Hi there, !
Today Wed 05/28/2003 Tue 05/27/2003 Mon 05/26/2003 Sun 05/25/2003 Sat 05/24/2003 Fri 05/23/2003 Thu 05/22/2003 Archives
Rantburg
531689 articles and 1855967 comments are archived on Rantburg.

Today: 41 articles and 23 comments as of 11:18.
Post a news link    Post your own article   
Area:                    
Morocco arrests 3 over Casablanca blasts
Today's Headlines
Headline Comments [Views]
Page 1: WoT Operations
2 00:00 someone [1] 
2 00:00 Celissa [1] 
0 [] 
0 [] 
2 00:00 flash91 [] 
0 [] 
0 [] 
0 [] 
3 00:00 Alaska Paul [] 
0 [] 
0 [] 
0 [] 
2 00:00 Bomb-a-rama [] 
0 [] 
0 [] 
0 [1] 
0 [] 
0 [] 
0 [] 
0 [] 
4 00:00 mojo [1] 
2 00:00 robert [2] 
0 [] 
2 00:00 Bomb-a-rama [1] 
0 [] 
0 [] 
0 [] 
0 [] 
2 00:00 Raptor [1] 
2 00:00 Celissa [1] 
0 [] 
0 [] 
0 [] 
0 [] 
0 [] 
0 [] 
Page 0: Non-WoT
0 []
0 []
0 []
0 []
0 []
Afghanistan
Four Afghan soldiers wounded, US convoy attacked
A convoy of US troops attacked in southeast Afghanistan suffered no casualties, while four Afghan border guards were wounded in a separate clash. “A Special Operations Forces two-vehicle convoy came under small arms fire while travelling from Khost to Gardez (Friday) morning,” Colonel Rodney Davis told reporters at Bagram Air Base. The troops continued to Gardez, capital of Paktia province which borders Pakistan. It was not known who the attackers were, he said. Four Afghan border guards in neighbouring Khost province were injured Friday morning when they came under attack from around 100 ‘anti-coalition militants’, Col Davis said. Two of the injured were taken to a nearby Italian base and released after treatment for gunshot wounds. The checkpoint 25 kilometres east of Khost city also came under attack two nights ago, he said, citing reports from Afghan border guards. Coalition forces investigating the site of the clash Friday found ammunition casings from AK-47 assault rifles, PK machine guns and rocket propelled grenades. “The enemy left anti-personnel mines at the checkpoint but they were not fused,” he said. “All of the mortars and ammunition were serviceable and stockpiled for later use.”
They left antipersonnel mines, but they forgot to set the fuzes. That sounds like Hek's Secret Army of Doom to me...
Posted by: Fred Pruitt || 05/25/2003 02:46 pm || Comments || Link || [1 views] Top|| File under:


Defence of Pashtuns' rights stressed
PESHAWAR: Pashtun leaders rejecting the ongoing effort of framing a new constitution for Afghanistan have said that it was aimed at bringing the largest ethnic majority under the subjugation of minority leaders. Speaking at a news conference held in the provincial metropolis on Saturday, leaders of the Afghan Liberal Party and Afghanistan Peace Struggling Democratic Party, including Ajmal Sohail and Shan Bacha Shinwari, urged President Hamid Karzai to take into confidence all the political parties while formulating a new constitution for the embattled country. The constitution, they said, was aimed at depriving the Pashtuns of their rights, despite being the largest ethnic entity in Afghanistan, on behest of the Persian speakers. There was no mention of the Hanafi sect in the constitution which was being practised by the majority, they said.
Several delightful points on this item, starting with the fact that it's posted from Peshawar, the capital of Pashtunistan. By virtue of having a (theoretical) bare majority in Afghanistan, something an actual census would either confirm or deny, they demand to be in charge of all of the country. On top of which, they demand that their own intolerant Soddy-based sect be enshrined in the constitution.
Posted by: Fred Pruitt || 05/25/2003 02:38 pm || Comments || Link || [0 views] Top|| File under:


Grenade attack on French NGO
A grenade was thrown at an office of French non-governmental organisation Madera in the eastern Afghan city of Jalalabad but caused no casualties, a member of the NGO said today. Several windows were shattered in the blast but no one was hurt. Madera has been in Afghanistan for around 20 years and is one of most respected humanitarian organisations in the eastern provinces of Nangarhar.
Except that in Pashtunistan they don't respect infidels...
Posted by: Fred Pruitt || 05/25/2003 02:28 pm || Comments || Link || [0 views] Top|| File under:


Afghanistan asks West for $15bn more
Afghanistan's interim President, Hamid Karzai, will issue an extraordinary call this week for an extra $15 billion cash from the West for the reconstruction of his war-shattered country. Karzai will warn that the $5bn so far committed is hopelessly inadequate to meet the pledges given by Tony Blair and George Bush to rebuild Afghanistan after the 2001 invasion.
I dunno. $5 billion here in Illinois would do a lot of stuff.
His wake-up call comes as his government plunges into financial crisis, with the capital Kabul facing its first popular street demonstrations since the fall of the Taliban 18 months ago. The rising discontent follows the failure of central government to pay police and civil servant salaries. Last week Karzai threatened to resign unless regional warlords paid more revenue into central government coffers.
Maybe if they coughed up their share Karzai wouldn't have his hand out.
In a Channel 4 documentary on postwar Afghanistan next weekend Karzai acknowledges his gratitude for Western aid but declares that 'we need more than has been promised.' He says that the country needs '$15-20bn to reach the stage we were in 1979'.
Yas, the glory years of 1979!
He goes on to accuse international donors of undermining his authority by handing the cash to outside agencies rather than central government. This policy, says Karzai, 'weakens the presence of the central government in the provinces of Afghanistan.'
"Really, you have no idea how hard it is to expropriate appropriate these funds when they're not under my control!"
In a further indication of the gravity of the country's plight, Lakhdar Brahimi, the United Nations Special Representative to Afghanistan, charged Western nations with sabotaging Karzai's attempts to bring security. He disclosed that he had made repeated attempts to widen the international security force in Afghanistan beyond Kabul but that the attempts had been rebuffed. He said that he asked 'repeatedly' for the security force to be extended into Afghanistan's lawless country areas, but that the 'international community tells us that they can't afford to respond to our request for the moment'. He added: 'If we had this kind of support the Afghans would have been able to look after themselves after one years or two years.'
Here's where our friends the Euros can step up.
Brahimi spoke out as the country was plunged into its worst security crisis since the end of the war. Aid organisations have pulled out of large parts of southern Afghanistan after a series of attacks by Pashtun nutcases and Taliban wannabees on international and Afghan humanitarian workers. A recent study by the Aid agency Care illustrates the scale of the West's neglect. It showed that in Kosovo, Bosnia and Croatia, the international community provided one peacekeeper for approximately 60 people. In Afghanistan the ratio is one to every 5,380 people. Figures for sums donated, when considered on a per head basis, tell an equally eloquent story. Bosnians received $326 per head during the aftermath of war. The comparable figure in Afghanistan over the next few years is $42 per head.
It isn't about equalizing the spending. It's making sure the money goes where it needs to go, and does what it's supposed to do.
If we had occupied Afghanistan, instead of helpting them toward "self-determination," they'd be in better shape now. The country's split into fiefdoms, the Pashtuns are loyal to Pashtunistan and not to an Afghan identity, and the country's still crawling with mullahs. We were honest and above-board, and we deferred to our Noble Allies, and they screwed it up. I could tell that was going to happen as soon as they started letting mullahs go.
Posted by: Steve White || 05/25/2003 12:39 pm || Comments || Link || [1 views] Top|| File under:

#1  This is where the Moslem community can demonstrate their commitment to their fellow Moslems. I would bet more money flows to radical mosques, clerics, and organizations than to rebuild the infrastructure of Kabaul. It will be instructive to see what the Europeans do.
Posted by: TJ Jackson || 05/25/2003 18:27 Comments || Top||

#2 
I would bet more money flows to radical mosques, clerics, and organizations than to rebuild the infrastructure of Kabaul.

That IS how the Muslims demonstrate their committment to fellow Muslims. The more money for infidel killing, the better Muslims they become. Who needs drinking water, food, or education? Allah will take care of that... by using sentimental, sucker, infidel, Westerners like us.
Posted by: Celissa || 05/28/2003 10:27 Comments || Top||


Britain
UK police hunt Al Qaeda-trained suicide bombers
Police in Britain are hunting for two men who have been trained as suicide bombers by Al Qaeda, the Sunday Times newspaper reports. It says the two men used to worship at the same London mosque as Richard Reid, the "shoe bomber" who was convicted in the United States in January for trying to blow up a plane over the Atlantic. The Sunday Times reports sketches of the men have been circulated in the headquarters of MI5, the British domestic intelligence service. It says the sketches were made by an American artist on the basis of descriptions given by detainees held at the US military camp at Guantanamo Bay in Cuba. The paper reports some of the detainees told authorities the two men are prepared to carry out suicide missions. It quotes a senior British Home Office source as saying if the two men were still committed to Al Qaeda "they could be ticking timebombs". Britain has long feared it might be targeted by the Al Qaeda militant network due to its unflinching support of the United States in its self-proclaimed "war on terror".
I don't think anybody would mind if they just went out in the countryside and boomed themselves. But, no! They've got to seek out other people for company...
Posted by: Fred Pruitt || 05/25/2003 01:48 pm || Comments || Link || [0 views] Top|| File under:


Europe
Russia Debating Private Gun Ownership
If a state can not guarantee security to its people, it would be logical to let people do it themselves.
Pravda's cribbing from the NRA??
The discussion about this issue has been going on for several years already, but things are right where they started. Russian producers of weapons say that people would have more guarantees of their security, if they are allowed to have personal weapons. In addition to that, the proponents of licensed weapons say that it would help to put an end to illegal weapons sales — it would be possible to make it a legal and taxable business. Furthermore, the people, who own guns secretly now, would be given an opportunity to register their possessions and become controllable. However, adversaries of the idea believe that one should not arm the population, because the number of murders would increase greatly. Matches are not a toy for children, so to speak.
Which assumes your population is either children or childish...
Russian producers of firearms refer to the experience of the West. Citizens of the USA, Finland and Sweden have all legal grounds to purchase firearms, not just guns only, but even automatic weapons. A wild outburst of criminality is not a typical characteristics for these countries, with the exception for the USA, maybe.
Gotta have that slap at the USA....this IS Pravda, after all!
Moldavia was the only country of the former USSR, which ventured to conduct the experiment of legal weapons sales. A state weapons shop was opened in the republic several years ago. A civil version of the Makarov gun cost $500-600 there, a Beretta or a Glock gun cost $1,000-1,200. However, the minimum wages in Moldavia make up nine dollars, the average salary reaches $60. Some other arms shops were opened in Moldavia last year, and guns became a bit cheaper. However, it is impossible to say that the vast majority of the Moldavian population have guns now.
Doesn't sound like they can afford them...
The hostage crisis, which took place in Moscow last October, gave a new incentive to the issue of private weapons in Russia. Would Movsar Barayev have been able to seize the music theatre, if hundreds of guns had been aimed at him from the audience?
Uh, nyet
However, the debate is not worth a pin, for there is no law anyway. However, law-makers from the Kaliningrad region suggested certain amendments to the Law "About Weapons." Amendments are meant to encourage people to take care of their personal security and to provide the protection of the interests of the society and the state. The draft law has been prepared by the deputies of the Kaliningrad regional Duma, it will soon be considered by the lower house of the Russian parliament.
Posted by: Baba Yaga || 05/25/2003 09:11 am || Comments || Link || [0 views] Top|| File under:


India-Pakistan
JI announces drive against sin
PESHAWAR - The Peshawar chapter of Jamaat-i-Islami (JI), which carried out a campaign on Friday to destroy advertisement hoardings and boards of foreign companies and those carrying women's pictures, yesterday declared it would launch a movement against sale and consumption of alcohol, gambling and prostitution in order to establish a pure Islamic society in the province. The party said it would continue its movement against obscenity and vulgarity in order to foil evil designs of the West to promote their decadent culture in Pakistan, poison the youths and destroy the society.
Curses! Foiled again!
The party's district head bluenose Amir, Sabir Hussain Awan, who was elected to the National Assembly on Muttahida Majlis e-Amal's ticket in last year's elections, said at a Press conference that the MMA government was committed to freeing the people of the province from the menace of Western culture as reflected in signboards with women's pictures.
"And no titties, damn it!"
When asked why did activists of his party take the law into their own hands in destroying advertisement boards, he said that JI workers were soldiers of the MMA and also a part of the provincial government. "Therefore there is nothing wrong if we act to purge the society of obscenity and vulgarity," he added.
Nope. Nothing wrong with bands of beturbanned fascisti running around breaking things...
Replying to another question, he said that the JI activists also destroyed a board advertising a Western soft drink because it had a pictures of a man and a woman.
Horrors! And I'll bet the hussy was naked under those clothes!
He said that although his party had not yet given any specific deadline to the provincial government for action against sale of alcohol, gambling and prostitution, a decision would be taken soon about time to launch a movement.
"We're really looking forward to beating up all those hookers!"
DPA adds: Islamic activists set a new deadline yesterday for the NWFP government to remove all billboards bearing images of women on the streets of Peshawar. "All un-Islamic billboards should be removed within two weeks or else we would do the job ourselves," Arif Khushhal, an official of the youth wing of Jamaat e-Islami, said. In a related move, provincial Chief Minister Akram Durrani has cancelled official permits that allow big hotels to serve alcohol to their non-Muslim foreign guests.
Next step is to make them wear turbans when they come to visit...
Posted by: Fred Pruitt || 05/25/2003 08:21 pm || Comments || Link || [0 views] Top|| File under:


PPP for ban on armed groups after boy's death
KARACHI - Pakistan People's Party (PPP) yesterday asked the government to ban all "armed political and religious groups" and launch an impartial campaign to seize illicit weapons in the country.
That idea would seem to do away with most of the MMA...
Expressing grief over the murder of 12-year old Farhan during clashes between two religious groups in New Karachi on Friday, PPP leaders Muzaffar Ali Shujra and Habibuddin Junaidi said it was surprising that the government was making tall claims about restoration of peace in Karachi, despite the fact that illicit lethal weapons were being freely used and clashes were taking place between armed groups. They criticised the government for abandoning a campaign to seize illegal weapons it had launched two years ago.
The jihadis will kill them for that, of course...
Posted by: Fred Pruitt || 05/25/2003 07:49 pm || Comments || Link || [0 views] Top|| File under:


Hizb will support Pak-India talks
SRINAGAR: The Hizbul Mujahedin on Saturday said it would react positively to any initiative to find a resolution to the Kashmir dispute. “If India is serious in resolving the problem, accepts the disputed nature of Kashmir and starts talks, the Hizbul will give a positive response,” the group’s Pakistan-based supreme commander Syed Salahudin told a Kashmir-based news agency. But he said India would have to talk to Pakistan and the Kashmiris simultaneously. “We are not against dialogue,” said Salahudin, who also heads the alliance of more than a dozen militant groups called United Jihad Council, based in Kashmir. Reacting to the reported restrictions imposed by Pakistan on Hizbul after it was put on a “terrorist watch list” by the United States, the commander said: “I want to make it clear that we won’t allow anybody to curb our movement.”
"Yeah. There ain't nobody tells us what to do, 'cuz we got turbans, and automatic weapons..."
Posted by: Fred Pruitt || 05/25/2003 05:56 pm || Comments || Link || [0 views] Top|| File under:


Hearing in US consulate attackers case adjourned
KARACHI: An anti-terrorism court on Saturday adjourned the case of Zulfiqar Ali, who attacked the police kiosk at the US consulate general in February killing two policemen, and who claims to be mentally ill and the medical board has not submitted its report on his mental health. Rangers arrested Zulfiqar Ali on Feb. 28, saying he had been running away after the firing. They also said they had recovered a TT pistol and a motorbike. Two policemen were killed in this attack in which three attackers were involved.
Things look bad for old Zulfiqar...
His counsel had claimed in April that he has been mentally ill which had been the cause of the attack on police kiosk. The court had directed the jail early this month to conduct a medical checkup of Zulfiqar Ali. But a jail doctor said he could not reach a conclusion about Zulfiqar’s mental health.
This is Pakistan, of course, where nutz is normal, so it takes a pretty detailed exam. First, you have to find a doctor who's not rolling his eyes and spraying spittle...
Meanwhile, another anti-terrorism court adjourned the trial of five men accused of plotting to assassinate President Pervez Musharraf in Karachi in April 2002. The case was adjourned at the request of the prosecution, which had sought more time to call witnesses. Five members of the Mujahideen al-Aalmi, Mohammad Imran, Hanif Ayub, Sharib Arslan and Mohammd Ashraf, were indicted last month in the case. Hanif and Imran are already under death sentence for planning the suicide bomb attack at US consulate general in June 2002.
Posted by: Fred Pruitt || 05/25/2003 05:46 pm || Comments || Link || [0 views] Top|| File under:


Four Lashkar men arrested
KARACHI: The police arrested at least four men having alleged links with the banned outfit Lashkar e-Jhangvi in the city on Friday night, sources said. The sources told the Daily Times those officials of the Karachi police’s Crime Investigation Department raided various places in the Afghan refugee camp off Super Highway and arrested four men. Those arrested are of Afghan origin and are suspected of having “direct or indirect” links with the Lashkar-e-Jhangvi. They have been shifted to an unknown place where a joint team of investigation agencies is grilling them. The sources said the outlawed group was “re-emerging” in the country and they might have been involved in some of the recent terrorist activities in various parts of the country. The local police are tightlipped about the arrests and refused to give details about the arrests.
I guess they would be tight-lipped. It's like a recurring case of boils...
Posted by: Fred Pruitt || 05/25/2003 02:53 pm || Comments || Link || [0 views] Top|| File under:


JI replaces Gilani in Hurriyat CEC
SRINAGAR: In an unexpected but important development, the Jamaat-e-Islami has removed its senior leader Syed Ali Shah Gilani from the central executive council of the Hurriyat Conference and appointed a moderate, Sheikh Ali Muhammad, as the party’s permanent representative in the 7-member council. Sources said [Kashmir] JI chief Ghulam Muhammad Bhat, in a letter to Hurriyat Chairman Professor Abdul Ghani Bhat, informed that Mr Gilani would not be able to attend the meetings of the central executive council due to health concerns.
Ohmigawd! They shot him!
Posted by: Fred Pruitt || 05/25/2003 02:47 pm || Comments || Link || [0 views] Top|| File under:


JI warns India on Kashmir issue
Jamaat-i-Islami deputy chief Prof Khurshid Ahmed has warned against the imminent Indian diplomatic as well as media offensive to relegate Kashmir from being the core issue between India and Pakistan among other important issues. In a press statement on Saturday, Prof Khurshid said: "As the possibilities of India-Pakistan dialogue are becoming imminent, Indian diplomatic offensive and media war are increasing exponentially." He said it had been stated that a delegation of Indian Ulema led by Maulana Asad Madani was being formed to visit Pakistan. Prof Khurshid said, while we were all in favour of greater contact between India and Pakistan at the people's level, it was extremely important that the serious issues that had strained relationship between the two countries should be squarely faced.
Kashmir's a key piece in Qazi's grandiose plan to establish a subcontinental caliphate. If the problem happened to get solved, which is probably only something that could happen by accident, he'd have to unsolve it.
Posted by: Fred Pruitt || 05/25/2003 02:31 pm || Comments || Link || [0 views] Top|| File under:


Naxalism’s New Killing Fields
The Naxalites are what Communist insurgents are known as in India, they are similar to the Maoists of Nepal, but they are not very well known outside of the region. Edited for length.
The number of police personnel killed by Naxals in the new states of Jharkhand and Chhattisgarh is even higher than those killed in Jammu and Kashmir. Left-wing extremism is proving to be a serious challenge, accepted last month’s parliamentary standing committee report, even as killings increase in Andhra, Bihar, Maharashtra and other states. Ajit Kumar Jha reports on the triggers for the newer patterns of Naxalite militancy

On March 19, 1999 the cadres of the Maoist Communist Centre (MCC), an extremist left-wing outfit, slaughtered 35 upper caste landowners in the nondescript hamlet of Senari in Central Bihar’s Jehanabad district. Routinely reporting political killings in Bihar for a while, I was no stranger to carnages. However, my trip to Senari, soon after the mayhem left my stomach churning. The barbarity of the killing was indescribable, the methods used brutal, the tragedy heart-wrenching... Recounting the stories today is instructive since it describes the inhuman depths to which the phenomena, loosely described as the Naxalite movement, has sunk. Dreamt and conceptualised in the late 1960s in north Bengal as ‘‘a liberation struggle, a new democratic revolution to attain freedom for the poor and downtrodden’’, the original movement has transformed beyond recognition, as have the ideology, the strategies, and the social support base.

Even during the Charu Mazumdar-led adventurist phase (1969-75), when ‘‘class annihilation’’ was practiced as an official strategy against ‘‘landlords and the compradore bourgeoisie,’’ the violent ‘‘professional revolutionaries’’ would never have hired butchers from Palamau to carry out the assassinations. Today, the two units outlawed under POTA — the MCC and the PWG — are little more than extremist gangs bordering on criminality. They make a living either out of assassinations or by abducting officials and claiming ransom. A report of the Parliamentary Standing Committee on home affairs tabled in Parliament recently admits: ‘‘In 2002, a sudden spurt has been witnessed in the level of violence by left wing extremists. During the year, 1465 incidents of violence have been reported as against 1208 incidents in 2001.’’ The report argues that left wing extremism has spread to newer areas ‘‘such as North Chhattisgarh, western districts of West Bengal, parts of north Bihar, eastern UP and eastern and southern Jharkhand. In all, 53 districts in nine states of the country are under the sway of this movement.’’

Other than the shifting geographical contours, the movement has changed a great deal in terms of ideology and its social base. The procrustean framework of class analysis has been rejected and replaced by caste analysis greatly dependent on regional variations. Both in highly literate Kerala as well in least literate Bihar, the movement is searching for a new social base among Dalits, tribals and backward castes. In Andhra, the new PWG chief Ganapathy is a Dalit. The main reason for such a shift are twofold: first, the increasing identity politics in north India around castes and communities; second, the inability of Naxalism to attract the new generation of career-oriented students. Therefore, the new forms of Naxalism have stooped down to recruiting butchers for its killing fields.
The Maoist Communist Centre and People's War Group hope to carve out an independant communist state in East India that would be linked with a newly Communist Nepal, from which the revolution could be exported to the rest of India. The chance of this actually happening is less than nothing, of course, but that hasn't done anything to dissuade the killing.
Posted by: Paul Moloney || 05/25/2003 02:36 am || Comments || Link || [0 views] Top|| File under:


Iraq
Iraq Weapons Hunters Drop Outdated Leads
RUTBAH, Iraq (AP) - Frustrated weapons hunters are turning away from outdated U.S. intelligence leads, which have failed to turn up any evidence of chemical, biological or nuclear arms in Iraq after 10 weeks.
I'm not mil/ex-mil, but I rather thought the first thing you did was to throw out bad data. What took so long?
Teams are now moving toward their own intelligence gathering, based on interviews with Iraqi scientists, factory workers and even neighbors who lived near shadowy operations once run by Saddam Hussein. The switch comes at a time of lowered expectations and increased frustration among the searchers. President Bush has said he began the war to disarm Saddam. But there has been no sign of either the ousted leader or the weapons he long denied having.
It's very strange. Our beliefs before the war weren't based on a single report or sighting. It was voluminous. What happened?
In the war's early days, American officers said they expected to find such huge stockpiles of unconventional weapons that their main concern was whether they had enough people to destroy the materials. ``It never occurred to anyone, not even for 10 seconds, that we wouldn't find any,'' said Capt. David Norris, who heads Mobile Exploitation Team Charlie.

The team - one of four originally assigned to analyze evidence of weapons of mass destruction - is no longer part of the search. Its criminal investigators, linguists and counterintelligence experts are now looking for evidence of crimes against humanity that Saddam's regime may have committed.

MET-C has stumbled on some documents it hopes may help investigators piece together cases against the ousted leadership. But Norris said only a few of the 30 sites they've visited have produced results.

Two other teams are still involved with the weapons search, though no longer exclusively.

The teams had been working under the 75th Exploitation Task Force. But their work will soon fall under the Iraq Survey Group, a new Pentagon effort that will deploy in Iraq in coming weeks and take charge of investigations into everything from potential weapons to Saddam's alleged terrorist connections.

The search leaders hope intelligence tips will improve. ``The frustration level is increasing as we keep getting constant negative results,'' said Lt. Col. Keith Harrington, 42, who spent years in the Special Forces before joining the Pentagon. ``Intelligence needs to play a main role here,'' he said at the team headquarters in a windowless, concrete cabana along a man-made lake outside Baghdad.

More than a dozen officers and soldiers interviewed recently complained about the quality of information they've been given. ``The initial intelligence we got was old, and the target folders are designed more for internal analysis than site exploitation,'' said Col. Tim Madere, the senior officer for unconventional weapons with the Army's V Corps. Col. John Connell, who will oversee the survey teams under the new setup, said the task force will ``bring in people with the background to attack sites more comprehensively.''

The original teams weren't designed to carry out the kind of detective work that U.N. inspectors mastered over their years in Iraq, mostly because military planners were convinced such weapons would be easily found once Saddam was gone. But the sites expected to yield the greatest finds came up dry.

Last week, one team began interviewing nuclear physicists in their Baghdad homes. Norris' team is questioning neighbors who lived near intelligence installations. And Harrington asked his team to develop questions for site managers and other Iraqis they come across.

On Friday, Harrington's team hauled equipment aboard two Black Hawk helicopters and flew for 2 hours across western Iraq to a suspected storage facility 250 miles from Baghdad. An undated satellite image of the site showed seven buildings along the edge of an abandoned stone quarry called Rutbah, which U.N. inspectors had visited. When Harrington's team arrived, they found only three structures on the dusty property, including a shed and a small shack. Bags of mustard-colored sand were piled against the shed's back wall. ``Oh, here's the yellowcake,'' one British soldier on the team joked, referring to a powdered form of uranium used in producing nuclear weapons. After only 30 minutes at Rutbah, Harrington deemed it a ``dry hole.''

But on a tip from the 3rd Armored Calvary Regiment patrolling the area, he took his team to what had been described as a ``suspicious-looking town.'' It turned out to be a farm recently taken over by a family of shepherds. Harrington talked with the head of the household, then viewed his sheep pen, an untended field of lavender and several mangy dogs. An hour later, his team was back on the helicopters and headed to Baghdad. It had nothing to report.

The problem was familiar to Madere, who has worked with all the search teams. ``We're trying to make the case to the higher-ups that we need more specifics,'' he said.
Posted by: Steve White || 05/25/2003 02:19 pm || Comments || Link || [0 views] Top|| File under:


Saddam Betrayed By Republican Guard Chief
PARIS, May 25 - Special Republican Guard chief, and one of Saddam Hussein’s cousins, Maher Sufian al-Tikriti, betrayed the deposed Iraqi leader by ordering his elite forces not to defend Baghdad after making a deal with the United States, a leading newspaper reported on Sunday, May 25. General Tikriti, responsible for defending the Iraqi capital, left Baghdad aboard a U.S. military transport plane, bound for a U.S. base outside Iraq, Le Journal du Dimanche reported Sunday, citing an Iraqi source close to Saddam's former regime. His departure, along with that of a 20-strong entourage, came on April 8, the day before U.S. forces swept into Baghdad, and after U.S. Marines announced that the general had been killed. Before he left Baghdad, following the capture of the capital's international airport on April 4, Sufian ordered his troops to lay down their weapons, another Iraqi general, Mahdi Abdullah al-Dulaimi, was quoted as saying. Sufian does not appear on the U.S. military's list of most wanted Iraqis, which names Barzan al-Ghafur Sulayman Majid as commander of the Special Republican Guard. An Arab diplomat told Le Journal du Dimanche that the plot was hatched more than a year before by the U.S. Central Intelligence Agency (CIA), noting: "Many suitcases filled with dollars were floating around."
That's a story that warms the cockles of my heart. I'll have to remember to tell it, next time somebody starts rattling on about what babes in the woods we are when it comes to diplomacy and black operations...
Posted by: Fred Pruitt || 05/25/2003 02:15 pm || Comments || Link || [1 views] Top|| File under:

#1  Only problem with this wonderful story is that it got out. Only our failures are supposed to be public; our successes are supposed to be quiet.

I do hope all the CIA/military people involved with this get a citation, a promotion and an 'attaboy'. They deserve it.
Posted by: Steve White || 05/25/2003 14:17 Comments || Top||

#2  Rules are sometimes made to be broken. Think of the fine effect it's going to have on the deep and abiding trust among the Syrian, Iranian, and (maybe especially) Korean highers-up...
Posted by: Fred || 05/25/2003 14:20 Comments || Top||

#3  Don't believe it! Although I remember reading Jihadi accounts of command collapse at the airport this story is just what the Arab world/Axis of Weasels wants to believe. This was written for internal consumption. Example: The Pravda newspaper had a story that over 30 U.S. special forces had been taken hostage in Afghanstan BEFORE Tora Bora beacause after 10 yrs the Soviets left with their tails between their legs. For some odd reason DEBKA also likes to inflate U.S. casualties and minimize strategic successes. It may be difficult to believe info of U.S. origin (i.e Pvt Lynch) but never, never trust a French rag.
Posted by: kelly || 05/25/2003 17:41 Comments || Top||

#4  The fact that Gen Tikriti made a deal with us and got the hell out of dodge with a big boodle rather than falling on his sword for cousin Saddam doesn't mean we want to have somebody like him hanging around later and maybe causing trouble. This looks like a double-cross that leaves the general's ass waving in the breeze, wherever he may be.
Posted by: mojo || 05/25/2003 20:00 Comments || Top||


Red Cross denied access to PoWs
EFL.
The United States is illegally holding thousands of Iraqi prisoners of war and other captives without access to human rights officials at compounds close to Baghdad airport, The Observer has learnt. The International Committee of the Red Cross so far has been denied access to what the organisation believes could be as many as 3,000 prisoners held in searing heat. All other requests to inspect conditions under which prisoners are being held have been met with silence or been turned down.

There is circumstantial evidence that prisoners are being gagged and hooded, in the manner of the Afghans and other captives held at Guantanamo Bay in Cuba - treatment in itself questionable under international law.
Questionable to the Guardian, maybe.
Unlike the Afghans in Cuba, there is no doubt about the status of these captives, whether PoWs or civilians arrested for looting or other crimes under military occupation: all have the right, under the laws of war, to be visited and documented by the International Red Cross. 'There is no argument about the situation with regard to the Iraqi armed forces and even the Fedayeen Saddam,' said the ICRC's spokeswoman in Baghdad, Nada Doumani. 'They are prisoners of war because they have been captured during a clear conflict between two states. If they served in the armed forces or in a militia with distinctive clothing which came under the chain of command of one of the warring states, they are protected under article 143 of the Geneva Convention.'
Iraqi army POWs, no question. Fedayeen wearing civilian clothing? They don't get POW status, and the Geneva Convention backs that up.
The ICRC has gained access to prisoners held in camps at Umm Qasr in the south. But with regard to the larger numbers reportedly held in Baghdad, said Doumani, 'we are still waiting for the green light, more than a month after the end of the conflict. This is in breach of the third Geneva Convention.' She said the laws of war should give the ICRC access 'as quickly as possible'.
Not quite possible yet.
The airport camps are also said to contain many hundreds of civilians detained for looting, who, Doumani said, 'do not fit into the category of prisoners of war, according to the Americans'.

Civilians held, she said, have similar rights because they have been detained by an occupying power, which the ICRC insists the Americans to be, even if they do not use those words of themselves. 'Civilian prisoners under a military occupation have the right to be visited and documented,' she said, 'and for their next-of-kin to be informed. Hundreds of families are looking around Baghdad for members of their families who have gone missing and are believed to have been arrested. They are being taken somewhere, but no one knows where.'
We'll process them and turn them over to the Iraqi courts once those are up and running.
A US military source said a mutiny occurred at the beginning of last week at one compound at the airport zone - for the most part a sealed-off area and the site of some of the heaviest civilian casualties as the Americans surged into the Iraqi capital. The rebellion was 'dealt with' by the US authorities, said the source, with no confirmation or denial of deaths.
Memo to Iraqis held in compounds: don't be stupid.
Witnesses to the camps are few, since no Iraqi prisoners taken to them have been released. But a cameraman for the France 3 television channel, arrested at the Palestine Hotel, did manage a glimpse. Leo Nicolian has documentation signed by a Lieutenant Brad Fisher saying he was wrongly arrested (and beaten, with a black eye to prove it) for the alleged theft of a bag from an American reporter. He was held at the tennis court compound along with, he said, about 50 other prisoners, and told he was detained 'for investigation'. On his way out, Nicolian said he passed a bigger encampment in which he saw 'hundreds of men' hooded, with their arms tied behind their backs.
Problem with any of that? None that I see.
A worker for a non-governmental aid organisation, who asked not to be named, told The Observer that he saw men in a similar state aboard a truck, apparently in transit from one place to another. The aid worker said he managed to video the scene. Doumani said there was no specific wording in the Geneva Convention on the American practice of hooding and gagging, but that the law did specify that prisoners be treated humanely. 'We have to assess what is humane,' she said.
You don't have the final word on this, Doumani.
Posted by: Steve White || 05/25/2003 12:45 pm || Comments || Link || [1 views] Top|| File under:

#1  Gagging? I didn't see any of the prisoners in Afghanistan or later at Gitmo gagged.

Did Al Grauniad's reporter actually see anyone gagged or is this just more 'creative reportage' from the red broadsheet? Sounds like the latter to me.
Posted by: Parabellum || 05/25/2003 13:01 Comments || Top||

#2  First I heard of this"rebellion",anybody have more information.As for the foreign fighters the only legal rights they have are food, water, shelter and medical care.As illeagle enemy combantants,under the"Rules of War"the can be stood aginst the wall and shot(thats taking things to the extreme).They damn sure should not be repatriated any time soon.
Posted by: Raptor || 05/26/2003 7:42 Comments || Top||


U.S. Sets Deadline for Iraqis to Hand in Weapons
The U.S. military, struggling to restore law and order, on Saturday gave Iraqis three weeks to hand in automatic and heavy weapons as part of a campaign to crackdown on lawlessness after the fall of Saddam Hussein. "Starting June 1, the people of Iraq will have a 14-day amnesty period to turn in unauthorized weapons to coalition forces at weapons control points here and throughout the country," the military said in a statement in Baghdad. "After June 14, individuals caught with unauthorized weapons will be detained and face criminal charges." Many people have weapons in Iraq, where guns are an expression of masculinity.
Look at the size of my magazine! Would you like to have gun sex?
After the toppling of Saddam on April 9, looting of public and private institutions and homes swept the country and stolen weapons -- from pistols and AK-47 assault rifles to anti-tank grenades -- are sold on the streets at low prices. Iraqis complain that with such anarchy and the abundance of weapons, the crime rate has reached unprecedented levels and the security situation is the worst in Iraq's modern history. "No one in Iraq, unless authorized, may possess, conceal, hide or bury these weapons," the U.S. military said. "No one can trade, sell, barter, give or exchange automatic or heavy weapons with or to any person who is not an authorized representative of coalition forces." Small arms — including automatic rifles firing ammunition up to 7.62mm, semi-automatic rifles, shotguns and pistols — may be kept in homes and in a place of business, but may not be taken out in public, it said. "Individuals will be instructed to turn in unauthorized weapons by placing the unloaded, disassembled weapon into a clear plastic bag provided by Coalition forces and walk slowly to the collection point. Collection points will be at designated locations like police stations and jointly manned by Iraqi and Coalition forces," it said. Weapons turned over to U.S.-led forces would either be destroyed or set aside for use by the new Iraqi army or police forces. The U.S. civil administrator dissolved the defeated Iraqi armed forces on Friday, saying a new army would be formed.
Heard the Iraqi troops were threatening trouble if they were fired - shows what little attention spans they have
Thousands of Iraqi police are returning to work across Iraq but the force is still too little and ill-equipped to be able to restore law and order.
Sounds like Bremer is serious and is making the right moves. I'll be more impressed when our armed troops grab a Iranian backed hothead mullah and throw his ass out publicly
Posted by: Frank G || 05/25/2003 10:02 am || Comments || Link || [0 views] Top|| File under:


Southeast Asia
Explosions rock North Aceh town
A series of explosions rocked the district town of Lhokseumawe in North Aceh as the death toll continued its climb at the end of the first week of a massive government operation to crush separatist rebels in the province. At least five people were killed or found dead across Aceh by noon on Sunday. A soldier was killed in a clash with rebels in North Aceh district shortly after noon on Sunday, Lieutenant Colonel Yani Basuki, spokesman for the operation, said on Elshinta radio. Indonesian police said they had arrested 12 students in a crackdown on separatist supporters during the operation. Aceh police spokesman Sayed Husainy said the 12 students at the State Institute for Religious Sciences were arrested late on Saturday along with five private-sector workers.
The "State Institute for Religious Sciences". Boy, ain't that a contradiction in terms...
Mr Husainy also said that non-governmental organisations "which so far have claimed to defend human rights" will be monitored. Aceh has been under martial law since Monday as up to 40,000 police and soldiers confront what the government estimates are around 5,000 rebels from the Free Aceh Movement (GAM), which has been fighting for an independent state since 1976.
Posted by: Fred Pruitt || 05/25/2003 01:44 pm || Comments || Link || [0 views] Top|| File under:


'Home rule' for Tigers is rejected
COLOMBO: Sri Lankan President Chandrika Kuma-ratunga has rejected calls by the Tamil Tigers to set up an interim administration to inject life into a stalled peace bid and said the government was unprofessional in dealing with the rebels. A bid to end two decades of ethnic war is in limbo after the rebels said last month they had suspended peace talks and would not attend a donor conference next month where aid will be pledged to rebuild the island. The Tigers have also taken a hardline stance by suggesting an interim administration be set up in areas they control as a way around the impasse, something that would be illegal under Sri Lanka's constitution. "I have not heard of any self-respecting sovereign government anywhere in the world agreeing to act outside of its own constitution at the request of anyone," said Kumara-tunga, who is elected separately and is a rival of the government. "If anybody thinks that the government would even dream of considering it, they must be mad," she said at a dinner meeting with foreign media.

The government of Prime Minister Ranil Wickreme-singhe has not responded to the rebel request for an interim administration, but along with Norway — which brokered a February 2002 ceasefire — and Japan has been urging the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE), which is headed by V Prabhakaran, to take part in the June 9-10 aid meeting. Japan has said the conference would still go ahead. It had been expected to raise $3 billion (BD1.13bn) over three years. Kumaratunga said Wickremesinghe's mishandling of the peace process had caused the setback. "I do not think you can go into a discussion with a highly organised, ruthless, one-minded organisation like the LTTE saying 'well, we'll take what comes'," she said. "Perhaps it is that unpreparedness, the lack of professional handling of this issue that has led to this, and I hope it will not lead to anything further." But Kumaratunga said constitutional changes to accommodate the rebels could be made "if they are willing to give up terrorism... willing to give up their call for a separate state and go in for a democratic, negotiated settlement." Kumaratunga - who has vast powers - dismissed suggestions she was ready to sack the government, saying that would happen only if the sovereignty of the country was threatened."I will only act if I feel the wide national interest of the country is affected," she said.
Posted by: Fred Pruitt || 05/25/2003 01:28 pm || Comments || Link || [0 views] Top|| File under:


Middle East
Middle East Road Map – A Small Inset on US Postwar Atlas
DEBKA runs a long article on factors that went into the Israeli acceptance of the roadmap. I've no idea how reliable their information is, but it's interesting. An excerpt:
When US secretary of state Colin Powell announced Friday, May 23, that a team of American “coordinators”, would be arriving in Jerusalem within a few days, he was speaking euphemistically. This team will be the nucleus of an interim administration to manage Palestinian areas where the Palestinian Authority’s administraton has been shattered by its terror orientation. This body will resemble the US-British team provisionally administering Iraq, for which Washington expects to eventually gain a similar UN mandate.
Now, that would be a significant development...
One outcome of this mandate will be to eliminate the European mark on the Israel-Palestinian peace process and the Palestinians’ future. This will be in keeping with Israel’s consistent rejection of the Palestinian demand for an international commission to monitor the Palestinian-Israeli peace. The only mediating or monitoring party Israel has ever accepted is the United States. The Europeans and UN are accused of pro-Palestinian, pro-Arab bias.
Can't figure why that might be...
This plan of action was made possible by the revolutionary changes overtaking Riyadh in the last few days on the heels of the al Qaeda assaults on the Saudi capital. These changes were first revealed in detail in the latest issue of DEBKA-Net-Weekly. Crown Prince Abdullah was sufficiently jolted by the terrorist strikes on his doorstep to stand up and order epic, almost unthinkable, reforms in government, overseas financing, security and relations between throne and mosque.
So it's not just lip service this time? Wonder if the rest of the aparat will follow where he leads...
It is too soon to say if the Crown Prince, known for his conservatism, caution and piety, can bring this program off. But one of his directives has already drastically curtailed Palestinian terrorist resources: the shutdown of all Saudi-supported overseas charities operating in Europe. This measure, DEBKAfile’s counter-terror sources reveal, was demanded by Washington after the 9/11 suicide attacks on New York and Washington. It fell on deaf ears in Riyadh — until the Saudi royal capital itself was struck by the same hand.
That could have something to do with the intel that said the royal family was among the intended targets. Binny (or his ghost) went too far with that one...
What it means is that the Palestinian Hamas — like al Qaeda and its international arms — has overnight lost the primary source of finance, running into tens of millions of dollar per annum, for its anti-Israel suicide campaign, whether orchestrated from Damascus or the Gaza Strip. Furthermore, the Americans hope their presence on-site will also have the effect of drying up the money supply nourishing the Fatah and al Aqsa Martyrs Brigades of Yasser Arafat’s terror machine.
I can see the Soddies actually cutting off the funding they can find for Qaeda. I'm not too sure about their cutting it off for Hamas. If it actually happens, it'll change the face of the Middle East — the roadmap might very well work.
Posted by: Fred Pruitt || 05/25/2003 10:09 pm || Comments || Link || [1 views] Top|| File under:

#1  I have some commentary on this on my blog. I think Debka is getting a tad more reliable than it used to be. Why? Don't know except for unsubstantiated theories which aren't worth posting.
Posted by: Roger L. Simon || 05/25/2003 22:53 Comments || Top||

#2  I'm not Johnny Apple by any stretch of the imagination, but does anyone else whiff "quagmire"?
Posted by: someone || 05/26/2003 0:16 Comments || Top||


Mossad’s new chief revives Israel’s death squads
Ariel Sharon has ordered Israel’s secret service, the Mossad, to step up the war against Islamic extremists, a move that will dovetail with an expected intensification of George W. Bush’s global campaign against terrorism and could even result in US and Israeli intelligence agencies working together against a common foe. This would be an unprecedented alliance that could have a profound impact on counter-terrorism and runs the risk of alienating the United States’ Arab friends and the Europeans.
Tough poop, I'd say. I don't see the Egyptian intel service bumping off bad guys in concert with us...
Sharon’s decision to extend the Mossad’s operational environment was influenced by two events ­ the CIA’s assassination of Ali Qaed Sinan al-Harithi, identified as a senior Al-Qaeda operative, in Yemen on Nov. 9, 2002, because that indicated the Americans were prepared to take out extremists in friendly countries, and the twin attacks in Mombasa three weeks later, considered the first by Al-Qaeda to directly target Israelis.
Sharon was reported to have ordered Mossad to "kill the bastards" then, but we haven't seen anything happen...
After those attacks, Sharon vowed: “Our long arm will get those who carried out these terror attacks. No one will be forgiven.” The Mombasa attacks convinced Israel’s intelligence chiefs of “the need to stop being selective and to start dealing with what is known as ‘world jihad,’” intelligence specialist Ronen Bergman wrote in Yediot Ahronot. According to one former Israeli military intelligence source, Sharon wants “a much more extensive and tough approach to global terrorism, and this includes greater operational maneuverability.” Sharon has also earmarked a large but undisclosed increase in the Mossad’s budget to accommodate the tougher policy. When Sharon appointed retired Major General Meir Dagan, his former counter-terrorism adviser, as head of the Mossad in October 2002, it was widely expected the former general would pull out all the stops and send Israeli hit squads to gun down Islamic militants.
But it hasn't — obviously — happened yet...
An old army chum of Sharon, Dagan was notorious for his ruthless, bare-knuckle tactics in eliminating Palestinian militants in Gaza 30 years ago as head of an army undercover unit known as Rimon when Sharon, who made his name carrying out covert missions against Arab fighters in the 1950s, was head of the army’s southern command. Dagan declared when he took over that his top priority would be to intensify the “war against terrorism.” He is understood to have strengthened the Mossad’s Caesaria unit, which is said to be responsible for special operations and assassinations. Hamas officials claimed in March that Israel was planning to assassinate the movement’s political leaders, many of whom live in Gaza and the West Bank, but others live in Syria, Lebanon, Jordan, Yemen, Sudan and Iran. If the Mossad and the Sayaret Metkal, the elite special forces unit that frequently carries out such operations, resume targeting Palestinian leaders abroad it would extend the boundaries of the current conflict, internationalizing it — something Israeli leaders have sought to avoid in the past ­ and run the risk of alienating states that have had good relations with Israel.
I hope the Hamas officials are right, and that they start with Sheikh Yassin, Rantissi, and Meshaal and Shanab, and work down from there. It's the only way to break Hamas. And then they'll have to do the same with Islamic Jihad.
The last time the Mossad killer squads were unleashed with orders to systematically hunt down and liquidate Palestinians was when Golda Meir launched “Operation Wrath of God” to avenge the deaths of 11 Israeli athletes during the 1972 Munich Olympics. A dozen Palestinians linked to Black September, a special unit within the Palestine Liberation Organization, in Europe and the Middle East were killed across Europe over the next few years.
Posted by: Fred Pruitt || 05/25/2003 09:47 pm || Comments || Link || [1 views] Top|| File under:

#1  Hamas officials claimed in March that Israel was planning to assassinate the movement’s political leaders, many of whom live in Gaza and the West Bank, but others live in Syria, Lebanon, Jordan, Yemen, Sudan and Iran.

What's the delay? C'mon, let's go guys - start dropping those Hamas "leaders" where they stand! Chop chop!
Posted by: Bomb-a-rama || 05/25/2003 23:41 Comments || Top||

#2  Faster please...
Posted by: Celissa || 05/28/2003 10:23 Comments || Top||


East/Subsaharan Africa
Bob enjoys the Support of the Zimbabweans
Harare Jana
President Robert Mugabe of Zimbabwe stressed that attempts by Briton and some Western Countries to interfere in the internal affairs of his country were met with absolute rejection from the Zimbabwean people. He explained that his country's government enjoyed the consistent support of the Zimbabwean people and African countries. During his visit to one of the regions of Zimbabwe to evaluate development projects in his country, President Mugabe declared in his statement, that Zimbabwe began to see a recovery from the draught and that the Westerners began to realize the support his country's government is enjoying at domestic and external level.
Yep. Things sure are looking rosy. Betcha Bob wishes he had a news agency like Jana, instead of all those persnickety newspapers, telling big lies about him...
Posted by: Fred Pruitt || 05/25/2003 08:56 pm || Comments || Link || [0 views] Top|| File under:


North Africa
Qadhafi: emotions based on slogans are useless
Col. Muammar al-Qadhafi, leader of great al-Fateh Revolution stressed that emotions based on language, cultural and religious slogans are no longer useful in the light of major groupings witnessed by the world today. The Leader noted that not affiliating to a major space in this era would reflect negatively on economic life. Furthermore, no other state may live outside one of the giant spaces nor can it realize its security and safety.
I think the "spaces" he's referring to are power blocs...
In his meeting with Tunisian writers and intellectuals, Col. al-Qadhafi, referred to the major groupings and spaces, which has become a prominant phenomena from America to Europe, and Africa to Asia. He explained that these spaces alone are capable of providing peace and security for its followers. The Leader stated that the Arabs had lost the battle, through which they were supposed to realize their identity, and unity, because they did not subscribe to any alliance, or space. Consequently, they lost the battle.

That would lead me to believe the story about remaining in the Arab League might be thinkful wishing on the part of Hosni and Amr. Muammar, for all his interesting tastes in shirts, is a thinking man. In his younger days, when the Revolution™ was new, he hopped on the anti-Imperialism bandwagon. Mao had a Little Red Book™, Muammar wrote a Little Green Book™. The Arabs were going to blow up Imperialists, Muammar would blow up Imperialists. His world view started changing about the time the Imperialists decided they could blow him up, too, and almost succeeded. Then the commies went out of business. Mao kicked it, and his successors were suddenly capitalists. And the Arabs never, ever succeeded at anything except exporting oil. Instituting regime change twice in two years seemed frighteningly easy for us Imperialists, and that's a really important thing when you're the Leader of the Revoltion™ and worried about leaving the revolution for your kid to run when you're gone to the Great Jamahiriya in the Sky.

So Muammar can see the world's divided into power blocs. He's only too aware that he's in one of the wrong blocs, and since he's pissed away all the oil money on failed schemes he doesn't know how to get out of the hole he's dug. The best he can come up with is to play dynastic politix with Ugandans. What he really needs is a trip to Las Vegas and a long, private talk with Rumsfeld. I'm sure we're willing to let bygones be bygones, for a price. A hefty price, to be sure, but it could buy some safety for his dynasty, which'd be more than any of the Arab states but Jordan has. This is a soft spot in that area of the world, and we should exploit it.
Posted by: Fred Pruitt || 05/25/2003 08:51 pm || Comments || Link || [0 views] Top|| File under:


Qadhafi: the world today is in a state of terror
Col. Muammar al-Qadhafi, leader of great al-Fateh Revolution stated that the world today was experiencing a state of terror because of widespread weapons of mass destruction. He referred in this respect to the fact that America and the Zionists are in possession of weapons of mass destruction. Col. al-Qadhafi stressed that Libya had repeatedly called for making the world free of such fatal weapons, and that all peoples of the world have no interest in possessing these weapons. In his meeting with Tunisian intellectuals, and journalists, Col. al-Qadhafi pointed out that all peoples of the world are against terrorism, although there is no consensus on the definition of terrorism, though terrorism is clear; terrorism of apachi, tanks, warships, military bases and international sanctions, and what is being perpetrated by apostates such as bombings and ousting of regimes.
Isn't that cute? They're doing the moral equivalence thing. That ousting of regimes thing really hit home, didn't it?
Posted by: Fred Pruitt || 05/25/2003 08:30 pm || Comments || Link || [0 views] Top|| File under:

#1  So why is Qadhafi still only a colonel, since he runs the show? Or is he afraid of the Peter Principle?
Posted by: Alaska Paul || 05/25/2003 21:49 Comments || Top||

#2  Has anyone noticed that dictatorships are big on gun control, arms reduction treaties, etc?
Posted by: flash91 || 05/26/2003 0:59 Comments || Top||


Syria-Lebanon
Syrian president doubts bin Laden capable of Saudi, Morocco blasts
The ideology that drove the suicide missions in Riyadh and Casablanca needs to be dealt with socially rather than by security means, Syrian President Bashar Al Assad said in an interview published on Sunday.
"Yeah. Gotta get to those root causes..."
Assad also told the Kuwaiti newspaper Al Anba that he doubted terror chief Osama bin Laden or his Al Qaeda network were capable of organising attacks on such a large scale. “We blame everything on Al Qaeda but what happened is more dangerous than bin Laden or Al Qaeda. We’re talking about a certain ideological bloc. The issue is ideology, it’s not an issue of organisations,” Assad said. “Such an ideology cannot live without a certain social base. It has to convince people and strengthen its presence. Dealing with this issue should be through a social approach not through security,” which is only a “temporary remedy.”
I actually agree with that statement, assuming dealing with it as a social problem involves cleaning out the mosques with a strong disinfectant and dealing with the spittle-spraying mullahs using rope...
Assad said the “incidents”, where suicide bombers targeted compounds housing foreigners in Saudi Arabia on May 12 and the near simultaneous bombings in the heart of Morocco’s business hub on May 16, were interlinked with one ideological methodology. “I cannot believe that bin Laden is the person able to outmanoeuvre the entire world. He cannot talk on telephones or use the internet. It’s therefore impossible for him to be able to direct communications throughout the world. It would be illogical to claim as much. How can he plan in this manner and how can he move now?” he said.
Couriers, I'd say. And "flappers," people who can use the telly or the internet because they're not overtly associated with him...
“Is there really an entity called Al Qaeda? It was in Afghanistan, but is it there anymore?” Assad continued.
I think it still exists, but it's vastly changed from the entity we whacked a year and a half ago...
“When there are two attacks, one in the east of the Arab world and the other in the west, this means there is one school of thought and groups that live in different countries.” Assad believes the bombings in Riyadh and Casablanca could be part of “one plot” but said he could not link the Riyadh blasts to the US-led war in Iraq, to which he reiterated his country’s opposition.
That's because it's not linked to the war in Iraq. It's linked to Qaeda's war on us. Binny's mob is made up of smaller organizations, some terrorist, such as Egyptian Islamic Jihad, and some overtly political, such as Pakistan's Jamaat e-Ulema Pakistan, plus some newer groups like al-Tawhid that are formed in its image, and allied groups like Takfir wal-Hijra, which is as much school of thought and an approach to jihad as it is a group. (Takfir gunnies tried to assassinate Binny when he lived in Sudan because he wasn't Islamic enough for them. Go figure.) Take away the Qaeda coordination layer and you're still left with organizations that are capable of operating on their own, with the exception of those groups who depend on Qaeda for their financing. I'd guess that what Qaeda's doing is setting up financial analogs to the flappers.
He also said the post-war situation in Iraq has not yet ”crystallised” but that the current political vacuum “is natural after the suppression suffered by the Iraqi people throughout the years of the (Saddam Hussein) regime.”
Yeah. I'm not surprised, either...
Syria is ready to send a peacekeeping force to Iraq, “if the Iraqis request it,” the president added.
In a word, no.
Posted by: Fred Pruitt || 05/25/2003 06:31 pm || Comments || Link || [0 views] Top|| File under:


Iran
Iran’s political crisis edges to showdown
TEHRAN - With the United States looking set on a concerted campaign to destabilise Iran’s clerical regime, the Islamic republic’s embattled reformist camp are edging closer to a major showdown with their hardline rivals. Arguing that powerful conservatives have isolated Iran’s voters by blocking President Mohammad Khatami’s progressive agenda, reformists are warning that the only way to stave off the threat from Washington is for the hardliners to bend to their will.
It's either that, or al-Jazeera can carry video of people beating posters of old guys in turbans with their shoes...
No Iranian, Khatami’s supporters reason, will fight to defend an unpopular regime — a lesson clearly spelled out by the quick collapse of armed resistance during the invasion of Iraq.
Especially since you can't trust anyone, not even your cousin...
On Saturday, a group of 127 reformist MPs launched a blistering attack on the layers of hardline-controlled institutions that have blocked their reform agenda, calling directly on supreme leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei to intervene or risk watching the Islamic republic crumble. “Perhaps there has been no period in the recent history of Iran that was as sensitive as this,” warned the strongly-worded letter, citing “political and social gaps coupled with a clear US plan to change the geopolitical map of the region.”
And the kicker:
“If this is a glass of poison, it should be drunk before our country’s independence and territorial integrity are put in danger,” the letter said, in a reference to the expression used when revolutionary leader Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini was forced to sign a ceasefire with Iraq in 1988. The openly-distributed message charged that since Khatami won his first term in office six years ago, his camp had been undermined by an orchestrated campaign including serial murders, arrests and crackdowns targetted at reformists, students, journalists and dissidents. Singled out for attack were the Guardians Council, a conservative-controlled oversight body that vets all legislation, and the judiciary — a hardline bastion accused of waging a politically-motivated campaign against reformers.
The true machinery of dictatorship in Iran, you might say...
Iran’s political crisis has worsened in recent months, with Khatami’s allies pushing through parliament twin bills that would strip the Guardians Council of its right to vet candidates for public office and enable the embattled president to challenge the judiciary. Both bills have already been rejected by the Guardians Council, with reformists in turn calling for a referendum to be held on the issue. Several reformists have also advocated staging a mass walk-out from government.
But we all know that a referendumb would be un-Islamic. They're just interpreting God's will, after all...
But while the crisis had been simmering for several years, the war in Iraq — which has left Iran effectively surrounded by US troops — has injected a new sense of urgency for both sides to resolve the damaging impasse. “Not much time is left,” Khamenei was told in the letter. “Most people are dissatisfied and disappointed... (and) foreign forces have surrounded the country from all sides.”
Tell me again just how dumb Bush is...
The reformists are well aware that the close ties they have built with US allies in Europe and Asia could come unstuck if the reform process ends -- therefore stripping Iran of any diplomatic support. Furthermore, Iran is now facing the kinds of allegations levelled at Iraq before the US attacked. Washington has accused Iran of seeking to develop nuclear weapons and hosting Al Qaeda operatives. Tentative contacts between Washington and Tehran — who broke off ties after the 1979 Islamic revolution — have also broken off, dashing any chance of detente.
Heh heh. You might say "diplomacy is war by other means"...
On Sunday, The Washington Post reported that the US government had ended the discreet contacts with Iran and was considering ”public and private actions” to destabilize the Iranian government -- a process that many Western diplomats here see as already underway. According to the reformists’ letter, “the destiny of our country can either be dictatorship, or the respect of democratic rules” — an allusion to what analysts see as Khamenei’s two main options, transforming Iran into a fortress or swallowing the bitter pill of reform.
My guess is that Khamenei will go with the fortress option...
Posted by: Fred Pruitt || 05/25/2003 06:13 pm || Comments || Link || [0 views] Top|| File under:

#1  general strike called for early July -- The mullahs plan to deal with this strike is the key. If they can break the strike, they survive. If they can't, well then a lot of possibilities open up, some good, some awful, some very uncertain.
Posted by: mhw || 05/25/2003 18:22 Comments || Top||

#2  No government can survive forever by supressing the will and freedom of the people. It is only a matter of time before a new government replaces the mullahs. History demonstrates that police states cannot remain indefinitely by ruling through fear and supressing the legitimate demands and needs of the people it rules.
Posted by: TJ Jackson || 05/25/2003 18:31 Comments || Top||

#3  “Most people are dissatisfied and disappointed... (and) foreign forces have surrounded the country from all sides.”

The Secret Plan™ is working. Not only is Khamenei surrounded but he is surrounded on ALL SIDES.

"Damn! We're in a tight spot!
........................................
Damn! We're in a tight spot!"
-Oh, Brother Where Art Thou
Posted by: Alaska Paul || 05/25/2003 21:39 Comments || Top||


Home Front
Pakistani-Canadian convicted in US
DALLAS: A Canadian national of Pakistani origin has been convicted of concealed weapons charges relating to his arrival in March at Dallas-Fort Worth International Airport carrying 32 razor blades in his carry-on luggage. The conviction of Fazal Karim, a Canadian citizen, came late Thursday by a federal jury in Fort Worth. Karim was arrested March 5 for falsely representing his status to immigration officials at the airport. Karim, 37, was found guilty of making false statements, carrying a concealed dangerous weapon in air transportation. According to prosecutors, Karim arrived at the airport on an American Airlines flight from Paris and told federal agents he was coming to the US to visit friends. Karim then attempted to enter a secure area of the airport to board a flight to Houston. Transportation Security Administration screeners found 32 razor blades in his luggage, concealed in a box containing a coiled belt, according to the news release. FBI agents determined that Karim was not a tourist, but an immigrant without authorization to live in the US. Karim has been in federal custody since his arrest and is scheduled to be sentenced on August 25. He faces a maximum 25 years in prison and a $750,000 fine.
Welcome to the U.S., Karim. Have a nice, long stay.
Posted by: Fred Pruitt || 05/25/2003 05:41 pm || Comments || Link || [0 views] Top|| File under:


Middle East
Hamas: "Most Israelis Are Combatants"
Hamas spokesman Rantissi told Newsweek: "Combatants are not just people who wear uniforms." He considers all Israeli men combatants because they at one time or another served in the army and do reserve duty, and the same goes for Israeli women, most of whom have served in the army. So the majority of the Israeli population are considered combatants. Following is an excerpt from the Hamas interview in Newsweek on-line: http://www.msnbc.com/news/785094.asp?cp1=1
Q: What do you mean? How does Hamas define civilians?
A: An Israeli civilian is someone who never took part in the fighting. If he
participated in the fighting in the past, years ago, he is not a civilian.
That's why Israelis are still pursuing the Germans who took part in the
Holocaust, though some of these people are in their 80s. They are still
considered soldiers.
Q: So you consider all Israeli men combatants because they at one time or
another served in the army and do reserve duty?
A: Yes.
Q: What about Israeli women?
A: Most Israeli women served in the army.
Q: According to these criteria, what percentage of the Israeli population do
you consider combatants?
A: The majority. We choose military targets. If civilians are liable to die,
that isn't a reason to stop the attack. But we don't set out to kill
civilians.
Note: The Newsweek link points to an expired article.
Posted by: Fred Pruitt || 05/25/2003 05:37 pm || Comments || Link || [0 views] Top|| File under:

#1  Butchers always have good reasons.
Posted by: Douglas De Bono || 05/25/2003 20:00 Comments || Top||

#2  We choose military targets. If civilians are liable to die, that isn't a reason to stop the attack. But we don't set out to kill civilians.

Uh huh. Military targets like Passover gatherings, pizza parlors, and nightclubs.

Yeah.
Posted by: Bomb-a-rama || 05/25/2003 23:36 Comments || Top||


North Africa
Mass demonstration in Morocco against terrorism
Tens of thousands of people took to the streets of Casablanca on Sunday to demonstrate against global terrorism just over one week after a string of suicide bombings left 43 dead in Morocco's largest city. Dozens of associations and several political parties joined in the government-approved march. A large crowd from the country's Jewish communities, which along with foreign targets were the focus of the May 16 attacks, also rallied against Islamic extremism. Jewish community leader Serge Berdugo said he was "proud" of the strong turnout, adding: "The only solution (to the challenge of terrorism) is the Moroccan model - the coexistence of religions."
Freedom of religion is why the booms happened, Serge...
Prime Minister Driss Jettou and several government officials led the march, which police and organisers put at up to one-million strong. The turnout sent a signal to the world showing "the true face of the Moroccan people, committed to tolerance and democracy," government minister and number two in the USFP ruling party, Mohamed El Yazghi, said. Ismail Alaoui, head of the Party of Progress and Socialism (PPS), said it showed "the desire to find a way out of the nightmare and make political, economic and social changes".
That's simple: You see somebody with a turban and an automatic weapon, you string him up. You get enough of them dangling, the rest will disappear...
Moroccan Human Rights Minister Mohamed Aujjar had said on Saturday the government was throwing its weight behind the protest, and welcomed the Moroccan people's "spontaneous reaction" to the attacks.
Posted by: Fred Pruitt || 05/25/2003 02:00 pm || Comments || Link || [2 views] Top|| File under:

#1  Run for the hills! Its the dreaded "Arab Street"!.
Posted by: frank martin || 05/25/2003 14:47 Comments || Top||

#2  fred,
"You see somebody with a turban and an automatic weapon, you string him up. You get enough of them dangling, the rest will disappear..".

i realize this is a joke [right?]. with enough of these loose comments you could be taken less seriously.
Posted by: robert || 05/25/2003 22:08 Comments || Top||


Morocco arrests 3 over Casablanca blasts
Morocco says it has arrested three suspects in connection with last week's suicide attacks in Casablanca and has published the names of four more wanted men. Moroccan authorities say a small Islamic group, Assirat al-Moustaquim (The Righteous Path), is behind the five almost simultaneous bombings on May 16. The bombings killed 43 people, including several Westerners. The official MAP news agency quotes a senior Interior Ministry official as saying the three men in custody had been on a list of nine suspects announced on Wednesday. MAP also says the Government has announced the names of four more suspects and posted the pictures of the men on its website. Morocco, a staunch US ally, says the young suicide bombers who carried out the attacks were linked to "international terrorism". It has arrested dozens of suspects.
But these would appear to be the hot ones...
Posted by: Fred Pruitt || 05/25/2003 01:56 pm || Comments || Link || [0 views] Top|| File under:


Middle East
Peace road map 'a trap': Hamas leader
The US-backed Middle East peace road map is "a big trap", according to a leader of the Palestinian Islamist movement Hamas. "We are facing a big trap. I urge brother [Palestinian Prime Minister] Abu Mazen not to be deceived," Hamas political bureau chief Khaled Meshaal said. Speaking to Qatar's Al Jazeera television network, Mr Meshaal is accusing the Israeli Prime Minister of "seeking to implement only the first phase of the road map in order to strike the Palestinian resistance".
"I can see that, even if it is too subtle for the rest of you. But take my word for it..."
Mr Sharon, who has lodged 15 objections to the road map, extracted a high price from the United States for his commitment to the plan, which envisages the creation of a Palestinian state by 2005. His endorsement came on Friday only after a public pledge from US Secretary of State Colin Powell and national security adviser Condoleezza Rice to address Israel's concerns over the plan. But the Palestinians also say they have received assurances from the United States that the plan will be applied without changes. Before Israel makes any move, Mr Sharon has insisted Abu Mazen disarm militant factions in the West Bank and Gaza Strip, who have been at the forefront of the 32-month-old intifada against Israeli occupation.
And that simply ain't gonna happen...
Abu Mazen failed, during a meeting in Gaza City with Hamas's top leadership, to convince the Islamist movement to call a halt to attacks on Israel.
Posted by: Fred Pruitt || 05/25/2003 01:53 pm || Comments || Link || [1 views] Top|| File under:

#1  "Its a trap!"

Admirl Akhbar (Star Wars)
Posted by: OldSpook || 05/25/2003 15:23 Comments || Top||

#2  "Tahm ta git a posse ta-getha boys, and tayke 'em all out."
Posted by: Bomb-a-rama || 05/25/2003 16:08 Comments || Top||


East/Subsaharan Africa
Sudan: Bashir Opponents Meet in Cairo
CAIRO — A meeting of the heads of Sudan’s three main opposition movements — John Garang, Sadeq Al-Mahdi and Mohammad Othman Al-Mirghani — kicked off in Cairo yesterday. Their talks are to focus on “the latest results of (peace) negotiations in Machakos,” Kenya, senior Umma Party official Mirghani Hassan told AFP. Garang represents the Sudan People’s Liberation Army, which is holding peace talks in Kenya with the Khartoum government, while Mirghani heads the Democratic Unionist Party, and Mahdi the Umma Party. This is the first meeting between Garang and Mahdi since the Umma Party leader quit the National Democratic Alliance, an umbrella Sudanese opposition group that includes the SPLA and the northern opposition. The NDA is headed by Mirghani, who lives in exile in Cairo. On Wednesday, he said the SPLA-Khartoum peace talks in Kenya could not succeed because they sideline other Sudanese parties. Northern opposition groups are not taking part in the talks, which started in the summer of 2001 and aim to bring a lasting peace to Sudan’s 20-year civil war. Their fifth round ended on Wednesday.
So I guess Bashir can spitcan that idea...
Posted by: Fred Pruitt || 05/25/2003 01:21 pm || Comments || Link || [0 views] Top|| File under:


Sudan's Beshir urges preparations for peace, democracy
KHARTOUM — Sudanese President Omar al-Beshir told his ruling National Congress (NC) party to prepare for a peace deal he believes is imminent with the country's southern rebels, the state newspaper Al-Anbaa reported Saturday. "While peace will have numerous gains, it will bring about burdens that require tremendous efforts that must ultimately result in unity after the six-year transitional period," Beshir was quoted as saying at a party meeting Friday. Beshir said the period that will follow the signing of a peace agreement, expected to be reached sometime this summer, with the rebel Sudan People's Liberation Army (SPLA) "will bring years of a jihad that are more difficult than the jihad of the gun."

Ravaged by two decades of civil war, the south is in need of "extensive" rebuilding which "will be the responsibility of the National Congress members, " Beshir said. A protocol signed in Machakos, Kenya last July provided for a six-year period of autonomy for the SPLA-controlled southern Sudan ahead of a referendum to decide whether the south would secede or be granted more autonomy. In the fifth round of talks, which concluded Wednesday, the two sides were negotiating the key issues of sharing power and resources as well as security arrangements for the transitional period. Beshir said the reconstruction of the south should "convince the southern brothers to vote for unity" at the end of the transition period, while he warned his party "will never relinquish" control of the south.
So they can either vote for it, or else...
Posted by: Fred Pruitt || 05/25/2003 11:40 am || Comments || Link || [0 views] Top|| File under:


Middle East
Palestinians welcome Israeli approval for Mideast road map
The Palestinian government on Sunday welcomed the decision by Israel's cabinet to approve the the U.S.-sponsored road map to Middle East peace, but warned Israel, which Sunday appended several concerns to its declaration of support, to accept the plan without alterations.
That's not going to happen - Right of Return is a non-starter. Israel would commit suicide by accepting that
The cabinet approved the plan by a vote 12-7 after Prime Minister Ariel Sharon received American assurances Friday that Israel's concerns over the implementation of the plan would be taken into consideration.
Meaning that we understand the Paleos ultimately want to destroy Israel : short-term with terror attacks, long-term via demographics
"We look positively on this decision. This is what the Palestinian Authority was asking for since we received the road map," Palestinian Information Minister Nabil Amr said. "The Israelis must implement their obligations without preconditions and without any changes."
Like the Paleos, who accept anything knowing they'll never live up to it and their Euro-apologists won't hold them to it
Nabil Abu Rdineh, an advisor to Palestinian Authority Chairman Yasser Arafat, expressed skepticism at the closeness of the cabinet vote in initial reaction. "An approval with conditions is not enough," he said. "They have to approve it as the Palestinians did, without any changes. What is more important is to have assurances for implementation. From our experience with Israeli governments, acceptance is not sufficient, but implementation."
?? Like ending the terror attacks? that was supposed to happen back in the 90's
Former Palestinian minister for negotiations affairs Saeb Erekat also welcomed the decision, but said that if Israel was serious in accepting the plan, U.S. President George W. Bush and the Quartet Committee backing the road map should immediately provide the mechanism and schedule for its implementation. Meanwhile, National Religious Party minister Zevulun Orlev, who along with NRP chairman and cabinet minister Effi Eitam, voted Sunday to reject plan, said after the vote that despite his party's opposition, it would not leave the government over the plan. Justice Minister Yosef (Tommy) Lapid said in response to the cabinet decision that Israel had had no choice but to accept the road map. He warned that there would have been an "economic catastrophe" had the peace plan not been approved. "It was a historic day," minister Tzipi Livni of the Likud said. "It was not an easy vote for a right-wing coalition. Maybe it's a sign of hope." Ahead of the cabinet decision to accept the road map, 16 ministers voted in favor of declaring Israel's objection to the Palestinian right of return, a clause that was drawn up by Foreign Minister Silvan Shalom and Sharon's bureau chief Dov Weisglass.
Posted by: Frank G || 05/25/2003 10:11 am || Comments || Link || [0 views] Top|| File under:


Arafat: I don’t coordinate with Abu Mazen
JPost - reg req'd; Same ol' song and dance
Palestinian Authority Chairman Yasser Arafat said there is not "full coordination" between him and his newly appointed prime minister and that Palestinians have the right to resist Israeli occupation in an interview with a leading Arabic newspaper. Arafat's remarks in Sunday's edition of Asharq al-Awsat came as the Israeli cabinet met to consider whether to conditionally accept a U.S.-backed "road map" for Middle East peace.
Which Fox says was narrowly approved
"I cannot say there is full cooperation on all issues," Arafat said of Abbas. "He is carrying out his duties and I am doing my work."
Keeping the boomers going, meeting with my good friend M De Villepinhead
It was Arafat's first public comment about Mahmoud Abbas, also known as Abu Mazen, who he reluctantly named as the Palestinian Authority's first prime minister at the end of April. The two have had a stormy relationship over the years, and there have been long periods in which they refused to speak to each other.

U.S. President George W. Bush said Friday that he was considering convening a three-way meeting with Abbas and Israeli Prime Minister Ariel Sharon to push for implementation of the road map. If held, it would be the first time Arafat would be excluded from high-profile peace efforts since he became head of the Palestinian Authority after he signed the Oslo peace accord with Israel in 1993. The Bush administration has tried to marginalize Arafat as an ineffective leader entwined in terror attacks on Israel.

In the interview, conducted at his Ramallah headquarters, Arafat said the Palestinians would continue their resistance to the Israeli occupation. "Our position has not changed. We are against the killing of the civilians, whether they are Palestinians or Israelis, but resisting the occupation is something and aggression on civilians is something else," Arafat told the London-based paper.
He lies almost as well as Clinton - it's pathological
But he specified what he meant by civilians, saying, "It is inadmissible to kill a child or a woman in a restaurant or a cafe."
But a bus? OK. Pizzeria? OK
The first phase of the road map calls on Palestinians to rein in militants who have been carrying attacks on Israelis and IDF troops to withdraw from Palestinian towns. Militant leaders have told Abbas they would only halt attacks on Israeli civilians if Israel calls off military strikes. Israel has said it would only make a move after the Palestinians crack down on the terrorist organizations. In the interview, Arafat said the refugee problem should be solved according to U.N. Security Council Resolution 194 of 1948, which calls for the refugees either to be allowed to return to their homes or duly compensated
But no compensation for Jews from other Arab countries who were kicked out and/or killed. Cuz they're Jeeewwss
Posted by: Frank G || 05/25/2003 07:55 am || Comments || Link || [0 views] Top|| File under:



Who's in the News
41[untagged]

Bookmark
E-Mail Me

The Classics
The O Club
Rantburg Store
The Bloids
The Never-ending Story
Thugburg
Gulf War I
The Way We Were
Bio

Merry-Go-Blog











On Sale now!


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.
Click here for more information

Meet the Mods
In no particular order...
Steve White
Seafarious
tu3031
badanov
sherry
ryuge
GolfBravoUSMC
Bright Pebbles
trailing wife
Gloria
Fred
Besoeker
Glenmore
Frank G
3dc
Skidmark

Two weeks of WOT
Sun 2003-05-25
  Morocco arrests 3 over Casablanca blasts
Sat 2003-05-24
  14 Russian troops killed in Chechen attacks
Fri 2003-05-23
  Pygmies want UN tribunal to address cannibalism
Thu 2003-05-22
  NYC Cabbie Sought to Buy Explosives
Wed 2003-05-21
  Saudi Suspects Accused of Plotting Hijack
Tue 2003-05-20
  Turkish toilet bomb kills one
Mon 2003-05-19
  Fifth Paleoboom in three days
Sun 2003-05-18
  Jerusalem blasts kill 7
Sat 2003-05-17
  Qaeda Top Computer Expert Arrested
Fri 2003-05-16
  At Least 20 Die in Casablanca Blasts
Thu 2003-05-15
  Lebanon Foils Anti-U.S. Attacks
Wed 2003-05-14
  Israel and Qatar in talks
Tue 2003-05-13
  UN observes Congo carnage
Mon 2003-05-12
  Terror offensive in Riyadh
Sun 2003-05-11
  Bremer in, Garner out

Better than the average link...



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.
54.158.138.161
Help keep the Burg running! Paypal:
(0)    (0)    (0)    (0)    (0)