An Iraqi man carrying explosives was arrested Friday in a posh neighborhood of Kabul where many foreigners have homes and offices. It's believed Defense Minister Mohammed Fahim was the target, his secretary, Gulbuddin Hamdard, told The Associated Press. The Iraqi man, who was not identified, was picked up on a street corner in the capital's Wazir Akbar Khan District, Hamdard said. ``The defense minister often travels this route. We are still investigating, but we think he was a suicide bomber,'' he said. It's just a coincidence that he's an Iraqi â Qaeda is chock full of members of the master race Arabs from all countries. It is significant that it's an Arab who's expressing the indignation of the Afghan people at the foreign occupation of their country...
Iraqi Arab terrorists today at 1:00 PM local time wanted to assassinate Marshal Mohammad Qasim Fahim the Defense minister and deputy president Islamic Transitional Government of Afghanistan.
Talking to Afghaâs correspondent in Kabul General Saleh Raigestani a high ranking defense ministry official said the terrorist had packed 10Kgs of explosive in his waist and wanted to assassinate the Defense minister while he wanted to leave his home to attend the Friday prayers.
Later at night Kabul television showed the terrorist, and his explosive materials.
It has also been added that the terrorist has entered Afghanistan through eastern borders of Afghanistan.
It is the second time after the establishment of Interim Authority the Defense minister has escaped an assassination attempt the first attempt was made in Eastern city of Jalalabad.
Just nobbled right over the eastern border, did he? Wonder where he could have come from? Lesseee, how many countries border Afghanistan on the east?... Uh... One.
Posted by: Fred Pruitt ||
11/22/2002 03:03 pm ||
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India today handed over 10,000 tonnes of nutritious high-protein biscuits to Afghanistan for one million school children as part of its food aid and also decided to give an additional 124 buses for assisting the public transport system in the war-ravaged country. The first cartons of the biscuits being given through the World Food Programme were handed over to visiting Afghan Education Minister Yonous Qanooni at a function here by External Affairs Minister Yashwant Sinha. India has announced food aid of one million tonnes of wheat and a $ 100 million grant for the ongoing rebuilding efforts in Afghanistan. When I was a kid, my mother always made us clean our plates. If we didn't want to, she'd harp on the starving children in India. Maybe thirty or forty years from now, a prosperous Afghanistan will be kicking in for the starving children of someplace or other.
Posted by: Fred Pruitt ||
11/22/2002 03:29 pm ||
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shows how bad the islamofascists screwed things up when kids in India are told: "Eat it - or we'll send it to the starving kids in Afghanistan...."
Posted by: Frank G ||
11/22/2002 20:05 Comments ||
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Gee, Christians are helping them, Hindus are helping them, and the muslims?????
#3
India DOES have a non-trivial Muslim minority. Also, I've heard that a lot of the aid workers are Sikh; a non-Abrahamic monotheistic religion, they seem to get along pretty well with Muslims.
Posted by: Dan Hartung ||
11/23/2002 3:33 Comments ||
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Saudi Arabian authorities have arrested a Kuwaiti police officer accused of shooting and seriously injuring two American soldiers, a Kuwaiti official said. The policeman, Khaled al-Shimmiri, was arrested Friday, a day after the shooting. The official said that al-Shimmiri, who fled to Saudi Arabia following the attack, was expected to be sent back to Kuwait later Friday. He also said that al-Shimmiri was a patient at a Kuwait psychiatric hospital, but gave no details. "Where you off to, Mahmoud?"
"I'm going down to the nut house to recruit some more policemen."
No motive has been given for the shooting, though Kuwaiti newspapers reported Friday that the suspect did not appear to have links to extremist Muslim organizations. "No, no. He's just a nut. We have lots of them in our police force. Keeps 'em gainfully employed, y'know?"
Posted by: Fred Pruitt ||
11/22/2002 09:18 am ||
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A group of more than 200 prominent Muslims have accused the United States of leading a crusade against Islam and warned that an assault on Iraq could provoke revenge attacks against Western targets. This is as opposed to the unprovoked attacks we're getting now...
The 209 politicians, scholars and intellectuals — mostly Muslim activists from Saudi Arabia, Egypt, Kuwait and Morocco — urged their governments to oppose Washingtons drive for a regime change — Americas euphemism for toppling President Saddam Hussein's government — in Iraq. They warned that chaos would ensue throughout the region. As opposed to the peace, prosperity and rock-solid stability they have now...
"Any aggression against the (Muslim) nation... will open the gates of Jihad (holy war) and a legitimate resistance will repel the evil invading crusader and Zionist (Israeli) forces," they said in a joint statement late on Wednesday. Jihad? Ummm... Lemme see, here... Oh, yes. That's an Arabic word for "holy war." In the West we'd call it a... ummm... crusade.
By insisting on using force against Iraq, the American administration is reminding the region of the crusades and the era of colonialism, they added. Doesn't seem they need much reminding...
Nearly three-quarters of the signatories listed in the statement are from Saudi Arabia. It figures...
They include incendiary Muslim scholars, crooked judges, hare-brained university professors and semiliterate columnists at Saudi newspapers. Other prominent signatories include Sheikh Youssef Al-Qaradawi, a widely respected Egyptian Imam based in Qatar, former Sudanese president Abdel Rahman Swaredahab and Islamist parliamentarians from Morocco and Yemen. An impressive list. Probably the second level of the Learned Elders of Islam...
The dangers of American intervention not only threaten countries in the region but also their very existence and push the region toward chaos and collapse, the statement said. Great idea. Throw them into chaos and collapse, then move Samoans and Mexicans in to take over the vacant territory...
Posted by: Fred Pruitt ||
11/22/2002 07:12 pm ||
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Students, enraged by a death sentence imposed on reformist academic Hashem Aghajari for blasphemy, have staged almost daily rallies and class boycotts for the past two weeks in the largest pro-reform protests in Iran for more than three years.
But Khamenei, who last Sunday ordered a review of Aghajari's case in an apparent effort to defuse the protests, said the students were being manipulated by those who wish to bring down Iran's Islamic political system. He's under pressure from the hard-liners.
"At a time when people need unity a group is finding excuses to create chaos in the universities," he told tens of thousands of worshippers during a Friday prayers sermon at Tehran University. "Those who accuse the Islamic system of despotism and being against freedom and human rights is either the enemy himself or has been deceived by the enemy," said Khamenei, who has ultimate power in Iran. "Everyone knows who the enemy is. Today the enemy of the nation and the government and the system and of our country's independence and freedom is the arrogant American government," he said. You expected maybe, France?
Worshippers, crammed inside the university and surrounding streets, responded with chants of "Death to America" and "Our leader, we are ready." Three years ago, a similar wave of student protests was brutally suppressed by security forces backed by radical militia groups and Khamenei warned that the same could happen again.
"The people came onto the scene and prevented them (the protests) and they're ready to do the same again." But he added that nothing should be done which would give "the enemy an excuse to create chaos in the country." He's getting worried, folks. And that's when they are the most dangerous. The big crackdown is coming.
Posted by: Steve ||
11/22/2002 12:41 pm ||
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"Today the enemy of the nation and the government and the system and of our country's independence and freedom is the arrogant American government."
Secretary of State Colin Powell said the United States could fight Iraq in the summer, especially in the cool of the night, if Iraqi President Saddam Hussein waits until the winter passes and then obstructs U.N. weapons inspections. In an interview with CBS News from Prague, Powell said winter was the ideal time for a military operation but the United States would not be bound by any calendar.
"Many battles have been fought in the heat of summer, and the United States armed forces are very effective at night, when it is much cooler," Powell said. We own the night!
"So if Saddam Hussein or anyone else thinks that once this ideal window passes they are safe for another year I suggest that may be false hope," he added. Now, a lot of people are spinning this story as the U.S. is wimping out and is going to wait a year while the U.N. inspectors do their little dance. I read this as a threat. "Don't think that stalling is going to save you, Saddam. We're coming, no matter how hot it is."
Posted by: Steve ||
11/22/2002 03:16 pm ||
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we will wait and watch the charade going on in Bagdad for a few weeks; either Saddam is caught hiding WMD or Blix will demonstrate how useless the UMOVIC exercise is, at which point GW will tell the UN its over....let the real work begin. Rope-a-dope anyone?
Posted by: john ||
11/22/2002 18:01 Comments ||
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This is just us spinning a tale, to give everybody the idea that we're gonna twiddle our thumbs a few more months. As if!
Powell is beginning to redeem himself in my eyes. It's starting to become evident that he's playing the "good cop" role.
Posted by: ray ||
11/22/2002 21:16 Comments ||
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This just in from our ace reporter, D.J. Wu...
A group of Afghan tribesmen have gone on trial in Iran on charges of luring scores of destitute young girls to work as sex slaves in Pakistan, a judicial source said Thursday. The senior judicial source told AFP by telephone from Mashhad that the gang has been charged with seeking out poor Iranian families around the holiest city and offering to marry young girls. The girls, some as young as 12, were then whisked away from Iran's northeast province of Khorasan province, via Afghanistan, to work in Pakistan. Apparently, this is what Baluchis in Iran do for a living...
"We have managed to arrest 50 out of 200 people" believed to be a part of the gang, said the source from Mashhad's judiciary. The 50 were mainly members of an Afghan Baluch tribe living as refugees in Iran, but included some Iranian female accomplices, he said. Twenty of the smuggled girls have already been returned to Iran "in a state of mental and physical trauma", investigators said. I'll bet they are...
But they believe up to 250 girls aged between 12 and 20 may have been lured by the gang. "In close collaboration with Interpol, Iranian police are doing their best to bring all the girls back," the judicial source said. He said the trial of those already arrested and charged, which began on Wednesday, would last from a week to 10 days. "The harshest penalty is awaiting them," the judicial source said. Usually I don't agree with the Iranians' penchant for neck-stretching, but in this case — Get a rope!
Major Pakistani cities such as Karachi, Lahore, Peshawar and Islamabad are home to scores of hidden brothels, and foreign girls — especially Afghans and Iranians — are highly sought after by well-off clients. Perhaps if girls as young as 12 weren't allowed to "marry" they wouldn't be quite so susceptible to this sort of thing. And next time an Islamist starts bitching about the depravity of the West, think of the 12-year-old working in a whorehouse in Lahore, courtesy of devout Muslims...
Posted by: Fred Pruitt ||
11/22/2002 03:23 pm ||
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"next time an Islamist starts bitching about the depravity of the West, think of the 12-year-old working in a whorehouse in Lahore, courtesy of devout Muslims"
I TOTALLY agree - don't apologize for crusades centuries ago - compare today!
Posted by: Frank G ||
11/22/2002 20:27 Comments ||
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Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, Iran's supreme leader, ordered university students on Friday to stop their protests, while hardline security forces followed up his warning by attacking several pro-reform rallies. "This action will lead nowhere," Ayatollah Khamenei said during his sermon at noon prayers held at Tehran University. He denounced two weeks of nationwide student protests in defence of an academic sentenced to death for apostasy as "the work of the enemy". That would be the U.S.
ISNA, a student news agency, later reported that security forces broke up student protests in the major cities of Mashad and Shiraz, detaining more than 80 people. In Tehran witnesses said riot police also attacked reformists attending a memorial service for Dariush Forouhar, a nationalist politician who was murdered with his wife by intelligence ministry agents in 1998.
Protests were mostly kept inside campuses to avoid street clashes with Islamist militia. Students said it remained to be seen how many would turn out for demonstrations planned this weekend following the supreme leaders latest warning, and signs that hardline security forces are preparing a serious crackdown. Students are also disappointed that they have received little overt support from reformists in parliament and the administration of Mohammad Khatami, the moderate president who has made little headway in his own political struggle with hardline opponents. Ok, the crackdown has begun. Now we see how much support the reformers have.
Posted by: Steve ||
11/22/2002 03:24 pm ||
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Source: Jihad Unspun
A US Military document has been leaked to Jihad Unspun that indicates that US Army forces are operating inside Chechnya in pursuit of Al-Qaida members. The document was presented sometime in October 2002 and describes the planning of a US military forces operation inside Chechenya called Operation BLUNT SWORD.
In April of 2002, the CENTCOM CDR approved a contingency plan titled âBLUNT SWORD.â This CONPLAN called for the forced entry into the Grozny area by elements of the Special Operations Command, with early entry forces pulled from the 1-25 IBCT and the 101st ABN DIV (AASLT). The purpose of the operations was to restore order, assist in the establishment of a legitimate military, and see to the free and fair election of a local government...
Phase II (Clarify and Act): The decisive effort for this phase was to be 1-25 IBCT. Using their RSTA SQDN and digitized IN Battalions, the 1-25 was to develop the situation and begin combat operations against those forces identified as hostile to the US and its coalition partners. The 101st was to be a shaping effort, arriving in theatre prepared to act on the intelligence gathered by the 1-25 IBCT. Additional shaping efforts were the TF 1-60 and 313th SQDN who would secure air superiority and support the 1-25 IBCT with rotary-winged aircraft. The sustaining effort would be the 18th CSG operating from the ISB in Georgia and the 10th MTN DIV upon their arrival in theatre.
a. Enemy. Forces loyal to break away insurgent leader Bashayev have occupied positions in critical areas in western Grozny (OLYMPIA). These forces are supporting terrorist activity throughout the Caucus Mountain area and have recently been linked to the Al Queda [sic] group on an international scale. The NCA believes that Bashayev has directed this occupation in an attempt to bring coalition forces into direct combat operations with his fighters. By doing so he hopes to create mass US casualties, increase the collateral damage within Grozny, and force coalition forces to deal with the civilian population in a violent manner. It is expected that the enemy in Eastern Grozny is from Bashayevâs own elite Islamic Mercenary Unit (IMU). The IMU has followed Bashayev since his participation in the Soviet-Afghanistan conflict and is considered one of the most combat hardened elements in the world. We can expect them to use standard Chechen tactics to maintain control of these key areas for as long as they possibly can. They will take losses, but not to the point of annihilation; Bashayev intends to maintain his core group of fighters for use later. These fighters are also key to his role within the Chechen resistance as they provide him prestige within the Islamic Council that now runs the conflict.
They seem to know the patter. Legitimate? Guess we'll find out eventually. I suspect not, though. Putin probably feels they have a "legitimate military" in the area. And that the Russers are capable of maintaining local civil government. I have no idea what "digitized IN[fantry?] Battalions" might be, or what kind of unit an "IBCT" might be â but that could be because I've been out of the Army for almost 20 years and they've got things they didn't have when I was green. Even if legit, I'd also suspect it would be from a CPX (command post exercise) rather than from an actual operation. The intel section (b., in the original article) seems rather more fully filled out than I'd expect...
Posted by: Fred Pruitt ||
11/22/2002 10:02 am ||
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I am not, nor have been in the miitary, but surely continency plans are a dime a dozen. I really dont see us forces in strength entering previous russian territories - the russians are sure to object. And "blunt sword" is a terrible name. How about "flaming rapier of slow painful death!"?
#2
I agree this, if at all true, is probably a command post exercise.
I can't see Putin allowing us to put the 101st and the 10th into what is a Russian sphere of influence region. In addition, this really would be a quagmire. It's a shitty little country with a centuries old history of banditry. Like France, only they bathe more. Let the Russian handle it.
#3
1. Neither the 101st Airborne nor the 1-25th are part of Special Operations Command. (The IBCT is the Interim Brigade Combat Team. The so called Stryker Brigade from Ft. Lewis.)
2. This is labeled as a "contingency plan." If it was real it would be referred to as an OPORD.
3. My gut feeling is that this is a schoolhouse exercise that somehow ended up on the web. Yes it does have some of the patter down, but it is not well done. I would say either a smart captain or a dumb major wrote it.
VLADIKAVKAZ, North Ossetia (AP) -- Police found the bodies of three servicemen near Chechnya, and the military suffered stepped-up attacks within the region itself, officials said Thursday. The three bodies were found Wednesday on the border with Ingushetia, said Ismel Shaov, a spokesman for the North Ossetian police.
An official in the Vladikavkaz Prosecutor General's Office said on condition of anonymity that they were beheaded. If you are a Chechnyan terrorist, I would reccomend not being taken alive. Not that there is much chance of that.
Posted by: Steve ||
11/22/2002 12:17 pm ||
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Three members of illegal armed units - two Chechens born in 1981 and 1967 and a 26-eyar-old Turk - were arrested in Ingushetia's Malgobek district during a search for arms and militants. Searching the house belonging to the arrestees, law enforcers found an Igla portable air defence guided missile system, about 1,500 cartridges for Kalashnikov assault rifles, and 7 sets of camouflage uniform. The arrestees were handed over to the Prosecutor's Office, which launched an investigation. The uniforms and the AKs — that's bad enough. The Igla (SA-14) — that's gonna make them very unhappy.
Posted by: Fred Pruitt ||
11/22/2002 02:59 pm ||
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Rioting between Muslims and Christians in the northern city of Kaduna has killed as many as 100 people and seriously injured 500 others, Red Cross officials said Friday as thousands of residents sought refuge in army bases and police stations. Gangs of Christian youths retaliated against Muslims on Friday in the third day of riots triggered by a newspaper article suggesting Islam's founding prophet would have approved of the Miss World beauty pageant. Just love those religions of peace...
George Bennet, head of the International Federation of the Red Cross in Nigeria, told The Associated Press that Nigerian Red Cross officials gathering the dead and helping the wounded had reported a "ballpark figure" of 100 killed by Friday morning. Other Red Cross officials said more than 500 people had been wounded in the mayhem. "Being Muslims, we have no control over our own actions. Any time anybody makes a frivolous remark about the Prophet, we're obliged to go crazy and kill people. It's right there in the Koran someplace. You could look it up..."
Sporadic gunshots and shouting could be heard Friday morning by residents who still cowered inside their homes. Angry mobs have stabbed, bludgeoned or burned bystanders to death, torched churches and cars, and rampaged through streets in recent days. "Shucks, Abdul! This is more fun than stoning adultresses!"
On Friday morning, plumes of black smoke rose above the city from makeshift barricades lit by rioters. Authorities extended a dusk-to-dawn curfew to 24 hours a day, although large numbers of people were ignoring the order. "Yar! Let's go out and burn our city down! Somebody'll build us a new one later..."
In Ungwa-Rome and Larayi - neighborhoods dominated by the city's Christian minority - witnesses said youths smashed windows and set fires in mosques. Rioting was also reported in Kabala Costain, one of the predominantly Muslim neighborhoods of Kaduna, a cosmopolitan city of several million people. Fearful residents of all faiths were rushing into police stations and military facilities for protection. "The soldiers have been very helpful, giving us bandages and first aid," Habiba Ibrahim, a local official, said in a telephone interview. She spent the night at the city's defense academy, near the government clinic where she works. "Everyone is here - Muslims, Christians and pagans. We are all afraid of going home. Only God knows when this will end." It'll end when the holy men decide it should end. They're showing their power...
Posted by: Fred Pruitt ||
11/22/2002 09:18 am ||
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Send the coppers out and shoot a few rioters. That'll cool the bastards down some.
Organizers of this year's Miss World pageant said Friday they were moving the contest from Nigeria to London after Muslim protest riots in the West African nation which killed more than 100 people. "Miss World Organization and Silver Bird Productions Limited, organizers of the 2002 Miss World pageant, have decided to move the grand finale to London, England," the organizers said in a statement. "We can find nutbags anywhere. Why would we have to go to a stinking equatorial stench and abomination like Nigeria to find them? Because they're so plentiful?"
"This decision was taken after careful consideration of all the issues involved and in the overall interests of Nigeria and the contestants participating in this year's edition," it added. Pageant spokeswoman Stella Din said the London pageant would take place on December 7, the same date as had been originally scheduled for the event in Nigeria. Memo to Nigerian nutbags: Enjoy your solitude. No double-jointed baton twirlers or interpretive modern dancers. No inspiring speeches by young women who want to Help People. No blondes with big titties. And now you can riot over that.
Posted by: Fred Pruitt ||
11/22/2002 06:24 pm ||
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Opposition MPs called on Prime Minister Jean Chretien to fire a top aide Thursday after she reportedly referred to U.S. President George W. Bush as "a moron." "Does one good friend treat another by calling its leader a moron?" Alliance MP Jason Kenney asked during question period. I always try not to call my friends names. I save that for people I don't like...
Kenney said Canada-U.S. relations have deteriorated to their lowest level in decades because of the Liberals' "knee-jerk anti-Americanism." That means they don't like us...
The remark was reported by National Post reporter Robert Fife from Prague, where NATO leaders, including Bush and Chretien, are meeting. Fife quoted a PMO official as saying "What a moron." He did not name anyone. They've got that myth going that Bush is stoopid and they just can't seem to let go of it, even as he outsmarts them day after day...
The report came out of a comment by Chretien's communications director Francoise Ducros, overheard complaining in a private conversation that Bush was using the NATO summit to beat war drums against Iraq. Chretien tried to douse the controversy, saying the remark was inappropriate. Bush is "a friend of mine," Chretien said. If Francoise is still around next week we'll know he's a liar...
"He's not a moron at all, he's a friend. My personal relations with the president are extremely good." I think they just took a downhill turn, Jean...
Posted by: Fred Pruitt ||
11/22/2002 09:18 am ||
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He's refused to accept her resignation, but did accept the apology (to him, not Bush).
#2
Guess we know he's a liar, don't we? Maybe he and Schroeder can get together for cards on the weekends...
Posted by: Fred ||
11/22/2002 14:53 Comments ||
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good ol' Jean, as clueless as ever! It's speaks volumes for the PMO crowd that their best anti-war argument is name calling. This from a moron who cost us $500,000,000 for cancelling a helicopter contract to replace 40 year old death traps.
Posted by: john ||
11/22/2002 18:24 Comments ||
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Source: NNI Jamaat-ud-Dawah Amir Prof Hafiz Muhammad Saeed on Wednesday said Musharraf government had made a blunder by changing policies on Jihad and Kashmir under the US and Indian pressure. Addressing a press conference following his release from six-month detention under secret agencies, he said this shift of policy not only reflected the weakness of faith and morality on the part of the government but had also damaged the freedom movement in Kashmir. Lawsy, I hope so!
Flanked by Jamaat ud Dawah information secretary Yahya Mujahid among others, Hafiz Saeed said jihad would continue and his party would extend unflinching support to jihad in Kashmir and everywhere in the world until the world is rid of injustice. Or hell freezes over, whichever comes first...
He said his was not such a cowardly party as to bow down before the US pressure for halting support to jihad. "For us jihad is sacred like praying and fasting that cannot be forsaken under any condition," he added. "You simply cannot get to heaven unless you kill large numbers of people..."
He said "cross-border terrorism" was a term coined by India to befool the world, notwithstanding there was no border between the zones of Azad and held Kashmir. "It is just a control line and no world forum or institution acknowledges it as border." He said Kashmiris were fighting for their freedom and no law could stop them from crossing the LoC, because it was their territory that is under Indian occupation. "If there's no border, then you can't have cross-border terrorism. And if it's not cross-border terrorism, then it's not terrorism, either..."
Posted by: Fred Pruitt ||
11/22/2002 11:20 am ||
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Befool? Do they have Mr T writing their press releases?
Expressing grave concern at the fate of Pakistani nuclear weapons, Russian President Vladimir Putin today said these could fall into the hands of terrorists. "Pakistan has mass destruction weapons, and we don't have any confidence that they will not fall into evil hands," he said at a joint press meet with US President George W Bush in the Catherine's Palace of the imperial summer retreat near St Petersburg. Neither do we.
Lauding President Pervez Musharraf for bringing stability in Pakistan, Putin said "We know what Musharraf is doing for the stability in the country and we back him in this". Grabbing control of government and never letting go is a old Russian tradition, too.
Putin said the international community need to keep an eye on Islamabad to make sure it is not supporting terrorists. Putting Prevez on notice.
"We should not forget about the safety of mass destruction weapons in those countries where they could fall into the hands of terrorists," he added. "We know that Osama bin Laden is hiding somewhere between Pakistan and Afghanistan," he said. Either there or Saudi.
The 'nightmarish scenario' of the Pakistani nuclear weapons falling into the hands of Islamic extremists was one of the issues discussed at the US-Russian informal summit in St Petersburg today, sources told PTI. Prevez must not like all this attention, I'll wager.
In the context of the discussion on global anti-terror combat Putin had strongly raised this issue with President Bush, they said.
"We should not leave a chance to those involved in terrorism or back terrorists. We also can not forget about those who finance extremist activities," he said. And those would be who, Vlad?
"We should not forget that out of 19 (Sept 11) attackers in America 16 were Saudi Arabians," Putin said taking a dig at Saudi Arabia, allegedly financing Islamic extremists in Chechnya and other Muslim-dominated Russian regions. He said the S-word! I looked in all the U.S. news outlets and all they mention of this meeting is Putin telling Bush to follow the U.N. resolution and why haven't you found Bin Laden. No mention of Saudi or Pak. Wonder why that is, could it be, oh, I don't know, Media Bias?
Posted by: Steve ||
11/22/2002 02:07 pm ||
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Two terrorists guerrillas dressed in police uniforms fought their way into a security camp in the summer capital of Indian Kashmir and killed five soldiers. Both attackers also died in the firefight. This was the most daring militant attack since a new government took power this month promising to heal the wounds of a 13-year separatist revolt in the Muslim-majority region. Officials said security forces were looking for a third militant who had opened fire from outside the hotel where the security camp is located. "The idea was to inflict maximum damage, it was a suicide attack," said the inspector general of the paramilitary Central Reserve Police Force which was targeted in the attack. Ten of his men were wounded in the firefight. Guess they're celebrating Hafiz getting out of jug...
Posted by: Fred Pruitt ||
11/22/2002 06:32 pm ||
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Defense Minister Sergei Ivanov promised to switch the core of Russian ground forces from conscripts to volunteers by the end of 2007 as part of the country's military reform. Good move â assuming we never have to fight them, of course. At this point, I doubt if we will. We make more natural allies than enemies...
But Ivanov appeared to backtrack on the Kremlin's pledge to completely abolish the unpopular draft, saying Thursday that "conscription will remain forever." There's no reason not to have conscription, and a draft has a number of societal advantages, but conscripts don't belong in combat arms. The draft took kids and tried to make soldiers out of them, but the kids have to cooperate in the process. It worked, for the most part in World War II, not so well in Vietnam â and Afghanistan. For the most part, volunteers are much better motivated, and in most cases a professional force will beat the hell out of a conscript force. The place for conscripts is in support â cooks, clerks, logistics, maintenance and some parts of communications.
He said 92 units of the ground troops, airborne forces and marines with a combined strength of 166,000 servicemen would be newly staffed by volunteers by 2007. The change would start in 2004. He said the transfer would involve the most powerful, high-readiness units. "This is a rather ambitious but feasible task," Ivanov said in televised remarks. "These units will form the foundation of a new, professional army." The Soviet officers' corps had its share of time-servers and party hacks, many of whom were killed off in Aghanistan. It also had a core of very well-trained professionals, some of whom were truly brilliant thinkers. Lest we forget, the combined arms concept, which is the backbone of American military operations, is a development from Soviet concepts. I don't think, given their command and communications structure and their finances, that they were able to bring them off in practice the way they wanted, but they exercised to that end regularly. We took the idea in the mid-70s, worked on it and field-tested it in exercise after exercise, and worked out the bugs that surfaced in Grenada, Panama and finally the Gulf War. I won't say we owe it all to them â most of it we developed to counter them â but we wouldn't have done it without them.
Russian "marines," by the way, are actually naval infantry. Since the mid-70s, they've been training toward where the U.S. and Royal Marines are today, but their genesis was as swabbies with rifles, amphibious tanks, and light artillery, fighting on land.
Posted by: Fred Pruitt ||
11/22/2002 01:06 pm ||
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Give them good pay and living conditions, elimate the brutal hazing, some good modern training and they'll be fine. Draft everyone, but give them a choice of which area they can serve in. Evaluate them during their tour and find the good troops, talk those guys into going career. It works.
Posted by: Steve ||
11/22/2002 13:20 Comments ||
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#2
No choices. Volunteer or take exam; exam dictates where best state could use individual.
#3
Just ask the Germans how good the Russians can be. Imagine top-quality volunteer troops led by professional officers with no political commissars sticking their noses into operational matters. In WWII the Soviets had to overcome the loss of much of their officer corps, a result of Stalin's 1930s military purges, an ill-trained peasant army and the commissars -- and they still handed the Germans their hats. It took them two years to sort out all the problems, but there they were in April 1945 razing Berlin. I hope they do get their shit together because they will be formidable allies if they do.
Posted by: Larry ||
11/22/2002 14:10 Comments ||
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An explosive went off in Lebanon's largest hellhole Palestinian refugee camp early Friday, damaging an electronic games shop but causing no casualties. The blast occurred at around 2 a.m. local time, when there were no people in the narrow streets of the Ein el-Hilweh camp. The camp is on the outskirts of the southern port city of Sidon. The motive behind the bombing was not immediately known. Since it was an electronic games shop, somebody was probably cheesed that somebody else was enjoying themselves...
Ein el-Hilweh is run by rival armed Palestinian factions. In recent months, there has been a series of bombings and shootouts in what appears to be a power struggle among the factions. The rivalry appears to be mostly between Palestinian leader Yasser Arafat's mainstream Fatah group, which controls most of the camp, and Muslim extremist Palestinian factions led by Asbat al-Ansar, which is on the U.S. State Department's list of terrorist organizations. They're the local mini-Taliban...
The camp also is believed to shelter a number of banditti Islamic militant fugitives wanted by Lebanese authorities for their role in shootings that killed or wounded Lebanese soldiers. The army mans checkpoints outside the camp, but soldiers do not go inside. That's because there's a warm Islamic welcome waiting for them. That makes the refugee camps little autonomous enclaves within Lebanon that are beyond the control of the government. They don't seem to find that a bad thing — I'm not sure why.
Posted by: Fred Pruitt ||
11/22/2002 09:18 am ||
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#1
Maybe because Lebanon is a Syrian colony? And Syria just loves developing pockets of nihilistic terrorism - especially if it's anywhere near Israel.
A senior UN official from Britain was shot and killed Friday during an exchange of fire between Israeli troops and Palestinian gunmen in the West Bank refugee camp of Jenin, doctors and witnesses said. The victim was identified as Ian Hook, 50, who headed a UN project to rebuild homes in the battle-scarred camp. An 11-year-old Palestinian boy was also killed and an Irish national wounded in different incidents in the camp. They're back to shooting it out, with lots of innocent bystanders getting knocked off...
Hook and several other U.N. officials were in a small U.N. compound, consisting of several mobile homes, when the fighting erupted, said Sami Mshasha, a U.N. spokesman. At the time, Israeli troops had surrounded a nearby hideout of a wanted Islamic Jihad leader, Abdullah Wahsh, demanding that he surrender. Abdullah, of course, would do no such thing and called for reinforcements...
Palestinian terrorists gunmen fired at the troops, and an exchange of fire erupted, Palestinian witnesses said. Hundreds of Palestinian youngsters threw stones at the soldiers, who returned fire and called in helicopter gunships, the witnesses said. So they got a full-scale riot going. Convenient, being able to call one up whenever needed...
The U.N. officials in the Jenin camp were on the phone with the Israeli military, trying to arrange the safe evacuation of the U.N. staff, when Hook was killed, Mshasha said. "Several bullets hit the trailer and hit him," Mshasha said. "We managed to send an ambulance to transfer him to the hospital, but he was dead when he reached the hospital." Foreigners make the best kind of human shields, don't they?
The Jenin Hospital director, Mohammed Abu Ghali, said the bullets retrieved from the victim's abdomen were of the kind generally used by Israeli troops. No doubt. No doubt. That would indicate that it was Paleostinians who were swarming around the trailer, shooting at the Israelis and drawing fire...
Posted by: Fred Pruitt ||
11/22/2002 09:18 am ||
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#1
Sure, the Paleo-thugs were using the UN trailers for cover but, that won't make any difference to the UN. They'll still blame it on 'da jews.
Posted by: Mike N. ||
11/22/2002 10:05 Comments ||
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Irish national? IRA member? If that person was NGO, wouldn't the story have said so?
W could do Tony a big favor and tell the IRA no sanctuary and reverse the policy the panty-snapper put in place.
#3
Indicates nothing.This guy might not even be able to tell one bullet from another,but he knows that,should he say otherwise,he'd be visited later by PA's thugs...
Posted by: El Id ||
11/22/2002 11:04 Comments ||
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"In the Jenin refugee camp, IDF troops arrested one of the most wanted Islamic Jihad terrorists, Abdullah Waqf, 19. The terrorist was arrested by IDF Special Forces, who surrounded his home in the Jenin camp and shot at his home until he surrendered." Guess it got too hot for him.
Posted by: Steve ||
11/22/2002 13:26 Comments ||
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Not a tear for UNASSH*LE. Probably tipping off the paleo-splodeydopes. Maybe IDF could accidentally target a few more UN types.
Israeli troops reoccupied Bethlehem on Friday, searching homes and deploying tanks outside the Church of the Nativity after 11 bus passengers, including four youngsters, were killed in a Jerusalem suicide bombing. With troops back in Bethlehem, Israel was again in control of all Palestinian population centers in the West Bank except for the quiet oasis of Jericho — mirroring the massive deployment that capped military offensives in April and June. I wonder what's different about Jericho?
However, Israel's range of responses is limited; it is under pressure from the United States to keep a lid on Mideast violence while Washington concentrates on its campaign against Iraq. In responding to Thursday's bus bombing, the Israeli military was expected to stick to tried methods, such as hunting militants and demolishing homes of terror suspects. Expelling Palestinian leader Yasser Arafat, an option previously raised by hard-liners in the Israeli Cabinet, was not discussed by Israeli Prime Minister Ariel Sharon and Defense Minister Shaul Mofaz in consultations Thursday. That's too bad, from one standpoint, a good thing from the standpoint of not allowing somebody who's not gone senile to take over...
Arafat accused Israel of destroying peace prospects, "not only with the Palestinian people, but with all countries in the Middle East and Arab nations." "See? We wuz just sittin' around, mindin' our own bidnid, when these here Jews, they come roarin' up, for no reason at all..."
Posted by: Fred Pruitt ||
11/22/2002 11:33 am ||
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Jericho is different because it's stuck out in the middle of nowhere. Because of this, the people living there don't have much opportunity to murder Israelis and in return for not killing people the IDF leaves them alone.
Bonnie Penner, 31, an American woman who worked as a nurse at a missionary clinic caring for needy Lebanese and Palestinians, was shot to death Thursday in the southern port city of Sidon.
Investigators believe a lone gunman knocked at the door of the clinic and shot Penner with a 7mm pistol. Her body was found lying in a pool of blood with three gunshot wounds in the head, police officers said.
"Investigators are concentrating on the possibility that the killing of the American lady came as a result of the mounting anti-American sentiments in the Middle East," a Lebanese security official said Friday on condition of anonymity.
A senior Palestinian guerrilla official denied Friday that the Ein el-Hilweh Palestinian refugee camp near Sidon, where anti-US extremist groups have taken shelter, had anything to do with the killing. He linked the slaying to the Unity Center's Christian activities. "It's those Christian's fault."
"The killing was the result of a hostile Muslim reaction in Sidon to the preaching and indoctrination lessons the center was giving to Muslim youths," the official said, also speaking on condition of anonymity. "There can only be one peaceful religion here, and we'll kill anyone who tries to change that."
Posted by: Steve ||
11/22/2002 01:03 pm ||
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Lebanese police also say flower growth possibly linked to sunshine. More witnesses will be interviewed for a final determination.
Posted by: Dan Hartung ||
11/23/2002 4:01 Comments ||
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The alleged mastermind of last month's deadly nightclub bombings in Bali has confessed to planning and executing the attack that killed nearly 200 people, a top investigator said Friday. ``He has already confessed,'' said Gen. I Made Mangku Pastika, who is heading the investigation. "Uh... Those guys in the shorts? Are they, uh... Australian?"
"Sure are."
"You, uh... You ain't gonna let them..."
"Sure am."
"I confess. I dunnit! Just don't let 'em get me!"
Police arrested Imam Samudra late Thursday on a bus in the port of Merak on Indonesia's main island of Java as he tried to reach a ferry bound for the western island of Sumatra. It was the biggest breakthrough of the investigation into the Oct. 12 blasts. Authorities now say they are confident that his remaining accomplices will be captured soon. Here's hoping they don't "forget" and let this guy out again...
Posted by: Fred Pruitt ||
11/22/2002 11:12 am ||
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The Indos are saying that not only did his bodyguards turn on him, but they tracked him by his constant use of ATM machines. Ain't modern technology wonderful.
Posted by: Steve ||
11/22/2002 12:38 Comments ||
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OK, I have to know if he pays a fee for his ATM use?
"Turkish truncheons, Turkish Truncheons,
what kind of cops use Turkish truncheons?
Aussie cops, Indon cops,
even most Qatar cops
use truncheons, Turkish truncheons..."
#3
Indonesian authorities said today that they were hunting for three foreigners in connection with the Bali attack. It is believed possible that Mr. Samudra reached out to the foreigners as he escaped from Bali and traveled from east to west across the 660-mile island of Java.
One of the foreigners being sought was described as a Yemeni who traveled on a forged American passport, an Indonesian official said.
"A Yemeni with a forged passport? It's a wonder there is anybody left in Yeman. They seem to be everywhere.
Posted by: Steve ||
11/22/2002 12:59 Comments ||
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I love that headline. What'd they think we were gonna do with him? Invite him to tea?
U.S. counterterrorism authorities hope their interrogation of the newly captured chief of al-Qaida's Persian Gulf operations, Abd al-Rahim al-Nashiri, will shed light on terror plots still in the works, officials said. Y'might say that...
Al-Nashiri, a Saudi, was captured earlier this month in an undisclosed foreign country and is now in U.S. custody, U.S. officials said Thursday, speaking on the condition of anonymity. Oh, he's a Soddy? Wotta surprise...
A close associate of Osama bin Laden, al-Nashiri is a suspected mastermind of the USS Cole bombing in October 2000. After his capture, he was held briefly in Afghanistan before being flown to an undisclosed location, sources said. The "undisclosed location" is populated by large men with moustachios and truncheons. It's a land of exotic beauty — postcards often show the silohuettes of camels in the setting sun, with giggle juice wells in the background, busily pumping...
Officials declined to comment on the circumstances or location of his capture. He had last been reported in Yemen. And it could well be there that he was captured...
Posted by: Fred Pruitt ||
11/22/2002 11:12 am ||
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Un-named sources said that he was captured "outside of Yeman" and that he was on his way to Malaysia. Getting too hot in Yeman, was it? Bet his friends in Malaysia will miss him. Heard he was already "co-operating".
Posted by: Steve ||
11/22/2002 12:15 Comments ||
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Al Qaeda-backed 'Soldiers of God' are gaining strength and tying up Kurdish forces, potential US allies in Iraq. Kurdish forces facing off against some 650 members of Ansar say fighting on this front is tying up troops that could be preparing to assist with any American effort to topple the Iraq regime. "These Islamists are like a time bomb: The minute we attack Baghdad, and leave these positions, they will attack us from behind," says Sheikh Jafar Mustapha, a senior commander of the Patriotic Union of Kurdistan (PUK), one of two Kurdish militias in northern Iraq.
Just a few miles wide, the sliver of Ansar- controlled turf is protected by other armed Kurdish Islamist allies on two sides, and abuts the Iranian border behind. In front, facing the PUK troops, is an impenetrable strip of landmines and explosives.
KURDISH sources, a ranking Ansar defector, and analysts say that Ansar numbers have grown in recent months and include 80 or so Arabs, and others trained by Al Qaeda in Afghanistan. But they say that Ansar morale has dropped, since Iran helped orchestrate the arrest of their leader, Mullah Krekar, in the Netherlands in September. That did seem to upset them.
Despite past concerns that conservative elements in Iran supported this Islamist group, or at least turned a blind eye to their activities, Kurdish officials say that Iran is now promising to help them. Iran has warned Ansar to move three miles from the border - a move that would force it into the PUK front line, as well as keep any US attack away from Iran's border. They don't want their own people to get any ideas, like asking us to cross that border.
Kurdish officials liken this current front line to the Tora Bora standoff between Al Qaeda and US forces in Afghanistan late last year. Some say that Ansar has dug into the mountains, and built houses over their cave entrances in some of the 18 villages local commanders say are under Ansar control. "We can only fight Ansar from the sky, just as America fought the Taliban from the sky," says a senior Kurdish official. "This kind of work can't be done just with machine guns." Couple arc light missions should do the trick.
But several officials suggest that Ansar can be crushed handily with Iranian help, or even if Iran allowed the PUK - with which it has close ties - to temporarily enter Iranian territory and attack from behind. "If Iran helps the PUK to cross the border, the PUK can get rid of 80 percent of them," says defector Said. "If Iran engages itself, it would be a big victory. And if the US Air Force comes, I will not give them days, but hours. Ansar is not prepared for air attack." Iran might like to be seen helping rid the area of al-Qauda. They are becoming a liability.
Posted by: Steve ||
11/22/2002 12:22 pm ||
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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.
