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Italy hostage released in Kabul
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Page 1: WoT Operations
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Arabia
The Guardians of Somalia's Misery
The Guardians of Somalia's Decade Long Misery

By Said Saryan
A Writer on Somali Contemporary Public Affairs

Continued on Page 49
Posted by: Throlush Ebbealet1184 || 06/09/2005 16:32 || Comments || Link || [0 views] Top|| File under:

#1  Send him a copy of Blackhawk Down. F*ck all y'all.
Posted by: BH || 06/09/2005 18:18 Comments || Top||

#2  Gary Gordon... Randy Shughart... Matt Rierson... Ray Frank... Earl Fillmore... James Smith...
Posted by: Matt || 06/09/2005 18:20 Comments || Top||

#3  Fixing Somalia would take more troops and significantly more time than Iraq will have done. The only way for outsiders to re-establish order and civilization in Somalia would be to set up a Colonial Mandate, and spend the blood and treasure of a generation. Ain't gonna happen -- the Somali peepul are going to have to rise up against their Warlord oppressors and take control of their own destiny. Otherwise they'll continue living as their ancestors did before the Europeans took over.
Posted by: trailing wife || 06/09/2005 21:40 Comments || Top||


Omani sultan pardons 31
Oman's Sultan Qaboos yesterday pardones all 31 Islamists jailed for plotting to overthrow the Gulf Arab state's government, the state news agency ONA said yesterday. An Oman court last month sentenced six men to 20 years while 24 were jailed for periods of seven to ten years. One received a one-year sentence. ONA said Sultan Qaboos issued a decree granting them a pardon but gave no more details.

The group includes preachers, Islamic scholars, university professors and government figures. The government had accused the men of trying to set up Islamic clerical rule in Oman. There was no suggestion they had links to radical Sunni group al Qaeda led by Osama bin Laden.

Witnesses at the trial said the group denied planning to overthrow the government and insisted that their aim was to strengthen the Ibadi Muslim sect to which Oman's ruler Sultan Qaboos and the majority of Omanis belong.

The imamate, a centuries-old Ibadi tradition of politico-religious leadership by an imam, was abolished in Oman in 1959. The men were arrested in December as part of an unprecedented crackdown on Islamists in Oman. They were accused of targeting a major shopping festival in Muscat.
Posted by: Dan Darling || 06/09/2005 15:25 || Comments || Link || [0 views] Top|| File under:

#1  In other words, he said " Ah, what the heck. We're all muslims".
Posted by: bigjim-ky || 06/09/2005 15:43 Comments || Top||

#2  Its a strange story. As I recall their main concern was increasing wahabi influence over the Ibadi sect and the coup was to install the Sultan as absolute ruler like his father.
Posted by: phil_b || 06/09/2005 16:44 Comments || Top||

#3  Keep in mind that 31 is the sum of 19 and 12, both fine numbers in their own right and deserving of respect. It is best to keep in mind that 12 thou not Prime is USDA Good and Plenty.
Posted by: Shipman || 06/09/2005 17:58 Comments || Top||


Caribbean-Latin America
Ecuador Building Housing Citibank Bombed
GUAYAQUIL, Ecuador - A bomb exploded early Wednesday outside an office building housing a Citibank branch, blowing out windows and causing some damage but no injuries, police said. The so-called Group of People's Combatants, or GCP by its initials in Spanish, claimed responsibility for the attack. An e-mail sent to The Associated Press, claiming to be from the group, said the blast was in opposition to free trade talks between Ecuador, Peru and Colombia with the United States aimed at opening tariff-free access to U.S. markets. The 10th round of negotiations are now taking place in this Pacific coast city, the country's banking and financial hub.
Posted by: Fred || 06/09/2005 00:00 || Comments || Link || [0 views] Top|| File under:

#1  Chavez's and Fidel's legacy.
They both should be taken out before they cause any more damage.
Posted by: TMH || 06/09/2005 8:09 Comments || Top||


Down Under
Jihad Jack's Lawyers Lodge Official Complaint
LAWYERS for terrorism suspect Jack Thomas will lodge an official complaint about a television quiz show question they say could prejudice his trial. Mr Thomas, charged with receiving financial support from al-Qa'ida, providing the group with resources or support to help carry out a terrorist attack and having a false passport, was the subject of a question on Monday's Who Wants To Be a Millionaire. On the program, a contestant answered a $1000 question that asked: "Suspected of associating with the terror network al-Qa'ida, Joseph Terrence Thomas, was dubbed what? a) Jihad Jack; b) Joe Blow; c) Terror Terry; or d) Thomas the Tank Buster."

Thomas's solicitor, Rob Stary, said yesterday he would lodge a complaint with the Victorian Director of Public Prosecutions this week. "I think it's completely inappropriate to trivialise the matter when court proceedings are well and truly in place," Mr Stary said. "These are serious charges, and my client is entitled to the presumption of innocence."

Thomas's brother, Les Thomas, said their grandmother, aged in her late 70s, watched as the question was aired. "My grandmother nearly choked on her biscuits when she saw it," Mr Thomas said. He said the contestant had asked host Eddie McGuire to lock his answer in, and McGuire said: "Apparently he's been locked in for quite a while." Mr Thomas said a reasonable person who heard the question about his brother "would come away with the idea he actually calls himself Jihad Jack, which was never the case". His brother had adopted the name Jihad, a word he understood to mean "spiritual striving", when he converted to Islam in 1996. "Jihad Jack is a nice piece of alliteration the media has come up with, and the whole connotation is of a mad bomber who is intent on causing death and destruction. "That's not the brother I have known all my life."

A spokeswoman for Nine said the program's producers stood by the question. "The information is very much in the public domain," the spokeswoman said. "It didn't refer to what Jack Thomas might have done, more so what he has been dubbed."
Posted by: Spavirt Pheng6042 || 06/09/2005 00:00 || Comments || Link || [0 views] Top|| File under:

#1  I thought he was "The Wombat of Islam."
Posted by: Seafarious || 06/09/2005 0:24 Comments || Top||

#2  I love the way they worked in Granny choking on her chow. Nice touch of theatre.

Lawyers...
Posted by: mojo || 06/09/2005 0:43 Comments || Top||

#3  LOL. he needs some nice chisel front teeth.

A Wombat is too cool, maybe the greater Pacifica Pocket Gopher would suit his wuzzyness better.
Posted by: Red Dog || 06/09/2005 0:44 Comments || Top||

#4  I get the feeling his solicitor is trying to distract me. But from what? Oh, yeah, the truth.

Hang that motherf*cker.
Posted by: bigjim-ky || 06/09/2005 15:17 Comments || Top||

#5  Which one, Jihad Jerk or The Lawyer?
Posted by: .com || 06/09/2005 15:45 Comments || Top||


Europe
Mzoudi acquitted, but still going to be kicked out of Germany
A German federal court confirmed a "not guilty" verdict on a Moroccan man accused of links to the Sept. 11 attacks, but authorities still want to expel him from Germany. In February 2004, a Hamburg court cleared Abdelghani Mzoudi of being involved in the September 11, 2001 attacks on the United States.

The appeals court turned down an appeal by the prosecution on Thursday, saying that there was no sufficient evidence to justify a retrial. Despite the court's decision, a Hamburg interior ministry spokesman said the government would expel Mzoudi on the grounds of "support for a terrorist group." He said that Mzoudi had two weeks to leave Germany voluntarily or be deported to Morocco. Asked how Mzoudi could be deported despite being innocent, the spokesman said: "These are two different things. A criminal offence has to be proven before a court, but under the law on foreigners, suspicion is enough" as basis for deportation.

Mzoudi's lawyer, Hartmut Jacobi, said he wouldn't appeal and that he would go home to Morocco.

Testimony at Mzoudi's trial showed that he was a friend of lead hijacker Mohamed Atta and other members of the Hamburg cell that led the Sept. 11 attacks. Mzoudi has always denied any knowledge of the plot. He was acquitted last year of complicity in the attacks and of belonging to a terrorist group. The presiding judge at the time described him as a "fringe figure" and said he was being freed because of insufficient evidence against him, not because the court was convinced of his innocence.

The trial led to tensions between Germany and the United States because of Washington's refusal to allow al Qaeda detainees to testify. The chief federal prosecutor described the U.S. behavior as "incomprehensible." However, a top U.S. official told reporters in Berlin just before Thursday's decision that Mzoudi's acquittal would not harm relations with Germany. "It is not going to poison our relations," said Daniel Fried, assistant secretary of state for European and Eurasian affairs.
This article starring:
ABDELGHANI MZUDIal-Qaeda
Daniel Fried, assistant secretary of state for European and Eurasian affairs
Mzoudi's lawyer, Hartmut Jacobi
Posted by: Dan Darling || 06/09/2005 15:56 || Comments || Link || [0 views] Top|| File under:

#1  "It is not going to poison our relations," because they couldn't get any worse,
Posted by: 3dc || 06/09/2005 16:42 Comments || Top||


(German) Court Upholds 9-11 Suspect's Acquittal
A German appeals court Thursday upheld the acquittal of a Sept. 11 suspect in a case decided partly by U.S. refusals to allow the use of testimony from captured al-Qaida members. Abdelghani Mzoudi was acquitted in 2004 of charges he helped hijackers Mohamed Atta, Marwan al-Shehhi and Ziad Jarrah in their plot to attack the United States on Sept. 11, 2001. The five-judge panel did not immediately say why it had upheld the verdict.

Mzoudi's case will now be handed over to immigration authorities. With his student visa no longer valid, Mzoudi has two weeks to leave the country, said Norbert Smekal, a spokesman for the Hamburg state immigration department. The process could be delayed, however, if Mzoudi decides to apply for political asylum or take other legal steps, said Hartmut Jacobi, one of his attorneys. "He has not yet decided whether he will remain here," Jacobi told The Associated Press.

Mzoudi had been charged with more than 3,000 counts of accessory to murder and membership in a terrorist organization for allegedly providing logistical support to the three Hamburg-based suicide hijackers. Testimony at his trial showed that Mzoudi trained at the same al-Qaida camps as the hijackers and was close friends with them in Hamburg. But Hamburg state court judges ruled that the prosecution failed to prove he knew anything about their plot.

In their appeal, prosecutors argued that the Hamburg judges failed to rule on whether Atta's group constituted a terrorist organization, making it impossible to determine whether Mzoudi was a member. Mzoudi's friend and fellow Moroccan, Mounir el Motassadeq, was convicted in 2003 of identical charges and sentenced to the maximum 15 years in prison.

The same panel that heard Mzoudi's case at the Federal Court of Justice overturned el Motassadeq's conviction last year and ordered a retrial, ruling that he had been unfairly denied testimony from al-Qaida captives in U.S. custody — an issue that also contributed to Mzoudi's acquittal. A verdict in the el Motassadeq case is expected in August. Hamburg authorities have said that if he is also acquitted, they will move to expel him to Morocco as well, once his appeals are exhausted.
This article starring:
ABDELGHANI MZUDIal-Qaeda
Hartmut Jacobi, one of his attorneys
MARWAN AL SHEHIal-Qaeda
MOHAMED ATTAal-Qaeda
MUNIR EL MOTASADEQal-Qaeda
Norbert Smekal, a spokesman for the Hamburg state immigration department
ZIAD JARRAHal-Qaeda
Posted by: ed || 06/09/2005 07:28 || Comments || Link || [0 views] Top|| File under:

#1  my mother used to call that cutting off your nose to spite your face.
Posted by: 2b || 06/09/2005 8:20 Comments || Top||

#2  Ok, so they hate the US and want to spite us. Done. But, did they have the decency to implant an RFID chip on this bozo?
Posted by: 3dc || 06/09/2005 9:43 Comments || Top||

#3  It sounds like he's really being acquitted in revenge for U.S. withholding A.Q. prisoner evidence.
Posted by: trailing wife || 06/09/2005 10:10 Comments || Top||

#4  Does anybody know just how good a case they had? Clearly he's al-Qaida, but did they have enough info to prove he was involved in the plot? All I know is the brief news summaries . ..
Posted by: James || 06/09/2005 10:30 Comments || Top||

#5  Wonder how many eyes and ears are on him now? Where will he go? Who will he lead us to? Staying put is no option for these guys.
Posted by: Jack is Back! || 06/09/2005 10:39 Comments || Top||

#6  Yeah, just because he trained at an al-qaida terrorist camp and lived and worked and associated with terrorists doesnt mean anything. What fucking planet did these judges come from?
Posted by: bigjim-ky || 06/09/2005 15:10 Comments || Top||

#7  the moons of dhimmitude.
Posted by: Abu PigJerky || 06/09/2005 16:14 Comments || Top||


Fifth Column
Pentagon takes aim at rank and file of al Qaeda
The Washington Post first reported last week that the Bush team is re-evaluating its anti-terror strategy. The Times subsequently conducted interviews to learn details of some of the ideas.
Officials told The Times there is some frustration at the review's slow pace. One called it a "complicated process" and blamed the National Security Council staff at the White House for delays in pushing all sides to agree.
"The Pentagon has been trying to overcome a lot of resistance," said the second Bush official. "Anytime they make their case, they get resistance."
That official said the Pentagon wants the intelligence community to put more emphasis on signal intercepts to identify al Qaeda foot soldiers.
Posted by: 3dc || 06/09/2005 02:19 || Comments || Link || [0 views] Top|| File under:


Home Front: WoT
More on the 5th Lodi arrest, Pakistan camp run by Fazlur Rehman
A fifth member of the Pakistani community in Lodi, California, was arrested in a federal terror investigation, although none of the five has been charged with terrorism involvement.

Mohammed Hassan Adil, 19, was detained by Immigration and Customs Enforcement agents on an immigration violation on Wednesday, according to ICE spokeswoman Virginia Kice. Adil is the son of Lodi Muslim leader Muhammed Adil Khan, who was detained Sunday along with Lodi Mosque Imam Shabbir Ahmed, both of whom were held on similar immigration charges, according to Kice. All three men are Pakistani natives.

Authorities earlier this week arrested a father and son, identified as 47-year-old Umer Hayat and 22-year-old Hamid Hayat from Lodi, on charges they lied to FBI investigators. The son is to be arraigned Friday. They have not been charged with terrorist involvement, although a criminal complaint alleges the son attended an al Qaeda training camp in Pakistan.
Continued on Page 49
This article starring:
FBI special agent-in-charge Keith Slotter
FBI Special Agent John Cauthen
HAMID HAIATLodi mosque
Maulana Fazlur Rehman
MAULANA FAZLUR REHMAN KHALILJamiat-ul-Ansar
MOHAMED HASAN ADILLodi mosque
MUHAMED ADIL KHANLodi mosque
Sacramento attorney Johnny Griffin III
SHABIR AHMEDLodi mosque
Terror expert Peter Bergen
UMER HAIATLodi mosque
Jamiat Ulema-e-Islam
Posted by: Dan Darling || 06/09/2005 15:20 || Comments || Link || [1 views] Top|| File under:

#1  Terror expert Peter Bergen cast doubt on that detail.

Who are we to argue with an expert?

If Fazlur Rehman Khalil ran it, that is must have been a Harkat ul Mujahideen/Jamaat ul Ansar training camp. Its close proximity to Army headquaters probably makes for an easy commute for the Pak commandos who run the training camps.
Posted by: Paul Moloney || 06/09/2005 20:52 Comments || Top||


Bush ready to consider alternatives to Guantanamo
I've got some. They involve sharks...
Posted by: tu3031 || 06/09/2005 10:31 || Comments || Link || [0 views] Top|| File under:

#1  The story and the headline don't match. Bush doesn't say he is ready to consider alternatives. He said they are exploring alternatives, a completely different meaning than the headline said.

Here is what he is quoted as saying:

We're exploring all alternatives as to how best to do the main objective, which is to protect America.

I report, you decide.
Posted by: badanov || 06/09/2005 10:43 Comments || Top||

#2  Shoot 'em in place?
Posted by: mojo || 06/09/2005 11:12 Comments || Top||

#3  The US MUST conform to the requirements outlined in the Geneva Conventions for illegal combatants. Anything less would be immoral.

Shoot-in-place DEFINATELY!
Posted by: Leigh || 06/09/2005 12:27 Comments || Top||

#4  Yes, they should be killed in strict accordance with the Geneva Suggestions.
Posted by: bigjim-ky || 06/09/2005 12:31 Comments || Top||

#5  If people want Gitmo to be dismantled, that would mean killing more terrorists on the battlefield instead of capturing them. Works for me.
Posted by: Bomb-a-rama || 06/09/2005 13:58 Comments || Top||

#6  Prisoners should be treated with strict accordance t to the Star Trek Conventions!
Posted by: rjschwarz || 06/09/2005 14:07 Comments || Top||

#7  fishing bait in GitMo bay.
Posted by: 3dc || 06/09/2005 16:45 Comments || Top||

#8  Thinking.
If Gitmo is primarily housing captures of the Afghan campaign and most of them have been in place for 1 to 2 years, the probability of the interned providing timely intel is quickly eroding. Meantime, the radical left lawyers and their allies on the bench are unfortunately making headway in their litigation of the war by judicial decree. Since Congress is cowardly allowing the third branch of government to establish new powers of intrusion and oversight in the conduct of war, then the Commander is engaging in some interesting manuevering. Once the interned are placed in Geneva Convention status, they only need to render name, rank, id number, and date of birth. However, if they are no longer a source of intel or intel so old it no longer is useable, then the Convention status means they are treated as POWs and subject to legal standards which the court can only intrude upon by outright fiat declaration of powers they do not have. The boys remain in limbo till Congress repeals SJR:23 of 12 Sept 2001. Basically, their living standards remain the same as any other prisoner maintained in any other high security prison in the states or federal prison system. Since they become classified as POWs, the lawyers can no longer represent them, only representative of the ICRC who can only cite treaty standards for treatment. Not that they won't try to create new ones, but as AI is quickly learning, it doesn't sell with the only audience that has any influence on the matter.
Posted by: Jert Flinert7749 || 06/09/2005 18:25 Comments || Top||


Fifth al-Qaida arrest made in California
LODI, Calif., June 9 (UPI) -- A fifth man has been arrested in Lodi, Calif., on suspicion of being affiliated with an al-Qaida cell planning terror attacks in the United States. A father and son were first arrested Friday, then two Muslim religious leaders and a member of a local Pakistani community were arrested Wednesday, the Sacramento Bee reported.
FBI special agent Keith Slotter told reporters that some of those charged "have received terrorist training abroad, with the specific intent to initiate a terrorist attack in the United States," although there was no evidence found of specific plans, targets or timing of a possible attack. "We believe through our investigation that various individuals connected to al-Qaida have been operating in the Lodi area in various capacities," Slotter said.
The father and son have not been charged with terrorist involvement, but rather with lying to federal authorities. A criminal complaint alleges the son attended an al-Qaida training camp in Pakistan for six months ending in 2004. The other three men were charged with immigration offenses, CNN said.
Posted by: Steve || 06/09/2005 08:51 || Comments || Link || [0 views] Top|| File under:

#1  Lodi you say?

all right...let's bring on the Chandra Levy conspiracy stories!
Posted by: 2b || 06/09/2005 9:40 Comments || Top||

#2  I am not an alarmist...but, it is only a matter of time before those AQ Monkeys pull off another significant terror operation - planned and trained from within our borders. I don't have the answer on how to stop it constitutionally, however my suggestion is to "get medieval" on those bastards.
Posted by: TBone65 || 06/09/2005 10:16 Comments || Top||

#3  I would not be surprised if more arrests are not made. Something tells me this is bigger than the five already in custody. So far the father/son are the only ones with direct links to what is called a terrorists training camp. I saw some local Pakis on the news last night and they think this has more to do with some family feud than terrorism. Could these people be more out of touch with reality? Right after that they had the Deputy Imperial PooBah of CAIR who said he was disturbed about the way Muslims were being “targeted” by the FBI. Mind you this is AFTER Jr. admitted to attending a TERRORISTS camp while on his two year sabbatical in Pakistan. To make matters even more fun the Mayor of Lodi claims he saw four WHITE MEN harassing a Pakistani BOY. Now I live is a diverse community with Fareast people and Latin Americans and it’s real hard to tell the difference unless you are standing right next to them. Both have black hair and darkish skin. So either the Mayor was standing right next to the boy and ALLOWED the white men to harass him or he is lying to make the community shameful for thinking ill of the Pakis terrorists. IMHO the people of U.S. have been greatly restrained in their reactions to the many revelations of terrorists living among us and making shit up like the mayor did just diminishes that fact. Too bad the Muslims around the world don’t reciprocate with the same respect when if come to some (Koran in toilet) allegation regarding Americans.
Posted by: Cyber Sarge || 06/09/2005 11:41 Comments || Top||

#4  CS, I think you are right. The quick admissions by the Father make it seem something big is up. Mind you, I was joking about the Chandra Levy conspiracy stories, but there were loons on all sides saying that Gary Condit had connections with the wealthy middle eastern men.

Perhaps Lodi is a bit like Michigan, where a foothold was grasped and politicians who were, how shall we say, influenced.

I'll put on my waders for a moment and dive in to note that it is interesting, that in the cases of Polly Klass, The Yosemite murders (which Carey Stayner later claimed credit for) and the Chandra Levy case, they all had serious allegations that these women were abducted as part of a ring that abducted women for wealthy middle eastern men. Mind you - this was LONG before 9/11 and all accounts are completely unrelated. The common theme was the accusation of abductions by middle eastern men, later dismissed. But never quite accounted for in all cases was how those bodies came to be where they were found. All cases had ties to the modesto area. Regarding Klass, the aunt wrote a book making the allegation back in the 1980's. In Yosemite murders, one of the suspects, prior to Carey Stayner admission, told the FBI (James Maddox also of Oklahoma City fame) that there was a ring in the area, and the claims were taken seriously until Stayner admitted to his almost inhuman ability to get that body to the location where it was found. I followed that case closely, and I can tell you, there were many, many unanswered questions (as there were in the Levy and Klass case) regarding how the bodies came to be where they were.

Anyhoo..we'll never know. But it is interesting nevertheless that all of those murders had similar mo's. And there were others in that general area that are questionable as well.

Just a little conspiracy morsel to chew on for the day.
Posted by: 2b || 06/09/2005 13:28 Comments || Top||

#5  I don't have the answer on how to stop it constitutionally

You will never stop it constitutionally. There is one radical option that would work though - let Americans clean out their own neighborhoods and towns of these people w/o the threat of prosecution, but in doing so we would stoop to their level. Its a Catch-22. In today's day and age I really think our society will come to accept daily losses on par of Israel and move along. Our efforts to fight this will be as affective as the "War on Drugs".
Posted by: Yosemite Sam || 06/09/2005 13:31 Comments || Top||

#6  I tend to think that these a-holes are all pumped up when they're with each other, yapping about how they will bring america to it's knees, it's allan's will, etc, etc, etc.

but I also think that when reality punches them in the face, handcuffed by the feds and they're no longer surrounded by same-thinking miscreants, they soil their pants.

it's one thing to be screaming allan akbar in some pakistani no man's land, shooting at a photograph of bush, egged on by ignorant "leaders" who have no intention of ever actually putting themselves in harm's way . . .

it's another to be sitting in an interrogation room faced with the harsh reality that you really are powerless, stupid and not even remotely divinely protected.

they'll give it up. all of it. just for a promise of clean underwear in return.
Posted by: PlanetDan || 06/09/2005 13:39 Comments || Top||

#7  All cases had ties to the modesto area

Really? I remember living in SF area during the Polly Klass abduction and murder (by a 3 time loser it turns out). If memory serves me correct, she was living in Petaluma at the time. Modesto is nowhere near Petaluma. This conspiracy theory is a real stretch since Levy was found in Rock Creek park in DC. Yosemite is closer to Modesto than Petaluma but not by much.
Posted by: Jack is Back! || 06/09/2005 14:45 Comments || Top||

#8  It's the Rohnert Park Middle-Eastern Mafia. man!
Posted by: mojo || 06/09/2005 15:39 Comments || Top||

#9  Oh Allah, Trapped in Lodi O!
Posted by: Ibrihim bin Fogerty || 06/09/2005 18:37 Comments || Top||

#10  Planet Dan has it right A lot of these yayhoos get all fired up betweens themselves but in the line of fire they are pure chicken. Israel being a prime example of how a small, out-numbered, and out-gunned Army can stop and then crush one. Other than the Yom Kippur war I can't think of a single batle where the Arabs caused Jews to retreat. BTW that retreat was very temporary and Nasser got his ass handed back to him in a box.
Posted by: Cyber Sarge || 06/09/2005 21:10 Comments || Top||


International-UN-NGOs
UN alert as nuclear plans go missing
Electronic drawings that give comprehensive details of how to build and test equipment essential for making nuclear bombs have vanished and could be put up for sale on the international black market, according to UN investigators. The blueprints, running to hundreds of pages, show how to make centrifuges for enriching uranium. In addition, the investigators have been unable to trace key components for uranium centrifuge rigs and fear that drawings for a nuclear warhead have been secreted away and could be for sale.
Inspectors at the UN's nuclear authority, the International Atomic Energy Agency, have been investigating the worst nuclear smuggling racket ever uncovered, headed by the Pakistani scientist Abdul Qadeer Khan. The operation was discovered two years ago to be selling sensitive nuclear technology to Libya and Iran. A senior official said several sets of blueprints for uranium centrifuges - the so-called P-1 and more advanced P-2 systems which were peddled by the Khan network - have gone missing. "We know there were several sets of them prepared," said the official. "So who got those electronic drawings? We have only actually got to the one full set from Libya. So who got the rest, the copies? "We have no evidence they were destroyed. One possibility is another client. We just don't know where they are." A European diplomat privy to western intelligence on the Khan network added: "This is what keeps people awake at night. It's very sensitive. The fact that there are [nuclear] proliferation manuals kicking around is deeply disturbing."
The blueprints detail how to manufacture the components for a uranium centrifuge, what materials are needed, how to assemble the machines, and how to test them. The centrifuges are the main route to producing bomb-grade uranium. Uranium concentrate is converted into uranium hexafluoride gas which can be spun through cascades of centrifuges at super-high speeds to be enriched to weapons grade. "The big question is who else got this stuff [apart from Iran and Libya]," the European diplomat said.
Another diplomat pointed out that the Khan network was based in the Middle East and that Khan was known as the father of the Islamic bomb. He suggested that Syria and Egypt could be potential customers for the materials if they were still being offered. Khan is a national hero for creating the Pakistani nuclear bomb but is under house arrest in Islamabad since confessing to heading the network and being pardoned in February last year.
Although the network's operations extended to Europe, Africa, the Middle East, and the far east, its headquarters were in Dubai. Khan maintained a luxury apartment in Dubai. Following the uncovering of the network in October 2003, investigators went to the Dubai apartment only to find that it had been emptied, apparently by Khan's daughter Dina.
The Libyan leader, Colonel Muammar Gadafy, confessed to his secret nuclear bomb programme and gave it up in December 2003. Three months later in Tripoli, the UN inspectors were given two CD-roms and one computer hard drive. One CD contained aset of drawings and manuals for the P-1 centrifuge system, the other for the more advanced P-2.
The instructions are in English, Dutch and German, and the designs are from Urenco, the Dutch-British-German consortium which is a leader in centrifuge technology and is the source of Khan's knowhow from his time working there in the 1970s. The CDs and hard drive are at IAEA headquarters in Vienna, where they have been analysed. The investigators now know that the scanning of the original blueprints was done in Dubai and when.
In addition to these blueprints, Khan also supplied Libya with drawings for an old Chinese nuclear warhead design. The drawings, now in Washington under IAEA seal, were not complete, say sources, but were adequate to construct a crude nuclear device. Investigators suspect that the warhead design was also copied into electronic form and is still available to prospective clients. "There is reason to believe that there might even be some drawings related to nuclear weaponisation in electronic form," said the senior official.
It is now also clear that multiple components secretly made for Libya's $100m (£54.6m) centrifuge programme did not reach Libya and have gone missing. From their investigations of the nuclear programmes in Libya and Iran, the IAEA has concluded that pieces of the nuclear jigsaw have not been located. "We are still missing something from the picture in terms of critical equipment, certain parts of centrifuges ... There is equipment missing important enough for us to search, an amount that makes us worried," said the official.
Around a dozen individuals, including engineers, businessmen, and middlemen, were key figures in the Khan network, with dozens of other companies operating at a secondary level, according to those familiar with the investigation. Alleged Khan associates have been arrested in the Netherlands, Germany, Switzerland, South Africa, Dubai, and Malaysia, although none of those cases has yet come to full trial. British customs is also conducting an investigation into a British suspect.
Posted by: Steve || 06/09/2005 08:37 || Comments || Link || [0 views] Top|| File under:

#1  Expect the plans to show up on every bit-torrent site.
Posted by: ed || 06/09/2005 8:55 Comments || Top||

#2  I agree with ed.
Likely encrypted in a movie.
Posted by: 3dc || 06/09/2005 9:42 Comments || Top||

#3  note these are the A.Q. Khan plans he got in the 70'3 from a dutch company as well as possibly from IEAA originally. These plans have shown up in other places already before this. Im not really sure that this is such a big story other than that the UN and IEAA can not be trusted to keep safe inmportant material.
Posted by: robi || 06/09/2005 13:36 Comments || Top||


Southeast Asia
Thai bomb count
Tension gripped Pattani province yesterday after militants went on a trouble-making spree to create a chaotic day for officials.

They launched two bomb attacks, left six fake bombs at different locations, set fire to roadside shelters and signboards and spray-painted separatist messages in several districts.

The first bomb, contained in a paper box left under a bamboo bench, went off at 10am in front of the house of a Thai Buddhist in tambon Yamu of Yaring district. The blast damaged the roof and spewed shrapnel that wounded a Yaring police officer and three firefighters.

The wounded were identified as Pol Lt-Col Kowit Samarnchok, Rapeephan Chaisuwan, 31, Amnart Nipholwit, 42, and Kasem Sitthichai, 30.

``Police frequently sit on the bamboo bench in front of our house. The bomb attack was aimed at police,'' said Buakham Chaiprom, 30, a daughter of the house owner.

Another bomb went off at 2pm near a police booth in Muang district of Pattani. Nobody was injured in the attack.

Police also found six fake bombs at several spots in Yaring district including in front of a post office, a temple, a bank and schools.

Separatist messages were also spray-painted in white and red on roads, bridges and signboards in Yaring, Khok Pho and Sai Buri districts in the early hours of yesterday. One message read ``Get out! This is my land''. Another read ``Pattani Merdeka (Independent Pattani State)''.

Pol Col Suthon Ditsayabut, Yaring police chief, said roadside shelters in the district had been torched. Several Thai national flags and signboards were also found burnt.

He believed some students of the Jihad Witthaya private Islamic school might have carried out the arson attacks to take revenge after their school was closed down.

On May 19, a task force raided the school and found several VCDs showing al-Qaeda terrorist-style weapons training and documents inciting people to fight for an independent state.
Posted by: Dan Darling || 06/09/2005 15:49 || Comments || Link || [0 views] Top|| File under:


Syria-Lebanon-Iran
Iran reportedly upgrading nuke centrifuges
Iran plans to install tens of thousands of advanced centrifuges at its huge underground nuclear plant near the central city of Natanz, which eventually would enable it to enrich uranium nearly twice as quickly as anticipated, according to Western intelligence officials. Iran's timetable remains unknown, but the officials said preparatory work is under way at the plant and the decision to rely on the superior type of centrifuge suggests Iran could manufacture fissile material for a possible weapon sooner than expected.
Diplomats with knowledge of Iran's nuclear program said they could not confirm the information, but Iran said last year that it intended to use the updated centrifuges at some point in the future. Iran insists its nuclear program is for peaceful purposes. But the United States and the European Union fear Tehran intends to build atomic weapons in violation of the Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty.
Stopping Iran from mastering uranium enrichment is the central goal of the United States and the EU. They have threatened to refer Iran to the U.N. Security Council if Tehran abandons an agreement reached in November with three European governments to suspend enrichment activities. The concern centers on the possibility that, after developing sufficient enrichment capabilities, Iran could more readily shift production from low- level enriched uranium for nuclear reactors to high levels for weapons, either secretly or after withdrawing from the nonproliferation treaty. Iranian officials pledged Sunday to extend the voluntary suspension of enrichment until the end of July as part of negotiations with Germany, France and Britain over the disputed nuclear program. But Tehran has said that the suspension is both voluntary and temporary, and that it intends to eventually produce fuel for civilian reactors.
The complex at Natanz, about 150 miles south of Tehran, is the heart of Iran's enrichment effort. Plans call for more than 50,000 centrifuges to be installed in two vast underground halls where they could produce large quantities of enriched uranium, the Western intelligence officials said. Earlier this year, Iran finished covering the main plant with 25 feet of concrete and an additional layer of earth. Satellite photos show that the entrance to the underground plant and two large air shafts were concealed by what appear to be dummy buildings. Journalists taken on a government tour of Natanz in March reported that the 1,100-acre site is ringed by at least 10 anti-aircraft batteries. Iranian officials said the missiles and underground facilities were prompted by concerns over possible attacks by the United States or Israel.
An inspection team from the International Atomic Energy Agency, the United Nations' nuclear watchdog, will begin work today in Natanz. The team will check electrical work under way and verify that Iran is complying with the suspension in advance of the IAEA board meeting next week in Vienna, Austria. The agency has been investigating Iran's nuclear program since an exile group disclosed the existence of Natanz in August 2002, slowly unraveling an ambitious Iranian effort that was kept secret for nearly two decades. While questions remain, the IAEA says it has found no evidence of a weapons program.
Two intelligence officials and a nuclear expert, all from a government opposed to Iran's nuclear efforts, said they had developed "very solid information" about plans to install 54,000 centrifuges at Natanz. They said up to two-thirds of them would be the advanced model, known as the P-2. They conceded that they were uncertain about the key issue of when Iran would build and install the machines, and that they did not have hard evidence that Iran was currently manufacturing P-2's. Iran told the IAEA last year that it had stopped all research and development on P-2's. If Iran is building the advanced centrifuges, it would violate its agreements with the three European nations and the international agency, diplomats said.
"Their having made some planning should not be overly surprising," said a Western diplomat in Vienna, the IAEA's headquarters. "However, if there were production going on, it would be a breach of the suspension." Russia has agreed to provide fuel for Iran's nuclear reactor at Bushehr, which is scheduled to begin operations next year, but Iran says it plans a series of reactors to generate electricity and wants to produce its own fuel.
Posted by: Steve || 06/09/2005 10:35 || Comments || Link || [0 views] Top|| File under:

#1  The world is sleeping on this!
Posted by: Clomoter Shains6002 || 06/09/2005 11:45 Comments || Top||

#2  Don't worry. Kerry and Europe have a Plan!

Help is on the way!

(unfortunately he and his friends are sending the help to the Mad mullahs...)
Posted by: CrazyFool || 06/09/2005 12:03 Comments || Top||

#3  We need to focus neutron beams on those centrifuges... flash flash flash flash...


hmm... a scanning neutron beam from space....
(just to give all those near critical masses a push...)
Posted by: 3dc || 06/09/2005 13:46 Comments || Top||


Africa: Horn
30 dead in latest Somali festivities
At least 30 people have died since inter-clan fighting broke out on Monday in the town of Beletweyne, south-central Somalia.

More than 70 people have been wounded and hundreds more displaced in the violence, now in its fourth day, local sources told IRIN on Thursday.

The fighting broke out when militias from the Galje'el and Jajele sub-clans clashed on the west side of the town. It was reportedly triggered by a land dispute and revenge killings for the deaths of two Jajele men last week and one Galje'el man on Sunday.

The violence subsided on Tuesday afternoon after elders from a neutral clan intervened, but "resumed with greater intensity on Wednesday", Abdullahi Muhammad, a local journalist told IRIN. "It was the most intense yesterday [Wednesday]."

He added: "Beletweyne has seen fighting before, but never on this scale. It is as though they used the lull on Tuesday to reinforce their positions."

Wednesday's clashes occurred after mediation efforts by a committee set up by a neutral clan failed, Abdullahi said.

The two sides first agreed to a ceasefire on Wednesday, "but later reneged", Shuriye Hussein Hayow, an elder and a member of the committee, said.

When fighting subsided on Tuesday, the mediating committee managed to "bury the dead and take the wounded to hospital", Hayow said.

He said more people are probably affected but remained unaccounted for, as they did not make it to hospital.

The committee also brought to safety families who were stranded in their homes.

"We found people who were trapped in their own homes. They were running out of food and water." Abdullahi said.

He said the majority of those who were killed or injured were civilians, "mostly women and children" caught in the crossfire.

In an effort to reach a ceasefire, the mediation committee invited 10 elders from each side of the conflict to a meeting.

"We are offering to put neutral forces between the fighting parties to ensure that any ceasefire agreement holds," Hayow said. "I am hopeful that this time we will succeed."

Meanwhile, families continue to flee the fighting zone to the relative safety of the eastern side of Beletweyne and surrounding villages.

"The western side of town is like a ghost town. I don't think there will be anyone left if this continues for another day," Abdullahi said.
Posted by: Dan Darling || 06/09/2005 16:21 || Comments || Link || [0 views] Top|| File under:


Iraq-Jordan
Al-Qaeda sez it's holding 36 Iraqi troops prisoner, wants babes sprung
Al Qaeda's group in Iraq said on Thursday it was holding 36 Iraqi troops hostage and demanded the government free all women prisoners within 24 hours, according to a Web statement.

"We in the Al Qaeda Organisation for Holy War in Iraq give ... (Prime Minister) Ibrahim al-Jaafari 24 hours to free all Muslim women prisoners held in Interior Ministry jails," said the statement posted on an Islamist Website.

The statement said the group was holding 36 National Guards after raids in Western Iraq, and not 22 as reported by Iraqi police on Wednesday.

The Sunni Muslim group, which has often abducted and killed officials and soldiers, said the 36 were being questioned about their "crimes against Sunnis".

The statement was signed off with a name which usually accompanies the group's statements, but could not be immediately authenticated.

Iraqi police said 22 soldiers were kidnapped by gunmen after they left their base in western Iraq on Tuesday.

Violence and kidnappings have raised concerns that growing sectarian tensions between Shi'ites and Sunnis could push Iraq towards civil war.

Insurgents have stepped up attacks since a new Iraqi government was formed in late April, killing more than 800 police, soldiers, officials and civilians.
Posted by: Dan Darling || 06/09/2005 15:51 || Comments || Link || [1 views] Top|| File under:

#1  Last I heard, there were two - Dr. Germ and ... um ... But the bad guys would get amnesty int to find some more somehere in the gulag. They'd NEVER believe we let 'em ALL out! So they'll pop the hostages, anyway.

Reason 256 not to negotiate with terrorists.
Posted by: Bobby || 06/09/2005 16:12 Comments || Top||

#2  I find it strange that the release all women prisoners comes as a regular 'demand'. If there is only 2 of them (and I doubt there is many more) why are they so anxious to get them out?
Posted by: phil_b || 06/09/2005 16:37 Comments || Top||

#3  Those idiots are the most hard headed sons of bitches I have ever heard of. In all the kidnappings the govt. has never negotiated and never will. You'd think they would change their tactics, do something that works.
Posted by: bigjim-ky || 06/09/2005 16:39 Comments || Top||

#4  do the iraqi soldiers not carry guns or what how do so many kep getting kidnapped together at the same time?
Posted by: Thraing Hupoluper1864 || 06/09/2005 16:47 Comments || Top||

#5  Thraing Hupoluper1864 is right, don't these guys fight back. Or do they allow themselves be taken hostage, then realize to late that they are really going to be killed. If that's the case, I don't care.
Posted by: plainslow || 06/09/2005 18:25 Comments || Top||

#6  If there is only 2 of them (and I doubt there is many more) why are they so anxious to get them out?

IIRC both are Ba'athist leaders, one of them a chem or bio weapons expert. Or am I misremembering that?
Posted by: too true || 06/09/2005 18:39 Comments || Top||

#7  The two are Mrs. Anthrax and Dr. Germ.
Posted by: ed || 06/09/2005 19:39 Comments || Top||

#8  I figure Dr Germ and Anthrax either know where WMD is or can create WMD from scratch.

Do not let them fix dinner for you....
Posted by: RG || 06/09/2005 21:58 Comments || Top||


Afghanistan/South Asia
LeJ suicide sisters arrested
Pakistani police have arrested two sisters from an Islamic militant group with links to al-Qaeda, who were allegedly plotting suicide attacks against minority Shiite Muslims, officials said on Thursday.

They would have been the first female suicide bombers to strike the key US ally and were the subject of an intensive year-long hunt by security forces in Pakistan, which has suffered a recent wave of suicide bombings.

The pair, identified by police as Arifa and Habiba and said to be aged between 18 and 20, were seized from a hideout in the scenic northern tourist town of Swat early this week, a senior security official told AFP.

Investigators said they were trained by their uncle, a top member of the Sunni Muslim Lashkar-e-Jhangvi group, who was sentenced to death last week for killing 45 people in two suicide attacks on Shiite mosques in Karachi in 2004.

"Security agencies had been desperately looking for the two sisters and located them hiding in a house in Swat following a tip-off," a security official told AFP.

"It would have been the first attack of its kind and a very difficult one to prevent," added a senior police official involved in the interrogation of the uncle.

Police first revealed the existence of the two women in July 2004, when security forces were placed on high alert and told to look out for the pair.

The women's uncle, Gul Hasan, had admitted training his nieces for a suicide attack on a gathering of Shiite men and women, the police investigator told AFP.

Swat, where the women were arrested, is about 50km from the industrial city of Mardan, where alleged senior al-Qaeda operative Abu Faraj al-Libbi was arrested in early May.
This article starring:
ABU FARAJ AL LIBIal-Qaeda
GUL HASANLashkar-e-Jhangvi
Lashkar-e-Jhangvi
Posted by: Dan Darling || 06/09/2005 15:24 || Comments || Link || [1 views] Top|| File under:

#1  "It would have been the first attack of its kind and a very difficult one to prevent," added a senior police official ...

I guess that's the advantage of the burkha?
Posted by: Bobby || 06/09/2005 16:13 Comments || Top||

#2  Fatwa 8,495,621,357.../2005/6/9

Let the wimins go neykid


Graduated last in class @ Deobandi school of fiqh.
Posted by: Mullah Bevis Abduli || 06/09/2005 21:32 Comments || Top||


Iraq-Jordan
Jordan gives Zarqawi surrender ultimatum
Jordan`s state security court Thursday served an ultimatum to Abu Musab al-Zarqawi and an accomplice to surrender or face trial in absentia on terror charges.
Yeah, that'll work.Thanks
The court said it gave Zarqawi, a Jordanian whose real name is Ahmed Fadil al-Khalayila, and Mohammed Rateb Koutayshat, also a Jordanian national, 10 days to turn themselves in to Jordanian authorities or be considered outlaws.

The two suspects are accused of conspiring to carry out terrorist acts causing deaths and of possessing arms and explosives for illegal purposes. Zarqawi, the leader of the al-Qaida branch in Iraq, been blamed for most bombings, kidnappings and assassination attempts in that country. He already is being tried in absentia in Jordan on several charges, including planning to destroy the Jordanian intelligence headquarters in Amman with chemical weapons and seeking to bomb border posts on the Iraqi-Jordanian frontier. Zarqawi has been sentenced to death twice in Jordan, and there is a $25 million bounty on his head.
I suppose the ultimatum makes more sense in the original Jordanian: "Give yourself up or we'll sentence you to death a third time!" Or not.

This article starring:
ABU MUSAB AL ZARQAWIal-Qaeda in Iraq
AHMED FADIL AL KHALAIILAal-Qaeda in Iraq
MOHAMED RATEB KUTAISHATal-Qaeda in Iraq
Posted by: Steve || 06/09/2005 13:57 || Comments || Link || [0 views] Top|| File under:

#1  Dang...I feel better. I wonder where Z-man will turn himself in at?
Posted by: anymouse || 06/09/2005 15:45 Comments || Top||

#2  Do I qualify for the reward if I turn myself in?
I have some big hospital bills, and these friggin' collectors keep calling me during prayers.
Posted by: Abu Musab al-Zarqawi || 06/09/2005 17:58 Comments || Top||


Afghanistan/South Asia
Italy hostage released in Kabul
Italian aid worker Clementina Cantoni has been freed nearly a month after being taken hostage in Afghanistan, the Afghan interior ministry has said. "She has just been released," said a ministry spokesman. "She is fine." Ms Cantoni, who works for aid agency Care International, was abducted on 16 May by gunmen who forced her out of her car in central Kabul. She has been in Afghanistan since September 2003, supporting more than 10,000 widows and their children. Hours before her release was announced, hundreds of schoolgirls in the Afghan capital, Kabul, handed out nearly 3,000 stickers calling for Ms Cantoni to be freed.
A pleasent surprise. Wonder how much the ransom was?
Posted by: Steve || 06/09/2005 13:49 || Comments || Link || [0 views] Top|| File under:

#1  I hear the Italians really faked the jihadi thugs out on this one. Since these guys aren't allowed to read papers or watch TV they didn't know that the Italians in 2002 switched to the Euro and were instead paid off in Lira, billions of them!
Posted by: Jack is Back! || 06/09/2005 14:37 Comments || Top||

#2  Drive safely!
Posted by: eLarson || 06/09/2005 20:39 Comments || Top||


Kashmir Korpse Kount
SRINAGAR, India (Reuters) - Six separatist guerrillas and a soldier were killed on Thursday in a fierce gun battle in troubled Indian Kashmir, police said. It was the highest toll in a single encounter in recent weeks in the disputed region, where rebel violence has declined since India and Pakistan, the two nuclear-capable south Asian rivals, launched a peace process 18 months ago. "It is not yet clear whether militants had infiltrated from the Pakistani side or were hiding there," a police official said. The gun battle erupted in the Kern sector of northern Kashmir near the Line of Control or ceasefire line dividing Kashmir between India and Pakistan.
India's army chief, General J.J. Singh, said on Thursday that Muslim rebels were making repeated attempts to infiltrate into Indian Kashmir from the Pakistan side. "Every week there are one or two infiltration attempts. Some get killed but some cross. We are continuously foiling their attempts," he told reporters.
Moderate separatist leaders from Indian Kashmir are on a visit to Pakistan, where they met President Pervez Musharraf and vowed their support for his efforts to resolve the dispute that lies at the heart of rivalry between the two South Asian neighbors. A Muslim separatist revolt in the Himalayan state against New Delhi's rule has killed over 45,000 people since 1989. India blames Pakistan for backing the guerrillas, a charge Islamabad denies. The two countries have fought two wars over the region since they won freedom from British rule in 1947.
Posted by: Steve || 06/09/2005 13:44 || Comments || Link || [0 views] Top|| File under:


Afghan Troops Arrest Taliban Suspect
A suspected Taliban commander responsible for roadside bomb attacks on Afghan and U.S.-led coalition troops has been arrested in southern Afghanistan, an Afghan commander said Thursday. Mullah Abdul Razak was handed over to coalition forces after being caught traveling in a taxi when troops at a checkpoint recognized his face from a list of photographs of wanted suspects, army commander Gen. Muslim Amid said. Razak is the alleged Taliban leader in Arghandab district, just north of Kandahar, the main city in southern Afghanistan and a former rebel stronghold, he said.
They've either caught this guy seventeen times now, or half the commanders in the Taliban have the same name...
The suspected insurgent commander was caught Wednesday in possession of letters, threatening to kill villagers if they cooperate with President Hamid Karzai's U.S.-backed government, he said. ``He is a key figure in the Taliban and responsible for terrorist activities,'' Amid said without elaborating. Two men named Mullah Abdul Razak held senior positions in the Taliban regime before it was ousted in 2001. One was the police chief of the capital, Kabul, while the other was the interior minister.
The other 11,203 were run of the mill tough guys...
Neither has been caught, but Amid said it did not appear that either was the arrested man. He said investigators were still trying to determine Razak's position in the Taliban, but it was not believed that he was in the inner circle of the group's fugitive leader Mullah Omar.
One of the other 11,203...
The army commander said a second suspected Taliban member was also handed over to coalition forces after being captured Wednesday just west of Kandahar as he was trying to fire rockets at the city. U.S. military spokesman Lt. Col. Jerry O'Hara said he could not comment on the individual cases of detainees, including if they had even been taken into coalition custody.
Of course, if they're not in custody, they're not detainees, are they?
In separate fighting, two dead suspected insurgents were shot dead in Shah Wali Kot district, just north of Kandahar, on Wednesday after attacking Afghan army troops patrolling the area, Amid said.
Killed them twice, just to make sure.

This article starring:
MULLAH ABDUL RAZAKTaliban
Posted by: Steve || 06/09/2005 11:37 || Comments || Link || [0 views] Top|| File under:

#1  Yes, it would be a lot easier to keep them all straight if they didn't all have the first name of Mullah.
Posted by: trailing wife || 06/09/2005 21:29 Comments || Top||


Israel-Palestine
Explosion Rocks Gaza Refugee Camp
Looks like another tough day at the "sheet metal shop"...
GAZA CITY, Gaza Strip - An explosion rocked a refugee camp in the Gaza Strip on Thursday, witnesses said. There were no immediate reports of injuries.
One can only hope...
The Israeli army denied involvement and said the blast appeared to have been an accident. During more than four years of fighting with Israel, dozens of Palestinian militants have died while mishandling explosives.
And we've enjoyed reading about every one of them...
Posted by: tu3031 || 06/09/2005 10:51 || Comments || Link || [0 views] Top|| File under:

#1  "Hello, Mutual of Gaza? What's my deductible on work accident claims?"
Posted by: Seafarious || 06/09/2005 11:31 Comments || Top||

#2  "What's my deductible on work accident claims?"
"There are no accidents, everything is according to the will of Allah. We don't pay for acts of god."
Posted by: Steve || 06/09/2005 12:17 Comments || Top||

#3  Lol, Sea / Steve! I see the bright lights of Vaudeville beckoning your act, heh.
Posted by: .com || 06/09/2005 12:25 Comments || Top||

#4  "this is Achmed. We call him 'the claw'"
Posted by: Frank G || 06/09/2005 12:30 Comments || Top||

#5  We're the warm-up act for the "RAB Revue," a new musical from the producers of "Song of Serpico."

Musical numbers include:

"Don't Make Me Ask You Again (I Dunnit And I'm GLAD)"

"Cache and Carry"

"The Boatyard Ballet"

"Rosebud Rhapsody"
Posted by: Seafarious || 06/09/2005 12:40 Comments || Top||

#6  *happy sigh* When do tickets go on sale?
Posted by: trailing wife || 06/09/2005 12:50 Comments || Top||

#7  First cousin marriages & explosives do not mix.
Posted by: gromgorru || 06/09/2005 12:53 Comments || Top||

#8  Gaza, we have a problem....
Posted by: radrh8r || 06/09/2005 13:28 Comments || Top||

#9  A little RF energy directed in the right places will make detonator assembly problematic for Achmed and Co.
Posted by: Alaska Paul || 06/09/2005 13:55 Comments || Top||

#10  "Cut the Red wire [continued on page 3]"

"But first remove the fusing assembly."
Posted by: Jackal || 06/09/2005 14:04 Comments || Top||

#11  LOL Jackal - and et. al.
Posted by: Shipman || 06/09/2005 15:20 Comments || Top||


Iraq-Jordan
Marines detain 16 U.S. contractors in Falluja
BAGHDAD (Reuters) - U.S. forces detained 16 American private security contractors and three Iraqis late last month after they opened fire on civilians and U.S. Marines in Falluja, the U.S. military said on Thursday. The 19, employed by U.S. company Zapata Engineering, were held after two shooting incidents in the space of three hours in the city west of Baghdad. No one was hurt in the shootings. The men were released after three days in detention.
"At approximately 2 p.m. on May 28, Marines of Regimental Combat Team 8 in Falluja reported receiving small arms fire from gunman in several late-model trucks and sport utility vehicles," the U.S. military said in a statement. "Marines also witnessed passengers in the vehicles firing at and near civilian cars on the street. "Three hours later, another Marine observation post was fired on by gunman from vehicles matching the description of those involved in the earlier attack. Marines saw passengers in the vehicles firing out the windows," the statement said.
The vehicles were stopped when spiked strips were thrown across the road. The 19 men were taken into custody at a U.S. military camp on the outskirts of Falluja. The statement gave no explanation for why the men might have opened fire on the Marine observation posts and the civilian vehicles.
Stupidity comes to mind. So does alcohol
Zapata Engineering, a small firm based in Charlotte, North Carolina, employs a handful of people in Iraq, where it has a contract to dispose of unexploded ordnance. The company was not immediately reachable for comment. The contractors' weapons and vehicles were impounded as part of an investigation by the U.S. Naval Criminal Investigative Service, which oversees the Marines.
Posted by: Steve || 06/09/2005 10:44 || Comments || Link || [1 views] Top|| File under:

#1  I've been wondering how long it would take for an incident like this to pop up. Given the generally lawless nature of Iraq and the lack of a chain-of-command enforcing discipline and regulations these contractors really don't have responsibility to anyone other than their client.
Posted by: Dar || 06/09/2005 11:01 Comments || Top||

#2  I know Marines are famous for their discipline, but these guys are lucky they weren't just blown to hell.
Posted by: Legolas || 06/09/2005 11:13 Comments || Top||

#3  Hmm well from my stay in Mosul, most third party security companies were either ex US military, or what looked liek phillipno or thai. anyway all the thrid party security guys seemed very professional, and not the kind who relax when on the road.

Now firing on a Marine outpost? I would have to say that these guys got hold of more then just some beer. These guys had to be stumbling drunk or stoned, I bet on both.
Posted by: Jimbo19 || 06/09/2005 14:10 Comments || Top||

#4  PS. I can only imagine that they are alive and well because the Marines were overcome with curiosity about what the shit was these guys were smoking, and if they had anymore more left.
Posted by: Jimbo19 || 06/09/2005 14:12 Comments || Top||

#5  Nip it! Nip it! Nip it!
Posted by: Corporal Fife || 06/09/2005 15:08 Comments || Top||

#6  Given that I have been a contractor - and know some who still are, I do not believe the Marines for a moment, unless somehow these were completely stupid guys. 1) You dont get that drunk in the ville on duty - nto drunk enough to fire at marines or US troops. 2) the Jars are on hairtrigger over there.

These guys probably were firing warning shots as they claimed, and the Jars thought they were firing at them. They then put out an alert, and were abusive as hell to the guys once they took them prisoner.

Look for Marines to be disciplined for abuse on this one unless the Iraqi government can sweep it under the rug for the Marines.
Posted by: OldSpook || 06/09/2005 23:43 Comments || Top||


Sunni Arabs Accepting the Offer They Can't Refuse
June 9, 2005: More towns in Iraqi's "wild west" are being pacified. The usual drill is not another Fallujah, but a government official meeting with local tribal and religious leaders, where an offer is made. Iraqi and American troops are coming. Neighborhoods that support the government will see little or no fighting as a search is made for weapons, bombs and the like. Neighborhoods that wish to resist will be hit hard. By now, everyone knows how smart bombs work. Increasingly, Sunni Arab leaders are being told, by their followers, that all this violence is not worth it. After Saddam fell, Sunni Arabs continued to believe in fantasies. For the last two years, the collective delusion was that the Americans had no stomach for guerilla war, and the Kurds and Shia Arabs could never get a government together. Today, Sunni Arabs who can get away on a little vacation, go north to the Kurdish north, or south to Shia Basra. In both places you can sit in an outdoor cafe without fear of a suicide bomb going off down the street. The Kurds and Shia have more jobs, more reconstruction and less crime. The Sunni Arabs don't want to live in their own mess any more. They don't want to live in a combat zone, especially while the Kurds and Shia are not.

For Sunni Arabs to support the government, it often means fighting with the terrorist groups, and sometimes the criminal gangs they are allied with. The government offer includes help in building up local security. It has not gone unnoticed that Iraqi police are a lot more effective than they were a year ago. The government also has police commandoes who can go into any area, no matter how well defended, and take out terrorists or other heavily armed enemies. No longer does the government have to depend on the Americans for this sort of thing.

The bad news is that over a million Sunni Arabs are still hostile to the government, and any foreign troops in Iraq. Many are propelled by religious beliefs, as well as the "we are superior and should be running the place" attitude that Sunni Arabs have been cultivating for centuries. These guys are willing to keep fighting. The government doesn't want a blood bath, and they know that millions of Shia Arabs and Kurds would be willing to carry out a general massacre of Sunni Arabs, as payback for past sins. So the government goes to each town and neighborhood, gets the local leaders together, and makes the offer. Those who refuse are free to go home and get their guns and followers together for their last stand. Some of the leaders who refuse the government offer, do so because they know most of their followers want to fight on. But more and more, Sunni Arabs are deciding that there's no future in all this violence. You fight the Americans, you die. And, increasingly, the odds aren't much better against government troops or police.

However, there are other dangers in Iraq, and the most common are the tribal, ethnic and religious militias. The government has not cracked down on these private armies, or the warlords that control them. Being a tribal chief still means something in Iraq, a country with over a hundred tribes. Americans, who saw similar private militias disappear in the United States several generations ago, cannot understand why Iraq clings to this ancient concept. But to Iraqis, a warlord and his tough guys, is the last refuge in an uncertain world. While the concept of democracy is appealing to many Iraqis, the concept of getting together and forming an armed gang to impose your ideas, is an ancient one in the region.

Meanwhile, as in Afghanistan, al Qaeda is relying more and more on foreign fighters. Creating its own "foreign legion" militia. The local al Qaeda supporters are melting away. Using foreigners as enforcers has not made al Qaeda any more popular. Terror doesn't engender trust and enthusiasm, only fear. The al Qaeda approach didn't work in Afghanistan, and it's not working in Iraq. And the hundreds of Iraqi warlords and their gangs will still be sorting it all out for years to come.
Posted by: Steve || 06/09/2005 10:17 || Comments || Link || [0 views] Top|| File under:

#1 
The al Qaeda approach didn't work in Afghanistan, and it's not working in Iraq.

The al Q approach may not have worked with respect to producing a decent society. However, it has worked to the extent that it produced a cohort of jihadis, thugs, murderers, etc.

These kind of folk will be plaguing Iraq for many years.
Posted by: mhw || 06/09/2005 12:01 Comments || Top||

#2  Thats probably because they can't even figure out what the hell they want. They kidnap some dumbass truck driver from the phillipines or something and demand that we withdraw 200,000 troops within 24 hrs. Other insurgents figured out it was hard to kill marines, so they just started killing civilians. They don't even know who they are blowing up anymore. They have no goal, no direction, only one shot-up leader, and absolutely no idea of what they are going to do from one minute to the next. As the govt. makes it's way around all the provinces and brings the sunni leaders into line they will start to attack them for being sympathizers. When that happens you are going to see some weird sh*t start to happen. And I am going to sit back and laugh.
Posted by: bigjim-ky || 06/09/2005 12:37 Comments || Top||

#3  And they'll keep their promises as long as there's a gun stuck to their heads (maybe not as long --- Paleos have a gun stuck to their heads)
Posted by: gromgorru || 06/09/2005 12:43 Comments || Top||

#4  How unfortunate our own MSM mislead the poor fools into the Vietnam "quagmire", resulting in more of our guys killed, and a lot more of them. ABCNews/WaPo hasn't given up on the quagmire crusade yet - see the article earlier in the week.
Posted by: Bobby || 06/09/2005 13:33 Comments || Top||

#5  I wonder how many more Shias and Kurds will be murdered by Sunni diehards before a general massacre of the Sunnis by the far more numerous victim population will seem like a far better alternative.
Posted by: Whutch Threth6418 || 06/09/2005 13:42 Comments || Top||

#6  The fact the Iraqi govt. has made it as far as it currently has is amazing. Sadly there will be more casualties and more secretarian tension between Sunnis, Shites, and Kurds. But I hardly forsee a coming general massacre of Sunnis. Things are improving, Iraqi military/police units are growing stronger, the "Insurgents'" (Better put Mass-Killers) support base is becoming smaller and weaker amongst the general Sunni population. As the Iraqi Government stays the course towards the path to Democracy, they will ultimately be victorious. It is very tragic so many have had to die for the longterm freedom of countless millions.
But if there was going to be a general massacre, it would have happened already. The leaders and clerics in all three ethnic groups (Well Most Sunnis...) want to avoid such a massacre.
Posted by: bgrebel9 || 06/09/2005 14:18 Comments || Top||

#7  You fight the Americans, you die.

And don't you forget it.

And, increasingly, the odds aren't much better against government troops or police.

That's called "progress".
Posted by: Bomb-a-rama || 06/09/2005 14:34 Comments || Top||


Home Front: Tech
Success of recon robots makes them targets
Edited for brevity.

One measure of how effective battlefield robots have become, says a top Pentagon robotics official, is that the enemy has begun to target them. "The enemy realizes that if they take out [the robot], they can really hurt our capabilities," said Cliff Hudson, who directs the Joint Robotics Program for the Department of Defense. Reconnaissance robots, such as the backpackable Dragon Runner developed by Carnegie Mellon University, and those that dispose of unexploded mines and bombs have shown that they save soldiers' lives, Hudson said. The success with small ground robots, as well as with unmanned aerial vehicles, or UAVs, has bolstered confidence as the armed forces move toward larger vehicles, such as Carnegie Mellon's 1-ton Gladiator recon robot, which will have longer range and, eventually, operate autonomously.

A dozen Dragon Runners [pictured] were built for the U.S. Marines, which deployed them to Iraq a year ago. The four-wheeled device is only a little more than a foot long and not quite a foot wide and weighs 9 pounds. It can be thrown over walls, out a three-story window or up a flight of stairs; the flat, 5-inch-high machine can operate whichever way it lands. "It's quickly become a critical piece of equipment," Hudson said, adding that it provides a safe means to look around corners or explore rooms.
Posted by: Dar || 06/09/2005 10:15 || Comments || Link || [0 views] Top|| File under:

#1  "The enemy realizes that if they take out [the robot], they can really hurt our capabilities," said Cliff Hudson, who directs the Joint Robotics Program for the Department of Defense.

"Hurt"?? Robots are nice to have, but not a necessity. U.S. forces would make do appropriately if they weren't available.
Posted by: Bomb-a-rama || 06/09/2005 12:25 Comments || Top||

#2  They should make a robot big enough to mount a GE Mini-Gun or similar gatlin gun type device on. That would really make em squeal.
Posted by: bigjim-ky || 06/09/2005 12:30 Comments || Top||

#3  So instead of shooting at the Marines they shoot at the robots. A very wise choice, says I.
Posted by: Matt || 06/09/2005 13:07 Comments || Top||

#4  Armor the heck out of them.
Posted by: gromky || 06/09/2005 14:56 Comments || Top||

#5  Droids now, can clones be far behind? D. Vader
Posted by: Bobby || 06/09/2005 16:09 Comments || Top||

#6  Give 'em the attitude upgrade module and a Street Sweeper.
Posted by: Shipman || 06/09/2005 18:08 Comments || Top||


Afghanistan/South Asia
Taliban targets U.S. and 'friends'
A Taliban spokesman has said anyone working for the United States is a target, after four people were killed on U.S. bases in southeast Afghanistan Wednesday. Two U.S. soldiers were killed and eight others wounded as a missile hit the U.S. base at Shkin in Paktika province. Also two Pakistani truck drivers were killed as they left another U.S. base at Spin Boldak in Kandahar province after delivering fuel. Taliban militants claimed both attacks, saying they meant to cut supply routes for U.S.-led forces in the country. Taliban spokesman Abdul Latif Hakimi said anyone working for the United States would be regarded as a target. U.S. warplanes were not able to locate the attackers at Shkin but police in Spin Boldak said they had arrested five people.
Posted by: Steve || 06/09/2005 08:54 || Comments || Link || [0 views] Top|| File under:

#1  Tell them. For every American and American freind that dies, a Koran goes down the toilet or onto a hog farm.
Posted by: plainslow || 06/09/2005 8:58 Comments || Top||

#2  I think that's fair, plainslow. People are at least as sacred as Korans.
Posted by: trailing wife || 06/09/2005 9:48 Comments || Top||

#3  And let's hope the3y riot everytime with flush the Koran, and kill 10 or so of themselves.
Posted by: plainslow || 06/09/2005 9:54 Comments || Top||

#4  I don't know TW, Koran disin is pretty bad. Maybe the National Safety Council will make a video giving insight to what to do if you find a holy 'Qu'ram', like one of them olde blasting cap safety spots we used to see during rain-out theatre.
Posted by: Shipman || 06/09/2005 14:47 Comments || Top||

#5  like one of them olde blasting cap safety spots we used to see during rain-out theatre.

And here I thought you were going to say Reefer Madness, Shipman.
Posted by: too true || 06/09/2005 16:43 Comments || Top||

#6  Sounds like Jennifer Anniston better wath her ass.

On second thought, never mind. I'll watch it...

But what's-his-name is on his own.
Posted by: mojo || 06/09/2005 19:43 Comments || Top||

#7  Ya know... Hog manure is a big stinking problem....
We could fill the oil tankers with it on their return journeys.
Kill two jihads with one stroke...
Posted by: 3dc || 06/09/2005 19:47 Comments || Top||


Iraq-Jordan
messopotamian: a critique of op. thunder - thanks to colt @ WoC
Posted by: 3dc || 06/09/2005 02:43 || Comments || Link || [0 views] Top|| File under:


hammorabi has some background of interest...
The terrorists' operations are somehow well organized, logistically covered and financially well supported. To do that there are 3 main Arab states providing a full support in spite of their official denial. Syria, Saudi Arabia and Qatar are the main countries providing support for the terrorists in Iraq while other Arab countries providing information and propaganda support. Radical Islamists in Jordan, Iran, Kuwait, and other Arab states also provides different kinds of support. Radical groups especially Al-Qaeda supporters in the Western countries play an important role in recruitments, propaganda, financial and many other supports. One of the big mouths providing not only propaganda but well-formed support for the terrorists is the Qatari TV Al-Jazeera.

Syria, Saudi Arabia and Qatar states are coordinating with the Wahabi and Salafi groups for the support of the terrorists in Iraq. They plan together, separately &/or with the radical groups in the Western countries for mobilization of manpower and financial support for the insurgents in Iraq. Part of the support goes to the media especially the TV channels.

In Saudi Arabia many groups (thousands) have been recruited for the insurgents in Iraq inside the Mosques and the Religious Institutions and under the eyes of the Saudi Authorities. Not once these Authorities denied that they do not know enough about these activities to prevent them yet it happened in front of their eyes with a close range to their ears.

There are many reports from different sources and from the confessions of the captured Arab insurgents that there are high level of arrangement between the Saudi recruitments and financial support and the Syrian Intelligent Authorities which is directly linked with the highest Authorities in Syria. Syria as well as Saudi Arabia intentionally lastly mentioned the capture of thousands of insurgents in Syria most of them are Saudis. They only did that after strong evidence given by the insurgents about the involvement of these countries in training, recruiting and providing all support for the insurgents in Iraq. This is just part of equivocation and double entendre by saying that they will secure the border from the insurgents yet they are doing the reverse.
...
Posted by: 3dc || 06/09/2005 02:27 || Comments || Link || [0 views] Top|| File under:

#1  In many ways our policy is "the attrition of the war-like". Throughout the world there are large numbers of young men, but still a tiny minority of all young men, that fit one particular profile. They are fanatical *and* they are willing to do something about it. A far larger number are willing to support the "doers", but wouldn't ever do anything themselves. So the 'direct' war is an effort to both concentrate the "doers" and exterminate them, and the 'indirect' war is the far slower process of changing the minds of their supporters. Afghanistan was too brutal to be used as an effective concentrator for most but the extreme fanatics; but Iraq is far more attractive, they not realizing that it is a far deadlier trap. But in any event, this concentration saps the strength from terrorist *movements* worldwide, draining them of the muscle they would use in their home country for all sorts of mischief. The few that return home do so with tales of horror and great disdain for those who sent them off in the first place. All told, the final result will be to make the entire region less war-like, by draining it of its warriors.
Posted by: Anonymoose || 06/09/2005 10:05 Comments || Top||


Its Cool to kill Muslims — Zarqawi (frm MEMRI)
The Evil of Heresy is Greater Than the Evil of Collateral Killing of Muslims

"Islamic law states that the Islamic faith is more important than life, honor, and property. Indeed, it is the most important of the five inalienable rights, [2] and their very basis, and safeguarding it takes precedence over safeguarding them. It should be noted that all of these inalienable rights can not be safeguarded except through assuring the observance of the Islamic faith...

"Interpreting His words [in the Koran, 2:191] 'Temptation [Fitna] is worse than killing,' [the commentator] Mujahid says: 'For a Muslim, apostasy into idolatry is worse than death'...

"Allah stated [in the Koran] that heresy and idolatry, according to His law and His faith, are worse than killing. This is the Koranic basis for giving the safeguarding of the [Islamic] faith precedence over the other four inalienable rights, the first of which is life. To safeguard those [other] inalienable rights by forfeiting Islam... — this is the real temptation against which Allah warns...

"The evil of the temptation of heresy and idolatry is greater than the evil resulting from the unintentional, collateral killing of Muslims [in the course of a Jihad] intended to destroy the Fitna of heresy and idolatry and to cleanse the universe of it.

"Sheikh Al-Islam ['the authority of Islam'] Ibn Taymiyya said: 'Complete piety means that man should be able to recognize the better of two good things and the worse of two evils, and that he should know that the basis of Islamic law is that one should [strive to] achieve beneficial things and perfect them and to stop evil things and diminish them...

"He [Ibn Taymiyya] also said: 'Allah made it lawful to kill people as much as necessary for the good of humanity. As He said [in the Koran, 2:217]: "The temptation [of idolatry] [fitna] is worse than killing." [This is so] because, although killing is evil and wrong, there is more evil and wrong in the temptation of heresy'..."
Posted by: Glainter Flomp7031 || 06/09/2005 00:00 || Comments || Link || [0 views] Top|| File under:

#1  mebbe we are jus need confinsen them thatn there all apostates in sum way.
Posted by: muck4doo || 06/09/2005 1:12 Comments || Top||

#2  Me and Zarqawi finally agree on something.
Posted by: Destro || 06/09/2005 2:22 Comments || Top||

#3  Wow, talk about moral relativism! This is a faith that needs some major adjustment if not abolition.
Posted by: Tom || 06/09/2005 8:27 Comments || Top||

#4  virtually all wahabis and many salafists believe that Shiites, Ismailis, Ahmiyadas and Sufis who oppose Salafism are a class of infidels that is worse than non-Islamic infidels

this classification was part of the Salafist 'reform' during the 19th century and, if you believe that the early caliphs were pure because they practised pure and spartan islam (which is an egregiously false notion), then it is 'logical' to believe that the post 8th century sects are a threat
Posted by: mhw || 06/09/2005 8:40 Comments || Top||

#5  Looks very "nuanced" to me...
Posted by: John Fn Kerry || 06/09/2005 8:41 Comments || Top||

#6  "Interpreting His words [in the Koran, 2:191] 'Temptation [Fitna] is worse than killing,' [the commentator] Mujahid says: 'For a Muslim, apostasy into idolatry is worse than death'..."

This about sums it all up. Lots of religions have used the apostasy excuse to kill their respective apostates. The reasoning goes something like, apostates are worse than the worse infidels because they do know the word and have turned from it.

I think Mucky sums is on to something....
"mebbe we are jus need confinsen them thatn there all apostates in sum way."

Kind of why it made sense to send arms to both Iran and Iraq during the Iran/Iraq war in the 80's.
Posted by: TomAnon || 06/09/2005 8:55 Comments || Top||

#7  Whoa missed than one TomAnon! Definitely goes in the Big Golden Bokk of Muck Wizdom.
Posted by: Shipman || 06/09/2005 10:02 Comments || Top||

#8  "Allah made it lawful to kill people as much as necessary for the good of humanity."

Adolf & Josef and I are SO proud to have been doing Allah's work: we all love that phrase "as much as neccesary", it was key to our justification of the eradication of those who were in our way.

Pay no attention to the guy with the horns & flaming pitchfork behind me...
Posted by: PolPot || 06/09/2005 10:17 Comments || Top||

#9  Appropo that they use the word "necessity" in their argument to justify the slaughter of the innocent.

Necessity never made a good bargain. -- Benjamin Franklin

Necessity has no law. -- Benjamin Franklin

Necessity knows no law except to conquer. -- Publilius Syrus

Feigned necessities, imaginary necessities, are the greatest cozenage men can put upon the Providence of God, and make pretences to break known rules by. -- Oliver Cromwell

And last, but best:

Necessity is the plea for every infringement of human freedom. It is the argument of tyrants; it is the creed of slaves. -- William Pitt
Posted by: OldSpook || 06/09/2005 10:26 Comments || Top||

#10  Makes me wonder about the other side of the coin.

What if super-rich super-power Spain had taken her wealth from the New World and continued the Reconquesta into North Africa instead of tangling with Apostate European powers. I kind of think we wouldn't have an Islamic North Africa today. I kind of think the Turks could have been beaten back before they got their roots too deep into Balkan soil.

But the heretic is so much worse in the minds of a fanatic. Reminds me of the Left's reaction to George W. Bush as well.
Posted by: rjschwarz || 06/09/2005 10:26 Comments || Top||

#11  what is that I hear? open discussion and debate in the muslim world about the merits of zark's position? condemnation by enlightened muslims? honest soul searching in muslim communities about what is right and good and wrong and evil about their teachings and practices?

oh. no. it's crickets. my mistake.
Posted by: PlanetDan || 06/09/2005 11:26 Comments || Top||

#12  I still love you anyways, Sheiky!
I send you kissy kissys for your purty mouth!
Posted by: Mahmoud Al-Jailbirdi || 06/09/2005 11:32 Comments || Top||

#13  Religion of Confusion and 1/2 truths
Posted by: Clomoter Shains6002 || 06/09/2005 11:47 Comments || Top||

#14  Nutters, the lot of them. Lets just hope they never get hold of nukes or we are all f...ed. Infidels and Muslims
Posted by: Shistos Shistadogloo || 06/09/2005 14:14 Comments || Top||

#15  Truer words were never spoken typed, SS.
Posted by: .com || 06/09/2005 14:17 Comments || Top||

#16  You forgot one, Old Spook....

Necessity has the face of a dog ___
Gabriel García Márquez

But Z has such a nice smile....
Posted by: Ulath Sneng3465 || 06/09/2005 15:36 Comments || Top||

#17  Is there anybody Muslims Don't want to kill?
Posted by: bigjim-ky || 06/09/2005 15:39 Comments || Top||


Gunmen kidnap 22 Iraqi soldiers
Gunmen have kidnapped 22 Iraqi soldiers shortly after they left their base in western Iraq, a police official said on Wednesday. Meanwhile, saboteurs blew up a main oil pipeline in northern Iraq amid reports that eight people including five Iraqi civilians and three US soldiers were killed in fresh violence.

The soldiers were abducted on Tuesday on the road from Qaim, near the Syrian border, to the town of Rawa, said Shaker Saleh, chief of police of Anbar province. He said the soldiers were Shia from southern Iraq.

A car bomb that targeted a long row of cars queuing outside an Iraqi petrol station killed at least three civilians and injured another in the city of Baquba on Wednesday, police said. "We found three civilians' bodies torn completely apart," said Lieutenant-Colonel Thair al-Izzi. Eyewitnesses said no security force personnel — frequent targets of insurgent attacks — had been near the car at the time of the blast, 65 km north of Baghdad. .

Gunmen killed two bodyguards of an official who is a member of the committee drafting Iraq's constitution in an attack on their car on Wednesday, an Interior Ministry official said. The bodyguards of Freydoun Abdel Qadir, a member of the National Assembly, were driving on a Baghdad highway when they were attacked. Qadir was not in the vehicle.

Three US soldiers were killed in two attacks by insurgents in Iraq late on Tuesday, the US military said. A mortar attack on a base at Tikrit killed two soldiers of the 42nd Infantry Division, the military said in a statement on Wednesday. A soldier from the 1st Corps Support Command was killed when a roadside bomb blasted his vehicle.

Saboteurs blew up a main oil pipeline in northern Iraq early on Wednesday, an official at the Northern Oil company said. A Reuters correspondent at the scene, just north of the refining town of Baiji, said smoke was pouring into the sky. Firecrews and US military personnel were in attendance. The Northern Oil official said the line affected was used to export oil to Turkey from Iraq's vast northern oil fields around Kirkuk. The company official said there had been no exports at the time because of repeated attacks. "This isn't the first time. They've targeted oil for a long time even when there is no exporting," he said on condition of anonymity. A shipping source said exports from the Ceyhan oil terminal at the Turkish end of Iraq's export pipeline, which currently holds 3.6 million barrels in storage tanks, had resumed on Tuesday. He said he did not know how long the flow would continue. "From previous experience we know that they pump for 24 or 48 hours and then they stop," he added.
Posted by: Fred || 06/09/2005 00:00 || Comments || Link || [0 views] Top|| File under:


Afghanistan/South Asia
3 Kashmiris killed in gun battle between police and BSF
Three members of a family of a militant who surrendered to the army were killed in Jammu after a gun battle broke out between police and Indian paramilitary forces, a local news agency reported. Police and Border Security Force (BSF) personnel clashed over the surrender of some militants in the Kalakote region of southern Kashmir. Reports said that two militants from Hizb-e-Islami, Aashiq Ali and Mohammad Farooq, had offered to surrender before the army in Gool tehsil of Udhamur district. Army officials organised a function where the militants laid down their arms, and they were later handed over to the local police. When the police party was leaving with the militants, a BSF patrol stopped their vehicle and objected to the militants surrendering to the army in a BSF-controlled area. They asked the police to hand over the militants so they could organise a surrender ceremony afresh.

An altercation ensued after the police party refused. BSF personnel allegedly opened fire and three members of Ashiq Ali's family — his father Abdul Rafiq, mother Zohra and brother Riyaz — were killed. BSF officials have denied their involvement in the killing. A BSF spokesman said that militants might have intercepted the police vehicle in the guise of BSF personnel.
This article starring:
AASHIQ ALIHizb-e-Islami
MOHAMAD FARUQHizb-e-Islami
Hizb-e-Islami
Posted by: Fred || 06/09/2005 00:00 || Comments || Link || [0 views] Top|| File under:

#1  I've read that BSF and Indian army uniforms are for sale in local Kashmiri markets.
Because of the poor quality products of the state owned factories, many soldiers and paramilitaries will go to a local tailor and have their kit made.
Posted by: john || 06/09/2005 6:51 Comments || Top||


Two Pakistani truckers killed in Afghanistan
Afghan and US-led coalition forces on Wednesday arrested five men suspected of being Taliban rebels responsible for a deadly attack on a Pakistani-owned fuel tanker after it delivered gasoline to a US base in southern Afghanistan, The Associated Press reported. The truck's Pakistani driver and assistant were killed in the assault late on Tuesday in Spin Boldak district, which is next to the border between Pakistan and Afghanistan. Afghan and coalition troops fanned out across the area Wednesday morning, searching for the attackers. The five were arrested in a village in the area, district police chief Mohammed Raz said.
Posted by: Fred || 06/09/2005 00:00 || Comments || Link || [0 views] Top|| File under:


Cinema blasts: India arrests top Sikh rebel
Police in the Indian capital on Wednesday arrested three men, including a top Sikh militant and the main accused in the bombing of two cinemas last month that killed one person and wounded dozens. The men are members of Sikh militant group Babbar Khalsa, which wants an independent Sikh state, a police spokesman said. The arrests in a Delhi suburb took the number of people held over the May 22 blasts to eight.

"Jagtar Singh Hawara is the head of Babbar Khalsa and there was a price of 500,000 rupees ($11,500) for his arrest. He is wanted for the assassination of Beant Singh among other cases," the spokesman said. Another of those arrested on Wednesday was the mastermind behind the home-made bomb blasts that tore through the cinemas in Delhi, the spokesman said. "We suspect they were in Delhi to collect some money and flee the country. Some guns and a huge amount of explosives were recovered from them," he added.
Posted by: Fred || 06/09/2005 00:00 || Comments || Link || [0 views] Top|| File under:


Iraq-Jordan
Pirates raid oil tanker at Basra
Pirates armed with AK-47 assault rifles attacked the crew of a supertanker waiting to load crude at Iraq's Basra oil terminal before making off with cash, an ocean crime watchdog says. The raid happened at night on 31 May about 10 nautical miles from Iraq's deep-water oil terminal where most of its crude oil is exported. "They tried to enter the bridge claiming to be policemen. The master denied them entry and the pirates became violent ... they assaulted the master causing him injuries and demanded money," the International Maritime Bureau (IMB) said in a report on Wednesday.

The Nord Millennium was capable of carrying 300,000 tonnes of crude when fully loaded. A warship belonging to the US-led forces arrived to assist following a mayday signal. Jayant Abhyankar, deputy director of the IMB, told reporters the incident raised questions about security at the oil terminal, Iraq's main outlet for oil exports that provide nearly all of its income.
Posted by: Fred || 06/09/2005 00:00 || Comments || Link || [0 views] Top|| File under:

#1  ...an ocean crime watchdog says.

Did McGruff buy a boat?
Posted by: tu3031 || 06/09/2005 8:44 Comments || Top||

#2  "Did McGruff buy a boat?"

that old seadog! (LOL)
Posted by: Dave || 06/09/2005 9:28 Comments || Top||


Iraq: Area Man Killed in Action
An Army Reserves lieutenant colonel from western New York has been killed by hostile fire while training Iraqi troops. Lt. Col. Terrance Crowe, 44, was a father of two. He was from Grand Island, north of Buffalo.

Crowe was the fourth member of the Rochester-based 98th Division to be killed in Iraq. Military officials said the attack occurred in Tal Afar, a city in extreme northwestern Iraq.

Crowe taught ROTC at Canisius College in Buffalo. He recently returned home on leave to attend the college's commissioning ceremony. Lieutenant Colonel Jim Bagwell of Canisius said Crowe was passionate about doing things in the best way possible.
Posted by: Chuck Simmins || 06/09/2005 00:00 || Comments || Link || [0 views] Top|| File under:

#1  Winds of Change has several links to the Tal Afar battle

the links appear to take congestion hits so I used the WoC link.

...

Soldiers from the U.S. 3rd Armored Cavalry Regiment, along with hundreds of Iraqi Army soldiers, kicked off the rare daylight operation in a particularly violent neighborhood just before dawn. The troops moved door to door on narrow streets looking to capture or kill insurgents who have carried out numerous attacks in the city. They were backed up by about 100 tanks and armored personnel carriers, and Apache helicopters overhead covered them.

...
Posted by: 3dc || 06/09/2005 0:37 Comments || Top||



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On Sale now!


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.
Click here for more information

Meet the Mods
In no particular order...
Steve White
Seafarious
tu3031
badanov
sherry
ryuge
GolfBravoUSMC
Bright Pebbles
trailing wife
Gloria
Fred
Besoeker
Glenmore
Frank G
3dc
Skidmark

Two weeks of WOT
Thu 2005-06-09
  Italy hostage released in Kabul
Wed 2005-06-08
  California father and son linked al-Qaeda, arrested
Tue 2005-06-07
  U.S-Iraqi offensive launched near Syria
Mon 2005-06-06
  Iraq Nabs Nearly 900 Suspected Militants
Sun 2005-06-05
  Marines uncover bunker complex, Saddam sad.
Sat 2005-06-04
  Iraqi troops nab 'prince of princes'
Fri 2005-06-03
  Virgin Airbus Jet Emitting Hijack Signal Lands In Canada; False Alert
Thu 2005-06-02
  Bomb kills anti-Syria journalist in Beirut
Wed 2005-06-01
  At least 27 dead in Afghanistan mosque suicide blast
Tue 2005-05-31
  At least six killed in Karachi mosque attack
Mon 2005-05-30
  Doc faces terror charges in Palm Beach
Sun 2005-05-29
  "Non."
Sat 2005-05-28
  King Fahd is dead?
Fri 2005-05-27
  Zark is dead?
Thu 2005-05-26
  Iraqi Officials Confirm Zarqawi Is Wounded

Better than the average link...



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