Germany next year will shift most of its 2,500 troops in Afghanistan from Kabul to the north, the military announced Thursday.
Of the 1,400 German troops now in the capital, only 500 will remain by the end of 2006, German Defence Minister Franz-Josef Jung said during a visit to Afghanistan, and the most important German base would then become Mazar-e-Sharif.
However, he added that the danger would not pass for the soldiers with the redeployment. "We have malicious attacks here that we must prepare for," he said in the capital.
Germany has the largest contingent in the 9,000-strong International Security and Assistance Force (ISAF), which is helping Afghanistan's government with security. The 36-nation force was established four years ago by the United Nations.
Since mid-November, four suicide attacks have been carried out against ISAF forces. In one of the attacks on November 14, a German soldier was killed
"It is a dangerous assignment," Jung told troops during his visit.
He ruled out a German deployment in restive provinces, however.
The ISAF now is deployed in and near Kabul as well as in northern and western Afghanistan, but next year, it is to expand its operations into provinces in the south where remnants of the ousted Taliban regime and fighters with the al-Qaeda terrorist network have been fighting Afghan and U.S. troops.
The United States now has 2,500 soldiers in the south, but British and Canadian forces are also to be sent in.
Jung told German ZDF television that no more German troops will be sent to Afghanistan and that he hoped the democratisation and stabilization of the country would continue so Germany could soon send some troops home.
After his one-day visit to Afghanistan, Jung returned to Islamabad for talks with his Pakistani counterpart, Rao Sikandar Iqbal, on increasing cooperation in defence, military education and training as well as meet with German troops engaged in relief and rescue efforts in the aftermath of the October 8 earthquake there.
He is also to call on Prime Minister Shaukat Aziz.
Jung's trip is his first overseas after the new German government took power last month. He first stopped in Washington before visiting German troops on the Horn of Africa and flying to Pakistan. He is to leave Islambad Friday to return to Berlin.
Posted by: Dan Darling ||
12/22/2005 11:11 ||
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Of course to the North, we wouldn't like to place the Bundeswehr anywhere near the inflitration routes of Taliban and Al-Qaeda jihadis.
Oh heaven forbid, they may actually see some action.
The Dutch government said on Thursday it planned to send up to 1,400 additional troops to Afghanistan for expanded NATO peacekeeping; but opponents of deployment could mount resistance in parliament.
"The cabinet today decided to further help Afghanistan build a safe and peaceful country," Dutch Prime Minister Jan Peter Balkenende told a news conference after meeting his coalition cabinet.
He said heavily armed troops could expect to be sent in June for a period of two years.
The smallest governing coalition partner, the centrist D66 party, as well as the opposition Green and Socialist parties are against the deployment. Parliament does not have the power to veto deployment but a vote against could undermine the plan.
The planned mission has revived memories in the Netherlands of the massacre of Bosnian Muslims by Serb forces in the Srebrenica enclave in 1995 when they were ostensibly under the protection of lightly armed Dutch U.N. troops.
"It is up to parliament to decide whether to let Afghanistan slide back to the Taliban and al-Qaeda or to continue rebuilding the country," Defense Minister Henk Kamp told the news conference.
"I think this is the most important mission for Afghanistan and for fighting terrorism in the world," he said.
NATO agreed earlier this month to boost its International Security Assistance Force (ISAF) to about 15,000 troops next year from around 9,000, with Britain due to take command and deploy troops in the south alongside Canadian and Dutch forces.
But Dutch concerns have mounted about the plans to send extra troops to the more dangerous south in addition to some 600 Dutch troops already serving in the country.
The government won security guarantees for its troops from NATO allies earlier this month as well as an agreement with the Afghan authorities that no detainee handed over to them by ISAF would face the death penalty, but doubts persist.
Kamp said the Dutch military unit would be "robust" and ready to fight if necessary. The Dutch contribution would include six f16 fighter jets, six Apache combat helicopters, armoured vehicles, mortars, and armoured sleeping containers.
Posted by: Dan Darling ||
12/22/2005 11:04 ||
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I'll say it. Thank you Holland for being a good ally. We do not forget over here. They are going in as NATO not blue helmets this time.
Seven people have died as United Nations led troops battle with militia in north-eastern Democratic Republic of Congo with helicopter gunships. The Lendu militia group are refusing to be integrated into the Congolese army in line with a 2002 peace deal, a UN spokesman in the area said. Meanwhile, the UN Security Council has authorised individual sanctions on leaders of foreign armed groups there. The east has been out of the control of central government for many years.
Despite the end the conflict, bands of militia groups still terrorise civilians and use the rich minerals and timber of the region to finance their operations. Neighbouring countries were drawn into DR Congo's brutal five-year war in which 3m people were killed. Among the rebel groups targeted by the sanctions are those formed by ethnic Hutu extremists, who fled to DR Congo after the Rwandan genocide of 1994.
Earlier this month, the UN says the Lendu militia attacked a Congolese army post, as well as a convoy transporting material for the referendum. "[The UN] sent reinforcements to the area and during the clashes that followed, one soldier and six militiamen were killed," UN spokesman Major Hans-Jakob Reichen told AFP news agency. The operation, involving some 1,000 Congolese troops and more than 200 UN soldiers, is continuing north of Bunia, near the Ugandan border.
I believe the UN troops in this area were Pakistani and Bangladeshi, unless they've rotated out.
Send in the mighty Uruguayans!
About 15,000 fighters in the region have already disarmed, but several thousand are believed to be still the bush, Reuters reports. Some 15,000 UN troops are in DR Congo to help restore stability and organise elections next year.
This week, early results indicate that Congolese overwhelmingly backed a new post-war constitution in a referendum, which will pave the way to next year's polls.
Posted by: Steve ||
12/22/2005 08:37 ||
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Belgies have been gone for decades, or tried to be gone. Lets not blame failed African colonization (colonization er the "F" word). It's either something in the water, or it's in the bloody genes.
Two Austrian tourists held by Yemeni tribesmen could be freed soon as negotiations with the kidnappers are progressing well, a Yemeni official said on Thursday.
"We expect them to be freed today," Abdullah al-Nassi, governor of the mountainous Marib province, where the two tourists were seized on Wednesday, told reporters.
The negotiations were being conducted through senior tribesmen, officials said.
In Vienna, an Austrian Foreign Ministry spokeswoman confirmed that the hostages were Austrian citizens and said a team led by the Austrian ambassador in Oman would travel to Sanaa to remain in touch with Yemeni authorities.
The spokesman said one of the hostages had called friends in Austria and told them they were both well.
Yemeni security sources said the kidnappers, from the Abidah tribe, captured the tourists to press the government to release fellow tribesmen jailed while trying to go to Iraq to fight U.S. forces there.
It was not clear if the jailed tribesmen were linked to Islamist groups such as al Qaeda, which is waging an insurgency in Iraq and which has sympathisers in Yemen.
Armed tribal groups in Yemen, a poor country at the tip of the Arabian peninsula where central government control is weak in many areas, often seize tourists. They are usually freed unharmed after negotiations.
Last month two Swiss tourists were kidnapped in the same area and were later released unharmed. A tribal leader freed the couple after receiving a promise from Yemeni officials to look into the case of his imprisoned brother.
Posted by: Dan Darling ||
12/22/2005 11:14 ||
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Unlike Germany, I don't know of any Islamists imprisoned in Austria, so they must be negotiating the Euro value for the tourists.
Two foreign tourists, believed to be Austrians, have been kidnapped while visiting a tourist site in the northern Yemeni province of Marib, local officials and police say. The local officials in Marib said tribal gunmen on Wednesday kidnapped the two Austrian tourists and probably took them to an area called Abeda.
Oh Jason, Melbourne is such a bore with all those Leb tough boys hanging around. Let's go somewhere safer."
"I know just the thing, ducks, we're off to the beaches of Marib!"
Tribesmen kidnap Westerners from time to time in Yemen, often to try to force concessions from the government. The hostages are usually released unharmed, but several were killed in 2000 when security forces carried out a raid to force their release. The police officials said the kidnappers were from the Abeda tribe and that government forces had been sent to the area. Tribal members in Marib, contacted by telephone from San'a, said the kidnappers had demanded the release from detention of two men from the Abeda tribe, but did not say on what charges the two were detained.
Posted by: Fred ||
12/22/2005 00:00 ||
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package deal vacation: Yemen, Somalia, Eritrea, Sudan, and ZimBobland
Posted by: Frank G ||
12/22/2005 1:34 Comments ||
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package deal vacation: Yemen, Somalia, Eritrea, Sudan, and ZimBobland
Breakfast in Yemen, shopping in Somalia, Lunch in Sudan, you're dinner in ZimBoland.
Posted by: Leon Clavin ||
12/22/2005 16:51 Comments ||
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He came in contact with JMB chief Shaikh Abdur Rahman when the later visited Satkhira in 1999, sources in intelligence agencies said. "Later on, under the directive of Shaikh Abdur Rahman, he lured poor youths from neighbouring villages like Itagachha, Kharibila, Kamal Nagar, Baliadanga to join JMB to take part in Jihad for establishing Islamic rule. He recruited and trained JMB activists", one source said. JMB chief Shaikh Abdur Rahman often visited Satkhira and took part in secret meetings, held at mosques and madrashas in Itagachha, Kharibia and Kamal Nagar areas, said a devotee at a mosque at Itagachha seeking anonymity. Abul Kalam alias Shafiullah formed 'Ketal Bahini' in Satkhira under the directive of Shaikh Abdur Rahman in 1999.
Posted by: Fred ||
12/22/2005 00:00 ||
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I know, I know, but I just can't get the final scene from "Breaker Morant" out of my mind.
Posted by: Redneck Jim ||
12/22/2005 8:10 Comments ||
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I dunno why, but I love it when things like this happen.
Lawyers detained and handed Abdul Halim Fakir, 35, an advocate from the Dhaka Judge's Court, over to Kotwali police yesterday, reports our Staff Correspondent in Chittagong. Following information squeezed out of Fakir, the police arrested the uncle of the JMB cadre at a residential hotel in Laldighirpar. Court sources said Fakir came to the Chittagong Court Building yesterday noon and moved the bail petition for JMB activist Syed Farhad Nasim alias Bappi at the Court of Metropolitan Magistrate Monwarul Islam at 3:00pm. As the lawyers of the court challenged Fakir, he failed to show valid documents for moving the petition. The angry lawyers thumped rebuked him and handed him over to police.
The police in the afternoon arrested Abdur Rouf, 45, Bappi's uncle, at Hotel Sugandha, but could not net two other relatives who were present there, sources said. Fakir has been handed over to Detective Branch (DB) of police for interrogation.
"Youse can't interrogate me! I'm a mout'piece!... Oooooow!"
The DB of Chittagong Metropolitan Police (CMP) arrested Bappi along with four more JMB activists at Pallabi in Mirpur in the capital on December 11. Jahiruddin Jeetu, Bappi's brother and Dhaka district JMB commander, is one of the 21 JMB men who were arrested after a gunfight with police in Joypurhat on August 14, 2003, police said.
Posted by: Fred ||
12/22/2005 00:00 ||
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It says something -- what, I'm not sure -- that when I saw "Ctg" in the headline, my first thought was, "Which airport is that?" followed immediately by, "Oh. Chittagong, of course!" And when I clicked on the story, so it proved.
Thank you, Fred and all, for broadening my horizons!
Barisal police recovered seven bombs, two firearms, several Islamic books and seven bottles of Phensidyle from the house of Hemayet Hossain Howladar and arrested him for his alleged links to militants.
"Into the paddy wagon wit' yez, Hemayet!"
"I been framed!"
"Shuddup. Mahmoud, hit him!"
"Ooooow!"
The police also seized a note written to Hemayet's wife Shahida Begum by her brother Enayetullah, reports our Barisal Correspondent. Enayetullah, a teacher at Andhar Manik Madrasa and owner of Islamia Library at Khunna Bazar in Hizla upazila, asked her to hide the goods "until the situation of the country returns to normal." The police said the recovered bombs are powerful and similar to those found at different dens of the outlawed Jamaatul Mujahideen Bangladesh (JMB). Suspecting Enayetullah a top leader of the outfit's Barisal region, the police raided his house in Hizla but could not arrest him.
I suspect he wrote to Sis and then left town on the next rickshaw out...
Hemayet has claimed to be innocent.
"Really! I been framed!... Ooooow!"
Posted by: Fred ||
12/22/2005 00:00 ||
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It doesn't say he wasn't there, it said they couldn't arrest him.
It looks to me like he's dumped the evidence on his sister (remember, women don't count) and there's no incriminating evidence for the cops to find.
Posted by: Redneck Jim ||
12/22/2005 8:38 Comments ||
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JMB suicide bomber Mamun Ali who killed two judges in Jhalakathi on November 14 was taken on 10 days' remand when he was taken to Jhalakathi yesterday from Dhaka after treatment. He was treated at Dhaka Medical College Hospital for injuries he sustained during the bomb attack.
I think we can confidently expect that his injuries were very painful, perhaps even resulting in a nice colostomy bag. Pray for sepsis.
Sohrab Hossain, Investigation Officer of the cases and Officer-in-Charge of Jhalakati Sadar police station prayed for 14 days' remand, court sources in Jhalakathi said when contacted over telephone. Jhalakati Sadar Upazila Magistrate Ismail Hossain granted 10 days' remand.
Ummm... Might we suggest they simply charge him? It's not like they don't have lots of evidence, to include his legs...
Senior Assistant Judges Shahid Sohel Ahmed, 35, and Jagannath Pandey, 38, were killed, one at the spot and the other on way to Barisal SBMCH in the suicide bomb attack. The judges were inside their microbus, just before leaving their Chandkati residence in Jhalakati town at about 9 am when two bombs went off, killing them and blowing up the vehicle. JMB (Jamaatul Mujahideen Bangladesh) suicide squad Mamun Ali, 23, milk seller Badsha Mia, 45, judge court peon Abdul Mannan, 40, and Lokman, 13, a student of class six were injured in that blast. Mamun Ali was caught by local people and handed over to Rab (Rapid Action Battalion). He is the son of Qamruzzaman, a 4th class employee at Rajshahi University.
Mom must be so proud...
Injured Mamun while being taken to Barisal tried to explode another bomb he was carrying but failed as RAB members and police foiled the attempt and recovered the bomb tied with his thigh.
Vicious little beast, isn't he?
Posted by: Fred ||
12/22/2005 00:00 ||
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LONDON (AP) -- British police investigating the failed July 21 London bombings on Thursday charged a student with conspiracy to cause explosions, authorities said. London's Metropolitan Police identified the man as 23-year-old Adel Yahya. He was arrested Tuesday at Gatwick Airport as he got off a flight from Addis Ababa, Ethiopia. He was charged with conspiring with four other men - all of whom are awaiting trial over the plot to attack three subway trains and a double-decker bus - "to cause by an explosive substance, explosions of a nature likely to endanger life or cause serious injury to property." Yahya, from north London, is scheduled to appear in court Friday.
A total of 16 people have now been charged in connection with the attempted attacks, which did not kill anyone as the bombs failed to detonate. But they shook Britain's capital two weeks after near identical suicide bombings killed 52 commuters on July 7.
Five men are accused of plotting to murder passengers on London's transit system on July 21 and face trial in September. Muktar Said Ibrahim, 27, Ramzi Mohamed, 23, Yassin Omar, 24, Hussein Osman, 27, are accused of trying to bomb three subway trains and a bus. The fifth suspect, Manfo Kwaku Asiedu, 32, was arrested after a backpack of explosives was found in a raid. All face a charge of conspiracy to murder. Ethiopian-born Osman has said through his lawyer that the bombing attempt was meant to scare people, not kill them. Yahya is accused of conspiring with Osman, Ibrahim, Asiedu and Omar.
A further 10 people have been charged in connection with the attempted attacks - for failing to disclose information about the suspects and helping them evade arrest.
Posted by: Steve ||
12/22/2005 16:31 ||
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Peru's president declared a state of emergency in six jungle provinces and promised to stamp out the nation's remaining Shining Path guerrillas after suspected rebels killed eight police officers in an ambush. 'They will pay. My government is prepared to provide everything that our police and our armed forces need professionally,' President Alejandro Toledo said Wednesday in a speech at a police barracks in Lima. 'The eight officers fell at the cowardly hands of terrorists who today are in the service of drug trafficking.'
Later, Toledo decreed a two-month state of emergency in six coca-producing provinces in the central jungle and said his Cabinet had also approved the creation of an emergency commission to bring urgently needed social development to the area. Under Peruvian law, a state of emergency suspends civil rights, such as the right to assembly, and gives police and the military sweeping powers to enter homes and conduct searches.
'This supreme decree will allow the armed forces and the police to jointly enter and take action in this zone for 60 days,' Toledo said in an address aired on state-run television. The goal, he said, was to provide 'a greater state presence, within the law, respecting human rights.'
The attack by an estimated 20 guerrillas happened Tuesday on an isolated jungle highway near the town of Aucayacu in Leoncio Prado province, 225 miles northeast of the capital, authorities said. Leoncio Prado province is one of those included in the state of emergency. Toledo's government says cocaine traffickers have established ties with remnants of the Maoist insurgency to thwart Peru's programs to eradicate coca, the raw material for cocaine.
The Shining Path almost brought Peru's government to its knees in the 1980s and early 1990s with a campaign of massacres, political assassinations, bombings and sabotage. But the group faded dramatically after the 1992 capture of its founder, Abimael Guzman.
Posted by: Steve ||
12/22/2005 08:56 ||
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A girlfriend of mine who grew up a member of the Lima oligarchy told of returning home in the mid-90s for a visit, and being at a party where half the guests were not introduced because they were bodyguards. The thing that struck me was that the guards were at the party with their protectees (can someone give me the correct word for that? Thanks!) and not hanging out down in the kitchen being fed by Cook until their responsibilities were ready to be escorted home again. My girlfriend was struck by how much she preferred the freedom of the civilized world, even if she did have to do her own housekeeping. ;-)
THE alleged leader of an Australian terror cell devoted to violent jihad was heard praising the London bombings, a court heard yesterday. Islamic spiritual adviser and accused terrorist Abdul Nacer Benbrika, 45, was recorded discussing the fatal attacks as "the best" soon after the July 7 explosions which claimed more than 50 lives, police allege. "That's what Osama [bin Laden] has been waiting for," Benbrika allegedly said. "We'll get the enemy."
Benbrika is charged with being the leader and a member of a terrorist group, while nine others are accused of joining the unnamed Melbourne group. Members were secretly recorded talking about elections as being a "good time to do something" and urging Benbrika to allow them to act, prosecutor Nicholas Robinson told Melbourne Magistrates Court.
Magistrate Reg Marron is deciding whether to grant bail to two suspects, Amer Haddara, 26, and Shane Kent, 29.
How about: 'no'!
The court heard that Kent, a father of three, denies he pledged his allegiance to jihad when meeting with al-Qaeda boss bin Laden at a terrorist training camp in Afghanistan months before the September 11, 2001, US attacks. His lawyer, Peta Murphy, said it was not a crime to meet bin Laden or train at the al-Farooq camp at the time, noting that even US Secretary of Defence Donald Rumsfeld had met the elusive terrorist ringleader.
WTF?
Solicitor Rob Stary, for Haddara, likened the case against his client to the bungled search for weapons of mass destruction in Iraq. "There are gaping holes in the Crown case," he said, stating that Haddara "rejects categorically" suggestions he was a member of a terrorist group.
Mr Marron is expected to decide on bail for Kent and Haddara this morning.
Posted by: Dan Darling ||
12/22/2005 00:43 ||
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Benbrika allegedly said. "We'll get the enemy."
Sure enough, bigshot. Kill "the enemy", all 37 at a time. Keep this sh!t up and you're going to find Muslims being killed by the untold thousands when this world finally gets its fill of Islamist violence. You moron jihadi terrorists are going to spawn the Moslem Holocaust and not much else with your mindless violence.
ROME (AP) -- A U.S. soldier is being investigated for his alleged role in the March killing in Baghdad of an Italian secret service agent, who had just secured the release of a journalist held hostage, a prosecutor and news reports said Thursday.
Note that it is Italian prosecutors doing the investigating, not Americans. So it don't mean squat
Rome prosecutors are investigating the March 4 death of Nicola Calipari, who was killed by U.S. gunfire near a checkpoint as he headed to the Baghdad airport with Italian journalist Giuliana Sgrena, who was held hostage by militants for a month. Prosecutor Franco Ionta confirmed reports in Italian news agencies ANSA and Apcom that the soldier is being investigated, but he refused to discuss details. The reports said prosecutors are considering charging the soldier with murder.
Lots of luck with that one
Prosecutors did not identify the soldier, who is believed to be the only one to fire at the car.
But, I thought the car was shredded by hundreds of bullets? That's what Giuliana said.
According to Apcom, prosecutors also are considering attempted murder charges concerning the other two people in the car: Sgrena and a second secret service agent, who was driving. Both were wounded. The U.S. Embassy in Rome declined to identify the soldier or comment on the report.
In Washington, U.S. State Department spokesman Sean McCormack said, "This was a tragic situation, but as far as we are concerned, the matter is closed." Rome and Washington issued separate reports on the killing, which has strained relations between the two countries.
The Italian government report, issued in May, blamed U.S. military authorities for failing to signal there was a military checkpoint ahead on the road. It also contended that stress, inexperience and fatigue played a role in the shooting. The Americans insisted that the car, a rented Toyota Corolla, was going fast enough to alarm the soldiers. The Italians have said the vehicle was traveling slowly on the dark, rain-slicked road.
Slow by Italian standards would be going like a bat out of hell by American
Police and ballistic experts assigned by Rome prosecutors to examine the car have concluded the Toyota was traveling slower than the U.S. military claimed. However, they agreed with U.S. findings that only one soldier fired at the car.
The shooting angered Italians, already largely opposed to the war in Iraq, and led many to step up calls for withdrawing the Italian contingent. Premier Silvio Berlusconi, who sent some 3,000 troops to Iraq after Saddam Hussein's ouster, insisted the incident would not affect troop levels or Italy's friendship with Washington. Berlusconi met with U.S. Ambassador Ronald Spogli on Thursday, but the Calipari shooting was not discussed, Foreign Minister Gianfranco Fini told Apcom.
Posted by: Steve ||
12/22/2005 16:37 ||
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"US Fifth Army Investigated in Liberation of Italy"
Posted by: Matt ||
12/22/2005 16:51 Comments ||
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"The Italian government report, issued in May, blamed U.S. military authorities for failing to signal there was a military checkpoint ahead on the road."
This reads as if the Italians expect that a flagman be assigned to each checkpoint. His life expectancy wouldn't be that of a WWII Beachmaster. Maybe we could mollify them by agreeing to erect electronic signs saying: "MILITARY CHECKPOINT AHEAD - SLOW TO 25 KPH AND ATTACH PRIMER AND DET CORD."
Posted by: Super Hose ||
12/22/2005 18:01 Comments ||
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#4
Certainly smells like a country with a stagnant economy. Hey, look over there.......
#5
Matt: US Fifth Army Investigated in Liberation of Italy
Liberation is a polite fiction. The Italians were with Hitler right up until they started losing large numbers of men. Then they started getting cold feet. In a way, kind of like the way they did in Iraq after the Sgrena incident.
#6
Looks like an Italian holiday for the US soldier is definitely out now. Iraq is a war zone. The terrorists can kill you and so can the Americans. Comes with the territory. The incident was tragic, but that is the nature of war. We have had friendly fire incidents and killed our own troops and those of our allies.
The prosecutor better get his priorities straight. He has terrorists overrunning his country, and its institutions are being undermined and subverted. Hey, but that is a tough job, so he will put it in the to-do-later basket and concentrate on the publicity case.
Posted by: Alaska Paul ||
12/22/2005 19:03 Comments ||
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#7
I think it was it a German General in WWII that said "the only thing worse than having the Americans in front of you is having the Italians behind you."
#8
Good loward our we still batting this thing around? Someone otta clue the prosecutor in that this ain't the EU.
Posted by: Rex Mundi ||
12/22/2005 21:09 Comments ||
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#9
Perhaps an American prosecutor needs to investigate charging the italian nation with the murder of every US soldier that died kicking the Nazi's out of that country. I'd say it counts as premediated 1st degree murder too, so death penalty could be imposed.
If found guilty, sentence to be executed via nuclear carpet bombing. Two can play those silly games.
France's parliament approved an anti-terrorism bill Thursday that will boost the use of video surveillance and allow police more time to question terror suspects. The bill, sponsored by law-and-order Interior Minister Nicolas Sarkozy, passed its final hurdle in parliament with the vote at the National Assembly. Sarkozy, a member of the conservative ruling party, has sought to assure lawmakers the measure would not violate civil liberties, as some fear.
The law will allow mosques, department stores and other potential targets to install surveillance cameras, and it will stiffen prison terms for terrorists and those providing support. It also will enable police to monitor people who travel to countries known to harbor terror training camps, and to extend the detention period for terror suspects from four days to up to six days.
France already has some of Europe's toughest anti-terrorism laws, enacted after a wave of deadly attacks in the 1990s by Algerian Islamic militants. Officials want to improve prevention and fill perceived gaps exposed by the London mass transit bombings in July that killed 56 people, including four suicide bombers. Sarkozy and other Cabinet members have often said France faces a terrorist threat — countering speculation that Paris' opposition to the U.S.-led Iraq invasion might provide protection.
Posted by: Fred ||
12/22/2005 10:38 ||
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A bomb exploded outside a nightclub in northern Spain after a warning from Basque separatist group ETA but caused no injuries. The bomb, left in a van parked behind the Bordatxo nightclub in the small town of Santesteban, caused extensive damage, Europa Press news agency said. "There has been an explosion in the area of the Bordatxo discotheque, apparently inside a vehicle," a government spokesman in the northern region of Navarre said. He said the club was closed at the time and no one was hurt.
The blast followed a telephone warning by ETA to a Basque newspaper and the Basque highway authority, the typical method used by the group to warn of impending bombs.
Posted by: Fred ||
12/22/2005 00:00 ||
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Dec. 26, 2005 - Jan 2, 2006 issue - Antiwar activist Cindy Sheehan, who lost her son Casey in the war, staked out President George W. Bush at his Crawford, Texas, ranch last August looking for answers about U.S. involvement in Iraq. She spoke with Martha Brant from London, where Sheehan addressed the International Peace Conference and is currently the subject of a one-woman play.
What do you think you achieved in Crawford?
We brought the war into the forefront of American consciousness and started the discussion that should have started before the war. The mood in our country is turning around.
But the peace movement in the U.S. remains small. Why?
One thing that has prevented the peace movement in America is the media. I spoke with 5,000 people in North Carolina on March 19, 2005, and the press called the protest "insignificant." They covered the Terri Schiavo case instead.
You feel like you were mistreated by the press?
They got hold of everything I've ever said and scrutinized it so carefully. They never scrutinized what Bush said. No one said, "Why did you lie to the American people and say there was WMD?" The press found an easy target in Iraq, and they found an easy target in me.
What's next for you?
I'm working on a book about Casey's story. It's about how one person can make a difference.
No one questioned Bush and said he lied? Exactly when didn't this happen?
Posted by: Steve ||
12/22/2005 11:15 ||
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Cindy - poster girl for the Kos short bus
Posted by: Frank G ||
12/22/2005 11:31 Comments ||
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Cindy Sheehan was the death of the anti war movement, but a half ass ridiculously framed movement deserves a half ass ridiculous spokesperson.
#6
This motor-mouth is a notch off the timing mark. Listening to her one realizes that she has a 9600 baud brain attached to a 1.5 Mb mouth. And her whining about lack of press coverage? Pleaseâ¦. this woman, who is obviously several saddle bags short of a camel load, is a legend only in her own mind. Steve is right Cindy your fifteen minutes is over.
Posted by: Frank G ||
12/22/2005 12:22 Comments ||
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#10
Cindy Lou Who?
Whose IQ was no more than two
And whose 15 minutes had expired
Cried "Please look at Meeeee!"
But no one, including me, could see
Why such a retread shouldn't be retired.
#11
"They covered the Terri Schiavo case instead."
Oh yes Cindy. The Schiavo case, I mean, really, why would the media expend so much of their resources on such an insignificant story?
Kinda like that time you called Hurricane Katrina "just a little wind and rain" and wondered why the MSM covered that "little wind and rain" while ignoring your ass.
By the way, Rolling Stone magazine nominated her for something the other day. I think it was leading asshat of the year.
#13
"I'm working on a book about Casey's story. It's about how one person can make a difference"
Please spare me. With her intellect I'm guessing spell check is a good thing.
Posted by: Jan ||
12/22/2005 15:22 Comments ||
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#14
Crurong Chaising5649, well, I don't think she can do it.
After all, to be declared brain dead, you have to actually have a brain in the first place.....
#15
I was disgusted with this article and suprised in the responces. First to see Cindy boo hoo with some guys hand up her leg just about made me vomit. This was probably the only feel she has gotten in years.
But more surprising is the realization that .com is a poet! Such hidden talents.
Posted by: 49 pan ||
12/22/2005 18:58 Comments ||
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#16
"Me me me me me me meeeeeeeeeeeeeeee!!!!!!!!!"
WASHINGTON - US senators agreed late Wednesday to extend the USA Patriot Act, which grants the government broad surveillance powers in the war on terror, for six months, top lawmakers said.
Republican Majority Leader Bill Frist announced the deal on the floor of the Senate after a marathon closed-door negotiating session, during which a bipartisan group of senators agreed to abandon their filibuster of the measure and the Republican majority dropped its opposition to a temporary solution.
Posted by: Steve White ||
12/22/2005 00:00 ||
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Thank you Doctor, this is just what the patient needed.
#2
Hard to believe the Dems agreed to a six month extension, ensuring that the Patriot Act will be THE issue for the '06 elections. Oh, wait, I just remembered who's running their show.
#3
Sure am glad my party is inthe majority, I would hate to be in the bad ole days when the Democrats used to roadblock everything the Republicans tried to enact. Now we don;t have to compromise on trivial and liberal issues. Oh that's right they are still doing it! If it is still needed why not make it law for good? Friggin spineless Senators. Why don't they just change their parties and be done with it?
#4
Republicans in the House countered with one month; they want to get all the issues out on the floor sooner (farther from elections) rather than later. Not sure that's wise, but we are dealing with politicians here, so .....
A federal appeals court delivered a sharp rebuke to the Bush administration Wednesday, refusing to allow the transfer of Jose Padilla from military custody to civilian law enforcement authorities to face terrorism charges.
In denying the administration's request, the three-judge panel unanimously issued a strongly worded opinion that said the Justice Department's effort to transfer Mr. Padilla gave the appearance that the government was trying to manipulate the court system to prevent the Supreme Court from reviewing the case. The judges warned that the administration's behavior in the Padilla case could jeopardize its credibility before the courts in other terrorism cases.
What made the action by the United States Court of Appeals for the Fourth Circuit in Richmond, Va., so startling, lawyers and others said, was that it came from a panel of judges who in September had provided the administration with a sweeping court victory, saying President Bush had the authority to detain Mr. Padilla, an American citizen, indefinitely without trial as an enemy combatant.
But the judges were clearly angered when the administration suddenly shifted course on Nov. 22, saying it no longer needed that authority because it now wanted to try Mr. Padilla in a civilian court. The move came just days before the government was to file legal papers in Mr. Padilla's appeal to the Supreme Court. The government said that as a result of the shift, the court no longer needed to take up the case. Many legal analysts speculated at the time that the administration's sudden change in approach was an effort to avoid Supreme Court review of the Fourth Circuit ruling.
In the opinion on Wednesday, written by Judge J. Michael Luttig, the court said the panel was denying permission to transfer Mr. Padilla as well as the government's suggestion that it vacate the September decision upholding Mr. Padilla's detention for more than three years in a military brig as an enemy combatant.
Judge Luttig, a strong conservative judicial voice who has been considered by Mr. Bush for the Supreme Court, said the panel would not agree to the government's requests because that would compound what was "at least an appearance that the government may be attempting to avoid consideration of our decision by the Supreme Court, and also because we believe that this case presents an issue of such especial national importance as to warrant final consideration by that court."
Judge Luttig wrote that the timing of the government's decision to switch Mr. Padilla from military custody to a civilian criminal trial, just as the Supreme Court was considering the issue of the president's authority to detain him as an enemy combatant, had "given rise to at least an appearance that the purpose of these actions may be to avoid consideration of our decision by the Supreme Court."
Prof. Carl W. Tobias of the University of Richmond Law School, who has written about the government's legal strategy in terrorist cases, said that the ruling on Wednesday was an extraordinary rebuff to the Bush administration by the judicial branch.
"It's obvious that the government thought that its motion to transfer Padilla would be perfunctory," Professor Tobias said. But administration lawyers had not counted on the possibility that the appeals court judges would feel ill used in expending their institutional capital in support of Mr. Bush's action only to have the government decide that it no longer wanted the authority that it had sought so strongly.
Tasia Scolinos, a spokesman for the Justice Department, said in a statement: "We are disappointed that the court has denied the unopposed motion to transfer Jose Padilla to the criminal justice system to face the terrorism charges currently pending against him. The president's authority to detain enemy combatants, which the Fourth Circuit has upheld, should not be viewed as an obstacle to an exercise of the government's undoubted authority to prosecute federal crimes, including those related to terrorism."
Ms. Scolinos said the department was considering what to do in light of the court's refusal to authorize the transfer of Mr. Padilla. The likely outcome of the appeals court panel's decision, some lawyers believed, was that the Supreme Court would be obliged to consider the case.
Jonathan M. Freiman, a lawyer for Mr. Padilla (pronounced puh-DILL-ah), said that the appeals court "seems to have agreed with what we asserted in our brief, that the government has been attempting to evade Supreme Court review."
Mr. Padilla, a former Chicago gang member who converted to Islam and who, officials say, traveled to the Middle East and offered his services to terrorist organizations, was arrested at O'Hare International Airport on May 8, 2002. Government officials initially portrayed him as someone who was considering a plot to explode a radioactive "dirty bomb" in some American city and then to destroy gas lines to destroy public buildings.
In the criminal indictment issued by a grand jury in Florida, the government no longer asserted either of those charges and instead charged him with fighting against American forces alongside Al Qaeda soldiers in Afghanistan.
Although Judge Luttig was careful in his opinion to avoid flatly asserting that the government had misbehaved, his skepticism about its behavior was unmistakable. He used the word "appearance" several times in explaining why he believed the government's approach in the Padilla case raised suspicions.
Judge Luttig said the government might not have fully considered the consequences of its approach, "not only for the public perception of the war on terror but also for the government's credibility before the courts in litigation."
He said the government "must surely understand" that it has left the impression that Mr. Padilla may have been held for more than three years by mistake.
Judge Luttig was joined by Judges M. Blane Michael and William B. Traxler Jr.
Posted by: Dan Darling ||
12/22/2005 00:37 ||
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This is what you get for pussyfooting and not doing it right in the first place. With SJR:23 [2001] in place, DoJ should have been ordered to proceed with trial for treason during time of war. All this crap wouldn't be going on.
December 22, 2005: In Iraq, women have finally joined the infantry. Itâs become customary to request volunteers from among women soldiers and marines, to accompany infantry units conducting searches and raids. This is done because you cause a major cultural uproar if male troops search Iraqi women, and if you donât search the women, the Iraqi men know they can hide weapons, or other stuff (explosives, documents) under the womenâs clothing. So, over the last two years, more and more female soldiers and marines go out on the raids. These women are armed, and ready to fight, if need be. Several hundred women have thus far served in this capacity, and some of them do get involved in combat. Few have been killed or injured on these operations, which are not as dangerous as a offensive combat (attacking a town held by an enemy that is likely to resist getting driven out.)
In the army brigades and marine regiments, the 1st Sergeants (the senior NCOs that run company size units) are asked to seek volunteers from among their female troops. The 1st Sergeants know which of the women are âhard coreâ (as far as military life is concerned), and there are more volunteers than there are opportunities to go out with the raiding parties. Those female soldiers who see some fighting can get the Combat Action Badge (a new award, like the sixty year old Combat Infantry Badge, for non-infantry troops who have seen at least 30 days of combat.)
In addition to searching the women, the intelligence personnel and translators often find that the female troops pick up subtle signs that the Iraqi women they are interrogating are lying, or are more willing, than they appear, to be helpful. Iraqi civilians tend to be very surprised when they run into the female troops, armed and dressed like the male troops. Many Iraqi women apparently like the idea, and some who speak English, tell the female troops so. Most Iraqi women are in arranged marriages, are not happy with their husbands, and like the idea of heavily armed women.
Posted by: Steve ||
12/22/2005 09:31 ||
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Sometimes the best man for the job, ain't a man.
#8
Oh the humiliation! Women taking over! Pushing around the sexually neurotic, sand-dwelling, camel-riding, Italian Pizzaria table-cloth wearing male jackasses of the AAAA-rab world.
By the way, does mk-84 stand for Massive Knockers?
#9
.com, that's not the "Angel of Death" from The Hunt for bin Laden is it? What a story. Quick summary (for those who haven't read it). Seems that one of our AC10 Spectre gunship pilots was female in Afghanistan. Anyways, the Northern Alliance was amazed at our technology (imagine being used to fighting on horseback and then seeing someone "paint" a mountaintop and watch it being blown to smithereens seconds later). Anyways, they (N.A.)began to get a kick out of running with our boyz and finding AQ or Taliban goons on the next mountaintop, calling them over the radio and letting them KNOW that a bomb is about to be dropped square on their head and the 'mericans don't miss. So, anyways, on one of these drops, somehow, they got the pilot (female) on the horn with the very guys she was about to obliterate and told them "This is for how you treat your women." Last words they heard on this earth and she was nicknamed the "Angel of Death" by the N.A. after that, lol!
Posted by: BA ||
12/22/2005 13:25 Comments ||
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#10
THF - Those are what I'd classify as between "Healthy" and "Very Healthy" - I'd require more samples to be certain, lol. Now "Massive", well, here's my NSFW link for the day... :-)
BA - Not that I know of - I got it from a site featuring AC-130 info, heh. Inspires me. Here's one you might get a grin from along that line, heh.
I'm all for appreciation of the healthy female form. But given that these women are FIGHTing and in some cases DIEing on our behalf, it would be nice if y'all treated them with a bit more respect as soldiers.
Sound stuffy? Maybe it wouldn't if you knew them, saw them off to combat situations and wondered if they would come back alive ..... as some of us here do.
#12
Armed women with authority will subvert Islam like nothing else will. The next step will be the free Iraqi forces fielding Iraqi women soldiers to assist them in their sweeps....
#13
FW - Your post reminds me of Malalai Kakar... Certainly the coolest story out of Afghanistan. You might see a story like this - or such as you describe - out of the Kurdish North, but the Arabs? No, I think it's safe to say we're, ballpark, a generation from anything like it.
#15
Fair's fair -- to show proper respect for our troops, you'll have to match cheesecake with beefcake. A nice little challenge for our clever, poetical .com -- who can consider it an artistic challenge, since his sensibilities are pretty obvious. ;-)
Sorry, not happenin' - I don't surf for beef... I'm thinkin' that be your job, lol. And I don't even have a clue where you'd find it, either... Not on the menu of the various venues I visit now and then, lol. Happy Motoring! ;-)
December 22, 2005: Arab and Western countries are converging in terms of the methods they use to deal with Islamic terrorism. For example, terror bombings in Egyptian vacation resorts earlier this year led the Egyptian police to discover that disgruntled Bedouin tribes in the Sinai area (near where the bombings took place) had provided people willing to offer shelter and support to the bombers. While the police rounded up many of those involved with the Islamic terrorists, they also sought to eliminate any support for Islamic terrorists. Egyptian officials sat down with local tribal and religious leaders and came up with a list of economic improvements that would make the average Bedouin less likely to help out the next group of Islamic radicals to pass through the area. The government is now building new schools and clinics, restarting some mining operations, and working on ways to build tourism in the Sinai back country. This last item can be particularly useful in countering terrorism, for the tourism pays well, and the work is easy. But most importantly, the tourists disappear real fast if there is any terrorism in the area. Never mind hearts and minds, go for the pocketbook.
In Jordan, the solution is different. Jordanians were very angry at the November 9th al Qaeda suicide bombings in Jordan. The attacks killed mostly Jordanians and other Arabs. Jordan, with hundreds of thousands of Iraqi Sunni Arabs in residence, and even more Palestinians, had been one of the few Arab nations left where most of the people approved of al Qaeda. No more. Jordanians now want revenge, and al Qaeda appears to realize this. A week after the attacks, Abu Musab al Zarqawi, the Jordanian who heads al Qaeda operations in Iraq, tried to persuade everyone that the attacks were actually carried out by the CIA and Mossad (Israels CIA). Nobody in Jordan believed him, and this month, a team of Jordanian counter-terrorism commandoes was dispatched to Iraq. These Jordanian special operations troops have apparently operated inside Iraq before, but it is believed that this time their mission may have more to do with Zarqawi, and those directly for the November 9th attacks.
It would be very handy to have the Jordanians "arrest" Zarqawi and drag his body back to Jordan. Good PR too
Arab countries are also helping shut down terrorist transportation networks, by assisting European nations in busting smuggling gangs. While most of the people these gangs move, from Moslem countries to Europe, are just seeking economic opportunities, some are criminals and terrorists. The gangs kept out of trouble in Arab countries, often bribing local officials to facilitate the movement of their customers. But the current anti-al Qaeda climate, and increased hostility towards Islamic radicals in Moslems countries, have made the smuggling gangs targets wherever they operate. As a result, several gangs have been hit hard, and terrorists have lost a convenient, if expensive, way to move between countries.
Posted by: Steve ||
12/22/2005 09:25 ||
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These Jordanian special operations troops have apparently operated inside Iraq before,
Yes, quite right. And now that King Ab is pissed, they've got a license to ride once again! Good stuff.
#2
Hey Howard Dean, Murtha, and PelosiKennedyReid: Wake up you bunch of losers and get on the band wagon before it leaves the station. It's moving. It's not too late to switch sides again.
Tony Blair has paid tribute to British troops after flying into Iraq for a surprise pre-Christmas visit. Mr Blair told them: "I just want you to know how grateful we are for the work you are doing here." He said they were helping to build democracy and they could return home when Iraqi forces were up to strength. Mr Blair has not set a timetable for withdrawal but ex-British Ambassador to Baghdad Sir Jeremy Greenstock has said it could take several years. Mr Blair said he would not set an "arbitrary timetable" for withdrawal, adding "you assess when the job's going to be done". Last week's election in Iraq meant there was a "completely different situation from the situation a year ago", he added, although "huge challenges" remained.
Mr Blair, whose visit had been kept secret, touched down in Basra in an RAF Hercules from Kuwait. He then transferred by helicopter to the Shaiba logistics base, where he addressed 4,000 troops from the back of a low-loader truck.
He told them: "I know it's particularly tough being away from your families at Christmas and New Year. "I just want you to know how grateful we are for the work you are doing here. However tough it is, I hope you have some sense of how important it is." He said 10 million Iraqis had voted in recent elections.
"The important thing is to try and help this country become the democracy its people want it to be," Mr Blair told the troops. That would be done by providing the security which allowed the Iraqi forces to build up their own strength "and then of course we can eventually draw down our own capability". "The importance of this is probably greater today than it has ever been," said Mr Blair.
"Because, if Iraq does stabilise and become a democracy, then the region is more safe, our own country is more safe, because international terrorism will have been dealt a huge blow. "If we manage to defeat the terrorism here, we will have dealt it a blow worldwide. I know how dangerous it is sometimes, because we have lost good colleagues here - and it is tough, I know, sometimes." But whatever the dangers "you can look back at this time and you can be very, very proud of what you have done", the prime minister told the troops.
Mr Blair is meeting top US and British defence officials during his flying visit, including Gen George Casey, commander in chief of coalition forces. It is Mr Blair's fourth visit to Iraq. The UK has 8,500 servicemen and women stationed in the country. The prime minister's official spokesman said Mr Blair wanted to "talk through the way forward" in the wake of last week's Iraqi elections and discuss the ongoing "Iraqi-isation" of the country's security forces.
Former British Ambassador to Baghdad, Sir Jeremy Greenstock, has said it will be "some years" before coalition troops leave Iraq. "I think (the insurgency) has got at least five years of life, because there are men and there are materials, there's motivation there from the Sunni insurgents, the left-over Baathists, the Saddamists and from the foreign jihadists, the Al Qaeda franchise. "There's men and materials there for several years of insurgency," he told Sky News.
The BBC's Carole Walker, who is travelling with the prime minister, says security around the visit is very tight, with British soldiers unaware of it until Mr Blair landed, reflecting security concerns in the region. She said Mr Blair viewed last week's election in Iraq as an important step on the road to an eventual pull-out. The prime minister had been "encouraged" by a meeting with US officials, who told him that, by the summer of next year, around 75% of operations in some areas will be controlled by Iraqi forces, with coalition forces "merely providing back up", she said.
Mr Blair was also told it should be possible to hand over to Iraqi forces in two of the quieter provinces around Basra over the coming year, she added.
Posted by: Steve ||
12/22/2005 08:47 ||
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Did he bring a plastic, um, Steak 'n Kidney pie or a pudding of some sort? I'm sure the UK MSM needs their idiot moonbat memes, too.
"if Iraq does stabilise and become a democracy"
Sheesh. How fucking wimpy. They've got him running scared, I'd say. How fucking sad. Damnit.
Seventy percent of registered Iraqi voters went to the polls during last week's election, the highest participation in a vote since the fall of Saddam Hussein, according to preliminary turnout figures released by the Iraqi electoral commission on Wednesday.
In all, 10.9 million of 15.6 million registered voters cast ballots across Iraq on Dec. 15 for a new four-year government, with a strong showing even in Anbar Province, the heartland of the Sunni Arab insurgency.
The overall turnout this time was considerably higher than the 58 percent in January, when Sunni Arabs largely boycotted the vote for a transitional assembly. It was also higher than the 63 percent figure during the October constitutional referendum, which had greater Sunni Arab participation than the election before it.
By comparison, turnout in the 2004 presidential election in the United States was slightly over 58 percent of registered voters.
Iraqi electoral officials warned that the current figures could still change, either up or down. As of Wednesday, the commission was looking into more than 1,200 complaints of possible fraud or irregularity. In Baghdad, for instance, the commission is scrutinizing 5,100 ballots that were cast for the main Shiite religious coalition, the United Iraqi Alliance.
The overall turnout figure accounts for 95 percent of the votes. The other five percent is being investigated for irregularities or has not yet been processed. In Anbar, where violence is rampant, turnout was 55 percent, but only slightly more than half of the votes have been reported so far.
Of the 10.9 million total votes processed, about 123,000 were ruled invalid and 54,000 were blank, the commission said.
Turnout in Anbar was one of the big questions surrounding this election. In January, turnout was a mere 1 percent there; it rose to 32 percent in October. Some residents said in October that they had wanted to vote in the referendum, but feared retribution by insurgents.
A split in insurgent groups emerged right before the December elections. Some groups said they would not attack polling stations or harm voters. Many Sunni Arab clerics in Anbar and elsewhere told their congregations to vote, in order to allow the Sunnis to retake some measure of power in the government.
But the most militant group, Al Qaeda in Mesopotamia, led by Abu Musab al-Zarqawi, denounced the elections and threatened voters with death. In November, members of the group seized a prominent Sunni politician in Ramadi, Anbar's provincial capital, and killed him. Other well-known candidates of his party were killed as they campaigned in Anbar.
The higher turnout could be partly due to a new security system the American military and Iraqi officials put in place for the vote. The American and Iraqi officials agreed to allow tribal leaders in Ramadi to guard the polling stations, rather than the Iraqi Army and police.
The surge in Sunni Arab participation raises several crucial questions. Are the Sunni Arabs committed to building a unified Iraq and to compromising with the religious Shiites and Kurds? Or are they trying to enter the government with the intent of sabotaging its operations from within? And will the Shiites and Kurds trust the Sunni Arabs enough or find enough common ground with them to invite them into the government?
On Wednesday, Sunni Arab leaders met with officials from the coalition of Ayad Allawi, the former prime minister, to present a united front to contest the early results. Since Monday, when the first set of numbers was released, Sunni Arab parties and Mr. Allawi's candidates have been accusing the main religious Shiite coalition of voter fraud.
The numbers showed the religious Shiites taking a strong lead, even in the mixed city of Baghdad. Here, the Shiites got 58 percent of the vote.
Sunni Arabs are widely believed to make up a fifth of Iraq's population, yet many of them claim they are the majority in this country. That line of thought could help explain their anger over the results.
Posted by: Dan Darling ||
12/22/2005 00:38 ||
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Average turnout for American Presidential elections hovers around 50-52% of registered voters last I checked. Midterm election turnout hovers below the pitiful 40%.
America needs a wake up call.
Please register to vote and encourage friends and relatives to register to vote and actually go to the polls if you haven't already!
#3
EP, trailing daughter #1 is looking forward to voting Republican in the next Presidential election; trailing daughter #2 thinks of Democrats like she thinks of Canadians -- they can say anything they please because nothing they say matters anyway. And statistically, among the 18-24 year old voters, only the most thoughtful (and the idealistic ones these days think of themselves as Conservative) actually bother to vote. I find this quite comforting.
Three Palestinians have been shot and killed by Israeli troops in the West Bank city of Nablus, Palestinian medical sources say. The men were shot dead as they tried to flee a building that had been sealed off by Israeli troops, witnesses said.
Meanwhile five Israeli soldiers were slightly wounded by a Qassam rocket fired from the Gaza Strip at their base in southern Israel, the army said. A Palestinian man was killed when the army responded by firing shells. Palestinian medical officials said Ibrahim Naana, 21, had been killed by shrapnel after a shell landed east of the Jabaliya refugee camp. The Israeli Army said that it had fired at rocket-launching sites, and that it had thought the area was empty. Two other rockets were fired into Israel on Thursday, but no damage or casualties were reported.
In Nablus, soldiers had entered the four-storey building in the city searching for wanted militants, the Israeli army said. When the three tried to flee they were shot, officials said.
Local people said one of the dead men was Bashar Khanani, the leader of the Nablus branch of the small militant group, the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine. The Israeli army said overnight raids across the West Bank had resulted in the arrest of 14 suspected militants.
Posted by: Steve ||
12/22/2005 08:51 ||
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Dead is good.
Is the BBC sure it wasn't the People's Front for the Liberation of Palestine? Or the Popular Liberation Front? Or the Liberation Front of Popular People? Or [insert LoB Colosseum scene here]... Well, of course they are, my bad, the reporter's prolly a card-carrying member, assuming they're not so tiny as to not have gotten around to issuing ID cards 'n such - I think I detect tears were shed over this one, *sniff*.
Palestinian gunmen kidnapped two foreign teachers in the Gaza Strip on Wednesday, pulling them from their car as they headed for work, witnesses said. The kidnapping of the Dutchman and the Australian was a sign of growing disorder that Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas is struggling to contain in Gaza after an Israeli pullout and ahead of a January parliamentary election.
Witnesses in northern Gaza said gunmen snatched the two teachers as they drove to an English-speaking private school for the last day of term before Christmas holidays. "They were intercepted by two or three other cars and then taken away," said a witness who did not give his name. There was no immediate claim of responsibility, but security officials said they suspected renegade gunmen from Abbas's Fatah party were behind the abductions.
"This is unacceptable aggression," said Hader Abdul Shafi, the head of the Palestinian Red Crescent Society. "They are criminals." Workers at the Palestinian-owned American School said the men kidnapped were the principal and vice-principal. Pupils, mostly the children of better-off Palestinians, were told to go home after the incident. The school did not make any comment. Similar kidnappings have often been resolved within hours and the captives released unharmed, but they are an embarrassment for Abbas.
Posted by: Fred ||
12/22/2005 00:00 ||
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According to Reuters, the two were released eight hours later "following the intervention of a lawmaker from the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine (PFLP), whose militants claimed the abduction to push for the release of jailed leaders".
Two captured terror suspects had planned bomb attacks on tourists in the Philippine capital and at the recently concluded Southeast Asian Games, the military said Wednesday.
Military officials presented the handcuffed suspects at a news conference, trumpeting their arrest as a breakthrough in the government's fight against terrorism.
Pio de Vera, the alleged leader of a radical group of Christian converts to Islam, was captured Dec. 15, said Lt. Gen. Edilberto Adan. He had helped plan attacks in Manila, scouting for targets in the financial district of Makati and places popular with foreign tourists, Adan said.
Those attacks were thwarted with the seizure of explosives in a Manila residence earlier this year, he said. De Vera had been ordered to help buy 2,204 pounds of explosives, Adan said.
De Vera's Rajah Solaiman Movement has been suspected of playing a key role in a bombing that killed 116 people on a ferry last year near Manila, military officials say. The movement has ties with the al-Qaida-linked Southeast Asian terror network Jemaah Islamiyah and the Muslim extremist group Abu Sayyaf.
"The arrest of de Vera is a major victory in the government's drive against terrorism," Adan told a news conference. "This arrest is part of the Armed Forces of the Philippines' effort to ensure that this coming Christmas will be merry and safe for all."
The Nov. 30 arrest of the second suspect, alleged Abu Sayyaf member Mohammed Guiman, helped foil attacks aimed at disrupting the Southeast Asian Games, which brought more than 5,000 athletes to Manila earlier this month, Adan said.
He did not elaborate on Guiman's alleged involvement or on the planned attacks.
Adan did not allow reporters to question the suspected militants. De Vera twice shouted "Allahu akbar," or "God is great," as he was led away. He tried to raise his hands in a gesture of defiance but was restrained by his military escorts.
In an interview broadcast Wednesday by ABS-CBN television network, de Vera acknowledged helping plan to bomb a Manila districts popular with tourists.
"Our primary targets were the areas of the Americans because they are the number one ally of our government," he said in an interview while in custody.
The attacks were aimed at damaging the Philippine economy, scaring investors away and weakening the military, he said.
Guiman, in an interview with ABS-CBN, acknowledged working as a courier for Abu Sayyaf. He claimed a rebel commander had asked him to deliver a package to another rebel containing bomb materials used in a Feb. 14 Manila bus bombing that killed four people. Guiman said he had been unaware of the package's contents.
De Vera was allegedly trained in bomb-making by Jemaah Islamiyah and met Abu Sayyaf leader Khaddafy Janjalani while hiding in the southern Philippines, the military said.
Posted by: Dan Darling ||
12/22/2005 11:24 ||
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The US should tell the Phillipino gov/military that from July 4th to July 10th 2006 the USA will blast the Holy crap out of any targets they designate on their troublesome little Islamic island of Mindano. We'll do it from the air. We'll do it in conjunction with Filipinio spotters or directly using Filipino designated free-fire zones.
The Filipino army military should be ready to sieze the initiative before, during, and after the assault. So they can end their stupid little conflict for good.
The U.S. Embassy warned Thursday that the threat of terrorist attacks targeting Westerners in Indonesia over the Christmas and New Year holidays was very high.
The Indonesian government also said thousands of troops would help provide security and protect dignitaries during the holiday season.
Maps and explosives obtained in a police raid on a terrorist's hideout last month indicated the al-Qaeda-linked militant group Jemaah Islamiyah was in the advanced stages of planning attacks, the embassy said in an e-mail to citizens.
Indonesian authorities also warned recently that Islamic extremists may be planning to kidnap foreigners over the holidays, and a recently discovered website provided step-by-step instructions on how to gun down Westerners in the streets of Jakarta.
"The embassy reminds Americans that in recent years terrorist attacks have occurred in Indonesia during the Christmas and New Year's holiday season," the U.S. message said, calling on citizens to remain vigilant and to vary the routes and times of their daily activities.
"The possibility of terrorist attacks appears even higher this year."
The world's most populous Muslim nation has been hit by five suicide bombings targeting Western interests since 2002 â including Oct. 1 restaurant attacks on the resort island of Bali â that together killed more than 240 people.
Near simultaneous church bombings on Christmas Eve five years ago killed another 19.
Indonesian military chief Gen. Endriartono Sutarto said Thursday thousands of troops would join police in providing security over the two-week holiday.
Additional guards and patrols also were being deployed to protect high-ranking officials, diplomats and foreigners from potential kidnappings, said police deputy spokesman Anton Bachrul Alam.
Though Jemaah Islamiyah's bomb-making expert Azhari bin Husin was killed last month during a police raid on his hideout, authorities have repeatedly warned that the terror group was still capable of carrying out attacks.
Dozens of bombs and maps were found at the hideout, and a videotape showed a hooded man threatening attacks on American, Australian, Italian and British citizens for their support of the war in Iraq.
The U.S. embassy said terrorists appear to be changing their tactics.
"They are likely now planning to attack Westerners riding in cars or walking on streets, sidewalks or pedestrian overpasses in Jakarta," its message said.
The Australian government issued its own Christmas holiday warning Wednesday, advising its citizens against traveling to Indonesia â especially Bali.
A similar warning also was issued Thursday by the Danish Foreign Ministry on its website, which urged "great caution" when in public places where Westerners gather.
Posted by: Dan Darling ||
12/22/2005 11:15 ||
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MANILA (Reuters) - Philippine communist rebels said on Thursday they will not observe the traditional Christmas ceasefire and step up attacks in the countryside. "We don't see any basis to declare a ceasefire," rebel spokesman Gregorio Rosal said in a mobile phone text message sent to reporters. "This is in response to the relentless attacks being waged by government forces against the unarmed civilians and abuse of the peace negotiations."
Philippine security forces say they want a shorter than usual truce with the 8,000-member Maoist-led New People's Army (NPA) over the holidays due to concerns about increased violence in the countryside.
They have suggested one-day ceasefires on December 25 and on January 1, but President Gloria Macapagal Arroyo has to announce whether her government will declare a unilateral truce. Rosal said about 110 leftist activists, including journalists and human rights lawyers, had been killed since March this year. Four members of a non-governmental organization in the central Luzon area were added to the list last week.
Since 1986, the government has declared a holiday ceasefire with communist and Muslim rebels as the mainly Roman Catholic country marks one of the longest yuletide seasons in the world. The Christmas season in the Philippines, celebrated with family reunions and parties, starts with dawn masses on December 16 and ends at the feast of Epiphany on January 6.
The NPA, active in 69 of 79 provinces, usually limits attacks to the countryside, targeting officials it deems to be corrupt and businesses which refuse to pay "revolutionary war taxes."
The word you're looking for is "extortion"
More than 40,000 people have been killed in the insurgency since the late 1960s, scaring investors and slowing rural development in one of Southeast Asia's poorest countries.
Peace negotiations with the communist rebels, brokered by Norway, have been stalled since August 2004 when Manila declined to help persuade the United States from dropping the rebel movement from its terror blacklist.
Posted by: Steve ||
12/22/2005 09:11 ||
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Communist rebels attacked a group of military band members, wounding at least eleven people, on a remote village in the southern Philippines, officials said. Officials said the rebels detonated a land mine and then opened fire on the truck hired by soldiers to bring them to the village of Bangunay in the town of Jabonga, Agusan del Norte province, on Tuesday. âAt least eight soldiers, who are band members, and three civilians, were injured in the attack,â said Lt. Col. Francisco Simbajon, a spokesman for the armyâs 4th Infantry Division.
He said the soldiers, all members of the 30th Infantry Battalion, were to perform in the village as part of a Christmas civic program. The band members were armed only with drums and trumpets and guitars. And the civilians were only drivers and helpers, he said. Simbajon said the truck driver managed to escape from the ambush scene. Villagers rescued the soldiers and protected them from the rebels.
Rebels earlier killed four soldiers in a daring broad daylight attack at a market in Tagum City. One of the dead was army Capt. Marcelo Quitiquit, officials said. The four were about to board their van when the gunmen attacked in front of horrified civilians, said Maj. Gamal Hayudini, a Southern Command spokesman.
Posted by: Fred ||
12/22/2005 00:00 ||
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#1
Looks like the NPA is having a little difficulty controlling their troops and finding targets they can win against.
Posted by: 49 pan ||
12/22/2005 8:28 Comments ||
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#2
Two attacks like this in the United States would see the return of visibly armed citizens everywhere. I think the Philippine government needs to consider developing a national militia and arming its citizens to fight such crap. My nephew's wife said her parents have at least two guns in their house, and would use them against armed intruders. An armed, loyal citizenry is the best defense against "terrorism" - or any set of goons that want to impose their will by armed force.
Posted by: Old Patriot ||
12/22/2005 16:58 Comments ||
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#3
OP-There is a CAFGU program in many parts of the PI. The real problem seems to be the locals in the provences infested with NPA support the NPA. The political wing of the NPA actually have members voted into the congress.
Posted by: 49 pan ||
12/22/2005 19:05 Comments ||
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#4
There must be lots of guns in the Philippines -- friends living in Manilla talk of the extraordinary number of deaths due to New Year's Eve celebratory gunfire. Anyone have more information on this?
Suspected Tamil Tiger rebels killed two Sri Lankan soldiers and wounded nine others in a series of attack in the government-held north, the army said yesterday, as prospects for direct peace talks looked increasingly remote. Angry minority Tamil protesters and troops have clashed repeatedly this week on the Jaffna Peninsula, a heavily defended army enclave hemmed in by Liberation Tiger of Tamil Eelam (LTTE) lines, with each side saying the other was trying to escalate the situation. âLTTE is determined to uphold the cease-fire agreement, but the Sri Lankan Army is continuously ignoring the cease-fire agreement and are committing serious violations, such as rapes, violent attacks and humiliating treatment of Tamil civilians,â the rebelsâ website quoted Jaffna political head Illamparuthy as telling Nordic truce monitors.
Sri Lankan Parliament voted yesterday to extend the islandâs state of emergency â first imposed after the foreign minister was assassinated by suspected rebels in August â for another month.
Posted by: Fred ||
12/22/2005 00:00 ||
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Lebanon has criticised US demands that it hand over a hijacker released by Germany after nearly 19 years in jail for murdering an American.
The sailor he killed is going to be dead forever...
"Originally they (the US government) could have requested that Germany hand him over. Why are they asking us?" Prime Minister Fouad Siniora said on Wednesday. "He served his sentence in Germany and there are measures that will be completed in Lebanon ... . Why are they asking us now?"
Because he killed one of our people...
Siniora also said Lebanon's judicial authorities were looking at the legal status of Mohammad Ali Hammadi, who was sentenced to life imprisonment by a German court for his role in the 1985 hijacking of a TWA airliner and the murder of US Navy diver Robert Dean Stethem in Beirut. Hammadi was freed quietly last week and immediately returned to Lebanon despite objections from Washington, which has vowed to bring him from Lebanon to face a US judge. Siniora said Hammadi had already served a term close to what he would have faced if he had been convicted in Lebanon. He also said the judiciary was exploring whether his crime was covered by a general amnesty after Lebanon's 1975-90 civil war. A US official said on Tuesday Hammadi was in temporary custody in Lebanon but Lebanese judicial sources said on Wednesday they were not aware he was being held.
Posted by: Fred ||
12/22/2005 00:00 ||
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#1
Saw a little blurb on the local TV news earlier about the State Department being intent on "bringing him to justice". It should be pretty obvious that we're going to get much in the way of cooperation from anyone involved, so it seems to me that the logical alternative would be to bring justice to Mr. Hamadi in the form of a sniper's bullet, right through his head. If not that, then a car bomb. Whatever. The time for talk is over.
#3
MSNB: We just need to kill him. Bullet or bomb it doesn't matter. Kill him dead.
I'm afraid it doesn't work like in the movies. Unless the local government cooperates, there is no way we are going to be able to nail this guy. (There is no way we are risking a commando team to kill one guy. And the fact is that one commando team can't fight off thousands of Hezbollah). And the Lebanese don't sound like they want to cooperate. Lebs don't like Syrians. But they don't much like Americans either. Although they do like us doing their dirty work for them - things like getting Syria out of the way.
#7
If we won't risk a commando team to get them use a JDAM on his house. Bonus points if the parents that created the monster are included in the blast.
Posted by: Laurence of the Rats ||
12/22/2005 9:17 Comments ||
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#8
Must hang with Laurence on this one. The "B" in Lebonon stands for bombing. They're quite used to large booms. No one will even notice.
#9
LOTR: If we won't risk a commando team to get them use a JDAM on his house. Bonus points if the parents that created the monster are included in the blast.
We can't locate Zarqawi in Iraq - and we have 130,000 troops in-country and terrorists who hold no significant patches of real estate. How would we find this guy in Lebanon, where we have no troops and Hezbollah owns big chunks of the country? If we could locate the bad guys, we wouldn't have pulled out of Beirut in 1982. They don't paint big red X's on their roofs so we know who to hit.
#10
Mewonders if this is going down like someone said yesterday. Germany trades him for releasing their recent kidnappee (kow-tow) like a week ago, he immediately gets put into Lebanon, and then somehow mysteriously gets killed. The Germans get their citizen back (although, we all know you shouldn't deal with terrorists), we get our kill, and Lebanon gets to publicly DENY they know anything about the kill. A win-win-win for all, in my book (although, it'll encourage more German kidnappings).
Posted by: BA ||
12/22/2005 10:17 Comments ||
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#11
Wow! I thought this yahoo was already planted. You can forget sending a team into Hezbullah controlled areas, the minute they show up they it will be an all-out war. I say wait him out and keep our ear, eys, and options open. The first time he gives a speech or attends a meeting we drop a little present on him.
Posted by: Captain America ||
12/22/2005 12:48 Comments ||
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#13
Anyone who remembers Stethem being thrown out of the aircraft, his dead body on the tarmac, realizes that we must act as the Israelis did over Munich. This cannot stand, he must be killed now.
ZF: Maybe we should hire a terrorist to carry the killing out if we aren't "up to it"
Posted by: Captain America ||
12/22/2005 12:52 Comments ||
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#14
He also said the judiciary was exploring whether his crime was covered by a general amnesty after Lebanon's 1975-90 civil war.
Don't you just love the way these Arabic countries always have some sort of revolving "back door" for their dearly beloved terrorists to dash through the instant any question of foreign prosecution comes up?
Memo to Lebanon: If you want to avoid any significant "collateral damage" when we take out Syria, now's the time to begin making some substantial demonstrations of good faith. Otherwise, we'll just have to assume that you are the terrorist hotbed you've always been and act accordingly.
Siniora said Hammadi had already served a term close to what he would have faced if he had been convicted in Lebanon.
Guess what, sh!thead, Hammadi has yet to answer to our nation's justice system. Until then, he's just another unprosecuted murderer. Try to remember that our military has an incredibly long institutional memory. Your "unhelpfulness" will not be soon forgotten and we are camped on your doorstep.
#15
In case we have forgotten all the story ...
From the Stethem memorial on American Victims of Arab and Islamic Terrorists:
"On June 15, 1985 Hezballah Shi'ites brutally beat, tortured and then killed 23 year old Robert Dean Stethem as he was being held hostage aboard TWA 847 commercial airliner. Robert was on his way home after a tour of duty with the US Navy in the Middle East. The terrorists had hijacked the plane with 153 passengers in Athens Greece forcing the pilot to fly twice to Algiers and twice to Beirut during the 17 day siege. The hostages were released after Israel released 435 Lebanese and Palestinian prisoners.
"When the plane was at the Beirut airport in Lebanon, Petty Officer Stethem was singled out because he was in the US military. After many hours of being cruelly beaten, tortured, and finally killed by the terrorists, they threw his body from the plane in a final disgraceful, cowardly act. The wounds were so terrible that his body had to be identified by its fingerprints.
Throughout the ordeal, Robert Stethem did not yield, and instead encouraged his fellow passengers to endure by his example. He was posthumously awarded the Purple Heart and Bronze Star for heroism and bravery. He is buried at Arlington Cemetery."
-- Mark Crawford, Bryantown from "Who Was Robert Stethem"
The victim's brother said he remembers the funeral at Arlington National Cemetery and can't help but think about the flag-draped coffin.
"Every time I look at the flag now and for the rest of my life,'' said Kenneth Stethem, "the red will represent the blood he spilled, the blue the beating and bruises he endured, and the white the purity and integrity he demonstrated in sacrificing his life."
-- Arlington National Cemetery''
#17
I think some people here have unrealistic expectations about what Uncle Sam is prepared to do to people who kill its officials. Arafat is personally responsible for ordering the kidnapping of two State Department officials (one an ambassador) who were then tortured to death. Nothing happened to Arafat. Robert Stethem was a genuine American hero, but he was merely a Navy diver. I cannot imagine that very much will be done to bring justice to his murderer in addition to what has already been done.
#19
This is why we need 16-inch guns on a battleship. Just sit outside the 3-mile (hell, even the 12-mile) limit and lob shells into one of the "Palestinian refugee camps" until they hand him over - even if he's in pieces. There's nothing so terrifying as having that "whooooossshhhh" as a 6-ton Volkswagen-sized shell rolls overhead and detonates. The arabs understand power, and nothing says power quite like firing a shell (or nine at a time, as the old Iowa-class could do) 36,000 yards toward an enemy position. Especially if you're on the receiving end.
Posted by: Old Patriot ||
12/22/2005 17:06 Comments ||
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#20
Israel seems to not have much of a problem locating particular terrorists in Gaza or the West Bank, why not get some pointers/covert assistance from them?
#21
Israel has the advantage of a significant (no, I don't know the percentage, but clearly it's enough to be effective) minority of Palestinians tattling on their relatives and acquaintances. Much as it might appear otherwise, there are enough Palestinians who look back on Israeli rule with longing for the peace and prosperity of that time. I can't imagine that we, or Israel, have developed such a network of informers in Lebanon.
A 20-page letter from Abu Yehia al-Libi AKA Abu Yehia Yunes al-Sahrawi addressed to Abu Musab al-Zarqawi, Emir of al-Qaeda in Iraq, and dated November 23, 2005, was recently distributed amongst password-protected al-Qaeda affiliated forums. Al-Libi comments that though his incarceration in the âcrusading prisonsâ limited the depth of the news he was able to receive of Zarqawi and jihad in Iraq, the impact of the information buoyed his hopes and that of fellow prisoners; to behold the entire scope of events in the jihad, subsequent to his escape, endeared Zarqawi to al-Libi, and prompted him to desire âto participate in your Jihad with my pen and my words - for I am incapable of doing so with my hand and my soul.â The letter then serves to laud Zarqawi as only a secondary point, underlying the primary issue of describing jihad and its role in establishing Islam and exposing the falseness of the enemy.
Al-Libi believes that although Afghanistan represents the âfirst outburstâ from which âthe flag of jihad against mujahideenâ was raised, Iraq overtook Afghanistan in importance. He then establishes five points, grounded in Qurâanic verse and Islamic sources, to protect jihad in Iraq, as well as other battlegrounds, and instilling the âspirit of sacrifice among its (Muslim nationâs) youthâ. The points warn that the enemies of Islam seek to raise tumult against the religion because its âcrushing argumentsâ cannot be withstood. As such, al-Libi suggests that the mujahideen leaders remain vigilant against any breach in ideology or Islamic law that the enemies may use as a cipher to cause warring factions within the jihadists. In addition, the mujahideen must consult with each other, present a clear image of the jihad free from misleading interpretation, and as they are the âpeople who are most bent on pursuing the balance of truth,â it is incumbent upon the mujahideen to admit to mistakes.
Posted by: Dan Darling ||
12/22/2005 00:44 ||
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#1
"....And although the Crusaders keep me from Jihad with you, noble warrior of God Abu Musab...their cruel ways and torture do not prevent me from telling you that you do have SUCH a pretty mouth."
"Love, Lib"
Mike
Posted by: Mike Kozlowski ||
12/22/2005 8:57 Comments ||
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#2
Goofy fuckers still cant get it out of their thick skulls. WE ARE NOT RUSSIA.
Onscreen Title: "In the name of Allah the Merciful, the Compassionate. We are the army of Allah."
Sheikh Abu Yahya Al-Libbi: "The Muslims have the right to rejoice on this day. But, brothers in faith, how can we be happy? How can we be joyous? How can we be cheerful? How can happiness possibly enter our hearts when we watch our nation being torn apart by the spears of the criminals, and being slashed by the swords of the infidels, in the east and the west.
"Brother in Islam, let us go over the entire world. Let us look at the condition of the Muslims in Palestine. Let us see the condition of the Muslims in Palestine, the land of the Prophet Muhammad's nocturnal journey, where a martyr falls every day, where a prisoner is captured every day, where houses are demolished and women arrested every day. Oh brother in Islam, this is Palestine, the heart of Islam.
Ah, the Land of Paleostine, where Moose limb culture is in full flower, where Dire Revenge⢠is the highest of values, where people are dragged from courtrooms and executed in the streets, where the Fearless Lions of Islam⢠venture forth to slaughter 4-year-olds in their beds...
"Who are those who desecrate it? Who have taken control over it? Who are those who torment its people so severely? Those who were 'smitten with humiliation and misery,' and 'incurred the wrath of Allah.' They are the offspring of the apes and the pigs. They are the ones who are tormenting our brothers there.
Somehow those Jews just keep thumping the Lions of Islamâ¢. When attacked by multiple Arab armies they treacherously defeat them on the field of battle, refusing to be driven into the sea. When confronted with the Arabs' brilliant negotiators they perfidiously expect them to adhere to their agreements. When attacked by stealth and deception they counterattack. They despoil the very deserts, the trademark of the Arab, making them bloom. Oh, the humiliation! Oh, the perfidy!
"Let us look at our brothers in Iraq and in Afghanistan, where the infidel Crusader forces have brought their cavalry and infantry. They are destroying their homes, killing their sons, and arresting their elderly and their women, with whom they are filling their prisons in Abu Ghureib, Bagram, Qandahar, and Guantanamo.
There the Lions of Islam⢠show at their very best, kidnapping men, women, and children. It's in Iraq that they can film themselves waving guns and cutting people's heads off. It's there that they can briefly take over entire cities, havens where they can set fire to captured corpses, beat women, force men to adhere to their Islamic standards, maintain their torture chambers and their bomb factories. And then, when they're feeling comfortable, it's there that they can make their Glorious Arab Stand⢠against the inifdel Crusadersâ¢, who shoot them down like dogs.
"The first signs of victory have begun to appear on the horizon, in Iraq, Afghanistan, Palestine, and Chechnya.
"Yes, brethren and sistern! In Iraq they have their own government, elected by The Massesâ¢. And in Afghanistan they have their own government, elected by The Massesâ¢. In Paleostine Yasser is stable forevermore, gangs of hard boyz rule the streets, and elections resemble riots. And in Chechnya, Mashkadov is dead, Khattab is dead, al-Walid is dead, and Shamil continues the fine tradition of Islamic warfare by taking civilians hostage and slaughtering children. What pride the Moumineen must feel!
"Indeed, the price of victory is steep, and we pay it with our blood, and with our body parts, with our homes, our fields, and our crops.
"We pay the price with our children, whom we raise up to be thrown away in Glorious Jihad⢠without ever having made any contribution to human society. We pay the price with our societies, which remain brutal and primitive, even midieval, while the rest of the world embraces the rights of the individual and the comforts of prosperity. The only field where we can compete is in force of arms and we're not very good at that!"
"But what lies in the future, oh Muslims? There will be glory for those who want it. There will be victory for those who seek it. There will be freedom for those who desire it.
"It will be an Islamic freedom, something not recognizable as freedom to those not in the Islamic club. It will be the freedom of the Ummah to dispose of its members as it pleases, the freedom of the Caliph to rule Believers⢠and Unbelievers alike with an iron fist. It will be the freedom to extend the glories of Islam â the exquisite architecture surrounded by the squalor and filth, disease and brutality that are characteristic of our world!"
"Victory is inevitable, in spite of the infidels, the apostates, and the hypocrites. America's nose will be rubbed in the mud. America will be humiliated just like the empires before it.
"All they have to do is let us do it, brethren and sistern! Even now their rulers are more concerned with our rights than with their citizens' safety, with their own careers than with their children's survival! In time they will crumble, as they have crumbled over and over in the past, until the Flag of Islam⢠flies over the White House. The justice of the Caliph and his Grand Vizir will replace their courts! The rule of imams and qazis and muftis will replace the governance of their Congress! Today's "liberated" American women are tomorrow's dancing girls, sexual playthings for the Lions of Islamâ¢! Today's game-playing American youth are tomorrow's janissaries! The riches of America are there for the picking because they're too lazy to defend them!
"This is the religion of Allah, of the one and only. When He desires something, He says 'become' and it comes into being. So what reason do we have to despair or be afraid? We have only two options: either we live a life of pride and strength in our religion and on our land, doing whatever we want, and worshipping our God as He ordered us, or else we are destined to Paradise."
#3
As opressive as they are to themselves, the question becomes are they really winning? If dieing a meaningless death, being ruled by infidels, and all around suffering is their goal, well then they just might be winning this one! Now as far as I'm concerned we should give them all the suffering they can stand, because it's really only what they are asking for.
Posted by: 49 pan ||
12/22/2005 13:08 Comments ||
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A multi-volume chronology and reference guide set detailing three years of the Mexican Drug War between 2010 and 2012.
Rantburg.com and borderlandbeat.com correspondent and author Chris Covert presents his first non-fiction work detailing
the drug and gang related violence in Mexico.
Chris gives us Mexican press dispatches of drug and gang war violence
over three years, presented in a multi volume set intended to chronicle the death, violence and mayhem which has
dominated Mexico for six years.
Rantburg was assembled from recycled algorithms in the United States of America. No
trees were destroyed in the production of this weblog. We did hurt some, though. Sorry.
Seven people have died as United Nations led troops battle with militia in north-eastern Democratic Republic of Congo with helicopter gunships. The Lendu militia group are refusing to be integrated into the Congolese army in line with a 2002 peace deal, a UN spokesman in the area said. Meanwhile, the UN Security Council has authorised individual sanctions on leaders of foreign armed groups there. The east has been out of the control of central government for many years. 
Two foreign tourists, believed to be Austrians, have been kidnapped while visiting a tourist site in the northern Yemeni province of Marib, local officials and police say. The local officials in Marib said tribal gunmen on Wednesday kidnapped the two Austrian tourists and probably took them to an area called Abeda. 
Arrested JMB (
Lawyers detained and handed 
Barisal police recovered seven bombs, two firearms, several Islamic books and seven bottles of Phensidyle from the house of 
JMB suicide bomber 
A bomb exploded outside a nightclub in northern Spain after a warning from Basque separatist group ETA but caused no injuries. The bomb, left in a van parked behind the Bordatxo nightclub in the small town of Santesteban, caused extensive damage, Europa Press news agency said. "There has been an explosion in the area of the Bordatxo discotheque, apparently inside a vehicle," a government spokesman in the northern region of Navarre said. He said the club was closed at the time and no one was hurt. 
Dec. 26, 2005 - Jan 2, 2006 issue - Antiwar activist Cindy Sheehan, who lost her son Casey in the war, staked out President George W. Bush at his Crawford, Texas, ranch last August looking for answers about U.S. involvement in Iraq. She spoke with Martha Brant from London, where Sheehan addressed the International Peace Conference and is currently the subject of a one-woman play.
Palestinian gunmen kidnapped two foreign teachers in the Gaza Strip on Wednesday, pulling them from their car as they headed for work, witnesses said. The kidnapping of the Dutchman and the Australian was a sign of growing disorder that Palestinian President 
Communist rebels attacked a group of military band members, wounding at least eleven people, on a remote village in the southern Philippines, officials said. Officials said the rebels detonated a land mine and then opened fire on the truck hired by soldiers to bring them to the village of Bangunay in the town of Jabonga, Agusan del Norte province, on Tuesday. âAt least eight soldiers, who are band members, and three civilians, were injured in the attack,â said Lt. Col. Francisco Simbajon, a spokesman for the armyâs 4th Infantry Division.
Suspected Tamil Tiger rebels killed two Sri Lankan soldiers and wounded nine others in a series of attack in the government-held north, the army said yesterday, as prospects for direct peace talks looked increasingly remote. Angry minority Tamil protesters and troops have clashed repeatedly this week on the Jaffna Peninsula, a heavily defended army enclave hemmed in by Liberation Tiger of Tamil Eelam (LTTE) lines, with each side saying the other was trying to escalate the situation. âLTTE is determined to uphold the cease-fire agreement, but the Sri Lankan Army is continuously ignoring the cease-fire agreement and are committing serious violations, such as rapes, violent attacks and humiliating treatment of Tamil civilians,â the rebelsâ website quoted Jaffna political head Illamparuthy as telling Nordic truce monitors.
"Brother in Islam, let us go over the entire world. Let us look at the condition of the Muslims in Palestine. Let us see the condition of the Muslims in Palestine, the land of the Prophet Muhammad's nocturnal journey, where a martyr falls every day, where a prisoner is captured every day, where houses are demolished and women arrested every day. Oh brother in Islam, this is Palestine, the heart of Islam.
"We pay the price with our children, whom we raise up to be thrown away in Glorious Jihad⢠without ever having made any contribution to human society. We pay the price with our societies, which remain brutal and primitive, even midieval, while the rest of the world embraces the rights of the individual and the comforts of prosperity. The only field where we can compete is in force of arms and we're not very good at that!" 
"It will be an Islamic freedom, something not recognizable as freedom to those not in the Islamic club. It will be the freedom of the Ummah to dispose of its members as it pleases, the freedom of the Caliph to rule Believers⢠and Unbelievers alike with an iron fist. It will be the freedom to extend the glories of Islam â the exquisite architecture surrounded by the squalor and filth, disease and brutality that are characteristic of our world!" 
"All they have to do is let us do it, brethren and sistern! Even now their rulers are more concerned with our rights than with their citizens' safety, with their own careers than with their children's survival! In time they will crumble, as they have crumbled over and over in the past, until the Flag of Islam⢠flies over the White House. The justice of the Caliph and his Grand Vizir will replace their courts! The rule of imams and qazis and muftis will replace the governance of their Congress! Today's "liberated" American women are tomorrow's dancing girls, sexual playthings for the Lions of Islamâ¢! Today's game-playing American youth are tomorrow's janissaries! The riches of America are there for the picking because they're too lazy to defend them! 
