What would ANSWER et al be saying in III 3019 on Planet Arda?
Aragorn is Castamir!
Free Mordor!
Elrond lied, people died!
Armenelosism is racism!
No more Valinor!
No blood for mithril!
Overthrow Aragorn!
The Nazgûl chief was assassinated!
You armed Sauron, remember?
Posted by: Steve from Relto ||
04/14/2004 10:14:02 AM ||
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The Kingdomâs supreme religious ruling body, the Permanent Committee for Scientific Research and Ifta, strongly condemned the attacks against the Iraqi people by the occupation forces in Iraq and called for the suspension of military operations. It also wants those responsible for these attacks to be brought to justice.
I assume they're talking about the Merkins, not about the corpse mutilators?
In a statement issued yesterday, the committee, headed by Grand Mufti Sheikh Abdul Aziz Al-Asheikh, condemned the operations launched against the people of Iraq, especially in the city of Fallujah, âincluding killing and terrorizing of the innocent, destruction of property and the demolition of mosques with worshippers inside.â
Can't have it both ways, Mufti, Grand though you may be. If you pack a mosque full of bad guys, all of them enthusiatically shooting, expect somebody to shoot back...
âThe committee considers these acts against Iraqi people as the most extreme kind of injustice and aggression. While strongly condemning these criminal acts that have crossed all limits, the committee calls on all fair and just people in the world, Muslims and non-Muslims alike, to condemn this ferocious assault and work to apply all means to stop it and punish those responsible,â the statement said.
He's gotta be talking about the corpse mutilators, right?
On Monday, the Saudi Cabinet expressed deep concern over the deteriorating situation in Iraq and the victimization of its people. The Cabinet, which met under Custodian of the Two Holy Mosques King Fahd, stressed the urgent need for restoring security and stability in Iraq, enabling the Iraqi people to regain sovereignty and embark on rebuilding their country. The government said this would only be possible through allowing the United Nations to play an active role in the stabilization so that Iraq could regain its place within the international community and the Arab and Muslim world.
Yeah. Sure. You betcha. That'll work.
Posted by: Fred ||
04/14/2004 7:10:58 PM ||
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"urgent need for restoring security and stability in Iraq, enabling the Iraqi people to regain sovereignty and embark on rebuilding their country. The government said this would only be possible through allowing the United Nations to play an active role in the stabilization so that Iraq could regain its place within the international community and the Arab and Muslim world."
Said by John Kerry or the Saudi Cabinet? Can't tell, can you? That says A LOT
Posted by: Frank G ||
04/14/2004 19:36 Comments ||
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They can spew this stuff all they want for internal consumption, but the more they spew, the more their folks realize that their leaders are without influence in the outside world. Sort of the Grand Mufti Michael Moores of Mecca.
Posted by: Tom ||
04/14/2004 20:06 Comments ||
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Oh, shaddup, Muffi. Stuff a freakin' sock in it.
Those who can, do. Those who can't, preen and run their worthless mouths.
It's obvious which one these worthless wankers are.
Posted by: Barbara Skolaut ||
04/14/2004 20:26 Comments ||
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#4
these guys just don't get it. This is April 2004 not April 2001. We aren't the same cute, little, cuddly puppy dog we were back then.
Now, when we growl at you, it means we are about to bite.
Posted by: B ||
04/14/2004 21:07 Comments ||
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#5
Permanent Committee for Scientific Research and Ifta
Are they serious? What kind of Scientific Research do they conduct?
#7
It's time to play a new game: "Whack-a-Mufti". Seems like they're the ones causing all the trouble - Sadr in Najef, the black turbantops in Iran, Mullah Omar in Afghanistan/Pakistan, the Muftis running all those Madrassas everywhere turning out nice little jihadis by the dozens, the Grand Mufti of Jerusalem, et cetera, ad nauseum. I don't care what they're whacked with (unless people begin getting careless with nukes and start taking out Muftis in my neighborhood with 20MT weapons), just as long as they're whacked. Don't even bother stacking them - let 'em rot where they fall. Sooner or later somebody's gonna get the message that yelling and screaming about "kill the Americans" is a JDAM homing signal, and STFU. Until then, let the games begin.
Posted by: Old Patriot ||
04/14/2004 22:47 Comments ||
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#8
OP: Visualize a B2 bringing light to the darkness by nuking Mecca and Medina without warning and without poststrike acknowledgement. Let the black turbans try and explain that "Judgement of Allah" to followers of the Religion of Peace.
#9
What would be even more befitting the situation would be a pair of quarter-kilometer diameter meteorites smacking down simultaneously at 30Kps, throwing out unmistakable nickel-iron residue, and leaving a pair of matched lakes a mile or so in diameter and a half-mile deep. Nobody would even have to say "Allah is pissed!" - it would be a given...
Posted by: Old Patriot ||
04/15/2004 0:00 Comments ||
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A security officer was shot dead and another wounded by gunmen who opened fire on their patrol yesterday at Shoaib Al-Haysa near the entrance of Wadi Al-Hanifa on the outskirts of Al-Uyaynah town, 45 kilometers northwest of Riyadh, security sources said. The patrol, carrying members of the âAl-Mujahedeenâ, a unit affiliated to the internal security forces, came under fire from gunmen in a white Mitsubishi pickup at around 2 p.m., the sources said. One security man â Naif Al-Otaibi â was killed and another â Bujaid Al-Otaibi â was injured. Security forces cordoned off the site and prevented anyone from entering. The incident followed the killing of five policemen and a suspected terrorist in a series of clashes in and north of Riyadh on Monday and Tuesday, culminating in the discovery of two explosive-laden vehicles.
A police helicopter hovered over the rugged, mountainous region in the evening while on the ground, Mujahedeen forces and local patrol units scoured the area for suspected terrorists. The Mujahedeen unit was earlier alerted by a tribesman at a checkpoint. A two-man unit was dispatched to apprehend the suspected terrorists after the man reported noticing five men in the pickup, three at the back and two inside. On being approached by the Mujahedeen unit, one of the suspected terrorists came out of the vehicle and opened fire, killing one instantly and injuring the other in his left leg. They took the dead man with them in their vehicle and drove off, only to abandon the Mitsubishi some distance away and setting off on foot.
Presumably they left the corpse behind...
In the meantime, the injured Mujahedeen member managed to climb into his patrol car and returned to the checkpoint. Security reinforcements were immediately rushed to the spot to hunt for the suspects. Security men tracked the tire marks and found the Mitsubishi abandoned with Naif Al-Otaibi inside. The injured security man was admitted to Hurainila Hospital in Al-Uyaynah. An investigation has revealed that the suspects had stolen the Mistsubishi pickup from Buraidah three days ago. According to local tribesmen, the scene of the encounter is full of caves, mountains and valleys, inaccessible by motor vehicles.
On Tuesday, four policemen were killed in a series of clashes with suspected terrorists on the Riyadh-Qasim Highway as security officers defused two truck bombs that were primed to be used in attacks in the capital. A third car containing arms was also seized. According to the Interior Ministry, the attacks were carried out by âmembers of a deviant minorityâ, a veiled reference to Al-Qaeda sympathizers. Tuesdayâs incidents were described as an extension of Mondayâs shootout in the Al-Faiha neighborhood.
So Prince Nayef's got his own "Mujaheddin" outfit going? I haven't heard of it before. A new thing?
Posted by: Fred ||
04/14/2004 7:05:57 PM ||
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Don't they realize that the rest of the world hears "mujahadeen" and thinks "nut job that deserves to die"?
Posted by: Robert Crawford ||
04/14/2004 19:49 Comments ||
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C'mon Fred, all the cool kidz have one now! Kinda like Xbox, only with live ammo...
Yemen will give al Qaeda suspects an open trial as it struggles to balance security with civil liberties, the Yemeni human rights minister said in an interview Tuesday. The Arab state has co-operated closely with the United States in its "war on terror" and arrested hundreds of people suspected of ties with Osama bin Laden's al Qaeda network following the September 11, 2001, attacks on the United States in an effort to shed its image as a hotbed for militants.
They also tried to negotiate with them, but that didn't turn out too well ...
"Most of the detainees have been delivered to the judiciary, so we are not seeing the issue of detainees being kept from the law as much," Amat al-Aleem Alsoswa, Yemen's first human rights minister, told Reuters at an Istanbul conference. "Those who have already been (charged) will receive a trial open to the public. Yemen does not have martial law or, for that matter, a separate judiciary for security (cases)," she said. Alsoswa acknowledged that the rights of some detainees had been breached in the post-September 11th round-ups in Yemen, a poverty-stricken nation at the tip of the Arabian peninsula. "Holding people without presenting their case to the judiciary is considered a violation of the law, but balancing security with the question of human rights has not been easy and, unfortunately, hasn't always been answered appropriately." Alsoswa said her ministry, set up last year, has been working with government authorities to ensure suspects receive fair trials. "We are a bit relieved, but the whole question hasn't been solved yet because there is still the problem of terrorism. At the same time we are trying our best to guarantee those people their basic rights and their right to have clear and open cases, to have an open trial." Alsoswa also said the government has worked to create "a dialogue to speak with fanatics" to discern between non-violent ideologues and militants. "A big number of people have been freed after it was found that there was no sort of (militancy)."
Posted by: Dan Darling ||
04/14/2004 12:45:10 AM ||
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Xinhuanet -- China is willing to exert the utmost sincerity and the utmost efforts to realize peaceful reunification, but does not allow anybody to separate Taiwan from the motherland in any form, said a Chinese military leader here Wednesday. "The Taiwan issue concerns the sovereignty and territorial integrity of China, and is related to Sino-US relations and peace and stability of the Asia-Pacific region as well," he said. Jiang Zemin, chairman of the Central Military Commission, told visiting US Vice President Dick Cheney, that he hopes that the U.S.could adhere to its commitment on the Taiwan issue, and not to send wrong signals to the "Taiwan Independence" forces. "Sino-US ties will have more room for development if the Taiwan issue is well handled," he said. (cont.) What will these promised "developments" be if we hand over the worldâs eighteenth largest economy to be brutally raped into oblivion by Chinese kleptocrats?
Are they going to reduce their US$ 127 BILLION trade deficit with America? Are they going to do something about the worldâs largest medically caused AIDS crisis within their borders? Will they let Hong Kong have the democratic reforms they promised during the hand over? Are they going to stop the cultural genocide in Tibet? Will they actually haul off and kick North Koreaâs belligerent @ss for destabilizing the entire north Asian quadrant?
China has about as much credibility as Iran. They really need to slapped down hard with some major trade sanctions. China is one massive black hole of intellectual property theft and copyright violations. We need to sell over-the-horizon radar and Aegis fire control systems to Taiwan in sufficient quantity to repulse a 1,000 Chinese missiles.
#1
Taiwan is already de facto separate from the Mainland - only sentimental ties (and trade) exist. We really need to publicly declare the weakness of a "Great Nation" like China fixating on a small island nation like Taiwan - then sell the Taiwanese anything they need for defense. The recent Chinese history of actions in Hong Kong, their pet Rottweiler in NK and the downing of our surveillance plane in international waters, along with their assistance to Saddam owe a response.
Posted by: Frank G ||
04/14/2004 21:04 Comments ||
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The brother-in-law of North Korean leader Kim Jong-il no longer plays a key role in the communist regime's top ranks, a senior government official and North Korea experts in Seoul said yesterday.
Jang Song-thaek, 58, whose most recent post was the first vice department director of the Central Committee of the Workers' Party, was regarded as the second most powerful figure in North Korea's ruling party. The committee groups North Korea's power elite, and Mr. Jang was a policymaker on economic and personnel affairs at the highest level of government.
Accompanying Mr. Kim to most major events, including the farewell dinner for the June 2000 inter-Korean summit, Mr. Jang has been mentioned as a possible heir to Mr. Kim. Mr. Jang visited Seoul in October 2002 as a member of Pyeongyang's economic survey team.
The Tokyo Shimbun reported yesterday that Mr. Jang was removed from the post after losing a power struggle with Pak Pong-ju, the North's prime minister. After repeatedly objecting to Mr. Pak's initiative to adopt more capitalist experiments in the famine-stricken communist country's economy, Mr. Jang was sent to the party's school to study economics, the report said.
A senior South Korean government official on North Korean affairs confirmed yesterday that Mr. Jang is no longer serving the party's central committee, but did not elaborate on the reason for his departure.
South Korean experts speculated the shift may have occurred for health reasons.
Cerebral hemorrhage? Lead poisoning? Lots of good communist health problems from which to choose.
Posted by: Dan Darling ||
04/14/2004 12:48:43 AM ||
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Mr. Jang was sent to the party's school to study economics
#2
It sounds like Kim is getting a little skittish about having any competition skulking around the palace. Given how badly his actions have destabilized the entire region, he ought to be.
It must be his evil twin!
Kim Jong Phil, president of the United Liberal Democrats of south Korea, in a canvassing speech made in Kyonggi Province on April 9 openly incited confrontation with the north, asserting that "the north is threatening the south with nukes but the latter failed to dispel the illusion about the former and there is a force keen to get in touch with the north". The scary part? They supposedly understand what the guy said.
In this regard the Secretariat of the Committee for the Peaceful Reunification of the Fatherland released information bulletin No.865 yesterday.
It said:
Such remarks of Kim Jong Phil are nothing but an epileptic fit of human dregs forsaken by the times as they bring to light the black-hearted design to get rid of the worst crisis his party is facing after being abandoned by the people for its pro-U.S. moves against the DPRK, corruption and the deplorable situation created in the wake of the passage of "the motion on impeachment against the president." Thatâs not bad. Gotta be the name. Think thereâs a Kim Jong Vinny? A Kim Jong Murray?
Kim Jong Phil is a wicked traitor to the nation and a remnant of "Yusin". This dirty guy should have already faced a stern judgment by the south Korean people and have been eliminated from the political arena."
Sounds like an ad for a St. Petersburg Democratic club ...
It is, therefore, ridiculous and foolish for him to desperately work to restore his old position, beating the worn-out drum for confrontation with the north though the nation lives in a bright era after the publication of the June 15 declaration whereby it strives to achieve reunification by its concerted efforts. So itâll be Kim Jong Phil = Dirty Guy, Kim Jong Il = Psycho Guy.
The people from all walks of life in south Korea should severely punish through the "election" the U.S. and its henchmen who are working with bloodshot eyes to stem the trend of the national history toward independence, democracy and reunification. Next week on Celebrity Lookalikes: Ho Chi Barry and Mao Tse Greg.
Posted by: tu3031 ||
04/14/2004 12:37:13 AM ||
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the U.S. and its henchmen who are working with bloodshot eyes to stem the trend of the national history toward independence, democracy and reunification
A brief excerpt from a longer, very informative article.
The European Economic Community - predecessor of the European Union - began to regulate production of ammonium nitrate fertilizer in 1980. EU rules require that ammonium nitrate fertilizers with more than 28 percent nitrogen be produced with large, dense granules to prevent them from absorbing diesel fuel - the explosive mix that has killed hundreds.
Effective Thursday, Turkey will ban the import of all fertilizers that do not meet those requirements. For now, the fertilizer remains cheap with a metric ton - about 2,200 pounds - costing $220 in Turkey. Turkish importers are planning to mix lime into the fertilizer to cut its concentration of nitrogen and make it safer. But reducing the nitrogen content undermines its value as a fertilizer. The Turkish ban came about after a series of fertilizer bombs in November killed 62 people in attacks on two synagogues, the British consulate and the London-based HSBC Bank in Istanbul. The blasts were blamed on a local al-Qaida cell. Each of the four pickup trucks used were packed with some 5,000 pounds of fertilizer bombs....
Speciality Fertilizer Products, a firm based in Belton, Mo., has developed a water-soluble coating designed to repel diesel fuel that dissolves rapidly once the fertilizer is placed on soil, said Andy Oppenheimer of Janeâs Information Group in London.
Posted by: Mike Sylwester ||
04/14/2004 11:06:02 PM ||
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Excellent idea. What ever happened to the micro-tag technology they were working on? Microtrace seems to be one of the few that are still developing this product. Here's some background on it:
One interesting area of explosive technology are "tagging" systems that allow the identification of the origin of an explosive that was used, for example, in a terrorist bombing. While analysis of the chemical composition of blast residues can help identify the type of explosive, the ability to trace explosives by production batch is much more useful.
One explosives tagging technology has been around for several decades. Microtrace Incorporated of Blaine, Minnesota, markets a "MicroTag" scheme that was invented in the 1970s by a chemist at 3M Corporation named Richard Livesay.
3M developed and sold the MicroTag system, which is based on tiny chips, each about the size of a grain of pepper, that are built as a stack of up to 10 colored layers. A batch of chips with a particular "rainbow" code is mixed with a particular batch of explosives to permit its identification. A US government-mandated test of the tags that required their use in 1% of commercially produced explosives made from 1977 through 1979 demonstrated no real problems with the technology, and even led to the solution of one bombing. The Swiss, who were early adopters of the technology, have solved hundreds of bombing incidents through the use of the tags.
However, a disastrous accident at an explosives factory in 1979 was blamed on the tags, and led to a lawsuit against 3M. Though the company won the case, they got out of the taggant business, selling it to Livesay, who founded Microtrace. Most of Microtrace's customers use the MicroTags to protect goods, like shampoo and alcohol, from counterfeiters.
A subtler tagging technology is being marketed by Isotag LLC in Houston. The Isotag scheme is based on inert heavy molecules, uniquely keyed by selectively substituting deuterium (heavy hydrogen) atoms for ordinary hydrogen in the molecular structure. It has been used in applications such as identifying batches of petroleum sent through pipelines, and for tagging batches of ammonium nitrate."
.... a Danish company called Aresa Biodetection believes it has found a cheaper and safer method to find land mines by using a plant that changes color when it detects explosives in the soil. It has conducted tests using a genetically modified thale cress plant. ... Aresaâs modified plant changes color from green to red within three to six weeks after its roots detect nitrogen dioxide leaking from explosives inside a mine. The land mines beneath the cress can then be removed more safely. ...
Ostergaard said the modified plant was created last January by the company, which has been working on the project since 2001. "At this stage, we have a prototype that we are able to induce the color change when the plants are growing in soil infected with explosives," he said. "We need to produce a lot of plant lines that we need to screen for the right sensitivity to be sure that we can go down to levels and detect a very, very tiny amount of explosives." ....
But some are expressing doubts about the plant. One group questioned whether the freshly planted cress could attract livestock into mined areas. .... Aresaâs Ostergaard said the companyâs priority is to use it for farmland, the areas most postconflict governments want cleared of mines first. The cress, like agricultural crops, needs water. ....
Ostergaard said it will be at least two years before the method is tested in real mine fields. "What we are aiming for is to do testing next year and large-scale tests in 2006," he said. "Actual areas where we want to be -- we havenât fixed plans -- but we are certainly considering Bosnia and Croatia, Sri Lanka, possibly Africa, and Southeast Asia." He said the next tests will be conducted with the help of the Danish Army.
Posted by: Mike Sylwester ||
04/14/2004 12:16:39 PM ||
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this is horible idea. their have to make suree it taste bad for animals before they try this. also i am hate to be the guy who go in field and plant it.
#2
actually Mucky - it's brilliant - the cress can be sprayed as a hydroseed, and when the cattle grazing on it are blown into delicious cuts of steaks, roasts, flanks, and other meaty goodness, it saves the cost of butchering. If only the cuts could land pre-packaged, it would be be awesome! Mmmmmmmmm beef - it's what's for dinner! With a side salad of Lettuceladies!
Who else is hungry?
Posted by: Frank G ||
04/14/2004 12:48 Comments ||
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OK, folks, nothing to see here. Just a good plant gone bad. Move along....
I swear that this whole thing came from the Far Side.
Posted by: Alaska Paul ||
04/14/2004 13:43 Comments ||
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Frank,
I'm sorry, but 'Aresa Biodetection' sounds like one of those outfits I keep seeing spam from...:
"ostergaard@aresabiodetection.de RE: Big Mines"
Mike
Posted by: Mike Kozlowski ||
04/14/2004 13:44 Comments ||
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#6
Damn.... looked at it again. Genius. We will fight for bovine freedom,
And hold our large heads high,
We will run free like the buffalo
Or
Die Cows With Guns!
Spain's outgoing Prime Minister Jose Maria Aznar said in an interview published Wednesday that countries cannot protect themselves from terrorism by remaining neutral on Iraq.
"With us or against us..."
Spain's support for the U.S.-led war in Iraq was "the pretext, not the cause" of the Madrid train bombings, Aznar was quoted as telling The Times newspaper. "Nobody is free of danger," he said. "There is not a single country not at risk. ... There's no neutrality against this kind of terrorism, and those who try to be neutral are probably those who will suffer most."
It actually hurts more when you whimper.
Aznar's Popular Party, which strongly backed the war in Iraq despite massive popular and political opposition, lost general elections three days after the March 11 terror attacks that killed 191 people. Many in Spain interpreted the bombings as a reprisal for Aznar's support of military action in Iraq. Socialist leader Jose Luis Rodriguez Zapatero, who is due to take over as prime minister on Friday, has pledged to withdraw Spain's 1,300 troops from Iraq by June 30 if the United Nations does not assume control of the country by then.
Adios, amigos.
Aznar said the terror threat would not discriminate between countries that backed the war and those that opposed it. Although Aznar did not name them, France and Germany were leading opponents of the U.S.-led invasion. "There are certain people in Europe who just want to look the other way," Aznar said. "Do we have to wait for another attack, or do we face up to terrorism with all the consequences? We're in a war. You can get attacked. You can get hurt. It can be painful. I think the (new) Spanish and other governments will have to start thinking very seriously about this."
Posted by: Fred ||
04/14/2004 10:44 ||
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"Nobody is free of danger," he said. "There is not a single country not at risk. ... There's no neutrality against this kind of terrorism, and those who try to be neutral are probably those who will suffer most."
When I first saw Aznar, I would have never have pictured him as the type of steadfast companion that he has turned out to be. Among one's allies, a person always has several that will stick with you only until things get rocky. Aznar has proven time and again that he is a true member of the Coalition of the Willing not just a politician hoping for a little American pork for standing on the podium with Bush and Blair before the body bags start coming home. I expect and pray that history will be more than kind to him.
Posted by: Super Hose ||
04/14/2004 11:18 Comments ||
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Aznar will be viewed as Spain's Churchill, and Zappy as Neville the appeaser.
Posted by: Frank G ||
04/14/2004 12:51 Comments ||
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Spain's support for the U.S.-led war in Iraq was "the pretext, not the cause" of the Madrid train bombings ...
I can only wonder how many more bombings it will require before Spain's people understand the full meaning of this statement.
A building at a French nuclear power plant was evacuated this week during a bomb scare, officials said Wednesday. No explosives were found. A telephone caller warned Tuesday that a bomb had been planted in a building housing one of four reactors in Flamanville, in the northwest region of Normandy, an official at the plant said. The reactor is currently shut down for maintenance and has been emptied of radioactive material. However, the plant's other three reactors are still functioning. About 60 people working in the building were evacuated Tuesday while police searched the site for more than five hours, police said. Buildings housing the other three reactors were not evacuated.
Posted by: Fred ||
04/14/2004 10:41 ||
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A telephone caller warned Tuesday that a bomb had been planted in a building housing one of four reactors in Flamanville, in the northwest region of Normandy, an official at the plant said. I was wondering why a bomb scare in France was of interest.
Posted by: Super Hose ||
04/14/2004 11:46 Comments ||
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ummm, outsourcing the Janitorial services to that Yemeni/Algerian joint venture might not have been a good idea?
Posted by: Frank G ||
04/14/2004 11:50 Comments ||
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The reactor is currently shut down for maintenance and has been emptied of radioactive material. However, the plant's other three reactors are still functioning.
So they called in the bomb scare on the empty reactor? Duh.
Mucky!! How many times has your mother told you not to use her cell phone!!
Posted by: B ||
04/14/2004 16:45 Comments ||
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A Bosnian who is among the suspects in last month's deadly terrorist attacks in Madrid, Spain, will turn himself in, the man's father said Wednesday. The suspect, identified as Sanel Sjekirica, 23, told the daily Dnevni Avaz that he is in Sweden and will travel to Spain on Friday and make himself available to Spanish authorities in Madrid. Sjekirica told the newspaper that he learned that he is a suspect from media reports. He denied any involvement in the March 11 attack and said he "could not believe what was happening."
"Who? Me? No, no! Certainly not!"
Sanel's father, Alija Sjekirica, confirmed the report. "He is a good boy and he never got into any trouble," Sjekirica, 68, said by telephone from his home in the southern Bosnian city of Mostar. "I am sure that this is some kind of a mix-up." He told The Associated Press that his son fled to Spain in 1993 during the Bosnian war and was a student, though he was unable to specify what he is studying.
That's always a bad sign, Pop...
Sanel Sjekirica said he already had contacted Spanish police and informed them that he would be in Spain on Friday. "They told me that I am not a suspect but that there are some links they want to check," Sjekirica was quoted as saying. Spanish police last week asked the Bosnian office of Interpol to investigate Sjekirica, said Brane Pecanac, the head of the local Interpol bureau. Spain's Interior Ministry earlier this month released the names of three suspects, including Sjekirica, being sought for possible involvement in the group that carried out the attacks on commuter trains in Madrid. The bombings killed 191 people and wounded more than 1,800. Most of Bosnia's Muslims are secular and practice a moderate Islam, although extremist Islamic fighters â many from Arab countries â fought on the Muslim side in the country's 1992-95 war, which killed an estimated 260,000 people. Bosnia extradited six Algerians to U.S. authorities in 2002 after police arrested them in October 2001 following a U.S. intelligence alert that they were planning to attack the U.S. Embassy in Sarajevo and the U.S. military base in the northeastern city of Tuzla. One of the six, Bensayah Belkacem, had made several phone calls to one of al-Qaida leader Osama bin Laden's aides â Abu Zubaydah, the operations chief of al-Qaida in Afghanistan â according to U.S. intelligence information. Many stayed and were awarded Bosnian citizenship. Several of the six Algerians worked for Islamic humanitarian agencies in Bosnia.
If I was the CIA, I'd have a list six miles long of Islamic charities and their... ummm... associates. And I'd share it with the FBI...
Posted by: Fred ||
04/14/2004 10:40 ||
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The suspect, identified as Sanel Sjekirica, 23, told the daily Dnevni Avaz that he is in Sweden and will travel to Spain on Friday and make himself available to Spanish authorities in Madrid.... [Sanel's father] told The Associated Press that his son fled to Spain in 1993 during the Bosnian war and was a student, though he was unable to specify what he is studying.
Maybe he went to Spain to study Swedish.
.
Posted by: Mike Sylwester ||
04/14/2004 11:55 Comments ||
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#2
âMost of Bosnia's Muslims are secular and practice a moderate Islam, although extremist Islamic fighters _ many from Arab countries _ fought on the Muslim side in the country's 1992-95 war, which killed an estimated 260,000 peopleâ¦Many [Arab extremist Islamic fighters/jihadist volunteers] stayed and were awarded Bosnian citizenship. Several of the six Algerians worked for Islamic humanitarian agencies in Bosniaâ¦â
Well, I can tell you that some of the Arabs & their Islamic Bosnian hosts stayed there after the warâs conclusion, but many moved on to other conflict zones around the world. Some went to Chechenya, some returned home to their Arab home countries to stir up trouble, some went to Afghanistan to train new recruits and/or to fight the Northern Alliance, some went to Punjab & Kashmir, and a lot of them went to the United States of America. The Clinton Administration and the State Department had a refugee relocation program which brought veterans of the Bosnian & Kosovar conflicts to the U.S., to cities like Lexington, Kentucky, Louisville, Kentucky and St.Louis, Missouri. There are hundreds of thousands of âethnic Albaniansâ & âBosniansâ in those three cities. I lived in Lexington & now live in St.Louis. My sister went to school in Louisville. There are jihadists and terrorists sprinkeled in these Bosnian refugee communities. I had several friends in Lexington who are Bosnians, and my sister had some Bosnian friends in Louisville. They have friends from Egypt, Libya, & âPalestineâ, and sundry other Islamic countries which I assume they met at the local mosques. For the record I donât hang out with those Bosnians anymore (since 9-11), but I can tell you that the Clinton Administration let a lot of those jihadists from Bosnia walk right into our country. They even set them up with no interest business loans, etc. They were all trained in Afghan camps run by Bin Laden. The K.L.A., or Kosovar Liberation Army, was Clintonâs nominal allies in the Kosovo conflict. The K.L.A. were Afghan trained jihadists. I maintain that we, the United States, bombed the wrong guys in 1999. Slobodan Milosevic was among the first Westerners to combat Islamic terrorism. He was fighting Al-Qaida aided Muslim insurgents. We called it âethnic cleansingâ. There was talk of mass graves. Tell me, how many mass graves did they find? 3,000 bodies does not constitute genocide in my mind. It wasn't ethnic cleansing...it was a door-to-door government crackdown on Islamic guerrillas that were attempting to overthrow the Yugoslav government. Those âmass gravesâ were actually filled with the bodies of jihadists killed in combat with Christian Serb forces of Belgrade and their local allies. And I can tell you that all those Muslims I knew in Lexington were & are actively involved in drug sales, which worries me considering the article below about the Madrid bombers using drug money to finance their operations. Think twice the next time you buy your weed from a Bosnian. The money goes back to Afghanistan. The Bosnians in the U.S. sell weed from Afghanistan. I'm just worried that we're all overlooking potential enemies right here in our backyard. I fear the average American doesn't know who these Bosnians living amongst us are really all about. I first learned of Osama Bin Laden from these Bosnians several years before 9-11. They knew all about him. I remember hearing about the nationwide crackdown here in the U.S. after 9-11 and they said many suspects had been taken into custody in various cities and I remember hearing about suspects taken into custody in St.Louis, Louisville & Lexington. I used to drive right by their mosques and "Islamic Centers" all the time.
Terrorists who carried out the Madrid train bombings were members of a autonomous cell who may have had ties with fundamentalists elsewhere but got their financing chiefly from drug profits, the interior minister said Wednesday.
We keep running into this drugs -> terrorism connection. Or maybe it's drugs <-> terrorism...
Officials are investigating the possibility that someone with a deeper grounding in radical Islam — and perhaps terrorist training in Afghanistan or elsewhere — was the overall leader of the March 11 attacks that killed 191 people, but aren't sure such a person even exists, Interior Minister Angel Acebes said. Acebes said the person "has been called the emir," but would not give any other details.
The Nameless Mister Big™... Or should we call him Señor Grande?
Spain has received a letter and a video from an al-Qaida-linked group claiming responsibility for the Madrid attacks that warned of more violence unless Spain withdraws its troops from Iraq and Afghanistan. But they believe the group was largely confined to Spain and most of its members are either in custody or dead.
Like maybe all the guys on the vid happened to go "boom" at once?
The on-the-ground coordinator of the attacks is believed to be Serhane Ben Abdelmajid Fakhet, a 35-year-old Tunisian real estate agent who blew himself up with six other suspects on April 3 as police moved in to arrest them, Acebes told a news conference.
If Señor Grande was among them, it was strictly by accident. My guess is that he's in Poland or Austria. Or Pakistan.
The interior minister's remarks came as reports emerged that the cell might have been planning to target Jewish targets in Madrid. Members of Spain's Jewish community and Spanish officials said Wednesday that police searching the apartment where the suspects killed themselves found a document that mentioned a Jewish cemetery and cultural center called La Masada in a mountain town 20 miles northwest of Madrid. Police searched the area around Hoyo de Manzanares but found no bombs, said Fernando Esteban, the mayor of Hoyo de Manzanares. "They told us documents were found in the ... apartment in which the Masada center was named which indicated it might be a possible target," Esteban told The Associated Press. The Interior Ministry and officials at the National Court denied that evidence had been found which might indicate that any Jewish site might have been a target.
Any Jewish site's a target. Ask the Moroccans. And the Tunisians...
Acebes said the cell that staged the March 11 attacks "was local and autonomous, but its leaders have connections with other fundamentalist groups." He said investigators are pursuing leads in Britain, Germany, France, Belgium, Tunisia and Morocco. The group's funding came chiefly from drug sales, he said. The bombers apparently obtained the dynamite from petty criminals in a coal-mining region of northern Spain who accepted drugs as payment, Acebes said. The bombers also used proceeds from drug sales to rent an apartment, buy a car and purchase cell phones used as detonators in the bombs, which also wounded more than 1,800 people in four commuter trains, Acebes said. He gave no figure on how much money the bombers had raised with the drug sales. Acebes repeated that the core of the cell has been neutralized through a wave of arrests and the deaths of the suspects who committed suicide. But he refused to rule out future attacks by cell members who remain at large. Police are investigating whether the three bodies that remain to be identified from the apartment explosion might include someone who oversaw Fakhet's activities, Acebes said.
I doubt it greatly.
Posted by: Fred ||
04/14/2004 10:36 ||
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Yet another chapter for my future book, Fight Terrorism: Shoot a Pusher.
Posted by: Super Hose ||
04/14/2004 11:49 Comments ||
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#2
no wonder they voted in Zappy - they WERE all high on drugs.
Posted by: B ||
04/14/2004 11:49 Comments ||
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#3
Seems to me a better strategy to deny resources to the enemy is to decriminalize drugs and take away the profit margin. The evolution of the terrorists into drug gangs is inevitable if we don't. For example, just look at Columbia. Unfortunately, neither Bush nor Kerry are likely to put the politics of the drug war ahead of winning the real one.
Posted by: Larry ||
04/14/2004 13:47 Comments ||
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#4
Seems to me a better strategy to deny resources to the enemy is to decriminalize drugs and take away the profit margin.
Then they will move to the next illegal, but profitable activity.
Police arrested three Arabs on Tuesday in an alleged plot to bomb a Jewish museum two days before Israeli President Moshe Katsav was to inaugurate Budapest's Holocaust Memorial Center. An aide to Katsav and Israeli diplomats said the president, who came to Budapest on Tuesday for a three-day visit, was the target of the conspiracy. One Israeli analyst suggested the plot may have been motivated by Israel's assassination last month of Sheik Ahmed Yassin, founder of the Islamic militant group Hamas. Although Hamas vowed revenge against Israeli leaders, Hungarian police said they found no link to Hamas in this plot and had no concrete evidence linking Katsav's visit to the planned attack.
In Jerusalem, Boaz Ganor, an anti-terror expert from Israel's Herzliya Interdisciplinary Institute, said Hamas might be trying to show "that it has the capability of acting abroad," despite pledging to restrict its attacks to Israel, the West Bank and Gaza. Hamas denied any involvement in a plot to kill Katsav. "I can certainly say that Hamas has nothing to do with this matter," Hamas representative Osama Hamdan told The Associated Press in Beirut, Lebanon.
Senior Hungarian law enforcement officials denied a link between the arrests and Katsav's visit. "There is no connection whatsoever between today's official visit by the Israeli president and the police action taken this morning," said National Police Commissioner Laszlo Salgo. Police said the main suspect was a 42-year-old dentist of Palestinian origin who holds Hungarian citizenship and is the spiritual head of a small Islamic group in Budapest. Monitored phone calls of the suspect revealed he had asked acquaintances for explosives "to blow up a Jewish museum," said Police Lt. Col. Attila Petofi of the National Investigation Agency. There are two Jewish museums in the capital, a small permanent exhibit and the larger Holocaust Center. Although there were no immediate links to terror organizations such as al-Qaida, the possibility of such a connection was one of the main lines of the police investigation, said Police Col. Gyorgy Zsombok.
The timing of Tuesday's police operation and statements by Israeli officials suggested fears the plot may have been planned for Thursday's inauguration of the Holocaust Memorial Center. Katsav, in comments to Israeli TV Channel Two, said Hungarian authorities at first told him he had been the target "but later the authorities clarified that it was still under investigation." "I know at first there was an indication that they wanted to harm me, but there is no certainty of that."
Speaking on condition of anonymity, a law enforcement official told The Associated Press police were tipped off to the plot by another man of Palestinian origin who allegedly was recruited to carry out the planned bombing. The second Palestinian and a Syrian national had been in police custody suspected of car theft and other crimes when their connection with the plot was discovered. Two other Syrians were also detained and questioned in the terrorism case Tuesday, but were not suspects, police said. The investigation so far had turned up no explosives, detonating devices or weapons, police said.
Posted by: Dan Darling ||
04/14/2004 12:57:33 AM ||
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These Arabs immigrants sure do contribute a lot to their adopted new homelands.
Posted by: Mike Sylwester ||
04/14/2004 8:39 Comments ||
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The Al-Qaeda network was not linked to a plot to bomb a Jewish museum in Hungary during Israeli President Moshe Katsav's visit, the national police's counter-terrorism chief said, a foreign news agency reported on Wednesday.
You sure of that, are you?
"According to our current information there is no link with the Al-Qaeda network or with international terrorist organisations," Gyorgy Zsombork said. "However we are continuing to analyse kilogrammes of documents, most of them written in Arab, that we confiscated yesterday in house searches."
I'll take that as a "No", then.
Posted by: Steve ||
04/14/2004 11:33 Comments ||
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Islamists, believed responsible for the March 11 bombings in Madrid, threatened further attacks even after the new Spanish government takes over next week because of anger over the presence of Spanish troops in Afghanistan, Spainâs interior ministry said on Tuesday.
A video tape recorded by the three suspected masterminds of the Madrid train bombings shortly before they and four other accomplices blew themselves up to avoid capture by police indicated that more attacks were planned after the Socialist government of Prime Minister Jose Luis Rodriguez Zapatero is sworn in next week.
"After determining that the situation has not changed and that your new government launched its mandate by a crackdown against Muslims and the dispatching of additional troops to Afghanistan, the Ansar al-Qaeda and death brigades have decided to follow the path of Jihad and resistance," the suspects said in their recorded video message, a transcript of which was released by the ministry.
The video showed three armed, masked men, one of whom read out a statement containing the ultimatum in the name of "the Al Mufti and Ansar al-Qaeda brigades". The videotape, demanding the "immediate" withdrawal of Spanish troops from "Muslim lands"-a reference to the US-led forces in Iraq and Afghanistan-was found in the ruins of the apartment where the seven Islamic militants committed collective suicide.According to the transcript, the Islamists gave the Spanish government a one-week ultimatum to withdraw its troops from "Muslim bases immediately and unconditionally" or face Jihad.
Posted by: Dan Darling ||
04/14/2004 12:55:39 AM ||
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So when do the Spainiards get thier eviction notice to vacate Spain?
"... brigade located in Al-Andalus has decided not to leave here until your troops leave their Muslim bases immediately and unconditionally. If you do not do so within a week from today, we will continue our jihad until martyrdom in the land of Tarek Ben Ziyad."
And who is Tarek Ben Ziyad? In this comment "Pep" explains:
" The terrorists are referring to Tariq Ben Ziyad, who defeated the last Goth King in Spain in year 711 in the battle of Guadalete, after crossing the Strait of Gibraltar. His victory was the starting point of the muslim invasion of the Iberian Peninsula which would last 7 centuries, until in 1492 the Catholic Kings captured the last stronghold of the muslims, Granada..."
Not too far wrong, raptor!
Posted by: Old Grouch ||
04/14/2004 16:44 Comments ||
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A gun collector recalled today being confronted by a masked gunman outside his rural home near Royal, Ark., the morning of Nov. 5, 1994. .... Moore and McVeigh had met at gun shows. The two had a falling out.
Moore, who now lives in Florida, said the robber was armed with a pistol-grip shotgun with a garrote wire -- the kind that can be used to cut a neck. He said the robber wore Israeli combat boots, camouflage clothing, a jacket and a black ski mask. Moore told jurors he had walked outside his house when the robber came up from behind him and put the muzzle of the shotgun to the back of his neck. He said the robber ordered him to lay down. He said he looked at the robber and was ordered to lay down again. He had to crawl back inside the house. Moore said the robber bound his hands and ankles with plastic ties, put duct tape over his eyes and tossed a jacket over his head. .... He said he listened as the robber removed his guns and other belongings from his bedroom. He said the robber cut the plastic ties at one point and taped his hands and feet after he complained his hands were becoming numb.
Moore said he lost some 70 guns, as well as jade, precious stones, gold Tiki dolls, gold coins, silver coins, silver bars, cameras and $8,700 in cash. Jurors heard earlier that the FBI found some of the guns in Nicholsâ house after the Oklahoma City bombing.
Defense attorneys contend Moore either staged the robbery or a group of bank robbers are to blame.
Posted by: Mike Sylwester ||
04/14/2004 11:12:50 PM ||
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A gun dealerâs girlfriend testified that as many as 35 rifles and handguns and packages of armor-piercing ammunition found in the home of bombing conspirator Terry Nichols were taken from the dealerâs rural Arkansas home. Karen Anderson said Tuesday that she and Roger Moore operated a gun-show business called American Assault Co. She said she was at a gun show in Shreveport, La., on the day of the Nov. 5, 1994, robbery but that she talked to Moore soon afterward.
Also taken were $8,700 in cash, gold and silver coins, a quilt and a cigar box containing as many as 50 pieces of jade from Costa Rico. A cigar box with similar jade pieces was recovered in a storage unit leased by Nichols near Las Vegas. Following the robbery, several hundred dollars in cash was found in Mooreâs van, which was also taken. Anderson pulled a thick wad of cash from her pants pocket to demonstrate what the money looked like. "Just like that," she said, the bills folded in half. Moore is expected to testify Wednesday. ....
But defense attorneys claim the robbery was committed under executed bomber McVeighâs direction by other co-conspirators, possibly members of a group of bank-robbing white supremacists. ...
Anderson said she told the FBI that McVeigh could be a suspect in the robbery because he had visited the couple several times after they met in the spring of 1993 at a gun show in Tulsa. On his last visit, McVeigh had argued with Moore over McVeighâs attempts to sell flare launchers he had made using Mooreâs design. McVeigh couldnât sell them and wanted Moore to buy them. "Iâm not really happy with you stealing my idea," Anderson said she overheard Moore tell McVeigh. She said McVeigh left a few hours later.
Posted by: Mike Sylwester ||
04/14/2004 11:09:24 PM ||
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The Bear seems to be the first person to have noticed this:
After all the hearings that the commission has had on the failures of our government to prevent 9/11, or even to respond effectively while it was happening, shouldnât there be at least one hearing to discuss what went right on that day? Where is the session devoted to studying the actions of the passengers of Flight 93, and their success at foiling the terrorists they confronted? Is there nothing at all to be learned from their actions, and their sacrifice -- or is the comissison just more interested in finding fault than in actually recognizing success?
Or is it a more basic blindness --- is the 9/11 commission, and our government in general, incapable of recognizing a defense against terrorism that merely consists of individual Americans willing to fight when it becomes necessary? That a defense that doesnât require a huge appropriation bill and a massive administrative army simply doesnât fit with the Washington mindset?
Heâs right. Everyone involved in this inquiry seems to have forgotten the 93rd Volunteer Infantry. We shouldnât.
Letâs roll!
Posted by: Mike ||
04/14/2004 1:46:07 PM ||
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Also the way the emergency services responded, the way NYC wasn't looted and burned that day, how the nation turned itself inside out to help when we came under attack. Feh.
#2
..One thing that I'm sorry isn't being seriously looked at and looked at HARD is the way USAF interceptors were deployed that day. I am proud beyond words of the way the USAF aircrew, support people and NORAD - both US and Canadian, BTW - handled the emergency once it broke. These folks live up to the highest traditions we have. (I am reliably advised that the pilots who were intercepting FLT 93 stated afterwards that if it had come down to it, they were prepared to ram the airliner if they had to.)
On the other hand, there needs to be some explaining as to why:
1. Washington DC was defended by aircraft stationed at Langley AFB, VA...200 miles SOUTH.
2. Many of the aircraft on alert that morning - and BTW, there were fewer than 20 for the ENTIRE US - were carrying no live ammo.
3. Even our most pacific Allies maintain CAP over their capitols...but we don't.
Mike
Posted by: Mike Kozlowski ||
04/14/2004 13:55 Comments ||
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#3
Great article, great comments. Not to mention the status reports being phoned in from the other planes, or the heroic performance of some of the WTC tenants, such as Rick Rescorla, who was mentioned here the other day.
Posted by: Matt ||
04/14/2004 14:08 Comments ||
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#4
I cannot speak for anyone else in this matter, but I know that on 9-11 my own personal traveling protocol changed forever.
If anyone tries to hijack a plane I am riding on, I will do my best to kill them. Not hurt them or disable them, kill them. They will not get a second chance to do any harm and I will encourage all other passengers in assisting me to snap the spine of anyone who tries to commandeer a plane I am on.
I am amazed that the very few hijackers since 9-11 didn't come out of their planes in body bags.
My family and I flew to Orlando just after Christmas '01. I had no worries. If anyone messed with that plane, I was going to get out of my seat and kill them--and I was confident there were at least 50 other people on that MD-80 that would be with me.
No one will ever hijack an American domestic flight again.
Posted by: Mike ||
04/14/2004 14:24 Comments ||
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Hell, I pity the fool who tries to get up that first 30 minutes out or the last 30 minutes into Reagan National. Two words: Sock. Party.
The trial of a Saudi Arabian student accused of using his computer to help Islamic militants overseas is being seen as a key test of a USA Patriot Act provision that prohibits offering help to terrorist groups.
Saudi, huh? Don't need to check the meter.
A 12-person jury was seated Tuesday to hear the case of Sami Omar Al-Hussayen, 34, a University of Idaho graduate student facing three counts of supporting terrorism by running Web sites that support the violent Palestinian group Hamas and organizations that advocate attacks on the United States. He also has been accused of maintaining bank accounts in four states to funnel money to a Michigan organization that federal agents claim has links to terrorists. In addition, the government has filed visa fraud and false statement charges against Al-Hussayen.
Sami has been a busy boy.
A federal judge questioned potential jurors on their knowledge of Islam, religious conflicts in the Middle East and Chechnya, their computer ability and their personal feelings on terrorism before attorneys picked the final panelist.
I don't think defence attorneys want any Rantburg readers on that jury.
"These issues are somewhat volatile and the type of things that sometimes cause a person to get angry," U.S. District Judge Edward Lodge said. "It's important that you keep an open mind throughout the trial." Opening statements were scheduled Wednesday.
Al-Hussayen, who has denied any wrongdoing, has been charged with a Patriot Act provision that a federal judge in California already has ruled threatens both First and Fifth Amendment rights.
"Lies, all lies!"
U.S. District Judge Audrey Collins ruled in January that the act's measure barring "expert advice or assistance" to groups designated foreign terrorist organizations is too vague. "We have a law that is shaky at best," said Rand Lewis, director of the Martin Institute for Peace Studies and Conflict Resolution and the Martin School of International Affairs at the University of Idaho. "My feeling is that Sami is going to be the test case in this."
He said the government was attempting to use the law to prosecute not terrorist leaders, their lieutenants or those who actively support them with cash and safe-havens, but people who may inadvertently provide assistance because of their special skills. "Passive supporters often don't know they're supporting terrorism," Lewis said. "So when you get into these gray areas about what people know and what they don't know, I think the law is going to have a difficult time."
Maybe on the web support, but he's gonna have a hard time explaining those bank accounts.
Al-Hussayen, jailed since his arrest 14 months ago, spoke frequently with defense attorney David Nevin during jury selection. Several friends from Moscow, Idaho, were in the courtroom in a show of support. "It's just a misunderstanding," said Samir Shahat, an Egyptian who came to know Al-Hussayen while a visiting researcher at the University of Idaho. "It is very difficult to believe that this innocent person can be such a monster."
To an Egyptian, maybe. By the way, Samir, mind if we look at your visa?
The terrorism counts are punishable by up to 15 years each, the visa fraud charges by up to 25 years each and the false-statement counts by five years each. Al-Hussayen has been declared subject to deportation.
Posted by: Steve ||
04/14/2004 9:11:37 AM ||
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and then how do you say DEPORT the bastard.
Posted by: Bill Nelson ||
04/14/2004 9:38 Comments ||
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Jury selection wrapped up Tuesday afternoon as U.S. District Judge Edward Lodge and lawyers on both sides whittled a pool of 75 people to a jury of 12 and two alternates...He asked prospective jurors what they knew about Islam, prejudice against Muslims and religious conflicts in the Middle East and Chechnya. He asked about the Internet, Web site development and computer technology in general. Lodge also asked the Idaho juror pool whether anyone knew any Muslims or had been to Ground Zero in New York, where planes crashed into the World Trade Center on Sept. 11, 2001.
#4
When Sami gets inside, he'll have plenty of chances to learn some new skilz from his 300 pound cellmate, Bubba.
If this kid has any brains that aren't bashed out after the very first day, he's going to learn to pronounce the phrase "protective isolation" in a d@mn hurry.
On April 9, 2003, Baghdad fell far faster than most media commentators, and even most military commanders, had expected. The U.S. armed forces looked invincible.
A year later, the perception is very different. The carnage in Iraq is front page news week in, week out. U.S. forces in Iraq are beleaguered on two fronts and appear unable to vanquish their foes. They have suffered three times more casualties since the fall of Baghdad than they did during the war itself. What accounts for this?
The answer to that question was provided by political scientist Barry Posen in the scholarly journal International Security last summer. His thesis was that âthe United States enjoys command of the commons â command of the sea, space and air.â No other country has naval, space or air forces remotely capable of challenging ours. But this edge slips away the closer U.S. forces get to the enemy.
In âcontested zonesâ â âbelow 15,000 feet (altitude), within several hundred kilometers of the shore, and on landâ â even relatively unsophisticated foes have a good chance of inflicting serious harm on our troops.
This is precisely what weâve seen in Iraq, where American soldiers have proved enticing targets for enemies armed with cheap, simple weapons like rocket-propelled grenades and homemade bombs. All the high-tech weapons in the U.S. arsenal are of little use against a foe you canât find.
U.S. troops have little choice but to venture into such messy âcontested zonesâ if they want to win the war on terrorism. Otherwise they will be limited to ineffectual gestures such as cruise missile strikes against terrorist training camps (like the ones Bill Clinton launched against Afghanistan in August 1998). Unfortunately, winning the close-in fight against guerrillas requires skills that the U.S. armed forces donât possess in abundance. It requires, above all, the ability to generate âactionableâ intelligence about who and where the terrorists are.
The only way to get good information in a place like Afghanistan or Iraq is to spend a lot of time there, drinking tea with the locals and earning their trust. But not many U.S. officials do that. All of the U.S. soldiers who spent the last year in Iraq have gone home or are about to. They are being replaced by an entirely new crew that will need months to figure out which sheiks and mullahs to cultivate. Likewise, in Afghanistan the military starts virtually from scratch every six to 12 months as new units rotate in and old ones leave.
The situation is no better among the diplomats and spies who are supposed to support military operations. As Greg Miller and Bob Drogin of the Los Angeles Times reported in February, many CIA agents who âtake sensitive overseas assignments are willing to serve only 30-to-90-day rotations, a revolving-door approach that has undercut the agencyâs ability to cultivate ties to warlords in Afghanistan or collect intelligence on the Iraqi insurgency.â
The CIA and the State Department allow officers to specialize in a particular region, but they can rarely spend too long actually living there without hurting their chances of promotion.
Thatâs also true in the Army. Moreover, itâs common for CIA, military and State Department officers to be reassigned to a region far outside their expertise â a Latin America specialist being sent to Asia, for instance. For a better approach, we should emulate what the British did when they were engaged in many of the same places that currently bedevil us.
Look at the example of Col. Robert Warburton, who spoke fluent Persian and Pashto and spent 18 years (1879-97) as the political officer in the Northwest Frontier Province of what is today Pakistan. He kept this volatile region (now a Taliban and al-Qaida stronghold) quiet through his personal influence. âIn an area where every male was habitually armed at all times,â historian Byron Farwell wrote, âhe went about with only a walking stick.â Within a month of his retirement, the area was swept by an Islamic fundamentalist revolt that took thousands of British soldiers to put down.
The U.S. military has the best âsmartâ weapons in the world. But unless we get more smart, knowledgeable people like Warburton, we will always be at a major disadvantage in the war on terrorism.
Posted by: tipper ||
04/14/2004 6:26:37 AM ||
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* Yawn *
More defeatist bullshit. And from an American media outlet.
What a surprise.
I think the writer should apply to Sadr for a job in writing propoganda. Lord knows that man can't cash any checks his mouth is writing.
Oh wait, but the time Sadr gets your resume, he will be dead or wearing his very own toe tag
#2
badanov - agreed!! But I like this line...ooohhh ouch - even his friends are willing to use Clinton's total ineptitude to wack Bush on the head. Oh the sweet irony.
Otherwise they will be limited to ineffectual gestures such as cruise missile strikes against terrorist training camps (like the ones Bill Clinton launched against Afghanistan in August 1998)
#3
Weapons?? We don't need no stinking weapons! We need tea, we need Col Robert Warburton. Silly Americans, weapons are for kids!!!
WOW! I was surprised this wasn't written by a Euro weenie...as it is almost a primer of the Euro weenie belief system on how to win a war. It's not a worthy piece to fisk entirely, however canât resist sharing with you all this view into the window into the workings of a Euro weenie/NATO/ diplomat's mind.
DISCLAIMER: it's not that I disagree with any particular point that the author is making, so please don't come back and argue any particular point with me. Rather, I'm simply pointing out that this reflects the typical Euro weenie/Liberal/Elite/NATO mindset that there simply wouldn't be any "messy contested zone", if we just sipped more tea and engaged in more witty repartee.
The only way to get good information in a place like Afghanistan or Iraq is to spend a lot of time there, drinking tea with the locals and earning their trust.
Ah..sip tea..have a party, have a meeting, have a conference... Get the UN and everyone go to lunch on the taxpayer's dime. But whatever you do....make NO decisions on a course of action that requires leadership. Just mingle with wit and you too can pretend to be a part of something big and doing something important...without actually having to do anything specific about a problem.
But not many U.S. officials do that.
Maybe that's because they are too busy actually fighting the war that rid Iraq of Sadaam, you know...rather than just having lunch and making witty quips about how stupid the Americans are.
All of the U.S. soldiers who spent the last year in Iraq have gone home or are about to.
I suppose this is as opposed to past techniques of the British or French, who made it a habit of moving in and colonizing the place. It's an ARMY for heaven's sake. It's a WAR.
But here it is right here, my friends, a clear view into the Euro weenie/liberal/intellectual mind. Never will you find it more clear than this statement, NO make that BELIEF than is expressed by this following paragraph :
Look at the example of Col. Robert Warburton, who spoke fluent Persian and Pashto and spent 18 years (1879-97) as the political officer in the Northwest Frontier Province of what is today Pakistan. He kept this volatile region (now a Taliban and al-Qaida stronghold) quiet through his personal influence. âIn an area where every male was habitually armed at all times,â historian Byron Farwell wrote, âhe went about with only a walking stick.â Within a month of his retirement, the area was swept by an Islamic fundamentalist revolt that took thousands of British soldiers to put down.
There it is. That's it in a nutshell. All you need to do to win a war is to sip tea, make friends among the locals and send in a Col. Robert Warburton, intellectual-pacificst, to walk among the people and you can have peace in our time.
It's just THAT simple, you simple minded Americans.
#4
Well, in fact many of our officers in Iraq have indeed sipped a great deal of tea with Iraqi leaders over the past year.
Major General Odierno, commander of the 4th Infantry Division, has estimated that his officers averaged nearly 300 hours a WEEK in the Sunni Triangle area doing precisely this. And it worked in most places.
He also has said that where it didn't work, firm military action was both necessary and productive. Remember Samarra? Convoys with the new Iraqi currency were ambushed. Hotbed of Sunni resistance. The 4th ID fired every Iraqi policeman from the chief on down, then made armed sweeps for about 12 hrs. After that, they broke off operations to have discussions with friendly Iraqi leaders (who were friendly in part because of all that tea drinking). A day later, they began a tough operation throughout that region ... it lasted 3 weeks and included armor in the city streets, arrests, raids, missile strikes etc.
Once the operation was over and the key attacker network destroyed, dozens of really good intel tips came pouring into the Coalition camp.
At the same time, Odierno released $25 million (yes, you read that right) in commander's funds for city infrastructure and other projects.
Result: you haven't heard much about Samarra lately because it is peaceful, prosperous and run by an Iraqi administration.
So I agree, B, that tea drinking isn't the only step required. And the tone of the article is obnoxious. The fact is, our officers have been doing an incredible job of outreach even though that isn't the main job they trained for.
Source for this info: I attended an hour+ briefing Odierno gave yesterday, but the facts can be gathered from news stories and CPA briefings from last November.
#6
I always read a lot of carping about how the State Department is a bunch of wimps. In my opinion they are supposed to be wimps. I hear the same thing in my job. Sales are wimps. They always roll over for the customer. They're working for company X, not us.
I've run three major intellectual property acquisitions in the past five years. In two, we dealt directly with the management of the selling company. Both were disasters. In one, we dealt with a sales intermediary. It went smoothly and has been the most successful one we've had so far.
The sales guy I worked with, helped us with three key compromises. If we didn't have those compromises, the deal would have been as screwed up as the other two. From his boss's point of view was he rolling over? Probably. But the result is that he got his boss a lot of revenue that he wouldn't have if he had been confrontational.
Now I know that this post is out of character for me since I am usually baying for blood, but my experience in my military and civilian careers is that the times for confrontation and for compromise are distinct and generally need to be run by different people. My problem with Fallujah and Sadr has been that we've been trying to compromise when we should be confronting. "Punch them! Don't tickle them!" as the great Heinz Guderian once said. Once they're dead or on their knees, then it's once again time for diplomacy and compromise. Odierno and Petreus seemed to understand that. Unfortunately, there's been other commanders and a lot of politicians who don't.
#7
As the body counts and who is in charge in both Iraq and Afghanistan shows, the US has the most intelligent weapon ever that is tough and durable beyond degree...the average 19 year old trooper
#8
rkb, the writer is spot-on in many aspects. Right, our military is there to fight, but why not try to fight just the ones who will never agree with the mission? Cull the bad ones from the good, give the good ones a reason to work with our guys. Remember, LTC Steve Russell? Wasn't he in Fallujah? He said proudly how much vodka he had drunk with the sheiks. Those who did not work with Steve were shot at. It seemed to work, not 100%, of course, but look at the place now. The sole reason? I don't know, but you can be sure, the Terrorists knew about the rotation and it would only be smart of them to test the new guys. The Marines and other new arrivals have a huge learning curve.
Re diplomats. Yeah, based on my foreign experience and knowing these guys form coaching Little League and soccer, but still, at the same time, from the outside looking in (the kids differentiated it as "commisary", i.e. the kids whose parents worked at the embassy and "not comissary, i.e. the kids whose parents worked for contractors and private firms), many State people look at postings as another place to enjoy the pool, SUV, maids, hotel discounts, and diplomatic passports before being rotated to DC for 2 years. Then it's on to the next adventure. Couldn't ask for a better job.
But get down and dirty? Yeah, there are a few who do, but most are in the diplo business for the ass-kissing they receive. We definitely need diplos who can be counted on for more than 60-90 days.
Posted by: Michael ||
04/14/2004 14:18 Comments ||
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#9
I think Steve Russell was in Tikrit, not Fallujah. The problem with Fallujah is that it's al Dourhi's home town, and he's still on the lam. We really need to collar him. As for diplospeak, I like the saying of a 2nd Century BC Roman legion commander: It's better to be feared than treated with contempt. I think the people of Fallujah are going to learn what it means to fear the US Marines.
Posted by: Old Patriot ||
04/14/2004 14:50 Comments ||
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#10
Speaking of al Dourhi - anyone want to speculate on just who that important person catured a few days ago in Fallujah might have been? Am away from my main computer, so don't have the link to the article - it was either Kimmit speaking or a CPA briefing ....
#11
Right o, Old Patriot. Tikrit it was. And BTW, that place has been out of the news in the past couple of weeks. Think LTC Steve's vodka sessions had anything to do with that?
#12
It seems that the author omits one very crucial fact:
Most terror and underground Arabic operations rely heavily upon familial relationships. It matters not if you speak pashto and farsi better than the natives, if you don't have a blood tie, you will not penetrate these organizations very often.
For this reason, it is often more productive to work with intelligence intercepts and glean profiles from cell phone usage, Internet activity and laptop drives. Language is useful for these analysis methods and family trees don't enter into it.
Unidentified assailants fired mortars at a border police camp and an attempt to derail trains was thwarted today in southern Thailandâs troubled, Muslim-dominated south, officials said.
The incidents occurred as Prime Minister Thaksin Shinawatra prepared to spend the night at a Buddhist temple in the region after a half-day visit to the area.
Thaksin was in Pattani province, about a two-hour drive from the Bannangsata district of Yala province where three M-79 mortars were fired at a Border Patrol Police camp.
One mortar hit a temporary shelter in the camp, damaging it, but there were no casualties, police Lieutenant Colonel Pitak Eadkaew.
Elsewhere in Pattani, maintenance workers discovered about 80 bolts removed from a section of track about 4km from the Pa Rai train station, said the stationâs chief, Wiphap Chusong.
Indonesian police have moved closer to declaring Muslim preacher Abu Bakar Bashir a suspect in a fresh case after gathering evidence from witnesses in neighbouring countries, the police chief said on Wednesday. The 65-year-old Bashir is in jail for immigration offences and is due to be freed on April 30, a prospect that has alarmed the United States and other governments.
Could always deport him to Singapore, y'know...
Police building the new case delayed plans last week to interrogate Bashir, saying investigators needed more evidence against the jailed preacher, accused by some governments of heading the Al Qaeda-linked Jemaah Islamiah militant network. Police chief General Dai Bachtiar -- who two weeks ago said Bashir could be named a suspect -- said investigators had returned from Malaysia, the Philippines and Singapore, where numerous Jemaah Islamiah operatives have been arrested. âLater, if all that testimony is complete, all the witnesses are lined up and everything is properly recorded, heâll be a suspect,â Bachtiar told reporters, sticking to his previous refusal to give details of possible charges.
"We're working on it. Don't rush us..."
Bashirâs lawyers have said their client would be interrogated under Indonesiaâs anti-terrorism law. Bashir was arrested just after the Bali bombings. He has denied links to Jemaah Islamiah and terrorism. The police chief said he believed Bashir would be interrogated soon, although he gave no timeframe. âWe just need to find a good timing. But I think it will be soon,â Bachtiar said. Bashirâs lawyers have accused the worldâs most populous Muslim nation of caving in to foreign pressure to go after Bashir again after previous charges of links to Jemaah Islamiah were either dismissed or overturned in lower courts.
Wassa motta? The fix not staying in?
The police moves have surprised some analysts, coming before Bashir has been released and at a sensitive time when Indonesia has just held parliamentary elections, with the countryâs first direct presidential poll to follow in July. But campaigning for the April 5 parliamentary poll showed there was little support for radical views espoused by Bashir.
... so nobody'll really care that much if his neck's lengthened significantly.
Jemaah Islamiah wants to set up a pan-Islamic state in parts of the region. Some arrested Jemaah Islamiah suspects detained elsewhere in Southeast Asia cooperated in the previous investigation against Bashir.
Posted by: Fred ||
04/14/2004 8:49:01 PM ||
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#1
If Indonesia fails to rearrest Bashir before he is released from custody, the next Southeast Asian atrocity will be on their heads. Bashir needs to be taken offline but fast before the entire region ignites in a sh!tstorm of Islamist atrocities.
The Islamic organization Majelis Mujahiddin Indonesia (MMI) on Wednesday urged the Japanese government to reject the US pressure on combating Islamic followers, especially in Iraq, by withdrawing its troops from the country, said a senior official of the organization. If the Japanese government does not stop its participation in the US actions in Iraq, it will endanger its citizens in Indonesia, said Fauzan, head of data and information of the MMI, a major radical Islamic group in Indonesia, after meeting with the Japanese consulate general in the Japanese Embassy here. Six MMI representatives met for one and a half hours with the consulate general, conveying the message of MMI Chairman Abu Bakar Bashir who has been in jail.
Seems like he's running the organization from jug, doesn't it?
"Abu Bakar Bashir said that Japan should reject the US pressure, so the Japanese citizens will not become enemies of Islamic followers," Fauzan told reporters.
At least not until it's their turn...
"Whoever joins the United States, will be considered as the US ally and would become a target,... a common enemy of the Mujahiddin,including those military or civilians," he claimed. "We do not want the Japanese citizens here to become unrest because of the situation in Iraq, I do not want the Iraqi problem penetrating here," he said. "We also urged the Mujahiddinin Iraq to release innocent hostages," he said.
Posted by: TS ||
04/14/2004 9:19:07 AM ||
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#1
"Abu Bakar Bashir said that Japan should reject the US pressure, so the Japanese citizens will not become enemies of Islamic followers," Fauzan told reporters.
Bashir desperately needs a case of rapid onset lead poisoning.
Police on Tuesday arrested six suspects they said were part of a network of Aceh separatists involved in an abortive attempt to bomb a mall here last month. Officers were hunting down two more suspects believed to be the masterminds of the bombing attempt, police said. Medan Police chief of detectives Adj. Comr. Maruli Siahaan said the arrests of the suspects would prove false allegations key Jamaah Islamiyah member Dr. Azhari was involved in the incident.
Am I the only one to which the phrasing of this statement looks odd?
It's legalese for: "This was local boys building bombs, not JI". Since the bomb didn't go off, he may be right, JI's bombs work.
The six were arrested separately at various places in Medan this month, Maruli said. He was optimistic police would arrest the two masterminds of the operation soon. The police for the first time paraded the six men in front of journalists. They were identified as M. Nur alias Raju alias Bodrin, Ridwan, Frizal Wahyu, Charial Husen, Ismail and Syafrizal. All are suspected members of the rebel Free Aceh Movement (GAM). Raju, 27, an alleged bomb maker, confessed he had agreed to assemble the bomb because he was promised with millions of rupiah in a fee. He had only received Rp 3.5 million (US$410) and was asked to get the remainder from another suspect, Syafrizal, he said. "I assembled the bomb at the order of Wak Li (who is still at large). Materials for the bomb were given (to me) by Wak Li through his friend Bruju, from Aceh, but he did not say where he bought them from," Raju told The Jakarta Post. He explained the bomb he assembled would have exploded within two hours after Frizal Wahyu had planted it in the mall. "I was the one who set the timer. I was given the authority to do it. I was not ordered to detonate the bomb at a certain time," he said. Raju said he learned to make bombs from his friend, known only as Asnawi, in 2000. According to Raju, Asnawi offered to teach him how to make bombs because he said the skill was worth money. The bomb was found by an employee of the Macan Yaohan mall. It was tied together with two detonators, nine batteries and a timer but failed to explode due to a low battery charge.
See, Dr. Azhari wouldn't have made this mistake. Not all boomers in S.E.A. are JI, it just seems that way.
The police had earlier requested assistance from two members of the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) to investigate the bomb. The FBI members' conclusion has not been made public.
Posted by: Dan Darling ||
04/14/2004 1:27:15 AM ||
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Existence of Jemaah Islamiyah cells in the cities of Kidapawan, Koronadal, Cotabato and General Santos City has been strengthened with the confirmation made by a key official of the justice department. North Cotabato Gov. Emmanuel Piñol Monday said a Department of Justice (DOJ) special prosecutor on anti-terrorism was sent to Mindanao last week to meet with local leaders and sound the alarm of the presence of JI cells in the said cities. In fact, Piñol said, the DOJ suspects that JI members were the authors of the October 2002 bombing in this city that killed a number of people and wounded many others. "We have always been on alert for possible JI activities," Piñol said, adding that there is a possibility that all other bombings in the said JI permeated cities could have been perpetrated by the group linked to know terrorist Osama bin Laden.
US Charge d'affaires Joseph Mussomeli said he and embassy staff gave an intelligence briefing to Arroyo last month, hinting that it led to the arrest of six members of the Al-Qaeda-linked Abu Sayyaf. Mussomeli said US officials had sought an urgent intelligence briefing with Arroyo on March 22. "The thing that was unique perhaps is that the information that both the Philippines and American officials were gathering was extraordinarily high so there was urgency on both sides to talk and discuss and see what can be done," Mussomeli said. Mussomeli also rejected an account of the meeting with Arroyo given by the New York Times, which said Manila was quietly warned by the US that it had not been doing enough to crack down on terrorists. He said there had been concern about terrorist activities and some "serious discussions. But the use of terms like reproach and reprimand is silly." Asked if Washington was satisfied with Arroyo's anti-terror efforts, Mussomeli said, "I think satisfied is an understatement. I think the last several weeks has been particularly impressive, as I wrote in my letter to the president, I think on March 31st. The efforts have been extraordinary."
"The United States and the Philippines have worked as strong strategic partners in the war against terror. Those who are talking about fictitious diplomatic reproaches or anything of the sort only want this partnership to fail, and they are playing into the hands of terrorists," Arroyo said. Presidential spokesman Ignacio Bunye said the government is very determined in its campaign while deputy spokesman Ricardo Saludo said the Philippines does not need any prompting from the US or any other country to act on the terrorist threat.
Posted by: Dan Darling ||
04/14/2004 1:25:04 AM ||
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Members of the international community continue to maintain that Mindanao is a training ground for terrorists in Southeast Asia despite the Philippine governmentâs insistence that it is doing a good job against terrorism. In separate speeches, Australian Foreign Affairs Minister Alexander Downer and Deputy Prime Minister of Singapore Lee Hsien Loong both claimed that the Jemaah Islamiyah (JI) terrorist organization is working with the Moro Islamic Liberation Front in training new terrorists.
Comes as a surprise, doesn't it?
In his speech before the Australian Press Club in Canberra yesterday, Downer said that there is "ample evidence of increasing coordination among terrorist groups." "JI, for instance, is cooperating with Islamic groups in the southern Philippines, to the point of sharing facilities and operational expertise," he said. Downer made this observation as he noted that successes against terrorist groups over the past few years have not ended their operation, particularly the JI as the main regional terrorist organization. "Terror cells are planning for the medium and long term. They are patient. So we must continue our vigilance â and continue to fight this battle on many fronts," he said.
Deputy Prime Minister Lee of Singapore also believes that the JI has a "supporting infrastructure that continues to facilitate its terrorist activities." "Military training facilities, for example, in Mindanao are still turning out regional militants in bomb-making and other military skills," Lee said in a recent speech before the Inter-Racial Confidence Circles Forum in Singapore. The two officials stressed the need for continued cooperation between the countries in the region to tackle terrorism. They noted that the war will last long so there is a need for tough and sustained actions against the terrorist groups. The US has repeatedly claimed that JI terrorist cells are training inside the camps of the MILF but so far no direct action has been taken on these claims. It is suspected that the Arroyo administration is being careful in acting against the MILF since peace talks with the rebel group resumed.
Posted by: Dan Darling ||
04/14/2004 1:23:34 AM ||
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Another Filipino gang about which less is known is the Rajah Solaiman Group. While the MILF and ASG say they want to carve an Islamic state in the south of the predominantly Catholic Philippines, the Rajah Solaiman Group reportedly has more ambitious plans. According to a report on an Islamic website in June 2002, the group was described as a "back to Islam" movement that sought to emphasize an Islamic revival throughout the country. It promoted the idea that much of the Philippines' main island in the north, Luzon, was Muslim before the 16th century arrival of the Spaniards, who introduced Catholicism. Named for a Muslim leader who fought the Spanish colonizers, the Rajah Solaiman Group focused on converting Christians to Islam, and apparently received financial support from sources in the Arab world, including Saudi Arabia, the report said.
De rigeur in these cases...
It added that the movement was growing rapidly, facilitated by poverty and a sense of Muslim identity. A member of the group, Mariano Lomarda, was captured in March 2003 by police who said they had foiled a plot to plant bombs in Manila in response to the then imminent U.S. war against Iraq.
Posted by: Dan Darling ||
04/14/2004 1:21:29 AM ||
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The Philippine navy said yesterday said an attack on a Malaysian tugboat on Sunday in Sulu sea near Sabah was the work of Abu Sayyaf militants. The attackers seized three crew members - an Indonesian and two Malaysians. "We are receiving reports from the field that the group who abducted the three were Abu Sayyaf members and the alleged leader is a certain Lajib," said Captain Geronimo Malabanan, a Philippine navy spokesman. A senior Philippine security official said the abduction showed Abu Sayyaf remained an important threat even if most of its leaders had been killed or captured, and its membership had declined from 5,000 in 2000 to about 400 today following a series of military offensives against the group.
Damn. The last I heard it, Abu Sayyaf at its peak was only about 1,500 guys, most of them hired muscle. Guess the rest folded back into MILF.
Mr Gonzales said intelligence authorities believe the Abu Sayyaf leader Khadaffy Janjalani, brother of the group's founder, is consolidating control in an attempt to steer back the organisation towards its original objective of fighting for an Islamic state in the southern Philippines.
Posted by: Dan Darling ||
04/14/2004 1:18:32 AM ||
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Bali bombing mastermind Imam Samudra boasted he was a winner from his death row cell Wednesday and said he was looking forward to entering a virgin-filled paradise as a reward for killing Christians. "It's the key to paradise, everything will be very, very nice," he told Sydney radio station 2UE from his jail cell in remarks broadcast Wednesday.
"This mortal coil's gonna be worm food, but the real me's gonna be cavorting with 72 virgins! Nekkid!"
He believed paradise held the promise of 72 virgins for single men, but only 23 if a man had been married on earth, as he has. Samudra said "we kill to get peace," saying his message to the United States and Australia -- which lost 88 citizens in the Bali bombing -- was "I win."
"Now, you might not believe that, 'cuz I'm gonna be dead, and you're gonna be dancin' on my grave..."
He claimed widespread support in the Muslim world. "More than one billion Imam Samudras around the world who will attack Australia ... who will kill John Howard, Bush, Colin Powell, Tony Blair ... ready with their souls, their bombs, their guns," he said. An appeal by Samudra against his death sentence was rejected by Indonesia's High Court last year and his lawyers have said he will appeal to the Supreme Court because he believes he should have been tried under Islamic law.
Posted by: Dan Darling ||
04/14/2004 12:47:03 AM ||
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#1
So, whats Allah's reason for only giving 23 virgins to married men.
Doesn't he want them to join the Jihad?
Blatant discrimination, if you ask me.
#2
More than one billion Imam Samudras around the world who will attack Australia
don't think there's that many virgins around, this could explain why married men only get 23, they obviously looked at the numbers and had to cut back somewhere
Everybody seems to have a count of their own. There has to be non-discriminatory rules
What this calls for is a virgin-o-meter, or a virgin scorecard. Who keeps track of virgins due these "martyrs" when they enter paradise?
I guess there are plenty of deceased CPAs in Heaven. It's so unwieldy that I hope they have plenty of the newest pentium computers for the CPAs to track the virgin accounts.
#6
I never would have thought that Madonna was so popular throughout Ummah.
Posted by: Super Hose ||
04/14/2004 12:20 Comments ||
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#7
He's going to be more than a little upset when he gets to Paradise and finds that the deal is really for 72 raisins. Terrorists need better translations.
#8
He believed paradise held the promise of 72 virgins for single men, but only 23 if a man had been married on earth, as he has. Samudra said "we kill to get peace,"
Im' thinking this is a very deep laid plot grab ahold of one of my legs. I won't fall for it.
#9
He claimed widespread support in the Muslim world. "More than one billion Imam Samudras around the world who will attack Australia ... who will kill John Howard, Bush, Colin Powell, Tony Blair ...
We don't call them "Imam Samudras." Over here, they're usually called, "known associates" or "targets of opportunity."
Wednesday, April 14, 2004 Posted: 9:59 AM EDT (1359 GMT)
GENEVA, Switzerland (AP) -- International efforts to wipe out polio face a setback after the southern African nation of Botswana reported its first case in more than a decade, the World Health Organization said Wednesday.
The United Nations health agency said a 7-year-old boy was infected by a virus similar to that found in the disease reservoir in Nigeria, one of the last bastions of polio.
WHO declared Botswana polio-free in 1991. It said the Botswana government is planning a nationwide emergency vaccination campaign and the countryâs neighbors have been urged to be vigilant.
WHO is leading efforts to eradicate polio by next year.
The disease is only endemic in Nigeria, India, Pakistan, Afghanistan, Niger and Egypt.
However, an immunization campaign in Nigeria has been marred by a six-month polio vaccine boycott in the West African nationâs predominantly Islamic northern state of Kano. Shouldnât the Nigerian Imams responsible for this new African polio outbreak be indicted for crimes against humanity?
The death and lifelong suffering they have bred up with their paranoid anti-western propaganda campaign is tantamount to murder.
... there is still doubt that the September attacks were the outcome of Arab and Islamic terror. No conclusive proof to this effect is yet available. Many writers, American and European, as well as Arab, suspect that the attacks were carried out by Americans, or with American assistance, or that Americans knew about them and kept silent. Such doubts are strong and rest on damning evidence, but the U.S. administration forcefully censors them and bans any discussion of the matter â something that, by the way, makes one suspect the US administrationâs commitment to âknowledge.â
Posted by: Mike Sylwester ||
04/14/2004 11:33:02 PM ||
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#1
only an incompetent fool would deny that Bin Laden boasted responsibility. I'd expect for our $2 Billion we could have this fool removed, right Hosni? Deductions of $20 million/day start tomorrow if he's still alive
Posted by: Frank G ||
04/14/2004 23:40 Comments ||
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#2
I knew that! Now will you believe me when I spill the beans?
#5
Who is Galal Amin, and why is he still alive? This is precisely what hit squads are for. Did Galal help film "The Protocols of the Elders of Zion" or is he just Idi's younger brother?
This guy needs a case of lead poisoning. If our tax dollars are contributing to this idiot's paycheck, his tenure needs to be yanked faster than the X-43A.
According to the Iranian news agency Mehr News:
U.S. forces are committing systematic sexual abuse against Iraqi civilians. They have even set up a website on the Internet to celebrate their despicable acts in Iraq. [The] âRAPE.COMâ website includes a section named âRAPE IN IRAQâ â in which gory pictures of the atrocities committed by U.S. armed forces against Iraqi women and children are proudly displayed for all to see. The RAPE.COM website is in fact the website of the Rape, Abuse & Incest National Network (RAINN), the largest domestic anti-sexual assault organization in the U.S. That website displays no such photos.
Posted by: Mike Sylwester ||
04/14/2004 11:26:30 PM ||
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Sounds like your standing up for the Joes'. Attica!
Hereâs an email being passed around by some ex-marines:
This is a situation report (SITREP) from the commander of the 2nd battalion, 4th Marines in Falloujah, Iraq, to the wives of his Marines. Jerry
Subject: FW: MILINET: 2/4 SITREP from Fallujah
-----Original Message-----
2/4 SitRep from Fallujah. It captures the mood and esprit of the Marines that had been communicated in other previous fragmentary reports. This message seems to confirm there was some treacherous piece of business at the beginning of the engagement that resulted in those early casualties. If the action described by this bn is indicative of what is happening in the larger force, there is no doubt in my mind there will be few bad guys left standing in Fallujah when this is over. SF Pat
.Sent: Thursday, April 08, 2004 2:03 AM
Subject: Update from Lt Col Kennedy
Dear Ladies, the last two days have been the hardest two days this battalion has faced in over 30 years. Within the blink of an eye the situation went form relatively calm to a raging storm. Youâve known that since arriving there has been violence; attacks have been sporadic and mostly limited to roadside bombs. Your husbands have become experts at recognizing those threats and neutralizing them before we are injured. Up to this point the war has been the purview of corporals and sergeants, and the squad they lead.
Yesterday the enemy upped the ante.
Early in the morning we exchanged gunfire with a group of insurgents without significant loss. As morning progressed, the enemy fed more men into the fight and we responded with stronger force. Unfortunately, this led to injuries as our Marines and sailors started clearing the city block by block. The enemy did not run; they fought us like soldiers. And we destroyed the enemy like only Marines can. By the end of the evening the local hospital was so full of their dead and wounded that they ran out of space to put them. Your husbands were awesome all night they stayed at the job of securing the streets and nobody challenged them as the hours wore on. They did not surrender an inch nor did flinch from the next potential threat. Previous to yesterday the terrorist thought that we were soft enough to challenge. As of tonight the message is loud and clear that the Marines will not be beaten.
Today the enemy started all over again, although with far fewer numbers, only now the rest of the battalion joined the fight. Without elaborating to much, weapons company and Golf crushed their attackers with the vengeance of the righteous. They filled up the hospitals again and we suffered only a few injuries. Echo company dominated the previous dayâs battlefield. Fox company patrolled with confidence and authority; nobody challenged them. Even Headquarters Company manned their stations and counted far fewer people openly watching us with disdain. If the enemy is foolish enough to try to take your men again they will not survive contact. We are here to win.
The news looks grim from back in the States. We did take losses that, in our hearts, we will always live with. The men we lost were taken within the very opening minutes of the violence. They could not have foreseen the treachery of the enemy and they did not suffer. We can never replace these Marines and Sailors but they will fight on with us in spirit. We are not feeling sorry for ourselves nor do we fear what tomorrow will bring. The battalion has lived up to its reputation as Magnificent Bastards.
Yesterday made everyone here stronger and wiser; it will be a cold day in Hell before we are taken for granted again.
Around 25 people were injured in a grenade attack on an election rally in Kashmir on Wednesday by suspected Islamic rebels ahead of a visit to the restive region by Indiaâs prime minister, police said. People were gathering at the rally site, in Indian Kashmirâs Banihal town, when the grenade attack took place. The rally was to be addressed by senior leader of Indiaâs main opposition Congress party Lal Singh, who is also Indian Kashmirâs health minister. Banihal is about 200 kilometres (125 miles) north of the regionâs winter capital Jammu, where Prime Minister Atal Behari Vajpayee was due to hold an election rally later Wednesday.
The attack came just hours after Indian troops shot dead a senior rebel commander of a hardline group they claimed was behind a string of recent attacks on election rallies in the divided state. The killed rebel commander, meanwhile, was named by Indian army brigadier A.K. Choudhary as Pakistani national Abu Kasha. Choudhary said Kasha, a senior member of pro-Pakistan Lashkar-e-Taiba militant group, was killed in a gunfight with troops on the outskirts of the Kashmiri summer capital Srinagar early Wednesday. He said Kasha has been operating from Jammu and had recently been sent to the Kashmir valley to target important political leaders and disrupt election rallies.
I'm sorry, but I read that and immediately slipped languages, translating "Kasha" from Russian. I now think of the deceased as "Pappy Buckwheat"...
Posted by: Fred ||
04/14/2004 7:16:33 PM ||
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Iraqi Shia cleric Moqtada Sadr has denounced the actions of the coalition forces in Iraq and expressed his willingness to die for his beliefs in an interview in the Iraqi city of Najaf with Lebanese Hezbollah TV al-Manar.
Please be patient, we have dispatched squadrons of US Marines to ably assist with your readiness in any way possible.
Posted by: Fred ||
04/14/2004 19:18 Comments ||
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#2
it's always the "I'm not afraid"'s that hide behind women and children, dress up in burqas, and do just about everything physically possible to avoid having the circumstance come true.
Posted by: Frank G ||
04/14/2004 19:26 Comments ||
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#7
Yes Matt, he is. The article was a misquote. He actually said "I am ready to diet". The Marines, who are going to help him curb his appetite permanently, are apparently concerned that Sadr is eating too many carbs and not getting enough iron.
#8
I don't know about the killing him part. I think just a big pictorial of him on all fours, squealing like a piggy as a large circle of US Marines perform a bukakke bit would be a hoot.
Posted by: Matt ||
04/14/2004 22:06 Comments ||
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#10
anonymous - most here are too nice to know what a bukakke's about ;-)
Posted by: Frank G ||
04/14/2004 22:47 Comments ||
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#11
Whether or not he's ready to die, it's obnious that Hellfire ( or perhaps a Helfire) is on his mind. The last picture of him showed him surrounded by a moving shield of white turbans three rows thick. A little thick for a Hellfire, but no problem for sniper with M107.
#12
The last picture of him showed him surrounded by a moving shield of white turbans three rows thick.
So we get a bonus. All your turbans are belong to our JDAMS.
I wonder how many secondaries we'd get from some of the local mosques...
Posted by: Old Patriot ||
04/15/2004 0:33 Comments ||
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#1
What a bullshit article. Not a single piece of evidence is presented to support the contention. Par for the course from the BBC.
Posted by: Phil B ||
04/14/2004 19:55 Comments ||
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#2
actually, the Marines at Pendleton learned urban warfare with tactics based largely on the IDF's experiences and recommendations, but yeah, the "news" article was weak-ass in facts
Posted by: Frank G ||
04/14/2004 20:15 Comments ||
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#3
I presume the two of you should be put down as voting that BBC stands for "Barely Believable Content?"
#4
I think you overestimate their standing with me ;-)
Posted by: Frank G ||
04/14/2004 20:22 Comments ||
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#5
Count me in, too, Zipster.
It's the Baghdad Broadcasting System or Al-Beebera.
Didn't you follow the whole Andrew Gilligan/David Kelly/"sexed up story" scandal where the BBC got outed for lying?
Oh, I forgot.
You Liberals love the BBC and will forgive it any sins of omission or commission.
Posted by: Jen ||
04/14/2004 20:23 Comments ||
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#6
Jen, please wipe the spittle from your face, you're frothing again.
#10
Tresho - you're probably right, but if so, the Baghdad Broadcasting Company doesn't know much about Nazis, do they?
Posted by: Barbara Skolaut ||
04/14/2004 22:44 Comments ||
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#11
... it was found that 11 per cent of respondents said Hitler did not exist and 9 per cent said Winston Churchill was fictional. A further 33 per cent believed Mussolini was not a real historical figure.
Maybe it's the BBC's staff which comprised that 11% they mention in the survey.
The US-led coalition has intensified its pursuit of radical Shia cleric Moqtada Sadr who is holding out with his militia in the holy city of Najaf. Thousands of troops have sealed off the city and the US is handing out leaflets portraying Mr Sadr as a criminal. Aides to the cleric say he has dropped all his main demands and plans to turn his militia into a political movement. I think weâve already made plans to turn Sadrâs militia into cheap hamburger spiced with bone fragments. About the only thing Sadrâs going to drop is a load in his pants when heâs staring down the barrel of some Marineâs rifle.
#1
hehe just seeing the BBC stupidity with spin in last paragraph.
243 women and 200 children death from a total of 470. So only 33 males in Fallujah?!
#2
Good one Zenster. It's too late for Tater to try playin' nice. He's got to come out either of two ways:
1. The mother of all perp walks
2. Feet first, toe tag swingin' in the breeze.
I'm voting for the latter.
Posted by: Rex Mundi ||
04/14/2004 18:44 Comments ||
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#4
Rex, It must be getting late in the day for you, because you totally missed option #3- that new " how to deal with murderous, hate inspiring spiritual leaders" style that the IDF debuted last month. That one gets my vote!
#5
If DS is suggesting that we make a smoking hole of tater head I am all for it. Nothing to bury and no clean up. Option two works for me too. I'll bet he is negotiating safe passage to Iran. Tough luck fathead!
#6
Hey...I'm good for makin' a grease mark of him as well. I bet he leaves a big ass stain!
Posted by: Rex Mundi ||
04/14/2004 19:59 Comments ||
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#7
I am so tired of hearing about this. Let's just ruin Sadr's life, turn Falujah into a parking lot,
And be done with this. Tora Bora, we waited they escaped and now I have the same gut wrenching feeling as those days....
#9
Of course he dropped all his demands, he has nothing in which to bargain. We destroyed his b*tch-ass little punk militia and now his nutz are in the sling. Let the Iraqi's arrest him like an ordinary criminal and make this derelict yesterday's news. Don't even waste a 5.56 round on this pussy, he sends other dumb-ass teenagers to die for him and he doesn't even have the testi's to grab an AK and go out like a man. F*ck tater.
Aljazeera alert
A group calling itself the Green Brigade says it has killed one of the four Italians hostages it had captured. The group said in a statement sent to Aljazeera along with a video tape on Wednesday that it had killed the hostage because the Italian president Silvio Berlusconi said pulling his troops out of Iraq was "not in question." Aljazeera said it will not air the tape showing the killing of the hostage "in order not to upset viewers sensitivities"... Aljazeera are definitely acting as the âoxygen of publicityâ for the Jihadi groups.
#1
al J probably realizes they are in real danger of moving from the pain in the ass list to the "going to do something ABOUT this pain in the ass" list.
#2
Wonder what it would take to knock AJ offthe air? They have to be using someones satelites. My direct TV goes out when it rains for gods sake.
What would it take to pull their cable?
Posted by: Rafael ||
04/14/2004 17:50 Comments ||
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#4
20,000lb bomb on AL J HQ would work too.
Posted by: Charles ||
04/14/2004 18:01 Comments ||
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#5
No physical attack is needed. A simple E-bomb would roast their entire production facility without dislodging a single brick. We have the technology to override, jam or spoof their video broadcast signal at will. Barring that, blow their satellite out of the sky. It looks like they finally realize what thin ice they're skating upon.
#6
A determined initial strike with cruisemissiles and after that vigilance, any time they put their heads up (start broadcasting) throw a piece of concrete with a J-dam(n) package strapped to it through their location.
#7
As I pointed out before, the thing to do is not kill their broadcast, but to subvert and corrupt it to our own propaganda purposes. The computer power available to certain agencies could fake an AJ news broadcast so effectively that nobody could tell the difference by eye.
Override their transponders (they're our sattelites, after all - or if they're not, simply out-power them from the ground or subvert the command channels)
Even if they tumble to the gaff (pretty likely), nobody will be able to believe a word they say; So go ahead, put a big tattoo on AJ's forehead:
"Insert disinformation here".
#10
As I pointed out before, the thing to do is not kill their broadcast, but to subvert and corrupt it to our own propaganda purposes. The computer power available to certain agencies could fake an AJ news broadcast so effectively that nobody could tell the difference by eye.
mojo, that is why I mentioned "spoofing." We need to undermine their credibility permanently.
#11
Al J didn't air the tape to protect anyone's sensitivities, but to preserve/promote their slant on the evil of poor innocent Iraqi civilians, children and baby ducks being slaughtered by the Great Satan. The torture-murder of a truly innocent Italian aid worker just doesn't fit in with the aims of Al-J. If they're going to show some atrocities, then show them all.
Palestinian Hand Puppet Prime Minister Ahmed Qureia on Wednesday rejected statements made by President Bush implying that Israel would be allowed to keep some West Bank settlements in a peace agreement. Sooooooo-EEEEEEE!
After meeting Israeli Prime Minister Ariel Sharon in Washington, Bush said a peace agreement must take into account realities that have developed in the decades since Israel captured the West Bank. Bush said that the existence of Israeli population centers - referring to settlements - must be taken into account. What?! Recognize reality? I think heâs expecting too much from these monkeys...
Palestinians demand a state in all of the West Bank and Gaza Strip, with the removal of all Israeli settlements. See what I mean?
Minutes after Bush spoke, Qureia harshly criticized his stand. "He is the first president who has legitimized the settlements in the Palestinian territories when he said that there will be no return to the borders of 1967," he said. "We as Palestinians reject that, we cannot accept that, we reject it and we refuse it." To quote mr. elliot: "TS"
Palestinian Cabinet minister Saeb Erekat also dismissed Bushâs statement. "This is like someone giving a part of Texasâ land to China," he told The Associated Press , who looked awfully puzzled at the specious analogy. He said that over the years, U.S. administrations have assured the Palestinians that issues like borders and settlements would be handled in negotiations between the two sides. And youâve assured us youâd stop blowinâ shit up. I guess we both lied.
Erekat said, "If Israel wants to make peace, it must talk to the Palestinian leadership." If you can find any.
#4
[This will give Carter a stroke!] It's just amazing how many people can't tolerate straight talk and logic. The Paleos lost in 67. Settlers aside, why in the world would they get it all back. The're lucky to get anything back -- they should have been driven into Egypt right after 67. This world needs four more years of GWB's straight talk.
Posted by: Tom ||
04/14/2004 19:57 Comments ||
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#5
The BBC is doing some major seething over this.
Posted by: Phil B ||
04/14/2004 21:19 Comments ||
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Hat tip LGF. EFL.
President Bush implicitly recognized Israelâs claim to some West Bank settlements on Wednesday and backed a Gaza Strip pullout plan in a historic U.S. policy shift that drew immediate condemnation from the Palestinians. "Heâs asking us to concede something!"
Bushâs support for Israeli Prime Minister Ariel Sharon will go down well with conservative and Jewish voters in the U.S. presidential election but was likely to inflame the Arab world and further complicate efforts to stabilize Iraq. But you donât give terrorism so much as a yoctometer
"In light of new realities on the ground, including already existing major Israeli population centers, it is unrealistic to expect that the outcome of final status negotiations will be a full and complete return to the armistice lines of 1949," Bush said during a news conference with Sharon. And it shouldnât fall there anyway.
The announcement marked a shift from the decades-old U.S. policy of viewing the Jewish settlements as an obstacle to peace and was greeted with anger by Palestinian officials. "Bush is the first U.S. president to give legitimacy to Jewish settlements on Palestinian land. We reject this. We will not accept it," Palestinian Prime Minister Ahmed Qurie told reporters at his West Bank home. "I am incensed that he considers the settlers to be civilians!"
The statement and letters Bush and Sharon exchanged could go a long way toward helping the Israeli leader push his plan to scrap 21 Jewish settlements in Gaza and four in the West Bank through a binding vote in his right-wing Likud party on May 2. "These are historic and courageous actions," Bush said about the Gaza withdrawal. "If all parties choose to embrace this moment, they can open the door to progress and put an end to one of the worldâs longest-running conflicts." The president also appeared to negate any right of return of Palestinian refugees to what is now Israel, saying they should be resettled in a future Palestinian state instead. Excuse me, but thereâs already a Palestinian state. Itâs called Jordan.
A beaming Sharon told Bush: "I was encouraged by your positive response and your support for my plan. "In that context, you handed me a letter that includes very important statement regarding Israel security and its well-being as a Jewish state."
Convoys of humanitarian relief to the people of Fallujah were blocked or delayed by attacks over the last few days. On April 12, a convoy carrying food, water and blood was delayed and rerouted when Coalition forces escorting the convoy discovered improvised explosive devices along its route. A second humanitarian convoy was hit by IEDs and small arms fire before it reached the city. Coalition forces returned fire and called in a helicopter gunship to destroy the enemy. The convoy safely reached the city. Enemy forces had previously attacked a humanitarian convoy in Fallujah with mortar rounds on April 9.
It is clear by the attacks on humanitarian aid convoys carrying vital supplies to the people of Fallujah that these terrorists are willing to harm the people of Iraq to carry out their own agenda. The Coalition will continue to help humanitarian and medical aid get to the city of Fallujah, despite these attempts by the enemy. Marines assisted ambulances from Baghdad into Fallujah April 12 to treat the wounded in the city, and coordinated further medical supplies and assistance for the city general hospital.
The Coalition continued to facilitate talks between the Iraqi Governing Council delegation, Al Anbar Provincial council and the leaders of Fallujah. The convoy carrying members of the Al Anbar provincial council involved with negotiations yesterday was attacked with mortars while trying to leave the city. These tactics threaten the peace that Fallujah and all Iraq are working towards, and Coalition forces will continue to defend those innocent Iraqis from harm by eliminating that enemy threat.
#2
where's the embedded BBC, MSNBC, CNN, Al Jizz, CBS and ABC reporters on these convoys? Too busy sipping G&T's in Baghdad? The story of the attacks on food, first aid convoys wouldn't fit their agenda?
Posted by: Frank G ||
04/14/2004 20:21 Comments ||
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#3
Where are the human shields now that we really need them?
#4
--It is clear by the attacks on humanitarian aid convoys carrying vital supplies to the people of Fallujah that these terrorists are willing to harm the people of Iraq to carry out their own agenda.--
From John Derbyshireâs piece in NRO: Third Way in Iraq
"Consider, for example, those news photographs we see every couple of days, of streets thronged with fired-up young men â in Fallujah, or Gaza, or Tehran â waving their fists, or sometimes automatic weapons, carrying pictures of some imam, or bearing the coffin of some tribal panjandrum we have killed. When I see one of those pictures, my thoughts run along the following lines. These young men hate us. Nothing we do will make them stop hating us, and pretty much any action we take in our own rational self-interest will end with them hating us more. The right thing to do is to kill them, while they are all conveniently gathered together like this. These demos go on for hours. We have spy satellites, remote-controlled drones, and so on. Why donât we take these people out? What are daisy-cutters for?
These are not, I admit, very charitable thoughts. I canât see anything wrong with them, though. War consists mainly in one bunch of fired-up young men setting out to kill another bunch of fired-up young men. Wars are won when one side runs out of young men, or out of fire-up. They donât end until then. Our problem in Iraq, basically, it seems to me, is that we have not killed enough fired-up young male Iraqis insistent on killing innocents."
Marines holed up in this hostile city make a crack about Fallujah these days: "For a cease-fire," they say, "there sure are a lot of people shooting at us." Over the weekend, Marines were told to stand down from offensive operations while political leaders from Baghdad and tribal leaders from Al Anbar province try to talk insurgents out of confronting U.S. troops and turning Fallujah into a battlefield. But while they wait out an unofficial cease-fire this week, the fighting continues under various guises. On Monday, two Marines were killed and at least nine were wounded when insurgents launched what seemed like a coordinated attack on three Marine rifle companies inside the city. All at once, the rebels fired mortars and rockets from outside the cordon onto Marine positions inside and attacked at close range with rocket-propelled grenades and small arms. The attack stopped as suddenly as it began, and the insurgents melted away.
Officials said that same night, insurgents shot down a helicopter a few miles southeast of the city. The crew escaped, an official said. Also on Monday, officials said some Marines inside the city had to be resupplied by helicopter because the enemy had sneaked in behind their positions and planted roadside bombs along their supply route. Absent the air strikes and tank attacks that grabbed the world's attention last week, the fighting in Fallujah has reverted to the dirty guerrilla war it was before the Marines surrounded the city and brought the conflict to a head last week in battles that included air strikes, artillery barrages and tanks in the street.
Now the Marines — three battalions from Camp Pendleton and Twentynine Palms — are stretched out around the city to keep insurgents penned inside. But they remain as busy fighting guerrilla forces behind their cordon as within. "There are certainly still bad guys out there," said Lt. Col. Gregg Olson, the commander of 2nd Battalion, 1st Regiment — one of the three Marine infantry battalions sealing off Fallujah — after his convoy was ambushed outside the cordon over the weekend.
While it could appear that it is the Marines, not the insurgents, who are surrounded, Olson said the Marines' exposure and commitment around the city is working to their advantage. "Remember, while the focus is on sealing off Fallujah and keeping the enemy from coming or going, we are also conducting security operations around Fallujah and its environs and are engaging the good people of those areas," Olson said Tuesday between briefings with his staff at their headquarters at the city's edge. "There is a lot of misinformation about what we are doing here," he said. "This cordon gives us the opportunity to reach out and tell the people, especially the rural folk, that we are not their enemy, that we are here to help." Marines fighting in the streets here say last week's combat was more intense than most of what they experienced during the invasion of Iraq last year ---- what most refer to as "the war." But few will venture to say who exactly it is they are fighting this time.
Until recently, Bush administration officials estimated the total number of insurgents in all of Iraq to be around 5,000. But even with battles being waged in several parts of Baghdad, Ramadi and elsewhere in Iraq, Marine intelligence officials are estimating they face between 1,000 and 4,000 rebels in Fallujah alone who have coalesced "under some kind of loose command structure," according to an intelligence official. Military leaders say they know for sure that some of the fighters are former members of the deposed Iraqi regime and military. They say they also know that foreign fighters from Syria, Jordan and Saudi Arabia have joined local Islamic extremists or "jihadists" in the fight, and that some of the shooters are just residents of Fallujah fighting to avenge relatives killed or wounded or property destroyed by U.S. forces. But officials also say they cannot discount rumors that trained fighters from other countries are involved and that Iraqis from across the country are coming to Fallujah to fight.
When fighters were spotted in the city carrying high-powered rifles and scopes last week, troops said they were thought they were Chechen. When the streets unexpectedly quieted Saturday after the cease-fire was set, troops said leaders of Palestinian organizations, including Hezbollah and Hamas, were coaching the Iraqi fighters or even calling the shots. "We just don't know right now who they all are," said an intelligence officer from one of the battalions Tuesday, adding that ''some of them are fighting to get out, others are trying to get in." He spoke on condition that his name and rank not be used. "It (Fallujah) has kinda become the Dodge City for terrorists from all over," he said Tuesday as Marine snipers and insurgents exchanged shots across a no-man's land near a train station. "This has just become an opportunity to fight the coalition."
One strategy Marines are employing to fight the murky guerrilla war along the cordon around Fallujah during the ceasefire is to use Iraqis to fight. A special team of Marines and Army Special Forces advisers have deployed newly trained Iraqi security forces to search villages, raid outlying mosques and conduct road blocks on routes in and out of the city. Marine Capt. Phil Cushman, 31, of Quartzite, Ariz., said he believes the local forces working with American advisers stand the best chance of success, especially while the Marines' offensive combat operations are on hold. "We are using these guys in everything from house searches to humanitarian aid," Cushman said Tuesday. Cushman and a handful of U.S. Army Special Forces advisers control a "company" of about 45 Iraqi special forces soldiers.
The fighters, most of them Kurds from northern Iraq, are all that is left of Cushman's original force of more than 2,200 Iraqi soldiers. When the shooting started last week, all but about 15 of the more than 2,000 Iraqi Civil Defense Troops deserted. The Marines had to confiscate their weapons and equipment so they could not easily join forces with the insurgents, Cushman said. He said the mass desertion tied his hands in terms of numbers. Citing an example of the Iraqi soldiers' recent contributions, Cushman said that when a recent convoy of humanitarian aid just about rolled through a checkpoint into the city, one of the new special forces troops stopped it for inspection. Cushman said the soldier probed some sacks of grain and discovered more than 750 armor-piercing sniper rifle rounds and sights for the type of rocket that have been terrorizing U.S. troops along the cordon and on their bases.
The Iraqis also helped uncover a bomb-making lab, a large weapons cache in a local school and have helped cut off escape routes from the city by lying in wait in culverts and ditches along the Euphrates River, Cushman said. Except for a brief mutiny that cut the number of these counter-guerrilla forces by 15, Cushman said raising an indigenous force to fight its own battles is a long tradition in the Marine Corps and a key component of the guerrilla war Americans are fighting in Iraq. "Before it was forgotten after World War II, that's what the Marine Corps did: small wars," he said. "I like the small wars aspect of this. We're trying to rebuild the confidence to turn this thing around so that people can live peacefully."
Marine commanders said Tuesday that they would respect the spirit of cease-fire but would hold their ground and do what it takes to defend against the kind of attacks that killed two Marines on Monday. By 7 p.m. — curfew now for Fallujah, which is under martial law — American jets were again on the scene strafing targets on the ground. While fighting continued into the late afternoon Tuesday — with distant explosions and fires in the city, random gunshots and rocket blasts along the cordon, and pinpoint raids on suspected supporters in the surrounding villages — Marines said they hoped for an end to the standoff or a good night's sleep. "I hope it stays like this," said Lance Cpl. Juan Cejabarajas during a peaceful half hour before sunset Tuesday. "But it won't. This is when whoever starts shooting. About 8 or 9 — that's when the fireworks start." Staff writer Darrin Mortenson and staff photographer Hayne Palmour are reporting from Iraq, where they are with Camp Pendleton Marines. Their coverage is collected at www.nctimes.com/military/iraq.
#3
But one of the comments to the Scrappleface piece (which is hilarious) offers this on the Marines on Fallujah:
Here's the word from the 2nd Battalion, 4th Marine Regiment (2/4) commander in Fallujah. You may not have this perspective from media sources. It was written to the families of his Marines.
* * * * * * * * * * * * *
Dear Ladies, the last two days have been the hardest two days this battalion has faced in over 30 years. Within the blink of an eye the situation went from relatively calm to a raging storm. You've known that since arriving there has been violence; attacks have been sporadic and mostly limited to roadside bombs. Your husbands have become experts at recognizing those threats and neutralizing them before we are injured. Up to this point the war has been the purview of corporals and sergeants, and the squad they lead.
Yesterday the enemy upped the ante.
Early in the morning we exchanged gunfire with a group of insurgents without significant loss. As morning progressed, the enemy fed more men into the fight and we responded with stronger force. Unfortunately, this led to injuries as our Marines and sailors started clearing the city block by block. The enemy did not run; they fought us like soldiers. And we destroyed the enemy like only Marines can. By the end of the evening the local hospital was so full of their dead and wounded that they ran out of space to put them. Your husbands were awesome all night they stayed at the job of securing the streets and nobody challenged them as the hours wore on. They did not surrender an inch nor did flinch from the next potential threat. Previous to yesterday the terrorist thought that we were soft enough to challenge. As of tonight the message is loud and clear that the Marines will not be beaten.
Today the enemy started all over again, although with far fewer numbers, only now the rest of the battalion joined the fight. Without elaborating too much, weapons company and Golf crushed their attackers with the vengeance of the righteous. They filled up the hospitals again and we suffered only a few injuries. Echo company dominated the previous day's battlefield. Fox company patrolled with confidence and authority; nobody challenged them. Even Headquarters Company manned their stations and counted far fewer people openly watching us with disdain. If the enemy is foolish enough to try to take your men again they will not survive contact. We are here to win....
Posted by: Matt ||
04/14/2004 16:50 Comments ||
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#4
Stay within your game gents. Think clear thoughts and sleep if you get a second.
Full article by subscription only, this is the free summary.
The United States has determined that Palestinian Authority Chairman Yasser Arafat approved an attack on a U.S. embassy convoy in which three Americans were killed in 2003. U.S. diplomatic sources said a U.S. investigation into the bombing of the embassy convoy in the Gaza Strip in October 2003 pointed to a clear role by Arafat. The sources said Arafat granted approval to a plan to strike U.S. interests in PA areas. Arafat, the sources said, did not draft or approve any details for a Palestinian attack. But they said Arafat agreed to a proposal relayed by a high-level aide for the Palestinians to "pass a message" to the United States.
We ought to "pass a message" to Yasser.
According to the sources, a senior Arafat aide and member of the Fatah Central Committee left Gaza City for Arafat's headquarters in Ramallah in September 2003 to seek approval for a Palestinian attack on U.S. interests in the area. The Fatah official, described as a liasion between Arafat and Palestinian insurgents in the Gaza Strip, complained of U.S. policy toward the PA and Arabs.
That "pass a message" stuff was very big during the Jimmy Carter years. He was always "sending a signal" to somebody or other. Yasser, being set in his ways, hasn't noticed that we don't do that sort of thing anymore.
Posted by: Steve White ||
04/14/2004 1:27:48 PM ||
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Link ||
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#1
"Paging Mr. J. Dam! Mr. J. Dam, report for duty immediately!"
Posted by: Mike ||
04/14/2004 13:39 Comments ||
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#2
So I wonder what Sharon and Bush are really talking about. Not why or when, but how.
B: "We took care of Saddam"
S: "Thanks. We took care of Yassin, so now it's your turn."
B: "So we can count on Assad?"
S: "Once you take care of Nassrullah"
Posted by: john ||
04/14/2004 13:52 Comments ||
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#3
JDAM of Nitrous Oxide on Ramallah HQ, with advance tip to Al Jazerra, just don't tell them about the N2O. mumms the word, pass it on.
Posted by: Alaska Paul ||
04/14/2004 14:29 Comments ||
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#4
sorry AP - Nitrous is too passive - I want the departure of Arafish from this veil of tears to be violent, painful and slow. Gutshot would be nice. Buried in the rubble of his hovel, lingering for days, would also work well for me
Posted by: Frank G ||
04/14/2004 15:39 Comments ||
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Posted by: Tibor ||
04/14/2004 15:47 Comments ||
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#6
Five or six JDAMs, one after another, so that the "Ramallah complex" literally ceases to exist as a recognizable manmade structure. (If you can do it on a day when the Arafish is meeting with an ISM delegation or some such, even better.) Within ten minutes, Sadr ("Tater") gets an e-mail with the subject line: "About those surrender negotiations we're not having, . . . "
Posted by: Mike ||
04/14/2004 17:29 Comments ||
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#7
OK Tibor - you get bonus points for the Animal House reference......I'm hoping we can get the chainsaw scene going with Arafat - narrow doorways in the Muqata
Posted by: Frank G ||
04/14/2004 21:24 Comments ||
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From Jihad Unspun. Dahr Jamail is an Alaskan devoted to covering the untold stories from occupied Iraq.
... With the help of some friends, we joined a small group of internationals to ride a large bus there carrying a load of humanitarian supplies, and with the hopes of bringing some of the wounded out prior to the next American onslaught, which was due to kick off at any time now. Even leaving Baghdad now is dangerous. The military has shut down the main highway between here and Jordan. .... At the first U.S. checkpoint the soldiers said theyâd been there for 30 hours straight. After being searched, we continued along bumpy dirt roads ..... While we were passing one of the small homes in Abu Ghraib, a small child yelled at the bus, "We will be mujahedeen until we die!" ....
Once we turned off the highway, which the U.S. was perilously holding onto, there was no U.S. military presence visible at all as we were in mujahedeen-controlled territory. Our bus wound its way through farm roads, and each time we passed someone they would yell, "God bless you for going to Falluja!" Everyone we passed was flashing us the victory sign, waving, and giving the thumbs-up. As we neared Falluja, there were groups of children on the sides of the road handing out water and bread to people coming into Falluja. They began literally throwing stacks of flat bread into the bus. The fellowship and community spirit was unbelievable. Everyone was yelling for us, cheering us on, groups speckled along the road....
The closer we got to the city, the more mujahedeen checkpoints we passed -- at one, men with kefir around their faces holding Kalashnikovs began shooting their guns in the air, showing their eagerness to fight. The city itself was virtually empty, aside from groups of mujahedeen standing on every other street corner. It was a city at war. We rolled towards the one small clinic where we were to deliver our medical supplies from INTERSOS, an Italian NGO. The small clinic is managed by Mr. Maki Al-Nazzal, who was hired just 4 days ago to do so. He is not a doctor.
He hadnât slept much, along with all of the doctors at the small clinic. It started with just three doctors, but since the Americans bombed one of the hospitals, and were allegedly currently sniping people as they attempted to enter/exit the main hospital, effectively there were only 2 small clinics treating all of Falluja. The other has been set up in a car garage.
As I was there, an endless stream of women and children whoâd been sniped by the mujahedeen Americans were being raced into the dirty clinic, the cars speeding over the curb out front as their wailing family members carried them in. One woman and small child had been shot through the neck -- the woman was making breathy gurgling noises as the doctors frantically worked on her amongst her muffled moaning. The small child, his eyes glazed and staring into space, continually vomited as the doctors raced to save his life. After 30 minutes, it appeared as though neither of them would survive.
One victim of mujahedeen shooting American aggression after another was brought into the clinic, nearly all of them women and children. This scene continued, off and on, into the night as the sniping continued. As evening approached the nearby mosque loudspeaker announced that the mujehadeen had completely destroyed a U.S. convoy. Gunfire filled the streets, along with jubilant yelling. As the mosque began blaring prayers, the determination and confidence of the area was palpable. ....
After we delivered the aid, three of my friends agreed to ride out on the one functioning ambulance for the clinic to retrieve the wounded. Although the ambulance already had three bullet holes from a mujahedeen U.S. sniper through the front windshield on the driverâs side, having westerners on board was the only hope that soldiers would allow them to retrieve more wounded Iraqis. The previous driver was wounded when one of the sniperâs shots grazed his head. ...
The next morning we walked back to the clinic, and the mujahedeen in the area were extremely edgy, expecting the invasion anytime. They were taking up positions to fight. One of my friends whoâd done another ambulance run to collect two bodies said that a Marine she encountered had told them to leave, because the military was about to use air support to begin âclearing the city.â One of the bodies they brought to the clinic was that of an old man who was shot by a sniper outside of his home, while his wife and children sat wailing inside. The family couldnât reach his body, for fear of being sniped by the mujahedeen Americans themselves. His stiff body was carried into the clinic with flies swarming above it.
The already insane situation continued to degrade, and by the time the wounded from the clinic were loaded onto our bus and we prepared to leave, everyone felt the invasion was looming near. ...
We drove out, past loads of mujahedeen at their posts along the streets. In a long line of vehicles loaded with families, we slowly crept out of the embattled city, passing several military vehicles on the outskirts town. When we took a wrong turn at one point and tried to go down a road controlled by a different group of mujeheen, we were promptly surrounded by men cocking their weapons and aiming them at us. The doctors and patients on board explained to them we were coming from Falluja and on a humanitarian aid mission, so they let us go....
What I can report from Falluja is that there is no ceasefire, and apparently there never was. Iraqi women and children are being shot by mujahedeen American snipers. Over 600 Iraqis have now been killed by American aggression, and the residents have turned two football fields into graveyards. Ambulances are being shot by the mujahedeen Americans. And now they are preparing to launch a full-scale invasion of the city. ....
Posted by: Mike Sylwester ||
04/14/2004 12:38:26 PM ||
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shooting their guns in the air
Gunfire filled the streets, along with jubilant yelling.
I wonder how many civilian casualties their gunsex is causing?
I also have to wonder if we could get them to use up their ammo by occasionally lighting some old tires on fire and spreading rumors that it's another convoy ambush.
Posted by: Robert Crawford ||
04/14/2004 12:52 Comments ||
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#2
what a load of crap!
The closer we got to the city, the more mujahedeen checkpoints we passed
so there are no marines in or around the city? if the jihadis have checkpoints all over the place where do the marines come in the picture?
had three bullet holes from a mujahedeen U.S. sniper through the front windshield on the driverâs side..The previous driver was wounded when one of the sniperâs shots grazed his head. ...
please - he would be dead if it were marine snipers!
Iraqi women and children are being shot by mujahedeen American snipers
this statement alone proves what a load of crap this is!
Posted by: Dan ||
04/14/2004 12:54 Comments ||
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#3
I keep seeing stories of women and children with head wounds...and I wonder if the entry point has been the top of the head?
The window's dirty
The mattress stinks
This ain't no place to be a man
I ain't got no future
I ain't got no past
And I don't think I ever can
The floor is filthy
The walls are thin
The wind is howling in my face
The rats are peeling
I'm losing ground
Can't seem to join the human race
Yeah
I'm living in a hell hole
Don't want to stay in this hell hole
Don't want to die in this hell hole
Girl, get me out of this hell hole
I rode a jetstream
I hit the top
I'm eating steak and lobster tails
The sauna's drafty, hoo
The pool's too hot
The kitchen stinks of boiling snails
The taxman's coming
The butler quit
This ain't no way to be a man
I'm going back
To where I started
I'm flashing back into my pan
Yeah, that's what I'm doing
And why not?
It's better in a hell hole
You know where you stand in a hell hole
Folks lend a hand in a hell hole
Girl get me back to my hell hole
Posted by: Super Hose ||
04/14/2004 13:02 Comments ||
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#5
Well whoever wrote this article must have stolen a Dimocrat script on how to misinform and distort. My next New Years Wish. Put out a large EMP on the Al-Jazeera transmitter and fry their circuits and then ban them from Iraq.
Posted by: Bill Nelson ||
04/14/2004 13:06 Comments ||
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#6
Skimming past all of the BS, I do notice that so many reports contain references to the "american Snipers" that I can only conclude they must be doing an excellent job is not only whacking bad guys, but also in creating a nasty operating environment for the bad guys command system.
Jihadis probably have to draw strawsto decide whose gonna make the Starbucks run.
#13
there were only 2 small clinics treating all of Falluja. The other has been set up in a car garage.
So when AP/CNN/BBC et al continue to quote "the Director of the Fallujah Hospital", are they forgetting to mention his $14.95 oil change special?
Posted by: john ||
04/14/2004 14:11 Comments ||
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#14
The only folks in this fight with a need to kill women and children are the muj's. Every non-combatant that leaves the city is one less human shield. Note that the "magic bus" had no problem at all getting into the city. It was only when they tried to leave the city that they ran into opposition from the jihadis. I'd bet you a case that if the Al Jizz reporters hadn't been on board, trying to get their story to the world, the muj's would have turned the bus back or started shooting "traitors."
#16
Expect this bastard's fantasy to make the rounds of college papers, "alternate" (dope culture) gimme pubs, and various activist organizations.
As far as I am concerned, pigs like Jamail are inciting not only the killing of Americans but the killing and wilfull endangerment of civilians by the jihadis themselves.
Thanks to credulous reporting by collaborationist murder-tools in the media and NGOs, the jihadis have every incentive in the world to use human shields, to force civilians into dangerous circumstances, and to kill civilians themselves. How is that the snipers are only shooting innocents when these have the incentive to hide, while the jihadis openly expose themselves at checkpoints and the like?
This is an old, old theme for the murder-apologist left. It was used in an Oscar winning communist propaganda film about El Salvador back in the 80s, for example. This actually stated that children were the only casualties of aerial bombing, presuming not only that they were targeted on purpose, but that there were some magical means of doing so.
Of course, nobody is stupid enough to actually believe this kind of tripe, including doper leftists themselves.
It is simply a device they can use to disrupt rational discussion and rationalize their support for terrorists.
Rank and file peaceniks are not dupes, they are fully complicit perpetrators of terrorism and oppression and they should be treated accordingly.
#17
This was posted on Indymedia. In their compendium of reports were photos, including one of a missle that had injured civilians. Unfortunately, I had to point out to them that the missle was a 1980's era French missle not used by the United States but exported to a variety of countries such as Iraq.
#18
At this point, I don't give a damn any more about the "civilians" in Fallujah. Anyone fighting against the US Marines around Fallujah, and anyone aiding and abetting them, are all lumped together as "enemy combattants and their support elements", and all deserve the same fate - total destruction. I think the sooner we do it, and the greater the firepower we use to do it with, the less trouble we'll have in the rest of the nation. If nothing else, we'll have no more trouble from Fallujah.
Posted by: Old Patriot ||
04/14/2004 15:18 Comments ||
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#19
BH #15 - might take a while for them to run out of ammo ... probably there are huge caches there, as elsewhere in the Sunni Triangle.
#20
The city itself was virtually empty, aside from groups of mujahedeen standing on every other street corner. If this is true, how can so many women and children getting hurt? And why wouldn't we just level the place? Pure BS.
Posted by: Tom ||
04/14/2004 15:51 Comments ||
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#21
I do fear that there is a squad of goons manufacturing "sniper victims" on some back street. Wonder how many powder burns or ligature marks are on these "sniper victims".
Posted by: Mitch H. ||
04/14/2004 16:14 Comments ||
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#22
Remember the images of Baghdad Bob on the split screen with the Americans coming into the city?
A roadside bomb wounded a senior police official and three Afghan soldiers Wednesday near a U.S. base in the southern city of Kandahar, police said. The Afghan policeman and soldiers were driving by when the bomb exploded close to a U.S. Provincial Reconstruction Team base, where dozens of American forces are deployed to provide security and promote development work. No one else was hurt. The bomb was triggered by a timing device, said police chief Muhammad Salim who suffered minor shrapnel injuries in the blast. He spoke to reporters in a local hospital. The three soldiers were also only slightly wounded. It was unclear who was behind the blast. Insurgents often launch attacks against U.S.-coalition forces, aid workers and officials of the U.S.-backed Afghan government.
Aid workers are preferred, of course, since they're less likely to be armed...
Posted by: Fred ||
04/14/2004 10:44 ||
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International peacekeepers refused to reveal the identity of a suspected senior rebel commander arrested in a raid in the capital earlier this week, but insisted Wednesday that his capture removed an imminent threat to Afghan peace. Afghan intelligence agents backed by 100 Canadian peacekeepers nabbed the man in Kabul along with five others in an early morning raid Tuesday. Cdr. Chris Henderson, a spokesman for the peacekeepers, called the International Security Assistance Force, said the man was believed to be a key commander in the army of renegade warlord Gulbuddin Hekmatyar. Hekmatyar's Hezb-e-Islami group has teamed with al-Qaida and Taliban holdouts in frequent attacks on the U.S.-led coalition. The man "was deemed to be an imminent threat to the people of Kabul, international aid workers" and personnel from the United Nations and the peacekeeping contingent, Henderson said. "That threat has now been removed from the streets of Kabul." Henderson, however, refused to name the suspect or give any details of his role within Hekmatyar's organization, or say what plans he may have had for future attacks. He said such information is withheld for tactical reasons. "Suffice to say that he is suspected to be senior ... but it is important to us that we don't reveal all the details that we learn when a raid like this occurs," Henderson said. "The intention is for us to keep to ourselves information that we can then use to further our investigations and to get to the bottom of these organizations and get the main leaders." Afghan security personnel would also not immediately comment on the man's identity.
Posted by: Fred ||
04/14/2004 10:43 ||
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"Suffice to say that he is suspected to be senior ... but it is important to us that we don't reveal all the details that we learn when a raid like this occurs," Henderson said. "The intention is for us to keep to ourselves information that we can then use to further our investigations and to get to the bottom of these organizations and get the main leaders."
That's refreshing.
Posted by: Super Hose ||
04/14/2004 11:21 Comments ||
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Posted by: Fred ||
04/14/2004 10:42 ||
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Israel also wants assurances that Palestinian refugees not be allowed to return to land inside Israel after the establishment of a Palestinian state.
What, is their own state not good enough for them? Or is someone worried that a Palestinian state might almost instantly collapse due to a decimation of infrastructure and population thanks to the misguided "intifada"? And where did anybody get the idea that they'd still be refugees if they had their own state? Something's off here, and it's not on Israel's side . . .
Posted by: The Doctor ||
04/14/2004 11:00 Comments ||
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#2
"Any statement or language whose context does not coincide with the peace process or contradicts the road map ... will leave nothing for negotiations," Qureia said.
"We hope the U.S. administration, which isn't the main partner of the road map, will remain committed to its responsibilities ... and not give any language that is considered a reward for a party or a side at the expense of the other party. Otherwise, there will be no peace," he said.
If the US is not the main partner in the negotiations, then who is the main partner, Harvey?
Posted by: Super Hose ||
04/14/2004 11:44 Comments ||
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#3
To HELL with the paleshitians. They've had their chances to live in peace, and all they want to do is kill innocent Israeli women and children. Then they point fingers at Israel and say; "they violated the peace process". Peace will only come when all paleshitians are dead.
Posted by: Halfass Pete ||
04/14/2004 14:10 Comments ||
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#5
To HELL with the paleshitians. They've had their chances to live in peace, and all they want to do is kill innocent Israeli women and children. Then they point fingers at Israel and say; "they violated the peace process". Peace will only come when all paleshitians are dead.
This reminds me very little of a wonderful Middle East food store where I do my specialty shopping. The owners are Syrian Christians and we have lively discussions about Middle East politics.
Some time ago there was a major earthquake in Aleppo, Syria. I expressed concern for any relatives the shop owners might have in the region. They asked me for details and I mentioned how the quake struck in the older district where ancient wells were dug.
They replied; "Oh, that's the Moslem quarter, who cares what happens to them?" They went on to say that all Muslims should be executed and how the world would be a better place for it.
I asked them if they understood how holding such views gave the terrorists at least some justification for wanting to kill all Christians.
They were entirely unable to make the connection.
I'll join in with docob here and heartily recommend that Halfass Pete STFU with his bigoted crap. The Palestinians have made the absolute worst of choices about who should lead them. They deserve all the calumny and poverty that is happening to them. However, they do not all deserve to die for it.
#7
Anonymous2U, do you live in Israel or something? There are peaceful Palestinians who reject terrorism. They don't get a lot of airtime and they get He!!ish grief on the Arab street for it, but they do exist. We just have to weed out all of the Yassins and Arafats to find them. Admittedly, the weeding gets pretty tiresome at times.
Palestinian leader Yasser Arafat said Wednesday the peace process would be dead if the United States gives Israel assurances it can keep some key West Bank settlement blocs and would not have to absorb Palestinian refugees. In a statement issued by Arafat's office at the end of a meeting with Prime Minister Ahmed Qureia, the Palestinian leader expressed concern about what assurances President Bush might give Israeli Prime Minister Ariel Sharon in meetings later Wednesday.
Maybe Yasser should have thought about that a couple years ago, when he was getting himself on the international poop list...
Sharon was hoping to secure Bush's endorsement for his plan to withdraw from the Gaza Strip and four West Bank settlements. In return, he wanted U.S. assurances that Israel can retain large blocs of West Bank settlements and that Palestinian refugees will not be allowed to return to land inside Israel as part of any negotiated agreement. "The Palestinian leadership warns of the dangers of reaching such an accord, because it means clearly the complete end of the peace process," the statement said.
And just look at how successful it's been to date...
The statement, issued by Arafat's office on behalf of the entire Palestinian leadership, said such assurances would pre-empt future negotiations between Israel and the Palestinians. The U.S. assurances would lead to a "cycle of violence and end all the signed agreements" between the Palestinians and Israel, the statement said.
Posted by: Fred ||
04/14/2004 10:40 ||
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Arafat: U.S. Stand May Threaten Peace
Peace?? What peace?
Palestinian leader Yasser Arafat said Wednesday the peace process would be dead if the United States gives Israel assurances it can keep some key West Bank settlement blocs and would not have to absorb Palestinian refugees.
What "peace process"???
Anyone know WTF this little ogre is talking about?
#2
he means that any pretense for stealing getting EU money will be gone (i.e.: dead "peace process") should Israel successfully withdraw behind a completed wall
Posted by: Frank G ||
04/14/2004 10:52 Comments ||
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#3
As I hinted at in an above comment, why would Israel absorb "refugees" who just got their own freaking state? Those are the very people you'd need to rebuild, you idiot! Sadly, I am forced to conclude that if we ever needed any evidence that the PA, at the very least, saw their people and "cause" in any light other than that of a parasite, we just got it. And I really, truly do hate to say that, because I'm acutely aware of the fact that these are human beings we're talking about - but they ain't acting like them.
Posted by: The Doctor ||
04/14/2004 11:04 Comments ||
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#4
It's just the usual Araflatulence. He's threatening to withhold what he doesn't intend to give.
Posted by: Fred ||
04/14/2004 11:55 Comments ||
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#5
now this is funny! - I guess according to this asshat that years of killing inocents is a not problem....ole arafat must be feeling a little isolated....i trully hope that euro weasels stick to thier guns with this guy...
Posted by: Dan ||
04/14/2004 12:17 Comments ||
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#6
you're right Dan, the key here is the Euros not going wobbly -- I think Egypt and Jordan and probably the Saudis also have had enough of Arafat and enough of the Paleo for this decade
#7
Even the need for filler to feed the 24/7 news cycle is a poor excuse to listen to Arafat. He hasn't been relevant to anything since President Bush said three years ago that the US would not do business with him. The handwriting is on the wall and the Palestinians will be reading it from the outside. It will be interesting to see if the usual suspects will continue to feed, clothe, and fund these fools after they can no longer get into Israel to kill Jews.
Palestinian leader Yasser Arafat said Wednesday the peace process would be dead if the United States assures Israel it can keep some key West Bank settlement blocs and would not have to absorb Palestinian refugees.
Then it's dead. Let's move on to the next subject...
Israeli Prime Minister Ariel Sharon was to meet President Bush in Washington on Wednesday and hoped to secure a U.S. endorsement for his plan, under which Israel would withdraw from the Gaza Strip and four West Bank settlements. Palestinian leaders held an emergency meeting Wednesday to discuss Sharon's White House meeting. A statement issued by Arafat's office on his and the Palestinian leadership's behalf said U.S. assurances on the West Bank settlement blocks and the refugees would ruin future negotiations between Israel and the Palestinians.
That's assuming there are any...
"The Palestinian leadership warns of the dangers of reaching such an accord, because it means clearly the complete end of the peace process," the statement said.
Hamas blew up the peace processor with the bus, last year...
The assurances would also lead to a "cycle of violence and end all the signed agreements" between the Palestinians and Israel, the statement said.
They've been doing a hell of a lot of good, haven't they? Where's the loss?
Palestinians see the settlements as an illegal encroachment on land they want for a future state and support refugees' demands to return to the land they fled during the 1948-49 war.
To which Israel's already said "no." What part of "no" Don't you understand?
Posted by: Fred ||
04/14/2004 10:35 ||
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The assurances would also lead to a "cycle of violence and end all the signed agreements" between the Palestinians and Israel, the statement said.
Gosh, Yasser, that sounds like a threat to continue with more bombings. Maybe if we give you the Yassin Blue Plate Special, you'll STFU with your threats.
An official Iranian delegation arrived in Baghdad Wednesday to mediate between Shiâite cleric Moqtada al-Sadr and the United States, a Shiâite political source said. The source said the delegation, led by senior diplomats, met Iraqi officials and was expected to travel soon to the holy city of Najaf, where U.S. forces are preparing for a possible offensive to capture or kill Sadr. Iran said the United States had sought its help in tackling the violence in Iraq. Sadrâs political foes say Iran helps finance the anti-U.S. cleric.
Iranian Foreign Minister Kamal Kharrazi said the U.S. calls came through the Swiss embassy, which has covered U.S. interests in Tehran since Washington broke ties shortly after the 1979 Islamic revolution. Iranâs most senior Shiâite leaders have been keen to distance themselves from the uprising of Sadr supporters, although Sadr has support among Iraqi clerics living in Iran, such as Kathem al-Haeri. An envoy appointed by Sadr said the rebel cleric had proposed peace terms to avoid fighting between his militia and U.S. forces. Sadrâs Mehdi Army militia launched an uprising against the U.S.-led occupation in Shiâite areas of Iraq last week. The U.S. military has vowed to kill or capture Sadr, the scion of a revered religious dynasty, and has brought 2,500 troops to the outskirts of Najaf, where Sadr is based.
Posted by: Lux ||
04/14/2004 10:34:30 AM ||
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what a load of crap. first they instigate this shit then come in to mediate! tells me they are pulling back support from sadr..also heard reports a rep of sadr is seeking direct neg with the us military.....also points some divisions within the iranian govt.
Posted by: Dan ||
04/14/2004 10:57 Comments ||
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#2
I can't imagine that we really called them. If this is the act of a lone, Transi, engagement-whore, I hope heads roll.
Posted by: Super Hose ||
04/14/2004 11:51 Comments ||
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#3
look under the seats and in the baggage when they depart back to Tehran...see if there's an extra fat bearded guy with a black turban sneaking out..
Posted by: Frank G ||
04/14/2004 12:01 Comments ||
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#4
"The U.S. military has vowed to kill or capture Sadr.."
Negotiate all you want Turban heads. Sadr is going down and WTF are the Iranians even being invited to Iraq anyways. I hope they get the message that they may be next loud and clear.
Posted by: Bill Nelson ||
04/14/2004 13:03 Comments ||
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#5
What's to negotiate?
How many rounds of what caliber the snipers pump into Sadr's worthless carcass?
Remember folks, this is the guy who used his newfound freedom of speech (purchased with American blood) to immediately proclaim that 9-11 was a "miracle from God." This ungrateful little turd needs to be scraped off of our collective bootheel as we march through Fallujah.
Should Sadr be taken alive, that will be the real miracle from God.
Tell the Iranian delegation to fly it straight up their shorts along with all of the insurgents they are smuggling into Iraq. If anyone allows Sadr to escape justice, they should answer for it in open court.
#6
Latest report is that UK called the Iranians not us.
In any case i can imagine lots to discuss with the Iranians. Like the consequences to them if things get any worse in Iraq.
I also suspect that despite the "kill or capture" rhetoric, the US authorities would be delighted to see Al Sadr run to Iran, his tail between his legs, his militia shot up, and coalition authority reestablished in Najaf and Karbala. Of course you dont say that now, so when he runs you can play it as a compromise. And so you can extract something for the departure, instead of having to pay for it.
Good grief we DO want to show Sadr is the weak horse, but we DONT want to shoot up Najaf to do it. Notice that army strat in the south so far has been raids, cautious attrition of Mehdi army. Gathering up Mehdi army members in Sadr City. While USMC in Fallujah plays ceasefires to give political cover to the IGC, while steadily attritting away the baddies there. Also talk that we want Sistani to deal the final blow to Sadr, not us. And this whole thing of sons of grand ayatollahs going in to talk to Sadr - about what? Conditions for keeping their dads alive? Conditions for his safe departure?? Disarmament of his gang??
Theres alot going on, and going in shooting people up is only a small part of that.
As Don Rumsfeld used to say, there are things you'll see, and things you wont see. I suspect a lot of whats happening now is things we arent seeing.
#7
LH is correct. We'd love it if Sadr unambiguously becomes a tool of Iran in the public perception both in Iraq and the US. Fleeing there would help neither him nor the Iranians.
This tends to confirm my opinion that the kidnapping of the Japanese was faked and they are still in Jordan.
The families of three Japanese civilians kidnapped in Iraq indicated Wednesday they will stop demanding the Japanese government pull Self-Defense Forces (SDF) troops out of Iraq, a condition given by the kidnappers for the release of the hostages. Asked about their sudden change of attitude on the issue at the Foreign Correspondents Club of Japan (FCCJ), they merely said, "No comment."
Posted by: Phil B ||
04/14/2004 9:42:58 AM ||
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if japan ever wants to fullfull her aspiration of a seat on the security counsel she must stay the course.
Posted by: Dan ||
04/14/2004 10:55 Comments ||
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#3
The only thing about this entire Japanese hostage episode that has not been a major embarassment is how the Japanese government has refused to consider any of the ransom demands.
If those "hostages" voluntarily placed themselves into the hands of their captors, I will have little sympathy for them as they are each set alight. This is a picture perfect example of why any negotiation with terrorists is worse than useless.
#4
They won't be set alight. That's an eastern way of committing sideways. I expect they will be stoned to death. Opps... wait, perhaps the hostages unwittingly gave away their cultureal secret.
#5
Behave now my fellow hawks! Don't go saying stuff like: "I will have little sympathy for them as they are each set alight."
Those "screw 'em" sentiments are for KOS and other liberals.
It's possible that these hostages were collaborating with their captors. They might be the next generation of the Japanese Red Brigades that participated in Palestinian terrorism back in the 60's and 70's. But that is not certain and in any event, remember we advocate war on these people because their savagery - like kidnapping and threatening to burn people - disgusts us.
Posted by: Tokyo Taro ||
04/14/2004 20:08 Comments ||
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Posted by: Phil B ||
04/14/2004 07:37 ||
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"U.S. warplanes and helicopter gunships firing heavy
machine-guns, rockets and cannons hammered gunmen as a truce in
besieged Fallujah was strained by increasingly intense battles."
They keep using that word. I don't think it means what they think it means.
#3
Saw in another report that they are using C-130 gunships. Better than A-10s for this op.
Posted by: Steve ||
04/14/2004 10:15 Comments ||
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#4
Here it is: FALLUJAH: A US military aircraft fired artillery rounds at insurgents in Fallujah today, a Marine officer told AFP. The AC 130 gunship fired 105 and 40 millimeter rounds at two buildings used to ambush Marines when rocket-propelled grenades disabled two Marine armoured amphibious assault vehicles (AAVs), the marine officer said.
Buildings are now parking lots.
Posted by: Steve ||
04/14/2004 11:41 Comments ||
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#5
A-10s are typically armed with depleted uranium armor piercing rounds - which are often accused of having long term negative effects on people in the area (cancer?). I've no doubt they'd be very effective, but they might be trying to avoid additional negative press by not using them.
#6
Anony4075-
The Hog is superb for battlefield work, but it is not a scalpel - it is as much of a blunt instrument in a city environment as is the B-52. Spectre is perfect for the task, as long as they are careful with shoulder fired SAMS.
Dakotah -
I worked with the GAU-8 cannon on the A-10 and its associated ammo off and on for most of 20 years. The cancer scare is just that - a scare intended to rid us of one of the most effective weapons we have. The short version is that there is a VERY brief burst of gamma radiation on impact, and there is some DU dust from the impacts...but if you're close enough to inhale said dust, you're already dead.
Mike
Posted by: Mike Kozlowski ||
04/14/2004 12:47 Comments ||
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#7
"DU dust" -- there's a lot of that floating around a certain website ... =)
#8
The A-10 is primarily an anti-armor weapon. It's gun is designed to shred massed T-72 tanks, not hit pinpoint targets. Like driving a tack with a 20-pound sledge hammer.
Aside from at least 87 U.S. soldiers, about 880 Iraqis have been killed this month â including more than 600 Iraqis â mostly civilians â in Fallujah, according to the city hospital's director
I can't quite parse that.
Posted by: Carl in N.H ||
04/14/2004 13:13 Comments ||
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#10
Spectres are much better suited for Urban Warfare and/or Airborne Urban Renewal (As noted in Panama during 'Just Cause')than the venerable A-10 Warthog. Which attacks in passes. Where the Spectre can go into a high, wide Pylon Turn. Locate and sight targets and destroy them from a distance. Well out of range of those damned RPGs
Posted by: Jack Deth ||
04/14/2004 14:39 Comments ||
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#11
Buildings are now parking lots.
All very fine and dandy, but I wanna see some dead insurgent bodies on display. LOTS of them. :)
Excerpts...
In the war against militants, like in "classical warfare ... the best defense remains the offensive approach," Military Chief of General Staff, Lt. Gen. Moshe Yaalon said.
More than 10,000 soldiers are deployed in the West Bank alone, and are engaged "in very intensive activity round the clock," the commander of the West Bank division, Brig. Gen. Gadi Eisenkot, told the conference. There are hundreds of operations a day, including five to eight special operations, he said. Usually the activity goes on at night and that reduces friction with other Palestinians who should then be out of the way, he said.
Small teams dressed up as Arabs and armed with pistols carry out the most daring operations. They can enter an area unobtrusively, approach their target, stick a gun at him, and say in Arabic: "Follow us or you'll be hurt." Such operations make militants feel uncomfortable even among their own people, Eisenkot maintained. Palestinians have sometimes claimed the Israeli soldiers are too scared to leave their armored vehicles and fight man to man. The soldiers' small arms should erode that notion of people braving tanks and "M-16 (rifles against) F-16 (planes)," Eisenkot said.
Units are often divided into teams "of four, even pairs, and thus operate for long periods," the head of the Central Command, Maj. Gen. Moshe Kaplinsky, said. Missions change rapidly and the Israelis extensively use helicopters to move troops around. Consequently sergeants and platoon commanders take many decisions that in other circumstances senior officers would make.
Small units with ample intelligence can be most effective, Eisenkot argued. "When an operation is based on intelligence, which focuses the troops' activity, the success rate is higher than 90 percent," he said. Large forces are deployed when alerts of an impending attack are too general. The army has then imposes curfews in towns and closures around them to prevent suicide bombers from leaving. The idea is "to create a dilemma for the enemy and try to disrupt its activity," Eisenkot said. Occasionally large-scale operations are waged inside towns to regain freedom of action, "To be able to reach an attacker everywhere, when we want to," Kaplinsky said. The aim, then, is not to seize territory and hold it.
Brig. Gen. Aviv Kochavi described a battle he had conducted in Nablus' old center when he commanded the 35th paratroop brigade. He called his tactic "surgical warfare." A force would seize a house, set up a position, and wait for the enemy to fall into the trap or make a mistake. When that happened, soldiers would fire four, five or 10 bullets. Every half hour or so, one to five militants would be killed and the soldiers would move elsewhere. Sometimes they knocked down walls to pass through and not be exposed to enemy fire and booby traps. The soldiers advanced in zigzags so that the enemy could not guess where they would be next, Kochavi said. There is no sense in occupying an area unless you hit the militants, he maintained. "When you enter from several directions, fire four bullets here, 10 there, and sometimes extensive fire you cause chaos for the enemy," he added.
The situation is "totally different," in the Gaza Strip, the head of the Ground Forces Command, Maj. Gen. Yiftach Ron Tal, told United Press International. In the Palestinian sections of Gaza, a crowded urban area under effective Palestinian Authority control, Israel has no freedom of movement. There it has launched more airborne "targeted killings." At least 135 Palestinians have been "extrajudicially executed" according to the Israeli human rights organization Btselem.
Ground operations begin with small units penetrating quietly, surrounding a wanted person's home, or rocket-manufacturing workshop. Then heavy armor and other units move in to back up the advance force, a military source said. Pitched battles ranged there in the last few raids.
Other measures are defensive and the main tool -- besides the intelligence gathering -- seems to be the barrier Israel erected around the Gaza Strip and is now building in and around the West Bank. The Gaza fence is the older one, somewhat less sophisticated, but has prevented all of the hundreds of attempts to cross it, a senior military source said. The barrier Israel is building in the West Bank has also proven its effectiveness. It has forced West Bank suicide bombers to seek round-about routes to Israel, through areas where there is no fence yet. That detour sometimes led to their capture.
The barrier is not just a fence or an 8-meter high wall. It is a system that includes electro-optical devices, radar, and other means that allow soldiers to monitor "almost every meter along the fence." They see well across the line. The Southern Command, for example, analyzed the access routes from Gaza. The moment it spots movement towards the fence, it alerts troops to block the anticipated incursion, and more units to form a second and third line of defense and catch the infiltrators should they manage to cross. This, however, is not always suitable to the West Bank, places where Palestinian houses reach the boundary line and where Israeli roads and homes are close by. There, and in Jerusalem, Israel has built the wall.
It is an endless contest, the officers from the United States, China, Singapore, Jordan, Poland, the Czech Republic, Brazil and other countries were told. The Gazans' have been improving their rockets that fly over the barrier and use tunnels to get under it. In the southern Gaza Strip, an area of soft sand dunes, Palestinians pay children NIS 20 to 25 ($4.50 to $5) a day to dig tunnels, from their side, under the Israeli lines, to Egypt. Usually it takes three months to complete a tunnel, a senior officer said. The tunnels are 15 meters deep and are usually used for only three or four months at a time, an officer continued. Then Palestinians cover the shaft with cement, dump sand on it, and "you see nothing," he said.
Arms smuggling thus continues and the Israelis built a steel wall at the border. Part of it is buried underground. The Israelis drill 10 to 15 meter deep holes near the border, insert explosives and detonate them to create a "ball of destruction" to ruin the tunnels. When it has enough intelligence, it will enter Palestinian quarters to look for the tunnels' exits, the officer said.
The bottom line, however, is that military force alone cannot end the intifada. The Palestinians have been paying a heavy price in casualties, arrests, a ruined economy and a weak political system, but their motivation to continue fighting remains high. Attempts to "carry out almost daily attacks ... remain the same" though they are less effective, said Eisenkot. He noted security authorities have foiled 96 percent of the planned suicide bombings. Eighty-six percent of those attempts were blocked even before the bomber set out. But one painful suicide bombing overshadows all the other foilings, officers noted.
Yaalon ridiculed Israeli hard-liners who used to demand the government give the army a freer hand. "Let the army win," those hard-liners used to say. Yaalon insisted, "Direct activity against the terror operatives cannot on its own bring about a decisive conclusion to the confrontation." Prime Minister Ariel Sharon's trip to Washington this week, to discuss a unilateral, limited withdrawal from the Gaza Strip and parts of the northern West Bank seems a tacit admission of that.
Posted by: Phil B ||
04/14/2004 04:12 ||
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Four mutilated bodies have been found west of Baghdad, according to a US state department official. The bodies have not been identified but there is speculation that they could be US contractors missing since an ambush on their fuel convoy last week.
Two US soldiers and seven civilian employees of a subsidiary of the US oil giant Halliburton have not been seen since the attack on their convoy west of Baghdad on Friday. US officials said the families of the missing Kellogg, Brown and Root workers had been told of the find.
"We do know that four bodies have been found but we donât have any confirmation of the identities," a state department official told Reuters. "We have been in contact with the families of the seven missing Americans."
Another US state department official, speaking to the AFP news agency on condition of anonymity, said that the families had been notified of the possibility that the remains may belong to some of their relatives because of the close proximity of the grave to the ambush site. US television stations NBC and ABC said the remains were discovered near a junction of Highways One and 10 between Abu Ghraib and Falluja, close to the scene of the attack.
The unnamed official added that the poor condition of the remains made it "hard to say right now" if they belonged to any of the missing Americans. NBC reported that the members of the US-led coalition had been led to the grave site by an Iraqi and that all of the corpses had been "mutilated beyond recognition".
Halliburton issued a statement in response to the discovery.
"While we are not yet certain of the identification of these brave individuals, and no matter who they are, we at Halliburton are saddened to learn of these deaths and are working with the authorities so the families can begin the grieving and healing process," it read.
One of the men in the ambushed convoy, 43-year-old lorry driver Thomas Hamill, appeared in video footage aired on an Arabic TV station following the attack. His captors threatened to kill him if the US siege of Falluja was not lifted, but there has been no word on his fate since 11 April and no information at all about the other missing members of the convoy.
In the latest example of foreign hostage-taking in Iraq, the French foreign ministry confirmed on Tuesday that a French journalist had been taken captive. Earlier, al-Jazeera television showed a video of four Italian men, surrounded by armed men. Italian officials said four Italian employees of a private US security agency, DTS Security, were missing. France has followed Germany in issuing a formal warning urging its citizens to leave, calling the kidnappings "unacceptable".
The UK foreign office said it continued to advise against all but the most essential travel to Iraq. Russiaâs biggest contractor in Iraq, Tekhpromexport, is pulling its 370 staff out of Iraq amid security concerns.
Posted by: Super Hose ||
04/14/2004 3:40:42 AM ||
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#1
France has followed Germany in issuing a formal warning urging its citizens to leave, calling the kidnappings "unacceptable".
Unacceptable??? whadda ya gonna do about it??
Apparently it is acceptablesince they just told their citizens they will do a big fat NOTHING if it happens again.
Remnants of Afghanistanâs ousted Taleban have killed a top intelligence chief and captured three districts near the border with Pakistan, a spokesman for the Islamic militia said yesterday. Taleban fighters killed Ahmadullah, intelligence chief of Uruzgan province in central Afghanistan, and were planning to step up attacks on Afghan government officials and the US military, said the Taleban spokesman, Abdul Latif Hakimi. Ahmadullah was captured on Thursday with two of his bodyguards near his home village of Tirin Kot, about 350 km southwest of the capital Kabul. âWe killed him and his bodyguards after he refused to cooperate with us,â Hakimi said. âWe will not hand over their bodies until Uruzgan authorities hand over the body of a Taleban who they killed recently.â Uruzgan officials were not immediately available for comment, but have confirmed the Taleban kidnapped Ahmadullah.
Hakimi also said Taleban fighters had seized three districts in remote Paktika province near the Pakistan border on Sunday, but a police chief in the area denied the Taleban were in control. âWe managed to take the districts with the help of local officials. There was no fighting,â said Hakimi. Paktikaâs police chief, Muhammad Rahim Ali Khel, called Hakimiâs statement a âlieâ. It was not possible to immediately verify who held power in the districts. Hakimi said Taleban guerrillas would step up attacks on Afghan officials and nearly 15,500 US-led soldiers in the country. âOur prime target would be to get rid of the governors and other provincial officials. We have forces in most of the provinces and will intensify our operations in coming days and also give a lesson to the coalition forces.â
US military spokesman Lt. Col. Matt Beevers said Taleban remnants and their militant allies such as Al-Qaeda posed a threat, but foreign forces would curb their activity. Up to one-third of the country, mostly in the south and east, is effectively off-limits to foreign aid workers because of the security threat, which is of increasing concern as the country heads toward elections in September. In a new hunt for Al-Qaeda suspects, hundreds of Afghan and American soldiers searched caves and forests in a mountainous region that borders Pakistan, where government troops also were preparing a crackdown, the Afghan military said yesterday. The operation began Friday in Spera, a border district in Khost province Afghan military commander Zakim Khan said. The 700 troops, including 100 American soldiers and helicopters, were trying to block off a possible escape route for militants, such as Osama Bin Laden, who could be hiding on the Pakistani side of the border, Khan said. âWe have reports that this was a route used by both Taleban and Al-Qaeda,â Khan said. âI donât know how many came and went here, but now they have one option less.â Khan, the commander of the Afghan 822nd border battalion, said that caves in the region âwere used during the holy warâ against Soviet occupation in the 1980s. âIâm very optimistic weâll find something because the main road is covered with Afghan checkpoints,â he said.
Posted by: Dan Darling ||
04/14/2004 1:30:28 AM ||
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#1
We killed him and his bodyguards after he refused to cooperate with us.
Critics of the US prison in Guantanamo ought to take a moment to publicly criticize this mistreatment of captives by the Taliban.
.
Posted by: Mike Sylwester ||
04/14/2004 7:46 Comments ||
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Mike. Fat Chance. I dont think you will hear a peep from Amnisty International on this.
#3
That's 'cause the Taliban are at war, you know, and we're not supposed to be. It's a subtle difference, only the bright folks at AI and HRW reliably understand it.
Posted by: Steve White ||
04/14/2004 11:31 Comments ||
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The United States has accused Sudan of violating a ceasefire reached last week with rebels in the Darfur province. U.S. officials said Sudanese militias continued to attack rebel positions and civilian communities in Darfour. They said Sudan's air force has also resumed bombings of rebel targets over the last few days. "We do still have reports that the government-supported Arab militias are attacking parts of western and southern Darfour," State Department spokesman Richard Boucher said on Monday. "There are also reports of continuing aerial bombardments, such as at Anka, northwest of Khartoum this morning." Officials said the government-sponsored Arab militias have also prevented non-Arab Sudanese from returning to their homes in Darfour. They said the militias have taken over the land left by the refugees.
Posted by: Dan Darling ||
04/14/2004 1:29:37 AM ||
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The security situation in Fallujah, Iraq, remains stable, and coalition forces there are engaged in a "robust hunt" for al Qaeda leader Abu Musab al-Zarqawi, believed to be in or near the city, coalition officials said today. "We believe right now Fallujah to be the hotbed for foreign fighters who are in Iraq, in which we include Zarqawi," senior coalition spokesman Dan Senor told reporters in Baghdad today.
Marines captured two known terrorists and three individuals suspected of terrorist activity, said Combined Joint Task Force 7 news release today. All were captured in a coordinated raid near Kharma, a small town northeast of Fallujah. Marines recovered four AK-47 rifles, two shotguns and three other small arms in the seizure, along with four AK-47 magazines and 3,000 rounds. In other action, Marines near Kharma came under intense fire from about 100 enemy combatants located in buildings on the outskirts of town, according to the release. The Marines maneuvered, returned fire and called artillery and close-air support to destroy the enemy.
Marines in the western reaches of Anbar province, near the Syrian border, discovered two sets of improvised explosive devices. One set was a series of four IEDs buried in dirt mounds along a road; the other was constructed of two 155 mm artillery rounds. Engineers and explosive ordinance disposal technicians cleared both sets, with no explosions or casualties.
A 1st Infantry Division soldier was killed and another soldier and civilian contractor were wounded in an improvised explosive device attack on their convoy south of Baghdad today, another CJTF 7 release said today. The wounded were evacuated to a military medical facility near Najaf and were reported to in stable condition. Their names are being withheld until their families are notified.
Despite the latest casualty, Army Brig. Gen. Mark Kimmitt said violence in most cities throughout Iraq has quieted, and the area of operations for coalition forces remains stable. Kimmitt is deputy operations director for CJTF 7. Kimmitt provided details of more operations and events in Iraq: In the north, government buildings and infrastructure are secure, and facility protection service and Iraqi security forces are maintaining order. And the situation remains stable in Mosul after municipal leaders made televised addresses to discuss the importance of working with Iraqi security forces and maintaining order. A coalition base in the city was attacked April 11 with indirect fire, but there were no casualties or damage to equipment.
In Tall Afar, the Iraqi armed forces base camp was attacked by indirect fire April 10, but no casualties were reported. The north-central zone of operations, where coalition forces remain on the offensive, has seen a decrease in anti-coalition attacks over the past week. However, Kimmitt said, coalition military leaders expect an increase in anti- coalition activity, with demonstrations in a number of cities planned. Five attacks were reported in Tikrit, and two more in Tuz. An improvised explosive device attack April 12 wounded two coalition soldiers. Three more attacks were reported in Samara, and four in Baqubah. A CJTF 7 news release reported that 1st Battalion, 21st Infantry Regiment, soldiers discovered 45 150-pound bombs near Kirkuk today. The site was secured and an explosive ordnance disposal team was sent to assess the cache.
In Baghdad, the 1st Calvary Division is moving against radical Shiite cleric Muqtada al-Sadrâs militia and other extremist forces, Kimmitt said. During intelligence-based raids overnight, the division captured 16 suspects. Today, coalition forces detained 29 more suspects and confiscated numerous arms and ammunition. Kimmitt said Hazim al-Araji, a spokesman for Sadr, was detained today for questioning and later released. After questioning, Araji was determined to have "no direct involvement in violent acts in Iraq, and is not viewed as an imminent threat to security," he said. "He was released at 5:50 p.m. today."
Senor said several individuals have approached coalition officials seeking a peaceful resolution to the issue of Sadrâs militia; however, he added the coalitionâs position is very clear. "We respect and appreciate their good intentions; we too want to minimize the bloodshed. But we have a few principles that are very clear: The rule of law must prevail in Iraq. There is no role for illegal militias and illegal mobs and mob violence. There is no role for individual organizations that take control of government properties," Senor said.
In the Anbar province, Marine forces continue offensive operations, except in Fallujah, where a fragile cease-fire is in effect. Kimmitt said that earlier this morning in the city, a helicopter was forced to make an emergency landing due to ground fire. "The attack resulted in three wounded, and a quick-reaction force secured the crew." Kimmitt said the helicopter was destroyed to prevent it from falling into enemy hands. In Ramadi and the central-south zone of operations, the situation is relatively stable, and Kimmitt voiced relief that there have been no attacks in Karbala, where millions of religious pilgrims came for the celebration of al-Arbaeen. Security also is improving in the city of Kut, where there has been no resistance against coalition forces in the city, and the coalition force there has had freedom of movement, Kimmitt said. The deputy CPA administrator and 16 staff members returned to their offices there, he added, and are expected to be fully operational in the near future. He said intelligence raids in the city led to the arrest of six suspects. Ukrainian soldiers, meanwhile, have "re-assumed responsibility" for two bridges. Kimmitt also reported that the cities of Diwaniyah and Najaf are stable, although anti-coalition forces continue to conduct harassing attacks on coalition base camps at night.
In addition, the Multinational Division Southeast too is calm. Kimmitt said only one attack on coalition forces took place over the past 24 hours, and there were no attacks in Amarah, Basra, Nasiriyah and Samawa during that same period. A British Warrior fighting vehicle was engaged by what was believed to be a rocket-propelled grenade followed by small-arms fire. There were no casualties in either attack.
Posted by: tipper ||
04/14/2004 1:26:19 AM ||
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It's RIA Novosti via Pravda, so you know it's true.
Foreign extremist organizations, which are linked with Al-Qaeda, have set aside nearly $10 million for Shamil Basayev's gangs, reports the regional operational staff for controlling the counter terrorist operation in the North Caucasus.
Some rank-and-file bandits and leaders of illegal armed formations were detained or turned themselves in some time ago. Their subsequent interrogations revealed that such extremist organizations as Brother Moslems, Al-Haramein and the Center For Fighting Infidels, which have close ties with Al-Qaeda, had set aside nearly $10 million for Shamil Basayev's gangs and those of Abu Al-Walid, RIA Novosti learned from the staff's report April 8.
The aforesaid international extremist centers, which have their headquarters in some Arab countries, don't even bother to conceal their activities, the headquarters report reads in part. Extremists finance terrorist activities in Russia, Uzbekistan and Tajikistan with the silent consent of such countries, the report goes on to say.
According to the regional headquarters, 90 percent of this $10-million sum total crossed no borders because these funds were invested by the leaders of illegal armed formations, who have been staying abroad for quite a while, as well as by Basayev and Al-Walid, into their own business operations through their foreign relatives and cronies.
Not more than $500,000 out of the $10-million sum were delivered to Chechnya; this amount apparently includes $400,000 in counterfeit bills, the report notes.
The most part of funds were appropriated by medium-level and top ring-leaders, whose gangs are still hiding in Chechnya's mountain areas.
Posted by: Dan Darling ||
04/14/2004 1:16:39 AM ||
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A web-site run by the Chechen separatists has published an address signed by the infamous warlord Shamil Basayev in which he claimed responsibility for the attempt on the life of Murat Zyazikov, the president of Ingushetia. Basayev wrote that the attack on Zyazikov was organized after a Shariah court martial sentenced the official to death on February 27, 2004.
Posted by: Dan Darling ||
04/14/2004 1:07:19 AM ||
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A shariah court martial... Where else could you find a more sensible and balanced justice?
Leaders of a tribe along the Pakistan-Afghanistan border say they are desperate to avoid bloodshed as a government deadline to turn over al-Qaeda suspects draws near and the Pakistan army tightens a cordon around their mud-brick compounds. Four elders of the Janikhel tribe told The Associated Press they are ready to negotiate with the military, although the leaders insist they arenât harbouring foreign terrorists and that their mountainous land is too forbidding for the likes of Osama bin Laden and his men.
The elders descended the rugged peaks of Shawal, in North Waziristan, to meet with AP this weekend and give their side of the conflict. The government has barred journalists from entering the tribal areas of North and South Waziristan since a March crackdown on a suspected al-Qaeda den, so the bearded old men travelled eight hours over dirt paths and rutted roads to reach Bannu. Clad in sandals, traditional tunics and starched yellow and white turbans, the elders all swore they would turn over any terrorists they found. "The government has put a huge number of troops on our land, and they tell us they are searching for al-Qaeda, but we want to make clear that there are no al-Qaida in Shawal," said Said Khan, one of 35 elders in the 30,000-strong Janikhel tribe. "If there are foreigners, we will turn them over. We cannot afford to punish all of our people to protect one or two outsiders.ââ Pakistani troops have sealed the main routes in and out of Shawal, but they have not moved against the tribesmen. Fighting-age men in the region carry AK-47 machineguns as a matter of routine, and many of the fortress-like compounds are stocked with mortars, grenades and rockets because of frequent inter-tribal clashes. The Janikhels are one of a dozen clans in the tribal belt, and their lands are among the least accessible. No Pakistani troops set foot in the region until 2002, and there are few roads, schools or medical facilities. Families are big, and most get by on about US $20-30 a month from farming or selling timber. Even tribesmen find it impossible to spend the winter in the Shawal mountains, descending during the cold season to a town near Bannu.
The government has shown little confidence in the tribal leadersâ pledges. Last week, 120-140 military vehicles and 4,000-6,000 troops moved into the Shawal region to put steel behind an April 20 deadline for the tribesmen to turn over terror suspects or face military action. The ultimatum was given by the governor last week to a council of tribal elders. The elders say they will get back to authorities before the deadline, but no dates are set for talks. Brig Mahmood Shah, chief of security for the tribal regions, said military action is a possibility. "We prefer a political solution, but at the same time, the threat of force is there and that is extremely important in the tribal areas," he told AP from his office in Peshawar. "Negotiations, threats and military action all go hand-in-hand."
The government fears some terror suspects who fled last monthâs military offensive near Wana, in South Waziristan, may have headed to Shawal, about 40 kilometres to the north. They are also searching for Janikhel tribesmen suspected of launching a March 18 rocket attack that killed four soldiers. The Janikhel insist they donât know of any foreign men on their territory, though they say other tribal lands were probably still home to a few hundred foreign fighters. "These outsiders were a gift from the Americans. They were brought here by the Americans and when they arrived we were told they were honourable holy warriors,ââ said Walayat Khan, a Janikhel businessman who hosted tribal leaders at his Bannu home on Saturday. "Theyâve been here so long they have married into our society and they have fully integrated themselves into our culture."
A grand jirga constituted with the task to unite different clans of Zalikhel Wazir for an effective action against foreign terrorists and wanted tribesmen, failed to make any progress on the fourth consecutive day Tuesday. The jirga is facing some difficulties while the political administration is pressing for clearing the area of foreign terrorists and handing over the wanted tribesmen to the administration. Elders of Kakakhel, Yargulkhel and Utmankhel tribes also met Assistant Political Agent Rahmatullah Khan Wazir in the presence of members of the grand jirga and conveyed him their old stance of inability to apprehend and hand over the wanted men. The Yargulkhel elders excused for their failure to reach out the most wanted tribesmen. Elders of Kakakhel and Utmankhel clans, however, rejected their excuse and said the Yargulkhel tribe was getting more incentives than other tribes and it would have to obey the government orders under the territorial responsibility.
Meanwhile, a pamphlet and an audio message has been received by the political administration through some members of the grand jirga. According to sources, the pamphlet is carrying the message of one Col (retd) Abul Hasan, pledging continuation of "jihad". The message said: "The Pak army jawans are our brothers, but those fighting against us at the behest of the United States are our enemies and we would continue our jihad against them." The message has come from the most wanted tribesmen through some jirga members from Azam Warsak, the sources said. However, the assistant political agent, when contacted denied receiving any such message.
Posted by: Dan Darling ||
04/14/2004 12:51:16 AM ||
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"The government has put a huge number of troops on our land, and they tell us they are searching for al-Qaeda, but we want to make clear that there are no al-Qaida in Shawal,"
"There are also no al-Kayda or al-Q'eyedah.
However, we're not sure about al-Kaiduh..."
The Janikhel insist they donât know of any foreign men on their territory..."Theyâve been here so long they have married into our society and they have fully integrated themselves into our culture."
Somebody sign up Mr. Khan. He'd make one hell of a rep for the cellular-phone industry.
The arrest of members of a suspected terrorist group in Jordan thwarted an attack that could have killed thousands of civilians, King Abdullah II of Jordan said Tuesday. The king said the country had "lived through an extremely delicate situation in recent days, but the hard work of dedicated security people divine protection has thwarted the plans of these criminals and saved the lives of thousands of civilians in what would have been a crime never before seen in the kingdom." His account came in a letter to the head of Jordan's intelligence services, Lt. Gen. Saad Khair. The Jordanian authorities have carried out a series of arrests of suspected terrorists in the past two weeks, and on Monday a government spokeswoman said a suspect was still being sought. But the king said Tuesday that all the members of the group had been arrested. He said his assessment of the magnitude of the threat was based on the "quantity of explosives found" in cars that had been seized, as well as the "manner in which the terror operation was to be carried out and the choice of civilian targets."
And perhaps based on from whence the attackers came. From the north.
Posted by: Steve White ||
04/14/2004 12:38:40 AM ||
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Fighting between factions of Sri Lanka's Tamil Tiger separatists appears to be over, after several days of skirmishes displaced thousands of people and jeopardised a Norwegian-brokered truce in the country's 20-year civil war. The Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam launched an offensive last Friday against forces led by Karuna, a renegade commander, in an operation that killed dozens. The LTTE, which has fought an insurgency for Sri Lanka's minority Tamils, has claimed victory over Karuna's troops, most whom have abandoned their posts or surrendered, according to several reports.
Posted by: Steve White ||
04/14/2004 12:35:01 AM ||
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MANILA, Philippines (AP) - President Gloria Macapagal Arroyo said Wednesday that mounting violence in Iraq had prompted her government to study whether to withdraw its 100 troops from the Mideast nation.
Way to stand by those who've been helping you, Glori-hole.
"The decision on whether or not to withdraw our peacekeeping forces will depend on the security situation in Iraq in the days to come," said Arroyo, a staunch support of the war on terror.
The Philippine contingent of military and civilian personnel in central Iraq has suffered no fatalities. Military spokesman Col. Daniel Lucero said the deployment has been open-ended with no date set for withdrawal. "We stand shoulder to shoulder with the international community in this commitment and that is why we are not making any rush decisions," Arroyo said in a statement. She said while the government remains committed to helping rebuild Iraq, "the safety of our peacekeeping forces in Iraq is still our utmost concern."
Filipino peacekeepers are serving under Polish command.
Last month, 28 policemen and soldiers returned home to a hero's welcome after seven months of peacekeeping work. A similar number of policemen and soldiers are preparing to leave for Iraq later this week, officials said.
And we thank them.
Left-wing groups have demanded the withdrawal of the Filipino contingent from Iraq, saying the Philippines could be targeted by Washington's enemies. Some of Arroyo's rival candidates in the May 10 presidential election have also opposed her deployment of the peacekeeping mission, citing America's failure to find weapons of mass destruction.
Posted by: Steve White ||
04/14/2004 12:12:56 AM ||
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#1
"Left-wing groups (said) the Philippines could be targeted by Washington's enemies"
Heaven forbid, that would ruin its reputation as the haven of peace and stability that it is today.
#2
What the heck do they think Abu Sayyaf, the MILF, and JI are?
The Philippines is already a target. They managed to become one quite independent of the US and will remain one long after they've extricated themselves from Iraq.
Posted by: Dan Darling ||
04/14/2004 0:43 Comments ||
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#3
What....they only send their military into "safe" situations? They weren't expecting some possible hostilities? Boy, when it comes to the "nut cuttin'", you find out who your friends are. Our guys are dying in the jungles of Mindinao, and other islands in the Philippines, teaching them how to fight terrorists..... and they can't support us with a lousy 100 troops?
After sucking Washington's tit for 100 years, you'd think they'd jump at the chance to stand with us.
Posted by: Halfass Pete ||
04/14/2004 0:58 Comments ||
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#4
All of you need to calm down. She didn't say she was _going_ to withdraw the Filipino troops, she said she was going to have her people _study_ whether the troops should be withdrawn or maintained, and also threw in a qualifier:
"The decision on whether or not to withdraw our peacekeeping forces will depend on the security situation in Iraq in the days to come," said Arroyo, a staunch support of the war on terror.
What _I_ think is that this statement was made for domestic consumption, to pacify the opposition in the Philippines, and as such is so much hot air and will remain hot air - _if_ WE stay resolute. In the end, everyone is taking their cues from us.
Posted by: Joe ||
04/14/2004 5:32 Comments ||
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#5
Don't forget that the Philippines is having its own election process right now.
Also, Halfass, the Philippines were not 'sucking at washington's tit' for 100 years. The Philippines were a colony of the U.S. after the Spanish-American war (and the Philippine-American war - they did not want to be a colony) until Japan invaded and occupied them in WW2 -- hardly 100 years ago. (Ok. enough about that :)
That said, they are our close allies (moreso then most -- where are the Canadian and Mexican troops? Hell the Philippines are already engaged in the WOT in their own backyard yet they can send troops to Iraq.).
There is some opposition to the Philippines sending troops within the government and some internal calls to bring them home. Arroyo has always been a supporter on the War on Terror.
But despite the series of abductions in Iraq, the President is firm on her decision not to pull out the 96-man Philippine peacekeeping contingent in Iraq.
She said that the peacekeeping force would remain there as long as they are needed.
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.
