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Mullah Omar, Hekmatyar make kissy face... Rasool Sayyaf invited to join...
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Page 1: WoT Operations
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Express yourself...
Chris Johnson, at Midwest Conservative Fiskatorium Journal, addresses the latest utterances from Stalinists with Pulpits the World Council of Churches. The results are masterful, and if they paid any attention to what real people thought of them they'd go out of business. But they won't, because they'd have to find real jobs, and they don't think they'd look good in paper hats.
Before you go, take time for a quick lesson in Liberal expressions.

"Liberal", with apologies to Dr Weevil, comes from the proto-Hittite word liberawu, meaning "would you like some of this guy's money?" (I am not aware of any evidence that this is indeed the case, but a complete investigation might discover it to be so.) Liberals are only allowed to have four facial expressions:
  • Benevolence: Reserved for handing out checks and sometimes for asking for donations. Smile. You're on camera.
  • Indignation: Used when discussing war, the environment, lead paint, Republicans, the oil industry, the pharmaceuticals industry, strip mining, the Boy Scouts, pizza deliveries to bad neighborhoods... Lower your brow and pull your lips back to show as many molars as you can.
  • Concern: Used when discussing war, the environment, etc., as above, but with the addition of The Children™. To be concerned, furrow your brow, keep your lips together and stare either to one side or at your belly button.
  • Alarm: Raise your eyebrows, form your mouth into an "O", form a fist with one hand, and bite down on a knuckle.
Got all that? Don't forget to apply your expressions as you read... Oh, and one other thing: be careful not to bump into anything or listen to anything, uh... illiberal; you'll bruise. Liberals are very sensitive, y'know?
Posted by: Fred Pruitt || 09/04/2002 10:32 am || Comments || Link || [0 views] Top|| File under:

#1  "Support" was probably too strong for my position, at least given its usual interpretation. I support their right to exist within the pre-1967 borders. And to my mind, US connections to Israel, at the highest political levels, are much stronger than any Italian or Greek immigrants. That might change if the surrounding region goes signicantly more democratic, or at least less threatening.
Posted by: Dan Hartung || 09/05/2002 9:28 Comments || Top||

#2  Fred, get off the Liberal bashing. The Liberal/Conservative dichotomy died with a lot of other things on 9/11. Many old liberals favor intervention in Iraq. Many old conservatives don't. And so on. Look at this specific person, not the tired old rhetoric. Otherwise you've got a great site. Stop fighting yesterday's wars.
Posted by: R. Simon || 09/04/2002 15:55 Comments || Top||

#3  yeah, right R. Simon...there are SO MANY liberals supporting the war on terrorism and expressing support for the Israelis as well as the "intervention" in Iraq...and most conservatives want to look for the root causes of why they hate us...and pigs can fly? Behind all liberal/conservative "dichotomy" is some history of reading the WCC et al saying some incredibly stupid things. Keep up the fine work Fred
Posted by: Fgaines || 09/04/2002 16:42 Comments || Top||

#4  R. Simon,

I disagree. 9/11 was no magic wand to cure idiocy. Sure there are liberals who support intervention in Iraq. Even before 9/11 it was a truism that individual persons don't fit perfectly into any one mold.

Clearly the attack here is on the mold. If you don't fit into it, good.
Posted by: Wilde || 09/04/2002 16:45 Comments || Top||

#5  Oh, R. Simon, Libs are alive and well, they just take different names like Greenies, TransProgs, Clintonistas, etc.
In the post 9/11 context and especially here in the (war)blogosphere, we primarily concern ourselves with that curious Liberal peacenik animal, the Idiotarian.
See Charles Johson and Little Green Footballs for more details.

Fred, don't change a thing! You rock!
Posted by: Jennie Taliaferro || 09/04/2002 16:54 Comments || Top||

#6  Allow me an occasional moment of liberal bashing, please! I go day after day, day in and day out, bashing Islamists and their kindred Master Racists. I've taken an occasional break to make faces at the Federal Bureau of Ineptitude, the Antiglobalist Anarchokiddies, Pashtuns, Hindu Brownshirts, the Pak coppers, Perv, Pak preachers, Soddy princes, preachers, and crazed killers, mullahs, ayatollahs, and other potentates, Advani, Vajpayee, multiculturalists, Nazis, Il Duce, commies, various other governments, and, of course, most of the continent of Europe. I think I've even managed a thump at Canada a time or two. Why should liberals get off the hook? I take pride in being an Equal Opportunity Basher.

I might add that I'm Concerned™ that anyone would think otherwise. I might even say I'm Alarmed™ at the implications, should such an idea get around. I hope this doesn't have a Chilling Effect™ on the Free Exchange of Information™.
Posted by: Fred || 09/04/2002 19:06 Comments || Top||

#7  Well, I liked the bit about the four facial expressions, so we'll let the whole piece pass. And I'd like to think that I could constructively oppose the Iraq enterprise (as it is, I'm on the fence), keep my liberal nametag, AND support a Palestinian state without dropping support for the whole war on terrorism or against Islamofascism and supporting Israel AND not lose my bona fides regarding sensibility in the process.

It's a tall stack of china and the kitchen is so, so near ...
Posted by: Dan Hartung || 09/04/2002 22:03 Comments || Top||


Islamic news interrupted by porn
Occam's Toothbrush made my day...
Viewers of Iran's Islamic News Network were shocked to find their broadcast interrupted by hardcore porn.
"Don't look, Miryam!"
Residents watching the daily news in Hamedan, a province renowned for its religious fanaticism, were treated to a surprise three-minute clip of graphic sexual scenes.
Too late. She already saw where they hide the baloney...
"Aredeshir! Why don't your buttocks bounce like that?"

The distribution of porn in Iran is punishable by execution. "It was an immoral and dirty sex film - in fact it's the dirtiest thing I've ever seen," complained one viewer.
... wiping his chin repeatedly.
According to Tehran daily Jomhurieh Islami, the state-run News Network have confirmed the incident and are launching an investigation.
In solidarity with the people of Iran, tonight I think I'll... ummm... Yes, dear.
Posted by: Fred Pruitt || 09/04/2002 03:24 pm || Comments || Link || [0 views] Top|| File under:

#1  Oh man, this is too much. Talk about subversion! - I particularly like the fact that it's a 'province renowned for its religious fanaticism' that got the skin-flick.
Posted by: Tony || 09/04/2002 20:23 Comments || Top||


Afghanistan
Mullah Omar, Hekmatyar make kissy face... Sayyaf invited to join...
Unemployed potentate Taliban revolution leader Mullah Omar and Hizb-e-Islami leader and gorilla [sic] commander Gulbadin Hikmatyar have joined forces to free Afghanistan from the clutches of foreign forces. Both have also contacted Noorstai tribes’ leader Prof. Abdul Rab Rasool Sayyaf, who has signaled both leaders to strive together in their cause.
Sayyaf is the Saudis' man on the ground with the Northern Alliance. He heads the wahhabi political party, Ittehad-i-Islami, and he was the political link between Hekmatyar and Abdallah Azzam, bin Laden's partner in Maktab al-Khidamat (Services Office).
All this has been noticed by the Northern Alliance who has Prof. Sayaf under strict observation. Increasing deployment of American forces in Afghanistan is due to the fears of a coalition that has formed against it. Reliable sources say that Afghans are reuniting once again against the foreign intruders.
"Reliable" is a pretty fluid term, but pray tell on...
According to sources, this agreement was reached formally in Khost Mountains, over 15 days ago. Mullah Omar and Gulbadin have messaged their followers to forget the past rivalries and kick the foreign forces out of Afghanistan, together.
They can argue over who gets to cut whose head off later. Hekmatyar's been pushing for an alliance with the Talibs since last November, since he thinks they'll make useful tools that he can discard later. Thinking on it, though, I wonder if this alliance was the impetus for the latest "letter from bin Laden"?
Both the leaders have also agreed to invite all other forces in Afghanistan who are against the US for one reason or another. In reply, Prof. Sayyaf has replied positively through a renowned cleric of Nooristan. According to sources, Prof. Sayyaf harbors strong anti-US sentiments, but considering he is a member of the Northern Alliance, he is bound to support them.
He's always been a viper in the Northern Alliance bosom. Perhaps he'll overplay his hand this time and somebody will kill him.
Posted by: Fred Pruitt || 09/04/2002 09:34 am || Comments || Link || [1 views] Top|| File under:

#1  Actually, long before 9-11, I downloaded some Hekmatyar' ahl-Sunnat pleadings for Taleban inclusion, from the Hezb' website. Yet, Hek spent his Taleban- exile in Shia polluted Iran. And the Hezbis post Maudoodi' khutbah as Muslim' gospel. Maybe he wants to he the next Khalif.
Posted by: Allah the Dog Faced God || 09/04/2002 20:02 Comments || Top||


Home Front
ISNA Convention Calls for Self-Reflection, Activism
The 39th annual Islamic Society of North America (ISNA) convention, closed Monday, September 2, 2002. A message of self-reflection and inclusive activism for the American Muslim community was offered.
Better late than never, I guess...
A wide variety of speakers touched on these messages, from the popular scholar Hamza Yusuf, whose lectures over-attended often forced security officials to close the doors early, to congressmen and academicians speaking at ISNA for the first time. The third day of the conference opened with the usual 11 parallel sessions, with former ISNA president Shaikh Abdallah Idris Ali and Muslim Students' Association president Altaf Husain among the speakers addressing the "Quest for Islamic Legitimacy." Other sessions during the same period dealt with everything from family and education to Islamic finance and refugee issues. In Sunday's second main session, regarding the emotional and psychological aspects of the impact of September 11, both Imams Siraj Wahhaj and Hamza Yusuf urged Muslims to take an active role in working for and with the world around them, and avoid selfish isolationism. Yusuf said that Muslims need to change the way they talk about non-Muslims, for one step. "We must redress the way we have spoken about other religions," he said. "When we denigrate other religions of others, we are not glorifying God who created those people, we are glorifying ourselves."
He's got a point, but it's not a point most Muslims will take. Sufis, maybe, and Ismailis, but not the Salafists and Wahhabis and the Deobandis. Hollering "Death to Infidels" isn't the best way to get along with one's neighbors. Regarding oneself as a member of a Master Race Religion is not the way to win friends and influence people. And as long as being a member of the Ummah takes precedence over citizenship they'll be regarded as disloyal, since they are by definition, no matter how much the handwringers bleat about "tolerance." Unless tolerance flows both ways, it's intolerable.
Posted by: Fred Pruitt || 09/04/2002 09:08 am || Comments || Link || [0 views] Top|| File under:

#1  I believe that "Hamza Yusef" was born Mark Hansen, and self-converted to Islam while reading the Koran during convalescence from a car accident. I wish somebody had slipped him a Catechism to read. Seriously, the ISNA convention should have received better coverage.
Posted by: Allah the Dog Faced God || 09/04/2002 23:29 Comments || Top||

#2  refugee issues...what a quaint euphemism, just like the Palestinian "right of return"
Posted by: Brian || 09/04/2002 12:25 Comments || Top||

#3  Its funny how you guys bleat about respect from muslims without dishing any out yourselves. I mean just look at the pathetic name of the imbecile who sent the first post. Your disrespecting God whatever form you follow him in, Allah means the one God , he isnt just muslims god hes the universal god.
Posted by: ADAM || 09/22/2004 18:08 Comments || Top||

#4  Adam,
Allah = Al Ilah, a moon god of old Arabia. It has its origins in Mesopotamian Sin and Cannaanite Baal.

Evidence gathered from both North and South Arabia demonstrate that Moon-god worship was clearly active even in Muhammad's day and was still the dominant cult. According to numerous inscriptions, while the name of the Moon-god was Sin, his title was al-ilah, i.e. "the deity," meaning that he was the chief or high god among the gods. As Coon pointed out, "The god Il or Ilah was originally a phase of the Moon God." The Moon-god was called al-ilah, i.e. the god, which was shortened to Allah in pre-Islamic times. The pagan Arabs even used Allah in the names they gave to their children. For example, both Muhammad's father and uncle had Allah as part of their names.

The fact that they were given such names by their pagan parents proves that Allah was the title for the Moon-god even in Muhammad's day. Prof. Coon goes on to say, "Similarly, under Mohammed's tutelage, the relatively anonymous Ilah, became Al-Ilah, The God, or Allah, the Supreme Being."

This fact answers the questions, "Why is Allah never defined in the Qur'an? Why did Muhammad assume that the pagan Arabs already knew who Allah was?" Muhammad was raised in the religion of the Moon-god Allah. But he went one step further than his fellow pagan Arabs. While they believed that Allah, i.e. the Moon-god, was the greatest of all gods and the supreme deity in a pantheon of deities, Muhammad decided that Allah was not only the greatest god but the only god.

In effect he said, "Look, you already believe that the Moon-god Allah is the greatest of all gods. All I want you to do is to accept that the idea that he is the only god. I am not taking away the Allah you already worship. I am only taking away his wife and his daughters and all the other gods." This is seen from the fact that the first point of the Muslim creed is not, "Allah is great" but "Allah is the greatest," i.e., he is the greatest among the gods. Why would Muhammad say that Allah is the "greatest" except in a polytheistic context? The Arabic word is used to contrast the greater from the lesser. That this is true is seen from the fact that the pagan Arabs never accused Muhammad of preaching a different Allah than the one they already worshipped. This "Allah" was the Moon-god according to the archeological evidence. Muhammad thus attempted to have it both ways. To the pagans, he said that he still believed in the Moon-god Allah. To the Jews and the Christians, he said that Allah was their God too. But both the Jews and the Christians knew better and that is why they rejected his god Allah as a false god.

Al-Kindi, one of the early Christian apologists against Islam, pointed out that Islam and its god Allah did not come from the Bible but from the paganism of the Sabeans. They did not worship the God of the Bible but the Moon-god and his daughters al-Uzza, al-Lat and Manat. Dr. Newman concludes his study of the early Christian-Muslim debates by stating, "Islam proved itself to be...a separate and antagonistic religion which had sprung up from idolatry." Islamic scholar Caesar Farah concluded "There is no reason, therefore, to accept the idea that Allah passed to the Muslims from the Christians and Jews." The Arabs worshipped the Moon-god as a supreme deity. But this was not biblical monotheism. While the Moon-god was greater than all other gods and goddesses, this was still a polytheistic pantheon of deities. Now that we have the actual idols of the Moon-god, it is no longer possible to avoid the fact that Allah was a pagan god in pre-Islamic times. Is it any wonder then that the symbol of Islam is the crescent moon? That a crescent moon sits on top of their mosques and minarets? That a crescent moon is found on the flags of Islamic nations? That the Muslims fast during the month which begins and ends with the appearance of the crescent moon in the sky?
Posted by: Memesis || 09/22/2004 18:20 Comments || Top||

#5  Memesis, You mean it isn't based on Sailor Moon? Shucks!

Wasn't Allah a black rock in some temple (the Ka’aba) in Mecca? I read somewhere that at first the Islamic God did not have a name, then it was 'Ar Rahman' a god foreign to Mecca and then changed to Allah (the Mecca moon god).
Posted by: CrazyFool || 09/22/2004 18:31 Comments || Top||

#6  Ka'aba was worshipped as a Ilah's gift, so a part of the moon-god's cult.

Some segments of Q'uran can be traced to Aramaic apocryphal version of NT that Moe undoubtedly knew, some expressions and etymology poibnt into that direction. So, yes, Moe first incorporated the christian-judaic concept of nameless god, but that wouldn't fly in the polytheistic Arabia well.
Since al-ilah was the predominant deity, Moe simpl adopted it, thus deflecting the resistance against the new idea. Not that he was successfull first. But once he discarded the original core of the judeo-christian codex and replaced it with ideas more appropriate and reflecting the Arab cultural environment, his cult started to take off.

If you analyse Q'uran chronologically, the transformation is clearly discernable. The gradual replacement is also the source of contradictions, which led to different interpretations--the number of sects that existed trough the 1400 years is long.

The typical chronologist sects like Salafis (Wahhabis) maintain that the later suras take precedence over earlier ones. Needless to say that that more later a sura is, the more violence it contains.

That is also becoming the mainstream point of view, as Wahhabi madrassas have been spread far and wide across the globe in the last 50 years and their violent warped version has been imprinted into too many young receptive minds.

Because of that, I believe Islam is not reformable. One day, it would have to be erased completely, else the seeds of it may germinate and sprout again at some point in the future.

How to do it is not certain. It is more probable that a global conflict with everyone involved is in cards. But I don't exclude a possibility of another approach that would involve technology to create what one may call "deux ex machina".
Posted by: Memesis || 09/22/2004 19:31 Comments || Top||


India-Pakistan
Imprisoned al-Qaida members rescued by Afghan tribesmen
Pakistan army troops have been called-in to the frontier regions of Bannu after four arrested al-Qaida members were forcibly released by local tribesmen on Sunday, September 1. Proximate to F R Bannu, Frontier Constabulary (FC) Packet troops arrested six Al-Qaida members, two of whom managed to escape, and informed the nearby tribesmen of Janni Khail about the situation. Later hundreds of armed Janni Khail tribesmen descended upon the FC Packet, forcing them to release the four. The next morning, a large delegation of Pakistani Army and FC troops attempted to negotiate with the tribes. However, so far the tribes have not handed any of them to these troops.
This is Azzam's version of what I blogged yesterday. We didn't get the part about the turbans having sprung them from durance vile in the first place...
Posted by: Fred Pruitt || 09/04/2002 08:53 am || Comments || Link || [0 views] Top|| File under:


Tribesmen refuse to pay their electric bill...
Tribesmen of the Khyber Pass are blocking supply along Pakistan's main road to Afghanistan in an armed protest over unpaid electricity bills.
Ohfergawdsake!
When Pakistan's despairing power company plunged their houses into darkness after years of non-payment, thousands of Afridi and Zakhakhel tribesmen responded by taking up their AK-47 assault rifles, heavy machine-guns and rocket-propelled grenade launchers.
They're avid elk hunters, y'know...
Gathering for an emergency meeting of a jirga, or tribal council, they resolved that they would never pay their bills and would blockade the pass until their electricity was restored.
They don't have to pay their electric bills like the rest of us because, ummm... Because they shouldn't.
Pakistan's crucial trade route came to a halt and hundreds of trucks were stranded at the Torkham border crossing. After three days of blockade, patient diplomacy by Pakistani "political agents" in charge of the autonomous region known as the Khyber Tribal Agency succeeded in clearing the pass on Sunday. The tribesmen's electricity was also restored, but they are still resolved never to pay the bill.
"We're entitled to that electricity because we have turbans and we have guns! Wanna see me beat my wife?"
Zarnar Afridi, from Landi Kotal in the Khyber Pass, led calls for a protest. Mr Afridi, 40, is the son of a spiritual leader of the Afridi tribe and a local organiser for Jamaat-e-Islami, Pakistan's largest Islamist party.
Who else?
He said: "I told everybody we have made sacrifices for Pakistan. We fought the British, we fought Hindu domination, we fought India and we helped our Afghan brothers to fight the Russians. When we didn't have anybody else to fight we fought each other! We will never pay our electricity bills."
"Paying for stuff is sissy! Wanna see me cut somebody's hand off?"
Virtually all the men of the Zakhakhel tribe and thousands of others rolled boulders on to the road near Ali Masjid, the narrowest point of the pass. Some tribesmen set up mortar positions and bombarded two bridges near the village of Malik Daria Khan. All the bombs missed and there was no damage.
They can't hit the broad side of a barn, but they fought the British, the Heathen Hindoo, the Russers, the Samoans, the Eskimos, and now they're looking for those damned Mexicans...

Thanks to Paul for the tip. I actually passed on blogging this one a couple days ago; the account in Dawn was nearly incoherent...
Posted by: Fred Pruitt || 09/04/2002 08:54 am || Comments || Link || [1 views] Top|| File under:

#1  According to The Bear Trap, they used to do this all the time during the war. Probably ever since the dam was built. I have this vision of an Afghan Deliverance running in my head ...
Posted by: Dan Hartung || 09/04/2002 22:06 Comments || Top||

#2  Terrific! - I had tears running down my cheeks with this one. Fearless fighters indeed!
Posted by: Tony || 09/04/2002 20:19 Comments || Top||


International
Powell booed during summit speech
Environmentalists shouting "Shame on Bush" have heckled U.S. Secretary of State Colin Powell during his speech at the Earth Summit. "Betrayed by governments," read a banner held up by the protesters, some of whom were rapidly hustled out by security guards as they whistled and booed and shouted slogans critical of U.S. President George W. Bush. "Thank you, I have now heard you. I ask that you hear me," Powell replied, rolling his eyes, sighing patiently and breaking off from his prepared speech to the gathering, which is aimed at enriching poor countries while saving the environment. He was later booed by dozens of other children people in the audience when he said Washington was taking action to address climate change.
If Your Cause is Just®, you don't need good manners. You don't even need the minimum norms of civilized behavior...
Bush, an ally of the oil, coal and logging industries, has been widely criticised by many poor countries for not attending the gathering. Green groups view his absence as evidence that Washington puts profits before the environment.
More likely, the U.S. doesn't want to waste time playing with the children when there are more important things to do. It's often occurred to me why it's a Bad Thing™ for Bush to be "an ally" of the industries. I would guess that the practitioners of those industries know ever so much more about the subjects than "environmentalists" who've sat right down and given the subjects a couple weeks of thought before deciding to change things. They're against logging — and entire forests burn down because of brush buildup. They're against strip mining, because it's ugly and environmentally unsound — so men continue to risk their lives in deep mines. They're against the oil industry for any number of reasons, causing the price of gasoline and heating oil to go up, up, up...
The United States denies the charge and has unveiled a large number of voluntary projects involving private businesses that aim to clean up the planet. "We have plans to end the despair and offer hope. Now is the time to put those plans into action to expand the circle of development to all God's children," Powell said.
We'll never "end the despair" because it's in the interests of a powerful international "industry" to keep it going, no matter what progress is made...
Posted by: Fred Pruitt || 09/04/2002 08:54 am || Comments || Link || [0 views] Top|| File under:


Middle East
Bomb found near former Israeli PM's house
Israeli security forces have defused a bomb in a mobile phone near to a house owned by former Prime Minister Ehud Barak. Barak is not in the country and his Tel Aviv home is empty. He recently moved to another affluent suburb, Kfar Shmaryahu. Police found a fire hydrant with a mobile phone attached to it, said spokesman Gil Kleiman. He said a bomb squad removed the object from the residential area and blew it up in a controlled explosion. He said Palestinian ‘militants' are suspected of planting the bomb.
I'll bet they have an entire course on blowing up fireplugs with loaded mobile phones at the Paleostinian Command and General Staff College...
Posted by: Fred Pruitt || 09/04/2002 08:54 am || Comments || Link || [0 views] Top|| File under:


Hamas vows to keep it up...
Palestinian jihad movement Hamas today vowed to continue martyrdom operations against Zionists despite a series of savage methods by the Israelis. "We also warn the occupation authorities that they will pay dearly. Deeds rather than words will confirm our statement, Inshaallah [God-willing]," it said in a statement released today.
Oh, a vow of dire revenge. They've never done that before...
Targetting Hamas, the Zionist occupation authority has intensified its campaigns of assassinations, arrests and deportations in addition to demolition of Palestinian houses over the past few weeks in to halt the intifada. "The Hamas Movement affirms that the occupation's savage methods would not demoralize those heroes, God willing," the statement added. Zionist troops engaged in assassinations of Hamas members, two of whom are Salah Shehade in Gaza Strip and Nasr Jarrar in the West Bank. The occupation authorities also arrested Hassan Yousef, Abdul Khaleq Natshe, Jamal Abul Haija and Wajih Qawwas, all of whom are prominent Hamas leaders.
Sounds like the Israelis are finally getting to them. Time to perform an assisted martyrdom operation on a few more Bigs...
Posted by: Fred Pruitt || 09/04/2002 08:54 am || Comments || Link || [0 views] Top|| File under:


Palestinian Siblings Dumped With $ 200, A Few Bottles Of Water
Israel expelled Wednesday to the Gaza Strip, the brother and sister of a slain West Bank resistance fighter after a landmark Israeli court ruling, news agencies reported. The army took Kifah and Intissar Adjuri, brother and sister of Ali Adjuri, a slain West Bank chief of the Al-Aqsa Martyrs Brigades, from their Israeli prison at around 11:00 am (0800 GMT). Military sources said police would give the Adjuris 1,000 shekels (200 dollars) and several bottles of water and then dump them at the Erez crossing into the northern Gaza Strip, sealed off by a security fence from the outside world.
Sometimes it's tough, engaging in Heroic Armed Struggle®. You knit a few dymamite belts, drive a getaway care, and it's 200 bucks and a bottle of Evian for you...
Posted by: Fred Pruitt || 09/04/2002 08:59 am || Comments || Link || [0 views] Top|| File under:


Terror Networks
Another al-Qaeda Big in jug? We knew that.
This one's from The Guardian, by way of Jihad Unspun. Neither reads Rantburg. You can tell...
One of Washington's most wanted al-Qaida fugitives was captured in Karachi in July and secretly transferred to US custody, striking a significant blow to Osama bin Laden's network, Pakistani intelligence sources have claimed. Sheikh Ahmed Salim, detained in a joint Pakistan-US raid, was among a group of suspects flown out of the country in recent weeks.
Hurrah! Hurrah! Cha-cha-cha! Want some candy, little kid? Actually, Rantburg readers already knew that.
The 33-year-old Kenyan, who also goes by the name Swedan, had a $25m (£16m) price on his head for his role in the 1998 bombings of US embassies in east Africa. Since then he is believed to have emerged as an important al-Qaida figure, directing and funding Islamist militants in Pakistan.
Pay off that reward to somebody who was standing close by when they jugged him. Publicize it well, in all the papers and on the teevee. Show him wallowing in cash. Wait three weeks and we'll have another one...
Officially, the Pakistani and US governments denied knowledge of the arrest, but in interviews with the Guardian, senior Pakistani intelligence sources and a top investigator in Karachi insisted they had positively identified Salim among suspects arrested in a raid in Karachi in July. Pakistani intelligence agents were led to Salim's cell by satellite telephone intercepts provided by the FBI. That led to the arrest in Karachi of a more junior al-Qaida figure, a Saudi known only as Riyadh or Riaz. In early July he in turn led investigators to Salim, who was arrested in Kharadar, a slum area in the south of the city.
Just can't trust those Soddies, can you? Oooo! An even better idea! Pay the $25 million to Riaz or Riyadh, or whatever the hell his name is. Have Bush shake his hand on al-Jazeerah... Heh heh.
Posted by: Fred Pruitt || 09/04/2002 11:08 am || Comments || Link || [0 views] Top|| File under:



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Two weeks of WOT
Wed 2002-09-04
  Mullah Omar, Hekmatyar make kissy face... Rasool Sayyaf invited to join...
Tue 2002-09-03
  Abu Nidal safe under ground
Mon 2002-09-02
  Four accused of plotting against U.S. targets in Europe
Sun 2002-09-01
  Sudan frees two Islamist leaders...
Sat 2002-08-31
  ''Vote fundo, 'cuz we're not secular...''
Fri 2002-08-30
  Paks nab 12 Harkat gunnies in Peshawar...
Thu 2002-08-29
  Secret Army claims responsibility for attacks...
Wed 2002-08-28
  'Big Aslanbek' is a deader...
Tue 2002-08-27
  Israel arrests PFLP chiefs
Mon 2002-08-26
  Syria, Soddies warn against war with Iraq...
Sun 2002-08-25
  Georgia sends troops into Pankisi Gorge...
Sat 2002-08-24
  Uday sez Jund al-Islam is an Iranian creation...
Fri 2002-08-23
  Paleogunnies iced trying to swarm Gaza town
Thu 2002-08-22
  Abu Sayyaf beheads two Jehovah's Witnesses...
Wed 2002-08-21
  Italians arrest four in plot to blow basilica...

Better than the average link...



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