In his Washington Times column, Arnaud de Borchgrave begins by asking us to "Imagine a world where Russia and the European Union of 25 nations, and Russia and China, and the EU and China, all find more in common with each other than with the United States." Frequent readers of this space will recognize that I do that indeed. The trouble being that it isn't entirely an effort of the imagination, and while de Borchgrave says, "Unimaginable, you correctly say," he goes on to provide a portion of the evidence of the potential anti-U.S. entente....
#1
Ah...Frog dreams. Never happen. Despite all the pissing and moaning, money talks. There is far to much of it to be made here. Besides, the US is the country on earth you can rely to do the right thing consistantly, even if its after all other options have been exhausted (Hat tip, Winston).
Keep dreaming.
#2
I'm not an isolationist - but the beauty of a country as big as ours is that we are like Russia or China. We can always say, hey, nice to see ya - we don't need ya and we don't wanna be ya.
#3
If any of the above mentioned countries want to try and feed the world go ahead. WIth out the US and Canada most of the rest of the world would face a limited and frugal diet.
Yemen and France have signed a military cooperation agreement providing for joint exercises, an exchange of intelligence and the supply of French military equipment to Yemen, the French Defence Minister said on Sunday.
Looks like Yemen is finding Europe a little more comfortable to side with...
The agreement Michele Alliot-Marie inked with General Abdallah Ali Alaiwa specifies that the six gunboats France had earlier supplied to the Yemeni coastguard will be equipped. The French minister who visited Yemen upon an invitation by president Ali Abdullah Saleh pointed out that under the accord, joint exercises would take place between the two countries naval forces and special forces.
That's because the French navy rules the seas...
The agreement also provides for setting up radars and other military equipment on the island of Meon in Bab al-Mandab strait in the Red Sea. The equipment will enable Yemeni and French forces based in nearby Djibouti to cooperate in fighting drug and arms smuggling, and terrorism. She said in a press conference that Yemen and France's views towards several strategic world affairs were similar. "We have got today a similar will to fight terrorism and weapons of mass destruction as well as trade of weapons and drugs," she said. She also said that their military presence in the region is not competitive to the US existence but rather complementary.
Posted by: Fred ||
03/04/2005 00:00:00 AM ||
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Britain faces a potential terrorist threat from "very many" Muslim men who returned to Britain after spending time in training camps in Afghanistan, the Commissioner of the Metropolitan Police said yesterday.
Sir Ian Blair, whose force, with MI5, leads anti-terrorism work in Britain, was asked if he supported the assertion of the Prime Minister earlier this week that there were "several hundred people in the UK plotting terror attacks".
The commissioner told LBC radio in London: "Yes, I am aware of the fact that there are very many people who came back from the camps in Afghanistan and who are therefore potentially a threat to the United Kingdom.
"And I agree with the Prime Minister's assessment, on that basis, that there are hundreds of people who came back from the camps and are now in the United Kingdom, and that is a very dangerous issue for us all."
Scotland Yard sources made clear Sir Ian was referring to training camps run by al-Qa'eda and the Taliban regime in Afghanistan, which were destroyed in the military campaign by American and British forces after the attacks on New York and Washington in September 2001.
Security chiefs have said privately for some time that the radicalising influence of the "jihadists" who attended the camps and went to Muslim-related conflicts in Bosnia, Chechnya and Kashmir is at the heart of the threat to Britain.
Saajit Badat, from Gloucester, who admitted plotting to blow up an airliner with a shoe bomb, spent time in the camps.
In the radio interview, Sir Ian also supported the comments made earlier this week by Hazel Blears, Home Office minister, that Muslims would be disproportionately affected by anti-terrorist stops and searches by police.
"I think that Hazel is right to say it and I have said something similar in the past," Sir Ian said. "The fact is the terrorism regulations around stop and search do not require individual suspicion, they're much more akin to searches around an airport.
"In this case, while I am very concerned about the Muslim community's sense of belonging, we do have to accept that the events around the Gloucester shoe bomber do show us that there are people within that community who misguidedly, and entirely in conflict with the values of Islam, are prepared to use violence against the United Kingdom.
"Therefore we have to do something with this and I think there would be a much greater outcry if we did absolutely nothing and part of London disappeared in smoke."
At the home affairs select committee on Tuesday, Miss Blears told MPs: "The threat is most likely to come from those people associated with an extreme form of Islam, or who are falsely hiding behind Islam. It means that some of our counter-terrorism powers will be disproportionately experienced by the Muslim community. I think that is the reality and I think we should recognise that."
The "disproportionality" argument on anti-terrorism stops and searches, which do not require police suspicion and are aimed in part at disruption, is based on calculations that Asians are stopped in higher numbers than their proportion of the population would merit.
However, Met figures show that the proportion of London stops involving Asian people fell between 2002/3 and 2003/4.
⢠A court hearing an attempt by the US government to extradite a British man accused of terrorist offences involving American websites inciting the murder of American forces in Afghanistan and urging Muslims to fight a holy war, was adjourned yesterday.
The hearing wants to establish whether there is a "real risk" that Babar Ahmad, 30, from Tooting, south London, could be transferred from US civilian courts to the American military justice system.
His lawyers argued at Bow Street magistrates' court in London that, if he were to be designated an "enemy combatant", he could be held indefinitely without trial in a military prison or put before a military tribunal, in breach of the human rights which underpin extradition law.
Senior District Judge Timothy Workman said the issue was "clearly a matter of considerable concern and must be resolved".
Posted by: tipper ||
03/04/2005 10:11:34 AM ||
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#1
The British: who have invented, and are still assisting, the world's largest terrorist organization = "Palestinian Nation"; can be considered the midwife of Moslem terrorirsm.
If you sow wind...
#9
stop taking it personally. It's not directed at normal people like you two. It's not like we don't make fun of our own loons here at home too. But your PC crowd does seem to get more respect. Maybe it's the BBC's fault.
#10
If I recall correctly, gromgorru is Israeli, so he may well be taking the whole thing personally. But it does still sound like the people who claim the 9/11 victims deserved their fate.
Five working-class women demanding justice for the murder of their brother by the IRA last night wrung an unprecedented concession from its political wing when Gerry Adams announced that he had handed over the names of fellow republicans to a police body. The Sinn Fein president — named in recent weeks by the Irish Government as a member of the Provisional IRA's seven-member ruling Army Council — said that he had passed the names of seven party members to the Police Ombudsman of Northern Ireland.
The move comes after allegations by the sisters of Robert McCartney, 33, that the Roman Catholic father of two children was murdered in a pub by members of the IRA who then warned witnesses to stay silent. The McCartney sisters have refused to be silent, despite their roots in the close-knit republican stronghold of Short Strand, East Belfast, and called publicly on the IRA to give up the killers. On Sunday they staged the first demonstration in the community against the IRA's paramilitary rule of law.
The family pressure, widely supported at republican grassroots level, on Sinn Fein and the IRA to take action against members who have been tarnished as common criminals by their actions brought a breakthrough last night: the acceptance of the authority of Northern Ireland's policing arrangements for the first time. Until now that had eluded the best efforts of Tony Blair, Bertie Ahern, the Irish Prime Minister, and even intense political input from the United States.
In a statement Mr Adams acknowledged the profound damage to the republican cause wrought by Mr McCartney's murder a month ago. "I am deeply angry about the alleged involvement of a number of republicans in the killing of Robert McCartney," he said. "I believe I am speaking for the broad republican constituency in publicly articulating my outrage and anger at what has happened. All of those involved in this horrific incident must make themselves fully accountable for their actions. Nothing short of this is acceptable."
Giving his first full account of the events, he admitted that he had met the dead man's sisters. "At a meeting on Thursday, February 24, the family gave me a list of people who they allege were involved. As party president, I immediately instructed the leadership of Sinn Fein in Belfast to establish if any of those named by the family were members of Sinn Fein. I was informed that seven of those named are members of Sinn Fein. All were immediately suspended from the party. This is on a without-prejudice basis." He added that they would remain suspended "pending the outcome of the legal process". "If any of these seven are found to have been involved in the events surrounding the death of Robert McCartney, or if they do not provide truthful accounts as the McCartney family have requested, Sinn Fein will take further "disciplinary action to expel these individuals," he said.
In an address in Dublin last night the Catholic Archbishop Sean Brady paid tribute to the courage and the determination of Mr McCartney's family. He added: "It is not good enough; it is not consistent with the principle of freedom, for people to present this information in a way which cannot be used to secure a conviction. What is certainly becoming clearer every day is that a fundamental shift is taking place in the peace process. The language of constructive ambiguity and moral murk has had its day."
Posted by: Bulldog ||
03/04/2005 4:45:12 AM ||
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#1
The Short Strand is a small Catholic area - perhaps a dozen streets surrounded by Protestant East Belfast. I knew well a McCartney from the area and it was an Official IRA hold out when the Provos took over West Belfast. My point - when you know the places and people involved, abstract ideas and principles suddenly become more personal.
#2
These women are incredibly brave - however, I doubt they'll be living in Short Strand much longer once the fuss has died down.
Posted by: Howard UK ||
03/04/2005 7:36 Comments ||
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#3
Everything Adams does provides more evidence he is a terrorist.
Posted by: Mrs. Davis ||
03/04/2005 7:44 Comments ||
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#4
This is evidence of something I have suspected for a long time. That in Northern Ireland, the vast majority of Roman Catholics, though sympathetic to the cause of Irish unification, abhore the violent B.S. of Sinn Fein, and would like to go about their lives without being watched by a defacto secret police who dispatch those who get "out of line"...
#5
In a statement Mr Adams acknowledged the profound damage to the republican cause wrought by Mr McCartneyâs murder a month ago. âI am deeply angry about the alleged involvement of a number of republicans in the killing of Robert McCartney...â
Britain faces a potential terrorist threat from "very many" Muslim men who returned to Britain after spending time in training camps in Afghanistan, the Commissioner of the Metropolitan Police said yesterday. Sir Ian Blair, whose force, with MI5, leads anti-terrorism work in Britain, was asked if he supported the assertion of the Prime Minister earlier this week that there were "several hundred people in the UK plotting terror attacks". The commissioner told LBC radio in London: "Yes, I am aware of the fact that there are very many people who came back from the camps in Afghanistan and who are therefore potentially a threat to the United Kingdom. "And I agree with the Prime Minister's assessment, on that basis, that there are hundreds of people who came back from the camps and are now in the United Kingdom, and that is a very dangerous issue for us all."
Scotland Yard sources made clear Sir Ian was referring to training camps run by al-Qa'eda and the Taliban regime in Afghanistan, which were destroyed in the military campaign by American and British forces after the attacks on New York and Washington in September 2001. Security chiefs have said privately for some time that the radicalising influence of the "jihadists" who attended the camps and went to Muslim-related conflicts in Bosnia, Chechnya and Kashmir is at the heart of the threat to Britain. Saajit Badat, from Gloucester, who admitted plotting to blow up an airliner with a shoe bomb, spent time in the camps.
In the radio interview, Sir Ian also supported the comments made earlier this week by Hazel Blears, Home Office minister, that Muslims would be disproportionately affected by anti-terrorist stops and searches by police. "I think that Hazel is right to say it and I have said something similar in the past," Sir Ian said. "The fact is the terrorism regulations around stop and search do not require individual suspicion, they're much more akin to searches around an airport. In this case, while I am very concerned about the Muslim community's sense of belonging, we do have to accept that the events around the Gloucester shoe bomber do show us that there are people within that community who misguidedly, and entirely in conflict with the values of Islam, are prepared to use violence against the United Kingdom. Therefore we have to do something with this and I think there would be a much greater outcry if we did absolutely nothing and part of London disappeared in smoke."
At the home affairs select committee on Tuesday, Miss Blears told MPs: "The threat is most likely to come from those people associated with an extreme form of Islam, or who are falsely hiding behind Islam. It means that some of our counter-terrorism powers will be disproportionately experienced by the Muslim community. I think that is the reality and I think we should recognise that." The "disproportionality" argument on anti-terrorism stops and searches, which do not require police suspicion and are aimed in part at disruption, is based on calculations that Asians are stopped in higher numbers than their proportion of the population would merit. However, Met figures show that the proportion of London stops involving Asian people fell between 2002/3 and 2003/4.
⢠A court hearing an attempt by the US government to extradite a British man accused of terrorist offences involving American websites inciting the murder of American forces in Afghanistan and urging Muslims to fight a holy war, was adjourned yesterday. The hearing wants to establish whether there is a "real risk" that Babar Ahmad, 30, from Tooting, south London, could be transferred from US civilian courts to the American military justice system. His lawyers argued at Bow Street magistrates' court in London that, if he were to be designated an "enemy combatant", he could be held indefinitely without trial in a military prison or put before a military tribunal, in breach of the human rights which underpin extradition law. Senior District Judge Timothy Workman said the issue was "clearly a matter of considerable concern and must be resolved".
Posted by: Dan Darling ||
03/04/2005 12:29:09 AM ||
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#1
Hey - no worries - until a large portion of London goes up in smoke who gives? Mwahahaha
Posted by: Howard UK ||
03/04/2005 8:20 Comments ||
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Will it be blood red in this place that is almost a North Korea in oppression
Thousands of people have turned out for the funeral of murdered independent reporter Elmar Huseynov in Azerbaijan. Huseynov, widely known for his outspoken criticism of the Azerbaijani authorities, was shot outside his flat in the capital, Baku, on Wednesday. Opposition leader Ali Kerimli told the crowds that the government should resign unless it can track down the killers within the next two weeks.
International organisations and foreign governments have condemned the killing.
Huseynov's family - echoing a warning from President Ilham Aliyev - had urged the opposition not to turn the funeral into an anti-government rally. But along with the tears at the hall where the funeral ceremony was held, there were also placards and political statements.
The BBC's Natalia Antelava, in Baku, said the crowd jeered one of the government officials who tried to speak, until he was forced to leave the room. She said people cheered as Mr Kerimli addressed them. "The bullet was aimed at the people of Azerbaijan," he said. "Elmar is a victim of political terror. He became a victim of the truth. They wanted to silence him, but they cannot silence a people. Azerbaijan will be free."
Mr Kerimli told the BBC that the opposition planned to hold mass rallies next week.
The US ambassador to Azerbaijan also addressed the crowd. He described Mr Huseynov as a national hero. His death, he said, was a huge loss to Azerbaijan.
An FBI agent arrived from the US on Friday to help with the investigation into the journalist's death.
Opposition leaders had earlier announced they would try to transform the funeral into an anti-government demonstration. But President Ilham Aliyev warned he would not allow any political force to "use this killing to advance their own ambitions".
"Political forces must be patient, must not allow violations of the law and must not use this event for their political ambitions," he said. Those behind the killing wanted to harm Azerbaijan's image by casting it as an unstable, undemocratic nation where freedom of speech was stifled, he added.
Huseynov, who was one of the country's best-known journalists, was shot dead in his apartment building. Azeri human rights groups have linked his murder to his role as editor of the magazine Monitor, which had been closed down several times for running articles critical of politicians and businessmen. Residents in the apartment block say the electricity went off and phones stopped working in the building at the time of the murder, leading many Azeris to believe it was a well-prepared attack.
Mr Aliyev succeeded his father as president in 2003. The election was criticised by international observers, and were followed by violent protests. Several opposition leaders were jailed in connection with the riots.
Posted by: Sherry ||
03/04/2005 11:22:10 AM ||
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Ukraine's former Interior Minister Yuri Kravchenko has been found dead at his home, ministry officials have said. Mr Kravchenko had been due to testify on Friday in the case of murdered journalist Georgiy Gongadze. Initial reports say he committed suicide.
Well, that was handy, wasn't it? Have you decided on how he committed suicide, or is that still being staged?
Don't be such a cynic. Just another unfortunate case of cardiac arrest.
Ukraine's prosecutor general said on Wednesday that investigators knew who had killed Gongadze, but have not made the name public. Gongadze, an investigative reporter, was abducted and killed in 2000. The discovery of his headless body in a wood near Kiev triggered a political scandal, especially after the emergence of a covertly-recorded tape that allegedly implicated the former President, Leonid Kuchma. In the tapes, Mr Kuchma was heard to complain about Gongadze's reporting and allegedly ordered Mr Kravchenko to "get rid of" the journalist.
"Will no one rid me of the troublesome reporter?"
Mr Kuchma has repeatedly denied the allegations, and says the tapes have been edited to distort his words.
"Youse guys got nuttin' on me, the witnesses are all dead!"
" ... or will be soon!"
But correspondents say it is difficult to see how the case will not now reach Mr Kuchma. According to Ukrainian and utterly unlike French law, the former president has no immunity against criminal prosecution.
"Come out witcher hands up, Mr. President!"
Mr Kravchenko had been summoned to give evidence to prosecutors at 1000 local time, but was found dead at his country house outside Kiev. Investigators are on their way to the scene. The former minister had been under surveillance since December, the Associated Press news agency reported.
I'll bet they didn't see anyone enter or leave the house.
They had just gone out for donuts ...
"Inspector! All the doors and windows were locked, but he committed 'suicide' by shooting himself in the back!"
Two of Gongadze's alleged killers are interior ministry policemen who have been detained. A proper investigation into this crime was among the main demands of the pro-Western opposition, which staged the "orange revolution" that brought President Viktor Yushchenko to power following the disputed elections in November. Mr Yushchenko said it was a matter of honour to solve the crime. He has now ordered Prosecutor-General Svyatoslav Piskun and Interior Minister Yuri Lutsenko to take personal charge of the investigation of Mr Kravchenko's death, according to media reports.
"Round up the usual suspects!"
Posted by: Steve ||
03/04/2005 8:59:24 AM ||
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#1
D'oh! - I just sent this to post - dunno how I missed it
Posted by: Frank G ||
03/04/2005 11:30 Comments ||
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#2
Bwahahahaha!
Posted by: Steve ||
03/04/2005 11:36 Comments ||
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#3
Is there a daily tussle amongst the Eds to see how goes second? Looks like NASCAR you wantta counter punch.
March 4, 2005: China appears to be building up logistics for military operations along its border with North Korea. This can be seen by the pattern of logistical facilities and operations along the Chinese coast. China is no longer the closed, Stalinist police state is was a few decades ago. Tourists, especially Chinese tourists, are all over the place. You still can't wander onto a military base without permission. But you can drive by and notice what is going on. That's how this pattern of logistical activity was noted.
Most of it, of course, is concentrated on the coastal area facing Taiwan. But many similar bases and military storage installations are concentrated up the coast, halfway between Taiwan and North Korea. China seems to be covering its bets, and preparing for the possible large scale use of troops along the North Korean border. This would most likely happen if there were a revolution in North Korea, or simply a total collapse of order in that country.
North Korea has suffered a decade of famine and economic decline. For the last few years, an increasing number of desperate North Koreans have been sneaking across the border into China. But civil disorder in North Korea could send millions of Koreans headed for China. In the last year, China has dispatched thousands of additional troops to the border, to increase patrols and discourage illegal border crossers. There is nothing to indicate that the situation in North Korea will calm down.
Posted by: Steve ||
03/04/2005 11:03:20 AM ||
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#1
This could also be a prelude to a Chinese de-nuclearization invasion of North Korea. Kim Jong-Il has defied Beijing several times of late, and I'm sure the thought has crossed their mind that either a new puppet regime is in order, or better yet, a unified Korea (under SK rule) indebted to China, a very friendly ally and trading partner, pumping billions of dollars into the Chinese economy every year. As long as they remained a free, separate country, I doubt the US would have any grave reservations to this.
#2
The economic cost to South Korea of unification would be tremendous. I've argued in another forum that Germany's woes at this time are largely do to reunification. And East Germany wasn't serving grass for supper.
I believe a Chinese move into the North would be in support of a coup, not reunification. Change the government and the attitude, and foreign aid becomes a possibility.
#3
Looks like the PRC is doing rubbish removal on that vacant lot behind thier back fence...
"But you don't understand! It is my destiny to someday rule the world! However I will stay away from Bakersfield, America. It seems that there are monkeys who eat family jewels there. That is not good."
#5
The economic cost to South Korea of unification would be tremendous. Thus removing a compeditor to Chinese business.
Posted by: Steve ||
03/04/2005 11:44 Comments ||
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#6
Reunification of Germany cost so much because the Germans helped out all of Eastern Europe at the same time, and they gave very generous values to East German currency. There is no reason South Korea can't learn from that lesson.
I also think it would be nearly impossible for South Korea to turn their back on a peaceful reunification despite the massive costs.
Lastly that picture posted by BigEd is hysterical.
#7
Watching the performance of the South Koreans over the last decade does not lead me to believe that they have learned anything from the German experience, either good or bad. They'll fight for reunification for irrational reasons and handle it much differently.
Posted by: Mrs. Davis ||
03/04/2005 12:14 Comments ||
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#8
You folks obviously haven't read yesterday's Los Angeles Times. If you HAD you would know that North Korea is a PARADISE! Their "objective" reporter's story was PAGE ONE, and included these "insights":
"There is love...there is charity...People marry....They make children. People are just trying to live a normal life."
You guys ALMOST had me convinced North Korea was a nasty place. Luckily the LA Times has cleared this all up for me, and now my family and I are looking forward to our vacation at Club Med Ponyang.
#9
Justrand - practice up by developing a taste for wheatgrass. Apparently the NK's are real health nuts
Posted by: Frank G ||
03/04/2005 12:47 Comments ||
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#10
I don't think there would be a reunification if China invades. Read something recently that said China claims part of Korea was historically theirs. Maybe Pyongyang is the 3rd holiest spot in Maoism or something.
#11
Justrand, I can't think of a better weight loss program.
Posted by: Matt ||
03/04/2005 14:28 Comments ||
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#12
My guess is that if China invades they would destroy the nuclear weapons program and install a puppet government that would prepare the road for unification over a decade or so. That way they become close friends with South Korea and the unified Korea is not armed with Nuclear weapons.
#14
Actually, there is another possiblity. How about straight annexation? Then internal movement controls could be instituted full force, while bringing the N. Koreans up to the living standard of the Chinese peasant, which is unimaginably better than they have now.
Posted by: Brian H ||
03/04/2005 20:45 Comments ||
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#15
NK, like the old Warsaw Pact with the USSR, doesn't make a move without China's knowledge or consent, so any Chicom move to denuke NK would be a Potemkin-style "invasion" against itself. Something(s) else is goin on.
#17
Its makes sense (from a western point of view) that the Chinese do not want trouble in the back yard while things are looking up for them economically. NK rattling nuclear sabers will push the Japanese and South Koreans into the nuclear arena - launching a nuclear arms race in the far east that China does not want.
It does not make sense (from a western point of view) to invade Taiwan. Most of the logistics tail seems to be pointed toward Taiwan though. Why would China put itself into a strategic confrontation with the US? While we may be tied up tactically in the ME, the Navy and AF are rested and ready. Wargaming it from the Chinese point of view - they would need assistance from Iran (staging a demonstration in the Gulf - threatening our supply lines into Iraq and SA,KU oil) which could draw off a sizable portion of our strategic assets to protect our LOC. NK made a similar arrangement with Iran back in 1993/94. A study of Sun Tzu may be in order - the Chinese intentions are not clear at this time.
#18
There's another possibility - China is warning Uncle Sam not to attack North Korea. The last time Chinese troops massed along the Yalu River, it was to attempt to push General Walton Walker's 8th Army off the Korean peninsula. China has its goals, we have ours. Don't assume that they overlap much.
Members of Japan's ground forces reportedly will participate in an international joint military exercise for the first time -- a move that signals a further shift towards a more assertive role in the region for an important U.S. ally. Jane's Defense Weekly reported in its Friday edition that Japan's Ground Self Defense Forces (GSDF), or army, will send a small number of personnel to take part in the Cobra Gold 2005 exercise, to be held in Thailand in May. According to the U.S. Pacific Command, the annual exercise involving U.S. and Thai forces is the premier multilateral exercise in the Pacific. Singapore will also take part in this year's two-week event.
Cobra Gold focuses on such areas as humanitarian assistance, peacekeeping and peace enforcement operations, evacuation operations, and transnational threats such as terrorism and illicit narcotics. In the aftermath of the tsunami, which caused havoc in Thailand and a number of other countries in the Indian Ocean region, the 2005 will emphasize disaster relief.
Japan does not officially have a military, and its Self Defense Forces' activities are tightly restricted by the country's war-renouncing constitution, drafted by the U.S. after Japan's defeat in World War II. To the unease of neighbors which bore the brunt of Imperial Japanese aggression last century, Prime Minister Junichiro Koizumi's government has been edging towards a more meaningful security role in the region and beyond.
This will raise the level of seething
Last December, the government extended the deployment of non-combat troops to Iraq, where they have been helping in rehabilitation programs. Earlier this year, Japanese ships and troops were dispatched to Indonesia's Aceh province to help in tsunami relief efforts, in what was Japan's largest military operation since 1945. The shift was evident when Japan in December approved changes to its defense policy, calling for the SDF to develop "multi-function, flexible defense capabilities" in response to modern-day threats such as terror attacks or missile strikes.
The new defense policy paper upset Beijing by identifying China and its military buildup, for the first time, as posing a regional risk. In the months since, Japan was further annoyed China by agreeing to cooperate in U.S. ballistic missile defense initiatives which China opposes, and by issuing a joint statement with the U.S. - again for the first time - that referred to the China-Taiwan dispute. Beijing, which regards Taiwan as a rebel province, slammed what it called interference in its domestic affairs.
Jane's said Japan's involvement in Cobra Gold, while small by comparison to Thailand's 2,655 participants and 3,614 personnel from the U.S., was important symbolically. "The initiative reinforces Japan's switch to a willingness to utilize the SDF internationally as, outlined in its new defense policy paper."
Koizumi's Liberal Democratic Party (LDP) wants to revise the pacifist constitution by November, to coincide with the party's 50th anniversary. The prime minister hopes the changes will allow the SDF to play a bigger role in peacekeeping and humanitarian operations abroad.
Posted by: Steve ||
03/04/2005 9:10:49 AM ||
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#1
If the Japanese were smart, they'd make a big deal about expressing regret to the Thais for WWII in a public ceremony at the Thai Tomb of the Unknown Soldier or similar memorial.
Posted by: Mrs. Davis ||
03/04/2005 9:38 Comments ||
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#3
To the unease of neighbors which bore the brunt of Imperial Japanese aggression last century, Prime Minister Junichiro Koizumi's government has been edging towards a more meaningful security role in the region and beyond.
#4
Actually, Shipman, I wuold not be surprised at all to see the Japanese do exactly as Mrs D. said, or some similar gesture.
They have apologized for WWII to countries in the region. (IIRC, several times to China). Whether China, Korea, etc accept the apology is of course a different issue....
Posted by: Carl in N.H. ||
03/04/2005 11:52 Comments ||
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#5
Is this the exercise that France was not invited to last year? If yes, have they been invited this year?
In a certain sense the Japanese have been the second luckiest people in the world (to the Americans, of course). The only third world country to successfully transition to the first world. Then catapaulted through the twentieth century as a result of their only defeat at the hands of the benign Americans.
How they handle this will tell a lot about how much they've learned from us in the last 50 years about benign hegemony and whether or not they can be the dominant East Asian power for nearly the indefinite future.
While there is a lot of hand wringing about Chjina becoming a superpower, that is hyperventilation. The danger of China in 2020 is like that of Germany in 1914, seeing that its power has peaked it decides to strike out befor it starts to wane. If Japan plays its cards correctly between now and then, It could be in an excellent position to remain the dominant power for a long time to come.
Posted by: Mrs. Davis ||
03/04/2005 12:09 Comments ||
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#7
werent the Thais more or less on their side in WW2, at least to the point of offering free passage, albeit after being pressured?
President Bush supposedly charmed the Europeans, and now they purportedly don't hate us any more. But from the recent trip, it is clear that Americans can still expect two things from the European public and its leadership: deep-seeded anti-Americanism and embarrassing contradictions. In that context, let us examine all the recent Eurobabble.
Don't dare divide us into old and new! We speak with one voice from Warsaw to Lisbon. We aim to be as united as your states are in America — BUT help us to ensure that Europe has separate U.N. Security Council seats for Britain, France, and, we hope, Germany as well.
Stop using force to solve problems! Listen to our diplomats. Promote international courts. The world no longer works according to your silly laws of military power and deterrence — BUT don't dare take any more American troops out of Germany.
Stay in NATO! You are pledged to the collective defense of Europe — BUT get used to the fact that we will soon have a new and rival independent EU military force.
Pay attention to the Muslim world! Hear us who have more experience with the Middle East. Try to incorporate, rather than isolate, the "other" — BUT stop telling us that we have to let Turkey into the EU.
Cease militarizing the globe! See instead the world as an interconnected family of liberal societies that is trying to settle differences by reason — BUT stop trying to prevent us from selling hi-tech arms to big Communist China to threaten tiny democratic Taiwan.
Learn from our more humane culture! See how our short work week, cradle-to-grave entitlements, and pacifism promote well-being — BUT how exactly do you rich and powerful Americans do all that you do?
Remember that we are your critical partners in the war against terrorism! Appreciate our unheralded work that goes unnoticed amid the loud bombs and tanks of you rowdy Americans — BUT Hezbollah is not a terrorist organization and cannot be labeled as such (and Hamas isn't either and needs our financial support).
Sign Kyoto! Start acting like good global citizens! BUT quit suggesting we had a hand in the Rwanda mess, the Balkans mess, the Oil-for-Food Mess, the Saddam-reactor mess, the Hezbollah/Hamas mess, the Arafat mess...
Quit proceeding unilaterally! Refer events that affect the world to the U.N. Don't just act on your own as if your deeds don't affect others — BUT don't remember the Falklands, the Ivory Coast, the unification of Germany, or the oil deals with Saddam.
Don't tamper in the Middle East! Do you cowboys realize what madness you are unleashing? BUT if you succeed we might just stop our caricatures — IF democracy follows and we can take credit for and profit from it.
What are we to make of this strange passive-aggressive syndrome? The usual explanations, offered weekly during the last three years, are that in the post-Cold War era the monopoly on military force, and its accompanying opportunities for unilateral action by the United States, naturally earn opposition. Our military prompts envy and with it mistrust from those far weaker who seek to curb raw power with multilateral protocol, shame, and bureaucracy. Perhaps.
Continued on Page 49
Posted by: tipper ||
03/04/2005 9:57:40 AM ||
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Europe as teenagers! I love it!
They still have an aristocracy, I guess, whereas, our "aristocrats" got their money the old fashioned way - the earned it.
Posted by: Bobby ||
03/04/2005 10:37 Comments ||
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Another great column by VDH, especially the last four paragraphs.
But after 4 years of the language, I cannot resist the urge to play gotcha with a Latin teacher, or is he really only an olive farmer?. 625,000 hits for deep-seated, 25,500 for deep-seeded.
Posted by: Mrs. Davis ||
03/04/2005 10:55 Comments ||
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I don't know Mrs. D. I too thought it was deep-seated, but deep-seeded makes much more sense.
#4
They both make sense, theat's why I Googled them both. There is a clear winner.
Posted by: Mrs. Davis ||
03/04/2005 11:08 Comments ||
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Right you are! But I have to wonder if it wasn't originally "seeded" - Websters has the definition as, "situated far below the surface". And it has a cousin word, "deep-rooted".
#6
I think the closer analogy would be the fully aged relative of 50, who keeps making the same mistakes again and again, expecting his family to bail him out time and again...the same relative that badmouths the relatives that rescued him when out of earshot...the same relative that lies around on the couch of his parents, taking the money they earn without a single thank you.
#7
IAMAF (I am not a former) but I believe deep seeding is a relatively modern agricultural technique except in very dry regions. Where as the idea of somethng being seated deep with in the soul or a castle is an older one, so I think it is the original. John Ciardi would have known, but I have all his books packed away.
Posted by: Mrs. Davis ||
03/04/2005 12:21 Comments ||
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This second-to-last paragraph actually sums it up - Dr. Hansen is articulate and too much of a gentleman to say certain things. I am neither, so I will opine.
The world as we knew it is now in flux, and in one of greatest transformations since the fall of the Berlin Wall, the Middle East is slowly rejoining civilization.
Nothing much positive has happened to the Middle East since 1453, when Mehmed conquered Constantinople, and upon entering the city on May 29..."He went directly to Haghia Sophia Church and ordered to convert it into a mosque."1 Yup. God is truly great!
In response, Europe snores, awakening only to chastise the United States, which alone set off the chain reaction of liberty.
Remember - line is that we Americans are unilateral. The Brits, Poles, and Italians are lackeys, and don't count. The true Europe, France, Germany, and their hangers-on "understand"...Understand what? I do not know!
After all, would Europe send help to the Lebanese if the Syrians brought in more troops? Would it do anything if Iran announced that it actually does have five or six nukes and the missiles to deliver them?
The only thing missing, I fear, is the official announcement about Iranian Nukes. The only thing the Europharts are buying is that the last two Iranian Nukes will be saved for Paris and Berlin.
And would the vaunted EU joint force or the French navy mobilize if China invaded Taiwan or of North Korea shelled Seoul? Or does the free world stop at the borders of Europe? Did the Spanish army ensure the election in Iraq?
I think we need to visualize Fred's "Hell Freezing" Clipart here...
WE ARE THE BIG DOG... And as the sweatshirt I happen to wear in rainy California today says, "This is what attitude looks like!"
So, if we have to do it ourselves, so be it...
In the meantime, it is better to damn the United States, which got al Qaeda out of Afghanistan, toppled Saddam, and ignited democratic movements across the Middle East.
How does one say "Hand Wringing Time" in French, German, or now, Spanish... If you appeasing cheese-eating surrender monkeys coated with radiation think you can refugee here after your capitals glow in the dark... Think again.
Pair face threats for Muslim remarks
ÃÂ
THE HAGUE Every evening, plainclothes police escort two members of the Dutch Parliament to armored cars and take them off to hiding places for the night.
One of them, Geert Wilders, has been camping out in a cell in a high security prison where his life, he said, has become "like a bad B-movie." His colleague, Ayaan Hirsi Ali, has grown increasingly miserable spending weeks sleeping on a military base.
The special treatment would certainly seem warranted: Both have received a deluge of death threats since they strongly criticized the behavior of militant Muslim immigrants in the Netherlands.
After two previous political assassinations, Dutch officials are taking the threats seriously, treating the safety of the two lawmakers both as a matter of personal protection and as an issue of national security. Several politicians have said that in the country's present polarized mood, public violence could erupt if one of the legislators were killed.
But their plans have been disturbed by the two Parliament members, who have chosen to disclose their whereabouts to protest the conditions under which they live. Neither has had a permanent home since November, when the filmmaker Theo van Gogh was shot and knifed to death on an Amsterdam street. A 26-year old Dutchman of Moroccan ancestry, Mohammed Bouyeri, has been charged with murder.
The decision by Wilders and Hirsi Ali to disclose their secret lives, one in a jail cell, the other on a naval base, has raised a question that is troubling many Dutch: Is it acceptable for legislators in a Western democracy to be forced to go into hiding, to live like fugitives in their own land?
"Of course this is an outrage," said Abram de Swaan, a prominent sociologist. "It's not bearable. The government must come up with better solutions like putting them in protected homes. That's the way it happens in other countries."
The NRC, a leading daily newspaper, ran a recent editorial headlined "Unacceptable." A situation in which legislators are "hampered in carrying out their tasks puts democracy in question and makes terror successful," it said, adding that the official bureaucracy evidently "does not know how to deal with the new reality" in which Muslim terrorism may also threaten Dutch politicians.
Officials point out that the government is prosecuting several men for launching death threats and has adopted tough laws against terrorism suspects, including voiding their Dutch nationality. And late last month, the Justice Ministry announced that it planned to expel three Muslim preachers for spreading radical Islamic ideology at a mosque in the city of Eindhoven.
Wilders' isolation becomes quickly evident on a visit to his closely guarded office in the attic of the Dutch Parliament. In his small, windowless room, far from his colleagues, he can receive visitors only if they are carefully screened and escorted at all times.
He no longer answers his own telephone, but the threats keeping showing up in his e-mail, in Internet chat rooms and Web logs. Offering some samples, he switched on his office computer and a short video appeared, featuring his photograph, the sound of gunfire over Arab music and a voice that said: "He is an enemy of Islam and should be beheaded."
"The people who threaten us are walking around free and we are the captives," said Wilders. "I understand it, but it is also difficult to grasp."
The government has told him that he will have to wait for a secure home until September.
Until then, he said, he presumably has to continue his Spartan life, sleeping in a cell at Camp Zeist, deprived of family and friends. The security detail schedules weekly private meetings with his wife.
Wilders, a rising right-wing politician, feels an affinity with neoconservatives in Washington and recently visited the United States "to gather ideas." An outspoken critic of Islamic fundamentalism, he contends that Islamic dogmas and democracy are incompatible, and has called for a temporary halt to "third-world immigration," the closing of radical mosques in the Netherlands and the preventive arrest of suspected terrorists, whom he has labeled "Islamo-facist thugs."
It was Hirsi Ali, though, who first decided to go public with her own and Wilders's secret hiding places, out of frustration at the government's apparent foot-dragging over finding appropriate housing. Her own proposals were regularly rejected as unsafe, she said.
Her bodyguards, she said, have deposited her on many weeknights on a naval base in Amsterdam, or hustled her off to sleep in different hotels.
"I often don't know where they will take me," she said. "They are keeping me alive. But I cannot concentrate on my work. I need a place where I have my desk, my books, my papers, a home where I can meet with people," she said.
In the past year, her handlers have twice taken her secretly to the United States. Hirsi Ali, a Somali-born refugee who arrived in the Netherlands in 1992 and became a member of Parliament in 2003, was under police protection even before the murder of van Gogh, with whom she had made a short television film that denounced violence against Muslim women. Some Muslims found it deeply offensive.
The Dutch government pressed Hirsi Ali to go abroad for two months after van Gogh was killed and a letter was found on his corpse threatening her. When she returned to Parliament in January, she was warmly received by her colleagues. But the pressures continue.
The wife of an Islamist militant who is in police custody told a local newspaper that Hirsi Ali, a former Muslim, would be slain by Muslim women. That would make more impact than being punished by a man, the woman said.
"The sisters are patient," the woman said. They will wait, "even if it takes 10 years."
Hirsi Ali concedes that she is struggling with the question of how long she can continue in politics, denouncing what she regards as the excesses of Islam. In the past she has shown she is not easily cowed, but she said a deep fatigue is setting in. "I am willing to sacrifice a great deal, but I don't know if I can live like this for a lot longer."
She put her inexorable dilemma this way: "The real problem is, I cannot stop because that will only serve and stimulate the terrorists."
Astounding. I wonder if the Government is doing this to show how helpless (and hopeless) they are.
Posted by: Mrs. Davis ||
03/04/2005 8:04:07 AM ||
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This is where the road of tolerating the intolerant gets you. Hell.
#2
No this is what protecting the militant allenists get you. The Dutch Justice department is more worried about it's budget and protecting a terrorist allenist minority than it is on protecting regular Dutch citizens let alone politicians under terrorist threats. The Cops want to write tickets for speeding instead. If you get robbed or carjacked by a "north african youth" don't hold your breath waiting for the cops to show up. If your wife or daughter is raped by one forget it. The person who did it will never be caught. The police don't even look. There is important work that must be done! Writing speeding ticklets that make money for the state. These politicains are just getting the same treatment the regular Dutch citizen gets.
#5
I would like to see Hirsi Ali become a truly international political activist for prosecuting the mistreatment of women in Islam. She doesn't need to stay in the Netherlands (unless she wants to). Come to the US, Ms. Ali, and continue your trailblazing work from here. At least half of our population would lift a finger to protect you, unlike in the Netherlands, where no one can be seen challenging the authority of Muslim rule.
#8
He no longer answers his own telephone, but the threats keeping showing up in his e-mail, in Internet chat rooms and Web logs. Offering some samples, he switched on his office computer and a short video appeared, featuring his photograph, the sound of gunfire over Arab music and a voice that said: "He is an enemy of Islam and should be beheaded."
"The people who threaten us are walking around free and we are the captives," said Wilders. "I understand it, but it is also difficult to grasp."
The government has told him that he will have to wait for a secure home until September.
Until then, he said, he presumably has to continue his Spartan life, sleeping in a cell at Camp Zeist, deprived of family and friends. The security detail schedules weekly private meetings with his wife.
The "liberal" Dutch may end up with an extra-judicial "group" dispatching Islamonuts unless the intrangisent parliament does something. I find it hard to believe Mr. Wilders has to hide out in a prison because it will take 6 months to find him a safe place. He must be a member of some opposition party. If I were some of his co-party members I would scream loud and do something like a filibuster and shut down the parliament in Amsterdam. They don't do much, and since they have given up so much soverignty to Brussels, it wouldn't be a loss.
#9
I find it hard to believe Mr. Wilders has to hide out in a prison because it will take 6 months to find him a safe place.
I suspect it is more likely that it is taking 6 months to find him a safe place as a warning to other politicians not to be so outspoken in theircomments about Muslims. This is Police enforced dhimmitude.
Posted by: Mrs. Davis ||
03/04/2005 12:54 Comments ||
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Hiding from what? "Islam is peace" said GWB, the American Allah.
#2
I skipped down to the conclusion about W finishing the job his father started. When a friend of mine said that, I told him it was the dumbest thing I ever heard. He was stunned into silence.
1. The much publicised WMD report (I feget the guy's name)concluded Saddam DID have WMD's in 1991 and WOULD have used them if coalition troops crossed the border.
2. The goal at the time, backed by the "much-bigger-than-this-time" coalition was to take Kuwait, not invade Iraq. Remember, there WAS a UN resolution?
3. We wouldn't KNOW that Saddam didn't have WMD's if we hadn't spent a year looking for them. The above-mentioned report said the Saddam son charged with homeland defense (Uday, Qusay, whatever)came to Daddy asking for the WMD's to repell the infidels. Saddam had EVERYONE fooled.
4. There's an article today on Rantburg suggesting while Saddam and Binny might not have been on a first-name basis, Saddam certainly did have some AQ contacts.
5. Two of the world's worst terrorists were found in Bagdahd - Abu Nidal and Abu somebody that murdered Leon Klinghoffer (one of 'em had already passed on to paradise when the troops gpot there)
I grow weary....
Posted by: Bobby ||
03/04/2005 11:03 Comments ||
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as for this article...blah, blah blah. Just an attempt for the We The Bush Bashing Believers to reposition their failed arguments into what they consider to be coherent.
These blame America First/Bash Bush guys are done, finished, kaput. The best they can hope for now is more turmoil in the middle east or an attack here at home - to prove how much wiser they were than the rest of us. If this was 1960, they'd be looking for ways to reword their arguments that they were right about segregation all along. If it was late 1800's they'd still be attempting to argue that they weren't wrong about slavery.
Hey Dipwads - you are on the wrong side of history. Do yourself a favor - shut up. There is a saying, better to keep quiet and thought a fool than to speak and remove all doubt.
#4
To Bush, they were a godsend. He used the neo-cons by letting them think they were steering US policy toward Iraq. Had the plan for Iraq failed, the blame could have been shifted to fall on their heads.
And here is where the author displays his total ignorance of American politics. As if the President of the United States can take a mulligan by saying, "It was Paul Wolfowitz's fault." Get real. Clearly this goofball has lived in Malayasia for so long, he assumes everyone else lives by Mahathir's rules.
#6
When the Left talks or refers to "WMDS", they mean the great-for-propanganda/PC NUKE WEAPONS - they could care less for Sarin or Mustard Gas or any of the biologicals no matter the definition, even if their own when a Dem is in the WH, nor how many have died from the non-nukes. Leftism > credibility achieved via propaganda, politics, and info/perceptions control, NOT DE FACTO OBJECTIVITY OR WEIGHT OF EVIDENCE.
WASHINGTON (AP) - Democratic and Republican House members found common ground Thursday in decrying the state of security on the nation's borders - particularly with Mexico - and criticizing President Bush's proposed spending for immigration enforcement. Lawmakers shared concerns that terrorists may hide themselves among hundreds of thousands of illegal immigrants and said the Border Patrol doesn't have the manpower or equipment to weed them out. Particularly vexing to the lawmakers was the federal practice of releasing into the United States non-Mexican immigrants arrested for illegally entering the country so they can await deportation hearings.
"The Border Patrol remains our first line of defense against the entry into the country of terrorists, drug smugglers, gangs, criminal aliens and others seeking to break our laws," said Rep. John Hostettler, R-Indiana, chairman of the Judiciary Committee immigration, border security and claims subcommittee. He added that he was disappointed by Bush's Border Patrol funding proposal.
The lawmakers also said they were disappointed with Bush's spending plan for 2006, which would provide $37 million to hire 210 Border Patrol agents. The intelligence reorganization bill Bush signed last year called for hiring 2,000 more agents a year over five years - nearly doubling the size of the Border Patrol.
Texas Democratic Rep. Solomon Ortiz, whose district abuts the Mexican border, said the "strength of the Border Patrol is dwindling" because 24 more agents from the McAllen, Texas, sector, which takes in several border counties, were deployed with the National Guard for the Iraq war. Salvador Zamora, Customs and Border Protection spokesman, did not immediately know how many agents have been deployed nationally for the Iraq war.
Meanwhile the numbers of non-Mexican immigrants entering the country are increasing, Ortiz said. Nearly 40,000 non-Mexican immigrants were released in the country last year, and they came from 135 countries, he said. Although they are required to report later to authorities for deportation hearings, the no-show rates are 90 percent or higher, Ortiz said. Texas had the highest no-show rate at 40 percent, he said.
Ortiz showed news video of some of the non-Mexican immigrants being released and dropped off at bus stations. He said some take taxis to Border Patrol stations to turn themselves in and get "walking around papers" - paperwork stating they are required to show up for a deportation hearing. Often they use aliases, he said. "At least those we stop. Let's be sure we know who they are," Ortiz said.
When fiscal year 2004 ended Sept. 30, Border Patrol had 11,100 agents, up from the previous fiscal year's total of 10,700, Zamora said. As of January, the total dropped to 10,700, but the goal is to have 11,200 agents by the end of this fiscal year, he said. T.J. Bonner, president of the Border Patrol union, said the fine print in Bush's budget actually calls for hiring only 105 full-time Border Patrol agents in 2006. To offset attrition, the Border Patrol would have to hire about 750 agents to add 210, he said.
In a Wednesday hearing, senators from both parties criticized Bush's funding levels for border security. Richard Bonner, Customs and Border Protection commissioner, said in the hearing that spending on technology - such as radiation monitors and unmanned aerial vehicles - would help make up the staffing difference.
Democrats, the party of illegal immigrants, calling for increased border security? Gee, it's almost like Bush planned it that way. But he's too stupid to do that, right?
Posted by: Steve ||
03/04/2005 1:53:43 PM ||
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I love it when a plan comes together!
Posted by: Karl Rove ||
03/04/2005 15:45 Comments ||
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Well, if the Dems want to keep the seats they already have in the Border States, they can't afford to look "soft" on this. Can't speak for other states, but a lot of Arizonans are pissed about this going on and the Feds' lack of response.
Posted by: Bobby ||
03/04/2005 17:06 Comments ||
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If the border states are unhappy with the federal effort, why don't they make their own arrangements? Old Patriot, among others here, has outlined a plan for a volunteer force that need only be set up as an adjunct State Militia kind of thing. While this is indeed a Federal responsibility, the States have taken the lead in many things the Feds have organized less than satisfactorily. The need is acknowledged to be urgent, but Homeland Security has much on its plate, and I'm under the impression they are still trying to organize themselves.
A British computer specialist tried to set up a terrorist training camp in Arizona in 1998 and met with Islamic radicals there who claimed ties to Osama bin Laden, a government attorney said Wednesday. Babar Ahmad, who is being held in London on charges he ran terrorist fund-raising Web sites, met in Phoenix with Yaser Al Jhani, a member of the Islamic mujahedeen militia, and others who said they had access to bin Laden, said John Hardy, a British lawyer representing the U.S. government. "He expressed an interest in developing a training system in Arizona," Hardy told The Associated Press. "That is, a training system, in effect for the mujahedeen to visit and train to fight abroad."
Hardy was hired to help extradite Ahmad to the United States on charges he ran several sites, including Azzam.com, which investigators say was used to recruit al-Qaida, Taliban and Chechen rebel fighters. The site allegedly encouraged people to train in street combat, land mine operations and sniper combat. While in Phoenix, he practiced using firearms and tried to purchase military equipment, Hardy said.
Details of the Phoenix trip were outlined in a report by Assistant U.S. Attorney Robert Appleton, who would prosecute the case in Connecticut because one of the Web sites was hosted here. Prosecutors plan to present the report as evidence at Ahmad's extradition hearing which began Wednesday in London. There was no evidence in the report that Ahmad successfully set up the camp, Hardy said.
The report, which has not been released to the public, does not mention any attacks on U.S. targets, Hardy said. "Mr. Ahmad was not inclined to conduct terrorist strikes in the states because he didn't want to jeopardize the use of the United States as a valuable source of resources," Hardy said.
The mujahedeen are guerrilla soldiers fighting what they see as holy wars around the world. Al Jhani fought in the Philippines and Bosnia, Hardy said. The mujahedeen is also involved in combat in Chechnya, where the Russian government says the group is aided by bin Laden's al-Qaida network. Hardy told Bow Street Magistrates Court in London earlier Wednesday that the United States alleges Ahmad "sought and incited and solicited contributions to terrorist causes in Afghanistan and Chechnya."
Investigators discovered classified U.S. Navy documents in Ahmad's parents home, along with a compact disc with audio tracks praising bin Laden, prosecutors said. The Navy documents revealed a fleet's weakness to terrorist attacks, prosecutors said. Ahmad's case is being heard under contentious "fast track" extradition procedures that came into effect in January 2004. The new rules lessen the burden of proof in some cases, allowing certain countries, including the United States, to provide "information" rather than evidence that a crime has been committed.
British police arrested Ahmad, allegedly for terrorism offenses, in December 2003, but released him a week later without charge. His lawyers have said he suffers post-traumatic stress disorder after being assaulted during that arrest. A police officer has been charged with misconduct over the incident. Scores of Ahmad's supporters demonstrated outside the courthouse on Wednesday, calling for him to face trial in Britain. "We do not accept this extradition," Ahmad's father, Ashfaq Ahmad said outside a London court Wednesday. "Inside they are going to decide the future of my son. This is just all politics."
This article starring:
Assistant U.S. Attorney Robert Appleton
BABAR AHMED
Islamic mujahedeen militia
John Hardy, a British lawyer
YASER AL JHANI
Islamic mujahedeen militia
Islamic mujahedeen militia
Posted by: Dan Darling ||
03/04/2005 12:31:11 AM ||
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A resurgent Jemaah Islamiah, a regional network of Muslim militants linked to al Qaeda, was trying to take advantage of pockets of sectarian conflict across Southeast Asia, a security analyst said on Thursday.
Zachary Abuza, an international politics professor at Simmons College and a consultant to the U.S. Institute of Peace, said he was worried by signs of an increased Jemaah Islamiah role in worsening violence in southern Thailand and the Philippines.
"JI will take advantage of it," he told reporters at a seminar in Manila on the role of religion in conflict.
Abuza said increasingly sophisticated bomb attacks and a dramatic rise in the number of casualties in southern Thailand could be indications of Jemaah Islamiah's part in the growing violence in the Muslim south of the mainly Buddhist kingdom.
Almost 600 people have died in communal violence since the uprising began in January 2004.
"JI will inject itself in this conflict the way they injected themselves in places like Moluccas and Sulawesi where they were not there at first," he said.
Abuza said the deteriorating security situation in southern Thailand was "tailor-made for JI".
In the Philippines, he said there were indications Jemaah Islamiah was providing the "push factor" for the renewed militancy of Abu Sayyaf, a group of about 400 fighters also linked to al Qaeda.
"They are back in the business," said Abuza, referring to Abu Sayyaf after the group claimed blasts in Manila and two southern cities on Valentine's Day that killed 13 people and wounded more than 150.
He said the arrest of two Indonesians, a Malaysian and their Filipino contact in December confirmed growing links between Jemaah Islamiah and Abu Sayyaf, through training and fund support.
Posted by: Dan Darling ||
03/04/2005 12:37:34 AM ||
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THE ABU SAYYAF in the Philippines is slowly transforming into a major terrorist group capable of carrying out Bali-type attacks with the help of the Jemaah Islamiyah (JI), experts said Thursday.
The JI's strategy is to "insert" itself in conflict areas and foment sectarian violence and there has been evidence to suggest that the Abu Sayyaf has received some form of training from them, said Zachary Abuza, director of the East Asian studies program at Simmons College in Boston.
The Abu Sayyaf, a small Muslim group that operates in several islands in the southern Philippines, gained notoriety in 2000 and 2001 with a series of kidnappings of western tourists, including Americans.
Abuza, an acknowledged expert on cross-border terrorism, noted that the Abu Sayyaf's recent bombing attacks appear to have the hallmarks of JI, whose alleged leader Abu Bakar Bashir was convicted Thursday for taking part in a "sinister conspiracy" that led to the Bali bombings in Indonesia that left 202 dead in 2002.
"The Abu Sayyaf is back in business and we should be very concerned," Abuza told reporters after a lecture in Manila.
At the moment, Abuza said the Abu Sayyaf has the capability of carrying out "relatively small" bombings compared to the attacks elsewhere in the region that were blamed on JI, which has been using car bombs.
"Technologically, they haven't quite crossed the threshold that the JI has," Abuza said, but "they certainly are" learning quick.
"There is no reason why they can't learn this stuff," he said, noting that bomb-making materials were readily available in the southern Philippines.
He noted that Philippine authorities last week arrested two Indonesians and a Malaysian member of JI in connection with a foiled plot to bomb US and local targets. Arrested with them was an Abu Sayyaf member, and police said a 10-man Abu Sayyaf cell was still operating somewhere in Manila.
The Abu Sayyaf "re-entered the arena of terrorism," with the ferry bombing, Abuza said.
National Security Adviser Norberto Gonzales had earlier called the Abu Sayyaf "the most dangerous" Muslim militant group in the Philippines.
Even more so than the Moro Islamic Liberation Front (MILF), the country's main Muslim separatist group waging rebellion in the south since 1978, Gonzales said in a briefing paper to the government.
Abuza agrees: "Say what you want about the MILF, but it has never engaged in an all-out sectarian (war), it has never made this into a religious war."
He said more and more Filipino Christians were also being recruited to join the "Return to Islam" movement spearheaded by the Abu Sayyaf, which authorities believe to number around 400 from a high of over 1,000 members in 2000.
The Philippines is a mainly Roman Catholic nation with a large Muslim minority.
"That allows the ASG (Abu Sayyaf Group) to expand their reach," Abuza said.
Julkipli Wadi, a professor in Islamic studies at the University of the Philippines, said that it was natural for the Abu Sayyaf to seek "linkages" outside of the country.
"It is a way to broaden their network and boost their organization," Wadi told Agence France-Presse, but added that the group has a long way to go before it acquires the capabilities of the JI.
"To be able to say that they have become a major regional terrorist group is an overstatement in the sense that this could be part of an attempt (by the military) to just prop up a supposedly local bandit group," Wadi said.
"Even before this rhetoric on terrorism, there is already the ASG. Except that now, they may have grown big with the alleged presence of the JI," he said.
The Abu Sayyaf has been previously called a "spent force" by the Philippines government after a US-backed massive military operation began in 2000 and flushed them out from their southern strongholds.
Posted by: Dan Darling ||
03/04/2005 12:36:04 AM ||
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Indonesia urged foreign critics on Friday to respect a court decision sentencing a radical Muslim cleric to just 30 months in jail for involvement in the 2002 Bali bombings and acquitting him of more serious terrorism charges.
The United States and its key ally Australia, who see Abu Bakar Bashir as the head of the al Qaeda-linked regional militant network Jemaah Islamiah, have criticised the verdict and sentence delivered on Thursday as too lenient.
"Indonesia is a democracy where we have to respect the judicial process," Foreign Ministry spokesman Marty Natalegawa said. "Our position has always been one of full respect of the judicial process. That also includes the matter of sentences."
Natalegawa said neither country had contacted the Indonesian government to complain and that time needed to be given to the prosecution to decide if it would appeal against the court's decision.
"This is purely a legal process and we don't expect any communication that is intergovernmental in nature," he said.
Natalegawa said Indonesia, unlike many countries, had processed its terrorism suspects through the courts.
"I know of many far more high profile cases where the perpetrators are still at large, or if they have been caught remain incarcerated without any proper trial," Natalegawa said.
Jakarta has won praise for trying and jailing dozens of militants involved in the Bali and Marriott hotel bombings. Three Bali bombers have been sentenced to death.
However, some political analysts question why Indonesia has not sought to ban Jemaah Islamiah or investigate a small number of hardline Islamic boarding schools where key bombers studied.
Some lawyers and security experts have said the case against Bashir was hurt by weak evidence and reluctant witnesses.
They say one hurdle faced by the prosecution was that some evidence remained in the hands of the United States and its allies, who are holding potentially key witnesses, including senior Indonesian Jemaah Islamiah member Hambali, in seclusion.
"A lot of the blame should also go to other governments such as the Americans, which had withheld evidence of not giving Indonesian authorities access to Hambali and other people who could build up cases against him," said Zachary Abuza, a terrorism expert at Simmons College in Boston.
"I have said that I am totally different with Bashir in the way we understand religion, but this is a legal issue," said Ahmad Syafii Maarif, chairman of Muhammadiyah, Indonesia's second-biggest moderate Muslim organisation.
"I hope that the appeal will find Bashir innocent and his name will be rehabilitated."
In its editorial on Friday, the respected Koran Tempo newspaper said:
"Legally, Bashir has not yet been found entirely guilty as the verdict could be tested again. His supporters are allowed to feel disappointed today, but the hope of a legal correction is still open."
Posted by: Dan Darling ||
03/04/2005 12:16:20 AM ||
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He beat the rap. W should tell the Indonesians this is tantamount to abetting terrorism. Or perhaps John Howard should divert some forces north.
Posted by: Mrs. Davis ||
03/04/2005 8:21 Comments ||
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My father-in-law once went to Jakarta for a six-month job building a petrochemical plant. He didn't manage to get out of there until building a port and six years.
He was asian but told me over and over that Indionesia was the only country in the world that should be somebody's colony.
The place was totally frustrating. He had a matrix on a wall of last name and government position. Process the matrix and get the ideal bribe for the man to do his mandated job.
He couldn't get people to stay on the job and was escalting his wages way up. They just disappeared faster. So he hired private eyes to watch the workers and see how they lived and what they spent money on. Many just slept on the side of the road, picked mangos and other fruits from roadside trees to eat and only spent money on recreation games. (In those days: Pinball, table-tennis, pool and such) So he halted all work on his factories and built a huge recreational center. Then he cut wages by a factor of 10 and gave a token to the rec center for each hour worked. There were no other like recreational facilities available to the workers that their money could buy so suddenly he had people working 60 and 70 hour weeks just so they could play....
JAKARTA - The Indonesian government has announced that foreigners have to leave the country's tsunami-devastated province of Aceh before the end of March, news reports said on Friday. "Starting March 26, only a limited number of foreigners will be allowed to stay," The Jakarta Post quoted Brigadier General T. Ashikin, the Indonesian national police's Aceh task force, as saying.
Ashikin said foreigners working for organizations under the United Nations, non-governmental organizations (NGOs) and media will "no longer" be related to the current situation in Aceh. No less than 140 NGOs from 83 foreign countries are operating in Aceh in the wake of the December 26 earthquake and tsunami that devastated thousands of homes and buildings along the province's coastline, and leaving more than 234,000 people dead or missing.
The UN agencies on the exit list included the International Organization for Migration (IOM) and the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR). While the World Health Organization (WHO), United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO), United Nations Children and Education Fund (UNICEF) and the Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO) will maintain their presence, as volunteers conducting humanitarian relief.
"Even though the disaster has caused massive destruction here, there are no refugees nor migrants but rather internally displaced people (IDP). Therefore, we will review the presence of IOM and UNHCR here because it is the government that must deal with the IDPs," Ashikin said, adding that foreigners who are not subject to the limitation have to register with the police by March 26.
"Nuttin' to see here, move along, keep going, nuttin' to see ..."
Posted by: Steve White ||
03/04/2005 00:00:00 AM ||
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Translation: Thank you very much now get the F*ck out!
Either that or even Indonesia is sick and tired of the UN's catering demands......
President Bush on Friday flatly rejected any partial withdrawal of Syrian troops from Lebanon, saying he will not accept the kind of "half-measures" Damascus is expected to propose as a compromise. "There are no half-measures at all," Bush said during an event here on his Social Security proposals. "When the United States and France say withdraw, we mean complete withdrawal, no halfhearted measures," he said. During a speech Saturday to his parliament, Syrian President Bashar Assad was expected to announce a troop pullback to eastern Lebanon near the Syrian border -- but not a full withdrawal, according to Syrian and Lebanese officials. "We need to see action, not words," White House spokesman Scott McClellan said a day ahead of that speech.
#3
Dubya had better watch his six more closely than ever - the anti-USA International Lefts work in close coordination. Hillary may want to be POTUS, and for America to be under Communism-Socialism and OWG,but her and Bill are also about easy street i.e. being in power at someone else's work or expense. America must be under Communism and OWG, while the Commies own mercs Radical Islam must inevitably be destroyed also so as not to present any future challenge to OWG/Communist World Order as ruled from Russia-China! The Clintons are in support of Bush and GOP AMerica going after Radical Islam while hoping for a PC "New 9-11" on America which will PC = Deniably wipe out Dubya and the Republicans, ala President Kerry and DNC Chairman - future POTUS Dean, with prim-and-proper Commie Hillary as Betty Crocker/EveryWoman hiding in the shadows, not linked to anything!? It makes no difference to the Clintons and the Failed Lefts iff Dubya is assassinated, forced to resign in controversy, andor retires - America will still be suborned/ wiped out no matter what GOP or Dem is in the WH!
#5
He wanted to capture the essence of it before his crystal ball gets all fuzzy.
The problem is... he tuned into an alternate reality.
Anyway... human affairs are an untamable critter. Too many variables for any global conspiracy theory to work. In 1984, I thought that the USSR would last about another quarter of century. The satellites folded 1989, and it folded in 1991.
Who would have thought on 9/10/2001 that Saddam Hussein and his sons would be out of picture a couple of years later?
The Bush administration has been looking into providing covert funding for opponents of Iran's government. The Los Angeles Times said Friday the installation of Condoleezza Rice as secretary of state has administration officials expecting a more aggressive approach to Iran than had been the case under the more-moderate Colin Powell. President Bush said in his State of the Union speech the United States would stand behind opponents of the Tehran regime, and the Times says the administration is now looking into how to put a $3 million fund to use supporting such opposition without exposing them to arrest. Some officials told the newspaper there are roadblocks to overcome, specifically most of the State Department leftovers poor intelligence from inside Iran and a lack so far of a clear stated policy goal from the White House.
I think the policy is pretty clear myself.
Another potential problem could be Washington's public support for a negotiated deal aimed at halting Iran's nuclear program.
Not when anybody with common sense believes that the EU negotiated deal isn't going to amount to anything. Plus the nuclear issue is only one part of the problem, there is still Iran's sponsoring of terror groups.
Posted by: Steve ||
03/04/2005 2:03:27 PM ||
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I repeat my brilliant suggestion, posted elsewhere and fairly often: airdrop crates of Uzis and ammo over virtually every population center. Within a couple of days the Mullahs' bully boys would be history and the Ms would be in their deepest hidey-hole(s).
Posted by: Brian H ||
03/04/2005 20:48 Comments ||
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The Bush administration has been looking into providing covert funding for opponents of Iran's government.
What do they mean "looking into"? This should have been done a LONG TIME AGO.
Witnesses said that Syrian soldiers positioned in the Lebanese Bekaa plain reinforced their positions in the area which the Taif accord states the Syrian forces would redeploy to. The Syrian soldiers were seen digging trenches especially in Deir Zanoun, 10 Kilometers from the Syrian borders. News reports said the Syrian forces reinforced positions in the heights of the Mount of Lebanon overlooking Beirut and the Syrian soldiers dug trenches and install reinforcements in Hamman, Falougha, Daher al-Baidar and Ein Dara. The Lebanese minister of defense Abdul Rahim Murad announced on February 24 that there is a nearby redeployment for the Syrian forces to the Bekaa.
Well, score one for DEBKA, they reported this movement yesterday.
Posted by: Steve ||
03/04/2005 11:11:33 AM ||
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DEBKA reporting: Military sources reveal Syrian military and air force movements in Syria and Lebanon denote preparedness for air strikes against strategic Syrian targets rather than giving in.
Digging trenches worked sooooo well in Afghanistan and Iraq. For the USAF, that is.
Posted by: Steve ||
03/04/2005 13:53 Comments ||
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digging their own graves? Very thoughtful of them
Posted by: Frank G ||
03/04/2005 14:05 Comments ||
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Well, Islam requires a prompt burial.
Posted by: Robert Crawford ||
03/04/2005 14:19 Comments ||
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Ah, this brings to mind the story of the special forces guys calling air strikes on the Taliban trenches in NE Afghanistan on behalf of the Northern Alliance forces.
He noticed that Taliban troops outside of the strike area were coming up out of their trenches to watch the area getting hit, and called in strikes on them as well.
Pretty sure I read that gem right on Rantburg. :)
Posted by: Laurence of the Rats ||
03/04/2005 15:39 Comments ||
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From the NYT. Downright hilarious!
Yet many in Lebanon are skeptical that Syria would make good on even this latest declaration. Mr. Assad has repeated his intention to pull out in several recent interviews, but consistently, Syrian officials have denied his claims. On Thursday, Syrian troops were seen digging trenches, in what Syria's foreign ministry described as "preparation for a withdrawal."
#12
PlanetDan, please learn how to post a link, hokay?
You've mested up page formatting. There is even a friggin button for it. The link belongs between the quotes and some label goes in the space between the link ref ..."> and the closing tag
#14
PlanetDan here is the way to "make a link the Rantburg way"
<, a href='your URL or target goes here between the mandatory apostrophes'>The name of link goes here.
Use an apostrophe ' at Rantburg not a " quotation mark. Every place else uses qoutation marks " The " at Rantburge is used for something else in the underlying Code tha makes Rantburg work.
#15
Jackal, did not notice. I always type it in, as am a webslave, it's in my bloodstream. However, there is a template right below... under "Link:". Thus, no excuses need to apply.
#4
"Trouble" deciding which kind of nukes and how many to use?
Posted by: M. Murcek ||
03/04/2005 14:46 Comments ||
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"...Iran says it only wants to generate atomic energy..."
Natural-gas-powered turbine-generators are a lot simpler, cheaper, quicker, and safer than atomic energy -- and Iran has the natural gas reserves. And of course we had yesterday's article about Iran beginning to build a half-mile-deep reinforced tunnel to protect its nuclear goods -- odd for a peaceful program. And Iran continues long-range missile development and continues to openly threaten Israel and "The Great Satan". And Iran has been behind troubles ranging from the Tehran embassy hostage-taking to problems in Lebanon and recent problems in Iraq. We need to make an example of these devious terrorists -- NOW!
Posted by: Tom ||
03/04/2005 15:48 Comments ||
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And of course we had yesterday's article about Iran beginning to build a half-mile-deep reinforced tunnel to protect its nuclear goods..
A 2,000 pounder at the entrance (it's gotta have an entrance) can turn that into long-term storage.
#7
The Iranians have developed the ultimate tunnel. It has no entrances. The ULTIMATE in security!
Posted by: Alaska Paul ||
03/04/2005 23:45 Comments ||
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Alaska Paul, actually, at the present stage it does have entrance. But I am sure that we or Israelis can upgrade it up to no-enrance security mode, free of charge.
#1
wow! Great read! More articles by this guy, please :-)
This gave me more optimism than I have had to date. It was an interesting insight into the way that Syrian's see this whole conflict. What I took from it was two things - 1. Unlike Westerners, who respond more to "convictions" or "what's right", Arabs shamelessly respond to power. Times have changed and the way power is weilded in the 21st Century has greatly changed and the more intelligent of the Arab world are making an assessment to deal with it. Kind of reminds me of fighters in Afghanistan who, depending on how the battle went - could just surrender and change sides. No shame it in, it's just plain smart.
The Syrian regime today should learn from Hafez al-Assad and do what it takes to maintain "Syria first", even if, sadly, this would be at the expense of its interests in Lebanon, Iraq and Palestine. "Syria first" means bowing before the storm that is heading toward Damascus at monumental speed, and at this stage, doing what it takes to please the neo-conservatives in the White House. Some might call it weakness, others might say it is abandoning Arab nationalism, but to the average Syrian, it would be great conventional wisdom. It is the average Syrian who will suffer if war breaks out in Syria, therefore, they are the ones entitled to say what suits Syria most. "Syria first" they are saying all over Syria, and apparently, Assad has heard their calls, and is responding promptly.
A lesson from history
During the first Arab-Israeli war of 1948, the leaders of Syria faced a dilemma that greatly resembles the one facing Assad today. They asked: do we accept the reality that we are unable to face the storm heading toward Syria? Meaning, we abandon our commitments to Palestine, accept the United Nations partition plan of 1947, and raise the slogan "Syria first". Or do we live up to our history of Arab nationalism, and the legend we created for ourselves, and gamble with Syria's future by sending its army to war in Palestine?
snip
Some argued in 1948 that they did not want history to say that Israel was created without the Arabs putting up a fight against it, regardless of whether they won the war or not. But in fact, history today does not mention the bravery of the Arabs for going to war in 1948, all it mentions is their weakness.
Pan Arabism has officially failed. May in rest in peas.
Syrian President Bashar al-Assad is expected to announce on Saturday a partial pullout of troops from Lebanon, to a background of international pressure and Beirut protests demanding nothing less than a full withdrawal. In a speech to parliament, Assad will announce the pullout of some troops completely and the redeployment of the rest close to the border, a Lebanese political source said on Friday. He is expected to declare the move to be in line with the Taif Accord which ended Lebanon's 1975-90 civil war. That accord stipulates Syrian forces be redeployed to the eastern Bekaa Valley, and then that the Lebanese and Syrian governments agree on how long these forces would stay.
After receiving an official request from the head of the UN fact-finding mission here, Switzerland has finally agreed to send five forensic experts to Lebanon to join in the investigation into the assassination of former Prime Minister Rafik Hariri. In a telephone conversation with The Daily Star, Ivo Cieber, spokesperson for the Swiss Foreign Affairs Ministry, said: "We responded now because the UN specifically asked us to come and work with the UN mission headed by Mr. Peter Fitzgerald." The Swiss Ambassador to Lebanon informed the Irish Deputy Police Commissioner and head of the UN investigative team on Thursday that Switzerland has agreed to the request for forensic experts in explosives and securing evidence.
Ceiber said: "We were only going to come and work within the UN framework. So after the UN team came and made initial assessments, we were called and we accepted the request." A similar request had originally been made by Lebanese officials, but had been declined. The Swiss team will consist of two explosives experts, two DNA specialists and a ballistics expert from the Defense Ministry and will be integrated into Fitzgerald's team. The experts are scheduled to arrive in Beirut this weekend.
Posted by: Fred ||
03/04/2005 00:00:00 ||
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Now that all the evidence has been contaminated we can confirm that it is inconclusive.
Posted by: Mrs. Davis ||
03/04/2005 10:15 Comments ||
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If anyone needs me, I'll be at the pub.
Posted by: Peter Fitzgerald ||
03/04/2005 12:38 Comments ||
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"Switzerland has finally agreed to send five forensic experts to Lebanon to join in the investigation into the assassination of former Prime Minister Rafik Hariri."
Are they skilled in this kind of thing? Whne was the last time they worked a case like this?
Posted by: Mark E. ||
03/04/2005 13:50 Comments ||
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Lebanon's political crisis deepened yesterday when pro-Syrians called for the formation of a government of national unity, ignoring a list of tough conditions set by the opposition for the future of the country. The pro-Syrian government of Prime Minister Omar Karameh was forced to quit this week after huge protests in Beirut, leaving officials with a complex search for a new head of government. "The shortest and most effective routes for national dialogue is ... the formation of a national unity government that includes the various political trends in the country," a meeting of loyalist groups said in a statement.
"That way those of us who don't mind being a colony don't get locked out, and when this all blows over we can maybe grab power again."
It also blamed opposition protests for pressure on the Lebanese pound in the local market that has forced the central bank to sell hundreds of millions of dollars to keep it stable. Lebanon's embattled president was, meanwhile, struggling to find a new premier after the opposition insisted on a Syrian pledge for a troop pullout before it would hold talks on joining a new government. And Russia, a long-time time strategic ally and arms provider to Damascus, added its voice to the mounting US-led international calls for Syria to end its three-decade military presence in its smaller neighbor.
Posted by: Fred ||
03/04/2005 00:00:00 AM ||
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pro-Syrians called for the formation of a government of national unity
Minister of Foreign Affairs Prince Saud Al-Faisal has categorically denied reports that the Kingdom has initiated arrangements to hold a tripartite summit, with Saudi Arabia, Egypt and Syria participating, for the purpose of settling the current situation between Syria and Lebanon. Prince Saud is in Egypt as head of the Saudi delegation to the ongoing 123rd conference of foreign ministers of the League of Arab States. He was received in Sharm-El-Shaikh today by President of Egypt Hosni Mubarak.
Posted by: Fred ||
03/04/2005 00:00:00 ||
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They can settle all they like, but unless they include the key parties -- the World and the U.S. -- it will only add to global warming.
Lebanese government loyalists firmly rejected opposition demands for the resignations of the country's top security officials and instead called for a government of national unity. Beirut MP and one-time ally of assassinated Prime Minister Rafik Hariri, Bassem Yamout, said: "Today, we call on the opposition to join us to form a national consensus Cabinet that can pave the way for dialogue." Yamout added: "If the opposition fails to answer our endeavor, we hold them responsible for what might happen in the country." The loyalists, who gathered at Speaker Nabih Berri's residence at Ain al-Tineh on Thursday, include most of the outgoing ministers of former Premier Omar Karami's government and pro-Syrian MPs as well as members of the Amal Movement and Hizbullah. They insisted the opposition should join them in what they called a "national Cabinet" in order to "save the country from a monetary and administrative crisis."
Posted by: Fred ||
03/04/2005 00:00:00 ||
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we hold them responsible for what might happen in the country."
It's impossible to know if this is bluster or a warning. The way things are playing out, it appears to be the latter - but that being said, momentum is certainly on the side of the Lebanese.
Stepping outside his protective "security island" for the first time, Fatah's general supervisor in Lebanon, Colonel Mounir Maqdah, left Ein el-Hilweh refugee camp for a visit to Damascus Thursday. Security reports revealed that during his visit Maqdah will meet with Syrian and Palestinian officials, leading Palestinian sources in Lebanon's largest refugee camp to view the visit as a "coronation of the improvement of Palestinian-Syrian relations."
Just at the moment when Syria's relations with everyone else, to include their pet dogs, is going south. Talk about never missing an opportunity to miss an opportunity...
Maqdah was accompanied by Palestinian official Jamal Suleiman, a figure Damascus frequently turns to in times of crisis in Palestinian affairs.
That'd be two or three times a week...
According to sources, discussions between the two parties will touch on how to face mounting American and international pressure on Palestinians here, applied through United Nations Resolution 1559, which stipulates the disarmament of all armed forces in Lebanon, including "security islands," a term used to describe the country's Palestinian refugee camps.
The ghost of Max Weber has been scratching his head ever since they came up with an idea as dumb as "security islands."
Sources said that pressure was the basis for such a coordination, adding that Palestinian forces are unanimous in their desire to avoid any internal strife that could draw international attention and lead to the disarmament of Palestinian forces. According to Palestinian forces, the call for Syria's withdrawal from Lebanon is a prelude to lifting the political and security immunity of the camps.
Weber's ghost is looking up hopefully. Anna Comnena is snickering...
The sources said they feared that security would become unstable in Ein el-Hilweh once Syrian forces pull out and that the camps would be depicted as a haven for outlaws, thus allowing the U.S. and international powers to open the "Fatah file."
"Security would become unstable" in Ein el-Hellhole? What the hell has it been to this point?
Maqdah is the second-most wanted Palestinian official by Lebanese authorities to visit Syria, after Brigadier Sultan Abul-Aynayn, who also visited Damascus a few weeks ago.
It looks like the Syrians' only allies are the Medes, the Persians, and the Philistines...
Posted by: Fred ||
03/04/2005 00:00:00 AM ||
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St.Pancake must be flipping over in her grave. Talk about a wasted life and useless death.
#4
i wonder how much authority Abbas and Dahlan have over Fatah in Ein Hellhole? Not much, I suppose. Bet theirs a lot of complex maneuvering right now between Abbas, Jumblatt, the Hellhole locals, Syria, Hezb, etc.
Last fall, DePaul University professor Thomas Klocek was suspended without a hearing for challenging the viewpoints of certain Muslim students on campus at a student activities fair. He is now demanding a public apology from the university president in order to avoid litigation.
Klocek showed up to the news conference bound and gagged, illustrating what he believes the university did to him by censoring his views on the Middle East. Klocek says he was unfairly suspended for his views on the Muslim and Palestinian people.
"The students claimed professor Klocek's arguments were racist and hurt their feelings. They went to the dean of the school and 10 days after the debate the professor was suspended without a hearing," said John Mauck, Klocek's attorney.
DePaul University released a statement Tuesday that said the "case is not one of academic freedom, but rather one of inappropriate behavior outside the classroom by a university professional. His attitude was threatening and disrespectful to students." TRANSLATION: He did not show the proper Dhimmintude toward the holy Islamic students....
DePaul student Ben Myer witnessed Klocek arguing with the group students for justice in Palestine.
"As I was walking over, professor Klocek was explaining to my colleagues that there was no such thing as Palestinians, that they don't exist. He made aggressive gestures toward the students. He approached in a very confrontational way," Myer said.
A number of professors and DePaul students support Klocek and believe he has been treated unjustly.
"I came to the conclusion that the administration has exercised rather poor judgment in this matter," said Jonathan Cohen, DePaul University professor.
"This is an injustice. He is a man of integrity, a man of faithfulness and honor," said Vanessa Summers, DePaul student.
Klocek is an untenured adjunct professor. He has been with DePaul for 14 years. He was suspended with pay.
The university was in the process of rehiring him to teach a writing class in the spring quarter with the condition that his class be monitored.
As more people lose loved ones to the relentless violence, Iraqis are becoming increasingly angry at insurgents, even staging public demonstrations condemning militants.
While it is impossible to precisely gauge public opinion, it is clear many Iraqis have grown tired of two years of insecurity, and some are directing their wrath at those behind the bombings and attacks.
"I demand that they be put in the zoo along with the other scavengers, because that is where they belong," said Bassam Yassin, who lost his brother to an insurgent attack in Mosul. He spoke Wednesday after relatives of victims protested outside a police station in that northern city.
Iraq's majority Shiite Arabs and ethnic Kurds have long criticized the largely Sunni Arab insurgency, portraying the militants as terrorists, loyalists of the Saddam Hussein regime and foreign fighters.
But the insurgents are now also being criticized publicly by prominent Sunnis, including opponents of the U.S. presence.
"The real resistance should only target the occupiers, and no normal person should consider dozens of dead people to be some kind of collateral damage while you are trying to kill somebody else," cleric Ahmed Abdul-Ghafur told worshippers Friday at Um al-Qura, the main Sunni mosque in Baghdad. "Everybody should speak out against such inhumane acts."
The growing anger was underlined this week in Hillah, a predominantly Shiite Muslim city south of Baghdad where a suicide car bombing killed 125 people Monday — the deadliest single attack since Saddam's ouster.
It touched a nerve in Hillah. More than 2,000 people chanting "No to terrorism!" demonstrated Tuesday outside the clinic where the bomber drove into a crowd of Iraqi police and army recruits, setting off an explosion that also killed civilians at a nearby market.
On Friday, hostility to the insurgency apparently boiled over into bloodshed in Wihda, 25 miles south of Baghdad. Townsmen attacked militants thought to be planning a raid on the town and killed seven, police Capt. Hamadi al-Zubeidy reported.
Anger against insurgents is being fed, in part, by a government television campaign. Last week, U.S.-financed Al-Iraqiya TV aired a series of reports showing men describing themselves as insurgents calmly talking about how they had beheaded dozens of people, kidnapped others for ransom, and raped women and girls before killing them.
"People are realizing that the captured insurgents are not superheroes. They are timid people who kill for money and they have nothing to do with jihad," said Karim Humadi, head of programming for Al-Iraqiya.
Insurgents have attacked Nineveh TV, Al-Iraqiya's affiliate in Mosul, where most of the purported confessions were taped.
Last week, gunmen kidnapped one of the Mosul station's anchorwomen, shot her four times in the head and dumped her near her home. The victim, Raiedah Mohammed Wageh Wazan, had called the insurgents "terrorists" on air.
The anger over deaths caused by insurgents does not always translate into acceptance of U.S. troops, who are still widely blamed for the chaos in Iraq. And many people support the insurgents, arguing they are fighting a just war to rid the country of U.S.-led troops who invaded in 2003.
"The Iraqi people are brave and won't accept any foreigner on their soil. They will fight the occupation troops until force them to leave Iraq," said Haitham Abdul Razak, who was a captain in Saddam's army, which was disbanded by U.S. authorities.
Although American military deaths in Iraq passed 1,500 this week, they do not approach the toll among Iraqi civilians and their security forces. Bombings and other attacks killed more than 300 Iraqis just in February.
Groups like Abu Musab al-Zarqawi's al-Qaida in Iraq have made no secret that they hope attacks aimed at Iraq's Shiite majority will provoke Shiites into a sectarian war with Sunni Arabs, who make up the core of the insurgency.
They hope such a war will mobilize the Sunni Arab community, thought to comprise 15 percent to 20 percent of Iraq's 26 million people but who dominated under Saddam's regime.
Yet the insurgents' tactics are increasingly denounced by prominent Sunnis like Abdul-Ghafur, a cleric with the influential Sunni Association of Muslim Scholars, believed to have ties to insurgents.
"This is not the right way to drive the occupation out ... killing Iraqis is not the way to liberation," he told worshippers. "We call upon those who have power over these groups to stop massacring Iraqis."
Posted by: ed ||
03/04/2005 3:16:47 PM ||
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Good. The Iraqis that don't want us there would do well to note the faster there is no fighting, the faster the US goes home.
#2
So it's OK to try to kill Americans, but not Iraqis? When they evolve to the level where all killing is bad, then we should leave. Not before. There! Why don't we publish that as a withdrawal schedule?
Posted by: Bobby ||
03/04/2005 15:26 Comments ||
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Because of the Sun Bobby. It's on course to become a red giant.
#4
Typical AP bullshit. First state the obvious, Iraqi's are angry about the 'insurgents' murdering Iraqis, then water it down and add a bunch of anti-coalition quotes from the usual suspects.
Read between the farking lines - the 'insurgents' blow up a bunch of potential IP recruits in front of a police station, and next day there's even more new recruits waiting to join. This has been going on for over a year. The average Iraqi knows the meaning of freedom, and knows who the enemy is. Even if the AP doesn't.
Ukraine's defense minister said Thursday that his country might leave 900 troops in Iraq beyond its October deadline for pulling out, and stressed that Kiev would not abandon its mission in the Middle East country.
Ukraine on Tuesday approved the pullout of its 1,650-strong contingent in a phased withdrawal between March 15 and October. Its troops are responsible for security and training new Iraqi forces in Wasit province, which borders Iran.
"Ukraine is not leaving the coalition, but it is changing the character of its mission," Anatoly Gritsenko told reporters in Warsaw after a meeting with his Polish counterpart, Jerzy Szmajdzinski.
During his first foreign visit as defense minister, Gritsenko said a final group of some 900 troops may remain in Iraq until December, but said the issue "is still open for discussion and will be consulted with other nations."
He also said Ukraine is "prepared to equip the Iraqi army with guns, and military equipment."
Ukraine's soldiers serve in a Polish-led international force of 4,700 that covers the three Iraqi provinces of Wasit, Babil and Qadisiyah. Poland has 1,700 troops in the force.
Posted by: ed ||
03/04/2005 9:29:47 AM ||
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More than three years after President Bush declared his intention to capture Osama bin Laden "dead or alive," the terrorist chieftain remains free to taunt his pursuers and plan more attacks.
Bush offered assurances Thursday that the search is still on, but there are few signs of progress in the hunt for America's most wanted fugitive. A $25 million bounty, an international ad campaign seeking tips and the deployment of thousands of troops have failed to flush out the man behind the terrorist attacks of Sept. 11, 2001.
In the latest reminder of bin Laden's status as a terrorist on the loose, the federal Homeland Security Department warned state security officials last weekend that intelligence reports indicate that bin Laden has urged Abu Musab al Zarqawi, the top al-Qaida operative in Iraq, to plan attacks in the United States.
"We're on a constant hunt for bin Laden," the president said at a swearing-in ceremony for Michael Chertoff, the new head of the Homeland Security Department. "We're keeping the pressure on him, keeping him in hiding." As for al-Qaida, Bush said: "Stopping them is the greatest challenge of our day."
Critics charge that the manhunt has lost steam because of a lack of coordination within the U.S. government and insufficient cooperation from Pakistan. Bin Laden is thought to have slipped back and forth across the isolated border between Afghanistan and Pakistan since a U.S.-led coalition in 2001 toppled the Taliban regime, which had given him sanctuary in Afghanistan.
A number of al-Qaida leaders, possibly including bin Laden and his top associate, Ayman al Zawahri, slipped through two American dragnets in eastern Afghanistan in 2001 and 2002.
Two U.S. intelligence officials, speaking on condition of anonymity because the matters are classified, said that since then the administration had twice temporarily diverted unmanned spy planes and other intelligence assets from the Afghan-Pakistani border to Iraq, once to support the U.S.-led invasion and more recently to help find terrorist leaders there and protect Iraq's Jan. 30 elections.
"There really hasn't been any significant progress," said Larry Johnson, a former CIA agent who also served as a State Department counterterrorism specialist. "This has to be a fully integrated, coordinated effort."
Johnson, who said he'd spoken recently with someone who's directly involved in the search, also criticized Pakistani officials. Although Pakistan has sent 70,000 troops to the border region to assist in the search, some terrorism experts suspect that Pakistani intelligence officials are aiding the fugitive.
Pakistani President Pervez Musharraf said last week that he had no idea where bin Laden was.
"The big problem remains that the Pakistanis aren't cooperating," Johnson said.
A State Department ad campaign in Pakistan soliciting tips didn't produce any solid leads. Radio, television and newspaper ads in the Urdu and Pashto languages dangled the promise of $25 million rewards for information leading to the arrest of bin Laden or al Zawahiri.
Rep. Mark Steven Kirk, R-Ill., a staunch supporter of the rewards program, said the ads had helped produce about a dozen tips a day.
"A thousand bad tips could come in, but if one good one comes in, we're a success," Kirk said at a recent congressional hearing.
Bush and his aides say the focus on bin Laden obscures other progress in the war on terrorism. By the administration's count, more than 75 percent of the al-Qaida leadership at the time of the Sept. 11 attack has been killed or captured.
"If al-Qaida was structured like corporate America, you'd have a chairman of the board still in office, but many of the key operators would no longer be around," the president said later Thursday during a visit to CIA headquarters.
Administration officials acknowledge that the threat from al-Qaida is in some ways even more troubling now because the group has inspired spin-off terrorist organizations around the world.
"Al-Qaida and the groups that support it are still the most lethal threat we face today," FBI director Robert Mueller told the Senate Intelligence Committee last month.
Bush said he remained confident that bin Laden would be captured eventually.
"We spend every day gathering information to locate Osama bin Laden and Zawahri," he said during his CIA visit. "As far as I'm concerned and as far as the CIA is concerned, it's a matter of time before we bring these people to justice."
Posted by: Dan Darling ||
03/04/2005 12:27:06 AM ||
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#1
the terrorist chieftain remains free to taunt his pursuers and plan more attacks.
But so far, that's all he CAN do.
Mike
Posted by: Mike Kozlowski ||
03/04/2005 0:53 Comments ||
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#2
Damn! If only ALL UAVs and "other intelligence" assets had not been TEMPORARILY sent elsewhere for vital work, then CERTAINLY we'd have found Bin Loser. Of all the pathetic, illogical, counter-factual nonsense that constitutes about 95% of the arguments of "critics," the "distraction" idiocy may be the most egregious. Let's see -- the US couldn't possibly afford to build and operate, say, MORE UAVs if it so chose. And all those Pashto and Dari speakers we moved to Iraq ... wait ....
#5
It'd certainly be gratifying to have his head on a pike in the Oval Office, but we've done something much better than catching Binny: we've made him irrelevant.
Posted by: Matt ||
03/04/2005 16:16 Comments ||
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A new online magazine purportedly posted by al-Qaeda's affiliate in Iraq has launched an effort to recruit Muslims to rid Iraq of infidels and apostates its names for Americans and their Iraqi partners. The colorful, well-designed magazine is named Zurwat al-Sanam, Arabic for "The Tip of the Camel's Hump" a reference among Islamic militants to "the epitome of belief and virtuous activity."
The inaugural 43-page issue was posted two days after al-Qaeda in Iraq, the group led by Jordanian terrorist Abu Musab al-Zarqawi, claimed responsibility for an attack Monday against police and army recruits that killed 125 people in Hillah, just south of Baghdad. The group has also said it was behind car bombings and attacks that killed 14 police officers Wednesday. Al-Zarqawi's organization has been blamed for many of the bombings, kidnappings and beheadings in Iraq.
Washington-based counterterrorism expert Evan Kohlmann told The Associated Press the magazine aims at "conveying the sense that the organization is professional, capable and really understands what they're doing." It was designed as "an attempt to refute the idea that al-Zarqawi and these people are desperate. ... It shows that these people have time on their hands and don't have to worry about mobility."
Abu Maysara al-Iraqi, the designated "media coordinator" for al-Zarqawi's group, posted the magazine on the Internet late Wednesday. Saved as an attachment, it has appeared on at least two extremist Islamic Web sites that have previously posted al-Qaeda statements and claims of responsibility. Mainly a rehash of letters, tracts and texts that have previously appeared on the Internet, the magazine includes a vow of fealty from al-Zarqawi to Osama bin Laden and a pledge to keep fighting. It also includes excerpts from a bin Laden letter commending al-Zarqawi's fighters. The letter appears to be a patchwork of past speeches made by bin Laden.
Al-Zarqawi pledged allegiance to bin Laden last year in a letter posted on the Internet. In an audiotape aired later on the Al-Jazeera television network, bin Laden endorsed al-Zarqawi as his deputy in Iraq. The letter from bin Laden appearing in the magazine refers to al-Zarqawi as the "emir" of al-Qaeda in Iraq and calls on people to "obey him."
"There's a great difference between the sincere mujahedeen emirs who give up leadership for the sake of their religion and nation, and the region's kings and presidents, who refuse to unite the nation and scrap borders drawn by the crusaders," bin Laden writes.
The cover includes Al-Qaeda in Iraq's logo of an AK-47 standing in an open Quran, with a globe in the background and an arm and finger pointed upward. It also has pictures of President Bush, bin Laden, and Abu Anas al-Shami the late spiritual leader of al-Qaeda in Iraq. The magazine includes a profile of al-Shami, who was killed in a September airstrike in the western Baghdad suburb of Abu Ghraib. Al-Shami, a Palestinian, was a close aide to al-Zarqawi.
It says "enlightening Muslims and calling upon the people to follow the faith and way of Sunnis" was its main goal. Dated February 2005, it promised to be the first of many issues.
Elsewhere, al-Zarqawi's spokesman Abu Maysara defines al-Qaeda in Iraq as "a group of Sunnis" seeking "to regain all the lands of Muslims from the hands of the infidels and the apostates." Sunni Arabs, who make up about 20 percent of Iraq's population but were favored under Saddam Hussein's regime, have been prominent in the insurgency, which began with the U.S. occupation and has persisted through the election of a Shiite-dominated government. The group's "edict committee" also condemns democracy and elections as "Western" and "un-Islamic" concepts. "Democracy and parliaments, my brothers, are from the religion and desires of the infidels," the article says. "Democracy means the rule of the people ... which means that who is to be obeyed and worshipped is man, not God."
Abu Maysara calls on all Arabs to heed the call of jihad or holy war. Similar online magazines have appeared in the past, including the widely circulated "Sawt al-Jihad," issued by al-Qaeda in Saudi Arabia, and "Al-Khansaa" aimed mostly at women. The authenticity of such magazines is hard to verify. Experts said many of the new magazine's articles appeared to conform with bin Laden and al-Qaeda ideology.
Cairo-based Islamic expert Mohamed Salah said it appeared credible because of "the language and production" involved. "Experience has shown that they (militants) have become very qualified in using the Internet," Salah said. "They seem to be waging an online war and they seem to be winning it."
According to Kohlmann, the counterterrorism expert, the magazine is an indication that the group is trying to improve its recruitment efforts. "This is more real propaganda than the regular statements on the (online) forums. They graduated into a new world of propaganda," he said.
This article starring:
ABU ANAS AL SHAMI
al-Qaeda in Iraq
ABU MAISARA AL IRAQI
al-Qaeda in Iraq
ABU MUSAB AL ZARQAWI
al-Qaeda in Iraq
Cairo-based Islamic expert Mohamed Salah
Evan Kohlmann
Posted by: Dan Darling ||
03/04/2005 12:21:32 AM ||
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#1
Use the Internet to disseminate a dead tree format publication. These guys are real cyber-savvy (not).
#10
No, those are YOUR only choices. *We* have many options in life!
Posted by: Sheik Abu Bin Ali Al-Yahood ||
03/04/2005 4:24 Comments ||
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#11
IWRYM there a few mothers around here who are more than capable of beating the crap out of you. I personally think an all female force is more than sufficient to occupy any Arab country.
#14
Jihadist of Fortune Magazine?
Featuring Miss March - Virgin #22.
So they're just fantasizing about doing it now that reality is quickly removing them from actually accomplishing anything of significance. Freudian substitution?
#19
I wonder if they have any scratch and sniff ads. Given the title of the magazine, I can imagine a few amusing scents.
It would also be interesting to see the sponsors. Perhaps, the BBC, AlJazeera, the University of Berkeley Graduate School, Department of Mideast Studies, Move-On.org.
FOR MONTHS, a behind-the-scenes, seldom-mentioned debate has raged in the West, over the origins of the "foreign fighters" attacking the U.S., coalition, and local anti-jihadist forces in Iraq. Some, including Saudi dissidents like Ali al-Ahmed of the Saudi Institute and myself, has suspected Iraq's dangerous southern neighbor, the kingdom of Saudi Arabia, of being the main source.
Our evidence often seemed thin. We cited the repeated calls by hundreds of Saudi clerics for volunteers to go north of the unpatrolled border to kill themselves and others. We circulated translations and photographs of Saudi "martyrs" whose biographies appeared in the kingdom's print media and on websites.
But official opacity was maintained in the West. In mainstream media and government statements, the jihadist killers were never identified, beyond noting that they were foreign.
Now we have real evidence, and the verdict still points south of the Iraqi border.
The Global Research in International Affairs Center in Israel, a highly reputable and reliable think-tank, has published a paper titled "Arab volunteers killed in Iraq: an Analysis," available at e-prism.org. Authored by Dr. Reuven Paz, the paper analyzes the origins of 154 Arab jihadists killed in Iraq in the last six months, whose names have been posted on Islamist websites.
The sample does not account for all jihadists in Iraq, but provides a useful and eye-opening profile of them. Saudi Arabia accounted for 94 jihadists, or 61 percent of the sample, followed by Syria with 16 (10 percent), Iraq itself with only 13 (8 percent), and
Kuwait with 11 (7 percent.) The rest included small numbers from Jordan, Lebanon, Libya, Algeria, Morocco (of which one was a resident in Spain), Yemen, Tunisia, the Palestinian territories (only 1), Dubai, and Sudan. The Sudanese was living in Saudi Arabia before he went to die in Iraq.
The names of most of the dead appeared on the websites after the battle of Falluja, and they were all supporters of Abu Musab al-Zarqawi and al Qaeda.
Of the 94 Saudis, 61 originated in the region of Najd, known as the heartland of the Wahhabis. The total of 154 included 33 suicide terrorists, of whom 23 were Saudis (with 10 from Najd). Given that Najdis make up 43.5 percent of Saudi suicide bombers in Iraq, and 65 percent of all Saudi jihadists on the list, Paz concludes that the "Wahhabi doctrines of Najd--the heart of Wahhabism--remain highly effective."
Paz emphasizes that "the support for violent Jihad in Iraq against the Americans was encouraged by the Saudi Islamic establishment." But he also offers some interesting observations:
* "Jihadi volunteers constitute a significant portion of the Sunni insurgents," suggesting that referring to the terrorists as if they represented Sunnis in general, or were merely guerrillas opposed to a foreign invader, is inaccurate.
* "Another element to note is the relatively small number of Iraqis involved in the fighting on behalf of the Zarqawi group."
* "Particularly striking . . . is the absence of Egyptians among foreign Arab volunteers [in] Iraq, even though Egypt is the largest Arab country, with millions of sympathizers of Islamist groups." Paz notes that Egyptians were previously prominent as fighters in Afghanistan, Bosnia-Herzegovina, and Chechnya. He ascribes the failure of Egyptians to enlist in the Iraqi jihad to a combination of the decline of Islamist influence in Egypt, effective Egyptian government action against jihadism, and orders from the Muslim Brotherhood in Egypt not to participate physically in the Iraqi jihad.
The predominance of Saudis in Iraqi terrorism also goes a long way toward explaining the other fact that Western media and government have been reluctant to admit: the role of Wahhabism as an inciter of violence against Shias. Wahhabis hate Shias even more than Christians and Jews, because, as Saudi schools (including those like the Islamic Saudi Academy in the United States) teach, Christians and Jews have their own religions that are openly opposed to Islam, but Shias want to "change Islam," which the Wahhabis consider the personal property of the Saudi rulers. Few in the West seemed to notice earlier this week when 2,000 people assembled in Hilla, near Baghdad, to protest a car bombing that killed at least 125. The demonstrators chanted "No to terrorism! No to Baathism and Wahhabism!"
Paz concludes his study with words difficult to surpass for their clarity and relevance: "The intensive involvement of Saudi volunteers for Jihad in Iraq is . . . the result of the Saudi government's doublespeak, whereby it is willing to fight terrorism, but only if directly affected by it on its own soil. Saudi Arabia is either deliberately ignoring, or incapable and too weak, to engage in open and brave opposition to Jihadi terrorism outside of the Kingdom . . . Their blind eyes in the face of the Saudi Islamic establishment's support of the Jihad in Iraq may pose a greater threat in the future, as the hundreds of volunteers return home."
Only one thing needs to be added: it's time to close Saudi Arabia's northern border, silence the jihadist preachers, and cut off the financing of international Wahhabism.
Posted by: Dan Darling ||
03/04/2005 12:13:52 AM ||
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Few in the West seemed to notice earlier this week when 2,000 people assembled in Hilla, near Baghdad, to protest a car bombing that killed at least 125. The demonstrators chanted "No to terrorism! No to Baathism and Wahhabism!"
That would be because it was so lightly reported. Even on Rantburg - just one article with less covereage of the protest than in this article!
Posted by: Bobby ||
03/04/2005 8:39 Comments ||
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#2
Same as happened in Dec 03. Hundreds of thousands of Iraqis protested in Iraq against terrorism and the MSM (even Fox) totally ignored it.
At the same time everytime a so-called Al-Q spokesmen farts its front page headlnes for weeks.
Schanzer: I first started thinking about Al-Qaeda's Armies when I came to the Washington Institute for Near East Policy in September 2002. One year after the 9/11 attacks, analysts inside the beltway were spending countless hours researching al-Qaeda, but there was something missing. The primary target known as "al-Qaeda" had been oversimplified. As a result, many Americans believed that if the U.S. military simply captured Usama bin Laden and Ayman al-Zawahiri, the terrorist threat would dissipate. The Bali bombing and the attack on the French Tanker Limburg in Yemen that fall demonstrated to me that al-Qaeda's power and reach stemmed from a network of small and local groups that work as "subcontractors" for terrorist attacks all over the world, even as bin Laden and his top lieutenants hid in distant caves. In other words, the al-Qaeda network was able to be resilient because it relied not only upon its top leaders and clandestine cells, but also "affiliate groups," which are larger, homegrown, organic Islamist terror groups that became volunteer fighters for the al-Qaeda matrix.
With fighters that returned to their home countries after passing through the Afghanistan training camps and the Bosnian jihad, affiliate groups became the local outposts of al-Qaeda throughout the Muslim world. To put it very simply, if Taliban-ruled Afghanistan was the headquarters of the al-Qaeda corporation, affiliates are the international franchises.
FP: Tell us how the affiliate groups give al-Qaeda its resiliency.
Schanzer: Clearly, the U.S. has gone on a counterterror offensive since 9/11. Al-Qaeda has adjusted to the challenge by relying more on the infrastructure of associate groups and individuals. This allows for the sharing of expertise, resources, strategic ideas and even individuals prepared to carry out an attack. This kind of sharing on the periphery allows the network to continue to function, even under intense international pressure. Playing a large role in this peripheral infrastructure are affiliate groups. Al-Qaeda can rely on them because they are considered the second tier of looming al-Qaeda threats, and therefore play a small or nonexistent role in the grand strategy of the global war on terror.
Another thing that allows these groups to operate is their size and their remote areas of operation. They are often relatively small and operate in areas outside the reach of state authority. In the Arab world, where leaders exert too much authority, al-Qaeda has found pockets of weak government control, where terror can proliferate. The U.S. government calls these areas "ungoverned spaces" or "ungoverned territory." Today, these ungoverned spaces of have become the well-entrenched homes of today's terrorist groups in the Arab world. Lebanon's Usbat al-Ansar operates in the lawless Ein al-Hilweh refugee camp, which is simply teeming with Palestinian terrorists. Yemen's Islamic Army of Aden has traditionally operated in three or more lawless, tribal provinces, including Marib, which I visited in 2003. Ansar al-Islam first operated in the northeastern Kurdish enclave, but soon spread throughout war-torn Iraq with the help of terrorist mastermind Abu Musab al-Zarqawi. Algeria's Salafist Group for Preaching and Combat operates throughout Algeria, where civil war ravaged the country for more than a decade, and where the government continues to struggle for control.
FP: Could you discuss the sources you used for your research?
Schanzer: I used varied sources for this. I had to read just about every book and article about al-Qaeda first, to draw upon the good work of others. It was also important to look at the Arabic language newspapers that saw each individual affiliate as a local threat. Interestingly, while much of the Arabic media is not free and often regurgitates government propaganda, papers form Lebanon, Algeria and Egypt actually allowed some good information to trickle out into the public. Even though I don't speak French or Turkish, I looked at valuable journal and magazine articles in French and Turkish with the help of some colleagues. It was also interesting to hold interviews with government officials (State Department and Pentagon), foreign diplomats (Barham Salih, now deputy prime minister of Iraq), and even a few academics (Professor Mark Katz of George Mason University and Quintan Wictorowicz of Rhodes College).
The real fun came in the form of face-to-face interviews in Baghdad, Sulaymaniyya, Sanaa, Aden, Cairo, Paris and Tel Aviv. Government officials, academics, security experts and people on the street all helped provide for a better understanding of the affiliate groups I studied, as well as the environment that allows them to thrive. I hope that the governments of Lebanon and Algeria will consider allowing me to travel there the next time I make a request.
FP: You interviewed one of Saddam Hussein's former intelligence officers. Can you tell us about that experience?
Schanzer: During a trip to Iraq last year, I interviewed a young man named Abdul Rahman al-Shamari, who served in Saddam's Mukhabarat from 1997 to 2002. I interviewed al-Shamari in a PUK prison in Sulaymaniyya on January 29, 2003. He had been in prison since March 2002. He spoke in Arabic, and I understood most of what he told me. I also had a translator with me.
My first question to al-Shamari was whether he, as an agent of Saddam's secret police, had been involved in the operations of Ansar al Islam, the small al-Qaeda affiliate group that had been active on the Iranian border leading up to the Iraq war of 2003. Al-Shamari stated that his division of the Mukhabarat provided weapons to Ansar, "mostly mortar rounds." Al-Shamari added that the Mukhabarat also helped finance Ansar al Islam "every month or two months," providing hundreds of thousands of dollars.
Al-Shamari also told me about ties between Saddam's regime and the broader al-Qaeda network. He estimated that some 150 foreign fighters were imported from al-Qaeda affiliate groups in Jordan, Turkey, Syria, Yemen, Egypt, and Lebanon to fight with Ansar al-Islam's Kurdish fighters. For instance, he mentioned a man named Abu Aisha. He was likely referring to Bassam Kanj, alias Abu Aisha, who fought with the Dinniyeh group, a faction of the Lebanese al-Qaeda affiliate Usbat al-Ansar. Al-Shamari said that there was also contact with the Egyptian "Gamaat al-Jihad," and the Algerian Salafist Group for Preaching and Combat (GSPC). Al-Shamari talked of Abu Wael's links with Turkey's "Jamaa al-Khilafa"--likely the group also known as the "Organization of Caliphate State."
Al-Shamari also explained that Abu Wael had fostered some cooperation with Abu Musab al Zarqawi. He claimed that Zarqawi, now seen as the top terrorist in Iraq, was al-Qaeda's link to Iraq in the same way that Abu Wael was the Iraqi link to al-Qaeda. In short, al-Shamari claimed that al-Qaeda and Saddam were cooperating well before the insurgency that erupted after the March 2003 invasion. If al-Shamari was telling the truth, Saddam Hussein may not have had a close relationship with al-Qaeda's top leaders, but he likely had a close relationship with some of al-Qaeda's lesser known lieutenants and affiliates.
FP: What it will take to successfully fight and defeat these affiliate groups?
Schanzer: While we continue to hunt for Usama bin Laden and company, we must now also consider a sustained campaign against al-Qaeda's periphery, which constitutes the bulk of the threat. If affiliates around the world are allowed to operate unchecked, they could expand into larger centers of al-Qaeda activity.
Fortunately, while affiliates threaten American interests, the U.S. and its allies can also threaten them. Clandestine al-Qaeda cells are hard to identify and even more difficult to dismantle. By contrast, al-Qaeda affiliates can be seen as al-Qaeda's soft targets. It is known exactly where these groups are based (for targeting) and who commands them (for financial operations or even arrests). As such, they represent the "low hanging fruit" in the war against al-Qaeda in the Middle East and throughout the world. At a time when the U.S. military is spread thin in Afghanistan, Iraq and elsewhere, small operations against these groups can be a less complicated, less time-consuming and less expensive mode of fighting terrorism.
In addition to targeting groups with military might, the U.S. now also faces the challenge of building relationships with cooperative Middle East states that will bring areas of weak central authority under their control so that more affiliates cannot spawn. Across the board, al-Qaeda Middle East affiliates first grew from areas of weak central authority. From Lebanon and Yemen to Northern Iraq and Algeria, al-Qaeda exploited weak central authority by furnishing financial, military, and/or logistical assistance to local Islamists groups, allowing them to develop into more dangerous as affiliates.
In the cases when Middle Eastern states are willing to cooperate fully with the U.S., it will be important to ensure that the U.S. role is not a heavy-handed one. A light footprint is necessary for successful cooperation in states such as Algeria, Yemen and elsewhere. Overzealous U.S. activity in the Middle East, a part of the world that resents U.S. power, if not harboring an outright hatred for America, can lead to disaster, both in the fight against al-Qaeda affiliates, and more broadly, in U.S.-Middle East relations. For example, open cooperation between the highly unpopular government in Algiers and Washington, which continues to decline in popularity throughout the Middle East, will not go unnoticed by an Algerian public prone to mistrust and conspiracy theories. If progress is to be made in countering the threat of the GSPC, it should be done quietly and behind the scenes. Over time, if stability and transparency result from U.S.-Algerian cooperation, a heavier footprint could be advised.
If a country, such as Syria (in the case of Asbat al-Ansar in Lebanon) refuses to take steps against affiliate groups and the lawless environments in which they operate, intense diplomacy is the first step. If diplomacy fails, tough penalties and sanctions can be imposed. Threat of force may even be necessary. After all, harboring terrorists amounts to aiding and abetting them. Countries that allow affiliates to operate openly within their borders may first dig in their heels and ignore U.S. demands. Indeed, some may initially become more sympathetic to the affiliates in reaction to U.S. pressure. But a steadfast commitment to a policy that does not allow states to harbor al-Qaeda affiliates will eventually yield positive results.
In the final analysis, fighting al-Qaeda's affiliates will require a Herculean effort, given the amorphous nature of affiliate groups. The U.S. will have to be flexible because the strategies, tactics, positions, and leaders of affiliate groups change fast and often, requiring real-time intelligence and quick decision making. If employed successfully, such a strategy of aggressively pursuing affiliate groups can yield a series of unequivocal victories in a short amount of time. These victories will be perceived as both military and political. These small operations can also take immense pressure off of an increasingly overburdened American military. Indeed, small victories might invigorate a public that has already grown weary of incessant bad news in Iraq and the war on terror, writ large.
This article starring:
ABDUL RAHMAN AL SHAMARI
Ansar al-Islam
ABDUL RAHMAN AL SHAMARI
Iraqi Baath Party
ABU AISHA
Ansar al-Islam
ABU AISHA
Dinniyeh group
ABU AISHA
Usbat al-Ansar
ABU MUSAB AL ZARQAWI
Ansar al-Islam
ABU WAEL
Organization of Caliphate State
AIMAN AL ZAWAHIRI
al-Qaeda
Barham Salih
BASAM KANJ
Ansar al-Islam
BASAM KANJ
Dinniyeh group
BASAM KANJ
Usbat al-Ansar
Ein al-Hilweh
Professor Mark Katz
Quintan Wictorowicz
Washington Institute for Near East Policy
al-Gamaa al-Islamiyya
al-Jihad
Ansar al-Islam in Iraq
Dinniyeh group
Gamaat al-Jihad
Islamic Army of Aden in Yemen
Jamaa al-Khilafa
Organization of Caliphate State
Salafist Group for Preaching and Combat in Algeria
Usbat al-Ansar
Posted by: Dan Darling ||
03/04/2005 12:10:46 AM ||
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I haven't finished the whole article yet, but "If al-Shamari was telling the truth, Saddam Hussein may not have had a close relationship with al-Qaedaâs top leaders, but he likely had a close relationship with some of al-Qaedaâs lesser known lieutenants and affiliates." Would this mean that it NOW is OK to invade Iraq on the 9/11 connections? Or is this STILL not enough of a connection? Does this convince even one LLL that Saddam supported anti-US terror?
Posted by: Bobby ||
03/04/2005 9:42 Comments ||
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#2
Robert, Robert, Robert,
Don't you know arguing with LLLs is pointless? Even if you had a photo of Sadaam and Osama shaking hands, it wouldn't change their minds a bit. They'd move the goalposts and say the meeting of Osama and Sadaam was further proof of the racist, sexist, homophobic, global-warming, patriarichal evil of the capitalist stooge United States.
Jordanian Islamist Abu Musab Zarqawi has rallied the insurgency in Iraq thanks to his endorsement by Al-Qaeda and demonization by the U.S. For several months, most claims of attacks carried out by the insurgency, dominated by supporters of the former Baathist regime, have been issued by groups purportedly linked to Zarqawi's network, formerly known as Tawhid wal Jihad (Unity and Holy War), Iraqi and U.S. officials said.
Zarqawi's name is a convenient tag for ousted President Saddam Hussein's Baath party and security-service veterans who want to disguise their involvement and gain popular support for their violence, the officials said.
"Baathists are no longer supported by the people in Iraq," said the Interior Ministry's intelligence chief Major General Hussein Kamal.
He said: "The Baathists have chosen to hide behind the religious Jihadi front to regain the sympathy of the people and control the minds of the ignorant. This led Zarqawi to be the front."
Kamal added: "They (the Baathists) are working with the Islamists under joint leadership to gather intelligence and wage operations," he said. "By Islamists, I mean Al-Qaeda and others existing in Iraq."
He added that the partnership was also spurred by the crackdown on insurgents by the new Iraqi security forces.
Baathists saw the Al-Qaeda brand name as a useful calling card, Kamal said.
"They are hiding behind Al-Qaeda because Al-Qaeda is the biggest enemy to the United States and to the West."
A spokesman for the U.S. Army's 42nd Infantry Division, in charge of four provinces north of Baghdad, including three of the most restless in the country, confirmed the prominence of the Baathist trend within the insurgency.
"Here in our region the vast majority of the insurgents are former regime elements," said Major Richard Goldenberg.
Kamal said: "No operation carried out by the Baathists has been claimed in the name of the Baath party. They have been using other names like the Islamic Army, Tawhid wal Jihad or the Salahaddin Brigade ... all cells linked to the Zarqawi group." Statements are often an opportunity for groups to advertise themselves, even if they are not involved in the attack.
"It is one of two things: either the insurgents are claiming to be part of Zarqawi's vast network or they will make an attack and Zarqawi will take credit for it," the U.S. military spokesman said.
A sound criterion to determine the actual involvement of foreign fighters is suicide attacks.
"The majority of suicide bombers are (non-Iraqi) Arabs," concurred General Kamal, citing specifically Saudis and Yemenis.
"I don't have an exact number of how many of Zarqawi affiliates there are (in Iraq) but I would say those who have entered the country illegally are in the hundreds. That is according to information given by Arab terrorists detained in Iraq," he said.
In a message attributed to Zarqawi and found in January 2004 in the possession of an alleged high-ranking Pakistani Al-Qaeda operative, the author lamented the lack of eagerness for martyrdom in Iraqi insurgents.
"The Iraqi brothers still favor their own security and prefer to go back to the arms of their wives, away from all fears. The members of these groups sometimes boast that none of them has been killed or been taken prisoner," the document reads.
Goldenberg acknowledged the responsibility of the U.S. in the rise of Zarqawi, for whose capture Washington is offering the same bounty as for Osama bin Laden: $25 million.
"It is a two-edged sword since you create someone who is popular. For this maybe we gave him much momentum for his publicity, but at the same time the Iraqis see him as an outsider."
Posted by: Dan Darling ||
03/04/2005 12:04:09 AM ||
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#2
You almost wonder what the Baathists are hoping to accomplish at this point. These are people who "were" somebody - not your typical splodydopes. They've already lost the war and now have become little more than a well trained KKK. But what good is that for people who really want to regain their past status as the power-brokers in charge?
They are now destined to be on the outside of what's happening. Each future attack just pushes them further and further away from what it really is that they want - power.
Nepal's government has extended by two months the house arrest of five top political leaders who were detained after the king sacked the government and took power on Feb. 1, officials said on Friday. The order came just days before political parties planned to protest in the capital Katmandu to demand that the government free political leaders, withdraw emergency rule and restore democracy.
Since Feb 1, police have surrounded the homes of the five political leaders. They have been banned from meeting people, reading newspapers or watching television. Their house arrests had been due to end this week, but authorities extended them by two more months, officials said, speaking on condition of anonymity. The leaders under house arrest include the heads of the country's mainstream political parties: Girija Prasad Koirala, president of Nepali Congress, Madhav Nepal, of United Marxist Leninist Communist Party of Nepal and Sher Bahadur Deuba of Nepali Congress (Democratic) party.
Posted by: Steve White ||
03/04/2005 00:00:00 AM ||
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#1
Please don't prey on my mileage :(
Posted by: larry in operations ||
03/04/2005 10:14 Comments ||
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HOLON, Israel - Israeli troops are now sporting gear that Dick Tracy would be proud of: tiny video screens, worn on the wrist, which display video shot by unmanned airplanes. Similar screens have been in use for nearly a year in the Israeli military's attack helicopters, helping pilots identify and strike Palestinian terrorists militants within seconds.
The technology, which is also used in tanks and armored vehicles, was a closely guarded secret until the company that developed it offered reporters a rare glimpse at the system this week. "We are fulfilling the science fiction movies that we see," said Itzhak Beni, chief executive of the Elisra Group's Tadiran Electronic Systems and Tadiran Spectralink companies.
Beni said the communications system has "shortened tremendously" the amount of time it takes to identify and strike a terrorist target. "Before it was minutes, 10 to 12 minutes. Now it's a matter of seconds," he said. The Israeli army declined to comment about the new technology. But Israeli security officials have acknowledged they can launch airstrikes so swiftly that targeted terrorists militants no longer have time to run away flee, in contrast to the early days of fighting in late 2000. They cite improvements in many areas, not any single technology.
Continued on Page 49
Posted by: Steve White ||
03/04/2005 00:00:00 AM ||
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...Ya know, these guys might just really HAVE a death ray...
Mike
Posted by: Mike Kozlowski ||
03/04/2005 0:58 Comments ||
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I think they have something better than a deathray, a database of IR images that can match in real time or close to it. Ever wondered how the Israelis manage to rock up when 5 or 6 wanted men are in the same place and grab them?
Yemen is planning to host talks between Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas and Khaled Mishal, a political leader of the Hamas movement on negotiations with Israel, Yemeni President Ali Abdullah Saleh said yesterday. "We expect Mahmoud Abbas to arrive here in the coming weeks with Khaled Mishal of Hamas to bringing closer the viewpoints of Hamas and the Palestinian Authority," Saleh said.
Khaled is the head of Hamas' politburo, holding the same position Rantissi held. He won't set foot in Paleostine for fear of getting helizapped.
Saleh made the remarks during talks with the German Chancellor Gerhard Schroeder, who concluded a two-day visit to Yemen yesterday. The Yemeni leader expressed support to Abbas in his efforts to bring together the Palestinian factions to bring about a truce and a cease-fire with Israel. "We support the Palestinian-Palestinian dialogue and moves to engage Israel in dialogue by all the Palestinian factions, including Hamas, Jihad, the People's Front, and the Democratic Front," Saleh said. He also voiced hope that the international community could push for "the establishment of a Palestinian state on Palestinian territories with Jerusalem as its capital."
Posted by: Fred ||
03/04/2005 00:00:00 AM ||
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Smaller parties in the Muttahida Majlis-e-Amal (MMA) are angry with the two major component of the alliance for ignoring them on major decisions, sources told Daily Times on Thursday.
Since Noorani croaked, MMA's become a vanity party for Qazi and, to a lesser extent, for Fazl...
Small party leaders in the MMA said that the alliance's decision to launch a drive against General Pervez Musharraf had been made by the Jamaat-e-Islami (JI) and Jamiat Ulema-e-Islam-Fazl (JUI-F), and the other smaller members of the MMA would not participate in the campaign.
"Nope. Nope. Ain't gonna do it. We don't gotta if we don't wanna and you can't make us, so there!"
Mashhadi told Daily Times that Qazi Hussain Ahmed and Maulana Fazlur Rehman, heads of the JI and JUI-F, promoted only their party men. JI leaders held meetings supposedly of the MMA at which they imposed their decisions on the other parties, he said. The provincial leadership of MMA was oblivious of the decisions taken by the central shoora, he said. He claimed that Qazi Hussain Ahmed has admitted that the MMA's decision to support the 17th Constitutional Amendment was wrong. Qazi and Maulana Fazalur Rehman had also assured the chief of the Alliance for Restoration of Democracy (ARD), Makhdoom Amin Fahim, that the MMA was ready to launch a joint movement with the ARD for the restoration of the Constitution.
Mashhadi said that Qazi did not take the other parties of the alliance into confidence on this decision except Maulana Fazalur Rehman. "In these circumstances, how can the other parties cooperate with the JI and JUI-F to make the tehreek against the government a success?" He said the MMA had already suffered a setback when Maulana Samiul Haq of the JUI-S quit the alliance in protest at the MMA's support of the Pakistan Muslim League in passing the 17th Amendment and added that Senator Professor Sajid Mir, Markazi Jamiat Ahle-Hadith chief, was mad at Qazi Hussain Ahmad, the MMA president, and Maulana Fazalur Rehman, the MMA secretary general, for supporting the amendment.
Perv's apparently doing a good job of helping them break apart. The ghost of Anna Comnena sez she's impressed.
This article starring:
PROFESOR SAJID MIR
Markazi Jamiat Ahle-Hadith
SYED MEHFUZ MASHADI
Jamiat Ulema-e-Pakistan-Noorani
Jamiat Ulema-e-Pakistan-Noorani
Markazi Jamiat Ahle-Hadith
Posted by: Fred ||
03/04/2005 00:00:00 AM ||
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Benazir Bhutto, Pakistan People's Party Parliamentarians chairperson, is expected to call on US Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice today, a source close to Benazir said on Thursday. The source said Benazir's meeting with Rice would change Pakistan's political situation.
Posted by: Fred ||
03/04/2005 00:00:00 ||
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I await the Washington Post's breathless discussion of their attire.
A special drive launched in Rajasthan and Gujarat to grant citizenship to Pakistan's Hindu nationals has ended. The drive resulted in granting citizenship to over 8,000 Pakistani nationals. Rajasthan, however, approached the Union government to extend the time limit further so that more people could avail the opportunity, The Asian Age reported. Rajasthan Home Secretary Surendar Kumar told The Asian Age that over 7,000 Pakistanis, most of them belonging to the Hindu community, have become Indian citizens over the last two months. "The central government delegated powers to district magistrates for granting citizenship," he said. "We communicated to the central government to extend the time limit given for the drive, because there are many who could not get citizenship," he added.
The drive that commenced on January 4, 2005 ended on February 28. During this period, the administration organised special camps in districts with a number of Pakistani citizens. In Gujarat, only 1,500 acquired Indian citizenship. Hindu Sindh Sodha, president of the Pak Visthapit Sangh (PVS), said that though, the BJP government of Gujarat always encouraged the cause of Hindutva, it had attended poorly to the Hindus. Speaking from Ahemdabad, Gujarat Home Secretary KC Kapoor said that those who responded to the call got the citizenship. "Even in Ahemdabad, almost 1,186 people got the Indian citizenship," he said. According to the PVS, these Hindus came to India on valid travel papers from Pakistan and refused to back saying they were subjected to ill treatment on religious grounds. "These displaced people have to renew their visa every five years and had been paying a certain fee to Pakistan," said Mr Sodha. He added that India should raise the issue of these helpless minorities with Pakistan and must have a policy on the refugee problem.
Posted by: Fred ||
03/04/2005 00:00:00 AM ||
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Now to encourage "Indian" Moslems to move the other way.
Too informative for me, humble boy of few needs (mostly internet porn), but still. Site seems interesting. Note appendix G, a profile of Youssef Qardawi, big cheese of the UoG, and main driving force behind the muslim brotherhood's projects for Europe, who also happens to be the real boss of the UOIF, brotherhood-derived umbrella organization that dominates France's islam.
Posted by: Anonymous5089 ||
03/04/2005 00:00:00 AM ||
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Anonymous5089 picky picky..afterall they only left out one word>> Union of Good Terror.
A multi-volume chronology and reference guide set detailing three years of the Mexican Drug War between 2010 and 2012.
Rantburg.com and borderlandbeat.com correspondent and author Chris Covert presents his first non-fiction work detailing
the drug and gang related violence in Mexico.
Chris gives us Mexican press dispatches of drug and gang war violence
over three years, presented in a multi volume set intended to chronicle the death, violence and mayhem which has
dominated Mexico for six years.
Rantburg was assembled from recycled algorithms in the United States of America. No
trees were destroyed in the production of this weblog. We did hurt some, though. Sorry.
Yemen and France have signed a military cooperation agreement providing for joint exercises, an exchange of intelligence and the supply of French military equipment to Yemen, the French Defence Minister said on Sunday. 
Five working-class women demanding justice for the murder of their brother by the IRA last night wrung an unprecedented concession from its political wing when Gerry Adams announced that he had handed over the names of fellow republicans to a police body. The Sinn Fein president — named in recent weeks by the Irish Government as a member of the Provisional IRA's seven-member ruling Army Council — said that he had passed the names of seven party members to the Police Ombudsman of Northern Ireland. 
Britain faces a potential terrorist threat from "very many" Muslim men who returned to Britain after spending time in training camps in Afghanistan, the Commissioner of the Metropolitan Police said yesterday. Sir Ian Blair, whose force, with MI5, leads anti-terrorism work in Britain, was asked if he supported the assertion of the Prime Minister earlier this week that there were "several hundred people in the UK plotting terror attacks". The commissioner told LBC radio in London: "Yes, I am aware of the fact that there are very many people who came back from the camps in Afghanistan and who are therefore potentially a threat to the United Kingdom. "And I agree with the Prime Minister's assessment, on that basis, that there are hundreds of people who came back from the camps and are now in the United Kingdom, and that is a very dangerous issue for us all."
Ukraine's former Interior Minister 
A British computer specialist tried to set up a terrorist training camp in Arizona in 1998 and met with Islamic radicals there who claimed ties to Osama bin Laden, a government attorney said Wednesday. 
Indonesia urged foreign critics on Friday to respect a court decision sentencing a radical Muslim cleric to just 30 months in jail for involvement in the 2002 Bali bombings and acquitting him of more serious terrorism charges.
Lebanon's political crisis deepened yesterday when pro-Syrians called for the formation of a government of national unity, ignoring a list of tough conditions set by the opposition for the future of the country. The pro-Syrian government of Prime Minister Omar Karameh was forced to quit this week after huge protests in Beirut, leaving officials with a complex search for a new head of government. "The shortest and most effective routes for national dialogue is ... the formation of a national unity government that includes the various political trends in the country," a meeting of loyalist groups said in a statement. 
Minister of Foreign Affairs Prince 
Lebanese government loyalists firmly rejected opposition demands for the resignations of the country's top security officials and instead called for a government of national unity. Beirut MP and one-time ally of assassinated Prime Minister Rafik Hariri, Bassem Yamout, said: "Today, we call on the opposition to join us to form a national consensus Cabinet that can pave the way for dialogue." Yamout added: "If the opposition fails to answer our endeavor, we hold them responsible for what might happen in the country." The loyalists, who gathered at Speaker Nabih Berri's residence at Ain al-Tineh on Thursday, include most of the outgoing ministers of former Premier Omar Karami's government and pro-Syrian MPs as well as members of the Amal Movement and Hizbullah. They insisted the opposition should join them in what they called a "national Cabinet" in order to "save the country from a monetary and administrative crisis."
Stepping outside his protective "security island" for the first time, 
Jordanian Islamist Abu Musab Zarqawi has rallied the insurgency in Iraq thanks to his endorsement by Al-Qaeda and demonization by the U.S. For several months, most claims of attacks carried out by the insurgency, dominated by supporters of the former Baathist regime, have been issued by groups purportedly linked to Zarqawi's network, formerly known as Tawhid wal Jihad (Unity and Holy War), Iraqi and U.S. officials said.
Nepal's government has extended by two months the house arrest of five top political leaders who were detained after the king sacked the government and took power on Feb. 1, officials said on Friday. The order came just days before political parties planned to protest in the capital Katmandu to demand that the government free political leaders, withdraw emergency rule and restore democracy.
HOLON, Israel - Israeli troops are now sporting gear that Dick Tracy would be proud of: tiny video screens, worn on the wrist, which display video shot by unmanned airplanes. Similar screens have been in use for nearly a year in the Israeli military's attack helicopters, helping pilots identify and strike Palestinian 
Yemen is planning to host talks between Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas and 
Smaller parties in the 
