At least ten protesters and two army soldiers died and dozens of people were injured yesterday as violent protests broke out in six Yemeni provinces for the second day over fuel price rises. Protests spread from the capital Sanaa to other provinces, including Houdieda, Saada, Taiz, Dhalea and Hadhramout. In Sanaa, clashes renewed between army troops and angry protesters. One person was reportedly killed in clashes in the impoverished southern suburb of Shumaila. Municipality workers had barely finished cleaning the streets of the damage from Wednesdayâs clashes when the violence erupted again. Fires broke out and gunfire was heard in several neighborhoods. The army deployed tanks and armored personnel carriers at main intersections and near vital government installations and the presidential palace. Witnesses in the western port city of Houdieda said three protesters were killed and at least 15 others injured. They said riot police fired at angry protesters trying to storm oil facilities in the Red Sea city.
Posted by: Fred ||
07/22/2005 00:00 ||
Comments ||
Link ||
[1 views]
Top|| File under:
#1
Do you ever get the feeling muslims are like spoiled children having a tantrum? The worst thing you can do is give a brat what he wants after he throws a fit in public.
For many people this morning's shooting at Stockwell Tube must have sounded like a scene from a Hollywood movie: a man chased down a subway escalator by armed police, cornered in a train and shot five times at close range.
For Michael Winner, the film director who sent Charles Bronson out to clean up the streets of New York 30 years ago in Death Wish, it was a sign that Britain is finally coming to terms with the challenge of terrorism.
Terrorism experts said that the South London shooting was an unavoidable use of lethal force, the first result of new rules of engagement given to the security forces to deal with the threat of suicide bombers: shoot for the head, not for the body, in case you detonate explosives on the suspect's body. If officers thought the man was carrying explosives, they had no choice.
Mr Winner, chairman of the Police Memorial Trust, went further than that. He told Times Online: "I think the police shooting the terrorist was absolutely right.
"Our whole approach to terrorism is absurd. We need new laws to detain people without trial - we are at war. We are playing cricket and they're playing mass murder. Police powers should be massively increased, as well as police numbers."
Mr Winner's comments will earn him no thanks from the Metropolitan Police, whose Commissioner, Sir Ian Blair, was at pains today to say that "any death is deeply regrettable". Since the suicide bombings of July 7, Sir Ian has done all he can to stop the terror attacks dividing London's ethnic and religious communities.
And the fact that the suspected suicide bomber was shot so many times also caused some disquiet today - even before the dead man was identified. The Muslim Council of Britain said it had received a number of phone calls from ordinary Muslims worried that the police had adopted a "shoot-to-kill" policy.
Inayat Bunglawala, a Council spokesman, said: "There may well be reasons why the police felt it necessary to unload five shots into the man and shoot him dead, but they need to make those reasons clear. We are getting phone calls from quite a lot of Muslims who are distressed about what may be a shoot-to-kill policy."
Mr Winner was unrepentant: "The so-called politically correct liberals have on their hands the blood of many of our citizens already. Tragically, the number will vastly increase before anything sensible is done about it."
Posted by: Mrs. Davis ||
07/22/2005 18:22 ||
Comments ||
Link ||
[4 views]
Top|| File under:
#1
"We are getting phone calls from quite a lot of Muslims who are distressed about what may be a shoot-to-kill policy."
Perhaps they will be distressed enough to out their terrorists in their midst?
#2
"The so-called politically correct liberals have on their hands the blood of many of our citizens already. Tragically, the number will vastly increase before anything sensible is done about it."
Preach it, brother!
Good to see the Brit police take care of the problem today with lethal force.
Hope it's not a "one off."
Excellent article. Thank you, Mrs. D.!
#3
well, after Bakri, et al, make mysterious disappearances, things may change :-)
Posted by: Frank G ||
07/22/2005 18:48 Comments ||
Top||
#4
Mr Winner's comments will earn him no thanks from the Metropolitan Police, whose Commissioner, Sir Ian Blair, was at pains today to say that "any death is deeply regrettable".
May as well get over it, Sir Ian: you're going to have to pop a lot more of them, just like today, before this war is won. Muslims are not going to change until they figure out that they simply must change-- or be expelled, or die.
Posted by: Dave D. ||
07/22/2005 19:41 Comments ||
Top||
#5
We're watching the end of jihadist dreams in the UK.
#6
Everyone should be distressed at a shoot to kill policy. As this BBC article shows a youth was mistakenly identified as a suicide bomber and had his picture plaster all over the place. He could have been shot on sight. http://newsvote.bbc.co.uk/mpapps/pagetools/print/news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/world/south_asia/4704427.stm
UK boy wrongly labelled as bomber
Evidence showing that all three of the London bombers of Pakistani descent visited Pakistan last year has been thrown into doubt.
A photograph of a passport purporting to show bomber Hasib Hussain was in fact that of a 16-year-old British boy with the same name.
The photo, together with documentation showing two other bombers visited Pakistan, was published on Monday.
Pakistan, meanwhile, says it has made no arrests over the London bombs.
'I was terrified'
The passport details supposedly of the bomber Hasib Hussain are actually those of a teenage boy living in High Wycombe, approximately 30 miles (50km) north-west of London.
On Monday Pakistan's Federal Immigration Agency (FIA) said that Hasib Hussain, carrying a British passport number, arrived in the port city of Karachi from Riyadh in Saudi Arabia on 15 July 2004.
Photographs of the passport were published in Pakistan and then around the world.
However, the 16-year-old at the heart of the confusion has now been interviewed at his High Wycombe home by Pakistani TV station ARY.
"I first saw my photograph on Channel 4 [news] and I was terrified," the boy told ARY.
"I didn't want people looking at me saying, hey, you are supposed to be dead," he told ARY, "or someone saying that there goes the London bomber."
His father told ARY that the family had indeed arrived in Karachi from Saudi Arabia. He appealed for British and Pakistani authorities to clear up the confusion.
When contacted by the BBC News website the FIA said: "We have nothing to say on the matter at this stage."
Reports denied
According to the other information released by Pakistan on Monday, the bombers Mohammad Sidique Khan and Shehzad Tanweer arrived and left Pakistan together and spent three months in the country.
The three bombers were among the 56 people killed in the London blasts.
Police have confirmed they were the UK's first suicide bombings.
The fourth bomber was a Jamaican-born Briton, Germaine Lindsay, 19.
More than 200 people in Pakistan have been arrested in recent days in a clampdown called by President Pervez Musharraf.
But the authorities are denying reports that a British Muslim al-Qaeda suspect, Haroon Rashid Aswad, is among them.
Story from BBC NEWS:
http://news.bbc.co.uk/go/pr/fr/-/1/hi/world/south_asia/4704427.stm
Posted by: Frank G ||
07/22/2005 21:55 Comments ||
Top||
#8
BBC. A sterling source I'll believe. Sort of the CBS of the UK.
Posted by: Mrs. Davis ||
07/22/2005 21:58 Comments ||
Top||
#9
Everyone should be distressed at a shoot to kill policy. As this BBC article shows a youth was mistakenly identified as a suicide bomber and had his picture plaster all over the place. He could have been shot on sight.
Only if he was stupid enough to a) run away, b) draw a weapon, c) attack the police.
Meawhile there are 53 civilians dead. When you can suggest something besides wringing your hands and pretending it's 1955, let us know.
#10
90% have no answers, of which 60% will bitch at your (or any) offerings, You need to lead the other 30% with strong steps. A 5-tap on running terrorists will be a good start
Posted by: Frank G ||
07/22/2005 22:25 Comments ||
Top||
#11
Flaviger Ominesh1338, what does FO stand for? AD.
British Muslims said they feared police were operating under a "shoot to kill" policy after a man was gunned down at an Underground train station following a new wave of bomb attacks.
Muslims said the shooting deepened their anxiety about a violent backlash against their community in the wake of two sets of bomb attacks blamed on Islamist militants, including one that killed 56 people on July 7. The Muslim Council of Britain demanded police explain why an Asian-looking man, reported as a "suspected suicide bomber" by Sky News, was shot dead at Stockwell station in south London on Friday...
A Muslim Council spokesman said Muslims were "jumpy and nervous" and feared reprisal attacks. "I have just had one phone call saying 'What if I was carrying a rucksack?'," said Inayat Bunglawala, referring to the rucksack bombs used in the London attacks...
No problem. Put the sack down s-l-o-w-l-y, young man, and step back ...
"We are getting phone calls from quite a lot of Muslims who are distressed about what may be a shoot-to-kill policy..."
"There may well be reasons why the police felt it necessary to unload five shots into the man and shoot him dead, but they need to make those reasons clear," Bunglawala said.
Because, Bunglie, they thought he had a bomb in his pants.
The shooting is the latest in a series of incidents which have threatened to awaken all good British citizens create a rift between Britain's large Muslim community and the rest of the population in the wake of the terrorist attacks here this month.
Some terrorist-enabling radical British Muslim holy men preachers have blamed everyone else the government's Middle East policy and the British-backed invasion of Iraq for their own failings the outrages, although the vast majority of British Muslims say they have condemned sorta the bombings. "Unless British foreign policy is changed and they withdraw forces from Iraq, I'm afraid there's going to be a lot of attacks, just the way it happened in Madrid and the way it happened in London," radical British Muslim preacher Sheikh Omar Bakri Mohammed told the New York Times this week...
In another incident Friday, armed police briefly threw a cordon around a mosque in east London, while the home of a Muslim convert identified as one of the suspected July 7 suicide bombers was sealed off after a suspected arson attack.
Analysts said the officers involved in the Stockwell shooting did not appear to be operating according to normal procedures. "These guys may have been some sort of plainclothes special forces," said terrorism expert Professor Michael Clarke. "To have bullets pumped into him like this suggests quite a lot about him and what the authorities, whoever they are, assumed about him."
Professor Paul Rogers of Bradford University said the shooting had parallels with the "very strong" methods used by Israeli security forces and US troops in Iraq. "The kind of tactics the Met (Metropolitan police) appear to have used this morning are very similar to the very tough tactics that the Israelis use against suspected suicide bombers," he said. "So three lessons should be retained by the Moslem community. First, do not manufacture or carry bombs. Second, do not advocate or condone acts of violence. And three, when the police yell "Halt!", halt.
Posted by: Robert Crawford ||
07/22/2005 12:19 Comments ||
Top||
#2
Do they know why the idiot ran, jumped over a turnstyle, and tried to board a train? Was he running drugs or an illegal immigrant? Either way they didn't need him anyway.
#4
The mythical moderate Moslem has himself to blame for doing nothing to expose and capture their Islamofascist brethren.
Yes, they are brethren, as long as they consider all Moslems to be brothers in jihad and uphold the ideal of sharia over the whole world.
By the way, claiming that terrorist attacks in London would be avoided if only Iraq were abandoned to Al-Zarqawi is not evidence of "moderation". On the contrary.
#5
you gotta laugh, where I come from it is a death sentence if you DO run from the police, they have no problems shooting a fleeing person and they have not been trained to "shoot to wound".
I have allways been told don't pull a pistol unless you mean to use it.
#6
Well if you are afraid,you could drive the fanatics and the clerics of hatred from your conmmunity,then there would be no problems. Until then,here's a quarter...
Posted by: Stephen ||
07/22/2005 15:01 Comments ||
Top||
#7
Well they can "fear" all they want. If you have nothing to hide, you have noting to fear.
Running from the police when you are ordered to stop, well frankly thats a bad idea any place. That he was being tailed by armed police in the UK where the majority of police are unarmed tells you volumes about this person of interest and all you need to about why he met his demise.
#8
Lesson ONE should be think of yourself as a citizen of the goddamn UK FIRST or at least as citizens of a civilized society, fuckwits. The rest will follow fairly easily according to common sense. For the denser lads and fear ridden idiots amongst you, there are three basic ideas to keep in mind at all times - Thou shall not make bombs nor be a boomer unless you serve your fucking country ie the UK. Thou shall not advocate treason nor provide support or comfort to those that do, even if they are coreligionists. Thou shall not run from the cops since wherever you live or go, ALL bets are off once you take that first stride. Forget the simple rules set forth above and you'll have nobody to blame but yourself when people look at you like a rat in the kitchen and treat you accordingly.
A statement posted Friday on an Islamic Web site in the name of an al-Qaida-linked group claimed responsibility for latest blasts targeting London's transport system. The group, Abu Hafs al Masri Brigade, also claimed responsibility for the July 7 bombings that killed 52 people and four suicide bombers. The statement's authenticity could not be immediately verified and there has been doubt cast over the veracity of the group's past claims.
"Our strikes in the depths of the capital of the British infidels our only a message to other European governments that we will not relent and sit idle before the infidel soldiers will leave the land of the two rivers," said the statement.
The "two rivers" in the statement refer to Iraq's Euphrates and Tigris rivers. On Tuesday, another statement was issued in the name of the same group threatening to launch "a bloody war" on the capitals of European countries that do not remove their troops from Iraq within a month.
"While we bless these strikes, our next attacks will be Hellish for the enemies of God," said the latest statement. "We will strike in the hearts of European capitals, in Rome, in Amsterdam and in Denmark where their soldiers are in still in Iraq pursuing their British and American masters," the statement added.
The Abu Hafs al Masri Brigades are named after the alias given to Mohammed Atef, Osama bin Laden's top deputy who was killed in a U.S. airstrike in Afghanistan in November 2001. Experts have said that the group has no proven track record of attacks, and note it has claimed responsibility for events in which it was unlikely to have played any role, such as the 2003 blackouts in the United States and London that resulted from technical problems.
Posted by: Steve ||
07/22/2005 09:49 ||
Comments ||
Link ||
[0 views]
Top|| File under:
This is what happens when you join the ICC and the Y'urp-peon Court of Human Rights ...
Dozens more British soldiers are facing the threat of prosecution for war crimes over events which occurred in Iraq during and after the invasion of the country in 2003.
And dozens of tranzi groups are celebrating. This is shameful.
After Lord Goldsmith, the Attorney General, announced that 11 British soldiers were to be prosecuted for the alleged abuse of Iraqi detainees, the army yesterday revealed that 176 incidents had been investigated. But the nature of some of the allegations has caused anger inside the army. Of the 176 investigations, 100 were carried out into incidents in which British troops returned fire after being shot at by insurgents. The Ministry of Defence confirmed that five cases had been identified which fell into the category of deliberate abuse. The latest case involves the Queen's Lancashire Regiment and centres on events in the southern Iraqi city of Basra in September 2003, including the death of Baha Mousa, a hotel receptionist. Yesterday the regiment said that if proved, the alleged actions could never be justified, but it appeared to question some of the thinking behind the charges, particularly against its then commanding officer, Colonel Jorge Mendonca, who has been charged with negligence. Brigadier Geoffrey Sheldon, colonel of the regiment, said: "It should not be forgotten that Basra at the time of the alleged incidents was an intensely dangerous and violently difficult city suffering from rampant unrest, economic devastation and administrative chaos. "We demand a very great deal of our young men at times such as that, and I ask that it be borne in mind at this difficult time."
But lawyers acting for Iraqi families said that the soldiers should be prosecuted in civilian rather than military courts, and claimed many more servicemen were involved in offences against Mr Mousa and eight other Iraqi civilians. Phil Shiner, a solicitor with Public Interest Lawyers, said: "There is evidence that more officers were complicit and should be charged with war crimes. "The announcement of charges for war crimes is only the tip of the iceberg."
"Payday, baby!"
Inayat Bunglawala, spokesman for the Muslim Council of Britain, welcomed the war crime prosecutions and said the perception that UK forces were not above the law may help to stem the recruitment by radical factions of Muslims angry about the Iraq war.
No it won't, arse, and you know it. This will cause the radicals to throw their own children under the treads of UK tanks in an effort to haul them off to ICC. Bah.
#1
Is this some kind of knee-jerk reaction to try to show arabs in england how pure and noble Mr. T's intentions are in Iraq? I swear, I don't know if I should admire that dick or resent the living hell out of him.
#3
I say tar and feather any lawyer who attempts to prosecute these men. If there is a trial it should be a military trail and the civil lawyers should stay clear. In other words STFU.
#4
Inayat Bunglawala, spokesman for the Muslim Council of Britain, welcomed the war crime prosecutions and said the perception that UK forces were not above the law may help to stem the recruitment by radical factions of Muslims angry about the Iraq war.
Where do they find these people? Is it going to make one iota of difference to the 'radical factions of Muslims angry about the Iraq war'?
I'm getting very fed up of all this.
Posted by: Tony (UK) ||
07/22/2005 5:39 Comments ||
Top||
#5
You and me both Tony - the UK Muslim community needs to drink a large cup of STFU. (If it values its safety).
Posted by: Howard UK ||
07/22/2005 6:14 Comments ||
Top||
#7
"For it's Tommy this, an' Tommy that, an' "Chuck him out, the brute!"
But it's "Saviour of 'is country" when the guns begin to shoot;
An' it's Tommy this, an' Tommy that, an' anything you please;
An' Tommy ain't a bloomin' fool -- you bet that Tommy sees!"
Posted by: Steve ||
07/22/2005 8:49 Comments ||
Top||
I'm not sure, but I guess by "Hero" they mean the dead officer.
The case of the failed attempt to assassinate U.S. President George Bush in Georgia came to a sudden and dramatic conclusion. Vladimir Artyunian, a 27-year-old unemployed man suspected of the attempted assassination, was arrested in Tbilisi on Wednesday night. He stubbornly resisted arrest, killing Zurab Kvlividze, the head of the counterterrorist center of Georgia's Interior Ministry. News of the capture of Artyunian, who yesterday confessed to the crime, forced Georgian President Mikhail Saakashvili to interrupt his vacation abroad and return to Tbilisi. The United States is carefully monitoring the progress of the investigation. Meanwhile, the Russian military is denying reports that the arrested man had anything to do with the Russian forces group in the Transcaucasus.
Georgian special forces were able to pick up the trail of the man who threw an dummy RGD-5 grenade (dummy?) at U.S. President George Bush in Tbilisi's Freedom Square on May 10 of this year after Georgian Interior Minister Vano Merabishvili displayed a photo of the suspect â a young man wearing sunglasses â at a press conference on Monday. Journalists immediately noticed the very high quality of the photo. Every detail was visible, but it was shot from a strange perspective from above (experts later explained the photo had been taken from an American satellite). WTF, we're watching rallies now? I'll have to take this with a large dose of salt.The minister reported that the person or group of persons who helped find the criminal would receive a reward of 150,000 lari (about $80,000) from the state. The photo was shown on all eight of Georgia's TV stations several times an hour. The Interior Ministry received more than 100 calls about people who resembled the suspect. Groups of three or four officers of the Interior Ministry's counterintelligence service were sent to the site to check out each report.
On Wednesday afternoon, the ministry received information that the person in the photo was Vladimir Artyunian, who lived with his mother in the Tbilisi suburb of Vashlijvari. Three Interior Ministry officers, including Zurab Kvlividze, the head of the ministry's counterterrorist center, went to verify the information, still unaware that this time they would encounter the real criminal. On arriving in Vashlijvari, the officers discovered that Artyunian was not at home. His mother said she hadn't seen her son for several days. The officers were suspicious and decided not to leave. A few hours later, a bearded man carrying a backpack and dressed in an army uniform, who resembled the person in the photo, entered the apartment building. When the Interior Ministry officers approached him, he snatched a submachine gun, opened fire, and killed Colonel Kvlividze. The two remaining officers returned fire, wounding the suspect in the stomach and shoulder. Artyunian still managed to escape from the entrance and hide in a nearby park. The officers called for reinforcements, after which Interior Ministry commandos arriving at the scene barricaded the park.
Artyunian was captured within half an hour. The commandos, who had strict orders from the Interior Ministry to take the suspect alive, fired into the air, forcing Artyunian to return fire and spend all his ammunition (two magazines of a Kalashnikov). After his arrest, Artyunian was taken to the republican hospital. The doctors reported that despite a perforating wound in the stomach, the patient's life was not in danger. He told the doctors that if he had the chance, he would try to kill George Bush again. Later, when FBI agents in Georgia tried to question him, he swore at them in English. It turned out he spoke the language fairly well. Interesting
Meanwhile, Artyunian's mother was questioned at the Interior Ministry building and then released. During questioning, she repeated that she didn't believe her son could have tried to kill the president of the United States.
Anzhela Artyunian works as a seller in the market. As for her son, Vladimir, the neighbors said he was unsociable and had no friends. Residents of Vashlijvari added that Vladimir, who had lived in that building for 23 years, behaved strangely. One of these oddities, in their opinion, was that he never responded to the neighbors' invitations to drink cold beer with them in the courtyard. Many people in Tbilisi regard this behavior as proof that there was something wrong with him. Now, who do we know who doesn't drink alcohol?
The Artyunian family, which moved to Tbilisi from the country, was very poor. Residents of the apartment building say he never had five tetri (three cents) to go up to the apartment on the paid elevator. Artyunian had a ninth-grade education; he had grown up without his father, and had never worked anywhere. A search of the basement of the apartment building turned up explosives, homemade explosive devices, RGD-5 hand grenades, and even some chemical and biological substances. It is interesting that a copy of Frederick Forsythe's bestseller The Day of the Jackal was found in the Artyunian's apartment, along with ammunition and weapons. Recall that this book recounts the organization of an assassination attempt on French President Charles de Gaulle. According to the investigators, the book was seized and added to the investigation materials. A gas mask, a night vision device, two complete military uniforms with decorations, military training literature, a large quantity of electronic devices, and Russian army epaulets and caps were also found in the apartment. No copies of the Koran, huh? Sounds like your classic "white male loner"
According to Merabishvili's statement, the Georgian Interior Ministry, together with its American counterparts, was working on uncovering links between the terrorist and his motives. U.S. Secret Service spokesman Eric Zaren said in Washington yesterday that the American president's security service was closely monitoring the progress of the investigation being carried out by the Georgian authorities. It was learned yesterday that President Saakashvili, who had been vacationing in the Netherlands at the home of his wife, Sandra Roelofs, immediately broke off his vacation and returned to Tbilisi. As the presidential administration reported, Saakashvili's early return was connected with the arrest of the suspect in the attempted terrorist act in Freedom Square.
Colonel Vladimir Kuparadze, the deputy commander of the Russian forces group in the Transcaucasus, made his own statement concerning Artyunian's arrest. Kuparadze called reports on Artyunian's involvement with the group in the Georgian media âabsurd and provocativeâ. âI officially declare that the suspect has nothing whatsoever to do with us; the media should be more careful about circulating such reports,â he said.
Posted by: Steve ||
07/22/2005 10:37 ||
Comments ||
Link ||
[0 views]
Top|| File under:
#1
Steve--I don't think we'd normally task satellites to photograph rallies--unless we have someone like, oh, say, maybe, our President there.
I'd still take it with a big grain of salt because I wouldn't think we'd want to expose just how high-res photos our satellites can take. Who knows--maybe this "very high quality" photo was still degraded and/or cropped to conceal the true capabilities.
Posted by: Dar ||
07/22/2005 11:04 Comments ||
Top||
#2
More likely than a satellite would have been a UAV or other airplane doing recon to watch a large area around the rally.
Posted by: DO ||
07/22/2005 11:47 Comments ||
Top||
#3
Interior Minister Vano Merabishvili displayed a photo of the suspect â a young man wearing sunglasses â at a press conference on Monday. Journalists immediately noticed the very high quality of the photo. Every detail was visible, but it was shot from a strange perspective from above (experts later explained the photo had been taken from an American satellite).
Not if you can see that kind of detail. LEO sats can do maybe 1-meter resolution, max, due to the maximum size of the lens that can be carried.
#6
Neighbors say his family was very poor but he had an arsenal in the basement. Just like a hillbilly that cant feed his kids but always has money for cigarettes and beer?
Posted by: 21 century Deli ||
07/22/2005 20:07 Comments ||
Top||
#10
"Every detail was visible, but it was shot from a strange perspective from above (experts later explained the photo had been taken from an American satellite)"
Somone has been reading too much Tom Clancy.
This was from a UAV or similar high point mounted camera. Thats pretty obvious from the photographic details and the angle.
Read up about angles, slant ranges, atmospherics and optics - you'll figure it out that this was not a satellite photo.
Occham's razor seems to be in great disuse these days.
Japan has passed legislation that allows the defence chief to order the interception of incoming missiles without seeking Cabinet permission. The bill was approved by the upper house in a 126-94 vote, and will now be made law. It was passed in the more powerful lower house last month.
Correspondents say there are concerns that the present system would waste time in the event of an attack. Japan's pacifist constitution renounces using force in international disputes. Japan's government has been reconsidering its defence policy, amid concern about the nuclear ambitions of its neighbour North Korea. Japan is due to take part in six-nation nuclear talks with the Stalinist state next week in Beijing.
Under the new law, missiles can be launched without permission of the prime minister or the Cabinet only in an emergency. If the situation is not urgent, defence personnel will continue to follow current procedures.
I think a incoming missile would qualify as "urgent"
Supporters of the bill argued that the legislation was needed to respond quickly to an attack. "If a missile comes flying into Japan, we have to shoot it down to protect the lives and property of the Japanese people before we can mobilise our defences," Defence Agency chief Yoshinori Ono told reporters.
But critics are concerned the legislation will give Japan's military too much power. They also fear the country's pacifist policy, in place since World War II, will be threatened. Japan has been undergoing a review of its defence policy, and last year it eased restrictions on arms exports to allow greater collaboration with the US in areas of missile defence. Tokyo says a review is necessary due to the world's changing security situation.
Posted by: Steve ||
07/22/2005 09:14 ||
Comments ||
Link ||
[3 views]
Top|| File under:
#1
Tokyo says a review is necessary due to the world's changing security situation.
Yes it is. Japan has proven it can now be trusted as a normal country on the international stage and doesn't need the US holding its hand for defense anymore. Let them be a normal country.
#2
It's interesting to examine the psychology of those opposed to this bill. Ignore their stated reason and look a little deeper. They have the bizarre idea that if they are "victims", then they won't need to defend themselves. By being utterly helpless, whoever would attack them, wouldn't. Like puppies rolling over on their backs to show submission to adult dogs. Not what I would call a highly effective technique.
North Korea has reaffirmed its call for a peace treaty with the US, ahead of the resumption of talks aimed at ending the nuclear standoff on the peninsula. Pyongyang said in a statement that a full treaty replacing the armistice signed at the end of the Korean War in 1953 was needed to resolve the crisis. Six-nation talks are due to resume in Beijing on Tuesday. North Korea walked out of the talks in February 2004, and has since admitted stockpiling atomic weapons. The North has in the past demanded a non-aggression pact with the US - but Washington refuses to talk until North Korea agrees to shut down its weapons programme. The Korean War ended with an armistice - not a peace treaty - and thus the peninsula is technically still at war.
List of demands:
In a statement issued on Friday, North Korea's foreign ministry said: "Replacing the cease-fire mechanism by a peace mechanism on the Korean Peninsula would lead to putting an end to the US hostile policy" towards the North.
It added that a peace treaty would "automatically result in the denuclearisation of the peninsula".
N Korea announced earlier this month that it would return to talks
On Thursday a North Korean official had said that "not a single nuclear weapon will be needed for us if the US nuclear threat is removed".
He also demanded that Washington stay out of Pyongyang's "economic co-operation with other countries".
He then repeated calls for North Korea to be removed from a US list of states that sponsor terrorism, and that all sanctions against it be lifted.
Posted by: Tom Dooley ||
07/22/2005 2:09 Comments ||
Top||
#2
And feed 'em fish heads
Posted by: Tom Dooley ||
07/22/2005 2:09 Comments ||
Top||
#3
I wonder why the Norks are so paranoid about the peninsula being 'denuclearised'? Sounds to me, they know exactly whats needed to keep themselves in check!!
LYNDEN, Wash. -- Federal agents have shut down an elaborate, 360-foot drug-smuggling tunnel dug underneath the U.S.-Canadian border -- the first such passageway discovered along the nation's northern edge, officials said Thursday.
Five people were arrested on marijuana trafficking charges, U.S. Attorney John McKay said in this border town about 90 miles north of Seattle.
The tunnel ran from a quonset hut on the Canadian side and ended under the living room of a home on the U.S. side, 300 feet from the border. Built with lumber, concrete and metal reinforcing bars, it was equipped with lights and ventilation, and ran underneath a highway. The passageway was 3 1/2 to 4 feet high and wide, and ran anywhere from 3 to 10 feet below ground, authorities said.
"They were smart enough to build a sophisticated tunnel. They weren't smart enough to not get caught," Mr. McKay said.
Mr. McKay said authorities had been monitoring construction of the tunnel for six months and sealed it shortly after it opened Wednesday.
Although numerous smuggling tunnels have been found on the U.S.-Mexican border, this was the first discovered along the border with Canada, Mr. McKay said. Canadian authorities learned of the tunnel in February and alerted U.S. officials.
Francis Devandra Raj, 30 years old; Timothy Woo, 34; and Johnathan Valenzuela, 27, of Surrey, British Columbia, were arrested Wednesday. They were charged with conspiracy to import and distribute marijuana. Mr. Raj owns the property under the quonset hut, authorities said.
On July 16, two other people were arrested separately in Washington state for transporting marijuana that had come through the tunnel, said Greg Gassett, a Drug Enforcement Administration agent. One was a woman who authorities said had 93 pounds of marijuana in her vehicle when she was stopped. The other was a man pulled over with 110 pounds of the drug.
On July 2, agents entered the home on the U.S. side to examine the tunnel. They later installed cameras and listening devices in the home.
#4
BC marijuana is cheap and potent. There are estimates of over 5000 grow op homes in Vancouver alone at any given time. The police can't take them down fast enough. Penalties are very lax, rarely jail. Landlords are victims as it leaves massive repair bills.
...To what extent did interrogators draw on detainees' health information in designing and pursuing such approaches? The Pentagon has persistently denied this practice. After the ICRC charged last year that interrogators tapped clinical data to craft interrogation strategies, Defense Department officials issued a statement denying "the allegation that detainee medical files were used to harm detainees." This spring, an inquiry led by Vice Admiral Albert T. Church, the inspector general of the U.S. Navy, concluded: "While access to medical information was carefully controlled at GTMO [Guantanamo Bay], we found in Afghanistan and Iraq that interrogators sometimes had easy access to such information." The implication is that interrogators had no such access at Guantanamo and that medical confidentiality was shielded, albeit with exceptions. Other Pentagon officials have reinforced this message. In a memo made public last month, announcing "Principles . . . for the Protection and Treatment of Detainees," William Winkenwerder, the Assistant Secretary of Defense for Health Affairs, said that limits on detainees' medical privacy are "analogous to legal standards applicable to U.S. citizens..." They complain it violates provisions in the Geneva Conventions the US never signed, and that the US is just being a big meanie.
I was going to jump on this -- came out in the print version last week -- but never got to it. Here's the key graf:
"Rather than being consistent with the presumption of confidentiality that applies to Americans even in prisons, the Guantanamo policy rejects this presumption. "
Now, Rantburgers will immediately see what the problem is with this assertion -- Gitmo isn't detaining Americans, and it isn't being run on the same basis that a Federal prison is run in the States. It's all downhill from there.
I have the PDF file if you can't get to the article.
#1
They're not US citizens, they're not protected under Geneva Conventions or anything else. Tell the New England Journal of Morons to FOAD.
Posted by: Steve ||
07/22/2005 14:01 Comments ||
Top||
#2
AAAAA! I am so tired of hearing liberals whine about the Gitmo prisoners being abused in some way. I hear one more complaint, I'll drive up there and GIVE them something to whine about!
Soldiers from Massachusetts and Hawaii who work at the U.S. military detention facility at U.S. Naval Base Guantanamo Bay, Cuba, gave visiting home-state senators a piece of their mind last week. Sens. Edward M. Kennedy, Massachusetts Democrat, and Daniel K. Akaka, Hawaii Democrat, met with several soldiers during a visit led by Armed Services Committee Chairman Sen. John W. Warner, Virginia Republican. Pentagon officials said soldiers criticized the harsh comments made recently by Senate Democrats.
Sen. Richard J. Durbin of Illinois, the Senate's No. 2 Democrat, last month invoked [sic!] widespread military outrage when he compared Guantanamo to the prison labor systems used by communist tyrant Josef Stalin, Cambodia's Pol Pot and Adolf Hitler. "They got stiff reactions from those home-state soldiers," one official told us. "The troops down there expressed their disdain for that kind of commentary, especially comparisons to the gulag."
A spokesman for Mr. Kennedy had no comment. A spokeswoman for Mr. Akaka confirmed that the senator met with soldiers from Hawaii but did not recall receiving any complaints during the meeting.
"Nope. Nope. Never happened."
Both senators made no mention of the incident in press statements after the visit. Mr. Kennedy, in his statement, said that he is "impressed with the courtesies and professionalism of the men and women in our armed forces." Mr. Kennedy has been a leading advocate for closing the prison facility. Mr. Akaka in April voted for an amendment that would have cut funds for the prison.
Posted by: Frank G ||
07/22/2005 10:35 ||
Comments ||
Link ||
[1 views]
Top|| File under:
#1
I'd love to hear Warner's perspective on this. Nothing posted on his web site yet.
Posted by: Dar ||
07/22/2005 11:08 Comments ||
Top||
#2
Eat crow senaters! We (the soldiers) are sick of you saying you support us, then stab us in the back.
Fuck you. Fuck the horse you rode in on. Get the hell out of government and stay the hell away from us.
#3
Good for them (Soldiers)! We we discouraged from bitching directly to an elected official. "Use the Chain-of-Command" we were told. I suspect, that thje Commander -knowing he couldn't complain to the Senators- suggested that the troops talk frankly with the Senators. I can only dream of getting a chance to speak at Teddy. I HATE THE KENNEDYs!
#8
Edward M. Kennedy, Massachusetts Democrat should not be allowed with it 10 feet of our vital military installations. He is untrustworthy and can't keep his mouth shut. Screw him and his camel. I disgrace to our country. Massachusetts should be ashamed of this sexual predator, coke freak, drunkard.
I avoid using products and services of companies based in Massachusetts whenever I can. All they do is send treasonous reprobates to Congress like this fetid bag of puke Kennedy.
Two 23-year-old border activists accused of smuggling illegal entrants have rejected a government plea deal. Shanti Sellz and Daniel Strauss say they did nothing wrong. Federal prosecutors reportedly offered to drop the charges if the two agreed to enter a court diversion program and accept a year's probation. Border Patrol agents reportedly caught Sellz and Strauss taking three undocumented workers to a Tucson church. They claimed the men were suffering from severe dehydration and were in need of medical attention. I suspected these fanatics might try this. Now the authorities (federal) will snivellingly back down, instead of giving them 10 years each for being "mules", which is what they deserve. N.B.: "Agitators" was what they were called before the P.C. crowd renamed them "Activists". They resent being called agitators as much as "liberals" resent being called "radicals", another P.C. euphamism.
TAMPA - A young man riding a bicycle approached soldiers at an Israeli checkpoint in the Gaza Strip on Nov. 11, 1994. What the soldiers didn't know was that 21-year-old Hesham Hamd had 22 pounds of explosives strapped around his chest. Hamd, a member of the Palestinian Islamic Jihad, detonated the bomb, killing himself and three others.
Prosecutors say University of South Florida Professor Sami Al-Arian wrote a fax later that day: ``Pride and glory overwhelmed us.''
``May God bless your efforts and accept our martyrs. Please be cautious and on the alert. Our greetings to all.'' It is signed ``Amin,'' which is Al-Arian's middle name and among the names commonly appearing throughout the government evidence in his terror-support trial. The fax, which Al-Arian was unable to send for three days, was entered into evidence Thursday in the trial that charges him and three other men with racketeering, conspiracy and providing material support for terrorists.
The fax was sent to a telephone number in Damascus, Syria, where the Islamic Jihad is based. In addition, prosecutors submitted an Islamic Jihad communique issued a day after the attack claiming responsibility and saying it was revenge for Israelis' slaying of a Palestinian professor and editor.
Prosecutors acknowledge they have no evidence to show Al-Arian ever planned an attack or knew about one in advance, but they contend a series of exhibits admitted by U.S. District Judge James Moody on Thursday, including the bicycle-attack evidence, shows Al-Arian was among the first people notified afterward. The Islamic Jihad communique was faxed to his home, as were other announcements in evidence and correspondence with the Islamic Jihad's founder, Fathi Shikaki.
FBI agents obtained copies of the communications through warrants secured under the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act, a law that authorizes eavesdropping on people suspected of being agents of a foreign power or terrorist group. Intelligence agents have had the copies for years, but they only became available to criminal investigators in 2002 when Justice Department policies on handling the evidence were tossed out by a secret review court.
In addition, prosecutors say they found the wills of three Islamic Jihad attackers on a computer at the World and Islam Studies Enterprise, a think tank Al-Arian founded.
On April 6, 1992, the three men participated in a suicide attack on Israeli soldiers that killed two people and injured five others. Computer records indicate the wills were entered into WISE computers four days later. ``If we cannot destroy today this house, the Jews' state, we can ignite a fire in its regions,'' attacker Khaled Muhammed Hassan wrote. ``And if we ignite it everywhere, no one will be able to extinguish it. We should charge the atmosphere of enmity and create a flammable Jihad climate that needs a match stick only.''
Nizar Mahmoud urged others to follow his path: ``Brothers, martyrdom is not similar to desperation, suffering or difficulty, but it is the judgment of God on Judgment Day.''
Moody cautioned jurors that possessing the wills is not a crime and that they must find the defendants were part of a criminal conspiracy before using the wills against them. He issued a similar instruction about a 1981 document agents found in Al-Arian's home during a 1995 search. The document is an outline for The Center for Studies, Intelligence and Information.
Federal prosecutor Alexis Collins called the outline ``a trade craft manual for running an intelligence organization from a university'' and said Al- Arian has publicly acknowledged possessing it. Al-Arian has said the document was written by children at a camp.
"What kind of children would write something like that?"
"Pious children."
Defense attorney Linda Moreno fought against the handwritten document making it into the record, calling it hearsay. It appears to have several authors, she said, and no one has said Al-Arian was one of them. She also said the document was dated 1981, three years before federal prosecutors claim the conspiracy to support the Islamic Jihad started. Possessing the document is not a crime, Moody told the jury.
The trial will resume Monday morning. Prosecutors say they have about 90 more translations to enter into evidence. After that, jurors may spend months listening to agents read the contents of the intercepted telephone calls and faxes. This is a great demonstration of why the law enforcement model will not protect us. We need to decide what is to be better protected, the public saftey or the rights of the accused.
Posted by: Mrs. Davis ||
07/22/2005 10:19 ||
Comments ||
Link ||
[0 views]
Top|| File under:
LOS ANGELES â The Department of Homeland Security announced today it has no plans to enlist citizen volunteers to help patrol U.S. borders, one day after its top border enforcement official said he was exploring such an idea.
On Wednesday, Customs and Border Protection Commissioner Robert C. Bonner told The Associated Press that his agency was considering the training of volunteers to create "something akin to a Border Patrol auxiliary." But a Homeland Security spokesman issued a statement today backing off Bonner's controversial suggestion. Cue the bureacrats:
"There are currently no plans by the Department of Homeland Security to use civilian volunteers to patrol the border," Brian J. Roehrkasse said. "That job should continue to be done by the highly trained, professional law enforcement officials." The few, the proud, the understaffed...
Roehrkasse added that Bonner, whose agency is part of Homeland Security, had not told department officials "any specific details of the idea."
Bonner's comments had marked a significant shift. Before a high-profile civilian campaign along the Arizona-Mexico border in April, Bonner had urged citizens not to interfere with his agents' work, saying "ordinary Americans" weren't qualified for what can be a dangerous task.
I'm fifty and fat with flat feet. I think I can handle a cell phone and a pair of binoculars. Let me get my sun screen and a hat ...
Apparently, however, that "Minuteman Project" had an effect. Bonner said his agency focused on citizen involvement after noting how eager volunteers were to stop illegal immigration. Better to co-opt than be embrassed, eh?
"It is actually as a result of seeing that there is the possibility in local border communities, and maybe even beyond, of having citizens that would be willing to volunteer to help the Border Patrol," Bonner said in an interview Wednesday. "But with some training and being organized in a way that would be something akin to a Border Patrol auxiliary."
Bonner said Wednesday that the idea was conceptual and that details such as whether citizens would be deputized to enforce federal immigration law hadn't been worked out. A spokeswoman said that a range of proposals were being considered, including having volunteers do clerical work so more agents could work in the field.
Immediate reaction to Bonner's idea was generally skeptical. A representative with the Border Patrol agents' union called it irresponsible, immigrant friendly groups panned it and one organizer of the Minuteman Project said it was well-intentioned but not likely to become reality. Gee, unions and special interests. What were the odds they'd like it?
TEHERAN - Iranâs former influential president Akbar Hashemi Rafsanjani said on Friday that it would be âshamefulâ for Tehran to give up its right to peaceful nuclear technology.
"We'd rather be dead than be shamed!"
âThe monopolistic powers want to deprive us of our legitimate right but with wisdom and suitable actions we will not allow them,â Rafsanjani said in a Friday sermon broadcast on state radio. âFuture generations would consider it shameful that their country was deprived (of nuclear technology).â
Iran has said it may resume sensitive uranium enrichment activities, a key part of the nuclear fuel cycle, if it is not happy with the result of negotiations with the European Union on its nuclear programme.
Posted by: Steve White ||
07/22/2005 10:18 ||
Comments ||
Link ||
[7 views]
Top|| File under:
BEIRUT, Lebanon, July 22 (UPI) -- Lebanese Defense Minister Elias Murr accused Palestinian extremist groups based in a refugee camp in south Lebanon of attempting to assassinate him. Speaking in a television interview Thursday night Murr said, "Outlawed terrorist groups located in certain places in Lebanon tried to kill me." Murr, who escaped a car bomb explosion that targeted his convoy 11 days ago, refrained from naming the organization, saying only that it was based in Ein el-Hilweh Palestinian refugee camp near the port city of Sidon in south Lebanon.
A series of political assassinations has rocked Lebanon since the Feb. 14 slaying of former Prime Minister Rafik Hariri. In June an anti-Syria journalist, Samir Kassir, and the former head of the Lebanese Communist Party, George Hawi, were killed in bomb explosions inside their cars.
Posted by: Steve ||
07/22/2005 09:38 ||
Comments ||
Link ||
[6 views]
Top|| File under:
#1
Sounds like that Paleo refugee camp could use a good cleaning-out.
US Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice has arrived in Beirut in an unexpected departure from the published schedule for her current Middle East trip. She is meeting the pro-Syrian President Emile Lahoud and other leading officials. The visit follows the withdrawal of Syrian troops from Lebanon, following US pressure, and comes days after the formation of a new Lebanese government. Ms Rice is on hastily-arranged three-day visit to the Middle East.
"This will be an opportunity first of all to congratulate the Lebanese people on their incredible desire for democracy and the fact that they keep pressing forward and (have) now formed a government," Ms Rice told reporters on her plane Beirut from Jerusalem.
She met Israeli Prime Minister Ariel Sharon on Friday morning and is expected to have talks with Palestinian leader Mahmoud Abbas on Saturday. The visit to the region follows a surge in Palestinian-Israeli violence and mass protests by Israelis opposed to the withdrawal, set for mid-August. Ms Rice appears to have cleared her schedule for Friday after the meeting with Mr Sharon to make time for the visit to Lebanon.
Posted by: Steve ||
07/22/2005 09:02 ||
Comments ||
Link ||
[6 views]
Top|| File under:
#1
"Regardless of the logic of conspiracy, I would like to say something. We read history, and we know that since The Protocols of the Elders of Zion, Zionism has forged the New Testament â and by now, 60 million in the U.S. alone have left Christianity to become believers in the Torah.
Wow! The Zionists have a conversion ray?
Perhaps he forgot Christians also view the Torah as scripture?
Posted by: Bobby ||
07/22/2005 8:45 Comments ||
Top||
#2
Bobby - haha. Gotta give him credit for superior spin. BTW...I missed your post yesterday on the tube cause we overlapped. Great post.
#3
We have 60 million jews here? Wow! At that rate, we will strip Islam and christianity in 30 years! So much for Islam being the fastest growing religion!
(/sarcasm)
#4
you have got to be kidding!! So over the last 1,500 years of Musilm violence you say the Jews have been behind it!! Wow!!! How many people have been trained in other countries and went to school in other countries?! Lets face it picking on Israel is just plain dumb! So we need to really look at history and see who feels the Jews should not Exist. Sorry God has them there and the Christians for a reason. God also has teh Muslims there for a reason too! Hey we all beleave in the same God, except for some reason the Muslims feel he is a hateful God to thoose who do not sucmb to Mahammuds ways. Why are they a religion of hate and destruction,The Muslim comunity does not come out against all of this violence, and the ones that do are hiding! A true Muslim will try to convert you if not converted he will kill you! Thank God we do not have alot of true Muslims out here!
From the Rantburg Diplomacy Desk:
Iranâs ambassador in Bangkok said Iran and Thailand have agreed on removing visa barriers for officials of the two countries. Speaking at the end of a meeting of Iran-Thailand Consular Committee on Wednesday, Mohsen Pak-Aieen told IRNA that both sides have agreed on signing a memorandum of understanding for revoking visa for holders of diplomatic passports. He said the second meeting of Iran-Thailand Consular Committee will be held in Tehran next year. âProviding better facilities for Iranian and Thai nationals was also discussed in the meeting of the joint committee,â he added. The Iranian envoy also noted that expediting issuance of visa, especially for members of sport, cultural and scientific teams, as well as issuing multiple-entry visas for businessmen have also been agreed upon. Referring to an increase in the number of Iranian university students studying in Thailand, he said Thai officials have promised to help Iranian university students, especially with respect to student visas.
#1
Iran is opening the door to supporting the muzzi problem in the south of Thailand. The Thais are shooting themselves in the foot on this one. this is the pipline JI has been trying desperately to establish and now the Thais are willing and giving it freely? I am certain there will be more violence to follow in this area.
Posted by: 49 pan ||
07/22/2005 20:03 Comments ||
Top||
Posted by: john ||
07/22/2005 12:00 ||
Comments ||
Link ||
[0 views]
Top|| File under:
#1
The truth is that the Quran and hadith rule the minds of the Muslims today more than ever before in history. This actually means the dominance of the clergy which has become murderously aggressive. We donât only have mosques full of people, we have the warrior priests now inculcating suicide-bombing
a dose of self-reality in Pakland???WTF?
Posted by: Frank G ||
07/22/2005 15:23 Comments ||
Top||
#2
There are lots of Pak journalists with a realistic view of the world, and the Daily Times is full of them
Posted by: Paul Moloney ||
07/22/2005 18:59 Comments ||
Top||
#3
is it available in Madrassahs? widespread readership in Peshawar? Nevermind, I know the answer already.....Not all Paks are nutcases, but those who aren't, are marginalized
Posted by: Frank G ||
07/22/2005 19:37 Comments ||
Top||
Duplicate (see Big Ed's, below), so text snipped. Comments left.
Posted by: Steve ||
07/22/2005 11:17 ||
Comments ||
Link ||
[0 views]
Top|| File under:
#1
Excellent! I remember the AT-4 from my infantry days. It is butt-hair accurate, especially for an unguided missle. Whatever you have the "crosshairs" on when the trigger is pulled, is hit. Even at 400 meters, which is close to its maximum range.
I loved that siege, Marines pounding the shit out of a bunch of cracked out Jihadi last chance boys.
The lesson here is don't mess with our friends at Blackwater, we will get pissed and destroy you.
I'd love to see Al Sadr's head on a stick, may of us have not forgotten him.
I'm just waiting for this mini-mad mullah's Mein Kampf to come out. Politics my ass.
No trial for this asshole, just let one of the AC-130's pay his little ghetto fortress a visit or send the Marines in again to retrieve his sorry ass in pieces.
#4
Interesting the tricks that weren't mentioned. I remember how the Marines set up a bogus *defensive* position (in that "industrial area"), that looked like a real easy, undermanned target. So the bad boyz sent in two or more squads to wipe them out, and waltzed into a hairy killzone. Then the good guys would send in the mop-and-bucket brigade to clean up the mess and set the trap anew. They must have done a few battalions of Muj's before they wised up to that little trick. It was a superb trap: convince the enemy to leave their safe haven surrounded by civilians, enter an unpopulated industrial area and concentrate in a killzone. I'm convinced that this is a military *philosophy* for this war.
July 22, 2005: On July 15th, Iraq and the United States established a joint operations center to coordinate counter-insurgency missions. This new headquarters is partly a training operation, to give Iraqi officers and NCOs experience in running an American style headquarters operations. But the center also provides a practical way to coordinate operations between the U.S. 256th Infantry Brigade, and the Iraqi 1st Infantry Brigade. This joint operation is being used to work out how to best have American and Iraqi staffs analyze and share information. Previous generations of Iraqi staff officers received their training from Russia, which used a slower and more deliberate type of planning. The American style is much faster and dependent on subordinate commanders making their own decisions, and rapidly passing back intelligence information. The Russian style pleased dictators, especially Arab dictators, because it left subordinates with little decision-making power, and concentrated control of information and decision making at the top.
Iraqis being trained as officers for their new army and police force are in awe of the American military. The speed and efficiency of American combat troops, especially compared to how Iraqis operate, has made a big impression. American efforts to teach Iraqis how to operate this way are eagerly accepted. The Iraqis know that if they can master the American techniques, they will turn the Iraqi armed forces into the most formidable in the Middle East. This has made Israel nervous, because a similar successful British training effort in Jordan, over half a century ago, turned the much smaller Jordanian armed forces into the most formidable, man-for-man, Arab army in the region. This caused Israel serious problems in the 1967 war, and played a role in Israeli efforts to make peace with Jordan. Applying this training treatment to the much larger, wealthier, and anti-Israeli Iraq, could mean serious problems for Israel down the line.
Because the Sunni Arabs dominated the military for generations, and the Sunni Arab community continues to fight the new government, the new Iraqi army and police force has required new officers and NCOs to be developed from scratch. This is why it has taken so long to get the Iraqi military up to speed. You canât create competent officers and NCOs overnight. While there were some Kurdish and Shia Arab officers, and many NCOs, in Saddams armed forces, the senior, and key, positions were almost exclusively Sunni Arab. Moreover, Saddam did not encourage initiative and professional competence, for his officers. Saddam wanted obedience and loyalty. So a lot of the old officers, even if they prove loyal to the new government, have to be retrained, and taught to think for themselves when in action. This does not always work.
The selection and training of officers is important for political reasons as well. Throughout the Middle East, the military is seen as a way to take over, or control, a country. The Iraqi army has been the sources of many coups and military governments in the past. American training efforts are trying to develop an Iraqi officer corps that will be competent, and loyal to the idea of civilian control of the military. So far, it seems pretty certain that Iraqi officers can be brought up to U.S. standards for military operations. Time will tell if this new generation of officers are willing, and able, to stay out of politics.
One thing is certain, the next generation of Iraqi military and police commanders will be dominated by Shia Arab and Kurdish officers. This has not been the case for some five centuries, and no one is sure exactly how it will work out. The current Sunni Arab terror campaign will eventually be defeated, and it is being done with the help of some Sunni Arab officers. These men worked for Saddam, but were considered âclean enoughâ to rejoin the army and police force. They command several of the few army and police units that can go up against the terrorists and win. But the majority of the army and police commanders are now Shia Arab and Kurdish. Most are green, and still learning. But because they are backed by the majority of the population, these Shia Arab and Kurd officers have the best promotion prospects, and will be the generals for some time to come.
Training new officers has been far more difficult that training the troops. Many of the officer candidates have been sent to Jordan for training. Jordanian officers are among the most competent and effective in the Arab world, and provide good examples for the Iraqis. The junior officers coming out of these training courses are competent and eager, but they are having problems for the mid and upper level officers, who came up in the old Iraqi army and police force. These guys have also received a lot of training, but many were unwilling, or unable, to change their attitudes and methods.
Another big problem has been selecting men to be officers in the first place. Traditionally, being an officer was considered another form of political patronage. The loyalty and political connections of the officer were more important than the fellows ability to do the job. That habit has been hard to change. Over the last two years, much has been learned about how to find the right officer candidates in an Arab culture. Then thereâs the problem of getting these new Iraqi units into combat without breaking them. These units are often going into combat with most of their officers and NCOs untried and inexperienced. This is something the United States has not had to face since World War II. Itâs been a learning experience for everyone.
Right now, only about a third of the army and police units can be relied on to perform well in combat. Thatâs out of a force of some 170,000 soldiers and police. That force will rise to 270,000 by next year, and the proportion of effective troops will increase to about half the force. The United States has decades of experience in training Arab troops, and has always been frustrated by not being able to control the selection of officers, and all of their training. Now, in Iraq, the U.S. trainers have complete control. The task proved harder than expected, because of the cultural and historical difficulties. The job is not yet finished, and wonât be for several more years. The full story of this training effort will provide some telling accounts of how cultures clashed under fire, and the pressure to win a civil war while also training the troops to fight it.
Posted by: Steve ||
07/22/2005 11:00 ||
Comments ||
Link ||
[2 views]
Top|| File under:
#1
A single good officer surrounded by dunces is actually the rule, rather than the exception. The worst time for them to advance is during a war, as in the US Civil War; so the alternative is to have intensive ongoing training. The cracked pots leak under pressure, but the best succeed, and their reward is to always be under pressure. Their General Staff is key, they must liason between the politicians and the military. It must become unthinkable for a General to have political power, except, like Turkey, to prevent Islamists from taking control of the government.
#2
Article reminds me of comments on the HISTORY CHANNEL, DISCOVERY, or TLC from army veterans of America's allies during WW2 and Korea 1, whom were gen awestruck about the American method of war, espec the US's massive applications of logistics and sheer firepower ags minutae enemy areas or positions.
An Islamist call for nationwide protests in Pakistan against a crackdown on militants after the July 7 London bombings fell flat on Friday with rallies in big cities failing to attract more than a few hundred people.
Estimates range between 700 - 1000, they get more when some babe flashes a ankle
More than 300 militant suspects have been detained across Pakistan since revelations that three of the four London bombers were British Muslims of Pakistani origin who had visited the country before the attacks. Pakistan's main alliance of Islamist parties, the Muttahida Majlis-e-Amal, called for protest rallies after Friday prayers, when tens of millions of Pakistanis visit mosques. But like previous calls for demonstrations against President Pervez Musharraf's support for the U.S.-led "war on terror," it failed to draw big crowds.
Up to 700 Islamists, most of them teenagers or in their 20s, chanted anti-Musharraf and anti-U.S. slogans at Islamabad's Lal or Red Mosque, which was raided by security forces searching for militants on Tuesday. Some shouted slogans in support of al Qaeda leader Osama bin Laden and Afghanistan's fundamentalist Taliban government, which was overthrown by U.S.-led forces after the al Qaeda attacks on U.S. cities on Sept. 11, 2001. The protesters pelted a police post with stones, destroyed lamp posts and set fire to a police motorcycle. Similar rallies were held in the cities of Karachi, Lahore, Quetta and Peshawar. Many of the protesters were students from Islamic schools, or madrasas, some of which are accused of being breeding grounds for militancy. The protests followed a televised address to the nation by Musharraf on Thursday night in which he called for a holy war against preachers of hate and announced steps to rein in militant madrasas and groups seen as having influenced the London bombers.
Posted by: Steve ||
07/22/2005 10:10 ||
Comments ||
Link ||
[0 views]
Top|| File under:
Indian officials believe Al Qaeda still has a âsignificant baseâ in Pakistan, while voicing concern over the danger of militants seizing that countryâs nuclear arsenal, news reports said on Thursday.
Indian Prime Minister Manmohan Singh said there âwas no doubtâ Osama bin Laden and his Al Qaeda network still had a âsignificant baseâ in neighbouring Pakistan, the PTI news agency reported, quoting the premierâs interviews with the Washington Post and CNN.
Singh has just wound up a visit to the US where both countries signed a landmark civilian nuclear agreement.
The Indian premier said he was worried about the security of Pakistanâs nuclear assets should President Pervez Musharraf be replaced since there was always the danger of Islamic militants seizing power and taking control of the countyâs nuclear assets.
âIf they get into the hands of the jihadi elements that could pose serious problems ... I hope that this does not happen and I pray that this will not happen,â Singh said. He expressed the hope that âcredible solutionsâ can be found to that problem.
The Indian premier said he was aware of the role of terrorist elements in Pakistan in the last few years, and that the Taleban was the creation of the Pakistan extremists. Further, Wahabi Islam had flourished as thousands of madrassas were set up to preach jihad and the hatred of other religions.
Asked by Washington Post editors about a possible request by nuclear-armed Pakistan for a similar agreement on nuclear cooperation with the US, Singh said this was a decision which the US had to make, but the role played by terrorist elements in Pakistanâs history have to be taken into account.
âI wish President Musharraf well. We want to work with him to bring better balance in our relations,â he said, adding India wanted Pakistan to emerge as a moderate Muslim state.
Posted by: Dan Darling ||
07/22/2005 10:20 ||
Comments ||
Link ||
[0 views]
Top|| File under:
#1
Ack! Too much work on Ansar al-Islam! That should be Pakistan.
Posted by: Dan Darling ||
07/22/2005 10:33 Comments ||
Top||
#2
a major base in Iraqi Kurdistan - I think you got your editing mixed up Dan and meant something else.
Posted by: Steve ||
07/22/2005 11:00 Comments ||
Top||
#4
After Stephens fine post yesterday I've decided that opening an F-14 assembly line in India is the way to go. Long-term for them, short-term for us.
AS THE WAR with Saddam's Iraq approached, a small group of terrorists in Kurdish-controlled Iraq garnered a significant amount of news coverage. Senior-level Bush administration officials had claimed that this group, Ansar al Islam, represented a key link between Saddam's regime and al Qaeda. There was evidence, after all, that Saddam's intelligence operatives funded and supplied the al Qaeda terrorists who joined this group's ranks in the wake of the invasion of Afghanistan. That evidence was hotly contested for months until the story of Ansar al Islam gradually receded from the headlines. Today, the group is hardly even mentioned--if at all--in above-the-fold stories by the U.S. press.
Surprisingly, the European press tells a different story. Scanning press accounts from around Europe, the terrorist group most frequently named, besides al Qaeda, is Ansar al Islam.
In France, according to one press account, authorities "launched a preventive operation . . . targeting highly radical individuals who have visited Syria and Iraq on several occasions." This group was reportedly "in contact with the Ansar al Islam." According to the German press, Ansar al Islam is the "target of Germany-wide police action" and more than several individuals have been arrested for alleged ties to the group. The CIA is accused of abducting the influential Islamist imam, Abu Umar, in Italy and the press there says he is "thought to be a member of the terrorist network known as Ansar al-Islam." According to one account in the Spanish press, authorities there recently "disbanded a terror ring linked to the Ansar al-Islam."
For an organization established in late 2001 and described at that time as a small, motley collection of jihadists, Ansar al Islam seems today to have a vast, transnational network.
All of which raises two intriguing questions: How can we explain the reporting that describes a transformation of this regional terrorist group into an international terrorist superpower? And what more do we know about the Iraqi regime's role in its founding?
TO BE SURE, part of the disparity between the group's originally reported size and its current international stature lies in the reporting itself. It is often easier to think about and describe the vast Islamist terror network using a common banner. After all, these terror networks are comprised of a seemingly endless array of connections. Thus, what many European reporters and intelligence officials conflate into "Ansar al Islam" is, most likely, a much more complicated web of entities and individuals who would not think of themselves as belonging to a single Kurdish terrorist group.
Yet, by their shorthand references to this network as "Ansar al Islam," European investigators and the reporters who cover them convey an important fact: The terrorists in France, Germany, Italy, and Spain are all connected--in one way or another--to the same Iraqi-based network which spawned the Kurdish-based group just 10 days prior to September 11, 2001. Therein lies the controversy.
Many have argued, incorrectly, that the current Iraq-centric terrorist network suddenly appeared only after the U.S.-led invasion. That is, they argue that the jihadists established their complex system of safehouses, weapons caches, funding, training, and transportation only after the fall of Saddam.
For those analysts and politicians, particularly in the United States, who cling desperately to the notion that there was "no connection" between Iraq and al Qaeda, Ansar al Islam presents a problem. Typical of this was an article in the July 10, 2005, issue of Time magazine. Written by former Clinton administration counterterrorism official Daniel Benjamin, the article presumptuously declared "we know there was no pre-existing relationship between Baghdad and al-Qaeda."
The evidence, of course, suggests that this analysis is wrong. Even as naysayers in the States continue to deny any connection, such staunchly anti-Iraq War publications as Le Monde have long since conceded the point. One day before the Time article, on July 9, the French daily published a news story that declared Ansar al Islam "was founded in 2001 with the joint help of Saddam Hussein--who intended to use it against moderate Kurds--and al Qaeda, which hoped to find in Kurdistan a new location that would receive its members."
On this, at least, the French are right.
Two intercepts in 2002--one in May, the other in October--illuminated the Iraqi regime's role in Ansar al Islam. The first revealed that an Iraqi Intelligence officer praised the work of the terrorist group and passed $100,000 to its leaders. The second, described in a report from the National Security Agency, reported that the Iraqi regime and al Qaeda reached an agreement whereby the regime would provide safehaven in northern Iraq to al Qaeda terrorists fleeing Afghanistan. Also, the regime agreed to fund and to arm the incoming jihadists.
In addition, there are numerous firsthand reports of this collaboration that come from the men at the center of it. The first reporting on this came in March 2002 from the New Yorker's Jeffrey Goldberg. His work was followed by reports on PBS, ABC News's Nightline, THE WEEKLY STANDARD and the Christian Science Monitor. Some of the sources were the same; others corroborated the original reporting. Writing in the Christian Science Monitor under the headline "Iraqi Funds, Training Fuel Islamic Terror Group," Scott Petersen reported from northern Iraq:
While Ansar is gaining strength in numbers, new information is emerging that ties the organization to both Osama bin Laden's Al Qaeda network and to Iraqi leader Saddam Hussein. The Al Qaeda contacts allegedly stretch back to 1989, and include regular recruiting visits by bin Laden cadres to Kurdish refugee camps in Iran and to northern Iraq, as well as a journey by senior Ansar leaders to meet Al Qaeda chiefs in Kandahar, Afghanistan, in the summer of 2000. A 20-year veteran of Iraqi intelligence alleges the Iraqi government secretly provided cash and training to Ansar.
Although the CIA showed little interest in investigating these reports, by February 5, 2003--when Colin Powell made his presentation to the U.N. Security Council--the intelligence community had collected enough information to include it in his remarks. He said:
But Baghdad has an agent in the most senior levels of the radical organization, Ansar al-Islam that controls this corner of Iraq. In 2000 this agent offered Al Qaida safe haven in the region. After we swept Al Qaida from Afghanistan, some of its members accepted this safe haven. They remain there today.
The Iraqi Intelligence official Powell mentioned is a man named Abu Wael. Several detainees--some from Iraqi Intelligence, others from Ansar al Islam--have cited Abu Wael as a critical link between the former Iraqi regime and al Qaeda. But many mainstream journalists in the United States remained skeptical.
Hours after Powell's presentation, ABC's World News Tonight ran video of Powell's presentation and flashed a graphic on the screen that read, "Weak Link?" "There's no doubt Ansar al Islam is a radical Islamic terror group," said ABC investigative correspondent Brian Ross. "Their own videos show it. Their ties to al Qaeda are also well documented. But they operate in a part of Iraq not controlled by Saddam Hussein and their leaders say they seek to overthrow Saddam Hussein and his government."
The ABC report cut to an interview with Mullah Krekar, the spiritual and sometimes operational leader of Ansar al Islam, who declared the Iraqi leaders "are our enemy. Really, they are our enemy."
The most interesting information from the ABC interview was never aired. Krekar had explained to an ABC producer that the goal of Ansar al Islam was "to overthrow the Iraqi regime and replace it with an Islamic state." Krekar was then asked about Abu Wael, the man Bush administration officials believe was a senior Iraqi Intelligence official. "I know Abu Wael for 25 years," Krekar said. "And he is in Baghdad. And he is an Arabic member of our shura, our leadership council also."
That Krekar placed Abu Wael in Baghdad was almost certainly unintentional. If the goal of Ansar was to overthrow the regime, and if Abu Wael was on its leadership council, it is highly unlikely that he would be in Baghdad at a time when the Iraqi regime was on highest alert. The more plausible explanation is that Mullah Krekar slipped by admitting Abu Wael was in Baghdad and that Abu Wael was in Baghdad precisely because his employer--the Iraqi regime--wanted him there.
A detained Ansar al Islam terrorist named Rebwar Mohammed Abdul told a reporter from the Los Angeles Times that he had heard about Abu Wael directly from Mullah Krekar. Abdul denied any personal knowledge of a relationship between Iraq and al Qaeda, but added an interesting detail. "I never talked to Wael but I saw him three times in meetings with Mullah Krekar. The mullah told us that Wael was a friend of his for 23 years and that they had met in Baghdad while Wael was an intelligence officer."
Consider the evidence. Abu Wael was in Baghdad six weeks before the Iraq War began. The spiritual leader of Ansar al Islam has apparently admitted that Abu Wael was an officer in Iraqi intelligence. Numerous individuals with firsthand knowledge of the Iraq-Ansar relationship have independently reported that Abu Wael works for both the Islamist group and Iraqi intelligence. And we have intercepts of Iraqi Intelligence officials offering support to Ansar al Islam.
Perhaps it was with this evidence in mind that Le Monde, in a separate article on June 27, 2005, wrote (without attribution) that Ansar al Islam "was founded in 2001 with the joint help of Saddam Hussein--who intended to use it against moderate Kurds--and Al-Qaeda, which hoped to find in Kurdistan a new location that would receive its members."
Posted by: Dan Darling ||
07/22/2005 10:14 ||
Comments ||
Link ||
[0 views]
Top|| File under:
WASHINGTON - The Pentagon told Congress on Thursday that progress toward establishing democracy in Iraq is on track despite an adaptable and deadly insurgency, but it offered no estimate of when U.S. troops would start withdrawing.
In its most comprehensive public assessment yet of conditions in Iraq, the military released a 23-page report that described progress and problems on the political, economic and security fronts.
Some Democrats were quick to criticize, saying the accounting fell short of helping the public understand when U.S. troops can leave.
"They missed an opportunity," said Rep. John Murtha (news, bio, voting record) of Pennsylvania, the lead Democrat on the House Appropriations subcommittee on defense.
He said the report lacks specific criteria for judging when Iraq will be stable enough for U.S. troops, now numbering 138,000, to withdraw. WHAT PART OF NO TIMETABLE CAN PEOPLE NOT UNDERSTAND?
The report says the key will be reaching the point when Iraqi security forces are trained and equipped at a level at which they can assume primary responsibility. The report does not estimate when that will happen.
"How do you measure success? That's the criteria that we aren't getting," Murtha said.
As for the training of Iraqi troops, Murtha said: "We've got a long ways to go, let's put it that way. ... They just aren't ready to take over." How about we be as negative as possible and ignore the amazing progress the U.S. has made with training Iraqi troops- Give them one more year.
Lt. Gen. Walter Sharp, director of strategic plans for the Joint Chiefs of Staff, told reporters at the Pentagon that specific measuring tools are useful in gauging the combat capabilities of Iraqi forces. But he said decisions about when Iraqis can take over for U.S. troops will be based in part of the judgment of U.S. commanders.
U.S. officers have developed a method of calculating the combat readiness of the approximately 76,700 Iraqi Army troops. The Pentagon said it "should not and must not" publicly disclose specific data.
"The enemy's knowledge of such details would put both Iraqi and coalition forces at increased risk," the report said.
That information, along with details on various possible changes in the level of U.S. forces in Iraq next year, were included in a part of the report that was classified as secret, along with the unclassified report delivered to Congress.
Sen. Joseph Biden (news, bio, voting record), D-Del., said Rumsfeld was making a mistake by not publicly releasing the information about Iraqi security forces' readiness.
"By withholding this information from the public, the administration is denying Americans their right to know how much work remains to be done," Biden said. "The notion, as Secretary Rumsfeld suggested, that this information would somehow aid the enemy is absurd. Hahaha- btw are they any quotes by GOP Politicians in this entire article? The answer to that is.... No.
"No one is asking him to identify the location or name of Iraqi units in question. No one is asking him to comment on the morale of Iraqi troops. We are simply asking for an honest accounting of the level of troop readiness and capability â not just the misleading number of Iraqis in uniform."
Pentagon officials said later that only three of the approximately 100 Iraqi army battalions are taking on the insurgents by themselves. About one-third is fully capable of operating against the insurgency, but only with U.S. support.
The rest are partially capable of operating with American support, the officials said, citing a statement Gen. Peter Pace provided to the Senate Armed Services Committee on June 29.
The Pace statement, first reported by the New York Times, was in response to a question posed at his confirmation hearing to be chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff.
Thursday's report to Congress noted that when U.S. and Iraqi forces assaulted the insurgent stronghold of Fallujah last November several Iraqi battalions "collapsed." Absenteeism among regular Iraqi army units was "in double digits" and remained so for the rest of the year, according to the report.
"Although such problems have not been entirely solved, they have been addressed in large measure" through efforts that have alleviated equipment shortages, the report said.
"Still, units that are conducting operations and units that relocate elsewhere in Iraqi experience a surge in absenteeism," it added.
Although the report said that Iraqi Sunnis make up the largest proportion of the insurgency, it also decried a continuing influx of foreign terrorists from across Iraq's borders. Iraq has 15,500 trained border police, but their effectiveness varies widely and is rated by U.S. officials as "generally moderate to low."
#2
A little Constitutional irony, I suppose. The last and worst sticking point in the Iraq Constitution is federalism. The same problem that was the last and worst sticking point in the US Constitution. The irony is compounded by the fact that ignoring the federalism vs. anti-federalism debate was one of the worst mistakes of the EU Constitution. The bottom line is that democracy is somewhat more unstable without republicanism (example, the difference between the US House and Senate, the House as more democratic and the Senate more republican.) Eventually, I suspect, federalism will win out in Iraq, as necessary reassurance to both the Kurds and the Sunni.
NBC correspondent Andrea Mitchell was roughed up in Khartoum Thursday by Sudanese security officials after she asked a tough question during a news conference with Sudan's President Omar Hassan al-Bashir and Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice.
Video, I want video, dammit!
Mitchell was dragged out of the room by two Sudanese security officers after she asked Bashir during a photo op about his role in the humanitarian crisis in the Darfur region refugee camps, where as many as 300,000 people have been killed. Mitchell had asked why Bashir could be trusted to keep his word about stopping the violence in Darfur. "Two goons from his security forces inside the presidential palace dragged me from behind, started dragging me out of the room," Mitchell said on NBC's "Today." "I kept asking the question, they kept dragging me, pulling my arm, unplugging my microphone."
Ok, points for you, Andrea. Maybe your getting roughed up will draw a little attention to this crisis.
Mitchell, the wife of Federal Reserve Chairman Alan Greenspan, was shaken but unhurt -- and angry.
Well, there goes what little economy Sudan had. I wouldn't want Greenspan pissed at me.
Rice demanded -- and later received, on her departure -- a formal apology for that and other incidents during the secretary of state's brief trip to Darfur. During the meeting between Rice and Bashir, several U.S. officials weren't allowed to enter the room, and Rice's assistant Jim Wilkinson was slammed against the wall by Sudanese security forces when he tried to get into the room. The other reporters got into the photo op only at the insistence of State Department public affairs official Sean McClellan, Mitchell said. He wouldn't go along with the Sudanese demand that there be no questions. "We have a free press," McClellan said, and Sudanese officials said, "There is no freedom of the press here."
We noticed
Mitchell told MSNBC.com that the treatment of the Americans is nothing compared to what's going on in Darfur and gave little hope of improvement. "Many of the players are the bad guys who carried out these policies in the past, including President Omar al-Bashir, my new best friend," Mitchell said.
Gee, I hope that's a threat. Maybe Andrea has woken up to the fact there are worse people in the world than George Bush.
Posted by: Steve ||
07/22/2005 10:01 ||
Comments ||
Link ||
[2 views]
Top|| File under:
#1
Maybe Andrea has woken up to the fact there are worse people in the world than George Bush.
#2
Wasn't Ms. Mitchell linked to a pre-Novak 'leak' of Plame? If that be the case, how about several more return visits with NYT, WaPo, LAT, etc editorial writers reporters accompanying Secty Rice? For news gathering, of course.
"You, gracious brothers, are the leaders, guides, and symbolic figures of jihad and battle. We do not see ourselves as fit to challenge you, and we have never striven to achieve glory for ourselves. All that we hope is that we will be the spearhead, the enabling vanguard, and the bridge on which the [Islamic] nation crosses over to the victory that is promised and the tomorrow to which we aspire. This is our vision, and we have explained it. This is our path, and we have made it clear. If you agree with us on it, if you adopt it as a program and road, and if you are convinced of the idea of fighting the sects of apostasy, we will be your readied soldiers, working under your banner,complying with your orders, and indeed swearing fealty to you publicly and in the news media, vexing the infidels and gladdening those who preach the oneness of God. On that day, the believers will rejoice in God's victory. If things appear otherwise to you, we are brothers, and the disagreement will not spoil [our] friendship. [This is] a cause [in which] we are cooperating for the good and supporting jihad. Awaiting your response, may God preserve you as keys to good and reserves for Islam and its people."
--Letter from Abu Musab Zarqawi to the al Qaeda leadership, circa January 2004
EVER SINCE HIS INTERNATIONAL DEBUT in October 2002, the origins of Abu Musab Zarqawi and the nature of his ties to Osama bin Laden have been shrouded in controversy.
The U.S. Rewards for Justice profile of the man describes him as having "had a long-standing connection to the senior al Qaeda leadership" and states that he is "a close associate of Usama bin Laden and Saif Al-Adel," the latter being the terror network's current military chief. A number of European officials and anonymous individuals within the U.S. intelligence community disagree with this characterization however, with a senior counterterrorism official in the U.S. intelligence community having recently told the Washington Post that "Zarqawi may be a partner [of bin Laden] or a competitor, but it is not like they are close and in a binding relationship."
Claims by intelligence analysts, counterterrorism officials, and diplomats that Zarqawi existed separately or in opposition to Osama bin Laden proliferated widely (and were made mostly anonymously) following the February 2004 publicizing of Zarqawi's letter to the al Qaeda leadership--in which he requested their assistance in launching a sectarian war between Iraq's Shiite and Sunni populations. The New York Times reported, citing US intelligence sources, that al Qaeda members operating outside of Iraq had refrained from endorsing Zarqawi's sectarian views, a sign that many observers took as clear indication of the differences between the two.
Defense Secretary Rumsfeld has even appeared to lend support to this view from time to time, replying in an answer to a question at the Council on Foreign Relations in October 2004 by saying ". . . My impression is most of the senior people [in al Qaeda] have actually sworn an oath to Osama bin Laden, and even, to my knowledge, even as of this late date, I don't believe Zarqawi, the principal leader of the network in Iraq, has sworn an oath, even though what they're doing--I mean, they're just two peas in a pod in terms of what they're doing."
To many, these remarks seemed to represent an admission of error, at best, since it was Zarqawi, whom Collin Powell described to the United Nations Security Council as "an associate and collaborator of Osama bin Laden and his Al Qaeda lieutenants," whose presence in Baghdad prior to the war formed among the strongest elements of the administration's claims of ties between Iraq and al Qaeda. If Zarqawi was not an al Qaeda member, wouldn't Powell's warnings about a convergence of threats between Iraq and al Qaeda fall flat?
NOT QUITE. Many of the administration's detractors tend to forget that it was not Powell who first labeled Zarqawi as al Qaeda, but rather Hans-Josef Beth, the head of the Germany's International Terrorism Department of the Security Service (BND). Beth stated that Zarqawi was an al Qaeda leader who "has experience with poisonous chemicals and biological weapons" during a meeting of the German-Atlantic Society in Berlin during the fall of 2002, long before Powell's appearance at the U.N.
That the head of the German BND regarded Zarqawi as an al Qaeda leader is highly significant, in part because it directly contradicts statements from Shadi Abdallah, a member of a Germany-based Zarqawi cell which was disrupted in early 2002. Abdallah, who told investigators that bin Laden and Zarqawi operated independently and may have even been rivals, appears to have been the source for much of the misunderstanding of the bin Laden-Zarqawi connection. But Abdallah's testimony offers only a glimpse into this relationship and his distinction is ultimately irrelevant to the U.S. prosecution of the global war on terror.
As the Washington Post noted in September 2003, "Zarqawi had had a leg amputated at an exclusive Baghdad clinic in 2002, suggesting he had connections to government figures in Iraq, but European officials scoffed at the larger allegation. Zarqawi was an independent operator, they said, citing the interrogation of some of his allies in Germany." The statement of Beth in October 2002 would seem to be in opposition to this view, as would his later comments that the spiritual leader of Zarqawi's German cell was none other than the infamous London-based Sheikh Abu Qatada, long viewed by European authorities as nothing less than "bin Laden's ambassador in Europe."
It is thus with great care that one must note Abdallah's seeming contradictory remarks: While he characterized Zarqawi as a terrorist who operated independently of al Qaeda for his own purposes he did note that Zarqawi "could do nothing without the prior agreement of the cleric Abu Qatada" (this according to German court proceedings). If Abdallah's statements were accurate and any actions by Zarqawi had to first be cleared by the head of bin Laden's European network then quite clearly the two men were far from enemies, regardless of any immediate differences between their worldviews or objectives.
THIS VIEW appears to have been shared by members of both al Qaeda and Zarqawi's al-Tawhid wal Jihad themselves. In a transcript of an Italian wiretap of a conversation between the Egyptian imam Nasr Usama Mustafa (now at the center of controversy following his abduction from Milan and subsequent rendition to Egypt by the CIA) and an unidentified al Qaeda operative from Germany, Zarqawi is referenced as the man who "is close to Emir Abdullah," an alias among jihadis referring to Osama bin Laden. The German al Qaeda member informs Mustafa that the men in charge of the plan are members of al-Tawhid and if there were any kind of serious animosity that barred cooperation between the two men,neither Mustafa nor his unknown superior appear aware of it.
Yet some analysts continue to refuse to accept such a connection between the two organizations, pointing out that Zarqawi never swore a formal oath of allegiance to bin Laden.
But this is a distinction without merit. As the September 11 Commission Report details, few of the individuals traditionally thought of as being members of bin Laden's inner circle had sworn an oath of allegiance to him; this includes September 11 mastermind Khalid Sheikh Mohammed, Jemaah Islamiyah operations chief Hambali (who had already sworn allegiance to Abu Bakar Bashir), and al Qaeda's Gulf operations chief Abd Rahim al-Nashiri. The New York Times reported as early as 2002 that Abu Zubaydah, al Qaeda's "dean of students" (who had been thought of as a potential successor to bin Laden, before his capture), had likewise opted not to swear such an oath. If the absence of an oath did not hinder Khalid Sheikh Mohammed from plotting September 11 at bin Laden's behest, why then should Zarqawi's have stopped him from working with bin Laden?
MOREOVER, drawing even retrospective distinctions between al Qaeda and allied terrorist groups such as al-Tawhid wal Jihad on the basis of whether or not the leadership of one has publicly declared its allegiance to the other represents a misunderstanding of how international Islamist terrorism functions.
As Rohan Gunaratna documented in Inside Al Qaeda: Global Network of Terror, al Qaedahas from the very beginning operated as a shadow organization and it was for that reason that even following the group's public debut in February 1998 that "for reasons of security, neither the alliance partners nor Osama wished to disclose the wider composition of the alliance. . . . Unless these terrorist networks were compartmentalized, their usefulness might be compromised."
One such example can be found in Algerian GSPC, which according to Jonathan Schanzer in Al-Qaeda's Armies, was "responsible for financing, logistics, and planning attacks for al Qaeda" years before its then-leader, Nabil Sahraoui, declared his allegiance to bin Laden on September 11, 2003. Such public declarations are rare in the world of Islamist terrorism; politicians and analysts ignore this truism at their own peril.
Today of course, there is little ambiguity as to who Zarqawi represents. Last October he publicly declared allegiance to bin Laden, whose own response a few months later designated Zarqawi his "emir" inside Iraq. To ignore the body of connections between the two men and their organizations on the basis of whether or not Zarqawi had sworn an oath of allegiance to bin Laden, however, is absurd.
There is much that is still unknown as to nature and extent of Zarqawi's ties to Osama bin Laden, but what we do known based on both their statements and their actions, is more than enough to regard the two men as having been co-belligerents, if not allies, in al Qaeda's war against the United States.
Dan Darling is a counter-terrorism consultant for the Manhattan Institute's Center for Policing Terrorism.
Posted by: Dan Darling ||
07/22/2005 10:04 ||
Comments ||
Link ||
[6 views]
Top|| File under:
AT FIRST GLANCE, Izzat Ibrahim al-Douri does not appear to be the most likely candidate to serve as an ally of militant Islamists. The former vice chairman of the Iraqi Baath Party's Revolutionary Command Council, al-Douri was the only member of Saddam's inner circle not in Baghdad when the city fell, having had the luck or foresight to set up his headquarters in the northern city of Mosul. One of the earliest members of the Iraqi Baath party and one of the three survivors of the 1968 coup that brought the Baathists to power inside Iraq, al-Douri has emerged since the fall of Saddam Hussein as a key leader within the insurgency. As Deputy Defense Secretary Paul Wolfowitz explained in June 2004, the insurgency "was led by Saddam Hussein up until his capture in December. It's been led, in part, by his No. 2 or 3, Izzat Ibrahim al-Douri, since then."
No one disputes al-Douri's brutality or his reputation for ruthlessness. Following the first Gulf War, al Douri was one of the chief architects of the campaign to suppress the uprising that followed the conflict in the south. In addition, he helped to supervise the al-Anfal campaign against the Kurds during the Iraq-Iran War, including the use of chemical weapons against Kurdish settlements in 1987. Yet evidence has surfaced since the fall of the insurgency that in addition to assuming command of at least some of the remnants of the Iraqi military, security, and intelligence forces as well as the surviving Baath party cadres, al-Douri has also been able to maintain ties with the Islamist elements of the insurgency.
The first postwar evidence of this emerged in October 2003, when NBC reported that two captured members of Ansar al-Islam revealed that al-Douri was helping to coordinate their attacks inside Iraq. According to the U.S. State Department, Ansar al-Islam "is closely allied with al-Qa'ida and Abu Mu'sab al-Zarqawi's group" and "has become one of the leading groups engaged in anti-Coalition attacks."
To many observers, this seemed to be an odd alliance, since in addition to being a Baathist, al-Douri was also associated with the Qadri and Rifai schools of Iraqi Sufism, which were viewed with contempt by Ansar al-Islam prior to the war. Yet these same observers forget that from 1993 onwards al-Douri headed up the Iraqi regime's al-Hamlah al-Imaniyyah (Return to Faith) campaign which loosened earlier restrictions on religion and substantially reduced earlier Islamist opposition to Saddam's rule. Also, as a regular speaker at Iraq's Popular Islamic conferences geared at ingratiating Saddam to radical Islamist groups, al-Douri could successfully present himself to Ansar al-Islam as an individual with solid Islamist credentials, whatever his Sufi leanings.
Reports of ties between al-Douri and Islamist groups intensified following the December 2003 capture of Saddam Hussein, culminating in a May 2004 report by the Yemeni Hadramoot Arabic Network that was translated as follows by the SITE Institute, a non-profit organization that monitors information relating to terrorist networks:
... The Mujahideen had made preparations to greet them until it was possible to bring them together with Zarqawi, and the "Heroes' meeting" took place ... In an atmosphere full of enthusiasm and high spirits for everybody, with the company of his three sons and a number of Mujahideen, Izzat Ibrahim Al Douri took off to meet with Abu Mussab Al Zarqawi. At their arrival, the Mujahideen greeted them amidst calls of "Allah Akbar" (3 times) [God is Greater]. Then the sound of gunfire was heard as Zarqawi rushed out, surrounded by the Mujahideen, covered by the dust of their blessed journey," according to the network. It added that, at the sight of Zarqawi, Izzat Ibrahim shouted: "You are the commander and we are your soldiers." His son Ahmad handed him a copy of the Quran. His father took it, placed his hand and the hands of his sons on it, and they made an oath to God, pledging allegiance to Zarqawi in the Jihad until victory or martyrdom, in good and bad times."
In the end, the network stated that, "the meeting was brief. Izzat's sons were placed with the Mujahideen, and the father was placed in the ranks of Zarqawi and other Mujahideen leaders. That day witnessed distribution of hundreds of automatic weapons and large quantities of ammunition on the Mujahideen."
The general account of the meeting appears to have been confirmed following month, when senior officials told Fox News that al-Douri was "an avowed and 'fanatic' Islamist whose two sons have sworn 'fealty' to Usama bin Laden." According to these senior officials, al-Douri "is in league with Zarqawi and Al Qaeda elements." Whatever the nature of his past Sufism, al-Douri had pledged himself and his followers to the most extreme Salafist elements of the Iraqi insurgency.
Such current ties to al Qaeda and its allies raise the inevitable question of whether or not any existed prior to the war. According to a March 2002 New Yorker article by Jeffrey Goldberg, another Iraqi imprisoned intelligence officer named Qassem Hussein Muhammed, who had been captured by Kurdish forces en route to the Ansar al-Islam enclave, had claimed that Abu Wael was "the actual decision-maker" for the group and "an employee of the Mukhabarat," the Arabic name for Iraqi intelligence.
While traveling through northern Iraq in 2002, Jonathan Schanzer, a specialist in radical Islamic movements at the Washington Institute for Near East policy, met a former member of Iraqi intelligence named Abdul Rahman al-Shamari, who had been imprisoned by the Kurds since March 2002. Al Shamari revealed a wealth of purported information about pre-war ties between Iraq and al Qaeda, including details about the activities of Colonel Saadan Mahmoud Abdul Latif, a member of Ansar al-Islam's ruling council far better known as Abu Wael. Al-Shamari went even further than Muhammed, claiming that Abu Wael had married one of al-Douri's cousins and had even met with Saddam Hussein "four or five times." Claims of Iraqi assistance to Ansar al-Islam are even supported by the 9/11 Commission which--despite having been widely reported as having "debunked" claims of such a link--also noted cryptically: "There are indications that by then [2001] the Iraqi regime tolerated and may even have helped Ansar al-Islam against the common Kurdish enemy."
One possible instance of this "help" was noted very early on in the existence of Ansar al-Islam's predecessor Jund al-Islam. Dr. Barhim Salih, the then-prime minister for the Kurdistan Regional Government in Sulaymania, noted in the Washington Institute for Near East Policy's PolicyWatch in October 2001 that a group of Iraqi Sunni Arabs were working with Jund al-Islam from Mosul, a city well within Saddam Hussein's sphere of control. Interestingly enough, a CIA assessment leaked to the New York Times in March 2003 noted the existence of an al Qaeda cell in Mosul which had been able to organize freely during the same time that al-Douri had shifted his base of operations to the northern city. While smaller than the main al Qaeda contingents in Baghdad and Iraqi Kurdistan, the Times reported that the Mosul cell and its counterparts might be planning to attack U.S. forces trying to stabilize Iraq after the war, a line of analysis which seems to have panned out.
An official who had read the analysis told the Times that the CIA assessment "doesn't make a big deal of Al Qaeda and Saddam" but noted that "There's a confluence of interests, to be sure. And that's dead Americans." In retrospect, this seems to have been a convergence that Izzat Ibrahim al-Douri understood all too well.
Dan Darling is a counter-terrorism consultant for the Manhattan Institute's Center for Tactical Counter-Terrorism.
Posted by: Dan Darling ||
07/22/2005 09:54 ||
Comments ||
Link ||
[0 views]
Top|| File under:
The U.S. Marine Corps has derived a lot of useful information from their two week battle to clear Some 4,000 terrorists out of Fallujah last November. The city had 99.5 percent of its civilian population evacuated before the fighting, and a major intelligence effort by the marines to sort out who was in Fallujah and what kind of fight they would put up.
By early November, enemy fighters outnumbered the remaining civilians by about four to one. The attacking force consisted of four marine infantry battalions and two army tank (actually mixed tanks and infantry in M-2 Bradleys) battalions. Other marine and army units circled the city to catch those still trying to get out, or in. There were artillery and engineers in support, plus air force bombers overhead. UAVs and a SOCOM AC-130s prevented the enemy from moving at night. This was done with night vision gear, and the ability quickly fire on anyone moving down there.
The city had some 39,000 buildings, and each day of the battle, about a hundred marine rifle squads (three per rifle platoon) were out there searching those buildings each day, assisted by about fifty army tank and mech infantry platoons. The army units were mainly used to plunge into areas thought to contain enemy fighters, to draw their fire and locate them. The tanks and Bradleys would kill as many of the enemy as they could, but it took the marine riflemen going into buildings to finish the job. The marines also had some of the 60 ton D-9 armored bulldozers, that could plow right through most buildings.
The most widely used weapons, however, were the AT-4 anti-tank rockets. Platoons would use a dozen or more of these a day to clear out rooms or take down walls. Lots of explosives (C-4, plastic explosive) were used, often in very imaginative ways, to assist in clearing the enemy out of buildings, along with the usual hand grenades. About a third of the AT-4s used new thermobaric (fuel air explosive) warheads, which could clear out an entire house, and stun anyone it didnât kill. The AT-4 gunners became quite proficient. The average range was about 400 meters, and most AT-4 gunners could put them right through a window 90 percent of the time.
The battle became something of a predictable grind, with 2-4 encounters a day for each platoon, while searching 60-80 buildings. Each encounter usually resulted in one or two dozen dead terrorists, and a few marine casualties (usually wounded). A third of marine casualties took place inside buildings, when hidden enemy gunmen were found. Depending on what part of the city they fought in, the average marine rifle squad participated in 8-24 fights over two weeks, each lasting from fifteen minutes to an hour or so. This doesnât count those hundreds of instances where one or two gunmen would pop out of a building to fire on oncoming American troops. These enemy would almost always be quickly killed. The more experienced, or disciplined, fighters, barricaded themselves inside a building and forced the marines to either come after them or, as happened about twenty times a day.
Tanks were also used to deal with enemy resistance. Each tank fired one or two dozen 120mm shells a day, 500-100 .50 caliber and over 2,000 7.62mm machine-gun rounds a day. The M1 tanks were immune to any weapons the Fallujah defenders had and often provided all the heavy firepower the marines needed to clear out a building.
The marines made heavy use of snipers, but these were pretty much out of targets after the first week, as the enemy generally stayed inside, or ventured out only with great care.
Tanks and bombers were called in if the marines had confirmed a bunch of enemy holding out in a building. A 500 JDAM (satellite guided) bomb would take care of those. But when the enemy gunmen were encountered inside the building, only the training, leadership and discipline of the marines made the difference. Each marine platoon had its three rifle platoons operating independently most of the time, clearing an assigned batch of buildings, and developing improved tactics as they did so. Company and battalion commanders had the use of UAVs and helicopters over head to keep an eye on what was going on down below. Satellite photography provided photo-accurate maps of the city for troops and leaders.
There were also several hundred carefully selected Iraqi troops along, and they performed well. But the Iraqis were not put to work like the marines were, and the Iraqis were in awe at the speed and efficiency the marines used when they cleared buildings.
There were about 500 American and Iraqi casualties in the fighting, and 1,200 enemy killed, and another 1,500 captured (many of them wounded.). The biggest casualty, however, was the reputation of the anti-government forces. The al Qaeda and Sunni Arab gunmen had boasted that they would hold Fallujah, and kill hundreds of Americans in the process. The American death toll was under fifty, and the city was cleared of enemy fighters in two weeks. The boasting backfired, and âFallujahâ has become a word the anti-government forces donât want to hear any more.
Posted by: ed ||
07/22/2005 09:57 ||
Comments ||
Link ||
[0 views]
Top|| File under:
#1
The U.S. Marine Corps has derived a lot of useful information from their two week battle to clear Some 4,000 terrorists out of Fallujah last November.
Which will be useful when the Moonbats of the Bay declare succession in a year or two.
The most widely used weapons, however, were the AT-4 anti-tank rockets. Platoons would use a dozen or more of these a day to clear out rooms or take down walls.
Which means you really need some ammo bearers, think KATUSA, but with an Iraq [or Californian] flavor.
Tanks and bombers were called in if the marines had confirmed a bunch of enemy holding out in a building.
That would take care of most of the Berkley campus, but I'm more inclined towards Arc Lighting.
There were also several hundred carefully selected Iraqi troops along, and they performed well. But the Iraqis were not put to work like the marines were, and the Iraqis were in awe at the speed and efficiency the marines used when they cleared buildings.
Part of the problem with using real local forces as their minds wonder from the fight to their families in the general area, when they're not sure who's going to be incharge in a year, when they lack the degree of hard training Americans put in their front line troops and lead by junior officers and the indispensible NCO [re: Centurion] in the front ranks. Hasn't changed in 2000 years.
Prime Minister Shaukat Aziz on Thursday ordered the authorities to arrest the leaders of banned religious organisations and continue the countrywide operation against extremism. Chairing a federal cabinet meeting, Aziz said the institutions and people spreading hatred, sectarianism and militancy would not be tolerated. Interior Minister Aftab Ahmed Khan Sherpao reviewed briefly the ongoing anti-militancy operation. "The prime minister ordered the operation be continued till the set targets were achieved," sources told Daily Times.
Aziz said the government was not against seminaries imparting religious education to students, said an official press statement. The prime minister added that such seminaries were doing a good job. The interior minister told the meeting that around 200 people had been arrested in the operation so far.
Posted by: Fred ||
07/22/2005 00:00 ||
Comments ||
Link ||
[2 views]
Top|| File under:
The Irrelevance of an Oath Zarqawi and bin Laden are brothers in arms.
EVER SINCE HIS INTERNATIONAL DEBUT in October 2002, the origins of Abu Musab Zarqawi and the nature of his ties to Osama bin Laden have been shrouded in controversy. and the writer goes on for two pages of cogent argument. Read the whole thing! :-)
Dan Darling is a counter-terrorism consultant for the Manhattan Institute's Center for Policing Terrorism. And the young man plans to graduate from university next May? I don't imagine he'll have to look far for employment!
#1
Yes, tis me, as is this earlier article from Wednesday. I'll post 'em in full on Rantburg tomorrow morning for you guys to comment on in full.
And if anyone is interested in employing a nascent counter-terrorism analyst next May when I graduate from Rockhurst University, feel free to shoot me an e-mail.
Posted by: Dan Darling ||
07/22/2005 0:12 Comments ||
Top||
#2
I'm so proud! *wipes tear* And I expect you to post a nice picture of yourself in your graduation robe upon the occasion next May, 'k? We'll want to see you in all your glory. ;-)
#3
Well if you want to see what I look like, you can go here and find out.
Posted by: Dan Darling ||
07/22/2005 0:21 Comments ||
Top||
#4
Actually, the burning question of the day is if you and the prettiest girl at William and Mary will get to go on the Weekly Standard Pundit Cruise... ;-)
#5
Well, let's see how much they like my current run on the Daily Standard and find out. After all, the fact that I just happen to writing for them is just a coincidence, not a connection. My buddy Steve Hayes could tell you the difference ...
Posted by: Dan Darling ||
07/22/2005 0:28 Comments ||
Top||
#6
During the Taliban tyranny, jihadists were obliged to make an blood oath (bayat) to fight to the death for bin Laden. Tens of thousands of Muslims are bound by that oath, and millions of Muslimutts are accomplices of these terrorists.
Posted by: Vlad the Muslim Impaler ||
07/22/2005 2:57 Comments ||
Top||
#7
Impalement
Impalement was a particulat favorate of Vlad the Impaler. This form of torture/execution involved impaling people on wooden spikes and leaving them to die a horrable and painful slow death. The impalement was often done up the rectum, or sometimes through the stomach or heart. Occastionally, for variety, Vlad would impale people upsidedown through the skull. Sometimes just the head was impaled, but this was more a form of decoration than torture because the owner of the head was usually long dead by the time he was put on display.
Disemboweling
This could ostensibly be considered a form of execution, in that not too many people can survive having their upper and lower transverse colons and their stomachs surgically removed (without anesthesia of corse) and not put back. Victims of this horrable torment were usually tied to a post or a tree. Their abdomen was then sliced open and their innards pulled out and either left hanging or cut out completely and thrown on the ground. Sometimes the victim was forced to watch his guts set on fire while he was still alive. Needless to say, because of the violent trauma to the body, it did not take long for this form of torture to turn into an execution. Vlad the Impaler was a big fan of disembowelment.
Mr. Vlad could we interest you in a Muslim named Abu Musab Zarqawi?
Hat Nailing
Vlad the Impaler, the inspiration for the Dracula legand, came up with this one. Two Italian ambassadors once refused to take off their hats in his presence. Their punishment was having their hats nailed to their heads.
You jest Mr. Vlad, Wota sense of humor!
btw Mr. Vlad..I don't even own a hat! >:o
Posted by: Red Dog ||
07/22/2005 4:22 Comments ||
Top||
#8
Dan, please keep the biscuits and gravy acomming! :)
A multi-volume chronology and reference guide set detailing three years of the Mexican Drug War between 2010 and 2012.
Rantburg.com and borderlandbeat.com correspondent and author Chris Covert presents his first non-fiction work detailing
the drug and gang related violence in Mexico.
Chris gives us Mexican press dispatches of drug and gang war violence
over three years, presented in a multi volume set intended to chronicle the death, violence and mayhem which has
dominated Mexico for six years.
Rantburg was assembled from recycled algorithms in the United States of America. No
trees were destroyed in the production of this weblog. We did hurt some, though. Sorry.
At least ten protesters and two army soldiers died and dozens of people were injured yesterday as violent protests broke out in six Yemeni provinces for the second day over fuel price rises. Protests spread from the capital Sanaa to other provinces, including Houdieda, Saada, Taiz, Dhalea and Hadhramout. In Sanaa, clashes renewed between army troops and angry protesters. One person was reportedly killed in clashes in the impoverished southern suburb of Shumaila. Municipality workers had barely finished cleaning the streets of the damage from Wednesdayâs clashes when the violence erupted again. Fires broke out and gunfire was heard in several neighborhoods. The army deployed tanks and armored personnel carriers at main intersections and near vital government installations and the presidential palace. Witnesses in the western port city of Houdieda said three protesters were killed and at least 15 others injured. They said riot police fired at angry protesters trying to storm oil facilities in the Red Sea city.
.
North Korea has reaffirmed its call for a peace treaty with the US, ahead of the resumption of talks aimed at ending the nuclear standoff on the peninsula. Pyongyang said in a statement that a full treaty replacing the armistice signed at the end of the Korean War in 1953 was needed to resolve the crisis. Six-nation talks are due to resume in Beijing on Tuesday. North Korea walked out of the talks in February 2004, and has since admitted stockpiling atomic weapons. The North has in the past demanded a non-aggression pact with the US - but Washington refuses to talk until North Korea agrees to shut down its weapons programme. The Korean War ended with an armistice - not a peace treaty - and thus the peninsula is technically still at war. 
Sen. 
More than 300 militant suspects have been detained across Pakistan since revelations that three of the four London bombers were British Muslims of Pakistani origin who had visited the country before the attacks. Pakistan's main alliance of Islamist parties, the Muttahida Majlis-e-Amal, called for protest rallies after Friday prayers, when tens of millions of Pakistanis visit mosques. But like previous calls for demonstrations against President Pervez Musharraf's support for the U.S.-led "war on terror," it failed to draw big crowds.
NBC correspondent Andrea Mitchell was roughed up in Khartoum Thursday by Sudanese security officials after she asked a tough question during a news conference with Sudan's President Omar Hassan al-Bashir and Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice. 
Prime Minister Shaukat Aziz on Thursday ordered the authorities to arrest the leaders of banned religious organisations and continue the countrywide operation against extremism. Chairing a federal cabinet meeting, Aziz said the institutions and people spreading hatred, sectarianism and militancy would not be tolerated. Interior Minister Aftab Ahmed Khan Sherpao reviewed briefly the ongoing anti-militancy operation. "The prime minister ordered the operation be continued till the set targets were achieved," sources told Daily Times.
