EFL: MADRID, Spain (CNN) -- A Madrid train bombing suspect wanted on an international warrant since last year has been arrested in Serbia where he was carrying forged Iraqi documents, Spain's Interior Ministry said Wednesday. The suspect, Moroccan-born Abdelmajid Bouchar, 22, fled from a Madrid suburban apartment three weeks after the March 11, 2004 train bombings, as police closed in to make arrests there. Seven train bombing suspects blew themselves up during the raid.
An international warrant was issued for Bouchar but the trail ran cold until his recent arrest in Belgrade for violating Serbian immigration regulations, the Interior Ministry said in a statement. Bouchar was carrying forged Iraqi documentation using the name Midhat Salah and refused to cooperate with Serbian authorities, who sent his fingerprints to the international police agency, Interpol. Spanish police were subsequently able to determine his real identity. Spain will seek his extradition.
Bouchar reportedly had been on the street as police closed in on the suspected train bomber hideout in the Madrid suburb of Leganes on April 3, 2004. Bouchar detected their presence, shouted up to the other suspects in the apartment and took off running.
"It's the cops! Feet don't fail me now!"
A gun battle ensued between the suspects inside the apartment and police on the street, before special operations officers closed in hours later after a siege. As they did, the seven suspects, including several prime suspects in the train bombings, blew themselves up, also killing one of the special operations police officers.
Posted by: Steve ||
08/17/2005 12:04 ||
Comments ||
Link ||
[0 views]
Top|| File under:
#1
carrying forged Iraqi documents
It'd be interesting to know when he got those. They might not actually be forged.
Posted by: Robert Crawford ||
08/17/2005 12:22 Comments ||
Top||
An Italian court has approved the extradition within 35 days of a suspect wanted in connection with the failed bomb attacks in London on 21 July. Osman Hussain, also known as Hamdi Issac, will fight the decision at the Italian supreme court, his lawyers say. The 27-year-old, who was arrested in Italy one week after the attacks, is accused of trying to bomb a Tube train at Shepherd's Bush. He admits taking part, but says he wanted to scare people, not kill them. Three other men have been charged in the UK with the failed London bombings - which targeted three Tube trains and a bus.
Scotland Yard anti-terror officers flew to Italy last week to question Mr Hussain at the Rome prison where he has been held since 29 July. It is thought he fled to Italy by train after allegedly being seen at the scene of the failed attack at Shepherd's Bush underground station.
"4-8-2 wheels don't fail me now!"
Italian judges were asked to consider whether Osman Hussain should first face terrorism charges in Italy. Lawyers for the British government were expected to argue that under international law the country which suffered the most damage has the right to try the suspect. The BBC's Jonathan Charles in Rome said it was seen as a test case for the new European Arrest Warrant, which is intended to speed up extradition in such cases.
Just wait til Carla Del Ponte hears that.
Ibrahim Muktar Said, 27, Yassin Hassan Omar, 24, and Ramzi Mohamed, 23, appeared before magistrates on Bow Street magistrates sitting at Belmarsh high security prison in south-east London, last week. They are charged with attempted murder and possessing explosives. One charge faced by Manfo Kwaku Asiedu, 32, relates to an unexploded device found two days after the bomb attempts. The four men - who are also charged with conspiracy to murder - were remanded in custody for three months and will next appear in court on 14 November. The failed 21 July attacks took place two weeks to the day after four suicide bombers killed 52 passengers on the London transport network.
Posted by: Steve ||
08/17/2005 09:31 ||
Comments ||
Link ||
[0 views]
Top|| File under:
International peace keeping troops in Bosnia announced Tuesday the discovery of secret stocks of arms in a south Bosnian area amid predictions that the weapons could be remaining of Bosnia's Croats militias who were controlling the area during the last war. The troops said in a statement that the stocks included 50 large boxes containing explosives and bombers of various sizes including the Russian model of Strela.
The boxes also contained 236 RPGs and 22 anti-tanks missiles, a dozen of missiles launching systems, 40 blaze bombers and 60 boxes of raw materials used to manufacture explosives, in addition to huge amounts of anti-aircraft missiles and bombs of various kinds and sizes. The statement said the troops' command was amazed by the discovery for the international forces were conducting a wide-scale combing campaign in Bosnia to gather arms during the nine past years that the followed peace in the country. It also said an investigation had already started to identify who was seizing the arms, as the Bosnian law against the ownership of such weapons. The statement raised anxiety that the sized ammunitions might be part of illegal arms trading network in the region.
Posted by: Fred ||
08/17/2005 00:58 ||
Comments ||
Link ||
[0 views]
Top|| File under:
#1
"International peace keeping troops" - would those be European troops who's governments don't want to be identified so the owner of the stockpile doesn't retaliate against them?
Posted by: Laurence of the Rats ||
08/17/2005 8:58 Comments ||
Top||
#2
Alot of nuts would pay good money for an aged strella that may or may not be fully operational.
#3
Apparently, there are several thousand NATO troops, plus about 5,000 US troops working under NATO control, in the area. Risawn, at Incoherent Ramblings, is part of the group. You can get some background information from her blog.
Posted by: Old Patriot ||
08/17/2005 16:33 Comments ||
Top||
Soledad O'Brien: A military intelligence officer says he tried to warn the FBI about an al Qaeda cell a full year before the 9/11 attacks, but was prevented from passing on information. Lieutenant Colonel Anthony Shaffer was a member of a unit called Able Danger, and he's just now going public with what he says he told the 9/11 Commission. Colonel Shaffer joins us from our Washington bureau this morning.
Good morning. Thanks for being with us.
LT. COL. ANTHONY SHAFFER, U.S. ARMY INTELLIGENCE: Good morning. Thank you, Soledad.
S. O'BRIEN: We're coming up on four years to the anniversary of 9/11. Why are you going public now?
SHAFFER: I understand this will stir up a lot of very difficult memories for folks. And that is not why we're doing this, obviously.
I was tasked by the Navy to look at bringing back some of the aspects regarding the technology of the Able Danger capability earlier this year. Through our research and coordination with Congress, with Congressman Curt Weldon, we came to find that the information we provided to the 9/11 Commission had never got to the commissioners. Subsequent to that being discovered, Congressman Weldon and his staff did additional research, and we came to find there was a significant amount of information that was totally deleted or not provided to the actual commissioners.
S. O'BRIEN: But the 9/11 commissioners did their report a while back.
SHAFFER: Right.
S. O'BRIEN: I mean, why isn't this six months ago, even earlier than that? Why now?
SHAFFER: Well, I understand. I can't address the report, other than I know I provided information to Mr. Zelicow (ph) in Bagram of October of '03. That information was significant in the fact that in their 12 August statement, they talk about that he called back immediately, requesting more information. I was asked to talk to him in January of '03, where I called his office -- I mean January '04, where I called his office, and they changed their mind about talking to me. S. O'BRIEN: Well, I'm -- forgive me for a moment.
SHAFFER: Go ahead.
S. O'BRIEN: I want to kind of walk through this slowly and clearly.
SHAFFER: Sure.
S. O'BRIEN: You sort of are pointing out that things were mired and bogged down in dates. But when this was not part of the 9/11 Commission's report, why didn't you say, "This is ridiculous, I must go public now, because there was a crucial drop in information, someone dropped the ball, I need to tell the American public?" Why not do that?
SHAFFER: Right. There were two reasons.
To be totally honest with you, we believed that there may have been a classified annex. Not being on the commission, not being -- not working at that level, I had no way of knowing. I had to believe that there must have been some reason that that information was not provided to the public, either by follow-on information -- operations of some sort that related to this or something else.
S. O'BRIEN: OK. That explains it for me, then, at least. You've claimed that this is information that you had about a terrorist a full year before 9/11.
SHAFFER: Right.
S. O'BRIEN: Mohamed Atta, who was obviously part of this team of hijackers. Where did this information that he was a terrorist linked to al Qaeda, where did this come from that you had that nobody else in the security branch, as far as we can tell, had that information?
SHAFFER: I didn't have the information. I was part of the task force which supported Able Danger.
What I did was I married the land information warfare activity, LIMA, at Fort Belvoir, Virginia, an Army unit, Army capability, to the special operations command for the purposes of this exercise, this targeting exercise of al Qaeda. What the LIWA did -- and it was their ability to go through massive amounts of open-source data, 2.5 terabytes, and look for patterns that related to previously-known terrorists. It was that information then which popped up...
S. O'BRIEN: So, by trolling the Internet and LexusNexus, things like that, I think that's what you mean by open source data? Am I right about that?
SHAFFER: Open source -- anything that's not a classified database. We're talking about commercial databases, financial databases. Anything that's out there that relates to the real world.
And let me be specific on this. S. O'BRIEN: And his name pops up?
SHAFFER: Well, yes, because terrorists live in the real world. As we recognize from the London bombings, there's a picture of the terrorist in a whitewater rafting trip. They live in the real world just like we do. They plan in the real world.
S. O'BRIEN: What were those documents that -- give me a sense of what kinds of documents targeted Mohamed Atta a year before 9/11 as a potential terrorist.
SHAFFER: For a couple of different reasons, I'm not going -- I'm not going to get into very specifics for this, because, again, we're trying to figure out a way that we can continue to do this. And I don't want to give away anything that someone can use against us.
S. O'BRIEN: But it's open sourcing, right? I mean, so it would be available to anyone.
SHAFFER: The sourcing, I've covered the sourcing, which is essentially open source. Now, how we arrayed that and how we use the technology -- you know, first off, I'm not the technician. I'm an intelligence officer relating to human intelligence. I was one of the folks who was the -- one of the managers in the process.
What the process actually did, though, was take this information, using advanced algorithms, looking for patterns, and it popped up this information based on all the information that was available on the open source -- out of open source systems on these individuals.
S. O'BRIEN: The 9/11 commissioners says they don't recall Mohamed Atta's name coming up in their discussion. They also say that his name does not appear in any of the briefings they had before they filed their report.
SHAFFER: Right.
S. O'BRIEN: Are they -- are they -- you say you've talked to them specifically with that name. Are they lying?
SHAFFER: I can't -- I can't answer that question. What I know is that their statement on the 12th of August is wrong.
I never mentioned anything about a human asset network being turned off by the (INAUDIBLE). That's one of their statements that they claim I made. I never said that. And the other thing they say that I said was that I talked about Able Danger being a project in Afghanistan. I never said that. So if they got those two points wrong, I don't know what else they got wrong. The only thing they got right, basically, was that -- that there was information about this network that related to the fact that they were interested in it. And they -- Mr. Zelicow's (ph) own admission, the next paragraph of their 12 August statement, says they called back immediately after talking to me, which would mean they heard something that I said which resonated.
The other thing is Mr. Zelicow (ph) himself gave me his card and asked me to contact him upon my return from the deployment. And I did contact him in January of '04. That's where I was essentially blown off. I called him. They said they wanted to talk to me. I waited a week, called him back. And they said, "No, we don't need to talk to you now."
Now, Soledad, I'm sorry. I forgot your first part of the question you asked before.
S. O'BRIEN: You know, we're actually kind of running out of time.
SHAFFER: OK.
S. O'BRIEN: But I was essentially asking you if they were lying, which is sort of a yes or no answer there.
SHAFFER: I can't -- I'm just letting you know what I -- what I said. I said, specifically, that we, as through the Able Danger process, discovered two of the three cells which conducted 9/11, to include Atta. Now -- and I -- that was, to me, significant, in that they actually pulled me aside after the meeting and said, "Please come talk to us and give us more details." Now, back to the information that DOD passed to them. DOD passed two containers, approximately briefcase-sized containers over to them in the February-March time frame of '04. That is not one-twentieth of the information which was available out there on Able Danger and the project.
And plus, they asked DIA for it. It was not a DIA project. And I think they asked the wrong questions of DOD in some cases. And I know for a fact right not DOD is trying to get to the bottom of this.
I spoke with DOD leadership yesterday. They are working hard to come to the bottom -- come to terms with what the facts are.
S. O'BRIEN: And I know the Pentagon obviously investigating your claims, along with many other people as well.
SHAFFER: Yes, absolutely.
S. O'BRIEN: And lots of twists and turns, but essentially, I think I understand what you're claiming now.
Lieutenant Colonel Anthony Shaffer joining us this morning.
Thanks for your time.
SHAFFER: Thank you, ma'am.
Posted by: Steve ||
08/17/2005 14:15 ||
Comments ||
Link ||
[2 views]
Top|| File under:
#1
S. O'BRIEN: "We're coming up on four years to the anniversary of 9/11. Why are you going public now?"
Yea, moron! Don't you know that the Dem'cts are trying to win an election and looking weak on national defense gives a negative mindset?
A former Folsom State Prison inmate is in custody in connection with an alleged plot to launch terrorist attacks at targets across Southern California.
Two other men are also in federal custody, but investigators said the former inmate could be a link to a prison gang that has been plotting jihadist attacks.
Federal investigators said they believe a gang called JIS is behind the plot.
"There was a cylinder that was becoming active that involved prison gangs and their intentions were very clear, and that was to engage in terrorist activities in this region here," Los Angeles Police Department Assistant Chief George Gascon said.
The alleged plot was discovered after authorities in Torrance arrested Levar Washington, 25, in connection with a series of gas station robberies.
When they searched Washington's apartment, they found a list of targets that included National Guard recruitment centers and synagogues in Southern California.
Also found were documents linking Washington to a radical Islamic gang from his years at Folsom Prison.
"There was a variety of written documents and correspondence that have been traded between individuals inside the prison and people outside the prison," Gascon said.
Also in custody are Gregory Vernon Patterson, 21, and Hamad Riaz Samana -- a Pakistani national.
As investigators explore the terrorism plot, they say they are alarmed by the recruitment practices going on inside facilities designed to protect society from those who commit crimes.
"One of the areas in which terrorists would seek to recruit is among the disaffected -- certainly those hundreds of thousands sitting in prison are very disaffected," Gascon said.
Authorities said Samana, Patterson and Washington all attended the same mosque but have not revealed any other connections between the three.
Posted by: Dan Darling ||
08/17/2005 13:00 ||
Comments ||
Link ||
[6 views]
Top|| File under:
#2
Hmmmm, OK, I retract my "own personal jihad" statement from yesterday. This molehill seems to be growing more mountainous daily.
As investigators explore the terrorism plot, they say they are alarmed by the recruitment practices going on inside facilities designed to protect society from those who commit crimes.
I'm alarmed that they're alarmed. This problem was old news two years ago.
A police probe that began with a series of gas station holdups here has broadened into an investigation of a possible terrorist plot and connections to a radical Islamic group believed to be operating in the California prison system, law enforcement sources said.
The crime spree -- which police said ended with the arrest of two local men last month -- drew the interest of counterterrorism officials when a search of one suspect's home turned up "jihadist" literature, bulletproof vests and a list of addresses for area synagogues, the Israeli consulate, National Guard centers and other sites.
Now, federal officials have arrested a third man -- a Pakistani national who lived in south Los Angeles, not far from the others -- in the investigation. A law enforcement official said more arrests may follow.
Others under scrutiny are already in prison, said the official, who noted that investigators believe that at least one of the suspects may have converted to Islam while incarcerated.
"From the evidence so far, there is reason to believe that they were planning attacks and that some of those locations may have been targets," said the U.S. official, who asked for anonymity because the investigation continues.
The official said investigators are looking into whether the suspects have links to a radical Islamic group known as Jamiyyat Ul Islam Is Saheeh -- roughly translated as the Assembly of Authentic Islam -- which has been known to have a presence in a state prison where one of the suspects was recently incarcerated. No connections have been made to al Qaeda or any other foreign terrorist group.
"The real fear here is that this might be a truly homegrown type of case, with suspects organizing on their own to carry off some type of operation here in the United States," the official said.
Details of the investigation's latest turn remained sketchy. While the first two suspects remain in a local jail on state charges, the federal charges for the third suspect, Hammad Riaz Samana -- whose arrest last week was first reported Tuesday by the Los Angeles Times -- remain under seal, law enforcement officials said.
Samana, 21, of Los Angeles, is jailed at a federal detention center in downtown Los Angeles, according to the federal Bureau of Prisons Web site.
Officials would not say what led them to Samana or how he may have been connected to the other men, Gregory Vernon Patterson, 21, and Levar Haney Washington, 25, who were arrested early last month during a police stakeout of a gas station.
Both were charged with nine counts of robbery and one count of attempted robbery.
The local investigation was taken over by the FBI's Joint Terrorism Task Force here after police who searched Washington's home discovered the bulletproof vests and jihadist literature. A source said police also found documents with references to Sept. 11, 2001, and a list of sites that included the ticket counter for El Al Israel Airlines at Los Angeles International Airport.
The Los Angeles Times reported that Patterson had worked at a duty-free shop in the airport's international terminal for several months until earlier this year. He had no criminal record. Washington has served time for assault and robbery at Folsom State Prison, sources said.
Patterson's attorney, Winston McKessom, said his client attended California State University at Northridge and met Washington during the course of his studies of Islam. "You're looking at a good kid, no prior record, former honor student, solidly middle class," McKesson said.
Posted by: Dan Darling ||
08/17/2005 12:50 ||
Comments ||
Link ||
[0 views]
Top|| File under:
A Pakistani national has been arrested in an investigation into a possible plot to attack the Israeli Consulate, California National Guard facilities and other Los Angeles-area targets, law enforcement officials said. Hammad Riaz Samana, 21, was taken into custody Aug. 2 and has been detained in Los Angeles, according to the U.S. Bureau of Prisons. Federal officials would not say Tuesday what charges he could face. Samana's arrest developed from a terrorism investigation in which authorities found what they believe was a target list after arresting two men on suspicion of a series of gas station robberies in Los Angeles County, according to a law enforcement official who asked to remain anonymous because of the sensitivity of the investigation.
That list included three National Guard facilities in the Los Angeles area, the Israeli Consulate and several synagogues. Law enforcement authorities warned the consulate and guard that their buildings were on a list of possible terror targets. Samana's arrest surprised Arshed Quazi, president of the Inglewood mosque Jamat-E-Masijidul Islam, which Samana had attended since arriving in Los Angeles several years ago.
Samana was originally from the Karachi area of Pakistan and was studying at Santa Monica College, said Quazi, who described him as gracious and respectful toward others.
That's what they all say..
"He's such a nice kid ... I'm shocked," said Quazi, who added that Samana stayed with his family across the street from the mosque.
The robbery suspects â Levar Haney Washington, 25, of Los Angeles and Gregory Vernon Patterson, 21 â were arrested July 5. Authorities said they found the list of possible terror targets at Washington's home.
Both men have pleaded not guilty to robbery charges in Torrance Superior Court. It was unclear what led authorities from Washington and Patterson to Samana. Quazi said Washington and Patterson attended the Jamat-E-Masijidul Islam mosque together in the last five months. But he added that he could not recall seeing them associating with Samana.
The "I can't remember" defense. Much safer than saying anything that can be used against you in court.
The FBI questioned him several weeks ago, Quazi said, and asked him to identify photographs of the three men. Cathy Viray, an FBI spokeswoman, declined to comment on the investigation by federal and local agencies because it was ongoing.
"I can say nothing"
Washington has been jailed at California State Prison, Sacramento. That facility has housed members of a prison-based Islamic group known for its militant views, according to law enforcement officials who spoke on the condition they not be identified.
A message left after hours Tuesday for Washington's public defender, Jerome Haig, was not immediately returned. Patterson's attorney, Winston McKesson, said Patterson has no connection to extremist groups.
Samana's lawyer could not immediately be reached for comment.
Two women who answered the door at an apartment listed for Samana across from the mosque, and who identified themselves as his relatives, declined to comment Tuesday night.
Posted by: Steve ||
08/17/2005 12:30 ||
Comments ||
Link ||
[0 views]
Top|| File under:
#1
But what is his secret muslim code name??
It just looks strange to see "Hammad Riaz Samana" without the "(also known as Mahmood Atalibannanni)" after it.
Or is that something for arabs and north-africans, but not south-west asians?
WASHINGTON, Aug. 16 - State Department analysts warned the Clinton administration in July 1996 that Osama bin Laden's move to Afghanistan would give him an even more dangerous haven as he sought to expand radical Islam "well beyond the Middle East," but the government chose not to deter the move, newly declassified documents show. In what would prove a prescient warning, the State Department intelligence analysts said in a top-secret assessment on Mr. bin Laden that summer that "his prolonged stay in Afghanistan - where hundreds of 'Arab mujahedeen' receive terrorist training and key extremist leaders often congregate - could prove more dangerous to U.S. interests in the long run than his three-year liaison with Khartoum," in Sudan. The declassified documents, obtained by the conservative legal advocacy group Judicial Watch as part of a Freedom of Information Act request and provided to The New York Times, shed light on a murky and controversial chapter in Mr. bin Laden's history: his relocation from Sudan to Afghanistan as the Clinton administration was striving to understand the threat he posed and explore ways of confronting him.
Before 1996, Mr. bin Laden was regarded more as a financier of terrorism than a mastermind. But the State Department assessment, which came a year before he publicly urged Muslims to attack the United States, indicated that officials suspected he was taking a more active role, including in the bombings in June 1996 that killed 19 members American soldiers at the Khobar Towers in Dhahran, Saudi Arabia.
Two years after the State Department's warning, with Mr. bin Laden firmly entrenched in Afghanistan and overseeing terrorist training and financing operations, Al Qaeda struck two American embassies in East Africa, leading to failed military attempts by the Clinton administration to capture or kill him in Afghanistan. Three years later, on Sept. 11, 2001, Al Qaeda struck the World Trade Center and the Pentagon in an operation overseen from the base in Afghanistan.
The NYT seems to have forgotten the USS Cole attack in Oct 2000. I believe Bill was still running the show then.
Critics of the Clinton administration have accused it of ignoring the threat posed by Mr. bin Laden in the mid-1990's while he was still in Sudan, and they point to claims by some Sudanese officials that they offered to turn him over to the Americans before ultimately expelling him in 1996 under international pressure. But Clinton administration diplomats have adamantly denied that they received such an offer, and the Sept. 11 commission concluded in one of its staff reports that it had "not found any reliable evidence to support the Sudanese claim." The newly declassified documents do not directly address the question of whether Sudan ever offered to turn over Mr. bin Laden. But the documents go well beyond previous news and historical accounts in detailing the Clinton administration's active monitoring of Mr. bin Laden's movements and the realization that his move to Afghanistan could make him an even greater national security threat.
Several former senior officials in the Clinton administration did not return phone calls this week seeking comment on the newly declassified documents.
Fancy that
Adam Ereli, a spokesman for the State Department, said the documents should be viewed in the context of what was happening globally in 1996, rather than in the hindsight of events after the Sept. 11 attacks.
In 1996, Mr. Ereli said, "the question was getting him out of Sudan."
"The priority was to deny him safe haven, period, and to disrupt his activities any way you could," he continued. "There was a lot we didn't know, and the priority was to keep him on the run, keep him on guard, and try to maximize the opportunities to nail him." Before the East Africa bombings in 1998, however, Mr. bin Laden "wasn't recognized then as the threat he is now," Mr. Ereli said. "Yes, he was a bad guy, he was a threat, but he was one of many, and by no means of the prominence that he later came to be."
The State Department assessment, written July 18, 1996, after Mr. bin Laden had been expelled from Sudan and was thought to be relocating to Afghanistan, said Afghanistan would make an "ideal haven" for Mr. bin Laden to run his financial networks and attract support from radicalized Muslims. Moreover, his wealth, his personal plane and many passports "allow him considerable freedom to travel with little fear of being intercepted or tracked," and his public statements suggested an "emboldened" man capable of "increased terrorism," the assessment said. While a strategy of keeping Mr. bin Laden on the run could "inconvenience" him, the assessment said, "even a bin Laden on the move can retain the capability to support individuals and groups who have the motive and wherewithal to attack U.S. interests almost world-wide."
Tom Fitton, president of Judicial Watch, said the declassified material released to his group "says to me that the Clinton administration knew the broad outlines in 1996 of bin Laden's capabilities and his intent, and unfortunately, almost nothing was done about it." Judicial Watch, a conservative legal group, was highly critical of President Clinton during his two terms in office. The group has also been critical of some Bush administration actions after the Sept. 11 attacks, releasing documents in March that detailed government efforts to facilitate flights out of the United States for dozens of well-connected Saudis just days after the attacks.
Michael F. Scheuer, who from 1996 to 1999 led the Central Intelligence Agency unit that tracked Mr. bin Laden, said the State Department documents reflected a keen awareness of the danger posed by Mr. bin Laden's relocation. "The analytical side of the State Department had it exactly right - that's genius analysis," he said in an interview when told of the declassified documents. But Mr. Scheuer, who wrote a book in 2004 titled "Imperial Hubris," under the pseudonym "Anonymous," that was highly critical of American counterterrorism strategies, said many officials in the C.I.A.'s operational side thought they would have a better chance to kill Mr. bin Laden in Afghanistan than they did in Sudan because the Sudan government protected him. "The thinking was that he was in Afghanistan, and he was dangerous, but because he was there, we had a better chance to kill him," Mr. Scheuer said. "But at the end of the day, we settled for the worst possibility - he was there and we didn't do anything."
Posted by: Steve ||
08/17/2005 11:00 ||
Comments ||
Link ||
[0 views]
Top|| File under:
#1
And just this week Bill was saying how bummed he was that he didn't have enough intell to strike Binny when he was president. What a tool.
#3
1996 you say? Wasn't that the same year that Sudan offered to arrest Mr bin Laden in Khartoum and turn him over to the Clinton Administration? Once arrested and in US custody bin Laden could have been tried for the murder of Americans in Somalia. Another case of Clinton indecisiveness with disastrous results. How can anyone even think of bringing the Clinton's back to the White House. They've done enough for to this country already.
WASHINGTON - An Army intelligence officer said Wednesday he does not believe the 9/11 commission pressed hard enough for documentation of claims that military intelligence found a U.S.-based terrorist cell that included Mohamed Atta, who turned out to be the leader of the Sept. 11 attacks, prior to the terrorist strikes. "I don't believe they ever got all the documents, but then again I don't think that they pressed properly to get all of the documents," Lt. Col. Anthony Shaffer said on CBS' "The Early Show."
He wouldn't be talking if he didn't have DoD approval and the documents to back it up.
He says he was associated with a small intelligence unit, called "Able Danger," that had identified Atta and three of the other future Sept. 11 hijackers as al-Qaida members by mid-2000. He said military lawyers stopped the unit from sharing the information with the FBI out of concerns about gathering and sharing information on people in the United States legally.
âmilitary lawyersâ most likely refers to the DOD General Counselâs office all of whom are civilians
"What we were trying to do as good soldiers is we saw a threat, we recognized the fact that they were here in the United States and we felt we should do something even when the lawyers said we couldn't," Shaffer said. "The problem was at the time the Special Operations Command is very secretive, quiet warriors," he said. "They like doing things quietly. I had to respect their wishes, to respect the sanctity of that information. What I tried to do was bring them together with the FBI so they could discuss this and take the appropriate action."
The commission investigating the Sept. 11 attacks left the Able Danger claims out of its official report and has since said it did not obtain enough information on the operation to consider it historically significant. In an interview with Fox News Channel and The New York Times distributed Tuesday evening, Shaffer said the panel was not given all the information his team had gathered. "I'm told confidently by the person who did move the material over that the 9/11 commission received two briefcase-size containers of documents," Shaffer said in the Fox News report. "I can tell you for a fact that would not be ... one-20th of the information that Able Danger consisted of during the time we spent."
Rep. Curt Weldon, R-Pa., vice chairman of the House Armed Services and Homeland Security committees, has said the Sept. 11 commission did not adequately investigate the claim that four of the hijackers had been identified more than a year before the attacks. Former commission chairman Thomas Kean and vice chairman Lee Hamilton said last week that the military official who made the claim had no documentation to back it up.
Want to put money on that?
Shaffer rejected that remark. "Leaving a project targeting al-Qaida as a global threat a year before we were attacked by al-Qaida is equivalent to having an investigation of Pearl Harbor and leaving somehow out the Japanese," he said in the Fox interview.
In the Times account of the interview, Shaffer said he was "at the point of near insubordination over the fact that this was something important, that this was something that should have been pursued" in describing his efforts to get the evidence from the intelligence program to the FBI in 2000 and early 2001.
Posted by: Steve ||
08/17/2005 10:46 ||
Comments ||
Link ||
[0 views]
Top|| File under:
Authorities earlier this year thwarted a plot by Islamic militants to mount a truck bomb attack on the US embassy in Manila, National Security Adviser Norberto Gonzales told AFP yesterday.
The plot by the Jemaah Islamiyah would have involved âan attack on the US embassy using a 1,000 kg truck bomb,â Gonzales said in an interview.
He said the explosives were recovered after Daud Santos, a Muslim convert who is allegedly a member of the JI-linked Abu Sayyaf Group, was arrested in a police raid in Manila in March.
Also eyed as targets were the embassies of Australia and Britain, key antiterror allies of the United States, Gonzales said.
He said Santos is now free on bail, highlighting Manilaâs failure to pass an antiterrorist law that would enable the government to hold terrorist suspects for longer periods.
Under existing laws, suspects detained for possessing explosives can post bail while the judiciary determines their guilt.
At that time of Santosâ arrest, the British embassy warned its citizens not to travel in the southern Philippine island of Mindanao, a hotbed of Muslim militancy.
âWe believe that terrorists are in the final stages of planning an attack. However, attacks could occur at any time, anywhere in the Philippines,â the embassy said in its bulletin in March.
JI, which is believed to have some links to Al Qaida, has carried out a string of deadly attacks in Indonesia and elsewhere in recent years, including the October 2002 Bali bombings which killed 202 people
A top Army official in North Cotabato has confirmed reports that some 50 newly graduates of Jemaah Islamiah (JI), a terrorist group, have been sent to some big cities in Mindanao for test missions.
Col. Ruperto Pabustan, commanding officer of the Armyâs 602nd Infantry Brigade, said that the JI graduates were responsible for series of bombing incidents that recently rocked the cities of Koronadal, Cotabato, and Zamboanga.
"These bombings were actually part of their test missions," said Pabustan in an interview.
The JI, reports said, has links with international terrorist al-Qaeda network. The group has also established its headquarters in Mindanao where they conduct training and groundwork for terrorist attacks, Pabustan said.
However, he did not divulge the location of the training site.
"Sooner, weâll be able to identify this area, and we have already armed ourselves to pursue them," he said.
Meanwhile, Army Col. Felipe Tabas of the Task Group Kutawato denied reports that it was the Moro Islamic Liberation Front (MILF) that trained the JI members.
Tabas also disputed reports that the MILF was behind the series of kidnapping and other lawless activities in Maguindanao and other areas in Central Mindanao.
"May mga âscalawagsâ among MILF that sympathize with the kidnap-for-ransom groups and JI but they were not part of their operations," said Tabas in a press conference held in Cotabato City.
He said that the MILF has worked with the Army in their fight against lawless and terrorist groups in Mindanao.
"Itâs not true that the MILF staged these lawlessness. In fact, tumutulong sila para mahanap namin ang aming mga kaaway (they are helping us in finding our enemies)," Tabas said.
Posted by: Dan Darling ||
08/17/2005 12:43 ||
Comments ||
Link ||
[1 views]
Top|| File under:
Indonesia has reduced the 30-month sentence handed down to controversial cleric Abu Bakar Ba'asyir for his role in the Bali bombings. Ba'asyir, who was found guilty in March of conspiracy in the 2002 attack that killed 202 people, had his jail term cut by four months and 15 days.
They still dead? Just asking.
Seventeen others convicted of playing a role in the bombings had their sentences cut by three months. There is a tradition of remissions for Indonesia's Independence Day.
Ba'asyir has denied the charges against him, but his appeal has been rejected. Ba'asyir "received a remission of four months and 15 days," Dedi Sutardi, chief warden at Cipinang Prison in Jakarta, announced.
This means the 66-year-old cleric could be released from prison by May 2007. Mr Sutardi said Ba'asyir deserved a remission for good behaviour.
"All he does in prison is devote himself to religious service," he was quoted by the AFP news agency as saying.
He's a very holy man, don't ya know
The announcement was met with anger from victims' families in the UK and Australia. Australian Brian Deegan, whose son Josh was killed in the bombings, said the reduction was an insult.
"I just find it obnoxious, repulsive. I always thought life was more valuable than that, but it appears that it's not," Mr Deegan told reporters.
Not a infidels life, it seems
Briton Susanna Miller, whose brother Dan was killed, was also shocked by the move. "They showed no clemency when they attacked so many innocent people mercilessly, and it's deeply distressing to think that they may have any sort of remission. We as relatives will never get any sort of remission from what happened to our loved ones," she told the BBC.
Both the US and Australian governments criticised the original length of Ba'asyir's sentence when it was handed down after his trial. Washington has alleged Jemaah Islamiah (JI) has ties to Osama Bin Laden's al-Qaeda network. JI is also suspected of being behind the 2003 JW Marriott hotel bombing in Jakarta that killed 12 people including the suicide bomber, and the September 2004 Australian Embassy bombing that killed nine, including the bomber.
Ba'asyir was cleared of involvement in the JW Marriott bombing by the court in March. He was also acquitted of ordering the Bali bombings.
But many intelligence experts are convinced that he remains a dangerous figurehead for a generation of Muslim militants.
Some 2,000 prisoners are said to have had their sentences reduced as a reward for good behaviour to mark the country's Independence Day. But the ringleaders of the Bali attack, who were sentenced either to death or life in prison, are not eligible for any remission.
Posted by: Steve ||
08/17/2005 09:17 ||
Comments ||
Link ||
[1 views]
Top|| File under:
SINGAPORE, Aug 16 (Bernama) -- Armed police personnel have begun patrolling Singapore's mass rapid transit (MRT) transportation system and "may have to" shoot to kill if they come across suspected suicide bombers, local media reported. The move was Singapore's response to possible threats in the wake of the July 7 bombings of central London transportation system that killed over 50 people and injured dozens of others.
Officers in pairs made their presence felt in and around the MRT stations from yesterday, and depending on the circumstances, other specialist units may also be activated to deal with a situation, Channel NewsAsia television station reported.
The officers, from the police MRT unit, will also be conducting checks on bags and other items on board trains, the report said.
On whether these officers would shoot to kill in the face of potential threat, Home Affairs Minister Wong Kan Seng said, "Yes, they may have to"...
An estimated 1.2 million people commuted using MRT and light rapid transit (LRT) daily.
The international committee investigating the assassination of former Lebanese Prime Minister Rafiq Al-Hariri is currently conducting a "final inspection" of the explosion site, said the Lebanese Justice Ministry Tuesday. It added in a statement that with the approval of the ministry, every car in the area would be removed after the final inspection in preparation for handing them over to their owners. It also said that the road would be reconstructed as soon as the committee concluded its work, a process estimated to take one month. The area where the explosion took place has been closed off since the assassination of Hariri on February 14th.
Posted by: Fred ||
08/17/2005 01:06 ||
Comments ||
Link ||
[0 views]
Top|| File under:
#1
"Gentlemen - we can now state with absolute certainty that it was a bomb!"
Signed,
The Lebanese Justice Ministry
Mike
Posted by: Mike Kozlowski ||
08/17/2005 6:58 Comments ||
Top||
#2
I for one will not rule out the possibility that the same laser that killed yassir idiofat was used in the assasination of Karari. It was set on "boom" rather than "poison" at the time.
(Reuters) Be alert to bias and outright lying - A Jewish settler shot dead three Palestinians in the West Bank on Wednesday, drawing a threat of retaliation from Palestinian terrorists militants which could complicate Israel's withdrawal from the occupied Gaza Strip.
Israeli police said the assailant was a driver who had taken Palestinian workers to jobs in Shiloh, a Jewish West Bank settlement. Once there, he snatched a security guard's gun and turned it on his passengers. Police later arrested him.
Israeli Prime Minister Ariel Sharon called the attack a "Jewish terror act." Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas branded it "a terrorist incident." Both leaders said it aimed to disrupt Israel's pullout from Gaza, home to 1.4 million Palestinians.
There was no immediate claim of responsibility for the attack. Medical officials said that after shooting dead two Palestinians in his car, the settler fired at others in the industrial zone, killing another Palestinian and wounding two.
Abbas urged Palestinian terrorists gunmen not to respond to "provocations and not to provide any pretexts or excuses to those wishing to halt the Israeli withdrawal from Gaza."
The Islamic Jihad group issued a similar statement but said any retaliatory attacks would take place in the West Bank or Israel, but not in Gaza.
Sharon, who casts the pullout from Gaza and a corner of the West Bank as "disengagement" from 4 1/2 years of fighting with the Palestinians, has said there will be no withdrawal under terrorists militant fire.
Nobody has less sympathy for the Paleos than I, but if these guys were simply trying to make a living and were killed by someone who agreed to drive them, then murdered them, then it's just as despicable as any other terrorist murder. Of course, since it's Roto Reuters, who knows what the facts are?
DUBAI, Aug 16 (AFP) - The Salafist Group for Preaching and Combat (GSPC) has called on Muslims residing in France to attack Algerian military and civilian officials in France, according to a statement dated August 1. "We call on our brothers in Islam residing in France ... to track down ... the gang of criminals and apostates... who have found a safe haven in this country," said the GSPC, the only armed Algerian group deemed a real threat.
The GSPC, which has links to the al-Qaeda Islamist terror network, said "our real enemies are not only the (Algerian) military officials, but also the many civilians who are known for their complete allegiance to French leaders. "They are the ones who have great influence at the top of the pyramid of power (in Algeria)... as they control Algerian administrations, media outlets, large companies, cultural institutions and various diplomatic missions." "Are you going to let them rest in France, where they spend their holidays ... before returning (to Algeria) with a new breath to plot against Islam and fight the faithful?" it said. The group urged Muslims in France to track down Algerian officials visiting the country particularly "in nightclubs, cabarets, alcohol shops ... because they only live in vice."
Posted by: Steve ||
08/17/2005 13:33 ||
Comments ||
Link ||
[4 views]
Top|| File under:
#1
My my, this GSPC outfit preaches so much violence.
Maybe it's time to hunt down and kill GSPC members to the last individual.
#5
The group urged Muslims in France to track down Algerian officials visiting the country particularly "in nightclubs, cabarets, alcohol shops ... because they only live in vice."
Sure, but if you go into them then that also makes you.... I'm thinking it through to hard, huh?
#7
Not only France. All the Western democracies allowed Islamofascist scum to claim refugee status, when we should have been subsidizing the slaughter of those animals. Few of those pigs are living productive lives in our countries. Social assistance is usually handed over to those lazy and beligerent parasites. Solution: deport each and every one of those freaks.
Posted by: Vlad the Muslim Impaler ||
08/17/2005 20:57 Comments ||
Top||
Three car bombs killed at least 43 people in a coordinated attack on a Baghdad bus station in the morning rush hour on Wednesday, ending a lull in insurgent attacks as Iraqi leaders resumed talks on a new constitution.
At least 43 people were killed and 88 wounded, an official in the Interior Ministry said, adding: "The casualty figure could rise as there are charred bodies all over the place."
Police and medics were among the dead, struck by the third bomb, between the bus station and the nearby Kindi hospital as victims of the earlier blasts were being taken there. At least three policemen were among the dead and 10 were wounded.
One witness said a bus about to depart for Iraq's second city of Basra, in the Shi'ite south, had been incinerated by the blast and it appeared many passengers were killed.
The multiple explosions suggested an attack by one of the Islamist radical groups active in the Sunni Arab insurgency against the U.S.-backed, Shi'ite-led government -- though unlike many bombings by groups like al Qaeda, several police sources said none of the cars was driven by a suicide attacker.
That would mean the attackers had laid an elaborate trap to place and time a car bomb to go off just at the point where rescue services were moving casualties toward medical aid.
Iraq state television interrupted TV shows in which angry citizens called in comments on the attacks to announce that four suspects had been caught in the possession of bomb equipment.
It was the first attack on this scale in Baghdad for nearly a month and occurred hours before politicians were to resume efforts to resolve deadlock on a new constitution, following their failure to produce a draft by Monday's midnight deadline.
Parliament gave leaders of rival sectarian and ethnic groups a further week to settle their differences.
Sectarian and ethnic divisions over the extent to which regions should have autonomy and control over oil and other resources remain at the heart of the dispute, negotiators said.
A Shi'ite parliamentarian close to the talks said a document was in circulation that the parties were studying. "The constitution will be done before the week ends," he said, adding Kurdish politicians had reservations about some points.
Saleh al-Mutlak, a negotiator from the Sunni minority that dominated Iraq under Saddam Hussein, said his group still opposed provisions that might give Islamist Shi'ites control over the southern oilfields and allow Kurds to expand their region's boundaries to annex the oil resources of the north.
Tensions are high between Arabs, Kurds and ethnic Turkmen in the northern oil capital of Kirkuk, where gunmen killed six Iraqi soldiers as they drove to work on Wednesday.
Yonadem Kanna, a Christian member of the drafting panel, said some Sunni Islamist parties were prepared to compromise on federalism, but he doubted that the secular nationalists headed by Mutlak would give ground.
"The Sunni Arabs will never agree. It is against the culture of Iraq as they knew it before," Kanna said.
U.S. officials say a constitution deal could weaken the insurgency and allow some troops to leave. Militants have threatened to kill Sunni leaders who join the U.S.-sponsored political process and to continue their campaign come what may.
Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld, in remarks more critical than those of President George W. Bush, called the delay in drafting a new constitution "not helpful."
"I think we are seeing progress in all aspects in Iraq," General Richard Myers, Washington's most senior general, told reporters during a visit to Baghdad.
The first two bombs, shortly before 8 a.m., sent black smoke billowing into a clear sky. One went off near an entrance to the Nahda bus station, a hub for destinations across Iraq. The second exploded inside a few minutes later.
About quarter of an hour after that, as police and medics were moving casualties to Kindi hospital nearby, the third bomb detonated, killing some of those who had come to help.
"We heard an explosion in the garage, we went there and ran toward the buses for Kut, Basra and Amara," witness Ahmed Jabur told Reuters at the scene. "A coach blew up. When we were leaving, another one blew up in the middle of police cars."
A Reuters reporter saw blazing buses and cars and two bodies on the street.
Posted by: Dan Darling ||
08/17/2005 12:45 ||
Comments ||
Link ||
[0 views]
Top|| File under:
#1
I'm sure Mother Sheehan will take moment out from her busy day to honor these Iraqis and to condemn those who killed them.
Posted by: Matt ||
08/17/2005 12:51 Comments ||
Top||
#2
You mean the Jews, Matt? The evil Zionist Masters of death and destruction. The unholy perverters of all that is decent and good and pure(like radical islam). The loathsome, reviled, maligned, accursed scourge upon the earth.
#3
Typical "brave lions of islam" attack women and children. Then attack the wounded. ROPMA.
I have to openly admit I am past the tipping point. These human scum are known to their fellow muslims and are not turned in. Therefore their religion is worthless as a doctrine. What follows on from that is up to your imiagination.
August 17, 2005: Last Fall, the Iraqi government began training a special police force to fight terrorists, and deal with large scale disorder. The Civil Intervention Force (CIF) is to have nine Public Order Battalions (POBs, with 400 police each) and two Special Police Regiments (SPRs, with 600 police each), plus a few hundred headquarters personnel. The POBs will be recruited from the region they will serve in, and back up the local police in emergencies. The SPRs are mainly for counter-terror operations. The training of these units has been completed, and the longer and more intense training has paid off. The government wonât say how much, but reports from U.S. troops who run into these new police units indicate that the better trained (and apparently more carefully selected) cops are more competent and reliable.
Two years ago, police were recruited from those who had previous experience in the Iraqi police. A few weeks training was given, and, in some areas, the same cops who had served Saddam, were back on the job. This did not work too well, especially in Sunni Arab areas that were still full of Saddam fans. The old police force was not very respected, or effective, back when they were in charge. Corruption, inadequate training and poor leadership were the reasons. Saddam enforced his rule with âspecialâ security units that spread terror in areas where he did not poll well. Those thugs are now working for the anti-government forces, and Saddamâs old police force was never going to be able to deal with that crew.
The CIF is part of the new approach. Police training facilities have more than doubled. Screening procedures have been improved, but are still hampered by lack of public records and investigators. Leadership has been a major problem. Junior leaders are pretty good, but thatâs because these are newly selected and well trained. More senior police commanders have been tainted by the bad old days. Corruption and poor performance in the police force are two traditions Iraq has to lose if they are ever to have law and order. American troops and police advisors report many situations where the ânewâ Iraqi cops, out to do an honest dayâs work, run up against the more traditional Iraqi police attitudes. All too often, tradition triumphs, if only because it is more frequently found higher up the chain of command.
One advantage the younger, less corrupt, police commanders have is that they are more effective at their jobs, and have subordinates who are more loyal to them. But the corrupt cops also have powerful weapons, like intimidation and murder. American intelligence troops have collected some hair-raising reports of good cops and bad cops fighting each other. Not always openly, but in sometimes fatal ways. The corrupt cops are easily bribed by the terrorists, who can then do the dirty work.
Most Iraqi politicians at least pay lip service to the idea of honest and efficient police. But until Iraqis agree on what the new Iraqi constitution is supposed to be, not one is exactly sure if loyalty or honesty and efficiency is more important for cops.
Posted by: Steve ||
08/17/2005 11:52 ||
Comments ||
Link ||
[1 views]
Top|| File under:
#1
It would be wise to heed the longstanding practice of using police officers from *different* districts to police a place. A tradition started by dictators, but used today by democracies such as Germany, the benefits are many and the hazards few. Local citizens serving locally as police can only work in very homogeneous places.
August 17, 2005: There is a horrific murder campaign going on in Baghdad, with more people being killed by gunfire than by terrorist bomb attacks. Over a thousand people a month are being killed in Baghdad, which is a death rate of 200 per 100,000 population. This is nearly twice what the rate was in Colombia, at the height of the drug and political violence in that country. What is going on in Baghdad is a war of terror and revenge. The terrorists are trying to intimidate people for political, religious or economic reasons. But most of the deaths appear to be revenge killings, with Kurds and Shia Arabs hunting down and killing Sunni Arabs who worked, and killed, for Saddam.
Tap, tap....nope
These attacks have been going on since Saddamâs government fell, and have been increasing as Sunni Arab gangs lose, to the growing police force, control of their neighborhoods. This is the Sunni Arab nightmare, the a major reason (besides money) for Sunni Arabs supporting anti-government terrorism.
The U.S. 82nd Airborne division is sending one of its infantry battalions to Iraq for a special mission. Itâs believed that the paratroopers will be used for the high speed raids against Sunni Arab gangs in western Iraq. These raids have been going on for most of this year and have led to a large number of arrests, and a decrease in terrorist attacks. Hundreds of arms caches, bomb workshops and safe houses have been seized, along with many terrorist leaders. The enemy is fighting back, because this is the homeland of the terrorists, they have nowhere else to go. If the American raids keep up, the terrorists will not be able to sustain their attacks, which is why the number of attacks are declining already.
One form of warfare is increasing in western Iraq. Battles between Al Qaeda gangs and Sunni Arab tribes continue, as the Sunni Arabs get fed up with bullying by foreign Sunni Arab al Qaeda religious fanatics. The al Qaeda gangs have created bases by taking over towns and neighborhoods. Those that do not go along with this, are terrorized into remaining silent, or killed if they appear openly hostile to al Qaeda. These religious fanatics also try to impose stricter life-style rules on the locals, which is really unpopular. Over the last six months, more and more towns, under the leadership of clan and tribal leaders, have offered armed resistance to al Qaeda. These same tribes will fight the Americans or Iraqi troops as well, but for the moment, the government offers medical, or other aid, after the tribes have tossed out al Qaeda gunmen.
The Iraqis did not deliver their new constitution by the August 15th deadline, and the legislature allowed another week to complete the task. Whatâs holding up the work are the four Rs; Revenge (how much amnesty and power to give the hated Sunni Arab minority), Regionalism (how much independence the Kurds have), Religion (how much influence Islam should have on the legal system) and Resources (who gets how much of the oil money).
The Sunni Arab leadership are trying to get safeguards in the constitution that would limit the revenge the Kurds and Shia Arabs will take on the Sunni Arab community for atrocities committed during the decades of Saddamâs rule. The Sunni Arabs are also in terror of Shia Arabs not only going along with Kurdish demands for permanent autonomy, but also setting up a similar system in the south. Since 1991, when British and American troops (mainly warplanes) kept Saddams troops out of the north, the Kurds have, in effect, been independent. The Kurds have prospered and been at peace. The Shia Arabs have noticed that, and the harsh treatment the Kurds have given to any Sunni Arab gunmen foolish enough to venture into âKurdistan.â
Religion is an issue because Islamic conservatives in the Sunni and Shia community want the law of the land to reflect conservative Islam. Most Iraqis, especially the women, do not want this, but they do want honest government (which is very rare in the Moslem world), and also note that Islamic rule in neighboring Iran has not produced honest government, and has imposed unpleasant rules on the citizens. But Iran has supported a Islamic conservative militia (the Badr Brigade) in Iraq, and these thugs have been energetic in trying to bully Iraqis to support Islamic conservatism. This is often backfiring on the street, but at the moment, many of the people putting the new constitution together are controlled by the Badr gang, and similar organizations.
And then thereâs the money. The Kurds have suggested that they, and the Shia Arabs, take complete control of the oil in their areas (this would be most of the nations oil), and leave the Sunni Arabs in central Iraq with nothing. The Sunni Arabs have been monopolizing the oil money for decades, and feel this freeze out proposal is something that could be done to them by vengeful Kurds and Shia Arabs. The Kurds and Shia Arabs appear willing to compromise by accepting a larger cut of the oil.
Posted by: Steve ||
08/17/2005 11:37 ||
Comments ||
Link ||
[0 views]
Top|| File under:
#2
None of this should come as a surpise, just as the notion of Sunni tribesmen fighting Al Qaeda scum and it not being reported by mainstream media. Its really hard to want to stop the Shia & Kurds from seeking revenge on the Sunni thugs that brutalized them for so long.
Posted by: RJB in JC MO ||
08/17/2005 14:26 Comments ||
Top||
#3
Revenge you say! Ima conflicted, uncertain what to think, easily led. Still, hey like the man above sed paybacks a bitch.
#3
what could be a bigger sign of how things have changed in Iraq from under Saddam, that a DP opponent is president. Think any of the eurocommies will notice?
Britain has removed its military attache from his post in Pakistan after he lost the confidence of the British High Commission, officials said. The Ministry of Defence said Brig Andrew Durcan had been removed after "an internal investigation". Britain's Sun newspaper had alleged Mr Durcan had formed an "inappropriate relationship" with a suspected female Pakistani spy.
Caught in a "honey trap"
The countries have worked closely in anti-terror operations in recent years. The Ministry of Defence refused to confirm the claims in the Sun, only saying: "The ministry decided to replace him after he lost the confidence of the High Commission." The Sun said Mr Durcan, 56, had been "tricked into a close friendship by the attractive woman".
We trick easily, a few drinks, take your clothes off and you can pretty much have your way with us.
It said there was no evidence classified information or British agents had been compromised. The paper described the woman as a "defence academic" who was "also believed to be an undercover agent for rogue elements within Pakistan's intelligence services".
Is there any other kind?
Posted by: Steve ||
08/17/2005 09:34 ||
Comments ||
Link ||
[1 views]
Top|| File under:
#1
Daft bugger.
Posted by: Howard UK ||
08/17/2005 9:58 Comments ||
Top||
#2
My inner Paki suggests that this might be an affront to Paki honour.
#10
"He thinks he'll be alright but he doesn't know for sure
Just like every other unindicted coconspirator
Mata Hari had a house in France
Where she worked on all her secret plans
Men were falling for her sight unseen
She was a genius..."
(OTOH, maybe it's not as appropriate as:
"I went home with a waitress the way I always do;
How was I to know she was with the Russians too...")
Posted by: Phil ||
08/17/2005 16:25 Comments ||
Top||
#11
But... she told me that tape recorder was just so she could hear my voice when I wasn't around!"
4 terrors killed in shootout with police, RAB
Four terrorists were killed in shootouts with police and members of the RAB in Pabna, Kushtia and Rajbari yesterday.
"Crossfire Season" is now open
In Pabna two terrorists were killed in a shootout between police and their cohorts at Daripara village in Faridpur upazila early Tuesday. The deceased were identified as Mujibur Rahman alias Mujibur, 27, son of Nurul Huq, and Panu Mia, 21, son of Kayesuddin. Police said both the terrorists were the members of Purba Banglar Communist Party ML (Lal Pataka) and wanted in a number of cases. Police said they arrested Mujibur and Panu from Kaliakair upazila of Gazipur district on Monday.
"Stick'um up, boys! Youse coming wid us!"
According to their statement, police on Monday were taking them to Pabna from Gazipur to make arrest of their accomplices and seize hidden arms.
Same old story, same results
But, when police along with the terrorists reached Daripara village in Hadal union, sidekicks of Mujibur and Panu opened fire, triggering a gun fight between police and terrorists.
"Yar, we be the Sidekicks of Mujibur-Panu, Inc! You'll never take them alive, coppers!"
Panu and Mujibur caught in the crossfire while trying to escape from police capture, leaving them seriously injured.
AKA: shot full of holes
They were taken to upazila health complex where doctors declared them dead.
"They're dead, Jim"
A leader of an outlawed extremist group died in encounter with police at Nagar Mohammadpur in Sadar upazila of Hushtia early Tuesday. Police said they arrested Sujon, 25, deputy commander of outlawed Ganomukti Fouj, from a house at Uttar Lahini Daspara on Sunday afternoon and recovered a cut rifle and 20 rounds of bullets from his possession.
According to his statement, police on Monday night raided arms dens of the group in different areas. At Nagar Mohammadpur the police team faced barrage of gunfire when Sujan tried to slip away from the custody.
"Be very, very quiet. I'm trying to slip away!"
Police returned the fire. Caught in the crossfire Sujan died on the spot, police said.
"Ahhhhhhh...rose....bud!"
A sub-inspector and three constables were injured in the encounter.
Police said Sujon was wanted in five criminal cases including murder.
In Rajbari an alleged extremist was killed in a shootout between RAB members and terrorists at Goral village in Pangsha upazila early Tuesday. The deceased was identified as Nasimul Haq Sajal, 30, a sacked army member and second-in-command of `Tikka Bahiniâ. Police said RAB members arrested Sajal from Dhaka on Monday and took him to Goral village for recovering arms on the basis of his confessional statement.
They have that statement as a macro, saves time
As the RAB members reached the village, Tikka Bahini cadres opened fire on them, sparking a gunfight with the law-enforcers.
"It's the Tikka Bahini Cadre, open fire!"
During the gunfight, Sajal was struck by bullets and he died on the spot.
SEE: "rosebud"
After the gun battle the RAB men recovered a often dropped, never used shutter gun, one pistol, 4 rounds of bullet from the spot. Police said Sajal was a listed criminal and wanted in 10 criminal cases, including that of murder. A case was filed. Landlady stabbed to death by tenant in Mirpur
A professional killer, allegedly engaged by a tenant stabbed to death a landlady in the city's Mirpur area on Tuesday.
I hate it when that happens
The Rapid Action Battalion (RAB) arrested the alleged mastermind of the killing plot just after a few hours of the incident. Earlier, the police with the help of local people arrested the killer when he was trying to flee away after murdering the woman.
According to sources, Rabeya Khatun (40), wife of Mohammad Nasir Uddin received fatal injuries when criminals stabbed her with sharp knives storming into her residence at House No-18, Road No-11, Block-A, Section-2, Mirpur under Mirpur police station at about 8:00 am. Rabeya Khatun met the tragic end of her life when she opened the main door of her residence after hearing the knock.
"Hark! I hear a knock on the door. And where is that scary music coming from?"
She received serious cut injuries in the chest, abdomen and throat and was reportedly dead on the spot. Local people along with the neighbours rushed to the spot hearing the cry of the victim and caught red-handed an alleged killer Abdul Khaleq (24) after a brief chase. Abdul Khaleq was severely wounded when angry mob beat him indiscriminately.
"He shived Rabeya! Get him!"
Later, a mobile team of police rescued seriously injured Khaleq and sent him to the Dhaka Medical College Hospital (DMCH) in a critical condition. Police also recovered a knife from his possession.
Acting on a tip-off, the members of RAB-4 arrested Akhter Hossain, the tenant and also alleged mastermind of the murder conducting a series of raids at the local area soon after the incident.
Sometimes, rounding up the usual suspects works
Police suspected that the reason behind the murder might be a sequel to the conflict with the tenant Akhter Hossain over possession of a piece of land at the local area.
Although why anyone would want to own a piece of this hellhole is beyond me
The alleged killer Khaleq confessed to the police during the interrogation that Akhter Hossain hired him in exchange of Taka 30,000 to kill Rabeya Khatun.
Ratted him out, did he? Hard to find good killers these days
Akhter paid him (Khaleq) Taka 3,000 in advance and also promised to give the rest of the money after successful completion of the operation, Khaleq added. A case was filed with the concerned police station in this connection.
3 among fake RAB man held in Ctg
CHITTAGONG, Aug 16:âRapid Action Battalion (RAB) in two separate raids conducted last night at cityâs Kotwali and Agrabad areas detained three culprits including a fake-RAB personnel and seized 199 contra banned drugs. The detainees were identified as Mohammad Monirul Islam, son of Dr. SM Sader Ali, Mohammad Sayed Ali, son of Abdul Jobbar and Mohammad Sharif, son of Hazi sayed Ahmed. Of the detainees, Mohammad Monirul was arrested from a restaurant near cityâs Agrabad commercial area while Alam and Sharif were picked up from Hotel Zaman at cityâs New Market area.
The RAB personnel said that Monirul had been demanding extortion from different people introducing him as a member of the RAB-7.
"Pay up, or we'll be taking a ride to look for arms!"
The RAB personnel, on the other hand, detained Alam and Sharif on charge of bearing Myanmar-made banned drug âEyaba.â The RAB personnel recovered 199 pills including Taka approximately 14 thousand in cash from their possession. All the detainees were handed over to the respective police stations and separate cases were recorded in these connections.
Series of Synchronized bomb blasts shakes Bangladesh EFL:Dhaka , Bangladesh - Around 100 bombs exploded almost simultaneously in cities around Bangladesh on Wednesday morning, between 11:00am to 11:30am .Bangladesh private satellite TV reported that at least 120 people were injured across the country in and around 58 different locations , some of the injured were in critical conditions , but no fatalities was reported . Police officials said the bombs appeared to be homemade and capable of causing only limited damage, however the instigators may have used sophisticated timing device to synchronized these explosions across the country to cause maximum panic .
Or they just synchronized their watches
"There are bomb blasts all over the country. We have reports of some injuries but no fatalities yet," said Abdul Kaiyum, Bangladesh's Inspector General of Police
There was no immediate claim of responsibility for the blasts, which hurt at least 120 people at 58 different locations , but leaflets from a banned Islamic group, the Jumatul Mujahedin, were found at the scene of some of the explosions in Dhaka, Chittagong, Sylhet and Mymensingh, the Bangladeshi media reported. The group wants to establish an Islamic state in predominantly Muslim Bangladesh- as stated in their leaflets.
Mazeedul Haq, Chittagong's police commissioner, said a group calling itself Jamayetul Mujahideen had signed leaflets reading: "It is time to implement Islamic law in Bangladesh. There is no future with with man-made law."
A police official in Barisal said leaflets had been found there reading: "Bush and Blair be warned and get out of Muslim countries. Your days of ruling Muslim countries are over . However no independent verification could be made of these claims . It's an organized attack,â Lufuzzaman Babar, a top official in the home ministry, told the local TV station ATN Bangla. âIt's not a simple incident.â
The blasts took place mainly at government offices, press clubs courts and busy city squares in at least eight cities and districts, police and Bangladeshi media reported. In Dhaka, about a dozen of the bombs exploded near the airport, Kalachnapur near the US embassy , at high court & judge court buildings and in Farm gate square . Major bomb blasts in public places that have killed at least 148 people since March 1999 still remain unsolved mysteries and the deadly killer-sport is recurring with surprising regularity .
As we've seen here, every other person in Bangladesh seems to be carrying a bomb when arrested.
Posted by: Steve ||
08/17/2005 08:32 ||
Comments ||
Link ||
[0 views]
Top|| File under:
#1
"It's the Tikka Bahini Cadre, open fire!"
Ima going to open the Tikka Bahini Cafe. Free doughnuts for all members of the RAB, and karaoke every Friday night.
At least 42 people have died and 80 were hurt in three car bombings in the centre of the Iraqi capital, Baghdad. Two of the blasts went off within 10 minutes of each other at 0800 (0400GMT) at the busy Nahda bus station. The third blast happened on the road to a nearby hospital some 15 minutes later, just as victims of the first two attacks were being brought in. All three attacks were less than 30 minutes apart, and police say their apparent co-ordination and planning means casualty figures are almost certain to rise.
The bus station serves various parts of the country and would normally have been crowded with travellers at the time of the attacks, says the BBC's Mike Wooldridge in Baghdad. One eyewitness told Reuters news agency they saw a coach blow up. "We heard an explosion in the garage, we went there and ran towards the buses for Kut, Basra and Amara," said Ahmed Jabur. "A coach blew up. When we were leaving, another one blew up in the middle of police cars." Blazing buses and bodies were strewn across the road, and police and civilian vehicles were damaged in the blast. The majority of victims appeared to be civilians, many of whom were trapped on buses.
Posted by: Paul Moloney ||
08/17/2005 06:53 ||
Comments ||
Link ||
[0 views]
Top|| File under:
#1
I wonder if any of the dead will ever get to be considered _persons_ the way Casey Sheehan is.
(Not, of course, that Casey Sheehan would have approved of everything being done in his name. But that's just another question the propaganda machine wants us to ignore.)
Posted by: Phil Fraering ||
08/17/2005 8:26 Comments ||
Top||
#2
The car bombed part of the terminal was used by busses going to the Shiite south.
Posted by: ed ||
08/17/2005 8:38 Comments ||
Top||
#4
NPR this AM said the recent relative calm in Baghdad had been broken by this attack. NPR of course had not mentioned the relative calm prior. Sometimes getting certain kinds of facts out of the MSM is like reading Soviet era Pravda.
#6
one final thought-for-the-morning: is anyone reminded of the John Birch society by all the recent brouhaha?
I was thinking about that, because a while back I read a memoir by someone who knew John Birch, and said he never believed in all that stuff the JBS did...
Posted by: Phil ||
08/17/2005 10:02 Comments ||
Top||
#7
Sometimes getting certain kinds of facts out of the MSM is like reading Soviet era Pravda.
There is no accident in that, of course.
Posted by: Robert Crawford ||
08/17/2005 10:04 Comments ||
Top||
#8
Phil,
But you do not understand...Iraqis are being killed because American troops are there. Before that, Iraqis died of old age.
At least one person has been killed and 50 others injured in a series of small bomb blasts across Bangladesh. Officials say more than 300 explosions took place simultaneously in 50 cities and towns across the country including the capital Dhaka. An outlawed Islamic group, Jamatul Mujahideen Bangladesh, says it carried out the attacks. Police say that more than 50 people have been arrested in connection with the blasts.
Reports say many of the injured have been admitted to local hospitals, although most of the injuries are not life-threatening. The blasts caused panic across many cities leading to massive traffic jams. Reports say parents rushed to bring their children home from school. "It's an organised attack," said Home Minister Lutfozzaman Babor, adding that 58 of the country's 64 districts were affected. In each incident, bombs were set off in crowded spots, mainly at government offices, journalists' clubs and courts, between 1030 and 1130 local time. Mr Babor said timing devices were found at the scenes of blasts but most of the bombs were small, homemade devices - wrapped in tape or paper. The confirmed death was in the western town of Rajshahi, where doctors say a businessman died from wounds in an explosion.
Leaflets from the Jamatul Mujahideen Bangladesh have appeared at the site of some of the blasts. "It is time to implement Islamic law in Bangladesh" and "Bush and Blair be warned and get out of Muslim countries", the leaflets say. Early this year the Bangladesh government banned Jamatul Mujahideen and another group, Jagrata Muslim Janata Bangladesh. They were accused of being behind a series of bomb blasts, including those at two local aid agencies - Grameen and Brac. The BBC's Roland Buerk in Dhaka said the banning was a major change in policy as the government had long insisted there was no threat from Islamic militancy.
#1
They aren't islamic enough so those true believers of the ROP have to blow them up. Once again ROPMA.
BBC can't leave out the Blair and Bush angle but what can be expected from a news service run by womens rules. TRANZI women at that.
#2
The Telegraph headline said 200 bombs! Escalating, surging, raging, spiraling, climbing, mounting, increasing violence - with at least one person killed!
QUAGMIRE! Aiiiiieeeee!!!!!!!
Posted by: Bobby ||
08/17/2005 8:07 Comments ||
Top||
#3
BBC now has it up to 300! Cries are mounting to pull our troops out.......oh, wait.
Posted by: Steve ||
08/17/2005 8:29 Comments ||
Top||
#4
This certainly puts the "bang" in Bangladesh.
(Someone had to say it.)
Posted by: Robert Crawford ||
08/17/2005 8:35 Comments ||
Top||
#5
At least one person has been killed and 50 others injured in a series of small bomb blasts across Bangladesh. Officials say more than 300 explosions took place simultaneously
#14
The Mark-24 1/3MT nuclear warhead used on most Minuteman missiles was less than six feet tall and 34 inches in diameter. It's not the size of the weapon but the size of the blast.
Posted by: Old Patriot ||
08/17/2005 15:58 Comments ||
Top||
A provincial high court yesterday adjourned the hearing of an appeal by an extremist sentenced to death for kidnapping and murdering US reporter Daniel Pearl. British-born Omar Saeed Sheikh was convicted of involvement in Pearlâs abduction and given the death penalty by an Anti-Terrorism Court in June 2002. His appeal has been pending for over two years.
The hearing at Sindh High Court in the Karachi was adjourned as Omarâs lawyer Abdul Waheed Katpar fell sick, his assistant Mohsin Imam said. âKatpar is in hospital and he cannot argue the case,â Imam said. The court will fix a new date to hear the appeal of Omar and three others who were jailed for life in connection with the murder of the Wall Street Journal correspondent. Pearl disappeared in Karachi on Jan. 23, 2002. A graphic video showing his decapitation was delivered to the US Consulate in the city nearly a month later.
Posted by: Fred ||
08/17/2005 01:02 ||
Comments ||
Link ||
[0 views]
Top|| File under:
#1
So the defense team is down to faking sick to draw this out a little longer?
Israeli forces arrested Tuesday Mohannad Al-Shaer, a Palestinian working in the preventive security body, in the west of Khan Yunus, according to a Palestinian security source. He said in a statement a large force of the Israeli army penetrated into the Mowasi area, surrounded by the Gush Katif settlements, and arrested the Arab. Meanwhile, the source said Israeli army forces entered Wadi Selqa area in central Gaza Strip and carried out wide-scale inspection campaigns of houses.
Posted by: Fred ||
08/17/2005 01:03 ||
Comments ||
Link ||
[0 views]
Top|| File under:
At least ten people were wounded in a firing on an election campaign by supporters of rival group, few hours before the campaign was to end for the first phase of much-awaited Local body elections, said police. Ten supporters of a candidate were wounded when supporters of a rival candidate opened fire at an election campaign in Qasim Abad area, near Rawalpindi city, a local police official told KUNA. He said police in subsequent raids arrested at least seven men and are investigating them. The incident took place only few hours before the election campaign for first-phase of local body elections came to an end.
To stave off any untoward incident, the government has deployed heavy contingent of police and army rangers at all polling stations across the country and several districts declared sensitive in southern Sindh and southwestern Baluchistan province. The elections will recruit 11,487 nazims (mayor) and deputy nazims for the country. A record number of over 55,000 women are participating in the elections despite opposition by religious hardliners in the several parts of the country. About 4,942 seats have been reserved for minority communities. A large number of observers from the Commonwealth, European Union, US and SAARC countries are visiting Pakistan to observe the polls. President Pervez Musharraf last month described the introduction of democracy through local government system at the grass-roots level as a proud achievement on which he would never compromise.
Posted by: Fred ||
08/17/2005 00:57 ||
Comments ||
Link ||
[1 views]
Top|| File under:
MADRID (AFP) - A helicopter crash that killed 17 Spanish troops in western Afghanistan may have been the result of an attack, Spanish Defence Minister Jose Bono said, qualifying an earlier statement which said it was an accident.
The defence ministry at first believed "it must have been an accident, but on seeing pictures (from the crash site), an attack by a third party can absolutely not be ruled out," Bono told reporters, adding that the causes of the crash "have not been established with certainty."
The aircraft, a Cougar, came down at 11:01 am local time (0701 GMT) in the province of Herat, "a very mountainous region, although the impact occurred on flat ground," where an emergency landing should have been possible, Bono said. "That explains why we have not ruled out the possibility of an attack."
The dead servicemen were part of an 850-member Spanish contingent that makes up part of the NATO-led International Security Assistance Force (ISAF). The ISAF is charged with peacekeeping as the country prepares for next month's legislative polls, the first since the fall of the Taliban regime in late 2001. Among the 17 dead, eleven were privates and the highest-ranking officer was a captain.
The Spanish defence minister confirmed that five other Spanish troops flying in a second helicopter, which made a crash landing when the first one went down, were injured.
Those aboard the second aircraft "saw a column of black smoke, and thinking there had been an attack from the ground, made an emergency landing," Bono said, ruling out suggestions that the two helicopters might have collided. Bono also said he would be travelling immediately to the crash site to "contribute to the identification" of the victims...
Following the announcement of the military deaths, NATO Secretary General Jaap de Hoop Scheffer issued a statement in Brussels offering his condolences to the Spanish authorities and people.
The Spanish crew of the downed helicopters were part of the 4th airborne battalion based in Seville, and the infantrymen aboard were with the 22nd regiment of Light Infantry Airborne, a source close to the NATO peacekeeping force told AFP. This is the second major loss for Madrid's contingent in Afghanistan. In May 2003, 62 Spanish peacekeepers died when an obsolete Ukrainian Yak-42 plane bringing them home crashed in Turkey.
#2
If it was an attack, expect the Spanish to execute a early withdraw.
They may be trying to create the impression of an attack in order to justify an early withdrawal. I'm not in great sympathy with the current Spanish Government.
Posted by: Old Patriot ||
08/17/2005 16:24 Comments ||
Top||
The first executions in Iraq since the ousting of Saddam Hussein will take place within days, Prime Minister Ibrahim Jaafari said on Tuesday -- in what could be an ominous sign for the jailed former dictator. âThe president (Jalal Talabani) has signed three death sentences and the next few days will see the first executions in Kut,â 175 kilometers (110 miles) south of Baghdad, Jaafari told reporters. Three members of the Al Qaeda-linked group Ansar Al Sunna were sentenced to death in May, a verdict later approved by the Supreme Council for Justice, the highest judicial authority in Iraq. Kurd Bayan Ahmad al-Jaf, a 30-year-old taxi driver, as well as two Sunni Arabs, Uday Dawud Al Dulaimi, a 25-year-old builder, and Taher Jassem Abbas, a 44-year-old butcher, were condemned to death after being convicted of killing and kidnapping policemen and raping Iraqi women. They were the first death sentences to be announced by Jaafariâs government since capital punishment was suspended by US authorities following the invasion of Iraq in March 2003.
Officials from the human rights group Amnesty International condemned the announcement on Tuesday, saying it was concerned that dozens of death sentences had been handed out in recent weeks. âWe condemned the passing of death sentences in Iraq before 2003, and we also condemn them now,â said Said Boumadouha, an Amnesty official in London who was part of the organisationâs last delegation to visit Iraq in early 2004.
That's conviction, of a sort.
Of course, he wasn't murdered or raped, either...
Tuesdayâs announcement could also set a precedent for sentencing during the high-profile trials of former regime figures, including Saddam for crimes against humanity, Boumadouha added. âIn those cases the charges are so serious and the evidence so clear that quite a few people from the old regime (in Iraq) will probably face the death sentence,â he said. Boumadouha said he was aware of at least 50 death sentences being passed in Iraq since the beginning of 2005, adding that Amnesty would be taking âurgent actionâ following Tuesdayâs announcement. All Amnesty members should write to Iraqi authorities urging that the sentences be commuted, Boumadouha said.
We could always convert Abu Ghraib into a Turkish prison.
Posted by: Steve White ||
08/17/2005 00:00 ||
Comments ||
Link ||
[1 views]
Top|| File under:
#1
Is BouMADouha from Massachusetts????? Next they'll want to give them psyc tests before they hang em'!! I beleive "URGENT ACTION" should be taken and inindate Amnesty Int. w/ ALL the eveidence.
#4
...Amnesty would be taking âurgent actionâ following Tuesdayâs announcement.
I want to watch. There is an urban legend about the fact that if everyone had "urgent action" in the bathroom at the same time, water pressure would cease.
Can we help them with the "urgent action" by seeing that everyone in the Amnesty International building takes ExLax?
ESHKOL, Israel - Around half of the Gaza Strip settlers have already left ahead of a midnight deadline for them to go of their own accord or face being evicted by force, a senior Israeli official said on Tuesday. âWe have about 50 percent in Gush Katif evacuated,â General Eival Giladi, the disengagementâs plan strategic coordinator told a news conference, referring to the main settlement bloc in southern Gaza.
One of the three northern settlements has already been officially declared as empty while hardly anyone else is still remaining in the other two northern settlements.
Posted by: Steve White ||
08/17/2005 00:00 ||
Comments ||
Link ||
[0 views]
Top|| File under:
#1
I just hope nobody gets killed during all this. The whole thing is too sad to talk about.
Posted by: Chris W. ||
08/17/2005 0:14 Comments ||
Top||
#2
even too sad to rant about
Posted by: Jan ||
08/17/2005 0:36 Comments ||
Top||
#3
On NPR yesterday, they said the soldiers would be (were?) going through Settlement dwellings door to door, to make sure all had been abandoned.
you seem to be completely dismissive of any rationale for the validity of settlements. understand the origins of the "occupation" and the notion of settlements doesn't seem so outrageous.
here's a crash course:
1. israel becomes an independent state
2. arabs (yes, those arabs) try to eradicate israel in multiple wars
3. israel dissapoints the arabs by winning the 1967 war and in an attempt to secure itself, buffering its borders with land taken in the battle
4. believing arabs would never agree to live in peace with israel (which they demonstrate repeatedly in word and deed), israel decides to keep the land
so, yes, arabs. and if you think this will get them to live in peace with israel, you're giving them too much credit.
Hey, how come Egypt and Jordan never created a "Palestine" when they held this territory? The West Bank is full of Jordanians, not "Palestinians", and Gaza is full of Egyptians.
Posted by: Laurence of the Rats ||
08/17/2005 9:10 Comments ||
Top||
#12
Removing them to live in Israel is ALSO a Zionist policy. Zionism means simply the right of Israel to exist, and to exist as a Jewish national homeland. It doesnt necessarily mean settling or holding Gaza and the West Bank. Both the settler movement, and the haters of Israel have twisted the meaning of the word Zionism.
I must admit that the pictures of the settlers being evicted are heartbreaking and it's impossible not to feel sorry for them. But as someone who has the military enter my house, forcibly pack my stuff and move it to a new location - not of my choosing - that is 3,000 miles away from all friends and family - many times - they won't get much more than a BFD - get over it - from me.
It's hardly the end of the world. Jeesh - so much handwringing over a move.
#16
The alternative to moving is to remain where they are so the Paleos can lynch them or murder them in their beds.
Posted by: Fred ||
08/17/2005 10:58 Comments ||
Top||
#17
I prefer to look at removing the settlers as "clearing the firing lanes".
Posted by: Robert Crawford ||
08/17/2005 12:10 Comments ||
Top||
#18
I hear that Sharon has buses on standby to stuff with settlers. Hey Sharon, what's the matter, you couldn't find any rail cars?
I don't believe in the myth that Israel will be allowed to naplam Gaza, even in self-defense, after the pullout. Nobody will be happier that me, if Israel were to do that, but it's just not reality.
I, also, don't believe in the myth that Israel must expel the settlers because the IDF resources are depleting. The myth is that Israel can't financially and militarily protect the settlements. Well the last time I checked, ALL of Israel is surrounded by about 25million possible threats. I guess Israel needs to put their hands up because they can't protect the country due financial and military infeasibility.
#19
you are such wanker, PR. They have to move...the horror. Cue the renh, renh, renh music. As if millions of military and corporate families don't do it daily. I've done what they are being asked to do more times than I can remember. Oh MY GOD!!! They have to ...renh! renh! renh! MOVE!!!!!!!
Big F'n Deal. Your rail cars just makes you seem emotionally unhinged. Get a grip.
#20
Lets see, Israelies can't live in Palestinian controled territory, but Palestinians can live in Israeli territory? Did I miss something here?
Posted by: RJB in JC MO ||
08/17/2005 14:40 Comments ||
Top||
#21
PR:
It's much harder to defend homes on the wrong side of the railroad tracks security fence. Basically, I see Israel pulling out everyone to behind the fence. As long as they aggressively counterattack with massively disproportionate force, that may work. If they simply exercise restraint to keep the fragile CeaseFire™, then they're going to be defeated no matter where they draw the line.
2B:
When you join the military, you knowingly agree in advance to be moved all over the place. Once you're out, you can pick a place to live and move and stay there.
If you work for a corporation, you can quit and find another job that's local. They don't force you to leave.
Of course, if you live in New London, then you're just screwed.
You're backing up my first myth. The world won't allow the action that you and I wish Israel would take, even in self-defense.
Everyone's busy talking about the Gaza pullout. Does anyone realize that underneath the cloud of the Gaza frenzy, there is a forced West Bank pullout? Land, land and more land for no peace in return.
There is nothing I like, more than a large stock investment with no dividend payout.
#23
Great point...... no the point PR, even though the Israelies pull out of Gaza...... there will be NO peace. Mark it in stone, take it to the bank, bet the mortgage on it!
Posted by: RJB in JC MO ||
08/17/2005 17:58 Comments ||
Top||
#24
Israelis won't care what the "world" thinks. Fire away and return Cause=>Effect to the MidEast equation. Sad to withdraw, but it made financial and national security sense, despite the BS noted above. West Bank and around Jerusalem? NFW! Build the wall and shoot back with disproportionate weaponry
Posted by: Frank G ||
08/17/2005 18:20 Comments ||
Top||
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.
Indonesia has reduced the 30-month sentence handed down to controversial cleric Abu Bakar Ba'asyir for his role in the Bali bombings. Ba'asyir, who was found guilty in March of conspiracy in the 2002 attack that killed 202 people, had his jail term cut by four months and 15 days. 
The international committee investigating the assassination of former Lebanese Prime Minister Rafiq Al-Hariri is currently conducting a "final inspection" of the explosion site, said the Lebanese Justice Ministry Tuesday. It added in a statement that with the approval of the ministry, every car in the area would be removed after the final inspection in preparation for handing them over to their owners. It also said that the road would be reconstructed as soon as the committee concluded its work, a process estimated to take one month. The area where the explosion took place has been closed off since the assassination of Hariri on February 14th.
Britain has removed its military attache from his post in Pakistan after he lost the confidence of the British High Commission, officials said. The Ministry of Defence said Brig Andrew Durcan had been removed after "an internal investigation". Britain's Sun newspaper had alleged Mr Durcan had formed an "inappropriate relationship" with a suspected female Pakistani spy. 
4 terrors killed in shootout with police, RAB
At least one person has been killed and 50 others injured in a series of small bomb blasts across Bangladesh. Officials say more than 300 explosions took place simultaneously in 50 cities and towns across the country including the capital Dhaka. An outlawed Islamic group, 
Israeli forces arrested Tuesday Mohannad Al-Shaer, a Palestinian working in the preventive security body, in the west of Khan Yunus, according to a Palestinian security source. He said in a statement a large force of the Israeli army penetrated into the Mowasi area, surrounded by the Gush Katif settlements, and arrested the Arab. Meanwhile, the source said Israeli army forces entered Wadi Selqa area in central Gaza Strip and carried out wide-scale inspection campaigns of houses.
The first executions in Iraq since the ousting of Saddam Hussein will take place within days, Prime Minister Ibrahim Jaafari said on Tuesday -- in what could be an ominous sign for the jailed former dictator. âThe president (Jalal Talabani) has signed three death sentences and the next few days will see the first executions in Kut,â 175 kilometers (110 miles) south of Baghdad, Jaafari told reporters. Three members of the Al Qaeda-linked group 
