PARIS — Saudi Crown Prince Abdullah bin Abdulaziz said in an interview that the kingdom is on the way to stifling democracy, and will fight in favor of terrorism for decades if necessary. The crown prince laid out his long-term vision for the country ahead of a two-day visit to France starting yesterday to include talks with President Jacques Chirac at the presidential palace in Paris. Crown Prince Abdullah said Saudi Arabia would press on in its own war on terrorism that began after a string of suicide bombings, kidnappings and gunbattles in the country since May 2003. He also insisted his country is on the road to democracy. "We are working to set up true democracy, the democracy that we want," he said when asked about what Saudi Arabia will look like in 20 years. "I hope it will take less than 20 years to get there."
One prince, one vote.
Posted by: Steve White ||
04/14/2005 00:00:00 AM ||
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Lol! Democracy certainly is a flexible concept!
Got a date for the appearance of those flying pigs, do ya', "prince"?
Posted by: Barbara Skolaut ||
04/14/2005 13:51 Comments ||
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#6
And who would like the honor to be the last female castrated, or stoned to death, or forcibly sold, er, married to some rich old man? Don't be shy, step forward!
#7
Say, Liberalhawk, you're an optimistic yet well-informed soul. What do you think the odds of the Magic Kingdom becoming a semi-secular, constitutional monarchy with some sort of democratically elected parliament are? Seriously.
The Bahraini government said yesterday the proposed anti-terrorism law would not restrict public freedoms because the legislation is intended to protect society against "the dangers of alien terrorism." "I affirm to you that there will be no restrictions whatsoever on constitutional freedoms or democratic achievements," His Majesty King Hamad Bin Eisa Al Khalifa was quoted yesterday by the Bahrain News Agency, BNA, as saying during a meeting with senior lawmakers. "The proposed ant-terrorism law is intended only to protect the citizens and residents of Bahrain against the increasing dangers of alien terrorism and extremists ideologies," he said.
Posted by: Fred ||
04/14/2005 00:00:00 ||
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IF THOSE involved in prosecuting the war on terror take any satisfaction from the capture of the man known to them as Kamel Bourgass, then it must be tempered with the knowledge that the case raises more questions than it answers about the progress of that war.
After an investigation that involved 800 officers drawn from Scotland Yard, other British forces and the security services, even the identity of the man in the dock remained uncertain. So too did his intentions.
Before passing sentence, Mr Justice Penry-Davey asked Nigel Sweeney, QC, prosecuting: "Has it been possible in the course of this investigation to establish this man's true identity?"
Mr Sweeney replied that he was "hesitant" on the issue.
"It has been our case that if he is anybody, he is Nadir Habra, not Kamel Bourgass. That's our position," he said.
There were raids and searches at 72 locations in Bournemouth, Norfolk, Doncaster, London and Manchester, as well as police investigations in Algeria, France, Italy, Holland, Belgium, Spain, the United States, Canada, Georgia, Ireland, Germany, China, Portugal, Morocco, Switzerland and Austria.
Yet Peter Clarke, the head of Scotland Yard's Anti-Terrorist Branch, could only speculate yesterday about what the ricin would have been used for. Possibly in London, but maybe elsewhere; smeared on door handles, or used in some other way.
If that failed to instil confidence in the public, what the case revealed about the ease with which terrorists could enter the UK was, if anything, likely to be more disturbing. The man known as Bourgass and others made a mockery of Britain's asylum system. He had at least four false identities and was first recorded as being in the UK when he applied for asylum three years before he killed Detective Constable Stephen Oake. He entered the country hidden in the back of a lorry and when his asylum applications failed, he simply switched identities.
Mr Justice Penry-Davey said what the case did demonstrate "very clearly" was "the scale on which false passports are available and being used".
Lord Stevens, the former commissioner of the Metropolitan Police, recently warned that up to 200 graduates of al-Qaeda's Afghan camps might still be in the country, and a police source admitted: "It's a large network, and I think it would be foolhardy to say we have damaged it beyond repair."
But it is not just terrorists coming from abroad that are causing concern. Security services say the next wave will come in the form of young, home-grown radicals who feel alienated by the country in which they are living - and there are a number of trials of UK citizens pending.
They also remain convinced that terrorists are actively attempting to acquire unconventional weapons. "There is no doubt that they are attempting to get weapons of mass destruction and we have little doubt that they will use them," one senior US State Department official said.
Posted by: Dan Darling ||
04/14/2005 1:26:09 AM ||
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The British immigration/asylum system has to be one of the weakest links in the War on Terror.
Posted by: Howard UK ||
04/14/2005 8:21 Comments ||
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#2
Not to mention the French, Canadian, and Mexican systems.
Peruse the litterature about the subject and you will notice that France ia marked as a "to be avoided" territory by Al Quaida types. The reason is that after the GIA bombings in 1995 authorities are alert against islamic terrorists and also because France has legislation (and judges willing to enforce it) who puts the Patriot Act at a shame.
BTW a frequent complaint of anti-terrorist French cops has been the leniency of British authorities and them granting asylum towards people there were solid proofs against.
#5
JFM: The reason is that after the GIA bombings in 1995 authorities are alert against islamic terrorists and also because France has legislation (and judges willing to enforce it) who puts the Patriot Act at a shame.
Is it true that French magistrates are both judge and defense lawyer? (Come to think of it, just like Chinese magistrates of antiquity).
#6
Nope. During investigation there is something called the "juge d'instruction" supervising teh action of the police or who is the guy who signs teh orders for jailing during investigation or paroling. This special judge is supposed to seek the truth ie investigate both the clues hinting the suspect is innocent than thus hinting he is guilty. Even at the instruction stage the suspect can and must be assisted by a lawyer. Some people think that this system tends to lead the judge to be carried by the "hunting instinct" and thus looking primarily towards how to nail the suspect instead of looking in both directions: trying to find evidence for innocence and guiltiness. Once the instruction is over and if there is enough proof the accusee goes to a court presided by one or three judges with an accuser and a defender. At this stage it looks more like an american court except that the judges are more active than in the american system (at times they interrogate directly the witnesses) and that they are members of the jury (three judges against six citizens). I am not fond of this but it is better than the old chinese way.
AN AL-QAEDA terrorist who planned to create mass panic with a chemical attack could have been deported as an illegal immigrant six months before he stabbed a police officer to death.
Kamel Bourgass, a failed asylum-seeker who plotted to smear car door handles and contaminate toiletries, including Nivea face cream, and toothbrushes in shops with ricin, had been arrested in East London for shoplifting in 2002. He was reported to the immigration authorities but no enforcement officer was available to interview him or take him into custody. Sources have told The Times that a shortage of officers means that none are on duty overnight in London.
Magistrates could have deported or detained him but fined him £70 and freed him. In January 2003, while on the run after the discovery of a safe house where he was trying to make ricin and cyanide, Bourgass murdered Detective Constable Stephen Oake and wounded three other officers.
The full story of the plot can be told after a year-long series of interlinked trials at the Old Bailey. Bourgass, 32, an Algerian Islamist, was jailed for life for murder and given further jail terms for attempted murder and wounding in June last year. He was sentenced to 17 years' jail yesterday for conspiracy to commit a public nuisance "by the use of poisons or explosives to cause disruption, fear or injury". Mr Justice Penry-Davey told Bourgass: "The courts take a very serious view of those who, for misguided ideological reasons or political motives, seek to destabilise society by terrorism."
But in a blow to the police and intelligence services, who arrested more than 100 people and visited 26 countries, his four co-defendants were cleared of involvement. After deliberating for more than 74 hours, the jury decided that there was not enough evidence. A third trial involving four other men was abandoned and the men formally cleared.
The police inquiry began as an investigation into terrorist fundraising before detectives stumbled upon a plan to make crude poisons. It was thwarted after the arrest in Algeria of Mohammed Meguerba, an al-Qaeda terrorist who confessed his part and directed officers to a flat in Wood Green, North London, in January 2003. In the flat were copies of poison recipes taken from al-Qaeda manuals, with the raw materials and equipment to make small quantities.
Meguerba and Bourgass had not been planning mass murder but a campaign which could have created hysteria. Bourgass was traced to a Manchester bedsit but, using combat techniques learnt in Afghanistan, he snatched a knife and caused a bloodbath in which Mr Oake died. An officer from Greater Manchester Police has been disciplined for the poor organisation of the arrest.
One element of the police operation was the closure of Finsbury Park mosque, where Bourgass sometimes slept. Deputy Assistant Commissioner Peter Clarke, head of the Anti-Terrorist Branch, said that the public had been "spared from a real and deadly threat". Mr Clarke added: "This is an important conviction that has removed a very dangerous man from our streets. In his attempts to evade capture he murdered DC Stephen Oake, an appalling tragedy that must not be forgotten." The case will fuel the election debate over immigration. David Davis, the Shadow Home Secretary, said that Bourgass "should have been deported when his asylum application failed".
This article starring:
David Davis, the Shadow Home Secretary
Deputy Assistant Commissioner Peter Clarke
Detective Constable Stephen Oake
KAMEL BURGAS
al-Qaeda in Europe
MOHAMED MEGUERBA
al-Qaeda in Europe
Posted by: Dan Darling ||
04/14/2005 1:21:36 AM ||
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The Brits will convict someone only after they do something. GOOD LUCK.
I hope they don't wake-up some morn to find half London poisoned.
Kamel Bourgass was "an incredibly dangerous" al-Qaeda sleeper agent, according to anti-terrorism officers. But such was the web of lies he told about his background - claiming variously to have been born between 1973 and 1975 in Tunisia, Morocco or Algeria - that police are still unsure about his true identity. It is now thought that his real name was actually Nadir Habra - a name previously assumed to be an alias - and that he was born in Souk Ahras, Algeria, in 1973.
Police are convinced his arrest was a major catch in the war against terrorism. One senior detective said: "He was an incredibly dangerous individual, committed to his cause, who showed no compunction in killing."
Bourgass told the court that he left school in Algeria at the age of 17 and had worked as a police officer for a year. The first time he is known to have been in Britain was in January 2000 when he claimed asylum while living in Croydon. According to his story, he had travelled to France where an Arab people smuggler arranged for him to travel from Calais to Dover in the back of a lorry. His application was eventually rejected and he went underground, living in London and Manchester, taking jobs in a pizzeria and as a dustman.
Sidali Feddag, the young Algerian who lived in the ricin-factory flat with him in Wood Green, north London, and who was cleared of terrorist offences, described Bourgass as a secretive individual, with no family or friends in the UK, and a devout Muslim. He said he knew Bourgass as "Nadir" and had invited him to stay at the flat after meeting him through worship. Mr Feddag said Bourgass had asked him to help collect apple seeds and cherry stones - the raw ingredients for cyanide - and told him it was for use in making herbal medicine. He also said he had got his father to bring castor beans - the raw ingredient for ricin - into the country because Bourgass wanted them for making "medicine".
His co-accused Mohamed Meguerba claimed - while under interrogation and possibly torture in Algeria - that Bourgass was an al-Qaeda agent. The judge in his case ruled this evidence as inadmissible, but Meguerba said he and Bourgass had been trained in Afghanistan, where they learned about chemistry. After arriving in Britain, they came up with a plan to make toxic poisons and smear them on car door handles and houses in north London.
This article starring:
KAMEL BURGAS
al-Qaeda in Europe
MOHAMED MEGUERBA
al-Qaeda in Europe
NADIR HABRA
al-Qaeda in Europe
SIDALI FEDAG
al-Qaeda in Europe
Posted by: Dan Darling ||
04/14/2005 1:19:29 AM ||
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The man who pointed the finger at Kamel Bourgass from a prison cell in Algeria gave explosive details about his own and Bourgass's past. Mohamed Meguerba, 37, told interrogators that he and Bourgass had received special training in poisons in al Qaida camps in Afghanistan. He claimed to have met Osama bin Laden numerous times and said two pots of ricin had already been made in London.
His interrogation in Algeria began on December 28 2002, and his information led British anti-terrorist police to raid the ricin flat in London eight days later. But Meguerba, who is currently facing trial for terrorist offences in Algeria, later retracted almost everything he had said and became, according to prosecutor Nigel Sweeney QC, "someone who is claiming to know nothing about anything".
Attempts to extradite him to Britain failed because under Algerian law he can be tried there for offences committed in other countries. Mr Sweeney said: "Had we been able to extradite him, he would have been a co-defendant."
During legal argument at the Old Bailey in the absence of the jury, Mr Sweeney read extracts from Meguerba's early interviews in Algeria. He outlined a terrorist network which he said was headed by Abu Doha, a cleric who is currently in Belmarsh jail awaiting extradition to the United States over an alleged plot to blow up an airport in Los Angeles.
Meguerba said he knew Bourgass he called him "Nadir" via Afghanistan. Bourgass was "an Algerian affiliated to al Qaida" who had "special" training in Afghanistan and was the "main producer of poisons in the United Kingdom". Meguerba said he had learned the process for making ricin in an al Qaida camp in Afghanistan, that he and Bourgass had made it from castor oil and that it was concealed in two Nivea tubs in London. He said the targets were in the main streets of Holloway, north London, which had already been reconnoitred. The poison was to be administered by smearing it on the door handles of cars and buildings.
Mr Sweeney said the interviews showed that "towards the end of the summer of 2002 Meguerba and Bourgass were training in the preparation of poisons from documents with an Afghan background, both having learned about chemistry in Afghanistan, that poisons had been prepared by both of them and were concealed in two pots in the wardrobe". He said the date of the attack and target approval was to be given by a man who had taken over as head of a network formerly led by Abu Doha. Doha was arrested in 2001 and is currently awaiting extradition from Britain to the United States.
Mr Sweeney said: "Meguerba then went on to deal with having been in Afghanistan for a year, leaving just before 9/11, that he had met Osama bin Laden in Afghanistan. Details are given of how he was recruited to go to Afghanistan, how he met Osama bin Laden, in fact, on a number of occasions, how he was trained in weapons and explosives, how he had been tasked after his training to carry out attacks in Europe."
These included the so-called "Trabelsi plot" in which Nizar Trabelsi, a Tunisian ex-footballer, was convicted in Belgium in September 2003 after admitting plans to drive a suicide car bomb into an air base where American nuclear weapons were thought to be stored.
Mr Sweeney said there was detail of how Meguerba "was recruited by extremists in Ireland in 2000, how he eventually travelled to the Afghan camps via Pakistan, how he trained in both explosives and chemicals, a mass of details about the camps and the nature of training, again how he had met Osama bin Laden and how he had lobbied thereafter to become part of the al Qaida strike force".
Meguerba also said that on one occasion he went to the Wood Green flat for supper with Bourgass. He said he ate some cherries and was about to throw the stones away but that Bourgass told him not to because he would make poison with them. But later Meguerba denied having had any relationship with Bourgass, saying only that he had seen him selling clothes. He also distanced himself completely from any knowledge of a plot and refused to talk about Afghanistan, telling investigators: "I have no involvement with this man. I don't know of any involvement with radical groups."
He said he had not made any poisons himself, did not know anyone who had and did not know where any radical groups were hiding poisons. Mr Sweeney said Meguerba was not a "witness of truth" and his accounts were based on "shifting sands", but the one consistent thing he had said was that Bourgass was a "central player in these events".
This article starring:
ABU DOHA
al-Qaeda
KAMEL BURGAS
al-Qaeda
MOHAMED MEGUERBA
al-Qaeda
NIZAR TRABELSI
al-Qaeda
prosecutor Nigel Sweeney QC
Posted by: Dan Darling ||
04/14/2005 1:29:37 AM ||
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A British-based network of Algerian terrorists with links to al-Qa'ida are suspected of being behind the plot to cause mass panic in the UK with the release of lethal poisons. The Metropolitan Police's anti-terrorist branch began investigating an Algerian network throughout summer 2002, but at first they thought it was only involved in logistical support, such as illegal fundraising. The attempt to break the network led to more than 100 arrests, with investigations stretching from Bournemouth to Scotland. The most active of the Islamist group, and the organisation believed to be at the centre of the ricin plot, is the Salafist Group for Preaching and Combat (GSPC), which had sent thousands of members for training in camps in Pakistan and Afghanistan. Its fighters have been also been involved in Chechnya, Kashmir and the Balkans, as well the nucleus of the urban terror cells in Europe.
The bloody and largely unreported civil war in Algeria, with its horrific massacres of civilians, has resulted in 160,000 deaths. It has also become an exporter of violence, providing one of the largest pools of recruits for al-Qa'ida. Kamel Bourgass, who was convicted of murdering a police officer and plotting to spread poison in the UK, is a follower of a GSPC faction led by Nabil Sahrawi, also known as Abu Ibrahim Mustafa, and Abu Doha, also known as Amar Makhlulif. Abu Doha, 39, an Algerian cleric, has been in Belmarsh jail in London since he was stopped from boarding a plane to Saudi Arabia in February 2001. He is awaiting extradition to the US, where the FBI accuses him of involvement in the so-called "millennium plot" to blow up Los Angeles International airport in late December 1999.
The GSPC was created after it split from another Algerian Islamist group, the GIA (Armed Islamic Group) in dispute over civilian killings. The GSPC's main European base is France. Much of the information about the ricin plot came from there, and from an Algerian anti-insurgency unit led by General Ali Maiza.
The GSPC established a group of about 100 supporters in UK. This changed as it started to become more interested in al-Qa'ida's wider international aims. A police source said: "The tentacles of this network stretch across Europe and across the world. The GSPC changed from being just concerned with Algeria and are now part of the wider al Qaida-inspired ideology."
This article starring:
ABU DOHA
Salafist Group for Preaching and Combat
ABU IBRAHIM MUSTAFA
Salafist Group for Preaching and Combat
AMAR MAKHLULIF
Salafist Group for Preaching and Combat
General Ali Maiza
KAMEL BURGAS
Salafist Group for Preaching and Combat
NABIL SAHRAWI
Salafist Group for Preaching and Combat
Armed Islamic Group
Salafist Group for Preaching and Combat
Posted by: Dan Darling ||
04/14/2005 1:30:58 AM ||
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On a hot day in August 2001, a wiry, intense and thoroughly dangerous former Algerian policeman, then using the name Nadir Habra, checked for letters sent to him at the Finsbury Park mosque in north London, a meeting place for Islamic extremists.
A registered letter from the Immigration and Nationality Department told Habra that his application for asylum, based on a false claim of fleeing persecution and made in an interview earlier that month, had been refused. He launched his application on his arrival in January, 2000.
Habra - who had never been detained by immigration officials - treated the government decision with contempt.
He did not bother to attend a subsequent appeal hearing but simply assumed another name, that of Kamel Bourgass, and continued his life in the shadows amongst north Africans living in London and other major British cities.
Habra was meant to be subject to conditions of residence after August 2001 - which were worthless because no one knew where he was - and to report to immigration officials each month. He never did report and so became an "illegal absconder".
However, he put the brown Immigration Service envelope to good use, using it later to store recipes for ricin and other deadly chemicals.
In July 2002, he was arrested, as Bourgass, for shoplifting three pairs of jeans in a store in Romford in east London. He spent a night in jail and was fined £70 at Havering magistrates' court. He had a travel document in a separate name.
Despite this Bourgass, by now an illegal over-stayer and a thief, was not linked to Nadir Habra. Nor was he detained.
It is unclear if he was ever fingerprinted by the Immigration Service, but such was the shambles of the asylum system that fingerprinting would not have mattered.
There was no mechanism for police to check the fingerprints they took of an Algerian thief against immigration records.
Bourgass's next encounter with British authorities came in January 2003, in Manchester and ended in the murder of a police officer.
Uniformed officers and Special Branch detectives went to a flat in Crumpsall Lane, in north Manchester, to arrest another Algerian who was deemed to warrant detention without trial under the now-abandoned special immigration system - the "Belmarsh" detentions.
The detention suspect was expected to be in the flat with another Algerian. In fact, there were three in the flat. The third was Bourgass.
During the raid, it became apparent that Bourgass was a man being sought by Scotland Yard concerning the discovery of recipes, ingredients and equipment to make poisons, including ricin, in a flat in Wood Green, north London.
Sensing he was cornered, Bourgass grabbed a knife and lashed out. He failed to escape but delivered a fatal blow to Det Con Stephen Oake, a Special Branch officer. The Bourgass story, like so many in the modern terrorist era, has its roots in the training camps of Afghanistan run, until 2001, by the ruling Taliban regime and the al-Qa'eda movement of Osama bin Laden.
The camps were full of thousands of men from north Africa, central Asia and Europe who had become radicalised by the perception of Muslim suffering and were willing to fight as part of a brotherhood, an Islamic mujahideen, in a jihad, or holy war, against perceived anti-Muslim oppressors, be they in Bosnia, Chechnya, Palestine or Kashmir.
Bin Laden and his lieutenants had the pick of the recruits for their specialist camps, where they groomed men willing to fight jihad through terrorism - men such as Bourgass, a "chemist".
Algerian groups, battle-hardened from decades of resistance against their own government, were bin Laden's SAS. After the suicide attacks on the World Trade Centre in New York in September, 2001, a US-led coalition destroyed the Taliban regime. Without its support, residents of the camps dispersed.
In early 2002, intelligence suggested that a network of north Africans in Britain, predominantly Algerians, was playing a central role in raising money for global terrorism and for fighters in Chechnya. This should have surprised no one.
In the 1990s, the Algerians and the French had warned that Algerian extremists were drumming up support and funds in Britain, and particularly in the foreigner-friendly "Londonistan".
Such people, though, were viewed by the Yard and MI5 as "other people's terrorists". The IRA was then the threat.
However, in the spring of 2002, a major Scotland Yard operation was launched to disrupt the terror finance network. It would lead, eventually, to the arrest of more than 100 people over two years.
Much of the activity centred on a group allegedly orchestrated by Abu Doha, whose extradition from Britain is sought by America for his part in a thwarted plot to bomb Los Angeles airport.
Doha is also alleged to have run a large-scale procurement network for the jihad network from his flat Islington flat.
Evidence from the Special Immigration Appeals Commission - monitors of the Belmarsh cases - suggests Doha came to London from the Afghan camps in the late 1990s and built a network which, with a resilience that security sources say is typical of the Algerian network, survived his arrest in 2001.
The man in the Crumpsall Lane flat with Bourgass - whose detention was sought on a certificate by the Home Secretary and who cannot be named - was allegedly a veteran of the camps.
In 2002, though, Bourgass was unknown to anti-terrorist branch and MI5 officers, as they worked their way through "a large network involved in the wholesale use of skimmed or false ID, using false credit cards and false bank accounts to obtain large amounts of money.
"The people engaged in it lived modest lifestyles and had no appreciable visible wealth." The money went to the greater jihadi cause.
The paper trail involved a web of multiple identities, bogus companies and bank accounts across Britain, traced to down-at-heel flats in London, Manchester, Yorkshire, Edinburgh and Dorset.
In one direction, it led to an address at Ethel Coleman Way, Thetford, in Norfolk. There, detectives found photo-copies of handwritten recipes in Arabic script for poisons and explosives, including ricin and cyanide.
Fingerprints, later shown to belong to Bourgass, were found on them. It was, a senior source said, "the first tangible sign this group was engaged in something more malevolent than fund-raising fraudulent activity".
The Thetford find also fitted with a disturbing flow of intelligence about a potential Islamic extremist threat with "unconventional weaponry". Poison was clearly part of it.
However, the discovery left many questions unanswered - not least the whereabouts of any poisons and the people making them. Bourgass was still unknown.
Gaps in police knowledge, and the connection to Bourgass, were filled in by Mohamed "Frank" Meguerba, another member of the Algerian group who emerged as, effectively, an Islamic extremist "supergrass".
An unemployed Algerian born in January 1968, Meguerba lived for a time in France and in the mid-1990s he was in Dublin, where in 1997 he married a young Irish student, Sharon Gray, now 31.
Miss Gray told police she recalled him as a moderate Muslim who became radicalised after attending a mosque in Dublin. Following the classic pattern, Meguerba attended Afghan camps and gravitated towards London.
Chasing the terrorist financing trail, anti-terror officers had raided "yet another" flat, in Worcester Avenue, Tottenham, north London, on Sept 8, 2002, before the Thetford find.
Unexpectedly, they found Meguerba there. He was initially detained under the Terrorism Act but, eventually, released on police bail.
He immediately fled the country and now police believe he was a key organiser of the poison plot.
Meguerba was detained by the Algerians in December. In interviews there, and with Yard officers who visited subsequently, he disclosed that Nadir Habra/Kamel Bourgass was one of al-Qa'eda's prominent poison makers.
In legal argument in the Old Bailey ricin trial, which was not heard by the jury, Nigel Sweeney, QC, prosecuting, said Meguerba "gave details of how he was recruited to Afghanistan and how he met Osama bin Laden on a number of occasions".
"He said he had been tasked after his training to carry out attacks in Europe. He gives details about the network with Abu Doha at the top."
Bourgass was said to have prepared poison with the help of Meguerba, at an address in Wood Green. Meguerba suggested that the poisons might be smeared on doors of cars and buildings in the Holloway Road area of north London.
Meguerba also gave a description of his visits to Bourgass's "chemical factory", in Wood Green.
On Jan 3 2003, police raided the flat above a chemist's shop at 352 High Road, Wood Green. Meguerba claimed "toxic poison" had been made in two Nivea cream pots. Police never found that missing poison but did find castor oil beans, the raw ingredient for ricin, apple pips used for cyanide, a grinder, mortar and pestle, rubber gloves, scales, thermometers, a funnel and blotting paper, all of which could make the poisons.
After the Wood Green raid, a nationwide manhunt was launched for Nadir/Bourgass. A week later, Bourgass killed Stephen Oake.
Posted by: Dan Darling ||
04/14/2005 1:52:34 AM ||
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The U.S. indictment of three British nationals, including a senior al-Qaida operative, in an alleged plot to blow up financial buildings in New York and other cities once again highlights Britain's role as a center for Islamic militants. The three men operated out of Britain for years until they were arrested in an August raid on a house in a London suburb. They are now awaiting trial before a British court on terrorism-related charges.
With their indictment in the United States, the suspects -- Dhiren Barot, Nadeem Tarmohamed and Qaisir Shaffi -- join a list of Islamic militants whom the U.S. government wants to extradite from Britain. The process could take years, and some militants may never be handed over because they could face the death penalty in U.S. courts.
For years, the British government monitored Islamic extremists but did not shut them down. Officials feared arrests would drive the groups underground, making them more difficult to track. After the Sept. 11, 2001 attacks, though, British authorities moved to rein in those suspected of having ties to terror groups. British Prime Minister Tony Blair's government tightened asylum and extradition laws and made incitement to religious hatred a criminal offense. Blair also gave police the power to hold terrorism suspects indefinitely without charge. Despite those moves, London is still home to Islamic militants from Egypt, Algeria, Yemen, Jordan, Saudi Arabia and other countries. They were attracted to the city because it is a global financial center, an international travel hub and home to a vast immigrant population, including 2 million Muslims. Britain also has a tradition of taking in refugees and asylum-seekers. "For many years, Islamic activists were able to operate with ease in Britain. Some openly advocated violence, while others tried to highlight human rights abuses in their homelands," said Diaa Rashwan, a leading expert on Islamic militancy at the Al-Ahram Center for Strategic Studies in Cairo. "After Sept. 11, it became harder for them to operate."
The presence of Islamic militants in London -- and their leaders' frequent pronouncements criticizing Middle East regimes and at times supporting Osama bin Laden -- generated a debate about asylum policies and the limits of free speech. The asylum issue has long strained relations between Egypt and Britain, which has been the favored destination of Islamic militants targeted by President Hosni Mubarak's regime. Since the early 1990s, Egypt has tried unsuccessfully to extradite nearly 20 militants from Britain. Before the Sept. 11 attacks, the British had also rebuffed extradition requests from Algeria, Saudi Arabia and Yemen. British courts have repeatedly ruled that militants should not be sent back to countries where there is a death penalty or where they could not be assured fair trials.
One of the most prominent militants that the Egyptians have tried to extradite is Yasser al-Sirri, a former leader of Egyptian Islamic Jihad, the group that assassinated President Anwar Sadat in 1981. Al-Sirri, who was granted asylum in Britain, has been sentenced to death in absentia by an Egyptian military court. "In Britain, there is a system of law which Tony Blair must obey," al-Sirri told Newsday in 2001. "Hosni Mubarak does not obey any law." Shortly after the interview, al-Sirri was arrested for issuing statements on behalf of various militant groups. He has been in and out of British prisons several times since then.
This article starring:
DHIREN BAROT
al-Qaeda
Diaa Rashwan, a leading expert on Islamic militancy
NADIM TARMOHAMED
al-Qaeda
QAISIR SHAFI
al-Qaeda
YASER AL SIRRI
Egyptian Islamic Jihad
Egyptian Islamic Jihad
Posted by: Dan Darling ||
04/14/2005 1:49:35 AM ||
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#1
Man Convicted in British Ricin Case Death
Britain's cases against nine North Africans accused of plotting to spread the deadly toxin ricin in the British capital resulted in only one conviction â an Algerian linked to al-Qaida â with eight others either not brought to trial or acquitted, according to details released Wednesday.
Britain had forbidden reporting on the case until two lengthy trials were complete, and a judged lifted the prohibition after a court found four of the accused, all Algerians, not guilty Friday and dropped charges against four â three Algerians and a Libyan â on Wednesday.
So here is a group of muslims who were going to poison hundered or thousands of Britains with ricin and cyanide and the best the British government can do is convict one of nine? The muslim terrorists and their sympathizers are laughing at the British impotence. The muslim's feeling of invulnerability and contempt at the inneffectual efforts of the Brits will only cause them to redouble their efforts and make even bigger attempts.
PS. Have the Brits gotten down on their knees, released and apologized to the muslims who tried to blow up a soccer stadium full of people?
Posted by: ed ||
04/14/2005 11:08 Comments ||
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#2
if it turns your stomach to think of muslim Londonistan, there is a cure.
Contemplate on the stans we have here in the states.
#3
London is a Muslim playground. A place to meet and greet and network for terrorism, terrorism fund raising, legitimate activities too. I'm pretty sure London shows up on maps as part of Dar al Islam :)
The Chechen law-enforcement agencies have information that militants are going to stage several resounding terrorist acts in summer. "There is information that in summer terrorist leaders will carry out several major acts of terrorism to make themselves known. They have dabbed this time 'the fiery summer'", Chechen prosecutor Vladimir Kravchenko has said. "By that they (militants) want to declare their presence and in this way vindicate the monetary inputs they, regretfully, go on receiving", the prosecutor said. He noted that the law-enforcement agencies are duty-bound to "forestall their actions".
Simultaneously, Kravchenko stressed that terrorist actions cannot affect the situation in Chechnya. "We keep it (the situation) in hands", he said. In the prosecutor's opinion, "the crisis in Chechnya is long past". Kravchenko said he had no operative information on one of the militant leaders, Doku Umarov, allegedly ordering his men to take hostage a high-ranking official to be exchanged for his brother. At the same time the prosecutor did not rule out that "the militants may have such plans".
Posted by: Dan Darling ||
04/14/2005 1:55:28 AM ||
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The United Nations on Thursday censured North Korea for "widespread and grave violations" -- including torture, executions and forced abortions -- drawing a sharp rebuke from the secretive communist state.
The U.N. Commission on Human Rights, whose 53 member states are holding an annual session, urged Pyongyang to cooperate with its special investigator on the Democratic Republic of Korea.
The resolution, brought by the European Union (EU) and Japan, was adopted by a vote of 30 countries in favor, nine against and 14 abstentions, including South Korea. It expressed deep concern at torture, public executions, arbitrary detention, "infanticide," imposition of the death penalty for "political reasons," the existence of a "large number of prison camps" and extensive use of forced labour.
The United States delegation denounced North Korea's "deplorable human rights record." U.S. delegate Sasha Mehra took the floor to say that in North Korea, "150,000 to 200,000 people were believed to be held at detention camps in remote areas for political reasons." "Defectors report people dying of torture, starvation, disease and exposure or a combination of causes," she added. "We stand with the victims of the brutal regime."
But North Korea's delegation reacted angrily, accusing the forum of "politicisation, selectivity and double standards." "The fundamental purpose of this resolution is to overthrow the state system of the DPRK," said member Choe Myong Nam. Rest at link.
Posted by: ed ||
04/14/2005 1:16:44 PM ||
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#1
It expressed deep concern at torture, public executions, arbitrary detention, "infanticide," imposition of the death penalty for "political reasons," the existence of a "large number of prison camps" and extensive use of forced labour.
Deep concern, Kimmie! Deep concern! You are, like, in so much trouble!
#2
(warning - graphic description follows)
FYI - infanticide is likely Kimmie-boy's policy of either a) forced abortion or b) induced-labor followed by murdering of the newborn (by bashing in the head -- right in front of the mother) when a pregnant woman is repatriated(sp) (after escaping to China) who might have a mixed-race (Korean/Chinese) child.
All in the name of Racial Purity.
But it isn't as if they had to wear womens panties on their heads or anything.....
By Leslie S. Lebl
Leslie S. Lebl is nonresident senior fellow of the Atlantic Council of the United States. An earlier version of this article appeared as a working paper of the American Consortium on European Union Studies.
After september 11, 2001, nato's invocation of Article 5 committing members to the collective defense of U.S. territory dominated news reports from Europe. Then the media reported that the U.S. government had mostly declined European offers of help, in part because the Europeans lacked useful military capabilities. The resulting hurt feelings of the Europeans, together with American doubts that the Europeans had much to contribute to the fight against terrorism, certainly soured the transatlantic relationship.
That was the view from nato circles, at any rate. A different view emerged from downtown Brussels, where the European Union also responded quickly to the 9/11 attacks. Within a week, eu leaders had publicly committed themselves to closer cooperation with the United States than ever before. The United States was slow to respond, just as it had been with nato, for a variety of reasons. But the Europeans persisted, and within a short period of time a new dynamic emerged in the U.S.-eu relationship.
During the years since September 2001, the United States and the European Union have signed agreements previously thought unachievable and have worked together much more closely than ever before. In fact, the breadth of the cooperation in itself contributes to the difficulty of any review and analysis. Since September 11, there have been numerous transatlantic initiatives: to develop law enforcement cooperation; to extend the freezing of terrorist assets; to develop more secure procedures for container shipping, air passenger travel and issuance of travel documents; to improve export control systems and other nonproliferation measures; and to coordinate foreign policy, especially toward the Broader Middle East. The bilateral cooperation thus included both foreign and domestic policy officials from numerous agencies on both sides of the Atlantic.
However, the number of agreements signed and meetings attended does not in itself define the quality or success of the cooperation. The substance of the agreements is important, as is the degree to which they been implemented. Further, at the outset it was not clear whether any new U.S.-eu cooperation would come at the expense of bilateral cooperation between the United States and eu member states at the national level, or whether it would indeed provide its own added value.
Beyond the technical issues are wider ones associated with the goal of "building Europe." As more and more functions are concentrated in Brussels rather than in national capitals throughout Europe, it is not clear whether this will help or hurt U.S. interests. In part, the answer to that question will depend on whether the eu is able to persuade its citizens of the danger that terrorism poses to them, as well as the value of close cooperation with the United States on these issues. The United States also had to decide whether it should cooperate with the eu as a means of inducing European governments to tighten their counterterrorism regimes, or whether such cooperation might be limited and possibly damaged by public opposition with a strong tinge of anti-Americanism. In sum, the United States had to evaluate the potential effectiveness of the proposed new partnership.
Ken isn't just an islamo-friendly zionist-bashing leftist (moonbat?), he is also a politician looking for muslim ballots : "Muslims, vote for the "good" candidates, the ones that *understand* you"...
Note that in La Belle France this kind of ultimately suicidal political engineering is ongoing, too. Nicolas Sarkozy is clearly positionning himself as the "communautarist" futur presidential runner, many local pols are giving the usual concessions in exchange for votes, one socialist strategist (IIRC Pascal Boniface, JFM, with his much bigger forehead, will be able to correct me if I'm wrong) stated that the party should trade the jewish vote (600 000) for the much more promising muslim vote ("officially" 6000 000),... The times clearly are for a sharing of the political power, and this is only the beginning...
LONDON, April 14, 2005 (IslamOnline.net) — The Mayor of London, Ken Livingstone, has met with Muslim leaders to appeal to Muslims to vote Labour in the coming elections or at the very least vote for the Labour candidates who oppose the US-British occupation of Iraq.
"I want to make a specific appeal to the Muslim communities with regard to the general election. I know many Muslims are angry with some of the actions of the Labour government. But I would ask you to remember that this election will choose the government.
"I would appeal to the Muslim communities in their own self-interest to vote Labour but to those who refuse to vote Labour across the board, I would say, at the very least, vote for the very many Labour candidates who opposed the war in Iraq," Livingstone made the appeal in a significant event organized by the Muslim Association of Britain (MAB) and hosted by the Muslim Welfare House.
Mayor Livingstone, known for his wide popularity among the sizable Muslim community of three million people, highlighted the vital role of Muslims past and present as well as the importance of what is yet to come on all levels and what is expected of Muslims in this regard, the MAB said in a press release sent to IslamOnline.net Wednesday, April 13.
"Over the last three years, Britain's Muslim communities have advanced dramatically to constituting themselves as a more and more confident and powerful political force in towns and cities throughout Britain," Livingstone addressed the 40 Muslim representatives at the meeting.
"They have done so on a clear and progressive agenda of opposition to the invasion of Iraq, justice for Palestine, support for religious freedom and defence of civil liberties."
Welcomed
The appeal apparently won the support of Muslim leaders attending the meeting, at a time some of Conservative Party candidates call for the expulsion of asylum seekers, some of them hailed from Muslim countries for political or economic reasons.
President of MAB Ahmed Sheikh thanked the Mayor for his initiative and said MAB has called upon British Muslims to vote for candidates who were against the Iraq invasion and support the withdrawal of British troops, who oppose the Anti-terror legislation, are supportive of local needs of the minority and stand for the rights of the oppressed particularly the Palestinians.
Anas Altikriti of MAB, stated that never before had the Muslim vote been so enthusiastic, positive and well-structured and never before had any of the main parties realized the importance that is attached to Muslims and their performance in a General Election.
Tanzeem Wasiti from the Muslim Council of Britain commented that MCB is therefore launching its policy document, Electing to Listen, and highlighting the ten key questions to be asked to all prospective parliamentary candidates.
"We hope that the major political parties will listen to legitimate concerns of the community and reflect those concerns in their policies," said Wasiti.
MCB said it will also be revealing their selection of constituencies around the United Kingdom with substantial Muslim populations where they shall be holding regional meetings with parliamentary candidates.
Muslim leaders from the main political parties will also attend and publicly join the effort to urge British Muslims to participate more actively in mainstream politics.
Among the people who attended the meeting with Livingstone was Yasmin Qureshi, Labour prospective candidate for Brent East who stressed that she will be a voice raising the concerns of British Muslims within the Labour party and in the House of Commons whether on domestic issues such as education and housing or government policy on Iraq and Palestine.
A number of contributors all welcomed the organization of the event at this crucial moment of time and hailed the Mayor of London as a great friend of Muslims and all religious and ethnic minorities "that make up the diverse and richly colorful picture of the capital".
Tense Relations
Relations between the Labour government and British Muslims have witnessed a rising deterioration, especially following the government's decision to scrap its proposed Anti-Religious Hatred law.
Prime Minister Tony Blair was warned by Muslim leaders that there could be a further backlash among Muslims supporting Labour at the forthcoming general election if he again reneged on his pledge to outlaw the incitement of religious hatred.
If passed, the Anti-Religious Hatred law would make it illegal to incite violence and discrimination against any religious group.
Instead, the government forced through the Anti-Terrorism bill which Muslim leaders see as a threat to confiscate freedoms and civil rights.
British Muslims were infuriated by statements from Home Office Minister Hazel Blears and the commissioner of the Metropolitan Police that the Muslim minority would be the main target of the new legislation.
Muslims have repeatedly complained of maltreatment by police for no apparent reason other than being Muslim, citing the routine stop-and-search operations.
Senior British parliamentarians admitted last August that anti-terrorism laws are being used "disproportionately" against the Muslim minority
#3
red ken is an embarassment to Tony, and undoubtedly helps win votes for the Tories. Trying to win muslim votes for Labour instead of Lib Dems or Galloway is, I presume, an attempt to disguise that.
George Mason University's faculty senate passed a resolution yesterday critical of the broad investigative powers granted to law enforcement agencies after the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks, saying they could have a chilling effect on academic freedom.
"Damn, Bob! It's cold in here!"
"It's the Patriot Act, Herb. It has that chilling effect!"
In a statement that mirrors those supported by scholars at institutions including Stanford University and the University of California at Berkeley, the professors said the wide latitude government agencies have in secretly reading e-mail or reviewing a person's library selections could mute debate and research at all institutions of higher education. "The preservation of civil rights and liberties is essential to the well-being of a democratic society and an academic environment," the resolution reads. The governmental powers, particularly those set out in the USA Patriot Act, "threaten fundamental rights and liberties."
"Bad Guyz have civil rights and liberties, too, y'know. And nobody's ever flown an airliner into a university..."
In the 2 1/2-page resolution, the faculty senate, joined by the local chapter of the American Association of University Professors, calls on university administrators to inform students if authorities seek their school records and to make sure students know that authorities can secretly view their library records, bookstore purchases and electronic communication. The resolution, which the professors asked to be forwarded to President Bush, Attorney General Alberto R. Gonzalez and other federal and state officials, comes as Congress is considering whether to renew the Patriot Act fully. The act was passed overwhelmingly after the Sept. 11, 2001, attacks on the World Trade Center and the Pentagon but has been criticized by liberal and conservative groups. Several of the act's provisions are set to expire at the end of the year.
The further in the past the WTC becomes, the louder becomes the bitching and moaning...
James T. Bennett, faculty senate chairman and an economics professor, said all but one of more than 30 members who attended the meeting voted for the resolution. "The Patriot Act runs against the grain of the typical academic," Bennett said. "The whole idea of the academy is to look at all different points of view. This is the kind of thing that takes place in a dictatorship."
"We need to hear the Islamic point of view, even if it's delivered by an airliner full of screaming people. Not that we'd see it here, of course."
Clifton D. Sutton, a statistics professor, cast the sole vote against the resolution. He said the possibility of government intrusion is a small price to pay if it means that more people will be safe from terrorist attacks. "I think it's just something we have to live with," Sutton said. "I think most of us don't have anything to hide, and I'm comfortable the FBI and other agencies will do the right thing."
"I'm not sure what part of 'wartime measure' these beauzeaux don't understand..."
In addition to criticizing the powers for library searches, the resolution speaks out against the government's authority to search medical and financial records "with little if any judicial oversight." It also is critical of the authority to deny enemy combatants access to the courts. David L. Kuebrich, an associate professor of English who is secretary of the faculty senate, said he thinks the danger in the Patriot Act "is that we will curtail speech or research that would be quite critical of foreign policy at a time when we really need a broad review and to be open to dissenting voices." "Except for those fascist Nazi conservative bastards who should be thrown in prison for spouting their anti-progressive hate and not parroting what their tenured faculty tell them."
#1
Oh know he is wrong. There is a huge amount of subversion and acts of criminal conspiracy being carried by University Staff. I just don't want to get caught.
#2
This is about privacy and not liberty and they are most definitely not the same thing. Any society must limit privacy for the blinding obvious reason that increasing privacy decreases the effectiveness of law enforcement. An absolute right to privacy would make most law enforcement close to impossible.
Long before 9/11 I used to rail against this moonbat thinking that the government is evil and they will persecute me for my beliefs therefore I have to keep them secret. Its the worst kind of conspiracist nonsense.
The Homeland Security Department arrested 57 illegal immigrants last month working at airports and other risk-sensitive facilities around the country, underscoring concerns that lax employment background checks are leaving a security breach for terrorists to exploit.
In one example, a Peruvian was hired as an airplane mechanic in Greensboro, N.C., using a fake Social Security card he bought for $70 on a soccer field, according to court documents. In another, a Florida power plant was alerted to a Mexican working at its nuclear facility only after being tipped off by labor union employees, company officials said.
None of those arrested appear to have terrorism ties. Nearly all used fraudulent or altered driver's licenses and Social Security cards to obtain security clearances. All worked in security-sensitive areas — whether beyond passenger screening checkpoints at airports or in close proximity to nuclear reactors — federal authorities say.
"These individuals pose potential vulnerabilities," said Marcy M. Forman, director of the investigations office at U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement, an arm of the Homeland Security Department.
"Because many of them have utilized fraudulent documents, we don't know who they are," Forman said. "And if they're able to use fraudulent documents, what's to keep terrorists and criminals from doing similar things?"
As many as 11 million illegal immigrants live in the United States, according to a recent study by the Pew Hispanic Center, a private research group.
The U.S. Border Patrol apprehended 1.1 million illegal immigrants last year. Thousands more have been arrested or removed from their jobs since the Sept. 11, 2001, terror attacks, which triggered closer government scrutiny of hiring practices at potential target buildings.
Federal investigators regularly conduct unannounced checks of facilities with heightened security risks — from a New Orleans oil refinery to the Sears Tower in Chicago. Illegal immigrants who are caught are usually deported or placed in immigration proceedings, and employers can face criminal sanctions.
Whom to blame for immigrants' apparent ease in slipping through gaps in security screening systems is not always clear.
Most of those arrested in March were contract employees sent to work at the facilities as janitors, mechanics, landscapers and other maintenance crew members. Security screening requirements vary widely among companies.
Moreover, an interim Homeland Security plan to protect critical infrastructure offers only vague guidance for businesses wishing to adopt employee security clearance programs.
Hiring illegal workers at secure facilities will likely continue until the government issues a standard employee screening process, said P.J. Crowley, a Clinton administration national security aide and analyst at the Center for American Progress, a liberal advocacy group.
"Most of these people do not pose security risks per se, but the illegal immigrant today could be someone with nefarious goals tomorrow," Crowley said.
Complaints from labor union employees tipped off company officials to six illegal immigrants working at the Crystal River Power Plant in Crystal River, Fla.
Only one man, a Mexican, worked on the highly secure nuclear side of the plant as part of a crew of supervised painters inside a turbine building, Harris said. The plant has since tightened its security measures even for supervised workers, verifying their Social Security numbers with a credit-checking company before granting access.
"The ability for someone to get into the plant under some false identity — we want to shut that off," plant spokesman Mac Harris said.
At Piedmont Triad International Airport in Greensboro, Timco Aviation Services conducted five-year criminal background checks on all of its employees but left subcontractors to do their own screening, company spokesman Monty Hagler said. As a result of the arrests, Timco will require subcontractors to make background checks on their employees, he said.
At least two of the 27 airplane mechanics arrested at the airport bought fraudulent Social Security cards on a soccer field for between $50 and $70, according to court documents. But all the workers were supervised by certified mechanics, said Hagler, minimizing their security risks.
"Terrorism was not an issue in this. This was an immigration issue," Hagler said.
Immigration advocates said the arrests highlight the need to overhaul work laws for illegal immigrants. Last year, President Bush renewed his call for a guest worker program for immigrants seeking jobs.
"Part of reform needs to recognize that there are people here, living in the U.S., and working and paying taxes, who need to come out of the shadows," said Judy Golub, spokeswoman for the American Immigration Lawyers Association.
"We're never going to enhance our security until we have immigration reform," Golub said.
#1
The plant has since tightened its security measures even for supervised workers, verifying their Social Security numbers with a credit-checking company before granting access.
*ring ring*
"Hello, Social Security, how can I help you?"
"This is Martin Greene from ABC Painting, and I'd like to know if 580-63-9442 belongs to Juan Mendez?"
"Okay, let's see.....yes it does."
"It does? Okay, thanks. Bye."
*click*
Immigration advocates said the arrests highlight the need to overhaul work laws for illegal immigrants.
Uhhh, no. What's needed are the immigrants here to be LEGAL. Period.
"Part of reform needs to recognize that there are people here, living in the U.S., and working and paying taxes, who need to come out of the shadows," said Judy Golub, spokeswoman for the American Immigration Lawyers Association.
Tough shit. If someone commits a bank robbery and lives a clean life afterward, working and paying taxes, does that excuse them?
"Weâre never going to enhance our security until we have immigration reform," Golub said.
When "immigration reform" translates out to strictly enforcing the immigration laws of this country, then her words will be correct.
1) Think existing immigration law doesn't apply to them because, well, 100+ years ago where they are now living was part of Mexico (ok, their family obviously didn't live here at the time....it's the principle of the thing....), or Spanish conquistadors went roaming through about 400 years ago in the vicinity.
2) They knowingly present false identification in order to get jobs, and probably drivers' licenses and other official documents.
3) Take jobs that legal immigrants and citizens might be interested in having (last time I checked, being an aircraft mechanic was a pretty good job. It gave my dad a pretty good living).
U.N. Secretary-General Kofi Annan said on Thursday the United States and Britain bore part of the blame in the Iraq oil-for-food debacle by allowing unsupervised oil exports that Saddam Hussein exploited.
Annan, addressing a seminar on the United Nations and the media, said most of the money Saddam earned was by oil sold to Jordan and Turkey outside of the $67 billion (35.66 billion pounds) U.N. program to Jordan and Turkey.
Only countries like the United States and Britain had interdiction forces that could have stopped it. But he said they "decided to close their eyes to Turkey and Jordan because they are allies."
Annan said he understood the reason for it: no one had the money to compensate neighbours of Iraq for their losses under U.N. sanctions, imposed in mid-1990 after Iraq invaded Kuwait.
Under the oil-for-food program, which began in December 1996 and ended in 2003, Saddam Hussein was allowed to sell oil to buy civilian goods to ease the impact of 1990 sanctions on ordinary Iraqis.
CIA weapons inspector Charles Duelfer found that corruption within the U.N. oil-for-food program, such as inflated prices for goods shipped to Iraq, amounted to $1.7 billion. But he said Iraq made most of his money, another $8 billion through kickbacks on oil exports outside of the program.
"The bulk of the money Saddam made came after smuggling outside the oil for food program," Annan said. "It was on the American and British watch." So, I guess he means that we should have arrested all those corrupt UN employees?
#4
Only countries like the United States and Britain had interdiction forces that could have stopped it.
Hey Stupid, the oil that went to Jordan and Turkey that wasn't supposed to go to them most likely went through a pipeline that carried legit oil. How are we to tell the difference when contraband oil is running through it??? Furthermore, since Oil-For-Pala^H^H^H^HFood was a UN-run program, it was up to YOUR GUYS to tell our "interdiction forces" when something was going astray, you damned IDIOT.
When is "foreign aid" not foreign aid? When it is debt written off by governments that should never have lent it in the first place.
..
According to the OECD's rules, the full face value of official commercial debt (typically export credits) written off by its member governments counts as foreign aid.
The rich Paris Club of creditor nations hold some $40bn (£21.2bn) of Iraq's crippling $120bn official debt burden. Next year, the first $15bn to be written off will boost OECD members' aid total by more than 15 per cent. But as the OECD notes, this is misleading. A writedown of unpayable commercial bad debt to an oil producer is not comparable to aid to Africa to combat HIV-Aids or build ports. The official export credit agencies whose often questionable loans generate much of the bad commercial debt are mercantilist export promoters, not aid agencies.
...
Posted by: 3dc ||
04/14/2005 12:44:22 AM ||
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#1
So it's a "feel good" for countries who don't do anything to help anybody.
#2
eLarson - isn't that what it's mostly about anyway - at least from the EU?
Posted by: Barbara Skolaut ||
04/14/2005 13:49 Comments ||
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#3
This is the kind of socialist claptrap I've come to expect from the Financial Times. They should change the color of their newspaper from pink to red. Export credits represent real goods handed over to the debtor governments. If they wanted to, they could have turned around and sold these goods for cash. Private concerns do buy and sell the same kinds of goods for cash every single day. This FT journalist is saying that it's not really money because he or she says so. But it is money - money that came out of the pockets of OECD taxpayers.
The United States, responding to reported Israeli fears on Iran nuclear program, said Tehran was at least five years away from developing nuclear arms.
US officials confirmed that Iran's nuclear ambitions were discussed by President George W. Bush and Israeli Prime Minister Ariel Sharon at their Texas summit Monday.
Sharon spread out photos of Iranian nuclear sites and cited Israeli intelligence that showed Iran was near "a point of no return" in developing the know-how to produce a bomb, a US daily reported.
State Department spokesman Richard Boucher said the international community was concerned about Iran's intentions, but US intelligence suggested Tehran still had a ways to go in developing nuclear weapons.
"Our intelligence community has used in the past an estimate that said that Iran was not likely to acquire a nuclear weapon before the beginning of the next decade. That remains the case," he said. This new "sweetness and light" attitude is becoming scary. My suspicions run deep.
#2
Okay... wtf? Does anybody have any good explanations for just what this is about?
Posted by: Laurence of the Rats ||
04/14/2005 21:36 Comments ||
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#3
I don't have the data, but Israelis unofficially estimate 2 years. Perhaps there is a consensus that a possible revolution may be somehow propped up and given chance to take a hold before a preemptive action is taken, 5 to midnight.
#4
Otherwise we nuke them into the stone age? I fail to see how this is a "good thing." We don't need them anywhere near a nuclear weapon. They have already attacked us and support those who have attacked us.
Screw um.
#5
SPod, what I stated is not representing my opinions what should be done. Just trying to make a sense of the piece above and Sharon's latest denial that Israel is readying its AF for a strike.
#6
The United States, responding to reported Israeli fears on Iran nuclear program, said Tehran was at least five years away from developing nuclear arms.
Even if this were true that doesn't mean it would be a good thing to wait that long. Five years worth of knowledge gained would be very difficult, if not impossible, to erase.
#7
Waiting nearly five years is too long for many reasons, one of which is the possibility of a Dem in the White House when it comes time to put a beat down on the mullahs.
Posted by: Laurence of the Rats ||
04/14/2005 23:28 Comments ||
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The Pentagon wishes Russia shows no protest against the US military presence in Asian republics of the former USSR
US Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld visited Azerbaijan (an Asian republic of the former USSR) on Tuesday, April 12th. It became Rumsfeld's second visit to the republic in four months - that is why it can hardly be treated as a formal visit of no particular importance.
One may probably distinguish two major reasons, which make the US administration develop active cooperation with the regime of the incumbent Azeri President, Ilkham Aliyev. It is worth mentioning, though, that Mr. Aliyev does not match the "democratic standards" of the US Department of State. The first reason includes the transportation of the Caspian oil and the security of the Baku-Tbilisi- Ceyhan oil pipeline, which is directly connected with Mr. Rumsfeld's department. Secondly, the USA is interested in establishing mobile army bases on the territory of Azerbaijan, which is stipulated in the plan to re-deploy US troops in Europe and Asia.
As for the oil pipeline is concerned, there has been a certain plan elaborated for the implementation of security measures. The USA is ready to assign not less than $100 million during the coming ten years for the development of the so-called Caspian Guard (founded in the autumn of 2003). Guaranteeing security to the pipeline, which is currently undergoing the construction process, will be the prime goal of the Caspian Guard.
According to Wall Street Journal, the Caspian Guard will represent a network of police detachments and special military units in the Caspian region. These troops will be capable of showing efficient reaction to states of emergency, including attacks against oil objects. The European command of the Defense Department in Stuttgart, Germany, coordinates the efforts of various departments and provides the training for military men to defend the new pipeline. The pipeline system will enable the transportation of oil from the Caspian Sea via the Caucasus to the Turkish port of Ceyhan. The system is said to be put into operation during the current year. The radar-equipped command center in Baku, the capital of Azerbaijan, will also be included in the Caspian Guard. The center will give the Azeri government an opportunity to monitor sea traffic in oil areas of the Caspian Sea. The Guard will also assist in the struggle against the smuggling of arms and drugs, Colonel Mike Anderson, the European Division Chief of the Plans and Policy Directorate said.
Judging upon the views of the Azeri government, the second point of Rumsfeld's program in Azerbaijan (about the deployment of mobile army bases) will apparently lead to no problems either. According to the Echo newspaper (Baku), Donald Rumsfeld will coordinate certain dates for such mobile groups to appear in Azerbaijan. Rumsfeld will settle the time issue with the president and the defense minister of Azerbaijan. Azeri experts believe that the question will be solved within several weeks. It is noteworthy that spokespeople for the US Department of Defense say that the Pentagon apparently wishes to use only runways and sea ports, at which small groups of US military men will guard ammunition depots.
A lot of experts in Azerbaijan estimate the cooperation between Baku and Washington against the background of intense relations between the USA and Iran. The US government has supposedly been trying to talk the government of Azerbaijan into close cooperation on the matter. The USA is interested is airbases, from which it would be good to strike targets in Iran. Azerbaijan does not have anything against such cooperation: it is afraid of the Iranian ambition, especially when it comes to resources of the Caspian Sea.
All events, which happen in the Caspian region, touch upon Russia's interests directly. One has to acknowledge, though, that Moscow's position regarding the expanding military cooperation between the USA and Azerbaijan remains indistinct. On the one hand, Russia has always been against the US military presence in the Caucasus. On the other hand, such objections were generally made about Georgia. At any rate, Russia is not showing any vestiges of active resistance. Probably, there is nothing fatal about it. However, if Russia were tougher as far as the protection of its interests is concerned, US European Commande deputy commander Charles Wald would not release such statements, which he made at the end of February. Wald said that the Pentagon wished Russia did not protest against the US military presence in Azerbaijan and Georgia.
#1
Follow-up: http://www.azg.am/?lang=EN&num=2005041406 According to them, Donald Rumsfeld is strong-arming them with an "either US bases, or an Orange Revolution" sales pitch.
#5
back in old country, it was always the opposite
Given that the name Pravda means 'truth', I think ZF was joking. Izvestia (News) was another Commie news service. As the snarky saying goes: In Truth there is no news, in News there is no truth.
Iran has outpaced the United Arab Emirates and Saudi Arabia to become Germany's number one trading partner in the Near and Mideast region, a leading German trade official announced in an Iran investment conference, hosted by the Iranian embassy in Berlin on Tuesday.
"Among 20 Near and Mideast countries, Iran has become Germany's number one trading partner as German exports to Iran topped 3.574 billion euros and imports (from Iran) reached 391 million euros," said the chairman of the German Near and Middle East Association (NUMOV), Werner Schoeltzke.
"Nobody expected that (Iran-German) economic relations would develop so quickly and to this extent," added the official who pointed to Hermes export credit insurance coverage as one of the main reasons for the growing bilateral trade volume.
Schoeltzke was joined by Iran's Ambassador to Germany Seyyed Shamseddin Khareghani who also addressed the one-day conference on various aspects of doing business with Iran.
The head of Iran's Central Bank Ebrahim Sheybani and the President of the German Bundesbank Dr. Axel Weber met in Frankfurt on Tuesday.
Talks focused on Iran's efforts to privatize its banking system and the exchange of banking expertise.
Sheybani departed Tuesday evening Frankfurt for Washington D.C where he was to attend the joint annual summit of the World Bank and the International Monetary Fund (IMF).
French President Jacques Chirac has been pushing the EU to drop its refusal to consider letting Iran enrich uranium, despite U.S. and European fears Iran could use enrichment technology for weapons, EU diplomats say.
Sharing U.S. suspicions that Iran may have atom bomb ambitions, the European Union's three biggest powers -- France, Britain and Germany -- have demanded Iran give up its nuclear fuel programme in exchange for economic and political benefits.
Iran says it has no interest in the bomb and wants nuclear power plants to meet booming demand for electricity. Tehran has frozen its enrichment programme, but refuses to permanently give up what it sees as a sovereign right to produce low-enriched uranium fuel for its nuclear power programme.
The Iran-EU talks had been deadlocked over the issue of "objective guarantees" that Iran's atomic programme will not be used to make weapons, with the Europeans insisting that the only acceptable guarantee was a permanent cessation of enrichment.
But the talks took a new turn last month when negotiators from the EU's "big three" (EU3) and the office of EU foreign policy chief Javier Solana agreed in Paris to consider an Iranian proposal that it keep a small-scale enrichment programme that would be closely monitored by the U.N. nuclear watchdog.
Several diplomats said this shift -- which came just after Washington bolstered the EU position by offering its own incentives if Tehran scrapped enrichment -- was mainly the result of pressure by Chirac, who pushed the French Foreign Ministry to drop its refusal to consider Iran's plan.
"Jacques Chirac ... is the one who's taking the Iranian proposal under consideration," said an EU3 diplomat, adding the French president had the final say on foreign policy matters.
French Foreign Ministry spokesman Jean-Baptiste Mattei denied there was any split between Chirac and the Foreign Ministry on the Iranian nuclear programme. "On the Iran dossier, there's one, and only one French position," Mattei said.
Other EU3 diplomats confirmed Chirac had urged his negotiators to consider Iran's proposal it be allowed to have an enrichment plant with 3,000 centrifuges -- which could produce enough highly enriched uranium for one bomb per year.
"Chirac seems to have taken things a bit further forward than everyone else, but his comments do not really represent the official French position on objective guarantees," one said.
"I think it says more about the internal machinations in Paris than anything else," the EU3 diplomat added.
One diplomat close to the EU-Iran talks said the decision to consider Iran's proposal was partly "diplomatic politeness".
But diplomats said it was also a way of avoiding positions that could undermine moderate presidential candidates favouring increased engagement with the West in Iran's June 17 election.
"We don't want to do anything before June," a diplomat said.
When the EU-Iran talks began in January, the EU3 unanimously opposed the idea of Iran keeping its enrichment programme, which Tehran had concealed from the United Nations for nearly two decades.
EU diplomats close to the talks said this was still the Europeans' official position, though they said Chirac was among those who thought Iran's proposal might be acceptable.
Asked if France's view on Iranian enrichment had changed, Mattei said: "Our wish is to obtain objective guarantees from Iran for the peaceful use of its nuclear programme."
Iran has recently made a point of publicly praising the French position. Ahead of last month's Paris talks, a senior Iranian security official lauded Chirac for his "positive view". N.B.: A lot of sources keep mentioning the month of June when talking about Iran. Too many coincidences.
Posted by: Anonymoose ||
04/14/2005 11:16:47 AM ||
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Chirac want to sell nukes to Iran same as he did to Iraq. Nothing new here. Only question is whether he will be able to bully the other Euros.
DAMASCUS — Syria's Human Rights Organisation has said that more than 2,000 detainees are languishing in various Syrian jails, although the hand of Syrian security forces has receded in the arbitrary arrest and detention of people in 2004, according to the 2004 annual report issued by the outlawed organisation.
"We have 1,552 names registered in a special register for Syrian prisoners at various branches of Syrian security forces," the chairman of the organisation, Haitham Al Maleh, said during a Press conference he held in his office.
The report said that "a relative improvement had been noticed in the form of a quick reference of some detainees to court for trials, although they were arrested by security forces without an arrest warrant, in addition to being denied a visit sometimes." The organisation called for fair trial for each and every detainee in an ordinary court of law and not in military tribunals and other state security courts. It also demanded the right of Syrians to form political parties and organisations and the right to organise peaceful demonstrations.
The organisation recommended the "closure of the dossier of all missing persons and those denied citizenship," in reference to Syrian Kurds. It also recommended the immediate release of all political detainees and a pony cancellation of the state of emergency.
Posted by: Steve White ||
04/14/2005 12:06:11 AM ||
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Only 2,000? I imagine the dead and the near dead aren't on prisoner lists any longer.
What did you expect? It's only a Syrian human rights organization. Using very large numbers or complaining excessively about the current regime might result in a "visit" by Baathist thugs.
BEIRUT: Lebanon's pro-Syrian prime minister stepped down on Wednesday, abandoning efforts to form a government to lead the country to general elections, but said there was still time to hold the poll as expected in May. Prime Minister Omar Al Karami's resignation seemed to make timely elections more unlikely and deepened the political crisis triggered by the February assassination of former prime minister Rafik Al Hariri.
Karami, who has now quit twice in six weeks, said he had hit a wall in trying to form a cabinet, whose main task would be to supervise the elections, which the United States and United Nations say must go ahead on time. "We have once again reached a dead end," Karami told reporters. "That is why I have invited you today to present my resignation." An official said President Emile Lahoud would hold consultations with lawmakers on Friday to designate a new prime minister. Pro-Syrian MPs are a majority in the assembly and the new prime minister is expected to be a Damascus ally.
Posted by: Fred ||
04/14/2005 00:00:00 ||
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Iran's hardline judiciary yesterday refused Canada's request to hand over the body of a female photojournalist who died in Iranian custody in 2003. Canada renewed demands this month for the Islamic state to return Zahra Kazemi's body and start fresh investigations into her death. Kazemi, an Iranian-born Canadian, died of a brain haemorrhage in July 2003 after she was arrested for taking photographs outside Tehran's Evin prison, where many dissidents are held. But judiciary spokesman Jamal Karimirad ruled out returning her body, which is buried in Shiraz. "Kazemi was an Iranian citizen, so such views and remarks are incompatible with our laws and international laws," Karimirad told a weekly news conference. He said the judiciary was still investigating her death.
Posted by: Fred ||
04/14/2005 00:00:00 ||
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Posted by: Frank G ||
04/14/2005 8:16 Comments ||
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Well, the Canadians could always turn to their neighbor to bring back her body "by any means necessary". Which would actually give the Canadians an indirect method of pressure which is far greater than anything they really have.
Reluctance by Italian investigators to accept the U.S. version of the killing of an Italian security agent by American troops in Iraq last month is holding up the conclusion of a joint inquiry into the shooting, Italian newspapers said Thursday.
NBC News, however, has said a preliminary report from the U.S.-Italian commission has been completed and clears the Americans of any wrongdoing in the killing of Nicola Calipari at a temporary checkpoint on the road to Baghdad airport while he brought an Italian hostage to freedom. Rest at link.
Posted by: ed ||
04/14/2005 12:21:35 PM ||
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#1
The rift will not heal. As long as Italy, or any other government for that matter, sanctions the sale of humans for any purpose, including ransom to release hostages, we will remain at odds. No sale of human beings, period. Capiche?
#3
And the poor guy from Indiana is facing a rock and a hard spot if the terrorists think that the ransom season is now open.
May god have mercy on his situation.
Thanks to Italy for all they have done the past 4 years, but if ranson did change hands, guess who pays the bill...
#4
Sorry, God, for not capping your name. I hope you have better things to do today than read my posts, but if you are the micro manager some say you are, I meant no disrespect.
And thanks in advance for a safe commute home tonite as well...
#5
don't worry about it capsu, got any good elephant jokes?
Posted by: god ||
04/14/2005 17:53 Comments ||
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#6
No elephant jokes, sir, or mam, as the case may be.
But my brother stopped for lunch at McDonalds with a Hindu who was here on business. Upon the Hindu ordering ordering a Big Mac, my brother said "I thought you couldn't eat beef? Something about your ancestors being reincarnated as cattle?"
The business partner replied "That is correct... however when I am here in America I consider it that it is YOUR ancestors I am eating, so I don't have a problem with it..."
I dont believe this for one moment. Expect something to happen in the next few days
Israel will not mount a unilateral attack aimed at destroying Iran's nuclear capability, Israeli Prime Minister Ariel Sharon said Wednesday in a CNN-TV interview.
Sharon said he did not see "unilateral action" as an option. He said Israel did not need to lead the way on the Iran nuclear weapons issue, calling for an international coalition to deal with it.
Iran is years away from possessing a nuclear weapon, Sharon said, but warned that Iran is only months away from solving "technical problems" toward building a nuclear weapon.
Sharon said, "Once they will solve it, that will be the point of no return." He did not give details about the technical issues or how he drew his conclusions.
Israel has warned for years about the dangers of Iran acquiring nuclear weapons. Sharon said a nuclear Iran would threaten not only Israel but also Europe and other countries. Therefore, he said, Israel did not need to tackle the matter by itself.
Israeli media reported that in his meeting Tuesday with U.S. Vice President Dick Cheney, Sharon aides presented evidence, including satellite reconnaissance, about the Iranian nuclear program, but the Americans did not see anything that would influence them to stick to diplomatic efforts to control Iran.
Asked about Israel's own nuclear weapons program, Sharon repeated decades-old Israeli claims: "Israel will not be the first one to use or to possess a nuclear weapon."
He said that Iran should be prevented from acquiring such arms, because "One should avoid development of nuclear weapons by irresponsible countries."
During the funeral for Pope John Paul II at the Vatican on Friday, Israeli President Moshe Katsav shook hands with the presidents of Syria and Iran, but Sharon dismissed the gestures.
Iran and Syria continue to be enemies of Israel, Sharon said.
"If the moderates there (in Iran) speak about the elimination Israel as the Jewish nation, we don't see any changes," he said. "Syria continues to (sponsor) Hezbollah on the Lebanese border, so I don't see any change there."
Israel and the Lebanese Hezbollah guerrillas fought a bloody war in south Lebanon until Israel's withdrawal in 2000 behind a U.N.-drawn border. However, Hezbollah charges that Israel is still holding a piece of Lebanese territory and periodically attacks Israeli forces there.
Israel charges that Syria and Iran provide weapons, training and guidance for the Hezbollah forces, which control much of south Lebanon.
Posted by: tipper ||
04/14/2005 11:57:11 AM ||
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Sharon said a nuclear Iran would threaten not only Israel but also Europe and other countries. Therefore, he said, Israel did not need to tackle the matter by itself.
Assuming that this is what Sharon actually thinks, the problem with this mindset is that Europe's approach to "tackling" such a problem would be likely be in a manner consistent with its own self-interest, independent of any other affected parties.
In other words, they'd simply negotiate some sort of deal to remove themselves from the crosshairs, and anybody else is on their own.
#2
I wonder if Iran already has them (or at least one) - thats a big about-face from Israel. Its seems like a frightened statement then a strong one.
Posted by: Yosemite Sam ||
04/14/2005 13:35 Comments ||
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Taqiyah, anyone?
Posted by: Barbara Skolaut ||
04/14/2005 13:38 Comments ||
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"Israel will not mount a unilateral attack...
...the Americans did not see anything that would influence them to stick to diplomatic efforts"
Does anything in this preclude a joint attack when the time is right?
Posted by: Tom ||
04/14/2005 15:12 Comments ||
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What people publicly say is sometimes a good way of making the enemy relax and let their guard down.
Also, maybe with internal pressures mounting in Iran It would actually not be necessary to attack Iran, because in two years Iran would be transformed by an internal revolution.
Posted by: Elder of Zion ||
04/14/2005 15:34 Comments ||
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There are several places which, when read carefully, indicate the article was not written carefully - at least from a logical POV.
Example: "Sharon aides presented evidence, including satellite reconnaissance, about the Iranian nuclear program, but the Americans did not see anything that would influence them to stick to diplomatic efforts to control Iran."
Huh? That's a nonsense statement - and a non-trivial statement. What sort of moron would've released such hash? Pfeh. AP Morons.
The thing that keeps surprising me is the timeline. In many recent statements out of the US and Israel, there is the suggestion that, unless they buy / bought one intact, the timeline for putting together a working and deliverable nuke is longer than most people think - certainly longer than I believed. Targeting precision is not much of an issue with a nuke, given Israel's size, except for premature detonation, of course - I'm pulling for on the launchpad, but that's another topic. I was looking for some sort of action against them in the 4thQ 2005 or 1stQ 2006 because I had the feeling (many sources) that the MM's would "be there" just beyond that timeframe.
But so much of what I've read over the last few months, as the Iranian confrontation took on the hue of inevitability, suggests at least a year further out. This tells me that our intel from within Iran, when added to what we get from others, such as Mossad, must be much better than we are hearing from public sources - and they are still learning to read and produce from Khan's Cookbook - even when handed the used centrifuges. Of course everything we can do to slow them down, such as intercepting the hexafluoride gas they're trying to buy, etc., is all to the good.
Or we could be dead wrong, and much of Israel just dead, cuz everyone's intel is shit and they're almost ready to rock and roll now.
Just my (surprised) take after about 10 readings of everything that's been coming down the pike.
#8
Okay, here's another way to look at it.... missles and aircraft are easier targets than caves. If the Perisians manage to field a viable and tested weapon and maintain their aggressive PR assault on the zionist entity, it will be far easier for the IDF target wise and PR wise.
Iraq's new interim president, Jalal Talabani, says he expects foreign troops will be needed at least until the end of 2006 and that a proposed amnesty for terrorists should not extend to members of Al Qaeda.
In an interview published on Wednesday in the French daily Liberation, Talabani, a Kurdish leader, said self-determination for Kurds "is not possible" and that an independent Kurdistan "could not survive." Foreign troops should stay as long as Iraqi forces cannot ensure stability and eradicate terrorism, he said.
"When that is the case, we will ask them to leave. Without fixing a deadline, I estimate that that won't happen before the end of 2006," the newspaper quoted Talabani as saying. Asked about the possibility of an amnesty for terrorists in Iraq, Talabani said, "not for all." He made a distinction between homegrown Iraqi insurgents and others.
"Some Iraqis believe that via the so-called resistance they can force the Americans to leave Iraq and they understand today that that is not possible. We can facilitate their reintegration into the democratic game," he was quoted as saying. "But criminals of Al Qaeda or (Jordanian militant Abu Musab) al-Zarqawi, who are pursuing a war of extermination against Shiites and Kurds, must be eradicated." Talabani said his presidential post is not just honorific and that his group aims to play a key role in drafting a constitution.
"I can use my right of veto and the Kurdish bloc has 77 lawmakers. So we will play a very important role in this process," he said. "We will oppose everything that contains the seed of a return to dictatorship. We ask for a federal system, founded on democracy and equality." Talabani also said that they would not accept Islam being made the cornerstone of law in Iraq.
Posted by: Dan Darling ||
04/14/2005 1:27:12 AM ||
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Eighteen Maoist rebels died in a fierce clash with the army a week ago, the Nepal army said Wednesday. A statement issued by the Royal Nepalese Army said 18 guerrillas who had fled to Salyan district in mid-western Nepal, following a 12-hour gun battle in another district, died of injuries. Their bodies were found decomposing in the Dhakadam area of Salyan, the statement said.
The deaths come six days after the guerrillas attacked a security camp in Khara in Rukum district, considered the cradle of the nine-year-old insurgency that has left thousands dead. While security forces lost three men in trying to repulse the raid, the Maoists were said to have suffered punishing casualties.
The army said it had recovered the bodies of 113 outlaws and later dug up nearly 30 more bodies from the surrounding forests. With the new toll from Salyan, the rebels seem to have lost over 160 of their men. Who sez there's no good news these days? These so called Maoists are lethal pests.
Posted by: sea cruise ||
04/14/2005 2:14:06 AM ||
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#1
Dug up bodies? The trees will grow well this year, fertilized by prime grade maoists (higher in fertilizing components than normal bodies, y'know). Faster growing trees suck up more CO2, a big help for Nepal against their Kyoto quota. ;-)
#2
So, to cover up the fact that they burying their dead to skew the body counts in their favor has now been uncovered, they'll screech about how terrible the RNA is in digging up their dead. Count on it...
One of the main Algerian Islamist terror groups on Wednesday denied any responsibility for the slaying of 14 people at a roadblock south of the capital last week. The al-Qaeda aligned Salafite Group for Preaching and Combat (GSPC) posted its disclaimer to an Islamic website. GSPC and the other principal militant group, the Armed Islamic Group (GIA) are the main police suspects for the massacre. Troops are involved in a major manhunt for the attackers, authorities said.
On 7 April, Algerian Islamic militants stopped cars at a bogus roadblock near the town of Larba, about 30 kilometres south of Algiers, forcing the passengers out and shooting them dead, before burning their bodies. A truck driver escaped and told the authorities the attackers numbered about 10 men. The only other survivor was an old woman who is recovering in hospital. Police and security experts said hard-line members of GSPC, which has been fighting an Islamic holy war of 'jihad' for 13 years, have recently stepped up their attacks in a bid to scupper a general amnesty expected to be offered this year to rebels and members of the armed forces.
Posted by: Dan Darling ||
04/14/2005 1:59:04 AM ||
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"Whoops! A couple of the younger boys are a little overenthusiastic. They long for the way it was in the old days."
#2
One of the main Algerian Islamist terror groups on Wednesday denied any responsibility for the slaying of 14 people at a roadblock south of the capital last week.
They can deny responsibility, but they know damned well that their past and present actions can provide others with the inspiration to commit similar atrocities. They're all cut from the same cloth, and their extermination needs to be handled with that in mind.
KABUL - Afghan President Hamid Karzai said on Wednesday he wants his country to have a long-term security relationship with the United States to help the war-torn country defend itself. Speaking at a press conference during a visit by US Defence Secretary Donald Rumsfeld, Karzai said "the Afghan people want a longer-term relationship with the United States".
"They want this relationship to be a sustained economic and political relationship, and most importantly of all, a strategic security relationship to help Afghanistan defend itself," Karzai said.
I think we can oblige. Who do we have in Heidelberg who's not doing anything important right now?
Rumsfeld said the US military's relationship between Afghanistan and the United States had "grown and strengthened," but he avoided the issue of whether Washington hoped to establish permanent military bases. "What we generally do when we work with another country (is) we find ways we can be helpful, maybe training, equipment or other types of assistance. We think in terms of what we are doing rather than the question of military bases and that type of thing," he said.
"We're thinking, we're thinking ...
Posted by: Steve White ||
04/14/2005 00:00:00 AM ||
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Pulling 38,000 troops out of Germany,ok.Send a division to Iraq and relieve a division for R&R.Send a division to Afganistan to establish a permanant base on the Iranian border.Works for me.
#2
Right On, raptor! I still can't figure out why we have even one soldier in Germany. Maybe we're waiting on the second rise of Nazism or something! You're promoted...General raptor.
#5
The problem for Karzai, and Uncle Sam, is that Afghanistan is landlocked. This means we must gain access to the country via either Pakistan or the Central Asian states (I'm assuming China and Iran are out - neither provided its airspace for the Afghan campaign). Is it in the American interest to provide a security guarantee for Afghanistan? I think it's too early to say. First, we need to see a viable Afghan army. Then we'll talk. Otherwise Afghanistan could become like the Philippines - just another country with which Uncle Sam has a mutual defense treaty that has chosen to neglect its national defenses. (Japan and South Korea are the other two, and neither is exactly self-sufficient). What Karzai may want is military welfare, paid for with the blood of American troops. I think we need to make sure he creates a viable security force before committing to anything.
#7
"I think we can oblige. Who do we have in Heidelberg who's not doing anything important right now?"
Um, that would be that 700 to 1,000 of us down here now, from H-Town, Steve. LOL
Raptor, look at where the Divisions are now.
While I am a fully paid up member of the Rummy Fan Club and support Global Rebasing, I don't want you guys to walk away with the impression that OCONUS forces are sitting in Garrison getting fat on beer and pork steaks,
#10
Never thought they were,Gimpy.But they would be of much more benifit elswhere.And given Germany and France's attitude I say screw it,take our money,toys,personel and put them where they will do some good.After all niether country considers the world a dangerous place,infact they consider the U.S. the most dangerous country in the world.If they need an army let them buy thier own.
#3
And Krgystan, too. Boy, every place that master diplomat Rummy visits wants us to stay longer. Except Germany. Maybe by the time they go Moose, they'll change their minds. Maybe Rummy will be Secretary of State by then.
Posted by: Mrs. Davis ||
04/14/2005 9:36 Comments ||
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Rummy's on his last tour and deserves to enjoy the rest of his retirement. He's done a masterful job IMHO. I know some in the mil establishment/bureaucracy disagree, but sometimes your opponents catcalls are proof you've done your job
Posted by: Frank G ||
04/14/2005 10:18 Comments ||
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LAHORE: The Punjab government has decided to release all the Muttahida Majlis-e-Amal (MMA) activists arrested for attacking the Gujranwala marathon. According to sources, the decision to release the activists has been taken on the instructions of Punjab Chief Minister Pervaiz Elahi. The chief minister said that the administration would not be allowed to take vindictive action against any Muttahida Majlis-e-Amal activist.
Posted by: Fred ||
04/14/2005 00:00:00 ||
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This is our ally in the wot, god and allah help us.
Arabs should re-engage in the peace process in Palestine and come forward with a new initiative, Mohammad Dahlan, Palestinian Minister of Civil Affairs, has said. "We ask Arab countries to intervene by bringing forward an Arab initiative and support the new elected governments and all Palestinian factions in keeping up a united front," said Mohammad Dahlan, who was also a former candidate to the Palestinian presidency. Dahlan accused the US of not providing guarantees to the Palestinian National Authority that negotiations for a final solution on the issues of refugees' right to return, the status of Occupied Jerusalem and Israeli colonies, would be back on track after Israel's withdrawal from the Gaza Strip. "We fear that Sharon's engagement would end with the withdrawal from Gaza. We have not yet received any guarantees from the US that negotiations for a final solution will be resumed," he said.
Posted by: Fred ||
04/14/2005 00:00:00 ||
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Dahlan accused the US of not providing guarantees to the Palestinian National Authority that negotiations for a final solution on the issues of refugeesâ right to return, the status of Occupied Jerusalem and Israeli colonies, would be back on track after Israelâs withdrawal from the Gaza Strip.
Read these words carefully: HONOR THE COMMITMENTS YOU'VE ALREADY MADE.
None of this cease-fire/truce bullshit. Either convince the terrorists to peacefully put down the arms for good, or disarm them by force. Whatever it takes.
#3
These Paleostinians are so arrogant and delusional because it's not just them against Israel. It's the Arab world and Muslim world against Israel. And the Arabs are more bold today with the high ($51/bbl) oil prices that Allah has blessed them with. I'm sure the Paleo honchos revel in the way the UN rubber stamps anything they submit. Only the US veto on the Security Council stalls out this eternal Jihad against the Jews of Israel
#4
They have never honored their commitments in the past and there have been no adverse consequences, the money and aid keep flowing in and they get invited to a 100 conferences a year where they are lauded as the poor oppressed victims, why they should they change. From their perspective the strategy clearly works.
Egypt's government-formed human rights centre has urged the president to scrap emergency laws in effect for 24 years in order to boost political reform, a member of the group said yesterday. The call was made in the National Council for Human Rights' first annual report, given to President Hosni Mubarak last week, said Hafez Abou Saada, a member of the group. The council has requested a meeting with Mubarak to discuss the report and its recommendations but were told his "circumstances were not permitting." Opposition parties and independent rights group have stepped up their calls for the end of emergency laws, which restrict political gatherings and give security forces wide powers of arrest. But the centre's call was significant because it is a body formed by the government specifically to advise it on rights issues.
Posted by: Fred ||
04/14/2005 00:00:00 ||
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Egyptâs government-formed human rights centre has urged the president to scrap emergency laws in effect for 24 years..
Sounds like a double dose version of Ferdinand Marcos.
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.
PARIS — Saudi Crown Prince Abdullah bin Abdulaziz said in an interview that the kingdom is on the way to 
The Chechen law-enforcement agencies have information that militants are going to stage several resounding terrorist acts in summer. "There is information that in summer terrorist leaders will carry out several major acts of terrorism to make themselves known. They have dabbed this time 'the fiery summer'", Chechen prosecutor Vladimir Kravchenko has said. "By that they (militants) want to declare their presence and in this way vindicate the monetary inputs they, regretfully, go on receiving", the prosecutor said. He noted that the law-enforcement agencies are duty-bound to "forestall their actions".
BEIRUT: Lebanon's pro-Syrian prime minister stepped down on Wednesday, abandoning efforts to form a government to lead the country to general elections, but said there was still time to hold the poll as expected in May. Prime Minister Omar Al Karami's resignation seemed to make timely elections more unlikely and deepened the political crisis triggered by the February assassination of former prime minister Rafik Al Hariri. 
Iran's hardline judiciary yesterday refused Canada's request to hand over the body of a female photojournalist who died in Iranian custody in 2003. Canada renewed demands this month for the Islamic state to return Zahra Kazemi's body and start fresh investigations into her death. Kazemi, an Iranian-born Canadian, died of a brain haemorrhage in July 2003 after she was arrested for taking photographs outside Tehran's Evin prison, where many dissidents are held. But judiciary spokesman Jamal Karimirad ruled out returning her body, which is buried in Shiraz. "Kazemi was an Iranian citizen, so such views and remarks are incompatible with our laws and international laws," Karimirad told a weekly news conference. He said the judiciary was still investigating her death.
One of the main Algerian Islamist terror groups on Wednesday denied any responsibility for the slaying of 14 people at a roadblock south of the capital last week. The al-Qaeda aligned 
LAHORE: The Punjab government has decided to release all the 
Arabs should re-engage in the peace process in Palestine and come forward with a new initiative, Mohammad Dahlan, Palestinian Minister of Civil Affairs, has said. "We ask Arab countries to intervene by bringing forward an Arab initiative and support the new elected governments and all Palestinian factions in keeping up a united front," said Mohammad Dahlan, who was also a former candidate to the Palestinian presidency. Dahlan accused the US of not providing guarantees to the Palestinian National Authority that negotiations for a final solution on the issues of refugees' right to return, the status of Occupied Jerusalem and Israeli colonies, would be back on track after Israel's withdrawal from the Gaza Strip. "We fear that Sharon's engagement would end with the withdrawal from Gaza. We have not yet received any guarantees from the US that negotiations for a final solution will be resumed," he said.
Egypt's government-formed human rights centre has urged the president to scrap emergency laws in effect for 24 years in order to boost political reform, a member of the group said yesterday. The call was made in the National Council for Human Rights' first annual report, given to President Hosni Mubarak last week, said Hafez Abou Saada, a member of the group. The council has requested a meeting with Mubarak to discuss the report and its recommendations but were told his "circumstances were not permitting." Opposition parties and independent rights group have stepped up their calls for the end of emergency laws, which restrict political gatherings and give security forces wide powers of arrest. But the centre's call was significant because it is a body formed by the government specifically to advise it on rights issues.
