmill and a well. Civilization is just too complex for them. While we are at it, let's take away their cars and give them ponies.
#12
Ok..3dc - I'm sorry I was rude. I like solar to and I get your point - but there's the perfect world where we can just wish it and there's reality. It's condescending to think that they are little hut villagers from Africa who don't need the same modern conveniences that you, yourself, enjoy.
#13
Seeing as how this is a place to RANT (as opposed to necessarily playing by Marquis of Queensbury rules):
I would propose an infinitely inflatable spectrum of pain to be inflicted upon the Sunni population if Iraq. The more myahem that gets sown, the more the Sunnis suffer. I wouldn't know a Sunni from a Shiite if they both exploded in front of me - but it seems pretty obvious that the disenfranchised former ruling elite are doing their best to ensure that everyone suffers. Well, ramp up the suffering extra harshly at their end, until someone crys "uncle".
Let the Sunnis police their own ranks - its either weed out their own bad apples, or they all go into the trash heap. I wouldn't lose any sleep over their collective absence.
Advocating genocide is not very PC - and I have no active wish to annihilate the Sunnis - but if they can't eliminate their evil cohorts, then they should pay the heaviest price.
I have never seen any hint that the "kinder, gentler approach" gains any ground in the muslim battlegrounds of the world. All it does is bleed our armed forces white, one wound at a time. 'To hell with that.
I'd start by holding a muster of all the former ministries - go dig them all out of whatever holes they are hiding in. If it takes five years to round them up - so be it.
As Martin Luther King once said (something to the effect): "Never give upon a dream on account of how long it will take to bring it to fruition - the time will pass anyway."
#14
Its likly to dusty for solar to really make it but wind could and cheap and if they broke it tough luck.
Even before they broke it, they'd be stuck with a power supply less reliable than what you're trying to cure.
There are reasons we don't use wind power, and they don't come from a diabolical cabal.
Posted by: Robert Crawford ||
02/21/2005 8:46 Comments ||
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#15
I'd like to get back to the topic outlined in the article.
Dismissing the content of this article because it's from the NY times is a bit short-sighted. Sure, it was published mainly to give Bush, our armed forces, and the new government a black eye. Nothing new. However, the writer cites events that can be fact-checked. If none of these events occurred, then fry his ass. Until then, let's just assume its true.
Firstly, kudos should be given to the Iraqui minister who did the research. This is a branch of systems analysis called Operations Research, and is an analysis of ad-hoc and formal systems to determine functionality, strengths, and weak-points. Credit O.R. for the shift in the strategy in fighting the Battle of the Atlantic during WWII, where we were losing lots of convoys to the German U-boats: they shifted the effort away from fighting the convoys to improving counter-submarine efforts, such as fielding Baby Flattops that extended the patrol area to include the zone where the ships were being sunk the most. That area, not coincidentally, overlaid the area where aircraft patrol coverage was lacking due to the limited range of the aircraft. The OR guys used the same techniques of overlaying maps of incidents over other maps of related resources. They figured that priority 1 of the U-boat captains was NOT sinking ships, but survivial. By being more agressive in hunting the subs, they raised the anxiety factor in the minds of the U-boat captains that they ceased attacking, since that would have given their position away to the submarine hunters.
Map overlaying is a technique that harnesses the overwhelming parallel/pattern matching powers of our visual systems.
The article, however, DOES show typical MSM spin: We do this stuff all the time on enemy Command and Control systems, identifying junction points and blowing them away. Ho-hum. Not news when the thugs you support are getting the shaft by the Armed forces you hate. When the Jihadis do it, its NEWS, NEWS, NEWS!
The same experts in the same field can tell you how to design your networks to be redundant, but redundancy==time and money. Trust me, we here in the US have the same problem: Two years ago, I could tell you when and where to plant a bomb in Chicago that could totally bring down the banking system. Lord knows if they ever fixed that problem.
Having outlined how utterly obvious this plan of attack should be, let's consider how it came about. Like I said, this stuff does require some technical education and information. However, I very much doubt that Saddam's ministers are involved. Why? Because this sort of thing requires attention to details, and Arab Ministers and managers are simply too high on the totem pole to bother themselves with details. I'm, sure .com will attest to the reluctance of Saudi management to soil their hands with the details that are at a level that would facilitiate this to carry it off. Hell, did the author really think these ministers carry this sort of info, down to maps of electrical and pipeline layouts, in their heads? Exactly how many American Utility CEOs could sit down and draw out their electrical distribution network from memory? Saddam's minsters were chosen more for their ass-kissing ability than technical competence. Besides, we attacked, and won, so fast, they left behind incriminating documents. They were the types who would work to burn THOSE first, and not have time to TAKE the technical documents.
So, clue #1: Whoever is doing this had to have access to information? Two locations: The first location are obviously the ministry offices: the manac centralization of all Arab governments would dictate that this sort of information be kept as close to the power center as possible: Saddam's ministers wouldn't know how to read the maps, but they'd have enough sense to know that knowledge was power, and seek to control and limit desemination of that knowledge. The OTHER location would be, provided most of the infrastructure was built by foreign contractors and paid for by oil money (very likely if I am not mistaken, .com), would be in the original offices of the contractors. German? French? Russian? Hmm???? Those people would not only have copies, they'd have the expertise to finger the weak points.
Another clue: the timing. WHY NOW, IN RECENT MONTHS? Why not immediately after the initial victory? Maybe it has something to do with the election? Or is this perhaps "revenge of the nerds", where after the first, second, and third wave of hard boyz got killed, Z's desperately turning to his Jihadi nerds, who'd be able to grok this stuff in their sleep, but who would have been relegated to the basement in favor of the more glamorous Warrior caste.
Second possibility: Iran. The syrians don't have the technical know-how to pull this off, but you betcha the Iranians do. I've worked with Iranian students: They're the sharpest knives in the drawer. You have to bet that SOME have sold their souls to the Mullahs: who else would be putting together the Iranian Bomb? If the mullahs are desperate enough, maybe they'd listen to THEIR nerds, who said, "You're trusting us to build you The Bomb. You're running out of options. PUT US INTO THE GAME." Revenge of the Nerds, Iranian style.
The third possiblity is the most chilling: WE DID THIS ANALYSIS OURSELVES. It's the VERY sort of pre-invasion planning we'd do, only we'd use Tomahawks and smart bombs. It has hints of our fingerprints all over it. Is there a mole leaking or selling this stuff?
This may sound like I'm smoking good shit, but I ain't.
#16
Sounds good to me Ptah. Thanks. I'll take door #2.
Posted by: Mrs. Davis ||
02/21/2005 9:19 Comments ||
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#17
2b, you are a darling. Thank you.
Ptah, whew! I'm going to come back to your post later today when I've had time to think it over for a bit. Lots of meat there, which is why I read you so carefully. Only question: could our clever boys and girls (Old Spook??) be using these developments to trace down the malevolent ones? In all the spy stories I've read, the culprit was eventually pinpointed by who knew the leaked info.... More questions later, when my brain has caught up.
#18
trailing wife: InFlow produces a civilain software package that uses many of the same features that the military tools use to find the bad guys.. INSNA is another vendor.
Many of the tools at CAIDA are transferable to realms like intel analysis.
If you care to note many search out the freindship links and that lets you define a system and take it out. When objects are many and localized its much harder to take it all down. That, was the basis for my windmill argument. Unfortunately it gets into a meme space where there is a idelogical war in the US. Bush and his big financial supporters prefer the big centeralized model as part of their business meme and have a hard time seperating a business meme that is profitable to them from practical warfighting...
Sorry if looking at it from a scientific viewpoint upsets some like 2b. Having spent my life in science, I have learned a few things, one is that what one wants because of what one believes is not always the best way to accomplish something... Same in business. Counter intutitive is many times the way to go.
#19
When objects are many and localized its much harder to take it all down. That, was the basis for my windmill argument.
And the basis of my comment is that wind power is not reliable. You're simply trading failure of transmission lines for failure of the wind to blow. One of those factors is controllable; the other is not.
In business and warfighting, you try to eliminate or reduce the uncontrollable factors. Your idea would instead MULTIPLY them.
Posted by: Robert Crawford ||
02/21/2005 10:44 Comments ||
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#20
Forget windmills, the Iraqis are ready for a major turkey+camel gut free-power for the masses non polluting and throw in some plastic power plant. These plants will also spit out at no extra cost paving material, mineral water of the highest quality and Rib-eye steaks.
#22
Yikes! Baghdadgrad. I guess this means that hundreds of thousands of American troops are going to be trapped behind enemy lines. Soon, their leather jumpboots are going to start looking real appetizing, as their MRE (Meals Ready to Eat) rations start running low. Well, as far as water goes, I understand the SAS reuses bodily fluids. I'm sure our boys will do what they have to do.
#24
As someone who spent a major part of his life picking out primary interdiction points, I can say truthfully that it's NOT THAT HARD. However, I do believe much of the information is coming from outside of Iraq. I'd love to know where the targeting is coming from - it would make a nice glass plain. Unfortunately, there are far too many possibilities. I think .com will gladly tell you it's not coming from the Arab world - they just don't think that way. 9/11 was a good example - great for shock value, but terrible targeting.
The problem with Iraq's infrastructure is that everything is centered on Baghdad, and there's not been enough time to create any redundancy in the system. The 'backup' capability that most American cities have doesn't exist in Iraq, and won't until things are stable for awhile. The terrorists are bound and determined not to let things be stable. While I agree that there is the potential for adding non-petroleum generating power to the power grid in Iraq, the first thing that has to be done is rebuild the grid. It still has major holes. The diversification of generating capacity would help greatly - generate the power near the petroleum source and send it to Baghdad or elsewhere, rather than sending the petroleum to Baghdad and redistribute the power to the rest of the country. The original concept was enacted by the central control authority of the center of power, for the purpose of controlling the population. If everything's in one location, it's easier to control and manipulate. It'll take a generation to overcome that philosophy, but when the next generation manages to understand distributed power, Iraq will be secure, both in its freedom and in its power grid.
Posted by: Old Patriot ||
02/21/2005 14:36 Comments ||
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#25
If the windmills could be used to charge up batteries against power outages, rather than as primary source, that could work nicely. But, rather than build them for the Iraqis, make the plans available and let them build the things themselves. That way they have even more ownership, and the very fact of its existence is a reward for individual/group pro-activity.
3dc, I think most of us who come to Rantburg ongoing prefer to know reality rather than hide in wishful thinking. Disagreements are natural though, in such a strong-minded group, over exactly the best way to go, all the more frustrating sometimes because very few of us can do more than think on the subject and share the results here amongst ourselves. (My father the biochemist and my husband the chemical engineer used to have fascinating -- to me -- arguments that were really expressions of their slightly different world views.) And reality takes so darned long to catch up with our pretty plans for it!
Just to satisfy my nosiness, which particular branch of science has been your home for so long?
#26
Personally, I'd listen to LTC Joe Schweitzer. OP, your points are very valuable. This article is way too deterministic. I could just as easily attribute the changes in enemy tactics to:
* Coalition forces making it too hard to attack the major pipelines forcing the enemy to attack smaller branches on the distribution system.
* A geographical constriction of the scope of the Sunni revolt causing more attacks to be focused on Bagdad.
* A breakdown in the C^2 structure of the revolt, making it harder for cells to coordinate attacks on bigger targets.
* More propaganda from crypto-Baathists in the government seeking to blame the Coalition for the already broken power grid. (Almost any Sunni gripe about power can be automatically discounted. Under Saddam, the Sunni areas got power 24/7. The rest of the country got 6 hours a day. Power is now rationed fairly.)
* Zarqawi falling into line with OBL and prohibiting attacks on oil infrastructure by his cells.
There is only one intelligence service in the area that has the people and capability to do this and is hostile to the US. Its the last Baathist regime in the region:
Syria.
Aided by the escaped high level technocrats (and their considerable amount of looted cash) in the Hussein kleptocracy, they know where to strike. They have been busted for allowing people and equipment to cross from their borders, so they can put men and material on target. And Assad thinks he can get away with it, as he has been since the initial liberation.
Pretty simple: the largest most active intel agency has launched this campaign. We need to squelch it at the source. Simply blow up the HQ for Syia's intel agencies. Truck bomb full of ANFO - a McVeigh special. Navy Seals clandestinely can get that in there.
That should be enough of a warning shot.
If that doesnt work, then start trashing their air defense sites, to lay them bare. And then remind Assad that we can take him out - or that Israel can do whatever they want now and we will look the other way now that our "punitive" raids are over (Thats who he fears more than the US - Israel will go for the throat).
#28
3dc---Windmills are neat things, but they are a sophisticated method of extracting energy. For success in any kind of scale larger than an individual, they will take a wind survey and some good engineering. They are large targets that do not handle bullets to gracefully. I have worked with individual systems with batteries and inverters, and my firm and a rural utility are working on putting a couple of 250 kw units out on a job in western Alaska. They will sit on 80 ft towers, 6500 lb. There are also serious dust issues with machinery to address over in Iraq. Windmills may be a good alternative in isolated areas of Iraq away from the big grid and the oil patches. They may be even be a part of a combination of wind/solar/diesel generation sytem. But that needs to be looked upon after the terrorists and saboteurs are all killed convinced of the error of their ways, and everything is Kumbayah.
Posted by: Alaska Paul ||
02/21/2005 16:26 Comments ||
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#29
Ptah, OP, OS - I just love following your lines of thinking. It's one of the things that makes this site so great, and I hope that someday I'll be able to analyze stuff this way (college isn't great at teaching this kind of thing; I'm working on it on my own time).
Praise aside, I'd have to agree that the conclusion that it's the former ministers is unlikely, at best. We're up against an adaptive enemy, but I suspect he's running out of his best men fast. We might want to also consider, especially if Syria and/or Iran are involved, whether we've got any double-agents running around. As prevalent as Soviet agents were during the Cold War, I would think that Muslim double-agents would be even easier to get, since there's a strong religious angle and a religious justification for deceit when it's being used to trick non-believers (in one of the Qu'ran verses, I think, but I don't remember which one).
This strikes me as a desperate gamble, however. Because they're striking directly at the things that keep the Iraqis alive and society going . . . well, it's almost as though they're admitting that nothing else has worked. They're going to have a tough time passing the blame onto the Americans for this one - and so if they let themselves be caught, they're basically saying they're the enemy not only of the Americans but of the Iraqi people as well, and that isn't going to make many Iraqis happy. And with operationst this sophisticated it's unlikely that it's being run by a couple of jihadis in the desert, even if they're nerdy jihadis. That would imply a level of communication between these groups of thugs that I don't think could be easily maintained with the number of guys getting bumped off every day. No, this is being coordinated somewhere else.
Posted by: The Doctor ||
02/21/2005 16:36 Comments ||
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#30
AP you working with the Alaska Villages Co-op? Used to do prop ganda for REA/FL.
#32
trailing wife
A long and twisted trail - EE -> Computer E -> early email and office software -> that great bat light. Last stuff there was complete analysis of cellular infra-structure based on analysis and timing of every signal in the system. We could even tell that something was brewing just before a certain leader when to a certain mount.... even tell you what and when %x individuals certain overseas markets did what and why and which brand and lot of phone.
BTW... the relationship software and CAIDA's are really neat. However, I tried them and didn't find them useful to my needs so we would roll our own. As to terrorist's and their attraction to cellphones... Well, if you are building a bomb you really want to connect it to a new phone with a new number so you don't get any telemarketing calls before you are ready....
Since it's now so regulated in the USA with the don't call reg. it seems that the mil. could pick up a lot of those machines on e-bay for a song....
#33
Ptah, I'm sorry but recent history precludes me from giving the NYT a presumption of truth until proven false. The Times has approximately the same orientation and validity as Pravda. However, because the topic is interesting and the conflict ongoing, it's worth discussing. My take is that the correct answer is all of the above. I suspect that the Baathists and the Jihadis are taking on the soft targets because they have been so singularly unsuccessful in attacking the hard ones, but that the sources of their information and the plans they are following have many fingerprints on them. I think the real story here is not that they are attacking the infrastructure, but rather that they have had so little success in doing so.
#35
This article is inflating a tactic into strategic thinking. The islamists and Baathists will attack anything that they think will weaken the new government. They have tried attacking oil exports, with limited success in the north, and dismal failure in the south. Pipelines are attacked because they cover large areas and can be attacked with minimal risk of detection, but is easy to repair. In addition multiple pipeline routes can be laid and burried deeply. Fuel can also be trucked in. If they were serious about besieging Baghdad, they would attack critical nodes like bridges, water purification, electric generation, and sewage pumping plants. Only then can the real mechanisms of a seige: hunger, thirst and disease have any effect. Until then, all they accomplish is to annoy the citizens and increase the reservoir of ill will against Baathists, islamists, and sunnis.
Posted by: ed ||
02/21/2005 19:59 Comments ||
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#36
Worse and worse, 3dc. You appear to be an engineer rather than a scientist... concerned with constructing real-world robust systems, and fixing those that aren't, rather than a what-makes-the-world-tick researcher. I married one: you folks are dangerous to the untethered dreamers whose dreams are based on moonshine, magic and poetry. ;-)
AP, looks like you killed the windmill idea -- reality intrudes its ugly face!
Lots of stuff to think about -- thanks all. Rantburg U comes through again!!
#37
Trailing Wife---not trying to knock down windmills. They are great where appropriate. Just trying to prevent the Don Quixote Effect of jousting with them, heh heh.
Shipman---We do quite a bit of work for AVEC. Tank farm design and construction, waste heat recovery. Even helped on the power plant modules for the villages. Send me an email and I will tell ya about it.
Posted by: Alaska Paul ||
02/21/2005 22:19 Comments ||
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#38
same here TW - engineers aren't the bad guys, they just tell you what will work at what cost/benefit. Except when you dick with us, you can count on your water/sewer not working properly ("ohhhhhh sh&t!") and your voltage fluctuating wildly, if at all. Other than that, no probs :-)
have a nice day
Posted by: Frank G ||
02/21/2005 22:22 Comments ||
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#39
Its fairly simple and all of you missed it.
There is only one intelligence service in the area that has the people and capability to do this and is hostile to the US. Its the last Baathist regime in the region:
Syria.
Aided by the escaped high level technocrats (and their considerable amount of looted cash) in the Hussein kleptocracy, they know where to strike. They have been busted for allowing people and equipment to cross from their borders, so they can put men and material on target. And Assad thinks he can get away with it, as he has been since the initial liberation.
Pretty simple: the largest most active intel agency has launched this campaign. We need to squelch it at the source. Simply blow up the HQ for Syia's intel agencies. Truck bomb full of ANFO - a McVeigh special. Navy Seals clandestinely can get that in there.
That should be enough of a warning shot.
If that doesnt work, then start trashing their air defense sites, to lay them bare. And then remind Assad that we can take him out - or that Israel can do whatever they want now and we will look the other way now that our "punitive" raids are over (Thats who he fears more than the US - Israel will go for the throat).
There is only one intelligence service in the area that has the people and capability to do this and is hostile to the US. Its the last Baathist regime in the region:
Syria.
Aided by the escaped high level technocrats (and their considerable amount of looted cash) in the Hussein kleptocracy, they know where to strike. They have been busted for allowing people and equipment to cross from their borders, so they can put men and material on target. And Assad thinks he can get away with it, as he has been since the initial liberation.
Pretty simple: the largest most active intel agency has launched this campaign. We need to squelch it at the source. Simply blow up the HQ for Syia's intel agencies. Truck bomb full of ANFO - a McVeigh special. Navy Seals clandestinely can get that in there.
That should be enough of a warning shot.
If that doesnt work, then start trashing their air defense sites, to lay them bare. And then remind Assad that we can take him out - or that Israel can do whatever they want now and we will look the other way now that our "punitive" raids are over (Thats who he fears more than the US - Israel will go for the throat).
SITTING beneath a Dallas Cowboys T-shirt pinned to the wall of his office in Tikrit, Lieutenant-Colonel Jim Stockmoe lolled back in his chair and roared with laughter at the fatal idiocy of so many of his enemies. "We've had well over a dozen examples of these knuckleheads doing stupid things," he said.
"Here's a funny story. There were three brothers down in Baghdad who had a mortar tube and were firing into the Green Zone ... They were storing the mortar rounds in the car engine compartment and the rounds got overheated. Two of these clowns dropped them in the tube and they exploded, blowing their legs off." Abandoning the lifeless carcasses and smouldering wreckage of the car, the third brother sought refuge in a house. The occupants were less than impressed, Stockmoe said, slapping his thigh. "So they proceeded to beat the crap out of him and then turned him over to the Iraqi police. It was like the movie Dumb and Dumber."
There have been so many examples of such incompetence that Stockmoe, who left Iraq last week after a year as the senior military intelligence officer with the US Army's 1st Infantry Division, has been doling out unofficial Darwin Awards in honour of the most side-splittingly useless insurgents. Created in 1993 by a Stanford University student, the official Darwin Awards commemorate those who contribute to the improvement of our gene pool by removing themselves from it in stupid ways. According to Stockmoe, Iraq's gene pool is in better shape each day.
It is perhaps a rash soldier who mocks an adversary that has killed more than 1000 US troops in 18 months. But Stockmoe has a serious point, and a close look at insurgent attacks since the Fallujah offensive in November reveals that while the numbers might have increased, they are becoming less effective. The January 30 election certainly marked a political defeat for the insurgents, but it was also a crushing military one. Despite having 5200 polling stations to aim for, they could not bring off a major attack on a single one; one hapless suicide bomber apparently had Down syndrome. Iraq's insurgency is not about to end. Indeed, there is every chance it has several years to run. Despite the loss of thousands, it has consistently been able to regroup. So, no one should be declaring "mission accomplished". But as Stockmoe might cheerfully put it, the knuckleheads are in deep doodoo.
Posted by: Fred ||
02/21/2005 12:40:35 AM ||
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#1
Oh how nice the Law of Unintended Consequences can be! I'm quite happy that many of the thugs wind up getting theirs, while trying to get ours! Note to decency though, I think the innocent young lad with Downs syndrome was not a perp but was used mercilessly by the blood thirsty animals that bomb anything or anyone.
#2
typical sneering attitude towards soldiers. But it's still a funny story anyway.
lolled back in his chair and roared with laughter.
a rash soldier who mocks an adversary that has killed more than 1000 US troops in 18 months. But Stockmoe has a serious point,
Despite the media's insistence that the insurgents are mean lean fighting machines ...for an all out war and occupation of another country full of suicidal people from all over the dysfunctional middle east, pumped up by a well-funded madrassas, that's about as low as the numbers could possible be. I think it would be a safe bet to say we lose more women in our own country to psychos than we lose soldiers in a major world war. Mocking these guys with Darwin Awards seems like a good way to me, to counter the media propaganda that these "freedom fighters" are highly skilled experts rather than a bunch of stupid splodydopes.
one hapless suicide bomber apparently had Down syndrome
I'm guessing that this soldier didn't use the word "hapless" but rather the author did in an effort to make him look callous and mean.
Just another not so subtle effort by the media to portray our soldiers in a bad light.
#3
Heh. Re: Stockmoe - Funny stuff from a guy who knows which hand has the shit - and which the shinola. His comments are, indeed, welcome. No wonder there are "representatives" of the "insurgency" who want to meet and "negotiate"...
"there is every chance it has several years to run"
WTF? Says who? Toby Harnden abandons the authoritative source and tries to put the editorial agenda touch on the story. Wrong-o, wankoff. Where's your source for that conclusion, digger duud?
It seems the days of the Masterminds have run out in Iraq. Lol, Al Zarqi prolly left some time ago, frustrated with the surviving dopes available to him. When the Iran / Syria connection gets decapped, then there will be no more direction, no money, and no "glorious" insurgency or martyrdom. Now that's an ending, Tobe.
#4
Article: It is perhaps a rash soldier who mocks an adversary that has killed more than 1000 US troops in 18 months.
If the writer knew any history, he wouldn't say it was rash. It took the Japanese a week to kill 1000 GI's on Iwo Jima. It took the North Vietnamese a month to kill 1000 GI's during Tet. It has taken these death-defying(TM), fanatical(TM) holy warriors 18 months to kill 1000 GI's. That's not a record to be proud of.
#5
"They were storing the mortar rounds in the car engine compartment and the rounds got overheated. Two of these clowns dropped them in the tube and they exploded, blowing their legs off." Abandoning the lifeless carcasses and smouldering wreckage of the car, the third brother sought refuge in a house. The occupants were less than impressed, Stockmoe said, slapping his thigh. "So they proceeded to beat the crap out of him and then turned him over to the Iraqi police. It was like the movie Dumb and Dumber."
#6
The very essence of their movement is Darwinistic: the struggle between civilization and barbaraism. They know there is no way they can keep up with civilization, so their only alternatives are to utterly destroy civilization or fade away. Ironically, this would make them comrades of purpose with many others in the world who cannot cope with changing times, but who have opted for annihilation rather than adaptation. Civility, however, should not look to these individuals with nostalgic admiration, because while a single velociraptor is fascinating, a hundred million of them are a problem.
U.S. Marines and Iraqi security forces launched a new offensive Sunday against insurgents in troubled cities west of Baghdad after two days of carnage that left nearly 100 people dead. Sunni Muslim tribal leaders met to determine their place in a Shiite-dominated Iraqi government. As the Shiite majority prepared to take control of the country's first freely elected government, tribal chiefs representing Sunni Arabs in six provinces issued a list of demands - including participation in the government and drafting a new constitution - after previously refusing to acknowledge the vote's legitimacy. "We made a big mistake when we didn't vote," said Sheik Hathal Younis Yahiya, 49, a representative from northern Nineveh. "Our votes were very important." He said threats from insurgents - not sectarian differences - kept most Sunnis from voting.
What was that about people who voted being apostates, who must be killed?
Gathering in a central Baghdad hotel, about 70 tribal leaders from the provinces of Baghdad, Kirkuk, Salaheddin, Diyala, Anbar and Nineveh, tried to devise a strategy for participation in a future government.
[Scatches head]
"Wot are we going to do now, Ali?"
There was an air of desperation in some quarters of the smoke-filled conference room. "When we said that we are not going to take part, that didn't mean that we are not going to take part in the political process. We have to take part in the political process and draft the new constitution," said Adnan al-Duleimi, the head of Sunni Endowments in Baghdad.
Continued on Page 49
Posted by: Dan Darling ||
02/21/2005 12:37:08 AM ||
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#1
"We made a big mistake when we didn’t vote," said Sheik Hathal Younis Yahiya, 49, a representative from northern Nineveh. "Our votes were very important."
Gathering in a central Baghdad hotel, about 70 tribal leaders from the provinces of Baghdad, Kirkuk, Salaheddin, Diyala, Anbar and Nineveh, tried to devise a strategy for participation in a future government. There was an air of desperation in some quarters of the smoke-filled conference room.
This is funnier than a Zawahiri tape. Perhaps these desperate tribal leaders should go the extreme step of getting a clue, recognizing they're in a fight for their lives, and commit their communities to exterminating the criminal vermin, Iraqi and foreign, that's responsible for their situation. If they don't, they deserve the fruits of being associated with mass murder, genocide, theft, and base criminality. Somehow I think Iraq and the world can struggle along without them.
#2
The AMS is hand and glove in league with the terrorists. Screw them. I say no to any "tribal leaders" who didn't allow or protect their people so they could vote. If these assholes want representation bring the government the Baath party leaders and terrorists causing the violence then the government might consider your request. Until then STFU.
#3
*snicker* I agree, Verlaine. First the Sunni Tribal Leaders (mustn't forget the caps, they're Important People) issue demands to be included in the political process then, realizing they completely misjudged the situation and the Iraqi people they used to control, they try to figure out how to jump on the train that's already left the station -- and is accelerating very quickly.
Heh, the Arab way - especially the Arab Tribe / Clan way. They presume the entire World works like their little world does and will accommodate them. That's how it works in their bubble, so...
This is so pathetic that it just screams cognitive dissonance... and no, we should not feel sorry for them or accommodate them. They're Saddam's collaboative killers, criminals, and thugs - the leaders, I mean - and they'll just have to catch on and catch up - or be replaced by people with a neuron count higher than two. They prolly feel like they just landed on another planet. Gooood.
#5
They should be told in no uncertain terms"You screwed the pooch on the elections,you now have 45 days to kill,capture and or turn-in the terrorist or be shut-out indefinatly".
#7
I have been ruminating over the following theory: These people are NOT UNIQUE: Their culture merely colors and affects the way they behave, but the ROOT behavior is universal. We call them Islamists when they're muslim, but we'd call them Socialists if they had been born in Europe, Communists if they had been born in Russia or China, and Leftists/Democrats/Moonbats if they had been born in the United States.
Conclusion: The MSM supports ALL these people, because if you peel away the cultural overlays of MSM members AND the people they support, THEY ARE KIN. They share the following:
1. Need to control people in order to provide support and sustenance for themselves, rather than support themselves.
2. Fundamental distaste when it comes to facing reality.
3. Difficulty in discerning cause and effect.
4. Tendency to blame others for problems THEY cause or are suffering from, coupled with a pathological drive to flee from personal responsibility.
5. Unshakeable belief in their innate superiority, with an attendant need to affirm and enforce the inferiority of others.
6. Theory based thinking. Insistence on viewing the problems in the world, if not the world itself, as a nail because they possess only a hammer.
7. Need to Justify their behavior and existance by resorting to moralizing. Due to #2 above, their moralizing usually has little in connection or appearance to traditional, or even natural, moral reasoning.
People, I'm telling you, under the cultural veneer, THEY'RE ALL ALIKE!!!!
As the Shiite majority prepared to take control of the country’s first freely elected government, tribal chiefs representing Sunni Arabs in six provinces issued a list of demands - including participation in the government and drafting a new constitution - after previously refusing to acknowledge the vote’s legitimacy.
Really now, how different is this behavior from that of the Democrats, the MSM, the Socialists in Europe, the Communists/tyrranists in Russia/China, or the Palestinians?
#9
Ptah, have you read The New World of the Gothic Fox? You don't need to, but you might enjoy it.
Posted by: Mrs. Davis ||
02/21/2005 9:36 Comments ||
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#10
Ptah - Tribalism is, IMHO, one of the root causes beneath your points - from it we get systemic traits such as corruption, incompetence, and a pathological closed mind. I believe much of the rest springs from that point. Just my take - I enjoyed your post!
#11
"a powerful Sunni organization believed to have ties with the insurgents sought to condemn the weekend attacks that left nearly 100 Iraqis dead."
These mooks need to realize that the Arafat trick (talk nice while the people you support kill liek rabid dogs) doesn't work with the Bush Administration.
#12
Sweet. Interesting post Ptah...does help to explain why we should find such strange bed fellows in these 2 groups.
Posted by: Rex Mundi ||
02/21/2005 21:11 Comments ||
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#13
"a powerful Sunni organization believed to have ties with the insurgents sought to condemn the weekend attacks that left nearly 100 Iraqis dead."
These mooks need to realize that the Arafat trick (talk nice while the people you support kill liek rabid dogs) doesn't work with the Bush Administration.
#14
"a powerful Sunni organization believed to have ties with the insurgents sought to condemn the weekend attacks that left nearly 100 Iraqis dead."
These mooks need to realize that the Arafat trick (talk nice while the people you support kill liek rabid dogs) doesn't work with the Bush Administration.
BHUBANESWAR — Maoist rebels triggered six landmine blasts in Orissa [N.B. Northeast India] yesterday in a bid to free three of their cadres from police custody but there were no casualties. The blasts occurred at 10.30am in Malkangiri, when police were transporting three suspected Maoists, police said.
Posted by: Steve White ||
02/21/2005 12:14:28 AM ||
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#1
One would hope the trigger was steping on them.
Iraqi security forces have killed a propaganda chief of al-Qaeda's frontman in Iraq, Abu Musab al-Zarqawi, the government said on Sunday. Security forces "killed the terrorist Adel Mujtaba, known as Abu Rim, who disseminated propaganda for Abu Musab al-Zarqawi's terrorist network", it said in a statement.
One of Abu Rim's associates, Abu al-Izz, was also killed in the same raid on February 11, it added, without saying why it was only now releasing news of the raid. "Abu Rim specialised in creating terrorist websites which encouraged terrorism," the statement said. "He glorified the murder of innocent people and published images which included terrorists torturing hostages." Abu Rim is the third Zarqawi propaganda chief to be killed or detained after the alleged first and second in command, Abu Sufiyan and Husam Abdullah Muhsin al-Dulaymi, were respectively killed and detained, the statement added, without providing further details.
This article starring:
ABU AL IZZ
al-Qaeda in Iraq
ABU MUSAB AL ZARQAWI
al-Qaeda in Iraq
ABU RIM
al-Qaeda in Iraq
ABU SUFIYAN
al-Qaeda in Iraq
ADEL MUJTABA
al-Qaeda in Iraq
HUSAM ABDULLAH MUHSIN AL DULAIMI
al-Qaeda in Iraq
Posted by: Dan Darling ||
02/21/2005 12:05:02 AM ||
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#1
Happy vergins (or their fruity substitutes thereof)!
#2
It's a pityful damn shame that this particular beast couldn't have had his life extracted in a delicately slow but hideously painful manner for several weeks!!
At least now The HAGS of HELL have his rotten soul for an eternity!!!
Posted by: Mike ||
02/21/2005 5:40 Comments ||
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#4
There is no proof that this Al-Zarqawi is a living breathing person, is there?
Seems to me like he might be an imaginary figure set up by some anti-iraq agency.
#9
Allah is your god, Gentle. A primitive deity who was originally a moon god (that's the the reason you guys use the crescent moon as a symbol for Islam). Not one of the better gods, if you ask me. And purely a figment of mens' imagination. What's he ever done for you?
BTW - You used to try to sound sensible. What happened?
#10
Some muslims use the moon because we use "moon years", and "moon months" along with "sun years" and "sun months". Not something unique to Islam. Just an old custom kept.
Deah!
#13
The signficant thing here is that the new Iraqi government regards the agony of a prolonged beheading to be torture and terrorism.
Sets the legal stage to try Zarqawi et al - i.e. this was not the act of a pious Muslim in accordance with the Quran, it was torture. Interesting.
Posted by: too true ||
02/21/2005 7:39 Comments ||
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Well, Gentle, we do have pictures of a man that is claimed to be Zarqawi. There is an actual history of his existence and he regularly shows his mug on released tapes. If we only catch the guy who is masquerading as Zarqawi, that ought to be good enough.
BTW-Allah was the God of War of the old pantheon of tribal Gods, before Mohammed. Think about that for a moment and consider the mandate of Islam to force the rest of us to live under their rule.
Posted by: Jame Retief ||
02/21/2005 7:59 Comments ||
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#15
Jame - clarify it - when you say 'the rest of us', you mean 'the civilised world'.
Gentle, dear, if you are on break, it would be good if you were to do the reading I assigned when last we spoke. That way you can argue your points based on knowledge. At your age and achievement, charming ignorance will no longer do.
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.
Al Qaida might be shifting its strategy and preparing to attack so-called soft targets in Kuwait. Western diplomatic sources said the Al Qaida network has been foiled in several attempts to attack Western military personnel in Kuwait. The sources cited the arrest of nearly 200 suspected insurgents and raids against four strongholds in the sheikdom during January. "Kuwait has responded very well to warnings of Al Qaida attacks," a diplomat said. "Security forces have been acting on information and intelligence has been collecting new leads." On Saturday, Kuwait captured two Al Qaida suspects said to have planned strikes on U.S. interests in the sheikdom. The suspected operatives were identified as Kuwaiti nationals.
Saudi security forces shot a man dead early on Sunday after he failed to stop at a checkpoint in the city of Jeddah, a security source said.
An al Qaeda member known as Abu Dzeit has been killed in the Russian internal republic of Ingushetia. "A joint operation with the Interior Ministry was conducted in a private house in a village in Ingushetia on February 16," spokesman for the Federal Security Service Sergei Ignatchenko told reporters on Monday. "The operation first resulted in the death of two of his accomplices. Abu Dzeit hid in a special bunker built under the house. When the entrance was discovered, he blew himself up," Ignatchenko said. He said investigators identified the body as Abu Dzeit's.
An Iranian national was arrested in Iraq on charges of smuggling foreign fighters and weapons into Iraq, the interim government said Sunday. 
Maoist rebels attacked a convoy on a key highway west of Nepal's capital and killed a truck driver, an army officer said on Monday. The driver was killed on Sunday when the rebels hurled crude bombs and fired at the convoy at Charaundi, 80 km west of Kathmandu, to enforce a blockade roads linking the hill-ringed city with the rest of the country. "They fired at the convoy from the jungle along the highway," the army officer said. At least seven other people were injured in the first deadly attack on a convoy since the Maoists called the blockade nine days ago.
SITTING beneath a Dallas Cowboys T-shirt pinned to the wall of his office in Tikrit, Lieutenant-Colonel 
