I probably shouldn't be saying this since I'm not a journalist and therefore do not have a professionally trained opinion, but Lileks is a lot better writer than that nitwit at the Boston Glob. The one with the Norwegian-inflicted hook scars on his face. If Lileks needs a researcher for that Ultimate Newspaper, I'm available. Photodude slaps whatsisname around a little, too, and sez he wants to be The Ultimate Newspaper's photog. Matt Welch sez someday they'll build it...
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04/02/2002 ||
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Afghan soldiers working with U.S.-led forces found an al Qaeda weapons cache near the site of the biggest ground battle of the latest Afghan War. The cache was found in the area of the Shahi Kot Valley in the mountains of eastern Afghanistan. Another cache was unearthed near a coalition base just outside Kandahar. Soldiers found a relatively large cache of weapons that could have been used to attack the base. Shucks. Now the Paks will have to ship in more.
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U.S. officials believe Abu Zubaydah, the top al-Qaida leader now in U.S. hands, can provide a treasure-trove of top-to-bottom information about the terrorist group - information that may include the hiding place of Osama bin Laden. "You can be sure he'll be asked," said one U.S. official, speaking on the condition of anonymity.
They are already promising a lengthy interrogation of the al-Qaida operations chief, believed to be able to identify names, faces and locations of al-Qaida operatives the world over. Stan Bedlington, a former senior terrorism analyst with the CIA, called Zubaydah's capture "a major, major victory, if not the biggest victory so far... He will know the organization of al-Qaida, if he talks. Osama bin Laden is a master planner. He must have made some contingency plans (for a major U.S. military pursuit). If Abu Zubaydah was privy to that planning, then obviously he can tell us a lot, possibly where Osama bin Laden would go." My guess would be they intend to turn him inside out and then squeeeeeeze. After a throrough flensing they can put him here.
Now, this is the type of fellow the human-rights folks ought to be worried about. I suspect Zubaydah will be in "protective custody" for some years, and only after the news pulps forget his name will he be tribunized and set to trimming the USMC's hedges at Club Gitmo for the rest of his natural days. The human rights advocates can waste their time on the low level gunnies at Gitmo now, but the Zubaydahs ain't never going to go free unless they get really friendly with the CIA. Posted by Tom Roberts 4/2/2002 1:40:53 PM
Can you hear me ululating? Posted by Anonymous 4/2/2002 5:47:31 PM
Zubaydah, identified by intelligence sources as a force behind the Sept. 11 attacks, was seriously wounded in the stomach and groin by security forces Thursday as he tried to flee a makeshift home and office above a madrassa, or Islamic school, in the industrial city of Faisalabad in eastern Pakistan. Above a madrassa, eh? Doesn't that come as a surprise. Wonder who that madrassa was affiliated with?
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04/02/2002 ||
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Pakistan and Afghanistan on Tuesday pledged to cooperate on wiping out "terrorist sanctuaries" in the region as Pakistani President Pervez Musharraf made his first visit to Kabul. Speaking at a joint press conference in the Afghan capital, Musharraf and Afghan interim leader Hamid Karzai said they had agreed to step up the fight against terrorism and the drugs trade, among other issues. Perv's busy cleaning up terror networks in Pakland right now, even as we speak...
That pair of countries can't even agree on a commonly agreed boundary line. The first time they break out the maps they'll start arguing about whether Mortimer Durand (later Viceroy of India, do a web search on him and "Durand Line") visited some one horse village in the 1800's or not. With no agreement on boundaries, those wiley Talibanistas are going to be the other fellow's problem. Posted by Tom Roberts 4/2/2002 5:47:37 PM
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A previously unknown Afghan Islamic group on Monday launched a tirade against Afghanistan's interim government, branding it an un-Islamic body led by hypocrites who deserve death, the Afghan Islamic Press reported. The ferociously-worded fax message was sent to the Pakistan based private news agency by an organisation calling itself Tehreek-i-Afghaniat Islami (the Afghan Islamic Movement).
Despite the group's obscurity and the fact the statement was written on plain paper with no official markings, AIP's report indicated the credible news organisation was taking the group seriously. The unsigned statement, typed in the Dari language of Afghanistan, said that Afghan interim leader Hamid Karzai along with his defence, foreign and interior ministers supported Christianity and fatwas (religious edicts) had been issued against them. "They are apostates and hypocrites because they have abandoned their religion and joined Christianity," AIP quoted. The fax, which also named the governor of southern Kandahar province Gul Agha, and Hazrat Ali, who is security head of several eastern provinces, went on to warn against disrespecting the beard and the veil. Oh, who could these people be? Golly, it couldn't be the Talibs because the message wasn't in Pashto. It's not like AIP is a wholly-owned Taliban subsidiary. Why, there must be a nationwide preference for Islamism! Yeah, that's it...
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Iran rejected U.S. accusations it sponsored terrorist attacks on the West Bank, saying that Palestinian suicide bombers were resisting occupation by Israel. "That means they're not terrorists, no matter what terror they may instill in innocent civilians, see?"
Iranian Foreign Minister Kharrazi Kamal told a news conference in the Malaysian capital Kuala Lumpur that it was irrelevant to talk about anyone sponsoring such violence. "This is an incident in Palestine and they are committing suicide to resist occupation. Certainly, we have to see why Palestinians are committing suicide," Kharrazi said. Sure. It's because they're terrorists.
"It's not a question of sponsor or not to sponsor," he said during the three-day meeting of Organization of Islamic Conference (OIC) countries, which is discussing causes of terrorism. They just spontaneously explode. Didja ever notice that there's only one place in the world where people spontaneously explode? At least on a regular basis. Even the Paks in Kashmir don't have it down quite right.
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The Michigan Court of Appeals on Monday struck down a 105-year-old law against using vulgar language in front of women and children, throwing out the conviction of a canoeist who let loose a stream of curses after falling into the water. Wotta goddamned relief!
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Ahmed Ressam, 36, was to have been sentenced Friday, but prosecutors received a yearlong extension so he could fulfill his agreement to testify. Among the alleged al-Qaida operatives he's expected to testify against are Abu Doha, another alleged bin Laden top operative who awaits extradition to the United States from Britain, and Zacarias Moussaoui, the so-called 20th hijacker whom Ressam has said he saw training in Afghanistan. In testimony and debriefings, Ressam, who was arrested in Port Angeles in 1999, has identified Abu Zubaydah, as the "emir" of bin Laden's terrorist-training camps in Afghanistan. If we can turn Zubaydah as well as we did Ressam, we can tear up the entire al-Qaeda network, root and branch, to include the money and dogma guys behind it.
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Interfaith leaders, including the Rev. Jesse Jackson, called on President Bush Tuesday to do more to stop the escalating violence in Israel and send Secretary of State Colin Powell to the region as a mediator. "I'm rather convinced that our government is not the cause of the violence but has the power to stop it," Jackson said. "Our government is not a distant third party," Jackson stressed. "Our interests are too great in the region, and this time we must rise above the politics of choosing sides and rather must choose reconciliation." How predictable. I think Bush is well advised to let things play themselves out on the ground, while trying to block some of the diplopressure on the Israelis.
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The Jamiat Ulema-i-Islam has rejected the proposed referendum for it thinks that it will change the character of the constitution and make the presidency above the elected parliament. "This will virtually turn the parliamentary system into presidential system," said party chief Maulana Fazlur Rahman while briefing newsmen after a two-day meeting of the general council which elected party's central office-bearers for the next three-year term. Wotta surprise. (Yawn!)
The problem with the Islamic Republic of Pakistan isn't the location or political form described. Perhaps Musharraf is getting to considering some basic constitutional problems.
Not like he has time to do this at his leisure. Posted by Tom Roberts 4/2/2002 5:59:41 PM
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In an amazingly brazen assault during a news conference, All Parties Hurriyat Conference leader Abdul Ghani Lone was beaten and abused by a rightwing Hindu militant in Jammu on Monday even as armed policemen deputed to guard him stood by silently. Star News TV channel identified the attacker as Kalkiji Maharaj, the Kashmir state president of the Vishwa Hindu Parishad (VHP), a virulently militant arm of Prime Minister Atal Behari Vajpayee's Bharatiya Janata Party.
Lone was being interviewed in the lobby of a Jammu hotel when he was repeatedly slapped and pushed by the VHP leader. "You are anti-Indian. Your people are responsible for killing Hindus in Jammu," Maharaj shouted as he struck Lone several times despite the presence of armed police. The Shiv Sena leader began pushing Lone when the latter had finished his press conference at a hotel in Jammu and was talking to television crews. The Shiv Sena leader kept calling Lone a traitor. Lone's personal security guard tried to intervene but he was stopped by Maharaj's security officers.
Lone said he was not going to register a formal complaint. "These people have no sense. They are the same thugs from Gujarat. I pray to God that he gives them some sense. I do not want to take any action against him. I am not sure who is behind this," said Abdul Gani Lone. Most of us would agree with Lone, who seems to be one of the few sensible people in Kashmir, which means he gets it from both ends of the Stupid Spectrum. Disgraceful performances appear to be a VHP stock in trade.
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Interior Minister Otto Schily said Tuesday that security had been stepped up around Jewish sites across the country. Police said two 21-year-old New Yorkers were walking along Kurfuerstendamm, an avenue in west Berlin famous for its upmarket cafes and stores, after 9:30 p.m. when the group of young men with "southern" (Mediterranean) features appeared. The men asked whether the bearded New Yorkers were Jewish before pushing them to the ground. Police said the victims' black and white clothes identified them as Orthodox Jews. It's not German Nazis this time, it's Islamonazis. And the program appears to be coordinated Europe-wide.
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The IDF presented a document Tuesday that was seized in the during a raid on the Ramallah office of Fuad Shubeiki, who heads the Palestinian Authority's financial apparatus. The document, which was sent to Shubeiki by the Al Aqsa Martyrs Brigade, which is linked to Palestinian Authority Chairman Yasser Arafat's Fatah faction, lists the organization's demands from the PA for suicide bombings that had already been carried out. Ooooh. This should be good...
The document lists financial demands for ceremonies honoring suicide bombers as well as money to support families of the suicide bombers. Well, we knew they were subsidized. Those funerals cost a lot. Anything more?
The fifth article of the document lists demands for producing explosive devices: "The cost of supplying electronic and chemical components for explosive devices and bombs - this was our largest expense. The cost of preparing a bomb is at least NIS 700. We need to equip five to nine bombs each week for our cells in various locations. NIS 5000 times four weeks equals NIS 20,000." Careful where you're stepping. My jaw's down there somewhere. They're real terrorist masterminds to leave this kind of incriminating stuff lying around.
Article seven of the document details the "cost of 3,000 bullets for Kalachnikov rifles at a cost of NIS 7.5 per bullet, and 30,000 bullets for M-16 rifles at a cost of NIS 2 per bullet. We need the immediate transfer of funds so as to make the purchase - NIS 22,500 for Kalachnikov bullets and NIS 60,000 for M-16 bullets." And this is the daily housekeeping of terror. You can price out how much your revolution's gonna cost with this.
Alongside the document were comments and calculations carried out by Shubeiki's office. So they can't say it's just something they found lying around at the bus station and took back to the office to have a closer look at...
Colonel Miri Eisen... estimated Tuesday that Palestinian Authority Chairman Yasser Arafat never signed documents tying him to the terrorist activities of various organizations, but that Shubeiki's signature, who is part of Arafat's inner circle, testifies to the PA's involvement in acts of terror. He never signs personally, but that degree of plausible deniability is pretty implausible.
Shubeiki was the individual who financed the purchase of the Karine A weapons ship from Iran in December 2001. Thought he got fired? Arrested him and everything.
Also seized in Shubeiki's office during the raid were hundreds of thousands of counterfeit shekels, which according to military estimates, were to be used to purchase explosives. The Palestinian Authority stated that the counterfeit money seize in Arafat's Ramallah headquarters had been seized by Palestinian preventative security forces and belonged to Palestinian criminals that had collaborated with Israeli felons. Yeah. Prob'ly got it from them damn' Jews. If this wasn't so serious it'd be hilarious. The only possible explanation for this sort of stuff that doesn't equate the PA to terrorism requires redifining terrorism into something so outlandish it bears no relationship to reality. Even the OIC meeting couldn't manage that, though the PA and their apologists are trying, and looking goofier and goofier.
A long time ago, a guy named Paul Balor pointed out that "Revolutionary" organizations have one common failing...they all have an addiction to their own printed material and will salt away everything from El Jefe's laundry lists to the Grand Secret Master Plan. When they have a headquarters they believe is secure, this effect snowballs. Posted by David Paglia 4/2/2002 9:54:52 PM
I don't think Professor Moriarty had the same problem. Now there was a Criminal Mastermind! Posted by Fred 4/2/2002 10:26:55 PM
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04/02/2002 21:17 ||
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About 100 foreigners, mostly Europeans, marched from Bethlehem to nearby Beit Jalla, where Israeli soldiers have imposed a curfew. As the crowd approached Israeli tanks, a soldier fired a burst from a machine gun toward the ground, witnesses said. A British woman was hit in the abdomen by a bullet, while five others were injured by shrapnel. None of the wounds were serious, a hospital official said. "We were only showing solidarity with the Palestinians," said Kunle Ibidun, 30, from Bristol, England, who was among the injured. They were only showing solidarity with the rest of the army. What part of "closed area" don't you understand? What were they expecting? Rubber bullets and bean bags?
The army had no immediate comment on the shooting in Beit Jalla. They were still howling with laughter over the stupidity of those people.
The 11 French activists who were ordered deported came from a group of 50 protesters from several countries who slipped into Arafat's office in Ramallah on Sunday in defiance of the Israeli soldiers who have surrounded the compound. They were led by French anti-globalization activist Jose Bove, who has become a folk hero in France since ransacking an unfinished McDonald's restaurant two years ago. These are the scum who were serving as runners and trying to sneak the snuffies out.
About 20 activists, including Bove, came out after spending about two hours with Arafat. Eleven of the French activists were detained by Israeli soldiers for violating a military order declaring Ramallah off limits.Bove and the other 10 French activists were taken by police to Ben-Gurion Airport near Tel Aviv. Three of them left for Paris on an Air France flight Monday evening. The other eight, Bove included, were to leave on a Turkish Airlines flight early Tuesday, said French Consul Francoise Le Moign said. The police and Interior Ministry said no charges would be filed, but members of the group would not be permitted to return to Israel for 10 years. Get the hell out and don't come back.
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04/02/2002 ||
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Israel has proposed that besieged Palestinian leader Yasser Arafat be flown into exile by European diplomats, Prime Minister Ariel Sharon said Tuesday. It was the first time such a possibility had been raised in public. Palestinian officials said Arafat would never agree to go into exile.
In a tour of West Bank army bases Tuesday, Sharon said he was asked by European Union envoy Miguel Moratinos whether Arafat would be able to leave Ramallah. "I told him, if they would like, they will fly with a helicopter and will take him from here," Sharon said in remarks carried by Israel Radio. "First I would have to bring this to the Cabinet, second he can't take anyone with him, the murderers who are located around him there and the third thing is that it would have to be a one-way ticket," Sharon said. "He will not be able to return." Think hard on this, Yasser. Brussels looks like a better deal than Morocco. Or are you holding out for Miami Beach?
Steven den Beste thinks Yasser will eventually go, for much the same reasons I do. If Yasser really wanted to be a martyr he'd strap on a dynamite vest and call for a meeting with somebody important. But it's not the head cheeses who explode, it's the fodder, cheap and easily replaced. The Exalted are too important to lose.
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Israeli tanks and helicopters on Tuesday shelled a heavily fortified Palestinian security headquarters in an all-night assault to flush out top fugitives, while fighting raged outside Bethlehem's Church of the Nativity. At least 20 of the hundreds of people trapped inside the security compound were wounded, said Jibril Rajoub, the West Bank's Palestinian security chief. In Bethlehem, Israeli helicopter gunships hovering over Manger Square exchanged fire with Palestinian gunmen near the Church of the Nativity, built over Jesus' traditional birth grotto. Nearby, a 65-year-old Italian priest was killed during an exchange of fire near his convent, a Rome-based news service said; that could not be confirmed independently. I heard on the radio that the priest was uninjured.
Vatican emissary in Israel, Archbishop Pietro Sanbi nullified reports that Catholic priest Jacques Amateis, 65, was killed while holding a mass session with nurses in the Saint Mary's convent in Bethlehem. Sanbi told Israel Radio that the priest and nuns were not harmed and that the convent was working together with the IDF to safely evacuate Amateis and the nuns. Yasser and the Eurowhores where so hoping the claim was true.
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Israel says Hizbollah guerrillas are massing on its northern border and has warned Syria and Lebanon of "very serious" consequences if they do not withdraw, a senior Italian foreign ministry official said Tuesday. Lebanese Hizbollah guerrillas attacked Israeli positions in the disputed Shebaa Farms zone near the Lebanese border and the Israeli-occupied Golan Heights Tuesday. Hizbollah has often hinted it could intervene militarily to back the Palestinian uprising. "We have passed onto Syria and Lebanon that Israel says that if there is no disengagement then the Israeli response could be very serious," the spokesman added. Hezbollah is the bunch who complains there's not enough fanaticism in the Arab world.
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The security headquarters -- located outside of Arafat's compound -- was hammered with tank shells, rockets from helicopter gunships, machine gun fire and small arms fire. As he watched the scene unfold from about a mile from the five-acre site, CNN's Michael Holmes described it as a "ferocious attack" that caused extensive destruction. Several hundred people inside the compound of several buildings were brought out as part of a U.S.-brokered cease-fire and placed in Israeli custody. It is not clear if it was an evacuation, a surrender or both.
Palestinian officials said the security complex had been occupied by hundreds of people, including civilians -- administrators, secretaries and some children. A day-care center is a part of the headquarters facility. But Israeli military sources said Palestinian militants were hiding in the compound and were the focus of the attack. Yeah, we've heard that before. It was mostly civilians, in fact. Women and children. And fuzzy puppies and kittens and bunnies and baby ducks. Not a gun or an explosive in sight, either.
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Yasser Arafat has approved plans to send 30 suicide bombers to Jerusalem, Israeli military intelligence officers said. The officers said Arafat approved plans for a combined effort by his Fatah movement and such Islamic opposition groups as Hamas and Islamic Jihad to send at least 30 suicide bombers to Jerusalem. The officers said Jerusalem was chosen because of its symbolic importance to Arafat and his efforts to convert the city into a Palestinian capital. "The operation is meant to carry out Arafat's threat to send what he terms a million martyrs to Jerusalem," an intelligence officer said. "When Arafat talks of martyrs, he means suicide bombers." The source is World Tribune, which is slightly less reliable than Debka, but it's not an unexpected move. Stupid, but not unexpected.
On the other hand, Israeli military intelligence is probably monitoring the Ramallah compound so closely that they'd probably know the last time he showered, let alone made a significant decision. Posted by Tom Roberts 4/2/2002 6:03:08 PM
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Israel believes it has trapped some of the most wanted Palestinian militants in the besieged West Bank offices of Yasser Arafat and his security chief, a senior security official said on Monday. He said the lightning charge by tanks and armoured infantry units into the West Bank town of Ramallah before dawn Friday sent men allegedly behind some of the most bloody attacks on Israel scrambling for cover.
They sought refuge in Arafat's headquarters and the base of his security aide Colonel Jibril Rajoub on the southern edge of the city, said the official. Holed up with the Palestinian leader - whose former fortified compound has been largely destroyed and rebuilt as a makeshift Israeli army camp - are some of the killers of tourism minister Rehavam Zeevi. Also reportedly at Arafat's side is Fuad Shubaki, the top official accused of financing the Karine A arms ship which Israel said was trying to bring more than 50 tons of weapons through the Red Sea to Gaza.
Most of those wanted are in Rajoub's headquarters at Beitunia, which is also surrounded by Israeli forces, the security official said. "They are not getting away," he said, refusing to elaborate on how or when Israel would act. He said in Rajoub's compound there were some 250 people, likely well armed and provisioned, including a number of men accused of masterminding relentless attacks on Israel. Rajoub's compound and everyone in it should be rubble by now. They'll have to take Yasser's apart piece by piece, which it looks like they're doing. Maybe they mean to "isolate" Yasser by killing at least three layers of thugs around him. That should drive him nuts.
Some 200 Palestinians who were holed up in the offices of West Bank Preventive Security Service chief Jibril Rajoub in Beitunya, west of Ramallah, surrendered to IDF troops this afternoon. Authorities estimate another 200 Palestinians are still hiding in Rajoub's office complex. Bet the ones who surrendered are small to medium fry. Think "rubble," guys. It'll be better in the long run.
According to IDF claims, 200 Palestinian activists holed up in Rajoub's Beitunia headquarters, among them women and children, surrendered to IDF troops, as was agreed by the two sides. The IDF said that a number of the Palestinians have been released and that others had been arrested for further investigation. What? They let the human shields go? They weren't supposed to do that...
Speaking to Israel Radio, however, Rajoub denied that leading Fatah figure Marwan Bargouti was inside the complex. "It's only a matter of minutes or hours until it becomes clear that Marwan Bargouti is not inside the complex." Rajoub added that, "I did not educate my people to surrender to anybody. That's not our attitude and not our culture. I cannot give any order other than to fight to the last bullet." Y'mean Marwan's running around loose, directing the boomer corps? And the kiddies and moms were supposed to stay and do the Fuehrerbunker thing?
The last cited article ["Bargouti" from Ha'aretz] gave the critical line: "On Monday evening, troops took up positions around the cities in preparation of the move. This is the fourth time over the past few months that the IDF has entered Tul Karm, although it is the first time that reserve soldiers have been used. "
There is a huge difference between encirclement and raiding. The presence of added reserve infantry and probably artillery [the press couldn't tell the difference between an M60Ax and a M109Ax] shows that the IDF is doing a cordon sanitaire job on the West Bank. The effectiveness of this will obviously dependent on many things, but one of them may well be the PA's misconception that they could base significant military and command elements forward in these cities, and that the IDF would let them skedaddle as usual. If so, some gunnies are going to be disappointed. Posted by Tom Roberts 4/2/2002 6:19:51 PM
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Al-Jazeera television station reported Tuesday evening that IDF tanks had entered the West Bank town of Jenin. According to Palestinian eyewitnesses, twelve tanks entered the city and a large number of troops were stationed outside of the city. Military sources reiterated the fact that the IDF operation in the territories consists of troops taking control of most West Bank cities for a period of several weeks. "Whither thou goest..." Guess that can apply to people you don't like as well as people you do.
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A suicide bomber was killed Tuesday evening in Baka al-Sharkiya, north of the West Bank town of Tul Karm. An IDF spokesperson said that the bomber approached an IDF checkpoint and that soldiers called on him to halt, and when he did not comply, they fired several shots. After the soldiers fired, the man proceeded to detonate the explosive device that he had strapped on his body. In a separate incident Tuesday, an armed Palestinian was seen crossing the border into Israel from the northern Gaza Strip. IDF soldiers shot and killed him. Shucks. Hadda make the trip to Hell by himself.
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Kate Rydell, the producer of the CBS crew that entered Ramallah on Sunday, said they were packing their gear Monday when about seven Israeli jeeps pulled up. "They took up positions along the street with their rifles at the ready," she said. "Two of them came up and asked to see passports." She said the soldiers said the area was a closed military zone and escorted the crew out of the city. The soldiers did not confiscate any material or equipment and made no threats, she said.
Ramallah, the Palestinian Authority's administrative center in the West Bank, was declared a closed military zone by Israel last Friday, when the Israeli army occupied it after a series of Palestinian attacks in Israel. But the measure was only sporadically enforced, and journalists and other foreigners were able to get in as late as Sunday morning. What part of "closed area" don't you understand? Perhaps if your colleagues hadn't collaborated with Yasser in trying to smuggle his snuffies out they might have been more understanding. But they did, so they aren't.
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Israel has set out to hunt down hundreds of suspected militants and terrorists, among them some of Yasser Arafat's political and security lieutenants, a senior Israeli security official said today. The determination to take in ranking officials from Arafat's Palestinian Authority represents a shift in Israeli policy, which until now has granted what amounts to immunity from arrest or assassination to Arafat's inner circle, the official said.
Among the most pronounced changes in its policy, Israel has also decided to track down and arrest Arafat's top political lieutenant in the West Bank, Marwan Barghouti. Tawfiq Tirawi, Arafat's intelligence chief in the West Bank, and Rashid Abu Shbak, the No. 2 man in the Preventive Security force in the Gaza Strip, are also targeted. The way to "isolate" Yasser is to kill or capture all the thugs and controllers around him. Take out the capos and he has to hunt up the individual thugs himself.
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Fighting between Israeli troops and armed Palestinians erupted in Bethlehem with dozens of gunmen forcing their way into the Church of the Nativity, one of the holiest sites in Christianity. Witnesses said there were dead bodies in front of the church. "Can you imagine? Can you believe it? They are attacking the Church of Nativity, the Syrian Orthodox Church, and burn and demolish mosques," said Palestinian leader Yasser Arafat, who remains under siege in his Ramallah headquarters, in an interview with Qatari television. Israel accused the gunmen of shooting from inside the holy site, a charge the Palestinians denied. Palestinian sources said Israeli troops threatened to break into the church. Witnesses said the Israeli army is bringing more infantry troops and armored vehicles to the area. Who knows how many extra virgins it is if you can get iced inside somebody else's church?
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David Warren on Yasser...
The pretense that he has done anything other than fuel and incite violence, since the moment he arrived, is no longer sustainable. Explosives of the very kind used by Palestinian suicide bombers have been found in Palestinian Administration police caches all over the territories. And Mr. Arafat's constant rhetorical celebration of the cult of "martyrdom" and other forms of homicide is now a matter of public record. His game is up.
Most significant is the intelligence haul from Mr. Arafat's compound. The IDF soldiers have been at pains to secure and remove files, documents, and communications records; the mission to Ramallah was in some sense planned like the commando raid on the Karine A in the Red Sea in January. There is presently a large traffic of intelligence "content" between the Israeli government and the CIA, Pentagon, U.S. State Department and White House in Washington. Connections between the Palestinian Authority and international Islamist terror organizations, including al-Qaeda, are being established, chapter and verse.
It is this intelligence haul that will keep the operation going. It is, in effect, Prime Minister Ariel Sharon's repayment to President George W. Bush for understanding as Israel proceeds with -- judging from the reported call-up of some 31,000 reserves -- its largest single military operation since the invasion of Lebanon in 1982. Regardless of what the administration says publicly, we're raking in information hand over fist. And Yasser's set to go down the tubes. Will he wiggle off the hook? Stay tuned for more...
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Some two dozen soldiers burst in on a group of Palestinian soldiers in an abandoned third-floor flat on Sunday night. They sprayed the door of the flat with gunfire for 20 minutes, neighbours told The Guardian. That's because it was full of gunnies. "Come out, come out, whoever you are" doesn't work.
Then, they seized Mr Nader Mansi, a 22-year-old architecture student from a neighbouring building, asking him to coax the policemen to surrender. Good idea. Use a translator to make sure they understand exactly what to do. That way not so many of them will do something stoopid.
'The officer said he wanted all the Palestinian soldiers to come out of the buildings first, and to take off their boots, their trousers, and their jackets,' Mr Mansi said. Good tactics when any one or all of them could have had boomer belts strapped on them or concealed weapons. Who's in a mood to do a pat-down on them?
The policemen's humiliating surrender was evident from a jumble of boots, khaki trousers and insignia discarded in the stairwell of the building. It has the added advantage that they don't look like such big, tough guys in their BVDs.
They emerged from the building, spinning around to show they were unarmed, before they were handcuffed, blindfolded, and bundled into an armoured personnel carrier. Yep. That's what you do with POWs, unless you don't feel like giving them a ride, in which case you make them walk.
'The first one who came down was stupid or inexperienced,' Ms Randa al-Zeer, who watched the drama from her second-floor flat, told The Guardian. 'He came downstairs with his gun in his hands above his head. So they shot him.' The army said the dead man was a suspected suicide bomber. Good move. What part about "throw down your arms" didn't he understand? The lady is correct: he was stupid.
Another policeman, who was shot in the back during the firefight, was left to bleed to death. Probably they paid attention to him after they'd finished dealing with the others. It's a chance you take, isn't it? Presumably the firefight was upstairs and he had the strength to walk down? Or was he still lying upstairs, breathing his last?
The rest of the raid passed without further bloodshed, unlike on Saturday when five uniformed policemen were shot dead in a windowless room of a nearby building, apparently at close range. Think we showed that was a non-atrocity. Maybe Mr Guardian Reporter would like to try some room-to-room fighting? Somebody else who's never done it would probably be happy to critique his technique.
After the surrender of the policemen, civilian male residents of the flats stripped, marched down stairs, and surrendered. Then came the women, pulling their shirts up above their waists, residents said. Don't you just hate that? Y'know, if people in the neighborhood didn't run around with those boomer belts on, I'll betcha that would have been unnecessary.
Posted by: Fred Pruitt ||
04/02/2002 ||
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Pakistani police have launched more raids on suspected al-Qaeda hideouts, arresting another 16 mostly Arab men. "We have taken into custody 16 foreigners, mostly Arabs. They had come from Afghanistan and they were hiding in Lahore," said Lahore police chief Javed Noor. "There was no resistance. We caught them by surprise. They were hiding in houses in the Township neighbourhood in the southern part of the city. These people had been living in Afghanistan, that is for sure. We are interrogating them to find out their identities and their background." Official sources said the detainees included three Saudis, three Libyans, one Yemeni and two other unidentified Arabs, and they had been sharing a house with members of an outlawed Pakistani Islamic militant group. More activity? What brought this on? Did they fire Chief Inspector Fatty Arbuckle?
Posted by: Fred Pruitt ||
04/02/2002 ||
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The Indian government Monday banned Jamiat-ul-Mujahideen and Al-Badr, its first major action under a new law intended to increase the power of law enforcement agencies. An Indian home ministry spokesman said Al-Badr and Jamiat-ul-Mujahideen had been declared terrorist organizations under the new Prevention of Terrorism Act with immediate effect, an Indian home ministry spokesman said in New Delhi. Jamiat is a Kashmir-based militant group and its chief Gulam Rasool, alias General Abdullah, operates from Pakistan. Al-Badr is Pakistan-based and, according to the Indian security agencies, mostly comprised of militants from Pakistan, Afghanistan and Pakistan-controlled Kashmir. About time they were banned. They should have been banned as subversive agencies of a foreign power.
Posted by: Fred Pruitt ||
04/02/2002 ||
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A multi-volume chronology and reference guide set detailing three years of the Mexican Drug War between 2010 and 2012.
Rantburg.com and borderlandbeat.com correspondent and author Chris Covert presents his first non-fiction work detailing
the drug and gang related violence in Mexico.
Chris gives us Mexican press dispatches of drug and gang war violence
over three years, presented in a multi volume set intended to chronicle the death, violence and mayhem which has
dominated Mexico for six years.
Rantburg was assembled from recycled algorithms in the United States of America. No
trees were destroyed in the production of this weblog. We did hurt some, though. Sorry.
