A man kidnapped two teenage girls at gunpoint early Thursday from a lovers' lane in a remote area. Tamera Brooks, 16, and Jaqueline Marris, 17, were sitting in separate cars with male friends when the gunman approached them shortly after 1 a.m. The gunman tied up one of the males to a post with duct tape and blindfolded him before leaving with the girls in a brown and white Ford Bronco that belonged to one of the males. The girls apparently did not know each other or their abductor. Sheriff's Sgt. Joe Efflandt said the man poured gasoline over one of the vehicles, apparently trying to torch it, but was unsuccessful. Sheriff's investigators said the man, in his mid-30s to early 40s, left behind a vehicle that was reported stolen in a Nevada carjacking Nevada. No other details were immediately available. Did this country just get a new shipment of nutcases or something? What the hell brought all this on?
Posted by: Fred Pruitt ||
08/01/2002 09:48 am ||
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Simpler than that: this kind of crap was going on all along, but until CNN found out that airing kidnappings was better for quarter-hour ratings than car chases, we simply didn't hear about them. It's a big country and there are tons of idiots running around... we just weren't paying attention to this particular brand of idiots.
Ex-congressman James A. Traficant Jr.'s famous mop-top is a rug. Some people thought the hair was too unruly to be a toupee. But Sheriff Drew Alexander said the newly sentenced Traficant had to remove the hairpiece this week during a routine search while being booked into the Summit County Jail. Traficant, 61, was sentenced Tuesday to eight years in federal prison for corruption. He was immediately led off to jail in handcuffs after the judge refused to let him remain free on bail while he appeals his conviction. The former representative from Youngstown, who was expelled by the House last week, is being held temporarily in the jail while awaiting assignment to a federal prison. I always knew that wasn't his own hair. It's actually a guinea pig, named Fluffy. He gave the game away when he had to feed it peanuts in between mooning congressional committees...
Posted by: Fred Pruitt ||
08/01/2002 09:59 am ||
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Why Why Why???
Why, if you to wear a piece, would you wear something that looks like roadkill? I've always thought it had to be his own stoopid hair, cuz even if you lost a bet, you wouldn't wear something that wrong that long
Posted by: Frank G ||
08/01/2002 12:43 Comments ||
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Chief of staff Major General Hassan Firouzabadi said "US threats against Iran" had been discussed in the national security council and supreme leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei had given guidelines and directives to the armed forces. Being the Supreme Leader, with a superb clerical education, he knows all about movement orders, employment of reserves, depth of sector, weight of metal, and the coordination of combined arms elements. Clerics do that sort of stuff all the time, when they're not busy issuing fatwas, having people whipped, or running whorehouses...
The main military base of Khatam-ol-Anbia had been activated and the elite revolutionary guards, the Basij Islamic militia and the defence ministry ordered to prepare themselves for two "big missions". These were to prepare their equipment, plans, intelligence and operations to "make the enemy forget the idea of invasion", and to repulse an invasion if it occurred. Shucks, Rumsfeld's probably already forgotten it, he's so frightened by the idea of U.S. forces having to fight the Basij and the Elite Revolutionary Guards®.
Posted by: Fred Pruitt ||
08/01/2002 09:09 am ||
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Iran's reformist writer Hashem Aghajari, accused of offending the ruling Shiite clergy, now faces a new charge of insulting the prophet Mohamed, an offence punishable by death. Aghajari, who is on trial in Hamedan, denied the charge, saying the judge had been unable to show one sentence in the controversial speech which brought him to court that justified it. Yeah, that's what he sez...
Aghajari's party, the secular leftist Organization of Mojahedin of the Islamic Revolution (OMIR), protested the "unprecedented and strange" accusation in an open letter to Iran's moderate President Mohammad Khatami and parliament speaker Mehdi Karubi. Even though they're not the ones who're trying to kill him...
"You are well aware that this charge against a university professor only for expressing his ideas among a limited number of people will portray an ugly and black image of the system, inside and outside the country". Which is a pretty accurate portrayal...
The juridiciary, which is dominated by the conservative clergy, put Aghajari, a Khatami supporter, on trial following anti-clerical remarks more than a month ago. He caused a storm when, speaking in Hamedan, he said Muslims "should not blindly" follow religious leaders and called for a "religious renewal" of Shiite Islam. Well, if you can't blindly follow an ayatollah, who can you blindly follow?
A leading cleric compared him to British writer Salman Rushdie, who was condemned to death in February 1989 by an Iranian religious decree for publishing "The Satanic Verses", a book which authorities here deemed blasphemous. Protests and demonstrations were also staged against Aghajari in the holy city of Qom south of the capital and other places, as conservatives accused the OMIR of being "un-Islamic" and illegal. Seems like if there's any blasphemy involved here, it's the ayatollahs who are arrogant enough to put themselves on the same plane as Mohammad and demand the same kind of obedience from the Faithful.
Posted by: Fred Pruitt ||
08/01/2002 09:10 am ||
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In a surprise move, Iraq invited the chief U.N. weapons inspector to Baghdad Thursday for talks it said could lead to a return of inspectors after nearly four years. Iraqâs Foreign Minister Naji Sabri sent a letter to U.N. Secretary-General Kofi Annan saying the government would like chief inspector Hans Blix and U.N. weapons experts to come to Baghdad âat the earliest agreed upon time.â Guess Iran decided not to sell 'em anything. They figure they need all those weapons for themselves...
Annan has been trying to persuade the Iraqis to allow U.N. inspectors to return but three rounds of talks since March have failed to make any headway. At the end of the last round in Vienna on July 5 which Blix attended, Annan and Sabri agreed that technical talks would continue. The letter from Sabri to Annan, dated Thursday, for the first time mentions the return of inspectors. Sabri said his government wants the talks between Blix and Iraqi experts to review the remaining questions about Iraqâs weapons programs and decide on measures to resolve them âwhen the inspection regime returns to Iraq.'' That's scheduled for the sweet by-and-by, about the time the U.S. mobilizes...
Posted by: Fred Pruitt ||
08/01/2002 05:32 pm ||
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Anarchy continues in Somalia. As long as it's not al-Qaeda anarchy I don't care...
The southern Somali town of Baidoa is reported to have fallen to forces loyal to Colonel Hassan Mohamed Nur Shatigudud. The Ethiopian backed warlord's forces have been battling with the fighters of his former deputies in the Rahanwein Resistance Army, Sheikh Adan Madobeh and Mohamed Ibrahim Habsadeh. Hundreds of armed troops pulled out of town this morning and the fighting has now stopped.
Posted by: Fred Pruitt ||
08/01/2002 09:10 am ||
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Both the federal government and the Punjab government have submitted written statements before the Lahore High Court that Hafiz Muhammad Saeed, founder of Lashkar-e-Taiba, a banned outfit of Kashmiri mujahideen, was neither arrested by the government nor is detained by the government agencies. Whoa! Isn't this interesting? The founder and still de-facto leader of one of the most dangerous jihadi groups in the world was "arrested" two and a half months ago and "held incommunicado." The little woman and the kiddies start getting nervous eventually and holler to the courts to have the old man produced — and the gummint says it knows nothing...
The written statements by Deputy Attorney General of Pakistan Sher Zaman and Advocate General Punjab Maqbool Elahi Malik have created enormous confusion about the whereabouts of Hafiz Saeed as according to the initial reports published by the national and international media he was arrested from his house on May 15, 2002. "Nope. We ain't got him. Looked everywhere."
Objecting the statements by the legal counsels of the federal and provincial governments, Nazir Ahmed Ghazi, counsel of the family of Hafiz Saeed who have challenged the prolonged detention of the prominent religious leader, presented copies of the newspaper clippings quoting a provincial minister of Punjab that Hafiz Saeed was safe and secure in the custody of the government. "Yeah, you do. It sez so right here!"
The counsel for the petitioner also submitted before the court that a government official picks medicine and clothes for Hafiz Saeed once or twice a week from his house. It shows that the government agencies know where he is and where he has been detained, the petitioners counsel said. "They got his toothbrush and everything, yer honor!" Markaz Dawah Wal Arshad, the research and education organization They're talking about the "legit" front organization for Lashkar...
also founded and headed by Hafiz Muhammad Saeed has announced that it would launch a country-wide movement against the state-terrorism which has been exposed after the extra-judicial detention of Hafiz Saeed. It may be mentioned here that Hafiz Muhammad Saeed is one of those who feature on a list of wanted persons which was sent to Islamabad by New Delhi for handing over to Indian government as a precondition for easing the military stand off between Pakistan and India. They're suggesting the Paks snatched him and turned him over to the Heathen Hindoos...
Posted by: Fred Pruitt ||
08/01/2002 10:34 am ||
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Excerpted from the Markaz ad Dawa web site. Spelling and grammar are untouched...
Deputy Attorney General Sher Zamaan told in the proceeding of the court that Federal Government has no knowledge about Hafiz Muhammad Saeed and neither has the Federal Government taken him into custody. "Nope. Wudn't us..."
At this the petitioner's lawyer Nazir Ahmad Ghazi said that if Federal Government has no knowledge about then has Colleen Powell taken him away with him? Why? Was she seen in the area? Perhaps he eloped with her. You know how romantic and impulsive those Islamists are...
Deputy Attorney General Sher Zamaan Khan said it's possible that Hafiz Muhammad Saeed is hiding to earn publicity, at which Advocate Nazir Ahmad Ghazi said that Hafiz Muhammad Saeed is that personality thinking of whom Indian Prime Minister Vajpayee shivers and President Bush talks about him in his press conferences, you cannot expect such an act from a person like Hafiz Muhammad Saeed. If the words "Hafiz Saeed" have ever escaped Bush's lips I'll donate a dollar to the Jihadis' Benevolent Fund...
He is already well known on the international media. Petitioner's lawyer presented the July,29 daily Nawa-i-Waqt news paper cuttings of Provincial Minister of Religious Affairs Ghulam Sarwer Qadri interview and said that the Minister himself admits that Hafiz Muhammad Saeed is in their custody and he is fine. Court ordered the newspaper cuttings to be made part of the court record and said that a regular application be submitted in this respect. Perhaps Mr Minister of Religious Affairs will be kind enough to say a word or two, too, and clear the matter up...
Has Hafiz been Disappeared? Has he become a non-person? I suspect he's sitting in a house somewhere outside Lahore, maybe with Binny, chuckling and saying the Urdu equivalent of "This is so-o-o-o neat!" At an appropriately dramatic time he'll make an appearance, his turban disheveled, a smudge on one cheek and his arm in a sling with a tale of having escaped from brutal secularists.
Here's hoping I'm wrong and he's now having tea with Judge Crater and Ambrose Bierce.
Posted by: Fred Pruitt ||
08/01/2002 10:59 am ||
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Reports of serious differences among various leaders and workers of the Pakistan Muslim League (QA) surfaced on Wednesday when supporters of two powerful local leaders clashed during a general council meeting of the party. The meeting called by Sindh PML chief Ghous Bux Mehar to elect office-bearers at its provincial office later turned into a battle field when supporters of provincial general-secretary Captain Haleem Siddiqui and party's youth wing chief Aleem Adil Shaikh clashed. "Mr Chairman! Point of order! Captain Siddiqui hit me with a chair!"
The problem started when Haleem Siddiqui objected to the participation of Aleem Adil Shaikh in the council meeting. Other participants of the meeting were of the view that the meeting was called to elect new leadership and it was not to take any important decisions, but Haleem Siddiqui did not back from his word. After exchange of hot words between both the leaders, a supporter of Haleem Siddiqui, Mian Zulfiqar, slapped Rana Azam, a supporter of Aleem Adil Shaikh, which resulted in severe clash between the two groups and the meeting was suspended. "Order! Order! Mr Zulfiqar, that sign is for waving! You'll break it if you keep hitting people with it!"
Later, central PML leader Chaudhry Shujaat declared Ghous Bux Mehar, Maqbool Shaikh and Captain Haleem Siddiqui as president, chief organizer and general-secretary of Sindh PML. "Sergeant at arms! Throw those other bums out!"
Posted by: Fred Pruitt ||
08/01/2002 06:38 pm ||
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In an interview Wednesday, July 31, with the Egyptian TV morning show âGood Morning Egypt,â U.N. human rights commissioner Mary Robinson said that the Israeli occupation is the cause of all problems in the Middle East. Meanwhile, the human rights commissioner told the British daily newspaper, the Guardian, she was prevented from continuing in the job because of pressure from the United States, which she has accused of neglecting human rights during the war against terrorism. "I am not somebody just to walk away," Robinson said. "If I had been hard-pressed, I would have stayed, [but] there seems to have been strong resistance from just one country," she added. G'bye, Mary. Go away. Shut up.
Posted by: Fred Pruitt ||
08/01/2002 09:32 am ||
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âMary Robinson said that the Israeli occupation is the cause of all problems in the Middle East.â
Sheâs right. Were it not for them pesky Israelis occupying Israel, life in the Middle East would be a dream.
Posted by: Mike Cakora ||
08/01/2002 12:06 Comments ||
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The scary thing, of course, is where she'll end up next. Some cushy ministerial job in the EU Foreign Office no doubt. Just like a lot of old Laborites ended up in the EU Economics and Accounting Ministries, carefully guarding the chickens, Mary looks to be the next fox given a job in Brussels. Same job, different office for her.
If there's a more anti-American European government official than Ms. Robinson, I'd like that person identified and carefully marked.
Regards,
Posted by: Steve White ||
08/01/2002 12:18 Comments ||
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I guess you could consider nail marks in the concrete all the way there "skeptical"...
Posted by: Fred ||
08/01/2002 16:48 Comments ||
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The armed wing of Hamas threatened Thursday, August 1, to kill 100 Israelis for any new attack on any of its leaders such as last weekâs air strike on Gaza City. That one really got to them. Made the head cheeses feel their own mortality...
The Ezzedine al-Qassam Brigades, which claimed Wednesdayâs bombing at Hebrew University in Jerusalem that killed seven people and wounded 70, vowed in a statement faxed to Agence France-Presse to pursue its attacks. We never thought they'd stop...
Ezzedine al-Qassam, whose military chief Salah Shehada was killed last week in an Israeli air strike that also killed 17 civilians, including 12 children, said: ''In response to the Israeli assassination of any leader from our movement ... we will kill 100 Zionists at least.'' "And even if they don't, we'll still kill 100 Zionists for... uh... whatever."
The group said the university bombing, which killed four Americans and a French national, was ''one of a series'' of reprisals for the July 22 Gaza air raid that killed Shehada and 17 other Palestinian, including 12 children. ''We ask our military groups to continue in military operations and martyr operations,'' it said, in a reference to Hamas' attacks on Israeli targets. "I mean, what the hell? It ain't like we're running out of people dumb enough to explode. They're linin' up for the privilege..."
The group also criticized U.S. President George W. Bush, whom they called the ''head criminal,'' for his support of Israel and said Hamas would pursue its resistance. ''We say to America, we are not afraid.'' "Cuz we think you're too wimpy to daisy-cut the blocks where our Criminal Masterminds live..."
Just my opinion, which counts for nothing, but this would be a really, really good time to kill Sheikh Yassin and/or Rantissi, like within 24 hours of a statement like this being issued.
Posted by: Fred Pruitt ||
08/01/2002 09:10 am ||
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The Israeli cabinet has decided to exile to the Gaza Strip at least one relative of a West Bank Palestinian bomber who had attacked Israeli targets. The man to be banished, who was not identified, will have 12 hours to appeal the decision, which human rights groups and foreign governments had warned Israel against approving. Bad move, unless the relative is part of the Bad Guy machine...
Earlier, Israeli troops detained nine Palestinians in their ongoing sweep of the occupied West Bank. Witnesses said Israeli soldiers have been conducting house to house searches in the seven cities they occupied last month. Activity in that area should be picking up seriously again...
Posted by: Fred Pruitt ||
08/01/2002 09:10 am ||
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An IDF demolition crew yesterday leveled the Beit-Jalla home of the 17-year-old Arab who carried out Tuesdayâs suicide bombing inside of a falafel restaurant on Jerusalemâs HaNevi'em Street. Destroying the housesâ of suicide bombers is one of methods that the government has adopted in order to deter potential bombers from following through on their murderous crimes. Other methods include deporting family members who had advanced knowledge of attacks and the withholding of stipends to terrorists' relatives. With Sonny passed on, Mom and Pop could get by with a smaller place anyway...
Posted by: Fred Pruitt ||
08/01/2002 05:07 pm ||
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Every once in awhile cold feet or the vision of uncooked meatloaf sets in and all concerned breath a sigh of relief...
A ''high-level'' terror warning placed on the Sharon region early this morning has been downgraded. Intelligence information indicates that a would-be suicide bomber had second thoughts and returned to his home within a PLO-controlled areaâŠ
Posted by: Fred Pruitt ||
08/01/2002 05:26 pm ||
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This afternoon Israel Radio announced that it will broadcast this evening an intercepted telephone conversation between the wife of Gaza Hamas leader Abd Aziz Rantisi and a suicide bomb recruiter on Israel's new "Middle East" Arab language satelite channel. In the recording of the conversation that was made by Palestinian security services and found by the IDF in Arafat's Ramallah offices, Rantisi's wife opposes the recruiter's proposal that she allow her son to be a suicide bomber. "Well, y'know, the upper classes are much too important to The Movement to waste themselves or their families that way..."
I wonder if Rantissi is the politburo member we've turned? That'd make him the one responsible for Shehadeh getting banged. Probably if it was Sheikh Yassin's kid, or Zahar's, or Shanab's they'd have said, "Yeah, sure! Great idea." Matter of fact, the more I think about it, the more sure I become. Rantissi's definitely a mole for our side. But don't tell anybody...
Posted by: Fred Pruitt ||
08/01/2002 05:42 pm ||
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U.S. Secretary of State Colin Powell and envoys from 10 southeast Asian nations are due to sign a pact Thursday to boost cooperation in counter-terrorism efforts. The agreement is being signed on the final day of the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) Regional Forum in Brunei. The accord focuses on sharing information and cutting off money that funds terrorist groups. This is very nice, but in practice the countries — like Malaysia and Singapore — that are see a danger to themselves will continue doing what they've been doing without a pact, and the countries that are on board with the Bad Guys — like Indonesia — will continue giving lip service and obstructing when they can.
Posted by: Fred Pruitt ||
08/01/2002 09:09 am ||
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But at least we are not be unilateral anymore.
Just hegemonic. Life is tough in the fast lane.
Posted by: Tom Roberts ||
08/01/2002 13:09 Comments ||
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Indonesia continues to play games with terrorism...
The trial of Laskar Jihad chief Jafar Umar Thalib, charged with inciting religious violence, has been delayed for two weeks because a Jakarta court declared he was too pale to be questioned. "I see that you're pale. We don't want to examine someone who is unhealthy... I hope you can get well soon," judge Mansyur Nasution was quoted as saying. He then adjourned the trial until August 15, giving the chubby, bearded defendant two weeks to get over his affliction of looking pale. Poor man. He's probably not getting enough raw flesh in his diet...
Jafar, wearing a white robe and turban, thanked the judge for giving him the opportunity to get some rest. Jafar, who denies any wrongdoing, was arrested on May 4, 2002, in the East Java capital Surabaya for allegedly inciting an April 28 massacre of Christian villagers in Ambon, Maluku province. He was later transferred to a cell in Jakarta and released temporarily on July 25 after he promised to attend his trial. "Now, don't you go gettin' in no trouble, y'hear?"
Police had initially charged him with stirring up religious hatred, inciting hatred against the government, as well as insulting President Megawati Sukarnoputri. The charges stem from Jafarâs speech that was broadcast by radio in Maluku prior to the April 28 massacre of Christians. He faces a maximum sentence of seven years in jail if found guilty and has hired a team of six lawyers to defend him. Jafar on Wednesday told the Associated Press that he believed the US was behind his arrest. He also claimed that a transcript of his speech had been fabricated by police to discredit Laskar Jihad. The tape was fabricated, too. So was the radio broadcast. So was the entire island of Maluku. It's all a plot...
Jafarâs arrest had been lauded by Western nations and was seen as positive move by Megawatiâs administration in the war against terror. But Jafar, who once fought alongside members of Osama bin Ladenâs Al-Qaeda organization, insists Laskar Jihad is not linked to any international terrorist networks. "No, no. We're strictly a domestic terrorist network..."
Megawati last week expressed her displeasure with radical groups, warning against "narrow fanaticism", although she stopped short mentioning any names. That's because she doesn't want her car to blow up...
Posted by: Fred Pruitt ||
08/01/2002 05:21 pm ||
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Megawatti will probably go down in history in the same column as Louis XVIII, the last king of the French, and Gorbachev, the last General Secretary of the Soviet Communist Party.
Posted by: Tom Roberts ||
08/02/2002 5:18 Comments ||
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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.
