KABUL — In eastern Afghanistan's rugged mountains, US-led coalition forces were tackling their latest anti-terror assignment, aimed at denying al-Qaeda and Taleban fugitives a haven in the Pakistan border regions. Operation Haven Denial, centred in Paktika and Khost, began Wednesday, Lt Douglas Lefforge said in a statement released from Bagram Air Base. He said: 'The purpose of this operation is to prevent the re-emergence of terrorism, deny anti-coalition fighters sanctuary and prevent further attacks against non-government organisations, coalition forces and equipment.' Attacks against foreign aid workers and international soldiers in Afghanistan have increased in recent months. The violence is usually blamed on al-Qaeda members, Taleban remnants and loyalists of renegade rebel leader Gulbuddin Hekmatyar.
Posted by: Fred Pruitt ||
07/05/2003 16:34 ||
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An American man has been accused of trying to cross the border with a hidden cache of weapons and ammunition that included an anti-tank rocket launcher, say Canadian customs officials. Debbie Johnson of Canada Customs and Revenue Agency said a man in a moving van entered Saskatchewan from North Dakota at the North Portal border crossing Sunday, about 45 kilometres southeast of Estevan. He told customs officers he was transporting goods to an address in Alaska and wasn't carrying any weapons. But a search proved otherwise. In addition to the rocket launcher, the items seized included 13 rifles and shotguns, three loaded handguns, four live smoke grenades, two training grenades, 4,300 rounds of ammunition, seven prohibited ammunition clips and one blackjack. "One of the guns was in a box marked kitchen utensils," Ms. Johnson explained.
"Atsa some spicey meatballs!"
Inspectors also found a copy of a Canada Customs brochure entitled Importing a Firearm or Weapon into Canada. "We feel he was aware there were special requirements with the guns and he chose not to follow them," she said. Mark Eller, 36, of Walker, Minn., was released on $5,000 cash bail after he appeared Thursday in provincial court and pleaded not guilty to smuggling, failure to report imported goods, possession of goods unlawfully imported to Canada and lying to customs officials. With a summary conviction, each charge would carry a maximum penalty of $50,000 and six months in jail. The RCMP has also charged him with a number of weapons charges, including unsafe storage of firearms.
There are some gents in Washington who should be really, really interested in having a long conversation with him, too...
Posted by: Fred Pruitt ||
07/05/2003 15:42 ||
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Mohammad Saydur Rahman, 75, an Imam at two Toronto area mosques who also teaches children, is under arrest for sexually assaulting a nine-year old girl at a playground: Imam, 75, charged with sex assault. The girl was playing in a schoolyard in the southeast end of the city at about 10 a.m. on June 29 when police say a man chased and grabbed her, and put his hand underneath her halter before she managed to break free and run away. Damned infidels didn't teach her that guys that look like him are Holy Men — so let them do whatever they want, it's OK.
"The child is in therapy now. You can imagine a child going through this sort of thing,â Det. Derek Young said Thursday. The PC "fix" for everything.
Young said police planned to lay additional charges Monday against the man in connection with a separate incident involving another child. "We felt he was trying to target a second victim,â Young said. "He followed a young girl repeatedly ... but she was able to flee. But on one occasion he was able to grab her and kiss her.â
This imamâs namesake had similar taste in women; his third wife Ayesha was six years old when he âmarriedâ her, and nine when the marriage was âconsummated.â WTF IS this Islamozoid fixation on virgins?
Religion of Peace and Tolerance. Yup, uh huh.
Posted by: PD ||
07/05/2003 12:46:32 AM ||
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LAHORE: Law enforcement agencies on Saturday arrested five men, including Allah Wasaya, a leader of the banned Lashkar-e-Jhangvi (LJ) from Ghaziabad. Allah Wasaya is one of the accused in the murder of Wall Street Journal reporter Daniel Pearl and the government had announced a Rs 1 million award for his arrest. The arrests came a day after three suicide bombers killed more than 40 Shia Muslims in a mosque in Balochistan. It was not immediately clear if the arrests were related to Fridayâs massacre. âAt this stage we can only say that five people are in our custody for suspected links with outlawed sectarian groups,â Lahore City Police Chief (CPC) Khwaja Khalid Farooq told reporters. He said heavy contingents of police and other law enforcement agencies had been deputed at mosques and imambargahs and the police had increased patrols around other âsensitiveâ places in the city. Security has also been intensified at bus stands, the Railway Station and the Lahore Airport while intelligence agencies are scrutinising the logbooks of various hotels, he added.
Posted by: Fred Pruitt ||
07/05/2003 21:41 ||
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A Roman Catholic priest who received death threats after his church took over a school near Okara, was gunned down by Wahabis Saturday, police said. Gunmen broke into Father George Ibrahim's home in Ranala Khord, a small military town near Okara in the Punjab province, shortly after midnight. The priest had received several death threats after the province returned the school to Catholic Church ownership, according to Shahbaz Bhatti, head of the All Pakistan Minorities Alliance. "He wanted to denationalize the school, which had been the property of the church and when he got it back he received threats saying 'you will pay a price for the school,'" Bhatti said.
Last August Punjab police detained about 27 Wahabi terrorists including Khadim Hussain Dhalu, secretary-general of Sipah-e-Sahaba, after they attacked a Christian school in Murree and a Christian hospital in Taxila. Three nurses were killed in the attack in Taxila. Six people were killed in the Murree school attack. Other terrorists arrested, belong to Jaish-e-Mohammed and Lashkar-e-Jhangavi, an offshoot of Sipah-e-Sahaba. Police also arrested Qari Ghulam Haider, a member of Lashkar e Jhangavi who confessed he was planning attacks against churches in the Punjab province. In March 2002, five people were killed and forty-five injured when a church in Islamabad was attacked by Sipah e Sahaba. In October 2001, sixteen people were killed and many injured when Wahabi terrorists attacked St. Dominic's Church in Behawalpur. Shafiq-ur-Rehman, an activist of the Sipah e Sahaba was arrested and provided information about the six masked men who had carried out the Behawalpur attack.
"There is no God but Allah! There is no way but killing!"
Posted by: Fred Pruitt ||
07/05/2003 11:55 ||
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U.S. forces raided a Turkish special forces office in northern Iraq and detained 11 soldiers, Turkish officials said Saturday. A Turkish newspaper said the arrests aimed to stop a plot by Turks to kill the Kurdish governor of the oil-rich city of Kirkuk.
Bad boyz, Turks!
The detentions further strained ties between the longtime allies, who fell out over the U.S.-led invasion of Iraq.
Think how much assassinating the governor of Kirkuk would ahve strained them...
Turkish Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan demanded the soldiers' release. A government official said some 100 U.S. soldiers detained three Turkish officers and eight noncommissioned officers in the northern Iraqi city of Sulaymaniyah Friday afternoon. They were taken to Kirkuk. The U.S. forces were acting on intelligence reports that some Turks in Kirkuk were planning to assassinate the Kurdish governor of Kirkuk, the newspaper Hurriyet said. ``This is an ugly incident,'' Erdogan said. ``It should not have happened.''
Nor should the assassination plot have happened...
``For an allied country to behave in such a way toward its ally cannot be explained,'' he added.
I'd agree with that...
After the arrests, Turkey closed the Habur border gate, the sole crossing point for aid and goods between Turkey and Iraq. Erdogan said Foreign Minister Abdullah Gul was in contact with Secretary of State Colin Powell.
"Abdullah, what were you thinking?"
"Ummm... I dunno. I think it was something..."
``We are assured (by U.S. officials) that the soldiers are safe. But we want them to be released as soon as possible,'' Erdogan said.
Posted by: Fred Pruitt ||
07/05/2003 12:18 ||
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At least seven Iraqi police recruits have been killed and scores wounded in an attack outside a police station in a town west of Baghdad, policemen and residents have said. Some said the explosion was a roadside bomb while others said it was a rocket-propelled grenade. The blast occurred on Saturday as about 80 recruits were training on a main street in Ramadi, they said.
Posted by: Fred Pruitt ||
07/05/2003 11:48 ||
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Under cover of darkness, they climbed over the cemetery wall and leapt from grave to grave in search of booty hidden within the sarcophagi. The U.S. soldiers on Operation Grave Digger found roughly what they were after in Baghdad's King's Cemetery on Saturday: six AK-47 rifles, five fragmentation grenades, loads of ammunition, bayonets and other weapons including an RPK machine gun. They also detained half a dozen people, mostly curfew violators but also one man who approached their outer cordon with a 9 mm pistol in his waistband, a grenade in his pocket and papers believed to be plans for an attack.
With an average of 13 attacks a day on the U.S.-led occupation forces and 26 Americans killed since major combat was declared over on May 1, searches of this kind have taken on urgency. The grenades especially were considered a good find. "They've been attacking us specifically with this stuff and we know that they are taking some out of there and moving it to Falluja," said Major Scott Sossaman, referring to an anti- American hotbed some 30 miles west of Baghdad. A prior raid also turned up rocket-propelled grenades and launchers, the weapon of choice for guerrillas. When they first began graveyard searches, the soldiers randomly removed the lids of the sarcophagi, empty boxes atop the bodies buried underground. Then they discovered how to tap on the lids and listen for signs of a cache. Because weapons were stored there, the cemetery was no longer protected under rules of engagement, according to officers of the 2-3 Artillery Battalion, part of the First Armored Division. Local people and special operations forces had tipped them off about the caches.
The owners are the same goobers who yap about Iraqi "honor"...
Posted by: Fred Pruitt ||
07/05/2003 11:47 ||
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Arnold Schwarzenegger joined U.S. troops in a former Saddam Hussein palace at Baghdad International Airport on Friday for the screening of his latest movie, "Terminator 3: Rise of the Machines."
"It is really wild driving around here," he said. "I mean the poverty, and you see there is no money, it is disastrous financially and there is the leadership vacuum, pretty much like in California right now."
Schwarzenegger, 55, has indicated he may run for California governor as a Republican if residents there vote to recall the Gov. Gray Davis.
"I play terminator, but you guys are the true terminators," he told the soldiers. I can just imagine how well he and the troops got along.
Posted by: Steve White ||
07/05/2003 1:24:42 AM ||
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Jakarta: In high school, Atep Arofiq was fascinated by Islamic studies, and with meager means for higher education, a free institution financed by Saudi Arabia in this bustling capital seemed like a natural choice. There was an added attraction: the best students could graduate to further study in Saudi Arabia, all expenses paid. Mr. Arofiq, 25, entered the Educational Institution of Indonesia-Saudi Arabia, housed in a gleaming building on a main thoroughfare. He lasted in the austere environment for two years. "There were too many forbidden things," he said of the school where the Arabic language, taught by teachers from Saudi Arabia, is the focus of the curriculum. "You were not allowed to join any other student organization. Jeans were out, and they preferred that you wear a beard and long Arabic clothes."
Mr. Arofiq did not feel at home at the Saudi-run school, where he said the strict Wahhabi form of Islam was the basis of the teaching. Most students persevered for the full five years, he said. From the financing of educational institutions to giving money for militant Islamic groups, the influence of Saudi Arabia, and Saudi charities, has been growing steadily here in the world's most populous Muslim country. Until recently, Indonesia has been famously relaxed about its religion. But slowly Indonesians are becoming more devout and in the battle for the soul of Islam here the Saudis are playing an important though stealthy role. The Saudi money has come in two forms, Indonesian and Western officials said: above-board funds for religious and educational purposes, and quietly disbursed funds for militant Islamic groups. The Saudi money has had a profound effect on extremist groups, allowing some to keep going and inspiring others to start recruiting, the officials said.
A Saudi charity, Al Haramain, provides a good example of this dual role. Three years ago it signed a formal memorandum of understanding with the Indonesian Ministry of Religion that allowed it to finance educational institutions. But Al Haramain also appears to have served as a conduit for money to Jemaah Islamiyah. A senior member of Jemaah Islamiyah, Umar Faruq, who was arrested last year and is now in American custody, told the Central Intelligence Agency that Al Haramain provided money to his group. Earlier this year, under pressure from Washington, Saudi government officials announced that Al Haramain had been asked to close down in all the Muslim countries where it was operating. The large two-story house that Al Haramain used as its headquarters in a remote suburb of Jakarta was put up for rent last month. But the offices moved to a smaller house down the block and a Haramain official continues to oversee the completion of the charity's expensive new religious boarding school on the outskirts of Jakarta.
Meanwhile, the Saudi influence in Indonesia's religious boarding schools, known as pesantren, is by no means dominant, but it is allowing stricter interpretations of Islam to gain favor, said Alwi Shihab, an Islamic scholar and a former minister of foreign affairs. "I told Condoleezza Rice last year that you are going to see the consequences of all this rigid interpretation because of all the money being poured in here," Mr. Shihab said. The Saudis spread their largess broadly â from a rundown pesantren called Darul Istiqamah al Haramain in Makassar, a city in southern Sulawesi, to a prosperous one, Al Irsyad, in the town of Salatiga in central Java. Exactly how much money the Saudis give is unclear. At the school in Makassar, 8-year-old girls wear jilbabs, the head coverings worn by some Indonesian Muslim women. Seven mosques, several financed with Saudi money, are scattered around the campus. At Al Irsyad, the daily newspapers are displayed on a notice board with all photographs of human faces scratched out â an effort to present the news to the male students without the distraction of pictures.
Posted by: Fred Pruitt ||
07/05/2003 13:59 ||
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Police in central Thailand arrested four people and seized arms that were apparently being sent to the troubled Muslim-majority south. The arrests took place in Nakhon Ratchasima town on Thursday, hours before a series of attacks by unidentified gunmen in the southern province of Pattani left six people dead and three injured. Three of the men arrested in Nakhon Ratchasima are Thai Muslims, said police Lt-Col Prasong Ruangdej. The fourth is a Buddhist.
Surprised one of 'em's a Buddhist...
Lt-Col Prasong said police, acting on a tip-off, intercepted a truck in which the four men were transporting 15 AK-47 rifles. Interrogation led the police to a house in the neighbouring province of Sakeaw on the Cambodian border. There, police found 10 more AK-47 rifles, 15,000 bullets, M-79 grenade launchers and grenades, Lt-Col Prasong said. He said the four were expected to be charged with illegal possession of war weapons, which carries a maximum penalty of life imprisonment. 'The suspects said they were paid to transport the weapons from Cambodia to Pattani and refused to say anything more,' he added. Lt-Col Prasong said the seized weapons might be linked to the spate of violence in the country's four Muslim-majority provinces, including Pattani, which has left more than 36 people dead since December 2001.
Golly. Y'think they might be?
Posted by: Fred Pruitt ||
07/05/2003 13:20 ||
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In a tense encounter above the Java sea, a group of US warplanes went into attack mode and were ready to fire on Indonesian jet fighters dispatched to intercept them after they flew into Indonesia's airspace. Rear Air Marshal Wresnowiro, head of Indonesia's air defence command, told a news conference that the US navy F-18 Hornets locked onto the Indonesian F-16 warplanes late on Thursday before communication was established and the incident resolved. There were five Hornets in the group, although Rear Air Marshal Wresnowiro did not say if all of them had locked on. 'They adopted an attack manoeuvre. After they locked on, they asked whether the planes were friends or foe and an international sign indicating we're friends was relayed back.' He said the US-made F-16s were dispatched after the US Hornets were picked up by air force radar and also noticed by an Indonesian airliner off the main island of Java. He said the US planes were guarding an aircraft carrier, two frigates and a tanker which were travelling east. He said the convoy was not in an area designated as a legal sea lane for passage, although the country's air force chief earlier said it was. An Indonesian air force spokesman blamed the incident on slow Indonesian bureaucracy, adding the United States had sought permission to pass through but this was not approved in time.
Posted by: Fred Pruitt ||
07/05/2003 12:44 ||
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Screaming ''die! ''die!'' a drunken mob of about 3,000 people â some dressed as monks â quickly surrounded Aung San Suu Kyi's convoy, stripping the clothes off supporters and beating them mercilessly with bats, rods and spears, Myanmar dissidents testified Friday. The testimony by witnesses Khin Zaw and Wunna Maung before a Thai Senate panel was the most comprehensive and detailed yet of the May 30 violence that led to the Nobel laureate's arrest and the Myanmar government's crackdown on her pro-democracy party. Their statements also lend credibility to other opposition claims that up to 70 people were killed.
The men, both of whom are members Suu Kyi's National League for Democracy party, said they were in the convoy and witnessed the nighttime attack outside Depayin village in northern Myanmar. Suu Kyi, the country's pro-democracy icon, was traveling in the area as part of her 15-year-old nonviolent campaign to restore democracy in the military-ruled country. The government says four people were killed in the clash, claiming it was triggered by Suu Kyi's convoy plowing through peaceful pro-government demonstrators. ''I saw with my own eyes the attackers striking down the victims with all the force and stabbing viciously with pointed iron rods. Truly, it was a murderous attack. The beating was done until the victims died,'' U Khin Zaw, 50, told the Thai Senate's Foreign Relations Committee. ''It appeared that the attackers were systematically trained. They mainly aimed and struck on the head. Even when I was at a 100 yards, I heard with anguishing pain the popping sounds of heads being broken by savage blows.'' He said the attackers used iron rods and spears, bamboo sticks and wooden bats. Some came in trucks from behind to block the retreat while many more emerged from bushes along the road where they were hiding.
The attackers numbered about 3,000 while Suu Kyi's convoy of 10 cars and 20 motorcycles comprised about 300-400 people, he said. About 500 other supporters were stopped earlier by security forces and not allowed to proceed with the convoy, he said. The testimonies did not say how many people were killed. The two men said they had no way of knowing that, because they fled for their lives. They were in constant fear of being arrested until they reached Thailand. Wunna Maung, 26, said he was one car behind Suu Kyi's car at the head of the convoy when the attack began. Suu Kyi ''escaped beating because she did not get out of the car ... the attackers were totally drunk,'' he said.
As Suu Kyi's car sped away, the mob attacked women in another car, ''pulling off their blouses and sarongs. When the victims, covered in blood, fell to the ground, I saw (that) the attackers jumped on them and wrapped the hair around their heads and pounded the heads against (the) stone surface of the road.'' All the while, the killers shouted '''die, die,''' he said.
After providing the testimony, the two men went into hiding at the United Nations office in Bangkok, apparently seeking political refuge. Unless they are provided with refugee status, they face arrest in Thailand for entering the country illegally. U.N. officials refused to comment. A senior Thai Foreign Ministry official said later that a deal was reached with them under which Thai authorities would not arrest them as long as they spoke no more with the press. The Thai Senate committee invited the two men to speak so that both sides of the story could be heard, said Sunai Phasuk, an adviser to the panel. So far only the junta has given its version. The committee was told that Suu Kyi escaped in her car from the clash site but was detained along with dozens of supporters soon afterward. She has been held incommunicado since then despite an international outcry and sanctions by the European Union and the United States.
Posted by: Frank G ||
07/05/2003 12:32:45 AM ||
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From the Economist - paid subscription so no link, sorry. If you can get you hands on the print edition, there is a cool photograph.
AMERICA'S armed forces sometimes ask for very strange things. So, when DARPA, the Defence Advanced Research Projects Agency, asked Aurora, a company based in Manassas, Virginia, to design an unmanned aerial vehicle that was quiet, small, could fly for several hours on autopilot, and could deliver two cylinders the size of Coke cans to a distant location, Aurora happily obliged. The result, called GoldenEye (they take their James Bond seriously, it seems), is scheduled to make its first test flight in the next couple of weeks. The craft is a stubby cylinder, 1.7 metres tall, with wings that measure 3 metres from end to end. Unladen, it weighs just under 70kg, and it can carry an additional 20kg of fuel and payload, including cameras and the mysterious cylinders.
Carl Schaefer, an engineer at Aurora, says that the design of GoldenEye is unique. Its engine, known as a ducted fan, is a propeller shrouded within the cylinder. This makes it quiet at a distance of 150 metres it is no louder than a nearby conversation. It also makes it safe to use the craft in crowded, urban areas, which should, in turn, make GoldenEye appealing to police forces (who have to worry about the safety of civilians) as well as the armed forces. Another of GoldenEye's features is vertical take-off. Its wings are not rigidly attached to its body, but rotate independently. This allows it to go straight up like a helicopter, and then to level off into horizontal flight. Once level, it can fly at 260kph for up to four hours. Mr Schaefer says that the transition from vertical to horizontal flight is the trickiest bit to manage, because the craft is aerodynamically unstable while it is flipping over. The trick is done by a computerised control system that rapidly adjusts the craft's various flaps to keep it flying. The same system can navigate the craft to a preselected point automatically, thus minimising radio transmissions and allowing it to work clandestinely.
Not everything about GoldenEye needs to be secret. Ed Smith, Aurora's director of business development, is optimistic about the prospects of selling it to customers other than the federal government. The firm is developing a half-scale commercial version, which weighs just over 7kg. Although it can carry a payload of only a couple of kilograms, this is sufficient to accommodate a camera. Mr Smith expects that law-enforcement agencies will be big customers for this small version. It could, for example, allow coastguards to have a bird's-eye view of a ship before boarding it at sea. And, at a mere $50,000 a pop, it will, Aurora hopes, be cheap enough for local police forces to afford. The coppers, though, will be unable to receive deliveries of mysterious cylinders. That privilege will be reserved for America's spies. But the spooks should now be able to rest a bit easier in the knowledge that, if they get thirsty, the best Coke delivery system that money can buy is ready to serve them. I have no idea what this for, but is an interesting insight on where UAVs are going.
Posted by: Phil_B ||
07/05/2003 7:23:27 AM ||
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HARARE (AFP) - President Robert Mugabe of Zimbabwe has had his annual salary hiked more than sixfold, while those of cabinet ministers and parliamentarians have also been increased. The state-run Herald newspaper said Saturday Mugabe would now receive 20.2 million Zimbabwe dollars (24,000 US dollars) per year, up from the three million (3,640 dollars) announced last year. I'd love to see his performance review!
The increase is likely to provoke criticism in the country, which is grappling with high unemployment, annual inflation exceeding 300 percent, as well as widepread shortages of food, fuel, cash and medicines. I don't think this will make anyone's top ten list on reasons to hate Bob!
But The Herald, which closely reflects government thinking, said that the president's pay hike "is still far less than what chief executives of most companies are earning." The paper this week ran a story saying that most top company executives in the country received monthly salaries of up to 10 million Zimbabwe dollars (12,000 dollars). But they actually do something for a living.
According to the paper other goverment officials, including the two vice presidents, cabinet ministers, the speaker of parliament and governors in the country's eight provinces would also receive significant pay hikes. Vice Presidents Joseph Msika and Simon Muzenda will now be paid 18.4 million Zimbabwe dollars (21,800 dollars) each, up from 2.7 million. Cabinet ministers will receive 16.5 million Zimbabwe dollars, up from 2.4 million, while parliamentarians, including those of the opposition Movement for Democratic Change (MDC) will have their annual pay packages increased to 11.2 million Zimbabwe dollars, up from 1.8 million. The new salaries were contained in an official government announcement published on Friday, The Herald said. Nice work if you can get it in Zimbabwe.
Zimbabwe is currently in the grips of a severe economic crisis, with 80 percent of the country's 11.6 million people estimated to be living in poverty. The other 20 percent are government functionaries, green shirts and thugs.
Posted by: Steve White ||
07/05/2003 7:00:34 PM ||
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EFL
Annoyed by the prospect of a massive new federal surveillance system, two researchers at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology are celebrating the Fourth of July with a new Internet service that will let citizens create dossiers on government officials. These guys haven't made the connection that the monster they are creating will eventually consumet them.
The system will start by offering standard background information on politicians, but then go one bold step further, by asking Internet users to submit their own intelligence reports on government officials -- reports that will be published with no effort to verify their accuracy.
"It's sort of a citizen's intelligence agency," said Chris Csikszentmihalyi, assistant professor at the MIT Media Lab.
He and graduate student Ryan McKinley created the Government Information Awareness (GIA) project as a response to the US government's Total Information Awareness program (TIA).
McKinley worked with Csikszentmihalyi to design the GIA system. It's partly based on technology used to create Internet indexes such as Google. Software crawls around Internet sites that store large amounts of information about politicians. These include independent political sites like opensecrets.org, as well as sites run by government agencies. McKinley created software that ferrets out the useful data from these sites, and loads it into the GIA database. The result is a one-stop research site for basic information on key officials.
This approach to Internet publishing isn't new. It resembles a method known as Wiki, in which a website is constantly amended by visitors who contribute new information. The best known Wiki site, www.wikipedia.org, is an online encyclopedia created entirely by visitors who have voluntarily written nearly 140,000 articles, on subjects ranging from astronomy to Roman mythology. Any Wikipedia user who thinks he has spotted an error or wants to add information can modify the article. Unlike at a standard encyclopedia operation, there is no central authority to edit or reject articles.
The GIA approach, though, raises the possibility that people could post libelous information, or data that unreasonably compromises a person's privacy.
That troubles Barry Steinhardt, director of the Technology & Liberty Program of the American Civil Liberties Union. "We think that there should be some restrictions on the publishing of personally identifiable information, whether it involves government officials or not," he said.
In any case, Steinhardt said, McKinley and Csikszentmihalyi have a First Amendment right to set up the GIA project. And he said that it's a valuable response to the government's TIA surveillance. "I assume the point of this is, turnabout is fair play." Which is exactly what the angry people, exposed by this software, will say when they turn return the favor of using it to monitor its creators.
I don't know how I feel about this whole idea, but these two had better make sure they never cheat on their girlfriends, miss a payment, or do the slightest thing illegal. This project assures they will be the victims of their own success.
A Thai man with a prosthetic leg was electrocuted while urinating near a highway electric pole in Bangkok on Thursday.
Cheeze. I hate it when that happens...
The 27-year-old victim, Pallop Thachao, was accompanied by his father and a friend who told police they stopped their car at a tollbooth plaza during a rainstorm to allow Mr Pallop to relieve himself. Police Captain Narongchat Sajjathai said: 'There was some water near the poles.' Transport officials said Mr Pallop's prosthetic leg could have acted as a strong conductor of electricity at that particular spot on the highway. Mr Thawil Phuengma, dean of engineering at King Mongkut's University of Technology, said Mr Pallop probably urinated on an uncovered ground line. He said ground lines were usually covered with PVC pipes but this one may have been exposed.
Posted by: Fred Pruitt ||
07/05/2003 13:04 ||
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Four North Korean teenagers slipped into the British consulate in Shanghai yesterday seeking political asylum, the latest in a string of such defections in Chinese cities. Two other men from North Korea fled to the south by boat yesterday in a rare case of direct defection. Most refugees arrive in the south through third countries after crossing North Korea's relatively open border with China. A rights group source identified the asylum seekers in Shanghai as two boys and two girls, aged 15 to 17, who fled from North Korea to north-east China between 1999 and 2000. The four arrived in Shanghai from Beijing and made the dash for the consulate with the help of ethnic Korean Chinese nationals. Diplomats said the four walked into the visa section of the consulate and asked for asylum. Up to 300,000 North Koreans are said to be hiding in north-east China after fleeing poverty and repression in their homeland. Meanwhile, in Seoul, the military said it found the two North Korean defectors in a boat off the west coast at 1.30am on Thursday. The two men, both in their 40s, had no emergency equipment, food or extra clothing, according to the Yonhap news agency.
Still a relative trickle...
Posted by: Fred Pruitt ||
07/05/2003 12:40 ||
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A prominent North Korean defector and former top aide to the communist country's leader said yesterday that anti-Americanism in South Korea was the result of North Korean propaganda. Mr Hwang Jang Yop, who defected to Seoul in 1997, made the remarks in a statement released before his appearance at a parliamentary forum on North Korean defectors and human rights. 'People in many countries, without knowing the true identity of the North Korean dictatorial leadership, are pitying it as a small country, an impoverished country,' said Mr Hwang, 81, who compared North Korea's leadership to the ousted Saddam Hussein regime in Iraq. 'Even in South Korea... many people, fooled by the North's cunning strategy, are demanding national cooperation while rejecting the United States, the most trusted democratic ally,' he said.
This is too subtle a concept for some people to grasp, implying as it does that some people would actually lie to them to advance their own interests...
Mr Hwang, former chief of North Korea's legislature, called for continued inter-Korean exchanges, saying direct contact with North Koreans would help them recognise the superiority of democracy.
No matter how determined they are not to...
Known as the architect of North Korea's guiding philosophy - juche, or self-reliance - Mr Hwang served three times as legislature chairman, the Supreme People's Assembly, and once tutored leader Kim Jong Il. He also headed Kim Il Sung University. Under the protective custody of South Korea's intelligence agency, Mr Hwang rarely appears in public. He has accused the Seoul government of restricting his movements to muzzle him, but it says it is looking out for his safety.
Posted by: Fred Pruitt ||
07/05/2003 12:37 ||
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Congressional investigators have targeted extremist Muslims in America, those described as members of the Wahhabi movement who have become increasingly influential throughout the United States â buoyed by foreign state-sponsored doctrines and a wellspring of cash used to recruit and train international terrorists. "The extremist ideology is Wahhabism, a major force behind terrorist groups like al Qaeda," said Sen. Jon Kyl, Arizona Republican, whose Senate Judiciary subcommittee on technology, terrorism and government information held recent hearings on the terrorist threat in the United States. "It is widely recognized that all 19 of the [September 11] suicide pilots ... were Wahhabi followers," he said. "Since then, many questions have been asked about the role in that day's terrible events and in other challenges we face in the war against terror of Saudi Arabia and its official sect, a separatist, exclusionary and violent form of Islam known as Wahhabism."
Finally getting around to it, are they? And it hasn't even been two years... quite.
Posted by: Fred Pruitt ||
07/05/2003 12:32 ||
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A Palestinian suspected of ordering a mortar attack on a Jewish settlement fired on a policemen who came to arrest him, the first show of resistance to Palestinian security forces enforcing a fledgling truce. Three people were injured in the shooting at Gaza's Beach Refugee Camp late Friday, a Palestinian police source said. It wasn't clear if the suspect was among the wounded, but he was taken into custody. The man, who was not identified, is the eighth person to be arrested in the mortar attack Wednesday that injuring four Israelis. Seven Fatahsnuffies rebels were arrested in Gaza on Wednesday and Thursday, marking the first time Palestinian security forces took action against those violating the truce.
Well, damn. Careful where you're stepping. My jaw's down there somewhere...
Posted by: Fred Pruitt ||
07/05/2003 12:23 ||
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An explosion near an Israeli army checkpoint in the Gaza Strip killed a Palestinian but caused no Israeli casualties on Saturday in another dent to a cease-fire vital to a U.S.-backed peace plan. Palestinian officials said two other Palestinians were wounded by the explosive device near Sufa checkpoint. It was not clear if it had been planted by the men caught up in the blast, which the Israeli army said occurred close to an Israeli patrol.
I'd say there's at least a 50-50 chance...
In an operation in support of the six-day-old truce, Palestinian police raided a Gaza refugee camp and exchanged fire with militants they came to arrest after anti-tank missile and mortar bomb attacks on Jewish settlements and Israeli soldiers. A policeman, a militant and a bystander were wounded in the fighting late on Friday in the Shati camp, witnesses said. "Palestinian security forces have been given orders...not to tolerate (cease-fire) violators and to bring them to court," Palestinian Information Minister Nabil Amr said on Saturday.
Posted by: Fred Pruitt ||
07/05/2003 12:10 ||
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WASHINGTON, July 4 â The United States military is seeking to expand its presence in the Arab countries of northern Africa and in sub-Saharan Africa through new basing agreements and training exercises intended to combat a growing terrorist threat in the region.Look out Qadhafi - we'll be knockin onthe door..
Even as military planners prepare options for American troops to join an international peacekeeping force to oversee a cease-fire in Liberia, the Pentagon wants to enhance military ties with allies like Morocco and Tunisia.
It is also seeking to gain long-term access to bases in countries like Mali and Algeria, which American forces could use for periodic training or to strike terrorists. And it aims to build on aircraft refueling agreements in places like Senegal and Uganda, two countries that President Bush is to visit on his five-nation swing through Africa that begins on Tuesday.
There are no plans to build permanent American bases in Africa, Defense Department officials say. Instead, the United States European Command, which oversees military operations in most of Africa, wants troops now in Europe to rotate more frequently into bare-bones camps or airfieldsPermanent rotations- kinda like all the SW Asia bases in Africa. Marines may spend more time sailing off the West African coast.
This fall the command will send trainers to work with soldiers from four North African nations on patrolling and gathering intelligence.
Some plans are still on the drawing board and will need the approval of Defense Secretary Donald H. Rumsfeld or his top aides. But other military initiatives in Africa are already under way or will soon begin.Meaninf - we're already in plce !
Since late last year, for example, more than 1,800 members of the American military have been placed in Djibouti to conduct counterterrorism operations in the Horn of Africa.
The military's commitment and costs in Africa would still be low compared with missions in the Persian Gulf or Korean Peninsula, but commanders say emerging threats require the Pentagon to pay more attention to the continent.
"Africa, as can be seen by recent events, is certainly a growing problem," Gen. James L. Jones of the Marine Corps, the head of the European Command, said in an interview this week.
"As we pursue the global war on terrorism," the general said, "we're going to have to go where the terrorists areand wipe them out like cancerous cells. And we're seeing some evidence, at least preliminary, that more and more of these large uncontrolled, ungoverned areas are going to be potential havens for that kind of activity."
United States military and intelligence officials say vast swaths of the Sahara, from Mauritania in the west to Sudan in the east, which have been smuggling routes for centuries, are becoming areas of choice for terrorist groups, including Al Qaeda. Not sure how deep we want to get there - but better be enough force to search and destroy terroist networks as well as peacekeeping duites - I suggest we separate the functions, mainly MPs and fire support for peacekeeping, snake eating terrorist busters for the rest!
Posted by: Fiddler ||
07/05/2003 11:43:24 AM ||
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Two women suicide bombers blew themselves up at a giant rock festival in suburban Moscow on Saturday, killing at least 16 people, Russian officials said. The interior minister said Chechen rebels may have been beind the attack.
That comes as no surprise at all.
Up to 40,000 spectators, many of them young, were attending the popular annual festival at the Tushino airfield when the explosions went off at two differnt gates. One of the blasts tore off people's clothing and sent garbage flying through the air. The first blast took place after guards stopped a woman at the entrance to the festival and she detonated an explosives-packed belt. Police then directed the audience to leave through the airfield's second gate â and there the second bomb went off. Bodies lay splayed on the pavement, surrounded by pools of blood. Emergency response officers covered them with black plastic garbage bags. Interior Minister Boris Gryzlov said that 16 people were killed, not including the bombers, who he said were women. News reports said a passport found at the bombing site identified a Chechen woman. Saturday's blasts were set off by two suicide bombers and that both were killed. Remnants of one of the bomber's explosives went off about 20 minutes after the two blasts, which some witnesses mistook for a third bombing. Police later discovered another explosive device near one of the entrances to the festival and defused it.
Posted by: Fred Pruitt ||
07/05/2003 11:38 ||
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Summarized here by Jeff Jarvis; read the full Forbes original article by clicking on the title.
Forbes reports that Iran's mullahs got rich at the nation's expense:
The 1979 revolution expropriated the assets of foreign investors and the nation's wealthiest families; oil had long been nationalized, but the mullahs seized virtually everything else of value—banks, hotels, car and chemical companies, makers of drugs and consumer goods. What distinguishes Iran is that many of these assets were given to Islamic charitable foundations, controlled by the clerics. According to businessmen and former foundation executives, the charities now serve as slush funds for the mullahs and their supporters....
The gossip on the street, going well beyond the observable facts, has the Rafsanjanis stashing billions of dollars in bank accounts in Switzerland and Luxembourg; controlling huge swaths of waterfront in Iran's free economic zones on the Persian Gulf; and owning whole vacation resorts on the idyllic beaches of Dubai, Goa and Thailand.
And how they can so liberally fund Hezbollah and other terrorists. This is why a huge stadium was packed standing-room only full of Hezbollah supporters when Iran's Khatami visited Syria last month. BTW, I believe THAT was a perfect occasion to demonstrate MOAB... opportunity lost...
Posted by: PD ||
07/05/2003 7:29:44 AM ||
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The US faces another damaging diplomatic row with Europe over its decision to try six suspected al-Qaeda terrorists in secretive military tribunals. The European Union's executive commission warned on Friday that applying the death penalty to any of the suspects detained at the US base at Guantanamo Bay in Cuba would risk undermining international support for the US-led war on terrorism. "The death sentence cannot be applied by military courts as this would make the international coalition lose the integrity and credibility it has so far enjoyed," said spokesman Diego de Ojeda. Then his lips fell off.
The UK, America's closest ally in the war on terror, said it would raise its objections with the US government at the "highest level" after it emerged that two of the six are British citizens. Foreign office minister Baroness Symons said London would pursue a "very vigorous discussion" to satisfy its concerns that US procedures may not guarantee a fair trial. "I think there are issues about the principle of using military commissions," she told BBC Radio. Repeat page: Baroness, call your legal advisor. Brits have used military tribunals as well in the past.
UK ministers acknowledge they are powerless to change the US's chosen legal processes, but the decision to try two UK detainees puts Tony Blair's support for the US-led Iraq war back on the agenda just as the UK prime minister wants to move on.
Human rights lawyers said the military process was discriminatory as US detainees can be tried by ordinary civilian courts. Seeing as our Constitution applies to our citizens but not to foreign nationals.
Those accused in the tribunals, which will take place behind closed doors, will have no right to appeal outside the military.
Posted by: Steve White ||
07/05/2003 1:18:49 AM ||
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Caribbean leaders criticized the United States Friday for suspending aid to six regional nations that refuse to exempt Americans from the new International Criminal Court's jurisdiction. The ``punitive action'' from the United States will cut into their vigorish weaken U.S. efforts to protect its own borders and security in the region, leaders at the annual summit of the 15-member Caribbean Community said in a statement. ``This development was at complete variance with the spirit of the special relationship which traditionally existed between the United States and the Caribbean, a relationship which as always been characterized by benign neglect of banana republics mutual respect and cooperation,'' they said. The United States on Tuesday announced the suspension of military aid to 35 countries that have refused to exempt its citizens. The list included the Caribbean nations of Trinidad and Tobago, Antigua and Barbuda, Barbados, Belize, Dominica, and St. Vincent and the Grenadines. Two countries — Antigua and Barbuda and St. Vincent and the Grenadines — have said they stand to lose $1 million and $300,000 respectively. That'll pay for a half-dozen JDAMs. Good.
The U.S. government argues its troops on missions abroad could be subjected to politically motivated trials. Human rights groups and critical nations ask why the United States would set itself a different standard from the rest of the world. Because we obey our Constitution.
To compensate for the loss of U.S. aid, Caribbean leaders proposed working together on military assistance and training to insure their nation's continued protection. ``We must move as quickly as possible'' on the regional security plan, Trinidad and Tobago's Prime Minister Patrick Manning told reporters. ``More and more the Caribbean must accept responsibility for its own security.'' Hey, careful with that feather — I almost fell over!
Manning reiterated Trinidad's intent to participate in the court and said it will not go back on its decision. But Belize's Prime Minister Said Musa on Wednesday said his Central American country was planning on granting the exemptions but had not had the opportunity to negotiate the issue directly with Washington. He would not say how much aid had been cut off. Bahamian Prime Minister Perry Christie said his government probably would not agree to the exemption request, but would seek a special waiver from the United States allowing it to continue receiving military aid. No deal, Perry, sign on the dotted line.
Posted by: Steve White ||
07/05/2003 1:01:39 AM ||
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Two Britons and an Australian in U.S. custody are among six terror suspects who will likely face U.S. military trial, British and Australian officials said Friday. British officials said they would ``vigorously'' seek access to its citizens, Moazzam Begg, 35, and Feroz Abbasi, 23, who were among those designated by U.S. authorities as the first candidates for trial before a military tribunal. By all means, let the Brits see them.
The news drew protest from families of the jailed Britons, who denied the men had terror links and worried that the trials wouldn't be fair. Nope, nope, couldn't be, they wouldn't hurt a JooooHindoo fly.
"They wuz doin' humanitarian stuff there at Mazar! Ever'body knows that!"
Australian national David Hicks is also in the group, said Australia's Federal Attorney General Daryl Williams. At least half the designated terror suspects are from countries that joined the U.S.-led war against Iraq. The three are among about 680 prisoners at the U.S. Navy base at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba. Hicks' lawyer, Stephen Kenny, said in Australia that his client faced ``an American kangaroo court,'' where his fate will ultimately be in the hands of President Bush. Hmmm, I think it's fair to say that one can see how Hicks' lawyer is going to play this.
The tribunals will have three to seven military officers acting as judge and jury. Convictions could be by a majority vote, but a death sentence would have to be unanimous. Decisions by the tribunals can be appealed only to a panel of judges appointed by the U.S. Defense Department, and then directly to the president. Seems reasonable. Court to try the facts, a review to ensure appropriate process, and a final appeal to the top. Looks good so far. Amnesty International said the selection of the six was ``another retrograde step for human rights in the U.S.-led 'war against terrorism' and will further undermine the U.S.A.'s claims to be a country that champions the rule of law.'' Must be pledge week for AI.
U.S. officials had refused to identify the six prisoners, but said all — like the other prisoners at Guantanamo Bay — were suspected of involvement with the al-Qaeda, the Taliban or some other terrorist group. The next step is for a prosecutor to draft charges against the men. Some of the six may have attended terrorist training camps and others were involved in raising money and recruiting for terrorist groups. Only non-U.S. citizens can face a tribunal under Bush's order creating the military trials. Witness Johnny Red. Reading between the lines, this also means that Yaser Esam Hamdi will eventually get a US trial, not a tribunal.
Relatives of the two British detainees said they feared the trials would be unfair. ``The trial will be military, the judge will be military and yet my son is a civilian,'' said Moazzam Begg's father, Azmat Begg. ``This is just not right. "He was in Afghanistan on business! That's all, just looking after the family business!"
``My son was never involved in al-Qaida,'' he said. ``He is a proper, family man.'' Turban? Check.
Rifle? Check.
Holy book? Check.
Yep, a good son! He'd pass for a civilian in Pakistan, Syria, Gaza and Saudi-controlled Arabia. And Yemen.
Abbasi's attorney said his client's mother, Zumrati Juma, was ``extremely upset and very fearful for her son.'' She might be the only one who loves him.
``He was only 19 when he left home and it is impossible to believe that her son could have been a senior member of any organization,'' lawyer Louise Christian added. "Why, his father hadn't killed anyone until he was, um, 20!"
``We are horrified that the British government is allowing this to happen.'' I, on the other hand, am pleased.
Foreign Office minister Baroness Symons said the British government would ``vigorously'' pursue issues relating to access to lawyers, evidence and a possible appeals procedure for the two detainees. ``I think there are issues about the principle of using military commissions,'' Symons told British Broadcasting Corp. radio. ``It isn't something we would be able to do in this country, because of course we would want to ensure that there is a separation between government on one hand and the judiciary on the other.'' Baroness Symons, please call the Foreign Office legal counselor, she'd like a word with you about how your country has done things over the last few centuries.
Begg has been held at Guantanamo Bay for nearly five months, and was previously detained in Afghanistan for a year, according to the London-based Fair Trials Abroad. It said the father of four was seized in Pakistan in February 2002 and may have been the victim of mistaken identity. Father of four and only 19? Randy bugger.
Abbasi has been held at Guantanamo Bay for 18 months, his lawyer said. His mother, who last saw him in December 2000, has described him as a computer student who could not have become involved in terrorism. "Do you have any idea just how hard it is to program an Apple ][+? Do you???
Begg and Abbasi are among nine British citizens at the maximum-security Camp Delta in Cuba, the Foreign Office said. The director of Fair Trials Abroad, Stephen Jakobi, said the U.S. tribunals were designed to secure convictions. ``The U.S. Department of Defense will appoint the judges and prosecutors, control the defense and make up the rules of the trial,'' Jakobi said. ``It appears to have only one objective - to secure a conviction.'' Bright boy. Got it the first time!
Posted by: Steve White ||
07/05/2003 12:43:53 AM ||
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President Bush is sending military experts to Africa to assess whether U.S. troops should help enforce a fragile cease-fire in war-torn Liberia. He was considering a conditional offer by the country's leader to step down. Here's the condition for Chuckles that I'd like to see: you step down as 'president' of Liberia, and we let you live long enough to surrender your sorry ass to the UN tribunal that's indicted you. Don't delay.
Bush said American officials were discussing the makeup of a peacekeeping force with the 15-country Economic Community of West African States. ``We are talking to ECOWAS countries right now to determine what the nature of a peacekeeping force might look like,'' Bush told CNN's ``Inside Africa.'' White House press secretary Ari Fleischer, speaking to reporters traveling with the president to Ohio for Fourth of July celebrations, announced that Bush was sending a team of military experts to the region. The Bush administration has strongly suggested that President Charles Taylor's departure would be a prerequisite for a U.S. role in an international peacekeeping force in Liberia. "In fact, we can help arrange his departure."
Taylor, speaking in Liberia's capital of Monrovia, said he would leave only if a peacekeeping force is deployed. ``I don't understand why the United States government would insist that I be absent before its soldiers arrive,'' Taylor told a meeting of Liberian clerics on Friday. ``It makes a lot of sense for peacekeepers to arrive in this city before I transit.'' Think about it, Chuckles, you really don't want to be there when we arrive.
The White House appeared skeptical of any conditions put forward by Taylor. ``The president encourages Taylor to back up his encouraging words with deeds,'' Fleischer said later Friday. If his offer is real, Fleischer said, ``the exact timing will be developed in due course.''
But we all know his offer's not real until he has no other options — and he's slick enough to keep finding options where others would be long gone...
Taylor offered a chilling warning to opponents, saying his forces were still ``capable of carrying out havoc in the city with their dying gasps.'' Bush said Taylor's departure is crucial to establishing a stable, hopeful future for the West African nation suffering from years of bloody civil war. ``One thing has to happen, that is Mr. Taylor has to leave,'' he told CNN, and he was confident Taylor would go peacefully: ``I am convinced that he will listen, and make the decision, the right decision, if he cares about his life country.''
Good idea, GW. Make him an offer he can't refuse...
Secretary of State Colin Powell is consulting with U.N. Secretary-General Kofi Annan and African governments over how and when Taylor may step down. Nigeria's President Olusegun Obasanjo on Friday discussed with Taylor a Nigerian offer of temporary asylum if he leaves office. No decision was made during the phone conversation. Taylor ``is still in Monrovia. He's not coming immediately, but Nigeria is a friendly country,'' Oyo said. ``There is a possibility he will come.'' Then again, there's a possibility that Chuckles is a lying snake.
Taylor, a one-time warlord who launched Liberia's 1989-1996 civil war, was elected Liberia's surviving chief thug leader in 1997. Two years later, the country's main rebel movement took up arms against his government in fighting that has forced one third of Liberia's 3 million people from their homes. Last month, a U.N.-backed war crimes court in neighboring Sierra Leone indicted the Liberian leader for gun trafficking and supporting Sierra Leone rebels during their vicious 10-year terror campaign. Also last month, Taylor's government signed a cease-fire deal with the insurgents that commits the Liberian leader to quit power. He subsequently refused. The UN people felt so ... betrayed.
Heavy fighting in June had rebel forces bearing down on Monrovia, Taylor's stronghold. With hundreds dead and thousands of villagers pouring into the city to flee the violence, Annan, France and Britain called for a peacekeeping force, preferably led by Americans. ECOWAS has pledged 3,000 troops, and African leaders have demandedrequestedpleadedbegged abjectly for suggested that the United States send in another 2,000 troops. Military officials already have been involved in limited regional talks, but the new team would take that effort a step further to a broader group of nations and officials. Fleischer referred to the Pentagon all questions about the team's makeup, when it would arrive and how long its work would take. Information that the White House gets from the assessment team will help Bush decide whether to commit troops — and how many if he does — to Liberia, he said. I'm beginning to wonder if this isn't a delayng tactic. Let the rebels regroup and force their way into Monrovia.
The ceasefire was a delaying tactic to break the momentum of their push into Monrovia...
Fleischer said Bush was not bound to decide by ``the artificial deadline'' of his Monday departure for a weeklong trip to sub-Saharan Africa, although many African had hoped for a decision by then. Top Bush advisers have insisted that U.S. forces could handle an additional mission, and Bush has cited the ``special, historical'' ties with Liberia, a nation founded in the 19th century by freed American slaves. Also cited is the need to keep ``failed states'' from becoming hotbeds for terrorist recruitment. The U.S. military commander in Europe, Gen. James Jones, has been ordered to begin planning for possible American intervention. Options on the table range from sending no troops to sending thousands. Also Friday, the World Health Organization appealed for urgent international assistance for Monrovia's 97,000 refugees coping with dirty water, dwindling food stores and lack of adequate medical care. Those refugees are plagued by hunger, disease and the looting, often drunken fighters loyal to Taylor. Such a fine force of fellows dedicated to Chuckles.
Posted by: Steve White ||
07/05/2003 12:34:30 AM ||
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A multi-volume chronology and reference guide set detailing three years of the Mexican Drug War between 2010 and 2012.
Rantburg.com and borderlandbeat.com correspondent and author Chris Covert presents his first non-fiction work detailing
the drug and gang related violence in Mexico.
Chris gives us Mexican press dispatches of drug and gang war violence
over three years, presented in a multi volume set intended to chronicle the death, violence and mayhem which has
dominated Mexico for six years.
Rantburg was assembled from recycled algorithms in the United States of America. No
trees were destroyed in the production of this weblog. We did hurt some, though. Sorry.
