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| Iraq |
| Britons join attacks on allied troops in Iraq |
| 2003-11-04 |
| It was really only a matter of time... From the Times - reg reqâd (and I think itâs not free for those outside the UK) HANDPICKED groups of British Muslims are among the increasing number of foreign fighters slipping into Iraq to join terrorist attacks against coalition troops. An Anglican peace envoy, Canon Andrew White, recently met one group of British men waiting to cross the Iraqi border who admitted that they were going to Baghdad âto be part of the battle against the evil occupying forcesâ. "Iraqi passport holder queue here" "Non-Iraqi passport holders queue here" "Jihadis queue beside the pit" The men, in their late 20s and early 30s, were all British-born, they have families, own properties and claimed to have been recruited for their mission in Britain. âWhat struck me was that these were all Despite what some may think, natural selection doesnât only discriminate on the basis of beards and forms of employment. Canon White, who is a frequent visitor to Baghdad as Director of the International Centre for Reconciliation at Coventry Cathedral, said that he had met other Britons intent on joining the attacks on British and US troops. He approached one group after they flew to Amman, the Jordanian capital, presuming that they were working for an aid organisation or the Coalition Provisional Authority running Iraq. âI told them that I was going to help in the struggle for peace and they laughed and said: âWe are going to be part of the struggle but not in the same way. ââOur struggle is with weapons,â they said.â The men were of Middle Eastern and Asian backgrounds, though all were born in the UK and travelling on British passports. Their plan was to drive from Amman to Baghdad, where they would be met by their Iraqi handler. "Welcome to âUnlike many of the young men who just pitched up in Pakistan before the war with Afghanistan, bragging about wanting to join al-Qaeda, these men had apparently made their contacts while in Britain and were on some kind of organised mission.â Canon White said that senior Iraqi figures in the provisional Government had told him about their meetings with men who had come from Britain to join the so-called international jihad. He said that Muslim clerics in Britain were appalled at militant figures from âMujahidin-type organisationsâ who run what are advertised as prayer groups from private homes but which are in reality recruiting missions. âThe overwhelming majority of Muslim leaders here and in Iraq donât want foreigners going to Baghdad to fight when they are working for peace,â he said. "Having the worldâs crop of psychopathic nutjobs milling around does tend to make the job more difficult." Intelligence authorities admit that they do not know how many Britons have travelled to Iraq since the build-up to war began. Donald Rumsfeld, the US Defence Secretary, said at the weekend that coalition troops had so far arrested up to 300 foreign fighters inside Iraq. They had come from up to 30 different countries. Gosh, Murat! B-b-but you told us these people were Iraqis! A suicide bomber, who was shot before he could ram a car packed with 1,000lb of explosives into a Baghdad police station last week, was identified as a Yemeni carrying a Syrian passport. Recruitment to terrorist groups inside Iraq is believed to be on a much smaller scale than was the case in Afghanistan. None of the Britons who returned from Afghanistan has been prosecuted. Which is a disgraceful and inexcusable dereliction of duty by the government... One security source said: âIraqi groups donât want dozens of amateurs wandering about getting themselves into trouble, as happened in the first weeks of the war in Afghanistan. âAl-Qaeda told these foreigners to go home as they were no use to them. They got sick, they couldnât adapt to the terrain or handle a weapon.â "They were just youthful dewey-eyed dreamers, carried here as if flower petals blown on the wind. All they wanted was to live according to the scriptures of the holy book, to kill and to maim..." During the invasion of Iraq, British troops found foreign passports being carried by fighters who put up the fiercest resistance in the battle to occupy Basra. Some of those captured have been handed over to the US authorities for interrogation at Baghdad international airport, which the Americans are using as their main prison camp inside Iraq. British security authorities have expressed concern at the number of young men who have travelled to Syria in recent months to study Arabic or the Koran and who cannot now be traced. Some are believed to have moved on to the West Bank and Iraq. Paul Bremer, who leads the Coalition Provisional Authority in Baghdad, criticised the Government in Damascus for not doing more to stop foreign fighters infiltrating Iraq from Syria. âWe have certainly got, because we have captured and killed them, members of al-Qaeda who may be coming in from Syria,â he said. Will the Labour government chunt down the traitors and their recruiters? Will they f***. |
| Posted by:Bulldog |
| #19 There comes a point in every society when there is a major imbalance in the number of people in each age group. There should always be more children born than people dying - people die at all ages, from shortly after birth to the oldest known person in the society. The age group for fertility is limited, however - children under about 12 cannot give birth (usually - there have been exceptions [shudder]), and most women over 45 cannot concieve and give birth. Such societies are delicately balanced - there are usually enough able-bodied to provide food, shelter, and comfort to the entire society. Wipe out a large segment of that society - especially males from 15 to 40 - and your society is in trouble. There aren't enough people to actually DO everything that needs to be done. You either have a) women filling roles usually reserved for men; b) outsiders coming in to fill the vacancies, or c) things don't get done, and the entire system collapses. The Muslims have a very big problem staring them in the face - they are losing a significant portion of their males in the 15-40 age group. Their women, thanks to their interpretation of religion, cannot fill a man's job. And they treat "outsiders" so arrogantly they have to pay three times the international rate to attract people. Right now, they have bodies to waste. As the world gets more and more complex, however, the number of intelligent young males will make a difference. They will fall farther and farther behind the rest of the world technologically, and their societies will be less and less able to compete in the world at large. It may take a century or two, but the blip of success the oil fortunes have created will eventually collapse, and the real grind of advancement will leave them in the dust. If they keep sending their young men to disappear into a black hole, to die before their prime, that collapse will come sooner, rather than later. |
| Posted by: Old Patriot 2003-11-5 12:43:16 AM |
| #18 I like the Black Hole Policy⢠for eliminating Jihadis, kinda like the Roach Motel. They get used up, nobody knows where they went, but pretty soon everyone starts noticing that there are alot of would-be boomers gone and not coming back, with no comm. Good psyop. In the meantime, we must keep wacking them at the borders, and wacking them around Baghdad, Falluja, etc. Eventually they will be severely attritted, and the countries feeding the fodder (like Saudi, Syria, Iran, et.al. will notice that alot of young men are going into the black hole. And they will say, WTF, and ponder on that one for a while. |
| Posted by: Alaska Paul 2003-11-4 10:07:05 PM |
| #17 JFM, I agree with you but as Bulldog says I don't think the British government (and population) is likely to do that. The only chance is to avoid taking prisoners and that has some serious drawbacks. Once they are arrested it becomes problematic. |
| Posted by: Yank 2003-11-4 9:18:05 PM |
| #16 If for whatever failure of our troops they are caught alive merely offer them the vacation no cuban wants. dorf |
| Posted by: Anonymous 2003-11-4 7:49:13 PM |
| #15 I am in favor of every one of these fools that goes to Iraq and gets his ticket punched,just dissapears.Never to be seen or heard of agin. Leaving a great big ???? mark as to what,where when,how they just vanished. Do I have any sympathy for thier families,nope. |
| Posted by: Raptor 2003-11-4 7:01:52 PM |
| #14 Do they still hang traitors in Britain? Not since the European Convention on Human Rights was ratified in 1999, JFM. Before that, since the 60s, it had applied only to cases of treason and piracy, albeit it only theoretically. The UK should yank their citizenship if any of these buggers are naturalized. I agree; any non-British-born British passport holders caught fighting in Iraq should have their passports revoked, and all native-born Brits should receive the full treason book square in the face. But since the Government has failed to hold to account any of those Muslims who fought against British forces in Afghanistan, what can anyone expect if not more brainless Britadis sauntering off to Iraq to seek adventure, machismo and a thwack of hot metal between the eyes? |
| Posted by: Bulldog 2003-11-4 6:07:57 PM |
| #13 Dar, you hit the nail on the head. There were a total of four (4) (poorly aimed) mortars that hit in Downtown Baghdad. You would have thought the 'Mother of all Battles' was underway. Four Mortars in a larger city doesn't exactly strike fear into the soldiers. |
| Posted by: Cyber Sarge (VRWC CA Chapter) 2003-11-4 5:42:51 PM |
| #12 Ten years in prison? Naaah. Twelve bullets in the back. Those who had an abusive father or some other redeeming cause will have their sentence halved: six bullets. |
| Posted by: JFM 2003-11-4 5:30:17 PM |
| #11 This can only help the British as it kills off the really dumb gullible ones and discredit the Preachers that talked them into fighting for the reenslavement of the Iraqi people. The UK should yank their citizenship if any of these buggers are naturalized. Eve if they are not they should get 10 years or so in a prison to reconsider their life. My gut says hanging, but its unlikely the Brits would go that far and it makes martyrs out of them instead of humiliating them. |
| Posted by: Yank 2003-11-4 4:02:55 PM |
| #10 Bulldog: Do they still hang traitors in Britain? |
| Posted by: JFM 2003-11-4 3:16:28 PM |
| #9 Bulldog, we all know its only Rt Hon Tony who can chunt people. |
| Posted by: liberalhawk 2003-11-4 2:12:42 PM |
| #8 Wonder how many of them have already been whacked, and nobody's been told yet? Wonder where the other jihadis the Iraqi border guards waste every night come from? Someone needs to be keeping count, so we can deliver the bodies to their respective countries. Those going to Arab countries should be delivered by B-52 from max altitude. A frozen body at terminal velocity makes a BIIG hole! For the British jihadis, require Mom & Dad to come claim the body, then not let them back in to "merrye olde England". |
| Posted by: Old Patriot 2003-11-4 1:42:10 PM |
| #7 Bet Mom and Dad are proud. |
| Posted by: Super Hose 2003-11-4 1:30:07 PM |
| #6 Once again the major news sites are splashing "Bombs rack Baghdad" across the page. Looks like Ramadan is turning into Tet-LiteTM. |
| Posted by: Dar 2003-11-4 1:28:43 PM |
| #5 The biggest mistake Americans and others have made is THINK that this cultural group will honestly and sincerely put the oath of allegiance above the oath to their religion. Some groups find no problem in "giving to the state its due" but with the RoP only the dreamers. |
| Posted by: Barry 2003-11-4 11:32:54 AM |
| #4 Dead is dead. Who gives a shit where the corpse came from? |
| Posted by: mojo 2003-11-4 10:51:50 AM |
| #3 So it's the "moderates" who are flocking to jihad? Solution: Zap 'em at the border. |
| Posted by: Bomb-a-rama 2003-11-4 10:24:57 AM |
| #2 âSome had their own business or were professional men. They didnât have long beards and werenât shouting their mouths off like young fanatics.â So it's the "moderates" who are flocking to jihad? |
| Posted by: Robert Crawford 2003-11-4 10:08:13 AM |
| #1 "...chunt down..."! Cheese, I meant hunt. Usually I don't bother to correct typos, (would take all day) but just thought I'd clarify in case anyone wonders whether the British government have diabolical secret methods for dealing with enemies of the state. |
| Posted by: Bulldog 2003-11-4 9:48:10 AM |