Saudi Interior Minister Prince Nayef Bin Abdul Aziz said many terrorists who were killed or captured in the kingdom were drug addicts. "Investigation indicated that many of them were previously apprehended for drug use," Nayef was quoted as saying Wednesday by the Saudi Press Agency, SPA. Saudi authorities killed 15 gunmen and captured several others in confrontations in the northern city of Ras earlier this month. A Jordanian doctor earlier said a number of the terrorists believed to belong to the Saudi branch of al-Qaida network, were treated for drug addiction in a private clinic in Amman. He said at least seven of them were treated for advanced addictions to jihad morphine and cocaine.
Posted by: Steve ||
04/27/2005 9:27:42 AM ||
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Deviant Dopersâ¢, huh, Nayef?
Well, that explains everything.
It has nothing to do with the Friday marching and recruiting orders from the Imams, whom you control and manipulate through the mutawas / Religious Police. Or the charity money siphoned off to support them through the porous / corrupt banking system -- which also lets the fuckwit Princes put oil-tick money directly in their pockets -- both with no paper trail. Or the fact that there always seems to be an escape route when your security forces have them "surrounded". Or how they are able to acquire arms, when your Interior Ministry is in charge of the borders.
An appeals court in the Yemeni capital on Tuesday reopened the trial of 11 Al-Qaeda suspects, six of whom had been given two-year jail terms and the five others acquitted.
Said al-Aqel for the prosecution charged that the verdict delivered by a Sanaa court on March 21 flouted the Yemeni penal code, since the defendants "confessed to forging travel documents, which is punishable by three to seven years imprisonment".
Appeals court president Said al-Qataa set a session on May 3 to hear the defendants' response.
The group had been accused of planning to carry out "criminal acts" in Yemen and abroad.
But the court last month sentenced six of them to two-year prison terms only on charges of forging passports and other documents, while clearing the five others of all charges.
The defendants, all Yemenis and at least six of whom were born in Saudi Arabia, went on trial on February 14. The charges against them included possession of arms and explosives and forging documents and passports.
The prosecution claimed the 11 had trained in camps in Afghanistan between 1998 and 2002, and were plotting and raising funds for "criminal acts."
It also charged they had planned to travel to Iraq to fight US-led forces and demanded the maximum punishment for all the accused, who faced up to 10 years in prison.
Posted by: Dan Darling ||
04/27/2005 12:13:43 AM ||
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The Yemeni government has put thousands of religious schools between a rock and a hard place by demanding schools to either close doors or come under its full supervision. Education Minister Abdel Salam Al-Joufi threatened to crack down hard on schools found in violation of law, which puts the country's education system under government scrutiny. "It has been always the case for the government to encourage non-governmental education and give licenses to more schools as long as they abide by the ministry's curricula," he told IslamOnline.net on Monday, April 25.
He stressed that the ministry will not tolerate schools that breach such a commitment. The minister declined to comment on a report by a government ad hoc committee assigned to tally and evaluate religious and non-governmental schools in the country. The committee, which swung into action on June 29, 2004 till March 13, 2005, found that anti-regime and —democracy publications were found in some schools outside the state's supervision. It said that foreign students, including Americans, were enrolled at some of these schools, including 150 in one school in the northern city of Sada. The committee starkly warned that swift action must be taken against potential ethnic tensions as some schools were strictly following sects like Salifism, Sufism, Yazidi and Ismailites.
Yemeni authorities have closed down over the past two months 1400 unauthorized schools for preaching violence, hatred for the west and hardline ideas. In an address last week, Prime Minister Abdel Qadir Bajamal said there were up to 330,000 students enrolled in unauthorized schools, vowing to shut them.
Posted by: Fred ||
04/27/2005 00:00:00 AM ||
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It said that foreign students, including Americans, were enrolled at some of these schools Names, please, and family Stateside addresses. For Homeland Security, I mean, I don't need to be informed. ;-)
Iraq war hero Private Johnson Beharry has been awarded the Victoria Cross by the Queen at Buckingham Palace. Pte Beharry, 25, who was twice injured saving colleagues under enemy fire, is the first recipient of the UK's highest valour award since the Falklands War. He was told by the Queen: "You're very special". "She said that she doesn't get to present the VC very often," Pte Beharry, of London, said afterwards.
Pte Beharry, who was born on Grenada in the West Indies, is the first living soldier to be given the VC since 1969. He was at the head of a five-vehicle convoy when it came under attack in the town of al-Amarah on 1 May 2004. He guided the column through a mile of enemy ground to drop off wounded comrades, at great risk to his own safety, his citation said. Weeks later, his vehicle was hit by a rocket-propelled grenade round. Despite a head wound, he managed to reverse his Warrior to safety. Pte Beharry is still recovering from serious head injuries.
"When I hear what I did, I can't really believe it was me," he said at Buckingham Palace on Wednesday. "But what I did was my choice - I knew I had to get everyone out because I wouldn't have been able to live with myself otherwise. "I think it's the training that just kicks in."
The UK's top soldier, General Sir Mike Jackson, was knighted by the Queen, receiving the honour of Knight Grand Cross of the Order of the Bath. He said: "I was overshadowed today by Pte Beharry, and quite rightly so - it was an honour to stand alongside him."
Other members of Pte Beharry's regiment, the Princess of Wales' Royal Regiment, were also honoured. Lieutenant Colonel Matthew Maer and Major James Coote received the Distinguished Service Order. Sergeant Christopher Broome received the Conspicuous Gallantry Cross.
Warrant Officer David Falconer, Sergeant David Perfect, Corporal Brian Wood and Private Troy Samuels were awarded the Military Cross, along with Lieutenant Richard Deane of the Royal Irish Regiment.
Well done, lads, well done.
Posted by: Steve ||
04/27/2005 9:00:46 AM ||
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Always makes me feel humble to hear these stories.
Posted by: Jame Retief ||
04/27/2005 10:13 Comments ||
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Thus saith the Land! "He who shall bear
Victoria's cross upon his breast,
In token that he did not fear
To die - had need been - for her rest;
For the dear sake of her who gives,
And the high deeds of him who wears,
Shall, high or low, all honour have
From all, through all his years."
Sir Edwin Arnold
Posted by: Howard UK ||
04/27/2005 10:25 Comments ||
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Good sentiment, Howard, but Sir Edwin's poetical abilities are somewhat lacking. ;-)
April 27, 2005: In the last few days, GSPC made two attacks, killing four people. So far this month, about fifty people have been killed near the capital, about half of the them soldiers, by GSPC and other Islamic rebel groups. The army has been carrying out aggressive sweeps in the rebels usual rural refuges, and driving the surviving rebels into urban areas, where the police have an easier time finding them, but the rebels also have an easier time finding victims. The Islamic rebels still have a core of popular support among religious Algerians, especially young ones. But the years of terrorism, and over 200,000 dead, has made it difficult to recruit. The future of groups like the GSPC is in Europe, and many Islamic radicals are fleeing there. In Europe, the hostility from the locals, and generous (by Algerian standards) social welfare benefits, make it easier, and safer, to be an Islamic terrorist. There are also plenty of infidels (non-Moslems) to kill. The Algerian Islamic radicals failed in Algeria because they killed too many Algerian Moslems over the last twelve years. While Europeans, and especially Americans, are more difficult to get to and kill, these murders are much more politically correct for Islamic radicals.
Posted by: Steve ||
04/27/2005 9:36:28 AM ||
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no welfare and unemployment for the seething swarthies!
Posted by: Frank G ||
04/27/2005 12:43 Comments ||
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"...the years of terrorism, and over 200,000 dead, has made it difficult to recruit..."
I would rather think that there's just a limited supply of Islamic homicidal maniacs.
Posted by: Tom ||
04/27/2005 14:34 Comments ||
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We could always send 'em some of our moonbats. Okay, a lot of our moonbats.
Police on the border between France and Spain say they nabbed hundreds of illegal aliens, most of them from India and Pakistan, trying to take advantage of a Spanish amnesty. The window closes on May 7. It opened on February 7 to allow illegal immigrants in Spain to regularise their situation. An AFP correspondent at the Biriatou border post in France saw over 100 aliens arriving there on Monday in minibuses driven by Spanish police. They were handed over to French police. Another 100 or so were nabbed on Saturday, said the French border police, adding that many others had crossed the border into Spain in cars, by train, and even on foot.
"These clandestine immigrants are hoping to obtain permanent resident status in the European Union," said a French police officer, adding that Spanish authorities feared the rush would keep going right up to the May 7 deadline. The influx has surprised authorities because the amnesty applies only to immigrants who have been living in Spain since August last year and hold a work contract. Illegal immigrants handed over to the French police at Biriatou were taken to a police station in Hendaye for questioning. Many Indians and Pakistanis, all male and mostly young, have come from Germany, Italy or Paris. They claim to not speak English or any mainland European language and the local police have no Hindi or Urdu interpreters. That means the police were unable to notify them that they would be held longer for questioning and were therefore obliged to let them go without starting any expulsion procedure, said an officer. No organisation is looking after them and dozens have congregated at the Hendaye railway station to try to work out what to do next. Others continue to arrive, paying taxi-drivers US $130 dollars to take four or five of them over the border. "The French police told me that if I go to Spain again, they were allowed to keep me in jail for five days,'" said a 31-year-old Pakistani, speaking with some difficulty in English. He gave his name only as Muhammad, adding that he was going to try to get over the frontier again later in the day.
Posted by: Fred ||
04/27/2005 00:00:00 AM ||
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PHILADELPHIA, April 27 (UPI) -- A Philadelphia drug dealer said during an imam's racketeering trial that he paid the Muslim cleric cash for his influence in the drug underworld.Rodney Saunders told the U.S. District Court Tuesday that he regularly gave money to a mosque and school run by 67-year-old Shamsud-din Ali, the Philadelphia Inquirer reported Wednesday. Saunders, who is serving a five-year sentence for cocaine trafficking, was one of two drug dealers who alleged Ali had influence among Philadelphia drug dealers. As one example, Saunders said he had settled a dispute with another drug dealer in a meeting at Ali's school that was set up by one of the imam's associates.
Just like any good Godfather would
Dealer Leonard Wideman testified that he believed Ali had vouched for two men in a drug transaction. The racketeering trial is the result of a four-year city hall corruption probe. Ali's defense lawyer argued that references to drug dealing were prejudicial, especially since his client did not face narcotics charges. The lawyer was expected to argue for a mistrial Wednesday morning, the Inquirer said.
Posted by: Steve ||
04/27/2005 2:26:01 PM ||
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God, I love this town...
Posted by: Dave D. ||
04/27/2005 15:52 Comments ||
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...he paid the Muslim cleric cash for his influence in the drug underworld
NEWARK, N.J. (Reuters) - A British man was found guilty of trying to provide material support to terrorists on Wednesday for selling a shoulder-launched missile to an undercover FBI informant posing as an Islamic militant seeking to attack the United States.Hemant Lakhani, 69, a British citizen born in India, was found guilty of five criminal charges by a U.S. District Court jury in Newark, New Jersey, that began deliberating on Tuesday.
Lakhani was arrested in August 2003 after a two-year international sting operation and charged with trying to provide material support to terrorists, unlawful arms sales, smuggling and money laundering. He faces 25 years in prison. Prosecutors provided videotapes and taped telephone conversations of Lakhani making the deal with an undercover FBI informant posing as an Islamic militant. But while the prosecution depicted Lakhani as an enthusiastic broker eager to supply a terrorist group, the defense said he was a victim of overzealous law enforcement in the aftermath of the Sept. 11, 2001, attacks.
Posted by: Steve ||
04/27/2005 12:12:06 PM ||
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INDONESIAN police are investigating reports the hard-line Islamist group headed by jailed cleric Abu Bakar Bashir held a secret training camp for Muslim militants at a central Java tourist resort.
The military-style training camp took place in a heavily-forested area near the city of Salatiga, central Java police chief inspector General Chaerul Rasyid said.
The camp was organised by the Majelis Mujahidin Indonesia (MMI), or Council of Indonesian Holy Warriors, he said.
The group is led by Bashir, who was recently jailed for involvement in the Bali bombings.
It was detected by intelligence officers from the Indonesian National Police and involved 24 people, General Rasyid said.
"They have already left," General Rasyid said.
"We have not identified the goal of the training."
Police were investigating claims the camp had intended to teach participants only civil defence drills, General Rasyid said.
"But if it was intended for other purposes that could cause unrest among the locals, we will take action," he said.
MMI has links to the Jemaah Islamiah terror network blamed for the Bali bombings and the 2003 suicide bomb attack on the J.W. Marriott Hotel in Jakarta, which together killed 214 people, including 88 Australians.
Jemaah Islamiah is also said to be holding secret military training camps on the southern Philippines island of Mindanao, prompting a US diplomat to warn the island is becoming "the new 'Mecca' for terrorism", comparing it to Afghanistan.
Ngasim, a ranger from the Kopeng forest where the Java training camp was said to have taken place, said he had seen several bearded men wearing headscarves and carrying sticks.
An MMI spokesman, named Wahyudin, denied the organisation had mounted any military training.
He told the Jakarta Post newspaper its members were fully occupied helping in tsunami-devastated Aceh's reconstruction.
Some reports said the camp had been organised by the conservative Islamic-based Justice and Welfare Party, or PKS, which rose to prominence in last year's Indonesian elections.
A PKS supporter in Salatiga, Budi Santoso, told the Republika newspaper some people were doing "marching exercises" in the forest to become party members.
Posted by: Dan Darling ||
04/27/2005 4:32:33 PM ||
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A suspected member of the Al-Qaeda-linked Abu Sayyaf gang was killed Tuesday in a clash with government forces in the southern Philippine island of Sulu, the military said Wednesday. Brigadier General Alexandet Aleo, chief of Task Force Comet, said the encounter occurred in Barangay Darayan, Patikul, Sulu, at around 6 a.m. Pursuit operations against the other members of the Abu Sayyaf group were ongoing, Aleo said. Agence France-Presse, quoting Marine commander Colonel Juancho Sabban, had earlier reported that two Abu Sayyaf bandits were killed in the encounter. There were no reports of casualties among the soldiers, the wire agency added. The firefight came a day after a landmine allegedly planted by Abu Sayyaf rebels killed three soldiers in the adjacent town of Maimbung.
Posted by: Dan Darling ||
04/27/2005 12:35:46 AM ||
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COLOMBO: Tamil Tiger rebels took over a government-run health centre in northeast Sri Lanka and turned it into a political office, the military said on Tuesday. Military spokesman Brig. Daya Ratnayake said the health centre, near the northeastern port of Trincomalee, was closed when two rebels demanded the key from a guard and then set up their office. Ratnayake said the military has lodged a complaint with European observers monitoring a 2002 cease-fire between the government and the rebels. The rebels did not immediately comment on the military allegation. A spokeswoman for the monitoring mission, Tiina Nurmimaki, said monitors have gone to the area to investigate the complaint.
Meanwhile, the rebels' administrative chief in the volatile eastern region, Daya Mohan, was arrested Tuesday on suspicion of possessing a stolen vehicle. "He didn't have the relevant papers to prove possession of the vehicle," Ratnayake said. Mohan and his driver were apprehended during a regular check at a security point in government-controlled eastern Batticaloa, 220 kilometres east of Colombo, he said.
Posted by: Fred ||
04/27/2005 00:00:00 ||
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Australian troops in southern Iraq have removed added-on armour screens from their Australian Light Armoured Vehicles (ASLAVs) because they are worried they may contribute to road accidents.
The move follows intense controversy in Australia over the adequacy of protective measures for the ASLAVs heading to Iraq.
Internal spall liners, external bar armour and remote weapons stations were hurriedly fitted to the ASLAVs for the Iraq mission.
Australian troops in the southern Iraq province on Al Muthanna now believe the risk of attack - compared to the risk of a collision in city traffic - is low enough to allow removal of the bar armour.
The special protective metal grilles or screens bolted to the outside of the vehicles are designed to defeat attack by rocket-propelled grenades. Their job is to detonate the rockets before they reach the vehicle's body.
However the grilles make the 13-tonne ASLAV's much wider and the troops were concerned at the consequences of a road accident.
Commander of Australian forces Lieutenant Colonel Roger Noble said the armour had been unbolted and left in the carpark at their base for the troops' initial trip into the provincial capital of Samawah.
"Basically what we have done is assess the threat all the time. One of the things we are worried about is road traffic accidents," he told ABC radio.
"So one the way to cut that down was to take them (the bar armour) off."
Unit Regimental Sergeant Major Warrant Officer Bob Aboud said the visit revealed people going about their business, including shopkeepers and store owners.
He said the Australians received plenty of waves from the children and others.
"As you drove past the stalls, everything seemed to be full up with goods and so forth. It looked pretty good," he said.
Lieutenant Colonel Noble said he had met the commander of the local Iraqi National Guard force which will take full control of security in the province when the Australian force leaves in a year.
"He (the Iraqi commander) wants like all good military men, he wants as much as he can get for his men. We are well positioned to give him just about everything he wants," he said.
"The soldiers are all looking pretty sharp so they are obviously on an upward curve already without us."
Posted by: God Save The World ||
04/27/2005 11:35:30 PM ||
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Seven terrorists and a civilian were killed in separate incidents in Jammu and Kashmir, where an member of al-Badr outfit laid down his arms and five hideouts were smashed leading to recovery of a huge cache of arms and explosives since Monday night, officials said.
In a major gun battle, army troops gunned down six unidentified terrorists at Dangyari-Chowkibal forest, 115 kms from Srinagar in border district of Kupwara on Tuesday, a defence spokesman said.
The encounter took place when the hiding terrorists opened fire on an army column which had moved to the village on Tuesday morning to carry out searches following a tip-off about presence of terrorists, the spokesman said.
Five AK-47 assault rifles, 13 AK magazines, 356 rounds, 10 Chinese grenades and a radio set have been recovered from the slain terrorists.
Their identity and group affiliation are being ascertained, the spokesman said.
In another encounter, security forces shot dead a militant of Hizb-e-Islami outfit Moosa Gujarati during search operations at Nar-Harni in Poonch district on Tuesday, a police spokesman said. An AK rifle, four magazines, 30 rounds and two grenades were recovered from the slain terrorist.
Terrorists kidnapped a carpet dealer Riyaz Ahmad from his house at Chak-Reshipora last night and later hanged him to death in nearby Wagmullah village of Kunzer in Baramulla district, the spokesman said adding, his body was found hanging in a tree on Tuesday morning.
He said a terrorist of al-Badr outfit surrendered before police alongwith a pistol, two magazines, 15 rounds and a hand grenade at Dharamsal in Rajouri district on Monday. Besides Rs 3.64 lakh in cash in partially burnt condition from under the 'chula' (oven) of the house, two AK-56 rifles, their five magazines, 54 rounds, one anti-tank mine, 19 anti-personnel mines with 19 detonators, 50 rounds of 7.62 mm pistol, three radio sets, five IED remotes with battery component and 30 IED fuses were recovered, the spokesman said. However, the house owner evaded arrest and is absconding, the spokesman added.
In another successful operation, he said, troops acting on specific information busted a hideout in Patrari-Laam area in Rajouri district on Monday night and recovered one AK rifle, 750 rounds, 5 magazines, 61 Chinese grenades, 97 pika rounds, 5 IEDs, 18 IED switches, 1 RPG booster, one UBGL grenade, 11 rounds, 4 gelatin sticks and 4 packets of RDX.
Another hideout was busted by BSF troops in Kund-Chunti forest belt in Rajouri and one kg silver explosive recovered on Sunday night, official sources said.
Troops smashed a hideout at Thiru area in Doda district and recovered two AK rifles, their 12 magazines, 575 rounds, four rifle grenades, 11 hand grenades and two IEDs Monday night.
They also recovered 3 IEDs, one rocket projectile gun, one RPG booster, 1 under-barrel grenade launcher, a wireless set, 17 detonators and seven UBGL grenades from a hideout in Hari area in Poonch district on Monday, the sources said, adding no one was arrested from these hideouts.
This article starring:
MUSA GUJARATI
Hizb-e-Islami
Hizb-e-Islami
Posted by: john ||
04/27/2005 4:43:52 PM ||
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12 kgs RDX recovered in J&K
Agencies/ Jammu
Security forces have foiled militants' plans to trigger explosions at various places in Jammu and Kashmir with the recovery of a Pakistan ordinance factory mine, 12 kg RDX besides huge cache of explosive material in Rajouri, Udhampur and Poonch districts, since last night, official sources said today.
On specific information, troops raided a hideout in Kund village in Rajouri district and recovered 11 high-power improvised explosive devices (IEDs), six kgs of explosives, 20 meters trip wire, 13 grenades, 15 meters electric wire, 10 RPGs and 18 detonators last night, they said.
In another recovery from Khuninalla in Surankote tehsil of Poonch district today, troops seized five kgs of RDX in a ghee tin with wire connection near a road, they said.
Posted by: john ||
04/27/2005 16:49 Comments ||
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United States and Iraqi troops have detained at least 120 suspected militants in a series of raids across Iraq this week, the US military said on Tuesday. At least 94 of those captured came from the Baghdad area, said Clifford Kent, a spokesperson for task force Baghdad. He added that weapons and ammunition also had been seized. "You name it, we have it," Kent said. Most of the militants detained in the cordon-and-search operations in Baghdad were believed to be directly involved in recent attacks in the capital. Two were "specifically targeted as members of an execution cell".
That'd be head choppers and AK artists...
"These aren't random searches... We are acting on specific, credible information we receive from local citizens who want to join us in the fight against terrorism," said Kent. "We are questioning people in the area and conducting our operations based mainly on this information."
Posted by: Fred ||
04/27/2005 3:51:03 PM ||
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A Iraqi woman MP has been shot dead by suspected insurgents on the doorstep of her home in Baghdad. Lamiya Abed Khadawi, a member of former Prime Minister Iyad Allawi's coalition, is the first MP killed since elections at the end of January. Police said gunmen knocked at her door and shot her when she answered it.
Bodyguards, people, bodyguards
The attack came as the chairman of the US joint chiefs of staff, Gen Richard Myers, warned that Iraqi militants remain as strong as a year ago. Gen Myers said that between 50 and 60 attacks are carried out across Iraq each day, the same number as during 2004. A BBC correspondent at the Pentagon says US optimism in the wake of Iraq's elections has now disappeared.
Of course the BBC would say that
The US has recently pressed Iraq's newly sworn-in leaders to end weeks of political deadlock with an official announcement of a new government.
Posted by: Steve ||
04/27/2005 8:56:26 AM ||
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I keep hearing how dangerous it is there. And I'm sure it is. But it's not so dangerous that this lady was afraid to go to the door. She had to know she was a target. But she still just answered the door, like we would here.
#2
A BBC correspondent at the Pentagon says US optimism in the wake of Iraq's elections has now disappeared.
That's kind of an interesting twist. Instead of reporting based on an actual (or allegedly actual) source, the Beeb just reports its own thinking as fact. "After consulting with ourselves, we bring you the shocking news that Bush is bad."
Don't journalistic ethics require them to make up an unnamed source, like the NYT does?
Posted by: Matt ||
04/27/2005 15:13 Comments ||
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The BBC are kinda like yer average gay friend who didnt come out of the closet for 30 years , but ya all know he's gay .
Gunmen shot dead a member of Iraq's parliament outside her house in Baghdad, Iraqi police said Wednesday. Police identified the victim as Lame'a abed Khadawi, a woman who is a member of a coalition headed by caretaker Prime Minister Iyad Allawi. The killers must have found her photo in a camera phone.
Posted by: ed ||
04/27/2005 8:19:17 AM ||
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The recovery of a laptop computer in Iraq by American forces in February has helped in the capture of several associates of the Jordanian militant Abu Musab al-Zarqawi, Pentagon officials said Tuesday. The laptop was found in a vehicle used by Mr. Zarqawi as he fled to avoid imminent capture by American troops near the city of Ramadi on Feb. 20, the officials said. ABC News, which disclosed the existence of the laptop this week, reported that United States officials believed they had nearly caught Mr. Zarqawi there after receiving a tip. Using leads found on the computer, troops have taken into custody several suspected associates of Mr. Zarqawi in the past two months and have raided at least one location in Iraq where bomb-making materials were found, according to one Defense Department official. A senior Pentagon official said, "It's been very valuable information."
Gen. Richard B. Myers, chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, confirmed at a Pentagon briefing with Defense Secretary Donald H. Rumsfeld on Tuesday that the United States believes it nearly captured Mr. Zarqawi in the raid. "We were close," General Myers said. He and Mr. Rumsfeld said the military has recently received better intelligence about Mr. Zarqawi, but neither would say whether it was coming from the laptop. "I think, in general, the intelligence is getting better. Having said that, we still don't have Zarqawi and other leaders that we are looking for as well," General Myers said. Computers belonging to Islamic militants have sometimes provided important windows into their operational planning, intelligence officials say. Pentagon officials said Mr. Zarqawi appeared to have eluded American troops positioned around Ramadi by sending a car carrying associates ahead of the truck he was in. When troops stopped the car, the trailing truck turned around and fled. When American soldiers eventually caught up with the vehicle, Mr. Zarqawi was gone, ABC News reported, in an account confirmed by several Defense Department officials. Pentagon officials said Tuesday that the laptop and more than $100,000 were found in the truck.
Posted by: Dan Darling ||
04/27/2005 12:18:45 AM ||
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Dollars not Euros??
Posted by: Howard UK ||
04/27/2005 8:08 Comments ||
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It was â¬80,000.
Posted by: ed ||
04/27/2005 8:22 Comments ||
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Yahoo news excerpt:
NBC, quoting U.S. military sources, reported Tuesday that among the items seized with the laptop were several small plug-in hard drives. Numerous pictures of Zarqawi were found in the computer's "My Pictures" file, the network said.
Captured in the Feb. 20 operation was Talib Mikhlif Arsan Walman al-Dulaymi, also known as Abu Qutaybah, an Iraqi government announcement said at the time. Qutaybah "filled the role of key lieutenant for the Zarqawi network, arranging safe houses and transportation as well as passing packages and funds" to Zarqawi, the government said. It said Qutaybah was a known associate of other Zarqawi lieutenants already held by coalition forces, including Abu Ahmed, an al-Qaida-linked insurgent leader in the northern city of Mosul, who was detained Dec. 22.
During the same raid, Iraqi forces captured another Zarqawi aide who "occasionally acted as his driver," the government said. He was identified as Ahmad Khalid Marad Ismail al-Rawi, who also helped arrange meetings for al-Zarqawi. He also is known as Abu Uthman.
Posted by: ed ||
04/27/2005 8:29 Comments ||
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When you are on the run, why the heck do you take pictures of yourself and keep them on your laptop!?!?!? Those things are easily lost, just ask the people at Los Alamos.
#6
Ed is right, the currency was Euros. Equivalent to about US $104,000. And given the way the major European economies are going, I'm not sure holding the funds for long would be wise. ;-)
#7
Repost from yesterday but there's no reason anyone on the lam would be carrying euros in Iraq today. The hard currency of choice is dollars (Iraq's oil revenues are in dollars) and converting the euros to $$ forces you to surface and risk drawing the authorities' attention.
A more likely explanation, as I think Seafarious pointed out, is that the euros came from Europe. Italy's ransom for Sregna, perhaps?
#10
hehehe.. Mrs Davis, I actually own an Osbourne-1. Also a Kaypro (4) - which is built like a tank and has a all-metal cabinet. I kind of collect old (pre-PC) computers.
Now if Psy-Ops was really smart they would 'leak' that there was a lot of porn on the laptop as well......
#17
Memories.... Mr. Wife later had surgery on the elbow of his carrying arm as a result of having the Compaq version of that thing later in the 1980's.
#20
I think the graphic is of a Compaq 'executive' with a massive 10Mb hard disk - the upgrade from the Compaq 1 (with 2 floppies) which I had to pack around.
#21
Heh, I remember buying a 20MB Tallgrass HD - the case was almost as large as the PC. I upgraded to dual-sided 180K floppies from the original single-sided 160K's at the same time. That set me back about $3000.
Mahfudh walad Ammar, spokesman for Mauritania's police, said in a statement on Tuesday that recent confessions had linked the Islamist leaders arrested on Monday to the Salafist Group for Preaching and Combat (GSPC), based in neighbouring Algeria. "They sent about 20 people to the GSPC for military training and the first contingent of seven has returned to the country," the police said in its statement. "These elements have been arrested, the rest of the group is still in GSPC training camps," it said. "The dismantling of this structure has entered a new phase with the arrest on Monday ... of the main leaders of the organisation".
President Muawiya walad Sidi Ahmad Taya angered many Arabs in a nation straddling black and Arab Africa when he shifted support from former Iraqi President Saddam Hussein towards Israel and the United States. Mauritania became only the third Arab League state to establish full diplomatic relations with Israel in 1999. The government has said Israel's foreign minister is due to visit Nouakchott but has given no further details. Opposition members said Islamic spiritual leader Shaikh Muhammad al-Hasan walad Didu and Mukhtar walad Muhammad Musa, a former diplomat to several Arab states, were arrested on Monday with up to 14 members of the moderate Islamist opposition. "The regime has started rounding up the nuts, hard boys and bomb-throwers a new repression against a strong current of national opinion probably to please the Israeli foreign minister before his visit to Nouakchott," Islamist leader Muhammad Jamil walad Mansur said. Critics say Taya, who seized power in a 1984 coup, exaggerates the Islamist threat to curry favour with Washington while using it as a justification for stifling opposition.
Posted by: Dan Darling ||
04/27/2005 12:37:50 AM ||
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Americans have been training Pakistanis in night flying and airborne assault tactics to combat foreign and local fighters in the tribal areas of Pakistan near the Afghan border, the United States commander here, Lt. Gen. David W. Barno, said Tuesday in an interview.
It is the first time the American military has acknowledged the training. The presence of American troops in Pakistan is regarded as extremely delicate.
General Barno said he had visited the Special Services Group headquarters at Cherat, near the Pakistani city of Peshawar, on Saturday and watched a display by the units trained by the Americans in their new Bell 4 helicopters.
Pakistan's chief military spokesman, Maj. Gen. Shaukat Sultan, said there were no American military trainers at Cherat and that General Barno had probably been referring to joint military exercises between the two countries.
"The Pakistan Army has been training with many countries of the world," General Sultan said in a telephone interview. "We have also been conducting joint military training with the U.S. Army many a time earlier. They benefit from each other's experience. They learn from each other. That's what has been happening, and nothing else."
The comments came as the Pakistani Army is gearing up to go into what is considered one of the last redoubts of Al Qaeda and foreign fighters, the tribal area of North Waziristan near the border with Afghanistan. Last year the Pakistani military moved against foreign militants in South Waziristan, killing some 300 fighters and losing about the same number of their own soldiers.
The remnants of the foreign and local militants made their way into North Waziristan. According to some reports, the Qaeda leader, Osama bin Laden, and his deputy, Ayman al-Zawahiri may also be in the region.
"They are working this hard," General Barno said of the Pakistani military. "It's too early to say that there is a new offensive, and I don't know what direction this is going to take, but there is no question, from the vice chief of the Army staff down, that they very much intend to determine how to best get at the enemy."
General Barno, who leaves next month after 18 months in Afghanistan, said Pakistan had successfully disrupted militants financed by Al Qaeda in South Waziristan.
He predicted that the Taliban would suffer a major schism in coming months and expected many, including some senior commanders, to join a government reconciliation program and give up their insurgency, leaving only a small hard core still fighting.
Part of that core, a network loyal to the former Taliban commander Jalaluddin Haqqani, is in North Waziristan and continues to attack American troops across the border in Afghanistan, the general said.
"They are still working to some degree at the behest of Al Qaeda and are financed by Al Qaeda to run operations here to disrupt activities here in Afghanistan," he said, "and they operate on both sides of the border." Foreign fighters were among them, he added, and some Arabs who were largely in the background providing money.
The fighters have shown an ability to adapt and have shifted to new areas, using the winter to regroup, reorganize and re-equip, and were conducting some training "very quietly," the general said.
"If you were to look back five years ago, you would see large training camps and a large footprint," he said. "And now it's more very, very small groups - of three or four or five. They spend a short time getting some training here and then maybe move to get some training somewhere else.
"It's very difficult to be able to pinpoint this activity even going on, much less to get and find it, disrupt it and capture or kill these guys."
A coordinated string of attacks along the border on March 22, the day the Afghan president, Hamid Karzai, was making a state visit to Pakistan, was a sign that the insurgents were capable of a large operation.
General Barno said he had seen fighters who were well equipped, with rations and with weapons and radios in good condition. "There's clearly a flow of funding that comes through the Al Qaeda network," he said. "It probably ebbs and flows a bit, but there's funding out there."
Posted by: Dan Darling ||
04/27/2005 12:15:35 AM ||
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#1
I don't feel comfortable training people to do what we do best, when they could very easily become our enemy with a well placed bullet in Musharev's head. I hope we aren't teaching them everything.
#3
Even if we were to teach them everything, it takes a certain worldview as well as the physical skills to develop into a Western/American style Army unit. I would love to hear from Rantburg's experts on this, but I would expect the units' abilities to deteriorate fairly rapidly once our guys stop pushing them.
KARACHI: The police arrested two activists of the Jaish-e-Mohammad, a banned militant religious outfit, and seized six locally-made bombs and more than 55 kilogrammes of explosive material in a raid on a house in Orangi Town late Tuesday night. The arrested men have been identified as Mohammad Anis and Nafees Siddiqui.
This article starring:
MOHAMAD ANIS
Jaish-e-Mohammad
NAFIS SIDIQUI
Jaish-e-Mohammad
Jaish-e-Mohammad
Posted by: Fred ||
04/27/2005 00:00:00 ||
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Nineteen prisoners escaped after attackers opened fire and hurled bombs at a court complex in eastern India, local media reported on Tuesday. Five people were injured in the attack on a district court building in Hazaribagh district of eastern Jharkhand state, police told the Press Trust of India. They said the attack was probably aimed at freeing the suspects. Some were facing charges of murder, local television reported. Forty-one prisoners were about to board a prison van after their court appearances when the unidentified assailants launched their attack in which at least three bombs were hurled, district police chief Ashish Batra said. Police fired back on the attackers and on prisoners trying to flee, he said. Maoist rebels operate in Hazaribagh but police could not immediately confirm whether this was a rebel attack.
Posted by: Fred ||
04/27/2005 00:00:00 ||
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Foreign Affairs is investigating whether U.S. troops killed a Canadian on the weekend in Iraq.
Something tells me this wasn't a fresh-faced tourist with a maple leaf sewn onto his backpack...
A Foreign Affairs spokeswoman confirmed to the CBC on Tuesday that a Canadian, whom she did not identify, died on Saturday. A source told Broadcast News that Ali Alwan may have died after U.S. forces "tracked" a target, using a helicopter gunship. The source, who did not want to be identified, said the family asked the Canadian government to look into the circumstances of his death. Dan McTeague, the parliamentary secretary responsible for Canadians abroad, told the Canadian Press that the government is still trying to sort through conflicting reports of how the man was killed. The matter is being handled by Canadian officials at the consulate in Amman, Jordan.
This article starring:
ALI ALWAN
Iraqi Insurgency
Posted by: seafarious ||
04/27/2005 00:00:00 AM ||
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#1
It's a pretty sure thing he was a "bad guy" if he is dead. If Canadians get all bent out of shape TFB. Who in their right mind goes to Iraq currently to play tourist? If he didn't have a job there he shouldn't have been there. If he got killed there then he was likely up to no good there. Maybe if they had sent some troups and supported a just war he might still be alive and in Canada making plots to blow up some government building.
#5
how about billing his family for the ammo used, dammit
Posted by: Frank G ||
04/27/2005 8:06 Comments ||
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#6
Okay, there's a chance this guy was a contractor or translator.
Maybe not a big chance, but .... needs an investigation.
Posted by: too true ||
04/27/2005 8:51 Comments ||
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#7
More details, facts are lacking: Conflicting details are emerging as Foreign Affairs investigates whether a Canadian in Iraq was killed by American forces. Despite a statement from Foreign Affairs saying that an unidentified Canadian died Saturday, the U.S. Defence Department had a conflicting report.
Capt. Patricia Brewer told the Toronto Star's Washington bureau that "no civilians" were shot by American forces in Iraq on Saturday. "There does not appear to be any U.S. involvement in this individual's death." She said the U.S. military had no information on the reported death. "There needs to be more research done on this at this point," she said. "The dates may need to be clarified or where in the country this happened because right now there are a lot of holes in the information we have been given."
On Tuesday, Foreign Affairs spokeswoman Cloe Rodrigue said the unidentified Canadian died Saturday. Rodrigue added that the department is investigating the incident through its consular offices in Amman, Jordan. She would not confirm the circumstances. The Canadian Press reports that, according to a senior government source, there are reports that the U.S. military may have been involved.
The source said a man named Ali Alwan may have died after U.S. forces "tracked" a target using a helicopter gunship. "The family wants the government to investigate," the source told The Canadian Press. "They believe it was an attack by coalition forces." The Star reported Wednesday that a Dr. Ali Alwan was listed as the director of Basra's Port Hospital in 2003 by the United Nations.
A Liberal MP responsible for Canadians abroad said the government is still investigating at this stage. "There are a number of conflicting reports as to how the individual was killed," said Dan McTeague, Parliamentary Secretary to the Minister of Foreign Affairs. "At this stage, we don't have details as to how he was killed. We are looking at all aspects of this case to arrive at some conclusion. ... We only have anecdotal information," he told The Canadian Press.
Posted by: Steve ||
04/27/2005 10:19 Comments ||
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#8
Oh great, now the Canadians will pull their troops out... Damn quagmire.
#9
Dammit, we keep TELLING you, sew a Canadian flag on your backpack and have it prominently displayed at all times ! Otherwise, crap like this happens.
Posted by: Carl in N.H. ||
04/27/2005 11:47 Comments ||
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#10
"We don't need no bulletproof vest. We got a maple leaf!"
That's what happens when you have no hockey. They start to wander.
Posted by: john ||
04/27/2005 13:09 Comments ||
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#11
hee hee John! You're a natural. Find the linker thing.
Two bombs exploded at a five-hour interval on a railway track in Dera Allah Yar, some 340 kilometres south of Quetta, on Tuesday. Police officer Abdul Latif Baloch said that a police team found a bomb and was searching the track for more bombs when the first bomb went off. He said three policemen suffered minor injuries. "The bomb exploded after Chiltan Express had just passed the railway track and Quetta Express was a few kilometres away," a local journalist said. Baloch said that the police had arrested two suspects on the basis of information given by witnesses.
The second bomb exploded at about 10.45pm near the Sohbatpur railway crossing. A police official told Daily Times by phone that the explosion had damaged the track, but no casualty was reported.
Posted by: Fred ||
04/27/2005 00:00:00 ||
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An Indian court convicted seven men on Tuesday for killing five policemen who were guarding US government offices in the eastern city of Calcutta more than three years ago, an official said. The policemen were killed when two gunmen on a motorcycle opened fire with automatic weapons outside the American Centre that houses US trade and cultural offices. Another 17 people, mainly policemen, were wounded.
"The seven accused were convicted on charges of waging war against the state...," Public Prosecutor Ashok Bakshi told reporters outside the high-security Presidency jail, where the men were held. He said Judge Basudeb Majumder, who held court hearings inside the jail due to security concerns, would announce sentences on Wednesday for the seven men. Within days of the attack, police gunned down two men who officials said were members of the Pakistan-based Lashkar-e-Taiba militant group, adding that one of dead men had taken part in the Calcutta raid. The other is still missing.
Posted by: Fred ||
04/27/2005 00:00:00 ||
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#1
Gallows for seven in American Center attack
A city court on Wednesday handed out death penalty to Dubai-based underworld don Aftab Ansari and six others for the attack outside the American Center here that left five policemen dead five years ago.
The acting chief judge of the civil and sessions court, Basudeb Majumdar, on Tuesday found the group of seven â Ansari, Rehan Alam, Adil Hassan, Hasrat Alam, Shakil Akhtar, Musharat Hussain and Jamaluddin Nasser â guilty of using banned and sophisticated arms to kill. This is a crime under Section 27 (C) of the Arms Act and can only draw the death sentence. Public prosecutor Nabakumar Ghosh said another charge â sedition â almost always fetched capital punishment.
Ansari, apparently, was prepared for what was coming at the end of an in-camera session held under tight security. "Youâve seen all the evidence and know whether Iâm innocent. Iâm prepared for any punishment you deem fit," defence counsel Shahid Imam quoted him as saying The defence said it would go appeal against the judgment in Calcutta High Court.
The hearing began at 11:10 am, starting with Ansari, and taking about 10 minutes each with the six others. The pronouncement came around 4.50 pm. When the verdict finally came, it was the steepest death figure to be handed down in a single case. They are among the 15 chargesheeted by Kolkata Police for the American Center strike on 22 January 2002. Police are yet to lay hands on six of the accused. Two were acquitted on Tuesday. Another was killed in an encounter at Hazaribagh a week after the attack.
Posted by: john ||
04/27/2005 16:40 Comments ||
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A multi-volume chronology and reference guide set detailing three years of the Mexican Drug War between 2010 and 2012.
Rantburg.com and borderlandbeat.com correspondent and author Chris Covert presents his first non-fiction work detailing
the drug and gang related violence in Mexico.
Chris gives us Mexican press dispatches of drug and gang war violence
over three years, presented in a multi volume set intended to chronicle the death, violence and mayhem which has
dominated Mexico for six years.
Rantburg was assembled from recycled algorithms in the United States of America. No
trees were destroyed in the production of this weblog. We did hurt some, though. Sorry.
Saudi Interior Minister
The Yemeni government has put thousands of religious schools between a rock and a hard place by demanding schools to either close doors or come under its full supervision. Education Minister Abdel Salam Al-Joufi threatened to crack down hard on schools found in violation of law, which puts the country's education system under government scrutiny. "It has been always the case for the government to encourage non-governmental education and give licenses to more schools as long as they abide by the ministry's curricula," he told IslamOnline.net on Monday, April 25. 
Police on the border between France and Spain say they nabbed hundreds of illegal aliens, most of them from India and Pakistan, trying to take advantage of a Spanish amnesty. The window closes on May 7. It opened on February 7 to allow illegal immigrants in Spain to regularise their situation. An AFP correspondent at the Biriatou border post in France saw over 100 aliens arriving there on Monday in minibuses driven by Spanish police. They were handed over to French police. Another 100 or so were nabbed on Saturday, said the French border police, adding that many others had crossed the border into Spain in cars, by train, and even on foot. 
A suspected member of the Al-Qaeda-linked Abu Sayyaf gang was killed Tuesday in a clash with government forces in the southern Philippine island of Sulu, the military said Wednesday. Brigadier General Alexandet Aleo, chief of Task Force Comet, said the encounter occurred in Barangay Darayan, Patikul, Sulu, at around 6 a.m. Pursuit operations against the other members of the Abu Sayyaf group were ongoing, Aleo said. Agence France-Presse, quoting Marine commander Colonel Juancho Sabban, had earlier reported that two Abu Sayyaf bandits were killed in the encounter. There were no reports of casualties among the soldiers, the wire agency added. The firefight came a day after a landmine allegedly planted by Abu Sayyaf rebels killed three soldiers in the adjacent town of Maimbung.
COLOMBO: Tamil Tiger rebels took over a government-run health centre in northeast Sri Lanka and turned it into a political office, the military said on Tuesday. Military spokesman Brig. Daya Ratnayake said the health centre, near the northeastern port of Trincomalee, was closed when two rebels demanded the key from a guard and then set up their office. Ratnayake said the military has lodged a complaint with European observers monitoring a 2002 cease-fire between the government and the rebels. The rebels did not immediately comment on the military allegation. A spokeswoman for the monitoring mission, Tiina Nurmimaki, said monitors have gone to the area to investigate the complaint. 
Gunmen shot dead a member of Iraq's parliament outside her house in Baghdad, Iraqi police said Wednesday. Police identified the victim as Lame'a abed Khadawi, a woman who is a member of a coalition headed by caretaker Prime Minister Iyad Allawi. 
The recovery of a laptop computer in Iraq by American forces in February has helped in the capture of several associates of the Jordanian militant Abu Musab al-Zarqawi, Pentagon officials said Tuesday. The laptop was found in a vehicle used by Mr. Zarqawi as he fled to avoid imminent capture by American troops near the city of Ramadi on Feb. 20, the officials said. ABC News, which disclosed the existence of the laptop this week, reported that United States officials believed they had nearly caught Mr. Zarqawi there after receiving a tip. Using leads found on the computer, troops have taken into custody several suspected associates of Mr. Zarqawi in the past two months and have raided at least one location in Iraq where bomb-making materials were found, according to one Defense Department official. A senior Pentagon official said, "It's been very valuable information."
KARACHI: The police arrested two activists of the 
Nineteen prisoners escaped after attackers opened fire and hurled bombs at a court complex in eastern India, local media reported on Tuesday. Five people were injured in the attack on a district court building in Hazaribagh district of eastern Jharkhand state, police told the Press Trust of India. They said the attack was probably aimed at freeing the suspects. Some were facing charges of murder, local television reported. Forty-one prisoners were about to board a prison van after their court appearances when the unidentified assailants launched their attack in which at least three bombs were hurled, district police chief Ashish Batra said. Police fired back on the attackers and on prisoners trying to flee, he said. Maoist rebels operate in Hazaribagh but police could not immediately confirm whether this was a rebel attack.
Two bombs exploded at a five-hour interval on a railway track in 
