Saudi forces arrested seven suspected terrorist in Riyadh and the southern city of Taif as the hunt for militants entered its fourth day on Thursday. The Government is offering one million Saudi Riyals to anyone providing information leading to the arrest of a wanted terrorist and SR5 million for information leading to foiling a terror attack. Officials said that police have been conducting extensive search operations in various parts of Riyadh.
One of three men arrested in Riyadh late on Wednesday is reportedly the brother of a wanted terrorist now in police custody. However, sources said the men are not among the 36 terror suspects named by the Ministry of Interior on June 28. General Mansour Al Turki, the ministry spokesman, told Gulf News that the three men were âdetained for questioning and that more arrests were expected during the ongoing sweepâ. Meanwhile, Saudi special forces arrested four men on Taif-Riyadh highway on âsuspicion of being involved in illegal activitiesâ. Gen Al Turki said the arrests were âpart of systematic combing operations designed to capture wanted suspectsâ.
Posted by: Fred ||
07/15/2005 00:00 ||
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Edited for details on the bomb:
An Egyptian scientist suspected of being involved in making explosives for the London suicide bombers has been arrested in Cairo. Magdy Elnashar, who studied for a PhD at Leeds University, is thought to have links to a flat in Leeds being searched by anti-terrorist officers.
The flat has been described as a bomb-making factory where explosives were made using ingredients available from high street chemists.
Detectives investigating the London bombings have discovered home-made explosive materials using ingredients that can be found in high street chemists. The highly volatile explosive acetone peroxide was found in the house in Leeds connected to Elnashar. The discovery has raised fears of other British fanatics making their own explosives and following the example of the London suicide bombers. The home-made explosives are similar to those used in other al-Qaida-linked attacks. Instructions for making acetone peroxide are readily available on the internet.
A security source said: "The explosive that has been recovered at the house in Leeds - some of it is still in there - is in fact acetone peroxide. It's the same kind of explosive Richard Reid had in his shoes when he tried to blow up a trans-Atlantic flight in 2001. "This is a shocking development in the sense that earlier ideas about commercial or military grade explosive being used in the bombs themselves would therefore seem to be wrong." He said the explosive's "extremely volatile" nature had prompted the police to widen a cordon around the house in the Beeston area of Leeds even further yesterday, as well as set up a no-fly zone. Anti-terrorist agencies are worried other "educated amateurs" could try to make more of the explosive.
ACETONE peroxide, also known as Mother of Satan because of its instability and lethal potential, can be made from common household items. Drain cleaner (sulphuric acid), hair bleach (hydrogen peroxide), and acetone (used in some nail varnish removers) can be mixed together to start the process of making home-made explosives. Sometimes used by bombers in the West Bank, the compound was also used by shoe bomber Richard Reid, who packed his shoe with more than 100 grams of plasticised triacetone triperoxide (TATP) - another name for acetone peroxide. The TATP would have been used to light other powerful plastic explosives in his shoe. The British-born bomber boarded an American Airlines Paris to Miami flight in 2001 but was overpowered by passengers and staff.
Acetone peroxide is highly sensitive to heat, friction, and shock. Professional chemists have been injured attempting to use it and dozens of Palestinians have been killed manufacturing or handling it. Recipes for making home-made explosives using acetone peroxide are readily available on the internet.
Posted by: Steve ||
07/15/2005 09:34 ||
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This stuff sounds about as stable as nitroglycerine.
Posted by: Dar ||
07/15/2005 10:11 Comments ||
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a nice touch would be to put the recipes up on the net - but with the wrong proportions, leading to "work accidents"
Posted by: Frank G ||
07/15/2005 10:15 Comments ||
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"Step 25. Shake well before using."
Posted by: Matt ||
07/15/2005 11:13 Comments ||
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The stuff brings lots of its own oxygen to the party. We can do all this detective and defensive stuff, but the first step needs to be to break up the PC BS and boot the imams and their ilk out of the country--both sides of the Atlantic. We will go broke trying to provide security. Terrorists have a great deal of leverage. Look at the two sniper-psychos around the Washington, DC area a year or two ago. All we need is the will to say STFU to the PC types and get the cancer out of the society.
Posted by: Alaska Paul ||
07/15/2005 11:49 Comments ||
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hair bleach (hydrogen peroxide), and acetone (used in some nail varnish removers)
Since women aren't allowed to pretty themselves up in that sexually repressed society, how else are they going to keep the unemployment down in the industrial chemical industry?
#6
Maybe we might think about profiling the purchases of bleach and nail-polish remover? I suspect you need quite a bit of the ingredients. If it precipitates at low temperatures (yeah, I went to see how to make it) it can't be a very efficient reaction. How much acetone ya gotta buy to get a pound of the stuff?
Posted by: Bobby ||
07/15/2005 12:20 Comments ||
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All his classmates at NC State were just interested to learning how to set up a meth lab.
Posted by: Super Hose ||
07/15/2005 12:36 Comments ||
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Beauty supply stores sell acetone by the gallon. So do various industrial supply places as it's a common way to remove any traces of oil from surfaces.
#10
Bobby: online sources give 4g of AP from 12.5 mL of acetone.
Another source (a chemist) has said that extraction should be done in ether (which is itself very dangerous).
A person has to be crazy to be playing with this stuff. It seems like a sure way to lose fingers, limbs or life.
These mad mullahs really live up to their name.
The blast victims who survived are lucky the savages used home made stuff. The death toll may have been like in Madrid if military explosives were used.
Posted by: john ||
07/15/2005 12:51 Comments ||
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So we have this: Acetone peroxide is highly sensitive to heat, friction, and shock
right after this: he compound was also used by shoe bomber Richard Reid, who packed his shoe with more than 100 grams of plasticised triacetone triperoxide (TATP) - another name for acetone peroxide.
I dunno about his shoes, but mine see plenty of shock and heat in the course of a day.
#12
Well all these thugs are involved with drug trafficing to some extent.
Cocaine is explosive
Ether is explosive
explosive is the definition of a meth lab
All these activities will turn the house or apt into a SuperFund cleanup site too..
#14
And don't forget about the bread to soak it up, cuban is best, italian is okay avoid wonder. Ed's redact if necessry, but it's important to know what we're up against.
#15
WRT manufacturing this stuff, Inshallah, as Allah wills. Idiots. Darwin will have a field day, and the neighbors will start contacting the police in self-defence. In fact, it would probably be a good idea for the Scotland Yard spokesman to wax concerned on BBC-1 about the risk to the entire neighborhood when fools play around with such things.
THE British-born mastermind of the London attacks had direct links with al-Qaeda, police sources confirmed yesterday. He is believed to be connected to a senior figure who took part in an al-Qaeda terror summit in Pakistan 16 months ago where a list of future targets was reportedly finalised. While the police priority is to trace any bombers still at large, intelligence agencies are trying to confirm that al-Qaeda had a hand in the London attack.
I'm pretty close to 100 percent certain.
Forensic scientists said last night that the explosives used by the London bombers was the same type used by the convicted British shoe-bombers Richard Reid and Saajid Badat. Scientists hope to establish today whether it originated from the same batch. It was made from ingredients known to be taught to al-Qaeda recruits in Afghanistan training camps and elsewhere, confirming suspicions that the London bombings were the work of al-Qaeda. It was first suspected that it was the work of a UK radical group that sympathised with Osama bin Ladenâs ideas, and the operation had been planned and executed in Europe. That view may now have to refined.
Yeah. I'd say. The Egyptian controller's a pretty unlikely coincidence. The liaison flying in from Pakland is the capper. The involvement with Lashkar-e-Taiba's pretty significant, too...
The mastermind, who is of Pakistani origin, is thought to have been trained in an al-Qaeda camp in Afghanistan and has been linked to previous terror operations. The authorities were more interested last night in tracking down this alleged mastermind, rather than hold an inquest into how someone on MI5âs watchlist was able to slip in and out of Britain. They also need to know whether he recruited another cell of suicide bombers who are awaiting orders elsewhere in Britain.
My guess is "yes." What's yours?
Whatever his legacy, he followed al-Qaedaâs standard procedure of ensuring that he left Britain before the attacks. He is understood to have flown out of a London airport the night before.
Bingo.
Organisers of the Madrid and Istanbul bombings are believed to be in Iraq, well beyond the reach of Western security services.
The Turks are waiting for the Iraqis to hand over one of the Istanbul organizers...
As police piece together how this man had spent the past weeks in Britain they are investigating how he first made contact with the men from West Yorkshire. The conjecture is that he could have met at least one of them in Pakistan when they were on religious study in the past year.
When you go to Muridke for religious study that causes my suspicion meter to peg...
Experts say that it is unlikely that the three Leeds men would have known initially that this was a suicide operation.
Which experts? They said the same thing about the 9-11 hijackers...
Investigators are also tracing the mastermindâs alleged links to three major al-Qaeda figures. One of these is said to be in US custody. Intelligence is being re-examined from the summit held last year in a mountain village in the northwestern province of Waziristan. A month after he took part in that summit, Mohammed Barbar, a New York computer executive, was arrested near his home in Queens. He admitted to being an âal-Qaeda sleeperâ. He had arrived at the summit carrying cash and supplies for jihadis fighting in Afghanistan. Babar, 29, has betrayed a number of fellow sleepers during his interrogation and the information led to the arrest of 13 people in Britain. The US authorities have charged him with trying to buy materials to make bombs for attacks in the UK. Britain has asked the FBI to question him about the London operation. Another key suspect in US custody, Abu Faraj al-Libbi, was handed over by Pakistan last month. He was described as al-Qaedaâs operational commander, so is expected to know what was discussed at the summit last year. So far he has been uncooperative.
Give him more giggle juice.
Posted by: Dan Darling ||
07/15/2005 09:44 ||
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Another key suspect in US custody, Abu Faraj al-Libbi, was handed over by Pakistan last month. He was described as al-Qaedaâs operational commander, so is expected to know what was discussed at the summit last year. So far he has been uncooperative.
He's probably at Gitmo. What we need to do is have Turban Durbin explain how "extracting" information by any means neccessary from this piece of human manure is worth the Turban bawling on the senate floor...
Detectives are confident they can find an al-Qaeda link to the British bombers who killed 54 people in western Europe's first suicide attack, London Police Commissioner Ian Blair said on Friday.
Warning that another attack is "a strong possibility," Blair said the hunt is now on for the financiers and bomb makers who supplied the young killers in London's deadliest peacetime bomb attack.
Four British-born Muslims, the youngest only 18, blew themselves up in separate attacks last Thursday on three underground trains and a bus during the morning rush hour.
Three came from the northern city of Leeds, where police have since discovered large quantities of explosives in properties connected with the bombers.
Media reports that the explosives were similar to those used in other attacks linked to al-Qaeda were described by Blair as "a reasonably fair picture."
Blair also said it was time for Muslim leaders in Britain to stop being in denial about "lunatic fringe" extremists who convert impressionable youngsters.
"What we expect to find at some stage is that there is a clear al-Qaeda link, a clear al-Qaeda approach," Blair told BBC Radio.
Describing the four bombers who died in the blast as "foot soldiers", Blair said: "What we have got to find is who encouraged them, who trained them, who is the chemist."
"Al-Qaeda does not act like some classic Graham Greene cell. It has very loose affiliations and we have got to find the bankers, the chemists and the trainers, all the people who are assisting in this."
He confirmed the investigation had spread around the world, saying: "There is a Pakistan connection and there are also connections in other countries." He would not be more specific.
Blair called the bombings the greatest single act of mass murder in modern English history.
The BBC, citing sources close to the investigation, said the explosive used was the highly unstable TATP (triacetone triperoxide), made from freely available ingredients.
It said the explosives, found in raids in the city of Leeds, are thought to be similar to materials used by British "shoe bomber" Richard Reid who tried to blow up a transatlantic flight in 2001 with explosives concealed in his shoes.
It said police are hunting the mastermind behind the London bombing and an Egyptian chemistry student who has fled his Leeds home.
The BBC said a man with al-Qaeda links on a watch list had entered Britain two weeks ago and left a day before the bombings.
He was not put under surveillance because he was not considered a high risk. "With this particular man, there is nothing at the moment that links him directly," Blair said.
When asked about the overall accuracy of the BBC report, Blair said it was "a reasonably fair picture."
Blair felt it was vital that leaders of the 1,6 million Muslims in Britain helped to root out extremism.
"The crucial issue now is can we engage with the community in Britain so that they move from being fairly close to denial about this into a situation in which they really engage with us?
"We need them to tell us who the preachers of hate really are, who are the recruiters of the vulnerable, what changes of pattern occurred in people's behaviour."
Police admit they are puzzled about the last 81 minutes in the life of Hasib Hussain, captured on grainy CCTV images on the day of the bombings.
At 7.20am he was caught on film at Luton station, north of London, wearing a casual jacket and jeans with a bomb in the rucksack on his back. He was seen joking with the three other bombers who then went on to target underground trains.
Police are still baffled about why he may have changed his original target and instead blew up a bus.
Posted by: Dan Darling ||
07/15/2005 09:41 ||
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Moron may have not known there was a backup timer
Posted by: Howard UK ||
07/15/2005 11:27 Comments ||
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Detectives are confident they can find an al-Qaeda link to the British bombers who killed 54 people in western Europe's first suicide attack, London Police Commissioner Ian Blair said on Friday.
Why are these guys talking at this obviously early stage? Gather and compile the evidence, establish the facts, then make reports/file charges/make arrests. Then, and only then, outline the details and objectives. For now, they should just can the speculation and commentary. If news outlets don't like it, tough.
#4
Thought that an explosion in such a confined space might pose a 2nd hand smoke type health risk to other commuters.
Posted by: Super Hose ||
07/15/2005 12:52 Comments ||
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Tony Blair has made rapid progress: "The crucial issue now is can we engage with the community in Britain so that they move from being fairly close to denial about this into a situation in which they really engage with us?
We need them to tell us who the preachers of hate really are, who are the recruiters of the vulnerable, what changes of pattern occurred in people's behaviour."
Moslems in the West have a choice: explicitly give up taqiya, jihad and sharia -- and denounce the jihadists in your midst. Anyone who doesn't is an accomplice to Islamofascist terrorism.
Deporting such beasts won't do any good. They must be arrested, tried for treason, and executed.
#6
I noticed that too, Kalle. Good for Tony... now Bush must start making the same noises, explicitly challenging CAIR, et al to start turning people in. We have been informed by Al Qaeda and its fellows that we are Dar ul Harb (spelling?), it is up to the Muslims in our midst to demonstrate -- not merely declare -- which side of the war they count themselves on, and we will treat them accordingly.
This goes nicely with that worldwide survey which found that the Muslim world in general is less certain that jihad against the West is a good idea. Now is the time to ram that concept home.
A chemistry teacher believed to have been a possible mastermind in last week's London bombings has been detained near Cairo, ABC's "Good Morning America" reported on Friday.
He's the bomb maker or instructor, not the "mastermind". Reports state they brewed their own explosives, same stuff as shoe bomber.
The ABC report from London identified the man as Magdi El-Nashar, 33, a U.S.-trained chemist. It cited Egyptian and western intelligence sources as saying he had been captured in a Cairo suburb. The report said authorities believed the man had left Britain two weeks before the explosions that killed 54 people on July 7. The report said authorities were eager to learn whether "more than one mastermind" had been involved and whether more bombs had been made, possibly at a bomb factory in Leeds in northern England.
There will be a religious advisor who selected them, a guy handling finance and supply, a local controller (the guy who saw them off on the train) and above them the "mastermind.
Earlier press reports have said Elnashar attended North Carolina State University in 2000. ABC News said Elnashar was being questioned in Cairo, with British agents in attendance. British police say they are confident they can find an al Qaeda link to the attacks in which four British-born Muslims, the youngest only 18, blew themselves up in separate attacks on three subway trains and a bus during the morning rush hour. hemistry at Leeds University British and FBI officials were looking for el-Nashar, who recently had been teaching chemistry at Leeds University, north of London.
Who very quickly pulled him off their website, Google still has it cached.
The Times of London said el-Nashar was thought to have rented one of the homes police searched in Leeds in a series of raids Tuesday.
Maybe he handled logistics as well.
Neighbours reported el-Nashar recently left Britain, saying he had a visa problem, the newspaper said. Leeds University said el-Nashar arrived in October 2000 to do biochemical research, sponsored by the National Research Center in Cairo, Egypt. It said he earned a doctorate on May 6. FBI agents in Raleigh, North Carolina, joined the search for el-Nashar, who was formerly a North Carolina State University graduate student. University spokesman Keith Nichols said a person named el-Nashar studied at North Carolina State as a graduate student in chemical engineering for a semester beginning in January 2000. Nichols said the school has gathered records in anticipation of being contacted by the FBI.
Posted by: Steve ||
07/15/2005 08:12 ||
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My oh my but that was quick. Wonder if Mubarak's Boyz knew about him all along and have had him under surveillance for some time... Re-entering the country set off the bells and they were dogging him when his name popped out of the UK investigation...
#6
Anonymous sources, quoted by The Associated Press, report Magdy El-Nashar was detained Thursday night at Cairo's airport upon request of London authorities.
He left London two weeks before the blast, so he was most likely trying to leave Cairo after seeing his name in the news. Good thing they nabbed him before he was in the wind.
Posted by: Steve ||
07/15/2005 10:24 Comments ||
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Or maybe not: AP: Magdy el-Nashar, 33, was taken into custody upon his arrival in Cairo from abroad, an Egyptian official said, speaking on condition of anonymity because an official announcement of the information had not yet been made. El-Nashar, who studied at North Carolina State University and taught at Leeds University in Britain, was being interrogated by Egyptian authorities, the official said. The official could not specify the date of the arrest or where el-Nashar was arriving from, but said it could be as long as a week ago.
Another source: (SA) Cairo - The alleged bomb-maker in the July 7 London terrorist attacks has been arrested in Cairo, where he is being interrogated, Egyptian officials said on Friday. They named the man as 33-year-old Magdy Nashar and said he had been arrested "several days ago".
That could mean they picked him up right after the blast. Still a lot of confusion in the press reports.
Posted by: Steve ||
07/15/2005 10:32 Comments ||
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BBC TV reported he was arrested yesterday at his family home in Cairo. Don't sound like a 'Mastermind' to me. I'll hazard a guess and say he just let some people use his flat while he was away on holiday.
Just a headline at this time. Check the link for updates. An Egyptian chemistry student wanted by police in connection with last week's London bombings is understood to have been arrested in Cairo, a British police source said on Friday.
Posted by: ed ||
07/15/2005 07:42 ||
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According to ABC "state security officials have already begun to question him with British agents in attendance". I hope they're letting the guests take a turn now and again.
THE investigation into last week's London bombings is seeking links between the four suicide attackers and eight British-born ethnic Pakistanis Scotland Yard arrested in 2004, The New York Times reported today. The eight suspects were arrested during Operation Crevice in late March 2004 in two dozen raids in sourthern Britain, which also yielded more than half a ton of explosive materials, the newspaper said, quoting British and European investigators. They were accused of forming a sleeper cell that intended to stage an attack in London, the newspaper said.
In view of the fact that last week's terrorist bombings in London were carried out by a sleeper cell that included British-born residents of Pakistani origin, investigators are trying to determine if there were contacts between the two groups. One investigator told the daily that at least one of the suicide bombers in the July 7 terrorist attacks in London had telephone contact with one of the men arrested in the 2004 plot. Investigators say exploring these potential links is important as they try to understand the shape of the plot in the attacks and whether the attackers had support from abroad. "We have just begun to look at this, but it's possible some of these men knew the men arrested last year," a senior counterterrorism official said.
(EFL
SCHEHEREZADE FARAMARZI, Associated Press Writer This AP byline has been on some of the most outrageous of the distorted crap that AP has written on Iraq - now the same "reporter" is pushing the crap from the UK Shahzad Tanweer, the 22-year-old son of a Pakistani-born affluent businessman, ("poverty causes terrorism")
turned to Islam, the religion of his birth, a few years ago. The transformation was gradual, but then his relentless reading of the Quran and daily prayers became almost an obsession, his friends told The Associated Press. He became withdrawn and increasingly angry over the war in Iraq, according to those who knew him best. Ah! Deliverance! But wait .... did he leave a suicide note? A taped testimony? What's the evidence for this?
The U.S.-led war was what likely drove him to blow himself up on a subway train last week, said his friends. Life imitates obscene fantasy art -- these guys have the line down pat, without any prep from a BBC or NYT or CIA public relations type.
I'm seething over gasoline prices, but I've yet to boom a Shell station...
"He was a Muslim and he had to fight for Islam. This is called jihad," or holy war, said Asif Iqbal, 20, who said he was Tanweer's childhood friend. Fighting for Islam = beheading innocent aid workers, murdering children, blowing up non-violent clerics, destroying infrastructure, etc. Right.
And, of course, booming Mr. and Mrs. Jones as they ride the train to work in the morning...
Another friend, Adnan Samir, 21, nodded in agreement. "They're crying over 50 people while 100 people are dying every day in Iraq and Palestine," said Iqbal. (Note two things here: the vicious lack of remorse over his friend's insane murder act, and how the lies and distortions of the Al Jazeera/NYT/AP/Reuters/BBC/Lancet complex are actually getting people killed. Nothing like 100 people are dying a day in Iraq and what this person inaccurately calls "Palestine" -- and about 95% of those dying are being murdered by the psycho-fascist-criminal elements these guys presumably think of as Lions of Islam)
"If they are indeed the ones who did it, it's because they believed it was right. They're in Heaven. Have you ever been inspired in life?" he asked. "Have you ever had a f***ing clue in your life" we ask.
Posted by: Verlaine in Iraq ||
07/15/2005 05:26 ||
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London Bombers Were Angered by War in Iraq
oh. well. this changes things. explains everything. understandable, what they did.
#2
"If they are indeed the ones who did it, it's because they believed it was right. They're in Heaven.
Another example of how "ordinary" muslims, even if they do not explicitely advocate violence, do condone it... anyway, if this isn't done for religious reasons, it is because of "identitary" reasons, the world being implicitely divided into "us" and "them", and you must support your kin : "my ummah, right or wrong".
This poses deep questions about muslims immigrants living in the west's loyalities... and from personnal experience, even for "moderate" or "non-religious" muslims (I'm not talking about would-be jihadis here, but co-workers), they feel muslim and/or tunisian, algerian,... before feeling french, say it plain and simple, and we're talking about the 2nd or 3rd generation (hence the still muslim first names, instead of the "Jean", "Philippe", "Lionel",...).
#6
Hearing the feedback from the young UK muzz-thug on the street it seems the problem is one of identity shaped through a religion and the associated political norms and culture it creates. The world to them is a very simple "us and them" place all due to the religion that recognizes no nation outside of the religion's directives. In a tolerant society (and you can't and don't get that from the religion's instructions) that alone is of little concern. The problem comes with what alot of muslims consider the religion's main instructions concerning the legitimacy of violence, extortion, enslavement and complete domination of the "other." This is why an injury or insult to the ummah by any "other" is always bemoaned as the worst imaginable atrocity in human history that requires retribution in the form of blind disproportional violence. The cultural, political and religious realms of life all coincide for them and unfettered violence directed at the "other" is not only allowed, but actively encouraged by the political tradition, culture and religion. This seems to be accepted by all elements from the rich and well-educated down to the unemployed petty dole-thug. To say the average muzz-thug "doesn't play well with others" is an understatement I feel. What does a tolerant society with many faiths and ethnicities do with this type of violent muslim misfit toy?
#7
"If they are indeed the ones who did it, it's because they believed it was right. They're in Heaven. Have you ever been inspired in life?" he asked.
#8
Here's fervently hoping that there's bobbies following this twit around, watching who she's talking to, and promptly arresting the lot of them. Iqbal there, especially. He reeks of complicity.
Posted by: Mitch H. ||
07/15/2005 10:37 Comments ||
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#9
Let me understand this: this guy gets depressed about suicide bombers killing people in Iraq and Palestine so he goes out and becomes a suicide bomber? This only makes sense if you replace "depressed" with "inspired".
EFL. Via JihadWatch
The transformation of four young British men into terrorists appears to have taken place at a government-funded storefront youth centre in Leeds that, according to youth workers, was a hub of radical Islamist activity.
The centre was sealed off and searched by police yesterday after three of its workers said in an interview on the street outside that at least two of the suicide bombers had been "very regular" visitors at all hours to the Hamara Youth Access Point, and a third had been seen there occasionally.
"It had become so radical and so hateful that I asked if I could stop working there," said one of the workers, who along with two others described the storefront drop-in centre as a hub of radical Muslim politics and a hotbed of Islamic organizing, routinely hosting mysterious figures to speak about extremist politics. All three workers, two of them white British Christians, live in the poor Beeston area, which was home to two of the bombers, Shahzad Tanweer, 22, and Hasib Hussain, 18.
A third bomber, 30-year-old Mohammed Sadique Khan, also lived in this tight-knit community in Leeds until a few months ago, when he moved with his wife and their infant child to Dewsbury, not far to the south, where he worked as a well-respected primary-school teacher.
It appears that this modest youth centre is the point where these three young men converged with the fourth bomber and a leading figure who was being sought by police last night. "It's fair to say that there was some kind of recruiting going on here," one of the workers said. "Some of the youth workers were really involved with it, and it got to the point where they were acting really hostile to anyone who wasn't their kind of Muslim." Rest at link.
Posted by: ed ||
07/15/2005 05:25 ||
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"Most people here feel that none of the mosques have adopted the highly radical, anti-Western politics that have turned some London houses of worship into Islamist recruiting centres. They say, however, that study groups have formed on the edges of congregations that may teach a much more political form of Islam."
"Highly radical" is a relitive term. If you believe that England should be ruled by Islamic law then the idea of a secular democracy is radical.
#3
No suprise there. A review of some of the articles containing quotes from people close to the boomers and the places they went makes it clear there were actually people who had misgivings about the boomers and what was going on before 7/7. Nobody seems to have thought it important enough to talk to authorities.
Egyptian, Pakistani, not sure yet. I'm waiting for a Soodi to be identified as the Mastermindâ¢, though I think the Soodi is more likely to be identified as Chief Financial Officerâ¢.
POLICE believe they have identified the man who planned the London bombings. It has also emerged that one of his recruits - Edgware Road bomber Mohammed Sadique Khan - was a teaching assistant in a Leeds primary school.
The leader of the terrorist cell is believed to be in his 30s and of Pakistani origin. He arrived at a British port last month and is understood to have left the country the day before four suicide bombers murdered at least 53 people.
Fred pointed this out yesterday -- whoever the Mastermind⢠was, he dropped in, did a final check-out of the operation, gave the Go code, and departed the day before the blasts.
Security sources believe he has been involved in previous terrorist operations and has links with al-Qa'ida followers in the US. It is believed he visited the bombers in Leeds and identified targets. Security chiefs say he is also likely to have schooled his recruits on how to trigger their rucksack bombs almost simultaneously.
Taught them to synchronize their watches, did he?
Detectives were yesterday trying to track down two other possible members of the cell. The first was seen on closed-circuit TV cameras on the platform of Luton station as the bombers set off on July 7. There are fears the man, also believed to be of Pakistani origin, could be a fifth bomber, still at large. Police are trying to discover if he was in Luton, where explosives were found in the boot of a hire car. Fingerprint and DNA experts are still examining the Nissan Micra.
Security sources said there may well be "sixth and a seventh" members of the cell, providing a support network for the bombers.
Scotland Yard also wants to trace an Egyptian-born university lecturer, identified in The Sun newspaper as Magdi el-Nashar (see Fred's post today for more), who was at Leeds University teaching and studying for a doctorate in biochemistry. He is understood to have rented one of the houses raided by police, where explosives were found in a bathtub. Nashar is understood to have disappeared just before the bombings.
More related material at the link.
Posted by: Steve White ||
07/15/2005 00:00 ||
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ISLAMIC extremists barred by the US and other countries will also be prevented from entering Britain under new anti-terrorist provisions, the London Daily Telegraph reports. British Home Secretary Charles Clarke instigated a review of his powers to exclude and deport people likely to incite terrorism, the paper reported. The newspaper added that radicals such as Yussef al-Qaradawi, an Egyptian-born cleric who has visited Britain from his home in Qatar, and who backed suicide bombers in the Palestinian-Israeli conflict, could be stopped from entering Britain.
The powers were particularly aimed at Islamic clerics who have encouraged disaffected young British Muslims to become radicalised and potential suicide bombers, the Telegraph reported. Anyone attempting to enter Britain who had been excluded from the US or the European Union would have his or her case immediately referred to Mr Clarke for a decision. Prime Minister Tony Blair's office made clear that exclusion would be automatic if it were considered that admission "would not be conducive to the public good".
The Cabinet authorised a redoubling of diplomatic efforts to reach agreement with a number of North African countries, to allow Britain to send troublemakers back to their countries of origin. Britain cannot currently deport anyone to a country where he or she may be subject to inhuman or degrading treatment, and attempts to send them back have been blocked by the courts. However, ministers believed judges would be more ready to approve deportation orders if agreement could be reached that deportees would not be tortured or imprisoned when they were repatriated, the newspaper reported.
Speaking to parliament on Wednesday, Mr Blair proposed measures including tighter entry and deportation procedures to combat what he branded an "evil ideology" embraced by the bombers. "We will look urgently at how we strengthen the procedures to exclude people from entering the UK who may incite hatred or act contrary to the public good, and at how we deport such people, if they come here, more easily," he said.
Ok, UK, that's one small step for UK Public Safety. Many more are needed before you can claim a giant leap out of the immigrant cesspool you've created and allowed to be populated by Muzzy asshats. Keep going.
#2
The hang up with sending these pricks back to where they came from because they might be treated harshly will not be over come. If the euro-wankers can't get a UK court to protect their radical islamic allies they will got to the EU Court of Human Rights which will block expulsions.
Just start shooting them in the head and leaving them about the allenist areas of the UK as a warning. It will be much simpler.
An Egyptian wanted in connection with the London bombings is suspected of being the mastermind, according to English newspapers yesterday. Magdi Al Nashar, who has links to the house in the English city of Leeds where the bombs were made, was described by his friends here as quiet and non-political person. He got his BA in chemistry from Cairo University in 1994 and then later obtained his masters in 1998. He received the National Research Center scholarship in 1999 to study biochemistry in Leeds and has been in Leeds since 2000. According to Hamdi Hamouda, the head of the science department in Cairo University, âNashar was one of the top students in the department and was not involved in any political activities nor did he spout extreme ideas. He was actually a very private and quiet student who cared only about his studies.â
"He's a quiet boy, keeps to himself..."
Ahmad Ali, a classmate of Nashar, said he never talked politics in the campus nor did he join any student groups. Nashar lived in the suburb of Maadi, south of Cairo, and his neighbors termed him a loner. âNeither he nor his family were concerned about politics,â said Souda Mahmoud, one of Nasharâs neighbors in Maadi. Meanwhile, the North Carolina State University in the United States said yesterday that Nashar had studied chemical engineering in their university. Nashar spent one semester at North Carolinaâs chemical engineering department, said Mick Kulikowski, a university spokesman. Nashar, 33, was at the university in Raleigh from January to May 2000, Kulikowski said.
According to British media, Nasharâs rented house in Leeds was one of six raided by British police on Wednesday, and bomb-making equipment may have been found there. Nashar had been an assistant professor at Leeds University but, according to reports, left Britain just before last weekâs attacks in the British capital. The US television network ABC said that Nashar rented a flat in Leeds three weeks before the attacks which was used to make the four bombs used by the suicide attackers.
Posted by: Fred ||
07/15/2005 00:00 ||
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He always held the door open for people, he was such a polite fellow. We often saw him skipping through the meadows with a daisy-chain around his neck, holding hands with Teletubbies and singing. We cannot imagine which 7th century religious text could have inspired him to do such a thing, we're all so shocked.
Turkish security authorities located on Thursday barrels loaded with suspected materials, placed at a location close to a field where Formula-One car race is due to be held. The news agency, "Ikhlas," quoted security sources as saying that 15 suspected barrels were found placed some four kilometers from the car race track in the region of Tuzla in Istanbul. Security personnel sealed off the site and sent samples of the materials, stuffed into the barrels, to laboratories for examination. An official confirmed that the barrels contained contaminating materials, but stopped short of affirming whether they can be set off.
Posted by: Fred ||
07/15/2005 00:00 ||
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EFL A 39-year-old U.S. man, travelling with his daughter, has been charged with possessing an explosive device after allegedly carrying a homemade pipe bomb in his truck on a ferry to Victoria from Port Angeles, Washington.
Canada Border Services Agency officers examined his truck and found a suspicious device in the glove box â a 7Âœ-centimetre brass pipe that was capped on each end and had a 15-centimetre green fuse-like string glued to one end.
The man, who lives in the Seattle suburb of Issaquah, was to appear in court in Victoria on Wednesday afternoon .
EFL. And the reason...
The complaint stems from the lawyers' interviews with four detainees alleging poor treatment. One of them, Abdul Khaliq Ahmed Saleh al-Baidhani, said in an affidavit: "Once I was complaining of constipation, and I was not able to go to the bathroom for 3-4 days. The doctor said that he will treat me when I talk to the interrogators." Hey, Abdul. Who gives a shit. HAW-HAW-HAW!
Posted by: ed ||
07/15/2005 14:51 Comments ||
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#2
I suppose they marched him into a room, and there was an enema bag, new and in its packaging on the table where the interrogator {Crack Knuckles} was sitting...
#4
"Once I was complaining of constipation, and I was not able to go to the bathroom for 3-4 days. The doctor said that he will treat me when I talk to the interrogators."
In defense of the doctor, he was probably afraid that if Abdul cut loose, all that would be left would be an empty husk.
(And, seriously, who really cares? Do you think Pearl would have gotten treatment for constipation from the people who held him? Or Matt Maupin? Or Berg? Did the 9/11 hijackers make sure the zip-cords around the stewardess's wrists weren't too tight before they slammed the jets into the WTC?)
Posted by: Robert Crawford ||
07/15/2005 15:55 Comments ||
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He wouldn't have had this problem if he'd eaten all his nice vegetables, and perhaps done a few sit-ups, instead of sitting around sulking that he couldn't fling his feces at the guards like all the other boys.
WASHINGTON - A federal appeals court put the Bush administration's military commissions for terrorist suspects back on track Friday, saying a detainee at the Guantanamo Bay prison who once was Osama bin-Laden's driver can stand trial. A three-judge panel ruled 3-0 against Salim Ahmed Hamdan, whose case was halted by a federal judge on grounds that commission procedures were unlawful. "Congress authorized the military commission that will try Hamdan," said the U.S. Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit.
And the rest? Waddabout the "press"?
Posted by: Abu-Mushab Al Dumbo ||
07/15/2005 06:55 ||
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Do you mean de-press? Sanity returns if at least for the moment.
Posted by: Captain America ||
07/15/2005 18:34 Comments ||
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Yes, CA, now that Jack-o is out of the news, we need something else to "focus" on!
Posted by: Bobby ||
07/15/2005 22:14 Comments ||
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TAMPA - When Sami Al-Arian called for jihad, was he just encouraging the struggle of Palestinians to recover their homeland or was he stoking a holy war?
As a government translator testified in Al-Arian's trial, the word jihad has several meanings. Both sides in the trial had different ideas about what Al- Arian was saying.
Al-Arian repeatedly used the word jihad when he spoke at events relating to the Palestinian cause between 1989 and 1991.
The translator, Tahsim Ali, a contract linguist for the FBI, did not give the English translation of jihad when he prepared transcripts of Al-Arian's words. Ali said he left words such as jihad and intifada in their Arabic forms because they are commonly used in English, as well.
During cross-examination, Al-Arian attorney Linda Moreno asked Ali about the meaning. Consulting a book, Ali said it means ``striving, [and is] used to mean both quest for holiness and waging a holy war.''
He agreed it also can mean ``striving your utmost'' and ``struggling to achieve a goal.''
Krigsman later asked how to judge the meaning, and Ali said he goes by the context.
The prosecutor then pointed to several instances in which Al-Arian used the word, including when he said: ``Thus is the way of jihad. Thus is the way of martyrdom. Thus is the way of blood, because this is the path to heaven.''
Al-Arian is on trial along with Sameeh Hammoudeh Hatim Naji Fariz and Ghassan Zayed Ballut on charges they helped organize and finance the Palestinian Islamic Jihad, an organization in Israel and the occupied territories that has been linked to terrorist activity.
During cross-examination, Fariz's attorney, Kevin Beck, pointed to an instance in which Ali, under questioning by Krigsman, said a particular Arabic word means ``brigades.'' In fact, Beck pointed out, the word used actually means ``pancakes.''
Under follow-up questioning by Krigsman, Ali said there had been a misunderstanding.
Also Thursday, Krigsman introduced about 40 translations of telephone conversations and faxes intercepted by wiretaps.
Among them was a Dec. 9, 2002, conversation Fariz had with a journalist. According to the indictment, Fariz called the Washington-based reporter, Osama Abu Irshaid, to complain that a recent article about a terrorist attack in Hebron had failed to attribute the attack to the Islamic Jihad.
In his opening statement, Beck said the journalist was a former college friend of Fariz, and Fariz was trying to save him the embarrassment of having his facts wrong.
In the transcript, Fariz tells Irshaid that people were talking about the journalist and the article. ``So I defended you, and I thought I'd talk to you so as to review the matter with you,'' Fariz says.
At one point, Fariz also says, ``The martyrs have died, and may God have mercy on their souls.''
At the end of the court day, U.S. District Judge James Moody said he would not force prosecutors to enter a stipulation about three Palestinian Islamic Jihad attacks.
The prosecution and defense have stipulated to the facts of 14 attacks, saving the need for dozens of witnesses and shaving weeks or months off the expected length of the trial.
However, prosecutors resisted stipulating to three remaining attacks listed as underlying acts in the indictment. Krigsman argued that the three are of ``critical legal significance to this case.'' For example, a double suicide bombing in January 1995 prompted President Clinton to sign an executive order banning financial dealings with terrorist organizations, including the Islamic Jihad.
Although Moody had wanted to compel prosecutors to accept a defense stipulation, Krigsman challenged his legal authority to challenge the issue. Moody said Thursday he had read the case law and would not require the stipulations.
Posted by: Mrs. Davis ||
07/15/2005 09:22 ||
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He didn't go for the jury trial option, did he? I would think that would be a mistake.
Posted by: Super Hose ||
07/15/2005 12:56 Comments ||
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An prominent Islamic scholar, whom prosecutors called a âpurveyor of hate and war,â was sentenced to life in prison Wednesday for urging his followers after the Sept. 11 attacks, to join the Taleban and fight against US troops. Ali Al-Timimi, was defiant to the end, telling a federal judge in a 10-minute speech prior to sentencing that he considered himself a âprisoner of conscienceâ who was being persecuted for his Islamic beliefs. The district court judge in the case, Leonie M. Brinkema, reluctantly ordered the life sentence against Al-Timimi, saying she was bound by federal guidelines.
Al-Timimi, 42, of Fairfax, Va., had ties to a now-defunct, Pittsburgh-based magazine that advocated holy war, was convicted last spring of recruiting a group of northern Virginia men to travel to Pakistan and train to take up arms for the Taleban. The men, who played paintball and went to shooting ranges to train for holy war, were dubbed the Virginia Paintball Jihad. Al-Timimiâs attorneys characterized the scholar, who recently received a doctorate for work related to cancer research, as a gentle man of peace who had never been convicted of a crime or owned a weapon. They said he did nothing more than advise the young men to seek out a nation where they could practice Islam in safety. They vowed to appeal the verdict, charging it was based on an anti-Muslim bias fueled by the unpopular sentiments on 10-year-old tapes of Al-Timimiâs lectures on Islam. Although Brinkema called the punishment âvery draconian,â she said she had no choice under congressionally mandated minimum sentencing requirements.
Posted by: Fred ||
07/15/2005 00:00 ||
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#1
Yeah, poor Leonie. Had the sentencing decision yanked from her hands. Excellent. Her hissy fit rather clearly indicates she's got issues with reality. The charge of "soliciting others to levy war against the United States" deserves a thorough ass-kicking. Bite me, Leonie. Hell, bite us all, cow.
#3
Al-Timmy is correct that he is going to the slammer for his Islamic beliefs; much in the same way we proscute murderers for their belief that it's ok to kill people.
As for poor lil' Judge Leonie, put a check next to my name in the Bite Me column, too.
Posted by: Paul Moloney ||
07/15/2005 2:04 Comments ||
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They said he did nothing more than advise the young men to seek out a nation where they could practice Islam in safety. That says it all. They can't kill innocent people in safety here in the US so he advised them to go elswhere and kill innocent people.
Posted by: Deacon Blues ||
07/15/2005 8:16 Comments ||
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#6
Actually, she wasn't fully bound by those guidelines. They were overturned by the Supreme Court this last term. But if she wants to hide behind them so she could give Al-Timimi a life sentence, it's fine with me.
Posted by: Eric Jablow ||
07/15/2005 8:22 Comments ||
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EJ - Interesting - I heard it reported by Fox and CNN that one of the charges (the one I noted, I believe) carried a mandatory life sentence - and her reaction certainly lends credence to those reports. Can you cite?
#8
Actually, the life sentence was not for treason. It was for a firearms violation. From the text, I believe that it's 18 USC §§ 924(c) . That section says (in part)
In the case of his second or subsequent conviction under this subsection, such person shall be sentenced to imprisonment for twenty years, and if the firearm is a machinegun, or a destructive device, or is equipped with a firearm silencer or firearm muffler, to life imprisonment without release. (FOOTNOTE 1) Notwithstanding any other provision of law, the court shall not place on probation or suspend the sentence of any person convicted of a violation of this subsection
EFL:BANGKOK (Reuters) - Thai Prime Minister Thaksin Shinawatra assumed emergency powers on Friday after about 60 militants launched a dramatic attack on a town in the largely Muslim far south.
Guess that "emergency meeting" had some results
The powers, assumed after two policemen were killed and 23 people wounded in Thursday night's attack on Yala, allow him to order phone taps, censor newspapers and detain suspects without charge. The "Emergency Powers Law", which replaces localised martial law in the three southernmost provinces where more than 800 people have been killed in 19 months of violence, was approved by an emergency cabinet meeting called in response to the attack.
Southern police chief Adul Saengsingkaew told reporters that interrogations of arrested suspects suggested there were about 60 people involved in the orchestrated attacks. Police were still checking closed circuit television in the hunt for the people who set off six bombs during a raid in which the militants caused an hour-long blackout.
In the darkness, gunmen on motorcycles fired at random and tossed Molotov cocktails into shops and houses. They also scattered metal spikes across three main roads to hinder the movement of security forces, police said. Bombs hit a newly opened cinema complex, a hotel cafe, a karaoke restaurant and a convenience store almost simultaneously.
"In the past seven days there have been signs that the situation will escalate," Deputy Prime Minister Wissanu Krea-ngam told reporters after the cabinet meeting. "The last straw that prompted us to impose this law is what happened at seven pm in Yala," or 1200 GMT, he said of the decree which brings responsibility for security directly into the PM's office. The new law allows Thaksin to stop the sales of newspapers and magazines deemed "threatening to national security or causing public anxiety", according to a draft seen by Reuters.
As the cabinet meeting ended, a bomb exploded at a Yala restaurant, wounding four people and damaging two motorcycles, police said. Two teachers were shot dead as they drove to work in neighbouring Narathiwat province, they said. Five policemen and three "bandits" were seriously wounded in the Yala clashes, Public Health Minister Suchai Charoenrattanakul told Channel 9 television. Only six people were still in hospital on Friday morning, he said.
Police said seven suspects were captured after a coordinated attack caught security forces by surprise in a region where most Muslims speak a Malay dialect and many cannot communicate in Thai. "Our intelligence is very poor. We must improve it," Deputy Yala Governor Winyu Thongsakul told a Bangkok radio station. There are 30,000 troops dealing with the latest bout of violence against the government of overwhelmingly Buddhist Thailand in a region it annexed a century ago.
But analysts say the ease with which militants launch almost daily hit-and-run attacks suggests brute force will never win in the region, once an independent Muslim sultanate where militants fought a low-key separatist war in the 1970s and 1980s. "Battling people like this is never easy, and the fact that it takes them so little time to be successful means it will always work against the government," said Brian Dougherty of Bangkok-based security consultancy Hill and Associates.
Security forces had started to think about stepping up their intelligence operations only recently, he added. "They need to narrow down who is behind this," he said. "They need to make better use of mobile phone interception."
And cap a few mullahs
The government is adamant there is no direct foreign involvement, although top officials say some incidents, such as a spate of beheadings, may have been inspired by the insurgency in Iraq.
Posted by: Steve ||
07/15/2005 14:08 ||
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"The government is adamant there is no direct foreign involvement"
I'm betting this will change after a few mosque inspections.
Posted by: Neutron Tom ||
07/15/2005 14:29 Comments ||
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Thaksin's previous claim to fame was sending assassination squads against drug dealers. I have the feeling that lots of Muslim suspects are going to start disappearing - permanently.
I've been to Songkla - a resort town, and Hat Yai which is mainly an area of latex rubber plantations. Annexed a century ago, huh? So it was once Muslim Lands⢠- and that explains everything, I guess, if you're a Muzzy Wuzzy.
#8
Article: But analysts say the ease with which militants launch almost daily hit-and-run attacks suggests brute force will never win in the region.
I suspect that government forces can stage daily hit-and-run attacks with even more ease. When terrorists can hit and not have to run is when you know that they've won. Until then, they're no better than heavily-armed fugitives.
Army troops, backed up by helicopter gunships, have intensified their operation against beleaguered Abu Sayyaf terrorists who suffered six fatalities in last Mondayâs gun battle in Maguindanao, a belated report said.
Maj. Onting Alon, 6th Infantry Division deputy spokesman, said the clash broke out shortly before noon last Monday in the mountain village of Tamar, Talayan town near the border of Datu Odin and South Upi towns.
Alon said the encounter came about as a result of information relayed by Moro Islamic Liberation Front rebels now collaborating with the government in pursuance of conditions set in a ceasefire pact.
The ad hoc joint action group composed of the military, police and the MILF even ordered the operations against the Abu Sayyaf and the regional al-Qaeda linked Jemaah Islamiyah band.
In the fighting, Alon said, several other bandits were wounded. Three soldiers were also injured in the heavy exchange of gunfires.
"There were six terrorists killed in the midday battle in barangay Tamar, Talayan town and several others wounded. Those slain, however, appeared to be not leaders," Alon said in a mobile-phone interview.
The battle has also led to the evacuation of 400 villagers in a nearby village in Datu Odin Sinsuat but the municipal government headed by Mayor Sinsuat, in cooperation with the Red Cross and Office of Civil Defense, was quick to give relief operation.
Helicopter gunships and jetfighters unleashed several rounds of machinegun and rocket fires during bombing sorties targetting some 30 heavily armed men of Khadafi Janjalani and some JI operatives.
The military report was confirmed by Eid Kabalu, MILF spokesman, who said that the frontâs participation was confined to gathering of intelligence reports on the location of the terrorist groups and the identities of the leaders.
Posted by: Dan Darling ||
07/15/2005 10:42 ||
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BANGKOK, Thailand - Thai officials held emergency meetings Friday after a stunning raid by Islamic terrorists insurgents who blew up power transformers to black out a southern provincial capital and then attacked with homemade firebombs and guns, killing two policemen and injured 22 people.
By Gawd, meetings. Emergency meetings. Long emergency meetings. Long, nattering emergency meetings.
Security forces arrested three suspects in the Thursday evening assault on the southern city of Yala, one of them a local university student, officials said.
Guess he wasn't inspired by crushing poverty to join a life of terror.
Interior Minister Chitchai Wannasathit on Friday issued an appeal for unity after the attack, the latest episode in a long spate of almost-daily violence in Thailandâs Muslim-dominated deep south since early last year. âThis is the time of national crisis - I would appeal for all Thai people to be united and join hands to fight against the terrorists people who have bad intentions toward the country,â said Chitchai, who also is a deputy prime minister.
Prime Minister Thaksin Shinawatra called an emergency meeting of Cabinet ministers and security officials in Bangkok to discuss the situation.
Suspected Muslim terrorists militants have staged isolated bombings and shootings in larger towns and cities in Thailandâs far south, but mass hit-and-run assaults have generally taken place only in smaller, remote towns which are less well-guarded.
Thursdayâs attacks wreaked havoc in Yala. The terrorists attackers first plunged the city into darkness by destroying some electrical transformers. They then roamed the streets, targeting areas where there is nighttime commercial activity. Officials broadcast warnings to city residents to stay in their homes.
Regional army commander Lt. Gen. Kwanchart Kraharn accused the attackers, whose number was unclear, of targeting civilians.
Where the hell were you when the terrorists were roaming the streets of Yala?
He said bombs - most of them apparently Molotov cocktails - were set off at âa hotel, two 7-Elevens, near a restaurant and near the railway station - all of which are usually crowded with people, so we can say that the troublemakers targeted innocent people.â
After firebombs struck, the attackers opened fire on people with automatic weapons and engaged security personnel in gun battles before making their getaway, Kwanchart said. At least 17 civilians were reported hurt.
Yala Deputy Governor Winyu Thongsong confirmed that that police officer died Thursday night, and another of his wounds at hospital Friday morning. He said 22 people were injured. âThe attackers were well-trained terrorists separatist insurgents who have been mingling among the ordinary people for some time,â army commander Gen. Pravit Wongsuwan said Friday morning in Bangkok before flying down to the scene for emergency meetings with colleagues.
Army spokesman Col. Somkuan Saengpataraneth said Friday that a combined force of soldiers and police have brought the situation back to normal. About 1,000 soldiers garrisoned nearby had been rushed Thursday night to city neighborhoods to protect people and government installations and public services.
Posted by: Steve White ||
07/15/2005 00:47 ||
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#1
As someone (Hyper?) said yesterday, I love the Thais. They are easily the most civil and wonderful people I've ever met. Hands down, nobody else comes close. Kohn Thai dee tee soot! But that's getting them killed, now.
The Thais are going to have to give up a few centuries' worth of civilizing public behavior norms. The incredibly ingrained habit of never being confrontational or accusatory must be jettisoned when dealing with Muzzies - it will just get many more of them killed. I know, from their history, that they can be just as hardcore as anyone else when threatened - they just have to accept that they have no choice, this time. The Muzzies know nothing else and it's just shit-bad luck that the Thais share a border with a Muzzy shithole. Time to can the sweetness, guys. Time to roll back the invaders. Time to get bloody. Time to get medievel. If you'll stop giving me shit about too many visa renewals, I'll be glad to lend a hand. :->
#2
The Thais are gonna have be tough - the Maoists and Islamists are working together, and the Maoists - read, Chicoms - are NOT just after INDIA arse.
#3
The thing you have to realize about the Thais is there isn't much seperating avoiding confrontation and going postal. You don't get the intermediate escalations we Westerners are used to. If I were to make a list of places that are the first to have anti-muslim 'pogroms', Thailand would top the list.
#4
Never, not in 16 yrs of going there, staying for straight 9 months in 2003, did I ever see a Thai lose his cool publicly. To lose your temper is to lose the argument, no matter what your position is - that's the Thai way.
I was informed, and I tried it out for a reaction from my best Thai friends and got shocked and astounded (heh - they didn't know I could find out such minutia!) confirmation, if you want a Thai to go ballistic and hand you your head on a platter, just call him "ai hia" (i he-uh). This translates literally as monitor lizard. Don't ask me why, but that's the most egregious insult you can make to a Thai. Instant berserk, heh. Hey, who knows?
So we start this rumor that the Muzzies said that all Thais are ai hia, and...
#5
Apropos of not much at all, some Asian languages appear not to have a separate term for monitor lizard. I have heard both Chinese and Philipinos refer to monitor lizards as 'crocodiles' We used to have a monitor lizard that lived beside a bridge, a couple of hundred meters from our house in SG. The philipino maids talked about it on a regular basis. On a couple of occasions I pointed out that it wasn't a crocodile and got the 'look' that means you are wrong, but also the employer and it aint smart to disagree with your, or your friends, employer.
#6
While skimming the headlines 1 or 2 days ago, I read that the Thai miltary is gearing up for sustained counter-insurgency ops. I will look for the article. Looks like the Thais are getting fed up and will crack heads. Hope they start in the mosques.
Posted by: ed ||
07/15/2005 5:43 Comments ||
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#7
Thx, ed - I must've been AWOL that day. One thing is certain, they will not have the same constraints we're accustomed to, once they let loose. The stack 'em and forget 'em episode in the trucks some months back is an example. If they ignore their Tranzi press (yes, they're just as bad there as anywhere) and take the gloves off, there will be beaucoup dead Muzzies.
Toxin Thaksin is balancing several things such as membership in ASEAN. Malaysia is supposed to be an "ally" and trading partner, yadda3, yet Malaysia claims these Muzzy killers just pop out of thin air: "They're not coming from here!" - yeah, right. This is to the detriment of his citizens on the bleeding edge with Malay Muzzies. The usual death calculus is being used - if enough Buddhist monks and school teachers and [insert demographic here] people die, he'll get off his ass and do something.
From Radio Free Europe / Radio Liberty
A purported armed Sunni group in Iran claims to have beheaded an Iranian security agent it captured in Iran last month, and has sent a videotape of the apparent execution to Dubai-based Al-Arabiya television, Radio Farda reported on 13 July. The authenticity of the tape has not been confirmed and Iranian officials have not commented, the report added. The network broadcast parts of the tape showing masked men moving a knife toward the neck of a kneeling man. The man may be Shahab Mansuri, an Iranian agent reportedly captured by a group called God's Soldiers of the Sunni Mujahedin, Radio Farda reported. Al-Arabiya broadcast another video two weeks ago in which the group demanded that Iran release unspecified Sunni captives to prevent Mansuri's decapitation, Radio Farda reported. The captors then threatened to send Mansuri's head to President-elect Mahmud Ahmadinejad. Radio Farda added that the clothes the captors are seen wearing in the video footage, and the name of their purported leader Abdulmalik Baluchi, indicate that they may be from the southeastern Sistan-Baluchistan Province, where Iranian troops and police have clashed with bandits and alleged separatists.
Posted by: Mike Sylwester ||
07/15/2005 00:00 ||
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A number of years ago an Australian reporter did a story in then Taliban controlled Afghanistan where he met a bunch of Iranian Baluch's who told him that they were fighting to set up a Sunni caliphate inside Iran. Maybe they weren't just a phantom org.
Posted by: Paul Moloney ||
07/15/2005 0:18 Comments ||
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#2
Iranian crackdown would indicate the tape's true...
Posted by: Frank G ||
07/15/2005 0:49 Comments ||
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Major Mark Bieger found this little girl after the car bomb that attacked our guys while kids were crowding around. The soldiers here have been angry and sad for two days. They are angry because the terrorists could just as easily have waited a block or two and attacked the patrol away from the kids. Instead, the suicide bomber drove his car and hit the Stryker when about twenty children were jumping up and down and waving at the soldiers. Major Bieger, I had seen him help rescue some of our guys a week earlier during another big attack, took some of our soldiers and rushed this little girl to our hospital. He wanted her to have American surgeons and not to go to the Iraqi hospital. She didn't make it. I snapped this picture when Major Bieger ran to take her away. He kept stopping to talk with her and hug her.
The soldiers went back to that neighborhood the next day to ask what they could do. The people were very warming and welcomed us into their homes, and many kids were actually running up to say hello and to ask soldiers to shake hands.
Eventually, some insurgents must have realized we were back and started shooting at us. The American soldiers and Iraqi police started engaging the enemy and there was a running gun battle. I saw at least one IP who was shot, but he looked okay and actually smiled at me despite the big bullet hole in his leg. I smiled back.
One thing seems certain; the people in that neighborhood share our feelings about the terrorists. We are going to go back there, and if any terrorists come out, the soldiers hope to find them. Everybody is still very angry that the insurgents attacked us when the kids were around. Their day will come.
As the tears roll down my cheeks, all I can think about is how lucky we Americans are to have such fine, loving and hard men facing our enemies. To be upset the islamonazis didn't wait to try and kill THEM so as to save some innocent children. To have the grim determination to immediately move out against these muhammedaean fascisti. To risk their lives to try and save poor little arab girl. To be willing to go back and face down these low-life scum, no eager to do battle. This is the best military to ever exist, in every way.
We are truly blessed by God to have such fine men and women among us.
#4
abu grahib? panties on heads? Gitmo? Fake Koran flushings? Where is the media outrage about this? FUCKERS
Posted by: Frank G ||
07/15/2005 21:03 Comments ||
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#5
Agreed, Frank G. This is the supreme example of how much better we are than these freakin' lunatics. Not that I wouldn't mind seeing us getting down and dirty with 'em a little more, mind you.
Posted by: BA ||
07/15/2005 21:08 Comments ||
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#2
Wow - obviously it works very well. Too bad he didn't locate the shooters when he scanned for targets. I was impressed with how fast he was back on his feet and ready to rock 'n roll.
#3
I read the rest of the story on Drudge. The soldier was a medic and after the sniper got popped, he went over and treated him. The guy has way more forgiveness than I.
#4
Allahu-akbar indeed. Spread the word Osama, G#d is not on your side.
Posted by: John in Tokyo ||
07/15/2005 22:12 Comments ||
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#5
he went over and treated him
were it me, a field-dressed lobotomy would be in order
Posted by: Frank G ||
07/15/2005 22:32 Comments ||
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#6
Lucky Joe and far better man than me. Training surely helps. Facing an idiot sniper helps. Technology is a bitch Ahkmed my man. No place for idiots who didn't qualify on their ak or carbine. If the videographer was near the shooter then he should have been easily taking the man's head off given the quality of the video indicating a relatively short range for sniping. It's not a secret they've got body armor.
LONDON (AlertNet) - British relief and development agency Christian Aid said Tamil militia had attacked a government naval base in eastern Sri Lanka on Friday, the latest outbreak in a rash of violence that threatens to derail a three-year ceasefire and put post-tsunami reconstruction efforts at risk. Christian Aid reported hearing constant machine-gun fire in the town of Trincomalee after the nearby Kuchaveli base came under sustained attack from the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam.
âCivilians have been forced to flee into the jungle for safety,â the group said in a statement. âIf many people are displaced it will put a huge strain on aid agenciesâ ability to feed and support refugees.â
The charity said it had evacuated staff from the area and halted all non-essential trips. The move comes a week after a Christian Aid partner organisation was forced to suspend operations after its office was hit by gunfire. Sri Lankaâs Tamil Tiger rebels said on Friday they would violate the fragile ceasefire and carry arms in military-held areas unless the government safeguarded their cadres following attacks in the restive east.
On the same day, Sri Lankaâs Supreme Court froze a government pact to share $3 billion in tsunami aid with Tamil Tiger rebels in a fresh blow to peace hopes.
Posted by: Steve ||
07/15/2005 16:07 ||
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KABUL, Afghanistan (AP) - Suspected Taliban fighters raided a police post Friday in southern Afghanistan, killing seven policemen and losing five of their own men, an official said. The militants riding in five pickup trucks opened fire at the policemen when many of them were eating lunch at the post in Shoravak, a district in southern Kandahar province near the Pakistani border, chief district administrator Haji Abdul Majeed said. In the ensuing about hour-long battle, five other policemen were wounded, Majeed said.
The attackers left behind five bodies before retreating toward the Pakistani border, he said. ``The bodies of the Taliban are with us and we have seized their five AK-47 rifles, a few grenades and two rockets,'' he said from Shoravak.
None of the dead was reported to be a senior figure in the militia, which a U.S. military campaign ousted from power in late 2001 for harboring al-Qaida.
Posted by: Steve ||
07/15/2005 15:55 ||
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Jordan's recent arrest of 12 Muslim militants has given extensive leads on how Syria is becoming a major training ground for Arab fighters heading to Iraq to join the anti-U.S. insurgency, officials said on Friday.
Security officials said interrogations of the Jordanian militants, arrested this year, have exposed how neighbouring Syria has become a haven for Sunni Muslim youths to organise clandestinely for jihad(holy war) in Iraq.
"We are finding that many of these people are getting help from Syrian Islamist radicals who are helping them to undergo training and financing and even equipment like explosives detonators they smuggle back to Jordan or use in Iraq," said one official involved in the case who requested anonymity.
Officials and security sources however deny there is proof the Syrian militants were operating with the consent of Damascus, an avowed enemy of radical Sunni groups it battled in the 1980s and against whom its security forces have mounted clampdowns in recent months.
But stronger bonds are developing among young militants from across the region in Iraq galvanised by fighting a common cause against U.S. troops in Iraq, officials say.
"They meet in Iraq and those who return home cement their ties with their associates in other Arab countries and draw others back to Iraq relying on their ability to move at greater ease in their own communities," a security official said.
A group of seven militants who are ideologically affiliated to al Qaeda were arrested last May during raids across the country, while five others from the city of Salt have been in jail since February, a security source said.
They have been indicted this week on charges that range from conspiracy to engage in terror attacks to possession of illegal arms. The conspiracy charge alone carries a death sentence.
Prosecutors say among the defendants, Khaled Sarqous, 33, who fought in Iraq, had liaised with a Syrian identified only as Abu Janah, who interrogations revealed was a mastermind behind training and financing Jordanian suicide bombers active in Iraq.
Among them was Raed Mansour al-Bannaa, whose name has been linked with carrying out post-war Iraq's deadliest suicide bombing on February 28 that killed 125 people, mostly Shi'ites, in southern Baghdad, the state security prosecutors say.
Diplomats and political observers say Jordan's latest arrests backs up Washington's pressure on Damascus, which it accuses of undermining its efforts in Iraq and allowing militants to funnel fighters and cash through its territory.
Damascus says few militants cross and those who do are mostly smugglers. It says the U.S. allegations are part of pressure to extract political concessions.
But a Jordanian security official said several hundred die-hard militants with links to Syrian militants have left to Iraq through Syria since the U.S. invasion in 2003.
In a sign of Syrian ire at Jordanian accusations, Damascus announced earlier this month Jordanian "terrorists" with ties to former Iraqi leader Saddam Hussein's bodyguards were arrested in clashes in Damascus with security forces.
Both Washington and Amman scoffed at the Syrian allegations saying the Semadi gangsters were among the country's most notorious thieves with a history of attacks on police but no ties to Muslim radicals.
Posted by: Dan Darling ||
07/15/2005 10:19 ||
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#1
I don't know of any "political" concessions the US has asked for other than stop funding, hosting and mentoring terrorists.
Posted by: Super Hose ||
07/15/2005 12:17 Comments ||
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Pak ISI is in overdrive trying to maintain its LeT terror camps. They are trying to deflect attention to the JeM. It is of course a blatant lie that LeT has no links with Al Qaeda. They have been linked to attacks in Iraq.
The ISI is desperate to hold onto the LeT. Their jihad strategy depends on it. They will now try to paint the LeT as Indian specific terrorists whom the west can tolerate since only Indians are killed by them.
"One of the groups being checked is Jaish-e-Mohammad (Army of Mohammad), linked to al Qaeda and banned by Pakistan in 2002. The other group is Lashkar-e-Taiba, which like Jaish has a record of fighting in Indian Kashmir, but unlike Jaish has a reputation for tight discipline and is not known to have any operational ties with al Qaeda."
Posted by: john ||
07/15/2005 09:26 ||
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BAGHDAD, Iraq - US and Iraqi troops raided houses in western Baghdad, the US military said on Friday, pressing the hunt for insurgents after the arrest of a suspect in the kidnap-slaying of Egyptâs top envoy. Scattered mortar fire shook two north Baghdad districts. The raids Thursday targeted suspected âterrorist safe housesâ the Ghazaliyah and the Abu Ghraib districts, two of the most dangerous neighborhoods in the west of the city, a US statement. Eight suspects were taken into custody, the statement said, and soldiers found an Iraqi generalâs uniform in one location.
Mortar shells exploded early Friday near the headquarters of an Iraqi commando battalion in the Sunni neighborhood of Azamiyah of north Baghdad, police said. Three mortars also fell across the Tigris River in the Shiite district Kazimiyah, police added. No casualties nor damage were reported in any of the blasts. The raids occurred as US and Iraqi troops appeared to be accelerating the search for insurgents, including those linked to Jordanian-born terror mastermind Abu Musab al-Zarqawi, head of Al Qaedaâs branch in Iraq. About 30 suspected Al Qaeda members were arrested in the past week, the US command said Thursday. They included Khamis Abdul-Fahdawi, known as Abu Seba, who was captured Saturday after operations in the Ramadi area west of Baghdad. A US statement said Abu Seba was a suspect in the âattacks against diplomats of Bahrain, Pakistan and the recent murder of Egyptian envoyâ Ihab al-Sherif, who was abducted in western Baghdad on July 2. Al Qaeda claimed in an Internet posting July 7 that it had killed al-Sherif to punish Egypt for supporting the US-backed Iraqi government.
Another top suspect, Abdullah Ibrahim al-Shadad, or Abu Abdul-Aziz, was arrested during a raid Sunday in Baghdad, the US statement said. It identified him as the operations officer for Al Qaeda in Iraq. In an Internet statement Thursday, Al Qaeda acknowledged that Abu Abdul Aziz had been apprehended but played down his importance.
Al Qaeda claimed responsibility for a largely unsuccessful suicide attack Thursday at the entrance to the heavily guarded Green Zone, home to the US Embassy and major Iraqi government offices. The attack was intended to be part of coordinated assaults by a suicide car bomber and two pedestrians strapped with explosives. The attackers apparently planned to detonate the car bomb first. Then the two pedestrians would blow themselves up in the midst of troops, police and rescue workers rushing to the scene, US officials said. The car bomb exploded successfully. But one pedestrian bomber was killed after an Iraqi policeman shot him, setting off his explosive vest, a US statement said. The second pedestrian bomber was wounded by shrapnel from the blast before he could detonate his own vest, and was in critical condition at a US military hospital in the Green Zone, the statement said. Five policemen and four civilians also were wounded by the blasts and gunfire, officials at Yarmouk Hospital said.
Would-be bombers are rarely captured in Iraq. A 19-year-old Saudi was taken into custody after he somehow survived the explosion of his fuel tanker in December, a blast that killed nine people. A Yemeni was arrested in 2003 when his car bomb failed to detonate at a Baghdad police station. There was no word on the identity of the failed bomber, but his arrest could yield valuable intelligence on the shadowy network of Islamic extremists — many of them believed to be foreigners linked to Al Qaeda.
In other violence late Thursday, gunmen killed an Iraqi soldier in Baghdad and another outside the Taji air base north of the capital, police said. Elsewhere, police said gunmen killed five Iraqi employees of an American base in Baqouba, 55 kilometers (35 miles) northeast of Baghdad, as they were driving outside the base. At least nine other policemen also were killed in separate attacks nationwide. However, figures obtained Thursday by The Associated Press from Iraqi government ministries show violent deaths among Iraqi civilians far exceeded those of soldiers or police during the first six months of this year. Between Jan. 1 and June 30, 1,594 civilians were killed, according to the Ministry of Health. By contrast, 895 security forces — 275 Iraqi soldiers and 620 police — were killed in bombings, assassinations or armed clashes with insurgents, according to figures from the interior and defense ministries. The number of insurgents killed during the six-month period was 781, the government said. According to an AP count, more than 1,700 people have been killed in violence since April 28, when Prime Minister Ibrahim al-Jaafari announced his Shiite-led government.
Posted by: Steve ||
07/15/2005 10:08 ||
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The second pedestrian bomber was wounded by shrapnel from the blast before he could detonate his own vest, and was in critical condition at a US military hospital in the Green Zone, the statement said.
Lalalalalala! These things are dangerous!
Posted by: Bobby ||
07/15/2005 11:52 Comments ||
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Suicide car bombers blew themselves up in a series of attacks within hours across the Iraqi capital on Friday, and U.S. forces said 20 Iraqis were killed.
The U.S. military reported seven blasts in Baghdad, at least three of which were suicide car bombs. Reuters journalists saw the aftermath of five big explosions, all of which Iraqi police sources said were suicide car bombs.
Al Qaeda claimed responsibility for five suicide attacks.
At least two attacks struck U.S. military targets. Three American soldiers were hurt, but none killed, U.S. military spokesman Lieutenant Jamie Davis said.
A U.S. statement said five of the dead were Iraqi soldiers and 15 were Iraqi civilians.
"Dead and mangled bodies of women and children is what terrorism stands for," said Colonel Joseph DiSalvo, commander of U.S. forces in Baghdad's eastern half, in a statement referring to three suicide car bomb blasts.
The statement did not give the locations of the attacks or a breakdown of how many were killed in which incident. Davis said he had records of seven blasts in all, of which three were noted down as suicide car bombs.
Firefighters tried to douse the flames near one blast site which targeted Iraqi troops in the north of the city, where several cars were destroyed and bloodsoaked survivors argued with police.
"The (Iraqi) army vehicles were parking right here when a speeding Daewoo car approached and exploded. It split in two parts," eyewitness Raed Salman said.
A police source said six people were killed and 16 hurt in that blast. The bodies were too charred to immediately identify how many were Iraqi soldiers and how many civilians.
In the New Baghdad district in the southeast of the city, eyewitness Basim Mohammed said he saw a car bomber ram an armored U.S. convoy at high speed, but saw no casualties.
Davis confirmed that was one of the car bombs recorded by U.S. forces. He said two U.S. soldiers were hurt.
Another bomb struck near Andalus square in the town center.
Reuters correspondents in central Baghdad heard that blast, followed by gunfire. An Interior Ministry source said the blast was caused by a suicide car bomb that wounded five Iraqi soldiers and three civilians.
Smoking wreckage of cars was also visible at a blast site near the old Iraqi Defense Ministry headquarters. Iraqi troops ran around and gunshots could be heard after the blast.
Police sources said 19 Iraqi soldiers were wounded there.
And another apparent suicide car bomb exploded outside a garage, witnesses and Iraqi police sources said.
"We were stopping right here with our bicycles when a car drove near the garage. It tried to enter but exploded outside. The broken glass rained down on our heads," said Hassan Talib, a witness.
Al Qaeda's Iraq wing said in statements on the Internet it had carried out five suicide car bomb attacks.
"A lion from our brigade ... staged a heroic attack on a unit of the apostate (Iraqi) guard," one statement said.
In a separate incident in the remote western desert, U.S. Marines said two of their troops had died in a roadside bomb strike on Wednesday.
Posted by: Dan Darling ||
07/15/2005 10:05 ||
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Iraqi and U.S. forces have captured or arrested about 30 suspected al-Qaeda members in the past week, including a suspect in this month's killing of an Egyptian envoy and attacks on senior diplomats from Bahrain and Pakistan. Khamis Abdul-Fahdawi, also known as Abu Seba, was captured Saturday after operations in the Ramadi area west of Baghdad, the U.S. military said in a statement. Abdul-Fahdawi is a suspect in the "attacks against diplomats of Bahrain, Pakistan and the recent murder of Egyptian envoy" Ihab al-Sherif, the U.S. statement said.
Another top suspect, Abdullah Ibrahim al-Shadad, or Abu Abdul Aziz, was arrested during a raid Sunday in Baghdad, the statement said. It identified him as the operations officer for al-Qaeda in Iraq, led by Jordanian terrorist Abu Musab al-Zarqawi. Al-Shadad was cooperating with coalition forces, according to U.S. Central Command. On Thursday, an Internet statement attributed to the terrorist group al-Qaeda in Iraq acknowledged al-Shadad had been caught, but it played down his importance.
The statement also said al-Qaeda in Iraq denied any role in a suicide car bombing Wednesday that killed 27 people â including 18 children and teenagers and an American soldier â in Baghdad. The car bomber detonated his sport-utility vehicle as U.S. troops were swarmed by children in the mostly Shiite New Baghdad area. "Our sheik, Abu Musab al-Zarqawi ... is very keen not to attack the rank and file, and he himself is the one who directly supervises, plans and direct all the operations," said the statement, which was purportedly signed by Abu Maysara al-Iraqi, spokesman for al-Qaeda in Iraq. The statement's authenticity could not be verified.
"Such action has nothing to do with religion," Inaam Hassan, 38, said of the attack. "This tarnishes the image of the true resistance. I demand that the terrorists be executed in public to avenge the mothers who have lost their children." Salam al-Rubaiei, 33, blamed parents of the children for allowing them to approach American soldiers. "We know how reckless these forces are and how they can randomly open fire when attacked," al-Rubaiei said. "I want to know why these forces were present in a residential area."
Posted by: Dan Darling ||
07/15/2005 09:50 ||
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EFL: Clashes in Gaza between Palestinian Authority security forces and members of the Hamas militant organisation have killed two bystanders and injured 20. The fighting in Gaza City started on Thursday and continued into Friday morning before appearing to die down On Thursday night, Israeli helicopters fired missiles at targets in Gaza. The strikes came after a woman in Israel was killed by a rocket fired from the Gaza Strip on Thursday. The al-Aqsa Martyrs Brigades and Hamas said they carried out Thursday's rocket attack, in response to the killing of an Islamic Jihad leader by the Israeli army in the West Bank town of Nablus. Palestinian leader Mahmoud Abbas has gone to Gaza to hold talks with armed groups, in an attempt to put an end to militant attacks.
BBC Gaza correspondent Alan Johnston says that the Palestinian leadership appears to have launched a concerted effort to exert its authority by force. There are reports of Palestinian security forces coming under fire from rocket-propelled grenades and sporadic bursts of gunfire could be heard on Friday morning. Private cars blaring their horns raced through the city carrying the injured. But the situation is now reported to be calmer in the Zeitoun area of Gaza City, with the Palestinian Authority units having apparently pulled back. In some of the worst violence between Palestinians in recent years, Hamas militants set fire to a police station, a police armoured personnel carrier and three jeeps. Thick black smoke from burning tyres rose from the area. Reports say that the bystanders killed in the fighting were a teenager and child.
The violence began on Thursday evening. Palestinian Authority security forces opened fire on a car carrying Hamas members, injuring several militants. Hamas counter-attacked, targeting the police station in the area. The militants in the car had been on a mission to launch missiles at a nearby Israeli target.
Posted by: Steve ||
07/15/2005 08:41 ||
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#1
BBC Gaza correspondent Alan Johnston says that the Palestinian leadership appears to have launched a concerted effort to exert its authority by force.
And so it begins.
I was expecting either a jaw drop or popcorn for this. I guess you read it differently?
Posted by: Mike ||
07/15/2005 10:01 Comments ||
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BBC Gaza correspondent Alan Johnston says that the Palestinian leadership appears to have launched a concerted effort to exert its authority by force.
Not having previously taken steps to dismantle Hamas and its kin only makes the task more difficult.
'German Foreign Minister Joschka Fischer sharply rebuked the Palestinian leadership yesterday, saying the Palestinians will never have an independent state until "violence and terrorism" end.
Fischer's unusually strong comments came two days after a Palestinian suicide bombing in Netanya.
"Terrorism will have no positive results, and there will be no chance to establish an independent Palestinian state as long as violence and terrorism continue," Fischer said after meeting Palestinian Prime Minister Ahmed Qureia.'
#5
Good bit of in fighting is just what is needed . Long may it reign .
Once they have reduced Palestine to rubble , there will be no need for Israeli caterpillars or international aid . On top of that , a few less fanatical fruitcakes cant be a bad thing either .
#8
On Thursday night, Israeli helicopters fired missiles at targets in Gaza. The strikes came after a woman in Israel was killed by a rocket fired from the Gaza Strip on Thursday.
#9
lesson for Islam: sometimes the person you wield the sword against isn't a helpless mother and children...sometimes they fight bigger, better, and with all the courage and morality you're lacking. Call it a oppression or a crusade - I call it justice
Posted by: Frank G ||
07/15/2005 21:55 Comments ||
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U.S.-led forces killed 24 suspected Islamist militants on the Pakistan side of the Afghan border, Pakistan's military spokesman said on Friday. The encounter occurred late on Thursday near Lowara Mandi, a border village in the North Waziristan tribal region, Major-General Shaukat Sultan told private Geo television. Additional: ISLAMABAD, Pakistan (AP) - Pakistani troops on Friday found the bodies of 24 suspected Taliban fighters who were killed in overnight fighting with U.S. and Afghan soldiers inside Afghanistan, an army spokesman said.
"Cleanup, Aisle 7!"
"Bring me a mop and a #7 pitchfork ..."
The bodies were found near Alwara Mandi, a small market town in the North Waziristan tribal region, spokesman Maj. Gen. Shaukat Sultan said.
"They were killed at some stage last night in fighting with (U.S.-led) coalition forces and Afghan forces," Sultan said. He said he believed the fighters may have been trying to enter Pakistan when they were killed. "We alerted our troops to stop anyone from entering into Pakistani territory but the Pakistan army was not involved in any shooting," he said from Rawalpindi, a city near Islamabad where the army is headquartered.
Posted by: ed ||
07/15/2005 08:08 ||
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"We alerted our troops to stop anyone from entering into Pakistani territory but the Pakistan army was not involved in any shooting,"
The bodies of young women began to appear in Basra six weeks ago. First there was a group of three, then two, and last week the corpses of six were found, each victim riddled by gunshots and left on the street to die in pools of blood.
The Iraqi police say they have no strong leads. But it is an open secret in the port city why they died. They worked as prostitutes and their killers are widely believed to be one of the city's armed militias. In recent months they have become increasingly violent in their campaign to enforce a strict interpretation of the social code of Islam.
The district where the latest victims were discovered is one of the city's poorest. Sewage runs beside the pavement and through the holes in the walls of buildings can be seen thin mattresses and battered pots and pans.
No one wanted to talk about the details of the murders. "I do not want to be killed," one man said. But another told how he had been in a house of "belly dancers" recently in order to drink alcohol - an illicit activity in Basra - when a dozen masked men broke down the front door. "They started hitting the girls and shooting against the walls and breaking the furniture," he said. "They bought boxes of vodka and beer outside to smash them. One of the girls ran outside and she had stones thrown at her. "Everyone in the place was too frightened to help."
For years Basra opposed Saddam Hussein and suffered massacres under his dictatorship. It welcomed liberation by the British two years ago. It has been spared the worst of the insurgency in Iraq's central provinces, cocooned by distance and its majority Shia population. For a visitor from Baghdad the contrast is striking: there are none of the blast walls that surround the capital's government buildings and at the night the markets and streets throng with people.
But the calm has come at a price and offers an object lesson to strategists in western capitals that bringing democracy to the Middle East can easily usher into power religious forces at odds with the west. In January's historic Iraq election a majority of religion-inspired leaders were elected in Basra, but they have struck a deal with the militias which have been influential since 2003 and effectively have free rein in the city. The militias help impose order and warn of any Sunni infiltrators but only while working to transform the city into a miniature theocracy reminiscent of that found across the Shatt al Arab waterway in Iran.
Pictures of Ayatollah Khomeini, the leader of the 1979 Iranian revolution, have become a common sight on street corners. Shops selling musical instruments have been bombed after warnings that musicians were the "servants of Satan". Stores selling DVDs report that groups of men inspect their wares to ensure it contains no items considered too provocative. Women are approached on the streets and criticised by strangers if they do not wear a headscarf, while parents who allow their daughters to play sports have received envelopes with bullets in them.
The British, who are responsible for the security of the sector, have refused to intervene, saying that it is a domestic matter of political and law and order issues. Political parties have been largely silent. The city's 41-seat political authority is dominated by the Supreme Council for the Islamic Revolution in Iraq (Sciri). This has close links to the Iranian government, and those loyal to Ayatollah Muhammad Yacoubi, a radical cleric friendly with Moqtada al-Sadr whose Mahdi army staged two uprisings last summer. The local Sciri leader, Furat al-Shara, said last month that there was no need to enshrine Islamic law in the country's legal code because this was already being done "culturally".
The fact is the largest militias have ties to both these organisations. Sciri's Badr Brigade has hundreds of followers in Basra while the Mahdi army, while remaining underground, remains a potent force. A number of new smaller groups such as the Vengeance of Allah - blamed on the streets for the prostitute murders - and Master of the Martyrs have emerged in recent months. They carry out their deadly trade in plain clothes, scarves wrapped around their faces.
The police do little. In some cases because of fear, but in others because officers are themselves members of the same militias. Gen Hassan al-Sade, the chief of police, recently admitted that he had lost control of the majority of his officers because of penetration of the force by members of the militias. In a blunt assessment of where real power lies, he said: "I trust 25 per cent of my force, no more."
Posted by: ed ||
07/15/2005 06:15 ||
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Another shitforbrains journalist who thinks he understands what is going on.
#2
As for the unnamed militia, lol, it's clearly the Sadrists - the mighty Madhi Army. They've been running amok regularly down there and, on occasion, the MSM fucks up and reports it.
#3
If the Brits are truly persuing a hands off policy then I think they're making a major blunder which will come back to haunt them (and us) at a later time. I find it disgusting to think the Brits won't lift a finger to identify, track down, then kill the bastards knocking off the booze drinkers, prostitutes and belly dancers. The hard core religious findamentalists need to be sent a deadly message that their intolerance will not be...well...tolerated.
Posted by: Mark Z. ||
07/15/2005 11:04 Comments ||
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#4
More of the "light touch" policing that lost Britain its Empire.
Posted by: Laurence of the Rats ||
07/15/2005 11:39 Comments ||
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Pictures of Ayatollah Khomeini, the leader of the 1979 Iranian revolution, have become a common sight on street corners. Shops selling musical instruments have been bombed after warnings that musicians were the "servants of Satan".1 Stores selling DVDs report that groups of men inspect their wares to ensure it contains no items considered too provocative. Women are approached on the streets and criticised by strangers if they do not wear a headscarf, while parents who allow their daughters to play sports have received envelopes with bullets in them.
But we infidels don't understand, don't you know? Allah Akhbar. It is written, and all that kind of stuff...
The holy militia is enforcing rules that are being channeled through a magic mullah from the ghost of the prophet's own second cousin three times removed...
1 After the Iranian Islamist coup that over threw the Shah (Thanks loads Jimmy Carter) western classical music was eventually banned from the radio.
He is Allahâs avenging angel. And like all avenging angels, he has a long memory. Memory that served him well in his earlier avatar as a professor of Islamic studies at the University of Engineering and Technology at Lahore, and, later, in his role as chief of Markaz-ul-Dawa-al-Irshad (MDI), the parent organisation of the Lashkar-e-Taiba or the âArmy of the Pureâ. The portly Prof. Hafiz Muhammed Saeedâs devotion to his mission of creating three Pakistans out of India is as single-minded as that of a laser-guided missile. Kashmir, for him, is the gateway to India. Its liberation from the âHindusâ, he told the media in February 1996 in Lahore, would be followed by the liberation of Muslims in north and south India. Muslims, he said in an interview a year later, should be "aroused to rise in revolt... so that India gets disintegrated".
Lashkar has emerged as the deadliest terror outfit operating out of Pakistan in the last decade. Indian intelligence agencies attribute most of the recent terrorist strikes in India to Lashkar, including the one in Ayodhya on July 5. It has virtually unlimited access to funds, thanks to Pakistanâs Inter-Services Intelligence and sponsors in Europe and the middle east, and a never-ending supply of troops, thanks to the schools managed by the MDI.
The pattern of Lashkar attacks in India following Saeedâs statement proves that he was indeed serious about his intent. Though the outfit entered Kashmir to wage jihad rather lateâin 1993âit soon pushed the other big organisations, Hizb-ul-Mujahideen and Jaish-e-Muhammad, to the fringes. After the Kargil war of 1999, during which Saeedâs boys rubbed shoulders with the Pakistan army fighting the Indians, Lashkar made its name organising fidayeen (suicide) attacks in Kashmir. Even as the civilians and the security forces in the Valley reeled under the new mode of terror, Saeed set his sights outside the state. Delhi was the first target. Lashkar militants attacked the Red Fort in December 2000 and a year later they mounted a daring assault on Parliament with help from JeM. In 2002, the Akshardham Temple in Gandhinagar, belonging to the Swaminarayan sect, was the target. Last year, there were reports that Lashkar was training its guns on important personalities, including cricketers Sachin Tendulkar and Sourav Ganguly. In March 2005, the Delhi Police killed three Lashkar militants and captured two others who were apparently planning to target software companies in Bangalore. Then came the Ayodhya attack, the fourth on temples since 1996.
So what makes Saeed order these daring strikes? One, the publicity they garner; two, the fear they generate in the minds of the people and; three, the way they "arouse the Muslims". Saeed, it seems, has taken a leaf out of Osama bin Ladenâs book. He has a habit of making bold statements that cause superpowers to shiver. In fact, bin Laden was said to be the main inspiration for the three professors who founded MDIâSaeed, his colleague Zafar Iqbal and Abdullah Azzam of the International Islamic University, which is allegedly funded by bin Laden. When the MDI, which belongs to the conservative Ahle-Hadith (aka Salafi or Wahabi) school of Islam, was formed in 1987, bin Laden provided the seed money. Its headquarters was set up on a sprawling 190 acres in Muridke, 45km from Lahore. Besides a huge mosque, the building of which was financed by bin Laden, the heavily guarded campus houses a guest houseâwhich was used by the al Qaeda chief before America started snapping at his heelsâa madrasa, a hospital, a market, a fish farm, agricultural tracts and residential area for scholars and the faculty. MDI has five Islamic institutions, more than a hundred schools and five madrasas besides ambulance services, blood banks and clinics across Pakistan.
A year after the MDI was launched, Azzam got killed in an explosion. In July 2004, Iqbal broke away and launched Khairun Naas after Saeed anointed his brother-in-law, Maulana Abdul Rehman Makki, a former teacher, as his second-in-command and head of foreign affairs. Charges of nepotism are nothing new to Saeed. His son, Talha, looks after the affairs of the Lashkar in Muzaffarabad, while Waleed, despite being accused of having links with car smugglers, continues to be powerful. All these Jihadi outfits are family businesses, the precedent of the Prophet getting one fifth of the booty collected in raids has been used by these people to excuse their money grabbing, although in truth they probably grap a hell of a lot more than 20% of the funds that head their way.
Lashkar, MDIâs armed wing, was launched in 1990 in the Afghan province of Kunar with the specific aim of fighting the Najibullah regime in Afghanistan. After the Taliban captured Kabul in 1992, the attention turned to Kashmir. Meanwhile, Lashkar had become a big hit with the ISI and the government, particularly because Saeed and his men had no interest in local politics unlike other outfits. Patronage meant that the MDI as well as Lashkar prospered. Lashkar trains recruits in two phases. The basic, Daura Aam, lasts 21 days and recruits are motivated to pursue jihad as a mission. The special phase, Daura Khaas, is of three months and involves training in weapons, ambush and survival. Saeed has combined Islamic education and modern knowledge in his institutions, in a bid to make his wards motivated and innovative. His dream run continues to this day, despite the split in 2004 and resentment over his second marriage to the widow of a slain associate. Back before 9/11 the Lashkarâs English website openly discussed how to enrol in these two training courses, I remember reading them at the time and being surprised by how blatant it all was, but this was back when the world was still asleep concerning Jihadis.
Saeed had a strictly religious upbringing in Janubi village in Mianwali district, where his landlord father, Kamaluddin, had set up base after Partition, having migrated from Hyderabad. His mother taught her seven children the Quran and Saeed took to the holy book in a big way. After his graduation, he did his masters in Islamic Studies from King Saud University, Riyadh. His first job was as research officer at the Islamic Ideological Council in Pakistan. Even after he launched the MDI, he continued to teach till his retirement a couple of years ago. Saeed, who has never been to the west despite the fact that his two brothers live in the US, dislikes being photographed and has banned TV in his headquarters. He hates âHindu rulersâ, from whose clutches he wants to liberate Junagadh and Hyderabad, apart from Kashmir. And he has a good reason to hate India: 36 members of his extended family were killed during Partition. That also explains why he has been so vehemently opposed to the peace process and proves that he would go any length to achieve his mission: disintegrate India.
Posted by: Paul Moloney ||
07/15/2005 00:12 ||
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#1
Yep, he is arrogant. But this Muslimutt takes the prize:
DUBAI - Afghanistanâs Taleban insurgents possess anti-aircraft weapons and are seeking to obtain even more powerful arms, a commander with the rebel movement told Al Jazeera television. âWe cannot reveal our military secrets but, by the will of God, we will obtain weapons more powerful than what we have,â the commander, identified as Dadallah, told the Arabic satellite television station in an interview broadcast on Thursday. âWe have weapons that can down aircraft but we cannot reveal what they are,â he added without elaborating.
What they have is a new set of targets for our air guys.
Last month, Taleban insurgents shot down a US helicopter, killing all 16 troops on board, in the biggest single combat blow to US forces since they overthrew the Taleban in 2001. Taleban spokesman Abdul Latif Hakimi had said the guerrillas shot down the helicopter with a ânew type of weaponâ. US military officials, however, said the aircraft had probably been shot down by a rocket-propelled grenade and there was no indication that a more sophisticated ground-to-air system was involved.
Posted by: Steve White ||
07/15/2005 00:00 ||
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#2
Well PD, it makes you miss the Western way of war, where the diplomats go home and you don't have bases in the same country that's trying to kill you, doesn't it? If a good analogy for western warfare is a boxing match or a football game, then muslim war is anal rape with a half-hearted reach-around.
#3
Certainly less than demanded for membership in the Order of the Garter. Sigh. I was upbraided recently for saying we should be allowing no further free passes or arms or debt relief or anything else for Pervy - cuz he's not running anything, the ISI is. I still believe we should get everything out in the open, above board, and tolerate no more of these corrupting cozy State Dept style nuanced accomodation deals. They not only come back to haunt you later, but in the case of Muzzies, well, as you said - they fuck you over in the here and now. The "Talibanisation" thingy in another article today certainly clarifies why, IMHO.
#6
Look for Pak ISI supplied Chinese made MANPADS in Taliban hands.
The mistake the Paks make is that they think they are too clever. This plausible deniability thing was accepted during the Soviet Afghan war. While India squealed and made noises, it was limited in what actions it could take against Pakistan.
The USA is under no such restrictions. It can inflict enormous pain, nation-state-ending pain upon those who provoke it.
Posted by: john ||
07/15/2005 9:39 Comments ||
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#7
It's possible they received some SA-18s smuggled from Chechnya or Iraq, or on the low end, proximity fused rockets.
Posted by: ed ||
07/15/2005 9:43 Comments ||
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#8
Spicy Indian Ketchup, movies, democracy. Ima learn to make a curry next. Here's something else we could use to cut the deficit. I'd offer a dozen of these for 1 thousand American dollars each. Verry Handy to have. Very.
#9
Afghanistanâs Taleban insurgents possess anti-aircraft weapons and are seeking to obtain even more powerful arms, a commander with the rebel movement told Al Jazeera television.
It's one thing to possess AA weapons, and another thing entirely to shoot down U.S. aircraft with them. Troop transport helicopters don't count.
#10
Troop transport helicopters count if you're inside one of them, as 16 of our brave lads found out the hard way.
I wouldn't joke about this too much -- the Taliban refuses to go away, and they're not completely stupid. They look like they're trying to learn from their obvious mistakes. They recognize that they need better hardware, and they're looking to get it. I think we need to whack them all, but that's just me.
Posted by: Steve White ||
07/15/2005 10:27 Comments ||
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#11
not just you. Where are the FAE tools we were oohing and aahhhing over? Why not light these fleeing Taleban up as they scamper up the mountainside to Pakland? Better yet, send a message, and do it in Pakland
Posted by: Frank G ||
07/15/2005 10:29 Comments ||
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#12
The way Perv is going, we may see images like these over Pakistan
Those Su-30s, F-15s and Mirage 2000s look good flying together.
Bombing runs would be even better.
Posted by: john ||
07/15/2005 10:56 Comments ||
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#13
seems to me the headline here is that US GIs did hot pursuit into Paki territory, and the Pakis didnt object, but instead just did a "we werent involved" Seems to me thats a step FORWARD.
How valuable the things the Pakis have done in LE, in Waziristan, etc is really hard to sum up based on public sources alone. Yah gotta assume that the admin knows more than even Dan and Paul do about the value of the prisoners theyve taken, how many persons of interest there are we have asked for whose locations they know whom they HAVENT taken, etc. Their failures in Waziristan seem to have more to do with incompetence than reluctance. And the political situation between Perv, the MMA, and the secular opposition is byzantine.
I would be wary of Pakistan, but I wouldnt right it off yet.
#15
Unfortunately, I'm beginning to see the same pattern emerging in Afghanistan/Pakistan that was present in Vietnam/Cambodia/Laos - the bad guys have a sanctuary across the border, and the US isn't doing anything about it. I also think we're trying to fight a war with both feet tied together and our right arm tied to our left shoe. I want to see the reintroduction of napalm for close-in mountain work (fill a "high mountain canyon" with the stuff, and go in and eat the roast goats and count heads), and screw the UN, the Geneva conventions, and Eurabia for disagreeing. We also need to do some HEAVY bombing close to an Afghani village, so they know the true awesomeness that we COULD unleash upon them if they keep playing both sides. The Islamic mind treats everyone else with contempt unless shown that the world will end around them if they don't behave the way we want. We haven't demonstrated that yet, anywhere. North Waziristan may be a good start.
Posted by: Old Patriot ||
07/15/2005 16:06 Comments ||
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#16
Except for overflight rights and a damn minor LOC what has the Paki come up with? Not a damn thing. Try to improve the LOC through the other 'stans, stop all armaments, drop aid to a couple of milkshakes and see what happens. India? Anythhing they want this side of a D-5.... which reminds me... we have some surplus Minutemen III floating around.
ISRAELI helicopters fired missiles in three separate air raids in the Gaza Strip early today, witnesses said. The first strike destroyed a pro-Hamas Islamic charity in Gaza City, local residents said. A minute later, the helicopters fired at a cemetery in Khan Younis that militants used as a launching pad to fire mortars at an adjacent Jewish settlement, witnesses said.
Palestinian gunmen fired shots into the air as crowds gathered at the site of the Gaza City blast. Ambulances raced to the scene. Witnesses said one man was struck by flying debris in the Gaza City blast but hospitals said they had no casualties yet. The Israeli army acknowledged one of the raids, saying it had struck an ammunition depot in Khan Younis used by militants of Hamas, a group sworn to Israel's destruction. The third raid was on a target in central Gaza, witnesses said. There were no immediate reports of injuries in any of the raids, which came hours after an Israeli woman was killed in the first deadly rocket assault from Gaza in months. The Israeli army also cut off a key Gaza highway in two areas to restrict Palestinian travel in the area.
Turkey officially requested the Iraqi authorities to hand in two members of Al-Qaeda terrorist organization who were responsible for Istanbul bombings in 2003, Spokesperson of Turkish foreign ministry Namiq Tan said on Thursday. Speaking to reporters, Tan affirmed that the Iraqi security forces have captured the two members -- Saad Al-Din Aktash and Burhan Kosh.
The Turkish embassy made the demand to the Iraqi foreign ministry, requesting the handover of the members based on a previously-signed security agreement between the two governments, Tan said. He added that Turkey made the demand during meetings last June between the two countries' consulates, and he hoped that the Iraqi government would hand in the suspects as soon as possible. Two suicide attacks targeted the British Consulate and HSBC Bank in the Turkish capital in November 2003 which killed at least 27 people. Another separate attack targeted a Jewish neighborhood several days after Istanbul bombings and killed 25 and wounded 300 others. Al-Qaeda and another unknown extremist group claimed responsibility of the attacks.
Posted by: Fred ||
07/15/2005 00:00 ||
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#1
Silly me! I read the headline and assumed it meant Turks were being asked to rat out the local AQ cells.
Posted by: Bobby ||
07/15/2005 7:37 Comments ||
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And nobody knows bombast and incredulity like Jihad Unspun.
... late Wednesday [July 13] afternoon. .... a Resistance bomb, which was planted by the side of the strategic highway, blew up when a column of eight US armored vehicles and two Humvees passed by. The witnesses said that the explosion destroyed one armored vehicle, killing three US troops and wounding three others American soldiers. ....
Yup, M-1's fold up like a tin can ...
Iraqi Resistance fighters shot down a US Apache helicopter over the ath-Tharthar area northwest of Baghdad at 3pm local time Wednesday afternoon. .... It was seen on the ground completely wrecked and its crew of two American soldiers were killed. ....
In a dispatch posted at 1:45pm Mecca time Wednesday, Mafkarat al-Islam reported that a short time earlier an Iraqi Resistance martyrdom fighter drove an explosives-packed car into a house that was being occupied and used by US forces as a barracks in the as-Sufiyah area of ar-Ramadi, 110km west of Baghdad. ... the carbomb managed to get past the concrete barricades that the Americans had put up around the building, blowing up his car in the front courtyard of the house. The blast brought down the whole building, killing or injuring about 15 US troops who were inside. ....
Iraqi Resistance forces attacked an American patrol in the industrial area to the east of ar-Ramadi at 12 noon local time Wednesday. .... Resistance fighters armed with light and medium weapons including RPG7 rocket-propelled grenades, attacked the American patrol, sparking a firefight that lasted for 10 minutes. Two US Humvees were set on fire in the attack, killing or wounding a number of US troops. ....
Five US troops killed in martyrdom car bombing near al-Hadithah Wednesday morning. An Iraqi Resistance martyrdom fighter drove an explosives-laden white Daewoo car into a column of US military vehicles by the ash-Shaykh Hadid Cemetery north of al-Hadithah in western Iraq. .....
An Iraqi Resistance car bomb exploded by a US military column in al-âAmiriyah in western Baghdad at about 9am local time Wednesday morning. .... an explosives-packed car that was parked by the side of the old road to Abu Ghurayb in al-âAmiriyah blew up as a US armored column passed by. The blast destroyed one American armored vehicle, killing its six-man crew. ....
What the Lions of Islam⢠fail to recognize in these stories is that they're admitting their utter reliance on skulking around and setting off bombs. Nobody really believes that the Lions⢠are going to go toe-to-toe with American soldiers.
An Iraqi Resistance martyrdom fighter drove an explosives-laden car into a position occupied by a US patrol in the Baghdad al-Jadidah area in the southeast of the occupied Iraqi capital on Wednesday. ... the Saudi News Agency (WAS) reported the US military as admitting that one American soldier was killed in the attack. Witnesses told the Saudi agency that three American soldiers were wounded. ....
An Iraqi Resistance bomb exploded by a US patrol in the al-Muhandisin neighborhood in the middle of al-Latifiyah, 25km south of Baghdad at 5pm local time Wednesday afternoon. ....a bomb exploded as a patrol of six US Humvees passed by, setting one of them ablaze and killing one US soldier and wounding four more.
An Iraqi Resistance bomb exploded by a US patrol in Diyala, northeast of Baghdad at 3pm local time Wednesday afternoon. ... the bomb, which was planted south of al-Miqdadiyah by the side of the road leading to Baâqubah, blew up when the US patrol passed by on its way out of the city. The blast destroyed one Humvee, killing three American soldiers and wounding a fourth.
Two Iraqi Resistance bombs exploded by a US column in the Shahraban area north of Baâqubah (which is northeast of Baghdad) at 11am local time Wednesday morning. .... the bombs, which were planted by the side of the main road leading to Baâqubah, the capital of Diyala Province, blew up as a column of eight US armored vehicles and two Humvees was passing by. The explosion destroyed one American armored vehicle and disabled another, killing five US troops and wounding three more American soldiers. ....
Yup, all bomb attacks. Oh brave Lions.
Iraqi Resistance forces mounted a two-pronged attack on a US military base located west of Samarraâ at 2:30pm local time Wednesday afternoon. .... the first part of the attack took place when an Iraqi Resistance martyrdom fighter drove an explosives-packed car into the entrance to the US base, blowing up and inflicting a number of dead and wounded among the American forces. .....
Posted by: Mike Sylwester ||
07/15/2005 00:00 ||
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#1
In five years they will have destroyed all known US military assets two to three times over and yet no caliphate in sight. Poor buggers need to get a better grip on reality.
#4
kofi's butt boy returns, unawakened, unashamed, unable to detect a hostile room.
Posted by: Frank G ||
07/15/2005 0:46 Comments ||
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#5
Mike, this kind of article would be more useful were you to correlate the casualties it lists to, say, U.S./Coalition Command Daily Briefings (or whatever they're called). We know J.I. lies, and that non-Iraqi Muslims believe its reports, but it would be more useful to know by how much -- as compared to reality. Perhaps a 3- or 4-way comparison would be even more helpful: J.I./U.S./Al Jazeera/BBC. It needn't be a formal table, just your own notes highlighted alongside the article's numbers.
#6
Great idea TW. But I doubt those who want to believe could ever be convinced no matter what they see, hear, smell or touch. The truth is rarely a remedy for that type of mental disorder.
#8
Jihad Unspun reminds me of the Japanese battle damage assessments after kamikaze attacks.
Day 1 - 4 carriers sunk
Day 2 - 8 carriers sunk
Day 3 - 6 carriers sunk
Day 4 - Where the hell are all of these American carriers coming from if we sank so many the past 3 days?!?
#10
What we'll probably see is a Mikey post at the very last second before rollover on every thread where he took up residence today. I'm sure he will devastate everyone he considers an antagonist. Why, I feel the pre-quivers already.
Three homemade bombs exploded in Quetta on Thursday, shattering windows of buildings, but killing or injuring no one, Geo news channel reported. The first bomb went off in a street near the Health director general's office on Suriab Road, shattering windows of the building and breaking its walls, the channel reported. The second bomb exploded near the Excise and Taxation office, damaging the building, the report added. The third bomb went off in the grounds on Suriab Road. There were no reports of human loss as a result of these bomb blasts, the channel quoted police sources as saying. There was also a report about a fourth bomb explosion, but official sources did not confirm it, the channel said.
Nothing to worry about. Just the normal background noise in Islamic Paradise...
Posted by: Fred ||
07/15/2005 00:00 ||
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Customers trying out the handmade local products?
Fearing arrest, Maulana Fazlur Rehman Khalil, former chief of the banned militant outfit, Harkatul Mujahiddin, has recently contacted Maulana Fazlur Rehman, leader of the opposition in the National Assembly, to speak with security agencies on his behalf, sources told Daily Times on Wednesday. âSecurity agencies have expedited their efforts to arrest Khalil because his name had come up during the interrogation of Hamid Hayat and Umer Hayat. Both men had told US investigators that they had trained at Khalilâs training camp located in Rawalpindi,â sources said. They added that Khalil, who had already gone underground after these developments, contacted Maulana Fazl and sought his help for mediation between him and security agencies because they (the agencies) wanted to re-investigate him.
Sources said that Maulana Fazl had discussed the issue with the concerned security agency and had defended Khalil saying that he was not involved in any terrorist activity in or outside Pakistan. The opposition leader also told the concerned agency that security agencies had recently released Khalil after an eight-month detention in various interrogation cells and now they wanted to re-arrest him. Sources said that both Khalil and Maulana Fazl belong to Dera Ismail Khan and Khalil had played an active role during Maulana Fazlâs election campaign in October 2002, adding that the other reason Khalil had sought Maulana Fazlâs help was because both men belonged to the Deobandi school of thought.
Posted by: Fred ||
07/15/2005 00:00 ||
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...and Allah rewarded his faithful with bountiful ugly.
KABUL: Militants in Afghan mountains where a Navy SEAL team was ambushed and a special forces helicopter was shot down have fled into Pakistan and regrouped, a provincial governor said on Thursday. However, US military spokesman Col James Yonts said that while "some of the enemy may have been able to escape" into Pakistan, many rebels were still in the mountains and were surrounded by US and Afghan forces. Yonts declined to comment on the number of rebels killed or captured.
Posted by: Fred ||
07/15/2005 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.
Rantburg.com and borderlandbeat.com correspondent and author Chris Covert presents his first non-fiction work detailing
the drug and gang related violence in Mexico.
Chris gives us Mexican press dispatches of drug and gang war violence
over three years, presented in a multi volume set intended to chronicle the death, violence and mayhem which has
dominated Mexico for six years.
Rantburg was assembled from recycled algorithms in the United States of America. No
trees were destroyed in the production of this weblog. We did hurt some, though. Sorry.
Saudi forces arrested seven suspected terrorist in Riyadh and the southern city of Taif as the hunt for militants entered its fourth day on Thursday. The Government is offering one million Saudi Riyals to anyone providing information leading to the arrest of a wanted terrorist and SR5 million for information leading to foiling a terror attack. Officials said that police have been conducting extensive search operations in various parts of Riyadh.
THE British-born mastermind of the London attacks had direct links with al-Qaeda, police sources confirmed yesterday. He is believed to be connected to a senior figure who took part in an al-Qaeda terror summit in Pakistan 16 months ago where a list of future targets was reportedly finalised. While the police priority is to trace any bombers still at large, intelligence agencies are trying to confirm that al-Qaeda had a hand in the London attack. 
A chemistry teacher believed to have been a possible mastermind in last week's London bombings has been detained near Cairo, ABC's "Good Morning America" reported on Friday. 
An Egyptian chemistry student wanted by police in connection with last week's London bombings is understood to have been arrested in Cairo, a British police source said on Friday.
THE investigation into last week's London bombings is seeking links between the four suicide attackers and eight British-born ethnic Pakistanis Scotland Yard arrested in 2004, The New York Times reported today. The eight suspects were arrested during Operation Crevice in late March 2004 in two dozen raids in sourthern Britain, which also yielded more than half a ton of explosive materials, the newspaper said, quoting British and European investigators. They were accused of forming a sleeper cell that intended to stage an attack in London, the newspaper said.
Shahzad Tanweer, the 22-year-old son of a Pakistani-born affluent businessman, 
ISLAMIC extremists barred by the US and other countries will also be prevented from entering Britain under new anti-terrorist provisions, the London Daily Telegraph reports. British Home Secretary Charles Clarke instigated a review of his powers to exclude and deport people likely to incite terrorism, the paper reported. The newspaper added that radicals such as 
prior to sentencing that he considered himself a âprisoner of conscienceâ who was being persecuted for his Islamic beliefs. The district court judge in the case, 
BAGHDAD, Iraq - US and Iraqi troops raided houses in western Baghdad, the US military said on Friday, pressing the hunt for insurgents after the arrest of a suspect in the kidnap-slaying of Egyptâs top envoy. Scattered mortar fire shook two north Baghdad districts. The raids Thursday targeted suspected âterrorist safe housesâ the Ghazaliyah and the Abu Ghraib districts, two of the most dangerous neighborhoods in the west of the city, a US statement. Eight suspects were taken into custody, the statement said, and soldiers found an Iraqi generalâs uniform in one location.
Iraqi and U.S. forces have captured or arrested about 30 suspected al-Qaeda members in the past week, including a suspect in this month's killing of an Egyptian envoy and attacks on senior diplomats from Bahrain and Pakistan. 
EFL: Clashes in Gaza between Palestinian Authority security forces and members of the Hamas militant organisation have killed two bystanders and injured 20. The fighting in Gaza City started on Thursday and continued into Friday morning before appearing to die down On Thursday night, Israeli helicopters fired missiles at targets in Gaza. The strikes came after a woman in Israel was killed by a rocket fired from the Gaza Strip on Thursday. The 
U.S.-led forces killed 24 suspected Islamist militants on the Pakistan side of the Afghan border, Pakistan's military spokesman said on Friday. The encounter occurred late on Thursday near Lowara Mandi, a border village in the North Waziristan tribal region, Major-General Shaukat Sultan told private Geo television. 
He is Allahâs avenging angel. And like all avenging angels, he has a long memory. Memory that served him well in his earlier avatar as a professor of Islamic studies at the University of Engineering and Technology at Lahore, and, later, in his role as chief of 
ISRAELI helicopters fired missiles in three separate air raids in the Gaza Strip early today, witnesses said. The first strike destroyed a pro-Hamas Islamic charity in Gaza City, local residents said. A minute later, the helicopters fired at a cemetery in Khan Younis that militants used as a launching pad to fire mortars at an adjacent Jewish settlement, witnesses said. 
... late Wednesday [July 13] afternoon. .... a Resistance bomb, which was planted by the side of the strategic highway, blew up when a column of eight US armored vehicles and two Humvees passed by. The witnesses said that the explosion destroyed one armored vehicle, killing three US troops and wounding three others American soldiers. ....
Three homemade bombs exploded in Quetta on Thursday, shattering windows of buildings, but killing or injuring no one, Geo news channel reported. The first bomb went off in a street near the Health director general's office on Suriab Road, shattering windows of the building and breaking its walls, the channel reported. The second bomb exploded near the Excise and Taxation office, damaging the building, the report added. The third bomb went off in the grounds on Suriab Road. There were no reports of human loss as a result of these bomb blasts, the channel quoted police sources as saying. There was also a report about a fourth bomb explosion, but official sources did not confirm it, the channel said.
Fearing arrest, Maulana 
KABUL: Militants in Afghan mountains where a Navy SEAL team was ambushed and a special forces helicopter was shot down have fled into Pakistan and regrouped, a provincial governor said on Thursday. However, US military spokesman Col James Yonts said that while "some of the enemy may have been able to escape" into Pakistan, many rebels were still in the mountains and were surrounded by US and Afghan forces. Yonts declined to comment on the number of rebels killed or captured.
