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400 Algerian gunmen to surrender
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Page 4: Opinion
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Mirror back in business
The aach.net/rantburg mirror is working again. Steve should be back online, assuming he's back from vacation...
Posted by: Fred || 04/18/2005 9:22:01 AM || Comments || Link || [0 views] Top|| File under:

#1  Note to Rantburg readers: Two of the editorial staff are extremely busy with IRL considerations this week, and another (me) is living on Popsicles and Tylenol, thus moderating is going to be slow and somewhat spotty. Please play nice, send lots of stories to the holding tank, and send me or the Steves an email if you see something that needs attention. Thanks!
Posted by: Seafarious || 04/18/2005 9:38 Comments || Top||

#2  mmm Popsicles and Tylenol...no occasional Saltines?
Posted by: Frank G || 04/18/2005 10:10 Comments || Top||

#3  Ummmmm..... Demerol.
Posted by: Shipman || 04/18/2005 10:33 Comments || Top||

#4  I've been away over the weekend with a IRL complication (water in the basement from a burst pipe). I'll check in from time to time from work but that's obviously limited. Might have my late-night access going again by tomorrow.
Posted by: Steve White || 04/18/2005 10:56 Comments || Top||

#5  And I'll check in occasionally to post articles you all submit, but have had several sad things happen w/ friends and family .... am dealing with that plus some heavy work commitments this week.

Posted by: rkb || 04/18/2005 11:04 Comments || Top||

#6  I'm back, and ready to bust a few heads if you children don't play nice.
Posted by: Steve || 04/18/2005 11:43 Comments || Top||

#7  the AOS: eternally vigilant, eternally annoyed
Posted by: Frank G || 04/18/2005 11:50 Comments || Top||

#8  Yawl swearing off blogging for open wheeled racing?
Posted by: Shipman || 04/18/2005 12:15 Comments || Top||

#9  Ship...Vicodin, actually, but you have the right idea...
Posted by: Seafarious || 04/18/2005 12:44 Comments || Top||


Arabia
Omanis With Links to Secret Group to Go on Trial Today
A group of Omanis arrested earlier this year for their links with a banned secret organization are to go on trial today, legal sources said yesterday. They gave no details, but one source said 10 defendants would appear at the initial hearing.

Attorney General Hussein ibn Ali Al-Hilali said on March 25 that the interrogation procedures were about to be completed and they would stand trial in a special court. The statement stressed that all the guarantees under the Basic Law — Oman's first written constitution issued in 1996 — had been taken into consideration and implemented. The suspects would be "allowed to engage lawyers to defend them in the court as per the law, and the sentences issued against them announced in the media," it said, without specifying how many Islamist suspects were to go on trial. It said only that "a group of citizens were arrested for being linked to a banned secret organization" and the authorities had gathered evidence confirming the existence of the unnamed group.
Posted by: Fred || 04/18/2005 00:00:00 || Comments || Link || [0 views] Top|| File under:


Caribbean-Latin America
Five far-right fighters killed in combat with government forces
I've noticed over the years — and I doubt if it's pure coincidence — that countries with functioning civil societies don't have paramilitary forces running around their countrysides. That includes right-wing forces, left-wing forces, Islamist forces, and any other forces you can think of. When somebody says "paramilitary forces" you can translate it as "failed state."
Five far-right paramilitary fighters, including an army sergeant secretly belonging to the illegal group, were killed in combat with Colombian security forces on Sunday, officials said. Army Commander Reinaldo Castellanos admitted that one of the dead militiamen was a member of the army, in the latest example of links between Colombia's security forces and right-wing squads set up by drug traffickers and cattle ranchers in the 1980s to combat Marxist guerrillas in the Andean country. Castellanos said the government was investigating the case. The battle took place near the town of Cucuta on the Venezuelan border.

The paramilitaries have killed thousands of people in a war against leftist rebels and have earned international notoriety for massacring peasants, sometimes using crude weapons such as hammers and chain saws. Members of the armed forces have often cooperated with right-ring militiamen against their common rebel foes, although the government says aiding the paramilitaries constitutes treachery.
Posted by: Fred || 04/18/2005 00:00:00 AM || Comments || Link || [0 views] Top|| File under:

#1 
I've noticed over the years — and I doubt if it's pure coincidence — that countries with functioning civil societies don't have paramilitary forces running around their countrysides. That includes right-wing forces, left-wing forces, Islamist forces, and any other forces you can think of. When somebody says "paramilitary forces" you can translate it as "failed state."
Where does that put the US, given the 'undocumented border patrol agents' in Arizona?
Posted by: Phil Fraering || 04/18/2005 0:12 Comments || Top||

#2  correct.

But less than half of us are failed states,
the blue ones.
Posted by: Red Dog || 04/18/2005 0:46 Comments || Top||

#3  It only counts for this particular equation if the paramilitaries are trying to kill people, not forward them to the proper authorities for arrest and repatriation. ;-)
Posted by: trailing wife || 04/18/2005 1:23 Comments || Top||

#4  Apples and oranges,Phil.
Posted by: raptor || 04/18/2005 8:19 Comments || Top||

#5  Do you consider Neighborhood Watch programs to be paramilitary forces, Phil? That's all the Miniute Men on the border are, just on a larger scale.
Posted by: Steve || 04/18/2005 9:35 Comments || Top||

#6  Terminology is what's important here. The operative 'far right' phrase is being used strategically akin to the word 'liberal'.

Consider all the situations in which 'far right' has been used recently. In the Teri Schiavo case, in the judicial nomination circumstance, the Bolton nomination, etc.

The strategy is to kookify the '04 Bush voters. How far removed is the five far-right paramilitary fighters from the NRA and Ted Nugent in the eyes of the MSM?
Posted by: Dennis Kucinich || 04/18/2005 9:49 Comments || Top||

#7  It's a start.
Posted by: Mrs. Davis || 04/18/2005 9:50 Comments || Top||

#8  The Minute Men are on the border because of an absolute failure of the US government to control our borders. In that respect, government is non-functional and citizens are organizing to perform a core function (control of borders) that our government has abdicated.
Posted by: Captain Ahab || 04/18/2005 9:55 Comments || Top||

#9  actually, I would posit that the Minutemen are in no way desiring to replace or hinder the border patrol, who we know do a thankless job. The MM are trying to publicize and escalate the level of "crisis" needed to get real solutions, over the strenuous disinterest in Congress and the President.
Posted by: Frank G || 04/18/2005 10:15 Comments || Top||

#10  I saw a little article this a.m. that the Minuteman paradigm is spreading -- similar units are setting themselves up along the border in CA and elsewhere. Unfortunately, I messed up trying to post it, but I'll keep looking.
Posted by: trailing wife || 04/18/2005 14:08 Comments || Top||

#11  I was contacted last week about joininng a minuteman patrol in Texas. I was asked to bring my horse. East Tennesse to Texas is way too far to drag Ace, besides, I think this is going a little too far. Just sitting and observing is one thing but active patroling on horseback is something I'm not willing to get in to. Besides, Ace and I are doing some movie filming for the next 4 or 5 weeks. I'm not saying their efforts aren't worthwhile, If I was able I might consider watching and reporting.
Posted by: Deacon Blues || 04/18/2005 15:29 Comments || Top||

#12  I'd go if you'd loan me your artillery and 30 or 40 lbs of powder.
Posted by: Shipman || 04/18/2005 17:16 Comments || Top||

#13  DB -- the new airlines promotion is book yourself and bring your livestock companion for free.
Posted by: Dennis Kucinich || 04/18/2005 17:19 Comments || Top||


China-Japan-Koreas
'North Korea may boost its N-arsenal'
TOKYO: North Korea has halted operations at a nuclear power reactor at the centre of an international row, a move that could let Pyongyang reprocess spent fuel to retract plutonium and boost its nuclear arsenal, a press report said on Sunday. The United States will shortly send Christopher Hill, the assistant secretary of state for East Asian and Pacific affairs, to South Korea, Japan and China for talks to cope with the new development in the nuclear standoff, the Japanese newspaper Asahi Shimbun said. Washington has verified that operations at the five-megawatt reactor in Yongbyon were suspended in April, the influential daily said in a report from Washington quoting sources including US government officials.

The US administration reached the conclusion by analysing satellite pictures and estimating temperatures on the walls of nuclear facilities and amounts of steam coming from boilers at Yongbyon, north of Pyongyang, the report said.
Posted by: Fred || 04/18/2005 00:00:00 || Comments || Link || [0 views] Top|| File under:


Europe
Commandos depart for Afghan anti-terror mission
AMSTERDAM — A hundred Dutch special operations soldiers were to depart from Eindhoven on Monday to take up duties in Afghanistan alongside US forces tracking terrorist operatives. Defence Minister Henk Kamp was scheduled to attend the ceremony at the city's airbase and give a short speech to the troops. The Netherlands is deploying 165 soldiers to the operation Enduring Freedom, which the US launched after the 11 September terrorist attacks in 2001.
The Dutch commando unit will supply the largest number of troops, supplemented by special forces from the marine corps. The unit will be supported by 85 soldiers with the Chinook transport helicopter detachment. Besides combating al-Qaeda terrorists and Taleban renegades, the Dutch troops will monitor the security situation in the south and east of Afghanistan.
The present objective of Enduring Freedom is to bring Afghanistan under the central authority of Kabul. Unrest continues in the south and east of the nation along the rugged border with Pakistan. ISAF stabilisation troops under Nato command are based in Kabul. The Dutch government already has an F-16 fighter jet squadron on peacekeeping duties in the Afghan capital.
The Dutch government announced on 25 February it would deploy the troops in active anti-terror missions in Afghanistan and MPs approved the decision at the start of March. The mission has been given a minimal one-year approval.
Posted by: Steve || 04/18/2005 2:13:04 PM || Comments || Link || [0 views] Top|| File under:

#1  Training and preping select cadre. Then they come home and go to work for real.
Posted by: Chuck Simmins || 04/18/2005 16:04 Comments || Top||


Madrid Bombings Suspect Returning to Italy
Spanish authorities have ended their interrogation of an Egyptian suspect in last year's Madrid train bombings and will send him back to Italy where he is accused of links to militant Muslim groups, court officials said Monday. Spanish Judge Juan del Olmo has filed provisional charges of mass murder and terrorism against the suspect, Rabei Osman Ahmed, who was handed over by Italy in December for a maximum of six months. Spanish authorities say the Egyptian, considered an explosives expert, was a key figure in the planning of the bombings and in al-Qaida's structure in Europe. His return to Italy was scheduled for Monday, an official close to the case said. National Court officials said his possible return to Spain will depend on what legal proceedings Italy takes against him. Osman Ahmed, 27, was arrested in Milan in June after police wiretapped conversations in which he allegedly boasted that he was the mastermind of the Madrid bombings and was planning another attack. In an arrest warrant issued in June, del Olmo said that while living in Madrid the Egyptian "managed to take control of a small group of Arab followers, all of them with extremist Islamic ideology, supporters of jihad and Osama bin Laden." Spain pulled its 1,300 troops out of Iraq after Prime Minister Jose Maria Aznar's conservative government was defeated by the Socialists in elections March 14, three days after the bombings.
This article starring:
RABEI OSMAN AHMEDal-Qaeda in Europe
Posted by: Steve || 04/18/2005 10:30:38 AM || Comments || Link || [0 views] Top|| File under:


Home Front: WoT
Passengers on blocked KLM flight linked to 9/11
AMSTERDAM — The KLM flight refused entry to US airspace on 8 April was reportedly carrying two Saudi Arabian brothers with suspected links to the terror network of Osama bin Laden. One of the men allegedly had been in contact with Hani Hanjour, one of the hijackers involved in the 11 September terror attacks in the US, magazine 'Newsweek' reported. Hanjour was on the plane that crashed into the Pentagon. And it has been reported the two Saudi men may have had flight lessons with Hanjour at the Sawyer School of Aviation in Phoenix, Arizona.
Well, isn't that interesting?
The names of the Saudi men were on America's 'no-fly' list of terror suspects. KLM examines this list for flights to and from the US, but not for flights that only pass through US airspace. KLM bowed to US pressure last week and agreed to check its no-fly list in future for the names of passengers on all flights that enter US airspace. KLM was threatened with a ban on entering US airspace if it had not met the demand. For financial reasons, KLM agreed to the change in regulations despite the fact it has serious objections to the no-fly list, which is compiled without international supervision by the Transportation Security Authority (TSA) in Washington. KLM also questioned where the authority had obtained the passenger details for the flight, but it later emerged that American authorities were given the information by Mexico. The KLM plane was en route to Mexico City with 278 passengers and 15 horses and was above Canada when pilots were informed it had been refused entry to US airspace. The plane then returned to Schiphol Airport in Amsterdam.
Justice Minister Piet Hein Donner told Dutch MPs last week that the two suspects were questioned by military police at Schiphol. But he also said there was "no basis" to detain them further. MPs have since demanded a more detailed account of the incident. After spending a night in an immigration cell upon their return to Amsterdam, the men were deported to Britain, where they were again questioned, before flying home to Saudi Arabia. The other 276 passengers of KLM flight 685 boarded another Mexico-bound plane on 9 April. They arrived in Mexico City on Sunday 10 April.
Citing anonymous sources, 'Newsweek' claims there was no definite indication of a risk that the plane was to be used in a terrorist attack. The two Saudi brothers only wanted to visit their father, who lives in Mexico.
Mexico, huh? That's only a hop, skip and wade from, well, you know.
Posted by: Steve || 04/18/2005 1:54:57 PM || Comments || Link || [1 views] Top|| File under:

#1  Justice Minister Piet Hein Donner told Dutch MPs last week that the two suspects were questioned by military police at Schiphol. But he also said there was "no basis" to detain them further.

Man, I feel better already!! Those Dutch are some tough customers when it comes to interrogation. Probably went something like this:

Dutch police: You guys terrorists or anything like that?
Homesick Boys:
Nah...we just miss our Daddy sooooo much.
Dutch police:
Sorry to have detained you...don't forget your C4 and detonators.
Homesick Boys:
Thanks.
Posted by: Justrand || 04/18/2005 16:14 Comments || Top||


Syria-Lebanon-Iran
Deadly flu virus unaccounted for in Lebanon
Wotta coincidence.
Posted by: Fred || 04/18/2005 00:00:00 || Comments || Link || [0 views] Top|| File under:

#1  Not sure if these are the same ones or just a smoke screen, but
according to USA Today, some of the samples were found in a FedEx warehouse.
http://www.usatoday.com/news/world/2005-04-17-flu-virus-samples-found_x.htm
Posted by: RWV || 04/18/2005 0:36 Comments || Top||

#2  BEIRUT: Samples of a deadly flu virus sent by the College of American Pathologists to more than 3,700 laboratories around the world appear to have gone missing on their way to Lebanon and Mexico, according to the World Health Organization on Friday.

A shame that stupidity isn't a prosecutable offense. Why anyone would even think of sending samples of any sort of pathogen to Lebanon is beyond belief. And Mexico, well, it's bad enough that a number of illegal Mexican immigrants are bringing the TB bacillus with them onto our soil...
Posted by: Bomb-a-rama || 04/18/2005 0:39 Comments || Top||

#3  Shouldn't such and act of stupidity (mailing them out) be grounds for instant extreme prejudice of all the very dangerous morons involved as they are a menace to all living mammals?
Posted by: 3dc || 04/18/2005 2:04 Comments || Top||


Syrians withdraw with statues
With the withdrawal of Syrian military and intelligence troops from Lebanon, orders went out from Damascus to dismantle and transport home all statues that had been set for the late Syrian President Hafez Assad and his elder son Bassel across Lebanon. A statue of Bassel Assad, erected in the town of Chtaura - after his death in a car crash on the Damascus airport highway some nine years ago - was removed from its base and taken to Syria on Thursday.

A Hafez Assad statue - the biggest in Lebanon - on the outskirts of Baalbek was removed Saturday to the Syrian border and Hizbullah flags were immediately set up on the vacated base. Hafez Assad's statues had also been removed from Tyre, Lebanon's southernmost port city, and out from neighboring Qana.
I guess they still have visions of Sammy's statue being pulled down in Baghdad and want to avoid having a similar scene become a part of Lebanon's fondest memories.
Posted by: Fred || 04/18/2005 00:00:00 || Comments || Link || [1 views] Top|| File under:

#1  Call him President Wilmer:
Posted by: thibaud (aka lex) || 04/18/2005 15:04 Comments || Top||

#2  http://www.tcf.ua.edu/Classes/Jbutler/T440/MalteseFalcon01/pages/MalteseFalcon_068_jpg.htm
Posted by: thibaud (aka lex) || 04/18/2005 15:04 Comments || Top||

#3  Call him President Wilmer

I think he's goin to take the fall.
Posted by: DMFD || 04/18/2005 21:29 Comments || Top||


Police and Hizbullah clash in Aramoun
An armed conflict broke out on Saturday in the town of Aramoun, between the municipality's police and members of Hizbullah. As the municipality's police were carrying out an order of the municipality to remove loudspeakers from a residential center in the area of Rashid Solh hill, Hizbullah members stopped them from doing their duty, which led to a conflict that developed into an armed fight. The Lebanese Army intervened and arrested six members of the police and two other people.
Okay. My surprise meter's working. It just pegged.
The mayor of Aramoun, Sheikh Fadil Jawhari, held a press conference Sunday, in the presence of members of the municipality and officials in which he clarified the causes of the incident, praised the role of Hizbullah in liberating the South and urged the party's officials to help resolve this conflict.
Oh. I see. They're scared spitless of Hezbollah. Sorry. I forgot.
Jawhari said: "The residents had submitted a complaint, asking us to remove the loudspeakers, which were set up on the roof of the building, and we transferred the complaint to the police." He added that he had agreed with Hizbullah officials that they would remove all of the speakers except one, but none of the speakers were removed.
"Don't nobody tell us what to do!"
Jawhari explained that some Hizbullah members stopped the police from taking down the loudspeakers, threatening them with their weapons. Jawhari said: "We don't accept that the weapons of Hizbullah be used against the Lebanese people."
"But we'll arrest anybody that screws with Hezbollah!"
Posted by: Fred || 04/18/2005 00:00:00 AM || Comments || Link || [0 views] Top|| File under:

#1  Next time remove them with a few rocket propelled grenades. That will avoid this.
Posted by: Sock Puppet 0’ Doom || 04/18/2005 1:14 Comments || Top||

#2  Half the fun of Muhammadanism is all the fussing, fighting and feuding. This hypes up the drama and makes this cult more pervasive than it already is. As if praying butt up five times a day, incendiary Friday sermons and the Ramadan fasting isn't enough to imprint Muhammadanism on their brains.
Posted by: sea cruise || 04/18/2005 1:40 Comments || Top||

#3  all the fussing, fighting and feuding predates Mohammed by a few millenia. M. was embedded in his culture, else his Allah would have thought to forbid such things, for the benefit of the rest of mankind.
Posted by: trailing wife || 04/18/2005 6:33 Comments || Top||

#4  The curse of the Arab's Mohammedanism is springing from such a dry region. Deserts and arid regions produce nomadic warriors, always fighting over the rarest resource, water. Control of the water and control of grazing areas are what traditionally made for an Arab leader's power base. In more built up areas, Mesopotamia, the man at the top controlled the irrigation schemes thus controlling the water.
Deserts produce people with strict fierce mentalities:
- which Allah has
- which Muhammad aped
- which Muslims copy from Muhammad (they are commanded to emulate Muhammad's life)
- which is the way Muslims always try to dominate non Muslims

Google up: hydraulic theory of civilization

Jerusalem is much wetter than Mecca/Medina
Posted by: sea cruise || 04/18/2005 8:47 Comments || Top||

#5  Tony has much more on this incident at:

http://beirut2bayside.blogspot.com/2005/04/dispelling-myths.html

the loudspeakers are there, apparently, because Hizb Allah has designated this area for a mosque. The townies don't especially like being bullied by Hizb Allah and the anti Hizb Allah feeling is continuing to grow, mostly in Sunni, Christian and Druze areas.
Posted by: mhw || 04/18/2005 9:52 Comments || Top||

#6  The curse of the Arab's Mohammedanism is springing from such a dry region. Deserts and arid regions produce nomadic warriors, always fighting over the rarest resource, water. Control of the water and control of grazing areas are what traditionally made for an Arab leader's power base. In more built up areas, Mesopotamia, the man at the top controlled the irrigation schemes thus controlling the water.
Deserts produce people with strict fierce mentalities:
- which Allah has
- which Muhammad aped
- which Muslims copy from Muhammad (they are commanded to emulate Muhammad's life)
- which is the way Muslims always try to dominate non Muslims

http://www.google.com/search?num=100&hl=en&rls=GGLD,GGLD:2005-11,GGLD:en&q=hydraulic+theory+of+civilization&spell=1

hydraulic theory of civilization

Jerusalem is much wetter than Mecca/Medina
Posted by: sea cruise || 04/18/2005 8:45 Comments || Top||

#7  The curse of the Arab's Mohammedanism is springing from such a dry region. Deserts and arid regions produce nomadic warriors, always fighting over the rarest resource, water. Control of the water and control of grazing areas are what traditionally made for an Arab leader's power base. In more built up areas, Mesopotamia, the man at the top controlled the irrigation schemes thus controlling the water.
Deserts produce people with strict fierce mentalities:
- which Allah has
- which Muhammad aped
- which Muslims copy from Muhammad (they are commanded to emulate Muhammad's life)
- which is the way Muslims always try to dominate non Muslims

http://www.google.com/search?num=100&hl=en&rls=GGLD,GGLD:2005-11,GGLD:en&q=hydraulic+theory+of+civilization&spell=1

hydraulic theory of civilization

Jerusalem is much wetter than Mecca/Medina
Posted by: sea cruise || 04/18/2005 8:45 Comments || Top||

#8  The curse of the Arab's Mohammedanism is springing from such a dry region. Deserts and arid regions produce nomadic warriors, always fighting over the rarest resource, water. Control of the water and control of grazing areas are what traditionally made for an Arab leader's power base. In more built up areas, Mesopotamia, the man at the top controlled the irrigation schemes thus controlling the water.
Deserts produce people with strict fierce mentalities:
- which Allah has
- which Muhammad aped
- which Muslims copy from Muhammad (they are commanded to emulate Muhammad's life)
- which is the way Muslims always try to dominate non Muslims

http://www.google.com/search?num=100&hl=en&rls=GGLD,GGLD:2005-11,GGLD:en&q=hydraulic+theory+of+civilization&spell=1

hydraulic theory of civilization

Jerusalem is much wetter than Mecca/Medina
Posted by: sea cruise || 04/18/2005 8:46 Comments || Top||

#9  The curse of the Arab's Mohammedanism is springing from such a dry region. Deserts and arid regions produce nomadic warriors, always fighting over the rarest resource, water. Control of the water and control of grazing areas are what traditionally made for an Arab leader's power base. In more built up areas, Mesopotamia, the man at the top controlled the irrigation schemes thus controlling the water.
Deserts produce people with strict fierce mentalities:
- which Allah has
- which Muhammad aped
- which Muslims copy from Muhammad (they are commanded to emulate Muhammad's life)
- which is the way Muslims always try to dominate non Muslims

http://www.google.com/search?num=100&hl=en&rls=GGLD,GGLD:2005-11,GGLD:en&q=hydraulic+theory+of+civilization&spell=1

hydraulic theory of civilization

Jerusalem is much wetter than Mecca/Medina
Posted by: sea cruise || 04/18/2005 8:46 Comments || Top||


Afghanistan/South Asia
Four Pakistani terrorists killed in Jammu and Kashmir
The Indian Army's Counter Insurgency "Romeo Force" bags some more jihadi vermin...

4 Pakistani terrorists killed in J&K gun battles

Three Pakistani terrorists, including an area commander, were killed in a gun battle with security forces in Poonch district of Jammu and Kashmir on Monday, official sources said.

An encounter took place between terrorists and troops in Serya area in the district when troops launched area specific operation on Monday afternoon, they said.

In the gun battle, three Pakistani terrorists were killed and three AK rifles, seven magazines, 110 rounds, nine grenades, three IEDs and some documents were recovered from them, the sources said.

The slain terrorists have been identified as Abu Usma, LeT area commander, Abu Zuber and Toufiq, they said. The operation is still going on, the sources said

In another operation, security forces gunned down another terrorist in Deedah area of Gool today. Identity of the slain terrorist was yet to be ascertained, official reports said. One AK rifle and one damaged radio set was recovered from the possession of slain terrorist.
This article starring:
ABU USMALashkar-e-Taiba
ABU ZUBERLashkar-e-Taiba
TUFIQLashkar-e-Taiba
Posted by: john || 04/18/2005 6:23:24 PM || Comments || Link || [0 views] Top|| File under:

#1  THE Rashtriya Rifles (RR), the counter-insurgency force in Jammu and Kashmir, would add more strength with three new battallions being raised for the state. The force, which has a strength over 70,000, would focus on pro-people and iron fist policy for the terrorists.

Since 1989, RR has eliminated 6,511 terrorists, while 5,697 were arrested.

Giving more details, he said that 863 terrorists had surrendered, besides the recovery of 10,475 weapons, 7,685 kgs of explosives, 2,040 radio sets and 804,106 rounds by the troops during the last over decade.

Three RR batallions were being raised in the state, which would add another 3,000 soldiers to the force. The RR has five commands in the state with Delta Force in Doda, Romeo Force in Rajouri, Victor Force in Kashmir, Kilo Force in Kupwara and Uniform Force in Reasi.

Picture of RR soldier
Posted by: john || 04/18/2005 19:44 Comments || Top||

#2  Fascinating, john. Thanks!
Posted by: trailing wife || 04/18/2005 19:48 Comments || Top||


Nepal rebels rule out peace talks
Nepal's elusive Maoist rebel leader "Prachanda" has ruled out peace talks or a cease-fire with the government, predicting that the nine-year-old war would see the Maoists come to power soon. "Right now, we do not see any possibility of talks with these mediaeval and barbaric feudal autocrats," he told Reuters in an interview by email received on Monday. "Right now, the possibility of a cease-fire does not exist."
They want to replace the mediaeval and barbaric fuedal autocrats with modern and barbaric Commie autocrats. That makes sense. Of a sort...
Prachanda's combative words come two months after Nepal's King Gyanendra seized power, declared a state of emergency and vowed to bring peace to the desperately poor Himalayan kingdom, where civil war has killed more than 11,000 people since 1996. The army, which backed the king's power grab, vowed in February to step up its offensive against the Maoists, but has shown little sign of doing so yet. Gyanendra's hand-picked government is against holding talks with the Maoists, calling them "ghosts that need to be dealt with the stick".

Prachanda, whose nom de guerre roughly means "awesome," responded with equal bitterness. "The seizure of power by the widely hated regicidal and fratricidal king is nothing else than the last and desperate attempt of feudal autocracy against the democratic thrust and aspiration of the Nepalese masses," he said.
Posted by: Fred || 04/18/2005 4:00:22 PM || Comments || Link || [0 views] Top|| File under:


Iraq-Jordan
Marine stops 2 vehicle-suicide bombers in shootout
HUSAYBAH, Iraq — From his tower lookout post on the Iraqi-Syrian border, Marine Lance Cpl. Joshua Butler last week helped stop two suicide car bombers who were on a mission to kill hundreds of Marines here and strike a symbolic victory for the insurgency.

The daylight attack on this remote U.S. military base fits a pattern of recent insurgent attacks on U.S. military strongholds. On Saturday, a mortar attack at Camp Ramadi killed three servicemembers, and there was a coordinated assault two weeks ago on the U.S.-run Abu Ghraib prison on the outskirts of Baghdad.

U.S. forces have repelled each attack, inflicting large losses on the insurgents while incurring few casualties. The base commander at Camp Gannon, a former Iraqi customs and immigration post at the edge of one of its most dangerous cities, credits Butler with preventing massive deaths here.

"Butler — that day, that Marine — that's the critical error the insurgents made," Capt. Frank Diorio says. "They thought they could keep the Marines' heads down. But he gets back up."

Butler, 21 and an Altoona, Pa., native, fired through the windshield of the first suicide bomber as he rammed a white dump truck through a barrier of abandoned vehicles the Marines had improvised. Barreling toward the camp's wall, the truck veered off at the last moment under volleys of Butler's gunfire.

"I shot 20 or 30 rounds before he detonated," he says.

Knocked down by that blast, with bricks and sandbags collapsing on top of him, Butler struggled to his feet only to hear a large diesel engine roar amid the clatter of gunfire. It was a red fire engine, carrying a second suicide bomber and passenger. Butler says both were wearing black turbans and robes, often worn by religious martyrs.

Amid the chaos of that first bomb blast, supported by gunfire from an estimated 30 dismounted insurgents, the fire engine passed largely undetected on a small road that leads from town directly past the camp wall, according a Marine report.

"I couldn't see him at first because of the smoke. It was extremely thick from the first explosion," Butler says. When the fire engine cleared the smoke, it was much closer than the dump truck had been.

As the driver accelerated past the "Welcome to Iraq" sign inside the camp's perimeter, Butler says he fired 100 rounds into the vehicle. The Marines later discovered the vehicle was equipped with 3-inch, blast-proof glass and the passengers were wearing Kevlar vests under their robes.

Pfc. Charles Young, 21, also of Altoona, Pa., hit the fire engine with a grenade launcher, slowing its progress and giving Butler time to recover. Without breaching the camp wall, the driver detonated the fire engine, sending debris flying up to 400 yards and knocking Marines from their bunks several hundred yards away. Butler, less than 50 yards away, again was knocked down by the blast, which partially destroyed the tower in which he was perched. After he crawled for cover, a third suicide bomber detonated outside the camp. That blast caused no damage or injuries. Sporadic fighting continued for several hours.

Meanwhile, Cpl. Anthony Fink of Columbus, Ohio, 21, fired a grenade launcher that the Marine unit says killed 11 insurgents. The Marines' "React Squad" swiftly deployed against the remaining insurgents.

"We were able to get the momentum back," Diorio says. He also says that Husaybah townspeople later reported 21 insurgents dead and 15 wounded. No Marines were seriously hurt.
Posted by: Yosemite Sam || 04/18/2005 2:42:09 PM || Comments || Link || [2 views] Top|| File under:

#1  I can't spell "Vehicle"
Posted by: Yosemite Sam || 04/18/2005 14:43 Comments || Top||

#2  "Butler — that day, that Marine — that’s the critical error the insurgents made," Capt. Frank Diorio says.

Lol! The good Capt calls it: LCpl Butler is not to be fucked with, heh.

Kudos, son - you're the real deal.
Posted by: .com || 04/18/2005 14:58 Comments || Top||

#3  Good Man L Cpl Butler!

Bit worrying that the splodey-dopes were wearing bullet-proof vests and had blast-proof glass installed.

Like the last bit about the splodey-dope detonating outside the camp "That blast caused no damage or injuries" - they don't count the gene-pool ejecta in their accounting ;)
Posted by: Tony (UK) || 04/18/2005 17:11 Comments || Top||

#4  Altoona, Pa

List under towns not to fuck with.
Posted by: Shipman || 04/18/2005 17:22 Comments || Top||

#5  It's having the horseshoe curve so close, it gives them an understanding of time, distance and the brotherhood.
Posted by: Shipman || 04/18/2005 17:24 Comments || Top||

#6  Makes me dang proud.
Posted by: anymouse || 04/18/2005 18:54 Comments || Top||

#7  The Marines later discovered the vehicle was equipped with 3-inch, blast-proof glass and the passengers were wearing Kevlar vests under their robes.

Does the military still use the LAAW? That might have stopped the fire truck cold. The tactics of the splodeydopes are evolving, and we need to stay a step ahead of them.
Posted by: Bomb-a-rama || 04/18/2005 19:56 Comments || Top||

#8  It seems to me that we should protect all our bases with trenches and moveable steel planks to cover them when we need to cross them. It is unfortunate that even after we've killed so many of them, the terrorists have no real problem recruiting new suicide bombers.
Posted by: mhw || 04/18/2005 20:48 Comments || Top||

#9  Sniff, soo happy,
brings a tear to my eye.
Damn proud to be an American
Posted by: JackAssFestival || 04/18/2005 23:06 Comments || Top||


Afghanistan/South Asia
Tales from the Crossfire Gazette
Criminal dies after Rab arrest
A listed criminal, arrested by the Rapid Action Battalion (Rab), died in police custody Saturday night at the Chittagong Medical College and Hospital (CMCH).
Members of the Rab arrested Enamul Haq, 35, on Monday night from Panchhari area of Lohagara upazila and recovered five guns, two light machine guns and one rifle from him. After interrogations the Rab handed him to Lohagara police the next day allegedly with marks of injuries.
"Say, are those bruises?" "He fell down the stairs, several times, and landed on a soldering iron. Just an accident, trust us."
Lohagara police sent him to Chittagong jail.
So he didn't die on their watch

Following sudden deterioration of his physical conditions Enamul on Saturday morning was admitted to the CMCH where he succumbed to his "illness" at 8:30pm, police said.
"He's dead, Jim"

The body of Enamul Haq, 35, was handed over to his family members yesterday.
District police sources alleged they received Enamul from the Rab with marks of injuries obviously caused by torture. The Rab officials, however, dismissed the allegation yesterday.

Madrasa teacher killed in clash
A clash between madrasa teachers and students and the locals at a remote village in Beanibazar upazila on Saturday led to death of a madrasa teacher.
The victim is Munir Uddin, 45. At least 20 people including the tea stall owner and students were injured. Police arrested four persons. Madrasa teachers and students held a demonstration demanding immediate arrest to the killers.
A few students of Jamia Quasimul Ulum Madrasa went to a tea stall at Mewa to take tea in the afternoon. They asked the tea stall owner to switch off the TV while others were enjoying its programmes.
"Turn that TV off, we're discussing holy matters over here!"
As the owner declined to comply with their order, there ensued hot exchange of word between the TV viewers and the students.
Try getting a TV turned off in a bar during a game and you'd get the same response.

However, a few leading people negotiated. But, at about 11 pm, the villagers along and the students attacked the tea stall owner and rampaged the stall.
Locals came to the aid of the tea stall owner. There ensued a clash leaving the madrasa teacher seriously injured. He was rushed to Beanibazar Upazila Health Complex from where he was sent to Sylhet Medical College Hospital. Munir died there in the morning.
RAB driver beaten in Rajshahi
Apr 17: A gang of youngsters presumably drug peddlers last night at around 9-30 pm mercilessly beaten the driver of a jeep belonging to Rapid Action Battalion (RAB)-5, Rajshahi near Zila Parishad Auditorium area at Kazihata of the city.
According to RAB sources, the driver of the jeep (Dhaka Metro 02-5502) the name of whom was not disclosed by RAB, parked the jeep in front of Baikali Sangha Club at the premises of to Nanking Chinese Restaurant near Zila Parishad auditorium. At that time a gang of miscreants came near the jeep and locked in an altercation among themselves.
When the driver of the RAB jeep asked them to go away from that place, the gang members became agitated and used abusive language. At this time the driver of the jeep identified himself as a member of RAB, the gangsters numbering 6 to 7 became further agitated and started to beat him. During the incident, the officials of Baikali Sangha and Nanking Chinese Restaurant came out of their offices and tried to restrain the gangsters but they continued to beat him. At one stage, the driver managed to take shelter inside the Chinese restaurant and informed other RAB members who chased the gangsters but they managed to escape.
For now
A case was filed with Rajpara thana in this connection but no one has so far been arrested till the writing of the report at 7-00 pm.
Not dark enough, RAB does it's best work around 0400.

Dacoity at village home of Chief of Army Staff
Apr 17: A dacoity was committed at the village home of Chief of Army Staff Lt. Gen. Hasan Mashhud Chowdhury at village Kanisail under Golapganj upazila of the district in the early hours of Sunday.
Boy, did they hit the wrong house
The dacoits looted 14,500 taka in cash and valuable papers, sources said.
Police and local sources said, a gang of dacoits numbering 8 to 10 swooped on the village home of the Chief of Army Staff at about 1-15 am on yesterday.
The dacoits entered the room of Sayma Khanam, sister of the army chief after breaking the door and looted the cash money and documents relating to pension of her husband. Later the dacoits tried to break the door of Hasan Mashhud's mother, when Jewel Chowdhury, a cousin of the Chief of Army staff woke up and opened fire at the dacoits. The dacoits also fired several rounds of bullet and left the scene immediately.
"Run away!"

On information, high officials of the Sylhet police administration including Deputy Inspector General of Sylhet Range, AKM Mahfuzul Haque and Police Super Mostofa Kamal inspected the spot yesterday morning.
Funny how the brass turn up when the Chief of Staff's house gets robbed. Not to mention his mom.
Security has been tightened in the area with two temporary police camp at the east and west side of the village Kanishail. The SP has announced a prize of Tk 50,000 to anyone helping nab the dacoits. A case was filed in this connection but police are yet to arrest anyone.
"Crossfire" in 5..4..3..
Posted by: Steve || 04/18/2005 10:56:18 AM || Comments || Link || [0 views] Top|| File under:

#1  The bandits went on the lam, but not for long.
Falling down stair may replace some of those early AM crossfires. A good time as had by a few.
Posted by: Sock Puppet 0’ Doom || 04/18/2005 12:49 Comments || Top||

#2  "he fell down the stairs!"
"But this is a one story building!"
"er.....he fell off the roof"
Posted by: Frank G || 04/18/2005 13:16 Comments || Top||

#3  Beanibazar. Wonder if that's where the propellerheads shop.
Posted by: Mrs. Davis || 04/18/2005 13:17 Comments || Top||

#4  There were a string of robberies in the barracks at Albrook AB, in Panama, when I was there in the late 1960's. They ended when one of the people in the barracks next to us fell into a drainage ditch on the base and broke his neck at 2:30 one Sunday morning. I don't THINK anybody pushed him, but it's always a possibility. BTW, that drainage ditch was 20 feet deep and 30 feet wide, lined with concrete.
Posted by: Old Patriot || 04/18/2005 14:10 Comments || Top||

#5  LOL. got it... finally.
Posted by: Shipman || 04/18/2005 17:13 Comments || Top||

#6  A gang of youngsters presumably drug peddlers last night at around 9-30 pm mercilessly beaten the driver of a jeep belonging to Rapid Action Battalion (RAB)-5, Rajshahi near Zila Parishad Auditorium area at Kazihata of the city.

Uh oh. Somebody's gonna be in DEEP SH*T!
Posted by: Ptah || 04/18/2005 18:37 Comments || Top||


Iraq-Jordan
Iraq Car Bomb Kills American Human Shield Activist
SAN FRANCISCO (AP) - Marla Ruzicka died Saturday in a car bombing in Iraq, where she had been on and off since the March 2003 invasion began, conducting door-to-door surveys to determine the number of civilian casualties, friends and family said.
You know, all those innocent civilians that Bushitler killed
Ruzicka dedicated her life to helping others.
Cue the nanoviolins!
At 28, she had traveled to Africa to work on AIDS issues, to Cuba to protest the U.S. embargo and to Afghanistan after the U.S.-led war there. The blond-haired activist with a cherubic face and infectious smile was a one-woman campaign against human suffering who was instrumental in securing millions of dollars in aid for distribution in Iraq. "It's a terrible tragedy and a tragic irony that somebody who devoted her life to helping the victims of war would herself become a victim of war," said Medea Benjamin, director of the San Francisco-based human rights group Global Exchange, where Ruzicka got her start a decade ago in the world of non-governmental organizations. Ruzicka, of Lakeport, Calif., founded the Campaign for Innocent Victims in Conflict, or CIVIC, to help families of civilians killed and injured in Iraq. Her parents were notified of her death on Saturday, just hours after the blast in Baghdad. U.S. Embassy officials publicly released Ruzicka's name Sunday.
"We've been very worried about her, but we know better than to tell our children not to do anything. We were supportive and just reminded her to be careful," said her mother, Nancy Ruzicka. She said her daughter had left her a telephone message the night before her death, saying, "Mom and dad, I love you. I'm OK." "She cared about people and gave people her love and help," she said. "I'll remember the love she spread around the world and the good ambassador that she was for her country."
Ruzicka helped acquire millions of dollars from the federal government for distribution in Iraq. "She came to us with the idea of putting a special fund in the foreign aid bill to take care of projects to help people whose businesses had been bombed by the U.S by mistake or collateral damage of some sort," Democratic Sen. Patrick Leahy of Vermont said Sunday. "Just from the force of her personality, we decided to take a chance on it," said Leahy, who planned to speak about Ruzicka on the Senate floor Monday and possibly help organize a memorial service for her in Washington.
"She was constantly calling us to say they're moving too slowly," he said. "She was kind of a one-person department over there ... moving the money around."
Benjamin recalled that Ruzicka walked into the Global Exchange office 10 years ago as a "pretty, peppy, vivacious young woman who wanted to learn about the world." "She had this real thirst to learn and always had a tremendous sense of compassion," Benjamin said. "She was quite remarkable in her ability to absorb different issues, quickly learn about other cultures and become an ally to people all over the world."
Ruzicka was set to leave Iraq within a week, according to the New York-based group Human Rights Watch. "Everyone who met Marla was struck by her incredible effervescence and commitment," Kenneth Roth, the group's executive director, said in a statement. "She was courageous and relentless in pursuit of accurate information about civilians caught up in war."
In an essay Ruzicka sent to Human Rights Watch a few days before her death, she explained the significance of her work assessing casualties. "A number is important not only to quantify the cost of the war, but to me each number is also a story of someone whose hopes, dreams and potential will never be realized, and who left behind a family," Ruzicka wrote.
When President Bush announced in March 2003 that the invasion of Iraq had begun, Ruzicka was already in Baghdad with Code Pink, said Jodi Evans, the co-founder of the women's anti-war group.
"Bush came on television saying the game is over, we're invading Iraq," Evans recalled. Other activists decided to return to the United States to talk about how the Iraqi people were affected by the invasion, but Ruzicka made a commitment to stay. She founded the group CIVIC that year. "Marla thought she would be more effective staying, because once the bombs started falling, people would be hurt and she needed to help them get their lives back together," Evans said.
Ok, she was a lefty with the guts to stay, I'll give her that much.

Even as fighting continued to rage in sections of Baghdad in mid-April 2003, Ruzicka arrived back in the Iraqi capital, set up office in an unprotected hotel and soon was a regular visitor to the city's makeshift newsrooms, encouraging media interest in the civilian-casualty story.
Ruzicka is among several foreign aid workers killed in Iraq. Others included Margaret Hassan, a British aid worker who was abducted in Baghdad in October and later shown on video pleading for her life, and four workers for a Southern Baptist missionary group who were trying to find a way to provide clean water to people in the northern city of Mosul. A funeral service was scheduled for Saturday in Lakeport.
Posted by: Steve || 04/18/2005 10:45:15 AM || Comments || Link || [0 views] Top|| File under:

#1  "It's a terrible tragedy and a tragic irony that somebody who devoted her life to helping the victims of war would herself become a victim of war,"

Think that makes you immune to it, Medea?
Too bad, so sad...
Posted by: tu3031 || 04/18/2005 11:19 Comments || Top||

#2  once the bombs started falling, people would be hurt and she needed to help them get their lives back together

Far more Iraqi civilians have been killed by the fascists' bombs planted at roadsides, or in cars, or in marketplaces and near schools and hospitals.

Did our heroine also help the victims of those bombs get their lives back together?
Posted by: thibaud (aka lex) || 04/18/2005 11:24 Comments || Top||

#3  Damn shame, kinda.
Posted by: BH || 04/18/2005 11:24 Comments || Top||

#4  If she set out to minister to the needs of ALL victims of the war-- victims of our accidental bombings and the fascists' deliberate bombings of civilians-- then she can legitimately be called a "humanitarian." If not, then she's a partisan "activist", working to enable the fascist cause.
Posted by: thibaud (aka lex) || 04/18/2005 11:37 Comments || Top||

#5  At least Caterpillar's off the hook on this one :-)
Posted by: Frank G || 04/18/2005 11:49 Comments || Top||

#6  Hey guys,
I'm no fan of some of these anti-war activists, and it is ironic that she was killed by a hate-inspired terrorist act.

I request that we don't make any jokes about a victim of a terrorist action. Thanks.
Posted by: JackAssFestival || 04/18/2005 12:14 Comments || Top||

#7  At least Caterpillar's off the hook on this one :-)

Nope. They built the equipment who allowed to extract the minerals used for the explosives.
Posted by: JFM || 04/18/2005 12:19 Comments || Top||

#8  Why wasn't she in prison for her trip to Cuba?

I request that we don't make any jokes about a victim of a terrorist action.

She wasn't one of their victims; in her case it was "friendly fire" that did her in.
Posted by: Robert Crawford || 04/18/2005 12:21 Comments || Top||

#9  JAF, the enemy of my enemy may not be my friend, but the friend of my enemy is definitely my enemy. For her affiliation with Code Pink and other associations, I'd say she qualifies.
Posted by: BH || 04/18/2005 12:21 Comments || Top||

#10  I request that we don't make any jokes about a victim of a terrorist action.

Considering who the victim is in this case, I'm not feeling too guilty about it.
Posted by: Bomb-a-rama || 04/18/2005 12:26 Comments || Top||

#11  In the Rachel Corrie redux vein, did you see this blog item from Steven Plaut (h/t LGF) regards making the Moonbats get a grip? It is a very powerful rebuff to the idiots.
Posted by: .com || 04/18/2005 12:32 Comments || Top||

#12  I understand where you guys are coming from. Admittedly, if Michael Moore ate the bomb sandwhich maybe I would feel some satisfaction at the irony. But the beating christian heart inside of me won't let me have any of it in this case.

I don't know, maybe my crustiness is wearing off. Don't think any less of me, alright.
Posted by: JackAssFestival || 04/18/2005 12:33 Comments || Top||

#13  An additional note. I hope her death will give a clue to the moonbats that there are people who hate us, no matter what our politics are and the seriousness of the evil poised against us needs to be dealt with.

(won't hold my breath though)
Posted by: JackAssFestival || 04/18/2005 12:38 Comments || Top||

#14  If you laid all her lifetime efforts out to the perpetrators of the attack, they would still celebrate the death of an infidel. Nuff said
Posted by: Frank G || 04/18/2005 12:53 Comments || Top||

#15  Sorry but anyone who sets out to help only the "victims of American bombs" in a war zone is a partisan, not a humanitarian. I have zero sympathy for the partisans of the fascist cause.
Posted by: thibaud (aka lex) || 04/18/2005 13:10 Comments || Top||

#16  Bomb Kills American Idiot
Posted by: legolas || 04/18/2005 13:27 Comments || Top||

#17  This was Marla in Afghanistan, 2002...
"Smart bombs are only as smart as people on the ground," Ms. Ruzicka said. "Before you bomb, you should be 100 percent certain of who you are bombing."
Words to live by, Marla. Or die by, in your case.
Wonder what her opinion was on the smarts of her "freedom fighter" friends? Wonder what they are now?
Posted by: tu3031 || 04/18/2005 13:43 Comments || Top||

#18  What is strange about this, is that I heard it this morning on NPR. In their story they quietly mentioned that this woman had just announced that she was collecting data on civilian deaths caused by the insurgents.

strange that NPR did not question that coincidence with her sudden death. Had it been the other way around I doubt NPR would have missed it.
Posted by: Jimbo19 || 04/18/2005 15:20 Comments || Top||

#19  You're onto something, Jimbo. If she was indeed collecting such data, then of course she would have been targeted for slaughter. Given that any foreigner in Iraq, let alone an American woman freelancer, would have fairly high chance of being killed by the, um, insurgents, what are the chances that an American woman freelancer who was and "collecting data on civilian deaths caused by the insurgents" was not targeted for slaughter by them?

How do say, zip, nil, nada in Arabic?
Posted by: thibaud (aka lex) || 04/18/2005 15:43 Comments || Top||

#20  I dunno... one asshat American activist in Iraq would be pretty easy to kill. All you'd have to do is promise her pictures of US troops killing children, and she'd follow you anywhere. As they like to say in Compton, "She was in the wrong place at the wrong time".
Posted by: BH || 04/18/2005 16:02 Comments || Top||

#21  JAF, This lady and others are cloaking themselves with the humanitarian title all the time aiding the terrorists and detractors in Iraq. The counts and recounts of the Iraqi 'victims' never satisfies the left hunger to paint Bush in a bad light and lend aid and comfort to OUR enemies. I feel for her parents but I bet they applauded and probably encouraged her activism. Sometimes when you play with fire you are going to get burned and she got burned. Not gleeful for any death, but it boderlines funny-ironic for me.
Posted by: Cyber Sarge || 04/18/2005 16:39 Comments || Top||

#22  I, too, am disinclined to pile on here. James Taranto, in today's "Best of the Web," explains why better than I could:

From what we'd read when we wrote about her almost three years ago, Ruzicka sounded like a typical Angry Left prima donna. But an August 2004 report in the Washington Post persuades us that either we judged her too harshly or she matured in the last few years of her life . . .

. . . The AP quotes Medea Benjamin, head of the far-left Global Exchange: "It's a terrible tragedy and a tragic irony that somebody who devoted her life to helping the victims of war would herself become a victim of war." This, of course, is untrue. That someone who chose to spend time in a war zone ended up the victim of war is not ironic in the least.

What is perhaps ironic, though not tragic, is that the cause Ruzicka embraced for antiwar reasons is probably helpful to the American war effort. Compensating the innocent victims of war helps to prove that America is in Afghanistan and Iraq as a liberator, not a conqueror. By contrast, Marla Ruzicka's survivors will never receive so much as a word of regret from the anti-American terrorists who struck her down.
Posted by: Mike || 04/18/2005 17:16 Comments || Top||

#23  From what I've seen she was not a rabid anti American type. Not a flag burner like Rachel Corrie. She was doing work for Code Pink but for some reason she strikes me as about as real a "humanitarian activist" as a Rantburger will find these days.

She was naive. Now she's gone in a place she was trying to do some good. She was coming from a good place even if misguided. Which doesn't make her beyond reproach but.....
Posted by: sea cruise || 04/18/2005 17:59 Comments || Top||

#24  She may have gone to Iraq as a Rabid Lefty but started to get a clue when she saw what was actually happening there.
Posted by: phil_b || 04/18/2005 18:24 Comments || Top||

#25  By the way, Wretchard wrote something about this incident:
http://belmontclub.blogspot.com/2005/04/marla-ruzicka-anyone-who-wants-to.html
Posted by: JackAssFestival || 04/18/2005 18:45 Comments || Top||

#26  I agree, phil_b. She was enlightened as to what was really going on in Iraq and paid the price for her convictions. She may have started out as a real naive Moonbat but I don't think she was when she was killed. Also the reports don't tend to give credence to an assaination. She was caught up in the extreme evil of the religion of death. I think she, as with a lot of other people who expierience war first hand, changed when she was confronted with the truth about what was going on in Iraq. Other "human shields" showed their true stripes by running when the war started. She went their to help and had the guts to stay. Just my take.
Posted by: Deacon Blues || 04/18/2005 19:00 Comments || Top||

#27  Point of Order ladies and gents. You are falling for their rhetoric (the lefts), that they are truely humanitarian and really care about the people. Don't believe it for a minute, just vist any of their websites and review the articles. They would have loved it if that bomb had struck some troops that continue an "Illegal occupation" after and "Illegal War" angaist people of Iraq. No talk of liberation, terrorist, or democratic voting. I may not be sharpest knife in the drawer but I know a dog when I see a dog. She was counting (oh they are always counting) the number of Iraqi civilians that were killed during the liberation of that country. There have been many counts, but the numbers are too LOW for the lefties to acknowlege. Just like the elections they are always wanting a recount. I am not happy that another person died in iraq but I still hold that it is very Ironic/Funny that it was someone from one of the lefts groups. JAF, props for the Mike Moore eating a bomb joke, that would be extremly funny!
Posted by: Cyber Sarge || 04/18/2005 19:36 Comments || Top||

#28  sorry, no sympathy here. This is not a sport. She did great damage by seeking to make the fascists' PR points for them.

A little perspective: imagine she were a foreigner intervening to make her case for one side in another war-- let's say she went to Belgrade ten years ago solely to document NATO's civilian serb victims. In other words, to help spread the message of Milosevic and Karadzic and their ilk. Why would any decent person consider this an admirable and "humanitarian" act? How is it different from publicizing the Coalition's civilian Iraqi victims?

Don't go soft, folks. This is a war against a fascist death cult that is determined to slaughter as many innocents-- muslim, christian, agnostic, whatever so long as they oppose the death cult-- as it possibly can. Those who aid the fascists deserve not one second of mercy. Good riddance to this little fellow traveler.

Harsh? Yes, because our enemy's harsh. She aided Zarqawi. Unforgiveable. And no, I'm not a Christian.
Posted by: thibaud (aka lex) || 04/18/2005 22:47 Comments || Top||


Shiite Bloc Says Saddam Should Be Executed
BAGHDAD, Iraq (AP) - Iraq's most powerful Shiite bloc wants Saddam Hussein put to death if he is convicted of war crimes by a special tribunal, and the interim president should resign if he refuses to sign the execution order, an alliance spokesman told The Associated Press on Monday.
Ali al-Dabagh, a lawmaker from the clergy-led United Iraq Alliance, which received the most votes in Jan. 30 national elections, said everyone in his party believes Saddam should be sentenced to death if convicted of war crimes against Iraqis.
"We feel he is a criminal. He is the No. 1 criminal in the world. He is a murderer," al-Dabagh said in an interview with The Associated Press. "He deserves a trial, and he should be subjected to the law and the court. Whatever the decision, everyone should follow it, even if the president says he cannot sign it."
"Hangin's too good for 'im. Burnin's too good for 'im. He should be torn into little bisty pieces and buried alive!"
The alliance controls 140 seats in Iraq's 275-member National Assembly.

In an interview with the British Broadcasting Corp. on Monday, incoming Iraqi President Jalal Talabani said signing a death warrant for Saddam would go against his beliefs as a human rights advocate and opponent of capital punishment. He said he may abstain from signing any such document and leave the decision to his two deputies.
"I can go to holiday and let the two others decide. I personally signed a call for ending execution throughout the world. And I'm respecting my signature," Talabani told the BBC. "This is one of my problems ... No one is listening to me, to be frank with you. My two partners in the presidency, the government, the House, all of them are for sentencing Saddam Hussein to death before the court will decide. So, I think I will be alone in this field."
Except for the entire looney left, that is.
Al-Dabagh, a member of the Shiite majority long oppressed under Saddam's rule, said Saddam's execution was not negotiable. "This is something that cannot be discussed at all. If the court says he's a criminal, we will follow it," al-Dabagh said. "He (Talabani) is now the president, and he should follow the law. If he doesn't want to sign it, then he should resign the presidency."
Saddam was captured north of Baghdad in December 2003 and has been in custody with several of his top henchmen at a U.S.-guarded detention facility near Baghdad's international airport. Saddam and his top lieutenants will be tried before the Iraqi Special Tribunal established in late 2003. The tribunal has given no official dates for starting the trials, although national security adviser Mouwafak al-Rubaie said earlier this month that Saddam could go on trial by the end of the year.
The death penalty was reintroduced in Iraq in August 2004 for crimes including murder, endangering national security and drug trafficking. But it is only meant to be a temporary measure in the effort to stamp out the country's insurgency.
Posted by: Steve || 04/18/2005 10:36:09 AM || Comments || Link || [0 views] Top|| File under:

#1  Rule. Of. Law. If the death penalty is on the books for the crime(s) of which he is convicted, then that's what he should get. Period.

The Shi'a should STFU and stop making this a sectarian thing - it's a Rule of Law thing, you twits.

Talabani must execute the requirements of his office - sans political, sectarian, or personal considerations. If not, impeach him. I favor the Kurds as strongly as anyone, but he's not above the law, either, and should get the boot if he believes he is.
Posted by: .com || 04/18/2005 11:15 Comments || Top||

#2  Give him a little Clockwork Orange-style film fare before he goes. Make him watch loops of his and his sons' torture videos for 72 hours. Film his reaction and broadcast it to the nation.
Posted by: thibaud (aka lex) || 04/18/2005 11:19 Comments || Top||

#3  .com, Talabani noted the other day that the three rulers decide, not he alone. He also suggested that he could arrange to be on vacation when the decision's made.
Posted by: thibaud (aka lex) || 04/18/2005 11:21 Comments || Top||

#4  So is he up to executing the duties of his office - or not?
Posted by: .com || 04/18/2005 11:27 Comments || Top||

#5  "The Running Man"

Look! THERE HE GOES!!...

(shudder)
Posted by: mojo || 04/18/2005 12:38 Comments || Top||

#6  *snicker* Define "executing the duties of his office"? Do you mean him actually signing the order, or skipping out of town to pass the buck -- or in this case, the credit -- to his vice-presidents and not offending his conscience?
Posted by: Edward Yee || 04/18/2005 13:54 Comments || Top||

#7  EY - And your point? You create a little strawman thingy you can flagellate and have fun with, cool. Question stands, your post notwithstanding.
Posted by: .com || 04/18/2005 14:04 Comments || Top||

#8  I believe Saddam executed thousands of his relatives and clan, almost wiped it out. I can see why this is a difficult subject for him.
Posted by: phil_b || 04/18/2005 18:11 Comments || Top||


Home Front: Tech
Predator's Big Brother is a Killer
April 18, 2005: The U.S. Air Force has purchased 114 Predator A UAVs so far, with the CIA getting another dozen. So far, 37 percent of those Predators have been lost in action, mostly to accidents. Having a pilot on board does much to reduce accidents, although the air force is improving UAV operator training, and the flight control software, and the accident rate is going down. Each Predator A lost costs $4.5 million. The air force has ordered another 144 Predators, and some of these will be the larger Predator B. This version can stay in the air for about 24 hours (compared to 40 hours for the A model), and, most importantly, carries 1.7 tons of munitions. This can include Hellfire missiles, and 250 or 500 pound smart bombs. Typically, the Predator B will go into action carrying 16 Hellfire missiles. The Predator B is meant to be a "hunter-killer" UAV. It will go into action looking for targets it can immediately attack.
The Predator B prototypes have been flying since 2001, and have performed well. But the air force does not want to rush it into service, and will continue testing for another 12-18 months. Each Predator B costs $7 million. The army particularly likes the Predators because they have "persistence" (the ability to stay over a battlefield for hours on end.) The air force is reluctant to keep shifts of manned aircraft over a battlefield for that long, if only because it's so expensive (about $4,000 an hour, on average, for most fighter bombers, about ten times the hourly cost of flying a Predator.) There are also not enough manned warplanes to provide that kind of persistence. The air force is also developing new flight control software for Predator, that will allow one pilot to control four Predators, while each of those four UAVs will have one sensor operator. Current software requires one pilot and two sensor operators per Predator in flight. The Predator spend the vast majority of their time just watching the ground below.
In response to troop demand for UAVs, the army has sent hundreds of smaller UAVs to Iraq and Afghanistan, for reconnaissance, and is rushing a GPS guided 155mm artillery shell (Excalibur) into service by next Spring, to take advantage of targets spotted by all these UAVs.. The army doesn't want to be dependent on the air force for persistence, while the air force is not looking forward to replacing its manned fighter-bombers with armed UAVs. However, that's where the air force is going. The Predator B will have the same weapons load of an F-16, although it will fly much slower (max, about 400 kilometers an hour.) But for ground attack, slower speed is an asset. The Predator B will be more reliable (have a lower accident rate) and possess better sensors than the Predator A.
Posted by: Steve || 04/18/2005 10:05:55 AM || Comments || Link || [0 views] Top|| File under:

#1  Predator A's - from San Diego with love
Posted by: Frank G || 04/18/2005 11:51 Comments || Top||

#2  Oops! $4.5M. Oops! $7M.

Pretty soon, this will add up to the cost of maintaining the Boston City Council!
Posted by: .com || 04/18/2005 11:54 Comments || Top||

#3  Kidding aside, this is the beginning, isn't it... including the GPS arty, this is truly the advent of the next era of warfare - remote oversight and recon + remote control + accuracy. The VC used to phreak about Arclight raids, but that was wasting immeasurable ordinance to take out a small infestation. This. This is something completely different. This is The Hand of God stuff. Reach out and touch someone (nasty, preferably)...
Posted by: .com || 04/18/2005 12:10 Comments || Top||

#4  Yes and this stuff is just the tip of the iceberg. The bad guys are going the have remotes coming at them from the air, land and sea. Each of those will be able to project force with exquisite accuracy. It will really piss of the MSM when the collatoral damage figures continue to go down.
Posted by: Remoteman || 04/18/2005 12:19 Comments || Top||

#5  Awesome. Imagine how incredibly phreaky it would be to be in the bad guys' shoes. No thanks! Allan can go fuck himself, lol!
Posted by: .com || 04/18/2005 12:25 Comments || Top||

#6  I saw someone earlier today spouting a new meme to explain the lack of bodies in Iraq. You see, the new smart bombs are SOOOOO much more powerful than the old stuff that anyone killed by them is reduced to meaningless scraps... This lets them tout the 100,000-dead fiction and explain the lack of bodies!

Never mind that precision weapons tend to have smaller warheads than non-precision weapons. If you can hit something precisely, you don't need nearly as big a bang; big bangs are mainly useful if you can only get CLOSE to the target. That's why we were using slugs of concrete as anti-tank weapons -- we can nearly guarantee a hit, so no explosives were needed.

I find it amazing that the left insists on creative explanations for the lack of American victims, while studiously ignoring the mass graves filled with Saddam's victims.
Posted by: Robert Crawford || 04/18/2005 12:31 Comments || Top||

#7  How about a smaller version of the Hellfire with an even smaller kill radius, e.g. a man standing on a street with crowds nearby or in a regular car in traffic. It could be equivalent to carying a .50 rifle on board. Load out could increase to a 100 or more of them.
Posted by: DO || 04/18/2005 13:28 Comments || Top||

#8  How about a pilotless A-10? How much of the good works an A-10 does is due to the 30mm versus the other munitions?
Posted by: Mrs. Davis || 04/18/2005 13:32 Comments || Top||

#9  "Achmed! There is a roach on you..here..let me take it off." Muted Rustling. "Hmm, odd, this roach, it looks strange..and it feels sort of..heavy. What k-" *KABOOM!*

And as Achmed and his matyred brother are discovered by their curious Jihadi friends, they too will meet the fury of.....EXPLODA-ROACH!
Coming to an insurgency near you!
Posted by: Silentbrick || 04/18/2005 14:29 Comments || Top||

#10  While all this very sophisticated weaponry is great at selective killing, nothing yet beats the sheer terror of an ARCLIGHT strike. Sometimes, it's not killing that changes hearts and minds but the sheer terror of 75 TONS of high explosives going off in the neighborhood.

Every weapon has a purpose. You don't give up a weapon unless it no longers serves a purpose. ARCLIGHT is still the best instigator of pure terror the US military can employ.
Posted by: Old Patriot || 04/18/2005 14:40 Comments || Top||

#11  I think they upgraded ARCLIGHT to MOAB's. Anyone in the vicinity of 5-6 of those going off is going to be needing a new pair of pants.
Posted by: Silentbrick || 04/18/2005 16:35 Comments || Top||

#12  Man-o-man! 16 hellfires per? I hope the Israelis have taken delivery on a few too!
Posted by: Brett || 04/18/2005 16:43 Comments || Top||

#13  All good stuff, but check this out from The Belmont Club The return of the Dreadnought


A first-order analysis comparing the 200-mile volume of fires capability of a single hypersonic naval rail gun to the ordnance delivery capacity of a carrier air wing of F/A-18s is instructive. In the first eight hours of conflict, a single naval rail gun could deliver twice the payload, three times the energy, to ten times as many fixed aim points as carrier aviation.


...and these ships would hold about 10,000 'darts' - making their point with kinetic energy alone (E=0.5mv^2), where v would be Mach 7-16.


To put things in perspective, our current 5-inch gun has a muzzle energy of 10 megajoules. ... In contrast, naval rail guns will achieve muzzle energies from 60 to 300 megajoules. ... Research indicates that a notional first-generation naval rail gun could deliver a guided projectile with an impact velocity of Mach 5 to targets at ranges of 250 miles at a rate of greater than six rounds per minute.

... An important advantage of rail guns is the ability to exploit the high kinetic energy stored in the projectile ... One test demonstrated that the release of the rail gun projectile's kinetic energy alone would create a 10-foot crater, 10 feet deep in solid ground, and achieve projectile penetration to 40 feet.


A 'guided' projectile? - awesome!

These rail guns are expected to be installed onto the new DDX destroyers.
Posted by: Tony (UK) || 04/18/2005 17:02 Comments || Top||

#14  Now's the time to keep an eye on the British dockyards, they tend to surprise in situations like this.
Posted by: Shipman || 04/18/2005 17:17 Comments || Top||

#15  LOL!

Recess is over! The big boys are back! You will be cut cold and be known as the wogs that you are. You'll beg for the Americans.

/please.
Posted by: Shipman || 04/18/2005 17:19 Comments || Top||

#16  I hope the railgun works, but discussions about highspeed kinetic weapons I have seen seem to conclude a dumb projectile could never be stable at these speeds. In principle this could be overcome with smart projectiles but given the need for extremely fast reaction by the projectile, I can see its a tricky problem.
Posted by: phil_b || 04/18/2005 17:33 Comments || Top||

#17  Nope, not British :( - the DDX destroyers are USN vessels (that AFAIK) don't exist yet...but lawks a lordy, when they do, some people are gonna regret it!
Posted by: Tony (UK) || 04/18/2005 17:36 Comments || Top||

#18  The DDX (if built) will have an integrated electric drive using the first such application of large high temp superconducting generators. In addition to being much smaller, the full ships power system will can be used to drive the screws or power weapons in any ratio. I think the targeted power level was around 75MW, so it will have enough power to fire a dart at full power every few seconds.
Posted by: ed || 04/18/2005 17:48 Comments || Top||

#19  In addition to being much smaller, the full ships power system will can be used to drive the screws or power weapons in any ratio. I think the targeted power level was around 75MW, so it will have enough power to fire a dart at full power every few seconds.

That's all we need. US destroyers with power systems straight out of Star Fleet Battles.
Posted by: Robert Crawford || 04/18/2005 20:53 Comments || Top||

#20  without dilithium crystals - they're always running out at the wrong goddamn time
Posted by: Captain Kirk || 04/18/2005 20:59 Comments || Top||

#21  But, *sniff*, that provides the drama!
Posted by: .com || 04/18/2005 21:02 Comments || Top||


Israel-Palestine
Two Israelis wounded, one seriously, in Gaza attack
Two Israelis were wounded Monday by a Palestinian sniper who fired at a group of construction workers near the IDF's Hardon post on the Philadelphi route in the southern Gaza Strip.
Posted by: gromgorru || 04/18/2005 9:14:55 AM || Comments || Link || [0 views] Top|| File under:

#1  I expect a stiff response to this
Posted by: Frank G || 04/18/2005 9:59 Comments || Top||

#2  heh - He said Hardon

Sounds like some paleos are about to get f*cked!
Posted by: Eric || 04/18/2005 12:29 Comments || Top||


Hamas is Mining the Road to Peace
Syria is doing everything a terrorist state does.

Summary:
The Syrian régime allows Palestinian terrorist organizations to train operatives to perpetrate attacks on Israel : On March 2, 2005, the Israeli Security Agency (ISA) arrested Osama Matar, a Hamas operative from the Gaza Strip, who had undergone military training in a camp near Damascus while studying in Syria. The training was aimed at improving Hamas' capability to launch major attacks, particularly the detonation of explosive-packed tunnels. It was conducted by Hamas instructors at a PFLP/GC[1] base while the Syrian régime turned a blind eye. The following is from information revealed by Osama Matar under interrogation by the ISA (Shin Bet).
Posted by: badanov || 04/18/2005 8:12:47 AM || Comments || Link || [2 views] Top|| File under:

#1  In the Middle East, the "road to peace" is not a road; it's a once or twice used trail through a very dark and dense forest.
Posted by: Bomb-a-rama || 04/18/2005 10:30 Comments || Top||


Africa: North
400 Algerian gunmen to surrender
Muslim extremist gunmen will surrender to Algerian authorities after repenting and promising not to return to violence as a means of achieving their political objectives, in return for general amnesty to be decided in a referendum, officials said Monday.

"That number constituted almost 95 percent of the number of gunmen still active in Algeria," Abdel Razzak Ismail, chief of the National Committee for Amnesty said, adding the gunmen are waiting for a signal from the authorities to leave their hideouts in the rugged mountains and return to civilian life. The gunmen, who are located in five provinces, said they are not linked to al-Qaida network, Ismail said.
Posted by: trailing wife || 04/18/2005 7:26:11 AM || Comments || Link || [1 views] Top|| File under:


Iraq-Jordan
Mass kidnapping may have been exaggerated
Iraqi security forces backed by U.S. troops had the town of Madain surrounded yesterday after reports of Sunni militant kidnappings of as many as 100 Shi'ite residents, but there were growing indications the incident had been exaggerated.

The town of about 1,000 families, evenly divided between Shi'ites and Sunnis, sits about 15 miles south of the capital in what the U.S. military has called the Triangle of Death because it has become a stronghold of the militant insurgency.

An Associated Press photographer and television cameraman who were in or near the town yesterday said large numbers of Iraqi forces had sealed it off, supported by U.S. forces who were keeping a low profile farther from the edge of Madain. But people were going about their business normally, shops were open and tea houses were full, the cameraman said. Residents contacted by telephone also said everything was normal in Madain.

American military officials said they were not aware of any U.S. role in what had been described as a sectarian standoff in which the Sunni militants were threatening to kill their Shi'ite captives if all other Shi'ites did not leave the town.

National Security Minister Qassim Dawoud told parliament yesterday that three battalions of Iraqi soldiers, police and U.S. forces were planning a large-scale assault on the region.

A Defense Ministry official, Haidar Khayon, said Iraqi forces had raided the town and freed about 15 Shi'ite families and captured five hostage-takers in a skirmish with light gunfire.

Grand Ayatollah Ali al-Husseini al-Sistani urged government officials to resolve the crisis peacefully, his office said.

By the end of the day, however, Iraqi officials had produced no hostages and Iraqi military officials who had given information about the trouble in Madain could not be reached for further details.

Also yesterday, Sheik Abdul Salam al-Kubaisi, a spokesman for the Association of Muslim Scholars, an organization of Sunni clerics, denied hostages had been taken in Madain. "This news is completely untrue," he told Al Jazeera television.

The country's most-feared insurgent group, al Qaeda in Iraq, in a statement yesterday on an Islamic Web site known for its militant content, also denied any hostages had been taken.

Sunnis make up about 20 percent of Iraq's estimated 26 million population, but were dominant under Saddam Hussein. They have become disempowered since U.S.-led forces drove Saddam from power two years ago.

Elsewhere in Iraq, insurgents killed eight Iraqis in attacks across the country. The U.S. military said three American soldiers had been killed and seven wounded as insurgents fired mortar rounds late Saturday at a U.S. Marine base near Ramadi, 70 miles west of Baghdad.

The assault raised to 24 the number of persons who died in Iraq Saturday, including an American civilian. The U.S. Embassy identified the American civilian victim as Marla Ruzicka, the 28-year-old founder of the Washington-based Campaign for Innocent Victims In Conflict. CIVIC began conducting a door-to-door survey trying to determine the number of civilian casualties in Iraq soon after the war ended.
Posted by: Dan Darling || 04/18/2005 2:32:52 AM || Comments || Link || [0 views] Top|| File under:

#1  Iraqi forces retake besieged town, no hostages found
Posted by: phil_b || 04/18/2005 6:46 Comments || Top||

#2  Is it the same town as yesterday's post: Iraqi Troops Find No Hostages?

As noted by phil_b:

Back to the story. AFP via CNA say its still going on and there will be an all out assault Monday morning. I can only conclude the NYT reporter went to the wrong town.

CNA/AFP - Al-Madain, some 30 kilometres south of Baghdad

NYT - Madaen, 10 miles south of Baghdad.

I would add:

AP - ...13 miles (20Km) south of the capital...

Reuter - Madaen, 25 miles (40Km) southeast of Baghdad

I hope that the US Soldiers have better maps then the msm!
Posted by: SwissTex || 04/18/2005 7:17 Comments || Top||

#3  This was a serious misunderstand. They meant sausages not hostages. Someone tried to kidnap the sausages.
Posted by: Dennis Kucinich || 04/18/2005 17:13 Comments || Top||


Huge operation launched to free Iraqi hostages
Iraqi troops backed by US forces have raided parts of a town south of Baghdad to try to free a group of Shi'ites seized by Sunni insurgents and threatened with death.

A senior Shi'ite official in Baghdad said up to 150 hostages, including women and children, were being held after well-armed guerrillas entered Madaen on Friday and seized them.

Iraq's caretaker prime minister, Iyad Allawi, blamed the kidnappings on al-Qaeda's wing in Iraq, a group that has carried out many attacks in the country, and said it was part of a plan to spread sectarian strife and provoke a Sunni-Shi'ite civil war.

"Unfortunately, evil powers are trying to disturb the peace of our country, stop progress, destroy Iraq, keep killing innocent civilians, and planning for the start of ethnic, sectarian and religious division," Allawi said in a statement.

He said some people were trying to implement "wicked plans of extremist terror" and urged Iraqis to remain calm.

No group had claimed responsibility for the kidnappings, and an Internet statement issued in the name of al-Qaeda's wing in Iraq said the crisis was fabricated as a pretext for raiding the town and attacking Sunni Muslims.

"The infidels fabricated the case of the hostages. They are lying," said the Sunni group led by Jordanian militant Abu Musab al-Zarqawi.

The statement could not be independently verified.

Several Iraqis said their relatives had been abducted, but a police official said the hostages could number as few as three.

Despite the confusion, the crisis has raised fears of deeper sectarian strife in a country struggling to form a government that balances the interests of Shi'ites, Sunnis and Kurds after decades of iron-fisted rule under Saddam Hussein.

Troops armed with machine-guns and assault rifles moved to the edge of Madaen, about 40km south-east of Baghdad, and US troops cut off two bridges near the town yesterday.

"Three brigades have been moved towards the area, and this morning there were five from the Iraqi National Guard, the Ministry of Interior and multinational forces," Kassim Daoud, the Minister for National Security, told parliament.

"Three areas where we suspected there were terrorists were raided but no one was found. There are other areas we will attack soon."

Sunni militant groups have carried out abductions before, part of a campaign that Iraqi officials say is designed to spark a civil war between Iraq's majority Shi'ites and minority Sunnis.

A senior Shi'ite official has said residents of Madaen called him on Friday night saying their relatives had been kidnapped and were threatened with death.

On Saturday, state-run Iraqiya television said the gunmen had threatened to start killing the 150 hostages within 24 hours.

Distraught Iraqis who said their relatives were among those who had been abducted gathered outside Madaen.

"Where are they? Where are they?" asked Zuhra Chaloub, holding up pictures of two sons she said were abducted in Salman Pak, a Sunni rebel stronghold adjacent to Madaen.

A masked policeman with an AK-47 stood by the crowd of about 20 people.

Aboud Hussein said one of his sons, a policeman, was taken from Salman Pak and two others were dragged from their cars on their way home from work.
Posted by: Dan Darling || 04/18/2005 12:13:47 AM || Comments || Link || [0 views] Top|| File under:

#1  I wonder how many "insurgent" plans and caches were damaged in the course of the rescue operation? And I imagine the tribals will think twice before playing such games next time. Good.
Posted by: trailing wife || 04/18/2005 14:16 Comments || Top||

#2  This is a Rooters story.

This is the NYT story (you now need a login to access it).

Who's telling the truth?
Posted by: .com || 04/18/2005 14:27 Comments || Top||


Afghanistan/South Asia
New lines of control emerge in Baluchistan
EVEN as President Musharraf was preparing to embark on his Cricket diplomacy in New Delhi to get rid of the military line of control in Kashmir and Asif Zardari was packing his bags in Dubai to leave for Lahore to test Chief Minister Parvaiz Elahi's limits of political control in his province, the federal government was formalising new lines of control on the road between Dera Bugti and Sui in Balochistan.

The clashes between the government forces and the Bugti tribesmen had ensued after Musharraf and Nawab Akber Khan Bugti had publicly traded threats following rocket attacks on Sui gas plant, presumably by the Bugti tribe to blackmail the gas company into increasing the rent of its land on which the plant is located.

In fact Musharraf had all but carried out his threat (they would not know what hit them) when a couple of bombs landed in the house of Akber Khan. He escaped narrowly. Two others were not that lucky. Indeed, there never was any doubt in anybody's mind about the brute capability of the government forces to wipe out the opposition in no time. But what perhaps had stopped the government from taking the plunge was the determined display of an equally brute resolve by Akber Khan to fight to his last man. Not that it was not known to Musharraf how Akber Khan would react to the threat of use of force or its actual use.

Still, he had perhaps thought that the shock and awe that he seemingly believes his Army exudes in Pakistan would terrorise Akber into blinking. But instead we saw Musharraf blinking and sending his political arm into the fray to broker a ceasefire. But even Shujaat, a family friend could not persuade Akber Khan to vacate the forward positions his tribesmen held without the government forces doing the same simultaneously from across the road.

This was a question of saving your face. But perhaps to his foreign friends who have been providing Musharraf with a helping hand to do what he pleased in his country as long as he kept capturing Al Qaeda terrorists, it was not a very reassuring sight to see their hero getting entangled in a war of his own which could divert his attention from the "real war". That the US has an interest in Balochistan has already been established in a recent story in the New Yorker by Seymour Hersh. The story had recounted how Washington had been using the province to mount commando operations inside Iran. So, the ceasefire on Akber Khan's terms. But if one knew the nature of the two contesting sides, one would be too reluctant to bet on the ceasefire holding for too long.

In essence, the contest is between two status quo powers — the establishment in Islamabad and the Sardari system in Balochistan. And, therefore, there is no guarantee that the bloody events of March 27 in which about 70 innocent people died would not be repeated in future. But how does one stop this vicious cycle that has taken a heavy toll of the province and the federation itself?

The answer to this question lies in Islamabad. It is Islamabad which has been willingly living with a highly primitive tribal Sardari system in Balochistan.

Under this system, it is the writ of the Sardars that runs through most of Balochistan. And this very system more than anything else, has kept the province from being lifted out of its Stone-Age existence. But this system has been allowed to perpetuate itself by the establishment in Islamabad deliberately because of two factors. One, the lack of adequate financial and administrative capacities to bring such a huge landmass under the direct federal and provincial writ. Two, external-internal security. During the Cold war, it was assumed that the Soviet Union could access the warm waters only through Balochistan and that if the province remained stuck in the Stone Age, Moscow's tanks would find it almost impossible to cross the barren desert to the sea.

Both these pleas have been rendered outdated by the march of the time. The Soviet Union has disappeared in history and today Pakistan is flush with huge amounts of donor dollars. The economy is also doing well. So, the needed financial and to an extent even administrative space is there to tackle politically the menace of Sardari system without further delay and without unnecessarily alienating the general population of the province. A tall order, indeed, for the non-political establishment in Islamabad. But the good news is, the Sardari system does not enjoy any mandate from the people of the province.

In the present provincial assembly the strength of the 70 odd Sardars is no more than 33 per cent in a house of 65 and in the National Assembly they make up only 35 per cent of all the MNAs belonging to Balochistan. Nonetheless, Islamabad does not feel all that comfortable with the idea of running the affairs of Balochistan without the Sardars. Indeed, Musharraf himself has been praising all the Sardars while singling out Akber Khan and two others for his wrath.

This love-hate relationship between Islamabad and the Sardars needs to be broken quickly by dismantling the artificial infrastructure that the establishment has provided to the Sardars. And in order to save the poor in the province from slipping into perpetual poverty the Pakistani government needs also to make it mandatory for the public and private sponsors to acquire land for their development projects on annual rental basis. No outright sales should be allowed for the time being. And at the same time no one should be allowed to register himself/herself as a voter in the province unless they have lived there for ten years at a stretch.
Posted by: Dan Darling || 04/18/2005 12:09:35 AM || Comments || Link || [0 views] Top|| File under:


Taliban Bomb Trucks Carrying Oil for U.S. Military
A bomb planted by Taliban rebels destroyed five trucks carrying oil for the U.S. military in Afghanistan and wounded three drivers, a senior Afghan army official said. The pre-dawn blast destroyed one of the trucks parked outside Kandahar airbase -- a major U.S. military base in southern Afghanistan -- and caused four others to catch fire, said General Muslim Hamid, army corps commander for Kandahar province. "Three drivers of the tankers have been critically wounded in the incident," he said, adding the three were from neighboring Pakistan.

Taliban attacks have picked up following a winter lull after the guerrillas failed in their vow to disrupt October elections. But activity is down on past years, fueling speculation that the movement may be struggling to find recruits and resources. The attack on the oil tankers came a day after the Taliban triggered a remote-control explosive device that injured nine Afghan government soldiers in a passing car in Zabul province, district chief Wazir Mohammad told Reuters. Taliban spokesman Abdul Latif Hakimi confirmed the rebels were behind both attacks.
The Taliban are a pretty honest bunch, as far as terror organizations go. They don't say "We want to throw the infidels out because that's what the Afghan people want." Instead they just concentrate on hollering "Arrrr! We're gonna take power back and we'll kill anybody that gets in our way!"
Posted by: Fred || 04/18/2005 00:00:00 AM || Comments || Link || [0 views] Top|| File under:

#1  The Taliban are a pretty honest bunch, as far as terror organizations go. They don't say "We want to throw the infidels out because that's what the Afghan people want." Instead they just concentrate on hollering "Arrrr! We're gonna take power back and we'll kill anybody that gets in our way!"

I think they just like killing people.
Posted by: gromgorru || 04/18/2005 4:14 Comments || Top||

#2  That headline threw me for a moment . . . I thought that the Taliban were carrying oil in their bomb trucks . . . just early morning . . .
Posted by: Jame Retief || 04/18/2005 6:43 Comments || Top||

#3  Don't feel Bad, Jame. I had to re-read the title a few times this morning myself.
Posted by: Ptah || 04/18/2005 7:53 Comments || Top||

#4  ain' that like accusing someone of being an honest thief?
Posted by: raptor || 04/18/2005 8:18 Comments || Top||

#5  Honest thieves know their trade and stick to it. They don't branch out to rapine or arson just becaust the opportunity is there. There are criminal standards, too! ;-)
Posted by: trailing wife || 04/18/2005 9:54 Comments || Top||


Africa: North
Police Identify 4 Plotters in Cairo Bombing
Egypt's Interior Ministry yesterday identified four men it accused of training a bomber who killed himself and three tourists here on April 7. A ministry statement said the teenage bomber, Hassan Rafaat Ahmed Bashandi, "was affiliated with an extremist group that included four members" who trained and recruited him. Three of the suspects are in custody. A fourth remains at large, the ministry said. The group also prepared the explosives that detonated near the Khan El-Khalili bazaar, a historic part of Cairo popular with tourists.

Bashandi, who was 17 or 18 years old, was attempting to plant the bomb — a concoction of TNT placed in a nail-filled leather bag — when it exploded prematurely, killing himself, an American and two French tourists. It was unclear when the three suspects were arrested. Last week, an investigator said Bashandi was aided by three others, but didn't elaborate. Police arrested 30 people after identifying the bomber, including his mother and 19 relatives. His mother has since been released.
Posted by: Fred || 04/18/2005 00:00:00 || Comments || Link || [1 views] Top|| File under:


Israel-Palestine
Palestinian gunmen block traffic in West Bank city
JENIN: Dozens of Palestinian gunmen, in another challenge to President Mahmoud Abbas, blocked traffic in the West Bank city of Jenin on Sunday to demand money for families of Palestinians killed in fighting with Israel. The protest by al-Aqsa Martyrs Brigades followed incidents last month in which gunmen from the group, part of Abbas's Fatah faction, trashed restaurants in the West Bank city of Ramallah patronised by Palestinian leaders and shot at his compound. "We have decided to stay here, in Jenin's main square, with the sons of martyrs until the Palestinian Authority pays the stipends," said Zachariya Zubeidi, al-Aqsa's West Bank leader, referring to relatives of Palestinians killed by Israeli forces.
This article starring:
ZACHARIYA ZUBEIDIal-Aqsa Martyrs Brigades
al-Aqsa Martyrs Brigades
Posted by: Fred || 04/18/2005 00:00:00 || Comments || Link || [0 views] Top|| File under:

#1  Looks like Mazen's got some new recruits for Paleo security forces.
Posted by: Bomb-a-rama || 04/18/2005 0:45 Comments || Top||

#2  I like the photos where these black hooded mutants have a gun in one hand and a Koran in the other
Posted by: sea cruise || 04/18/2005 1:34 Comments || Top||

#3  This picture bugs me. That old submachine gun has seen better days. The damn thing is so badly maintained that is bent in the middle. More of a danger to the operator and those around him than to anyone else. If he tries firing it like that he is going to have some nasty burn on his left palm and some missing digits. It looks like a Swedish K Submachine Gun perhaps. "The gun was manufactured under license by Egypt as the "Port Said." Model"
Oh well bunch of assclowns up to asshattery as usual for paleos.
Posted by: Sock Puppet 0’ Doom || 04/18/2005 3:25 Comments || Top||

#4  Mr. Wife once told me (in the mid-'80s) of wandering a tad too near an Egyptian guard post. Both weapon and sandles were held together by tape, and even to his untrained eye the weapon was visibly filthy. What you see may well be a hand-me-down from the Egyptian Army -- there have been documented instances of under-the-border smuggling tunnels between PA territories and Egyptian Army camps on the other side. A few lost digits may be the least of the gentleman's worries, should he use that thing.
Posted by: trailing wife || 04/18/2005 6:30 Comments || Top||

#5  SPOD, it's not bent. What you are looking at is the folding stock that has a slight upward curve to it. Look close and you'll see where it comes from just above the pistol grip to just before the magazine, then turns down along the mag, then turns again back to the bottom of the grip.
Posted by: Steve || 04/18/2005 9:44 Comments || Top||

#6  More of a danger to the operator and those around him than to anyone else.

And this is a problem...? ;)
Posted by: Bomb-a-rama || 04/18/2005 10:09 Comments || Top||

#7  It's not a bug, it's a feature!
Posted by: Alaska Paul || 04/18/2005 11:06 Comments || Top||

#8  I guess some things don't change much, tw. Remember Twain and The Innocents Abroad??
"I rode to the front and struck up an acquaintance with King Solomon-in-all-his-glory, and got him to show me his lingering eternity of a gun. It had a rusty dint lock; it was ringed and barred and plated with silver from end to end, but it was as desperately out of the perpendicular as are the billiard cues of '49 that one finds yet in service in the ancient mining camps of California. The muzzle was eaten by the rust of centuries into a ragged filigree-work, like the end of a burntout stove-pipe. I shut one eye and peered within--it was flaked with iron rust like an old steamboat boiler. I borrowed the ponderous pistols and snapped them. They were rusty inside, too-had not been loaded for a generation. I went back, full of encouragement, and reported to the guide, and asked him to discharge this dismantled fortress. It came out, then. This fellow was a retainer of the Sheik of Tiberias. He was a source of Government revenue. He was to the Empire of Tiberias what the customs are to America. The Sheik imposed guards upon travelers and charged them for it. It is a lucrative source of emolument, and sometimes brings into the national treasury as much as thirty-five or forty dollars a year."
Posted by: James || 04/18/2005 20:16 Comments || Top||


Afghanistan/South Asia
3 injured in Gilgit mosque blast
GILGIT: Three people were injured when a homemade bomb exploded at a mosque in the Naltar village, about 35 kilometres west of Gilgit, police said on Sunday. The explosion occurred on Saturday night, said Raji Rehmat, a senior police official in Gilgit. He said that more than 30 people were in the mosque when the bomb went off during evening prayers but only three were injured. It was not known whether the bomb was planted inside the main prayer hall or elsewhere in the building. Another low-intensity homemade bomb was found shortly after the explosion and was defused, he said. He said that no one had claimed responsibility and the motive for the explosion was not immediately known.
Posted by: Fred || 04/18/2005 00:00:00 || Comments || Link || [0 views] Top|| File under:


Morphine seized
QUETTA: Frontier Corps seized nearly two tonnes of morphine worth millions of dollars from a village near the Afghan border, a FC official said on Sunday. The drugs were found in caves near Chaghi in two separate raids on Saturday, said FC official Rizwan Malik. He said the morphine was probably destined for the international black market. Mr Malik said two lots of 950 kilogrammes each of morphine were recovered in the raids.
Posted by: Fred || 04/18/2005 00:00:00 || Comments || Link || [0 views] Top|| File under:

#1  For ages, Afghanistan was one big international black market.
Posted by: Pappy || 04/18/2005 2:08 Comments || Top||



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Two weeks of WOT
Mon 2005-04-18
  400 Algerian gunmen to surrender
Sun 2005-04-17
  2 Pakistanis arrested in Cyprus on al-Qaeda links
Sat 2005-04-16
  2 Iraq graves may hold remains of 7,000
Fri 2005-04-15
  Basayev nearly busted, fake leg seized
Thu 2005-04-14
  Eleven Paks charged with Spanish terror plot
Wed 2005-04-13
  10 dead in Mosul suicide bombings
Tue 2005-04-12
  3 charged with plot to attack US targets
Mon 2005-04-11
  U.S.-Iraqi Raid Nets 65 Suspected Terrs
Sun 2005-04-10
  Tater thugs protest US presence in Iraq
Sat 2005-04-09
  Scores dead as Yemeni Army seizes rebel outposts
Fri 2005-04-08
  2 killed, 18 injured in explosion at major Cairo tourist bazaar
Thu 2005-04-07
  Hard Boyz shoot up Srinagar bus station
Wed 2005-04-06
  Final count, 18 dead in al-Ras shoot-out
Tue 2005-04-05
  Turkey Seeks Life For Caliph of Cologne
Mon 2005-04-04
  Saudi raid turns into deadly firefight

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