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Posted by: Fred Pruitt ||
08/13/2002 12:53 pm ||
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The government "Virtue and Vice" people are back in business in Afghanistan, but this time the man in charge promises a kinder, gentler brand of Islamic conformity. "The Taliban used to beat people, beat women in the streets," said Mohammad Wazir Razi Kabuli. "Under Islam, you don't beat people. You invite them to change their ways." If they don't, then you can beat them.
The power of persuasion, he said, will replace the crack of the whips the Taliban brandished to round people up for prayer. Ummm... What if they don't want to be persuaded?
President Hamid Karzai's American-supported government announced Kabuli's appointment on Saturday as director of the Department of the Promotion of Virtue and the Prevention of Vice. At least that was what government television called it — a title similar to that of the Taliban time. Bet that made everybody watching just happy as little Muslim clams...
By Monday, however, Karzai's spokesman Sayed Fazel Akbar was saying the government agency would actually be called the Department of Islamic Teaching. Which kinda implies a different function...
Informed of this, Kabuli laughed and said, "Maybe this brother has no information about this subject. Or maybe he comes from the West" — a reference to the government's Afghan-Americans who are more sensitive to Western values and perceptions. "Virtue and Vice" is the name of his department, Kabuli insisted. It's good to see the Afghans getting along like this...
Posted by: Fred Pruitt ||
08/13/2002 07:44 am ||
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New war plans being developed at the Pentagon call for massive use of exotic electronic and psychological-warfare technology to disrupt Saddam Hussein's communications and convince Iraqi soldiers to stay in their barracks. U.S. military officials said last night that a preliminary battle plan outlined for President Bush last week calls for the most extensive use of electronic and psychological warfare in history — including secret new electromagnetic pulse weapons to disable Saddam's entire command and control structure. The threat of which has driven him to radio silence...
Although the plan also calls for the insertion of as many as 75,000 U.S. ground troops, Pentagon planners are hoping to avoid as much bloodshed as possible by defeating Saddam's leadership — not his entire army. There's a certain amount of wishful thinking involved there...
Officials stressed that the new plan, emerging after Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld rejected plans for a more traditional invasion of Iraq involving 250,000 troops, is still being refined and that Bush has not made a final decision on whether to attack Iraq. Trying to do things the easy, cheap way is often a recipe for big problems and high body counts. This is not a good sign...
The new plan was outlined for Bush by Gen. Tommy Franks, head of the Central Command. Who hasn't been a Schwartzkopf to date...
Sources said that separating the Butcher of Baghdad from his military leaders by bombing his command structures and disabling Iraqi communications links would be an early priority. With Saddam likely to go into hiding, psychological warfare units would bombard Iraqi airwaves with messages from special aircraft known as Commando Solo — warning troops to stay in their barracks or be slaughtered, military officials said. Meanwhile, the Mukhabarat will be on the ground, with guns and meat hooks, trying to persuade them to attack the Imperialists. Probably a better idea to blow the barracks...
Posted by: Fred Pruitt ||
08/13/2002 09:56 am ||
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The Bush administration has agreed to finance intelligence operations by the Iraqi opposition. Officials said the Iraqi National Congress would receive an unspecified budget for intelligence missions in Iraq. INC missions would be supervised by the Defense Department. The administration's decision would remove the State Department from overseeing many of the INC activities. Doesn't that stripe yer pants?
The department had been holding up millions of dollars in funds to the Iraqi opposition amid a dispute over the use of the money. For two years, the INC was urging the administration to provide money for intelligence and sabotage missions. The State Department had refused. Looks like the first war that has to be won will be in Washington...
Posted by: Fred Pruitt ||
08/13/2002 01:50 pm ||
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Iranian police have arrested 44 people, including nine women, in separate raids on five "nests of corruption" (brothels) in the southern city of Minab, the afternoon paper Kayhan reported Tuesday. All members of these "corruption gangs" have been arrested, a military official in charge of "moral issues" at Minab's police station told Kayhan. Iran's mounting economic woes have led to an explosion of street prostitution in recent years, despite the use of strawberry jamwhipped creamtrapezesnurse costumescircus midgets the whip and other strict punishments by the Islamic regime over the past two decades. I guess we've figured out what Iranians like to do when they're not at the mosque...
Posted by: Fred Pruitt ||
08/13/2002 02:27 pm ||
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I would think that using "the whip and other strict punishments" might be counterproductive in this particular situation.
Posted by: Chris ||
08/13/2002 15:29 Comments ||
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The Justice Department has chosen Sept. 11 as the starting date for a new program that will require tens of thousands of foreign visitors to be fingerprinted and photographed at the border. Golly. That's barely a year after we were attacked. That's lightning speed for a bureaucracy, I guess...
The security program, developed by the Immigration and Naturalization Service, will begin at several unnamed ports of entry and will mostly affect those from Muslim and Middle Eastern countries. ACLU will be in court that afternoon...
After a 20-day testing period, all remaining ports of entry will implement the new system on Oct. 1, 2002. Attorney General John Ashcroft said the program will correct some of the problems that led to the Sept. 11 attacks. Like crazed killers roaming the country untracked. Now if we could just address the problem of crazed killers roaming the country, tracked or not, we'd be in fine shape...
Posted by: Fred Pruitt ||
08/13/2002 09:59 am ||
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They released a list of Middle Eastern countries whose nationals would be fingerprinted upon arrival in the U.S. Guess which nation was missing from this list? Three guesses and the first two don't count!
Posted by: the ghost of howard beale ||
08/13/2002 23:23 Comments ||
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The government on Monday identified the outlawed militant network Lashkar-i-Jhangvi as the group suspected of launching two attacks on Christian targets last week in which 11 people died. Lashkar-i-Jhangvi has also been linked to the suicide car-bomb attacks in Karachi outside the Sheraton hotel in May and the US consulate in June, and the murder of abducted US journalist Daniel Pearl this year. Police have detained "six or seven" people for questioning over Friday's grenade attack on the Christian Hospital chapel in Taxila, 25km from Islamabad, he said. A day or two ago they thought it was Jaish-e-Mohammad. This type of thing is much more up Lashkar-e-Jhangvi's alley, though. Of course, if we ever get a close look at the rolls of both organizations, we'll probably discover that there's not much difference between the two â probably the average Jaish gunny is a little brighter than his Lashkar counterpart, and the average Lashkar snuffy is more vicious than his Jaish counterpart. I'd guess that many of the same thugs work for both organizations. Which brings me back to the same old question: How do you buy groceries when you spend all your time running around killing people? Where does the money come from?
Posted by: Fred Pruitt ||
08/13/2002 04:00 pm ||
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Congress has signaled that it would be prepared to consider legislation to restrict military relations with Saudi Arabia. House and Senate members said they might examine new initiatives meant to restructure U.S. relations with the kingdom during the next session of Congress. They said this could include legislation to end weapons sales to Saudi Arabia. Such legislation had been introduced during the current congressional session. But it was withdrawn under heavy pressure from the Bush administration. Last month, Rep. Ron Paul, a Texas Republican, withdrew an amendment that would cut arms sales to Saudi Arabia. The amendment did not have the support of the House International Relations Committee. I hope that was just because they don't want somebody jiggling their collective elbow as they unfold some subtle plan. This round might be another warning shot in that plan, though...
Posted by: Fred Pruitt ||
08/13/2002 01:57 pm ||
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Naahhh...the only "plan" our foreign policy establishment has is making sure the Saudi payoffs are moved to offshore accounts.
Posted by: the ghost of howard beale ||
08/13/2002 23:32 Comments ||
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A Fatah militant was killed and six others were wounded when gunmen believed to be rival Islamists fired on their headquarters at a Palestinian camp in south Lebanon. The gunmen raided the Fatah headquarters at the main entrance of the Ain al-Helweh camp at the outskirts of the southern port city of Sidon, using rocket-propelled grenades and assault-rifles. "A bunch o' the boys were whooping it up..."
The Fatah militants at the headquarters and others at the nearby camp entrance checkpoint returned fire and clashed with the assailants for about 10 minutes. One Fatah militant was killed and six others were wounded in the exchange of fire. A wonderful time was had by all, except for the dead and maimed...
Maher Shabayta, the Fatah representative in Ain al-Helweh, told AFP that "the exact identity of the gunmen is still unknown, but they came from the western side of the camp, which is under the control of Islamic movements." Golly. I thought those camps were supposed to be under the control of the UN? Kofi keeps saying they should be in charge of things...
Tension has prevailed at the camp since Islamic groups were forced to hand over on July 16 Lebanese fundamentalist Badih Hamade, who was accused of killing three Lebanese army intelligence officers. Iced 'em, did he? Feh! A mere pecadillo. The inmates could have handled the problem internally with no fuss...
Posted by: Fred Pruitt ||
08/13/2002 10:10 am ||
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Yasser Arafat has come under intense international pressure to make sweeping reforms, and the political factions have been meeting in Gaza City to establish unified positions in preparation for elections in January and other planned changes. The factions meeting in Gaza say they want to create a "national unity leadership" that would include all major groups — including militant movements such as Hamas and Islamic Jihad that have carried out many of the suicide bombings against Israel. "That's not a cabinet! It's a rogues' gallery!"
The Palestinian leadership has said it believes it can exert more influence over Hamas and other militant groups by bringing them into the fold. After all, there aren't that many difference among them...
Arafat's Fatah movement was the driving force behind the current meetings, and it offered a draft proposal that called for an end to attacks against civilians inside Israel. "The idea in this initiative is to stop attacking civilians and limit the resistance" to the West Bank and the Gaza Strip, said Kadoura Fares, a member of parliament from Fatah. But you can't have a "sea of blood" that way, so they'll continue just killing everybody in sight.
Posted by: Fred Pruitt ||
08/13/2002 10:16 am ||
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Within a "matter of days" the militant Islamic Hamas organization could sign a draft political document with Yasser Arafat's Fatah and other groups which could halt attacks on civilians within Israel, Arab MK and former Arafat aide Ahmed Tibi said Monday. They could. They probably won't.
"I believe we are speaking of a total halt to attacks on civilians within the state of Israel," Tibi said, but said the final wording of the understanding had yet to be released. Asked when Hamas might signal its agreement to the document, Tibi told Army Radio: "They are closer than they have ever been in the past." He said that Hamas had helped word the document, "and I believe it is a matter of days until they will give their answer regarding the substance." Even if it does come about, it won't be adhered to. At least one group won't sign it, maybe not Hamas, but some group. And I doubt Hamas will...
In an interview on Radio Monte Carlo, Ismail Hania, a Hamas leader in the Gaza Strip, said that the document will declare that the Palestinian struggle will from now on be concentrated within the areas Israel captured in the 1967 Six-Day War; namely the West Bank and Gaza Strip. The Hamas leader said that while Hamas has been involved in discussions on the document, the militant group has yet to give final approval for it to be delivered to Arafat. And since he has no control over them — so much for a Paleostinian "authority" — he's dependent upon their whims...
Posted by: Fred Pruitt ||
08/13/2002 12:17 pm ||
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Palestinian Authority Chairman Yasser Arafat's personal wealth is estimated at some 1.3 billion dollars, the head of military intelligence, General Aharon Zeevi Farkash, disclosed during a meeting of the Knesset's Security and Foreign Affairs Committee Tuesday, Itim news agency reported. At $10 a case, that's 130 million cases of beer...
Posted by: Fred Pruitt ||
08/13/2002 08:30 pm ||
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Despite a $50 million U.S. aid package and a push by Washington to renew military ties, a new report suggests Indonesia's military created the network now said to be Southeast Asia's most serious terrorist threat. The report, released by the International Crisis Group, a Brussels, Belgium-based think tank, says that Jemaah Islamiyah - a shadowy group allegedly trying to topple governments in Southeast Asia and carve out an Islamic state — was created in the 1970's by the head of Indonesia's military intelligence. I linked to this report a couple days ago. Or you can get it in pdf format here...
The goal was to compromise Muslim opponents of then-dictator Suharto and to depict them as fundamentalists, the document said. "If you scratch any radical Islamic group in Indonesia, you will find some security forces involvement," Sidney Jones, the International Crisis Group country director, said Monday. "These links need further investigation." Sounds like a replay of the Pak ISI-Lashkar-e-Taiba et al. alliance...
The report's release could embarrass the Bush administration, which has made renewing links with Indonesia's military — cut three years ago because of human rights abuses — a centerpiece of its anti-terror strategy in Southeast Asia. I don't think it "embarrasses" Bush. What's he expected to do? Set up a new government for Indonesia using imports and deal only with them? He has to work with the tools at hand...
It comes after accusations by former President Abdurrahman Wahid that Laskar Jihad, another extremist organization accused of killing thousands of Christians in the Maluku islands, was set up by hard-line generals opposed to democratic reforms after Suharto's fall in 1999. Unheard of. Who'da thunkit? I'm sure it's nice to live in a world of lilies and warm milk, where such revelations actually cause surprise. Kinda like "Perfect" in the Walgreen's commercials, where trousers never wrinkle...
Posted by: Fred Pruitt ||
08/13/2002 12:28:43 PM ||
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An American who trained at an al-Qaeda military camp in Afghanistan said he does not expect another terrorist attack of the same scale as Sept. 11, but feels certain more strikes will come. ``They got lucky once. There's never going to be anything that big again,'' Aukai Collins told a gathering of law enforcement officials in Quincy yesterday. That's comforting. But it won't be for lack of trying. I think the usual tactic has been to go for something big, then wait until the heat's off and the rubes have forgotten or minimized what happened, then blow something else up...
Collins, a San Diego native who found Islam in a California youth detention center, went to the Middle East in the mid-1990s to help Chechnyan nationals fight for independence from Russia. He soured on the idea of being an Islamic freedom fighter after he lost his leg in combat with the Russian army while some of his compatriots began kidnapping and killing tourists in Egypt. Hmmm... Losing a leg. That'd do it. Bet it was part of a matched set. There you are with only one leg, and you suddenly notice that all the people around you are bloodthirsty killers. How fast can you hobble?
One of several speakers yesterday at a seminar run by the Virginia-based Terrorism Research Center, Collins said the al-Qaeda training camps were not particularly well organized. ``Everybody has this idea that al-Qaeda is a big sophisticated organization with thousands of well-financed operatives in every corner of the world,'' he said. ``Al-Qaeda is like an idea or a movement, and you have to understand it before you can fight against it.'' I understand we have to kill all of them we can find, and blow legs off the rest. I hope the gummint does, too.
He said al-Qaeda resents feeling like its world is being invaded by ``the West.'' And the United States' staunch support for Israel offends al-Qaeda supporters of Arab descent. Too bad they're so easily offended. Killing little five years old in their beds offends me, too. Crashing airplanes into skyscrapers full of people offends me. And I feel like my world is being threatened by nutbags in turbans.
Posted by: Fred Pruitt ||
08/13/2002 07:44 am ||
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Regarding ALL of the above:
Why do we not remove EVERY ONE of these terrorist animals and their backers, from the face of this earth? To hell with diplomacy and military quid pro quo.
Posted by: Allah the Dog Faced God ||
08/13/2002 23:10 Comments ||
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We aren't removing them because our "leaders" are on the payroll of the backers!
Posted by: the ghost of howard beale ||
08/13/2002 23:26 Comments ||
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A Muslim convert who claimed he had been a âtrophyâ scapegoat for the authorities after the September 11 attacks was cleared yesterday of trying to recruit Islamic terrorists by offering weapons training on his website. Sulayman Zain-ul-abidin, had set up the Ultimate Jihad Challenge website offering live firearms training on a £3,000, two-week course in America. This is the guy offering "Islamic threat management."
Mr Zain-ul-abidin, 44, from Greenwich, southeast London, maintained that he was running a security service and disregarded any inquiries which thought he was recruiting people for a holy war. He had been fighting a war of words against attempts in the media to demonise Islam. The only person to have taken a course in the last couple of years had been a Sainsburyâs security guard. Meaning he didn't get any takers on the "Ultimate Jihad" course? Then who was it shot up the course?
Posted by: Fred Pruitt ||
08/13/2002 07:44 am ||
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The US government is considering plans to send elite military units on missions to assassinate al-Qaida leaders in countries around the world, without necessarily informing the governments involved. The Pentagon is discussing proposals which could see special operations units dispatched to capture or kill terrorists wherever they are be lieved to be hiding, despite a long-standing presidential order forbidding US personnel from carrying out assassinations abroad. "We're at war with al-Qaida. If we find an enemy combatant, then we should be able to use military force to take military action against them," a senior adviser to the defence secretary, Donald Rumsfeld, was quoted as saying. That would seem to be a logical step, but not one you talk about it public...
The plan was said to be causing concerns in other parts of the US government because it might blur the line between army activity and missions usually handled, under strict legal guidelines, by the Central Intelligence Agency. The foyer to the State Department is six inches deep in pee right now. The stench is overwhelming. And some poor deputy assistant undersecretary had to wade through it to leak this item...
Posted by: Fred Pruitt ||
08/13/2002 10:27 am ||
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Don't be so harsh! You have to feel for the chaps at State...who the hell is going to pay Skipper's tuition at Choate if the Saudi princes start coming down with Excedrin Headache Number .223?
Posted by: the ghost of howard beale ||
08/13/2002 23:36 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.
