A Taleban commander said yesterday hundreds of his guerrillas were ready to launch suicide attacks across Afghanistan to drive out foreign forces. The threat of violence came as several thousand people gathered in the town of Spin Boldak, on the border with Pakistan, to denounce a suicide attack there on Monday that killed 23. âHundreds of Afghan Taleban mujahedeen are ready for suicide attacks,â said the Taleban commander, Mullah Dadullah. âThey only await orders from the Taleban leadership,â he said by satellite telephone from an undisclosed location.
I haven't seen anything on the identities of most of the boomers. I wonder how many are Afghans and how many are actually Paks, or Arabs.
Nice crop of Algerians this year ...
Afghanistan has seen a wave of 19 suicide attacks in the past year, including 13 in the past 10 weeks, the United Nations says.
That would seem to imply that there's a single organization doing the recruiting, training, and dispatching. Take out the organization and the booming stops until they build a new one...
Security analysts suspect the Taleban have stepped up suicide attacks after seeing Al-Qaedaâs success in Iraq. The attacks have come as the United States hopes to cut back its troop strength in Afghanistan from more than 18,000 to 16,500 in the next few months. Members of NATO, who have an Afghan peacekeeping force of almost 10,000, are due to increase their numbers to 15,000 and take over responsibilities from US forces in the restive south.
That's going to introduced both a qualitative and a tactical difference...
The government says the insurgents appear to be trying to frighten NATO members from their expansion and to unsettle aid donors due to meet in London at the end of the month to draw up a long-term plan to help Afghanistan. Dadullah said attacks would increase. âTaleban mujahedeen are present in all cities of Afghanistan and they will continue to increase their attacks,â he said. âAn increase in the number of foreign forces in Afghanistan will make it easier to attack and inflict losses on them.â
Posted by: Fred ||
01/19/2006 00:00 ||
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#1
perhaps we could get them to "group a little closer...closer...closer...say cheese"
spectacular!
Posted by: Frank G ||
01/19/2006 0:18 Comments ||
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Isn't the army working on a device that prematurely sets off explosives? I thought I read something about it a month or two ago, it would be like a metal detector you walk through, and BLAMO!
#5
One thing that stands out from what I've read on Rantburg over the last couple of months is that most of the suicide bombers are young - 14, 15, 16. I believe a lot of them may be paleostains brought to Afghanistan for the sole purpose of blowing themselves up. I wouldn't be surprised to learn that a lot of them were doped to the gills before making their attempt (common practice, I believe, in Iraq). A-Q has no conscience and no soul, and will do anything to inflict casualties and gain power. They have obviously taken control of the Taliban and use it any way they please. They can't be killed off fast enough.
Posted by: Old Patriot ||
01/19/2006 13:52 Comments ||
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Yoots are impressionable.
Posted by: ed ||
01/19/2006 14:35 Comments ||
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As cold as this will sound, this development is actually in our favor. The boomers in Iraq pushed several of the major Sunni tribes over to the "Kill the Terrorists" position in the past year; splattering crowds in markets will eventually do the same to the Pushtans. And besides which, using foreigners to do this makes all foreigners working for the Taliban the enemy. Lots of intel will be coming our way in a couple of months.
Sudan's Army has committed the first serious violation of a final cease-fire signed a year ago to end Africa's longest civil war in its south, a UN peacekeeping official said yesterday. The former southern rebel Sudan People's Liberation Movement said the army sent around 1,200 troops last week into the rebel-controlled eastern area of Hamesh Koreb and has threatened to expel the SPLM. A joint UN-led team is still in the area to defuse tensions between the two sides. "This is the first serious cease-fire violation," said Parminder Pannu, the military chief of staff of the UN peacekeeping mission in Sudan, adding the Sudanese army was responsible. The United Nations later clarified another, higher-level investigation within the UN mission was ongoing into the Hamesh Koreb attack.
Posted by: Fred ||
01/19/2006 00:00 ||
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THE REVELATION that Saddam Hussein's Iraq trained thousands of Islamic terrorists has important ramifications for European counterterrorism efforts. According to officials, one of the groups trained in Iraq prior to the war was al Qaeda's Algerian affiliate, the Algerian Salafist Group for Call and Combat ("GSPC"). The GSPC and its predecessor, the Armed Islamic Group ("GIA"), are well-known to European counterterrorism officials: Within the last several months, in fact, the GSPC has been at the center of several substantive terrorist plots.
Just last week, Spain arrested 20 suspected terrorists who are alleged to have been recruiting and funding suicide bombers to send to Iraq. The New York Times covered the arrests, noting that according to a statement from the Spanish Interior Ministry the group included 15 Moroccans, 3 Spaniards, a Turk, and an Algerian. The suspects were "detained in Madrid and Barcelona, and in the Basque region, and had ties to two Islamic militant organizations . . . the Salafist Group for Preaching and Combat [GSPC], based in Algeria, and the Moroccan Islamic Combat Group."
The Interior Ministry did not indicate how many suicide bombers were ultimately recruited and sent to Iraq by the cell. But officials "determined that one of the recruits was responsible for a suicide attack in November 2003 in Nasiriya, Iraq, that killed 19 Italians and 9 Iraqis." The Times noted that at the time, "it was the most lethal attack by insurgents since the removal of Saddam Hussein from power in April 2003."
THE RECENTLY-ARRESTED CELL in Madrid and Barcelona is just the latest incarnation of the GSPC to be detected on Spanish soil. Spanish authorities have arrested numerous GSPC suspects over the last several years. In December of last year, for example, a Spanish judge remanded three Algerians from another terror cell to prison. According to one Spanish daily, the judge's writ stated that the GSPC has "a vast financing activity based on a constant labor of common crime," which includes "drug retailing, offences against property" as well as "forgery of documents and credit or phone cards." The judge's writ also noted the close ties between the GSPC and bin Laden's al Qaeda.
Italy--a crossroads for Islamists seeking access to Europe from the Middle East--has also been recently targeted by the GSPC. In November 2005, Italian authorities arrested three Algerians affiliated with the group. Authorities had been eavesdropping on the suspects for some time. Through intercepted phone conversations and bugging devices they learned of the Algerian's plans for a massive terror attack.
According to published reports, the intercepts revealed that the Algerians were discussing plans to kill "at least 10,000 people" and the possibility of packing a Titanic-sized ship with explosives. The three were being recorded as they cheered on video footage of the July 7, 2005 bombings in London and openly discussed their desire to dwarf the carnage of September 11, 2001.
Il Giornale, an Italian daily, published excerpts of these conversations. In one conversation a suspect claimed he had a map of Spain. Another awkwardly replied, "That is a problem, do you want to place a bomb on the subway?" In another, the Algerians discussed an attack on unnamed tourist village with an airplane. It is not clear how far along the Algerians' plots were.
BUT WHILE the GSPC certainly poses a threat to Spain and Italy, France is the group's preferred target. "The only way to make France disciplined is jihad and Islamic martyrdom," a September 2005 statement from the GSPC's leadership reads, "France is our enemy number one, the enemy of our religion, the enemy of our community." (The group also accused the Algerian president of ruling in France's name.)
In January 2005, French authorities arrested 11 suspected terrorists with ties to the GSPC. Like their brethren in the Spanish cell, the 11 were charged with recruiting suicide bombers to send to Iraq.
In September 2005, the same month that the GSPC named France its "enemy number one," authorities rounded up several members of the group who were allegedly planning attacks on the Paris metro, Orly airport, and the French intelligence headquarters. Press reports indicate that they had also considered a chemical weapons attack using ricin, but decided against it because it would be too difficult to carry out.
That French GSPC cell was led by a terrorist named Safe Bourada, who had served several years in prison for his involvement in a string of bomb attacks in France in 1995. At the time of the 1995 attacks, Bourada was a member of the GSPC's predecessor, the GIA.
The GIA, which took part in a brutal civil war in Algeria, had a long history of attacking France and her interests. One such incident proved to be an eerie precursor to September 11, 2001. In December 1994, four GIA terrorists hijacked an Air France flight leaving Algiers. Their goal was to force the pilot to fly the plane into the Eiffel Tower. Their plan failed when the plane landed in Marseille and French Special Forces boarded it, killing the hijackers in the process.
In addition to the 1994 Air France hijacking, investigations into a series of 1995 bombings on French soil led to the convictions of several GIA members, including Bourada. Another bombing in France in 1996 also turned up leads to the GIA.
THE GIA'S HISTORY is especially notable because both bin Laden and Saddam took an early interest in the group. Bin Laden's "Arab Afghans" were among the first leaders of the GIA in the early 1990s. His patronage proved especially beneficial as hundreds of former veterans from the war in Afghanistan were redeployed to Algeria to swell the GIA's ranks. By some accounts, bin Laden is said to have personally arranged for the financing and necessary travel documents to be provided to upwards of 1,000 "Arab Afghans" who returned or relocated to Algerian soil.
But bin Laden did not just finance the building of the GIA with money from his own pockets. He also received help from Saddam Hussein: At least one former CIA official has confirmed that some of the money bin Laden funneled to the GIA came from Saddam's Iraq.
In a USA Today article from December 2001, Stanley Bedlington, a senior analyst in the CIA's counterterrorism center until he retired in 1994, explained, "We were convinced that money from Iraq was going to bin Laden, who was then sending it to places that Iraq wanted it to go." He added, "There certainly is no doubt that Saddam Hussein had pretty strong ties to bin Laden while he was in Sudan, whether it was directly or through (Sudanese) intermediaries. We traced considerable sums of money going from bin Laden to the GIA in Algeria. We believed some of the money came from Iraq." [emphasis added]
Later, in an interview with THE WEEKLY STANDARD, Bedlington elaborated on the relationship. "Osama bin Laden had established contact with the GIA," Bedlington explained, "Saddam was using bin Laden to ship funds to his own contacts through the GIA."
The GIA's leadership had a falling out with the core of al Qaeda in the mid-1990s. Out of that schism, the GSPC was born. Under the guidance of both bin Laden and Zawahiri, an emir named Hassan Hattab broke from the GIA and reconstituted al Qaeda's Algerian affiliate as the GSPC.
TODAY, the world is infected with an Algerian plague. In Europe, counterterrorism officials scramble to stop GSPC members and their recruits from executing their lethal plans. In Iraq, GSPC members fight alongside Zarqawi, killing coalition troops and international aid workers. It is unknown how many of these fighters were first trained by Saddam. But the connection between the former dictator and this particularly deadly strain of international terrorism should be a cause of concern for us all.
Posted by: Dan Darling ||
01/19/2006 00:12 ||
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#1
But there could be no connection between the secular Arabist fascist Saddam Hussein and the Islamist fascist terror groups. So that's ok.
#3
trailing wife. i agree.. Given that Bin Laden & Co accepted aid from the US in the 80's, there's no reason why they shouldn't have been dealing with Saddam.. Bin Laden is full of a rhetoric, but his actions often contradict this
Six tribesmen, accused of kidnapping five Italian tourists in northeastern Yemen earlier this month, appeared before a state security court in Sanaa yesterday. The six men, Ali Saleh Ubad Al-Zaidi, 24, Muryee Ali Ahmad Al-Ameri, 35, Ubad Saleh Al-Zaidi, 21, Naji Mahdi Al-Zaidi, 20, Hadi Muhammad Ali Al-Ameri, 24, and Muhammad Saleh Al-Zaidi, 30, appeared in court in handcuffs and blue prison uniforms. Chief prosecutor Saeed Al-Aaqil read out the charges saying that the six men, all from the Al-Zaidi clan, âtook part in forming an armed gang to kidnap foreigners.â
The defendants confessed to the kidnapping but pleaded not guilty on the charge of forming an armed gang. The tribesmen freed the five Italian captives, three women and two men, on Jan. 6 after holding them hostage for five days in a mountainous village in the Marib province, about 195 km northeast of Sanaa. Under a deal brokered by tribal dignitaries, the abductors released their hostages unharmed and gave themselves up to security forces besieging their hideout. Yemeni officials refused to give details of the deal under which the hostages were freed.
Posted by: Fred ||
01/19/2006 00:00 ||
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The defendants confessed to the kidnapping but pleaded not guilty on the charge of forming an armed gang.
'Cause they kidnapped them furriners using noodles and a feather boa, that's why.
Outlaw killed in âshootoutâ in Mongla
Jan 18: An outlawed party leader was killed in a shootout between his cohorts and police in Dotter Meth area of Mongla upazila early Wednesday. Police said they arrested Monir Hossain Talukder alias Monir, 26, a regional leader of Purba Banglar Communist Party (Janajuddha) from Digraj in Mongla upazila Tuesday evening.
Another dead commie no one but his mother will miss
Acting on his confessional statement, police took him to Dotter Meth to recover hidden arms.
"Youse going for a ride, Monir. Stop crying, it's not gonna help"
As they reached the area early Wednesday along with Monir, his accomplices opened fire on the law enforcers forcing them to fire back.
Like it was planned, or something
Monir was caught in the shootout while trying to flee.
"Feet, don't ....BANG.. rosebud ..."
Doctors declared him dead when he was taken to Bagerhat Sadar hospital, police said.
"He's dead, Jim"
Four police constables were also injured during the encounter. Of them, Enamul and Fazlu were rushed to the hospital.
"Step on it, they've got fresh doughnuts in the coffee shop!"
Later, police recovered two guns, 11 rounds of bullet, four empty shells and some leaflets of Janajuddha from the spot.
Monir, son of Ismail Talukder, hailed from Badurtola village in Morelganj upazila of the district. He was wanted in four murder cases including that of journalist Manik Shaha, Editor of Janmabhumi of Khulna Humayun Kabir Balu, and Khulna AL leader Adv. Monjurul Imam, police said.
2 held with bomb, arms by police in Meherpur
Jan 18: Police arrested two terrorists along with a live bomb, one Indian shutter gun and bullets from Shinghati village in Sadar upazila Monday night.
On the RAB website, they list shutter guns in this group: "LG/Pipe gun/Shooter/Shutter Gun". Shotguns have their own catagory, so I think "shutter gun" is a homemade weapon, like a zipgun.
Acting on a tip-off, a police team led by SI Mollick and Baradi police camp in-charge Haider Ali arrested Golam Rasul, 47, son of Late Jamaluddin and Abdul Mannan, 55, son of Late Askaruddin, after raiding their houses at the village. On their confessional statement, they later recovered the 2-kg powerful bomb, the shutter gun, five rounds of rifle bullet and one cartridge from a pile of straw near a cowshed.
What, they not worth a 'crossfire'?
Jubo Dal leader chopped to death in Feni
Jan18: Unidentified terrorists chopped a Jubo Dal leader to death at Saheber Hat in Sonagazi upazila of the district on Tuesday night. The dead was identified as Nurul Afsar, vice president of Ahmedpur union Jubo Dal and convenor of Miar Bazar Zia Smriti Sangsad.
Ah, a union dispute
Local sources said the terrorists swooped on Afsar on his way home at night and chopped him to death. They fled the scene dumping the body into a waterbody. Being informed by the locals, police recovered most of the body Wednesday morning and sent the same to hospital morgue for autopsy.
"Doctor Quincy, we got another stiff."
Or parts of one, at any rate.
Police Super Mohammad Obaidullah visited the spot. Police said Afsar was wanted in three cases, including murder. President of Sonagazi upazila BNP Joynal Abedin Bablu blamed the Awami League supporters for the killing while local AL leaders said that Afsar was killed following internal conflict in the local Jubo Dal.
Huge cache of arms seized in Bandarban
Bangladesh Rifles (BDR) personnel recovered a huge cache of arms including machinegun, M-16rifles, Ak-47, explosives and bomb-making equipment from a den of Rohingya Solidarity Organization (RSO) at Chhagalkhaia under Naikhongchhari upazila in Bandarban yesterday. According to BDR sources, acting on a tip-off, a squad of BDR led by Zonal Commander Lt. Colonel Abdul Awal conducted the drive at around 12.30pm. The members of BDR are continuing their drives in the area.
They recovered a Pakistani made HMG, three M-16 rifles, a AK-47 rifle, a 303 rifle, a long-range rocket shell, a solar charger, three binoculars, 3000 rounds of ammunition, a rocket lancer bomb, 25 mine fixing players, two sacks of gunpowder (about 100Kg), 40 detonators, 40 peace of sodium nitrate, some uniform used by the terrorists and a huge quantity of wires . Earlier, BDR personnel recovered a huge quantity of arms and explosives from Naikhongchhari area in a similar drive on January 3.
Posted by: Steve ||
01/19/2006 09:16 ||
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.. a rocket lancer bomb, 25 mine fixing players, two sacks of gunpowder (about 100Kg), 40 detonators, 40 peace of sodium nitrate
Just when I thought only shutter guns were Bangla specific, here comes some more surprises! A lancer bomb? A mine fixing player? How much is a peace of sodium nitrate?
Federal troops clashed with armed militants in a southern region of Chechnya, killing at least two fighters, regional law enforcement said Wednesday.
The clash on Tuesday between the fighters and the special Defense Ministry security force, called Vostok, took place near the village of Nozhai-Yurt, 40 miles southeast of the capital Grozny, a statement from Chechnya's Interior Ministry said.
Troops recovered two bodies armed with automatic weapons and other weaponry, while the remaining fighters fled into the nearby forest, the ministry said.
In Dagestan, which borders Chechnya to the west, police on Tuesday detained a fighter wanted on suspicion of training armed militants in Chechnya. Regional Interior Ministry spokeswoman Angela Martirosova said Valid Umayev also was wanted for allegedly participating in terror attacks in the two regions.
On Wednesday, police detained a man returning to Dagestan from the annual hajj religious pilgrimage to Saudi Arabia, said Akhmed Magomayev, an Interior Ministry official in Dagestan. The detained man, a municipal administrator identified as Aburakhman Gadzhiyev, was arrested at the airport and detained for alleged murder and illegal weapons possession, Magomayev said.
Posted by: Dan Darling ||
01/19/2006 00:36 ||
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There are currently no more than 250 militants active in Chechnya, the acting prime minister of the North Caucasus republic said Wednesday.
"Our information shows that there are between 150 and 250 militants active on the republic's territory," said Ramzan Kadyrov, who is carrying out the duties of premier Sergei Abramov while he recovers from injuries sustained in a car crash.
His statement contradicts figures given by Lieutenant-General Oleg Khotin, head of the joint provisional Interior Ministry force in the North Caucasus, who said at a Chechen Interior Ministry meeting Tuesday that there were between 70 and 75 small armed groups operating in the republic, with a total of about 730 militants.
Posted by: Dan Darling ||
01/19/2006 00:34 ||
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French President Jacques Chirac has said France would be ready to use nuclear weapons against any state which launched a terrorist attack against it. Speaking at a nuclear submarine base in north-western France, Mr Chirac said a French response "could be conventional. It could also be of another nature."
Isn't the conventional French response to an attack a white flag?
That's not a white flag, that's the French battle ensign: a white cross on a white background. E'ryone knows that.
We have â or used to; I'm assuming we still do â a similar policy. An attack on us using Nuclear-Chem-Bio weapons can be answered by a counterattack using NBC weapons, which ones at the discretion of the president or senior surviving commander. There's no requirement for it to be the same type of weapon. Large areas of the U.S. being wiped out by anthrax or plague, for instance, could result in Ratholistan's capital getting vaporized, rather than us releasing a counter-plague in Ratholistan.
He said France's nuclear forces had been configured for such an event. France has had an independent nuclear deterrent since 1960, after an arms programme ordered by Charles de Gaulle.
I doubt they even have an offensive chem weapons capability anymore, though.
On a visit to L'Ile-Longue base in Brittany, Mr Chirac said leaders of states who would "use terrorist means against us, just like anyone who would envisage using, in one way or another, arms of mass destruction, must understand that they would expose themselves to a firm and adapted response from us".
I'm not sure what the response would be to a mass casualty conventional weapons attack. It wouldn't be technically difficult to assemble the makings of the WWII blockbuster, position several of them around a major city, and boom them all at once. The results might approach those of a small nuclear weapon, and would robably cause more casualties than a large scale gas attack.
If they don't cross the NBC line, we wouldn't either. A visit by a formation of B52s with conventional bombs would do nicely. Assuming we have a target, that is.
The president spoke of new threats in a post-Cold War world, without mentioning any specific threat against France. "In numerous countries, radical ideas are spreading, advocating a confrontation of civilisations," he said, adding that "odious attacks" could escalate to "other yet more serious forms involving states". Following the end of the Cold War, France scaled down its nuclear deterrent, scrapping a number of missile systems. It is believed to have a current arsenal of around 350 nuclear weapons.
Posted by: Steve ||
01/19/2006 07:59 ||
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#1
I got to give to Chirac this is I think the first time I have heard him say anything that I think our pres should be saying but donât have the stomach to say.
I think Chirac seeâs the writing on the wall Phase 4=Iran and the Iranianâs have along time seen their ability to war with the west in a conventional war hopeless, from that they long ago realized terrorism was their weapon to match the west. This will be interesting we of course will be target number one but Europe has a huge problem all the way up to large scale revolt. France literally could see Baghdad in Parris.
#2
If Iran uses a nuke, it would be against Isreal. That way, all the Muzzies would join them, and Iran would assume control over the ME. They might also toss one at our forces in Iraq, wrongly thinking that large scale body counts will cause the US to withdraw.
#3
This is absolutely something that I think our President *shouldn't* say. It is not a sign of strength, it is a sign of terrible weakness.
We are already in brinksmanship situation, and everybody involved knows it. The Iranians who created the situation not only *meant* to create a nuclear standoff, they are either crazy enough to think they can "get away with it", or worse, that the 12th Mahdi is going to save their sorry asses.
Now is *not* the time for imflammatory speeches of any kind--look what that has done for Iran's President--costing him all sorts of advantages and support internationally, with nothing to show for it. All just so he could bluff and bluster like a big man. He traded all sorts of valuable goodwill and support for 30 seconds of applause. Idiot.
All the while, the White House has been six to nine months in extremely quiet, but intense prepartations: figuring out every possible strategy to cool down the situation and get Iran acting responsibly; to calculating every possible war contingency imagineable. Without a single damn press release. No bragging, the most minimal threatening.
War is diplomacy through other means, but war also means that your diplomacy has failed. Some times this is inevitable, if your enemy is determined to fight; but often it just means you diplomatically didn't try hard enough--or that your hawks wanted war just as much as did your enemy.
Look at our strategy. We win if we can get *any* of the following to happen:
1) Iran behaves itself, allows IAEA inspectors and stops trying to make nukes. Nuclear energy is fine--a point the Iranians pretend is in contention.
2) The leadership in Iran proves so unbalanced that it is overthrown in a coup, and whoever replaces it is more moderate or willing to deal.
3) Iran itself becomes so unstable that its leaders must focus on keeping their country together instead of menacing the rest of the world.
4) If they do attack, they do it at a time, place, and with a means chosen by us, and before they are ready. Conversely, when our defenses are fully prepared and we can counter their every move. That through their diplomatic blunders, or through our diplomatic finesse, they lose support throughout the world, we gain allies to fight against them, and even those opposed to war decide to be neutral instead of standing against us.
And *none* of these would be helped in any way if our President shot his mouth off like Chirac.
#4
French President Jacques Chirac has said France would be ready to use nuclear weapons against any state which launched a terrorist attack against it.
Sounds like a throwaway line to me. A terrorist attack against Phrance is not likely to be something directly launched by a "state".
..Mr Chirac said leaders of states who would "use terrorist means against us, just like anyone who would envisage using, in one way or another, arms of mass destruction, must understand that they would expose themselves to a firm and adapted response from us".
Okay then, if an Al Qaeda operative managed to conduct a successful terrorist operation in, say, Paris, that claimed a large number of lives or resulted in significant destruction, which "state" would Phrance's response be directed at?
#5
French President Jacques Chirac has said France would be ready to use nuclear weapons against any state which launched a terrorist attack against it.
Not to worry, Jacques. Any terrorist attack against France will come from its own "citizens." Nice show of spine, though!
#8
Chirac knows that Phrance is on the verge of becoming totally irrelevant. He thinks that by flaunting his nukes that maybe someone will pay attention to him. They may have some viable weapons around but I question what delivery systems they could be used on. I donât think that Phrance has the global reach to carry this threat beyond the puddle right next to them. Ok Jacque, take off the fake cajones and go back to your room.
#11
I'd kinda like to see a successful test launch of one of La Belle France's vaunted nuclear deterrent missiles before I start shaking in my boots, please.
#12
Okay then, if an Al Qaeda operative managed to conduct a successful terrorist operation in, say, Paris, that claimed a large number of lives or resulted in significant destruction, which "state" would Phrance's response be directed at?
"[A]ny state which launched a terrorist attack against [France].' Which may take days to find out, weeks to verify, and months to really make sure. But Phrawnce can be brutal when it comes to applying violence outside their borders.
#13
This simply does not take into account the standard scenario of a state slipping a nuke to terrorists in a deniable manner, which is what we're saying Saddam would have done if he had a nuke, and what we're saying Iran will do if they get a nuke. Chirac is postulating a scenario in which no sane dictator, and most insane ones, would let themselves be caught. What a weasel.
#14
A previous RB post had terrorists threatening oil supplies in addition to Iran already having nuclear capable missiles from neighboring states and piecemeal Khan technology sharing, and now a new Binny tape surfaces with a conditional truce attached....Chirac sounds like he's responding to nuclear blackmail. Didn't think he had it in him.
#17
I agree with Anonymoose. Its a sign of weakness on Frances part. Its like kids on a playground. Everyone knows who the big kid on the block is - so he doesn't need to anyone. Its the average to pip-squeak kids that need to shout and wave thier arms trying to scare the other kids to leave them alone.
Also - what in the hell prompted this statement now????
Posted by: Yosemite Sam ||
01/19/2006 12:12 Comments ||
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#18
Actually, that business of white flags ("white cross on a white field") as a French battle ensign isn't that far from the historical truth.
In the 18th century French battalions carried two flags into battle, the regimental flag "d'ordonnance", issued by the King, with all sorts of designs on them, and the colonels flag, intended to represent the presence of the colonel. The colonels flags were typically white with a white cross, or often just plain white. Really.
#19
My bad, I forgot they still had boomers. I was thinking of air assets. BTW do they have their boomers deployed or are they sitting in port getting overhauled?
#23
If the Muzzies knew Chirac was for real this might be a good idea. The problem is that he let France's own Muslims burn Paris and did nothing. So what are the odds of him suddenly growing balls and carrying through?
On the other hand if the Islamics knew we would nuke the Kaabaic Mecca if attacked on US soil, ya think the camel herders might think twice about going after us again?
#24
In the Crusaders' time, making fabric truly white took a major effort, and often enough wasn't possible at all. That's why white is the colour of purity throughout "Christendom" and the Ummah, and why the Madonna is shown dressed in white, pale blue and silver. In those days, white was when you cared enough for the very best.
#25
I'm not sure what the response would be to a mass casualty conventional weapons attack. It wouldn't be technically difficult to assemble the makings of the WWII blockbuster, position several of them around a major city, and boom them all at once. The results might approach those of a small nuclear weapon, and would robably cause more casualties than a large scale gas attack.
...I have heard a story that very early on the morning of 9/12, the President asked for an estimate of the amount of energy released in the airliner crashes and the WTC collapse - that is, did it equal that of a tactical nuclear weapon. He got two different answers, so that decision was put aside for the time being.
The thing to keep in mind here is that it was THAT close. If there's a next time, it may not matter - the birds will fly.
Mike
Posted by: Mike Kozlowski ||
01/19/2006 14:57 Comments ||
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#26
My best guess is that Phrance is making with the saber rattling as part of it's acceptance into the coalition. When the flag goes up, we need fighters, but until then, we need blusterers, and Jacks might make Iran dig itself. We ease in behind Jacks as if standing united. Looks good, might work. In any event, Jacks gets to look tough and he becomes a team player for a pleasant change.
#27
I did that calculation once. If I did it correctly, 1 million tons falling an average of 600 feet comes out to the energy of about 100 tons of TNT.
Posted by: ed ||
01/19/2006 15:17 Comments ||
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#28
Their are only 2 nations this is directed at. One is nuclear already and one is pre nuclear.
Their appears to be no doubt in Jacques' mind that the most dangerous one is really close to having them. Much closer than what is out for public consumption. That nation is going to use them when they get them. It's not going to be nuclear blackmail or used a deterent when this nation gets weapons. Chirac's epiphany that the leaders of this certain regime are crazy as shit house rats is what intersting.
The reason that Bush hasn't ever said anything like this is he doesn't have to. This is a long standing policy of the United States of America. Messages like this get delivered on a personal level. Saddam got one more than once I am sure.
When Kimi went missing in China I questioned myself at the time. Was he having a meeting with members of the MM regime?
#30
I think Chirac's comments show just how hot this situation has become. No more talk of nuance, he's cranking the shotgun, hoping the sound of it will make the bad guy think twice before climbing in the window.
Six people were detained in France on Tuesday as part of a probe into a group suspected of recruiting insurgents to fight in Iraq, according to a source close to the investigation. The suspects, four men and two women, were detained in or near the southern city of Montpellier, the source said. Three of the four men were Moroccans and the fourth was French. Several other people have been detained in connection with the investigation which has been ongoing since 2004, the source said.
The Army announced yesterday that it will cut six National Guard combat brigades -- or up to 24,000 infantry and other combat troops -- as part of an effort to ease budgetary pressures and shift manpower into homeland defense missions.
In addition to scaling back the guard's combat brigades to 28 from 34, the active-duty Army will add one fewer combat brigade than it had planned, ending up with 42 instead of 43, Army Secretary Francis J. Harvey told a Pentagon news briefing yesterday.
As a result, the Army in coming years will grow to 70 instead of the anticipated 77 active-duty and National Guard combat brigades to respond to overseas and domestic contingencies, Harvey said. In 2003, the Army had 67 combat brigades, Army officials said.
"This force structure we think is appropriate to the threat," Harvey said, explaining that the change resulted from a broad review of Pentagon strategy and resources that will be made public next month with the new defense budget.
The changes suggest that budgetary pressures are exerting limits on the expensive manpower increases that the Army initiated in recent years in its struggle to meet demands in Iraq and Afghanistan. They also reflect recruiting difficulties, as well as a greater National Guard emphasis on homeland missions in the wake of Hurricane Katrina.
The six National Guard combat brigades -- 3,500-to-4,000-troop infantry and armor units at the core of the Army's war-fighting force -- will be replaced by brigades made up of engineers, military police, civil affairs soldiers, and other support troops "very appropriate for homeland defense missions," Harvey said.
Still, some National Guard leaders strenuously objected to the cut in Guard combat forces, as well as an Army decision announced by Harvey yesterday to fund the National Guard at its current troop level -- 333,000 -- rather than the congressionally approved strength of 350,000.
"The adjutants general all agree that we need to be at 350,000 . . . and indications are that this year we can get there again, so in our view that has to be funded up front," said Maj. Gen. Roger P. Lempke, president of the Adjutants General Association of the United States.
Harvey said if the National Guard manages to recruit more members, the Army will fund them, but he did not indicate where the money would come from -- and Lempke and other Guard officials worry it would come from their existing budget.
Curbing the growth in Army combat brigades could give troops less time than officials had hoped between war-zone rotations, officials said.
The reduction of combat brigades "will put strain on the Guard even greater than it is today, because we will have to rotate more frequently," said retired Brig. Gen. Stephen M. Koper, president of the National Guard Association in Washington.
Harvey said the Army has not yet been able to achieve its rotational goal for active-duty brigades of spending one year in a war zone and two years at home; instead units are spending 15 to 22 months at home, he said.
On recruiting, Harvey said "the future looks promising" for meeting the enlistment target in 2006 after the Army fell short by about 7,000 soldiers last year. Yesterday, the Army said it is raising the age limit for active-duty enlistees from 35 to 40, and doubling the maximum cash enlistment bonus to $40,000 for active-duty recruits who choose a high-priority skill and will serve at least four years.
#1
Harvey said the Army has not yet been able to achieve its rotational goal for active-duty brigades of spending one year in a war zone and two years at home; instead units are spending 15 to 22 months at home, he said.
So, let me get this straight. The Harvey solution is to cut the number of available AC and RC deployers? Cutting the National Guard end strength, (which has the primary mission of state and local disaster relief.....) to increase the number of "brigades made up of engineers, MP's and CA soldiers, and other support troops very appropriate for homeland defense missions...?" I guess an 11B could never be trained to become an MP or a MRE tossing CA weenie. What was I thinking? Looks like a New Orleans and Iraqi billpayer to me.
#2
No sympathy here Besoeker. Back in 1993 the active duty watched as pols in Washington cut their strength from over 750K to 482K. The lobbying work of the National Guard Bureau which is nearly autonomous, kept significant cuts from the force structure of the ANG. While funding kept flowing the guard was not improved in training and professionalism that the active force went through. Yep there are some that can keep up, but there are many who can not. The Guard has had to play real world these past couple of years and as a consequence is the one element that is really having a problem keeping its force structure manned. They've had to play cause their cuts which didn't happen had to be carried by the active force. The budget is pie chart. If you can't decrease one part of it, some other part pays.
BTW, state duty and disaster relief seldom require infantry, armor, or artillery. What the governors really need is military police, transportation, engineers, medical, and other support skills. Those currently are in the Army Reserve rather than the National Guard structures. The NGB has spent a lot of political capital to keep the combat arms formations in house. The NGB looks out for its own interests. The history of that goes back to the early 20th century.
On recruiting, Harvey said "the future looks promising" for meeting the enlistment target in 2006 after the Army fell short by about 7,000 soldiers last year.
Again, lets remember that the Active Army ended fiscal year 2004 with 482,000 personnel, which was its Congressionally mandated limit, and fiscal year 2005 with 492,000 personnel. The 'difference' was the increase that Congress finally got around to authorizing three years after 9/11. You don't absorb 20,000 or more bodies in one year without having to take people out of the line to support the training base.
#5
This is a damned stupid beancounter proposal that's going to cause problems in the future. Whoever put this forward has never served in combat, and is nothing but a glorified accountant with mush for brains. We are going to need a much larger army - 60 to 70 brigades - to deal with the war against islamonazis, not a smaller one. The people in Washington don't want to spend money on the military - they'd much prefer wasting it on idiotic social programs, funding for all kinds of idiotic "research" and giving it away to people that will waste it worse than Washington can. This will do NOTHING to secure our borders or make us better able to react to another terrorist attack. All it will do is grease the palms of a bunch of criminals in the Washington "gimme" corps.
Posted by: Old Patriot ||
01/19/2006 14:21 Comments ||
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#6
Patriot: They f***ed the dough away and continue to f*** it away on Katrina and Mayor Neeeegins chocolate sector. We can't even handle our affairs here at home. Not sure why we diddle in everyone elses stuff. Should walk softly and keep nukes ready and airborne at all times if we wish to survive our society through the 21st Century.
#7
OP, with respect, the Army officers I talk with do not want the Army to expand rapidly, for several reasons. First and foremost in the short run is the training load that would entail - it would bleed dry our experienced NCOs from operations just when we need them the most in the field. I know that you and Cyber Sarge and others here know just how crucial our NCOs are to our operational success.
Expanding the size of the Army right now would also have a retrograde effect on plans for Army transformation, because it would result in equipping the army, at great expense, with old technologies - necessary, because you have to train the newcomers in existing doctrine and equip them accordingly. That works against the rapid progress being made to transform both the equipment and the doctrine of the Army to face other-than-force-on-force operations.
The Army's plan is to augment a highly professional force of soldiers at the current strength with sophisticated technologies that are true force multipliers. The UAVs we are currently using are the smallest tip of that iceberg. I occasionally get to see what the existing prototypes for other stuff looks like and can do, and it's truly a huge leap ahead of today's systems.
Boots on the ground matter - a lot, sometimes - but ultimately it is not our numbers in uniform alone that are or will be our strategic advantage in the conflicts we face and are likely to face for the next decade or two.
SRINAGAR, India - Five Muslim civilians and two Indian soldiers were injured in a gunbattle with Islamic militants in a snowbound village in Kashmir, an army spokesman said on Thursday. âMilitants attacked an army foot patrol in the snowbound village of Surigam in (northern) Kupwara district late Wednesday, injuring an officer and a soldier,â said spokesman Vijay Batra. âIn the ensuing exchange of fire, five civilians were also injured,â Batra said, adding all five were out of danger.
Batra said the militants managed to escape from the area under cover of darkness. Kupwara borders Pakistan-administered Kashmir and is prone to infiltration by militants into the Indian zone of Kasmir. Indian Kashmir is in the grip of a 16-year-old insurgency against Indian rule that has so far left some 44,000 people dead by official count. Separatists put the toll twice as high
Posted by: Steve ||
01/19/2006 08:45 ||
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wo al-Qaida militants reported missing and suspected killed in Friday's U.S. missile attack in Pakistan are key regional commanders along the Pakistan-Afghanistan border, Afghan and Pakistani analysts said.
The administrator of Pakistan's Bajaur border district said Tuesday that four or five non-Pakistani militants had died -- along with 13 to 18 Pakistani residents -- in the missile attack on homes in the village of Damadola. Two of the dead may be an Egyptian known as Abu Ubaidah and a Syrian, Marwan As-Suri, said an Afghan source with links to al-Qaida.
Abu Ubaidah, in his mid-40s, is deputy commander of al-Qaida forces in Kunar, a ruggedly mountainous province where U.S. troops fought offensives last year to clear out militants, said the source, who asked not to be identified. Kunar is one of three or four Afghan provinces where the war in Afghanistan remains at its most intensive -- and one reason is that guerrillas have been able to flee across the border into Pakistan.
Marwan As-Suri, believed to be in his 30s, is a Syrian who recently had been appointed to head al-Qaida operations in part of the Pakistani areas bordering Kunar, the Afghan said.
ABC News reported yesterday that a third militant, known as al-Qaida's master bomb maker and chemical weapons expert, also was killed. Pakistani authorities identified him as Midhat Mursi, 52, also known as Abu Khabab al-Masri. ABC also cited Pakistani officials as saying Khalid Habib and Abdul Rehman al-Magrabi, both al-Qaida operations chiefs, were killed.
The missiles destroyed three homes in Damadola hours after a dinner for the Muslim holiday of Eid al-Adha. Bajaur district's administrator, Fahim Wazir, said Tuesday that 10 to 12 non-Pakistani militants had been invited to the feast. Pakistani intelligence sources have told journalists in Pakistan that one invited guest who did not attend was al-Qaida's No. 2 leader, Ayman al-Zawahri.
U.S. officials, apparently concluding that Zawahri was present, ordered the attack, for the first news of the strike came from American intelligence sources in Washington who said al-Zawahri had been killed.
According to the Afghan source, another important al-Qaida invitee to the dinner was Abdul Hadi Al-Iraqi, who reportedly has served as a liaison between al-Qaida leader Osama bin Laden and the al-Qaida-backed guerrilla leader in Iraq, Abu Musab al-Zarqawi. It was not clear whether Al-Iraqi attended and there was no report that he was missing.
The valleys of Kunar and Bajaur are separated by a mountain ridge that rises to 10,000 feet. An Associated Press reporter who visited the main border crossing, in the Nava Pass, reported yesterday that "a rusting gate," manned by inattentive guards, "is all that divides the two countries." U.S. forces and the Afghan government are trying to reinforce the border by creating an elite force of local tribesmen to guard it.
Both Kunar and Bajaur have deeply rooted Islamic militant groups that help make the area a haven for guerrillas of various groups.
In Kunar, "I got them all," a U.S. Army commander, Lt. Col. Peter Munster, told the AP last summer. "Taliban, al-Qaida ... [Hezb-I-Islami, an Afghan guerrilla faction led by the the militant Gulbuddin Hekmatyar], foreign fighters, smugglers and other criminals. They are like the Mafia."
Posted by: Dan Darling ||
01/19/2006 00:29 ||
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#2
mmmmm... no mention of the presence of fwuffy bunnies in the area as initial reports from the BBC suggested.
Posted by: Howard UK ||
01/19/2006 3:26 Comments ||
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#3
"Pakistani intelligence sources have told journalists in Pakistan that one invited guest who did not attend was al-Qaida's No. 2 leader, Ayman al-Zawahri.
"
Dose'nt this sound like what they claim the Jews did on 9/11.
"No, you guys go ahead, this cough will be gone by tommorrow, meet ya then"
Investigators said on Wednesday that they had found two empty graves at the site of a controversial US air strike in the Bajaur Agency, a day after officials said that up to five foreign militants had died in the attack. However, there was no information about the identities of the insurgents who died in the raid, despite initial US intelligence reports that Al Qaedaâs Egyptian number two Ayman al-Zawahri may have been among them.
Officials said that local militants may have shifted the bodies before their scheduled burials to stop authorities from DNA testing the remains and finding out who was killed in Fridayâs missile attack. Residents of Damadola village in Bajaur, however, have reported that 18 civilians died in the attack, for whom as many graves were dug, and that no militants were in the area. âThe residents dug 18 graves but buried 16 people and two graves were left vacant before they covered them over,â a senior security official said, citing a report by intelligence officials in the region.
On Tuesday, the Bajaur regional administration chief said that the missile strike was aimed at foreign militants invited to a dinner and that four or five were killed â the first such public confirmation by Pakistan. The tribal administration said that two local militants, Maulana Faqir Mohammad and Maulana Liaqat, had removed the bodies of the foreign extremists killed in the attack to âsuppress the actual reason of the attackâ, but gave no evidence.
On Wednesday, Shah Zaman Khan, director general of media relations for the tribal areas, said that the terroristsâ bodies are now probably in âinaccessible mountainous areasâ along the rugged, ill-defined border. âEfforts are underway to investigate further,â Khan said. âThe administration is also trying to arrest those clerics who were believed to be there.â A counter-terrorism official said that several of those killed were believed to be Egyptian.
Posted by: Dan Darling ||
01/19/2006 00:25 ||
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#2
Something you don't hear mentioned in all of this is who invited Zawahiri to dinner in the first place? Are they still breathing, or were they among the 18 killed? Will Zawahiri be that welcome in the future? Will any members of the Taliban or Al Qaida? I think we're focusing too strongly on just the foreigners that were killed, and not considering the "collateral" damage to the supposed Taliban/Al Qaida welcome mat.
Posted by: Old Patriot ||
01/19/2006 14:34 Comments ||
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The bodies of the men have not been recovered, but the two officials said the Pakistani authorities had been able to establish through intelligence sources the names of three of those killed in the strikes, and maybe a fourth. Both of the officials have provided reliable information in the past, but neither would be identified because they were not authorized to speak to the news media.
American counterterrorism officials declined to say whether the four Qaeda members were in fact killed in the raid, or whether the men were among those who were the targets of it. But one American official said, "These are the kinds of people we would have expected to have been there."
If any or all were indeed killed, it would be a stinging blow to Al Qaeda's operations, said the American officials, who were granted anonymity because they were not authorized by their agencies to speak for attribution. They said all four men named by the Pakistani officials were among the top level of Al Qaeda's inner circle of leadership.
The Pakistani officials agreed that the deaths would be a strong setback to Al Qaeda in Pakistan's tribal areas, but acknowledged that hundreds of foreign militants might still be at large in the region.
Among those Abu Khabab trained was Abu Zubaydah, Al Qaeda's No. 3 operative, who was captured in 2002 in the Pakistani town of Faisalabad, one of the Pakistani officials said.
Another Egyptian, known by the alias Abu Ubayda al-Misri, was also believed killed, the Pakistani officials said. He was the chief of insurgent operations in the southern Afghan province of Kunar, which borders Bajaur in Pakistan, the area where the airstrikes occurred, according to one of the Pakistani officials. As chief of operations, Abu Ubayda commanded attacks on American forces in his part of southern Afghanistan, and trained the insurgent groups active in the area. He also served as a liaison for senior Qaeda leaders, and provided logistics and security for the top Qaeda people in the region, the official said.
After the fall of the Taliban, Abu Ubayda moved to the Pakistani town of Shakai, in South Waziristan, but left the area when the Pakistani military mounted operations against the foreign militants there in February 2004, the officials said.
The third man believed to have been killed was a Moroccan, Abd al-Rahman al-Maghrebi, who is the son-in-law of Mr. Zawahiri, the officials said. Mr. Maghrebi was in charge of Qaeda propaganda in the region, and may have been responsible for distributing a number of CD's showing the activities of Taliban and Qaeda fighters in southern Afghanistan in recent months.
A fourth man, Mustafa Osman, another Egyptian and an associate of Mr. Zawahiri's, may also have been killed, one Pakistani security official said. But he was less certain of his fate. There may have been one or two more foreign militants killed as well, he said.
One of the American officials said another senior Qaeda figure, identified as Khalid Habib, might have been at the site of the attack. His name was circulating among Pakistani officials as someone who might also have been killed, though again they were uncertain.
Mr. Habib is Al Qaeda's overall operational commander in Pakistan and Afghanistan, an important post, and would be the most significant of those who might have been at the site of the attack, which occurred in the village of Damadola, about 3:15 a.m. last Friday. After an initial investigation into the strike, Pakistani provincial authorities said in a statement on Tuesday that 10 to 12 foreign militants were believed to have been invited to a dinner in the village on the night of the Jan. 13 strike.
One of the men who died with his family in the wreckage of his home, Bakhtpur Khan, was named by a Qaeda operative, Faraj al-Libi, as a sympathizer, one of the Pakistani officials said. Mr. Libi, who was captured in Pakistan last summer, told an interrogator that he had met Mr. Zawahiri in Mr. Khan's house in Damadola previously, the official said. It is unlikely that Mr. Zawahiri was in the house at the time of the bombing, because he would have been accompanied by a larger entourage, one of the Pakistani officials said. Villagers, many of whom are sympathetic to Taliban and Qaeda elements, continue to insist there were no foreign militants in the village at the time of the airstrikes.
Al Arabiya television reported that Mr. Zawahiri was alive, quoting a member of Al Qaeda, in the days after the strike. A news agency in Afghanistan, Pajhwok Afghan News, has also reported that a Qaeda member telephoned the agency to say that Mr. Zawahiri was safe.
The news agency identified the caller as Ahmad Solaiman, a Moroccan who serves as a spokesman for the group. In a dispatch Wednesday, the agency quoted him saying that "Mr. Zawahiri is alive. Reports about his death are false." An American counterterrorism official said the claim was being viewed with skepticism, because Al Qaeda usually chooses more mainstream outlets to issue public statements. A Pakistani security official said soon after the strikes that he was confident that Mr. Zawahiri had survived.
Posted by: Dan Darling ||
01/19/2006 00:19 ||
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#1
"One of the men who died with his family in the wreckage of his home, Bakhtpur Khan, was named by a Qaeda operative, Faraj al-Libi, as a sympathizer, one of the Pakistani officials said."
With these kinds of hits, it does appear that if Dr. Zawahiri has a mole within his ranks. Assuming that he indeed was NOT vaporized in this latest attack, the good doctor's rest and relaxation time is over.
No more comfortable sleep-overs and if you're inclined to have him over for dinner or tea, you might want to rethink the invite.
#2
...And the best part is that now Zawahiri has to do an al-Zarkawi every night - no more than one night in the same place, can't trust anybody with him, never know if that glint you see in the sky is a far-off airliner or a Predator that has finally come for you.
Gee, Ayman...not as much fun when they shoot back, is it?
Mike
Posted by: Mike Kozlowski ||
01/19/2006 14:30 Comments ||
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At least two senior Al Qaeda commanders and a son-in-law of Osama bin Ladenâs second in command, Dr Ayman Al Zawahiri, are believed to have been killed in last weekâs attack in the Bajaur tribal region, credible sources said.
Sources told Dawn that the pre-dawn US aerial assault on three compounds in Damadola, Bajaur, on Friday killed four foreign militants. Eighteen civilians, mostly women and children, were also killed in the deadly attack causing public anger and protest demonstrations. Pakistan condemned the attack and summoned the US ambassador to lodge a formal protest. The government, however, on Tuesday issued an official statement claiming the death of four foreign militants in the attack.
According to the sources, intelligence officials believe that among those killed in the missile attack was Midhat Mursi Al Sayid, Al Qaedaâs chemical and explosives expert, who carries a $5 million reward. Born in April 1953, the Egyptian-born Midhat was known as Abu Khabab Al Masri. According to the sources and information available about him on âRewards for justiceâ website, Abu Khabab was a lead explosives and poison expert and served as an instructor for Al Qaeda and the Taliban. He operated chemical laboratories and trained militants in explosives at Darunta near Jalalabad in Afghanistan between 1996 and 1998 and later in Kabul until 2001. After Talibanâs fall, Abu Khabab moved to Pakistan and was widely believed to have lived in Shakai, South Waziristan, till February 2004.
According to the website, Abu Khabab produced training manuals containing recipes for crude chemical and biological weapons. Some of these manuals were recovered by US forces in Afghanistan.
Also believed to have been killed in the attack is Abu Obaidah Al Masri, Al Qaedaâs chief of operations for Afghanistanâs eastern Kunar province. Abu Obaidah, according to the sources, was leading attacks on US-led coalition forces in Kunar, training and providing material support and liaising between senior Al Qaeda figures, besides providing them with logistic support and security. Some officials believe that he could have been a replacement for Hamza Rabia, Al Qaedaâs operational commander, who was killed in a similar missile attack in Asory village in North Waziristan on December 2.
The third figure believed to have been killed in Bajaur is Abdur Rehman Al Maghribi. A Moroccan citizen, Al Maghribi is son-in-law of Dr Ayman Al Zawahiri and incharge of Al Qaedaâs media department.
There are also reports of the death of Mustafa Usman, an Egyptian national. There is little information available about him.
If intelligence reports about the death of senior Al Qaeda commanders in the attack are correct, this could mean a serious blow to the organization that has recently suffered a string of setbacks, including the death of Hamza Rabia and the capture of Abu Faraj Al Libbi.
Posted by: Dan Darling ||
01/19/2006 00:16 ||
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#1
Why does Allan look down with disfavor on al Qaeda ? What have they done wrong ? Perhaps Allan would like some young blood to manage al Qaeda. Maybe Allan's trying to tell them to quit hiding in the mountains and fight like men on the battlefield. Yes, go forth, young warriors. Heh heh heh.
U.S. counterterrorism officials said Wednesday that al Qaeda's chemical weapons expert was "in the vicinity" when CIA airstrikes last week hit a dinner gathering believed to include terrorists in a Pakistani mountain village.
They said Midhat Mursi could have been killed in the attack, but stressed they cannot confirm that he was.
Mursi, a 52-year-old Egyptian commonly known as Abu Khabab, ran a chemical and explosives training camp for terrorists in Derunta, Afghanistan, before the fall of the Taliban, officials said. The United States has offered a $5 million reward for information leading to his death or capture.
A counterterrorism official said Abu Khabab "was thought to have been in the vicinity" when the missiles struck a compound in Damadola, Pakistan, Friday. Two officials said, however, that they "absolutely cannot confirm" that he was killed.
The U.S. network ABC News reported on its Web site that he was killed in the attack, quoting "Pakistani authorities." However a number of Pakistani officials have told CNN they cannot confirm whether Abu Khabab was killed in the strike.
U.S. counterterrorism officials also said they had reason to believe Khalid Habib, al Qaeda's chief of operations in Afghanistan and Pakistan, and Ubayda al Masri, its operations chief for the Konar province of Afghanistan, were in the area when the CIA missiles struck and could have been killed.
They stress they are not sure who was killed in the strike.
U.S. officials have said that four to eight al Qaeda-affiliated "foreigners" were killed in the attack, including some Egyptians. The bodies were quickly removed by accomplices and buried elsewhere, knowledgeable sources have said.
Pakistani officials have said that "four or five" foreign fighters were killed in the strike, along with 18 civilians, including five children and five women.
U.S. officials have said "very solid" intelligence indicated that senior al Qaeda members were expected to be attending a dinner celebrating the end of the Muslim holiday of Eid at the time of the strike, and that Osama bin Laden's top deputy, Ayman al-Zawahiri, could have been among them.
There has been no evidence so far, however, that al-Zawahiri was there.
Posted by: Dan Darling ||
01/19/2006 00:11 ||
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LUCKNOW â A suspected militant of the Laskhar-e-Tayyaba escaped from a train near Varanasi in Uttar Pradesh early yesterday while being taken from Kolkata to Jammu under police protection, officials here said. Police said Ali Ahmed, 28, jumped off the Sealdah-Jammu Tawi Express at around 4.30am somewhere between the Varanasi and Mughal Sarai stations. All trains slow down while traversing the 30km distance between the two stations for a technical reason and that is when Ahmed made his escape, said Varanasi Senior Superintendent of Police Navneet Sikera. "Our men have fanned out in different directions and we are doing our best to get him," Sikera said. Four Jammu and Kashmir policemen who were accompanying him from Kolkata to Jammu for a court case are being questioned.
They have stated that they got off at Mughal Sarai for a cup of tea. Hinting at some connivance, Uttar Pradesh police said they could not have slept off in just 20 minutes and pointed out that all criminals are supposed to be handcuffed and chained to a policeman. This had probably not happened. "How could it be possible that the cops dozed off immediately after the train started from that station and the undertrial managed to jump off?" asked Sikera.
Gee inspector, what do you think?
Posted by: Steve White ||
01/19/2006 00:00 ||
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Pakistani intelligence sources on Thursday identified three of four al Qaeda members believed to have been killed by a U.S. airstrike last week, though they have yet to recover the bodies. One of the dead was said to be Abdul Rehman Al-Misri al Maghribi, a son-in-law of al Qaeda second-in-command Ayman al-Zawahri. Another was Midhat Mursi al Sayid Omer, an expert in explosives and poisons who carried a $5 million U.S. reward on his head. The third man named was Abu Obaidah al Misri, al Qaeda's chief of operations in Afghanistan's eastern Kunar province.
That's two al-Misris (Egyptians) and an al-Maghrebi (Algerian or Moroccan). I can live with that. Madhat Mursi would have been worth the strike himself. Ayman's son-in-law's icing on the cake, and the Kunar ops chief would also be worth a strike. I notice they don't mention the fourth deader. I'm hoping he's somebody just as worthwhile â or maybe even moreso.
More, from Associated Press...
Pakistani intelligence agents hunted Wednesday for the graves of four al-Qaida militants believed killed in an airstrike near the Afghan border -- including at least one suspected high-ranking al-Qaida figure. ABC News and The New York Times reported that Pakistani officials believe a master bomb maker and chemical weapons expert for al-Qaida was killed in the attack on the village of Damadola last week. He was identified as Midhat Mursi, also known as Abu Khabab al-Masri, who ran an al-Qaida training camp and has a $5 million reward on his head. Also killed, Pakistani officials believe, was Khalid Habib, the al-Qaida operations chief for Pakistan and Afghanistan, ABC said. The Times, however, said officials were uncertain about whether he was killed.
The Times also reported that Pakistani officials believe Moroccan Abd al-Rahman al-Maghrebi, the son-in-law of al-Qaida No. 2 Ayman al-Zawahiri, and the man who ran the group's propaganda in the region, was killed in the strike. ABC described al-Maghrebi as a senior operations commander. The newspaper said an Egyptian chief of insurgent operations in a region near the airstrikes also was believed killed and an Egyptian associate of al-Zawahiri's was possibly slain.
Pentagon officials said they had no information on the reported identities of the dead and CIA spokesman Tom Crispell said the agency could not comment. A Pakistani intelligence official said authorities still did not know the names of the dead foreign militants but suspect one was a ranking al-Qaida figure. "We have no names. We know one of them had value in al-Qaida. He had intelligence value in the network, but we are still checking his name," said the official.
Pakistani Interior Minister Aftab Sherpao told The Associated Press the government does not know the identities of the foreigners believed killed in the missile strike Friday, which officials have said targeted Osama bin Laden's top aide, Ayman al-Zawahri. "We are still investigating. There's a possibility that some foreigners were there, but we still do not know," said Sherpao, who was in New York with visiting Prime Minister Shaukat Aziz. Sherpao said the government had not retrieved the bodies of any of the four foreign militants reported killed in the raid. He said the bodies may have been taken by a local pro-Taliban cleric, Maulana Faqir Mohammed, who also is being hunted by authorities.
Al-Jizzles has essentially the same story, complete with the (corrected) mispelling of Mudhat Mursi's name â Rooters carried it as Murfi, but we know he wasn't an Irishman. They give the name of the Kunar large turban as Abu Obaidah al Misri, which'd be Khalid Habib's nom-de-guerre.
Posted by: Fred ||
01/19/2006 00:00 ||
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One of our smarter commenters yesterday proposed that we hint Zawahiri let these meet their virgins so he would skate, in a deal with the ISI. I fully support and encourage that plan, starting with release to Rep. Murtha, who obviously has al-Jizz on speed dial
Posted by: Frank G ||
01/19/2006 0:08 Comments ||
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Now *that* is what I call 'crashing a dinner party' :)
KARACHI: A two-member appellate bench of the Sindh High Court (SHC) on Wednesday set aside death sentence for two activists of the banned religious outfit Lashkar-e-Jhangvi (LJ) and ordered their release. An anti-terrorism court had given death to Attaullah alias Qasim and Mohammad Riaz for killing a man called Syed Kazim Shah during sectarian violence in Mehmoodabad.
In another case, the SHC set aside life terms and other punishments for five accused in a kidnap-for-ransom case, including Salim Khan Tanoli, former protocol officer to a former Sindh chief minister, Khalid Moin and Muhammad Altaf, and ordered their release. An anti-terrorism court had given them life terms for taking Rs 15 million ransom from Ilyas and Rafiq after kidnapping them from the Jamshaid Quarters area.
Posted by: Fred ||
01/19/2006 00:00 ||
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SRINAGAR: The police investigating a Kashmiri politician's alleged ties to Islamic militants say the man has admitted to taking part in a plot to kill the former chief minister of held Kashmir. Last week the police arrested Abdul Wahid Dar, a city councillor in Srinagar, the state's summer capital, after intelligence reports indicated that Dar was a supporter of Lashkar-e-Tayyaba, said police superintendent Anand Jain said. Dar was once an Islamic militant who turned to politics after spending a few years in jail in the early 1990s. It is not uncommon for Kashmir militants to be released from jail if the authorities no longer consider them a threat. Since the arrest, Jain said that Dar has admitted that he helped work out the logistics for a number of Lashkar suicide attacks.
Posted by: Fred ||
01/19/2006 00:00 ||
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As President Pervez Musharraf appeared on state-controlled radio and television to condemn the activities of some Baloch tribal chiefs, one security man was killed and two injured badly in Kohlu the area where Nawab Khair Bux Marri dominates the society and at present is engaged with government forces in rocket firing and armed clashes. A soldier of the Frontier Corps was killed and his two colleagues were injured, sources said yesterday. "Militants had planted a land mine between Dera Bugti and Kohlu which was exploded with a remote control device killing a soldier," sources said.
Beside planting land mine on a road linking Dera Bugti with Kohlu where normally Frontier Corps men conduct day-and-night patrolling to weed out militants, a few rockets were also fired in Kahan where the FC has established its local headquarters in a fort. Former Chief Minister of Balochistan Akhtar Mengal claimed that so far more than 50 people have lost their lives in armed clashes with the security forces.
Posted by: Fred ||
01/19/2006 00:00 ||
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Iraqi soldiers and about 1,000 U.S. Marines, sailors and soldiers with the 22nd Marine Expeditionary Unit (Special Operations Capable) are conducting counterinsurgency operations in Iraq's Anbar province.
Operation Koa Canyon began Jan. 15 to capture or kill insurgents and to locate and destroy their weapons caches in the western Euphrates River Valley, between the Jubbah/Baghdadi region and the city of Hit, officials said.
This combined operation involves 1st Battalion, 2nd Brigade, 7th Iraqi Division, and the 22nd MEU's ground combat element, Battalion Landing Team 1st Battalion, 2nd Marine Regiment.
Most forces are conducting cordon-and-knock operations and searching for weapons and insurgent activity along the Euphrates River, about 80 miles northwest of Baghdad. U.S. Marines are also working with Iraqi police in the Baghdadi region in Anbar province. I suspect that this is more a combination of field training exercise for predominantly Sunni troops, unit shakedown operations, brigade training exercise, and core evaluation. All of which is very, very good.
LONG FORK - The steep mountainsides in western Pike County are painted in the drabbest of winter browns and grays now, but already there is a feeling in the air that the land is ready to break out with spring color in a few weeks, bringing new life, new hope. Maybe that's a good omen for a young man back home after surviving the meat grinder of Iraq but still struggling to cope with the psychological shocks of all he's seen and done, shocks that ultimately cut short his career in the U.S. Marine Corps.
RAMADI, Iraq â For Marine Gunnery Sgt. Michael Burghardt, the business of hunting down and defusing roadside bombs is something of a deadly chess game.
Burghardt, 36, of Fountain Valley, Calif., is probably one of the best-known and most well-respected improvised bomb experts in Iraq, where his skills are in constant demand.
Last September, an embedded journalist snapped a photo of Burghardt moments after a roadside bomb exploded on him in a notoriously troubled corner of western Ramadi â a city that Burghardt describes as âthe scariest place on Earth.â The image shows Burghardt with bloodied legs and shredded uniform, flipping the bird to an unseen insurgent who triggered the bomb.
The photo has circulated widely among military personnel in Iraq, who view it as a powerful symbol of resolve and fighting spirit.
âItâs one hell of a picture,â said Col. John L. Gronski, commander of U.S. troops in and around Ramadi.
#1
I'm having a sweatshirt printed up with this guy's finger photo in front.
Can you just imagine being one of the Muslim terrorist watching as he set off the bomb? Not only did the American get up but for good measure he flips of the wearer of diapers. LOL!
Talk about balls of steel! Way to go Gunny! 64 bombs defused, on his 3rd tour. If Bin Murtha thinks our troops are demoralized, I'd love to see them worked up!
The Iranian envoy in Baghdad acknowledged on Wednesday that the Iranian coastguard had stopped three Iraqi vessels in an incident which is testing improved ties between the former foes.
Hasan Kazemi-Qomi said the Tehran government was investigating the matter after Iraqi officials accused Iran of taking hostage nine Iraqis working on the vessels.
He said the Iranian coastguard had taken action against the boats because they had crossed into Iranian waters.
"The Iranian coastguard stopped an Iraqi vessel and two ships escorting it. Iran is investigating the matter and some answers should emerge in a few hours," Kazemi-Qomi told Reuters.
Mohammed al-Waili, the regional governor of the southern Iraqi city of Basra, said he believed the nine Iraqis aboard the boats could be returned as early as Thursday.
Iranian officials on Tuesday denied the incident. Iraqi officials said the Iraqi boats and crews had been seized on Saturday or Sunday.
An Iraqi government statement said the incident was raised on Tuesday in a meeting between Iraqi Foreign Minister Hoshiyar Zebari and Kazemi-Qomi.
It said Zebari, who handed Kazemi-Qomi a diplomatic memorandum on the incident, hoped the issue could be resolved in a brotherly spirit.
Kazemi-Qomi denied statements by Iraqi officials that there were clashes during the incident.
"There were no clashes. Relations between the Iranian and Iraqi coastguards are excellent," he said.
Waili told Reuters on Tuesday that the Iraqi coastguard had boarded an Iranian-skippered ship suspected of smuggling oil in Iraqi waters when they were overpowered by an Iranian patrol.
Lieutenant Colonel Ziyad Majid Wali, a coastguard commander in the Iraqi port of Abu Flous, told Reuters the problem began when a patrol approached the ship, the Nour 1, suspecting it of smuggling oil near Abadan, on the Iranian side of the waterway.
Iraqi President Jalal Talabani stepped in to cool tempers on Tuesday, conceding the nine Iraqis might have strayed across the border in the shifting tidal shoals of the Shatt al-Arab and calling their arrest a "mistake" that would soon be sorted out.
Iraq and Iran have a long history of disputes along the waterway. Iran briefly seized three British naval patrol boats in the same area in June 2004, at a time when U.S.-led occupation forces were responsible for policing the border.
Posted by: Dan Darling ||
01/19/2006 00:59 ||
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#1
Looks like an act of war to me. "Cry Havoc and Let Slip the Dogs of War."
#2
Iran is trying to push as many buttons as it can,hoping to get the US or Iraq to do something stupid. I'd expect Tater's tots to start causing trouble in the next couple of weeks, as well as a number of border incidents to take place along the Iran/Iraq border. That idiot that's president of Iran WANTS a war, thinking either he'll win, or that the "12th IMAM" will arrive and save his arse. I don't think the "12th imam" is any match for a division of US Marines.
Posted by: Old Patriot ||
01/19/2006 15:12 Comments ||
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I'm thinking the 12th Imam will serve only as a lesson of 'what not to do' for the 13th and 14th Imams...AKA "the radioactive ones"
Posted by: Frank G ||
01/19/2006 19:02 Comments ||
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#4
AKA "the radioactive ones"
Lol! Melike. Resulting from a "work accident", of course.
Insurgents carried out two dramatic ambushes Wednesday, killing 11 people including two American civilians in a roadside bombing in Basra and an attack on an Iraqi convoy in Baghdad.
Meanwhile, Iraqi officials expressed hope that American hostage Jill Carroll would eventually be released, and kidnappers freed the sister of
Iraq's Interior Minister after holding her hostage for two weeks.
The ambushes, in which gunmen also seized two Kenyan engineers, were part of a surge in violence that left scores of Iraqis dead across the country Wednesday.
In the most gruesome development, police said militants used this week's downing of a U.S. helicopter to carve out a killing field north of Baghdad, slaying more than 40 people on remote roads that Iraqis were forced to use after American troops cordoned off the crash zone.
Thirty people were dragged from their cars Wednesday at crude checkpoints erected on unpaved roads and shot dead execution-style in farming areas in Nibaei, a town near Dujail, about 50 miles north of Baghdad, said police Lt. Qahtan al-Hashmawi.
Since Monday's crash of a U.S. Army AH-64 Apache helicopter that killed its two pilots near Mishahda, 25 miles north of Baghdad, American and Iraqi forces cordoned off a large section of the main road near Dujail, police and eyewitnesses said.
More than a dozen other Iraqis died Wednesday in attacks linked to the insurgency.
The increased violence came as authorities prepare to announce the results this week of the Dec. 15 election. U.S. and Iraqi officials expect more attacks as religious and ethnic groups jockey for power in the new government.
In the boldest attack, gunmen opened fire on a convoy of the mobile telephone company Iraqna, killing six security guards and three drivers in the Nafaq al-Shurta district of western Baghdad.
Naguib Sawiris, chairman of the Egyptian communications firm that controls Iraqna, said the attackers seized the two Kenyans.
The two American civilians were killed in a roadside bombing in the southern city of Basra. They worked for the Texas-based security company DynCorp and were training Iraqi police. A third American was seriously wounded in the attack, the U.S. Embassy said.
An Associated Press photographer at the scene said two four-wheel-drive vehicles were targeted. The area was surrounded by heavily armed British forces, whose main base in Iraq is in Basra.
The killings occurred as a joint American-Iraqi investigation was under way to find Carroll, the 28-year-old American journalist who was abducted Jan. 7 in Baghdad. The freelance reporter for The Christian Science Monitor was seen in a video aired Tuesday by Al-Jazeera television.
Al-Jazeera said the silent 20-second video included a threat to kill Carroll in 72 hours unless U.S. authorities release all women detainees in Iraq. U.S. officials said eight women were in security detention and none had been freed as of Wednesday night.
Nevertheless, Maj. Gen. Hussein Kamal, a deputy interior minister, spoke hopefully about prospects for Carroll's release.
"Efforts are continuing to find the American journalist," he said. "We cannot say more because of the sensitivity of the matter, but God willing, the end will be positive."
President Bush ignored shouted questions Wednesday about what his administration is doing to find Carroll. White House spokesman Scott McClellan said her safe return was a priority for the administration" but refused to say more "because of the sensitivity of the situation."
David Cook, the Washington bureau chief for the Christian Science Monitor, said at a news conference Wednesday that Carroll's work has demonstrated she is respectful of Arab culture and people, and the newspaper has shown it treats different cultures and viewpoints fairly.
He did not answer directly whether the newspaper was involved in any negotiations for her release but told reporters: "the Monitor is undertaking strenuous efforts on Jill's behalf ... taking advantage of every opportunity we have at our disposal."
Insurgents in Iraq have kidnapped more than 240 foreigners and killed at least 39 of them. Hundreds, perhaps thousands, more Iraqis have been abducted either by insurgents or gangs seeking ransoms.
On Wednesday, the sister of Interior Minister Bayan Jabr was released and was at home, said Ali al-Khaqani, a secretary to Jabr. He refused to give details, including her name, when she was released or whether ransom was paid. She was abducted Jan. 3 in an attack in which a bodyguard was killed.
Also Wednesday, Iraqi officials confirmed that 35 men rejected for membership in the Iraqi police were abducted Monday by masked gunmen who stopped their bus en route from Baghdad to Samarra north of the capital.
In other violence:
* Two policemen were killed and five were wounded when a suicide bomber targeted a police patrol near the Baghdad home of Shiite politician Abdul Aziz al-Hakim.
* The bodies of five men, all wearing civilian clothes with bullet wounds to the head, were found floating in the Qaid River near Swera, 25 miles south of Baghdad, said Kut Hospital morgue employee Hadi al-Itabi.
* Three Iraqi police and an Iraqi civilian were killed when a roadside bomb struck a patrol in Saadiya, 80 miles north of Baghdad. Four police officers were wounded.
* The bodies of three men, including a Sunni Arab leader related to Iraq's defense minister, were found Wednesday with gunshot wounds to the head in a Baghdad apartment, police said.
Posted by: Dan Darling ||
01/19/2006 00:49 ||
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âThirty people were dragged from their cars Wednesday at crude checkpoints erected on unpaved roads and shot dead execution-style in farming areas in Nibaei, a town near Dujail, about 50 miles north of Baghdad, said police Lt. Qahtan al-Hashmawi.â
WTF is wrong with these people set up a roadblock kill 30 innocent people for no reason. These were not police or military they were just some poor sap either going or leaving work. What is wrong with the LLLâs when they see stories like this yet still claim the terrorist as âfreedom fightersâ âinsurgentsâ hell man these guys donât even qualify as terrorist the are just plan old MURDERERS.
#3
"Thirty people were dragged from their cars Wednesday at crude checkpoints erected on unpaved roads and shot dead execution-style in farming areas in Nibaei, a town near Dujail..."
Sounds like an area that should have been cordoned and searched immediately. But 'now' is still better than never - these poisonous fish need water to swim in.
#4
The irrational murders are the handiwork of irriational, power-hungry savages who are funded by either the Saudis or by Iran. Until we shut off the funds totally and completely from both nations, it will continue. It would be there if we were there or if we would leave. It's time to put the pressure on the sources of the funding. A nuke or two on Riyadh, Tehran, Qom, Damascus, Natanz, and a few other places would end the funding once and for all. Follow with an armed takeover of those nations until they could build governments that can play nice with one another and the west. Unfortunately, we don't have the manpower in uniform to do that at the moment, and the people aligned against us will continue to see that we don't by bribery, threats, and any other means possible.
Posted by: Old Patriot ||
01/19/2006 15:47 Comments ||
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Old Patriot:
Qom and Mecca? About 20 years ago, a Hindu nationalist told me that if we cut the head off the Muslim snake, the body would die. I never doubted him.
Nuking Mecca wouldn't arouse the ire of 1 billion Muslims; it would cause hundreds of millions to abandon the murder cult. Muslim accounts (fabrications) of Muhammed's bloody return the Mecca, paint him as fighting with angels on his side. If angels couldn't protect Mecca from nukes, then maybe there is no such thing as angels, and Muhammed must have concocted his so-called "recitations" (quran) from "gabriel." Life in America has caused 300,000 Iranian ex-pats to abandon Islam.
Gunmen killed at least six Iraqi security personnel and two engineers from Malawi and Madagascar went missing following an attack Wednesday on a mobile phone firm's convoy in western Baghdad, the company said. Iraqna, a cell phone company owned by Egyptian-giant Orascom, said in a statement that their convoy was attacked at about 8 a.m. in the capital's Nafaq al-Shurta area and that the fate of the missing engineers was unknown.
There was confusion about the number of dead. Police Capt. Qassim Hussein said at least 10 security personnel were killed in the attack, and hospital officials put the death toll at nine. It was not immediately possible to reconcile the differences, and it was unclear if some of the dead were assailants. An Iraqna engineer, Ali Jamil, told The Associated Press that the two engineers were abducted as they were heading to a project in Baghdad.
Posted by: Fred ||
01/19/2006 00:00 ||
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A suicide bomber blew up near the old central bus station in southern Tel Aviv at around 3:45 P.M. on Thursday, wounding at least 20 people. Islamic Jihad said that it carried out the attack. The terrorist group has claimed responsibility for each of the six suicide bombings in Israel since a truce took effect last February. Police said that the suicide bomber was the only person killed in the explosion.
On Thursday evening, Islamic Jihad released a video recording in which it claimed responsibility for the suicide attack. Palestinian sources in the West Bank city of Nablus identified the bomber as Sami Antar, 20, a resident of the adjacent Balata refugee camp. The Israel Defense Forces said it had no specific warnings of an attack but only general information indicating Islamic Jihad was intending to strike. Acting Prime Minister Ehud Olmert has ordered the IDF to continue its operations in the West Bank against Islamic Jihad.
This is the first terror attack that originated in Nablus in more than a year. Other recent attacks carried out by Islamic Jihad involved explosives from Jenin assembled by operatives from the Tul Karm area who reached the Sharon region via Jerusalem.
Sources in Nablus told Haaretz that Antar was a member of a Al-Aqsa Martyrs' Brigades branch headed by Balata resident Ala Sanakra. This particular branch of the Brigades, which seeks its inspiration from Hezbollah, has threatened to disrupt Palestinian parliamentary elections in the city by carrying out terror attacks.
The Thursday blast occurred at a shawarma stand close to the bus station, at the junction of Neveh Sha'anan and Salomon streets, in an area normally crowded with shoppers and travelers. Witnesses said the bomber entered the restaurant pretending to be a peddler selling disposable razors. According to police, the bomber blew himself up in the restaurant's bathroom and may have been trying to prepare the explosive device when it went off prematurely. Of the wounded, one person was in serious condition, five people sustained moderate wounds and 14 others were lightly hurt. All the wounded were evacuated from the site of the attack within a short time of the blast. They were taken to Wolfson Medical Center in Holon and Ichilov Hospital in Tel Aviv.
After the blast, a crowd gathered outside the restaurant. An elderly man wearing a felt hat wept. "There was a huge boom near... a restaurant," witness Ronit Lis told Reuters. "Everything turned black and I ran away. They began to close the area down and there are a lot of ambulances in the area." A witness, who identified himself only as Itzik, said he was eating at a fast-food stand when he began to suspect the man standing next to him. "All of a sudden a policeman came, he pulled him out, and started searching him," he told Israel Radio. The suspect fled, Itzik said, and five minutes later the explosion was heard.
Israel said that the blame for the attack lay at the feet of the Palestinian Authority, which it said was doing nothing to fight terrorism. "The terror attack in Tel Aviv is a direct result of the Palestinian Authority's glaring indifference to preventing terror against Israel," David Baker, an official in the Prime Minister's Office, told Haaretz.
"The PA continues its policy of refusing to take any steps whatsoever to prevent this terror, and ignoring its commitments to do so. It continues to sit idly by and do nothing."
Saeb Erekat, the chief Palestinian negotiator, condemned the attack, calling it an act of sabotage against Palestinian parliamentary balloting scheduled for next Wednesday. "We condemn this attack," he said. "This is an attack to sabotage the Palestinian elections and sabotage the efforts being exerted to revive the peace process after the elections." In the wake of the blast, the police raised the level of alert across the whole country, Channel 10 TV reported. Talking to reporters at the site of the attack, senior police officials said that it was too early to provide details of how the attack was carried out.
Olmert did not convene a special meeting of top ministers and defense officials following the Tel Aviv attack but held consultations via telephone. Olmert spoke with IDF Chief of Staff Dan Halutz and heads of the police and Shin Bet domestic security service. Defense Minister Shaul Mofaz directed the security establishment to continue operations against Islamic Jihad and "ticking time-bombs" during the coming week when Israel had planned to reduce its presence in major West Bank cities in the lead up to Palestinian parliamentary elections. A Palestinian suicide bomber last struck in Israel on December 5, killing five people outside a shopping mall in the coastal city of Netanya.
Posted by: Steve ||
01/19/2006 14:01 ||
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#1
According to police, the bomber blew himself up in the restaurant's bathroom and may have been trying to prepare the explosive device when it went off prematurely.
Courtesy boom.
A suicide bomber blew himself up in a crowded pedestrian mall near Tel Aviv's central bus station Thursday and at least 20 people were wounded, police said. The area near the bus station is generally crowded with shoppers and travelers. There was no immediate claim of responsibility by Palestinian militants.
Proud townsfolk of the first Filipino-American female soldier killed in Iraq buried her Thursday with full U.S. military honors in the tiny village where she grew up before migrating to America nine years ago. A Roman Catholic chapel near the childhood home of Army Sgt. Myla Maravillosa in the village of U-og in central Inabanga town was too small to accommodate hundreds of people attending a funeral Mass.
A contingent of U.S. Army honor guards led by Brig. Gen. Gregory Schumacher provided traditional U.S. military honors, while Bohol Gov. Erico Aumentado directed all Philippine flags flown at half mast in the entire province. Schumacher, commander of the Military Intelligence Readiness Command at Fort Belvoir, Va., described Maravillosa as a 'true Filipino-American hero' who 'represented the very best of the qualities that we desire in our soldiers and indeed represented the very best of humanity itself.'
'The ties between the United States and the Philippines are deep and enduring and she is a symbol of that very strong relationship,' he said.
Schumacher knelt as he offered the folded U.S. flag that draped Maravillosa's casket to her mother, together with her daughter's medals, including the Bronze Star, the Purple Heart and the Meritorious Service Medal. Relatives and friends released white balloons with the message, 'We will always remember, we will love you forever.' Maravillosa's mother, Estelita, clutched the U.S. flag and watched quietly as people wept. 'What sorrows I have now, I have to accept because that is her fate,' Estelita Maravillosa said at the chapel. 'She died not in vain. She died for a cause - for the freedom of the whole world.'
Cindy Sheethead could not be reached for comment
Provincial administrator Tomas Abapo said Maravillosa 'died an honorable death in an important war' against terrorism, which is also plaguing the Philippines.
He gets it, unlike most Democrats
Maravillosa moved to Hawaii when she was 16 to join her mother, who migrated in 1986. She attended college in Wahiawa and enlisted in the U.S. Army Reserves in 1999.
On Christmas Eve, Maravillosa's Humvee was attacked by Iraqi insurgents firing rocket-propelled grenades, mortally wounding her, according to the Pentagon. Maravillosa, an interrogator assigned to the 301st Military Intelligence Battalion, had been in Iraq for only a little more than a month. She was the first Filipino-American woman soldier to die in Iraq. At least one other Philippine-born U.S. soldier has been killed in Iraq since 2003. Her grade school teacher, Dulce Betinol, said she could not imagine 'this cute, gentle girl, so sweet with a ready smile' joining the Army and marching off to war. 'None of us thought or even just dreamed that our (village would) ever produce such a young woman with such commitment, serving at the cost of her life,' Betinol said.
Posted by: Steve ||
01/19/2006 08:07 ||
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#1
May God bless her and keep her, and grant her and those she loved that which she died to protect: freedom and peace. Sgt. Myla Maravillosa is the kind of person who makes me proud to be American, too.
YALA, Thailand : Some 200 militants set dozens of telephone towers ablaze overnight in Thailand's Muslim-majority south, in attacks officials said Thursday could be reprisals for government restrictions on cell phones in the region.
"There were more than 50 arson attacks in four provinces, but no one died," the regional police commander, Lieutenent General Adul Seangsingkaeo told reporters.
"The attacks involve more than 200 teenaged militants," he added.
The militants threw petrol bombs at mobile phone relay towers and phone booths, causing some interruptions to cell phone service.
Seven of the militants have been arrested, Prime Minister Thaksin Shinawatra told reporters in northeastern Thailand.
He said the attacks could have been reprisals for government restrictions on cell phone use in the south, where users must register their lines so that authorities can try to track phones used to detonate bombs in the region.
"Last night's attacks aimed to incite more unrest and to show that the militants are still capable" of staging coordinated raids, Thaksin said.
"The attacks may have been to retaliate against government registration of SIM cards, because now they cannot use mobile phones to detonate bombs," he said.
Justice Minister Chidchai Vanasathidya urged security forces to step up precautions against further attacks.
"We cannot be complacent. The militants can strike back at us at any time," he said.
#1
"The attacks may have been to retaliate against government registration of SIM cards, because now they cannot use mobile phones to detonate bombs," he said.
Our cell towers are safe. The Dems and the ACLU would never permit this type of bomb detonation monitoring.
#2
Wherever Muslims are a majority, they make trouble with their non-Muslim neighbors. Just as it happened in the Paris' suburbs, it will happen in every city in the West. We have to not only halt all Muslim immigration, we must deport each and every one who rejects Secular values.
Philippine security forces arrested a Muslim rebel suspected of ties to foreign Islamic militants in connection with bombings in the capital in 2000, officials and rebels said on Wednesday.
Ustadz Abdulgani Pagao was on his way to pay his respects to a dead relative in Maguindanao town on the southern island of Mindanao when a team of soldiers and police arrested him on Tuesday, said an army intelligence official.
"The police served him an arrest warrant for multiple murder," the official told Reuters.
A police official said Pagao, a member of the country's largest Muslim rebel group Moro Islamic Liberation Front (MILF), had been implicated in five coordinated bombings in Manila in December 2000 that killed 22 people and wounded more than 100.
The government said the attacks were planned and funded by the regional militant network Jemaah Islamiah and carried out by local Muslim rebels in revenge for the military's capture of guerrilla bases on Mindanao.
The intelligence official said there were reports Pagao had attended an Islamic school in Libya with Ustadz Abdurajak Abubakar Janjalani, the late founder of Abu Sayyaf, one of four Muslim rebel groups in the mainly Roman Catholic Philippines.
The military said Pagao's arrest could prove that active links exist between the Moro Islamic Liberation Front and groups such as Abu Sayyaf, al Qaeda and Jemaah Islamiah.
MILF spokesman Eid Kabalu said Pagao was a member of the group's Islamic education committee but dismissed military claims about his ties with Abu Sayyaf as "baseless and mere speculation".
"Our ceasefire panel filed a complaint against the government for the arrest of Ustadz Pagao," Kabalu said.
A military official told Reuters the government panel agreed to a request by the MILF to visit Pagao at his detention cell at the national police headquarters in Manila "as soon as possible".
A rebel delegation would be accompanied by representatives from the government and a Malaysian-led team of international peace monitors to check on Pagao's conditions at Camp Crame.
On Monday, the chief negotiator for the MILF, Mohaqher Iqbal, told Reuters the two sides were "on the final stretch" of talks to strike a peace deal.
Posted by: Dan Darling ||
01/19/2006 00:38 ||
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New southern Philippines military commander Major General Gabriel Habacon ordered tightened security in all military camps and posted photographs of a fugitive coup leader who is accused of trying to overthrow the Arroyo government.
"We have to be very careful. We don't want government destabilizers going around camps. I have ordered tight security in all military camps and the arrest of those trying to overthrow the democratic government," Habacon said Wednesday.
Photographs of escaped coup leader Marine Captain Nicanor Faeldon were posted in different areas of the Southern Command headquarters, the largest military installation outside Manila, and in army camps across Mindanao.
Faeldon, one of the leaders in the failed Oakwood mutiny in Manila's financial district of Makati, escaped on December 14 after a postponed rebellion hearing. Days later, he sent video clips to media organizations that showed him inside the Western Command.
Habacon's order came after Faeldon last week released a set of photographs and a video clip showing he was inside the Southern Command. Just this week, Faeldon again released a new video and pictures showing him inside the national police headquarters Camp Crame in Manila.
Four other coup leaders--lieutenants Lawrence San Juan, Nathaniel Rabonza, Sonny Sarmiento, and Patricio Bumindang--also escaped late Tuesday from a military prison in Manila and triggered a massive government manhunt in the country.
The five helped lead a failed rebellion against President Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo in 2003.
San Juan was commander of the US-trained anti-terror Light Reaction Company, who helped crush Abu Sayyaf forces in Basilan and Jolo islands in 2002, while the three were members of the Army's infantry, ranger, and armor brigade.
The ring leaders accused senior military officials of corruption and Arroyo of abetting it and called on her to resign so a junta could be established. The coup leaders and their followers eventually surrendered and were jailed. They later apologized, saying their actions were sparked by an honest desire for change.
Habacon said the posting of Faeldon's photographs in military camps was to allow troops to properly identify the fugitive coup leader. "With Faeldon's photos all over the camps, soldiers can now identify him properly and take the necessary actions if they see him the next time," he said.
A local television report said a soldier saw Faeldon on January 8 inside the Southern Command, but did not report the matter to his superiors thinking the man was a look-alike.
Philippine Army chief Hermogenes Esperon earlier ordered an investigation into Faeldon's claims that he sneaked inside the Southern Command.
"He cannot hide all the time, and eventually we will arrest him. Faeldon should not let himself be used by groups with vested and destructive interests. You must not allow yourself be used by persons who are not accountable to the people," Esperon said.
The military previously said the clip was digitally manipulated.
Posted by: Dan Darling ||
01/19/2006 00:37 ||
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You must not allow yourself be used by persons who are not accountable to the people,"
one of the "corrupt" generals said this!
Ameture hour once again in the Philippines...
Posted by: bk ||
01/19/2006 10:04 Comments ||
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#2
This whole series of events is an ongoing tragedy. LT San Juan commanded one of the US trained LRC, Light Reaction Companies. In that training he was exposed to discipline, honor, integrity, and putting ones unit and nation above ones self. He was equipped with the best equipment money could buy, trained by the best soldiers in the world, 1st SFG, and shown how a well trained unit can win in combat and sustain minimal casualties. The US trained the LRCâs on the US model, officer led, NCO driven. What was not trained to the LRC was how to deal with being the only honorable unit in a corrupt and undisciplined military. They were exposed to what âRightâ looks like and they were victorious in battle.
The hopes of training units like this is that when the officers and NCOâs move on they will take this training and integrity with them to their new units and instill it across the AFP, Armed Forces of the Philippines. LT San Juan looked at his leaders, the generals, and found institutionalized corruption, graft, and conspiracy with the enemy. They went to their leader, the president, and asked her to investigate the corruption and they were met with a promise in the dark. Out of frustration they took matters into their own hands and took the Makati district of Manila. They had planned this carefully as to not incur civilian casualties and took care not to use the US equipment given to them, in an effort not to put the FMS programs at risk. They released all the hotel guests and insured their safety on departure. Their demands were simple. They wanted the boots that were promised to the soldiers by the president. The money for the boots were taken by generals and put into private off shore accounts. They wanted the AFP intelligence chief removed from position. He was a former NPA commander and they believed, and had evidence of his continued involvement with the NPA. They wanted the AFP G4 arrested and the millions he filtered into the US returned. They also had a list of, I believe seven other corrupt generals they wanted investigated. Basically they wanted reform in the military there. Last they wanted amnesty for all the enlisted soldiers taking part in the coupe. They felt they were doing the right thing for their country, they knew they would not succeed, and they knew they would probably die for their acts. But they felt without action, their country would never get better, and they never wanted to take the country over.
Fifteen minutes before the assault by the police and other troops, the mutineers asked to surrender. They had got their point to the world and wanted no violence. They were arrested and thrown in prison. Months later the enlisted were released to their units. Officers that were not key leaders were released also. The AFP intelligence chief was investigated and place under house arrest. The G4 had all his assets seized and is on trial at this time, his son was caught smuggling hundreds of thousands of dollars into the US. Other officers on the list quickly retired and were also investigated. The actions of LT San Juan did not clean up the AFP, but it did end one generation of corruption.
From a civilized perspective, what they did was wrong. Their intentions were honorable, their execution was criminal. To some they are heroâs, to others villains. This story is not over. The question is: In a corrupt government and military is this act justifiable?
Posted by: 49 Pan ||
01/19/2006 20:34 Comments ||
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Indonesian anti-terrorism police have detained a close aide to the country's most-wanted militant, Malaysian Noordin M. Top, a senior police source said on Thursday.
"This is one of Noordin's boys from his inner circle," said the source, who declined to be identified and gave few details. The source said the man was detained in the central Java city of Semarang on Wednesday. One of his roles was to recruit bodyguards for Top, said the source. A police spokesman in central Java said he was aware of the detention of the aide but declined to give details.
Top worked closely in Indonesia with fellow Malaysian Azahari bin Husin, who was killed in a police raid on his East Java hideout in November. Azahari was also a senior Jemaah Islamiah operative. Police say they almost caught Top hours before the November raid and he is thought to be still in Indonesia. ADDITIONAL: (AKI) - Indonesian police have arrested two suspected aides of the country's most wanted terrorist, Noordin Mohammed Top, considered responsible for the bloodiest attacks in the country including the 2002 Bali bombing which killed 202 people. Subur Sugiarto, also known as Abu Mujahid, who is accused of helping hide Noordin, was picked up aboard a Jakarta-bound bus in central Java, a police commander said.
Posted by: Dan Darling ||
01/19/2006 00:17 ||
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France, with the support of the United States, rejected Iran's request for more negotiations on the Islamic republic's nuclear program, with Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice saying Wednesday "there's not much to talk about" after Iran resumed atomic activities.
As European countries pushed ahead with efforts to have Iran brought before the U.N. Security Council for its nuclear activities, President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad accused them of trying to deprive Iran of peaceful technology.
"We are asking they step down from their ivory towers and act with a little logic," Ahmadinejad said. "Who are you to deprive us from fulfilling our goals?
"You think you are the lord of the world and everybody should follow you. But that idea is a wrong idea."
In Vienna, Austria, the International Atomic Energy Agency said a special meeting of its 35-nation board of governors would be held Feb. 2 at the request of Britain, France and Germany.
French Prime Minister Dominique de Villepin said European nations were seeking the "greatest possible consensus" on dealing with Iran, and the upcoming meeting was a "very important moment."
"What we wish is that there is the greatest possible consensus to mark clearly the limit of what we can accept," he said in Berlin after meeting with German Chancellor Angela Merkel.
Earlier, Iran's foreign minister said he did not believe the country would be referred to the Security Council, which has the power to impose economic and political sanctions. However, diplomats say the council is unlikely to take such action since China and Russia, two veto-wielding members, oppose referral.
Tehran's defiant tone came as France, with U.S. backing, rejected Iran's request for a resumption of negotiations, saying Tehran must first suspend its nuclear-related activities.
Iran asked for a ministerial-level meeting with France, Germany, Britain and the European Union, but its decision to resume some uranium enrichment-related activities "means that it is not possible for us to meet under satisfactory conditions to pursue these discussions," French Foreign Ministry spokesman Denis Simonneau said in Paris.
"Iran must return to a complete suspension of these activities."
In Washington, Rice and EU foreign policy chief Javier Solana also rejected any return to talks.
"There's not much to talk about," Rice said during a photo session at the State Department with Solana.
Rice said Iran must not be allowed to have a nuclear weapons capability or "to pursue activities that might to a nuclear weapons capability."
Later, during a speech at Georgetown University, Rice said the international community was united in its belief that Iran "stepped over a line when it broke the seals" at its main uranium enrichment facility and resumed reprocessing nuclear fuel.
"The Iranians want to make this about their rights. It's not about their rights," Rice said. "It's about the ability of the international system to trust them with the capabilities and technologies that could lead to a nuclear weapon.
"They have a history with IAEA of not disclosing, with covering their activities and so no one does trust them with those technologies."
Solana agreed that "there is not much point" in resuming talks if there is "nothing new on the table."
The European countries have drawn up a draft IAEA resolution asking the Security Council to press Tehran "to extend full and prompt cooperation to the agency" in its investigation of suspect nuclear activities - though it stops short of asking the council to impose sanctions.
A European diplomat accredited to the IAEA said Wednesday there were no significant changes in the language of the draft resolution.
"We are pretty well where we were yesterday," the diplomat said on condition of anonymity because he was not authorized to speak to the media about the draft.
Russia and China - as well as Egypt, which also sits on the 35-nation IAEA Board of Governors - are reluctant to support Iran's referral.
"In view of the overall situation, we regard the possibility of the hauling of Iran's nuclear case to the Security Council to be weak," Iranian Foreign Minister Manouchehr Mottaki told state radio.
"During the past 10 days we have tried to relay our message to all relevant parties, including the Europeans, about Iran's readiness to negotiate on the production of nuclear fuel."
Mottaki said he hoped European countries would avoid taking steps that could only worsen the current situation - an apparent reference to U.S. and European talk of sanctions.
Ahmadinejad shrugged off the draft resolution, calling it politically motivated and said he was unconcerned by the attempts to refer Iran to the council.
"There isn't any problem. This is their endeavor. We can't stop others from trying," he told reporters.
The United States accuses Iran of trying to secretly build nuclear weapons - a charge Iran denies. Britain, France and Germany, with U.S. backing, have been trying to persuade Iran to import nuclear fuel instead of having its own uranium enrichment program, but Iran has rejected this.
The Bush administration sent U.S. Undersecretary of State Nicholas Burns to London to coordinate a strategy with Britain, China, France, Germany and Russia on dealing with Iran. Burns conceded differences remained after Tuesday's meeting.
"We reached a consensus on some points ... others need to be worked on," he said in Bombay, India, during a South Asia tour.
"There is a consensus that Iran should turn back, return to negotiations and suspend its nuclear program. But that's not the path Iran is on now."
A delegation of Israeli security experts was in Moscow on Wednesday to meet with Russia's Security Council and Foreign Ministry in hopes of winning Russian backing for Security Council referral.
Russia's Interfax news agency said the head of country's nuclear energy agency, Sergei Kiriyenko, met with the delegation led by Israeli National Security Chief Giora Eiland.
French Foreign Minister Philippe Douste-Blazy was scheduled to meet with Russian officials on Thursday.
Posted by: Dan Darling ||
01/19/2006 00:57 ||
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Khaddam must be singing like a canary ...
The U.S. Department of the Treasury today named Assef Shawkat a Specially Designated National (SDN) of Syria pursuant to Executive Order 13338, for directly furthering the Government of Syria's support for terrorism and interference in the sovereignty of Lebanon.
"As the Director of Syrian Military Intelligence, Shawkat has been a key architect of Syria's domination of Lebanon, as well as a fundamental contributor to Syria's long-standing policy to foment terrorism against Israel," said Stuart Levey, Treasury's Under Secretary for Terrorism and Financial Intelligence (TFI).
Identifier Information
Assef Shawkat
Title: Director of Syrian Military Intelligence
DOB: 1950
POB: Tartus, Syria
Nationality: Syria
Address: Al-Akkad Street, Damascus, Syria
Major General Assef Shawkat is the Director of Syrian Military Intelligence (SMI), the strongest and most influential security service in Syria. Its broad internal and external responsibilities include working with terrorist organizations resident in Syria and overseeing the Syrian security presence in Lebanon.
In addition to the power he derives from his position, Shawkat also has access to the highest levels of the Syrian power structure by virtue of his marriage to Bushra al-Asad, the sister to Syrian President Bashar al-Assad. Shawkat is a close confidant of President Assad and an important member of his inner circle of advisors.
Through his position as Director of SMI, Shawkat has directed and significantly contributed to the Government of Syria's support for terrorism, including coordination with Specially Designated Global Terrorists Hizballah, Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine-General Command ("PFLP-GC"), Hamas, and Palestinian Islamic Jihad ("PIJ").
Information indicates that in 2005, Shawkat met with Hizballah Secretary General Hasan Nasrallah, PFLP-GC chief Ahmad Jibril, PIJ Secretary General Ramadan Shallah, in addition to Hamas and PIJ officials. Shallah, Jibril and Nasrallah are designated Specially Designated Terrorists pursuant to Executive Order 12947. Shawkat and the officials discussed coordination and cooperation between the terrorist groups. Shawkat and Jibril hoped to ease the freedom of movement for Palestinian terrorist groups, including PFLP-GC in Lebanon, so that the groups could move between Lebanon and Syria, as well as receive weapons and ammunition more easily.
During his tenure as Deputy Director of SMI, Shawkat managed a branch of SMI charged with overseeing liaison relations with major terrorist groups resident in Damascus, including PFLP-GC, Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine (PFLP), HAMAS, and PIJ. As SMI Deputy, Shawkat helped direct operations against Israel, some of which were coordinated with Palestinian terrorist group leaders, including PFLP-GC leader Ahmad Jibril and PIJ leader Ramadan Shallah.
Information shows that in June 2003, Shawkat, through his position as deputy director of SMI, ordered members of PIJ, Hamas, and PFLP-GC to lower their profiles. The SMI dictated a number of changes that needed to be implemented by the three terrorist groups. The SMI demanded that each of the groups seek approval from Shawkat's liaison to hold meetings and gatherings inside their respective office spaces. The SMI also demanded that the groups lower their presence and public profile as much as possible. In return, the SMI declared that they would not expel any of the groups' members from Syrian soil or close offices, provided their demands were met.
Information available to the United States Government indicates that in 1997, Shawkat instructed PIJ Secretary General Ramadan Shallah to surveil strategic targets in a neighboring country to prepare for possible future attacks.
By virtue of his position as SMI Director, Shawkat directs and significantly contributes to the Government of Syria's military and security presence in Lebanon. SMI is the primary entity responsible for coordinating and implementing Syrian Arab Republic Government's (SARG) policies in Lebanon. Shawkat has contributed significantly to the SARG's security presence in Lebanon through his oversight of SMI activities within Lebanon and his direct control over Brigadier General Rustum Ghazali, who commanded SMI activities in Lebanon.
Posted by: Dan Darling ||
01/19/2006 00:51 ||
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Syrian authorities released on Wednesday four political prisoners including Riad Seif and Maamoun Al-Humsi. -- Hassan Abdel Atheem, spokesmnan of the opposition Democratic Gathering, said in a statement to KUNA that the authorities freed the prisoners of the so-called "Damascus Spring;" Habib Issa, Riad Seif, Maamoun Al-Humsi and Fawwaz Tello.
"See? I can be the compassionate eye doc of death! This has nothing to do with my intel chief's assets being frozen! Nothing! Tell them, Hogan!"
Abdel Atheem, a lawyer, told KUNA that university professor Aref Dalilah would released within 48 hours. -- Abdel Atheem expressed hope that all political prisoners in Syria would be released, in addition to further steps on the path of political reforms, democracy, "because such steps pave the way for bolstering the national unity." Al-Humsi and Seif, both members of the parliament, were detained in 2001 and sentenced to five years behind iron bars "for seeking to amend the constitution with illegal means." The release of the prisoners occurred ahead of a meeting of the Arab lawyers, due in Damascus on Saturday.
Secretary General of the Arab Lawyers Union Ibrahim Al-Salami raised the issue of the political prisoners during a visit to the country earlier this month and was given a pledge by the authorities to let some of them go ahead of the lawyers' conference.
EFL
The United States acted Wednesday to financially clamp down on Syria's military intelligence chief, Assef Shawkat. The Treasury Department ordered US banks to block any assets found in the United States belonging to Shawkat. Americans also are barred from doing business with him. The department alleged that Shawkat has played a role in furthering Syria's "support for terrorism and interference in the sovereignty of Lebanon."
It marked the United States' latest action to turn up the heat on Syria. In June, the department moved to block the assets of Syria's interior minister, Ghazi Kanaan, and its chief of military intelligence for Lebanon, Rustum Ghazali. The power for the department to take the action stems from a May, 11, 2004, executive order by President George W. Bush.
Posted by: Frank G ||
01/19/2006 00:00 ||
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In an audio tape broadcast on Aljazeera, Osama bin Laden has warned that al-Qaida was preparing an attack very soon, but also offered Americans a "long-term truce".
... upon which at least a third of Congressional Dems are going to jump...
"The new operations of al-Qaida has not happened not because we could not penetrate the security measures. It is being prepared and you'll see it in your homeland very soon," the voice attributed to bin Laden said, apparently addressing Americans. But the voice on the tape, which appeared to be aimed at the American public, also offered a truce: "We do not mind establishing a long-term truce between us and you."
"It would last until we can train up some more bigshots. We're running a little short lately..."
The tape, broadcast on Thursday but dated to December last year, comes after a year of silence from the al-Qaida leader.
Ayman's done most of the talking. Ayman almost(?) gets zapped and suddenly Binny's talkative. I'm wondering about that "almost." And I'm oiling up my ululator.
"This message is about the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan and how to end those wars," it began.
"It was not my intention to talk to you about this, because those wars are definitely going our way.
"But what triggered my desire to talk to you is the continuous deliberate misinformation given by your President [George] Bush, when it comes to polls made in your home country which reveal that the majority of your people are willing to withdraw US forces from Iraq.
"We know that the majority of your people want this war to end and opinion polls show the Americans don't want to fight the Muslims on Muslim land, nor do they want Muslims to fight them on their (US) land.
"But Bush does not want this and claims that it's better to fight his enemies on their land rather than on American land.
"Bush tried to ignore the polls that demanded that he end the war in Iraq.
"We are getting increasingly stronger while your situation is getting from bad to worse," he told the US, referring to poor US troop morale and the huge economic losses inflicted by the war.
"The war in Iraq is raging and the operations in Afghanistan are increasing."
Truce offer
"In response to the substance of the polls in the US, which indicate that Americans do not want to fight Muslims on Muslim land, nor do they want Muslims to fight them on their land, we do not mind offering a long-term truce based on just conditions that we will stick to.
"We are a nation that Allah banned from lying and stabbing others in the back, hence both parties of the truce will enjoy stability and security to rebuild Iraq and Afghanistan, which were destroyed by war.
"There is no problem in this solution, but it will prevent hundreds of billions from going to influential people and warlords in America - those who supported Bush's electoral campaign - and from this, we can understand Bush and his gang's insistence on continuing the war."
Addressing Americans again, he said: "If your desire for peace, stability and reconciliation was true, here we have given you the answer to your call."
Bin Laden, who had not been heard of since a 27 December 2004 audiotape in which he anointed Abu Musab al-Zarqawi, Iraq's most wanted man, as al-Qaida's leader in Iraq, also said his network was winning the war against the US.
"I would like to tell you that everything is going to our advantage and the number of your dead is increasing, according to Pentagon figures."
Ayman al-Zawahiri, bin Laden's deputy, said in a September videotape that his leader was still alive and leading the jihad against the West. .. and dhimmies accept the truce. Let the demonstrations begin.
#1
I gotta admit, I like the terms. We offer to stop banging Binny's senior officer corps, and he offers to...retire to his cave to continue plotting the demise of Civilization and to be measured for his new Caliph turban.
#3
There was a Tumbleweeds comic strip years ago that applies to this situation. The indian chief asks the Colonel of a cavelry fort to surrender the fort. "Give me one good reason", the officer asks. "Because you're losing", replies the chief. "Need a better reason than that", says Colonel Fluster. "Because we're winning", says the chief.
Binny should take parable to heart.
Posted by: Jim K ||
01/19/2006 12:28 Comments ||
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#4
Truce? OK, right after the US annexes Arabia.
Posted by: ed ||
01/19/2006 12:29 Comments ||
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#5
Benny's speech sounds like it was written by the leading Demo politicians. Nancy keeps telling us, they are developing a plan. Maybe Benny is delivering this as a dry run for them.
With Hillary saying Bush isn't being tough enough on the MMs in Iran and calling for sanctions, now Benny offering truce, wonder how she's going to square this? Attack the Iranians, and maybe Benny will offer a truce for them also?
And wonder if the Demos will realize now, that we are at war. I mean, how can you have a truce if there is no war? So, if Dems start screaming for "talks for this truce," will they admit we are at war?
There's something about cause and effect here, that just seems to be circling around in my head, not landing anywhere. Oh well, it almost time for lunch, maybe food will help this circling entity to find a resting place.
#6
Though obviously intended as a slam of Americans, the artist who created this image actually got it more right than his Lefty Moonbat Kool Aid addled PCism allowed him to realize, heh. It's a prominent feature of Tranzis in the terminal stage of BDS. I figure it will give many of you a case of the giggles. ;-)
#7
The LLL/Dums must be proud he covered all of the talking points, military industrial complex, warmongers made Bush pres, Americans donât support US WOT (same polls the Dums have made and tout), US is losing, blah blah blah.
You could fill in Bin Laden name for Kerry, Shenan, Dean, Kennedy, Pelosi, Moore and it would just sound like another LLL radio address.
#9
Here are our terms for your "truce": Your unconditional surrender and war criminal trial--or death by Hellfire. Either is fine by me.
I'd also like to state how proud this American taxpayer is of the spooks who nailed the 3-4 al Qaida ops in Pakistan this past week. Nice shootin', boys! Keep up the great work!
I just love the timing of this "truce" offer right after the Pakistan strike... the offer tape was probably recorded and planned for release before the strike happened, but the timing is excellent and makes it appear al-Qaida is crying "Uncle".
Posted by: Dar ||
01/19/2006 13:16 Comments ||
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#10
.com he has a pretty good grasp of the geopolitix of the region. Thanks!
#11
Can't wait for one of the "intellectuals" to say this is evidence that poor Binny's been misunderstood. All he really needs is a hug, an Iron John drumming session, or something like that.
#12
The bin Laden truce and the Murtha withdrawal plan are pretty much the same document.
Wonder if anyone but us Rantburgers will notice?
Posted by: Mike ||
01/19/2006 13:27 Comments ||
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#13
Benny's speech sounds like it was written by the leading Demo politicians
don't know who wrote it, but it sure sounds like it was taped a good while ago -- no specifics. It may also be the offer of hudna that preceeds (when it is ignored) an attack.
#15
009.005 But the treaties are not dissolved with those Pagans with whom ye have entered into alliance and who have not subsequently failed you in aught, nor aided any one against you. So fulfil your engagements with them to the end of their term.
009.005 But when the forbidden months are past [when the 'treaties' expire] then fight and slay the Pagans [wherever] ye find them, and seize them, beleaguer them, and lie in wait for them in every stratagem of war.
#16
rather than spin this as a DU conspiracy or neocon conspiracy, it would be nice to use this "offer" as a teachable moment to tell people what a hudna is
Wikipedia has a good write up
--------------
Hudna
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia.
Jump to: navigation, search
Hudna (Ã¥ÃäÃ) is an Arabic term meaning "truce" or "armistice" as well as "calm" or "quiet", coming from a verbal root meaning "calm". It is sometimes translated as "cease-fire". In the Lisan al-Arab (Ibn al-Manzur's definitive dictionary of classical Arabic, dating to the 14th century) it is defined as follows:
"hadana: he grew quiet. hadina: he quieted (transitive or intransitive). haadana: he made peace with. The noun from each of these is hudna."
A particularly famous early hudna was the Treaty of Hudaybiyyah between Muhammad and the Quraysh tribe.
According to Umdat as-Salik, a medieval summary of Shafi'i jurisprudence, hudnas with a non-Muslim enemy should be limited to 10 years: "if Muslims are weak, a truce may be made for ten years if necessary, for the Prophet (Allah bless him and give him peace) made a truce with the Quraysh for that long, as is related by Abu Dawud" ('Umdat as-Salik, o9.16).
#19
SM listed suras 9:4 and 9:5. Basically it's saying to honor the hudna (no more than 10 years) if the infidels also honor it. At expiry, it's jihad again.
Since Surah 9 was the last (some say next to last) chapter of the quran to be revealed, it supercedes all the be nice to the idolaters verses Mo spouted while he was weak.
Posted by: ed ||
01/19/2006 14:33 Comments ||
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#20
Binny blinked.
Oh, and he thinks we don't want to fight Muslims in our own land...Bullshite, we have these pesky laws keeping us from annihilating y'all.
#21
Binny didn't blink. The quran says to offer a truce when the muslims are in a bad position. It's just an acknowledgement of facts on the ground and a desire to regroup and attack when our guard is down again.
Posted by: ed ||
01/19/2006 15:11 Comments ||
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#22
I'm in, ed. They're playing the Long Game. When we finally become tired of the WoT (happening all around us already) and so self-absorbed and juvenile that we're back to navel-gazing, then it will begin anew. It's to our immense advantage that they're tactically clueless. They started this about a decade too soon. Thank your Lucky Stars that they did it when they did and that Dubya grew into the shoes, not to mention that he beat Gore and Skeery. Just imagine...
#25
.com is right on. Thank God that these idiots wanted the glory for themselves, not for future generations. So they could'nt wait much longer for the war to happen, less they not be glorified.
DUBAI (Reuters) - Arab television al Jazeera station said on Thursday it would soon air a new audio tape said to be from al Qaeda leader Osama bin Laden. No more details were given.
If he talks about the airstrike in Pakistan, we'll know it's a new tape. Otherwise, could be a rerun.
Wherein the Proprietor's hopes that Ayman new resembles 150 pounds of stewing beef are given a boost, even while his hopes that Binny is a shriveled corpse in an unmarked grave in Iran plummet.
Al-Jazeera aired an audiotape purportedly from Osama bin Laden on Thursday, saying al-Qaida is making preparations for attacks in the United States but offering a truce to build Iraq and Afghanistan.
The voice in the tape said heightened security measures in the United States are not the reason there have been no attacks there since Sept. 11, 2001. Instead, the reason is "because there are operations that need preparations, and you will see them," he said.
"Based on what I have said, it is better not to fight the Muslims on their land," he said. "We do not mind offering you a truce that is fair and long-term. ... So we can build Iraq and Afghanistan ... there is no shame in this solution because it prevents wasting of billions of dollars ... to merchants of war."
The speaker did not give conditions for a truce in the excerpts aired by Al-Jazeera.
Posted by: Steve ||
01/19/2006 09:57 ||
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#5
Osama's truce proves he's behind the Democrat's party agenda and vivious rumors. He wants Bin Laden Construction to rebuild Iraq and Afghanistan instead of Halliburton! And how timely.
#10
We may have not hit Ayman but we did strike a nerve, heh.
Posted by: Alaska Paul ||
01/19/2006 11:22 Comments ||
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#11
I remember those days when AQ were telling US they were going to form the caliphate take over the world, drive the infidels out, Afghanistan / Iraq would be our graveyard blah blah blah...
Now we have this it just proves the fact of what the Dums have been saying, "we are losing, we cant win, Iraq was a mistake, blah blah blah" Sarcasm
I would like to see Bush bring the point out that this tape proves we are winning and our PLAN is working. But I am not holding my breath.
#15
On a serious note, all they offer is some crummy audio tape with bad audio. Why can't they make a video from some non-descript padded cell plain whitewashed room and smuggle it out to Al Jazz?
The reason that they cannot is that Binny or Ayman are either dead or not *ahem* good enough shape for even a make-up session. They are either hurt badly or dead and showing them on video would hurt their cause. Also, new images of the Grusome Twosome would be like updated worldwide wanted posters.
As far as their threats go, I believe that they are relatively empty ones. They would have done it if they had the chance. If they got lucky and got a chance, they would pull it off. It is getting more difficult to organize, finance, and carry out operations for them. Also, if they did pull one off, then they would lose their base, be it in NW Sh*tholistan part of Pakistan or Iran or elsewhere. It is difficult for them to maintain an effective base. There is a lot going on in the shadow war that we, the public do not know about.
So my take on the new Binny tape is that we are winning, despite having to drag a 5th column anchor behind us all the way. An effective attack against the US would release fury against their base that so far is restrained, for pollitical reasons. We all must realize that these guys will not quit until they and their financiers are all brought to room temperature, like the cancer cells that they are.
Posted by: Alaska Paul ||
01/19/2006 11:53 Comments ||
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#21
You try to make terms when you're losing. Seems to me Binny's on the ropes - let's finish him off!
(About "building" Iraq and Afganistan...is that with or without the Taliban in Afgan and Zark's boyz in Iraq? Or does he want to bring back the old, old days?)
#23
I have no serious doubt that the tape is genuine. He makes a reference to the Daily Mirror account of the leaked memo on Bush wanting to bomb al-Jazeera, so the tape could not have been composed before late November or early December, which tracks with the al-Jazeera internal dating.
Posted by: Dan Darling ||
01/19/2006 12:18 Comments ||
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#24
"Our people are able to infiltrate through your security measures no matter how strong."
Unfortunately, I don't doubt that.
"As for the delay in similar operations in America is not because of your security measures; operations are being prepared and you will see them in your homes," he added.
Sounds like the plan Kerry kept referring to during the campaign.
"We are a nation that God has forbidden to lie and cheat."
Bwahahahaha! And I've got this great bridge I can sell you.
#25
well, I'll be darned. If it's true that he's alive, I wonder if the reason he's making audio instead of video is because he had plastic surgery and that doesn't want his followers to know that he did such a cowardly act.
A multi-volume chronology and reference guide set detailing three years of the Mexican Drug War between 2010 and 2012.
Rantburg.com and borderlandbeat.com correspondent and author Chris Covert presents his first non-fiction work detailing
the drug and gang related violence in Mexico.
Chris gives us Mexican press dispatches of drug and gang war violence
over three years, presented in a multi volume set intended to chronicle the death, violence and mayhem which has
dominated Mexico for six years.
Rantburg was assembled from recycled algorithms in the United States of America. No
trees were destroyed in the production of this weblog. We did hurt some, though. Sorry.
A Taleban commander said yesterday hundreds of his guerrillas were ready to launch suicide attacks across Afghanistan to drive out foreign forces. The threat of violence came as several thousand people gathered in the town of Spin Boldak, on the border with Pakistan, to denounce a suicide attack there on Monday that killed 23. âHundreds of Afghan Taleban mujahedeen are ready for suicide attacks,â said the Taleban commander, 
Sudan's Army has committed the first serious violation of a final cease-fire signed a year ago to end Africa's longest civil war in its south, a UN peacekeeping official said yesterday. The former southern rebel Sudan People's Liberation Movement said the army sent around 1,200 troops last week into the rebel-controlled eastern area of Hamesh Koreb and has threatened to expel the SPLM. A joint UN-led team is still in the area to defuse tensions between the two sides. "This is the first serious cease-fire violation," said Parminder Pannu, the military chief of staff of the UN peacekeeping mission in Sudan, adding the Sudanese army was responsible. The United Nations later clarified another, higher-level investigation within the UN mission was ongoing into the Hamesh Koreb attack.
Six tribesmen, accused of kidnapping five Italian tourists in northeastern Yemen earlier this month, appeared before a state security court in Sanaa yesterday. The six men, Ali Saleh Ubad Al-Zaidi, 24, Muryee Ali Ahmad Al-Ameri, 35, Ubad Saleh Al-Zaidi, 21, Naji Mahdi Al-Zaidi, 20, Hadi Muhammad Ali Al-Ameri, 24, and Muhammad Saleh Al-Zaidi, 30, appeared in court in handcuffs and blue prison uniforms. Chief prosecutor Saeed Al-Aaqil read out the charges saying that the six men, all from the Al-Zaidi clan, âtook part in forming an armed gang to kidnap foreigners.â
Outlaw killed in âshootoutâ in Mongla
French President Jacques Chirac has said France would be ready to use nuclear weapons against any state which launched a terrorist attack against it. Speaking at a nuclear submarine base in north-western France, Mr Chirac said a French response "could be conventional. It could also be of another nature." 
Six people were detained in France on Tuesday as part of a probe into a group suspected of recruiting insurgents to fight in Iraq, according to a source close to the investigation. The suspects, four men and two women, were detained in or near the southern city of Montpellier, the source said. Three of the four men were Moroccans and the fourth was French. Several other people have been detained in connection with the investigation which has been ongoing since 2004, the source said.
Investigators said on Wednesday that they had found two empty graves at the site of a controversial US air strike in the Bajaur Agency, a day after officials said that up to five foreign militants had died in the attack. However, there was no information about the identities of the insurgents who died in the raid, despite initial US intelligence reports that Al Qaedaâs Egyptian number two Ayman al-Zawahri may have been among them.
LUCKNOW â A suspected militant of the Laskhar-e-Tayyaba escaped from a train near Varanasi in Uttar Pradesh early yesterday while being taken from Kolkata to Jammu under police protection, officials here said. Police said Ali Ahmed, 28, jumped off the Sealdah-Jammu Tawi Express at around 4.30am somewhere between the Varanasi and Mughal Sarai stations. All trains slow down while traversing the 30km distance between the two stations for a technical reason and that is when Ahmed made his escape, said Varanasi Senior Superintendent of Police Navneet Sikera. "Our men have fanned out in different directions and we are doing our best to get him," Sikera said. Four Jammu and Kashmir policemen who were accompanying him from Kolkata to Jammu for a court case are being questioned.
Pakistani intelligence sources on Thursday identified three of four al Qaeda members believed to have been killed by a U.S. airstrike last week, though they have yet to recover the bodies. One of the dead was said to be 
KARACHI: A two-member appellate bench of the Sindh High Court (SHC) on Wednesday set aside death sentence for two activists of the banned religious outfit Lashkar-e-Jhangvi (LJ) and ordered their release. An anti-terrorism court had given death to Attaullah alias Qasim and Mohammad Riaz for killing a man called Syed Kazim Shah during sectarian violence in Mehmoodabad. 
SRINAGAR: The police investigating a Kashmiri politician's alleged ties to Islamic militants say the man has admitted to taking part in a plot to kill the former chief minister of held Kashmir. Last week the police arrested Abdul Wahid Dar, a city councillor in Srinagar, the state's summer capital, after intelligence reports indicated that Dar was a supporter of Lashkar-e-Tayyaba, said police superintendent Anand Jain said. Dar was once an Islamic militant who turned to politics after spending a few years in jail in the early 1990s. It is not uncommon for Kashmir militants to be released from jail if the authorities no longer consider them a threat. Since the arrest, Jain said that Dar has admitted that he helped work out the logistics for a number of Lashkar suicide attacks.
As President Pervez Musharraf appeared on state-controlled radio and television to condemn the activities of some Baloch tribal chiefs, one security man was killed and two injured badly in Kohlu the area where Nawab Khair Bux Marri dominates the society and at present is engaged with government forces in rocket firing and armed clashes. A soldier of the Frontier Corps was killed and his two colleagues were injured, sources said yesterday. "Militants had planted a land mine between Dera Bugti and Kohlu which was exploded with a remote control device killing a soldier," sources said.
LONG FORK - The steep mountainsides in western Pike County are painted in the drabbest of winter browns and grays now, but already there is a feeling in the air that the land is ready to break out with spring color in a few weeks, bringing new life, new hope. Maybe that's a good omen for a young man back home after surviving the meat grinder of Iraq but still struggling to cope with the psychological shocks of all he's seen and done, shocks that ultimately cut short his career in the U.S. Marine Corps.
Gunmen killed at least six Iraqi security personnel and two engineers from Malawi and Madagascar went missing following an attack Wednesday on a mobile phone firm's convoy in western Baghdad, the company said. Iraqna, a cell phone company owned by Egyptian-giant Orascom, said in a statement that their convoy was attacked at about 8 a.m. in the capital's Nafaq al-Shurta area and that the fate of the missing engineers was unknown. 
According to police, the bomber blew himself up in the restaurant's bathroom and may have been trying to prepare the explosive device when it went off prematurely. Of the wounded, one person was in serious condition, five people sustained moderate wounds and 14 others were lightly hurt. All the wounded were evacuated from the site of the attack within a short time of the blast. They were taken to Wolfson Medical Center in Holon and Ichilov Hospital in Tel Aviv.
Proud townsfolk of the first Filipino-American female soldier killed in Iraq buried her Thursday with full U.S. military honors in the tiny village where she grew up before migrating to America nine years ago. A Roman Catholic chapel near the childhood home of Army Sgt. Myla Maravillosa in the village of U-og in central Inabanga town was too small to accommodate hundreds of people attending a funeral Mass.
Syrian authorities released on Wednesday four political prisoners including Riad Seif and Maamoun Al-Humsi. -- Hassan Abdel Atheem, spokesmnan of the opposition Democratic Gathering, said in a statement to KUNA that the authorities freed the prisoners of the so-called "
DUBAI (Reuters) - Arab television al Jazeera station said on Thursday it would soon air a new audio tape said to be from al Qaeda leader Osama bin Laden. No more details were given. 
