Grasshoppa has made the move the Movable Type and is now back in bidnid. Welcome back... No. I will not switch to Movable Type. If I did that, there wouldn't be nearly enough aggravation in my life...
Posted by: Fred Pruitt ||
08/04/2002 12:24 pm ||
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For many Nablus residents, this week's defiance against the Israeli military served as a release for weeks of boredom.
"We were at home eating, drinking and sleeping," said Mansour, a 50-year-old shopkeeper who asked to be identified by only his first name. "We got angry, we beat our wives. We've left our houses today to see a change of faces."
Did you beat those new faces too?
Posted by: Fred Pruitt ||
08/04/2002 05:20 pm ||
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Taliban leader Mullah Omar is still alive and on the run inside Afghanistan, but there has been no sign of Osama bin Laden for months, a senior Afghan official in the south of the country said on Sunday. Ahmad Wali Karzai, brother of President Hamid Karzai and his special representative for the south, told Reuters there were regular reports of Mullah Omar travelling in southern Afghanistan with a small entourage. "He is travelling by motorcycle or by foot," he said in an interview in his house in Kandahar, adding that the cleric was not able to organise any opposition to the government. That sounds like a pretty good assessment. Such Taliban-successor opposition as we've seen has looked like it's been organized by pickup teams. The guys making faces and threatening dire retribution all seem to be safe in Peshawar or Quetta.
"The guy is on the run, and spends 24 hours a day planning how to run and where to run," he said. And let us not forget that toward the last, when he was head cheese, his wrappings were starting to come undone — the too-tight turban syndrome.
Karzai said the bearded one-eyed cleric had been spotted in a broad belt stretching from Zabul province in the southeast, through the central Uruzgan province and his birthplace Deh Rawud to Helmand province in the southwest. The US airstrike on four villages close to Deh Rawud last month seem to have been at least partly prompted by the idea that Mullah Omar could have been sheltering in the area. US military officials have said special forces teams surrounded the villages because they had received reports that Mullah Omar or other senior Taliban leaders were there. Villagers blame false intelligence spread by people with malicious intent. Afghan officials say that at least 46 people were killed and more than 100 wounded in the air strike which followed. Many of the victims were attending wedding festivities. With antiaircraft guns. At 2 a.m...
Karzai said U.S. special forces teams had a very good track record in the region and continued to make regular arrests of people connected with the Taliban regime. But he said he had "no idea" whether bin Laden was still alive or inside Afghanistan, or even whether he had survived a massive U.S. air attack on his former mountain hideout in the Tora Bora mountains late last year. Afghan authorities in Kabul also say they receive regular reports about Mullah Omar but no solid evidence about bin Laden. That's a really good indication that he's not in the country anymore, or if he is, he's fertilizer.
Posted by: Fred Pruitt ||
08/04/2002 08:41 am ||
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Chief UN weapons inspector Hans Blix ruled out a visit to Baghdad to take up the Iraqi regime's offer of talks on renewed arms inspections. "Psychologically, I think it would be better that an official of my political standing does not go to Baghdad before they (the Iraqis) accept inspections," Blix told the Arabic-language Al-Hayat newspaper on Sunday. According to Blix, holding talks in Baghdad with Iraqi authorities at this point "will raise expectations without foundation." He said the chances of a possible war against Iraq would go up if he were to visit but talks were unsuccessful. "The situation will be much worse if I visit Baghdad and the talks fail. We do not want hopes raised." That's diplomatese for "I have to wash my hair that week. Let me know if you decide to do something substantial..."
Posted by: Fred Pruitt ||
08/04/2002 08:03 am ||
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South-North Korean talks have produced a fresh impetus for stalled inter-Korean rapprochement but at the apparent cost of the two Koreas collectively turning a blind eye to the most contentious issue. Although Seoul sent its delegation to Mt. Kumgang for the Aug. 2-4 working-level official contact with a vow to extract an apology from Pyongyang for the fatal naval clash in the West Sea, there is hardly a reference to it in the joint statement issued by the delegations of the two Koreas at the end of their three-day talk. 'Nother words, the commies said no, threatened to kill the South Koreans with ax-handles if they didn't drop it, so the South Koreans dropped it...
In a press briefing, Rhee Bong-jo, the top Southern delegate, admitted that he had raised the issue over the naval incident at the initial stage of the meeting, calling on his northern counterpart to address Seoulâs three demands that the North promise not to repeat similar armed provocations, apologize for it and punish those who were responsible. ``Our demands were the bone of contention but Pyongyang repeatedly expressed its regret and promised to make efforts to prevent the recurrence of similar incidents,ââ Lee told reporters. ``However, the Northern delegation didnât disclose what specific measures it would take in this regard.ââ They'll probably take stern measure with the persons responsible, like downgrading the medals they gave them...
Posted by: Fred Pruitt ||
08/04/2002 08:03 am ||
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Key Iranian and Saudi officials Saturday said they could not support a U.S. military strike against Iraq and would, instead, encourage Saddam Hussein to comply with U.N. resolutions. "All the countries of the world, especially neighbors of Iraq, should make plans to encourage Iraq to observe the resolutions of the U.N. in order to remove any ground and possibility for aggression against Iraq," President Mohammad Khatami told Saudi Foreign Minister Saud al-Faisal, during his one-day stop in Tehran. "We mean, you guys gotta do somethin' to make it look like you're playin' along. You can always reneg later, like you always do anyway. Otherwise, you're gonna get flattened, and then what'll happen to us? We might stop being stagnant stable! Nobody wants that!
Iranian state radio said Prince Saud and his Iranian counterpart, Kamal Kharrazi, voiced opposition to "any U.S. military attack on Iraq or any other Muslim or Arab countries." "Anywhere. Under any circumstance. No matter what they do. Especially Arab countries. And Iranian ones..."
Posted by: Fred Pruitt ||
08/04/2002 08:13 am ||
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President George W. Bush will announce within weeks that he intends to depose Iraq's ruler, Saddam Hussein, by force, setting the stage for a war in the Gulf this winter. Smid signs of active preparations for a war within six months, senior officials on both sides of the Atlantic have said that war against Iraq is now inevitable. 'The expectation is that President Bush will make a final decision on the timing of a war over the course of August. That would be followed by British-led efforts to get a mandate for action at the UN, either under existing resolutions or a new UN resolution,' said one senior source. I'm for sooner, rather than later, but he's the one with the info to make real decisions on. Wonder how many cruise missiles are on back order right now?
Posted by: Fred Pruitt ||
08/04/2002 09:19 am ||
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Hardliners in Iran say British and US planes should be shot down by Iran if they attack Iraq, but reformers are horrified by the prospect of a war on Saddam Hussein embracing them too. The hardline position was expressed in an interview with The Observer by Hussein Shariatmadari, a close ally and confidant of Iran's Supreme Leader, Ayatollah Ali Khamenei. How long has he been suicidal?
He said that he believed that the real target of the proposed American-led attack was Iran. 'I believe that they are only after Iran's surrender, and the best way is via Saddam,' said Shariatmadari. 'Therefore, if American planes are going to go to Iraq it seems to me that they are going towards Iran, so, if they attack you, would you attack them? The answer is "yes". If the missiles were in my hands, I would hit all the American planes.' And the Americans and Brits will kill lots of Iranians at the missile sites. Then they can have a new crisis and the stage will be set for Phase II. That's a great candidate for "Dumbest Idea of the Year."
One senior government figure, a reformer who asked to remain anonymous, denounced Shariatmadari's views as 'crazy'. He said: 'We are between two enemies, and we are not so stupid as to shoot down the Americans.' Reformers believe that to do so would play into American hands by giving President Bush a perfect excuse to attack Iran. "Crazy." As in "lunatic." That's a good description.
Posted by: Fred Pruitt ||
08/04/2002 10:13 am ||
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#1
Don't over look the upside here. Without even firing a shot at Iran, or even threatening to do so, we're seeing a major split develop in the ruling caste.
Not to mention getting an excuse to put the screws to Pyongyang if its missiles ARE used against us.
Posted by: Dan Hartung ||
08/04/2002 11:25 Comments ||
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Majid Heydari, standing at the grave of his brother, who died in an Iraqi poison gas attack, said: 'I would be happy to fight the Americans because they are coming here to attack us.' Line forms on the right...
But by a nearby grave Efat Farahani, whose brother was also killed, said: 'I hope Saddam pays for the blood he has shed. Maybe America is right to take revenge for all that bloodshed.' "The enemy of my enemy..."
But a taxi driver, who asked to remain anonymous, snarled angrily that the Iranian government was right to fear that it was the next US target, and that in that case 'people are saying, "maybe a few hundred will get killed but at least we'll get rid of the mullahs", and people would be happy about that. Yes, they are next and everyone is very happy about it.' "... is my friend."
Posted by: Fred Pruitt ||
08/04/2002 10:19 am ||
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The November 17 urban guerrilla group drew up plans for dozens of attacks against U.S. and European targets in northern Greece in the early 1990s. Newspapers said computer discs found in a safe house raided by police last month, contained detailed information on foreign schools, consulates, businesses, individuals and vehicles in the port city of Thessaloniki. The group had marked several potential targets, including the U.S. consulate which it planned to hit from the sea using a stolen coastguard vessel. November 17, which has killed 23 people in the last 27 years, did not carry out any of the planned attacks in Thessaloniki. Terrorist nutbags fantasize just like the rest of us. One day, I'll write just the right thing on Rantburg. Someone will mention my name to Richard Mellon Scaif. He'll give me lotsa money and I won't have to work anymore. FoxNews and MSNBC will compete to see which one can have me on the most times to give my opinion on Yasser and Qazi and Binny. Patty Ann Brown, Kathy, and Julia Roberts will all call me and ask me for dates... These guys were doing the same thing: they were gonna blow up schools, consulates, businesses, and anything American. They were gonna hijack the space shuttle. The government was gonna fall and the nation was gonna beg them to take over and tell them what to do. They were gonna have wimmin, prestige, power...
Police, who have detained 15 suspected members in the last month, have vowed to destroy the group ahead of the 2004 Athens Olympics. Yeah, and they were doin' a hell of a job, even before that guy managed to maim himself and spill all the beans. Why, any time, they were gonna... (Coppers fantasize, too.)
Posted by: Fred Pruitt ||
08/04/2002 08:05 am ||
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Italian police have arrested a man suspected of having links to arms trafficking and Osama bin Laden's al Qaeda network for travelling on a false passport. Police acting on a tip-off, arrested Sanjivan Ruprah, 36, in Cremona on Friday. He was travelling on a false Belgian passport. Everybody seems to have false passports. Are there any genuine passports to be found on four continents?
"Sanjivan Ruprah is an internationally known figure," a police spokesman told Reuters. "He is known as an international trafficker of arms and diamonds and has already been arrested in Belgium, from where he was released on bail." Kenyan-born Ruprah's name appears on a list published by the United Nations in 1999 of people banned from international flights because of links to arms and diamond trafficking in Africa. Guess that explains the false passport. Otherwise, he'd have had to take the train...
The Washington Post reported in February that Ruprah had been secretly providing U.S. and European investigators with information about a Russian associate Victor Bout, who was suspected of supplying weapons to al Qaeda. The Post report appeared about three weeks after Ruprah was arrested in Belgium for what police said was possession of false documents and criminal association. It's habit. If he could break that false documents habit, he'd be home free...
Posted by: Fred Pruitt ||
08/04/2002 09:11 am ||
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The chief of the U.S. Special Operations Command proposed a series of aggressive new covert actions against al Qaeda and other terrorist groups in a closed-door meeting with Defense Secretary Donald H. Rumsfeld yesterday, part of a new Pentagon initiative to reenergize the 10-month-old counteroffensive against terrorism. Air Force Gen. Charles R. Holland, head of the Special Operations Command, sought Rumsfeldâs approval for several types of missions that have not yet been employed in the U.S. effort, according to a defense official. Most notably, the official said, Holland proposed a dramatic expansion of the Navyâs sea interdiction efforts as well as a plan under which Special Operations troops would accompany foreign forces on combat missions. But most of the missions that Holland outlined were âaggressive, unilateral and behind the scenes,â the official said. Don't keep them too far behind the scenes. The country's much too involved with the piddly everyday things and it's losing interest in the war.
Holland emphasized to Rumsfeld that he is ready to start executing the missions but first needs to ensure that he has the political backing and the legal approval to do so. Holland is concerned that, among other things, members of Congress might not support ground combat missions. No decisions were made during the meeting about whether to proceed. That's a symptom of the focus on piddly stuff. Congress has gone from singing "God Bless America" to being concerned with making political points. And there's always the Barbara Lee-Cynthia McKinney contingent that's actually rooting for the other side.
Posted by: Fred Pruitt ||
08/04/2002 09:27 am ||
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In a bid to sabotage the coming assembly polls in Jammu and Kashmir, Pakistan-based militant groups have directed their cadres in the state to target one politician every day. Intercepts suggesting an increase in violence were being received on a daily basis but after the announcement of polls schedule on Saturday, security agencies stumbled upon an intercept which directed militants to target one politician every day. Efforts were on to assess the threat perception of ruling National Conference workers, who were falling prey to militant violence. The sources said that several militant organisations including Lashker-e-Taiba and Jaish-e-Mohammed had directed their cadres to carry out blasts at offices of various political parties. If there weren't so many dead bodies involved, it would be amusing that the Bad Guys are using the two groups in J & K made up mostly of foreigners to express the local populace's disapproval of the elections.
Posted by: Fred Pruitt ||
08/04/2002 08:22 am ||
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Tamil National Movement (TNM) on Sunday asserted that the banned Sri Lankan outfit LTTE was not a "terrorist organisation" but only a freedom fighting group, waging a battle for the cause of Sri Lankan Tamils. TNM general secretary Suba Veerapandiyan, briefing reporters on the deliberations of the TNM's executive, said the meeting decided to challenge the arrest of its leader P Nedumaran under POTA for his support to the LTTE. Nope. Not a terrorist group. They never are, are they? They're all "freedom fighters"...
"We are not supporting any terrorist organisation. But in our opinion, LTTE is not a terrorist organisation, as it is fighting to mitigate the sufferings of Sri Lankan Tamils," he said demanding the immediate release of all POTA detenus including Nedumaran and MDMK chief Vaiko. Sri Lanka has existed as a separate entity from India for 2500 years, trading and intermarrying with the Tamils. It's a primarily Buddhist nation, but tolerant of other religions, which makes for poor hinduvta. Now the Tamils want a considerable portion of the island because, ummmm... they're Tamils and not Sri Lankans.
He said the TNM, after consulting advocates, would challenge the POTA itself, as it sought to deprive the freedom of speech and freedom of expression. The TNM demanded the withdrawal of POTA as it had deprived the people of the freedom of expression and speech as enshrined in the constitution. Mostly those freedoms that include arms, ammunition, and financing attacks on one's neighbors...
Posted by: Fred Pruitt ||
08/04/2002 09:02 am ||
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An Iraqi convicted of armed robbery and kidnapping was beheaded in Saudi Arabia on Sunday, bringing to at least 28 the number of people executed this year, the Interior Ministry said. Habib al-Meshalawi broke into the house of Saleh al-Muteiri, a Saudi, threatened him with a gun, stole his car and money and kidnapped his son, Dahi, the ministry said in a statement carried by the official Saudi Press Agency. The execution took place in the province of Hafr al-Baten, 400 kilometres east of the capital Riyadh. At least 81 people were beheaded in the conservative kingdom last year. Well, it does keep the recidivism rate really low...
Posted by: Fred Pruitt ||
08/04/2002 08:26 am ||
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In the Gaza Strip, soldiers shot and killed an armed Palestinian dressed in a wet suit who had apparently swum to an area near the Jewish settlements of Dugit and Alei Sinai, the army said. Thought he saw Flipper and just had to have a closer look...
Posted by: Fred Pruitt ||
08/04/2002 08:03 am ||
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A bomb ripped apart a bus in northern Israel during rush hour Sunday, killing at least nine people, wounding dozens and scattering charred remains across the highway. The militant group Hamas claimed responsibility and said it was a suicide bombing. 7+9=16. 84 to go...
Three hours after the bombing at the Meron Junction near the town of Tsfat, a Palestinian attacker opened fire just outside the walls of Jerusalem's Old City, sparking a gun battle with police that left three people dead, including an Israeli security guard, an Arab bystander and the gunman. Al-Aqsa Martyrs' Brigade claimed credit for that act of heroism...
In a statement received in Lebanon by Hezbollah's television station, Al-Manar, Hamas called Sunday's bombing the second retaliatory attack for the killing of the group's military leader, Salah Shehadeh, in an Israeli bombing in Gaza City last month. That attack also killed 14 Palestinian civilians. Hamas thinks its leadership is safe. As long as they do, they'll continue along this line...
Posted by: Fred Pruitt ||
08/04/2002 08:03 am ||
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An Israeli official blamed the Palestinian Authority, led by Yasser Arafat, for the attack, saying it showed it "feeds on terror." "Corpses are our business... Our only business."
"This Palestinian terror must be uprooted and Israel will not relent in its pursuit of, and war against, Palestinian terror," said David Baker, an official in the office of Israeli Prime Minister Ariel Sharon. Get to uprooting, then. The head cheeses are in Gaza, even though they keep the cannon fodder in Nablus. Go to Gaza and kill them.
The Palestinian leadership condemned the bombing, but also accused Sharon of "war crimes" for the Israeli army's mass detentions, home demolitions and curfews imposed on Palestinians. Somebody tell them to shut up. That recitation got boring long ago.
Posted by: Fred Pruitt ||
08/04/2002 08:03 am ||
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In the Jerusalem shooting, the Palestinian gunmen used a pistol to fire at close range on a truck belonging to Israel's main phone company, Bezeq. A security guard was killed and the driver was injured. Seconds later, Israeli police began firing, witnesses said. The gunman was killed by police, and an Arab bystander was hit and killed by cross fire. Six people were hurt in the shooting outside the Damascus Gate entrance to the Old City. Just your typical shootout where the perps could care less if any innocent bystanders are waxed...
Posted by: Fred Pruitt ||
08/04/2002 08:03 am ||
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The top diplomat of another key pro-Western Gulf state, Oman, used a visit here on Sunday to express strong opposition to any US-led military action against Iraq, following the Saudi foreign minister the previous day. Yussef bin Alawi bin Abdullah, Oman's minister of state for foreign affairs, said on arrival for a visit to Iran, "Our position is the same, ruling out any military option against an Arab and Muslim country." "Especially Arab countries..."
"We are opposed to an attack on Iraq or any other Muslim state because we think that any differences with regard to the Middle East must be resolved under UN auspices." "I mean, look at all the good they've done so far...!"
Posted by: Fred Pruitt ||
08/04/2002 08:16 am ||
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A bomb blew up Friday in front of the house of Khaled Shayeb, an official of the Fatah mainstream movement at a Palestinian refugee camp near Sidon, Palestinian sources said. The blast, which caused no casualties, occurred in the Ain el-Helweh camp at the outskirts of the southern port city of Sidon, they said. Shayeb is Fatahâs top official for the Bekaa Valley region in eastern Lebanon. Where go Paleostinians, there go explosions...
On June 14, a similar bombing attack injured the eight- year-old daughter of Abu Ali Tanios, who heads the Palestine Liberation Army, a force affiliated with the Palestine Liberation Organisation and in charge of security at the Palestinian camps in Sidon. Sounds like a really secure place...
On June 2, a hand grenade was lobbed at the house of Munir Maqdah, head of Fatah movement Ain el-Helweh, causing no casualties. Hardly even anything to mention...
Maqdah, who was not home at the time, told AFP then that Israelâs intelligence services could be behind the attack. Yeah. Damn those Jews! Paleostinians would never bomb each other...
Posted by: Fred Pruitt ||
08/04/2002 09:48 am ||
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Palestinian Interior Minister Abdel Razaq Al Yahya announced Saturday that he will meet with Israeli Defense Minister Binyamin Ben Eliezer within the coming two days. Al Yahya said the meeting would take place before the Palestinian delegation heads for talks in Washington with US Secretary of State Colin Powell on Wednesday. The Ramallah-based Al Ayyam daily reported that the coming days would witness several Israeli-Palestinian meetings, where the Palestinian officials would ask for an end to the Israeli occupation of the West Bank towns. Sure. No problem. No reason to occupy them is there?
The daily quoted well-informed Palestinian sources as revealing that Israeli Prime Minister Ariel Sharon had asked for talks with Al Yahya and two other Palestinian National Authority (PNA) ministers ahead of the visit by the Palestinian delegation to the United States. If the proposed talks take place, it will be the third meeting between Sharon and PNA officials since he was elected in February last year and sworn in as the prime minister of Israel. As long as he's got someone to talk to. Yehiyeh, surprisingly, isn't a nut or a crook, like most of the other members of the PA.
Speaking of nuts...
Palestinian chief negotiator Saeb Erekat originally planned to head the delegation to Washington on Sunday to meet with Powell andother US officials. However, the meeting was postponed at the request of Palestinians, who said they needed more preparations of files and documents to be discussed with the US officials. They wanted to get all the explosions scheduled for when they're in Washington...
Posted by: Fred Pruitt ||
08/04/2002 10:05 am ||
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A small bomb planted on rail tracks exploded as a train passed over it Sunday in Muslim-dominated southern Thailand, where a series of terrorist-style attacks has killed at least 20 police this year. One coach was slightly damaged but there were no injuries. The bomb exploded just as the first coach passed over it, and the blast damaged some window panes of the second coach, said police Col. Thaweporn Churind. No damage to the tracks was reported. The explosion occurred near Mai Kaen village in Yala province, ending a nearly monthlong lull in the violence in the south. A bomb had exploded July 9 at a Yala train station, injuring two policemen. A day later, gunmen ambushed and killed two policemen at a rubber plantation in neighboring Narathiwat province. Since then no violence had been reported from the region, which is about 1,100 kilometers (680 miles) south of Bangkok and abuts Malaysia. Sure do hate to do any "profiling," but where there are Muslims it's usually a pretty good bet that there will be violence...
No group has claimed responsibility for any of the attacks, which have mostly been drive-by shootings targeting policemen as well as a few bombings. Thai officials have discounted a revival of Islamic separatism which once plagued the south and generally describe the attackers as bandits. Observers point to poverty and corruption as possible causes. Something else that seems to go with Islam. Thailand is a stable, tolerant state whose people are mostly Lesser Vehicle Buddhists. Its standard of living has been rising steadily since the middle 70s. But there's always some excuse for Islamists bandits to blow things up, isn't there?
Posted by: Fred Pruitt ||
08/04/2002 08:48 am ||
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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.
