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Qurei flees West Bank gunfire
Today's Headlines
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-Short Attention Span Theater-
Mil-Blogger Injured in Iraq by IED
Posted by: Glaiper Chineck4893 || 06/22/2005 11:24 || Comments || Link || [0 views] Top|| File under:

#1  Ouch. Get better!
Posted by: mmurray821 || 06/22/2005 12:15 Comments || Top||

#2  Michelle Malkin has more, including a link to send your best wishes to our Milblogger friend and his family.
Posted by: Old Patriot || 06/22/2005 14:07 Comments || Top||


Arabia
Soddies kill cop-killers
Saudi state television has reported that the security forces have shot dead two suspected militants who killed a policeman on Saturday in the holy city of Mecca. Citing a source from the Saudi interior ministry, the television station said the two men were identified early on Tuesday, as they were driving near the Red Sea port city of Jeddah. It also referred to the dead men as members of a "deviant group", the phrase the Saudi authorities use to refer to the terror network al-Qaeda.

After being chased by the security forces, the men were surrounded in a building and died in the ensuing gunfight. Three members of the security forces were injured in the clash, one seriously.

The policeman they are said to have killed - Lt. Col. Mubarak al-Sawat from the general investigations department - was shot more than ten times as he left his house to go to work on Saturday.

The Saudi security forces had set up checkpoints throughout Mecca following the killing and launched a major manhunt for the policeman's killers. The authorities were said to have believed that al-Qaeda was involved in the killing, though that was never confirmed officially.
Posted by: Dan Darling || 06/22/2005 14:26 || Comments || Link || [0 views] Top|| File under:


Britain
Man quizzed in UK Iraq bomb probe
Detectives are continuing to question the former flatmate of a man suspected of a suicide bomb attack in Iraq. The 40-year-old was arrested under terror laws in Manchester on Tuesday. Officers raided the house he is thought to have shared with a French man suspected of killing himself in an attack on coalition troops in February. Police are now trying to establish how the 41-year-old French national got to Iraq and if he had links to anyone else in the UK or abroad.
The man being questioned is not thought to be related to the alleged suicide bomber, but police are describing him as an associate. The nationality of the man has not been revealed.
I'll wager his name ain't "Nigel"
Forensic experts searched the house in Great Southern Street, Moss Side, after armed officers raided the property. Items, including documents, were removed from the house throughout the day for examination. A red Peugeot, a white Fiat Uno and a black Vauxhall Cavalier, thought to belong to the occupants of the house, were also removed. Police stressed on Tuesday that the arrest was not related to any threat in the UK. It comes after a string of arrests in Spain and Germany last week related to "jihadist" volunteers heading to Iraq to carry out suicide attacks.
Assistant Chief Constable Dave Whatton of Greater Manchester Police said work was ongoing in Iraq and the UK to identify the individual suspected of carrying out the February attack. "Officers are searching the address looking for documents related to his journey to Iraq or links to anyone else. "People living in the house have been given assistance including moving them to a new venue while the search is under way." Whitehall officials said they were already aware of an established network which sends "jihadist" volunteers from the UK to Iraq to fight coalition forces.
BBC security correspondent Frank Gardner said the volunteers were mostly north African, and often carried European passports.
The fabled "North Africans" again. Most likely Algerian or Morrocan with a French passport

After the arrest, police distributed leaflets in the surrounding area to reassure residents. Neighbour Andrew Holmes, 43, said: "What I heard first was 30 coppers or thereabouts making a lot of noise and kicking someone's front door in next door but one. "About half an hour later, someone was arrested. This was about 4.30am or 5am. "I knew of the man but didn't really speak to him. He kept himself to himself. I certainly didn't know him well. He was an average-looking guy."

Additional: The British-based suicide bomber who attacked coalition forces in Iraq was named in reports today as Idris Bazis. The 41-year-old French national is believed to have taken part in a suicide bomb attack in Iraq in February. Bazis’s former home in Moss Side, Manchester, was raided by armed police early yesterday morning and a 40-year-old man, of north African origin, was arrested under the Terrorism Act. It is thought the man had lived at the red-brick terrace house on Great Southern Street with Bazis before the suspected bomber travelled to Iraq. The man arrested in yesterday’s 5am raid, led by the Greater Manchester Police anti-terror unit, was being questioned by detectives at a secret location today.
Searches of the house continued as police tried to establish how Bazis got to the Gulf and uncover his British support network. Bazis still has family living in Britain, according to reports, and they have also been questioned by police.
Posted by: Steve || 06/22/2005 09:11 || Comments || Link || [0 views] Top|| File under:

#1  Look the BBC can't say Muslim and Terrorist in the same article.
Posted by: Ulereger Clavigum6227 || 06/22/2005 10:32 Comments || Top||


Caribbean-Latin America
9/11 suspect arrested in Mexico
Mexican Authorities have arrested a British Arab in the Baja of California,who was wanted by the United States Government in connection to the 9-11 atrocities.

Amer Haykel was picked up in Todo Santos and is currently awaiting extradition to the U.S.

Mexican officials say "The PGR arrested... Haykel, whom US authorities have linked to extremist groups presumably involved in the September 11, 2001 attacks on New York. The suspect, who was born in Beirut and speaks fluent Arabic, English, French and Spanish, was turned over to immigration authorities and taken to Mexico City to determine his legal status."

Haykel wandered into a fire station and was arrested after, "investigative and intelligence work and exchange of information with the US government".

No information has been released regarding his passport or how he gained access to it or his age.

Mexico has been under the gun recently by the United States Milita, "Minutemen", who have been calling for the Bush Administration to enforce total border control between Mexico and the United States and Canada as well. The main argument of the Minutemen has been common knowledge that Al Qaeda and other terrorist organizations are hiding in Mexico and crossing the border illegally.

Pakistani Arif Ali Durrani was arrested last week in the same area of Baja for the selling of anti-aircraft missles in Mexico. He has since been deported.
Posted by: Dan Darling || 06/22/2005 14:37 || Comments || Link || [1 views] Top|| File under:

#1  federales do one right.
Posted by: liberalhawk || 06/22/2005 14:40 Comments || Top||

#2  Maybe someone in the Mexican political body actually understands that if even one of these terrorists is traced to transiting the border, regardless of what GWB wants, it gets shut tight. Its a non-recoverable fumble of the first magnitude.
Posted by: Snigum Snomomble5295 || 06/22/2005 15:23 Comments || Top||

#3  yup
Posted by: liberalhawk || 06/22/2005 15:40 Comments || Top||

#4  Why on earth did he wander into a fire station ?
Posted by: buwaya || 06/22/2005 16:17 Comments || Top||

#5  Perhaps he was looking for a Firehouse Wife.
Posted by: Shipman || 06/22/2005 18:16 Comments || Top||

#6  Firehouse Wife?
Posted by: trailing wife || 06/22/2005 22:58 Comments || Top||


Mexico Says Arrested Man Linked to Sept. 11 Groups
MEXICO CITY (AP) - Mexico's government said it has detained a man believed linked to the groups that carried out the Sept. 11 terror attacks in the United States. The federal attorney general's office, in a bulletin issued late Tuesday, identified the man as Amer Haykel and said he was a British citizen born in Beirut, Lebanon. "According to U.S. authorities, he is linked to extremist groups believed to be involved with the attacks of Sept. 11, 2001, in New York," the agency said. But it did not say if he faced any charges or if he was believed to be personally involved in any terrorist actions.
He was detained in Todos Los Santos in the municipality of La Paz near the tip of the Baja California peninsula. It said he was located at a fire station, though it did not describe why, based on information from the U.S. government.
Great weather, good resturants, lots of tourists coming and going. Nice place to operate out of.
He was brought to Mexico City for immigration processing.
Posted by: Steve || 06/22/2005 09:30 || Comments || Link || [0 views] Top|| File under:

#1  He was brought to Mexico City for immigration processing.

Here's your comic book on how to enter. Here's the name of the coyote to take you across. Here's the address to send your money back to.
Posted by: Jackal || 06/22/2005 21:54 Comments || Top||


'Hezbollah drugs ring' broken up
Police in Ecuador say they have broken up an international drugs ring which was raising money for the Islamic militant group, Hezbollah.
The authorities have declined to give details of the gang's alleged links with the group, but say it was sending Hezbollah up to 70% of its profits. Ecuadorean officials say the drugs network was run by a Lebanese restaurant owner in the capital, Quito. Officials are hailing it as a success in both the war on drugs and on terror.
Along with the restaurant owner, identified as Rady Zaiter, who was arrested in Colombia last week, six other suspects were also detained in Ecuador. They are said to originate from Algeria, Ecuador, Lebanon, Nigeria and Turkey.
The police investigation, codenamed Operation Damascus, led to the arrests of a further 19 people Brazil and the United States. Police say that the gang were obtaining cocaine from neighbouring Colombia and trafficking it to Europe, the Middle East and the rest of South America. The drugs were either hidden in suitcases with false bottoms or in the stomachs of couriers. The BBC's Elliot Gotkine says airport officials are said to have been bribed to turn a blind eye.
Ecuadorean police say that each drugs shipment was worth $1m and that up to 70% of the profits went to the Islamic militant group Hezbollah.
Hezbollah - or Party of God - emerged in Lebanon in the early 1980s and became the region's leading radical Islamic movement, determined to drive Israeli troops from Lebanon.
Posted by: Steve || 06/22/2005 09:01 || Comments || Link || [0 views] Top|| File under:

#1  Mmmmmmmmmmmmmmmm! Allah LIKE cocaine!!!
PBUH
Posted by: Allah || 06/22/2005 15:57 Comments || Top||

#2  Ah ha! An impostor, that should be PBUM
Posted by: Shipman || 06/22/2005 15:59 Comments || Top||

#3  A fatwa on Shipman's ass!
Posted by: Allah || 06/22/2005 16:01 Comments || Top||

#4  hell who doesn't like cocaine and if you have tried it and say you don't you a damn lie
Posted by: Thraing Hupoluper1864 || 06/22/2005 17:06 Comments || Top||

#5  That's why most people choose not to try it, Thraing Hupoluper1864.
Posted by: trailing wife || 06/22/2005 22:59 Comments || Top||


Caucasus/Russia/Central Asia
Basayev aide busted
Law enforcement agencies have detained a close aide to Chechen warlord Shamil Basayev in Grozny, a source with the federal forces in the North Caucasus told Interfax on Saturday morning.

The guerilla's name has not been disclosed in order not to harm the further investigation.

"The guerilla is a native of the village of Dyshne-Vedeno of the Vedeno district. It has been established that he was involved in various armed sorties as a member of Shamil Basayev's group, including in the raid on Dagestan [in 1999]," the source said.

"After large illegal armed groups were eliminated, he joined a gang led by one Arapkhanov, who was killed in December 2003, and committed more crimes. In 2001, the guerilla moved to Ingushetia at Basayev's order and took shelter at a refugee camp. Staying in the camp, he followed guerilla leaders' instructions, acting as a messenger, financier, and courier. He also helped guerillas manufacture fake documents," it said.

The detainee is giving testimony now. "Measures have been taken to hunt down his accomplices," the source said.
Posted by: Dan Darling || 06/22/2005 16:43 || Comments || Link || [0 views] Top|| File under:

#1  ooh, ouch!
Posted by: Gue Rilla || 06/22/2005 16:47 Comments || Top||


Chechen Justice Ministry attacked, set on fire
Unknown gunmen opened fire on a building of the Chechen Justice Ministry on Tuesday. The incident was reported shortly after both buildings housing the ministry were destroyed by fire caused, reportedly, by a short circuit.

Unknown gunmen opened fire on one of the two buildings of the republican Justice Ministry, the Itar-Tass news agency reported from Grozny.

The incident occurred at around 10-30 on Tuesday morning, the agency said. Gunmen wielding grenade cup discharges fired 10 shots on the building even as the fire brigades were trying to extinguish the flames.

“Fortunately, nobody of those involved in putting out the blaze has suffered, only some of the fire engines were damaged in the fire,” the agency quoted its sources as saying.

However, the Interfax news agency said that the attackers targeted the Ministry of Communal Services which is located in the heavily guarded complex of official buildings.

The fire in the ministerial buildings broke out in the early hours of Tuesday. Only five hours later the fire brigades managed to contain the blaze.

Preliminary reports blamed the incident on a short circuit.
Posted by: Dan Darling || 06/22/2005 16:13 || Comments || Link || [0 views] Top|| File under:


Girls abducted by order of Count Dooku to serve as boomer babes
Young teenage girls were abducted in Chechnya to be used later as suicide bombers on the orders of terrorist leader Doku Umarov, the Russian Interior Ministry's temporary press center in the North Caucasus said today. Two militants, whose identities were not revealed in the interests of the investigation, were detained Monday. "The detainees confessed that on Umarov's orders they had kidnapped a girl in the Naursky district of Chechnya to train her in suicide bombing," a spokesman for the press center said.

According to him, it took the police just two hours to find the car with the militants who had kidnapped the girl. "The hostage was freed and the militants were taken to a pre-trial detention center," the spokesman said. The Chechen Prosecutor's Office opened a criminal case under articles 126 (abduction) and 208 (participation in an illegal armed unit) of the Russian Criminal Code. The North Caucasian department of the Prosecutor General's Office has the investigation under special control, the spokesman added.
Posted by: Dan Darling || 06/22/2005 16:06 || Comments || Link || [0 views] Top|| File under:

#1  "... they had kidnapped a girl in the Naursky district of Chechnya to train her in suicide bombing"

It's amazing how the Chechens, who I had some sympathy for several years ago, now make the Russians look like saints.
Posted by: xbalanke || 06/22/2005 22:01 Comments || Top||

#2  Especially remembering that a large part of the training consists of repeated rape to break the girls' spirit.
Posted by: trailing wife || 06/22/2005 23:01 Comments || Top||


2 attempted break-ins at Russian nuke plants
Authorities have thwarted two attempts to break into Russian military nuclear facilities since the 1991 collapse of the Soviet Union, a Defense Ministry official said Wednesday.

There have been no terrorist attacks on the facilities, but civilians twice tried unsuccessfully to gain illegal access, said Col. Gen. Igor Valynkin, chief of the ministry's 12th Main Department, which is in charge of atomic weapons.

The attempts to penetrate military nuclear installations occurred in 2002 and 2003, both in the European part of Russia, Valynkin said. In both cases, the attempts involved one intruder.

The attempts "were averted by our mobile units and security at the facilities," he said, asserting they were reliably protected from penetration by intruders and potential terrorist attacks.

"Our system is good, it works and it provides nuclear security," he said.

However, Valynkin acknowledged that "there are problems with nuclear security" and said it is being improved with help from the United States and other foreign donors, including by installing security systems that eliminate the need for human guards.

"The human factor plays a role everywhere," he said. "If you place a guard at an installation, he is doubtless a protector, but he also can be an individual who either violates or aids in the violation or penetration of the facility."

He said Russia is using U.S. and German funding, as well as its own money, "to strengthen our facilities with security systems. This enables us to take away the guard and fully control it through technical means of protection."

Valynkin said the main source of a potential terrorist threat to the Kremlin's nuclear weapons facilities is "Chechen terrorist groups," which have warned that they will target Russian facilities of all kinds.

He suggested there had been warnings from the Federal Security Service, or FSB, indicating potential terrorist threats to specific installations, but he would not discuss the issue in detail.

"We get special information from the FSB on terrorism and their plans as to our facilities, and in connection with this we immediately take measures at these facilities," he said.
Posted by: Dan Darling || 06/22/2005 14:12 || Comments || Link || [0 views] Top|| File under:


Down Under
ASIO mounts raid in response to terror threat
ASIO yesterday raided a series of houses after receiving intelligence that a radical Islamic group was plotting a terrorist attack on Australia.

The Daily Telegraph has learned that extremist cells in Sydney and Melbourne have been liaising on plans to carry out a terror assault.

The Sydney Harbour Bridge and the Opera House were named as targets but sources said the group intended to strike first in Melbourne.


The extremists have been secretly bugged talking about overseas terrorist incidents and revealing how they wanted to commit similar attacks in Melbourne.

About six Melbourne members have attended training camps in remote areas of Victoria during the past year.

Surveillance officers have confirmed the Melbourne cell has connections with a radical Islamic group in Sydney.

The Sydney group has been observed using small boats to observe the Opera House and Harbour Bridge.

Yesterday's ASIO raids - in which Victoria Police and Australian Federal Police were also involved - were designed to disrupt the group before members were able to go ahead with their plans.

Authorities do not expect to charge members of the network at this stage - unless the raids turn up unexpected information.

ASIO and AFP agents have for months been ready to swoop if cell members moved to buy materials or looked like endangering lives.

One of the four Melbourne houses raided yesterday was in the city's northern suburb of Brunswick East, where ASIO officers, AFP agents and members of Victoria Police's security intelligence group searched a home from 8am to 3pm.

The Melbourne cell never reached the stage of nominating targets or discussing specific terrorist attacks.

"But they have shown a real intent to do something, that they actually want to do something," a source told The Daily Telegraph.

"They are talking a lot about terrorist attacks overseas and expressing extremist views and talking about doing something here to show support for those Islamic groups committing terrorist acts elsewhere.

"They do go off together on what they call training camps, where they go off and set themselves up on deserted properties.

"But they aren't training camps in the way al-Qaeda or Jemaah Islamiyah have terrorist training camps. It's more a case of hardening themselves up, starving themselves for days, living rough. A bonding experience.

"Other than that, they pray together at the same mosque, they meet each other regularly and share their extremist views.

"They have links with people in Sydney who have links with other extremist Islamic groups.

"But I wouldn't describe them as a tangible group with solid connections to any known terrorist group.

"Nevertheless, what they have discussed is disturbing enough to warrant breaking them up."

AFP agents at the Brunswick East Housing Commission property raided were granted entry without resistance.

"I woke up and found them about 8am, maybe it was earlier," a neighbour said. "There were four to five unmarked cars, people came and went."

The Lebanese family of five living at the address that was raided declined to talk to The Daily Telegraph yesterday.

A spokeswoman for Federal Attorney-General Philip Ruddock yesterday confirmed ASIO was involved in a series of searches in Melbourne.

She refused to say if further raids were expected.
Posted by: Dan Darling || 06/22/2005 14:46 || Comments || Link || [0 views] Top|| File under:


Europe
Seven held over 'Iraq connection'
FRENCH police are holding seven people on suspicion of providing support for the Islamist insurgency in Iraq, officials said today. The seven - aged between 20 and 35 - were detained yesterday in the central city of Limoges and the southern city of Montpellier. In Limoges police also raided a shop and removed a quantity of material in a cardboard box, witnesses said. According to Le Figaro newspaper, some of the seven are suspected of having telephone contact with members of the Iraqi group Ansar al-Islam.
The arrests were carried out by the domestic intelligence service DST on the instructions of anti-terrorist judge Jean-Louis Bruguiere who is investigating the recruitment of French volunteers to fight against the US army in Iraq.
Posted by: Steve || 06/22/2005 16:13 || Comments || Link || [0 views] Top|| File under:


Southeast Asia
Philippine court sentences 7 militants to death
MANILA (Reuters) - A Philippine court sentenced to death on Wednesday seven suspected members of the al Qaeda-linked Abu Sayyaf militant group for the kidnapping and murder of farmers on the southern island of Basilan in 2001. Six of the convicted men were present when the court in Basilan read portions of the 60-page verdict sentencing the militants to die by lethal injection. The court also ordered them to pay the families of their victims 200,000 pesos ($3,600) each. The other convicted man remains at large.
"I am happy we have applied the full force of the law," said state prosecutor Ricardo Cabaron. "The agony of the victims' families was finally relieved."
I'll be relieved only when they stick the needles in their arms.
Dozens of soldiers and policemen guarded the small courthouse on the island, a stronghold of the small, radical Abu Sayyaf group blamed for a string of kidnappings and murders of foreign and domestic tourists in the early 2000s. "The accused and their families wept and embraced each other after the court handed down the decision," Cris Puno, a Basilan provincial official, told reporters.
Puno said the sentences on Wednesday stemmed from an Abu Sayyaf raid on a farm near the town of Lamitan in August 2001. The gunmen, disguised as soldiers, abducted a group of farm workers and later beheaded nine of them. Another hostage was shot dead while two other captives escaped unhurt.
The Abu Sayyaf has waged a bloody war in the country for a decade and has been blamed for a string of deadly bombings on transport systems, including the February 2004 ferry attack that killed about 100 people.
In April last year, a Manila court handed down death sentences against 17 Abu Sayyaf members for the abduction of 20 tourists from a resort in Palawan in 2001. The U.S. government has the Abu Sayyaf on its blacklist of terrorist organizations.
Posted by: Steve || 06/22/2005 10:13 || Comments || Link || [0 views] Top|| File under:

#1  Its about time.
Posted by: buwaya || 06/22/2005 22:03 Comments || Top||


Man beheaded in Thailand teashop
Suspected Muslim militants have beheaded a man in southern Thailand in front of customers in a teashop. Police said the man, a travelling salesman, was shot twice and then decapitated in the shop in Narathiwat province, in the middle of the day. It was the fifth beheading in just over two weeks, and is thought to be the first carried out so publicly.
The Thai south has been hit by violence since suspected Muslim separatists launched an insurgency 18 months ago.
The latest victim, Lek Pongpa, was a clothes vendor originally from northern Thailand, police said. His attacker carried off his severed head by motorbike before dumping it by the roadside in Joh Irong, about 2km (1.2 miles) . Police Lieutenant Panongsak Wangsupa told the BBC Thai service that witnesses were unwilling to give any information.
Eight bodies have been beheaded since the upsurge in violence began.
Several have been found with notes claiming the attacks were carried out in revenge for repression by the Thai authorities. People living in Thailand's Muslim majority south have long complained of discrimination by the central government, particularly in areas like education.
And not letting them have their own islamic state
However, Defence Minister Thammarak Issarangkura Na Ayutthaya said the victims of the violence appeared to be random.
"There's no clear direction in the militants' attacks. They have even carried out indiscriminate attacks against Muslim villagers," he told reporters.
That would be the ones that didn't support the militants
Thai Prime Minister Thaksin Shinawatra has in recent months pledged that his government would tone down its hardline stance on the issue. But there continues to be almost daily murders in the area, and the death toll in the last 18 months has passed 700.
On Tuesday, a village official was shot dead in his home in Yala province, a defence volunteer was gunned down in Pattani province, and a small bomb exploded early on Wednesday in Narathiwat province, but no-one was injured.
Posted by: Steve || 06/22/2005 09:06 || Comments || Link || [0 views] Top|| File under:

#1  BBC - calling Muzzy Terrorists "militants". How quaint. The Thai MSM is just as far left on most things, especially US-bashing, they called them "bandits" for the first couple of years.

When Toxin pulls his head out of his ass, then something can be done to stop the Muzzy killing.
This sitting on your hands, organizing origami, etc, is a fool's approach as they just grow bolder and bloodier. I thought he was starting to "get it" about 6-8 months ago, but it appears not.
Posted by: .com || 06/22/2005 9:51 Comments || Top||

#2  bout time to start the festivities? Oh, the wailing and seething when the consequences hit the muslims...
Posted by: Frank G || 06/22/2005 9:57 Comments || Top||

#3  Thraskin launched a counter-narcotics operation about 3 years to stem the tide of Ya-ba some kind of Thai methamphetamine. Thrash didn't drop origami pidgeons but he did whack about 2,000 pushers, sellers and habitual offenders.

PS the problem didn't go away, but drug use is way, way down.
Posted by: Rightwing || 06/22/2005 10:20 Comments || Top||

#4  I wonder if the travelling salesman only had one arm?
Posted by: Thromonter Unaique4484 || 06/22/2005 11:26 Comments || Top||

#5  Ah, "Master of the Flying Guillotine". A classic.
Posted by: Steve || 06/22/2005 11:45 Comments || Top||

#6  How 'bout a nice hot cup o tea? I don't think they learned their manners on tea service from the British.
Posted by: intrinsicpilot || 06/22/2005 12:58 Comments || Top||

#7  Quagmire! No plan! Lies! Memo!

No, wait...um, sorry.
Posted by: Bobby || 06/22/2005 20:48 Comments || Top||

#8  One lop, or two?
Posted by: Rufus Lee King || 06/22/2005 23:43 Comments || Top||


Afghanistan/South Asia
U.S. Bombardment Kills 76 in Afghanistan
American aircraft bombarded a rebel hideout with missiles and bombs, killing up to 76 insurgents in one of the deadliest battles since the Taliban's ouster more than three years ago, officials said Wednesday. A dozen Afghan policemen and soldiers also died in fighting Tuesday that left bodies scattered across a southern mountainside and was sure to add to growing hope among the press anxiety that an Iraq-style conflict is developing here. Five U.S. soldiers were wounded. ``Their camps were decimated. Bodies lay everywhere. Heavy machine guns and AK-47s were scattered alongside blankets, kettles and food,'' said Gen. Salim Khan, commander of 400 Afghan policemen who took part in the fighting. ``Some of the Taliban were also killed in caves where they were hiding and U.S. helicopters came and pounded them.''
Excellent!
A U.S. spokesman, Lt. Col. Jerry O'Hara, said 49 rebels were killed in the 11-hour battle. But Gen. Ayub Salangi, police chief for Kandahar province, said Afghan forces recovered the bodies of 76 suspected insurgents from the battlefield on the border between Kandahar and Zabul provinces. Khan said 30 militants were captured, including two district rebel commanders. Eight of the 30 were wounded, he said.
Painfully, I hope
Salangi said the fighting spread to other areas Wednesday and there were unconfirmed reports of more dead elsewhere. Khan said hundreds of insurgents had been in the mountains and many were trying to flee the area. O'Hara said AC-130 gunships, AH-64 Apache helicopters, A-10 attack planes and Harrier jump jets were still attacking rebels and having a ``devastating effect on their forces.'' ``We are not letting up on the enemy and will continue to pursue them until the fighting stops,'' he said.
Yeah, their summer offensive is off to a bang-up start
The death toll from fighting this week appeared among the heaviest since U.S. planes pounded Taliban forces before the hard-line regime collapsed in late 2001. The last battle of this magnitude was in August, when 70 suspected rebels were killed near the Pakistani border. About 360 suspected insurgents have been reported killed since rebel attacks began increasing in March, after snows melted on mountain tracks used by the rebels. In the same time, 29 U.S. troops, 38 Afghan police and soldiers and 125 civilians have been killed. The bloodshed has raised concerns that the war is widening, rather than winding down. U.S. and Afghan officials have warned that violence could get even worse before the parliamentary elections scheduled for September.

Officials say foreign extremists are infiltrating into Afghanistan to try to disrupt the balloting. Fears have been further compounded by a surge of insurgent ambushes, execution-style killings and kidnappings reminiscent of the tactics of Iraqi militants. Afghan officials blame the rise in violence on insurgents sneaking in from Pakistan and are urging the government in Islamabad to crack down on militants there. On Sunday, Afghan intelligence agents foiled a plot by three Pakistanis to assassinate Zalmay Khalilzad, the outgoing U.S. ambassador.

O'Hara said two CH-47 transport helicopters were hit by bullets during Tuesday's fighting. One copter made an emergency landing and was repaired, and the other flew to a nearby base, a spokesman, he said. O'Hara said the wounds of the five injured U.S. soldiers were not serious and they had been evacuated to a base in the southern city of Kandahar. Their names were withheld pending notification of their families.
Posted by: Steve || 06/22/2005 16:20 || Comments || Link || [2 views] Top|| File under:

#1  Talibani saw flying American wart hogs and Apaches coming at them. I bet some of the turbins are still running.
Posted by: RG || 06/22/2005 16:42 Comments || Top||

#2  Another quote

"General Mohammad Ayoub Salangi, the police chief of Kandahar province who sent 400 troops in pursuit of militants who took over Mian Nishin district last week and executed its police chief, said 76 guerrillas had been killed since Tuesday.

"Their bodies and their weapons are scattered all over Mian Nishin," he said"

"nasrullah, heres a finger"
"yup, Hamid, and heres a foot"
"and heres a -- ewww, gross"


Posted by: liberalhawk || 06/22/2005 17:06 Comments || Top||

#3  Goodbye mid-13th century thinking asshats. Make way for the new generation.
Posted by: mmurray821 || 06/22/2005 17:46 Comments || Top||

#4  Al Q realizes that if they lose Afghanistan and Iraq that they will set their Jiihad show back to square 1, or almost forever. These battles happening now, as well as the high tempo of suicide bombings are very similar to the Tet offensive, where the NVA shot its wad and was on the verge of collapse. Al Q has to create a climate of chaos and killing so Americans at home will lose their nerve.

There also needs to be some wetwork in Syria and Saudi to discourage the financial, logistical, and personnel aiding and abetting that is making the suicide bombing possible. A message needs to be sent. It is long overdue.

It is vital that we not lose our nerve, or allow the LLL to make the Congress go wobbly. I consider people like Durban, Pelosi, et al to be giving aid and comfort to the enemy. If we let the LLL get the upper hand, then Afghanistan and Iraq WILL be Vietnam.
Posted by: Alaska Paul || 06/22/2005 18:13 Comments || Top||

#5  ..A thought occurs to me.
These guys are supposed to be hiding, right? Why are they grouped together like this?...

Mike
Posted by: Mike Kozlowski || 06/22/2005 19:45 Comments || Top||

#6  Mike: "These guys are supposed to be hiding, right? Why are they grouped together like this?..."

I think they started believeing the American MSM that the American's are toothless and defeated! For all I know this came on heels of the ACTUAL headline in the papers here: "We've lost!"

So the Jihadis read that, put 2 and 2 together..come up with 3, and get wasted! I love it!
Posted by: Justrand || 06/22/2005 21:28 Comments || Top||

#7  Mike: "These guys are supposed to be hiding, right? Why are they grouped together like this?..."

It's the only way to keep the troops motivated. When people are dispersed, they'll naturally turn to more pleasant tasks than trying to go after men armed with automatic rifles and backed up with on-call air support. This is why most guerrilla movements die - it's hard to sustain a guerrilla force, the dispersion of men makes it easy for a guerrilla movement's followers to take up something less demanding.
Posted by: Zhang Fei || 06/22/2005 21:49 Comments || Top||

#8  "... AC-130 gunships ... having a `devastating effect on their forces.'"

Yeah, those Spitting Witches have a way of doing that.
Posted by: xbalanke || 06/22/2005 21:56 Comments || Top||

#9  It's important to remember that to the jihadis, the proof that they have Allah's favour is that they win. The longer they continue not only not winning decisively, but visibly being defeated, the harder it is for them to claim that they are doing Allah's will.

Remember, too, that the reason Osama bin Laden sent the airplanes into the Twin Towers and the Pentagon was to force Allah to join bin Laden's war against the West. More than a bit hubristic, but for some reason he didn't see fit to consult me beforehand. ;-)
Posted by: trailing wife || 06/22/2005 22:53 Comments || Top||


Israel-Palestine
Israel revives assassination policy
ISRAEL has resumed an assassination policy against Islamic Jihad militants, a sign of how far a truce with the Palestinians has deteriorated. An Israeli aircraft fired missiles at four Islamic Jihad men in the Gaza village of Beit Lahiya today as they launched rockets into Israel. No one was hurt. The army said the strike targeted the launchers, not people. A government official had earlier said Israel could stage air strikes in Gaza, even at the risk of Palestinian civilian casualties, to ensure its Gaza pullout did not come under fire.

Israel shelved "targeted killings" of militants in February as part of a new truce deal. But resurgent violence has raised the spectre of disruption to Israel's planned August withdrawal from Gaza and dimmed hopes for "road map" peace talks afterwards. Word that the assassination policy had been dusted off came with Israeli confirmation of a failed missile strike yesterday. "An opportunity presented itself. Any means to neutralise the organisation are relevant and possible," Public Security Minister Gideon Ezra said.

Islamic Jihad has resumed mortar bomb and rocket salvoes against Jewish settlements in Gaza in what it calls retaliation for continued Israeli raids to capture wanted militants. "The attempt yesterday to kill an Islamic Jihad leader in Gaza signalled the resumption of the targeted killing policy," an Israeli security source said. Khaled al-Batsh, a senior Islamic Jihad leader, warned of "terrible consequences" if Israel carried out assassinations. "The calm would thereby end. We will not be dictated to by Israel," he said.

Later, a senior adviser to Israeli Prime Minister Ariel Sharon said Israel could stage air strikes in Gaza if militants tried to attack departing settlers to try to show they were chasing them out of occupied territory. Withdrawing from Gaza under fire would be political poison for Sharon, strengthening rightist foes who have said the pullout would be perceived by the Palestinians and Arab world as a sign of weakness after four years of bloodshed. "Israel will act in a very resolute manner to prevent terror attacks ... while the disengagement is being implemented," said Eival Giladi, head of the government team coordinating the plan. "If pinpoint response proves insufficient, we may have to use weaponry that causes major collateral damage."

Foreign Minister Silvan Shalom said Israel could respond to any Palestinian attacks from Gaza even after the pullout. "If needed, Israel will return to Gaza after the disengagement for a few days in order to stop the terrorism," the Haaretz newspaper quoted Mr Shalom as telling foreign diplomats.
" Don't make us come in there!"
Posted by: Steve || 06/22/2005 15:59 || Comments || Link || [0 views] Top|| File under:

#1  Sensible
Posted by: 3dc || 06/22/2005 18:25 Comments || Top||

#2  Don't capture them, as you will just have to release them in another, worthless future "peace" deal.

PIJ is the worst of the Islamofascists and deserves to be hunted down and exterminated like rats carrying the plague.

Kill them. Kill them all. K.I.L.L. T.H.E.M. A.L.L.

Hellfires, sniper teams, LGBs, Merkava treads, 175mm shells, whatever.

But kill them NOW.



Posted by: Brett || 06/22/2005 22:43 Comments || Top||

#3  Brett, is it possible you could be a little clearer? ;-)

Not that I particularly disagree...
Posted by: trailing wife || 06/22/2005 23:05 Comments || Top||


Iraq-Jordan
Al-Qaeda kills Iraqi judge in latest attacks
Gunmen on Wednesday killed a former judge, officials said. Separately, a Filipino hostage was released after almost eight months in captivity.

Former judge Jassim al-Issawi was a law professor at Baghdad University and the former editor-in-chief of Al-Siyadah newspaper, said Salih al-Mutlak, secretary general of the Sunni National Dialogue Council.

Al-Issawi, 51, and his son were killed in Baghdad's northwestern Shula neighborhood, said Abdul Sattar Jawad, current editor of Al-Siyadah, The AP reported.

Elsewhere, at least four people died in separate attacks Wednesday. A roadside bomb struck an Iraqi police patrol that included a special operations unit, killing two policeman and injuring two others in Madain, southeast of Baghdad, said police Maj. Raed Falah al-Mehamadawi said.

Separately, a group of children on bicycles ran over a bomb planted beneath the ground east of Baqouba, killing a 9-year-old boy and injuring two others aged 6 and 7, Army Maj. Fadhil al-Timimi said.

In another incident, a roadside explosion meant for a U.S. military convoy killed an Iraqi civilian and wounded three others west of Ramadi, Dr. Abdullah al-Dulaimi said.

Meanwhile, Al-Qaeda in Iraq, led by Abu Musab al-Zarqawi, said it had created a unit of would-be suicide bombers made up exclusively of Iraqis. "A unit of martyrs named Al-Ansar, belonging to the martyr Brigades of Al-Baraa bin Malek, has been formed. All its members are Iraqis," said an Internet statement, according to AFP.

The statement said the decision to form the unit came "due to strong demand from martyrdom seekers."
Posted by: Dan Darling || 06/22/2005 14:23 || Comments || Link || [0 views] Top|| File under:


Afghanistan/South Asia
Tales from the Crossfire Gazette
Two BNP cadres killed in 'crossfire'
Two BNP cadres were killed in an 'encounter' between Rapid Action Battalion (Rab) and a gang led by the two that also left two Rab men injured at Hajiganj here in the early hours yesterday. Members of Rab-3 also seized foreign arms and ammunition including a Russian SMG (sub machine gun) and an Italian pistol, liquor and bulletproof jackets from their possession.
Just the thing for a night on the town in old Hajiganj
The dead are Fayez Mohammad Rifat Ali Biplob, 33, and Alamgir alias Alam, 34. The injured Rab members are Lt Firoz and Sepoy Asif.
The new writer delivers a great script today, cue the "Cops" theme music; "Bad Boys":
Tipped off that a gang of criminals at a house at Missionpara was preparing to commit crimes, Rab men on Monday night at about 11:00 pm raided the two-storied house owned by Biplop's family, Rab sources said.
Kicking in the door, shining lights in their eyes, slamming them to the floor..
Rab men held Biplop and his elder brother Shamim. They made Biplob ask Alam over phone to come to his house,
"Hello, Alam? Yeah, it's Bip. Listen, can you come over? We need to talk. No, not on the phone. OK, see you soon. Bye.....Ok, he's coming. Can you take that gun out of my ear now, please?"
..and held him as he turned up.
"Hi, Alam, how they hanging? Hands on the wall, you know the drill"
Rab men recovered one Russain SMG with two magazines and 137 bullets, 12 shotgun cartridges and two magazines of pistols from their possession.
Acting on their statement, Rab personnel raided a house on Bangabandhu Avenue at Chashara and seized one Italian 9mm pistol, a magazine and four bullets, three bulletproof jackets, 216 cans of beer and eight bottles of foreign liquor.
"Party time!"
During quizzing, the two admitted to their involvement in extortion, mugging, robbery, arms and drug smuggling, and gave information about their den, said Rab sources.
"Den" ranking somewhere between "hideout" and "lair". Course, ya have to make mastermind before you qualify for a lair.
A Rab team then took Shamim to Nabiganj to search for arms while another team took Biplop and Alam to Isha Khan Fort at Hajiganj.
Shamim, lest we forget, is Bip's older brother. Soon to be "surviving" brother
Accomplices of the two arrestees opened fire on Rab at Hajiganj..
Must have been lurking in the den
..and the latter returned fire.
At one stage, the two arrestees attempted to flee..
"Feet don't fail us now!"
.... but were killed in firing.
"Mother of mercy, is this the end of Biplop? Rosebud.."
Their accomplices then retreated and Rab found their bodies and recovered two revolvers with seven bullets, Rab said.
A local at Hajiganj Bazar, Kazi Michir Ali, told reporters that he heard gunshots when he was going to say prayers at a nearby mosque at dawn.
Gunshots around a mosque, what are the odds?
"I heard someone announcing over microphone from the mosque that Rab and criminals are locked in a gunfight, and asked the locals not to come out of their houses," he said.
"Them devients are shooting it out with the cops again. Keep your turbans down and stay outa da street. That will be all."
Police later sent the bodies to Narayanganj General Hospital morgue for autopsy.
"Paging Dr Quincy. Package for you"
Rab and police said Alam was an accused in an extortion case filed with Bandar Police Station but they could not confirm if Biplop had any criminal records. Biplob was linked to the Awami League cadres during the AL rule and later changed over to BNP camp when it came to power, locals said. The two were found active in BNP processions and public gatherings. They also had photographs with some BNP leaders, lawmakers and even ministers.
Meanwhile, thousands of people gathered to see the bodies of the two cadres and chanted slogans of joy.
"Huzza! Sweetmeats for everyone!"

Rab nabs top criminal, finds arms factory
Rapid Action Battalion (Rab) yesterday unearthed a criminal group-run arms factory at Rangunia in the district and recovered arms, ammunition and arms making instruments following arrest of the gang linchpin.
Tipped off, Rab-7 of Chittagong arrested Nasir Uddin alias Naisya, 34, along with his associate Md Abdus Salam, 42, from Bangalhalia Bazar under Rajesthali upazila in Rangamati on Monday afternoon. Naisya was accused in five cases including one for killing an Ansar commander and ran a large syndicate that smuggled timber
A lumber rustler, Greenpeace will be pleased
and carried out criminal activities including abduction for ransom in the remote hilly areas of Rangunia, Rahesthali and Rajbil in Chittagong, Rangamati and Bandarban districts, sources said.
Following Naisya's confession, Rab went out in search operations taking Naisya and Salam with them and unearthed the arms factory near the house of one Chitsa Marma at Chhipchhari Para (locally known as Marma Para) in an inaccessible area of Rangunia at around 4:00am yesterday.
Guess it wasn't that inaccessible
Rab recovered a newly made single-barrel gun, one LG, twelve bullets of M-16 rifle, one bullet of 303 rifle, six cartridges and huge quantity of arms manufacturing equipment from the arms factory.
"Chhipchhari Para Arms, making quality shutter guns since Thursday"
The recovered instruments include two bench vices, two drill machines, eight large and 160 small springs, sizzles, twenty-two pieces of lead, hole plate, huge quantity of screws, screw-drivers, fifty drill bits, thread-cutter (trimmer), solid punch, clumps, files, pliers, hammers, holders and nails.
What, no lathe?
Naisya and his gang that also included indigenous criminals destroyed forest resources worth around Tk 10 crore in the last one decade, a Rab press release said, adding that the gang also realised huge amount of ransom.
Posted by: Steve || 06/22/2005 10:42 || Comments || Link || [0 views] Top|| File under:

#1  The following is a public service anouncement from the Rapid Action Brigade...

I'll say it again for all you kids out there... Russian submachine guns, Italian handguns and LIQUOR lead to no good!
Ask Fayez and Alamgir alias Alam. Oh, that's right, you can't. Because they're DEAD!
Posted by: tu3031 || 06/22/2005 11:44 Comments || Top||

#2  Sounds like an old doowop song:

Shamim Biplop... da-da-da-da-da-da!
Shamim Biplop... da-da-da-da-da-da!
Posted by: Robert Crawford || 06/22/2005 13:03 Comments || Top||

#3  The recovered instruments include two bench vices, two drill machines, eight large and 160 small springs, sizzles, twenty-two pieces of lead, hole plate, huge quantity of screws, screw-drivers, fifty drill bits, thread-cutter (trimmer), solid punch, clumps, files, pliers, hammers, holders and nails.

Sounds like my Dad's shop behind the house, only not as well equipped.
Posted by: Steve White || 06/22/2005 13:26 Comments || Top||

#4  More stuff on one corner of my garage workbench.

O'course I rarely use the stuff.
Posted by: 3dc || 06/22/2005 15:37 Comments || Top||

#5  Wish I had a workbench. Then again I'd probably put my eye out.
Posted by: Shipman || 06/22/2005 18:15 Comments || Top||

#6  "I'll see that, and raise you an aceteline welding set, two bench saws, a planer, and 40 board feet of 2x12 seasoned hickory."
Posted by: Old Patriot || 06/22/2005 20:52 Comments || Top||


Israel-Palestine
Palestinian Wanted to Boom Hospital
Israel says a 21-year-old Palestinian woman arrested carrying explosives at a Gaza checkpoint planned to blow herself up in an Israeli hospital. Wafa al-Bis was stopped on her way on her way to Beersheba hospital where she was to receive treatment for burns. Ms Bis said on Israeli TV she wanted to be a suicide bomber but then later told foreign journalists the explosives were planted on her without her knowledge.
Happens all the time. I can't guess the number of times I've come home from seeing the doctor and bombs, hand grenades, mortar rounds, artillery shells, who knows what, have just fallen out of my pants. Never even knew they were there. Nope. Nope.
Posted by: Dreadnought || 06/22/2005 10:28 || Comments || Link || [0 views] Top|| File under:

#1  Lovely. The same freak from yesterday.

If anyone ever wants to know why I've gone from "the Palestinians deserve a state too", to "these mutts are the worst pond scum imaginable", I just have to point out Ms Bis and repeat what I read somewhere (can't remember where, dammit!):

The difference between Jews and Palestinians is simple. The Palestinians kill the Jews, and demand to be treated by Jewish doctors when they are injured. And the Jews do it, even though they know the person they are working on is going to go back and try to kill them again once they are healthy. One is motivated by hope, the other by death. Count me in on the side of hope.

Paraphrasing and probably butchering it, but you get the general idea.
Posted by: Desert Blondie || 06/22/2005 12:40 Comments || Top||

#2  After reading this, it sounds like the biggest hospital she was a threat to was a mental hospital.
Posted by: tu3031 || 06/22/2005 12:54 Comments || Top||


Gunfire, Explosions Rattle West Bank Camp
Wonder what they were celebrating, seething, bored about?
BALATA REFUGEE CAMP, West Bank - Palestinian gunmen fired shots and detonated an explosive device Wednesday as Prime Minister Ahmed Qureia left a building in a West Bank refugee camp where he was lecturing militants on the need to restore order to the streets.
Don't think it worked. Maybe add a nice Powerpoint presentation?
Earlier, the militants fired shots at the building from outside while Qureia was speaking inside. The shots were not directly aimed at Qureia and did not appear to be an assassination attempt, and the explosive device went off several hundred yards away from him. Qureia was unharmed but clearly angered by the incident, the latest sign of growing chaos and internal unrest in Palestinian areas.
Sounds like just another day in the West Bank.
One of the gunmen involved in the shootings told The Associated Press he was angry about the way Palestinian authorities had treated his father following his release an Israeli prison after 21 years.
PAY HIM MUCH MONEYS!!! PAY ME MUCH MONEYS TOO!!!
Ordinary Palestinians are growing frustrated with the armed gangs that rule the streets of many of their towns and their increasingly brazen disregard for the law. Palestinian officials say efforts to restore order are complicated by a security service severely weakened by more than four years of Palestinian-Israeli violence. Many of the militants are themselves security officers.
Yeah, I always thought that might lead to problems. But that's just me...
Qureia spoke out forcefully against the lawlessness in the West Bank city of Nablus last week, insisting that security officials do their jobs and maintain order. Hours later, a group of militants raided his empty vacation home in Jericho, demanding jobs in the security forces. They left after an hour, but threatened to shoot anyone who tried to arrest them.
I HATE COPS! MAKE ME ONE!
To emphasize his concerns about security, Qureia moved Wednesday's Cabinet meeting to Nablus. Before the meeting, the prime minister spoke to militants at a sports club in the nearby Balata refugee camp, a hotbed of militant activity, telling them that the lawlessness must end. "This country needs order, needs quiet," he said angrily. As he spoke, shots rang out in the background, startling the prime minister.
Could you speak up? We can't hear you above the shots!
Gunmen outside the building fired in the air, more than 100 yards from Qureia, witnesses said. Others shot directly at the building, but the bullets did not penetrate the wall, they said.
Don't waste the ammo, kids. You might be needing it for the Civil War.
The militants angrily waved their weapons in the streets, while other people tried to calm them down. Qureia's guards stood at the sports club's windows, their weapons trained on the gunmen.
Wonder if they waved?
Later, as Qureia and his entourage, including several Cabinet ministers, left the building, more gunfire erupted and an explosive device went off about 300 yards away from them. None of the officials was injured and Qureia was whisked away."This is part of the deterioration in the security situation and the chaos that we are trying to bring to an end," Deputy Prime Minister Nabil Shaath said.
Yeah. Take your time, do it right...
One of those who shot near the Balata sports club, Mahmoud al-Khatib, told the AP he acted out of anger and frustration at how officials treated his father following his release from Israeli imprisonment."When my dad came out of jail, the Palestinian Authority did not help him with anything," he said.
"Officials live in luxury and we, the ones who gave so much to Palestine, have gotten nothing. I reached a point where I'm willing to kill so I can take back my rights, my father's rights, and the rights of all those like us," he added.
I'll translate. PAY ME, PAY ME, PAY ME!!!
Hours later in the West Bank city of Hebron, about 100 high school students, angry that their physics final exam was too difficult, attacked the education department, throwing stones at the building and burning tires in the streets.
Anything these people AREN'T pissed off about?
The students hurled rocks at some 70 Palestinian police officers, dressed in full riot gear and damaged a fire truck trying to put out the burning tires. The police surrounded the building and fired live bullets in the air to disperse the crowd. No injuries were reported.
I'm tellin ya, save that ammo, boys. You're gonna need it.
The Palestinian Center for Human Rights released a report last week listing a litany of violent incidents among Palestinians from June 9 to June 14 that killed seven people and wounded at least 20. The group said it "is gravely concerned at the continued deterioration in internal security as a consequence of the escalation in the misuse of weapons and security chaos" and called on the Palestinian Authority to restore order.
Could this be progress? They aren't blaming the Jews?
Posted by: tu3031 || 06/22/2005 10:42 || Comments || Link || [0 views] Top|| File under:

#1  "Could this be progress? They aren't blaming the Jews?"

Yes, actually. Sharons plan is working, I think.


Note also - The West Bank included towns, where people lived befor 1948, as well as refugee camps filled with folks who went IN 1948. (in Gaza almost everyone lives in a camp) The camps have always been more militant and less orderly than the town, IIRC. Of course during the second intifada even the towns got violent, but I think the camps are still much harder places to maintain order.
Posted by: liberalhawk || 06/22/2005 11:20 Comments || Top||

#2  Amen. You could add steeped in hate for that well-rounded Paleo.
Posted by: .com || 06/22/2005 11:39 Comments || Top||

#3  That reminds me of a video clip I saw not too long ago from a BBC documentary, I think. It was shown on Fox. The guy is the self-appointed judge, jury, and executioner of so-called "collaborators". He's made a reputation for it. In the interview, he's complaining about the fact that, though he's earned his nickname (Mr Death or whatever) by killing some dozens of unarmed men, the press has repeated the nickname and he thinks it will hurt his chances to get elected to some phreaking PA "office". He was telling the interviewer how "unfair" it was.

Now that's a serious whiner, lol!
Posted by: .com || 06/22/2005 11:55 Comments || Top||

#4  I think you're right, Sharons plan is working. Without any real ability to attack the Israelis, they have to turn on each other.
Posted by: buwaya || 06/22/2005 13:19 Comments || Top||


Afghanistan/South Asia
U.S. pounds Afghan site, 40 dead
U.S. and Afghan forces have killed an estimated 40 enemy soldiers in the south of the Central Asian nation in some of the most intense fighting seen in months. One Afghan police officer was killed, while five U.S. soldiers and two Afghan police officers were slightly wounded in the battle southwest of Deh Chopan, about 200 miles (321 kilometers) southwest of Kabul, the U.S. military said. U.S. jets and attack helicopters were pounding insurgent positions on Wednesday in the mountainous site that is suspected to be a Taliban safe haven. The fighting began when the Afghan and coalition troops came under attack from small arms fire and rocket-propelled grenades while on a search-and-destroy mission as part of Operation Catania, the military said.
"search-and-destroy", I've always been fond of that term.
"This mission is an ongoing effort to take away enemy sanctuaries," said U.S. Army Lt. Col. Jerry O'Hara, Combined Joint Task Force-76 spokesman. "We are not letting up on the enemy and will continue to pursue them until the fighting stops. Coalition and Afghan forces will continue to defeat these Pakistanis militants for as long as necessary to ensure the people of Afghanistan remain free of oppression and tyranny," The Associated Press quoted him as saying.
Bravo! Good idea! Peshawar delenda est!
The United States, with support from coalition forces, invaded Afghanistan in 2001 following the September 11 attacks on America. They suspected the nation was harboring al Qaeda leader Osama bin Laden.
Maybe we suspected that because THEY SAID THEY WERE! Freaking AP moron...
Where do they get these guys?
On Sunday, CIA director Porter Goss said he had an "excellent idea" where bin Laden was hiding, but that the al Qaeda chief would not be caught until weak links in the war on terrorism were strengthened. Goss did not name the country or countries he was referring to.
I wouldn't describe Iran as a "weak link" in the WoT; it's a major player, and doesn't even pretend to be on our side. That leaves Pakland, Soddy Arabia, and Yemen. Soddy's a "weak link" because most of them are on the other side, Pak because they're playing both ends against the middle, and Yemen because they're under Soddy hegemony.
But intelligence experts have long said they believed bin Laden was probably hiding in the rugged mountainous border region of Pakistan and Afghanistan. A U.S.-led force of about 20,000 mostly American troops is still in Afghanistan, pursuing militants along with Afghan forces. Over the past three months, fighting in the south and east has left hundreds dead and sparked fears the Afghan war is widening, rather than winding down.
Sparked "fears" at CNN, I'd reckon, but not particularly within the military. Fighting picks up during the brutal Afghan summer, starts winding down during the brutal Afghan autumn, and dies off to background noise during the brutal Afghan winter.
U.S. and Afghan officials warn things could get worse ahead of parliamentary elections scheduled for September. More than 320 suspected rebels and 29 U.S. troops have been killed since March, AP quoted Afghan and U.S. officials as saying. More than three dozen Afghan police and soldiers also have died, as have more than 100 civilians.
Posted by: Steve || 06/22/2005 10:18 || Comments || Link || [0 views] Top|| File under:

#1  The total is 60 from an unusually charitable BBC. Mook season continues apace. Hurrah.
Posted by: Howard UK || 06/22/2005 10:37 Comments || Top||

#2  CNN referred to them as enemy soldiers, without sarcasm quotes. I am in shock.
Posted by: trailing wife || 06/22/2005 12:17 Comments || Top||

#3  "We are not letting up on the enemy and will continue to pursue them until the fighting stops. Coalition and Afghan forces will continue to defeat these Pakistanis militants for as long as necessary to ensure the people of Afghanistan remain free of oppression and tyranny,"

The AP quotes a soldier as calling them militants. I wonder if this a doctored AP quote (or maybe an AP 'quote').
Posted by: mhw || 06/22/2005 12:20 Comments || Top||

#4  Where do they get these guys?

Journalism schools.
Posted by: Robert Crawford || 06/22/2005 13:05 Comments || Top||

#5  there DOES seem to be a Taliban spring offensive of sorts, but as with past such offensives, it just gives us a chance to kill more of the mofo's.

whether this is strategic progess or not is real hard to tell from here, without a detailed, geographically specific picture of past and current insurgent operations, and many other details, much of which are not public domain.

Still, its always good to kill the mofos, and cheaper by the dozen.
Posted by: liberalhawk || 06/22/2005 14:29 Comments || Top||


Africa: North
Egypt ends manhunt for terror suspect
CAIRO, June 22 (UPI) -- Egyptian security forces stopped a manhunt for a suspected terrorist in a rugged region of the Sinai Peninsula, a security source said Wednesday. The source who spoke to UPI on condition of anonymity said some 2,000 security forces ended the search for Ahmed Saleh Fleifel, the main suspect in the bombing of tourist resorts in Taba which killed 34 people last October. The source said Fleifel managed to escape in the rugged mountainous area after he was sheltered by local Bedouins. The Egyptian authorities started the search operation a week ago during which a gunman and a policeman were killed and four other security forces were wounded when police clashed with armed Bedouins in the region.

In the meantime, the trial of three other suspects in the bombing which claimed the lives of 11 Israeli tourists, is scheduled to begin at the state security court next month. If convicted, the defendants could be sentenced to death.
Posted by: Steve || 06/22/2005 09:57 || Comments || Link || [0 views] Top|| File under:


Iraq-Jordan
Filipino hostage released in Iraq
A Filipino has been released in Iraq after nearly eight months in captivity. Roberto Tarongoy was taken hostage on 1 November from his Baghdad office. He worked as an accountant for a Saudi firm providing catering to Iraq's army. Philippine President Gloria Arroyo said Mr Tarongoy was now with Philippines diplomats and would be flying home at an unspecified date. Mrs Arroyo withdrew the Philippines' troops from Iraq in July 2004, after another Filipino was taken hostage. That hostage, lorry driver Angelo de la Cruz, was subsequently released, but Mrs Arroyo was criticised by the US and other allies.
Mr Tarongoy was taken hostage along with American Roy Hallums, a Nepalese and three Iraqis. Mr Hallums is still being held, but the others have been freed. "Finally, Robert Tarongoy is going home after a long time," Mrs Arroyo told reporters. "He is now in the hands of our Iraq crisis team. They're arranging how Robert Tarongoy can go home," she said. She said Filipino officials had worked overtime to secure his freedom. She said Mr Tarongoy's wife, Ivy, was "overjoyed and deeply grateful for this good news".
Wonder how much the ransom was
Posted by: Steve || 06/22/2005 09:04 || Comments || Link || [1 views] Top|| File under:

#1  Not much, he was a Filipino. The Phil govt is poor. Maybe his Saudi employers paid.
Posted by: buwaya || 06/22/2005 13:20 Comments || Top||

#2  Saudi employers paid?

:)
Posted by: Shipman || 06/22/2005 15:27 Comments || Top||

#3  Waitaminute...the Phils did what was demanded, and they STILL had to wait 8 months AND pay a ransom?

I hope they learned THEIR lesson!
Posted by: Bobby || 06/22/2005 20:46 Comments || Top||

#4  Different guy.
Posted by: buwaya || 06/22/2005 22:04 Comments || Top||

#5  Somebody did. I don't think anybody in the Phils had the money.
Posted by: buwaya || 06/22/2005 22:04 Comments || Top||


Africa: Horn
Rebels 'capture Sudanese troops'
Rebels in north-eastern Sudan say they have captured 20 government troops following clashes near the country's main port on the Red Sea.
A statement signed by an alliance of two groups, including one from Darfur, said they had also seized a significant numbers of weapons.
Both sides say there have been heavy casualties in fighting since Sunday. The Beja Congress, which complains of marginalisation, says it has launched its biggest offensive in years.
Sudan accuses neighbouring Eritrea of backing the Joint Eastern Forces, which include the Justice and Equality Movement (Jem) from Darfur and the Eastern Front. Eritrea denies giving the rebels military support but admits giving them political support and access to the media.
"This is war. It is a real war," said Salah Barqueen from the Beja Congress, one of two groups forming the Eastern Front. The Beja people are backed up by the Free Lions from the region's smaller Rashaida community.
The rebels say they have attacked three garrisons near Tokar, some 120km (75 miles) from Port Sudan, which is vital to Sudan's growing oil industry. Jem leaders are currently involved in peace talks with government officials in the Nigerian capital, Abuja but officials say the fighting has not affected the talks.
Although Darfur is on the other side of the country, inhabitants of both regions complain that they have been ignored by the central government. "Our region lacks hospitals, schools, water, transport systems, everything," says Eastern Front President Musa Mohamed Ahmed.
Jem's headquarters are in Eritrea. Sudan analyst Julie Flint told the BBC's Network Africa programme that Jem has always had a more national outlook than Darfur's other rebel group, the Sudan Liberation Army.
The leader of the southern rebels, John Garang, who this year signed a deal to end 22 years of war, has said he sympathized "with the Darfur and eastern Sudan question" while on a visit to Asmara, reports the Eritrean news agency. Mr Garang is set to become Sudan's vice-president under January's deal.
The clashes are a setback for efforts to bring peace to Sudan, which were boosted at the weekend when a deal was signed between the government and the biggest opposition grouping, the National Democratic Alliance. Eastern rebels were part of the NDA alliance, which has been exiled for more than 15 years.
Posted by: Steve || 06/22/2005 08:56 || Comments || Link || [0 views] Top|| File under:


Afghanistan/South Asia
U.S. spy plane crashes in southwest Asia, military says
BAGHDAD, Iraq (AP) — A U.S. Air Force U-2 spy plane has crashed in southwest Asia, and the status of the pilot was not known, the military said Wednesday.
They are now saying he's dead.
The cause of Tuesday night's crash also was not known, U.S. Central Command in Baghdad said in a brief written statement. One official said the location of the crash was not released because "host nation sensitivities" were involved.
The Central Command's statement used the term "southwest Asia," which can be used as a substitute for describing the Middle East. "The specific location is not releasable due to host nation sensitivities," U.S. Air Force Capt. David W. Small, a Central Command spokesman, said in an e-mail when asked for more information.
Hmmmmmmmmmm...
Posted by: tu3031 || 06/22/2005 08:52 || Comments || Link || [0 views] Top|| File under:

#1  Pakistan????
Posted by: Cheaderhead || 06/22/2005 9:33 Comments || Top||

#2  I care more about the dedicated and professional pilot than the circumstance and location. Aside from the potential tittilation of detail.. how about the pilot? I pray he survived and is recovering.
Posted by: Fun Dung Poo || 06/22/2005 9:35 Comments || Top||

#3  Sorry, FDP. Fox News reported this morning that the pilot was killed.
Posted by: BH || 06/22/2005 9:42 Comments || Top||

#4  Not a good airframe to eject from, but then again what is? Also a lot of bad things have to happen for one to crash. Two things I would bet on are airframe failure or pilot incapacitation. Once one of these beauties lost the entire tail section at take off. These are old birds and maybe the Air Force needs to look more into Global Hawk and retire the Dragon Lady.
Posted by: Cyber Sarge || 06/22/2005 10:22 Comments || Top||

#5  Paranoid as I am, when I recently heard Francis Gary Powers couldn't reach the ejection handles and had to climb out - I wondered if the ejection seat wasn't really an explosion seat, because dead men tell no tales.

It could alo be Iran and a missle hit, no?
Posted by: Bobby || 06/22/2005 10:51 Comments || Top||

#6  Likely based in the UAE.
Posted by: Shipman || 06/22/2005 11:40 Comments || Top||

#7  BAGHDAD, Iraq - A U.S. Air Force U-2 spy plane involved in a mission in Afghanistan crashed while returning to its base in the United Arab Emirates, killing the pilot, the military said Wednesday. U.S. Central Command said the crash occurred in "southwest Asia," a term that can be a substitute for the Middle East.
"The Airmen of the 380th Air Expeditionary Wing mourn the loss of a true American hero in the service of his country," said Col. Darryl Burke, the unit's wing commander.
The wing has been based at the al-Dhafra air base near Abu Dhabi, in the United Arab Emirates, since early 2002. The wing flies various types of aircraft, including aerial refueling tankers. It was visited in August by Gen. Richard Myers, chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff. Burke appointed an interim investigation board to determine the cause of the crash. It was not clear when the results of the investigation would be completed. The location of the crash could not be released "due to host nation sensitivities," U.S. Air Force Capt. David W. Small, a Central Command spokesman, said in an e-mail when asked for more information.
In Washington, Lt. Col. Barry Venable, a Pentagon spokesman, said the plane had completed a mission related to Operation Enduring Freedom and crashed while returning to its base. A U.S. security team was at the site of the crash, he said.


So it crashed in semi-friendly territory. Maybe Pakistan, Saudi, Oman or UAE.
Posted by: Steve || 06/22/2005 11:50 Comments || Top||

#8  Bloomberg news reported that it was Oman, but I don't have a link for that. They said it was supporting efforts in Afghanistan, but it could just as easily have been surveiling Iran, I suppose.
Posted by: Captain Pedantic || 06/22/2005 13:22 Comments || Top||

#9  I just went back to Bloomberg, and they've changed the article so it no longer says where the crash happened. I don't know if the Oman thing was an error or if they realized they weren't supposed to print that. So consider that unconfirmed info!
Posted by: Captain Pedantic || 06/22/2005 13:25 Comments || Top||

#10  I don't think the US has any more pure "U-2" aircraft. Most of them have been replaced with the multirole TR-1. It's basically the same airframe, made a little safer, with a wider mission capability. They're still being manufactured - two a year, by hand - by Lockheed. The TR-1 airframe is newer, but still vulnerable to most of the foibles of the original U-2. We had a squadron of them at RAF Alconbury when I was there in 1986. It's still a dangerous aircraft to try to bail out of.
Posted by: Old Patriot || 06/22/2005 14:18 Comments || Top||

#11  OP download the trial software and give us an expert opinion.
Posted by: Shipman || 06/22/2005 15:24 Comments || Top||

#12  OP, all remaining TR-1s were designated U-2R a few years ago, joining the handful of U2Rs that preceded them. All were redesignated U-2S after fleet-wide updates. The original U-2's, the A through C were quite a bit different in detail, basically smaller and less powerful. The whole series has been out of production since 1989.
AF website- U-2R
Posted by: Atomic Conspiracy || 06/22/2005 18:27 Comments || Top||

#13  AC, I don't doubt your source or your information. Mine came second-hand from the guy that ran the imagery reconnaissance program at Beale up until last year. He was my boss at the 497th, just before I retired. He was an O-3 then, now he's an O-6!
Posted by: Old Patriot || 06/22/2005 20:56 Comments || Top||

#14  OP, as I said, the immediate source is the AF website. Once rebuilt, the TR-1s and surviving U-2Rs would be identical, so there was little point in having two separate designations.
Aviation Week carried articles about the redesignation in 1994 and about the end of production in 1989.
Posted by: Atomic Conspiracy || 06/22/2005 21:56 Comments || Top||


Jihadi training camps become smaller, less public
U.S. counter-terrorism authorities say that the detention of a Lodi, Calif.-based group of Pakistani men this month underscores a serious problem: the Islamabad government's failure to dismantle hundreds of jihadist training camps. Long before the FBI arrested Hamid Hayat and his father, Umer Hayat, and accused the son of attending one of the camps, law enforcement and intelligence officials were watching the Pakistan-based training sites with increasing anxiety. Technically, they say, the Pakistani government was probably right when it declared this month that the younger Hayat could not have received training at a "jihadist" camp near Rawalpindi since that is the home to Pakistan's military and its feared intelligence agency, Inter-Services Intelligence, or ISI. But that's because the Pakistani officials were referring to the "old" kind of Al Qaeda camp shown endlessly on TV, in which masked jihadists run around in broad daylight, detonating explosives, firing automatic weapons and practicing kidnappings, these officials say.

Instead of large and visible camps, would-be terrorists are being recruited, radicalized and trained in a vast system of smaller, under-the-radar jihadist sites. And the effort is no longer overseen by senior Al Qaeda operatives as it was in Afghanistan, but by at least three of Pakistan's largest militant groups, which are fueled by a shared radical fundamentalist Islamic ideology. The militant groups have long maintained close ties to Osama bin Laden and his global terrorist network, according to those officials and several unpublicized U.S. government reports. The groups themselves - Harkat-ul-Mujahedin, or HuM; Jaish-e-Mohammed; and Lashkar-e-Taiba - have officially been banned in Pakistan since 2002 and have been formally designated as terrorist organizations by the U.S. government. That has prompted occasional crackdowns by Islamabad, but the groups merely change their names and occasionally their leadership and resume operations, authorities say. The groups wield tremendous political influence, are well-funded and are said to have tens of thousands of fanatical followers, including a small but unknown number of Americans who have entered the system after first enrolling at Pakistan-based Islamic schools, or madrasas. U.S. officials also accuse them of complicity in many of the terrorist attacks against American and allied interests in Pakistan and other assaults in the disputed Kashmir region.

For years, the ISI itself has worked closely with the groups in training Pakistan's own network of militants to fight ongoing conflicts in Kashmir and elsewhere, and to protect the country's interests in neighboring Afghanistan. The militant groups also derive tremendous influence from their affiliations with increasingly powerful fundamentalist political parties in Pakistan. Until recently, the United States did not press the issue with its ally, believing that those trained in the Pakistani camps would be sent only to fight in Kashmir and other regional conflicts. But that's not the case anymore, according to U.S. and South Asian intelligence agencies. The U.S. military presence in Iraq and Afghanistan and Bin Laden's campaign to forge a global jihad have caused many of the Pakistan-based terrorists to redirect their rage toward U.S. targets, both abroad and perhaps even on American soil, according to the intelligence cited by numerous U.S. One of the men believed most responsible for this shift is Maulana Fazlur Rehman Khalil, a former leader of HuM, who has been connected to some of the detained men in the Lodi case. The group previously known as HuM is now called Jamiat-ul-Ansar, and Khalil continues to play an important but less public role in it, U.S. officials said. They also believe Khalil remains closely aligned with Pakistani intelligence services and senior Al Qaeda leaders.

U.S. intelligence officials believe that over the last two years in particular, the three militant groups and some smaller ones have taken in thousands of Al Qaeda soldiers and senior operatives as well as Taliban officials who fled Afghanistan and Pakistan's border areas to escape the U.S.-Pakistani dragnet. During that time, the camps have also become magnets for would-be terrorists aspiring to commit attacks against U.S. interests, the American officials and other experts say. The result, they say, is that it has become nearly impossible to get a handle on what they fear is a serious and growing terrorism problem in Pakistan. "We once knew who the enemy was and what groups were the enemy. And it's become much more difficult to discern that now," said Bruce Hoffman, a chairman of the Rand Corp. and a counter-terrorism consultant to the U.S. government. "There is tremendous overlap, and that is the problem, between Bin Laden and Al Qaeda, the Pakistani authorities and the Kashmiri groups," said Hoffman, who has observed the Pakistani militant groups for decades. "The overt connections may have been broken but there are wheels within wheels, and who the group actually is affiliated with is hard to tell."

The existence of the camps and their ties to Pakistan's militant organizations pose delicate diplomatic problems for the Bush administration. Publicly, the administration has praised Musharraf for his help in the U.S.-led fight against terrorism, particularly for helping to apprehend more than 700 suspected Al Qaeda members, including some of the group's most senior leaders. But privately, some U.S. officials and counter-terrorism experts say Musharraf has not done enough to clamp down on militant organizations and that his government's reliance on those groups for support has allowed the camps to flourish as never before. "The Pakistan military and intelligence [agency] are well-aligned with the radical fundamentalists," said a senior U.S. counter-terrorism official. "Musharraf, he's in [a] pickle, he's trying to play it at both ends." One Washington-based senior Pakistani official complained about such criticism. "We've lost more people in the war on terrorism than anybody. We've suffered badly in taking these people on and continue to do so," the official said. "So why would we play a double game?"
Posted by: Omoluger Ebbatle8086 || 06/22/2005 00:21 || Comments || Link || [0 views] Top|| File under:

#1  For years, the ISI itself has worked closely with the groups in training Pakistan's own network of militants to fight ongoing conflicts in Kashmir and elsewhere
Duh.
So why would we play a double game?
Because you really support the jihadis, but don't want Uncle Sam to bust your ass just yet.
Posted by: Spot || 06/22/2005 8:38 Comments || Top||

#2  Iff what the USMC General says about many so- called dedicated Islamists actually being PAID to attack US milfors, methinks the camps are about to lose of the young, dumb, and full of camel curds to sheer ideo-hypocrisy!?
Posted by: JosephMendiola || 06/22/2005 8:45 Comments || Top||

#3  I'm not sure I understand what you are saying but the practice of 'mujahideen' being paid to fight is quite common. The Palestinians received money on a sliding scale depending on the severity of the attack, with suicide bombings getting the most money.

The Jihadis in Kashmir have been mercenaries from the beginning, they can receive hundreds of thousands of Rupees from the ISI, plus incentives for killing Indian troops.

The Algerian Mujahideen are paid from the proceeds of smuggling, the Chechens from drug money, the Abu Sayyaf from the proceeds of kidnappings etc.
Posted by: Paul Moloney || 06/22/2005 9:30 Comments || Top||

#4  OK... so what. Some find hunting snipe more fun than hunting turkey.
Posted by: Fun Dung Poo || 06/22/2005 9:33 Comments || Top||

#5  The Pakistani jihadis are also paid from the proceeds of ISI backed drug trafficking (afghani heroin to europe).
Posted by: john || 06/22/2005 15:55 Comments || Top||

#6  So we have like "Jihadi Bed and Breakfasts" now?
That's okay. Blow them up too.
Posted by: tu3031 || 06/22/2005 15:59 Comments || Top||


Iraq-Jordan
Insurgents hit water supply
The west of the Iraqi capital suffered from severe water shortages Tuesday amid searing summer temperatures following an attack against a water purification station. The station in the northern suburb of Taji was "sabotaged by terrorists, affecting the distribution of drinking water on the west bank of the Tigris river which runs through the capital, a government statement said.

An official from the Baghdad water company who wished to remain anonymous said the station had been hit by anti-tank rockets late Saturday and that one million people had been left without water as temperatures climbed to 41 degrees (almost 106 F). "This attack has caused lots of problems for Baghdad residents, especially for innocent children and the elderly who need a lot of water at this time of year," the statement said.

Baghdad, which has around 6.5 million inhabitants, faces repeated water shortages owing to obsolete installations. While around 97 percent of homes and businesses are hooked up to the city's water system, only 63 percent receive water on a regular basis, according to UN figures. "The aim of this attack is to make Iraqis' lives more difficult," the government said.

Repairs had begun on Sunday and normal supplies were expected to resume on Wednesday. At the capital's Yarmuk hospital, tanker trucks helped ensure an adequate supply of water. In the affected neighborhoods, firetrucks distributed water but warned residents not to drink it, while many crossed the Tigris to stay with friends or relatives.
Posted by: Spavirt Pheng6042 || 06/22/2005 01:56 || Comments || Link || [0 views] Top|| File under:

#1  Wow, clever.
Posted by: gromgorru || 06/22/2005 8:39 Comments || Top||

#2  Who ever is think up these attacks for the jihadists needs to continue. These only serve to turn the Iraqi people against them even further.
Posted by: Grins Sluper5274 || 06/22/2005 8:41 Comments || Top||

#3  It's ok if they hit the water supply for women and children. They are against the United States. That makes them liberal and progressive and genetically superior.
Posted by: 2b || 06/22/2005 8:49 Comments || Top||

#4  I caught a minute of CNN this morning and the anchor was speaking to a reporter re the water issue.

I swear the anchor sounded gleeful as he asked,"Do the people blame the United States for this?"

He also seemed a little bummed when she said, no, basically they're teed off with the mayor and city gov't for not repairing the damage.

It sounds like they're becoming (small d) democrats! I hope the water is restored ASAP.
Posted by: JDB || 06/22/2005 9:09 Comments || Top||

#5  I caught a minute of CNN this morning and the anchor was speaking to a reporter re the water issue.

I swear the anchor sounded gleeful as he asked,"Do the people blame the United States for this?"

He also seemed a little bummed when she said, no, basically they're teed off with the mayor and city gov't for not repairing the damage.

It sounds like they're becoming (small d) democrats! I hope the water is restored ASAP.
Posted by: JDB || 06/22/2005 9:10 Comments || Top||

#6  I caught a minute of CNN this morning and the anchor was speaking to a reporter re the water issue.

I swear the anchor sounded gleeful as he asked,"Do the people blame the United States for this?"

He also seemed a little bummed when she said, no, basically they're teed off with the mayor and city gov't for not repairing the damage.

It sounds like they're becoming (small d) democrats! I hope the water is restored ASAP.
Posted by: JDB || 06/22/2005 9:10 Comments || Top||

#7  I caught a minute of CNN this morning and the anchor was speaking to a reporter re the water issue.

I swear the anchor sounded gleeful as he asked,"Do the people blame the United States for this?"

He also seemed a little bummed when she said, no, basically they're teed off with the mayor and city gov't for not repairing the damage.

It sounds like they're becoming (small d) democrats! I hope the water is restored ASAP.
Posted by: JDB || 06/22/2005 9:10 Comments || Top||

#8  becoming?
Posted by: Mrs. Davis || 06/22/2005 9:14 Comments || Top||

#9  w00t! I think 4 is a new record - excepting Boris & Co, of course!
Posted by: .com || 06/22/2005 9:33 Comments || Top||

#10  Water. A new low for the bad guys. At least they didn't poison it....
Posted by: Bobby || 06/22/2005 10:35 Comments || Top||

#11  I once had a special mouse I milled down the tang on....
Posted by: Shipman || 06/22/2005 11:49 Comments || Top||

#12  you be talky about the clicky driver?
Posted by: mouseyme || 06/22/2005 12:55 Comments || Top||

#13  Yep, turns out it was an illegal modification, I had to register it with Alcohol, Tobacco and Fun stuff.

Posted by: Shipman || 06/22/2005 15:31 Comments || Top||


Israel-Palestine
PM Qurei flees West Bank gunfire
Disgruntled Palestinian gunmen have shot at a building in a West Bank refugee camp where Palestinian Prime Minister Ahmed Qurei was speaking. Mr Qurei was not harmed but had to flee the Balata camp in Nablus amid more gunfire. An explosive device also went off, but nobody was injured. Militants at the Balata camp have expressed their frustration at the Palestinian Authority in the past.

But this does not appear to be an assassination attempt. The incident appears to have been one more example of the law and order problems that plague the Palestinian territories, says the BBC's Alan Johnston. "This is the kind of chaos we do not want," Mr Qurei, who was accompanied by several cabinet ministers, said after the shooting. "They want to impose their will but we will not bend to them," he added.
Posted by: Howard UK || 06/22/2005 05:39 || Comments || Link || [0 views] Top|| File under:

#1  But this does not appear to be an assassination attempt. The incident appears to have been one more example of the law and order problems that plague the Palestinian territories, says the BBC's Alan Johnston

Thanks Alan. For a moment there I was worried
Posted by: gromgorru || 06/22/2005 7:45 Comments || Top||

#2  "They want to impose their will but we will not bend to them," he added.

An outright lie if ever I saw one.
Posted by: Bomb-a-rama || 06/22/2005 9:48 Comments || Top||

#3  "This is the kind of chaos we do not want,"
We want the other kind.
Posted by: Shipman || 06/22/2005 15:33 Comments || Top||


Iraq-Jordan
Warblogger CPT Chuck Z. Injured
This is Carren writing to tell Chuck's faithful readers that he has been injured, but is in stable condition. I won't give details for fear of misinformation (and the fact that this can be accessed by millions of people).

In general... Chuck sustained shrapnel wounds to his legs and arms from an IED. He and an Iraqi civilian were the only ones injured. The Good Lord above was looking out for him in a BIG way! He is probably in Landstuhl (sp?), Germany by now and will be back in the states in the next week to 10 days (as far as I know right now). He still has his eyesite and has not sustained internal injuries that I know of. I have not talked to him yet... they have kept him sedated for his trip to Germany, as well as for pain management. He also has some injuries to his face, but I think it is just bruised/scratched up quite a bit.

On the homefront, we are all hangin in there. I have incredible support from family and friends and I feel very blessed. The fact that Chuck is still alive makes this bearable, all things considered. I hope to hear from him in the next 24-48 hours. I will keep you all posted as often as possible.

I ask your prayers for Chuck... strength, courage, quick recovery, his mental state, etc. For me, I just need strength to get through the unknown road ahead. The hardest part so far was telling our 5 year old son Creighton that his daddy was injured. He has a lot of questions, obviously, and I answer them the best way I know how. He is too smart to lie to, but definitely does not need all the details.
Posted by: Ebbavitch Speaper1208 || 06/22/2005 00:00 || Comments || Link || [0 views] Top|| File under:

#1  Sorry to hear this, been stoping by his blog everyday. God's blessing for a speedy recovery CPT Chuck and re-union with your family. Thanks for the service and sacrifice for our country.

Posted by: Red Dog || 06/22/2005 2:18 Comments || Top||

#2  Thank you, Sir, and God bless you. We all pray for a full recovery and a long and healthy life with your family. Strength to your family.

[sigh] Here I am, sitting at a keyboard, while he's out there fighting our enemies. I tell Myself that I'm making the weapons they use to win, but...
Posted by: Jackal || 06/22/2005 9:40 Comments || Top||

#3  CPT... I pray a speedy recovery! Thanks for your service to the the United States and free people everywhere! I was thanked many times upon my return from OIF & Desert Storm, and it is an honor to pass that onto you sir! Good luck & God bless!
Posted by: Fun Dung Poo || 06/22/2005 9:45 Comments || Top||

#4  Thank you for your sacrifice my Firehouse wife and four children wish you a speedy recovery.

Brian
Posted by: Rightwing || 06/22/2005 10:39 Comments || Top||

#5  Firehouse, wife. I have no idea what a firehouse wife is.

sorry.

B.
Posted by: Rightwing || 06/22/2005 10:40 Comments || Top||

#6  Me either rightwing. But it does make for an interesting google.
Posted by: Shipman || 06/22/2005 12:08 Comments || Top||

#7  Prayers and special requests to God for health, healing, and happiness for the good Captain and his family, not only now but for all their lives. It's often not the immediate effect that's the hardest to live with.

On a separate note, will someone please post a link to Chuck's website? It's one I haven't found. I'd like to read it.
Posted by: Old Patriot || 06/22/2005 14:33 Comments || Top||

#8  http://tcoverride.blogspot.com/

CPT Chuck
Posted by: BrerRabbit || 06/22/2005 15:41 Comments || Top||

#9  OP:
Isn't the link at the title above the blog? At least the entries are posted by "Chuck." Unless it's a different Chuck.
Posted by: Jackal || 06/22/2005 15:42 Comments || Top||


Israel-Palestine
Israel arrests 52 Palestinians
Israel arrested 52 Islamic Jihad activists on Tuesday in its first big crackdown against militants since a February cease-fire, abandoning a policy of restraint toward the militant group and clouding an already troubled meeting between Israeli and Palestinian leaders. Israeli Defense Minister Shaul Mofaz said the military changed tack because the Palestinian Authority has been "ineffectual." "When we found out that the Islamic Jihad was carrying out acts of terror and wasn't adhering to the truce then there was no choice but to take resolute action," Mofaz said. "That activity will continue everywhere, and at all times."
Posted by: Fred || 06/22/2005 00:00 || Comments || Link || [0 views] Top|| File under:


Africa: North
Rebels kill 2 Algerian soldiers, wound 11
ALGIERS - Algerian militants, suspected of ties to Al Qaeda, have killed two soldiers and wounded 11 others in the latest attacks on the authorities, newspapers reported on Tuesday.

A soldier died and eight others were wounded on Monday in a bomb explosion believed to have been planted by the Salafist Group for Preaching and Combat (GSPC) in the Boumerdes province, some 50 km (30 miles) east of Algiers, Liberte newspaper said. Another soldier was killed and three more were wounded on Sunday when suspected militants attacked a military convoy during a search operation in the area, newspapers said.

Authorities were not available for comment. The attacks came only days after reports that six Yemeni students were arrested in the east of the country on suspicion of belonging to an unnamed Al Qaeda-linked network.
Posted by: Steve White || 06/22/2005 00:00 || Comments || Link || [0 views] Top|| File under:

#1  They are not rebels. They are the result of bands of crimminals who eventually cloaked themselves with a snazzy title and garbed themselves as funamental Islamists with a poli-religious excuse. They are not rebels.. maybe rebel-like. They are an organized crimminal element pursuing self-gratification using Islam as a tool to rationalize their crimminal behavior, recruit replacements, weaken public resolve against their crimes, errode muslim support for the inept government of Algeria, get respect (fear) from other crimminal elements, free publicity at the expense of the innocent, and feel more self-empowered. They are murdering thugs and blasphemous Islam pretenders... nothing less and nothing more.
Posted by: Fun Dung Poo || 06/22/2005 9:30 Comments || Top||

#2  Nicely said, Fun Dung Poo.
Posted by: trailing wife || 06/22/2005 12:23 Comments || Top||


Afghanistan/South Asia
Security agencies trace alleged militant in plot against Khalilzad
"Legume! My cape!"
Security agencies are looking for information about three Pakistani nationals arrested in Kabul on charges of plotting to kill outgoing US Ambassador Zalmay Khalilzad, a security official said on Tuesday. "We have succeeded in reaching the relatives of one of the arrested Pakistanis and interviewed his father. We are now in a position to know a little about the whole issue," the official, who wished not to be named, told Daily Times.
This should be good. Want to bet he's pure as the driven snow, innocent as a babe in arms?
No takers here.
The intelligence agencies met Sareer Khan, the father of arrested Pakistani national Murad Khan, who was charged with plotting to kill the US envoy. Murad Khan moved to Landikotal, a town in Khyber Agency, in search of a labour job recently, his father Sareer told security agencies. "Last Saturday, he went to Torkham and crossed the border without travel documents. He was arrested in Jalalabad and not in the Laghman province," a close relative of Murad Khan told Daily Times. "We suspect he crossed the border seeking employment as many Pakistanis are going to Afghanistan where they can find well-paying jobs as labourers," the relative said. "Our information is he was arrested in Jalalabad. That is for sure," he added.
So you see, he couldn't have had anything to do with it...
Murad Khan's father was invited to meet top security officials in Peshawar today (Wednesday), the security official said.
... to work out some sort of a story...
Sareer Khan was a resident of a Peshawar suburb but moved to Mohmand Agency a few months ago. "Murad Khan's father is a farmer and the family has no link with any extremist group," the relative said.
"So obviously he's not involved..."
"Murad Khan used to visit his father's home every Sunday but last Sunday (June 19) he did not come because he went to Jalalabad. One can judge by his face that such an innocent man could not have been part of a plot to kill a VVIP in Afghanistan."
Ahah! The old "lookit dat face!" argument...

This article starring:
MURAD KHANal-Qaeda
Posted by: Fred || 06/22/2005 00:00 || Comments || Link || [0 views] Top|| File under:


Iraq-Jordan
Former Saddam Aide Tariq Aziz Testifies
Tariq Aziz, Iraq's foreign minister under Saddam Hussein, was questioned Tuesday about his alleged role in mass killings prior to the regime's ouster, his lawyer said. The four-hour questioning session by a special war crimes tribunal focused on the 1987-88 Anfal campaign, a depopulation scheme in which hundreds of thousands of Kurds were killed or expelled from northern Iraq on Saddam's orders, said Badee Izzat Aref, Aziz's lawyer.

Aziz has been jailed since he surrendered in April 2003. "He denied all the charges and he was very calm and told them that there was no evidence for these accusations," Aref told The Associated Press. The lawyer's comments broke a gag order he had signed earlier with the Iraqi Special Tribunal, but he called the order an "illegal request" and said he planned to challenge it. Aziz, 69, referred to Saddam as "president" and "fearless leader Saddam Hussein" during his testimony, Aref said, adding that the panel also called in Saddam's former vice president, Taha Yasin Ramadan, moments before Aziz entered. Ramadan refused to answer questions because his lawyer was not present, Aref said.
Posted by: Fred || 06/22/2005 00:00 || Comments || Link || [0 views] Top|| File under:

#1  "...because his lawyer was not present..."

Just arrest the lawyer and produce him as needed. Problem solved.
Posted by: PBMcL || 06/22/2005 1:08 Comments || Top||

#2  Lol, PBMcL! That's solid logic!
Posted by: .com || 06/22/2005 2:29 Comments || Top||

#3  no evidence for these accusations

except for that pesky aspect of all of those dead bodies...but other than that.
Posted by: 2b || 06/22/2005 7:34 Comments || Top||

#4  Someone needs to point out to these guys that the first one to cut a deal gets to live.
Posted by: Steve || 06/22/2005 15:22 Comments || Top||

#5  With an open insurgency or terrorist movement they are likely afraid that first to talk looses their family....
Posted by: 3dc || 06/22/2005 15:51 Comments || Top||



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Two weeks of WOT
Wed 2005-06-22
  Qurei flees West Bank gunfire
Tue 2005-06-21
  Saudi 'cop killers' shot dead
Mon 2005-06-20
  Afghan Officials Stop Khalizad Assassination Plot
Sun 2005-06-19
  Senior Saudi Security Officer Killed In Drive-By Shooting
Sat 2005-06-18
  U.S. Mounts Offensive Near Syria
Fri 2005-06-17
  Calif. Father, Son Charged in Terror Ties
Thu 2005-06-16
  Captured: Abu Talha, Mosul's Most-Wanted
Wed 2005-06-15
  Hostage Douglas Wood rescued
Tue 2005-06-14
  Bomb kills 22 in Iraq bank queue
Mon 2005-06-13
  Terror group in Syria seeks Islamic states
Sun 2005-06-12
  Eight Killed by Bomb Blasts in Iran
Sat 2005-06-11
  Paleo security forces shoot it out with hard boyz
Fri 2005-06-10
  Arab lawyers join forces to defend Saddam Hussein
Thu 2005-06-09
  Italy hostage released in Kabul
Wed 2005-06-08
  California father and son linked al-Qaeda, arrested

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