No one could have predicted, back in the early ninteies, that the young skinny Saudi youth, Abdul Aziz bin Isa bin Abdullah Muhsin Al Muqrin would become an al Qaeda sympathizer and mastermind of the Khubar and al Mahya bombings in 2003. Classmates at the Al Imam al Bayhaki intermediate school in the conservative district of al Suwaidi, West of the capital, Riyadh, remember how al Muqrin joined the al Tawiya al Islamia (Islamic awareness) religious group and isolated himself from student activities, except for his favorite pastime, football, as he was the goalkeeper for the school football team. One pupil, a few years older than al Muqrin, remembers them joking in school, adding "the thin sideburns growing on his face were a sign of an early religious devotion". Al Muqrin's lighthearted personality soon disappeared, replaced by religious fervor and an affiliation with fundamentalist groups; he was still a teenager at the time.
Al Muqrin left school at an early age, despite some inconsistent reports to the contrary. He traveled to Afghanistan, for the first time, in 1991, aged 17. His classmate, however, is adamant that, they were in school together for three years, starting in 1992. He doesn't believe al Muqrin visited Afghanistan during that time. "He was too young. I don't remember him talking or showing excitement about jihad (holy struggle)." Could Abdul Aziz al Muqrin have kept this matter secret from his fellow pupils?
A fellow militant, known by his initials, MD, who is ten years older than al Muqrin, and a religious hardliner in the past, though never involved in violence, remembers him as "a marginal figure. I was never too interested in al Muqrin. I felt uneasy about him because he was reckless. I never imagined he would become the leader of al Qaeda inside the Kingdom." He continues, "He was a young man who couldn't recite the Quran without making mistakes. I never saw him interested in reading or learning."
According to an expert on al Qaeda and security matters in Saudi Arabia, al Muqrin, "was never a man of leadership. He was merely a facade for the group." In effect, he added, "The person who ran and masterminded the militant networks in the Kingdom was the Yemeni Khalid al Hajj. He was killed on 16th March 2004 in the al Naseem neighborhood, East of Riyadh. He had all the contacts with the overseas al Qaeda leadership."
In the expert's opinion, "perhaps the only person who could rival al Hajj was the Saudi national Yousif al-Ayeeri, before he was killed trying to flee from a security patrol near the Northern city of Hail, on 1st June, 2003.
Here are a few highlights in al Muqrin's life as an Islamic militant:
On visits to Afghanistan, between 1991 and 1994, al Muqrin was trained to use a variety of weapons. He then became an instructor at military camps for Arab fighters such as the Al Faruk and Wal Camps. It is believed that, during his sojourn in Afghanistan, al Muqrin made the acquaintance of many Arab fighters and militant leaders. He had a reputation for being hard on his trainees, to the degree that other militants nicknamed him "al Mukrif" (Mr. Nasty) instead.
Soon after his return to the Kingdom, al Muqrin traveled to Algeria and smuggled arms on behalf of militant groups with the border with Morocco. He was arrested by the Algerian police but managed to escape. Some say he received help from fundamentalist groups. He returned to Saudi Arabia.
Al Muqrin continued his world tour and visited Bosnia to train a group of fighters in Arab camps. It is unknown whether he joined the camp of Algeria militant Abu al Maali or the non- official, more violent camp of al Zubair al Haili. According to some sources, eight Arab men he trained later died in combat.
After returning to Saudi Arabia and leaving for Yemen, al Muqrin joined the fighters of the Somali Islamic Union, based in Ethiopia, who were calling for the independence of the Ogadin region. He was captured by the Ethiopian army after a chase he never tired from recounting.
News of his arrest then reached the Saudi government who asked he be handed over. After spending two years in prison in Ethiopia, al Muqrin was transferred to the general prison, al Hayir where he served two years of a four year sentence. He was released early because of his exemplary conduct and studies of the Quran. I remember meeting al Muqrin soon after his release. He turned away and refused to greet me, for he thought I was an infidel.
After staying in Saudi Arabia for some time, al Muqrin left for Yemen and then, once more, to Afghanistan . His arrival coincided with an influx on Saudi and non-Saudi groups to the country, as the US was about to begin fighting in Afghanistan. Many of those fighters were killed or captured, with some flown to US Camp Delta, in Guantanamo Bay .
He then decided to return home to join al Qaeda, and play a leading role in its activities in the Kingdom. His name featured on the list of 19 most wanted militants published in May 2003 and the list of 26 most wanted announced in December of the same year.
Terrorist activity erupted in Saudi Arabia on 18 th March 2003, in an apartment in Al Jazira, in Riyadh, when bomb- making material exploded prematurely, killing Fahd Samran al Saidi, aged 29.
Weeks later, Saudi police raided an apartment in the Ishbiliya neighborhood and found forged identity cards and passports, in addition to weapons and explosives, with a weight exceeding 700 kg. In May 2003, some of the names on the most wanted list carried out suicide operations against residential compounds in Al Hamra and Granada residential compounds.
After the escalation of violence, al Muqrin was to be propelled into the limelight, if only for a brief time. He had started to make himself noticed, under the protection of al Ayeeri and al Hajj, who was also known as Aby Hazim al Shair. Among the operations al Muqrin participated in were the bombings of al Muhayya residential complex in the capital in November 2003, and al Waha in Khubar, in May 2004.
He was proud of his group's activities, which included killing foreign hostages. He justified targeting the oil industry by citing orders from Osama bin Laden who had mentioned, in one of his speeches, the US company, Haliburton, who had contracts in Iraq.
Perhaps the most violent and peculiar confrontation with Saudi security forces occurred by a building in the al Suwaidi neighborhood where al Muqrin was born and raised. Clashes broke up one morning in November 2004 between elements of al Qaeda and the Kingdom's police. One operative, Amer Al Shahri was badly injured and later died. He was buried in the desert near Riyadh . Ironically, the building where the exchange of fire took place was erected on the rubble of the al Imam al Bayhaqi intermediate school where a young al Muqrin was busy trying to keep the ball out of his net, playing for his school football team and starting.
Al Muqrin changed strategies, after the death of his protector al Hajj, and kidnapped the US Engineer Bob Marshall Johnson. His beheaded corpse was shown on an al Qaeda website on 16th June 2003 . Two day afterwards, al Muqrin and his assistant, Faisal al-Dakhil, and Ibrahim al-Duraiham, and Turki al-Mutairi, were killed during a raid on 18th June 2003 . It was al Muqrin who appeared, veiled in black, giving the Saudi authorities a 72 hour deadline to release militant detainees and expel foreigners from the Kingdom.
After contesting al Muqrin's death, al Qaeda later admitted its leader in Saudi Arabia had, indeed been killed. In a message broadcast on the internet, it added that the loss would not deter the organization from continuing its jihad in Saudi Arabia.
Al Muqrin's story raises an important question. How did a young man from the Eastern al Ahsa region, whose family migrated to Riyadh , like many others, become an extremist militant Islamic fighter?
The answer requires us t take a step back in time to al Muqrin's first involvement with militant activity inside the Kingdom, when in November 1995, a group he was related to blew up the training grounds of the Saudi National Guards, in the upscale Al Alia neighborhood in Riyadh . The architects of the attack, Khalid al-Saeed, Riyadh al-Hajiri, Abd al Aziz al Muthim, confessed live on national television and were sentenced to death. Al Muqrin was closest to al Muthim, whose name was used to refer to the group.
Sources close to Saudi militant groups reveal that al Muthim's group was radicalized after meeting a Jordanian of Palestinian origin, Sheikh Abu Mohammed al Maqdisi, the theorist on Salafi jihad (struggle following the methods of early Muslims) and teacher of Abu Musab al Zarqawi. For his part, al Muthim visited the Sheikh in Jordan on many occasions in 1995. In turn, al Maqdisi paid several visits to Saudi Arabia where he met with a number of young supporters.
In 1989, I saw al Maqdisi in Mecca , at the end of the month of Ramadan, with a group of religious Saudis. It was the first and last time we would meet. At the time, the Sheikh wasn't, yet, speaking of the duty of jihad or military action against the authorities. He did, however, talk, fervently, about bad governance and the infidelity of Arab regimes, since they didn't follow the rules of God and were biased towards the West. Openly, at least, the Sheikh didn't mention armed struggle.
He retuned to the Kingdom in the mid 1990s and stayed for some time, giving lessons and providing excuses for denouncing government and fighting it. It appears that his discourse was divided into two: a theoretical attack on Arab regimes, in public, and a more militarized talk of fighting those in power, in private. This is probably where al Muthim and his group found the inspiration to attack the National Guards base.
The expert M.D who was in contact with these militant groups thinks the main reasons they "became indoctrinated with the belief in armed confrontation is Khaled al Said, the eldest member, ho had visited Afghanistan, met with Algerian and Egyptian militants and agreed with their beliefs in exporting jihad outside on Central Asia."
Our review of the activities of al Muthim and the role of al Maqdisi in providing the group with religious reasons to move from opposing the regime to fighting it, aims at understanding how al Muqrin chose the path of violence. A keen supporter of al Muthim, he encouraged the group to adopt more militant ideologies, to the degree where it opposed all recognized Sheikhs in Saudi Arabia because they didn't believe the teachings of al Maqdisi. When a dispute erupted between al Muthim's group and other militant fundamentalists, al Muqrin sided with the former.
These early days in al Muqrin's life were decisive and a warning of a bloody future. He is buried in the small cemetery Mansuriya cemetery in Riyadh.
This article starring:
ABD AL AZIZ AL MUTHIM
al-Qaeda in the Arabian Peninsula
ABDUL AZIZ BIN ISA BIN ABDULLAH MUHSIN AL MUQRIN
al-Qaeda in the Arabian Peninsula
ABU AL MAALI
al-Qaeda
Abu Musab al Zarqawi
ABY HAZIM AL SHAIR
al-Qaeda in the Arabian Peninsula
AL ZUBAIR AL HAILI
al-Qaeda
AMER AL SHAHRI
al-Qaeda in the Arabian Peninsula
Bob Marshall Johnson
FAISAL AL DAKHIL
al-Qaeda in the Arabian Peninsula
IBRAHIM AL DURAIHAM
al-Qaeda in the Arabian Peninsula
KHALID AL HAJJ
al-Qaeda in the Arabian Peninsula
KHALID AL SAID
al-Qaeda in the Arabian Peninsula
RIYADH AL HAJIRI
al-Qaeda in the Arabian Peninsula
SHEIKH ABU MOHAMED AL MAQDISI
al-Qaeda in the Arabian Peninsula
TURKI AL MUTAIRI
al-Qaeda in the Arabian Peninsula
YUSIF AL AIIRI
al-Qaeda in the Arabian Peninsula
Posted by: Dan Darling ||
06/20/2005 11:35 ||
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No, Dan. al-Muqrin's fleas are very, very sad indeed.
The unity of the Islamic nation is the prime objective of a major international conference to be held in Makkah from Aug. 6 to 8. Some 300 Islamic scholars from different parts of the world will attend the conference which has been organized by the Muslim World League (MWL). "The conference will focus on practical aspects to achieve cultural, political and economic unity among Muslim countries and peoples," said MWL Secretary-General Abdullah Al-Turki after a consultative planning meeting.
The conference will discuss prospects of setting up a defense force within the framework of the United Nations Charter to confront foreign aggression. It will also call for an international Islamic court of justice to settle disputes among Muslim countries and organizations. According to an MWL statement, the conference will emphasize the need to strengthen economic and commercial ties among the 57-member Organization of the Islamic Conference by promoting free trade and establishing an Islamic common market. It will also stress the importance of Islamic solidarity to solve many of the problems facing the Muslim world.
The two-day consultative meeting which ended at MWL headquarters in Makkah yesterday brought together leaders of various Islamic organizations to achieve a consensus on topics for debate at the conference. Those attended the meeting included Ezzuddin Ibrahim, adviser to the UAE president, Khaled Al-Madkur, chairman of the committee for the implementation of Shariah in Kuwait, and Kamil Sharief, secretary-general of the Cairo-based World Islamic Council for Dawa and Relief. The conference, under the patronage of Crown Prince Abdullah, is entitled "The Unity of the Islamic Nation" and has been organized in response to a resolution taken by the OIC summit in Malaysia in October 2003, Al-Turki said.
Posted by: Fred ||
06/20/2005 00:00 ||
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The conference will discuss prospects of setting up a defense force ... to confront foreign aggression. To whom, pray tell, might they be referring? And how on earth do they think they will be able to successfully defend themselves against such?
FLUELLEN
Captain Macmorris, I think, look you, under your
correction, there is not many of your nation--
MACMORRIS
Of my nation! What ish my nation? Ish a villain,
and a bastard, and a knave, and a rascal. What ish
my nation? Who talks of my nation?
-- Henry V, Act 3
#4
...the conference will emphasize the need to strengthen economic and commercial ties among the 57-member Organization of the Islamic Conference by promoting free trade and establishing an Islamic common market.
#5
Well, just as soon as they can agree on the moon-sightingcontroversy, thay can get on to the less important stuff, like having an economy and better ways to conquer the infidels.
#6
âThe conference will focus on practical aspects to achieve cultural, political and economic unity among Muslim countries and peoples,â said MWL Secretary-General Abdullah Al-Turki after a consultative planning meeting.
The ideal outcome for organizers of this "conference" will be that it won't be just Iran that publicly utters the "Death to America" chant; ALL of them will be doing it.
Police in Bahrain beat and arrested demonstrators protesting for jobs in the capital Manama yesterday, rights activists and witnesses said, but the Interior Ministry said police had been attacked first. "A group of about 50 unemployed and other sympathizers were demonstrating peacefully near the royal court when police harshly attacked them, beat them and arrested more than 30 of them," human rights activist Nabeel Rajab said. Among those beaten and arrested was Abdulhadi Al-Khawaja, head of the banned Bahrain Center for Human Rights, Rajab said. Other witnesses said police hit demonstrators with batons.
Posted by: Fred ||
06/20/2005 00:00 ||
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The UK's high-profile Future Offensive Air System (FOAS) programme, a replacement for the Royal Air Force's (RAF's) Tornado GR.4 strike aircraft, has been scrapped after years of planning and concept evaluation to make way for a fundamentally different kind of project focused on a family of long-range, long-endurance unmanned aerial vehicles (UAVs) that will probably embrace the combat, reconnaissance and surveillance roles.
The UK Ministry of Defence's (MoD's) Strategic Unmanned Aerial Vehicle Experiment (SUAVE) will place the testing of UAV technologies - and probable procurement decisions stemming from it - at the centre of a wide-ranging plan to replace the capability currently vested in the Tornado. The Future Combat Air Capability (FCAC) programme, as the plan is known, will rely on 'legacy' programmes - platforms and weapons already in the inventory or on order - to fulfil the mandate originally laid down for FOAS. SUAVE, however, will add the final dimension to the 'force-mix' - placing a UAV and unmanned combat aerial vehicle (UCAV) capability at the centre of a gap that cannot be filled by manned combat aircraft and cruise missiles.
FOAS began life as the Future Offensive Aircraft programme in the early 1990s but soon developed into a more broadly focused effort, as the UK attempted to address the strike gap vacated by the Tornado GR.4's anticipated departure from service in around 2018. FOAS' broad suite of capabilities were expected to comprise the F-35 Joint Strike Fighter (JSF) - to which the UK committed itself in 2001 - and the conventional cruise missile capability represented, respectively, by the UK Royal Navy's Raytheon Tomahawk (later Tactical Tomahawk) and the RAF's MBDA Storm Shadow weapon systems.
FOAS has drifted in the last five years, however, as it has struggled to establish a firm identity. Big and amorphous, and scheduled to absorb a vast amount of money in an increasingly constrained fiscal environment, FOAS had simply lost its way in the view of most observers. Moreover, the budget set aside for the system is badly needed elsewhere.
"It was not well-enough defined and no one is prepared to take big-bang risks anymore," one analyst commented. "We don't need any more killing machines. There's a view that the needs of the army should be met first, with money invested in communications, body armour and technologies that cater to the soldier of the future. In the current climate [the UK military's commitment to Iraq and the war on terror], a big aircraft programme at this stage would simply have been shot down in flames."
The UK Defence Procurement Agency (DPA) acknowledges that FOAS is "no more" and that parts of its former "activity" - mainly in the form of personnel - have been diverted into "other project teams where they will be better managed". This probably refers to efforts now underway to 'rescope' the F-35 and Storm Shadow programmes to meet key parts of the former FOAS (now FCAC) requirement, and to extend the life of the Tornado GR.4 well into the 2020s.
The UK must decide by the end of 2006 whether it will commit to the production phase of the JSF and whether it will stick by the short take-off and vertical landing (STOVL) variant or supplement its STOVL capability with a conventional take-off and landing version of the aircraft. The Storm Shadow, meanwhile, will undergo a series of growth evolutions, to be tested in the next five to 10 years via technology demonstration programmes that will add bomb damage intelligence; increased range; the ability to strike hard and deeply buried targets; network 'connectivity'; and other modifications to the missile now in service.
A SUAVE integrated project team (IPT), meanwhile, will look at UAV- and UCAV-related technologies under development in the UK and elsewhere, to prepare the way for a 'strategic' UK UAV and UCAV capability within the next 15 years. "The SUAVE IPT will be responsible for directing all the work (previously within FOAS) to establish the potential of UAVs across a wide variety of long-range roles so the UK MoD can make informed decisions on their procurement options by 2009/2010," a DPA spokesman told JDW. The work will cover technology, cost-effectiveness and interoperability issues, the DPA added. A long-range UAV stemming from the evaluation may feed into an emerging MoD programme for ISR collection 'in the deep' called Dabinett. Other platforms, including satellites, could ultimately feed into the Dabinett architecture.
The key question is whether the UK will end up buying a domestically developed UAV or UCAV capability or one that has been produced by the US or Europe. Since the early 1990s, BAE Systems has been working on a range of classified technologies at its Warton facility in north-west England. Many of these technologies have been stealthy and directly applicable to UAVs and UCAVs. Funded by the UK MoD, BAE Systems may even have built and tested a UAV/UCAV to validate its technology work. At the Paris Air Show, BAE Systems chief executive Mike Turner alluded to UAV and UCAV technologies that the company had been developing 'in the black'. "Suites of activities underway in the north-west", Turner said in a cautious reference to Warton, could directly feed into a UK UAV/UCAV development and production programme. The industrial imperative for the UK to establish itself openly in the UAV/UCAV field is contrasted, however, by a desire on the part of sections within the RAF to forge ever closer ties with the US, where the Joint Unmanned Combat Air Systems (J-UCAS) programme will begin test flights of the Boeing X-45C and Northrop Grumman X-47B in 2007.
The UK MoD and the US Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (DARPA) in March announced a co-operative programme to determine the military benefit of UCAVs for future coalition operations. One outcome of a deeper dialogue with the US on UAV and UCAV technologies is that the UK could end up buying Boeing or Northrop airframes. The UK could then 'anglicise' the airframes with technology developed indigenously via the BAE/MoD classified demonstration effort and other UK systems and equipment.
"We expect to fight alongside forces operating advanced UAVs, so we must understand these systems even if we do not buy them ourselves," Air Commodore Andy Sweetman, IPT leader for SUAVE, said in a statement on 14 June. "Our work with the US should answer many of the questions we have about operational concepts and effectiveness." Good call, Commodore. We look forward to working with British forces for a good while into the future.
Posted by: too true ||
06/20/2005 10:58 ||
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Here's an early look at on of the possible contenders.
Born in Nationalist Fervor, Pemex Faces Drying Wells; CEO Wants to Open Doors
Gasoline Imports From Texas
MEXICO CITY -- Mexico is the birthplace of oil nationalism. In 1938, it kicked out foreign oil companies and set up a state company with the seized assets. "The oil is ours," President Läzaro Cärdenas declared, and proud Mexicans donated jewelry and chickens to help compensate the foreigners. The nation still celebrates the event: In the tropical oil town of Poza Rica ("Rich Well"), a new mural in the central square shows a fat, cigar-chomping foreign capitalist abusing local oil workers until Mr. Cärdenas frees them.
Today, the philosophy that created Petróleos Mexicanos threatens to ruin it. Pemex, as it is called, is running out of easy oil fields to drill, and it is barred by the Mexican constitution from tying up with foreign companies that could bring in advanced technology and help it find more oil. In natural gas, Pemex's discovery efforts have been so weak that the country must now import from the U.S. even though energy executives think Mexico's gas resources are so big that they could generate billions of dollars a year in exports if tapped. Even after big job cuts and a cleanup of corruption, the company remains among the most inefficient in the industry.
Pemex is still the world's third-biggest producer of crude oil and Latin America's largest company, with $69 billion in revenue and 142,000 employees. Thanks to high oil prices, it contributed $42 billion in taxes last year to Mexico's government coffers, one-third of total tax revenue. But the risk of a crash in oil and gas production is so high that for the first time in the company's 67-year history, Pemex's own management publicly says Mexican lawmakers must open the door to deals in Mexico with foreigners.
"We Mexicans have oil nationalism in our DNA. But unless we carry out an intelligent opening, we're going to have our backs against the wall someday and will have to sell our oil reserves," warns LuÃs Ramirez Corzo, who took over the company's top spot last November.
"In Mexico, logic ends where our constitution begins," says LuÃs Farias, vice president of energy at cement giant Cemex SA, which generates its own electricity with petroleum residues and even oily rags to reduce spending on natural gas.
The U.S. is also concerned about the fate of Mexico's oil industry. Mexico accounts for 16% of U.S. oil imports, second only to Canada and ahead of Saudi Arabia. If Mexico can pump out more oil and gas, that could ease the supply pressures that have pushed prices up over the past year.
A Political Creature
But from its first day, Pemex has been a political creature -- and politics has blocked all significant change. An opening of Mexico's energy market is one of many economic changes proposed by President Vicente Fox, and they have almost invariably been shot down in a Congress controlled by the Institutional Revolutionary Party, or PRI. The PRI governed Mexico unchallenged for seven decades until its candidate was defeated by Mr. Fox in the 2000 presidential election.
Mr. Fox is trying again, negotiating with opposition parties to craft a bill that would allow Pemex to co-own oil and gas on Mexican territory with a foreign company. But with only 13 months until presidential elections -- Mr. Fox isn't allowed to run again -- he faces daunting odds in getting the bill passed.
Those who oppose the bill argue that Mexico's earlier attempts to overhaul state companies ended up in disaster for average Mexicans -- and huge profits for a handful of wealthy investors. Businessman Carlos Slim, who bought Mexico's former state telephone monopoly, has since become the world's third-richest man with a fortune estimated at $24 billion, while Mexicans now pay among the world's highest prices for phone service. The country's privatized banks, which went bankrupt during the peso crisis in 1995, had to be bailed out by taxpayers. A few Mexican bank owners then made big profits selling the banks to foreigners, and Citigroup Inc. now owns Mexico's biggest bank.
"Oil built our country. Why would we want to give it up to the Americans?" asks Manuel Bartlett, a leading PRI senator. Umm, because they would pay for it???
Adrian Lajous, a former Pemex chief executive, says would-be reformers are trying to move too quickly. "I am convinced Mexico must maintain a large-scale, integrated, dominant oil firm with a clear national identity," he says.
Another factor behind the inertia is Pemex's considerable success over the years in proving skeptics wrong. When the company was first created, Standard Oil of New Jersey and other American companies predicted a poor nation could never learn the oil business. They organized boycotts to retaliate for Mexico's expropriation of foreign-owned assets. By the 1950s, however, Pemex was pumping out plenty of oil and building its reserves. Brazil and other countries cited Mexico's success when they nationalized their own oil industries.
By the late 1960s, Pemex's fields along Mexico's eastern coast, known as the Golden Belt, were beginning to dry up and some predicted doom again. Then it made several big strikes. One of them came in the mid-1970s after a fisherman named Juan Cantarell spotted oil slicks around his dinghy and reported them to Pemex. The Cantarell oil field turned out to be one of history's great gushers. Jorge Nordhausen, now a Mexican senator, remembers working as a contractor during the field's early days. The oil spurted out of the seabed with such force, he says, that his team didn't even need pumps to get it to the nearest coast several miles away.
With so much cash sloshing about, Pemex was a natural font of corruption. One former union leader built a baseball park with Pemex money, made every worker buy season tickets and pocketed the gate receipts. Last month, the government's bureaucracy watchdog fined six former Pemex officials, including former Chief Executive Rogelio Montemayor, accusing them of colluding with the union to funnel $127 million in Pemex money to fund the PRI's 2000 election campaign. Mr. Montemayor and the others deny the allegations in the "Pemexgate" scandal and are appealing the fines. Even now, Pemex chiefs estimate that corruption, including theft of gasoline, costs the company more than $1 billion a year.
Vast Army
Pemex long acted as a kind of social-welfare agency, hiring a vast army of workers. In the mid-1990s, the company slashed its work force by almost half, but the number of unionized employees has crept up again by about 5,000 under Mr. Fox. In the town of Poza Rica, local union leader Sergio Quiroz spends much of his day dealing with job-seekers who gather outside his office. "I try to say no, but if they persist for about a year, I eventually find them a spot," he says. It takes 27 Pemex workers to operate a well versus an industry average of 10.
Now nature and time appear to be catching up with the company. Cantarell's bounty is expected to begin declining this year or next. Pemex says it can keep oil production at the current 3.4 million barrels a day for the next few years, but some analysts expect output to drop 20% by 2010. Pemex will have to scramble for new supplies in hard-to-reach places such as deep seabeds in the Gulf of Mexico. Absent new finds, Mexico could become a net oil importer within 10 years, Pemex says.
Oil companies around the world face a similar challenge, but Pemex is especially ill-prepared to meet it. The company has never had to develop expertise in extracting oil from tough places. While some believe it could buy technology off the shelf, Pemex says that's difficult because key technologies are considered proprietary by their owners. Besides, "we don't even know what to buy," says Carlos Morales, head of exploration and production.
RTWT at the link. This has huge implications for illegal immigration, the ability of China to buy influence and assets in Latin America and other issues as well.
Posted by: too true ||
06/20/2005 09:52 ||
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Notice the xenophobic aspects of the Mexican Constitution never get highlighted in MSM. American prosperity is help by large foreign investments from the British, Dutch, Japanese, etc. The unemployment and poverty which is systemic to the Mexican economic environment is permanent with the xenophobia and corruption that appears not to be correctable short of a revolution.
Posted by: Jong Cravirong9792 ||
06/20/2005 11:58 Comments ||
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#3
We spend billions and kill tens of thousands securing Iraq's oil and we can't scheme our way into the Mexican reserves. Nuke em.
MM
Posted by: Mountain Man ||
06/20/2005 12:48 Comments ||
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Careful... the stage is being set outsourcing management of PEMEX. Will the tendrils of the ChiCom or Venezuela appear in the shadows overnite probing the possibilities? Don't laugh... search around and take a look at who is outsourced to manage the post and lock areas of the Panama Canal.
Energy prices are so high in Mexico that it's sometimes cheaper to make textiles in the U.S. despite lower Mexican wages
HAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA!
(Does that make me a bad person? Good!)
Posted by: Barbara Skolaut ||
06/20/2005 17:16 Comments ||
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#9
should Mexico decide to sell Pemex to the Chicoms, I'd suggest a shutdown of the border and full expulsion of all illegals via roundup. Let the dice roll
Posted by: Frank G ||
06/20/2005 19:31 Comments ||
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#10
Frank G, maybe the adminstration should extend its policy of facilitating regime change in hostile regimes to Mexico. Also, given the dangerous business climate in Mexico, wouldn't be surprised if some of those chicoms and chavezcoms should have the same life expectancy as a Tijuana police chief.
A former parliament speaker has been arrested in the brief takeover of Kyrgyzstan's government headquarters last week, according to a news report Sunday. Mukar Cholponbayev, who served as speaker of the Central Asian nation's lower parliament house in the late 1990s, was arrested in the capital Bishkek on Saturday, the Interfax news agency reported, citing an unidentified Interior Ministry official.
According to Interfax, the official said Cholponbayev was suspected of helping organize the takeover Friday, in which about 2,000 supporters of a would-be presidential contender stormed the headquarters. Troops from the Interior Ministry forced them out about an hour later, using tear gas to disperse the crowd in the biggest unrest since opposition protesters seized the government building on March 24 and ousted longtime President Askar Akayev, who fled to Russia. The crowd was protesting election officials' refusal to register Urmat Baryktabasov to run in Kyrgyzstan's July 10 presidential vote. Officials have said he is ineligible because he was a citizen of neighboring Kazakhstan. Acting President Kurmanbek Bakiyev is expected to win the election.
"You cannot be Zorro, 'cuz you got a fonny assent!"
Posted by: Fred ||
06/20/2005 00:00 ||
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Two Republican members of Congress are calling on the Bush administration to review -- and potentially block -- an expected effort by China's third-largest oil-and-natural-gas company to acquire Unocal Corp.
The move comes as China's Cnooc Ltd. is considering a counterbid for Unocal, a U.S. company with oil-and-gas reserves in North America and Asia. In April, Chevron Corp. -- the second-largest U.S. oil company in terms of market value, behind Exxon Mobil Corp. -- agreed to buy Unocal in a stock-and-cash deal valued at $16.7 billion.
In a pre-emptive move, the congressmen sent a letter to Mr. Bush on Friday seeking a federal review of any bid by Cnooc, the publicly listed arm of state-owned China National Offshore Oil Corp., based on national-security concerns. "The United States increasingly needs to view meeting its energy requirements within the context of our foreign policy, national security and economic security agenda. This is especially the case with China," wrote Richard Pombo and Duncan Hunter, Republican congressmen from California amen - preach it brothers! . They urged the president to exercise his authority under a 1988 federal law to begin a thorough review by the Committee on Foreign Investments in the U.S., an interagency panel chaired by Treasury Secretary John Snow. After the review, Mr. Bush could block the deal, though such a move would be highly unusual.
Even calling for the review could have repercussions for the U.S. relationship with China. Tension between the major trading partners is on the rise after Washington recently reimposed import quotas on some kinds of clothing from China. Members of the U.S. Congress also are concerned about America's widening trade deficit with China.
Earlier this month, Cnooc said it was examining its options, including making a bid for Unocal. A Cnooc investment adviser has nearly wrapped up its analysis and is expected shortly to issue its recommendations to the company's directors, according to people with knowledge of the situation.
A Cnooc bid would heat up competition over resources among companies from the world's biggest energy-consuming nations. Growing global energy demand is sending prices up. Benchmark crude-oil futures closed Friday on the New York Mercantile Exchange at a record high $58.47 a barrel, although that still is below the inflation-adjusted peak in the 1970s. Driven in part by a fast-growing Chinese appetite for fuel, global energy consumption grew 4.3% in 2004, the highest percentage increase since 1984 and a record increase in terms of actual oil-and-gas volume, according to an annual statistical review compiled by BP PLC.
China's hunger for oil and gas, and its willingness to pay top dollar, has made it an aggressive purchaser of natural resources around the world. But a Chinese company has never taken on a purchase of the size and political resonance of Unocal, a fixture of the U.S. economy since its founding 115 years ago. Unocal is the ninth-largest U.S. oil company in terms of reserves.
Cnooc and Chevron both aggressively pursued a deal for Unocal earlier this year. For reasons that aren't clear, Cnooc's all-cash $16.7 billion offer was withdrawn hours before the Unocal board met to consider Chevron's offer. About half of Unocal's reserves are natural-gas fields in Southeast Asia. Unocal also holds a 10% stake in a giant oil field in Azerbaijan, and it controls the oil-and-gas equivalent of 557 million barrels of oil in the U.S. and Canada.
If Cnooc were to make an offer for Unocal, the Chinese company would have to pay a $500 million break-up fee to Chevron. The terms of the Chevron-Unocal deal require that Unocal shareholders vote on the merger, even if another suitor emerges. That vote still isn't scheduled. Chevron spokesman Donald Campbell declined to discuss what the company would do if faced with a rival bid for Unocal. "We are unwavering in our intent to see this transaction through to a successful and quick conclusion," he said.
In their letter, the congressmen expressed concern about China's increasing appetite for oil and its apparent willingness to use its treasury to fund acquisitions. "We fear that American companies will find it increasingly difficult to compete against China's state-owned and/or controlled energy companies, given their mandates to supply China's ever growing demand for energy," they write. "A government-owned company like Cnooc has access to the Treasury of the Chinese government, something no company operating in the free market has."
Industry analysts are skeptical that Cnooc would have direct access to the Chinese treasury. But a Cnooc bid for Unocal would likely benefit from other forms of government support, such as substantial loans from Chinese state-controlled banks.
Posted by: too true ||
06/20/2005 09:47 ||
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The ChiComs want to buy an American corporation?
What's that spinning sound coming from Tianamin Square?
Douglas Wood, the Australian freed after being held hostage in Iraq, has apologised for comments he made while in captivity.
Mr Wood arrived in Melbourne this morning, where he will reacquaint himself with family and friends as he recovers from 47 days in captivity as a hostage of Iraqi insurgents in Baghdad. At a press conference at Melbourne Airport, Mr Wood said he supports Australian and US policies on Iraq, and apologised to Prime Minister John Howard and US President George W Bush for some of the things he said while in captivity. "I'm proof positive that the policy of the American and Australian governments is the right one," he said.
Mr Wood says his rescue by local police is evidence of the successful training by Australian and American troops. "I think the quicker we hire, recruit, train police and the Iraq Army up to speed, then, when they're fully engaged and ready, they can start going around door to door and start developing confidence in the Iraq population," he said.
In videos of Mr Wood broadcast by Iraqi insurgents, the hostage pleaded with Australia and the US to withdraw troops from Iraq.
Mr Howard says he appreciates the apology, but he was not seeking it. He says its symbolic and moving to see the family reunited.
The Prime Minister has also rejected suggestions the Australian team sent to Iraq actually hindered rescue efforts. "This suggestion that in some way a botched operation by Australians meant that he would have been, that he was not released as early as he might have been, that is completely wrong," he said.
Mr Wood also paid tribute to his family. "I love my family, and I knew that they'd be doing as much as they could to get me out," he said. When asked if he was feeling fragile he replied: "Not especially [but] I've got some physical ailments and I've been deprived of medication for a bit."
Mr Wood also said he had not ruled out ever going back to Iraq.
Yvonne Given, Mr Wood's wife, says she never lost faith her husband would be rescued. "I am so excited and so happy and very, very grateful to the Australian Government," she said.
Mr Wood's brother Vernon says the family has hired a management company to deal with the media and has dismissed criticisms that his brother Douglas is seeking to profit from his ordeal. Vernon Wood says the story of his brother's capture and dramatic rescue should be told by Douglas on his own terms. "Our family has been inundated with inquiries from the media and businesses seeking to explore commercial opportunities for Doug," he said. "We took the step of securing professional support to ensure we can handle and protect Doug's interests.
"Doug's story is amazing. We owe it to Doug to make sure it is told fairly and accurately in the fullness of time.
Mr Wood says he has made no plans to sell his story.
Mr Wood is travelling with his wife, and his family is hoping for a meeting with the Prime Minister and Foreign Minister Alexander Downer.
Federal Opposition Leader Kim Beazley says he is pleased Douglas Wood is looking fit and well despite his ordeal. Mr Beazley says he can understand Mr Wood's comments regarding Australia's policies in Iraq, but it does not mean things are getting better in Iraq. "We have never denied that fact, that it's important that Iraq assumes responsibility of Iraqis, assume responsibility for their own security," he said. "But if you go and extrapolate from that a discussion about whether or not things are going well, they're not going well, things are going very badly in Iraq indeed."
I am very impressed with him. He has spoken right out: including such gems as (roughly paraphrased) "I am proof positive that the US is following the right policy by training Iraqi soldiers as I was freed by Iraqis."
He has squarely laid the glory with the US and Iraqi armed forces and been silent on the Sheikh. God bless you Douglas Wood.
And yes, Sheikh Hilaly WAS trying to force his mug into the victory picture but now he is suffering sour grapes. "The 'stupid' action of armed forces raiding the house risked the hostages lives" Hilaly has come out saying.
I'll post the full attrocity under 'Loser Sheikh throws temper tantrum'.
Turkey's Defence Industries Undersecretariat (SSM) has signed a Memorandum of Understanding with US company Sikorsky for the acquisition of an additional 12 Seahawk SH-60B shipborne anti-submarine helicopters for the Turkish Navy Forces Command (TNFC).
The agreement was signed shortly before Minister of National Defence Vecdi GönÃŒl visited the US on 10 June where he announced the deal. Turkey has become the largest operator of Sikorsky helicopters after the US Army and already operates 125 Sikorsky Black Hawk multi-purpose helicopters. The $389 million Seahawk deal came after long-running negotiations stalled over the price and some technical disputes. About $324 million of the project will be financed by the US Eximbank and the remainder from SSM funds. Sikorsky plans to deliver the helicopters in three to four years time and made a $200 million offset pledge.
The seven SH-60Bs already operated by Turkey will be upgraded, including glass cockpits, to bring them to the same standard as the new helicopters.
In Turkey's other major helicopter procurement, a troubled multi-billion dollar effort to buy 50 attack helicopters (with an option for a further 41), French-German Eurocopter plans to offer Tiger helicopters. However, a commercial dispute continues between the SSM and competitors on both sides of the Atlantic over the terms and conditions of the tender.
Bidders told JDW that a revised tender document fell short of satisfying their needs and did not go beyond what they described as cosmetic changes. Turkey, however, extended the deadline from 10 June to 13 September for responses to the Request for Proposals released on 10 February.
In a related development, the Turkish-US dispute over technology transfer surfaced during an American-Turkish business meeting
Major General Peter Sutton, chief of the US office of the defence co-operation in Ankara, described Turkey's requests as unrealistic: "Not even all our closest friends and allies receive all technologies.
"On the other hand, in fairness to our friends and allies, I also believe it's necessary for US policymakers to continually review our technology transfer policies to ensure they are right for the times and that we are only withholding those specific technologies that absolutely must have protection," Maj Gen Sutton added.
Posted by: too true ||
06/20/2005 11:05 ||
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June 20, 2005: Last month, France revealed that at least five French citizens had died fighting as Islamic terrorists in Iraq. One of them died as a suicide bomber. This month, Spanish police rounded up 16 men suspected of being active with Islamic terrorist groups, particularly Ansar al Islam. This outfit has been dominated by Kurds, and has received support from Iran in the past (largely to provide another irritant for Saddam Hussein.) Since Hussein fell in 2003, it's unclear how much support Ansar is getting from Iran. But Ansar is a major player in Europe, where it raises money and recruits people to undertake terror operations outside Europe. Ansar in particular, and Kurdish activists in general, have followed this policy so as to preserve their base of operations in Europe, where about a million Kurds live. While only a small percentage of those support Islamic radicalism, it's enough to make Ansar one of the largest Islamic terrorist groups in Europe. Moreover, Ansar works closely with Islamic groups that do carry out terrorist attacks in Europe.
Until recently, European counter-terrorism forces merely watched the Kurds, and Ansar. The "arrangement," that kept Kurds from being violent in Europe, was respected by European police, until it was noted that the Kurds were tight with a lot of quite violent (in Europe) terrorists (particularly the bunch that bombed Madrid in March, 2005). When French and German police dug into their Kurd files, and pressed those they had in custody, they found Ansar to be a major player in the terrorism universe.
Ansar al Islam was founded in late 2001, with the help of al Qaeda. From the beginning, it was largely Kurdish, and determined to unite all Kurds in an Islamic state. Violence and terrorism committed in Iraq by Ansar has made the organization unpopular there. But in Europe, Kurds don't suffer from those attacks, and see Ansar as heroic freedom fighters.
Posted by: Steve ||
06/20/2005 10:30 ||
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The Basque separatist group ETA said Saturday it had halted attacks against "elected members of political parties," but Spanish politicians dismissed the claim. The statement published in the radical Basque daily Gara, which is often used as a mouthpiece for the group, said that as of June 1 ETA had "closed the front" against elected politicians because of changes in Spain's political atmosphere. These changes included the split in the anti-terrorist pact between Spain's governing Socialists and the conservative Popular Party.
It was now up to Madrid and Paris to "respond positively to the willingness shown by ETA in recent months," the statement said. The statement was published a day after the group offered dialogue to end the conflict in the northern Spanish region, but ignored demands that it disarm — vowing to fight until Spain acknowledges Basques have the right to self-determination. Deputy Prime Minister Maria Teresa Fernandez de la Vega said Friday "the only communique the government wants to comment on is the one in which ETA announces it is abandoning violence definitively, in which it announces it will stop killing, that it will stop extorting, that it is disappearing."
Posted by: Fred ||
06/20/2005 00:00 ||
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We won't kill you, if you allow us to kill the plebes in exchange for political favors. Yeah, that should go over well with the plebes.
An explosion ripped through a pizzeria in a town in the southeastern province of Styria, killing two children and injuring seven, in a blast that may have been the result of an attack, authorities said. The explosion Saturday touched off a fire and gutted the building in Wagna bei Leibnitz, a small town in Austria's wine-growing region, Austria Press Agency reported. Several surrounding buildings were damaged. The two dead children were between ages 4 and 5. The injured, including an 18-month old child, were hospitalized.
Police combed the collapsed structure hours after the 2:40 a.m. blast in hopes of determining the cause, though by mid-afternoon authorities discounted the possibility that leaking gas was to blame. "It looks at the moment like it was probably an attack," Fire inspector Guenter Peterka told state television. The Egyptian family that operated the restaurant had been involved in a dispute with others in the building over the noise from the restaurant.
Okay. It's probably unfair of me to immediately leap to the conclusion that they solved the dispute like they would have solved it back home. After all, they could be perfectly honest, ethical businessmen. It could be leaking gas, even though it doesn't look like it. I suppose it could be skinheads, though I haven't seen many other booms attributed to the lederhosen and dirndl set...
Posted by: Fred ||
06/20/2005 00:00 ||
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Little things in Austria have a way of getting out of control.
The Downing Street memo has a new fan — Sen. John Kerry, D-Mass. — who recently said that the memo was a "stunning, unbelievably simple and understandable statement of the truth and a profoundly important document." The problem for Kerry, however, is that there is another document that contradicts his view, a document that the defeated Democratic presidential candidate ought to remember.
No, I am not talking about the other official British documents disclosed since Kerry made that statement, although they do show just how silly it was for people to interpret the first memo — which contained meeting minutes — the way they did.
So now, back to Kerry, who had virtually the same access to U.S. intelligence as Bush himself and who surely examined the evidence before voting to give Bush the authority to go to war. His views on WMD are contained in a record of Senate debate in which he referred to Saddam "sitting in Baghdad with an arsenal of weapons of mass destruction" and asked:
"In the wake of Sept. 11, who among us can say with any certainty to anybody that the weapons might not be used against our troops or against allies in the region? Who can say that this master of miscalculation will not develop a weapon of mass destruction even greater, a nuclear weapon ...?"
Pretty good argument. Important document.
Bloggers, where are you?
Posted by: Bobby ||
06/20/2005 09:25 ||
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Two other documents this dimwit should familiarize himself with: the text of President Bill Clinton's February 17, 1998 address to the Joint Chiefs of Staff, and the text of the Iraq Liberation Act of 1998.
This idiotic "Bush Lied, People Died" crap has gone far enough: maybe it's time to declare the entire Democratic Party leadership, and the Democratic members of the House and Senate, as enemy combatants and treat them accordingly. Send them all to Gitmo, and torment them by flushing their copies of The Nation.
Filthy, treasonous bastards.
Posted by: Dave D. ||
06/20/2005 12:59 Comments ||
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good!! Kerry's on it. Bush must be relieved!! Go for it, Senator.
From John Kass at the Chicago Tribune, June 16. Don't think we noted this one here and we should have. I favor "Muskrat Love", myself.
Have U.S. interrogators been too mean in questioning suspected terrorists held at Guantanamo Bay? I don't think so. They didn't go far enough. For example, they foolishly used the recorded voice of pop star Christina Aguilera as an implement of torture.
Music as weapon is a brilliant tactic. Just ask former Panamanian dictator Manuel Noriega. The problem at Guantanamo wasn't music. They used the wrong music and failed to call me first.
Amateurs! Dilettantes! I could have told them about the Worst Song in the World: "Ballerina."
In it Vaughn Monroe--known as "The Voice with Hair on Its Chest" and "Old Leather Tonsils"--annoyingly croons, "Dance, ballerina, dance."
If you're online and an official terrorist interrogator and wish to hear a sample of the deadly tune--a measly snippet since Tribune lawyers are too chicken to violate copyright laws--then click here. If you're reading this in the paper, too bad, I'm not going to sing it, but go to chicagotribune.com/kass (ka-ching).
Intelligence officials did their best to break the terrorists with unspeakable torments, including offering plenty of honeyed chicken, fruit, various breakfast cereals and, for the less devout, photographs of naked women.
Then they blew it big time by using Aguilera.
Her music reportedly was piped into the cell of Osama bin Laden's henchman Mohamed al-Qahtani. He allegedly was the 20th hijacker, the only one kept out of the country, so he couldn't make his plane on Sept. 11, 2001. "I will tell the truth," he was quoted as saying in Time magazine. "I am doing this to get out of here."
Then he shut up.
Because I'm not 13, I've never heard Aguilera's music. But a photograph in a tabloid depicted a blond showing cleavage, with her pants spray-painted on. Obviously, she's talented.
But U.S. intelligence officials failed us once again. Had they spent any "time in the field" they'd know that hardened criminals prepared to murder thousands of Americans with jets would never be intimidated by some pop pixie.
So, what's needed at Guantanamo is the Worst Song in the World, something so bad it would drive bin Laden to church, and not just so he could blow it up.
I offer "Dance, Ballerina, Dance" freely to my nation. It would break any terrorist; and it could be used as part of the soundtrack in the next Quentin Tarantino movie during a killing spree, say Pam Grier with an egg slicer, the kind with wires.
Others are now rushing forward in their own patriotic frenzy, offering their own Worst Songs in the World, hoping to break the terrorists before other nations make fun of us for the Aguilera tactic.
"How can you talk about the worst song? You don't listen to music," said Mrs. Flynn, who once helped me with the column. She suggested "Unskinny Bop" by Poison, a hair metal band. And "Lonely," sung by Akon, which sounds like a chipmunk being skinned with a butter knife. "It makes you sick, the chipmunk thing, the high chirpy voice like Alvin, and they're playing it on the radio all the time now," she said.
The Swede who helps these days offered up a '70s band, perhaps to curry favor with the geezer who hired him. "Anything by the Bee Gees," he said, fully aware that I liked Black Sabbath then. "The Bee Gees sound like castrati."
Others mentioned sensitive punk rockers Dashboard Confessional, which is chock full of incessant whining, sort of like U.S. Sen. Dick Durbin worried about America abusing terrorists.
"Baby Got Back" was offered, since it contains the immortal line "I like big butts and I cannot lie," but it is unsuitable for terrorists and children. "Cracklin' Rosie" by Neil Diamond was nominated, as was Donna Summers' "MacArthur Park" and "Brandy (You're a Fine Girl. What a Good Wife You Would Be)" by some crappy band nobody cares about.
Yet let's not forget that the Worst Song in the World is "Dance, Ballerina, Dance," sung by Mr. Tonsils. I heard it while stuck in Hubbard's Cave on the Kennedy Expressway during rush hour. The air conditioning and the radio were broken and the only available station was an oldies one I despised, being then in the "Sweet Leaf" mode.
So breathing truck exhaust, trapped in a rusty Datsun, listening to "Dance Ballerina, Dance" and snickering at my misfortune, it stuck in my mind lo these 20 years now. If I hear it repeatedly, I'll confess to anything.
"Dance, ballerina, dance/and do your pirouette in rhythm with your achin' heart. Dance, ballerina, dance/You mustn't once forget a dancer has to dance the part ..."
"Whirl, ballerina/ once you said his love must wait its turn/You wanted fame instead/I guess that's your concern/We live and learn ... So dance, ballerina, dance."
A couple spins of that and any terrorist would sing.
Posted by: Steve White ||
06/20/2005 16:15 ||
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In the early 60's Jimmy Cagney made a B&W comedy about being a Coca-Cola VP in Berlin. His daughter wants to marry an East German border guard. At one point, the EG's capture him, thinking he's a capitalist stooge, and torture him by plaing "Itsy, Bitsy, Teeny-weenie, Yellow Polka-Dot bikini" with the hole drilled off-center. Gives new meaning to ROTFLOL.
Posted by: Bobby ||
06/20/2005 18:24 Comments ||
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Oh, yeah. The name of the Movie is 1-2-3. It's not easy to find; I got mine at Virgin records.
Posted by: Bobby ||
06/20/2005 18:26 Comments ||
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via Drudge
KNOXVILLE, Tenn. -- Sixteen foreign-born construction workers with phony immigration documents were able to enter a nuclear weapons plant in eastern Tennessee because of lax security controls, a federal report said Monday. I'd like to know where these people are from. Just about every time they don't say where they are from they turn out to be from someplace where Allan is popular.
Controls at the Y-12 weapons plant have since been tightened and there was no evidence the workers had access to any sensitive documents, said the National Nuclear Security Administration, which oversees nuclear weapons facilities for the Department of Energy. "And no US warhead technology ever made it into the hands of the Chinese either."
However, the DOE inspector general's office said in the report issued Monday that its field agents found "official use only" documents "lying unprotected in a construction trailer which was accessed by the foreign construction workers" at the plant. Nice.
"Thus, these individuals were afforded opportunities to access ... (this) information," the inspector general wrote. "We concluded that this situation represented a potentially serious access control and security problem." Ya think? Jeez, our government at work.
The report, initiated by a tip in 2004, said the workers had fake green cards that certified them to work in the United States. Their cases were turned over to the Immigration and Customs Enforcement agency for deportation. I'm sure the hearing will held within the next four years. Gotta let the ALCU prepare their defense first.
In response to the foreign workers intrusion at the plant, visitors now must provide passports or birth certificates along with other background information. I wonder if that Mexican Consulate card will suffice.
The inspector general said it was particularly concerned about allowing subcontractors to self-certify the citizenship of their employees, and that the Office of Counterintelligence didn't know foreign constructions workers were at the Y-12 site until it was notified by the inspector general's office. Since it doesn't seem to matter much who's a citizen and who's not anymore, I'm surprised they bothered. Sheesh.
My father works at K-25, just down the road. I asked if he knows more about this. I'll update if he has anything.
Posted by: Laurence of the Rats ||
06/20/2005 14:59 ||
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Maaybe something has changed but when I was there back in 93, 94, 95, Y-12 was not making bombs any more but was storing a lot of stuff. When the Berlin wall came down they got a bunch of Russian material as well to store.
Posted by: Deacon Blues ||
06/20/2005 15:50 Comments ||
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I wonder if that Mexican Consulate card will suffice.
It probably will. It seems to suffice for a lot of other things.
#3
My father hadn't even heard of this incident, but he did have this to say:
"This report leaves more questions than answers. When did this occur? Where in Y-12? There are a number of areas that are considered to be in the plant where uncleared people can work. They mark almost everything official use only. Also, a construction site could mean buildings that are strictly support buildings or more probably associated with some of the cleanup that is going on. I assure you that no one entered the real security area where you must have your hand stamped from GOD to enter and you are strictly controlled even then."
Posted by: Laurence of the Rats ||
06/20/2005 16:15 Comments ||
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This was a bunch of Mexican laborers no doubt.
No Mexican construction worker/groundskeeper/restaurant worker anywhere in the country has real greencards, the guards should have noticed they were fake when they all had the same name, and were printed on a home computer.
The security guards probably don't even check these guys, they Mexicans not Arabs!
MM
Posted by: Mountain Man ||
06/20/2005 16:26 Comments ||
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Deacon Blues - I believe that Libyan material went to Y-12 as well.
Posted by: Laurence of the Rats ||
06/20/2005 17:03 Comments ||
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Much ado about nothing. To get onto a construction site at a location, you need some regular 'ol ID. To get into a "restricted" area, you need a badge, issued by the security officer. To get into a "secret" area, you need previously said badge with color coded clearance, followed with the door combination lock and past the guard. To get into a "top secret" area, you need the above things, past several more guards and some have eye scanners and fingerprint scanners in addition to the keypad lock.
These guys got onto the construction site. Big whoop. Bitch about something else besides nuke plants MSM. And Gitmo or Abbu Grabbie doesn't count.
#7
mmurry, I agree. The only way to get into the really secret sites was how you described. Even a Q clearance wouldn't get you into most places. I worked at all three sites in Oak Ridge.
Posted by: Deacon Blues ||
06/20/2005 18:25 Comments ||
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I worked onsite at Y-12 on and off for 10 years. Security there is tight. I doubt these fellars got anywhere close to any real sensitive information. Lots of work on the DOE property is in unclassified areas. I dont think you even need a clearance for OUO.
It is a black mark for the security. They will have to explain how this won't happen again.
Some of this might have to do with DOE's unoffical set asides for minority and disadvantaged companies. PC forbids me to talk about this.
Bid to Steal Valuable Data Targets Corporate Systems, Government Institutions
Authorities say unidentified hackers from Asia have been launching a wave of attacks on government and corporate computer systems in the U.S., Canada and the U.K. in an effort to steal sensitive commercial data.
The British government Thursday announced that hackers seeking commercially and economically valuable information were attacking vital U.K. government and corporate computer networks. It cited the source of the attacks as "often linked to the Far East."
The problem appears to be more widespread than the U.K. government initially indicated. The attacks started at least two years ago and have targeted institutions in the U.S., Canada and Australia, among dozens of other countries, authorities say.
The revelations show that computer viruses released via the Internet increasingly are being used to garner confidential information, ranging from personal banking details of consumers to industrial espionage.
Thursday's report was issued by the U.K.'s National Infrastructure Security Coordination Center, or NISCC. The agency reports to the Home Office, the government department responsible for combating threats to U.K. national security.
Home Office spokesman James Cox said the attacks are "well organized" and "appear to be the work of a coordinated group." probably Chinese As for whether data have successfully been stolen, he said NISCC had no evidence that it had but couldn't be certain that it hadn't.
U.S. institutions have suffered similar attacks for at least a couple of years, and investigators suspect that the hacking is coming mostly from computers in China, yup, starting with the Red Lion virus according to a law-enforcement official. Hundreds of U.S. institutions have been targeted, this official said. Many of the targets are involved in technology research and development but also include financial institutions, he said. Government agencies and suppliers, such as defense contractors, were also targeted, he added.
The official added that the government data targeted have been unclassified, rather than classified, information. Still, unclassified information includes valuable details such as emails, contact lists and travel schedules. He said some data had been taken, including information related to technology research and development.
Because computers can be commandeered from afar, security experts say it can be hard to pinpoint the source of cyber attacks. An official at China's Ministry of Foreign Affairs said he wasn't familiar with the attacks. "I have no information to provide at this moment," he said. or ever
Zuwena Robidas, a spokeswoman for Public Safety and Emergency Preparedness Canada, the equivalent of the U.S. Department of Homeland Security, said attacks in Canada date back to November 2003 but recently have increased in frequency.
Ms. Robidas said hackers had gained access to information, which could include some information about the user of an infected computer. "This would likely be limited to their username and password," said Ms. Robidas. She added that an investigation is under way, and it would be "inappropriate to speculate" about who was behind the attacks.
According to Britain's NISCC, the hackers are sending computer code attached to emails to individuals who work with sensitive or "privileged" information. The emails are designed to appear as if they come from trusted contacts, and often carry subject lines that refer to news articles that would be of interest to the recipient.
The software in the emails secretly installs itself on the computer, typically either when the recipient opens an attachment or clicks on a link to a Web site. Once installed, a remote hacker can gain access to the system to obtain passwords, scan the network or gather information.
A spokeswoman at the Australian Embassy in London said no one was immediately available to comment.
Posted by: too true ||
06/20/2005 09:43 ||
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Also South Korea. They're very tech savy and they have a history of hack attacks. Maybe not the government, but a lot of the younger generation do it for "Korean pride". South Korea is a very xenophobic country.
THE government was last night facing demands to reassess the security threat to the G8 summit after plans to protect the world's most powerful people were leaked.
Confidential documents detailing the assessment of the terrorist threat - including from chemical or radiological attack - were passed on by a member of the intelligence community in an apparent attempt to embarrass UK ministers. The whistleblower said he was appalled by the "complacency" towards security.
The documents were said to include an analysis of the hotel's possible vulnerability and the likely positioning of security forces. The report stated that the blueprint, drawn up for what is known as Operation Sorbus, included a list of vulnerable areas at the venue. It showed reinforced fencing to keep out potential protesters and suicide bombers and aerial photographs of the venue marking likely terrorist targets.
But Tayside Police yesterday dismissed as "nonsense" suggestions that the leak had exposed flaws in the preparations for the summit in July. Willie Bald, the Tayside Police Assistant Chief Constable, said any suggestion that preparations for the event had been thrown into disarray following the leak was "nonsense".
"We can see no reason why someone genuinely concerned about security plans for the summit would see any benefit in speaking to the press," he said. He added: "No such concerns have been raised with Tayside Police and to say ministers, or indeed anyone involved in the preparations for the summit, are approaching the event with complacency could not be further from the truth."
Mr Bald said he was confident of the "comprehensive security operation" in place to protect the world leaders, including Tony Blair and the United States president, George Bush.
The whistleblower reportedly leaked the plans to shock ministers, who he believed had taken security arrangements at the summit for granted. He was quoted in the paper saying: "I have been increasingly appalled by the air of complacency surrounding this event, particularly as displayed by ministers.
"The release of a portion of non-operational material is intended as a wake-up call before that complacency becomes truly dangerous."
The leaked plans also reportedly contained the location of a special forces base, the placing of troops and a wrangle between the US and the UK over the deployment of surface-to-air missiles. David Davis, the shadow home secretary, said the leak was potentially an "immensely serious breach of national security".
He added: "The immediate task for the Home Secretary must be to reappraise all aspects of security at the G8 in light of this breach."
Last night a Downing Street spokeswoman said the government did not comment on security arrangements, but the leak casts further doubt over the security arrangements made for Gleneagles, the cost of which has been put in some estimates at £100 million.
Amid continued speculation on the scale of the threat posed by protestors, there were also reports yesterday that teams of riot police from Northern Ireland will be drafted into Scotland. Despite July being the height of the loyalist marching season, police from the province will be brought in to help in Edinburgh - where Live Aid campaigner Bob Geldof has called for a million people to protest - and around Gleneagles itself.
There has also been confusion over the level of security around the hotel. Tayside Police confirmed on Friday that a second inner security cordon will be put in place around the hotel. The authorities refused to go into details of the new cordon, which they claimed had always been part of their plans, but it was likely to be inside the five-mile fence already erected round Gleneagles.
During the huge security operation in Edinburgh, police are planning to secure the Scottish Parliament building, as well as the official Royal residence of Holyroodhouse, by building a fence around them. The security operation in Scotland will involve about 5,000 extra police officers drafted in from forces across England and Wales.
Last week there was a dispute over whether protestors could march close to the hotel itself. The police officer in charge of security has given the green light for protesters to demonstrate next to the fence. John Vine, Tayside's Chief Constable, said protesters would be free to demonstrate along the perimeter fence provided they did not break the law.
But Perth and Kinross Council has refused to grant permission for a march past the hotel, saying public safety would be put at risk. Instead, the council has said it will allow a rally for up to 4,500 people in nearby Auchterarder on the opening day of the summit.
Mike Yardley, an independent expert, said release of the leaked information was a criminal act and could potentially be used by protesters and terrorists to cause chaos at the event.
But Yardley said the release of such "specific" information was not in the public interest.
"Information like this could be used by a range of people, from low-grade risk globalisation protesters to something much more serious."
Posted by: too true ||
06/20/2005 16:09 ||
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#1
Who cares, let's get down to brass tacks.... what are they gonna wear for the group shot? Kilts?
#2
The real question is, what will they wear UNDER the kilts. If anything.
Which reminds me of the old Scottish joke about the drunk asleep beside the road, the young women passing by and a hair ribbon, with the Scotsman waking up the next morning to muse, "I dinna know where ye've been lad but ye've ta'en first prize ..."
(no photos provided LOL)
Posted by: too true ||
06/20/2005 20:22 Comments ||
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Syria's security at its border with Iraq remains basic, relying on guards who lack night-vision equipment needed to stop militants crossing to fight U.S. forces in Iraq, a British defense official said Monday at this desert frontier post. Syrian authorities gave journalists a rare tour of border areas Monday to tout improvements in security measures as U.S. forces on the other side waged the latest offensives against insurgents believed to have entered from Syria. Damascus is under intense pressure from Washington and Baghdad to tighten control of its porous border.
A giant picture of President Bashar "Pencilneck" Assad looked over a bleak desert landscape and several hundred trucks waited to cross at Tanaf, one of the main posts along the 360- mile frontier with Iraq. Journalists were driven for 120 miles along the tall sand berm that the authorities have put down along the border to impede crossing.
Col. Julian Lyne-Pirkis, a defense attache from the British Embassy in Damascus who has surveyed the entire length of the border, said the Syrians have been increasing their work along the border starting nine months ago. The berm has been heightened, for example, he said, but the border is "very difficult" to control. "They are making progress, but they can still do more on the border to improve it," he said.
He said security measures remained "fairly basic," relying on Syrian troops who have "mostly just their eyes to survey the border, and that is not enough." They have asked the British for night-vision equipment, but the details have not been worked out, Lyne-Perkis said. They also need to improve patrols and get better intelligence to understand how the insurgency works, he said.
A Syrian border official said Britain had promised to deliver night-vision equipment but had not followed through yet. The official said insurgents could not cross during the day, but it was more difficult to stop them at night. The official, who spoke on condition of anonymity because of the sensitivity of the border issue, said several border guards had been killed by fire from U.S. troops who apparently mistook the Syrians for infiltrators. He did not provide more details.
Easy mistake to make.
On the Iraqi side, some 1,000 U.S. and Iraqi troops are carrying out two military campaigns, code-named Spear and Dagger, aimed at destroying militant networks near the Syrian border and north of Baghdad. About 60 insurgents have been killed and 100 captured since the campaigns began at the end of last week. Troops said they found numerous foreign passports and one roundtrip air ticket from Tripoli, Libya, to Damascus, Syria.
Intelligence officials believe Anbar province, which borders Syria, is a portal for extremist groups, including Abu Musab al-Zarqawi's al-Qaeda in Iraq, to smuggle in foreign fighters.
Posted by: Dan Darling ||
06/20/2005 12:05 ||
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June 20, 2005: American military intelligence analysts in Iraq continue to pick up signs that the Islamic terrorists they are fighting, are using Syria as a base. The earliest, and most obvious, signs were documents, and confessions, from terrorists that they had entered Iraq via Syria. Then came comments, and other information, indicating that some training was being given to the terrorist recruits while they were in Syria. There was also the captured weapons, and now bomb parts, that were coming across from Syria. Naturally, the Syrians deny everything. Later, the Syrians admitted that they had little control over the smugglers, who have been moving goods across the border for generations. What Syria was less willing to admit was that corruption along the border had flourished for a long time. And the government was unable to do much about it. The bribes keep many government officials happy. Stop the bribes, and the shaky government of Syria gets a little closer to chaos. The Syrians are pretty confident the United States won't invade, but there are other ways to make you uncomfortable. The diplomatic pressure on Syria has been intense, and unofficial Special Forces raids across the border are not out of the question (although these won't get much in the way of official publicity.) Meanwhile, American troops, and Iraqi commandoes, are chasing the terrorist groups around western Iraq, killing them as they corner them. Long term, however, it is feared that the al Qaeda hit squads and suicide bombers will just try to operate out of Syria, taking refuge in residential areas (to make smart bomb attacks more risky, from a media perspective.)
Intelligence operations inside Syria are likely to get more numerous, and bolder. The Syrians may just stand back, not wanting to complicate their situation with captured American operatives.
Posted by: Steve ||
06/20/2005 10:43 ||
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The front-runner in Iran's presidential runoff sought to rally moderates Sunday by warning that his hard-line opponent would run a totalitarian regime.
As opposed to...?
The statement from the campaign manager for Ayatollah Hashemi Rafsanjani came amid suspicions the powerful Revolutionary Guard would rig the runoff vote for conservatives.
Rafsanjani's a "pragmatic" this week, keep in mind...
Rafsanjani's campaign manager, Mohammed Baghir Nowbakht, said Friday's runoff was crucial because hard-liners would not tolerate differences of opinions if elected and would run a "totalitarian" regime. "They would never let other groups participate in the government," he said. One losing candidate already has accused the Revolutionary Guard and its vigilante supporters of fixing votes during the first round of balloting. None of the seven candidates received the necessary 51 percent to win outright, forcing the runoff.
Posted by: Fred ||
06/20/2005 00:00 ||
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#1
Lol! Only symps or fools could possibly:
a) think this election means anything - other than a position from which to loot, pillage, and exercise power...
#2
It is hilarious, in the usual dark way, to behold the full panoply of stories being unrolled WRT the Iranian electoral farce. First there were the "horse-race" stories, complete with color pieces about youth involvement, use of pop-culture approaches to attract them, etc. Now we have disputes over "vote-rigging".
On January 30 I heard a major western news agency bureau chief in Baghdad solemnly (and absurdly) state that a turnout of less than 50% in that day's elections would impair the legitimacy of the enterprise. And now we witness extensive, sometimes lavish, coverage of the Iranian events by the MSM, all of it explicitly or implicitly respectful of the emperor's wonderful new wardrobe, hardly a hint that perhaps the whole thing is a hollow exercise. Astounding -- if it weren't commonplace by now.
As if to challenge me to unslacken my jaw and stop shaking my head, the other night CNN International had a typically self-serious and tsk-tsking piece on Microsoft's bowing to PRC pressure WRT web-search, etc. Imagine, a western corporation bowing to local censorship pressures -- even if the company's core mission wasn't about democracy or free expression. This, on CNN!
Hello! Can you say "Gaza"? How about "West Bank"? How about "Iraq, pre-Iraqi Freedom"? I've long since concluded that this level of unintentional self-parody and factual/moral inversion can only be explained by IQ levels, not merely extravagant bias, politicization, and lack of professionalism. Though all those are certainly on display, as well ......
Pro-Syrian candidates appeared headed for defeat Sunday in Lebanon's first free elections in three decades — a win that would break Damascus' longtime domination of Lebanese political life and its parliament.
I'd hardly cause that a surprise, even if all they're really doing is switching oligarchies...
A pro-Syrian leader acknowledged a major defeat for his candidates and an anti-Syrian opposition official said the ticket's unofficial results indicated a near sweep in the contest for 28 parliamentary seats in northern Lebanon. Suleiman Franjieh, a Christian former interior minister who is close to the family of Syrian President Bashar Assad, said: "We bow to the will of the people."
If you'd done that, you wouldn't be on the outside looking in now, would you?
Whatever the outcome, however, the Christian-Muslim solidarity that emerged after the February assassination of former Prime Minister Rafik Hariri has been deeply marred by sectarian divisions.
We're discussing Lebanon, remember? 20 years ago they were still destroying Beirut and shooting each other dead in the streets. There were so many murderous factions nobody could keep track of them. This is called "progress."
The divide has only become more acute in the heated competition leading to the final round of voting in the north of the eastern Mediterranean country. The ticket led by the slain prime minister's son, Saad Hariri, must win 21 of the 28 seats in the Sunday vote to gain a majority in the 128-member body. "We're ahead and we're very optimistic," an official in Saad Hariri's camp said after their count indicated they were winning. The unofficial tally by the campaigns of tickets backed by Hariri appeared to guarantee the opposition a majority in the new legislature and break the hold Syria has held in the outgoing parliament for more than a decade. The Syrian army withdrew from Lebanon in April.
That was an accomplishment in itself, even if the pols and their supporters continue reverting to type...
Walid Jumblatt, the Druse opposition leader and ally of Hariri who was among the most vocal against Syrian control, declared victory. "We have triumphed in the north," he said, calling the pro-Syrians in parliament "nothing but a bad minority."
Posted by: Fred ||
06/20/2005 00:00 ||
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THE Federal Opposition last night called on freed Australian hostage Douglas Wood to consider repaying taxpayers for his rescue mission from proceeds of the sale of his story to a television network.
The Greens said he should donate the proceeds to Iraqi charities such as those looking after war orphans.
US resident Mr Wood was reunited with his family in Melbourne yesterday - five days after he was released by his kidnappers following 47 days in captivity.
In a press conference the 63-year-old engineer apologised to US President George W. Bush and Australian Prime Minister John Howard over comments made under duress during his captivity, and said his rescue was "proof positive" that the two countries' policy of training Iraqi forces was working.
Mr Wood, who said he would consider returning to Iraq to pursue business opportunities, did not give detail on his time in captivity.
It was later announced he had sold the story of his capture and rescue to Channel 10 for an undisclosed sum.
Foreign affairs spokesman Kevin Rudd said last night the Opposition was delighted Mr Wood had been freed.
Asked whether it was appropriate for Mr Wood to sell his story, Mr Rudd said: "I think that ultimately it's a matter for Mr Wood and his family.
"I'd hope they'd be having a discussion with the Australian Government given that this effort has cost the Australian taxpayer a lot of money."
Mr Rudd said he had noted that the Wood family had repeated it planned to make a donation to an Iraqi charity - something it promised during his captivity as part of its bid to win his release.
It should be accompanied by "appropriate consultations" with the Government.
A spokesman for Foreign Affairs Minister Alexander Downer said it was unclear how much of taxpayers' money had been spent on attempts to rescue Mr Wood.
Sources said the figure would "almost certainly" be at least several million dollars.
A spokesman for the Wood family said last night Mr Rudd was "jumping on the talkback bandwagon".
"Douglas would pay that amount and more to erase those 47 days of his life," he said. "Any Australian citizen should expect appropriate protection from the Government."
Mr Rudd disagreed with the view that Australian policy in Iraq was working. He said the number of people taken hostage in Iraq and the number of civilians and soldiers killed by car bombs showed the security situation was not improving.
Greens leader Bob Brown said Mr Wood was wrong in his analysis of Australian policy and it was unfair that he profit from his experience.
"I think Mr Wood is fortunately home, but there's 850 Australians who aren't," Senator Brown said, referring to Australian troops in Iraq. "Rather than just saying God bless America I would just say God bless those Australian troops and let's get them home."
He said Mr Wood should donate the money he made in his deal with Ten to humanitarian causes in Iraq, such as children who had lost their parents in the conflict.
"Mr Wood is very, very fortunate that he is free," Senator Brown said. "Iraq is suffering terribly. I don't think Iraq should be seen as a place where we can profit."
#1
THE Federal Opposition last night called on freed Australian hostage Douglas Wood to consider repaying taxpayers for his rescue mission from proceeds of the sale of his story to a television network.
Regardless of what one might think of Mr. Wood selling the rights to the story about his ordeal, talk at this time about him "repaying taxpayers" for his rescue is simply tacky.
Fears of a bloody Taliban resurgence, bolstered by newly arrived al-Qaida militants, are mounting in southern Afghanistan amid a string of Iraq-style attacks, assassinations and a steadily rising US death toll.
Yesterday the Taliban claimed to have killed a district police chief, Nanai Khan, and seven of at least 31 officers being held hostage since an ambush last week in Kandahar province.
In the neighbouring pro- vince of Helmand, between 15 and 20 insurgents were killed in US air strikes yesterday after a joint patrol of US and Afghan troops came under attack, the US military said. The airstrikes were launched after the patrol was pinned down by small-arms and rocket-propelled grenade fire. Hours earlier a rocket exploded near an American special forces base in Kandahar city. No casualties were reported.
Afghanistan is fast becoming the forgotten eastern front of President Bush's "war on terror". Twenty-nine US soldiers have died since early March, about a fifth of the entire death toll including the Taliban offensive in 2001.
Although a helicopter crash claimed 15 of the recent casualties, attacks on US and Afghan forces have become increasingly deadly, a trend that officials link to a renewed collaboration with al-Qaida.
This month a bomb ripped through a mosque in central Kandahar, killing 20 people including the Kabul police chief. The victims were attending the funeral of a pro-government mullah who had been assassinated a few days earlier.
Last week another suicide bomber wounded four US soldiers in Kandahar. Until recently, suicide bombings were rare in Afghanistan.
The defence minister, Abdul Rahim Wardak, said the two bombers were part of a group of six Arab militants who had slipped into the country over the past three weeks. "It looks like al-Qaida ... may have changed their tactics, not only to concentrate on Iraq but also on Afghanistan," he told the Associated Press.
A Taliban spokesman, Abdul Latif Hakimi, taunted the government to collect the body of Mr Khan. "They said his crime was high so he should be executed," he told Reuters. The statement could not be verified and Mr Hakimi has made unreliable claims in the past.
Predictions of a Taliban collapse, made by US commanders after last October's peace ful presidential election, look increasingly hollow.
Insurgents were carrying out the same number of attacks as this time last year but with greater effectiveness, said Christian Willach of Anso, an aid agency security group.
"Last week they attacked one southern district and held it for a few hours. That never happened before," he said.
An increase in targeted assassinations, usually of "soft" targets, marks another tactical shift. On Saturday night gunmen in Helmand, killed three civilians - a judge, an intelligence worker and a civil servant, according to a spokesman for the governor.
But senior US officers and Afghan officials insist the insurgency is under pressure. Last April the former combined forces commander, Lieutenant General David Barno, predicted that a government amnesty offer would split the leadership.
The US claims to have killed more than 150 Taliban this year and yesterday the Afghan national army said it had captured a Taliban intelligence chief in Ghazni province.
But the violent surge bodes ominously for September's parliamentary elections, said Mr Willach. Voter intimidation, especially in the southern belt, was likely. "Insurgents may try to influence voters in favour of ex-Taliban candidates," he said.
Posted by: Dan Darling ||
06/20/2005 16:36 ||
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...the forgotten eastern front...
Wow, it's not like Vietnam, it's like Stalingrad. The similarities are really eerie, except for the fact that one side runs away PDQ.
Posted by: Matt ||
06/20/2005 17:05 Comments ||
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#2
Actually, I think there will be a decided uptick in violence, because right now Pakistan is throwing the last of its Afghan refugees out, "by the end of June". These a-holes have nowhere to run to. I predict that they will quickly realize that if they are in small groups, the locals will eat them for lunch, so they will form larger, platoon-sized brigand groups. Who will get slaughtered like there is no tomorrow.
With the closure last Thursday of the Consulate of the United States Embassy in Lagos, followed the next day by the missions of Germany, Italy, Finland, Russia, Sweden, India and Lebanon, there are now palpable fears that the Al-Quaeda network of Osama Bin Laden, might have infiltrated Nigeria in its bid to wreck havoc on US interests. THISDAY gathered at the weekend that the tip-off relied upon by the US embassy was supplied by an anonymous Nigerian but the questions remain: how real and genuine was this terror scare? Or was there more to it than mere security alert?
Walter Carrington Crescent is the most popular street in Lagos when it comes to diplomatic matters. It is shaped like a loop and has only one entrance. United States, Italy, Lebanon, the Netherlands and Russia have diplomatic missions on the road. In fact, nearly all the embassies of the most influential countries in teh world are located therein and despite the busy activities noticeable in the zone, the serenity of the crescent is second to none. A sharp contrast to the peacefulness of Walter Carrington was displayed last Friday when there was an unusual security presence in the zone. Vehicles were screened with bomb detection devices by members of the Nigerian police and hundreds of gun totting security men paraded the area.
This was a precautionary measure taken as a result of a statement released by the American government last week that it has received threats from terrorists that an attack was imminent on US interests in Nigeria. Because of this terror scare, US temporarily closed its consulate and those of Britain, Germany, Italy, Russia and other nations followed suit.
Nigerian security officials who spoke to THISDAY on conditions of anonymity said there were telephone calls to the embassy which warned of attacks. The security officials offered no further details.
Continued on Page 49
Posted by: Dan Darling ||
06/20/2005 15:57 ||
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Iraq's Jan. 30 elections have been heralded as a triumph of democracy and national unity. For the first time in decades, a legislature that is truly representative of Iraq's diverse ethnic and religious groups will govern.
But whether political alliances forged in opposition to Saddam Hussein can lay the groundwork for a rejuvenated Iraq remains in doubt. The difficulties in creating a committee to draw up the constitution are vivid reminders. Even more glaring is the growing divide between the country's Kurds and Arabs.
Rest at link
Posted by: Bobby ||
06/20/2005 09:25 ||
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In GQ, believe it or not...
NEW YORK - Thrust unexpectedly into the role of prison guards for Saddam Hussein, a group of young American soldiers found the deposed Iraqi leader to be a friendly, talkative "clean freak" who loved Raisin Bran for breakfast, did his own laundry and insisted he was still president of Iraq, says a report published on Monday. GQ magazine's July issue says Saddam greatly admired President Reagan and thought President Clinton was "OK," but had harsh words for both President Bushes, each of whom went to war against him."The Bush father, son, no good," one of the soldiers, Cpl. Jonathan "Paco" Reese, 22, of Millville, Pa., quotes Saddam as saying. But his fellow GI, Specialist Sean O'Shea, then 19, says Saddam later softened that view."Towards the end he was saying that he doesn't hold any hard feelings and he just wanted to talk to Bush, to make friends with him," O'Shea, of Minooka, Pa., told the magazine. Getting to know you...getting to know all about you...
A third soldier, Spc. Jesse Dawson, quoted Saddam as saying of Bush, "He knows I have nothing, no mass weapons. He knows he'll never find them.'"
The three GIs were among members of C Company, 2nd Battalion, 103rd Armor Regiment, a Pennsylvania National Guard unit from the Scranton area that was activated for duty in Iraq in late 2003. Instead of combat, they were chosen by the FBI to serve as guards at a U.S. military compound where Saddam was an "HVD," or high value detainee. The nine-month assignment was so secret that they could not tell their families, according to the article by GQ correspondent Lisa DePaulo. The article names five of the soldiers who agreed to discuss the experience, with the military's permission. They were required to sign statements prohibiting them from revealing the location, dates, garrison strength and certain other details of Saddam's incarceration. But they were free to describe their interactions with the prisoner, according to the article.
The soldiers' descriptions of Saddam's life in prison match the recent photos of him that apparently were smuggled out of prison — showing the former dictator in his underwear and a long robe. They describe a man who once lived in palaces and now occupies a cell where he has no personal privacy.
Once, when Saddam fell down during his twice-a-week shower, the article says, "panic ensued. No one wanted him to be hurt while being guarded by Americans." One GI had to help Saddam back to his cell, another carried his underwear, it adds. EEEEEWWWWWWWWWWWWWW! Wonder if he tripped over a Koran lying on the bathroom floor?
Saddam learned the names of the GIs guarding him, was interested in the details of their lives, which they were not supposed to discuss, and sometimes offered fatherly advice. They conversed in English. When trying to score with chicks, threaten to kill their entire family. That worked for Uday. Or was it Kusay?
O'Shea said when he told him he was not married, Saddam "started telling me what to do." "He was like, `you gotta find a good woman. Not too smart, not too dumb. Not too old, not too young. One that can cook and clean.'" Male chauvinst pig! NOW says kill him immediately!
Then he smiled, made what O'Shea interpreted as a "spanking" gesture, laughed and went back to washing his clothes in the sink. Wonder what he's "spanking" these days?
The soldiers say Saddam was preoccupied with cleanliness, washing up after shaking hands and using diaper wipes to clean his meal trays, his utensils and the table before eating. "He had germophobia or whatever you call it" said Dawson, 25, of Berwick, Pa. The article quotes the GIs on Saddam's eating preferences — Raisin Bran Crunch was his breakfast favorite. "No Froot Loops," he told O'Shea. He ate fish and chicken but refused beef at dinner.For a time his favorite food was Cheetos, and when those ran out, Saddam would "get grumpy," the story says. One day the guards substituted Doritos corn chips, and Saddam forgot about Cheetos. "He'd eat a family size bag of Doritos in 10 minutes," Dawson says. The commercial opportunities here seem endless.
Saddam prayed five times a day in his cell and kept a Quran that he claimed to have found in some rubble near the underground hideout. "He proudly showed (it) to the boys because it was burned around the edges and had a bullet hole in it," the story says. THE KORAN! IT'S BEEN ABUSED! DON'T LOOK AT IT!
According to the author, Saddam told his guards that when the Americans invaded Iraq in March 2003, he "tried to flee in a taxicab as the tanks were rolling in," and the U.S. planes attacked the palace to which he intended to escape rather than the one he was in, injuring some of his bodyguards. "But then he started laughing," recalls Reese. "He goes, `America, they dumb. They bomb wrong palace.'" Saddam told the guards his capture in an underground hideout on Dec. 18, 2003, resulted from a betrayal by the only man who knew where he was, and had been paid to keep the secret. Saddam, he dumb. He not pay flunky enough.
"He was really mad about that," says Dawson. "He compared himself to Jesus, how Judas told on Jesus. He was like, `that's how it was for me." If his Judas never said anything, nobody ever would have found him, he said." U.S. officials said at the time that Saddam's capture resulted from intelligence from several sources rather than a single informant. Jesus and Sammy. To tell you the truth, I never made the connection.
The article says that if Saddam knew the statue of himself in Baghdad's Firdos Square was toppled on April 9, 2003, he never mentioned it to the GI guards. He insisted that everything he did, including the 1990 invasion of Kuwait, was for the good of his people, and invited his guards to return to Iraq and stay at his palace after he was restored to power. Yeah, we'll think about it, Sammy.
"He'd always tell us he was still the president. That's what he thinks, One hundred percent," says Dawson. Shut up and eat your Doritos, Sam...
#1
A third soldier, Spc. Jesse Dawson, quoted Saddam as saying of Bush, "He knows I have nothing, no mass weapons. He knows he'll never find them.'"
Assuming this is accurate, was Hussein's remark a tongue-in-cheek comment about trying to find something that doesn't exist? Or is his stuff THAT well hidden?
#2
Like Hannibal Lecter you should NEVER reveal personal info to Saddam.
Much as I enjoyed reading about his doritos I fear for those young soldiers.
Sammy still has the ability to carry out mischief, he has friends outside the prison.
And Sammy has been blessed with a VERY good memory. I've been reading a biography of him. He never forgets a grudge, no matter how small. One soldier gives him doritos when he asked for cheetos, 10 years later, if he has the ability, he would pay someone to shoot that man's family.
I'm not kidding this is what he is like.
Friendly to all and behind the scenes 5 years later tortures and kills your family and you.
Iraq's al Qaeda group said on Sunday U.S. forces were doomed to failure in the country, after President George W. Bush called the conflict a vital test for American security, according to an Internet statement. "What test of a defeated army are you talking about? You have failed the test and tasted disaster in Iraq," the group led by Jordanian Abu Musab al-Zarqawi said. "Who promised you victory, you loser?
"You and the Christians are destined for defeat, as you see every day and everywhere in Iraq," it said in a statement posted on a Web site used by Islamists.
Bush on Saturday rejected calls for a withdrawal of U.S. troops from Iraq and tried to counter growing impatience with the war by calling it a "vital test" for American security. "This lying devil spoke the truth when he said we are the enemies of any rule other than of God and we will only accept His law," said al Qaeda Organisation for Holy War in Iraq.
"We are the ones who are free, not you Westerners. We are free in our worship of God and in implementing His laws while you are slaves of earthly concerns, falsehoods and the devil."
Coming under renewed attack for his rationale for invading Iraq in March 2003, Bush described the conflict as part of the broader U.S. "war on terrorism". He said stabilising Iraq and quelling the insurgency were important for American interests.
Washington cites Zarqawi, who al Qaeda leader Osama bin Laden has declared as his deputy in Iraq, as evidence of a link between Saddam Hussein's ousted government and al Qaeda.
Posted by: Dan Darling ||
06/20/2005 11:33 ||
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#1
Oh, bite me Wahabbi-boy.
Yer mother wears army boots and your sister smells like overcooked asparagus.
#2
If we are tasting defeat, why did your boys get their asses handed to them at Fallujah? Why do they die in massive quantities whenever they meet our forces in battle? Why are you now attacking civilians and using remote bombs instead of attacking our troops?
#7
Hasn't Zarqawi heard he works for Bush,at least that's what the Pakistanis are saying, so if Bush fails Zarq does too?
A bit self destructive there Abui...You need to be thinking job security, maybe if Bin Laden dies you can get that executive bathroom key and a new AK.
MM
Posted by: Mountain Man ||
06/20/2005 16:10 Comments ||
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#8
And we poured bacon fat all over the graves of your parents...
#9
Hey you, Girlyboy! If the US is losing, why are your brave Jihadist bombing women and children in the market place rather then trying to take on the Americans.
Posted by: Jong Cravirong9792 ||
06/20/2005 17:58 Comments ||
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The Sudanese government is said to have turned over to the US a series of dossiers regarding the leaders of the al-Qaeda network, who lived in the African country until 1995, according to a leading Islamic terrorist expert interviewed by the pan-Arab daily, al Sharq al-Awsat. According to Hani al-Sebai, director of the London-based al-Maqrizi Institute for Historical Studies, the dossiers are the reason that the number two of al-Qaeda Ayman al-Zawahiri, attacked the Sudanese government for the first time, in his latest message broadcast by the al-Jazeera satellite television network last Friday.
Al-Sebai said he had received information that Sudan had handed over to the US authorities dossiers on the al-Qaeda leadership, which contain photos of most of the leaders of the network and members of the Egyptian Islamic Jihad members who lived in the Sudanese capital until 1995. Under pressure from the US and Saudi Arabia, Khartoum later expelled the al-Qaeda leaders residing in the east African country.
Al-Sebai, a former Egyptian Jihad activist who spent time in a Cairo jail with Dr. Zawahiri, also confirmed that the Sudanese security services knew most of the fundamentalists who lived in Khartoum, even if they were living under false names and with false passports, following a deal reached with Islamic groups.
It is for this reason, he argued, that in his video message the al-Qaeda number two, Egyptain doctor Ayman Al-Zaawahiri, attacked the Sudanese, Saudi Arabian and Egyptian governments.
Bin Laden who lived in Khartoum from about 1991 until 1995. While under protection from the Sudanese government he is reported to have set up camps to train al-Qaeda members and opened multimillion-dollar businesses that funded and provided cover for al-Qaeda activities.
Before expelling bin Laden, Sudan offered to arrest him and extradite him to Saudi Arabia. However, the Saudis, who stripped bin Laden of his citizenship in 1994, feared having him back in the country, even as a prisoner, rejected Khartoum's offer.
Posted by: Dan Darling ||
06/20/2005 11:31 ||
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OK... we give you dossiers and now you stop all bad press OK? Darfur your eyes only.
The latest video message by al-Qaeda number two, Ayman al-Zawahiri, indicates that the international terror network finds itself in a situation of isolation, according to Islamic terrorist experts. The video was broadcast last Friday on the al-Jazeera satellite network. According to the journalist in whose programme the video message was broadcast, Faysal Qasim, the words of the Egyptian doctor indicate clearly the present difficulties and isolation of al-Qaeda in relation to the reformist movements in the Arab world "because it is the only one which excludes a priori the use of the democratic vote."
Muntasir Ziya, an Egyptian expert in Islamist movements, concurs, noting that the Arab secular movements in general appear to be trying to isolate Islamist political groups, including the Muslim Brotherhood.
In his speech, al-Zawahiri outlined his organisations conception of "reformism" as opposed to that of the Americans, saying "any reform must be based on three fundamental principles: 1) that the government is based on Islamic Sharia law 2) the lands of Islam must be free and until their occupation is over, no reform can be accepted while they are occupied and their governments take orders from the US embassies in those countries 3) nations are free to administer their own affairs based on the Sharia law and on the principle of organising the good and forbidding the evil."
A further condition for any reform is "the elimination of the current leaders of Islamic countries." From this basis, the new 'reformist' ideology of al-Qaeda excludes a priori any instruments of change other than those of the Jihad or Holy War.
"The way of the Jihad is the only one to be followed to introduce reforms in the interests of the Islamic nation," al-Zawahiri continued. "I want to repeat that the departure of the 'crusader' troops from our countries will not be achieved with pacifist demonstrations."
"There will be no reforms if not with battle, on the way of Allah. Allah said: fight them until all religion will be for Allah," he added.
In the message, al-Zawahiri strongly attacked the Pakistani, Saudi and Egyptian governments. He also criticised the violations of womens rights at the demonstrations for the reform of the Egyptian constitution. Female activists protesting against the nature of the constitutional referendum on 25 May, and several female reporters covering the event, were molested by ruling party supporters.
Furthermore, the al-Qaeda number two warns the Palestinian people about what he calls "attempts to involve them in the 'elections game' which has the scope of removing Sharia law from the Palestinian Authority."
The previous video of al-Zawahiri was broadcast on 20 February. In that message he attacked what he referred to as "the reforms on which the US are working and which they want to impose in the region".
It is not the first time that al-Zawahiri attacks the American concept of reform and freedom, and on other occasions he has also verbally threatened the governments of Pakistan, Saudi Arabia and Egypt.
Posted by: Dan Darling ||
06/20/2005 11:30 ||
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June 20, 2005: While roadside bombs and suicide car bombers get most of the media attention in Iraq, they are not the main cause of combat deaths. Gunfire is still the most deadly cause of death, accounting for 25 percent of them. Next come roadside bombs (IEDs), at 20 percent, and moving IEDs (non suicide car bombs) at five percent. RPGs (Rocket Propelled Grenades) account for four percent. Mortar fire, usually at bases, accounted for four percent of deaths. Helicopter crashes, caused by enemy fire, was three percent of deaths. Vehicle accident deaths, caused by enemy fire, were two percent, as were sniper fire and suicide bombers on foot. A long list of other battlefield dangers accounted for the remaining 31 percent.
By far, the most common combat experience for American troops is someone just opening on them with an AK-47. This fire, while abundant, is not very accurate. Few Iraqis have gotten enthusiastic about marksmanship. While there have been more sniper kills of late, that could be the result of just a few individuals. One thing the hostile Iraqis do pay more attention to is their getaway. Often they make their attacks in crowded residential areas, and if they hit a few civilians while they are at it, it does not seem to concern them much. Indeed, the attackers will often use nearby civilians as shields, either during their attack, or as they are making their getaway. They know that the ROE (Rules of Engagement) American troops follow emphasizes minimizing civilian casualties. The al Qaeda ROE has no such restrictions, and sees live civilians as good protection from American firepower, and any resulting dead civilians as good propaganda.
Knowing the speed and accuracy with which American troops return fire, most of these gunfire attacks are of the "empty the magazine, turn and run" variety. Any attacker who does not follow that drill, rarely lasts more than an attack or two. Because of the speed and skill of American troops, the IED, usually a roadside bomb, has become very popular. Like the AK-47 and RPG attacks, the attackers are usually paid to do the deed. But in the case of planting IEDs, the fee is a lot less. That's because the risk to the attackers is a lot less. Some terrorists are caught planting IEDs, but most of those are arrested. Fleeing is often not a good idea, again because of the accuracy of American firepower. For some reason, many Iraqis think they can outrun a helicopter or AC-130 gunship. However, it's probably the case, usually at night, where the terrorist doesn't know where the fire is coming from, and is just responding with a very natural reaction ("get out of the area, as fast as possible.")
Many of these attacks, either with guns or bombs, often show a fair amount of planning and preparation. But the people who set these attacks up, rarely expose themselves to return fire. This is why the Israelis finally shut down Palestinian terrorist attacks last year by concentrating on the planners and organizers. That's what is going on in Iraq now, and, not surprisingly, more and more of the attacks and IEDs are crude and ineffective.
Posted by: Steve ||
06/20/2005 10:46 ||
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Spray and pray almost never works.
As for the IEDs being crude and ineffective, faster please!
#3
One thing the hostile Iraqis do pay more attention to is their getaway. Often they make their attacks in crowded residential areas, and if they hit a few civilians while they are at it, it does not seem to concern them much.
Nor does it seem to concern the media either. But when U.S. military action occurs that inadvertently results in Iraqi civilians being killed, the shrieking is loud and sustained for as long as possible.
#5
This is what my friend, Sgt. Hank Harvey, was telling me. Most often an ambush is initiated by an IED and then it looks like someone kicked over an anthill with terrorists running out in the open to empty a magazine and then run. No coordination and very little planning except for the initial bomb detonation followed by indescriminate shooting. If our troops are lucky enough to catch them without civilians around they are just mowed down. Hopefully they won't learn any good tactics but continue to be targets.
Posted by: Deacon Blues ||
06/20/2005 11:18 Comments ||
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#6
These tactics don't ever last long, the insurgents that live are becoming more sophisticated everyday. Battling the greatest force on earth teaches you a few new tricks... The trick for us is to kill them before they learn any more.
MM
Posted by: Mountain Man ||
06/20/2005 16:18 Comments ||
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The director of the CIA says he has an "excellent idea" where Osama bin Laden is hiding, but that the United States' respect for sovereign nations makes it more difficult to capture the al-Qaida chief.
In an interview with Time for the magazine's June 27 issue, Porter Goss was asked about the progress of the hunt for bin Laden.
"When you go to the question of dealing with sanctuaries in sovereign states, you're dealing with a problem of our sense of international obligation, fair play," Goss said. "We have to find a way to work in a conventional world in unconventional ways." Translation: when we figure out a deniable way to get him, we will.
Asked whether that meant he knew where bin Laden is, Goss responded: "I have an excellent idea where he is. What's the next question?" Shsss! It's a secret.
Goss did not say where he thinks bin Laden is, nor did he specify what country or countries he was referring to when he spoke of foreign sanctuaries. But American officials have long said they believed bin Laden was hiding in rugged mountains along the Afghan-Pakistani border. Can't be Afgan since that wouldn't stop us. Either Pakwakiland or MadMullah-land.
#1
Dan D. was mentioning Southwestern Saudi the other day... (He doesn't say which he believes.) That could make sense.... (don't tip the oil pipe until a new one works...)
#2
I doubt it is SW Saudi - to close to Yemen/Djibouti where we have considerable SFO assets. I still believe he is in the tribal areas of Pakistan and well protected. I just cannot see him with the Iranians - they are the leaders of the Shia world and despise the wahabis. Not in "persian" interests to give bin Laden all this credit of immortality and heroism to Muslim world. Competing forces at work here.
Posted by: Jack is Back! ||
06/20/2005 13:37 Comments ||
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Rawalpindi, living in the home of a Pak army general.
Posted by: john ||
06/20/2005 15:12 Comments ||
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Somalia's prime minister, lawmakers and members of his cabinet returned home Saturday and began the work of governing after spending months of exile in neighboring Kenya because Somalia was considered too unsafe. Prime Minister Ali Mohamed Gedi arrived in the southern Somali town of Jowhar, about 60 miles northwest of the capital Mogadishu, to relocate a seven-month old government from the Kenyan capital, said Yusuf Ismail, a government spokesman. Hundreds of Somalis lined the road to the airport to welcome Gedi, chanting slogans in support of the government's return. Somalia has been without a central government since clan-based warlords overthrew dictator Mohamed Siad Barre in 1991. Warlords then turned on each other, and the country of 7 million plunged into chaos.
Posted by: Fred ||
06/20/2005 00:00 ||
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Hundreds lined the road... in a country of seven million. Success is assured then.
Palestinian residents of a Gaza Strip enclave that has been branded a haven for collaborators asked the Israeli Supreme Court on Sunday to grant them refuge inside Israel after the Gaza evacuation this summer. Although the residents of the village of Dahaniya insist they are not collaborators — and Israeli officials agree — their lawyer says they will be killed by fellow Palestinians if they are forced to remain after the Israeli soldiers who now protect them withdraw from Gaza.
They're not militant enough, y'see...
Israeli officials say they plan to raze the village in the southern Gaza, compensate the residents and send most of them into the rest of Gaza to build new lives. "The Palestinians see them as collaborators, and if they fall into their hands, it's a death sentence," their attorney, Chaim Mandelbaum, said. The residents, many of them Bedouin, say Israel is responsible for their reputation. In the petition filed with Israel's top court on Sunday, they asked to be relocated as a community to the southern Negev desert in Israel, and to receive compensation similar to that being given to Israeli settlers who are to be evacuated from Gaza settlements during the withdrawal, Mandelbaum said.
Posted by: Fred ||
06/20/2005 00:00 ||
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I wonder how much of this is due to their apparent tribal identity as Bedouin?
Posted by: Phil Fraering ||
06/20/2005 2:08 Comments ||
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Probably a lot. Some Bedouin do work with the Israelis and many dislike town life. They are not related to the clans who get the bribes and wield power in the PLA so staying is a losing proposition.
Will be interesting to see how this plays out. I'm not sure Israel has the finances to reimburse them easily.
Posted by: too true ||
06/20/2005 9:32 Comments ||
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If the Israelis don't compensate these guys, who is going to work for them against the Palestinians in the future? That's my other gripe against these guys. After the Vietnam War, we accepted millions of Indochinese refugess. The Israelis hung the Lebanese Christians out to dry after they abandoned their positions in the south of Lebanon.
#4
the israelis took in the South Lebanese Army, and their families. What did you expect, that they would take the entire Christian population of South Lebanon? Most of whom had no affiliation with Israel?
#5
its not just beduin BTW. IIUC there are persistent rumors among the Pals, that regular Pal Arab colloborators fled to the Beduin village at various points during the second intifada - rumors that are denied by the Beduin, IIUC. OTOH its not clear that all, or even many Beduin would actually be subject to persecution - as opposed to the ordinary problems of life under the PA, which is just as alien a regime to the beduin as Israel is. So why not try to get into the richer society?
Note that some Israelis have suggested that an even exchange of territory could be achieved by annexing lands in the West Bank where major Jewish settlements exist, and compensating the PA with land from pre-1967 Israel, that has major concentrations of Israeli Arabs (thus further easing the "demographic dilemma") Not surprisingly the Israeli Arabs in question reject this out of hand.
The Iraqi tribunal investigating members of Saddam Hussein's regime released a videotape Sunday showing testimony by the ousted dictator's cousin, nicknamed "Chemical Ali" for his alleged role in the 1988 chemical attack that killed at least 5,000 people in the Kurdish town of Halabja. Ali Hassan al-Majid and seven other former officials were shown testifying before an investigating judge and signing statements. The tribunal did not say when the tape was made, but one of the documents signed by al-Majid was dated June 16. It was the third such tape released by the panel this month. On June 15, the tribunal released a video showing the questioning of three former senior officials — including Saddam's half brother Sabawi Ibrahim. Saddam himself appeared on an earlier tape.
I'm waiting for the trials to start. That'll be when the international circus arrives in town, complete with clowns and elephants and verbal acrobats.
Posted by: Fred ||
06/20/2005 00:00 ||
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Hey, there's an idea - when the clownd arrive, detail some street sharks to strip 'em of wallets and passports, then arrest 'em for being vagrant aliens without documents.
Posted by: Fred ||
06/20/2005 00:00 ||
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I just got the chance to see, on FoxNews of course, excerpts of Dr Rice's speech - and she pulled no punches on Egypt, Syria, Iran, and Saudi Arabia - and maybe more, that's just what Fox featured. Very blunt and plain-spoken. It rocked.
For those who've been having hissy fits about Bush not calling a spade a spade - per their voyeur's schedule, when NO ONE BEFORE HIM EVER DID SO or even had the stones to IMPLY change should come, well, Bush definitely stands alone, now. This was the naked gauntlet - democratic freedom, without hesitation, without exception, no partial or half-measures, throughout the Middle East. The Bush Doctrine without nuance or exceptions in your face. There's no hesitation out there to issue blame, whether due or not. It's time for credit where due. Bush. Rice.
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.
The unity of the Islamic nation is the prime objective of a major international conference to be held in Makkah from Aug. 6 to 8. Some 300 Islamic scholars from different parts of the world will attend the conference which has been organized by the 
Police in Bahrain beat and arrested demonstrators protesting for jobs in the capital Manama yesterday, rights activists and witnesses said, but the Interior Ministry said police had been attacked first. "A group of about 50 unemployed and other sympathizers were demonstrating peacefully near the royal court when police harshly attacked them, beat them and arrested more than 30 of them," human rights activist Nabeel Rajab said. Among those beaten and arrested was Abdulhadi Al-Khawaja, head of the banned Bahrain Center for Human Rights, Rajab said. Other witnesses said police hit demonstrators with batons.
A former parliament speaker has been arrested in the brief takeover of Kyrgyzstan's government headquarters last week, according to a news report Sunday. 
An explosion ripped through a pizzeria in a town in the southeastern province of Styria, killing two children and injuring seven, in a blast that may have been the result of an attack, authorities said. The explosion Saturday touched off a fire and gutted the building in Wagna bei Leibnitz, a small town in Austria's wine-growing region, Austria Press Agency reported. Several surrounding buildings were damaged. The two dead children were between ages 4 and 5. The injured, including an 18-month old child, were hospitalized.
The front-runner in Iran's presidential runoff sought to rally moderates Sunday by warning that his hard-line opponent would run a totalitarian regime.
Harvey Fierstein and Ayatollah Rafsanjani...separated at birth. 
Pro-Syrian candidates appeared headed for defeat Sunday in Lebanon's first free elections in three decades — a win that would break Damascus' longtime domination of Lebanese political life and its parliament. 
The Iraqi tribunal investigating members of Saddam Hussein's regime released a videotape Sunday showing testimony by the ousted dictator's cousin, nicknamed "
