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Afghanistan
Hizbi Islami denies al-Qa'ida link
RFE/RL Newsline
Qutbodin Hilal, a member of the central council of Gulbuddin Hikmatyar's Hizb-i Islami party, on 16 December told Mashhad radio's Dari-language service that the deployment of an Afghan national army would make the presence of foreign forces unnecessary. During a conference in Petersberg, Germany, earlier this month, Karzai issued a decree that set out his plan for the creation of a 70,000-strong Afghan national army. And on 15 December, Kabul's Radio Afghanistan broadcast an order from Karzai that decreed the creation of a national army as essential to Afghanistan's reconstruction.
"Y'see, if we can get them dang furriners out of the country, then we should be able to handle any 'national army' they leave behind, and Hek will be able to take over and be in charge and we'll all live happily ever after..."
Hilal added that the Hizb-i Islami has not cooperated with Al-Qaeda in any fashion because Al-Qaeda is a 'terrorist organization'.
Guess the agreement fell through again, huh? There's no pleasing some people...
Posted by: Fred Pruitt || 12/16/2002 11:50 am || Comments || Link || [0 views] Top|| File under:


Afghan Province Wants Shariah Law Restored
Source: Rueters, Jihad Unspun
The administration of an Afghan province has sought permission from the central government to be allowed to institute Shariah law which was favoured by the former Taliban regime. Abdur Rehman, police chief of the Western Afghan province of Helmand, told Reuters a spiralling crime rate had prompted the provincial government to consider amputations of the hands and feet of criminals, a practice followed by the Taliban in their bid to impose an Islamic regime in Afghanistan. Rehman said he hoped his administration's request would be granted, adding that crime, including incidents of petty theft, had been reduced to a minimum during Taliban rule because of this form of punishment.
Shucks, yes. Not having shariah in force is obviously the reason the crime rate's soared. Personally, I'd go with hanging for everything, myself. Cuts the recidivism rate, y'know.
Posted by: Fred Pruitt || 12/16/2002 11:55 am || Comments || Link || [0 views] Top|| File under:

#1  Islamaniacs: most of the world enforces criminal codes without savage shariah. We seculars know how to apply harsh enforcement during crime waves.
Posted by: Anonymous || 12/16/2002 22:04 Comments || Top||


Hakmatyer Ready To Join Transitional Government?
Source: Xinhuanet
An Islamic party, led by the dissident Gulbuddin Hekmatyer, was ready to join in the transitional government of Afghanistan, local news quoted his spokesperson as saying on Friday.
As long as they'll let Hek be in charge. He'll find something for Karzai to do, he promises...
The spokesperson said that the only way to keep peace in Afghanistan was to put down arms and cooperate and support the central government, The Radio Liberty reported. Hakmatyer, the former Prime Minister who is in Pakistan, and his party have been blamed for terrorist activities in Afghanistan and coalition with the remnants of the Taliban after the announcement that the party is opposing against the government led by Karzai. The spokesperson said that he would visit Karzai in near future.
I imagine it'll be the spokesman who's visiting, not Hek. He doesn't have the habit of sticking his own neck out. Nice of Pakland to take him in, though.
Posted by: Fred Pruitt || 12/16/2002 11:59 am || Comments || Link || [0 views] Top|| File under:

#1  Remember the story about the Camel and the Tent? Hek is the camel's nose...
Posted by: Ptah || 12/16/2002 13:03 Comments || Top||

#2  Hek is a human wrecking crew and has nothing to offer Afghanistan, except an ego trip. I wonder if his Iranian protectors are starting to think of him as a liability?
Posted by: Anonymous || 12/16/2002 21:59 Comments || Top||

#3  More evidence he's out where the buses don't run.
Posted by: El Id || 12/16/2002 22:20 Comments || Top||


Karzai moves to rein in warlords
The Afghan President, Hamid Karzai, has banned political leaders from taking part in military activity. The move is being seen as Mr Karzai's first major attempt to rein in the country's powerful warlords. The decree, which comes into immediate effect, was released as the president arrived in Oslo ahead of a conference on Afghan reconstruction. It says that in order to ensure affairs are better run, no civilian or military official is allowed to work in both political and military spheres.
But how can you be a Afghan politician without a private army?
Observers say dominant regional chiefs represent the biggest challenges to Mr Karzai's rule. Since the collapse of the Taleban last year, regional warlords have continued to use violence to resolve ethnic and territorial disputes. The warlords include Ismail Khan in the west, Abdul Rashid Dostum in the north and Gul Agha in the south. Mr Khan, an ethnic Tajik who controls Herat province, has allowed his forces to engage in frequent clashes with rival ethnic groups in his area of control, despite government attempts to mediate peace.
In the latest outbreak earlier this month, fighting between supporters of Mr Khan and those of Pashtun commander Amanullah Khan left at least 11 people dead. Correspondents say the decree also represents a direct challenge to General Dostum, an Uzbek leader who controls large tracts of Afghanistan's strategic north. A former communist general, he is the head of the military-backed Junbish political party.
Karzai must be feeling his oats.
Posted by: Steve || 12/16/2002 01:47 pm || Comments || Link || [1 views] Top|| File under:

#1  Okay, it's not original thinking, but isn't a strong national army the key to success in Afghanistan? That and a photocopy of the Constitution will go miles.
Posted by: Anna || 12/16/2002 19:28 Comments || Top||

#2  An interesting question: How would the Second Amendment map to Afghanistan in this situation?
Posted by: Ptah || 12/17/2002 6:44 Comments || Top||


Arabia
Just innocent jihadis, mindin' their own bidnid...
Three of the four Kuwaitis arrested for suspected links with Al-Qaeda have denied any truck with the banned organization while the fourth confessed to have fought in a unit commanded by the accused terrorist group, a Kuwaiti investigation report shows. The four Kuwaitis facing trial are Mohsen Al-Fadli, 21, unemployed youth, Maqbul Al-Maqbul, 32, former Interior Ministry official, Mohammed Al-Motairy, 30, Awqaf official and Adil Bu Humaid, 36, former military officer, Asharq Al-Awsat reported yesterday. One of the suspects said he was put in a Saudi jail for over two months for possessing some inflammatory fatwa.
Must have been really inflammatory, to get him jugged in Soddy Arabia...
The four are charged with having links with a foreign country and its agents and undertaking hostile activities against a foreign state by joining the armed forces of some other countries in addition to working against the interests of their own motherland. The charges also included financing arms training camps and distributing antinational booklets.
Doesn't sound like the Kuwaitis are too amused by the activities of some of their nationals...
According to the prosecution report, the investigators found the first accused Fadli guilty of joining the Chechens fighting against the Russians. He also fought in Afghanistan when he heard a fatwa to the effect that anyone who fought there would be deemed a martyr.
Fell for the old recruiting line, did he?
Denying the charge that he fought against the US after joining the banned Al-Qaeda, Fadli said: I fought for the Taleban government against the communist Northern Alliance. He also emphatically denied communicating with any Al-Qaeda operatives outside the country.
The "communist" Northern Alliance was allied with the U.S., and the U.S. had Special Forces on the ground with them from before the time the bombing started...
However, he admitted that while in Afghanistan he visited Al-Qaeda spokesman Suleiman Bughaith who is currently detained in the Gauntenamo camp in Cuba, the report said.
Sully's not in Gitmo, though we'd like him to be. Either Arabia.com isn't real good at research, or somebody didn't tell us...
He fought in Chechnya under a Saudi called Khattab, who commanded the Arab fighters there before he was killed. Fadli also told the investigators that Khattab was responsible for arming and financing the outfit. However, he left Chechnya in October 2000 as the terrain was too tough for Arab fighters. Inspired by an inflammatory fatwa at home, he again set out on the warpath in July 2001. He joined the Taleban fighters with the ultimate hope of entering paradise as an honored martyr. Though he fought against the Northern Alliance, he never had come in direct confrontation with the US forces. After the 9/11 events he planned to return home but could not because the borders were closed.
As an adventurer, he wasn't that intrepid, was he?
He also said he was acquainted with Mohammed Al-Motairy from Kuwait. Maqbul Al-Maqbul was his old friend who had accompanied him in some of his earlier travels.
Just a bunch of buddies, traveling the world in search of adventure and babes...
Al-Maqbul, the second accused, also denied that he was an Al-Qaeda member. He also did not have any connection with any jihad organizations inside or outside Kuwait. He went to Afghanistan in 2000 where he was trained in handling weapons at a Libyan camp. He also had received training in a camp in Kashmir in 1997. He was in Saudi prison for 65 days for carrying a fatwa on the Sept. 11 attacks.
Y'gotta have a connection with the organizations. Otherwise they don't put you up in their camps and train you in explosives and shootin' people...
The investigation report also said he knew Fadli well since 1999 and had a vague acqaintance with Al-Motairy. Maqbul also admitted that he received illegal training in arms but with the sole motive of fighting in the cause of Allah in Chechnya.
Chechnya, y'see, used to be a part of Kuwait, so Kuwaitis have an affinity for fighting the Hated Russers™ there... Oh. Wait. No it wasn't. But they still like to go off and fight jihad there for some reason, so there's some reason why it's not meddling in somebody else's country...
As for the third accused Mohammed Al-Motairy the report said he worked in a Taleban army contingent under the command of Al-Qaeda commander Abul Hasan Al-Misri at Kandahar airport. He joined it because of an ardent desire to fight in the cause of Allah. He never met with the top leaders of Al-Qaeda. He returned home after 40 days, crossing the Iranian border. Motairy's first visit to Afghanistan was in 2000 while he was a university student in Saudi Arabia.
Where else?
He was also charged with distributing prohibited pamphlets he got from some traders coming from Saudi Arabia.
Kinda the Soddy version of The Watchtower...
The fourth accused Adil Abu Homaid, denied any connection with Al-Qaeda though he had met Osama Bin Laden while he was in Kandahar. He also denied charges of financing Asim Al-Makki who was suspected to have masterminded the bombing of a French tanker in Yemen and planned to blow up a hotel where US soldiers were staying. He admitted that he had handed donations worth about $100,000 to Fadli to be spent on charitable activities in Yemen.
A HUNDRED THOUSAND BUCKS! Wish somebody'd make a charitable donation to me like that!
He had been to Afghanistan twice. He fought with Taleban in July 2001 after listening to a fatwa urging youths to take part in jihad in Afghanistan. He had met Bin Laden as a popular figure attending wedding functions and delivering speeches in mosques in Kandahar. He explained that he did not join Al-Qaeda because he did not believe in politicization of jihad.
Those are the most moth-eaten cover stories one could possibly imagine. I'd have gone with being kidnapped by Gypsies and being made to do everything under duress, myself. "Y'see, they thought I was their long-lost gypsy king, the one that they were talkin' about in the prophesies, so I hadda lead them into battle. But then they noticed that the strawberry birthmark that identified me wasn't really shaped like a strawberry, so I came home. I'm thinkin' about opening a flower shop and settling down now."
Posted by: Fred Pruitt || 12/16/2002 01:37 pm || Comments || Link || [0 views] Top|| File under:


Yemen speaker blasts US's 'war on terror'
Arab News
Washington is unleashing a war of “terror” against all Muslims and the threat to attack Iraq is the start of a wider campaign against Arabs, Yemen’s Parliament speaker said in remarks published yesterday.
Oh, hell. He noticed. The jig's up...
“America claims to be fighting terror but is practicing it ... The war it is launching is a crusader war “against all Arabs and Muslims”, Sheikh Abdullah Al-Ahmar told Okaz daily. “America is showing open hostility to all Arab and Muslim regimes and states, including Saudi Arabia ... American hostility ... is targeting everything Islamic.”
So far it's only everything Islamist. But keep pushing it, pal...
This has created a feeling of hatred toward the United States among Arabs and Muslims, as a result of US hostility and policies of double-standard in the Middle East, he said.
They hate it when they can't have their way.
Ahmar warned that the future will be “dark and bad” for all Arabs and Muslims if the United States attacks Iraq. “America will not limit its campaign to Iraq. It will be just the beginning and war will then be extended to all Arab countries.”
Only the backward kleptocracies that chop people's heads off.
Posted by: Fred Pruitt || 12/16/2002 11:39 am || Comments || Link || [0 views] Top|| File under:

#1  And extending the war to all Arab countries would be bad because ... ?
Posted by: Denny || 12/16/2002 14:40 Comments || Top||

#2  Well, it's certainly awful if you're a beturbanned kleptocrat, innit?
Posted by: Fred || 12/16/2002 14:51 Comments || Top||

#3  Let 'em eat Scuds.....
Posted by: tu3031 || 12/16/2002 15:50 Comments || Top||

#4  "...including Saudi Arabia..." ? Considering that almost all of the non=Paletinian terrorists currently sought are associated with Wahhabi, and Wahhabi is a Saud establishment, that should be especially them - and they know it, and can read maps (bases in Iraq put us lots closer), which is why they are suddenly soft-pedaling at least some of their policies.
Posted by: John Anderson || 12/17/2002 5:59 Comments || Top||


Axis of Evil
N. Korea delivers semi-submersible gunboats to Iran
North Korea sent 15 gunboats to Iran last week aboard an Iranian freighter that arrived about the same time that U.S. and Spanish warships temporarily seized a shipment of North Korean Scud missiles. The gunboats included several special forces craft called semi-submersibles, vessels that move just below the surface of the water. The 15 gunboats were carried aboard the Iranian freighter Iran Meead that slipped into the port of Bandar Abbas one day before a North Korean freighter was seized and boarded several hundred miles to the south last week. The gunboats were identified as six Peykaap coastal patrol boats, two Tir gunboats and five Taedong underwater vessels.The Taedong semi-submersibles were further identified as three Taedong-C and two Taedong-B vessels that each carry two, 32-centimeter torpedoes. The small submarines are used in special operations warfare and are a new type of weapon for Iranian naval forces, the officials said. The ship arrived in Bandar Abbas on Dec. 8. U.S. intelligence officials believe Iran could use the gunboat and torpedo craft to threaten U.S. ships in the region.
These Taedong's might be useful against ships at anchor, but I can't see them being a threat to any warship at sea. Besides, semi-submerged means almost sunk.
Posted by: Steve || 12/16/2002 12:29 pm || Comments || Link || [0 views] Top|| File under:

#1  I wonder if satellite TV has been beaming into Iran too re-runs of McHale's Navy?
Posted by: Steve White || 12/16/2002 16:25 Comments || Top||

#2  "F-Troop". Definitely "F-troop".
Posted by: Ptah || 12/17/2002 6:52 Comments || Top||


Turkish TV Reports U.S. Troop Movements
The Pentagon said yesterday that it had no information about an alleged movement of U.S. troops and equipment into northern Iraq from Turkey, reported by Turkey's NTV and the Arabic al-Jazeera television channel. A Pentagon spokesman in Washington said he was not aware of the report. "I have nothing on that," he said. A Turkish military spokesman declined to comment on the NTV report, and a U.S. Embassy official in Ankara, the Turkish capital, said: "I have heard nothing." The NTV report, he added, "is not substantiated."
"Nope, I know nothing, I see nothing. Nothing!"
Al-Jazeera quoted Turkish military sources as saying 50 U.S. military trucks had started transporting equipment Saturday from an air base in southern Turkey into three areas in northern Iraq controlled by Kurds. The report said the trucks had used the Habur border crossing. "Jazeera learned that there are 500 U.S. Special Forces training around 2,000 Kurds and making logistical preparations for the arrival of thousands of U.S. troops in the event of an attack on Iraq," the Qatar-based television channel said. The Turkish military rarely if ever provides information to foreign media. NTV also aired a report saying 50 U.S. military vehicles had crossed into Iraq through Habur and that the number of "American intelligence and military personnel in northern Iraq has reached 500." NTV did not give a source for the story.
The 500 U.S. Special Forces personnel is most likely wrong, but as a total for all intel and military personnel it sounds likely. Thought they were going to train the Kurds outside Iraq, but that may be a different group.
Posted by: Steve || 12/16/2002 12:43 pm || Comments || Link || [0 views] Top|| File under:


Saddam’s Brother Slips Through Net
Barzan Tikriti, a former head of Saddam’s intelligence service who had served as Iraq’s ambassador to Switzerland during the 1990s, was accused of supervising an operation to kill thousands of Kurdish villagers during the Iran-Iraq war and of taking part in torture and beatings. He was also involved in Iraq’s nuclear programme, allegedly torturing reluctant scientists to work on a bomb. However, at the end of October he slipped out of Geneva after being denied a new visa. He is now untouchable in Baghdad. The circumstances of Barzan’s departure have dismayed war crime investigators who had tried to persuade the Swiss to arrest him. His escape has prompted speculation that Switzerland made him leave so as to avoid a diplomatically awkward investigation.
Like those bank accounts, perhaps?
The pursuit of Barzan was led by Indict, a London-based human rights group. It had amassed evidence against him and presented it to the Swiss authorities 15 months ago. “It is an extreme disappointment that the Swiss did not act on the information we gave them,” said Ann Clwyd, the MP who heads the organisation.
The Indict dossier claimed that Barzan had pulled out fingernails, thrown boiling water over prisoners, beaten them with cables and administered electric shocks while he was director-general of the Mukhabarat, Iraq’s intelligence agency, from 1979 to 1983.
Seems to run in the family.
The men were never seen again and none has emerged from prisons during the recent amnesty announced by Saddam. According to one statement in the dossier, 300-350 men were buried in a mass grave near Kirkuk after being shot, some by Barzan personally. A total of 3,500 to 8,000 are believed to have been killed.
Barzan also reportedly participated in the deportation and mass murder of the inhabitants of the village of Dujail after an attempt on Saddam’s life. Indict told the Swiss federal prosecutor earlier this year that it could produce as many as 30 witnesses to support the case against Barzan. In June, Clwyd visited Switzerland and alerted foreign ministry and judicial authorities. She thought she had received a sympathetic hearing and said she now felt badly let down. Since September 2000 Switzerland has included the crime of genocide in its penal code. But the federal prosecutor’s office said last week there were not enough “substantial suspicions” to pursue the investigation and the genocide law was anyway not retrospective.
Indict believes, however, that Switzerland could have tried Barzan in a military court of the kind used in connection with the Rwandan genocide. Barzan is one of Saddam’s three half-brothers. He moved to Switzerland after leaving Baghdad in 1983 following a family feud. In 1989 he became Iraqi ambassador to the UN in Geneva, a role that made him his country’s permanent representative to the UN commission on human rights. He had a clandestine parallel duty as Saddam’s “banker in the West”, managing a secret financial network.
Yup, Swiss are still embarassed about those old jewish bank accounts they plundered. They don't want any more bad press.
He was recalled home in 1998 amid signs that he had fallen out of favour. At the start of 2000 he was rehabilitated by Saddam, but he still has a long-standing feud with Uday, Saddam’s paranoid and violent elder son, who is married to Barzan’s daughter Saja.
He's Saddam's half-brother and Uday's father-in-law. I guess the family that slays together stays together.
Posted by: Steve || 12/16/2002 12:53 pm || Comments || Link || [0 views] Top|| File under:

#1  I really do think that a good part of the problems in the Middle East stems from this habit of marrying close relatives.
Posted by: Fred || 12/16/2002 13:41 Comments || Top||


Syrians ’Smuggling Arms To Baghdad’
Syria is secretly helping Saddam Hussein to prepare for a United Stated-led attack by smuggling vital arms supplies to Baghdad.
Well, they call it a secret.
Western intelligence officials have discovered that at least 52 crates containing new air-defence systems and spare parts have been smuggled into Iraq from Syria since the start of December.
The Russian-made equipment, which has been purchased through a Belorussian middleman, was taken into Iraq through al-Walid border crossing earlier this month. Western intelligence has now established that Syria is helping Saddam to smuggle substantial quantities of arms and spare parts through its territory, for which the Syrians receive an estimated 20 per cent commission on the purchase price.
Nice commission, shame if you have to loose it.
Defence experts believe that the latest Syrian arms shipments will enable the Iraqis to conduct a radical upgrade of air-defence capabilities - in particular, improving the range and effectiveness of Soviet-made SA6 anti-aircraft missiles.
In recent weeks, Baghdad has been testing its air-defence systems in the no-fly zones in northern and southern Iraq, prompting a number of retaliatory attacks by British and American warplanes.
Each time they test a new system, we bomb it so they have to import another system, which they test, etc, etc.
Posted by: Steve || 12/16/2002 01:03 pm || Comments || Link || [1 views] Top|| File under:

#1  I'm not too sure I'd be hot on the idea of fighting a war with hardware procured through Syria if I was Sammy. Any port in a storm, I guess.
Posted by: Fred || 12/16/2002 13:51 Comments || Top||

#2  This begs the question of just how many air defense systems the Belorussians, Ukrainians, etc have to export in the first place. Are they making these (I really doubt that in Belarus, but I suppose the Ukrainians might have some sort of viable defense industry), or are these left-overs from the Soviet days?
Posted by: Steve White || 12/16/2002 16:21 Comments || Top||

#3  Dubya's making a list and checking it twice. Guess who's on the list labeled "not nice"...
Posted by: Ptah || 12/17/2002 6:51 Comments || Top||


UK task force heading to Gulf
A Royal Navy task force is to visit the Gulf early next year, amid speculation Britain could soon be involved in armed conflict with Iraq. Six vessels, including the aircraft carrier Ark Royal, a destroyer, a frigate and a submarine, will head to the area after the New Year. Several hundred British military personnel are already in the region, taking part in a major US-led war exercise co-ordinated from Qatar. The Ministry of Defence said the forthcoming mission was part of a routine, long-planned exercise which would end in the Asia-Pacific region. But the expedition could easily be diverted to take part in any US-led military action against Saddam Hussein's regime.
Handy, ain't it.
According to the Sunday Telegraph, in total about 2,600 military personnel will sail to the Gulf over the next few weeks. The newspaper quoted one un-named senior official as saying: "It is true this has been planned for some time but it is a very convenient cover." The paper also said an announcement on the sending of a ground force of about 20,000 British troops, led by a light armoured division, was expected within two weeks.
This says to me that any attack is not expected to happen until the second new moon of 2003, 2 Feb, I believe.
Posted by: Steve || 12/16/2002 01:32 pm || Comments || Link || [0 views] Top|| File under:

#1  Welcome to the rumble, m'lads...
Posted by: Ptah || 12/17/2002 6:48 Comments || Top||


Islamic Group Shows Battle Videos on Web
A militant Islamic group operating in an autonomous region of northern Iraq — and accused of ties to al-Qaida — has placed videos of its battle with a Kurdish militia on its Web site.
Ansar al-Islam's www.ansarislam.com shows the ferocity of a battle earlier this month that left scores dead. In one scene, as a barrage of rockets hits a hilltop target, a voice cries "Allahu Akbar," or "God is great." The group's Web site claimed it killed 103 and wounded 117 soldiers of the Patriotic Union of Kurdistan, while only four of its own fighters were killed in the Dec. 4 battle. Patriotic Union officials said 53 of their fighters were killed and 31 wounded, while 21 to 25 Ansar rebels died in the initial battle and a counterassault. One of those killed, according to the PUK, was Abdulla Khalifana, Ansar's deputy commander in chief.
E-mails sent to an address on Ansar's Web site and to the site administrators went unanswered.
Typical IT department. Most likely cruising porn sites.
PUK officials say Ansar al-Islam is an offshoot of al-Qaida. Ansar officials say that some of their members have trained with bin Laden's group in Afghanistan, but they're not under al-Qaida's control. The Kurdish-controlled provinces in northern Iraq have become relatively prosperous enclaves. Major cities have satellite-powered Internet cafes and nascent Internet service providers offer home connections to the Net. Software stores sell pirated copies of sophisticated Web design programs for several dollars a piece. Computer training centers have opened. Even with battle videos, Ansar's site in Kurdish, Arabic and Farsi — the English page is still under construction — may find it difficult to compete for the attention of the mostly young Kurds who frequent Internet cafes here. Chat rooms are more popular. The two main Kurdish parties also have extensive Web sites.
OK, does everyone have a website but me?
Posted by: Steve || 12/16/2002 02:32 pm || Comments || Link || [0 views] Top|| File under:

#1  If you do start a website Steve, 15$ URLs at dotster.com and 60$ a year hosting at cornerhost.com.

I'll kick in the first donation too.
Posted by: PJ || 12/16/2002 18:35 Comments || Top||

#2  I have been meaning to ask Fred if he needs a donation too. Paypal, or is there any Adobe software you might need? Might take a month or 2 to come, but its worth the wait.
Posted by: PJ || 12/16/2002 18:37 Comments || Top||

#3  There's always Paypal - upper right corner, where nobody notices it...
Posted by: Fred || 12/17/2002 8:44 Comments || Top||


Western jets attack southern Iraq air defences
American and British warplanes attacked air defences in southern Iraq for the third successive day on Monday in response to attempts to shoot down the planes policing a "no-fly" zone, the U.S. military said. In Baghdad, an Iraqi military spokesman, quoted by the Iraqi News Agency, said U.S. and British planes attacked civilian installations in the southern province of Dhi Qar. Iraqi anti-aircraft and missile batteries fired back. The Iraqi spokesman said the planes carried out 67 sorties from bases in Kuwait and flew over the southern cities of Nasiriya, Kut, al Salman, Qalat Suker, Qurna, Kerbala and Qalat Saleh. He said the sorties started at 11 a.m. (3:00 a.m. EST/0800 GMT). The U.S. Central Command said in a release from its headquarters in Tampa, Florida, that the planes dropped precision bombs on a military communications site south of Al Kut, approximately 160 kms southeast of Baghdad. Sunday Western aircraft also attacked an Iraqi mobile radar and a cable relay communications target in the southern no-fly zone, the Central Command said. Saturday, warplanes hit multiple communications facilities. The Central Command also said that Western warplanes dropped 480,000 leaflets at six areas in southern Iraq on Monday, warning the military to stop targeting aircraft and repairing previously bombed targets such as fiber-optic cable communications facilities.
Full employment program for cable splicers.
Posted by: Steve || 12/16/2002 02:51 pm || Comments || Link || [0 views] Top|| File under:

#1  Wow. Civilian installations with Anti-aircraft and missile batteries. Somebody page the inspectors...
Posted by: Ptah || 12/16/2002 15:04 Comments || Top||

#2  If there's any civs around those SAM sites, it's only because the army boyos won't let 'em leave. We blow the things up quite regularly, and the civs all know that.
Posted by: mojo || 12/16/2002 15:48 Comments || Top||

#3  Oh, we provide strong defense against the air.The air will never defeat us. It's the infidel AIRplanes we have problem with...
Posted by: tu3031 || 12/16/2002 16:05 Comments || Top||

#4  Reminds me of the late-sixties border clashes between China and Soviet Union."Chinese aggressors ambushed a peace-loving tractor crew plowing a field near Amur river.The tractor responded to fire."
Posted by: El Id || 12/16/2002 22:27 Comments || Top||


Caucasus
Russia says Chechen was not beaten
The Russian authorities say no violence was used against the prominent Chechen separatist rebel commander, Salman Raduyev, who died in prison on Sunday. Deputy Justice Minister Yuri Kalinin denied Russian media reports that Raduyev had been beaten to death. He said the commander died of internal bleeding which might have been caused by the many medical complaints he suffered from.
Snicker.
Posted by: Steve || 12/16/2002 01:29 pm || Comments || Link || [0 views] Top|| File under:

#1  Fucking russian humor. Sick bastards.
Posted by: mojo || 12/16/2002 13:40 Comments || Top||

#2  Salman had actually been head shot once before, when he was footloose and fancy-free. That was one of those assassination attempts against him that almost worked. He needed reconstructive surgery for his face - his doctors made him sign an agreement that there wouldn't be an repercussions if it didn't work. I'd guess that there might have been either a bit of old ordnance or a bloodclot, or both, rattling around inside his skull. A single thump on the head might have been enough to have him cavorting with flat-chested 12-year-olds.
Posted by: Fred || 12/16/2002 13:45 Comments || Top||


Marines take over counter-terror training
The Marine Corps Monday assumed control of an Army Special Forces mission to train and equip Georgian soldiers for counter-terror operations in the dangerous Pankisi gorge of the former Soviet republic. A Special Forces-trained commando battalion -- roughly 1,000 men -- graduated from the first program earlier Monday. The Marines will now train a light infantry battalion and a mechanized company team in counter-terror operations.
The training program began in late May 2002 and, according to present plans, will continue until this May. Moscow has charged the Pankisi gorge in Georgia -- nestled between the Caspian and Black seas, north of Iran and Turkey and south of Russia -- is a haven for Chechen terrorists, and U.S. officials say al Qaida members expelled from Afghanistan have fled to the mountainous area to continue their operations. Georgian officials told United Press International in October the gorge had been largely cleared of the terrorist element, but said the commandos will invariably be needed in the future. Georgian Minister of State Security Valeri Khaburdzania said two oil pipelines soon to be built across Georgia -- Baku-Tbilisi-Supsa and Baku-Tbilisi-Ceyhan -- will require armed protection.

The Marine Corps and U.S. Special Operations Command signed an agreement to increase their cooperation a year ago, allowing the Marine Corps to pick up some of the Special Forces' missions. Special Forces have been seriously stressed as they have played a central and continuing role in the war in Afghanistan and in counter-terror operations worldwide.
The Marine Corps is already "special operations capable," meaning some of its expeditionary forces can conduct specialized demolition, clandestine reconnaissance and surveillance, raids, in-extremis hostage recovery, and enabling operations for follow-on forces for limited time periods when other forces are inappropriate or unavailable. The Marines were the first in Afghanistan after U.S. Special Forces helped coordinate the ground war, which resulted in the expulsion of the Taliban after just two months of fighting.
Posted by: Steve || 12/16/2002 03:28 pm || Comments || Link || [0 views] Top|| File under:


East/Subsaharan Africa
Kenyan police questioning wife of suspect in attacks on Israeli targets
Kenyan police are questioning the wife of a man suspected to have made the car bomb used in last month's suicide attack at a coastal hotel frequented by Israelis, an official said Monday.
Fatuma Nabhan was picked up by police on Saturday at her mother's house in Lamu, a small Indian Ocean port near the Somali border, Deputy Police Commissioner William Langat, the lead Kenyan investigator in the case, said in a telephone interview. After police took Nabhan back to Mombasa, the 17-year-old showed them the house where she and her husband - 23-year-old Saleh Ali Saleh Nabhan - lived for the last two years with an unidentified couple, Langat said. Police are searching for Saleh Nabhan and the other couple, all three of whom are believed to be alive, he said. In the house, investigators found "telltale signs" that someone had been making a bomb there, he said. But he refused to elaborate. Investigators do not believe Fatuma Nabhan took part in the attack, but "she knew what they were planning," he said. "She lived in the house."
Welcome to the Kenyan prison system. Have a nice life.
On the day before the attacks, the Nabhans and the other couple cleared out of the house in Mombasa's leafy Tudor neighborhood, Langat said. Fatuma Nabhan fled to Lamu, 75 miles north of Mombasa, he said. Her husband's whereabouts immediately after the attack remain unclear, but he was seen in Lamu on Dec. 2-3.
So he wasn't one of the boomers, huh? A bigger fish then.
Langat said witnesses have told investigators Saleh Nabhan may have slipped into Somalia on Dec. 3, but those reports have yet to be verified.
Ditched the wife, who he only married to stay in the country, and skipped town. Sounds like a sleeper agent. Be nice to talk to him for a while.
Posted by: Steve || 12/16/2002 03:03 pm || Comments || Link || [0 views] Top|| File under:


Europe
Parcel bombs target Spanish airline
Italian police have defused a suspect package addressed to the Spanish airline Iberia at Rome's Fiumicino international airport. Police explosives experts were called in after the package raised the suspicions of staff at the airport's post office. This is the latest in a series of explosives devices aimed at Spanish targets, after two parcel bombs were sent last week to the airline at Milan's Malpensa airport and at its offices in Rome. In a possibly related development, Spanish police said on Thursday they had defused another bomb sent by mail from Milan, received at the Barcelona office of the Spanish newspaper El Pais. On Saturday, Italian police defused a bomb, consisting of powder in an envelope with a timing device attached, sent to Iberia's offices at Milan's Malpensa airport. On Friday, a bomb was found hidden in a book left at Iberia's Italian headquarters in Rome. The device was destroyed in a controlled explosion. Authorities said on Monday that all four bombs had been sent from Milan and that the package discovered on Monday was very similar to the others.
Spain's Interior Minister, Angel Acebes, said on Thursday that the package sent to El Pais was claimed by an unknown group, the Five Cs, opposed to capitalism, prisons and prison officers. News reports said that the same group signed the leaflet found with the letter-bomb at Milan airport on Saturday.
Anti-gobalization terror group, saving the planet with explosives.
Posted by: Steve || 12/16/2002 01:23 pm || Comments || Link || [0 views] Top|| File under:

#1  That or a bunch of commie ex-cons.
Posted by: mojo || 12/17/2002 0:32 Comments || Top||

#2  Sounds like ETA teaming up with old Red Army factions. The Frogs have been clamping down on them in SW Frogland, so they seem to moving further east. Thing is the crudity of the bomb - ETA was trained by the best boomers in the biz -IRA and do better than paperbag boomers.
Posted by: Jack || 12/17/2002 5:12 Comments || Top||


Fifth Column
Brain Trust Preaches Peace in Iraq
U.N. inspectors hunted for weapons of mass destruction at missile plants and nuclear complexes Sunday, while fading Hollywood star Sean Penn spoke out in Baghdad against his own country a U.S. attack and in support of the Iraqi people caught up in an international crisis. Penn issued his comments at the end of a three-day visit to Iraq which was organized by the Institute for Public Accuracy, a cushy racket research organization based in San Francisco, California. ``Simply put, if there is a war or continued sanctions against Iraq, the blood of Americans and Iraqis alike will be on our (American) hands,'' Penn said at a news conference in the Iraqi capital Sunday.
Don't forget to wash your hands after you piss off. Make sure you're back in Baghdad when the bombing starts. They need a few more human shields.
Posted by: Fred Pruitt || 12/16/2002 12:05 pm || Comments || Link || [0 views] Top|| File under:

#1  I hope the Iraqi people remember the Hollywood 101 who were willing to let the Iraqi people suffer in order to get partisan jabs at President Bush.
Posted by: Anonymous || 12/16/2002 12:52 Comments || Top||

#2  I wouldn't mind some of that American blood being Sean's...
Posted by: Ptah || 12/16/2002 13:10 Comments || Top||

#3  I can live with it....
Posted by: tu3031 || 12/16/2002 15:16 Comments || Top||

#4  Headline Should Read:
U.S. Deploys 1st Airborne Celebrity Division To Iraq as "camera inspectors".

The star-studded airborne division, based at Hollywood AFB deployed to suburban Bagdhad using resources borrowed from 'fellow travelers'. The 1st Airborne "Jackasses" as they are known by their actual fighting bretheren in the 82nd ("All-Americans") and the 101st("Screaming Eagles"), landed in Iraq in search of badly needed "face time". According to 1st Sgt. Tim Robbins: "face time,is just as important in the media war as gunpowder is in actual real war".


The 1st ACD is made up of many stars of marginal quality, and more than a few of Mike Ovitz's old clients. Here is just a few of the well meaning, limelight addicted, heroin swaddled idiots who make up the ranks of the 1st ACD:

Tim Robbins ( marginal star, his greatest role seems to be as "man most likely to sleep with Susan Sarandon today")

Susan Sarandon ( marginal star, cant seem to get enough scripts to bash america these days)

Sean Penn ( marginal star, his portrayal of a middle aged retarded man in the film "I AM SAM" was lauded by critics until it was discovered that mr. penn was, in point of fact, not acting during the role.

Mike Farrell (marginal star, works mostly as a spokesman for phildelphia cop killers these days)

Martin Sheen ( marginal star, known for his desire to be arrested in all 50 states before the age of 70,and the ability to spawn movie stars of even less ability then himself.

Posted by: Frank Martin || 12/16/2002 15:58 Comments || Top||

#5  Has Sean had his picture taken sitting on one of the AA guns yet? Your Hollywood types seem to like that...
Posted by: tu3031 || 12/16/2002 16:29 Comments || Top||

#6  Why don't any Iraqi actors come to the USA to speak out about Saddam? Oh yea, Saddam had them all shot.

Nice of Sean Penn to stand up for a modern day Hitler though.
Posted by: PJ || 12/16/2002 18:49 Comments || Top||

#7  Sean Penn? isnt that arabic for human shield?
Posted by: flash91 || 12/17/2002 0:41 Comments || Top||

#8  Penn is just another Saddam shill, but it's interesting how many Hollywood types, including many of the signatories to "Not in My Name" and "Win Without War" petitions have had very little compunction about playing war heroes, federal agents, and U.S. spies when the price was right. One wonders where their "principles" were when they took on these roles:

Sean Penn: Played an American soldier on Guadalcanal in "The Thin Red Line."

Alec Baldwin: Played Jimmy Doolittle in "Pearl Harbor" and Jack Ryan, CIA Analyst, in the "Hunt for Red October."

Woody Harrelson: Played a heroic soldier in "The Thin Red Line."

Gillian Anderson: Played an FBI agent on the "X-Files"

Don Cheadle: Played an FBI agent in "Swordfish" and a DEA agent in "Traffic"

Matt Damon: Played Private Ryan, in "Saving Private Ryan" and a spy in "The Bourne Identity"

David Duchovny: Played an FBI agent on the "X-Files"

Mike Farrell: Played an Army doctor on "M.A.S.H."

Larry Gelbart: Primary writer on "M.A.S.H

Samuel L. Jackson: Played a super-patriot secret agent in "XXX"

Martin Sheen: Played an American officer in "Apocalypse Now"

Loretta Swit: Played an Army Nurse on "M.A.S.H"

James Whitmore: Played Harry Truman in "Give 'em Hell, Harry" and in the cast of "Above and Beyond" about the crew that bombed Hiroshima.

Dennis Weaver: Played a Naval officer in "The Gallant Hours."

Posted by: R. McLeod || 12/17/2002 4:06 Comments || Top||

#9  BBC gave this idiot some air time this Sunday as if he and his ilk were the majority opinion in the USA. What more can you expect from people who spend their lives pretending to be someone they are not or in the case of the list of roles people they could never be.
Posted by: Jack || 12/17/2002 5:36 Comments || Top||


India-Pakistan
Explosives seized as Pakistan foils plan to kill US envoys
The arrest of three Pakistani militants plotting to assassinate two United States diplomats has led to what police described as the biggest-ever seizure of explosives in Pakistan. A 10,000-kilogram cache of ammonium nitrate, enough to make thousands of bombs, was discovered in a warehouse in Karachi on Sunday after police foiled a suicide bomb attack by Islamic militants against the US diplomats. "This chemical is used in making bombs and this is certainly the biggest cache," Karachi's police chief, Asad Ashraf Malik, said.
That's a lot of fertilizer, all right.
Three men were arrested with 10kg of explosives packed into a Volkswagen that they planned to detonate in an attack on the diplomats, Sindh province's police chief, Kamal Shah, said.
Mr Shah said the arrests and subsequent interrogation led police to the warehouse where the explosives were kept in 250 sacks. Police were looking for the warehouse's owner. The three arrested men were members of the extremist movement Harkat-e-Jihad-e-Islami and were trained in Afghanistan. Mr Shah said the ringleader had planned to kill the diplomats with the explosives-laden car. Mr Shah identified the would-be suicide bomber as Asif Zaheer, 28, and said he had backed out at the last minute from a May 8 suicide attack outside Karachi's Sheraton Hotel that killed 11 French engineers. "But this time, he wanted to carry out the suicide bombing himself and the two American diplomats were his target," he said. Zaheer was found in possession of the registration document for the 1974 Toyota Corolla used in the attack on the French engineers at the Sheraton.
These guys still are using their own cars.
A police source said Zaheer, the son of a retired government employee, was using a VW Beetle "because the trunk is in the front of the car and can fit a lot of explosives".
So much for the "Love Bug".
The source said Zaheer told investigators he would not divulge all the details of the plot, "as that would reduce my reward in heaven". Zaheer allegedly said: "The only regret I have is that I could not secure the status of martyr."
Nothing sadder than a failed martyr.
Posted by: Steve || 12/16/2002 02:01 pm || Comments || Link || [0 views] Top|| File under:

#1  Sadder? I say: nothing dumber than a failed martyr...
Posted by: Frank G || 12/16/2002 21:11 Comments || Top||


Middle East
European, Palestinian Youth to Rebuild Youth Center in Nablus
In the summer of 2003, youth from Palestine, Germany and other prospective countries will come together with the common goal of rebuilding youth facilities in Nablus that were destroyed in April of 2002, in the historic Israeli invasion of the city.
Yeah. Those Zionist bastards drove their tanks right down the firing ranges...
The project, which is being facilitated by German and Palestinian organizations, aims at bringing youth together in a work camp setting to learn about one another's cultures and to create cross-cultural relationships. They also hope to promote the ideas of equality in living, problem solving, internal decision-making, and tolerance for other cultures and ways of life.
They're gonna sing neat songs around the campfire, like "Kumbaya"...
The Shabab Reconstruction Project was initiated with the awareness that the youth in Palestine, which count for approximately 66% of the population are growing up and coming of age in a very isolated and unstable environment, which denies them healthy exposure to outside ideas, customs and cultures. This sense of isolation and marginalization is the result of continuous closures, curfews and invasions by the Israeli army.
And the fact that their elders are lunatics. Don't forget that part...
According to the organizers of the youth initiative, since the beginning of the second Intifada, nearly two years ago, approximately 22% of those killed and injured have been children, aged 18 years and younger.
They account for two thirds of the population, one fifth of the casualties. The fact says the Hated Zionists™ aren't snuffing people at random, doesn't it? And the 22 percent figure includes the Molotov cocktain kiddies, 15 through 18, who're just as legitimate targets as the 18-21 Molotov cocktail set. Oh, and don't forget the occasional 16-year-old boomer. (Paleostinians just hate elementary arithmetic...)
The organizers state that The Occupation has stifled independence and freedom of young people, which limits their creativity and ability to create better futures. It hampers their ability to develop a positive self-identity and tries to dismantle Palestinian culture.
If they spent less time waving guns and rolling their eyes they'd be better off, wouldn't they?
Posted by: Fred Pruitt || 12/16/2002 11:39 am || Comments || Link || [0 views] Top|| File under:

#1  As yes, Germans and Phillistines coming together to celebrate their shared values of Jew-hatred and genocide. It just makes me feel so... chilled along my spine? Yeah, that's the feeling!
Posted by: Scooter McGruder || 12/16/2002 13:44 Comments || Top||

#2  Shaken, not stirred, so to speak?
Posted by: Fred || 12/16/2002 13:47 Comments || Top||

#3  Looks like this has the potential to be an annual event. Jeez, wonder why the youth facilities seem to get blown up all the time?????
Posted by: tu3031 || 12/16/2002 15:25 Comments || Top||

#4  DEUTCHELAND UBER ALLES! I mean, that band around Schroder's arm isn't to prevent him from saluting. The insignia of the Swastika on the armband is just to salute the burgeoning Indo-German ties. What?
Posted by: Brian || 12/16/2002 16:39 Comments || Top||


Bashar denies there are terrorists in Syria
Ananova
President Bashar Assad of Syria has brushed aside calls from Britain to rein in Palestinian 'terrorist' organisations in his country. Following talks in Downing Street with Tony Blair, the President insisted there were no Palestinian terrorists operating in his country - there were simply "press officers". Before their talks, British officials had made clear the Prime Minister's determination to raise the issue of groups such as Hamas and Islamic Jihad, which have offices in Syria. But at a joint news conference afterwards, President Assad told reporters: "These press officers represent Palestinians who live in Syria and Palestinians who live in Palestine. Palestinians have a right to have someone to express their opinion."
Can you loan me some breath? He just took mine away...
Posted by: Fred Pruitt || 12/16/2002 11:43 am || Comments || Link || [0 views] Top|| File under:

#1  One thing that Arabs are sorta good at is lying. They get so much practice at it...
Posted by: Raj || 12/16/2002 11:55 Comments || Top||

#2  "No, no "Palestinian" terrorists...but we have plenty more of the other kinds...."
Posted by: tu3031 || 12/16/2002 16:22 Comments || Top||


Sheikh Yasin: The Struggle Will Continue Till Freedom
Hamas fuehrer founder and spiritual leader Sheikh Ahmed Yassin has reasserted his movement's determination to pursue armed struggle™ against the Israeli apartheid regime "until freedom and independence."
"Killing people is our ideology. It's our only ideology."
"We have no other ideas choice, the Zionists want us to surrender and readily accept some sort of wimpy modern state enslavement and perpetual occupation and domination. We say the struggle and Jihad will continue, we are not the kind of people who would accept enslavement and foreign occupation."
"We're really not the kind of people who do anything but kill other people, at least not anymore..."
Yasin also ridiculed Israeli intelligence efforts to enlist Palestinians to work under the name of Al-Qaeda, saying these "suspicious efforts are exposed to the whole world."
"Just because al-Qaeda says they're operating in Paleostine doesn't mean they actually are..."
Yasin said the Palestinian struggle is noble and dignified because "we are fighting oppression and colonialism, we are freedom fighters, not terroristrs." Sheikh Yasin scoffed at Israeli allegations that Hamas was planing to supplant the Palestinian Authority. "Our priority is to get rid of this evil occupation," he said.
"Then we can sieze power ourselves and subject the entire population to primitive Arabian customs gussied up as laws."
Posted by: Fred Pruitt || 12/16/2002 12:12 pm || Comments || Link || [0 views] Top|| File under:


Defense Minister Shaul Mofaz says Israel will destroy Lebanon missile batteries if attacked
Defense Minister Shaul Mofaz warned Monday that if the Lebanese Hezbollah guerrillas fire long-range missiles at Israel, Israel may be compelled to counterattack, Israeli Army Radio reported.
He said Syria, the main power broker on Lebanon, had allowed the Islamic guerrilla group to deploy hundreds of missiles capable of hitting Israeli cities. "South Lebanon today is in fact under the complete control of Hezbollah - we call it Hezbolistan," Mofaz told the radio.
Hezbolistan - catchy phrase. I like it.
"They (Syria) allow Hezbollah to use Lebanese soil as a launching pad for attacks against Israel."
As opposed to launching them from Syria, which of course has no terrorists.
The radio quoted Mofaz as saying that if Syria or Hezbollah's Iranian mentors did nothing to rein in the group, Israel would have to remove the missiles itself. "I think that if Hezbollah opens a second front against Israel by using long-range rockets against the northern part of the state of Israel we won't have much choice," Mofaz said.
Nope.
Posted by: Steve || 12/16/2002 03:12 pm || Comments || Link || [0 views] Top|| File under:

#1  *nods* I like it too.
Posted by: Ptah || 12/17/2002 6:59 Comments || Top||


Southeast Asia
10 killed in Aceh since peace Jakarta-GAM peace deal signed
Jakarta Post
16 December 2002
Aceh separatist rebels alleged on Monday that 10 people had been killed and 21 others arrested by Indonesian troops since a peace deal was signed last week, AFP reported.
Sounds like the agreement's working about as expected...
The military said it had no report of the alleged killings but acknowledged separatist Free Aceh Movement (GAM) rebels and soldiers had exchanged fire in East Aceh on Sunday. "There were no casualties during the clash," said military spokesman Firdaus Komarno.
"Well, nobody important was shot, anyway..."
But GAM negotiator Teuku Kamaruzzaman, who attended the Dec. 9 signing of the peace agreement in Geneva, said 20 people had been arrested in Panga, West Aceh. "Eight were later found dead and 12 of them are still missing," he said, adding that soldiers in Bayeuen, East Aceh, kidnapped Mukhtar Daud, 40, and shot him dead a day after the signing.
It sounds like the Indon coppers are much to be preferred to the Indon army, doesn't it?
Posted by: Fred Pruitt || 12/16/2002 11:38 am || Comments || Link || [0 views] Top|| File under:


Bali bomb-making cache found
Indonesian police have seized one tonne of a bomb making chemical used in the Bali attacks. Police said they found 40 sacks of potassium chlorate, which is used in fireworks and can be used for making bombs, during a raid on a house in Banjar Wati, East Java. The house belongs to a friend of Amrozi, under arrest for his part in the attacks, which killed over 180 people.
With friends like this.....
Last month, a member of the multinational investigation into the Bali blasts expressed concern that most of the chlorate purchased by the Bali suspects for the attack was still missing. Australian Federal Police Commissioner Mick Keelty said at the time, "The indications are that there was about one tonne of chlorate" bought by Amrozi. A police spokesman in East Java, Sad Harunantyo, said authorities were currently interrogating the owner of the house where the chlorate was found. "One thing we know for sure is that he is a friend of Amrozi, but he claims that he had no knowledge of the contents of the package," Mr Harunantyo told AFP news agency.
Didn't think to ask what was in the one ton package labled "No Smoking - Explosive" in his garage.
There are at least 15 people under arrest in suspicion of involvement in the Bali attacks. The chief of the investigation, I Made Mangku Pastika, told the BBC that there were a further five suspects still at large. He said that he hoped to have the dossiers for each of the arrested suspects completed by the end of the year, and that their trials could begin as early as February.
Wonder if Court TV will cover it?
Posted by: Steve || 12/16/2002 01:11 pm || Comments || Link || [0 views] Top|| File under:

#1  I Made Mangku Pastika? U Make This Up?
Posted by: tu3031 || 12/16/2002 15:42 Comments || Top||


Indonesia police make probe international
Indonesian police have sent investigators to several countries to try to link the alleged spiritual leader of the Jemaah Islamiyah group with a series of bombings in the country, including the Bali blasts last October. National police chief Gen. Dai Bachtiar said the teams had been dispatched to Malaysia, Singapore, Thailand and the Philippines, to gather information in particular about the role of Abu Bakar Baasyir in the bombings. "We are gathering all information, including from Malaysia and other (countries)," Bachtiar said. "We also pursuing our investigation into Baasyir's role in the bombings."
Bachtiar said police were looking for information on an alleged meeting last February in Bangkok, Thailand, to discuss the bombings, including the Oct. 12 Bali blasts in which nearly 200 people were killed. Police have said JI was responsible for the attack. The Bangkok meeting, which allegedly took place last February, was attended by Hambali, also known as Riduan Isamuddin, Imam Samudra, Ali Gufron alias Muklas and Baasyir. Gufron, who was arrested earlier this month, told investigators about the Bangkok meeting during interrogation.
Thailand is the only one saying it didn't happen. It's that river in Egypt again.
Police believe that Gufron, the elder brother of another Bali bombing suspect Amrozi, is the operations chief of JI, a post previously held by Hambali. Baasyir was arrested in October for his alleged role in a series of church bombings in 2000 and for involvement in an assassination plot against President Megawati Sukarnoputri. Investigators have not linked the 64-year-old Muslim cleric with the Bali bombings. Baasyir has strongly denied any wrongdoing.
He may very well have not known specifics about the Bali bombing, but it looks like the Indo's are trying to get enough evidence to link him with other operations.
Also Monday, Singapore's Prime Minister Goh Chok Tong said terrorism poses a "very grave threat" to Southeast Asia, adding that members of JI regional terror network are still at large.
"We discussed measures to root out the terror infrastructure in this part of the world," Goh said after a meeting with Megawati.
"We are aware that JI is the Southeast Asia link of al Qaida," he said.
Posted by: Steve || 12/16/2002 02:15 pm || Comments || Link || [0 views] Top|| File under:


Neighbors Ready to Eradicate Jemaah Islamiyah
Indonesian President Megawati Sukarnoputri and Singapore Prime Minister Goh Tok Chong held talks Monday on how to eliminate regional terrorism network Jemaah Islamiyah. “We have agreed to cooperate in eliminating the terrorist network,” Goh told a joint press conference after a meeting with Megawati at a state palace in Bogor, West Java.
The Indons' domestic terror enablers can be expected to poke out the old lower lip and dig in their heels at that one!
He said the talks focused on cooperative measures to root out the “many” terrorists still at large in Southeast Asia, but did not provide details of any specific new counter-terrorism strategies.
That's for the intel and military guys to come up with, anyway...
Singapore has been a keen proponent of the US-led war on terrorism, arresting dozens of alleged terrorists since late last year, whereas Indonesia had initially played down terror threats until the October 12 Bali nightclub bombings that killed more than 190 people.
And lots of pols still haven't stopped...
In the wake of the bombings, Indonesia has arrested more than 20 people linked directly and indirectly to the case, while at least 11 people have been detained over the recent bombing of a McDonald’s restaurant and a car showroom in Makassar, South Sulawesi. Several of the perpetrators of the Bali and Makassar bombings have connections with Jemaah Islamiyah and are linked to the group’s spiritual leader Abu Bakar Baasyir [Bashir], who adamantly denies any wrongdoing.
"Nope. Nope. Not me. Just a simple holy man. Besides, they wuz all infidels..."
Indonesia earlier this year rejected repeated calls from Singapore to arrest Baasyir but finally detained him after the Bali bombings, charging him over a series of deadly church bombings on Christmas Eve 2000 and an alleged plot to assassinate Megawati before she became president. Baasyir, leader of the radical Indonesian Mujahidin Council, insists Jemaah Islamiyah does not exist and refuses to cooperate with police investigators.
"Dere ain't no sech thing as a mafia, I mean Jemaah, see? Dose 'as sez diff'rint, dey don't know nuttin'! See?"
Goh said Singapore and Indonesia are aware that Jemaah Islamiyah is the Southeast Asian link of Osama bin Laden’s al Qaeda organization. Megawati said she and Goh had discussed cooperation on anti-terrorism and economics but declined to reveal details. Singapore’s Senior Minister Lee Kuan Yew has said monitoring of internet traffic indicates that about 100 radical groups with several thousand members are operating in Indonesia.
Gives them lotsa stuff to work on. If they need any help, have them give me a call...
Indonesia’s tourism industry has slumped after the Bali attacks, but Goh gave the resort island some badly needed publicity, saying it is a safe holiday destination.
Except when somebody blows you up. Ramallah is a safe holiday destination, too, by that criterion.
Posted by: Fred Pruitt || 12/16/2002 02:50 pm || Comments || Link || [0 views] Top|| File under:

#1  Looks like they want to put the "hole" back in "holy man"....
Posted by: tu3031 || 12/16/2002 15:36 Comments || Top||



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Two weeks of WOT
Mon 2002-12-16
  Parcel bombs target Spanish airline
Sun 2002-12-15
  Paks nab Karachi boomers...
Sat 2002-12-14
  Jordan arrests two for Foley killing
Fri 2002-12-13
  Ivorian Rebels Demand France Withdraw, Threaten War
Thu 2002-12-12
  North Korea to reactivate nuclear program
Wed 2002-12-11
  Iraq urges Gulf states to attack US servicemen
Tue 2002-12-10
  Scud-Type Missiles Found Aboard Ship in Arabian Sea
Mon 2002-12-09
  27 Taliban, Hezb-i-Islami Members in Custody
Sun 2002-12-08
  Mosque boomed in Bekaa Valley...
Sat 2002-12-07
  Sammy 'apologizes' to Kuwait...
Fri 2002-12-06
  Massachusetts company with FBI links raided in terror probe
Thu 2002-12-05
  Prince Nayef: Jews Behind 9/11 Attacks
Wed 2002-12-04
  Ansar al-Islam Battles Kurds in Iraq
Tue 2002-12-03
  Turkey offers bases for Iraq raids
Mon 2002-12-02
  Saudi Arabia says it has quit helping families of bombers

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