The Generals don't want to fight the media war because it would acknowledge that all wars are fought on two fronts, the other being the homefront. They outsourced that fight to the enemy and MSM [I know that's redundant]. They haven't figured out what Pvt Snuffy figured out years ago about exploiting alternative media distribution effectively. Oh, they play as they know what they're doing, but they're just going through the motions.
MARJA, Afghanistan -- Twelve bodies -- five children, five women and two men -- were wrapped head to toe in woolen blankets, lying in a neat row on the floor of the only room remaining in a house that had been blasted to mud-brick rubble by at least one and possibly two 675-pound rockets.
A United States Marine Corps battalion commander, Lt. Col. Brian Christmas, stood in that room on Tuesday with a relative of the victims, a local elder named Hajji Mohammad Karim, and said what he could. "I bring my deepest condolences and will provide all of my support," the colonel told him. There was no recrimination, only sorrow.
Colonel Christmas, commander of the Third Battalion, Sixth Marines, had arrived near this place in northern Marja by helicopter just before dawn; his beleaguered Company K, after three days of heavy fighting, was finally getting resupplied. Bridges had been put over the canals nearby, so roads could reopen.
"The resistance has been a little thicker than I would have liked for the forces I have," the colonel said, as he led a foot patrol over to the house later in the day.
On Sunday, Company K had been in its fighting positions a couple of hundred yards away from the family's mud-walled compound when the rocket or rockets struck it. Since then, several versions of what happened have emerged.
Eager to demonstrate the coalition's commitment to avoid civilian casualties, and to take responsibility for them when they do happen, the American commander in Afghanistan, Gen. Stanley A. McChrystal, immediately issued a statement saying that 12 civilians had been accidentally killed, that the rocket launcher had missed its target by 300 meters and would be suspended from service, and that apologies had been conveyed to President Hamid Karzai. An investigation was ordered.
The investigation found that the targeting system -- the High Mobility Artillery Rocket System -- had not been defective, a spokesman for the NATO-led coalition force, Lt. Col. Todd Vician of the United States Air Force, said Tuesday. He said the suspension was lifted, allowing the system to be returned to use as a defensive weapon. As to what did happen, however, he said, "We are still waiting for those results and hope to have an answer soon."
To the Marines of Company K, and an embedded reporter accompanying them, one thing seemed clear: the company had not ordered a rocket strike on that house. At the time they were taking fire from many houses in the area.
"The original target of the two rockets was a compound where insurgents were delivering accurate, direct fire on an Afghan-ISAF joint team," according to a Sunday news release by the NATO-led force, the International Security Assistance Force.
That team was Company K, with an Afghan Army unit attached to it. "The compound that was hit was not the one we were targeting," the company commander said that day.
After the Marines saw children stream out of the ruined house, the company commander immediately ordered a cease-fire. With Taliban snipers still trying to pick them off, his men raced across the flat, open expanse between their positions and the house, where medics rendered what first aid they could.
They initially counted 11 dead, because one woman was still alive. Marine Corps medics worked to stabilize her condition, although she had lost three limbs. A helicopter came in to evacuate the wounded, but took so much Taliban ground fire that it had to lift off again before the wounded could be loaded on board. The woman died, making the death toll 12.
There may be a 13th, because one of the men in the family is still missing, and the Marines said Tuesday that his body might be under the mass of rubble. "You hope the individual was not in the building," said Capt. Christopher M. Hoover, the battalion's judge advocate. "It's uncertain right now."
While the American military methodically worked to figure out what happened, by the next day the Afghan authorities had announced their findings.
At a news conference on Monday, the Afghan interior minister, Muhammad Hanif Atmar, flanked by the Afghan minister of defense and the army commander for Helmand, said that only 9 of the 12 dead in the house were civilians, and that the other 3 were Taliban insurgents who had forced their way into the house and used it as a fighting position.
He said local tribal leaders were "deeply saddened," but not angry. "I will quote one of them," Mr. Atmar said, " 'We are very sad about the civilian casualties but if nine civilians have died, hundreds of thousands will get freedom.' " Marja has 80,000 residents.
The Afghan government's account seemed at best debatable on Tuesday. For one thing, if there had been weapons in the house, the Marines would most likely have found them.
At this point, though, the Americans are not jumping to any conclusions.
Colonel Vician, the military spokesman, said that the tempo of the fighting had slowed in Marja by Tuesday, although two more ISAF service members, neither American, were killed on Tuesday, one by a homemade bomb, the other by small arms fire.
"There are pockets of resistance that continue to engage combined forces, but it's sporadic, at times intensive, but sporadic," he said.
In the mud-brick charnel house where the Afghans were killed, Hajji Karim, the local elder, took up Colonel Christmas's offer of assistance on Tuesday.
The victims had already been dead for more than two days. Muslims believe in prompt burial, but the family had no way to carry the bodies through the battlefield to the provincial capital of Lashkar Gah, 17 miles away. Would the Americans take them?
Within hours, a Marine Corps Osprey, a transport aircraft that can take off and land like a helicopter, put down nearby, taking enemy fire as it came in, and the Marines grimly loaded the bodies aboard for the trip to the cemetery.
Taliban militants are increasingly using civilians as "human shields" as they battle against a joint Afghan-Nato offensive, an Afghan general has said.
Gen Mohiudin Ghori said his soldiers had seen Taliban fighters placing women and children on the roofs of buildings and firing from behind them.
US Marines fighting to take the Taliban haven of Marjah have had to call in air support as they come under heavy fire. They have faced sustained machine-gun fire from fighters hiding in bunkers and in buildings including homes and mosques.
Gen Ghori, the senior commander for Afghan troops in the area, accused the Taliban of taking civilians hostage in Marjah and putting them in the line of fire.
"Especially in the south of Marjah, the enemy is fighting from compounds where soldiers can very clearly see women or children on the roof or in a second-floor or third-floor window," he is quoted by Associated Press as saying. "They are trying to get us to fire on them and kill the civilians."
As a result, his forces were having to make the choice either not to return fire, he said, or to advance much more slowly in order to distinguish militants from civilians.
Nato has stressed that the safety of civilians in the areas targeted in the joint Nato and Afghan Operation Moshtarak is its highest priority.
Journalist Jawad Dawari, based in Lashkar Gah, told BBC Pashto that Taliban fighters remained in many residential areas of Marjah and were defending their positions with heavy weapons.
"It is difficult for the Afghan army and Nato to storm Taliban-held areas because to do so may inflict heavy civilian casualties and there are still a lot of civilians in Marjah. Whenever they launch an attack, the Taliban take refuge in civilians' homes."
He had spoken to many local people in Marjah, he said, and they had all said the Nato offensive had made little progress since the first day.
An Afghan military official had told reporters that the backbone of the resistance came from foreign fighters - Pakistani and Arab - and that it was feared they might resort to suicide attacks, he added.
The most senior US general in the south, Brig Gen Ben Hodges, gave the BBC a more upbeat assessment of Marjah, saying locals were coming out to give information on insurgents now that they were confident the forces involved in Operation Moshtarak were not leaving. He said Afghan units would be staying for at least 30 days and the Marine battalions "for several months".
Speaking to the BBC after visiting Marjah, the commander of British forces in southern Afghanistan, Maj Gen Nick Carter, said the situation was dangerous, but that progress was being made. He told the BBC's Frank Gardner it could take up to 30 days to clear the insurgents out, depending on when they lost the will to fight.
Troops taking part in the offensive have been having to deal with large numbers of improvised bombs.
American forces have found a so-called "daisy chain" - a long bomb rigged up from mortar bombs, rocket-propelled grenades and a motorbike, our correspondent says. And British engineers have deployed a device called a "python" - a length of explosives designed to set off mines and clear a safe path through them, he says.
Afghan army chief of staff Besmillah Khan told the AFP news agency the threat from improvised bombs meant gains were coming "slowly".
Meanwhile, to the north, British forces have discovered an insurgent cache of stolen Afghan army and police uniforms. The find suggests the Taliban could have been planning attacks disguised as Afghan security personnel, our correspondent says.
Nato says discussions with the local population on how to bring lasting security to the area are continuing, our correspondent adds. Gen Hodges said several hundred police had been trained and would go into central Helmand once the situation was deemed appropriate.
British and Afghan troops are reported to be advancing more swiftly in the nearby district of Nad Ali than are their US and Afghan counterparts in Marjah.
Gen Carter confirmed on Tuesday a missile that struck a house outside Marjah on Sunday killing 12 people, including six children, had hit its intended target. Gen Carter said the rocket had not malfunctioned and the US system responsible for firing it was back in use. Officials say three Taliban, as well as civilians, were in the house but the Nato soldiers did not know the civilians were there.
Initial Nato reports said the missile had landed about 300m (984ft) off its intended target. Gen Carter blamed these "conflicting" reports on "the fog of war".
Speaking on Tuesday, Dawud Ahmadi - a spokesman for Helmand Governor Gulab Mangal - said that 1,240 families had been displaced and evacuated from Marjah - and all had received aid in the provincial capital, Lashkar Gah.
Operation Moshtarak, meaning "together" in the Dari language, is the biggest coalition attack since the Taliban fell in 2001. Allied officials have reported only two coalition deaths so far - one American and one Briton killed on Saturday.
The men from C Company - currently living at the Paraang forward operating base near Nad-e 'Ali - have faced fierce fighting since arriving in Afghanistan in October.
But commanding officer Lt Col James Woodham MC said the latest operation, in which they took control of the village Caowshal-Kalay from insurgents, would help secure the area. Maybe our publicity on the Marjah operation was to fix the enemy's attention there while we engage in a much broader operation to liberate the surrounding area. Ya think?
Surely we couldn't be that clever and devious. The Brits, on the other hand...
#3
I wouldnt exactly call Christian based fighters in Afganistan, Crusaders. No holy cristian relics of history in Afganistan for either Muslims of Christians, this is new ground for us to fight each other on.
[Dawn] Thousands of US-led troops fighting to capture a key Taliban bastion in Afghanistan risked becoming bogged down on Tuesday, running into resistance from mortars and scores of buried bombs.
"We are advancing slowly because areas have been mined," Afghan army chief of staff Besmillah Khan said on the fourth day of the massive offensive on Marjah, in the opium heartland of the southern province of Helmand.
Meanwhile, Nato said three Afghan civilians have been killed during the assault in southern Afghanistan, bringing to at least 12 the number killed during the operation.
The men died in separate incidents in Helmand province on Sunday and Monday. Two men were shot Sunday after being mistaken for militants in the crossfire between a joint Afghan-ISAF patrol and insurgents, the military said.
One of the men subsequently died of his injuries.
"The two men were initially believed to be insurgents. However the initial investigation suggests the men were caught in the crossfire between insurgents and the joint force," ISAF said.
Another man was shot dead by ISAF forces on Sunday, after failing to heed warnings to stop when approaching troops, and another man shot dead in a similar incident on Monday, the military said.
A massive force of 15,000 Afghan, US and NATO troops are taking part in Operation Mushtarak ("Together" in Dari), seeking to drive out militants.
Thousands of people from at least 1,240 families have fled the area around Marjah, a cluster of villages with a population of about 80,000, and are sheltering with friends and relatives, said the provincial government.
While death tolls are impossible to confirm independently, officials have said that 30 Taliban, two NATO soldiers and at least 12 Afghan civilians have been killed in the Marjah battle.
Limiting civilian casualties is key to winning hearts and minds in the operation against a Taliban force estimated at up to 1,000 fighters.
Remote-controlled bombs have hampered the progress of the assault in an area controlled for years by militants and drug lords.
"Hundreds of mines have been discovered in different areas," Khan said, referring to improvised explosive devices, or IEDs, which are the principal killer of foreign troops in Afghanistan.
"We are definitely finding more than we expected," said Lieutenant Josh Diddams, of Taskforce Leatherneck, adding: "It's a slow process."
Brigadier General Larry Nicholson, who commands the Marines in southern Afghanistan, expected the operation to last for 30 days, Diddams said.
An Afghan army officer, speaking on condition of anonymity, told AFP that troops were meeting "more than a little resistance" inside Marjah from Taliban armed with anti-aircraft guns, rocket-propelled grenades and 82mm mortars.
The Red Cross said IEDs planted on roads were preventing casualties from getting to hospital in the provincial capital Lashkar Gah, 20 kilometres (12 miles) away from Marjah.
A NATO air strike elsewhere in Helmand killed a Taliban commander known as Sarraj-Uddin, said to have coordinated foreigners fighting for the militia, and four Arab fighters, the provincial government said.
But the Taliban sought to compete with the Western and Afghan militaries who have journalists "embedded" in units, inviting journalists on Tuesday to tour the battle lines to witness the assault "with their own eyes".
That last sentence is interesting, implying as it does that the Taliban think they are looking the propaganda war.
Posted by: Fred ||
02/17/2010 00:00 ||
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#1
All NET reports indic that US-ALLIED forces are making solid, steady headway on all fronts - personally, I'm more concerned about what Country(s) outside of AFGHAN = AFPAK the Talibs will be retreating into.
#2
The Taliban have only had months to prepare defenses in that town to include tunnels under it between districts.
So far after four whole days, the Marines have still not eradicated all Taliban resistance. It must be a quagmire! FOUR DAYS and still they have not been able to completely eliminate the Taliban. Why they should have been able to wrap that operation up in 14.6 minutes according to noted military expert Zbigniew Brzezinski.
#3
since peace is the lack of conflict, and the fastest end of conflict is surrender, then it makes sense that all we need to do is surrender and we can have peace. after all, it would take far less than 4 days to properly surrender wouldnt it?
Posted by: abu do you love ||
02/17/2010 5:58 Comments ||
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#4
The thing that annoys me the most is the insistence that every civilian death is an avoidable tragedy, instead of being the understandable result of being in the vicinity of perforce imperfectly aimed flying ordnance. It's very sad when an innocent dies, but wandering through a battlefield is like juggling chainsaws in terms of risk for the untrained.
#5
The thing that annoys me the most is the insistence that every civilian death is an avoidable tragedy
Actually, civilian casualties are imminently avoidable: All the Taliban has to do is to tell the civilian population that they expect fighting in the area including aerial bombs and that they should flee the area until the fighting ends.
Instead, the Taliban knowingly allows fighting in area they know to have civilians and they take zero measures to protect them as real defenders would.
#6
Three civilians killed? The horror! Guess we shouldn't have wasted all these days subduing the Talibunnies with this ground offensive when we could have done it by air mail. We COULD destroy the village in order to save it.
#9
All the US would have to do to successfully engage the Taliban is:
- declare the area a battle zone, and urge all civilians to flee.
- set up blocking points on all possible escape routes.
- drop additional leaflets telling the civilian population that if they don't leave, they will be killed.
- ARCLIGHT the sh$$ out of the area for about a week.
- Go in and assess damage, kill any surviving Taliban, bulldoze the area flat, and build a new village on the site of the old one - a village with running water, electricity, and a decent sewage system.
- Keep a battalion on hand to prevent the Taliban from returning. The rest of Afghanistan will get the message.
Posted by: Old Patriot ||
02/17/2010 12:55 Comments ||
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#10
The problem with getting the civilians out before festivities commence is getting the civilians out. Yeah, exit stage left is a great strategy, but loading up the donkey cart with the mrs. and the kiddies and driving down the road under the watchful eye of the Taliban sounds problematic at best. The Talibunnies *want* civilians around. They make great human shields and every civie casualty is a media event and propaganda victory.
ARCLIGHT
Drinks! Hey, can we add 'civilian casualties' to the list of trigger words?
[Al Arabiya Latest] At least 1,240 families have fled a massive military onslaught against the Taliban in southern Afghanistan, many sheltering with friends and relatives, Helmand authorities said Tuesday.
No camps have been set up for the displaced lest they become permanent structures, said Daud Ahmadi, spokesman for Helmand Governor Mohammad Gulab Mangal.
"We deliberately did not give permission for the camps to be set up for the 1,240 families who are displaced because we did not want the camps to become permanent," Ahmadi told AFP.
The refugees are "either living with their relatives or have rented houses for themselves," in the provincial capital Lashkar Gah he said, adding that a number of international agencies were giving assistance.
The average Afghan family has five to seven members of all ages.
But Lashkar Gar is only one destination for the displaced, and Ahmadi was unable to say how many people had fled elsewhere.
Some 15,000 U.S., NATO and Afghan troops are pursuing a major operation in the Marjah and Nad Ali districts of Helmand to push out Taliban militants who together with drug lords have controlled the area for years.
The target area in the central Helmand River valley is said to be the source of much of the world's opium and a Taliban bastion.
Posted by: Fred ||
02/17/2010 00:00 ||
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[Quqnoos] A local Taliban commander and four Arab insurgents were killed Monday in an airstrike in Helmand province, an official said.
The Taliban commander described as a facilitator to foreign insurgents in Helmand's Washir district, north of Nad Ali, a key Taliban bastion where a major anti-Taliban offensive enters its fourth day.
Serajuddin, a key Taliban commander, and four Arab insurgents associated to the Taliban were killed in an airstrike in Washir, said Daud Ahmadi, spokesman for Helmand Governor.
Commander Serajuddin was a Taliban district chief in Helmand's neighbouring province of Farah during the Taliban regime that was toppled in a US-led invasion in 2001.
A purported Taliban spokesman, Qari Yousuf Ahmadi, said no Taliban operatives were killed in Washir and he characterised the deaths as civilians.
Posted by: Fred ||
02/17/2010 00:00 ||
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[Geo News] At least 7 Pakistani peacekeepers were wounded, two of them seriously, in an ambush on Tuesday in Sudan's war-torn region of Darfur, the joint African Union-United Nations mission and local sources said.
"An ambush took place near the displaced persons camp in El-Shereif, around 20 kilometres (12 miles) from Nyala," the capital of South Darfur state and the most important town in the region, said UNAMID spokesman Noureddine Mezni.
The peackeepers were in a convoy of four vehicles when they were attacked by unknown assailants, he said.
"Seven police were wounded, two of them seriously," Mezni said without providing further details of the victims.
However, a local source said the wounded were Pakistanis, which would make the first time soldiers from Pakistan have been ambushed in Darfur.
Acts of banditry -- including the theft of vehicles at gunpoint -- are common occurences in Darfur.
Posted by: Fred ||
02/17/2010 00:00 ||
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[Iran Press TV Latest] Houthi fighters in Yemen say they have withdrawn from an area near the Saudi border a day after they released a captive Saudi soldier as a good-will gesture to end a six-month war in north Yemen.
"We withdrew today from the Manazla front in the Malahidh region, near the Saudi border, and more precisely from Jebel Dahr Homar," Houthi spokesman Mohammed Abdel Salam told AFP on Tuesday.
According to the spokesman, 30 road blocks have been removed along this road, allowing the Yemeni army to reach the border and deploy along it.
The fighters offered an initiative to end the war when they announced a "withdrawal from Saudi territory and ending the war," last month.
Houthi leader Abdul Malik al-Houthi called on both Sana'a and Riyadh to end the conflict, which has so far claimed the lives of countless civilians and displaced thousands of others in the beleaguered northern villages.
Saudi Arabia, however, has continued its attacks on the region and has so far refused to release the Houthi prisoners it is holding in exchange for five Saudi soldiers--one of whom was released on Monday.
Meanwhile, Yemen insists that as well as releasing all prisoners and opening roads in the north, the fighters have to withdraw from government buildings, return the arms seized from security forces, hand over captured army posts and pledge not to attack Saudi Arabia.
Posted by: Fred ||
02/17/2010 00:00 ||
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#1
As boring as this protacted conflict has become, I've been thinking that this may indirectly help the West in the long run.
As long as Sunnis and Shias are fighting each other, and Iran is butting heads with all its neighbors, doesn't it help distract the Islamic world from its hatred of Israel and the U.S.?
Posted by: American Delight ||
02/17/2010 0:25 Comments ||
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[Al Arabiya Latest] Dubai police said Tuesday it is questioning two Palestinians suspected of involvement in the murder of a top Hamas militant, after having named an 11-member hit team travelling on European passports.
The two men, both residents of the United Arab Emirates, had "fled to Jordan" after Mahmoud al-Mabhouh was found dead in a Dubai hotel room on Jan. 20, police chief Dahi Khalfan told AFP.
He said they were extradited from Jordan "three days ago," pointing to a "strong suspicion" against one of the two who had met a member of the suspected hit team before the assassination.
Dubai authorities said they would seek assistance from the global police coordination agency Interpol and press individual nations to hunt down the suspects.
Khalfan announced on Monday that police were hunting six British passport holders, three with Irish passports, including a woman, and the holders of a German and a French passport, all of whom had managed to leave the UAE.
The Palestinian Islamist movement Hamas, which rules the Gaza Strip, has accused Israel of killing Mabhouh, 50, and vowed revenge.
Khalfan did not directly implicate Israel at Monday's news conference on Mabhouh's death. But he noted the possibility that "leaders of certain countries gave orders to their intelligence agents to kill" Mabhouh, one of the founders of Hamas' military wing.
Khalfan's account portrayed the suspects as operating with chilling efficiency, arriving in Dubai at different times, checking into different hotels and tailing Mabhouh from the moment of his arrival in Dubai to when he entered his hotel room. Some of the suspects even rode in the same elevator as Mabhouh to verify his room number and later booked a room across the hall, Khalfan said.
They paid for all expenses in cash and used different cell phone cards to avoid being traced, Khalfan said.
Posted by: Fred ||
02/17/2010 00:00 ||
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#1
I heard that Myboobs was "smothered" quietly in the bathroom ( hold his feet and keep him from kicking so much) of his luxury hotel room.
I would have loved to be there.
Found him with his face under the tap end of the bathtub and his expensive suit was ruined.
[Bangla Daily Star] Police arrested 35 more members of Islami Chhatra Shibir across the country yesterday as part of the ongoing drive after the killing of two students at Rajshahi and Chittagong universities.
With yesterday's arrests, the police have so far arrested around 435 Jamaat-Shibir men in the last five days.
Meanwhile, a Dhaka court yesterday placed 16 Shibir men on two-day remand in connection with a case filed on charge of militant activities. Around 100 Shibir men have so far been detained from different parts of the capital.
Police picked up 14 Shibir men from different places of Daulatpur, Khalishpur and Khulna Sadar, reports our Staff Correspondent in Khulna.
Among the detained 21 Shibir activists, RU student Abdul Halim reportedly escaped from Rajshahi to evade arrest.
Assistant Commissioner Anisur Rahman of Khulna Metropolitan Police said they picked up the Shibir men as part of the ongoing countrywide combing operations.
Motihar police detained 10 more Shibir men from different parts of the city and seven of them were produced before a court seeking remand, says our Staff Correspondent in Rajshahi.
Two Shibir cadres, who are also the student of Government PC College, were arrested at a mess behind the college with several books on jihad, says Our Correspondent in Bagerhat.
Officer-in-Charge of Sadar police Ahamad Ali said the Shibir men were arrested when they were holding a meeting.
BSS from Narail reports: Police picked up two Shibir leaders from Narail Government Victoria College campus. They were identified as college unit former general secretary Syed Masum Hassan and activist Ariful Islam.
Home Minister Sahara Khatun yesterday cautioned that tough action would be taken if anyone tried to create instability in the country, reports UNB.
Talking to reporters after attending a prize-giving ceremony at Maghbazar Shah Noori Model School, the home minister said, "There is no ground created in the country for movement. The government will resist if the opposition goes for any movement even then."
Sahara indicated a political counter-offensive in case the BNP-led opposition went for movement. She said the ruling Awami League is the most experienced party for movement as it is a pro-movement party.
Posted by: Fred ||
02/17/2010 00:00 ||
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France's highest court on Wednesday overruled a lower court's acquittal of five former inmates at the Guantanamo Bay prison and ordered an appeals court to rehear the case centering on terrorism charges.
The Court of Cassation did not immediately explain its reasons for the ruling, but a copy of its decision will be available Thursday, a spokesman for the court said. The French got their political mileage by tweaking Bush and the Americans. Now they realize they have unrepentant trained islamic terrorists on the loose who have access to potential recruits, subways, airliners, public buildings, sports stadiums. Reality is a bitch.
The high court said a new appeals court panel will be created to handle the case, said the spokesman on condition of anonymity because he was not authorized to speak publicly on the matter.
A defense lawyer representing two of the men criticized the ruling, saying it amounted to a "sinister page in the history of the judicial system" and "a great cruelty on a human level."
France is among the few Western countries to prosecute nationals who have returned home from Guantanamo. The acquittal had been a high-profile foreign disavowal of the prison, which President Barack Obama wants to shut down.
The Paris criminal court in 2007 convicted the five -- Ridouane Khalid, Brahim Yadel, Khaled ben Mustafa, Nizar Sassi and Mourad Benchellali -- of "criminal association with a terrorist enterprise," a broad charge often used in terror cases in France.
During the original 2007 trial, the suspects had acknowledged having spent time in military training camps in Afghanistan, but said they had never put their combat skills to use.
But last February, a Paris appeals court ruled that agents from the French counterterrorism agency DST who questioned the five inmates at Guantanamo in 2002 and 2004 had overstepped their roles, and overturned the convictions. The court ruled that DST could not act as both a spy agency and a judicial police service, which questions detainees under French law.
The men, who were arrested in Afghanistan in 2001, each spent a total of 2.5 to 3 years in custody at Guantanamo and in France, to which they were repatriated in 2004 and 2005. All seven French citizens who were at Guantanamo were sent home in 2004 and 2005. One was immediately released; another was acquitted in trial; the last five were convicted for roles in a terror group in Afghanistan.
The five were each sentenced to a year in prison. Because they had served more than that time before the trial, they did not return to prison after the sentencing.
Posted by: ed ||
02/17/2010 16:27 ||
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#1
Something has to be going on here as they were already released with time served on the original conviction. Can they be given additional time?
[Iran Press TV Latest] A bomb explosion outside a JP Morgan bank in Athens has caused only minor damage and no injuries.
No group has yet claimed responsibility for the time-bomb placed outside the offices of the second largest US bank by assets, located in the central district of Kolonaki, said a police official, who spoke on condition of anonymity.
On Tuesday, shortly before the bombing, a local newspaper received a warning call and in turn immediately informed the police. The area was then cordoned off, and ambulances and fire engines were put on standby.
The explosion only damaged the door, furniture, and computers of the bank and smashed some windows but did not cause any casualties, the police official added.
A series of explosions, big and small, has rocked Greece since December 2008, when a teenager was killed by a policeman. The incident sparked the worst violence in the country in decades.
Posted by: Fred ||
02/17/2010 00:00 ||
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#1
What possible motive could anyone have to bomb poor JPMorgan?
#2
I thought it was Goldman Sachs that screwed the pooch on Greece.
Oh well, seen one scummy investment banker, seen them all I guess.
BTW bombing US banks in Athens is an old sport in Greece. I was in Athens in 1977 and had an American Express Bank near the airport blow up in my face...I just walked out and had just put my bags in the taxi when kablooey....
Posted by: Karl Rove ||
02/17/2010 11:17 Comments ||
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#3
OK, Karl, can you establish your whereabouts when THIS explosion occurred?
#4
I thought it was Goldman Sachs that screwed the pooch on Greece.
I think it was both JP Morgan and Goldman Sachs.
Karl, something similar happened to Mr. Wife in about 1987. He'd just walked around the corner, when... But he was walking away instead of toward. I can vouch that he was at home due to snow when this one went off, though.
[Dawn] Four people have been taken into custody in connection with a deadly bomb blast at a restaurant in western India at the weekend, police said Tuesday, as they raised the death toll to 10, reports AFP. The four were detained as part of the investigation into the attack on the popular German Bakery restaurant in Pune, the city's police commissioner Satyapal Singh told reporters.
The domestic Press Trust of India news agency said one of the suspects was picked up in Pune, while the other was arrested in the neighbouring industrial township of Pimpri.
Television news channels said the two others were detained in Aurangabad, about 200 kilometres from Pune.
Singh added that a student who was among the 57 people wounded in the explosion on Saturday became the 10th fatality after he died of his injuries in a local hospital.
Forensic scientists have determined that the bomb, left in an abandoned rucksack, was made from a mixture of RDX high explosives, ammonium nitrate and petrol, the officer said, without specifying quantities.
The bombing was the first major strike on Indian soil since the assault on Mumbai in November 2008 and came just a day after India and Pakistan agreed to resume dialogue with a meeting between their foreign secretaries.
The government has so far refused to confirm media speculation that an India-based extremist group, the Indian Mujahideen, was responsible for the attack.
The Indian Mujahideen claimed responsibility for a series of bombings in New Delhi in September 2008.
Media reports have highlighted similarities between them and the Pune blast.
India blamed the Pakistan-based militant group Lashkar-e-Taiba for the attack on Mumbai, which left 166 people dead and more than 300 wounded, leading to the suspension of peace talks between New Delhi and Islamabad.
Government sources in New Delhi on Monday told AFP that the foreign secretary level talks, scheduled for February 25, would still go ahead amid calls from the main opposition party for them to be scrapped.
Posted by: Fred ||
02/17/2010 00:00 ||
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[Dawn] Two British nationals were detained for questioning in the Indian capital over suspicious behaviour near the international airport, police said on Tuesday.
The men were being questioned at the Radisson Hotel near the airport for "suspicious activity," New Delhi police spokesman Rajan Bhagat told AFP.
He would not comment on media reports that the men were carrying equipment to track distant aircraft.
The Hindustan Times identified the men as Stephen Hampston, in his mid-40s, and 56-year-old Steven Martin, and said they were detained on Monday night at the hotel after staff raised concerns they might be spying.
The Press Trust of India news agency said police found sophisticated equipment on the men that could track aircraft, including military planes.
"The equipment, which is believed to have the capacity to track an aircraft around 100 kilometres (away, is being examined by experts," the news agency quoted an unnamed senior police official as saying.
Posted by: Fred ||
02/17/2010 00:00 ||
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Most likely.
Not exactly a good time to be engaging in such activity at an Indian airport
Posted by: john frum ||
02/17/2010 12:58 Comments ||
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#3
The Brits are indeed nuts about plane-spotting, Halliburton, but it's kind of hard to read tail numbers from 100km away.
You could always tell when an SR-71 was about to land at RAF Mildenhall. The road between Mildenhall and Lakenheath would be lined with cars full of Brits with binoculars.
Posted by: Old Patriot ||
02/17/2010 13:04 Comments ||
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[Dawn] At least two dozen people including 12 policemen were hurt on Tuesday in Muslim-majority Indian-administered Kashmir when police clashed with residents mourning the deaths of two rebels, officials said.
The violence erupted south of the Kashmiri summer capital Srinagar after thousands joined the funeral procession of one of two rebels killed in a gun battle with soldiers the previous day, a police officer said.
"Over two dozen people were injured, 12 of them policemen," the officer said, adding four of the demonstrators suffered bullet wounds when police opened fire after being pelted with stones.
Police had used teargas and batons in an attempt to disperse the mourners who were chanting "we want freedom" and "Allah is great," said locals near Kulgam town, 70 kilometres south of Srinagar.
Posted by: Fred ||
02/17/2010 00:00 ||
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Indian policemen carry the body of suspected militant Roaf Ahamad after he was killed during a gun battle in Kulgam, some 70 Kilometers (44 miles) south of Srinagar, India, Monday, Feb. 15, 2010
Posted by: john frum ||
02/17/2010 14:02 Comments ||
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[Dawn] Three men accused of killing the lawyer for a suspect in the 2008 Mumbai attack have been arrested, but their motive appears to be unrelated to the ongoing terror trial, police said on Tuesday.
Joint police commissioner Rakesh Maria said the men arrested late Monday were affiliated with an Indian gang. They are accused of murdering attorney Shahid Azmi on Feb. 11.
Maria said Azmi's death apparently had nothing to do with his representation of Fahim Ansari, who is accused of providing maps that helped 10 Pakistan-based gunmen carry out the November 2008 attack on Mumbai that left 166 dead.
Maria added that the motive is still under investigation.
The suspects -- Devendar Jagtap, Pintoo Devram Bhagal and Vinod Vichare -- are all Indian citizens working with underworld leader Chotta Rajan, an Indian now living in Malaysia, Maria said.
One suspect remains at large, he said.
Posted by: Fred ||
02/17/2010 00:00 ||
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[Iran Press TV Latest] Indian Home Minister P. Chidambaram has condemned an attack by Maoist rebels that killed at least 24 police officers and a student in the east of the country.
"The attack was another outrageous attempt by the banned organization to overawe the established authority in the state," Chidambaram said
Some 20 Maoist separatist rebels on motorcycles and in cars attacked a police camp in West Bengal state's Midnapore district at about 5:00 p.m. local time (1130 GMT).
The Maoist rebellion began as a peasant uprising in 1967 and has now spread to 20 of India's 29 states. They claim to be fighting for the rights of the impoverished tribal peoples and other victims of state violence.
Meanwhile, security forces in the northeast Indian city of Guwahati detained a female militant who had a pistol and 100 rounds of ammunition in her possession.
The 35-year-old Tina Marak, a resident of Dimapur in neighboring Nagaland state, was arrested during a routine inspection of an auto rickshaw. Marak belongs to the Kuki tribe of Nagaland.
The Kukis have been demanding a separate homeland for people of Naga tribes over the past 60 years.
More than 20,000 people have died in the uprising in the Christian-dominated state.
Posted by: Fred ||
02/17/2010 00:00 ||
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#1
NEWS KERALA > REPORT: UNKNOWN PAKISTAN-BASED Let GROUP CLAIMS INDIA BOMBING [LeT AL-ALMI Group which claims to had split from main LeT].
Gen. Ray Odierno, the senior American commander in Iraq, said Tuesday that two influential Iraqi politicians now involved in blocking candidates in the parliamentary election next month had close links to Iran, which the general said was trying to undermine the vote.
General Odierno was unusually blunt in publicly expressing concerns about the actions of the two Iraqis: Ahmed Chalabi, who was a confidant of Bush administration officials in the prelude to the 2003 invasion but now is perceived as having supplied false intelligence to the United States; and Ali Faisal al-Lami, suspected of involvement in murderous activities of Shiite militants, including a bombing in Baghdad, accusations that he denies.
The two Iraqi politicians clearly are influenced by Iran,' General Odierno said. We have direct intelligence that tells us that.' He said the two men had several meetings in Iran, including sessions with an Iranian who is on the United States terrorist watch list. General Odierno spoke during a forum in Washington sponsored by the Institute for the Study of War, a policy research center.
Hard-line Shiite leaders in Iran are seeking to influence the outcome of Iraq's national election, he said, through public and covert action investments and other financial assistance to influence voters, as well as its continued support to violent groups within Iraq.
Mr. Lami, a close aide to Mr. Chalabi, is in charge of a panel that has disqualified several hundred candidates who had planned to run in the March 7 election on the grounds that they had promoted the Baath Party. Hardest hit have been Sunni candidates, and the action has raised fears that Sunnis are being marginalized by Iraq's Shiites.
[Dawn] A car bomb hit a police forensics bureau in the restive northern Iraqi city of Mosul on Tuesday, killing two officers and wounding nine other people, emergency services said.
Among the dead was police Captain Ahmed al-Juburi, while another five policemen were wounded in the attack, which happened at 7:30 am local time, police and medical officials said.
"We received two dead bodies and nine wounded," said Dhanoon Abdul Gheni, a doctor at Mosul's Medical City hospital.
"Four of them are seriously injured, and two of them received treatment and have been discharged."
A police officer speaking on condition of anonymity confirmed the toll and said the blast was caused by a car laced with explosives that had been parked next to the walls close to the forensics laboratory.
Posted by: Fred ||
02/17/2010 00:00 ||
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[Ma'an] A man reportedly detained for plotting to kill Palestinian Authority officials is not a member of the PA security services, a top security official said on Tuesday.
PA security spokesman Adnan Ad-Dmeiri told Ma'an that Mujahed Nimer, a resident of Qalandiya refugee camp, has never been a member of the Ramallah government's forces.
Nimer was arrested on criminal charges following a warrant issued by prosecutors, Dmeiri said, contradicting a report in the Israeli daily Yedioth Ahronoth that identified Nimer as "a top official in the Palestinian security apparatus."
Quoting a senior Fatah source, the Hebrew-language newspaper said Nimer, identified as a police officer, was apprehended along with four other members of a group, said to be affiliated with Fatah, for planning to carry out an assassination.
According to Ad-Dmeiri, however, Nimer's arrest was unrelated to to any plot to kill officials. He declined to say why Nimer and the others were detained, however, refusing to comment on an "ongoing investigation."
The security official described Yedioth Ahronoth's report as part of a "campaign against the Palestinian Authority."
Meanwhile, Israeli forces detained the head of the PA's preventative security services in Jerusalem on Monday. Muhammad As-Sayyad was seized at his home, and was expected be held for 24 hours of questioning.
Posted by: Fred ||
02/17/2010 00:00 ||
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[Mail and Globe] President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad warned on Tuesday that world powers would regret any moves to impose new sanctions on Iran, while stressing Tehran was still ready for a United Nations-brokered nuclear fuel-exchange deal.
Ahmadinejad's latest salvo at world powers came as US Secretary of State Hillary Clinton toured the Gulf to earn backing for possible sanctions against Iran for defiantly pursuing its nuclear programme.
"If anybody seeks to create problems for Iran, our response will not be like before," the hard-line Iranian president told a packed news conference in the capital, Tehran.
"Something in response will be done which will make them [the world powers] regret" their move, he said.
Ahmadinejad said negotiations over a UN-drafted nuclear fuel exchange were "not closed yet", and expressed readiness to buy the material even from Iran's arch-foe, the United States.
Last year the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) proposed sending Iranian low-enriched uranium (LEU) abroad for further enrichment, denying Tehran refining capacity powers fear could be used to help build an atomic bomb.
Posted by: Fred ||
02/17/2010 00:00 ||
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#1
His mouth just keeps on writing checks his ass can't catch.
His name translates out as "The Praised Descendant of the Most Highly Praised". His destiny is pulling that mahdi out of the well. or is aiming for cult status as actually being that mahdi. Either way, it's Froot Loops for breakfast today.
Mahmoud (Mudhead) warns that he is worried. He further worries that its gonna happen. And he knows its gonna hurt.
We will "regret" it? Mahmuddy definitely is.
Maybe we can make it hurt worse if Skinny at the WH were to actually do something ( like Leadership) definite for the dissidents in Iran...like fund them a little and ship in some guns. It isnt like we respect Iran all that much and they arent exactly liked by anyone else either...especially their neighbors.
There must be some Moslems somewhere who will put up a front for something "islamic" and nasty for Mahmud. False flags and chaos. What do we have in the swine candy basket?
Iran has Heroin problems...one out of every sixteen or so Iranians does dope. There is a LOT of Prostitution. They have a couple of whole Provinces down south where the Basj actually get shot by the busload by the drug dealers and then bombs go off. There is a lot of smuggling of foreign goods. That's an opening and an opportunity. There is a large community of Iranians in the West who dont care for the Mullahs and have family and business connections INSIDE. Recruiting them can be explored.
And there are ethnic divisions to exploit and loads of religious sects who are antsy. Let's introduce them to the same thing they do to others..and put a timer on it for a crowded Friday. Put it in a prayer rug....
What ARE we paying our Intell people for, their cheery smiles and their ruby lips? I want to see some well planned Thuggery not obsequious and supple backsides. Iran is a great big place with lots of borders, lots of vulnerabilities.
I know...why dont we prance like Democrats and sit on our PC arse.
They hate our guts and will kill your kids. And they are gonna get the Atomic and you can suck it when they do.
Posted by: Elias ||
02/17/2010 8:49 Comments ||
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I wonder if I could be paid for cheery smiles and ruby lips... Goodness knows I'm not getting paid for anything else! ;-)
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.
MARJA, Afghanistan -- Twelve bodies -- five children, five women and two men -- were wrapped head to toe in woolen blankets, lying in a neat row on the floor of the only room remaining in a house that had been blasted to mud-brick rubble by at least one and possibly two 675-pound rockets.
[Al Arabiya Latest] At least 1,240 families have fled a massive military onslaught against the Taliban in southern Afghanistan, many sheltering with friends and relatives, Helmand authorities said Tuesday.
[Quqnoos] A local Taliban commander and four Arab insurgents were killed Monday in an airstrike in Helmand province, an official said.
[Iran Press TV Latest] A bomb explosion outside a JP Morgan bank in Athens has caused only minor damage and no injuries. 
