After a week of prevarication, Yemeni authorities have finally been persuaded that a deadly blast which crippled a French supertanker off the Yemeni coast was an attack. "The Yemenis are now convinced of the theory of a terrorist attack and no longer deny it during meetings with the US and French experts," a source close to the investigation told AFP on condition of anonymity. Yemeni authorities "no longer speak of an accident," the source said Sunday. "But it is, however, up to the Yemeni government to officially announce its position, confirming that it was an attack." Already struggling to improve an increasingly tarnished security image, Yemeni officials roundly denied that the October 6 explosion aboard the Limburg, which killed one Bulgarian crew member was an act of terrorism, despite announcements to the contrary by the French embassy the same day. Until you admit that the problem exists, there's nothing to fix...
Even on Friday, after US and French investigators found pieces of a fibre-glass boat believed to have been used in the attack and traces of TNT, Sanaa continued to deny the evidence. The "fibre-glass debris ... could belong to the tanker's rescue boat which was destroyed in the accident," insisted Transport and Maritime Affairs Minister Said Yafhi, who heads a crisis cell dealing with the incident. That represents a level of dumbness that involves reaching with both hands. I can imagine the amount of time that's being wasted reassuring the Yemenis that we don't hold them responsible personally...
Posted by: Fred Pruitt ||
10/13/2002 09:48 pm ||
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Sudanese troops have captured Eritrean soldiers fighting with rebels in eastern Sudan, Sudan's ambassador to Egypt Ahmed Abdel Halim revealed. The ambassador said Sunday that the arrests provided "proof" of Eritrean aggression, and his remarks came a week after Sudanese Foreign Minister Mustafa Ismail vowed that Sudan would retaliate "militarily" against Eritrea for what he called its "aggression" in aiding a major rebel offensive. "It is proof of Eritrea's involvement in the aggression" launched in early October, he said. "Eritrea is a main actor in this case and Eritrean forces have taken part in the aggression." Things must be going badly. It's time to start blaming neighboring countries...
Posted by: Fred Pruitt ||
10/13/2002 09:48 pm ||
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The Al Aqsa Martyrs' Brigades accused Israel of killing Mohammed Abayat, 25, who relatives said was a Fatah militiaman. He will be missed... Actually, he wasn't missed, was he?
The organization announced Sunday evening it would avenge Abayat's killing. Why, they've neverdone thatbefore, have they?
The IDF did not confirm or deny that it killed Abayat, but IDF officials voiced "satisfaction" over his killing, claiming he had been implicated in many terrorist attacks. "Yes, we think we're all much better off without him... whoever dunnit."
Abayat was killed Sunday evening when a public telephone exploded in his hand, the IDF and witnesses said. Abayat was speaking on a telephone about 30 meters from Beit Jala Hospital near the West Bank city of Bethlehem when it exploded, killing him instantly, according to doctors. Bet that was a very brief, very intense headache...
In Beit Jala, Abayat's brother Moussa said the two had brought their mother to the hospital and 28-year-old Mohammed went outside to use the telephone. He "started to speak on it and it suddenly blew up. Parts of his body were everywhere." Just think of it as an assisted martyrdom operation.
Posted by: Fred Pruitt ||
10/13/2002 11:53 pm ||
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The Palestinian Authority has instructed tailors in the West Bank and Gaza Strip not to make military fatigues for anyone who does not belong to its security services. The decision follows last week's assassination of Col. Rajeh Abu Lihyeh, commander of the anti-riot police in the Gaza Strip. Witnesses said Abu Lihyeh was kidnapped in Gaza City by Hamas activists dressed in PA Military Intelligence uniforms. It warned that violators would be punished. That ought to take care of the problem...
Posted by: Fred Pruitt ||
10/13/2002 12:00 am ||
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Ummahnews
The Philippines has been on heightened alert following Saturday night's bomb attacks in the Indonesian island of Bali which killed close to 200 people, mostly Australian and Western tourists. "We have to consider all possibilities here," presidential National Security Adviser Roilo Golez told reporters. "The national police have been instructed to make sure that we are on heightened alert...to protect possible targets of these acts of terrorism in case there might be some copycat groups here in the Philippines, in case this is regional and not local to Indonesia." Just in case...
The Philippines has been rocked in recent weeks by bomb attacks that apparently targetted US troops. The latest occurred on October 2 when an explosion killed an American soldier and two Filipinos near a bar in Zamboanga city. At the start of the current offensive...
Foreign Secretary Blas Ople said he had ordered all Philippine diplomatic posts overseas, particularly the Philippine Embassy in Jakarta, "to take extra precautions against possible terrorist attacks". President Gloria Macapagal Arroyo will chair a meeting of her National Security Council tomorrow with the Bali bombings high on agenda. Meanwhile, police said they had detained an Indonesian for questioning about possible links to extremist groups. It said the man was found around the airport gates in southern Zamboanga city when he was arrested on Thursday. Keep looking. There are more where that one came from...
Ummah News calls this reaction a panic. It sounds more like heightened watchfulness because we're in a "counteroffensive" by the Bad Guys that's probably staged to try and take heat off Iraq.
Posted by: Fred Pruitt ||
10/13/2002 09:56 pm ||
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Indonesian Vice President Hamzah Haz partly blamed weak intelligence and poor security measures on Sunday for the overnight blast that killed at least 182 people in the resort island of Bali. "Our weakness so far has been in intelligence. Our intelligence should not be NATO — No Action Talk Only," Hamzah was quoted by Antara news agency as saying. "Those in charge of security affairs must follow up on any information and detect (any threat) more accurately," he said. "It can then be ignored more accurately...
Hamzah said Coordinating Minister for Politics and Security Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono ought to explain why the explosion had happened. "Our weakness lies in the management of politics and security," he said. "Yes. Explain yourself, Susilo. I, your Vice President, am waiting to hear an explanation of your neglect of terrorism..."
The Vice President warned that the bomb attack would scare off investors desperately needed by Indonesia as it was struggling to emerge from an economic crisis. "We have to establish security in this country, otherwise no investor will come and our country will collapse," he said. "Not that I think killing a couple hundred infidels is wrong, mind you..."
The overnight explosion destroyed two bars in the tourist district of Kuta and triggered an intense blaze that burned for hours. Haz has warned that allegations by foreign countries that international Islamic terrorists are active in Indonesia could provoke a violent backlash here. What was this? A violent frontlash? I'm not familiar with the term... He seems to be saying not to alledge that international Islamic terrorists are active in Indonesia, or Islamic terrorists will kill large numbers of people.
Many in Indonesia also believe that the U.S. has overstated the threats.
Posted by: Fred Pruitt ||
10/13/2002 09:48 pm ||
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The Philippine armed forces claimed today that its troops have killed 20 "Muslim rebels", as fighting raged for the second day on Sunday in the southern Muslim heartland. The latest operation was launched after another guerrilla group killed 11 soldiers and wounded 26 others in a separate clash on Jolo island, off Mindanao. The military said it carried out air-and-ground offensive on Saturday on a rebel camp in Lanao del Sur province on the main southern island of Mindanao. It however did not specify who the rebels were, whether they are the communist guerillas, the kidnap-for-ransom Abu Sayyaf group, the Moro National Liberation Front or the Moro Islamic Liberation Front, both of whose members have been fighting for independence for the southern Muslim-majority heartlands. Does it matter which ones they are? If they're trying to tear off a piece of the country for their own little Islamic paradise, they've got to be dealt with.
"As of this morning, about 20 rebels were killed and several others wounded in the first wave of ground assault (in Lanao del Sur),", armed forces chief General Benjamin Defensor said, adding that he would "destroy any armed group who will undermine government efforts to bring peace and development in Mindanao". 'Bout time they adopted that attitude. If you're afraid of them, they'll attack you the harder. It's a lesson Bush has learned, and Australia might have learned this weekend...
Posted by: Fred Pruitt ||
10/13/2002 10:02 pm ||
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Australian Prime Minister John Howard has vowed that his country's support for the US-led 'war on terror' will not weaken despite the blasts in Bali which claimed more than 180 lives, mostly Aussie tourists. If it did anything else there'd be something wrong with the Aussies...
Describing the tragedy as "barbaric, wicked and cowardly", Howard said on all available evidence to his government showed that the bombing was clearly a terrorist attack. Not noticing would indicate either blindness or a determination not to...
"The indiscriminate, brutal and despicable way in which lives have been taken away on this occasion by an act of barbarity will I know deeply shock all Australians," he said. "The war against terrorism must go on with unrelenting vigor and an unconditional commitment." Hope that determination lasts when the time comes to do some pretty terrible things in the course of apprehending or killing the people behind them...
Howard said while the Australian death toll was not known, the nation should prepare for more Australian deaths. Howard said the government's national security committee will discuss tomorrow plans in place to protect Australian borders from a possible terrorist attack. But he warned Australia was not immune and was as much a target as any other western country. More than a lot of other countries. Aussies drink beer, look at scantily clad wimmin, have been known to exhibit a sense of humor, and sometimes even show a determination to do what they damn well please. All those things are anathema to good Islamists.
"People should get out of their minds that it can't happen here; it can, and it has happened to our own on our doorstep," Howard told reporters. 75 percent of the people admitted to a Bali hospital with injuries were Australian. Other nationalities include Swiss, German, Swedish, American, British and Italian. Sure hope the rest of the world soon notices that there's no difference among us infidels. The Crusades really are back — this time with Binny playing the Peter the Hermit role.
Posted by: Fred Pruitt ||
10/13/2002 10:15 pm ||
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#1
A couple of other reasons we Aussies might have been the targets, as seems likely - strong support for the US position on Irag, and our role in getting the Indonesians to leave East Timor. Nothing the islamists hate more than to lose territory...
The Indonesian government strongly condemned on Sunday bomb blasts in the resort island of Bali and the North Sulawesi capital of Manado on Saturday night, which claimed many lives. In its seven-point official statement read out by President Megawati Soekarnoputri, the government expressed its condolences to the relatives of victims in the brutal and inhumane violence, which was against the existing laws, religious teachings and moral values adopted by the Indonesian nation. I actually don't see the slaughter as being very far out of the Indonesian experience. The difference is that it was a couple hundred foreigners and Hindus on Bali instead of a couple hundred Christians on Java or Maluku. It's the same mindset, the same kind of tactics.
The President said a team of medical workers was continuing to provide medical treatment to victims in the bomb blasts that left at least 182 people dead and 131 others injured. The government warmly welcomed Australia's humanitarian aid to send medicines and a medical team, which is on the way to Bali, she said. If I was prime minister of Australia, which I'm not, thank God, Megawati would have blisters on her ears and I'd have a hit team told off to take out the country's vice president, Hambali, Bashir, and half a dozen others.
"Security personnel are working hard to investigate the bomb blasts, launch a manhunt for the culprits and bring them to justice," said Megawati, who was accompanied by Coordinating Minister for Political and Security Affairs Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono, Coordinating Minister for People's Welfare Yusuf Kalla, Coordinating Minister for the Economy Dorodjatun Kuntjorojati and Foreign Affairs Minister Hassan Wirajuda. The President asked the public to remain calm and increase its vigilance following the bomb blasts, adding that they "once again remind us that terrorism is a real danger and potential threat to national security." It's a reminder that will be forgotten in a week or so, given the Indonesian government's record to date...
"The Indonesian government will continue to cooperate with the international community in dealing with terrorism, which also poses a threat to global security," she said.
Posted by: Fred Pruitt ||
10/13/2002 10:36 pm ||
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Nahdlatul Ulama (NU), Indonesia's largest Islamic organization, expressed concern over the bomb blasts. "It's a frightening incident; that's why NU feels concerned," deputy secretary-general of NU Executive Board Masduqi Baidlowi told Antara on the sidelines of a conference of the East Java NU chapter in Pasuruan, East Java, on Sunday. "It's very barbaric," said Sholahuddin Wahid, another executive of NU, as quoted by private Metro TV. Yeah. You never know when these people are gonna decide you're not pious enough Muslims and start killing you, too...
Meanwhile, Syafii Ma'arif, chairman of Muhammadiyah, the second-largest Muslim organization in the country, strongly condemned the tragic bombing, as reported by Metro TV.
Posted by: Fred Pruitt ||
10/13/2002 10:40 pm ||
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Hardline Indonesian Muslim groups, most likely working with the international terrorist ring al Qaeda, are the main suspects for the bombs that devastated Baliâs tourism heart, senior Indonesian intelligence sources say. Oh, really? Finally noticed, did we?
The intelligence sources say a Pakistani national captured with a quantity of high explosives in the strife-torn Poso area of Central Sulawesi last week had only told his interrogators that the explosives were being prepared for âan American airlinerâ. "Oh. Well. That's okay, then..."
One source says there is a high likelihood that Central Java-based cleric Abu Bakar Baasyir is involved but says there is no evidence as yet to link him to the blast. Apparently, gathering enough evidence against Abu is a physical impossibility...
Baasyir heads a shadowy organisation known as Jemaah Islamiyah (JI), accused of involvement in plots against foreign embassies, including Australiaâs, in Singapore and other terrorist crimes. The interrogation had failed to prise any more information out of the man before the explosions occurred in Bali and in the Christian area of Menado, North Sulawesi. They weren't hitting him hard enough...
The sources say the choice of Bali and Menado was apparently designed to wreak maximum havoc among non-Muslims. âIf the bombs had been planted in (the Central Java cities of) Solo or Yogyakarta, there would have been bound to be many Muslim victims,â says one senior intelligence operative attached to the office of the Coordinating Minister for Politics and Security. âThatâs why they chose to explode these bombs in Bali and Menado, where the chance of Muslims becoming victims were very small.â Infidels are nothing but targets...
Indonesiaâs security apparatus was locked in meetings yesterday (Sunday), forced to confront the reality of terrorism that it managed for so long to deny. They'll be back to denying it as soon as they can...
Some official sources continued to paint the Bali terror in the light of domestic political struggles, but most ruled out the possibility that the bombs were the work of elements trying to destroy Indonesiaâs image and its current government, and pointed the finger straight at Islamic terrorism. Coordinating Minister for Politics and Security Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono told reporters there were indications of who was responsible. âWhat is clear, terrorism has occurred. There are plenty of victims and at this stage we do not want to create new problems by accusing group A or group B. It could be foreigners or Indonesians or a combination of both.â Thank you for that statement of the obvious...
He promised the Indonesian government would act swiftly and harshly, admitting that up until now the government had failed to adopt a clear policy on terrorism. âThis incident has created a turning point and from now on the government will not be able to entertain doubts about harsh action.â Until the local fundos start bitching and rioting again...
In the last few weeks high-ranking officials have finally admitted that foreign terrorists, including al Qaeda members, have either passed through or been based in Indonesia. They have announced the formation of a National Security Council that will report directly to the President, and which sources say is likely to be given powers to detain suspects without charge. Rather like India's POTO, no doubt...
The change in attitude by Indonesiaâs government is believed to have followed extensive talks between President Megawati Sukarnoputri and Karen Brooks, a senior south-east Asia expert at the American government's National Security Council. Ms Brooks, who has been a friend of Megawatiâs since her post-graduate studies in Indonesia, showed the president the video footage to prove that terrorism was alive and well in Indonesia. The footage, obtained from a captured German-born Arab, Reda, showed training sessions believed to have been conducted in the Poso area of Sulawesi, where Muslim-Christian conflict has been underway sporadically for the past three years. That kind of thing has been impossible for the Indonesians to come up with themselves...
The capture and deportation of Omar al-Farouq, a Kuwaiti thought to be among al Qaeda's most senior agents in Southeast Asia, and the arrest of Reda provided plenty more evidence that Indonesiaâs earlier equivocal stand on terrorism was misplaced. Adding to the evidence that Indonesians are very much part of al Qaeda is the strong suspicion that two Indonesian terrorists are believed to have trained Filipino Muslim extremists who set a motorbike bomb in General Santos in the south of the country last week. The bomb killed three, including a US soldier, and left another 25 wounded. The Indonesians are believed to be members of Jemaah Islamiyah. They had trained members of the Abu-Sayyaf and Moro Islamic Liberation Front in the manufacture and handling of explosives, The Straits Times reported. Whereupon the Indonesians contorted themselves into 7000 unlikely positions to deny any link, deny the existence of terror networks in their country, and to become indignant at other countries "meddling" in their affairs...
The men, both from South Sulawesi, were believed to have worked with Omar Al-Faruq. They had gone into hiding following the arrest of fellow JI member Uskar Makawata last month in General Santos, the paper quoted police sources as saying. Makawata, also from South Sulawesi, is being held at a maximum-security prison in Manila for his alleged involvement in a series of bombings in central Mindanao. And they picked up another one today...
Suspect Islamic cleric Basyir earlier denied allegations that he was involved in terrorism as âa big lieâ, saying it was part of a US conspiracy to put him behind bars. He warned that a move against him would amount to an attack against Islam. âI defend Islam. Now it is up to the Indonesian government, police and people to also defend Islam, or to choose to defend America,â he told a press conference. âI am not afraid of arrest. But if they do so without following the law, I will use all my power to fight it. I have lots of Muslim brothers, and they can help me.â "Screw with me and my boyz will riot and kill people in droves. Don't screw with me and they'll do it anyway."
Mudzakir, a close associate of Basyirâs, said Muslim youth would be told to be ready to sacrifice their lives for the right to defend their religion. âIf these leaders are arrested for terror-related charges, then we will have to go all out to fight.â That's because to Islamists the Great Leader — whoever he happens to be at the moment — is the same thing as Islam itself. Makes it pretty easy to do anything you damn well please...
Despite the hardlinerâs threats, pressure was mounting on fundamentalists groups that have been free to operate for the past four years. The leader of the Laskar Jihad movement, which has waged outright war against Christians in Maluku and Poso, is facing charges, and the Islamic Defenderâs Front, which has trashed nightlife spots without any police action, suddenly found eight of its members and its leader jailed for the latest attack on nightclubs at the end of September. Those are baby steps, even though they've been needed. But the Bad Guys have powerful protection in the person of Mr Vice President.
Posted by: Fred Pruitt ||
10/13/2002 11:17 pm ||
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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.
