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U.S., Iraqi Troops Launch Mosul Offensive
Today's Headlines
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Page 1: WoT Operations
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Arabia
Saudi Security Forces Surround Militants
SUSPECTED militants were shooting at Saudi security forces who had surrounded them in a home in north-western Saudi Arabia today, an Interior Ministry spokesman said. "The wanted are shooting now at the security men, who haven't returned fire,"Brigadier General Mansour al-Turki said in Cairo by telephone. Brig-Gen Al-Turki said he had no other details on the shooting in al-Qassim, 355km north-west of the capital.
Posted by: God Save The World || 11/16/2004 9:52:18 PM || Comments || Link || [5 views] Top|| File under:

#1  surrounded? oh crap!
Posted by: Frank G || 11/16/2004 22:07 Comments || Top||

#2  If you ask me, "Saudi Security Forces" is an oxymoron, ranking among my other favorite oxymorons: "postal service," "student athlete," and "Justice Stevens."
Posted by: reality check || 11/16/2004 22:07 Comments || Top||

#3  Halt! We have you surrounded, you cannot escape except through the back door. It is hopeless! Give up!
Posted by: Ol_Dirty_American || 11/16/2004 22:20 Comments || Top||

#4  They'll "get away" again.

They always do.

You'd almost suspect complicity or something....
Posted by: Barbara Skolaut || 11/16/2004 22:20 Comments || Top||

#5  No, Barb. It is the special way Satanic Special Forces surround and surround. It is kinda an art form. A happening where nothing is happening.
Posted by: Cornîliës || 11/16/2004 22:26 Comments || Top||


Caucasus/Russia/Central Asia
Russian police arrest Islamic militant group members
The Prosecutor's Office in Russia's Ulyanovsk Region, on the Volga River, has instructed a district court to conduct criminal proceedings against a group of Islamic militants suspected of a whole number of serious crimes. According to Vasily Zima, senior assistant to the Ulyanovsk Prosecutor, eight members of the group have been arrested. They are facing charges of banditry, kidnapping, illegal possession of firearms, munitions and explosive devises, instigation of interethnic hatred and religious strife, robbery, and murder, among others. The detainees include local residents, as well as from the neighboring republics of Chuvashia, Tatarstan, and Daghestan. One of them, Lev Selendeyev, worked at a district police department in Ulyanovsk, Mr. Zima said.

The Prosecutor's assistant said the gang had been involved with the distribution of Wahhabist literature and video materials debasing Christians and Jews, as well as non-radical Moslems. "A socio-psycho-linguistic examination conducted in Kazan has proved the fact that that literature contains calls for interethnic strife," Mr. Zima said. It appealed to each "true" Moslem to help his/her co-religionists, including by providing weaponry, military specialists, planners and so forth. As investigators have established, the gang made use of weapons such as pistols (including with a silencer in case of contract killings), explosives, Kalashnikov rifles, a 7.62mm caliber carbine, a single-barrel hunting gun, an optic sight, and a night-vision device.

The 30-strong group, based in an apartment re-fitted as a mosque, started its operations in the summer 2002. Its members frequently visited the republic of Daghestan, in the North Caucasus, as well as cities like Astrakhan, Naberezhnye Chelny, Samara, Kanash, and Kazan, to share expertise with fellow fundamentalists. They also played host to similar groups from Bashkiria, Mordovia, the Saratov Region, Nizhny Novgorod, and Togliatti, Vasily Zima said.
Posted by: Dan Darling || 11/16/2004 3:59:40 AM || Comments || Link || [1 views] Top|| File under:


Kazakh bust lead to breakthrough in Uzbek blast case
The explosions, shoot-outs, and suicide bombings that struck Uzbekistan on 29 March-1 April and 30 July killed more than 50 people and left a host of unanswered questions in their wake. The trials that have taken place across Uzbekistan this fall have not fully clarified the key question of responsibility for the attacks, even as they have reignited a familiar debate over the methods Uzbek authorities use in their fight against religious extremism. But an unexpected breakthrough in the long-running case came on 11 November, when Kazakhstan's National Security Committee (KNB) announced that it has broken up a terrorist group with links to the violence in Uzbekistan. The new information suggests that remnants of the Islamic Movement of Uzbekistan (IMU), which lost much of its organizational capacity when U.S.-led forces toppled the Taliban regime, have regrouped in a neo-IMU. And while it confirms some important aspects of earlier statements by Uzbek officials, it also raises new questions about the terror threat in Central Asia.

Vladimir Bozhko, first deputy chairman of Kazakhstan's National Security Committee (KNB), announced at a press conference in Astana on 11 November that Kazakh security forces have broken up a terrorist group in Kazakhstan with links to Al-Qaeda, Khabar news agency reported. The KNB arrested nine Kazakh citizens and four Uzbek citizens, and detained four Kazakh women trained as suicide bombers. Kazakh officials said that the group managed to recruit 50 Uzbek citizens and 20 Kazakh citizens since it began its activities in mid-2002. In the course of the arrests, police confiscated weapons, forged documents, and a large quantity of extremist propaganda, including a videotaped address by Al-Qaeda leader Osama Bin Laden.

The so-called Mujahedin of Central Asia Group was linked to the Islamic Movement of Uzbekistan (IMU), a group with known Al-Qaeda ties, through one of its leaders, Zhakshybek Biimurzaev, a native of Kyrgyzstan and former IMU fighter. Biimurzaev directed the Mujahedin's activities in Kazakhstan, while Ahmad Bekmirzaev (spelled Bekmirzoev, Bekmurzaev, or Bekmurzoev in some reports), another IMU veteran, directed the Uzbek wing. Bekmirzaev was killed in a shoot-out with Uzbek police outside Tashkent on 30 March.
Continued on Page 49
Posted by: Dan Darling || 11/16/2004 4:08:37 AM || Comments || Link || [3 views] Top|| File under:


Chechen base destroyed was used by Arab Wahhabis
A base of Arab wahhabite mercenaries had been discovered and destroyed in Chechnya, officials from Regional Operative Headquarters of the counter terrorist operation in the North Caucasus told RIA Novosti on Saturday. "During a search-and-destroy operation conducted on Friday by federal forces 1.5 kilometers east of the village of Serzhen-Yurt in the Shali district of Chechnya, soldiers discovered a base of an illegal armed band. According to existing data, the base belonged to Arab wahhabite mercenaries," the ROH representative reported. The base consisted of 3 dugouts, accommodating 5 bandits each, and 2 observation posts guarding approaches to the base. "In the course of investigation, federal soldiers discovered a self-made explosive device, various military equipment, material and food supplies, medical supplies and various religious literature of extremist nature," he said. Soldiers destroyed the base with explosive charges. "At present, federal troops are searching for bandits," the ROH representative reported.
Posted by: Dan Darling || 11/16/2004 4:18:39 AM || Comments || Link || [0 views] Top|| File under:


3 border guards attacked in North Ossetia
Three border guards on duty in North Ossetia, an internal republic of Russia in the North Caucasus, were wounded in an assault when they were heading for their patrolling position at 1:50 a.m. on Tuesday. The Vladikavkaz border unit told Interfax that three persons wearing masks assaulted the border guards stabbing two of them and hitting the third on the head. They took away two assault rifles with ammunition and fled. The incident occurred in the area of Kurtata gorge from which mountain paths run to Ingushetia and Chechnya as well as South Ossetia and Georgia.
Posted by: Dan Darling || 11/16/2004 4:17:33 AM || Comments || Link || [1 views] Top|| File under:


Europe
Spanish Judge Links Inmate to Van Gogh Murder Group
A Spanish judge accused a Moroccan inmate on Tuesday of membership in an Islamic militant group to which the chief suspect in the murder of an outspoken Dutch filmmaker also allegedly belonged, court documents showed. High Court Judge Baltasar Garzon, who leads several investigations into suspected Islamic militant groups in Spain, accused Abdeladim Akoudad of providing logistical support to the radical group. The Netherlands has arrested a man identified only as Mohammed B. on suspicion of killing Theo van Gogh, a critic of Islam, two weeks ago. "He (Akoudad) is believed to be a leading-level member of a terrorist group based in Holland," a court document said. "Another member of the network would be Mohammed Bouyeri, alias Abu Zubair, suspected author of the murder of Theo van Gogh."

Akoudad has been held in Spain since October 2003 on an extradition request from Morocco, which wants him in connection with suicide bombings that killed dozens in Casablanca in May last year. In other investigations Garzon has asserted that Islamic militant suspects organize from jail, in part through letters that are surreptitiously read by prison authorities. One of Garzon's investigations involves the 2003 suicide bombings in Casablanca. Dutch authorities are investigating a possible link between the stabbing and shooting two weeks ago of Van Gogh and the Casablanca bombings.
Posted by: Steve || 11/16/2004 1:53:00 PM || Comments || Link || [1 views] Top|| File under:

#1  Let the Moroccans have him.
Posted by: Frank G || 11/16/2004 14:05 Comments || Top||

#2  Based on what I just read on the beeb website on how Spaniards view terrorists, this inmate has nothing to worry about. A 16-year-old tied to obtaining the explosives used in the Madrid train bombings got 6 years. 6 years for involvement in the murder of 200 people. Europe is just so sophisticated!

Mad cow disease is apparently an epidemic continent-wide.
Posted by: Jules 187 || 11/16/2004 15:59 Comments || Top||


Second arrest in German Libyan nuclear probe
Federal investigators in Germany announced on Tuesday the arrest of a second Swiss national as part of a continuing investigation into smuggling of nuclear technology to Libya. Federal Prosecutor-General Kay Nehm said the suspect, identified only as a 61-year-old Swiss businessman, was arrested on Saturday. From AP: The engineer, identified as Gotthard L., was arrested Nov. 13 by Swiss police in the canton of St. Gallen on suspicion that he helped in develop a gas centrifuge to enrich uranium for use in atomic weapons for a payoff worth $4 million to $5 million Cdn, prosecutors' spokeswoman Frauke Scheuten said in a statement. His full identity was not released, but the name of a German living in Switzerland, Gotthard Lerch, has previously emerged through investigations by the International Atomic Energy Agency.
Last month a 39-year-old Swiss national was arrested in Germany accused of helping Libya's nuclear programme.
AP: Last month, German authorities arrested Swiss engineer Urs Tinner, 39, on allegations he was also a member of the ring.
Prosecutors allege both men helped Libya develop and build gas ultra-centrifuges used for the enrichment of uranium and the production of nuclear weapons. Investigators say the suspect was part of an international illegal supply network supplying centrifuge technology and operating mainly out of Dubai. A statement from prosecuting authorities in Karlsruhe said a Sri Lankan national, Buhary Seyed Abu Tahir, acted as middleman between the supply network and the country of purchase.
We ain't heard from B.S.A. Tahir in a while.
The accused received from Tahir the task of supervising the production of more than 2,000 centrifugal parts at a Malaysian firm and of instructing Libyan personnel in their use.
This would have been Tinner.
The parts were shipped to Dubai, reloaded onto a German freighter under a false declaration and sent on their way to Libya. However the ship was stopped at the port of Taranto in Italy in October last year and the freight was seized on the orders of German authorities. Prosecutors said the arrests are in connection with their investigations of others, including a 65-year-old German national living in South Africa, in connection with illegal supplies to Libya.
AP: In August, German authorities arrested Gerhard Wisser, whom they described at the time as the main suspect in the case. He was released on bail but re-arrested in South Africa in September. Swiss authorities raided the home of Gotthard L. at the same time but did not arrest him, saying his alleged role in the network was still being examined.
Libya stopped its gas ultra-centrifuge programme in December 2003. In March it signed an additional protocol to the nuclear Non- Proliferation Treaty allowing inspectors from the International Atomic Energy Agency to carry out snap checks on all its nuclear facilities.
Posted by: Steve || 11/16/2004 10:38:39 AM || Comments || Link || [0 views] Top|| File under:


Spanish raids net 15 Eta suspects
The Spanish interior ministry says at least 15 suspected members of the armed Basque separatist group Eta have been arrested in north-eastern Spain. More than 150 Spanish police conducted pre-dawn raids in the three Basque provinces and neighbouring Navarra. Eta has suffered serious setbacks in recent months, since French and Spanish police stepped up joint operations.
They've been pounding them pretty hard.
On Sunday the banned Basque political party Batasuna called for a peaceful dialogue with the Spanish government. But Batasuna leader Arnaldo Otegi stopped short of launching an anticipated appeal for Eta to end its terror campaign. As it never explicitly condemned Basque separatist violence, the party was made illegal 20 months ago by Spain's Supreme Court. French and Spanish police have arrested more than 100 Eta suspects on both sides of the border so far this year. Most of the group's leaders have been detained and its caches of weapons and explosives seized. Commenting on the latest arrests, Spain's Deputy Prime Minister, Maria Teresa Fernandez de la Vega, said Spaniards could see that "the action against the men of violence is effective". Eta has in the past announced a dozen ceasefires, all of which it has broken. The longest ceasefire held for 15 months between 1998 and 1999. Eta carried out its last attack on Saturday, but no-one has been killed in an Eta attack in more than 17 months. This has been the quietest period in the group's history, barring truces, since the early 1970s.
Posted by: Steve || 11/16/2004 8:44:12 AM || Comments || Link || [1 views] Top|| File under:


Spanish al-Qaeda cell financed Pearl killers, embassy bombers
AN Islamic extremist cell uncovered in Barcelona provided finance for an alleged al-Qa'ida kingpin in Pakistan indicted in the murder of US journalist Daniel Pearl, it was claimed yesterday. The Pakistani cell, which Spanish police smashed in September, had this year sent money orders of €3000 ($5050) each to Amjad Farooqi, who was killed in an encounter in Pakistan with security forces that month, according to the Spanish newspaper El Pais. "The payments were perfectly credited," it quoted Spanish police sources as saying. "They occurred between January and September, and they were numerous."
Is it just wishful thinking that the eurocops seem to be connecting an awful lot of dots with this group of jihadis they have in jug? Daniel Pearl, Madrid, Theo van Gogh? With tentacles from Syria to Hamburg to Rabat to Amsterdam. If all this checks out, we may actually be getting rid of a MAJOR rats' nest. Not to mention the people of good will in Europe are starting to ask questions about the smell...
El Pais said the Barcelona group had also sent money to Farooqi associates allegedly involved in al-Qaeda attacks on US embassies in Kenya and Tanzania in 1998. El Pais reported on October 31 that the Barcelona cell had transferred funds in Pakistan to the Kuwaiti Khalid Sheik Mohammed, a close associate of Farooqi considered by the US to be the brains behind the September 11, 2001, attacks in the US.
Posted by: Dan Darling || 11/16/2004 3:58:37 AM || Comments || Link || [1 views] Top|| File under:

#1  Oh and Dan, you really need to get some sleep. :-)
Posted by: Seafarious || 11/16/2004 14:34 Comments || Top||

#2  Yeah, it took me two cups of coffee to post his stuff this morning.
Posted by: Steve || 11/16/2004 15:33 Comments || Top||


Dutch terror cell now has 1,000 members
EFL.
That's not a "cell." It's a secret society. Think Fu Manchu. Think Boskone. Think SPECTRE...
Theo Van Gogh, whose latest movie denounced the treatment of women in Muslim countries, was slain Nov. 2 in Amsterdam. His throat was slit and a note attached to a knife shoved in his chest threatened "jihad" against the Dutch government. Officials arrested an alleged Islamic extremist in connection with the slaying. The suspect is part of what officials describe as a 1,000-member international terror cell with ties to Usama bin Laden. "We now have an integration problem with a large population of foreign people.
At least he's noticed that they're foreign...
But the problem [is] we are now apprehending for extremism Dutch people born in the Netherlands 
 It's a different aspect in that respect," said Dutch Justice Minister Piet Donner.
Next, perhaps he'll catch on to the fact that just because they're born in the Netherlands doesn't mean they're not foreign. They're colonists, Piet.
Donner said some young men and women raised in the Netherlands refused to accept the tolerant Dutch way of life. It's something locals are angry about. "If they don't accept how the policy is here in Holland, then they have to leave," one woman said in Amsterdam.
They don't intend to do that willingly. They intend to kill the women and rape the men and keep all your gold and jewels for themselves.
Some here think twice about the country's open-door immigration policies and acceptance of foreigners. "From the 60s in the Netherlands, we have seen we were almost too tolerant. We accepted almost everything here in Holland," said Gerard Van As, a member of Parliament. "They call the Netherlands almost a breeding place for criminal organizations." Officials confirm that the Dutch Secret Service, the agency in charge of investigating terrorism, has been infiltrated by at least one Islamic extremist. The agent was said to be recruited after the Sept. 11, 2001, attacks on the United States in a rush to bring in Arabic speakers. That agent was an associate of the radical accused of killing Theo Van Gogh.
Posted by: Dan Darling || 11/16/2004 3:40:10 AM || Comments || Link || [0 views] Top|| File under:

#1  A cell has 5 or 10 or 20 members. A thousand, now thats an army.
Posted by: Grunter || 11/16/2004 11:44 Comments || Top||

#2  No, a thousand to a cell is about right.
Posted by: Sheriff Cal Cutter || 11/16/2004 15:20 Comments || Top||

#3  AQ's cells usually contain 5 jihadists. Buckle your seatbelts.
Posted by: lex || 11/16/2004 15:29 Comments || Top||

#4  They're colonists, Piet.

Best and most simple explanation I've read in a long time. Spot on, Fred.
Posted by: Steve White || 11/16/2004 16:53 Comments || Top||

#5  Son of a B! Yes! They're colonists! Gosh dammer! Of course! Right in freeping front of me!

My folks didn't try to integrate with the Yamasee. Fred, way good.
Posted by: Shipman || 11/16/2004 18:23 Comments || Top||


Dutch jihadis 'plotted attack at finals of Euro 2004'; Dutch plan to bail out the polders
Slightly EFL
A Dutch Islamic cell linked to the murder of the film-maker Theo Van Gogh planned a terrorist "spectacular" at the Euro 2004 football championship this summer, it was revealed yesterday.
"Sunday Sunday Sunday...mujahid mayhem!"
Adelino Salvado, the former chief of Portugal's judiciary police, said his men seized three members of the "hit squad" the day before the tournament began in June. The terrorist cell, known as the Hofstad Network, drove a car registered to Mohammed Bouyeri, the Dutch-Moroccan man accused of slitting Mr Van Gogh's throat in Amsterdam earlier this month. Among the three men was El Fahtni Noreddine, a Moroccan national who at one point shared a flat in Amsterdam with Bouyeri.
Tell me again why they weren't jugging or at least watching Bouyeri.
José Manuel Barroso, then Portugal's premier and now the incoming president of the European Commission, was believed to be in imminent danger. Police confined him to his hotel in Porto on June 11, causing him to miss the gala dinner celebrating the opening match between Portugal and Greece. It followed a tip-off by Holland's AIVD intelligence service. "Everything indicated they were preparing an attack, and I could never sleep if I did nothing to prevent it," Mr Salvado told Portugal's Diario de Noticias.
Hey! A security officer who understands his job is to keep people safe! Maybe he can come work for Tom Ridge.
The suspects were later deported rather than put on trial.
Deported to where? Holland? Morrocco? Disneyland Paris?
The revelation provides a clue heightens fears that Mr Van Gogh's killer was part of a far-reaching Islamic cell, able to strike anywhere in Europe, taking advantage of Holland's tolerant society in a jihad against the West. The Hofstad cell is also under investigation about suspected plans to strike the Dutch parliament, Amsterdam's Schiphol airport, and the Borssele nuclear reactor. Piet Hein Donner, the justice minister, announced yesterday that his government was launching an international manhunt for the "spiritual leader" of the cell, a Syrian extradited to Germany before the murder of Mr Van Gogh.
Name, please. And how does a Syrian become the spiritual leader for a group of Morroccans living in Holland and planning to blow up the soccer stadium in Portugal...
He most likely has saudi "funding".
A recent report by AIVD concluded that up to 50,000 of Holland's one million-strong Muslim community was sympathetic to extreme Islamic causes. The Hofstadt Network, believed to be linked to Al-Qa'eda, is part of the extreme Islamic movement el-Takfir wa el Hijra. The Dutch police have so far arrested 12 Islamic radicals after a "declaration of war" by the cabinet against an enemy within that is now threatening the stability of Dutch society. New measures include proposals to deport extremists, whether or not they are Dutch citizens, as the country turns its back on its 30-year experiment as the world's most easy-going model of multi-culturalism.
Posted by: Bulldog || 11/16/2004 4:24:09 AM || Comments || Link || [2 views] Top|| File under:

#1  A recent report by AIVD concluded that up to 50,000 of Holland’s one million-strong Muslim community was sympathetic to extreme Islamic causes
I guess within the 17 million or so Dutch , there is a large majority ( and growing daily ) of right wingers who beg to differ with these people . To be honest I really hope the more liberal Islamics can calm down the extremeists or we are going to have a SERIOUS problem on our hands in Europe and Britain very soon . Allow something to fester and it becomes a problem soon enough . Racial tensions are festering to say the least
Posted by: MacNails || 11/16/2004 5:26 Comments || Top||

#2  It's not racial. It's the culture of this cult. It's use of Arabic to comunicate in it's houses of worship has allowed it to get by because no one knows what the imam is saying. In the non muslim world every one is ignorant of the death cults preaching. Well he is saying the muslims are the select of god and everyone is worthless and worse. It's not race it's a clash of cultures and we non muslim are expected to lose and get out of their way.
Posted by: Sock Puppet of Doom || 11/16/2004 6:32 Comments || Top||

#3  Maybe thats how intelligent people think SPoD , but alas when push comes to shove , a more basic train of thought is usually instigated , and that means racism .
I know what you are saying but I dont think the basic angry thug on the street would be into having a reasoned discussion about clash of cultures .
Posted by: MacNails || 11/16/2004 6:38 Comments || Top||


Home Front: WoT
WAPO: Man Who Ignited Self at White House an Informant
"Mmmmm! Baaaaaar-becue!"
A man who set himself on fire outside the White House on Monday was a Yemeni federal informant on terrorism upset over how the FBI had managed his case, The Washington Post reported on Tuesday. Mohamed Alanssi, who had recently discussed his work as an informant in interviews with The Washington Post, told the newspaper by faxed letter and telephone on Monday he intended to "burn my body at unexpected place," the newspaper reported. The U.S. Park Police said in a statement that a Middle Eastern male in his early 50's approached the northwest gate of the White House around 2 p.m. with a letter for the president. After a brief conversation with Secret Service officers, the man pulled a lighter from his pocket and ignited his jacket, the statement said.
I saw the video of him lying on the sidewalk, screaming, on Fox News. The thought occurred to me, hadn't he thought about that part before setting fire to himself?
The Washington Post said Alanssi, 52, was taken to Washington Hospital Center, where he was listed in critical condition with burns over about 30 percent of his body. Neither the Secret Service nor White House had immediate comment on the incident. The man's name was being withheld pending notification of his family, the Park Police said. A spokesman for the FBI in Washington was not immediately available for comment on the Post report early on Tuesday.
A guy sets fire to himself outside the White House. What more comment do you need?
In interviews with the newspaper, Alanssi, who is from Yemen and also uses the name Mohamed Alhadrami, expressed anguish over not being able to visit his family in Yemen. He told the newspaper that he suffers from diabetes and heart problems and that his wife suffers from stomach cancer.
Now he suffers from burns over 30 percent of his body. How's that help?
Alanssi said he could not travel to Yemen because he has no money and because the FBI, which expects him to testify at a terrorism trial in New York, was keeping his Yemeni passport. "It is my big mistake that I have cooperated with FBI," Alanssi was quoted as saying.
I'd say lighting that match was a bigger mistake, but then, I've never set fire to myself...
"The FBI have already destroyed my life and my family's life and made us in a very danger position . . . I am not crazy to destroy my life and my family's life to get $100,000," he said. Alanssi said he became a major informant for the FBI after the 2001 al Qaeda attacks on the United States. He said he was paid $100,000 in 2003 but had expected much more and had not received the permanent residency status he was promised, the newspaper reported. "We don't have a policy on revealing who is a cooperator or informing witness," Joe Valiquette, an FBI spokesman in New York, told the Post. The U.S. attorney's office in the eastern district of New York, which is prosecuting the terrorism-related trial in January, also declined comment, the newspaper said.
Posted by: Destro || 11/16/2004 4:19:06 AM || Comments || Link || [2 views] Top|| File under:

#1  Another example of the FBI not handeling things. This guy may have issues but their treating him like crap didn't help and he did help them. Whoever was his handler should be fired. But typical for the FBI they will get a promotion and bonus.
Posted by: Sock Puppet of Doom || 11/16/2004 4:42 Comments || Top||

#2  Is $100K typical money to pay to an informant?
Posted by: Elminegum Unomoger3536 || 11/16/2004 10:11 Comments || Top||

#3  That guy, a YEMENI, managed to fritter away $100K in a year?
Posted by: Bomb-a-rama || 11/16/2004 10:31 Comments || Top||

#4  call me skeptical - but this story seems a bit contrived.

from the one on Drudge:

Yesterday morning, he informed the newspaper [The Washington Post] by faxed letter and by telephone that he was going to "burn my body at unexpected place." He also sent a copy of a letter he said he had faxed to the FBI agent in New York who is handling his case. The Post alerted the agent and provided a copy of the letter.

In two telephone conversations yesterday, Alanssi told a Post reporter that he would provide 10 minutes' notice of his suicide attempt and that only then would he reveal the location. When he called a third time, Alanssi said he had poured gasoline and would be setting himself on fire in two minutes, not 10, and it would take place near the White House. The newspaper informed D.C. police, who notified the special operations unit and the U.S. Park Police, which has jurisdiction over Lafayette Square.


hmmmm...so the guy becomes and informant to get lifesaving medical treatment in the US, and now he works with the Wa Po to get national attention to the fact that he was an informant and that he wants to go home. I'd say there is more to this story.
Posted by: 2b || 11/16/2004 10:42 Comments || Top||

#5  I don't see where the FBI treated him poorly yet. That being said, there is definitely more to the story than this, and he could have been handled poorly.
I think that the best thing for the FBI at this point would be for this guy to die. He's useless as an informant now, and it could save them a public humiliation in the press.
Posted by: Mike || 11/16/2004 11:20 Comments || Top||

#6  Well his life is getting ready to take a turn for the worst. Sandpaper man is due in what? 96 hours?
Posted by: Shipman || 11/16/2004 15:33 Comments || Top||

#7  And BTW anyone who treats serious burn patients goes straight to heaven, no searches, no papers, no priests.

Posted by: Shipman || 11/16/2004 15:34 Comments || Top||

#8  After this guy's little stunt, I would say that his credibility on the witness stand stands at 0.7734x10^-3.
Posted by: Alaska Paul || 11/16/2004 22:54 Comments || Top||

#9  Ship - surely true - a terrible job
Posted by: Frank G || 11/16/2004 23:14 Comments || Top||

#10  Is this guy serious,how can he complain about the FBI holding his passport and not being able to visit his family in Yemen,i am sure he knows once he sets foot in Yemen it is straight to prison after all he is accused of treason.
Posted by: sam || 11/19/2004 10:01 Comments || Top||


Iraq-Jordan
Marines overseeing collection of Fallujah bodies that the NY Times insists don't exist
Murmuring "God is great," two dozen Iraqi men collected corpses Tuesday in a U.S. Marine-directed effort to rid Fallujah of festering bodies in keeping with Muslim burial principles. Officers said the Marines themselves could more quickly pick up the estimated 1,200 insurgents killed during a week of fighting that took back the city from insurgents, but agreed with Iraqis who felt it was crucial they retrieve the remains of their fellow Muslims. "We're Iraqis and they're Iraqis and we want to get them," said Mohammed Ali, a 32-year-old farmer helping remove bodies. "It's in our religion. The rules say that relatives or families or Arabs should help them."
Posted by: Damn_Proud_American || 11/16/2004 8:25:34 PM || Comments || Link || [0 views] Top|| File under:

#1  They're not very good at dealing with the real world, but on a hunch:

Perhaps the NYT can tell us how many holes it takes to fill the Albert Hall...
Posted by: .com || 11/16/2004 23:06 Comments || Top||

#2  I would assume that the Iraqis will deal with the Syrians, Saudis, Iranians, and any other nationality found besides Iraqis.
Posted by: Alaska Paul || 11/16/2004 23:08 Comments || Top||


C.A.R.E INTERNATIONAL
It is with profound sadness that we have learnt of the existence of a video in which it appears that our colleague Margaret Hassan has been killed. We are shocked and appalled that this has been the apparent outcome of her abduction. We want to express our deepest sympathy to Mrs. Hassan's husband Tahseen, and to her family. Mrs. Hassan was an extraordinary woman who dedicated her life to the poor and disadvantaged in Iraq, particularly the children. The whole of CARE is in mourning. Through her courage, tenacity and commitment, Mrs. Hassan assisted more than seventeen million Iraqis living in the most difficult of circumstances. Everyone who met her was touched by her personality and compassion.

CARE staff and volunteers will continue working around the world fighting poverty, responding to humanitarian emergencies and helping to rebuild communities. CARE sincerely thanks the Iraqi people for everything they did to try to secure the safe return of Margaret Hassan and for the many expressions of support. Our priority now is to support Mrs. Hassan's husband, Tahseen, and those most deeply affected by this tragedy.
Posted by: God Save The World || 11/16/2004 6:06:27 PM || Comments || Link || [1 views] Top|| File under:

#1  It's a pretty straight-forward statement. On second read there's with an enormously large omission.

"It is with profound sadness that we have learnt of the existence of a video in which it appears that our colleague Margaret Hassan has been killed."

By whom? If you can't even speak it's name how will you ever defeat it so that the noble services of CARE are never again needed in Iraq?

"We are shocked and appalled that this has been the apparent outcome of her abduction."

Don't be naive. If you didn't see this as the end result someone has not been paying attention.

May she rest in peace and may the scum that shot her die a slow painful death while playing possum in front of a US Marine inside a mosque.
Posted by: Curious1 || 11/16/2004 21:23 Comments || Top||

#2  exactly - who made the video? Their "cause"? Their demands? No moral outrage, is there? Like it was a tragic accident....the only tragic thing was she trusted ALL muslims, no?
Posted by: Frank G || 11/16/2004 21:45 Comments || Top||


Shooting in Iraq Mosque Angers Muslims
Seethe and be damned.
Posted by: CrazyFool || 11/16/2004 19:21 || Comments || Link || [0 views] Top|| File under:

#1  That's a big Tango Sierra...
Posted by: mojo || 11/16/2004 19:24 Comments || Top||

#2  Don't fly airplanes into our skyscrapers and we won't have to shoot you. Capice?
Posted by: ed || 11/16/2004 19:34 Comments || Top||

#3  Having people's heads chopped off angers me.
Posted by: Fred || 11/16/2004 19:37 Comments || Top||

#4  Shoot him again. In fact several times. And his buddy too. When are these folks going to realize that we have about had it with these folks. Okay don't shoot him. Just level the place.
Posted by: davet || 11/16/2004 19:42 Comments || Top||

#5  Shooting at US service men from mosques angers Americans.

Posted by: Mark Z. || 11/16/2004 19:45 Comments || Top||

#6  Damn straight mojo! Every freakin' mosque was a bunker. They should thank Allan there are any mosques left in that place. And, if it angers muslims....you can pretty much be sure you've done right.
Posted by: Rex Mundi || 11/16/2004 19:45 Comments || Top||

#7  "Look at this old man who was slain by them," said Ahmed Khalil, 40, as he watched the video in his Baghdad shop. "Was he a fighter? Was anybody who was killed inside this mosque a fighter? Where are their weapons? I don't know what to say."

Jackass... yeah, we left the weapons with them on the floor after we killed them all. F-ing morons. I couldn't care less what these scumbags think. The ones on our side and want democracy I embrace. The rest, I'm done worrying about what they think of us... Let them hate us. Let them FEAR us.
Posted by: Damn_Proud_American || 11/16/2004 19:49 Comments || Top||

#8  As my old ma used to say:

Tough titty said the kitty but the milks all gone!
Posted by: CrazyFool || 11/16/2004 19:50 Comments || Top||

#9  Foxtrot....Uniform.....Charlie.....Kilo....Echo...Mike!
Posted by: John Q. Citizen || 11/16/2004 19:53 Comments || Top||

#10  Reading of muslim atrocities angers lots of non muslims too. Knowing of the general acquiescence of such among themselves especially, even more. Do muslims own that sole monopoly to anger? What is holy is not anymore to be determined by them alone. The first step to avoid dhimmitude from unconcious and inadvertent PCness.
Posted by: SoNow || 11/16/2004 20:01 Comments || Top||

#11  advice to seething muslims - take the nearest AK (or stick if no gun's nearby) and go complain to the nearest Marine squad
Posted by: Frank G || 11/16/2004 20:02 Comments || Top||

#12  While this video is being broadcast every few minutes across the World, Margaret Hassan's killing has not been shown once. She was killed by a gunshot, she wasn't beheaded. So why is one shooting too graphic, and the other isn't?
Posted by: Destro || 11/16/2004 20:12 Comments || Top||

#13  "...raised questions about the protection of insurgents..."
This is so fn stupid it makes my head hurt.

Maybe this would be a good time to tell the world that, as far as terrorism is concerned, we don't want to even talk about the Geneva Conventions, let alone honor them. Not that this is even a violation.
Posted by: Tom || 11/16/2004 20:14 Comments || Top||

#14  Proof Sites and the MSM are working for the other side.
Posted by: someone || 11/16/2004 20:49 Comments || Top||

#15  Let them seethe!
Posted by: RWV || 11/16/2004 21:01 Comments || Top||

#16  Don't care if they don't like us, but they damn sure better fear us because we're just about past the point where no longer care what they think about anything.
Posted by: RWV || 11/16/2004 21:04 Comments || Top||

#17  I'm thinking Sites should now be the volunteer to flip over every body his squad runs across. I wonder what he'll say when he finds a boobytrap.
Posted by: eLarson || 11/16/2004 21:08 Comments || Top||

#18  You might say he already found a boobytrap.
Posted by: Tom || 11/16/2004 21:13 Comments || Top||

#19  Careful - I ripped Sites earlier, but he did a report today that conveyed ALL the facts we'd bitched about before: guys were killed by a "dead" Iraqi the day before; "surrendering" Iraqis shot their Marine captors, etc... Dunno if he's trying to redeem hisownself among his embed protectors, or understood the MSM played it out of control, or what...
Posted by: Frank G || 11/16/2004 21:21 Comments || Top||

#20  You know the MSM, Frank G. Initial report, page A1. Clarification, page H7.
Posted by: Tom || 11/16/2004 21:28 Comments || Top||

#21  More spin from AP. No surprises, here.
Posted by: Zhang Fei || 11/16/2004 21:35 Comments || Top||

#22  These folks are going to have to be Shermanized before the sething stops. We've been playing with too many rules of engagement and not enough dead enemy.
Posted by: Mrs. Davis || 11/16/2004 21:36 Comments || Top||

#23  Tom 2004,

Too late. He is either too stupid to understand the Muslim and liberal "minds" or he did it on purpose to make a name for himself. I am inclined to believe the latter. I hope that the next time he goes out with the Marines, they will "accidentally" forget to warn him of a possible road bomb or mine. What a scum that guy is!!!
Posted by: Anonymous4724 || 11/16/2004 21:39 Comments || Top||

#24  We should be careful not to upset the Muslims they might resort to terrorism.
Posted by: Canaveral Dan || 11/16/2004 21:50 Comments || Top||

#25  Canaveral Dan, good point. Negotiate before they get upset.
Posted by: Korben Dallas || 11/16/2004 22:03 Comments || Top||

#26  You know what I hate? People who ambush Americans, burn them, drag them through the streets, string them up by their feet from a bridge, and then do that faggy arab dance for the AP. This POS' life isn't worth a squirt of piss to me.
Posted by: BH || 11/16/2004 22:08 Comments || Top||

#27  I'm angry too. We're getting sloppy over there. We need to borrow a page out of Red China's book: after we shoot him in the head, we need to follow up by sending a bill for $1.17 to the scumbag's family to reimburse us for the cost of the bullet.
Posted by: reality check || 11/16/2004 22:16 Comments || Top||

#28  BH - aren't you being too judgemental?

/sarcasm - for the flamewar otherwise
Posted by: Frank G || 11/16/2004 22:17 Comments || Top||

#29  Can we get a Sympathy meter here?

Saw some clown complaining because we are not following 'Geneva Conventions'.....
Posted by: CrazyFool || 11/16/2004 22:21 Comments || Top||

#30  When are moose limbs not seething? Being alive and non moose limb is enough for that. Just figure this is a good small partial payback for shitting all over the place in the Church of the Nativity.
Posted by: Sock Puppet of Doom || 11/16/2004 22:23 Comments || Top||

#31  Simple question: are they ALL dead yet? No .. ok, check back later.
Posted by: Beau || 11/16/2004 22:30 Comments || Top||

#32  'Geneva Convention':

Thou shalt have a slice of swiss cheese after the battle
Posted by: Conanista || 11/16/2004 22:32 Comments || Top||

#33  "#11 advice to seething muslims - take the nearest AK (or stick if no gun's nearby) and go complain to the nearest Marine squad."

: ) !

MANY THANKS to everyone on this post! Y'all totally made my day. And many more thanks to our noble Marines who are doing a great job in a very tough situation.

Hey--MSM hasn't shown any raw "footage" on ANY of our dead--brave, decent guys taken out by "insurgents" (code word for Asshat Thugs, Inc.). Wonder why that is . . .
Posted by: ex-lib || 11/16/2004 23:43 Comments || Top||


Video May Show Iraq Aid Worker Killed -Husband
Margaret Hassan, a British aid worker kidnapped in Baghdad a month ago, has probably been killed, her Iraqi husband and British diplomats said on Tuesday after viewing a video apparently showing her being shot...
I am deeply suspicious of this and several other hostage murders. She was wearing the pro forma orange jumpsuit, she was strongly opposed to the war in Iraq, and she had been working in Iraq for 20 years. What if she was owned by Saddam, like so many others?
Posted by: Anonymoose || 11/16/2004 7:05:25 PM || Comments || Link || [1 views] Top|| File under:

#1  Al-Jezeera declined to broadcast any of it. Instead the Marine shooting the terrorist/insurgent/lion-of-islam lead each hour's broadcast (with appropriate propagandizing) and shown in full. Can't have the Allah's Heroes looking bad.
Posted by: ed || 11/16/2004 19:29 Comments || Top||

#2  That's holy honor, acceptance and gratitude for you from the minions of MoreMad.
Posted by: SoNow || 11/16/2004 23:09 Comments || Top||

#3  She's dead. Let her rest in peace.
Posted by: 2b || 11/16/2004 23:55 Comments || Top||


Nassir Ayef Arrested
US troops arrested deputy speaker of interim Iraqi parliament Nassir Ayef at his Baghdad home early Tuesday. Ayef is leader of Sunni Islamic Party which quit Allawi government last week in protest against Fallujah offensive.
Posted by: Anonymoose || 11/16/2004 4:29:12 PM || Comments || Link || [0 views] Top|| File under:

#1  Good! All Muslim hardliners are VERY SUSPECT now.
Posted by: leaddog2 || 11/16/2004 16:39 Comments || Top||

#2  There must be a LOT of interesting documents and confessions to be obtained in Fallujah.
Posted by: Kalle (kafir forever) || 11/16/2004 17:35 Comments || Top||

#3  He was found with religous supplies. From CNN: Iraqi National Council member Naseer Ayaef, a senior member of the Iraqi Islamic Party, was detained by U.S. forces and Iraqi police Tuesday on suspicion of storing weapons and explosives, said Ayad al-Samarrai, the party's secretary general. The U.S. military did not immediately respond to a request for information about the report.
Posted by: ed || 11/16/2004 19:42 Comments || Top||

#4  I feel like we're finally playing to win.
Posted by: Damn_Proud_American || 11/16/2004 20:01 Comments || Top||

#5  Two weeks after our election and we are playing to win, Yasser is gone, Condi is going to State, and Kimmie has a headache. I feel really good. Now if we could just spank Dan Rather and the NYT...
Posted by: Tom || 11/16/2004 20:25 Comments || Top||

#6  I think we'll be seeing more of the clerics rounded up as the days go by. I think this guys was the third.
Posted by: BillH || 11/16/2004 22:59 Comments || Top||

#7  Prolly the guy who pushed for the hudna last April.
Posted by: .com || 11/16/2004 23:02 Comments || Top||


Video May Show Iraq Aid Worker Killed -Husband
The husband of British-Iraqi aid worker Margaret Hassan said on Tuesday a video tape had been discovered which appeared to show her murder by hostage-takers. "I have been told that there is a video of Margaret which appears to show her murder. The video may be genuine but I do not know," Tahsin Hassan told Reuters in Baghdad. "I want to know if she is alive or dead. If she's dead I want to know where she is so I can bury her in peace."
Posted by: Destro || 11/16/2004 12:37:49 PM || Comments || Link || [1 views] Top|| File under:

#1  Our condolences for her family and undying hate for the IslamoPigs that cowardly attack civilians
Posted by: Frank G || 11/16/2004 13:42 Comments || Top||

#2  I blame the American occupation of a Muslim country.
Posted by: IslamoPig || 11/16/2004 13:45 Comments || Top||

#3  IP-Apply for a job at the Beeb.
Posted by: Jules 187 || 11/16/2004 13:58 Comments || Top||

#4  'I blame the American occupation of a Muslim country'

well we all got to blame somebody - so - I blame inbred , ill educated , religious fuckwits like you . Oh and who said its a MUSLIM country , most decent places in the world accept the right of free choice well away from religious restrictions and the bent corrupt enforcers which come with it . Name one 'Muslim' country that has acheived anything of note apart from barbarism , religious fervour , peodophilia , inter family marriages , poor business , a liking for blood and guns , and a basic I.Q of zero .
The sooner people like you are wiped off the face of the earth , the sooner humanity can move forward without the thorn in the side you are proving to be .
Posted by: MacNails || 11/16/2004 14:06 Comments || Top||

#5  Oh , and my deepest thoughts go out to Margaret Hassan's family and friends in this very glum hour indeed . All she ever did was love Iraqi and Iraqi's , and tried her hardest to help . This is how IslamoPig and friends pay her back .
Posted by: MacNails || 11/16/2004 14:08 Comments || Top||

#6  Never forget...she was trying to help. Condolences to the Hassans.
Posted by: Seafarious || 11/16/2004 14:23 Comments || Top||

#7  This is a despicable act by barbaric killers. I wish her husband and family strength during this ordeal. May she rest in peace.
Posted by: Bryan || 11/16/2004 14:33 Comments || Top||

#8  Margaret Hassan - a true martyr. Rest in Peace - God Bless you and thank for your work to make this world a better place.
Posted by: 2b || 11/16/2004 14:39 Comments || Top||

#9  Good point, 2b. The swine who killed her and all the other swine like them think they know what the word 'martyr' means. They don't have it in them to even begin to understand it.
Posted by: Bryan || 11/16/2004 14:44 Comments || Top||

#10  I don't understand how this could happen - Its against the Geneva Conventions.
Posted by: Yosemite Sam || 11/16/2004 16:29 Comments || Top||

#11  Hassan worked mostly in food distribution programs. The four Blackwater security men butchered in Fallujah last spring were guarding food shipments. Michael Moore's minutemen are consistent, aren't they?
Posted by: Atomic Conspiracy || 11/16/2004 16:49 Comments || Top||

#12  AC - Shiplord Kirel
Posted by: Yosemite Sam || 11/16/2004 17:43 Comments || Top||

#13  Yosemite Sam, so?
Everyone knows that.

I am ördög.
Posted by: Cornīliës || 11/16/2004 17:58 Comments || Top||

#14  Rodger answers
Posted by: Frank G || 11/16/2004 22:48 Comments || Top||


Afghanistan/South Asia
Taliban Blast Kills Four Afghan Policemen
Four Afghan police officers were killed and five wounded when their car was hit by a blast in the central province of Uruzgan on Tuesday, officials said, in an attack for which Taliban guerrillas claimed responsibility. Provincial governor Jan Mohammad Khan told Reuters Mohammad Ibrahim Akhunzada, the security chief of the province's Chorah district, was among the wounded. He said the blast was caused by a roadside bomb, but provincial police chief Rozi Khan blamed a land mine. Rozi Khan said the blast happened about 1 mile from the town of Deh Rawud. Taliban spokesman Abdul Latif Hakimi said guerrillas carried out the attack. The provincial governor said the attack appeared to be the work of the Taliban or its militant allies. Hakimi also said the Taliban killed two Afghan officials in an attack in the district of Chorah in the afternoon in which one guerrilla died. Local officials could not immediately be reached to confirm this report.
Posted by: Steve || 11/16/2004 9:44:33 AM || Comments || Link || [1 views] Top|| File under:


Nepal forces clash with rebels
Nepalese security forces and Maoist rebels have clashed in two districts west of the capital, authorities say. Casualty figures are unclear, but some reports say at least 10 people died in the fighting. Violence has escalated in Nepal after a temporary truce between the government and the rebels ended last month. Meanwhile, rebel leader Prachanda has renewed calls for international mediation and urged foreign donors to stop supporting the Himalayan kingdom. A senior official from the Asian Development Bank (ADB), Nepal's biggest donor, voiced concern about the escalating violence and said peace was vital for economic progress in the impoverished nation.

The authorities said security forces clashed with the rebels in Dhading, 90km (50 miles) west of the capital, Kathmandu, as well as in the far western district of Kailali. One report on Reuters news agency said six policemen and a soldier had died when the rebels fired on them from heavily-forested hills in their stronghold of Kailali. This has not been confirmed. The authorities said the clash in Dhading occurred when security forces were trying to force open a highway linking the capital with the rest of the country. They rejected reports that a number of soldiers had died in an ambush in the area, but said the rebels had suffered significant casualties. There has been no word from the rebels on the latest violence.
Posted by: Steve || 11/16/2004 8:47:57 AM || Comments || Link || [4 views] Top|| File under:


Iraq-Jordan
Zarqawi goads hard boyz to keep up the fight
AN audiotape on an Islamist website purportedly from Iraq's most wanted man, Abu Musab al-Zarqawi, urged his supporters to brace for new battles against US forces after the showdown in Fallujah. "The enemy... has mobilised most of its assets and potential to destroy Islam in Fallujah. Once they have finished in Fallujah, they will head towards you," the voice on the tape said, urging insurgents to seize the initiative. "Be cautious and foil their plan," he said, in an implicit recognition that the week-long battle in Fallujah, the rebel hotspot west of Baghdad, was virtually lost for the insurgents under US assault for the past week. The message was addressed to "the heroes of Baghdad and Al-Anbar", the province which is home to Fallujah, to "the lions of Mosul" in northern Iraq and the "lion cubs of Diyala, Samarra and Salahadin".

"The enemy are avoiding fighting us for fear of being dispersed and of a war of attrition," and "they are weak and cannot widen the battle," it said, warning that US forces would confront one insurgent stronghold after another. "Don't be satisfied with repelling them from your territory... Shower them with rockets and mortar rounds," said the man claiming to be Zarqawi, apparently giving orders to his fighters. "Cut all their supply lines, the main and secondary ones... and carry out ambushes on these routes. Make sure that the initiative in the battle remains in your hands ... Prolong the battle because each day, for them, is worse than the one before. The enemy is counting on the time factor to reduce the rhythm of the battle and lessen its intensity."
So, Abu Musab, how're things in Teheran?
Posted by: Dan Darling || 11/16/2004 3:49:01 AM || Comments || Link || [1 views] Top|| File under:

#1  keep fighting guys , im like your other brave leader OBL , rooting for ya !! Alas I cannot attend as im a cowardly scumfuck and am on vacation in Tehran partying hard with some mullah chums !!
love and kisses
Abu
xx
Posted by: MacNails || 11/16/2004 8:43 Comments || Top||

#2  How convenient. Makes me wonder if the tape is a American Psychops...
Posted by: domingo || 11/16/2004 9:24 Comments || Top||

#3  "I'm George Bush, and I approved this message."
Posted by: 2b || 11/16/2004 10:51 Comments || Top||

#4  2b >>> ROFLMAO...
Posted by: 98zulu || 11/16/2004 11:30 Comments || Top||

#5  Translation: Fellow Jihadis, come out and let yourself be killed by the Marines, wherever you may be hiding. Don't hide, attack stupidly everywhere, make yourself more visible. That will teach them a lesson, after killing 1200 Jihadis in a Fallujah-week and capturing 1000 more. And make sure you keep your underground bunkers well stocked with explosives! Allah is obviously on the side of jihad.
Posted by: Kalle (kafir forever) || 11/16/2004 14:35 Comments || Top||

#6  Zarqawi goads hard boyz to keep up the fight

Suckers.

Bwaaahahahahahahaha!!!!!
Posted by: Bomb-a-rama || 11/16/2004 21:23 Comments || Top||


Fallujah quiet after the battle
Even the dogs have started to die, their corpses strewn among twisted metal and shattered concrete in a city that looks like it forgot to breathe. The aluminum shutters of shops on the main highway through town have been transformed by the force of war into mangled accordion shapes, flat, sharp, jarring slices of metal that no longer obscure the stacks of silver pots, the plastic-wrapped office furniture, the rolls of carpet. These things would be for sale, except there are no traders, no customers, hardly any people at all in the center of Fallujah. U.S. Marines searching for insurgents in the Jolan neighborhood in the northwestern side of the city on Monday did see two elderly men emerge from a pile of rock. The men, who looked too old to fight, pointed to their stomachs. They were hungry. They were given brown, plastic pouches of military rations and disappeared back into the rocks, the Marines recounted.

Black smoke rose from buildings across the city as U.S. artillery continued to bombard insurgent positions and weapons bunkers a day after commanders declared that the city had been liberated. On a cinderblock wall near the Othman bin Afan mosque on the main east-west highway that divides the city, someone had scrawled: "Islam came back again." But there was no one to welcome right now, and no one to receive it. And if the brave holy warriors are living long lives, as another graffiti scrawl proclaimed, they were not doing it at the deserted Arch of Victory Square, its metal monument arch and painting of Saddam Hussein crumpled months ago by a roadside bomb aimed at a U.S. convoy.

U.S. commanders say they now control the city except for a few pockets of resistance, mostly in the southernmost part. There, the crack of gunfire could still be heard on Monday, as American forces battled the last of the fighters. Elsewhere in the city, it was mostly quiet. "Everything is calming down," said Lance Cpl. Joshua Williams, 21, of Sherman, N.Y., who was cleaning his M-16 rifle on a cot in a warehouse the Marines had taken over.
Continued on Page 49
Posted by: Dan Darling || 11/16/2004 3:46:19 AM || Comments || Link || [1 views] Top|| File under:


Drones pick off 'rats' of Fallujah
THE last hours of the mujaheddin are terrifying. With the city they once ruled with the absolute authority of medieval caliphs now overrun by US and Iraqi troops, they have to keep moving. To pause even for a few minutes can mean instant death from an unseen enemy. A group of 15 fighters dressed in black and carrying an array of weapons ducked into a two-storey house in war-torn southern Fallujah. Their movement was picked up by an unmanned spy plane that beamed back live footage to a control centre on the edge of the city. Within minutes, an airstrike was called and the house disappeared in a giant plume of grey smoke.

From a house across the road, the explosion flushed out another group of guerillas. Deafened by the blast, they stumbled out into the street, formed a ragged line and started off on the marathon to postpone their deaths, the drone dogging their every step. "The rats are trying to move about," said Major Tim Karcher, of the Second Battalion, Seventh Cavalry, as the figures flitted from street to street, seeking cover close to walls. Sometimes they can throw off the drone, ducking out of sight of the men with the power to summon FA18 fighter-bombers or 155mm artillery strikes. But they have no way of knowing.

And, increasingly, as they run they come into the crosshairs of American snipers, crack shots such as Sergeant Marc Veen and his long-barrelled rifle, Lucille. Yesterday morning he spotted a black-clad man with an AK47 assault rifle peering round a corner 450m from the villa where Cougar Company of the Seventh Cavalry has set up a forward base. He shot the man in the stomach: he fell, but kept crawling, so Sergeant Veen shot him again in the shoulder. Still the man tried to move away, so the sergeant blasted him with his 50 calibre machinegun.
More at the link
Posted by: phil_b || 11/16/2004 3:26:26 AM || Comments || Link || [0 views] Top|| File under:

#1  As US troops sweep through the houses, they are unearthing the insurgents' horrifying secrets – more akin to the handiwork of psychotic serial killers than guerillas or even terrorists – that have shocked the world
Posted by: 2b || 11/16/2004 10:07 Comments || Top||

#2  Nothing but a bunch of drug addled freaks. Kill them all.
Posted by: Rawsnacks || 11/16/2004 10:31 Comments || Top||

#3  ahhh..but that rat is so cute!
Posted by: 2b || 11/16/2004 10:32 Comments || Top||

#4  James Hider…gets it!

Here’s a case where the sniper takes out a bad guy…sees he’s still moving…pops him another…and then the coup de grâce - n. (kü-de-'gräs) - a death blow or shot administered to end the suffering of one mortally wounded [French - literally, a “blow of mercy"].

See, even the French have a term for taking out the bad boyz. Finally, they get something right.
Posted by: RN || 11/16/2004 10:40 Comments || Top||

#5  450m > 1/4 mile -- not bad!
Posted by: Dar || 11/16/2004 10:44 Comments || Top||

#6  What a graphic! Hee.
Posted by: someone || 11/16/2004 11:24 Comments || Top||

#7  450KM = didn't even know what happened. Allan just reached out and disemboweled him, let him crawl then shot him again. Then took him apart. Allan Akhbar

heh heh
Posted by: Frank G || 11/16/2004 11:35 Comments || Top||

#8  is that a little air bag on his neck?
Posted by: 2b || 11/16/2004 14:57 Comments || Top||

#9  You're giving rats a bad name.
Posted by: J || 11/16/2004 17:10 Comments || Top||


50 dead in Iraq clashes
U.S. soldiers battled insurgents northeast of Baghdad on Monday in clashes that killed more than 50 people. Some guerrillas were said to be "fighting to the death" inside Fallujah, where American forces struggled to clear pockets of resistance. At least five suicide car bombers targeted American troops elsewhere in volatile Sunni Muslim areas north and west of the capital, wounding at least nine Americans. Three of those bombings occurred nearly simultaneously in locations between Fallujah and the insurgent stronghold of Ramadi, the U.S. command said.

The zone between Fallujah and Ramadi was one of at least three areas Monday in which insurgents pulled off almost-simultaneous attacks against U.S. or Iraqi forces, suggesting a level of military sophistication and planning not seen in the early months of the insurgency last year. Pressing their own offensive in central and northern Iraq, insurgents attacked police stations, Iraqi security forces, U.S. military convoys and oil installations across a wide area of the Sunni heartland. In a speech found Monday on the Internet, a speaker said to be Abu Musab al-Zarqawi, the country's most feared terror leader, called on his followers to "shower" the Americans "with rockets and mortars" because U.S. forces were spread too thin as they seek to "finish off Islam in Fallujah."

The worst reported fighting Monday took place about 35 miles northeast of Baghdad after assaults, at almost the same time, on police stations in Baqouba and its twin city, Buhriz. Gunmen abducted police Col. Qassim Mohammed, took him to the Buhriz police station and threatened to kill him if police didn't surrender the station. When police refused, the gunmen tied the colonel's hands behind his back and shot him dead. U.S. and Iraqi troops rushed to the scene, setting off a gunbattle that killed 26 insurgents and five other Iraqi police, Iraqi officials said. At the same time, insurgents attacked a police station in Baqouba and seized another building. U.S. aircraft dropped two 500-pound bombs before the end of the fighting, in which four American soldiers were wounded, the U.S. command said. During the fighting, U.S. troops came under fire from a mosque, the U.S. military said. Iraqi security stormed the mosque and found rocket-propelled grenades, mortar rounds and other weapons and ammunition, the statement said.
Continued on Page 49
Posted by: Dan Darling || 11/16/2004 4:04:51 AM || Comments || Link || [1 views] Top|| File under:

#1  "Next Up To The Plate: Mosul. On Deck Circle: Ramadi"
Posted by: Frank G || 11/16/2004 10:04 Comments || Top||


1,000 hard boyz captured in Fallujah
More than 1,000 insurgents have been captured in the weeklong offensive in Falluja, and U.S. and Iraqi government forces have now secured 100 percent of the rebellious Iraqi city, a Marine officer said on Monday. Col. Michael Regner, operations officer for the 1st Marine Expeditionary Force at Falluja, said at least 1,052 insurgents had been taken prisoner in the city. No more than about two dozen of them are from outside Iraq, Regner told reporters at the Pentagon by telephone from Falluja. The U.S. military previously estimated about 500 insurgents had been taken prisoner in Falluja, a city of about 300,000 located 30 miles (50 km) west of the capital Baghdad. Regner also said that "somewhere over 1,000" insurgents had been killed in the offensive to take control of the city, but did not give a precise number.

U.S. commanders last week estimated there were 2,000-3,000 insurgents holed up in Falluja at the start of the offensive, which began Nov. 8. He added that 38 U.S. troops had been killed and 320 wounded in the operation, with 134 of the wounded returning to duty after being treated. Six Iraqi government troops also have been killed and 28 wounded, Regner added. Regner said U.S. forces and Iraqi security troops now "can go anywhere at any time throughout that city." "A hundred percent of the city is secure," Regner said, but added that Marines were still involved in fighting in portions of the city and were sweeping house-to-house to clear Falluja of remaining insurgents.

U.S. commanders have acknowledged that some of the senior leaders of the insurgency they had hoped to corner in Falluja had escaped before the offensive began, probably including al Qaeda ally Abu Musab al-Zarqawi. Regner said some may have sought refuge in Ramadi, 70 miles (110 km) west of Baghdad. Regner said the U.S. military had two battalions in Ramadi. He did not give the total number of U.S. troops there, but battalions can number up to about 1,000. "Do we control Ramadi? Yes, we control it. But, again, it is not at this time a clear city," free of insurgents, Regner said.
Posted by: Dan Darling || 11/16/2004 3:57:02 AM || Comments || Link || [2 views] Top|| File under:


U.S., Iraqi Troops Launch Mosul Offensive
EFL
BAGHDAD, Iraq - U.S. and Iraqi troops pushed into insurgent-heavy neighborhoods and stormed police stations in Mosul on Tuesday, launching an offensive to retake parts of this northern Iraqi city where militants staged a mass uprising last week in support of insurgents in Fallujah.
I think the important word here is "staged." Some advice for the insurgents terrorists: Gather the body bags.
Mosul's five bridges were closed to start the operation and American forces began securing police stations in the western part of Iraq's third-largest city, said Capt. Angela Bowman, with Task Force Olympia. "We are in the process of securing all of police stations and returning the police to these stations to put in place a strong police presence," she said. "Some of those stations are in neighborhoods on the western side of the city where there has been insurgent activity and presence. We are now moving through the neighborhood [like a hot knife through butter. Bagel anyone?]."
Posted by: Dragon Fly || 11/16/2004 8:18:15 AM || Comments || Link || [3 views] Top|| File under:

#1  Mosul is big; much bigger than Fallujah. It will be much more difficult to cordon off the city. Terrorists will escape Mosul much easier than they did Fallujah. The issue for them is, however, finding a new sanctuary.
Posted by: mhw || 11/16/2004 9:42 Comments || Top||

#2  one would think transporting arms and finding a new sanctuary among citizens who just saw the dismantlement of Fallujah will be challenging at best
Posted by: Frank G || 11/16/2004 9:56 Comments || Top||

#3  Interesting story on NPR (of all places!) this morning.

When we hand out food in Fallujah, people get tests for residue on their hands. Apparently one guy flunked, so the Marines, or whoever, followed him home where they found RPGs, AK-47s and 40 garage door openers. He was taken into custody. We didn't hear what happened to the place after the NPR reporter left; but, I'll bet that's the good part.

It's going to be hard moving all those supplies when you're up to your neck trying to save your ass. When we find a house like that, I suspect the safest thing to do is demolish it. That will have the added benefit of discouraging other owners from allowing their property to become terrorist depots. It's going to take a while longer than the MSM will like, but the noose will close around these thugs over the next several months as they find fewer and fewer ratholes until they decide the best strategy is to stop and wait till the Americans leave. This may be a good reason to increase troop levels in country now. Full court press time.
Posted by: Mrs. Davis || 11/16/2004 10:17 Comments || Top||

#4  Fallujah was Gettysburg, with an unworthy opponent and a predictable outcome. The rest is mop up.
Posted by: 2b || 11/16/2004 10:17 Comments || Top||

#5  Wasn't that nice of NPR to give a heads up to the terrorists to be sure and wash their hands before they eat.

When will the terrorists realize that the best possible TV coverage they could get would be to attack the BBC or NPR?
Posted by: 2b || 11/16/2004 10:19 Comments || Top||

#6  We need to drop leaflets over ALL Iraqi cities:
"Citizens of Iraq, if think you live in a shithole NOW...just imagine what it will look like after we come in and root out the terrorists!"
Posted by: Justrand || 11/16/2004 10:49 Comments || Top||

#7  brilliant j-troll. I only wish people like you could be the ones to suffer the rape rooms and terror - since you don't seem to have a problem with it.

As I watched those Nazi films in high school, I used to wonder how the good people of Germany could just watch and do nothing as the Nazis rounded up the Jews and killed SIX MILLION innocent women and children - their neighbors - right before their eyes.

Thanks for helping me to understand.
Posted by: 2b || 11/16/2004 10:55 Comments || Top||

#8  Perhaps I shold have been clearer with my leaflet...the INTENT would be to get the average Iraqi to realize letting these morons infect their cities is inviting disaster! When the Iraqis realize their lot in life improves in direct proportion to the distance they put between themselves and Zarkawi, et al, they will tell them to take a hike!

Sorry about the confusion
Posted by: Justrand || 11/16/2004 11:36 Comments || Top||

#9  You're OK Justrand, I got it first go. 2b might still be a bit annoyed at NPR and be suffering overflow ;)
Posted by: Anon1 || 11/16/2004 11:54 Comments || Top||

#10  ok...here's my kinder-gentler leaflet suggestion:

"Don't let Fallujah happen to YOU! Show the thugs the door...or WE WILL!"

I agree it reads better without "shithole" in it! :)
Posted by: Justrand || 11/16/2004 12:05 Comments || Top||

#11  justrand - I like it !
Posted by: 2b || 11/16/2004 12:45 Comments || Top||

#12  Ok, it's a wrap for the leaflet. Print it out in Arabic on one side, and put the other side in all capital letters. Print a million of 'em.
Posted by: Alaska Paul || 11/16/2004 23:18 Comments || Top||


Fallujahns Emerge - Many Happy To See Troops
Survivors emerge on to shattered streets of Fallujah
OVER the rubble-strewn streets of Fallujah the voice from the loudspeaker on the minaret is no longer a call to jihad, destruction or death. As the fighting tapers off to isolated pockets in the southern fringes of the city, the broadcast is an offer of help by the Iraqi Army to the traumatised people of this former rebel bastion.

Few are heeding the call. Only a tiny number of people have ventured out of their houses since the massive air, artillery and ground assault was launched by the American military to wrest the city from insurgents a week ago. Without electricity, television or radio, some may not even know that the assault is almost over. Yesterday, however, a handful of dazed people did stumble out of their homes, where they have been running low on food and water, to see what the new order would bring. After seven months in guerrilla hands, the United States took back the city on the Euphrates in just seven days — but at a cost. Scores of houses have been bombed flat, the roads are churned up by tank tracks and most buildings show some evidence of the raging battle — bullet holes, smashed windows, walls ploughed down by armoured vehicles. Several mosques used by insurgents as bases or weapons stashes have been reduced to rubble.
The cockels of my heart are all warm and toasty...
Other areas have emerged relatively unscathed, although these, too, appear to be devoid of inhabitants. As stories of terrorist atrocities emerge, it is becoming clear that the people of Fallujah have long become accustomed to keeping their heads down. Never a particularly presentable city, it is sometimes hard to tell what has been damaged by war and what has simply fallen down. Yet it was always a bustling place, with a busy market, and a traffic hub, its main street forever choked with cars and lorries heading in from Jordan. Now the only traffic is the huge olive and khaki monsters of the US Marines and US Army, with the occasional white pick-up used by the Iraqi Army. The Iraqi soldiers are trying to lure out the residents to allow their medical staff to treat the sick and wounded.
Continued on Page 49
Posted by: .com || 11/16/2004 3:17:03 AM || Comments || Link || [0 views] Top|| File under:

#1  Whether a mistake at the time or not, the delay in Fallujah seems to have done a pretty good job inoculating some of the local population, as the extended Sadr nonsense did in the south.
Posted by: someone || 11/16/2004 3:31 Comments || Top||

#2  "it is sometimes hard to tell what has been damaged by war and what has simply fallen down. "

Ah yes, the hallmark, the epitome, of Arab civilization.
Posted by: OldSpook || 11/16/2004 3:52 Comments || Top||

#3  'OVER the rubble-strewn streets of Fallujah the voice from the loudspeaker on the minaret is no longer a call to jihad, destruction or death. '

Because its been leveled ?


Posted by: MacNails || 11/16/2004 5:12 Comments || Top||

#4  Humanity is Forgotten, Dogs Eat the Corpses
Posted by: Alpo || 11/16/2004 7:41 Comments || Top||

#5  Personally I like dogs. Don't really give a rats ass about dead terrorists though.
Posted by: AzCat || 11/16/2004 8:20 Comments || Top||

#6  Whether a mistake at the time or not, the delay in Fallujah seems to have done a pretty good job inoculating some of the local population,..

The sobering reality is that this was bought with American lives. I'm still not convinced of the wisdom of this let-them-stew-under-Wahhabi-rule approach, but if Fallujans can take the opportunity they've now been given, run with it, and KEEP it, then maybe some of those Marines' lives weren't lost in vain.
Posted by: Bomb-a-rama || 11/16/2004 10:53 Comments || Top||

#7  those poor dogs -they are even more mistreated than the Muslim women - who have a status far below our four legged friends.

I'm glad those poor mistreated muts are getting a good meal. Enjoy, poochies.
Posted by: 2b || 11/16/2004 11:02 Comments || Top||

#8  "it is sometimes hard to tell what has been damaged by war and what has simply fallen down. "

Ah yes, the hallmark, the epitome, of Arab civilization.
Posted by: OldSpook || 11/16/2004 3:52 Comments || Top||

#9  "it is sometimes hard to tell what has been damaged by war and what has simply fallen down. "

Ah yes, the hallmark, the epitome, of Arab civilization.
Posted by: OldSpook || 11/16/2004 3:52 Comments || Top||



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Two weeks of WOT
Tue 2004-11-16
  U.S., Iraqi Troops Launch Mosul Offensive
Mon 2004-11-15
  Colin Powell To Resign
Sun 2004-11-14
  Hit attempt on Mahmoud Abbas thwarted
Sat 2004-11-13
  Fallujah occupied
Fri 2004-11-12
  Zarqawi sez victory in Fallujah is on the horizon
Thu 2004-11-11
  Yasser officially in the box
Wed 2004-11-10
  70% of Fallujah under US control
Tue 2004-11-09
  Paleos: "He's dead, Jim!"
Mon 2004-11-08
  U.S. moves into Fallujah
Sun 2004-11-07
  Dutch MPs taken to safe houses
Sat 2004-11-06
  Learned Elders of Islam call for jihad
Fri 2004-11-05
  Paleos won't admit Yasser's dead
Thu 2004-11-04
  Yasser Croaks!
Wed 2004-11-03
  Bush Takes It
Tue 2004-11-02
  America Votes


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