JJA: "Why would anybody think it was a suicide operation?"
Michael Ledeen: "Well, officially they seemed pretty confident. I think the main thing was that the three bombs in the subways went off more or less at the same instant, and that suggested there were timers. And then I think they actually found physical evidence of timers."
JJA: "Really. How brilliant. And since when do suicide terrorists need timers? Isn't part of the cult that you get to push your own button and blast off?"
ML: "Well, I think the simultaneity of the three explosions suggested technological coordination, if you see what I mean..."
JJA: "Couldn't they just coordinate their watches? They all met before they set off to kill, didn't they? And they were all well educated, I don't think any of them had a problem telling time."
ML: "Yes, some of the British papers, and a very smart Italian journalist named Guido Olimpio, have suggested that the terrorists were duped, that they didn't expect to be blown up..."
JJA: "Yes, notice that the London police chief was 'puzzled' to discover that the bombers were carrying around their personal identity documents. That's pretty lousy tradecraft, isn't it? It's what led the police to Leeds, where they found explosives and all kinds of leads."
Posted by: Kalle (kafir forever) ||
07/18/2005 15:15 ||
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So what's your point JJA? They have photos of the guys with big backpacks on, and they later found bomb stuff in their houses.
#2
Point is that maybe they were not told they were going to meet Allah. They might have thought they were going to do a Madrid, place the bombs on the train, stay with them for a certain period to make sure no one disturbs them, then get off tthe train before they went bang.
Besides the fact they were carrying ID, they did not leave behind the standard suicide home movie boasting of their action.
Posted by: Steve ||
07/18/2005 16:36 Comments ||
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If you bothered to read the rest of the article:
"...What happened was what happens every day in Iraq. You recruit young men and tell them you want them to carry out a terrorist op. Not a suicide mission, but a strike on behalf of jihad. You tell them you want them to carry some bombs into the underground and leave them on the subway train. You tell them not to worry, everything is controlled by a timer, and the timer is set, say, half an hour after they are out of the Tube. So they go. Except then you set the thing off remotely. By cell phone, say."
ML: "But I thought cell phones don't work in the underground."
JJA: "I think you will find that some do. Or maybe there was a different kind of radio signal. But the technology certainly exists, and isn't very expensive. It might be something very simple, like putting a phony clock face on the timer, showing the explosion set for half an hour after the real time."
Not saying it was definitely a set-up. But many of the signs of a 'typical' suicide operation aren't there.
#4
It's significant because young Moslems who aspire to join the jihad in the West may not easily be talked into suicide missions.
And if it can be shown that the 7/7 bomb-carriers didn't intend to die in the blasts --would the ever hypothetical moderate Moslem take that as a encouragement to (still) do nothing (and smile in private), or would they find a prop to denounce the evil terrorist planners?
I still think Western countries need to arrest, try and execute all Islamofascist mosque leaders calling for the murder of non-Moslems.
And we need to let the Ummah know that Mecca will be erased if their co-religionists perpetrates another large-scale attack on US soil.
Finally, where is Blair's ultimatum to Pakistan? deliver the LeT leadership --who are behind the 7/7 attacks-- OR ELSE.
#5
Pre-emptive comment here. Cell phones do work in some tunnels. My brother is a cell phone tower/antenna guy and he's working on a couple of these right now. They just put small versions of a typical cell tower antenna on the tunnel walls every so often.
Many are already in place. If I recall correctly, the I-95 tunnels in the Baltimore area are covered.
#6
And if it can be shown that the 7/7 bomb-carriers didn't intend to die in the blasts --would the ever hypothetical moderate Moslem take that as a encouragement to (still) do nothing (and smile in private), or would they find a prop to denounce the evil terrorist planners?
Why would they react any differently to this revelation than to Osama laughing over most of the 9/11 hijackers not knowing their fate?
Posted by: Robert Crawford ||
07/18/2005 18:08 Comments ||
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Point is that maybe they were not told they were going to meet Allah.
CAIRO, July 18 (UPI) -- Egyptian chemist Magdi al-Nashar, suspected of involvement in the London explosions, told investigators he knew one of the bombers, it was reported Monday. Egypt's official al-Ahram daily quoted an unidentified security official as saying al-Nashar told the Egyptian authorities he knew Pakistani suspect Hasib Hussein, saying he met him at Leeds University mosque. The official told the paper the chemist had rented out a house to Hussein in Leeds that belonged to an Iraqi doctor
Iraqi doctor? When did he come in?
, but insisted he knew nothing about plans to blow up public transport facilities in London on July 7.
"Sure, I let them mix something up in my bathtub, but I don't know anything about explosives. It's not like I'm a chem......,er, I'm being framed!"
The official said al-Nashar denied any direct or indirect involvement in the London explosions, adding the British authorities have not yet provided any evidence or information that would indict the chemist.
The Egyptian authorities arrested al-Nashar in a Cairo suburb Thursday at the request of Scotland Yard when the London authorities found his name in a phone book belonging to one of the suspected bombers.
Additional: Egyptian Interior Minister Habib al-Adli has criticized British police for coming to "hasty conclusions" about the involvement of an Egyptian biochemist in the London bombings. The minister told the pro-government daily, Al Jumhuriya, reports of the scientist's links to al-Qaida are "groundless."
"Lies, all lies!"
Prosecutor General Maher Abdel Wahid also said Egypt and Britain have no extradition treaty, so even if British authorities charged the chemist, Cairo need not send him back. Egyptian police arrested Magdi el-Nashar, 33, in a Cairo suburb last Thursday after being given his name by British officials.
Investigators found explosives in a house in Alexandra Grove, Leeds, to which el-Nashar was reported to have links.
Like having his name on the lease?
El-Nashar, who had recently completed a PhD in biochemistry at Leeds University, has admitted knowing one of the bombers but denies any knowledge of the attacks. He told interrogators he returned to Cairo a week before the bombings to find a wife, and intended to return to Leeds.
Thought you were just on vacation?
Posted by: Steve ||
07/18/2005 09:33 ||
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If it was a Cairo boomer thing Magdi would be providing the indictment of Al Q and the Mooselimb Bruderhoood.
LONDON: Six people have been arrested in Leeds, in the north of England, under Britainâs anti-terrorist laws, but not in relation to the London bombings 10 days ago, police said on Sunday. West Yorkshire police said the arrests took place on Sunday evening in Beeston, a residential district of Leeds from which two of the four apparent London suicide bombers came. âAt this stage, these arrests are not being linked to the incidents in London,â a police spokeswoman said. âHowever, we are working closely with officers from the Metropolitan Police anti-terrorism branch as part of this inquiry.â
Londonâs Metropolitan Police confirmed that the arrests were unrelated to the July 7 bombings in London. One person was arrested in the Leeds area last Thursday as part of a fast-moving investigation into the London bombings that has seen 10 homes and an Islamic bookshop raided in forensic searches.
Also, British secret services last year vetted one of the bombers behind the London attacks and judged he was not a threat, said a report on Sunday. The Sunday Times, citing a senior government source, said intelligence agency MI5 had assessed Mohammad Siddique Khan, but concluded he posed no threat and failed to put him under surveillance. The government refused to be drawn. âWe never comment on the activities of security services,â said one official.
The Sunday Independent newspaper said police had established a link between another bomber, Khan, and Al Qaeda. It said a man who is believed to have attended an Al Qaeda âsummitâ in Pakistan last year had identified Khan from photographs. The Sunday Times said Khan was the subject of a routine assessment by MI5 officers last year after his name cropped up during an investigation into an alleged plot to explode a huge bomb outside a London target, believed to be a Soho nightclub.
Posted by: Fred ||
07/18/2005 00:00 ||
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Dirt roads trace pale lines across a desolate landscape of bald peaks and plunging canyons near Texas' Big Bend and bridge the border at dozens of improvised crossings. For decades, these routes have been used to smuggle drugs and humans. Now there is growing concern they could become deadly conduits for terrorism.
The concern is buttressed by a confidential but unclassified FBI intelligence bulletin, obtained by The Dallas Morning News, that contains the vague outlines of a possible terrorist plot.
Officials from both sides of the border played down the possible threat but acknowledged that it is the sort of scenario they have to guard against. The prospect of terrorists crossing the southern border has been a rising concern among officials in Texas and Washington.
The plot, according to uncorroborated information provided by an FBI informant, involves a man, described as an Arab who goes by the nickname "El Español," and Ernesto ZatarÃn Beliz, also known as El Traca, suspected of being a Mexican drug trafficker and member of the Zetas, the feared enforcers of the notorious Gulf cartel.
"El Español is gathering truck drivers with knowledge of truck routes in the United States and explosive experts" in the state of Coahuila, according to the March 11 memo, which originated in the San Diego FBI office and was made available by a U.S. attorney's office. The informant "believes that the activity in Coahuila, Mexico, is terrorist related."
In exchange for the Zetas' help in recruiting drivers, the memo says, the Arab â who barely speaks Spanish â promised to help them fund and execute a plan to free Gulf cartel leader Osiel Cárdenas from prison. The Gulf cartel is embroiled in a bloody turf war with rival traffickers for control of Nuevo Laredo, a key drug smuggling route into the U.S.
The informant has "provided reliable narcotics intelligence in the past," the bulletin says, but it adds that the informant also flunked two polygraph tests.
The San Diego FBI analyst who wrote the document declined to comment. The division's spokeswoman said publication of such sensitive information would undermine the bureau's mission.
"We are trying to protect national security," said Special Agent Jan Caldwell. "We can't do that when things like this are put in newspapers."
A senior Mexican intelligence official said the information in the memo had not been corroborated.
"The informant paved a road that led nowhere," the official said, speaking on the condition of anonymity. He added that Mexican federal agents spent "literally weeks chasing down the information, only to come up empty-handed."
However, the Mexican intelligence official confirmed the identity of El Traca as Mr. ZatarÃn and said El Español was a known human trafficker, specializing in smuggling Middle Easterners and South Americans, particularly Brazilians and Paraguayans.
Mexican authorities have been unable to track down El Español, the official said.
According to the March FBI bulletin, Mexican authorities arrested Mr. ZatarÃn in September 2003 and found an arsenal of assault rifles in his residence, described by Mexican authorities as a "bunker utilized by Los Zetas." Mr. ZatarÃn later escaped, however, and his picture and name are now on a poster listing Mexico's most-wanted criminals.
"FBI intelligence indicates that Los Zetas are becoming increasingly involved in systematic corruption as well as alien smuggling ... [including] special interest aliens to the U.S.," the bulletin concludes.
Since the 2001 terrorist attacks, the Bush administration and members of Congress from both parties have viewed the southern border as a weak link in efforts to keep terrorists out of the United States, even though the 9-11 terrorists entered the country with visas, some legal, others forged.
"That's been the concern all along, that there would be a bargain struck between al-Qaeda or some [other] terrorist organization and these organized crime networks that would allow terrorists to be smuggled into the country," U.S. Sen. John Cornyn, R-Texas, said in an interview. "I think that's a very real concern."
At a hearing Tuesday of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, the chairman, Sen. Richard Lugar, R-Ind., said: "Given the threat of international terrorism, there is great concern that our land borders could also serve as a channel for international terrorists and weapons of mass destruction. The threat of terrorist penetration is particularly acute along our southern border."
Senior U.S. officials added that other criminal groups such as the Mara Salvatrucha â the Central American gang that has moved into several U.S. cities and has a growing presence along the U.S.-Mexico border â also are a top concern for U.S. authorities.
Mr. Lugar said 3,000 to 4,000 of the 119,000 non-Mexican immigrants apprehended so far this year trying to cross illegally into the U.S. were from "countries of interest" such as Somalia, Pakistan and Saudi Arabia. That number is up from 75,371 for all of 2004 and is expected to reach 148,000 by fiscal year's end.
Adm. James Loy, former Homeland Security deputy secretary, declined to comment on the specific plot outlined in the FBI memo, but earlier this year he suggested that such a threat is real.
"Entrenched human-smuggling networks and corruption in areas beyond our borders can be exploited by terrorist organizations," Mr. Loy said in written testimony at a congressional hearing in February. "Several al-Qaeda leaders believe operatives can pay their way into the country through Mexico and also believe illegal entry is more advantageous than legal entry for operational security reasons."
But law enforcement officials discounted the suggestion that terrorists would use the rugged Big Bend area to transport explosives â especially in a tractor-trailer that would glaringly stand out.
"I think there would be easier ways to get explosives inside the United States,"said Benjamine Carry Huffman, assistant chief patrol agent for U.S. Customs and Border Protection in Marfa. He pointed out that Interstate 10 is a two-hour drive from the border area of Presidio but that there was immediate access to it in El Paso.
But the intelligence bulletin noted that the alleged terrorist plot, as relayed by the informant, was still a work in progress, leaving open the possibility that less conspicuous vehicles might be employed. And the FBI memo said that "one possible smuggling route Traca wanted to use was through Big Bend National Park."
The border patrol's Marfa sector is its largest, covering 510 miles of border with Mexico, including part of Big Bend National Park, and bordering the Mexican states of Chihuahua and Coahuila. With some 200 agents, it has the smallest force of any sector along the Mexican border, according to Bill Brooks, the sector spokesman.
Much of the area is desert and mountainous terrain, dotted by at least a dozen informal crossings known as Class B ports of entry. These consist of makeshift bridges capable of carrying foot and some lighter vehicle traffic. Authorities tried to seal them off after Sept. 11, 2001, but several have been re-established. Officials acknowledged that agents cannot regularly police the informal crossings.
"Who ever imagined that terrorists would use passenger planes to crash into tall buildings?" Mr. Hoffman said. "After Sept. 11, we have to operate on a different mindset, one in which we take absolutely nothing for granted. Is it possible terrorists can come across this border with explosives or a dirty bomb? Absolutely."
Posted by: Dan Darling ||
07/18/2005 15:33 ||
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#3
Mexican federal agents spent "literally weeks chasing down the information, only to come up empty-handed."
meaning no actual bribes changed hands, just electronic transfers
Posted by: Frank G ||
07/18/2005 19:01 Comments ||
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This time of year you don't need bridges - I have watched Mexicans drive their pick-up trucks right across the river at a ford, and I am sure there are many other fordable spots.
#5
Officials acknowledged that agents cannot regularly police the informal crossings.
Then a solution needs to be found, and the government needs to put its best heads together and come up with one. Our security is on the line here, and that's nothing to dismiss lightly. If the government is perfectly willing to waste good money by pouring it down a big hole in Africa, then why not instead spare some of those millions to give our southern border MORE security?
AUSTRALIAN Federal Police and NSW's Counter-Terrorism Command are investigating book shops allegedly selling extremist Islamic literature.
Reports in the Daily Telegraph say the Islamic Bookstore at Lakemba, in Sydney's south-west, stocks a book titled Defence of the Muslim Lands, which discusses the effectiveness of suicide bombings and has an endorsement from Osama bin Laden on the cover.
In nearby Auburn, other such books have been found at the IDCA bookstore and the Islamic Science, Culture and Art Association, the report said.
NSW Police Commissioner Ken Moroney today said an investigation was underway to examine the content of the literature being sold, and determine if it breached State or Federal laws.
"There is a joint investigation between the Australian Federal Police and the Counter-Terrorism Command of the NSW Police. That investigation will be continuing", Mr Moroney said.
"It needs to be determined as to what offences (may) have been committed, and obviously in this investigation it will be necessary to seek qualified legal opinion ... as to who actually commits the offence.
"Is it the author, is it the publisher, is it the retailer, is it the purchaser of this particular material, or is it all of the above?"
The investigation had been underway "a short time" and charges would be laid if it was found an offence had been committed, Mr Moroney said.
"Clearly it is an offence to incite people to commit a range of offences," he said.
He would not say how many shops were under investigation, nor whether ASIO had been monitoring the book stores.
Mr Moroney would not speculate on any strengthening of laws relating to such material.
"I'm sure if it is recommended that current laws need to be strengthened at Commonwealth and State level, then those who are the lawmakers will take that into account," he said.
"Personally I regard the material as offensive at a minimum."
A spokesman for The Islamic Bookstore at Lakemba declined to comment today, but said the shop hoped to issue a media statement early tomorrow.
Comment was being sought from the IDCA bookstore and the Islamic Science, Culture and Art Association.
NSW law enforcement agencies cannot take action against people selling books endorsed by Osama Bin Laden because they do not appear to have broken any law, the State Government says. A Sydney shop, The Islamic Bookstore at Lakemba, is reportedly selling books endorsed by the al-Qaeda terrorist leader which discuss the effectiveness of suicide bombings and attack Western civilisation as "the culture of oppression, the culture of injustice, the culture of racism". The shop refused to comment on the claims today. A spokesman said: "We're not talking to any media ... we hope to put out a press release early tomorrow."
A Sydney newspaper reported that the shop was selling a book by Sheik Abdullah Azzam, which discusses the effectiveness of suicide bombings. "The form this usually takes nowadays is to wire up one's body, or a vehicle or a suitcase with explosives, and then to enter a conglomeration of the enemy and to detonate," the writer states. Another book by Azzam, Join the Caravan, carries similar themes. In Auburn, also in Sydney's west, other distressing books were found at the IDCA bookstore and the Islamic Science, Culture and Art Association. Muslim community spokesman Keysar Trad said he was concerned the books were being sold and feared they were damaging Australians' understanding of Islamic communities.
Mr Trad said if bookstore owners failed to get rid of the offensive books there was little choice but to send authorities in to confiscate them. "If they're not wise enough to go through all the material they have on the shelves and assess it and burn the nasties ... if they're not willing to do that then we'll have no option but authorities will have to confiscate such books because it's not acceptable any more with what's happening the world," he said. "There are people out there who take this message far too seriously and we don't want any literature that can cause violence. We would love to remove such literature and make sure it doesn't get into the hands of young people." British police have shut down an extremist bookshop in Leeds after the July 7 terrorist attacks on the London Underground and a bus. A spokesman for NSW Attorney-General Bob Debus today said the state had laws against racial vilification and incitement to violence. But on the face of it, the content of the books did not appear to constitute incitement to violence, he said. "For incitement to occur, violence has to actually take place [as a result of publishing the material]," the spokesman said. !
Posted by: Paul Moloney ||
07/18/2005 02:27 ||
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#1
"For incitement to occur, violence has to actually take place [as a result of publishing the material],"
cause 911 3/11 7/7 and beheadings never happened, you see.
Germany's highest court has ordered the release of a German-Syrian businessman suspected of funding al-Qaeda, who was fighting extradition to Spain. The federal constitutional court ruled that the new European arrest warrant was invalid in the case of Mamoun Darkazanli, 46. He was detained in Hamburg in October on the warrant issued by Spain. He appears in a 1999 wedding video with two of the three 11 September suicide hijackers who had lived in Hamburg.
Weddings = islamist family get-togethers
Mr Darkazanli has not been charged in Germany, whose constitution prohibits the extradition of its own citizens. German Justice Minister Brigitte Zypries said the court ruling was "a blow for the government in its efforts and fight against terrorism".
After the September 2001 attacks, the US froze the assets of Mr Darkazanli's Import-Export Company, saying it was a front for terrorism. He is among 41 suspects, including Osama bin Laden, indicted by Spanish Judge Baltasar Garzon. His case was a test of the new European arrest warrant, introduced last year to speed up the handover of terror suspects. Correspondents say all other suspects in Germany facing extradition under similar warrants will have to be released on bail, and that the German parliament will have to pass a new law if suspects are to be held in jail on EU warrants.
Mr Darkazanli's lawyers argued that handing him over under the European arrest warrant would be against the German constitution. He has always denied any involvement in terrorism, saying he only knew the 9/11 hijackers by sight.
A spokesman for the European Commission voiced regret that Germany had failed to implement the arrest warrant and urged it to bring its national legislation into line with EU policy. But Martin Selmayr also insisted that the arrest warrant was still valid. "From a first reading, it's a judgment that declares null and void the German implementation law, not the European arrest warrant," he said.
Posted by: Steve ||
07/18/2005 09:03 ||
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#1
His case was a test of the new European arrest warrant, introduced last year to speed up the handover of terror suspects.
#3
This is one you can clearly stick to the redgreen gov, not to the courts. The EU arrest warrant was implemented with a national law that clearly violates the German Constitution.
Darkazanli might benefit from the blunder but I hail the German Constitutional Court for making that decision. Germans must not be extradited abroad without due recourse in their own country, period.
I am German. I have a right to contest my extradition at a German court, not post factum in Tallinn, Madrid or Athens.
Would the US extradite an American citizen to Mexico without legal recourse?
#5
Thank you, TGA. Once again we see the EU stumbling over its own... feet.
Posted by: Neutron Tom ||
07/18/2005 13:42 Comments ||
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Well the EU wasn't stumbing, only those who implement EU regulation without considering the German Constitution.
If a German commits a crime in Madrid I have no problems with him facing trial in Madrid. But before he gets extradited he MUST have the right to have his case considered in Germany, or his constitutional rights are violated.
#14
It's frustrating because Darkazanli is/was a big cheese, in my estimation. These Syrian brotherhood guys are involved in a lot of nasty stuff in Europe. As far as I can determine, they are the true middle management echelon in European al Qaeda operations. These guys are mostly 37-49 years of age, and fled Syria after Hama. Darkazanli, Yarkas, Mustafa Setmariam Nasar aka Abu Musab al-Asuri (the Syrian), Mausilli Kalaji, and, going back a bit, Abu Rida al Suri aka Mohammed Loay Bayazid. Got to find the Syrians.
#18
We'll probably have a new law on extradition within weeks.
Can you do that? I realize that it's not criminal law, so it wouldn't truly by an ex-post facto law under which he would be charged as a crime, but still, over here, the ACLU would probably find a Clinton-appointed judge who would overturn it.
#19
Jackal, that would have been true for the current law as well, but this was not a disputed fact.
The Germans wanted to do it the easy way. There wasn't enough to indict the Syrian here so the Spanish extradition call was welcome. The problem is: What the Syrian is alleged to have done was not a crime in Germany at the time, but it was in Spain and Spain suffered from Darkanzali's deeds. So the extradition makes much sense.
Since there is no doubt that in his case the EU Arrest Warrant is justified Darkanzanli is not off the hook unless he can flee the country which won't be easy because he'll be watched 24/7 now until he can be rearrested.
#20
Even though I don't agree with the outcome I am glad to see the court not cave to the EU. Germany's constutition is the way it is for a reason. Tampering with it to satisfy the EU is not a good enough reason. Spain will have to use a different method to extradite him. Please do not lose track of him.
#21
Look you German girly man twit boy for some pig bitch named Allah. If some worthless piece of Muslime shit blew someone up in another country you can be darn sure America would hand his wife beating pedophile following terrorist ass over for a good old fashion Mexican hanging.
Now fuck off. Idiots like you are one of the reasons the pIslamics are getting away with Muhamhead's teachings to convert or kills us all.
In case you haven't notices kraut boy this means you! Unless you are one of them...
IZMIR: Turkish police increased security at tourist resorts on Sunday as investigators sifted through the wreckage of a minibus ripped apart by a bomb that killed five people, including a British and an Irish woman. In the normally bustling Aegean resort of Kusadasi, the site of Saturday's blast, locals and tourists were uneasy and streets were quieter than normal after the second attack to hit the area in a week at the height of the tourism season. A Turkish daily said a Kurdish militant group, TAK, claimed responsibility for the attack, but this could not be confirmed. It has claimed a series of bombings in the last year, including an attack which injured 20 in the same region six days earlier. British Ambassador Peter Westmacott, visiting the injured in hospital, told the BBC authorities believed the Kurdistan Workers Party (PKK), the main guerrilla group, had planted the bomb. A top PKK official condemned the attack in a statement.
Posted by: Fred ||
07/18/2005 00:00 ||
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Kind of along the lines of "U.S. shouldn't blame others for bombings: Tojo"
The Britain should not accuse other countries of influencing the London suicide bombers, a Pakistani diplomat said on Sunday. Munir Akram, Islamabad's ambassador to the United Nations, told the BBC Programme 'The World This Weekend' that Britain had to look at its own problems to understand the root causes of terror.
That makes sense, given that one of Britain's problems is a large number of Muslim imports in the habit jumping up and down and rolling their eyes and trying to build explosives when they're not...
He said that a particular concern was integrating Muslims into mainstream UK life. He said Pakistan had its own problems with militants, which it was trying to tackle. Britain is now a "breeding ground for terrorists too", has its own radical preachers and now "home-grown suicide bombers", the diplomat said. He rejected reports that Shehzad Tanweer had been turned into a terrorist during a visit earlier this year to a religious school in Lahore.
He's right. More likely he joined up in Leeds and went for basic training at Muridke...
He said if the 22-year-old from Leeds who killed seven people or any of his accomplices had visited, they had not been there long enough to be turned. Rather, it was the years spent in Britain that transformed them into UK's first suicide bombers, he said.
Posted by: Fred ||
07/18/2005 00:00 ||
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The Britain should not accuse other countries of influencing the London suicide bombers ....
I actually sort of agree with him. The sooner they get around to blaming the actual source, Islam, the sooner they can make serious strides.
He said that a particular concern was integrating Muslims into mainstream UK life.
Otherwise it'll be difficult for the jihadis to operate effectively.
#2
ouch - truth hurts. But it doesn't help that they are training in Pak and Afghanistan.
But in the end the British Authorities are clearly to blame. At least one of these kids "vacationed" in Pakistan and Afghanistan and went to the Drewsbury (sp?) mosque, known for its radicalism. It would have been excusable that they missed him prior to 911 - but today? That this guy ended up a bomber was not rocket science.
#3
It doesn't help that Pakistan arms, trains and harbors the kindred scum of the London boomers. Role models abound in Pakistan. What of Kashmir Munir? What of the tribal area scum breeders? What about the ISI's darling taliban? What of the culture and special version of the religion that thrives in Pakistan? Those factors went a long way in setting the stage and providing the impetus for the boomers in London. The idea of murderous sociopathic jihad feeds on the religiously inspired hatred that Pakistan, among our other "friends", have in the past, fostered, and now at the very least, tolerate to a certain degree because of the government's weakness and fear or complicity. Sure the London boomers were homegrown but the ideas that led them to mass murder were foreign to the UK though not a Pakistan and it's government.
#4
He said that a particular concern was integrating Muslims into mainstream UK life.
I agree. We can start with, oh, I don't know, actually considering yourselves British subjects? Then perhaps, assimilating into western culture? Perhaps even respecting the laws of the legal government?
BANGKOK - Thailand declared emergency rule across virtually the whole of its Muslim south on Sunday in a surprisingly tough move to reign in a raging insurgency.
Surprising that he didn't do it earlier.
Invoking new powers, the government declared an emergency in Narathiwat, Yala and Pattani provinces plus four districts in neighbouring Songkhla province, where at least 810 people have died in violence since January 2004.
All dead at the hands of the Religion of Peaceâ¢.
âThe decree will cover every district in the three provinces, plus four neighbouring districts in Songkhla province. Those districts also need monitoring, because something could happen,â Interior Minister Chidchai Vanasathidya told reporters.
The government had been expected to announce âemergency zonesâ within the provinces rather than declaring the whole provinces under emergency rule. Few details of the new measures were announced but authorities will have powers to tap phones, search and arrest without warrant and censor news, among other actions. Authorities initially will focus on limiting the movement of people in the region, and on news reporting of the insurgency, Chidchai said. âWe will try to take a soft stance on reporting and not infringe on press freedoms,â he said.
A focus on killing terrorists also would be helpful.
A newly formed Council of Ministers comprising interior, defense and justice ministers among others will meet on Monday to set out the details on implementing the new orders, Chidchai said.
The emergency was declared under a controversial decree approved at a special cabinet meeting on Friday, one day after terrorists militants staged a daring raid on the southern town of Yala in which four people were killed and at least 20 others injured. The decree centralizes in the prime ministerâs office many powers that the military was already using in much of the region along the southern border with Malaysia, which has been under martial law since the insurgency broke out in January 2004.
âWhen the law takes force, everything will be the same but the enforcement will be more strict,â the army chief, General Prawit Wongsuwan told reporters before the security meeting. âEverything will follow the law. We donât have to adjust the way we work,â he said.
The decree drew swift condemnation in Thai media and from Prime Minister Thaksin Shinawatraâs critics, who warned that placing so much power in his office could escalate unrest which shows no signs of abating.
Localized version of the "it's all our fault!" meme.
Posted by: Steve White ||
07/18/2005 00:00 ||
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No Muslims, no terror. Send them to the Malaysian dog's breakfast, where they belong.
Posted by: Vlad the Muslim Impaler ||
07/18/2005 4:39 Comments ||
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#2
And the Muslim butchery in Thailand has what to do with Israel, Iraq, the crusades?
#4
Thailand declared emergency rule across virtually the whole of its Muslim south on Sunday in a surprisingly tough move to reign in a raging insurgency.
Don't be harsh on Muslems---give 'em another chance on the Wheel
#5
all the non muslim world should unite and end this cult of death, they are slaugthering people in russia ,chetznia, bosnia,iraq, israel,america, england, spain ,thailand,india-kasmir ,algeria, marocco, sudan ,south east china and saudi-arabia.
Wake up and see it for what it is,
world war 3 has started and it will be islam versus the world & we need to prepare for it.
#6
The people of Thailand will end this if and when the king asks for the peoples support. Anyone who has ever studied Thailand know the military and the fight will be tolerated and will continue until the King asks for the violence to be stopped. Then the people will end this muzzie nonsence.
Posted by: 49 pan ||
07/18/2005 18:28 Comments ||
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The grand imam of Egypt's Al Azhar Mosque, the Sunni world's most prestigious seat of learning, called on the people of Iraq to unite to rid the country of terrorists and urged other countries to help.
"The Iraqis, men, women, children and elderly people should unite and work solidly together to chase those evil terrorists everywhere until Iraq's land is purged of their filth and viciousness," Mohammad Saeed Tantawi said in a statement on Thursday.
"All other countries and individuals should extend help to Iraq to enable its people to exterminate those wantons and despots," Tantawi said.
The statement included 10 items explaining "the pillars of Islam" that deal with religious, ideological and political issues supporting Tantawi's ideas, with excerpts from the Holy Quran to support his points.
Islam does not differentiate between people, whatever their origin, Tantawi argued, in what is one of the strongest condemnations of the violence plaguing Iraq since the end of the US-led invasion in May 2003.
Tantawi's influence however, is limited, since he is appointed to his position by the government and is seen to espouse its policies and attitudes on a wide range of issues.
"Chasing these criminals determinedly and steadily until finishing them off is a duty of everyone, be it a ruler or anybody else and anyone who shelters them is considered partner to their crimes," Tantawi said.
The grand imam said the most heinous crimes committed by those "corrupt on earth ... is the killing of innocent people, kidnapping honest people and then killing them in a savage way."
He strongly condemned Wednesday's killing of 27 people, including 18 children and teenagers by a suicide bomber in Iraq and said "this massacre was carried out by a vicious criminal from those terrorists whose corruption has spread everywhere."
Tantawi also mentioned last week's kidnapping and killing of Egypt's top envoy to Iraq by the Al Qaida terrorist organisation saying "those sinners charged him [the envoy] with false accusations then killed him in a way that only God know how ugly, mean and low it was."
#3
I would hope that the butcher's bill, paid daily in Iraq, is coming home to roost for the terrorists. Maybe it is just wishful thinking on my part, but this IS the kind of thing I have been hoping to hear. Late, yes; but it seems to hit all of the right points. Sounds like the terrorists have crossed over some unseen line. Finally.
Posted by: Whiskey Mike ||
07/18/2005 21:52 Comments ||
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#4
Maybe more ambassadors from various uncooperative Arab countries need to be kidnapped and killed by "terrorists".
PESHAWAR, Pakistan (AP) - Pakistani intelligence agents arrested five senior Taliban leaders Monday, including a deputy to fugitive Taliban chief Mullah Mohammed Omar, two security officials said. The arrests were made after security agents raided several homes in northwestern Pakistan, said the most senior of the two intelligence officials, who was involved in interrogating the suspects. Both officials spoke on condition of anonymity because they are not authorized to speak to reporters.
"We can say no more!"
The officials identified two of the captured men as Maulvi Abdul Qadeer, a deputy to Omar and formerly chairman of the Taliban Special Council, and Abdul Kabir, a former governor in Afghanistan's Nangarhar province. They would not disclose the names of the remaining three leaders, but one official said "they are also important Taliban leaders who are in our custody and being interrogated in Pakistan."
No government officials were available to confirm the arrests.
Pakistan, a key ally in the U.S.-led war on terror, has arrested more than 700 Taliban and al-Qaida members, including high level operatives, since the hard-line Taliban was ousted from power in Afghanistan in 2001 for sheltering Osama bin Laden. Bin Laden and Omar have so far eluded capture, but U.S. and Afghan officials believe they are hiding out in Pakistan's rugged tribal belt on the border with Afghanistan.
Pakistan has deployed more than 70,000 troops to this region to flush out remnants of the Taliban and al-Qaida.
The arrests came hours after Pakistan's foreign ministry spokesman Jalil Abbas Jilani said Pakistani Prime Minister Shaukat Aziz will travel to Afghanistan on July 24 to discuss with Afghan President Hamid Karzai how the two countries could improve economic relations and ensure better coordination in the fight against terrorism.
Almost like it was planned that way. "Sorry, boys. We've got to divert attention from the subway thing and youse guys are expendable."
Posted by: Steve ||
07/18/2005 16:36 ||
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And the Americans have been getting pretty itchy at the borders. Got to keep the infidels out.
Even before the recent bombings in London, it was the question many Americans were asking: Is our government doing everything it should to stop terrorism?
A "Dateline" investigation reveals that some of the world's most dangerous terrorists may have found a new safe haven, a new source of money, and are thriving unchecked.
Have U.S. officials missed â or dismissed â a vital link in the terror network?
On September 11, 2001, President Bush put Americaâs enemies on notice: âWe will make no distinction between the terrorists who committed these acts and those who harbor them,â he said.
And in the days that followed, he defined who our enemies are in the war on terror. âEvery nation in every region now has a decision to make: Either you are with us or you are with the terrorists,â the president said.
He sent American forces to Afghanistan to destroy al-Qaidaâs sanctuary. When he deemed Saddam Hussein a threat, he sent troops to Iraq. He enlisted nations around the globe to help target al-Qaida terrorists.
But some investigators fear al-Qaida may have moved into another hot spot, one they say is fast becoming a terrorist outpost: West Africa.
West Africa is a place most Americans and their government havenât paid much attention toâwar-torn, remote and desperately poor. But that might be about to change. War crimes investigators have uncovered evidence that al-Qaida terrorists â before and after 9/11 â were using West Africa as a hideout and a place to launder money. And they say U.S. inaction has allowed al-Qaida to move into West Africa.
âRight now, itâs a safe haven for terrorist activity,â says Al White, who for 16 years served as a senior investigator at the Pentagon, handling sensitive intelligence and law enforcement matters. âThey are actively setting up shop. Theyâre training in various countries over there. Theyâre recruiting.â
White says West Africa could become the next Afghanistan. âIf we fail to act, and act soonâmark my words, thatâs exactly whatâs going to happen,â he sais.
White says, those terrorists may be planning new attacks on America.
For the last three years, White was on loan from the Pentagon to the special court for Sierra Leone, set up by the U.N. to prosecute war crimes that took place when Charles Taylor was president of Liberia.
Taylor allegedly sent a rebel force into neighboring Sierra Leone to seize that countryâs diamond mines, in a conflict that resulted in the murder, rape and mutilation of 1.2 million people.
And in 1998, White says, Charles Taylor went into business with al-Qaida.
âThis man is a terrorist,â White says of the former Liberian president. âHeâs also aided and abetted al-Qaida operatives. Now heâs actively working with these people again. If we donât bring him to justice immediately, there will be some significant consequences in the future.â
But why would al-Qaida flock to West Africa in the late 1990s? According to investigators, itâs simple.
"There was no accountability, there was no rule of law. And so, it was literally Mad Max Thunderdome here in West Africa for 10 years," says David Crane, who served as a high-level Pentagon and defense intelligence official and was that U.N. courtâs chief prosecutor.
He says al-Qaida found a friend in Charles Taylor who was looking to sell the diamonds heâd seized in Sierra Leone. The group turned to diamonds, he says, because theyâre virtually untraceable â the perfect currency for terror financing.
Hansen: Do you believe that Taylor himself was personally involved in these dealings with the al-Qaida operatives?
Crane: Yes.
Hansen: In what way?
Crane: Physically handing over diamonds for cash.
Hansen: And you have witnesses who have seen this?
Crane: Yes. We donât make this stuff up. This is stuff that is told to us by our informants who have been living and breathing in this area for decades.
Both Crane and White say they have developed information that proves al-Qaida has been, and still is operating in West Africa.
âWeâve been able to positively identify ten of the 21 FBIâs most wanted terrorists, operating actively and freely in West Africa, from 1997 up to modern day,â says White.
And they say they have the witnesses to prove it. Witnesses that include Charles Taylorâs own brother-in-law â Cindor Reeves.
Reeves, who âDatelineâ interviewed in disguise, is currently in witness protection. He told investigators that as a trusted insider, he escorted Taylorâs special guests around Liberia, including a man who went by the name âMustafah.â
Although Reeves didnât know it at the time, he now believes that âMustafahâ was, in fact, Abdullah Ahmed Abdullah, the alleged mastermind of the 1998 al-Qaida bombings of U.S. embassies in Kenya and Tanzania.
Cindor Reeves: I know the man. I didnât just see him one day in â98. He came back the second time, he came back the third time, and we stayed together for more than two, three months.
Hansen: Youâre positive that this man was actually Abdullah Ahmed Abdullah?
Reeves: Exactly. A 100 percent positive.
He says other al-Qaida operatives were there as wellâall with cash in hand to buy diamonds from Liberiaâs president, Charles Taylor. Reeves told us the men first stayed at a hotel in the capital, Monrovia, before moving to the safe house. On the wall of the safe house is a photo of a familiar face.
Hansen: And who did this picture turn out to be?Reeves: Osama Bin Laden.
Hansen: Osama Bin Laden?
Reeves: Yeah.
Shortly after September 11, Reeves told his story to Doug Farah, who at the time was a reporter for the Washington Post.
Doug Farah: I said, you know, âYou gotta be kidding right?â He said, âNo, I knewâI know these people.â And I sold diamonds with them. And my first thought was, âWell then, how would you ever verify this, right?â And I said, âYou know, I only have my reputation. You only have your reputation. If youâre lying to me on this, weâre both hamburger meat.ââ
Farahâs article piqued the interest of officials in Washington D.C. But the CIA and FBI said they found his source, Cindor Reeves, unreliable. Still, the FBI, under pressure from Congress, continued to investigate.
âWe couldnât establish that al-Qaida had in fact been involved in conflict diamonds,â says Dennis Lormel, who headed the FBIâs terror financing section.
What about all this information that Charles Taylor had provided safe haven for some al-Qaida operatives?
âWe investigated that,â says Lormel. âThe people around Taylor and other people denied that that ever happened.â
But as âDatelineâ discovered, one of the people the FBI relied on to discredit the story was Ibrihim Bah, who Middle Eastern intelligence sources tell âDatelineâ has longstanding terrorist ties of his own in Afghanistan, Lebanon and Libya.
The 9/11 Commission, which conducted its own investigation, agreed with the FBI.
Vice Chairman Lee Hamilton: Our conclusion, the conclusion of the commission was that there was simply no persuasive evidence of a link between al-Qaida and diamonds.
Hansen: We have talked to the chief prosecutor and the chief investigator for the Special Court of Sierra Leone. They remain adamant that not only were al-Qaida operatives in Liberia but they wereâ
Hamilton: We donât deny that.
Hansen: That they wereâ
Hamilton: Yeah.
Hansen: âtrying to do diamond deals with Charles Taylor and others.
Hamilton: We donât even deny that. Trying to do is one thing, doing it is another. We were not charged with the responsibility of finding out what people were trying to do, we were charged with the responsibility of finding out what they did.
The commissionâs mandate was narrowly focused on the events and failures directly leading to 9/11.
But Al White, who was the war crimes tribunalâs chief investigator says, when it comes to al-Qaida in West Africa, the 9/11 Commission didnât look hard enough.
"The 9/11 Commission missed the boat. Iâll just be very candid," says White.
White says the 9/11 Commission failed to interview credible witnesses offered by the court.
"How can you assess the credibility of someone youâve never talked to?" questions White. "Thatâs what I find suspicious. And thatâs what I find quite frankly unprofessional."
The 9/11 Commission says while it may not have interviewed the courtâs witnesses, the FBI did, and that both the FBI and the 9/11 Commission concluded they were not credible.
But could it be that the 9/11 Commission â along with the CIA and FBI â just got it wrong?
Mike Shanklin is a U.S. intelligence veteran. Now retired, Shanklin headed the CIAâs operations in Liberia in the 1990s, at a time when Taylor was coming to power.
âDatelineâ asked Shanklin, who had previously been consulted by the special court, to come on our behalf to Sierra Leone and Liberia to help sort out allegations of al-Qaidaâs presence and diamond-dealing in the region. Together, we uncovered evidence that U.S. officials appear to have missed.
âAl Qaida, Bah, Taylor, they were there,â says Shanklin. âThere is no question in my mind these people were there. They were there during the period in question. And clearly they were involved in some sort of a diamond business. Thatâs a fact.â
Ironically, Shanklin says, a few years ago, a top Liberian security officialâunaware that his boss, Charles Taylor might have been doing business with al-Qaidaânaively launched an investigation into the terrorist groupâs activities in Liberia.
But the investigation ended before it could begin.
âCharles Taylor quashed it, said, âYou donât need to worry about this.â And that was the end of it," says Shanklin.
Several witnesses at the hotel (where al-Qaida operatives are said to have met) confirmed to âDatelineâ that al-Qaida fugitives had stayed there as guests about six years ago.
Whatâs more, a senior Liberian official told âDatelineâ that around the same time, a couple of unwitting Liberian investigators apparently went to the hotel and tried to have the men arrested âagain, not realizing they were guests of their president, Charles Taylor.
âTaylor had the government investigators arrested⊠and freed the al-Qaida operatives,â says Shanklin.
Hansen: What does that say about the relationship between the al-Qaida operatives and Charles Taylor?
Shanklin: Well, it certainly says that Charles Taylor didnât want these people under arrest ...
Whatâs most ominous is that the special courtâs former chief investigator believes al-Qaida is still active in the region. And heâs desperately trying to convince the U.S. government to do something about it.
âTheyâre here. Theyâre absolutely here," says White. "I canât tell you the number. But, what I can tell you is that thereâs a significant presence in West Africa. I donât know exactly what the al-Qaida operatives are doing. Thatâs what concerns me. And, again, the problem is thatâs not my mission. Itâs the FBIâs mission to come over and find that out.â
There is one man who could settle the disagreement over al-Qaidaâs presence and diamond-dealing in West Africa: former Liberian president Charles Taylor.
Two years ago, after the special court charged Taylor with 17 counts of war crimes committed in Sierra Leone, the U.S. helped broker a deal in which Taylor left office in Liberia and went into exile at this estate in Nigeria.
Despite repeated requests from the international community, Nigeriaâs president has so far refused to turn Taylor over to the special court for prosecution.
And the United States â which considers Nigeria a vital ally and oil supplier â has seemed reluctant to really press the issue.
But Al White, whoâs just finished a three-year stint in West Africa, says Charles Taylor is still conspiring with terror suspects, and that bringing him to justice may be the only way to prevent further bloodshed.
Al White: Weâve lost three years. Three years of time in actively pursuing these terrorists. Can we afford to waste another three years by denying that theyâre presence is over there?
Hansen: And what has al-Qaida gained in those three years?
White: [In the three years] theyâve gained momentum. They have absolutely no problem pursuing their agenda and training in West Africa because theyâre off limits.
Shanklin agrees: âWeâre fighting a war and weâre talking about going after al-Qaida. We had an opportunity to go after al-Qaida here. Maybe we didnât do it as aggressively as we should have. Charles Taylor was dealing with these people. And we should be doing something about Charles Taylor. This isnât tough. This doesnât even fall in the category of tough. This is pretty easy. Letâs do it.â
There is new evidence that Charles Taylor may be meddling in his former nationâs coming election, and thus violating the terms of his exile agreement. With that in mind, the United States has joined the chorus of nations requesting that Taylor be turned over to the U.N. War Crimes Tribunal. Taylorâs host, the Nigerian president, still refuses to cooperate.
Posted by: Dan Darling ||
07/18/2005 12:24 ||
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Should have let the Liberians string him up a long time ago.
Members of law enforcement agencies seem to be out in a competition to earn better record on killing people in so-called crossfire incidents that have left dead some four hundred people including several innocent ones since June last year. The last 13 days alone saw 18 people killed, pushing the number of casualties in extrajudicial execution to 378 in 13 months and 13 days. Of them, 245 people died in police actions, 116 in Rapid Action Battalion (Rab), 12 were killed by Cobra and Cheetah [special crime-busting units of police] and five by joint forces.
Death of some top criminals in 'crossfire' came as a great relief to a section of people. Despite being well aware that the killings were sort of executions without trial, many people greeted with acclamation the way the law enforcers were dealing with the criminals. The rationale behind such attitudes was mainly the country's frailties of many years where criminals get arrested, but come out on bail and go about their business as usual. But soon after a number of people with no criminal records fell victims to the 'crossfire', panic had started to pervade cross sections of the society.
The law enforcers, however, have been relentless in their attempts to show the innocent victims of crossfire as criminals by coming up with false criminal records against them. But investigations by newspapers have nullified the claims by the law enforcers while corroborated those of the victims' families. Law enforcers beat up some people at their offices and later gunned them down outside, describing the deaths as results of 'crossfire'. But it all reminded the people of the death of Independent University student Rubel at Detective Branch office in 1998. The idea that anyone may fall victim to such incidents began to creep into the consciousness of the people.
The government had constituted special forces -- Rat, Rab, Cobra, and Cheetah -- one after another to contain rampant crimes. Besides, with the inception of those forces, the government had tried to give people the impression that even stringent laws like Speedy Trial Act have failed to yield expected results. But experts and rights bodies decried the launches of the forces as temporary solution and demanded for a permanent one. With crimes spiralling out of control, the government launched army-led Operation Clean Heart on October 17 and limited success of the drive gave the government reasons to boast about the law and order for some time.
To sustain the success, Rapid Action Team (Rat) comprising the policemen with para-commando training from the army was launched on January 25, 2003. As Rat failed to bring tangible results, army personnel were included in the team and the force was renamed Rab (Rapid Action Battalion) on April 14 last year. Besides, the government had launched a special drive with different agencies of the police in every ward of the capital and another drive styled Operation Spider Web in the southwestern region in 2003 to net criminals. But both the drives were considered to have been largely ineffective.
The government formed Cobra in June, 2004, with members from Detective Branch (DB), Criminal Investigation Department (CID), Special Branch (SB), and Dhaka Metropolitan Police (DMP) to work in the capital. In yet another such move, Cheetah, consisting of DB men, hit the road on September 24 last year. As the Rab started actions in the name of 'crossfire' immediately after going into full-fledged operation in June, 2004, the police also sprang to similar actions. In a few months, they surpassed the Rab in 'dealing with criminals'.
Didn't want RAB to get all the credit, they were losing "face".
The government earlier had given the army personnel indemnity from prosecution for killing 54 people during Operation Clean Heart, but no such measures has yet been adopted for the law enforcers responsible for the deaths of 378 people in 'crossfire', 'shootout' and 'encounter'. While heart attack was cited wholesale as causes of death during Clean Heart, the law enforcers these days trot out the same old story of 'crossfire' where the victims get arrested and killed either in 'crossfire' or 'encounter' or 'shootout' during operations for recovering illegal firearms at deserted places, mostly in the small hours. The police and Rab authorities send to newspaper offices the same press releases containing the same old story, with only names of the victims and recovered firearms changed.
MACRO Alt - F5; Arrest, police station, interrogation, confession, 2am, behind the train station, arms cache, cohorts, open fire, attemped escape, shot dead, Dr. Quincy, "He's dead, Jim", shutter gun, registered terrorist, wanted for murder, etc. You mean that story?
The releases keep claiming that the victims had got shot and died while trying to flee during a gunfight between the law enforcers and the arrestees' accomplices.
You forgot the "accomplices always escape without a trace" part. Yeah, we didn't believe them either.
As the donors and international rights bodies press the government to stop extra-judicial killings, the government decided to blanket the killings with legal covers and announced that executive enquiries would be carried out into all the deaths during police and Rab operations. But the Police Regulations of Bengal, which say firearms should not be used other than in emergency situations, oblige the authorities to conduct a full executive enquiry to justify the use of firearms.
Heads of police and Rab said that the executive enquiries so far did not find fault on the part of any of their members for any of the deaths in crossfire while rights bodies, legal experts, civil society, and opposition parties termed those enquiries mere eyewash. They demanded an independent enquiry involving the judiciary and professional bodies, saying that executive probes into the extra-judicial killings are bound to be partial since the law enforcers are carrying out the acts with the go-ahead from the government.
For a permanent solution to arrest declining law and order, experts suggest bringing reforms in the police, raising their morale, keeping the judiciary above politicisation and influence from the executive, strengthening the lower courts, ending political patronisation of the criminals, ensuring justice in the trial of the criminals and testimony by the witnesses.
Posted by: Steve ||
07/18/2005 11:22 Comments ||
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#3
Good grief, I had no idea they were having a contest over there- police leading, with RAB pushing up, but some distance behind and the Cobra/Cheetah team just not able to get out of the starting gate and making a poor impression on the statistics. Joint forces are really in it for the pride of playing.
This bit is just too funny/weird:
The government earlier had given the army personnel indemnity from prosecution for killing 54 people during Operation Clean Heart, but no such measures has yet been adopted for the law enforcers responsible for the deaths of 378 people in 'crossfire', 'shootout' and 'encounter'. While heart attack was cited wholesale as causes of death during Clean Heart, the law enforcers these days trot out the same old story of 'crossfire' where the victims get arrested and killed either in 'crossfire' or 'encounter' or 'shootout' during operations for recovering illegal firearms at deserted places, mostly in the small hours. The police and Rab authorities send to newspaper offices the same press releases containing the same old story, with only names of the victims and recovered firearms changed.
Superb inline comments Steve.
Posted by: Tony (UK) ||
07/18/2005 11:34 Comments ||
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#4
But soon after a number of people with no criminal records fell victims to the 'crossfire', panic had started to pervade cross sections of the society.
Uh-huh. Why do I get the feeling the "cross sections" that started to panic included the criminals, do-gooders, and press?
(But I repeat myself...)
Posted by: Robert Crawford ||
07/18/2005 11:47 Comments ||
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#5
Members of law enforcement agencies seem to be out in a competition to earn better record on killing people in so-called crossfire incidents...
#7
The police and Rab authorities send to newspaper offices the same press releases containing the same old story, with only names of the victims and recovered firearms changed.
#10
But soon after a number of people with no criminal records fell victims to the 'crossfire', panic had started to pervade cross sections of the society.
First-offenders never have criminal records. Neither do people who constantly go free before comeing to trial.
Still, I would like to see some more teams out there. We could have a Monsoon Madness™ ... um ... elimination tournament.
Anyone know where I can get a RAB penant? Preferably with a shutter gun?
Three of the four London suicide bombers visited Pakistan last year, officials there have confirmed. Mohammad Sidique Khan and Shehzad Tanweer arrived and left together, and spent three months in the country. Hasib Hussain flew in last July. It is not clear how long he stayed. Security officials have been trying to establish what the men did during their visits.
Indoctrination, followed by one-shot training, followed by being hailed as heroes by the local holy men...
The three, all Britons of Pakistani descent, and one other bomber were among 55 people killed in the blasts. Police have confirmed they were the UK's first suicide bombings. The three men, all from the Leeds area of northern England, were tracked by a system called Pisces in which everyone who comes into Pakistan legally, via any port of entry, is photographed.
Regardless of who their passport(s) sez they are, huh?
Mohammad Sidique Khan, 30, and Shehzad Tanweer, 22, flew into Karachi together on Turkish Airlines flight 1056 on 19 November, 2004 and both left on Turkish Airlines flight 1057 on 8 February this year. Records show Hasib Hussain, 18, arriving in Karachi last July, on Saudi Arabian Airlines flight SV-714. His port of exit has not been established. What the men did during their visits is also not clear.
Getting some of that "old time religion".
Of just as much interest to me would be who paid for their tickets...
There has been no official confirmation of reports that Shehzad Tanweer visited both the eastern cities of Lahore and Faisalabad. His family says he attended an Islamic school, or madrassa, during his most recent visit.
Like I said...
Pakistani security officials have previously said he visited the country briefly on at least one other occasion, possibly at the end of 2003. Intelligence officials want to know whether the men were in contact with the al-Qaeda network or other Islamic militant groups operating in Pakistan, or if there was a Pakistan-based mastermind behind the attacks on 7 July. Sources say Pakistani intelligence and investigation agencies are working flat out to accommodate British demands for leads on any of the three London bombers of Pakistani descent.
Yeah. I'd guess they're running in place just as fast as they can...
On Sunday in an attempt to find out more about the bombers' final movements, UK police released a CCTV image of them as they set out from Luton. They also confirmed the names of all four men for the first time. The fourth was a Jamaican-born Briton, Germaine Lindsay, 19. Three bombs exploded on the London underground at 0850 BST, and one on a bus at 0947. It is thought Hussain was responsible for the bus bombing, in which 13 people died, Khan the Edgware Road blast that killed six people; Tanweer for the Aldgate blast, which killed six, and Lindsay for the Russell Square explosion where 26 people were killed. More than 700 other people were injured in the explosions.
Posted by: Steve ||
07/18/2005 09:10 ||
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The fourth murderer Lindsay was said to have been in Afghanistan in 2001. If true, what the blazes was he doing there at 15 years old? Forgotten men who became footsoldiers of Al-Qaeda Inquiries into the background of the other bomber, the Jamaican-born Jermaine Lindsay, 19, have taken British police in a different direction. Former schoolfriends of Lindsay, who grew up in Huddersfield, said that he visited Afghanistan four years ago and returned to Britain as a hardline Muslim.
Posted by: ed ||
07/18/2005 9:41 Comments ||
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Do these guys have links to Lashkar-e-Jhangvi? That would fit. Very well. This is really starting to look like Iraqi FRE were involved in the background. Which makes me wonder about the TATP bathtub story the Brits are pushing..
Investigating agencies probing the Ayodhya attack have been dealt a blow as the mastermind, Lashkar-e-Taiba commander Saifullah Qari, has crossed over to Pakistan and is learnt to have reached his native town of Sindh. With Qari out of reach, more leads may be hard to come by. But the search is still on for another Lashkar commander, Adnan, who helped Qari transport the weaponry from J&K to Ayodhya.
Vital information collected by HT has revealed that Qari infiltrated into Poonch in 2004 and remained an LeT operation commander. A graphic prepared by investigating agencies shows him to be 23 to 25 years of age with fair complexion. His body language, as disclosed by arrested LeT terrorists Mohammad Naseem and Asif Iqbal, further suggests he was an army regular in Pakistan. âQari was always seen with his lover close aide Sindhia. Both conversed in Sindhi. After the Ayodhya attack, their activities in Poonch couldnât be traced,â sources said. Further investigations revealed the duo crossed over to Pakistan from Mendhar on the intervening night of July 7 and 8.
Posted by: Paul Moloney ||
07/18/2005 05:12 ||
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I wish I had started a "mastermind" list way back when. These masterminds are a dime a dozen.
#2
I agree with Sobie's comment above. Sadr should be dead, or rather, should've been dead a long time ago. It's not too late to fix that, is it?
Posted by: Mark Z. ||
07/18/2005 5:53 Comments ||
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As usual, the headline is a bit inflammatory. But I liked this little detail - The cleric said he would not play any part in the political process while US-led troops remain.
Good idea! By that time, no one will remember your name!
Posted by: Bobby ||
07/18/2005 7:42 Comments ||
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#4
Well, perhaps the "resistance" will happen to blow up Satyr's house with him in it. We can hope.
Some 2,000 guerrillas are waiting at various points on the Pakistani side of the Line of Control (LoC) to cross over to Jammu and Kashmir, say Indian Army officials. For years the army has known that June and July are the cruellest months for terrorist incursions across the LoC, and this has been confirmed with more than 20 infiltration attempts since last month. But worse is yet to come, said army officials. There are 44 terrorist training camps, almost double the number of âlaunching padsâ for infiltration attempts across the LoC, they said.
In the past week alone, there were infiltration bids at Bhimbhar Gali, Balakote, Gurez, Keran, Uri and Sunderbani. The speed and frequency of these bids in the past six weeks is reminiscent of the period before the November 26, 2003 ceasefire, when infiltration was a regular phenomenon along the 742-km LoC, especially in the Kashmir Valley and the border districts of Rajouri and Poonch in the Jammu region. Officials say the only difference this time is that Pakistani troops are not offering covering fire to terrorists trying to sneak into the Indian side. âBut the fact that they are attempting to cross over from glacial heights of 14,000 feet at Gurez and trying to breach our electrified fence speaks of their determination,â said an army officer. âThere could be two reasons,â said the officer, âfor such misadventures by infiltrators. Either they are a very determined lot or they are being pushed from the other side to cross at all costs. In both cases, it is a big challenge to the Indian Army. So far, we have lived up to our reputation as almost all infiltration attempts have been foiled.â
Posted by: Paul Moloney ||
07/18/2005 00:59 ||
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"2,000 Jihadis waiting to sneak in"
For a second, I thought this would be a piece about Mexico.
#3
I suggest the "Fallujah solution". That is, set up several killzones, each of which look on the surface to be real safe, well-covered sneak routes that are actually death trap ambushes. It is just as important that when the traps are sprung, that clean-up is done quickly and thoroughly, leaving behind no trace. No mention should be made of the losers, and on the rare occasion one is captured, he should be persuaded to communicate with his fellows to say that "it worked!", before he disappears for good.
#4
3dc, the Metalstorm devices don't have any ammo, or at least not any beyond small test batches. I hope that they will in the future. I think you could set up some remote weapon stations with conventional machine guns and get excellent results.
Palestinian militants fired two Qassam rockets and three mortar shells at Gush Katif settlements and southern Israeli towns before dawn on Monday, Army Radio said. No casualties or damage were caused as a result of the rocket fire. Militant groups often shoot homemade rockets and mortar shells from the Gaza Strip at southern towns and settlements nearby.
Posted by: Steve White ||
07/18/2005 00:00 ||
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militant groups parade in indecent clothes for gay marriage. Terrorists shoot rockets and mortars, f*&kheads
Posted by: Frank G ||
07/18/2005 0:22 Comments ||
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Militant groups often shoot homemade rockets and mortar shells from the Gaza Strip at southern towns and settlements nearby
While the IDF often shoots professional made rockets at the Gaza Strip from the air and hit what they aim for. Take note terrorists.
An Egyptian intelligence delegation held "important" talks with the Palestinian president Mahmoud Abbas Sunday, aimed at regaining security stability in the Palestinian territories following bloody days, said a senior Palestinian official. Tayyeb Abdurrahim, secretary general of the Palestinian presidency, told reporters that Abbas briefed Major-General Mustafa Beheiri, the Egyptian delegation's cheif, about the latest developments in the Palestinian lands.
Abbas briefed the Egyptian official about the Palestinian Authority's (PA) insistance to restore order and that a single authority, that is the PA, should be responsible for the security situation on the ground, said Abdurrahim. The Egyptian delegation will separately meet the Palestinian factions, then meets again with Abbas to narrow gaps of differences between both sides in a bid to regain stability. These moves are aimed at "making the expected Israeli withdrawal calm," said Abdurrahim.
"The Egyptian position is clear and mirrors the Palestinian position, it underlines the need to return to the period of calm, impose superiority of law, stop undermining the authority of the PA," said Abdurrahim. PA spokesman Nabil Abu Rudeineh said there were ongoing contacts and coordination with the Egyptians at all levels.
Posted by: Fred ||
07/18/2005 00:00 ||
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perhaps if you quit funneling arms and ammo to the Paleos through the Gaza tunnels (or at least quit looking the other way)....
Posted by: Frank G ||
07/18/2005 0:25 Comments ||
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A lot of the Egyptians in power are very wary of Hamas since it is ideologically connected to the Muslim brotherhood in Egypt (the general population of Egypt is far more pro terrorists than the elite)
A mortar round fired by Palestinian fighters hit on Sunday night the Israeli settlement of Neve Dekalim, south of Gaza Strip, wounding three Israeli settlers, said Israeli security sources. After this strike, the number of Neve Dekalim settlers wounded today increased to five. The Israeli Army announced earlier today that two settlers were seriously wounded due to Palestinian mortar fires on the settlement. An Israeli explosive expert was also wounded today in Neve Dekalim while dismantling a mortar round that touched down without exploding in the settlement.
Posted by: Fred ||
07/18/2005 00:00 ||
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The system's still sluggish, with the firewall using a lot of CPU cycles. I haven't found any little gifts left by our visitors, but I'll keep checking. Their IP addresses suggest they were from Bayern and Bratislava. I'm really tired of fighting off beauzeaux like them...
Posted by: Fred ||
07/18/2005 00:00 ||
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Revers IP, and complain to the ISPs - and talk to your provider to see if they can filter off those guys IP range at the upstream router.
#2
Mr. Pruitt, I know you may be weary of that nonsense, but you're doing a great job here at RB, and I'm sure everyone would agree. A true class act, with wits and some real 'raw meat for the mind'; don't let a couple of retards drag you down, think instead of the great website you and the rainbow editors are offering to an undeserving world ! I'll hit the tip jar just for that. Thanks for RB!
#5
Unfortunately, as we well know, the world is filled with beauzeaux. Keep on fighting, Fred. I tossed some coins in your cup too.
Posted by: Neutron Tom ||
07/18/2005 11:02 Comments ||
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What sort of firewall are you using? A dedicated PC set up as such?
Posted by: Phil Fraering ||
07/18/2005 13:20 Comments ||
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Do the email thingy when asking for details which you wouldn't want the fuckwits to know. They're here, you know, polishing their fuckwit skills, lol!
#10
Hey, I came across this site a few weeks back and have been loving the articles submitted and comments of everyone here. I've never seen a site quite like this one and feel very fortunate to have found it.
Which makes me wonder, are we supposed to register with you or send in our information so you know who we are? It seems like everyone knows each other in some way.
I'm a military mom, that lives in Colorado, and I've been trying to keep up with everything going on since my son is active duty. I hope that I haven't been intruding where I don't belong or anything. So please advise, otherwise I really do enjoy what you're doing on this site and if I can help by throwing a few bucks your way to help pay for another firewall or whatever I would be happy to (let me know how and where). Jan
My blog site is: http://blogalready.blogspot.com/
Posted by: Jan ||
07/18/2005 22:58 Comments ||
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Jan - no registration or other "outting" requirements (at least so far, lol), and you are very welcome here. So many of these interesting folks have been around so long, well, it's like family, lol! We can often finish each other's sentences - and epithets, heh.
Our very best wishes and thanks for your son's service - you are both honored here, I assure you.
We do hit the tip jar now and then, especially when we screw up and waste a bunch of Fred's bandwidth, lol! He's the best town sheriff on the 'Net - and the 'burg is a great home. We're glad to have you!
LAHORE: Following President Pervez Musharraf's directions to eliminate extremism, police monitoring committees have been formed in Sindh, particularly in Karachi, BBC Urdu service reported on Sunday.
Formed a committee, did they? Well, that always works. Things'll get done now, by Gar!...
A committee formed by Sindh Inspector General (IG) of Police Asad Jehangir includes four senior police officers, BBC added. The Sindh additional IG will head the committee with deputy inspector general (DIG) Special Branch, DIG Operations and DIG Central Investigation Department (CID) as his assistants, it reported. The monitoring committee has been asked to send a detailed report every week to the Sindh IG.
By Gad, that's the way to keep 'em on their toes! Weekly reports! Nothin' like 'em! In triplicate, I hope!
Police sources said Karachi was of prime importance in the campaign against extremism, where several terrorist organisations were operating, the report added. They said some seminaries in Karachi were also under observation, BBC reported. Meanwhile, police registered a case against three religious leaders including Millat-e-Islamia chief Maulana Ali Sher Haideri for using loudspeakers despite a ban on using them.
Posted by: Fred ||
07/18/2005 00:00 ||
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Terrorism Penetration Surveillance reports, or just TPS reports. Just remember to use the new cover sheet before you submit them, not the old one attached afterwards.
SRINAGAR â Indian troops yesterday shot dead 21 terrorists seperatists in Indian Kashmir, while two soldiers and two civilians were killed as the hunt continued for terrorists militants sneaking across the border from Pakistan. Nine of the terrorists rebels were killed during a fierce clash with Indian troops along the heavily militarised frontier between India and Pakistan in northern Baramulla district early yesterday, an Indian army spokesman said.
A 6-year-old girl also died in the exchange of fire between the two sides, he said. Four terrorists militants were killed yesterday during a clash in Kashmirâs Kupwara district. Police said six terrorists militants, two soldiers and a Nepali national were also killed in shootouts and gunbattles across Kashmir yesterday.
Posted by: Steve White ||
07/18/2005 00:00 ||
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Police on Sunday arrested two militants of a banned group, along with explosive in eastern Pakistani city, a day after President Pervez Musharraf announced new crackdown on religious groups and hate material, said police. A police team, while on a routine patrol, arrested two militants of Lashkar-e-Taiba extremist group from Mozang area of Lahore, 370 kilometers in southeast of Islamabad, a local police official, Muhammad Shah Jamal, told KUNA. He added that they were carrying explosive and weapons. He did not give further details.
The arrest was made two-days after President Musharraf announced a new crackdown on extremist groups and to eliminate hate material from markets by December this year. In a related incident, police raided offices of two religious magazines in southern Karachi city on Saturday and arrested their editors.
Posted by: Fred ||
07/18/2005 00:00 ||
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More than 20 suspected Taliban insurgents - including five foreigners - were killed in recent clashes with Afghan and US-led coalition forces in Afghanistan, a defense ministry spokesman said on Sunday. The militants had attacked Afghan National Army units at two locations in southeastern Khost province on Thursday and Friday, Defense Ministry spokesman Gen Mohammed Zaher Azimi said. The attacks prompted a counteroffensive by Afghan troops backed by coalition air strikes that left more than 20 Taliban insurgents dead, he told a news conference. The victims, whose bodies were collected by Afghan soldiers, included three men from Chechnya and two from Uzbekistan. Their nationalities were revealed on documents found with the bodies, Azimi said. One Afghan soldier was also killed, he added. A US military spokeswoman was not available for comment. Earlier, the US military said in a statement that four American troops were wounded Saturday when a roadside bomb exploded in eastern Paktika province.
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07/18/2005 00:00 ||
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07/18/2005 00:00 ||
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"Naeemi was among a group of clerics who issued a ââ¬Ëfatwaââ¬â¢, or religious decree, in May that strictly forbade suicide attacks on Muslims in Pakistan but said it did not apply to those running freedom movements in Kashmir, Iraq or Palestine"
What a useless 'fatwa' you could make a case for a bombing in just about any country with those exceptions. Typical two faced response.
MUSAYYIB, Iraq - The tribunal empowered to try war crimes issued its first charges against Saddam Hussein and said it would announce within days when the ousted dictator will stand trial for his life. Iraqi leaders hope quick justice for Saddam will help defuse the insurgency led by his once-dominant Sunni Arab community.
The Special Tribunal set up to try him said it had charged Saddam and three others with killings in Dujail, a town where the ex-president survived a 1982 assassination attempt. If convicted in that relatively minor case, Saddam could be hanged without ever standing trial on wider and more contentious charges of genocide and crimes against humanity. Many Iraqis say they would prefer swift punishment to a long trial.
âWhen I hear talk of Saddam Hussein, itâs as if Iâm confronting the angel of death,â Bashir Ghazi, sitting outside a Baghdad coffee shop, said on Sunday.
Posted by: Steve White ||
07/18/2005 00:00 ||
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If convicted in that relatively minor case, Saddam could be hanged without ever standing trial on wider and more contentious charges of genocide and crimes against humanity. Many Iraqis say they would prefer swift punishment to a long trial.
Oh, very nice. Can you imagine the screams from the Forces Of Moonbattery if they can't drag the US into Saddam's trial, and it simply turns into a purely local matter?
Mike
Posted by: Mike Kozlowski ||
07/18/2005 0:44 Comments ||
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Fear not, ol Saddam will most likely see several trials. Following Dujayl, there should be at least three more in which he stars: the Anfal campaign, the 1991 intefadeh, and a more general political/religious repression case.
My semi-well-informed guess is that Saddam was added to the Dujayl case because of political pressure (the case was originally referred in February, was returned to the Investigative Chamber, and is now sent back to the Trial Chamber) to get him in the ringer somewhere in the vicinity of the constitutional referendum or subsequent general election. It's very unfortunate. The Dujayl case was originally going to be the shake-down cruise for the Tribunal -- and they need one, naturally. Now, instead, they will take the field for the first time in something akin to Game 7 of the World Series.
A key objective here is that the trials in fact tell the narrative of the former regime's crimes. The civil law system typically has fairly brief trials, and the evidence is not as much on display as in our jury-based trials, since the panel of judges has studied the case file intensively before courtroom proceedings begin. In this case, the Tribunal has been urged to conduct the trials with an eye towards laying out the whole story for the country and the world, above and apart from the normal legal requirements of the proceedings.
I don't think the Tribunal will invest the effort they are in compiling the major cases, only to have Saddam convicted in the minor Dujayl case and strung up quickly - notwithstanding political currents in Iraq. Time will tell.
#6
Lawyer Wants Saddam Trial Moved From Iraq LONDON (AP) - A lawyer for Saddam Hussein said Monday that Iraq's insurgency has made Baghdad far too dangerous a venue for the former leader's trial, and that the proceeding should be moved to another country. ``Do you fancy spending a year or more in Baghdad, going to court five days a week? Would you feel safe there? `` lawyer Giovanni di Stefano said in an interview with The Associated Press. ``Baghdad couldn't even prevent the recent kidnapping and killing of the Egyptian ambassador. There are also many Iraqis who want to see Saddam executed and many others who want to see him freed. That means the defense and prosecution would both be in danger there,'' di Stefano said.
He said Saddam's defense team has contacted the Swedish government about the possibility of holding such a trial in Sweden. But in Stockholm on Monday, Swedish Justice Ministry spokesman Alexander Valentin said that he was not aware of any official request.
Nah, it wouldn't be fair to make the witnesses travel that far. I know, how about holding it in Kuwait or Iran?
Posted by: Steve ||
07/18/2005 13:06 Comments ||
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[vigilante rant]
Sometimes civilization's legal mechanisms, as we know them, just make no sense. Holding a trial for Saddam is proof. I fully understand the reasons and arguments for applying the same methodology in all cases - equality under the Law.
I also understand that it falls on its face more often than we'd like to admit, for a myriad number of reasons. Each occurrence where the system fails, and everyone knows it failed, erodes our confidence in justice just a smidgen. Our respect, our trust, our sense of that promised equality dies a tiny death with every judicial failure - whether technical or otherwise. At some point, even the most charitable and forgiving among us, I'm referring to sane people here, feels at least a twinge of sympathetic pain when "the system" is derailed. Cynicism fills each of these little chinks and cracks in the armor of civilization generated by these failures.
We laugh at it, as the pic with this article demonstrates, because we've become cynical in varying degrees. Too many failures, aided and abetted by the likes of the ACLU, secured through clever antics and courtroom shenanigans by Big Money Star Lawyers, or tiny technical mistakes by overworked and understaffed Police Depts leaves us boggled and suspicious and resentful and angry and, yes, cynical. Our expectations are constantly being lowered. Our outrage - at everything from simple lies to exaggerated advertising claims to getting screwed in a business deal to having a retiree lose everything to a swindler to seeing a pedo walk free to knowing the murderer should die, not get 3 squares a day, a custom diet, big-screen cable-TV, a weight room, law library, and A/C - instead of the noose or a needle - finds no outlet, eating us up from the inside out. Many of us have lost faith in the system. Some have replaced that need to believe, for it is a near-universal human hunger to belong to something greater and better and worthy of our aspirations, with foolish causes, absurd belief systems and ideologies, and mental disorders characterized by obsessive dementia.
These failures are far more powerful negatives than when the system delivers what we deem as justice are positives. One attaboy does not equal one hundred awdumbshits, as we've been told by the wags -- precisely the opposite is the truth of it. As with an unfaithful spouse, nothing actually ever restores the faith. Once burned, the fear of pain is greater than the anticipation of pleasure. Replay your memory tapes - the proof is there.
Justice has devolved into wanking for wanking's sake.
Examples abound... I could probably offend almost everyone, equally - lol, by listing a few hundred people who are breathing my air, but shouldn't be. So sayeth the Alley Oop of RB. Knuckle-dragger, mouth-breather, thug, killer, and rescuer of lost kittens stuck in trees.
[/vigilante rant]
Shoot the prick. One .22LR behind the ear and let it rattle around in there a bit. Be done with it.
#8
Dot Opp or .Opp is a fine name for just about any weird activity. Check my ID Ima Dot Opp, check my pass Ima with the band, you know Dot Opp dood, where's my SUV! It's a marrooon Dot Opp. I still say spring for the Grand Opp Package, it's got the WildCat hide interior.
PESHAWAR: Seventeen suspected foreign militants and a Pakistan Army soldier were killed in a clash near the Pak-Afghan border in North Waziristan Agency late on Saturday night, officials told Daily Times on Sunday. The army cordoned off a compound near Miranshah after receiving information that foreign militants might be there. During the search, militants tried escaping in two vehicles, but were stopped by the army. The drivers ignored the orders and men sitting inside started shooting and throwing grenades at the soldiers, killing one. The soldiers shot back and destroyed one of the vehicles with an RPG, which also ignited munitions in the vehicle.
A military source speaking on condition of anonymity for security reasons said the dead included 15 women and children and two men. Four Central Asians and 12 local supporters were arrested, ISPR said. Explosive materials, detonators and instructions for making improvised explosive devices were seized from the scene, along with four passports from Kazakhstan, it added. The women and boys were used as a âhuman shieldsâ, but they also threw grenades at the troops, the release said.
Residents of Miranshah said troops had cordoned off the area after the clash. Security officials have said hundreds of Arab, Central Asian and Afghan militants, allegedly linked to the Al Qaeda terrorist network, are in the North and South Waziristan Agencies bordering Afghanistan. Army and paramilitary troops have carried out several operations to hunt down fighters in the two areas.
In South Waziristan Agency on Sunday, gunmen fired on a pro-government tribal elder, missing him but killing one passer-by and injuring another, an intelligence official said on customary condition of anonymity. Malik Khan Mohammed Machikhel, 50, was attacked in a bazaar in Khaisor, a village northeast of Wana, South Waziristan Agency, the official said. Anti-government militants have been accused of killing several tribal elders suspected of helping authorities.
Posted by: Fred ||
07/18/2005 00:00 ||
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The Paleos seem not to have passed up their chance to miss an opportunity...
GAZA: An Islamist militant from Hamas was assassinated by an Israeli sniper on Sunday, as Israel threatened a wide-scale ground offensive in the occupied Gaza Strip unless Palestinians stopped rocket attacks. Within hours, four Israeli settlers were wounded, two of them seriously, in a Palestinian mortar attack on Neve Dekalim, the largest Jewish settlement in Gaza. The Ezzedin al-Qassam Brigades, the armed wing of the movement Hamas, said it fired two mortar shells at Neve Dekalim in the early afternoon to avenge the killing of one of its militants in the central Gaza town of Khan Yunis.
A Palestinian gunman was killed by Israeli troops on Sunday as he tried to infiltrate a Jewish settlement in the occupied Gaza Strip, an army spokesman said. The victim was shot dead as he moved towards the isolated settlement of Netzarim, just south of Gaza City, with an accomplice, the spokesman said. The duo refused to identify themselves. One militant pointed a gun at soldiers, who returned fire killing him. The second Palestinian managed to escape, the army said.
Said Saeam, 32, a wanted local leader in Hamasâs armed wing which claimed a torrent of anti-Israeli rocket attacks on Sunday, was shot dead as he left home in the Gaza town of Khan Yunis.
Escalating violence, which has killed 12 Palestinians and six Israelis in five days, has flung a spluttering truce into crisis and is to bring US Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice to the region at the end of the week to press for calm. Prime Minister Ariel Sharon said Israelâs defence establishment had been given carte blanche to stop all rocket attacks. âI met defence officials and I repeated to them that there was no restriction on operations to stop attacks on (Israeli) towns,â he said. âWe will absolutely not tolerate the continuation of attacks against our towns, be they inside the Gaza Strip or on the border,â he added.
âIf the Palestinian Authority does not stop the attacks, we will have to take action in its place,â Defence Minister Shaul Mofaz was quoted as saying. He recommended that Palestinian leader Mahmud Abbas be given 24 hours to restore calm before an Israeli ground offensive in the Gaza Strip, public radio said.
Sharon reiterated that Palestinian attacks will not hinder the pullout from the Gaza Strip set to begin next month. Speaking at the weekly cabinet meeting, Sharon reiterated that he had charged police and soldiers with ensuring demonstrators did not force their way into the main Jewish settlement bloc of Gush Katif during the march. On Monday, thousands of opponents of Israelâs historic Gaza pullout are expected to march on the border crossing between Israel and Gush Katif in a last-ditch bid to impede the withdrawal.
The military has assassinated eight Hamas militants since Friday â the first targeted killings in seven months. Overnight, the Israeli army deployed thousands of extra soldiers and armoured vehicles on top of those already massed across the border with the Gaza Strip, military sources said. Deputy Defence Minister Zeev Boim threatened a large-scale land offensive in Gaza âwithin the next few hoursâ unless militants stopped rocket attacks. But other officials said any such operation was unlikely ahead of Riceâs expected arrival and before Mahmud Abbas had been given a chance to act against militants.
Posted by: Fred ||
07/18/2005 00:00 ||
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...Ya know, that 1:2 kill ratio should be a clue, but I doubt they'll pick up on it.
Mike
Posted by: Mike Kozlowski ||
07/18/2005 0:46 Comments ||
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Escalating violence, which has killed 12 Palestinians and six Israelis in five days, has flung a spluttering truce into crisis and is to bring US Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice to the region at the end of the week to press for calm.
scorecard, truce, pressing for calm. One need never leave the bar or do any actual reporting just hit the macro key and change the numbers, edit one or two words and a "reporter" can make it back to the bar by noon. Heck, he never even has to leave the bar - or the beltway - to fire this wisdom off. Of course it shows - but his editor likes it, so why kill yourself?
The government does not plan to search religious seminaries to arrest people linked to militant organisations. Brig Javed Iqbal Cheema, National Crises Management Cell director general, told Daily Times on Sunday that no search and arrest operations would be carried out in response to last weekâs London bombings. There are more than 11,000 seminaries registered with the Wafaqul Madaris in Pakistan. Religious Ministry sources said about 24,000 more seminaries had applied to the Wafaqul Madaris for registration. Brig Cheema said the government could not start such an operation without setting specified targets. President Pervez Musharraf told senior law enforcement officials after the London bombings to eradicate terrorism in the country by December 2005.
Sources said President Musharrafâs political aides had told him that any action against seminaries might negatively impact the upcoming local council elections. They told the president that the Muttahida Majlis-e-Amal (MMA) might exploit the situation in its favour to diminish the elections prospects of the ruling Pakistan Muslim League (PML), sources added. Brig Cheema said Pakistan was helping British authorities to hunt the terrorists involved in the London bombings and that Pakistani authorities were raiding several specific locations in this regard. Three of the four London bombers were believed to be British-born Pakistanis and had visited Pakistan and enrolled in seminaries. Law enforcement personnel were looking into the affairs of the suspected seminaries, Brig Cheema added.
Posted by: Fred ||
07/18/2005 00:00 ||
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Talk about a non-statement for political purposes.
Brig Cheema said the government could not start such an operation without setting specified targets. - and Law enforcement personnel were looking into the affairs of the suspected seminaries, Brig Cheema added.
so basically, yes, they are checking them - just not ALL 24,000 of them.
Abdullah killed? But who will take over the family business?
Maulana Madni, was on his way in his car with his family to attend a dars (lesson) in Madni Masjid in North Nazimabad. When the car approached the terminus of 7C bus in Buffer Zone, unidentified men on motorcycles sprayed the car with bullets. Both father and son suffered multiple bullet injures. The assailants escaped, witnesses said.
Oh, when will these cycles of violence stop?
Maulana Madni and his son Abdullah were rushed to Abbasi Shaheed Hospital where Abdullah shaheeded died. Sources at the hospital said Maulana Madni was out of danger. Maluna Madni is the administrator of Jamia Muhammadi Trust, Buffer Zone. Sources said Maulana Madni had been former president of the banned Sipah-e-Sahaba Pakistan, Karachi division, five years ago. He visited Madni Masjid in North Nazimabad on Sundays to listen to the dars by Maulana Aslam Sheikhupuri.
Posted by: Fred ||
07/18/2005 00:00 ||
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British and Pakistani intelligence teams assisted by the Punjab Elite Force on Sunday picked up three men after British authorities gave Pakistan a list of telephone numbers dialled from London bomber Shehzad Tanweer's residence in the UK. The three men were from Sialkot, Gujranwala and Lahore. Intelligence sources told Daily Times that the UK government had prepared a list of numbers dialled from Tanweer's UK residence to Pakistan and asked the Pakistanis to investigate the links he had with the people he called. "The three men are businessmen and Shehzad Tanweer's family friends," sources added. The men were freed after interrogation.
Also, the government has asked all agencies to update their data on seminaries in Pakistan with details on foreign students who have returned to their countries or were still enrolled. Separately, agencies continued cracking down on militants in the Punjab and arrested six people from Faisalabad, Kamalia and Sargodha. One of the men is Qari Usman, wanted for trying to kill President Pervez Musharraf. Qari Usman works with the banned Jaish Muhammad.
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ISLAMABAD: Law enforcement and intelligence officials on Sunday visited several religious seminaries in and around Rawalpindi and Islamabad and collected information on the students, particularly of foreign origin, studying there. The officials also visited International Islamic University and National University of Modern Languages and collected information on foreign students, particularly Uzbek and Tajik nationals, sources told Daily Times. Seminary students were asked about their backgrounds and the seminaries' administrators were also inquired in this regard, sources added. Law enforcement and intelligence officials also visited the students' living quarters and searched them for weapons and objectionable material, but found none. The decision to raid religious seminaries has been taken in the light of military operations in South Waziristan Agency against foreign terrorists who have reportedly taken refuge in the area. According to intelligence reports, more than 200 students of Central Asian origin including Uzbeks, Tajiks and Azerbaijanis were studying in seminaries in and around Rawalpindi and Islamabad and that a majority of them had overstayed their visas, sources said.
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BAGHDAD: Four suicide car bombers targeted Iraqi and US security patrols on Sunday, killing 19 people in the latest surge of suicide attacks, police said. The first suicide attack killed two policemen and one civilian in the eastern New Baghdad neighborhood, police 1st Lt Mohammed Jasim said. The attack occurred when police inspected the bodies of two Iraqis killed by insurgents that had been left in the road as a trap, the US military said in a statement. The attack also wounded seven policemen, some seriously, and one other civilian. About an hour later a second suicide car bomber exploded near a police convoy near the Bayâa bus station in southern Baghdad, killing three police commandos and four civilians, police Capt Talib Thamir said. Three civilians were also injured in that blast. A third suicide car bomber missed a US convoy but struck two minibuses, killing six civilians in the troubled Mahmoudiya town about 30 kilometers (20 miles) miles south of Baghdad, police Capt Rashid al-Samarie. Nine others were also wounded.
In eastern Baghdad, another car bomber sped toward a police patrol, exploding early but killing one policeman and two civilians, police Capt Abdul Hussein Minsif said. At least four others were wounded and several cars and homes were damaged in the blast. A US soldier was killed and two others were wounded Saturday by an improvised explosive device in the northern Kirkuk province of Iraq, the US military said on Sunday. The military did not give other details.
Posted by: Fred ||
07/18/2005 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.
LONDON: Six people have been arrested in Leeds, in the north of England, under Britainâs anti-terrorist laws, but not in relation to the London bombings 10 days ago, police said on Sunday. West Yorkshire police said the arrests took place on Sunday evening in Beeston, a residential district of Leeds from which two of the four apparent London suicide bombers came. âAt this stage, these arrests are not being linked to the incidents in London,â a police spokeswoman said. âHowever, we are working closely with officers from the Metropolitan Police anti-terrorism branch as part of this inquiry.â
IZMIR: Turkish police increased security at tourist resorts on Sunday as investigators sifted through the wreckage of a minibus ripped apart by a bomb that killed five people, including a British and an Irish woman. In the normally bustling Aegean resort of Kusadasi, the site of Saturday's blast, locals and tourists were uneasy and streets were quieter than normal after the second attack to hit the area in a week at the height of the tourism season. A Turkish daily said a Kurdish militant group, TAK, claimed responsibility for the attack, but this could not be confirmed. It has claimed a series of bombings in the last year, including an attack which injured 20 in the same region six days earlier. British Ambassador Peter Westmacott, visiting the injured in hospital, told the BBC authorities believed the Kurdistan Workers Party (PKK), the main guerrilla group, had planted the bomb. A top PKK official condemned the attack in a statement.
The Britain should not accuse other countries of influencing the London suicide bombers, a Pakistani diplomat said on Sunday. Munir Akram, Islamabad's ambassador to the United Nations, told the BBC Programme 'The World This Weekend' that Britain had to look at its own problems to understand the root causes of terror. 
PESHAWAR, Pakistan (AP) - Pakistani intelligence agents arrested five senior Taliban leaders Monday, including a deputy to fugitive Taliban chief Mullah Mohammed Omar, two security officials said. The arrests were made after security agents raided several homes in northwestern Pakistan, said the most senior of the two intelligence officials, who was involved in interrogating the suspects. Both officials spoke on condition of anonymity because they are not authorized to speak to reporters. 
Members of law enforcement agencies seem to be out in a competition to earn better record on killing people in so-called crossfire incidents that have left dead some four hundred people including several innocent ones since June last year. The last 13 days alone saw 18 people killed, pushing the number of casualties in extrajudicial execution to 378 in 13 months and 13 days. Of them, 245 people died in police actions, 116 in Rapid Action Battalion (Rab), 12 were killed by Cobra and Cheetah [special crime-busting units of police] and five by joint forces.
Three of the four London suicide bombers visited Pakistan last year, officials there have confirmed. 
Investigating agencies probing the Ayodhya attack have been dealt a blow as the mastermind, 
Palestinian militants fired two Qassam rockets and three mortar shells at Gush Katif settlements and southern Israeli towns before dawn on Monday, Army Radio said. No casualties or damage were caused as a result of the rocket fire. Militant groups often shoot homemade rockets and mortar shells from the Gaza Strip at southern towns and settlements nearby.
An Egyptian intelligence delegation held "important" talks with the Palestinian president Mahmoud Abbas Sunday, aimed at regaining security stability in the Palestinian territories following bloody days, said a senior Palestinian official. Tayyeb Abdurrahim, secretary general of the Palestinian presidency, told reporters that Abbas briefed Major-General Mustafa Beheiri, the Egyptian delegation's cheif, about the latest developments in the Palestinian lands.
A mortar round fired by Palestinian fighters hit on Sunday night the Israeli settlement of Neve Dekalim, south of Gaza Strip, wounding three Israeli settlers, said Israeli security sources. After this strike, the number of Neve Dekalim settlers wounded today increased to five. The Israeli Army announced earlier today that two settlers were seriously wounded due to Palestinian mortar fires on the settlement. An Israeli explosive expert was also wounded today in Neve Dekalim while dismantling a mortar round that touched down without exploding in the settlement.
LAHORE: Following President Pervez Musharraf's directions to eliminate extremism, police monitoring committees have been formed in Sindh, particularly in Karachi, BBC Urdu service reported on Sunday. 
SRINAGAR â Indian troops yesterday shot dead 21 
Police on Sunday arrested two militants of a banned group, along with explosive in eastern Pakistani city, a day after President Pervez Musharraf announced new crackdown on religious groups and hate material, said police. A police team, while on a routine patrol, arrested two militants of Lashkar-e-Taiba extremist group from Mozang area of Lahore, 370 kilometers in southeast of Islamabad, a local police official, Muhammad Shah Jamal, told KUNA. He added that they were carrying explosive and weapons. He did not give further details.
More than 20 suspected Taliban insurgents - including five foreigners - were killed in recent clashes with Afghan and US-led coalition forces in Afghanistan, a defense ministry spokesman said on Sunday. The militants had attacked Afghan National Army units at two locations in southeastern Khost province on Thursday and Friday, Defense Ministry spokesman Gen Mohammed Zaher Azimi said. The attacks prompted a counteroffensive by Afghan troops backed by coalition air strikes that left more than 20 Taliban insurgents dead, he told a news conference. The victims, whose bodies were collected by Afghan soldiers, included three men from Chechnya and two from Uzbekistan. Their nationalities were revealed on documents found with the bodies, Azimi said. One Afghan soldier was also killed, he added. A US military spokeswoman was not available for comment. Earlier, the US military said in a statement that four American troops were wounded Saturday when a roadside bomb exploded in eastern Paktika province.
PESHAWAR: Seventeen suspected foreign militants and a Pakistan Army soldier were killed in a clash near the Pak-Afghan border in North Waziristan Agency late on Saturday night, officials told Daily Times on Sunday. The army cordoned off a compound near Miranshah after receiving information that foreign militants might be there. During the search, militants tried escaping in two vehicles, but were stopped by the army. The drivers ignored the orders and men sitting inside started shooting and throwing grenades at the soldiers, killing one. The soldiers shot back and destroyed one of the vehicles with an RPG, which also ignited munitions in the vehicle.
The government does not plan to search religious seminaries to arrest people linked to militant organisations. Brig Javed Iqbal Cheema, National Crises Management Cell director general, told Daily Times on Sunday that no search and arrest operations would be carried out in response to last weekâs London bombings. There are more than 11,000 seminaries registered with the Wafaqul Madaris in Pakistan. Religious Ministry sources said about 24,000 more seminaries had applied to the Wafaqul Madaris for registration. Brig Cheema said the government could not start such an operation without setting specified targets. President Pervez Musharraf told senior law enforcement officials after the London bombings to eradicate terrorism in the country by December 2005.
KARACHI: 
British and Pakistani intelligence teams assisted by the Punjab Elite Force on Sunday picked up three men after British authorities gave Pakistan a list of telephone numbers dialled from London bomber Shehzad Tanweer's residence in the UK. The three men were from Sialkot, Gujranwala and Lahore. Intelligence sources told Daily Times that the UK government had prepared a list of numbers dialled from Tanweer's UK residence to Pakistan and asked the Pakistanis to investigate the links he had with the people he called. "The three men are businessmen and Shehzad Tanweer's family friends," sources added. The men were freed after interrogation.
ISLAMABAD: Law enforcement and intelligence officials on Sunday visited several religious seminaries in and around Rawalpindi and Islamabad and collected information on the students, particularly of foreign origin, studying there. The officials also visited International Islamic University and National University of Modern Languages and collected information on foreign students, particularly Uzbek and Tajik nationals, sources told Daily Times. Seminary students were asked about their backgrounds and the seminaries' administrators were also inquired in this regard, sources added. Law enforcement and intelligence officials also visited the students' living quarters and searched them for weapons and objectionable material, but found none. The decision to raid religious seminaries has been taken in the light of military operations in South Waziristan Agency against foreign terrorists who have reportedly taken refuge in the area. According to intelligence reports, more than 200 students of Central Asian origin including Uzbeks, Tajiks and Azerbaijanis were studying in seminaries in and around Rawalpindi and Islamabad and that a majority of them had overstayed their visas, sources said.
BAGHDAD: Four suicide car bombers targeted Iraqi and US security patrols on Sunday, killing 19 people in the latest surge of suicide attacks, police said. The first suicide attack killed two policemen and one civilian in the eastern New Baghdad neighborhood, police 1st Lt Mohammed Jasim said. The attack occurred when police inspected the bodies of two Iraqis killed by insurgents that had been left in the road as a trap, the US military said in a statement. The attack also wounded seven policemen, some seriously, and one other civilian. About an hour later a second suicide car bomber exploded near a police convoy near the Bayâa bus station in southern Baghdad, killing three police commandos and four civilians, police Capt Talib Thamir said. Three civilians were also injured in that blast. A third suicide car bomber missed a US convoy but struck two minibuses, killing six civilians in the troubled Mahmoudiya town about 30 kilometers (20 miles) miles south of Baghdad, police Capt Rashid al-Samarie. Nine others were also wounded. 
