December 9, 2005 (CNN) While interviewing an anonymous US Special Forces soldier, a Reuters News agent asked the soldier what he felt when sniping members of Al Quaeda in Afghanistan.
Posted by: Red Dog ||
01/10/2006 14:29 Comments ||
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#4
that is freekin great...I hope that was not cut out for TV.
The only sad part is that most of our bretheren on the left would actually think that a bad thing. But in your ivory tower you can have such insane thinking processes and survive becuase guys like this soldgier who's "simpiltan" mentality as the left would say keeps themselves their family and the ivory tower alive and safe.
#5
Thanks, Besoeker, for the link. As for the gentleman therein quoted, I would hope he feels pride upon ridding the world of each one of those whose desire is to steal freedom and life from the rest of us. But, being a gentleman, was too polite to openly contradict the prejudices of the reporter who asked such a stupid question.
So we are up in the mountains at about 0100 hrs looking for a bad guy that we thought was in the area. Here are ten of us, pitch black, crystal clear night, about 25 degrees. We know there are bad guys in the area; a few shots have been fired but no big deal. We decide that we need air cover and the only thing in the area is a solo B-1 bomber. He flies around at about 20,000 feet and tells us there is nothing in the area. He then asks if we would like a low level show of force.
Stupid question. Of course we tell him yes.
The controller who is attached to the team then is heard talking to the pilot. Pilot asks if we want it subsonic or supersonic.
Very stupid question.
Pilot advises he is twenty miles out and stand by. The controller gets us all sitting down in a line and points out the proper location.
You have to picture this. Pitch black, ten killers sitting down,dead quiet and overlooking this about 30 mile long valley. All of a sudden, way out (below our level) you see a set of four 200' white flames coming at us.
The controller says, "Ah-- guys-- you might want to plug your ears".
Faster than you can think a B-1, supersonic, 1000' over our heads, blasts the sound barrier and it feels like God just hit you in the head with ahammer". He then stands it straight up with 4 white trails of flame coming out and disappears."
Cost of gas for that: Probably $50,000
Hearing damage: For certain
Bunch of Taliban thinking twice about shooting at us: Priceless
Posted by: Tibor ||
01/10/2006 00:00 ||
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#1
ROFLMAO!!!
Boyz n' their Toyz, ROFL... What? Did you say something? Yer's mouth's moving, but...
Posted by: Jan ||
01/10/2006 2:06 Comments ||
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#4
be sweet to strike Iran Nuke facilites with B1 low level raids oblitterating the nuke reactors. with electronic jamming support against the Iranian low level air defences to open up a window as such for B1's to deliver a stick of 80 five hundred pounders or cluster munitions, my fave plane the B1 though the TU-160 is almost as cool.
Posted by: Shep UK ||
01/10/2006 7:12 Comments ||
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#5
One of the finer points about being a soldier. A Billion dollar piece of equipment and it's college educated crew is being directed and controlled by a bunch of NCO's. This lack of ego on the battlefield and respect is what makes being a soldier the best job in the world. What a cool story.
Posted by: 49 Pan ||
01/10/2006 7:27 Comments ||
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#7
My brother was the navigator on a B-1 that did something similar in Afghanistan. Supersonic pass at 1000 ft. over a farmhouse, then a subsonic pass dropping flares, then another supersonic pass. The 4 terrorists in the farmhouse surrendered. He's proud they didn't have to drop any bombs that time.
Posted by: Eric Jablow ||
01/10/2006 9:04 Comments ||
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#8
Sweet! I've seen one of those babies at an air show flying low and subsonic with afterburners - it was impressively loud. I can only imagine one at night and supersonic.
Posted by: Red Dog ||
01/10/2006 11:31 Comments ||
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#10
CyberSarge -
God I love the Air Force!
As well you should. :) As an aside, as awesome as the B-1s are, the old FB-111s in full burner and 'hard' TFR mode made for flybys that could literally knock your hats off, and of course a B-52 at low level will still put the fear of God into you.
Mike
Posted by: Mike Kozlowski ||
01/10/2006 11:32 Comments ||
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#11
And then there's the A-10 "Warthog": not loud or fast, but causes its share of brown underwear...
Holy crapola! That adds up to a whopping 3¢ of additional federal taxes for me next year. How about another dozen of those fly-bys? Peace through superior firepower, what's not to like?
#13
I was in Vietnam in 1970-71. One of the things I'll NEVER forget is watching an ARCLIGHT strike from 25 miles away. First there's nothing unusual. Suddenly you see a few black matchsticks floating toward the earth. Then the ground opens up in brown and red splotches that continue... and continue... and continue... Trees tumble into the air, and a wall of smoke, dust, and debris rises up several thousand feet. The shock wave and sound wave at 25 miles are enough to cause you to wet your britches if you're not expecting it. A full supersonic fly-by by a B-1 would indeed scare the pants off anyone not expecting it. Would love to have a full video of the faces of the jihadis when that bird passed by.
Posted by: Old Patriot ||
01/10/2006 15:04 Comments ||
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#14
Hell, I remember it being pretty loud even subsonic. Someone nearby had hoped for a sonic boom... would have blown the windows out of whole Chicago skyline. :)
#15
Old Patriot...a little added perspective. :)
#13 I was in Vietnam in 1970-71. (So was I.) One of the things I'll NEVER forget is watching an ARCLIGHT strike from 25 miles (5 miles at 8000 feet) away. First there's nothing unusual. Suddenly you see a few black matchsticks floating toward the earth. Then the ground opens up in brown and red (and yellow and blue) splotches that continue... and continue... and continue (three BUFFs laid a trail about 4 clicks long ...) Trees (200 feet tall) tumble into the air (like batons), and a wall of smoke, dust, and debris rises up several thousand feet. The shock wave (multiple) and sound wave at 25 miles are enough to cause you to wet your britches if you're not expecting it. (At 5 miles they cause considerable jostling of a Cobra.) A full supersonic fly-by by a B-1 would indeed scare the pants off anyone not expecting it. Would love to have a full video of the faces of the jihadis when that bird passed by.
Fugitive Taliban leader Mullah Mohammad Omar on Monday vowed more attacks against U.S. forces in Afghanistan, a day after Afghan President Hamid Karzai suggested he "get in touch" if he wanted peace. In a message to mark the three-day Muslim festival of Eid al-Adha, which starts in Afghanistan on Tuesday, Omar reiterated his call for jihad, or holy war, against the United States. "The Taliban attacks in Afghanistan will further intensify in this New Year, which will force Americans to leave Afghanistan very soon," he said in a message carried by the Pakistan-based Afghan Islamic Press (AIP) news agency.
AIP said the message had been read over the telephone by a Taliban spokesman, Mohammad Hanif. Omar, whose whereabouts have been unknown since U.S.-led forces toppled his government in late 2001, said jihad was a religious obligation for Muslims as the United States was "the biggest enemy of Islam." "Muslims should stand prepared for the sacrifice of jihad on the great day of Eid al-Adha because armed jihad is the only way to safeguard the Islamic world."
Posted by: Fred ||
01/10/2006 00:00 ||
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#1
Blinky. Don't run with scissors. You might loose the other one.
Kenya is widely remembered as the site of the 1998 U.S. Embassy bombing that killed over 200 people and cast al-Qaeda into international prominence. The attack was followed by a 2002 suicide car bombing that targeted a hotel popular with Israelis near Mombassa and the attempted destruction of an Israeli airliner. In both incidents, the vast majority of victims were Kenyans. There is, however, a great difference in the perception of the ongoing terrorist threat in Nairobi and Washington. Over Kenyan opposition the U.S. has issued a new terrorist warning for Kenya, damaging the important Kenyan tourism industry. Kenyan officials claim their country is largely free from terrorist threat and is unfairly blamed for its unavoidable proximity to lawless Somalia.
My guess is that this is a matter of wishful thinking on their part. They've got their own indiginous population of Moose limbs with the usual holy men to bitch and moan at every turn. They've got borders that aren't what you'd call tight, so there are preachers tromping back and forth all the time. There are vast tracts of land that aren't close to anyplace special, so there's lots of space for learning how to blow stuff up.
The warning cites "continuing terrorist threats and the limited ability of the Kenyan authorities to deter and detect such acts" (U.S. State Department, December 30).
Kenya is, especially for Africa, a free country, without secret policemen running around all the time. The more important factor is that they don't believe they're under threat.
One day after the warning was issued Kenyan Internal Security announced they were intensifying their search for suspected al-Qaeda members. Of special interest are two Mombassa-born Kenyans, Ahmad Salim Swedan and Salah Ali Salah Nabhan, both indicted in the U.S. for leading roles in the 1998 bombing and suspected of planning the 2002 attacks. Nabhan is believed to be living in Mogadishu. Kenyan security officials claim that al-Qaeda is active in the country only through infiltrators from Somalia. Muslims constitute about 10 percent of Kenya's population and are a majority in the port city of Mombassa.
The Somalis blend in sufficiently so that the Kenyans can't really track them. We think of it as a black African country, but there are lots of Nilotic people, which most Somalis are.
U.S. and Israeli officials are highly displeased with the June 2005 acquittals of seven suspects brought to trial on conspiracy charges in the 2002 hotel bombing. Charges of planning a new attack on the U.S. Embassy in Nairobi in 2003 were dropped. The lack of convictions has fostered perceptions the U.S. that the Kenyan government is not serious about terrorism.
And I'd call it a well-founded perception. In a world that functioned based on sweet reason and logic, you'd expect that, having had two major booms in their country, that killed significant numbers of Kenyans, they'd want to track down and kill or at least deport anyone associated with the perps. But we've seen similar attention span fades in Britain and in the U.S., just not quite as quick.
Despite the development of well-trained counter-terrorist forces, large areas of the sensitive Somali-Kenyan border remain poorly administered and beyond the operational range of conventional Kenyan police or their anti-terrorist squadrons. The recent seizure of a rocket launcher and ammunition by the poorly equipped Administration Police (AP) was the result of solid police work following a tip that weapons were being brought across the border. Without radios or other communications equipment, an AP constable had to wait two days to hitch a ride from a UN vehicle to the closest regular Kenyan police detachment to report the arrest.
Pause here to admire the determination, guts, and self-reliance of the average Kenyan bush copper.
With drought and a growing food shortage in the region there are fears of large-scale movement of nomads across the border that may be exploited by members of the al-Qaeda connected al-Ittihad movement. There are also security concerns in Mombassa, where the port security chief was recently murdered when he failed to accept a bribe to stop investigation of a large container-theft syndicate. A Kenyan MP and his family are being investigated in the killing.
Gangsters and bribes blend imperceptibly with terrorism.
The U.S. occupation of Iraq is unpopular in Kenya, and the renewal of the terrorism advisory has been widely condemned by government and the media. The United States maintains a counter-terrorist force in Djibouti (known as the Combined Joint Task Force for the Horn of Africa) that has participated with Kenya in combined military exercises designed to combat regional terrorist activity. Although further security assistance has been offered to Kenya by both the U.S. and the EU, persistent corruption at all levels of government is hindering international cooperation and threatens foreign aid.
Posted by: Dan Darling ||
01/10/2006 02:19 ||
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Algerian Islamic militants killed four civilians in the latest attack since voters overwhelmingly backed a partial amnesty for rebels three months ago, authorities said on Sunday. The victims, who worked for a state water company, were killed on Saturday in the southwestern province of Tissemsilt, some 340 km (211 miles) from the capital Algiers, their company Algerienne des eaux said in a statement.
Posted by: Dan Darling ||
01/10/2006 02:51 ||
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The incident is a severe blow to the GSPC, leaving the group's leadership in disarray. The figures were close to the current commander, Abu Mus'ab Abd el-Wadoud, who confirmed the news of the loss "with most grievous sadness and despair" on a January 4 posting carried on the al-Safinat jihadi forum (www.al-saf.net/vb). Yet, Abd el-Wadoud portrayed the loss as the result of an ambush by security forces and a forced arrest of the leaders. Whatever the circumstances, the loss of Abu Bilal complicates coordination with fellow GSPC leader Mokhtar Belmokhtar, currently in the Sahara desert organizing weapons smuggling to the group's hideouts in the north.
The GSPC, as the above arrests indicate, is fast losing ground in Algeria, and its ability to strike is becoming more circumscribed. For example, a December 24 statement trumpeting an attack by the GSPC on the port of Dellys, posted on the group's own website (http://salafia.balder.prohosting.com), said that "the total number of victims was indeed high." In reality, according to the Algerian Arabic daily El-Khabar, the attack resulted in the death of one and some damage to a coastguard vessel (http://elkhabar.com).
Yet the GSPC is not for want of funds: more than USD $22 million was found in the vehicle carrying the three leading arrestees. As elaborate fundraising networks and activities abroad have demonstratedâmost recently through the arrests in late December of Algerians in Spain accused of crimes from which the proceeds were funneled to Algerian mujahideen elsewhere such as Afghanistanâinvestigators are now turning their attention to the European arena. GSPC members continue to be picked up all over Europeâin Spain, Italy, France, the UK, the Netherlands and Belgium. The GSPC, for its part, has openly demonstrated its broader intentions, declaring France its principal foreign target. Algerian militants are linking up with mujahideen in Morocco, Syria and Iraq, and seeking an alliance with bin Laden (Terrorism Focus, Volume 2, Issue 23). With a GSPC cell dismantled last November in Toronto, which included an explosives expert, and earlier U.S. experience with Algerian terrorism (Ahmed Ressam's alleged attempt to blow up the Los Angeles airport in 1999), U.S. officials will be viewing these GSPC or GSPC-affiliated groups as the new frontline in the war on terrorism.
Posted by: Dan Darling ||
01/10/2006 02:21 ||
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At daybreak on January 5 federal forces began a third day of attacks on what was thought to be a group of eight militants blockaded in a wooded gorge located near the villages of Gimry and Shamilkala in Dagestan's Untsukulsky district, newsru.com reported. Dagestani Interior Minister Adilgerei Magomedtagirov told journalists at the scene that special forces of the Russian army's Main Intelligence Directorate (GRU) and marines had been added to the main attacking force. According to Dagestani Interior Ministry sources, that main force was comprised of units from Dagestan's Interior Ministry, from the 102nd Brigade of the federal Interior Ministry's Interior Troops and from the federal Defense Ministry's 136th Brigade. Magomedtagirov said the rebels' position was also being "worked on" by aviation and artillery, while a Dagestani Interior Ministry source told Interfax that the federal forces had attacked the gorge with helicopter gunships and mortars, and later fired on it with howitzers.
Newsru.com quoted the head of the Dagestani Interior Ministry's press service, Col. Abdulmanap Musaev, as saying that five rebels had been killed during the first two days of the operation, with three remaining hidden in the wooded area. The separatist Kavkazcenter website, however, claimed on January 4 that some 30 militants were involved in the fighting. According to the federal side, one serviceman had been killed and ten wounded, some of them seriously, as of January 4. Citing "unofficial information," Kavkazky Uzel reported on January 4 that another two servicemen had disappeared during the fighting. Itar-Tass on January 3 quoted an unnamed law enforcement source as saying that the rebels were blockaded in "a well-equipped and protected dugout" on a mountainside near the village of Gimry. The news agency reported that the area was "repeatedly shelled with rockets from the air" and occasionally fired on with army mortars, but that the special operations forces involved in the attack on the rebels had encountered "fierce resistance." Dagestani Interior Minister Magomedtagirov told journalists that the rebels were "well-armed" with assault rifles, machineguns and various kinds of grenade launchers. Likewise, NTV television reported on January 4 that federal forces had carried out helicopter missile strikes on the rebel positions and fired on them from mortars "all day" on January 3, but that "the moment the special forces approached the dugout, they came under fierce fire."
The militants involved in the Untsukulsky district fighting are thought to be remnants of the force led by Rasul Makasharipov, the head of the Sharia Jamaat group who was killed in the Dagestani capital of Makhachkala in June 2005 (Chechnya Weekly, July 7, 2005). Magomedtagirov said the group is currently led by Omar Sheikhulaev, a wanted militant who, according to gazeta.ru, was Makasharipov's "main associate" and is believed to have masterminded the upswing in insurgent attacks in Dagestan that followed Makasharipov's death. His group reportedly murdered the head of the Untsukulsky police, Major Gadzimurad Azizov, and a police lieutenant, Saidbeg Abdulkhalikov, last fall (Chechnya Weekly, October 13, 2005). Magomedtagirov said he did not rule out that Sheikhulaev's group was behind a failed attack that took place in central Makhachkala on December 29, when a suicide bomberâwho, according to witnesses, appeared to be heading for a house in which people had gathered to mourn the murder of the son and driver of Deputy Dagestani Interior Minister Magomed Gazimagomedovâapparently blew himself up prematurely. The blast injured two passers-by. Agenstvo Natsionalnykh Novostei on January 3 identified the suicide bomber as Dzhamaluddin Ibragimov, a Gimri resident born in 1983. Magomed Gazimagomedov's son, a Federal Security Service (FSB) officer, and driver were killed on December 27 when gunmen opened fire on the car in which they were driving, which was normally used by the deputy Interior Minister, the Associated Press reported on December 29.
Kavkazky Uzel reported on January 4 that three women who were taken hostage during the September 2004 seizure of Beslan's School No. 1 had identified Omar Sheikhulaev from photographs as having been among their captors. According to the website, another former Beslan hostage, Larisa Mamitova, a doctor who had treated hostages and wounded attackers in Beslan and played the role of envoy ferrying messages between the hostage-takers and officials at the scene, said she recognized Sheikhulaev as having been among the hostage-takers. "Yes, he was there, I remember him well; he kept silent at all times," the website quoted Mamitova as having said upon seeing Sheikhulaev's picture. As Kavazky Uzel noted, Sheikhulaev's involvement in the current battle in Dagestan's Untsukulsky district would seem to contradict the federal authorities' insistence that none of the Beslan hostage-takers escaped the security cordon around the school.
Posted by: Dan Darling ||
01/10/2006 02:23 ||
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Australia will send an extra 110 troops to Afghanistan to bolster the fight against Islamist militants, increasing its presence in the country to about 300, the Australian government said on Tuesday.
The deployment, which includes two Chinook helicopters, would provide additional medical evacuation and air mobility support to 190 Australian special forces troops in Afghanistan, it said.
Australia's special forces were sent to Afghanistan in July to help hunt down Taliban and al Qaeda fighters who have doggedly pursued a violent insurgency since a 2001 U.S.-led invasion ousted the Taliban for harbouring the militant al Qaeda network.
"(Australia's extra troops) will be deployed as part of Australia's continuing commitment to the fight against terrorism," Deputy Prime Minister Mark Vaile, who is acting prime minister while John Howard is on holiday, told Australian radio.
Australia initially sent 1,550 troops to Afghanistan in 2001 to join the U.S.-led attack, including special forces who were involved in some of the earliest and fiercest fighting.
Defense Minister Robert Hill said the helicopters and extra troops would be fully operational by March and would remain in Afghanistan for the rest of the special forces deployment, which is due to finish in September.
"Afghanistan has made significant progress since its liberation from the Taliban and it is important the international community continues to work together with the Afghan government to ensure progress continues," Hill said in a statement.
The Australian Greens party said the country should be withdrawing its troops from Afghanistan, not sending more.
"Our troops should be in Australia and our neighborhood where our national interests are concentrated," Greens leader Bob Brown said in a statement.
The Australian government is also due to decide whether to send a 200-strong reconstruction team to Afghanistan.
The Australian newspaper reported on Tuesday that a reconstruction team would be deployed in April, but Australian Foreign Minister Alexander Downer told reporters in Washington no final decision had been made.
The Australian deployment comes as NATO urged the Dutch parliament on Monday to approve a government plan to send 1,400 more troops to Afghanistan, warning insurgents would exploit any delay in alliance efforts to step up peacekeeping.
The North Atlantic alliance is looking to raise its troop numbers in Afghanistan by 6,000 to more than 15,000 to help ease the burden on the larger U.S.-led coalition there.
Posted by: Dan Darling ||
01/10/2006 02:30 ||
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#1
Aussie, Aussie, Aussie! Oy, oy, oy!
Thanks mates! And especially for being the kind of troops that don't refuse to go where the danger is.
#4
I bet those troops are thanking their lucky stars that they get to have a piece of the action. Such field experience is priceless, and cannot be replicated in ordinary training.
The opportunity to get same invariably results in major reforms throughout a military.
New revelations have surfaced regarding the alleged operation of secret prisons in Europe by the CIA, with a Swiss newspaper publishing details of an intercepted message sent by Egyptian officials. According to information obtained by the SonntagsBlick newspaper, the CIA has maintained secret prisons in Eastern Europe for several years. The newspaper claims to have acquired a copy of a faxed secret document sent by the Egyptian Foreign Ministry to the country's embassy in London.
An exact copy of the fax is published in the latest edition of the SonntagsBlick, under the headline: "The Egyptians have sources which prove the existence of secret CIA prisons in Eastern Europe."
According to the newspaper, the Egyptians learned through intelligence contacts that the CIA had interrogated 23 Iraqi and Afghan citizens in the secret Mihail Kogalniceanu prison near the Romanian city of Constanza on the Black Sea. The newspaper adds that similar interrogation centers are situated in the Ukraine, Kosovo, Bulgaria and Macedonia.
Seems like a overly large number of "secret prisons", if you ask me.
The SonntagsBlick says that the Swiss secret service intercepted the fax last November. The importance of the fax, the newspaper says, lies in the fact that it is not based on media reports but on research conducted by Egyptian intelligence.
Of course, the Egyptians could have pulled their intelligence data from media reports.
According to diplomatic observers, the Egyptian secret service has been making increasing efforts to monitor the diplomatic mail of foreign embassies. Experts believe that the Egyptian intelligence agency has a close relationship with the CIA and is active in many parts of the world. The Egyptian service is generally considered to be an efficient and professional organization.
Though revelations that the Swiss Defense Ministry conducts covert electronic surveillance may be a surprise to some, according to a document provided to ISN Security Watch by the ministry, the practice is not new. The Egyptian fax was intercepted by the Onyx system, a national security installation designed to monitor foreign communications. The system was installed in 1999 and reached full operability late last year. It is based outside of Bern and has two additional installations in other parts of the country.
Ah, but do they have permission from a federal judge to monitor those communications?
In response to a call placed by ISN Security Watch to the ministry, spokesperson Sebastian Hueber responded by sending a publicly-available document explaining regulations concerning electronic eavesdropping by the military. He refused further comment. The document states in one section that surveillance can only be done in connection to a specific investigation. Any information gleaned during the assignment would be handed over to the instigator of the inquiry.
The rumored existence of secret CIA prisons in Eastern Europe received significant media attention last year, but no hard evidence surfaced to prove their existence. The SonntagsBlick article is seen by observers as important in that it confirms reports by the US-based Human Rights Watch group. The organization claimed late last year that the CIA had flown detainees from its Salt Pit center in the Afghan capital Kabul to the Polish Szymany base and a second Romanian facility near Constanza.
In Germany a public discussion began last fall when it emerged that Egyptian-born German citizen Khalid al-Masri was kidnapped by the CIA in Macedonia and flown to the US Ramstein airbase in Germany. From there al-Masri was transported to Afghanistan. Al-Masri reported that he was tortured in prison for several months. After some time the CIA realized that it had mistaken him for a senior militant figure with the same name. When the case of mistaken identity was revealed, the US ambassador in Germany paid a visit to the then-minister of the interior, Otto Schilly, to deliver his country's apologies.
The subject was again raised at a meeting between the new German Chancellor Angela Merkel and US Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice late last year. At a joint press conference, Merkel claimed that Rice had admitted that the US had made a mistake in the al-Masri case. This claim was vehemently denied by an American spokesman shortly thereafter.
European governments and the Bush administration officially deny the existence of secret prisons, with some refusing to comment on the matter. Bulgaria has said that no such prisons exist on its territory.
Francis Ferrara from the Council of Europe responded to inquiries from ISN Security Watch by saying that Marty has decided not to give further interviews until the plenary session on 26 January. The Egyptian authorities were not immediately available for comment.
The revelations in the SonntagsBlick come on the heels of a statement by Swiss investigator Dick Marty late last year in which he said that allegations that the CIA kept secret prisons and transported captives using European bases had been more or less proven. Marty responded cautiously to questions from swissinfo on the SonntagsBlick revelations. "I cannot say whether this is an authentic document, and furthermore the fax relays information confirming things we already know," he said. "But it seems inappropriate to me to speak of absolute proof. It is the kind of scoop I was expecting to see and I am sure there will be plenty more," he added.
Gee, just like those Bush National Guard files, look hard enough and "poof', they appear!
It is not known whether the Egyptian fax was intercepted as part of an investigation or by accident.
In an interview with Blick, Marty asked: "Why did the Swiss intelligence service intercept a communication between London and Cairo? Was the document maybe purposefully leaked to the Swiss? Did someone have an interest in the matter becoming public in Switzerland?"
"I don't know. The world of secret services is a pretty complicated world," he concluded.
Posted by: Steve ||
01/10/2006 08:40 ||
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#7
US secret prisons or not, we know fir sure those Swiss lads certainly understand covert intelligence techniques, denial and secrecy, et al:
"After years of denying that dormant accounts of Holocaust victims even existed, in 1997 Swiss banks produced a list of thousands of people with accounts that had seen no activity since the War. They set up a voluntary fund to aid elderly survivors of the Holocaust, and contributions to the fund quickly mounted to some $200 million. Payments ranging from $500 to $1,200 were sent to more than 100,000 Eastern European Holocaust survivors in November and December 1998, with those in Western Europe receiving disbursements in February 1999."
#9
Denvers' a country?????????
Sometimes, Army Guy, they try to act like they're a country. As for the comment about the "Peoples Republic of Colorado" - that only applies to two or three counties, primarily Boulder, Denver, and Jefferson counties. Most of the rest of the state is red, red, red. Of course, the Denver metro area, with 4.1 million people (in a state with about 4.75 million people) sometimes thinks it's ALL of Colorado. We in the Springs get pretty testy at times, and we're heavily armed.
Posted by: Old Patriot ||
01/10/2006 15:25 Comments ||
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Spanish police have arrested 17 suspected militant Islamists thought to have recruited and trained sympathisers to join the insurgency in Iraq. The suspects were arrested during pre-dawn raids in and around Madrid, Barcelona and the Basque town of Tolosa, Spanish media reported.
They included a suspect thought to be linked to a suicide bomber who killed 18 Italian soldiers and nine Iraqis. The bomber had attacked an Italian military base in Nasiriya in 2003.
Posted by: Steve ||
01/10/2006 07:55 ||
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Susanne Osthoff, the German archeologist kidnapped by Iraqi gunmen on Nov. 25 and released before Christmas was connected with her country's intelligence service, the BND, and had helped arrange a meeting with a top member of the terrorist organization al-Qaida, possibly Abu Mussab al-Zarqawi himself, according to well informed German sources Sunday.
The sources confirmed German press reports that the 43-year-old woman had worked for the BND in Iraq on a freelance basis, and had for some time even stayed in a German intelligence safe house in Baghdad.
A convert to Islam and a fluent Arabic speaker, Osthoff had lived in Iraq for over a decade, and was at one time married to an Iraqi. Archeology is a classic intelligence cover: T.E. Lawrence (Lawrence of Arabia) posed as an archeologist in the Middle East in the early part of the last century. But archeology is Osthoff's real profession. One Washington-based German source said Osthoff had been working on arranging a rendezvous with an al-Qaida member on behalf of a German intelligence agent in Iraq. Whether the meeting ever took place has not been revealed, but another source in Berlin, reached by telephone, said experts believed that the kidnapping may have been the work of a rival group, possibly within the same organization.
A day after Osthoff's release, the Germans had quietly freed and sent home to his native Lebanon Mohammed Ali Hamadi, a Hezbollah militant serving a sentence for killing a U.S. Navy diver in a hijacked TWA jetliner in 1985. Berlin officials denied any connection between Osthoff's release and Hamadi's after serving only 19 years of a life sentence. They said Hamadi had qualified for parole and the decision to free him had been taken by the state government in North Rhine Westphalia, where he was being held, not the Federal government. He was captured in Frankfurt in 1987 for his part in hijacking the TWA jetliner and killing the American navy diver, who was a passenger on the plane. The United States requested Hamadi's extradition, but the Germans refused, and instead tried and convicted him.
But both German sources said the real deal involving Osthoff's release had been the payment of a ransom to her terrorist captors by the government of Chancellor Angela Merkel. The ransom and Hamadi's release could well constitute a double embarrassment for Merkel on her scheduled "maiden" visit to Washington next week. Washington has always opposed pay ransom money on the grounds that it encourages more kidnapping.
Although Merkel has carried on her socialist predecessor Gerhard Schroeder's policy of staying out of Iraq, German intelligence is operating in the area, cooperating with U.S. counterparts both on the ground and in Washington, the sources said.
Contacts with homegrown Iraqi insurgent groups are now openly admitted by the U.S. authorities, according to news reports received over the weekend. One objective in talking to Sunni fighters loyal to former dictator Saddam Hussein, or other Sunni militant groups is to exploit growing differences with the "foreign fighters," in other words, al-Qaida, the reports said. Zarqawi's wholesale terrorist attacks on Iraqis as collaborators with the United States have bred growing resentment against al-Qaida, and the weekend reports spoke of clashes between foreign fighters and Sunni insurgents in various parts of the country.
Talks with the Sunni insurgents are also part of the groundwork for the U.N.-organized National Accord Conference, an inclusive forum set for the spring in Baghdad. The conference bringing together all Iraqi political and religious groups is a follow-up of the Arab League summit in Cairo last October. That meeting in the Egyptian capital called for an attempt to establish political dialogue with the insurgents in order to determine what they wanted. The script of the Baghdad conference is also expected to demand the withdrawal of all "foreign forces," which is not only a reference to the U.S.-led coalition, but also to non-Iraqi insurgents -- further widening the gap between Sunni insurgents and al-Qaida.
The Germans' tentative contacts with al-Qaida reflect Berlin's belief in the existence of another split within the Iraqi-based al-Qaida organization itself. While Zarqawi calls for the Americans to leave, their departure must be far from his intentions since it would undermine his terrorist mission. "Assuming the U.S. pullout continues, Zarqawi's days in Iraq are numbered," says a diplomatic source in Washington. This situation is forcing al-Qaida to think strategically about what to do next.
Posted by: Dan Darling ||
01/10/2006 03:00 ||
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#1
If this is true, and it's a big if, Germany is caught again working against our interests. Remeber Merkel made her first trip to France who also has tirelessly works to undermine our effort in Iraq.
Once again I believe we should keep troops in Germany not as allies but as a remider to them of what we will not allow them to engage in again. A force big enough and mobile enough to depose their government if need be. Let that fear roll around in their vacuous germanic skulls. Forget getting them to like us they apperently need to fear us more.
#4
By attempting to infiltrate an agent into Al Qaeda in Iraq, and playing on perceived splits within the organisation, Germany would appear to be caught working in favour of your interests.
Any ransom payment to the terrorists however would be unforgivable, but unfortunately Germany is hardly the only country to give into the demands of kidnappers.
Posted by: Paul Moloney ||
01/10/2006 6:35 Comments ||
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#5
[Redacted by moderator. Comments may be redacted for trolling, violation of standards of good manners, or plain stupidity. Please correct the condition that applies and try again.]
#6
This situation is forcing al-Qaida to think strategically about which one of Sadams palaces they want to move into first, if the U.S. military pulls out.
#7
This situation is forcing al-Qaida to think strategically about which one of Sadams palaces they want to move into first, if the U.S. military pulls out.
Which is why there will be a draw down of troops, to rest and rotate them, but not a total withdrawel, no matter how much the weak sisters in the U.S. Congress carry on.
#10
Interesting: Aris wants us to do what he says but not act as he says. He snarks about us engaging in retaliation for the release of a terrorist murderer, and engages in it himself when affronted.
Ih short, he'd screech if America acted the way HE does.
#11
Aris wants us to do what he says but not act as he says. He snarks about us engaging in retaliation for the release of a terrorist murderer, and engages in it himself when affronted.
Ptah... what? I "engaged in retaliation"?
My first post in this thread indicates what the tactic of spreading fear about America is likely to cause, based on recent historical precedent. Then I had myself and my nation bashed by Sock Puppet.
Other than that I have no idea what you are saying.
#12
I agree with you Sock PO'D. I also feel that we should have a presence in Germany. Selective memory is a bad thing.
Posted by: Jan ||
01/10/2006 15:27 Comments ||
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I don't assume the contact Germany was trying to make with AQ would have been to further US interests. Quite the opposite. I see it as a attempt to contact them and make some kind of Dhimmi deal.
Germany apperently only thinks about making money in the Middle East and Asia. A "deal" with AQ would be helpful to further that. Takes alot of money to keep the "EU social model" running. No having AQ kidnapping and attacking Germans or Germany and keeping them from making money was the game plan I am sure.
The women of the Dutch extremist network were a new breed of holy warriors on the front lines where Islam and the West collide. In the male-dominated world of Islamic extremism, they saw themselves as full-fledged partners in jihad. Wives watched videos about female suicide bombers, posed for photos holding guns and fired automatic weapons during clandestine target practice.
The militants swore publicly that one of them would kill Dutch legislator Ayaan Hirsi Ali, an outspoken feminist. Last summer, police captured a 23-year-old leader of the group and his wife at a subway station here as they were allegedly on their way to assassinate the legislator.
The story of the Dutch network, 14 members of which are now on trial, reveals the increasing aggressiveness and prominence of female extremists in Europe. In a chilling trend in the Netherlands and Belgium, police are investigating militants' wives suspected of plotting suicide attacks with their husbands, or on their own.
"I think it's a very dangerous trend," said Ali, the lawmaker targeted for assassination. "Women all over the world are seen as vulnerable, as less violent. And that can make anti-terror authorities less vigilant when it comes to women."
In November, a Belgian named Muriel Degauque rammed an explosives-filled vehicle into a U.S. convoy in Iraq, becoming the first Western female convert to Islam to carry out a suicide bombing for the networks affiliated with Al Qaeda. U.S. commandos killed her husband a day later as he was reportedly preparing a suicide attack wearing an explosives vest near Fallouja, Iraq.
Dismantling the network in Belgium that sent them to their deaths, police arrested another couple allegedly preparing to go to Iraq to become "martyrs." The Belgian case has links to the youthful Dutch group, a unique mix of extremist ferocity and modern European attitudes.
"They are clever girls," said Digna van Boetzelaer, a chief anti-terrorism prosecutor here. "The girls were all born here, raised here, went to school here. So maybe some of that Dutch mentality came in through their pores."
For years, women have committed suicide attacks in places such as Chechnya and the Palestinian territories. At least one female suicide bomber had struck in Iraq before Degauque, and in November a would-be female suicide bomber was implicated in Iraqi operatives' bombing of three hotels in the Jordanian capital.
But Europe's Al Qaeda-aligned networks have been shaped by fundamentalism and strict separation of the sexes.
Mohamed Atta, the lead Sept. 11 hijacker, was a classically misogynistic example.
Malika Aroud, a Belgian, was an early exception to the rule.
When her husband traveled to an Al Qaeda training camp in Afghanistan, Aroud joined him. Two days before the Sept. 11 attacks on the United States, her husband carried out the suicide bombing that killed Ahmed Shah Massoud, an anti-Taliban guerrilla leader.
Acquitted in the plot against Massoud, Aroud moved to Switzerland, where she has been charged with operating a website that incited terrorism. Newer female recruits include daughters of immigrant families who rediscover their Muslim roots as well as native Europeans such as Degauque. They are gaining more acceptance because of a perception among male leaders that all Muslims must defend the faith against attack, analysts say.
Western investigators are somewhat relieved that Degauque wasn't used for a more audacious attack in the West.
"It would have been valuable operationally to have a Belgian blond" for plots in Europe, said a senior French anti-terrorism official, who spoke on condition of anonymity. "But I wonder if these networks are more erratic, more dispersed than that, leaving a lot to spontaneous individual initiative. Also, the Iraqi insurgency needs cannon fodder for suicide attacks."
Another case raised fears closer to home. In November, Moroccan police arrested Belgian-born Mohammed Reha, allegedly a top operative with myriad international connections.
Reha told interrogators that he had met in Brussels with the wife of an extremist on trial in Belgium, investigators say. During the meeting at a train station last summer, the woman reportedly told Reha that she and other wives of imprisoned extremists were ready to become suicide bombers in Europe. She asked for help to get training and explosives, according to his account, which was first reported by Agence France-Presse news service.
Belgian police questioned the woman, who has not been arrested or publicly identified. She denied Reha's account, an investigator said.
Police, however, have confirmed that Reha met with a top suspect in the Dutch network, Samir Azzouz, who was allegedly planning an attack in the Netherlands. Belgian and Dutch authorities are investigating his claim that he offered to provide him with the aspiring female bombers from Belgium.
"It's very interesting to us," said Van Boetzelaer, the prosecutor. "Supposedly Azzouz says, 'I want to do an attack, do you have somebody for me?' Then Reha volunteers the 'sisters.' That's the version we have. But we have a lot to do to confirm this."
Azzouz, 19, was a central figure in the Dutch network whose members, mostly in their teens or 20s, were raised in a society proud of its progressive attitudes about equality of the sexes. That, investigators believe, helps explain the ferocity of half a dozen female militants in the group.
"Western Muslims, whether they like it or not, have grown up with the idea of women being equal," lawmaker Ali said. "So in some ways that may still affect the women in the networks, especially the converts."
Azzouz's wife, Abida, 25, came to Islam through her mother, a Dutch convert. His defense lawyer has alleged that Abida was the driving force behind Azzouz's radicalism, but authorities say they do not have enough evidence to charge her.
Azzouz, who was arrested in October, is considered a top figure in the Dutch network, along with Nourredine Fatmi, a diminutive, Moroccan-born militant with a reputation as a hot-headed charmer.
Fatmi "married" a 16-year-old girl in a secret and unofficial ceremony presided over by another militant, Mohammed Bouyeri. The newlyweds spent the wedding night watching videos of suicide bombers, according to testimony.
"Once, when she was with Fatmi in a car, he said to her that she had to die as a martyr," said Wim de Bruin, a spokesman for Dutch prosecutors. "He talked about filling a car with explosives and driving it into a shopping center. He said they would do it together."
In November 2004, Bouyeri assassinated filmmaker Theo van Gogh. After his arrest, police rounded up Bouyeri's associates for allegedly plotting follow-up attacks.
Fatmi left his "wife" and went underground. Last spring he met and quickly "married" another woman, Soumaya Sahla, a 21-year-old nursing student and ardent fundamentalist. They floated among hide-outs in the Netherlands and Belgium. He took her to Morocco to meet his parents; he also took her to a forest outside Amsterdam to practice shooting with an Agram 2000 machine gun, according to testimony.
Sahla allegedly gathered intelligence on potential targets. In a wiretapped phone call June 20, she tried to persuade her sister, an employee of a pharmacy frequented by politicians, to give her the home address of legislator Ali, whose crusade against fundamentalism has made her a target.
During the couple's final days on the run, they hid at the home of Martine van der Oeven, an accused accomplice in The Hague. She drove them to Amsterdam on June 22.
Fatmi has admitted that he was on his way to assassinate Ali, according to recent testimony. Police swarmed the couple on the platform of a subway station. The officers overpowered them as Fatmi reached into his backpack for the Agram machine gun and Sahla shouted, "Allah is great!"
Sahla is now serving a prison sentence for weapons possession. Fatmi is on trial.
Minutes after they were captured, police outside the station arrested Van der Oeven, the driver. Her profile sums up the worst fears of investigators. She is a convert with cherubic Dutch looks.
Her former profession: policewoman.
Posted by: Dan Darling ||
01/10/2006 02:44 ||
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#1
See van Gogh killer with pistol held to his temple. If only...
http://www.westernresistance.com/blog/archives/001170.html
#5
Simple solution, whenever one spouse is arrested for terrorist activity, the other is placed under detention until detailed psychological profiling can be performed. Any trace of jihadi mentality qualifies the unarrested individual for custody to protect the public welfare. Such custody should probably take the form of psycological committment.
Its time for these loons to encounter continually greater restrictions in how, what, where and when they can operate without slamming into a judicial brick wall.
Additionally, once a spouse has been identified as a jihadist, any children should be removed from the home and forbidden all future contact with their parents. Jihadism is most certainly a direct endangerment of a child's life in that they are often indoctrinated with the same suicidal programming as the parents.
Separating children from Islamist households may well be one of the most powerful tools in fighting these husband and wife teams. For women, especially, loss of their children is a severe penalty. Even more so in Islamic cultures that frequently prize familial ties so highly.
Finally, convicted terrorists should also face incredible restrictions upon what sort of jobs they can work at upon any release from jail. No driving large trucks, no public service jobs, no handling of hazardous materials, no access to weapons, medical records or personnel records. Basically make it so that once your record carries any sort of clear conviction for terrorist activity, your career is toast.
If these f%&ks want to play for all of the marbles, we need to make to cost of doing so extremely high. Jihadists need to face continually increasing barriers to their legitimate participation in society. Their ability to infect future generations must be limited as well.
#6
Slightly off topic, but has there ever been a period in modern history when there wasn't some anti-West side for the freaks and losers to join? Before Communism where the anarchists much of a draw? Before that was it the KKK and similiar hate groups?
I think there might be a pattern in the long run. Communism was discredited (although some still think its' got a few million deaths left if its only given another chance) so Islam becomes the only other viable alternative for good west-hate.
#7
think there might be a pattern in the long run. Communism was discredited (although some still think its' got a few million deaths left if its only given another chance) so Islam becomes the only other viable alternative for good west-hate.
Posted by rjschwarz 2006-01-10 12:38
Excellent point. Those who can't compete and succeed have a need to find extremist causes or become extremist causes.
#8
They're followers. They need somebody with all the answers, because they can't think of any themselves.
Posted by: Fred ||
01/10/2006 15:27 Comments ||
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#9
I'm all in favor of it of them blowing themselves up. Keeps them from breeding.
I just hope they have the decency to do it in an empty field somewhere where they will not hurt innocent people.
Hoewver, being muz, I doubt it
Posted by: kelly ||
01/10/2006 16:27 Comments ||
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#10
It's not those who can't compete. I have some moonbat friends who hold great jobs and make good money. There is just a portion of personalities who are contrary to accepted norms. You know, purple hair and black nail polish. There will always be that satillite group. The real disappointment is that they don't know when to stop the bullshit and come home to stand united. It's an identity thing for them. I believe the young, impressionable girls thing they are the in people, tatoos, joining jihad, secret meetings, taking a dump on everything their elders hold dear, diggin rap and forbidden Muslim boys. Signs of liberal education...........useless for anything but Mikey D's. Our future world, sounds like our own dhimmocrat party could go far there.
We immediate war-on-Muslims advocates believe that mixing democracy and Islam is like trying to mix oil and water. The Asian Times' Spengler columnist says it better than I can. The stronger they get, the weaker we become. If we make them stronger, we weaken ourselves. War now!
WASHINGTON - US Vice President Dick Cheney was taken to hospital complaining of shortness of breath on Monday but was released about four hours later, his office said. âThe vice president has departed the hospital. He is home,â said Jenny Mayfield, a spokeswoman for his office.
The vice president, who has had four heart attacks, was taken to George Washington University Hospital around 3 a.m. (0800 GMT), according to a statement issued by his office. Doctors administered an EKG, a test that monitors the electrical activity of the heart, and âfound that it was unchanged,â the statement said.
Doctors âdetermined that (Cheney) was retaining fluid as a result of anti-inflammatory medication he has been taking for a foot problem. (The doctors) have placed him on a diuretic and he is expected to return home later today,â the statement said.
Posted by: Steve White ||
01/10/2006 00:00 ||
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Doctors âdetermined that (Cheney) was retaining fluid as a result of anti-inflammatory medication he has been taking for a foot problem.
Probably from kicking it up W's arss getting him to fight back.
WASHINGTON - The US Justice Department building in Washington was briefly evacuated on Monday after a suspicious package on a nearby bus triggered a security alert, a local official said.
A spokesman for the cityâs transit authority said a homeless person had left a coat on a bus but police had investigated and found it not to be a threat. âItâs been cleared,â said spokesman Steven Taub of the Washington Metropolitan Area Transit Authority.
Earlier, a law enforcement official said stressed that the evacuation was ordered âout of an abundance of caution.â âUnfortunately, in this day and age, itâs a common occurrence,â the official said.
Posted by: Steve White ||
01/10/2006 00:00 ||
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Police defused an explosive device in the bathroom of a Starbucks Monday. No one was injured, according to a statement from the company. San Francisco police spokesman Dewayne Tully confirmed the discovery of the device, but didn't provide additional details. Starbucks said police disabled it and later declared the area safe. The Starbucks store, located at a busy intersection in San Francisco, remained closed late Monday afternoon while police investigated.
In 2003, police said the windows of 17 Starbucks stores were clouded with glue and some of the door locks were jammed. Vandals also posted phony notices purporting to be from Starbucks management announcing the company's intention to abandon some of their San Francisco stores to make room for more locally owned coffee houses.
Posted by: Fred ||
01/10/2006 00:00 ||
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#1
Build a SF Friendship Fence.
Endangering Aged Sumatra or Yukon Blend??? Hey, there are limits. Wall 'em up. Starve 'em. Nothing in or out. When the cockroaches stop putting on makeup and propositioning the cops, send in a HazMat Team to make sure it's safe for normal people.
#5
What amazes me is the elitism invovled in this. Build more local coffee shops? If the coffee drinking fans would buy enough local coffee to support such shops they'd be popping up as often as Starbucks.
Anyone that thinks they should be the arbitrator of good taste and have dictatorial powers to ensure their tastes are the only options should be discounted immediately as a child.
#6
Should be few surprises here. Unfortunately, I suspect we'll see more of this type of thing. See web excerpt:
Howard Shultz, the chairman of Starbucks is an active zionist. In 1998 he was honoured by the Jerusalem Fund of Aish HaTorah with "The Israel 50th Anniversary Friend of Zion Tribute Award" for his services to the zionist state in "playing a key role in promoting close alliance between the United States and Israel". The Jerusalem Fund of Aish HaTorah funds israeli arms fairs chaired by the butcher of Jenin - General Shaul Mofaz, and the zionist propaganda website honestreporting.com.[1]
Howard Shultz, Chairman of Starbucks. His work as a propagandist for Israel has been praised by the Israeli Foreign Ministry as being key to Israel's long-term PR success [2].
#9
Anyone that thinks they should be the arbitrator of good taste and have dictatorial powers to ensure their tastes are the only options should be discounted immediately as a child. Bay Areal liberal like Nancy Pelosi.
ISLAMABAD - Pakistani authorities have deported a Briton held since May after he was cleared of links to terrorism and charges of fraud, fining him 500 rupees ($8.30) for overstaying his visa, his lawyer said on Tuesday. Zeeshan Siddiqui, a 25-year-old Briton of Pakistani descent, was arrested in the northwestern town of Peshawar on May 15 after going to the police to report the loss of his passport.
According to his lawyer, Siddiqui was interrogated about links to al Qaeda and so badly beaten in custody that he lost the sight of one eye and the partial sight of the other. The lawyer, Musarrat Hilali, said that after police failed to link Siddiqui to militants, they charged him with having a false identity card but a court found him not guilty.
He was, however, fined 500 rupees ($8.30) for overstaying his visa and ordered deported on those grounds. âWe got his deportation order from the court on Saturday and he was freed from jail on Sunday,â Hilali said from Peshawar. âHe left for London via Qatar the same night,â she said.
In October, Siddiqui wrote to Britainâs Daily Telegraph newspaper rejecting reports that he had met senior al Qaeda figures and Shehzad Tanweer, one of four bombers who died on July 7 killing 52 people in attacks on the London transport system. Hilali said last month that during his detention, Siddiqui was questioned by agents from MI6, the British intelligence agency, but had not been mistreated by them. Some Pakistani media reports linked Siddiqui to the July 7 bombings but Hilali rejected the reports, saying he was in custody at the time.
According to Hilali, Siddiqui apparently fell under suspicion initially because he had been in Peshawar with a group of Islamic preachers who travel from town to town teaching Islam.
Ah, the fabled traveling imams.
Pakistani President Pervez Musharraf, a key ally in the U.S.-led war against terrorism, ordered a sweeping crackdown on militants in Pakistan after revelations that three of the four London bombers had visited Pakistan before the attacks. The crackdown led to the detention of hundreds of suspects.
Posted by: Steve ||
01/10/2006 08:15 ||
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Militants fired rockets at a checkpost in Pakistanâs troubled tribal zone bordering Afghanistan early Tuesday, killing seven paramilitary soldiers, officials said.
The âmiscreantsâ launched the attack in Sarbandji village near Miranshah, the capital of the semi-autonomous North Waziristan region, shortly after midnight (1900 GMT Monday), a security official told AFP.
Soldiers immediately returned fire and there was a gunfight lasting more than 90 minutes but there were no reports of militant casualties, the official said on condition of anonymity.
The situation in North Waziristan remained tense later Tuesday and gunship helicopters hovered in the sky in search of militants, the official and witnesses said.
Pakistan said Monday it had lodged a strong protest with the US-led forces in Afghanistan after the civilians in Saidgai village were apparently killed by cross-border gunfire on Friday.
Meanwhile on Monday two Pakistani gunships fired on two residential compounds in Mosky village, 25 kilometres (15 miles) east of Miranshah, but there were no casualties as the places were abandoned, the security official said.
Paramilitary troops also searched homes in neighbouring Eamarki village on Monday and were continuing a siege of Hasokhel and Milagan villages in search of suspects wanted in last weekâs soldier deaths, he said.
Posted by: Dan Darling ||
01/10/2006 02:29 ||
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A day after India and Pakistan inked an agreement to run a second train between the two countries on Khokhrapar-Munabao route, two Al-Jehad militants arrested recently by the Counter Intelligence (CI) sleuths and Special Operations Group (SOG), Jammu, have disclosed that about a dozen militants have crossed over to Jammu and Kashmir via Wagah in Attari Express on the passports issued by Pakistan authorities.
The militants have also revealed that Pakistan authorities and militant leaders were now finding it difficult to push the militants through Line of Control (LoC) or International Border (IB) due to fencing. Therefore, they have adopted a new strategy to either send the militants on passports through Wagah in train or re-route them via Nepal.
The militants, who have made the revelations, had themselves came on Attari Express, also known as Samjhauta Express, via Wagah in Amritsar sector on the passports issued by Pakistan authorities. They have been identified as Saif Ali son of Abdul Rashid Sheikh R/o Hamirpura, Shiva in Doda district and Iftikhar Ali son of Haji Ghulam Qadir R/o Bharti, Gandoh.
Their passports have been seized by the CI officers.
They disclosed that only few days back two more militants of Doda travelled from Pakistan to Amritsar in the train and then reached Jammu on the passports issued by Pakistan. Their identity has been established as Nazir Ahmed son of Saif Din, a resident of Pranu, Bhaderwah and Nazir Ahmed son of Nasarullah R/o Thathri.
Both Nazir Ahmeds, who belonged to Hizbul Mujahideen outfit, had gone underground after reaching Jammu and hadnât been arrested so far.
Saif Ali and Iftikhar Ali told the interrogators that they had crossed over to Pakistan from Kupwara sector in a group of 12 militants. They underwent training in arms and explosives in different training camps of Pakistan.
The militants said they made two unsuccessful attempts to cross LoC from Poonch sector but failed due to fencing. They, however, admitted that some of their associates did manage to cut fencing and sneaked into the Indian territory from Mendhar sector.
They also disclosed that as per their information, some militants were first sent to Nepal by the Pakistan authorities from where they successfully managed to reach Jammu and Kashmir.
Investigations conducted by the CID officers here revealed that passports recovered from the militants were genuine but the names written on them were fake.
While Saif Ali had been issued passport on the name of Mohd Ramzan, Iftikhar Ali had the passport of Mohd Shabir. They had been shown as residents of Jammu and Rajouri.
This, according to sources, had been done to keep the Intelligence agencies here in doubt. By their original names, the militants would have been identified immediately as their names figured in the list of those who had crossed over to PoK for arms training.
Sources said the CID authorities were in the process of writing to the Central agencies for taking up matter with the External Affairs Ministry. The Ministry will further write to Pakistan Government as the issuance of passports to the militants was a serious matter, they added.
Posted by: john ||
01/10/2006 00:00 ||
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Their passports have been seized by the CI officers.
(Long shrill euro train whistle) .... "Ihre bordpapiere bitte!"
SIBI: Unidentified men detonated bombs at various locations in Sibi on Sunday while security forces were attacked with rockets in Machh on the same day. A bomb planted on the Sibi-Chakar Road exploded while the other one was defused immediately. Another bomb exploded near Sibi Civil Hospital. No loss of life was reported in both blasts. Separately, unidentified men fired five rockets at security checkpoints in Harnai. All five rockets missed their targets. Similarly, 10 rockets were fired at security checkpoints in Machh district. None of the rockets hit their targets, but security forces shot back and a several hour long gunfight ensued between the attackers and security forces. The local bazaar was shut down because of panic.
Posted by: Fred ||
01/10/2006 00:00 ||
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The Khasokhel tribe of North Waziristan Agency has agreed to hand over 10 tribesmen to the government as a guarantee for holding negotiations with the latter after Eidul Azha to identify and hand over the men responsible for attacking a paramilitary checkpoint on Saturday, tribal sources told Daily Times from Miranshah on Sunday. Both sides agreed to keep 10 tribesmen in the political administrationâs custody under the collective responsibility clause of the Frontier Crime Regulations (FCR) till a final jirga (council) met on the fifth day of Eid. It was also decided Kashokhel tribe and Utmankhel tribe elders would participate in the jirga, as the paramilitary checkpoint was attacked in their area. Eight Frontier Corps (FC) personnel were killed in the attack.
Posted by: Fred ||
01/10/2006 00:00 ||
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A Human Rights Commission of Pakistan team on its way to Dera Bugti was shot at by suspected security agencies personnel on Sunday, HRCP Chairperson Asma Jahangir told Daily Times. The aim of the attack was to prevent the HRCP team from visiting the area to investigate any human rights abuses in the government offensive against militant tribesmen in Balochistan, Ms Jahangir said.
Whereas the aim turned out to be a demonstration of the rights of good people to own arms and use them against miscreants.
According to the government, Ms Jahangirâs car was targeted by âmiscreantsâ and was escorted to safety by security forces. Ms Jahangir denied this vehemently. She said Afrasiab Khattak, former HRCP chairman, left Multan for Sui on Sunday. They were accompanied by journalists in a separate car. The cars were photographed from Multan to DG Khan by what appeared to be security personnel, Ms Jahangir said. As the convoy approached the Balochistan border, a man pointed a torch at HRCP officialsâ car and then two gunmen sprayed bullets around the car, not actually hitting it. The driver reversed the car. The journalistsâ car was untouched.
Posted by: Fred ||
01/10/2006 00:00 ||
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HEADLINE: Snipers' head shots had to kill terrorists simultaneously to prevent explosions
Early on a warm summer morning, a few hours before traffic began to Fill the streets, a 16-man SAS patrol took up ambush positions around a Baghdad house, writes Sean Rayment. The soldiers had been told that the house was a being used as a base by insurgents - and up to three suicide bombers were expected to leave it later that morning. Dressed in explosive vests, they were fully equipped to hit a number of locations around the city. The bombers' targets were thought to be cafes and restaurants frequented by members of the Iraqi security forces.
The intelligence was regarded as "high grade'' and came from an Iraqi agent who had been nurtured by members of the British Secret Intelligence Service, also known as MI6, for several months.
Expectation among the 16 soldiers, attached to Task Force Black (TFB), the secret American and British special forces unit based in the Iraqi capital, was high. Each member of the four four-man groups was a veteran of many missions where the intelligence promised much - only to deliver little. The plan for Operation Marlborough was simple: allow the three suspected bombers to leave the house and get into the street, then kill them with head shots from the four sniper teams. Each team was equipped with L115A .338 sniper rifles, capable of killing at up to 1,000 yards.
The soldiers, liaising earlier with their commanders, had considered the option of entering the house and killing the terrorists - but that plan was regarded as too dangerous. The confines of the house would intensify the impact of any blast, killing everyone inside. The SAS soldiers were told that it was vital that the three bombers Would have to be killed simultaneously. If one of them was allowed to detonate a device, scores of people Could be killed or injured.
In support of the covert sniper teams was a Quick Reaction Force (QRF), which would provide a dozen extra soldiers within a few minutes in an emergency. The QRF was based in a secure location nearby and a team of ammunition technical officers were on hand to defuse the bombs. A section of Iraqi police was also attached to the operation - although they were not briefed on the detail of the attack - to deal with any crowd trouble.
Meanwhile, 2,000 feet above the city of five million inhabitants, a CIA-controlled Predator unmanned air vehicle was providing a real-time video feed back to the TFB headquarters deep inside the secure green zone.
Shortly after 8am, Arabic translators, monitoring listening devices hidden inside the house, warned the operations centre inside the militarily controlled green zone that the three terrorist were on the move. The message "stand by, stand by'' was dispatched to the four teams.
As the terrorists entered the street, a volley of shots rang out and The three insurgents slumped to the ground. Each terrorist had been killed by a single head shot - the snipers Having spent the past few days rehearsing the ambush in minute detail. The SAS troopers had been warned that only a direct head shot would guarantee that bombs would not be detonated.
Only three of the four snipers fired, the fourth was to act as a back-up in case one of the weapons jammed or a sniper lost sight of his target.
The message that the terrorists had been killed was sent back to the SAS headquarters and the troops moved forward to check the bodies for life. As they gingerly approached it became brutally apparent that the .338 calibre round - the biggest rifle bullet used by the Army - had done its job.
Operation Marlborough was hailed as a complete success and one of the occasions on which the coalition has been able to deliver a decisive blow against suicide bombers. Guinness all around!
#2
A mere three bullets used and how many lives saved today?
I wonder when the average Iraqi will gain even a remote appreciation for what we go through to protect them. Maybe we need to take a two week "holiday" (all troops confined to quarters) and let Iraq see just how much mayhem al Qaeda would shower upon them.
#4
Did you note that part of the intel was from listening devices in the not-safe house?
What's the story with that?
I ask rhetorically, since putting the facts out would be a bad idea.
Posted by: Richard Aubrey ||
01/10/2006 16:27 Comments ||
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#5
The .338 Lapua round is the best sniper round ever invented. Power and ballistics-wise, its as close to perfection as huamns can get.
Posted by: Old ||
01/10/2006 16:41 Comments ||
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#6
I take it the Telegraph approves. Can you imagine this article appearing in the Guardian... or the New York Times?
An Internet statement in the name of the al-Qaeda in Iraq terrorist group rebuked Sunnis for participating in last month's Iraqi elections, saying they had "thrown a rope" to save U.S. policy in the country.
The purported statement by group leader Abu Musab al-Zarqawi also said his fighters decided not to disrupt the elections with attacks "to avoid killing some of the Sunnis who were confused" about whether to vote.
He also called President Bush a liar, saying: "All that you hear from the liar of the White House is that the situation in Iraq is getting better."
The statement was posted Monday in text and audio tape on an Islamic website known for publishing extremist material. The authenticity could not be confirmed, but the tape sounded like the Jordanian-born al-Zarqawi.
"This is a call to the Sunnis, in general and the followers of the Islamic Party in particular," al-Zarqawi said at the outset, referring to the Islamic Party in Iraq, the biggest political home for Iraq's Sunni Arabs.
"Where are you being led to? Don't you fear God?"
Referring to last month's elections, the terrorist leader said: "At the time, it was very clear to everyone that the crusader enemy was losing, and then you threw a rope to save him."
In a 10-page statement, al-Zarqawi accused the Islamic Party and Sunnis of collaborating with the United States and said those who voted in the parliamentary elections were "hypocrites."
"God, curse the leaders of the Islamic Party and those who collaborated with them," the statement said.
In Baghdad, three senior members of the Islamic party declined to respond to al-Zarqawi's statement.
Al-Zarqawi also echoed last week's purported statement by al-Qaeda No. 2 Ayman al-Zawahri by saying the recent U.S. announcement that it will withdraw some troops from Iraq this year was a victory for Islamic forces.
Al-Zawahri made the same claim in a videotape broadcast Friday on pan-Arab television.
"America today is breathing its last breaths and shaking under the blows of the holy warriors," al-Zarqawi said in Monday's tape.
He said he was praying to God to destroy Americans.
"God, torture them yourself or in our hands ... God, shower them with diseases and misfortunes," the speaker said.
Al-Zarqawi said the insurgents could have disrupted the elections, "but we did not do it to avoid killing some of the Sunnis who were confused" over whether to take part in the election.
al-Qaeda in Iraq has been criticized recently by other insurgent leaders for its policy of indiscriminate attacks on civilians. While other insurgent groups have tend to avoid large civilian loss of life, an al-Qaeda suicide bomber killed 63 people in the Shiite holy city of Karbala last Thursday.
Al-Zarqawi repeated his group's claim that it fired a barrage of rockets from Lebanon into northern Israel on Dec. 27, provoking Israeli airstrikes on a Palestinian base in central Lebanon.
He said the attacks were "the beginning of the blessed work of striking deep into the Zionist enemy, according to instructions of Osama bin Laden," the leader of the global al-Qaeda network.
Israel blamed the rocket attack on the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine-General Command, a pro-Syrian group. Israeli military intelligence said the rockets were Russian-made Katyushas that had been sold to Syria several years ago. The PFLP-GC denied firing the rockets.
Al-Zarqawi claimed the insurgents, or "holy warriors," had killed more than 500 Iraqi soldiers in the past two weeks. Since the overthrow of Saddam Hussein in April 2003, the insurgents had carried out about 800 suicide attacks and, with other attacks, killed "at least 40,000 American soldiers," he said.
The United States says it has lost about 2,200 troops in Iraq since invading the country in March 2003.
Al-Zarqawi condemned the Arab League, which hosted a meeting in Cairo last month that tried to reconcile Iraq's ethnic and religious factions. Saudi Arabia, Egypt, Algeria and other states attended.
"The Arab League and its members were impotent," he said. "Those countries that met in Cairo are the same as those that took part in slaughter of Iraq (during the U.S.-led invasion) and which cooperated with the Americans by opening their airspace, land and sea."
Posted by: Dan Darling ||
01/10/2006 02:18 ||
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#4
"All that you hear from the liar of the White House is that the situation in Iraq is getting better."
And then he says "At the time, it was very clear to everyone that the crusader enemy was losing, and then you threw a rope to save him."
Would'nt that indicate, that things are getting better for us, thus Bush is'nt lying, he is.
After all, were'nt we just saved. Would'nt the people throw us a rope, only because they don't agree with him?
Two suicide bombers carrying police identity cards walked up to an Interior Ministry checkpoint on Monday morning and blew themselves up hundreds of yards from a ceremony attended by the American ambassador, killing at least 18 police officers and wounding 25, officials said.
Al Qaeda in Mesopotamia immediately claimed responsibility for the attack, which took place shortly before noon inside a secure zone shared by the city's Police Academy, where the ceremony was being held. Iraq's interior and defense ministers were also at the event, commemorating the formation of the Iraqi Police, but the officials, including the ambassador, were far enough away that the blast did not endanger them.
The bombers, who were wearing suicide vests under plain clothes, were able to walk into an area near the ministry, which is closed to cars, according to a police officer who witnessed the attack. In a troubling lapse of security, the men had obtained police badges and showed them at a checkpoint at the north gate of the ministry.
As the bombers were making their way, they blew themselves up, scattering bodies and shrapnel in all directions.
The blasts were audible at the ceremony a quarter of a mile away, which proceeded uninterrupted, an American military spokesman said.
Still, the apparent ease with which the suicide bombers moved so close to one of the most heavily guarded areas of Baghdad, when senior officials were gathered nearby, underscored how far Iraqis still have to go in their efforts to improve security.
The attacks appeared to be calculated to inflict maximum harm, with the second bomber blowing himself up just as a crowd of policemen gathered to help victims from the first. Reports of casualties varied wildly, with some news agencies putting the death toll at 28.
A relative lull in violence was broken last week when more than 180 Iraqis were killed in a spate of attacks, including one on a mosque and another on a police recruiting center.
The violence comes as Iraq's major ethnic and religious groups are negotiating the shape of a new government. Sunni Arab radicals are responsible for many of the attacks here, and American officials are hoping that broad Sunni participation in a new government will quell them.
Al Qaeda in Mesopotamia seeks to drag Sunnis away from political compromise, and on Sunday, the group's leader, the Jordanian Abu Musab al-Zarqawi, released a statement on the Internet that condemned Iraq's main Sunni party, the Iraqi Islamic Party, for taking part in parliamentary elections in December, according to a translation provided by the SITE Institute, which tracks Islamist Web sites.
Also on Monday, The Christian Science Monitor confirmed the kidnapping of Jill Carroll, a 28-year-old American freelance writer on assignment for the paper. In a statement, it said Ms. Carroll was abducted from a neighborhood in western Baghdad on Saturday morning.
Her interpreter, Allan Enwiyah, 32, was shot dead at the scene. The kidnapping took place less than 300 yards from the office of Adnan al-Dulaimy, a prominent Sunni Arab politician, whom Ms. Carroll had been intending to interview at 10 a.m.
No group has claimed responsibility, and no ransom demand has been made. A spokeswoman for the American Embassy acknowledged only that an American citizen had been abducted and said the American authorities were investigating the disappearance.
At the request of The Monitor, news organizations in Baghdad had agreed to withhold the initial news of her kidnapping while attempts were made to secure her release.
The Monday suicide bombings at the checkpoint were carried out as revenge for what Al Qaeda in Mesopotamia described in an Internet posting as abuses suffered by Sunni Arabs in Interior Ministry prisons, according to the SITE Institute. The posting identified the two Iraqi ministers and the American ambassador, Zalmay Khalilzad, saying the attack was a message intended to show that "their barricaded places will not stop the mujahedeen from reaching them."
But the presence of the senior officials appeared to have prevented greater carnage. The police officer who witnessed the attack said the men had approached him, shown him their passes and said they were going to the contracts department inside the ministry. "I said that we have very important visitors, and we cannot let anyone enter," said the officer, who spoke in an interview from a bed in Kindi Hospital, declining to give his name out of concern for his safety.
One of the bombers was moving about nervously, the officer said, and when a colleague tried to search him, the man took several long steps back, revealing wires underneath his jacket. "My friend told me, run," the officer said.
The police shot at one of the bombers, who blew himself up as they fired, wounding two police officers and killing himself.
The second man became lost in the crowd. Several minutes later, an explosion ripped through the people who had gathered around to help. "I felt myself flying through the air and then smashed on the ground," the officer said, blood on his hand and his legs from shrapnel wounds, his body covered with a blanket.
"My friend shouted to me, 'Please hold me! Please hold me!" the officer said. "I tried to help him. He was very heavy. I lost consciousness."
As of Monday night, he did not know whether his fellow officer had survived.
Among the 18 officers who died were two majors and a colonel, said an Interior Ministry official, who spoke on the condition of anonymity because he is not authorized to speak to the press.
Guests at the Police Day ceremony looked around at the time of the blasts, but the festivities went on without pause. Besides Mr. Khalilzad, Defense Minister Saidoon al-Dulaimy and Interior Minister Bayan Jabr were in attendance.
Imposters among the police and army have struck in suicide attacks before. In Mosul in 2004, a man in an Iraqi Army uniform killed 22 people on an American base, and last year, two Iraqis dressed as police commandos walked into the headquarters of the Wolf Brigade commando unit here and blew themselves up, killing Iraqis.
The Monday bombings came as an American military spokesman confirmed that 8 of the 12 passengers killed in a helicopter crash in northern Iraq on Sunday were American service members. The four others were American civilians, said the spokesman, Lt. Col. Barry Johnson.
The American military also announced the death of a 56-year-old Iraqi man who was a prisoner in the Abu Ghraib prison. The man, who was not identified, died Jan. 7, apparently from complications of a stroke, the military said in a statement.
Posted by: Dan Darling ||
01/10/2006 02:16 ||
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#1
Millions of Iraqis voted..Bush's poll numbers went up..The Insurgents Paused,
then proceeded with their killing & maiming. havent we seen this before? There is a pattern to it.
The more things change, the more they stay the same.
Except that with each iteration more Iraqis (and Afghanis, in their turn) choose ballots over bullets. And with each iteration Al Jazeera comes closer to truth-telling, and the neighborhood tyrants feel their thrones wobble a bit more.
#4
Oh, judging by the number of BOMBS, I would agree. When it comes to discouraging people from participating in the new government, it is not. You judge which is more important in the long run.
#5
If you have a new government, with a continually growing, violent insurgency, what do you think will happen in the future, especially when the U.S. leaves?
#7
Three of the eight soldiers killed in the Blackhawk crash were members of the 3rd ACR, stationed here in Colorado Springs, at Fort Carson. The names haven't been released yet. They'll probably be in tomorrow's Gazette. The local newspaper does a good job of covering the Iraq and Afghanistan theaters, and isn't quite as leftist as most newspapers.
Posted by: Old Patriot ||
01/10/2006 19:00 Comments ||
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This is a great story. Monsieur le Former Hostage kept his wits about him, used smarts and guts to escape, and then helped US troops look for his captors. Well done, sir, and welcome back.
A French hostage who escaped at the weekend after five weeks of captivity in Iraq is to return to France on Monday evening, the French defence ministry said. Bernard Planche, a 52-year-old engineer, is due to fly into a military base in the city of Orleans, southwest of Paris, from 9pm, the ministry said. The Frenchman, who was abducted in Baghdad on December 5, escaped Saturday from a farmhouse west of the capital where he was being held, according to the US military.
Planche ran away Saturday from a farmhouse where he was held after his captors fled US and Iraqi troops who were conducting a search of a rural area on the western outskirts of the capital, the US military said. Planche got out through a window of the farmhouse after his captors suddenly abandoned the farm, Major Jim Crawford told AFP. "When he realised he was alone and saw US forces in the distance, he escaped through a window and ran down the road," Crawford said. "He had his hands in the air and, as he approached the US checkpoint, he took his shirt off to show he had no explosives on him," said the major from the 10th Mountain division.
US and Iraqi forces were searching the area after receiving information on the possible presence of arms caches and of a kidnapping ring in the area. The former hostage then insisted on staying with US troops for six hours to help them hunt for his former captors. Crawford declined to say of anyone was arrested, but he added that caches of weapons were found in the area.
The Frenchman, who was kidnapped from his home on December 5, apparently suffered a broken nose when his captors seized him. But after his release, he was smiling and joking with the soldiers. "He gave us information. He was able to recall all kinds of details," Crawford said. He was held in a half-basement whose window was covered over by a wooden plank, but he was allowed to keep a diary and to listen to a radio. His captors, calling themselves the Battalion of the Lookout for Iraq, in a video broadcast by al-Arabiya television had threatened to kill him if France did not "end its illegitimate presence in Iraq".
Planche was later debriefed by US forces before being handed over Sunday to the French Embassy from where he was expected to travel home to France. French Prime Minister Dominique de Villepin thanked "the American authorities who gave their support" in the form of a "security operation in the suburbs of Baghdad," according to a statement issued in Paris.
#1
Maybe it's just me, but does this whole story smell a little? This guy, supposedly an engineer, insists on accompanying our troops for five hours searching for his captors?
Many of the grads from our service academys have engineering degrees. I wonder if the same holds true in France? I wonder if this guy was a spook.
The plot thickens...the Learned Elders of Islam⢠are involved:
Iraqi police were searching Monday for an American journalist who was kidnapped over the weekend when gunmen ambushed her car and killed her translator in western Baghdad. Jill Carroll, 28, a freelance reporter on assignment for The Christian Science Monitor, was seized Saturday in the al-Adel area, a Sunni Arab neighborhood and one of the capital's most dangerous. Police said she went there to meet a Sunni Arab politician. Gen. Mahdi al-Gharawi, commander of the Interior Ministry's public order forces, said Monday an investigation was under way. "The ministry is working on this issue and investigations and searches are under way. We are gathering information through our sources and we cannot say more," al-Gharawi said.
The neighborhood is one of Baghdad's roughest and has been the site of numerous attacks against U.S. and Iraqi troops and security forces. It is also home to the Umm al-Qura mosque, headquarters of the Learned Elders of Islamâ¢Association of Muslim Scholars, a major Sunni clerical group that is believed to have ties to some insurgent groups. The mosque was raided by U.S. troops shortly before dawn Sunday. An American military official, speaking on condition of anonymity because of the sensitivity of the situation, said the raid was a necessary immediate response to the kidnapping based on a tip provided by an Iraqi citizen. The military said Sunday that six people were detained. No other details were released.
The newspaper quoted Carroll's driver, who survived the attack, as saying he saw a group appear suddenly, "as if they had come from the sky. One guy attracted my attention. He jumped in front of me screaming, 'Stop! Stop! Stop!' with his left hand up and a pistol in his right hand," said the driver, who was not identified.
You never stop. It's pedal to the medal, coupla quick twists on the wheel, and get out of pistol range pronto.
The newspaper said one of the kidnappers pulled the driver from the car, jumped in, and drove away with several kidnappers huddled around Carroll and her interpreter. "They didn't give me any time to even put the car in neutral," said the driver. A statement by the newspaper said the kidnapping occurred about 300 yards from the office of Adnan al-Dulaimi, a leading Sunni Arab politician. Carroll had planned to interview him at 10 a.m. Saturday, her driver said. Al-Dulaimi, however, was not in his office and Carroll and her interpreter left after 25 minutes. "It was very obvious this was by design," said the driver. "The whole operation took no more than a quarter of a minute. It was very highly organized. It was a setup, a perfect ambush." The newspaper said no one had claimed responsibility for the abduction.
Yup, she was set up allright. And being a real journalist for the CSM, and not a phony Italian commie journalist, I suspect bad news in a day or two.
The paper said she was "an established journalist who has been reporting from the Middle East for Jordanian, Italian and other news organizations over the past three years. The Monitor joins Jill's colleagues â Iraqi and foreign â in the Baghdad press in calling for her immediate and safe release," it said. "Jill's ability to help others understand the issues facing all groups in Iraq has been invaluable. We are urgently seeking information about Ms. Carroll and are pursuing every avenue to secure her release," said Monitor Editor Richard Bergenheim.
Too bad she was only a mere infidel femalian. All the "understanding" and ability to "see both sides" of an issue don't mean squat to the Sons of Allan.
After initial reports of the kidnapping on Saturday, The Associated Press and other news organizations honored a request from the newspaper in Boston and a journalists' group in Baghdad for a news blackout. The request was made to give authorities an opportunity to try to resolve the incident during the early hours after the abduction.
The press protects its own, for sure. No other kidnapping or hostage situation ever gets 'blackout' treatment by MSM. I'm the public, and I hereby demand my right to know!
At the time of the kidnapping, police Maj. Falah Mohamadawi said Carroll's translator, identified on a U.S.-issued press card as Alan John Ghazi, told police before he died that he and Carroll had gone to meet al-Dulaimi, the leader of the Iraqi Accordance Front. However, the newspaper identified the translator as Abu Allan Enwiyah, 32. Carroll's parents live in Ann Arbor, Mich. She moved to Jordan six months before the Iraq war started "to learn as much about the region as possible before the fighting began," she wrote in the February/March edition of American Journalism Review. "All I ever wanted to be was a foreign correspondent," she wrote last year in the magazine. "It seemed the right time to try to make it happen." Carroll noted that in the months after the war began "kidnappings and beheadings increased, and Western reporters became virtual prisoners in their hotel rooms." Carroll is an aggressive reporter but was careful, Monitor Managing Editor Marshall Ingwerson said. "She's a very professional, straight-up, fact-oriented reporter," Ingwerson said. Carroll, who speaks some Arabic but uses a translator, also has written from Iraq for U.S. News and World Report, other publications, and an Italian news agency. She's also been interviewed by National Public Radio.
Hat tip to the Interested Participant. This is from a few days ago and was buried in a story about an Israeli agent allegedly caught in Iran. That story was four sentences, then there is this.
Jaris Jaris, the former head of the Fasuta Local Council in the Upper Galilee suspected of spying on Israel for Iranian Intelligence, was indicted by a Haifa District Court on Monday on charges of having contact with foreign agents and for conspiring to give information to the enemy. His remand was extended by two days.
In addition, some 10 days ago, one of his lawyers was caught trying to smuggle cellular calling cards into his prison cell.
The arrest of Jaris, 58, by Israel Police's Serious and International Crimes Unit together with the Shin Bet (Israel Security Agency) was released for publication last Friday. He was arrested on December 12, after police discovered that he had been recruited by Iran and was asked to use his political contacts to infiltrate the government and the Israeli political system by becoming a member of Knesset.
"Jaris' interrogation reveals a web of Iranian espionage activity against Israel," defense officials said. "The efforts included attempts to infiltrate an Iranian agent into the Knesset with the primary goal of obtaining classified information and influencing the government decisions."
Jaris, police said, fled Israel in 1970 and moved to Lebanon after he was caught operating a Fatah terror cell. Once in Lebanon, Jaris continued working for the Fatah and was responsible for sending terrorists across the border into Israel. In 1996, Jaris returned to Israel together with additional officials from the Palestinian Authority and from May 2001 until November 2003 he served as the head of the Fasuta Local Council.
One wonders what in the world Shin Bet was thinking.
In September 2004, police said, Jaris traveled to Cyprus to meet with Hani Abdullah - a friend he made in Lebanon - to promote the establishment of a joint research center. Abdullah told Jaris that the center, if he wanted, could be funded by the Hizbullah and Iran. Jaris agreed.
Two months later, police said, Abdullah called Jaris and told him to come to Cyprus to meet an Iranian donor for the center. During his police interrogation, Jaris admitted that the man he met was from Iranian Intelligence. The agent asked Jaris to "infiltrate the Israeli political system, to create political contacts and to join an existing Israeli political party," police said.
Interesting gambit, though you'd think they would try it with someone the Israelis had no dossier on.
Jaris joined Meretz towards the end of 2004 and in conversations with political activists expressed interest in becoming a member of Knesset. Three months later, Jaris visited Cyprus for a third time. There he met with two Iranian agents who asked him about his past and his connections with politicians in Israel. Following the meeting, Jaris was asked to try and establish contacts with the top political echelon.
Police said over the course of 2005 the Shin Bet noticed a significant rise in the number of Iranian attempts to recruit Israeli citizens as spies. The defense establishment has dealt with a number of cases in recent years of Israeli-Arabs who were suspected of maintaining contacts with Iran intelligence. Some of the Israelis worked in jobs, police said, that gained them access to sensitive information.
Makes you wonder if any old Stasi operatives are enjoying a second career in Teheran.
Meretz rejected having any association with Jaris and released a statement claiming: "Jaris is one of 22,000 listed members of the party but is not at all involved in the party or in any of its institutions."
Posted by: Steve White ||
01/10/2006 00:00 ||
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#1
Feed him pork. Bacon for breakfast. Ham sandwiches for lunch. Pork cutlets at suppertime. Pickled ham hock for a late night snack. All will be washed down with Magen David vino.
#2
*shudder* Not Magen David! That's almost as bad as Manischewitz!! *double shudder* If he's smart, he'll start talking before they finish pouring out the first glass.
On the other hand, Yarden, from the Golan Heights, is lovely.
#5
DepotGuy, much of the world can't pronounce the th sound. Try saying it again as if they could. As for trading, try going home and being very, very nice to your wife. I'm sure she knows. ;-)
An Islamic militant suspected of smuggling firearms for terrorist operations went on trial in Jakarta Monday.
Prosecutors accused Enceng Kurnia, 33, of providing four Chinese-made handguns to another militant named Ahmad Rofiq Ridho, who allegedly passed them on to top terror suspect Noordin Mohammad Top, The Australian reported.
Kurnia is also accused of providing a pistol to another militant, Purnama Putra, 24, who is on trial for acquiring electronic devices, detonators and chemicals for making bombs.
Ridho is also being tried separately for allegedly surveying bombing targets, including a Christian school in East Java, under orders from Top.
Kurnia, Putra and Ridho belong to a militant Islamic group called Kompak, with links to the regional terror group Jemaah Islamiyah.
Ridho is the brother of Fathur Rohman al-Ghozi, a key member of the terror group, who was killed by Philippine troops in 2003.
Posted by: Dan Darling ||
01/10/2006 02:50 ||
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Abu Sayyaf terrorists are reportedly running scared and have gone into hiding in anticipation of the arrival of US Special Forces troops in Sulu.
"The arrival of the US forces sent some psychological impact on the Abu Sayyaf and probably scared them away," said Maj. Gamal Hayudini, Armed Forces Southern Command information chief.
The arrival of US troops is part of the "Balikatan 2006" military exercises in Sulu, which are expected to start on the last week of this month or first week of February.
It will replicate the Balikatan in Basilan in 2002 where the Abu Sayyaf leadership was flushed out by Filipino troops backed by US technical assistance and advice.
However, the Balikatan in Sulu will focus on the development aspect to wage war against poverty.
Hayudini said since the military exercises were announced, government forces have not encountered any Abu Sayyaf band in the province.
The relentless military offensive has forced the Abu Sayyaf leadership to flee their jungle strongholds, he added.
However, Hayudini said the Abu Sayyaf might have broken up into small factions to escape the massive military manhunt.
"Perhaps they are just observing and in a wait-and-see position," he said.
The military cannot really say what the Abu Sayyaf commanders have on their minds "because these are terrorists," Hayudini said.
On the other hand, Brig. Gen. Alexander Aleo, anti-terror unit Task Force Comet chief based in Sulu, said the Abu Sayyaf might have been scared of the US Special Forces troops.
The Abu Sayyaf had split into small groups and are very mobile, unlike before when they were holding out in jungle camps, he added.
Aleo said the military is also ready to face any impending threat of the Abu Sayyaf against US troops participating in the Balikatan in Sulu.
Security measures have been set up to protect Filipino and American soldiers who will conduct humanitarian missions as what was done in Basilan in 2002, he added.
Aleo, Army commander in Basilan when the Balikatan 02-1 was staged in 2002, said while the military exercise was being held the offensive against the Abu Sayyaf was ongoing.
Armed Forces chief Gen. Generoso Senga has a standing order to "neutralize" the Abu Sayyaf leadership, he added.
Earlier, US Col. James Linder, Joint Special Operation Task Force-Philippines (JSOTF-P) chief, assured the military that the Balikatan in Sulu will be more of a humanitarian mission involving rehabilitation of schools, building of water wells, road rehabilitation, and the bringing of health facilities and medical mission to depressed and poor areas.
Marines and Army troops have been running after the remaining three top leaders of the Abu Sayyaf in Sulu.
They are Radulan Sahiron, Umbra Jumdail alias Dr. Abu Pula, and the youngest leader Albader Parad, who were dislodged from their camps in Karawan complex in Indanan and Patikul towns in Sulu.
There are reports that Abu Sayyaf chieftain Khaddafi Janjalani and two of their leaders Isnilon Hapilon and Jainal Antel Sali alias Abu Solaiman have sneaked into Sulu after slipping out of Central Mindanao.
However, the military is verifying information that the elusive Janjalani has been moving around in Basilan and Sulu to escape pursuing troops.
Posted by: Dan Darling ||
01/10/2006 02:49 ||
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Iran has removed seals from a nuclear facility and will begin research there in the coming hours, the UN nuclear watchdog the IAEA has confirmed.
The move ends a two-year suspension of research, and could result in Tehran being referred to the UN Security Council for possible sanctions.
Germany on Monday described Iran's planned move as "very, very ominous".
Western countries fear Iran's nuclear programme could be used to make atomic bombs, but Tehran denies such a goal.
It says the project is for the peaceful production of energy only.
Talks between Iran and the EU trio of Germany, France and the UK broke off last August after Iran resumed uranium conversion activity which it had suspended in 2004.
The resumption of research on Tuesday at the Natanz site suggests all of Iran's nuclear activities, apart from uranium enrichment - a key stage in making a nuclear bomb - have been revived.
Posted by: Dan Darling ||
01/10/2006 03:49 ||
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#1
Lovely, just lovely.
I guess once they actually have nukes, we'll do something about it.
#2
I wanted us to bomb the shit out of Iran anyway, makes no diff to me. Those guys have had it comming ever since I was 5yrs old. I can still remember yellow ribbons around trees in my neighborhood. Just because they were relatively quiet for a few years doesnt mean they weren't still running Hamas and Hezbolah and supplying terrorists all over the world. But now they have united us with the EUnicks against them.
#7
And now we will see if the world will do anything about it, or if Iran's economic ties to Russia and China will be enough to protect it in the UN Security Council
A group responsible for attempting to smuggle weapons and ammunitions by boat from the Northern shore was arrested, according to a statement issued by the army Sunday. According to security sources, the four suspects detained belonged to the Tawheed al-Islami (Islamic Unification), a Sunni Muslim fundamentalist faction. Tripoli MP Mosbah Ahdab told The Daily Star "the discovery of weapons in the North proves what we've been hearing about arms circulating in Lebanon." Ahdab said the pressing issue was to identify and stop the groups linked to arms smuggling, but added he did not have any information linking the Tawheed to the smuggling.
Earlier Saturday, an army statement said a boat departing from a point on the Northern coast close to the Palestinian refugee camp of Nahr al-Bared on Friday night threw part of its cargo in the sea after a marine army unit chased it. The statement added the persons on the boat were able to escape after returning to Tripoli's coast near the port. The material caught on the boat and in the sea included "explosives of various sizes, electric detonators, RPG bombs and hand grenades."
The security sources indicated the Lebanese security forces will be cracking down in the next few days on depots in Tripoli where weapons owned by pro-Syrian groups are believed to be hidden. The security forces fear these weapons will be used "to destabilize the country in other Lebanese areas," sources said. "It is probable that armed groups are transporting weapons by sea from the North to other areas in Lebanon to evade the army, which is extensively deployed over the Lebanese territories these days," Ahmad Ayoubi director of the Media Center for Studies in Tripoli told The Daily Star. Ayoubi said there were many security gaps along the Northern coast, especially facing beach resorts owned by pro-Syrian figures, adding that these spots were not monitored by the security forces.
He further said the old networks of Syrian intelligence were still active in the North. "So many Syrians enter Lebanon to work without permits, making it difficult to spot informants hidden among them," he said. On the possible source of smuggled weapons, he said arms could be directly smuggled from Syria with the borders still not completely controlled or be provided by pro-Syrian groups such as the Baath party representatives. A third possibility is these weapons are supplied by Palestinian refugee camps. Al-Hayat regional daily quoted Lebanese security sources on Sunday saying "the Palestinian refugee camps of Beddawi and Nahr al-Bared were turning into security centers which guarantee weapons for use in the Lebanese territories."
Posted by: Fred ||
01/10/2006 00:00 ||
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Outraged Lebanese took to the streets to protest Monday after militants from a pro-Syrian Palestinian faction shot and seriously wounded two Lebanese municipal workers outside the group's base on the outskirts of Beirut. On the eve of the most important celebration for the Muslims, Eid al-Adha, guards of the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine-General Command at Naameh shot Maroun Yazbeck and Hanna al-Ghoseini, while they were collecting municipal taxes. One of the workers, Yazbeck, 24, was seriously wounded by a gun shot above the heart and was taken to Makassed Hospital. Ghoseini was shot in the legs and taken to Hammoud hospital in Sidon.
The PFLP-GC said one of its fighters had "fired at the municipality car's tires because it drove off quickly" after being stopped at a base checkpoint. "The two men were questioned at the entrance to the base by one of our men who asked for their identity papers and why they had come," said the group's spokesman Anwar Raja. "We still have their papers," he said, adding that they had an agreement with the Lebanese Army for no one to approach the base.
But according to Daily Star sources, the Palestinians were "too widespread and shouldn't have been that far from the base. They've been spreading out for a while and not staying where they're meant to."
Ever think of closing the camp and evicting them?
Interviewed by The Daily Star, Elias Abu Issa, the driver who drove Ghoseini to Hammoud Hospital said the two wounded men were doing their job when seven armed men stopped them and asked for their identity cards. "After one of the armed men read their names, he told the other militants to take Ghoseini and Yazbeck into the 'tunnels'," Abu Issa said. "At that point, Ghoseini, who was behind the wheel, quickly drove off, which triggered the militants to open fire at the car before it reached the Army post in Naameh with both men in critical condition after being hit," he added.
That's the risk of driving off (see the American journo kidnap story) but if they had gone to the tunnels, they'd be dead for sure.
Talking to The Daily Star, Walid Jumblatt, who had demanded Saturday that Palestinian factions outside refugee camps be disarmed, said that the presence of weapons outside refugee camps was no longer acceptable. "There is no security or political justification for the presence of this 'military fort' in Naameh and Haret Naameh," Jumblatt said. "It is simply part of the plan to create security chaos in the country, whether in south Lebanon through the rockets fired recently toward Israel or through this incident in Naameh today."
I can't see the reason for arms inside the camps for that matter. Leb has an army.
Gotta have arms to have Dire Revengeâ¢.
Jumblatt said that Syrian intelligence was running Palestinian arms outside refugee camps. "This Palestinian fort in Naameh, which is actually run by the Syrians, is only there to terrorize people and poses a serious threat for the area," he said.
In his turn, Free Patriotic Movement leader and MP Michel Aoun told The Daily Star that if no "serious solution is found for the problem of Palestinian weapons, the security situation in the country is going to worsen. "We have been asking the government since the beginning to draw up a clear security plan and implement it," he said. "The current situation is not acceptable, and something should be done about it," Aoun added.
Posted by: Fred ||
01/10/2006 00:00 ||
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#1
Huh! Armed madmen = not contributing to stability. Who'd of thunk it?!?
#2
In his turn, Free Patriotic Movement leader and MP Michel Aoun told The Daily Star that if no "serious solution is found for the problem of Palestinian weapons, the security situation in the country is going to worsen.
Just exterminate them: nobody is goint to criticise you---you're not Jews.
#3
The Paleos have been an unpopular presence in Lebanon for many years and not just with the Druze and Christians. The Paleos know this which is why they want to keep their weapons.
As with so many things in the Arab world, there is no easy solution.
#4
This is one reason the United States needs to reactivate and rearm a couple of WWII battleships. Park one about 15 miles off the coast of Lebanon, and let them shell the "palestinian" camps until nothing's left but a fine sand. It would take about 600 sorties by aircraft to accomplish the same thing, at fifty times the cost. In the end, I don't think Lebanon would mind very much.
Posted by: Old Patriot ||
01/10/2006 20:36 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.
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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.
Fugitive Taliban leader Mullah Mohammad Omar on Monday vowed more attacks against U.S. forces in Afghanistan, a day after Afghan President Hamid Karzai suggested he "get in touch" if he wanted peace. In a message to mark the three-day Muslim festival of Eid al-Adha, which starts in Afghanistan on Tuesday, Omar reiterated his call for jihad, or holy war, against the United States. "The Taliban attacks in Afghanistan will further intensify in this New Year, which will force Americans to leave Afghanistan very soon," he said in a message carried by the Pakistan-based Afghan Islamic Press (AIP) news agency.
Kenya is widely remembered as the site of the 1998 U.S. Embassy bombing that killed over 200 people and cast al-Qaeda into international prominence. The attack was followed by a 2002 suicide car bombing that targeted a hotel popular with Israelis near Mombassa and the attempted destruction of an Israeli airliner. In both incidents, the vast majority of victims were Kenyans. There is, however, a great difference in the perception of the ongoing terrorist threat in Nairobi and Washington. Over Kenyan opposition the U.S. has issued a new terrorist warning for Kenya, damaging the important Kenyan tourism industry. Kenyan officials claim their country is largely free from terrorist threat and is unfairly blamed for its unavoidable proximity to lawless Somalia.
Algerian Islamic militants killed four civilians in the latest attack since voters overwhelmingly backed a partial amnesty for rebels three months ago, authorities said on Sunday. The victims, who worked for a state water company, were killed on Saturday in the southwestern province of Tissemsilt, some 340 km (211 miles) from the capital Algiers, their company Algerienne des eaux said in a statement.
New revelations have surfaced regarding the alleged operation of secret prisons in Europe by the CIA, with a Swiss newspaper publishing details of an intercepted message sent by Egyptian officials. According to information obtained by the SonntagsBlick newspaper, the CIA has maintained secret prisons in Eastern Europe for several years. The newspaper claims to have acquired a copy of a faxed secret document sent by the Egyptian Foreign Ministry to the country's embassy in London.
Spanish police have arrested 17 suspected militant Islamists thought to have recruited and trained sympathisers to join the insurgency in Iraq. The suspects were arrested during pre-dawn raids in and around Madrid, Barcelona and the Basque town of Tolosa, Spanish media reported. 
The women of the Dutch extremist network were a new breed of holy warriors on the front lines where Islam and the West collide. In the male-dominated world of Islamic extremism, they saw themselves as full-fledged partners in jihad. Wives watched videos about female suicide bombers, posed for photos holding guns and fired automatic weapons during clandestine target practice.
WASHINGTON - US Vice President Dick Cheney was taken to hospital complaining of shortness of breath on Monday but was released about four hours later, his office said. âThe vice president has departed the hospital. He is home,â said Jenny Mayfield, a spokeswoman for his office.
Police defused an explosive device in the bathroom of a Starbucks Monday. No one was injured, according to a statement from the company. San Francisco police spokesman Dewayne Tully confirmed the discovery of the device, but didn't provide additional details. Starbucks said police disabled it and later declared the area safe. The Starbucks store, located at a busy intersection in San Francisco, remained closed late Monday afternoon while police investigated.
SIBI: Unidentified men detonated bombs at various locations in Sibi on Sunday while security forces were attacked with rockets in Machh on the same day. A bomb planted on the Sibi-Chakar Road exploded while the other one was defused immediately. Another bomb exploded near Sibi Civil Hospital. No loss of life was reported in both blasts. Separately, unidentified men fired five rockets at security checkpoints in Harnai. All five rockets missed their targets. Similarly, 10 rockets were fired at security checkpoints in Machh district. None of the rockets hit their targets, but security forces shot back and a several hour long gunfight ensued between the attackers and security forces. The local bazaar was shut down because of panic.
The 
A Human Rights Commission of Pakistan team on its way to 
A group responsible for attempting to smuggle weapons and ammunitions by boat from the Northern shore was arrested, according to a statement issued by the army Sunday. According to security sources, the four suspects detained belonged to the 
Outraged Lebanese took to the streets to protest Monday after militants from a pro-Syrian Palestinian faction shot and seriously wounded two Lebanese municipal workers outside the group's base on the outskirts of Beirut. On the eve of the most important celebration for the Muslims, Eid al-Adha, guards of the 
