Britain has accused Iran of responsibility for explosions which have killed eight British soldiers in Iraq this year. A senior British official, briefing correspondents in London, blamed Iranian Revolutionary Guards. He said they provided the technology to a Shia group in southern Iraq. The Iranians had denied this, he added. While UK officials have hinted at an Iranian link before, this is the first specific allegation to be made.
It could be that they feel there is nothing to lose right now, given that diplomatic relations are already low following the breakdown of talks over Iran's nuclear programme, the BBC's Paul Reynolds says hopefully.
Thanks for the editorial, Aunty.
The official, who spoke on condition of anonymity, said the technology had come from Hezbollah in Lebanon via Iran and produced an "explosively shaped projectile". He said that dissidents from the Mehdi army, a militia controlled by the radical Shia cleric Moqtada Sadr, were suspected of carrying out the attacks. One of their leaders, Ahmed al-Fartusi, was arrested by British forces recently and was "currently enjoying British hospitality", as the official put it.
Nigel and Clive from the SBS, when only the best will do.
It was that arrest which sparked off an anti-British protest in Basra recently. The official said that protests had been made to Iran and that the Iranian government had denied responsibility. Asked about an Iranian motive, the official said that it could be that Iran felt that it had to show that it could not be "pushed around".
#5
"While UK officials have hinted at an Iranian link before, this is the first specific allegation to be made."
Specific allegation?...Not! Why speak on condition of anonymity? Because without hard evidence it's still only speculation. And an "explosively shaped projectile" simmilar to technology used by Hezbollah is hardly hard evidence of Iranian involvement. Not to say that his theory isn't plausible but this is just propaganda most likely for domestic consumption.
#2
I wouldn't be surprised. The guy *wants* a war with the US.
Posted by: Robert Crawford ||
10/05/2005 9:31 Comments ||
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#3
Awhile back someone posted an article about Chavez buying nuclear material from Spain at about the time of presidential change. I agree with Pat Robertson.
#4
I had another horrifying thought after reading about Chavez reaching out to the Norks....the article on Binny's plot to poison cocaine said he personally met the drug dealers but it didn't say where. Stowaways on the many ships coming and going to Venezuela could put our arch-enemy just off-shore! Since some think Zawahiri is in Iran and the Diabolical Duo split up, you don't suppose he's with Nasar! I hope someone follows up on this.
#5
I had another horrifying thought after reading about Chavez reaching out to the Norks....the article on Binny's plot to poison cocaine said he personally met the drug dealers but it didn't say where.
Wasn't there a NorK ship caught dropping drug shipments off to Australia in the last year?
Posted by: Robert Crawford ||
10/05/2005 12:23 Comments ||
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#6
Yes, the Pong Su was caught after dropping off 125kg of heroin on the coast of Victoria, in April 03.
#7
Of course he wants a reaction from Washington! But the best thing for this administration to do is to keep ignoring him. He has problems at home, not just with the Opposition but within his own party, and he needs an external cause to divert Venezuelan citizens' attention from internal problems.
THE Federal Government will oppose any move to further reduce the jail sentence for the alleged spiritual leader of the terrorist group Jemaah Islamiah, Abu Bakar Bashir. With JI suspected of being involved in the latest Bali bombings, Bashir's name is on a list of prisoners eligible to have their sentences cut, according to a report in today's The Australian newspaper.
In August, Bashir's 30-month sentence for conspiracy in relation to the 2002 Bali bombings was cut by four and a half months to commemorate Indonesia's independence day.
The paper said it could now be cut by a further 30 days, with the militant preacher listed for another remission to commemorate the Islamic holiday of Idul Fitri on November 4, which marks the end of Ramadan.With time already served, The Australian said he could be free as early as April. Australian Justice Minister Chris Ellison said today the Government was strongly opposed to any reduction in sentence for the cleric.
Sooner he's released, the sooner the SAS can get to him.
"We've certainly registered our strong protest over any remission for Abu Bakar Bashir," Senator Ellison said. "We totally reject that and we've made our position very clear to Indonesia.
"But in the Indonesian prison system, the sentencing system, there are automatic remissions which apply to prisons to mark Indonesian independence day and others.
Charity begins .. and ends for Moose-limbs. Of course, the Bali victims are still dead.
"We certainly have said that this should not apply to Abu Bakar Bashir who, after all, has been in prison for terrorism-related offences and is the spiritual leader of Jemaah Islamiah."
Bashir's earlier sentence reduction provoked a furore in Australia and a flurry of high-level protests by the Federal Government. Prime Minister John Howard lobbied Indonesian President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono to review the automatic remission laws when he met him in New York last month.
Bashir has said the weekend restaurant bombings in Bali which killed at least 22 people, including up to four Australians, were a warning from Satan God. From his prison cell, Bashir has condemned the attack but also said in a statement yesterday the bombings were a sign of God's displeasure with the Indonesian Government.
Senator Ellison said Indonesian police were continuing to interview two men in relation to the attacks but would not say whether they were witnesses or suspects. "I'm not sure whether they are finished with the questioning of those two men, but no arrests have been made," he said.
I'm sure Inspectors Clouseau and Legume are on the case.
He said it was too early to say if there were any links between the bombers and terrorist groups in the southern Philippines.
Oh no, none at all, why would we ever suspect that?
The Australian also said intelligence officials believe the bombers may have been trained by Filipino terrorist groups. "Certainly the southern Philippines has been a concern to us and we have a strategy for dealing with that," Senator Ellison said.
"But it's still early days in this investigation; we certainly can't say anything at this stage as to whether these suspects, people who carried out the bombing, were from the Philippines."
Posted by: Oztralian [AKA] God Save The World ||
10/05/2005 00:00 ||
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#1
So the notion of hunter-killer teams isn't so far-fetched, now? Sure got a cold reception coupla years ago.
#2
Time marches on, attitudes evolve. More importantly, slimebag killers walk. That usually does it for me.
Posted by: Steve White ||
10/05/2005 0:13 Comments ||
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#3
Lol, so true, Doc, so true. I love the drivel in there that they're thinking Flips, instead of native Indos. The not so funny thing is, it's utterly irrelevant, except for the Indo Int'l "image" - they're Muzzies doing the Muzzy thingy - who really cares which nest they come from? That shouldn't be cover for the leaders, but it will be, sure as shit it will be. Of course, Bali is DEAD, now - and that golden goose will lay no more - if the Indos haven't figured that out, yet, they will soon enough. Then we'll see if there's any spine in that mass. Hell, I figure by about 2012, I'll be mainstream - prolly even considered wimpish. One term of Billary, a few serious hits, and the 2012 election cycle ought to do it.
#4
Then the 2012 election cycle is over, .com, and people with values and principles get back in. Then we start unf*cking all the LLL damage done. Annnnnnd then, someone spots this big-a$$ed asteroid barreling down toward Hollywood (Mecca, Teheran, well you get the picture), and its-----over. Heh.
Posted by: Alaska Paul ||
10/05/2005 1:08 Comments ||
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#5
AP - "When"?
As long as the "asteroid" isn't looked at tooo closely (we'll have to temporarily disable the NEO watchers, heh) - don't want 'em to see it's actually a giant chunk of concrete with UASF Space Command / Halliburton Near-Space Services stamped on the side...
#11
Yeah...."The breaker" would sort that filthy puke out in under 30 seconds. Needs to be slo tho.
Needs to start with a Thai Boxing grapple and knees to the face followed by vigorous stomping and then a fully executed arm bar.
Why, I'm sure it is - I saw it maybe 15-20 yrs ago. Didn't quite make the impression upon me that it apparently did for you folks. So you can't give the gist of it, we have to watch a movie. Right.
#16
Based on your link, .com, Rule 303:Presumptions in Criminal Cases (Not enacted.)
First of all, it wasn't enacted. Secondly, it would have applied to criminals subject to U.S. law in U.S. courts, not outside national borders. Bashir is an Indonesian citizen who broke Indonesian law on Indonesian soil. Thirdly, this is an issue between Indonesia and Australia acting on behalf of Australian victims of an Indonesian criminal. How on earth would an unenacted U.S. law obtain in this matter? For that matter, a similar enacted law still would not obtain here. Finally, any speculation at Rantburg re: wetwork/torture on the part of Indonesian or Australian actors has again nothing to do with unenacted or enacted U.S. laws.
Amusing, but bootless. Darn it, with such a cryptic reference I'd hoped to learn something exciting!
To take the rifle, insert a loaded magazine, aim it at said puke, work the bolt mechanism to load a round into the chamber and then pull the trigger causing expanding gasses to expel a chunk of lead into previously mentioned puke's head.
#20
Based on your Wikipedia reference, .com, it looks like Rule 303 is a British Colonial tradition. It isn't clarified in the article, so I assume Mr. GizzardPuke is correct as to application, albeit ill-mannered before he's drunk his morning coffee. Not at all part of my cultural referents I'm afraid, but then my experience in both real life and movies is rather limited. And that long ago Breaker Morant would not have been thought appropriate viewing for me -- my parents thought they had good reason to be overprotective of their children. Which is why I asked in the first place.
#22
tw - I may be your opposite number, lol, and the 303 reference was obtuse enough that it didn't do much for me, either. It seems we produced some .303's (designated the P-14) for the Brits in WW-I. Then again we mfg'd them for the Brits in WW-II (Lee-Enfield No.4 - by Savage Arms). But it was never a US weapon, we only helped to ramp-up supplies for the cousins.
In the Wikipedia article? No. If you mean the film, I haven't any idea. But my parents had seen enough of real war and real violence in their own youths that they decided their children didn't need the same, even as pretend. Vocabulary, on the other hand, was something we looked up in the dictionary.... or my mother's medical texts (which sometimes led to confusion, as those were written in French).
#24
.com, after all this unexpected excitement, I feel the need for a cup of tea -- care to join me? And we can compare the fun-house mirror images of our opposite lives. That'll also allow the grouchypants out there time to drink their coffee and become civil. ;-)
#25
Back on-topic, Bashir and his ilk need to be eliminated - extrajudicially, if needed - and in the case of Indonesia, it's obviously the only way this will happen to them. I think this will be as obvious as Thoreau's "Some circumstantial evidence is very strong, as when you find a trout in the milk." to most non-Muzzies soon.
#26
Heh, I'm working on a mug of Earl Grey right now, in fact! You're prescient! It's 63° at 5:30 AM here in Sin City, I've got the windows wide open, enjoying the fresh crisp morning, and keeping the insides toasty warm with royal amber. I swear, we must be opposing sine waves - we cross with regularity, lol!
#27
Interesting. I'm partial to English Breakfast. At least in the morning. EG is too much before noon.
Posted by: Mrs. Davis ||
10/05/2005 8:47 Comments ||
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#28
I like that and Irish Breakfast, too, but I'm out of both, at the moment. The simpler Bigelow's Pekoe is okay - no bag staples so you can microwave it in the mug, heh. I "discovered" tea about 3 yrs ago - I think Starbucks stock fell, lol. I used to do 20 cups (min) per day.
#29
Mmm, Earl Grey. I keep English Breakfast around for Brits who come to visit. But nowadays no caffeine for me in the morning, or I can't take my morning nap. And if I don't sleep in the a.m., I may have another car accident picking up trailing daughter #1 after school. Chronic Fatigue Syndrome is a right bitch. Especially coupled with a school system choosing textbooks over busses. So y'all enjoy the morning breezes, while my head seeks the pillow. :-(
#30
.com, go to one of those wire ball infusers with loose tea. You won't believe how much more flavor there is than in any bag. I just boil up some water and pour it into my 34 oz. insulated mug and I'm good to go for a couple of hours.
Posted by: Mrs Davis ||
10/05/2005 9:11 Comments ||
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#31
Wire ball infuser 75:25 tea:marijuana combo - keeps me steady all day... now where did I put that document..
Posted by: Howard UK ||
10/05/2005 9:18 Comments ||
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#32
Saw the movie, the poem (authored by Morant himself) at the end is really moving. Morant's execution caused a commotion in Australia: no longer would Australia accept its soldiers being court-martialled by British courts. Later they decided that Australian units would work as allies (ie obeying Australian governemnt) of the British and not as part of the British Army.
In many ways Morant's execution started the movement who led Australia to become an independent country (except for the Queen/King of England being the nominal chief of state and even this will probably not last long)
#33
except for the Queen/King of England being the nominal chief of state and even this will probably not last long
I'd've said that, but for the last Oz referendum on a republic. I suspect it's more likely Liz will move to Canberra when Tony establishes the New Model Protectorate.
#34
The problem with ending Bashir's worthless life is that another Koranimal will step up and take his place.
Posted by: Robert Crawford ||
10/05/2005 9:35 Comments ||
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#35
Mrs D - I'll give it a try, then. Didn't know the diff was that great. I think it's better not to boil the water - that removes too much oxygen. I've experimented and found that just short of boiling gave me better flavor - at least regards my big 16 oz Starbucks mug (with "Bangkok" on it, lol) heated up in the microwave. Precisely 3:55 at full power.
Howard, Lol! Nah, it's been an eternity for me, and I'm happy to leave the past in the past, heh. When I lose a document, it's a different sort of debilitation at work, lol.
Posted by: Mrs. Davis ||
10/05/2005 9:44 Comments ||
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#37
I'll get the hang of this stuff eventually, lol. Funny thing is, tea makes me sleepy. Coffee, due to the quantity I became accustomed to, had no effect at all - even espresso and teeth-jangling Cuban-style. It's almost the end of my "day" - I keep no schedule at all and, over the last 20 months have gravitated to full vampire mode, heh.
I used to drink black tea - a lot. English breakfast mainly. Then one day about 2 years ago I put my cup down with a tea bag in it, set the kettle off and walked off. Five minutes later, I came back and someone had used the water (grrr). Got in a huff, took cup back into my office (tea bag still in it) and left it there. About 9 months! later, I threw the teabag away. Had one cup of black tea in all that time (and that's after 30+ years of drinking tea - weird eh?). Now I drink green tea a little (2 cups a day or so - feel much better for it), that and beer and G&Ts, oh and red wine too, champers too. Can't drink coffee - headaches almost immediately.
Oh and as for Bashir: terminate him, and if anyone else takes his place, they get the same treatment. That or nuke the site from orbit - it's the only way to be sure...
Posted by: Tony (UK) ||
10/05/2005 16:56 Comments ||
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#42
#1Â Â So the notion of hunter-killer teams isn't so far-fetched, now? Sure got a cold reception coupla years ago. - Posted by: .comÂ
Ain't it a b!tch being on the leading edge? And I'm just that much closer to "fry-'em-up" myself.
#7 People like Bashir are the reason wetwork was invented ... - Posted by Dan Darling
Glad to see the more sagacious among us reaching this "conclusion." The complete and total lack of timely post 9-11 revulsion by the majority of Islam convinced me rather promptly. Kill these maggots wherever and whenever they sprout up. Rinse and repeat.
Posted by: The Z Man ||
10/05/2005 18:39 Comments ||
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#45
Yup, .com, it's little ol' me, pal. I've been sucked into a management vortex at my job for some time. I also want to hit the tip jar before I chew up much more of Fred's bandwidth. I just felt compelled to note the current lack of outrage (as you did, too) at such a notion as randomly capping these psycho dirtbags. Much unlike when I first started advocating wet-work teams hereabouts.
If Bashir was taking the dirt nap right now, he wouldn't have been able to spew this nuclear terrorism crap into another gazillion eager Muslim ears. Martyr this SOB and all of his ilk d@mn fast! Bakri, Qawadari, Sadr, Hamsa ... all of them.
People need to remember that tyrannys, dictatorships and totalitariam regimes ARE NOT sovereign nations. They are self-appointed sh!tholes of human rights abuses that need to be limed. Iran's mullahs have no rights, China's communist mandarins have no just claim to power. America, as a free nation, has the right (but not the obligation) to go in and liberate any and all of these he|| holes as it sees fit. Moral relativists who insist that theocratic and communist autocracies are valid forms of government need to be deported to them post haste.[/rant]
I hope the workload doesn't kill off the living side of the equation - that's not worth it. Come back soon - there's a PC fog settling over the 'burg. Needs some shakin' up, lol!
#51
Mrs D - here's what I just made - pass it along to any bachelors you know who, um, need more fiber in their diet, heh.
Bachelor's Perfect Carrot Cake
Guy Style: Uses mix and has lots of stuff in it.
1 Spice Cake Mix - Betty Crockercrat or Duncan Hines
2 cups shredded carrots
1.5 cups walnut pieces
1 cup plump golden raisins
1 cup shredded coconut
.5 cup chunky or plain applesauce
1 can crushed pineapple - the little flat cans, heh
1 ready-made frosting - I prefer vanilla.
Do the cake mix per directions except:
a) substitute .5 cup of applesauce for .5 cup of water.
b) add 1 tablespoon more oil than recipe call for.
Now dump all the goodies in and blend well.
Bake per directions in a 13"x9" pan.
Cool at least 40 min.
Ice it thinly - helps keep it fresh, mainly.
Cover & refrigerate it. Yeah, that's what I said.
Eat. Will last in fridge for about 5 days - thanks to the extra Tbsp of oil.
A piece of this with fresh hot coffee and a decent crossword puzzle is solo nirvana.
#53
Come back soon - there's a PC fog settling over the 'burg.
Them's fightin' words, .com! Among many things I prize this place for is its willing, nay seemingly mandatory abandonment of PC mentality. As I re-engage here, I promise to do my best in fighting it tooth and nail.
Seeing as how this thread has devolved into a recipe klatch, I'll careen it back on track by congratulating you for your long-past observation that the death-cult / violent jihad aspect of Islam is a meme.
I agree and also maintain that it is quite definitely a meme, and that those imams who preach violent jihad are carriers in the most precise pathological sense. They spread their culture of death without ever succumbing to the disease themselves.
When I finally see these "celebrity" imams, like Bashir or Bakri strap on a bomb vest and do the dirty work themselves, I might be inspired to actually go out and piss on their (however compact) graves in person.
Until then, I would happily check off a $50.00 box on my tax return to finance wetwork teams for the purpose of eliminating these "carriers," not to mention the meme itself.
Again, it's sort of ironic to see participants here be so quiet about something they deemed so vile a few short seasons ago. Extrajudicial killings are nothing to brag about, but permitting a death cult to spread, under the aegis of ANY religion is a far worse thing.
#55
"I would happily check off a $50.00 box on my tax return to finance wetwork teams"
Lol - now that's a damned fine idea... think we can petition the IRS successfully? Lol, they love to handle our money... prolly roll such funds into commercial papers for a week or two (at least they would if they were smart) and make shitloads of deficit-reducing cash.
Dunno how often you've been able to drop by...
John in Tokyo has a fine write-up tonight - there are still some who are fighting mad, yet thoughtful. I zoom to any 11A5S post, lol, when he finally decides to weigh in - always thoughtful and pragmatic. There's a fresh batch of fry 'em ups who have never killed a fly, of course - you know, it's a therapy thingy, lol. But the solid folks are still solid - it's just quieter and subdued. I guess, in truth, most are waiting for several "other shoe to drop" events, such as the Iraqi constitution vote.
Meanwhile, our forces are filling bags fast and the Iraqi Forces are looking pretty damned good.
There's no doubt that the layers of civilization, which have done us precious little good other than feel-good, will begin to peel away as the bulk of this fight finally leaves the flypaper and comes West. Then we'll see what we're made of. I'm not optimistic.
Sorry I'm so late to come back to check - I may not have time to respond to any other posts.
ISTANBUL - Istanbul Police Chief Celalettin Cerrah has said that the blast in the basement of a building in Caglayan district of Istanbul occurred while those people were making a bomb. One person was killed and 7 people were injured in the blast in the basement of Oral Business Center on Vatan street in Caglayan. Cerrah said, ''there is a body and an injured person in the building at the moment. The blast happened while they were making a bomb.''
Red Wire Syndrome strikes again
Posted by: Steve ||
10/05/2005 09:48 ||
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#1
How about you don't have a current running in the wires when you hook them up to the explosives, m'kay?
MADRID â A Spaniard who was held at Guantanamo Bay has been jailed for six years in his own country for his links to Al-Qaeda.
But, I thought all the prisoners in Gitmo were innocent victims of the Bush/Haliburton war machine?
Hamed Abderrahman Ahmed, known as the Spanish Taliban, was held for two years at the US base on Cuba. Judges at Spain's supreme court said Ahmed had travelled to Afghanistan to join Al-Qaeda to convert himself into a mujahideen and begin jihad or Holy War. The court will take into account the time Ahmed spent in a Spanish jail after his return from Guantanamo Bay, from February to July last year. But his sentence will not include the two years he was held in Cuba.
Born in Ceuta, Spain's North African enclave, Ahmed was linked to an Al-Qaeda cell which was disbanded in November 2001 after the US invasion of Afghanistan. The cell was led by Imad Eddin Barakat, known as Abu Dahdah, the Syrian-born naturalised Spaniard who was jailed for 27 years last week for belonging to Al-Qaeda and conspiring with others to plan the 9/11 attacks on the US. Ahmed was recruited by Abu Dahdah and another Al Qaeda operative in Spain and in 2001 he travelled to Iran, then on to Afghanistan. Taped telephone calls used in evidence helped to convicted Ahmed of belonging to this cell. The court was told he planned to be start military training and fight for jihad. He had planned to join the holy war in Chechnya, but was unable to owing to the US intervention in Afghanistan. He was captured by US forces and sent to Guantanamo Bay.
Posted by: Steve ||
10/05/2005 09:33 ||
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BELFAST, Northern Ireland (AP) - One of Northern Ireland's most high-profile Protestant militants was shot to death outside his home Tuesday night, more than six months after he was ousted by his outlawed group. Two gunmen fired several shots at Jim Gray after he answered his door in Protestant east Belfast, his longtime power base, police said. Detectives covered his body with a white sheet as they searched outside his home for evidence.
No group claimed responsibility for his assassination, but a previous assassination attempt in 2002 came during a feud among Protestant militants involved in Belfast's thriving drug trade.
Gray, 43, had been free on bail while awaiting trial on charges of money laundering, concealing stolen property and other offenses. Gray had been one of the six regional commanders of the outlawed Ulster Defense Association, Northern Ireland's largest outlawed group, until March 30, when colleagues ousted him.
Posted by: Steve White ||
10/05/2005 00:20 ||
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#1
Is every terror group on the planet paying its way with drugs, robbery & kidnapping?
#4
Too bad they kilt him. Should have beat him to within an inch of his life and leave him in a state akin to a sheepie with the staggers for all his ilk to behold and contemplate for years. Gray is by no means the only one well deserving of the modified Ike Turner treatment. You couldn't count the candidates from the IRA, UDA, UVF, and other splinter groups on the fingers of 50 people. Wouldn't it be a shame if they were systematically given the "treatment?"
WASHINGTON - The American government is demanding that Saudi Arabia account for its distribution of hate material to American mosques, as the State Department pressed Saudi officials for answers last week and as the Senate later this month plans to investigate the propagation of radical Wahhabism on American shores.
Took them long enough
The flurry of activity comes months after a report from the Center for Religious Freedom discovered that dozens of mosques in major cities across the country, including New York, Washington, and Los Angeles, were distributing documents, bearing the seal of the government of Saudi Arabia, that incite Muslims to acts of violence and promote hatred of Jews and Christians.
A Washington-based group that is part of the human rights organization Freedom House, the Center for Religious Freedom also found during its yearlong study that the Saudi-produced materials describe democracy and America as un-Islamic. They instruct recent Muslim immigrants to consider Americans as enemies and the materials urge new arrivals to use their time here as preparation for jihad. The documents also promote the version of Islam officially embraced by Saudi government and several of the September 11, 2001, hijackers, Wahhabism, as the only authentic Islam.
In response to the Freedom House report and as part of the Saudi Arabia Accountability Act of 2005 sponsored by Senator Specter, a Republican of Pennsylvania, the Judiciary Committee - of which Senator Specter is chairman - will be holding hearings into the hate materials on October 25, a spokesman for the senator, William Reynolds, said yesterday.
The Accountability Act, introduced in June, says its purpose is "to halt Saudi support for institutions that fund, train, incite, encourage, or in any other way aid and abet terrorism, and to secure fully Saudi cooperation in the investigation of terrorist incidents." The legislation is highly critical of the House of Saud for its support of terrorist activity and cites the January Freedom House report as evidence of the kingdom's complicity in the spread of radical Islamist ideology. As part of the Accountability Act, Senator Specter has in the past held Judiciary Committee hearings into Saudi financing of terrorism and Saudi Arabia's role in injecting ideology into textbooks for Palestinian Arab schoolchildren.
Many of the details of the Judiciary Committee hearing later this month, Mr. Reynolds said, are still being arranged, including a final witness list. In the meantime, the committee expects testimony from the State Department, the Federal Bureau of Investigation, Freedom House, and terrorism experts. The committee will press to determine whether the Saudi government has taken steps to stop the distribution of the materials, and will cull from witnesses recommendations to prevent their future dissemination, Mr. Reynolds said.
Also demanding answers about the hate materials is the State Department's undersecretary for public diplomacy and public affairs, Karen Hughes. During a high-profile trip to the Middle East last week, Ms. Hughes said American representatives had addressed the propagation of Saudi hate material in America during private meetings with government officials. In a State Department briefing held en route to Ankara, Turkey, from Saudi Arabia last Tuesday, Ms. Hughes was asked why she had raised the issue that day during a public meeting with Saudi journalists, becoming the first American official to do so publicly. "We had been raising the issue privately," Ms. Hughes said, "and as part of raising difficult issues that we need to discuss, I felt it was appropriate." The undersecretary did not elaborate on the results of the private meetings, but the degree to which Saudi Arabia is making efforts to stop the propaganda will be a subject of the Senate hearings, Mr. Reynolds said.
Requests for comment from the Embassy of Saudi Arabia yesterday were not returned.
Posted by: Steve ||
10/05/2005 09:51 ||
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#1
Wait a MINUTE???? Their immigrating here and we welcome them w/ open arms and THEN their taught to HATE AND KILL AMERICANS????? I say we start FIRST!!!! You see em' with hate material KILL EM"!!!! VERY SIMPLE!!!!!!!
Deport everyone involved with this; those that have citizenship should be up on treason charges; any with diplomatic immunity should be PNG'd and sent home without a chance to pack their bags.
Posted by: Robert Crawford ||
10/05/2005 10:36 Comments ||
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#4
You read that stuff they put out and know they are talking about YOUR mother, father, brother, wife, etc. You know damn well nothing is being done. Anywhere.
#6
In SA you are required to live by their beliefs or you will be arrested by the Muttawa. What's fair is fair. When they come to our land they should be required to own a hunting dog, eat ribs, drink beer, oggle football chearleaders etc. If they refuse they should be arrested by our religious police, the Bubbas, and taken fishin' (if you know I mean).
#7
Golly gee ... the Saudis aren't our friends after all. Who'd a ever thunk it? Seems like the White House had a really tough time wrapping their minds around what's been common knowledge here at Rantburg, like, for f&*king evah.
Mebbe it's time to have the Saudis spend an equal or greater amount of money distributing literature promoting religious tolerance and unconditionally condemning violent jihad. If they prove incapable of such, I'd vote wholeheartedly for immediate confiscation of that wee strip of Saudi land .com has been making such a fuss about. That oughta finance all the reparations needed.
Any of you who doubt the article need to Google on Prince Faisal Ben Turki Al Abdullah.
Posted by: Deacon Blues ||
10/05/2005 13:13 Comments ||
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#9
Does anyone think the radicalization of muslim as happened in Europe, Southeast Asia, anywhere Wahabis set up won't happen in the US. The Saudis (and Iranians) have had 25 years to work their plans in mosques, madrassas, and airwaves in those areas and anywhere else there are muslims. In the US, 80% of mosques are Wahabi controlled/influenced and the result will be similar even if the time table is slower.
Get off the oil teat and deport the muslims. We have the technology and capital to do it, we only need to wake up and summon the will. Otherwise get used to a perpetual war on civilians committed by the muslim fifth column with the backing of the worldwide ummah.
Posted by: ed ||
10/05/2005 13:19 Comments ||
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#10
last Tuesday, Ms. Hughes was asked why she had raised the issue that day during a public meeting with Saudi journalists, becoming the first American official to do so publicly.
Since all diplomats are supposed to be mouthpieces of the Executive, and since Karen Hughes was appointed by Bush to be his special envoy, I think we can assume that Bush is aware of the Saudi princelings' duplicity and that he is in on the current effort to confront them.
Bush has been a busy little beaver lately: two hurricanes handled in ways that revealed the abilities of the various state hierarchies to deal with crises, one judge nominated and confirmed to the Supreme Court, a second name put up for a pending vacancy (both of which, it sounds like, could significantly change the character of the Justices' discussions), the bad guys revealing themselves in the light of coordinated Coalition/Iraqi armed forces attacks -- and ever more Iraqi troops and police proving capable of handling their tasks in the face of active opposition, Syria openly accused, Iran openly accused... If one didn't know better, one would think Bush had a list, and was ticking things off!
#11
Material that promotes, condones, or incites acts of violence should be addressed with the current laws that forbid the dissemination of such filth. Equally the purveyors of this shit, if convicted, should be punished to the fullest extent of the law. But make no mistake about it, Hate Crime laws for the most part are PC Bullshit!
Not to mention trying to prepare for an avian flu epidemic. He made an interesting response to that question at yesterday's press conference, didn't he?
Posted by: Eric Jablow ||
10/05/2005 14:38 Comments ||
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#13
Hey we need more Bubba's to clear out these folks that don't like our way of life here.
With legal immigration don't they check out these details? Geez.
Posted by: Jan ||
10/05/2005 16:48 Comments ||
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#14
He made an interesting response to that question at yesterday's press conference, didn't he?
Yes indeed, Eric. Clearly, he looked at the Katrina debacle as a warm-up for a real, no mesin' around this time, full-blown national emergency. And the bird flu is a much better topic-of-opportunity than another 9/11... or even an Oklahoma City explosion.
Via Michelle Malkin
NORMAN, Okla. -- Sources confirmed Tuesday night that at least one of the components in the bomb used by Joel Henry Hinrichs III Saturday night was a product called TATP. Technically, TATP is triacetone triperoxide. However, it's called the 'Mother of Satan' by Islamist extremists. Experts say it is made by mixing common household items such as drain cleaner and bleach to create a white powder with a strong smell.
It's so volatile that it can explode even if it's merely dropped. It can even explode spontaneously, experts say. There have been very few reports of TATP being used in the United States; however, there have been more documented cases overseas -- including Richard Reid, who was arrested after he used TATP in his shoe and tried to light it on a flight.
The FBI is testing materials from the OU student's backpack, and from Hinrichs' apartment. Sources said a chemist from FBI headquarters was flown to Oklahoma to help with the gathering of evidence to be used for testing. However, FBI officials will not comment on any aspect of the investigation, including what sources have told Eyewitness News 5.
The bit about ammonium nitrate links to a video-only report. This is smelling more and more like an intended attack, and the jury's still out on possible jihad sympathies.
Wasn't TATP used in the 7/7 attack?
Yes, and the second failed attack. Rumor mill is running full speed on this one, to include:
1. Joel Hinrichs attended the Norman Mosque
2. Roomed with a Pakistani student who is "missing"Hinrichs' roommate, along with his acquaintances, were questioned by federal authorities.
3. Tried to buy a large amount of ammonium nitrate just four days ago. Earlier last week, Hinrichs tried to buy ammonium nitrate fertilizer from Ellison Feed and Seed in east Norman. Dustin Ellison said the student visited his store last Wednesday and asked to buy the fertilizing ingredient often used in bombs. Ellison said Hinrichs didnât know how much he needed, and the store operator asked why the fertilizer was needed. After further discussion, Ellison said âsomething didnât feel rightâ and decided not to sell any materials to him.
4. Joel Heinrichs "supposedly" took off a year from school.
According to this report, Hinrichs "has no ties" to any terrorist organization, according to the FBI:
FBI officials released little information except to say there isnât a known link between Hinrichs and terrorist or extremist organizations, no one else is believed to be involved and there is no known threat posed by additional explosives.
Posted by: Robert Crawford ||
10/05/2005 09:59 ||
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#1
This guy was from Colorado - they've splashed his pic on the news allot here. The thing that surprised me was he had a long shaggy beard... made me go hmmm..
Posted by: Yosemite Sam ||
10/05/2005 10:50 Comments ||
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#2
According to this report, Hinrichs "has no ties" to any terrorist organization, according to the FBI:
No, it says he has "no known links". The key word there is "known".
Posted by: Robert Crawford ||
10/05/2005 11:01 Comments ||
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#3
I just knew it. Let's see how this either doesn't get picked up in the MSM or quietly goes away.
The ROP is a breeding ground of soft brained wanna be killers.
#10
My daughter knew him from Wasson High School. She started there as a freshman when John was a junior. Said he hardly ever spoke more than three words at a time, and pretty much kept to himself. He wasn't a known member of any of the normal high school 'groups', and didn't get involved in school activities. He graduated in 2002. If he's a junior at OU, he either didn't take a year off, or he made it up rather quickly.
Posted by: Old Patriot ||
10/05/2005 16:39 Comments ||
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#11
I would have given Hinrichs being a muslim low probability, but now it is said he was attending the same Oklahoma City mosque as Zacarias Moussaoui. Another disturbed loner, like John Walker Lindh and Adam Gahdan, turned to the dark side. With the way Islam preys on the maladjusted and lonely, it is truly a cult. The FBI better sift through the OKC muslim population with a nano-strainer.
Posted by: ed ||
10/05/2005 18:07 Comments ||
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#12
OP, his father said in an interview in the OU school paper that he'd taken a year off college due to depression. But the father also said he was at the top of his engineering class despite hating doing the maths, so if the boy took summer school classes he could easily have caught up by his junior year. Shoot, I earned almost a full third year of credits that way by the end of my sophomore year, and I was nothing special.
I'm a bit suspicious about the whole jihad thing, though -- if he meant harm rather than simple suicide, why did he seat himself far enough outside the stadium that only one person outside of the authorities even saw his damaged body, and only a few nearby building windows were broken? Bobmb-making appears to be pretty straightforward as far as I can tell (chemistry being one of my very weakest subjects), if more than a bit touchy chemically, and I thought engineers were taught to apply a 30% safety factor to their calculations... and yet his bomb didn't accomplish much beyond a personal level.
#14
Malkin's latest post has an update from Tapscott:
A Lincoln Town Car believed driven by OU Suicide Bomber Joel Henry Hinrichs III remains in the parking lot of the apartment where he lived and a U.S. Department of Justice inventory of the contents found by law enforcement officials is visible on the seat, Tapscott's Copy Desk has learned.
Among the items listed on the inventory are "13 plastic bottles" in the trunk. The inventory did not note if there was anything in the bottles, their size or coloration.
Other items on the inventory include a title, insurance certificate, a 2003 Rand McNally Road Atlas and two other highway maps with undecipherable titles. The car's license tag is Oklahoma VUL014, with a February 2006 expiration date. Tapscott's Copy Desk has also learned that a tree near where Hinrichs' bomb detonated displays a number of small round holes and some areas of a metallic substance.
Small round holes? Ball bearings, maybe? Or just bone fragments?
Posted by: Robert Crawford ||
10/05/2005 21:02 Comments ||
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#15
Thanks for the clarification, Omerens Omaigum2983. As I said, weak in chemistry. Your and Robert's comments are making me rethink my position. Darn it -- I do hate having to think badly of people!
WASHINGTON (AP) - Entrances to the White House from Pennsylvania Avenue, a historic Washington thoroughfare, were briefly closed on Wednesday and workers already inside were told to remain in the building. The shutdown lasted about 20 minutes. U.S. Secret Service officers on the scene said the incident was prompted by discovery of a suspicious package.
Posted by: Steve ||
10/05/2005 09:23 ||
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Baghdad, 5 Oct. (AKI) - After months of respite, insurgents in Iraq have resurrected the gruesome and violent practice of carrying out beheadings on camera, in the form of a new video issued over the Internet by the Ansar al-Sunna Army. The victims are two Iraqi men, Shakir Mahmoud Jasim and Riad Najim Abdullah, both from the capital Baghdad and accused of being spies working for the Americans. More specifically Ansar al-Sunna accuse them of running a network of informers which has helped American soldiers with the raids and arrests carried out against guerrillas working in the capital.
The first part of the video shows the two men undergoing an interrogation in which they admit to having worked as 'spies'. "I ask Allah to forgive those who help the Americans and I advise them to stop this collaboration," says Jasim. The two Iraqi hostages say in the video that they worked in the al-Doura neighbourhood of Baghdad, gathering information for US command, though they appear harrowed and their answers follow questions put to them by more than one terrorist, presumably seated behind the camera.
The video, which lasts seven minutes, ends with the two men having their throats slit at night in the open. While cutting their throats the insurgents shout 'Allah is great' and, in the former style of members of al-Qaeda, the heads of the two Iraqis are propped up on their bodies as a sign of victory.
Posted by: Steve ||
10/05/2005 14:19 ||
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#1
I'm sure Human Rights Watch will be sure to condem this..... in two to three years perhaps.
#2
They will not condemn it, but will discuss the rooooooooooooot causes of this behavour.
Posted by: Alaska Paul ||
10/05/2005 15:19 Comments ||
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They'll condem evil AmeriKKKa for using these people, thus causing their deaths. What other choice, after all, did the AmerKKKans give Ansar al-Sunna?
A bomb exploded at the entrance of a Shiite Muslim mosque south of Baghdad Wednesday as worshippers gathered for prayers on the first day of Ramadan, killing at least 10 people and wounding 40, officials said.
Nothing sez Ramadan like flying body parts
The explosion hit the Ibn al-Nama mosque in Hillah, a Shiite town that has been the scene of frequent deadly insurgent attacks. Police were trying to determine whether Wednesday's blast was caused by a car packed with explosives or a bomb left at the scene, spokesman Capt. Muthanna Khaled Ali said.
When the blast hit just before 6 p.m., the faithful had come to the Ibn al-Nama mosque for prayers before returning home to eat the meal that ends the day's sunrise to sunset fast, Ali said. At least 10 people were killed and 40 wounded, said Ali and emergency doctor Ibrahim Nafi.
The attack came five days after a car bomb exploded in a crowded market, killing 10 people, including three women and two children in Hillah, about 60 miles south of Baghdad.
Wednesday was the first day of the Islamic holy month of Ramadan for Iraq's Shiite majority. Sunnis began marking the month a day earlier.
Al-Qaida in Iraq, one of the country's deadliest militant groups, has called for stepped up attacks during Ramadan â and it previously declared an all-out war on Iraq's Shiites. The Hillah bombing was the latest in a string of attacks by Sunni-led insurgents that have targeted Shiite Muslims.
Thousands of U.S. troops are currently waging two major offensives to try to put down al-Qaida in its strongholds in the mostly Sunni northwest of Iraq. Hillah is one of the most insurgent-troubled towns of the Shiite heartland in the south. On Feb. 28, a suicide car bomber hit Shiite police and national guard recruits in Hillah, killing 125 people.
Posted by: Steve ||
10/05/2005 12:24 ||
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#1
There's a rumor that somewhere somebody might have spilled coffee on a Koran and folks are ready to go insane with the seething type rage riot thingy in all corners of the muslim lands. Slaughter a bunch of innocent muslims outside their place of worship in cold blood (not counting the maimed) at the onset of one of their most special holidays and the silence outside iraq is deafening.
SADDAM Hussein's family has no money to pay for his defence and his legal team is demanding that either the Iraqi court trying him or the media provide the funds, his Iraqi lawyer said today.
"Legume, bring me my saxophone!"
With the former Iraqi dictator to stand trial over a Shi'ite massacre in just two weeks, Khalil Dulaimi said that until now his team had been providing its services for free because Saddam's family "had no money to cover his expenses". He said his team had failed to raise the money from "rich Arabs, including those who had amassed fortunes in doing business with Iraq."
Pointing his finger at the Special Tribunal that will be trying Saddam and seven former cohorts from October 19, Mr Dulaimi said it had spent at least $US500 million (almost $657 million) preparing its case. He said his team had asked the court for funds to cover their costs, but had received no response.
Mr Dulaimi said that he would make no further statements to the media until the tribunal "applies the law and covers the expenses of the lawyers" or until the media do.
Saddam and seven others are charged in connection with the massacre of 143 people in the Shi'ite village of Dujail in 1982 following an attempt on his life there. Senior former officials to be tried with him are ex-vice president Taha Yassin Ramadan, Saddam's half-brother and former intelligence boss Barzan Ibrahim al-Hassan and a former deputy chief in Saddam's cabinet, Awad Ahmed al-Bandar. The other four â Abdullah Khadem Ruweid, Mezhar Abdullah Ruweid, Ali Daeh and Mohammed Azzam al-Ali â are former ruling Baath party officials responsible for the Dujail area.
Mr Dulaimi has been requesting a delay, claiming that the defence had not been informed about the trial date and had not given it full access to Saddam himself or full details of the charges against him. The court, however, said it had told the defence in September of the trial and that it had been provided with all the evidence obtained in the case.
Posted by: Oztralian [AKA] God Save The World ||
10/05/2005 07:58 ||
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#1
"...spent at least $US500 million (almost $657 million) preparing its case."
Bull crap.
#3
Can't Ramsay Clark raise some moolah from his leftie buddies? What about George Galloway's Miriam Fund (or whatever it was called)? I'm sure the UN still has some of the oil-for-food cash lying around!
#6
Someone must've used the same Swiss bank as Arafat. The old man is going to take it with him rather than let the family touch a cent of it. Such a warm and intimate family moment.
#10
Donations being accepted at 1-800-HANG-HIM-NOW
Posted by: Captain America ||
10/05/2005 13:04 Comments ||
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Please submit your hourly bill to our third-party auditor....
At $200.00 per hour, that comes to 2.5 million man hours. An average work year for a highly paid lawyer is roughly 2300 hours. Therefore, you could fully employ 1087 lawyers fulltime for a year at 460k (!) per year each.
You're fired.
Posted by: Mark E ||
10/05/2005 13:26 Comments ||
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#12
Hadn't a hundred-plus lawyers from all over the world flocked to join Saddam Hussein's defence team? And I would imagine that such illustrious gentlemen (not likely to be many ladies in that horde) bill a great deal more than than the standard $200/hour. What a shame they'll see no payoff for an investment of so much time and effort.
#20
The "lawyer" and Saddamn are two of a kind. I suggest the honorable court give them both the same sentence - a long drop with a short rope tied around their necks. A perfect "TWOFER" (or more).
Posted by: Old Patriot ||
10/05/2005 16:47 Comments ||
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#21
You can definality get alot of billiable hours for $500 million. I guess the case against Saddam is too big!
The 2nd Marine Division launched Operation Bawwabatu Annaher, or River Gate in English, in the cities of Haditha, Haqlaniyah and Barwana Oct. 4.
Approximately 2,500 Marines, Soldiers and Sailors from Regimental Combat Team â 2 and Iraqi Security force soldiers are participating in the operation, making it the largest operation in the al Anbar province this year.
The operationâs goal is to deny al Qaeda in Iraq the ability to operate in the three Euphrates River Valley cities and to free the local citizens from the terroristsâ campaign of murder and intimidation of innocent women, children and men.
Haditha is an important crossroads for al Qaeda in Iraqâs smuggling activities from the Syrian border. Once in Haditha, smugglers can go north to Mosul or continue on to ar Ramadi, Fallujah or Baghdad. The city is home to approximately 75,000 Iraqis, a vital hydro-electric power plant, and 28 schools.
Coalition and Iraqi forces located in western al Anbar province have seen a recent increase of al Qaeda in Iraq violence in Haditha. Last Spring, terrorists attacked Haditha General Hospital, the largest in western al Anbar, with a suicide car bomb, destroying more than half of the building with the explosion and ensuing fire. Terrorists also established fortified firing positions inside the hospital and used patients and staff as human shields as they attacked Marines from the hospital and later retreated from the Marine counterattack.
More information will be released as it becomes available.
Posted by: Oztralian [AKA] God Save The World ||
10/05/2005 06:56 ||
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Iraqi troops assigned to a public-order brigade and U.S. Army soldiers fought off more than 40 insurgents in southern Baghdad this morning.
As the Iraqi units engaged the terrorists with small-arms fire, U.S. Task Force Baghdad units also responded to the scene, first with a quick reaction force, then with aviation, military police and armor assets.
By 11 a.m., additional Iraqi units had arrived to engage in the firefight. Iraqi army soldiers and special police commandos joined them.
Task Force Baghdad soldiers helped evacuate wounded Iraqi forces to military medical facilities.
Shortly before 1 p.m., Iraqi units began searching houses in the area in search of the terrorists. More than three dozen terrorists were killed, wounded, or captured in the engagement, U.S. military officials said. Initial reports indicate only three Public Order Brigade soldiers were killed.
Elsewhere, U.S. Task Force Liberty and Iraqi army soldiers uncovered information leading to a possible terrorist encampment during the discovery of a large weapons cache near Ghalibiyah at 12:30 a.m. Oct 3.
The cache was discovered after Iraqi army soldiers were attacked, returned fire and pursued the attackers to two large farmhouses in the area. Iraqi soldiers requested Task Force Liberty assistance, and then forces conducted a combined raid.
A search of the properties yielded two vehicles prepared as improvised explosive devices, one suicide bomber vest, 19 57 mm rockets, 18 SPG 9 anti-tank rockets, 16 rocket-propelled grenades, two launchers, 10 anti-tank mines, 20 mortars, 25 mortar fuses, three machine guns, two AK-47 rifles, and four hand grenades.
Also found was an Iraqi army uniform, two al Qaeda flags, an al Qaeda flier, an al Qaeda jihad book and miscellaneous medical equipment. Task Force Liberty explosive ordnance disposal personnel conducted a controlled blast to destroy the munitions.
Although the attackers escaped, they were later apprehended at a hospital, where one was receiving medical treatment for wounds received during the firefight.
In other developments, Iraqi security forces and multinational forces from Task Force Freedom, including troops from 172nd Infantry Brigade (Stryker Brigade Combat Team) and 3rd Armored Cavalry Regiment, detained 49 suspected terrorists, killed two terrorists, injured another two, and seized weapons during operations in northern Iraq from Sep. 30 to Oct. 3.
Soldiers from 2nd Battalion, 4th Iraqi Army Brigade, and U.S. soldiers from 2nd Battalion, 1st Infantry Regiment, detained nine suspected terrorists during a cordon-and-search operation in western Mosul Oct. 2.
Iraqi police and U.S. soldiers detained three individuals suspected of terrorist activity during a cordon-and-search operation in central Mosul Oct. 2.
Iraqi police seized a weapons cache during a search operation west of Mosul Oct. 3. The cache included mortar tubes, explosives, grenades and mortar fuses.
Soldiers from 2nd Battalion, 1st Infantry Regiment, detained eight individuals suspected of terrorist activity during operations in Mosul Sep. 30 and Oct. 1.
Soldiers from 4th Battalion, 23rd Infantry Regiment, detained six individuals suspected of terrorist activity and seized weapons during operations in Mosul from Sep. 30 to Oct. 2.
Soldiers from 1st Battalion, 17th Infantry Regiment, detained two suspected terrorists during two separate operations in Mosul Sep. 30 and Oct. 1.
Soldiers from 65th Military Police Company detained two individuals suspected of terrorist activity after being attacked with small-arms fire while patrolling in northern Mosul Sep. 30.
Soldiers from 2nd Battalion, 325th Airborne Infantry Regiment, shot and killed two terrorists, injured another, and detained two individuals suspected of terrorist activity during operations in Tal Afar Sep. 30.
Soldiers from 2nd Squadron, 3rd Armored Cavalry Regiment, shot and injured one terrorist and detained four individuals suspected of terrorist activity Sep. 30 and Oct. 2.
In Baghdad, Iraqi army and U.S. Task Force Baghdad soldiers seized six individuals suspected of planting improvised explosive devices, detained two car-bombing suspects, and unearthed three weapons caches during combined and independent combat operations Oct. 2. Five of the terror suspects were captured in two early-morning raids conducted by Iraqi and U.S. forces.
At 2:30 a.m., soldiers from 2nd Battalion, 3rd Iraqi Army Brigade, teamed up with U.S. soldiers from 1st Battalion, 11th Armored Cavalry Regiment, to search an apartment complex. In less than 90 minutes, the soldiers captured three suspected terrorists believed to be responsible for placing roadside bombs in the area.
The second Iraqi-U.S. operation netted two more terror suspects in western Baghdad just before 4 a.m. The suspects are thought to be involved in a car-bombing cell.
At 8:10 a.m., Task Force Baghdad soldiers patrolling in southwestern Baghdad struck an IED. No one was injured in the attack, and the patrol caught two men acting suspiciously.
The patrol then searched two houses 100 yards from the scene of the attack and found bomb-making materials, including batteries, wires, timers and radio detonation devices. The soldiers also found two AK-47 assault rifles and two sniper rifles in the houses.
Task Force Baghdad soldiers, acting on an Iraqi citizen's tip, nabbed the sixth suspected roadside bomber just before 3 p.m. in northern Baghdad.
All eight terror suspects were taken into custody for questioning.
In other combat operations, Iraqi and coalition forces found three weapons caches in western Baghdad.
One of the caches was discovered lying out in the open in burlap bags, indicating the weapons were either about to be buried or were being recovered for a possible terrorist attack. The cache contained two machine guns with 150 links of ammunition, six AK-47 assault rifles with 16 full magazines, and eight hand grenades.
The second cache consisted of 76 artillery rounds, one missile, one rocket, 10 mortar rounds, and a mortar tube, base plate and bipod for firing the munitions.
Task Force Baghdad soldiers also found 10 mortar rounds, four rockets, five grenades, five AK-47 assault rifles and ammunition, and three bullet-proof vests in a third weapons cache. The third cache also contained fake license plates and nearly 20 bombs.
Posted by: Oztralian [AKA] God Save The World ||
10/05/2005 07:00 ||
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I'm sorry for the 3 Iraqi KIA, but they obviously performed well - 36+ terrs iced. Outstanding. I hope they can stand the pace as it ramps up for the constitutional vote.
Iraqâs Al Qaeda urged Sunni Muslims on Tuesday to step up attacks on US forces during Ramadan, the holy month which has seen some of the bloodiest attacks by militants hoping for rewards in paradise.
The group, led by Jordanian Abu Musab Al Zarqawi, said in a statement that the âgates of heaven are openâ during the fasting month, which began on Tuesday for most Sunnis in the Middle East. Shias mark the start of the month on Wednesday.
âAl Qaeda Organisation in Iraq announces that Tuesday is the first day of the blessed month of Ramadan ... a month of serious work, jihad and initiative,â said the statement posted on an Islamist Web site often used by the group.
âGather your strength and we incite the believers to kill the slaves of the cross who have ... demolished mosques and houses, burnt the Quran and sowed corruption in the land.â
Posted by: Dan Darling ||
10/05/2005 03:14 ||
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Nothing says "Have a blessed Ramadan" more than a bomb, I guess.
"...demolished mosques and houses, burnt the Quran and sowed corruption in the land."
Thousands of troops have moved in on militants in and around Haditha in western Iraq, in the biggest offensive so far this year against the al-Qaeda-linked insurgency. Some 2,500 troops, backed up by helicopters and war planes, moved into towns along the Euphrates valley, Haditha, Haqlaniya and Barwana, in Operation River Gate. The US military says is designed to root out al-Qaeda insurgents from the area and "free the local citizens from the terrorists' campaign of murder and intimidation."
However, it was announced in a statement on Tuesday that four marines have been killed in the operation. Three died on Monday in Haqlaniya, while a fourth was killed on the Syrian border, taking the total US military death toll since the invasion of Iraq in 2003 to 1,936.
Local residents in the areas targeted by the offensive told journalists that helicopters dropped troops into the area and a bridge linking Haditha and Berwana was bombed, along with several houses which were believed to have been used by the insurgents. Troops also went house-to-house making arrests. US vehicles were reported to be patrolling the streets, urging local people to give them information about the militants, who had taken control of the towns and were said to have imposed Taliban-style Islamic rule.
Meanwhile, since Saturday another thousand troops have been working to root out al-Qaeda militants near Qaim on the Syrian border, further west from Haditha in Operation Iron Fist. These are the latest in a series of operations by US and Iraqi troops targeting certain towns, such as Fallujah and Samarra, which had become rebel strongholds. Each offensive has prompted hundreds of families to flee the towns.
Last week hundreds of families were reported to have started fleeing Samarra following an announcement from the Defence Ministry that preparations had started for an offensive against insurgents there.
Humanitarian workers say around 800 families have already fled al-Qaim to escape the violence. Several hundred residents from the town are reported to have crossed the border into Syria to seek refuge there. Health workers in the area say there have already been many civilian casualties in the fighting between the militants and the US-led forces. The Iraqi Red Crescent Society says it will sent a relief convoy to western Iraqi on Wednesday with tents, blankets, food parcels and medical supplies for those displaced by the violence.
Posted by: Dan Darling ||
10/05/2005 03:13 ||
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Y'know, we can keep on launching bigger and bigger offensives, but something needs to be done about Syria and Iran, and to a not-as-urgent degree, Saudi Arabia.
#2
Somehow I suspect giving the Iraqis live fire training on the twerps in their own country may have something to do with attending to Syria and Iran in the future. Might also reduce the bitching and whining about US casualties when it happens.
#3
I doubt Iran has much influence in the Haditha area. In addition, the theory that the Syrian govt itself is behind the Syrian terrorist infiltration isn't held very strongly.
Its simply trans national Salafist Islam that's the main problem.
The Israeli army has shot and wounded a Palestinian teenager after he attempted to stab soldiers at a West Bank checkpoint near Nablus.
The teenager ran towards the soldiers brandishing a knife and shouting "God is great", witnesses said.
"Look Moshe, here comes another one of them idiots. Try and keep his blood off my uniform this time, OK?"
Israeli soldiers fired at the youth, lightly wounding him, said witnesses.
"Good shooting, Moshe"
The attack comes the day after Palestinian militants said they were responsible for a knife attack on an Israeli soldier at another checkpoint. Al-Aqsa Martyrs Brigades said they carried out the attempted stabbing of the soldier at Hawara checkpoint on Tuesday, the scene of many previous attacks. The female attacker was shot dead by Israeli troops after she injured a soldier in the face.
Posted by: Steve ||
10/05/2005 08:42 ||
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AMMAN - Jordanâs state prosecutor on Tuesday called for the death penalty against Iraqâs most-wanted man, Abu Musab Al Zarqawi, and two other suspects accused of plotting a suicide attack on the border with Iraq. âThe prosecutor wrapped up his case in the trial by re-confirming the charges against the three suspects and calling for the maximum penalty, including the death penalty,â a judicial source told AFP.
Jordanian-born Zarqawi, who has already been sentenced to death in Jordan for the 2002 murder of a US diplomat, and Ismael Mahmud Abu Audeh, a Palestinian also known as Abu Abdel Rahman al-Afghani, are being tried in absentia in the case.
Doesn't matter how many times you sentence him, just whether you carry it out at least once.
The only defendant present in court since the trial opened on June 1 is Saudi national Fahd Numan Al Fuhayki who has repeatedly denied any involvement in the plot to carry out a suicide attack on the Iraq border in December 2004.
"Lies! All lies!"
In mid-September Fuhayki said in a written statement to the court that he had confessed under torture.
Since he's a Saudi and a wuss, they only needed to use a #3 pliers.
The three defendants are charged with conspiracy to carry out an attack and possession and transport of explosives for use in an illicit operation, according to court papers. They are specifically accused of plotting a December 3 attack in Al-Karameh, on the Jordanian side of the border with Iraq.
Fuhayki was allegedly due to drive the car to the border and blow it up but his plan fell through when the explosives-laden vehicle fell in a ditch and failed to blow up.
Usually they have the opposite problem.
Earlier that same day two members of the multinational forces were killed and five others injured in Trebil, on the Iraqi side of the border, when another car blew up.
The defence will present his conclusions at a hearing before the state security court can convene to pronounce its verdict. No date has been set for the next hearing.
Posted by: Steve White ||
10/05/2005 00:00 ||
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Jordanâs state prosecutor on Tuesday called for the death penalty against Iraqâs most-wanted man, Abu Musab Al Zarqawi, and two other suspects accused of plotting a suicide attack on the border with Iraq.
BANGKOK, Thailand (AP) - Suspected Islamic insurgents shot and killed five soldiers as they ate dinner Wednesday at a military outpost in southern Thailand, officials said. The attack came hours after the beheaded body of a villager was found in another southern province, a killing also blamed on insurgents. The beheading was the 11th reported in Thailand since Islamic separatists revived a violent insurgency in January 2004. The violence has claimed more than 1,000 lives.
Two other soldiers were wounded in the attack on the outpost, said army spokesman Col. Somkuan Saengpataranetr. The attackers arrived in a pick up truck and motorcycles and fired at the men with assault rifles, Somkuan said. They led laid metal pikes and logs on the road to thwart pursuers as they fled, he said. The gunmen seized seven assault rifles and one pistol from the small outpost, said Col. Thanongsuk Wangsupha, the district's military chief. The soldiers were eating dinner when they were attacked, said a police officer, who spoke on condition of anonymity because he was not an official spokesman.
The shooting took place in the Cho Airong district of Narathiwat province, a hotbed of insurgent activity about 710 miles south of Bangkok, near the border with Malaysia. The victims were members of the paramilitary Ranger force, as were four other soldiers killed in an ambush last week in nearby Yala province.
The remains of the still-unidentified beheaded man, about 50-years-old, were found along a road in Yala on Wednesday morning, along with a note saying the killing was in retaliation for the arrest of innocent people from a village in the province, police Lt. Sirichai Suksaran said. The man's remains have been sent for an autopsy, Sirichai said.
"The gruesome killing that marked the first day of Ramadan shows that the insurgents ignore the principle of not sinning during the holy month," said provincial Gov. Boonyasith Suwanarat.
Since when is killing infidels a sin?
Ramadan, Islam's holy month, started Wednesday in parts of Asia.
Posted by: Steve ||
10/05/2005 12:40 ||
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"The gruesome killing that marked the first day of Ramadan shows that the insurgents ignore the principle of not sinning during the holy month," said provincial Gov. Boonyasith Suwanarat.
I thought gruesome murders of kaffir was part of the celebration. Certainly has been in years past.
Posted by: Robert Crawford ||
10/05/2005 13:33 Comments ||
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Didn't Crazy Mo decree that Jihad was permitted during Ramadan?
(Right after his people violated Ramadan and he really wanted a fifth of the spoils...)
EFL: Police questioned several jailed militants across Indonesia on Wednesday, intensifying efforts to identify three suicide bombers who attacked crowded restaurants on the resort island of Bali. Investigators said they had received at least one phone call from a man who said he recognized one of the alleged bombers featured in grisly photos of the suspects' severed heads that have been circulating nationwide in newspapers and on TV. "He identified one of the bombers," said Abdul Madjid, the police chief in Solo, a city on the main island of Java.
Madjid said the caller told police the man in the photo resembled a resident of Solo, the site of a hard-line Islamic boarding school attended by several notorious militants convicted in terrorist attacks. The dead man was only identified by one name, Gareng, and police were following up on the tip, Madjid said. The police chief didn't provide further details about the suspect or his school, saying only that the tip was being pursued.
"I can say no more"
Police said they questioned two convicted militants - Amrozi bin Nurhasyim and Imam Samudra - who were sentenced to death for their roles in the 2002 Bali bombings, said Bali police chief Maj. Gen. I Made Mangku Pastika said. "We are also asking them whether they recognize these people or not. So far the detained terrorists do not know them," Pastika said.
Southeast Asian nations have gone on high alert to prevent a repeat of the Bali bombings. Hundreds of thousands of troops were on standby, security was tightened on beaches and along borders. Indonesian President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono said Wednesday the bombings "have spoiled Indonesia's reputation in the eyes of the world." He called on his military to stamp out the scourge of terrorism in the world's most populous Muslim nation.
On Bali itself, shops put up shatterproof glass and some hotels were hiring a security guard for every 10 rooms. Police were on the streets and at the airport in force, and officials say searches and metal detector screenings will become even more common. "Bags will be checked. Cars will be checked. This is an inconvenience, but it is for safety reasons," said Tourism Minister Wacik. "The world community has become more immune to bombs going off. London and Madrid recovered, and we will recover."
Saturday's bombings have prompted new Indonesian calls for access to Riduan Isamuddin, a Southeast Asian terrorism mastermind detained by the United States since 2003. Washington has refused previous requests, saying it did not want to compromise an investigation of the Indonesian cleric, widely known as Hambali.
Posted by: Steve ||
10/05/2005 08:49 ||
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ABU Bakir Bashir, the spiritual leader of Jemaah Islamiah, has outlined the religious justification for terror attacks in Bali, London and New York and urged jihadists to embrace nuclear weapons "if necessary".
In a chilling interview last month in the Jakarta cell where he remains after his conspiracy conviction in relation to the 2002 Bali bombings, the radical Muslim cleric also warned of a clash of civilisations that would not end until the West "accepts to be governed by Islam".
The alleged terrorist leader speaks of his hopes of meeting Osama bin Laden if he is released from prison and explains the justification for suicide bombers and terror attacks. "During battle it is different. Still, the whole notion revolves around martyrdom," he says. "But in places like London and in America there must be other calculations. In battle it is best to cause as many casualties as possible."
Published a fortnight ago by the Washington-based Jamestown Foundation, the interview was conducted by Scott Atran on August 13 and 15 at Cipinang Prison in Jakarta.
Asked about his personal views regarding the bombings in his homeland, including the Bali bombings in 2002 and the Marriott bombing in 2003, Bashir praises the bombers. "I call those who carried out these actions all mujahid," he says.
"They all had a good intention, that is, jihad in Allah's way, the aim of the jihad is to look for blessing from Allah.
"They are right that America is the proper target because America fights Islam. So in terms of their objectives, they are right, and the target of their attacks was right also.
"No, they didn't attack because they defended themselves. They shouldn't be punished."
In the interview, Bashir urges parents to understand the reward their children will secure if they join the jihad against Westerners.
"If the martyr's family understands Islam deeply, they will obtain many rewards," he says.
"Their reward will come, if they understand. A martyr must have ikhlas (sincerity). The parent who understands this concept must be thankful to Allah.
"This is the spirit of jihad that most scares the infidels. This is a moral force."
Bashir also describes one of the 2002 Bali bombs as "a Jewish bomb". "That bomb was a CIA Jewish bomb. You are stupid to punish Amrozi if he really knows how to make such a bomb," he says. "You should hire him to be a military consultant, because there is no military or police person (in Indonesia) who can make such a bomb. If Amrozi really did make that bomb, he deserves the Nobel Prize. So, the death penalty is not fair."
However, he argues there is little Westerners can do to avoid further conflict.
Bashir also says he recently sent a letter to US President George W. Bush via the US embassy in Jakarta.
"They have to stop fighting Islam, but that's impossible because it is sunnatullah (destiny, a law of nature), as Allah has said in the Koran," he says.
"They will constantly be enemies. But they'll lose. I say this not because I am able to predict the future but they will lose and Islam will win. Islam must win and Westerners will be destroyed. If they refuse to be under Islam, it will be chaos. Full stop. If they want to have peace, they have to accept to be governed by Islam."
Posted by: Dan Darling ||
10/05/2005 03:42 ||
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"embrace nuclear weapons"
A Magik Moment for all Muzzies: Hug a fissile core today.
Hell, we should plant one, one that emits unfrickinbelievable rads, in the middle of the kaaba to make it easier. The mountain won't have to go to Mo, they'll get theirs on the hajj. Along with polio and an assortment of other fine goodies. No need to thank us.
#4
I hope he meets OBL in hell soon. Alot of typical mental gymnastics from yet another tiny leading mind of militant islam. Across the globe these freaks are on the same page in one fundamental respect. "A moral force" = those who would deliberately murder children and other civilians on a mass scale in order to dominate them by brutal coercion. Apologists and idiots need to read the last few sentences attributed to Abu BB at the end of the article and take them to heart. His ilk need to be taken out of the human equation one way or another. One needn't worry a bit about negotiating when facing Abu BB and his peers as there is nothing to negotiate.
#11
They don't need nukes, they can beat us purely by demographic and political means. The desire for nukes is merely an expression of their shame at being technologically and militarily inferior to the West. But nukes are irrelevant, because we'll never use them and they don't need them.
#12
Don't be too sure about that Grereth. Do you really think everyone born to muslim parents actually follows this horseshit religion? There are many, many quiet apostates all over the world and I am one of them. Either Islam will be detoxified into a set of cultural practices, like Judaism, or it will be destroyed like other totalitarian creeds.
#14
Grereth, even if the West were defeated (big if), what do you think the Russians, Indians or Chinese are going to do?
They have no problem with killing vast numbers of muslims if they feel they have to.
Read 'The Three Conjectures' by the Belmont Club - if Islamist terrorists can get hold of nuclear weapons on a reliable basis, then the logic of TTC means that with the first detonation of one of those weapons, the response is for total destruction of the Islamic world. The key point is that the logic of TTC dictates that Islamic Armageddon will be played out whether it is the West, Russia, India or China that is struck.
Apostate, I respectfully suggest that it's far more likely that its going to end up with destruction rather than detoxification.
The simple truth is that concepts such as MAD, which has kept the world safe for the last 60 years, do not figure in the mind of someone whose only goal is to kill people whose religion is the wrong type. The very worst thing that could happen to muslims *everywhere* is Jihadis getting hold of WMD.
Posted by: Tony (UK) ||
10/05/2005 16:20 Comments ||
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Until we have wet-work teams roaming the globe capping each and every imam spouting the least crap about violent jihad, maroons like Bashir will continue their death-cult programming. Kinda hard for a martyr to do the same job anywhere near as effectively. More martyrs, faster please.
Posted by: Mr. Had Enough ||
10/05/2005 17:33 Comments ||
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Tony,
They are not quite that irrational. They believe that Islam will rule the world and that they are doing God's will in fighting the infidels, but they are not as certain of this as they like to pretend. As with Communism, their own success is a key part of the creed, so they are psychologically vulnerable to setbacks. Defeating them in Iraq would be a huge blow to their entire belief system.
#17
Tony UK... well spoken. Wretchard's idea here is that now is when we (the west) have freedom of action to choose where and how to act. Once a Nuke goes off, there is no freedom of action remaining; all that is left is to do the deed we hired the executive branch(es) for. If we loose the war on terror and the jihadis get a source for nukes, millions and millions and millions will die. Most of them being the west's enemies. We loose a city, they loose a billion people. We win, but that isn't the kind of victory we would rather have.
Posted by: Mark E ||
10/05/2005 17:49 Comments ||
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There have been NO public statements by any nuclear country that they would respond to a nuclear attack by the extermination of the ummah. Thus, I believe the MM in Tehran have been mislead by us and might very well conclude that the infidels do not have the strength to overcome Allah's will should they use nuclear weapons in jihad. We should go on record now and begin production of neutron weapons.
#19
I agree with the 3 Conjectures - Islam will be destroyed in any no-holds-barred war. On the demographics side, Europe and Russia are pretty vulnerable.
Posted by: jolly roger ||
10/05/2005 18:13 Comments ||
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They believe that Islam will rule the world and that they are doing God's will in fighting the infidels, but they are not as certain of this as they like to pretend. As with Communism, their own success is a key part of the creed, so they are psychologically vulnerable to setbacks. Defeating them in Iraq would be a huge blow to their entire belief system.
Indonesian police said Wednesday they were trying to locate five men from western Java with ties to radical Islamic groups as the investigation continued into the past weekendâs suicide bombings in Bali.
But police and security analysts stressed it was too early to say if the chase for the five men â all of whom had links either to past bombings in Indonesia or militant Islamic groups â marked a breakthrough in the case.
Since Saturday nightâs coordinated attack on a restaurant and a separate strip of seaside seafood cafes packed with diners, investigators have focused on the al-Qaeda-linked Jemaah Islamiyah group and two of its most-wanted Malaysian members, Azahari bin Husin and Noordin M. Top.
Authorities have said they do not yet have proof of their involvement and have been focusing on the identities of the three suicide bombers involved in the attacks. But the two Malaysians have been linked to all of the major terrorist attacks in Indonesia in recent years and investigators have said the weekend attacks in Bali bore many of their hallmarks.
The five militants police were searching for Wednesday were thought to be linked to a group that had worked with the Malaysians before.
All five had at some point been either detained or questioned by police either in connection with last yearâs attack on the Australian embassy in Jakarta or the 2002 nightclub bombings in Bali, said Colonel Badrodin Haiti, the police chief of Banten province.
All five, he said, had links to either Imam Samudra, the coordinator of the 2002 Bali attacks, which killed 202, or a group of west Java militants that took part in the September 2004 Australian embassy attack, which left 11 dead.
But what has peeked policeâs interest is that all have gone missing since this past weekendâs bombings in Bali, Colonel Haiti said.
âWe are still trying to find out where they were,â he said. âIf they had a good alibi as to where they were when the second Bali bombings happened they will be fine.â
âThereâs a link between those people and Imam Samudra and [the] group of Australian embassy bombers,â he said. âBut police have never been able to prove if they had direct involvement in terrorism activity or the bombing [in Bali].â
The five, whom police refused to identify, are thought to be linked to a Banten group descended from the militant Darul Islam movement, which mounted rebellions against Jakarta in the 1950s in an effort to make the Koran the law of the land.
Iqbal, one of the suicide bombers involved in the 2002 Bali attack, was a member of the group, according to Sidney Jones, an analyst with the International Crisis Group and the leading expert on Jemaah Islamiyah. So too was the suicide bomber involved in last yearâs attack on the Australian embassy in Jakarta, which killed 11.
Police, who have questioned 39 people as witnesses, also said Tuesday that they had detained two people in connection with Saturdayâs bombings in Bali, although they later backed away with a police spokesman calling the pair âpickpockets.â
That news came as Muslim cleric Abu Bakar Bashir, who is accused of co-founding Jemaah Islamiyah, condemned the weekend bombings in Bali.
Bashir received a 30-month sentence in March after being convicted of conspiracy in connection with the 2002 Bali bombings.
âI really disapprove of bombings in non-conflict areas for whatever reason, including in Bali, because it can be almost certain that innocent and unknowing victims would fall,â Bashir said in a statement released by his lawyer.
Posted by: Dan Darling ||
10/05/2005 03:39 ||
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As Southeast Asia pondered its security after the second deadly terrorist blow to Indonesia's Bali resort island, nagging concerns surfaced again over whether the southern Philippines has become the region's breeding ground for radicals.
After most of al-Qaida network's camps in Afghanistan were taken out by U.S. led forces in late 2001, the Mindanao region has become a key training area for Southeast Asian militants, including those blamed for the first Bali carnage three years ago that killed 202 people, according to security officials and confidential documents.
Malaysian fugitives Azahari bin Husin and Noordin Mohamed Top, who Indonesian police say may have masterminded Saturday's suicide bombings in Bali, are believed to have trained or once taken refuge in Mindanao, a vast tropical sprawl with largely unguarded jungle-clad islands, mountains and marshes.
Muslim separatist guerrillas hold sway in far-flung villages.
Police officials planned to show pictures of the recovered heads of three suspected suicide bombers to captured Jemaah Islamiyah militants to check if last weekend's attackers belonged to the al-Qaida-linked group or if they trained in Mindanao, an almost automatic suspicion that's not without basis.
In a sarcastic editorial cartoon on Tuesday, the widely circulated Philippine Star newspaper featured an Islamic militant holding two lit bombs and wearing a shirt labeled "Bali bomber" and a button that read "proudly RP-trained."
Posted by: Dan Darling ||
10/05/2005 03:36 ||
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maybe now the rest of Asia and the Phil government will pull their heads out and do something about this. They know where the camps are but because they are in the MNLF and MILF areas they are afraid to bust the peace accords. Time as always to see action and not just talk.
Posted by: 49 pan ||
10/05/2005 9:41 Comments ||
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INTELLIGENCE officials investigating last weekend's suicide bombings in Bali are following a lead that the bombers may have been "clean skins" schooled at the Abu Sayyaf Group training grounds on The Philippines island of Mindanao.
They believe the Jemaah Islamiah terrorist network has been using The Philippines as a training base, as authorities have made it harder for them to train and plan operations on Indonesian soil in bases such as Maluku and Sulawesi.
A study published this week by US terrorism expert Zachary Abuza exposes close links between Indonesian terror groups including JI and Laskar Jundullah and the Philippines-based ASG and the Moro Islamic Liberation Front.
Dr Abuza saidthe technical capacity of the Abu Sayyaf Group in bomb-making has increased dramatically in the past year.
"The ASG has emerged as a serious security threat to Philippine and arguably regional security," Dr Abuza said.
In Bali yesterday, police were piecing together a detailed picture of the bombs that killed 22 people, including four Australians, in Saturday night's three co-ordinated attacks. The bombs appeared to consist of bolts and ball-bearings wrapped around a single sticks of TNT, detonated with the help of 9-volt batteries.
Police believe the simpler, smaller construction, compared with earlier JI bombings in Indonesia, is further evidence that the group has switched tactics.
Police continued to interview a man considered a chief suspect who was arrested within hours of the attack. He was taken to various locations yesterday in the hope that he would help identify three men suspected of remotely triggering the devices.
One of the ringleaders of the 2002 Bali bombings, Ali Imron, told an Indonesian newspaper he believed JI leader Azahari Husin may have been forced to switch tactics since the 2003 arrest of operations chief Hambali.
Hambali was the link-man for funding and support between Jemaah Islamiah and al-Qaeda until his arrest by Thai police.
"That may be right," Imron, younger brother of death-row Bali bombers Amrozi and Mukhlas, said.
"But if they are not running out (of explosives), there could be another bombing."
According to JI expert Sidney Jones, the network's leading bomb-makers, Dulmatin and Umar Patek are reported to be in the southern Philippines. "They appear to be not only actively recruiting new trainees, but helping to up the technical capacity of Abu Sayyaf," she said last month.
It emerged yesterday that police had conducted raids in the Balinese capital, Denpasar, and other cities across the archipelago as they hunted for clues to the gang behind the attack.
Residents in the central Denpasar suburb of Kreneng revealed that at least 40 police had descended on their sleepy market district within an hour of the explosions, searching for anyone "acting strangely". Police returned on Monday night.
There were reports of two men with distinctive east Javanese accents acting suspiciously around the cafes at Jimbaran, south of the main tourist centre at Kuta, shortly before two bombs exploded there on Saturday night.
Another detective said he understood a man named Abdullah, arrested trying to flee Bali on Sunday, was being taken to a places connected with the inquiry, based on information the detainee was giving to investigators.
Posted by: Dan Darling ||
10/05/2005 03:34 ||
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New terror fears gripped Asia on Tuesday, sparking security scares at embassies and travel alerts, but Indonesia shrugged off calls to outlaw the militant group suspected in the deadly suicide bombings on Bali island.
Investigators were piecing together evidence -- pellets, batteries, cables and detonators -- from the scenes of the blasts and renewed calls for anyone who recognized grisly photographs of three suicide bombers to step forward.
Two men were being held for questioning, but they have not been named as suspects, said Bali police chief Maj. Gen. I Made Mangku Pastika, adding that 39 witnesses were also being debriefed.
Southeast Asian nations have gone on high alert to prevent a repeat of the Saturday night attacks on three crowded restaurants that killed 22 people, putting hundreds of thousands of troops on standby, tightening security on beaches and at resorts, and stepping up border security.
Tighter security has already been implemented across Bali, as shops put up shatterproof glass and some hotels hire one security guard for every 10 rooms. Police are on the streets and at the airport in force, and officials say searches and metal detector screenings will become even more common.
"Bags will be checked. Cars will be checked. This is an inconvenience, but it is for safety reasons," Indonesia's Tourism Minister Wacik said Tuesday. "The world community has become more immune to bombs going off. London and Madrid recovered, and we will recover."
Adding to tensions, a Muslim cleric jailed for conspiracy in the 2002 bombings that killed 202 people on the same resort island said Tuesday the latest attacks were a warning from God.
Suspicious packages threatening retaliation for injustices against Muslims were sent to six Asian and European embassies in Malaysia -- including Canada, Germany, and Thailand -- forcing evacuations and the closure of the Japanese mission.
The parcels were later dismissed as a hoax, as was a tip-off that the U.S. Embassy had also been targeted, said Abdul Aziz Bulat, Kuala Lumpur's police head of criminal investigations.
No one has claimed responsibility for the coordinated attacks that also wounded more than 100 people. But suspicion immediately fell on the al-Qaida-linked terror group Jemaah Islamiyah -- which allegedly orchestrated the 2002 Bali bombings.
Australia, which lost 88 citizens in the earlier attacks, warned Tuesday of further possible strikes on the island and again urged Jakarta to ban Jemaah Islamiyah.
But Indonesia shrugged off the call.
"It is an underground movement. We can only ban an established organization," said presidential spokesman Andi Malarangeng, adding that the government would continue to fight terrorism "under whatever name."
From his prison cell, Islamic cleric Abu Bakar Bashir -- the group's alleged spiritual leader -- said in a statement that last weekend's blasts were a sign of God's displeasure with the Indonesian government.
"I suggest the government bring themselves closer to God by implementing his rules and laws because these happenings are warnings from God for all of us," said Bashir, who has campaigned for the implementation of Islamic Shariah law in Indonesia.
Posted by: Dan Darling ||
10/05/2005 03:30 ||
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Re: JI - "Indonesia shrugged off calls to outlaw the militant group"
Okay, we hear you. Try writing off non-Muzzy tourism, investment, hi-tech mfg, the lot. See where that gets you, assholes.
#4
JT - That and the facts that they choose to get their "news" from BS Arab outlets and choose to never connect the dots. Cognitive dissonance seems to be en exclusively Western phenomenon.
UALA LUMPUR, Oct 5 (Bernama) -- Seven foreign missions here Tuesday received from "mystery senders" envelopes believed to contain a yellowish liquid chemical and a type of powder.
Dang Wangi OCPD ACP Kamal Pasha Jamal said the Dang Wangi police started receiving calls from 2 pm from the Japanese and German embassies and the high commissions of Canada and Singapore regarding the envelopes. Meanwhile, spokesmen for the Sentul and Cheras police said they received calls on the envelopes from the missions of Italy, Australia and Thailand.
Inside the envelopes was a compact disc (CD) laced with a yellowish liquid and powder covered in plastic, Kamal Pasha told reporters at the building in Jalan Tun Razak where the German Embassy and the Canadian High Commission are located.
Not dismissing the possibility that there were "hazardous substances" in the envelopes, Kamal Pasha, however, said: "There is nothing to worry as the situation is under control. He said the envelopes, delivered by express mail, have been sent to the Veterinary Services Department in Ipoh for analysis. Findings of the analysis would be known soon to determine if the liquid was hazardous or otherwise.
"Initial investigations suggest the envelopes were sent from Kelantan and Selangor," he added.
Traffic congestion built up along Jalan Ampang and Jalan Tun Razak when police and firemen, responding to the calls from the missions, rushed to the diplomatic enclave along Jalan Ampang. Most of the staff at the missions left their offices and stood in the compound of their premises until the security authorities arrived.
Beirut, 5 Oct. (AKI) - A Lebanon-based senior offcial of the main Palestine Liberation Organisation (PLO) faction, Fatah, has said Palestinian groups based in the country are not involved in the recent cases involving the illegal entry from Syria of weapons and men. "The Palestinians in Lebanon don't need reinforcements of men, arms and ammunition from bases in Syria. Those who speak of arms trafficking must provide proof," Sultan Abu al-Aynain said with reference to recent reports that Lebanese authorities have intercepted a number of Palestinian militants illegally entering the country from Syria.
Abu al-Aynain denounced what he said was the "insistence with which certain circles in Beirut are trying to implicate the Palestinians in [Lebanon's] internal political tensions." He also cited Lebanese media reports that said that those who had been caught entering Lebanon were not Palestinians but people "from other nationalities" seeking employment opportunities in Lebanon.
"If it [the claims] is meant as an attack against Syria, then we don't accept that the Palestinian issue is used in this campaign against Damascus," said al-Aynain, adding, "our men and our guns are not for hire and we don't work for any third parties."
Representatives of another Palestinian group, the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine - General Command (PFLP-GC) whose members have been accused by Lebanese authorities of being involved in the illegal cross-border activities at the Dayr al-Ashar'ir refugee camp in the eastern Bekaa Valley - which lies a few kilometres from the frontier with Syria - have also denied any wrongdoing. PFLP-GC leaders have accused Lebanese poltical groups of attempting to get the Lebanese army to "intervene against the Palestinian resistance."
Posted by: Steve ||
10/05/2005 14:25 ||
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Correction, Fatah doesn't want Hizbullah from Syria, who are the enemies of Fatah. Fatah also doesn't want Hamas, and Hamas are so-so about wanting Hizbullah. For their part, Hizbullah wants to come back, as conquerors of both Hamas and Fatah.
Tabriz, 5 Oct. (AKI) - The Iranian journalist and activist for the rights of the minority Azera community in Iran, Masoumeh Babapour, has been found almost dead on a bridge in the south of Tabriz, the provincial capital of Iranian Azerbaijan, in the northwest of Iran. Babapour was kidnapped by four unidentified people on Monday morning while on her way to work. Her disappearance was reported by her husband, Bagher Hassanzadeh. The journalist was found with nine stab wounds on Wednesday morning lying under a bridge and in a critical condition.
"In the last few weeks, my wife received various threats over the telephone, and a letter in which she was accused of being an atheist," Hassanzadeh told independent website, Tabriz News. "In the same letter, it was written that the religious authorities had already decided to pass a death sentence on Masoumeh," he added.
She is currently in hospital in a coma and is still in a critical condition.
Posted by: Steve ||
10/05/2005 14:23 ||
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Damascus, 5 Oct. (AKI) - Syrian authorities have arrested seven members of the outlawed radical Islamic group, Hizb ut Tahrir (Party of Liberation). Lebanon-based leaders of the group said their fellow militants were picked up by security forces in Damascus and the northwestern city of Aleppo. Those arrested include university professors, engineers, pharmacists and law students, the party said in a statement released on Tuesday.
Hizb ut Tahrir was founded in Jerusalem in 1953 with the goal of re-establishing an Islamic caliphate in the Middle East. Over the years, its ideology has moved closer to al-Qaeda's, with a mixture of anti-US and anti-Israeli sentiments.
In the wake of the crackdown against Islamic radicals following the July bomb blasts in London one of the group's most prominent European representatives, Sheik Omar Bakri, who had been living in Britain since 1996, has sought shelter in Lebanon since August. British authorities and those in many Middle East countries have banned Hizb ut Tahrir, and in Syria membership of the group can be punished by the death penalty.
A wave of recent expulsion orders has hit Europe-based Hizb ut Tahrir militants, as authorities in Britain, France, Denmark and Russia have started investigating the organisation for its terrorist links and anti-Semitic propaganda.
Danish authorities ordered several militants out of the country while Hizb ut Tahrir's spokesman in Denmark, Fadi Abdel Latif, has been arrested and charged with instigating hatred against Jews. Unconfirmed reports have also said that over 50 of the party's militants have been deported from Russia after police discovered firearms and explosives in their homes. France has also expelled an unspecified number of the group's militants.
Posted by: Steve ||
10/05/2005 14:09 ||
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WITH RECENT U.S. and British allegations that shipments of explosives similar to those used by Iran's Islamic Revolutionary Guards Corps (IRGC) are being shipped into Iraq from Iran for use by the insurgency, it is long past time for American policy-makers to examine the role of Iranian Brigadier General Qassem Suleimani and the Qods (Jerusalem) Force unit under his command in fomenting and facilitating anti-American terrorist activity since the September 11 attacks.
The very nature of General Suleimani's position within the IRGC warrants him being on America's radar. As the commander of Qods Force, Suleimani is charged with overseeing the IRGC's extra-territorial operations and, according to Time magazine, he serves as a special advisor to Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei on the issues of both Iraq and Afghanistan. Under Suleimani--and his predecessor Ahmad Vahidi--Qods Force has been linked to nearly every instance of Iranian-backed terrorism over the course of the last decade, including the 1994 bombing of the Jewish community center in Buenos Aires, Argentina, that killed 85 and injured 230. A U.S. intelligence analysis of Qods Force leaked to the Washington Post in September 2003 provided even further insight into its activities.
According to the analysis, Qods Force has agents in most countries with large Muslim populations and its goal is to "form relationships with Islamic militant and radical groups and offer financial support either to the groups at large or to Islamic figures within them who are sympathetic to the principles and foreign policy goals of the Iranian government." Contrary to
the conventional wisdom that rules out Shiite-Sunni cooperation, the analysis also stated that Qods Force had trained more than three dozen Shiite and Sunni foreign Islamic militant groups in paramilitary, guerrilla, and terror tactics, including assassination, kidnapping, torture, and explosives.
THESE ACTIVITIES are alarming enough but, as explained in a second Post story from September 2003, the organization's role in anti-U.S. activities extends even further. Citing a European intelligence official, the Post noted that after the fall of the Taliban al Qaeda's second-in-command Ayman al-Zawahiri (whose relationship with Qods Force goes back at least a decade) negotiated safe harbor for much of the surviving al Qaeda leadership inside Iran, including bin Laden's son and heir apparent, Saad, and the terror network's de facto ministers of war, finance, propaganda, and ideology. Numerous media reports listed future-Iraqi insurgent leader Abu Musab Zarqawi as among these refugees.
While Zarqawi quickly left Iran for Iraq (possibly under duress from Iranian authorities because of both his anti-Shiite views and the government's desire to counter U.S. criticism that Iran was soft on al Qaeda), the rest of the al Qaeda leaders who took refuge in Iran continue to operate. Despite Iranian claims that any al Qaeda members within its borders are "in custody," these senior leaders appear to continue to operate within what a French counter-terrorism official described to AFP in July 2004 as "controlled freedom of movement"--a controlled freedom due in no small part to the influence of Qods Force.
THE ANTI-AMERICAN ACTIVITIES of Qods Force aren't simply limited to protecting the al Qaeda leadership. According to a report in Time, as early as September 2002 Ali Khamenei placed General Suleimani in charge of organizing various Iraqi groups as part of an Iranian plan to dominate the country following Saddam's removal. Among these targeted groups were the Badr Brigades military wing of the Supreme Council for Islamic Revolution in Iraq (SCIRI is now a key member of the Iraqi ruling coalition), the Mujahideen for Islamic Revolution in Iraq (MIRI), Thar-Allah, and Iran's favorite proxy, the Lebanese Hezbollah. Yet it was not until April 2004 and the beginning of Muqtada al-Sadr's failed uprising that Qods Force would truly make its presence in Iraq felt.
As reported by the London Arabic newspaper al-Sharq al-Awsat, al-Sadr visited Iran in late 2003 and met with General Suleimani. At the onset of al-Sadr's uprising, the paper reported that Qods Force had set up training camps at Qasr Shireen, Ilam, and Hamid in southern Iran along the Iraqi border to train the radical cleric's Mahdi Army and financed his campaign to the tune of $80,000,000. A March 2005 report by the Brussels-based International Crisis Group (ICG) treated most charges of Iranian meddling in Iraq with skepticism, but quoted one E.U. diplomat as saying that "[Qassem] Suleimani seemingly had an agenda to support Muqtada al-Sadr in the Najaf crisis. . . . But as the war went on, he withdrew his support." The report cited another diplomat as saying that Iran had provided al-Sadr with "funding and arms."
IN MAY 2004, al-Sharq al-Awsat published a story claiming that members of Qods Force had attempted to provide both explosives and upwards of $900,000 to Abu Musab Zarqawi, with the intention of him carrying out attacks on U.S. and European embassies and commercial centers in five Gulf states. According to the newspaper, the plot was thwarted by Iranian intelligence at the behest of the-then President Khatami, who likely recognized that such action could easily result in a US reprisal against Iran. At Khatami's direction, Iranian intelligence arrested a number of al Qaeda operatives as well as a Qods Force official, yet no actions were taken against General Suleimani and he remains in command of
the elite military unit to this day.
In August 2004, al-Sharq al-Awsat cited an official who had attended an Iranian military seminar in which General Suleimani stated that Zarqawi and 20 senior members of the terrorist group Ansar al-Islam are allowed to enter Iran whenever they want through border points between Halabja and Ilam in Iraq. When asked why Iran would support Zarqawi given his anti-Shiite activities, Suleimani stated that Zarqawi's actions in Iraq "serve the supreme interests of Iran" by preventing the creation of a pro-U.S. government. These remarks seem to square with the views of the ICG report on Iranian meddling in Iraq which, while largely skeptical, concluded that Kurdish assertions about Iran's Revolutionary Guards backing Ansar al-Islam (described by the U.S. State Department as "closely allied with al-Qa'ida and Abu Mus'ab al-Zarqawi's group" as well as "one of the leading groups engaged in anti-Coalition attacks in Iraq") "most likely have merit."
Thus far, discussions over the proper course of US policy towards Iran have primarily focused on the regime's nuclear program. Perhaps the activities of General Suleimani and Qods Force should be included in that discussion, too.
Dan Darling is a counter-terrorism consultant for the Manhattan Institute's Center for Policing Terrorism.
Posted by: Dan Darling ||
10/05/2005 03:11 ||
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Damn all homonyms!
That should be "who's in charge" ...
Posted by: Dan Darling ||
10/05/2005 3:13 Comments ||
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Iran's new president, Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, has placed the military firmly in control of his nation's nuclear program, undercutting his government's claim that the program is intended for civilian use, according to a leading opposition group.
Leaders of the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC), the force created specifically to defend the 1979 Islamic revolution, now dominate Iran's Supreme National Security Council, the country's top foreign policy-making body under the constitution.
Mr. Ahmadinejad, a little-known former mayor of Tehran before his surprise election in July, is a former IRGC commander, as is new council Secretary-General Ali Larijani, who has taken the lead in negotiations about Iran's nuclear programs.
Revolutionary Guard commanders also have taken charge of the council's internal security, strategy and political posts, according to a report issued by the Paris-based National Council of Resistance of Iran. A Revolutionary Guard veteran even serves as the council's press spokesman.
"The military under the new president is firmly in control of the nuclear program and the nuclear negotiations with the United Nations and the West," said Mohammad Mohaddessin, chairman of the NCRI's foreign affairs committee, in a telephone interview yesterday.
Posted by: Captain America ||
10/05/2005 02:19 ||
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The IRGC pass the looks like a terrorist, walks like a terrorists, quacks like a terrorists identity test so this is bad.
#2
It was an Spokeman-General for the Iranian RGC this past September that reportedly argued that America, as sampled by KATRINA-GATE, can be turned from a unified nation into local "war/battle zones", which suits pro-revolution/anarchy Mother "Commie Fascist Amerikans must take back Fascist Amerika by force" Sheehan and the Commie Airborne just dandy.
#3
Iran is enigmatic. I would not be surprised if the senior eschelons of the military were still heavily influenced by Zoroastrians, who traditionally were the upper classes in Iran.
Only a real Iran expert could make heads or tails out of this situation, and what its ramifications are.
#4
If the Revolutionary Guard is the real power in Iran anyway, maybe this is just a way of making sure the mullahs know their place.
Posted by: James ||
10/05/2005 13:30 Comments ||
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#5
This is starting to look like the classical tragedy in which the protagonists destroy themselves through a combinatiion of ignorance and hubris. The best result for the average Iranian would be that in which only the elite is vaporized. The worst would be the country's economy and population returned to 7th century levels to match their society.
#6
Or by pushing against an ineffectual and squeamish west, the Iranian theocrats will have nuclear warheads and long range missiles, threaten the west with anhilation, dominate the Persian Gulf, control the energy jugular and severely damage the west economically.
Posted by: ed ||
10/05/2005 14:37 Comments ||
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BEIRUT - Saad Hariri, son and political heir of assassinated former Lebanese Prime Minister Rafik Hariri, said in an interview published on Tuesday that he had left the country after a plot to kill him was uncovered. Hariri has been living abroad for two months, citing security fears after a series of bombings and assassinations that followed his fatherâs killing on Feb. 14 fuelled concerns the country was sliding into chaos.
Hariri told the London-based Arabic newspaper al-Hayat he had left the country on the advice of foreign powers because of threats to his life. âBut we also captured some people and knew their whereabouts in Lebanon and what they were plotting to do...,â he said. âWe had confirmed information about groups planning for this (assassination) attempt,â he told the paper in Paris without giving further details.
What are the odds the trail leads back to Damascus?
Posted by: Steve White ||
10/05/2005 00:00 ||
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Islamist terrorists are younger and more malleable than ever before, including converts and women, an antiterrorist judge says.
"Never has radicalization been as strong," said Jean-Louis Bruguiere, a top French antiterrorist judge, in an interview published Wednesday in France's Le Figaro newspaper.
"We're witnessing a change in the cells, with much younger new actors, even minors, who are therefore more malleable."
The growing radicalization, Bruguiere added, is directly linked to the turmoil in Iraq.
The recruits include a growing number of converts to Islam, the judge told Le Figaro, who are "undeniably tougher" than Muslims by birth.
Female converts are particularly interesting targets for Muslim radicals from overseas, looking for ways to get French citizenship through marriage.
The judge's remarks come just two days after French police arrested four people in an antiterrorist sweep. Two of those arrested were women.
Chemical and biological attacks, using poisons like ricin for example, pose a new threat Bruguiere said. Nor can the chance of a "dirty" nuclear bomb be dismissed out of hand, he said, after the 2002 arrest of Jose Padilla.
Posted by: Captain America ||
10/05/2005 16:17 ||
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This is good news. Would you prefer to fight older, trained Nazis, or young and stupid neo-Nazis?
It's partly because pacifist like you continue the Bush Lies. I'd hate Bush too if I didn't know how you self-hating hippies are a bunch of uneducated liars.
It's mainly the terrorist who go out to destroy women and children, they chose their path, and we'll stop them without your help, traitor.
#8
That's why there are more work accidents. The older, more experienced boomers have been boomed or helizapped, so we have the younger set who have not been taught Ohm's law yet. ROPMA.
Posted by: Alaska Paul ||
10/05/2005 20:50 Comments ||
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#9
It's all about the ideological indoctrination. The Jihad videos, the pamphlets, the Friday sermons at the mosques and the everyday culture in the Mulsim neighborhoods where the Jihadis brow-beat the less radically inclined with conspiracy theories, religious, political, and emotional black-mail (Obey my God's commands! Muslims are attacking under attack!). The incitement to hatred of Infidels, Jews, Crusaders, Americans, Hindus (Kurds, on occasion) and any group inconveniently standing in the way of the imposition of Global Sharia.
This will continue unhindered as long as tens of millions in the West, out of naivete and political fractiousness, continue to turn a blind eye.
In the desperate desire to forget the unpleasantness of conflict, we continue with the absurdities of tolerating intolerance or trying to deflect blame on to more manageable targets like our own political opponents and grievances.
Posted by: John in Tokyo ||
10/05/2005 22:33 Comments ||
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QUETTA, Pakistan - A detained Taliban spokesman has told his interrogators that the militia's fugitive chief, Mullah Citizen Mohammed Omar, is hiding in Afghanistan and is in contact with top commanders, an intelligence official said Wednesday.
Mullah Hakim Latifi, who has often claimed responsibility on behalf of the Taliban for attacks on U.S.-led coalition forces, was arrested earlier this week in Pakistan's southwestern Baluchistan province, Information Minister Sheikh Rashid Ahmed said. Latifi was not a prominent figure in the Taliban while it was in power in Afghanistan, only becoming a media contact after the ouster of the movement in a U.S.-led war in 2001. His exact ties to the Taliban leadership are not known. "So far, he has told interrogators that Mullah Citizen Omar is alive, he is in Afghanistan and he remains in contact with senior aides by satellite phone," said the Pakistani intelligence official, who was involved in the raid to arrest Latifi in Quetta, the capital of Baluchistan. The official spoke on condition of anonymity because of the secretive nature of his job.
Some Pakistani officials said Latifi was arrested Tuesday, but the intelligence official said he was detained Sunday at a home in Quetta's Newi Killi neighborhood. The announcement of Latifi's arrest had been delayed because he was being interrogated about other Taliban leaders, the official said. Four "low-level" aides of Latifi were arrested from several other homes in Newi Killi, the official said. Intelligence agents seized two satellite phones, two Pakistani cell phones, Taliban literature, audio cassettes and CDs containing films of Taliban operations, he said.
Nice haul
Pakistani officials described Latifi as a Taliban spokesman. But information from Latifi in the past has sometimes proven exaggerated or untrue. Afghan and U.S. military officials say he is believed to speak for factions of the rebel group. Afghanistan welcomed Latifi's arrest. Relations between Pakistan and Afghanistan have sometimes been strained because of Kabul's suspicions that rebels are using Pakistan as a staging area for cross-border attacks. Pakistan denies it.
Posted by: Steve ||
10/05/2005 10:38 ||
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But information from Latifi in the past has sometimes proven exaggerated or untrue.
See. I told you! But those Pakistani chicks ate it up!
iRobot and The Photonics Center at Boston University have introduced a tactical sensory system payload prototype, dubbed REDOWL, for the combat-proven iRobot PackBot robot. REDOWL, or Robot Enhanced Detection Outpost with Lasers, can detect and locate snipers and mortars on the very first shot fired at personnel or vehicles. The REDOWL equipped PackBot has been field-tested for the Army's Rapid Equipping Force at a rifle and trapshooting range. Of the more than 150 rounds fired from 9 mm pistols, M-16 and AK-47 rifles from over 100 meters, the REDOWL system located the source of the gunfire successfully 94 percent of the time. The iRobot PackBot is a Tactical Mobile Robot that can be hand-carried and deployed by a single soldier. "Snipers have had the advantage of being effectively invisible -- making them a deadly threat on the battlefield and in urban settings," said Vice Admiral Joe Dyer (U.S. Navy, Ret.), executive vice president and general manager, iRobot Government & Industrial Robots. "REDOWL is a mobile system, which means snipers can run but they cannot hide anymore."
Posted by: DanNY ||
10/05/2005 01:00 ||
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If it works 94% of the time - and yields null results when it fails, due to echoes or whatever, then field it, and develop a direct feed of the location data to other systems for auto-counter-fire. It's time to hear that a GMLRS responds to a local data signal with a pinpoint hit - from an FOB 30km or 40km away.
#2
...can detect and locate snipers and mortars on the very first shot..
They reported testing against pistols and rifles, but not mortars. Shoddy testing or shoddy reporting?
#3
Shots, mortars, any sound are detected by the same method, time difference of arrival at known positions (the microphones). Then use triangulation to get shooter position. Use a time window to filter out echos.
Posted by: ed ||
10/05/2005 13:09 Comments ||
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#4
Ed, this doesn't appear to be an acoustic system, but I don't know what the laser reference is about so it might be. The sniper detection systems that I've seen are either acoustic, thermal or radar-based technologies. They also tend to be rather too large to be accomodated by a Pacbot.
Perhaps the Pacbot carries an acoustic receiver and transmits the directional coordinates of the shot via a laser signal. Still, it relies on other systems or individuals to respond. Better option is incorporating this onto the Foster-Miller TALON robot. That one carries a weapon and can respond directly.
#5
Oops. Just skimmed the headline. It is still an acoustic system for target detection and classification, with secondary infrared and daylight cameras for target recognition, and GPS and laser illuminator for target designation.
Laser-based sniper detection system unveiled for army robot The iRobot PackBot is a Tactical Mobile Robot that can be hand-carried and deployed by a single soldier. REDOWL features an array of optics and acoustic detection systems including a laser pointer and illuminator, acoustic localizer and classifier, thermal imager, GPS positioning, an infrared and daylight camera and two wide-angle cameras. When integrated with the PackBot, these systems enable the robot to accurately detect, locate and identify the origination point of hostile gunfire. These systems also make REDOWL ideal for day and night urban surveillance, reconnaissance, hostage/barricade situations, forward observation outposts and perimeter protection missions.
REDOWL features an Acoustic Direction Finding (ADF) system developed by BioMimetic Systems. The ADF is based on advanced "neural circuits" emulating human hearing and provides accurate detection and bearing information in high background noise environments.
Posted by: ed ||
10/05/2005 13:51 Comments ||
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Gunmen shot dead a U.N. security officer outside his home in southern Somalia in the latest assassination linked to foreign targets in the anarchic Horn of Africa nation, the world body said on Tuesday. "He had just been dropped off by his driver when he was shot and killed by two people," Sandra Macharia, spokeswoman for the U.N. Development Programme's Somalia operation, told Reuters. The Somali worker, Mohamuud Musse Gurage, 42, was killed on Monday night in the Lower Juba area of Somalia, she added, naturally prompting a pullout of some U.N. staff in the area. The U.N. worker's killing is the highest-profile murder in Somalia since respected local peace activist Abdulkadir Yahya Ali was shot dead in front of his wife in July. Yahya had extensive contacts with foreign organisations in Somalia.
Macharia, speaking from the safety of U.N. offices in Nairobi, said the identity of the assailants was unknown. "The United Nations has strongly condemned the killing of UN staff member and Somali national Mohamuud Musse Gurage," a U.N. statement said. "Consequently, the U.N. has relocated 12 nationals and one international staff member from the area."
"Brave Sir Robin ran away..."
U.N. agencies employ about 600 people in Somalia, of whom roughly 100 are international staff. U.N. staff or consultants have been kidnapped periodically in Somalia, often for use as leverage by Somali former U.N. workers dismissed by the organisation and seeking compensation. Most hostages are released unharmed after the bribe money has been handed over mediation by clan elders.
Posted by: Dan Darling ||
10/05/2005 03:41 ||
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The al-Qaeda terror network appears to have launched a recruitment drive, posting adverts on a website commonly used by Islamist groups, the pan-Arab newspaper Asharq al-Awsat reports. The advert says there are a number of communications-related vacant positions, which would involve compiling written and audiovisual reports by militant groups operating in Iraq and gathering footage from satellite TV channels on extremist Islamic groups and their activities in Palestine, Iraq and Chechnya.
According to the 'Global Islamic Media Group' al-Qaeda affiliated website, the terror network is also looking for a video programmer and a researcher for news on Muslims around the world, as well as language specialists with an excellent oral and grammatical knowledge of Arabic and English.
The advert says the group's PR department will follow up applications and contact candidates through private email messages, and it advised applicants to turn to God for guidance and pray before submitting their application.
It did not specify the rank or salary of the posts, but did say: "Every Muslim should know that his life is not his own; it is the property of this violated nation for whom men have shed their blood. No other issue should take precedence over work for the Umma [Community of the faithful within Islam]; it is an obligation for every Muslim."
However, evidence of complaints from other members of al-Qaeda suggest the pay and working conditions offered by the terror network are not particularly good, such as those in a letter written to the leader of al-Qaeda in Iraq, Abu Musab al-Zarqawi, found by the US military in a raid on a hideout in the northern city of Mosul. In it, an al-Qaeda soldier calling himself 'Abu Zayd' calls his work conditions "deplorable" and complains about bad pay, bad housing and the marginalisation of non-Iraqi fighters.
The nature of the jobs advertised, coupled with the recent launch of a weekly al-Qaeda TV news bulletin, 'Voice of the Caliphate', suggest the network is stepping up its communications operation.
Posted by: Dan Darling ||
10/05/2005 03:32 ||
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They should unionize. The Left's golden opportunity. They could march with the French union workers. The English will help as long as they are exempted from attacks.
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.
Britain has accused Iran of responsibility for explosions which have killed eight British soldiers in Iraq this year. A senior British official, briefing correspondents in London, blamed Iranian Revolutionary Guards. He said they provided the technology to a Shia group in southern Iraq. The Iranians had denied this, he added. While UK officials have hinted at an Iranian link before, this is the first specific allegation to be made. 
THE Federal Government will oppose any move to further reduce the jail sentence for the alleged spiritual leader of the terrorist group Jemaah Islamiah, Abu Bakar Bashir. With JI suspected of being involved in the latest Bali bombings, Bashir's name is on a list of prisoners eligible to have their sentences cut, according to a report in today's The Australian newspaper.
ISTANBUL - Istanbul Police Chief Celalettin Cerrah has said that the blast in the basement of a building in Caglayan district of Istanbul occurred while those people were making a bomb. One person was killed and 7 people were injured in the blast in the basement of Oral Business Center on Vatan street in Caglayan. Cerrah said, ''there is a body and an injured person in the building at the moment. The blast happened while they were making a bomb.'' 
MADRID â A Spaniard who was held at Guantanamo Bay has been jailed for six years in his own country for his links to Al-Qaeda.
SADDAM Hussein's family has no money to pay for his defence and his legal team is demanding that either the Iraqi court trying him or the media provide the funds, his Iraqi lawyer said today.
AMMAN - Jordanâs state prosecutor on Tuesday called for the death penalty against Iraqâs most-wanted man, Abu Musab Al Zarqawi, and two other suspects accused of plotting a suicide attack on the border with Iraq. âThe prosecutor wrapped up his case in the trial by re-confirming the charges against the three suspects and calling for the maximum penalty, including the death penalty,â a judicial source told AFP.
BEIRUT - Saad Hariri, son and political heir of assassinated former Lebanese Prime Minister Rafik Hariri, said in an interview published on Tuesday that he had left the country after a plot to kill him was uncovered. Hariri has been living abroad for two months, citing security fears after a series of bombings and assassinations that followed his fatherâs killing on Feb. 14 fuelled concerns the country was sliding into chaos.
QUETTA, Pakistan - A detained Taliban spokesman has told his interrogators that the militia's fugitive chief, 
iRobot and The Photonics Center at Boston University have introduced a tactical sensory system payload prototype, dubbed REDOWL, for the combat-proven iRobot PackBot robot. REDOWL, or Robot Enhanced Detection Outpost with Lasers, can detect and locate snipers and mortars on the very first shot fired at personnel or vehicles. The REDOWL equipped PackBot has been field-tested for the Army's Rapid Equipping Force at a rifle and trapshooting range. Of the more than 150 rounds fired from 9 mm pistols, M-16 and AK-47 rifles from over 100 meters, the REDOWL system located the source of the gunfire successfully 94 percent of the time. The iRobot PackBot is a Tactical Mobile Robot that can be hand-carried and deployed by a single soldier. "Snipers have had the advantage of being effectively invisible -- making them a deadly threat on the battlefield and in urban settings," said Vice Admiral Joe Dyer (U.S. Navy, Ret.), executive vice president and general manager, iRobot Government & Industrial Robots. "REDOWL is a mobile system, which means snipers can run but they cannot hide anymore."
Gunmen shot dead a U.N. security officer outside his home in southern Somalia in the latest assassination linked to foreign targets in the anarchic Horn of Africa nation, the world body said on Tuesday. "He had just been dropped off by his driver when he was shot and killed by two people," Sandra Macharia, spokeswoman for the U.N. Development Programme's Somalia operation, told Reuters. The Somali worker, Mohamuud Musse Gurage, 42, was killed on Monday night in the Lower Juba area of Somalia, she added, 
