This is just insane
A Las Vegas man attempted to bring a pipe bomb on board a jet at Long Island MacArthur Airport yesterday morning, federal officials said in court documents.
The suspected pipe bomb that was found in Steven Nobles' baggage "could have functioned. It could have detonated," federal prosecutor John Durham said at Nobles' arraignment in U.S. District Court in Central Islip late yesterday afternoon.
But Nobles' attorney, federal public defender Randi Chavis, said Nobles, 20, had not intended to harm anyone and inadvertently placed the device in his luggage as he was returning to visit his mother after a year of working on Long Island. Oh, we've all done that at least once, you know.
Sources familiar with the investigation said that at this point federal prosecutors and FBI agents do not believe Nobles was bent on terrorism, but, at the very least, displayed poor judgment. I'd say
Robert Nardoza, a spokesman for Eastern District U.S. Attorney Benton Campbell, said it was not clear whether the bomb could have gone off accidentally. FBI agents and Suffolk police were still analyzing the device, Nardoza said.
Federal magistrate Kathleen Tomlinson denied bail to Nobles, pending a hearing today, saying Nobles "certainly was old enough to take into the account the circumstances under which he was operating this morning." As in 'old enough to fly alone.'
According to a complaint filed by FBI agent James McCarthy, Nobles was stopped at 7:28 a.m. by Transportation Security Administration officers during a routine search when they noticed a 7-inch-long knife in his carry-on bag. Nobles was preparing to board Southwest Flight 384 to Las Vegas. That was an accident too.
After searching Nobles' bag, the officers then noticed the bomb, McCarthy said.
Suffolk Police and the FBI were called and part of the airport was temporarily evacuated.
A search of Nobles' luggage found "explosive fireworks, electrical circuit boards, a battery with electrical tape and 14 . . . .22-caliber rounds used in a nailgun to drive nails into concrete," McCarthy said.
McCarthy said in the complaint that Nobles told him that "the device in the carry-on bag was a pipe bomb." Nobles also said he "built the pipe bomb using a metal pipe, fuses and gunpowder from M-80 fireworks, smoke bombs and other fireworks," McCarthy said. In addition, the agent said Nobles told him he hoped that when the device went off it would "cause a giant smoke cloud, a flash of light and hopefully a loud noise," McCarthy said.
However, Nobles "denied intending to detonate the pipe bomb on the airplane and claimed that he had inadvertently carried it to the airport," McCarthy said. Happens all the time.
#2
Is criminal stupidity a crime? I don't care if his intent wasn't terrorism, we go through crazy bag checks and every journalist or stupid idiot like this guy that sends a false-positive through the system should be punished. Maybe a month, maybe a year I don't know but something.
#5
Just another case of a Long Island pipe bomb club member getting careless, I guess. It was either that or join the tennis club, but he didn't have the balls for that.
Posted by: Richard of Oregon ||
10/17/2008 12:28 Comments ||
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#6
TW, some nail guns - especially ones used to drive nails into dense materials - use a .22 (or larger) powder charge to propel the nail (in this case concrete). It could be used as a weapon (if any of you have been around that DS who just has to shoot nails at a work site) especially at close range like a passenger plane. However this alone is something I would think would need to be declared like a firearm would be; nevermind the knife, pipebomb etc. on an early morning trans USA flight...
#7
Notice that the crack TSA team saw the knife first and THEN found the bomb. If he'd only had the sense to check the knife, he could have gotten the bomb on board.
I'm pretty sure all the TSA staff were the folks who flunked out of toll booth school. Makework program for our under-achievers.
#8
Remoteman: as a former TSA supervisor i can say that there is insufficient data here to support your assetion. Depending upon the terminal layout, it is entirely possible that the bag and the pax were separated and the bag was placed in a queue, while the pax and his carry on went on.
and since all bags checked bags go through a sniffer for explosive residue, it is very likely it would have been caught, even without any alert based on the carry on incident.
i do agree with your assessment of the mentality of the organization as it now exists, however. sadly the go getters that had originally joined at program inception have, for the most part, found better employment elsewhere after getting beat down by Dilbert-like-Pointy-Hair-Boss syndrome. (remember TSA stood up post 9/11, when the economy was in a recession, especially in the airline and related industries, i couldn't buy a job there. but 7 months is all i could take and i bailed.
#9
#3: .22-caliber rounds used in a nailgun to drive nails into concrete
I have personaly used such a nailgun, the charges are blanks and come in a variety of strengths depending on the length you want to drive the nail into concrete.
The Charges look like .22 shorts, either with a cardboard plug colored to indicate strength, or filded over in a conical point thar somewhat resembles a real bullet, but fools absolutely no one as there is no slug.
Posted by: Redneck Jim ||
10/17/2008 15:17 Comments ||
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#10
it is nice to know that the FBI has concluded that there is no terrorism here. Even a blind pig can find an acorn once in a while.
Posted by: Abu do you love ||
10/17/2008 18:18 Comments ||
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#11
I'd like to ask him where he was on March 6, 2008.
Posted by: DanNY ||
10/17/2008 22:15 Comments ||
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#12
Thank you all for explaining. The silly boy was bringing home lots of ingredients to make a nice boom in the desert. Since they weren't weapons to him, it never occurred to him that anyone else might think they were.
An Afghan policeman hurled a grenade and opened fire on a U.S. military foot patrol in eastern Afghanistan on Thursday, killing an American soldier and raising fears that insurgents have infiltrated the police. It was the second attack by a policeman on U.S. soldiers in eastern Afghanistan in less than a month.
The patrol was returning to a base in Bermel district of Paktika province when they were attacked by the policeman, who was standing on a tower, the military said. The soldiers returned fire, killing the officer.
Training of the police force and the Afghan national army are key elements in the U.S. strategy of dealing with a vicious Taliban-led insurgency that has spread in many parts of the country.
Militants in Afghanistan have in the past disguised themselves in police or army uniforms when attacking Afghan and foreign troops, but real policemen were responsible for the attacks Thursday and last month. Then, an officer opened fire at a Paktia police station, killing a soldier and wounding three before he was fatally shot.
Posted by: ed ||
10/17/2008 00:00 ||
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#1
The soldiers returned fire, killing the officer
Good policy. Better policy would be killed by gutshot. Best would be death due to delayed medical response to gutshot due to a deniable overabundance of caution.
#2
as long as another one is dead, by the way, this has nothing too do with the article but them always calling others civilians. those civilians support the insurgents and the kiddies grow up too be more insurgents
Posted by: chris ||
10/17/2008 7:54 Comments ||
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#4
I'm curious about these Afghan police who turn on US soldiers. It seems certain to me that they intend to die for their efforts. Did they join the police with a small-scale suicide as their primary mission? Or did they hope to gain valuable information. or what? To try to kill at most 3 or 4 of their enemy for their own life seems inefficient to me. Surely, they could wait for mess hall times, field meeting times, riding with the troops times and others that might provide a greater potential target. Does anyone reading this have an idea of the profile(s) for these idiots?
Posted by: Richard of Oregon ||
10/17/2008 12:19 Comments ||
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#5
that is their profile. they are idiots
Posted by: chris ||
10/17/2008 17:01 Comments ||
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#6
my take on this (pure speculation) is that the Afghan policeman may have been confused as to who was approaching/moving and had not gotten the info that the group he fired on was friendlies. for all intents, he could have believed he was engaging a Taliban patrol and just made a poor decision.
the other suggested motives here are equally likely, but my personal motto is "never attribute to malice what is easily explained by stupidity"
Posted by: Abu do you love ||
10/17/2008 18:44 Comments ||
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(SomaliNet) Ethiopian soldiers are among some 41 people killed in heavy clashes as violence continues to dominate war-torn Somalia.
According to reports, heavily armed insurgents fired mortars at two military bases in the region, in Somalias town of Baidoa, 250 kilometers southeast the capital Mogadishu, killing at least 20 Ethiopian soldiers and seriously injuring 35 others, Press TV correspondent in Somalia reported on Wednesday.
Witnesses say the Ethiopians reacted by shelling residential areas, which left at least 11 civilians dead.
Posted by: Steve White ||
10/17/2008 00:00 ||
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(AKI) Four Turkish soldiers were killed in clashes with Kurdistan Workers Party or PKK rebels in the southeastern province of Hakkari on Wednesday and another soldier was killed when a military helicopter crashed, said an army statement, quoted by Turkish daily Hurriyet's website.
Another soldier was killed and 15 others were slightly wounded, including a brigade general, when a helicopter bringing reinforcements to the combat zone crashed due to a technical fault, the army statement said.
The five PKK rebels were killed in operations in two separate provinces near the Iraqi border - Hakkari and Sirnak - the army said. Eighteen PKK militants were killed in military operations carried out in the region after the clashes, Hurriyet reported.
Turkey, a NATO member has staged almost daily artillery operations and airstrikes against PKK rebels in southeastern Turkey and northern Iraq since a PKK attack killed 17 soldiers earlier this month, the worst attack on the military in over a year.
PKK rebels have stepped up their deadly attacks against Turkish security forces in recent weeks.
Posted by: Fred ||
10/17/2008 00:00 ||
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ION IRNA/TOPIX > seems IRAN is claiming that a combined arms MILEX held near Iran-Turkish border was meant to show it could attack ISRAEL???
#2
IRAN is claiming that a combined arms MILEX held near Iran-Turkish border was meant to show it could attack ISRAEL???
They may be able to LAUNCH an attack upon Israel, but the consequences for the mad mullahs would be something less than what they would have expected. I don't think either Turkey or Iraq would allow Iran free passage through their nations, even to attack Israel.
Posted by: Old Patriot ||
10/17/2008 12:15 Comments ||
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(AKI) - Spanish police have arrested at least 18 terror suspects of Moroccan origin with alleged links to Al-Qaeda in the provinces of Catalonia, Andalucia and Madrid on Thursday, reported Spanish media.
The suspects helped some of the suspects in the deadly bombings of Madrid commuters in March 2004 to escape and were allegedly in charge of recruiting militants and financing Islamist activities, prosecutors allege.
The raids were carried out in the northeastern town of Santa Coloma de Gramanet where eight suspects were nabbed. The other arrests took place in the towns of Badalona near Barcelona, Cerdanyola del Valles and Villanova i la Geltru among others. The raids were ordered by top Spanish prosecutor Baltasar Garzon.
The Madrid bombings on 11 March 2004 were Europe's worst terror attack since the 1988 Lockerbie bombing in Scotland. A total of 191 people were killed and 2,000 were injured when 10 rucksack bombs exploded in four crowded commuter trains.
Twenty-one people, including a number of North Africans, were sentenced to over 40,000 years in jail for their roles in the attack. It was carried out by a loosely knit group of Al-Qaeda-inspired Muslim militants and occurred three days before the country's general election.
Posted by: Fred ||
10/17/2008 00:00 ||
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A bomb has damaged a natural gas pipeline in northeastern British Columbia, police said on Thursday, describing the attack as the second of its kind in the same area in a week.
Energy producer EnCana Corp later said it had stopped a small leak at a "field facility" about 50 km southeast of the town of Dawson Creek, and that the incident was being investigated by the Royal Canadian Mounted Police (RCMP).
The RCMP said in a statement it was an explosion that "appears to be a deliberate act that left a crater in the ground under the pipeline that carries sour gas."
...
The RCMP's anti-terrorism unit has joined the investigation, but police believe the incident is local in nature. A newspaper in Dawson Creek said the letter complained of "crazy expansion of deadly gas wells in our homelands" and that "we will no longer negotiate with terrorists".
Posted by: ed ||
10/17/2008 00:00 ||
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Well, oil price is falling, I guess something has to be done.
#2
The Mounties better get to the bottom of this 'energy terrorism' and quick, before additional acts of sabotage are committed reigniting energy market concerns.
Posted by: Mark Espinola ||
10/17/2008 9:32 Comments ||
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#6
Beavis - sour gas has impurities in it, primarily hydrogen sulfide. Most natural gas has SOME impurities in it, but they're in much greater concentration in sour gas. Most of the impurities are "scrubbed" before the gas is piped into the distribution network to cut down on corrosion.
Posted by: Old Patriot ||
10/17/2008 12:20 Comments ||
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#7
I live down wind from there. Why wasn't it in my regular news? Could affect my natual gas supply tyhis winter.
Posted by: Richard of Oregon ||
10/17/2008 12:22 Comments ||
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Pakistan has taken serious notice of reports that the US Army chief Gen W Casey is scheduled to visit the Siachen glacier in Jammu and Kashmir during his ongoing three-day visit to India.
"Any such visit to an area which is disputed and which is under discussion between Pakistan and India will certainly cast a shadow on the ongoing composite dialogue between the two neighbours," a Foreign Office spokesman told The News daily.
He said there was no official confirmation of the American general's plan to visit Siachen.
In the past, Pakistan has objected to India allowing civil and military expeditions to the Siachen glacier, where troops from both countries have been engaged in a face-off since 1984.
Indian and Pakistani troops regularly traded fire along the Line of Actual Control on Siachen till a ceasefire was put in place along the frontiers in Jammu and Kashmir in late 2003.
However, more troops from both sides have lost their lives due to inclement weather condition than to bullets on Siachen, often described as the world's highest and coldest battlefield.
Gen Casey will be briefed on high-altitude land warfare techniques during his visit to Siachen base camp.
Posted by: john frum ||
10/17/2008 17:23 ||
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"please deliver a pallet-load of STFU to our Pak contacts?"
"yessir"
Posted by: Frank G ||
10/17/2008 20:38 Comments ||
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(AKI/DAWN) - Four Pakistani security officials were killed and twenty-six wounded in a rocket and suicide attack on a police station in the troubled northern Swat region on Thursday, a senior police official said.
The official told Pakistani daily Dawn that the police station in Mingora, district headquarters of the restive Swat region, came under a barrage of rocket propelled attack at around 1.30 am local time. The rocket attack was followed by a suicide bombing. "The bomber banged an explosives-laden vehicle into the wall of the police station. But the casualties were mostly caused by the rocket attack," Safwat Ghayyur, Additional Inspector General of Police, told Dawn in Peshawar.
The twin-attacks left three men of Frontier Constabulary and a policeman dead, while among the wounded were fourteen FC and 12 policemen, he said.
The once-tourist hotspot of Pakistan has seen a surge in violence after a May peace agreement between the militants and the secular-nationalist Awami National Party collapsed two months later.
Both sides accuse each other of going back on their words. The military has since been battling to regain the control of the mountainous region with heavy use of artillery and helicopters gunships.
Posted by: Fred ||
10/17/2008 00:00 ||
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The meltdown in the global financial system may spare Al Qaeda. It is thought to have access to strong potential funding sources - and thus might dodge fallout from the global crunch devastating others. One principal reason the groups may avoid fallout now is because they have been forced to pull away from banks, relying instead on less-efficient ways to move money. The methods, including hand-carrying money and using informal money-transfer networks called hawalas - likely will shield extremists from the current banking system turmoil.
Posted by: Fred ||
10/17/2008 00:00 ||
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#1
thay also may have invested in gold
Posted by: chris ||
10/17/2008 7:56 Comments ||
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Hummm... : gold + diamonds + opium + local fingers in various traffiking (from drugs to counterfeiting, to arabian wild honey or arabic gum)... plus of course, the never-ending money from muslim charities, and generous arab millionaires, and probably monnies from various intelligence (iran, pakistan???). Looks realistical?
#4
Maybe the Saudi oil barons have their own version of a bailout for jihadist underway.
Posted by: Mark Espinola ||
10/17/2008 9:34 Comments ||
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#5
If they are so rich, why were they begging Al Qaeda in Iraq for money not so long ago? The opium trade belongs to the Taliban; what odds they'd give over the loot they worked so hard for to a bunch of free-loading Arabs?
#6
#5: If they are so rich, why were they begging Al Qaeda in Iraq for money not so long ago?
Why spend your own money, if you can get some sucker to buy it for you?
Posted by: Redneck Jim ||
10/17/2008 15:22 Comments ||
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#7
See WAFF.com > MUSLIMS PRPEPARE TO TAKE OVER EUROPE FROM WITHIN; + NEPAL's MAOISTS: PURISTS OR PRAGMATISTS. More popularly known as "Iff You can't kill 'em, join 'em" [or marry them, then kill 'em]. Iff Fascists = Limited Communists, Capitalists = Limited Socialists, etc. IS THE TALIBAN = "MTV" AL QAEDA???
Lest we fergit, "ASSASSIN'S MACE" + ANTI-US "LOCAL/WAR ZONE" STRATEGEMS > GREATEST FOCII = MEDIUM FOR VICTORY REMAINS EMPHASIS ON SUBJECTIVE OR SURREAL POLITICAL AND INFORMATION WARFARE, NOT COMBAT OR EVEN HI-TECHNOLOGIES, ETC.
E.g. TOPIX/IRNA/OTHER > WORLD IS SEEING THE RISE/ADVENT OF NEW REGIONAL POWERS, as due in part to [anti-US/Western?]Local Nationalism, Ethnicism, Regionalism, etc.
#8
ION COUNTERRORISM BLOG > REPORT: PARIS SUSPECTS RUSSIA IS ARMING HIZBOLLAH [via Syria]. Bulgarian INTEL found suspected Hizb-destined Russ arms aboard a cargo ship headed for SYRIA???
Prison guards seized grenades and handguns from Taliban after they revolted in the Timergara district jail in Lower Dir on Thursday.
Four policemen made hostage were rescued, said Lower Dir police chief Fida Hussain Shah. He said that nine hand grenades, 37 pistols and 14 mobile phones were seized. "Had we not opened fire they would have broken out," prison official Mumtaz Burney told AP, adding an investigation was under way to find out how the weapons were smuggled into the prison.
Posted by: Fred ||
10/17/2008 00:00 ||
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#1
my first guess would be guards smuggled the arms into the jails like they do in US with drugs
Posted by: chris ||
10/17/2008 7:57 Comments ||
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#2
Or maybe the ISI interrogator brought them in. Or maybe the warden. Watch for the guards who seized the weapons to be the ones fired.
Taliban fired at a military helicopter in the Muhammad Gat area of Safi tehsil in Mohmand Agency on Thursday, but there were no casualties. The attack followed a gun battle in the Sagai area. The Taliban fled after troops stationed at the security forces base camp in Muhammad Gat retaliated. Dawn News said the political administration banned government officials from entering the agency because of abduction threats. An NNI report said seven Afghan suspects were arrested in the agency during a search operation.
Posted by: Fred ||
10/17/2008 00:00 ||
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#1
why where they arrested and not neutralized?
Posted by: chris ||
10/17/2008 7:58 Comments ||
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I suspect it was one of those brand new Pakistani military helicopters, chris.
Kohat police seized two suicide bombing jackets and arrested 18 Uzbek men separately on Thursday, police said. A statement issued here said that bomb disposal squad seized the jackets from a vehicle they searched on the Indus Highway. The men were moving out of Darra Adam Khel area in two vehicles when the police arrested them at a checkpost. "We arrested these foreign nationals who are of Uzbek origin and look like militants from their appearance," local police official Lal Farid Khan told AFP. Khan said police did not find any weapons on the men, who could only speak Persian. "The police is interrogating these people to know why they had gone to Darra Adam Khel and what was their next destination," he added.
Posted by: Fred ||
10/17/2008 00:00 ||
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A grand jirga of Kurram Agency consisting of parliamentarians, tribal elders and the political administration on Thursday brokered a peace deal between the warring Shia and Sunni sects. brokers peace between warring sects [click!]
brokers peace between warring sects [click!]
brokers peace between warring sects [click!]
brokers peace between warring sects [click!]
brokers peace between warring sects [click!]
brokers peace between warring sects [click!]
brokers peace between warring sects [click!]
Under the agreement signed by a 15-member committee from each side and 23 members of Hangu jirga, bodies of the people killed during clashes and the kidnapped persons will be swapped in the presence of the political administration. Closed roads in the area would be re-opened and around 700 displaced persons would be allowed to return home. Supply of food and medicines would also be ensured in the area.
Addressing a news conference following several days of deliberations, the political agent, jirga members and elected representatives from the area expressed confidence that the accord would herald peace in the agency. the accord would herald peace in the agency[click!]
the accord would herald peace in the agency[click!]
the accord would herald peace in the agency[click!]
the accord would herald peace in the agency[click!]
the accord would herald peace in the agency[click!]
the accord would herald peace in the agency[click!]
Under the agreement, bunkers would be vacated and handed over to the Frontier Corps (FC) and the accord violators would be fined Rs 60 million and the violation treated as an anti-peace move. According to the understanding reached by the jirga members, the grand jirga would visit Kurram Agency on October 25 to ensure the implementation of the agreement by the two sides. Another jirga would be held on November 2 to further ensure implementation of the peace deal.
Kurram Agency Political Agent Azam Khan proposed that the government should provide massive development funds to the agency to counter its backwardness. "Who yew callin' 'backwards,' yew varmint?"[click!]
"Who yew callin' 'backwards,' yew varmint?"[click!]
"Who yew callin' 'backwards,' yew varmint?"[click!]
"Who yew callin' 'backwards,' yew varmint?"[click!]
"Who yew callin' 'backwards,' yew varmint?"[click!]
"Who yew callin' 'backwards,' yew varmint?"[click!]
"Who yew callin' 'backwards,' yew varmint?"[click!]
Posted by: Fred ||
10/17/2008 00:00 ||
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Unidentified assailants fired nine rockets at a Frontier Reserve Police checkpost on Bara Bridge in Bannu district early on Thursday.
No casualty was reported. Police said two of the rockets hit the bridge on Miranshah Road in Bakakhel area, slightly damaging it.
The police cordoned off the area after the incident and started investigation.
Meanwhile, Peshawar police claimed to have arrested four associates of an arrested accused allegedly involved in blowing up several CD and music centres throughout the province, Online reported. Police said the men were arrested after the alleged mastermind of the bombings, Wakeel Khan, provided information about his aides.
Posted by: Fred ||
10/17/2008 00:00 ||
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A grand jirga here on Thursday formed a 700-strong lashkar (volunteers' militia) and 100 committees for therestoration of peace in the area. The jirga was held at the Bisham Police Station and was attended by nazims, political and religious leaders, and elders of the area. District Police Officer Iqbal Khan Marwat sought help from people in maintaining peace in the area and said the Taliban were disgracing Islam and Muslims. He also urged the religious leaders to play their role in restoration of peace. The participants vowed to flush the Taliban out of the town and support the police in maintaining peace and order.
Posted by: Fred ||
10/17/2008 00:00 ||
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A suspected U.S. missile strike near the headquarters of a top Taliban leader in Pakistan's tribal areas Thursday killed six people and injured five others, according to Pakistani intelligence officials and residents.
The attack occurred late Thursday morning, said Ikramullah Mehsud, a resident, when an unmanned U.S. Predator drone fired several missiles on two homes in the town of Ladha in the tribal area of South Waziristan. A Pakistani intelligence official who spoke on condition of anonymity said the bombardment killed at least two extremist commanders who are believed to be of Arab origin. "The others killed were most likely local militants, but we don't have any information about the owners of the two houses that were bombed," the intelligence official said.
In the wake of faltering Pakistani efforts to control the flow of insurgents across the border into Afghanistan, U.S. missile attacks on Islamist insurgents sheltering in the rugged mountainous tribal areas of Pakistan have become more frequent this year. There have been 12 such attacks on Pakistan's tribal areas since August. Most of the recent missile strikes have occurred in the tribal areas of South and North Waziristan, which are believed to be the main operational bases for top al-Qaeda leaders.
But Thursday's attack in South Waziristan was notable because it marked the first aerial assault in more than a year on a well-known redoubt of Pakistani Taliban leader Baitullah Mehsud, according to another Pakistani intelligence official. The official said there was no indication that Mehsud was nearby when the attack occurred, but residents told authorities that several Arab men believed to be allied with the Taliban had been seen in the area of the attack recently.
U.S. intelligence officials have named Mehsud as the mastermind behind the Dec. 27 suicide bomb attack that killed former Pakistani prime minister Benazir Bhutto. Mehsud has denied responsibility for her death. With an estimated 25,000 Islamist insurgents united under his command, Mehsud is, nonetheless, considered by many military and intelligence experts to be one of Pakistan's most powerful Taliban commanders.
Concerns about the spread of the Taliban insurgency inside Pakistan reached new heights last month after a spectacular suicide bomb attack on a Marriott Hotel in Islamabad killed more than 50 people and injured about 250. Rising security concerns have been a topic of debate among Pakistani lawmakers who met this week in a closed-door session to discuss a recent military briefing about insurgent activity in the country.
In recent months, Pakistan has evolved into the new frontline in the U.S.-led war on Islamist insurgents in the region. On Wednesday, top U.S., Pakistani and Afghan military officials met in Islamabad to discuss cooperative efforts to combat insurgents on both sides of the 1,500 mile border between Pakistan and Afghanistan. It was the second time in recent months that the top NATO commander, Gen. David D. McKiernan, has met in Islamabad with the Pakistani army chief, Gen. Ashfaq Kayani, and the Afghan army chief, Gen. Bismullah Khan.
McKiernan, in a written statement released Thursday, said Pakistan, Afghanistan and NATO must work together to close gaps in military efforts to crush the insurgency. "We most close those seams and work together to give the insurgents no place to hide," McKiernan said.
Posted by: Fred ||
10/17/2008 00:00 ||
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#1
When there is an explosion in a place like that I never know whether to believe reports that it was a US missile or to guess it was actually a red wire-green wire work accident for which we are a scapegoat. Either way is good.
#2
The other possibility, Glenmore, is that we've "loaned" the Pakistanis one of our Predators, and only every OTHER attack is carried out by one of ours. As long as Meshud doesn't suspect, it's ok.
Posted by: Old Patriot ||
10/17/2008 13:28 Comments ||
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#3
The ISI must be livid... unless they've decided to give us the Al Qaeda foreigners in hopes of preserving their pet Taliban.
WASHINGTON When Marine Maj. Gen. John Kelly deployed to Iraq in February, the violence had fallen so low in Anbar province that he began figuring out how to start closing bases and prepare to go home.
In the last 10 months the Marines in Fallujah have done what was unthinkable before the surge began they have quietly transferred out of one of Anbar province's largest cities. FOX News has learned in an exclusive interview with Kelly from Fallujah that 80 percent of the move is complete. In February there were 8,000 Marines living at Fallujah base. Now there are about 3,000 left. By Nov. 14 there will be none.
"We will shut down the command function here and I will move; my staff has already started to move," Kelly, the commander of Multinational Force-West, told FOX News in an exclusive interview via satellite. "We will turn the lights off here."
They will hand the Fallujah base over to their Iraqi counterparts on Nov. 14, having relocated themselves and thousands of combat vehicles to the desert base of Al Asad to the west. Marines will no longer be seen in city centers such as Fallujah a major step toward leaving Iraq, and one step closer to Iraq's goal of having U.S. troops out of its population centers by mid-2009 one of the key points enshrined in the Status of Forces Agreement being reviewed on Capitol Hill today.
On Wednesday, to little fanfare, the Marines quietly closed down Al Qaim base near the Syrian border. Now it is run by Iraqis.
In Fallujah, where the U.S. Marines once had three large mess halls to feed troops, they are now down to one. The Marines have quietly disassembled the entire infrastructure of the base.
"We probably had several thousand of those large metal containers tractor-trailer containers," Kelly said. "I bet we don't have 200 of them here now."
Of the thousands of vehicles once parked at the base, now there are only 300 left. Their transfer occurred at night, between 9 p.m. and 5 a.m., over the past 10 months so as not to disturb Iraqi drivers and clog the roads.
They dubbed it "Operation Rudy Giuliani" because they were cleaning the streets up and returning Fallujah to normalcy taking down barbed wire and tearing down checkpoints and Jersey walls that made Anbar look like a war zone.
"There is almost no barbed wire left anywhere in Fallujah," Kelly said. An Iraqi no longer sees barbed wire when traveling in and around the city.
Between 300 and 400 concrete barriers that divided the city were removed by Navy Seabees.
One of the big changes Kelly made when he took command in Anbar was to remove fixed checkpoints, and Iraqi vehicles no longer had to pull off to the side when a military convoy was on the road. His troops risked car bombs, but the gamble paid off in what had once been Iraq's most dangerous province. The new road rules instantly lowered the tension between military and locals. Soon he transitioned to moving military convoys only at night, so they would not encounter locals. This also stymied many of the insurgents laying IEDs or roadside bombs, which they often had done at night.
Another change for the better since Kelly arrived in February: He pushed the central government to provide more fuel to the people of Anbar, so the mostly Sunni population is now happier. In February, Anbaris were receiving only 8 percent of their allocation of fuel from the central government of Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki. Now it's 90 percent eliminating one of their main gripes.
But perhaps the biggest sign that the situation has changed for the better for Sunnis living in Anbar: With the help of the Marines and the Iraqi police, nearly 100 percent of the eligible voting population were registered a month ago to vote in upcoming provincial elections.
"They seem to add another political party every day," Kelly said. "We didn't have a single security violation of any kind. They're at least going to give the electoral process a shot at least going to give democracy a chance."
The Sunnis, who fueled a large part of Iraq's insurgency, boycotted the last election for Parliament with only 3 percent of Sunnis participating. Now they feel they have a stake in the government.
"This is an amazing indicator as to where this province is," Kelly said.
He and the Marines no longer use violence as an indicator of how much progress they have made. Two years ago they had 400 attacks roadside bombs or shootings at U.S. forces every week. In February it was down to 30 attacks per week. Now it is down to under 12 attacks per week. There hasn't been a Marine death in a few months.
Troop numbers have dropped, as well down by 40 percent since February. About 26,000 Marines still serve in Anbar.
"In Anbar there is no longer an insurgency," Kelly said. "Unless someone does something stupid (for instance, if the Coalition were to accidentally kill a large number of civilians), this place will not go back to the way it was."
In football terms, Kelly says, the Marines are "in the last 10 yards of this fight."
"Could it go back? I don't think so," he said firmly. "We are winning this thing."
Posted by: GolfBravoUSMC ||
10/17/2008 09:35 ||
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#1
This is absolutely tremendous news. It's the victorious end of a truly major battle in a very tough war--a war we've all but won. It's a pity that so few Americans will ever hear about it.
Our MSM is so traitorous the vast majority of them ought to be shot and the rest deported.
#2
April 2007 "I believe ... that this war is lost, and this surge is not accomplishing anything, as is shown by the extreme violence in Iraq this week," Reid told journalists.
If they held a senility contest I wonder who would win? Reid or Murtha?
#3
Reid's not senile. He knows what he's saying and why he's saying it. Him and his fellow donks wanted defeat in Iraq just like they want a depression now so they can blame it on Bush and the Republicans and win the White House.
Posted by: Abu Uluque ||
10/17/2008 11:15 Comments ||
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#4
The Marines have done a tremendous job in Fallujah---from the fight to the finish now. Their sense of dedication and professionalism is a beacon of light for this country. And unwittingly, it shows the shallowness and depravity of many in Congress, especially the likes of Jack Murtha and Harry Reid.
Without dedicated people like these Marines protecting the nation, parasites like Pelosi, Murtha, Durban, et al, would not get the time of day.
Posted by: Alaska Paul ||
10/17/2008 11:47 Comments ||
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#5
But perhaps the biggest sign that the situation has changed for the better for Sunnis living in Anbar: With the help of the Marines and the Iraqi police, nearly 100 percent of the eligible voting population were registered a month ago to vote in upcoming provincial elections. "They seem to add another political party every day," Kelly said. "We didn't have a single security violation of any kind. They're at least going to give the electoral process a shot ... at least going to give democracy a chance."
Posted by: Richard of Oregon ||
10/17/2008 12:33 Comments ||
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#7
History will be the judge of whether we won this war or not. But I am hopeful that this is a sign that Iraq can and will emerge from this war a stable and gorwing country.
Should there be peace and the establishment of a persistent democratic process over the next 10 years, the prospects for the country are indeed very bright.
This will be Bush's positive legacy (sorry, but his utter mis-handling of the domestic situation may well overshadow his foriegn policy effort). I very much hope it endures.
#8
The Marines generally leave a legacy behind when they depart an area. In this case, for at least two or three generations, the Iraqis they trained will do their best to be as much like the Marines as they can.
It is more than just the training itself, it is the osmosis from soldier to soldier, the culture, great and small. The concept that we do it this way, because that is the way it is done.
I imagine that the Iraqis will make a lot of deals with the US to continue to have USMC advisers doing quality control in their training programs. Those IA who have worked with the Marines will demand it.
#10
I pray Moose is spot on, but I suppose we'll see. I wonder if it's succeeded in an Islamic setting before - the British history is probably the closest counterpart, with Pakistan and India the obvious data control sets.
I see success in stages, and we're clearly about done with the bare minimum, for us and Iraq, but the ultimate would be an Iraq nationalism completely devoid of the hallmarks of Arab nationalism, and tranquil, if not lucratively friendly commercial relations with Israel - the ne plus ultra canary in the Arab coal mine.
#11
Don Vito Omeling5062: a partial comparison is not with Arabs, because the British never developed Arab armies to any great extent. However, India was a different matter. The Indians and Sikhs were a quick study, and to this day have a very British way of doing military business.
But that was the 19th and early 20th Century way of training. Today, if you were to go to Iraq and to a far lesser extent, Afghanistan, you could probably tell who the American trainers were who trained a particular unit.
The USMC is extremely stylized in its training and operations, and it has been noted that the Iraqis military wants *everything* the USMC has, as far as equipment. Ironically, these Iraqis will probably call those units the Arabic equivalent of "Marine", though they will never go to sea.
Everything the Marines do, even just stylistic things, will be copied and mimicked. I would not be surprised in a few years if the Iraqis develop a similar dress uniform.
Eventually, the Iraqis will have truly "elite" units, prestige units, unique among Arab armies.
#12
This will be Bush's positive legacy (sorry, but his utter mis-handling of the domestic situation may well overshadow his foriegn policy effort). I very much hope it endures.
Remoteman, I'm calling you on that. Please explain precisely how Bush "mis-handled" the "domestic situation".
McCain was right. The economy was in good shape. Last January there was no one mainstream who saw this credit crash coming. Sure, there were a number of worried people. McCain. Bush. A small but persistent group of financial analysts who had been preaching doom so long (over 10 years) that no one was listening any more.
Who do you think Bush is? King of the USA or something? He gave it a good shot, but it was clear that no one was listening or wanted a party pooper around.
Actually, the timing of the crash was remarkably good. Those balls had been in the air for years. I'm not sure how Soros triggered it, but I'm betting he did. Note that I'm not saying he had the power to set up the house of cards; we all did that, from the irresponsible house buyers to the greedy bond buyers in Norway. But there's a good chance he pulled out a couple of cards at the right moment. It didn't take much.
Aswat al-Iraq: About three policemen and four civilians were killed in clashes between police and gunmen in Missan on Thursday, a security source said. "Three policemen including an officer and four civilians during clashes that erupted between a police patrol and gunmen in Kumeit district, 25 km north Amara," a Missan police source told Aswat al-Iraq. "The clashes broke out when the police patrol raided a house in Kumeit district searching for wanted individuals," the source noted.
Posted by: Fred ||
10/17/2008 00:00 ||
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#1
I can't quite figure out this story. Did police raid the house of civilians, who then shot at the police, who then engaged in shootouts with those civilians and a total of 3 police and 4 civilians were killed? Or did the gunmen get away and four bystanders get killed?
Iraqi police on Thursday said an ordnance disposal team defused two roadside bombs in Baghdad. "Intelligence tips reported by civilians led an ordnance disposal team to defuse two roadside bomb planted by unknown individuals in a school in Sadr City district.
Sadr City and surrounding areas were long dominated by al-Sadr's Mahdi Army militia and where the site of fierce clashes between U.S.-Iraqi forces and Shiite extremists earlier this year. The area has been relatively peaceful after al-Sadr declared his cease-fire and the Iraqi security forces assumed control in late May.
Posted by: Fred ||
10/17/2008 00:00 ||
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A suicide car bomb attack on security forces killed three policemen in Balad on Thursday, Salah al-Din police said. "A suicide bomber wearing a police uniform tried to attack al-Mahta police station with his car, but guards discovered and shot him fire" a Salah al-Din police source told Aswat al-Iraq. "The suicide detonated the car near the police station, leaving three policemen wounded and caused material damage to nearby buildings," the source added.
Posted by: Fred ||
10/17/2008 00:00 ||
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Suspected separatist terrorists insurgents have shot dead two teenage boys and a man in Thailand's Muslim-majority far south, police say. Two 15-year-old boys were killed and another teenager critically injured in a drive-by shooting in Pattani province on Thursday, police in the restive region said. In a separate attack in the same province that evening, a 32-year-old fruit trader was killed in a teashop.
At least 13 Muslim guerrillas were killed on Thursday when Philippine aircraft dropped bombs on a fortified rebel position in a southern marshland, an army spokesman said.
Major Randolph Cabangbang said dozens of rebels from the Moro Islamic Liberation Front (MILF) were also wounded when soldiers called in an air strike to flush out guerrillas hiding behind thick concrete bunkers and trenches in the Datu Piang area. "Bombs were dropped from planes and rockets were fired from helicopters to soften the ground," Cabangbang said, adding the air strikes helped ground troops take the rebel position without much resistance.
"We did not lose any soldier in the attack, but we were told the rebels suffered heavy casualties. Based on our intelligence, 13 were killed and 30 were wounded in the attack." Colonel Marlou Salazar, a brigade commander in Maguindanao province, said the rebels have been using a network of concrete irrigation canals as trenches and foxholes. "They were also digging bomb shelters under some concrete houses in a number of abandoned communities," he told reporters, adding about 60 rebels were in the area where planes dropped 500-pound bombs.
Nearly 300 people have been killed in two months of fighting between security forces and renegades from the largest Muslim rebel group in the south of the mainly Roman Catholic state. The fighting has displaced more than 500,00 people. On Tuesday, the Supreme Court ruled to strike down the deal as unconstitutional, making it more difficult for the two sides to return to peace talks.
Posted by: Fred ||
10/17/2008 00:00 ||
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Sri Lanka's military on Thursday stepped up attacks against suspected Tamil Tiger positions in the island's north where intense ground battles have been raging for months, the defence ministry said.
Airforce jets bombed an arms store and a command centre of the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE) in the north, the ministry said. It gave no details of casualties.
The latest air strikes came as ground troops were battling to capture the northern town of Kilinochchi, 330 kilometers north of the capital Colombo, where the Tigers maintain their political capital. The defence ministry was yet to release details of overnight ground battles. The ministry has been releasing daily tolls from the northern battle field where security forces said they were on the outskirts of Kilinochchi.
Meanwhile Artillery shelling and fighting which erupted in northern Sri Lanka on Thursday forced a United Nations convoy carrying food and aid to more than 230,000 refugees to turn back, officials said. The UN convoy was only the second to enter the war zone, where Sri Lanka's military is battling separatist Tamil Tiger rebels, since the government last month ordered most aid agencies out, saying it could not guarantee their safety. The 50-truck convoy had left Vavuniya, 250 km northeast of the capital Colombo, at midday carrying 750 metric tonnes of food to a growing number of people trapped by fighting. "There was fighting close to the convoy and we decided to turn back," said UN spokesman Gordon Weiss in Colombo. "Right now we are trying to get security assurances from both sides so we can start the process again tomorrow," he added. Growing numbers of people had fled an intensified military offensive against the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE), and have become trapped between rebels who won't let them leave and an army whose offer of safe passage they distrust.
Posted by: Fred ||
10/17/2008 00:00 ||
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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.
(AKI) - Spanish police have arrested at least 18 terror suspects of Moroccan origin with alleged links to Al-Qaeda in the provinces of Catalonia, Andalucia and Madrid on Thursday, reported Spanish media.
(AKI/DAWN) - Four Pakistani security officials were killed and twenty-six wounded in a rocket and suicide attack on a police station in the troubled northern Swat region on Thursday, a senior police official said.
A grand jirga of Kurram Agency consisting of parliamentarians, tribal elders and the political administration on Thursday brokered a peace deal between the warring Shia and Sunni sects.
A suspected U.S. missile strike near the headquarters of a top Taliban leader in Pakistan's tribal areas Thursday killed six people and injured five others, according to Pakistani intelligence officials and residents. 
WASHINGTON When Marine Maj. Gen. John Kelly deployed to Iraq in February, the violence had fallen so low in Anbar province that he began figuring out how to start closing bases and prepare to go home.
Aswat al-Iraq: About three policemen and four civilians were killed in clashes between police and gunmen in Missan on Thursday, a security source said. "Three policemen including an officer and four civilians during clashes that erupted between a police patrol and gunmen in Kumeit district, 25 km north Amara," a Missan police source told Aswat al-Iraq. "The clashes broke out when the police patrol raided a house in Kumeit district searching for wanted individuals," the source noted.
Iraqi police on Thursday said an ordnance disposal team defused two roadside bombs in Baghdad. "Intelligence tips reported by civilians led an ordnance disposal team to defuse two roadside bomb planted by unknown individuals in a school in Sadr City district.
At least 13 Muslim guerrillas were killed on Thursday when Philippine aircraft dropped bombs on a fortified rebel position in a southern marshland, an army spokesman said. 
Sri Lanka's military on Thursday stepped up attacks against suspected Tamil Tiger positions in the island's north where intense ground battles have been raging for months, the defence ministry said.
