Turns out it wasn't a schlang after all, but a teat off a cow's udder. So, if you have horns and you moo and you're missing something important, contact VodkaPundit. If you can describe it, it's yours.
Posted by: Fred Pruitt ||
02/28/2002 ||
Comments ||
Link ||
[1 views]
Top|| File under:
Joanne Jacobs asks "Is there a better name than "warblog'' for anti-idiotarian commentary weblogs?" Kathy Kinsley suggests "polblog" as an alternative, dismissing "poliblog" as too cutesy. I reluctantly agree with her - it's easier to pronounce than "polblog," but I'd always be expecting the tail to drop off as it grows into a toad or a frog or whatever polliwogs grow into. Ultimately they kinda sorta settled on "freeblog," which I think is kind of an amorphous term - covering anything and everything.
Rantburg is a warblog. It started out the evening of 9-11 as I obsessively started collecting things to try and make some sense of what had happened. I put it on Blogger at the beginning of November because it had some neato features that I didn't have the time to write into my own software, only to end up taking it off because of its reliability problems. I occasionally veer off-topic, usually because something is so laughably stoopid it deserves to be noted, but my primary focus is and will remain terror networks and their mechanics. It's a big enough subject to take too many hours out of my day that should be devoted to work, talking to the Little Woman or doing whatever else people do when not sitting in front of a computer - I'm not sure what that is, it having been so long.
Little Greenfeetsballs, who finds all sorts of stuff before I do, and Bjoern Staerk's always excellent site are also hard-core warblogs. Sgt Stryker is kind of a milblog, rather than exclusively a warblog, a difference that's probably too subtle to matter. (I wouldn't kick him out of the warblog category for it and he's one of my essential reads.)
I don't denigrate the GP blogs. I wish I could write as well as most of them, I read a large number of 'em every day, and they're a helluva lot more interesting and content-rich than the "My name is Tiffany, this is a picture of my cat, Muffin. When I turn 16 I'm going to have my belly button pierced" variety. But Rantburg will remain a warblog.
Afghan troops and specialist local trackers are on the trail of attackers who fired rockets at the U.S. base in Kandahar last week but nobody has yet been caught. Mohammad Yusuf Pashtoon, spokesman for Kandahar Governor Gul Agha, said that the attackers had been traced to a village 6-7 miles southwest of the airport. "We are looking for the culprits. We have a system of tracing footprints with local experts -- they look for tracks on the ground," he said. "They traced the people to a nearby village, so we are now looking for those people. We still don't know exactly who those people are." Well, I'm just so surprised. Gul Agha's thugshenchmen men are usually so effective! Got good descriptions, too: "Between 5'2" and 6' tall, black hair, beards, wearing turbans." I mean, how many people are there in the area matching that description?
Posted by: Fred Pruitt ||
02/28/2002 ||
Comments ||
Link ||
[0 views]
Top|| File under:
A key warlord in northern Afghanistan accused a rival commander of moving troops and tanks into a district he controls, and warned that fighting could break out if they are not recalled. Six tanks and dozens of troops belonging to Gen. Rashid Dostum had entered Shulgara, southwest of Mazar-e-Sharif, ethnic Tajik leader Atta Mohammed said. Sigh. Guess that means Atta's not going to disarm any more of his troops. Whoa! Careful there! Don't step in the cynicism!
Posted by: Fred Pruitt ||
02/28/2002 ||
Comments ||
Link ||
[0 views]
Top|| File under:
A mortar shell slammed into a school at Sarobi, outside Kabul, killing one child and injuring about 30. Officials blamed the incident on Taliban and al-Qaida renegades. The area is controlled by Isatullah, who once fought with Gulbuddin Hekmatyar's Hezb-e-Islami, in the war against Soviets. Later, he fought with the Taliban but joined the northern alliance when they took control of Kabul in November. Given Commander Isatullah's affiliations, I'd say chances were 50/50 at best that the attack was by al-Qaeda or Taliban. Probably the best thing would be to shoot Isatullah and see if the attacks stop.
Posted by: Fred Pruitt ||
02/28/2002 ||
Comments ||
Link ||
[0 views]
Top|| File under:
Iraq said three civilians were wounded when Western warplanes struck targets inside the country's northern no-fly zone. They all worked in a Baby Milk factory. Four baby ducks, two kittens and a fuzzy puppy also suffered minor injuries.
Iraq's ground air defenses fired at the planes and forced them to return to their bases. Hand me a tissue, willya? I just squirted coffee out my nose.
Posted by: Fred Pruitt ||
02/28/2002 ||
Comments ||
Link ||
[0 views]
Top|| File under:
The reorganization of the ISI has not been announced officially, but sources say that as many as a quarter of its entire staff, estimated to comprise more than 10,000 people drawn mostly from the military, will be transferred or reassigned. In future, all ISI functions will be operated with an internal and an external wing at every level. Previously, the ISI's external and internal wings only coordinated at sector command (provincial) level. If true, this is significant. It means Musharraf recognizes both the danger from ISI and the damage it's already done to Pakland. I read a denial of the downsizing somewhere, but that'd be pretty much SOP.
Further, the ISI's Afghan desk has been closed down completely and the functions of the Kashmir cell have been reduced in that it will only report on political affairs in Indian-held Kashmir. That would seem to indicate that it's getting out of the covert operations business in the area - or that it's being subcontracted. If they're smart, they'll stick with the former. They've been ham-handed enough to blacken Pakland's reputation internationally without being competent enough to do more than keep the wars grinding on. For all their success in manipulating the Pashtun factions in Afghanistan and putting together the Taliban, in the end it was a screw-up because they lost control.
The internal wing has now been given supreme position among all other intelligence agencies in the country and it has been empowered to coordinate with Musharraf to run the political affairs of the country. Not a good move, but in keeping with the military/intel culture in the country. A much better move would have been to get the intel organization out of the political realm completely - concentrate on military, diplomatic, external political and economic intel. But ISI's a KGB-style (internal and external intel/ops) rather than a CIA (external only) organization. That being the case, the government's always going to be vulnerable to its putative "sword and shield." But maybe this is just a first move...
After September 11, the then director general of the ISI, Lieutenant-General (now retired) Mehmood, asked Musharraf to allow limited public demonstrations, which could then be used as a bargaining tool in negotiating the "price" of Pakistan giving its support to the US war on terror. Musharraf agreed half-heartedly and religious zealots soon whipped up popular support for the the Taliban and against US operations in Afghanistan. By the time the US started bombing Afghanistan, several demonstrators had been killed in Peshawar, Quetta and Karachi in clashes with the police. Strikes and protests were the order of the day and the law-and-order situation was rapidly spiraling out of control. According to the Indos, Mehmood was playing several double games at once. He was dispatched to talk the Taliban into dumping Binny and instead joined in the jihadi jollification session, whipping up the rubes to do their Islamic duty and resist the infidels. Then he talked Musharraf into trying the public riots deal, which bolstered the confidence of the Talibs while hurting Musharraf and made him look ineffectual. Bad boy. Khrushchev or Brezhnev would have shot him. Stalin would have had him killed slowly. Mao would have had him killed before he had the chance in the first place. Musharraf just retired him, indicating he didn't feel he had the support to effectively punish high treason.
Mehmood was sacked and the ISI handed over to Lieutenant-General Ehsan ul-Haq, a loyal friend of Musharraf and a moderate, and all interior operations were under the eye of Haider, who was given powers to curb the demonstrations. He took harsh steps by first detaining all top religious leaders and then by issuing strict warnings, and the situation was brought under control. Haider would seem to be the hero of that story, and he paid for it when his brother was assassinated in December, probably as a warning. He still seems to be backing Musharraf, however.
A meaningful ISI reorganization coupled with the organization being reined in and subordinated to the government instead of operating in parallel would be a victory for the war on terror almost as significant as the victory in Afghanistan. The objective has to be more than just rounding up the gunnies. That's not even the most important part. Without funding and coordination they become ineffective. ISI's been high on the list of the coordinators, and probably provided a considerable amount of the funding for terror operations, both in Afghanistan and on India's western and eastern borders.
Posted by: Fred Pruitt ||
02/28/2002 ||
Comments ||
Link ||
[0 views]
Top|| File under:
A Hindu crowd set fire to a block of Muslim homes, killing at least 38 people, including a dozen children, amid riots across Gujarat sparked by a Muslim attack on a train full of Hindu nationalists. The violence left at least 58 dead in the state. The army was called out to help restore order and stop looting of shops and hotels. Narendra Modi, the state's chief minister, said the army might also be deployed in some 26 other towns where a curfew was declared. Guess I missed the part where it sez it's okay to kill women and little kiddies as long as it's in the name of religion.
At least 50 buildings, most of them Muslim-owned, were torched in Ahmadabad, sending smoke billowing over the skyline. Hindu gangs went through neighborhoods, chanting, "Hail, Rama!" All the other gods must be so envious. Rama's rilly got some pious supporters there, bringing that much honor to his worship. Vishnu and Krishna must be taking the divine gaspipe.
The nationalist World Hindu Council called for a strike that was in effect Thursday in Gujarat to be expanded nationwide Friday to protest the train attack. Police said 63 people, including two municipal councilors in Godhra, had been arrested on murder charges in the train attack. Here's a great negotiating tip for the Paks: Every time the Indos holler about Lashkar-i-Taiba, the Paks can point to World Hindu Council and hold their noses.
The Hindu Council rejected Vajpayee's plea to help keep peace by dropping the plan to erect the Rama temple in defiance of court orders. Vajpayee has strongly supported the temple construction, but said the government opposes it being done by force. "We don't need no stinkin' domestic tranquility and a civil society. We want to have our way."
Posted by: Fred Pruitt ||
02/28/2002 ||
Comments ||
Link ||
[3 views]
Top|| File under:
Pakistan's top military spokesman said on Thursday that the pilot of the plane had mistakenly reported gunfire after his aircraft sensors alerted him to heat from a brick kiln. "No firing took place. That was an erroneous judgement by the pilot after his plane passed over a brick kiln," said Major-General Rashid Qureshi. Police said on Tuesday they had arrested eight people in connection with the incident in Jacobabad. That statement raises two fairly important questions:
Who the hell did you arrest? And why?
Was this the standard 2-barreled optically sighted 23-mm brick kiln, or was it the more sophisticated 4-barreled radar controlled self-propelled version?
Posted by: Fred Pruitt ||
02/28/2002 ||
Comments ||
Link ||
[0 views]
Top|| File under:
The pro-Taliban leader of a top radical Islamic party was freed from jail after four months. After his release on the order of a Lahore court, Qazi Hussain Ahmad spoke with supporters and charged that President Gen. Pervez Musharraf had given away Pakistan's military bases to the United States. Yeah. We moved them all to Nebraska. There's nothing there anymore.
Ahmad, leader of the influential Jamaat-e-Islami religious party, told followers he would keep working for the supremacy of Islam in Pakistan. "And to do that, friends, I need your help. I want you to open those wallets and dig deep. Dig deep to do the work of the Lord Allah."
Posted by: Fred Pruitt ||
02/28/2002 ||
Comments ||
Link ||
[0 views]
Top|| File under:
Gunnies at Balata, the biggest camp in the West Bank, said they had surrounded 14 Israeli commandos at a United Nations school and hinted darkly that they may not get out alive. "We will not accept any kind of negotiations. Getting in is one thing, getting out is another," one snuffy said.
The Israeli army confirmed troops were in the school but denied they were under siege. The al-Aqsa Martyrs Brigade threatened to attack the Jewish settlement of Gilo on the edge of Jerusalem unless Israeli forces withdrew from Balata. Thursday's raids on Balata and a second camp in Jenin followed an attack at an Israeli checkpoint in the West Bank late on Wednesday by a Palestinian woman suicide bomber who blew herself up, wounding three Israeli policemen. So what else is new? You say the word "peace" around these goobers and somebody explodes.
Posted by: Fred Pruitt ||
02/28/2002 ||
Comments ||
Link ||
[0 views]
Top|| File under:
Project Seven, a Montana militia group with an arsenal of weapons planned large-scale assassinations as the first step to an escalating confrontation they hoped would lead to a war with the federal government. "We found weapons, ammunition, survival equipment, booby traps, body armor, explosive, bomb-making equipment, you name it," Flathead County Sheriff Jim Dupont said. "It all certainly supports the theory that there was going to be big trouble. The last I heard, it didn't take 30,000 rounds of ammo to kill a turkey." Probably depends on the size of the turkey and whether it's on PCP, but I'd tend to agree...
The militia group hoped to kill enough judges, prosecutors and law enforcement officers to force the state to call in the National Guard. The plan was then to kill enough National Guard troops to catch the federal government's attention, setting off an unchecked escalation. "We're pretty sure they were planning on assassinating as many cops and public officials as possible," he said. Then they were gonna build a rocket and go to the moon and aim "nucular" weapons they built in their basements at Boise and demand Idaho's surrender, too.
The militia group also collected "intelligence files" on the targeted officials and their families, who included Dupont's own name and those of a county attorney, police chiefs, district judges, various deputies and police officers and some of their relatives. "They had these information sheets, actual forms printed out from a computer," Dupont said. "They had officers' names, addresses, places they eat, places they shop, stuff about their kids. They even had information on what medications one guy's wife was taking." The "Intelligence Corps" also had a large stock of combination eyebrow-glasses-nose-moustache disguises.
The group was headed by 38-year-old Dave Burgert, who was arrested earlier this month after an armed standoff that lasted nearly seven hours. Burgert had been awaiting trial on charges he assaulted a police officer in January 2001. He also faced charges of obstructing a police officer in a November 2001 incident. Judges being no brighter in Montana than elsewhere, he was still walking the streets over a year later instead of being in a loony bin. "My country, tizathee..."
Burgert faked his own death and disappeared as a judge was ordering him to be taken off house arrest and placed in jail, Dupont said. He seen that in this, like, comic book, see?
He was nabbed after an informant member of Project Seven led officers to the home of Tracy Brockway, where Burgert was hiding out. Brockway, 32, is charged with obstruction of justice for harboring Burgert. She also is suspected of using her job as a cleaning woman at the Whitefish Police Department to gather information about officers and their families. Y'see, Tracy had ambitions of being in charge of the Gestapo when Project Seven took over the country, an' she could like, order Tom Cruise to marry her.
Posted by: Fred Pruitt ||
02/28/2002 ||
Comments ||
Link ||
[0 views]
Top|| File under:
While Musharraf has won plaudits in Washington for his crackdown on such groups, he seems to have drawn the line at the request for Sheikh Omar's extradition. Oh, rilly? We are so surprised. What, pray tell, might be the reasons?
"Pakistan has conveyed to the U.S. that the extradition of Omar at this stage would cause trouble," a senior official told Reuters. Hmmm. Yasss. We've already discussed that. Oh, you mean some other kind of trouble?
The Foreign Ministry spokesman said an indictment for Sheikh Omar in the United States had been received from Washington, but that Pakistan needed to first complete its investigations. "How long'll that take?"
"12 years."
Underlining the pressure on the government, police in Karachi said they had moved Sheikh Omar to a high-security detention center following a threatened rocket attack on the building where he was being held. Wouldn't that be kinda hard on the guy the Bad Guys are supposedly trying to spring? Or was there a ground assault included in the deal?
"After a meeting, which reviewed the threat, we have decided to keep Omar at a more secure place," a police official said. Guantanamo'd be pretty secure.
Police received an anonymous phone call on Tuesday night threatening to attack the detention center if Pakistan's government bowed to the U.S. extradition demand. They got another one earlier that was just heavy breathing, and another just moments before that asking if they wanted to list their house for sale. And then there was the one about changing the long distance service. Some sort of a pattern? Y'know what? They oughta get caller ID.
Posted by: Fred Pruitt ||
02/28/2002 ||
Comments ||
Link ||
[0 views]
Top|| File under:
Pakistan's military government launched a fresh offensive against Islamic militants as police detained 58 activists over a murderous attack on a Shi'ite mosque earlier this week. "We have detained the activists of Lashakar-e-Jhangvi, Sipah-e-Sahaba and Jaish-e-Mohammad," a police official in Multan said, referring to three Sunni Muslim groups banned by the government. Multan is in southern Punjab.
But in a sign that the government is worried about a backlash from such groups, officials said it would not immediately agree to a U.S. request to extradite the suspected mastermind in the kidnapping of a murdered U.S. reporter. Another senior government official told Reuters that the government was worried about a possible reaction from Islamic militants as a speedy extradition would be seen as caving in to Washington. Call me paranoid if you will, but the timing of the sectarian attacks might indicate an attempt to pressure the government... If they don't turn him over, does that mean the terrorists will have won? Or a Major Government Agency?
Posted by: Fred Pruitt ||
02/28/2002 ||
Comments ||
Link ||
[0 views]
Top|| File under:
Georgia's top security officer, Valery Khaburdzania said his agents had arrested dozens of Afghans, Saudis and Jordanians, many without identity documents, who entered Georgia on the run from Afghanistan or Central Asia, trying to reach safety in the Pankisi Gorge. Some were planning terrorist acts against Russia, he said. Others were trying to make their way to Europe and, perhaps, the United States. Both Georgian and American officials said they believed dozens of Afghan and Arab militants were still on the loose. A Chechen commander, Ruslan Gelayev, has set up training camps for fighters who use the gorge as a rear area for rest, training and arms supply. Western officials say some criminals also operate from the gorge, in league with corrupt Georgian politicians.
"Afghans are going there for a breather and, unfortunately, the region has become a hide-out" and a "hotbed of tension for us," Mr. Khaburdzania said. "The drug business is flourishing. We can't control everything that is going on there, and unless we tackle the Pankisi problem, this issue will create a threat to Georgia's integrity and the security of the region." The Pankisi Gorge is a haven for the Muslim Chechens in part because it houses Georgia's tiny population of Kistinians, who share the Chechens' language and faith. The leadership of the Chechen rebellion is split between President Aslan Maskhadov, who is in hiding, and powerful field commanders like Shamil Basayev and a Jordanian known as Khattab. First problem is going to be unraveling who's who. This will not be an easy operation...
Posted by: Fred Pruitt ||
02/28/2002 ||
Comments ||
Link ||
[1 views]
Top|| File under:
A Bangladeshi man accused of making explosives in a house in central England was sentenced to 20 years in prison for planning to carry out bomb attacks. Moinul Abedin pleaded not guilty to the charge that he had made explosives in the city of Birmingham which he planned to use in attacks across England, and insisted that he merely wanted to open a fireworks shop.
Abedin was arrested under anti-terrorist legislation on November 17 along with Faisal Mostafa, a 38-year-old chemist, after an MI5 investigation. "And we have a fine line of 500 pound dynamite sparklers that are very appropriate for Guy Fawkes Day..."
Posted by: Fred Pruitt ||
02/28/2002 ||
Comments ||
Link ||
[0 views]
Top|| File under:
Hezbollah gunners in Lebanon fired into the skies over the Galilee panhandle. There were no reports of injury or damage. No Israeli aircraft were overflying Lebanon or the border region at the time. Maybe they were just having gun sex celebrating something.
Posted by: Fred Pruitt ||
02/28/2002 ||
Comments ||
Link ||
[0 views]
Top|| File under:
Two people have been killed in a car bomb explosion in Amman, which reportedly happened near the home of a high-ranking anti-terrorism investigator. The two passers-by, a 17-year-old Egyptian and a 24-year-old Iraqi, were killed as the blast ripped through a densely-populated area of the Jabal Amman neighbourhood. The car belonged to Yasmin Burjak, the wife of Lt Col Ali Burjak of the Jordanian Government's Anti-Terrorism Unit. It was parked near the couple's house and had been triggered by a timing device. "This appears to be a message to the Jordanian security apparatus at this crucial time," he said, in reference to Jordan's support for the US-led war on terror.
Mr Burjak was highly involved in an investigation which led to the trial of 28 men charged with conspiracy to carry out terror attacks on US and Israeli targets in Jordan during the millennium celebrations. Wonder if they've been reading the Pak papers for ideas?
Posted by: Fred Pruitt ||
02/28/2002 ||
Comments ||
Link ||
[0 views]
Top|| File under:
Gunnies ambushed a police bus carrying Islamic extremist prisoners from court in a bid to free them. One policeman and a prisoner were killed and eight other people wounded, while the gunmen fled. None of the nearly 20 prisoners in the bus managed to escape. Witnesses said four snuffies ambushed the vehicle in the Bhorapir neighborhood of Karachi about half a mile from a court where the prisoners had appeared for a hearing. The gunnies beat it after more police units arrived on the scene. In addition to the two dead, four policemen, three prisoners and one unidentified passer-by were wounded in the ambush.
Incensed that two guards stripped a detainee of his turban during prayer, nearly two-thirds of the prisoners captured in the Afghan war refused lunch Thursday and chanted "God is great" in Arabic in their first mass protest since arriving at the base. In addition, some detainees pushed sheets, blankets, sleeping mats and other items through the small openings in the chain-link walls of their cells in protest, Marine Maj. Stephen Cox, the detention mission spokesman, said.
Thursday night, Brig. Gen. Mike Lehnert, the Marine general running the detention mission, used the camp loudspeaker to tell inmates they would be allowed to wear turbans. Cox said, "We will reserve the right to inspect (turbans) at any time." Afterward, reporters could see several detainees wearing turbans fashioned from white bed sheets. Eighty-eight detainees refused their evening meal Thursday night even after Lehnert's address, Cox said. Damn. That's low, even for American imperialists. You can't be a proper wild-eyed religious lunatic without a turban.
Mmmm. This sandwich sure is good. Sure you wouldn't like some?
Why haven't the bed sheets at Camp Gitmo already been decorated with some suitable, extremely-offensive-to-Islamist icon or graffito? Why the hell are the sheets white, of all colors? What good has the cultural sensitivity training done for the U.S. forces running the camp? Posted by Anonymous 3/10/2002 3:54:38 PM
Posted by: Fred Pruitt ||
02/28/2002 ||
Comments ||
Link ||
[0 views]
Top|| File under:
Georgian Foreign Minister Irakly Menagarishvili dismissed as "hysterical propaganda" Russian criticism of U.S. plans to send elite forces to help the former Soviet republic fight guerrillas with ties to al Qaeda. Is that the same as "coming down with the vapors"?
Menagarishvili told parliament Georgia would allow no interference in its domestic affairs and was determined to restore order to the lawless Pankisi Gorge, where Islamic rebels and Chechen separatists are said to be entrenched. "What took place yesterday in the Russian mass media was an explosion of hysterical propaganda, including from Russia's political elite, which Georgia considers unacceptable," he said. Let me translate that from Parliamentarian: "Butt out, Russkis!"
Washington's plans dominated Russian airwaves Wednesday and Russian Foreign Minister Igor Ivanov said the arrival of U.S. military advisers could increase tensions in the region. Moscow has been pressing for a role for its own troops in ridding the zone of militants. They've an epidemic of rigor mortis -- and we're gonna increase tensions? What's really got the Russian drawers bunched is that the advisors are US and not Russian. And they do have a point. There isn't going to be any kind of effective operations without hot pursuiting back and forth across the border. The obvious solution is a hot pursuit agreement for both sides, but it's not real likely until there've been a few more high-casualty residential explosions to wake people up - Russers, Georgians and Americans. The Georgians can remember when they used to be Soviets, so they'd like to continue holding Moscow at arm's length.
Ivanov's comments signaled Moscow was not ready to grant its former Cold War foe the same latitude in Georgia accorded Washington in Central Asia during the anti-terrorism campaign in Afghanistan. Which is preciselywhy the Islamocheeses (whether Binny himself, Zawahri or whoever) have chosen to locate there in the first place. This was not a real difficult call.
Posted by: Fred Pruitt ||
02/28/2002 ||
Comments ||
Link ||
[0 views]
Top|| File under:
Yemen will not tolerate any form of terrorism on its territory and will strike offenders with an "iron fist," Yemeni President Ali Abdullah Saleh said. During a tour of eastern Yemen, he also said that two suspects wanted by the United States in the October 2000 bombing of the USS Cole in Yemen must turn themselves in. "They are innocent until proven guilty and they will be questioned and a court of law will issue its decision," Saleh said.
He said the two men -- Qaed Salim Sunian al-Harethi and Mohammed Hamdi al-Ahdal -- will not be surrendered to the United States, adding his country has asked Washington to hand over the Yemenis being held by the U.S. military at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba. "What were we thinking! Mohammed, let's go turn ourselves in right now!"
"You're right, Qaed. I'll go get the car."
Posted by: Fred Pruitt ||
02/28/2002 ||
Comments ||
Link ||
[0 views]
Top|| File under:
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.
