A preliminary report by the United States on Iraq's weapons dossier has found the declaration to be full of omissions, US media report. The document contains scant new information and fails to account for missing chemical and biological weapons, according to senior US officials quoted by the New York Times.
The US and Russia - which received advance copies of the declaration last Sunday - presented their initial findings to UN weapons inspection chiefs on Friday, according to news agency reports. The 12,000-page dossier is being examined by US intelligence officials and a final assessment is unlikely to be completed for several weeks. One unnamed US official told the New York Times the omissions in the dossier were "big enough to drive a tank through". A tank division would be about right
The declaration fails to account for chemical and biological weapons that were missing when UN inspectors left Iraq in 1998, the US officials say. This includes hundreds of mustard gas shells and biological bombs, they say. Nor does the dossier explain why Iraq purchased material including uranium from Africa and hi-tech equipment from Western countries, which US officials say could be used in the manufacture of nuclear bombs. A UN diplomat who has seen the dossier said much of it "seems to be recycled" from earlier declarations, the newspaper reported. Just put a new cover on the old document
Iraq reiterated on Friday that its dossier provided a full and honest account of its weapons programmes. The declaration "is truthful and complete. [There are] no omissions in it," the Iraqi liaison with the UN arms teams, General Hossam Mohamed Amin, told the Iraqi al-Iraq newspaper. Times almost up.
Posted by: Steve ||
12/13/2002 07:50 am ||
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Probably the Frenchies will be able to comprehend the completeness of it all, even if it escapes the less subtle Merkins and Russers.
Posted by: Fred ||
12/13/2002 13:08 Comments ||
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I totally agree, Fred: The holes in the document will line up precisely with the holes in the French mind.
However, your statement says more about the holiness (sic) of french logic than the completeness of the document.
#3
Remember what I said yesterday; now that Iraq has broken Russia's rice bowl, or maybe I should say oil derrick, Ivan is going to be a _lot_ less likely to take anything Saddam says on faith, even 12,000-page protestations of innocence. Perhaps especially 12,000-page protestations of innocence.
Posted by: Joe ||
12/13/2002 19:16 Comments ||
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#4
Well if he does have a nuke, the guys such an idiot he'll probably set it off in Bagdahd just to show us he's serious.
Oh, please, please, let the bombing start now!
The actor and director Sean Penn arrived in Baghdad on Friday morning at the start of a three-day visit to Iraq. "By the invitation of the Institute for Public Accuracy, I have the privileged opportunity to pursue a deeper understanding of this frightening conflict," Penn said in a statement released in Washington and Baghdad on Friday. "I would hope that all Americans will embrace information available to them outside conventional channels. As a father, an actor, a filmmaker, and a patriot, my visit to Iraq is for me a natural extension of my obligation (at least attempt) to find my own voice on matters of conscience." Penn's visit to Iraq has been organized by the Institute for Public Accuracy, a national U.S. organization of policy analysts with offices in San Francisco and Washington, D.C. It's good that we have this Brain Trust to help us see the light. Without Sean Penn, where would we be? Answer me that!
Posted by: Steve ||
12/13/2002 09:28 am ||
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Reminds me of the following Jay Leno joke:
"With all the new emphasis on energy conservation, the government is asking us to turn down the lights indoors. That's really not necessary, though. If you want to make the room dimmer, just bring in Alec Baldwin and ask him to talk politics."
Posted by: Steve White ||
12/13/2002 10:23 Comments ||
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These people amaze me. Were they all in comas in September 2001? Maybe he'll hook up with the Baghdad SAG and write up an Iraqi "Not In Our Name" petition.... but I kinda f**kin' doubt it.
The United States has evidence that Iran has secretly been building large nuclear facilities -- sites that could possibly be used to make nuclear weapons, senior U.S. officials tell CNN. Commercial satellite photographs taken in September show a nuclear facility near the town of Natanz and another one near Arak, the officials said. But Iran's foreign ministry spokesman said the country's only nuclear activity is of a peaceful nature, and its facilities have been "regularly and frequently" inspected by the International Atomic Energy Agency, or IAEA. That's not what they said
A spokesman at the IAEA in Vienna, Austria confirms the agency is seeking access to the two sites and has so far been put off by Iran. "Iran hasn't committed any acts that can be considered against international rules, and will not do so in the future," Hamid Reza Assefi told CNN. "At the same time, no country could, for its own political objectives, prevent Iran from achieving its own goals." Don't be too sure about that.
The vice chairman of the U.S. Senate Intelligence Committee said the development was "disturbing news." "We don't need another nuclear power -- not with Iran sponsoring terrorism that it has in the past," said Sen. Richard Shelby, an Alabama Republican. "The fact that they are seemingly pursuing an avenue to build nuclear weapons should be disturbing to everybody." Iranian dissidents have long contended that Iran has been working on nuclear capabilities. But the new satellite photographs and the conclusions drawn from them by nuclear experts are the first evidence to support such claims.
Nuclear expert David Albright said the size and secrecy of the program suggest Iran might be working toward building nuclear weapons. Albright is head of the Institute for Science and International Security (ISIS), which identified the photographs. The non-profit, non-partisan ISIS focuses on stopping the spread of nuclear weapons. The satellite picture of the facility near Arak concerns nuclear experts.
Corey Hinderstein, also of ISIS, said the site resembles heavy water plants found in Pakistan and contains a similar Z-shaped structure. The large facility at Natanz appears to U.S. intelligence officials to be a uranium-enrichment plant, and civilian experts, including Hinderstein, agree. Iran has a declared nuclear program at Bushehr that is designed to produce nuclear power for electricity only, according to the country's U.N. ambassador. If you have all that oil and gas, how come you need nuclear power plants?
Iranian officials say a visit by senior IAEA officials is expected in February. IAEA officials say they want to visit Arak and Natanz on that trip. Anyone care to guess how this inspection will work out? Of course, this is the same agency that said Iraq did not have a nuke program.
Posted by: Steve ||
12/13/2002 08:04 am ||
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Russian government sources say that Baghdad's cancellation of a huge oil contract has removed one of Moscow's main reasons for opposing military action against Iraq. Oops!
Moscow's RIA-Novosti news agency quotes one official as saying any nation's foreign policy is guided by its own interests and that Russia's economic interests outweigh any desire to defend Saddam Hussein. Hint: It is the oil, Saddam.
Russia, along with France, has been one of Iraq's strongest defenders on the United Nations Security Council. Both Russian and French influence were instrumental in crafting the U.N. resolution that allows military action against Iraq only after arms inspectors conduct more searches for weapons of mass destruction and then report back to the Security Council. Thursday, Iraq's oil ministry informed three Russian oil companies it is canceling a deal for them to develop the large West Qurna oil field. Iraq's Oil Minister Amer Rasheed said Friday that the lead company, Russian oil giant Lukoil, has failed to meet its commitments under the contract. That's OK, Ivan. You can pump all the oil you want for the new government of Iraq.
Posted by: Steve ||
12/13/2002 01:05 pm ||
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"Moscow's RIA-Novosti news agency quotes one official as saying any nation's foreign policy is guided by its own interests and that Russia's economic interests outweigh any desire to defend Saddam Hussein."
this should be wrought in letters of iron, heated red hot, and branded on the forehead of every liberal in the west...
#2
Or at least on their ass, since that's where their head is likely buried
Posted by: Frank G ||
12/13/2002 18:47 Comments ||
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This is quite refreshing. The Russians look out for Russia's interests first, which is as it should be, and I'm glad to hear them say it straight up. This has applications far beyond the current crisis, you know; a Russia that has a clear-eyed appreciation of its own interests makes a better partner because we can deal with them on a sounder basis by working toward deals that advance both their interests and ours.
To get back to the case at hand, Saddam has really put not just his foot but his whole leg up to the knee in it this time. Kicking the Russian bear in his pocketbook these days, after all the blood, sweat and tears Ivan has expended to get some money in said pocketbook again, is a damn good way to get mauled.
Posted by: Joe ||
12/13/2002 19:06 Comments ||
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The head of Iran's main reform party, Mohammad-Reza Khatami, warned Friday of the risk of "dictatorship with religious overtones" at the opening of a special party congress amid growing political conflict. Khatami, leader of the Islamic Iran Participation Front (IIPF) and brother of President Mohammad Khatami, accused a minority in the conservative camp of planning to install a "state of emergency" in the country. Khatami, Jr., has made similar charges before. This keeps the fundos fired up, not that they need much firing up...
Speaking as tension between reformists and conservatives is on the rise, Khatami hit out at "certain people" in the conservative judiciary, saying they wanted to eliminate their opponents by charging them with blasphemy and espionage. Y'mean somebody in the theocracy would do that? But that's only because God told them to, right?
In recent weeks the courts have sentenced to death for blasphemy a reformist academic, Hashem Aghajari, for questioning the power of the clerical establishment, and put on trial organisers of an opinion poll which showed a majority in favour of dialogue with the United States. Khatami said two bills passed by parliament last month but still to be scrutinised by conservative-dominated watchdog bodies were the last chance to save the situation in Iran. "They are the last link in the chain to show that the country can be governed according to the constitution and the will of the people," he said. "Otherwise we could be heading for a dictatorship with religious overtones." As opposed to the present... ummm... dictatorship with religious overtones.
"An extremist minority" within the establishment "is leading the country towards a serious crisis" in trying to crush the reformists, Khatami said. "We can expect the announcement of still more unbelievable verdicts from the courts," he predicted, referring to a trial earlier this year of members of a secular opposition group on charges of plotting to overthrow the Islamic regime. Those secularists! You just can't trust 'em. They're under every bed, aren't they? Just let them once come to power, and people will be forced â forced at gunpoint, mind you! â to do what they damned well feel like doing. The thought just sends shivers up my theocratic spine!
The two bills passed by parliament aim to reduce the powers of the judiciary and the Guardians Council, which vets legislation and candidates for election. The Guardians Council "must end its policy of systematic obstruction" of reformist bills and candidates, Khatami said, adding "the battle is between a democratic Islam and a despotic Islam." Lots of blood will be shed before this is over.
Posted by: Steve ||
12/13/2002 06:54 pm ||
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"Lots of blood will be shed before this is over."
Yep, I think so. I doubt the clerics are smart enough to see which way the wind is blowing until the hurricane is upon them. But then, anytime you have institutions named something as Orwellian as the "Guardians Council", there's some serious trouble brewing.
The U.S.-led combined task force to combat global terrorism in and around the strategic Horn of Africa formally opened for business Friday with the arrival of the USS Mount Whitney in the Gulf of Aden off Djibouti. "Today, Combined Joint Task Force-Horn of Africa has arrived on-station," Maj. Gen. John F. Sattler, the force commander, told reporters at Djibouti airport where he had flown in from the amphibious command ship.
Disrupting and defeating "transnational terrorist groups posing an imminent threat" to partners in the U.S.-led coalition against global terrorism is the force's mission, he said.
Sattler emphasized that the task force is a combined effort of many countries in the global war on terrorism, which, he said, "is not a war against any people or any religion."
"It is a struggle between the forces of freedom and those who seek to spread hatred and fear, both in the Horn of African region, and around the world." Some 400 members representing all the U.S. armed services, civilian personnel and members of coalition forces are embarked on the Mount Whitney, a 635-foot Norfolk, Va.,-based class LCC 19 ship commissioned in 1971.
Another 900 U.S. military personnel are based at Camp Lemonier, a former French installation, adjacent to the airport.
Asked whether a more permanent U.S. presence would be established in the former French colony at the end of the Red Sea wedged in between Ertirea, Ethiopia and Somalia, Sattler pointed out that the command headquarters is the Mount Whitney.
"It can stay afloat for a long time, so there's no rush to move ashore," he said. The countries included in the task force's mission area include Yemen, Djibouti, Eritrea, Ethiopia, Somalia, Kenya and Sudan, where bin Laden was based during the early 1990s. Nice neighborhood, good hunting, lots of targets
U.S. officials, including President Bush (news - web sites), have indicated that they believe that al-Ittihad al-Islami, a Somali group linked to al-Qaida, was responsible for the Nov. 28 twin attacks on two Israeli targets in Kenya in which 10 Kenyans, three Israelis and several suicide bombers died.
Asked whether the task force was authorized to intervene after such events, Sattler replied: "We are here to detect these events before they happen and share the information with coalition partners." He said a decision to intervene "would be made at the highest level." "Mr. President, can I waste someone?" "Sure, go right ahead, John."
Posted by: Steve ||
12/13/2002 08:59 am ||
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Instead of hunting elks, they'll be hunting elk hunters.
Posted by: Steve White ||
12/13/2002 10:25 Comments ||
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Always open season, no bag limit.
Posted by: Steve ||
12/13/2002 10:49 Comments ||
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Source: National Post
United Nations experts charged with probing al-Qaeda warn that the group appears determined to produce a "dirty bomb" capable of spreading radioactive material over a wide area after Tanzanian police seized what is believed to be raw uranium. Police seized 110 kilograms of suspected raw uranium last month, after confiscating five canisters of suspected uranium early this year, says the report by the UN Monitoring Group on al-Qaeda. "The Group remains highly preoccupied by the potential for al-Qaeda to manufacture some kind of 'dirty bomb,' " the report warns, adding that uranium is a "highly radioactive material." I wonder if they managed to sieze the perps at the same time they siezed the uranium?
The report, to be discussed privately by United Nations Security Council diplomats on Friday, says the experts could not tie the seized material directly to the terrorist network. However, it adds, "the possibility cannot be excluded of these illegal movements of raw uranium reaching al-Qaeda or their associates in East Africa. "The Group is following [up] with the Tanzanian authorities and maintaining contact on this matter with the International Atomic Energy Agency, Department of Safeguards," says the UN report. That means the Tanzanians haven't worked over the middlemen. Probably they're "clean," so the local bleeders can piss and moan until they're released with nothing more serious a good talking-to...
A "dirty bomb" is a conventional explosive laced with radioactive material that would kill few people in the initial blast but would create fear, panic and a long-term cancer risk with the spread of the radioactive material. Huge financial losses would also result as people fled contaminated areas. U.S. authorities believe they stymied al-Qaeda planning for a "dirty bomb" attack on a U.S. city with the May arrest of Jose Padilla. The former Chicago street-gang member who became a radical Islamist was on a scouting mission for the terrorist network, they say. Our domestic bleeders have been bitching and moaning about the "lack of evidence" against Padilla, too, just like the Tanzanians will be doing about whoever got snagged...
Posted by: Fred Pruitt ||
12/13/2002 12:03 pm ||
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Unless it's pure 235 (which I very much doubt), "Raw" uranium isn't that radioactive. If they bothered to listen to the news, or read LGF, they'd know Cesium is the stuff to go after: OPen a can, and the stuff blows like fine dust.
#2
True Ptah, but given enough time, it'd be nice to store the ore they have with the prisoners - I'd bet they'd sing like canaries in a coal mine after a while
Posted by: Frank G ||
12/13/2002 18:55 Comments ||
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Quite true, Frank. If they think it's the real bad stuff...
#4
U-235 has a half-life of 700 million years and thus hardly qualifies as "highly radioactive". It's primary decay is through alpha particle emissions; alpha particles (helium nuclei) can usually be stopped by a sheet of notebook paper. Also, given the expense of enriching it, only a damn fool would use U-235 for the much-discussed and highly overrated dirty bomb. Dirty bombs are much more likely to made of something like Cobalt-60, which has a half-life of 5.2 years and is noted for its energetic gamma emissions. Co-60 is what is typically used in sterilizing equipment.
Ivory Coast's main rebel group demanded the departure of French troops from the West African country Friday, saying it was ready to go to war. The former colonial power announced this week that it was reinforcing its troops in the world's top cocoa grower to help maintain stability as well as to protect foreigners and monitor a cease-fire. The Patriotic Movement of Ivory Coast, which has held the north of the country since fighting broke out after a failed September 19 coup, said the fact that France was sending more troops showed it had chosen to interfere. "The French force in Ivory Coast is deviating from its mission and becoming a true force of occupation. In light of this, the MPCI will fight and its forces are ready to take up the challenge of war," chief rebel negotiator Guillaume Soro told a news conference in Togo's capital Lome.
The rebels signed a cease-fire on October 17 to end four weeks of fighting, but talks in Togo have yielded no sign of a deal to end the war. More than 1,500 French troops have been monitoring the truce and have also evacuated thousands of foreigners from behind rebel lines. Hundreds more troops are due to arrive over the next few days. By now, French forces were originally meant to be leaving to be replaced by a West African force, but the regional mission has been held up by rivalries over command and troop contributions and still has no date to deploy. Soro said the rebels were demanding the "pure and simple departure of France from Ivory Coast." I seem to recall seeing an article saying that the French troops here were part of the French Foreign Legion. If the French government decides to take a stand, the Legion will go through these rebels like a hot knife through butter.
However, this is the same French force that rode to the rescue of all those Americans in the school a few months ago, and showed up with no transport. The evacuation took place in personal cars and whatever else the people at the school could scrounge up.
Remember, the Legion may not be French, but all its officers are.
#2
True, but they have had time to bring in their own transport by now. Also, it showed initative on someones part to go straight in without waiting and scrounge up that transport. The Legion handles a lot of dirty little conflicts in former French colonies and is the only place young French officers can get any combat experience. Their big problem has been getting screwed over by the French government while they are doing the fighting. They were the ones who tried to kill DeGall after he made the deal giving up Algeria after they spilled their blood fighting there for years.
Posted by: Steve ||
12/13/2002 15:40 Comments ||
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There are rumors that al-Quaida guys are taking training near of the Balkan town of SKOPJE. Has anybody further knowledge? Here's the relevant DEBKA article:
All Skopje has become accustomed to seeing a 45-year old man clad in a long white robe and flak jacket pushing his cart around the food shelves of the big Vero department store almost every Wednesday or Thursday of the week. Two hand grenades are stuck in the jacketâs front pockets and a Kalashnikov automatic rifle slung across his back. Most of Veroâs customers and staff know him to be one of 30 wanted top al Qaeda and Hizballah operatives hiding in the Crna Gora mountains north of the capital, near the Kosovo border. The Macedonian army and NATO forces policing the Kosovo Macedonia frontier have thrown out an extensive dragnet for their capture. Yet none of the hunters has ever waylaid the frequent shopper or followed him to his hideout.
Sounds like he'd stand out in most grocery stores. Doesn't sound like he's a master of subtle diguise..
Again, the reason is simple. Those 30 terrorists are under the protection of Ali Ahmeti, formerly a key commander of the National Liberation Army (NLA), who went into national Macedonian politics by running for election on September 15 at the head of the new Albanian Democratic Party. The European Union-brokered Ohrid peace accord, signed in 2001 to halt ethnic Albanian insurrectionist violence, provided for its ringleader to enjoy a power sharing arrangement in Macedonia. In return, he pledged to renounce civil strife and turn his back on organized crime and his Islamist terrorist associations. Ahmeti was also supposed to hand over the names of the 30 terror chiefs hiding in the hills.
An Islamist broke his word, eh? Well, that's never happened before, has it?
The Albanian rebel chief, since gaining his seat in parliament, has not honored a single one of his promises. He did not disarm his militia and, while handing over 30 names, which still have to be checked, he claimed he never agreed to their detention. Moreover, since the signing of the Ohrid accord, the guerrilla leader turned politician has opened the door wide to Osama bin Ladenâs al Qaeda and allied terrorist groups from the Middle East. Neither Macedonian police officers nor international peacekeepers dare venture into parts of Tetovo and most of the villages strung along Macedoniaâs western frontier. The coalition of Islamist terrorists who rule that area pose a rising threat of extremist Muslim penetration to other parts of former Yugoslavia and their European neighbors, while turning Macedonia into their launching pad for terrorist attacks across Europe.
However, the European governments who brokered the accord are restraining NATO and Macedonian forces from going after the al Qaeda and Hizballah leaders, fearing the Macedonian government will fall and the country revert to civil bloodshed between Macedonian Slavs and militant Albanians.
In any case it might be too late for a limited operation. Local Skopjans report that the 30 wanted men have multiplied, joined in their Crna Gora mountain enclave by a small army of some thousand fighting men, who can be heard practicing in the use of automatic weapons, grenades and explosives.
Al Qaedaâs reach from Skopje to Karachi, southern Pakistan, was highlighted on December 5, when the Macedonian honorary consulate building was blown up. The bodies of three Pakistanis were found, all murdered before the explosion. Their deaths are regarded as revenge for the deaths of seven Pakistanis suspected of plotting terrorist attacks on Western embassies in Skopje on behalf of al Qaeda. Macedonian police hunted them down last April and killed them in a gun battle north of Skopje.
Ethnic Albanians don't appear to be really big on gratitude, either. That's another one that'll come back to bite us, not too long from now. And somehow it'll be our fault that the Euros were too timid to nip it in the bud.
Posted by: petarbo ||
12/13/2002 09:29 am ||
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Be careful about DEBKA as a source; they're kind of the National Enquirer of world terrorism. Also, Global Jihad Inc didn't make much of an impact during the Balkan Wars, so unlikely OBL'd want to go back. Besides, weather's lousy this time of year.
#2
Debka's not at the top of our preferred list of sources, but they've been right on some fairly surprising occasions - along with being wrong on lots of them.
Wonder if we'll soon be hearing about the Brutal Macedonian Winter?
Posted by: Fred ||
12/13/2002 12:40 Comments ||
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Arab News/Ummahnews
The French Muslim community will be getting its own Islamic high school â the Ecole Averroes â next year. Indeed, inscriptions will be taken as of January, and the school will start offering courses come September, at the same time as traditional governmentally-operated French schools. The school is to open for the 2003-2004 school year next Fall and will occupy a full floor of the building in Lille, France, that had served as the headquarters of the Ligue Islamique du Nord, the Muslim League of the North. Ecole Averroes' director Makhlouf Mameche says that an Islamic lycee for France was a dire necessity, a way of telling the French that the countryâs Islamic community was capable of establishing its own educational institutions, like the Catholics, who over the years have given France an important educational infrastructure. âBesides offering the identical curriculum offered by traditional French schools of the same educational level,â adds Mameche, âweâll also provide special instruction in Islamic civilization and religion.â "Things our children really need, like instruction in explosives, marksmanship, turban winding, and grenade tossing..."
And just like the Catholics and other religious communities who have officially-recognized schools in France, Mameche says that the Ecole Averroes expects to sign a contract with the French government so that the degrees it offers will be recognised.
Posted by: Fred Pruitt ||
12/13/2002 11:56 am ||
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Does this help France reclaim the lead over Holland in the race to become the 1st Euro country to institute Sharia? I think so.
Posted by: John ||
12/13/2002 13:31 Comments ||
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Think it'll be the last? Yeah, me neither. Can't wait to see their float in the Bastille Day parade.
#3
At least the muslims will continue the fine French tradition of surrendering* to anyone that's handy in battle, i.e.: the IDF
(*slur exception granted to the Foreign Legion)
Posted by: Frank G ||
12/13/2002 19:07 Comments ||
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L'Ecole Averroes? Averroes was persecuted by the muftis, in their campaign against the Kalams (scholasticists). The name is a con-job to cover jehad study.
Palestinian sources reported Friday that IDF soldiers shot and killed a senior Hamas activist, Abed Al-Yosef Abu-Mussa, in the West Bank village of Hirbat Ibrahim. Abu-Mussa was apparently killed during a gunfight between the IDF and Palestinians, while trying to flee his home. "Jiggers! It's the cops... I mean, Zionists!"
An IDF source said that intelligence information had suggested that Abu-Mussa was planning to send a suicide bomber into Israel within the next few days. Hamas supporters began gathering for a mass rally in the southern Gaza town on Friday to mark the 15th anniversary of the group's founding. That's a properly Islamic birthday present: "Oooh! Corpses! For me? Oh, you shouldn't have!"
Large numbers of IDF troops continue to operate in Hebron, in searches after the terrorists who murdered killed two IDF soldiers on Thursday evening. A general curfew was imposed on the city and the surrounding villages, and troops are conducting house-to-house searches. The Paleos are standing around scratching their heads, trying to figure why the Zionist entity would be doing something like that. Cause and effect are one of those Western ploys, designed to confuse the adherents of the Holy Koran...
Palestinians also reported that the IDF demolished the home of Mohammed Asfara, a resident of Beit Kahal, as well as three deserted houses that provided shelter for terrorists. "My ancestral hovel! Gone!"
"Dere, dere, Miz Fatimah. We'll build us another hovel, even grander!"
"An' I'll nevah, nevah go hungry again!"
"Well, I wouldn't say dat, Miz Fatimah..." Two Israel Defense Forces soldiers were murdered killed Thursday night at a roadblock near the Tomb of the Patriarchs, a Jewish holy site in the center of the West Bank city of Hebron. The two soldiers, male and female, were part of a Military Police unit guarding the area. On Friday morning, the IDF destroyed five houses in the area, including the home from which gunmen shot and killed the two soldiers. The soldiers killed in the attack have been identified as Corporal Keren Ya'akobi, 19, from Hadera and Sergeant Maor Kalfon, 19, from Kiryat Yam. Ya'akobi was laid to rest Friday at noon in the military cemetery in her hometown. Kalfon's funeral was held Friday at 1 P.M. at the military cemetery in Tzur Shalom. Both will be laid to rest without large numbers of people thronging through the streets, firing their guns into the air, and demanding dire revenge...
Ya'akobi was the first female operational fatality since the start of the intifada in September 2000, though 18 months ago, a female member of the Border Police was seriously wounded during a patrol along the Green Line near Tul Karm. The incident occurred at about 8 P.M. when the soldiers from the Sahleb unit of the Military Police were guarding a position near the Tomb of the Patriarchs. Initial investigation of the attack suggests that two armed militants opened fire against the two soldiers at very close range, leaving them no chance to return fire. Ya'akobi was killed almost instantly while the male soldier died a short while later. The IDF imposed a curfew on the Hebron following the attack, Israel Radio reported. Large IDF forces arrived and searched the area. Footprints, most likely of the attackers, were found leading to a nearby home, but the terrorists were not found during a search of the premises. The attack is the first since the bloody battle on November 15 in which 9 Israeli soldiers and 3 civilian security officers from Kiryat Arba were killed when ambushed by three Islamic Jihad militants. RIP
Posted by: Steve ||
12/13/2002 01:30 pm ||
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Arabs gave mixed reactions Friday, December 13, to Washington's 29-million-dollar initiative to foster democracy in the Middle East. Egypt, one of Washington's closest allies, leveled the harshest criticism against the plan unveiled Thursday, December 12, amid heavy fanfare by Secretary of State Colin Powell, Agence France-Presse (AFP) reported. "Democracy? We don't need no steenkin' democracy! We got a president, and he has a son, so the succession's assured..."
If Washington really wanted to promote a stable, prosperous Middle East it should tackle the Palestinian issue before offering any program to bolster democracy, stressed Egypt. "Despite certain positive points in the U.S. program, we observe that it does not deal with the main problem which is at the root of all other problems in the region," said Egyptian Foreign Minister Ahmed Maher. But if the Paleos were to suddenly become a democratic â or more properly, a libertarian â entity, their problems would kind of solve themselves... Naw. That can't be right.
It was time "to settle the conflict, put an end to the Israeli occupation, and give a chance to the people of the region to live in peace and security," he underlined, in a jibe at Washington's hands-off approach to the 26-month-old Palestinian Intifada against the Israeli occupation. Guess they'll have to stop killing people at random, stop the gang warfare, and adhere to the agreements they make...
Announcing the plan, Powell claimed transforming Palestinian leadership was the cornerstone for Middle East peace, reinforcing the U.S. administration's desire for a "fresh leader" to replace elected Palestinian President Yasser Arafat. Y'see, Yasser's kind of the turd in the punchbowl of peace...
Meanwhile, Qatar, an emirate with close alley to the U.S. which Powell also singled out for praise while unveiling the initiative, reiterated support for the new U.S. plan. "Qatar receives favorably the American initiative for a partnership between the United States and the Middle East," said a Qatari foreign ministry spokesman. "Qatar hopes that this initiative succeeds in increasing the possibilities of political, economic and social development and the opportunity for popular participation in the Middle East region," the spokesman said in a statement carried by the official news agency, QNA. The emirate hopes that the U.S. initiative "will guarantee a propitious atmosphere to install an equitable and comprehensive peace and bring security and stability to the Middle East." "We're more concerned with having something come out of all this yak-yak than we are with making it."
The plan also received a warm reception in Jordan, although the Jordanian media took a wait-and-see approach. On the eve of Powell's speech, Jordanian King Abdullah II gave the thumbs up to the U.S.-Middle East Partnership Initiative, during a video conference with businessmen and officials in Washington and five Arab countries. "It is an important initiative and it is a measure of the close friendship and positive future we both see," said the king, whose country has embarked on a social-economic reforms package with foreign donor assistance, including U.S. The Jordanian pro-government daily Al-Rai stressed it "is high time for the U.S. administration to implement its 'vision' and translate into concrete steps the figures and numbers contained in its partnership initiative." The obstructionist bloc, where Egypt is sitting at the moment, is more concerned with keeping the verbiage flowing. If real reforms are actually initiated in Jordan, and Qatar keeps going the way it has been, ten years from now the other Arab states can be bitching and moaning about them grabbing off all the non-oil wealth for themselves. The Bush team, meanwhile, is nibbling at the edges of Arab solidarity to divide and, hopefully, conquer.
Posted by: Fred Pruitt ||
12/13/2002 12:37 pm ||
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A Palestinian man was killed and another wounded when an explosion rocked the house they were in, in the Gaza Strip refugee camp of al-Boureij Friday afternoon, Israel Radio reported. The source of the explosion was unknown, but the report quoted Palestinian security personnel as saying it may have been the outcome of a "work accident", meaning the explosives the two were handling had gone off. Apparently, even the Palestinian security personnel get a laugh out of this.
Posted by: Steve ||
12/13/2002 02:29 pm ||
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Israeli troops shot dead two Palestinian militants in the West Bank Friday, and 30,000 supporters of the Islamic group Hamas rallied in the Gaza Strip, vowing to avenge the killings of gunmen and civilians. One of the militants, Tarek Abed Rabbo, was a senior field commander of Hamas's military wing. Palestinian security sources said he was shot 13 times while hiding in a closet by Israeli soldiers who raided Nour Shams refugee camp near the city of Tulkarm. A glorious death to be sure. The virgins will laugh you right out of paradise.
Four Palestinians were wounded in the operation and a Hamas militant was detained by the Israeli force, the sources said. Two of the wounded were in the underwear drawer...
Earlier, soldiers killed an armed Palestinian in an exchange of fire in Thabra village, south of Bethlehem in the West Bank, when he tried to evade capture, Israeli military sources said. "You'll never take me alive, coppers!... BANG!"
"Damn, Avner! He was right!"
But Palestinian witnesses said troops surrounded a house where Jadallah Shoka, 32, an Islamic Jihad member, was hiding and killed him in a barrage of gunfire before detaining three other men inside. They said the Israelis never came under fire. Tough, go find someone who cares. "You'll never take me alive, uh... Hey! Wait! I ain't shot yet!"
Some 30,000 Hamas supporters packed a sports stadium in the southern Gazan town of Khan Younis, where they cheered a parade of gunmen and 20 would-be suicide bombers wearing white shrouds emblazoned with the words "martyrs-in-waiting." Take a number, line forms on the left.
Posted by: Steve ||
12/13/2002 06:51 pm ||
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The trial in Morocco of three Saudis and seven Moroccans accused of being part of an al-Qaeda plot has shaken the image many Moroccans hold of their country as a peaceful, tolerant Muslim state. Many here now fear their country is under threat from the import of radical, fundamentalist ideas from abroad.
Anouar Zyne describes how his friend, Aziz Assadi, a young lawyer, was killed by a group of radical Islamists a year ago.
"My friend Aziz was leaving a bar in the centre of Casablanca with two female friends, when he was accosted by five young men. They forced him into their car, and drove him to the outskirts of the city," he says. "There they carried out a sort of mock trial, and found him guilty of being an infidel because he drank alcohol and had female company. Then they slit his throat and dumped his body down a well."Police say the group responsible has been carrying out a number of similar murders across the country. In July, several men were detained for the killings and are now awaiting trial. The arrests appear to have been part of a crackdown against Islamist groups, including Salafists, a fundamentalist current of Islam. The arrests appear to have been part of a crackdown against Islamist groups, including Salafists, a fundamentalist current of Islam.
Lahcen Ossimouah is a journalist on Morocco's biggest-selling daily newspaper, al-Ahdath al-Maghribia. "Last summer, the authorities arrested a number of young people belonging to radical Islamist groups like Salafist Combatants, who had committed crimes across the country. These groups came from urban slum areas, so the authorities closed down the mosques there, which were makeshift and unofficial," he says.
"Also, it was discovered that thousands of books and cassettes with a fundamentalist message had been imported into Morocco illegally from Saudi Arabia for example, and so the bookshops selling them were closed down." Funny how Saudi always pops up when extremists are around.
Mr Ossimouah believes there is a small core of radical islamists in Morocco, including those who fought in Afghanistan against the Russians. He says the authorities were right to move against them: "I think in Morocco, the young mujahideen who have returned from Afghanistan are going to want to do the same thing here as they did over there. I think we are faced with the seeds of violence, and if we hadn't done something to limit this phenomenon, it could have got out of control."
Morocco is proud of its own brand of Islam which it sees as moderate and tolerant, and it wants to preserve that tradition.
But critics of the government see the core of radicalism as having its roots in poverty and ignorance - something , they say, that is not being addressed by the current state crackdown.
Posted by: Anonymous ||
12/13/2002 07:40 am ||
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#1
These revolts also provide an opportunity to settle a variety of scores not related to the political agenda. That was part of the IRA experience. Some own goals for doctrinal differences, some arguements over dividing the spoils or control of the neighborhood. Or, somebody's sister getting it regular with the wrong guy. Not all murders are political.
Kahar Mustafa, the alleged supplier of a detonator used for the bombing on December 5 surrendered in the town of Sinjai near Makassar, a policeman on duty at the Sinjai precinct said.
South Sulawesi provincial police chief Firman Gani said Mustafa gave himself up to "clarify his involvement" in the bombing. Wants to cut a deal to avoid death penalty?
Three people, including one of the bombers, were killed in the blast. Police have declared 10 people to be suspects in the Makassar case, of whom seven, including Mustafa have been arrested, one other is dead and two are on the run. National police chief General Da'i Bachtiar says the Makassar bombers knew suspects in the October 12 bombing in Bali in which more than 190 people were killed. Mr Gani says the McDonald's bombers were part of the network that staged the Bali bombing.
He says they also planned to bomb churches in Makassar and in other towns in South Sulawesi. Police are holding 15 suspects in the Bali case on the resort island.
Meanwhile, the head of Indonesia's police investigation into the Bali bombings has confirmed details of another meeting of JI in Thailand. A key suspect has told investigators he met with other high-ranking members of JI in Thailand earlier this year. Head investigator General Pastika says the suspect, Mukhlas, also known as Ali Ghufron, described to Indonesian police a meeting in Bangkok in February this year at which senior JI figures were present including regional operational chief Hambali. But General Pastika says Mukhlas has not told Indonesian police the alleged JI spiritual leader Abu Bakar Bashir was at the meeting, nor has he described the meeting as determining a specific target for a bombing attack. Those details were carried in a report in The Australian, which claims another suspect, named Wan Min, arrested two months ago by Malaysian police, has also given police information under interrogation about the Bangkok meeting. Good old fashioned truncheon, I mean, police work.
Posted by: Steve ||
12/13/2002 08:35 am ||
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Thailand denied on Friday speculation that militant Muslim groups were using it as a base to plot bomb attacks in Southeast Asia despite admissions at least one militant had passed through the country. "I can say confidently that there has been no organised terrorist movement in our country. They might have come as tourists, but not to hold meetings here," Defence Minister Thamarak Isaragura told reporters. "Even if they say that they did, they didn't."
A foreign ministry official told reporters late on Thursday that a leader of the Jemaah Islamiah militant Muslim network, linked with October's Bali bomb blasts, had visited Thailand.
But the official denied the man had set up terrorist cells in Thailand.
Krit Garnchanakoonchorn, deputy permanent secretary at the Thai foreign ministry, said Riduan Isamuddin, a 36-year-old Islamic preacher commonly known as Hambali, had passed through southern Thailand "sometime back". "To the extent of the information that can be substantiated, he transitted and exited through Thailand sometime back," said Krit. "He entered from the south by train and exited soon after." Krit told reporters Hambali narrowly eluded arrest by Thai authorities while he was in the country, but also said officials did not know exactly when Hambali was in the country. "We don't know the exact time of his passage and we have no information that can be divulged as to his destination," he said. "The only thing that we can say is that he's not here, he's not operating from Thailand. He has no local cells here." De Nile is not only a river in Egypt.
Posted by: Steve ||
12/13/2002 09:10 am ||
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Sure - no muslim terrorists, and by the way, my mothr is a virgin!
Jakarta Post
Another person has been shot dead Friday in Aceh following the signing of the peace accord between the government and the Free Aceh Movement (GAM), AFP reported. Bulhaqki bin Abdul Rahman, 27, was shot Thursday at his house at Teupin Paku village in Bireuen district, apparently by two unidentified men. Bulhaqki, who died from bullet wounds in his back and a fractured skull, is the second confirmed victim of violence since Monday's peace agreement after unknown attackers shot dead a 30-year-old woman in South Aceh on Tuesday. Such killings, which are seldom if ever solved, have been a common feature of the 26-year conflict. It's the usual situation, where Islamists don't feel any obligation to adhere to the agreements they make. It's also a sign their "leadership" isn't really leading, just kind of heading in the same general direction.
Posted by: Fred Pruitt ||
12/13/2002 11:51 am ||
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U.S. military and intelligence forces have killed or captured a major portion of the al Qaeda leadership and several key successes were won in the past few months, according to CIA Director George J. Tenet. "More than one-third of the top leadership identified before the war has been killed or captured," Mr. Tenet said in a speech Wednesday. "Almost half our successes against senior al Qaeda members has come in recent months." Usually, when they say something like this, something terrible happens not long afterward...
"We are still in the 'hunt phase' of this war â the painstaking pursuit of individual al Qaeda members and their cells," Mr. Tenet said. "This phase is paying off, but is manpower intensive and will take a long time. There are no set battles against units of any size. We are tracking our enemiesdown, one by one." That's because they're fragmented. Fragmented at this stage means disorganized. And they're not nearly the criminal masterminds they think they are. Everytime they pop their beturbanned little heads up, we can whack them.
Overall, some 3,000 al Qaeda members have been detained in over 100 nations, he said, noting that the arrests have disrupted but not stopped al Qaeda operations. Additionally, efforts against al Qaeda have led to the seizure of some $121 million in terrorist-related financial assets around the world, Mr. Tenet said. That's a lot of turbans to be holding. And a lot of jack. I do hope we're keeping it, and that we're gonna throw a national beer party if this thing is ever over...
Posted by: Fred Pruitt ||
12/13/2002 07:05 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.
