Afghanistan Nov. 18, U.S. Navy F/A-18Cs and F/A-18Es provided close-air support for International Security Assistance Force troops in contact with Taliban extremists near Kandahar. The F/A-18Cs expended a guided bomb unit-12 and the F/A-18Es expended a GBU-12 and cannon rounds on enemy positions.
Air Force A-10 Thunderbolt IIs provided close-air support to ISAF troops in contact with enemy forces near Asadabad.
In total, 42 close-air support missions were flown in support of ISAF and Afghan troops, reconstruction activities and route patrols.
Additionally, seven Air Force intelligence, surveillance and reconnaissance, or ISR, aircraft flew missions in support of operations in Afghanistan. Navy fighter aircraft performed in non-traditional ISR roles with their electro-optical and infrared sensors.
In Iraq, an Air Force Predator conducted a strike against anti-Iraqi forces near Ramadi. The Predator expended Hellfire missiles on enemy targets.
Royal Air Force GR-4s provided close-air support to troops in contact with anti-Iraqi forces near Baghdad.
United States Air Force F-15E Strike Eagles provided close-air support to troops in contact with anti-Iraqi forces near Bayji, Baghdad and Al Musayyib.
Air Force F-16 Fighting Falcons provided close-air support to troops in contact with anti-Iraqi forces near Subakhu.
In total, coalition aircraft flew 30 close-air support missions for Operation Iraqi Freedom. These missions included support to coalition troops, infrastructure protection, reconstruction activities and operations to deter and disrupt terrorist activities.
Additionally, 16 U.S. Air Force, U.S. Navy, Royal Air Force and Royal Australian Air Force ISR aircraft flew missions in support of operations in Iraq. U.S. Air Force fighter aircraft performed in non-traditional ISR roles with their electro-optical and infrared sensors.
Air Force C-130 Hercules and C-17 Globemaster IIIs provided intra-theater heavy airlift support, helping sustain operations throughout Afghanistan, Iraq and the Horn of Africa. They flew more than 120 airlift sorties, delivered more than 270 tons of cargo and transported more than 3,400 passengers.
Coalition C-130 crews from Australia and Canada flew in support of OIF or OEF.
On Nov. 17, U.S. Air Force, Royal Air Force and French Air Force tankers flew 33 sorties and off-loaded almost 2.3 million pounds of fuel.
The U.S.-backed Afghan army will step up counter-Taliban offensives during the country's brutal winter.
I guess not. The brutal Afghan autumn didn't stop them.
The clashes would involve heavy fighting during a period traditionally used by Afghan fighters for rest and resupply, a U.S. general said Sunday in Dubai.
U.S. Army Brig. Gen. Douglas Pritt, who oversees the U.S.-led effort to train the Afghan military, said Afghan forces have tripled the number of forward bases to more than 60. The forces plan to spend the winter harassing Taliban and gathering intelligence from combat outposts deep inside rebel strongholds. "They're much better equipped for winter operations than the Taliban. I'm hoping for a lot of snow this winter," Pritt said during a visit to The Associated Press bureau in Dubai.
#1
Article: Afghan soldiers recently received a raise for their tiny salaries, from $70 to $100 a month, Pritt said, a decision that followed the revelation that AWOL soldiers could earn $70 a month as day laborers without facing combat.
Afghan day laborers are receiving better rates than Chinese day laborers. If things continue at this pace, it looks like Afghan per capita income may well catch up to and overtake Chinese per capita income.
Islamic fighters ambushed an Ethiopian military convoy Sunday, eyewitnesses said, in the first skirmish between the rival forces maneuvering for control in Somalia.
Two Ethiopian trucks were destroyed by land mines before Islamic fighters opened fire on the convoy, which eyewitnesses told The Associated Press was made up of more than 80 vehicles and headed for the Somali government town of Baidoa, 150 miles west of the capital, Mogadishu. There were no immediate reports of casualties from the fighting.
Government officials who spoke on condition of anonymity because they were not authorized to speak to the media confirmed a skirmish had taken place but said they had no details. Islamic and Ethiopian officials were not immediately available for comment.
The attack occurred near the town of Bardaleh, 50 miles southwest of Baidoa. "There were two explosions and then a large exchange of gunfire," said one eyewitness on condition of anonymity for fear of reprisals. Around 50 Islamic fighters were involved, the eyewitness added. "We saw Ethiopian soldiers in defensive positions and two trucks overturned."
Several hours after the skirmish, the Ethiopian convoy arrived in Baidoa, eyewitnesses said. Large numbers of Ethiopian infantry were aboard buses as the convoy pulled into town, witnesses said.
...
A confidential U.N. report obtained last month by the AP said 6,000-8,000 Ethiopian troops are in or near Somalia's border with Ethiopia, backing the interim government. The report also said 2,000 troops from Eritrea are inside Somalia supporting the Islamic movement.
Posted by: ed ||
11/20/2006 19:03 ||
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#1
time for a friendly Spooky run
Posted by: Frank G ||
11/20/2006 19:39 Comments ||
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A large force of Sudanese soldiers backed by janjaweed militias is sweeping through the towns and villages of North Darfur in spite of a cease-fire, international observers and rebels in Darfur said Sunday. At least four civilians were killed near the northern town of Birmaza on Sunday, Youssouf Mussabal, a rebel leader in the area, said.
Some 200 pro-government janjaweed fighters riding camels had moved into the zone, backed by mobile army units and the Sudanese air force.
Some 200 pro-government janjaweed fighters riding camels had moved into the zone, backed by mobile army units and the Sudanese air force, he added. "The janjaweed are still in the town, we're worried for the population," Mussabal told The Associated Press by telephone from North Darfur.
Hundreds of heads of cattle have been rounded and brought back to the Sudanese army headquarters in the North Darfur town of Mellit.
Another rebel field commander from a separate faction said the renewed government offensive began earlier this week, and that two civilians were killed in Friday raids. "Seven villages were also looted and burnt to the ground around Birmaza today," Jar al-Naby, the rebel commander, said in a phone interview from Darfur. Hundreds of heads of cattle have been rounded and brought back to the Sudanese army headquarters in the North Darfur town of Mellit, he added.
"These attacks are a flagrant violation" of the Darfur Peace Agreement, the statement said.
The African Union peacekeeping force in Darfur said it received reports the Sudanese air force twice bombed Birmaza this week. The attacks were jointly conducted by the army and what the AU described as "armed militia" groups. The offensive has had a "heavy toll on the civilian population," the AU said in a statement issued Saturday. "These attacks are a flagrant violation" of the Darfur Peace Agreement, signed in May by the government and one rebel group, the statement said.
Yeah, buddy. That'll show 'em.
According to a senior United Nations official in Sudan, five children were killed in a joint janjaweed and government offensive to the east of the same zone on Friday. Another UN official in North Darfur said international observers were receiving daily reports of raids and casualties throughout this vast area of semi-desert pastureland north of the regional capital of El Fasher. "The campaign is ongoing, and we are being given very limited access to investigate or treat casualties," the official said on the phone from North Darfur.
"The campaign is ongoing, and we are being given very limited access to investigate or treat casualties."
Al-Naby, the rebel field commander, said his faction had waged a large battle against combined army and janjaweed forces on Saturday near Saiyah, some 25 kilometers north of Mellit. He said the government force attacked about 100 pickup trucks, the common means of transport and warfare in the region. He said six rebels had been killed, including a field commander named Sadiq Abou, and that eight were seriously injured. Al-Naby sated that government forces suffered dozens of casualties, including a military commander, and that rebels destroyed nine pickups, capturing another 21.
The Sudanese Ministry of Humanitarian Affairs said Sunday that Egeland was spreading "lies and false accusations against the Sudan."
The Sudanese military was not immediately available for comment Sunday, and the rebels' battle claim could not be independently verified. In recent weeks, several foreign journalists have been unable to obtain permits from the Sudanese government to enter Darfur.
On Saturday, UN chief of humanitarian affairs Jan Egeland said he had been barred by Sudanese authorities from visiting several of the areas where fighting is now reported. "The government is arming Arab militias more than ever before," Egeland said in an AP interview. He warned that the crisis "still has the potential of becoming infinitely worse."
The Sudanese Ministry of Humanitarian Affairs said Sunday that Egeland was spreading "lies and false accusations against the Sudan."
Posted by: Fred ||
11/20/2006 00:00 ||
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#1
hehe the pic.. gawd lookie at what were up against.
Barcelona, 20 Nov. (AKI) - Al-Qaeda has instructed the Algerian terror formation the Salafite Group for Preaching and Combat (GSPC) to take under its command other groups such as the Moroccan Islamic Combat Group, several extremist Tunisian groups and Libya's Islamic Group, forming a single terror network for North Africa and Europe, Catalan daily El Periodico reports, citing unnamed Spanish anti-terror intelligence sources.
GSPC operatives are reported to be travelling all over Europe to put the various North African terror cells located there in touch with each other, worried anti-terror sources say. Investigators have noted extensive contacts and financial flows between groups in Spain, Italy (especially the northern city of Milan), Holland, Belgium and France, El Periodico said.
The new, unified terror network is called 'The Union of the Arab Maghreb', according to the Spanish intelligence sources quoted by the paper. In France alone, there are estimated to be 40 terror cells, most of which belong to the GSPC. A document containing a draft plan for the new 'merged' terror network was discovered by Moroccan police in a July raid, El Periodico said.
The individual allegedly responsible for spearheading the 'merger' is the Algerian GSPC member Jaled Abu Basir, who has links with operatives in Belgium, Holland, Fance, Spain, Britain, Demark and Germany, according to El Periodico.
Khaled Abu Basir is reported to be the head of al-Qaeda in Europe, so the consolidation would go just a little further than North Africa.
The merger is intended to make it easier to organise attacks in the various countries, the Spanish intelligence sources said. The fusion of the GSPC and al-Qaeda was announced on 11 September - the fifth anniversary of the 9/11 attacks on the United States - by al-Qaeda's second in command, Egyptian-born Ayman al-Zawahiri.
Cells belonging to the GSPC - which was founded in 1998 following a split within the other principal Algerian terror group, the Armed Islamic Group (GIA) - are believed to have operated in Italy and have been the subject of several anti-terror investigations.
#1
I love management theory stuff. Brings a tear to mine eye to see the proper application of organizational models coupled with the judicious use of power and appropriate delegation of authority. *sniff*
Maybe we'll get lucky and they'll convert everything to SAP.
#6
Doesn't sound like a "lean" organization-more like a Dilbert cartoon. But I thought that none of these groups were connected. That's what the Dhemmis have been saying all along.
#7
layoffs. I figure there's lots of job duplication involved.
Between all the arrests and the... ummm... firings in Iraq and Afghanistan and so many elsewheres, I imagine the duplication of personnel has been much reduced, tu3031.
State defence lawyer Advocate Khalilur Rahman Bhuyian started reading out the paper-book (history of the case) that will continue today. The full bench of the Appellate Division comprising seven judges led by Chief Justice Syed JR Mudassir Husain heard the matter. The High Court (HC), on August 31, upheld the death sentences of seven JMB militants that had been awarded by a trial court of Jhalakathi.
On May 29, the Jhalakathi court sentenced Abdur Rahman, Siddiqul Islam, Ataur Rahman Sunny, Abdul Awal, Iftekhar al Mamun, Khaled Saifullah and Arif to death for killing judges Sohel Ahmed and Jagannath Pandey in a suicide bomb attack on November 14, 2005. Although militant leaders earlier repeatedly said they would not appeal against verdict, after the HC verdict, six of the seven condemned militants filed petitions for appeal in October at the eleventh hour of deadline for appealing. The other condemned, Arif, is still on the run.
Posted by: Fred ||
11/20/2006 00:00 ||
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A top leader of Biplobi Communist Party (BCP) Lal Pataka faction
Not, we hasten to point out, one of the new-fangled New Biplobi commies...
Straight-up old school commies, yessir.
I'm amazed there's an Old Biplobi left ...
and two members of outlawed Purba Banglar Communist Party (PBCP) ML-Lal Pataka faction were killed in 'encounters' between their accomplices and Rapid Action Battalion (Rab) in the early hours yesterday in Jessore and Naogaon.
No, we don't know where those are.
The slain in Jessore was identified as Rafiqul Islam alias Lanu Molla, son of Hamid Molla of Shubhorara village under Abhoynagar upazila in Jessore, reports our Khulna correspondent. Rab 6 in a press release said Rab captured Rafiqul while he and his accomplices were planning to carry out subversive activities in a secret meeting.
"Mom, I'll be home late tonight!"
"Another secret meeting?"
"Yeah."
"In that case I won't wait dinner."
Wax on.
Later, Rab took Rafiqul along to recover illegal firearms at Shubhorara village and at around 2:30am ...
... that magic moment ...
... came under fire from Rafiqul's cohorts that prompted them to return fire. Rab shot 30 bullets during the 16-minute long shootout. Rafiqul was shot during the 'encounter' and died on the spot, claimed Rab.
Wax off.
Quite by coincidence, it was bullet #1 that got poor Rafiqul. Also bullets number 6, 7, 9, 11-17, 21, 22-26, 29 and 30. He just couldn't keep out of the line of fire.
A revolver, two pipe guns and three revolver bullets were recovered from the scene, said the press release.
No shutter gun here, RAB-5 had it for their own bust (see next story.)
Just how many shutter guns do you think exist, anyway?
Several criminal cases including four for murder were filed against Rafiqul with different police stations of Khulna, Jessore and Narail. Other allegations against him are extortion and robberies.
Wanted on twelve systems ...
Meanwhile in Naogaon, two listed terrorists of PBCP were killed in an encounter between their cohorts and Rab at Kashiabari village under Atrai upazila early morning Sunday, reports UNB. The dead were identified as Sohel, 30, son of Hurmat Ali and Pintu, 35, son of Abdur Rouf of Noidighi village of the same upazila. Rab sources said Sohel and Pintu were wanted in twelve other systems the many criminal cases including the sensational Noidighi six-murder case.
Members of Rab 5 arrested Sohel and Pintu from the capital on Friday evening, Rab sources said. Later, they took the two terrorists to Rajashahi for interrogation.
"Why don't youse tell us where the hidden arms cache is."
"We ain't got one of dose."
[thump] [thump] [thump] [thump] "You do now."
"Oooooch."
Rab along with the two went to Kashiabari village at around 4:00am to capture their accomplices and seize hidden firearms.
Alt-F7 on the RAB keyboard.
As soon as Rab reached the spot, other members of the terrorist outfit opened fire at Rab triggering a gun battle.
And as usual, no one was hit but our two heroes.
Sohel and Pintu were shot during the 'shootout' while fleeing Rab custody and died on the spot," claimed Rab.
Immediately before their bodies were dumped out the back of the truck.
Later, Rab sent the bodies to Sadar Hospital for their autopsy.
And now they look a little waxy too.
A shutter gun, a pipe gun, a bullet and a homemade sharp weapon were recovered from the scene and carefully returned to the evidence locker.
Posted by: Fred ||
11/20/2006 00:00 ||
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Harkatul Jihad (Huji) leader Mufti Abdul Hannan yesterday confessed to plotting and leading several gruesome grenade attacks, including those on the Udichi programme in Jessore, Ramna Batamul, and the British high commissioner in Sylhet. The Huji leader also admitted to planting a 76kg bomb at Kotalipara in Gopalganj near the meeting venue of the then prime minister Sheikh Hasina, attacking on the Sylhet City Corporation mayor on December 2, 2005, a rally of Awami League (AL) leader Suranjit Sengupta in Sunamganj on July 21, 2001, and AL leader Jebunnesa in Sylhet.
Metropolitan Magistrate Shafique Anwar recorded Hannan's statement for about six hours from 2:00pm. Hannan gave the confessional statements after he was interrogated on remand for 170 days. Court sources said Hannan admitted that he himself led the bomb attack from the front at the Udichi cultural programme in Jessore on March 6, 1999 and planted the 76kg bomb at Kotalipara on July 20, 2000. The attack on the British high commissioner was carried out on May 21, 2004. He said seven Huji operatives, including two Dhaka College students--Hasan and Omar Faruq, carried out the attack on the Pahela Baishakh function at Ramna Batamul. The other attackers were Abu Taher, Sheikh Farid, Abu Bakar, Yeahia and Abdul Hye.
Hannan told the magistrate that the grenades were smuggled into Bangladesh and that one Tajuddin, owner of a wire factory at Chakbazar in Old Dhaka, used to supply the grenades and bombs. According to his statement, three Huji operatives were given the responsibility to collect funds for the attacks. They are Saudi expatriate Yunus bin Sharif of Chittagong, Mufti Shafiqur Rahman of Bhairab, and Abdul Hye Arabi of Comilla. Hannan also said they exploded 32 grenades in the attacks and smuggled out a similar number of grenades to India for attacks in Kolkata at different times.
The Huji leader said they established the Harkatul Jihad in 1989-90 and his leader was Abdur Rahman Faruqui who died during the Afghan war. Hannan said he ordered to attack the Udichi cultural function and that at Ramna Batamul because the programmes were anti-Islamic.
Posted by: Fred ||
11/20/2006 00:00 ||
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#1
Our Archbishop emeritus here in New Orleans is named Hannan - always thought of him as Irish, not South Asian. Sneaky Muslims - hiding behind good Celtic names and Christian religions.
Daily Mail headline writer doesn't know the diffo between an imam and an Iman. (Though I learned something from the Wiki article - Iman is the daughter of the Somali ambassador to Saudi Arabia.)
A "potentially explosive" stand-off between two rival groups of Muslims has developed in Britain's largest jail, independent watchdogs warned today.
The Independent Monitoring Board (IMB) at Wandsworth jail in south London said there was a "schism" among Muslim prisoners over the prison's newly-appointed imam. The board's annual report said there was evidence some Muslim inmates were applying "pressure" on fellow inmates to "adopt more militant lifestyles and belief systems". There were also "very worrying" implications of rocketing use of illegal mobile phones by prisoners, it went on. The report said: "There is a schism existing amongst Muslims in the prison about the imam. "There have been petitions from two opposing sides on this subject to the governor. "We are concerned that unless sensitively managed this issue could become even more emotional and potentially explosive." It added: "The issues surrounding the current imam should be resolved as quickly as possible."
IMB chairman David Jamieson said: "It is an issue of how the current imam interprets the Koran. "There is a difference of views between the Asian Muslims and the North African and Afro-Caribbean Muslims."
The document also reflected recent Press reports that attendance at religious services had increased because inmates were using them as venues for drug dealing and trading in illegal mobile phones. "We believe it is essential that there are adequate numbers of officers present at all religious services to discourage illegal activities," the study said. Board members raised a series of concerns about a "major influx" of drugs and mobiles in Wandsworth, which holds 1,456 inmates. Drugs were "slipping through the net" when new inmates arrived at the jail, especially remand prisoners, it said. Use of passive drugs dogs was "almost non-existent" and the visitors asked why more was not being done to tackle the drugs problem.
The number of prisoners using mobile phones was "widespread and growing", it added. "Unless there is an effective preventative blanket introduced to curb the use of mobile phones, the situation is likely to get worse and the possible implications for security, drugs usage and bullying are very worrying," the report said. "Surely it is time to introduce effective jamming of mobile phones' use in all prisons?"
Surely.
Last month Chief Inspector of Prisons Anne Owers raised concerns about staff attitudes to inmates at Wandsworth, reporting twice the average claims of staff victimisation.
It's not entirely clear to me how staff attitudes towards their 'victimisers' should be concerning, but then I'm not England's Chief Inspector of Prisons.
A Prison Service spokeswoman said: "Any signs of radicalisation at the prison are firmly dealt with by a pro-active chaplaincy team. "The recent Eid meal at Wandsworth was attended by 240 prisoners, representing virtually every Muslim prisoner and a number of non-Muslims, during which the imam was personally praised." She added: "Wandsworth has a good record on both mobile phone and drug finds."
#1
OT : Daily Mail headline writer doesn't know the diffo between an imam and an Iman
I've seen "iman" used in place of imam several times before, both in english or in french, I think that might be an alternate latin spelling, not sure at all.
attendance at religious services had increased because inmates were using them as venues for drug dealing and trading in illegal mobile phones.
You don't say!
#3
Sounds like they've lost control. I would suggest putting the rival Muzzies into a pen and let them fight to the death. They love martyrdom and anything that reduces Muzzie headcount is a plus to the world community.
#6
Toss the entire place cell-by-cell with drug dogs, metal detectors and, in light of recent developments, deep cavity searches. Use huff-duff to pinpoint all further cell phone emissions and reward said users with prolonged solitary confinement. That is, if the Euros haven't already banned that for being too inhumane.
ROSTOV-ON-DON: Suspected rebels in Russia's war-shattered province of Chechnya killed a police official and two other people in a drive-by shooting Sunday, police officials said. The incident took place in the Kurchaloi district in eastern Chechnya, when the assailants opened fire on a car carrying the member of Chechnya's elite police unit and two passengers, a man and a woman, the regional Interior Ministry said. The attackers escaped and were being searched for, the ministry said.
Posted by: Fred ||
11/20/2006 00:00 ||
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#1
Totalitarian rule arises out of peoples' willingness to accept subservience in return for relief from anarchic violence. Those who would be king understand this and create the very chaos they would then be empowered to stop.
Rabiyah Hutchison, the Sydney mother of two men arrested in Yemen on terrorism-related charges, has been refused permission to travel to the country to be with her sons. The former wife of accused Indonesian terror leader Abdul Rahim Ayub applied for a special travel document on humanitarian grounds to go to Yemen to support her sons Mohammed, 20, and Abdullah, 18. Her passport had previously been confiscated on the advice of the peak spy agency ASIO. The Australian has been told her recent request to travel to Yemen has been rejected.
All applications for Australian travel documents are decided by the Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade. However, a spokesman for DFAT declined to comment yesterday on privacy grounds. And Ms Hutchison's lawyer, Peter Erman, refused yesterday to take calls from the media about his client.
Mohammed and Abdullah Ayub were arrested last month along with another Sydney man, Marek Samulski, after being accused of involvement in an international terrorist plot to smuggle arms into the east African country of Somalia. The three men are held in a Yemeni prison, but have not been charged with any offence.
Australian counter-terrorism police who flew to Yemen to visit the trio have reported that the men are not suspected of committing any crimes in Yemen or Australia. Mr Samulski's lawyer, Stephen Hopper, told The Australian he was preparing a report for Foreign Minister Alexander Downer in an effort to convince the Howard Government to push for the trio's release. Mr Hopper said his advice from lawyers in Yemen was that the detention of the men could breach Yemen's constitution. "If it's not constitutional it would be an arbitrary detention, and our Government would have a right to intervene and ask for our citizens to be released," Mr Hopper said.
Ms Hutchison, born at Mudgee in central NSW, went to Indonesia in the early 1980s. After a brief marriage to an Indonesian she met in Bali, she converted to Islam and married Abdul Rahim Ayub, a follower of Jemaah Islamiah's spiritual leader Abu Bakar Bashir. They returned to Australia to live after Ayub was allegedly given the mission of setting up JI's first Australia's terror cell, known as Mantiqi 4.
After splitting from Ayub in the mid-1990s, Ms Hutchison took her sons Mohammed and Abdullah to Afghanistan. She spent two years there from 2000 to 2001 and met and married a member of Osama bin Laden's inner circle, the Egyptian-born Mustafa Hamid or Abu al Walid al-Masri. Hamid was then a senior member of al-Qaeda and worked closely with bin Laden, but later split with him over ideological differences. Although he was a senior member of al-Qaeda, he was never involved in the group's operational aspects.
Ms Hutchison, the mother of six children, has strongly denied associating with terrorists while she was in Afghanistan. She fled the country after the September 11, 2001, attacks on the US, and went to Pakistan and then Iran, where she was detained and questioned for weeks by ASIO agents. She has since returned to Sydney and is living at Lakemba, in the city's southwest. Ms Hutchinson has told friends ASIO has had her under 24-hour surveillance since she returned to Australia. In fear for her life and that of her family, she has told friends she sent her children to Yemen where she hoped they could study in safety.
A STUDENT accused of a violent attack on a police van during the G20 summit was on bail for drug offences at the time, a court has heard. Former taxi driver Akin Sari, 28, told police he is a Turkish-born Australian citizen but investigators are yet to confirm his claim.
Mr Sari, of no fixed address, was initially charged with criminal damage and theft of a police log book, but now also faces more serious offences of affray and riot. He allegedly told police he had been arrested many times overseas but could not be deported from Australia, describing our laws as "pathetic" and branding police "uniformed peasant pigs".
Sounds like a challenge.
Police opposed his bail application at Melbourne Magistrates' Court, saying he was a risk of fleeing because he had no family or ties in Australia, they could not confirm his nationality and he has plans to travel to Asia for 12 weeks from Wednesday. The court heard Mr Sari, who is already on bail for using and possessing cannabis and giving a false name, is suffering from schizophrenia and bipolar disorder but is not taking medication.
I think the proper solution just presented itself.
VICTORIA Police chief Christine Nixon said the level of violence during the G20 demonstrations in Melbourne exceeded all expectations. Ms Nixon said nine officers were injured and seven people arrested during the mass rally with more arrests expected over the coming days. "It was one of the most violent protests we have seen in Victoria in the last six years," Chief Commissioner Nixon told ABC Radio. "The level of violence that we saw was not anticipated, we understood it was to be a peaceful protest.
"We knew there was a fringe element but some of the violence ... and some of the emotion behind that, was above what we imagined."
Ms Nixon said police had been watching a number of known agitators who had flown into Melbourne for the demonstration but were unable to take action against them until they were seen to have broken the law.
Foreign nationals, known agitators, fly into the country for the express purpose of disrupting a conference, and you didn't stop them at the airport gates?
She said the first priority of the police patrol was to protect the G20 conference and make sure people could not get through the barriers. "The key issue was not letting the demonstrators through into the G20 and that's clearly what happened, they were really only at the outer barriers so we did the job we were asked to do," she said.
A secondary issue, but thoroughly useful, would be to thump the agitators clean and hard.
Ms Nixon said police were hindered by the location of the summit and make-up of protesters which included a large number of families.
"Let's go, granny, it's off to the hoose-gow wityas!"
Protest organiser Marcus Greville said the media focus on violent incidences during the rally was disappointing. On ABC Radio today, Mr Greville refused to condemn the violence.
Except for the riot part.
"The rally we organised was non-violent. I'm disappointed these people decided to embark on these things, but I don't think it should be detracting from the key reasons we were out there," he said. "(But) I'm not prepared to outright condemn the violence," he said.
"No, no, certainly not!"
Earlier reports said 10 police officers were injured during the protest on Saturday.
#5
Pathetic laws, eh? These would be the pathetic laws that keep the police from beating the crap out of you and leaving your dead carcass in a dumpster.
The "we are non-violent, but I refuse to condemn violence" bit is amusing but somewhat contradictory. To condemn violence is to take a moral position and we all know how yucky and judgemental that is. Ghandi should come back and kick their protesting asses.
#6
Coat this ass with pig blood then drop him in the water around the Barrier Reef. The feeding frenzy would last around 45-60 seconds. Problem resolved.
#7
Another bi-polar thingy. I gots to figure out a way to use that excuse before, well, before everyone else has. Gots to keep up with the anarchists Joneses.
#8
Coat this ass with pig blood then drop him in the water around the Barrier Reef. The feeding frenzy would last around 45-60 seconds.
So you're expecting just the jellyfish and snakes to show up?
Posted by: Rob Crawford ||
11/20/2006 12:26 Comments ||
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#9
Trying to get my head around the concept of the anarchists all showing up at the same time....its almost as if they had some sort of organization. oxymoron detector keeps cutting out....
#10
What the world needs is a counter-anarchist group to go to these "meetings" and beat the crap out of the anarchists. I believe the fun would end about the third time this happened. Something like this happened when the group met at the Broadmoor here in Colorado Springs (the only five-star hotel in the region). A group of folks decided they'd riot, until they saw about 400 heavily-muscled guys with short clubs that the Broadmoor had hired to "keep the piece". That's spelled correctly. The Broadmoor wasn't going to let any group of unwashed mess up THEIR venue! Seems to have worked.
Posted by: Old Patriot ||
11/20/2006 14:42 Comments ||
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The Federal Prosecutor's Office in Karlsruhe said in a statement that suspects had already convinced an airport employee with security access to smuggle a suitcase full of explosives onto a passenger plane. Prosecutors have questioned six suspects about the bomb plot. "With the exception of one suspect who is in prison for another offence, the other suspects were released on Saturday," the statement said.
Police also searched nine houses in the western German states of Rhineland-Palatinate and Hesse over the weekend.
According to the prosecutor's office, the suspects had made contact several times with members of an unknown group without coming to an agreement on the size of the fee for smuggling the suitcase. The prosecutor's office gave no details about the nationality of the suspects, nor would they reveal the planned timing of the attack. In summer, Germany hosted the soccer World Cup, during which police were on high alert because of fears of terrorist attacks.
The German government on Monday said it would not increase its security warning in light of the new investigation. "We always have to count on there being groups of people who are considering real plans," an interior ministry spokesperson said in Berlin.
An Islamic radical accused of playing a key role in the Madrid train bombings was extradited from Italy to Spain on Friday. Rabei Osman Sayed Ahmed, a 35-year-old Egyptian who has been of terrorism offences in Italy, is described by Spanish investigators as one of the organizers of the 2004 bombings that killed 191 people and wounded more than 1,700 people. Ahmed was arrested in Italy in June 2004. Last week, a Milan court found him guilty of subversive association aimed at international terrorism and sentenced him to 10 years in jail. The trial in the Madrid bombings is expected to begin in February. Ahmed is one of 29 people who will stand trial.
Black Helicopters? Pshaw... Wait'll the Zoomers get a load o' this...
They've become a fixture in the skies over Iraq and Afghanistan, a new breed of unmanned aircraft operated with remote controls by "pilots" sitting in virtual cockpits many miles away.
But the Air Force's Global Hawk has never flown a mission over the United States.
That is set to change Monday, when the first Global Hawk is scheduled to land at Beale Air Force Base in northern California.
"This landmark flight has historic implications since it's the first time a Global Hawk has not only flown from Beale, but anywhere in the United States on an official Air Combat Command mission," base spokesman Capt. Michael Andrews said in a statement.
Beale-based pilots are flying the drones daily on combat missions in the Middle East, Andrews said. The planes are operated by four-person crews from virtual cockpits the size of shipping containers.
The planes are designed to fly at high altitudes for 40 hour-missions covering as much as 10,000 miles, mostly providing aerial surveillance. The aircraft, which can cost more than $80 million each, can reach an altitude of 65,000 feet and send back high-resolution imagery.
The Hawks are among a growing fleet of unmanned aircraft that also includes the missile-carrying Predators and five-pound Ravens that are small enough to be carried in soldiers' backpacks.
Beale is to have seven Global Hawks by 2009. It is currently the only U.S. base with the drones. Eventually the Air Force's fleet will include 54 of the Global Hawks, but most will be based overseas.
#1
This is the beginning of the end to manned military flights. It won't be but another 20 years and everything except troop transport will be unmanned. I see this as a good thing. I wonder if the stick jockeys at Beal get flight pay?
Posted by: 49 Pan ||
11/20/2006 13:43 Comments ||
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#2
Have them orbit over San Francisco. 24 hours a day. And make sure everybody sees them.
#4
wait for the paranoid to latch onto the last sentence..."but most will be based overseas." not knowing HOW many or WHERE they will be deployed will drive them stark raving mad (der?).....HAHAHAHHA
#7
Throger Thains8048, yes, you probably could, but you couldn't perform the mission. C-182's would have a problem trying to get to 65,000 feet and it is very doubtful that the C-182 would survive very long in hostile airspace. Global Hawk is replacing the U-2 and TR-1 not Guardrail. Now there is considerable discussion about whether it might be cheaper to convert the existing U-2 fleet to UAVs than to bring on Global Hawk, but that sort of thing is normal. Big boy toys cost big bucks.
#8
I hope they're flying border-surveillance flights. I recommended this to the military some three years ago. We used to cover the trails and road systems in Southeast Asia with RF-4Cs and earlier aircraft. The Global Hawk and other recce drones are far better, have greater capability, and near-instantaneous datalink. It would go a long way toward sealing our southern border from infiltration, as well as helping us establish the links within the US. I wonder if my former boss, Colonel Bill, is running this show...
Posted by: Old Patriot ||
11/20/2006 14:46 Comments ||
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#10
OP: As a reality check, until we get rid of the catch and release(tm), it actually won't protect our border. We'll just have video of them sneaking across.
Now, if they're outfitted with hellfire missiles, that's a different ballgame......
Posted by: BA ||
11/20/2006 14:54 Comments ||
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#11
I've allways advocated Police Apache Helicopters to deal with car crime.
would make "police Stop" type shows more interesting.
#12
They could probably put 20 C-182's (including sensor package) with pilot & observer for what one of these things will cost
True but they would need 20 C-182s to do what one Global Hawk could do. Too many major differences to list. 340 kts vs. 140 kts. 12,000 nm range to 1000 nm range. 65,000 ft. ceiling (above GA aircraft) vs. 18,000 ft. ceiling. etc. etc. etc. Not to mention payload. A 182 could only handle a portion of the surveillance equipment not to mention the ordnance.
#14
I am 100 percent against unmaned combat aircraft.
If we develope it, someone will steal it and then, their combat aircraft will be equal to ours.
Let's keep the pilots working, and keep the robots slow and dumb.
#15
wxjames, the problem isn't building the control package, it is building the aircraft. Lockheed built a remote control / automatic version of the Raptor to demonstrate what could be done with robotics and remote control. Countries that can build Playstation 3's can make drones. However, designing and building state of the art fighter aircraft is a little tougher. When all is said and done, the avionics are the key to air supremacy.
#18
#6: Don't these work better than tinfoil hats?
They are certainly more durable, and you can hold onto them better when there is a strong wind so you're not as apt to lose it and go completely unprotected. However some radiation can get through the holes . . .
KOLKATA, India (Rooters) - At least five people were killed and 70 wounded when a powerful explosion believed to have been caused by a bomb ripped through a train in eastern India, police said.
The blast hit two crowded coaches near a remote railway station in West Bengal state, about 665 km (415 miles) north of state capital Kolkata, Raj Kanojia, a top police officer, told Reuters. "It seems to be a powerful bomb and the casualties could mount in the next few hours," Kanojia said.
The blast took place around 6.10 p.m. (1240 GMT) when the train stopped at Belakoba station on its way to the tourist town of New Jalpaiguri. Police and emergency workers were rushed to the area and hundreds of panic-stricken passengers were being evacuated. "Some of the injuries are quite serious," Suresh Bhowmik, head of Jalpaiguri's district hospital, said by phone. "We are calling for reinforcements."
Rescuers were evacuating the injured in the dark and television pictures showed local villagers giving them a hand. Dozens of injured passengers were crying for help when police reached the train, witnesses said.
Police said they had no clues yet about who may have been behind the blast, but added that anti-India rebels from the neighboring state of Assam and a local insurgent group, the Kamtapur Liberation Organisation, were known to have a presence in the area.
SRINAGAR, India - Unidentified militants shot and killed two men in a village in the Indian-controlled portion of Kashmir, police said on Sunday.
A group of unidentified assailants barged into the home of a local political party worker in Chak Nathnusa village and shot and killed him Saturday night, said Vijay Kumar, a senior superintendent of police in Kupwara district. The assailants then forced their way into the nearby home of another man and killed him as well, Kumar said, adding that the twin killings appeared to have been carried out by the same group of militants.
Brilliant, superintendent, simply brilliant.
Posted by: Steve White ||
11/20/2006 00:00 ||
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Unidentified assailants open-fired at a police station in the Dera Murad Jamali district between Saturday night and Sunday morning, in an attack that left one assailant dead and one police officer wounded, police said on Sunday. ĀPolice returned fire when the assailants attacked the police station. One of the attackers was killed while a police constable, Inayatullah was injured seriously,Ā said police official Abdul Hameed Khosa, adding that the identity of the dead man had yet to be confirmed. He said that between five and seven militants staged a raid on the Baba Kot police station at around 1.30 am, before opening indiscriminate fire.
Posted by: Fred ||
11/20/2006 00:00 ||
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#1
If Musharaf wasn't playing both sides, he would use Balochis - who are fed up with phony refugees from Afghanistan - to raise hell with al-Qaeda madrasas. In fact, he sat by while corrupt officials allowed the aliens to register to vote. Result: Musharaf's favored Pakistan Muslim League (Qaid e Azam) shares power with the MMA in Balochistan. He could have prevented it, but wanted to share power with the terrorists. Musharaf also did nothing when the Balochi (and North West Frontier) assemblies stood in commemorative silence after the Pakistan-American who murdered 2 CIA agents was executed in the US.
Reminder: nation-building is one option; nation-destruction is another.
RAZMAK: Militants killed a pro-government religious leader in North Waziristan on Sunday for allegedly spying for US-led coalition forces. Maulana Muhammad HashimĀs body was found on a road in Fateh Muhammad Kot on Sunday. A note found near HashimĀs body said that anyone spying for the US would be killed. Hashim belonged to Paktia and was a friend of Maulana Salahuddin who was murdered a few days ago on the same charge. The Razmak assistant political agent said that it was not known whether Hashim had been killed on the Afghan side of the border or the Pakistani side.
Posted by: Fred ||
11/20/2006 00:00 ||
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BAGHDAD (AP) Ā Coalition forces conducted a raid Monday in Sadr City, the stronghold of a Shiite militia suspected of having kidnapped scores of civilians. Iraqi forces searched and damaged a mosque during the operation Monday, but made no arrests, the U.S. military said.
The Iraqi forces, acting with the assistance of U.S. military advisers, also destroyed a vehicle near the mosque that was posing a threat to the ground forces, the coalition said.
Iraqi and U.S. forces suffered no casualties.
In Sadr City, an official at the main office of Shiite cleric Muqtada al-Sadr said several homes were searched and three Iraqis arrested during the 3 a.m. raid but that no clashes or casualties resulted.
The military said Monday's operation was called in the large Shiite slum of eastern Baghdad to search for a cell of more than 30 Iraqis who are "responsible for kidnapping, torturing and murdering Iraqi civilians and soldiers," the military said. It said the cell allegedly used the mosque compound as a place to conduct such crimes and store weapons. The mosque was only slightly damaged during the raid, the coalition said in a statement.
On Saturday, Iraqi soldiers backed by U.S. helicopters swept into Sadr City after intelligence indicated that an armed group was holding some of the scores of Iraqis who were snatched from a Higher Education Ministry office building in Baghdad last week. The Americans said the raid was conducted to rescue captives and disrupt kidnapping and insurgent cells. Three Iraqis were reportedly wounded but no hostages were found.
On Nov. 14, gunmen dressed in Interior Ministry commando uniforms abducted about 150 men from the central Baghdad office that handles academic grants and exchanges. The men were handcuffed and driven away in about 20 pickup trucks. About half were released that night and the next day, a government minister said. A Sunni who said he was among the freed hostages claimed the kidnappers broke his arm. He said he saw them kill at least three hostages after taking them to empty houses in Sadr City.
A rogue cell from the Mahdi Army militia also is suspected of having captured an Iraqi-American soldier last month. Ahmed Qusai al-Taayie, a 41-year-old reserve soldier from Ann Arbor, Mich., was visiting his Iraqi wife in Baghdad on Oct. 23 when gunmen handcuffed him and took him away.
#2
As al-QaedaĀs fighters tightened their grip on Ramadi, they became increasingly repressive and challenged the tribal leadersĀ power. Soon they were kidnapping and beheading innocent people as part of a campaign of extortion and intimidation.
Some sheikhs fled to Jordan and Syria. Sheikh SittarĀs father and three brothers were killed, his father during the holy month of Ramadan, and he says he has himself survived several kidnap attempts. This summer a fellow sheikh was ambushed and beheaded by al-Qaeda supporters, who piled insult on injury by keeping his body so it could not be buried immediately, as demanded by custom.
ĀWe began to see what they were actually doing in Anbar province. They were not respecting us or honouring us in any way, said Sheikh Sittar, speaking through an interpreter.Ā Their tactics were not acceptable.Ā
During the late summer he began enlisting his fellow sheikhs in a movement called the Sahawat or Awakening, whose goal is to drive al-Qaeda from Anbar province.
The US military wooed the sheikhs over what one US officer described as Āhundreds of cups of chai and thousands of cigarettesĀ. They agreed that their chosen instrument should be the police force, which was practically defunct thanks to al-Qaeda death threats against anyone who dared to sign up. In June there were only 35 recruits; in July Sheikh Sittar sent 300 members of his 30,000-strong Resha tribe for training.
Last month a record 409 new recruits were dispatched to the police academy in Jordan, and 1,300 are now signed up, many of them former Baathists. The US and Iraqi armies have armed and protected them against al-Qaeda attacks, and as fear of al-Qaeda has dissipated, so the process has accelerated.
The beauty of the police is that they serve Ā unlike the Iraqi army Ā in their own communities. They know exactly who the enemies are. ĀThe Iraqi police are absolutely the most potent weapon we have right now because they are of the people, by the people and for the people,Ā says Colonel MacFarland.
ĀInstead of being afraid of al-Qaeda, now al-Qaeda is afraid of the police. ItĀs going underground, moving out, and the folks who were sitting on the fence are now coming on our side.Ā
Inside the heavily fortified Abu Faraj police station, just north of Ramadi, the recruits all said that they had been too frightened to join before. ĀRight now almost all the tribes are fighting the terrorists Ā the women, the children and even the dogs are fighting them,Ā said Major Saidey Saleh, the station commander and former Saddam army officer who bears the scars of four al-Qaeda bullet wounds in his right thigh. At the same time Colonel MacFarland, who arrived in Ramadi fresh from pacifying the much smaller town of TallĀAfar near the Syrian border, has abandoned his predecessorĀs policy of merely surrounding the city. He has instead adopted an aggressive ĀinkblotĀ strategy of seizing and securing key points within it then radiating outwards.
Helped by the flood of new recruits he has already established a chain of 19 COPs and police stations designed to curtail the terroristsĀ freedom of movement within Ramadi. Previously, he said, the US military ĀcontrolledĀ just one road into the city and had to fight its way up and down that.
Colonel MacFarland and his officers say that they are already seeing dividends. They claim to have killed 750 terrorists since June, that the number of foreign fighters has fallen from more than 1,000 to the Ālow hundredsĀ and that US and Iraqi forces now control 70 per cent of the city.
They recently found the graves of 200 foreign fighters in a former park. When they recaptured RamadiĀs general hospital they found it occupied by only four wounded insurgents.
They say that the number of attacks has fallen from 20 to 15 a day, that the number of IEDs has fallen from about ten a day to three and that al-Qaeda can no longer stage mass attacks on Iraqi police or army posts. The US installed a mayor last week whose brief is to get RamadiĀs administration back up and running.
Colonel MacFarland estimates that 70 per cent of RamadiĀs population now openly backs the security forces, and says that his priority is to get the telephones working so that people can provide tips about weapons caches without fear of reprisals.
He predicts that by some time next year the Iraqi security forces will be able to take over from the US military and Ādominate the security environment in RamadiĀ.
#3
Colonel MacFarland estimates that 70 per cent of RamadiĀs population now openly backs the security forces, and says that his priority is to get the telephones working so that people can provide tips about weapons caches without fear of reprisals.
This was kicked around at RB a little while back. Seems AQ intentionally closes venues for anonymous tips to police. Hmm. Hit them where it hurts!
Posted by: Rob Crawford ||
11/20/2006 7:38 Comments ||
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#5
On CentCom press releases this morning:
RAMADI, Iraq - Coalition Forces were engaged at several locations Sunday in southern Ramadi by a group of insurgents with small-arms fire.
The insurgents took refuge in a nearby building and continued to engage Coalition Forces. After establishing positive identification and in an effort to avoid endangering civilians, Coalition Forces conducted an air strike against the insurgents using a laser-guided missile, killing one insurgent.
Three insurgents fled the building and were engaged by Coalition Forces, resulting in the death of another insurgent.
There were no reports of civilian casualties as a result of the events, and there were no Coalition casualties.
A series of bombings around Iraq killed 27 people and wounded 50 on Sunday, bringing the day's death toll to 49 after an early morning suicide attack in the south of the country killed 22 and wounded more than 40.
Posted by: Fred ||
11/20/2006 00:00 ||
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Gunmen kidnapped Iraq's deputy health minister from his home in northern Baghdad on Sunday, an Iraqi army officer and ministry official said. The gunmen arrived in seven vehicles to grab Ammar al-Saffar, a Shiite, from his home near the Sunni neighborhood of Azamiyah, said the army officer. He spoke on condition of anonymity because he was not authorized to release the information. Al-Saffar is one of several deputies to Health Minister Ali al-Shamari. The kidnapped official is a member of Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki Dawa Party and the first senior official from the ministry to be kidnapped, said Hakem al-Zamily a fellow deputy health minister.
Posted by: Fred ||
11/20/2006 00:00 ||
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#1
Why don't these guys live in the Green Zone or have security or something?
A suicide attacker on Sunday detonated his explosives belt at a Kurdish funeral in Kirkuk, a northern Iraqi city, killing at least three people and wounding 17, police said.
The attack occurred shortly after sunset as people gathered to pay condolences to the family of a Kurdish man who was shot dead late Saturday, said Brig. Gen. Sarhad Qader. The attack occurred in the in Kirkuk's southern Orouba neighborhood. Kirkuk's population is a mix of Kurds, Arabs and ethnic Turkmen. Hundreds have been killed in sectarian and ethnic fighting in the past three years.
Posted by: Fred ||
11/20/2006 00:00 ||
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Iraqi forces searching for four Americans and an Austrian who were kidnapped in southern Iraq detained about 200 suspected insurgents, police said Sunday. Police carrying machine guns and wearing fatigues and black face masks showed off their suspects Sunday by inviting the media to a police station where their prisoners were blindfolded and forced to sit on the ground outside. One of the suspects was a disabled man who had lost both legs at the knee and was sitting in a wheelchair.
Police Maj. Gen. Ali al-Moussawi said the men were detained late Saturday night by Iraqi soldiers who raided several areas north of Basra, the city that is 550 kilometers (340 miles) southeast of Baghdad. Basra is where most of the 7,200 British soldiers in Iraq are based. Al-Moussawi said none of the hostages had been found during the raids.
Posted by: Fred ||
11/20/2006 00:00 ||
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According to a report by British newspaper The Sunday Times, Prime Minister Ehud Olmert instructed the heads of the defense establishment to target members of the Hamas leadership - a decision made on the background of the fatal Qassam rocket that landed Wednesday in Sderot killing Fatima Slotzker and robbing one of Peretz's bodyguards of his legs. Israeli security sources apparently reported to the newspaper that the decision was made in cooperation with Defense Minister Amir Peretz.
I still don't think Olmert's got the cojones to go through with it. Netanyahu would, and Liberman certainly would, but Olmert is Son of Peres.
The latest attacks this weekend on Israel's south marked the 1000th rocket fired into Israel since the beginning of 2006, according to figures from the Yesha Council's rescue center. On Sunday morning a man was moderately-to-seriously injured by a Qassam rocket that landed in the southern city of Sderot. Six rockets have been fired at the city since Saturday night, police said, adding that two people were lightly injured in the latest attack. According to The Sunday Times report, after the incident last Wednesday, Israel decided in a desperate attempt to stop the Qassam rockets, not to allow Hamas political leadership in the Gaza Strip, the West Bank, and abroad to "escape responsibility" any longer, the newspaper writes.
The Sunday Times reported that Peretz was the one who advocated the change in tactics against Hamas. According to the report, the defense minister broke out in tears when he heard that one of his bodyguards was seriously wounded by rocket shrapnel and that his legs were amputated. The young man was injured while guarding Peretz's house in Sderot.
So it takes having someone you know maimed, rather than just the general run of the Great Unwashed?
Since the IDF completed its withdrawal from the Gaza Strip during the disengagement, Israel has avoided physically hurting the political leadership of Hamas, and instead focused on targeting only those active in the military wing of the organization. However, the Israelis moves have yet to stop the rockets.
The Paleos complain they don't have the money to pay salaries, but somehow they can afford 1000 rockets and tons of explosives.
Saturday, Deputy Prime Minister Avigdor Lieberman said that Hamas leaders "have to disappear, go to paradise, all of them."
Preferably in a herd -- all in an afternoon, maybe.
In an interview with Voice of Israel, the minister explained: " There is no point in targeting refugee camps and Beit Hanoun and all such places. For those people, who live on ten shekels a day, there is nothing to lose. When they are killed, they recruit themselves gladly. We have to focus on those who have something to lose - the leaders of Hamas and the Islamic Jihad.?
The British newspaper mentioned Shin Bet Chief Yuval Diskin's comments that he made last week in the Knesset Foreign Affairs and Defense Committee. "The Gaza Strip is about to turn into the biggest terrorist compound on earth. We have no choice but to consider a massive military operation there," Diskin said. Diskin recommended trying to strengthen Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas, because he is widely viewed as a moderate and an antidote to the increasingly rampant extremism amongst Palestinians.
I agree with Lieberman: Abbas is a nonentity, as will be any Fatah "leader." Yasser never allowed any real leaders to contest his grip on power.
The IDF has been operating in the Gaza Strip since Friday night with the objective of stopping Qassam rocket fire into Israel, however, the IDF emphasized that this is not a return operation, but deployment within Palestinian territory in order to identify terrorists and Qassam cells and to strike at them. Two armed Palestinians were killed Saturday during an operation in Beit Lahiya
But they're cannon fodder...
Sderot Mayor Eli Moyal is slated to meet Prime Minister Ehud Olmert, Defense Minister Amir Peretz, and Education Minister Yuli Tamir on Sunday. Moyal said, "I assume that the situation of Sderot is known to all the officials and I understand that the meeting was called following the recent events."
#1
dhimmi carter is not going to be happy about this. If the Israeli's had even an ounce of decency and common sense they'd follow carter's demonstrated success at pacifying aggressors.
Here's the formula. 1) Pay them off. 2) Admit America's or Israel's total and complete responsibility for the hostilities. 3) If at all possible place American or Israeli interests in jeopardy or outright danger. 4) Make advanced reservations to accept nobel peace prize.
#2
If Olmert and Peretz stay in power, Israel is doomed. That sounds kind of strong, but look at the picture:
1. Gaza is a terrorist stronghold again after an Israeli withdrawl.
2. Egypt is actively or tacitly aiding the effort of terrorists.
3. The situation in Lebanon is becoming the same or worse as before the last conflict.
4. French forces are enabling a Hizb'Allah buildup in Lebanon.
It is important to see what is happening to the Israelis now, because THAT will happen to the US, if we continue our trend.
I hope that the Israelis throw out Olmert and Co soon, or the IDF does, or Israel will disappear. Ultimately, it is up to the Israelis to decide their fate. This is not Lucy, Charlie Brown, and the football any more. It is for keeps.
Posted by: Alaska Paul ||
11/20/2006 11:16 Comments ||
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#3
Good points, AP.
So when are the next Israeli elections?
What do Israeli polls say - is Olmert as unpopular there as he is here - or is the scapegoating thingy working?
Is anyone showing sufficient strength to challenge Olmert?
#4
Israel has avoided physically hurting the political leadership of Hamas, and instead focused on targeting only those active in the military wing of the organization.
Here's a hint: there's no difference between the "political" and the "military" wings. In fact, anyone who admits to being a member of Hamas is fair game.
Posted by: Rob Crawford ||
11/20/2006 12:24 Comments ||
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#5
Saturday, Deputy Prime Minister Avigdor Lieberman said that Hamas leaders "have to disappear, go to paradise, all of them." ... We have to focus on those who have something to lose - the leaders of Hamas and the Islamic Jihad.
These would be very encouraging words if it weren't for Olmert being in charge. His inertia has allowed for the enemy's formation of a perfect storm. The only thing missing is Iran's possesion of functional nuclear devices. As always, Arab terrorists will, nay, must overreach themselves and strike while the iron is cold. Otherwise, I'd be wagering on the Sampson Option right now.
#9
Israel is being boxed in. With new weaponry that was developed over the last 20 years, the margin for error is becoming zero. A major dirty weapon (NBC)can seriously contaminate parts of Israel that would be a nightmare to clean up. The only way that Israel can protect herself is to go on the offensive and preemptively eliminate or neutralize the threats. Under Olmert, this is not happening. The Islamists are stupid enough to push the buttons until some real heavy sh*t happens, then everyone loses.
The fiasco of the last war with Hamas in Lebanon was a disaster for Israel. I hope that Israel does what she has to do to survive the next one. The Islamists can smell fear and they are going to attack again in the near future.
Posted by: Alaska Paul ||
11/20/2006 21:41 Comments ||
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#10
The last sentence should be:
The Islamists can smell fearweakness and they are going to attack again in the near future.
Posted by: Alaska Paul ||
11/20/2006 21:43 Comments ||
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#11
The Islamists are stupid enough to push the buttons until some real heavy sh*t happens, then everyone loses.
AP, I trust this is your equivalent of my own observation that Islam can will no more prevent its radicals from committing some jaw-dropping atrocity than it can make rivers run uphill. The jihadists simply cannot resist ratcheting up the number of innocents killed until it reaches a point where nuclear retaliation is the only appropriate response.
Hours after the IDF cancelled a missile strike on a home in the Gaza Strip which was surrounded by a Palestinian human shield, IAF aircraft bombed a car carrying terrorists in Gaza City Sunday afternoon wounding nine people including two heads of Hamas's Kassam rocket infrastructure. Palestinian hospital officials said four of the nine wounded were teenagers, including a 13-year-old, who were hurt by shrapnel. According to the IDF, one of the Hamas terrorists in the car was a senior member of the terror group, responsible for the manufacturing of Kassam rockets.
Also Sunday, 11 Kassam rockets pounded the western Negev, mostly landing in Sderot and seriously wounding one resident. Last week, one woman was killed and two others were seriously wounded in a Kassam barrage on the southern town.
The IAF missile strike followed an announcement by Attallah Khairi, the Palestinian Ambassador to Jordan, who said that Fatah's Badr Brigade was making final preparations to enter Gaza, following the IDF shelling in Beit Hanun that resulted in the accidental deaths of 19 Palestinian civilians. Israel has yet to give its final consend to allow the 1,500 soldiers enter into Gaza but Khaii said he was hopeful they would arrive by the end of the year.
Meanwhile Sunday, the IDF rejected United Nations claims that stray Israeli gunfire had hit a UN school in the northern Gaza Strip, wounding two children, including a 7-year-old boy who was hit in the head as he sat at his desk. The UN Relief and Works Agency appealed for protection of civilians in the Gaza Strip after Saturday's shooting. "At present, children are not safe even in United Nations classrooms. We urgently need a solution," said John Ging, the agency's Gaza field director. The military said there was no army activity in the area The spokesman's office said a thorough investigation showed there was no Israeli gunfire in that area. The IDF said it was possible the building was struck by Palestinian gunfire.
Posted by: Fred ||
11/20/2006 00:00 ||
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#1
We urgently need a solution,
And I'm sure you'd be happy with a Final Solution for the Jooooooos.
The UN is the enemy, and any killed advances the cause of liberty and decency.
SUNGAI KOLOK, Thailand (Rooters) - A bomb hidden in a motorcycle killed a soldier and a civilian and wounded 16 others on Monday in a restive southern Thai town popular with Malaysian tourists, police said.
Police and witnesses said the bomb, near a hotel and train station in Sungai Kolok, was detonated by a signal from a mobile telephone -- a favored tactic of local Muslim militants.
"I saw a large pool of blood next to the damaged motorcycle where the bomb was hidden, and a circuit of a mobile phone," said a Reuters reporter.
Witnesses said the blast killed a Buddhist soldier and a Muslim laborer in the town, popular with Malaysian men for sex tourism. Other soldiers and passers-by were wounded.
Police later detained three Muslims for questioning after witnesses said they had fled the scene.
The blast follows a third visit to the region by new Prime Minister Surayud Chulanont, who has sought to reverse the iron-fist policies of his ousted predecessor, Thaksin Shinawatra, in a bid to pacify the Malay-speaking Muslim south.
Sungai Kolok, which borders Malaysia, has seen a series of deadly bombings in almost three years of separatist Muslim insurgency against the predominantly Buddhist central government.
More than 1,800 people have died in the violence, which analysts blame on a complex mixture of Muslim insurgency, organized crime and official corruption.
JAKARTA - Indonesian police said Monday they had received information a suicide bomber could be planning an attack during US President George W. BushĀs visit, triggering a thorough search of the venue.
Bogor region Police Chief Sukrawardi Dahlan confirmed authorities had received an unconfirmed report that a bomber could be planning to blow himself up near the meeting venue in Bogor, a resort town just south of here. ĀSince yesterday, we did conduct combing (operations) to anticipate the possibility that they throw bombs or use that kind of (suicide) bomb,Ā Dahlan told reporters, without saying where the information came from.
Dahlan said police had consulted the field coordinators of planned protests in Bogor, so that they can remain alert Āagainst people who carry suspicious-looking bags or vestsĀ.
Bush is making a brief trip of some six hours to Indonesia, most of which is to be spent at the summer palace in Bogor. His visit to the worldĀs biggest Muslim nation has triggered daily demonstrations, led by militant organisations and students angry over the US-led war in Iraq and its presence in Afghanistan.
During a mass rally in Jakarta on Sunday, the head of the militant Front for the Defender of Islam, Habib Rizieq, called on Muslims to kill Bush if they had the chance to do so. ĀHis blood is halal (permitted under Islam) to be shed. Not only is it halal, but it is obligatory to kill him,Ā Rizieq told thousands of cheering demonstrators.
#1
And what the hell is the President doing visiting Indonesia? What would the purpose of the visit be, except for a security nightmare for the Secret Service?
Posted by: Alaska Paul ||
11/20/2006 11:21 Comments ||
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#3
It's impossible to think that Bush is so thoroughly deluded whereby he believes that everything is all hunky-dory in the heart of enemy territory ... Even if he does act that way. I can only hope he's dropping by to read Yudhoyono the riot act in person. Little else makes sense.
#4
He's visiting a dark ugly region of known non-accountability and frequent mob lynchings. Go see the graphic details at Atlas.
So what if the police there talkes measures for VIPs? Not necessarily for the common ppl. Bloody mob savagery prone country of persistent non-accountabilty.
Given the recent changes here on the Burg, here's a run-down of our current moderators and their colors:
Fred Pruitt, owner & chief bottle washer
Scooter McGruder
Steve (Army of)
Steve White
Seafarious
Dave D.
Pappy
.com
Lotp (sea-foam green) is no longer with us; we wish her well. Another past moderator no longer with us is Dan Darling (bright yellow); you might see his color in the archives if you go back far enough.
Posted by: Steve White ||
11/20/2006 00:00 ||
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#6
Phineter Thraviger1073, get yourself a proper nic. Then work on your snarkiness levels during the monotony of bottlewashing. Kidding...moderator has to be capable of moderating, snarkiness is just the fringe, yet important, ability.
Dunno, haven't seen a moderator application posted, so it must be some other procedure.
#20
I guess Dan's gainful employment includes security clearance that prevents him from communicating with the citizens of the 'Burg (and greater net) now?
#28
And Who for the sake of all that's holy shall moderate .com?
/be so skared
Go to this post, second paragraph. Read and heed. We perma-pooplisted one clown today for rampant nym-hopping, and we'll probably be doing more of it. Fair warning.
Posted by: Frank G ||
11/20/2006 20:17 Comments ||
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#35
Well, I waited an hour. Nuthin. Abu Jibjab is silent.
This is something I've said before: Skeerabs are the best dhimmis of all. Unless related to the Royals or Turbans or Diktaters than run their glorious shithole, they do not fuck with what they perceive as power. They've been conditioned to it. They get it. They live vicariously through their betters. They follow. They do what they're told - and like it. They march around in leetle tiny circles cuz some zoomer in a Tight Turban Tells Them To.
Baaaaa.
Looks like Abu Jibjab really is a UAE sheeple. Baaaaa.
Had he gotten all pissy, then we would know he was some Stockhold Syndrome ExPat dickhead working there.
Of course, now that I've said this - anything that comes outta ol' Abu afterwards is tainted, lol.
#38
So, slow news day, no ?
I guess Rumsfeld resigned, and dot com is his replacement. (rim shot)
Seriously though, if you list all of the countries involved in what has taken place in WW3 since 9/11, and add up their (our) gains and loses, civilization is down, and mother Islam is up.
We wait to react and shoot or bomb and take out a few or a score, but every second that passes, Islam gains. A school here, a neighborhood there, a murder, a bombing, a street corner, little by little Islam wins while we wait for real solid leadership.
I'll bet there's more conversions to Islam than all other religions together, and we won't even debate that it may not be a religion. Shit, don't want to offend anyone, except, the Branch Davidions maybe. We could kill every last one of 'em, 'cause they were just a small flock. Not that they ever did anything to anyone, like mother Islam, but who's counting ?
I hope it don't end this way, just sittin here wondering if anyone out there gets it. That's when you know there's no leadership, when you don't quite know where to turn.
Pleasant dreams.
Posted by: ed ||
11/20/2006 21:18 Comments ||
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#41
Well, I gots a thought thingy that's been bouncing around inside my skull on that topic... lemme put it this way, wxj:
Diktaters can move fast. If they see a weakness (read: open society) and have the cash to exploit it, they can turn on a dime.
Democracies are a mob, screeching at cross purposes and for their piece o' pie. Yoga and yogurt for all, a piss in every pot. Only when they are jolted out of their comfortable continuum will they all go, "Huh?" at once and synchronize heartbeats... such as a nuke or whatever on home soil. The Squirrel in Charge had better take advantage of that moment, seize it by the throat, and make some moves fasssst - cuz it won't last. They have the attention span of the Mayfly. They will revert to navel-gazing and bickering and blame games.
A multi-volume chronology and reference guide set detailing three years of the Mexican Drug War between 2010 and 2012.
Rantburg.com and borderlandbeat.com correspondent and author Chris Covert presents his first non-fiction work detailing
the drug and gang related violence in Mexico.
Chris gives us Mexican press dispatches of drug and gang war violence
over three years, presented in a multi volume set intended to chronicle the death, violence and mayhem which has
dominated Mexico for six years.
Rantburg was assembled from recycled algorithms in the United States of America. No
trees were destroyed in the production of this weblog. We did hurt some, though. Sorry.
A large force of Sudanese soldiers backed by janjaweed militias is sweeping through the towns and villages of North Darfur in spite of a cease-fire, international observers and rebels in Darfur said Sunday. At least four civilians were killed near the northern town of Birmaza on Sunday, Youssouf Mussabal, a rebel leader in the area, said. 
Hearing of appeals of six condemned militant leaders of 
A top leader of Biplobi Communist Party (BCP) Lal Pataka faction 
ROSTOV-ON-DON: Suspected rebels in Russia's war-shattered province of Chechnya killed a police official and two other people in a drive-by shooting Sunday, police officials said. The incident took place in the Kurchaloi district in eastern Chechnya, when the assailants opened fire on a car carrying the member of Chechnya's elite police unit and two passengers, a man and a woman, the regional Interior Ministry said. The attackers escaped and were being searched for, the ministry said.
A STUDENT accused of a violent attack on a police van during the G20 summit was on bail for drug offences at the time, a court has heard. Former taxi driver Akin Sari, 28, told police he is a Turkish-born Australian citizen but investigators are yet to confirm his claim.
The Federal Prosecutor's Office in Karlsruhe said in a statement that suspects had already convinced an airport employee with security access to smuggle a suitcase full of explosives onto a passenger plane. Prosecutors have questioned six suspects about the bomb plot. "With the exception of one suspect who is in prison for another offence, the other suspects were released on Saturday," the statement said.
An Islamic radical accused of playing a key role in the Madrid train bombings was extradited from Italy to Spain on Friday. 
KOLKATA, India (Rooters) - At least five people were killed and 70 wounded when a powerful explosion believed to have been caused by a bomb ripped through a train in eastern India, police said.
Unidentified assailants open-fired at a police station in the Dera Murad Jamali district between Saturday night and Sunday morning, in an attack that left one assailant dead and one police officer wounded, police said on Sunday. ĀPolice returned fire when the assailants attacked the police station. One of the attackers was killed while a police constable, Inayatullah was injured seriously,Ā said police official Abdul Hameed Khosa, adding that the identity of the dead man had yet to be confirmed. He said that between five and seven militants staged a raid on the Baba Kot police station at around 1.30 am, before opening indiscriminate fire.
RAZMAK: Militants killed a pro-government religious leader in North Waziristan on Sunday for allegedly spying for US-led coalition forces. Maulana Muhammad HashimĀs body was found on a road in Fateh Muhammad Kot on Sunday. A note found near HashimĀs body said that anyone spying for the US would be killed. Hashim belonged to Paktia and was a friend of Maulana Salahuddin who was murdered a few days ago on the same charge. The Razmak assistant political agent said that it was not known whether Hashim had been killed on the Afghan side of the border or the Pakistani side.
Gunmen kidnapped Iraq's deputy health minister from his home in northern Baghdad on Sunday, an Iraqi army officer and ministry official said. The gunmen arrived in seven vehicles to grab Ammar al-Saffar, a Shiite, from his home near the Sunni neighborhood of Azamiyah, said the army officer. He spoke on condition of anonymity because he was not authorized to release the information. Al-Saffar is one of several deputies to Health Minister Ali al-Shamari. The kidnapped official is a member of Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki Dawa Party and the first senior official from the ministry to be kidnapped, said Hakem al-Zamily a fellow deputy health minister.
Iraqi forces searching for four Americans and an Austrian who were kidnapped in southern Iraq detained about 200 suspected insurgents, police said Sunday. Police carrying machine guns and wearing fatigues and black face masks showed off their suspects Sunday by inviting the media to a police station where their prisoners were blindfolded and forced to sit on the ground outside. One of the suspects was a disabled man who had lost both legs at the knee and was sitting in a wheelchair. 
According to a report by British newspaper The Sunday Times, Prime Minister Ehud Olmert instructed the heads of the defense establishment to target members of the Hamas leadership - a decision made on the background of the fatal Qassam rocket that landed Wednesday in Sderot killing Fatima Slotzker and robbing one of Peretz's bodyguards of his legs. Israeli security sources apparently reported to the newspaper that the decision was made in cooperation with Defense Minister Amir Peretz. 
Hours after the IDF cancelled a missile strike on a home in the Gaza Strip which was surrounded by a Palestinian human shield, IAF aircraft bombed a car carrying terrorists in Gaza City Sunday afternoon wounding nine people including two heads of Hamas's Kassam rocket infrastructure. Palestinian hospital officials said four of the nine wounded were teenagers, including a 13-year-old, who were hurt by shrapnel. According to the IDF, one of the Hamas terrorists in the car was a senior member of the terror group, responsible for the manufacturing of Kassam rockets. 
