Hamid Karzai, the Afghan president, has had his bodyguard of US Special Forces troops withdrawn and replaced by guards from an American "private military corporation". Hired guns.
DynCorp Inc, a private contractor based in Virginia, is now being used by the diplomatic security service to provide personnel to protect perhaps the most vulnerable head of state after Saddam Hussein of Iraq.
The move by Washington, which had detailed elite soldiers to replace a motley band of local bodyguards amid constant death threats, comes despite the extreme risk Mr Karzai faces. He remains a prime target for al-Qa'eda, remnants of the former Taliban regime and warlords who continue to fight for power in what remains a fragile and cut-throat country. He survived an assassination attempt in Kandahar in September when his Special Forces bodyguards shot the men trying to kill him. Replaced the soldiers with professional bodyguards. Different skill sets required, most likely a good idea.
Posted by: Steve ||
11/25/2002 02:42 pm ||
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The private military contractors are a prime place for former soldiers to go to cash in on their skills. There are certain oversight issues, however...
#2
I am sure a few of the Special Forces will be sprinkled into the mix. When they shoot a few Pashtuns trying to get funky on Karzai, now they don't have to blame the US.
Hopefully we give them a special phone # in case they are surrounded a la Abdul Haq.
The Aga Khan Fund for Economic Development (AKFED) has announced a substantial investment to initiate tourism, commercial and urban redevelopment in Afghanistan. The fund will establish a world-class hotel in the centre of Kabul, Prince Amyn Aga Khan, the younger brother of His Highness the Aga Khan, has said.
Following meetings with President Hamid Karzai and senior government ministers, including Foreign Minister Abdallah Abdallah and Minister of Justice Abdul Rahim Karimi, Prince Amyn made an extensive tour of the premises of the former Hotel Kabul, accompanied by the Minister of Civil Aviation and Tourism, Mr Mirwais Sidiq, and the Mayor of Kabul, Mr Mohamed Anwar Jekdelik, according to a All Africa Global Media report.
"The Government of Afghanistan has invited us to address urgent development priorities in the nation's tourism industry by creating facilities of an international stature that will have an immediate, positive impact on the local Economy as well as on the urban and cultural landscape of Kabul," said Prince Amyn, Director of the Aga Khan Fund for Economic Development (Akfed) and Chairman of its Executive Committee.
"This project for an investment in Afghanistan's hospitality sector," he said, "will also allow us to contribute through the training of skilled manpower, the reinvigoration of artisanal and craft industries, and through an upgrading of the urban fabric in a sensitive manner. Clearly, the revival of tourism will be of major importance to this project for its long term future success".
The Kabul Serena Hotel (as the revitalised property will be called) is a Soviet era hotel built some 50 years ago amid handsome gardens. It dominates a busy junction in the city's commercial centre and overlooks Zanegar Park, an open public space whose rehabilitation the AKDN is expected to manage. In the past, the hotel has served as a refuge for the famous carved wooden effigies moved from Nuristan and other master-pieces that were moved in 1996 from the Kabul Museum. The Ismailis are one of the Muslim groups — probably the preeminent Muslim group — that hold out hope for Islam as a religion. Somehow their charitable activities don't end up financing guys with turbans and bombs. That means that about the time the hotel is rehabbed, it'll be rocketed by some wahhabis.
Posted by: Fred Pruitt ||
11/25/2002 06:21 pm ||
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You'd would never suspect that they were once feared far and wide as the Assassins. People can change.
#4
Sure, people can change. The Vikings now think Jimmuh Catah is ballsy and they give him prizes to "kick Bush in the shin".
A while back, if a Viking didn't like somebody, they'd have cut his head off with an iron broadsword.
#6
One of our best hopes in securing our homeland is to take this kind of initiative seriously and support it. Best way to keep them from stupidity is to give them smarts, opportunity and trust. The best way forward is a democracy or the closest they can get to it with a capitalist motive and incentive. A recent Science magazine special section on the antiquities and archaeology of Afghanistan was very revealing. There is potential and there is opportunity - who will take up the entrepreneurial mantle and make it happen.
Posted by: Jack ||
11/26/2002 9:18 Comments ||
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A sixth British man has been arrested in Saudi Arabia in connection with a series of bomb attacks against westerners.
Businessman Glen Panard is the latest to be held in prison by the Saudi authorities, who blame the violence on an illegal alcohol racket. "Bootleggers done it!"
But supporters of the Britons claim they are innocent and have been framed. And a BBC investigation has learnt that some of those arrested have been tortured. Saudi police have arrested eight westerners and six have confessed on Saudi television to planting bombs. "I did it, will you stop hitting me now?"
A Briton and a Canadian have been sentenced to death, which usually takes the form of a public beheading. Ron Jones, a Scottish accountant arrested after being injured in a blast in March 2001, says he was tortured before being released. And scientists in London and Copenhagen using ultrasound technology have proved that Mr Jones was repeatedly beaten on the palms and soles of his feet, raising fears about the welfare of the other detainees. Mr Jones also claims he was hung from a bracket for so long he screamed in agony. Beating the soles of the feet is a very old and respected form of torture. It's very painful and unlikely to cause unexpected deaths.
Saudi Foreign Minister Prince Saud al-Faisal said: "I don't care what the so-called experts say, they are wrong." "Because, I'm a prince. So there!"
Some believe the bombers are Islamic extremists loyal to Osama Bin Laden. But for the Saudi authorities to concede that would be to admit they are losing their absolute grip on power. Losing face is the worst thing for these guys.
Posted by: Steve ||
11/25/2002 01:52 pm ||
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'Course, once they do lose their grip on power, they'll be probably hanging in the same cell, getting the old-fashioned foot massage...
The first team of U.N. inspectors arrived in Baghdad at around 1355 GMT Monday. The chartered cargo plane landed at Saddam International Airport carrying a group of 18 international arms monitors and their cargo of high-tech sensors, computers and other gear. They had assembled earlier at a U.N. rear base on the Mediterranean island of Cyprus. According to AP, the team comprised six nuclear experts from the International Atomic Energy Agency in Vienna and 12 inspectors from the New York-based U.N. commission charged with searching for other weapons of mass destruction. "Okay. We're here. What now?"
Posted by: Fred Pruitt ||
11/25/2002 01:04 pm ||
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The American general who would run a war against Iraq is assembling hundreds of battle planners in the Persian Gulf nation of Qatar for a war game that will test their ability to command and coordinate land, sea and air forces throughout the region. Although planning for the exercise, code-named Internal Look, began long before the U.N. Security Council gave Iraq a Dec. 8 deadline to account for any weapons of mass destruction, timing of the operation fits in neatly. It will begin a few days before or after the U.N. deadline, officials said yesterday. Handy, don't you think?
Movement of the command post to Qatar, where the U.S. Air Force has a major presence at al-Udeid air base, has raised speculation that Franks will remain there to prepare for war against Iraq. In a recent interview, Franks cautioned against reading too much into the timing. "This just happens to be a very good time, a very good place and a very good way" to do the exercise, he said. Smirk
Each military service that contributes combat forces to Central Command has its own headquarters, and they need sophisticated communications links to ensure that they coordinate air, land and sea-based operations.
The Army component, for example, is based at Fort McPherson, Ga., but it has three forward headquarters sites in the Persian Gulf - in Saudi Arabia, Kuwait and Qatar.
The Navy component is headquartered in Bahrain, off the coast of Saudi Arabia, because the Navy's 5th Fleet headquarters is there.
Central Command also has a Marine Corps component that is normally based at Camp Smith, Hawaii, but is now in Bahrain. Among those who will participate in Internal Look, in addition to the 600 Central Command planners, are members of the headquarters staff of the 1st Marine Expeditionary Force, which began shipping out for Kuwait yesterday from Camp Pendleton, Calif.
The Special Operations Command component, based at Central Command headquarters in Florida, is operating from Camp Snoopy in Qatar.
Internal Look has been held periodically, most recently in November 2000. The 1990 version took on particular importance because it was held just a few days before Iraq's invasion of Kuwait on Aug. 2. Nothing to see here. Just a exercise. Move along.
Posted by: Steve ||
11/25/2002 01:07 pm ||
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The United States has made a formal request to launch 'offensive actions' from the British-owned island of Diego Garcia in the Indian Ocean as America continues its build-up for the campaign against Saddam Hussein. Ministry of Defence officials confirmed that the request was being considered positively. "Hey, Tony. I want to bomb Iraq. OK, George, no problem."
The base is a crucial staging post for the B-2 stealth bombers, which are being moved from their home at Whiteman Air Force Base in Missouri. They can be refuelled on Diego Garcia before travelling on to Iraq to undertake bombing missions. They are putting up temporary hangers to do maintenance on B-2s.
A number of the bombers will also be based at RAF Fairford in Gloucestershire, another essential staging post on the route to Iraq. Cuts the distance to the target by half, allows you to generate more sorties.
Posted by: Steve ||
11/25/2002 02:53 pm ||
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"Shuttle bombing", old news. England to DG, DG to england, bomb runs on both legs.
#2
But will Jacques the Frog let them vector over Frogland? B2 no problem, since even the Froggies can't see them but not the buffers. So I suggest that we do some practice bomb/nav for Presidential Palaces by taking out Versaille if they roadblock us.
Posted by: Jack ||
11/26/2002 9:25 Comments ||
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Israeli special forces have been operating inside the area of Iraq's western desert on reconnaissance and training missions, according to the Time magazine's website. Heard this one before.
According to the report, U.S. and Israeli officials said that the Israeli forces are surveying some 50,000 square kilometers of territory for sites where Iraq might have hidden missiles and launchers it kept after the last Gulf War. They have a special interest in finding them, since they are aimed at their families.
"You sniff around in the western desert and try to get an idea about those hardened concrete bunkers that Saddam has created to put his Scuds in," the report quotes one U.S. official as saying. Additionally, the magazine cited sources as saying that if a war gets underway with Iraq, Israel will request that the U.S. allow it to contribute a few three-man teams to help in the search for missiles in the area. Only fair, it is their neighborhood.
Posted by: Steve ||
11/25/2002 03:05 pm ||
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This is from Al Bawaba news website. You know their guys are sitting next to the Suez canal with a cell phone and binoculars.
A United States-chartered ship carrying heavy weaponry including tanks passed through the Suez canal on Sunday heading for the Gulf, as the US continued its military buildup for a strike on Iraq, according to canal authorities. The Scan Arctic, registered in the Isle of Man, was also transporting aircraft jet engines and lithium batteries, considered to be "radioactive substances", the sources said, cited by AFP. You have to provide a invoice when you pass thru.
The equipment, from the American military base at Wiesbaden in Germany, was destined for another US base, Camp Doha, Kuwait.
Posted by: Steve ||
11/25/2002 03:20 pm ||
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Can't you just see it now? Terrs hijacking truckloads of "radioactive" lithium batteries.
Media reports indicated that the elder son of Iraqi President, Uday complained of having his e-mail blocked by Yahoo!, the world's leading e-mail provider. The account was apparently being blocked for American security reasons.
Yahoo! told Gulf News it is cooperating with law enforcement agencies without specifically addressing the reported deactivation of the Yahoo! e-mail account of Uday.
Mary Osako, Yahoo! spokes-person, said: "Consistent with our privacy policy, we cannot discuss specific mail accounts with the general public. However, I can tell you that Yahoo! is aware of the U.S. trade law."
She also neither confirmed nor denied the existence or deactivation of Uday's account. A trial e-mail sent by Gulf News to the email address of Uday returned undelivered as the address could not be reached for "possible forgery or deactivated due to abuse."
This followed an earlier report in London-based Sharq Al Awsat that the U.S. Treasury Department had complained against Yahoo! and Microsoft for providing Uday with an email address. If this is true, then someone at Treasury should be fired. They should have just monitored the e-mail account.
The Department had allegedly asked Yahoo! to drop the address because "he is a murderer, a mugger, torturing people and sending threatening emails through his Yahoo address." But at least he doesn't spam my yahoo account. Now that his Yahoo account is cancelled, that means he has to use Hotmail. Now that's mean.
Posted by: Steve ||
11/25/2002 03:28 pm ||
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Iran's hardline Basij militia have seized 10,000 litres of alcohol and 1,836 pornographic Video CDs in four separate raids in the capital, a press report said Monday. The militia, currently celebrating national Basij week, also arrested a number of people and confiscated equipment to manufacture alcoholic beverages as well as a computer, the conservative Javan newspaper said. Punishments for possession of alcohol or pornography in Iran include large fines, spells in jail and flogging. "A loaf of bread, a jug of wine, and thou" will get you 80 lashes on the bare doup, and 5 to 7 in jug. Persia used to be such a civilized country...
The Basij are busybodies and bully boys a volunteer militia with branches in all of Iran's main cities. It is linked to the armed forces and like them is controlled by Supreme leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei.
Posted by: Fred Pruitt ||
11/25/2002 06:31 pm ||
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That's Basenji, Chuck, but close enough!
Actually, Basenji are barkless and these guys have been baying at the moon for quite some time....maybe they are different?
Posted by: Scott ||
11/26/2002 8:32 Comments ||
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A gunman opened fire Monday on a car carrying Turkmenistan President Saparmurad Niyazov, injuring one of his bodyguards. The attack took place in the morning in Turkmenistan's capital Ashgabat. The attacker fired from a truck on the president's with a machine gun. The president was not injured. Damn.
One of Niyazov's bodyguards was seriously wounded and taken to a hospital. Niyazov later called an emergency Cabinet meeting to discuss the apparent assassination attempt. At that meeting, the president said two ex-government ministers — a former foreign minister and a former agriculture minister — had organized the attack. Both men are now part of the opposition, ITAR-Tass said. Shooting his car up is a pretty good indication they oppose him...
Niyazov, who is known as Turkmenbashi — "Father of All Turkmen" — rules his impoverished but energy-rich Central Asian nation with an iron hand and is widely regarded as a nut has created an elaborate cult of personality, naming cities, mosques, and airports after himself.
Posted by: Fred Pruitt ||
11/25/2002 12:59 pm ||
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In the USSR, even the Chechens looked down on the Turkmen...said they were too backward.
Nepalese authorities have said that around 50 Maoist rebels are now known to have died in clashes with security forces in the western district of Lamjung at the end of last week. The clashes began on Friday and continued on Saturday following a military offensive in the district's remote hill village of Bichaur where hundreds of rebels had assembled. Big mistake, putting that many of your forces in one spot.
One soldier was injured and important documents were recovered, a government spokesman said. Government troops attack hundreds of rebels, killed 50, and only had one guy wounded? That would indicate you are either: 1-very good, 2-lying, or 3-hit the village with a airstrike.
However, there has been no comment from the rebels, who in the past have accused the authorities of exaggerating losses, and independent confirmation of claims is often difficult to obtain. It's too remote and, sadly, no one outside cares.
In a separate development, Maoist rebels freed 16 policemen abducted during a raid on the administrative headquarters of the north-western district, Jumla, 10 days ago. About 150 people, including security personnel, rebels and civilians died in the raid. The rebels have been waging an armed struggle for the past seven years. The authorities say 7,000 people have died since then - 5,000 in the past year alone. It's been a very bad year.
Posted by: Steve ||
11/25/2002 02:20 pm ||
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The organizers of the Miss World beauty pageant said Monday they were not to blame for the Muslim-Christian bloodletting in Nigeria touched off by a debate over the morality of the contest. Unless the babes were running through the streets torching people, most of us with our wits still about us would say the fault lay with the Muslim lunatics who started it...
Miss World President Julia Morley said the contest had been used as a "political football" and blamed the violence on a Nigerian newspaper article suggesting Islam's founding prophet would have approved of the pageant. I'd blame it on the turban and automatic weapons crowd, myself.
The article deeply offended Muslims who make a point of toting a chip on their collective shoulder had objected to the contest as promoting promiscuity. "Ohmigawd! It's a beauty pageant! I gotta go get laid!"
Some nitwits commentators said the pageant could not detach itself from the violence and called for the event to be canceled. "It is completely despicable that we have agreed to host this travesty," the writer Muriel Gray was quoted as saying by Al-Guardian newspaper Monday. "Yasss... We are all responsible, aren't we?"
Posted by: Fred Pruitt ||
11/25/2002 12:59 pm ||
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Just wondering, does anyone know if there was a Miss Afghanistan, or Pakistan, or anyStan, or Soddy, or Libya, etc.? Are they exempt from wearing bikinis and heels?
Posted by: Jack ||
11/26/2002 9:30 Comments ||
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Two months ago there was a "false" Miss Pakistan who was disqualified from a Japanese beauty contest for denigrating Islam and bringing "shame to Pakistan".
Posted by: Arthur Fleischman ||
11/26/2002 12:24 Comments ||
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Pakistani security officials are questioning a number of Arab and Afghan nationals in connection with the passing on of an audio tape of Osama Bin Laden to the Islamabad-based correspondent of Arab television network al-Jazeera earlier this month. The correspondent, Ahmad Zahdan, says he was given the tape on 12 November by an unidentified person who had immediately disappeared. "I turned around, and he was gone!"
Pakistan's foreign ministry has refused to confirm or deny the arrests. That means yes.
Newspaper reports have quoted unnamed security officials as saying that 14 Arab and Afghan nationals have been taken into custody from Islamabad and two other cities for questioning.
Reports say that the suspects are being interrogated by Pakistani intelligence service and American FBI officials over their possible involvement in delivering Osama Bin Laden's tape to the al-Jazeera television network. "Agent Smith, would you please pass the truncheon? Here you are, Agent Ahmad. Nice to be working with you again."
In the last year, Pakistani security forces assisted by the FBI have arrested a large number of al-Qaeda suspects including two key aides of Osama Bin Laden. Last week, a team of Afghanistan-based American troops had a meeting with the Pakistani authorities about stepping up surveillance in the border region to prevent al-Qaeda and Taleban fighters from carrying out any cross-border activities. Now that we have that "election" thing out of the way, we can get back to work.
Posted by: Steve ||
11/25/2002 02:09 pm ||
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The Lashkar-e-Tayyeba (LeT) carried out Sunday evening's terrorist attacks as part of a "deliberate design" to create a communal divide in Jammu and Kashmir, Deputy Prime Minister L.K. Advani told the Lok Sabha on Monday. In the state assembly in Jammu, the National Conference (NC) accused Mufti Mohammad Sayeed's PDP-Congress government of insincerity in fighting terror. The treasury benches responded saying they had inherited militancy from the NC regime. It was revealed on Monday morning that the "terrorist" police killed at the Rupiyowala shrine in the wee hours had actually been an area by-stander caught in the crossfire. What the hell? We've got Dogpatch with turbans next door, guess it's understandable to have Fearless Fosdick as the local coppers.
Posted by: Fred Pruitt ||
11/25/2002 06:46 pm ||
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Jordanâs Arab Bank was a target for violence on Saturday when unidentified attackers threw a hand grenade at the roof of one of the institutionâs Amman branches. The assault caused minor damage with no casualties reported. The explosion pierced a hole in a back wall of the one-story, white-stone building located in an upscale district of the city. Initially, it was believed an old gas cylinder in the bank's cafeteria exploded, however police later on said they were exploring whether a bomb could have been the cause of the blast. Guess it was, huh?
Jordanian banks have been attacked in the past by Islamic militants. Earlier this month, the nationâs armed forces rounded up individuals who were accused of carrying out the assaults during a raid on a terrorist stronghold in the city of Maan. The Arab Bank is the Kingdomâs largest financial institution and one of the leading banks in the region. It was established in 1930 and operates a branch network throughout the Middle East, Europe and Asia. But it's not an Islamic bank, so the thing to do is blow it up...
Posted by: Fred Pruitt ||
11/25/2002 01:07 pm ||
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On the other hand, Jordan certainly knows how to deal with Islamist terrorists. They import their truncheons especially for the task.
Police seriously wounded a customs official Friday in a shootout at al-Fujairah airport, the official Emirates News Agency WAM reported. I must of missed this story.
A security official told AP the customs officer Mohammed Abdullah al-Abdouli, in his twenties, entered a restricted area of the airport and was challenged by police. He opened fire and police responded, wounding him in the neck, WAM said. First a Kuwaiti traffic cop, now a UAE customs officer?
According to the London-based Asharq al Awsat newspaper, al-Abdouli entered the area and tried to fire on an American military helicopter that landed in the airport. That's very Islamic of him.
The airport, in the emirate of al-Fujairah on the Arabian Sea, is used by both civilian and military planes. Al-Abdouli was arrested and taken for treatment, the agency said. He will be interrogated after he has recovered from his wound, the agency said. And then he can recover from his interrogation.
Posted by: Steve ||
11/25/2002 03:12 pm ||
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NICOSIA, Cyprus- The last of a dozen Palestinians exiled to Cyprus in May to end a monthlong siege of Bethlehem's Church of the Nativity was escorted Monday to Mauritania after months of searching for a willing host.
Abdullah Daoud, 41, was sent to Mauritania because it was the only Arabic-speaking country willing to take him, said his wife, Kifah, speaking from her home in the Balata refugee camp near the West Bank city of Nablus. She said she had spoken with her husband by telephone before he left for the Muslim West African nation. "I asked him, 'Why Mauritania?'" she told The Associated Press. "He said, 'I prefer to be in an Arabic country and this is the only option.'" "No one wants me, at least, no one who who won't shoot me on site."
Cypriot Foreign Minister Yiannakis Cassoulides said earlier Monday that Daoud was sent to "a distant non-European country" where he would be joined by his family.
Daoud was exiled to Cyprus in May with 12 other Palestinians under a deal worked out with the European Union. The plan was meant to be a temporary arrangement to end the siege at one of Christianity's holiest shrines - the church built on the site where Christians believe Jesus was born.
Israeli authorities consider Daoud to be the "most dangerous terrorist," a description that apparently hampered efforts to secure him asylum in any of the European countries that received the other Palestinians. They went to Ireland, Belgium, Portugal, Spain, Greece and Italy after only brief stays on the Mediterranean island. I'm sure we'll hear from them again.
Daoud was the Palestinian Authority's intelligence chief in Bethlehem when Israeli forces entered the West Bank earlier this year. Israel accuses him of organizing attacks on Israelis, making explosives, smuggling weapons and providing shelter to members of terrorist groups. Part of the job description.
But in an interview with The Associated Press last month, Daoud denounced all terror attacks that result in the killing of civilians.
He said he was so outraged by the Oct. 12 terror attack in the Indonesian tourist resort of Bali that killed nearly 200 people that "I decided to appeal to Arabs and Muslims everywhere to denounce the murder of so many innocent people."
Asked about the suicide attacks by fellow Palestinians against Israeli civilians, Daoud said, "I am against operations that result in the killing of innocent people, and that includes the Sept. 11 attack against the Trade Center tower in New York." And we should believe you?
Posted by: Steve ||
11/25/2002 03:49 pm ||
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This should be the last of this a-hole...a work accident or such oughtta do the trick, once he's out of the limelight
Posted by: Frank G ||
11/25/2002 17:01 Comments ||
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In Mauretania it could be the food...
Posted by: Fred ||
11/25/2002 17:46 Comments ||
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In Mauritania, he could BE the food.
Seriously, when was the last time Mauritania was mentioned in the news?
An Islamic militant killed by Algerian security forces in a raid more than two months ago has been identified as a man Washington considers to be a top al-Qaida operative in Africa. Emad Abdelwahid Ahmed Alwan, sometimes known as Abu Mohammed, was shot and killed in a Sept. 12 raid in the eastern Batna region, about 270 miles east of Algiers. Ahmed Alwan, a 37-year-old native of Yemen, was identified after a two-month investigation by government experts. He was a leader of the al-Qaida network for northern and western Africa. A lot of the big shots seem to be Yemenis, almost as many as are Soddies. The Paks, filling the cheap muscle ranks, don't seem to mind. It's nice that they defer to the Master Race like that...
In Washington, a U.S. official said Ahmed Alwan was among the top al-Qaida operatives in North Africa and that U.S. authorities would consider his death a positive development. Actually, when any of them start decomposing, it's a positive development...
Ahmed Alwan had played a central role in setting up an organization in Yemen of Arab militants who had fought against the Soviet invasion of Afghanistan in the 1980s. He had been active in northern Africa since June 2001, and traveled extensively throughout the region, visiting Algeria, Chad, Niger, Nigeria, Mauritania and Mali. Spreading joy and contentment and enlightenment everywhere he went...
Ahmed Alwan acted as an adviser for militant groups in the region and a liaison with operatives in Yemen. He was especially active in Algeria, where Islamic insurgents have fought with the government for 10 years. Ahmed Alwan worked with the 4-year-old Salafist Group for Call and Combat, a militant group suspected of links to bin Laden, APS said. It's also probably the most vicious terror group in the world.
Posted by: Fred Pruitt ||
11/25/2002 12:59 pm ||
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Yemen is the part of Saudi Arabia that the House of Saud didn't want. And the Brits couldn't find any Hashimite prince that wanted it, either.
#3
Let's make it the Libertarian Paradise. We can bring in the liquor, the Jesuits, the MOSSAD and a small government that delegates power back to the ruling families. Stranger things have happened...
Posted by: Brian ||
11/25/2002 21:59 Comments ||
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The alleged mastermind of last month's Bali nightclub bombings was sped to Jakarta in an armored personnel carrier Monday for further questioning about the worst terrorist act in Indonesia's history. A convoy of jeeps and armored police cars brought Imam Samudra the 60 miles from the port of Merak, where he was captured last Thursday, to the Indonesian capital. "He will be questioned on bomb attacks in Jakarta and several other places," said Brig. Gen. Edward Aritonang, a police spokesman. "As soon as that is finished, we hope to move him to Bali." Guess they were serious about getting him there in one piece...
Posted by: Fred Pruitt ||
11/25/2002 12:59 pm ||
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Indonesian police are preparing to begin formal questioning of Imam Samudra, the alleged mastermind of the Bali bombing.
He has been moved to Jakarta, where he will face up to three to four days of interrogation over the Bali blast and other bomb attacks in Indonesia over the last two years, chief investigator General I Made Mangku Pastika said. Truncheons - Check.
Giggle juice - Check.
Cattle prod - Check. OK, we're ready.
Police say that Imam Samudra has already admitted to planning the Bali bombing and is said to have been giving police more details about the attacks, reportedly telling them that two teams were involved and one of the bombers was killed in the blast at Paddy's bar.
Three other men - Abdul Rauf, alias Syam; Yudi, alias Andri or Andri Oktavia; and a man identified only as Amin - who were arrested in west Java last week will also be questioned regarding these attacks, the agency said. Lots of alias here. Didn't do them much good.
Police have this week also arrested four other men with alleged links to Imam Samudra, although it is not clear whether any of them are implicated in the Bali bombing. Indonesia's state Antara news agency said three men - Ichwan, Armanto, and Pujata, were arrested in west Java on Sunday and are said to have hidden a bomb on Imam Samudra's behalf. Another man, identified as Agus, was also apprehended in west Java on Monday, General Pastika said. Cops have been busy picking up Samudra's friends. Giggle juice must be working.
Posted by: Steve ||
11/25/2002 01:39 pm ||
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"General I Made Mangku Pastika"
Is this a name or a sentance?
Posted by: Jack ||
11/26/2002 9:34 Comments ||
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Over the past year, officials have suspected that al-Qaida and other extremists have been reaching out to U.S. prisoners through reading material and personal contacts to try to form a base from which to gather information, funding and recruits. Though al-Qaida's efforts seem only loosely organized, one former top FBI official said prisoners are one of the three groups that most trouble the bureau as it monitors terrorists' efforts to recruit followers and inflame anti-American fervor.
The two other groups are those who have trained at al-Qaida camps in Afghanistan and those who have joined radical mosques here and abroad. Prisons are "a captive audience of people already willing to use violence," the official said. "It's fertile ground." Willing to use violence is a pre-requisite for Islamists.
There is no evidence that al-Qaida has yet succeeded in recruiting many prisoners in the United States or overseas. But authorities point to the case of Jose Padilla, a former Chicago gang member who is accused of plotting to set off a radioactive "dirty" bomb in the United States. Padilla had converted to Islam while in a Florida jail. In addition, Richard C. Reid, who pleaded guilty to trying to blow up a jetliner with a bomb in his shoe, converted to an extreme form of Islam while in prison in London. Pair of Rhodes scholars, those two.
Mahdi Bray, who runs the National Islamic Prison Foundation, a Washington-based outreach group, said the foundation receives thousands of books and pamphlets from Arabic nations to distribute to prisoners. Each year, it sends more than 20,000 Qurans and other books to those incarcerated.
But, he says, the group has also received extremist literature, sometimes from Pakistan and Saudi Arabia, filled with anti-American vitriol. "When we looked at some of them, we said, 'Hell no,' " Bray said. "I just won't distribute those." Extremist literature from Pakistan and Saudi? I'm shocked!
Posted by: Steve ||
11/25/2002 02:37 pm ||
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At least there's a chance for the US to recruit double agents to infiltrate Al Qaeda, just go to our own prisons...
A senior al Qaeda operative from Yemen is one of three "critical" suspects being hunted by authorities over the Bali bombing, reports Time magazine. It identified the Yemeni as Syafullah, whose activities included the 1996 bombing of a United States military barracks in Saudi Arabia that killed 19 servicemen. The Kobar Towers bombing. If they catch him, I want to tie him across the exhaust of a F-16 and hit the afterburner.
Time said one of the other two "top-tier" suspects was an Indonesian militant named Syawal, who was an instructor at an al Qaeda-linked training camp on the island of Sulawesi.
The other man police are hunting is a Malaysian, Zubair, who reportedly fought in Afghanistan in the late 1980s and is suspected of leading the surveillance and mapping team for the Bali attack on October 12. Another controller. He's on the run, most likely out of country by now.
If proved, Syafullah could be the first member of Osama bin Laden's al Qaeda organisation, which carried out last year's September 11 attacks on the US, to be directly linked to the Bali bombings. Although some Indonesian and many foreign Governments have blamed al Qaeda for the Bali attacks, authorities have yet to arrest or publicly name any al Qaeda member. They have names for these guys, which means someone is talking.
Posted by: Steve ||
11/25/2002 02:42 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.
