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Page 1: WoT Operations
22 00:00 Zenster [4] 
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8 00:00 Sigmund Freud [4] 
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6 00:00 Ho Chi Spomosh2247 [6] 
2 00:00 Old Patriot [3] 
9 00:00 Natural Law [3] 
14 00:00 trailing wife [3] 
10 00:00 Tell D Truth [3] 
20 00:00 Angaiger Tojo1904 [5] 
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Page 2: WoT Background
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7 00:00 KBK [4]
6 00:00 JosephMendiola [4]
10 00:00 Tell D Truth [3]
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Page 3: Non-WoT
2 00:00 Sock Puppet of Doom [5]
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8 00:00 JosephMendiola [3]
4 00:00 Zenster [4]
Page 4: Opinion
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Page 5: Russia-Former Soviet Union
2 00:00 Zenster [3]
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5 00:00 Abu do you love [4]
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5 00:00 Grumenk Philalzabod0723 [4]
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12 00:00 Alistaire Sleating4235 [5]
9 00:00 Tell D Truth [3]
15 00:00 Zenster [4]
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Afghanistan
Afghan troops kill at least 15 Taliban in joint op w/ Canadians
Canadian troops drove Taliban insurgents into an Afghan army ambush on Saturday and then called in air strikes to hit the fleeing militants, killing at least 15, the Canadian army commander said.

The Canadian troops moved in under cover of darkness through grape, poppy and marijuana fields to a suspected Taliban compound in the village of Sangsar, near Kandahar, where fugitive Taliban leader Mullah Omar once lived and preached at the local mosque.

"It was another disruptive operation to limit Taliban influence on an Afghan army checkpoint on Highway One," said Major Dave Quick, in charge of the operation, referring to the main road that loops around southern Afghanistan.

The Canadian troops opened fire at first light, with Afghan army units waiting in ambush for the group of about 60 Taliban insurgents along their predicted line of retreat.

"We had multiple contacts and there was air support that dropped about eight 500-pound (230kg) bombs on Taliban positions," he said.

"We estimate that we got about 15 to 20 of them."

Troops captured an anti-tank weapon capable of piercing their armoured vehicles. They also found assault rifles, grenades and armour-piercing shells in and around the compound.

A Taliban spokesman said 27 Afghan and NATO soldiers were killed in fighting in the same district, but a Reuters correspondent with Canadian troops on the operation said there were no casualties among the soldiers.

The spokesman said local Taliban commander Mullah Razaq was also killed in the fighting in southern Afghanistan.

Posted by: Dakota Freedom || 07/15/2007 14:30 || Comments || Link || [6 views] Top|| File under: Taliban

#1  Nice post, Dakota Freedom. :-) And a nice maneuver by the Canadians and the Afghans together -- well done, gentlemen!
Posted by: trailing wife || 07/15/2007 16:12 Comments || Top||

#2  Dakota Freedom? A new poster with feelgood sunshiney news :-)
Welcome!

Gotta love ambushing the running dogs
Posted by: Frank G || 07/15/2007 16:56 Comments || Top||

#3  What? No civilian casualties?
Posted by: Elmereter Hupash6222 || 07/15/2007 18:08 Comments || Top||

#4  Must have caught 'em by surprise before they could get their shields up.
Posted by: Elmereter Hupash6222 || 07/15/2007 18:09 Comments || Top||

#5  More dead Talibani means more mulch for the opium poppy fields ... A win-win situation
Posted by: Tell D Truth || 07/15/2007 20:40 Comments || Top||

#6  "through grape, poppy and marijuana fields"?!? Were they accompanied by the ghosts of Julio Gallo, the Tin Man, and Abbie Hoffman?
Posted by: Ho Chi Spomosh2247 || 07/15/2007 22:42 Comments || Top||


Taliban targets women and schoolgirls
No one is safe in the Taliban's war against the Afghani Government-sponsored school system. In the Taliban's eyes, to destroy the schools is to prove the government weak and unable to provide security. To make their point, the Taliban have no qualms with massacring innocent preteen schoolgirls.

"Schoolgirls in the Gunsights of the Taliban" by Barry Bearak for Scotland on Sunday:

WITH their teacher absent, 10 students were allowed to leave school early. These were the girls the gunmen saw first, 10 easy targets walking hand-in-hand through the blue metal gate and on to the winding dirt road.

A 13-year-old named Shukria was shot in the arm and the back, and teetered into an adjacent wheat field. Zarmina, her 12-year-old sister, ran to her side, listening to the wounded girl's precious breath and trying to help her stand. But Shukria was too heavy to lift and the two gunmen, sitting astride a single motorbike, sped closer.

As Zarmina scurried away, the men took a more studied aim at those they had already shot, finishing off Shukria with bullets to her stomach and heart. Then the attackers seemed to succumb to the frenzy they had begun, forsaking the motorbike and fleeing on foot in a panic, two bobbing heads - one tucked into a helmet, the other swaddled by a handkerchief - vanishing amid the earthen colour of the concealing wheat.

Six girls were shot here on the sunny afternoon last month; two of them died.
Simply horrible. Can any normal human being justify the shooting innocent little girls for going to school?

The girls are not the only targets; their mothers are under attack as well.

Although the power of the Taliban has been greatly reduced in Afghanistan since the 2001 US-led invasion, slowly but surely their influence, especially in the tribal south, is returning.
In Badakshan, all women must get permission from their husbands before being allowed to visit a doctor.

Women teachers are regularly subjected to beatings and assaults from roaming Taliban gangs.

Mothers who send their children to school are also targeted by the thugs, who try to intimidate them into keeping their youngsters at home.

Forced marriages and domestic violence feature regularly in the lives of many women who live in the south and eastern provinces of the country.

Although more women are working in the media now, they are under constant threat. Shaima Rezayee, a popular MTV-style presenter, was shot dead after receiving death threats in 2006.
Posted by: GolfBravoUSMC || 07/15/2007 11:17 || Comments || Link || [3 views] Top|| File under: Taliban

#1  Waiting for 'moderate muslims' to react.


waiting.


still waiting.
Posted by: wxjames || 07/15/2007 12:55 Comments || Top||

#2  "Taliban targets women and schoolgirls"

Of course they do. The useless wanker talib-pussies™ do tend to attack people they're sure can't fight back, after all.

These clowns can't get their reward IN HELL too soon. >:-(
Posted by: Barbara Skolaut || 07/15/2007 13:01 Comments || Top||

#3  Afghan women used to have a hideous reputation for what they would do to a man taken prisoner. Pity some of them haven't been placed in charge of Taliban prisoners.
Posted by: Anonymoose || 07/15/2007 13:51 Comments || Top||

#4  Can any normal human being justify the shooting innocent little girls for going to school?


Horsesnot! Of course not! Who ever said that the Taliban were normal human beings? I realize that dehumanizing an enemy is the first step in justifying their bulk slaughter, but in the case of Muslim terrorists, I'm willing to do just that.

When the Taliban surrendered en mass they should have been interned, imprisoned for life or simply executed on the spot. While the cost of the first two options might have been equal or greater than what we spend now in Afghanistan, many more of our soldiers would be alive and Afghan society would be progressing more rapidly.

Even Nazis and communists exhibit greater chances of successful rehabilitation than Muslim terrorists. The West is foolish to believe that there is any way to change the thinking of those who have been infected with Islam's death meme.
Posted by: Zenster || 07/15/2007 14:15 Comments || Top||

#5  This isn't a war of civilizations or a war of religions. This is a war between "modern" man and "neanderthal" man.
Posted by: Thomas Edison || 07/15/2007 15:00 Comments || Top||

#6  I don't think anything is going to fix fundamentalist islam but death. Civilization in the MME will not advance with them. I've yet to be convinced that it all of islam isn't fundamentalist islam.
Posted by: JohnQC || 07/15/2007 15:32 Comments || Top||

#7  Arm the women, and the schoolgirls too. Give them special training, make sure they have the right weapons, and see what happens.
Posted by: The Vinegar Sanction || 07/15/2007 16:11 Comments || Top||

#8  I've yet to be convinced that it all of islam isn't fundamentalist islam.

Not all of it is, otherwise we would have constant jihadist attacks around the globe every minute of the day. The problem remains whereby even Islamic factions that are marginally friendly to America—like the Kurds and the Ahmadiyya sect—either still adhere to shari'a law or are of such puny numbers that their ability to sway the overall outcome is wholely neglegible.

At the day's end, these simple facts disallow us to make any assumption other than that Islam is fundamentalist and it represents an implaccable enemy whose unwillingness to negotiate or honor any treaties signed render the entire religion a lethal threat to non-Muslims. Our traitor-elite politicians continue to slurp down the Religion of Peace [spit] Kool-Aid and thereby deliver us into Islam's withering embrace.
Posted by: Zenster || 07/15/2007 16:37 Comments || Top||

#9  Since a fundamental cause of the Islamofascist insane behavior is that they "aren't getting any", this tactic of murdering schoolgirls seems a bit counter-productive.
Posted by: Glenmore || 07/15/2007 19:00 Comments || Top||

#10  As Zarmina scurried away, the men took a more studied aim at those they had already shot, finishing off Shukria with bullets to her stomach and heart. Then the attackers seemed to succumb to the frenzy they had begun, forsaking the motorbike and fleeing on foot in a panic, two bobbing heads - one tucked into a helmet, the other swaddled by a handkerchief - vanishing amid the earthen colour of the concealing wheat.

Excuse me for asking, but were the attackers masturbating?
Posted by: Tell D Truth || 07/15/2007 20:34 Comments || Top||


Taliban 'occupy' Afghan army check-post
A Taliban spokesman claimed on Saturday that they had occupied an Afghan security force check-post after a three-hour fight in the Lal Pura area of Nangarhar province late on Friday. “Mujahideen (holy worriers) have also seized a huge quantity of arms, including anti-tank rockets, anti-aircraft guns and wireless equipment, after they overran the check-post,” Abu Nauman told Daily Times via telephone from an undisclosed location. He said the Taliban militants escaped in the mountains of the border with the weapons as “war booty” and torching the check-post. There was no independent confirmation of the claim nor did he give any death toll of either side.
Posted by: Fred || 07/15/2007 00:00 || Comments || Link || [3 views] Top|| File under: Taliban

#1  Hopefully we aren't arming vehicle checkpoints with AA items.
Posted by: Super Hose || 07/15/2007 1:39 Comments || Top||

#2  Brought to by the Taliban Information Agency, the inventors of the Infidels Are Killing Civilians and Looking Up Our Women's Dresses press release.

Afghan Army equipment: Heavy Arms
* Dragunov SVD sniper rifle
* PK series MGs
* RPG-7 Anti-tank weapon
* Browning M2 heavy MG
* SPG-9 Recoilless Rifle
* 82mm Medium Mortar
* D-30 122mm howitzer
* M114 155 mm howitzer

Not much in the way of antitank or anti-air. I'll even bet the RPG-7 warheads are the antipersonnel variety.
Posted by: ed || 07/15/2007 1:54 Comments || Top||


'Bin Laden' (Greatest Hits) video intercepted
Al-Qaeda leader Osama bin Laden praises martyrdom as a weapon and a path to glory for Muslims in a K-Tel video that CNN says was intercepted before it was to appear on late-night infomercials radical Islamist websites. CNN, which noted it could not verify the authenticity of the 40-minute video and had translated it from Arabic into English, said on its website there was no indication of where or when the footage had been shot. The news network said the video contained old clips but concluded it had been compiled in the past four weeks.
Can't verify a thing but they'll still broadcast it.
The environment in which bin Laden is shown speaking is similar to that on releases made before the September 11 attacks on the United States by al-Qaeda in 2001.

Octavia Nasr, CNN's senior editor for Arab affairs, said bin Laden appears in only a 50-second portion of the video in which he asserts that the Prophet Mohammed had wanted to be a martyr. “What is this status that the best of mankind wished for himself?” CNN said bin Laden asked rhetorically. “He wished to be a martyr. He himself said: 'By Him in whose hands my life is! I would love to attack and be martyred.”'

“This glorious prophet who was inspired by God summarised this entire life by these words. He wished upon himself this status. Happy is one who was chosen by God as a martyr,” bin Laden said, according to the CNN translation of his remarks.

CNN did not say how the footage had been intercepted. But a segment of the video, produced by al-Qaeda's media arm al-Sahab, was seen on the lauramansfield.com website which provides Arabic translations and terrorism analysis. Bin Laden was wearing army fatigues and appeared to be addressing followers. For the past several weeks, radical Islamist websites have proclaimed there will be “good news soon from Sheikh Osama bin Laden”, CNN reported.
"The worms have completed their work, my brothers. I'm next for the demons, inshallah."
Posted by: tipper || 07/15/2007 00:00 || Comments || Link || [3 views] Top|| File under: al-Qaeda

#1  Broadcast it? How do we know they didn't make it?
Posted by: Bobby || 07/15/2007 7:19 Comments || Top||

#2  I understand deader-than-disco Dr. Z is in the video, so it appears to be *ahem* dated at best. Is there any doubt when OBL is finally confirmed dead that CNN will we do a martyr's retrospective on this valiant freedom fighter to enthralled the Muslim world?
Posted by: regular joe || 07/15/2007 8:14 Comments || Top||

#3  More likely it's a go signal. Keep yer eyes peeled, authorities, and keep an extra eye on Cousin Mahmoud.
Posted by: Seafarious || 07/15/2007 9:59 Comments || Top||

#4  My thought too.
Posted by: lotp || 07/15/2007 10:00 Comments || Top||

#5  He's been maggot food for 5 years now. Anyone who thinks he is alive is either someone who worships his ideology or someone like CNN and the NYTs who use him to mock Bush. Its all about Bush.
Posted by: Jack is Back! || 07/15/2007 10:36 Comments || Top||

#6  We have been scouring the earth for OBL. Not much has emerged lately. Maybe he is dead. He is or was an evil man--the prince of darkness.

In a culture that believes in giant badgers and cell phones that infect the user with a virus, it is no wonder that many have hooked their star to this evil man so destructive of mankind. AQ seems to still be using him as a motivational speaker.
Posted by: JohnQC || 07/15/2007 10:37 Comments || Top||

#7  "He's dead, Jim"
Posted by: Frank G || 07/15/2007 11:01 Comments || Top||

#8  I won't believe he's dead until I see his head on a platter.(or pieces of it verified by DNA) Using old footage would conceal any modifications such as rhinoplasty. Another old video expressed Binny's personal desire to die as a martyr "in the belly of the Great Eagle" and he may have personally visited the US long ago to bring his child for medical treatment. He has also said he likes the desert SW. Private Saudi jets come and go in places like those serving Mayo for medical treatment; former King Hussein of Jordan had a private wing and entire hotel floors for his large entourage in Rochester, MN. You can bet they don't wait in line at customs at the airport like the peons going on vacation. The restaurant menus and TV also had Arabic translations. There are also Arizona and Florida affiliated clinics and medical visas for our "good friends" escape close scrutiny. "Those that cure you will kill you" and other verbal cryptic clues should all be re-examined, as we have had more than three warnings recently. Also, Binny used to love riding horses, the Saudis even fly their prized racehorses around the world, and it would be ever so easy to cross into Montana or North Dakota while everyone else is focused on Pakistan or the Mexican border. Denial will not make this virulence go away, probably for thousands of years anyway, and it is a deadly failure not to take this seriously.
Posted by: Danielle || 07/15/2007 11:59 Comments || Top||

#9  There used to be a number of Osama bin Laden body doubles (I think one of them ended up sadder but wiser in London). I do not understand why the Al Qaeda leadership doesn't just film one of them lip synching to some old audio tapes, holding up a current newspaper. Easy peasy with the professional videography staff they supposedly have hanging around.
Posted by: trailing wife || 07/15/2007 14:25 Comments || Top||

#10  My money is now on bin Laden sleeping with the worms.
Posted by: Zenster || 07/15/2007 14:58 Comments || Top||

#11  “This glorious pedophile for prophet who was inspired by the pagan moon Godess summarised this entire life by these words. He wished upon himself this criminal cult status. Unhappy is one who was chosen by God Satan as a martyr,” bin Laden said, according to the CNN translation of his remarks.
Posted by: Icerigger || 07/15/2007 15:41 Comments || Top||

#12  I don't know about bin Laden but it sure looks like Zawahiri is the one who has been running the show for quite some time.
Posted by: Elmereter Hupash6222 || 07/15/2007 18:28 Comments || Top||

#13  My belief is he died in Tora Bora. Recollect the reports about the radio intercepts of his followers crying on open mike?
Posted by: KBK || 07/15/2007 19:18 Comments || Top||

#14  No.

Bin Laden died here

http://www.clubvibes.com/listings/listingsdetail.asp?id=21612
Posted by: Bright Pebbles || 07/15/2007 19:56 Comments || Top||

#15  It precisely becuz both legitimate and illegitimate = criminal World organizations make extensive use of "body doubles" + other tricky, deceptive methods is why Osama's corpse is important. Osama and Zawi, etal. go back to long before Osama was adopted by his Saudi family. Without Osama's proven corpse, it is fallacious and dangerous to presume Osama is dead ergo is done wid both Radical Islamism, Terror, and the anti-US /Western agenda.
Posted by: JosephMendiola || 07/15/2007 20:13 Comments || Top||

#16  "Happy is one who was chosen by God as a martyr."

And happier is the one who has the privelege of removing the swill known as Osama bin Laden from the face of the earth, and gets to put Binny's head on display in the freak show at the local circus...
Posted by: Tell D Truth || 07/15/2007 21:17 Comments || Top||


Africa Horn
Four killed in Somalia ahead of peace talks
Four civilians were killed in the Somali capital Mogadishu, witnesses said yesterday, on the eve of a landmark peace parley which many fear could touch off a new wave of insurgent attacks. Three people were shot dead and one died in a grenade explosion as terrified residents left the capital, fearing a surge in attacks aimed at disrupting the clan reconciliation meeting.

“I do not know the names of the two killed in Huriwa overnight, but the one shot dead in Hodan district was my friend, Yusuf Ali Obeyd, who advocated for national reconciliation,” said Abdi Ali Mohamoud, a resident of Hodan in southern Mogadishu. Separately, a woman died and her eight-month-old baby was wounded in a grenade explosion in Hodan district on Saturday, the latest in a string of grenade attacks that have shaken Mogadishu, witnesses said.

The attacks come as Somali government forces backed by Ethiopian troops and African Union peacekeepers beefed up efforts to secure the capital ahead of the much-delayed National Reconciliation Congress. Yesterday, troops sealed off the talks venue, frisking pedestrians and searching vehicles while others took up positions around major hotels where delegates will stay, said correspondent reported.

“Some troops seem ready to open fire at any strange movement near the area. They are acting as if they are in Baghdad,” said lorry driver Hirsi Hassan, referring to the Iraqi capital that has been torn apart by sectarian violence. Mogadishu resident Abbas Abdullahi said: “The troops are behaving like they are at war. Maybe they do not want to take any risk before the conference starts.”
Posted by: ryuge || 07/15/2007 01:43 || Comments || Link || [3 views] Top|| File under: Islamic Courts

#1  “Some troops seem ready to open fire at any strange movement near the area."


solution, my dim-witted Somali friend? Tread carefully, no "strange movements" around armed jumpy fellows. How friggin smart do you have to be?
Posted by: Frank G || 07/15/2007 11:14 Comments || Top||

#2  Four killed in Somalia ahead of peace talks

After all, what would African peace talks be without a little killin'?
Posted by: Zenster || 07/15/2007 14:02 Comments || Top||

#3  I think Zen, that is like death and taxes all rolled into one....

Posted by: Tell D Truth || 07/15/2007 20:36 Comments || Top||

#4  I think Zen, that is like death and taxes all rolled into one....

Posted by: Tell D Truth || 07/15/2007 20:36 Comments || Top||


Aethiop soldier shot dead in Mogadishu
(SomaliNet) An unknown militant killed an Ethiopian soldier in ambush attack near the SOS mother and child hospital in north of the Somalia capital Mogadishu, local residents confirmed to Somalinet. Such actions are attributed to members the ousted Islamic Courts Unions.

Sources say that a man armed with a pistol approached a group of Ethiopian soldiers standing alongside the road and killed one of them and then threw a hand grenade bomb to escape. “I saw an Ethiopian soldier lay on the ground,” said Bashir Farah a kiosk owner. The attacker escaped unharmed after he hurled a bomb at the Ethiopians.

Shortly after the ambush attack, the Ethiopian troops fired in all directions wounding one of the passersby.
Posted by: || 07/15/2007 00:25 || Comments || Link || [3 views] Top|| File under: Islamic Courts


Africa North
Egypt questions 35 on plots, Qaeda contacts
Egyptian state security prosecutors are questioning 35 men police accused of plotting to overthrow the government and having contacts with Al Qaeda, a lawyer for the men and a security source said on Saturday. Lawyer Montasser al-Zayat said the 35 men were part of a group of up to 40 arrested in April and secretly kept by authorities in state security offices until their transfer to state security prosecution late on Friday.

The security source said the men had been arrested in Beni Suef and Qalyoubia provinces. Zayat said authorities had charged the men with forming an illegal organisation and plotting to overthrow the government, among other charges, and have accused them of being in contact with Al Qaeda. The security source added that some of the men were thought to be planning to send recruits to fight American forces in Iraq. Zayat said the men deny all the charges. The lawyer said he had withdrawn from the proceedings after objecting to the men being kept in state security offices, arguing this constituted a form of psychological duress. He added that a number of them had said they had been tortured, including by electric shocks.
Posted by: Fred || 07/15/2007 00:00 || Comments || Link || [3 views] Top|| File under: al-Qaeda


Britain
Muslim plotter attacked in jail, 'scarred for life'
A man jailed for plotting synchronised attacks in Britain and the United States is "scarred for life" after being attacked in prison, his lawyer said overnight.

Mudassar Arani told British broadcaster Channel 4 News that Dhiren Barot, who was imprisoned for life last November, had "lost all hair on his head and he's got scarring all over his face up to his neck".

"Somebody threw hot oil and hot water on my client, whereby he's been scarred for life," she said. "He's being detained in healthcare at the moment and is receiving medical care."

Channel 4 said the British prisons service confirmed that an inmate was scalded on his head and back, and the police had been informed.

Ms Arani said the attack supported her argument that Muslim inmates should be given special protection because they were "being targeted".
Kind of like British and American civilians. And Israelis. And Iraqis. And ....

"He should have, and other Muslim prisoners should be, given differential treatment because they are subjected to differential treatment within the prison system," she said.

The prison service, however, said it was not going to create special conditions for inmates.
They will, however, probably crack down on this sort of incident so that they are in control of the prisons.

Posted by: lotp || 07/15/2007 18:05 || Comments || Link || [4 views] Top|| File under: al-Qaeda

#1  who said they weren't in control, Robin? Sounds like inmate justice. Get over it
Posted by: Frank G || 07/15/2007 18:16 Comments || Top||

#2  I remember when some inmate threw gasoline on Manson and set him on fire. A witty headline writer wrote: "Charlie Browned".
Posted by: Anonymoose || 07/15/2007 18:21 Comments || Top||

#3  Jail time reductions for teh attackers
Posted by: JFM || 07/15/2007 18:23 Comments || Top||

#4  ?? Frank ??

Get over what?
Posted by: lotp || 07/15/2007 18:31 Comments || Top||

#5  sounds like you were disapproving of inmate justice. It's a fact of life, always has been. If I'm wrong, I apologize
Posted by: Frank G || 07/15/2007 18:42 Comments || Top||

#6  Not disapproving, or approving. Sorry for the unclear comment. Just predicting the prison authorities are embarassed at this attack, or will get political pressure, & make a show of being in control.

At least, it seems to work that way here. Maybe not in the UK, tho?
Posted by: lotp || 07/15/2007 18:49 Comments || Top||

#7  OK - I imagine a "we're in control" face-saving op may be in place, however, who really cares what happens to this POS? His lawyer? His family? Who cares what those tools think. There's a reason prison supposed to be punishment, and the treatment from your peers is certainly a part of it
Posted by: Frank G || 07/15/2007 18:52 Comments || Top||

#8  I'm pretty sure the British guards were ok with this happening. Not to say they gave the go-ahead but when a piece of garbage is treated like this, it's not looked down upon.
Posted by: Oddmanout || 07/15/2007 19:17 Comments || Top||

#9  The control issue is a big one. I am sure that the guards and the prison administrators, probably, were none too upset about the incident. But the politicians know that much of the native population would like to do worse. If the people see the guards getting away with this, it won't be long till there's blood in the streets. The pols will want to prevent that at all costs.
Posted by: Nimble Spemble || 07/15/2007 19:32 Comments || Top||

#10  I've no doubt Gordon will be sweating blood in defense of the "...."

i.e.: those who should not be named
Posted by: Frank G || 07/15/2007 19:49 Comments || Top||

#11  "He should have, and other Muslim prisoners should be, given differential treatment because they are subjected to differential treatment within the prison system," she said.

Fine. I seem to recall that one way of securing the safety of threatened inmates is to place them in protective solitary confinement. It's also safe to say that no-effing-body is insane enough to set up a Muslim-only wing in their prison. So, it's the general population or solitary. Let them choose.

These assholes act as if there aren't supposed to be any repercussions for trying to kill the wives, children and relatives of those they end up being incarcerated with. Are they so deluded as to think that they'll remain unapprehended? They should consider themselves fortunate that the guards manage to restrain themselves as it is. As always, these bloody terrorists seek to hold our entire socities hostage, yet once they are rendered helpless they piss and moan that we have somehow taken umbrage at their violent extortion.
Posted by: Zenster || 07/15/2007 19:51 Comments || Top||

#12  Look idiot, JAIL SUCKS!. That's why you don't do anything to get put in there!
Posted by: 3dc || 07/15/2007 20:24 Comments || Top||

#13 
Scarred for life or
Scared for life?
Posted by: BigEd || 07/15/2007 20:31 Comments || Top||

#14 
Scarred for life or
Scared for life?
Posted by: BigEd || 07/15/2007 20:31 Comments || Top||

#15  This POS was willing to commit suicide as long as he could take some "infidels" with him. He thinks he's physically, morally, and mentally better than the "infidel" inmates he's incarcerated with. They decide it's time to teach him a few manners, and he whines and bitches about it. The sooner we humiliate all of Islam so badly none of them will rear their ugly heads in public ever again, the better. Save up a year's worth of pig sh$$ from every pig in the Western World, and dump it on the "grand mosk" in soddy arabida.
Posted by: Old Patriot || 07/15/2007 21:04 Comments || Top||

#16  Jihadi demanding special treament? Pork chops and beer every day and a broomstick every night would be very much appropriate...
Posted by: Matt K. || 07/15/2007 21:42 Comments || Top||

#17  The sooner we humiliate all of Islam so badly none of them will rear their ugly heads in public ever again, the better.

The West must learn to fight with Islam's own tools. If Muslims are so sensitive to humiliation, then we had best set about proving their ideology such a farce that no one can take it seriously. Demoralize Islam by crushing defiant nations like Iran and parceling out terrorist universities like Pakistan. Show them that their much vaunted might is as nothing when the West choses to act with force.

We must not be afraid to escalate through all the ranks of Islamic strategy right up to terrorizing Muslim populations with unannounced massively disproportionate retaliations for future terrorist atrocities. Islam must be made to realize the error of its ways. The only other alternative is simple annihilation.
Posted by: Zenster || 07/15/2007 21:54 Comments || Top||

#18  The West must learn to fight with Islam's own tools. If Muslims are so sensitive to humiliation, then we had best set about proving their ideology such a farce that no one can take it seriously

that's a point we can agree on. Their over-inflated self-importance and susceptability to humiliation for what should "normally" be considered sub-human civilization activities needs to be rubbed endlessly as sandpaper on these skinless people
Posted by: Frank G || 07/15/2007 22:22 Comments || Top||

#19  The West must learn to fight with Islam's own tools. If Muslims are so sensitive to humiliation, then we had best set about proving their ideology such a farce that no one can take it seriously

that's a point we can agree on. Their over-inflated self-importance and susceptability to humiliation for what should "normally" be considered sub-human civilization activities needs to be rubbed endlessly as sandpaper on these skinless people
Posted by: Frank G || 07/15/2007 22:22 Comments || Top||

#20  that's a point we can agree on.

And one well worth repeating. Frank, I still maintain that the two of us have a lot more in common than you might be prepared to admit.

Their over-inflated self-importance and susceptability to humiliation for what should "normally" be considered sub-human civilization activities ...

Your observation is very important in that it goes beyond the familiar arguments of cognitive dissonance and highlights what I had meant to point out earlier. Namely, how can these terrorists be so immune to Cause & Effect as to think that no one will take exception at their incessant predation once they themselves are at a disadvantage? Terrorism explicitly implies the inflicting of horrific attacks against an innocent populace. To consider oneself immune from any "ramifications" (as it were), is childish at best.

At another board I took a major beating over having suggested that Max Factor heir Andrew Luster might rightfully deserve a dose of unpleasant jailhouse comeuppance (so to speak) for video taping his rapes of women that he unsuspectingly drugged.

My reply then, in both cases, was as it is now. Should I rightfully be found guilty of engaging in terrorism or serial rape, I'd hardly expect less than what Luster or Barot certainly deserve in turn.
Posted by: Zenster || 07/15/2007 22:50 Comments || Top||

#21  agreed Zen and Frank, in WWII Dresden and Tokyo/Hiroshima/Nagasaki served a brutal, but useful purpose: it signaled to the Axis powers we were going to crush them...and their little dog, too. Until we pull a Dresden, or Nagasaki on islam, we will never "get their attention". To heck with the arab street. Let the arab street line up and become a martyr, too.
Posted by: anymouse || 07/15/2007 23:05 Comments || Top||

#22  Until we pull a Dresden, or Nagasaki on islam, we will never "get their attention". To heck with the arab street. Let the arab street line up and become a martyr, too.

Word, 'mouse. I'd rather have us avoid it but Islam won't have it any other way.
Posted by: Zenster || 07/15/2007 23:09 Comments || Top||


Another Indian charged over UK bomb plot
A third man, Indian doctor Sabeel Ahmed, was charged on Saturday in connection with last month’s failed car bombings in London and Glasgow, police said. Ahmed, 26, was charged under the Terrorism Act 2000 and would appear before City of Westminster Magistrates Court in central London later, the Metropolitan Police said in a statement. Also Australian Federal Police charged a 27-year-old Indian doctor over his “reckless” links with the alleged perpetrators of the attempted car bomb attacks in Britain on June 29 and 30.
Posted by: Fred || 07/15/2007 00:00 || Comments || Link || [3 views] Top|| File under: al-Tawhid

#1  The nationality is not significant; religion is the identifier that matters, but they 'can't' tell us that. He's Muslim, of course.
Posted by: Glenmore || 07/15/2007 7:08 Comments || Top||


Down Under
Terror Police Raid House In Australia
Police have carried out a terror raid on a house in Australia which may be connected to the failed car bomb attacks in Britain.

Neighbours say a group of four or five Indian doctors live in the house in Perth in the west of the country. They say they moved to the area a few months ago from the UK.

Federal police have refused to say what the search warrant specifically relates to. But reports say the raid is connected to the attempted bomb strikes in Glasgow and London.

Forensic officers seized a number of items, including a bag that has been dusted for explosives. A tent has been set up outside the house whilst the police carry out their investigation.
Posted by: lotp || 07/15/2007 00:00 || Comments || Link || [3 views] Top|| File under: al-Tawhid

#1  Again, they make like the terror attacks are some evil Indian plot. Indian Muslims. And Pakistani Muslims. Other times Saudi Muslims. Iranian Muslims. Sometimes Indonesian Muslims. Or even Jamaican Muslims. Many nationalities, but one thing in common, the name they must not say.
Posted by: Glenmore || 07/15/2007 7:14 Comments || Top||

#2  You can bet your sweet-bippie that if they were Indian Catholics, it would be written as such. Journalists are basically cowards and they show their yellow, appeasing streak everyday.
Posted by: Jack is Back! || 07/15/2007 10:43 Comments || Top||

#3  Jack, didn't Brown or one of the new 'leaders' in Britain decree that they not be identified as Muslim?
Posted by: Glenmore || 07/15/2007 11:35 Comments || Top||

#4  Glenmore,

Brown did make that pronouncement but AP, the NYTs and WaPo have also put novacaine on the word. Last time I checked all 3 are US based media, not UK.
Posted by: Jack is Back! || 07/15/2007 15:04 Comments || Top||

#5  a lot like the local paper here... if there is a drug bust or gang activity or police looking for help finding a perp the race is NEVER listed, unless that person is white, then you get the mug shot.

the intentional misdirection and obscurement of truth is criminal.
Posted by: Abu do you love || 07/15/2007 22:08 Comments || Top||


Home Front: WoT
At stake in the Iraq war: survival of our way of life
Andrew Roberts tells it like it is.

Unless the English-speaking peoples step up, they'll lose the great struggle against radical, totalitarian Islam
Posted by: lotp || 07/15/2007 17:26 || Comments || Link || [3 views] Top|| File under: Iraqi Insurgency

#1  Roberts is a fine historian and he's seeing very clearly here in this article.
Posted by: Mac || 07/15/2007 18:09 Comments || Top||

#2  "We know that Al Qaeda cannot be appeased, because if they could, the French would have appeased them by now."

Ouch.

Posted by: Dave D. || 07/15/2007 19:22 Comments || Top||

#3  They stand for modernity, religious and sexual toleration, capitalism, diversity, women's rights, representative institutions – in a word, the future. This world cannot coexist with strict, public implementation of Islamic sharia law, let alone an all-powerful caliphate.

Nice to see someone finally point this out. Now, when will people come to realize that shari'a law must be banned in all Western nations? Shari'a and the caliphate are inseparable. Banning shari'a will be a vital first step towards eliminating Islam in Western lands and crippling Muslim visions of a global caliphate.

Those who still view this struggle as a mere police action against uncoordinated criminal elements, rather than as an existential war for the survival of their way of life, are blinding themselves to reality.

This needs to be tattooed across the forehead of every Western politician. None of them seem to appreciate this fact and their lack of comprehension exponentially increases the butcher's bill with each passing year.
Posted by: Zenster || 07/15/2007 20:28 Comments || Top||


India-Pakistan
Pakistan militants end truce deal
Pro-Taleban militants in Pakistan's North Waziristan region say they have ended their truce with the government.
In a statement issued in Miranshah, the main town, the militants accused the government of breaking the agreement.
It came as Pakistan deployed more troops in the area, fearing "holy war" after the storming of the militant Red Mosque last week left 102 dead.

More than 50 Pakistanis, including soldiers and police recruits, have died in three attacks in the past two days.

Growing tension

Last September's truce had ended two years of clashes and was aimed at stopping cross-border attacks into Afghanistan.
"We are ending the agreement today," the Taleban Shura or Council said in pamphlets distributed in Miranshah, the capital of North Waziristan. The council leaders released the statement on Sunday amid growing tension in the area.

In a second consecutive day of violence at least 11 Pakistani soldiers - and three civilians - were killed in the Swat area of North West Frontier Province. Two suicide bombers rammed cars into a convoy - as a roadside bomb also went off. Another 40 were injured in the attack near the town of Matta, local police said.

In the city of Dera Ismail Khan, in the same province, at least 18 people died in a blast at a police recruitment centre.
About 60 were wounded when a suicide bomber blew himself up among young men waiting to take a police recruitment exam. On Saturday, a suicide attack on an army convoy near the village of Daznary, about 50km (30 miles) north of Miranshah, killed 24 and wounded at least 30. The area is well-known as a stronghold of pro-Taleban militants, police said.

The 102 dead in the Red Mosque (Lal Masjid) siege included 11 soldiers and an as yet unknown number of extremists and their hostages. The government has sent thousands of new troops to the north-west fearing there could be a new "holy war" in revenge. Many of the militants in the Red Mosque complex were thought to have come from the north-west.

"The attacks in Swat and D I Khan could be linked to the Lal Masjid," Interior Minister Aftab Sherpao told Geo TV. "It's very difficult to stop suicide attacks."
Posted by: Frank G || 07/15/2007 11:50 || Comments || Link || [3 views] Top|| File under: Taliban

#1  I think we're seeing the beginning of the end of the failed state of pakistan. Perv can't control the northwest or northeast, the center is beginning to revolt, and terrorists move around with impunity. Neither the US nor India can allow the terrorists to get their hands on Pakiland's nukes. The best solution to the problem is to crush pakland, divide it between Afghanistan and India, and put an end to the "islamic state" once and for all. The Pashtuns will be reunited, the Kashmir "question" will be answered, and the source of bodies for all kinds of nefarious deeds will be eliminated. Of course, it'll take 20 years of harsh military occupation to suppress all the terrorist instincts that the pak government has allowed to become imbedded in the pak psyche, but in the end, the world will be a better place.
Posted by: Old Patriot || 07/15/2007 15:00 Comments || Top||

#2  I think we're seeing the beginning of the end of the failed state of pakistan. Perv can't control the northwest or northeast, the center is beginning to revolt, and terrorists move around with impunity. Neither the US nor India can allow the terrorists to get their hands on Pakiland's nukes. The best solution to the problem is to crush pakland, divide it between Afghanistan and India, and put an end to the "islamic state" once and for all. The Pashtuns will be reunited, the Kashmir "question" will be answered, and the source of bodies for all kinds of nefarious deeds will be eliminated. Of course, it'll take 20 years of harsh military occupation to suppress all the terrorist instincts that the pak government has allowed to become imbedded in the pak psyche, but in the end, the world will be a better place.
Posted by: Old Patriot || 07/15/2007 15:00 Comments || Top||

#3  Hmmm... I pushed "submit" once, but somehow got two posts. If the mods will be so kind as to eliminate on of them... Thank you.
Posted by: Old Patriot || 07/15/2007 15:01 Comments || Top||

#4  Could this be good news? Maybe Mushy will give us a nod and wink and we can finally do some black jobs there.
Posted by: Jack is Back! || 07/15/2007 15:17 Comments || Top||

#5  Word, OP. As "The Land of the Pure" and especially as the sole Muslim nuclear power, Pakistan is a jewel in the Islamic crown. Crushing it under the West's boot heel would go a long way towards demonstrating what awaits other national terrorist training camps. Erasing Pakistan's national identity would attach a proper price tag to their facilitation of the 9-11 atrocities.

Deposing Iran's theocratic government is one of the few other demoralizing blows of such a magnitude that Islam can be dealt right now. Both of these tasks are vital to the West's survival. While I rate Iran as more important, should Musharraf lose power that priority would change.

Pakistan's nuclear weapons cannot be trusted in anyone else's hands. Musharraf bungled his own stewardship of nuclear arms so badly that no further chances can be taken regarding such a danger to the West.
Posted by: Zenster || 07/15/2007 15:32 Comments || Top||

#6  The best solution to the problem is to crush pakland, divide it between Afghanistan and India, and put an end to the "islamic state" once and for all.

I like the idea but I have no idea how this would be brought about. It has been and will be a festering sore if nothing is done about this region. The cancer will be spread if unchecked.
Posted by: JohnQC || 07/15/2007 15:42 Comments || Top||

#7  The cancer will be spread if unchecked.

I'm sure that you already know this, JohnQC, but the cancer has spread. It is in Britain, America, Canada and Europe. Chemotherapy is no longer an option. Malignancies of this sort must be excised or subjected to radiation treatments.
Posted by: Zenster || 07/15/2007 15:54 Comments || Top||

#8  The cancer has spread. If Hildebeast gets elected, God forbid, I don't see anything happening if one of our cities gets taken out or there is another 911 other than the gnashing of teeth and handwringing on her part and the dhimmicrats.

These are very perilous times. Many people get the danger but many don't. Any noises concerning the WOT that I hear from the donks is frightening in its childish naivette. The noises I hear are mainly mutterings that they hope will get them elected.

Many of the Congress critters need to be turned out and we need to elect a President that we can trust to realistically and aggressively address the WOT.
Posted by: JohnQC || 07/15/2007 16:41 Comments || Top||

#9  Word.

Word, OP. As "The Land of the Pure" and especially as the sole Muslim nuclear power, Pakistan is a jewel in the Islamic crown. Crushing it under the West's boot heel would go a long way towards demonstrating what awaits other national terrorist training camps. Erasing Pakistan's national identity would attach a proper price tag to their facilitation of the 9-11 atrocities.

Deposing Iran's theocratic government is one of the few other demoralizing blows of such a magnitude that Islam can be dealt right now. Both of these tasks are vital to the West's survival. While I rate Iran as more important, should Musharraf lose power that priority would change.

Pakistan's nuclear weapons cannot be trusted in anyone else's hands. Musharraf bungled his own stewardship of nuclear arms so badly that no further chances can be taken regarding such a danger to the West.

Erasing a National Idenity is purdy cool. Better than not rounding them up and not putting them into.... Oppppssss... I didn't say any of that. Nor did I imply a damn thing.
Posted by: Cindy the Sheehan || 07/15/2007 17:42 Comments || Top||

#10  Word! LOL!
You and me buddy.
I never said a damn thing about ovens, btw.
Posted by: Ima Happy 88 || 07/15/2007 17:45 Comments || Top||

#11  It's good too see my ole frens here. When we won Florida many little WolfHybrids were at our side. But they left for some reason. Yellow puddle? A lack of uranium? Lack of attention?
Posted by: Smile Gore || 07/15/2007 17:49 Comments || Top||

#12  Still, they'll never pin that shit on me, I'm too damn fast.
Posted by: Eichman the WonderTyper || 07/15/2007 17:51 Comments || Top||

#13  Yep, I remember when the assembled here were proclaiming that all was lost nine months ago when Perv made his treaty with these guys. Well, here's to consistency.

I'm certainly glad that GW Bush doesn't lose hope at the drop of a hat.
Posted by: Anonymoose || 07/15/2007 17:53 Comments || Top||

#14  I'm beginning to think Senator Clinton is unelectable beyond her current position, JohnQC. The anti-war Progressives won't forgive her for voting for the invasions of Afghanistan and Iraq even it she has repented since, the Conservatives loathe her as Bill Clinton's partner in crime, and at least a portion of the middle just doesn't trust her. Trailing daughter #2, who never reads the front section of the paper unless required, castigates her as entirely too incompetent to be the first female president. So she certainly hasn't made a good impression on the high school crowd. ;-)
Posted by: trailing wife || 07/15/2007 18:46 Comments || Top||


4 sent on remand in Chinese kidnap case
The Anti-Terrorism Court on Saturday remanded four people to Adiala Jail for investigation into their alleged link in kidnapping of Chinese nationals by Lal Masjid clerics. Sohail Ahmed, Waqar Ahmed, Muhammad and Wajhihullah were arrested by the capital police in Sector F-8/3 and sent to jail on judicial remand. Investigation officer of this case sought remand of the four. Chief cleric Maulana Abdul Aziz is also in custody in this case and other cases of murder of security personnel.
Posted by: Fred || 07/15/2007 00:00 || Comments || Link || [3 views] Top|| File under: Taliban


Deadly attack on Pakistani troops kills 24
The number of soldiers killed in a suicide attack on a military convoy in north-western Pakistan has risen to 24, a Pakistan army spokesman has said. Twenty-nine others were also hurt when the convoy was hit in the remote tribal region of North Waziristan. Maj Gen Waheed Arshad said the wounded from Saturday's incident, some of whom are in a critical state, had been taken to hospital by helicopter after the attack near the village of Daznary, about 50km (30 miles) north of Miranshah.

A search is still under way for one missing vehicle after the convoy was struck by the attacker's explosives-laden vehicle. Although no-one has claimed responsibility for Saturday's bomb attack, Maj Gen Arshad acknowledged that it could be a response to the army raid on the Red Mosque in Islamabad on Wednesday. Troops have been sent close to the area amid fears militants may be planning a "holy war" in response to the siege.

In a second attack on Saturday, two security officials were hurt in a blast near the town of Bannu in North-West Frontier Province. Although there is no new deployment to Waziristan, militants there say the government has broken peace agreements by setting up checkpoints. Militant commander Abdullah Farhad told the Agence France-Presse news agency there could be "guerrilla war" if all checkpoints were not removed by Sunday.
This article starring:
ABDULLAH FARHADTaliban
Maj Gen Waheed Arshad
Posted by: lotp || 07/15/2007 00:00 || Comments || Link || [3 views] Top|| File under: Taliban

#1  Mushie ought to look up how the elder Assad dealt with internal radical Muslim uprisings back in 1982. Or how the Romans ended the Third Punic war against the Phoenicians at Carthage. Apply the 'cure' to likely towns in Wazir etc. after each such attack. We can even send them a D-10 like W. demonstrated at the Caterpillar factory last winter.
Posted by: Glenmore || 07/15/2007 7:28 Comments || Top||

#2  Glen...nobody has the guts to deal with these cockroaches like they need to dealt with: think Dresden, or Tokyo.
Posted by: anymouse || 07/15/2007 14:09 Comments || Top||

#3  Militant commander Abdullah Farhad told the Agence France-Presse news agency there could be "guerrilla war" (versus our usually compliant normal war in accordance with the Geneva Convention) if all checkpoints were not removed by Sunday.

There, fixed that.
Posted by: Jack is Back! || 07/15/2007 15:21 Comments || Top||

#4  After the take down of the Red Mosque, it seems like it is on with Mosharraf and the extremists in Pakiland. Mosharraf will either address it harshly or his government will go down. The latter is a big problem for us and others if we aren't able to gain control of Pakistans nuclear weapons.
Posted by: JohnQC || 07/15/2007 15:54 Comments || Top||


Iraq
Robot Attack Squadron Bound For Iraq
The airplane is the size of a jet fighter, powered by a turboprop engine, able to fly at 300 mph and reach 50,000 feet. It's outfitted with infrared, laser and radar targeting, and with a ton and a half of guided bombs and missiles.

The Reaper is loaded, but there's no one on board. Its pilot, as it bombs targets in Iraq, will sit at a video console 7,000 miles away in Nevada.

The arrival of these outsized U.S. "hunter-killer" drones, in aviation history's first robot attack squadron, will be a watershed moment even in an Iraq that has seen too many innovative ways to hunt and kill.

That moment, one the Air Force will likely low-key, is expected "soon," says the regional U.S. air commander. How soon? "We're still working that," Lt. Gen. Gary North said in an interview.

The Reaper's first combat deployment is expected in Afghanistan, and senior Air Force officers estimate it will land in Iraq sometime between this fall and next spring. They look forward to it.

"With more Reapers, I could send manned airplanes home," North said.

The Associated Press has learned that the Air Force is building a 400,000-square-foot expansion of the concrete ramp area now used for Predator drones here at Balad, the biggest U.S. air base in Iraq, 50 miles north of Baghdad. That new staging area could be turned over to Reapers.

It's another sign that the Air Force is planning for an extended stay in Iraq, supporting Iraqi government forces in any continuing conflict, even if U.S. ground troops are drawn down in the coming years.

The estimated two dozen or more unmanned MQ-1 Predators now doing surveillance over Iraq, as the 46th Expeditionary Reconnaissance Squadron, have become mainstays of the U.S. war effort, offering round-the-clock airborne "eyes" watching over road convoys, tracking nighttime insurgent movements via infrared sensors, and occasionally unleashing one of their two Hellfire missiles on a target.

From about 36,000 flying hours in 2005, the Predators are expected to log 66,000 hours this year over Iraq and Afghanistan.

The MQ-9 Reaper, when compared with the 1995-vintage Predator, represents a major evolution of the unmanned aerial vehicle, or UAV.

At five tons gross weight, the Reaper is four times heavier than the Predator. Its size - 36 feet long, with a 66-foot wingspan - is comparable to the profile of the Air Force's workhorse A-10 attack plane. It can fly twice as fast and twice as high as the Predator. Most significantly, it carries many more weapons.

While the Predator is armed with two Hellfire missiles, the Reaper can carry 14 of the air-to-ground weapons - or four Hellfires and two 500-pound bombs.

"It's not a recon squadron," Col. Joe Guasella, operations chief for the Central Command's air component, said of the Reapers. "It's an attack squadron, with a lot more kinetic ability."

"Kinetic" - Pentagon argot for destructive power - is what the Air Force had in mind when it christened its newest robot plane with a name associated with death.

"The name Reaper captures the lethal nature of this new weapon system," Gen. T. Michael Moseley, Air Force chief of staff, said in announcing the name last September.

General Atomics of San Diego has built at least nine of the MQ-9s thus far, at a cost of $69 million per set of four aircraft, with ground equipment.

The Air Force's 432nd Wing, a UAV unit formally established on May 1, is to eventually fly 60 Reapers and 160 Predators. The numbers to be assigned to Iraq and Afghanistan will be classified.

The Reaper is expected to be flown as the Predator is - by a two-member team of pilot and sensor operator who work at computer control stations and video screens that display what the UAV "sees." Teams at Balad, housed in a hangar beside the runways, perform the takeoffs and landings, and similar teams at Nevada's Creech Air Force Base, linked to the aircraft via satellite, take over for the long hours of overflying the Iraqi landscape.

American ground troops, equipped with laptops that can download real-time video from UAVs overhead, "want more and more of it," said Maj. Chris Snodgrass, the Predator squadron commander here.

The Reaper's speed will help. "Our problem is speed," Snodgrass said of the 140-mph Predator. "If there are troops in contact, we may not get there fast enough. The Reaper will be faster and fly farther."

The new robot plane is expected to be able to stay aloft for 14 hours fully armed, watching an area and waiting for targets to emerge.

"It's going to bring us flexibility, range, speed and persistence," said regional commander North, "such that I will be able to work lots of areas for a long, long time."

The British also are impressed with the Reaper, and are buying three for deployment in Afghanistan later this year. The Royal Air Force version will stick to the "recon" mission, however - no weapons on board.
Posted by: Anonymoose || 07/15/2007 16:50 || Comments || Link || [4 views] Top|| File under: Iraqi Insurgency

#1  Photo Sharing and Video Hosting at Photobucket
Posted by: Anonymoose || 07/15/2007 16:54 Comments || Top||

#2  Resistance is futile...
Posted by: Raj || 07/15/2007 17:43 Comments || Top||

#3  *sigh*

If it has a human involved, it's not a robot. It's an RPV or UAV.
Posted by: Rob Crawford || 07/15/2007 19:58 Comments || Top||

#4  ..." too many innovative ways to hunt and kill."

This guy would no doubt feel better if we tagged and released......
Posted by: Ebbaish Fillmore2732 || 07/15/2007 20:34 Comments || Top||

#5  GLOBAL STRIKE, PROMPT STRIKE, SPACE STRIKE, SEA BASING = MOBILE OFFSHORE BASING, .....etal > why Moud-Mullahs and Radical Islam can't wait too long for the USA to voluntarily/unilater leave the ME-Muslim World after Dubya leaves in January 2009, as for one US tech dominance is getting stronger whilst theirs stays static = or gets weaker. TRUTHOUT.ORG + other bloggs > FOR THE DURATION OF THE WOT, AND AT LEAST THRU DUBYA'S SECOND TERM [Dec 2008-Jan 2009] , DUBYA ISN'T GONNA WITHDRAW OR PULLOUT, NOR IS LIKELY ANY POST-DUBYA SUCCESSOR. All the hoopla in Congress is about minor, budgeted=appropriated force-troop adjustments + limited small-scale redux. The only true thingy to the DemoLeft's or anti-Dubya critics' so-called demands for complete US withdrawal or pullout is that the Dems wanna win the WH in 2008 at all costs, even iff it means letting mainstream Amer falsely believe the Dems Party stands for getting the USA immed out of the ME.
Posted by: JosephMendiola || 07/15/2007 20:57 Comments || Top||

#6  this is cool. anything that will exterminat the cockroaches without putting troops at risk or making new targets of the operators is a major plus
Posted by: Abu do you love || 07/15/2007 22:20 Comments || Top||

#7  The Reaper? Only the Reaper? Somewhere someone is tapping their pencil and wondering why the Air Force didn't accept his initial proposed name for the UAV: The Grim Reaper.
Posted by: Sigmund Freud || 07/15/2007 23:45 Comments || Top||

#8  The British also are impressed with the Reaper, and are buying three for deployment in Afghanistan Pakistan's lawless Waziristan province later this year. The Royal Air Force version will stick to the "recon" mission, however - no weapons on board.
Posted by: Sigmund Freud || 07/15/2007 23:55 Comments || Top||


Saudis' role in Iraq insurgency outlined
Sunni extremists from Saudi Arabia make up half the foreign fighters in Iraq, many suicide bombers, a U.S. official says.

Others contend that Saudi Arabia is allowing fighters sympathetic to Al Qaeda to go to Iraq so they won't create havoc at home.

BAGHDAD — Although Bush administration officials have frequently lashed out at Syria and Iran, accusing it of helping insurgents and militias here, the largest number of foreign fighters and suicide bombers in Iraq come from a third neighbor, Saudi Arabia, according to a senior U.S. military officer and Iraqi lawmakers.

About 45% of all foreign militants targeting U.S. troops and Iraqi civilians and security forces are from Saudi Arabia; 15% are from Syria and Lebanon; and 10% are from North Africa, according to official U.S. military figures made available to The Times by the senior officer. Nearly half of the 135 foreigners in U.S. detention facilities in Iraq are Saudis, he said.

Fighters from Saudi Arabia are thought to have carried out more suicide bombings than those of any other nationality, said the senior U.S. officer, who spoke on condition of anonymity because of the subject's sensitivity. It is apparently the first time a U.S. official has given such a breakdown on the role played by Saudi nationals in Iraq's Sunni Arab insurgency.

He said 50% of all Saudi fighters in Iraq come here as suicide bombers. In the last six months, such bombings have killed or injured 4,000 Iraqis.

The situation has left the U.S. military in the awkward position of battling an enemy whose top source of foreign fighters is a key ally that at best has not been able to prevent its citizens from undertaking bloody attacks in Iraq, and at worst shares complicity in sending extremists to commit attacks against U.S. forces, Iraqi civilians and the Shiite-led government in Baghdad.

The problem casts a spotlight on the tangled web of alliances and enmities that underlie the political relations between Muslim nations and the U.S.

Complicated past

In the 1980s, the Saudi intelligence service sponsored Sunni Muslim fighters for the U.S.-backed Afghan mujahedin battling Soviet troops in Afghanistan. At the time, Saudi intelligence cultivated another man helping the Afghan fighters, Osama bin Laden, the future leader of Al Qaeda who would one day turn against the Saudi royal family and mastermind the Sept. 11 attacks on New York and the Pentagon. Indeed, Saudi Arabia has long been a source of a good portion of the money and manpower for Al Qaeda: 15 of the 19 hijackers in the Sept. 11 attacks were Saudi.

Now, a group that calls itself Al Qaeda in Iraq is the greatest short-term threat to Iraq's security, U.S. military spokesman Brig. Gen. Kevin Bergner said Wednesday.

The group, one of several Sunni Muslim insurgent groups operating in Baghdad and beyond, relies on foreigners to carry out suicide attacks because Iraqis are less likely to undertake such strikes, which the movement hopes will provoke sectarian violence, Bergner said. Despite its name, the extent of the group's links to Bin Laden's network, based along the Afghan-Pakistani frontier, is unclear.

The Saudi government does not dispute that some of its youths are ending up as suicide bombers in Iraq, but says it has done everything it can to stop the bloodshed.

"Saudis are actually being misused. Someone is helping them come to Iraq. Someone is helping them inside Iraq. Someone is recruiting them to be suicide bombers. We have no idea who these people are. We aren't getting any formal information from the Iraqi government," said Gen. Mansour Turki, spokesman for the Saudi Interior Ministry.

"If we get good feedback from the Iraqi government about Saudis being arrested in Iraq, probably we can help," he said.

Defenders of Saudi Arabia pointed out that it has sought to control its lengthy border with Iraq and has fought a bruising domestic war against Al Qaeda since Sept. 11.

"To suggest they've done nothing to stem the flow of people into Iraq is wrong," said a U.S. intelligence official in Washington, who spoke on condition of anonymity. "People do get across that border. You can always ask, 'Could more be done?' But what are they supposed to do, post a guard every 15 or 20 paces?"

Deep suspicions

Others contend that Saudi Arabia is allowing fighters sympathetic to Al Qaeda to go to Iraq so they won't create havoc at home.

Iraqi Shiite lawmaker Sami Askari, an advisor to Prime Minister Nouri Maliki, accused Saudi officials of a deliberate policy to sow chaos in Baghdad.

"The fact of the matter is that Saudi Arabia has strong intelligence resources, and it would be hard to think that they are not aware of what is going on," he said.

Askari also alleged that imams at Saudi mosques call for jihad, or holy war, against Iraq's Shiites and that the government had funded groups causing unrest in Iraq's largely Shiite south. Sunni extremists regard Shiites as unbelievers.

Other Iraqi officials said that though they believed Saudi Arabia, a Sunni fundamentalist regime, had no interest in helping Shiite-ruled Iraq, it was not helping militants either. But some Iraqi Shiite leaders say the Saudi royal family sees the Baghdad government as a proxy for its regional rival, Shiite-ruled Iran, and wants to unseat it.

With its own border with Iraq largely closed, Saudi fighters take what is now an established route by bus or plane to Syria, where they meet handlers who help them cross into Iraq's western deserts, the senior U.S. military officer said.

He suggested it was here that Saudi Arabia could do more, by implementing rigorous travel screenings for young Saudi males. Iraqi officials agreed.

"Are the Saudis using all means possible? Of course not…. And we think they need to do more, as does Syria, as does Iran, as does Jordan," the senior officer said. An estimated 60 to 80 foreign fighters cross into Iraq each month, according to the U.S. military.

"It needs to be addressed by the government of Iraq head on. They have every right to stand up to a country like Saudi Arabia and say, 'Hey, you are killing thousands of people by allowing your young jihadists to come here and associate themselves with an illegal worldwide network called Al Qaeda."

Both the White House and State Department declined to comment for this article.

Turki, the Saudi spokesman, defended the right of his citizens to travel without restriction.

"If you leave Saudi Arabia and go to other places and find somebody who drags them to Iraq, that is a problem we can't do anything about," Turki said. He added that security officials could stop people from leaving the kingdom only if they had information on them.

U.S. officials had not shared with Iraqi officials information gleaned from Saudi detainees, but this has started to change, said an Iraqi source, who asked not to be identified. For example, U.S. officials provided information about Saudi fighters and suicide bombers to Iraqi security officials who traveled to Saudi Arabia last week.

Iraqi advisor Askari asserted that Vice President Dick Cheney, in a visit to Saudi Arabia in May, pressured officials to crack down on militant traffic to Iraq. But that message has not yet produced results, Askari said.

The close relationship between the U.S. and oil-rich Saudi Arabia has become increasingly difficult.

Saudi leaders in early February undercut U.S. diplomacy in the Israeli-Palestinian dispute by brokering, in Mecca, an agreement to form a Fatah-Hamas "unity" government in the West Bank and Gaza Strip. And King Abdullah took Americans by surprise by declaring at an Arab League gathering that the U.S. presence in Iraq was illegitimate.

U.S. officials remain sensitive about the relationship. Asked why U.S. officials in Iraq had not publicly criticized Saudi Arabia the way they had Iran or Syria, the senior military officer said, "Ask the State Department. This is a political juggernaut."

Last week when U.S. military spokesman Bergner declared Al Qaeda in Iraq the country's No. 1 threat, he released a profile of a thwarted suicide bomber, but said he had not received clearance to reveal his nationality. The bomber was a Saudi national, the senior military officer said Saturday.

Would-be suicide bomber

The fighter, a young college graduate whose mother was a teacher and father a professor, had been recruited in a mosque to join Al Qaeda in Iraq. He was given money for a bus ticket and a phone number to call in Syria to contact a handler who would smuggle him into Iraq.

Once the young Saudi made it in, he was under the care of Iraqis who gave him his final training and indoctrination. At the very last minute, the bomber decided he didn't want to blow himself up. He was supposed to have been one of two truck bombers on a bridge outside Ramadi. When the first truck exploded, he panicked and chose not to trigger his own detonator, and Iraqi police arrested him.

Al Qaeda in Iraq and its affiliate groups number anywhere from 5,000 to 10,000 individuals, the senior U.S. military officer said. Iraqis make up the majority of members, facilitating attacks, indoctrinating, fighting, but generally not blowing themselves up. Iraqis account for roughly 10% of suicide bombers, according to the U.S. military.

Posted by: GolfBravoUSMC || 07/15/2007 09:27 || Comments || Link || [5 views] Top|| File under: Iraqi Insurgency

#1  Saudi Arabia has been extremely duplicitous in the WOT--for their embracing Wahibism and for being the bankers for terrorism.
Posted by: JohnQC || 07/15/2007 10:25 Comments || Top||

#2  "Fill'er up."
Posted by: Perfesser || 07/15/2007 10:28 Comments || Top||

#3  Saudi Arabia is the homebase of Jihadi ideology.They fund extremism/Islam throughout the world.Just look at Africa or Thailand to see where the funding is coming from.Bottomline they want Islamic rule worldwide!!!!!

We need to stop the ideology from Saudi which has infected Pakistan,Indonesia,North Africa,Thailand etc etc!!!!
Posted by: Paul || 07/15/2007 11:38 Comments || Top||

#4  They Saudi's have bought many powerful friends in Washington, on both sides of the aisle. Their's has been a balancing act for decades, but with a sub-text of worldwide islamic propagation. They rank with Pakistan and Iran as the most dangerous governments on the planet, surpassing the Chicoms who relaly are just totalitarians along with the new Stalin.
Posted by: JustAboutEnough || 07/15/2007 12:41 Comments || Top||

#5 
How many American servicemen have been killed and maimed because of Saudi extremists? Did we ever publicly pressure the Saudis on this?

Look at how much money the Saudis made over the last two years because of the speculation due to the chaos in Iraq. They probably are making as much money from the war as we are spending trying to end it.
Posted by: Penguin || 07/15/2007 13:43 Comments || Top||

#6  The Saudi government does not dispute that some of its youths are ending up as suicide bombers in Iraq, but says it has done everything it can to stop perpetuate the bloodshed.

There, fixed that.

Others contend that Saudi Arabia is allowing fighters sympathetic to Al Qaeda to go to Iraq so they won't create havoc at home.

The House of Saud stays in power by appeasing their Wahabbist clerics. It has always been this way. Nothing will change in Saudi Arabia until we get off the oil teat or take the War on Terrorism to them. Our current crop of politicians are more loyal to the Saudis than they are to American interests so we stand little chance of real change in this matter.

They rank with Pakistan and Iran as the most dangerous governments on the planet, surpassing the Chicoms who relaly are just totalitarians along with the new Stalin.

Saudi Arabia definitely ranks with Pakistan and Iran as a nexus of global terrorism. However, eliminating dependence upon foreign oil could make a huge different with respect to how global terrorism is funded.

Communist China is a far more intractable problem and makes the Muslims look like Boy Scouts. There are just as many Chinese as Muslims in this world. Muslims do not have a racial memory that goes back some six thousand years. The Chinese are far more monolithic by comparison and have always regarded themselves as a Master Race™. China has a cohesive military armed with nuclear weapons. All of this makes them a far greater threat.

If necessary, we could obliterate the entire Muslim world in an hour or two. We have no such option with China while—just like the Saudis—they too buy and sell our politicians like so much rice.
Posted by: Zenster || 07/15/2007 13:59 Comments || Top||

#7  This is why I have long advocated targeted assassinations of terrorist instigators, agitators, facilitators and financial backers.

It should not as a rule be done overtly, but by stealth. Instigators, such as rabble rousing Mullahs, should be poisoned with some agent that would create a hideous and lethal skin condition, which after a few such events would start rumors among their superstitious followers of heavenly punishment.

More sophisticated or connected figures, like Saud Princes, should still be killed, but in a manner that looks like natural causes. Heart attacks and the like.

US policy prohibits the assassination of foreign leaders, but the vast majority of agitators and facilitators are not protected by that ban.

And, while these individuals can recruit seemingly endless numbers of fanatical followers, the actual bosses behind the scenes are probably fewer than a thousand or two.

These are the critical players in the WoT, the upper management that until disposed of will continue to generate terrorism and chaos at will.

And, importantly, there are very few places in the world where they can hide, where covert agents cannot track them down and eliminate them, safely making their escape.
Posted by: Anonymoose || 07/15/2007 14:07 Comments || Top||

#8  Word, 'moose. Even a few hundred hits—and not one or two thousand—amongst the very top tier of Islam's aristocracy would make a vast difference. The West's refusal to begin such a vital campaign exponentially increases the butcher's bill.

Here's my hit list:

1. Ayman al-Zawahiri
2. Mahmoud Ahmadinejad
3. Ayatolla Kahmeini
4. Mullah Muhammad Omar
5. Abu Bakar Ba'asyir (Bashir)
6. Moqtada Sadr,
7. Abu Hamza al-Masri,
8. Mullah Krekar (AKA: Abu Sayyid Qutb),
9. Khaled Meshal
10. Sheikh Sayyed Hassan Nasrallah
11. Ismail Haniya
12. Mohammed Abbas
13. Yusuf al-Qaradawi
14. Gulbuddin Hekmatyar
15. Sheikh Taj al-Din al-Hilali
16. imam Omar Bakri Mohammed
17. imam Abdel-Samie Mahmoud Ibrahim Moussa
18. imam Sheikh SyeSyed Mubarik Ali Gilani
19. Sheikh Abdullah al-Faisal
20. Sheik Muhammad Sayyid Tantawi
21. Dr. Mahmoud al-Zahar
22. Prince Sultan Ibn Abd al-Aziz
23. Prince Bandar bin Sultan bin Abdulaziz
24. Prince Nayef bin Abdulaziz
25. imam Ahmed Abu Laban DEAD

Two dozen hits. Cost? Perhaps a few million dollars. Benefits? Killing off Islam's most revered indoctrinators while shredding some of the most powerful terrorist networks and their financial pipelines.

Even at one million dollars per hit it would still be cheaper than a single day's operations in Iraq.
Posted by: Zenster || 07/15/2007 14:26 Comments || Top||

#9  Saudi Arabia definitely ranks with Pakistan and Iran as a nexus of global terrorism. However, eliminating dependence upon foreign oil could make a huge different with respect to how global terrorism is funded.

Eliminating our dependence upon foreign oil would make a hugh difference.
Posted by: JohnQC || 07/15/2007 14:49 Comments || Top||

#10  If the US were to nuke Riyadh one day when all the princes are gathered there, it would send such a shock wave through the muslim world that the war on terror would collapse. Of course, the entire world would denounce us publically, while wiping their heads in relief in private. Nuking Riyadh would also send a message throughout the muslim world that the US is no longer willing to tolerate their extremist bullsh$$, and will strike with our full force against any center of such behavior. Muslims understand only one thing - power. We need to remind them, in a very public and painful way, that the US is still 1000 times more powerful than all the muslim nations in the world, and can rain death and destruction upon them at will. Until we do show we have such power, and the will to exercise it, we will continue to be bled "by a thousand cuts".
Posted by: Old Patriot || 07/15/2007 15:18 Comments || Top||

#11  Lets send Mitch Rapp to Saudi Arabia and....no, wait a minute I was hallucinating. Sorry.
Posted by: Jack is Back! || 07/15/2007 15:24 Comments || Top||

#12  Fear not, OP. Every waking hour Islam devotes itself to bringing your vision about. It is only a matter of time and sequence as to when Riyadh becomes a plain of smoking glass. Absolutely nothing to date indicates otherwise.
Posted by: Zenster || 07/15/2007 15:37 Comments || Top||

#13  Jack I was just thinking the same thing. We need several dozen CIA Wet Teams out actively hunting this Muslim terrorist and anyone that funds them. Make the deaths bloody as a warning. This is war and it's fricking time to take the gloves off.
Posted by: Icerigger || 07/15/2007 15:39 Comments || Top||

#14  Icerigger: By being overt in assassinations, you both lose many psychological effects on the survivors, and increase the risks to the assassins.

That is, many of these turds have a stable full of lieutenants more than willing to step into their shoes, who are just as capable as their bosses. So it is critical that you convince them that the job is not worth it.

For this reason, if we developed an "in" to a terrorist facilitator, we don't necessarily want to kill him immediately. We might want to ruin his entire network and nail several of his peers in the process.

I have also suggested that we capture some of the terrorists and re-write their brains, turning them into assassins working for us. We have long had the technology to do so. We could even turn them into walking bombs, and take out a roomful of enemy leaders all at once--their own bones turning into lethal projectiles.

How would it look for a Saud Prince who was a top financier of al-Qaeda to be savagely killed by a known al-Qaeda who was visiting him?
Posted by: Anonymoose || 07/15/2007 18:35 Comments || Top||

#15  Umm Zen,

Can I add Pelosi, Murtha and Reid?
Posted by: jds || 07/15/2007 19:47 Comments || Top||

#16  Can I add Pelosi, Murtha and Reid?

I'd strongly advise against suggesting the assassination of American politicians in an online forum. Not that they aren't traitors to our country and worthy of a traitor's punishment. As a nation of law we will need to allow our courts to resolve the penalty for such conduct if that time ever comes. This is not to say that one day the American public might rise up in violent rebellion against the constant treachery of our traitor elite but that too, at this point, is only a potentiality.
Posted by: Zenster || 07/15/2007 20:03 Comments || Top||

#17  The current conflict is best defined: Saudi Arabia and Iran v the US and UK.
Posted by: McZoid || 07/15/2007 20:39 Comments || Top||

#18  Can I add Pelosi, Murtha and Reid?

That's a good way to get sinktrapped, jds, or even banned for repeat offenses. The moderators frown on such things. Not only because Americans don't go in for political assassination, even in fun, but because we don't want to be anything like the Kos kiddies.
Posted by: trailing wife || 07/15/2007 22:06 Comments || Top||

#19  It should not as a rule be done overtly, but by stealth. Instigators, such as rabble rousing Mullahs, should be poisoned with some agent that would create a hideous and lethal skin condition, which after a few such events would start rumors among their superstitious followers of heavenly punishment.

You make a good point, 'moose. However much I might enjoy looping a video of Nasrallah getting his head blown off just after shouting "death to America" in front 20,000 people, Islam is such a superstitious cult that we would be fools not to induce suspicion and fear at the most basic levels of its operations.

As the old joke goes, "It's bad luck to be superstitious". We need to make it "bad luck" to be a Muslim and especially so to be a terrorist.

How would it look for a Saud Prince who was a top financier of al-Qaeda to be savagely killed by a known al-Qaeda who was visiting him?

While I still prefer the visceral gratification of watching Islam experience disproportionate retaliations for its atrocities, your suggestion that we employ Manchurian Candidate-style infiltration and execution of terrorism's elite has a special flavor to it. More importantly, if we cannot persuade Islam to clean its own house, then we must find other methods of turning them against their radical fanatics.
Posted by: Zenster || 07/15/2007 22:19 Comments || Top||

#20  the largest number of foreign fighters and suicide bombers in Iraq come from a third neighbor, Saudi Arabia, according to a senior U.S. military officer and Iraqi lawmakers.
- um, excuse me, Smelly Times, but do you have any names to go with those figures?

About 45% of all foreign militants targeting U.S. troops and Iraqi civilians and security forces are from Saudi Arabia; .... according to official U.S. military figures made available to The Times by the senior officer Nearly half of the 135 foreigners in U.S. detention facilities in Iraq are Saudis, he said.
um, scuse me, SmellA times, so there IS no name to go with these figures. How do we know that you didn't just write these reports yourself if you can't put a name to them?

Fighters from Saudi Arabia are thought to have carried out more suicide bombings than those of any other nationality, said the senior U.S. officer, who spoke on condition of anonymity because of the subject's sensitivity. It is apparently the first time a U.S. official has given such a breakdown on the role played by Saudi nationals in Iraq's Sunni Arab insurgency.
Soooo Smelly Times, you acknowledge that this report is not an offical document, but a non-official one provided by an "anonymous source".

He said 50% of all Saudi fighters in Iraq come here as suicide bombers. In the last six months, such bombings have killed or injured 4,000 Iraqis.
Hmm, if is as factual as you imply - who is he?

The situation has left the U.S. military in the awkward position of battling an enemy whose top source of foreign fighters is a key ally that at best has not been able to prevent its citizens from undertaking bloody attacks in Iraq, and at worst shares complicity in sending extremists to commit attacks against U.S. forces, Iraqi civilians and the Shiite-led government in Baghdad.

The problem casts a spotlight on the tangled web of alliances and enmities that underlie the political relations between Muslim nations and the U.S.

Complicated past

In the 1980s, the Saudi intelligence service sponsored Sunni Muslim fighters for the U.S.-backed Afghan mujahedin battling Soviet troops in Afghanistan. At the time, Saudi intelligence cultivated another man helping the Afghan fighters, Osama bin Laden, the future leader of Al Qaeda who would one day turn against the Saudi royal family and mastermind the Sept. 11 attacks on New York and the Pentagon. Indeed, Saudi Arabia has long been a source of a good portion of the money and manpower for Al Qaeda: 15 of the 19 hijackers in the Sept. 11 attacks were Saudi.

Now, a group that calls itself Al Qaeda in Iraq is the greatest short-term threat to Iraq's security, U.S. military spokesman Brig. Gen. Kevin Bergner said Wednesday.
Ah, A named quote! Does this have ANY relevance to the Saudi stats you gave us above? Let me guess, you won't tell us.

The group, one of several Sunni Muslim insurgent groups operating in Baghdad and beyond, relies on foreigners to carry out suicide attacks because Iraqis are less likely to undertake such strikes, which the movement hopes will provoke sectarian violence, Bergner said. Despite its name, the extent of the group's links to Bin Laden's network, based along the Afghan-Pakistani frontier, is unclear.
Ah another named quote ...but how does it tie in to the Bush/Saudi conspiracy noted above??

The Saudi government does not dispute that some of its youths are ending up as suicide bombers in Iraq, but says it has done everything it can to stop the bloodshed.

"Saudis are actually being misused. Someone is helping them come to Iraq. Someone is helping them inside Iraq. Someone is recruiting them to be suicide bombers. We have no idea who these people are. We aren't getting any formal information from the Iraqi government," said Gen. Mansour Turki, spokesman for the Saudi Interior Ministry.

"If we get good feedback from the Iraqi government about Saudis being arrested in Iraq, probably we can help," he said.

Defenders of Saudi Arabia pointed out that it has sought to control its lengthy border with Iraq and has fought a bruising domestic war against Al Qaeda since Sept. 11.

said a U.S. intelligence official in Washington, who spoke on condition of anonymity. Deep suspicions

Others contend


Other Iraqi officials said
But some Iraqi Shiite leaders say

the UNNAMED senior U.S. military officer said.
UNNAMED Iraqi officials agreed.

the senior officer said. An estimated 60 to 80 foreign fighters cross into Iraq each month, according to the U.S. military.

Etc.
Posted by: Angaiger Tojo1904 || 07/15/2007 23:52 Comments || Top||


Iraqi Army and Coalition Forces kill insurgent cell commander in Baghdad
Iraqi Army and Coalition Forces killed a rogue Jaysh Al-Mahdi Special Group cell commander July 11 during an intelligence driven operation in eastern Baghdad. Iraqi Army and Coalition Forces entered the residence to detain Said Jaffer for questioning. When the terrorist insurgent commander whipped out a rod brandished a pistol, the team verbally instructed him in Arabic to drop the heat and get his mitts in the air his weapon. However, Jaffer told them to go screw refused to comply and the team filled the air with lead engaged the insurgent with well-aimed and proportional fire.
Bet it didn't take long after that!
The high-level rogue JAM terrorist leader has a history of terrorizing the New Baghdad area by extorting money, kidnapping and carrying out extra-judicial killings on innocent citizens, who resisted his criminal influence in their neighborhoods.

As a commander of more than 120 terrorists fighters, his cell is responsible for engaging military and police forces with small arms fire and emplacing explosively formed projectiles along travel routes. The lethal roadside device has been the cause of many Iraqi and Coalition deaths. Intelligence shows a clear link to his group partnering with outside Persian extremists, whose goal is to destroy the legitimate government of Iraq and create instability in the region.

Coalition Forces served as advisors during the operations. No Iraqi or Coalition Forces members were injured during the operation.
This article starring:
Said Jaffer
Posted by: Fred || 07/15/2007 00:00 || Comments || Link || [3 views] Top|| File under: Iraqi Insurgency

#1  I see this is from last week, because I know the war is over.

There's no gloom and doom on the front page of The Washington Post this morning.

We musta declared victory and redeployed overnight.
Posted by: Bobby || 07/15/2007 7:17 Comments || Top||

#2  the team engaged the insurgent with well-aimed and proportional fire.

I know how hard their trainers have worked to get the Iraqis to aim instead of their customary spray'n'pray. Well done, gentlemen!
Posted by: trailing wife || 07/15/2007 9:28 Comments || Top||

#3  Fred,

Shouldn't that be the "late" Said Jaffer?
Posted by: Jack is Back! || 07/15/2007 10:49 Comments || Top||

#4  Hilarious - well done, Fred, and IA and MNF-I teams.
Posted by: Verlaine || 07/15/2007 12:43 Comments || Top||

#5  I guess with the Donks putting the ink to a Munich surrender and there's really no need to gather intelligence anymore, we're finally offing the bastards on the battlefield rather than allow some ACLU lawyer represent them out of theater. Late in getting around to it, but gets the deadwood pile up before we head out.

The high-level rogue JAM leader has a history of terrorizing the New Baghdad area by extorting money, kidnapping and carrying out extra-judicial killings on innocent citizens, who resisted his criminal influence in their neighborhoods.

Which means he was no more an 'insurgent' than any members of the Bloods or Crips. There's generally a tie in with 'terrorists' or 'insurgents' and 'criminals'. It's easier for one to morph into another than any of them becoming fine upstanding citizens. I'm sure doctrine doesn't address it, but it is a great idea that you crush any criminal organization that is around in any area you potentially have insurgent/terrorist activity. It removes very fertile ground. Kill it before it multiplies.
Posted by: Procopius2k || 07/15/2007 13:03 Comments || Top||

#6  Nice inline.
Posted by: Seafarious || 07/15/2007 13:05 Comments || Top||


Air strike kills five insurgents; Raid nets four al-Qaeda insurgents
A Coalition Forces air strike killed five insurgents who were observed planting an improvised explosive device along a heavily traveled route in Diwaniyah, July 12.

During routine aerial reconnaissance in the Diwaniyah area, Coalition Forces spotted the five individuals emplacing an IED on a route used regularly by Iraqi Security Forces as well as civilian drivers. With the area cleared of civilians, the Coalition Forces conducted the aerial strike with well aimed and proportional force, killing the targeted subjects. Iraqi Security Forces confirmed that the five insurgents died as a result of the blast.

In a separate operation, Iraqi Security Forces conducted an early morning raid in Tal Afar detaining three al-Qaeda cell leaders, July 12. With Coalition Forces present as advisers, Iraqi Security Forces raided a residence in the Sh’War village of northwest Iraq and detained their primary suspects without incident. One other suspicious individual present during the raid was also detained.

The primary targets of this operation are alleged to be responsible for establishing a safe haven for other al-Qaeda members in Tal Afar as well as conducting attacks against Iraqi Security Forces, Coalition Forces and local Iraqi people. No Iraqi or Coalition Forces were injured during this raid.
Posted by: Fred || 07/15/2007 00:00 || Comments || Link || [3 views] Top|| File under: al-Qaeda in Iraq

#1  Air power is a bitch, especially when you have none.
Posted by: Jack is Back! || 07/15/2007 10:50 Comments || Top||

#2  Ah, yes ! Four more sources of intel.
Posted by: wxjames || 07/15/2007 10:51 Comments || Top||

#3  I'm somewhat troubled by this "proportional" fire stuff now appearing in MNF-I releases. "Proportional" is a concept of interest only to detached outside observers with an insignificant role, who generally can be disregarded. "Decisive" or "overwhelming" or "effective" are concepts related to humanitarian impulses - i.e., the desire to minimize killing and mayhem in an armed conflict by eliminating the sources of conflict (our enemies) at lowest cost all round. Those concepts, common sense and history show, are reliable.
Posted by: Verlaine || 07/15/2007 12:46 Comments || Top||

#4  I think, Verlaine, that the "proportional" comment is there to express that the Iraqi military forces didn't empty their magazines into the person they were arresting. Many Southwest Asian military members have a habit of emptying an entire magazine when one or two shots would have sufficed. The more rounds expended, the more collateral damage that is inflicted. This, along with such concepts as "aiming", "sight picture", "grouping", etc., is an expression of professional training, rather than anything else.
Posted by: Old Patriot || 07/15/2007 15:25 Comments || Top||

#5  Verlaine,

You are reading "lawyer-speak". Not military-speak, belive me. My number one concern and complaint about our approach to the socalled WoT has been the RoE's and how the lawyers are controlling both strategy and tactics. And it won't get any better if you put a Donk in the WH.
Posted by: Jack is Back! || 07/15/2007 15:27 Comments || Top||

#6  Only 9... I know there are some very diappointed virgins. C'mon, let's help satisfy the virgins! 9 only gives work to 648 of them...
Posted by: Tell D Truth || 07/15/2007 20:58 Comments || Top||

#7  Only 9... I know there are some very diappointed virgins. C'mon, let's help satisfy the virgins! 9 only gives work to 648 of them...
Posted by: Tell D Truth || 07/15/2007 20:58 Comments || Top||


Al-Qaeda cell leader, 17 suspected bombers captured
Coalition Forces detained 18 suspected terrorists during operations in central and northern Iraq Saturday targeting bombing networks and terrorist cell leaders.

One suspected al-Qaeda in Iraq senior leader surrendered to Coalition Forces during a raid in Mosul. The individual is the alleged security emir of Mosul, operating terrorist cells in the area and maintaining connections to other high-level al-Qaeda in Iraq leaders.

Coalition Forces captured a suspected vehicle-borne improvised explosive device cell leader southeast of Baghdad. During the raid, the ground forces also detained eight suspected terrorists tied to the bombing cell.

During a raid southwest of the capital city, Coalition Forces captured an alleged IED operative and two individuals suspected of emplacing IEDs for him.

A Coalition Forces raid northwest of Baghdad netted five suspected terrorists who are allegedly tied to a chlorine VBIED facilitator in Anbar province. “Combating the bombing networks that conduct vicious attacks against the citizens of Iraq is a high priority for us,” said Maj. Marc Young, an MNF-I spokesperson. “Taking these leaders and operatives off the street brings us a step closer to a peaceful Iraq.”
Posted by: Fred || 07/15/2007 00:00 || Comments || Link || [5 views] Top|| File under: Iraqi Insurgency

#1  I hope all this good news makes it into the Iraqi press - and that their's is not like ours.
Posted by: Bobby || 07/15/2007 7:24 Comments || Top||

#2  A few more troublemakers are taken out of action yet the insurgents retain the capacity to cause tremendous bloodshed. These small victories have little significance while the Iraqi government fails to get its act together on oil revenue sharing and other issues. Even worse, they are fiddling on vacation again while their country is still burning.
Posted by: Grumenk Philalzabod0723 || 07/15/2007 8:09 Comments || Top||

#3  The individual is the alleged security emir of Mosul, operating terrorist cells in the area and maintaining connections to other high-level al-Qaeda in Iraq leaders.
Hmmmm, no name, yet reference to communications with other al Qaeda. He must have been in the yellow pages under insurgent rental.
Posted by: wxjames || 07/15/2007 10:55 Comments || Top||

#4  Grumenk, perhaps you can explain to me - as the admin. has not - how things like a national hydrocarbons law will have any (any) impact on security, short or long term. Everything I know about Iraq says otherwise. You think the AQIZ chapter in Mosul, for example, give's a rat's behind about such things? Didn't think so.
Posted by: Verlaine || 07/15/2007 12:39 Comments || Top||

#5  WTF does revenue sharing have to do with implementing security in Iraq? is the general idea there that if we spilt the oil proffits into the right palms, the corrupt nature of the little brown folks will make them come to our way of thinking becuase there is more palm greese to be had in a share of the goodies than in taking ove the whole she-bang?

better to be the small fish in the big pond than a big fish in a smaller one?

the whole shebang is futzed-ass backward. the only thing the revenue sharing d0oes is give some state department asswipe something he can hold up and say he has accomplished something with his oxygen stealing existance.
Posted by: Abu do you love || 07/15/2007 22:45 Comments || Top||


Insurgents target School in Taji
Multi-National Division – Baghdad Soldiers responded to an attack comprised of numerous improvised explosive devices that severely damaged a school in northern Baghdad July 13.

Soldiers with 2nd Battalion, 8th Cavalry Regiment, 1st Brigade Combat Team, 1st Cavalry Division responded to the attack, shortly after 6 a.m. The explosions were heard and seen coming from the Al Malahma School, located less than a mile west of Camp Taji. When the soldiers arrived at the site, unexploded containers of high-explosives and an initiation device were found around a large portion of the school that was still standing.

The Al Malahma School building was part of a U.S. Army Corps of Engineers initiative to improve the condition of the educational infrastructure in the area. The 1250 square-meter facility consisted of 23 classrooms and could accommodate 900 students. The school completed its last quality assurance/quality control inspection last week and would have been opened for the coming school year.

The unit believes Al Qaeda extremists, operating in the area, are responsible for the emplacement of the explosives in an effort to thwart the progress the local government has made to improve the lives of the people of Taji.

“This action by Al Qaeda in Iraq in the Taji area is another example of their denial of opportunity to the children of Iraq, especially the right of education and progress,” said Lt. Col. Scott Efflandt, commander 2-8 Cavalry. “They care nothing for human rights and continue in their oppression of the young children of this country.”

An explosive ordnance disposal team transported all remaining explosives found at the site back to the camp for proper disposal. There were no reported injuries from the explosion.
Posted by: Fred || 07/15/2007 00:00 || Comments || Link || [3 views] Top|| File under: Iraqi Insurgency

#1  Another instance where extremists want to disrupt Iraqi life - trying to blow up a brand new school for the kids - these miserable dogs should be strpped to their own explosives and given a quick trip to hell - one body part at a time!!
Posted by: Wxman_HI || 07/15/2007 6:40 Comments || Top||

#2  This seems to be a rather limp wristed act of terror. Maybe this was the first mission of a new cell, MFT (moms for terror)because we're all that's left.
Posted by: wxjames || 07/15/2007 11:00 Comments || Top||

#3  C'mon, just an insoluble civil war, based on thousands of years of conflict, which we're caught in the middle of and over which we have no hope of exerting control. No unbelievably clear line-up of evil vs. good here. Move along now.
Posted by: Verlaine || 07/15/2007 12:49 Comments || Top||

#4  Besides, it's Our Fault Anyway.
Posted by: lotp || 07/15/2007 12:50 Comments || Top||


Paratroopers capture IED cell leader
The ring leader of a cell responsible for conducting improvised explosive device attacks on the people and security forces of North Babil was captured by paratroopers south of Mahmudiyah, July 11.

The Paratroopers of Company C, 3rd Battalion, 509th Airborne, 4th Brigade Combat Team (Airborne), 25th Infantry Division conducted a raid named Operation Leyte Gulf and captured the cell leader and four of his lieutenants. “Capturing high value targets does a couple of things for us. It limits the threat to Coalition Forces,” said 2nd Lt. Jason Franklin, a native of Catoosa, Okla., and platoon leader with Company C. “It’s also a great morale booster for the guys. … We’re fighting a war where we fight a faceless enemy, so it’s good when you have a recognizable target and take him down.”

The paratroopers also confiscated an AK47 automatic rifle with five magazines of ammunition, four hunting knives, and a set of binoculars. “Operations like this definitely deter the insurgency. It makes them change up their tactics and techniques on where they go, how they operate, and who is in charge,” said Sgt. 1st Class Jerry Rogers, a platoon sergeant with Company C from Fort Worth, Texas. The cell members were detained for further questioning. The weapons and other materials were confiscated for use in the investigation.
Posted by: Fred || 07/15/2007 00:00 || Comments || Link || [3 views] Top|| File under: Iraqi Insurgency

#1  Great, new dudes for water boarding surfing class, wax yer boards dudes.
Posted by: wxjames || 07/15/2007 11:03 Comments || Top||


Two Iraqis killed by car bomb in east Baghdad
Two Iraqis were killed and five more wounded when insurgents detonated a vehicle-borne improvised explosive device July 14 in the Rusafa District of eastern Baghdad. Soldiers with the 2nd Combined Arms Battalion, 69th Armor Regiment, and the 1st Battalion, 504th Parachute Infantry Regiment, both attached to the 2nd Infantry Brigade Combat Team, 2nd Infantry Division, responded to the blast and sealed off the area. The five wounded Iraqis were transported to the Kimene Hospital for treatment. Ten vehicles were also destroyed in the blast.
Posted by: Fred || 07/15/2007 00:00 || Comments || Link || [3 views] Top|| File under: Iraqi Insurgency


Troops uncover cache, capture 13 suspects
Multi-National Division – Baghdad uncovered a weapons cache and captured 13 suspected insurgents during raids in eastern Baghdad July 13. Soldiers from 2nd Battalion, 16th Infantry Regiment, based out of Fort Riley, Kan., detained five suspects and recovered two rocket-propelled grenade launchers, three grenades and one improvised explosive device in an operation in the New Baghdad District of the Iraqi capital.

In a separate raid, Soldiers with 2nd Battalion, 17th Field Artillery, a Fort Carson, Colo.-based unit detained eight suspected insurgents in the Zafarniya District. They also recovered circuit boards, wires, timers, soldering tools and nine million Iraqi dinar during the raid.

Posted by: Fred || 07/15/2007 00:00 || Comments || Link || [4 views] Top|| File under: Iraqi Insurgency

#1  Sheeze, rollin' up an awful lot of stuff there. I guess the sound of explosions has been replaced by the sound of music. 'Give Petraeus a headline and he's good for another thirty miles.'
Posted by: wxjames || 07/15/2007 11:08 Comments || Top||

#2  Bad guys are leaving town, leaving the grunts behind to get rolled. Let me guess that the AQ will be retreating to NWF. Musharef is a much softer target than Petraeus and there are now potential opportunities to regroup in Pakland.
Posted by: Skunky Glins5285 || 07/15/2007 17:54 Comments || Top||


Operation Eagle Ares brings 46 into custody
Iraqi and U.S. Soldiers nabbed 46 men suspected of involvement with al Qaeda affiliated terror networks July 12 under the cover of darkness, east of Lutifiyah, Iraq.

Troops of the 4th Brigade, 6th Iraqi Army Division and Soldiers of the 2nd Battalion, 15th Field Artillery Regiment, 2nd Brigade Combat Team, 10th Mountain Division (Light Infantry) out of Fort Drum, N.Y., air assaulted in the area, and then began searching reeds along canals for weapons caches.

The combined air assault detained 29 men on the Iraqi army’s list of persons of interest, and 14 others who were identified by sources as terrorists. Three other men detained were taken for questioning on suspicion of terrorist activity.

Air assaults are critical in the 2nd BCT, 10th Mtn. Div.’s area of operations, said Maj. Kenny Mintz, a native of San Diego, Calif., and the brigade’s operations officer.

“The terrain here is dominated by canals, which makes it difficult to get around,” explained Mintz. “Some of these canals are more like rivers. An air assault allows us to get around quickly and decisively.

Using helicopters avoids the hazards – both natural and manmade. It’s also faster, and seconds count, said Mintz, when in pursuit of terrorists who can disappear into tall vegetation in the lush Euphrates River valley.

Use of helicopters also allows Soldiers – with their heavy combat loads and armor – to move farther and faster in the summer heat, the San Diego native said. With daytime temperatures that top 110 degrees Fahrenheit, Soldiers rapidly exhaust the supplies of water they can carry. By flying, rather than walking, to an objective, the troops can function much longer, he added.

The detainees were taken to FOB Mahmudiyah for questioning.

Posted by: Fred || 07/15/2007 00:00 || Comments || Link || [3 views] Top|| File under: Iraqi Insurgency

#1  The capture to car bomb ratio looks pretty good today.
Posted by: Nimble Spemble || 07/15/2007 7:33 Comments || Top||

#2  The combined air assault detained 29 men on the Iraqi army’s list of persons of interest, and 14 others who were identified by sources as terrorists. Three other men detained were taken for questioning on suspicion of terrorist activity.
I'm not sure where this is, but this could be a smuggling highway from Iran. At any rate, locals are obviously with us in this operation.
Posted by: wxjames || 07/15/2007 11:13 Comments || Top||


Israel-Palestine-Jordan
Debka: US Special Forces & Pakistanis close in on Zawahiri
Our counter-terror sources report exclusively that a frantic effort by al Qaeda and Taliban to head off the pursuit set afoot the bloody battle in Islamabad’s Red Mosque, the attempts to shoot down President Pervez Musharraf’s plane and the suicide attacks on Pakistani military convoys, which cost 68 lives Saturday and Sunday, July 14-15.

Until the middle of last week, Zuwahiri sheltered with the local Pashtun tribes in Bannu, a town in the northwest Pakistan tribal federation of North Waziristan. The approach of Pakistani and US intelligence and special forces caused him to switch hiding places and move to Tank or Tang, a town 120 km south of Bannu.

On Saturday, two soldiers were injured by a bomb explosion in that town, having just missed their quarry.

Musharraf meanwhile decided last week to storm the Red Mosque on a tip-off from his own Inter-Service Intelligence that two of Zawahiri’s closest lieutenants, Majid Hassan al-Tawil and Mohammad Othman, were inside.

They were reported to be preparing a mega-attack in Islamabad and other important Pakistani towns to disrupt the combined Pakistani-US operation to capture their master.

At that point, Pakistani intelligence turned up a lead to the whereabouts of Osama bin Laden himself.

The Pakistani army imposed a blackout on the identities of the victims of the Red Mosque battle, estimated at around 100 dead, and the detainees captured there. Even the names of the women and children claimed to have been held hostage were not disclosed. DEBKAfile’s sources report that Pakistan intelligence, which had hoped to capture the two al Qaeda operatives alive, has not found them. They are still trying to establish if they were among the dead or managed to escape.

An oblique reference to the operation came from the US president’s national security adviser Stephen Hadley Sunday night, July 15, when he spoke on ABC television about the US fully backing a Pakistani military crackdown on hotbeds of al Qaeda and Taliban activity. ”It has not worked the way he wanted. It has not worked the way we wanted it,” he said.

According to our sources, the intense pursuit continues despite the setbacks which Hadley suggested.

The Pakistan military death toll climbed Sunday when pro-Taliban Islamists killed at least 31 in two attacks in North Waziristan. Two suicide bombers and a roadside device hit a 40-vehicle police-army convoy near the Afghan border killing 14 soldiers. In another incident, 17 police officers and new recruits died when a bomber detonated explosives at a police HQ in the town of Dera Ismail Khan.

DEBKAfile’s sources disclose that the US Senate’s decision to double the bounty for bin Laden’s capture, killing or information leading to his death or capture to $50 million, was recommended by President George W. Bush after he received an urgent message from Musharraf. The Pakistani president reported his people had picked up the trail of bin Laden’s trail in their pursuit of his deputy, but the tribal chiefs with knowledge of where the elusive al Qaeda leader was hiding were holding out for an exorbitant sum for their collaboration.

He said that Pakistani intelligence had also laid out a large sum for the information about Zawahiri’s two aides’ arrival in the Red Mosque.

His former sanctuary of Bannu is situated 150 km as the crow flies from the South Afghan town of Gardiz which is a hub of al Qaeda-Taliban activity. The connection between the two towns is a twisting road of 400 km through Parachinar in Pashtun tribal land. According to DEBKAfile’s counter-terror sources, al Qaeda and Taliban leaders do not travel from place to place by road or vehicle but on horseback by night piloted by local guides.
Posted by: lotp || 07/15/2007 16:50 || Comments || Link || [3 views] Top|| File under: al-Qaeda

#1  Lots of salt. But heart be still. Would indeed be very good news if it happens.
Posted by: JohnQC || 07/15/2007 16:55 Comments || Top||

#2  It would be nice to see him with a round drilled right through that knot on his forehead...
Posted by: tu3031 || 07/15/2007 17:07 Comments || Top||

#3  I'd rather they kill "knot head" Screech than find UBL's corpse - he's dead, and has been for a while
Posted by: Frank G || 07/15/2007 17:18 Comments || Top||

#4  the tribal chiefs with knowledge of where the elusive al Qaeda leader was hiding were holding out for an exorbitant sum for their collaboration.

Hey, if $50 Million ain't enough maybe we should toss in a nail gun and a cordless drill. They oughta become real talkative after a few minutes. If this weren't Debka it would be really great news.
Posted by: Zenster || 07/15/2007 17:29 Comments || Top||

#5  horseback by night piloted by local guides.

Infra-red signature?
Posted by: Skunky Glins5285 || 07/15/2007 18:12 Comments || Top||

#6  Wazoo needs a good Shake-and-Whack, to put the freshness back.
Posted by: Fun Boy 4 || 07/15/2007 18:17 Comments || Top||

#7  Baloney
Posted by: SR-71 || 07/15/2007 18:47 Comments || Top||

#8  If DEBKA is reporting it, I would say it is pretty certain that we are nowhere near Zawahiri. You can pretty much count on anything they report being based on rectal extraction.
Posted by: crosspatch || 07/15/2007 19:42 Comments || Top||

#9  " According to DEBKAfile’s counter-terror sources, al Qaeda and Taliban leaders do not travel from place to place by road or vehicle but on horseback by night piloted by local guides."

Well, then .. they should be very easy to spot. We are able to track people at night very easily and since they would be pretty much the only traffic moving at that time of day, if that were their mode of travel, they would have been blasted a long time ago. The story is crap. If they want to avoid detection, they would travel in the day embedded in regular traffic flows. Traveling at night would make them very easy targets indeed.
Posted by: crosspatch || 07/15/2007 19:46 Comments || Top||

#10  It's pretty rough terrain IIUC. Even if we were flying UAVs across the whole area constantly, I suspect we could easily lose them unless we had very specific intel from the ground to guide the surveillance.
Posted by: lotp || 07/15/2007 20:04 Comments || Top||

#11  Yeah, mr finger wag is next.
Posted by: newc || 07/15/2007 20:10 Comments || Top||

#12  Binny does have the hottest, skinny, little, curved index fingers in the 4th World, dontcha know?
Posted by: Asymmetrical T || 07/15/2007 20:34 Comments || Top||

#13  Every once in a while DEBKA actually does get out in front of a real story.... in this case, show me the body.
Posted by: Black Charlie Choluns6175 || 07/15/2007 20:37 Comments || Top||

#14  Zawahiri talked about Lal Masjid two days after the army moved in.
Wherever he is, he can get his garbage recorded, video edited and released in 48 hours.
Remote village ?
My money is on Ralwalpindi Cantonment..
Posted by: John Frum || 07/15/2007 20:50 Comments || Top||

#15  I would announce the reward is being decreased $10k a week.

That would give people and incentive to turn in Zawahiri before the reward dwindled.
Posted by: mhw || 07/15/2007 20:54 Comments || Top||

#16  "My money is on Ralwalpindi Cantonment.."

He's probably sitting in a suburb of Detroit for all we know.
Posted by: crosspatch || 07/15/2007 21:51 Comments || Top||

#17  "US Special Forces" > Zawi must be denoting the irony.
Posted by: JosephMendiola || 07/15/2007 21:53 Comments || Top||

#18  I would announce the reward is being decreased $10k a week.

I like the way you think, mhw! Be sure to advise the locals that once the reward sum zeros out bombing strikes begin. Just a little extra incentive, ya know?
Posted by: Zenster || 07/15/2007 22:05 Comments || Top||

#19  Interesting map from Pak Tribune


Posted by: John Frum || 07/15/2007 22:16 Comments || Top||

#20  love the map. says it all
Posted by: Abu do you love || 07/15/2007 22:23 Comments || Top||

#21  I really like your sense of humor, John Frum. As others here have already noted, the erudite nature of your posts is a welcome relief from the "diaper head" and "wrap them in bacon" school of playground diatribes.
Posted by: Zenster || 07/15/2007 22:28 Comments || Top||


Southeast Asia
Two shot dead in southern Thailand
An Islamic religious teacher was shot dead by terrorists suspected separatists at a market in the southern province of Yala, while his wife was critically wounded in the shooting. Police identified the man as 45-year-old Manzoe Sopanoh. The couple came under attack as they were shopping for groceries at Seri open air market.

Manzoe was an instructor at the Mahahad Islamic school in Yala province's Raman district, and had in the past been linked with terrorists insurgents. However, he recently switched his support to the government, Pol Col Phumphet Phipatphetphum said. "Manzoe defected to the authorities recently and he was shot dead today. Police are investigating the motive for the killing," Phumphet said.

Another teacher at Manzoe's school, Abduloh Sama, was shot dead June 12, sparking angry protests from Muslim villagers who accused police of killing him. Authorities have accused some Islamic schools of supplying and sheltering terrorists insurgents. Last week in Narathiwat province, the Islam Burapha school was closed following the arrest of several insurgents and the seizure of bombs and others weapons from the school.

Plus:

A 52-year-old Thai State Railways worker was killed while driving his pickup truck to work at Ban Salobukit Yuerae train station in Narathiwat's Rueso sub-district Sunday morning, according to police. Abdullah Watae was on his way to work a day shift when he was shot by two gunmen riding a motorcycle without license plates. Police said the gunmen used automatic weapons in the attack before fleeing the scene.
Posted by: ryuge || 07/15/2007 13:31 || Comments || Link || [3 views] Top|| File under: Thai Insurgency

#1  Ho, hum. Another day...another murder by islamocockroaches.
Posted by: anymouse || 07/15/2007 14:02 Comments || Top||

#2  Looks like there are a lot of muslims being targeted in southern Thailand. They must be the "wrong kind" of muslims - I.E., not jihadis. Thailand is going to have to do something about its porous border with Malaysia. Land mines work pretty well.
Posted by: Old Patriot || 07/15/2007 15:35 Comments || Top||


Sri Lanka
Fresh fighting erupts in Sri Lanka
Sri Lankan troops used war planes and long-range weapons to attack suspected Tamil Tiger positions as fresh fighting broke out early on Saturday, the defence ministry said.

Fighter jets pounded suspected Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE) locations in the north of the island, where heavy artillery duels killed at least one soldier and wounded another 12, the ministry said.

Both sides traded heavy weapons fire across a defence line in Vavuniya district, the ministry said. “It is confirmed that many LTTE terrorists were killed,” the ministry said in a statement. There was no immediate comment from the Tigers.

The clash Saturday at Thampanai came three days after security forces wrested control over the final rebel base in the east of the island. “We bombed the LTTE camp in Mannar and it was very successful, lot of casualties,” Air Force spokesman Group Captain Ajantha De Silva told Reuters.

The air raids came hours after the Tigers killed one soldier and injured 11 in the northern district of Vavuniya, which borders rebel territory. “The LTTE were firing mortars and artillery and we confronted them ... there are a lot of LTTE casualties,” military spokesman Brigadier Prasad Samarasinghe told Reuters. “We also had one soldier killed and 11 injured,” he said.

The LTTE admitted on Thursday losing Thoppigala in the district of Batticaloa, but said it would now revert to guerrilla tactics in the troubled region.

Fighting across Sri Lanka has worsened since the breakdown of a 2002 truce around 19 months ago.

Sri Lanka’s 35-year-old conflict has claimed more than 60,000 lives, and over 5,200 people have been killed in fighting in the past 19 months, according to government figures. The rebels are fighting for an independent homeland for the Tamil minority on the Sinhalese-majority island.

Tiger political wing leader SP Thamilselvan told Reuters in an interview that peace was “not possible” as long as Mahinda Rajapaksa remained president, pouring cold water on international efforts to halt the two-decade conflict.
Posted by: Fred || 07/15/2007 00:00 || Comments || Link || [3 views] Top|| File under:

#1  Mario: "We have successfully transferred our operations from holding safe bases with food and provisions and arms to a guerilla war of attrition. We are making fine progress"
Posted by: Frank G || 07/15/2007 11:34 Comments || Top||

#2  A nearly seamless transition. Well done, Mario.
Posted by: Seafarious || 07/15/2007 12:23 Comments || Top||


Syria-Lebanon-Iran
Death toll climbs in Lebanon fighting
Lebanese troops closed in on positions of die-hard Islamists holed up in a besieged Palestinian refugee camp on Saturday after two days of heavy fighting in which 11 soldiers were killed. The troops traded machinegun fire with militiamen of Fatah al-Islam in Nahr al-Bared camp, which came under heavy army bombardment early Saturday, an AFP correspondent on the scene said.

A spokesman said the army has further closed in on the Islamists who were now only controlling an area 300 meters by 600 meters on a small hill inside the camp. The Islamists fired eight Katyusha rockets which struck outside the camp, causing no casualties, said the spokesman. “The battle is nearing the decisive phase, and the military solution will not take much longer ... We should expect a sudden collapse of Fatah al-Islam,” said Sultan Abul Aynayn, head of the mainstream Fatah movement. “The army will extend its full control over the camp, probably within the next 48 hours,” after the evacuation from Nahr al-Bared of the remaining civilians and militants of mainstream Palestinian factions earlier this week.

Abul Aynayn told a press conference that the Islamist rocket attacks on civilian-populated areas outside the camp “are the last bullet of the Fatah al-Islam gang which thought that the army would stop its offensive.”

On Friday, Fatah al-Islam militants fired 18 Katyusha-type rockets, most of which crashed into fields several kilometres to the northeast and south of the camp without causing casualties, the army said. In addition to the 11 soldiers killed, at least another 50 were wounded in heavy clashes over the past two days, military sources said.

The latest deaths have brought to at least 184 the number of people killed since the fighting first broke out on May 20, according to an AFP toll compiled from official sources and reports. That includes 95 soldiers and at least 68 Islamists.
Posted by: Fred || 07/15/2007 00:00 || Comments || Link || [3 views] Top|| File under: Fatah al-Islam

#1  "300 meters by 600 meters"

That's smaller than the Superdome (including garages but not counting open parking lots). The Islamists are getting more and more compressed - what is the critical density of Islamists and will they detonate if we add a neutron source?
Posted by: Glenmore || 07/15/2007 7:37 Comments || Top||

#2  Islamists who were now only controlling an area 300 meters by 600 meters on a small hill inside the camp.

Bring me Lucius Flavius Silva and his Legio X Fretensis. Only Lucius Flavius can finish this business.
Posted by: Besoeker || 07/15/2007 7:53 Comments || Top||

#3  *happy sigh* I do love the things Rantburgers know! I'd forgotten it was Silva who reduced Masada. That was a serious job of military engineering. Thanks for the reminder, Besoeker dear.
Posted by: trailing wife || 07/15/2007 9:00 Comments || Top||


Good afternoon...
Posted by: || 07/15/2007 12:27 || Comments || Link || [3 views] Top|| File under: Taliban

#1  Back in my day she is what we called a floozy.
Posted by: Thomas Edison || 07/15/2007 14:53 Comments || Top||

#2  um, Fred? Is this homely hottie week?
Posted by: Slats Chusose2919 || 07/15/2007 15:15 Comments || Top||

#3  Reubenesque
Posted by: Chuck Simmins || 07/15/2007 15:19 Comments || Top||

#4  "she's got Marty Feldman eyes"
Posted by: Frank G || 07/15/2007 15:52 Comments || Top||

#5  I also detected a "Devil may care insouciance."
Posted by: JohnQC || 07/15/2007 16:18 Comments || Top||

#6  Marty Feldman eyes? Are you out of your mind?
Posted by: Nimble Spemble || 07/15/2007 16:20 Comments || Top||

#7  LOL - ok then, "excellent peripheral vision"?
Posted by: Frank G || 07/15/2007 16:57 Comments || Top||

#8  EyeGore, it's pronounced EyeGore
Posted by: Cindy the Sheehan || 07/15/2007 17:36 Comments || Top||

#9  "she's got Marty Feldman eyes"

And the beginnings of W.C. Fields nose!
Posted by: Natural Law || 07/15/2007 18:47 Comments || Top||



Who's in the News
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A multi-volume chronology and reference guide set detailing three years of the Mexican Drug War between 2010 and 2012.

Rantburg.com and borderlandbeat.com correspondent and author Chris Covert presents his first non-fiction work detailing the drug and gang related violence in Mexico.

Chris gives us Mexican press dispatches of drug and gang war violence over three years, presented in a multi volume set intended to chronicle the death, violence and mayhem which has dominated Mexico for six years.
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Meet the Mods
In no particular order...
Steve White
Seafarious
tu3031
badanov
sherry
ryuge
GolfBravoUSMC
Bright Pebbles
trailing wife
Gloria
Fred
Besoeker
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Two weeks of WOT
Sun 2007-07-15
  N Korea closes nuclear facilities
Sat 2007-07-14
  Thai army detains 342 Muslims in southern raids
Fri 2007-07-13
  Hek urges Islamist revolt in Pakistain
Thu 2007-07-12
  Iraq: 200 boom belts found in Syrian truck
Wed 2007-07-11
  Ghazi dead, crisis over, aftermath begins
Tue 2007-07-10
  Paks assault Lal Masjid
Mon 2007-07-09
  Israeli cabinet okays Fatah prisoner release
Sun 2007-07-08
  Pak arrests Talibigs
Sat 2007-07-07
  100 Murdered in Turkmen Village of Amer Li
Fri 2007-07-06
  Failed assasination attempt at Musharraf
Thu 2007-07-05
  1200 surrender at Lal Masjid
Abul Aziz Ghazi nabbed sneaking out in burka
Wed 2007-07-04
  12 dead as Lal Masjid students provoke gunfight
Tue 2007-07-03
  UK bomb plot suspect 'arrested in Brisbane'
Mon 2007-07-02
  Algerian security forces bang Ali Abu Dahdah
Sun 2007-07-01
  Lebs find car used in Gemayel murder

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