Robert D. Novak writes: Zalmay Khalilzad, who was announced this week as leaving as U.S. ambassador to Iraq, is the leading prospect to replace John Bolton as envoy to the United Nations.
President Bush was reported by aides as looking for someone who approximates Bolton's combination of toughness and diplomatic skill and has tentatively decided on Khalilzad. A native of Afghanistan, he has served in government posts dating back to 1985 and is the highest-ranking Muslim in the Bush administration.
SPAN CLASS=HILITE>Now this is an amusing prospect... except for the BDS sufferers of the world, of course.
Outgoing Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld was in Iraq today on his 13th unannounced visit since the war started in 2003, ABC News has learned. It was an unusually secretive farewell tour of the nation that will almost certainly define his legacy. The trip, laden with symbolism, is among the last stops in Rumsfeld's farewell tour, with just nine days left before former CIA Director Robert Gates assumes Rumsfeld's third-floor office in the Pentagon.
Reporters usually agree to keep Rumsfeld's trips to Iraq secret until he arrives on the ground, under standard Pentagon rules designed to avoid alerting insurgents. But this visit has remained undisclosed even after his arrival.
Rumsfeld addressed Pentagon employees with a catch in his throat this week. He said Americans would be mistaken to withdraw from Iraq immediately and that his worst day on the job was when he learned of the Abu Ghraib prison abuse scandal that tarnished the war effort. "I wish I could say that everything we've done here has gone perfectly, but that's not how life works, regrettably," Rumsfeld told Defense Department employees.
At that meeting, a sometimes emotional Rumsfeld quoted a wounded service member he had met in a military hospital. "He looked up and he said, 'If only the American people will give us the time, we can do this,'" Rumsfeld said. "We're getting it done. And it is a fact, it will take patience and it will take understanding."
A number of aid agencies evacuated their staff from a town in Sudan's Darfur region on Friday after unidentified gunmen attacked a house used by the International Committee of the Red Cross Thingy, aid workers said. The ICRCThingy said it evacuated 10 of its international staff and a Spanish Red Cross Thingy worker out of Kutum in northern Darfur after the attack on a residence housing two of its delegates who escaped unharmed. "We don't know who it was. Gunmen tried to get it. They stayed on the roof and fired, and hung around for a quite a while," Jessica Barry, ICRCThingy spokeswoman in Sudan, told Reuters. She said the attack took place in the early hours of Friday and prompted the organisation to fly its workers to El Fasher, the main town in Darfur and a scene of violent clashes early this week between militias, locally known as the Janjaweed, and the former rebels of the Sudan Liberation Movement (SLM/A).
Goal, an Irish NGO, also evacuated its seven-member team from Kutum after the attack, said Mark Blackett, the agency's Country Director. They would arrived in Khartoum on Saturday or Sunday, he said. He said motive behind the attack on the ICRCThingy house was unclear "but it was not to steal anything,"
he said, speaking from his evacuated position where he would no longer be able to offer aid, comfort, food or medical care to the unfortunate civilian population, nor would he be available to provide eyewitness testimony to the activities of ... Others.
Barry said the ICRCThingy has asked authorities in Kutum to investigate the attack. "We hope that this would be a temporary withdrawal. Our national staff are keeping the office open," she said. Rights groups and the SLM accuse the Khartoum government of arming the Janjaweed to use them as a proxy militia in Darfur, where experts say around 200,000 people were killed and 2.5 million displaced since the conflict flared in 2003 when rebels took up arms against the government, charging it with neglect.
Khartoum denies supporting the Janjaweed.
Noureddine Mezni, the African Union spokesman in Sudan, said on Friday the situation in El Fasher has stabilised. "Business activities have returned to normal and the security situation according to our field reports was calm," he told Reuters. The violence has forced the United Nations to fly 134 of its own and other aid agencies' staff out of the town.
#1
A number of aid agencies evacuated their staff from a town in Sudan's Darfur region on Friday after unidentified gunmen attacked a house used by the International Committee of the Red Cross
Three foreigners, including an Australian, have been released after almost two months in Yemeni detention for allegedly trying to smuggle weapons to Somalia, a Yemeni security official says. A Dane, an Australian and a Briton walked into a bar were freed over the past few days after an investigation revealed that there was not enough evidence to charge them, the official said, speaking on condition of anonymity, because he wasn't permitted to speak to the press.
Yemeni authorities made the arrests in October. Two other Australians and a German were released last month, but two others, one from Austria and one from Somalia, remain in custody.
All detainees are Muslims and some of them were said to be students at the Islamist Iman University, which is run by Sheik Abdul-Majid al-Zindani. The United States lists al-Zindani as an al-Qaeda supporter. University officials told Yemeni local papers after the arrests that none of the detainees were students in the Imam university.
The arrests were part of a state security campaign launched against members of an al-Qaeda cell.
Posted by: Fred ||
12/09/2006 00:48 ||
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#1
Didja hear the one about the Dane, the Australian and the Briton who tried to smuggle weapons through Yemen?
Security forces are still on the lookout for the armed suspects responsible for the killing of two police guards at the maximum-security Al-Ruwais Prison on Thursday, according to Maj. Gen. Mansour Al-Turki, spokesman for the Interior Ministry.
A senior security source also said that the four suspects arrested in a blue Nissan sedan in another incident on Palestine Street shortly after the shooting are not considered suspects in the crime at this time. No one was arrested in Thursdays armed confrontation that resulted in the death of two security men, Al-Turki said. Security forces are currently investigating the incident to identify and arrest the perpetrators.
The two dead officers were identified as Owaidh Al-Hudaili and Mutlak Al-Olayani. Three policemen were injured during the confrontation. They were identified as Mishaal Al-Otaibi, Atiyyah Al-Zahrani and Hussein Al-Zahrani. The first two are recovering at Bakhsh Hospital while Hussein has been transferred to King Abdul Aziz Hospital in Mahjar for intensive treatment, said a security source on condition of anonymity.
Sayyed Muhammad, an Egyptian working at Al-Ikhwa gas station located at the front of the entrance to the building where the gunmen took up their positions, said that the incident took place at about 3:25 p.m. and lasted about 15 minutes. He said he believed the men discharged their weapons from the second or third floor of the building.
According to the Arabic daily Al-Watan, the attackers targeted the prison in an attempt to free some inmates. The report said that five suspected extremists (two Yemenis, two Pakistanis and a Syrian) were arrested Wednesday and that the incident may be linked to them. Life is back to normal in Jeddahs Sharafiah district where the prison is located. The Al-Ikhwa gas station, which was shut down soon after the shooting, has since reopened.
The prison shooting took place a few hours before a major football match between Al-Ahli and Al-Hilal teams at Prince Abdullah Al-Faisal Stadium south of Jeddah. Many Saudi soccer fans stopped to watch the gunbattle instead of going to the game. Abdul Razak Al-Harithy said he saw security officers had blocked the roads leading to the area. I was driving my car to drop a friend in the area but was surprised to see the road blocked and did not know the reason. At the same time I was hearing sounds of gunfire, he said. Muhammad Bilal, a resident of the area, said he was able to return to his house only after things cooled down. While I was returning from office, my family informed me about police action and movement of helicopters and sounds of gunfire, he said. I came back to my house cautiously.
This is the second such incident in Jeddah in less than five months. Four suspects surrendered to police after a shootout between security forces and terrorists in the Jamiah District on Aug. 21.
Posted by: Fred ||
12/09/2006 00:48 ||
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#1
"This is the second such incident in Jeddah in less than five months."
Within hours of hearing her love had been killed in Iraq, a soldier's fiancée got an engagement ring, his family said.
Sgt. Yevgeniy Ryndych, 24, died Wednesday in Ramadi, the Defense Department said.
His family and fiancée were told on the same day she got a package with the engagement ring, said the soldier's brother, Ivan Ryndych.
"He had proposed over the phone from Iraq within the past month," said Ivan Ryndych, 20. "He bought an engagement ring over the Internet."
Ryndych, who was born in Ukraine and immigrated to New York City as a teenager, was on his second tour of duty in Iraq, his brother said. He was assigned to the 1st Battalion, 9th Infantry Regiment, 2nd Brigade Combat Team, based at Fort Carson, Colo.
Ivan Ryndych said his brother had gone on to a special-forces unit after his first tour in Iraq ended last year. But then he volunteered to rejoin his old unit when it headed back to Iraq, his brother said.
"His exact words to me were, 'I don't want to leave them behind,' " Ivan Ryndych said.
Ivan Ryndych responded angrily when he realized he lost his brother on the same day a report criticizing President Bush's failing Iraq strategy came out.
"It won't change anything," Ivan Ryndych told the New York Daily News.
In an interview with Newsday, Ivan Ryndych said that until his brother's death, he had also contemplated a career in the Army. "I changed my mind," he said. "I just don't want to put my parents through the same thing."
The family immigrated to Brooklyn from Ukraine in 1998 and has since moved to Staten Island. A flag flew at half-staff outside their home Thursday; inside, the living room displayed photographs of Ryndych in uniform.
Ryndych graduated from Lafayette High School in Brooklyn, according to published reports.
A voracious reader who enjoyed military-strategy games, he had wanted to join the Army for years, his brother said.
"He just liked the whole Army concept," Ivan Ryndych said.
#2
I'm proud to be a citizen of the country that such a man chose to serve. I'm glad his fiancee' has the ring he chose, to remember him by -- it will give her strength for the difficult time ahead, poor thing.
CHICAGO - A 22-year-old man who authorities said talked about a desire to wage "jihad" against civilians was arrested by federal terrorism investigators on charges of plotting to set off hand grenades in a shopping mall. Derrick Shareef of Rockford was taken into custody Wednesday as he met in a parking lot with an undercover agent and attempted to trade a pair of stereo speakers for four hand grenades and a handgun, officials said today.
Officials said he had been under investigation since September, when he told an acquaintance that "he wanted to commit acts of violent jihad against targets in the United States as well as commit other crimes."
The acquaintance immediately informed the FBI, officials said. "Once the threat Shareef posed was detected by the Joint Terrorism Task Force, his activities and movements were under constant surveillance and there was no imminent risk to the public," said Robert D. Grant, special agent in charge of the Chicago office of the FBI.
Officials said Shareef was acting alone and not in concert with any terrorist group. In an affidavit filed with the complaint, Shareef said he planned to set off the grenades in garbage cans at the CherryVale Mall in Rockford. It said that in November Shareef and the acquaintance who was working with the FBI went through the mall discussing possible spots to attack.
According to the affidavit, a number of conversations between the two men were recorded by the acquaintance. Shareef was charged with one count of attempting to damage or destroy a building by fire or explosion and one count of attempting to use a weapon of mass destruction. According to the affidavit, Shareef met in the parking lot with the undercover agent who described the hand grenades as "pineapples" and showed the agent stereo speakers that he would trade for them.
Posted by: Fred ||
12/09/2006 00:48 ||
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CHICAGO (AP) -- A Muslim convert who authorities say talked about waging violent jihad is in custody after federal agents say he tried to make an unusual trade: two stereo speakers for a 9 mm pistol and the grenades he would need to pull off his alleged plot.
LGF called this "a very uncharacteristic level of detail in its lead paragraph". Indeed.
#4
Get enough of these Jihad Joes doing their jihad thing, and we might even wake this country up. Maybe Jihad Joe might visit a news organization near you. Never know. Might even wake them up, but don't lay money on that.
Posted by: Alaska Paul ||
12/09/2006 14:06 Comments ||
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#5
Considering some of the occupancy rates in malls - the mall owners might have kissed him for the chance to collect on insurance.
#9
I don't think CAIR gives a damn about NOI. They're posers, and they're black, which I think is almost as low as Persian in the Arab racial hierarchy.
Security forces on Friday morning killed two terrorists of the Lashkar-e-Taiba in an encounter in Banihal. Deputy Inspector General (DIG) of Udhampur, Doda range, Lalitindu Mohanty, said that a joint team of police and 12 RR had launched a search operation in the higher reaches of Banihal in Ramban district after getting specific information about the movement of armed militants.
Mohanty said that during the search operation, the police team established a contact with the hiding militants and challenged them to surrender. However, the militants opened indiscriminate fire, which was retaliated and led to a fierce encounter.
"After a two-hour long gun-battle, the search operation was carried out during which bodies of two militants were recovered. One of the militants was identified as Alaf Din, a resident of Banihal. The identity of the other militant has not yet been ascertained," said the senior police officer adding that "a recovery of two AK rifles and two AK magazines was made from the possession of the slain militants".
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Troops in Jammu and Kashmir on early Thursday killed a terrorist while foiling an infiltration bid near the Line of Control (LoC) that divides the state between India and Pakistan, an army spokesperson said in Jammu.
Security personnel noticed some movement near the LoC in Kang area of the border district of Rajouri at 4.30 am and "challenged them", said Col Dinesh Kumar Badola, 16 Corps spokesperson. While one man was shot dead, troops were searching the area to find the others, he added. The trend indicates that militants are trying to step up infiltration from Pakistan before winter sets in and snow closes the mountain passes.
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BAGHDAD, Iraq - A nephew of Saddam Hussein serving a life sentence for making bombs for Iraq's insurgency escaped from prison Saturday in northern Iraq, authorities said.
Ayman Sabawi, the son of Saddam's half brother Sabawi Ibrahim Hassan al-Tikriti, fled the prison some 45 miles west of Mosul in the afternoon with the help of a police officer, according to local police Brig. Abdul Karim al-Jubouri.
Interior Ministry spokesman Brig. Abdul-Karim Khalaf confirmed the escape but declined to elaborate.
Sabawi was convicted of illegally crossing the border from Syria and sentenced to 15 years in prison late last year by an Iraqi court. He was sentenced to life in prison in an earlier case for possession of illegal weapons and manufacture of explosive devices.
He was captured in May 2005 by security forces during a raid on Tikrit, the former leader's hometown. His father, who served as a presidential adviser before the U.S.-led invasion, was captured there two months earlier.
Palestinians rally in favor of Hamas
Advisor to Palestinian Authority Chairman Mahmoud Abbas Ahmad Abed Arachman said Friday that Hamas must recognize Israel and honor all existing agreements between Israel and the Palestinians.
...Haniyeh vowed that the Hamas government would never recognize Israel and would continue to fight for the liberation of Jerusalem.
...Meanwhile, tens of thousands of Palestinians demonstrated on Friday afternoon in favor of the Hamas-led Palestinian Authority government, and demanded that Haniyeh remain in power even if a unity government were established.
On Thursday, Haniyeh arrived in the Iranian capital for a four-day visit for talks with Iranian leaders including President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad who has called for Israel to be "wiped off the map. As he does once a week.
On the other hand
Palestinians protest in Gaza, W. Bank
Hundreds of Palestinian police firing in the air pushed into Gaza City's parliament building and dozens of parents carrying infants broke into a West Bank clinic Saturday in protests against the cash-strapped Hamas government. There's always money for ammo.
...On Saturday, more than 2,500 members of the security forces, many loyal to Abbas' Fatah movement, marched toward the parliament building in Gaza City. Parliament guards, most of them from Hamas, tried to block the crowd, but were pushed aside as protesters fired in the air. Marchers alleged that Hamas was paying its own militia, the so-called Executive Force, while neglecting the members of the regular security forces. Addressing Hamas legislators inside the building over a loudspeaker, one of the protesters said: "Why are you hiding? Why are you ignoring our demands while you are feeding and increasing your militia and distributing the money that you smuggled from the outside." No fair, not sharing. We also kill Jews.
Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas on Saturday said he would call early elections to end a political impasse with Hamas, but left the door open to a compromise with the Islamic militant group, PLO officials said.
Abbas announced his decision at a meeting of the PLO's powerful executive committee, and plans a formal announcement in a nationwide speech later this week. "At the end of the speech, he is going to announce that he will resort to early presidential and legislative elections but will keep the door open" for forming a unity government with Hamas, said committee member Khalida Jarar.
Unity talks between Hamas and Abbas' Fatah movement recently broke down.
Bandits, again?
BANGKOK, Thailand (AP) - A police informant who survived two attacks by suspected Muslim insurgents was killed Saturday in a drive-by shooting in Thailand's restive south, police said.
Two gunmen on motorcycles shot the man three times as he was walking near his home in the Joh Airong district of Narathiwat province, said Lt. Chart Nopchamnan. The victim, identified as 37-year-old Bahareng Uma, died at the scene.
Bahareng had survived two previous attacks in October, when gunmen opened fire on his house and then attempted a drive-by shooting that injured him slightly in his right leg, Chart said.
Drive-by shootings and bombings occur almost daily in Thailand's three southernmost Muslim-majority provinces - Yala, Pattani and Narathiwat - where an Islamic insurgency that flared in January 2004 has killed more than 1,900 people.
Suspected insurgents target people seen as collaborators with the government, including soldiers, police and informants. More than 50 teachers, viewed as symbols of government authority, have also been killed. If you don't protect your assets, you can't protect your ass. Thailand slips another notch toward the abyss.
#2
Strategypage says the Thais are sending another 1500 paratroopers down South, joining 1000 already there. They make the point that Thailand has been independent throughout its history by being prepared to "play rough"when necessary, and they would rather"burn down the South" than let the Islamists take over. Maybe their patience is coming to an end.
#3
Let me expand it for you Glenmore.
(1) UNIFIL is going to be attacked.
(2) Somebody must bear the blame.
(3) Israel says, in advance, that AQ must bear the blame.
#4
Actually, al-Q could very well attack any group or organization that promulgates or defends *order*.
This is because al-Q is a barbarian collective that, more than anything else, philosophically seeks chaos. This is because only it chaos can it establish itself, for example in Afghanistan and Somalia.
In the case of Lebanon, al-Q is concerned that UNIFIL is supporting Shiites, even Hezbollah; and if they are successful, some degree of order will return to Lebanon.
It is noteworthy also that al-Q has no allies in the Paleo territories, as they oppose both Fatah and Hamas, and want to establish themselves as the leaders of the Paleos.
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.
Security forces are still on the lookout for the armed suspects responsible for the killing of two police guards at the maximum-security Al-Ruwais Prison on Thursday, according to Maj. Gen. Mansour Al-Turki, spokesman for the Interior Ministry.
Security forces on Friday morning killed two terrorists of the Lashkar-e-Taiba in an encounter in Banihal. Deputy Inspector General (DIG) of Udhampur, Doda range, Lalitindu Mohanty, said that a joint team of police and 12 RR had launched a search operation in the higher reaches of Banihal in Ramban district after getting specific information about the movement of armed militants.
