The Carbine shall demonstrate a minimum of 3,800 Mean Rounds Between Essential Function Failure (MRBEFF) for Class III malfunctions (i.e., for non-operator correctable malfunctions which cause the loss of essential functionality)
and a minimum of 600 MRBEF F for Class I and II malfunctions combined (Class I malfunctions are operator clearable within 10 seconds, whereas
Class II malfunctions require more than 10 seconds but less than 10 minutes to clear but can be corrected by the operator with available equi pment).
In addition each Carbine must be compatible with the M203 under-barrel 40mm Grenade Launcher.
A properly zeroed Carbine shall enable a warfighter firing from the prone position to engage E-type silhouettes and hit each target 15 out of 30 rounds from 300m.
The Carbine shall have a sustained rate of fire greater than or equal to 45 rounds per minute without degrading reliability.
The weight of the Carbine shall be no more than 6.5 lbs, unloaded. The Carbine shall have a minimum barrel life of 10,000 rounds.
Subsequent to the production of LRIP quantities, the Government may award multiple Full Rate Production (FRP) options to the winning offeror (up to 200,000 total weapon systems if the total number of options are exercised) LMG spec
Does this weapon sound familiar?
Posted by: Phil ||
02/07/2006 19:37 Comments ||
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#2
They went and ordered 5.56mm?
God knows they have enough of it, might as well put it to use.
Mike
Posted by: Mike Kozlowski ||
02/07/2006 20:29 Comments ||
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#3
Actually, they have kinda-sorta had to order extra because they were running low.
Posted by: Phil ||
02/07/2006 21:42 Comments ||
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#4
Only 200K, stop gap till they decide on next generation replacement, replacing worn shot-out weapons. They'll pass them to the Guard if they buy the 6mm or larger.
Posted by: steve ||
02/07/2006 22:10 Comments ||
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Afghan police opened fire on a mob trying to storm a NATO peacekeeping base housing Norwegian troops on Tuesday, killing four people as protests over cartoons depicting Islam's Prophet Mohammad flared again.
British troops were sent to the northwestern town of Maymana to secure the airfield after crowds attacked a NATO base with guns and grenades.
'Police had to open fire. Some people are aiming to disrupt and disturb security,' said Azim Hakimi, spokesman for the provincial security department.
'Some people used guns,' he said. As well as the four dead, 18 people were wounded, he said.
At least nine people have been killed in protests linked to the controversy over the cartoons- in Somalia, Lebanon and seven in Afghanistan.
The cartoons were first published in a Danish newspaper in September but European newspapers reignited controversy last week when they reprinted them in a show of support for press freedom.
In Maymana, crowds of young men threw stones, grenades and petrol bombs at the camp manned by Norwegian troops. Five Norwegians were slightly hurt, Norway said.
A Dutch peacekeeper was hurt by a stone during a protest in Baghlan, also in the north, the provincial governor said.
The heavily outnumbered Norwegians fired teargas, rubber bullets and warning shots while NATO F-16 jets flew over Maymana in a show of force.
Order had been restored by early evening. 'The Afghan national police have things under control,' a spokeswoman for the NATO force said.
A British quick reaction force was being sent from their base in the nearby city of Mazar-i-Sharif, but spokesmen for NATO's International Security Assistance Force declined to say how many troops were involved.
Norwegian defence forces chief Sverre Diesen told Reuters in Oslo the British force was a 'company-sized formation' and had landed by helicopter in Maymana.
A German C-160 transport aircraft was ready to evacuate the force but Diesen said there was no immediate plan to pull the soldiers out, other than those requiring medical attention.
Norwegian Defence Minister Anne-Grete Stroem-Erichsen called the situation 'very serious' but she offered Norway's continued support for ISAF.
The United Nations said non-essential staff were being evacuated from the city. U.N. and aid groups offices were attacked during bloody riots in May sparked by a Newsweek magazine report about desecration of the Koran.
There were also protests in Jalalabad in the east, Herat in the west and the capital, Kabul, where for a second day crowds of young men stoned the Danish embassy before club-wielding police beat them off. Windows of nearby houses were smashed.
At least three Afghans were killed in protests in different parts of the country on Monday.
Across the border in Pakistan, about 5,000 Islamists paraded through Peshawar, the capital of North West Frontier Province, which is ruled by an Islamist coalition made up of several pro-Taliban groups.
Another 5,000 people rallied in North Waziristan, a restive tribal region that has been the scene of battles between Pakistani security forces and al Qaeda-linked militants in recent years.
The protests in Pakistan's North West Frontier Province were the largest since the begining of the controversy.
'Islam is being defamed through such cartoons. It is a terrorist act,' said provincial chief minister Akram Durrani, who led the rally. 'Those responsible for publishing such cartoons must be punished under international law.'
Posted by: Dan Darling ||
02/07/2006 12:34 ||
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#1
This is the victory the MM were looking for when they started this campaign. It looks like thier best shot to get the Afghans to turn away from Democracy. What is interesting is that it has had little impact in Iraq. However, the Sunnis are stirring every pot they can there. It is going to get tough for the Brits.
#2
When a flock of Muzzies gets out of hand, I say execute their imam. Padlock the doors to the mosque and suspend the daily broadcasts of required prayers. Remember, a mind is a terrible thing to waste.
#3
'Police had to open fire. Some people are aiming to disrupt and disturb security,'
"Snip"
'Some people used guns,' he said.
"Snip"
It's about goddamn time, when the Muzzies start dying, the survivors will quit their "Demonstrating" quickly
Posted by: Redneck Jim ||
02/07/2006 13:23 Comments ||
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#4
these yahoos were stirred up by a Taliban or Iranian-supporting Imam - follow the trail and kill em
Posted by: Frank G ||
02/07/2006 15:19 Comments ||
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Security forces have thwarted a suspected Al Qaeda assassination attempt on a prominent provincial governor in northern Afghanistan, police said.
An alleged Al Qaeda member carrying a passport from the African country of Mali entered the home of Atta Mohammed, the governor of northern Balkh province, with explosives hidden under his clothes before being stopped by the officials bodyguards, police spokesman Sher Jan Durani said late Monday.
He was going to blow himself up when he was with the governor, he said.
The governor, speaking to The Associated Press by phone, said the attacker had been living in Balkhs capital Mazar-i-Sharif for two months and working for a local aid group that teaches computing.
He said that according to documents found on him, the mans name was Croma Yaya and he entered Afghanistan from Pakistan in December.
He was carrying a massive bomb. It would have killed many people, he said. Ive no idea why they targeted me.
Mohammed was a senior leader in the Northern Alliance, which teamed up with US-led international forces to oust the Taleban in 2001 after the Sept. 11 Al Qaeda attacks in the United States. Mohammeds mainly Tajik militia, however, has long feuded with that of Uzbek warlord Abdul Rashid Dostum, who was also part of the alliance. President Hamid Karzai appointed Mohammed as governor of Balkh in July 2004, but hes not viewed as a potential successor to the presidency.
Afghan authorities have warned they believe Al Qaeda is bringing many of its foreign militants into Afghanistan to bolster the insurgency here. Last week, an alleged Al Qaeda member from Iraq was caught sneaking into the country from neighboring Iran.
Posted by: Dan Darling ||
02/07/2006 12:18 ||
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#1
My sources tell me it was actually the CIA getting around to liquidating Mohammed Atta, and they had the name reversed.
The United Nations evacuated staff and NATO peacekeepers rushed reinforcements to a northwest Afghan town after deadly fighting erupted during a protest against the cartoons, The Associated Press reported.
Denmark's prime minister on Tuesday described the protests as a global crisis and called for calm.
"We are now facing a growing global crisis," Anders Fogh Rasmussen said at a news conference. "Now it has become an international political matter," he said. "I urge calm and steadiness."
Nordic countries are bearing the brunt of the protests in Afghanistan and the Middle East, after several European newspapers reprinted the cartoons in recent weeks.
Tuesday's rioting in the remote town of Maymana was one of about a half-dozen flashpoints that erupted across Afghanistan. Reuters said four people were killed.
The cartoons first appeared in a Danish newspaper and have been reprinted in several other papers in Europe, Asia, the United States and the Middle East. Islam forbids depictions of Mohammed.
Four protesters were killed on Monday and 17 others injured in protests near Bagram Airbase, a U.S. base north of Kabul, and separately in the Afghan city of Mihtarlam, according to AP.
At least 12 people, mostly policemen, have been killed in a suspected suicide bomb attack in the southern Afghan city of Kandahar, officials say. Eleven others are said to have been injured in the blast which took place outside the police headquarters. A spokesman for the ousted Taleban regime has claimed that the group carried out the attack, reports say.
Last week, fierce fighting between troops and Taleban fighters left at least 25 dead in southern Afghanistan.
A local resident of the southern Afghan city told the BBC the whole area had shaken with the force of the explosion and then described seeing bodies lying on the ground outside the heavily-protected police base. The bomber apparently tried to drive into the complex on a motorcycle before setting off the explosion, reports say. A doctor at the hospital told the AFP news agency that 10 policemen were among those killed and five of the wounded were also policemen.
A spokesman for the Taleban, Qari Mohammad Yousuf, called up news agencies to say his group was behind the attack. "The Taleban did this suicide attack. We will pursue these kind of attacks against government or coalition forces," the Associated Press quotes him as saying. Correspondents say such violence, including suicide bombings, have become more and more common in southern Afghanistan.
Yemen has launched an intensive search in the capital and other parts of the country to try to recapture a group of at least 13 convicted al Qaeda members who fled from prison last week, an official said on Tuesday.
Dozens of the fugitives' relatives and friends have been detained for questioning, said the official, who did not wish to be identified.
"The combing operation is taking place in areas seen as strongholds of extremist groups," the official said. "There have been arrests of kin and friends."
The official said the main search effort was in the Abyan province in the south, but also the capital Sanaa as well as remote areas.
On Sunday, the Interpol issued a global security alert over the escape of the militants who tunneled their way out of a jail in Sanaa, calling them a "danger to all countries."
The 13 militants were among 23 inmates who escaped in a major embarrassment for Yemen, which has cracked down on militants in the ancestral land of Osama bin Laden and positioned itself as an ally of the United States.
They included Jamal Badawi, mastermind of the bombing of the U.S. destroyer Cole in the Yemeni port of Aden in October 2000, which killed 17 U.S. sailors. He was originally sentenced to death, but this was later commuted to 15 years in prison.
Another prominent escapee was Fawaz al-Rabe'ie, sentenced to death as leader of the group convicted of bombing the French oil tanker Limburg off the Yemeni coast in 2002, killing one crewman.
A Yemeni state-run Web site (www.almotamar.net) said 17 of those who escaped were convicted of al Qaeda-linked crimes, while the other six were awaiting trial for similar charges.
A Yemeni security source has said authorities discovered the escape on Friday, but it was believed the prisoners had fled Thursday night and were definitely aided by more than one accomplice on the outside because the tunnel was believed to have been dug from the mosque to the prison.
The tunnel entry was in the women's section of the mosque, less frequented than the male section because women mainly pray at home.
The world police body circulated a warning to its 184 member states over the missing prisoners and urged them to take extra precautions at their borders.
Posted by: Dan Darling ||
02/07/2006 12:25 ||
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#1
Shhhhh... We'we hunting tewwowists...
Not that they'll be much inconvenienced if caught...
#2
BTW, as was pointed out by an observent RBer when they escaped, 5 will get to 50 that this is universally described bassackwards. The tunnel was from the moskkk to the jail, not the other way 'round. A Massive F**kin' Duh to the MSM for their symp crap. The Yemenis need to be shaking down the moskkk management and regulars if they actually give a shit about re-capturing these assholes... But that won't happen, of course.
Jamil Ahmed al-Badawi, the mastermind behind the al Qaeda attack on the U.S.S Cole in October 2000, was among the 23 escapees from a Yemen jail last week.
"He was the most valuable al Qaeda member in prison in Yemen, and yet he escaped twice," said Richard Clarke, a former White House counterterrorism adviser and now an ABC News consultant.
Badawi, whose death sentence was commuted to 15 years in prison, escaped once before, in 2003. At the time of this escape, he and the 22 other escapees were held by Yemen's version of the CIA, which is located in the capital city of Sanaa.
Officials say someone dug a 460-foot tunnel from the women's section of a mosque into the basement prison cells of the public-security organization. According to engineers, that effort would take at least a month and would mean removing at least three dump-truck loads of dirt.
"The problem with the public-security organization is it's just so incredibly unreliable," said former FBI agent Jack Cloonan, who is now an ABC News consultant. "There is no way this could happen without someone on the inside giving some assistance."
Badawi was similarly meticulous in his organizing of the bombing on the U.S.S Cole, spending more than a year planning it. Seventeen U.S. sailors were killed in that attack.
The father of one of those victims said he was disgusted by Badawi's escape.
"We're just sick and tired of it. Every time they catch somebody, they end up getting away," said Lou Gunn, whose son, Seaman Cherone L. Gunn, died in the attack. "We're not getting the justice that we deserve."
U.S. officials say they believe that Badawi and the other escapees are likely to head for the rugged mountains of the Hadhramaut region on the border between Yemen and Saudi Arabia, the ancestral home of al Qaeda leader Osama bin Laden.
"Operating from Hadhramaut," said Clarke, "he can bring together al Qaeda cells from around the country and from outside the country. And he can plot attacks as al Qaeda has done in the past from their secret bases in Hadhramaut."
Posted by: Dan Darling ||
02/07/2006 12:16 ||
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#1
That's what happens when you put them in al Stalag 13 with ibn Klink in charge.
DHAKA - Bangladesh announced the arrest on Tuesday of nine members of a militant Islamic group blamed for a series of deadly blasts. Four regional commanders and five militants belonging to Jamayetul Mujahideen Bangladesh (JMB) were detained in northern Syedpur, spokesman for the anti-terrorist Rapid Action Battalion, Mashuk Ahmed, said. He added that 20 kilograms (44 pounds) of explosives and 84 detonators were seized in the overnight raids.
Any suspected arms caches they might lead you to in the wee hours of the morning?
Police blame the outlawed group for 434 synchronized blasts across the country last August and suicide bombings in urban centres that have killed 28 people including four suicide bombers, and injured hundreds. JMB leaflets calling for strict Islamic law were found at blast sites.
Bangladesh, the worlds third largest Muslim-majority nation, has pledged to defend the countrys secular system against Islamic militantism. Four lawyers and two judges were among those killed in the blasts which have targeted the judiciary.
The government has mobilised thousands of police and troops to search for members of the JMB, led by Afghan war veteran Shaikh Abdur Rahman, and recently pledged cooperation with the US on counter-terrorism measures. Police earlier arrested the groups military head and chief coordinator of the suicide bombings at a Dhaka hideout. At least 800 other suspected militants have been arrested and police have filed more than 180 cases against JMB members.
#1
Unfortunately, it's been noted that only communists seem to have weapons caches that the RAB wants to fine. They need to form an RAB-2 that goes after the moslems.
Police say they uncovered evidence of terrorist training camps in Britain after raiding Muslim cleric Abu Hamza al-Masri's north London mosque, which they believe was a global magnet for Islamic militants.
Police said they have had evidence of the camps for years, but it could not be disclosed until Tuesday after the end of a trial at which the cleric was convicted of 11 charges, including soliciting murder and possessing a terrorist training manual.
In January 2003, about 150 British police staged a dramatic raid on Finsbury Park Mosque as part of their investigation into a plot to make the deadly poison ricin at a nearby north London apartment.
Inside the mosque they discovered gas masks, chemical, biological and nuclear protective suits, blank passports, hunting knives, and blank-firing weapons.
"The suspicion of the anti-terrorist branch was that this was probably material used in training camps in the UK," a police source told Reuters.
"We've never been able to pinpoint their locations, who was running them or what sort of activities that were going on, but that is the conclusion."
Nobody from the mosque has ever been charged with possessing the items or has been conclusively linked to camps.
Police said they had no idea how serious any British camps were, whether they were simply "weekends away" or something more formal. However, it is the first time police have described training they believe took place inside the country.
Previously authorities have focused on recruits travelling to al Qaeda camps in Afghanistan and Pakistan, where three of the Britons who carried out last July 7's suicide bomb attacks on London's transport system are thought to have spent time.
Two of the four July 7 bombers, the group's leader Mohammad Sidique Khan and Shehzad Tanweer, were pictured on what is believed to have been a team-building white-water rafting holiday in Wales just weeks before the attacks.
"It could have been something like that, but we don't know," the source said. He requested anonymity which is customary when British police brief reporters on ongoing cases.
Hamza himself has never been directly linked to any terrorism plot, but among the followers who worshipped at his mosque were convicted "shoebomber" Richard Reid and "20th hijacker" Zacarais Moussaoui.
"The mosque itself comes into dozens of international extremist and anti-terrorist investigations across the world" the source said.
"It was seen and known as a safe haven to meet like-minded people, somewhere to get connections and to get orientated.
"What we were finding was that people were coming into Britain and their first port of call was the Finsbury Park Mosque. It wasn't necessarily always being used for plotting but it was a good place to get yourself centred."
The inflammatory speeches by Hamza -- who lost both hands and an eye in Afghanistan -- have long provoked the hatred of Britain's tabloid press, leading to headlines such as "Hook Off, Hooky" and "Sling Your Hook".
But in private he is said to be calm, polite and thoughtful.
"It would be a mistake to regard him as a buffoon. He's become something of a caricature in the media and that isn't the right perception of him," the source said.
The source added he had become very adept at avoiding possible criminal charges, citing an occasion when he said during a sermon outside the mosque: "What burns better than petrol? A British soldier".
"It's offensive but it's not actually illegal," the source said. "He's a man who has made these statements for many years and people have regarded them as offensive. But we can now show he's crossed the line into illegality."
Posted by: Dan Darling ||
02/07/2006 12:32 ||
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Of course, the police wait until Hamza's trial is over to release this information. Heaven forbid that it should have gotten out sooner.
Controversial Muslim cleric Abu Hamza al-Masri has been jailed for seven years after he was found him guilty of inciting murder and race hate.
Abu Hamza, 47, who preached at Finsbury Park mosque, London, was found guilty of 11 of the 15 charges he faced.
He was sentenced to seven years to run concurrently for eight counts and 21 months for the others. He has already been in jail since May 2004.
US authorities are seeking the cleric's extradition for terror-related matters.
He is wanted on charges of trying to set up a "terrorist training camp" in the state of Oregon.
Abu Hamza was also found guilty of having audio and video tapes intended to encourage racial hatred and having a document for terror purposes.
ABU HAMZA VERDICTS
Guilty of 6 charges of soliciting to murder
Guilty of 3 charges related to "stirring up racial hatred"
Guilty of 1 charge of owning recordings related to "stirring up racial hatred"
Guilty of 1 charge of possessing "terrorist encyclopaedia"
Not guilty of 3 charges of soliciting to murder
Not guilty of 1 charge related to "stirring up racial hatred"
The Egyptian-born preacher was said to have given inflammatory sermons that used unequivocal language.
Following his arrest, more than 3,000 audio cassettes and 600 videos were found of speeches intended for wider distribution.
And a terror manual - an encyclopaedia of Afghani Jihad - found at his west London home listed Big Ben, the Eiffel Tower and the Statue of Liberty as possible targets for an attack.
A search of Finsbury Park mosque, in north London, also led to the discovery of forged passports, CS gas, knives, guns capable of firing blanks and tents.
Police tactics
BBC Home Editor Mark Easton said police believed the mosque was "linked to literally dozens of terrorist plots around Europe and beyond".
He pointed out that police confiscated the terror manual from Abu Hamza in 1999, before later returning it to him.
Mr Easton went on: "The debate now will be about the tactics used by the police, by the security services and others to keep an eye on the mosque over many years, knowing that there certainly were links to Afghanistan, Bosnia, Kosovo and elsewhere."
Jurors watched around 20 hours of video tapes of the cleric's sermons.
Behaviour like Abu Hamza's is not a legitimate exercise in free speech - in fact it deliberately threatens openness and diversity
Ken Macdonald QC
Director of Public Prosecutions
The court heard him describe Jews as the "enemy of Islam", tell followers to "bleed" the enemies of Islam and they should not rest until they created a "Muslim state".
The jury heard that he did not aim his vitriolic rhetoric only against Jews, unbelievers and the democratic West.
In Abu Hamza's numerous lectures and sermons, targets included homosexual vicars, the tourist industry, the royal family and women in bikinis.
His defence was that he was encouraging Muslims to stand up for themselves.
The prosecution had told the court that Abu Hamza was a recruiting sergeant for terrorism and murder.
David Perry, prosecuting, said the cleric made clear encouragements to kill when he gave lectures and sermons at the Finsbury Park mosque and in Luton, Blackburn and Whitechapel, east London.
The jury heard that Abu Hamza "was preaching terrorism, homicidal violence and hatred".
They also heard that the preacher had "used the most dangerous weapons available - a great religion, Islam, his position as a civic leader and the power of words, his own words".
Director of Public Prosecutions Ken Macdonald QC said Abu Hamza had preached "a dangerous mix of hatred and violence" that "had nothing to do with the true teachings of Islam as it is practised peacefully and tolerantly by millions of people in Britain and around the world".
He added: "Behaviour like Abu Hamza's is not a legitimate exercise in free speech. In fact it deliberately threatens openness and diversity.
"Where appropriate, prosecutors will not hesitate to bring further cases in this category in future."
Abu Hamza will remain at Belmarsh high security prison, where he has been held since his arrest.
#7
You can't fight a war with judges, lawyers and policmen. It's a delusion of the elites that run our worlds governments. It's a delusion that the "governed" will have to disabuse the ruling elites of. I don't think Europe and the UK are up to it. Sadly our ruling elites are still felching the imams and "muslim moderates" who are actually islamo-fascist provocateurs.
A demonstrator who imitated a suicide bomber in a Muslim protest over cartoons satirising the Prophet Muhammad has been recalled to prison. Omar Khayam, 22, of Bedford, is a convicted drug dealer who was jailed in 2002 and released on licence last year after serving half his sentence.
I guess that's Britspeak for parole
He was arrested and recalled to prison for breaching the terms of his licence. Khayam apologised for his "insensitive" protest on Monday but said he had been offended by the cartoons.
Yeah, and we've offended by you.
A Bedfordshire Police spokesman said Khayam was arrested under the Criminal Justice Act 2003 at the request of the Home Office. He was given five and a half years in prison in December 2002 for dealing cocaine and heroin.
How very islamic of him
Khayam apologised to those affected by the 7 July bombs, saying his protest was as "insensitive" as the cartoons. The MP for Bedford, Patrick Hall, who stood beside Khayam as he read his apology on Monday, said earlier he was unaware of the conviction but that he still took the apology at face value. "He acted on impulse - couple of friends, they got on the train and got to London, and I believe this was a impulsive, foolish reaction to what he saw was the offence of the publication of those cartoons." Khayam gave an explanation of his appearance as he apologised on Monday. "I found the pictures deeply offensive as a Muslim and I felt the Danish newspaper had been provocative and controversial, deeply offensive and insensitive."
Controversial Muslim cleric Abu Hamza al-Masri has been found guilty of race hate charges and soliciting to murder by an Old Bailey jury. Abu Hamza, who preached at Finsbury Park mosque, was convicted of seven out of nine soliciting to murder charges.
The cleric was also found guilty of having audio and video recordings intended to incite racial hatred. Abu Hamza, who faced 15 charges, was found guilty of possessing a document to be used for terror purposes.
#11
Seven years! (= 3.5 in the UK) Not bad.. better than expected.
Hope you packed your lube Hook Boy! Enjoy!
Posted by: Howard UK ||
02/07/2006 10:40 Comments ||
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#12
After serving his time, the UK can then deport him to the US.
Posted by: ed ||
02/07/2006 10:50 Comments ||
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#13
In light of his proven desire to spread violent jihadist doctrine, the public weal demands that his entire sentence be spent under solitary confinement. This needs to be SOP for the jailing of all Islamists.
Posted by: Frank G ||
02/07/2006 13:14 Comments ||
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#17
two shining examples of Muslims sent down in one day (Abu Hamza al-Masri and Omar Khayam) , cant be bad , although I thought sentence was rather leniant .. Hopefully , you yanks will stitch the worm up something chronic laters :) Am sure you will , and looking forward to it
#18
He needs to do his time, then be extradited to the United States... on a 750foot tether out the rear of one of Britain's C-130s, flying at 250 feet. Maybe that will attract a great white. Gotta use those hooks for SOMETHING useful.
Posted by: Old Patriot ||
02/07/2006 14:14 Comments ||
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#19
Tied to a post in the Thames estuary at low tide?
#20
Pebbles
My guess is Mo. He is higher ranking so he gets to go first :).
Posted by: Ol Dirty American ||
02/07/2006 15:57 Comments ||
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#21
He'll be fine in prison. I don't know but there was a story around 5-7 days ago about how the "Muslim Boys" have had the run of the prison blocks in Britain with all the non-muslims in fear and converting (or else).
He'll be one of the head honchos spreading the hate on the inside.
#22
He'll be one of the head honchos spreading the hate on the inside.
Which is exactly why Masri and all his ilk need to be placed in solitary. He||, they'd do that with a leper, so what's the big problem here? This sh!t's contagious, people better start acting like it.
On January 31, President Vladimir Putin held a large press conference in the Kremlin during which he answered questions from Russian and foreign journalists. He touched on almost all issues of current concern to the country, and, of course, could not help talking about Chechnya. It was no surprise to hear from the president the old lies that everyone is used to hearing: that the situation in the republic is stabilizing. On the same day that Putins conference was held, Agence France-Presse quoted a source in the pro-Russian Chechen administration as reporting that five Russian soldiers had been killed and 10 wounded in the region during the previous 24 hours.
The most important aspect that the Kremlin boss was forced to recognize was the increasing instability in other North Caucasian republics. Putin said in the press conference that we are concerned about the situation in some other parts of the North Caucasus even more than in Chechnya (ORT, January 31). No wonder, since there are growing signs that the Russian governments Chechenization policy has failed (see Eurasia Daily Monitor, January 26) while the effectiveness of the rebels tactic of extending the Chechen war to the whole Russian South is becoming more evident. Last year Abdul-Khalim Sadulaev, the leader of the Chechen insurgency, issued a decree establishing a Caucasian front. The strategy of expanding the war beyond Chechnya was thereby officially declared. Bombings in Dagestan and Ingushetia and the massive raid on Nalchik, the capital of Kabardino-Balkaria, followed the decree. This year, Russian generals expect rebel attacks across the North Caucasus, from Adygea in the west to Dagestan in the east (see Eurasia Daily Monitor, January 12). The military leader of the rebels, Shamil Basaev, is traveling all over the Caucasus trying to make the insurgency better organized (see Chechnya Weekly, January 12).
Yet the rebels are undertaking not only military but also political measures to strengthen their strategy. Late last year, people who represent the radical wing of the Chechen separatists started talking about making Abdul-Khalim Sadulaev not only the president of the separatist Chechen government but also as the political leader of all Caucasian rebels and separatists (see Chechnya Weekly, November 17, 2005). Separatist leaders like Movladi Udugov explained this step by saying that Sadulaev had already become the ruler of the Caucasus since mujahideen of Dagestan, Ingushetia, Kabardino-Balkaria and Karachaevo-Cherkessia had pledged an oath to him. Nevertheless, the separatists understand that some additional steps need to be taken to confirm Sadulaevs status as a legitimate political leader in the eyes of non-Chechen insurgents.
In his most recent interview, posted on the Kavkazcenter website on January 9, Shamil Basaev placed his cards on the table, declaring that this spring the rebels will organize a Great Majlis (Great Council) to unite all Muslims of the North Caucasus and proclaim an Imam of the North Caucasustheir supreme leader. More and more Muslims raise the question that the Imam of the whole Caucasus should be proclaimed, Basaev said. In the spring of 2006 we plan to hold the Great Unification Majlis on this issue and on the issue of setting up the Shura (Council) of Caucasian Ulema (Islamic scholars). Basaev did not conceal the fact that most likely Sadulaev will be declared Imam. Although, even now Sheikh Abdul-Khalim Sadulaev is practically Imam of the North Caucasus, since all Caucasian mujahideen have given him an oath. Thus Sadulaev may become the third Chechen leader of the entire North Caucasus after Sheikh Mansur in the 18th century and Chermoev, the leader of the Confederation of the Caucasian Nations (a Caucasian independent state that existed for only two years (1918-1919) during the civil war that erupted in Russia following the Bolshevik revolution.
The Council of Ulema will control Sadulaev by confirming that his decisions do not contradict Sharia. Such a political structure existed in the Caucasus during the war against Russia of the tsars, and it also functioned during the first Arabic (Muslim) empire of the 9th century and the Turkish Ottoman Empire of the Middle Ages. Nevertheless, the question of who these Sharia specialists will be remains open, given that most of the official local muftis in the Caucasus are loyal to the Russian government. One can assume that they will be either young unofficial underground Islamic scholars who may have received religious education in the Middle East, or the real decision-makersthe rebel field commanders.
On January 20, Sadulaev issued three decrees that can be described as the first real step toward the future Majlis. Sadulaev ordered that the Council of Ulema be set up and that the commanders of rebel groups in the Caucasian republics be made members of the Military Council (Majlis-ul-Shura) of the Chechen field commanders. The members of the Council of Ulema and of the Military Council are likely to become deputies in the Great Majlis this spring.
The speed at which the Chechen insurgency is turning into an all-Caucasian movement with a strong Islamic flavor frightens some of the old-fashioned Chechen separatists like Akhmed Zakaev. No doubt we see today integration processes in the North Caucasus, above all military ones, but it is not us [Chechen separatists] but the Kremlin which is pursuing a severely repressive policy in the region and which has deprived the Caucasian autonomies of the last illusions of independence, Zakaev wrote in an article published by Chechenpress on January 19. There is a vast distance, however, between a military alliance against a common enemy and a unified state, including organizational and legal distance. Without having run this distance but just stepping on the starting line, we would have acted not only imprudently but criminally towards our nation if we dismantled the Chechen state and got nothing in return except general words about Islamic solidarity and the Caucasian Caliphate. Zakaev believes that the political unification of the Caucasus should be discussed only after liberating the region from the Russian colonial rule.
Sadulaev also seems to understand that while building a political structure for the whole Caucasian insurgency one should not forget about Chechen independence, about Ichkeria. The third decree that Adbul-Khalim issued on January 20 made Zhalaudin Saralyapov, the Chairman of the Chechen separatist parliament, a member of the Military Council.
Yet the war has its own logic, and since the rebels believe that they cannot defeat Russia fighting only in Chechnya, the question of Chechen independence increasingly becomes an abstraction. At the same time, Caucasian independence looks increasingly like the only option to gain freedom and end Russian domination of the region.
Posted by: Dan Darling ||
02/07/2006 13:01 ||
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Chechen resistance leader Abdul-Khalim Sadulayev issued a decree on 5 February stripping Deputy Prime Minister Akhmed Zakayev and Health Minister Umar Khanbiyev, both of whom currently represent the resistance in Europe, of those government posts, and ordering most Chechen ministers currently abroad (except Zakayev) to return to Chechnya.
Zakayev has recently engaged in a polemic with radical Chechen ideologues, including Press and Information Minister Movladi Udugov, who reject an independent Chechen state in favor of an Islamic state encompassing the entire North Caucasus and who argue that resistance fighters should not be constrained by the norms of international law.
Over the past two months, Zakayev has published two lengthy articles taking issue with what he terms the "musings" of Chechen "ideologues," including Udugov, and accusing them of being in cahoots with Moscow.
The first such article, posted on 19 December on the resistance website chechenpress.org, opens with the stated intention of setting out the official viewpoint of the resistance leadership with regard to the proposals of analysts who "are putting forward ideas that entail a radical revision of the ultimate goals and strategic tasks of the Chechen national liberation struggle."
Specifically, Zakayev continued, those writers argue that the resistance should not be constrained by international law or human rights norms, an argument that Zakayev claims is inconsistent with the Islamic concept of justice. Zakayev admits nonetheless that the conduct of many so-called democratic Western states in this respect is less than exemplary.
Zakayev reasons that Chechens cannot achieve the independent statehood they aspire to exclusively by military means, but need a "political voice" that can convince the international community that their desire for independence is valid. From that angle, eschewing human rights norms would therefore be counterproductive, Zakayev argues, as the international community would then write the Chechens off as "bandits, marauders, and murderers," which, he continues, is exactly what the Kremlin is hoping for.
Zakayev goes on to reject the argument that Chechnya does not need a constitution. He points out that not only does every independent sovereign state have a constitution, but that to denounce the 1992 constitution of Djokhar Dudayev's Chechen Republic Ichkeria would be to undercut the legal foundations of the sovereignty of that republic, and of all its institutions, including its government, parliament, and armed forces.
Zakayev then targets his opponents' demands to bury the idea of Chechen independent statehood in the name of a Caucasus caliphate with Sadulayev as imam of the Caucasus.
Zakayev admits that the resistance forces battling Russian colonialism in the North Caucasus are no longer exclusively Chechen. But, he says, there is a "huge gap" between military cooperation against a common enemy and establishing a single unified North Caucasus state.
He insists "there is not, and cannot be, any national freedom without national sovereignty, without a national state," and that "national sovereignty is not an obstacle to various kinds of integration with other peoples and states but on contrary serves as the basis for such integration... It will only be possible to speak of real forms of unification of Chechens with other peoples of Caucasus only after the North Caucasus is liberated from the military-political presence of Russia."
It would, Zakayev continues, be "irresponsible, harmful, and a crime" to begin dismantling Chechen statehood at this juncture. After all, he reasons, "in 1990 the Chechens restored not an imamate but their national sovereignty, and in 1994 they went to war against the Russian aggressors not under the slogan of creating a Caucasus caliphate, but to free our country from Russian occupation."
Two weeks later, on 30 December, chechenpress.org posted what was billed as a statement from Sadulayev's administration expressing support for Zakayev. That statement said that the "Chechen leadership, among whom there are learned alims [scholars], does not see any contradiction between Islam and the doctrine of an independent Chechen state with all the appropriate official institutions." It followed with a thinly veiled warning to "ideologues occupying official positions in the Chechen government" not to mislead the Chechen people and international community on fundamental questions of domestic and foreign policy." The statement reaffirmed the imperative for Chechen resistance forces to abide by international law, even if Russia declines to do the same.
In his follow-up article on 14 January, Zakayev rejects the accusation leveled against him by his opponents that he, together with other unnamed ministers and deputies to the Chechen parliament elected under Maskhadov in 1997, fears Shari'a law, and that he gives precedence to democracy over Islam. (The article is entitled "I Am A Democrat Only To The Extent That Islam And The Traditions Of My People Permit.") Zakayev accuses his ideological opponents of being in cahoots with Kremlin, specifically of having plotted the ill-fated invasion of Daghestan in the summer of 1999 that furnished Russia with the pretext for a new incursion into Chechnya."
Zakayev repeats that Chechens are being killed not because they are Muslims, but because they want an independent state, and he warns that at crucial junctures in Chechnya's history Russia has invariably sought to defuse Chechen demands for an independent state by offering them the alternative of living under Shari'a law, but within Russia.
Zakayev goes on to claim that the opinions Udugov espouses are his personal opinions, and that "in all questions concerning the basic foundations of the Chechen state the leadership of the Chechen Republic Ichkeria adheres to a single, agreed position based on the Chechen constitution and taking into account the norms and principles of international law." But his demotion and the summons to return to Chechnya casts serious doubt on that affirmation.
Questioned on 6 February by RFE/RL's North Caucasus Service, both Zakayev and Udugov declined to comment on their ideological disagreement or on any possible link between that dispute and Sadulayev's decree reorganizing his government. Zakayev told RFE/RL's Russian Service later the same day that his polemic with Udugov has no relevance whatsoever to Sadulayev's government restructuring.
Zakayev did, however, admit that "the internal situation in the republic -- political and military -- has changed." Whether Sadulayev has agreed to what he envisages as a purely tactical concession, as his predecessor Aslan Maskhadov was constrained to do in early 1999 under pressure from Islamic radicals, or whether he does see himself as the imam of the Caucasus, remains as yet unclear. His decree of 22 January creating a Council of Alims of Peoples of the Caucasus to advise him would seem, however, to corroborate the latter hypothesis.
Posted by: Dan Darling ||
02/07/2006 12:50 ||
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Fred, I think, has in the past compared how al-Qaeda sees Chechnya to how the Soviets saw the Spanish Civil War. Looks like the purge is underway in full force ...
Chechen separatist leader Abdul-Khalim Sadulayev has announced a reshuffle targeting several top rebel representatives living abroad. Under the reshuffle, prominent London-based separatist envoy Akhmed Zakayev has been dismissed as deputy prime minister. Sadulayev has also reportedly signed a decree ordering all his ministers to be based in Chechnya.
The reshuffle was announced today by Chechen separatist websites, which are describing it as a move to fortify the self-proclaimed separatist government.
The pro-rebel website chechenpress.co.uk wrote that Sadulayev ordered the reshuffle "so that our enemies' propaganda does not speak of a 'government in exile.'"
According to decrees reportedly signed by Sadulayev, Zakayev has been dismissed as deputy prime minister while retaining his post as culture minister.
Movladi Udugov, who also lives abroad, has been dismissed as information minister and named head of a "national information service." Udugov is a Saudi creation and the webmaster/editor of Kavkaz Center. Notice that he's the only one who's still got a job.
Umar Khanbiyev, another prominent longtime separatist envoy exiled in France, has been sacked as health minister.
In addition, Sadulayev has ordered that all government ministers must now reside on Chechen territory, with the exception of Zakayev and Foreign Minister Ilyas Akhmadov, who has been granted political asylum in the United States.
Zakayev told RFE/RL's North Caucasus Service that the shake-up was aimed at consolidating the separatist leadership at home.
"In August [2005], a section for external and humanitarian matters was created in the new government structure," Zakayev said. "I was put in charge of that section, which included five or six ministries singled out in that [August 2005] decree. When that section was set up, there was hope that those ministers who lived abroad would be able to do their work more or less efficiently and that they would have the opportunities to do their work. However, the past two or three months showed that this plan was unrealistic. Furthermore, the internal situation in the republic, political and military, has changed. So, the [current] decree is aimed at strengthening the role of ministries, ministers, and government officials working at home [in Chechnya]. Consequently, the top government leaders will work at home. This was the purpose of the decree."
Zakayev added that he expects more changes in the separatist government.
According to the chechenpress website, another reason for the shake-up could have been the bitter comments exchanged lately by Zakayev and Udugov on rebel websites.
Udugov has called for Chechen separatists to reject international legislation and Western democratic standards, a view that the more moderate Zakayev has strongly opposed.
Some political analysts believe that Zakayev's moderate views contributed to his dismissal as deputy prime minister and see the reshuffle as a sign that the Chechen leadership is becoming more radical.
Zakayev was a close aide to Aslan Maskhadov, the former Chechen president killed by Russian forces last year. Maskhadov had reiterated his readiness to negotiate with Moscow.
Maskhadov was immediately replaced by Sadulayev, a little-known Islamic cleric currently in hiding.
For Aleksei Malashenko, a Caucasus expert at the Carnegie Center in Moscow, Zakayev's dismissal as deputy prime minister comes as no surprise.
He said the failure of the peace talks with Moscow have made Zakayev "a figure of the past."
"New figures are emerging there, maybe more radical, people are emerging who do not want to restrain their activity to Chechnya but wish to operate throughout the whole North Caucasus," Malashenko said. "And in this respect, Zakayev is a figure of the past for absolutely everyone, because he was a person connected to Maskhadov, to negotiations, to times when negotiations were possible. Now, negotiations are totally impossible."
Zakayev, who took part in the fighting at the start of the war a decade ago, has been branded by Moscow an international terrorist.
Moscow has unsuccessfully sought his extradition from Britain, where he has been granted political asylum.
Posted by: Dan Darling ||
02/07/2006 12:44 ||
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A Danish lawyer was shot as protests against the publication of cartoons showing the Prophet Muhammad continued around the world yesterday. The lawyer was wounded in an incident in a Moscow cafe by a man from the Muslim Caucasus region of southern Russia.
Posted by: Steve ||
02/07/2006 9:30 Comments ||
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#2
hmmmm...... A Danish man in Moscow... in a cafe??? Not many details here. Just a random shooting, eh? It could happen, but seeing as he's a lawyer, I'd be asking a few more questions about his recent case load.
German prosecutors today said they had charged an Iraqi man in the latest of a series of probes into fundraising or recruiting for the insurgency against the Baghdad government and its US-led backers.
The 34-year-old, named as Ferhad Kanabi A., is accused of gathering money for Ansar al-Islam, which Germany classes as a foreign terrorist organisation.
In a statement, the federal prosecutor's office said he had worked closely with two other men who are separately charged and facing trial in connection with an alleged plot to assassinate Iraq's then prime minister Iyad Allawi in Berlin in 2004.
An Iraqi Kurd accused of recruiting fighters and raising cash for the insurgency was jailed for seven years last month in another German case involving Ansar al-Islam, which the United States has linked to al Qaeda and its leader in Iraq, Abu Musab al-Zarqawi.
Volunteers from several European countries including France, Belgium and Spain are known to have travelled to fight in Iraq.
Some have died there, including a 38-year-old Belgian woman who blew herself up in a suicide attack last November.
European security officials are concerned others will return, battle-hardened, and pose a militant threat on European soil.
Posted by: Dan Darling ||
02/07/2006 12:24 ||
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Mounir El Motassadeq, a Moroccan man convicted in August of membership in a terrorist organization and sentenced to seven years in prison, will be released, Hamburg's Justice Ministry said on Tuesday.
"I can confirm ... that he will be released," an official at the ministry told Reuters.
Motassadeq, who was 31 years old at the time of his conviction, had been friends with three of the September 11, 2001 pilots when they lived in Hamburg. He was sentenced to jail after the second of two long trials.
Germany's Federal Constitutional Court said in a statement it had upheld an appeal against Motassadeq's conviction, but the case would be revisited by the court that originally convicted him.
"The case has been returned to the district court for a new decision," the court statement said.
Prosecutors had originally demanded 15 years for "membership of a terrorist organization" and being an accessory to thousands of murders in the attacks on the United States in 2001. But the court ruled that said the second charge had not been proven.
The court said Motassadeq was only a lower-tier member of the group of radical Arab students led by Mohamed Atta, the man who rammed the first hijacked plane into New York's World Trade Center.
The evidence had suggested that al Qaeda leaders who assessed the group's members at an Afghan training camp had decided Motassadeq was unsuitable for the attacks on the United States and rejected him for a leading role.
Posted by: Dan Darling ||
02/07/2006 12:23 ||
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#1
The inevitable dilemma of the Law Enforcement approach, compounded with the absurdities of European sentencing.
#2
Well how about we don't thank you. You are doing absolutely freeking nothing!
Merkel is talking good and is setting a course for Germany that is good for Germany and US as a side benifit if it is realized. The German justice system and law enforcemnt is useless. Like the rest of the organs of government it's populated and run by TRANZI fools. You can't fight a war with Judges, lawyers and policemen.
Turkish police have arrested a teenager in the northern town of Trabzon as the suspected killer of a Catholic priest. Father Andrea Santaro, an Italian, was shot dead in his church on Sunday. Turkish politicians have condemned the killing and say they hope there is no link to the widespread outrage over cartoons of the Prophet Muhammad.
After a major manhunt, police detained a 16-year-old high school student early on Tuesday morning. A gun was seized at the house they raided. The gun has been sent away for ballistic tests to determine if it is linked to the murder.
Father Andrea Santoro was shot in the chest on Sunday. Witnesses say the gunman shouted "God is great" as he fled. Police say they still have no clue what motivated the killing, the BBC's Sarah Rainsford reports from Istanbul. There has been widespread speculation that the murder may have been an act of revenge linked to growing protests around the world by Muslims angry about cartoons satirising the Prophet Muhammad which appeared in the European press.
Turkey's Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan has said he hopes there is no link. He has expressed his deep regret for the murder. The priest's work with prostitutes in the area has also been suggested as a possible motive for the attack.
#2
The priest's work with prostitutes in the area has also been suggested as a possible motive for the attack.
It could be related; it's not unusual for criminal gangs to use young'uns because they get tend to get more leniency . Then again, it's likely what they "hope there is no link for".
Of course, that's not how the press reports it. Their title; "Is CIA Leak Probe a 'Witch Hunt'?" Memo to MSM, "Witch Hunt" is when you're looking for something that doesn't excist. And last time I looked, there was no doubt there were leaks.
Feb. 7, 2006 The director of the CIA has launched a major internal probe into media leaks about covert operations. In an agencywide e-mail, Porter Goss blamed "a very small number of people" for leaks about secret CIA operations that, in his words, "do damage to the credibility of the agency."
According to people familiar with the Goss e-mail, sent in late January and classified secret, the CIA director warned that any CIA officer deemed suspect by the agency's Office of Security and its Counter Intelligence Center (which handles internal affairs) could be subjected to an unscheduled lie detector test. CIA personnel are subjected to polygraphs at regular intervals in their careers, but one former intelligence officer called the new warning a "witch hunt." Others said Goss' e-mail was narrowly focused and did not suggest agencywide, random lie detector tests. "It would make no sense at all to give everyone here a lie detector test," said one person who knew about the e-mail. (cough)Valeria Plame(cough)Goss told CIA employees there were ways other than talking to the news media to resolve any issues they had with classified CIA operations.
The memo informs its recipients that the CIA has asked the Justice Department to prosecute any leakers within its ranks. This comes in connection with recent news reports that detailed the CIA's operation of secret prisons in Europe and its far-flung flights of suspected terrorists to foreign prisons. Crime reports from the CIA are sent to the FBI and the Department of Justice, and constitute a statement that the CIA believes a crime has been committed. Current and former employees say there have been only a handful of such agencywide memos in recent years. One dealt with sexual harassment in the workplace and another with the embezzlement of agency money.
Goss confirmed the general outline of the leak probe in his appearance before the Senate Intelligence Committee on Feb. 2. "We also have an investigation of finding out what leakage, if any, is coming out of that building," he said, referring to CIA headquarters. "And I'm afraid there is some coming out. I also believe that there has been an erosion of the culture of secrecy. And we're trying to reinstill that."
CIA officers are given lie detector tests when they formally become candidates, upon completion of their probation, and then at five-year intervals throughout their careers. CIA officers also agree to undergo "a periodic" lie detector tests if requested.
And if you refuse, I believe you can be kicked out
Goss told the Intelligence Committee that "on the external side, I've called in the FBI, the Department of Justice. It is my aim, and it is my hope, that we will witness a grand jury investigation with reporters present being asked to reveal who is leaking this information."
#2
vacancies where partisan traitors exist? Fine by me. Time to clean house here, State, and the FBI
Posted by: Frank G ||
02/07/2006 9:57 Comments ||
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#3
Maybe not a witch hunt, but definitely witchcraft. Polygraphs do an excellent job of measuring nervousness, but are crap for catching liars. They can be educational, though. A friend's mil, during her entrance poly for the CIA in the late '50's, learned the meaning of the word "lesbian" during hers:
#4
During the Naalee Holloway investigation, a company marketing new technology to the CIA, FBI, and other law enforcement agencies, came forward and offered their lie detector. It detects lies through voice analysis and claims a very high degree of accuracy. They said they could analyze the interviews of Van der Sloot and friends, I believe, from the tapes. I thought this would be invaluable to see if the jihadis were bluffing or not, but maybe the CIA has a surprise in store for even compulsive liars that can be trained to beat the standard polygraph. ;)
#5
too bad for the leakers. Times have changed since two years ago when they were heros in their fight against the evil Satan, Bush. Now the world is getting real. The damage they did was real. And the prison terms some of the will serve will be real.
#9
Maybe we need a special detention site for all the journalists who are going to get contempt charges thrown at them. Maybe something on the line that mirrors Gitmo, but say Attu island in Alaska.
Love to see a NTSlimes or WaPo rapporteur get subpoenaed by Grand Jury for leaking...then a few days later the rapporteur's session with Grand Jury is followed by his/her deep CIA throat.
The good part, pressure keep building in Washington till heads start popping..recorded of course in the MSM.
The NYSimes fires off broadsides of background experts blathering on how how noble 4 estate whisleblower traditions have kept our government in check.[meaning Repubs]
Next the dhimmiCrap Pols hold press conferences braying about Republican whichhunts.
Meanwhile back at the Grand Jury our famous rapporteur looking at 25 hard ones folds like a flour sack and rolls over.
The rest is 2-fer history, as the sun sets in the West Valeria Plame and Joe W are seen breaking rocks till the cows come home in 2030.
#11
BTW there's some new technology with something along the lines of an MRI. Seems the brain uses different parts for telling truths and creative 'non-truths'.
#14
You strap them in the new MRI and ask if they ever intentionally did anything to embarass the administration.
Then you ask them if they ever passed company information to any member of the press.
Then you ask them if they have or know of anyone who has taken part in a coverup.
That should be all you need to crack open the gamers.
#15
the voice-stress analysis is a way-prelim tool - not even of the quality of a lie-detector, and even further from the MRI test. It works mainly as a bluff to get the guilty to spill
Posted by: Frank G ||
02/07/2006 13:46 Comments ||
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#16
Just breadboard - AB is working on a proto-type.
#17
I can remember taking my lie-decector test in Washington, when I was working at the Navy Yard as an Air Force reservist on a long tour. There wasn't much to it. I hope the ones they give people they suspect of leaking a much more thorough grilling.
Posted by: Old Patriot ||
02/07/2006 14:31 Comments ||
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#18
Application of this will solve the leak problem. We are in a war. Judical and law enfiorcement solutions are not working.
A few rounds into the cranium will suffice.
Proclaiming "I am al-Qaida," terrorist conspirator Zacarias Moussaoui disrupted the opening of his sentencing trial Monday and was tossed out of court as selection began for the jurors who will decide whether he lives or dies. He disavowed his lawyers and pledged to testify on his own behalf in the trial that is to begin March 6. An often volatile figure in his proceedings, Moussaoui was removed from the courtroom four separate times. "This trial is a circus," he declared. "I want to be heard." Of his lawyers, he said: "These people do not represent me."
You have the right to a lawyer, but you don't have to exercise that right.
After jury selection, expected to take a month, a penalty trial will determine whether the 37-year-old Frenchman of Moroccan descent, the only person in the U.S. charged in the Sept. 11, 2001, terrorist attacks, will be put to death or sentenced to life in prison. He pleaded guilty last April to conspiring to fly planes into U.S. buildings but claims he had no role in the Sept. 11 plot.
"Lies! All lies!"
Moussaoui, who has vowed to fight for his life, entered the 10th-floor courtroom wearing a green jumpsuit, the word "prisoner" in white on his back. Short and slight with full dark beard, he calmly looked around at the prospective jurors as he entered. The potential jurors most of them white, from their 20s through their 50s or 60s showed no reaction to his interruptions. Brinkema told the jury pool: "If any of you feel that outburst or the way he conducted himself might affect the way in which you would go about judging this case, you need to clearly put that statement on the jury questionnaire."
Moussaoui's first outburst, a minute into the proceedings, became the pattern for the day as each new group of prospective jurors was brought in to answer an extensive questionnaire on their religious beliefs, cultural biases, group activities and much more. In afternoon appearances, he repeatedly vowed to testify. "For four years I have waited," he said. "I will tell them the truth I know." Twice he declared his allegiance to Osama bin Laden's terrorist network. "I will take the stand to tell the whole truth about my involvement," he said. "I am al-Qaida. They (his lawyers) are Americans. I'll have nothing to do with them." U.S. District Judge Leonie M. Brinkema ordered marshals to take him from the courtroom; he went calmly each time.
Posted by: ed ||
02/07/2006 00:03 ||
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#1
"I am al-Qaida. They (his lawyers) are Americans. "
Posted by: ed ||
02/07/2006 2:39 Comments ||
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#7
Zacarias is a racist muslim freak who got into djihadism because he felt "slighted by french society"; let him die, soon.
IIRC, his brother is a fundie too, who did some takkya on an *awful* (but very, very popular), systematically anti-US/antiwestern french talk show a few years ago (the same show that heavily promoted the Meyssan "no plane in the Prentagon, 9/11's a US fascist coup" book).
His mother too has been/is a small-time media darling, pleading in french msms for her son and accusing the USA of being rrraaacist.
Propaganda war as usual in La Belle France.
#8
As soon as can be arranged, this guy should be executed, as should be done with any of his terrorist brethren that are captured alive, whether it be here or in Iraq.
#12
..Actually, here's what we need to do: CGI a last statement from him to be played at his request after he's fried.
And have him denouncing Islam and converting to Judaism.
Mike
Posted by: Mike Kozlowski ||
02/07/2006 12:19 Comments ||
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#13
One thing NOT to do - don't return the body. Bury it secretly in an unmarked grave somewhere in North Dakota, New Mexico, or west Texas, Central Idaho, or Nevada (near a nuke site, perhaps?). Don't bury him until a month after he's fried. Make sure the entire Muzzie world knows what we've done, and promise the same treatment to others. Screw "multiculturalism" and all its idiotic believers. Or, we could go really wild and dump him along with some radioactive waste in the Marianas Trench. I'm not particular to that idea because it might endanger some Marianas islanders.
Posted by: Old Patriot ||
02/07/2006 14:36 Comments ||
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#14
Give him a Philippine casket and send him home Fed Ex.
Pakistani security forces mounted a major operation on Tuesday morning in the troubled southern province of Baluchistan with the aim of destroying the sanctuaries of the Baluch nationalist leaders, highly placed sources told Adnkronos International (AKI). Local television reports have said that loud explosions were heard at the home of Nawab Akbar Bugti, the leader of one of the most powerful tribes in Baluchistan. Eye witnesses say that the fort of Nawab Akbar Bugti in the town of Dera Bugti was surrounded by flames.
Local television reports say that the home of Nawab Akbar Bugti, 85, the man believed to be the leader of a fierce armed resistance by Baluch tribesmen against the Pakistan army, was engulfed in fire after massive explosions were heard in the area. However the district coordination officer in Dera Bugti, Abdus Samad Lasi, maintained that neither Nawab Bugti, nor his family members were present in the fort.
Mahamoud the Weasel had him on speed dial
However, there were indications that heavy arms and ammunition were stored in the building.
Secondaries tipped you off, huh?
"Yes, a big operation has been mounted on the fort of Nawab Bugti which shows the government's conviction to root out terrorism at all cost," said a top Pakistani official who commented on the condition of anonymity. "This is the beginning of an end of Nawab Bugtis hegemony in his area," said the official.
Nawab Bugti is the head of the Jamhuri Watan Party (JWP) and is a former chief minister of the province of Baluchistan. He is said to be the main engine behind the turmoil between the local tribesmen and the Pakistan army. He was reported to have set up camp in the mountains surrounding Dera Bugti together with other tribesmen some weeks ago.
So he moved out weeks ago and your bombing his empty house was just for show
India has withdrawn nearly 5,000 Armymen from the state of Jammu and Kashmir following an improvement in the security situation in the state. According to Indian officials, the decision was taken following consultations at the highest levels of the Indian Army and the Defence Ministry as well as a review of the ground situation in Kashmir. The troops had now been redeployed near Darjeeling in Eastern Indian state of West Bengal.
Indian Defence Minister Pranab Mukherjee Monday confirmed this today. "The decision has been taken in view of the fact that the level of violence (in Kashmir) has declined. It is a routine exercise undertaken after a review of the situation in the state. Last year we had reduced troops voluntarily". In January, the Indian Army chief had said his force could not be completely withdrawn from Kashmir as suggested by Pakistan President Pervez Musharraf. He had said that terrorists were still active in the region and the infrastructure to support them was intact in Pakistan. Pakistani and Indian forces deployed on the frontiers in Jammu and Kashmir have been observing a ceasefire since November 2003.
Multi-National Division Baghdad Soldiers discovered a weapons cache Feb. 3, adding to a series of caches discovered in the past week.
While conducting a combat patrol, the Soldiers with 1st Battalion, 22nd Infantry Regiment, 1st Brigade Combat Team, 4th Infantry Division, received a tip from an Iraqi citizen about the location of a possible weapons cache site.
Responding to the tip, the unit searched the area and uncovered multiple weapons, munitions and explosives. An Explosive Ordnance Disposal team arrived at the site to assess the situation and conduct a controlled detonation to destroy the cache.
The controlled detonation exposed a false floor beneath the original site, which yielded more weapons and munitions upon further investigation.
EOD conducted a second controlled detonation of the explosives.
After both detonations and a complete search of the area, the unit uncovered 21 120mm mortar rounds, two 160mm mortar rounds, six 155mm mortar rounds, one shape charge, six 122 mortar rounds, 20 rocket propelled grenades, one mortar base plate, 80 81mm mortar rounds, 50 2.5 rockets, 60 61mm mortar rounds and other bomb-making materials.
#1
You see this story from the MSM: (http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20060207/ap_on_go_pr_wh/us_iraq)
But why oh why dont they publish positive articles like this one??????????????????????
Gunmen assassinated a Sunni community leader Tuesday in the former extremist stronghold of Fallujah part of an insurgent campaign to prevent prominent Sunni Arabs from joining the U.S.-backed political process.
Bombs and bullets killed at least 11 other people, including four Marines who died in a pair of bombings in western Anbar province.
Sheik Kamal Nazal, a Sunni preacher and chairman of the Fallujah city council, was gunned down in a hail of bullets from two passing cars as he walked to work, police Chief Brig. Hudairi al-Janabi said.
No group claimed responsibility for the killing, which occurred in one of the most tightly controlled cities in Iraq. However, it appeared part of a campaign of intimidation by Sunni insurgents against Sunni Arabs interested in promoting a political settlement to stem the violence.
Last month, Nazal welcomed Prime Minister Ibrahim al-Jaafari and U.S. Ambassador Zalmay Khalilzad to the city 40 miles west of Baghdad.
U.S. officials have been working hard to encourage Sunni Arabs to abandon the insurgency, and have been urging Shiite and Kurdish leaders to give major government posts to the disaffected minority.
American diplomats and military commanders believe that strategy offers the best way to calm the insurgency so U.S. and other international troops can begin heading home.
U.S. authorities arranged a meeting with local Sunni leaders in Ramadi on Nov. 28 as a major step in a political dialogue. But a suicide attack Jan. 5 against Sunni police recruits in the city which is about 30 miles from Fallujah set back the process. Nearly 60 people were killed, including two Americans.
A senior member of the Iraqi Islamic Party, a Sunni political group seeking a place in the new government, deplored Tuesday's assassination and blamed U.S. and Iraqi authorities in part for failing to protect the sheik.
"Those who wanted to eliminate Sheik Nazal are aimed at bringing more instability to the city," Dr. Salman al-Jumaili said. "We hold the Iraqi government and occupation forces responsible for bringing all this suffering and damage to this city."
Fallujah was the major stronghold of insurgent and religious extremists, including al-Qaida in Iraq, until the city fell to a U.S. air and ground assault in November 2004. Fallujah since has become one of the most intensely guarded cities in the nation.
The four Marines died in bombings in Anbar province, which also includes Fallujah and Ramadi and is a focus of insurgent activity.
Three Marines assigned to the 22nd Marine Expeditionary Unit were killed Monday in a bombing in Hit, 85 miles west of Baghdad, the military said. The other Marine, attached to the 2nd Marine Division, II Marine Expeditionary Force, died from wounds caused by a bombing Sunday in an unspecified location in Anbar.
The deaths bring the number of U.S. military personnel killed to at least 2,257 since the Iraq war began in March 2003, according to an Associated Press count.
In Baghdad, seven people were killed when two bombs exploded within 10 minutes on a commercial street near downtown Tahrir Square.
The first bomb exploded in a plastic bag left near a CD vendor's stand, police said. Three people were killed, said police Capt. Mohammed Abdul Ghani. The second bomb, which was hidden in a drainpipe, went off a short distance away and killed four people, including a policeman, Ghani said.
Hospital officials said at least 20 people were wounded in the bombings.
Iraqi security forces detained at least 26 suspected Sunni Arab insurgents who officials said were planning to attack Shiite Muslim pilgrims during Ashoura commemorations, which climax Thursday. The ceremonies mark the 7th century death of Shiite saint Imam Hussein, and attract hundreds of thousands of Shiites from all over the Muslim world.
Iraqi security forces are on high alert to prevent a repeat of the past two Ashoura ceremonies, in which Sunni Arab suicide bombers attacked Shiite worshippers, killing more than 230 people in Baghdad and the Shiite holy city of Karbala to the south.
Late Monday, about 100 Iraqi security forces, some rappelling from U.S. helicopters, raided a site 20 miles southeast of Baghdad and detained 26 people. The U.S. military said the operation targeted insurgents planning attacks on Shiites bound for Karbala.
A report by al-Hayat on January 26 that Tribal Popular Committees have been formed in Ramadi (capital of Anbar province) to hunt down Abu Musab al-Zarqawi and his followers, for the purpose of expelling them from the Iraqi border to Syria, does not come as a surprise. Indeed, over the past year various reports have surfaced pointing to increasing friction between Anbar tribesmen and al-Zarqawis followers who dominate the insurgent landscape along the crucial Euphrates River valley. What is interesting about the latest reports is that Anbar tribesmen and the Iraqi resistance are willing to hunt down and kill al-Qaeda affiliated fighters in Iraq. Previously, the tribesmen had merely warned al-Zarqawis followers to stay away from their areas and to desist from persecuting the Shiite minority in Anbar.
The al-Hayat report quotes one Sheikh Usamah al-Jadan (the head of the al-Karabilah tribe in Qaim) as saying: the Tribal Committees have started a military campaign against the terrorists. The real question here is how serious the so-called Tribal Popular Committees are at pursuing al-Zarqawi and his men. In other words, do the committees have real teeth, or are they merely the latest propaganda stunt by the Arab Sunni guerrilla movement? It is worth noting that the Arab Sunni guerrillas and their political representatives (in the form of the two Arab Sunni blocs that participated in the December 15, 2005 elections) see the inclusion of Arab Sunnis in the new government (which has yet to be formed) as an adjunct, rather than an alternative, to the insurgency. Clearly it suits their interests to sideline al-Qaeda in Iraq, at least in the propaganda sphere.
For its part, the Iraqi government is not overly-impressed by the counter-insurgency initiatives of the Anbar tribesmen. Adel Abdul Mahdi, vice president of Iraq and a leader of the Supreme Council of the Islamic Revolution in Iraq (SCIRI), described the latest initiative in a typically cryptic manner: We support any request by the people of Anbar. However, we have to say frankly that no-one ought to seek the help of saboteurs against terrorists, terrorists against saboteurs, or would-be suicide bombers against those beheading people. The Iraqi people and the Iraqi government have to face up to these challenges (al-Hayat, February 3).
Naturally, the Iraqi government prefers to be at the forefront of the struggle against the insurgency. Yet, there is a more pressing reason why the latest developments are seen as unwelcome by the Baghdad government. The increasing mobilization of Anbar tribesmen converges with increasing confidence by the two Arab Sunni blocs (namely the Sunni Islamist Iraqi Accord Front and the much smaller neo-Baathist Iraqi Front for National Dialogue led by Saleh al-Mutlaq) in using quasi-official platforms to promote the insurgency and pressure the government to make unreasonable concessions.
On February 1, the Iraqi Accord Front threatened to call for civil disobedience if the government did not respond to its demands, which include releasing detainees and disbanding militias (al-Mashriq, February 2). Al-Mashriq also quotes Tariq al-Hashimi, the secretary general of the Iraqi Islamic Party, as calling for the resignation of Interior Minister Bayan Jabr, also a former senior commander of the Badr organization, and his deputies. This kind of aggressive posturing (which is completely at odds with the electoral weight of the two main Arab Sunni blocs) comes at a time when the insurgency is picking up strength, as evidenced by the relentless attacks on U.S. forces in the Baghdad, Anbar, Salahudin and Nineveh provinces. It is exactly this kind of propaganda, political and guerrilla coordination that the Iraqi government and the U.S. establishment in Iraq had been dreading for a long time.
For its part, the victorious Shiite coalition has started a counter-propaganda campaign through opinion pieces in the daily al-Adala (issued by SCIRI). An opinion piece by Hamdi Hassan implicitly accuses the Arab Sunnis of refusing to accept their electoral defeat (al-Adala, January 30). Another opinion piece by Abbas Mizban follows on the same theme, but this time explicitly rejecting accusations of fraud and violations in the recent elections (al-Adala, January 31).
Leaving aside the political and propaganda dimensions of recent developments, it is clear that the gulf between al-Zarqawi and the Iraqi resistance is widening. A major point of friction is the increasing proclivity of the nationalist insurgents to negotiate with the U.S., both at a tactical and strategic level. The latest negotiations, which reportedly took place in Iraq, Syria and Jordan, have apparently ground to a halt because of U.S. rejection of insurgent demands. Apparently, the insurgents had proposed a one-year truce with U.S. forces, conditional on the United States removing half its forces from Iraq within a year, allowing the insurgents to hold official posts and increasing Arab Sunni representation in the new government (al-Sabah, February 2). The negotiators, according to al-Sabah, are described as Baathists, Islamists and high-ranking former Republican Guard and intelligence officers.
Posted by: Dan Darling ||
02/07/2006 12:56 ||
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COPENHAGEN - Danish soldiers on patrol in southern Iraq came under attack but escaped unharmed, the Danish military headquarters said on Monday. Iraqis shot at the patrol on Sunday as the Danish soldiers gave first aid to a group of children injured in a traffic accident south of Al Qurnah, it said. They were shot at as they tried to help the children, Colonel Henrik Sommer told AFP.
The soldiers shot back, withdrew from the area and took several of the children to hospital, he said.
Around 530 Danish soldiers are stationed in Iraq as part of a multinational force there, operating under British command in Basra, 550 kilometres (340 miles) south of Baghdad. However, Sommer said that for the time-being the government did not believe the attack was be linked to the Mohammed caricatures.
Danish Defense Minister Soeren Gade told Danish television DR1 that Denmark had increased security around its troops in Iraq.
Posted by: Steve White ||
02/07/2006 00:00 ||
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#1
Iraqis shot at the patrol on Sunday as the Danish soldiers gave first aid to a group of children injured in a traffic accident south of Al Qurnah, it said. They were shot at as they tried to help the children, Colonel Henrik Sommer told AFP.
Tel Aviv, 6 Feb. (AKI) - Israeli soldiers killed an Islamic Jihad commander in a raid on the West Bank town of Nablus on Tuesday morning. Two Israeli soldiers were injured in the skirmish, Israel Radio reported. About ten army jeeps entered the city before dawn and surrounded a house where militant commander, Ahmed Radad, was hiding, the report said.
"Be bery, bery quiet. We're hunting jihadis. heh heh heh heh heh..."
"Enough with the jokes, Abner. Just park the damn jeep."
According to an Israeli Defence Force spokesman when the troops called on residents to leave the building,
"Come out or we'll shoot!"
a Palestinian began shooting toward troops from inside.
"You'll never take us alive, infidel!"
The troops returned fire, the spokesman said.
"Hokay..KAPOW!"
Islamic Jihad confirmed to the Associated Press that Radad, a senior official in the radical Islamist movement, was killed in the shootout.
"He's dead, Jim"
The attack follows an incident on Monday night when the Israeli military fired a missile at a car killing two Palestinian militants in the northern Gaza Strip. According to the Israelis the attack was launched at a group of militants preparing a Qassam rocket attack against Israel. A Palestinian security source cited by Tel Aviv daily Haartez, identified the dead in Monday's strike as Rami Hanun and Hassan Asfour, local commanders of Al-Aqsa Martyrs Brigades, an armed wing close to Palestinian Authority president Mahmoud Abbas's Fatah faction.
Al-Aqsa vowed revenge. "Our answer is open war on all Zionists, soldiers and civilians," Haartez quoted a spokesman for the group Abu Qusai as saying. Paramedics and witnesses said the missile destroyed the car and incinerated the two men inside. Three bystanders were wounded in the blast, they said. The targeted vehicle was a yellow minibus traveling on a farm road.
Palestinians shoot four missiles into Israel Tuesday amid concentrated Israeli air strikes and artillery shelling of Gaza launching sites. No casualties
One damaged a kindergarten in Sderot, two more exploded in Netiv Haasara north of the Gaza Strip and a fourth landed in Kibbutz Carmieh, where four Israelis were injured last week.
They were fired hours after the Israeli Air Force killed two Fatah-Al-Aqasa Qassam missile-men on their way to a launching in the northern Gaza Strip. It was Israels third targeted attack in Gaza in three days in a concentrated bid to halt the Qassam offensive waged by all the Palestinian terrorist groups against Israeli locations outside the Gaza Strip.
Israeli helicopter-borne missiles struck the car in which Bahni Juda and Hassan Asfur were driving to a launching. Sunday night, Islamic Jihads top bomb-maker, Adnan Bustan, 28, and a second terrorist were killed in an Israeli air strike. Bustan headed the Jihad Islami engineering and manufacturing unit that produces missiles and explosives.
THE PRESENCE of the Al Qaeda-linked Jemaah Islamiyah in the Mindanao region will be "extremely damaging" not only to the Philippines but also to its standing in the international community, a visiting official from the European Union told lawmakers at the House of Representatives on Tuesday.
"The role of JI in Mindanao is extremely damaging. Damaging to the interest of other countries in the region, to the interest of the Philippines and to the standing of the Philippines in the international community," Gijs de Vries said at a briefing with the joint committees on foreign affairs and justice.
"It's very important that JI will be denied its opportunities for training, which they currently still enjoy," he said.
Vries, along with ambassadors Herber Jager and Jan de Kok, sought an audience with the committees deliberating on the anti-terror bill to find out its status, as well as the ongoing peace talks between the government and the Moro Islamic Liberation Front (MILF).
The diplomats specifically wanted to find out if the Muslim rebels had been giving sanctuary to JI in some parts of Mindanao.
"The reason of course that us, as non-Filipinos, are interested in it not only because of its importance to the Philippines but also because of the regional responsibility of the Philippines," Vries said.
He said they had "immediate security interests in terms of the physical security of our citizens in the region," because among those who died in the Bali and Marriot Hotel bombings in Indonesia were European citizens.
But Datumanong, who came from Mindanao, said there was no trace or any indication of the JI's presence in the region although he did not discount the possibility that the group might have been in the region.
"The so-called JI, which is suspected to come from a nearby neighbor probably was there before but there seems to be no trace of it or no showing of its presence today so is the so-called Al-Qaeda," he told in response to Vries query.
The lawmaker also expressed doubts that the MILF had been giving sanctuary to the JI, citing the joint operations conducted by the Muslim rebels and the government in areas suspected to have JI presence.
"The MILF had made practically a commitment to the government of the Philippines to sincerely help in preventing the JI and the Al-Qaeda to have sanctuary within the areas that the MILF have now occupied," he said.
With the peace talks between the government and the MILF going on in Kuala Lumpur, Datumanong is confident that the two parties will have a peace agreement by the end of the year.
He said he had talked to Al Haj Murad, chairman of the MILF panel, and got an assurance that they were determined to have a peace agreement similar to what the Moro National Liberation Front (MNLF) and the government had.
"Not a peace agreement of particular understanding but the totality of bringing about peace," Datumanong pointed out.
Posted by: Dan Darling ||
02/07/2006 12:53 ||
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#1
The EU needs to get off their collective arses, out of the Manila bars, and go look for themselves. All one needs to do to find the JI is fly into Cotabato and look North. The MILF are harboring them. Just ask to go look and you will be met all kinds of "you can't go there issues, Muslims only etc...
Posted by: 49 Pan ||
02/07/2006 13:51 Comments ||
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#2
Bit it's in the Manila bars that the Manila bar girls can be found. Of the sort that can pursuade a man to empty the family bank accounts and run off with her, repeatedly. (Happened to a friend of mine. Mr. Wife had to fire her husband for it.)
KUALA LUMPUR - Muslim rebels and the Philippine government are close to a deal on land claims, the key to ending a 40-year insurgency that has cost more than 120,000 lives, the facilitator of the talks said on Tuesday. Negotiators from Manila and the Moro Islamic Liberation Front (MILF), now in Malaysia for talks, are putting final touches on a preliminary agreement on the issue, Othman Abdul Razak, special adviser to Malaysias prime minister, told Reuters.
We are quite optimistic. Everyone is quite optimistic. There is a groundswell in support of the peace process, especially from the Muslims, said Othman, who is facilitating the talks on behalf of Malaysia, seen by both sides as a neutral party.
Well, sure, you're giving them what they want. Course, they may want more later
A final agreement on the issue of ancestral domain could be reached by late March or early April. That is our timeline, Othman said, adding that a full peace accord could follow before the Muslim fasting month began in late September.
If everything goes on smoothly, we can have it probably before Ramadan, said Othman, a strategic adviser to successive prime ministers and a top bureaucrat with 33 years experience.
Mainly Muslim Malaysia has been hosting talks between Manila and the MILF, the largest of four Muslim rebel groups in the mainly Roman Catholic country, since March 2001. The 12,000-strong MILF has been fighting for an independent Islamic state in the impoverished but mineral rich southern island of Mindanao. The conflict has stunted the islands development and hurt the nations overall investment climate.
In Manila, Philippine President Gloria Macapagal Arroyo said in a statement the peace process with the MILF was an essential part of "peace in our time" achieving national security and regional stability and prosperity. Domestic, regional and global confidence has been driven in a large part by our determination to silence the guns, open the gates of enterprise at all levels, isolate terrorist cells and negotiate a comprehensive political settlement, she said.
Perhaps Gloria is dreaming about a Nobel Peace Prize
A deal on Muslim ancestral lands would define boundaries and determine who has ownership and mining rights, Othman said. He said the current talks also touched on the importance of persuading local people of the benefits of peace and of securing international aid to rebuild and develop the area. All these are to run in tandem with the negotiations as they head toward final agreement, he said. We expect countries like Japan to come in to do the rehabilitation and development. The problem is they will come in only after the signing. They fear for their safety and also whatever assistance be translated into weapons.
So far, international support has been very limited. Only Malaysia, Brunei and Libya have deployed a team overseeing the ceasefire on Mindanao. Othman said there should also be offers from other countries to help develop infrastructure, train manpower and create jobs. We are appealing to the international community to lend support in capacity-building before the final agreement. We need it now, he said.
What will the MILFs guerrillas do if peace breaks out?
In peacetime, what do you do with the fighters? You have to make them become economically useful citizens. Otherwise, they become criminals. Thats the danger.
Since you're gonna have a muslim mini-state, you'll need hard boys to go around enforcing islamic law. Those folks who ain't muslim will need to follow the law anyway or risk the Wrath of Allan.
Othman played down concerns about alleged MILF links to groups such as Jemaah Islamiah, the Southeast Asian militant Islamic network blamed for a string of deadly bombings in Indonesia. Theres always been concerns about the existence of terrorists in the midst of MILF, he said. I think this is much exaggerated. MILF is aware that JI will not serve their interest. It will only derail their struggle, their objectives, what they been struggling for 40 years.
You caved in, the MILF won a muslim homeland. They think they have God on their side and it's only a matter of time before they take over everywhere. If the next generation of JI is smart, and most of the stupid ones are dead or in the jug, they'll stay low key behind the scenes and use Mindanao as a safe haven.
#1
Now, if we can sneek a good cartoon into the Manila newspapers, the JI will lose their cool and this whole process will collapse before anything becomes final. Where's Doonsbury when we need him ?
#2
What will the MILFs guerrillas do if peace breaks out?
Simple. the MILF will 'splinter' into yet-another-group who will continue the fighting. Meanwhile the Ph Government will be bound to a treaty with a skeleton crew who remain as the MILF (and will give the killers cover in 'MILF' lands, access to Arms and explosives, etc....)
#3
Completely correct. This "peace" deal is just a bribery scam to enrich the MILF leadership.
Fact is, I don't see what the Phil government is actually conceding. There is very little of value in the area. Maybe all that international aid, should it ever show up.
Thailand's justice minister says insurgents in the country's south have intensified attacks to take advantage of the political crisis in Bangkok.
More than 100 schools have closed for the week in the province of Yala after three teachers were shot and seriously injured. Justice Minister Chidchai Vansathidya says local authorities are doing their best to cope with the threats. He admits teachers are now a soft target for insurgents.
Since the latest wave of violence began in the Muslim-majority south two years ago, separatist rebels have attacked Buddhist teachers at local schools. They, together with monks and police, are considered symbols of the Bangkok Government. The army has moved to provide them with better protection as they travel to and from their schools.
But last Friday three teachers were shot and injured as they waited for military officers to escort them home. Despite the school closures another Buddhist teacher was shot and killed on Tuesday morning in Yala. On Monday, two policemen and a defence volunteer were killed in the market in Yala by suspected militants. The justice minister described the attacks as opportunistic and linked to demonstrations against the prime minister in the capital.
At the weekend an estimated 50,000 protestors gathered in Bangkok to call for the prime minister to be removed from office, many expressing their anger at a controversial business deal involving members of Mr Thaksin's family. Another rally is planned for Saturday. Mr Thaksin says he has no plans to step down unless the country's king demands it.
UNITED NATIONS - The U.N. Security Council formally received notification Tuesday about Iran and its nuclear program from the International Atomic Energy Agency, opening the door toward potential sanctions against Tehran.
The dispute centers on whether Iran wants nuclear capability for energy or arms.
Iran insists it has only peaceful nuclear ambitions but France, Germany, the United Kingdom and United States have expressed concern that Iran's nuclear activities could be aimed at acquiring a nuclear weapon.
Tuesday's letter from IAEA Director General Mohamed ElBaradei to John Bolton, U.S. ambassador to the United Nations and the current Security Council president, comes after the nuclear watchdog's weekend vote in favor of reporting Iran to the council.
The United States left copies of the letter and a packet of information about the IAEA and Iran on the seats of the other 14 Security Council member nations before a Tuesday meeting at U.N. headquarters.
A U.S. mission spokesman noted that "the process has begun."
But it remains unknown what action, if any, the Security Council will take should Iran fail to cooperate with the nuclear watchdog.
In a letter of its own this week, Iran told the Vienna, Austria-based IAEA to remove surveillance equipment from its nuclear sites by mid-February.
Iran had warned it would stop honoring the "additional protocol" to the Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty if it were referred to the Security Council.
The protocol allows for such oversight as snap inspections, IAEA seals on nuclear equipment and greater surveillance of Tehran's nuclear facilities.
The letter told the IAEA it would stop cooperating with the protocol and would return to the bare minimum of cooperation as outlined by the treaty.
London, 7 Feb. (AKI) - Syrian opposition groups on Tuesday staged a demonstration in front of Damascus' embassy in London to commemorate the victims of a 1982 military attack which crushed an Islamist inspired revolt. The "Massacre of Hamah," was named after the city where government special forces crushed the uprising killing between 10,000 and 30,000 people.
The aim of Tuesday's protest was to "renew the pact of loyalty with those Syrian citizens who paid with their lives in confronting despotism and the repression of freedom," the groups said in a statement.
Trying to bring about their own version of despotism and repression
The Muslim Brotherhood-led insurrection in Hamah was one of several during the 1970s and 1980s against the secular Baathist regime of then Syrian president, Hafiz al-Assad, father of the country's current leader, Basher al-Assad.
Daddy Assad was a real dictator who got things done.
#1
not all of the Syrian opposition is MB. Some are Kurds, some seem to be prodemocracy. At this point id support a coalition against the regime even if it included MB.
#3
My understanding of the the uprising in Hamah is that it was MB not a coalition. I hope that the Kurds would pass on a coalition with MB, Zarqawi or Hezbollah, but they have certainly made friends with bad actors in the past - as we have.
I don't applaud Hamah anymore than I applaud Grozny. I am just not sympathetic to Zawahiri either.
Posted by: Super Hose ||
02/07/2006 18:06 Comments ||
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#4
The "Massacre of Hamah," was named after the city where government special forces crushed the uprising killing between 10,000 and 30,000 people. According to Tom Friedman the Syrians surrounded the city and pounded it with artillery. Not really special forces but the end result is the same. Hamah was wiped from the map.
#6
So, what are we gonna do?"...
"We're gonna dance, sir!" ...
"WHO WE GONNA DANCE WITH?"...
"THE DEVIL!"...
"WE GONNA LEAD OR WE GONNA FOLLOW?"...
"WE'RE GONNA LEAD!"
TEHERAN - The Wests publication of the Prophet Muhammad (PBUH) cartoons was an Israeli conspiracy motivated by anger over Hamas win in the Palestinian elections, Irans supreme leader, Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, said on Tuesday.
Wow, so the Jews had Danish cartoonists draw those pictures and publish them months ago knowing Hamas was going to win? How devious
Speaking to Iranian air force personnel, Khamenei also praised the governments sharply curbing the access of UN inspectors to Irans nuclear facilities in response to the decision to report the country to the UN Security Council. The restricted access corresponds to the Iranian peoples dignity and honor, Khamenei said.
He also criticized the Saturday decision of the International Atomic Energy Agency to report Irans nuclear activities to the Security Council, saying the move discredited the Nuclear Nonproliferation Treaty. Unfortunately, international bodies have lost their identity under the influence of the arrogant powers, he said, referring to the United States and European Union.
#2
Hokay, so have some more mass protests and trample another several dozen of yourselves. Goodness knows it's a glacial process but we'll get all of you yet.
#3
Unfortunately, international bodies have lost their identity under the influence of the arrogant powers,
Is "The Great Satan" now just a division of "The Arrogant Powers"?
Iran told the International Atomic Energy Agency to remove surveillance cameras and agency seals from sites and nuclear equipment by the end of next week, the U.N. watchdog agency said Monday. Iran's demands came two days after the IAEA reported Tehran to the Security Council over its disputed atomic program. The council has the power to impose economic and political sanctions.
In a confidential report to the IAEA's 35-member board, agency head Mohamed ElBaradei said Iran also announced a sharp reduction in the number and kind of inspections IAEA experts will be allowed, effective immediately. The report was dated Monday and made available to The Associated Press.
The moves were expected. Iranian officials had repeatedly warned they would stop honoring the so-called "Additional Protocol" to the Nuclear Nonproliferation Treaty an agreement giving IAEA inspectors greater inspecting authority if the IAEA board referred their country to the Security Council.
A diplomat close to the Vienna-based IAEA told the AP that Iran had also made good on another threat formally setting a date for resuming full-scale work on its uranium enrichment program, which can make either fuel or the nuclear core of warheads.
The recently declassified document called Information Operations Roadmap, which highlights how the U.S. military is learning to fight the net, has drawn much interest from Western commentators. There is concern over the ambitions to exercise control over the internet expressed in the document. The October 2003 document, signed by Secretary of Defense Donald Rumsfeld, also highlights the vulnerability of U.S. networks to infiltration and destruction. The document called for a radical re-evaluation of how the military should conduct electronic warfare, including psychological operations (PsyOps) and aggressive hacking techniques.
From evidence found in jihadi forums, the U.S. military has its work cut out. Since the explosive growth of the virtual jihad community after the loss of Afghanistan, which has seen the number of radical websites mushroom from less than 100 to several thousand today, the mujahideen have demonstrated their sophistication in the medium. Much discussion space is given not only to protecting themselves from penetration, but for taking the hacker warfare to their enemies. Most radical jihadi forums devote an entire section to the technique. For example, in the jihadi hacker forum of the radical jihadist al-Ghorabaa site (http://www.alghorabaa.net/forums), the most popular comment strings are: penetrating computer devices and easy methods to penetrate servers in an intranet. Further postings feature:
- "How to steal passwords (deliverable via email)" and "how to reveal the passwords under the asterisks"
- "How to protect yourself from attack"
- "Can you be arrested due to your emails?"
- "Encyclopedia of hacking sites"
- "Concealment on the web: a lesson in intermediaries" (anonymous browsing techniques)
- "A book in Arabic for instruction in hacking techniques." This last posting provides a 344-page, profusely illustrated, step-by-step guide intended by the anonymous author for "terminating pornographic sites and those intended for the Jews and their supporters."
Other sites such as the Egyptian Hackers Intelligence Agency (http://eljehad.netfirms.com) specialize in the techniques, while sites such as Jihadak Matlub (your jihad is wanted) aim to channel the efforts of armchair mujahideen in the campaign.
The most recent demonstration of the efficiency, coordination and ingenuity of the internet mujahideen is the uproar over the cartoons published by the Danish paper Jyllands-Posten depicting the Prophet Muhammad. This theme is currently conspicuous among all the electronic warfare sections of the jihadi forums, which have taken this as a cause célèbre. The al-Ghorabaa site coordinated a 24-hour attack on this and other newspaper sites and paraded its success on February 2 with the result (see illustration).
Following this, the forum participants initiated discussion on how to broaden the campaign. This was aided by the death sentences on the cartoonist pronounced by radical sheikhs such as Nazim al-Misbah in Kuwait, reported on al-Arabiya television, and the report by the Lebanese daily al-Nahar that Usbat al-Ansar in the Ein Helweh refugee camp had called for reviving the tradition of slaughter, and demanded that Osama bin Laden take vengeance (http://www.annahar.com). The threat, according to the pan-Arab daily al-Quds al-Arabi, has since been answered by the Abu Hafs al-Masri Brigades, who sent a declaration to the paper detailing how they have threatened Denmark with a lasting war and a series of blessed raids (http://www.alquds.co.uk).
Amid the controversy over the burning of the Danish and Norwegian embassies in Damascus and the burning of the Danish embassy in Beirut, al-Ghorabaa participants also called for a global embassy-burning day with Islamic youth called on to set fire to Danish embassies all over the world. As a demonstration of the value of the web to the jihad, the day is to be coordinated by the following mobile phone message: Urgent! Spread this; Resistance from the entire Islamic world before all Danish embassies in Muslim states, to protest against the publication of the pictures and to demand an apology; [demonstration to take place] on February 13, 2006. Participate and defend your Prophet!
Confident that the scheme will receive wide acceptance, the posting then urged participants to distribute the message demand to all forums irrespective of their ideological line. Let those who wish for a practical victory, it details, take a glass bottle filled with petrol and some cloth wadding remember to incite the crowds to storm the embassy, as happened in Indonesia (http://www.alghorabaa.net/forums/showthread.php?t=3091).
Posted by: Dan Darling ||
02/07/2006 13:00 ||
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I just went to the website of the Embassy of Denmark to look for contact info. I wanted to write them a note of solidarity. And I found the text of a press conference he gave today:
The violent arson attacks on several European embassies demonstrate that this is not a matter between the Muslim world and Denmark alone.
It has been a great comfort to my government and the Danish people to receive widespread international support in this difficult situation. We are working in close cooperation with friends and allies in Europe and the United States as well countries and organizations in the Muslim world.
I am happy to inform you that just a few minutes ago President Bush called me. The President called to express support and solidarity with Denmark in light of the violence against Danish and other diplomatic missions.
We agreed that the way ahead is through dialogue and tolerance, not violence. And we emphasized that freedom of press and respect for all faiths are crucial values.
We share with the Muslim countries a common interest in calming down the situation. We want cooperation, not conflict.
The European Union is now considering ways to re-establish a dialogue with countries in the region building on the long existing friendship between Europe and the Muslim world.
Today I want to appeal and reach out to all people and countries in the Muslim world: Let us work together in the spirit of mutual respect and tolerance. We need to solve this issue through dialogue, not violence.
We are today facing a growing global crisis that has the potential to escalate beyond the control of governments and other authorities. Right now, radicals, extremists and fanatics are adding fuel to the flames in order to push forward their own agenda. For that purpose they are portraying a picture of Denmark and European countries that is not true.
Today the people of Denmark witness with disbelief and sadness the events unfolding in the world. We are watching Danish flags being burned and Danish embassies being attacked. We are seing ourselves characterized as an intolerant people or as enemies of Islam as a religion.
That picture is false. Extremists and radicals who seek a clash of cultures and religions are spreading it. I would like to emphasize: Denmark and the Danish people are not enemies of Islam or any other religion.
Danes have for generations fought for political liberty, human rights and democracy and for economic freedom, free trade and a free and civilized world. We will continue to do that. It is a part of our history and a fundamental part of our society today.
Denmark is one of the worlds most tolerant and open societies.
We believe in freedom of expression
We believe in freedom of religion and we respect all religions.
We believe in dialogue between cultures.
We oppose violence and hatred.
And we believe in equal rights for everyone irrespective of gender, religious belief, political conviction or ethnic background.
Let me remind you: It was a free and independent newspaper that published the cartoons. Neither the Danish government nor the Danish people can be held responsible for what is published in a free and independent newspaper.
Let me also remind you that the newspaper has already apologized for the offence caused by the cartoons.
I have also made it clear that the Danish government does not have any intention whatsoever to offend Muslims or believers in any other religion. On the contrary, we do respect peoples religious beliefs.
I am appalled that we are in a situation where lies and misinformation not only tarnishes the image of Denmark but also spurs violence abroad.
But we are confronted by misinformation passed on by mobile messages and web logs at such high speed that it is picked up and acted upon before we have a chance to correct it.
So for the record let med re-iterate: There has been no burning of the Quran in Denmark. If any person attempts to do so the police authorities will react immediately.
These are trying times for the Danish people. On several occasions I have appealed to the Danish people not to be provoked by the events abroad. I have called on all parties to abstain from any statement or action that will create further tension. I am proud to say that all people in Denmark have been acting with calm and dignity using their democratic rights to state their opinion.
I also welcome strongly the moderate statements from many Danish Muslims. They represent the vast majority of Muslims in Denmark, who day by day make an important contribution to the Danish society.
Thank you, Mr. Prime Minister. Long live Denmark. Long live the Danes.
#3
Have you heard what they do to people who burn bibles in Denmark?
Here in the US, we give them government grants.
Posted by: Robert Crawford ||
02/07/2006 15:24 Comments ||
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#4
Pres. Bush called-good! That support needs to be unambiguous and unmuted.
But there's a problem with what the PM said-the notion that only extremists see a clash of religions and cultures. Seeing it does not make one an "extremist"-it makes one open-eyed and honest. Look at what is being said by THOUSANDS already on the site of the petition supporting Denmark. The clash is real and already underway. I understand that he and Bush are both trying to calm matters-but to what end? Delaying going to the doctor when your condition is grave because you don't want to hear how grave it is does not make you healthier
If push came to shove and the average Muslim on the street had to choose between standing up for democracy and the voice of freedom or standing up for Islam and the umma, does anyone doubt which he would side with?
#5
The Danes should surround all their embassies with minefields. And this need to make even small consessions.... Cavemen, we're fighting cavemen here; consessions are not necessary.
Could book burning be a crime ? Burning the Quran should be encouraged. The world is waking up, but oh, so slowly.
#6
Actually Jules, I do wonder which way a Moslim would pick. I think it depends upon who was listening because in general they appear to be cowards who would rather lay low than take a risk of offending the spittle sprayers.
In a silent/secret election I think most would chose civilization. Having said that, if they won't stand up for civilization they can live in poverty and death cult for all I care.
#7
Danes have for generations fought for political liberty, human rights and democracy and for economic freedom, free trade and a free and civilized world.
Sadly, Denmark's enemies could not care less about a civilized world or anything else mentioned above.
#8
Apparantly Denmark is about to take over chairing the UNSC. Also, apparantly the flames of this controversy were fanned by forged cartoons worse than the originals.
Iran is about to go before the UNSC.
It could be this is part of their plan to intimidate the Europeans with mob behavior. But it just might be backfiring.
Iran poses a serious challenge to us. They have a well dispersed, hardened nuke infrastructure with a decent air force and good integrated air defense system. They also have Kilo Class subs, corvettes with anti ship missiles (including Sunburn I believe) and a strategic location on the Straits of Hormuz. Plus they own Baby Assad and Mookie who can make trouble elsewhere.
It would be nice if they miscalculated and brought NATO closer to our side as we prepare for war. We do not need allies to destroy Iran's nuclear capabilities, but it will be good to know we are not alone when we face the inevitable setbacks from any Iran campaign.
Then, the only fear is that Iran already has a few bombs they can deliver via conventional or unconventional means. Hopefully others see reason to share intel with us on this angle.
#9
Uh-oh, "respect for all faiths"--that's a deal breaker right there. The only respect Islamic Nazis want is for themselves, they certainly don't give to anyone or any creed differing from theirs.
#10
IIRC Bolton just took over the UNSC for a year and has already started creating waves with unreasonable demands - like meetings starting on time, and Kofi doing daily briefings. Bolton's a stone cold killer - he won't budge
Posted by: Frank G ||
02/07/2006 18:33 Comments ||
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#11
Iran poses a serious challenge to us. They have a well dispersed, hardened nuke infrastructure with a decent air force
The great lion's share of their aircraft are the MiG21 and the MiG copy the Shen Yang. They have advanced aircraft such as the F-14 which they use as an over-the horizon radar platform, but that is it.
and good integrated air defense system.
Fixed air defenses have another name: I believe the Navy calls it targets.
They also have Kilo Class subs,
A Diesel sub more than 20 years out of date. The Iranians do not have an anti-sub force to counter US attack subs.
corvettes with anti ship missiles (including Sunburn I believe)
Also known as Phrog-made Combattente corvettes. One shot platforms whcih can't hide and can only die against a determined naval campaign.
Let's face it: If we get serious about war with Iran, there will be no Iranian air force within a week after the first shots are fired. The corvettes will die an ugly death at the hands of US Navy aircraft toting Harpoon missiles, making the Kilo subs our major headache.
The Iranian air force and navy are doomed in a shootout with the US Navy. A US Naval campaign will be comprehensive and decisive, razor sharp in its accuracy, and bullet like in its speed and intensity.
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At least 12 people, mostly policemen, have been killed in a suspected suicide bomb attack in the southern Afghan city of Kandahar, officials say. Eleven others are said to have been injured in the blast which took place outside the police headquarters. A spokesman for the ousted Taleban regime has claimed that the group carried out the attack, reports say. 
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A demonstrator who imitated a suicide bomber in a Muslim protest over cartoons satirising the Prophet Muhammad has been recalled to prison. Omar Khayam, 22, of Bedford, is a convicted drug dealer who was jailed in 2002 and released on licence last year after serving half his sentence. 
Controversial Muslim cleric Abu Hamza al-Masri has been found guilty of race hate charges and soliciting to murder by an Old Bailey jury. Abu Hamza, who preached at Finsbury Park mosque, was convicted of seven out of nine soliciting to murder charges. 
Pakistani security forces mounted a major operation on Tuesday morning in the troubled southern province of Baluchistan with the aim of destroying the sanctuaries of the Baluch nationalist leaders, highly placed sources told Adnkronos International (AKI). Local television reports have said that loud explosions were heard at the home of Nawab Akbar Bugti, the leader of one of the most powerful tribes in Baluchistan. Eye witnesses say that the fort of Nawab Akbar Bugti in the town of Dera Bugti was surrounded by flames.
COPENHAGEN - Danish soldiers on patrol in southern Iraq came under attack but escaped unharmed, the Danish military headquarters said on Monday. Iraqis shot at the patrol on Sunday as the Danish soldiers gave first aid to a group of children injured in a traffic accident south of Al Qurnah, it said. They were shot at as they tried to help the children, Colonel Henrik Sommer told AFP.
Iran told the International Atomic Energy Agency to remove surveillance cameras and agency seals from sites and nuclear equipment by the end of next week, the U.N. watchdog agency said Monday. Iran's demands came two days after the IAEA reported Tehran to the Security Council over its disputed atomic program. The council has the power to impose economic and political sanctions.
