Uzbek troops are reported to have retaken the border town of Korasuv, where locals threw out their leaders last week in a popular protest. A number of explosions and some gunfire was heard, but the takeover seems to have been largely peaceful with no reports of loss of life. The uprising's leader, Bakhtiyor Rakhimov, who said he intended to build an Islamic state, has been arrested. The uprising in Korasuv followed a bloody crackdown in nearby Andijan.
Hundreds of government forces are said to have arrived in Korasuv overnight. The residents of Karasov - which has a population of about 20,000 - drove out police and officials last Saturday, and were reportedly in control of the town until troops took it back on Wednesday night. Mr Rakhimov told the BBC's Ian MacWilliam on Wednesday that the people in the region had put up with President Islam Karimov for 16 years, and could no longer tolerate him. Residents said the main cause of resentment was the lack of work combined with the regime's tough curbs on private trade. He said that the townspeople wanted to establish an Islamic administration in the area, but he did not elaborate on the aspiration, or whether the town had any connections to the wider Islamic separatist movement thought to operate in the area.
Posted by: Paul Moloney ||
05/19/2005 04:03 ||
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Prague, 17 May 2005 (RFE/RL) -- Gunfire broke out before daybreak in Andijon despite an overnight curfew, though information about what is happening in the eastern Uzbek city remains scarce. Authorities in Tashkent say security forces have fully reasserted control there after recent violence that human rights groups say killed more than 500. Meanwhile, eyewitnesses say more people were killed as the Uzbek military opened fire at refugees trying to cross into neighboring Kyrgyzstan.
RFE/RL correspondents Gafur Yuldoshev and Andrei Babitskii report from Andijon that gunfire that broke out overnight under circumstances that remain to be clarified.
An initial report that security guards used their weapons to disperse residents trying to force their way into the city's morgue to retrieve the bodies of relatives killed in the violence that began 13 May could not be confirmed.
Agence France Presse reports the gunfire lasted three to four hours. The agency quotes policemen guarding the regional administration's building as saying unknown assailants opened fire on several security checkpoints.
Uzbek authorities blame alleged militants of the radical Islamist Hizb ut-Tahrir (Party of Liberation) for recent violence in Andijon. Talking to reporters in Tashkent on 14 May, Uzbek President Islam Karimov also charged that foreign countries were involved in the unrest.
Danged Samoans, there they go again.
But both Hizb ut-Tahrir and local rights group deny the official account of events.
Saidjahon Zainabitdinov, who chairs an Andijon-based human rights group known as Apellyatsiya (Appeal), says Karimov bears responsibility for the recent upheaval. "It was a genuine popular uprising," he said. "People had no political demands. Simply they've been driven to despair and poverty by the government's domestic and economic policy."
Karimov on 14 May said 30 people, including many government soldiers, were killed the day before as the army and police battled armed protesters to reassert control over Andijon. But eyewitnesses and local human rights groups say violence claimed at least 500 lives in Andijon alone.
In comments made to the Russian "Izvestiya" newspaper, the leader of the Ozod Dehqonlar (Free Peasants) opposition party, Nigara Hidoyatova, puts the overall death toll at nearly 750 -- including some 200 in other parts of eastern Uzbekistan near the Kyrgyz border. Hidoyatova said that her claims are based on research conducted by party members, who went house-to-house in Andijon and towns located near the Uzbek-Kyrgyz border, asking residents if anyone in their families had been killed during the violence.
Outside Andijon, the situation remains equally tense. Western media quote Uzbek refugees in neighboring Kyrgyzstan as saying the army shot and killed an uncertain number of civilians as they were crossing the border.
Residents of the eastern Uzbek village of Teshiktosh, 15 kilometers from Pakhtaobod, told AFP today they saw soldiers gunning down 13 unarmed people, including women and children, as they were trying to flee to Kyrgyzstan three days ago.
Rat bastards
It was not clear immediately whether the incident took place in Teshiktosh itself, or in Pakhtaobod. Also unclear is whether all casualties were civilians. Other eyewitness accounts suggest soldiers were among the dead.
The chief of mission for the UN High Commissioner for Refugees, Carlos Zaccagnini, told RFE/RL's Kyrgyz Service in Jalal-Abad, Kyrgyzstan, today that refugees from Uzbekistan are receiving asylum status. "We have information that 540 [Uzbek] refugees are in Kyrgyz territory, and we have also confirmed that yesterday the [Kyrgyz] Department of Migration, they registered these persons as asylum seekers," Zaccagnini said.
Posted by: Steve White ||
05/19/2005 00:40 ||
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TASHKENT - Uzbekistan's autocratic President Islam Karimov faced pressure at home and abroad Wednesday over a deadly crackdown, after foreign diplomats slammed a state-run trip to the site of the violence for its lack of access and an opposition group called on him to resign.
After days of steadily increasing criticism over deadly clashes between troops and protestors in the eastern city of Andijan, Britain, the European Union, the United States and the United Nations called for an international inquiry into the unrest last Friday. "It is a matter of grave international concern that these killings took place," British Foreign Secretary Jack Straw told BBC radio.
This won't be a UN-style inquiry either ...
"The government has one version, the opposition has another. It is of crucial importance for the stability of society in Uzbekistan, as well as for the credibility of the government of Uzbekistan, that we get to the bottom of what happened," Straw said.
"We need to see action urgently to address the appalling events in Uzbekistan," Straw said during a speech to a Washington think tank. "I call now for an independent, international enquiry to find out why the killings happened, the full nature of the killings and who was responsible."
Opposition activists have said that based on data collected in a door-to-door survey at least 745 people died after soldiers called to disperse an anti-government rally in the city of Andijan last Friday fired indiscriminately into crowds of demonstrators. Karimov's government has said that 169 people died and described the clashes as a battle between Islamic radicals seeking to overthrow the government and law enforcement officials.
The United States, which has been accused of toning down criticism of a nation it views as a key ally in its anti-terror campaign, was more restrained although Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice has called for reform and openness in Uzbekistan. "We certainly do agree that there needs to be a credible and a transparent accounting to establish the facts of the matter of what occurred in Andijan," said State Department spokesman Richard Boucher in Washington.
"And I'm sure the international community will be prepared to be part of that process, either supporting it or undertaking it."
Wonder if Karimov is counting his kreugerrands?
Wednesday's international calls came after foreign ambassadors taken on a tour guided by Uzbek officials to Andijan complained that the three-hour visit had been too brief and that they were denied access to the city residents. "We had no contact with civilian people," one ambassador, who requested that his name not be used. "The trip was well organized to convince us of their (the Uzbek authorities') version."
"Can we not see some people?" British Ambassador David Moran asked a deputy foreign minister who accompanied the group, which included ambassadors from Britain, the United States and France, as well as 30 journalists.
In other words, it was the French ambassador who requested that his name not be used. Typical.
"We were expecting to leave at around 2:00 (pm) and I was a bit surprised to find myself at the airport at 12:30 and had hoped to have some time to wander around by myself," said Moran.
In the strongest domestic criticism of Karimov following the Andijan clashes, a secular opposition group called on the 67-year-old to resign after 15 years at the head of this poor nation of 24 million people on the northern border of Afghanistan. The leader of the secular Ozod Dehkonlar (Free Farmers) party, a group that has not been registered officially as a political party, called on Karimov and his government to resign over the clashes and appealed on the international community to support its stance.
The Andijan clashes showed that "the present regime is not fighting Islamic extremism but is simply clinging to power by way of government-sponsored terrorism against its citizens," Nigara Hidoyatova, the head of the party, said at a news conference. She said the party wanted Karimov and his government to resign and for fresh presidential elections to be held within three months. The party also appealed for the international community to support its stance.
Public criticism of Karimov is rare inside Uzbekistan, where the Soviet-era Communist leader has tried to stamp out all opposition and where torture, according to rights groups, is systematic inside police stations and jails. Many people who oppose his regime are hoping that the violence at Andijan will prompt people to reverse the trend and speak out more against the government.
Posted by: Steve White ||
05/19/2005 00:35 ||
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PRIME Minister John Howard says he has no independent verification of reports that a Muslim cleric has spoken to Australian hostage Douglas Wood in Iraq. A Sydney spokesman for Australia's Islamic spiritual leader Sheikh Taj al-Din al-Hilaly has said the sheikh had spoken by telephone to an English speaking man he believed was Mr Wood. Mr Howard said today he had no other information than what was being carried in news reports. "We have no independent verification of that," Mr Howard told ABC radio in Brisbane. "I can't say whether that phone call did come from Mr Wood. My only source of that story is indirectly from the sheik's spokesman in Sydney. I hope that it's true and everybody is working to one objective and that is to try and get this poor man released."
Keysar Trad claimed that the Mufti told him an English-speaking man was put on the phone. The Sheik said he then asked: "Hello, who is speaking?"
"It's me, Douglas Wood," was the man's reply.
Mr Trad said Mr Wood was then taken off the phone and one of the hostage takers promised he would be freed "in the next few days". Sheik Hilaly claimed he also arranged for medication, badly needed by Mr Wood, to be handed over to his militant captors by an intermediary. The kidnappers announced payment for Mr Wood's release would not be necessary. "They said they would release him as a favour to the Muslim people of Australia," Mr Trad said. He said the hostage takers were still working out the logistics of any release and were concerned about the recent botched release of an Italian journalist hostage, who had her car shot up by US soldiers moments after being freed. The militants were unwilling to free two Iraqis snatched at the same time as Mr Wood. Mr Trad said the Sheik was also pressing for their release.
It is understood the Sheik informed the Australian response team, sent to Baghdad after Mr Wood was taken hostage, about the phone call. Details of the call have also been relayed to Mr Wood's family waiting for news in Canberra and in the US. Sheik Hilaly flew to Iraq last week in an attempt to secure Mr Wood's release, side-stepping Australian Government efforts to win his freedom. The 63-year-old Australian engineer has been in captivity for almost three weeks, held by a rebel group calling itself the Shura Council of the Mujahedeen of Iraq. For about the last 5 days this Shiek has been saying that Douglas Wood will be released in 24 hrs. The Australian community is becomming increasingly weary of his claims.
I'm very curious to know what JFM will make of it, as he was skeptical about the political mud surrounding the accession to power of the PSOE.
See also (hat tip Chrenkoff for thoses) :
- http://barcepundit-english.blogspot.com/2005/05/et-tu-abc-shortly-after-march-11-abc.html
- http://barcepundit-english.blogspot.com/2005/05/its-pity-but-i-havent-found-any.html
- http://barcepundit-english.blogspot.com/2005/05/one-and-only-fausta-of-bad-hair-blog.html
- http://badhairblog.blogspot.com/2005/05/
march-11-spanish-terrorist-attack.html
- http://www.eurabiantimes.com/archives/2005/04/
huarte_and_bene.php
- http://www.eurabiantimes.com/archives/2005/04/
fernando_huarte.php
- http://www.windsofchange.net/archives/006673.php
- http://www.windsofchange.net/archives/006625.php
It has long been understood that the Spanish socialists shamelessly exploited the March 11, 2004, terrorist attacks in Madrid's train station for political advantage. They did so with palpable disregard for a frightening fact: The far-reaching geostrategic repercussions of that incident which vaporized the ruling conservative party's electoral lead just days before the polling gave those seeking similar results elsewhere every incentive to engage in violence against other democracies' electoral processes.
On May 16, the Madrid daily El Mundo published a remarkable editorial that draws upon the paper's ongoing investigation and contains information potentially as explosive as the 3/11 attacks themselves: El Mundo suggests that, almost immediately after the 12 bombs went off in one of the city's busiest train stations, some in the Spanish police force fabricated evidence, then swiftly hyped it to the domestic and international press. The object seems to have been to support the oppositions' claims that Islamists angry over the government's support for the war in Iraq were responsible for the attacks.
At worst, the information uncovered by El Mundo could mean that the deadly bombing was actually perpetrated with the complicity of the same Spanish police bomb squad, Tedax, that was subsequently charged with investigating the crime. Either way, if the leads published in recent days pan out, it would appear that Spain's 2004 elections were stolen by terrorists, alright. But the terrorist operation that brought the socialists to power may have been an inside job in effect, a coup perpetrated by some of the same authorities who are responsible for preventing terror. Explosive stuff, if true. But all preliminary and speculative right now.
A blogger who writes under the name of Franco Alemän has helpfully interpreted and called the English-speaking Internet's attention to Monday's article written by El Mundo's Fernando Múgica. Highlights include the following:
Questions have been raised about the actual provenance of a knapsack dubbed "Backpack 13" and its contents (plastic explosive, a cell phone used as a trigger, and nails and bolts that would act as shrapnel to maximize the bomb's destructive effect). Shortly after the 3/11 attack, ABC News showed what it claimed as "exclusive" footage of both the purported backpack and its unexploded innards. Alemän's posting says:
According to reporter Fernando Múgica in the Spanish daily El Mundo. According to Múgica, at a Madrid police station "the officers wanted to help the ABC reporters, but when the camera crew came, they didn't have the backpack that had contained the bomb there, so one of the officers showed them a similar backpack which was the property of another officer." Said Mugica, "I don't know whether the network knew this or simply accepted that the bag they were shown was the real one."
Alemän says the journalistic investigation revealed that "the Tedax officers hid for three months [from] the investigating judge that an X-ray done to the real (not to the [one] staged for ABC) backpack showed that there was no way it could have ever exploded since it had unconnected cables. Something odd, since it had always been said that the bombers were technically proficient."
It seems that a phonebook belonging to Carmen Toro, allegedly one of the men who supplied the explosive used in the 3/11 attacks, contained the cellphone number for Tedax's chief. What is more, Alemän's posting incredulously recounts how, "When the investigating judge called the number, a chief's aide answered the phone and said that it belonged to one of the guys in the squad, 'who used the boss' name as a nickname.'"
The claim that the Aznar government wrongly and for political reasons initially blamed ETA for the attacks rests on two propositions derived from Backpack 13's contents: The nature of the explosive and evidence associated with its cellphone trigger. The type of explosive found in the alleged bombers' backpack was a plastic known as Goma 2 ECO, rather than the Tytadine that ETA had employed in its prior attacks. Alemän notes, however, that "the conclusion that the exploded backpacks had Goma 2 ECO in it was made because of what was found on the unexploded one not on actual forensic analysis of the explosion site, since apparently once it's gone off it's absolutely impossible to know for sure, [since] both Goma 2 ECO and Tytadine [are] two brands of generic dynamite."
The phone provided three pieces of incriminating evidence. First of all, on it were found to the fingerprints of one Jamal Zougam, the ringleader of the Islamist "Lavapies" cell now blamed for the Madrid attack. Second, the phone was supposed to be activated by its alarm and then vibrate, causing the plastic explosive to detonate. Since the bombers apparently made a novice's mistake by failing to connect the wires from the phone to the explosive with electrical tape, even the slightest movement of the backpack would likely prevent the cellphone's signal from setting off the bomb.
Even more curious is the fact that the phone in the Backpack #13 was a Mitsubishi Trium, one of very few on the market that require a SIM card to operate the alarm. Since, as Alemän notes, "it was the analysis of the SIM card which, less than 48 hours after the blasts, allowed the police to arrest the alleged perpetrators," the question occurs: Why would terrorists who owned a cellphone shop and are deemed to be very technically proficient deliberately choose to use a device that would lead the police to their door?
Speaking of cellphones, the Alemän blog titillates readers by offering further details from the unfolding El Mundo investigation. He reports that:
Cellphones used for March 11 were unlocked in a phone shop owned by... a Spanish police officer. And not just any police officer: It was Maussili Kalaji, a Syrian born citizen who had been granted Spanish citizenship several years ago and entered the police department when he arrived in Spain [despite] his past as an Al Fatah member and as an agent for the Soviets' intelligence services.
Apparently as soon as [Kalaji] left the [Spanish] police academy, he was assigned to infiltrate extremist groups and so he got acquainted with such nice guys as Abu Dadah, currently under trial for the 9/11 plot and who will be on trial again in the future for his role on March 11. He also was assigned to the security detail of Judge Garzón, now on leave and teaching at a New York university who insisted that, no matter what Aznar was saying on March 11, he knew from minute 1 thatâŠthe bombings had been by Islamic terrorists, not ETA. I think we know now why.
And that's not all: Kalaji's sister was the translator for the police in charge of translat[ing] the wiretapped conversations between the alleged March 11 culprits before the bombings. And his ex-wife, also a police officer, was the first to arrive at the scene where another key [piece of] evidence pointing to Islamic terrorists and not ETA was found: a white van with detonators and some tapes with Koranic verses. Socialists blame Aznar's government for hiding this but, of course, maybe its guys got there first....
The evidence presented thus far by El Mundo is, to be sure, inconclusive. Yet, it strongly suggests that at least some in the Spanish police may know considerably more about who was really behind the 3/11 bombings attacks that undid the electoral fortunes of the Spanish government, brought to power socialists hostile to its most important domestic and foreign policies and precipitated changes in those policies that could only encourage terrorists to interfere in elections elsewhere.
Given the stakes for Spain, for its relations with the United States, and for the democratic world more generally, there should be few higher priorities than getting to the bottom of what may be Spain's Terrorgate. As the current Spanish government might have reasons for resisting a no-holds-barred investigation, and those in Washington anxious to foster improved bilateral ties may be reluctant to press for one, it may fall to the sorts of citizen-activists and bloggers who thwarted Dan Rather's notorious attempt to hijack America's exercise of democracy in 2004 to find out precisely what happened to its Spanish counterpart.
#2
Except that it is not a cheap Clancy thriller, but the real story of a manipulation of opinion perpetrated by the MSM and elements of the police linked to the Socialist Party. And they are hints that perhaps there was something more sinister, that some of these socialist cops knew what was going to happen and didn't move a finger to prevent it.
Think in this: the guy of the Tedax makes to the train, smells "Goma 2" an explosive who has not been used by ETA for decades, and then he gets his mobile phone, calls his superiors and tells "Titadyne" ie the explosive presently used by ETA who stole tons of it. Experts tell the smell of both explosives CANNOT be mistaken one for the other, so it was no error. But meditate on the quickness of thinking: "I will report of the wrong explosive, so government will believe it was ETA and will look like liar when discovered it was wrong". The guy thought of all of it in just a fe seconds? No way.
And there are plenty, plenty of pre 3/11 contacts between suspects and police, a witness who has drowned on full view of two policemen who did nothing to save her, plenty of dark spots in the invrestigation. Ah, "El Mundo" is NOT linked to the party of Aznar and it is NOT a sensationalist paper.
I will post a summary of the troubling facts next week.
#3
I'd have to see a lot more evidence before I'd believe a word of this. Frankly, it sounds like some of the goofy attempts to claim that Bush/Cheney/Halliburton did 9/11, or that the Boeing didn't hit the Pentagon.
The socialists may be venal and corrupt, but the stakes from something like this going wrong are simply too high. And the Spanish have some experience, a few years back, in dealing with socialists who try to take over the country non-democratically.
A plot like this requires everything to work right: one thing going wrong blows the whole deal. It's like a Hollywood movie plot: for it to work, hundreds if not thousands of people have to cooperate in a monsterous, diabolical plot that is quick unraveled by our intrepid hero. All we're missing is the beautiful bottle-blonde.
Posted by: Steve White ||
05/19/2005 15:54 Comments ||
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#4
"Even more curious is the fact that the phone in the Backpack #13 was a Mitsubishi Trium, one of very few on the market that require a SIM card to operate the alarm. . . . the question occurs: Why would terrorists who owned a cellphone shop and are deemed to be very technically proficient deliberately choose to use a device that would lead the police to their door?"
Because they expected it to be blown to bits?
Color me dubious.
Posted by: James ||
05/19/2005 16:42 Comments ||
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#5
"Because they expected it to be blown to bits?"
No, they didn't. One of the wires was not connected, and no insulating tape was used.
Which, by the way, the Spanish bomb squad did not tell the magistrate looking in to this. They just said they didn't know why the bomb failed. The loose wire, and the lie, makes this even fishier. See here for more on that: http://www.eurabiantimes.com/archives/2005/05/311_fishier_and.php
#6
One of the main reasons Charlie Chaplin lost the election, was that many in Spain thought he did not listen to the people about what they wanted, and that had absolutely nothing to do with supporting Bush. Obviously it had some impact but his support was disappearing anyway. Donât be so arrogant.
Posted by: Get Real ||
05/19/2005 21:06 Comments ||
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May 19, 2005; The Turkish government reported that its troops engaged a group of PKK guerrillas on May 13 in Tunceli province (southeast Turkey). Nine PKK rebels were killed in the firefight. The firefight occurred as part of an anti-guerrilla operation involving at least 10,000 Turkish soldiers. Meanwhile on the political front, the European Court of Human Rights ruled on May 12 that PKK Kurd leader "Apo" Ocalan did not receive "a fair trial." Turkey is contemplating a new trial. Several analysts in Europe (including a report from Turkey) said the court ruling may "give the PKK a political boost." That makes sense. At the same, there also appears to be a large segment of Turkey's Kurdish population that's tired of the PKK. Ocalan is regarded as a "man from the past." A new trial might "revitalize" Ocalan politically.
In what is probably a further sign of the increasingly friendly relations between Greece and Turkey, the Greeks have of late been cracking down on various Kurdish organizations that have offices in Greece. While they have been careful not to avoid using Greek soil for operational purposes, several Kurdish nationalist organizations have maintained liaison offices in the country which are generally believed to be conduits for money and other resources.
Posted by: Steve ||
05/19/2005 10:00:54 AM ||
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Det. Campbell and his wife go to these extraordinary lengths because they and their children have been marked for assassination. A ruthless criminal crime family he spent years investigating and helped break up in 2003 wants them dead. Federal authorities confirm that the Palestinian gang known as the "Ghali crime family," which ran one of the nation's most prolific retail theft rings from Fort Worth, has hatched what one top official called a "credible" plot from behind bars. The plot targets Campbell, his family, and Campbell's longtime partner in the investigations, U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement Agent Scott Springer....
Agent Springer testified that Ghali had told a jailhouse informant "that he would like to stand before our families and us and peel our skin off with a razor."
...
Immediately after the attacks of 9-11, informants called the FBI's Joint Terrorism Task Force and other law enforcement agencies to allege that the Ghali crime family had built the illegal business back up. They allegedly were shipping millions in illegal proceeds to the Middle East to help finance terrorist groups.
#4
Naw. Send him to work in the kitchen, where he'll have an accident involving a knife, hot sauce, and a pork chop.
Posted by: Robert Crawford ||
05/19/2005 9:11 Comments ||
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#5
RC, I'm in favor of that, as long as his finger doesn't end up in my chili (/sarcasm off/)!
Posted by: BA ||
05/19/2005 9:56 Comments ||
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#6
...Further proof that Muslim Terrorism is an Iternational Crime Syndicate masquerading as a political religious "insurgency", complete with a co-opted BM to give legitimacy to a band of criminally funded, drug addicted, murdering rapists. And a band of SELF DESCRIBED, SELF CONFESSED Muslim murderers, at that. (as recently captured documents by coalition forces have revealed, alZarqawri himself justifying the indiscriminate killing of Muslims, ostensibly, one must presume, in "the name of Allah". )
But the BM has sided with the "insurgient" form of ritual mass Muslim killing-killers bacuase they share with them the fundamental Marxist organizing principle of destroying America and our way of life. Too bad for any /muslims not bent on violence; they'll be swalllowed whole because BM, (Big Media or Big Mother "meet the FoPPers", take your pick) has found them "impure" . Just as the K'mher Rouge (RED, in English) did, when they worked and starved 3 millions to death in Cambidia following the politicial weak knee-ed sell out of 57,000 of our soldiers in southeast Asia. Offering Vietnam, Cambodia, and Laos as concession in exchange for the containment of the spread of communism there. As opposed to the further spread of the this vile, murderous ideology to Indonesia, Malaysia, Australia, Thailand etc. All because the BM, knowing we would prevail, having prevailed in the abyssmal Tet offensive, and having won every battle in Vietnam, sent WallDer Krakenkeit (the WallDer Duranty of his time) out to lie, saying the Tet offensive, was not just a defeat for the American forces there, but a disaster. Don't believe me? just ask Joan Baez, who, along with others, publically apologized, in a full page newspaper ad, for opposing the war, on learning of the 3 millions murdered.
Thanks Big Media, you blood thirsty, blood sucking vampires, with you pagan ritualistic baby sacrifices, your "just let her die" ghoulish lust for murder. For your sedition, your treason. Your unique brand of narcissistic puritanism. All your -isms. your Nanny-police Gestapos. Go back to Hell and stay there this time. Or at least let the votes be counted, without yourinterfearance, your lawsuits, your packed courts in Florida, so we can at least keep you out of positions of responsibility. Go back to your court-ordered pornography, your filth, your "everybody does it" nihilism. Yours is not just an experiment that failed, yours is a catastrophe, a disaster, perpetrated by you and your bio-ill-ethical mad "scientists". You are not needed anymore, if you ever were. We will, we shall defends us, without your moral eqivalence, your political correctness, your lies, and your un-holy alliances, with the other, latest cult of murder and, without your "help". thanks, but no thanks. DISMISSED!
Posted by: Annie War ||
05/19/2005 12:58 Comments ||
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#7
Don't hold back, Annie. Tell 'em how you really feel.
#8
Now you know why so many people want to own guns, JIC....(JustinCase) I have a theory; Never trust anyone who suffers from phallophobia or autophallophobia---they are up to something nefarious....
#10
Bravo Annie!
Why do the institutional media choose to be the enemy? The best answer that I have seen comes, ironically, from arch-lefy Thomas Frank. In his landmark cultural history, The Conquest of Cool, Frank examines the symbiosis between Big Media and radical ideology from the 1950s to the present day.
More importantly, he examines the compelling reasons for this relationship. It is not McCarthy-style infiltration by radicals, though many such find the media a very friendly environment. It is not the fuzzy-mindedness of the pampered elites who see media prominence as their birthright, the next step up the social ladder (though there is plenty of that).
According to Frank, the characteristic biases of the media are driven by needs of commercial advertising industry, and in particular by a series of advertising tropes that originated at Doyle-Dane-Bernbach in the early 1960s. Recall that it was DDB, for example, who turned a mass produced product of Nazi Germany, the Volkswagen, into the very symbol of free-spirited counterculture. Frank even alleges that DDB and othe agencies created the hippy movement as a framework for advertising campaigns (though they did not coin the term itself).
Extraordinary claims, like this one, demand extraordinary evidence, and Frank povides it, in the form of internal ad agency documents from the relevant period.
Frank's overall case is long and detailed, but it can be summarized rather briefly: The "Left" as we know it today is a creature of the commercial media, little more than an advertising gimmick run amok.
Given this motivation, I think it is fair to say that the adherents of the institutional media culture, the internal culture of that loathesome industy, are probably the most evil and depraved large group of people in history. I am not excluding the Nazis and the Stalinists either.
After all, some Nazis and Communists acted from principle; hateful, perverse, and demonic principles, it is true, but principles nevertheless. The institutional media, on the other hand, are almost pure prostitutes, selling out the civilized world for profit and the basest kind of status.
Media beasts love to boast of personally having "no limits." Indeed, they would cheerfully promote cannibalism, incest, or human sacrifice if they thought there were a few ratings points and a larger market share in it. This is also true of non-commercial outlets like the BBC. They, too, have to compete for the audience to justify their funding, with the additional need to diffentiate themselves from the commercials without seeming "pro-government." In the case of the US non-commercials there is also a need to fish for private foundation money, which more and more means the approval of corporate and academic power-seekers who align themselves with totalitarian political elements.
A joint military and police task-force yesterday raided a number of Islamic boarding schools in Pattani, believed to be training grounds for insurgents in the deep South.
Over 100 officers searched six residences and dormitories in Yaring district and confiscated documents written in Malay and Arabic dialects, some of which contained pictures of Krue Se mosque and ancient cannons.
The contents of the documents are not yet known but officials believe several notebooks contained records of the movement of security officials and maps of several outposts, leading officials to believe they formed part of an attack plan.
Officials also confiscated electric wire, PVC pipes, a personal computer and a video cassette on Al Qaeda's terrorist training.
Aedunan Jeharsae, a teacher at an Islamic boarding school, and his three students, Wae-afit Kaetong, Masulan Damae and Abdullah Kajeh, were held for questioning.
Police found bullet holes on coconut trees and soft-drink cans in an area near the school's dormitories, leading them to believe it was used as a shooting range.
The raid was conducted after police received a tip-off from two suspects nabbed earlier in connection with an arson attack at schools in Panare district.
Officials said the group was suspected of plotting a major attack.
On Wednesday night, a defence volunteer was shot dead in Narathiwat province by a group of gunmen who stole his gun. Wae-ali Ha, 35, was killed at about 9.30pm while drinking at a teashop in Sungai Padi district because he refused to hand over his shotgun.
Minutes later, a bomb went off at a nearby roadside just as police rushed to the scene.
Three officers were injured when insurgents opened fire during an ambush.
They retreated when about 100 troops arrived at the scene.
Posted by: Dan Darling ||
05/19/2005 13:51 ||
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hopefully the first of many raids with weapons drawn
Posted by: Frank G ||
05/19/2005 18:55 Comments ||
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Not the similarity to the Iraqi Jihadi MO - bomb intended to kill first responders.
Iraq's top al-Qaeda terrorist, angered by a postelection lull in violence, ordered insurgents a month ago to intensify attacks, and his lieutenants began plotting their deadly mission during a secret meeting in Syria, a top U.S. military official said Wednesday.
The Syrian meeting, possibly attended by Abu Musab al-Zarqawi himself, has led to one of the bloodiest periods since the U.S.-led invasion two years ago. Nearly 500 people have been killed — including an Iraqi general mowed down in a driveby shooting Wednesday — since the country's new Shiite-dominated government was announced April 28.
Several Shiite and Sunni Muslim clerics were among the victims, raising fears that sectarian tensions could ignite a civil war.
A chilling, rambling Internet audiotape purportedly by al-Zarqawi denounced Iraq's Shiites as U.S. collaborators and said killing them is justified.
"God ordered us to attack the infidels by all means ... even if armed infidels and unintended victims — women and children — are killed together," said the speaker purported to be al-Zarqawi. "The priority is for jihad so anything that slows down jihad should be overcome." The tape could not immediately be authenticated.
The Jordanian born al-Zarqawi and his key militant leadership have met at least five times in foreign countries during the conflict, most recently during the past 30 days in Syria, according to the senior U.S. military official, who briefed reporters on condition he not be named.
He did not identify the other countries but said neighboring Iran, a Shiite theocracy, was not one of them.
He said the military obtained information during questioning of insurgent prisoners, from Iraqi military sources and field intelligence in determining that the most recent meeting had taken place in Syria.
He said that U.S. forces were constantly disrupting insurgent activities, but success was not guaranteed and could take "many years."
"If we fail, the different groups would be at each other's throats and warfare would continue for some time," he said. "If we take our foot off their throats, this country could be back into civil war and chaos."
The Syrian foreign and information ministries were unavailable for comment on the alleged terrorist gathering on their soil. Iraq's presidential adviser for security affairs, Gen. Wafiq al-Samarie, said he had "no information" about an al-Zarqawi meeting in Syria.
Syrian political analyst Imad Fawzi al-Shueibi, who is close to the Damascus government, dismissed the report as "part of an organized campaign against Syria."
"Syria has no interest in (helping) al-Zarqawi," al-Shueibi said. "If al-Zarqawi and his group win in Iraq, they will turn the region into a fundamentalist nightmare."
The United States, at the highest leadership levels, repeatedly has demanded that Syria do more to stop foreign fighters from entering Iraq across their porous 380-mile-long border.
At least one report suggested al-Zarqawi himself attended the talks, the U.S. official said.
"He (al-Zarqawi) allegedly was not happy with how the insurgency was going, the government was getting stronger and coalition forces not being defeated," the official said. "Some intelligence reports from captives showed that al-Zarqawi directed people to start using more vehicle-borne devices and (to) use them in everyday operations."
In response to al-Zarqawi's call, there had been 21 car bombings, mostly suicide attacks, in Baghdad during May, compared with 25 such attacks in all of 2004, the official said. Nearly 130 car bombs have exploded or been defused since late February, he said.
In one of the latest bombings, all that was found of the attacker was his foot taped to the car's accelerator, the official said, indicating he'd been forced to carry out the suicide mission.
"The spike (in violence) is a result of the meeting in Syria," the official said. "The folks are listening to what he said."
Despite marked increases in car and roadside bombings, the official said other forms of violence have declined in recent months. "They (the insurgents) are trying to get ready to build up again," he warned.
In Washington, Gen. John Abizaid, commander of U.S. forces in the Middle East, said he couldn't confirm or deny reports that the meeting had occurred but noted that "insurgent-inspired" activities are "clearly" taking place in Syria — though without Syrian government collusion.
"It's very important that the Syrian government do everything within its power to keep violence from migrating or being planned in Syria into Iraq," Abizaid said on Capitol Hill. Asked if he thought Damascus was doing enough, he replied: "No, I do not think the Syrian government is doing enough."
During a recent weeklong offensive near the Syrian border, more than 1,000 U.S. forces killed 125 al-Zarqawi-linked insurgents, the military said. Nine U.S. Marines died in the campaign that targeted ancient smuggling routes crossing the Syrian-Iraqi border, believed to be now used for slipping foreign fighters and weapons into the country.
Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice blamed Syria on Monday for complicating efforts by Iraq's new government to quell violence and appealed to Syria's Arab neighbors to force Damascus to close its borders.
Al-Zarqawi is Iraq's most-wanted terrorist, responsible for beheadings, assassinations and spectacular bombings, and has a $25 million bounty on his head — the same as for Osama bin Laden.
A chilling, rambling Internet audiotape purportedly by al-Zarqawi and posted Wednesday denounced Iraq's Shiites as U.S. collaborators and called this country's leaders traitors to Islam.
"What Sunnis have suffered and are still suffering from the Shiites is far worse than what they saw from the Americans," said the speaker purported to be al-Zarqawi.
al-Qaeda in Iraq also released a statement claiming responsibility for Wednesday's drive-by killing of police Brig. Gen. Ibrahim Khamas in Baghdad. Khamas' wife and driver were wounded, said police Col. Nouri Abdullah. The Internet statement's authenticity was unclear.
Harith al-Dhari, head of Iraq's influential Sunni Muslim Association of Muslim Scholars, blamed the recent killings of Sunni clerics on the Badr Brigades, the militia of Iraq's leading Shiite group, the Supreme Council of the Islamic Revolution in Iraq.
Brigade general secretary Hadi al-Amri denied the charge and said the Sunni association wanted to "push Iraq into a sectarian conflict."
Also Wednesday, U.S. 3rd Infantry Division commander Maj. Gen. William G. Webster said American forces will train Iraqi security personnel to better handle prisoners after reports that some local police and commandos mistreated detainees.
"American military authorities investigate every abuse they learn about and are training Iraqi security forces to better deal with detainees," said Webster, who controls coalition forces in Baghdad.
Among those to undergo training will be the feared Wolf Brigade, an elite Interior Ministry force Sunni clerics accuse of killing Sunnis. Iraqi authorities deny such claims.
Gunmen killed Transport Ministry driver Ali Mutib Sakr in Sadr City, a Shiite slum in eastern Baghdad, police Lt. Col. Shakir Wadi said.
In Mosul, 225 miles northwest of Baghdad, insurgent mortar attacks killed two Iraqis and injured eight others, including seven schoolchildren, police and hospital officials said.
Iraqi soldiers discovered the bodies of seven men, blindfolded and shot in the head, dumped in the Sunni Triangle town of Amiriyah, 25 miles west of Baghdad, said Dr. Mohammed al-Ani at Ramadi hospital. More than 60 bodies, many with execution-style gunshot wounds to the head, have been found across Iraq in recent days.
Posted by: Dan Darling ||
05/19/2005 02:56 ||
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amery the sheeps, and their companions the induvegans and most of all the ready to be burn again (every 75 years or so)zyos, are so stupid to belive the media crap that one men is bheind the uprising in iraq .... that is the reason why war is alredy lost!!!!!!!!!!
Posted by: viva la FRANCE ||
05/19/2005 4:23 Comments ||
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.com, could you possibly translate that mess into intelligible English? Or even intelligible French -- I have several dictionaries and a darling, formerly French-Canadian mother-in-law.
Sounds like one of the numerous muslim guests in France got the government to subsidize an internet connection (bless the state tit), but the French are delusional enough for viva la FRANCE to be a native.
Speaking of France and lost. Native French birthrate = 1.5. French muslim birthrate = 4.5. Current percentage of muslim births 30-35%. In 10 years 50%. In 30 years, more than half of all becoming adults will be muslim. Add in immigration (e.g. muslims going to the home country to back a spouse or two) and the transformation is even quicker. Pierre, be sure to yell out "But we are with you Mohammedans!" in the surprised and indignant way only the French are capable of, when Abdul slowly saws the blade across your throat.
Posted by: muerte la FRANCE ||
05/19/2005 7:12 Comments ||
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I didn't know there was such a angry French community in San Jose, CA.
Posted by: Steve ||
05/19/2005 8:45 Comments ||
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The French just need some motivation. We should spread the word that if the Mooselimbs take over they will require a 50-hour work week and eliminate five holidays.
Posted by: Matt ||
05/19/2005 8:52 Comments ||
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It's that same old Simi Valley dipshit. Ignore it.
Posted by: Fred ||
05/19/2005 9:47 Comments ||
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Induvegans? I'll have to check the database.
Posted by: The Mossad ||
05/19/2005 10:58 Comments ||
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...all that was found of the attacker was his foot taped to the car's accelerator, the official said, indicating he'd been forced to carry out the suicide mission.
Not necessarily. Taping the foot to the accelerator is insurance that the vehicle will still move if the driver is killed (body slumps and the weight is transfered).
DOUGLAS Wood is alive and will be freed "at any time" according to French negotiators working alongside the Australian hostage team in Baghdad.
The French connection was revealed as Australian mufti Sheik Taj al-Din al-Hilaly checked out of his Baghdad hotel room and headed to Dubai to treat a heart condition.
The sheik's spokesman said he would later return to Iraq.
"We believe he's alive and will soon be free," a French source outlined to The Daily Telegraph yesterday.
The breakthrough comes as Prime Minister John Howard said yesterday he had no official confirmation Mr Wood, 63, was alive or would be released.
The armed militants holding the Australian engineer are also holding French journalist Florence Aubenas, who was kidnapped in January.
A high-powered Australian government hostage negotiating team turned to Paris for help after it became clear that the Wood case was following a similar pattern to an earlier French hostage drama.
The Australian team has been in daily contact with the French embassy and its large team of Arabic-speaking diplomats who are plugged in to Baghdad's shadowy political and religious scene.
Two French journalists were freed late last year after France's top mufti negotiated directly with the Sunni sheik who controls the group holding Mr Wood, the Shura Council of the Mujahideen of Iraq.
A substantial "charitable donation" from the Wood family has also been made to help secure the release after the hostage team was told by the French that a similar donation clinched the deal to free the two journalists.
The French mufti also left Baghdad yesterday after finalising plans for the release of Ms Aubenas who is held by a group closely associated with Mr Wood's captors.
It is understood the French charity Medicins Sans Frontiere has played a central role in the negotiations.
Like Sheik Taj al-Din al-Hilaly, the French Muslim leader spoke with Ms Aubenas, who suffers from diabetes, and left Baghdad with assurances that she would soon be released.
Authorities now expect the captors, who are associated with a powerful Iraqi Sunni sheik, to release both hostages in the near future.
Sheik Taj al-Din al-Hilaly has spoken to the same Sunni contacts as the French Muslim leader.
"They are not held by an al-Qaeda group and no ransom has been demanded so they should be okay," a source with the French revealed to The Daily Telegraph.
Mr Wood's Canberra-based family was last night nervously waiting for any news and knew nothing about the latest reports.
Mr Wood has been held for almost three weeks after being kidnapped in Baghdad where he was operating a small engineering company.
He lives in California and is married to an American, Yvonne Given.
Three Algerian soldiers and two militants have been killed during an air and ground offensive by government forces against Islamic rebels in the mountains east of the capital, a security source said on Thursday. Members of al Qaeda-linked Salafist Group for Preaching and Combat (GSPC) ambushed an army unit late on Tuesday in the forests of Lakhdaria, some 100 km (60 miles) east of Algiers, the source, who declined to be named, told Reuters. Five soldiers were also wounded in the gunfight, which is reported to have lasted several hours. The authorities were not available for comment. They rarely comment on military setbacks in their war on militants.
A massive military offensive was launched against rebel strongholds in Algeria's north after 12 soldiers were reported to have been killed on Sunday in an ambush on a military convoy near the town of Khenchela, 600 km east of Algiers. Some local newspapers have reported that 16 soldiers died in the attack. Backed by ground and air units, the army has bombarded rebel strongholds in recent days, killing more than a dozen rebels, confiscating arms and destroying a training camp.
Security experts say GSPC, Algeria's main rebel group, has stepped up attacks in recent months to sabotage a general amnesty expected to be offered to rebels and members of the security forces this year. The government hopes an amnesty will end a conflict which has cost 150,000 to 200,000 lives and $30 billion in damage. "Pfui. We don' want no stinkin' amnesty. You can take yer ceasefire an' stick it where th' sun don' shine."
Militants took up arms in 1992 "just because" after canceled legislative elections prevented the likely winner, an Islamic party, from coming to power. Violence has sharply fallen in recent years, bringing back much needed investment.
EFL: BAGHDAD, Iraq (CNN) -- An aide to Iraq's most powerful Shiite cleric was shot to death Thursday in Baghdad, police said, the second of his aides killed this week. The attack is part of an upsurge in violence since the largely Shiite transitional government came to power. Many of the targets have been Shiites and Kurds. Authorities believe the insurgents are mainly Sunni Arabs.
The aide to Grand Ayatollah Ali al-Sistani, whose name is Sayid Mohammed al-Allaf, was shot to death in Sadr City, a largely Shiite neighborhood of northeast Baghdad, Iraqi police said.
The other al-Sistani aide shot this week was Sheikh Qasin al-Ghiri. He and his nephew were killed in a drive-by shooting early Sunday in eastern Baghdad, where there is a large Shiite presence.
Al-Allaf's assassination follows Wednesday's call by the Association of Muslim Scholars and the Iraqi Islamic Party to close Sunni mosques from Saturday dawn prayers until Tuesday dawn prayers to protest the treatment of Sunnis. According to the GlobalSecurity.org Web site, the association was created after the fall of Saddam Hussein and his largely Sunni government. It is the highest Sunni authority in Iraq.
The association's statement says the Shiite-dominated transitional government disregards the Sunni community's rights, and has violated "mosques, (the) holy Quran and private homes; in addition to the arrest, torture and assassination of scholars and thousands of youth and worshippers without proper trial, along with a deliberate marring of the reputation of Sunnis through official and non-official media." The statement demands the end of government practices, threatening a "stricter" response if it does not. Sunnis represent a small portion of the 275-member transitional National Assembly.
On Wednesday, the head of a Sunni group made fiery accusations against Shiites, directing his ire at a group that once was a militia for a powerful Shiite organization. Harith al-Dhari, head of the Association of Muslim Scholars, criticized the Badr Organization, once known as the Badr Brigade, the group that was formerly the militia of the Supreme Council for Islamic Revolution in Iraq, whose party has members in the government. Last week, the Interior Ministry announced that the Badr Organization helped authorities arrest a handful of people in connection with a Baghdad attack.
Sunnis are concerned that the Shiite government is allowing groups like the Badr Organization to behave like militias. Al-Dhari makes a reference to the arrests in a statement, referring to four Palestinians who were seized.
"We knew the sides that stand behind the assassinations of imams, sheikhs, and prayers. They are the same sides that cordoned off the camp of our Palestinian brothers in al-Baladiat area to take them out of the country. They are the Badr militant group," al-Dhari said. "All the world should know that we are heading toward a catastrophe, only God knows when it ends. This is our warning."
Posted by: Steve ||
05/19/2005 10:07:15 AM ||
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trying to get that civil war jumpstarted? Or Tater's boyz/Iranian intrigue?
Posted by: Frank G ||
05/19/2005 10:59 Comments ||
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Interstingly, this blog from Saudi is run by a Shia. He reports that someone in the Kingdom nominated Ayatollah Sistani for the King Faisal Award for Serving Islam, and correctly notes that the Wahhab community would complain. He has very interesting insights, though most of his links are to articles in Arabic.
May 19, 2005; Abu Musab al Zarqawi and his "al Qaeda in Iraq" are being picked apart. One result of this is more knowledge of exactly what al Zarqawi and his organization are doing, and why (or at least the reasons they give themselves). All this comes from the mass of recently captured documents, and arrest of people who have worked for al Zarqawi. All this has revealed that, in the last two years, al Zarqawi and his chief lieutenants have met, at least five times, in nearby Syria or Jordan, to plan their strategy. Such meetings inside Iraq are considered too dangerous because of the constant presence of American intelligence efforts, and the speed with which American troops react once they have the scent. One such meeting was held about a month ago, in Syria, and al Zarqawi ordered a maximum effort to kill Americans, even if many Iraqi women and children were killed in the process. That campaign did increase, by about twenty, the number of Americans killed, but it also killed over 500 Iraqis, and over 300 terrorists. Al Zarqawi apparently considers this a victory.
Al Zarqawi was always known as something of a thug, whose solution to any problem was the application of more violence. It was pure chance that he was the most senior al Qaeda guy in Iraq when Saddam fell. Al Zarqawi may not be a brilliant strategist, but he knows how to avoid capture, and gives rousing speeches to the troops. He is a true believer, and willing to kill anyone who gets in his way. The Sunni Arab Iraqis who are backing al Qaeda (with cash, safe houses, and technical assistance) face death as "traitors" if they try to withdraw this support. Even with that threat, many Iraqi Sunni Arabs are backing away from al Qaeda and the wild eyed al Zarqawi. Sometimes its because they have lost a family member to a terrorist attack, but often its because their clan or tribe, because of many such losses, has decided to give peace, and democracy, a chance.
In response to faltering Iraqi support, al Zarqawi has been bringing in more foreigners. This has been produced a mixed lot of volunteers. When you call for all suicidal religious zealots to join you, some strange people will show up. Autopsies of suicide bombers has revealed that three of them had Downs Syndrome (a genetic disorder that results in mental retardation). Islamic countries tend to keep the mentally ill at home, living in extended families. Those who are able to get about, can come and go as they please, and some have apparently come to Iraq to die for Islam. This apparently explains the suicide car bombs that have been set off by remote control, even though a suicide bomber was at the wheel.
Iran has been appalled at this slaughter, and wants no part of it. Iran's foreign minister visited Iraq this week, and pledged to stop the movement of al Qaeda members through Iran. Despite the anti-Shia tone of al Qaeda propaganda, Iran has long looked the other way as al Qaeda moved people and material through Iran. It will be difficult to stop all of this, because not all the senior clerics who control (but do not run) the Iranian government, believe al Qaeda is on the wrong track in Iraq. Even Iran has it's al Zarqawis.
Many of the al Qaeda volunteers are from Saudi Arabia. This makes sense, as most of the money, and Islamic conservatism that created al Qaeda, came from Saudi Arabia. The intellectual foundations of the movement came from Egypt (the Moslem Brotherhood movement). There have been a number of Egyptians found among the al Qaeda dead in Iraq. Many of the foreign volunteers balk at al Zarqawi's "kill 'em all" tactics, and return home, or get killed making futile, and suicidal, attacks on U.S. troops or bases. Thus al Zarqawi is increasingly dependent on the mentally ill, or morally depraved, to carry out his "kill 'em all" attacks.
Saudi Arabia is at war with al Qaeda terrorists at home, where the government has wiped out most organized al Qaeda operations. The Saudis won't admit it, but they are willing to let individual Islamic terrorists head north to Iraq. That saves the Saudi police the trouble of finding them, and the Saudi courts and prisons the effort to deal with them. "Up north" these murderous young men find either death, or a reality check. Some, however, are impressed with the efficiency of the Baath Party officials in organizing the killing campaign. Some of the Saudi volunteers are returning home better educated in the ways of conducting terror campaigns. As a result, the Saudi police are still looking for Islamic terrorists, especially those who have gone north, survived, and come home. These are dangerous men.
Meanwhile, al Zarqawi has to deal with leading a lot of deranged and depraved men. This is becoming almost comical, if it weren't so tragic. Mass murderers and mental incompetents managed by Saddam supporters trying to restore a dictatorship, all led by a Jordanian thug with a one track mind and a fast mouth. Welcome to Iraq.
Posted by: Steve ||
05/19/2005 9:55:07 AM ||
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"Iran has been appalled at this slaughter, and wants no part of it."
Does anyone else find this declaration absurd? MM nuclear brinksmanship inviting an array of devastating military actions - and they're appalled by Zarqi's car bombs?
WTF? Nah, StrategyPage pulled this out of their ass.
#4
More a matter of self-preservation than humanitarian motives. There are religious nut-cases; the kind that think the present theocracy is too lenient and secular. And the mullahs would like to keep what they have going.
#5
Iran isn't infiltrating anyone of use to Zarqawi for the very simple reason there are (almost) no Sunni Arabs in Iran or in any place where infiltrating through Iran would make sense. It isn't happening, irrespective of whether the Mullahs want it to happen or not.
#7
Actually, I think Iran is providing some logistical and monetary support to Anser al Islam which is a terrorist group that occasionally cooperates with Al Q but mostly goes its own way.
"Iran has been appalled at this slaughter, and wants no part of it."
Does anyone else find this declaration absurd? MM nuclear brinksmanship inviting an array of devastating military actions - and they're appalled by Zarqi's car bombs?
WTF? Nah, StrategyPage pulled this out of their ass.
Perhaps not. They killed lost millions in their war with Saddam Hussein, and it would probably make their situation a lot less secure if they were found to be surreptitiously supporting Ba'athists allies of him in Iraq today.
Posted by: Phil Fraering ||
05/19/2005 14:32 Comments ||
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Jubo Dal leader Criminal killed in 'encounter' 'crossfire' in city
Members of the Rapid Action Battalion (RAB) gunned down an alleged criminal in an encounter with the gangsters at the city's Sutrapur area in the small hours of Wednesday. According to the RAB sources, Salah Uddin Mehedi (35), son of late Jamal Uddin, resident of 79 Distillery Road at Gandaria under Sutrapur police station was killed on the spot during a gun battle between the members of RAB-3 and a gang of miscreants at Lama Bazar, Gendaria, at about 3:00 am.
Damm miscreants, always stirring up trouble. Why can't they just stick to being hooligans and ruffians like the other kids?
Acting on a tip-off, the members of the RAB cordoned a secret den of the miscreants at Lama Bazar area at about 2:45 am. RAB was informed that a gang of miscreants gathered there and taking preparation to create law and order situation during hartal hours on Wednesday.
I'm not sure what the hell that last part was about.
Sensing danger, the miscreants opened fire on the RAB personnel and also hurled about seven cocktails.
"It's the RAB! Get em, or it's crossfire time for us!"
"They're lobbing martinis at us! Go get 'em, boys!"
RAB also replied with the gunshots in an encounter, which erupted a bloody gun battle between the RAB and the gangsters.
That's right, this is a "encounter", not a "crossfire".....
Salah Uddin Mehedi received fatal injuries and was reportedly killed on the spot RAB sources added.
......not that it makes much difference to old Salah there.
The body of the victim was sent to Dhaka Medical College and Hospital (DMCH) morgue for autopsy.
"Another one just came in, Dr. Quincy" "Dammit, we haven't cleared last nights backlog yet! Just park him in the corner, Sam, it's not like he's going anywhere"
RAB claimed that Mehedi was accused in several criminal cases including murder and drugs dealing.
And now for todays opposing viewpoint...
The cases were filed for political reasons and he was on bail in all the cases, Salahuddin's relatives said, adding that former president of ward No 81 Jubo Dal and presently cooperatives secretary of Dhaka Mahanagar (South) unit of Jubo Dal, Salahuddin exported vegetables to middle-eastern countries.
and Don Corleone imported olive oil
But refuting the allegations, the family members of Salah Uddin Mehedi said that some plain clothes police personnel arrested him from a relatives house at Islambag under Lalbag police station at about 12;30 am. He was later handed over to the RAB.
That would in fact qualify this as a "crossfire" incident
Salauddin's sister Anwara, meantime, said one Arshad, who claimed to be a sub-inspector (SI) of Lalbagh Police Station, took Tk 30,000 from them for Salahuddin's release. "SI Arshad phoned us in the evening to inform us about Salahuddin's arrest and proposed that he would arrange my brother's release on payment of Tk 5 lakh," she said.
"We paid him Tk 30,000 in front of Gulshan Ara City market in Kotwali area at 8:00pm last night and he asked us to pay the rest two hours later," Babul, a brother-in-law of Salahuddin said, adding that they did not find Arshad when they went there again.
How do you say "Screwed" in Bangladeshi?
But SI Sekandar Ali, duty officer of Lalbagh Police Station, told The Daily Star that police did not arrest Salahuddin and there was no SI at the police station named Arshad.
"Who? Never heard of him."
Anwara Begum, elder sister of the slain Mehedi told the reporters that RAB killed her brother in the name of encounter, though he was not a criminal at all. She also said Mehedi got married Pinky in January last and was involved in vegetable export business.
Pinky?
Posted by: Steve ||
05/19/2005 9:17:58 AM ||
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Pinky?
It's a Bangladeshi thing, you wouldn't understand...
Israel will target any Palestinians who fire mortars at Israeli communities, Israeli security chiefs announced Thursday, signaling a further erosion of a shaky Mideast truce. The warning came in response to two days of mortar fire targeting Jewish settlements in Gaza and Israeli border towns. The shelling began after Israeli troops killed two Hamas militants.
On Wednesday, Israel resumed using helicopter gunships to attack militants, killing a Hamas member in a missile strike against a group of militants firing mortars, the first such strike since an informal truce was declared Feb. 8. On Thursday, Palestinians fired three more mortars and a rocket at Jewish settlements in Gaza and at nearby Israeli communities.
Israeli Defense Minister Shaul Mofaz said during a meeting with security chiefs that Palestinian police were not fulfilling their obligations to stop the militants. Mofaz said he would not allow Israelis to be harmed and would exact a price for attacks by militants, according to participants in the meeting speaking on condition of anonymity.
Israeli officials warned the flare-up in violence could delay Israel's planned withdrawal from 21 Jewish settlements in Gaza and four in the West Bank if Israel is forced to launch a new military campaign against Palestinian militants.
"If there is a situation where the Palestinians will use terror against Israel during the evacuation period, then I don't see us carrying out the evacuation," Deputy Defense Minister Zeev Boim told Israel Radio. "First we will have to deal with the terror, and only then carry out the (withdrawal)," he said.
While Sharon has vowed the withdrawal would not take place under fire, Mofaz has promised there would be no further delays in carrying out the plan. The pullback has already been delayed from July to mid-August, following a Jewish period of mourning. Rest at link.
Arm the settlements with mortars, not the 81mm, but the building leveling 120mm. If they get fired upon, then fire back until the barrel wears out.
Posted by: ed ||
05/19/2005 07:59 ||
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Israel will target any Palestinians who fire mortars at Israeli communities, Israeli security chiefs announced Thursday, signaling a further erosion of a shaky Mideast truce
Self-defense = moral equivalent of a terror attack via mortars. Biased F*&kers
Posted by: Frank G ||
05/19/2005 9:35 Comments ||
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I hope that Israel is fast-tracking the construction of the Wall. The sooner they completely separate from the Paleos the better the Iaraelis will be. After checking out the sermon recently on Paleo PA TV by MEMRI, I would say that there is no hope for these folks.
What ed is talking about is counterbattery fire. The PA is either impotent in getting a lid on Hamas and others or they are tacit accomplices. Bottom line, the PA is not up to the job of holding up its end of the bargain. Israel should announce that they are going to shut off the water to Gaza and let them pound sand.
Posted by: Alaska Paul ||
05/19/2005 10:55 Comments ||
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Israel won't shut off the water, that's inhumane, regardless how effective it would be. Unfortunately, most of the peace-desiring Palestinians migrated out long ago (lots of them settled in the States, expecially the Christians).
#4
This is the problem with a "truce". A truce IS NOT permanent cessation of hostilities. If all the Paleos do is keep insisting on a truce of one kind or another after an interval of fighting, then they are not serious about the idea of settling this dispute on anything other than terms that totally favorable to them. This whole repetitive attack/truce cycle is nothing more than a continuous buying of time, the intent being to wear down the bigger parties involved into pressuring Israel to give up more than they should.
TOKYO - Afghan Foreign Minister Abdullah Abdullah ruled out an amnesty for the leader of the ousted Taleban regime and a most wanted warlord after a commission suggested bringing them into the political mainstream. Afghanistan's reconciliation commission said on May 9 that former Taleban leader Mullah Mohammed Omar and veteran guerrilla Gulbuddin Hekmatyar could be pardoned if they disarmed and obeyed the new government. But Abdullah, in an interview published Thursday in the Yomiuri Shimbun, Japan's top-selling daily, dismissed the proposal by the autonomous commission. "The two men are terrorists who are said to have links with the international terrorist group Al Qaeda. They should not be part of that" amnesty offer, he said.
They're also increasingly irrelevant.
Omar has been fleeing on the run since his hardline Islamic regime was toppled in a US-led invasion following the September 11, 2001 attacks in the United States. A Taleban source earlier said Omar would not accept an amnesty.
Hekmatyar, a former prime minister and warlord who throws like a little girl fought the Soviets in the 1980s, heads the fundamentalist Hezb-i-Islami faction and has been declared a terrorist by Washington for trying to destabilize Afghanistan. Afghan President Hamid Karzai offered an olive branch to rank-and-file Taleban fighters last year and said all but a hardcore of 150 militants wanted for human rights violations would be able to rejoin the political process.
Posted by: Steve White ||
05/19/2005 00:25 ||
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#1
Moderate Muslim Watch.
In other news, the Afghan minister for Womens affairs (she ran for Prez and lost) has said that Afghanistan should have relations with all of Americans allies, including Israel, and she suggested that Afghan Jews abroad should invest in Afghanistan. Foreign Minister Abdullah said that recognition of Israel would have to wait for a formal peace agreement and 2 state solution (he might as well have said it would have to wait till Pakistan goes first, to insure the safety of Afghanistan, but of course he didnt)
#2
Lol! Oh my! With a negative threshold, anything, anything at all no matter how ethereal or merely gestural, triggers. Lh, with this affectation you define pretentious. Keep it up, it's precious.
#3
Just suggesting that a Muslim country should have relations with Israel can get a person killed in that part of the world, .com. Foreign Minister Abdullah is the norm, not including the many who will accept nothing less than Hitler's Final Solution, achieved. I agree with Liberalhawk on this one.
Posted by: Frank G ||
05/19/2005 18:58 Comments ||
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#5
Lol! You're so right, tw - I don't know shit. Whom am I actually mocking, Frank? Nah, nevermind.
Absolutely. Lh should continue to drop his precious Turds of Wisdom along the Trail of Turds. Fred should institute a Turd Watch, complete with email alerts, so people can zoom to the latest Lh dump. These are not mere brain farts, nay - these babies will green up RB. And why stop there, eh? - he should expand his fertilization program to other topics. Hell, all topics! No one else is so finely attuned to nuance, truth, and wisdom. No one else is so self-sanctimonious. No one else so full of the raw material required. Such a fit - and purest serendipity, not pretentious trollery, nay. It brings a tear to my eye.
Lead us, oh great Lh. Your people call to you, beg of you, lead us!
#6
One final observation to frame this with some rational perspective.
There are, I guess, 3 things likely to happen in the clash of civilizations between Islam and Freedom...
Wind Down.
Same, Same.
Spiral Out of Control.
In none of these can I see Moderate Muslims playing any positive role. When the heat's on, they will be "radicalized" either pro-jihadi or anti-jihadi - and there's no substantive evidence the latter has or ever will occur. They're merely delicate baggage for us as they are because we abhor collateral damage, but they're a resource pool for the bad guys. The positive connotation is a canard. They are not our friends, they are either guilt objects or an enemy resource.
The Moderate Muslim is, IMHO, much like Turkey or Burlesconi. Someone upon whom you cannot depend, when the pressure's on - except to join the other side. Learn from experience or repeat mistakes. And that's that.
Where, from here?
More of the same - open hostility and war when necessary, but nothing definitive by either side. A grinding slog through the morass of self-limiting PC-istic BS, bleeding from a thousand cuts, dragging on. Until, of course, other building conflicts, such as China, find common cause.
Winding down - I see no reason why this might happen, but I had to include it for completeness. If the Caliphatists lose steam, they will likely step up ops in an attempt to spur support, as the ZarqiBoyz are doing in Iraq. As far as I can see, the Islamists are incompetent boobs - a good thing - and can't manage to mobilize large numbers of the fence-sitters and cannon fodder at once on command. Since they easily outbreed the kill rates, flypaper notwithstanding, it will never end. Certainly, since the hate breeders, the Imams, are immune from accountability, this option is a non-starter.
Ramp up / Spin out of control - A Big Hit or three, to add to the other hits they've already scored, will finally tip over the reticence of regular folks to accept the facts: they really are at war with Islam. And then Shit Really Happens. Mobilization will creep up on both sides, subconsciously. Not actually an organized thing, but a cumulative thing - for both sides. Push / Shove. Rock / Hard Place. Endgame.
The Moderate Muslim is a canard, a straw man, a Tojan Horse - far more a danger than an asset.
#7
I'd have to agree the Islamists rule the herd with the rest of teh sheep silent, afraid they'll be slain by their own. I see "moderate muslim" as embracing only the non-practicing
Posted by: Frank G ||
05/19/2005 21:26 Comments ||
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#8
.com, if I thought you didn't know shit, I would have said so. I know you don't see any real alternative to fry 'em up, and there are many days when I feel unhappily forced to agree with you.
But -- do you remember the story in Genesis, about the destruction of the cities of Sodom and Gommorrah? (spelling?) Later comes the whole Pillar of Salt thingie, but before that, God tells Abraham that the two cities are so full of evil people that He is going to wipe them out. And Abraham argues with God that it would not be fair to destroy all if there are some good men there. So God agrees, and promises not to destroy the cities if 100 good people can be found. Abraham eventually bargains Him down to 10. As we all know, in the end the only good man was Abraham's nephew, Lot (he of the salty wife), who manages to escape the destruction with the rest of his family.
To make a short story long, Liberalhawk is playing Abraham to your fry 'em all Godness (no blasphemy intended here, guys, especially as .com is one of our resident atheists, ok?). LH is trying to find the 100 good people so that the whole of Islam need not be destroyed. This may well be a fruitless exercise, but I cannot say he is wrong to make the attempt, nor will anything change while he is doing so --- except perhaps the measure of your blood pressure.
And I promise solemnly to tell you clearly when I think you're full of shit. Fair?
Here. Have a cup of tea while you decide whether to blast me where I sit. ;-)
#9
Though I believe the Moderate Muslim is a Myth - I posted the second bit in anticipation of this moment.
So what, if there are N "Moderate Muslims"? They aren't Lot. That second post is keyed upon what we call a History Match in the oil biz. The logic (or simulation model) uses knowns to test model accuracy before anyone trusts the future predictions. No different from demanding that theories match experience. What is our experience, pray tell, if not as described therein? They are either baggage or simply inactive enemy.
The positive connotation is false. Inactive is neutral, at best. A resource pool is not neutral.
Muslim First. It's a fact that will, someday, become so obvious as to be an accepted figure of speech and rule of thumb.
#10
BTW. I reached "fry 'em up" the hard way. And I do not want to have to explain it to my grandchildren, should I live long enough to converse with them. I just finally realized that we won't be given the choice. It will be made for us while we're still ditherin' about what shit means and whether we're "confortable" with what it implies. Life has a way of forcing things.
#11
active muslim will equal enemy of a lrage eraged power on the next attack on American soil - do they understand? I don't know, and don't care anymore
Posted by: Frank G ||
05/19/2005 22:36 Comments ||
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#12
A good friend is very leftist. Today he said this about the Pepsico speech: Interesting. I suppose the speaker is feeling somewhat like our state's governor at the moment. She shouldn't, as far as I'm concerned. I do wish someone would finally say that civility is a 2-way street. The US is always being chastized to understand this and that third-world member. How about them giving at least token efforts to understand the US? It's hard to be sympathetic toward religious perverts upset that a sacred book of theirs has alledgedly been abused while they're parading around burning our flag and screaming death to all Americans.
So Old Dogs change.... The left is reducing its numbers everytime it opens its mouth. In addition note how it morphed into the Koran Issue.
Posted by: Frank G ||
05/19/2005 22:53 Comments ||
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#14
.com, if you are right, then fry 'em up will indeed be the only option. We all know that, Libhawk included. And I'm quite certain they will be shocked when our effect inconceivably intersects with their cause, leaving very small particles in its wake. Thus proving Star Trek prophetic.
Turkey's military has launched strikes on Kurdish insurgency bases in northern Iraq. After two years of threats, Ankara has sent ground forces, attack helicopters and fixed-wing aircraft to Kandil mountain strongholds of the Kurdish Workers Party. The government of Prime Minister Recep Erdogan has not reported the attacks. But Kurdish sources in southeastern Turkey said Ankara began attacks in late April against PKK strongholds with F-16 multi-role fighters, AH-1G attack helicopters and M-60 main battle tanks. The Turkish military said in a statement this week that PKK insurgents were infiltrating Turkey from Iraq in increasing numbers. The military said the insurgents were bringing large amounts of explosives into Turkey.
Posted by: Fred ||
05/19/2005 00:00 ||
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Posted by: Rex Mundi ||
05/19/2005 0:48 Comments ||
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#3
This is a Turkish source and the mountains are on the border. If the Turks are attacking into Iraq I doubt its very far. The area is remote and the mountains high. It doesn't look like tank country on the map.
#4
If Turkey is entering Iraqi airspace, it's with Iraqi / Coalition approval. They're true morons, but bluff and bluster are one thing, acts of war another - and they would not last 15 minutes if contested.
#6
Morons? Bluff and bluster? The Turkish military is not the first to come to mind. They would last 15 minutes if contested with anyone. ... and 'commies'? how does that relate to carrying out attacks? granted Turkish communists are completely ridiculous.. anyway, if we had any spare time, which we don't, we wouldn't be stopping them, we'd be helping them.. they've asked us to take care of the situation but we're too busy down south misallocating taxpayer money, shooting at journalists and recruiting blown-up Iraqi police..
#7
I can see you're jealous of those adjectives being applied to the Turks, SO. Don't worry, there's plenty to go around and you definitely qualify for a share of the glory. Your commentary is juvenile, scatter-brained, factually fucked, and moronic. Poor tool. Stupid fool. Back to your DU hovel, sonny.
#8
and 'commies'? how does that relate to carrying out attacks?
The anonymous coward latched onto that word and started frothing. Probably because it just can't stand to see anyone saying bad things about commies.
If it had applied a little more reading skill -- probably beyond its capabilities, but let's imagine -- it might have noticed SPoD saying the TARGETS of the attack were commies.
Posted by: Robert Crawford ||
05/19/2005 9:10 Comments ||
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#9
Until 2003, I would have supported the Turks (or just about anyone else) in doing anything necessary to put down communists.
Now, I'm in more of a "a pox on both your houses" mood.
#10
I have yet to find any reference to this. I guess this is an operation by Turkey's Special Stealth Attack Squadron. It's so stealthy, it's as if they weren't there.
Posted by: ed ||
05/19/2005 9:33 Comments ||
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#11
So stealthy a private news service out of Montreal is covering it?
Posted by: Tom ||
05/19/2005 15:42 Comments ||
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Five Afghans, three of them working on an opium crop substitution project, were killed yesterday in a Taleban ambush, a provincial official said. The five were traveling in a vehicle in Helmand province, in southern Afghanistan, when gunmen attacked, said provincial official, Muhayuddin Khan. "This was carried out by Taleban insurgents," Khan said. Troops have been sent out to search for the rebels, he said.
Posted by: Fred ||
05/19/2005 00:00 ||
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#1
Remember the olden days, when the Taliban were so pure that they killed farmers who dared plant opium poppies?
#2
No. The Taliban only started cracking down when they had several years of inventory in storage. The uncontrolled poppy growth was severely depressing prices the Taliban were getting.
Posted by: ed ||
05/19/2005 7:17 Comments ||
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#3
Aahhh. I wondered at the time what caused such purity to those lady killers.
The Afghan government said that it was in contact with an abducted Italian aid worker, who was in good health, and her kidnappers and was optimistic she would be released unharmed. "We have spoken with Clementina Cantoni," Interior Ministry spokesman Lutfullah Mashal told AFP. "Her health condition and safety is ensured." He added that the government was "in constant contact" with the people claiming to be the kidnappers. "We are very optimistic that Ms. Clementina will be peacefully released," he said. "We are sparing no efforts to get her peaceful release, but there will be no concession to kidnappers."
Posted by: Fred ||
05/19/2005 00:00 ||
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A multi-volume chronology and reference guide set detailing three years of the Mexican Drug War between 2010 and 2012.
Rantburg.com and borderlandbeat.com correspondent and author Chris Covert presents his first non-fiction work detailing
the drug and gang related violence in Mexico.
Chris gives us Mexican press dispatches of drug and gang war violence
over three years, presented in a multi volume set intended to chronicle the death, violence and mayhem which has
dominated Mexico for six years.
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.
PRIME Minister 
TOKYO - Afghan Foreign Minister 
Five Afghans, three of them working on an opium crop substitution project, were killed yesterday in a Taleban ambush, a provincial official said. The five were traveling in a vehicle in Helmand province, in southern Afghanistan, when gunmen attacked, said provincial official, Muhayuddin Khan. "This was carried out by Taleban insurgents," Khan said. Troops have been sent out to search for the rebels, he said.
The Afghan government said that it was in contact with an abducted Italian aid worker, who was in good health, and her kidnappers and was optimistic she would be released unharmed. "We have spoken with 
