The Russian Federal Security Bureau revealed the list of persons, who pose the biggest danger to the security of the nation, FSB Director Nikolai Patrushev told reporters yesterday. The FSB director said that the list included Chechen terrorist leaders: Shamil Basayev, Aslan Maskhadov, Doku Umarov, and Al-Qaida terrorists Abu Havs, Abu-Tari. As for foreign extremists, Patrushev named Movladi Udugov - one of the central ideologists of Chechen terrorists. In addition, Patrushev stressed, the Russian counterintelligence detected the network of the international terrorist organization Al-Qaida, which conducted its subversive activities in Russia's south. The official added that there were about ten Al-Qaida terrorists in Russia's North Caucasus. The Federal Security Bureau knows about them and carries out the necessary work to destroy the terrorists.
Russian special services have destroyed over 200 guerrillas since the beginning of the current year, including such renowned insurgents as Abu al-Valid, Ruslan Gelaev and other Chechen terrorist leaders. New, well-trained terrorists continue coming to Russia from abroad, though. When warlord Khattab was killed, he was replaced with another terrorist leader - Abu Havs.
According to Patrushev, the FSB cannot detect, arrest or destroy international terrorists without the support of other branches of power. Nikolai Patrushev backed up the idea of establishing a special agency in Russia, which would coordinate the activity of all anti-terrorist structures. As far as FSB's activity in Chechnya is concerned, Patrushev emphasized that counter-terrorist operations in the region allowed to achieve a required level of law and order and public security in the Chechen republic, speed up the recreation of the republic's social field and economy.
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Posted by: Dan Darling ||
12/19/2004 2:16:48 AM ||
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Sixty-two terror acts have been prevented since the beginning of the year, and 63 militant bases destroyed, said the Chechen republican board of the Federal Security Service, or FSB, as it gathered in session today to sum up the year's work. Emergency safety measures helped a successful federal presidential poll, and an extraordinary republican presidential election. The FSB cooperated with other law enforcement bodies to track down and confiscate 267 paramilitary cachets with a solid stock of arms, munitions, equipment and communication technology. Sixty-two militants surrendered during special operations. The counterintelligence service cut a channel on which rebels were getting money from the Middle East via Transcaucasia. Two Georgian journalists were deported from Russia last September for instigating anti-government action by Beslan hostages' relations.
Posted by: Fred ||
12/19/2004 1:06:33 AM ||
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About 1,200 rebels are still actively fighting Russian forces in Chechnya, a senior Russian security general said Friday. Over 200 of the rebels are foreign mercenaries, police Maj. Gen. Oleg Khotin, who commands the Russian Interior Ministry's units in Chechnya, told the Interfax news agency. Khotin said the rebels are laying mines on roads used by federal units and setting ambushes there.
Posted by: Dan Darling ||
12/19/2004 5:00:11 PM ||
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AUSTRIAN security forces foiled an attempt to assassinate a son of North Korean leader Kim Jong-il during a European trip in November, Yonhap News reported today. The report of the plot against Kim Jong-nam came amid persistent rumours of internal political strife in the reclusive communist state and within the nation's first family itself. Citing a source familiar with North Korean affairs, Yonhap said the failed plot had been planned by North Koreans favouring other of Kim Jong-il's sons as his eventual successor. "Kim ran into an attempt to assassinate him during his visit to Europe in mid-November, but the Austrian intelligence agency had received a tip in advance and protected him," the source was quoted as saying. "The attempt was made by anti-Kim (Jong-nam) groups in North Korea."
Let them do their killing in their own country, not in the West.
South Korea's National Intelligence Service could not confirm the report but said Seoul's government was checking it. In November, global financial markets were swept by rumours that Kim Jong-il had been assassinated or overthrown. At the same time, diplomats and officials were reported as saying that some of Kim's portraits had been removed from public places. The North's official KCNA news agency later denied this. Long seen as his 62-year-old father's heir apparent, Kim Jong-nam's star is thought to have waned after he was caught trying to sneak into Japan on a false passport in 2001. Although a thick veil conceals the doings of the North's ruling dynasty, Kim Jong-il - who succeeded his father and state founder Kim Il-sung in 1994 - is believed to have had children with at least three wives. Korea watchers say the older Kim now appears to favour Swiss-educated Kim Jong-chul, who is in his 20s.
Posted by: tipper ||
12/19/2004 1:52:07 AM ||
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A MAN on board a flight from Sydney Airport caused a major international security alert when he text messaged his wife overseas to tell her his plane had been hijacked by Islamic terrorists. Italian tourist Antonio Casale, 35, sent SMS messages as a joke after taking off on Lauda Austrian Airlines flight OS2 at 6.30pm last Sunday. The Sunday Telegraph understands Casale, who was travelling to Vienna via Kuala Lumpur, sent the messages during a re-fuelling stop in the Malaysian capital. He claimed terrorists were in control of the plane and were taking the passengers to an unknown destination. Casale's distressed wife alerted police within minutes of receiving the flurry of messages at home in Milan. Australian Federal Police were then informed a group of terrorists had possibly boarded the flight in Sydney and were asked by Italian authorities to carry out background checks on passengers.
The Italian Embassy in Canberra was drawn into the full-scale operation and provided details of Casale's movements in Australia. Anti-terror agents in Kuala Lumpur were also tipped off about the possibility of another September 11-style terror attack. They were able to raise the pilot and connect him to counter-terror negotiators. Casale's message was confirmed as a hoax when negotiators contacted the pilot mid-flight and found him oblivious to any hijacking attempt. The flight was allowed to continue and authorities arrested the man upon his arrival in Vienna. Other passengers on the flight had no inkling of the drama unfolding around them. Casale was taken aside by the plane's captain. When the plane landed in Vienna, police detained Casale for questioning but later released him without charge.
"How'd you get that bruise on your ass, Antonio?"
For 12 anxious minutes, Austrian Airlines and anti-terror agents in four countries considered the matter anything but a joke. "It was serious because you have to go through the checks and all the procedures to ensure the threat was not real," said airline spokesman Johannes Davoras. Vienna Airport police chief Dr Leo Lauber said police released Mr Casale after deciding there was no malice behind the ill-judged prank. "What he did was stupid but since he had no intention of injuring anybody, we released him," he said. While the incident was exposed as a bizarre prank, the Australian Government was prepared to put its counter-terrorism program into full swing if the messages proved correct. "We don't need idiots carrying on the way this passenger apparently was," Deputy PM John Anderson said.
Posted by: God Save The World ||
12/19/2004 4:48:14 PM ||
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#1
"released him without charge"???
Put him in jail for at least two years and bar him from EVER flying again.
#2
Remember, TGA, he has the absolute right to exercise free speech - anytime, anywhere, for any reason that suits him. Nothing whatsoever is off limits. So sayeth Aris The Grate, so it must be true.
#5
I think that after Mrs. Casale gets done with Antonio, two years in the house-of-many-windows-and-few-doors might have been preferable.
Posted by: Darth VAda ||
12/19/2004 1:12 Comments ||
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#6
Another EEFI (Essential Element of Friendly Information) blunder on somebody's part to reveal this, the chain of investigation and the fact that it took 12 minutes.
Buncha maroons. Now Al-Q can refine their technique and try again.
We didn't allow total freedom of the press in WW2, and it neither killed us or prevented victory. We seem to have forgotten that lesson.
#9
Yep, I think he definitely needs some jail-time. He isn't likely to repeat this himself, but it would discourage any future pranksters. At the very least, he should be required to pay all the associated costs, including employee time among the various agencies that had to respond.
I have some experience with pranks of this nature and their potential costs. A few years ago, an employee at my company called the fire department after I got stuck in our elevator and, as a joke, happened to tell them he thought I was going into cardiac arrest.
I was on the elevator phone with a repairman when the employee called on my cell phone to tell me he had called 9-1-1. I started to say, "You did WHAT?" but, just then, I heard sirens outside. The firemen arrived directly (about 14 of them in 3 trucks). The employee vanished. The fireman, naturally assuming the worst, immediately forced the door open with axes and crowbars (good thing they aren't burglars), soon discovering no emergency worthy of the name.
The Fire Department billed me $1469.21 for the unwarranted call. Damage to the elevator door came to another $214.00. The employee was sent packing (the only time I have ever fired anyone).
#10
Remember, TGA, he has the absolute right to exercise free speech - anytime, anywhere, for any reason that suits him. Nothing whatsoever is off limits. So sayeth Aris The Grate, so it must be true
There's a difference between free expression of *opinions*, and intentional lies. I'm only supporting an unrestricted right to the former, not to the latter. I don't think that the right to slander should be unrestricted for example.
That the American first amendment stupidly uses the term "free speech" instead of the much more sane "freedom of opinion and expression" is what has led to the stupid discussion of non-issues like shouting fire in a crowded theater.
Other than that I'm still annoyed at all the annoyed who insist on ever misinterpreting my words.
#11
Ah, I wondered if I had misspoken yesterday, but no, I had indeed expressed myself accurately. My exact phrase had been: "I think that nobody should be hurt for the opinions he expresses."
The opinions, .com. The *opinions*. So, try again, do please. You've fallen on your face, yet again.
#13
After reading yesterday's post,I see Aris has the concept of"Fighting words"down pat.But tell me Aris,due you understand the quaint American custom of"Frontier Justice"?
#16
Sometimes.Usally it meant when 2 people had a disagrement the stepped into the street and faught it out(not usally with guns).Often as not when the fight was over they helped each other up and whent and had a drink.
#19
Yesterday, Aris, I attempted to educate you on the meaning of the First Amendment. I see that I have failed. It was the fault of neither the workman nor his tools: in this case, it was a matter of inadequate raw materials. That the American first amendment stupidly uses the term "free speech" instead of the much more sane "freedom of opinion and expression"
So now you're the intellectual superior of James Madison, Benjamin Franklin, George Washington, Alexander Hamilton, Gouverneur Morris? That's a pretty heady claim. I wonder how you will ever manage to back that up.
The Framers of the Constitution were neither "stupid" nor "insane" as your comment clearly states. They said what they meant and the meant what they said.
Posted by: Darth VAda ||
12/19/2004 11:27 Comments ||
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#20
That the American first amendment stupidly uses the term "free speech" instead of the much more sane "freedom of opinion and expression" is what has led to the stupid discussion of non-issues like shouting fire in a crowded theater.
The use of the term "free speech" was deliberate. It covers much more than opinion, such as the ability to establish a newspaper without interference from the State(radio and television are a bit different, since the State supposedly 'manages' the frequency spectrum on behalf of its citizens).
The discussions about, and repercussions from, such a right are an on-going part of establishing the 'responsibilities'.
If you mean by "I think that nobody should be hurt for the opinions he expresses" that no one should be physically harmed - agreed. However, that no one should face consequences for what they express in an opinion is fatuous.
#21
So now you're the intellectual superior of James Madison, Benjamin Franklin, George Washington, Alexander Hamilton, Gouverneur Morris?
I think it has less to do with intellectual superiority or inferiority, than with the fact they did their thing more than 200 years ago, and without knowledge of the next centuries' worth of arguments.
The discussions about, and repercussions from, such a right are an on-going part of establishing the 'responsibilities'.
That's a view that essentiatelly ends up demanding an extremely loose interpretation of what the words of the constitution (especially the amendments) *really* meant. Given that, I'm afraid that people here really have no right complaining about "judicial activism". Judicial activism ends up becoming a necessity.
I wonder if this is also a civil law-common law thingy. In civil law countries when we want to clarify points of the constitution, I think we generally *clarify* them within the constitution.
#22
In civil law countries when we want to clarify points of the constitution, I think we generally *clarify* them within the constitution.
And you folks are oh so good at writing constitutions, you just keep going and going and going until you have a completely unworkable mess that collapses under its own imponderable weight.
The U.S. Constitution is a work of conscision and precision. Nothing I can see is added to the concept by substituting opinion and expression for speech, since any unexpressed opinion is pretty clearly beyond the reach of the law anyway.
As Mark Steyn pointed out "The U.S Constitution is older than the French, German, Italian, Greek, and Spanish constitutions combined." The U.S. Constitution has a preamble, 23 articles, and 27 amendments. The first ten of the latter grant no rights, they constrain the goverment from interfering with those rights. The rights themselves are a priori. The proposed EU constitition has over 600 articles, promising, among other things, "adequate housing", "education", and a host of other things that are nice to have, but a government that is dedicated to providing all these things is a government that will be on the backs of its subjects from cradle to grave. Furthermore, the constitution goes on to state that "limitations may be made only if they are necessary and genuinely meet objectives of general interest recognized by the Union," giving themselves an opportunity to quash any - ahem - inconvenient rights if they come up with a good enough reason.
Lotsa luck. You're going to need it.
Posted by: Darth VAda ||
12/19/2004 12:58 Comments ||
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#23
Another bandwidth brushfire out of control. The thread was originally about an assclown airline passenger who text messaged a phony hijack threat and got into trouble.
Posted by: Alaska Paul ||
12/19/2004 13:43 Comments ||
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#24
That's a view that essentiatelly ends up demanding an extremely loose interpretation of what the words of the constitution (especially the amendments) *really* meant. Given that, I'm afraid that people here really have no right complaining about "judicial activism". Judicial activism ends up becoming a necessity.
you are so dangerously ignorant of the consequences from your nanny-state religion, Aris. The EU will blow up, and your kind will go down with it, saying: "but we did it for all you ignorant people! You should be thanking us!"
Posted by: Frank G ||
12/19/2004 13:46 Comments ||
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#25
Are you guys going to continue that? There is no such thing as total free speech, even if you're just voicing a (correct) opinion.
If your wife asks you: "Darling I seem to have put on weight, what do you think?"
I tell you this: If you love life and peace, FORGET about free speech and lie like hell!
#26
The U.S. Constitution is a work of conscision and precision
Of concision perhaps, but of precision? LOL!! Yeah, right. After 200 years you are still debating what the Second Amendment really means. And you needed a civil war to determine whether "people" truly referred to all people or just white people. And you've reinterpreted a thing about "Congress passing no law concerning an establishment of religion" as meaning "separation of church and state" instead -- that's precision according to you? And "free speech" doesn't truly mean all speech it seems (like shouting fire in a crowded theater), only the things you think it is reasonable for free speech to mean.
That's not precision. That's guesswork.
Nothing I can see is added to the concept by substituting opinion and expression for speech, since any unexpressed opinion is pretty clearly beyond the reach of the law anyway.
How about flag-burning? How about artistic expression like Piss Christ?
As for the European Constitution, don't get me wrong, I'd also love a much slimmer and tighter Constitution, reduced to one tenth its size. But this has nothing whatsoever to do with the question of clarity. To call the Bill of Rights a work of "precision" is sheer ridiculousness.
#27
The EU will blow up, and your kind will go down with it, saying: "but we did it for all you ignorant people! You should be thanking us!"
Whether the EU will blow up or not is an open question, but my "kind" has never done anything without the consent of the majority. So the comment you attribute to me "we did it for all you ignorant people" is quite inappropriate. My "kind" only wants the nations that *want* to be in the EU to be a part of it.
Let each nation freely decide yea or nay. Last year 9 nations freely voted yea. Which is a fact that anti-EU folk still can't stomach.
I know some nations like UK and Germany have grievances because their people aren't consulted through referenda often enough, but the people of those countries should recognize that as a grievance against the political regimes of their *own* nations. The EU never prevented referenda to take place.
#28
The last sentence is actually true, at least for Germany. It's the German government that tries to prevent a referendum about the EU constitution, same as it prevented a referendum about the Euro (which could very well have failed).
#31
yep, wouldn't be surprised if ya got fragged by your own squad, Aris
Posted by: Frank G ||
12/19/2004 14:47 Comments ||
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#32
Clearly you have no intention to take up the "I'll ignore him if he'll ignore me" offer, do you Frank?
In that case let me repeat that I consider you a tremendous moral midget and coward -- whenever you lose a battle of arguments you bravely, bravely run away to hide behind random irrelevant personal insults or attacks instead. Yesterday you took refuge by randomly calling me a Nazi when you lost *that* argument. Now you use the random "you'll get fragged by your squad" thing as your brave brave hiding place.
Whatever, coward.
What'll be the next refuge? The lack of updates in my website, perhaps? My being a nightowl?
You need to simmer down, bubble boy. Frank apologized to you for calling you a Nazi. Only an ungrateful bastard will take that as winning an argument. You have been trolling since late last night and now you are calling people cowards.
Frank,
I know you are more than capable of fighting your own fights, but I had to say something. Carry on...
#34
pedantic little A-hole. I can't ignore your snide jabs at your betters
Posted by: Frank G ||
12/19/2004 16:00 Comments ||
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#35
Frank apologized to you for calling you a Nazi. Only an ungrateful bastard will take that as winning an argument.
No dear, you have the timeline messed up and you misunderstood my words. *First* I won the argument, *then* he cravenly fled from the argument's battlefield by calling me a Nazis (or rather saying he expects I would love their regime, which amounts to the same thing).
Then after much non-argument on his behalf, he ended up apologizing. In short my victory in the argument came *before* the whole Nazi thing, and it has nothing to do with the apology.
and now you are calling people cowards
Actually I'd called him a coward yesterday as well.
Posted by: Frank G ||
12/19/2004 16:53 Comments ||
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#44
That's a view that essentiatelly ends up demanding an extremely loose interpretation of what the words of the constitution (especially the amendments) *really* meant....Judicial activism ends up becoming a necessity.
Not so much a loose interpretation, as a constant defining by citizens of what the envelope is. Frankly, judicial activism (or activism by any unelected or appointed body unaccountable directly to the citizenry) is the least desirable way to establish and define responsibilities and/or codify rights.
Enough for me on the subject. It's getting too close to being 'scholarly' again.
Spanish authorities have arrested four Moroccans on suspicion of membership of a radical Islamic group on the Canary Islands, the interior ministry said Saturday. One of the suspects, who are believed to be members of the Islamic Group of Moroccan Fighters, was wanted for a possible link to the Madrid train bombings in March. Investigators said the group was about to set up a logistical base in the archipelago off the coast of northwest Africa. It is believed to be part of the extremist Jihad Salafist Movement and to have ties to Osama bin Laden's Al Qaeda network, they added.
Among those arrested on the island of Lanzarote were the imam of the village of Puerto del Carmen, Abdallah Mourib, as well as Hassan El Haski, 41, who was wanted for his suspected role in the March 11 attacks on commuter trains in the Spanish capital which left 191 people dead and some 1,900 wounded. Haski, who was born in Guelmin, Morocco, has been under investigation for his suspected ties to the Islamic Group of Moroccan Fighters which is believed to have carried out bomb attacks in Casablanca in May last year that killed 45 people. The interior ministry said Haski managed to flee when Belgium and France cracked Islamist networks in their countries. He is believed to have given orders to Mourib, 36, and Ali Fahimi, 31, another suspect who was among those arrested in Lanzarote and detained at Playa Blanca-Yaiza. The fourth suspect, who was also detained at Playa Blanca-Yaiza, was identified as Brahim Atia El Hammouchi, 40. Police said the group made several trips to Europe, notably Belgium and the Netherlands, but always returned to the Canary Islands where they felt safe after the arrests made in Belgium and France.
Posted by: Dan Darling ||
12/19/2004 4:49:30 PM ||
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Several loud blasts were heard in the Indonesian capital Jakarta and two nearby towns early on Sunday, but police said they had found no evidence of bombs and one radio report said it could have been a meteor shower.
Police, on high alert after warnings from Western governments of possible terror attacks over the Christmas and New Year period, said they were investigating the reports from residents of loud blasts. Local Metro TV reported that residents had heard the blasts around 7:30 a.m. in Jakarta, the satellite city of Tangerang, and also Serang in West Java province. El Shinta radio said it could have been a meteor shower. "The police have searched throughout the regency and we found nothing to indicate a bomb or meteor," said one officer on duty in Tangerang.
Senior anti-terror police officers said there had been no reports of any bombs in Jakarta or elsewhere in the country. Indonesian air force spokesman Sagom Tambun said there had been no radar readings indicating a meteor. "We haven't found anything. I have checked with our radar," he told Reuters by telephone. One caller to El Shinta from Bogor, just south of Jakarta, reported seeing a large object, suspected to be a meteor, hit the earth in the distance. Five hours after the blasts were heard, there were no reports of any casualties or damage, indicating that bombs were unlikely. Western governments, especially Australia, have warned that an international hotel could be targeted for attack, possibly one of the three Hiltons in the world's most populous Muslim nation.
Posted by: Dan Darling ||
12/19/2004 2:14:57 AM ||
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An Indonesian soldier and eight separatist rebels have been killed in the latest clashes in restive Aceh province, the military said Saturday. The soldier and five rebels were killed in an encounter at Bandar Dua in Pidie district on Friday, military spokesman Ari Mulya Asnawi said. Two other troops were injured in the clash. Also on Friday, troops killed three rebels in three separate locations in East Aceh, the spokesman said. Asmawi said guerrillas abducted two civilians in East Aceh on Friday. Rebel spokesmen could not be reached for comment. An estimated 12,000 people - many of them civilians - have been killed since Free Aceh Movement rebels began their insurgency in 1976, with rights groups accusing both troops and the guerrillas of widespread abuses.
Posted by: Fred ||
12/19/2004 12:55:18 AM ||
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SEVERAL loud blasts have been heard in the Indonesian capital Jakarta and two nearby towns. Local Metro TV reports residents heard the blasts about 7.30am local time, or 11.30am Australian time (AEDT). A loud noise that several witnesses said resembled an explosion was heard in parts of Jakarta early Sunday. Media reports said a meteor had fallen close to the capital.
Didn't we see something similar to this in a Superman comic book about 40 years ago?
Several callers to el-Shinta radio station spoke of a fast whitish object crossing the sky towards the west of Jakarta and a big explosion followed by what they said sounded like an echo. Metro TV station reported that a large object, suspected to be a meteor, had fallen to earth, also to the west of the city. Police said they were investigating the reports, but they had no reports of any bombings in the capital. No other details were immediately available. The Australian government last week warned of possible terrorist attacks in Indonesia over the Christmas and New Year period.
Posted by: God Save The World ||
12/19/2004 12:10:56 AM ||
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#1
ChannelNewsAsia report is sketchy but it could be a missile. Statement its a meteor appears based on a priori argument.
#3
allah--swt--has sent a message to the new mecca--jakarta--now all we need is to find a 40 year old epileptic pedophile highwayman to fantasize meglomaniac visions of gawd and form a gang of facist thugs and we're in business again--you da real profit--no- i'm da real profit--dueling profits--call burt reynolds and his bow and arrow
Posted by: SON OF TOLUI ||
12/19/2004 4:09 Comments ||
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#4
Here's the Al Guardian story (as of 8:16 GMT) - they indicate it was likely a meteor which didn't quite become a meteorite.
A big ***BOOM***
Just [insert diety of choice here] snapping her/his fingers. Prolly will result in a new religion or two, heh, but no shrine since it didn't hit the ground. Whomever might have filled the whacked-out bill, as SOT described so eloquently above, missed her/his chance, heh. Better luck next millenium, eh?
#6
..uh, test shot...never mind...nothing to see here...
hmmm...lemme see...came down on 6ĆĀ° 16' N 106ĆĀ° 48' E instead of 35ĆĀ° 45'N 51ĆĀ° 45' E...Nuts, I'm gonna have to recalibrate everything before firing for effect.
Posted by: Darth VAda ||
12/19/2004 7:02 Comments ||
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#7
Raptor: I have to say that's a strong possibility...
Posted by: Charles ||
12/19/2004 8:14 Comments ||
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#8
gosh..I guess the joke I made about it falling on my head was prescient
A man suspected of involvement in a deadly grenade attack at a controversial Bollywood concert in Sri Lanka has been arrested, police said Saturday. "We do not want to make any comment except to say that the investigation is making good progress," police spokesman Reinzie Perera said. He refused to give details of Thursday's arrest. Police have been watching videos of the audience at the concert and more arrests will be made in the coming days, said an officer at the Colombo Crime Division who declined to give his name. Two people died and 17 suffered injuries in the Dec. 11 blast at the packed Colombo stadium where thousands had turned out to watch Indian movie stars perform. None of the artists were hurt in the attack.
Posted by: Fred ||
12/19/2004 1:02:39 AM ||
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...It came two days after DEBKA-Net-Weekly broke the story that Iranian and Iran-sponsored surveillance teams has been discovered hanging about outside Israel's diplomatic missions in the United States, South America, West Europe and the Middle East. Team members rounded up by the American FBI and Egyptian intelligence in the last ten days admitted under interrogation that they were collecting information for Iranian intelligence...
DEBKA-Net-Weekly's counter-terrorism sources report that foreign intelligence services have been telling Israel since late November that Iranian spy teams have been spotted outside Israeli missions in various parts of the world, including one nabbed by the FBI watching Israeli consulates in Los Angeles, Atlanta and Houston. It was made up of Iranian Americans, Arab and Pakistani students - some of them US citizens, and all activists belonging to Muslim fundamentalist groups.
They were perfectly aware that the data sent to Iranian intelligence was intended for use in hostage taking and bombing attacks against Israeli missions.
The notion of Tehran-instigated terrorist strikes in the middle of America's main cities struck alarm in US intelligence agencies and Homeland Security department. Clearly, operations of this magnitude could not have been planned without top-level sanction from spiritual leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, or without the presence in America of an operational network. Although assigned with striking Israeli consulates, there is nothing to stop this network from expanding its mission to American strategic targets as well.
Of particular concern are the close ties evolving between Iranian intelligence and al Qaeda cells based inside the Islamic republic. US intelligence sources have learned that Khamenei in person has created a new clandestine umbrella organization for bringing together as an arm of his bureau all the al Qaeda-linked groups and likeminded movements...
#2
This REALLY makes me mad. I know the timing is wrong...but I hope we are squeezing the nuts of the mada mullahs behind the scenes. I really want to see all of those black hats eat a 338 for breakfast.
#4
As far as the reconnaisance/saboteurs captured by the FBI, if and when hostilities commence, we should remember how we used to deal with them:
The Nazi spies in Chicago. http://tinyurl.com/6ngop
#5
bin laden, with his al qaeda organization, proved to iran that there can be a way for islam to register a profound, worldwide effect.
I believe that Iran thinks it can shore up the islamists under one umbrella. It has the money, it has the credibility (since it is a theocracy itself) and it has the will.
With al qaeda in disrepair at the moment, Iran, I believe, feels it can assume the leadership position that is currently missing. No doubt they think they can do it better. All it needs to do is to gather a little intelligence, spew a little hatred, organize a little and voila! -- a newly invigorated, worldwide, islamist terror apparatus.
I'll bet these guys just about drooling at the prospect of taking over for what bin laden started.
And this evidence is just the tip of the iceberg. They simply got sloppy because they hate Israel soooo much, and their zeal made them easy to spot. I just wonder what else they're plotting.
#6
I'm sure they are plotting as we are plotting. We will see little bits of data like this from time to time. We will have to run it through the sieves and anal-yzers to see what is real and what is posterior originated smoke.
I am sure we have alot going on behind the scenes. Unfortunately we will hear nothing until it happens, which is good. We sure as hell shouldn't tell our senators, or that would be like talking into a megaphone.
Posted by: Alaska Paul ||
12/19/2004 22:03 Comments ||
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#7
As far as the reconnaisance/saboteurs captured by the FBI, if and when hostilities commence, we should remember how we used to deal with them:
The Nazi spies in Chicago. http://tinyurl.com/6ngop
We wanted to win WWII. I'm not sure we want to win this war. We're more interested in having a sufficiently sensitive Secretary of War than in victory.
Posted by: Robert Crawford ||
12/19/2004 22:34 Comments ||
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#8
Everyone in Congress in particular seems too concerned with making sure they can get Donald Rumsfeld to pay for their past decade and a half of bad decisions with regard to the defense budget.
Posted by: Phil Fraering ||
12/19/2004 23:49 Comments ||
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Syria started on Saturday withdrawing its security forces from three key positions in Beirut and north Lebanon and redeployed them in eastern Lebanon. According to the Lebanese army statement, the security positions vacated were in Beirut's international airport, the capital's mainly Shi'ite southern suburb and one in northern Lebanon.
Syria, currently facing mounting international pressure for its military presence in Lebanon, has nearly 14,000 troops in its tiny neighbor. A Lebanese army officer said that Syrian intelligence offices were shut on Saturday at the Beirut International Airport, in Beirut's southern suburbs, and in Batrun, a northern coastal town. The redeployment is the second shift of Syrian forces since the U.N. submitted resolution on September demanding Syria to pull out its forces from Lebanon. According to a security source, meetings between Syrian and Lebanese officials were still under way and more redeployments are expected soon. The source added that security forces were moved to the Bekaa Valley close to the Syrian-Lebanese border.
Posted by: Fred ||
12/19/2004 12:04:10 PM ||
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#1
WTF? Jeebus. Prepare for the Leabanese Civil War Part IV.C.
Posted by: JImmuah the C ||
12/19/2004 14:56 Comments ||
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#2
Assad knows Syria and Iran are on the frontline for next whacking. He just took a half-step back, leaving the Mullahs in front
Posted by: Frank G ||
12/19/2004 15:02 Comments ||
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Iran has frozen bank accounts belonging to a former Afghan warlord suspected of joining forces with Taleban and al-Qaeda militants, the UN says. The chairman of one of the UN's sanction committees says Iran has frozen "considerable assets" under the control of Gulbuddin Hekmatyar. His Hezb-e-Islami group is suspected of carrying out attacks on foreign and Afghan forces in Afghanistan.
Iran has also apprehended a number of al-Qaeda operatives, Mr Munoz says. However, he did not give the names of those arrested or the amount of assets frozen. Mr Munoz, the chairman of the UN Security Council committee which monitors sanctions against al-Qaeda and the Taleban, was speaking at an open meeting of the council after visiting Iran and other countries. He said Iran also reported that commercial activities were being used to finance what he called terrorist activities. "We were told that an Iraqi had operated a company in Iran which sold spoiled vegetables to clients in another country in the area who, in return, paid unusually high prices to the supplier," Mr Munoz said, according to the Associated Press news agency.
Posted by: Dan Darling ||
12/19/2004 4:51:03 PM ||
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#1
Charm offense from the Mullahs? Oh, and they got all those bad al-Qaeders too.
Posted by: Capt America ||
12/19/2004 1:31 Comments ||
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#2
They just siezed his dough and pocketed it for "islamic uses." When I see them dancing at the end of ropes I will believe it.
#5
considerable funds were funneled to Girlbuddin Heckitsmycar from the period 1980 to 1986. It was intended to keep his radical forces from fighting other warlords, but mostly as a bribe to not break with the coalition and join in the newly formed government. The old Brit "nationbuilding" thing, find an underdog, give him weapons, but not too many, then semi crush the stronger warlord, bring them all together in a fragile coalition. These usually broke down after a few years and "thanks be to Allan" we create a rich warlord and a poor nation.
Five Turkish security guards were killed in an ambush as they were travelling by car through Iraq to Baghdad, the Turkish Foreign Ministry said. Earlier an official in the Iraqi town of Mosul was quoted as saying the attackers machine gunned the guards and decapitated one of them after telling them to get out of the cars. A foreign ministry statement quoted by the Anatolia news agency, said eight guards had crossed Turkey's border with Iraq at Habur in four cars, and were on their way to the embassy in Baghdad, when they were attacked around the flashpoint Iraqi city of Mosul. Five of the security guards along with two Iraqi drivers were killed. Two survivors reached Baghdad, while a third returned to the border at Habur, the statement said.
"Armed men made the passengers get out of the cars, lie on the ground, machine-gunned them and cut off the head off one of them," Muhammet Tahir, an official of the Turkmen Front in Mosul, was quoted as telling the Turkish press agency DHA. It said US forces who controlled the region had killed two of the attackers. The CNN-Turk website said one of the victims was a police inspector while three were police officers.
Posted by: Fred ||
12/19/2004 12:35:29 PM ||
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The driver of a U.S. armored vehicle drove over two parking cars in Karrada, a major thoroughfare in Baghdad.
"Oops. Sorry. My bad!"
Azzaman reporter saw how the armored vehicle smashed the two cars. He said there were no casualties but the incident drew harsh criticism from indignant passers-by. The owners were not available when the armored vehicle crashed their car.
"My car! You crunched my car!"
U.S. marines patrol streets in their armored Humvees, driving at dizzy speed in congested streets. Incidents like these are not unusual in Baghdad and add to the resentment of a generally anti-American populace. Many incidents involve death or injuries when passengers happen to be in their vehicles. Passers-by are occasionally hit by the speeding Humvees. Non-governmental organizations say they have collected lists of hundreds of victims of traffic incidents caused by U.S. troops. Only the lucky ones among these victims or their relatives have been offered some form of compensation so far, they groups say.
Posted by: Fred ||
12/19/2004 12:20:43 PM ||
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#2
With all the IED's and car bombs the insurgents are using to quell our 'helping' of that rathole nation, I'm surprised the roads haven't been turned into 'runways' by now! King smn would have decreed horse n' buggy days, if it were left up to me!
#3
In the downtown of most American cities they use "the boot" for illegally parked cars...I think the American military's method is more effective!! I hope they have signs that read: "Please note, un-attended vehicles will be towed squashed at owner's expense for free!"
Posted by: Frank G ||
12/19/2004 17:03 Comments ||
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#7
3000 years ago in that very part of the world, there was a law that anyone who encroached on a major public right-of-way was executed and his head put on a pike.
The Qassam Mujahideen today and last night fired Qassam missiles and mortar shells at the Zionist army's southern command in the Gaza Strip and other settlements. The Qassam Brigades, military wing of the Hamas Movement, last night fired three mortar shells at the Kfar Darum settlement, two Qassam missiles at Jadid settlement and a Qassam missile along with a mortar shell at the Neveh Dekhalim settlement. The military wing also launched two Qassam missiles at a Kibbutz to the east of Deir Al-Balah city in central Gaza Strip.
Also last night, the Qassam fighters fired a Qassam missile at the Netsar Hazani settlement, three mortar shells at the occupation forces in Khan Younis, and three Qassam missiles a the Morag settlement. Earlier Saturday evening the Qassam Mujahideen fired three Qassam missiles at the Sderot settlement in the 1948 occupied lands in line with the retaliation to the Zionist incursion into Khan Younis that left 11 Palestinian martyrs and 54 injured other than vast material devastation. The Aqsa Martyrs Brigades, military wing of Fatah Movement, took the credit for firing two mortar shells at the Kfar Darum settlement on Friday night.
Posted by: Fred ||
12/19/2004 11:32:24 AM ||
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The Israeli occupation army has ended its three-day Gestapo-like onslaught against the Namsawi and Gharbi refugee camps near Khan Younis in southern Gaza Strip, leaving a trail of death and destruction. Palestinian sources spoke of 11 Palestinians dead and as many as sixty injured, the vast bulk of them innocent civilians.
The staggering death toll and casualties occurred mainly as a result of the random and wanton shelling by Israeli tanks and artillery of civilian homes in the two camps. Hospital sources said over half of the injured were children. The Nazi-like invasion of the camps also resulted in widespread destruction of homes and infrastructure. Local sources said that as many as 50 homes were destroyed or sustained irreparable damage, causing hundreds of civilians to flee their homes. Khan Younis mayor described the situation at the Namsawi and Gharbi refugee camps as "catastrophic." "This is Jewish Nazism in action, they were behaving like the Gestapo, the Israelis are the Nazis of our time...." The Israeli occupation army said the latest blitz in Khan Younis was aimed at preventing Palestinians resistance fighters from launching mortar fires onto nearby Jewish colonies, also known as settlements.
Posted by: Fred ||
12/19/2004 11:29:09 AM ||
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#1
"The vast bulk" of eleven-plus people? Sounds as though Garbage Gharbi camp may have been hosting a Michael Moore lookalike contest at the time the Zio-Nazi war machines trundled in.
CAR bombs rocked Iraq's two holiest Shiite cities today, killing at least 49 people and wounding more than 95, while in downtown Baghdad dozens of gunmen carried out a brazen ambush that killed three Iraqi employees of the organisation running next month's elections. The bombings came just over an hour apart. First, a suicide blast ripped through minibuses at the entrance of the main bus station in Karbala. Then a car bomb went off in a central square of Najaf crowded with people watching a funeral procession that was also attended by the city police chief and provincial governor.
The violence was the latest in an insurgent campaign to disrupt the crucial January 30 elections, the first national polls since the fall of Saddam Hussein. While many have feared that voting in the Sunni areas of northern and central Iraq will be hampered - if not impossible - because of the spiralling violence, today's attacks highlighted that even the strongholds of Iraq's Shiite majority in the south are vulnerable. Shiites have been strong supporters of the elections, which they are likely to dominate.
The Najaf car bomb detonated in central Maidan Square, where a large crowd of people had gathered for the funeral procession of a tribal sheikh - about 100 meters from where Governor Adnan al-Zurufi and police chief Ghalib al-Jazaari were standing. Youssef Munim, head of the statistics department at Najaf's al-Hakim Hospital, said 36 people were killed by the explosion and 65 were wounded. "A car bomb exploded near us," Zurufi said. "I saw about 10 people killed." Jazaari believed he and Zurufi were the targets of the attack, in which three explosives went off about 2.45pm. Both men were unhurt. "As I and the governor were waiting for the funeral processions, three explosions occurred," al-Jazaari said. "We were targeted." It was not immediately clear what the other explosions were from. Residents were pulling bodies of the dead from damaged shops at the square, which is about 400 meters from the Imam Ali Shrine, the holiest Shiite site in Iraq.
Continued on Page 49
Posted by: tipper ||
12/19/2004 10:26:12 AM ||
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#1
Is it just me or we seeing a civil war in Iraq between the Sunni and Shia with our guys stuck in the middle.
#5
Zarqawi and friends are trying to start a civil war. They are desparate. They lost their Fallujah base. They are getting squeezed. They have everything to lose now. The stakes for both sides are very high.
Posted by: Alaska Paul ||
12/19/2004 13:51 Comments ||
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#6
The Sunni baathists have already lost. They are just determined to take a few more with them on their way out.
#7
My wife (quite articulately, I might add ;) ) thinks this is naive proposal -- but, why not arm the populace? It seems to me that that the _only_ way to deal with the type of insurgency we are facing in Iraq is to ARM EVERYONE. If the populace sees somebody parking a car bomb -- cap Ć¢ĀĀem. If the populace sees an ambush in progress -- cap Ć¢ĀĀem. If insurgents are moving toward an army base -- cap Ć¢ĀĀem. If they come across a hostage situation -- cap Ć¢ĀĀem.
#9
ex-lib: I thought the current rules allowed each household an AK47 already.
Posted by: James ||
12/19/2004 15:42 Comments ||
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#10
James, I think you are right.
But, it doesn't look like these people are carrying when they leave the house. If they were carrying, the Iraqis would be capping these bad guys when they raise theri ugly heads. I'm thinking that if the place is going to be like the Wild West they need some Wild West style justice . . .
#11
cingold - I believe you are precisely right - hence my take on vigilante-style justice awhile back. Where the law is too timid, outmatched by numbers / firepower, biased or bought - the populace either picks up the slack or accepts domination. We shall see which sort of people the Iraqis are in those few areas where other forms of "social control" (tribalism, clans, etc) have broken down or are missing (non-homogenous) or have been usurped by jihadis.
#16
I'm not a history buff, but I seem to remember that in the Wild West it was against the law to not be packing a pistol or rifle. And, the Sheriff could deputize any number of people for any length of time to chase down bad guys. Trials were short, sweet and to the point. Appeals, of course, were always an option -- but never stayed execution. Certain areas (where enough law officers existed to keep the public peace) were off limits to any weapons -- you checked them as you entered town, unless you had a death wish.
It is probably not an optimal environment, but it has to be better than what the Iraqis are looking at right now. After enough bad guys are killed, the society can get more civilized. It seemed to work for the Wild West.
Sliding out of the insurgents' house in Fallujah, the Iraqi journalist headed out of town with the Arab fighters' threat echoing in his ears: "Interview us or we will kill you." Before he had reached his car, masked Iraqi fighters sensitive about the presence of foreign guerillas in the city countermanded the order, presenting him with an impossible dilemma. "Broadcast that and we will kill you," they told 30-year-old television journalist Mohamed Abdul Razzaq.
One day into the campaign for the January election, Iraq's media are feeling the squeeze in a country where decades of dictatorship has left no legacy of tolerance for free speech. The London-based Arabic newspaper Asharq al-Awsat closed its Baghdad office yesterday after rebels threatened to blow it up if the paper did not publish within one week a story about Omar Hadeed, the Iraqi guerilla said to be Abu Musab al-Zarqawi's deputy in Fallujah. "The men said that they sever the heads of those who malign them like they cut off the heads of sheep," the newspaper said.
Posted by: tipper ||
12/19/2004 10:20:22 AM ||
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#1
Ah, yes - Mikey Moore's "Minutemen" hard at work destroying "liberating" their country.
Mikey must be so proud.
Posted by: Barbara Skolaut ||
12/19/2004 15:14 Comments ||
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#2
I'm guessing it's not the same carload of Minutemen as those who dragged the election officials out of their car in Baghdad and shot them in the street, or the Minutemen who blew up crowds in Najaf or Kerbala; but I might be wrong. Maybe Michael Moore would know. He seems to know more than I do about these people.
NEW evidence of Osama Bin Laden's attempts to acquire radioactive material for a "dirty bomb" has been revealed by an aide to the Al-Qaeda leader. In a book to be published shortly, the insider shows that Bin Laden bowed to pressure from hawks within the terror group's leadership to buy the material through supporters in Chechnya. He had initially been cautious about such a dramatic increase in its armoury. It is the first time that such a senior Al-Qaeda figure has revealed the internal tensions and debates within the group, and shows it was far less unified than had been thought.
During the American bombardment of Tora Bora in Afghanistan where the leadership had fled in 2001, the book says, Al-Qaeda was hopelessly split and faith in Bin Laden declined. Bin Laden had also fallen out with Mullah Omar, the Taliban leader. Excerpts from the book appeared last week in a London-based Arabic newspaper and are believed to have been written by Abu Walid al-Misri, an Egyptian who spent years in Afghanistan where his son was killed fighting the Russians. Misri, who was with Bin Laden in Tora Bora, is thought to be one of Al-Qaeda's leading theorists. When they fled Afghanistan, his book records, the organisation had been devastated by the death of Mohammed Atef, its military commander, killed by American bombing near Kandahar. Atef had been a leading hawk and chief advocate of obtaining weapons of mass destruction. He had wanted radioactive material to be stored on US territory for use in a fast and direct response to any aggression against Afghanistan.
Bin Laden was more cautious, warning his followers that such a plan was "like a genie in a bottle" which could have untold consequences for Al-Qaeda. He was persuaded, however, by hardline supporters who argued that such weapons would give Al-Qaeda a powerful propaganda tool. They accepted that the organisation would never be able to make sophisticated weapons but only develop "primitive things" such as "dirty bombs" — where radioactive material is packed with explosives to spray a deadly cloud over an area. Atef was asked to contact Abu Khattab, a Saudi jihadist in Chechnya, in the belief that he could obtain materials from Russian nuclear facilities in the Caucasus. They never came.
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Posted by: Dan Darling ||
12/19/2004 2:12:34 AM ||
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A wedding is being held at the newly built Sheraton hotel in Irbil. The Kurdish bride and groom sit blinking into a video camera, their family clustered around. In the background, American contractors are drinking Turkish beer. This place of smiles and shining marble is the Iraq that was meant to be after the fall of Saddam Hussein. It existed for a brief moment after the invasion when American soldiers were at first greeted as liberators. Now the only place still deeply grateful for getting rid of the dictator is in the north of the country, in Kurdistan, a sanctuary for contractors, Baghdad officials and lost American ideals.
Western businessmen move freely around the region's capital, Irbil, and American soldiers eat in restaurants without their body armour. In the crowded foyer of the Sheraton, Kurdish businessmen and politicians discuss reconstruction work. After the 1991 Gulf war, the Kurdish areas - long victim of Saddam's Arabisation policies - lived in turbulent but slowly prospering autonomy, protected by the no-fly zones enforced by Britain and America. They are now booming. Since the 2003 invasion the regional economy has had more than ĆĀ£100 million in investment, channelled mostly into building houses, roads, water-treatment systems, and two new university campuses. Most of the money has come from the regional government, although western firms have also moved north from Baghdad looking for reconstruction contracts. A British businessman, Richard Hadler, said: "I recently told a business seminar in London: "You can come to Kurdistan. There are dangers involved, but on the whole it is stable. And there's a lot of work to be done.' "
Continued on Page 49
Posted by: Dan Darling ||
12/19/2004 2:22:27 AM ||
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Three dozen restless young boys waited in a line outside the cramped schoolhouse office, inching toward a grinning Health Ministry official administering measles shots. First Sgt. Dale Veneklasen, his pocket full of crisp $20 bills, walked in to see what, if anything, the school needed by way of help. The school, teeming with students on a Saturday, showed the progress being made here, he said. Within seconds, a hefty blast rocked the room, causing the brisk late morning air to surge. Screaming children scattered into a concrete breezeway, some still holding cotton balls against their arms. Teachers gasped and ran. Veneklasen and members of his Hellraisers platoon darted outside and into a nearby intersection where AK-47 fire erupted in a short burst amid lingering smoke.
Nearby, three U.S. soldiers were wounded in a rocket-propelled grenade attack as they toured the city's schools as part of a civil affairs mission. The strike apparently came from behind a dirt berm in the middle of one of Samarra's most tumultuous neighborhoods, a place where insurgents have launched several attacks in recent weeks. Veneklasen ran to the wounded soldiers, grabbing a stretcher from the grille of his Humvee as Spec. William Chavis, a medic, cut away one soldier's pant leg, revealing deep wounds around his knee. Chavis, 20, of McColl, S.C., quickly applied a tight bandage wrap and formed a splint, his patient writhing in pain in the cold dirt a few feet from a hulking Bradley fighting vehicle. Blood spurted between another soldier's fingers as he held his mouth, a piece of shrapnel lodged in his right jaw near his neck, his glasses covered in a bright red spray. A third soldier hopped slightly before falling to his knees, clutching a wound in his lower abdomen, below his body armor. Veneklasen, 34, of Estelline, S.D., jumped back into his Humvee and slammed the door. "Somebody jumped up with an RPG and small arms fire. All because we're trying to help the damn schools out," he said. "Another beautiful day in Samarra."
The Hellraisers, part of the 1st Battalion, 26th Infantry Regiment's Apache Company, are on the front line of the continuing battle for this city, a swath of modest neighborhoods along the eastern bank of the Tigris River about 65 miles north of Baghdad. U.S. troops stormed into Samarra in the first days of October, taking the city of 220,000 away from a cluster of insurgents, but the level of their control is measured in small victories. Schools that were empty and decrepit now have fresh paint and new bathrooms, and host hundreds of children who can barely contain their enthusiasm when soldiers come through to visit. Storefronts selling lamb, fresh fruit, furniture, rugs and water heaters are open for business. The streets are relatively clean, and a local public works project is cutting a new road through downtown. Laborers are busy working on construction projects.
Continued on Page 49
Posted by: Dan Darling ||
12/19/2004 2:19:09 AM ||
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#1
Is there something in the water in the ME that makes grown men want to play dress up?
Iraqi police detained 45 men who illegally entered the country from neighboring Iran, and American troops said Sunday they captured eight Iraqis fleeing the scene of a roadside bombing. Also, insurgents claiming to represent three Iraqi militant groups issued a videotape saying they had abducted 10 Iraqis working for an American security and reconstruction company. The 45 detainees were captured Saturday at Mandali, on the Iranian border 60 miles east of Baghdad, police said. They had no identity documents but claimed to be Muslim pilgrims from Iran, Afghanistan or Bangladesh. They ranged in age from early 20s to 60s.
U.S. soldiers from the 1st Infantry Division detained eight men fleeing a roadside blast late Saturday near Beiji, about 150 miles north of Baghdad. Master Sgt. Robert Powell said the soldiers captured the men after witnessing the explosion, but said it was unclear if the patrol was the target. No Americans were hurt. At least two unexploded homemade bombs were found in same area, the military said.
The insurgents on the tape said they represent the Mujahedeen Army, the Black Banner Brigade and the Mutassim Bellah Brigade, all previously unknown groups. At least four had their faces covered by Arab head scarves and carried machine guns. Nine blindfolded hostages could be seen lined up against a stone wall and a 10th lying in a bed, apparently wounded. The militants said they would kill the hostages if the company, Sandi Group, does not leave the country. They also threatened more attacks on its Iraqi operations. Chad Knauss, an American and deputy chief operations officer of Sandi Group in Iraq, declined to comment on the claims. The company, based in Washington, employs 7,000 in Iraq.
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Posted by: Dan Darling ||
12/19/2004 2:45:22 AM ||
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The gratitude of a child.
Got this story from a link at 2Slick's Forum.(H-Tip)"...The little girl looked scared and concerned, but there was a warmth in her eyes toward me. As I knelt down to talk to her, she moved over and pointed to a mine in the road...."Touched me deeply.
Posted by: raptor ||
12/19/2004 9:13:15 AM ||
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LONDON: Pakistan's envoy to Afghanistan said on Saturday that Islamabad has called for an impartial investigation into Friday's Kabul jail siege and has asked the Afghan government to hand over the bodies of the three Pakistanis killed in the incident. Speaking to BBC Radio's Pushto service, Ambassador Rustam Shah Mohammad said that the Afghan government had until now not formally conveyed its response to Islamabad's request. He said he believes that almost 30 Pakistanis are being held in the Pul-i-Charki jail on the outskirts of Kabul. On the number of Pakistani prisoners in Afghan jails, Shah Mohammad said that most had been released, with only a few remaining in detention. He said it was unclear whether or not those prisoners who had come to Afghanistan three years ago had done so to fight US forces or had been arrested in other parts of the country on different charges and transferred to the Kabul jail.
Posted by: Fred ||
12/19/2004 12:44:39 AM ||
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An eleventh Palestinian was killed on Saturday in the Khan Yunis refugee camp in the southern Gaza Strip on the second day of a large-scale Israeli incursion, Palestinian medical sources said. The identity of the latest victim, torn apart by an Israeli tank shell, was not immediately known, medical sources said.
Posted by: Fred ||
12/19/2004 12:38:36 AM ||
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#1
He was peacefuly firing his Kalashnikov on a group of zionist oppressors disguised as school children, when an Israeli tank shell torn him apart (eat your heart out Chomps).
In the door, out the door. Fazl-Khalil's one of Binny's friends who signed his declaration of war on us. I sure hope something UnfortunateĀ happens to him soon.
Security agencies released Mualana Fazlur Rehman Khalil, the chief of Jamiatul Ansar, formerly known as the Harkatul Mujahideen, late on Friday night after a seven-month detention. "Maulana Khalil was detained for allegedly sending militants into Afghanistan," sources told Daily Times. Security agencies picked up Maulana Khalil on May 20, 2004, from his residence, but talked about his arrest in August when the government arrested Qari Saifullah Akhtar from Dubai, sources said, adding that security agencies investigated the maulana thoroughly but could not prove that he was sending militants to Afghanistan.
"Yeah. We asked around and everything." He was there himself, ferchrissake!
"Maulana Khalil was also alleged to have sent militants to assassination President Pervez Musharraf in December last year in Rawalpindi," sources added. Security agencies allowed Maulana Khalil to talk to his family over the telephone during the first five months of his detention, but he could not contact them (family) during the last two months, sources said. Maulana Farooq Kashmiri, a Jamiatul Ansar leader, had met Maulana Khalil four days ago, sources said, adding that United Jihad Council leaders also tried releasing the maulana. "During Maulana Khalil's detention, security agencies also permitted his mother to meet him, but the meeting did not take place for unknown reasons," sources added.
Posted by: Fred ||
12/19/2004 12:34:17 AM ||
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Two tribesmen were killed while seven others and five rangers were injured when Bugti tribesmen attacked a Rangers post in the border area near Rojhan late on Friday, a Rangers official said. Three soldiers are in a serious condition. "We retaliated when more than a dozen tribesmen attacked our post in the tri-border area on Friday night. We killed the two attackers and injured another seven," said the Rangers official, asking not to be named. The district police officers of Rajanpur and Jacobabad did not confirm or deny the report.
Posted by: Fred ||
12/19/2004 12:33:06 AM ||
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#1
Any particular brand of Rangers? Duh. This is amazingly sparse on the hoary hairy details.
An explosion jolted the minister's block of the civil secretariat here on Saturday afternoon, but there were no casualties. Capital City Police Officer Parvez Rafi Bhatti said that two suspects had been arrested after the explosion, which occurred in a toilet in the minister's block on the third floor of the building. There were no ministers in the building at the time, but other employees were present. Bhatti said the suspects were on the record of entrants to the secretariat from the main gate and the time of their entrance tallied with the time required to install the bomb with a timer.
He said that the officer in charge of security at the civil secretariat, a deputy superintendent of police, was suspended and an inquiry had been ordered into the incident. He said that officials were trying to find loopholes in security at the building, which is located on a main road near Governor's House and Chief Minister's House. These loopholes included the improper searching of vehicles, he said. Last week 11 people including an army soldier were killed when a powerful bomb exploded at a crowded market place in Quetta. And last Sunday, police defused rockets primed to go off in a nearby locality.
Posted by: Fred ||
12/19/2004 12:32:17 AM ||
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#1
You have a nice little Hobson's choice, gentlemen, so long as your society chooses violence as the answer to the hypersensitively perceived insult. Either things will blow up inside your offices, killing you and your colleagues, or they will blow up outside, killing the common peepul. Your only choice is which it will be.
Gunmen attacked a car in the northern Iraqi city of Mosul on Friday, killing four passengers, and witnesses said three of the victims were foreigners. The attack happened at the Yarmouk traffic intersection in Iraq's third-largest city, 225 miles northwest of Baghdad. The bodies of the four victims, including one whose head was almost severed, were seen lying on the road alongside their burning car.
Police Capt. Zeid Waseem said police received reports that three foreigners and their Iraqi driver had been killed. The nationalities were not immediately known. The U.S. Embassy confirmed the name of an American kidnapped six weeks ago in a deadly attack in the Iraqi capital, and his family pleaded Friday for his release. Roy Hallums, a worker for a Saudi company that does catering for the Iraqi army, was seized Nov. 1 along with two other foreigners and three Iraqis after a gunbattle in the upscale Mansour neighborhood. An Iraqi guard and one attacker were killed.
The United States on Friday completely forgave $4.1 billion in debt Iraq owed it and urged other nations not part of an international debt relief agreement to follow suit.
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Posted by: Dan Darling ||
12/19/2004 5:18:23 PM ||
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Iraq's key oil infrastructure suffered five attacks in 24 hours after a voice identified as Al Qaeda leader Osama bin Laden ordered followers to sabotage the west's key oil supplies. An oil ministry spokesman condemned the upsurge in "terrorist acts" which he says are depriving Iraqis of essential fuel and the country of desperately needed export revenues. There were two blasts on pipelines Saturday and three late Friday, all of them in restive Sunni Arab areas around the capital or in north-central Iraq, officials say.
In the first of Saturday's attacks, saboteurs blew up a section of the pipeline feeding oil from the northern Kirkuk fields to the distribution hub of Baiji, an oil facilities protection officer says. The section near Fatha, 85 kilometres west of the oil city of Kirkuk, had already been hit on Friday, virtually eliminating its flow. An hour later a second blast hit the pipeline linking Baiji with Baghdad's Daura refinery, network director Majid Mamnum says. The section breached was at Dijla, 20 kilometres north of the insurgent stronghold of Samarra.
On Friday evening, saboteurs hit another pipeline supplying crude from the southern Basra fields to the Daura refinery, oil ministry spokesman Jihad Assem says. "A massive fire resulted, halting the flow of oil to Daura," he said, adding that the blast struck near the town of Yusufiyah in the so-called 'triangle of death' just south of the capital. "It stopped the output of refined products which had only just resumed after a 17-day break resulting from previous sabotage. "The same evening, near Baiji, saboteurs struck another pipeline supplying refined products from the refinery there to storage reservoirs around Baghdad." That attack was claimed by an Islamic militant group loyal to bin Laden, the Al Qaeda Organisation of Mesopotamia, in a leaflet distributed in Baiji. The leaflet said sabotage had been carried out in response to Thursday's Internet message from the Al Qaeda "supreme commander". "These terrorist acts, which coincide with the threats from bin Laden, are aimed at depriving ordinary people of fuel so that the crisis worsens," the oil ministry spokesman said. "They are costing Iraqis hundreds of millions of dollars."
Posted by: Dan Darling ||
12/19/2004 4:47:21 PM ||
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This Binny is becoming a real pain in the gass.
Posted by: Capt America ||
12/19/2004 1:08 Comments ||
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Military authorities in South Waziristan have launched a hunt for three top militants - Uzbek national Yuldashev, Abdullah Mehsud, the self-proclaimed local leader, and Baitullah Mehsud, the commander of militant forces in Mehsud territory, sources told Dawn. They said that after dismantling militant camps, gaining control of the area and seizing tons of ammunition in South Waziristan, the troops in the region were now looking for the three key men.
The authorities are confident that the three and other militants on the run will be captured soon, as they are facing an acute shortage of ammunition. The sources claim that Abdullah Mehsud, 29, a former Guantanamo Bay detainee, is now left with only about 15 hardcore militants around him. Mehsud, a graduate of the Gomal University, is the alleged mastermind of the Oct 9 kidnapping of two Chinese engineers working on a dam in South Waziristan which ended in the death of one of the engineers. His brother is a serving major in the Pakistan army who is apparently helping the security forces in tracing him. It is learnt that an attempt made by the security forces last month for a truce with Mehsud did not succeed.
The sources said that in the first week of October, Rs60 million was distributed through the Al Qaeda network to its three key operatives in the area. One of the recipients was Abdullah Mehsud, the sources maintained. According to the sources, the cash, mostly in dollars, comes generally from countries in the Middle East and Central Asia and large amounts are distributed among local people to provide refuge to foreign militants. It was found that in one particular case a Madressah was paid Rs100,000 for providing shelter to militants for one month. A series of raids and search operations conducted by the security forces and communication intercepts have uncovered a racket of human smuggling, particularly child trafficking in the area, which, according to the sources, is at its peak. The sources say most of the people smuggled are unemployed youths. These young men are brought from Central Asian Republics (mostly Uzbekistan and Tajikistan) and North Afghanistan. They are then indoctrinated and trained for carrying out terrorist acts. Other recruits are either criminals or proclaimed offenders. Children can also be hired for two-week assignments for $250, the sources said citing intelligence gathered by security forces.
Posted by: Dan Darling ||
12/19/2004 4:53:52 PM ||
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Senior officials of the Interpol have said that a senior member of Al Qaeda is hiding in the tribal areas adjoining Afghanistan. The Daily Times quoted officials from the Al Qaeda as saying that Mustafa Ahmed Muhammad Uthman Abu Al-Yazid, Al Qaeda's chief financial officer and senior adviser to terror mastermind Osama Bin Laden is hiding in the mountainous Wana region adjoining Afghanistan. Interpol officials in a letter to Pakistani law enforcement agencies including the Federal Investigation Agency, have said, interrogation of terror suspects have revealed that Mustafa, an Egyptian was also having many aliases like Shaykh Said Al-Misri, Mustafa Abu Yazid, Saad Abu Shayama, Mustafa Muhammad Ahmed and Said Uthman.
The letter further states that Mustafa apart from being a senior member of the Al Qaeda was also an active member of the Egyptian Islamic Jihad and had also kept in contact with activists of the Islamic Movement of Uzbekistan. The Pakistan government which has launched military operations as part of its crackdown against terrorists in the US led 'War on Terror', has strangely denied having any knowledge of the developments. The Director General of the Interior Ministry's National Management Crises Cell, Brig (r) Javed Iqbal Cheema, said he was unaware of any such development.
Posted by: Dan Darling ||
12/19/2004 4:43:01 PM ||
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this guy's got more names than fred demara
Posted by: SON OF TOLUI ||
12/19/2004 3:52 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.
AUSTRIAN security forces foiled an attempt to assassinate a son of North Korean leader Kim Jong-il during a European trip in November, Yonhap News reported today. The report of the plot against Kim Jong-nam came amid persistent rumours of internal political strife in the reclusive communist state and within the nation's first family itself. Citing a source familiar with North Korean affairs, Yonhap said the failed plot had been planned by North Koreans favouring other of Kim Jong-il's sons as his eventual successor. "Kim ran into an attempt to assassinate him during his visit to Europe in mid-November, but the Austrian intelligence agency had received a tip in advance and protected him," the source was quoted as saying. "The attempt was made by anti-Kim (Jong-nam) groups in North Korea."
Spanish authorities have arrested four Moroccans on suspicion of membership of a radical Islamic group on the Canary Islands, the interior ministry said Saturday. One of the suspects, who are believed to be members of the 
Several loud blasts were heard in the Indonesian capital Jakarta and two nearby towns early on Sunday, but police said they had found no evidence of bombs and one radio report said it could have been a meteor shower.
Iran has frozen bank accounts belonging to a former Afghan warlord suspected of joining forces with Taleban and al-Qaeda militants, the UN says. The chairman of one of the UN's sanction committees says Iran has frozen "considerable assets" under the control of 
The Israeli occupation army has ended its three-day Gestapo-like onslaught against the Namsawi and Gharbi refugee camps near 
Within seconds, a hefty blast rocked the room, causing the brisk late morning air to surge. Screaming children scattered into a concrete breezeway, some still holding cotton balls against their arms. Teachers gasped and ran. Veneklasen and members of his Hellraisers platoon darted outside and into a nearby intersection where AK-47 fire erupted in a short burst amid lingering smoke.
Iraqi police detained 45 men who illegally entered the country from neighboring Iran, and American troops said Sunday they captured eight Iraqis fleeing the scene of a roadside bombing. Also, insurgents claiming to represent three Iraqi militant groups issued a videotape saying they had abducted 10 Iraqis working for an American security and reconstruction company. The 45 detainees were captured Saturday at Mandali, on the Iranian border 60 miles east of Baghdad, police said. They had no identity documents but claimed to be Muslim pilgrims from Iran, Afghanistan or Bangladesh. They ranged in age from early 20s to 60s. 
An explosion jolted the minister's block of the civil secretariat here on Saturday afternoon, but there were no casualties. Capital City Police Officer Parvez Rafi Bhatti said that two suspects had been arrested after the explosion, which occurred in a toilet in the minister's block on the third floor of the building. There were no ministers in the building at the time, but other employees were present. Bhatti said the suspects were on the record of entrants to the secretariat from the main gate and the time of their entrance tallied with the time required to install the bomb with a timer.
Iraq's key oil infrastructure suffered five attacks in 24 hours after a voice identified as Al Qaeda leader Osama bin Laden ordered followers to sabotage the west's key oil supplies. An oil ministry spokesman condemned the upsurge in "terrorist acts" which he says are depriving Iraqis of essential fuel and the country of desperately needed export revenues. There were two blasts on pipelines Saturday and three late Friday, all of them in restive Sunni Arab areas around the capital or in north-central Iraq, officials say.
Senior officials of the Interpol have said that a senior member of Al Qaeda is hiding in the tribal areas adjoining Afghanistan. The Daily Times quoted officials from the Al Qaeda as saying that 
