Erica Jong, author of the books Fear of Flying and Seducing the Demon, was on HBOs Real Time with Bill Maher Friday night. During the proceedings, Jong claimed that President Bush was aware of the pre-planning for 9/11, and intentionally did nothing to avert the attacks (hat tip to Ian Schwartz of Expose the Left with video link to follow). After Maher showed the famous picture of then White House chief of staff Andy Card telling the president that the nation had been attacked a picture that Maher quipped should be on the one dollar bill Jong said, I account for the seven minutes by the fact that he wasnt surprised, because he knew all about the planning for 9/11.
Maher interjected incredulously, Oh, come on. Thats ridiculous. Now, this is an interesting moment on cable television a Bush-hating guest on Real Time making an anti-Bush statement that Bill Maher doesnt agree with. In fact, Maher was so opposed to this theory that he continued to admonish Jong: Thats a scurrilous thing to say. I dont like George Bush, but youre telling me he knew the attack was going to happen?
Amazingly, Jong continued undeterred: Well, there are many people who are theorizing that he knew about it. And continued: He got briefs, he got presidential briefs that said Osama bin Laden wants to attack.
Maher interjected, Yes, we know hes not a good president. But thats a big difference.
Potentially this should be the new litmus test for extreme liberal media bias when even Bill Maher thinks your views are absurd.
An Afghan couple, Dr Azizullah and his second wife Feroza, are missing since the last five months. The last time the couple contacted their family in Peshawar, they were in Kabul.
"Hello, Ma? Look, we're in Kabul. Can you send us some money?"
The suicidal Afghan couples whereabouts are still unknown, though unconfirmed reports said that they had committed a suicide attack in Afghanistan some months ago. There are unofficial reports that the couple has already committed suicide near the Pule-Charkhi prison outside Kabul, for which we are looking for evidence, said an official familiar with the case and its investigation, adding that the case would be closed if evidence were found.
"Nobody noticed a boom. We're checking on it, though."
The Taliban had delivered a CD to the couples family, in which they had been advised by Dr Aziz and his wife to not search for them, as they would reunite with them in heaven. Dr Aziz, a medical graduate from Afghanistan, was a tableeghi, but no clue was found to suggest that he was a Taliban member or inspired by the Islamic militias war against the US-led forces in Afghanistan.
Tablighi Jamaat is a loose organization of Islamic preachers who travel around spreading dawa and denouncing sin and stuff...
He has had three daughters from his first wife, but decided to remarry when no son was born to him. He has no children from his second wife.
"Was it good for you, too, baby?"
"Was what good?"
[Nine months later]
"No boy?"
"Sorry. No boy."
"I think I'll kill myself."
"I'll join you."
Pakistani security agencies are searching for information as to whether or not the Taliban were inspiring Pak-Afghans to become suicide bombers. A family member said Dr Aziz had grown a beard and wore a turban that the tableeghis, or preachers, normally wear.
Posted by: Fred ||
04/02/2006 00:00 ||
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Unidentified gunmen killed the speaker of a northern Afghan provincial legislature early Saturday after breaking into his home, police said. Sayed Sadeq, from northeastern Takhar province, is believed to be the first lawmaker killed since the October inauguration of the war-torn countrys first parliament and provincial councils in more than 30 years. He was killed early this morning, Takhar security director Gulam Hazrat told AFP. We dont yet know who killed him.
Takhar is relatively free of violence linked to a Taliban-led insurgency that sees nearly daily attacks in southern and eastern Afghanistan. The area is however plagued by rivalry between former commanders in the resistance to the 1996-2001 Taliban regime, some of whom still run private armies. Sadeq was a commander before winning the September election for the council.
It's relatively free from violence because it's relatively free from Pashtuns.
Posted by: Fred ||
04/02/2006 00:00 ||
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An employee in the opposition Wafd Party died Saturday here from wounds he sustained when supporters of the party's president Noman Jumah opened fire at employees at the party's headquarters.
The supporters of the party's prez stormed...their *own* HQ?
Prosecutor Maher Abdulwahid issued a warrant to arrest Jumah and two of his supporters who participated in the raid as security forces surrounded the Wafd headquarters.
"Come out witcher hands up, Jumah!"
The incident was triggered earlier today when Jumah stormed into the headquarters and tried to force employees and journalists to leave the building.
"Out! Ever'body out! I'm takin' over!"
Faced with general refusal, Jumah and his supporters opened fire at the employees.
Howard Dean, call your office.
"Piss off! Who died and left you party president?"
Wafd Party is considered as one of the main opposition parties in Egypt.
Sounds like they even oppose themselves.
At the last legislative elections, November and December 2005, the party won six out of 454 seats in the People's Assembly. However, the party was split due to a major internal conflict as its leaders, Jumah and Mahmoud Abaza, went on a legal dispute over the Wafd presidency. The Egyptian Press Association condemned the violent events in a statement, calling for strict reaction to punish the aggressors and protect journalists.
Saudi Arabia has foiled about 90 percent of attacks militants had planned to carry out in the world's largest oil exporting kingdom, a top official said on Saturday.
"This is thanks to God and to detailed security effort and continuous tracking of terrorist cells," Interior Minister Prince Nayef told pan-Arab Al Hayat newspaper.
Nayef declined to say when he expected Saudi forces to end militant attacks in the country, which announced this week the arrest of 40 suspected militants and the seizure of an major arms cache.
Eight of those arrested were linked to al Qaeda's attack on the world's largest oil processing plant in Abqaiq in February.
Crown Prince Sultan has said authorities aim to end "terrorist activity" in the country within two years.
Saudi authorities were coordinating with their Iraqi counterparts to hand over any Saudi militant who had crossed into Iraq. "(They are used) as explosive devices or suicide bombers," Nayef said.
Western diplomats say up to 3,000 Saudis have sneaked through the porous borders to fight the U.S.-led coalition in Iraq.
Nayef said authorities will soon put on trial suspected militants and are setting up a special court that will ensure they have a fair trial. He did not elaborate.
Posted by: Dan Darling ||
04/02/2006 03:55 ||
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Well at least the vast majority of those 3000 terrorists are probably dead now...
One person was killed when a device exploded in a downtown Toronto coffee shop on Sunday, and police said they had no clues on who the victim was or what exactly caused the blast.
Staff Sergeant Don Cole said the blast took place just after 1 p.m. EDT in the washroom of a Tim Hortons shop, a coffee and doughnut chain that was recently spun off from parent company Wendy's International Inc.
One man was killed.
"It appears there was a device, but we don't know whether the person brought it in with him, or it he was an innocent party, or if he was a suicide, we just don't know," he said.
"It's not something that just blew up by itself, it was some device."
Cole said he had no information about the man who died. Fire department spokesman Daryl Fuglerud told media at the scene that the man who died had burns to his body, although the explosion had not caused much smoke.
Hmmm what? They're still cleaning bits of person out of the bathroom, and already people are alluding to the Muslim manager being involved in a bombing of his own place of work, while he was there.
#6
Gee, Colt, if anything, you should be upset that this made Rantburg Page 1, WOT Operations. I was sort of wondering why until I hit the Amin Islam part.
#11
Curiouser and curiouser. More from lotp's second link:
A Tim Hortons spokesman confirmed the dead man was not an employee, but his identity was not immediately known.
Later Sunday, a second of the coffee franchise's outlets in Toronto was locked down after a suspicious package was identified there. Few details were immediately available, but police confirmed an emergency task force unit had been dispatched to the second location - just a few subway stations north of the first - and the area had been evacuated.
A second loud bang was heard in the area several hours after the first, but police would not immediately confirm whether it was the intentional detonation of remaining explosives on the scene, or an unrelated blast.
Officers in white hazardous-materials suits were also seen entering and leaving the store, it was not clear whether a potentially dangerous substance had been identified.
Police closed off a busy block close to one of Toronto's main shopping districts as they investigated the cause of the explosion and used a remote controlled device to trigger a second device after finding a suspicious package.
A Montreal resident was picked by al-Qaeda plotters to be a pilot in a second wave of suicide hijackings to follow the Sept. 11, 2001, attacks because he was a Canadian citizen, a deposition filed at the U.S. trial of terror suspect Zacarias Moussaoui alleges.
Abderraouf Jdey, a Montrealer of Tunisian origin who is now a fugitive, obtained his Canadian citizenship in 1995. He was selected along with Mr. Moussaoui, a French citizen, because they had passports from Western countries, since al-Qaeda planners expected tighter security after Sept. 11, the court document says.
Al Qaeda wanted the second wave operatives to carry French, Canadian, Malaysian, or Indonesian passports instead of Middle Eastern passports, the document says.
The 58-page document is the first detailed account of what Khalid Sheikh Mohammed, the alleged mastermind of the Sept. 11 plot, told U.S. interrogators after his capture in 2003.
The document says that Mr. Mohammed used only operatives from the Middle East for the first wave of attacks so as not to draw attention to the possibility of later hijacks by people using passports from other countries.
The deposition was filed at the U.S. District Court in Alexandria, Va., for the death-penalty trial of Mr. Moussaoui.
Mr. Jdey, whose name is also transliterated as al-Jiddi, is a shadowy figure who gained notoriety after the Federal Bureau of Investigation identified him as a terror suspect in 2002. A $5-million (U.S.) reward was offered for his capture.
The U.S. commission probing the Sept. 11, 2001, terrorist attacks first identified Mr. Jdey as a candidate for the 9/11 strikes or for a later attack, but did not elaborate.
The deposition explains for the first time that Mr. Jdey was picked because he had obtained Canadian citizenship, citing Mr. Mohammed, al-Qaeda leader Osama bin Laden and his top military lieutenant until 2001, Mohammad Atef, also known as Abu Hafs al-Masri.
Sheikh Mohammed, Abu Hafs and bin Laden agreed that finding non-Arab passport holders was a priority because it would be difficult for Middle Eastern passport holders to operate in the U.S. after 9/11, the document says.
It also gives specifics about the allegations against Mr. Jdey, who is identified by one of his pseudonyms, Faruq Al-Tunisi:
Mr. Jdey and Mr. Moussaoui were among three candidates to be pilots in the second wave of hijackings, which entailed the same steps as the Sept. 11 hijackers: getting flight lessons, purchasing knives, etc.
(Contradicting the deposition, which portrays him as an unreliable, problematic operative, Mr. Moussaoui claimed in court this week that he was supposed to hijack a plane on Sept. 11 and crash it into the White House.)
The second wave's targets were to be in the western United States, such as an unidentified bridge in San Francisco, but the Sears Tower in Chicago was also mentioned.
While the 9/11 operation evolved into an East Coast attack, bin Laden himself advised that a second wave attack should focus on the West, believing that security might be more lax there.
A few months before Sept. 11, Mr. Jdey withdrew from the plot. Faruq Al-Tunisi contacted Sheikh Mohammed from Canada during the summer of 2001 to back out, the filing says with no further explanation.
In any event, the second wave never took place.
Sheikh Mohammed had no idea that the damage of the first attack would be as catastrophic as it was, and he did not plan on the U.S. responding to the attacks as fiercely as they did, which led to the next phase being postponed, the deposition says.
While the document does not elaborate on how the second wave attackers would have trained, it offers fresh details on the preparation of the Sept. 11 operatives.
It says, for example, that the muscle hijackers, who were to take over the planes, butchered sheep and a camel with Swiss knives to prepare them for using their knives during the hijackings.
They were not immediately told of their targets and were also taught how to blow up buildings, trains and trucks to muddy somewhat the real purpose of their training in case they were caught while in transit to the U.S.
Mr. Jdey first came to the FBI's attention after he was among five men whose wills and martyrdom videotapes were found in the Kabul home of Mr. Atef, who was killed during the U.S. bombing campaign in Afghanistan in late 2001.
Mr. Jdey came to Canada as an independent immigrant, on a visa issued in Rabat, Morocco. He landed at Montreal's Mirabel International Airport in April of 1991. According to the U.S. State Department's Rewards for Justice program, Mr. Jdey studied biology while in Montreal.
Mr. Jdey lived in a modest apartment building in Montreal's east-end Rosemont district and is believed to have left Canada in November of 2001.
Posted by: Dan Darling ||
04/02/2006 03:55 ||
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Al Qaeda wanted the second wave operatives to carry French, Canadian, Malaysian, or Indonesian passports instead of Middle Eastern passports
Explosions at gas pipelines and railroad tracks are common in this remote desert region. Now, roadside bombs and artillery shells are, too. More than 100 civilians have been killed in recent months, along with dozens of government security forces, local residents and Pakistan's Human Rights Commission say.
This is the other front of Pakistan's widening civil unrest, not the tribal areas along the Afghan border where the United States would like the government to press a campaign against Islamic militants, but the restive province of Baluchistan, home to an intensifying insurgency.
It is here, say local leaders and opposition politicians, that Pakistan, an important ally in the United States' campaign against terrorism, has diverted troops from the fight against Al Qaeda and the Taliban to settle old scores as it seeks to develop the region's valuable oil and gas reserves.
One visit makes it clear that, despite official denials, the government is waging a full-scale military campaign here. Rebel leaders say they have several thousand men under arms, fighting what they estimate are 23,000 Pakistani troops.
During a 24-hour trek on camel, horse and foot across the rugged, stony terrain in early March, the fighting was plain to see. Military jets and surveillance planes flew over the area, and long-range artillery lighted up the distant night sky.
This fight is altogether separate from the Taliban insurgency on Afghanistan's border or the Shiite-Sunni violence that sporadically flares in and around the provincial capital, Quetta, and it threatens to dwarf the nation's other conflicts.
It is about the ethnic rights and self-rule of the Baluch people, who are distinct among Pakistanis. They speak their own language, Baluchi, which has its roots in Persian, and are probably the oldest settlers in the region.
In particular, tensions have been aggravated by President Pervez Musharraf's determination to develop the area's oil and gas fields, the largest in the country, as well as his aim to build a pipeline across the region to carry oil from Iran and a strategic deep sea port to expand trade with China, local residents say.
They charge that General Musharraf has shown little regard for their concerns and that for years their province has received paltry royalties on its resources, while remaining one of the country's poorest regions.
The government has branded two of the rebel leaders, Nawab Akbar Khan Bugti, nearly 80, and Balach Marri, 40, "miscreants," outlaws who oppose economic development to retain a hold over their tribes.
In an interview under the shade of a rocky overhang, Mr. Bugti and Mr. Marri, who share the names of the tribes they lead, dismissed the charges. They are not opposed to economic development, they said, but rather to the Pakistani government's military campaign to suppress them.
"The military government has imposed military rule and this has forced the Baluch to defend their land and resources against the might of the armed forces of Pakistan assembled in our area," Mr. Bugti said, perched in a carved wooden armchair as tribesmen sat around him cradling Kalashnikov rifles.
"The dispute is about the national rights of the Baluch," he added, "and if the government accepted these rights then there would be no dispute."
Mr. Bugti and others said that the government was using its American-supplied jets and helicopter gunships against them. They said they had found bomb fragments with "Made in U.S.A." stamped on them.
Indeed, huge craters and fragments from American-designed MK-82 bombs lay beside a badly damaged school in the village of Mararar, the results of a bombing raid that the Baluch fighters said had occurred at the beginning of March.
Another bombing raid on or around March 14 hit two bulldozers building a road, the fighters said. A collection of bomb fragments gathered by tribesmen from other raids revealed a "valve solenoid" made in New York, and part of a gas generator made in Mesa, Ariz.
Last year, the Baluch political leaders presented a 15-point agenda to the central government. The demands included greater control of the province's resources, protection for the Baluch minority and a halt to the building of military bases that local residents say have proliferated here.
Concern over the issues had been building for years, said Suret Khan Marri, a historian living in Quetta, the provincial capital, and the concerns and violence reach far beyond the Bugti and Marri tribes.
"The movement is there," he said in an interview. "Sometimes it is crushed. Now it is the fifth insurgency, and it has spread all across the Baluch area."
Armed resistance by Baluch nationalists has been a repeating occurrence since the birth of Pakistan in 1947, when tribal leaders, Mr. Bugti among them, only grudgingly joined Pakistan after having ruled independent territories under the British.
The bitterness today is such that the tribal leaders compare the situation to the 1970's, when Bangladesh broke from Pakistan. "If grievances have come to this level that we do not mind if Pakistan disintegrates then things are bad," Mr. Marri, the rebel leader, said.
The terrain here is marked by harsh, rocky desert, rising into craggy mountains and cut through with narrow gorges that supply many hiding places for shepherds, or guerrilla fighters. In the summer, temperatures soar to more than 120 degrees.
The shadowy Baluchistan Liberation Army, one of three armed resistance groups born in the 1970's, has claimed responsibility for many of the recent attacks, including the killing of three Chinese engineers working on the deep sea port, at Gwadar. Mr. Marri said that he did not know who was leading the group, but that it was neither a Bugti nor a Marri.
The most recent violence has included summary killings of settlers from the Punjab, whom Baluch nationalists blame for stealing jobs and land.
Hundreds of political party members, students, doctors and tribal leaders have been detained by government security forces, many disappearing for months, even years, without trials in well-documented cases. Some have been tortured or have died in custody, say officials of Pakistan's Human Rights Commission.
A Baluch doctor, Bari Langove, 36, said he had examined a student leader, Dr. Allah Nasar Baloch, in a prison ward in Quetta six months ago and found him so debilitated that he could neither walk nor talk at first.
"He was mentally exhausted and wholly unable to speak," Dr. Langove said in an interview in Quetta. "We examined him and found he had post-traumatic stress disorder, symptoms of loss of short-term memory, insomnia, loss of appetite and energy."
In places like Dera Bugti and Kohlu, government forces have carried out reprisals against villagers, Baluch leaders and human rights officials say. In a case documented by the Human Rights Commission, the Frontier Corps, a paramilitary force commanded by army officers, killed 12 men from Pattar Nala on Jan. 11 after a mine explosion near the village killed some of its soldiers.
Two old men from the village who went to the base to collect the bodies were also killed. The next day, the 14 bodies were handed over to the women of the village.
Local fighters say the Frontier Corps has carried out 42 such reprisal killings in the last three months, the latest involving six villagers during the week of March 6.
The government offensive began after a rocket attack on General Musharraf as he opened a military base in Kohlu on Dec. 17 an attack for which officials blamed Marri rebels, and Mr. Marri in particular.
Shortly afterward, government forces stormed the town of Dera Bugti, Mr. Bugti said, adding that they were burning shops and houses there still, including his family home.
The government has played down the fighting, and denies that the Pakistani Army is even deployed in Baluchistan, saying that it is merely using the Frontier Corps to run a police operation to stem violence.
In interviews, the police chief, Chaudhry Muhammad Yakub, put the number of rebels at no more than 1,000. The provincial governor, Owais Ahmed Ghani, said 36,000 Frontier Corps soldiers were deployed in Baluchistan, with two-thirds concentrated along the Afghan border. Both predicted that the Baluchistan conflict would be over within two months.
In all this, Mr. Bugti is an unexpected participant. He has been a prominent player in regional politics for many years and was governor of Baluchistan. He has spent time in detention on charges of murder during a long and colorful life.
Educated under the British Raj, he is a man from a bygone era, who said he attended the coronation of Queen Elizabeth II in London in 1953.
Now, forced to flee his home, he lives an austere life, camping out under the stars with his loyal tribesmen, a Kalashnikov propped by his aluminum walking stick.
"I have had a good and full life," he said, unperturbed. "It is better to die quickly in the mountains than slowly in your bed."
He warned that the government would be foolish not to negotiate with the senior tribal leaders. "If we are removed from the scene, I can guarantee the government will have a heck of a time from the younger generation, because they are more extreme," he said.
One of his grandsons, Brahamdagh, 25, is commanding the Bugti resistance fighters, and he appeared silently every so often to brief his grandfather. He took to the mountains in 2002 with just 50 to 60 men.
Brahamdagh contended that he now had more than 2,000 fighters in Dera Bugti and thousands more civilian helpers. He said the Marris had roughly the same number in Kohlu. In addition, small cells of fighters are in every district of the province, he said.
"There are so many groups," he said. "Three to four guys get together and decide what to do, to hit a railway or a bus. We are showing our bitterness. We are fighting the government to show we are not happy with you and you should leave our homeland."
Mr. Marri, who arrived unannounced one afternoon, on foot and accompanied by a dozen armed fighters, is another of the younger generation. The third son of the leader of the Marri tribe, he has spent most of his life outside Pakistan.
In 2002, he returned to run for Parliament but spent most of his time in his home in Kohlu, the capital of the Kohlu district, until forced to flee by the government offensive. "If they think they can pressure us like this, then they don' t know us," he warned. "The Baluch people have woken up."
The Human Rights Commission and opposition political parties have urged both sides to seek a political solution to the conflict. Yet at the moment there is no dialogue.
Two parliamentary committees set up last year to look into Baluch grievances have stalled, and General Musharraf has been blunt in his determination to use force against anyone opposing his vision for the region.
In their mountain stronghold, Mr. Bugti and Mr. Marri, and a third leader, Ataullah Mengal, in his home in Karachi, are disparaging about talks with the government.
"They are not worth sitting with at the table," Mr. Marri said. "The general keeps offering peanuts when my rights are at stake. We are not against negotiations, but only negotiations that are worthwhile."
Mr. Bugti offered his own grim prognosis. "I don' t see it ending," he said.
Posted by: Dan Darling ||
04/02/2006 04:05 ||
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The NYT must be creaming their jeans. Love the "Made in U.S.A." bomb fragments quote. That's where the woodie came from.
A rocket attack by pro-Taliban tribal militants near the Afghan border killed one Pakistani soldier and wounded four others, security officials said on Sunday.
The attack on Saturday night targeted a fort in the Dattakhel area, some 30 km (19 miles) west of Miranshah, the main town in North Waziristan, a semi-autonomous Pashtun tribal region at the center of the Pakistan armys campaign to drive out nests of al Qaeda and Taliban fighters.
"The dead man is a soldier of the Pakistan army, and among the wounded one are an army captain and three militiamen," an official, who requested anonymity, told Reuters.
Security forces returned fire but the attackers escaped in the darkness and it was unknown if they suffered any casualties.
Posted by: Dan Darling ||
04/02/2006 03:56 ||
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MULTAN: An Anti-Terrorism Court sentenced an activist of the banned Lashkar-e-Jhangvi to death on two counts and acquitted six other accused. Judge Amir Muhammad Khan gave sentence to banned Lashkar-i-Jhangvi activist Naveed Akhtar alias Mithu on two counts and fined him Rs 300,000. The court acquitted six accused Malik Muhammad Ishaq, Imran Ashraf, Abdul Rashid, Inamullah, Abdul Latif and Ahmed Rashid.
Court official said, Seven people opened fire at Syed Abid Hussains car, SLG 7222, on July 30,1997, killing Abid Hussain and his son, Haider Abbas, on the spot. Najaf Ali Mahay, public prosecutor, appeared on behalf of the state. Naveed Akhtar alias Mithu could appeal against the decision within seven days. Jail authorities shifted him to condemned cell on Saturday.
He'll get off on appeal, when the witnesses are all dead.
Posted by: Fred ||
04/02/2006 00:00 ||
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LAHORE: Security forces raided a hotel on Abbot Road on Saturday afternoon and arrested seven men for alleged involvement in anti-state activities. The men were shifted to an undisclosed location. Eyewitnesses told Daily Times that security forces personnel wearing camouflage uniforms surrounded the United Hotel in Qilla Gujjar Singh at around 3pm. A few personnel entered the hotel and re-emerged shortly with seven men in blindfold. The hotel employees said that security forces personnel asked the receptionist whether the guests of rooms 125 and 127 were indoors, and immediately arrested them.
They said that the arrested men had arrived on Friday night and rented two rooms. The employees said that the security forces personnel also took into possession the hotels record of guests. However, the Qilla Gujjar Singh police station denied knowledge of the incident.
Posted by: Fred ||
04/02/2006 00:00 ||
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Interior Minister Aftab Ahmed Khan Sherpao is scheduled to leave today (Sunday) for the United States to attend a meeting of the Pakistan-US joint working group on terrorism. Sherpao is accompanied by the directors-general of narcotics and the crisis management cell in his ministry, as well as an additional secretary. Meetings are scheduled for Monday and Tuesday at the FBI, the State Department and the Department of Homeland Security, and Sherpao is expected to meet Nicholas "Monty" Burns, the US assistant secretary of state for South Asia. They will review the joint efforts in the war against terrorism and propose additional measures if required.
Exxxxxcellent!
Posted by: Fred ||
04/02/2006 00:00 ||
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Three people were critically injured when a van hit landmine in Pat Feeder in Dera Bugti on Saturday. In another incident, unidentified people targeted a security forces checkpost at Pathar Nala Dera Bugti. They launched 18 rockets, demolishing an adjacent mosques wall, but fled when security forces retaliated. Security forces also recovered a landmine planted near Kot Habib Lahi.
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Indian national Sarabjit Singh, on death row for his alleged involvement in four bomb blasts in Pakistan, has sent a mercy petition to President Pervez Musharraf, seeking release on the grounds that he is innocent and wrongly implicated. The petition was sent to Musharraf last week both by post and through the high-security jail authorities where Singh is currently imprisoned. He has begged pardon under the powers granted to the president by the Constitution, Singhs lawyer Rana Abdul Hameed told the Press Trust of India on Saturday.
Hamid, who has been hired by a Canadian human rights group to defend Singh, said from Lahore over the phone that the mercy petition was filed after the Supreme Court last month dismissed his application, seeking a review of the death sentence given to him in a bomb blast case at Yakki Gate in Lahore in 1990. Three people were killed and several injured in that bombing. The Supreme Court is yet to give its verdict on another case against Singh in which he was accused of committing three more bomb blasts in Punjab. Fourteen people were killed in the four bomb blasts in which Singh is accused of involvement. Police allege that he was an Indian spy and entered Pakistan through the Punjab border.
Posted by: Fred ||
04/02/2006 00:00 ||
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#1
I will have no sympathy for Sarabjit Singh if he did what he is accused of. Terrorism is terrorism no matter who does it and for what ever reason.
Security forces have seized modern lethal weapons including Stinger missiles and important documents from Bugti Fort in Dera Bugti, Geo television reported on Saturday. According to the channel, the documents found from Nawab Akbar Bugtis residence had all details of the weapons he was supplied for terrorism. Other ammunition seized from the Bugti Fort include anti-tank mines, anti-personnel mines, anti-tank rockets, detonators and weapons made for a regular army, the channel quoted reliable official sources. Various cheques were also found in the documents on which Akbar Bugti had drawn Rs 220 million from the National Bank of Pakistans Dera Bugti branch, the channel quoted sources.
Posted by: Fred ||
04/02/2006 00:00 ||
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operable Stingers? This find should let that myth be scratched in public light
Posted by: Frank G ||
04/02/2006 0:57 Comments ||
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Should be an easy confirmation, either they work or don't.
Look for abandoned stingers, or abandoned empty launch tubes.
Posted by: Redneck Jim ||
04/02/2006 11:40 Comments ||
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Stingers have been found before. The electronics was shot on all of them.
#4
LTD- Stingers have been found before. The electronics was shot on all of them.
It is a remarkably easy thing for someone with access to a WalMart to build a very good dummy Stinger launcher. (I know, I've done it, and was nearly court-martialed for it, but that's another story) Just imagine what kind of fakes - with booby traps - a government could build and then salt in the bad guyz' territory.
Mike
Posted by: Mike Kozlowski ||
04/02/2006 12:16 Comments ||
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#5
heh heh - Mike, I'm glad you're on our side :-)
Posted by: Frank G ||
04/02/2006 14:28 Comments ||
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Frank-
Like all of us here at the 'Burg, I only use my powers for good.
Mike
Posted by: Mike Kozlowski ||
04/02/2006 19:18 Comments ||
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Paramilitary forces and tribal police on Saturday took over the headquarters of cleric Mufti Munir Shakir in Nallah Kajori in Khyber Agency after his supporters left the premises hours before an imminent operation.
"Aaaarrr! The paramilitary forces and the tribal police are comin'! They're bringin' heavy weapons, boyz!"
"Ummm... I think I'll go get help!"
"I'll go wit' yez!"
"Me, too!"
All arrangements for an early morning operation against Shakirs supporters were finalised but the headquarters were vacated during the night, security sources told Daily Times.
"Curly-toed slippers, don't fail us now!"
Troops had closed entry and exit points to the area, but the operation was delayed at the request of tribal elders who wanted to give negotiations a last chance. The tribal elders ultimately convinced the clerics supporters to vacate the headquarters peacefully.
"What kinda heavy weapons?"
"Big ones!"
"We're outta here!"
"Bravely outta here! We ain't scared, mind yez!"
"No, no! Certainly not! Here's yer turban!"
It was hoped that normalcy would return to Khyber Agency with the government controlling the fort-like headquarters housing Shakirs supporters. Officials at the NWFP Governors FATA secretariat said that operation would continue until Doomsday complete peace was restored to the area. Mangal Bagh, head of the Islami Lashkar of Mufti group, left the headquarters to get help in Norway for an undisclosed location along with hundreds of his supporters, tribal sources said.
"Run away! Run away!"
According to sources, Bagh said that the decision to vacate the headquarters had been taken on the directives of Shakir to avoid bloodshed.
"Yeah! Ours!"
Bara had been held hostage to a tussle between Deobandi cleric Mufti Munir Shakir and Barelvi Pir Saifur Rehman for the last four months and the conflict had resulted in the loss of 28 lives.
None of them, as far as we know, holy men.
Posted by: Fred ||
04/02/2006 00:00 ||
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psych warfare 101 - take over the enemies' HQ and make it your own. Hang flags...and opponents
Posted by: Frank G ||
04/02/2006 0:59 Comments ||
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Ammam - Iraq's resistance has replaced Jordanian-born Abu Musab al-Zarqawi as political head of the rebels, confining him to a military role, the son of Osama bin Laden's mentor told AFP Sunday in Jordan.
"The Iraqi resistance's high command asked Zarqawi to give up his political role and replaced him with an Iraqi, because of several mistakes he made," said Hudayf Azzam, who claims close contacts with the rebels. "Zarqawi's role has been limited to military action. Zarqawi bowed to the orders two weeks ago and was replaced by Iraqi national Abdullah bin Rashed al-Baghdadi," Azzam said.
Azzam, 35, whose father was known as the "prince of mujahedeens", said he regularly receives "credible information on the resistance in Iraq". He said Zarqawi "made many political mistakes", including "the creation of an independent organisation, Al-Qaeda in Iraq. Zarqawi also took the liberty of speaking in the name of the Iraqi people and resistance, a role which belongs only to the Iraqis," Azzam said. As a result "the resistance command inside and outside Iraq, including imams, criticised him and after long discussions demanded that he be confined to military action", Azzam said. "Zarqawi pledged not to carry out any more attacks against Iraq's neighbours after having been criticised for these operations which are considered a violation of sharia (Islamic law)," Azzam said.
Posted by: Captain America ||
04/02/2006 18:01 ||
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An Iraqi policeman was killed and five others were wounded in a bomb explosion on Saturday at Mohammed Al-Qasem freeway near Baghdad's University of Technology. An Iraqi security source said the blast occurred when an Iraqi patrol passed by the university. The blast caused major damage to a number of vehicles and the injured were taken to Ibn Al-Nafees Hospital for treatment.
Meanwhile, an Iraqi Interior Ministry source told KUNA 42 unidentified human bodies that were shot dead were located in various parts of Baghdad. He said 10 bodies were found in Al-Shaala area west of Baghdad, another 10 were found in Al-Doura area south of Baghdad, six were found in Al-Sidia south-west of Baghdad and three in Al-Amin province south-east of Baghdad. Local police in Al-Mahmoudia south of Baghdad said it located 13 unidentified bodies that were shot dead in various parts of the town, the source added. The bodies were handcuffed and blindfolded, except for ten bodies who were found in Al-Shaala and seemed to have been shot dead in a mass execution. The bodies were taken to a medical center for identification.
Posted by: Fred ||
04/02/2006 00:00 ||
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#1
Does anybody ever identify these bodies? Just who is it that is being executed? That would be a start towards answering why they are being killed, and thus who is likely to be killing them. You would think that with a few dozen found daily somebody would be publically identified.
#2
dental records? Have you seen Moqtada Al-Sadr? He's in a position/wealth to have pearly whites, yet his mouth looks like Indian corn
Posted by: Frank G ||
04/02/2006 0:43 Comments ||
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#3
Some ID's have been made.Omar Sittar, 23, a student at Baghdad University, said: "I will make two IDs: one with the name Ali for visiting Shia areas, and one with Omar for when I am at home."
At least 12 suspects have been arrested in three different Iraqi cities and five Iranian nationals detained while attempting to cross the borders near the Halabja city in Kurdistan Iraq, the interior ministry announced on Saturday. Three suspects were arrested on the Najaf highway, a police statement said, noting that a Kalashnikov machinegun and live ammunition in the possession of the suspects were seized. Four other people were arrested in Mosul and weapons and explosives were seized in their possession, the statement said. In Baghdad, five suspects including an Arab national were detained in Karadah and Aazamiyah. According to the statement, Halabja city police patrols arrested five Iranian nationals while attempting to illegally enter the Iraqi territories.
Posted by: Fred ||
04/02/2006 00:00 ||
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Halabja? Kurdish North? Is the southern border that heavily watched? Hope So
Posted by: Frank G ||
04/02/2006 0:48 Comments ||
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A US military helicopter went down southwest of Baghdad on Saturday and it was unclear if there were casualties, the military said. A militant group said it shot down a helicopter in the same area and residents said they heard gunfire. A ... helicopter went down southwest of Baghdad at approximately 5:30 pm, the military said. The status of the crew is unknown. A spokesman declined to say how many were on board or the type of helicopter involved. The aircraft was conducting a combat air patrol, the statement said. In an Internet posting, a group calling itself the Rashedeen Army said it had shot down a US helicopter near the town of Yusufiya, an area that sees considerable Sunni insurgent activity just southwest of the capital.
Posted by: Fred ||
04/02/2006 00:00 ||
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#1
So, after decisive elections, reporters still refer to the terrorists as "insurgents." At least they haven't tagged them as "freedom fighters."
The suicide attack near the entrance to Kedumim on Thursday was a daring and audacious operation. It involved a young Palestinian from the Hebron area, who traveled to Nablus, picked up a bomb, crossed through an IDF checkpoint, disguised himself as a haredi and stood at a popular hitchhiking post where he caught a ride which ended up being his target.
Defense officials admitted that the attack was impressive but what concerned them the most, they said, was the group that claimed responsibility - the Aksa Martyrs Brigades armed branch of the Fatah movement.
While Fatah, the long dominant Palestinian party, has never completely abstained from terror activity and has been involved particularly in Kassam rocket attacks in Gaza, Thursday's suicide attack, officials said, was the first perpetrated by a Fatah affiliate since a February 2005 Palestinian cease-fire.
Fatah and Hamas, officials warned over the weekend, seem to have switched roles. While newly-installed Hamas Prime Minister Ismail Haniyeh called on its gunmen to stop marching around Gaza with weapons, Samir Masharawi - a senior Gaza-based Fatah figure - rejected the call. Hamas, a security official said, was trying to at least outwardly show itself as reforming and that it has cut back its terror activity in an attempt to establish itself as a non-violent government.
But Fatah, officials warned, might have other plans. With the disengagement from the Gaza Strip this past summer hailed as the result of terrorism, Fatah terrorists might be thinking that suicide attacks are the group's ticket back into office.
With Acting Prime Minister Ehud Olmert planning to pull out of much of the West Bank in the coming years, Fatah, security officials explained, might be trying to gain credibility with the public like Hamas did and create the impression that Israel is retreating under fire.
But whatever the case, Thursday's attack also demonstrates the new partnerships formed between the different terror groups. While the bomber, 24-year-old Ahmad Mashrake, was a Fatah operative, the bomb, officials said, was supplied by the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine (PFLP) Nablus infrastructure. The IDF's incessant operations in the territories, one military officer said, had terror groups under pressure and subsequently was creating interesting pacts and bonds between them.
The motivation was also coming from outside Israel, officials explained, with Iran, Syria and Hizbullah sending millions of dollars to the territories to fund the attacks. "Iran doesn't care to which groups the suicide bomber belongs," one official explained, adding: "As long as there is money, everyone will be vying for a piece of the action."
The IDF Planning Directorate has already begun drawing up plans in anticipation of an escalation, and predictions are that a third intifada will break out this summer. The Central Command is already sending battalions to urban warfare centers to sharpen soldiers' skills for the long operations that can be expected within Samarian terror capitals like Jenin and Nablus.
The West Bank, however, is not the army's sole problem. In Gaza, the army is waging a harsh daily battle against Kassam cells, but without much success. Even as Navy warships and IAF aircraft bombed launch sites on Saturday, the Palestinians still succeeded in firing four rockets - two of which landed near Kibbutz Zikim.
While the army doesn't like to talk about it, the Southern Command does have a contingency plan for a massive ground operation in the Gaza Strip. The Givati Brigade is currently manning the security fence and is on standby if OC Southern Command Maj.-Gen. Yoav Galant gets the green light from Olmert.
"We know how to enter Gaza in a ground operation," one field officer recently predicted. "The exact timing depends on the developments and when we will be fed up with the rocket attacks."
#1
Palestine has a government and a Terrorist Agency of Record rather than the government/opposition structure most democracies use. They flip in the same way after elections. Why the surprise?
But Fatah, officials warned, might have other plans. With the disengagement from the Gaza Strip this past summer hailed as the result of terrorism, Fatah terrorists might be thinking that suicide attacks are the group's ticket back into office.
With Acting Prime Minister Ehud Olmert planning to pull out of much of the West Bank in the coming years, Fatah, security officials explained, might be trying to gain credibility with the public like Hamas did and create the impression that Israel is retreating under fire.
The fantasy that Israels pull out is a success story for terrorism will kill them all. They are too blinded by their love of violence and death to see that the wagons are circling. The pull out hands Palestine a country all the official status and responsibilities and international agreements that come with status.
And the first aggression is an act of war. And the response will be overwhelming and very final. No more Palestine. Shortest country on record.
And with events escalating in the general region, but after the cartoon riots and Irans constant spewing of threats awaking a sense of these guys are nuts in the average westerner, there will be fewer tears than expected. And some sighs of relief.
#2
the Paleos will mewl and cry for someone to come to their aid when the consequences come down - to no avail - easier to pay the fodder to blow up Joooos than to committ your miserable little Arab armies to another ass-whupping
Posted by: Frank G ||
04/02/2006 13:40 Comments ||
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#3
"Is Fatah doing Hamas's dirty work?"
Probably - since they all have the same final solution goal.
So it's not really Hamas' "dirty work" - it belongs to all the inhabitants of paleoland. >:-(
Posted by: Barbara Skolaut ||
04/02/2006 18:32 Comments ||
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#4
Barb, I agree. Without a scorecard its hard to distinguish one thuggery from another. Its like the dance of a thousand veils. All with the same malicious intent and mission.
Posted by: Captain America ||
04/02/2006 20:29 Comments ||
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EFL - JPost Update
Following a deadly suicide attack on Thursday night and the continued Kassam bombardment of the western Negev, the IDF over the weekend stepped up its operations and pounded the Gaza Strip with missiles from aircraft and warships, while IDF troops sealed off Nablus from the rest of the West Bank. festering boil to be lanced?
Following an escalation on the Gaza front, which included last week's launching of a Katyusha rocket at Israel, the IDF decided over the weekend to step up its strikes on Gaza and, employing artillery forces as well as the IAF and the Navy, fired close to 200 shells at Kassam launch sites on Saturday alone.
Early Saturday, IAF missiles flattened a building in the northern Gaza Strip that functioned as a hideout for terrorists and a launch site for Kassam cells. Under construction, the tall building was supposed to draw tourists and serve as a casino on the outskirts of Beit Hanun. draw tourists? Bwaahahhaahahahaa
But those plans were thwarted on Saturday after the Southern Command's Intelligence Department recently discovered ditches built around the building which were used to provide cover for Kassam launchers. moats for tourist gondolas?
On Friday, Abdel Karim Koka, a senior commander of the Salah-a-Din faction of the Popular Resistance Committees in the Gaza Strip, was killed when his car exploded in Gaza City. The army denied its involvement in the explosion but said that Koka was responsible for numerous Kassam attacks against Israel. it was a Pinto....
In the past, IDF artillery fire against Kassam rocket cells targeted empty fields in the vicinity of the launch sites but not the precise position of the launchers. The bombings of the casino building and additional empty areas within Gaza City were meant to send a message, military sources said, to the newly formed Hamas-run Palestinian government that they would suffer if they failed to rein in terrorism.
The army also threatened to strike official Palestinian security personnel whose posts were often used as cover for Kassam launch cells. "We cannot promise that PA police will not be hurt during the strikes," one source said.
The army also engaged in psychological warfare and dropped thousands of flyers over the Gaza Strip calling on the Palestinian public to expel terror elements from within. "How long will you let terrorists control your lives?" the fliers asked, warning that Israel's military response would grow harsher as long as Kassam fire continued. that's psych warfare? How about Google Earth photos showing their buildings with crosshairs?
But despite the massive bombardment on Gaza, Kassam rocket fire continued. On Saturday night four rockets were launched from the northern Gaza Strip, with at least two landing near Kibbutz Zikim south of Ashkelon. On Friday night three rockets were fired from Gaza, landing south of Sderot.
Meanwhile Friday, Defense Minister Shaul Mofaz blamed the Hamas government for a suicide bombing a day earlier that killed four Israelis at the entrance to the Samarian settlement of Kedumim. "A government that engraves terrorism on its flag and does not order PA security forces to fight terror is accountable for this attack and every other attack that emerges from Palestinian territories," Mofaz said.
Mofaz ordered the IDF and the Shin Bet (Israel Security Agency) to "intensify their operations" in the West Bank and Gaza in an effort to crack down on terror infrastructure there.
In response to the suicide attack, the IDF on Saturday sealed off Nablus, deemed a "terror capital" by the IDF, and implemented a series of stringent regulations at nearby checkpoints. Palestinians between the ages of 16-32 were banned from traveling south of northern Samaria and checkpoints between Nablus and the Jordan Valley were closed off to Palestinian traffic.
Posted by: Frank G ||
04/02/2006 00:00 ||
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But despite the massive bombardment on Gaza, Kassam rocket fire continued. On Saturday night four rockets were launched from the northern Gaza Strip, with at least two landing near Kibbutz Zikim south of Ashkelon. On Friday night three rockets were fired from Gaza, landing south of Sderot.
#4
The problem here is actually not the Paleos. It is Israelis who are adamant against the use of force against Paleos.
The Israelis should just loudly announce a policy, that will take effect on a date certain. Any rocket fired from the Gaza Strip or West Bank will result in the Israelis confiscating 100 acres of adjacent-to-Israel Paleo lands in punishment.
The fence will then be extended around that 100 acres, and it will no longer be Palestinian land, but "held in trust" as unoccupied land--no development or residency permitted by either side, until the Paleos control the terrorists to the satisfaction of the Israelis.
Everything in that land will sit fallow and buildings will remain empty. Surveillance cameras will keep out anyone who tries to sneak in.
The next missile, 100 more acres. The shape of the 100 acres would vary, preferring non-residential lands, but it would be 100 acres, total.
And every statement of protest will be met with a simple message, "Stop the terror, and you get your land back. Continue the attacks and lose more land."
There would be no negotiations, since there is no one to negotiate with. So words and lies would no longer matter, only actions would matter.
One last thing: if the Paleos tried to mount a full-scale war, the Israeli response would be that they would be expelled from the country entirely. Pushed into Egypt and Jordan, never to return, and all their lands would become permanently Israeli.
#5
Anonymoose:
Disproportionate retaliation somewhat controls terrorism. When Israel was leveraged into ending the destruction of the homes of terrorists, terrorism escalated. In context of the West's acceptance of political Islam, Israel cannot implement effective counter-terror practises. For an authoritative account of the consequences of indulging political Islam, I recommend "Inside Sudan: Political Islam, Conflict and Catastrophe" by former US Ambassador to Sudan, Don Petterson.
#6
LTD: That is why drastic policies have to be implemented at such a time as it will lessen the impact. International distractors happen all the time.
The point to all of this is that nobody supports Israel outside of the US. And the USs support while nice, is not essential to Israel. If Israel offends the US, it just needs to wait for that friendship to be renewed, because it is the only true friend the US has in the region.
Israel is too concerned about being liked by countries that will *never* like Israel, no way, no how.
Were Israel to just kick out the Paleos, how long do you think it would be before the US and Israel would be friends again? One year? Two?
Would the US not defend Israel against its Arab neighbors in such a case? Hardly. It might deplore the Paleo expulsion for five years, but then it would move on to other things.
The Paleos would become residents of Jordan, Egypt and Lebanon, whether or not they were ever granted citizenship. And the remaining Israeli Arabs could join them unless they asserted their loyalty to Israel.
It is always easier to get forgiveness than permission.
#7
"How long will you let terrorists control your lives?"
Wrong question. It's:
How long will you live the lives of terrorists?
Pictures of Yassin, Rantissi et al should be attached to these leaflets.
Gotta agree with you, 'moose. Confiscation of the one thing the Palestinians want most desperately of all, namely land, is the way to go. Once they've crowded themselves onto a postage stamp they'll be much more easy to kill all at once to negotiate with.
#8
Moose, Israel exists only because the US demands that it continue to exist. If Richard Nixon had not unequivocally put the US behind Israel during the Yom Kippur War, it would have been overrun. SA-6 and SA-3 SAM batteries had shot down a third of the IAF in just three days. The IDF was running out of artillery shells. Israel was within a day of ceasing to exist. Nixon ordered the Navy to fly in whole squadrons of A-4s from the carriers in the Med. The Israelis gsve the Navy pilots tickets home, replaced US markings with the Magen David and were back in the fight. There was a massive outpouring of ammunition and other needed supplies from the US. The C-141s and C-5s were flying almost round the clock transferring munitions and supplies from US war reserves. When the Russians started making noises about it, Nixon put the US on DefCon 3. SAC was in posture 5, the crews were in the airplanes and the planes were prepositioned on the taxiways. The entire B-52G fleet was ordered back from Anderson AFB to the US to resume nuke alert. 186 bombers were airborne within 24 hours. As far as I know, there are no statues to Nixon in Israel, but there should be.
Times have changed, but one constant remains. Without the US, there is no Israel. Israel is neither economically or militarily viable without us.
#9
The Israelis were more than aware of this, and have done everything in their power to mitigate reliance on the US.
You mentioned the conventional war with multiple Arab nations attacking. Certainly we would continue to support them, even if they expelled the Paleos. However, short of a major conflict, I strongly doubt that the US would try to leverage Israel on behalf of the Paleos.
This is why I was very specific about what they would do: non-violently punish the Paleos for their violent attacks by placing parcels of their land in "trust". The Israelis could very firmly state that those trust lands remain the *property* of the Paleos, but the Paleos are denied their use until they renounce violence and control their fighters.
It is a carrot-and-stick approach that might work.
The Israelis could state that the only alternative to these land holdings would be to counter battery fire into populated areas. It could then say to the US "choose between land takings and killing civilians."
Eventually the Israelis are going to have to do something, because the number and quality of the Paleo missiles just keeps improving. Unless they can produce and field a low-cost anti-missile pulse laser, they may have no choice. Re-occupation accomplishes nothing except getting Israeli soldiers killed.
#10
Moose, when you're right, you're right. Even so, the US sends Israel the equivalent of about $500 for every citizen every year (~$3B). Doesn't sound like much until you figure how much the Israeli taxpayers would have to shell out to replace it.
#11
Moose back up and look at the Crusader states.
The muslims took their time and outlasted the European support. Centuries were nothing.
Israel will, unless Islam does the impossible and changes, be faced with the choice of a final soultion or the sea. Its just a matter of time and population demographics of a people with oil wealth supporters.
Just a matter of time. Either they can make the choice or they can't. If they make it they may need to make it repeatedly for a long time.
What they are doing now is not working. Endless war will destroy their mental health and their society. Its win or loose. There is no middle. The US has tried to push a middle for its own reasons but Israel has only 2 ways to go long term.
Hamas vowed on Saturday to bring the "dangerous" situation on the streets of Gaza under control as the Islamist faction faced its first internal crisis after only three days in government. Palestinian Prime Minister Ismail Haniyeh vowed to end the security chaos "using law and order" and by "withdrawing armed civilians from the street to end this dangerous situation," he told journalists in Gaza City.
Funny, up until they won the election they were against taking the guns away from the hard boyz. Wonder what changed their minds, if any...
Because it isn't their flavor of hard boyz?
The declarations came after clashes between gunmen and supporters of moderate Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas on Friday left three people dead and 36 wounded. "There is an escalation against the Palestinian people aimed at breaking them and the government," Haniyeh said. "We ask all the countries in the world to assume their responsibility and face this escalation against our people," he said, adding that his internationally boycotted Cabinet had met late into Friday night to monitor the situation.
What's the rest of the world have to do with it? If you're a government, it's your responsibility to control your streets...
"The dominant [gun] culture of the Palestinian street over the past few years needs some time to change to a culture of protecting order, discipline and the law," Haniyeh said.
"How much time?"
"I'm guessin' about 700 years."
Friday's violence erupted after the commander of the Popular Resistance Committees was killed in a car bombing in central Gaza City that the group blamed on Abbas' security chiefs in collusion with Israel.
That's the guy Islamic Jihad rocketed Israel in revenge for.
But Samir Masharawi, a local leader from Abbas' Fateh faction that lost January's elections to Hamas but still largely retains control of the security services, said the onus was on Hamas to act. "When we feel that the government is starting to work for all the Palestinian people and not just for one faction or party then we will cooperate to end the presence of weapons on the street," he told journalists.
Somehow, I doubt that's gonna happen. They're all way too fond of hopping out of pickup trucks and waving guns. Impresses the hell out of the girlies, y'know...
The Palestinian parliament issued an appeal for calm and blamed Israel for the attack, though it did not present any evidence.
"They dunnit! We know they dunnit!"
Israel has denied any involvement in the assassination.
"Wudn't us."
"We appeal to the Palestinian people for calm and self-control," Palestinian Legislative Council Deputy Speaker Ahmed Bahar said. "Less than 48 hours after the new Palestinian government began work, the Zionist occupying forces have continued their daily crimes ... and assassinated the commander of the Resistance Committees," Bahar said.
... using a car bomb instead of an Apache or a tank.
Interior ministry spokesman Khaled Abu Hilal said his ministry was trying to defuse the crisis in Gaza, while highlighting the difference between renegade gunmen and "the resistance." The ministry "makes a distinction between the arms of the resistance which we know who they're aimed at and the arms of chaos and crime and destabilisation. We have made contact with the concerned parties on the ground to dissipate the crisis... and are continuing our work to defuse the crisis."
"Y'see, the resistance is noble fellows who belong to our party. The renegade gunmen don't belong to our party."
Israeli artillery, meanwhile, bombarded a unilaterally declared no-go zone in the northern Gaza Strip after Palestinians fired three rockets at Israel on Friday night, with fighter bombers hitting targets in Gaza City. Four more rockets were fired on Saturday afternoon without causing any casualties, the army said, while the air force dropped propaganda pamphlets in Arabic on the territory. "If the launching of rockets continues the military response will be increasingly tough," the pamphlets warned in the name of the Israeli military.
"You guys are so gonna get it!"
"We wudn't doin' nuthin'!"
The faction Islamic Jihad said, in a statement sent to AFP, that it had launched three rockets at the southern Israeli town of Ashkelon. A Katyusha rocket was fired from Gaza at southern Israel for the first time on Tuesday. Although it caused no injuries, Defence Minister Shaul Mofaz said it was "a serious development which demanded a strong and decisive reaction."
Katyushas actually Katyusha's descedants come from outside Paleostine. They're not locally manufactured.
Israel believes the Katyusha rocket was one of a batch smuggled into the Gaza Strip over its border with Egypt, a defence ministry spokesman said. The Russian-manufactured Katyusha rockets can cause much more damage and have a greater range and accuracy than the makeshift rockets normally fired by fighters based in the Palestinian territory.
Though not much more accuracy. In combat, they're normally fired in salvos of a dozen or more...
The US State Department announced on Friday that Washington had suspended all contact with the Hamas-led government until it renounced violence and recognised Israel, but would maintain contact with the Palestinian Authority's representative in Washington. Despite being behind the majority of suicide bombings during the five-year-old Intifada, or uprising, Hamas has not carried out any attacks since it announced a temporary truce early last year.
They're letting the al-Aqsa Martyrs take care of that chore.
The diplomatic Quartet on the Middle East the United States, Russia, the European Union and the United Nations was to meet in Amman on Sunday to discuss international aid for the Palestinian territories. The quartet has also called on Hamas to renounce violence and its call for the destruction of the Israeli state, warning that international aid is at risk.
Posted by: Fred ||
04/02/2006 00:00 ||
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#1
the biggest clash will involve who gets the cash. Fatah's used to their share and Hamas/IJ will want their share now that Fatah's lost in elections. Think Chicago 1930's...?
Posted by: Frank G ||
04/02/2006 0:41 Comments ||
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#2
"We appeal to the Palestinian people for calm and self-control,"
#4
Well it sound like your typical political gun grab. I am thinking Hitler and all communists governments here. Got to grab up the guns because guns are power. Public safety is always the stated reason.
Posted by: SPoD ||
04/02/2006 6:32 Comments ||
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#5
SPOD: Well it sound like your typical political gun grab. I am thinking Hitler and all communists governments here.
I think it's more than a gun grab. It's more like the beginning of a massacre. Rabin signed a peace agreement figuring that the PLO would control or kill off its opponents, including Hamas. Instead, the PLO not only tolerated Hamas's existence, it joined Hamas in carrying out terrorist attacks against Israel. Having missed its chance to eliminate Hamas, the PLO will now discover that Hamas won't return the favor, now that it's in power. Iran's ayatollahs certainly wasted no time wiping out the Communists once they took power.
Three rockets were fired at the Israeli-occupied Majdal city on Saturday, the Palestinian Islamic Jihad announced today. A statement by the Al Quds brigades, the armed wing of the Islamic Jihad Movement said one of its groups fired three rockets "Al-Quds-3" at Majdal city, occupied by Israeli in the 1948 Arab-Israeli war.
The firing was filmed and would be circulated on the mass media, the statement said, noting that the attacking groups returned safely to base. Israel acknowledged that missiles have slammed in the city, the statement said, noting that the attack was in retaliation for the Israeli assassination of Abdelkarim Goga, a commander of the movement's Popular Resistance Committees in Gaza yesterday.
Posted by: Fred ||
04/02/2006 00:00 ||
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#1
Why do you guys insist on quoting Arab propaganda? 'Majdal' is Ashkelon, and if it is 'occupied', then all of Israel is 'occupied'. There are plenty of sources reporting terrorist attacks on Israel that don't negate Israel's existance.
#2
Its OK Colt. Its an insistence on knowing what the other side is spewing as information and spin. We are not in the least taken in by the propaganda. Please do read on to other articles and posts for further reassurance. You will find the same local media reportages (and scathing deconstructions, not to mention the comments) that we need to keep an eye on the spew. Welcome and take a tour ;)
#3
Welcome, indeed, Colt. Are you one of our Israeli correspondents? While I didn't realize that Majdal=Ashkelon, I read anything labelled "occupied" as being properly Israeli, since the Arab/Muslim press labels any part of the Jewish State as such. We post counterbalancing articles from the Israeli press, too, and we've got a couple of Rantburgers who are serious JPost junkies.
#4
I post quite a bit from Kuwaiti News Service. I use them more for the diplo news, since they faithfully report every meeting between Arab foreign ministers, cables of condolences or congratulations sent by or to the Kuwaiti ruling family, important pronouncements of the Arab League, speeches by Arabian potentates. I know more about the daily doings of the dish towel and fan belt set than I do about our own Congresscritters. All thanks to KUNA.
Posted by: Frank G ||
04/02/2006 14:46 Comments ||
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#6
'We are not in the least taken in by the propaganda.'
You might not be, and many readers may not be. But some will. It is bad enough that Yesha was termed 'occupied', but Ashkelon is as Israeli as Tel Aviv.
The Israeli army said Saturday that four missiles were fired today on a number of Israeli towns from northern Gaza Strip. Spokesperson for the Israeli army said one of the missiles landed at sea, while the other three landed in vacant areas around Ashkelon leaving no property damage or loss of life. The spokesperson also said that four other missiles were fired today from Gaza Strip toward Naqab area in southern Israel but no damages or losses were recorded, noting that the Israeli tanks responded by firing over 100 shells at the missile launching sites in northern Gaza Strip. The source added that the Israeli warplanes bombed a building in northern Gaza Strip used by Palestinian resistance members as a missile launching site.
Posted by: Fred ||
04/02/2006 00:00 ||
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Israeli warplanes dropped thousands of flyers over Gaza Strip Saturday demanding people to cut off armed Palestinian factions especially those launching missiles against Israel. The flyers warned that there will be grave consequences, "destruction and devastation", if factions continue to launch missiles at Israeli towns from the Gaza Strip. It read, "The State of Israel has evacuated Gaza Strip and granted you an opportunity to live in peace and to manage your lives by yourselves, hence, until when you will allow terrorism to control your lives?" The Israeli army will carry out countering operations in case the missile attacks continue, it added.
This is not the first time Israeli planes drop such flyers warning the people in Gaza against Palestinian organization's missile attacks. The Israeli Army considers "launching raids inside Gaza City a strong message to the new Palestinian leadership headed by Hamas," an army spokesperson said on the radio. The army will expand its operations in the strip over the next few days on the pretext that "Palestinian security forces are not doing anything to stop terrorism." The Israeli forces will broaden assassination operations against Palestinian activists in an attempt "to increase pressure on Palestinian organizations and Hamas' government," the spokesperson said.
#2
I really think that Israel needs to drop a few atomic bombs in Gaza. They should borrow a few from US unless US has a self defeating policy. All this tit for tat policy will never work. The barbarians will never understand the civilized language. The best way is to talk to those who survived. You will have not much to do if none survived.
#3
Nuclear weapons in Gaza would be like burning down your house - and spreading longlasting poison on the site - to get rid of a serious termite infestation.
#4
I don't think harrowing up empty fields is the right answer to rocket attacks. Why should the Palestinians stop if there's no real cost to their little games?
#8
Al-Aska Paul has always said: shut off all power and water - message sent, then ramp up from there with building-clearing artillery moving the no-go-zone back a mile or two
Posted by: Frank G ||
04/02/2006 14:19 Comments ||
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#9
People that suggest that someone be nuked usually have no idea what that means. Those of us who were keepers of the fire during the cold war prayed every day that we would never have to use them. The following site contains the unclass version of The Effects of Nuclear Weapons http://www.cddc.vt.edu/host/atomic/nukeffct/#EONW77
This book came with a circular slide rule for calculating blast effects. If you are too young to know what a slide rule is, you probably don't know jack about nukes either. Peruse this site and think before you open your mouth the next time you are tempted to say "nuke 'em".
"C'mon guys, knock it off. At least for a day or two. The cash cows infidels are paying attention!"
TWO days after formally taking power in the Palestinian Authority, the Hamas government held an emergency meeting last night in the wake of factional violence that left four dead, and made a pledge to end public displays of weapons in the chaotic Gaza Strip. The meeting followed a day of unrest sparked by the death of Abu Yousef Abu Quka, a Palestinian militant with ties to Hamas, in a car bombing. His followers blamed security forces linked to the rival Fatah movement. Information minister Yousef Rizka said the government decided to form a committee to look into the killing. He also said the government pledged "to remove all armed men from the street".
Heh. Now we see if Fatah complains their human rights are being violated...
Gaza has been ravaged by a wave of lawlessness in recent months, with gunmen roaming the streets with apparent impunity. Many of the gunmen have links to Fatah.
#1
I'm sick to death of Hamas screaming that the international community must accept a terrorist government because it was "democratically elected" and that all current interal strife is the fault of the jooooos and the various-sized satans.
Palestinians freely choose terrorism as their path and will be treated as terrorists - self-identified and proud of it..
Three easy things to become a recognized goverment:
renounce violence
recognize Israel
keep to your agreements.
It's nothing more than is demanded of any other democractic nation.
2 out of 3 of those are just basic requirements for civility.
These sick pyschos can't see straight with all that blood and spittle in their eyes.
A rocky foreign terrain. Platoons of remotely controlled cyborg-insects sniffing out landmines, transmitting their location back to human handlers.
---------------------------------
Back in the lab, work is well-advanced on a biomimetic underwater robot that the agency calls the "robolobster." It mimics the action of its organic cousin, scurrying along the ocean floor, looking for mines and buried bombs.
Then, there's "BigDog," a "robotic beast of burden" that's being developed to haul over rough terrain at least 40 kilograms of supplies that soldiers have to carry.
And not least, the Raptor project, a "marsupial" robot aircraft that will command a squad of roving robots. In the military scenario, Raptor would be airdropped into enemy territory and, like a kangaroo spilling out her young, would release a squad of small robots. They would traverse unknown terrain using night vision lenses and laser radar and the intelligence they pick up communicated back to the Raptor for transmission to the humans at base.
Posted by: Captain America ||
04/02/2006 00:00 ||
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I want one of these but plz lose the voice
and these Amazing Climbing Critter
http://www.ai.mit.edu/projects/sociable/videos.html
http://www.kawada.co.jp/global/ams/hrp_2.html
http://robots.net/article/1795.html
#2
I believe that it was Nova last week that featured a DARPA-sponsored robot-vehicle race that required traversing a tricky, twisting 150-mile course through the desert. In contrast to the prior year, in which no vehicle got more than 10 miles from the starting line, 5 (I believe) vehicles completed the race this last time around.
#3
That's true. One note, however: this year's Challenge was a bit different from the previous year This time around, they gave GPS 'way points' to reach. The previous year the vehicles had to figure out everything about their routes themselves.
From one point of view that made the Challenge a lot easier this year. However, it fits DOD's needs since in the short run, unmanned trucks that can carry goods along a route defined by way points would be quite useful.
#4
unmanned trucks that can carry goods along a route defined by way points would be quite useful.
You mean useless, just dump a big rock in the road where there is no way to go around, and the truck's stymied.
Loot or destroy it at your lesiure.
Picture a mountain pass, or a hill cut, put a rock in the road, truck stops, drop another behind, repeat until you run out of trucks or rocks.
Posted by: Redneck Jim ||
04/02/2006 19:51 Comments ||
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#5
You mean useless, just dump a big rock in the road where there is no way to go around, and the truck's stymied.
The autonomous vehicles can navigate to waypoints and *also* have collision sensors to avoid and maneuver around obstacles. Sure, it doesn't help if the pass or road is completely blocked, but that works against regular trucks too. The advantage in this case is that no humans die.
Don't forget that unmanned does not mean unarmed. Remember the tele-operated gun turrets (CROWS) we discussed awhile back? A vehicle in distress could also call for overwatching air support.
#6
Sure, you can do that. But that doesn't mean there aren't uses for such things.
Or so a whole bunch of military planners believe. And unmanned doesn't necessarily mean unmonitored or undefended. Think UAV escorts, for instance. ;-)
Police and military forces on Saturday captured in the island of Basilan a suspected Abu Sayyaf member, whose group is tied to the al-Qaeda terror network.
Officials said Kahal Asmad alias Abu Asmad was nabbed by police and military agents near a market place in Isabela City.
He was arrested alright, and Kahal Asmad is included in the militarys order of battle. He is facing a string of kidnapping charges, said Inspector Romeo Tiera of the local police force.
Tiera said Asmad is a henchman of slain Abu Sayyaf leader Galib Andang, also known as Commander Robot, who was killed in a police assault last year at a prison facility in Taguig City.
It was unknown if security forces seized weapons from Asmad or whether he was planning an attack, but police said he did not resist arrest when captured around 8:30 a.m.
Asmads family disputed the charges and insisted the man was innocent.
Authorities have tightened security in the south after the National Intelligence Coordinating Agency in northern Mindanao uncovered a supposed plot Friday by the Abu Sayyaf group to hijack passenger ships.
We ordered a tightened security in all passenger ships in northern Mindanao. We have contingency measures and are ready to address any situation. We cannot rule out the possibility of a terror attack after the recent bombing in Jolo, said Chief Supt. Florante Baguio, commander of the regional police force.
Baguio did not say how the plot was discovered, but a report by the NICA claimed the Abu Sayyaf was also planning to abduct the passengers.
The report identified the leader of an 11-man Abu Sayyaf team that would carry out the hijacking as Abu Awillah, and that among the targets were Super Ferry vessels sailing from Manila to Mindanao.
Police have stepped up intelligence operation to track down members of the terrorist group in the region, said Baguio.
Authorities have tagged the Abu Sayyaf group in the February 2004 bombing of SuperFerry 14, which killed more than 100 people in the worst maritime terrorist attack in the Philippines.
The 10,192-ton ship was sailing out of Manila, with about 900 passengers and crew, when a television set filled with TNT exploded. The Abu Sayyaf owned up the bombing.
Since the bombing of the Super- Ferry 14, authorities have deployed secret marshals in passenger ships.
Posted by: Dan Darling ||
04/02/2006 04:11 ||
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#1
oh ace that cheered me up - thought we'd long heard the last about old Robot. :)
Where's the creativity and imagination in that? No wonder he was captured, he was probably hiding behind the living room drapes with his DayGlo Nikes sticking out and answered "No!" when the coppers demanded to know if anyone was there. Probably a future #3, too.
IRAN said it had test-fired what it described as the world's fastest underwater missile during a week of war games in the Gulf, Iranian state television reported.
"The world's fastest underwater missile was successfully test fired on the third day of the Holy Prophet war games," state television reported in a caption without giving a source or details.
Western nations have been watching developments in Iran's missile capabilities with concern amid a stand-off over the Iranian nuclear program, which the west says is aimed at building atomic bombs. Iran says the program is civilian.
Iran's armed forces said last week they had successfully test fired a domestically produced missile from land which could evade radar.
Iranian state television had said that missile was called Fajr-3. But Hossein Salami, head of the Revolutionary Guards air force, did not name the new weapon or give the missile's range, saying it depended on the warhead weight.
He told state television it was a defensive weapon.
The US-based military affairs website globalsecurity.org describes the Fajr-3 as a 240mm artillery rocket with a 40km range, one of a group of light rockets Iran has developed mainly for tactical use on the battlefield.
However, it also says Iran has been working on another missile, called the Kosar, that would be undetectable by radar and designed to sink ships in the Gulf.
#2
I call BS on this one. They ain't got Shkval or anything even close to it, if for no other reason than the Russians know what would happen if we lost a carrier. And that radar evading missile? Ain't happening either, not as long as all of their missiles are still merely linear descendants of the V2.
Mike
Posted by: Mike Kozlowski ||
04/02/2006 12:26 Comments ||
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#3
Underwater missiles - don't we call those things torpedoes?
#6
They are clearly claiming they have Shkval. The other article quotest it has the exact same top speed. It could be bs, but they would be smart to develop this capability.
Can a Kilo handle a Shkval in its tubes or does it need modification?
#7
Mike,
I hope you're right.
The alternative is worrysome. They would have quite the dominating card over ports that we use on the other side.
I hope we're checking this activity out, and nipping it in the bud.
Posted by: Jan ||
04/02/2006 13:16 Comments ||
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#9
don't be so sure they don't have the Shkval, reports for a long time now in military circles and publications have been claiming chinese involvment with this carrier killing underwater rocket, but i do remember a few months maybe a year back DARPA said it had invented a system of 'acoustic defensives' for subs that would pre detonate an incoming torpedo warhead by slamming sound waves into it (i think i'm no tech guy though don't even have GCSE's lol). Im not sure how they would launch such a torp but i've a horrible feeling the Shkval can fit in standard russian torpedo tubes. Oh and i also think that a Shkval test caused the kursk to go boom but thats a nother argument alltogether i guess. I would also add that had they been firing these underwater super torps then anywhere in the gulf area im sure some other nations military would be watching the Iranians everymove and should already have a good idea from what vessel it was launched/fired from. Again though this is interesting stuff, i was only a child during the coldwar and only saw the 80's part of the cold war myself but to me this is like a wannabe cold war at the moment, wannabe because the Iranians simply don't have the bucks and materials and knowladge like the Reds did but to keep up. Of course all this modern day talk of miltarys need ing to be able to fight only terrorists is edging us futher and futher from the reality of real military threats such as China and Iran (if it dosnt get kicked in within a decade or so). To me thats what i find the scary part and i sure hope im wrong but its very bad if we lose track of the big picture as it were. Oh well theres another rambling post for all to absorb, till next time.
#10
just a quicky, yes unfortuantly it does fire from the standard size torp tubes so Iranian Kilo class subs could operate this weapon if they needed and wanted to. Oh not such a quicky i guess but wouldnt it be a real victory for Iran to put a couple of these into a US super carrier and watch it sink, 4000 odd people would be dead, billions of aircraft and the ship sunk - the ultimate propaganda but the worst bit is they could do it without using any nuclear weapons therefore keeping the confict conventional and not having there cities turned to glass. Basically they can now create as much upset without nukes as with nukes if this is true, to me its a like someone just handed Iran a new 'card to play' - who handed them the card - China i reackon
#12
sure they INTENDED it to be an underwater missile? LOL
Posted by: Frank G ||
04/02/2006 14:29 Comments ||
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#13
However, it also says Iran has been working on another missile, called the Kosar, that would be undetectable by radar and designed to sink ships in the Gulf
Should be easy to intercept, low mobility, and susceptible to joint failure
Posted by: Frank G ||
04/02/2006 14:34 Comments ||
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#14
Yeah, right. Advanced muslim technology. Uh-huh. Camel saddles to underwater missiles. Riiiiiiight.
I guess the Russians sold their (outmoded) stocks of this, ah-hem, weapon.
#17
good piont about coastal launches there - very hard to spot that sort of thing i'd imagine even with modern technolagy, what about even launching from civilian type vessels? i wouldnt put anything past the Iranians. Also after a bit of 'swatting up' on this old subject of rocket torps it would seem that later versions are somewhat guideable too and not just a point and shoot weapon, not sure how its guided, perhaps a wire guide using copper or fibre optic wiring or is it recieving signals from the firing boat or another set of eyes. Its short range too is also not a factor with later models which are said to be able to slow down to aquire the target which also implies using less fuel (ok not defenatly) and the torps may actually have thier own guidence system. Solid fuel rockets cannot be shut off and restarted right? but can liquid fueled rockets be throttled? i'd have thought they could but once again my knowladge is almost non-existenet on that subject. Ah armchair intel anyalists,lol, what would the world be like without us hehe. I'm wondering whats gonna come next from Iran - maybe some other exciting (and higly dangerous) weapons system. What 'card' are they gonna get next to add to thier collection and when will the big game begin???
#18
If the Iranians test fired a Shkval, the US Navy would know it. No way to hide that acoustic signature.
FWIW: UPI Hears No details were given of the torpedo production, but Western analysts nervously note that Iran is known to have acquired a number of Russian VA-111 supercavitating Shkval torpedoes, specifically designed to destroy aircraft carriers, and are worried that the Iranians now might be producing their own indigenous version.
Posted by: ed ||
04/02/2006 15:39 Comments ||
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#19
Interesting Shep. Any word if the Iranians are claiming it is domestically produced?
The original Skval was solid fueled and stable. The "improved" Skval that sank the Kursk used a combined liquid fuel and oxidizer (highly unstable). There is no hint that the Chinese and Iranians decided to buy into that "improvement".
Guess the US Nay will have to immediately destroy any Iranian ship, patrol boat or dhow that approaches within 10 miles.
Posted by: ed ||
04/02/2006 15:49 Comments ||
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#20
I guess we're double-extra-super doomed, now, huh?
If the inventory stocks suffice for our most indiscriminate war plan, well gosh, let's go ahead and get it on to make sure it's double-extra-super painful for em.
#21
Damn there good, everything is the world's best. Only the best for the holy profit war games.
Should we fold now?
Posted by: Captain America ||
04/02/2006 16:04 Comments ||
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#22
Yes, Captain America, please report to the Dhimmi Gate. And have your cape pressed and cleaned when you hand it over, you won't be needing it any more.
#23
If there's no one alive to issue the orders for launching these Koranic Kavitaters, then they're not much of a threat, are they? Decap. Just sayin'.
#24
rofl, the Koranimals at the gates of Dhimmi, cape being handed over pressed clean - that had me fckin laughing so much, Koranic Kavitaters too is a new instant classic. The Koranic Catipiler Drive is next :) Koranic egg thrower lol, sorry i've got the giggles bad now after reading those last few posts. Been a good thread this for sure. Wonder what suprises Mad Mullah Industries has install next?
#25
...Guess the US Nay will have to immediately destroy any Iranian ship, patrol boat or dhow that approaches within 10 miles...
Hit the nail right on the head 'ed', The US will only need to turn the 'dome' into a 'bubble'! Assign a jdam to anything larger than a canoe at 20 minutes out! Better yet, shut them down at the beach!
#27
Sky seem to be all ecited about this torpedo - serious faces all round in the news room as they struggle to tell us about it. running the report about every 30mins too. Hey another thought, what if they used it as there new wonder weapon in any 'Tanker wars' they might have planned - now surly one of these big sea slugs could smash right through a tanker or break its back clean in two if detonated under it! be a few bucks worth of crude down the drain not to mention a big old mess of the eco system and ducks and stuff. Kinda like when Sammy lit all the oil wells then opened others up to drain into the sea - which is a point if anyone else did that you'd never have heard the last of it but when does anyone ever mention Sammy fcking up a whole Eco system like that back in 1991 and why the hell isnt that act alone enough to convince the lefties out there just what a tosser he was and how much he needed taking out of power for the whole regions sake. sorry for going off topic there.
#28
Shep - I figure some sort of Dar al Doomsday thing will have to come next. Y'know, the one that would issue launch orders to the melted C&C circuitry.
#29
Bottom line is that Iran has several defensive capabilities we supressed or denied to Saddam during the "no fly" era:
1. Sunburn
2. Diesel Electric subs with Skval
3. SA300 missiles on order as part of an already integrated air defense system
4. A real, albeit somewhat antiquated airforce based so as to defend the nuke sites
5. Well engineered underground facilities
6. Theater ballistic missiles with supposedly effective guidance systems
Like Iraq, Iran has had a lot of Russian and Chinese help.
I'm not saying they're invincible, but I assume the Navy and Air Force are taking them seriously. I would assume they learned something when we sunk their last Navy.
I'm afraid the window for peaceful regime change is closed. The best thing we have going for us is that Ahmadinejad seems like he wants to start something a little too soon.
#32
Shep, you keep watching it, they'll keep running it. That's why the MSM is to be generally disbelieved, expecially when they're pimping for their Koranic Masters.
#33
The problem with cavitating torpedoes is that they are blind straight shot weapons like those old WW1 torpedoes point and shoot with either a timer or impact fuse. The cavitation bubble cancels out any sensors for guidance. That was the catch with this weapon.
A US super carrier will suck up multiple direct hits by the biggest torpedoes and I think the Russians and Chicoms were thinking nuke warheads were direct hits were unnecessary. Even if Irans got some primitive nukes they are not small enough or even if so numerous enough to risk putting in a torpedo that will be one of many on small attack boats that the majority of will be sunk before they even make deep water.
Another major problem is even assuming they have copied the tech and assuming they have deployed it in numbers wont get anywhere near a carrier. Our escorts will be on full patrol and those few loud Iranian subs are doomed if they dont have a sea Wolf tracking em as we speak waiting on the code. I would imagine the Persian Gulf would be a massive no goes zone for anything short approved tankers and Coalition warships. People dont understand what an effective if allowed area denial weapon our sea/air power is, expect that area to be the Persian Gulf in its entirety fisherman be dammed.
This is the big show boy. That is what has pissed me off so badly about the Iraq phase of the WOT. Bush not being able to rally and keep the people rallied means the LLLs have succeeded in setting the standard so high that even Iraq an incredible victory on all fronts by historical comparison is allowed to be played as a defeat.
Now with the big show looming the consequences of this failure will be seen full well as real casualties and losses of equipment and WAR cost start rolling in. When we lose a couple of ships and double digits of air craft on the first few days with more dead than the entire Iraq phase without even going into the land phase the screams from the LLLs will be deafening.
#34
Not sayin' it ain't BS, but be careful about those "advanced Muslim technology" jokes. They've got the money to buy plans and the insanity to use them. Half of my fellow graduate students in mechanical enginering in 1978-79 were Iranians. There were plenty over in electrical engineering too.
Scientists at the Naval Undersea Warfare Center in Newport, Rhode Island demonstrated in 1997, a fully submerged launch of a supercavitating projectile (with air injected in its nose) with a muzzle velocity of 5,082 feet (1,549 meters) per second, making it the first underwater weapon to break the sound barrier
#43
Darrell - I also had multi- Iranian co-students. How many of them were serious, or the best of class-types? They were just as bell-curved as anyone, and the one's that were top of class, stayed to make money
Posted by: Frank G ||
04/02/2006 19:39 Comments ||
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#44
Technological expertise is highly fungible. There is a vast worldwide network of specialized, in-depth experts, some with good some with bad motives.
We solved a leaky mechanical heart value by tapping into the expertise of an in-depth knowledge of submarine technology and sealants.
My own suspicion is that Iran is a proxy for Russia much as we used proxies in Afganistan. Russia has transferred the underwater missile technology to Iran and has helped them acquire the underlying expertise.
Posted by: Captain America ||
04/02/2006 20:17 Comments ||
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#45
So 40 or 50 cruise missiles get "lost" and take out Moscow. Oops and, BTW, fuck you Putin.
#46
Frank, it doesn't take top-of-class to make pirate copies. Bottom of class and some good machinists will do just fine. I say glass 'em before they get lucky.
just in.. Yahoo, sorry, but the ratchet up a know for Iran means an interesing week ahead.
TEHRAN, Iran -
Iran said Sunday it has successfully test fired a high-speed underwater missile capable of destroying warships and submarines.
The Iranian-made missile has a speed of about 222 mph underwater, Gen. Ali Fadavi, deputy head of the Navy of the elite Revolutionary Guards, said.
He called it the fastest underwater missile in the world but it has the same speed as the Russian-made VA-111 Shkval, developed in 1995 and believed to be the world's fastest.
It was not immediately known if the Iranian missile was based on the Shkval.
"It has a very powerful warhead designed to hit big submarines. No warship can escape from this missile," Fadavi told state-run television.
You may well get to test that claim much sooner than you think.
As tensions increase between the United States and Iran, U.S. intelligence and terrorism experts say they believe Iran would respond to U.S. military strikes on its nuclear sites by deploying its intelligence operatives and Hezbollah teams to carry out terrorist attacks worldwide.
Iran would mount attacks against U.S. targets inside Iraq, where Iranian intelligence agents are already plentiful, predicted these experts. There is also a growing consensus that Iran's agents would target civilians in the United States, Europe and elsewhere, they said.
U.S. officials would not discuss what evidence they have indicating Iran would undertake terrorist action, but the matter "is consuming a lot of time" throughout the U.S. intelligence apparatus, one senior official said. "It's a huge issue," another said.
Citing prohibitions against discussing classified information, U.S. intelligence officials declined to say whether they have detected preparatory measures, such as increased surveillance, counter-surveillance or message traffic, on the part of Iran's foreign-based intelligence operatives.
But terrorism experts considered Iranian-backed or controlled groups -- namely the country's Ministry of Intelligence and Security operatives, its Revolutionary Guards and the Lebanon-based Hezbollah -- to be better organized, trained and equipped than the al-Qaeda network that carried out the Sept. 11, 2001, attacks.
The Iranian government views the Islamic Jihad, the name of Hezbollah's terrorist organization, "as an extension of their state. . . . operational teams could be deployed without a long period of preparation," said Ambassador Henry A. Crumpton, the State Department's coordinator for counterterrorism.
The possibility of a military confrontation has been raised only obliquely in recent months by President Bush and Iran's government. Bush says he is pursuing a diplomatic solution to the crisis, but he has added that all options are on the table for stopping Iran's acquisition of nuclear weapons.
Speaking in Vienna last month, Javad Vaeedi, a senior Iranian nuclear negotiator, warned the United States that "it may have the power to cause harm and pain, but it is also susceptible to harm and pain. So if the United States wants to pursue that path, let the ball roll," although he did not specify what type of harm he was talking about.
Government officials said their interest in Iran's intelligence services is not an indication that a military confrontation is imminent or likely, but rather a reflection of a decades-long adversarial relationship in which Iran's agents have worked secretly against U.S. interests, most recently in Iraq and Pakistan. As confrontation over Iran's nuclear program has escalated, so has the effort to assess the threat from Iran's covert operatives.
U.N. Security Council members continue to debate how best to pressure Iran to prove that its nuclear program is not meant for weapons. The United States, Britain and France want the Security Council to threaten Iran with economic sanctions if it does not end its uranium enrichment activities. Russia and China, however, have declined to endorse such action and insist on continued negotiations. Security Council diplomats are meeting this weekend to try to break the impasse. Iran says it seeks nuclear power but not nuclear weapons.
Former CIA terrorism analyst Paul R. Pillar said that any U.S. or Israeli airstrike on Iranian territory "would be regarded as an act of war" by Tehran, and that Iran would strike back with its terrorist groups. "There's no doubt in my mind about that. . . . Whether it's overseas at the hands of Hezbollah, in Iraq or possibly Europe, within the regime there would be pressure to take violent action."
Before Sept. 11, the armed wing of Hezbollah, often working on behalf of Iran, was responsible for more American deaths than in any other terrorist attacks. In 1983 Hezbollah truck-bombed the U.S. Marine barracks in Beirut, killing 241, and in 1996 truck-bombed Khobar Towers in Saudi Arabia, killing 19 U.S. service members.
Iran's intelligence service, operating out of its embassies around the world, assassinated dozens of monarchists and political dissidents in Europe, Pakistan, Turkey and the Middle East in the two decades after the 1979 Iranian revolution, which brought to power a religious Shiite government. Argentine officials also believe Iranian agents bombed a Jewish community center in Buenos Aires in 1994, killing 86 people. Iran has denied involvement in that attack.
Iran's intelligence services "are well trained, fairly sophisticated and have been doing this for decades," said Crumpton, a former deputy of operations at the CIA's Counterterrorist Center. "They are still very capable. I don't see their capabilities as having diminished."
Both sides have increased their activities against the other. The Bush administration is spending $75 million to step up pressure on the Iranian government, including funding non-governmental organizations and alternative media broadcasts. Iran's parliament then approved $13.6 million to counter what it calls "plots and acts of meddling" by the United States.
"Given the uptick in interest in Iran" on the part of the United States, "it would be a very logical assumption that we have both ratcheted up [intelligence] collection, absolutely," said Fred Barton, a former counterterrorism official who is now vice president of counterterrorism for Stratfor, a security consulting and forecasting firm. "It would be a more fevered pitch on the Iranian side because they have fewer options."
The office of the director of national intelligence, which recently began to manage the U.S. intelligence agencies, declined to allow its analysts to discuss their assessment of Iran's intelligence services and Hezbollah and their capabilities to retaliate against U.S. interests.
"We are unable to address your questions in an unclassified manner," a spokesman for the office, Carl Kropf, wrote in response to a Washington Post query.
The current state of Iran's intelligence apparatus is the subject of debate among experts. Some experts who spent their careers tracking the intelligence ministry's operatives describe them as deployed worldwide and easier to monitor than Hezbollah cells because they operate out of embassies and behave more like a traditional spy service such as the Soviet KGB.
Other experts believe the Iranian service has become bogged down in intense, regional concerns: attacks on Shiites in Pakistan, the Iraq war and efforts to combat drug trafficking in Iran.
As a result, said Bahman Baktiari, an Iran expert at the University of Maine, the intelligence service has downsized its operations in Europe and the United States. But, said Baktiari, "I think the U.S. government doesn't have a handle on this."
Because Iran's nuclear facilities are scattered around the country, some military specialists doubt a strike could effectively end the program and would require hundreds of strikes beforehand to disable Iran's vast air defenses. They say airstrikes would most likely inflame the Muslim world, alienate reformers within Iran and could serve to unite Hezbollah and al-Qaeda, which have only limited contact currently.
A report by the independent commission investigating the Sept. 11 attacks cited al-Qaeda's long-standing cooperation with the Iranian-back Hezbollah on certain operations and said Osama bin Laden may have had a previously undisclosed role in the Khobar attack. Several al-Qaeda figures are reportedly under house arrest in Iran.
Others in the law enforcement and intelligence circles have been more dubious about cooperation between al-Qaeda and Hezbollah, largely because of the rivalries between Shiite and Sunni Muslims. Al-Qaeda adherents are Sunni Muslims; Hezbollah's are Shiites.
Iran "certainly wants to remind governments that they can create a lot of difficulty if strikes were to occur," said a senior European counterterrorism official interviewed recently. "That they might react with all means, Hezbollah inside Lebanon and outside Lebanon, this is certain. Al-Qaeda could become a tactical alliance."
Posted by: Dan Darling ||
04/02/2006 03:58 ||
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#2
Of course Iran is also planning to retaliate with al-Qaeda, Hezbollah even if the nuclear sites aren't attacked.... Difference is that in this case they will may give them nukes to play with.
#3
Folks, it is time to tell the world a very simple thing. Let US declare that the existence of Israel is openly threatened by Iran and Hezbollah and US has decided to let Israel use, unconditionally, the entire US military power, including all of its nuclear arsenals to protect Israel whenever it wants to use these even if used as the pre-emotive astride except in the situation when American interest is involved. You can not talk to the barbarians. Lets get over with it once and for all. at least, You will change the whole dialog in UN. Russia and China will pressure Iran and Hezbollah to behave once they belive what is going to happen. Folks,Israel is openly threatened, give Israel whatever support it needs and they will take care of this whole islamic terrorism. You listen to too many of the experts and you loose. Think about Afghanistan. The whole word expected that US will make Afghanistan a big dirt ball after 9-11. Unfortunately, US listened to the stupid experts and you all know what we got there - a whole bunch of our young kids killed just to support the same Taliban stupidity and the drug running warlords. In Iraq we lost thousands of our youngs for what - to let Iran control that country. This great nation has to know when stupidity is the stupidity.
#6
The sources said Iran has harbored leading Al Qaida operatives and enabled them to plan major attacks that would be launched upon Teheran's approval.
What message are we supposed to garner from this report? If Iran is either substantially threatened or outright attacked Tehrans proxies (Hezbollah) will unleash a bloody reprisal. Whoaa Nelly theres some expert insight! But wait theres more. Theres indication that AQ has broken falafel with the mullahs and have agreed to mount attacks post military assault on Irans fledgling nuclear facilities. While theres evidence of past collaboration between the Shiite and Sunni syndicates (ie. Bosnia), does AQ really need another impetus to strike western targets? Short of the usual We all agree we hate the Crusaders and Zionists more then we hate each other; the AQ types are most reticent about assisting a growing Shiite regional dominance. (If present day Iraq is any indication) Of course there is always the wild card possibility of the attack on Islam ideology that seems to bring vipers of different stripes together. In the end, Im leery of these recent reports regarding this subject. (Especially ones from Rodans boys about leaked classified information) Seems to me, hard evidence of Tehran giving AQ the green light would be an enormous breach of intelligence security compromising sources and methods.
My 2 cents.
This part in particular is something you may want to consider:
Iran is the second country that al-Qa'ida seeks to involve in this conflict. Iran expects that the United States and Israel will strike a number of nuclear, industrial, and strategic Iranian facilities. Abu-Mus'ab thinks that the US-Israeli confrontation with Iran is inevitable and could succeed in destroying Iran's infrastructure. Accordingly, Iran is preparing to retaliate by using the powerful cards in its hands. The area of the war will expand, pro-US Shi'a in Iraq and Afghanistan will suffer embarrassment and might reconsider their alliances, and this will provide al-Qa'ida with a larger vital area from which to carry out its activities.
If this is al-Suri's stated objectives, then it dovetails nicely with the objectives of the IRGC, since attacking the Iraqi Shi'ites would have the side-effect of radicalizing them in favor of individuals like Sadr who are far easier for them to manipulate and control. Regardless of Zarqawi's own stated prejudices against Shi'ites, al-Qaeda's endorsement of his activities as they relate to Iraq might well be considered not so much as an endorsement of his sectarian agenda as a calculated move on their part. From this perspective, Zarqawi, while entirely sincere in his "kill 'em all!" rhetoric, should not be seen as representative of the organization as a whole on this one - a position further supported by the dim view that al-Zawahiri took of his sectarian campaign in his letter from last summer.
Posted by: Dan Darling ||
04/02/2006 15:48 Comments ||
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#11
What more clear statement of intentions do we need from Iran before we finally recognize Iran's declaration of war upon the United States as exactly that? This theater of the absurd needs to become a military theater with a very short run.
Iran's decades of incessant perfidy do not entitle them to any nation building, like we have so gallantly tried in Iraq. We go in, we break their face and we leave. If they install another mob of wingnuts, we go in and break their face too. We cannot wait for Iran to mount some dastardly proxy attack using a nuclear weapon. Their legs must be cut out from underneath them right away.
#12
nothing Zen. It's clear as glass to those who want America's best interests. I bet Dr. Dean. Harry Reid, and Pelosi would disagree...
Posted by: Frank G ||
04/02/2006 17:23 Comments ||
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#13
'US has decided to let Israel use, unconditionally, the entire US military power, including all of its nuclear arsenals to protect Israel whenever it wants to use these even if used as the pre-emotive astride except in the situation when American interest is involved.'
Look, I like Israel and all, but that's just silly.
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An Afghan couple, Dr Azizullah and his second wife Feroza, are missing since the last five months. The last time the couple contacted their family in Peshawar, they were in Kabul. 
Unidentified gunmen killed the speaker of a northern Afghan provincial legislature early Saturday after breaking into his home, police said. Sayed Sadeq, from northeastern Takhar province, is believed to be the first lawmaker killed since the October inauguration of the war-torn countrys first parliament and provincial councils in more than 30 years. He was killed early this morning, Takhar security director Gulam Hazrat told AFP. We dont yet know who killed him. 
An employee in the opposition Wafd Party died Saturday here from wounds he sustained when supporters of the party's president 
MULTAN: An Anti-Terrorism Court sentenced an activist of the banned 
LAHORE: Security forces raided a hotel on Abbot Road on Saturday afternoon and arrested seven men for alleged involvement in anti-state activities. The men were shifted to an undisclosed location. Eyewitnesses told Daily Times that security forces personnel wearing camouflage uniforms surrounded the United Hotel in Qilla Gujjar Singh at around 3pm. A few personnel entered the hotel and re-emerged shortly with seven men in blindfold. The hotel employees said that security forces personnel asked the receptionist whether the guests of rooms 125 and 127 were indoors, and immediately arrested them.
Interior Minister 
Three people were critically injured when a van hit landmine in Pat Feeder in 
Indian national 
Security forces have seized modern lethal weapons including 
Paramilitary forces and tribal police on Saturday took over the headquarters of cleric 
Ammam - Iraq's resistance has replaced Jordanian-born Abu Musab al-Zarqawi as political head of the rebels, confining him to a military role, the son of Osama bin Laden's mentor told AFP Sunday in Jordan. 
Meanwhile, an Iraqi Interior Ministry source told KUNA 42 unidentified human bodies that were shot dead were located in various parts of Baghdad. He said 10 bodies were found in Al-Shaala area west of Baghdad, another 10 were found in Al-Doura area south of Baghdad, six were found in Al-Sidia south-west of Baghdad and three in Al-Amin province south-east of Baghdad. Local police in Al-Mahmoudia south of Baghdad said it located 13 unidentified bodies that were shot dead in various parts of the town, the source added. The bodies were handcuffed and blindfolded, except for ten bodies who were found in Al-Shaala and seemed to have been shot dead in a mass execution. The bodies were taken to a medical center for identification.
At least 12 suspects have been arrested in three different Iraqi cities and five Iranian nationals detained while attempting to cross the borders near the Halabja city in Kurdistan Iraq, the interior ministry announced on Saturday. Three suspects were arrested on the Najaf highway, a police statement said, noting that a Kalashnikov machinegun and live ammunition in the possession of the suspects were seized. Four other people were arrested in Mosul and weapons and explosives were seized in their possession, the statement said. In Baghdad, five suspects including an Arab national were detained in Karadah and Aazamiyah. According to the statement, Halabja city police patrols arrested five Iranian nationals while attempting to illegally enter the Iraqi territories.
A US military helicopter went down southwest of Baghdad on Saturday and it was unclear if there were casualties, the military said. A militant group said it shot down a helicopter in the same area and residents said they heard gunfire. A ... helicopter went down southwest of Baghdad at approximately 5:30 pm, the military said. The status of the crew is unknown. A spokesman declined to say how many were on board or the type of helicopter involved. The aircraft was conducting a combat air patrol, the statement said. In an Internet posting, a group calling itself the 
Hamas vowed on Saturday to bring the "dangerous" situation on the streets of Gaza under control as the Islamist faction faced its first internal crisis after only three days in government. Palestinian Prime Minister 
Three rockets were fired at the Israeli-occupied Majdal city on Saturday, the Palestinian 
The Israeli army said Saturday that four missiles were fired today on a number of Israeli towns from northern Gaza Strip. Spokesperson for the Israeli army said one of the missiles landed at sea, while the other three landed in vacant areas around Ashkelon leaving no property damage or loss of life. The spokesperson also said that four other missiles were fired today from Gaza Strip toward Naqab area in southern Israel but no damages or losses were recorded, noting that the Israeli tanks responded by firing over 100 shells at the missile launching sites in northern Gaza Strip. The source added that the Israeli warplanes bombed a building in northern Gaza Strip used by Palestinian resistance members as a missile launching site.
Israeli warplanes dropped thousands of flyers over Gaza Strip Saturday demanding people to cut off armed Palestinian factions especially those launching missiles against Israel. The flyers warned that there will be grave consequences, "destruction and devastation", if factions continue to launch missiles at Israeli towns from the Gaza Strip. It read, "The State of Israel has evacuated Gaza Strip and granted you an opportunity to live in peace and to manage your lives by yourselves, hence, until when you will allow terrorism to control your lives?" The Israeli army will carry out countering operations in case the missile attacks continue, it added.
