An explosion in a crowded southern Philippines market has killed at least 14 people and injured 60 others. The motive for the attack is not yet clear.
I'd say the Bad Guys wanted to kill a bunch of people. What do you think?
Police have cordoned off the area and are investigating the type of explosive used. They would not speculate about who was responsible but said there had been recent reports of threats by Muslim rebels from Abu Sayyaf. The group best known for kidnappings for ransom is linked to the regional militant network Jemaah Islamiah but the Mayor of General Santos said the explosion could stem from a feud between two groups of stall owners at the market.
Yah. I had a feud going with the lady in the cubicle next to mine last week. Blew her right up.
Posted by: Fred ||
12/12/2004 7:31:28 PM ||
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A powerful explosion ripped through an outdoor market packed with Christmas shoppers in the southern Philippines on Sunday, killing at least 15 people and injuring 58 others, the military said. A homemade bomb or a grenade concealed in a box went off in the market's meat section in General Santos city. Officials immediately stepped up security, fearing more attacks in the port city 620 miles south of Manila. "This is a terrorist attack by any measure," Sen. Richard Gordon, who heads the Philippine Red Cross, told ABS-CBN television. He criticized the military and police for failing to prevent the attack despite what he said was intelligence information of an imminent terror strike in the city. "I'm getting reports from some of our people there that they knew there was a plan to pull this off but still it happened," Gordon said. "They need to bolster their spying and their surveillance of places that should be under guard." Army Col. Medardo Geslani, who heads a regional anti-terrorism force, said no group claimed responsibility and it was not yet clear if terrorist groups were involved. "It was most possibly caused by an improvised explosive device," Geslani said.
Posted by: Frank G ||
12/12/2004 10:00:39 AM ||
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Four Israeli soldiers were killed and nine others wounded when Palestinian gunmen set off explosives in a tunnel they burrowed underneath an army post just outside the Gaza Strip border crossing to Egypt, Israeli officials said. ``This was a large-scale attack on an outpost just outside an international crossing that Palestinian civilians use to get into Egypt,'' Capt. Jacob Dallal said. ``It was a very large blast. It leveled the outpost and caused damage in the adjacent army base.'' Dallal said soldiers were wounded in the attack against the small outpost where Palestinian passports were checked before travelers entered the Rafah terminal. Israeli officials said four were killed.
First boom like this since Yasser kicked it. I guess there's too much love in the air for Hamas to stomache...
The attack came as Israeli Prime Minister Ariel Sharon began negotiating with opposition parties to form a new coalition that will allow him to move ahead with a plan to withdraw from Gaza and four Jewish settlements in the West Bank. Sharon threw out his junior coalition partner after they refused to vote for the 2005 budget. The violence also came as Marwan Barghouti, a Fatah leader who is serving time in an Israeli jail for his role in the killing of five people, said he will withdraw from the Jan. 9 election for president of the Palestinian Authority, his campaign manager Ahmed Ghneim said at a press conference. Barghouti said in a statement he will back Mahmoud Abbas, a former prime minister who is the official candidate of Fatah, the biggest Palestinian faction. The Palestinian Islamic militant group Hamas said it was responsible for the attack, as did a group known as the Fatah Hawks, the daily Haaretz said on its Web site.
Entirely too much peace, love, and goodwill in the air for Hamas and the "Fatah Hawks," which is probably the Yasser Martyrs Brigades with a false nose and moustache. Getting a good offensive under way, like the hard boyz in Iraq are trying to do, can lead to no elections. Hamas won't thrive nearly as well under any form of government other than anarchy.
Posted by: Fred ||
12/12/2004 7:14:50 PM ||
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This isn't a big surprise, really. It only reinforces the belief that the Paleos aren't interested in peace with Israel. Even if Mazen were to win, there's nothing to lead anyone to believe that he would actually do something about Paleo-bred terrorism and terrorist groups.
About a dozen suspects have been detained after a bomb blast that killed 11 people in Quetta, capital of Pakistan's southwestern Balochistan province, the police said yesterday. The bomb attached to a bicycle exploded on Friday in a busy marketplace in Quetta. It left 21 people injured, several of them with serious wounds. The explosion occurred close to a military vehicle. The victims included a soldier. Two other army men were among the injured. President General Pervez Musharraf and Prime Minister Shaukat Aziz reviewed the security situation in the country at a meeting here yesterday and strongly condemned the bombing, an official statement said.
Posted by: Fred ||
12/12/2004 4:14:41 PM ||
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Insurgents used the hospital in the volatile city of Ramadi to ambush US soldiers, the military said yesterday, firing rocket-propelled grenades and small arms fire at troops. Two Iraqi civilians, including a judge, were killed. Officials for the Ramadi General Hospital and Medical College rejected the claims but said fighting occurred near the hospital Friday night. The ambush happened late Friday as US soldiers attached to the Marines were patrolling in Ramadi, 70 miles west of Baghdad and close to the former insurgent stronghold of Fallujah, said Capt. Bradley Gordon, spokesman for the 1st Marine Division of the 1st Marine Expeditionary Force.
Insurgents hid inside the Ramadi General Hospital and Medical College and in nearby areas waiting for the soldiers to move into their ambush zone, Gordon said. "The insurgents turned off all of the lights in and around the hospital as the soldiers approached," he said in a statement. "Insurgents fired rocket-propelled grenades and small arms fire from both sides of the road at the soldiers as soon as the lights of the hospital were turned back on.
Posted by: Fred ||
12/12/2004 3:10:40 PM ||
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#1
Take all the patients out of the hospital.
Chain the management of the hospital to their desks and dynamite the place to a pile of rubble.
If anyone thinks this was done without inside help they are on crack. Level it all.
#3
Now hold on, pilgrim, this won't be the first time the ChicTrib has spun a story. Let's at least let all the facts get aired out before a writing assault.
Posted by: Capt America ||
12/12/2004 15:09 Comments ||
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#4
Story is WAY too long for posting. You might want to register.
Posted by: Steve White ||
12/12/2004 17:47 Comments ||
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#5
This is a non-story. Google the names. These people apparently did not exist as news stories, press releases, or any sort of ongoing history, until today. Now I'm seeing the original Tribune story threading to TheAge.au, and San Diego times, but there is nothing older than that.
23 soldiers in the brig, at THE END of a courts martial process? It's ALREADY FINISHED! What's the likelihood that something this size could make it through without one word getting out until now?
#6
Oops. Sorry. Here's another link to an abbreviated version of the orignal.
http://www.signonsandiego.com/news/world/iraq/20041212-1254-soldiers-scrounging.html
#7
OK, here's the only thing I found---From November 1, 2004.
http://pittsburghlive.com/x/tribune-review/trib/westmoreland/s_267992.html
Seems Birt pled guilty on advice of counsel.
"In all, according to a criminal charge sheet, Birt and the others stole two tractors, two trailers, a five-ton truck and a parts van. The soldiers kept some of the vehicles for nearly a year, despite repeated admonitions from a "nervous" Kaus to "get rid of these vehicles/equipment."
Most of the vehicles eventually were abandoned at military bases in Iraq and Kuwait. On some, bumper numbers used to identify the units owning the vehicles had been sanded off and repainted.
The frame of another -- stripped bare for its parts -- was buried.
Birt doesn't deny any wrongdoing.
"I did what they said," he said. "I'm not denying that. "But it wasn't for me to have my own truck. It was not for personal gain. ""
#8
Six reservists, including two veteran officers who had received Bronze Stars, were court-martialed for what soldiers have been doing as long as there have been wars--scrounging to get what their outfit needed to do its job in Iraq.
Darrell Birt, one of those court-martialed for theft, destruction of Army property and conspiracy to cover up the crimes, had been decorated for his "initiative and courage" for leading his unit's delivery of fuel over the perilous roads of Iraq in the war's first months.
Now, Birt, 45, who was a chief warrant officer with 656th Transportation Company, based in Springfield, Ohio, and his commanding officer find themselves felons, dishonorably discharged and stripped of all military benefits.
The 656th played a crucial role in maintaining the gasoline supply that fueled everything from Black Hawk helicopters to Bradley Fighting Vehicles between Balad Airfield and Tikrit. The reservists in the company proudly boast that their fuel was in the vehicles driven by the 4th Infantry Division soldiers who found Saddam Hussein hiding in a hole last year.
But when Birt's unit was ordered to head into Iraq in the heat of battle in April 2003 from its base in Kuwait, Birt said the company didn't have enough vehicles to haul the equipment it would need to do the job.
So, Birt explained, he and other reservists grabbed two tractors and two trailers left in Kuwait by other U.S. units that had already moved into Iraq.
Several weeks later, Birt and other reservists scrounged a third vehicle, an abandoned 5-ton cargo truck, and stripped it for parts they needed for repair of their trucks.
"We could have gone with what we had, but we would not have been able to complete our mission," said Birt, who was released from the brig on Oct. 17 and is petitioning for clemency in hope that he can return to the reserves.
"I admit that what we did was technically against the rules, but it wasn't for our own personal gain. It was so we could do our jobs."
The thefts mirror countless stories of shifty appropriation that has been memorialized in books and films as a wartime skill. Birt and other reservists in the unit said that what the prosecutors called theft was simply resourcefulness, a quality they say is abundant among soldiers in Iraq.
While in confinement, Birt had a chat with a military police officer who was puzzled by why Birt was in the brig. The MP, a guard, told Birt that his unit had "acquired" a Humvee in a similar fashion.
Equipment shortages have become a concern, and soldiers are expressing growing frustration about them. On Monday, the military announced it would not court-martial the 23 reservists who balked at transporting fuel in Iraq because their vehicles were in poor condition and lacked armor, and on Wednesday, soldiers complained to Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld about the lack of armor for vehicles.
In addition to the six in the 656th who were court-martialed, eight others in the unit were given non-judicial punishment, including fines, pay reduction and loss in rank.
The commanding officer of the company, Maj. Cathy Kaus, 46, was sentenced to 6 months in jail and fined $5,000 for her part in the thefts. She is scheduled to be released from the Naval Consolidated Brig Miramar in San Diego on Christmas Day after serving most of her sentence.
Kaus and Birt chose to be tried by a military judge rather than a panel that would have included fellow soldiers, and they waived the formal investigation.
An Army spokeswoman said Friday that the Army does not comment on specific cases. But she noted that the military's judicial process allows those who are court-martialed to apply for clemency.
The severity of the punishments was surprising to many members of the company, who regularly saw off-the-books trading and thefts of military property in Iraq by troops in other units.
Surprised by severity
Even Lt. Col. Christopher Wicker, the former commanding officer of the battalion overseeing the 656th who ordered the investigation of the thefts, said he was shocked by the hefty penalties.
"Circumstances at [the] time, however, made these acts less serious than if done in a peacetime garrison environment," Wicker said in a letter supporting clemency for Birt. "The sentences . . . are too harsh given the situation during the initial drive north of Baghdad in April 2003, and the limited flow of repair parts that existed April-September 2003."
Theft of military equipment is legendary among American war veterans, and the act has its own lexicon. In past wars some called it "scrounging," while others called it "midnight requisitions" and "liberating supplies," said writer and Vietnam War veteran Robert Vaughan.
Military bureaucracy combined with the reality of warfare has long made "scrounging" a necessity for soldiers trying to get a job done, Vaughan said. Stealing is justified, he said, because everything being taken is U.S. government property and is being used toward the war effort.
He recalled that while his unit was serving in a remote area in Vietnam, headquarters in Saigon repeatedly denied his unit's request for high-power generators because it said there were none in stock. But on previous trips to Saigon, Vaughan had seen dozens of generators stacked in a holding area at headquarters.
Frustrated, he drove to Saigon one afternoon, posed as a captain from another unit and gave a guard a forged requisition to get the generators.
"I was the greatest scrounger in the Vietnam War," said Vaughan, who has a war novel to be published in January in which the protagonist is an expert at stealing equipment for his unit. "If you did something that is not for your own personal gain, your higher-ups tended to protect you from getting into any trouble for it."
The problems for the 656th started days before the company was to move into Iraq. The company had only two cargo trucks to haul six containers filled with tools, spare parts, ammunition, biological-chemical protective wear and other supplies.
Kaus, the commander of the 656th, said that officers with the 544th Maintenance Battalion, whose command her company fell under, informed her the day before their scheduled push into Iraq that they could not provide her company support in moving the company's six containers. She said she discussed the problem with Birt and her other chief warrant officer, and the two told her they could solve it.
Just deal with it
Kaus said in a telephone interview that she told the men "to do what they had to do" to move their supplies, but she did not tell them to steal equipment.
Birt said he inferred that they had her permission to take the vehicles. The other chief warrant officer, Christopher Parriman, was not charged in the thefts and left Iraq because of a medical disability before the investigation began. Parriman declined to comment.
Kaus said Birt and Parriman initially told her they had permission to take the vehicles from another unit. She said she learned in late May or early June of 2003 that the vehicles were stolen, but at that point the trucks had become an integral part of the unit's regular fuel convoys.
"These were vehicles that were not going to be used by the unit that originally owned them, and they had become an important part in allowing us to deliver 40,000 to 50,000 gallons of fuel a day," said Kaus, who was awarded a Bronze Star for effectively leading the unit.
Kaus also said she could not determine which unit the trucks belonged to, so she could not return them. In fact, the vehicles and trailers in question were never reported stolen, according to transcripts of court-martial proceedings.
In a meeting with 656th officers and leaders of other companies under his command in June 2003, Wicker, the 544th Maintenance battalion commander, asked the officers if they had any equipment that did not belong to them. Kaus and the other officers said nothing, Wicker said.
No one mentioned the stolen property, Wicker and others said, until a disgruntled soldier, Sgt. Charles Neely, reported the unit to Wicker as the company was preparing to end its tour and return to Ohio. Neely, who also took part in the theft of one of the trucks, was reduced to private as part of his sentence. Neely lives in Ohio; he declined to comment.
Wicker, who had heard stories from relatives about scrounging in Vietnam, said he was more bothered that the officers did not admit having the equipment when asked and that they dismantled the 5-ton cargo truck. He said he understood the rationale for stealing the equipment, but he did not agree with it.
In the first several months of the Iraq war, the supply line moved at a glacial pace. Obtaining even basic parts to repair vehicles took as long as six weeks, said Robert Chalmers, who had been a sergeant with the 656th. He received a court-martial for stripping the cargo truck for spare parts and disposing of its frame.
Sitting in his kitchen in Greenville, Ohio, Chalmers recalled the rocket attacks, bomb explosions and small-arms fire his company faced on the road between Tikrit and Balad.
He laughed about his eagerness to head to Iraq. Anticipating that his company was going to be called up, he took two weeks off from work as an electrician to get gear ready before the unit's soldiers received official word that they would be going.
Other reservists' penalties
Chalmers said their actions were technically wrong, but he felt the importance of the company's mission justified the thefts. During the company's year in Iraq, members of the 656th drove more than 1.2 million miles and delivered about 33 million gallons of fuel.
Chalmers was reduced to a specialist as part of his sentence. Of the other two reservists who were court-martialed, one received a jail sentence, and the second was punished but not jailed.
The situation has left Chalmers in debt and bitter. His wife, Tina, said she had to borrow against her retirement savings to pay his $20,000 in legal fees.
"We were sent to Iraq without what we needed," said Chalmers, who has spent 15 years on active or reserve duty.. "If they don't make that decision to get the vehicles we needed, we are worse off and can't do our mission. If we don't do our mission, those tanks at the front stand still."
For Birt and Kaus, the court-martial and confinements are a devastating end to long and successful military careers. Both are holding onto a thin thread of hope that they will be granted clemency by Lt. Gen. Thomas Metz, commander of the multinational forces in Iraq, so their benefits will be reinstated and they will have a chance to continue their military careers.
Birt and Kaus were dishonorably discharged, and unless they receive clemency, they lose all military benefits, including the right to have the U.S. flag draped on their coffins.
This month, Birt received a certified letter from the trucking company he worked for as a shop foreman, telling him that it could no longer employ him because of his felony conviction. Kaus said her employer, sporting goods manufacturer Huffy Corp., has informed her that it is unlikely she will be allowed to come back to work because of her conviction.
Kaus said her anger has subsided, and she is trying to move on with her life.
"My family and friends remind me how fortunate we are that everyone of us [in the 656th] made it out of Iraq in one piece," she said.
For Birt, the end to his military career has been jolting.
"I don't have any regrets," Birt said. "I am proud of the work we did serving our country. If I could get back in the reserves, I would go back to Iraq in a second."
Posted by: Frank G ||
12/12/2004 20:18 Comments ||
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Grrrrrrrr. This is merely another chapter of a great military tradition: Get the Job Done - in spite of Command short-changing you.
AND more REMF second-guesser JAG whoring.
I'm glad this has made the MSM - they only print it because they hope it hurts Bush / Rummy - there is a chance this stupidity and over-aggressiveness by preening posturing self-serving REMF JAG ass-polishers will be overturned.
Rummy - are you listening? Do the right thing and tell everyone who doesn't like it to piss up a rope. Use hand gestures so even the dhimm-witted get it.
#10
I'll be flaming my congress critter Bill Thomas' ass tomorrow AM. This is some military justice types who are out of control apperently. I am thinking they are to ones needing the demotions. If anyone can find out who brought and pushed this it would be grat to see their names published. We should make sure they are black balled in civilian life. They are the ones who are aiding and comforting our foes and hurting us.
These people who are hurting from this are getting fucked over and we need to help them. The stuff they did has been done in every war to date. It's a requirement that is be done. these JAJ types need a good ass beating.
#11
A friend of mine was a Navy aviation crew chief in Vietnam. He needed an auxiliary power unit (APU) so, in the dark of night, "borrowed" one from the Air Force. When he was preparing to cover the bright yellow AF paint with Navy grey, he noticed a bit of grey peeking through a chip. After careful removal, he established that there were seven layers of paint alternating yellow and grey. Since the base layer was grey, he kept it.
#12
Beg to differ, you folks are way over the top on this supposed conspiracy crapola. The scrounging to achieve he mission is a pitch most of those serving time in the brig use as rationale.
Bitch a blue streak if you want, but unless you have the hearing testimonies, you are operating with minimal information furnished by third party journalists.
Posted by: Capt America ||
12/12/2004 22:53 Comments ||
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Posted by: Frank G ||
12/12/2004 11:08 Comments ||
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#3
Link's up now.
Posted by: Alaska Paul ||
12/12/2004 11:43 Comments ||
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#4
didn't miss much, did I? Nice agit-prop Al-Mikey
Posted by: Frank G ||
12/12/2004 11:50 Comments ||
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#5
Lovely death-pr0n. Mikey, you and your Izzoid butt buddies are deeply disturbed. Ya'll realy should see a shrink about these death fantasies you all are having. they can lead to some bad places if you don't get them under control.
Posted by: N Guard ||
12/12/2004 12:02 Comments ||
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#6
Send us your e-mail address, MS, and we'll send you civilian beheading videos, photos of Saddam's mass graves, photos of gased Kurds, lists of Iraq-Iranian war dead, statistics on the Marsh Arabs, photos of Kuwait under Iraqi occupation, and greetings from former Iraq Olympic team members who were tortured for losing. Or perhaps you'd prefer documents of Oil-for-Food program rip-offs, photos of Saddan's missiles, or articles about imprisoned children of political opponents. Asshat.
I'm leaving now -- my tolerance for asshats seems to be unusually low today.
Posted by: Tom ||
12/12/2004 12:09 Comments ||
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#1
Protecting Afghanistan's young democracy has become the most urgent priority for American commanders frustrated by their failure to capture al-Qaida leader Osama bin Laden, who disappeared after the Sept. 11, 2001, attacks in the United States.
writes Stephen Graham, a frustrated reporter. "How can I capture the idea that America is weak, evil and failing, when Sadaam Hussein was toppled and the Afghan democracy is succeeding?" "I am stuck attempting to wordsmith fantastic successes into failures using repetitive little catchphrases like this one."
A U.S. aircraft has dropped a quarter-tonne (500 lb) bomb on the northern Iraqi city of Mosul after guerrillas attacked a U.S. patrol that was trying to capture an insurgent arms dump, a military spokesman said. The powerful blast on Saturday shook the west of the city. There was an "unknown number of enemy casualties" and eight soldiers were slightly wounded, Lieutenant Colonel Paul Hastings said. Insurgents had set off a car bomb and then opened fire with rifles, rocket-propelled grenades and mortars on the unit that moved on the arms cache. Troops later destroyed the weapons.
Posted by: .com ||
12/12/2004 1:37:33 AM ||
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??? We have dropped down to 500lb and 250lb bombs from the 2000lb bombs. This says nothing to Daisy Cutters or the MOAB so why is it a "powerful blast"?
The Foreign Office has denied local press reports that Maulana Fazlur Rehman, the leader of the opposition in the National Assembly, was mistreated by the French authorities during his visit to France. The reports claimed that Mr Rehman had been mistreated when he went to the French foreign ministry and Pakistan's embassy in Paris had not protested the incident. The Foreign Office statement said Mr Rehman went to France for a one-day private visit on October 20. He visited Paris and left without incident. "The French authorities made no contact with Rehman and he did not contact the Pakistani embassy for any assistance," the press release said.
"Certainly not! As a matter of fact, you can't spell 'hospitality' without...ummm...'France'. Or something."
The question of giving assistance to Mr Rehman did not arise because the French authorities did not make any designation or declaration about him or harass him in any manner, the press release claimed. More than a fortnight after Mr Rehman visited France, a Paris-based Pakistani association informed the Pakistani ambassador that the French authorities had picked up two Pakistanis, Chaudhry Shaheen Akhtar and Ghazanfar Ali Karam, who had hosted and conducted Mr Rehman's visit. The embassy immediately interceded on behalf of the two Pakistanis and contacted the French internal security authorities and the French foreign ministry and secured the release of the two detainees, the press release said.
So it wasn't Fazl who was mistreated, but a couple of his henchmen who were picked up...
The French authorities told the Pakistani embassy that one of the Pakistanis was detained and questioned for taking photographs near a restricted site. The two Pakistanis claimed that during questioning, they were asked about their links with Mr Rehman, whom they [the Frenchies] allegedly called a terrorist. This has not yet been confirmed by the French authorities, said the Foreign Office statement. Muttahida Majlis-e-Amal (MMA) senators raised the issue during a recent Senate session.
Posted by: Fred ||
12/12/2004 1:14:45 AM ||
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They needn't get their turbans in a bunch over it, the French mistreat every visitor who is not a Palestinian terrorist.
#2
Why should he be treated any differently than anyone else.Wait a minute I just took another look at the pic,he's wearing a turban.That explains the complaint,Fazl has a"Devine Right"to be treated special.By the way he is a damn thief,that is my dish towel he's wearing.
Judge Anti Terrorism Court-II Feroz Mehmood Bhatti on Saturday resumed the hearing of case against Dr Akmal Waheed and his younger brother Dr Arshad Waheed on charges of harboring activists of an Al Qaeda linked organization Jundullah. The court ruled out the objection of defence counsel M Ilyas Khan that trial could not go ahead as long as the doctor brothers were continued to be detained under section 11-EEE of the Anti Terrorism Act (ATA).The court, after ruling out the objection of the defence, recorded the statement of prosecution witness Mati-ur-Rehman, the owner of a rent-a-car company, Orient.
The witness in his examination-in-chief stated that he had on May 26, 2004 rented out the car to Shahzad Bajwa and Israr Ahmed (both the police claimed activists of Jundulla) on personal guarantee of Mohammad Afzal Farooqi, reporter of a local daily. The witness deposed that they did not return the car and later he knew that it was found parked in the house of the two doctor brothers. However, during cross-examination by the defence, the witness admitted that in his statement before the police he had stated that he did not remember the date of delivery of the car and further that he did not produce any documents when he was examined by the police.
Both Dr Akmal Waheed and Dr Arshad Waheed were first shown arrested by the police on June 17, on charges of coordinating attacks on rangers patrolling van in April and terrorist attack on former corps commander of Karachi Ahmed Saleem Hayat on June 10. The police dropped these charges against them and they were on July 2 shown arrested in a fresh FIR registered at Gulsha-e-Iqbal police station. The police accused them of harboring activists of Jundullah, providing them medical assistance and facilitating their training in Wana, South Wazirstan. The two brothers moved bail applications before the trial court which was rejected in November. Later they moved the bail please in the Sindh High Court and a division bench comprising Justice Wahid Bux Brohi and Justice Rehmat Hussain Jaferi ordered them to be released on bail on furnishing surety of Rs0.5 million each.
Posted by: Fred ||
12/12/2004 1:05:24 AM ||
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the witness...rented out the car to (the suspects)on personal guarantee of Mohammad Afzal Farooqi, reporter of a local daily.
Is Farooqi a common Pak name? Perv iced one Amjad Hussain Farooqi in September and he was high on their list of top terrorists...
Two unidentified persons detonated a bomb at the home of top Nepalese bureaucrat, Chief Secretary Dr. Bimal Prasad Koirala, in the Nepalese capital early Saturday morning, police said. The chief secretary is the most senior government employee. It was the third bomb blast in the Kathmandu Valley in three consecutive days. Although the police suspect Maoist rebels to be the culprits, the Maoists denied responsibility in telephone messages to some media outlets.
"No, you silly English pig-dogs, it was not us!"
According to the police, two unidentified men on a motorcycle hurled the bomb inside Koirala's home. The bomb damaged the main gate of the building and shattered window panes as well as those of nearby houses. Koirala was not present in his residence when the blast occurred. He was reported to be out of country on government business. Though there were several people present in the house, none were injured, police said. Meanwhile, the Maoists exploded a bomb in the house of a citizen in the west Nepal district of Dang on Friday night, the private radio station HBC reported on Saturday. The report said the house was destroyed by the blast. There were no casualties.
Posted by: Steve White ||
12/12/2004 12:02:02 AM ||
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Contract killers are being offered as little as $50 to target coalition soldiers in Iraq, the commander of Australian forces said in a newspaper interview published Sunday. Air Commodore Greg Evens, who took command of Australia's 350 soldiers in Iraq last month, said Iraqi insurgents were hiring assassins from neighboring Middle Eastern countries with the promise of cash payments for every soldier they killed. ``This is a difficult adversary,'' he told Sydney's The Sunday Telegraph newspaper. ``The insurgency is not a coherent force.''
Downright incoherent at times, they are.
He added, ``We are seeing zealots brought in from outside Iraq and paid $50 for contract killings. These forces are a general threat to the coalition.'' He said his soldiers were preparing for an all-out assault by insurgents before national elections scheduled for Jan. 30.
Posted by: Steve White ||
12/12/2004 12:00:00 AM ||
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#1
A bit more from the longer version at News Corp
"He anticipated a "campaign of murder" to begin in Baghdad over the Christmas and New Year period, with trucks and cars packed with deadly explosives the most likely threat to Australian patrols.
"I'm prepared for the strategic surprise," he said. "Almost all the analysis we are getting says the insurgency is likely to put in a big effort (before January 30).
"They will use every odious mechanism available to them, and that means violence."
Australians in Baghdad were exposed to the lethal potential of car bombs six weeks ago, when a convoy of Australian light armoured vehicles was ambushed by a nondescript white sedan packed with 200kg of explosives.
"That was the classic Baghdad car bomb. I would say it was the closest we have come to losing someone," Air Commodore Evans said.
The Australians are universally regarded as the best equipped troops in Iraq and the Australian light armoured vehicle (ASLAV) is considered the safest form of transport.
The Humvee vehicles used by US forces were exposed last week when a junior soldier asked US Secretary of Defence Donald Rumsfeld why he was forced to pin scrap metal - which he called "hillbilly armour" - to the panels for extra protection.
Air Commodore Evans said he was relieved his troops were not put at risk by sub-standard equipment.
"There are many soldiers who are out there in quite lightly armoured vehicles. I'm glad my diggers don't have to do that," he said.
While the struggle for peace in Iraq was far from over, Air Commodore Evans said the recent fierce battle in Fallujah saw the insurgents' leadership desert their fighters when US troops moved into the city.
"We are hearing that the key leadership fled and left their subordinates to do the fighting, which is fairly typical I'm afraid," he said."
#3
Article: Air Commodore Evans said he was relieved his troops were not put at risk by sub-standard equipment. "There are many soldiers who are out there in quite lightly armoured vehicles. I'm glad my diggers don't have to do that," he said.
It is just amazing how stupid/malicious journalists are. Australians don't have to go out in humvees because they don't have to go on patrols where they actually go looking for things. And that's what the Australian officer was talking about - that Australians aren't tasked with the same kinds of things that American troops are. And yet the Aussie journo interprets that as saying that American forces have sub-standard equipment. This is why I hate these arrogant bastards.
#7
I recall the going price for a coalition hit was several hundred dollars. Supply and demand or is someone running out of cash?
Posted by: john ||
12/12/2004 6:54 Comments ||
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#8
Re #3 (Zhang Fei): ... And yet the Aussie journo interprets that as saying that American forces have sub-standard equipment. This is why I hate these arrogant bastards.
The journalist is an Austrialian, writing for an Australian publication read mostly by Australian readers.
He writes: "The Australians are universally regarded as the best equipped troops in Iraq and the Australian light armoured vehicle (ASLAV) is considered the safest form of transport."
He writes: "Air Commodore Evans said he was relieved his troops were not put at risk by sub-standard equipment."
Naturally, this kind of reporting is of great interest to his Australian readers. The intention is to reassure Australian readers that Australian troops in Iraq are well equipped and protected.
As context, the journalist mentions the recent, well-known press conference and subsequent controversy in the USA, about whether US vehicles are adequately armored.
Out of this, Zhang Fei, you concoct your attack that journalists are arrogant bastards?
Do you think this journalist was wrong to write at this time an article about whether Australian vehicles in Iraq are adequately armored? The issue is probably of hightened interest in Australia right now, because it's of hightened interest in the USA right now. In this context, do you think the journalist was wrong to mention Rumsfeld's recent press conference in the context of this article?
By the way, I am kind of surprised that you are so upset when you think other people are arrogant. I would think you would be much more understanding of that fault.
.
Posted by: Mike Sylwester ||
12/12/2004 9:23 Comments ||
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#9
oooohhhhh Mikey took a position (kinda)! And a snarky attack! Surprise meter?
Posted by: Frank G ||
12/12/2004 9:41 Comments ||
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#10
lex, I'm pretty sure that's how indy media works.... :-p
SRINAGAR, India - Indian troops killed three terrorists rebels including a commander of the pro-Pakistan Hizbul Mujahedin group that has launched deadly attacks in Kashmir in the past week, police said Saturday. A senior divisional commander of the dominant Hizbul Mujahedin group was shot dead by Indian troops during an encounter in Dangal Kashtigarh village in southern Doda district, said a police spokesman. "Abdul Hamid headed a list of most wanted terrorists militants in south Kashmir," the spokesman told AFP.
Two other Hizbul Mujahedin terrorists rebels were shot dead overnight in the districts of Baramulla and Anantnag during separate encounters, added the spokesman. The Hizbul Mujahedin has been active in Kashmir since the launch of an anti-India insurgency in 1989. It wants India's only Muslim-majority state to break away and become a part of neighbouring Pakistan. The group claimed responsibility for a roadside mine explosion on Sunday that killed ten Indian security force personnel and a civilian. It also took responsibility for two more attacks this week on counter-insurgency policemen that left six of them dead and five others injured.
Tej Krishan, a Hindu farmer who was being treated for gunshot wounds inflicted by suspected Muslim militants in the southern district of Pulwama died Saturday in hospital, police added.
Posted by: Steve White ||
12/12/2004 12:00:00 AM ||
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A powerful explosion ripped through an outdoor market packed with Christmas shoppers in the southern Philippines on Sunday, killing at least 15 people and injuring 58 others, the military said. A homemade bomb or a grenade concealed in a box went off in the market's meat section in General Santos city. Officials immediately stepped up security, fearing more attacks in the port city 620 miles south of Manila. "This is a terrorist attack by any measure," Sen. Richard Gordon, who heads the Philippine Red Cross, told ABS-CBN television. He criticized the military and police for failing to prevent the attack despite what he said was intelligence information of an imminent terror strike in the city. "I'm getting reports from some of our people there that they knew there was a plan to pull this off but still it happened," Gordon said. "They need to bolster their spying and their surveillance of places that should be under guard." Army Col. Medardo Geslani, who heads a regional anti-terrorism force, said no group claimed responsibility and it was not yet clear if terrorist groups were involved. "It was most possibly caused by an improvised explosive device," Geslani said.
The Foreign Office has denied local press reports that Maulana 
SRINAGAR, India - Indian troops killed three 
