Ingush Police believe that one of their own, killed in a special operation in the North Caucasus, was actually a close associate of Russia's most wanted man Shamil Basayev.
"We have established that when the Basayev gang attacked Ingushetia [early on June 22, 2004], Pliyev personally drove Basayev around town and helped militants commit their crimes," the police said. "When the police entered the yard of the private house where Pliyev was hiding, he put up armed resistance," the police said.
Pliyev was killed in a special operation on the outskirts of Nazran, the capital of Russia's North Caucasus republic Ingushetia bordering on Chechnya. Two Nazran policemen were injured in the fire exchange.
Posted by: Dan Darling ||
08/24/2005 18:12 ||
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U.S. Customs authorities blocked a Jordanian man from entering the country 20 months before he was accused of carrying out an Iraq suicide bombing, according to an internal Homeland Security memo obtained Wednesday.
The August 22 memo to Homeland Security Secretary Michael Chertoff credited Customs agents with identifying Ra'ed Mansour al-Banna as a suspicious traveler on June 14, 2003, when he flew into Chicago's O'Hare International Airport.
"While it is not clear that al-Banna was a suicidal jihadist, the basis for denying him entry was that CBP (Customs and Border Protection) officers that interviewed him believed his intent for entering ... was inconsistent with the purpose of his visa," wrote Customs and Border Protection Commissioner Robert C. Bonner.
Al-Banna has been accused of carrying out one of Iraq's deadliest suicide bombing -- the February 28 attack in Hillah that killed 125 people.
But the Jordanian government and al-Banna's family said he carried out a different suicide bombing in Iraq in which he was killed. The terrorist group al Qaeda in Iraq claimed responsibility for the Hillah bombing.
The Homeland Security memo, a copy of which was obtained by The Associated Press, said al-Banna was carrying a valid Jordanian passport and valid work visa. But the Customs agents believed the passport was falsified, and ultimately rejected al-Banna's entry after secondary security screening and questioning, said Customs spokeswoman Kristi Clemens.
Al-Banna's denied entry into the United States was briefly mentioned in an April report in Time Magazine.
Posted by: Dan Darling ||
08/24/2005 18:03 ||
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Good job goes to US Customs!!!!
Posted by: 49 pan ||
08/24/2005 19:37 Comments ||
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When she first heard the twin bangs, Saripah Kakme thought the fuses had blown.
But when she and her 5-year-old daughter saw a bloodstained motorbike helmet rolling across the porch, they knew a 20-month insurgency gripping Thailand's Muslim-majority south had just claimed another victim.
"I thought there was something wrong with the electricity," Saripah, 36, told Reuters on Wednesday outside her wooden home on the outskirts of Yala, capital of one of Buddhist Thailand's southernmost provinces.
"Then I looked up and saw the body. He was lying there in the grass. Blood was pouring from his head. I didn't want to look at his face because I was scared, but I knew he was alive because from the back I saw him breathe twice. Then he was still."
Several bystanders saw the hit, carried out by two young men on a motorbike. This sort of attack has become a hallmark of the violence in the region, where Muslim separatists waged a low-level guerrilla war in the 1970s and 1980s.
The insurgency has now claimed more than 800 lives since it started in January 2004, making the latest victim, Buddhist schoolteacher Witchiyan Sukwanmani, 51, just another statistic.
But the point-blank precision of the killing -- at least one bullet smashed into the helmet's visor -- and its planning -- the army said Witchiyan was almost certainly tailed from his school -- suggest those behind the violence are well practised.
Carried out only a mile (1.6 km) from an army outpost, they also seemed to know that the 30,000 troops and police stationed across the three southern provinces, where 80 percent of the population are Muslim not Buddhist, are powerless.
"On a motorbike, they are so fast," said army officer Pakasit Kaewpuangngam, with a shake of the head and a gesture towards the dense forest which covers much of the far south, an independent Muslim sultanate before being annexed by Bangkok 100 years ago.
One Humvee army jeep and two dozen soldiers and police were on the scene within 15 minutes of the shooting, but there was little to do other than marshal gawping bystanders and have a cursory look along the verge for spent cartridges.
Even though the Thai government says it is in control, the unrest has rattled foreign investors and governments who fear the longer it goes on, the more likely it is to suck in international militant organisations such as Osama bin Laden's al Qaeda, or its southeast Asian affiliate Jemaah Islamiah.
In the main, the killings target Buddist teachers or government workers, as well as soldiers and police, leading to speculation that they are part of a campaign to rid southern Thailand of outside, non-Muslim influence.
But in the climate of fear that has seen many Buddhist and Muslim residents sell up and leave, nobody wants to voice their opinions.
"I cannot say why they did this," said Sariphah, clasping her silent daughter to her chest.
Posted by: Dan Darling ||
08/24/2005 18:07 ||
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Media reports issued on 24 August 2005 indicate that there are unconfirmed rumors that junta leader Senior Gen. Than Shwe has been removed from power in a coup. Although the coup cannot be confirmed and the Thai intelligence agency continues to work to verify the rumor, media reports state that five generals, led by Gen. Maung Aye, staged the coup during a Cabinet meeting on 22 August, reportedly because of corruption and Gen. Than Shwe's alleged involvement in weapons trading. According to reports, the situation in Yangon is calm and there is no known additional security in place on the city's streets. The secretive government and state-controlled media make it difficult to confirm such rumors.
Rumors swirled in army-ruled Myanmar and neighboring Thailand on Wednesday that junta strongman Senior General Than Shwe has been removed by the powerful army commander. Reports suggested Than Shwe, head of a military junta which has ruled the former Burma in various forms since 1962, had been ousted by number two General Maung Aye although Yangon was calm and people said there was no extra security on the streets. A Thai intelligence official told Reuters his organization was trying to determine the truth of the Rumors in the absence of official comment from the Yangon government. "We've heard Maung Aye has seized power from Than Shwe, citing allegations of corruption and his involvement in illegal trade of weapons," he said. He said Thura Shwe Man, the number three general in the ruling State Peace and Development Council (SPDC), was rumored to have been assigned to investigate Than Shwe's alleged crimes.
Than Shwe has not been seen on state television since August 20 when he met U.N. envoy and former Indonesian Foreign Minister Ali Alatas, but official newspapers on Wednesday reported his message of congratulations to Ukraine on its independence day. Diplomats in Yangon said they believed he was on a provincial tour. "We understand he is out of town and this rumor did not start in Yangon, but outside the country," a Southeast Asian diplomat said. The opposition National League for Democracy (NLD) also played down the Rumors. "So far as we can confirm, this rumor is more likely not to be true. The situation across the city is quite normal," NLD spokesman Nyan Win told Reuters. But the Thai language newspaper Phuchatkan reported on its Web site at manager.co.th that Maung Aye, the army commander-in-chief had ordered Than Shwe detained at a Yangon hospital on Tuesday. "General Maung Aye has taken over power since midnight on August 23," the newspaper said, citing Thai intelligence sources.
Posted by: Paul Moloney ||
08/24/2005 04:58 ||
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Iran on Wednesday stuck by its decision to resume sensitive nuclear fuel cycle work, accusing the European Union of damaging diplomatic efforts to resolve a crisis over its nuclear program.
The comments came the day after Britain, France and Germany -- who have been trying to convince Iran to limit its nuclear drive -- announced they had cancelled talks scheduled for next week.
Iran has also been emboldened by reports that both UN and US experts had found no evidence of clandestine atomic weapons activities.
"Despite the claims of the Europeans, it was not Iran that violated the Paris Agreement," foreign ministry spokesman Hamid Reza Asefi told the state news agency IRNA. He was referring to a November 2004 deal under which Iran agreed to freeze its nuclear fuel cycle activities -- which it insists are only aimed at power generation but which could potentially be diverted to making a bomb.
"The Europeans are to blame for unilaterally interpreting and violating the Paris Agreement," Asefi said, repeating Iran's contention that it has the right under the Non-Proliferation Treaty (NPT) to produce its own nuclear fuel."The Europeans ignored Iran's rights."
EU-3 still want talks despite canceled meeting
Gravelling so becomes them
Despite calling off the negotiating meeting, the European powers are still keen to talk to Iran about its sensitive nuclear program, according to French Foreign Minister Philippe Douste-Blazy.
Douste-Blazy said the EU-3, acting on behalf of the European Union, were not ending the discussions.
"We are suspending the negotiations," he told France Inter radio. "But at the same time, we think it is still possible to talk to them ... There is no reason to close the door on Iran."
"Until the last minute, we hope to be able to talk to them," Douste-Blazy said. "If they don't want to, if they decide to take nuclear (steps) for military reasons, we will know on Sept. 3 because Mr. ElBaradei will give us his report."
IAEA report due on Sept. 3
Mohamed ElBaradei and his colleagues at the UN nuclear watchdog, the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA), called on Iran earlier this month to return to a full suspension of nuclear fuel activities. The IAEA is due to report on the crisis Sept. 3, and a refusal by the Islamic republic to comply could lead to Iran's referral to the UN Security Council for possible sanctions.
At the end of July, the EU-3 formally asked Iran to abandon uranium enrichment-related work in exchange for a package of trade incentives, access to nuclear fuel produced overseas and help with Tehran's regional security concerns.
Iran reacted by resuming uranium conversion work at a facility at Isfahan on Aug. 8, but has so far held off on enrichment.
"Isfahan has nothing to do with the enrichment," Asefi said. "Activities in Isfahan are not a breach to the agreement."
Reports suggest 'smoking gun' is a dud
The Washington Post reported Tuesday that a group of US government experts and other international scientists have determined that traces of bomb-grade uranium found two years ago in Iran came from contaminated Pakistani equipment and are not evidence of a clandestine nuclear weapons program.
"The biggest smoking gun that everyone was waving is now eliminated with these conclusions," the paper quoted a senior official as saying.
The IAEA, according to Western diplomats, has already concluded that enriched uranium particles found in Iran were from smuggled Pakistani equipment.
Iran has long contended that the uranium traces were the result of contaminated equipment bought years ago from Pakistan. But Washington had pointed to the material as evidence that Iran was making bomb-grade ingredients.
The State Department stressed Tuesday that the question about contamination was only "one part of this overall set
Posted by: Captain America ||
08/24/2005 19:06 ||
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clean up on aisle three -- regrets
Posted by: Captain America ||
08/24/2005 19:09 Comments ||
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DAMASCUS â Four Syrian policemen were killed last week during clashes with militants from an alleged terror group, several of whom escaped after the shootout, a security source said yesterday. âPolice forces assaulted a terrorist group, Tanzim Jund Ash Sham, in Madaya, which had planned to launch attacks on Damascus and its surrounding areas,â he said. âThe fighting killed four policemen, while five members of the armed group were able to escape into the mountains,â the source added. The clashes took place on Friday in the town, 40km northeast of the capital, the source said.
Posted by: Steve White ||
08/24/2005 00:03 ||
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... Former Premier Najib Mikati also condemned the bombing, and called on the government to "adopt radical measures in order to ensure security in Lebanon." Criticizing the delay in appointing heads of the country's security apparatus, Mikati said: "It is not acceptable that after every explosion, differences between officials re-emerge as if nothing happened, at a time when they should be working on enhancing the security situation in the country."
The latest attack also came as more than 30 tank bombs were found in the northern town of Zghorta, one day after Security services Monday said 1,100 kilograms of explosives and bomb-making gear were found in the same area, which is the stronghold of former Interior Minister Suleiman Franjieh, a close aid of Syria. According to a security report, the new amount of ammunition was found in abandoned house in the village. But army experts who transferred the ammunition to a nearby military base said the bombs were old and can't be used.
Posted by: Fred ||
08/24/2005 00:00 ||
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Security agencies scrambled to keep the situation under control Tuesday as yet another bomb rocked the Christian neighborhood of Zalka, north of the capital Monday night. The Internal Security Forces, Civil Defense and army were all dispatched immediately to Zalka's Moussa Commercial Center and neighboring Promenade Hotel, just one month after a bomb was set in the Beirut nightclub promenade of Monnot in Achrafieh. Eight people were wounded in the latest explosion, which came only a few hours after security forces discovered one ton of powerful explosives concealed in an abandoned textile factory near the North Lebanon town of Zghorta.
"Everything that could have been done was done, with all the security agencies responding promptly and more efficiently as a result of last week's training," said Lieutenant Colonel Elie Baradie of the ISF in a telephone interview with The Daily Star. Baradie was referring to a practice drill last week, wherein army troops and police were taught how to operate jointly in the event of car bombings and other security breaches. "We have now handed over the case file along with all the evidence and information compiled from Monday's bombing to the judicial investigators," he added.
Zalka is the latest Christian neighborhood to be targeted by a series of bombings in Lebanon since the February assassination of former Premier Rafik Hariri. Jean Fahd, the military court magistrate heading the investigation into Monday's attack, said yesterday there had been no arrests made. Early reports said security forces were seen detaining five men shortly after the explosion. "We are currently interrogating witnesses that are helping in the investigation and have no suspects so far," he said.
I was actually expecting that. They've had a lot of booms so far, and not a single person arrested that I've heard about...
The magistrate added that the latest bomb, while similar to previous ones in size (some 20 to 30 kilograms of explosives) was more dangerous than its predecessors as it was contained in "a small bag that was placed in a dark tight corner easily missed by security," in contrast to the previous bombs placed underneath parked cars. No arrests have been made in connection with any of the 10 attacks this year.
Maybe they should ask the Egyptians for help? They might not arrest the right people, but they'd arrest somebody. They could ask the Frenchies, but then Hezbollah would collectively poop.
According to Fahd, "The aim of all these explosions appears to be to sow fear and terror in the hearts of citizens and cause as much material damage as possible to destabilize security and harm the tourist season."
Boy. Not much gets by old Fahd, does it?
Meanwhile, Zalka Mayor Michel Murr released an official statement yesterday to announce that everything was now "back to normal."
"Remain calm! All is well!"
"Everything can now be cleaned up near the bomb site from shattered glass to other debris, leaving the actual bomb site off limits for 48 hours, open only to the local investigations," he said. The explosion will not affect Zalka, he added. "The marketplace will return as busy and bustling with life as ever." Murr said that all shops within "a 500-meter radius" from the blast were damaged, adding that the municipality, with help from sanitation workers and Civil Defense members, had "helped citizens clean the damage from the explosion from their houses and shops."
Posted by: Fred ||
08/24/2005 00:00 ||
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A US Pentagon invention could make air combat resemble a battle scene from Star Wars, with a laser so small it can fit on a fighter jet, yet powerful enough to knock down an enemy missile in flight.
The High Energy Laser Area Defence System (HELLADS), being designed by the Pentagon's central research and development agency, will weigh just 750kg and measures the size of a large fridge.
To date, such lasers have been so bulky because of the need for huge cooling systems to stop them overheating, that they had to be fitted to large aircraft such as jumbo jets, New Scientist magazine reported today.
But the Pentagon's Defence Advanced Research Projects Agency reckons it has solved the problem by merging liquid and solid state lasers to cut the size and weight by "an order of magnitude", according to its website.
Liquid lasers can fire a continuous beam but need large cooling systems, while solid state laser beams are more intense but have to be fired in pulses to stop them overheating.
"We've combined the high energy density of the solid state laser with the thermal management of the liquid laser," New Scientist quoted project manager Don Woodbury as saying.
Dubbed the "HEL weapon" by its developers, a prototype capable of firing a mild one kilowatt (kW) beam has already been produced and there are plans to build a stronger 15kW version by the end of the year.
If everything goes according to plan, an even more powerful weapon producing a 150kW beam and capable of knocking down a missile will be ready by 2007 for fitting onto aircraft.
Posted by: Captain America ||
08/24/2005 19:01 ||
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I knew it! I knew there had to be a reason that the US was running away fast from manned fighter aircraft. There is no such thing as an aircraft or a2a missile that can outrun a laser.
Now the big question is: can they be used against ground launched missiles, SAMs, ground targets, or even things like artillery rounds, rockets and mortar rounds?
#3
Also, while lasers have some strong advantages, they are not without some disadvantages as well. The power to weight ratio we can put in any mobile platform right now requires a certain amount of dwell time on target. The moving target attempts to outrun the beam, the laser attempts to stay locked on the moving target ....
#8
but can they mount it on a Shark? Not some ill-tempered sea bass, but sharks!
Posted by: Frank G ||
08/24/2005 21:01 Comments ||
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As long as it's not cloudy/foggy. Lasers are cool, but like Laser Guided weapons, they work best in clear air.
I don't believe THEL is a fieldable system. The chemicals it uses are NASTY. Rather it's a development system to check out all the non-lasing componants (computer, radar, fire control etc) until a suitable 100kw mobile laser can be found.
Posted by: Dave ||
08/24/2005 21:10 Comments ||
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THEL is good when someone is lobbing projectiles at you. If you have it handy. However, if you have aircraft that can take out most of the projectiles flying from "their side" towards "our side", it is an awful lot more convenient.
In addition, with a little counter battery computation, an airborne platform could not only take out say, a Qassam rocket, but then immediately take out the rocket launcher *and* its firing team, far faster than even counter battery fire.
Other applications flood the imagination. Taking out AA radar almost as soon as it's activated, so you don't waste a HARM on some cheap dish. Ship hunting, even small boats, like Zodiacs. Any concentrations of enemy imflammable items, even of low value, like tents, POL, wood, decoys. Starting fires in occupied woodlines or grassy fields. Even something seemingly silly, like melting every left tire in a long convoy of vehicles, without harming anyone inside, can be very useful at times. Etc.
On August 23, 2005, the Secretary of Defense approved a request by the commander of Multi-National Forces-Iraq (MNF-I) to deploy two additional infantry battalions to Iraq.
Two battalions from the 82nd Airborne Division will deploy to Iraq for an anticipated duration of approximately 120 days to support security efforts during the election period. Adjustments to troop levels in Iraq occurred prior to the transfer to Iraqi sovereignty in June 2004 and during the January Iraqi elections.
These troops will join 180,000 Iraqi security forces and 138,000 coalition forces in helping set the security conditions for successful elections.
Gen. Caseyâs request for this additional capability was made in close consultation with, and with the support of, the Iraqi government. This approved request temporarily adds an additional 1,500 active duty soldiers to the troop level in Iraq.
This decision follows a decision in July 2005 to deploy a battalion to Afghanistan in support of security efforts during the upcoming September elections.
Commanders continue to assess security conditions, and additional adjustments to troop levels for the elections are possible.
Reports say insurgents attacked Iraqi police patrols today in western Baghdad with several car bombs and small arms fire, killing at least two people.
Also today, police said Deputy Justice Minister Awshoo Ibrahim escaped a second assassination attempt in two days when gunmen fired at his convoy, killing four of his bodyguards.
Meanwhile, President Jalal Talabani held further talks with leaders of the Shi'ite, Sunni, and Kurdish factions in a bid to gain Sunni support for a draft constitution.
Talabani said the country's new charter must be for all its people and should meet the aspirations of Sunni Arabs.
Observers say it is unlikely that a consensus is being reached before the new tomorrow midnight deadline.
Sunni political leaders have opposed the draft, saying the document would threaten the interests of their community.
Top Pakistani, Afghan and US military officials met in Rawalpindi on Wednesday and examined ways to deepen their level of military-to-military relationship in the interest of long term regional stability, officials said.
"The Tripartite Commission session began with a series of briefings focused on enhancing regional stability and furthering security measures taken by Afghanistan, Pakistan and the Coalition in advance of the Afghan national Assembly and Provincial Council Elections on 18 September 2005," said a statement issued at the conclusion of the meeting.
"The parties noted recent improvement in cooperation and information sharing and reaffirmed their commitment to enduring operations against Al-Qaeda and associated militants."
The Tripartite Commission, comprised of senior military and diplomatic representatives from Afghanistan, Pakistan and the United States, held its twelfth meeting.
"All parties noted the significance of the first bilateral Afghan-Pakistani staff exchanges, which took place on 14 July 2005 in Kabul on 9 August, 2005 in Islamabad."
Representatives of NATO's International Security Assistance Force (ISAF) attended the session as observers, the statement said.
"All parties welcomed the NATO / ISAF observers and looked forward to their participation in the future meetings given ISAF / NATO's expanding role in Afghanistan," said the statement.
The Tripartite Commission will meet again in October 2005.
This meeting was the first in which Afghanistan and Pakistan were represented at the four star general level.
Delegates included General Bismullah Khan, Chief of the General Staff of the Afghan National Army, General Ahsan Saleem Hyat, Vice Chief of the Army Staff of the Pakistan Army and Lieutenant General Karl Eikenberry, Commander Coalition Forces Commander in Afghanistan.
commission meeting in Rawalpindi.
Foreign Office Spokesman Naeem Khan said on Monday that the meeting would discuss a host of issues with a special focus on border security, incidents of terrorism and economic and trade links between the two neighbours.
Military officials from three countries regularly hold meetings to discuss the security situation, especially reviewing the border situation.
The Wednesday meeting assumed much importance due to the next month's parliamentary elections in Afghanistan.
Pakistan says it will deploy 4000 additional troops along its borders with Afghanistan ahead of the elections to check illegal cross-border movement.
Some 70,000 of Pakistani troops have been deployed in the rugged, mountainous hinterlands of the North West Frontier and the southwestern province of Balochistan, both bordering Afghanistan, to hunt for Taliban and Al-Qaeda leaders thought to have taken refuge in Pakistan's semi-autonomous tribal areas.
The presence of the troops is also considered essential to efforts to thwart the suspected movement of militants across border terrain that is difficult to police, Pakistani authorities said.
The tribal agencies of North Waziristan and South Waziristan, both of which lie just across the border from the three "flashpoint" Afghan provinces of Paktia, Paktika and Khowst, have been cited as likely sanctuaries for Al-Qaeda and Taliban operatives for over two years.
American, Afghan and Pakistani officials will assess the recent progress in combating al-Qaeda and Taliban remnants, and will share intelligence information, sources said.
Formed in 2003 to resolve security issues between its member states, the commission is mainly tasked security situation along the Pak-Afghan border and to address to each other concern.
BRITAIN and the United States are training border guards in the Horn of Africa in the expectation that Abu Musab al-Zarqawi, the al-Qaeda leader in Iraq, may seek sanctuary there if forced to flee Iraq.
Major-General Douglas Lute, the director of operations for US Central Command, which is responsible for Iraq and Afghanistan, said yesterday that once Iraq was stabilised, al-Zarqawi might head for the Horn of Africa to find a âsafe havenâ. He listed Yemen, Sudan, Somalia and Ethiopia as âungoverned spacesâ where al-Zarqawi might seek sanctuary to run his terrorist operations.
Small US specialist teams, supported by British counterparts, are training border security guards and working with customs and immigration officials in the region, hoping that they will be ready to spot al-Zarqawi and other al-Qaeda leaders.
General Lute said: âWe call this the long war, the fight against al-Qaeda and its affiliates. Even though al-Qaeda is not state-based or sponsored, its leaders still require physical sanctuary â they still need somewhere to live.â
Al-Zarqawi, already being squeezed inside Iraq, would have little option but to leave once the country was politically stable and secure. âWe think he might move to the Horn of Africa. Itâs a vast space, which causes us concern,â General Lute said.
He gave a warning that al-Zarqawi and other al-Qaeda âfranchisedâ groups were increasingly turning to âvirtual safe havensâ â internet websites â to plot their terrorist attacks.
Sudan, second OBL home
Posted by: Captain America ||
08/24/2005 18:48 ||
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Zarq may flee to Africa Per Major-Gen Lutes
Why should he bother when all he has to do is put on his burka
and fly Damascus/Mexico city then walk across Cal/Mex line and collect food stamps, SSI in L.A. and vote.
The US is expected to pull significant numbers of troops out of Iraq in the next 12 months in spite of the continuing violence, according to the general responsible for near-term planning in the country.
Maj Gen Douglas Lute, director of operations at US Central Command, on Wednesday said the reductions were part of a push by Gen John Abizaid, commander of all US troops in the region, to put the burden of defending Iraq on Iraqi forces.
He denied the withdrawal was motivated by political pressure from Washington.
He said: âWe believe at some point, in order to break this dependence on the . . . coalition, you simply have to back off and let the Iraqis step forward.
âYou have to undercut the perception of occupation in Iraq. It's very difficult to do that when you have 150,000-plus, largely western, foreign troops occupying the country.â
While he cautioned that any troop reduction would be conditional on continued political progress and ongoing improvement in Iraqi force training, he said Centcom planners believed âthe political process will play out, that we will see a constitution, that we will see, by some political machinations, the Sunnis brought into the process and we will proceed to national elections in Decemberâ.
âIf we see that and if we see progress on the second front, which is continued progress with the Iraqi security force next year, this time we'll be in the position to make some adjustments in our force structure.â
Last week, Gen Peter Schoomaker, US army chief of staff, said his office was planning for the possibility that troop levels could be maintained until 2009. But Maj Gen Lute said such a worst-case scenario was unlikely.
The US hopes to pacify Iraq and then take on al-Qaeda and its affiliates in an offensive from the Horn of Africa to Afghanistan's borders.
âI will tell you this, as the operation officer of Centcom, if a year from now I've got to call on all those army troops that Gen Schoomaker is prepared to provide, I won't feel real good about myself,â he said. âI think that's not a good sign of progress.â
Gen George Casey, commander of allied forces in Iraq, made similar comments last month on reductions that could come by early next year but they were played down by the White House.
George W. Bush, the US president, has said no decisions have been made on troop levels in 2006.
âI think they were rumours. I think they're speculation,â he said at his ranch in Crawford, Texas, this month after meeting his national security team.
On Wednesday, the president again insisted: âWe will stay, we will fight and we will win the war on terror. An immediate withdrawal from Iraq or the greater Middle East, as some have called for, would only embolden the terrorists.â
This reference to "greater Middle East" has been repeated by Pres Bush of late. Could be something for Iran to contemplate.
Posted by: Captain America ||
08/24/2005 18:37 ||
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Schoomaker and Lute are both right. The troops are going to leave Iraq in route to Iran. But it really sounds like Lute is full of wishfull thinking.
Posted by: 49 pan ||
08/24/2005 19:35 Comments ||
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Last week, Gen Peter Schoomaker, US army chief of staff, said his office was planning for the possibility that troop levels could be maintained until 2009. But Maj Gen Lute said such a worst-case scenario was unlikely.
Can't this guy keep his "appraisals" to himself and let the Joint Chiefs make the statements?
Sweeping through the craggy mountains of northern Sinai, Egyptian security forces have continued to arrest suspects as part of their effort to determine if the attack on Sharm el Sheik last month was solely the work of local citizens or if there was some link to international terrorist groups, government officials said.
After the operation Tuesday, the authorities said they were confident that they had caught, killed or at least identified the group of people who executed the attack that rocked the Egyptian beach resort of Sharm el Sheik on July 23. The bombings there killed at least 68 people and undermined tourism, a cornerstone of the national economy.
Prime Minister Ahmed Nazif said the authorities were still working with two theories concerning who was actually behind the attack. One theory holds that security forces were so aggressive after the bombing attack on a resort in Taba in October that locals became infuriated and retaliated with strikes against Sharm el Sheik. The other, he said, is that local people were somehow linked to international terrorist groups, like Al Qaeda.
"I don't think that we have enough evidence to prove the second assumption," Nazif said in an interview on Monday. "So for now we are taking things as they really look and looking at the people living there."
What that means, the prime minister said, is the government will not only address the attack from a security perspective, but will also examine social factors in the northern Sinai region, which may have contributed to inspiring young people to become suicide bombers.
The northern Sinai is far more economically depressed than the south, which has benefited from tourism-related investments around Red Sea resorts. In the north, residents do not even have access to fresh water in their homes; salty water runs from their taps.
"We have people here who trained to become suicide bombers in Sinai, and that's something that we should not take lightly," Nazif said. "We need to see why this happened and how this happened. Is it just people frustrated, or are they people with connections?"
Egypt, like Jordan, which this week announced the arrest of suspects in connection with a failed missile attack on an American naval ship in the southern port city of Aqaba on Friday, is trying to figure out the extent to which foreign terrorist organizations may have infiltrated its territory.
In Jordan, where the authorities say the rocket attack has been linked to the Iraqi insurgency, the question remains to what extent outsiders have managed to infiltrate the country. In Egypt, the question of who is to blame is perhaps more problematic, because the local ringleaders - and suicide bombers - were all Egyptian, although the tactic of suicide bombing has not been employed in Egypt in the past, officials said.
"Somebody has received and trained them and used them, and this is a process we need to deal with," Nazif said.
When suicide bombers attacked the resort in Taba, which sits on the border with Israel, it was perceived as a strike against Israelis, and therefore as an extension of the Palestinian-Israeli conflict.
Afterward, Egypt's security forces swept through the region in force, detaining about 3,000 people, many for no reason other than that they had some relation to a suspect. In July, when Sharm el Sheik was attacked, the police quickly concluded that the two strikes were linked because tactics were similar and the suspects came from the same general areas.
Two men accused of taking part in the Taba attacks, and who are now on trial in Cairo, continue to deny their involvement - which has added further uncertainty to the case since terrorists often take credit for their work, especially if they have acted in the name of religion, experts on militant groups in Egypt said.
The Ministry of the Interior, which oversees national security, announced Monday that as part of its inquiry into the attacks, thousands of security agents swept through the region. It declined to give details about what it had learned or how many arrests were made.
Posted by: Dan Darling ||
08/24/2005 18:06 ||
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#5
It appears as though people in bagdad are a little more metropolitan than I thought. Nobody in their right mind wants the kind of life the Sadrs want to enforce on them.
Kabul, 24 August (AKI) - Osama bin Laden has been wounded in Afghanistan, according to two different reports carried by various Islamic websites. Referring to the al-Qaeda leader as Abu Abdullah, the second message, which appeared on Wednesday, said: "Mullah Ahmadi, military leader of the Badr brigades, which form part of the al-Qaeda organisation in Afghanistan, has confirmed that Sheikh Abu Abdullah has been injured in his left leg."
It follows a previous message on several Islamic websites saying the fugitive terrorist leader was injured while taking part in an attack on a Spanish military base in Afghanistan.
The second message relaying the news is titled "Confirmation of the injury of Sheikh Abu Abdullah in the Al-Khulud expedition" and adds other details, specifying that the injury was to the left leg and claiming it was sustained "when the Sheikh went out onto the battlefield to lead the expedition during which the Spanish base was attacked and which was named the Al-Khulud expedition."
"The source has promised to broadcast soon a video of the expedition, which lasted four hours," the message continues, before concluding: "Therefore we ask Allah to heal the Sheikh and make him well again. Don't be miserly in praying for him."
Last week a Spanish helicopter crashed in Afghanistan, killing all 17 military personnel on board. Another helicopter taking part in the same training exercise made an emergency landing following the crash, injuring several other Spanish soldiers. Spain has dispatched additional troops to replace those killed and injured, but there has been no report of a subsequent attack on a Spanish base in Afghanistan.
No fat lady pic. No accordion lady pic. Heck, not even the vulture pic for this one.
#12
Wait a minute! I thought the Spanish pulled out of Iraq to placate Al Q? Did the demand after 3/11 insist they leave Afghanistan also, or are the Liars of Islam™ reneging on their earlier promise?
Do you suppose - could it be - that without any central control, there are no promises that can be kept? Some renegade Jihadi-Jerk can still demand more?
This would not bode well for the Islamonuts, if the rest of the world can figure this out, but then, I used to be an optimist.
Posted by: Bobby ||
08/24/2005 10:58 Comments ||
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#13
"Osama bin Laden has been wounded in Afghanistan, according to two different reports carried by various Islamic websites
They almost pulled one on me, only if they would have used three different reports. Whew! They were soooo close to convincing me.
He doesn't get hurt or killed, he just gets others to do it.
Posted by: Captain America ||
08/24/2005 11:25 Comments ||
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#18
I loved what one of the guys interviewed on "Inside 9/11" said. They showed some video of OBL walking around in Afghanistan carrying a radio with a Kalashnikov strapped on. This was promoted as his great leadership in attacks on the Russians. The guy said something like, "Yeah, 15 seconds of videotape showing him walking around. There's your 'great war hero.'"
#19
CA: OBL is a pussy. He doesn't get hurt or killed, he just gets others to do it.
No more than GWB is one. In terms of personal courage, you probably need to have a few stones to got toe-to-toe with Uncle Sam, since he can reach out and touch you practically anywhere in the world, whereas GWB is basically untouchable.
Keep in mind that OBL doesn't stare into the eyes of grieving parents who have been killed by thugs in the pursuit of freedom.
As pussy OBL says, "the main difference, you value live, we value death"
But, I don't see this pussy as a suicide bomber.
Posted by: Captain America ||
08/24/2005 13:37 Comments ||
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#23
First I'd like to defend OBL against the 'pussy' charge (although he is evil). He did actually participate in combat subsequent to the Russian take over of Afghanistan. We don't know for sure just how much 'action' he saw but he did see some. He also must realize that the US is targetting him.
Now, I'm going to defend GWB (who I don't think is evil). GWB flew high performance jets during the Vietnam era and were it not for the fact that we were winding down our force levels at the time he became nearly combat worthy, he would have gone to Vietnam. He also realizes that many people want to kill him (probably there are at least 20 or 30 plots against his life at any given time). Finally, there is a thing called moral courage where you put your beliefs and your ideas on the line and take all the crap that every one of your opponents can dish out. This he does at least as well as any President during my lifetime.
Oh, yea, pussy OBL is a real "lead from the front" type.
As for real "action", prove it! Goats don't count.
Posted by: Captain America ||
08/24/2005 14:04 Comments ||
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#25
PR: That can't be you. You make some crazy statements, but calling GWB a pu*** is unlike you. GWB maybe many things but he is not a pu***.
You're missing the point. I am not calling GWB (or any other leader) a coward. I am merely saying that OBL is no more a coward than GWB is - and neither of them is one. Wars are not about the personal courage of individual leaders - they are actions fought to achieve political ends. The bravest people in wars are typically those on the front lines - that is why they're professional soldiers.
Objectively, OBL is taking on way more risk than GWB. Think of how many ways we can get to him - and think of how many ways they can get to GWB. There's no contest.
It is silly to call our enemy cowardly when much of the time, he has to give up his life to touch us, and we can simply push a button and obliterate him. These is an elementary distinction. We use superior firepower not because we are cowardly, but because this isn't some kind of joust or friendly competition - those of our men who die don't get up again. The point of superior firepower is to get the job done at minimum cost to ourselves in terms of lives lost. Bottom line is that I wouldn't call the enemy cowardly - they fight a materially-superior enemy (us) at great risk to themselves and against great odds.
#26
CA: MHW Oh, yea, pussy OBL is a real "lead from the front" type. As for real "action", prove it! Goats don't count.
No modern leader leads from the front, nor would we want him to. Lord Wellesley stood well back from the action during the Napoleonic Wars for one simple reason - if he had been killed, Napoleon would probably have united Europe in the 19th century. General Grant certainly was not on the front lines during the bloody battles of the Civil War. We wouldn't want GWB on the front lines either, because his political skills and (somewhat) conservative views are much more important than his skill as a combat infantryman.
It's the same for OBL - if he's killed, the jihadist cause gets the breath knocked out of it. The longer he stays alive, the bigger the impact will be when he is killed. Don't believe some of these commentators when they say that a thousand bin Ladens will spring up after he is dead. Great rebel leaders are rare, and their causes generally die with them, because they usually possess a unique blend of political and administrative skills that is hard for successors to duplicate.
#27
Think of how many ways we can get to him - and think of how many ways they can get to GWB. There's no contest.
Someone almost got W with a grenade in...Georgia..Azerbaijan..or wherever the hell it was.
Bottom line is that I wouldn't call the enemy cowardly
They aren't cowardly when they go head to head with US troops. But how many times has that happened? Maybe one or two. Most of the time they use hit and run tactics, jumping across the border, spending most of the time HIDING amongst the civilian population. That's cowardice. You want to stop being a coward? Put on a uniform to distinguish yourself from the civilians.
ZF has taken a swig of the koolaid.
Posted by: Rafael ||
08/24/2005 14:26 Comments ||
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#28
they usually possess a unique blend of political and administrative skills
In OBL's case, it has more to do with money than administrative skills. If he dies, who else knows the numbers to the Swiss bank accounts?
Posted by: Rafael ||
08/24/2005 14:28 Comments ||
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#29
I think Zhang Fe's point is that physical courage isn't really the issue here.... although I never got the impression that Osama bin Laden has much of that kind of courage. On the other hand, he has always lived much more parsimoneously than his income required, as part of his Leader of Warriors self-image. So what? Bin Laden simply substituted fawning and adoration for velvets, silks and air conditioning. And, he clearly believes himself important enough that his actions can compel his God to bend to his will and join the fight against bin Laden's enemies -- how frustrating and demeaning for him that Allah isn't properly obedient.
As for moral courage -- Bush clearly leads the pack, certainly amongst politicians in the world today, and I would also place him high on the list of American presidents historically. But that's just me... I'm silly that way.
#30
Rafael: They aren't cowardly when they go head to head with US troops. But how many times has that happened? Maybe one or two. Most of the time they use hit and run tactics, jumping across the border, spending most of the time HIDING amongst the civilian population. That's cowardice. You want to stop being a coward? Put on a uniform to distinguish yourself from the civilians. ZF has taken a swig of the koolaid.
That makes no sense. Do we go up against them when they can see us? How many daylight raids do our boys do? What would our casualties be without close air support? I'm sure their guys would be happy to go head-to-head with our infantry if we forego our tanks, helicopter gunships, JDAM's, UAV's, artillery, Strykers and our unlimited ammunition, food supplies and water (thanks to our excellent logistics). Fact is that we spend a lot of money to give our boys an edge. And that edge is why it takes a lot of personal courage to fight the US military. We're not there to win points on courage - we are there to kill the enemy. This is why when our boys hit serious oppo, they call in artillery or air strikes instead of assaulting the position head-on. Think of our artillery and air strikes as intelligent mobile mines of unlimited range and power (within the confines of the battlefield) - after all, we can put tons of ordnance on a target at will, and there's plenty more where that came from.
They will seldom assault us head-on, because that would be as stupid as us attacking them head-on without air and artillery cover. Nonetheless, some of them do it anyway, and that is when you hear about high body counts and so on.
Bottom line, the way I look at it, anyone who's willing to put his life on the line day in and day out isn't cowardly. Are they ruthless? Yes. Are they our enemies? Yes. Do they deserve to be exterminated, perhaps with their entire families? Yes. But cowardly, they are not.
#31
TW: I think Zhang Fe's point is that physical courage isn't really the issue here.... although I never got the impression that Osama bin Laden has much of that kind of courage.
OBL showed up in Afghanistan. For the duration. To fight the Soviets. The same Soviets who sowed mines that looked like toys. And carried out massacre after massacre. He should have stopped when he was ahead - he was a big hero in Saudi and his family was rich. But he chose to war against Uncle Sam. One thing I'll say is that it takes more personal courage to be a bin Laden than to be a GWB, or just about anyone other than bin Laden - it just goes with the territory. Taking on Uncle Sam is an inherently hazardous enterprise. (For one thing, your vacation options are severely constricted - "so which cave in Waziristan do you want to vacation this year").
I think some people are mistaking courage for virtue. Courage and virtue are two different things. The Soviets and the Nazis were pretty courageous in war. But they were not good people. The jihadis are, to me, brave people. But they are still our mortal enemies, and - short of a surrender - must be killed to the last man, and tortured to death, if necessary, to get life-saving information out of them.
Your comments remind me of an entry from a Southern woman's diary (not Mary Chestnut, but I can't remember who at the moment) during the Civil War. She obviously lived near the Mississippi or Tennessee River and blasted the cowardly Yanks for using their nefarious armor-clad boats. Then she concluded by wondering why Confederate authorities did not have the foresight to field the very weapons she was just blasting!
#34
If UBL is participating in combat it means that they are either reaally hurting for manpower, or that they need some promotional material to raise the level of support. Either one suggests that things aren't going well for them, but that's IF the report is true.
#35
BH: If UBL is participating in combat it means that they are either reaally hurting for manpower, or that they need some promotional material to raise the level of support. Either one suggests that things aren't going well for them, but that's IF the report is true.
That's crossed my mind recently, with the recent deaths of high-level Taliban officials from coalition raids. They must really be hurting to have the leadership personally taking charge. The principle's same as in chess - always protect your king.
They are if they hide amongst civilians, and refuse to wear uniforms.
One thing I'll say is that it takes more personal courage to be a bin Laden than to be a GWB, or just about anyone other than bin Laden
Doesn't take much courage to be hiding in an area that is basically your own turf. He's surrounded by his own people. He's got more protection there in Afghanistan and Pakistan, than GWB has in the US.
He's a coward like any other (Saddam for instance) it's just that there hasn't been an opportunity yet to show him as one (like Saddam was shown to be a coward).
Posted by: Rafael ||
08/24/2005 15:53 Comments ||
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#37
R: They are if they hide amongst civilians, and refuse to wear uniforms.
That makes no sense - courage has to do with risking your life, not minimizing your few advantages. Hiding among civilians is what almost every rebel army has done throughout history. And as to wearing a uniform, that's just a silly notion - did the resistance movements that fought the Axis powers wear uniforms?
R: Doesn't take much courage to be hiding in an area that is basically your own turf. He's surrounded by his own people. He's got more protection there in Afghanistan and Pakistan, than GWB has in the US.
The whole world is GWB's turf. He can go pretty anywhere in the world he wants. You highlighted a single incident in Georgia, but that was an exceptional incident - GWB chose to appear in public beside the Georgian president in a friendly country. Can bin Laden appear in public at all before adoring crowds and the media, let alone beside Pervez Musharraf or Hamid Karzai? The entire world is a friendly environment for GWB. Bin Laden has to travel in disguise, and anywhere outside of the Pakistani province where he lives is hostile territory.
R: He's a coward like any other (Saddam for instance) it's just that there hasn't been an opportunity yet to show him as one (like Saddam was shown to be a coward).
Saddam's no coward. If he was, he wouldn't have invaded either Iran or Kuwait. Both of these things took significant courage in the sense that if he lost, there was a strong chance that he would be killed. In addition, he wasn't handed his position as dictator of Iraq - he fought his way to the top, by killing off his competition every step of the way. He started off with zero resources and managed to get his opposition before they got him. These are not the actions of a physical coward.
Why didn't Saddam fight to the death? Because it wasn't necessary to. In ancient times, getting captured meant getting tortured to death. It would have made sense, then, to fight to the death. (Note that even Vercingetorix did not fight to the death).
Why do American soldiers today fight to the death against jihadist enemies? Because they know that getting captured means they get tortured to death. Large numbers of American soldiers surrendered during WWII. Were they cowards? John McCain did not fight to the death. Does that make him a coward? If your situation is hopeless, and you know that the enemy doesn't take prisoners, you have to be a real coward not to fight to the death. But if he takes prisoners, you have to be really stupid not surrender. Cowardice doesn't come into play here.
#38
ZF is correct. UBL, pig-humping piece of filth though he may be, is no coward. I wouldn't actually call him courageous, however, on account of his faith. It isn't courage to face death if you believe that the result of dying is to spend the rest of eternity wallowing in poonanny.
#39
ZF: One thing I'll say is that it takes more personal courage to be a bin Laden than to be a GWB, or just about anyone other than bin Laden
R: Doesn't take much courage to be hiding in an area that is basically your own turf. He's surrounded by his own people. He's got more protection there in Afghanistan and Pakistan, than GWB has in the US.
Apart from bin Laden being a hunted fugitive today, there is that little matter I mentioned a moment ago, about bin Laden showing up in Afghanistan to fight the Soviets. This isn't like GWB showing up in Vietnam to fight as an American infantryman - it's like GWB showing up in Vietnam to fight on the Vietcong's side. Like the Vietcong, the resistance fighters in Afghanistan took *huge* casualties - an estimated 1m died. The phrase "life expectancy of a fruit fly" does come to mind.
#40
did the resistance movements that fought the Axis powers wear uniforms?
The ones that were organized certainly at the very least separated themselves from the civilian population. The point is, sporting an RPG in battle, and then using civilians for cover and protection after the battle is over, is not bravery. You would not find resistance movements in WW2 doing this.
Saddam's no coward
Then we have a different definition of cowardice. He RAN. He HID. As the supreme commander, he did not stand up for his actions. In fact, he was AFRAID of what the Americans would do to him. That is cowardice.
Posted by: Rafael ||
08/24/2005 16:40 Comments ||
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#41
BH: I wouldn't actually call him courageous, however, on account of his faith. It isn't courage to face death if you believe that the result of dying is to spend the rest of eternity wallowing in poonanny.
A lot (probably most) of our boys believe that when they die, they'll go to heaven. I wouldn't say they're less courageous for doing so. Religious or not, every man has to deal with the the possibility of impending death on his own.
You are making the wrong agrument. You say that OBL is not a coward because he chose to fight against the US. Your posts are becoming less and less with quality because of your obsession with quanity. Shut down the factory for a while and come out with some quality product.
I say that he is a coward because he and higher up lieutenants preaches to all his followers to die for Allah. But, when given the chance to surrender after being surrounded by the US military, they always give up rather than die for their cause.
I seen it time and time again. Not only are OBL and his higher up lieutenants cowards, they are hypocrites, selfish, and Muslim apostates. Dick Durbin just really signed his and (your brave) OBL's death sentence. Thanks to Durbin, OBL won't even be given a chance go give up. But, if given a chance he would rather give up than die for their cause. Guaranteed and you can take it to the bank.
If you want me to take away the label of coward, hypocrite, selfish, and Muslim apostate then OBL and his lieutenants need practice what they preach to their followers. A TRUE leader practices what he preaches.
#43
the resistance fighters in Afghanistan took *huge* casualties
So how does that make OBL courageous? He was a spiritual guide, with some experience in engineering, and bundles of cash. What evidence is there of his bravery? The fact that he started a war with the Soviets? Big deal. He's a runner. He runs all over the place, and not for tactical reasons. Had they pinned him down he would have bravely escaped to Pakistan.
Posted by: Rafael ||
08/24/2005 16:52 Comments ||
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#44
the resistance fighters in Afghanistan took *huge* casualties
So how does that make OBL courageous? He was a spiritual guide, with some experience in engineering, and bundles of cash. What evidence is there of his bravery? The fact that he started a war with the Soviets? Big deal. He's a runner. He runs all over the place, and not for tactical reasons. Had they pinned him down he would have bravely escaped to Pakistan.
Posted by: Rafael ||
08/24/2005 16:52 Comments ||
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#45
R: The ones that were organized certainly at the very least separated themselves from the civilian population. The point is, sporting an RPG in battle, and then using civilians for cover and protection after the battle is over, is not bravery. You would not find resistance movements in WW2 doing this.
No offense - but that is the complete opposite of what happened. Resistance movements in civilian clothing assassinated Axis officials and soldiers and hid among civilians, not because they were cowardly, but because facing the massed combat power of the Axis armies would have been a waste of their lives and ultimately futile. Risking death against superior weaponry and firepower (heck - risking death at all) is bravery - limiting your few advantages to seek a joust with a heavily-armed opponent is stupidity, not bravery - it's like taking on a rattlesnake with your bare hands.
R: Then we have a different definition of cowardice. He RAN. He HID. As the supreme commander, he did not stand up for his actions. In fact, he was AFRAID of what the Americans would do to him. That is cowardice.
That, again, makes no sense. If a coalition of Muslim armies invades the US, I would expect GWB to run. And hide. And organize the resistance from where he is. His job is not to get killed - it is to serve as the rallying symbol for the American resistance - to tell us why we fight. As to Saddam being afraid of what Uncle Sam would do - of course - he probably expected to be tortured. Heck - McCain was afraid of being tortured.
#47
PR: I say that he is a coward because he and higher up lieutenants preaches to all his followers to die for Allah. But, when given the chance to surrender after being surrounded by the US military, they always give up rather than die for their cause.
The reason they give up is not because they are cowardly, but because they can go through a prison term and live to fight another day, when they are released. They understand - more than the liberal media do - that dead jihadis aren't martyrs that invigorate the cause, they are just dead. Remember - their mission isn't to get killed - it is to kill the infidel and impose Islam upon the unbelievers.
#50
but that is the complete opposite of what happened.
Not in most cases. Resistance movements in Poland hid in the forests and wore uniforms. They were certainly helped by civilians, but these were individuals not involved in the fight.
Jihadis in Afghanistan are certainly organized well enough to separate themselves from the population. But they don't, they are cowards.
If a coalition of Muslim armies invades the US, I would expect GWB to run.
Then GWB would have been a coward. A coward too, can organize resistance. Faced with exactly the same circumstances that Saddam was in, I would expect to GWB to surrender. At that point, he would not be essential to conduct resistance. Saddam is in jail. Has resistance decreased in Iraq?
Posted by: Rafael ||
08/24/2005 17:08 Comments ||
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#51
ZF --
OBL was not in the fight in Afganistan with Russia. He was being the pussy he is by sitting it out on the sidelines. He couldn't win a fight with any one of his four wives.
The toughest thing he has done is write a few checks to have others blow themselves up and intentionally kill innocent children and women.
OBL = purrrrr
Posted by: Captain America ||
08/24/2005 17:10 Comments ||
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#52
Tens of thousands of American troops surrendered during WWII. None of them were cowards, either.
American troops did not hide when they surrendered. They did not throw away their uniforms. That was bravery. Jihadis, otoh, after the battle is over, melt away in the civilian population. That is cowardice.
Posted by: Rafael ||
08/24/2005 17:13 Comments ||
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#53
PR: If you want me to take away the label of coward, hypocrite, selfish, and Muslim apostate then OBL and his lieutenants need practice what they preach to their followers. A TRUE leader practices what he preaches.
Again, this makes no sense. GWB exhorts the troops to fight the enemy, but he doesn't do so personally. And none of the troops expects him to. We exhort the troops to fight the enemy. But we don't do so personally. And the troops don't expect us to. Does that make GWB and us hypocrites and cowards?
OBL is the commander of the jihadist forces. His role is not to fight - it is to lead. As long as he is alive, the jihadist movement has hope. The moment he dies, the jihadish movement will, by and large, die with him. This is why he must stay alive.
The idea that "true leaders" do it themselves is false. In the modern era, true leaders do not expose themselves to physical danger - that is the face of modern warfare. Roosevelt, Churchill, Chiang Kai-shek, Mussolini, Hirohito, Hitler and Stalin - none of these war leaders were on the front lines during WWII.
They don't preach it. They preach dying, if necessary, to kill the infidel. They don't preach not surrendering. They specifically say that faked surrenders are to be applauded.
#55
R: American troops did not hide when they surrendered. They did not throw away their uniforms. That was bravery. Jihadis, otoh, after the battle is over, melt away in the civilian population. That is cowardice.
Americans did throw away their uniforms and try to hide among sympathetic European civilians. Some went along with resistance operations. Others tried to get back behind allied lines. It was actually the braver ones who did this - since being out of uniform meant a summary execution as a spy. Being captured in uniform was actually a lot safer than hiding with the partisans. Rafael has a lot to learn about WWII.
#56
Resistance movements in Poland hid in the forests
I used the wrong term, hid, lest I imply that they were cowards. They organized themselves in the forests, trained, and built their bases and held most of their supplies there. That is something of a different activity than simply hiding.
Posted by: Rafael ||
08/24/2005 17:25 Comments ||
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#57
R: Then GWB would have been a coward. A coward too, can organize resistance. Faced with exactly the same circumstances that Saddam was in, I would expect to GWB to surrender. At that point, he would not be essential to conduct resistance. Saddam is in jail. Has resistance decreased in Iraq?
If Saddam was not in custody, the resistance would probably be stronger than it is today. Saddam was great at running a police state. And the skills needed to run a police state are not too different from the ones needed to run a guerrilla war. Two years into the Vietnam War, the Vietnamese communists were killing American troops at 3x the rate they were at the beginning. The Iraqi guerrillas have flatlined. They have lost control of town after town.
Posted by: Rafael ||
08/24/2005 17:28 Comments ||
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#59
I can't believe all the people that are piling on Zhang Fei, in my opinion the single most logical, knowledgeble poster this site has. Note that his posts have refrained in ad hominems while many of his opponents have.
Not taking sides necessarily, just expressing my disgust...
He would have been a hindrance to the resistance. He was a significant figure whose energy was spent hiding and running, more than planning anything. He was useless. He was trying to save himself. He ran. He was a coward.
Posted by: Rafael ||
08/24/2005 17:33 Comments ||
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#61
R: Do you have any numbers on how many did this?
Not a huge number, but significant enough for a routine operation (by partisans) to be set up to smuggle Americans back over to the Allied side. Being captured in uniform was safer; they would be put in POW camps that weren't ideal, but kept most POW's alive whereas soldiers not in uniform were summarily executed, and those who made it back got to fight until they were killed in battle. My point is that the uniform issue in WWII is not only a red herring, it doesn't have the significance Rafael thinks it has.
At what? So far the discussion seems civilized to me. Heated but civilized.
Earlier I said ZF took a swig of the koolaid...that seems tame by comparison. If ZF took offense, then I apologize :-)
Posted by: Rafael ||
08/24/2005 17:36 Comments ||
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#63
R: He would have been a hindrance to the resistance. He was a significant figure whose energy was spent hiding and running, more than planning anything. He was useless. He was trying to save himself. He ran. He was a coward.
That's simply not true. He had the books of the resistance on him when he was captured. Saddam has survived this long despite his internal enemies (and I'm talking about those among his ministers and generals who think they could do Saddam's job) because he knew how to run the repressive organs of the state like a well-oiled machine. Again - his job as the leader of an occupied country is to run and plan. Not stand up and get killed or captured. Read a few books about wartime leadership for countries that have been invaded and occupied. The leader's job is to run, stay alive, figure out what the resistance needs to do and try to outlast the invading force, not compete with Rambo for bragging rights.
#64
Look, courage is not objectively a virtue. It is possible for a jihadi to be courageous, but he's still a pile of shit. A Nazi in WWII could be courageous in the line of duty, but he is still a pile of shit. Why you guys are arguing the comparative courage of their guys and our guys is beyond me - their guys, no matter how courageous, will always be pig-humping bags of dogshit. Can we just agree that UBL needs to die?
Well, that's cool, and I appreciate the civility in this thread, it's just that I view Zhang as an outstanding contributor to the site (as opposed to, say, most of my posts, which just goof on the subject at hand), and I'm just a bit bothered by people piling on him, that's all.
#68
10,000 judges unemployed and we get Mrs. Davis?
plzzzz
Posted by: Captain America ||
08/24/2005 17:50 Comments ||
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#69
Saddam's options were extremely limited in Iraq. He would have been a figurehead only. He wasn't necessary for the resistance. The assertion that the resistance would have been stronger with him around, is wrong, in my opinion. No matter how great he was at running a police state, at the moment he was found he was useless. Most of his energy being spent evading coalition soldiers.
Posted by: Rafael ||
08/24/2005 17:52 Comments ||
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#70
10,000 judges unemployed and we get Mrs. Davis?
#71
Roosevelt, Churchill, Chiang Kai-shek, Mussolini, Hirohito, Hitler and Stalin - none of these war leaders were on the front lines during WWII.
Those amongst the list who extrolled their followers to commit suicide (Hirochito in particular) for the shared cause of their leaders are themselves pussies, just as pussy OBL.
Anyone foolish enough to believe OBL did another other than use their radio over a 15 sec. video clip and write a few tough expense checks needs to check their facts and provide some proof -- none of yet is provided by ZF.
Posted by: Captain America ||
08/24/2005 17:56 Comments ||
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#72
I meant those "strong words" in a nice way.
Posted by: Captain America ||
08/24/2005 17:58 Comments ||
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#73
The word coward infers that someone faced danger but cowardice got the better of them, as for example Fed Kennedy, he was only interested in saving his miserable ass and was not about to risk his neck saving another human being in danger. Usama never faced danger, he was safely behind the scenes well out of harms way, plotting the assasination of any opposition to his rule, with operatives murdering in his name, and the money to do, the little spoiled shit, with his walkie talkie and 15 seconds of footage.
Yeah and if I don't get some help soon, I'm gonna make like a coward and run :-)
ZF and I differ on the normative aspects of the analysis. It's pointless, really, to argue about such things.
Posted by: Rafael ||
08/24/2005 18:03 Comments ||
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#75
I come not to praise OBL but to scorn him.
Posted by: Captain America ||
08/24/2005 18:10 Comments ||
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#76
It galls me. Osama Bin Laden could commit terrorist acts against the civilian populace of the world's remaining superpower with the full confidence that several of his siblings were within its complete power, but the worst that would be done to them is that they'd be put on an airplane and sent home.
Posted by: Barbara Skolaut ||
08/24/2005 18:20 Comments ||
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#78
Addendum: I do not suggest taking his siblings hostage. But he performs equivalent acts against others in the full security that the same won't happen to him. I think this makes him chickenshit.
#80
You are getting way of track. This thread is about OBL. Not Saddam or WWII. Lately, you're turning every thread about WWII. Saddam is not a religious fanatic. You are comparing apples and oranges and pears.
Stick to the subject please and provide some links. You're just going on and on. And, making less and less sense as you proceed. For example, look at your statement below.
"They don't preach it. They preach dying, if necessary, to kill the infidel."
According to you, they are brave because they ask their followers to die, if necessary, when murdering innocent people, without provacation in the name of Allah. By your insane logic, OBL followers are equivalent to the military under GWB. Smoke it brother. Smoke it.
Mrs. D.
There is no way in hell that ZF is winning this argument.
#82
BD: 9/11 = actions of cowards, braggards, scum, bullies, lowlifes, punks... How many brave men have slit the throats of Air Hostesses? This was OBL's biggest, proudest achievement, and it's all as far from bravery as it's possible to be.
That makes them unsportsmanlike and unchivalrous, but it doesn't make them cowardly. Besides, they were 5 men armed with *boxcutters* against planefuls of passengers. They needed to get to the pilots quickly, before the passengers figured out what was happening. If they had been a little less assertive, Flight 93 could have happened to them. The fact is that they flew these planes to their doom. My feeling is that even a regular hijacking complete with dramatic scenes on the tarmac and Delta Force commandos would have been gutsy. But to deliberately do something that you know will result in your death - that takes guts.
The fact is that we need to kill these guys not because they are cowards or thugs - but because they are sworn to killing us. We kill because we don't want to die.*
* I'm paraphrasing what I thought was an excellent line from an elegiac Japanese movie - When the Last Sword is Drawn (Mibu Gishi Den) - about the end of the Tokugawa Shogunate (military dictatorship) and the Meiji Restoration (of imperial rule).
#83
But to deliberately do something that you know will result in your death - that takes guts
I understand your point, ZF, but disagree somewhat. I think you're projecting a very Western set of assumptions onto Arabs, whose culture is very different. (So too are the charges of 'cowardly', by the way.)
Intense (fanatical) religious belief isn't quite the same thing as courage.
Moreover, many of the suicide bombers are known to have used major narcotics prior to going off to kill themselves and others. Whether this was true of some of the 9/11 teams I don't know ... given the avionics and flight control systems on major airliners, it would have been possible to execute those crashes while at least somewhat numbed to pain and fear.
#84
"We love death. Americans love life. That is the difference between us."
-OBL
I wouldn't call it guts - I don't really know what it is, other than insane, foolish, and hateful. People commit suicide everyday - and are branded cowards for it. Can't have it both ways. And they do it, customarily, in isolation - not in groups of brainwashed fellows who anticipate an eternity of forbidden fruits. IMHO, neither is displaying courage, instead I believe they are displaying trust that there will be relief, in the first case, and reward, in the second case.
So, I'd suggest that to compare members of the Cult of Death and Global Dominion to members of the Cult of Life and Freedom, in almost any manner other than being of the same species, is specious.
#85
OBL: We love death. Americans love life. That is the difference between us.
OBL is saying that Muslims aren't afraid of death whereas Americans are. I don't see how that's particularly unique, as far as bragging goes. I think it's pretty clear that there's a limited supply of Muslims who are brave enough to go all the way. There are many verbal supporters, but few who would actually risk their lives. Still, I'm impressed with even the limited numbers.
How many Christians have gone on a crusade to free the oppressed Christians of the Moluccas (in Indonesia) or to aid the oppressed Christians of Nigeria? Muslims from all over the world are heading to Chechnya and Kashmir. You gotta admire this kind of persistence. These guys have more guts than brains.
#87
Many Christian missionaries, priests and nuns have been truly martyred and murdered for their faith in Africa and elsewhere in the world and they haven't taken others with them as the price of dying for the Faith.
I suggest that ZF drop his insufferable "jihadis have courage" tact. It's a loser.
If AQ killers were so brave, they'd put on uniforms, get a little discipline and face us like proper men at arms, not by using these teenaged-type cherry bomb manoeuvres.
Posted by: Stanley Livingstone ||
08/24/2005 20:36 Comments ||
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#88
Bravery is to love life - and consciously give it up in defense of another. Once you've seen it, right in front of your face, no praise for a murderous fuckwit Islamonut tool merits mention.
#89
SL: I suggest that ZF drop his insufferable "jihadis have courage" tact. It's a loser.
If AQ killers were so brave, they'd put on uniforms, get a little discipline and face us like proper men at arms, not by using these teenaged-type cherry bomb manoeuvres.
You mean our boys would face these guys, armed with identical equipment, like players on a football field? Neither our men nor these guys are fighting fair - they are there to kill each other - that's why we use artillery, JDAM's and gunships, among other things, and they use mines. We backshoot them by killing them at distances where they can't even see what hit them or at night - and they do the same to our guys by using mines. If they put on uniforms, would we promise not to use night-vision technology or JDAM's against them? How about disarming to their levels, since they don't have a multi-billion dollar procurement budget? Fact is, neither side is fighting fair, but I'd much rather have our equipment than their tactics. So would they, I suspect.
#90
.com: Bravery is to love life - and consciously give it up in defense of another. Once you've seen it, right in front of your face, no praise for a murderous fuckwit Islamonut tool merits mention.
You mean a guy who wins the Medal of Honor by killing a hundred of the enemy during a one-man headlong charge is just a murderous tool? The platoon that prepares an ambush and then blows a bunch of the enemy away using Claymores are just murderous tools? How about an AC-130 pilot who opens up with his 105mm howitzer - is this guy just another murderous tool? What about an F-16 pilot with his JDAM?
I suspect not. They would still use civilians for protection and cover, then show the bodies of their dead relatives on TV, proclaiming how evil the US is.
If they were really brave, they would accept the risks that distinguishing yourself from civilians brings with it. But they choose not to. Hence they are cowards.
Posted by: Rafael ||
08/24/2005 21:07 Comments ||
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#92
.com: And I suggest they have neither - they have lifelong indoctrination in a belief.
Lots of Muslims get this indoctrination. Tens of millions of Muslims in Pakistan have attended madrasas, which are basically Islamic parochial schools. Perhaps tens of thousands head out to seek their appointment with destiny. These are the guys with guts. Indoctrination alone doesn't describe it - tens of millions of their classmates believe in it, but only tens of thousands show up.
The difference between one group of believers and another is guts. This is why roughly 50% of Muslims (500 or so million) support bin Laden but only a few tens of thousands have actually shown up to fight the good fight. They're *all* indoctrinated. But only a few have the guts to go for the gold.
Lifelong indoctrination with no choices, no chances, no individualism allowed is not bravery - the jihadis are tools. It's the sole reason why I don't want to just nuke the lot of them off the planet - 99% had little or no choice.
Now, are you trying to argue a US citizen is a tool in an all-volunteer service? No different from the jihadis?
#96
ZF, God told me that he chose me to cut your throat and then kill all people with Z in their name afterwards then y..then x...etc. he ordered me and told me I could kill all I want to, until he called me to sit next to him in heaven and then i could choose 72 eager beavers [no burkas].
I kill you and 10 ten thousand other innocent folks...Am I courageous or nutz!
Malignant Self Love
Messianic
Posted by: Red Dog ||
08/24/2005 21:41 Comments ||
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#97
OBL is a pussy.
Let me repeat. The toughest thing OBL has done is write fat checks. He did not fight the Ruskies in Afganistan with anything other than a pencil. He is a fu*ckin loser who talks big but has brainwashed Islamofascist underlings to die for a demented belief.
ZF - you appear to ignore providing any evidence that OBL has gotten his hands dirty other than writing checks and chasing goats.
OBL says they love death. Some would argue that OBL is personally loath to follow up on that statement. What a pussy.
Posted by: Captain America ||
08/24/2005 21:45 Comments ||
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#98
OBL is a pussy.
Let me repeat. The toughest thing OBL has done is write fat checks. He did not fight the Ruskies in Afganistan with anything other than a pencil. He is a fu*ckin loser who talks big but has brainwashed Islamofascist underlings to die for a demented belief.
ZF - you appear to ignore providing any evidence that OBL has gotten his hands dirty other than writing checks and chasing goats.
OBL says they love death. Some would argue that OBL is personally loath to follow up on that statement. What a pussy.
Posted by: Captain America ||
08/24/2005 21:45 Comments ||
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#99
ZF - Y'know, your #90 not only was a conscious disingenuous attempt to muddy the water - egregiously misrepresenting what I said, but offensive enough in the asshat moral equivalency dept to truly piss me off.
You've spun this fucking thread into a dervish to cover for a half-baked brainfart claim. You don't know dick about guts or bravery or courage. If you did, if you had even the slightest inkling, you would've admitted you overstated your point long ago - and that would've been that. But nope - your ego wouldn't allow it. Since it's just werdz to you, it has no meaning. Just an exercise in verbiage. Funny, it's not to me.
I now believe you're not just occasionally excessively argumentative, but you're actually a fool. One of those people who gets all his miracles second-hand. Some important stuff in this world only comes from experience. You can't "get it" by Googling or connecting werdz together. And that's all you're doing - blowing werdz. Just werdz. You don't actually know fuck-all about it.
#100
ZF - twice in the last week or so I've seen an uncharacteristic (from the couple yrs you've commented) amount of "unbalanced" argument from you, differing from the "principles" you seemed to support before. WTF? Or did I misjudge you and your character, Rob't?
Posted by: Frank G ||
08/24/2005 21:54 Comments ||
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#101
Whilst the death I faced was not at the hands of a rifleman, or suicide bomber but rather at the hands of a 13,000 ton freight train, I define courage as being afraid, but doing it anyways.
Lots of good discussion here - brain food. Eat it.
Posted by: Bobby ||
08/24/2005 22:01 Comments ||
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#102
Maybe the German language can provide a middle ground:
"cowardly" in German means "feige"
"Feige" is also used in the meaning of "heimtückisch", which in English is "dastardly".
#103
Bobby: Whilst the death I faced was not at the hands of a rifleman, or suicide bomber but rather at the hands of a 13,000 ton freight train, I define courage as being afraid, but doing it anyways.
If the jihadis were so thoroughly indoctrinated, they wouldn't be using drugs. They're afraid too. They use drugs because alcohol is explicitly forbidden to them. Our boys use alcohol. Same difference.
#104
Wonderful news.
Trailing wife, I had to look up "parsimoneously"
I love this site I'm always picking up stuff, thanks
Posted by: Jan ||
08/24/2005 22:56 Comments ||
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#105
The other point I wanted to make was that we don't send our boys out in car bombs because we don't need to. If we needed to*, would they need drugs to get their courage up? Would their need for drugs make them cowards?
* Let's say Muslims somehow manage to launch a jihad that manages to conquer North America, and we're fighting a last-ditch guerrilla war against Muslim troops and hordes of Muslim settlers. If there's one thing we have no shortage of in this country, it's rustbuckets classic cars, many of which would be ideal for car bombs.
#109
I'm troubled by ZF's attempt to draw a "moral equivalence" between US troops and terrorists/jihadis. I don't know if this was his intention but it comes out that way.
The discussion is too much about the supposed meanings of words and not enough about basic values.
And no, should the U.S. get occupied by jihadis, the last US freedom fighters would not blow up their own schools and children to get the enemy out.
#131
"doent ever cuse me of bein em kos followin piece of shit."
Excuse me? Do you realize what you just said?
You won't accept any equivalence between blogging here at RB and blogging with the Kos Kidz -- but you DO between, say, the brave al Zarqi and LTC Kurilla?
#132
TGA: I'm troubled by ZF's attempt to draw a "moral equivalence" between US troops and terrorists/jihadis. I don't know if this was his intention but it comes out that way.
My first point has nothing to do with morality. Courage certainly doesn't. What I have been saying here is this - one can be brave without being moral.
My second point is that it is silly to talk about the enemy being cowardly for conducting remote control attacks, because that's precisely what we do to them. Ever since slingshot was invented, man has strived for greater-and-greater standoff distances. We are now the kings of the standoff attack. Practical it is - heroic it isn't.
My third point is that it isn't a great idea to denigrate OBL's courage. He is braver that most men anywhere in the world. After some thought on his background, I understand why Michael Scheuer considers him an impressive person. There aren't a whole lot of *countries* that would take on Uncle Sam, let alone individuals. Out of nothing, he organized attacks that had killed hundreds of Americans even before 9/11. The bin Ladens are the Rockefellers of Saudi Arabia. OBL did not have to go to Afghanistan. Would Rockefeller have considered going to the Moluccas (in Indonesia) to free Christians from Muslim oppression? But that would be the equivalent of what OBL did in Afghanistan.
Other Arab (notably Palestinian) terrorist groups have targeted Uncle Sam. After the US went after them, they tended to simmer down. But bin Laden continues to go after American targets despite being targeted. He could probably get plastic surgery and disappear, just like Carlos the Jackal and other terrorists before him. But he hasn't backed off. I find his persistence in the face of difficult odds admirable. I guess my attitude towards him is not much different from the Duke of Wellington's view of the East India Company's opponents - gallant but doomed.
#133
TGA: Not you mucky, but ZF's moral equivalence BS sounds like Daily Kos
The average terrorist has to be much braver than the average GI. It's a fact - I understand we kill something like ten of their guys for every one that we lose, and the terrorists who survive know it, in spite of the nonsense al Jazeera puts out about beleaguered GI's. This isn't moral equivalence - it's acknowledging that the side with inferior equipment and higher casualties needs a little more intestinal fortitude to keep fighting the good fight.
Even for those who have long focused on the growth of Islamist extremism and terror in Bangladesh, the sheer scale and dispersal of the 459 coordinated bomb blasts within a single hour, across 63 of the countryâs 64 districts, on August 17, 2005, came as a surprise. Indeed, recoveries of a number of unexploded devices, as well as arrests and the discovery of cottage âbomb factoriesâ, including one in the single district â Munshiganj â which escaped the serial blasts (but where over a hundred bombs were recovered from a house at Baligaon village), suggest that the numbers could well have been larger. Over the past years, Islamist extremist activities have only been noticed in a few of Bangladeshâs western districts including, Naogaon, Rajshahi, Kushtia (each sharing border with the Indian State of West Bengal), Bogra, Natore and Pabna. The Jagrata Muslim Janata Bangladesh (JMJB) and its twin organisation, the Jamaat-ul-Mujahideen Bangladesh (JMB) â the latter is widely held responsible for the August 17 explosions â have been known to be active in these districts. Southern Districts, including Bandarban, Coxâs Bazaar, Chittagong, Khagrachhari, Rangamati (sharing borders with Myanmar and the Indian States of Mizoram and Tripura) have also witnessed significant extremist activity attributed to the Harkat-ul-Jihad Islami Bangladesh (HuJI-BD) and its international partners, including the Al-Qaeda. There was, however, little cumulative evidence of capacities in any single terrorist organisation â or known coalition of such organisations â that could engineer a nationwide strike of such a magnitude. Nor, indeed, is it credible that such capacities, involving thousands of persons, could have systematically been acquired without generating a substantial volume of intelligence âchatterâ â if not actual precursor incidents and arrests.
Intelligence sources estimate that at least two persons would have been involved in the planting of each explosive device â suggesting an operation mobilizing well over a thousand cadres through the length and breadth of the country. That a conspiracy of such magnitude could escape the notice of intelligence agencies defies belief. Equally incredible, indeed ludicrous, is the Minister of State for Home, Lutfozzaman Babarâs statement that, "We had intelligence reports of some attacks between August 14 and 16, but we had no information of attacks on August 17." Terrorist plans donât come with an inbuilt and irrevocable âexpiry dateâ, after which everyone goes home. [Babar quickly shifted his position, claiming shortly thereafter that the incidents were "totally unexpected. None of us had any idea about such an incident."] While the sheer number of explosions is startling, the bombs were all of low intensity and of crude manufacture, clearly intended to communicate a message, rather than to inflict hard damage to life and property. That is why, despite the scale of the operation, only two persons were killed, and the total number injured were estimated at just 100.
Some 300 persons have since been arrested, including a number of low level activists of the JMB, and the Government has circulated photographs of 15 leaders of four militant organisations, including Maulana Abdur Raman and Siddiqul Islam alias Bangla Bhai of the Jamaat-ul-Mujahideen, to all airports and land ports in Bangladesh to prevent them from leaving the country. There is, nevertheless, evidence of an enveloping smokescreen going up, and that the state is, in fact, eager to deflect suspicion away from the Islamist extremist groups. Several leaders of the ruling coalition â including some from Prime Minister Khaleda Ziaâs ostensibly secular Bangladesh Nationalist Party (BNP), have sought to shift the blame to the Awami League. Despite interrogation reports confirming JMB involvement, the Deputy Minister for Land, Ruhul Quddus Talukder, a BNP Member of Parliament, declared, "I donât think they (the JMB) have such a strong network. Awami League must have done this, using fake leaflets, to destroy Bangladeshâs image internationally." Gradually, however, the emphasis is being shifted, and India has now been brought into the picture. The Jamaat-e-Islami amir (chief) and Industries Minister, Matiur Rahman Nizami (the Jamaat is another coalition partner in the BNP-led coalition Government), blamed Indiaâs external intelligence agency, the Research and Analysis Wing (R&AW) and Israelâs Mossad for "playing an important role" in the August 17 attacks, claiming, "They are the patrons of the serial blasts as they donât want good relations between Bangladesh and China. That's why the incident occurred when Prime Minister Khaleda Zia was on a visit to Beijing."
This is entirely consistent with Dhakaâs past record. With enormous evidence of the activities of Islamist terrorists â including the JMJB and the JMB â accumulating over the past years, Dhaka kept up a steady stream of denials till fairly recently. Indeed, on January 26, 2005, State Minister for Home, Lutfozzaman Babar, had declaimed, "We donât know officially about the existence of the JMJB. Only some so-called newspapers are publishing reports on it." Less than a month later, on February 23, 2005, under extraordinary pressure from the international community, particularly Western donor countries, the Government announced a ban on both the JMB and JMJB, organisations of whose existence it had denied at the highest level just a month earlier. The âbanâ, however, was a red herring, and had little impact beyond the ritual arrest and brief detention of a few leaders and cadres. Even in cases where cadres of these organisations have been arrested on charges of terrorism, their treatment has been extraordinarily benign.. Given Bangladeshâs past record and present projections, it is improbable that the truth of the bomb blasts â as of several past terrorist actions and major arms seizures â will ever be fully known. Nevertheless, it is necessary to assess â albeit speculatively â what precisely the intent and purpose of the August 17 explosions could be. The demonstration of terrorist capabilities is, at once, a powerful tool for further recruitment in areas where such operations are executed, and a severe warning to political opponents that dire consequences attend any efforts of opposition. Conceptualized as such, the serial blasts would be calculated to benefit the ruling coalition, or elements within this coalition, in the run up to the 2006 General Election. The intervening year can only see the augmentation of such terror that would help consolidate the Islamist right in Bangladesh, and extend its own and its coalition partnersâ electoral prospects.
Posted by: Paul Moloney ||
08/24/2005 04:58 ||
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#1
Intelligence sources estimate that at least two persons would have been involved in the planting of each explosive device â suggesting an operation mobilizing well over a thousand cadres through the length and breadth of the country.
So much for a small number of extremists.
Posted by: Robert Crawford ||
08/24/2005 7:36 Comments ||
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#2
It's the West fault. Bangladesh being one the western powers and all.
These idiots hate everyone who does not agree with them, period.
Oh, and lets call them "resistance" today, says WaPo.
CAMP BUCCA, Iraq -- In the darkest hours before dawn, groups of 10 detainees toiled 15 feet beneath Compound 5 of America's largest prison in Iraq. The men worked in five-minute shifts, digging with shovels fashioned from tent poles and hauling the dirt to the surface with five-gallon water jugs tethered to 200 feet of rope. They bagged it in sacks that had been used to deliver their bread rations and spread it surreptitiously across a soccer field where fellow inmates churned it during daily matches, guards and detainees recalled.
The 105th Military Police Battalion, charged with running Camp Bucca in the scorching desert of southernmost Iraq, knew something was amiss: Undetectable to the naked eye, the field's changing color was picked up by satellite imagery. The excavated dirt was also clogging the showers and two dozen portable toilets. The dirt was showing up under the floorboards of tents; some guards sensed that the floor itself seemed to be rising. Mysteriously, water use in the compound had spiked.
Hours before the planned prison break on March 24, an informant tipped off the Americans, who then drove a bulldozer across Compound 5. What they discovered was breathtaking: a fully completed tunnel that stretched 357 feet, longer than a football field. Inside were flashlights built from radio diodes and five larger spaces to provide ventilation. The tunnel's walls were as smooth and strong as concrete, sculpted with water and, the Americans believe, milk. The exit, beyond the compound's fence, was camouflaged with sand-colored cardboard. It opened into a partially concealed trench that would lead the detainees to freedom.
The discovery of what came to be known as "The Great Escape" tunnel was a seminal moment for the Americans charged with guarding Iraq's exploding prison population. It underscored the fact that the guards were not simply policing more than 6,000 detainees but, in their own way, fighting an enemy that exhibited the same complexity and resilience inside the prison's chain-linked fences and miles of coiled razor wire as it did in the most embattled streets of Iraq. For the inmates, the fight had never stopped.
"It was a military operation. It was very organized, and it was very disciplined," said Mohammed Touman, 27, an inmate released May 27 from Compound 5. "If only 200 people would have escaped, it would have been a blow to the Americans."
Col. James B. Brown, commander of the 18th Military Police Brigade, which oversees the U.S. military's three detention facilities in Iraq, said the escape would have been one of the largest from any U.S.-run facility in history.
"In a prison, there's the feeling that the war is over for you and it's over for me. We'll chit-chat at the fence and get through this together," he said. "Nothing could be further from the truth."
Inside Camp Bucca, Brown said, "the war is not at all over."
Posted by: Captain America ||
08/24/2005 02:53 ||
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damn, plz move to Iraq
Posted by: Captain America ||
08/24/2005 2:58 Comments ||
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#2
Comment heard when this project was first discovered: "at last, some Iraqis with initiative .... can we hire these guys?" Cruel, but illustrative. There are times (is it all the time?) that it seems the only folks here with any work ethic or discipline at all are the enemy (and the Kurds, of course, but they're mostly content to stay up north and not play away games).
Got my first look at Abu Ghraib today. Detainees being released were mostly friendly and looked pretty happy. Personnel there confirm that many detainees remark they haven't lived as well (food, a/c, medical care, security), at least since the war, as they have at Abu. Impressive combat hospital for the prisoners. Anger at the infamous reservists who put the name on the American news map undiminished.
#4
Verlaine, sounds similar to my experiance in Egypt. Pure hate and lazyness from the Egyptians until someone put the fear of death into them. The whole culture over there needs a massive workover if the arabs have any prayer of competing in a modern world.
NEW DELHI - India will make all efforts to stop the execution of one of its nationals in Pakistan for spying, lawmakers said on Tuesday, as pressure mounted on New Delhi to save the man his family claims is a farmer. New Delhi was in touch with Islamabad over the issue and Indian Prime Minister Manmohan Singh promised lawmakers he would speak to Pakistani Prime Minister Shaukat Aziz to try and stop the execution, they said.
'cause the Paks listen to anything a Hindu gummint man says ...
Manmohan Singhâs assurance came a day after family members of the convicted man threatened to kill themselves if the execution was carried out.
I'm not sure that makes a lot of sense ...
The threat evoked widespread sympathy and lawmakers from the northern Indian state of Punjab, the home of the convicted man, urged the government to save him.
Indian Foreign Minister Natwar Singh said New Delhi âwould try its bestâ to stop the death penalty from being carried out. âHe said that the government has spoken to Pakistani authorities,â Avinash Rai Khanna, opposition lawmaker from Punjab, said after meeting Natwar Singh along with Dalbir Kaur, sister of the convicted man. âThe government will use a mercy petition to get Sarabjit released or through diplomatic means such as government-to-government talks,â he said.
Got any Pak spies in jug? We and the USSR knew how to handle this back in the old days of the Cold War ...
Indian media reported that Pakistanâs Supreme Court last week upheld the death sentence for Manjit Singh for spying for Indiaâs intelligence agency, the Research and Analysis Wing, and being involved in five bombings in Pakistan. His family insists Singh is not a spy and has appealed to Pakistani President Pervez Musharraf to spare his life.
"Lies! All lies!"
His sister Kaur says the manâs name is actually Sarabjit Singh, a farmer who lived in a village in the northern state of Punjab, who accidentally wandered into Pakistan in 1990. âMy brother used to work in the field near the border. In those days, there were no barbed wire fences and he accidentally went across when he was drunk,â she said after meeting the Indian foreign minister.
The demon rum!
Posted by: Steve White ||
08/24/2005 00:07 ||
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"In those days, there were no barbed wire fences and he accidentally went across when he was drunk,â
Don't they know that only Bond can get away with drinking and spying. I guess, "my name is Singh, Sarabjit Singh" didn't work like in the movies.
#2
I doubt RAW recruits peasant farmers for black ops.
He is probably exactly what he claims, a farmer who got drunk and wandered across. Paks need to blame someone else for sectarian violence and a drunk hindu farmer is as good as any.
Not being an actual spy, he has little chance of being traded (except perhaps for some Pak illegal immigrants or fishermen).
Posted by: john ||
08/24/2005 11:58 Comments ||
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#3
I agree. If the PM can't get him released, it's probably a pretty good bet that he wasn't a spy.
SULAIMANIYAH - Iraqâs Kurdish Environment Minister Narmine Othman said Tuesday she survived an assassination bid when gunmen attacked her convoy and injured three of her guards. She said the attack took place on Monday when she was on her way to Baghdad after a brief vacation in the northern Kurdistan region.
Gunmen attacked her in Oudhaim, a region between oil-rich Kirkuk and Baquba, she said. âThe cowardly act will not deter me from doing my job towards Iraq and fellow citizens,â Othman, known for defending womenâs rights, told reporters in the Kurdish city of Sulaimaniyah. âI will continue with my colleagues to work for Iraq and try to free it of terrorism and violence.â
Othman, member of Iraqi President Jalal Talabaniâs Patriotic Union of Kurdistan (PUK), was a minister in the former Iyad Allawi government and served in the PUK adminstration, which controls the Kurdish province of Sulaimaniyah.
Posted by: Steve White ||
08/24/2005 00:00 ||
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Syrian militants linked to Al-Qaeda's leader in Iraq, Abu Musab al-Zarqawi, were behind last week's rocket attack on U.S. warships in the Red Sea port of Aqaba, Jordanian security officials said.
Whoa! Wotta surprise! Didn't see that one coming!
Zarqawi's group claimed responsibility for Friday's attack, in which the rockets missed their targets, but hit a warehouse and a hospital, killing a Jordanian soldier, and struck the Israeli port of Eilat. "The security forces have succeeded in dismantling a group linked to a terrorist network coming from Iraq to carry out this crime and arrested the main accused, a Syrian, Mohammad Hassan Abdullah al-Sahli," said an official statement carried on Jordanian television late Monday. "Three other members of the group came to Jordan from Iraq on August 6, including two sons of the Syrian carrying false Iraqi passports and the third, Mohammad Hamid Hassan, an Iraqi," the statement said. Sihly's two sons and Hassan, were believed to have fled to Iraq, the government said, adding the rocket launch was controlled by a timing device. That, it said, allowed Sihly's three accomplices time flee the country before the rockets were fired.
In that case, they didn't dismantle the cell. They came, they did their business, and they beat it, leaving Pop holding the bag. I thought they had the kids and Hassan in custody? That also explains why the rockets didn't hit squat. They did the same thing Hek's boyz do in Afghanistan, which is set 'em up on a timer and then run away. The only reason they hit anything at all is because they were aiming at a populated area. It would have been hard not to hit anything.
There was no explanation why Sihly, an Amman resident, did not escape as well. Sihly and his accomplices had conducted a careful survey of sites in Aqaba, according to the government announcement.
That's what DEBKA said, too...
"The investigation showed that the terrorist group was in constant touch with its leadership in Iraq during preparation for the attack to keep it abreast on developments," the government statement said.
"Hassan! What're you doing now?"
"We are setting the timers, effendi!"
"Amd what are you doing now?"
"Running, effendi!"
Security officials said the Syrians had used forged Iraqi passports to enter Jordan, a tightly policed pro-Western kingdom where militant attacks are rare. Yesterday's Internet statement by Al-Qaeda in Iraq, lead by Zarqawi, was the second claim of responsibility and was signed by group spokesman Abu Maysara al-Iraqi. Al-Qaeda in Iraq said it had not issued its claim until five days after the attack "so that the brothers could finish retreating." The first claim of responsibility came from the Abdullah Azzam Brigades shortly after the Katyousha rockets were fired from a warehouse window on a hill overlooking Aqaba.
"Yeah! We dunnit! It wudn't them!"
Across Jordan, police continued to track down other possible suspects, including Jordanians, a security official said, speaking on condition of anonymity. Road blocks were set up throughout Amman, the capital, for the fifth day, and the search appeared to have been widened with additional security forces on the streets and more cars being stopped and searched.
Posted by: Fred ||
08/24/2005 00:00 ||
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#1
The Al-Qaeda Rule for determining culpability:
If it's successful, it's ours
If it fails, it belongs to the militant
If it succeeds on a level which would bring retaliation, it was totally the Jooooos.
MORE than 33,000 US Air Force officers could be at greater risk of identity theft after a "malicious user" accessed a database containing personal information. The attacker used a legitimate password to access a database that contained birth dates, Social Security numbers and career information for about half of the Air Force's officers, as well as a handful of non commissioned officers, Master Sergeant Randy Mitchell said. Personal financial records and classified military information are not included in the career-management database, he said.
The incident has not led to any known instances of identity theft but the Air Force is urging those affected to monitor their credit records, he said. "We're not sure what the person was doing inside the system, if they was just being curious and going through all these records or what, but nobody's information has been used in an illegal way that we know of so far," Sgt Mitchell said in an interview.
A rash of security breaches at businesses, universities and other institutions have put at least 50 million US consumers at heightened risk for identity theft over the past year. The US Congress is considering several bills that would tighten computer-security standards and improve consumer protections when such incidents take place.
What Congress should be doing is passing some laws mandating a minimum of 20 years for anybody screwing with somebody else's data. Letting the little bastards off isn't deterring anybody.
Posted by: Oztralian [AKA] God Save The World ||
08/24/2005 00:00 ||
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Had the opportunity to listen to a lecture by [Admiral] Grace Hooper. One of her points/warnings was that automation technology and privacy were incompatible. To effectively control access to the material will in the end degrade the effective use of the data. To make personal data accessible for effective use requires lowering practical protections of that data. Welcome to the dark side of technology.
Its the double edge sword of modern technology. 747s can fly you in a day to anywhere on the planet, it can also transport viruses and pathogens with the same ease. In the end, its a cost/benefit trade off.
#2
"The attacker used a legitimate password to access a database"
If this database is Microsoft SQL then, it's not difficult. Once you breach Windows SAM then, if the default SQL password is not changed, then the database can be penetrated. When, you load SQL on top of Windows, then the first thing you are supposed to do is change the default SQL password. 99% percent of people forget to do this. Especially, if you hire a contractor to do this, why should he care. He/she loads the OS, database SW, and configure the database, then leaves. He/she can care less if the database can be breached.
Also, most security consultants will over look this vulnerability. They just simply place a security scanner, fire and forget. Most scanners will not pick it up.
Yes, technology has its problems, but a competent IT person can offer counter measures. The problem is not technology. The problem is priority. There is no sense of urgency until something is breached.
The peremiter security of this country is no different. 9/11 barely did anything to change the situation. We are still worried about hurting people's feelings instead protecting this country. The border is open, old ladies in wheel chairs are searched while men of Eastern descent between the ages of 15 and 50 walk into the plane without being stopped because we don't want to hurt anybody's feeeeelings.
Again, technology is not the problem, only priority.
In a preemptive move, the Jordanian government has asked Iraq to submit the names of all its citizens wishing to travel to Jordan prior to their visit and requested additional proof be provided to ensure their travel documents are valid and genuine to avoid forged passports being used.
Good move. A little late, but still a good move...
The government has sought to increase border controls with Iraq in the wake of the rocket attacks on the Red Sea port of Aqaba and ensure no militants slip into Jordan using fake documents, given alleged Iraqi involvement in the bombings and the production of the explosives. Previously, Amman had adopted a number of measures aimed at facilitating the entry of Iraqi citizens into Jordan , based on the recommendations of King Abdullah.
That worked well. There's a reason countries have borders...
A senior security source revealed to Asharq Al-Awsat that hundreds of Iraqis try and cross the border into Jordan using forged documents but most are apprehended by the Jordanian border patrols who forcibly return them to the Iraqi side. At the Karama crossing, on a daily basis, Jordanian security forces discover between 100 and 130 fake documents held by individuals trying to enter its territories. The government has doubled the number of police officers assigned to control the border to verify the authenticity and validity of all passports used by Iraqis.
Meanwhile, the government announced a ban on the import of scrap metal from Iraq until further notice and the deployment of extra patrols at the Karamah border crossing. These latest decisions come after initial investigations by Jordanian security forces revealed that the rockets launched from a warehouse in Aqaba were made in Iraq and entered Jordan with other metal imports, which include old military hardware used by the defunct Iraqi Army that is exported from the Jordanian port.
Posted by: Fred ||
08/24/2005 00:00 ||
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A cleric escaped unhurt after suspected Taliban militants bombed his house on Tuesday in the latest attack on religious leaders who back Afghanistanâs US-friendly administration, officials said. Maulvi Rehmatullah, leader of the religious council of Khost province, was leaving his house when the blast happened, said Interior Ministry spokesman Lutfullah Mashal. The attack was the sixth on pro-government clerics in the past three months. Mashal blamed it on âenemies of peace and stabilityâ â Afghan jargon for the Taliban and their allies.
On Sunday Taliban insurgents shot dead Mulla Abdullah Malang, deputy head of the religious council of the Panjwaey district in Kandahar province, and his companion. In May Maulvi Abdullah Fayyaz, chief of the Islamic Council in Kandahar, was gunned down near his house. Twenty-one people died when a suicide bomber struck at his funeral on June 1. Fayyaz had spoken out against Taliban leader Mulla Muhammad Omar, who has been on the run since the US-led invasion of Afghanistan toppled the fundamentalist militia in late 2001.
A month later another leading member of the Kandahar Islamic Council, Maulvi Muhammad Musbah, was ambushed and shot dead outside the city. Separately in Qalat, capital of Zabul province, three civilians were wounded late on Monday when suspected Taliban opened fire on their vehicle, officials said. âThe Taliban might have mistaken the civilian vehicle for a government vehicle,â said provincial spokesman Gulab Ali Khali.
Posted by: Fred ||
08/24/2005 00:00 ||
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Hey Mullah Al Buhmbe... yeah you! Come 'ere come 'ere! Gotta question for ya Sahib... come a lil closer will ya? Hey... which one of my holy eyes are infected?
Uh uh uh... your left one?
WRONG! Bam! bam! baam! bam! Its my right one! ... I think its my right one...
Hey you! You Mullah over there! Come 'ere come 'ere... gotta question for ya....
That's terrible. How long has the poor man been defunct?
Police arrested an activist of a defunct militant organisation involved in terrorist activities. Muhammad Afzal alias Pathan, resident of Abbottabad, was a member of a banned militant organization and was involved in terrorist activities in Khairpur police jurisdiction. A case was registered against Pathan under Section 7 of the Anti Terrorist Act by the Khairpur police station. However Assistant Superintendent of Police (ASP) Sohail Ahmad Sukhera said that the man was not linked to Al Qaeda or a banned militant organisation.
"Nah. He ain't a terrorist. He's just naturally vicious!"
Posted by: Fred ||
08/24/2005 00:00 ||
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A banned Islamic militant group blamed for hundreds of bomb blasts last week across Bangladesh has threatened to strike again unless the government introduces Islamic rule in the impoverished country. If Dhaka authorities failed to establish Islamic law or tried to arrest any member of Jamaat-ul-Mujahideen, â(we) will take direct action,â the group said in a statement on the website âjihadunspun.comâ.
Where else?
âEverybody is the enemy of Islam who wants to launch democracy as an institutional form,â said the English-language statement seen by Reuters on Tuesday.
That pretty much lays it out, doesn't it?
âTherefore we invite the ruling party and also the opposition to initiate the rule of Islam within a short time in Bangladesh.â
We invite the ruling party and also the opposition to hunt them down and kill them like dogs...
Two people were killed and about 100 injured when hundreds of homemade bombs exploded simultaneously across the country last Wednesday, triggering an unprecedented security alarm among Bangladeshâs 140 million people, most of whom are Muslims. No individual or group has claimed responsibility for the bombings but copies of a leaflet found at most of the blast sites carried a call by Jamaat-ul-Mujahideen to impose Islamic rule on democratic secular Bangladesh. The leaflet also warned the United States and Britain against occupation of Muslim nations.
Posted by: Fred ||
08/24/2005 00:00 ||
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Four years into this war, and we still haven't managed to determine the whereabouts of Evil Bert. It's a quagmire, I tells ya.
Top Sri Lankan politicians, including the prime minister, have had their security stepped up and public appearances curtailed after the assassination of the foreign minister, officials said on Tuesday. Prime Minister Mahinda Rajapakse skipped a press conference in the capital Colombo Tuesday and stayed away from a series of public meetings in central province over the weekend because of a security threat, an official in his office said. "Where an advance party is unable to clear the area and declare it sterile, the prime minister will not go," the official said.
The new measures were taken following the August 12 assassination of foreign minister Lakshman Kadirgamar by suspected Tamil Tiger rebels. The guerrillas have denied any involvement in the killing. Both sides have, however, agreed to review their truce following the high-profile killing which raised doubts over the stability of the Norwegian-brokered ceasefire that has been in place since February 23, 2002.
Posted by: Fred ||
08/24/2005 00:00 ||
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SANUR/HOMESH: Israeli forces smashed their way into two West Bank settlements on Tuesday and dragged away ultra-rightist Jews dug in for a last stand against evacuation after failing to foil a pullout from occupied Gaza. Police stormed a citadel and synagogues in the Sanur and Homesh enclaves that had been fortified by radicals, drawing a hail of bottles, light bulbs, paint, ketchup, eggs and cooking oil. Some were plucked from a synagogue roof in the scoop of one of the bulldozers that had rammed through barriers of burning tyres and rubbish at the gates to Sanur and neighbouring Homesh.
Posted by: Fred ||
08/24/2005 00:00 ||
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A multi-volume chronology and reference guide set detailing three years of the Mexican Drug War between 2010 and 2012.
Rantburg.com and borderlandbeat.com correspondent and author Chris Covert presents his first non-fiction work detailing
the drug and gang related violence in Mexico.
Chris gives us Mexican press dispatches of drug and gang war violence
over three years, presented in a multi volume set intended to chronicle the death, violence and mayhem which has
dominated Mexico for six years.
Rantburg was assembled from recycled algorithms in the United States of America. No
trees were destroyed in the production of this weblog. We did hurt some, though. Sorry.
DAMASCUS â Four Syrian policemen were killed last week during clashes with militants from an alleged terror group, several of whom escaped after the shootout, a security source said yesterday. âPolice forces assaulted a terrorist group, Tanzim Jund Ash Sham, in Madaya, which had planned to launch attacks on Damascus and its surrounding areas,â he said. âThe fighting killed four policemen, while five members of the armed group were able to escape into the mountains,â the source added. The clashes took place on Friday in the town, 40km northeast of the capital, the source said.
Najib Mikati also condemned the bombing, and called on the government to "adopt radical measures in order to ensure security in Lebanon." Criticizing the delay in appointing heads of the country's security apparatus, Mikati said: "It is not acceptable that after every explosion, differences between officials re-emerge as if nothing happened, at a time when they should be working on enhancing the security situation in the country."
The latest attack also came as more than 30 tank bombs were found in the northern town of 
Security agencies scrambled to keep the situation under control Tuesday as yet another bomb rocked the Christian neighborhood of Zalka, north of the capital Monday night. The Internal Security Forces, Civil Defense and army were all dispatched immediately to Zalka's Moussa Commercial Center and neighboring Promenade Hotel, just one month after a bomb was set in the Beirut nightclub promenade of Monnot in 
NEW DELHI - India will make all efforts to stop the execution of one of its nationals in Pakistan for spying, lawmakers said on Tuesday, as pressure mounted on New Delhi to save the man his family claims is a farmer. New Delhi was in touch with Islamabad over the issue and Indian Prime Minister Manmohan Singh promised lawmakers he would speak to Pakistani Prime Minister Shaukat Aziz to try and stop the execution, they said. 
Zarqawi's group claimed responsibility for Friday's attack, in which the rockets missed their targets, but hit a warehouse and a hospital, killing a Jordanian soldier, and struck the Israeli port of Eilat. "The security forces have succeeded in dismantling a group linked to a terrorist network coming from Iraq to carry out this crime and arrested the main accused, a Syrian, Mohammad Hassan Abdullah al-Sahli," said an official statement carried on Jordanian television late Monday. "Three other members of the group came to Jordan from Iraq on August 6, including two sons of the Syrian carrying false Iraqi passports and the third, Mohammad Hamid Hassan, an Iraqi," the statement said. Sihly's two sons and Hassan, were believed to have fled to Iraq, the government said, adding the rocket launch was controlled by a timing device. That, it said, allowed Sihly's three accomplices time flee the country before the rockets were fired. 
MORE than 33,000 US Air Force officers could be at greater risk of identity theft after a "malicious user" accessed a database containing personal information. The attacker used a legitimate password to access a database that contained birth dates, Social Security numbers and career information for about half of the Air Force's officers, as well as a handful of non commissioned officers, Master Sergeant Randy Mitchell said. Personal financial records and classified military information are not included in the career-management database, he said. 
The government has sought to increase border controls with Iraq in the wake of the rocket attacks on the Red Sea port of Aqaba and ensure no militants slip into Jordan using fake documents, given alleged Iraqi involvement in the bombings and the production of the explosives. Previously, Amman had adopted a number of measures aimed at facilitating the entry of Iraqi citizens into Jordan , based on the recommendations of King Abdullah. 
A cleric escaped unhurt after suspected Taliban militants bombed his house on Tuesday in the latest attack on religious leaders who back Afghanistanâs US-friendly administration, officials said. Maulvi Rehmatullah, leader of the religious council of Khost province, was leaving his house when the blast happened, said Interior Ministry spokesman Lutfullah Mashal. The attack was the sixth on pro-government clerics in the past three months. Mashal blamed it on âenemies of peace and stabilityâ â Afghan jargon for the Taliban and their allies.
Police arrested an activist of a defunct militant organisation involved in terrorist activities. Muhammad Afzal alias Pathan, resident of Abbottabad, was a member of a banned militant organization and was involved in terrorist activities in Khairpur police jurisdiction. A case was registered against Pathan under Section 7 of the Anti Terrorist Act by the Khairpur police station. However Assistant Superintendent of Police (ASP) Sohail Ahmad Sukhera said that the man was not linked to Al Qaeda or a banned militant organisation. 
If Dhaka authorities failed to establish Islamic law or tried to arrest any member of Jamaat-ul-Mujahideen, â(we) will take direct action,â the group said in a statement on the website âjihadunspun.comâ. 
