Iran is committed to upholding laws guaranteeing human rights with due regard to Islamic precepts, Foreign Ministry Spokesman Hamid-Reza Assefi said Monday. He means any they want to uphold, and to heck with the rest...
Addressing a gathering of domestic and foreign reporters, he said that Islam teaches its followers to observe each other's rights. But not those of infidels unless the Muslims feel like it...
"The Islamic Republic of Iran has expressed its concerns to UN officials over the violation of human rights worldwide, particularly those of Muslim minorities all across European countries," Assefi informed. Ba'hais don't count. And don't even mention Jews...
Posted by: Fred Pruitt ||
07/02/2002 07:21 am ||
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President Mohammad Khatami said on Monday that "religious democracy" brings power to the service of religion, morality and social progress. Khatami said that separation of religion from politics is a colonialist idea, adding that the Islamic tenet calls for bringing power to the service of religion. Only a colonialist of the worst stripe could be against the idea of ignorant theocrats running a once-proud nation...
"Power is something, if not controlled by religious and ethical criteria, will take the religion and the social freedom as victim," the president said. ...skillfully balancing on the verbal tightrope. Religion and ethics is the brake on power, and unbridled power will demand that its enemies — religion and social freedom — bend to its will. Where we part ways is our belief that religion and ethics need to be imposed from an infallible caliph, rather than imbued from below, through the workaday beliefs of the sweaty plebs.
He said that in order to control the power special organs should exercise procedural methods to make sure that power does not violate the borders of religion and social democracy. The president pointed to science and technology and a dynamic economy as the requirement of Iranian community to pave the way for social progress and welfare. Science and technology can't flourish when subject to religious veto. Sorry. Try again.
He said that the Islamic Republic of Iran has its own enemies who have drawn up plots to create obstacle in the process of religious democracy and social progress. "I assure you that if the enemy even will not hesitate to launch a military attack if it comes to believe sometime that it can inflict a decisive blow to the Islamic Republic," President Khatami warned. He called for public vigilance to deal with possible threats to national sovereignty. I really like this Black Hat. I think it's very becoming, don't you? Now, if you'll excuse me, I have to go hatch a plot against some theocrats...
Posted by: Fred Pruitt ||
07/02/2002 07:32 am ||
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Black hat? With that last comment, it's clear that his hat is made of tin foil.
Regards,
Posted by: Steve White ||
07/02/2002 10:29 Comments ||
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I have a rather fetching little black hat of my own, Fred, may I help you hatch a plot or two?
Posted by: Kat ||
07/02/2002 12:24 Comments ||
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Why of course... But I'm warning you, you have to clean up after your own myrmidons!
Posted by: Fred ||
07/02/2002 15:37 Comments ||
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Forty five per cent of Iranians think reforming the Islamic Republic is "impossible" and ninety four per cent are calling changing the present system, according to an opinion poll published Monday by pro-reforms newspaper "No Rooz", quoted by the Persian service of the BBC. You mean it sucks to virtually everybody?
Asked what, in their opinion, President Mohammad Khatami should do in case he fails to respond to popular demands for reforms, fifty four per cent of the people, aged more than 15, questioned by the paper, said he should discuss openly his problems with the people, against 18 per cent urging him to resign and twenty per cent preferring he continue office until the end. As seventy per cent of the inhabitants of the Capital said they do not approve of the embattled Presidentâs policies, fifty five per cent of them said they are against his soft attitude, advising a firmer stand. "The results from latest polls are bell tolls for both the rulers of the present regime and President Khatami", commented Mr. Sadeq Saba, BBC's senior analyst of Iranian affairs. Iran Press isn't the most reliable source, and I'd distrust any poll that found 94% of everyone agreed on something. But even if that figure should be translated to read "a whole lot," it sounds like us Great Satans aren't the only ones "hatching plots" against the Theocratic Paradise.
Posted by: Fred Pruitt ||
07/02/2002 07:41 am ||
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Remember: Iranian string-puller and terrorist-supremo - Rafsanjani - is one of the richest persons in the world, based on his quasi-khalifa cut from Islamic operations.
The ersatz "prophet" that founded Islam, said that god told him that he had a divine right to 20% of all war-booty. Why else did he concoct the "holy war" (jihad) concept? He called this sacred blessing, the "khumus" tax. Mohammed's god-hearsay (koran) has an entire chapter on "division of the spoils". Mohammed used this extortion to build a house near the market of Medina, for each of his 20 wives and concubines. No wonder he chose Medina over Mecca.
The Iranian mullahtocracy are motivated by khumus spoils, and not by piety.
Iraq is using new mobile missile launchers against British and United States planes that monitor "no-fly" zones in the north and south of Iraq, the specialist Jane's Intelligence Review (JIR) reports in its July edition. According to Jane's, the weapons system comprised two S-125 Neva missiles capable of being fired from a truck. "By mounting the missiles on mobile launchers the Iraqis have complicated US and UK efforts to monitor Iraqi's air defenses," Jane's indicated. The S-125s originally supplied by the Soviet Union during the 1970s and 1980s were static missiles fired from fixed launch pads. Ofergawdsake! Is this what Sammy was enthusing about the other day? He went down to the Soviet Antique Shoppe and bought some SA-3s, designed to be launched from fixed sites, and got his guys to mount them on trucks and put antimacassars on them. They're still antiques. Putting them on trucks doesn't make them any more fearsome, except to the rubes watching them go by in parades. How do they lug the radars around? On pack mules?
Posted by: Fred Pruitt ||
07/02/2002 09:17 am ||
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I'm not a military man, but I wonder whether these things have any reasonable degree of accuracy. Or whether the trucks on which they're mounted will be stable when these missiles are shot from them. Looks like more Mideast trigicomedy in the making.
#3
They're 50's and 60's technology. If I remember correctly, they were for medium-range targets, and the SA-2s were for high-altitude targets. They were definitely made for fixed sites, and the original guidance systems used vacuum tube technology.
Posted by: Fred ||
07/02/2002 19:44 Comments ||
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South Korean opposition parties called Tuesday for the immediate dismissal of defense minister and joint chiefs of staff (JCS) chairman, accusing them of incompetence in dealing with North Korea's naval provocation last week. Main opposition Grand National Party (GNP) said the South Korean people are 'overwhelmed by rage and suspicions' and demanded the military leaders take responsibility. Ummm... Is that a Korean way of demanding they Do Something?
Posted by: Fred Pruitt ||
07/02/2002 09:55 am ||
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All the economic cooperation, humanitarian assistance, and brotherly goodwill we have given the North Korean regime has been under the name of the sunshine policy. The belief was that because of this, the Northern regime would start to change. What we've received in return, however, has been well-aimed artillery.
Not only is the North refusing to talk about the matter at Panmunjom, it is asserting that the South fired first, and that it was therefore given no choice but to take action in response. It's the answer we're getting from Kim Jong Il, the chairman of the Northâs National Defense Commission, who once said that he found President Kim to be "someone I can talk to, and so is someone in whom I have great trust." From whom is the current government going to get that "apology" and "assurance" that itâs not going to happen again from? When you lie down with skunks, don't be surprised by the smell...
Posted by: Fred Pruitt ||
07/02/2002 09:59 am ||
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A spokesman for the Democratic People's Republic of Korea Foreign Ministry gave the following answer to a question raised by KCNA today as to the smear campaign launched by the United States against the DPRK over the armed clash that occurred in the West Sea of Korea recently: The United States groundlessly pulled up the DPRK, claiming that the armed clash which occurred in the West Sea of Korea on June 29 was an "armed provocation" made by the Pyongyang side... The U.S. that has the prerogative of supreme command over the South Korean forces must know about such intrusion and provocations perpetrated by the warships of the South Korean navy and can never flee from the responsibility for them. It is, therefore, preposterous for the U.S. to take issue with the DPRK and it is just like the thief turning on the master with a club. Hey! Don't look at us! We were at a barbecue! Musta been somebody else. Since it couldn't possibly have been the NKors, maybe it was... uh... Burma. Yeah, that's it! I'll bet it was those damned Burmese that dunnit.
Posted by: Fred Pruitt ||
07/02/2002 10:06 am ||
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Citing a naval shooting incident between North and South Korea over the weekend, the Bush administration has pulled its offer to North Korea to resume security talks that have been on hold for two years, an administration official said Tuesday. An official told Fox News that the administration sent a message through the United Nation's North Korean Mission in New York basically saying, "Don't call us, we'll call you."
The official said that the United States will want a full accounting from North Korea about a deadly clash between North and South Korean naval vessels last Saturday in South Korean waters. Four South Koreans died and 19 were injured. The South Korean military said the North Koreans suffered about 30 casualties, but North Korea would not confirm this. Maybe we should demand reforms and elections there, too...
Posted by: Fred Pruitt ||
07/02/2002 04:45 pm ||
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Russia's military is shrinking its 80,000-strong force in Chechnya to a tighter, long-term force, in a withdrawal that may wrap up by the end of the year. Col. Gen. Vladimir Moltenskoi repeated Russian claims that the fighters under rebel Chechen President Aslan Maskhadov are no longer able to mount serious resistance to Russian forces, despite continued rebel raids that killed five servicemen and injured nine in the latest daily Russian casualty count. Maskhadov "has no more resources to organize resistance against the federal troops because in the spring, the rebels suffered major losses that they are not able to make up for," Moltenskoi said. You might say that. They beat him up and burned his house down. Khattab getting killed didn't help them much — he was probably the guy who knew the money guys back in Soddy Arabia.
Moltenskoi was quoted as saying the current overall Russian force in Chechnya was about 80,000 servicemen from the Defense Ministry, Interior Ministry and other agencies. The Defense Ministry force is being reduced to 22,000 troops, including a 14,000-strong permanent division and military commandant's offices, he said. That was the usual setup under the Soviets: a full-strength division, headquarters troops, and a few other divisions in cadre strength. They said they were going to do this about a month ago, and Putin was claiming they'd stabilized the situation back in March.
Posted by: Fred Pruitt ||
07/02/2002 08:03 am ||
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The Russians would not mention another important factor: The eradication of hundreds of the Chechens' best trained and most fanatical jihadis during US operations in Afghanistan.
A phone threat warning that a plane would strike the city's second-tallest skyscraper prompted a voluntary evacuation that included employees of a company that lost workers in the Sept. 11 attacks. The call was traced by the FBI and found to be without merit, FBI spokeswoman Laura Bosley said. Bosley declined to disclose the caller's name. I hope they're not done hitting him yet... Oh. Sorry. We don't do that. Fly the bastard to Morocco, or Syria and let them hit him...
The 62-story Aon Center notified the 70 companies that employ approximately 3,200 people in the building about the voluntary evacuation. Aon Corp., the building's largest tenant, with 833 workers, closed its offices for the day, Aon Center general manager Peter Anastassiou said. Aon lost 175 employees in the attack on the World Trade Center in New York. The threat was called in to KABC-TV in Los Angeles suggesting the station train its camera on the "First Interstate building" because an aircraft would fly into it. Aon Center also is known as the First Interstate Tower. "Interrogation? Why, no. He don't know nuttin'. We're just workin' him over. Hand me those pliers, wouldja?"
Posted by: Fred Pruitt ||
07/02/2002 07:49 am ||
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Lovely. Just what we didn't need. If there was a remote shred of truth to this, we'd be seeing a mass exit on the I-10 the likes of something no one has seen before. Mary Lu
Posted by: Mary Lu ||
07/02/2002 16:29 Comments ||
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A Saudi princess accused of pushing her maid down a flight of stairs was fined $1,000 and put on probation in a no-contest plea accepted in court Tuesday. Princess Buniah al-Saud is in Saudi Arabia and didn't appear at the five-minute hearing in which her attorneys didn't contest a misdemeanor battery charge filed in Florida Circuit Court. The plea marked an about-face for the 41-year-old princess who in February had promised a judge she would come back to the United States for trial, if allowed to return to Saudi Arabia, because she wanted to clear her name. The princess is a niece of King Fahd of Saudi Arabia. That certainly was a lesson to her. Bet she'll never do that again...
Followup: Gary's written up this nice lady, too...
Posted by: Fred Pruitt ||
07/02/2002 07:07 pm ||
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Washington Times carries an article on al-Fuqra, the Pakistani-run racket sect that Daniel Pearl was investigating when he was murdered. This is excerpted and heavily edited; you should read the entire article. Then buy ammunition and a dog. A big dog. Muslims in the Red House area have been negotiating to purchase an additional 100-acre site in neighboring Campbell County, adding that a number of the radical group's members also have purchased smaller lots in the region. Relatives moving in, are they? Need a bigger house?
The Western exodus was sparked by the shutting down of Gateway Academy Charter School in Fresno, Calif. The 12-school charter, established in 1998 by Khadijah Ghafur, was closed by school officials after auditors found $1.3 million in public money was missing. "$1.3 million? Why, I have no idea! It was just here a minute ago..."
The case of the missing school funds in California is similar to an operation the group had in Colorado, which was shut down in 1993 by state law-enforcement officials. Five al-Fuqra members were convicted of defrauding the Colorado government of approximately $350,000 through bogus worker's compensation claims. "Maybe it's out back. I'll go check. Just make yourself comfy. I won't be long..."
The California group numbers between 200 and 400 people, and members lived on a 1,000-acre tract in the Sierra Mountain foothills. Guarded by an armed post at the entrance, the encampment â known as Baladullah, or "City of God" â was the site of the International Quranic Open University, founded by Sheik Mubarik Ali Shah Gilani as an educational arm of Muslims of America, a group he founded. The community drew the attention of local law-enforcement agencies last summer after a man studying at the university, Ramadan Abdullah, was arrested and charged in the slaying of an infidel a Fresno County sheriff's deputy. One of the Red House Muslims, Vicente Pierre, was convicted in November of two felony firearms violations. Three other members of the Red House commune have been arrested on weapons charges in the past year, including two after the September 11 attacks. Sounds like they might have taken the Jihad 101 course, with maybe an elective or two in thuggery...
It is not clear to authorities where the organization gets its funding, other than a few local odd jobs by group members. The Red House and Meherrin Muslims, who number between 200 and 300 people, including women and children, have been linked to various money-laundering operations and weapons violations, and are believed to have aided and abetted various terrorist groups. "Now, children, listen carefully..."
Law-enforcement authorities said they believe radical Muslims are seeking to create a patchwork of "hide-outs" in rural southern Virginia for would-be terrorists and other extremists. They said the sanctuaries have been established to follow the teachings of Sheik Gilani. Sheik Gilani's followers have set up rural encampments throughout the United States and Canada that federal authorities believe are linked to murders, bombings and other felonies. Sheik Gilani is a Pakistani cleric who founded the tax-exempt Muslims of America in 1980, which is linked to Jamaat al-Fuqra, a terrorist group committed to waging jihad against the United States. Trying to set up a little something like the NWFP back home in Pakland. Gilani also makes a very good living at being a Holy Man and an ISI informer...
Muslims of America claims to be nonviolent, saying in a recent statement that Sheik Gilani "does not condone nor teach us to condone violence, especially against the innocent." Raids by police in 1992 and 1993 on a 101-acre Muslim commune in central Colorado turned up bombs, automatic weapons, ammunition and plans for terrorist attacks. But they were only to be used against infidels the guilty...
Posted by: Fred Pruitt ||
07/02/2002 05:32 pm ||
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Lawyers for the chief defendant in the kidnap-slaying of Wall Street Journal reporter Daniel Pearl predicted Monday that their client will be acquitted. The defense optimism came after testimony that appeared to support their contention that Ahmed Omar Saeed Sheikh was illegally detained and, on that basis, the charges against him should be dismissed. "You will see he will be acquitted in this case," said Abdul Waheed Katpar, a lawyer for Saeed. However, the chief prosecutor Raja Qureshi said the evidence is insufficient to acquit Saeed. Under Pakistani law, suspects are entitled to a court hearing within 24 hours of their detention. Could it be that ISI set it up for him to be sprung on a technicality? The investigation looked like it was deliberately inept. But then, there is that U.S. indictment...
Posted by: Fred Pruitt ||
07/02/2002 08:17 am ||
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Maybe the US wants him sprung because we've developed a hit squad akin to the Mossad and we're gonna take him out! No such luck, but a guy can dream, can't he?
Posted by: Dean de Freitas ||
07/02/2002 12:36 Comments ||
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I think if it looks like he's actually going to be extradited, the ISI will take care of that little matter for us. Omar's been in too many pies to let him go someplace he might blab.
Posted by: Fred ||
07/02/2002 15:39 Comments ||
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Sindh Inspector General of Police Syed Kamal Shah said that Mohammad Ajmal alias Akram Lahori, aged 39, the supreme commander of the banned Lashkar-i-Jhangvi after Riaz Basra was killed, has been arrested, along with three accomplices. Akram Lahori, who was produced before the press, admitted his involvement in sectarian killings and said: "I have no regrets about what I have done." He said that he had joined Sipah-i-Sahaba Pakistan in 1990. "I dunnit an' I'm glad..." So they've nabbed the heads of Sipah and Lashkar-i-Jhanvi. That'll be significant, if they don't spring them next week...
About his successor, he said that now the group would work at city-level in different cities of the country and not on a national level. Therefore, there was no question of a next supremo. In other words, they're broken up and they'll stay that way until the heat's off... Next month.
He joined a religious organization in 1990, after which Akram, along with Riaz Basra and Ishaque Malik, formed Lashkar-i-Jhangvi in 1996 in Punjab. Akram had established a training camp in Sarobi, Afghanistan. Giving details of the involvement of Akram Lahori and his accomplices in criminal cases, the IG said that they were involved in the killing of Ehteshamuddin Haider, brother of interior minister, Moinuddin Haider; Managing Director, Pakistan State Oil, Shaukat Mirza; Dr Rashid Mehdi, Dr Aley Safdar Zaidi; the principal of Jamia Millia Institute, Syed Zafar Zaidi; Agha Abbas of Agha Juice Centre and others. In Punjab, he was also involved in various criminal cases including killing of 24 people at Mominpura, Lahore; 11 in Imambargah Najaf, Pir Wadhai, Rawalpindi; DSP Tariq Kambo in Lahore and others. Kind of like Murder, Incorporated, only with turbans...
Posted by: Fred Pruitt ||
07/02/2002 06:29 pm ||
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Jordanian military authorities are questioning 10 suspects, but declined to confirm newspaper reports that those in custody were being held in connection with a thwarted plot to attack American and Israeli targets. The officials would not reveal details about the suspects, but did say the suspects were not linked to Osama bin Laden. Guess not everybody is... Ad-Dustour reported that the suspects were being questioned about "conspiring to carry out terrorist attacks in Jordan and possessing automatic weapons for illegal use." The paper reported that the group had plans to strike at American and Israeli targets and to smuggle arms into the West Bank. Jordan, not being enamoured of such nonsense, takes a dim view of such activity...
The Christian Science Monitor reported that the group comprised 11 militants and was headed by a Palestinian-Jordanian identified as Waiel al-Shalabi. The paper quoted al-Shalabi's mouthpiece lawyer as saying that his client was arrested in Jordan in April after fleeing the American military in Tora Bora in December. Not directly connected to al-Qaeda, anyway. Guess once he got his "I almost got my ass shot off at Tora-Bora" tee-shirt he went into business for himself...
The Monitor said the other suspects were arrested two weeks ago in raids on their homes. Four of the suspects had planned attacks on the U.S. and Israeli embassies and on leisure centers believed to be frequented by Americans recuperating during military exercises in Jordan. It quoted the mouthpiece lawyer as saying the remaining six had planned to attack Israel.
Posted by: Fred Pruitt ||
07/02/2002 08:32 am ||
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The Israeli army started Tuesday a partial call-up of reservists for its operations in the West Bank, Israel Radio reported. Officers and commanders are to be called up Tuesday with other soldiers to be called up by next week, it said, citing a senior officer. Ha'aretz reported Monday that the Israeli army was planning another round of reservist call-ups for its operations in the West Bank. Last week a reserve infantry brigade was called up on emergency orders. They're not close to done yet. And I hope they don't stop until they're all the way done.
Posted by: Fred Pruitt ||
07/02/2002 06:30 am ||
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Israeli troops returned to Qalqilyah on Tuesday afternoon, several hours after pulling out of the West Bank city and lifting the curfew, which was later put back in place.
In Nablus, Assad Halbuni, a senior Hamas operative wanted by Israel, was arrested in the central Casbah area by security services.
The army said it lifted the curfew in Hebron to allow students to take exams, but then rounded up about 300 Palestinian students at a college for questioning, witnesses said. Soldiers ordered men and women students at the Palestinian Polytechnic Institute, a two-year-college, into separate yards and checked identification cards and questioned students, witnesses said. There was no immediate word on whether any students had been detained. Relatives of Hebron police chief General Sharif Abu Maalik said he was detained by Israeli forces for more than five hours before being released.
Posted by: Fred Pruitt ||
07/02/2002 06:30 am ||
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In the southern Gaza Strip town of Khan Yunis, Palestinian security officials said Israel tanks and special forces captured six Palestinian border policemen in an incursion. The Israelis told the men by loudspeaker to surrender, then took them back to Israel. No shootout, huh? That thing with the tanks and bulldozers works pretty well...
Posted by: Fred Pruitt ||
07/02/2002 06:30 am ||
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Israel barred 18 Americans from entering the country and put them on a flight back to the United States on Tuesday as part of a policy of refusing entry to foreigners who want to show solidarity with the Palestinians. The Americans arrived at Tel Aviv's Ben-Gurion Airport on Monday with the aim of going to the West Bank and the Gaza Strip, Interior Ministry spokeswoman Tova Ellison said. The U.S. group included naturalized citizens born in Pakistan, Egypt and Iraq, she said. Two members of the U.S. group were admitted entry because they have Israeli citizenship. A British citizen traveling with the Americans was put on a flight back to Britain. "They wanted to show solidarity with the Palestinians," she said. "The state of Israel is in a state of war at the moment and no other country would allow its enemies or those who support its enemies to enter," Ellison said. Perhaps they should ask themselves, "Why do they hate us?"
Posted by: Fred Pruitt ||
07/02/2002 06:30 am ||
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It is a war crime to use human shields or to voluntarily act as a human shield, as this 60s Cherfonda clone boasted of doing during the last peacenik incursion:Indymedia.batshit.Israel has a problem with admitting known war criminals, or those strongly associated with them; unless, of course, the Mossad brings them in chains from Argentina.
More than 4,000 Palestinians took to the streets of Gaza City on Monday in protest against the socio-economic meltdown in the occupied territories. Israel has closed its borders since the outbreak of violence in October 2000, preventing Palestinian workers from commuting to their jobs. The demonstrators rallied in front of the Palestinian leader Yasser Arafat's Gaza offices and urged the Palestinian Authority to create jobs and provide welfare for the unemployed. They also called for international help to alleviate their economic hardships. "Jobs? What do jobs have to do with revolution?"
Arafat's security guards, unwilling to use force against the unarmed protesters, let the crowd break into Arafat's compound. Arafat has been confined to his headquarters in the West Bank city of Ramallah for the past week. So he wasn't even there. Oh, well. We know what they meant...
The demonstrators called "We want jobs! We want food!" and carried banners reading in Arabic: "Keep your hands off our childrenâs food." AP quoted participants as saying that Palestinian officials were enriching themselves at the expense of the poor. "We love him [Arafat] and support him fully, but there are some people around him who are stealing our rights and ignoring our demands." "If the tsar only knew..."
Of the 1.4 million Palestinians residing in the Gaza Strip, 42.7 percent were unemployed during the first quarter of the year 2002, the International Labor Office (ILO) estimated. UN figures indicate the percentage of unemployed and unable to work in Palestinian society currently stands at 78 percent of the labor force. Before October 2000, some 125,000 Palestinians crossed into Israel every day, earning a total of $3.4 million. Being Arabs, and thus unfamiliar with cause and effect, they don't see how daily bombings of the people who had been giving them jobs had any effect on the jobs.
Posted by: Fred Pruitt ||
07/02/2002 08:47 am ||
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Palestinian leader Yasser Arafat on Tuesday fired his West Bank security chief and the Gaza police chief in a major step toward reforming his security services. West Bank Preventive Security Chief Jibril Rajoub told The Associated Press that he had been informed of Arafat's decision. However, Gaza police chief Ghazi Jibali insisted the reports were "rumors." If they had booze in the PA territories, Jibril could get by holding up liquor stores. But they don't, so he'll probably starve once he's spent any cash he managed to rake off from clandestine arms purchases. Ghazi will probably just refuse to move out of his office in the hope it'll all blow over. At least Jibril's guys shot it out with the IDF; Ghazi's folded when Sheikh Yassin decided he wanted to come out and play.
Rajoub is one of the most powerful figures in the West Bank but has had a falling out with Arafat. During a previous incursion into the West Bank, Israeli forces destroyed Rajoub's headquarters. He ordered the men inside to surrender, forcing them to lose face among many Palestinians. Yasser also pulled a rod on him once. I really liked that...
Posted by: Fred Pruitt ||
07/02/2002 05:02 pm ||
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U.S. troops involved in a counterterrorism training exercise in the southern Philippines will soon be deployed closer to the front where the Philippine military is battling the Muslim extremist group Abu Sayyaf, a U.S. spokeswoman said Tuesday. "We have received the order that allows us and grants the permission to do so by our government and (the Philippine) government," said Maj. Cynthia Teramae, spokeswoman for the U.S. troops participating in the joint military exercise. The American advisers are prohibited from engaging in combat and are currently confined to battalion headquarters. The new order will allow them to join smaller company units nearer to the front lines, raising concerns they could be exposed to greater danger and clashes. Not too sure how good an idea this is...
Posted by: Fred Pruitt ||
07/02/2002 06:29 am ||
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SF teams regularly train, evaluate & accompany untis down to squad/platoon level, especially recon elements. It is the only way to get the training job done. This article sounds more like "forgiveness" than "persmission", i.e this has got to have been going on all along, and now they are doing a bit of CYA.
BTW, notice how many terrs have been buying the farm recently?
#2
I've been thinking of starting a Dead Guys list, just to look it over now and then to gloat. I'd do all the entries in strikethru.
By the way, back in December the Hindustan Times reported that a fellow namedZain Al-Abedin Hasan, a Palestinian from the Gaza Strip, had been named as Binny's successor. Like all good terrorists, he goes under a pseudonym: Abu Zubaydah. Heh heh.
Posted by: Fred ||
07/02/2002 19:31 Comments ||
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It's pretty much a ruse, innit, Fred, to get around the Flips' constitutional proscription against foreign troops? The loophole is that US troops can "train," and they can "fight defensively" if attacked. Of course, if you drop a bunch of US "trainers" right in the middle of a bunch of nasty Flip Islamofascists, you surely can't stop them from "fighting defensively" until all those terr guys are snakebait, canya?
Posted by: Bill Quick ||
07/02/2002 19:57 Comments ||
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A multi-volume chronology and reference guide set detailing three years of the Mexican Drug War between 2010 and 2012.
Rantburg.com and borderlandbeat.com correspondent and author Chris Covert presents his first non-fiction work detailing
the drug and gang related violence in Mexico.
Chris gives us Mexican press dispatches of drug and gang war violence
over three years, presented in a multi volume set intended to chronicle the death, violence and mayhem which has
dominated Mexico for six years.
Rantburg was assembled from recycled algorithms in the United States of America. No
trees were destroyed in the production of this weblog. We did hurt some, though. Sorry.
Iraq is using new mobile missile launchers against British and United States planes that monitor "no-fly" zones in the north and south of Iraq, the specialist Jane's Intelligence Review (JIR) reports in its July edition. According to Jane's, the weapons system comprised two 
