A Japanese court on Friday convicted two men of illegally exporting equipment that could be used to make missile fuel to Iran. One man, the president of Tokyo's Seishin Enterprise Co., was given a suspended prison sentence of 2 1/2 years. The other, Seishin's former South Korea branch manager, was given a suspended 1 1/2-year prison term. The court also ordered the company to pay a $134,000 fine. The two were found guilty of violating foreign exchange and customs laws. The suspended sentences mean they won't go to prison unless they commit another crime during the terms of their sentences. The court said the two men illegally exported two grinders, which can be used to produce solid fuel for rockets and missiles, to Iran in 1999 and 2000 without obtaining export permission from the government. They were arrested in June 2003.
Posted by: Fred ||
10/16/2004 10:50:28 AM ||
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Switzerland approved on Friday the handover of bank documents to the United States on the source of a donation to a U.S.-based Islamic charity suspected of money laundering and recruiting terrorists over the Internet. The supreme court's decision allows Swiss authorities to override banking secrecy and provide documents, including those for a $300,000 transfer made May 14, 1998, from a Geneva bank to the Michigan-based Islamic Assembly of North America. The decision was in response to a February 2003 U.S. government request for judicial assistance in its investigation of the assembly and its Idaho-based Saudi computer expert for suspected money laundering for terrorist financing.
The Lausanne-based court did not name any suspects, but it was clear one of them was Sami Omar Al-Hussayen, a Saudi who studied at the University of Idaho. He was acquitted last June by a U.S. District Court in Boise, Idaho, of U.S. charges he used his computer skills to foster terrorism on the Internet sites he ran for the assembly. The Swiss court said U.S. officials claimed the computer expert ran six bank accounts in the United States and used them to channel large sums to the assembly or its members.
Posted by: Fred ||
10/16/2004 10:48:57 AM ||
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One of the alleged ringleaders of the March 11 train bombings in Madrid was identified Friday as one of seven suspects who blew themselves up during a police raid on their apartment. Forensic tests confirmed that Allekema Lamari, an Algerian who Spanish authorities described as "the emir of the train bombings," was among the dead, the Interior Ministry said in a statement.
Police searching for suspects in the train bombings raided the apartment in the Madrid district of Leganes on April 3. All seven people inside blew themselves up, killing one police officer and wounding 15 other policemen. Lamari's was the last of the bodies to be identified. Spanish authorities identified the body using saliva samples taken from Lamari's parents Mohammed and Teldja Lamari, the statement added.
The ministry described Lamiri as one of the ringleaders. In 1997, he was arrested by Spanish authorities and convicted of belonging to an Algerian extremist group. He was sentenced to 14 years in prison, but was released in 2002 when his sentence was reduced. He became a prime suspect of the March 11 bombings when his fingerprints were found on a book of Quranic verses found at the Leganes apartment during the investigations led by the National Court. DNA tests on clothes in car that had been used by the alleged bombers also led police to suspect Lamari. The other suspected terrorists killed in the April suicide blast were identified as: Tunisian Serhane Ben Abdelmajid, Moroccans Jamal Ahmidan, Asri Rifaat, Abdennabi Kounjaa, and Rachid Akcha and Oulad Akcha, brothers who were also from Morocco. Officials say several of the seven were ringleaders of the attack.
How many ringleaders do you need for a single attack?
Another suspect, an Egyptian called Rabei Osman Ahmed who is currently in Italian custody awaiting extradition to Spain, is also suspected of helping mastermind the Madrid train bombings.
Posted by: Fred ||
10/16/2004 10:40:28 AM ||
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Authorities on Friday arrested a Syrian-German businessman wanted by Spain on charges he helped fund the al-Qaida terrorist network for years and who is seen in a video at a mosque with some of the Sept. 11 hijackers, German officials said. Mamoun Darkazanli, 46, was taken into custody in Hamburg on a Spanish warrant and is being held for possible extradition, city judicial spokeswoman Sabine Westphalen told The Associated Press.
The wheels of justice are finally turning, s-l-o-w-l-y
German police questioned Darkazanli shortly after the Sept. 11, 2001 attacks on the United States once it emerged that three of the suicide hijackers lived and studied in Hamburg. He was freed for lack of evidence and continued to live in the port city.
"I'm not the droid you're looking for."
"He's not the droid we're looking for. Go on about your business."
The Bush administration has unfairly labeled his Hamburg-based trading company a front for terrorism. Darkazanli was one of the first people to appear on U.S. suspect lists after Sept. 11, but has denied any links to al-Qaida leader Osama bin Laden or the attacks.
"Bin Laden? The tall fella with the turban and the AK-47? Talks to himself a lot? No, can't say I ever heard of him."
Spanish authorities allege that Darkazanli was "one of the key figures of the al-Qaida terror network" and "the permanent contact person and assistant of Osama bin Laden in Germany," Hamburg authorities said in a statement. He is accused of having given logistical and financial support to the network in Spain, Germany and Britain since 1997, the statement said. The U.S. Treasury Department ordered a freeze of his personal assets and those held by his import-export company. German officials followed suit and placed him under formal inquiry, but until now refrained from arresting him. He first caught the attention of German investigators in 1998 when they learned he had power of attorney over a German bank account opened by bin Laden's suspected financial chief, Mamdouh Mahmud Salim. Darkazanli said his dealings with Salim were a one-time business deal in the mid-1990s that fell through.
"He's a liar and a cheat. I gave him zakat for a proper jihad, and all he did with the money was buy winter coats for some stupid widows and orphans. And bunny chow. You would not believe the amount of bunny chow."
Darkazanli, a Syrian native, faces up to 12 years in prison in Spain if convicted of charges of membership in a terrorist organization. German authorities arrested him because he was a flight risk, the statement said. It did not elaborate. Darkazanli did not respond to the charges after his arrest, but said he would contest extradition, the statement said.
"I been readin' the papers. Those Spaniards are nutz!"
Darkazanli is alleged to have been involved in the purchase of a ship for bin Laden, handling administrative details, and paying bills. He also allegedly traveled to Kosovo in late 2000 on an al-Qaida mission, Hamburg authorities said. A Spanish Interior Ministry spokeswoman stressed that he is not linked to the March 11 train bombings in Madrid, but is known to have belonged to a Spanish al-Qaida cell. He is among 41 suspects - including bin Laden himself - who have been indicted by Baltasar Garzon, a Spanish judge investigating al-Qaida. Darkazanli was indicted in Sept. 2003 with 34 others. The last six have been indicted over the last year.
I hope Judge Garzon has 24-hour security. He's pissed off a lot of terrorists lately. Probably some government officials too.
He made several visits to Spain in the late 1990s and had connections with suspected members of the cell, including the leader, a Syrian national called Imad Eddin Barakat Yarkas, according to the indictment. Darkazanli was among several people identified in a wedding video shot in a Hamburg mosque that was believed to have been a recruiting center for al-Qaida operatives. The video of the October 1999 wedding of Said Bahaji shows grainy scenes of Sept. 11 al-Qaida suicide pilots celebrating. Visible in the video were Mohamed Atta, believed to have piloted one of the Sept. 11 jets into the north tower of the World Trade Center; Marwan al-Shehhi, the suspected pilot of the jet that hit the south tower; and Ziad Jarrah, the suspected pilot of the hijacked plane that crashed in Pennsylvania.
#4
Stop inciting hate and endangering Americans on US soil.
_______________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________
Officials denied a report that Jordanian militant Abu Musab al-Zarqawi had been captured in Fallujah. A Reuters witness said tanks could be seen moving on a highway just outside Falluja and were shelling suspected guerrilla positions. Hospital officials in the city said three peope were killed by the U.S. air strikes. Iraq's U.S.-backed interim government has said it will launch a major offensive in Falluja unless the city hands over Zarqawi and his militant followers. The U.S. military denied reports by Kuwait's official news agency KUNA on Saturday that Zarqawi and nine other militants had been captured by U.S. forces during raids on homes in Falluja on Friday. "We have heard those reports and we do not believe they are true," Lieutenant Colonel Steve Boylan, a U.S. military spokesman in Baghdad, told Reuters. "We have been in contact with the marines based around Falluja and we have heard nothing about those reports through our channels."
Zarqawi's Tawhid and Jihad group claimed responsibility for Thursday's suicide bombings that killed up to four Americans in the heart of Baghdad's fortified Green Zone, seat of the government and home to the U.S. and British embassies. In another challenge for the U.S.-backed interim government, a group led by Zarqawi vowed to attack foreign trucks bringing petrol and diesel into Iraq. A Tawhid and Jihad pamphlet, shown to Reuters by an Oil Ministry official, said non-Iraqi trucks bringing in imported petrol and diesel would be "subject to destruction." Residents said U.S. forces bombarded western Falluja, destroying a house and killing a baby girl on Saturday. Reuters television footage showed the dead infant in hospital with its arm blown off. Three other children and a woman were injured.
Posted by: Fred ||
10/16/2004 7:51:06 PM ||
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'Chaudhrys were after me!'
As reported by Insaf, ex-PM Mir Zafarullah Jamali stated that he used to receive lists of appointees to the cabinet from the president. Jamali was inducted to keep the Punjabis out of contention for the PM's job. He was threatened from the start that if he did not do as directed he would be sacked. The order for the appointment of Faisal Saleh Hayat, Naurez Shakoor, Rao Sikandar, Raza Hiraj and Major Tahir Warraich came directly from the president. Jamali said a Gang of Four in the Chaudhry circles got Kabir Wasti to write a letter of accusations about him to the president. Jamali went to Chaudhry Shujaat and told him to get this shatoongra (small Satan) off his back or he would sort him out. President Musharraf would lose his temper on the MMA and delivered long lectures. Nazeer Naji wrote in Jang that President Musharraf had given a chit to Ijazul Haq for the ministry of overseas Pakistanis, but Mr Jamali gave him religion ministry instead. This had offended the president.
Absconding 'naib khateeb' threatens 'fatwa'
According to Jang, the absconding naib khateeb of Lal Masjid Islamabad had sent a video message to a gathering of Imran Khan's Tehreek Insaf saying that he had absconded because he was not willing to be arrested and kept in custody. He said allegations against him of being linked to Al Qaeda were false. He said the other person implicated in the case, Maulana Abdul Aziz, khateeb of Lal Masjid had only issued a fatwa against the Wana Operation. He said MMA's Maulana Fazlur Rehman and Tehreek Insaf's Imran Khan should sit down and analyse the statements issued by the three ministers accusing him of being an agent of Al Qaeda.
Ahle Hadith have nine splinters
According to Khabrain, a 9th splinter in the wahhabi religious party Markazi Jamiat Ahle Hadith had appeared after one leader Ibtisam Elahi Zaheer quarrelled with the big MMA leader Prof Sajid Mir and decided to start up his own new party.
Mengal's rebellion
Writing in Jang, Irshad Haqqani stated that while the Senate Committee would do well to discuss the Balochistan issue with Sardar Ataullah Mengal, it should keep in mind that he has recently demanded Balochistan's autonomy not under the 1973 Constitution but in the light of the 1940 Muslim League resolution asking for 'sovereign states'. Mengal also wanted the Balochistan projects like the Gwadar port handed over to Balochistan. He also wanted all revenue handed over to Quetta and then negotiated for the central share from it. He did not want non-Balochistan domiciled citizens of Pakistan to have the right to vote in Balochistan.
Sacred name on 'zanana' cloth
According to daily Pakistan, the people of Alipur Chaththa were outraged when one cloth merchant sold a piece of ladies' cloth with the name of the Holy Prophet PBUH on it. A wave of anger (leher daur gayi) ran through the markets and the people came out to protest this latest occurrence. One honourable cleric said that this was a conspiracy of the yuhud-o-hunud (Jews and Hindus) and the government should at once uncover the culprits behind the printing of the cloth. The public protested on the roads for some time.
Hameed Gul admits wrong
Quoted in Nawa-e-Waqt, ex-ISI chief General (Retd) Hameed Gul said that he was wrong when he condemned Nawaz Sharif for opposing the Kargil Operation. The Kargil Operation was wrong (jhak mari gayi) but Nawaz Sharif was in no position to stop it. He said Pakistan should stick to the Kashmir position and not be too scared of offending the Americans.
Liaquat's problems with Jinnah
Former chief secretary Punjab, SK Mehmood, told daily Pakistan that prime minister Liaquat Ali Khan developed problems with governor general Quaid-e-Azam after 1947 on the question of settling refugees from India. He said there was an over all policy for settling them agreed at the top, but Liaquat Ali Khan wanted his own constituency carved out in Karachi by giving them special attention. The Constituent Assembly constituencies were mostly located in India. Because of these bad relations the Quaid was not looked after when he travelled from Balochistan to Karachi and died on a road in Karachi. He said Bhutto was partly to blame for the fall of Dhaka. He was unfairly hanged after Punjabi judges on the Supreme Court bench wanted him hanged and the non-Punjabi judges were opposed to hanging him. He said Bhutto was not bodily harmed before his hanging.
Kenya doesn't love Pakistan
Writing in Khabrain Wajahat Ali Khan stated that when he checked for Pakistani books in Kenya's biggest library he found that there was not a single book on Pakistan or from Pakistan in the library while there were 35 books on and from India. He added that there was not a single copy of the Holy Quran in the library.
ARD plays clever card
Writing in Jang Nazeer Naji stated that by nominating PMLN's Makhdoom Javed Hashmi as its candidate for premiership against Mr Shaukat Aziz, the ARD had cleverly challenged the MMA. It was apparent that the real foe of the clergy was the PPP and not the party of Nawaz Sharif. ARD had played a clever card by challenging the MMA to oppose Makhdoom Javed Hashmi. Haroonur Rasheed wrote in Jang that Makhdoom Javed Hashmi came from a middle class family with divine origins. His forefather was a nobleman of Multan who married a daughter of Muhammad Tughlaq, the ruler of Delhi. His father Muhammad Shah owned only five squares of land. Hashmi was a brave man who started with a religious party and like Liaquat Baloch was for a time an admirer of Zulfikar Ali Bhutto.
Musarrat Shaheen was PAT member
According to Khabrain, Pakistan Awami Party (PAT) of Allama Tahirul Qadiri revealed that film actress Musarrat Shaheen was a member of PAT but it was not greatly disturbed by the fact that she had now joined PML. Ms Shaheen had announced at the time of offering herself to the PML that she was not a member of PAT. The party also published a photograph of the great actress submitting her party membership form to Allama Tahirul Qadiri.
Muhammad and India
Writing in Nawa-e-Waqt, Hamid Sultan stated that in all the libraries of the world the name of the Prophet Muhammad PBUH was written with the required words of reverence but not in India. At first India too followed the practice of showing reverence but now India used Muhammad simply without any show of reverence like PBUH. In India people who have visited the railway stations have noted that drinking water is designated as 'Muslim water' and 'Hindu water', which means that Muslims are not allowed to drink the same water as the Hindus. Many Pakistanis are misguided when they propose friendship and trade with India.
Khalid Sheikh Muhammad and Dr AQ Khan
Writing in Nawa-e-Waqt, Irfan Siddiqi stated that in an American book on Pakistan's nuclear programme it was revealed that Dr Qadeer Khan's smuggling of nuclear secrets was revealed by Al Qaeda mastermind Khalid Sheikh Muhammad after his arrest in Pakistan and his handing over to the United States. Khalid Sheikh revealed that AQ Khan was involved in international nuclear smuggling.
Oil on water colours, Pakistani style
Writing in Khabrain, Khalid Masood Khan stated that when he was in Manchester he had occasion to attend a function celebrating August 14. Pakistani painter Agha Nisar was exhibiting his water colours when the meal was served. The Pakistani crowd rushed to the dishes and one Pakistani resident lady took down a painting, laid it face down on the table, and put her dish of oily chawal on it. The white mayor of the town went up to her, took her aside and rescued the painting. In another function the announcer kept alive the audience's interest by announcing that food would be served soon. When the lunch boxes were served in their seats the resident Pakistanis snatched more lunch boxes than their share from the trays. Some residents grabbed a lot of lunch boxes and were found gorging themselves. Some British Pakistanis saw that the lunch boxes wee being raided and went for the kitchen instead and began eating there. The columnist observed that in the UK the white citizens observed the principle of lining up for their turn. But Pakistanis were still following the wild tradition of back home.
To break Pakistan
Daily Nawa-e-Waqt editorialised that retired Indian General Murli Dhar should be praised for speaking the truth when he said after crossing into Pakistan that in his 38 year career in the Indian army he was busy discussing with Indian politicians ways and means to break Pakistan. The general said that India had killed 70 thousand people in Kashmir and if there was an Indo-Pak war the two countries would be destroyed in quick time by atom bombs.
Pakistani Laila in Indian film
Daily Khabrain stated in its film column that Pakistani actors were now attracting publicity by saying that they had been invited to act in Indian films and were no longer proud of acting in Pakistani films. On a Lahore set, famous Pakistani actress Laila was acting in Wehshi Haseena (Savage Beauty) when she said that she would soon be going to London to act in an Indian movie. She said she was going to London instead of Bombay because the part required shooting in London.
Posted by: Fred ||
10/16/2004 12:37:00 PM ||
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#1
shatoongra
naib khateeb
leher daur gayi
jhak mari gayi
It's lunchtime...and all of a sudden I'm craving Indian food...
#2
Well, Emily, I can see now where Fred gets some of his Anonymous name codes.....
Posted by: Alaska Paul ||
10/16/2004 14:31 Comments ||
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#3
a 9th splinter in the wahhabi religious party Markazi Jamiat Ahle Hadith had appeared after one leader Ibtisam Elahi Zaheer quarrelled with the big MMA leader Prof Sajid Mir and decided to start up his own new party.
US ground troops advanced on the Iraqi rebel bastion of Fallujah on Friday after a night of deadly air assaults...Before dawn, 1,000 US group troops, along with tanks and Iraqi special forces, rumbled toward Fallujah in a bid to flush out Zarqawi, said to be the top Al-Qaeda operative in Iraq, after attempts to hammer out a truce collapsed.
"Units are pushing forward... Their mission is to disrupt the enemy's ability to conduct terror attacks in this area of operations, specifically in the city of Fallujah... They'll do whatever it takes to accomplish that," said marines spokesman Lyle Gilbert.
The deployment was the biggest around Fallujah, the epicentre of the insurgency, since last April when marines and rebels battled to a draw in the community of 200,000 people, leaving it in the hands of radical Islamists for months.
Gilbert declined to say if the troops had yet entered the rebel bastion, but a storming of the city loomed after Iraqi Prime Minister Iyad Allawi said Fallujah should surrender Zarqawi, a Jordanian-born fighter with a 25-million dollar price on his head, or face a military assault.
Adding to the tensions, a senior religious figure from the rebel stronghold, Sheikh Mahmud Abdel Aziz, called for protests over the US operations and warned of "holy war" if the onslaught continued... AFP report, so take cum grano salis.
Posted by: Anonymoose ||
10/16/2004 11:11:31 AM ||
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#1
a senior religious figure from the rebel stronghold, Sheikh Mahmud Abdel Aziz, called for protests over the US operations and warned of "holy war" if the onslaught continued...
Well, bring it on. This is what we should have done in April. If we are serious about it this time (and General McInerney sounds like he means business), we could crush this entire stronghold in a couple of weeks. Stay strong, General, and don't read the papers!
#5
I think feint, as do others. Fallujah will be the final holdout and suffer the worst (as it should be). Wait til after the election and level this shithole
Posted by: Frank G ||
10/16/2004 18:44 Comments ||
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#6
Haven't they already declared holy war on us? Regardless, a Bush win translates into the Fallujah crater.
Posted by: Douglas De Bono ||
10/16/2004 19:04 Comments ||
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#7
a senior religious figure from the rebel stronghold, Sheikh Mahmud Abdel Aziz, called for protests over the US operations and warned of "holy war" if the onslaught continued...
Yeah, whatever, I've got your "holy war" right here.
Maybe my reading comprehension's off because I've been so busy this week, but for the life of me, I can't find where the text supports the headline...
Two former Lebanese hostages returned home from Iraq, and their employer said a U.S. bombing that wounded both men, killed their Iraqi driver and their kidnappers had allowed them to escape.
Maybe the headline refers to the driver?
Charbel Karam Haj and Aram Nalbandian, who work for a travel agency, were kidnapped Sept. 18 along with their driver, Ahmed Mirza, as they drove on a highway between Baghdad and the insurgent stronghold of Fallujah, 40 miles to the west. The kidnappers and Mirza were killed Wednesday when U.S. forces bombed the building in Fallujah where the three were being held, Fadi Yassin, the travey agency's owner, said at Beirut's airport after flying back from Baghdad with Haj and Nalbandian. "Haj and Nalbandian were removed from under the rubble by some Fallujah mujahedeen (holy warriors)," Yassin said.
And then, rather than continue with the process of cutting their heads off, they shipped them back to Lebanon?
He said Haj suffered a fractured hip and Nalbandian had a broken ankle. They were taken to the American University Hospital. Nalbandian said he and Haj did not expect to make it out alive. "We were expecting death every minute," he said. Haj, who said he was in great pain, refused to speak with journalists. Nalbandian said the men were treated poorly shortly after the kidnapping, "but things improved later." He said the captors told them that British hostage Kenneth Bigley was being held captive in the same building, but they never saw him. Bigley and two Americans captured with him were beheaded; the Tawhid and Jihad group, led by Jordanian Abu Musab al-Zarqawi, claimed responsibility.
Posted by: Fred ||
10/16/2004 10:53:03 AM ||
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#1
Hmm, I guess our intel is pretty good... even if we didn't know hostages were in that building, we apparently knew some bad guys were there.
Posted by: V is for Victory ||
10/16/2004 12:32 Comments ||
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#2
Yeah, it's gotta be the driver.
Note, BTW, that the headline could as easily have been "US BOMBING KILLS KIDNAPPERS, FREES TWO LEBANESE HOSTAGES."
Just sayin'...
Posted by: Old Grouch ||
10/16/2004 12:36 Comments ||
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#3
MSM is just resorting to outright lies now. At least they are still trying to leave themselves some plausible deniability when challenged. I wonder if in another week or two if they will just drop all pretenses and just show photoshops of Bush superimposed over Nazi death camps.
A Lebanese newspaper published on Friday a statement purportedly from al-Qaida claiming responsiblity for deadly bombings in Egypt's Sinai peninsula. It was the fifth separate claim in the attack and could not be verified. The statement, allegedly issued by al-Qaida's media office and signed "International Islamic Front," was e-mailed Thursday night to Sada al-Balad, an independent newspaper, which published it on the front page Friday.
The other claims came from "Muhammed's Army — The Military Wing of the Palestinian Resistance"; the Brigades of the Martyr Abdullah Azzam, which said it was affiliated with al-Qaida; the Tawhid Islamic Brigades; and Jamaa Al-Islamiya Al-Alamiya, or World Islamist Group. No group offered details of how it carried out the attack. The newest statement said the attacks "are not al-Qaida's first response to the pulse of the holy intefadeh (Palestinian uprising) and will not be the last." It said the explosions were retaliation for "policies of the U.S. administration, which aim at subjugating all the countries of the region and leading them to normalize ties with the Zionist enemy." Sada al-Balad, Arabic for "echo of the country," hit the newsstands in Lebanon in December. It does not follow a political line and is owned by Lebanese business executives.
Posted by: Fred ||
10/16/2004 10:44:56 AM ||
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A Fallujah delegation offered Saturday to resume peace talks with the government if the United States ceases attacks against the city and releases the chief negotiator. "We are ready to resume talks," delegation member Khaled Fakhri al-Jumeili told reporters. "We suspended the talks because we felt that the Iraqi government, especially Prime Minister Ayad Allawi, was meeting the demands of the Americans." He said that if attacks and airstrikes stop, "we are ready to meet the demands of the Americans return to the negotiating table."
Sheik Abdul Hamid Jadou, another delegation member, added that the delegation also wanted its chairman, Khaled al-Jumeili, freed. Witnesses said he was arrested by the Americans on Friday after prayers at a village south of Fallujah. Talks between Iraqi officials and Fallujah clerics had been underway for weeks to restore government control in the insurgent stronghold 40 miles west of Baghdad. The talks broke down Thursday over the government's demands that the city hand over Jordanian-born terror mastermind Abu Musab al-Zarqawi, whom the Fallujah leadership maintains is not in the city.
Posted by: Fred ||
10/16/2004 10:31:03 AM ||
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#1
too little, too late - surrender Zarqawi and those responsible for killing teh American contractors and doing car bombs and we might not level the town...
Posted by: Frank G ||
10/16/2004 10:48 Comments ||
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#2
Squeeze them like a grape now. Grab hold of their necks and squeeze. Do not let up until the fur ball is coughed up.
Posted by: Capt America ||
10/16/2004 11:40 Comments ||
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#3
David Warren says there is a rumor that Zarqawi has been nabbed. He's doubtful, but the rumors out there and damn it would be nice.
#4
These clerics are now sweating all the secondary explosions that are starting to occur in mosques.
Posted by: Tom ||
10/16/2004 11:46 Comments ||
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#5
Great point about the mosques being "fair game" changing the rules of the game. No place for the cockroaches to hide. America, stay strong and put the hammer down in the hugest possible way---make Fallujah the tipping point in Iraq. Don't give a rats ass what the press----MSM, and especially the Europeans---say about it.
#7
I think the Fallujah leaders and negotiators now understand the Iraqi government doesn't play the same mind games anymore. This is what happens when you suspect the talks that your survival depends on.
#10
It's becoming repetitive, but...
Kill 'em, Kill 'em all
One does not negotiate or compromise with evil. How can you when your enemy believes his/her god will provide an eternal reward for killing non-believers (everyone except the true believers)?
Fallujah, a city within Iraq, is negotiating with the current government of Iraq, about whether or not it has to follow the rules laid down to it by its own government.
Sounds a little like San Francisco telling the rest of the USA that it is seceding from the Union (not that we'd miss Baghdad By The Bay).
Also, what the hell is this bullshit about Fallujah negotiating for anything anyway? Don;t these asshats realize they lost the war? Maybe a B-52/B-1 droplight strike as a friendly reminder is in order here.
Pakistani soldiers were fanning out across mountains near the Afghan border on Friday in search of Al Qaeda-linked militant chief Abdullah Mehsud, after commandos killed five of his men who had been holding two Chinese engineers hostage, AP reported. A senior security official, speaking on condition of anonymity, said the army was "using all its resources" to hunt down and capture Abdullah. Army spokesman Maj Gen Shaukat Sultan said on Friday investigators were still trying to determine the nationality and identity of the kidnappers. Earlier on Thursday, Maj Gen Sultan dispelled the impression that the army action against the captors of two Chinese engineers was taken in haste, AFP reported. "If both the Chinese were killed, people would have said that the army didn't take any action and that was why they were killed," he told the BBC. He clarified that force was not used in haste; rather the action against the captors was taken after all options had failed and action was taken on the sixth day of the kidnapping. Meanwhile, rescued Chinese engineer Wang Ende reached China on Friday, APP reported.
Posted by: Fred ||
10/16/2004 9:41:09 AM ||
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#1
"They are also looking for his brother, Abdullah Oblongata."
Some 100 people from Afghanistan and Pakistan, recently arrested in Iraq, were pilgrims who had been abandoned at the border by their Iranian tour guides, Iraqi officials have said. "We have 49 men, 26 women and 37 children who were seeking refuge in some Iraqi villages after they were left stranded on the border," said Mahmud Abd al-Aziz, the commander for the national guard in Munziriya, a town northeast of Baghdad.
"Kids! We've got a surprise for you! Guess we're we're going on pilgrimage this year? Iraq!"
"Oh, boy, Dad! Can we cut somebody's head off?"
The pilgrims had paid their guide 50,000 dinars ($35) to take them to the Shia city of Karbala, 110km south of the Iraqi capital. Instead of reaching Iraq's holy sites, the group was arrested by Iraqi border guards during searches of outlying villages between 11 and 14 October, said Cpt Faisal Abd al-Karim, who helps to guard the Diyala border. The pilgrims were initially detained at the border guard's base but were later moved to a lodging in a mosque in Munziriya.
"Youse guyz can doss here, in our local holy place. Y'gotta go outside to smoke, though. An' keep them kids away from the rocket launchers. They ain't toys, y'know."
He said 135 Afghans and Pakistanis were captured in the operation. A large weapons chache, including Kalashnikovs and rocket launchers, was also seized. Abd al-Aziz, however, explained that the arms belonged to the villagers and not the pilgrims.
"Hey! Put that back! My Grandaddy gimme that rocket launcher!"
Posted by: Fred ||
10/16/2004 9:25:15 AM ||
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#1
If I was one of those pilgrims I would sue the travel agent for abandonment, pain, suffering....oh, and don't forget Humiliation (TM). [damn....alt+0153 not working]
Posted by: Alaska Paul ||
10/16/2004 12:03 Comments ||
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#2
AP try this: &_trade_; (remove the underscoresâ¢)
Posted by: Old Grouch ||
10/16/2004 12:29 Comments ||
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Two US soldiers and five civilians have been killed in separate attacks across Afghanistan. In the latest attack late on Friday, five people including a policeman were killed after a remote-controlled bomb exploded in eastern Afghanistan near a truck supplying food to US bases, an official said. The truck had previously been stopped and set on fire by Pakistanis suspected Taliban fighters in the eastern Kunar province and the blast happened after a crowd had gathered, provincial governor Said Fazil Akbar Agha said on Saturday. "A remote-controlled bomb killed five people including one policeman and injured the district police chief late Friday," he said. The explosion was on the main road in the Dap area of Asmar district of Kunar province some 125km east of the capital Kabul. "The incident occurred after a truck supplying food to US bases in Kunar was stopped and set on fire by enemies of Afghanistan," the governor said. "District police went to the site and villagers were there as well when the remote-control bomb went off."
Meanwhile, it was announced on Saturday that two US soldiers were killed in Afghanistan. The attack happened on Thursday in Uruzgan province, north-west of Deh Rawood, where a US military base is located. "Two coalition soldiers were killed and three wounded when their patrol was struck by an improvised explosive device," Major Mark McCann, a US military spokesman in Kabul, said in a brief statement. Another US official confirmed the casualties were American soldiers from the 25th Infantry Division. Uruzgan Governor Jan Muhammad Khan reported the incident on Friday. He said that a remote-controlled mine detonated under an American vehicle on patrol in the Kishi area of the province's Charcheno district on Thursday afternoon. He said that one US soldier was wounded. In response, a US helicopter opened fire on the suspected attacker as he fled on a motorbike, killing him, the governor said, adding that American and Afghan forces had stepped up patrols in the area.
Posted by: Fred ||
10/16/2004 9:16:00 AM ||
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American & Coalition forces must be extra vigilant during a solid month of 'peaceful Ramadan', since the jihadist thugs have certainly made it crystal clear they are intent on inflicting greater terror & murder in Iraq & world-wide.
As far as the Muslim serial killer, Abu Musab al-Zarqawi, GOOD HUNTING MARINES!
Five churches were damaged in a series of successive bombings overnight on Saturday, the second day of Ramadan, or Muslim fasting month, a spokesman for the Iraqi Interior Ministry said. "There were five explosions caused by improvised bombs near to these churches," said Colonel Adnan Abdul-Rahman. The bomb attacks took place in a quick succession over an hour and a half starting at 4:00 a.m. at St. Joseph Church in the Nafaq Al-Shurta area, added the spokesman. It was apparently that the attacks were coordinated against the country's small Christian community. The other churches hit were St. Jacob's Church and St. George's Church in the Doura neighborhood, the Church of Rome in the Karrada neighborhood and St. Thomas Church in the Mansour area, Rahman said, adding there was no casualties in the attacks and all the churches had slight damage.during Ramadan, the Muslim fasting month which began on Friday.
Meanwhile, a rocket hit a luxurious hotel in central Baghdad that houses foreign contractors and diplomats early Saturday, witnesses said. The rocket landed in the parking lot of the Mansour Hotel, a five star hotel on west bank of the Tigris River, smashing nearby windows, but there was no immediate casualties reported. Saturday was the second day of Ramadan, or Muslim holy fasting month. US and Iraqi authorities had feared that insurgents could launch massive assaults in name of this traditional occasion for bloodshed.
Posted by: Mark Espinola ||
10/16/2004 9:16:44 AM ||
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#1
So they spotted by the moon, did they?
Posted by: Rafael ||
10/16/2004 16:04 Comments ||
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#2
should be: ..spotted the moon..
Posted by: Rafael ||
10/16/2004 16:05 Comments ||
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The Israeli Army began pulling troops out of northern Gaza last night after a 17-day offensive that left 120 Palestinians dead and 450 wounded. Palestinian witnesses said nearly all the 200 Israeli tanks and armored vehicles withdrew from the area and the remaining forces began moving to the outskirts of Jabaliya and Beit Lahya refugee camps. Israel launched its northern Gaza raid, one of its biggest and bloodiest in four years of intifada, after a rocket salvo killed two children in the border town of Sderot on Sept. 29. A military source said the redeployment was meant to ease restrictions on Palestinian civilians during Ramadan. The source said Israel would continue to hit rocket launchers in the area.
Posted by: Fred ||
10/16/2004 9:06:58 AM ||
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Relatives of soldiers who refused to deliver supplies in Iraq say the troops considered the mission too dangerous, in part because their vehicles were in poor shape. The Army is investigating up to 19 reservist members of a platoon that is part of the 343rd Quartermaster Company, based in Rock Hill, S.C. The unit delivers food, water and fuel on trucks in combat zones.
Convoys in Iraq are frequently subject to ambushes and roadside bombings. Some of the troops' safety concerns were being addressed, military officials said. But a coalition spokesman in Baghdad said "a small number of the soldiers involved chose to express their concerns in an inappropriate manner, causing a temporary breakdown in discipline." The military said troops are being interviewed but have not been detained while an investigation continues. But the relatives said they were told the soldiers had been confined.
Teresa Hill of Dothan, Ala., who said her daughter, Amber McClenny, was among in the platoon, received a phone message from her early Thursday morning saying they had been detained by U.S. military authorities. "This is a real, real, big emergency," McClenny said in her message. "I need you to contact someone. I mean, raise pure hell." McClenny said in her message that her platoon had refused to go on a fuel-hauling convoy to Taji, north of Baghdad. "We had broken down trucks, non-armored vehicles and, um, we were carrying contaminated fuel. They are holding us against our will. We are now prisoners," she said. Hill said she was later contacted by Spc. Tammy Reese in Iraq, who was calling families of the soldiers. "She told me (Amber) was being held in a tent with armed guards," said Hill, who spoke with her daughter Friday afternoon after her release. Her daughter said they are facing punishment ranging from a reprimand to a charge of mutiny.
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Posted by: Destro ||
10/16/2004 5:33:22 AM ||
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#1
One of the protection for the American servicemember that Congress has put into Title 10 is the following. It is a bit of a nuclear handgrenade, but if you are in the right, it will become part of the official file of any officer who misuses/abuses troops.
Sec. 938. Art. 138. Complaints of wrongs
Any member of the armed forces who believes himself wronged by his
commanding officer, and who, upon due application to that commanding officer, is refused redress, may complain to any superior commissioned officer, who shall forward the complaint to the officer exercising
general court-martial jurisdiction over the officer against whom it is
made. The officer exercising general court-martial jurisdiction shall
examine into the complaint and take proper measures for redressing the
wrong complained of; and he shall, as soon as possible, send to the
Secretary concerned a true statement of that complaint, with the
proceedings had thereon.
Posted by: Don ||
10/16/2004 8:37 Comments ||
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#2
so he has his sister call the press. I think that's a bigger breakdown in the discipline than refusing the order.
One of the complaints mentioned is extremely valid. Reserve and Guard units are given the oldest, most worn out equipment unless only new items are available. Certainly these trucks and HMMV's are not of the latest, armored variety.
But it is beginning to stink like this group decided it would be somebody else that died, not them.
It is possible that a 1st SGT needs to whip out his ass kicking boots and stop being polite.
It is also possible that we need to find our balls and shoot somebody (the ringleaders) for cowardice on the face of the enemy.
(okay, it may not quite qualify, but mutiny looks obvious).
Posted by: Jame Retief ||
10/16/2004 9:19 Comments ||
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#4
hmmm..on second thought no. If the press weren't as outright hostile to the military as it is, it wouldn't be a problem. That's a problem with the press, period.
#7
I'm going to withold judgement on this one until I know more; given the performance of the media, and their agenda, I'd say we don't know anywhere near enough about this yet.
Posted by: Dave D. ||
10/16/2004 10:12 Comments ||
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#8
Jame R is talking awfully brave for someone on this side of the Atlantic (shooting people...). He has found his balls they are in the States. There is not enough info on this out yet - if proper security was not provided for the convoy - the convoy commander may have a point. If he is moaning about deadlined trucks as the primary reason then he needs to be busted to an E I owe you one.
#10
No, CrazyFool it isn't a Hillery gram. That part of the UCMJ was incorporated long before Hillary was cleanuping her sock puppet for president. Actually have posted it in my office and unit bulletin boards during my tenure back in the 70s and 80s. Always felt respect was a two way street and never feared any potential complaint against me.
There will be an investigation. It is interesting with the complaint that they had hand-me-down and second hand equipment that in yesterday's post the information included the statment "The mission was carried out by other soldiers from the 343rd, which has at least 120 soldiers, the military said." I expect they had the same type of equipment as those who refused to execute the mission. The question becomes if the specific vehicles this section had on hand were in such a condition to inhibit completion of the mission. A vehicle can be redlined for something like missing a fire extinguisher or not having the latest modification work order completed. Things which a commanding officer can wave, along with assuming consequences for doing so, but that is what they are supposedly paid for. Will probably have to start checking some mil oriented sites to get something of the official investigation for particulars.
Posted by: Don ||
10/16/2004 14:16 Comments ||
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#11
Kerry uses this event to attack Bush in 5..4..3..
#13
JP, you are correct that shooting someone at this point would be extremely hasty. It is simply a possibility.
Don has made some very good points about deadlining vehicles for use. Specifically that it can be for some, well, specious reasons.
If I am mystically interpreting what I heard on NPR this afternoon then there is actually thought and consideration going into the investigation. Rare in military circles due to the nature of command . . . .
BTW, JP, being in the US may be temporary for such as I. Though I still have roughly 1-1/2 to 2 years of training before the KYARNG regards me as useful, my wife has been in for 13 years and there has been scuttlebutt that her unit (KYARNG) will be deploying in 2006.
Having put much thought into joining the military and not taking the duties that I am to shoulder as light one (I will be an officer) it is not lightly that I suggest the execution of fellow soldiers.
It is wrong to send soldiers out with substandard equipment when the best stuff is right there. But if you hang your fellow soldiers out to dry because you are scared of getting shot at . . . well, you volunteered to be where you are, yes?
Remeber that the heroe faces fear and dies but once. The coward dies a thousand deaths, even though he does not lose his life.
Posted by: Jame Retief ||
10/16/2004 18:05 Comments ||
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#14
JR Yeah - I have seen Active Duty soldiers knock the headlights off if thier vehicles to keep from going on convoys. It does happen. I've been in since 1982 and see things in a different light than you for now (don't pontificate until you have walked the walk). Leadership is clearly the issue - whether it is a problem at the battalion level or at the squad level is the question. The extremes could be defined as volunteering to serve and balking at being wasted in a foolhardy mission by an incompetent staff officer or "hanging your fellow soldiers out to dry and letting someone else pull your mission for you." The jury is still out. As a sidenote most of the Reserve Component equipment is just as serviceable as the Active Component. And KYARNG units and VaARNG units are among the best in the NG -
The attack Thursday in Uruzgan province, northwest of Deh Rawood, where a U.S. military base is located, occurred less than a week after Afghanistan held landmark elections which passed off largely peacefully despite threats of attacks by Taliban-led rebels who had vowed to sabotage the vote. "Two coalition soldiers were killed and three wounded when their patrol was struck by an improvised explosive device," Maj. Mark McCann, a U.S. military spokesman in Kabul, said in a brief statement. (These tragic deaths of fighting heros combating the worst form of evil are not in vain.)
Another U.S. official confirmed the casualties were American soldiers from the 25th Infantry Division. About 18,000 U.S. soldiers make up the vast majority of the coalition forces hunting Taliban and al-Qaida fighters in southern and eastern Afghanistan. Uruzgan Gov. Jan Mohammed Khan reported the incident on Friday. He said a remote-controlled mine detonated under an American jeep on patrol in Kishi area of the province's Charcheno district on Thursday afternoon and that American and Afghan forces have stepped up patrols in the area. He said just one U.S. soldier was wounded. McCann denied a report from Khan that a U.S. helicopter had opened fire on the suspected attacker as he fled on a motorbike, killing him. "No U.S. helicopter was involved in the incident," the spokesman said. McCann said that with the two deaths on Thursday, 105 U.S. soldiers have died in or around Afghanistan during Operation Enduring Freedom, launched after the Sept. 11, 2001, attacks in the United States.
Posted by: Mark Espinola ||
10/16/2004 6:06:10 AM ||
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THE US has designated the Iraqi insurgent group of Abu Mussab al-Zarqawi a "foreign terrorist organisation" and slapped on sanctions, a day after it claimed responsibility for deadly twin attacks in Baghdad's Green Zone.
Seems like the sort of thing they should have done with the first boom, certainly at least with the first head that came off...
At the same time, US and Iraqi troops hunting Zarqawi encircled the rebel city of Fallujah as residents protested that Iraq's most-wanted man was not there. The hunt meanwhile continued for Zarqawi, who on Thursday claimed two bombs that ripped through Baghdad's once-impregnable Green Zone, home to the US embassy and Iraqi government, killing at least five people. More than 1000 US and Iraqi ground troops formed a ring around Fallujah after blistering air strikes overnight that left at least eight people dead. They "have taken up vehicle checkpoints ... with the purpose of channelling anti-Iraqi forces through these main points of passage, identifying and detaining them", marine spokesman Lieutenant Lyle Gilbert said. He refused to say if marines would enter the city.
#2
Sheikh Khaled Hamoud was arrested by US troops at a mosque near the city, according to a colleague, Sheikh Abdul Hamid Jadu. After initially refuting the allegations, a spokesman for the marines later said that they have been detaining suspected insurgents or those suspected of assisting them. But he refused to confirm whether Sheikh Hamoud was among those detained.
I heard he and the city's chief of police were nabbed sneaking out the back door...
I guess a minivan loaded with the kids, clothes, and valuables now qualifies as a "mosque"
Posted by: Frank G ||
10/16/2004 11:09 Comments ||
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#3
Just stick a mini minaret on your VW microbus and, voila! You have a PortaMosque. Push the envelope, see if the Merkins will bite, heh heh.
Posted by: Alaska Paul ||
10/16/2004 12:18 Comments ||
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#4
Just stick a mini minaret on your VW microbus and, voila!
Next on MTV Iraq, "Jihad My Ride!"
Posted by: Steve ||
10/16/2004 13:21 Comments ||
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A multi-volume chronology and reference guide set detailing three years of the Mexican Drug War between 2010 and 2012.
Rantburg.com and borderlandbeat.com correspondent and author Chris Covert presents his first non-fiction work detailing
the drug and gang related violence in Mexico.
Chris gives us Mexican press dispatches of drug and gang war violence
over three years, presented in a multi volume set intended to chronicle the death, violence and mayhem which has
dominated Mexico for six years.
Rantburg was assembled from recycled algorithms in the United States of America. No
trees were destroyed in the production of this weblog. We did hurt some, though. Sorry.
Authorities on Friday arrested a Syrian-German businessman wanted by Spain on charges he helped fund the al-Qaida terrorist network for years and who is seen in a video at a mosque with some of the Sept. 11 hijackers, German officials said. 
THE US has designated the Iraqi insurgent group of 
