U.S. forces in Afghanistan launched a search and arrest campaign on Monday, in the eastern state of Konar. This comes one day after IslamOnline published a letter attributed to Saudi dissident Osama Bin Laden, the worldâs most wanted man. I've been thinking of putting up a translation of a postcard I got from him last week. I still have the translation, but I lost the original, y'know...
This also came after news of communication between the Afghan leader Gulbuddin Hekmatyar and the Al-Qaeda, headed by Bin Laden, aiming to reestablish the movement and to expel Americans from the country. That's probably the real reason. Even though he's been trying to keep a low profile, Gulbuddin probably represents more of a threat at this time than Binny's organization. The Hezb in alliance with remnants of the Talibs and al-Qaeda under Zawahiri is even more of a threat.
Earlier on Thursday, August 22, U.S. forces arrested five Jihad leaders and elite members in Konar. Among them was Haji Rohullah, head of the Political committee of the Call for Quran and Sunna Group and member of the Afghani national council, the Loya Jirga. Their arrest was confirmed by the office of the Call for Qurâan and Sunna Group. The group is a new one on me...
Speaking to IslamOnline over the phone from the Pakistani border city of Bajour, Naqeebullah, brother of Haji Rohullah said that he (Rohullah), went to Jalalabad upon the invitation of government officials from the states of Nangarhar and Laghman to study the security and economic situation in the eastern states (Nangarhar, Konar and Laghman). On Thursday, the chief of the U.S. forces in Konar asked to meet Rohullah and brought him to the Surkano camp in Konar. âAs soon as he arrived, the U.S. forces arrested them and transferred them by a U.S. helicopter to the Bagram airport,â he said. Tough, when they get the goods on you, ain't it?
Naqeebullah added that a large delegation consisting of the elites in Konar and Bajour went to Kabul to meet with the head of the interim government and to tell him of the situation. Responding to a question on the reasons for their arrest he said: âWe donât know any reason. Haji Rohullah supported the interim government and has good relations with the head of the government and the ministers and he is working for the good of the Afghani people." "He is pure as the driven snow, innocent as a baby. He loves his mother. He's a good family man. He bakes cookies, you know, and gives them to poor people. There was talk that he may be the next Pope..."
âHe has worked very hard to stabilize the situation and solve problems in the state of Konar and he is helping the government as well as the United Nations in their mission to destroy the opium fields in the eastern states. He was also an elected member in the Loya Jirga representing Konar.â "And everybody knows that politicians aren't crooks. Especially in Afghanistan..."
Sources told IslamOnline that the mayor of Konar, Sayed Mohamad Youssef and the field leader Jandad, went to Kabul to study Rohullahâs situation and his companionsâ arrest because the residents of Konar have started to panic and be frightened of these sudden arrests. Don't know who's next, do they? Guilty consciences popping out all over, I guess...
Posted by: Fred Pruitt ||
08/27/2002 09:13 am ||
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Hekmatyar:
He served his Taleban exile in Iran, and his Hezbites consistently sought reconciliation with those cave-men. Hek is number one on a lot of hit lists, including that of the USAF. Better run boy!
Posted by: Allah the Dog Faced God ||
08/27/2002 20:22 Comments ||
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Iraq and Kuwait have agreed on the detailed arrangements for Iraq's returning of Kuwaiti national archives, an UN envoy said on Monday. Iraq will begin to transfer the documents within the next few weeks after the United Nations working group gets ready for the operation, Richard Foran, an envoy of UN Secretary-General Kofi Annan for missing Kuwaiti documentation said. Foran also expressed his appreciation of Iraq's efforts to facilitate the operation. "Oh, yes, thank you so-o-o-o-o-o much. I mean, it's only been ten years..."
Posted by: Fred Pruitt ||
08/27/2002 09:13 am ||
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Iraq renewed a call for talks with the United Nations but branded the UN disarmament chief a "spy," as US Vice President Dick Cheney urged swift, pre-emptive military action against Baghdad. "We confirm that Iraq is free of weapons of mass destruction and inspectors are just spies," Vice President Taha Yassin Ramadan said Tuesday, calling nonetheless for more talks between Baghdad and the UN on a return of inspectors. Guess that settles that. Kofi, have them shot!
"The US administration has made it clear through President (George W.) Bush that the problem was not the return of inspectors but the Iraqi regime," which Washington wants to topple, he said. Since the inspectors didn't do any good while they were there...
Ramadan called on UN Secretary General Kofi Annan to fix a date "for a new round of talks," expressing hope the UN Security Council would free itself from American hegemony. Annan and Iraqi Foreign Minister Naji Sabri have held three rounds of talks since the start of the year but each time dialogue has stalled on the issue of disarmament. That's what was supposed to happen. If you don't want to disarm, and you have to disarm, the way to avoid it is to hold talks that go on and on and on. Eventually either the Last Trumpet will sound, or you'll have enough armaments in stock that nobody will be able to make you disarm.
Posted by: Fred Pruitt ||
08/27/2002 09:14 am ||
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Billionaire Saudi businessman Prince Al-Walid bin Talal bin Abdul Aziz urged the United States to avoid getting dragged into another Vietnam in Iraq. "I am one of the biggest investors in the United States, if not the biggest one, and I say this as a very close friend and ally of the United States," he said Tuesday, in an interview with CNN. Just oozing love and goodwill and friendship...
"We don't want to have another Vietnam; we can't afford another Vietnam," stressed Walid, a nephew of King Fahd. He said the "V" word. We should all be so frightened. What he's really afraid of is that we'll have another Gulf War...
He rejected criticism of Saudi Arabia's public stance against a new war to oust President Saddam Hussein. "It's the same position of almost all Arab countries, of almost all the world, that is to give more time to Iraq to abide by UN resolutions and not to attack. "I mean, it's only been ten years. Why rush things?"
"I don't think that we have exhausted all the channels and all the possibilities to have Saddam Hussein and his Iraqi regime succumb to reality and accept the implementation of UN resolutions."
Posted by: Fred Pruitt ||
08/27/2002 09:19 am ||
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A Sod-all saying that we must wait for Saddam to "succumb to reality"! I almost passed out laughing over that. The day we see the Islamists succumbing to reality is the day I go ice skating in Hell.
Posted by: Dee Bates ||
08/29/2002 4:07 Comments ||
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President Saddam Hussein said Iraq had fulfilled all its commitments to UN Security Council resolutions slapped on it for invading Kuwait in 1990. "Iraq has fulfilled all the commitments imposed on it by the UN Security Council but (the council) has not fulfilled the commitments contained in its own resolutions, notably the respect of Iraq's independence and sovereignty and the lifting of the unjust embargo," Saddam told the official INA news agency Tuesday. Yeah. Damn them.
Saddam added that US threats to strike Iraq, which Washington accuses of developing weapons of mass destruction and harbouring terrorists, "are not aimed only at Iraq but the entire Arab world." "They're comin' to get you guys, too. Just you wait and see..."
Any settlement of the problem between Iraq and the United Nations "must rely on international law and the UN charter," Saddam said during talks in Baghdad with Qatari Foreign Minister Sheikh Hamad bin Jaber al-Thani. The settlement "must not be biased" and must end up with "all parties fulfilling their reciprocal commitments," the Iraqi leader said. "Yup. We can talk about the interpretation of all that stuff for years. Ummm... By the way, you guys gonna use that uranium? We want to, uhhh... make some table lamps and we heard it's really good for weighting the bases."
INA reported that Sheikh Hamad informed Saddam of the "rejection by all Arab countries, including Qatar, of US threats, which constitute a danger for the whole region". Of course...
"We hope that a military operation will not take place, that Iraq and the United Nations agree on international resolutions and settle the issue of weapons inspectors, and that the latter start their work in Iraq," Sheikh Hamad told reporters after his one-day visit to Baghdad. We hope that military operations don't take place, too. We hope that some dark and stormy night the Iraqis decide they'd be better off without Sammy and the Tikriti mafia and make them all have "terrible accidents." If that doesn't happen, too bad, huh?
Posted by: Fred Pruitt ||
08/27/2002 09:45 am ||
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The White House has charged those who oppose military action on Iraq with âwillful blindnessâ to the mortal threat Baghdad poses, and said launching an attack is U.S. President George W. Bushâs decision alone. Amid slipping public support for ousting Saddam Hussein and a growing chorus of skepticism about Bushâs Iraq policy, Vice President Dick Cheney made the administrationâs most forceful case yet for military action. âWhat we must not do in the face of a mortal threat is to give in to wishful thinking or willful blindness,â Cheney said Monday, August 26, in a speech to the national convention of Veterans of Foreign Wars in Nashville, Tennessee. They're being pushed into a position where they're going to have to do something before the combination of the Left and the Soddy lobby has an actual effect on opinion...
âWe will not simply look away, hope for the best and leave the matter for some future administration to resolve,â he added, saying that the United States would work with its allies but had a moral obligation to act. Cheney said Washington would pursue thus-far vain efforts to rally its allies and nations in the region behind military action, but hammered home the point that the world cannot wait until Saddam acquires nuclear weapons. The solution to me, old-fashioned as I am, would seem to be to identify the causus belli and call for a declaration of war. Iraq would have the chance of surrendering or fighting. And Iraq's allies could either join in the fight or decide they were neutrals and stay the hell out. But for some reason we don't do declarations of war anymore.
Posted by: Fred Pruitt ||
08/27/2002 09:13 am ||
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Do we really think the Soddy Lobby is doing them any good? Seems like they are just embarassing themselves. Who is on record as supporting them? Cynthia McKinney?
The Left have a big problem. The only strong argument they have is blatant appeasement and few are swallowing it. Somehow "My Son/Daughter is an Honor Student Suicide Bomber" would not stick on too many bumpers.
As for the Declaration of War, I think the one I heard was the State of the Union Address.
Lt General (retired) Hameed Gul, a former chief of Inter Services Intelligence (ISI) and a prominent defence analyst has observed that the US would mount pressure on the military junta of Pakistan to get a tacit approval of launching a ground and air combat in Pakistan against so-called Al-Qaeda that would eventually endanger the nuclear capability of Pakistan. Lawsy, wouldn't want that to happen. (Why would we do that? I can't think of a reason, unless they intend to go to the brink of war with India again sometime soon...)
General Gul categorically said that Osama bin Laden was not in Pakistan. âHe must be in Afghanistan.... if he is with his friends. But, if he is not there, he must be in US", the General said. He was of the view that Americans have conducted no major operations against Osama in its so-called fight against terrorism. In fact, US forces have faced major setbacks there. Catching Abu Zubaydah was a big setback. Cracking some of the financial backing and getting into the ratsnest of the Soddy NGO network didn't help us a bit...
Posted by: Fred Pruitt ||
08/27/2002 09:53 am ||
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Pakistan has a long coast in Balochistan and Sindh provinces. Gwadar, Balochistan, is the area United States and other powers had long been dreaming of to occupy. Yes, I often dream of occupying lovely Gwadar, followed soon by the whole of Balochistan. It occupies most of my waking thoughts, too...
Washington thinks now is the most appropriate time to materialize this dream. Keeping in view the deteriorating situation in the Middle East over Palestine issue, US president George Bush, who himself deals in oil business, ... He was in trade, you know? They don't like to talk about it...
earnestly desires to grab the Central Asian wealth at the earliest. Mr. Bush made Pakistan president Pervez Musharraf, Afghanistan prime minister Hamid Karzai and the Kazakistan president to sign a gas pipeline agreement at a time when Pakistanâs old enemy India had deployed its forces along the border at aggressive positions. Under the agreement, the pipeline will, en route Afghanistan and Pakistan, reach Gwadar port in Balochistan, where the US will sell out the gas. As an important step in the completion of the plan, Pakistan finance minister Shaukat Aziz has in the budget announced in June for the next fiscal declared that Gwadar will be made a free port. A free port! Horrors! Uh... What's wrong with that?
Apparently, it is very appeasing to see that multi-national companies from across the world will transact their trade at the Gwadar free port and provide the country much-needed foreign exchange. Despite all the development to be brought in by the arrival of these multi-nationals, one must not forget the dreadful aspects of the plan. Yasss... Multinationals. Dreadful. Do tell on, sirrah...
What will be the results when, like the East India Company, unbelievers from across the world will turn to the port? Oh, no! Not unbelievers! Y'mean, like, infidels? Oh, Ethel! Get me my pills!
It will be desirable to have a look at the free port of Dubai to understand the new threat looming large on Pakistan. It is true that Dubai has very much benefited from its free port and the small state that had no mineral wealth is now one of the rich nations. But the other side of the coin is that Jewish firms have practically taken hold of the state. The local trade companies could not compete with these multi-nationals and were flopped. The Jews can steer Dubai to starvation by withdrawing their capital whenever they desire so. Ahah! Everybody knows that! They do it two or three times a week, some weeks! The poor Doo-babs of Dubai never know what to expect, except for Thursdays, which is set aside for oppression and despair every week...
The Jews have overcome the government and its policies due to which the civilization and culture of this Muslim country has totally changed. Now the nation looks like a part of Europe instead of Muslims. There is a wave of vulgarity and immorality that has ravaged the disposition of the Arabs. Oh, no! Vulgarity! Immorality! Europe! Oh, God! Don't let it look like Bucharest!
In short, the Jews have taken hostage the country in the name of trade. It is for this reason that Dubai is the only Arab country where Israeli embassy has been established. Well, there's your evidence right there, isn't it? That clinches it...
Posted by: Fred Pruitt ||
08/27/2002 12:10 pm ||
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Me, I'm dreaming of to occupy a New Mexico sheep ranch and myself deal in sheep business. If that ever happens, Tucumcari will be about all the vulgarity and immorality I'll have to worry about.
Posted by: Chris ||
08/27/2002 13:32 Comments ||
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The Israeli settlers council launched a campaign aimed at convincing the government of "defeating the Palestinians and finishing the war." The settlers' decision came two days after the Israeli chief of staff, General Moshe Yaalon, said "Palestinian terrorism was spreading like a cancer" and called for tough military action to "defeat the Palestinians." In a statement, the settlers urged the government to order the army to continue its policy of systematic sweeps across the Palestinians territories for wanted militants. Sounds a lot more like common sense than fanaticism to me. Talking to the Paleos and relying on the Paleo "security" apparatus was a total loss with no insurance. It's what made Oslo a four-letter word...
Posted by: Fred Pruitt ||
08/27/2002 09:13 am ||
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Israel nabbed two Palestinian political leaders, pressing ahead with its policy of arrests in the West Bank even as security talks to ease the tension were underway. The army captured three members of the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine (PFLP) in the West Bank city of Ramallah, two of them senior political leaders, Palestinian security sources said Tuesday. "This means Israel is continuing its policy of assassination and arrests to weaken the PFLP, because it is the second most important faction in the PLO and because it is a faction which will prevent Israel from implementing its vision of a political and security solution," senior PFLP official Kaid al-Ghul told AFP. Wonderful idea! As long as they keep arresting and/or bumping off the head cheeses, the head cheese position becomes a little less desirable each time. Eventually it'll be hard to find anybody willing to be the goat. The organization will fall into disuse (they're never disbanded) and they can start all over again with a new organization under a new name and new leadership...
"It is no coincidence that this happened on the anniversary of the assassination of Abu Ali Mustapha," he said, in reference to the then leader of the radical secular movement killed in an Israeli helicopter attack last year. Prob'ly not. Some of us don't care...
The PFLP retaliated two months later by assassinating Israeli tourism minister Rehavam Zeevi. That's 'cuz dire revenge is a requirement if you want to be a Muslim...
Posted by: Fred Pruitt ||
08/27/2002 09:13 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.
