Its not all Sunshine over there - glad Fox has the guts to look further into the story. The Marines ahve some serious investigating and apoligizing to do for this thuggery.
The Marines allegedly bound and roughed up the contractors, who were given orange jumpsuits to wear. They also received a prayer rug and a copy of the Koran (search) and were placed in a cell next to Iraqi insurgent suspects.
...
Several told FOXNews.com in interviews that sign-in logs can corroborate their story and they said they have receipts from a restaurant and other places they stopped at during the time in question. Plus, the contractors say the Marines' description of the convoy doesn't match the vehicles they were driving.
...
The Marines said two rounds of ammunition had hit near where they were stationed. When the Zapata crew asked to see exactly where the rounds hit, they said they couldn't get a straight answer.
...
The Marines eventually brought the Zapata contractors to a compound where they were put in 6-by-6 foot concrete cells. When they asked for an attorney, they were told to "shut up," the contractors claim. They were detained there for three days.
Ginter claims that on his way back from being escorted from the bathroom, one of the Marines "physically forces me on the ground, banged my knees on the ground ⊠he kicked my ankle into the cross position," and took off his cross necklace. He also claims the Marine squeezed his testicles "so hard I almost puked" and threatened to unleash a dog on him if he moved.
"Seriously, I thought someone had died, I thought some way they had connected a death to us and I thought ⊠maybe it was a joke, maybe it was training and we didn't know about it," Ginter added.
Raiche said he had his wedding ring and jewelry removed and was also threatened with the dog. He also said he heard one Marine heckle, "how does it feel to make that contractors' money now?" A female Marine was taking pictures of the proceedings, they said. The contractors had blacked-out goggles placed over their heads when they were put on a bus from the original detention site to another one near Fallujah, where Iraqi insurgent suspects are also kept. Ginter said there was a small slit in the goggles that he could see out of.
"I watched as my fellow brothers were thrown to the ground, physically abused ⊠knees, necks, tossed to the ground with the female taking pictures," Ginter said. "It was like going into the Twilight Zone."
Ginter and Raiche said only five or six members of their group were interviewed when investigators from agencies like the FBI showed up. They said they asked for a lawyer, to make a phone call, to contact the Red Cross, Amnesty International and others but were denied such requests.
#1
I told you guys that the Marines were lying about this - I know a lot of contractors (all former service, Army and Marines, plenty of Rangers and Recon types) and I know they were not "cowboying" the area. Some damn idiot jarhead REMFs caused the trouble. Evidence shows the contractors were not in the area, and the Marines were wrong - and on top of that, the letters from the commander that barred them (basically ending any career they may have stateside as well as over there) were based on lies from the Marines who should be investigated and questioned for the abuse.
Jarheads, you may want to remind yourselves that the Marines DO make mistakes, and they need to rectify them the way I know Marines *usually* do, by admitting the mistake and making it right. Not ass-covering and lying. If they don't and the MSM decides to get in on this, then they will have thier own little "Abu Ghraib" on thier hands, whether it is justified or not.
#3
This is one side of the story. I'd like to see the final investigation. Those who are guilty will be held accountable and probably receive BCDs and maybe do time in the brig - rightfully so.
OTH, it's a stretch for me to imagine some Marine just came out of the blue and started grabbing some contractors nuts for no reason. Prolly shouldn't of grabbed the guy's nuts but I have a sneaky suspicion someone ran their mouth off at prolly the wrong time to the wrong guard. Also, some female taking pix of the whole ordeal? Interesting, if true, very stupid wrt Abu Ghraib situation.
BTW OS, we don't really have REMFs, that's an Army thing and an Army saying. My dad being former 101st vet uses that term. We prefer Pogue. However, when we got female supply clerks manning .50 cals on the top of convoys and getting killed occasionally - REMF doesn't really apply to anyone in this war.
#4
True - REMF is an attitude not a position. ANd this bunch sounds liek the "pogues" every service has in some spots. The surprising thing is that Marines did this. As an Army (combat) vet, I might expect this kind of thing out of some reserve Army unit. But not the Marines. Especially not after the ones I've worked with in my post-Army agency career.
And I know (personally) 1 former Marine (later went Army SF in the reserves, served in Afghanistan, which is how I know him) working for Zapata that tell me these guys were on the level - one of them that got abused was a former Marine himself (full MCL membership and a Semper Fi tatoo on his arm). So some of this being poor unit discipline seems likely - and that indicates a supply unit or the like pressed into prisoner duty (which explains the mixups, and apparently poor leadership thats very atypical of Marine combat units).
Just going with what i know, and people I know. I knew the original story smelled very fishy, and now it is beginnign to stink is these laogs and receipts who the Maarines to be in the wrong about the original story and subsequent errors, trying to blame the contractors aand then cover the abuse with lies.
"Conduct Unbecoming" comes to mind - Marines say they hold themselves to higher standards. All I have ever met do so. We shall see if the command structure over there does so.
Police were last night searching for a foreign-based Islamic terrorist cell after it was disclosed that three of the four bombs that hit London last Thursday exploded "almost simultaneously".
Ministers now believe that the bombings - which left at least 49 people dead in Britain's worst terrorist attack - were the work of a "very, very small number" of individuals who arrived from mainland Europe or North Africa on false passports within the past six months.
The authorities are braced for more atrocities as part of what they fear will be a campaign of terror by an active Islamic cell - although they believe that other European capitals are equally at risk.
The immediate investigation centres on King's Cross after transport police said that all three Tube bombs exploded within 50 seconds at around 8.50am, on trains that had stopped at its underground station within the previous 10 minutes.
One investigator said: "It is likely the terrorists were together initially before going their separate ways. This theory has the most credence."
Andy Trotter, the deputy chief constable of British Transport Police, said officers were studying hundreds of hours of CCTV pictures taken around the target stations "for clues that might lead us to the people responsible for these terrible attacks".
Investigators have enlisted the help of specialist officers - including members of the "pickpocketing squad" - with experience of studying CCTV to identify suspicious characters in the King's Cross area.
Both ministerial and Whitehall officials stressed the similarities between the London attacks and the train bombings in Madrid last year which killed 191 people.
The man believed to be the Madrid mastermind, Mustafa Setmariam Naser, a 47-year-old Syrian with dual Spanish nationality, is said to be "one of many suspects" being hunted by the police and MI5. They also want to question Zeeshan Hyder Siddiqui, 25, a British national allegedly trained to make bombs in an al-Qaeda camp who was arrested in Pakistan in May.
Their search is being hampered because those who planted the bombs are believed to be "cleanskins", young operatives with no known terrorist links.
The secret services, The Sunday Telegraph understands, picked up no intelligence that could have alerted them to the possibility of attacks on London. There was none of the "chatter" - information picked up by electronic surveillance - or suspicious financial transactions that have helped to thwart other planned attacks.
"We are convinced it is not a British-based cell," a senior Government source said. There was a strong possibility that the bombers came from Iraq and spent time in mainland Europe before entering Britain recently.
In a statement to MPs tomorrow, Tony Blair will strongly defend MI5 and MI6 from charges that they presided over a failure of intelligence. The Prime Minister, who yesterday spoke of his determination to eradicate "this dreadful perversion of the true faith of Islam", will rule out an independent inquiry into the bombings. MI5 confirmed that there would be an internal review into the lack of intelligence.
The announcement that the three Tube train bombs exploded within seconds of each other - rather than spread over 26 minutes, as at first reported - followed a review of "technical data and eye-witness accounts'', said Brian Paddick, the Metropolitan Police deputy assistant commissioner. "It would appear now that all three bombs exploded within seconds of each other at around 8.50am," he said. Tim O'Toole, the London Underground managing director, said: "It was bang, bang, bang, very close together."
He said that the first bomb exploded at Aldgate, quickly followed by explosions at Edgware Road and Russell Square. The first call to the emergency services was received at 8.51am.
After King's Cross the second main focus of attention is the No 30 bus that exploded at Tavistock Square. Investigators increasingly believe that the bomber did not plan a suicide attack on the bus, and that he might have planned to explode his bomb on the Tube. Police believe that the bomb was in a bag, under a seat, when it went off.
Mr Paddick said: "There's a possibility that the person with the bomb died on the bus, there's also the possibility that they just left the bag with the bomb and left."
Charles Clarke, the Home Secretary, will on Wednesday challenge his European Union counterparts to do more to combat the terrorist threat. He will present an emergency meeting of interior ministers in Brussels with a 10-point action plan, including demands for a "common approach" to telecommunications data.
Posted by: Dan Darling ||
07/10/2005 01:18 ||
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AL-QAEDA is secretly recruiting affluent, middle-class Muslims in British universities and colleges to carry out terrorist attacks in this country, leaked Whitehall documents reveal.
A network of âextremist recruitersâ is circulating on campuses targeting people with âtechnical and professional qualificationsâ, particularly engineering and IT degrees.
Yesterday it emerged that last weekâs London bombings were a sophisticated attack with all the devices detonating on the Underground within 50 seconds of each other. The police believe those behind the outrage may be home-grown British terrorists with no criminal backgrounds and possessing technical expertise.
A joint Home Office and Foreign Office dossier â Young Muslims and Extremism â prepared for the prime minister last year, said Britain might now be harbouring thousands of Al-Qaeda sympathisers.
Lord Stevens, the former Metropolitan police chief, revealed separately last night that up to 3,000 British-born or British-based people had passed through Osama Bin Ladenâs training camps.
The Whitehall dossier, ordered by Tony Blair following last yearâs train bombings in Madrid, says: âExtremists are known to target schools and colleges where young people may be very inquisitive but less challenging and more susceptible to extremist reasoning/ arguments.â
The confidential assessment, covering more than 100 pages of letters, papers and other documents, forms the basis of the governmentâs counter-terrorism strategy, codenamed Operation Contest.
It paints a chilling picture of the scale of the task in tackling terrorism. Drawing on information from MI5, it concludes: âIntelligence indicates that the number of British Muslims actively engaged in terrorist activity, whether at home or abroad or supporting such activity, is extremely small and estimated at less than 1%.â
This equates to fewer than 16,000 potential terrorists and supporters out of a Muslim population of almost 1.6m.
The dossier also estimates that 10,000 have attended extremist conferences. The security services believe that the number who are prepared to commit terrorist attacks may run into hundreds.
Most of the Al-Qaeda recruits tend to be loners âattracted to university clubs based on ethnicity or religionâ because of âdisillusionment with their current existenceâ. British-based terrorists are made up of different ethnic groups, according to the documents.
âThey range from foreign nationals now naturalised and resident in the UK, arriving mainly from north Africa and the Middle East, to second and third generation British citizens whose forebears mainly originate from Pakistan or Kashmir.
âIn addition . . . a significant number come from liberal, non-religious Muslim backgrounds or (are) only converted to Islam in adulthood. These converts include white British nationals and those of West Indian extraction.â
The Iraq war is identified by the dossier as a key cause of young Britons turning to terrorism. The analysis says: âIt seems that a particularly strong cause of disillusionment among Muslims, including young Muslims, is a perceived âdouble standardâ in the foreign policy of western governments, in particular Britain and the US.
âThe perception is that passive âoppressionâ, as demonstrated in British foreign policy, eg non-action on Kashmir and Chechnya, has given way to âactive oppressionâ. The war on terror, and in Iraq and Afghanistan, are all seen by a section of British Muslims as having been acts against Islam.â
In an interview yesterday, Blair denied that the London terrorist attacks were a direct result of British involvement in the Iraq war. He said Russia had suffered terrorism with the Beslan school massacre despite its opposition to the war, and terrorists were planning further attacks on Spain even after the pro-war government was voted out.
âSeptember 11 happened before Iraq, before Afghanistan, before any of these issues and that was the worst terrorist atrocity of all,â he said.
However, the analysis prepared for Blair identified Iraq as a ârecruiting sergeantâ for extremism.
The Sunday Times has learnt that Britain is negotiating with Australia to hand over military command of southern Iraq to release British troops for redeployment in Afghanistan.
The plan behind Operation Contest has been to win over Muslim âhearts and mindsâ with policy initiatives including anti-religious discrimination laws. A meeting of Contest officials this week is expected to consider a radical overhaul of the strategy following the London attacks.
Stevens said last night at least eight attacks aimed at civilian targets on the British mainland had been foiled in the past five years and that none had been planned by the same gang.
The former Scotland Yard chief, who retired earlier this year, said that on one weekend more than 1,000 undercover officers had been deployed, monitoring a group of suspected terrorists.
He said that he believed last weekâs attackers were almost certainly British-born, âbrought up here and totally aware of British life and valuesâ.
âThereâs a sufficient number of people in this country willing to be Islamic terrorists that they donât have to be drafted in from abroad,â he said.
Posted by: Dan Darling ||
07/10/2005 00:54 ||
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#1
1% this off by a bit I would venture. 5% to 10% spreading thier infection to all those around them.
#2
I expect to get some slams for what I'm thinking, but hey, who cares, eh? Just be werdz, after all...
I believe the UK campaign is just warming up. This will just bring more of the nascent / timid loonies out, those wanting to become "somebody" and issue silly statements and play jihadi. I expect more hits and soon. I also expect this will make wannabee jihadis in other Western countries jealous - just look at all that juicy media coverage. Gotta be a big draw for those inclined to join this sort of shit in the first place. Yeah, I expect many of the homegrown types to come out of the woodwork - everywhere they exist in numbers and have resources. Plenty to go around.
Yeah, I know it was fiction, but what was the line by the crazy Irishman in Braveheart?
"God tells me he can get me out of this mess, but he's pretty sure you're fucked."
I think the sentiment applies to all (countries) in the West - who delay getting down and dirty. Burning down a moskkk isn't the answer. Those unwilling to show their bellies, Zappie style, will have to get ugly - starting with the imams. Dead is good. Deported can be good, if their home country also want a piece and is willing to go the distance. Jail just don't cut it - recall Lynne Stewart and Abdul Rahman. It's clearly get serious or else time.
#3
A joint Home Office and Foreign Office dossier â Young Muslims and Extremism â prepared for the prime minister last year, said Britain might now be harbouring thousands of Al-Qaeda sympathisers.
#4
What is that saying -- something about being balanced between hope and fear? I hope you are wrong, .com, but I fear me you are very, very right. And it would be awfully easy to go from PLO sympathizer to AQ sympathizer, which would deepen the pool the terrorists swim in considerably, dammit! I would very much like to know how many over there have now realized the folly of that particular attitude, just as I would like to know if that little excitement in London changed any minds on this side of the pond.
#5
A network of âextremist recruitersâ is circulating on campuses...
Well, then thank God the moderate muslims are turning these guys over to authorities!
What? They're not? Oh.
Posted by: Robert Crawford ||
07/10/2005 12:36 Comments ||
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#6
trailing wife:
I think you've gotten to a key aspect of the situation. Paleo sympathy is localized to a specific location, with definable issues. AQ sympathy is generalized and pervasive geographically, and the issues are amorphous, having to do with the persecution of muslims/war against islam, the desire to restore the caliphate and the elimination of all nonbelievers.
It's a slippery slope to go from one to the other. And it's an especially easy one for muslims, given that their religion is based on followership and not reasoned debate and exploration of ideas. Can't question the infinite wisdom of the imams.
If only the european petrowhores had condemned pali terror. If only the arab states did too. But then, we'd live in a very different world, wouldn't we?
#7
.com, I have been reading the book, The Interragators this weekend at my folk's house. It is a first hand account of the army interragation shops in Kandahar and Bagram. They ran several ruses during their questioning that were interesting as possible real policies. At one point the interragators upset the detainees with a rumour that a law was being passed that would allow the US or UK governemnt to expel the families of terrorrists to their country of origin. This was most upsetting to the prisonners from North Africa.
Posted by: Super Hose ||
07/10/2005 17:35 Comments ||
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#8
I wonder if the analyst bothered to send it to Tony Blair at all or whether it was leaked to the press straight away.
Posted by: Super Hose ||
07/10/2005 17:36 Comments ||
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#9
I have a problem that they knew who but did little but watch them spread their roots and grow.
But then I guess I've only said that only about three million, four hundred and fifty seven times. I guess I just hope maybe somebody will hear my tiny little voice calling in the wilderness.
#10
maybe if we want to get at the roots of terrorism, we should start by ripping them out the rootshere, instead of pouring water on them and watching to see how big they can grow. sigh
LONDON: Suspected arsonists set a mosque in northwest England on fire Saturday, police said. A man living in a flat above the Shahjalal Mosque, which is part of an Islamic centre in Birkenhead, was treated for smoke inhalation but there were no other injuries, police said. The mosque door was burnt and there was some smoke damage inside, Merseyside police said.
Don't take it too seriously. The majority of Britons are law-abiding and have no involvement with vigilante justice. British is a Nationality of Peaceâ¢...
Posted by: Fred ||
07/10/2005 00:00 ||
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#2
to question any ethnic brits is racist. Islamists should look to the root cause: why do they hate us? If they come up short, I'm sure I can start a list for them
Posted by: Frank G ||
07/10/2005 0:15 Comments ||
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#3
Why do I get the feeling that once this is investigated, they'll find the Imam burned it down himself.
#5
Glad the resident guy is OK, assuming he didn't do it himself. This looks like the work of glue-sniffing skinhead wannabes, throw away the key if they're caught. Besides, it's a waste of perfectly good fuel that could have been used to torch a Moonbat media outlet.
#11
We of the Anglo community condemn this act and appeal for calm
(wait for it...)
BUT
we hope that the Muslim community will strive to learn the root causes of such acts, and take this opportunity for an introspective examination of the reasons why Muslims have a marked inability to coexist peacefully with non-Muslim communities.
Posted by: Carl in N.H. ||
07/10/2005 10:36 Comments ||
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#12
Why do I get the feeling that once this is investigated, they'll find the Imam burned it down himself.
Arson can destroy a heck of a lot of evidence.
Posted by: Robert Crawford ||
07/10/2005 12:34 Comments ||
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#13
Maybe the Iman of the mosque should rethink his position concerning the Israeli-Palestinian conflict.
Posted by: Super Hose ||
07/10/2005 21:43 Comments ||
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#14
Somehow this news fails to disquiet me. [/cyrano]
Posted by: Scott R ||
07/10/2005 23:50 Comments ||
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Another member of Shamil Basayev's terrorist group which attacked a hospital in Budyonnovsk, Russia's Stavropol region neighboring on Chechnya, has been arrested, the press service of the North Caucasian interior department reported.
The law enforcement authorities refused to reveal the detainee's name in the interests of investigation.
The arrested person admitted he had joined Shamil Basayev's (a Chechen terrorist leader) group and took part in the seizure of a hospital in Budyonnovsk, which continued for nearly seven days, threatening to kill hostages, if they did not obey, the press center said.
On June 14, 1995, a militant group led by Shamil Basayev entered Budyonnovsk and captured a hospital, taking hostage over 1,500 people. The raid took the lives of 129 people, injuring 415. Deputy Prosecutor General in Russia's Southern Federal District Sergei Shepel said the investigation established that Basayev's group included 195 people. Over this decade 20 terrorists were arrested and convicted, other 30 were destroyed in the course of an anti-terrorist operation and 40 men were placed on the wanted list.
Posted by: Dan Darling ||
07/10/2005 01:22 ||
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AUTHORITIES have compiled a top-secret hit list of more than 100 terror suspects living in Australia. The suspects, all linked to terror group al-Qaeda or its Asian offshoot Jemaah Islamiah, are under constant surveillance by the nation's spy agency ASIO. The hit list names suspected "sleeper agents" and includes Muslim clerics, business people, foreigners â and even Australian citizens.
Oh, horrors! Not Australian citizens! They should be exempt. They'd never hurt anyone...
Intelligence sources confirmed that the suspects are monitored by listening devices, video-taping, informers and phone taps. ASIO has also launched a major counter-intelligence operation to pre-empt a terrorist strike, using undercover agents and electronic devices to monitor Australia's mosques. Federal Attorney-General Philip Ruddock yesterday confirmed the existence of the list â one of ASIO's most closely-guarded secrets.
And now it's out, so now they know, so they can take countermeasures. The whole thing might not be ruined, but it's sure as hell not helped...
He refused to reveal how many on the hit list were Australian citizens, but it is believed there are 20. In the wake of the London attacks, security experts said the threat posed by "homegrown radicals" was greater than that of overseas terrorists. Former London Metropolitan Police Commissioner Lord Stevens revealed intelligence pointing to "at least 100 and probably nearer 200 Osama Bin Laden-trained terrorists walking Britain's streets". Leading international terrorism expert Peter Chalk confirmed sleeper cells were believed to be operating in Australia. Dr Chalk, a former University of Queensland lecturer now with the Rand Corporation think-tank in California, said the new breed of terrorists might not fit traditional profiles. "They could be converted Caucasians who have bought in on the al-Qaeda message," he said.
They should be the ones you kill first...
Dr Chalk said evidence was emerging that al-Qaeda and JI had farmed out responsibility for strikes to local cells. "They may only be two or three people . . . in many ways, they are much more dangerous." The Sunday Mail understands that the ASIO list has been lengthened in recent months after intelligence was gathered from Pakistan and France. ASIO received crucial intelligence from Pakistan after the arrest of top al-Qaeda operative Mohammed Noor Khan who allegedly sent messages from Osama bin Laden and other leaders to Asian terrorist cells planning attacks in Australia. ASIO also learnt much about al-Qaeda's plans for Australia from French judge Jean-Louis Brugiere, who is in charge of the Willie Brigitte case in France. Brigitte was deported to France in 2003 after allegedly planning a terrorist attack here. Judge Brugiere will visit Australia this month for talks with ASIO and federal police. It is believed ASIO is particularly interested in al-Qaeda-linked group Lashkar-e-Taiba, which is banned in Australia but has strong links to Pakistan and Afghanistan Islamic groups.
#1
Ya know, it's only takes one candy ass. One lawyer is brought in to vet procedures, or some high ranking bureaucrat get wind of the operation because he has to sign the purchase reqs for the recording gear. Then he spills his guts to another candy ass reporter and the whole operation is blown.
#3
I don't know how much damage it is really. If they didn't already guess that they were being monitored, then they were stupid and AQ is not that stupid. Besides, in London and the US, as with the subway bombing and the first WTC, they did what they wanted to do right under the watchers eyes. Why would Australia be any different?
I am seeing an incredible amount written on this topic.
On the morning after bombs ripped through the London Underground and crumpled a double-decker bus, four security guards escorted a one-eyed, Egyptian-born cleric, his arms amputated below the elbows from Afghan war injuries, onto the elevated dock of Courtroom No. 1 in Old Bailey, the capital's principal criminal court.
Abu Hamza Masri, for years a blood-curdling preacher at a North London mosque allegedly visited by shoe bomber Richard Reid and hijacker trainee Zacarias Moussaoui, listened silently Friday as his lawyer argued about his indictment last January on nine counts of incitement to murder for speeches that allegedly promoted mass violence against non-Muslims. In one speech cited in a British documentary film, Masri urged followers to get an infidel "and crush his head in your arms, so you can wring his throat. Forget wasting a bullet, cut them in half!"
Masri's case is just one of several dozen that describe the venom, sprawling shape and deep history of al Qaeda and related extremist groups in London. Osama bin Laden opened a political and media office here as far back as 1994; it closed four years later when his local lieutenant, Khalid Fawwaz, was arrested for aiding al Qaeda's attack on two U.S. embassies in Africa.
As bin Laden's ideology of making war on the West spread in the years before Sept. 11, 2001, London became "the Star Wars bar scene" for Islamic radicals, as former White House counterterrorism official Steven Simon called it, attracting a polyglot group of intellectuals, preachers, financiers, arms traders, technology specialists, forgers, travel organizers and foot soldiers.
Today, al Qaeda and its offshoots retain broader connections to London than to any other city in Europe, according to evidence from terrorist prosecutions. Evidence shows at least a supporting connection to London groups or individuals in many of the al Qaeda-related attacks of the past seven years. Among them are the 1998 U.S. Embassy bombings in Kenya and Tanzania; the assassination of Afghan militia leader Ahmed Shah Massoud on Sept. 9, 2001; outer rings of the Sept. 11 conspiracy, involving Moussaoui and the surveillance of financial targets in Washington and New York; Reid's attempted shoe bomb attack in December 2001; and the murder of Wall Street Journal reporter Daniel Pearl in 2002.
The evidence in these and other cases describes al Qaeda connections here as remarkably diverse, ranging from the core organization's early formation through its phase of elaborately planned global strikes between 1999 and 2001, to its more recent period of diffuse franchises and younger volunteers to an attack this week that authorities here said bears al Qaeda's stamp. In the 1980s and 1990s, between 300 and 600 British citizens passed through Afghan training camps, officials here have acknowledged. Today, several recent cases suggest the seeding of a new generation of British residents who traveled as volunteers to fight with the insurgency in Iraq.
On June 15, 2002, at an Islamic community center in Milan, Italy, a cleric with alleged ties to al Qaeda was overheard in conversation with an Arab from Germany, according to a transcript of the wiretap later published in Italy. The Arab spoke of his 10-person cell in Germany and the group's "interest" in Belgium, Spain, the Netherlands, Turkey, Egypt, Italy and France. "But the nerve center is still London," he reported.
UK Tony still wants to psychoanalyze these killers. He thinks they kill because they are impoverished, etc. What bullshit!
Posted by: Captain America ||
07/10/2005 00:53 ||
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#1
Some found haven Stateside, too. We really need to differentiate those who seek asylum because they are on the good side of the Good v. Evil equation, and those on the other side.
#2
Until our DOJ, and the Britts, figures out this is a war and not just a criminal event and treat these acts of hate and planning as a wartime event we will always be a safe haven for terrorists. They will continue to hide in our fee society. We have a choice to make between taking our freedoms away and treating this as a war act. I vote for the war act.
Posted by: 49 pan ||
07/10/2005 14:03 Comments ||
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#3
Sounds as if local London sympathy for Capt. Hook maybe at an alltime low.
Posted by: Super Hose ||
07/10/2005 17:17 Comments ||
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#4
Tower of London low? We can hope
Posted by: Frank G ||
07/10/2005 19:16 Comments ||
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#5
The muslim community can denounce all they want, but they Still are not helping to catch these people. For every terrorist there has to be 20 support personnel. There are people who have no doubt been aproached by the recruiters in london and know who the radicals are. Why, if they are so afraid of a backlash, have the muslims never helped with these cases?
Three Turkish soldiers were killed and eight wounded yesterday when their vehicle hit a land mine suspected of being planted by Kurdish rebels in Turkey's southeast, security sources said. The soldiers were in Hakkari, a remote province bordering Iran and Iraq. The military has launched a sweeping operation along the full stretch of the Iraqi border in Hakkari and the neighboring province of Sirnak, a military official said. "A large-scale operation with between 3,000 and 4,000 troops backed by air support is continuing," he said. Rebels from the separatist Kurdistan Workers Party (PKK) have stepped up their attacks on military and strategic targets after calling off their unilateral cease-fire in June 2004.
In the last week, the PKK claimed responsibility for two separate explosions that hit railway lines in eastern Turkey. Six security guards died in the first attack on a postal train. "PKK militants are bringing C-4 plastic explosives and other materials across the Iraqi border," the official said. "They are engaging in the low-risk tactic of detonating bombs and mines by remote control in attacks on military vehicles in the region."
Posted by: Fred ||
07/10/2005 00:00 ||
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A suspected member of a Jordanian criminal gang involved in a shootout with Syrian security forces in Damascus last week was found dead in a northern hospital yesterday, the official Sana news agency said.
"He's dead, Jim!"
"Mohammad Aied Said Smadi was found dead today in the Al Hosn hospital in the province of Homs after an injury. He had taken a bullet during the armed clashes in Mount Qassioum," Sana said.
Being kinda slow, I have trouble with that phrasing, "found dead." Did they not know he was in the hospital and the cleaning lady stumbled over him? Was he sitting in the emergency room, waiting to be seen and nobody noticed when he keeled over? Or was he found in Room 428, right where Dr. Mahmoud had left him, only not as alive as he used to be?
Syrian security officers also arrested Mohammad's sister, Nisrine Smadi, in northern Syria as she tried to cross illegal into Lebanon, Sana said.
"Going somewhere, Nisrine? Stick 'em up!"
Law enforcement officers have now arrested all members of "this terrorist group that carries out hold-ups," the news agency added. Earlier this week, four members of the Smadi gang were arrested two on Monday and two on Wednesday. On Thursday Jordanian interrogators left for Syria to coordinate with Damascus on an investigation underway with the two fugitives sought in the kingdom on criminal charges.
"Honey, which truncheon do you want to take with you to Damascus?"
"Pack the #6, dear. The Syrians will be doing most of the work."
"It's at the cleaners. Will the #4 do?"
Police spokesman Maj. Bashir Al Daaja told The Associated Press Jordanian investigators will "follow up the case with Syrian authorities who did a fine job getting the two fugitives arrested."
"... but not a very good job keeping them all alive..."
Investigators would await the outcome of the Syrian investigation before Jordan seeks their extradition, he said. The Smadi brothers allegedly headed a criminal gang known as Tawahin Al Udwan.
I think that's Arabic for "The Purple Gang."
Posted by: Fred ||
07/10/2005 00:00 ||
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#1
55 knife stabs in the back---worst case of suicide I've ever seen.
Seafarious reminded me yesterday that search doesn't work when ASP is crashed, which is fairly regularly. I've rewritten it in PHP, though it's not quite done yet. At the moment it's still a simple search whatever's in the box, no "and" or "or," though you can use "*" and "?" as wildcards.
Full text is given for only the most recent dozen returns. The headlines are given for all returns, again, most recent first. They're displayed 50 to the page.
I'll put the "ands" and "ors" back in as I get time...
Posted by: Fred ||
07/10/2005 14:09 ||
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#1
thanky Fred
Posted by: Frank G ||
07/10/2005 14:49 Comments ||
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#2
You mean there was boolean search before?
I thought it was a simple keyword search.
Posted by: Phil Fraering ||
07/10/2005 18:45 Comments ||
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#3
Always been there.
Posted by: Fred ||
07/10/2005 22:29 Comments ||
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More than 20 people have been killed by a suicide bomber at an army recruiting centre in the Iraqi capital Baghdad. Dozens more were wounded in the blast in a queue outside the centre, which has been targeted many times. The BBC's Richard Galpin, in Baghdad, says the lack of work means there is no shortage of would-be recruits, despite the obvious dangers.
The Baghdad attack occurred in the heart of the city, close to the protected Green Zone housing government buildings and foreign embassy staff. Our correspondent says the suicide bomber walked into a large crowd of men milling about outside and detonated an explosives belt. He adds that despite previous attacks, would-be recruits are offered no protection and simply have to wait outside the centre, making them easy targets. Jobs in the Iraqi security forces are relatively well-paid, but insurgents view members as collaborators with US-led forces in Iraq.
Posted by: Paul Moloney ||
07/10/2005 05:59 ||
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#1
Since enlistees queued outside this recruiting center have been frequent targets, it would seem that a change is required to protect these men.
"Business as usual" is a stupid policy that gives a potential psychological edge to the enemy.
It would seem to me that these bombings will have an impact on the type of person who will apply for the job. Wishful thinking says they will be more brave and daring. I don't know if that will be good or bad - considering the penchant for corruption. But cowards and excessively cautious won't be applying and I have to hope in the long term, that's bad for bad guys.
#3
I'm not sure I buy the reporting line of "they are lining up because there are no jobs". The press doesn't seem to consider the possibility that there are some Iraqi patriots who want to serve.
#4
To protect them, One thing they could start doing is with recruits lining up..they need take their shirts off while standing in line, set up more barriers maybe, after a certain one, everyone strip down to their underwear..desperate times calls for desperate measures.
#5
Build a barrier wall of plastic-coated Korans. Rain won't damage them, but any bomb certainly will.
Posted by: Robert Crawford ||
07/10/2005 12:37 Comments ||
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RC - Except, in the MSM's eyes, its perfectly ok for Muslims to desescrate Korans, Rape (including children - See Dafur), Murder, Torture (real not the Gitmo discomforts), lie, steal, and Target Innocents.
All because its their Islamic religious obligation (to emulate the Prophet -- who also did all these things accoroding to the Koran and holy islamic scriptures themselves).
#7
Whatever happened to "take a number"? What's so difficult about this? Why keep lining up like lambs to slaughter? When they're ready for #35, hang the number out a window or use a bullhorn. Sheesh.
Six Afghan policemen have been beheaded after an ambush by suspected Taleban guerrillas, Afghan officials have said. Four other police died and more were wounded when a 30-man convoy was caught in a two-hour gun battle in the southern province of Helmand. The six police were seized and taken away. They were later found beheaded on a roadside after a lengthy search. The governor of Helmand province said the attackers entered Afghanistan by crossing the nearby border from Pakistan, and had crossed back into Pakistan after the ambush.
The BBC's Andrew North, in Kabul, says the insurgents' aim is almost certainly to spread greater terror among police and soldiers operating in remote areas. Amid a constant drumbeat of violence across the south and east of the country, this incident stands out for its brutality, he adds.
Posted by: Paul Moloney ||
07/10/2005 05:56 ||
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#1
I would say"Payback is due".Give Afghan Police the intelgence they need,point them in the right direction(Pak/Afgan border),and cut them loose.With a little back-up fromw my old friend Specter.
#3
Declare a no-man's land along the border. Have continuous predator and gunship flights kill anything that moves. Lay land mines. A country that can drive the Taleban out of Afghanistan ought to be able to secure the border with deadly force.
Posted by: Neutron Tom ||
07/10/2005 14:28 Comments ||
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#4
The Taliban are the today's version of barbarian invaders which must be fully crushed, overwise we run the risk of this fanatical element one day securing nuclear weapons, and using them without question.
Posted by: Mark Espinola ||
07/10/2005 15:12 Comments ||
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THE terrorist believed to have organised last yearâs Madrid train attacks is emerging as a figure in the hunt for the London bombers.
Spanish security sources are said to have warned four months ago that Mustafa Setmariam Nasar, a 47-year-old Syrian, had identified Britain as a likely target.
Coded commands from the Syrian, thought to have included threats to other European countries including Britain, were found in a flat raided after the Madrid bombings in March 2004.
Spanish investigators said Nasar, now believed to be in Iraq, had set up a âsleeperâ cell of terrorists in Britain. But they believed he was planning an attack to coincide with the British general election in May, rather than the G8 summit last week.
One Spanish website yesterday claimed the General Information Commission, a Spanish police intelligence body, issued a report in March warning that Britain and Spain were the primary western targets. The statement was based on Spanish investigations into the Madrid bombings.
In addition, investigators have noted strong similarities in the methods of the two multiple, coordinated bombings against public transport systems.
Last Friday, a team of Spanish detectives arrived in London to help the Metropolitan police with the investigation.
After last weekâs explosions, police were believed to be looking into Mohamed el-Gerbouzi, a Moroccan living in London who has been jailed in Morocco in his absence for terrorism offences. Yesterday, however, senior Met officers were strongly discounting that he had any involvement in the London bombings.
Nasar, from Aleppo, Syria, also known as Abu Musab al-Asuri, who has a $5m (£2.9m) American bounty on his head, is believed to have fled either to Iraq or to the Pakistan-Afghanistan border.
He has connections with London going back more than 10 years, has mixed with many prominent terror suspects and has reportedly been arrested in Britain in connection with bombings on the Paris Metro.
When Nasar moved to London in June 1995 he was already under surveillance by Spanish police, who made a video recording of his departure with his wife Elena. They were accompanied by Abu Dahdah, a Syrian later arrested in Spain, accused of recruiting bombers and now on trial for providing support to the 9/11 conspiracy.
Once in London, Nasar moved his family into a house in Paddock Road, Neasden. From there, he edited the Al Ansar magazine, a newsletter of the Algerian Armed Islamic Group. He became an associate of the cleric Abu Qatada, one of the detainees released from Belmarsh prison last year and accused of being Al-Qaedaâs ambassador to Europe.
In January 1997 he also set up a company called Islamic Conflict Studies Bureau. In documentation filed at Companies House, Nasar describes his nationality as British.
His co-director in the company is named as Mohamed Bahaiah. Bahaiah is known to have been an Al-Qaeda courier in Afghanistan, where he is believed to have been responsible for delivering videotapes to foreign news media. Tayssir Alouni, a correspondent for the Arabic television news channel Al-Jazeera, claims to have met both men in Kabul in the late 1990s.
Nasar was reported to have been arrested by British police following the 1995 bomb attacks on the Paris Metro, but later released. The American Department of Justice said this weekend that Nasar had âserved as a European intermediary for Al-Qaedaâ before leaving for Afghanistan in 1998.
He is now believed to be an associate of Abu Musab al-Zarqawi, the Al-Qaeda chief in Iraq. Some reports claim he has been spotted in London since the Madrid bombings.
Nasar is at the centre of a network of connections uncovered by British and Spanish police between Britain and the Madrid atrocities.
One of the last phone calls made by a group of seven bombers cornered in a police siege of a flat near Madrid was to a British Muslim cleric using the name Ben Salawi. After the call the bombers blew themselves up, apparently at his command. British police said the clericâs name was not known to them but may have been an alias.
Last March a Syrian-born man was arrested and accused of helping indoctrinate the Madrid bombers, following a raid on his home in Slough, Berkshire. Moutaz Almallah Dabas, 39, is accused of renting a flat in Madrid where the men received initial training. Dabas, a Spanish citizen, is fighting extradition to Spain.
He was detained just 24 hours after his brother, Mohammad Almallah Dabas, was arrested by police in Spain. Lawyers acting for the Spanish authorities told a court that Moutaz Dabas had housed radical Islamists at a house in Madrid he owned with his brother.
âIn that house, Dabas and others kept texts referring to and published by Osama Bin Laden for distribution and encouraged those who attended to pledge their affinity to the jihad ideology of Osama Bin Laden,â they told the court.
Others arrested in connection with the Madrid bombings and linked to Britain include Jamal Zougam, 31, a Moroccan believed to have visited contacts in London seeking funding, fake identities and logistical help for the terrorists.
Spanish prosecutors believe two Moroccan men who blew themselves up during the Spanish siege also spent time in London.
Posted by: Dan Darling ||
07/10/2005 01:05 ||
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Looks like an al-Ittihaad splinter to me, unless its based further in the south.
A new group of al Qaeda-linked "jihadis" or "holy warriors" has won a foothold in Somalia and though small may flourish if stable rule does not return to the anarchic Horn of Africa nation, a report said on Sunday.
The "new, ruthless independent jihadi network" is run from the capital Mogadishu by a militia boss trained in Afghanistan and has already killed several foreign aid workers, the International Crisis Group (ICG) think-tank said.
"Ultimately, the threat of jihadi terrorism from Somalia can only be addressed through the restoration of stable, legitimate and functional government," added the ICG document, seen by Reuters in advance of its formal release this week.
Western security services have long viewed lawless Somalia as a haven for terrorists. Warlords overthrew dictator Mohamed Siad Barre and took over the country in 1991.
Somalia-based al Qaeda operatives were thought involved in two suicide attacks in neighbouring Kenya that killed 224 at the U.S. embassy in 1998 and 15 at an Israeli-owned hotel in 2002.
A 14th attempt to re-establish government since 1991 is currently underway. But an interim administration that has just relocated to Somalia from Kenya is riven by factional rivalry.
"If they fail ... jihadis will gradually find growing purchase among Somalia's despairing and disaffected citizenry, and it will only be a matter of time before another group of militants succeeds in mounting a spectacular terrorist attack against foreign interests in Somalia or one of its neighbours," ICG said.
Though dangerous, the new group remains relatively small.
"In reality, jihadism is an unpopular, minority trend among Somali Islamists ... The new jihadi network's effective membership probably is in the tens rather than the hundreds," ICG said.
Furthermore, contrary to some more alarming reports, "ranking al-Qaeda operatives in Somalia probably number less than half a dozen. Several Western countries host larger and more sophisticated jihadi networks," ICG added.
New President Abdullahi Yusuf wants foreign peacekeepers to help him set up a government, but the influential Brussels-based think-tank said that risked creating a cause celebre for extremists.
"The jihadis are praying for the Ethiopians to come", it quoted one moderate Islamist in Somalia as saying. "They can easily make Somalia like Iraq."
Many among Somalia's overwhelmingly Muslim 10 million population are hostile to the dominant regional influence of their large, nominally Christian-led neighbour Ethiopia.
The ICG said the new jihadi movement was one of three radical groups in Somalia, with an al Qaeda cell and the weakened remnants of an Islamist and nationalist group called al-Itihaad al-Islaami.
Since its emergence in 2003 under the leadership of Aden Hashi Ayro -- the Afghanistan-trained protege of a former al-Itihaad commander -- the new group has been implicated in assassinations of four aid workers and at least 10 Somali ex-military and police officers working in counter-terrorism.
"It has no known name, its membership is largely clandestine and its aims are undeclared," the report said, adding that the group was behind the recent desecration of an Italian colonial-era cemetery.
The group has caught the eye of the United States, which is said to have stepped up its anti-terrorism work in Somalia through surveillance flights and cooperation with regional and local intelligence arms.
"In the rubble-strewn streets of the ruined capital of this state without a government ... al-Qaeda operatives, jihadi extremists, Ethiopian security services and Western-backed counter-terrorism networks are engaged in a shadowy and complex contest waged by intimidation, abduction and assassination."
Posted by: Dan Darling ||
07/10/2005 00:49 ||
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#1
Another piece of un-finished buisness,thank you Slick Willie.
#2
International Crisis Group (ICG) think-tank has determined that Somalia might become a den of terrorrists. I guess they spent their grant money on a Blackhawk Down DVD.
It nice to see that their work is bereft of suggestions, solutions or reccomendations other than keeping the Ethiopians out.
Posted by: Super Hose ||
07/10/2005 17:59 Comments ||
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#3
spike the Qhat with Paraquat
Posted by: Dick Nixon ||
07/10/2005 19:22 Comments ||
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LONDON - Britain and the US are trying to build a new strategy to exit Iraq that could see British troops coming home by Christmas, a newspaper reported citing a government memo written by the defence secretary.
The Mail on Sunday reported that British Defence Secretary John Reid drafted a secret paper for Prime Minister Tony Blair outlining how most of the countryâs 8,500 troops could be sent home from Iraq within three months, with the rest by the end of the year.
Just another staff contingency plan brought to public attention.
The document also said the US was looking to cut back its own troop levels to 66,000, down from the 135,000 there now.
But in a statement released by Britain Defence Ministry, Reid said the document was simply one of several period updates examining possible scenarios for the war in Iraq. âWe have made it absolutely plain that we will stay in Iraq for as long as is needed,â Reid said in a statement. âNo decisions on the future force posture of UK forces have been taken.â
In a copy of the letter, portions of which were printed by the newspaper and marked âSecret - UK Eyes Only,â Reid wrote that there was a strong desire in the US military to reduce the number of its troops in Iraq and hand over security duties to Iraqi forces in 14 of the countryâs 18 provinces by the end of the year.
Makes sense since 14 provinces are relatively calm.
âThere is a debate between the Pentagon/CENTCOM who favor a relatively bold reduction, and MNF-I (US commanders in Iraq) whose approach is more cautious,â part of the letter reads.
Commanders usually are, and it's a good instinct.
Premier Silvio Berlusconi said 300 of Italyâs soldiers would start leaving in September.Reid said Britain was committed to the coalition. âWe have made it absolutely plain that we will stay in Iraq for as long as is needed,â he said in a statement. âNo decisions on the future force posture of UK forces have been taken.â
He added that it has always been the British governmentâs intent to ultimately hand over the lead in fighting in Iraq to that countryâs own forces, when they are ready to assume the responsibility. âWe therefore continually produce papers outlining possible options and contingencies. This is but one of a number of such papers produced over recent months covering various scenarios,â Reid said. âThis is prudent planning. I stress again that no decisions on the future force posture of UK forces have been taken.â
#2
Derb seems to ignore the fact that nuclear Mad Mullahs in Iran or further decay in Saudi Arabia could cripple Western capitalism with an oil embargo or even level a major Western city. Power is concentrating in bad places. This is not the IRA.
Posted by: Neutron Tom ||
07/10/2005 16:48 Comments ||
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#3
Derb is a blithering idiot.
Posted by: Mike ||
07/10/2005 19:52 Comments ||
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At least three persons were killed in 'encounter' yesterday with the law enforcing agencies in Dhaka, Rajshahi and Narayanganj.
A three-fer!
In the first case, a suspected criminal was killed at Mohammadpur in the city between the accomplices of the criminal and the joint force of Cobra and Cheetah in the small hours of the day.
Are these RAB wannabes or off-shoots?
The dead was identified as Khandoker Iqbal Hossain (22), a first year Marketing department student of the Jagannath University College. Son of Abul Khair, Iqbal was a resident of 20/26, Sher Shah Suri Road under Mohammadpur police station, sources said.
Never thought much of the father, nope, never did.
Earlier, the detective branch police from the city's Dhanmondi area arrested the victim on Friday.
As Steve Y would say, let's do this by the numbers. One.
The police sources said when a joint team of the Cobra and Cheetah along with Iqbal went to the west side of the 'Martyrs Intellectual Graveyard' at Rayerbazar to recover arms and ammunition ...
Two.
...as well as to nab the criminals ...
Three.
... at around 2:45am, the criminals fired upon the law-enforcers prompting them to retaliate.
Four.
Iqbal was hit by several bullets on different parts of his body and several different parts of his noggin, although his accomplices managed to flee.
Five.
The police also recovered a pistol loaded with two rounds of bullet.
Six.
The injured was rushed to the Emergency Department of Dhaka Medical College Hospital (DMCH not a Level I Trauma Center), where he succumbed to his injuries at around 3:30am.
Seven.
Talking to the newsmen at the DMCH morgue ...
Eight. Nope, didn't miss a beat.
... the victim's father Abul Khair said that all of his no-good family members along with Iqbal went to Asad Gate area to attend a wedding and gun sex party at around 9:00 Friday night. And he was missing since then. He, however, claimed that there was no case against his son with any police stations, which the police sources denied saying that Iqbal was the second-in-command of Killer Habib and accused of several criminal cases.
In Rajshahi, SM Golam Mortuza alias Chand, an alleged regional commander of the Purba Banglar Communist Party (PBCP), was killed in an encounter with the members of Rapid Action Battalion (RAB) at Belgachi under Mohanpur upazila early in the morning.
RAB's branching out, unless 'communist' is just another word for 'criminal'. Which fits in a way.
The deceased was a son of Sheikh Golam Maula of village Tahirpur Bazaarpara under Bagmara upazila. Sources concerned said a RAB team of Atrai camp nabbed Chand from Tahirpur Bazaar area on July 7 and took him to the Rajshahi camp for interrogation.
"Youse comin' wit us, Chand."
During ipainful nterrogation, he admitted his involvement with the PBCP activists. He also disclosed information about having illegal arms and ammunition.
"Anything! I'll tell you anything! Just put those down!"
Based on his information, when a RAB team in the early hours of Saturday reached near Belgachhi, the PBCP activists opened gunfire prompting them to retaliate, which led to a seven or eight-minute gunfight between the two groups.
Which I'll bet was decidedly one-sided.
Chand was caught in crossfire when he tried to escape during the milee.
"Feets don't fail me n..... [thunkity-thunkity-thunk] Rosebud!"
As the criminals ran away retreated, the RAB members recovered the bullet-riddled dead body of Chand from beside the Khaira Bazaar-Belgachi road. He was rushed to Mohanpur Thana Health Complex, but the attending doctors declared him dead.
Why bother? You just told us he was bullet-riddled and dead.
The RAB men recovered several arms, including a shooter gun, cartridge and a scimitar dagger from the spot, which were left by the terrorists.
Chand had been involved with criminal activities, including extortion, looting and killing and there were a number of cases against him with Bagmara thana, according to the RAB sources.
And here's dessert:
Our Narayanganj correspondent reported that an alleged criminal was killed in an encounter with the Sonargaon police in the early hours of yesterday at village Modonpur under Bandar thana in the district. The victim, Mokbul Hossain, son of Ali Ahmed, was accused in nine criminal cases, including five murders, sources concerned said.
Posted by: Steve White ||
07/10/2005 00:05 ||
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#4
It's just doing it by the numbers that cracks me up. Surely the perps must realise that when the RAB (or their lookalikes) go to recover arms and ammunition it's an 'oh-oh' moment.
Posted by: Tony (UK) ||
07/10/2005 8:02 Comments ||
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#5
I nominate "Martyrs Intellectual Graveyard" as possibly the smallest plot of land as well as most ironic name
Posted by: Frank G ||
07/10/2005 9:44 Comments ||
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#6
Well, it depends, Tony. After all, the whole crossfire thing is just a cover. What the tell the press and what they tell the crook might be very different. They might have shot the guy right when they captured him. Or maybe were "transfering" him to another facility (the morgue).
For all I know, there's only one shutter gun in the whole country. Has anyone checked the serial number?
Posted by: Tony (UK) ||
07/10/2005 12:00 Comments ||
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#9
I don't know, Tony. I did a google for images of one once, and all I got were photographic gizmos and paintball guns.
Posted by: Darth VAda ||
07/10/2005 13:04 Comments ||
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#10
Well done, Steve. I see the Gazette is in good hands on the weekend. I've looked all over for a good shuttergun description, but no luck. Till otherwise disproved, I'm treating it as a homemade zipgun.
Posted by: Steve ||
07/10/2005 16:12 Comments ||
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#11
I believe a "shutter gun" is a shotgun.
Posted by: Deacon Blues ||
07/10/2005 19:20 Comments ||
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Iraq rebels fired mortars at Baghdad's main oil refinery late Friday in a renewed assault on key infrastructure as a US commander suggested such attacks marked a new twist in insurgent tactics. A huge fire broke out at the Dura oil refinery on the outskirts of the capital after it was hit by two mortar rounds, oil ministry spokesman Assem Jihad said. Some 150 firefighters battled the blaze for more than two hours before putting it out. Three people suffered minor burns, Jihad said. "It appears to be a mortar that hit one of the pipelines attached to one of the resevoirs," Oil Minister Ibrahim Bahr al-Ulum, who visited the plant after the attack, told AFP. "It is all under control now -- the reservoir is damaged a bit but the refinery will be operating at capacity again."
Posted by: Fred ||
07/10/2005 00:12 ||
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KHOST: Taliban militants have killed a senior pro-government cleric, the third such killing in just over a month, a provincial governor said on Saturday. Agha Jan, the senior Islamic cleric in the southeastern province of Paktika, was stabbed to death along with his wife at his house on Friday evening, Paktika Governor Gulbaddin Mangal said. "It was the Taliban who did it," Mangal said.
Posted by: Fred ||
07/10/2005 00:00 ||
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KARACHI: Unidentified men shot dead a cleric in Orangi Town early on Saturday morning. Men kidnapped Maulana Shamsuddin, head of the Darul Uloom Hanafia while he was on the way to give lessons at a madrassa at Banaras Chowk after offering Fajr prayers. The men riding motorcycles intercepted him and kidnapped him. He was found murdered near Metro Cinema after a little while. He was shot four times. Police said the cleric was popular in his locality. When news of his killing reached the two madrassas, hundreds of students arrived at the scene where he was found murdered.
How much damage did the riot do?
It's Karachi. Who'd notice?
Posted by: Fred ||
07/10/2005 00:00 ||
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#1
How come I saw the title Cockroachy Cleric Shot Dead?
#2
Wonder why? Not reaching the 'death and destruction' rantings quota?
Posted by: Tony (UK) ||
07/10/2005 2:04 Comments ||
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#3
Apparently Maulana Shamsuddin was a big Turban in the anti-Shi'ite Sipah-e-Sahaba (Soldiers of the Companions of the Prophet), so it isn't to hard to figure out why he was wacked.
No great loss.
Posted by: Paul Moloney ||
07/10/2005 5:21 Comments ||
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#4
Shiites on Motorcycles of Doomâ¢..why do they hate ...
oh, nevermind
Posted by: Frank G ||
07/10/2005 9:32 Comments ||
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Indian troops Saturday recovered bullet-riddled bodies of three militants, including the chief commander of the hardline Jaish-e-Mohammed and his deputy in southern Pulwama district, defence spokesman Vijay Batra said. Troops identified the commander as Jamal Bhai and his deputy as Mullah Naseer. Batra said the militants had sustained injuries during an encounter with troops in February but had escaped.
Was this a fresh case of bullet riddling, or were the carcasses somewhat the worse for wear? Or did it take this long for them to peg out from the February bullet riddling?
Posted by: Fred ||
07/10/2005 00:00 ||
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About 600 U.S. Marines and Iraqi soldiers launched a fourth counterinsurgency operation in less than a month in a volatile western province in Iraq, this time near Fallujah, the military said Saturday. The counterinsurgency offensive, called Operation Scimitar, started Thursday with targeted raids in Zaidan, 19 miles southeast of Fallujah. Two days later, 22 suspected insurgents had been detained. The military said it did not announce the offensive earlier because commanders did not want to tip off insurgents that a major operation had begun.
Are the Iraqis finally starting to get the idea that tipping them off a week ahead of time isn't a good thing?
Almost like lashkar drumming ...
The offensive â named after a scimitar curved sword â includes 500 Marines from the 3rd Reconnaissance Battalion, Regimental Combat Team-8, a highly trained infantry unit stationed in Okinawa, Japan, the military said. About 100 Iraqi soldiers are supporting the operation, which is designed to disrupt insurgent activity in the Anbar province. The latest counterinsurgency offensive in the province came on the heels of Operations Spear, Dagger and Sword. There are a number of insurgent strongholds in Anbar, which stretches from Baghdad to the Syrian border.
Posted by: Fred ||
07/10/2005 00:00 ||
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Taleban militants in Afghanistan yesterday claimed to have beheaded a US special forces soldier they had held hostage since last week, but the US military said there was no proof the soldier had been killed. Taleban spokesman Mulla Abdul Latif Hakimi told AFP the soldier was killed yesterday and his body was left on a mountainside in the northeastern province of Kunar.
An American Navy SEAL has been missing in Kunar after the rescue attempt of a four-man team ended in the downing of a US military helicopter on June 28, killing 16 people. One soldier was rescued but the other two are dead. "This morning at 11:00 a.m. (0630 GMT) in Shagal district in Kunar province, the Taleban killed the American soldier and cut his head off," Hakimi told AFP. "We left the body on a mountainside in the area ... so the Afghan or US soldiers there can find it," the spokesman said, declining to give any details about the victim. "We cannot give more information, after the US finds the body and announces it that will be the proof of our claim," he said.
The report could not be verified from independent sources and Hakimi has previously made inflated or untrue claims about clashes in Afghanistan between the Taleban and coalition forces. A US military spokesman here said there was no proof that the soldier was dead and that the massive search for him was continuing. "Our service member is still missing, and search operations are ongoing. We have no proof that what the Taleban claim has happened," spokesman Lt. Col. Jerry O'Hara said. The US has said more than 300 US soldiers backed by military aircraft were searching the wooded mountains to locate the missing commando. It has disputed previous claims that he was being held by the Taleban. The four Navy SEALs were on a reconnaissance mission when they came under attack by a large force of militants. After calling for support, the Chinook helicopter was shot down in the coalition's biggest single loss of life since toppling the fundamentalist Taleban regime in late 2001.
Posted by: Fred ||
07/10/2005 00:00 ||
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#1
I feel sick
I know guys are still searching for him, and I pray they find him soon.
Meanwhile it's hard to hear this kind of accusation.
Posted by: Jan ||
07/10/2005 0:18 Comments ||
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#2
Hakimi's a lying coward - time to spread the ill will to his hometown/family
Posted by: Frank G ||
07/10/2005 0:22 Comments ||
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#3
..and very hard feeling, .50 cal. hard.
Posted by: Red Dog ||
07/10/2005 0:37 Comments ||
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#4
I've seen this report about 30x over the past few days. I will believe it when (if) the body is discovered.
Posted by: Captain America ||
07/10/2005 2:07 Comments ||
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#5
Can someone explain why this Hakimi is still sucking air?
Posted by: Captain America ||
07/10/2005 2:08 Comments ||
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#6
For every captured soldier killed by these Islamic pukes, we should take 100 of their prisoners out of prison, kill them and drop their dead corpses on their hideouts. 100/1 odds they'll have to reckon with. Should make them think twice about killing our captives.
It's time to fight fire with fire!!!
You can't pussy-foot with these ass holes and you cannot negoitiate with them. The only thing they understand is force! That's why Saddam was able to control them, through Fear.
#12
When are we going to realize that the ONLY thing these bastards understand is brutal, ruthless force and that the sooner we go full Roman on them, the sooner they will come to heel?
Posted by: mac ||
07/10/2005 20:59 Comments ||
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#13
Saddam did not control people like this. He employed them. There is plenty of evidence at the Salaam Pak (spelling?) terrorist/Republican Guard training camps and in various Ba'athist department files showing the vast numbers of terror groups, hard boyz and outright criminal gangs Saddam Hussein either hired, financed or subcontracted to. There is plenty of evidence in the way of broken bodies and missing people, too. Saddam Hussein did not manage a peaceful society; he and his cadres imposed a reign of terror on every decent and semi-decent person resident within his borders.
No, the Taliban and their ilk cannot be negotiated with, and pussy-footing around their peculiarities will not appease them. But hearkening back to Saddam's "control" is much of a piece as remembering wistfully how Hitler made the trains run on time.
Four Maoists belong to two different outfits were killed in gunbattles with police in the southern Indian state of Andhra Pradesh yesterday. A police spokesman said two members of CPI-ML Janashakti were killed and six others fled when police opened fire on them near a village in Polavaram area of West Godavari district. Police said they recovered seven weapons but did not identify them.
In the Bhupalpally area in Warangal district, two members of Praja Pratighatana group were killed when police stormed their hide-out at a farmer's house in the early hours. On specific information, a CRPF team led by the local sub-inspector raided the house and asked the Maoists to surrender. They opened fire on the police who retaliated, killing the extremists Suresh and Hanumanthu on the spot. Police recovered three weapons â two carbines and a country-made 9mm pistol.
No shutter guns. Wotta gyp.
Posted by: Fred ||
07/10/2005 00:00 ||
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A multi-volume chronology and reference guide set detailing three years of the Mexican Drug War between 2010 and 2012.
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LONDON: Suspected arsonists set a mosque in northwest England on fire Saturday, police said. A man living in a flat above the Shahjalal Mosque, which is part of an Islamic centre in Birkenhead, was treated for smoke inhalation but there were no other injuries, police said. The mosque door was burnt and there was some smoke damage inside, Merseyside police said. 
Three Turkish soldiers were killed and eight wounded yesterday when their vehicle hit a land mine suspected of being planted by Kurdish rebels in Turkey's southeast, security sources said. The soldiers were in Hakkari, a remote province bordering Iran and Iraq. The military has launched a sweeping operation along the full stretch of the Iraqi border in Hakkari and the neighboring province of Sirnak, a military official said. "A large-scale operation with between 3,000 and 4,000 troops backed by air support is continuing," he said. Rebels from the separatist Kurdistan Workers Party (PKK) have stepped up their attacks on military and strategic targets after calling off their unilateral cease-fire in June 2004.
A suspected member of a Jordanian criminal gang involved in a shootout with Syrian security forces in Damascus last week was found dead in a northern hospital yesterday, the official Sana news agency said. 
At least three persons were killed in 'encounter' yesterday with the law enforcing agencies in Dhaka, Rajshahi and Narayanganj. 
Iraq rebels fired mortars at Baghdad's main oil refinery late Friday in a renewed assault on key infrastructure as a US commander suggested such attacks marked a new twist in insurgent tactics. A huge fire broke out at the Dura oil refinery on the outskirts of the capital after it was hit by two mortar rounds, oil ministry spokesman Assem Jihad said. Some 150 firefighters battled the blaze for more than two hours before putting it out. Three people suffered minor burns, Jihad said. "It appears to be a mortar that hit one of the pipelines attached to one of the resevoirs," Oil Minister Ibrahim Bahr al-Ulum, who visited the plant after the attack, told AFP. "It is all under control now -- the reservoir is damaged a bit but the refinery will be operating at capacity again."
KHOST: Taliban militants have killed a senior pro-government cleric, the third such killing in just over a month, a provincial governor said on Saturday. Agha Jan, the senior Islamic cleric in the southeastern province of Paktika, was stabbed to death along with his wife at his house on Friday evening, Paktika Governor Gulbaddin Mangal said. "It was the Taliban who did it," Mangal said.
KARACHI: Unidentified men shot dead a cleric in Orangi Town early on Saturday morning. Men kidnapped 
Indian troops Saturday recovered bullet-riddled bodies of three militants, including the chief commander of the hardline 
About 600 U.S. Marines and Iraqi soldiers launched a fourth counterinsurgency operation in less than a month in a volatile western province in Iraq, this time near Fallujah, the military said Saturday. The counterinsurgency offensive, called Operation Scimitar, started Thursday with targeted raids in Zaidan, 19 miles southeast of Fallujah. Two days later, 22 suspected insurgents had been detained. The military said it did not announce the offensive earlier because commanders did not want to tip off insurgents that a major operation had begun.
