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Explosions in Yasser's compound
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Internal links...
Internal links are fixed back to the 1st of April. I'll keep fixing them a day or two at a time until we're coherent again.
Posted by: Fred Pruitt || 04/24/2002 || Comments || Link || [0 views] Top|| File under:


Population of Thugburg rises...
I've added a Learned Elders of Islam category to Thugburg, and there are many more happy, smiling beturbanned faces in it, thanks to Adil.
Posted by: Fred Pruitt || 04/24/2002 || Comments || Link || [0 views] Top|| File under:


Afghanistan
Hafiz Majid iced near Chaman
Unidentified gunmen shot dead a senior commander of the Taleban in southwestern Pakistan, police and family sources said Wednesday. They said Hafiz Abdul Majid, who had been staying with relatives, was shot dead in Shin Talab village near Chaman late Tuesday. Two masked men riding a motorbike opened fire on Majid outside the family home before making their escape. Pakistani border police confirmed the murder but did not discuss Majid's past affiliations. Majid's family said he had served as garrison commander in the Taleban's former stronghold of Kandahar before being captured late last year in the northern province of Kunduz by U.S.-backed Afghan opposition forces. He was among 212 Afghan and Pakistani prisoners released in March as a goodwill gesture by Afghan interim leader Hamid Karzai, they said. The family sources told reporters they suspected that pro-government elements in Kandahar's post-Taleban administration were behind the shooting.
Majid is described as being one of Mullah Omar's right-hand men. He wasn't captured at Konduz. He kept his arms and vehicles after Kandahar fell, and holed up in a hospital. Nobody seems to have liked him. "Even if he surrenders, he won't be forgiven. Somebody will kill him," the commander who ran him down said. "There are civilian patients inside the hospital." Guess he was right.
Posted by: Fred Pruitt || 04/24/2002 || Comments || Link || [0 views] Top|| File under:


Caucasus
Georgia proposes sending delegation to Abkhazia
Georgia plans to send a high-level delegation to the separatist region of Abkhazia to work on reducing escalating tensions, President Eduard Shebardnadze said Tuesday. The trip, which is to include State Minister Avtandil Dzhorbenadze and other government members, was proposed during a telephone conversation with Abkhazian Prime Minister Anri Dzhergenia, Shevardnadze said.

Tensions have risen in recent weeks, with each side accusing the other of planning an invasion of the Kodori gorge, which separates Abkhazia from the rest of Georgian territory. Abkhazia has accused Georgia of keeping military forces in the gorge, in violation of an U.N.-brokered protocol that required Georgia to withdraw its troops by April 10. Georgia has denied breaking the protocol and says it has deployed only border guards and reservists, who are not technically part of the armed forces and are legally allowed to be there.
With both sides accusing the other of evil intentions, makes you wonder how much is being instigated by outside agents.
Posted by: Fred Pruitt || 04/24/2002 || Comments || Link || [0 views] Top|| File under:


India-Pakistan
Perv slams religious parties. In a speech, anyway.
"The so-called champions of democracy are misleading the nation against the referendum. What can be more democratic than the fact that I am standing here, asking 140 million people whether I should remain the president," Musharraf, clad in off-white shalwar qameez said at a big public meeting at Arbab Niaz Cricket Stadium in Peshawar. He was particularly harsh upon religious parties, which, he said, had no right to dub others as un-Islamic. Referring to the Muttahida Majlis-i-Amal, a conglomerate of religious parties opposed to his rule, he said: "We are all Muslims. No one has the right to champion the cause of Islam."
Posted by: Fred Pruitt || 04/24/2002 || Comments || Link || [0 views] Top|| File under:


International
Islamic prosecutors seek death penalty for Christian converts
Muslim prosecutors sought the death penalty Wednesday for two men accused of converting from Islam to Christianity, a crime for which an Islamic court judge gave the accused men three days to re-convert.
Lawali Yakubu and Ali Jafaru, villagers in their 30s, were accused in the Shariah, court in the northern town of Mada of recently abandoning the Islamic faith and joining the Great Commission Movement, an international Evangelical church with a strong following in Nigeria.

Auwal Jabaka, the court judge, said that although the Muslim holy book, or Quran, calls for the execution of Muslims who accept another religion, it was unclear whether the state's two-year-old Shariah penal code also permitted such a punishment. Jabaka adjourned the court for three days to allow the accused to "change their minds" and convert back to Islam. In the meantime, he called on the Zamfara government to clarify its position on the matter. "If the law empowers me to (execute the two for converting from Islam to Christianity), I will have no hesitation in doing that," the judge said.

Yakubu and Jafaru were not represented by lawyers but were instead accompanied by fellow church members. The two argued they had never been Muslims, but were instead members of the Magazawa, a Hausa subgroup that has long practiced Christianity. The overwhelming majority of Hausas — one of Nigeria's largest tribes — are Muslim.
Inspiring, isn't it? You can get in, but you can't get out.
Posted by: Fred Pruitt || 04/24/2002 || Comments || Link || [0 views] Top|| File under:


Middle East
Euros meet with Arafat
A senior European Union delegation went into talks with Yasser Arafat, restarting a peace mission thwarted three weeks ago when they were refused access to the Palestinian leader. EU foreign policy chief Javier Solana and Middle East envoy Miguel Angel Moratinos met with Arafat at his besieged Ramallah compound, Palestinian sources said. The EU officials were later to have talks with Israeli officials. The arrival of the Europeans here highlighted a busy day of diplomacy on various fronts of the Israeli-Palestinian conflict, which is approaching the end of its 19th month with no solution in sight.
Watch your wallets, boys.
Posted by: Fred Pruitt || 04/24/2002 || Comments || Link || [0 views] Top|| File under:


Church talks will pick up again
Palestinian and Israeli negotiators were to hold a second day of talks Wednesday, near the Church of the Nativity, to discuss the fate of around 200 Palestinian gunmen trapped there. Negotiators met twice Tuesday but failed to reach a deal after Israel rejected a reported Palestinian proposal to send suspected militants for trial in the Gaza Strip. The two sides agreed to meet again Wednesday.
Make it late Wednesday. Getting kinda hungry in there, isn't it? Heh heh.
An Armenian priest and two monks managed to escape from the church on Tuesday after one of them held up a sign at a window reading, "Please help." Narkiss Korassian, one of the monks who fled the church, was quoted in Israel's Jerusalem Post as accusing the Palestinians in the church of looting the site. "They stole everything, they opened the doors one by one and stole everything ... they stole our prayer books and four crosses," he told the daily.
Where do they have to take the swag? Are they expecting to escape?
Posted by: Fred Pruitt || 04/24/2002 || Comments || Link || [0 views] Top|| File under:


Explosions in Yasser's compound
Two explosions heard near Palestinian Authority Chairman Yasser Arafat's headquarters in the Mukata complex in Ramallah were the result of sappers blowing up weapons discovered in the compound, the IDF said yesterday. Tawfik Tirawi, head of the West Bank Intelligence Service, accused Israel of attempting to destroy the wall between Arafat's office and the adjacent prison building. "They want to destroy the wall so they can enter his office," he charged.
The whole world knows they want nothing more than to break into the building so they can root through his underwear drawer.
The IDF said sappers detonated grenades found in buildings inside the compound.
"Hey! We were gonna use those!"
Posted by: Fred Pruitt || 04/24/2002 || Comments || Link || [2 views] Top|| File under:


Intended boomer nabbed
Nidal Tzabari Mustafa Klik, 23, who planned to participate in the Pessah night bombing at Netanya's Park Hotel that killed 29 people, backed out because he fell ill, a senior security source said yesterday. Klik, a Hamas activist from the Nur a-Shams refugee camp, was captured by security forces near Tulkarm on April 12. The attack would have been much worse if the terrorists' original plan for two men to blow themselves up in the middle of the hall had been carried out. Klik was supposed to carry out a suicide bombing in August 2001, but the attack was canceled because of the death of his Hamas operator.
He backed out because he felt ill? Once you explode, doesn't that take care of little things like an upset tummy? Or does that mean he thought real hard about what really happens when you explode and came down with the trotz?
This article starring:
NIDAL TZABARI MUSTAFA KLIKHamas
Posted by: Fred Pruitt || 04/24/2002 || Comments || Link || [0 views] Top|| File under: Hamas


Saudis deny troops massing on Jordanian border
A Saudi Arabian Defense Ministry official denied reports that his country is massing forces along its northern border in comments to the official Saudi Press Agency. The official was quoted as saying that the military is conducting routine training in the northwest region of the kingdom near the Jordanian border. The exercises in the Tabuk region, about 1,500 kilometers (930 miles) northeast of Riyadh, are part of continuing military training conducted throughout the country. On Tuesday, a Defense Ministry official told The Associated Press that the kingdom had sent eight brigades with a total of 8,000 men to its border with Jordan after receiving intelligence reports that Israel was massing troops along the Jordanian border.
Somebody in Riyadh is very stupid...
Posted by: Fred Pruitt || 04/24/2002 || Comments || Link || [0 views] Top|| File under:


Senior Hamas gunny diagnosed with rigor mortis
IDF troops killed two Palestinians near the village of Bani Na'im on the outskirts of Hebron this morning. One of the dead is a senior member of the military wing of Hamas, Israel Radio reported. Twenty other Palestinians were arrested and are now in custody of the Shin Bet, Israel's internal security agency.
No doubt more to come...
Posted by: Fred Pruitt || 04/24/2002 || Comments || Link || [0 views] Top|| File under:


One Bad Guy drilled, two surrender at church
A Palestinian standing at a window inside the Church of the Nativity compound was shot by an Israeli soldier and seriously wounded Wednesday. The man was armed, according to the army, and he was evacuated to a Jerusalem hospital. A few hours later, two Palestinians surrendered, walking out of the church with their hands up and turning themselves over to Israeli soldiers. The two men were wearing civilian clothes, but were members of the police force, according to a Palestinian journalist who recognized them. The two men said they were ill.
Yup. Gettin' a little hungry in there.
Posted by: Fred Pruitt || 04/24/2002 || Comments || Link || [0 views] Top|| File under:


Prince Abdullah won't mince words with Bush...
And from Arab News:
Saudi and US officials say Prince Abdullah, the architect of a new Arab peace plan, will not mince words when telling his strategic ally that Washington’s support for Israel, particularly during the latest incursion into Palestinian cities, has seriously strained US-Arab ties and jeopardized US interests in the region.
And we hope Mr. Bush won't mince words when telling his strategic ally we don't appreciate them financing and instigating an undeclared war against the United States in particular and the West in general.
Analysts say that Washington’s special relationship with Israel — and the apparent reluctance of the Bush administration to press Israeli Prime Minister Ariel Sharon — has made Arabs lose what little respect they have had for the United States. “Everybody knows that there can be no resolution of the conflict in the region without the United States and there is a hope, a very slight one, that the Crown Prince will succeed in making Bush change his mind,” said a Saudi official close to the crown prince.
And the perfidious nature of the Saudis' campaign against the United States, using proxies from all over the world under Saudi and Pakistani controllers, has made the USA lose what little respect it had for the Protectors of the Holy Mosques.
“Crown Prince Abdullah will seek to impress on Bush that Arab public opinion is angry at the United States because of its support for Israel and urge him to end Washington’s alignment with Sharon’s policies,” says another Saudi official.
And Mr. Bush should seek to impress on His Highness that unless the war is called off, immediately, he and his multitude of brethren could find themselves speaking Turkish. Again.
“The outcome of Prince Abdullah’s talks with Bush will be decisive for future Arab-American relations in general, and Saudi-American relations in particular,” the official added.
Just as the Saudis' actions have been decisive for the future of Saudi Arabian-American relations.
Posted by: Fred Pruitt || 04/24/2002 || Comments || Link || [0 views] Top|| File under:


Terror Networks
Dutchies arrest four Salafists
Dutch police arrested and detained four suspected members of an armed Algerian Islamic extremist group. The suspects are believed to be members of the Salafist Group for Preaching and Fighting (GSPC) which is accused of carrying out a series of bloody attacks in Algeria and elsewhere. "The suspects are apparently responsible for providing logistical support to the international jihad, the armed struggle against the enemies of Islam," a statement from the prosecutor's office said. The suspects allegedly provided false identify papers and funds to other members of the group. A total of 10 people were arrested during raids by Dutch police, but five were later freed and a sixth was handed over to immigration authorities as he was apparently in The Netherlands without authorization. The arrests took place in the cities of Eindhoven in the south, Bergen-op-Zoom in the southwest and Groningen in the north.
The Salafist Group is one of the most bloodthirsty outfits in the Wonderful World of Terror.
Posted by: Fred Pruitt || 04/24/2002 || Comments || Link || [0 views] Top|| File under:


Colombia is safe haven for terror groups
The Irish Republican Army as well as terror masterminds from Iran, Cuba and possibly Spain have created a safe haven in rebel-controlled areas of Colombia threatening international security, according to a US congressional report. The conclusion capped a nine-month-long investigation undertaken by the House International Relations Committee, which has been looking into international connections of the Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia (FARC), the main Marxist guerrilla group, which boasts about 17,000 fighters. A preview containing the main findings of the probe was made available to reporters late Tuesday. "Colombian authorities assert that not only has the IRA operated in the former safe haven on behalf of the FARC, but also the Iranians, Cubans, and possibly ETA (Basque terrorists), among others," congressional investigators concluded. They argued that "the forces of global terrorism, illicit drugs and organized crime converge upon Colombia to produce new challenges to the international system."

Last August, suspected IRA members Martin McCauley, James Monaghan and Niall Connolly were arrested at Bogota International Airport and charged with training FARC rebels in the use of high-powered explosives. Connolly was later identified as a representative in Cuba of Sinn Fein, the political arm of the IRA.
Interesting conjunction. The tie, at bottom, isn't religion, but a liking for blowing up people and buildings.
Posted by: Fred Pruitt || 04/24/2002 || Comments || Link || [0 views] Top|| File under:


Spain bags another money man
Spanish police arrested a second al-Qaeda suspect believed to have played a key role in the terrorist network's financing, the interior ministry announced. The suspect was identified as Ghasoub al-Abrash al-Ghalyoun. Known by the alias "Ghusup", the authorities said his nationality was still to be determined. He was described as the right-hand man of Muhammed Galeb Kalaje Zouaydi, alias "Abu Talha", who was arrested in Madrid Tuesday. Spanish police said Abu Talha was believed to have amassed more than 600,000 euros (533,400 dollars) through property deals on behalf of al-Qaeda and transfered funds to radical Islamic militants operating in Belgium, China, Jordan, Saudi Arabia, Syria, Turkey, the Palestinian territories, the United States and elsewhere. The interior ministry said he was notably suspected of having transfered some 180,000 euros (160,000 dollars) to a group in Germany close to Mohammed Atta, the man believed by Washington to have been the leader of the suicide hijackers responsible for the September 11 attacks in the United States.
Boy, the Spaniards are going great guns. The more of these guys they dig out, the more knowledge the get of the organization, and the more they'll be able to dig out further.
Posted by: Fred Pruitt || 04/24/2002 || Comments || Link || [0 views] Top|| File under:

#1  Holy Inquisition, Batman! Those Spaniards are reeling in the suspects.
Posted by: Anonymous || 04/25/2002 2:28 Comments || Top||

#2  Clearly its their use of The Comfy Chair. Expect Mary Robinson to begin investigating any day now.
Posted by: Hermetic || 04/25/2002 8:55 Comments || Top||


Two more MILF thugs and a jerk arrested in General Santos blast
Police have made three more arrests and seized explosives in their hunt for the perpetrators of deadly weekend bombings which killed 15 in this bustling southern city. The three Muslim men were nabbed in a pre-dawn raid Wednesday on a house in General Santos where three bomb blasts on Sunday and Monday left 15 dead and wounded 60 others. The house also served as an office for a Muslim cooperative, the Bangsa Moro (Muslim) Women's Association, regional police chief Senior Superintendent Bartolome Baluyot said. Baluyot said they were trying to establish whether the three men had any links to Muslim rebel groups fighting the government in the south and possibly communist insurgents. Two of those arrested, Abubakar Amil Hassan, 47 and Arsol Ginta, 31, were identified as members of the Moro Islamic Liberation Front (MILF), the country's largest Muslim separatist group.

The third suspect, Jehjon Macalinsan, 18, admitted he had phoned in a fake bomb threat to a telecommunications company on Tuesday, Baluyot added. The phoned bomb threat had been traced to Macalinsan and the house had already been under surveillance by authorities.

Police were checking if the Bangsa Moro Women's Association was a front for the 12,500-strong MILF, which has forged a ceasefire pact with the government pending peace talks. Seized at the house were a 60mm mortar round, a pistol and documents from the MILF and the communist insurgent National Democratic Front (NDF) and its armed wing, the New People's Army (NPA.) The mortar round was similar to the explosive used in the deadliest of three bomb blasts to hit General Santos City.
A mortar round? At the Women's Association? Kinda hard to explain, isn't it? What do you say? "It's not mine. It's my Mom's"?
Posted by: Fred Pruitt || 04/24/2002 || Comments || Link || [0 views] Top|| File under:


Intended bomb artist squeals like a pig in trial
A Muslim militant on trial admitted in court he took part in a plot to blow up a synagogue in the French city of Strasbourg early in 2001, but denied that he aimed to hurt anyone and insisted he was not acting on the orders of al-Qaeda or Osama bin Laden.
I mean, who expects anybody to be hurt when you blow up a building or two?
In the second day of the high-profile, high-security trial, 26-year-old Aeurobi Beandali told the Frankfurt high court that "it was never my intention to hurt anyone." Rather, he wanted to protest against France's policy in Algeria and Israel's policy in Palestine, he said. "I wanted relations between Israel and France to be destabilized," Beandali said.
core dump%
Posted by: Fred Pruitt || 04/24/2002 || Comments || Link || [0 views] Top|| File under:

#1  Anyone else disturbed by the fact that this guy thinks that wanting to blow up a synagogue and not a cathedral is a mitigating factor?
Posted by: Hermetic || 04/24/2002 13:17 Comments || Top||

#2  Anyone else disturbed by the fact that this guy thinks that wanting to blow up a synagogue and not a cathedral is a mitigating factor?
Posted by: Hermetic || 04/24/2002 13:17 Comments || Top||

#3  I don't think we're talking about a lot of computing power here...
Posted by: Fred || 04/24/2002 13:24 Comments || Top||


Lebanon nabs a live one
Authorities have detained a Palestinian man suspected of being linked to groups that financially aid al-Qaida. Prosecutor Adnan Addoum told The Associated Press that Ali Mahmoud al-Hajj, who holds Lebanese travel documents and a Swedish passport, was detained Monday on arrival from Sweden at Beirut International Airport.

Addoum ordered the Lebanese intelligence service to expand its interrogation of al-Hajj, who lives in the Ein el-Hilweh refugee camp on the outskirts of the southern Lebanese city of Sidon. Several European countries want the detainee over suspicion of collecting money for the Islamic Mujahed Movement, an Islamic group close to Asbat al-Ansar, a Sunni Muslim faction based in Ein el-Helweh. The US State Department says Asbat al-Ansar has links to al-Qaida, a claim that the group denies.

During initial questioning, investigators learned that al-Hajj worked for several Islamic institutions that collect money for unspecified groups in the camp, Addoum said. The prosecutor said that al-Hajj claimed he had a close relationship with Sheikh Jamal Khattab, a Muslim cleric who heads the Islamic Mujahed Movement and the Imam of al-Nour Mosque in Ein el-Hilweh.

Khattab told the AP that al-Hajj is a poor father of four daughters living in a refugee camp, has no links to political or militant organizations and travels to Sweden occasionally to work and earn money for his family. Addoum, the prosecutor general, said al-Hajj claimed he did not agree with the methods of al-Qaida and the Taliban movement, the former hard-line Islamic government of Afghanistan. He also opposed the September 11 terror attacks. Addoum said al-Hajj denied any links to Asbat al-Ansar, or Partisan's League. Asbat al-Ansar is thought to comprise about 300 Muslim fundamentalists living in Ein el-Hilweh, home to 70,000 Palestinians.
Wowsers. Lebanon arrested a Bad Guy. That boy must stink out loud.
Posted by: Fred Pruitt || 04/24/2002 || Comments || Link || [0 views] Top|| File under:


German court questions suspected Palestinian terrorists
Islamic hard boys suspected of planning a terrorist attack in Germany were questioned today by a judge at the country's highest criminal court, who will decide whether investigators have enough evidence to keep them in custody. Police raided apartments across Germany on Tuesday, arresting 11 members of a radical Palestinian group that prosecutors said were "on the brink of attacks," possibly on Israeli or US targets here, prosecutors said. The federal persecutor's office said in a statement that several of the suspects were to be questioned at the Federal Court of Justice today, but a decision on whether they could detained further wasn't expected before late evening.

According to German law, suspects can only be detained for 24 hours before facing a judge who determines whether they can be held for the duration of the investigation.

Prosecutors said the men belonged to a German cell of a radical Palestinian group called al-Tawhid and that they have long been under observation. They also are believed to have provided false travel documents, collected donations and helped Islamic fighters leave Afghanistan. Federal prosecutor Kay Nehm identified the spiritual leader of the loosely coordinated group as Abu Qatadah, a Muslim cleric suspected of links to al-Qaida. A Jordanian of Palestinian descent, Abu Qutadah was convicted in absentia in 2000 by a military court in Jordan on charges of conspiring to attack US and Israeli targets. British anti-terrorism experts said in February that Abu Qutadah had skipped.
Posted by: Fred Pruitt || 04/24/2002 || Comments || Link || [0 views] Top|| File under:



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Meet the Mods
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Two weeks of WOT
Wed 2002-04-24
  Explosions in Yasser's compound
Tue 2002-04-23
  Israel sez forget the UN mission, Kofi
Mon 2002-04-22
  Kofi appoints fact-finding team for Jenin
Sun 2002-04-21
  Qazi jugged
Sat 2002-04-20
  Sufi Mohammad jugged for seven big ones!
Fri 2002-04-19
  Three dead in Khost rocket attack
Thu 2002-04-18
  9-11 Strike on Milano?
Wed 2002-04-17
  Gujarat MPs cut themselves in for a little relief
Tue 2002-04-16
  Officials killed minister: Karzai
Mon 2002-04-15
  Pak may re-arrest Lashkar founder
Sun 2002-04-14
  Chavez back in power
Sat 2002-04-13
  Pak fundos warn of secular state
Fri 2002-04-12
  Chavez out in Venezuela
Thu 2002-04-11
  Six dead in blast near Tunisian synagogue
Wed 2002-04-10
  Bus boomer near Haifa kills eight

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