How many hundreds of al-Qaeda does it take to blow up a warship? I donât mean to make light of the attack, but it seems like every jihadi who gets jugged in Yemen was involved in it ...
Four of 32 militants captured in a crackdown by Yemenâs security forces are linked to the October 2000 USS Cole bombing that killed 17 American sailors, an official said Tuesday. The four were among 10 suspects who escaped from prison early last year, said the official, speaking on condition of anonymity. Senior al-Qaida agents Abdul Raouf Naseeb and Sayed Imam el-Sharif were among those captured, but the countryâs most-wanted man - Jamal al-Badawi - apparently slipped away with more than a dozen foreign fighters, witnesses and officials in the region said. A U.S. government official, also speaking on condition of anonymity, said Naseeb was believed to be linked to the Cole attack. The official had no information about the others. The Yemeni official said Naseeb and four other suspects had been transferred to San`a for further questioning. There was no information on el-Sharif. The official said 13 of the 32 suspects were released after they and their families promised to renounce violence. Eh?
Sixteen fighters from Saudi Arabia, Egypt and the United Arab Emirates who were thought to be hiding in the mountains are believed to have slipped away, including al-Badawi, a Yemeni wanted in the United States and by his own government for the Cole bombing. The crackdown, which ended Tuesday, followed reports of planned attacks in Yemen. Security has been tightened around embassies, foreign companies and government institutions in San`a, the capital. Might I suggest that such things might not be needed if they held on to the jihadis when they caught them the first time? This ainât hide and go seek, folks ...
Witnesses said military checkpoints around the mountains had been reduced and patrols were no longer visible - an indication the operation was over.
Posted by: Dan Darling ||
03/10/2004 12:37:56 AM ||
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their families promised to renounce violence
as Allan is their witness.
.
Posted by: Mike Sylwester ||
03/10/2004 7:27 Comments ||
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and wouldn't it be better if the "crackdown" lasted for more than a week and a half?
Posted by: Frank G ||
03/10/2004 10:17 Comments ||
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Are they being held in the Yemeni super-max where the solitary confinement cells are equipped with screen doors and escape tunnels? Could we get them moved to the Saudi facility where they use oily rags for mattress material?
Posted by: Super Hose ||
03/10/2004 12:00 Comments ||
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Four British Muslims released from Guantanamo Bay were detained last night and one was released after the military aircraft on which they were travelling touched down on British soil. Four of them, Rhuhel Ahmed, 22; Asif Iqbal, 22; Shafiq Rasul, 26, all from Tipton, West Midlands, and Tarek Dergoul, 26, from London were arrested under the Terrorism Act when the aircraft landed and were driven to Paddington Green police station in west London for questioning. The fifth man, Jamal al-Harith, 37, from Manchester, was detained under port and border controls for four hours at the airbase, but he left RAF Northolt at 11.10pm as a free man, in a high-speed convoy accompanied by police. A Scotland Yard spokesman said Mr Harith had been "released without charge", adding that "police have co-ordinated arrangements for him to be taken to a location of his choice". ....
Hopefully that'll be in Algeria or someplace like that.
Under the Terrorism Act 2000, the four still in custody can be held for up to two weeks without charge and up to 48 hours before the police have to bring them before a court, meaning they could be free within two days..... Mr Iqbal is said to have travelled to Pakistan to meet a prospective bride before flying to Afghanistan to consider the marriage.
Sure. When I got married, I flew to the Congo to think about it. The shrapnel helps focus the mind, y'see...
His schoolfriends, Mr Ahmed and Mr Rasul, went to Pakistan to help.
To help him consider marriage? She musta been pretty much borderline ugly with a lot of dough, huh? "Oooh! She's so-o-o-o-o ugly! And she's got all that lovely money! Oooh! Rhuhel! Ooooh! Shafiq! Help me consider!"
Mr Harith is said to have gone backpacking in Pakistan and was arrested on the Afghan border by Taliban soldiers. Mr Dergoul reportedly flew to Pakistan to learn Arabic. .... details about remaining prisoners of British citizenship follow
He went to Pakistan to learn Arabic? Not Arabia? Though, to tell the truth, I'd have gone to Berlitz and stayed away from places where explosions are common.
Posted by: Mike Sylwester ||
03/10/2004 8:54:46 AM ||
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Mr Harith is said to have gone backpacking in Pakistan and was arrested on the Afghan border
#2
Mr Iqbal is said to have travelled to Pakistan to meet a prospective bride before flying to Afghanistan to consider the marriage.
So Afghanistan looked good compared to your prospective bride? Ewwwwwwww....
His schoolfriends, Mr Ahmed and Mr Rasul, went to Pakistan to help.
Bachelor party, had too much to drink, woke up in the Taliban. Happens all the time, only it's usually just a tatoo.
Posted by: Steve ||
03/10/2004 13:27 Comments ||
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"A Scotland Yard spokesman said Mr Harith had been "released without charge", adding that "police have co-ordinated arrangements for him to be taken to a location of his choice"
Anyone want to guess who spilled his guts to the Yanks? Either that or he was a troublemaker and they're setting him up to look like a stool pidgeon.
Five British nationals were on their way home yesterday from the US detention camp in Cuba for suspected Al-Qaeda and Taleban fighters, leaving behind four compatriots to face possible trial by a US military court for terrorist activities. The five were crossing the North Atlantic from Guantanamo Bay aboard a Royal Air Force C-17 transport plane, accompanied by officers of the Metropolitan Police anti-terrorist squad, a police statement said. They were expected to touch down at RAF Northolt Air Base, northwest of London, to be taken to the high security Paddington Green police station in the British capital for questioning. âTwo independent observers, one from the Muslim community, are on the flight which is also being videoed by police,â Londonâs Metropolitan Police said in a statement that anticipated concern about the five menâs treatment.
I'll bet the taxpayers paid for their tickets, too. Oh, how solicitous we are!
Eighty-eight other prisoners of various nationalities have been released from Guantanamo Bay, and a dozen others transferred to their home countries for continued detention, including seven Russians turned over on March 1. The five being repatriated to Britain are Ruhal Ahmed, Asif Iqbal, Shafiq Rasul, Tarek Dergoul and Jamal Al-Harith.
Good British names, every one. None o' those Percy's and Cecils and Nigels, by Gawd!
#4
The Beeb said the Muslims are angry because they are not 'free' and still in police custody. I guess the Brits want to know how five (less than employed) young men ended up in Afghanistan. I am sure they were all on their way to the local mosque when they were kidnaped by the evil Taliban.
Todayâs le Figaro has a number of stories about the declining state of Franceâs economic and financial situation. Figures published yesterday on the public administration finances show that French national debt reached 4.1% of GDP in 2003. To make matters worse, France, like Germany (and unlike most other European nations) has witnessed almost total stagnation in economic growth. As it stands now, France and Germany are turning into the economic basketcases of Europe.
Apart from the national implications are the threats posed to French influence in the EU. France continues to float precariously above the 3% of GDP debt limit placed on member nations by the EU. Many have complained about this level as unrealistic (though other EU nations seem able to meet it), but as former French auditor Roger Fauroux points out, if it werenât for the EU and the Euro, the weakness of Franceâs finances would be even more evident.
This puts France in an increasingly shaky position in Europe. Many other nations are tiring of the French inability to control that countryâs finances. Over the past few months, Iâve reported on a number of French thinkers arguing that France has entered what looks to be a protracted and irreversible decline in a number of areas. Figures like these only serve to confirm that view.
Details on Masonic Lodge attack, combining two different stories for information:
Istanbul Governor Muammer Guler said on Wednesday that four bombs exploded in the attack on a Masonic lodge in Kartal district and ten unexploded bombs were also found in the scene.
Talking to reporters, Guler said that four bombs exploded in the attack on three-storey building housing the Masonic lodge on Tuesday night and ten other bombs were found before being detonated. Guler said that the bombs were pipe bombs and hand made, adding that four plastic bottles full of gasoline were also found in the scene. Guler stated that terrorists tried to burn one of the bottles, but they were not able to do it. Terrorists who staged bomb attack last night in Kartal district of Istanbul wrapped themselves homemade pipe bombs, sources said. During their investigation, police officers found out that both terrorists had each 8-10 homemade pipe bombs strapped on their bodies. Low tech pipe bombs, not the C-4 paleoboomer brand. Sounds like poorly trained local group. Asked if the suicide attack on Masonic Lodge could have any connection with the former terrorist attacks staged in Istanbul, Guler said that the style of the recent suicide attack, the arms and type of bomb used in the attack, and the identities of the suicide bombers were very different. Therefore, Guler noted, they did not think that this recent suicide attack had links with the former terrorist attacks in Istanbul. Sounds different, at least the level of expertise of the people carrying it out. The shadowy forces who gave the orders may be the same. Guler said that two persons who came to the three-storey building housing Masonic Lodge around 22.10, shot the security guard in his feet. Later the terrorists opened fire on the building from the window and entered the building`s restaurant part. One terrorist was killed when he detonated the bomb on himself at the entrance and one waiter who was near him also died in the explosion, Guler said. Guler added that the second terrorist was seriously wounded while five persons who were among the people dining in the restaurant were also wounded.
Guler said that nothing happened to other persons dining in the restaurant part of the building in the explosion except five people. Guler said that about 40 people had been eating in the restaurant at the time of the attack. ``The explosion occurred near the entrance and the wounded were all seated nearby,`` Guler said. Small pipe bombs with small blast area.
The Free and Accepted Mason Grand Lodge Association has condemned the attack on its branch in Yakacik district in Asian side of Istanbul, stressing, ââthis inhuman attack did not target only members of our association, but targeted the peaceful atmosphere in Turkey.ââ Releasing a statement on Wednesday, the Association recalled, ââsuicide bombers struck at about 22.00 local time on Tuesday. One killed himself while the other failed to set off his explosives. In the attack, a restaurant waiter was killed, a security official and our five members were injured. We regretted this heinous attack. This inhuman attack did not target only members of our association, but targeted the peaceful atmosphere in Turkey.ââ
ââOur members, who have been working in a totally legal and national association under the control and guarantee of the Republic of Turkey, are intellectual people who are respectful to all religious beliefs, loyal to national and moral values and supporters of principles and reforms of Mustafa Kemal Ataturk." Which makes you a target.
"We believe that such attacks targeting Masons aim to intimidate modern and secular Turkish society and defame Turkey in the world public opinion. We condemn this heinous attack and extend our condolences to family of the person who was killed,ââ the statement added. Amen.
No group has so far claimed responsibility for yesterdayâs attack. Give it time.
Security forces have been combing the scene for clues. Keep at it.
The person, who was one of the terrorists staging yesterdayâs suicide attack on the Free and Accepted Mason Grand Lodge Association in Kartal district of Istanbul, has been put under sedation in intensive care unit. Whisper in his ear, maybe heâll talk while under.
Dr. Recep Demirhan from the Dr. Lutfi Kirdar Hospital told the A.A on Wednesday, ââthe person aged about 30-35 has been put under sedation in our intensive care unit. His left arm ripped off from his shoulder and his right hand ripped off from his wrist. He has also been suffering from injuries in his abdomen.ââ Oooooo, sounds painful. Excellent.
Referring to conditions of the other injured people, Dr. Demirhan said, ââBilgehan Bilgen, 40, has been suffering from injuries in his left kidney and abdomen. Security official Mehmet Lamba, 54, has been shot in his neck and nose. Bedri Selim, 58, and Omer Aksu, 56, have been slightly injured in the attack and they are in good condition. Kadir Dabbagoglu was discharged from the hospital after the medical treatment.ââ
Meanwhile, Prosecutor Nazmi Mardinlioglu said that Huseyin Kurugol, a restaurant waiter who was killed in the attack, was shot twice. Security forces have been combing the scene for clues. They found two handguns in the scene.
Security forces said that the injured terrorist had an identity card arranged in the name of Abdullah Islam. They noted that they had been working to confirm his identify. When reminded about the name of the wounded terrorist (Abdullah Islam) who was hospitalized, Guler said that ``he told that name himself, it can be right or wrong.`` Most likely fake.
Stressing that additional security measures were taken in building of the association following last yearâs suicide attacks targeting synagogues in Istanbul, security forces added that these measures were called off after association officials told them that they had their own security official and did not need additional measures. Iâd rethink that.
Posted by: Steve ||
03/10/2004 10:18:43 AM ||
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Details from CNN: Two men attacked a security guard and sprayed a restaurant in the lodge with gunfire before detonating an explosive device Tuesday night, Istanbul Gov. Muammer Guler said. "Two assailants shot the guard in his feet and raked the restaurant of the lodge with gunfire, then detonated bombs," Guler told reporters. "One terrorist and one waiter was killed, the second terrorist is injured with his arm ripped off and his guts spilled out."
Turkish media said the second attacker could not be taken to hospital for more than an hour while explosives strapped to his body were removed, Reuters reported.
CNN's Matthew Chance in Istanbul said early indications were that Tuesday night's blast was not linked to al Qaeda. "The crude nature of the devices used by the apparent suicide bombers ... indicates to police in the initial stages of their investigation that it doesn't seem to have any al Qaeda link," Chance said. Local media were reporting that the alleged attackers botched the job and that they may have been members of a previously unknown radical Islamist group.
"We don't think it is likely this attack was the work of al Qaeda or Hizbullah," the Hurriyet daily newspaper quoted an unnamed senior security source as saying, according to Reuters.
Hizbullah is a reference to a radical Turkish Islamist group not connected with the Lebanon-based Hezbollah, Reuters said. "It could have been carried out by inexperienced militants of a newly formed radical religious group ... If the bomb had been better made, the whole building could have blown up," the source told Hurriyet.
The Milliyet daily quoted security experts as saying the explosive device was a pipe-style bomb of the kind typically used by another Turkish militant group called IBDA-C (the Islamic Great Eastern Raiders' Front), Reuters reported.
Posted by: Steve ||
03/10/2004 12:49 Comments ||
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More from al-Guardian: The wounded assailant, who identified himself as Abdullah Islam, shouted "Down with the Israeli lodge" as he was taken to hospital, leading Turkish newspapers Milliyet and Hurriyet reported today. NTV quoted the police as saying Mr Islam was an Afghan.
Posted by: Steve ||
03/10/2004 12:55 Comments ||
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Two suicide bombers have struck a crowded restaurant in an Istanbul building used by freemasons, killing two people and wounding five more, the cityâs governor says. Governor Muammer Guler told reporters two men entered the restaurant on the ground floor of the three-storey building at 10:10 p.m. local time after firing at the windows and shooting a security guard in the foot. "(One of the men) detonated the bomb he had on him," Guler said, killing himself and a waiter. The second attacker lost an arm in the blast and was rushed to hospital "with his intestines hanging out", Guler said.
At least that's some comfort...
"Waiter, I'll have the steak tartar, please."
About 40 people had been eating in the restaurant at the time of the attack. The explosion occurred near the entrance and the wounded were all seated nearby, Guler said. Apart from broken windows, the building did not suffer much damage. "The identity of the bombers is being investigated," he said. Two eyewitnesses spoke of hearing two explosions, but this could not be immediately confirmed. "I heard a second blast and looked out the window and saw smoke rising from the building," Ahmet Gunesli told NTV commercial television. Freemasonry has long claimed followers in Muslim but secular Turkey among businessmen, academics and politicians, especially in Istanbul, a vibrant, cosmopolitan city of more than 10 million people.
Posted by: Dan Darling ||
03/10/2004 12:11:38 AM ||
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So believing in Freemason/Jewish global conspiracies is probably something else Islamists have in common with communists and nazis.
Posted by: Paul Moloney ||
03/10/2004 0:18 Comments ||
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Didn't the communique from the Abu Hafs al-Masri Brigades claiming credit for the first round of Istanbooms also mention the Masons?
Posted by: Dan Darling ||
03/10/2004 0:23 Comments ||
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Posted by: Mike Sylwester ||
03/10/2004 7:36 Comments ||
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what exactly is the Mason conspiracy? That businessmen and Zionists cooperate to rule the world? That Mason's are aliens who live under the Denver airport and only come out for local parades? Does anyone know?
Posted by: B ||
03/10/2004 10:02 Comments ||
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B Shhhssss... listen up.
"Measure twice, cut once."
A California Institute of Technology graduate student has been arrested in connection with an August arson and vandalism spree targeting 125 sports utility vehicles at four car dealerships, the FBI said. William Cottrell, 23, used an alias when he e-mailed The Los Angeles Times, claiming to be a member of the eco-terrorist group Earth Liberation Front and offering specific details to prove his involvement in the firebombings, the FBI said. âThe FBI hasnât seemed to pick up on any of them (clues), which makes this whole ordeal rather boring for us, the true culprits,â one e-mail boasted, the FBI said in an affidavit. Is it still boring, Will?
Authorities searched Caltech classrooms and tracked the e-mails to Cottrell, a grad student in the physics department, according to the affidavit. They also seized six computers from the campus. Guess he must have missed the computer science class where they discussed IP addresses, huh?
Cottrell was arrested for investigation of arson and vandalism. He was ordered held without bail at a court hearing. If convicted, he faces a maximum of 40 years in prison, the U.S. attorneyâs office said. Look at the bright side, Will. In 40 years weâll have that whole global warming thing worked out.
âThe charges are unfounded,â defense attorney Stephen Alexander said outside court. "Lies, all lies!"
Cottrellâs father described his son as bright, hardworking and somewhat eccentric but incapable of the acts alleged by the government. âWe were hopeful he wouldnât be charged,â Dr. William Milnes Cottrell said from his Concord, N.C., home. âWe are very unhappy about it. We are still reasonably sure he wasnât a primary agent in this deed.â So you arenât denying he had at least some role.
The Los Angeles Times reported that the e-mails the newspaper received began several weeks after the attacks, when the FBI arrested an environmental activist named Josh Connole in connection with the fires. "Hello, the police have the wrong man here â I was amongst those responsible for the SUV attacks," read the first e-mail sent to the Times. Sounds like he was trying to shift blame off Josh.
Connole was released without charges four days after his arrest. Connole told the Times that he hoped Cottrellâs arrest would end any doubts about his innocence. Depends on what kind of deal Will is ready to make to avoid 40 years.
Posted by: Steve ||
03/10/2004 10:52:28 AM ||
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Just tie him to a post and make him watch loggers cut down a forest if he doesn't talk. That will get Cottrell talking.
Posted by: Charles ||
03/10/2004 10:58 Comments ||
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"I AM THE CAT! YOU ARE THE MOUSE! GET YOUR PAW OFF ME NOW!
Posted by: B ||
03/10/2004 10:59 Comments ||
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Ah crap. This guys did have to be from NC didn't he! I just can't imagine a fellow Carolinian being such an asshat. He has obviously been brainwashed by those crazy californians. Remember kids, when in California, DON'T DRINK THE KOOLAID!!!
#6
Cottrellâs father described his son as bright, hardworking and somewhat eccentric but incapable of the acts alleged by the government.
Every time I hear a parent spouting this crap, it answers the follow-up question. "How could a kid do this?" 'Cause Dad passed on the idiot genes - that's how. What normal Dad would say "he wasn't a primary agent in this deed." Wadda marroon.
News flash Dad - if you would have kicked his ass a few more times this wouldn't have happened.
Sentence this jamoke to a few years in a paper mill. He'd love that.
#7
well - the bright side is he can share a cell with Jihad Johnny - and their parents can form a group called - Financial Planning for Parents Who Really Messed Up Their Kids.
Posted by: B ||
03/10/2004 11:43 Comments ||
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The idiot's a terrorist. Execute him.
Posted by: Robert Crawford ||
03/10/2004 12:14 Comments ||
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Angie - I was insuating (too obtusely, obviously ;-)) that the indulgent parents will clean up this mess for jr., probably like they did all others he's caused
Posted by: Frank G ||
03/10/2004 13:21 Comments ||
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Angie - I was insinuating (too obtusely, obviously ;-)) that the indulgent parents will clean up this mess for jr., probably like they did all others he's caused
Posted by: Frank G ||
03/10/2004 13:21 Comments ||
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He's gonna just LOVE the exercise yard as San Quentin!
Posted by: Rex Mundi ||
03/10/2004 13:26 Comments ||
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making big fire is not help the envirement. they should have use shugar in the gas tank instead.
#13
Ya see Muckster, the problem there (as you demonstrate so well) is the inevitable inhalation of large quanitities of gasoline fumes = not good for brain.
Posted by: Rex Mundi ||
03/10/2004 13:42 Comments ||
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a grad of caltech caught by tracking a digi trail!?
caltech is supposed to be one of the best schools in the country for computer science... disappointingly stupid grad student.. I was thinking of trying to do my grad studies there, not so sure now :-b
#15
Cottrellâs father described his son as bright, hardworking and somewhat eccentric but incapable of the acts alleged by the government. (emphasis mine)
I'll bet Dylan Klebold's parents had similar thoughts regarding their own son.
#16
I guess Bill can determine the physics of getting buggered 5 or 6 times a day and figure out if it was worth it. I say throw him in Folsom or Quinten and let them have a new play toy. In about ten years he will become an eco-gay terrorists!
#17
Of course, there is the possibilty that he really didn't do it. It's possible that he is "admitting" to the crime to halt the police investigation, but when the trial comes up, he'll have proof he wasn't there.
I'm not saying it's likely, but it's happened before.
JAKARTA, Indonesia (AP) - Indonesian cleric Abu Bakar Bashir, due to be released from prison next month, had "intense and deep" involvement in the planning and execution of terror attacks, U.S. Homeland Security Secretary Tom Ridge charged Wednesday. . . . Speaking to reporters in Jakarta, Ridge said he hoped Bashir could "be brought to justice in a different way" in the future. He did not elaborate. The United States government believed that Bashir had an "intense and deep involvement in the planning and execution of terrorist activities," Ridge said after meeting with Indonesiaâs Security Minister Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono. . . . [Bashir] was not directly implicated in the Bali bombings, which killed 202 people, and was instead convicted on the forgery and immigration charges. . . . Bashir fled to Malaysia in 1985 to escape a crackdown on Islamic radicals by former dictator Suharto I was always told it was a âguided democracyâ. [Bashir] returned to Indonesia after Suhartoâs fall in 1998 and pressed ahead with his mission to replace the secular government with an Islamic one based on Muslim law Which is precisely why the Indonesian government will do something about Bashir. Patience and inclusiveness are extremely prized in Indonesian culture, and the expectation is that the government should be able to include even people like Bashir in respectable society; however, as Suhartoâs reaction to the communist coup should show -- press too far and the pleasantries end. It is too bad Suharto let the absolute power get to him; he should have followed the Singapore model. . . . Despite criticism that it has been soft on Bashir, Indonesiaâs secular government has been praised for its investigation into the Bali and Marriott attacks, in which about 150 suspects have been arrested. So far, three militants have been sentenced to death and 29 others to between 3 years and life imprisonment over the two attacks.
Posted by: cingold ||
03/10/2004 2:44:01 AM ||
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press too far and the pleasantries end
Kind of like us.
Posted by: B ||
03/10/2004 10:33 Comments ||
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A supermarket employee discovered on Tuesday five live bombs of a high-explosive capacity at a supermarket in Medan Mall, which failed to explode due to weak batteries.
So far, no one has been linked to the explosives, which may have been intended to cause disruption ahead of the general election.
Supriadi, who works at the bag deposit counter at Macam Yoahan supermarket, said he found the bombs inside a bag kept in the supermarketâs bag deposit counter.
"I found the bombs by accident when I became suspicious about a black bag that had been left at the bag deposit counter for several days and had not been collected," he said after reporting it to the local police here on Tuesday.
He said that the bag had been left at the counter on Thursday, but he could not recall who had left it.
"I canât remember who left the bag since scores of shoppers deposit their bags at the counter every day," he said.
A bomb squad from the provincial police who arrived at the site only minutes after receiving the report is still examining the explosives.
Medan Police chief Adj. Comr. Juni Duarsah said the multi-story Medan Mall would have collapsed if the bombs had exploded.
The supermarket is located on the mallâs second floor.
He said the live bombs failed to explode because the nine batteries that were connected to a watch with an alarm and the explosivesâ two detonators were very weak.
"According to the time indicated by the clock, the bombs should have exploded at 5 p.m. West Indonesia Time on Thursday," he said. The bombs that were of the M-112 type and weighed one kilogram each were foreign-made and of high-explosive capacity said Duarsah.
Duarsah said the police had not yet determined who may be responsible, "but the bombs were (likely) aimed at disrupting political stability in the province ahead of the election campaign period that would start on March 11.
"We have set up a joint team from the police to look into the case and the possible perpetrators," he said.
Posted by: Dan Darling ||
03/10/2004 12:45:41 AM ||
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Is this where somebody makes a commercial reference to that damned pink bunny with the bass drum?
#2
If I'm right, there's at least one large church that holds services (like five of them each Sunday) in the Medan Mall -- that would make it a good target in some islamofascist's eyes, and they wouldn't care about the "innocents" because they're going to almost all be Abangan (animist mysticism), Priyayi (Hindu-Buddhist mysticism), and Syncretic Muslimin (Islam mysticism mix) -- not even Textual Muslimin, let alone fellow islamofascists. Medan is so close to Aceh . . .
#3
which failed to explode due to weak batteries. lol! Rantburg is just too funny today.
I'd start my looking with the shopkeeper.
Posted by: B ||
03/10/2004 10:44 Comments ||
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#4
Is it just me, or is telling the psychos how to iron out flaws in their equipment a pretty stupid thing to do?!
At least just say the things "failed to explode" and leave it a mystery, or, better, say the detonators were "insufficiently sensitive", or that the devices were rendered safe following a tip-off.
#7
Sounds pretty reasonable to me. I guess we'll never know. Far better than my idea where he's willing to spend days with a bomb, run by a clock that can't tell time. Doh!
Posted by: B ||
03/10/2004 13:41 Comments ||
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PS - I was referring to your, "Oh, maybe there was a tip-off..."
Posted by: B ||
03/10/2004 13:44 Comments ||
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He said the live bombs failed to explode because the nine batteries that were connected to a watch with an alarm and the explosivesâ two detonators were very weak.
Dammit, Jamal! How many times have I told you not not 'buy local'?
The United States says it is "extremely disappointed" by an Indonesian court decision to halve a three-year prison term imposed on militant Islamic cleric Abu Bakar Bashir and urged Jakarta to be firm in its fight against terrorism.
"Extensive evidence" presented during Bashirâs trial had described "his leadership role and his personal involvement in terrorist activities", US State Department spokesman Richard Boucher said.
"Weâve not yet seen an official verdict or a rationale for a judgment of reduction of sentences, but I think itâs safe to say weâd be extremely disappointed were the Supreme Court to reduce Abu Bakar Bashirâs prison sentence to 18 months, as has been reported," Mr Boucher said.
Supreme Court spokesman Joko Upoyo announced in Jakarta on Tuesday that the court had reduced Bashirâs sentence for immigration offences and forgery to one and a half years.
Tuesdayâs ruling means that Bashir, accused by foreign governments of having led the Al Qaeda-linked Jemaah Islamiah (JI) terror group, could be free within weeks or months.
Mr Boucher, noting what he called the murder of innocent men, women and children, and other violent acts, such as bombings, in Indonesia, said they demonstrated that terrorism remained a "grave threat" to the security of the South-East Asian nation and its neighbours.
"We believe that Indonesia and its government need to stand firm against that threat," he said.
"If heâs to be released, then that obviously would give Jemaah Islamiah a bit of revitalisation," Australian Foreign Minister Alexander Downer said.
Posted by: Dan Darling ||
03/10/2004 12:25:42 AM ||
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"We believe that Indonesia and its government need to stand firm against that threat," he said.
But you can't do it by taking a pig's ear of a prosecution case, and expecting the appellate courts to turn it into a silk purse. Just file new charges, or deport him to Yemen.
#2
Why sweat it? Just put an operative in place and after the cretin is released, wait for an opportunity to deep-six the guy. Call it a "covert operation", a la Jim Phelps ("The Secretary will disavow any knowledge of your actions").
Malaysian and Indonesian security agencies have foiled a planned suicide bomb attack on Indonesiaâs national police headquarters and uncovered new Islamic militant groups linked to the Jemaah Islamiah (JI), South-east Asiaâs main terrorist network.
The breakthrough came in December, when Malaysian marine police intercepted a small boat off Sabah and detained eight suspected militants, Asia-based intelligence officials told the Asian Wall Street Journal.
Under interrogation last month, one of them, an Indonesian named Ahmad Said Maulana, said he was involved in a plot to drive an explosives-laden vehicle into the national police headquarters in Jakarta, said officials.
The attack was planned for early July to coincide with Indonesiaâs national police day celebrations, the Journal reported.
Ahmad, now in custody in Malaysia, told his interrogators that he was a member of a previously unknown radical group called Republik Persatuan Islam Indonesia.
According to investigators, he said he had just completed training in bomb-making techniques at a clandestine camp in Mindanao, the site of a long-running Muslim rebellion in the southern Philippines.
The episode indicates that the Al-Qaeda-linked JI is breaking into smaller independent - and perhaps more bellicose - splinter groups. Makes sense. JI looked to be fairly hierarchial in nature and the Indonesian coppers took most of it apart in short order. Hierarchial orgs generally fold fairly quickly unless thereâs a whole lot of gunnies in stock. This looks like JI 2.0, adopting a more decentralized command structure.
âIf this guy wasnât caught, the attack would have taken place and we would have quickly jumped to the conclusion that it was Jemaah Islamiah,â said a senior Asian intelligence official familiar with the investigation.
This new dimension of South-east Asiaâs terrorist threat was highlighted last month in a report by Brussels-based International Crisis Group (ICG) on recent clashes between Muslims and Christians in remote areas of Indonesia.
While the creation of an Islamic state uniting Muslim South-east Asia remains an ultimate goal for the regionâs militant groups, JI and the smaller Indonesia-based splinter groups differ in strategy.
The ICG suggested that most JI members favour the long-term strategy of building a mass base through the widespread preaching of Islamic militancy.
But the newer, smaller groups are more inclined to favour violent attacks on Christian, Western or government targets as prescribed by Al-Qaedaâs 1998 fatwa, or religious decree, encouraging attacks on Western targets.
Apart from Republik Persatuan Islam Indonesia, Indonesian security agencies are also monitoring the activities of another JI offshoot called Batalion Abu Bakar.
âOur initial findings show that these two groups are more dangerous than Jemaah Islamiah, so the likelihood of scattered attacks in Indonesia is there,â said a senior Indonesian intelligence official.
Officials said members of the splinter organisations receive their training and arms from Philippine Muslim rebel groups in Mindanao.
The camp, they said, was operated by militants linked to the Moro Islamic Liberation Front (MILF), which is seeking Mindanaoâs independence from the Philippines.
Yesterday, the Philippines also said it will send police teams to Malaysia and Indonesia to interrogate detained JI members about allegations that they trained with Filipino guerillas.
âWe are banking on its (the MILFâs) commitment to help the government in the anti-terrorism drive, which both sides consider indispensable to the pursuit of long-lasting peace,â AFP quoted presidential spokesman Ignacio Bunye as saying.
Posted by: Dan Darling ||
03/10/2004 12:15:57 AM ||
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Police and military forces rescued a seven-year old girl being held by suspected members of the extremist Abu Sayyaf gang in the southern island of Jolo, officials said. Policemen, backed by soldiers, swooped down before dawn on the remote village of Jingan in Talipao town and rescued Rachel Guhit after 20 days in captivity, said Chief Superintendent Isnaji Bantala, police chief in the Autonomous Region of Muslim Mindanao (ARMM).
Seven years old? Bet that ruined some imam's wedding plans.
Bantala said the captors heroically ran away escaped when they saw the security forces, leaving the girl inside a small thatched hut. âThere was no firefight and the victim was recovered safely and our forces are now running after the kidnappers in the hinterlands,â Bantala told Arab News. He said town police chief Rudy Yusop led the raid in the village after several days of surveillance. âThe hideout was tracked down after a week-long surveillance operation. The girl is fine and was immediately taken at an army base in Jolo where doctors examined her,â he said. Security forces yesterday mounted fresh operation to track down the kidnappers.
She's probably too young to be pregnant...
Posted by: Fred ||
03/10/2004 0:02:57 AM ||
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"She's probably too young to be pregnant..."
Not from lack of trying??? Hmmm. Not satisfying. Too easy. Prolly time to mount a fresh operation to track down an article I know something about. Prolly won't bear fruit either. This time, from lack of trying.
From Geostrategy-Direct...
Iran and Syria have been planning a major terrorist offensive against Israel and the United States, Western intelligence sources say. Over the past few months, operatives have been meeting with leading terrorists in Damascus and Teheran. The plan envisions a demonstration of strength in wake of the expulsion of reformists from Iranâs parliament. Thatâs where Brig. Gen. Qassem Suleimani comes in. As commander of Iranâs Al Quds force of the Iranian Revolutionary Guard Command, Suleimaniâs responsibility is for Iranian covert operations abroad. This means Suleimani is a key Iranian liaison with terrorist Teheran sponsored terrorists groups â particularly Hizbullah. Suleimani has visited all the countries in which Iran seeks to foment unrest. He is also so secret that he doesnât show up even in a Google search of the Internet. Not quite true.
He'll be there now, won't he?
Suleimaniâs mission has included Afghanistan, where he was trying to undermine the U.S.-sponsored government of Hamid Karzai. He helped maintain Iranâs intelligence network deep inside Afghanistan to undermine U.S. efforts and establish Iranâs influence to its eastern neighbor. Toward this end, Suleimani has helped Al Qaida find safe haven in Iran. Today, Suleimani has been traveling frequently to Lebanon to meet with Hizbullah and aligned terrorist groups to plan for an offensive against Israel and the United States. Western intelligence sources said Suleimani has been working closely with Hizbullahâs foreign relations chief Imad Mughniyah on a plan to kidnap Israeli and American nationals in Europe and hold them for ransom.
That would be a remarkably stoopid move on the part of the Medes and the Persians...
Suleimaniâs bosses in Teheran want to exploit Israelâs release of more than 440 prisoners in January. Iran believes that Israel and, perhaps the United States, can be pressured into releasing additional Hizbullah terrorists in Europe and even in the United States. Indeed, some key Hizbullah agents were arrested and prosecuted in North Carolina in 2003 in an elaborate credit card fraud scheme to raise money for the Beirut-based group. Other agents Iran and Hizbullah seek are in Germany, prosecuted for the bombing of a Kurdish restaurant in Berlin in 1996.
Hizbullah has been more than a willing partner in the Iranian plan being worked out by Suleimani. Hizbullah secretary-general Hassan Nasrallah seeks to remain vital to Iran to ensure continued funding and project fear both in Lebanon and abroad. What Nasrallah worries about more than anything else is that Iran will cut off Hizbullah and leave it vulnerable to Israeli or U.S. attack. Hizbullah has been training agents to befriend Israelis or American Jews in Europe, the United States and in Israel itself. The plan is to lure the victims to Lebanon or the Gulf region, where they would be kidnapped and transferred to Iran or Lebanon. If this sounds familiar, this was the method Hizbullah employed to abduct Israeli Res. Col. Elhanan Tannenbaum in 2000. The planned ruses include romantic relationships, business opportunities or just plain friendship. With a considerable Hizbullah friendship in Asia, Europe and South America, the opportunities for abduction are endless.
Suleimaniâs liaison has been Hizbullahâs Mughniyah. Mughniyah has vast experience with abductions, particularly of Americans and Europeans in the 1980s in Beirut. Intelligence sources said Mughniyah and Suleimani have agreed that Israelis and Jews would be the first choice followed by Western nationals. Under the plan, the abductors would be Mughniyahâs agents from Lebanon, carrying European and South American passports. Iranian intelligence operatives and diplomats as well as Hizbullahâs vast sleeper network abroad would aid the agents. So far, the sources said, Suleimani has ordered his agents abroad to assist Hizbullah and comply with any request from Mughniyah. A leading Hizbullah operative has already started to identify abduction targets and everything is being set in place. Suleimani has a force that could also operate in Iraq. These are members of a covert Shiâite group, called Soldiers of Mohammed. This group, also known as Sipha, was trained by Hizbullah in Lebanon and later worked with Suleimaniâs Al Quds division. With Iran shaking off any pretensions of reform rule or democracy, Suleimani could be a very busy man in the next few months. It seems to me that they are getting everything in place for a show. They must be calculating that GW and the US will be too preoccupied with an election to start looking hard at Iran, and now that the reformists have been neutralized, it is time for Iran to make its big power play. Get your popcorn and NBC suits, folks. This may be the lull before the storm.
Posted by: Alaska Paul ||
03/10/2004 4:33:37 PM ||
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#1
Hope the munitions stocks are back to pre-war levels. If the fit hits the shan, start lobbing MOABs into Tehran and the election will take care of itself.
#4
Popcorn: check
Beer: check
Oversized USA#1 clue-bat: check
Extra batteries for remote: check
...looks like I'm ready
Posted by: Rex Mundi ||
03/10/2004 17:21 Comments ||
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BMN---It is close, very close, but mine is just a plain red fez....LOL!
Posted by: Alaska Paul ||
03/10/2004 17:23 Comments ||
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well a major attack would gurantee Bush re-election...if there is no attack and Bush is relected just wait for dec-jan...things are going to get dicey the next few years..
a major wmd attack by groups(or by iran) controlled by the mulla's would illicit the most harshest response - most likely nuclear - on iran. they still operate in the pre-911 world and have not felt the full fury of the United States....they would be smoked either by the United States or by Israel with American approval....
they should understand that we do have a fisrt use policy......
Posted by: Dan ||
03/10/2004 17:25 Comments ||
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Oooo-kay...
So you mooks want a "demonstration of strength", do ya? Fine. Keep watching your capitals...
#9
a major wmd attack by groups(or by iran) controlled by the mulla's would illicit the most harshest response - most likely nuclear - on iran.
Unless the terrorist attack is via a nuclear chain reaction, or something else of immmense and disatrous proportions, I don't see any U.S. nuclear response in the offing. What I wouldn't mind seeing tho, is a MOAB dropped right into the center of Tehran and/or Damascus.
#10
I guess this would be an appropriate time to reiterate our policy on negotiating with terrorists.
We don't negotiate with terrorists, we just bomb suspected nuclear and WMD research sites.
Posted by: Daniel King ||
03/10/2004 17:38 Comments ||
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B-a-r: Don't you know we already leveled Bam with our outer space laser earthquake ray? We should just do the same to Qom.
Posted by: Tibor ||
03/10/2004 17:49 Comments ||
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Wouldn't this be very very pretty stupid for a country with a lot of U.S. Military forces to the East (Afghanistan) and to the West (Iraq) not to mention the South (Persian Gulf)?
I think someone has their black turban on a bit tight....
#13
I don't think anyone (requirement: functioning brain) will accuse the Black Hats of being too smart or too clever. When it comes to Foreign Policy and Public Statements, these guys remind me of the Emperor's New Clothes, Lol!
To paraphrase the other Foreign Policy Guru, "They never miss an opportunity to STFU."
#14
since Mughniyah's such an expert in abduction (thanks for the geostrategy-direct AP!), I'd suggest he get the full picture - have him abducted, filmed in a confession and hang his ass, like the Beirut CIA station chief they killed. Return his body from 25,000 feet via the Mossad Airmail Delivery system
Posted by: Frank G ||
03/10/2004 18:50 Comments ||
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I think that they are just planning for the future. I suspect that they, like Europe and some others, expect that Kerry will be elected. That will pretty much give them a free hand to get ahead of the UN curve. I think that the mullas are better at nuancing than JFK.
The Iranian intelligence ministry on Wednesday confirmed that its agents had found a mortar firing device in the holy city of Qom, on the same day that a wave of coordinated attacks caused carnage among fellow-Shiite Muslim worshippers in neighbouring Iraq. âOn the day of Ashura, certain people contacted the ministry of intelligence to say there was a suspect object near agricultural land at the entrance to Qom,â said the statement. âAfter verification, we found one mortar tube but without shells. The judiciary has sent the dossier to the intelligence ministry for investigation,â it added. "Yeah, weâll get right on it."
The statement came after the Baztab Internet site, a news service close to top Iranian regime figure Mohsen Rezaie, reported that Iranian intelligence agents had scuppered a planned Al-Qaeda mortar attack on the Hazrat-e Massumeh shrine on March 2 -- the Shiite holy day of Ashura. I think this falls into the catagory of; "See, al-Qaeda tried to attack us as well, we donât have anything to do with them."
Posted by: Steve ||
03/10/2004 8:54:58 AM ||
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I thought all the al-Qaeda in Iran were "detained."
Posted by: Dan Darling ||
03/10/2004 16:20 Comments ||
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al-Reuters. Hat tip LGF. EFL.
Followers of Mohammed Abbas, the Palestinian mastermind of the Achille Lauro cruise ship hijacking in 1985, blamed the United States and Israel on Wednesday for his death in U.S. custody in Iraq.
I confess! I dunnit! I shot him and threw him off the roof of the calaboose into the pool!
Captured by American forces in Iraq nearly a year ago, the U.S. military in Baghdad confirmed the death of Abbas, 56. One U.S. official said the burly former guerrilla died of a heart attack Tuesday.
Yep. Overfed, underexercised. There went the old arteries, chock full of butter and lard, grease, traces of turpentine...
"We hold the Americans responsible for his death, for his assassination," said Omar Shebli, number two to Abbas in the Palestine Liberation Front (PLF). "You canât say my lips fell off because I said âwe hold.â"
"They put him to die slowly in a prison cell, deprived of his freedom. His detention was illegal and his conditions in jail were bad," Shebli told Reuters in the Gaza Strip. Right before his harp broke a string
Yar! We kep' 'im in a dank, smelly dungeon! There wuz rats scamperin' acrosst 'im ever' night! An' we only did it cuz we're mean!
He also accused Israelâs Mossad intelligence agency of helping U.S. forces "torture" Abbas, saying that Abbas had sent word to supporters that: "Mossad officers, Jewish officers, participated in the interrogation."
Oh, heavens! Not Jewish officers! Oh, Ethel! My pills!
Abbas, also known as "Abu Abbas," planned the hijacking of the Italian cruise liner Achille Lauro in October 1985 during which a wheel-chair bound American Jew, 69-year-old Leon Klinghoffer, was killed and thrown into the sea.
That was Abu's contribution to the world. His Mom used to sit on the front porch of the old folks' home, telling her envious friends what a dangerous fellow her boy was. Until he shot her, anyway...
Abbas, who was not aboard the ship during an operation that embarrassed Yasser Arafatâs Palestine Liberation and Jew Extermination Organization spent most of the past 17 years in Iraq, eluding capture by the United States and Italy. Italy freed Abbas after U.S. warplanes forced his jet to land in Sicily following the hijack, although it later sentenced him -- when he had already left -- to life in jail.
Boy, that did a lot of good, didn't it? Kinda points out the contrast between treating terrorism is a matter for the cops and the courts on the one hand, and as a matter for the Marines on the other.
Posted by: Steve from Relto ||
03/10/2004 12:10:36 PM ||
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Ah, shit. Looked up "Achille Lauro" in Search, not "Abu Abbas".
Posted by: Steve from Relto ||
03/10/2004 12:14 Comments ||
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Truth be told: I WISH it were true we had the SOB assassinated; but in fact I regret to say he died of natural causes. I don't think it's a bad thing to allow it to be believed Abu died of somethng other than natural causes. Indeed, I trust there are folk all around the world dying of non-natural causes at the hands of SF that we never hear of.
Posted by: Mark ||
03/10/2004 15:13 Comments ||
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We hold the Americans responsible for his death, for his assassination,"
What??? A Palestinian group attacking the AMERICANS??? Say it ain't so, Ethyl! "They put him to die slowly in a prison cell, deprived of his freedom."
"We deny this most vehemently," an American spokesman was noted as saying. "We put him to live slowly in a prison cell, so he could enjoy every minute of his freedom from responsibility. After all, the pressure of killing people, day after day, for months at a time, is excruciating. Even terrorists need a vacation once in awhile." "...His detention was illegal and his conditions in jail were bad,"
"How can you possibly say that? We provided him with MacDonald's three times a day, biggie-sized, and broadcast Moby constantly into his cell, 24/7. What else could he want? We even provided him magazines - even girlie magazines. Unfortunately, the only ones we could get were written in Tibetan, but we supplied his every need." Mossad intelligence agency of helping U.S. forces "torture" Abbas
"Another blatant lie. He really, really enjoyed the slide show from the family in Iowa on their visit to their cousin's hog farm. And the two movies he got to watch every night, "Gidget" and "My Fair Lady" were first-class! We didn't stint on providing for Mr. Abbas, not ever. And we NEVER tortured him. Everything we did was for his pleasure and entertainment." "Mossad officers, Jewish officers, participated in the interrogation."
"Well, you know, GOOD hired help is hard to get in Iraq. We had to take what we could get. Besides, all three Mossad officers were actually retired, so we were just helping them adjust to civilian life..."
"We in Iraq are very upset that Mr. Abbas is no longer with us. We hope he is enjoying his 72 raisins, even if they are slightly fungus-riddled due to the long wait between when he should have enjoyed them and his actual demise."
Posted by: Old Patriot ||
03/10/2004 15:30 Comments ||
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The Palestinian Liberation Front accused the United States today of the "assassination" of its leader Abu Abbas, who the Pentagon said had died of natural causes in US custody. Dire Revenge in 5..4..3..
"We hold the US administration responsible for the assassination of Abu Abbas, the Arab Palestinian national leader," Nazem Yussef, PLF politburo member and representative in Lebanon, told AFP. Nazem, you seem to be confused. When we send a B2 in to pick off, oh, say, Yasser, in his compound, thatâs a assassination. When a prisoner weâre holding happens to stop wasting oxygen, thatâs called an execution.
"They had stopped giving him medicines for 10 days at the detention center in Iraq, and he had been suffering from heart problems and blood pressure," Yussef said. I think the meds worked just fine, his blood pressure is much lower now.
Posted by: Steve ||
03/10/2004 9:07:56 AM ||
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They ordered them on the net from Canada to save money: "sorry about the delay in shipping, Abu"
Posted by: Frank G ||
03/10/2004 10:06 Comments ||
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Steve - you are really ruining my keyboard today.
Posted by: B ||
03/10/2004 10:19 Comments ||
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I'll admit it: the U.S. "assassinated" Abbas in retaliation for the deaths of those three Americans that were attacked in Gaza whose killers have not yet been caught and punished. And more killings of Palestinian terrorists at American hands are on the way.
#5
Don't look at it like he's dead. Think positive like, "He's on eternal tunnel digging shift" or, "Abbas is just apoligizing to his victims personaly".
Posted by: Charles ||
03/10/2004 10:44 Comments ||
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If we did GOOD. If we didn't we should have. We should next 'capture' Arafart and make him die of 'natural causes'. Isn't it natural to die when you are hung?
#9
it would've been nice if we did indeed assassinate this bastard but it probably is not true. anyone one who would order or carryout the murder of person in a wheelchair needs to be strung up! i don't care what religous creed you are....
Posted by: Dan ||
03/10/2004 12:41 Comments ||
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From the nice folks at FoxNews - couldn't have happened to a nicer guy...
Mostly the same article as yesterday, but with a few more words. We'll use it for his obit.
Abu Abbas, the Palestinian mastermind of the 1985 hijacking of the Achille Lauro passenger ship in which an American tourist was killed, has died in U.S. custody in Iraq, Palestinian and U.S. officials said Tuesday. He was 56. Don?t know what the Islamic equivalent of hell is... but welcome to it, Bub.
And say hello to Himmler for us, okay? Mind the heat, now!
Abbas' small Palestine Liberation Front commandeered the Italian cruise ship, demanded the release of 50 Palestinian prisoners in Israeli jails and threw an elderly wheelchair-bound Jewish American tourist, Leon Klinghoffer, overboard after shooting him. ...Setting the pattern for Paleostinian bravery to come.
Pentagon spokesman Bryan Whitman said that Abbas died Monday, "apparently ... of natural causes." He said there would be an autopsy. ...Part of me would love to think that somebody visited him at his cell last night and expressed President Bush's sympathies over the heart attack Abu was going to have in the morning...
Whitman declined to answer further questions, including whether Abbas still was being interrogated in the period before his death. Abbas, whose given name was Mohammed Abbas, was captured in southern Baghdad by U.S. forces in a raid in April, and lived the last 11 months of his life in American custody. Abbas's death was initially announced by officials in Palestinian leader Yasser Arafat's office here. No cause of death was given either by the Palestinians or the Americans.
I'm still hoping they put "drowning, after gunshot" on the death cert...
When Abbas was captured last spring, the Palestinian Authority demanded his release, saying the United States had pledged not to prosecute him as part of a blanket agreement not to press charges against Palestinians who acted against Israel before interim peace accords were signed in the 1990s.
We told 'em to piss off. He was a bad boy in a war zone, nabbed at a terr training center. Since he was "captured," that means he wasn't "standing on the sidewalk throwing flowers at the liberators." What'd they think we were gonna do with him?
The United States also endorsed a 1995 interim peace deal which grants PLO members immunity for violent acts committed before September 1993, when the two sides signed a mutual recognition agreement.
Fact remains, he was a terr commander, nabbed in a training camp. Too bad, so sad. Thfffft!
Abbas had been a marginal figure in the PLO of late. He was a member of the PLO's executive committee, but left in 1991. His tiny faction has very few followers in the West Bank and Gaza Strip. According to Israel's Shin Bet security service, the PLF had sent some members to Iraq for military training. In April 1996, Abbas visited Gaza for the first time, as part of the amnesty offered by Israel. While in Gaza apologized for the killing of Klinghoffer. In 1998, he returned to attend a session of the Palestine National Council, the Palestinians' parliament-in-exile, for a crucial vote on abrogating chapters of the PLO founding charter calling for Israel's destruction. In the end, Abbas did not participate in the vote.
Too drunk to make it, was he? Or he couldn't abide the thought of acknowledging the existence of the Zionists?
At that time, Israeli attorney general Elyakim Rubinstein said Abbas did not pose a threat to Israeli security, and that it would be unreasonable to prosecute him for acts committed before 1993.
Klinghoffer being risen from his watery grave and restored to the pink of health and all...
U.S. commandos caught Abbas last April during a raid on the southern outskirts of Baghdad.
There was an earlier story, before they caught him, that he'd tried to get into Syria and been turned back...
Klinghoffer?s daughters, Lisa and Ilsa Klinghoffer, said that Abbas' death deprived them of the right to hold him legally accountable. "Our hopes were raised last year, when he was captured in Iraq by U.S. troops and arrested," the daughters, who live in New York, said in a statement. "Now, with his death, justice will be denied. The one consolation for us is that Abu Abbas died in captivity, not as a free man."
I'd like to think it was from falling down the stairs one too many times. But he was a fairly porky fellow, somewhere in the three chin range — guess he was fond of the good life when he wasn't shooting people. We prob'ly fed him too much and exercised him too little, so his arteries clogged up. Either that, or it was a hot day and Sgt. Swivelhips showed up for his interrogation session wearing only her tee-shirt so he had a stroke.
Abbas had been convicted in absentia in an Italian court for the 1985 hijacking and sentenced to life in prison in 1986, but never served any time. His arrest came 18 years after seizing the Achille Lauro off Port Said, Egypt. After Klinghoffer was killed, the other passengers were released after a two-day ordeal and the commandos surrendered to Egyptian authorities, who put them on a flight to PLO headquarters in Tunisia. U.S. Navy fighters forced the flight down in Sicily. The Italians, to the Americans? dismay, allowed Abbas to flee to Yugoslavia before a U.S. warrant for piracy and hostage-taking could be served. ...According to intel afterwards, ol' Abu just about s**t himself when he saw three F-14s suddenly turn their lights on around that 737, and went into eye-rolling spittle mode - threatening to kill the pilots if they didn't try and escape. Amazing how bad these guys get when faced with trained men with guns.
Abbas disappeared, and international manhunts and a price on his head failed to flush him out. He next turned up in Gaza after granted amnesty by the Israelis.
"Da heat's off, Abu! Youse can come out now!"
While out of the limelight for the past decade, Abbas is believed to have continued plying the terror trade from Iraq until his April capture. Israeli intelligence officials say the PLF faction under Abbas was a conduit for Saddam Hussein?s payments to the families of Palestinian suicide bombers.
Israel reported earlier this year that it captured several Palestinians who trained at a PLF camp in Iraq and were told by Abbas to attack an Israeli airport and other targets.
Just couldn't put it down and walk away.
Abbas was born in 1948 in the Yarmouk Palestinian refugee camp in Syria after his family fled from their home in Tira, near Haifa, when the state of Israel was created. He attended Damascus University and graduated with a degree in Arab literature. He also became involved in student politics and in 1967 joined George Habash's Marxist Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine. He fought as a guerrilla, as often against rival Palestinian factions as the Israelis.
They still do that...
But Abbas and others felt that group was focusing too much on political philosophy rather than armed struggle. In 1976, Abbas took his followers to form a new faction, the Palestine Liberation Front.
Posted by: Mike Kozlowski ||
03/10/2004 8:57:44 AM ||
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A shame he couldn't have been stuck with an immobilizing drug and dumped in the drink.
The poor little bully - being displaced by the Zionists made him a hurt and angry and scared little boy. He wanted to be proud - but his manhood was stripped from him and how can we blame him from doing the best he was capable of doing to get it back...killing old men in wheelchairs ...blowing up babies in strollers and going after passengers he knew would be unarmed. The US is EVIL, EVIL, I tell you!!
#4
A shame he couldn't have been stuck with an immobilizing drug and dumped in the drink.
Maybe that's his punishment for all eternity. I understand that when you inhale water it's like swallowing hot tar.
Posted by: Steve from Relto ||
03/10/2004 12:16 Comments ||
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BH, that reminds me of an old joke.
Bill Clinton, Al Gore and Howard Dean, are killed in a car crash. Bill Clinton finds himself in a small, dingy room with a 75-year old woman with a limp. A voice comes down from above and says "Bill Clinton, you have sinned, and you are doomed to spend all eternity in this small room with this old woman." Howard Dean finds himself in an even smaller, dirty, smelly room with an 85-year old hag. The voice from above says "Howard Dean, you have sinned, and you are doomed to spend all eternity in this tiny room with this decrepit woman." Al Gore finds himself in an even tinier room with cracking walls and bugs and garbage and filth strewn about. In the corner of the room, Bo Derek is cowering in fear. All of a sudden, the voice says "Bo Derek, you have sinned . . . ."
Anyway, it's funnier if you stick people you know personally in place of Bill, Al and Ho-ho.
Posted by: Tibor ||
03/10/2004 12:49 Comments ||
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Tibor - HA, HA!
Posted by: B ||
03/10/2004 14:01 Comments ||
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LOL Tibor. I'll bet Abbas died of untreated renal failure.
Several interesting bits in this JPost article.
Five armed Tanzim fugitives were killed in a gun battle with undercover border police in Jenin on Wednesday afternoon. The Paleo terrorist body count seems to have risen sharply recently. Me suspects the Israelis have a new intelligence source.
Meanwhile, Jerusalem police were back on a heightened state of red alert Wednesday night, following a growing number of intelligence alerts of impending attacks. The alert level had been lowered Saturday, after a suicide bombing planned for the capital was thwarted. Ever notice how thwarted suicide attacks are never news.
There are more than 50 separate alerts in force over impending terrorist attacks nationwide, security officials said this week.
The Jenin raid by undercover border police was to arrest fugitives. In the morning, security forces searched a number of houses and surrounded several buildings. In the afternoon, the vehicle in which the five fugitives were riding was stopped for inspection. The fugitives opened fire at the troops who shot and killed them. The five were identified as Iman Sabahna, Amer Sakel Katsrawi, Muhammad Khairala, Ihab Abu Jafer, and Bassem al-Mahdi. Officials said they had been involved in numerous shooting attacks against civilians and soldiers. The car they used had been stolen in Afula, officials said.
Members of a Palestinian terror cell in Khan Yunis in the Gaza Strip who received funds, instructions, and training from Hizbullah operatives in Lebanon were recently arrested, the Shin Bet revealed on Wednesday. A drone rigged with explosives that was to be blown up in one of the communities in the Gaza Strip was only one of a series of attacks planned by the cell, which received thousands of dollars to fund its terrorist operations. According to security officials, the cell had been operating for four years. Officials noted that it was not the first time Hizbullah was involved in assisting terrorist groups in the territories and it has also recruited Israeli Arabs. The founder of the group, Shadi Abu al-Hatsin, 23, was arrested in December. He was born in Yemen and 10 years ago moved with his mother and brothers to the Gaza Strip. As I have long suspected Arabs are moving into Gaza and WB because life is better there than other places in the Arab world. All those free UN and Euro goodies.
Hatsin told investigators that from an early age he was taught about weapons by his father, a member of the Lebanese fedayeen. In the Gaza Strip, he learned to make bombs, manufacture rockets, and fire weapons by studying Web sites and from members of the Palestinian Authority security services. No suprises here.
At the technological college in Khan Yunis, he studied biochemistry, physics, and mechanics, all of which helped him in weapons making. Influenced by programs broadcast on the Hizbullah satellite station, he decided to sign up and in 2000 made contacts with the movement via his uncle Hassan Dukmak, a Hizbullah member who lives in Lebanon. At first, he received large sums of Hizbullah money sent by his uncle to fund the cellâs activities. Later he received the names of other Hizbullah operatives whom he contacted via e-mail. Hatsin told investigators cell members had been involved in a number of shooting and rocket attacks. He also revealed meeting with Wassim Masrouja, 23, a Hizbullah agent who was sent to the Gaza Strip to assist in training cell members. He was arrested by security forces in November as he attempted to return to Lebanon. He also tried twice last year to send members abroad to Lebanon to undergo military training in Hizbullah camps. Cell members Bassam Abu Nemer, 38, and Ismail Grabli, 30, were arrested as they returned to the Gaza Strip from Egypt last year. Grabli admitted he met with a Hizbullah agent in Egypt in July, was given $700, and was instructed to travel to Turkey to meet with other Hizbullah officials, and then to undergo training in Lebanon. He was arrested last August and told investigators the planned trip had fallen through. These boys get around.
Security officials said it was not the first time terrorists had planned to pack a drone with explosives. In November, Hamas planned to do so, but six of its members were killed and two wounded when their experiment blew up. I always like to be reminded of good news from the past.
Posted by: Phil B ||
03/10/2004 7:21:35 PM ||
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Militants attacked a remote U.S. base in eastern Afghanistan with rockets and heavy machine-guns, sparking a battle that left at least one Afghan injured, the military said Wednesday. The main American base in the south also came under rocket assault. At least a dozen guerrillas assailed the outpost at Nangalam, in Kunar province early on Tuesday morning. The attackers shot about 20 rockets then opened fire on the base, which houses about 100 U.S. Marines and special forces, but inflicted no American casualties, military spokesman Lt. Col. Bryan Hilferty said.
(Sooo, a dozen "millitants" attack a 100 US Marines, misplaced selfconfidence or a dose of that good old jihadi-spirit?)(or drugs?)
U.S. forces responded with gunfire and called in an A-10 ground attack aircraft. Hilferty said an Afghan man wounded in the crossfire was a civilian. Kunar Gov. Fazel Akbar said it was not clear if the man was a militant. Akbar also said another Afghan man was killed in the exchange.
Maybe he was the militant.
Kunar is the northernmost of a string of troubled Afghan provinces along the border with Pakistan where the 13,000-strong U.S.-led coalition is focusing its campaign against militants. At the southern end of that arc, rockets were fired early Wednesday at the U.S. base at the airport near Kandahar, Afghanistanâs second city. Khalid Pashtun, spokesman for the Kandahar provincial government, said three rockets were fired into an empty area of the base grounds. But Hilferty said there were two rockets and that they landed "several kilometers from the airfield.
"(No wonder, when you mess with the US forces the learning-curve of your rocket crews tends to end rather abruptly)
Pashtun blamed themselves remnants of the Taliban regime ousted by a U.S.-led assault in late 2001 for the attack. Mondayâs assault was "relatively large-scale" for Kunar, Hilferty said. "The people of that area have liked us very much, but that appears to be an area where Hekmatyar forces are operating."
#4
"that appears to be an area where Hekmatyar forces are operating."
"there were two rockets and that they landed several kilometers from the airfield."
Yup, that's Heks boys.
Posted by: Steve ||
03/10/2004 14:00 Comments ||
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#5
I'm glad they missed, but geebus, ballistics just aren't that hard.
#6
What's the CEP on Hek's rocket attacks? Same city? Same province?
Take your time catching him, boys. They might get somebody to replace him who knows what he's doing.
Posted by: B ||
03/10/2004 15:36 Comments ||
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#8
ballistics just aren't that hard
There nothing in the Koran about quadratic equations.
Posted by: ed ||
03/10/2004 15:49 Comments ||
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#9
There nothing in the Koran about quadratic equations.
Yeah... math is hard. But I think it's likely the toxic influence of kickball had more to do with it.
Zimbabwe Wednesday threatened to execute a band of "foreign mercenaries" detained in Harare, and Equatorial Guinea accused them of being part of a plot funded by "enemy powers" and multinationals. Sinister forces, evil plots and multinationals, Oh my!
The angry rhetoric, in countries 2,000 miles apart, came after Zimbabwe detained a Boeing 727 carrying more than 60 men, most of them South Africans, Angolans and Namibians, both white and black, Sunday. Associates of the men insist they are innocent mine guards swept up in a bizarre misunderstanding. It doesnât look like being innocent is gonna help them.
"They are going to face the severest punishment available in our statutes, including capital punishment," Zimbabwean Foreign Minister Stan Mudenge told a news briefing. "We will give them all the rights they are entitled to." "Theyâll get a speedy trial and a even speedier execution."
South Africaâs High Commissioner to Zimbabwe Jeremiah Ndou said the suspects were expected in court Wednesday or Thursday and would be assisted in finding lawyers. Mudenge said Zimbabwe had been in contact with the government of the oil-rich central African state of Equatorial Guinea, which Tuesday announced the arrest of 15 "foreign mercenaries" saying they were an advance party connected to the Harare group. Looks like they are fighting to see just who was going to be overthrown.
Equatorial Guineaâs President Teodoro Obiang Nguema Mbasogo said in a speech late Tuesday foreign countries had conspired to overthrow him and replace him with an exiled politician living in Spain. "In the course of questioning, we have found that they were financed by enemy powers, by multinational companies, by countries that do not love us," Obiang said in the speech, broadcast by state radio and television. That narrows it down.
He thanked South Africa and Angola for warning him of the plot, but added: "There are other countries who knew about this attempt and did not contribute information. We will have to qualify them as enemies. Multinational firms operating here and outside who contributed to this operation are also enemy companies." He did not identify any of the countries or firms. Still making a list.
The planeâs operator, based in Britainâs Channel Islands, insisted the seized aircraft, sold by a firm in the United States just a week ago, had been flying security men from South Africa to guard mines in the Democratic Republic of Congo. It declined to name the customers it was acting for. Hummm, yesterday it was a African firm.
Asked about the accusation by Equatorial Guinea, Charles Burrows, a senior executive of Logo Logistics Ltd, said on Tuesday: "I havenât the foggiest idea of what theyâre talking about." "Theyâre nuts."
Zimbabwe, bitterly at odds in recent years with the United States and old European colonial powers, said the plot involving the "mercenaries" had been an elaborate one. "Apparently this was not one mission... after the diversion in Equatorial Guinea they were going to the DRC (Democratic Republic of Congo)," Mudenge said. "First Guinea, then the Congo, tomorrow the world!"
Zimbabwean authorities said they had also arrested a man identified as Simon Mann, a former member of the Britainâs Special Air Service, and two others who had been at the airport to meet the Boeing 727 when it landed in Harare Sunday. So there was someone to meet them. Bet Simon was being watched and when they saw the plane full of "guards", pushed the panic button.
Equatorial Guinea has been rounding up African foreigners since Saturday amid tensions within President Obiangâs clan, dominant in a nation of just half a million that is one of Africaâs biggest oil producers. One senior foreign diplomat there said on Tuesday: "There was an attempted coup which was foiled. It was intense yesterday evening but now the tension has dropped. The town is calm." Obiang seized power from his uncle in 1979 and has been wooed by Nigeria and Western oil firms. Last year the country pumped 350,000 barrels per day, ranking third in sub-Saharan Africa behind Nigeria and Angola. The oil wealth has been unevenly shared, critics say. Human rights groups accuse Obiang of jailing and torturing opponents. Doesnât everyone?
Government officials said the 15 suspects had arrived in December. One had confessed to acting for a Lebanese businessman close to Severo Moto, president of a self-styled "government-in-exile." Iâm sure the confession wasnât forced or anything.
Moto was exiled to Spain for plotting a coup in his homeland, where Frederick Forsyth wrote a classic 1970s tale of mercenary skullduggery, "The Dogs of War." Good book, has nothing to do with the story.
Posted by: Steve ||
03/10/2004 11:30:00 AM ||
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#1
Bob better be careful with these guys. After all, the US is being thoroughly drubbed for allowing the death in custody of a terrorist convicted and sentenced in Italy of participating in the execution of an American.
These white guys may be criminals but they still deserve the full protection of AI and other human rights group that protest every time Rumsfeld, Ashcroft or Chainey detains an innocent murderer.
Is it possible that Bob is just using strong-arm tactics in his negotiations with this group of liquidators.
[Scene 1 - a dark prison cell] "Sven ... Sven, now the dummy says he won't release us until we agree to bring him the heads of George Bush, Tony Blair and some guy named Afredo Garcia.
Listen Carl, tell him we'll set a large explosive charges in Paris and Washington.
But Sven, how will we do that?
Carl, don't worry. I don't think he knows there is a Paris in Texas. Be sure not to say Washington DC. Just say Washington.
Posted by: Super Hose ||
03/10/2004 11:52 Comments ||
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#2
Damm, I may have been wrong: South African official sources said that Logo Logistics acquired a fishing concession in Equatorial Guinea and bought or hired fishing trawlers late last year. "Those guys had never caught a fish in their lives," one source said. "They were all ex-Special Forces."
The trawlers were really to be used first to reconnoitre and then to transport mercenaries to oust the Government of unpopular President Obiang Nguema in a coup, the sources said. Though part of Equatorial Guinea is on the African mainland, its capital, Malabo, is on the island of Bioko and it appears a sea-borne coup was planned though it is not clear from what staging point.
It is believed the real reason the aircraft had flown to Harare was to pick up the leader and some members of the team.
It really is a replay of "The Dogs of War". Small cadre of white mercs leading African troops in a sea-borne landing to overthrow a unpopular leader. They found rubber rafts on the plane, remember? If they followed the book, the guns are on a fishing trawler somewhere, waiting for them.
Posted by: Steve ||
03/10/2004 13:10 Comments ||
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#3
Scene -- Ted Rall is sitting in his underwear in his small basement office/studio. While trolling on a right-wing warblogger site, he reads about "white" mercenaries being captured in Zimbabwe and the hamster in his brain starts churning away on its wheel. "Maybe it's a deadly new Fox (owned by right-winger Rupert Murdoch) reality show where the actors act out a scene or plotline from a famous novel. Come to think of it, maybe that's what happened on September 11, 2001 -- the jihadists were just acting out the Tom Clancy plot about crashing planes into buildings so that George Bush and the Taliban and Unocal and Enron could build a pipeline across Afghanistan. Maybe this whole "War on Terror" is really part of some vast right-wing plot to bring regime change to "foreign" countries whose "dark-skinned" leaders are disfavored by the West" he wonders as he adjusts his tinfoil hat. "I have to write a column about this to let people know what's going on. On second thought, maybe I'll write that column after checking out that boyzgonewild.com site . . . again. Oh yeah, it's going to be another long hard night, right Bruce, you studmuffin?" Fade to black.
Posted by: Tibor ||
03/10/2004 13:55 Comments ||
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#4
Watched DOGS OF WAR a year ago and I couldn't take it seriously with Al Bundy being a tough Merc and all, guess selling shoes is what Mercs do when they retire. And where the hell is the WILD GEESE dvd?
#5
I liked the end of "The Dogs of War" - where Chris Walken shoots the dickhead would-be dictator and hands the country to the doctor they pulled out of the hell-hole prison...
#6
5:00 am Morning coffee
6:00 Board plane
9:00 Pick up arms n'stuff in Zimbabwe
11:00 Overthrowd Obiang government
13:00 Lunch
14:00 Afternoon nap
16:00 Run weapons to Congo
19:00 Dinner
22:00 Make love to your nubian queen
23:00 Sleep
The government on Tuesday decided to use force to flush out Al Qaeda militants in remote South Waziristan tribal region. "There would now be less talk and more action," said a senior government official. "The wheel has started running and it will continue to grind," remarked the official. So stop talking already and grind.
The decision, said this official, was taken at a meeting at the Governorâs House here. Governor Lt-Gen Syed Iftikhar Hussain Shah presided over the meeting that was also attended by senior security and administration officials. "It was a review meeting to discuss the situation in South Waziristan and consider the future course of action," the official said. The decision marks a change in the governmentâs approach which has hitherto been stressing the need for involving tribes in the hunt for Al Qaeda militants in the region. The official said that it appeared that the tribes were buying time to fend off a possible operation by the government. "They are just wasting time," he said. We noticed.
"We have said that foreign militants have no business to use our soil. They either have got to surrender or leave the place. They have no other option. We intend to send out a very strong message." Killing them in large numbers would do the trick.
He said that the political administration in South Waziristan had been asked to gear itself up for more action. "The administration there has been asked to prepare for action. The time for holding jirgas is running out", the official said. Sounds like the politicians in S. Waz are part of your problem.
He said that additional paramilitary force had already been sent to South Waziristan and more troops would be sent in due course depending on the situation. The official said that the Pakistan army had also been approached for regular troops but that they would be used only as a stand-by force. So the regular Pak army is not part of this operation, thatâs interesting.
However, another official said that doors of further dialogue with tribesmen had not been completely shut. "Channels of communication with tribesmen will remain open but, at the same time, there will be no let-up in action against foreign militants too," he said. Yawn, call us when you accomplish something.
The change in approach came as authorities in South Waziristan struggled to make last-ditch efforts to persuade Zalikhel tribesmen to get those of their clansmen who are suspected of sheltering and helping foreign militants. Efforts to bring influential Zalikhel tribesmen on board hit snags when three of the six tribal elders refused to be released from the infamous Dera Ismail Khan Central Prison on bail. A tribal source said that three of the six men detained last week after they failed to reach an agreement on a commander for tribal volunteers had informed the authorities they would rather undergo detention than become part of any action against their own people. Ok, stay in the slammer.
Their refusal delayed once again a jirga of the Zalikhel tribe, the largest among the Ahmadzai Wazir tribesmen inhabiting South Waziristan. The authorities had agreed on Monday to let go the six tribesmen in exchange for support for a tribal Lashkar to hunt down five fellow tribesmen accused of supporting Al Qaeda militants. Also on Monday, the authorities had de-sealed hundreds of shops belonging to the tribe in Azam Warsak to enable armed tribesmen to gather there and carry their weapons outside Wana. But the deputy administrator of Wana, Mr Rehmatullah Wazir, played down latest problems in persuading the tribesmen to agree on forming the tribal lashkar and the refusal by three influential tribesmen to become part of the exercise. "They canât just run with the hare and hunt with the hounds," Mr Wazir said of the three tribesmen. "They cannot sit on the fringes and let others do the job for them. I have put them on notice and I have told them that I will formally charge them with abetting Al Qaeda if they donât join others in the search for foreign militants," Mr told Dawn by phone from regional headquarters in Wana. Talk, talk, talk, talk.
He sounded optimism that tribesmen would come around and agree on launching the Lashkar to hunt down fellow clansmen who were helping Al Qaeda and turn over foreign militants. "These are small irritants and I hope that these would be overcome in a day or two," he said. Yeah, right, whatever.
Posted by: Steve ||
03/10/2004 9:45:41 AM ||
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#1
He's giving 'em the last warning. "They're making room in Guantanamo for you, cheese-dicks. Avoid the round up while you can."
Posted by: John C. Lately ||
03/10/2004 12:25 Comments ||
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A senior member of a Islamist group accused of links to al Qaeda and involvement in suicide bombings in Iraq has been captured in the northern part of the country, Iraqi Kurdish sources said.
A senior official of the Patriotic Union of Kurdistan (PUK) said Ayyub Afghani, a top member of the militant Ansar al-Islam group, was arrested in the city of Kirkuk and was being held by U.S. forces. He gave no details on the arrest.
Posted by: Dan Darling ||
03/10/2004 8:32:25 AM ||
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#1
Iraqi Kurdish sources said.
They say he's with US forces, but they're just watching the beating interrigation.
Posted by: Charles ||
03/10/2004 10:46 Comments ||
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Russian forces killed two foreign militants, allegedly Algerians, fighting with the insurgency in breakaway Chechnya, an official said Tuesday. The two men were killed Monday when Russian forces attacked a base in Chechnyaâs Kurchaloi district, Ilya Shabalkin, spokesman for the regional center for counterterrorism operations, told the ITAR-Tass news agency. The two were identified as Binatin Yasin, an Algerian citizen born in 1979 who had permanent residency in Britain; and Larussi Osman, a citizen of Algeria or Britain who was between 30 and 35 years old, Shabalkin said. One other militant was killed and another two were wounded in the attack, while other rebels fled from the base, Shabalkin said. Nine soldiers were killed and five others were wounded in the past 24 hours, an official in the pro-Kremlin Chechen administration told The Associated Press on condition of anonymity.
Posted by: Dan Darling ||
03/10/2004 12:42:23 AM ||
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Chechnyaâs pro-Moscow government has hinted that top rebel leader Aslan Maskhadov may soon surrender amid charges that authorities forced another top separatist to lay down arms by kidnapping and threatening his family.
"Hang it up, Magomed, or Granny gets it!"
"I think itâs 70 percent possible that within a week or two Maskhadov will surrender," Ramzan Kadyrov, who heads the security service for his father, pro-Moscow Chechen President Akhmad Kadyrov, said on local television Monday.
Hokay. I'll set the timer for two weeks...
But a Maskhadov spokesman called the suggestion "absurd."
"Dat boy's on drugs!"
"That is an absurd statement," Akhmed Zakayev told AFP from London, where he has been shacking up with Vanessa Redgrave granted political asylum. "It is absolutely out of the question and is pure and simple propaganda on the part of Kadyrov and his team."
He's probably right, but we can always hope, can't we?
Kadyrovâs comments came amid charges that Magomed Khambiyev, Chechnyaâs former defense minister and a Maskhadov ally, surrendered on Monday after numerous members of his family were kidnapped by Russian and pro-Kadyrov forces. "Russian secret services... had selectively kidnapped 16 relatives" of Khambiyev throughout Chechnya, said a rebel statement quoted by several rebel websites. "Some time later, authorities said that those detained would be sentenced to death unless" Khambiyev and his brother Umar, a former health minister, surrendered.
"Vlad, you got any ruth left?"
"'Fraid not. I'm pretty much ruthless."
Umar Khambiyev is currently in France, where a group called the Chechen Committee also decried the detentions.
"Hey! Youse leave Grammaw alone!"
Magomedâs surrender "was staged by Kadyrovtsy" (as pro-Kadyrov forces are known), "who took hostages... including women," Umar Khambiyev told AFP by telephone. "As a brother, I am proud of his actions, he sacrificed himself," he said. "But I regret that he has created a precedent, giving into Russian terrorism." The press office of Chechnyaâs interior ministry confirmed to AFP that 16 relatives of Khambiyev had been detained recently as part of operations looking for rebels. Among those detained were Khambiyevâs 22-year-old cousin Aslanbek, a medical student who was taken by armed men from Groznyâs university on March 1. His brother Shita, also a medical student, was taken from his apartment on the same day. After a week of student protests, Aslanbek was released, though Shita remains missing. Although Akhmad Kadyrov called Khambiyevâs surrender, which came less than a week before Russiaâs presidential elections, a major blow to the Chechen resistance, both Umar Khambiyev and Zakayev denied it had any bearing. "The resistance will not be affected, it is not just made up of Khambiyevs," Umar Khambiyev said. Zakayev said that Khambiyev had not been active in the separatist movement for at least two years and dismissed the surrender as a publicity stunt on the eve of Putinâs reelection bid. "This is all part of a pre-election campaign on the part of Putin and his entourage," he said.
Pretty good one, wasn't it?
Posted by: Dan Darling ||
03/10/2004 12:41:03 AM ||
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Al Qaeda leader Osama bin Laden might be preparing to move from Pakistan to Afghanistan, according to sources with access to the latest U.S. intelligence. U.S. intelligence found signs of a network of al Qaeda couriers and safe houses on the Afghan side of the border, sources said. Such a network could be a sign bin Laden might be planning to flee Pakistan. Pentagon officials said they think bin Laden is hiding along the mountainous Pakistan-Afghan border, but they said they do not know bin Ladenâs exact location. The officials said they think the fugitive terrorist leader is increasingly facing pressure from Pakistanâs close efforts with the United States as well as the cooperation of some tribes that rule the largely ungoverned region along the border. The Arab television network Al-Jazeera aired video Monday showing some 2,000 men from a tribe in the Wana border region of Pakistan who, under pressure from the Pakistan government, have joined the hunt for al Qaeda members. "The Wana region is like a ship, and weâre all on board," said Noor Mohammed, whom Al-Jazeera identified as a tribal leader. Given what happened at the jirga, it looks like the ship sank ...
The U.S. commander in Afghanistan, Lt. Gen. David Barno, said last month U.S. and Pakistani forces are operating on each side of the border in hopes of driving al Qaeda fighters toward the 11,000 U.S. and Afghan troops across the frontier. Pentagon officials insist that itâs only a matter of time before bin Laden is found.
Posted by: Dan Darling ||
03/10/2004 12:32:38 AM ||
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#1
"The Wana region is like a ship, and weâre all on board"
LOL!. I have no idea WTF this guys thinks he was saying.
#2
Define irony: some putz in a landlocked country drawing an analogy between said country and a ship.
"Florida is like a glacier, and we're all ... um ... drifting."
Posted by: Another Dan (formerly Dan, not Darling) ||
03/10/2004 3:00 Comments ||
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#3
Must have listened to Yellow Submarine during last week's hash-fest.
Posted by: Super Hose ||
03/10/2004 4:49 Comments ||
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#4
Ummm... Pakistan is not a landlocked country. The Wana region might be, but Pakistan has a southern coast on the Indian Ocean.
Afghanistan is landlocked however.
Posted by: Ben ||
03/10/2004 5:06 Comments ||
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#5
"All your jirgas are belong to us"
Posted by: Yosemite Sam ||
03/10/2004 10:08 Comments ||
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#6
Undoubtedly I missing a lot of information re: the hunt for OBL, but I can't help wondering when he get cornered every news agency in the universe writes about the US strategy for trapping him. Why this tipoff? Part of the strategy? Wondering? Chine
The tribal Jirga (grand assembly) on Tuesday failed to form a Lashkar (armed force) of 600 strong armed-men to hunt al-Qaeda and Taliban suspects in the tribal areas. The Jirga was adjourned till today, Wednesday after the participants could not agree whether the force should be formed before or after the release of their elders. A strong group in the Jirga was of the view that they would support the formation of the force if four of their leaders are released unconditionally. Thousands of people attended the Jirga held in Wana, headquarter of South Waziristan Agency, to press the government to free the four key tribal chiefs. Members representing different tribes in the Jirga said the presence of elders was necessary to organise the force to hunt down suspected foreign terrorists. The political administration has agreed to release the elders on bail but they are adamant on unconditional release. The four tribal elders were taken into custody for allegedly not cooperating with the political administration in operations against Taliban and Al-Qaeda fugitives in South Waziristan Agency.
Posted by: Dan Darling ||
03/10/2004 12:18:33 AM ||
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#4
Ok, as an aspiring Rantburg mufti I hereby issue my first fatwa and proclaim that the faithful need to get their asses over to Fred's place for our first official tribal Jirga/BBQ. (Fred, am I getting ahead of myself here with the mufti thing?)
Algerian security forces have arrested 19 people accused of being members of a logistical support network for an armed Islamic movement fighting the government, security officials said Monday. The people arrested and imprisoned in Bouira, a town in the northeastern Kabylie region, were informers for the Salafist Group for Preaching and Combat (GSPC), the officials said. Security sources said the dismantled network in Bouira had been active since 1990, two years before a Muslim fundamentalist insurgency erupted after the army called off an election an Islamic party was poised to win. The GSPC, despite having several dissident offshoots, remains very active particularly in Kabylie, where two soldiers were killed and four injured in a bomb attack on Sunday. A local army chief said the movement had recently managed to recruit youths in the poorer districts of towns hit by unemployment. Its overall numbers are estimated at between 400 and 500.
Posted by: Dan Darling ||
03/10/2004 12:10:04 AM ||
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An extremist group known for deadly bombings and a brutal campaign to create an Islamic state in Algeria is moving to establish stronger ties to Al Qaeda, raising fears the militants may launch terrorist attacks beyond their North African territory. The new leader of the Salafist Group for Call and Combat, an armed organization whose decade-long aim has been to overthrow the Algerian government, declared allegiance to Osama bin Ladenâs network in the fall. At the time, it received little attention, but now authorities worry the Salafists could become a dangerous affiliate of Al Qaeda, which has shown an ability to work through local groups such as Jemaah Islamiyah in Southeast Asia, U.S. officials in Washington told The Associated Press. Authorities also worry that Algeria - with vast stretches of Sahara desert in the remote south and long borders that are hard to monitor - could become a haven for Al Qaeda members, U.S. officials told AP.
Signs of the Salafistsâ expansionist designs have emerged in the past year with dozens of alleged operatives arrested in Spain, Britain, the Netherlands, Italy and France - where the group is considered the top terrorist threat, French intelligence officials told AP. Nabil Sahraoui, after becoming the Salafist leader last year, declared the groupâs allegiance with Al Qaeda in September. Sahraoui ousted longtime leader Hassan Hattab, who reportedly was viewed within Salafist ranks as too moderate. Under Hattab, the Salafists distrusted outsiders and kept Al Qaeda at arms length, focusing instead on a domestic agenda. Hattab also supported hacking up people with chainsaws and the like. If heâs the moderate one, I donât even want to think what Sahraoui is like.
Sahraouiâs declaration confirms authoritiesâ thinking that some regional terrorist groups are going international, joining the broader conflict of Islam versus the West, a French intelligence official told AP. Another analyst with high-level contacts in French intelligence sees the declaration as mostly posturing - a way to raise the Salafistsâ profile and stir fear. Sahraoui, in his mid-to-late 30s, has a reputation for ruthlessness, stemming partly from a murder campaign he ran against a now-defunct insurgent group, the Islamic Salvation Army, after it called a cease-fire with the Algerian government in 1997. Despite Sahraouiâs ambitions, it remains unclear whether the limited resources of the Salafist group would be at Al Qaedaâs disposal, said Richard Evans, editor at Janeâs Terrorism and Insurgency Centre.
The group - known by its French acronym GSPC - is fragmented with autonomous brigades in Algeria. Still, thereâs reason for concern. "There was no indication until now that this group was pursuing a wider jihadi agenda," said Evans, an expert on the Salafist group. The Salafistsâ actual strength is unknown, although experts believe the group is small, with several hundred fighters. Evans said Al Qaeda could call on the wider Algerian diaspora in Europe or militants with Salafist links "who might be prepared to attack Western targets.ââ Al Qaeda is known to have made inroads into Algeria. Interpol chief Ronald Nobel, who has noted the Salafist-Al Qaeda ties, visited Algeria a year ago to announce the international police agency would give Algeria a global communications system to track terrorists. As evidence of Al Qaedaâs presence in Algeria, authorities point to the killing of Emad Abdelwahid Ahmed Alwan, a Yemeni Al Qaeda lieutenant, on Sept. 12, 2002, in a gunbattle about 270 miles east of the capital, Algiers. Authorities said he had been meeting with the Salafists in Algeria and was managing operations for Al Qaeda in North Africa.
Posted by: Dan Darling ||
03/10/2004 12:08:17 AM ||
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#1
Didn't Hattab split away from the GIA because he opposed their senseless masacres of civilians?
Posted by: Paul Moloney ||
03/10/2004 0:16 Comments ||
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#2
That's what he claims.
However, the GSPC was very much formed at the behest of bin Laden and the rest of International Front due to the fact that Zouabri and Co were having too much fun dispensing their revolutionary Islamist brand of justice and not enough fighting the Algerian military government. Certainly the GIA trademarks like throat slitting, decapitation, and dismemberment are also used by the GSPC on a regular basis - if you're truly in the mood for some macabre viewing you can download clips of their antics off of numerous jihadi websites.
Posted by: Dan Darling ||
03/10/2004 0:22 Comments ||
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#3
The title is false. There was an article on Rantburg yesterday talking about how the US was working with the Algerian government to stomp the GSPC. That's an indication to me the US is on the ball, and doing its bit to put these nutjobs on ice.
Posted by: Old Patriot ||
03/10/2004 13:27 Comments ||
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The Chadian army has engaged in fighting with members of the Algerian Islamic group, the Salafist Group for Preaching and Combat (GSPC). A Chadian army unit intercepted the GSPC members in the northern Tibesti region, near the border with Libya, on Monday and engaged them in combat, a source close to Chadâs military said on Tuesday. The fighting was still raging on Tuesday, he said. Chad doesnât share a border with Algeria, so it looks like the GSPCâs getting more internationalized ever since they merged with al-Qaeda. They planned to go after the Paris-Dakar Rally too, IIRC.
Looks like Libya's about to join in the festivities, too.
Posted by: Dan Darling ||
03/10/2004 12:04:43 AM ||
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Are they affiliated with GASP, the Atheist Group for Sex sans Pregnancy??? Or GISM, the Indecent Group of Sexy Myns? Or GAGS, the Amateurish Group of Girl Scouts? Or -- oh, um, sorry. Got carried away. I still believe Salafist Group for Preaching and Combat is, hands down, the funniest jihadi faction name ever. One has to wonder if it really didn't come from Monty Python, Lol!
#3
Isn't Chad also involved in Iraq?
I haven't heard anything about this. I think Chad has its hands full trying to deal with the refugees from Darfur. Chad did fight a running war (the term fits!) with Libya over the Aozou region in the early 1980's, but that's been over for years. Algerians would have to cross about 130 miles of either Libya or Niger to get to Chad. I don't think Libya would appreciate that very much. I'm not sure Niger could do anything to stop them. That's also pretty empty, desolate country, and whoever tried to cross it would have a hell of a logistics problem without some form of support system.
Posted by: Old Patriot ||
03/10/2004 11:03 Comments ||
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National and Islamic forces in the West Bank city of Nablus have demanded elections to choose the new municipal council in the city after the appointed council members tendered their resignations. In a statement published in local papers 36 Palestinians institutions and political factions in Nablus signed the demand. Hamas, Fatah, PFLP, DFLP, peoples party, Islamic Jihad and other factions signed the statement that warned of the negative repercussions of appointing the municipal council members.
I always find the crumbling of Paleostine to be very entertaining. Would anybody like some of this popcorn?
Posted by: Fred ||
03/10/2004 00:01:25 AM ||
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Paleo-style electioneering roolz! I like the exploding lawn signs, myself...
#3
I need to get a big-screen TV with Hi-Def resolution and better surround sound - my 32" doesn't convey the sheer squalor and 'sploding dopes that characterize Paleo high society. Welcome to the Jungle, indeed
Posted by: Frank G ||
03/10/2004 12:18 Comments ||
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Can't wait for the sudden death tie breaker.
Posted by: ed ||
03/10/2004 13:15 Comments ||
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#5
Reporter, questioning a local citizen: "How many people live in Nablus?"
Citizen: "Oh, about 70,000."
Reporter: "I see. And how many political parties are there in Nablus?"
Citzien: "Oh, about 70,000."
Posted by: Old Patriot ||
03/10/2004 15:42 Comments ||
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Egyptian Intelligence Chief Omar Suleiman is due to arrive in Ramallah Wednesday for talks with PA officials, including Chairman Yasser Arafat and Prime Minister Ahmed Qurei. Palestinian sources said Suleiman and his Palestinian officials would discuss Israelâs purported âdisengagement planâ and the proposed plan to evacuate Jewish settlements in the Gaza Strip. Palestinian officials have poured cold water on Israeli statements in this regard, arguing that what Israel is doing on the ground is more important and more reflective of Israeli intentions than what Zionist officials are telling foreign media. On Tuesday, Qureiâ told reporters in London, where he ended a two-day visit, that Palestinians were suspicious of Zionist declarations. âHow can we trust them when they are slaughtering our people on a daily basis?â said Qurei.â
If they pull out, then they'll have to commute to slaughter your people. Maybe you can pick them off at the toll gates?
Posted by: Fred ||
03/10/2004 00:01:42 AM ||
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You supress the craziest whackos long enough to make a withdrawal.
Zimbabwe said yesterday that 64 men it was holding on suspicion of being mercenaries were mainly Angolans, South Africans and Namibians, but added that Harare was not the destination of the plane they were travelling on. âSo far, it would appear that Harare was not the final destination of the group. Bujumbura in Burundi, Mbujimayi in the DRC and other destinations have been given by the group,â Home Affairs Minister Kembo Mohadi said in a statement. Zimbabwe put its army on full alert after Sundayâs seizure of a US-registered 727-100 cargo plane that government officials said was carrying suspected foreign mercenaries and a cargo of military material.
The whole army? Bob must be really jumpy...
The operator of the plane, UK-based Logo Logistics Ltd, said the men had been bound for the Democratic Republic of Congo to work as security guards on mines, and the aircraft had landed in Zimbabwe only to pick up mining equipment.
And nobody was expecting them?
Guinea said yesterday it had arrested 15 suspected foreign mercenaries who were an advance party connected with the aircraft detained in Harare. Equatorial Guinea is in West Africa.
Oh, good. They haven't moved it...
âAll detainees are being held in a local prison pending the outcome of investigations surrounding the incident,â South African Foreign Affairs spokesman Ronnie Mamoepa said. In his statement, Mamoepa said that if any South Africans were involved in mercenary activities, they would be breaking the countryâs laws.
Posted by: Fred ||
03/10/2004 00:00 AM ||
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The television said Tuesday that investigations in Zimbabwe showed the plane, impounded late Sunday at the main Harare international airport, was linked to a South African firm known as "Executive Outcomes" that in the past hired mostly former apartheid era South African soldiers for mercenary and security work across Africa. The television quoted Zimbabwe Home Affairs Minister Kembo Mohadi saying British SAS, or Special Air Service, forces were believed also to have been involved. State television said the plane was carrying 20 South African nationals and groups of Angolans, Congolese, Namibians and one Zimbabwean carrying a South African passport.
Sounds like it is a group of retired, ex-army types hired as guards. Pilot forgot to file his flight plan, hope he's not around when these guys are released. They might want to have a word with him.
Posted by: Steve ||
03/10/2004 11:04 Comments ||
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#2
For PR purposes have Logo Logistics Ltd change their name. Then see if they want a US government contract to provide security in Haiti.
Posted by: Super Hose ||
03/10/2004 11:56 Comments ||
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The cover story was âsecurity guards for a mining concernâ ⦠or as we say, âmercenaries.â Particularly thin. The company that owned the aircraft, Logo Logistics Limited, was based in the Channel Islands and was, at least by first reports, started up a few weeks before take-off and the owner was untraceable. I should imagine that Mugabe has now got his airforce another âplane and will show his solidarity with peacekeeping by locking the passengers up and throwing away the key.
The word in Zim is that the US, UK and Spain were all involved in an attempted overthrow â the usual suspects for Mugabe â nice to know his opinions are as wildly out as the rest of his idiot schemes.
Considering how short a time was involved between setting up the company, landing in Salisbury and being nicked, it comes as no surprise that they, like all their type in SA, were being watched all the way by the South African Security Organisation, who had no interest in arresting them before take-off. There would have been too much bad publicity with the white right and too many questions asked, and too many bleatings about âproofâ, so they let it run. Painless neutralisation. It sounds as if the plot went off a little early as following his arrest the previous day in EG with 15 others, Nick du Toit, late of the Executive Outcomes, said
"The group was supposed to start by identifying strategic targets such as the presidency, the military barracks, police posts and the residences of government members. Then it was supposed to have vehicles at Malabo airport to transport other mercenaries who were due to arrive from South Africa. But at the last minute, I got a call to say that the other group of mercenaries had been arrested in South Africa as they were preparing to leave the country."
Perhaps SASO wanted the Zims to find who the contact was in Zim but I doubt it. Zims originally said no arms had been found but later said firearms charged would be bought â I reckon they found the odd pistol â common enough in SA. Someone would have had to supply the real hardware but the question remains, why capture them before the arms were delivered/loaded? I reckon the flight was indeed due to go to DRC and Angola â DRC to pick up more men and Angola to get the hardware. I donât think that either DRC or Angola would have co-operated. So it certainly wasnât going bristling with guns into or out of Zim.
Who was behind it? The EGs mentioned large multinationals, which seems more likely and then tagged on the ex-president in Angolan exile who, they reckon, had divvied up $10m for the job. That would account for why the plane would have been putting down in Angola and I reckon that that was where the real hardware was.
Was the US involved? Probably not. They have no embassy there but large commercial interests. If they were, then it would only have been as advisors to the SA Security Service.
Is it John Le Carreâs book, âA Small Town in Germanyâ that shows how an apparently good plan goes completely tits-up? A good story because the layman is carried along believing that the plan will work, whereas, in the background, the professionals are quietly tutting and raising eyebrows as they foresee disaster. And all based on a true story.
You know, itâs getting more difficult to turn a sort-of-honest dollar.
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.
