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Fahd clinically dead?
Today's Headlines
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Blogging, the Media - and Particularly, MilBloggers
BlogNashville is coming up shortly. There are still some slots open if you want to join us in Nashville next Saturday. But if not, join us online!

I'm particularly inviting Rantburgers to join the discussion about milblogging. What do you think about milbloggers? What impact are they having? Pros and cons for the milblogger him/herself? I hope you'll kick off the discussion now in the milblog thread at the link above, continue to join in through Saturday and afterwards as well. Some people who don't read RB will come to that discussion, so this is a chance to let them know how much you value our milbloggers, how they fit into the media - or to offer our milbloggers any feedback you'd like to give.

Joe Katzman thinks milblogging hasn't changed how the media report stories, but forces them to do so. Do you agree? Let him know over at RP as well as here -- he edits a defense-related magazine now, as well as having started Winds of Change.
Posted by: Robin Burk || 04/30/2005 9:00:13 AM || Comments || Link || [0 views] Top|| File under:


Arabia
Fahd clinically dead... rumors 're rife, but then, he was not much alive lately either
Saudi Arabia's Crown Prince Abdullah's visit to the United States this week to discuss oil matters with President George W. Bush, took place amid growing speculation back home that the bed-ridden King Fahd's condition has worsened with the monarch slipping out of conciousness. Speculation is rife among Riyadh's ruling elite of Fahd's clinical death - but even if this were true, any official announcement would delayed until a final decision on Fahd's successor has been taken.
If Suha shows up, we know it's true...
"Where's the damned KRUGERRANDS!?!?!"
Sources close to the Saudi royal family told Adnkronos International about the "suspicious" disappearance of King Fahd from public scene in the last ten days. At the same time, the sources have noted frantic activity involving the Seven Sudaris - the seven sons of King Abdul Aziz's wife, who hailed from Saudi Arabia's Sudari tribe, around whom the succession question revolves - King Fahd and Defence Minister Prince Sultan Bin Abdul Aziz are two of the most powerful Sudari sevens. Crown Prince Abdullah - who is Fahd's half brother - has long been touted to ascend the throne, but well placed sources maintain that there is resistance from other Sudari sevens members who favour closer ties with the West, something which Abdullah, who is very popular among Saudi religious circles, seems reluctant to cultivate. However, past efforts to promote the more Western-friendly defence minister Prince Sultan as Crown Prince instead of Abdullah failed because of division among the Sudaris.

Abdullah seems likely to remain the main beneficiary of internal Sudari squabbling, and already three years ago, he set up a Royal Council including all the 65 sons of the late King Abdul Aziz to settle all disputes related to the monarchy.
65 sons! Old goat like that?
It is believed that Abdullah is more acceptable to the majority of the Royal Council members than any other candidate. Hower, the succession is unlikely to be smooth and a new phase of conflict could start in oil-rich Saudi Arabia, also a strategic hub in the war against terrorism given the Saudi origins of most of the September 11, 2001 hijackers, and Osama bin Laden is thought to have many supporters in the country's military and religious establishments.
Posted by: Sobiesky || 04/30/2005 00:00:00 AM || Comments || Link || [4 views] Top|| File under:

#1  Wow, a literal Brotherhood. Sounds like Abdullah better watch it near elevator shafts and such.
Posted by: Snump Javiling7225 || 04/30/2005 1:06 Comments || Top||

#2  Oooh. What fun... Speculation, heh.

I find the article's speculation that Sultan is the strongest of the Sudaris odd... I believe that Nayef is the strongest among them. I guess we shall see, heh. Whether CP Abdullah gets it or not is the main issue, IMHO.

Nayef as King would be the long-awaited public declaration of war against the West, IMNERHO. I don't think he's the most hardcore Wahhabist, exactly, just the highest ranking of the truly anti-West faction(s). I would expect a deterioration of the small showplace cooperative efforts (FBI, banking reforms, etc) to follow.

Sultan should be less virulently anti-West -- I think. He spends far more time working directly with the West, particularly the US Military and contractors like SAIC (who developed their C&C system and have run it for almost 20 yrs). So he should have fewer illusions about the West in general, and the US in particular, than Nayef. I have no idea what he would do, specifically, but his denial of US use of bases on multiple occasions, such as the Iraq War, does not exactly bode well, now does it? He's a hardcore muzzy... Dunno if that really means hardcore Wahhabi.

Abdullah, no lover of the West, is, however, very pragmatic and would certainly continue things much as they are now - with only window-dressing changes, I'd bet, except where he was forced by the demographics-driven decline in the economic health of KSA.

The real action will be in all of the other positions, after a winner is declared. They've all positioned sons, nephews, supporters in as many spots as they could manage. Some of those who backed a loser, will have to be removed by the winner to consolidate power.

Popcorn is called for just because it's Prince on Prince. Butter optional.

Just my take.

Global Security's background on the Saudi Leadership is very interesting reading, for those so inclined.
Posted by: .com || 04/30/2005 1:41 Comments || Top||

#3  .com -
FWIW, while I was over there, we were always under the impression that Prince Sultan would have been the guy who told us "Thanks for coming, now go home." He is probably the most westernized of the princes, but as you said, given his record that doesn't say a hell of a lot. I don't believe that any of the princes in the possible line of succession are hard-core Wahabbis, but not a one of them will lift a finger to rein them in. Remember that both sides have their own private armies - the House of Saud in the form of the Saudi National Guard, and the Wahabbis in the Mutaawa. Watch what those two groups do.

Mike
Posted by: Mike Kozlowski || 04/30/2005 10:29 Comments || Top||

#4  Have to agree with .com on this one.

Nayef does appear to be the strongest among the Sudaris in terms of slyness and behind-the-scenes machinations. It appeared that Sultan got his spanking three years ago with the questionable-circumstances deaths of the princes. (I've forgotten how many, one died from a heart attack, another from a car wreck and a third died of "thirst" in the desert-although his companions were reported to have survived).

My question is "why now?" As I understand it, Fahd's been clinically dead for years. So what is the impetus for his "dying" now? Has he reached some agreed upon expiration date for which belief in his "aliveness" can no longer be suspended? Has something else occurred in the deep labryinths of Saudi (for lack of a better word) "politics" that has flown by under the radar?

Are the battle plans set? Princes in their positions? Warriors up on the blocks? Is it a "GO" for civil war? Has OIF finally pushed the Saudis into the first phases of their fall from power?

As for the oil, I think I'll have butter. Yeah.
Posted by: Quana || 04/30/2005 11:41 Comments || Top||

#5  maybe if they loosen the fan belts he'll have some brain waves
Posted by: Frank G || 04/30/2005 12:02 Comments || Top||

#6  Quana's got the questions, anyone with an answer? Was the King complete PVS?
Posted by: Shipman || 04/30/2005 13:02 Comments || Top||

#7  Does it really matter? In the end, the United States is going to have to stomp the living cpar out of all of them, establish an interim government, and kill all the Wahabbis in order to end the 'war on terror'. I personally think we should have done THAT first, then go into Iraq. We also need to do some SERIOUS house-cleaning in the State Department (as the Bolton appointment illustrates) if it's going to work in the best interest of the United States, rather than Saudi House of Bribes. Personally, I'd like to see all seven of the Sudaris hanging from the same lamp post - in Brooklin. I think the world would get the hint.
Posted by: Old Patriot || 04/30/2005 14:55 Comments || Top||

#8  OP, much as I dislike the Wabs, we had to stomp Saddam first. No way, no how could we deal with the Wabs, protect the oil and establish the Republic of Eastern Arabia with Sammy sitting there ready to undo everything and fund every terrorist we shook loose.

Lampposts? Nah. Traffic accidents in the desert. The princes should get involved in a 100-car wreck in the Empty Quarter. The world will still get the message, and it's much more fun to smile gently with plausible deniability: "who, us?"
Posted by: Steve White || 04/30/2005 20:39 Comments || Top||

#9  Steve - in this case, I'd WANT the world to know. I would shout it from the rooftops - you mess with the US, you end up hanging from a lamppost. If it means taking out half the population of a country, we're mean, evil, wicked, bad, nasty, cruel and heartless enough to do it. I'd want every nation in the world to know that if you kill American citizens, if you make war against the United States -economically, politically, culturally, militarily, or clandestinely - we will stomp you until you learn to "play nice", or there's no one left to stomp. That's been one of the major problems with the State Department since Truman - no one has the cojones to stand up to the petty dictators and remind them of Germany and Japan, and what we can do when we get riled. It's a lesson long overdue.
Posted by: Old Patriot || 04/30/2005 23:16 Comments || Top||


Caucasus/Russia/Central Asia
Basayev is in Dagestan
Chechen militant leader Shamil Basayev is presently in Dagestan, according to Deputy Prime Minister of Chechnya Ramzan Kadyrov.

"According to our knowledge, he is in Dagestan now," Kadyrov said in an interview with Komsomolskaya Pravda published on Friday, but could not name Basayev's exact whereabouts. "If I knew them, I would have killed him myself," he said.

"I have not promised to catch Basayev alive. I promised to destroy him. Our goal is to kill Basayev by May 9. There still is time. We believe in God, therefore we rely on the Almighty," Kadyrov added.

He added that Basayev's destruction is his sole objective. "I assure you that I have no other business than to hunt down the devil and destroy him," he said.

He said by now almost everyone involved in the murder of his farther, Chechen President Akhmad Kadyrov, has been eliminated and only Basayev who contracted the murder and one of the five perpetrators of the terrorist act are still alive.

Kadyrov ruled out the chances of a trial for the participants in the terrorist act. "I will blast them to hell. If we don't get them, it will be a shame for all Chechens," he said.
Posted by: Dan Darling || 04/30/2005 12:19:37 AM || Comments || Link || [1 views] Top|| File under:


Caucasus Corpse Count
Four suspected militants and a policeman have been killed in a shootout in Russia's volatile North Caucasus, police say.

The shootout happened after police in Nalchik, capital of Kabardino-Balkariya region, stopped a van to check the driver's documents, officials say.

Three armed men emerged from a garage and began firing, said a spokesman.

The local Interior Ministry said the attackers belonged to the Islamic militant group Yarmuk.

There were unconfirmed press reports that one of the dead was Yarmuk leader Rustam Bekanov.

The Interior Ministry said a night police patrol had stopped the van to check documents in the early hours of Friday.

As they did so, three men in a nearby garage as well as the van driver opened fire on them, spokesman for the ministry's southern Russian branch Alexei Polyansky said.

One policeman was killed as well as all four attackers. Two other officers were wounded, he added.

A cache of weapons and ammunition were reportedly found in pits under the garage.

Yarmuk is blamed for previous attacks in this part of Russia, which has been hit in recent months by the spread of instability from Chechnya.

The Russian authorities have stepped up security, but they admit Islamic militants pose a major threat, says the BBC's Steve Rosenberg in Moscow.

The Kremlin has even warned that Russia could disintegrate if it fails to restore order in the North Caucasus, our correspondent adds.
Posted by: Dan Darling || 04/30/2005 12:18:32 AM || Comments || Link || [0 views] Top|| File under:


Home Front: WoT
9/11 Hijackers used NJ College Library Computers
Two of the Sept. 11, 2001, terrorist hijackers used a public-access computer at a New Jersey state college library to buy tickets for the plane they helped hijack and crash into the Pentagon, a federal prosecutor said.

Ken Wainstein, the U.S. attorney for the District of Columbia, made the revelation Thursday during a congressional hearing in which the Bush administration pushed for renewal of provisions of the Patriot Act that make it easier for investigators to obtain library and other records.

"Investigators tracing the activities of the hijackers determined that, on four occasions in August of 2001, individuals using Internet accounts registered to Nawaf Alhamzi and Khalid Almihdhar -- 9/11 hijackers -- used public access computers in the library of a state college in New Jersey," Mr. Wainstein testified before a House Judiciary subcommittee. "The computers in the library were used to review and order airline tickets in an Internet travel reservations site," he said.

On Aug. 30, 2001, someone using Mr. Alhamzi's account logged on to a computer at the school to check on travel reservations for Sept. 11, 2001, that had already been made, he added. Mr. Wainstein didn't identify the college, but an official with William Paterson University in Wayne said that shortly after the attacks, investigators seized several public-access computers from the college's library. "The FBI, in furtherance of their investigation into 9/11, did take a number of our public access computers," Stuart Goldstein, the college's assistant vice president for institutional advancement, said Friday. "The FBI never informed us as to what they found or didn't find."

William Paterson University is the closest state college to where the hijackers were living just before the attacks. Justice Department spokesman Kevin Madden said the testimony shows how important the library provision of the Patriot Act is to national security. "The more people learn about the Patriot Act, the more they learn that it is designed to protect them from harm and from terrorist acts," he said. Mr. Madden said he did not know if libraries at other New Jersey colleges were searched after the attacks.

Messrs. Alhamzi and Almidhar were two of the five hijackers who helped seize American Airlines Flight 77, which took off from Dulles International Airport outside Washington, D.C., and crashed into the Pentagon.

They were among a group of as may as six of the Sept. 11 hijackers who lived in Paterson shortly before the attacks. Two others, Hani Hanjour, who would pilot the doomed plane, and Majed Moqed, bought their tickets from a Totowa travel agency, paying with a wad of cash after their debit card was rejected less than two weeks before the attacks.

House Judiciary Committee Chairman F. James Sensenbrenner Jr. (R., Wis.) said the testimony highlights the need to review provisions of the Patriot Act that enable the quick retrieval of library information by authorities. "We put Americans" lives at risk if we foolishly provide sanctuaries -- even in our public libraries -- for terrorists to operate," he said.
This article starring:
HANI HANJURal-Qaeda
House Judiciary Committee Chairman F. James Sensenbrenner
Ken Wainstein, the U.S. attorney for the District of Columbia
KHALID ALMIHDHARal-Qaeda
MAJED MOQED,al-Qaeda
NAWAF ALHAMZIal-Qaeda
Posted by: too true || 04/30/2005 10:52:22 AM || Comments || Link || [0 views] Top|| File under:


Southeast Asia
StrategyPage: Thai School Teachers Busted As Terrorist Leaders
April 29, 2005: In the south, eight teachers in Islamic schools were arrested and accused of planning and directing terrorist attacks. The Islamic teachers had been known for encouraging their students to hate non-Moslems, and to see violence as as solution to the problems of poverty and discrimination against Moslems in Thailand.

April 30, 2005: The government believes that Islamic radicals teaching in Islamic schools have been indoctrinating adolescent boys and turning them into Islamic terrorists. This is a pattern found throughout the Islamic world. The schools are often set up and subsidized with money from Saudi Arabian religious charities. Islam in Saudi Arabia promotes intolerance towards other religions, and support for violence against non-Moslems. A police investigation of Islamic teachers in Thailand has been going on for some time, but it remains to be seen if the evidence uncovered is sufficient to obtain a conviction. Local criminal gangs have been accused of participating in the pro-Islamic violence as well, and the Islamic terrorists could not operate in the area without the cooperation, or at least tolerance, of the gangs.
Posted by: ed || 04/30/2005 2:04:03 PM || Comments || Link || [0 views] Top|| File under:

#1  Islamic schools, ya say? we have some of those here.....damn
Posted by: Frank G || 04/30/2005 16:55 Comments || Top||


Syria-Lebanon-Iran
Israel claims two Israeli Arabs were kidnapped and released by Hizbullah
Israeli security sources said Thursday the Lebanese resistance group Hizbullah had infiltrated northern Israel and kidnapped two Israeli Arabs from a border village earlier this month. The two men, Mohammad Meki and Nawaf Murhej from Ghajar village, which lies on Israel's northern border with Lebanon, were allegedly kidnapped on April 7 and taken to Lebanon where they were interrogated for four days before being released on April 11. Contacted by The Daily Star, the resistance party had no comment on the issue.

The report says details of the kidnapping emerged upon the men's return, when they were taken for investigation by Israeli police and agents from the Shin Beth internal security service. The two described how they were kidnapped from their village at night and taken to Lebanon, where they were allegedly held in bad conditions and treated violently by their Lebanese interrogators. But they denied their captors had asked them to carry out security-related missions against Israel and were later released, the sources said.
Posted by: Fred || 04/30/2005 12:00:21 AM || Comments || Link || [1 views] Top|| File under:

#1  whoops! Arabs? Who led this mission? Barney Fife?
Posted by: Frank G || 04/30/2005 0:10 Comments || Top||

#2  "Hey Ahmed!... These guys ain't jews."

"How d'ya know?"

"Never you mind. Just kick 'em loose."
Posted by: Snump Javiling7225 || 04/30/2005 0:57 Comments || Top||


Africa: North
Cairo Corpse Count
Two veiled women shot at a tour bus, and a man - the brother of one shooter and the fiance of the second - blew himself up as he leapt off a bridge during a police chase Saturday. All three attackers died and seven people, four of them foreigners, were wounded in an apparent revival of violence against Egypt's vital tourism industry.

The attacks occurred within two hours and at locations just 2 miles distant.

Those wounded by the explosion in the center of Cairo included an Israeli couple, a Swedish man and an Italian woman, along with three Egyptians. Two Egyptians were wounded in the shooting, which targeted a bus headed toward one of Cairo's most prominent historic Islamic sites.

Egyptian authorities deny major militant groups have returned to violence and said Saturday's attacks were a result of its crackdown on a small militant cell it says carried out an April 7 suicide bombing in a Cairo tourist bazaar that killed two French tourists and an American.

But the attacks deepened fears that militants are launching a new round of violence in Egypt, which saw a bloody campaign by Islamic extremists in the 1990s. After that campaign was suppressed, the country saw a lull in violence until October, when near simultaneous bomb blasts in two Sinai resorts killed 34 people. Then, on April 7, a suicide bomber targeted foreigners near the crowded Khan el-Khalili tourist bazaar in Cairo, killing two French citizens and an American. Eighteen people were wounded.

Tourism is Egypt's biggest foreign currency earner, and the industry had made a strong recovery after the 1990s violence.

The Interior Ministry said Saturday's bombing was a result of the police roundup of those behind the Khan el-Khalili attack. It said police earlier in the day captured two suspects - Ashraf Saeed Youssef and Gamal Ahmed Abdel Aal - in connection with that attack and were chasing a third, Ehab Yousri Yassin, on a highway overpass when he jumped off, setting off the nail-filled bomb.

The two women who carried out the shooting attack were identified as Negat Yassin, the bomber's sister, and Iman Ibrahim Khamis, his fiancee, both in their 20s. They carried out the shooting on the tourist bus in revenge for Yassin's death, then shot themselves, the ministry said. Women are not known to have carried out past attacks in Egypt.

Two militant groups posted Web statements claiming responsibility for the twin attacks - the Mujahedeen of Egypt and the Abdullah Azzam Brigades. Neither claim's authenticity could be verified.

The Abdullah Azzam Brigades said Saturday's violence was in revenge for the arrests of thousands of people in Sinai after the October bombings there. The group claimed responsibility for those attacks as well. Egyptian authorities have said the October attack was connected to the Israeli-Palestinian conflict, not domestic politics.

Saturday's blast went off in a crowded square between an exclusive hotel on the banks of the Nile and the Egyptian Museum, near a bus station that was relatively empty because of a holiday weekend.

Remains of a body, covered with newspapers, were seen beneath the bridge a few minutes after the 3:15 p.m. explosion was heard through downtown Cairo. Photos in state media showed the body lying in a pool of blood, its head destroyed in the blast.

The injured Swede - sitting upright in a stretcher with his bloody hands held to his face - was lifted by paramedics into an ambulance. On a nearby curb, two Westerners checked their wounds; the young woman's left arm was bloodied and the man sitting next to her appeared to have a leg injury. The extent of the other woman's injuries were not immediately clear.

``The explosion was caused by a very primitive bomb full of nails. Most of the injuries were superficial caused by the destruction of the nails,'' Health Minister Mohammed Awad Tag Eddin said.

Soon after the bomb exploded, the two women - dressed in head-to-toe black veils - carried out the shooting attack on a highway leading to the Citadel, a 12th-century fortress with a towering 18th-century mosque, in a part of old Cairo rich with historic sites and cemeteries.

The women were in car following the bus and fired three bullets through its back window before shooting themselves, the Interior Ministry said. One died immediately and the other died later in a hospital, it said.

Witnesses, however, said police opened fire on the women. Two other Egyptians were wounded in the shooting, and none of the tourists on the bus was hurt, police said.

At the site, a pistol and a black glove of the type worn by veiled women lay on the ground that was covered by blood and shattered glass.

Police had launched a wave of arrests after the Khan el-Khalili bombing, which they initially said was carried out by a man acting alone. Later, however, they said he was part of a cell. At least three suspected cell members were arrested, along with more than 30 other people, most of them relatives of wanted suspects.
Posted by: Dan Darling || 04/30/2005 6:02:31 PM || Comments || Link || [0 views] Top|| File under:


Debka weighs in on Cairo bombings
In the two Islamic terrorist attacks carried out two hours apart in Cairo Saturday, April 30, two of the three assailants were killed and 15 victims injured, including four tourists. Both clearly targeted foreigners three weeks after a suicide bomber killed three tourists in a Cairo bazaar. The latest twin attacks stand out as landmarks because of three unique features revealed here exclusively by DEBKAfile's counter-terror sources:

1. This was the first husband-and-wife suicide team ever mounted by al Qaeda or its associated organizations. These attacks were staged by the Egyptian Islamic Jihad whose leader is Ayman al Zuwahiri, Osama bin Laden's senior lieutenant.

The first strike near the Egyptian Museum, a popular Cairo tourist attraction, was the work of Jihad member Ihab Yuseri, who was wanted by Egyptian police for complicity in the April 7 suicide bombing in a Cairo bazaar that killed three tourists. His wife and sister, both veiled, carried out the second attack on Old Cairo's Salah Salam Street, shooting up a tourist bus. The wife is believed to have been shot dead by Egyptian security and the sister captured.

2. A death team of two women is also a first in the Arab world. The only terrorist groups which have so far employed women suicide bombers are the Palestinian Fatah-al Aqsa Suicide Brigades and Hamas against Israelis and the Chechens against Russians.

3. Egyptian authorities are deliberately disseminating conflicting reports on the two incidents to create confusion. DEBKAfile's counter-terror sources have discovered exclusively that all three attacks this April were carried out by the same al Qaeda-Jihad Islami cell that attacked three Sinai resorts last October, killing 34, including 13 Israelis and injuring 150 holidaymakers.

Despite Egyptian efforts to sow confusion, a substantial al Qaeda-Jihad Islami network is shown to have established itself in Egypt proper this past year. It has begun to carry out its first operations inside the country.

Further revelations about the network have been uncovered by DEBKAfile. The Egyptian security probe of the Cairo bazaar bombing on April 7 led to a clandestine terrorist network working out of two centers, Mena, a southern town teeming with Muslim extremist factions and the Nile Delta town of Qalyub just north of Cairo. Most of its members are science or engineering students at various universities and research institutes across Egypt. Only two out of several dozen were positively identified and arrested last week. One died under torture Friday, April 29. News of his death is thought to have impelled Ihab Yuseri to set up the two terrorist attacks the next day.

Two key points stand out for the Egyptian handling of the rising terrorist threat in their midst.

A. Their efforts to conceal the true perpetrators of last year's Sinai attacks did more harm than good. The local cell used the official campaign of misdirection to cover its preparations for more terror plots.

B. The Egyptian intelligence and security authorities' failure to uncover and smash this network in the seven months since the Sinai attacks must rank as one of the great fiascos of the year in the world's campaign against terrorism. According to our information, between 300 and 400 Sinai Bedouin and Palestinians are still languishing in Egyptian jails without trial in the belief that they may give up some information on the bombers. So far, nothing has been gleaned from any of them.

There are also lessons for Israel in the Cairo episodes. DEBKAfile was alone in exposing al Qaeda's role in the Sinai bombings. Israeli officials kept quiet out of consideration for Egypt. Just before the Passover holiday, Jerusalem released a general warning to Israeli travelers to stay away from Egypt and Sinai. It was not effective. Tens of thousands visited Sinai and Egypt too nonetheless, proving that denial is not the most effective weapon for fighting al Qaeda or any other terrorist threat, including the Palestinian variety.
Posted by: Dan Darling || 04/30/2005 6:05:46 PM || Comments || Link || [1 views] Top|| File under:

#1  It makes sense that at some point things would start to cut loose in Egypt. First of all, the place has a huge number of potential troublemakers, and an even larger number of Moslem Brotherhood types who might back their play. It is a Sunni domain, so has Wahabbis a-plenty. I suspect that either the Egyptian government is going to come down on them like a ton of bricks, their traditional response, or Egypt is going to be going up in a sheet of flame.
Posted by: Anonymoose || 04/30/2005 19:24 Comments || Top||

#2  I'd favor agree with the latter. Time to cauterize another festering wound.

This pot has had a dictator's lid on it for a long time. The killers of Sadat have ruled all that time - very badly. We have blindly supported the regime for some many-times-morphed perceived gain... stalemate, actually.

[JoeM impersonation rant]
This is where I get worked up about State and all of the others who put their "pragmatism" and "realpolitik" and "situational / momentary convenience" ahead of our principles. That we are hated on the street in Cairo isn't surprising. This is not to accept the bullshit notion that something like the 9/11 or Beslan or Zarqawi attacks are justified. They're not. The murder or persecution of innocents is and always will be dead wrong and worthy of serious retribution - of the guilty perpetrators. Additionally, the extrapolation of bad governance to the American people is bullshit. Politicians, even those who start out well, sometimes fall in love with themselves and believe their shit doesn't stink... Clinton, Carter, and Johnson are the most egregious examples of this in my lifetime. Hypocritical power-hungry fuckwits who saddled us all with the baggage generated by taking the easy choices, instead of doing their jobs and protecting the interests of the US, both at the time and in the future. Toss in the legislators who went along and the moron advisers who peddled this obviously flawed approach.

We have to undo our mistakes, most of them installed by the lame-assed hypocritical Donk administrations named above, and live by the words we speak. Nothing less. Bush is pushing in this direction - against a huge tide of cowardly and gutless anything-BUT-statesmen - making our national policy begin to reflect the best in us - via the Bush Doctrine.

Egypt, and the accommodation of an asshole like Mubarak, who was party to the murder of the best Arab I've ever seen on the world stage, Sadat, is beyond appalling to me. The difference between Mubarak and Ayatollah Khomeini or Saddam is basically trivial: he's more hypocritical and can be purchased. Yeah, yeah, I know - I've heard all the gutless turds and their easy answers. But who thinks we don't pay far more dearly later for those choices than if we had made the hard choice up front and shunned them for the assholes and brutal despots they are? It's an offense to our principles and gives credence to our detractors. May the accommodaters burn forever for saddling all of us with such asinine and compromising decisions. They are party to 9/11 and Beslan and the cynicism that led to our Moonbat Professors and Tranzi MSM and the traction they bestow on Muzzy insanity.

This gap between what Americans stand for and what we sometimes do demands correction. If I can make the hard choices, the inconvenient choices, the painful choices, because I know they're the right thing to do, and know that nothing less will do, so can my government.

So keep it up, George. Terminate the gutless short-term gain / long-term insane choices of the past. Redirect our government and policies to align them with our values. That's the core reason I voted for you. You got some balls and know right from wrong. More, please.
[/JoeM impersonation rant]

Sucks, I know. Something that bugs me. A LOT.
Posted by: .com || 04/30/2005 20:17 Comments || Top||

#3  Amen, .com.
Posted by: too true || 04/30/2005 20:23 Comments || Top||

#4  .com, I agree with what you wrote. But one point: we bought into Mubarek because, when Sadat was axed, 1) the Cold War was still on 2) it wasn't that long after the Shah fell, and 'stability' was the mantra word in the West 3) we were scared silly that if Egypt fell into chaos that the oil spigot would get turned off.

Now we all know better, eh? But we didn't then. GWB has the opportunity to make that clear by telling Mubarek and his son that we aren't going to support them, and by the way we feel we're not getting quite the return on that $2 billion a year that we've been investing. I think GWB understands what you wrote. Now whether he feels he can pull it off with Iraq still open, Iran and N Korea making goofy faces, and a pack of yappy mutts nipping his heels at home is another matter.

I'd like to see Babyface Assad and Mubarek fall on the same day. Poetic justice. Heh.
Posted by: Steve White || 04/30/2005 20:35 Comments || Top||

#5  Thx, tt. :)

Painful to express, so it took "forever" to write. Apologies for what I left out. I do believe our current divide, the fact that we have Moonbats in our midst, is directly attributable to the cowardly and stupid accommodation mentality that has been forever enshrined at State and practiced to the hilt by simply gutless government - I can think of no better description. Please wade in if you're inclined. I know I missed stuff, important stuff. Sigh. I feel particularly old, at the moment.
Posted by: .com || 04/30/2005 20:36 Comments || Top||

#6  Overlapped with you, Dr Steve. Thx. You speaka de truth, bro. We endure grief every day from making hard choices - choices unpopular with us, cuz they cost us - effort or money or convenience, lol! I think we're better than our government, by a wide, no make that HUGE margin. I think we should all still get mad when we're lied to - not laugh it off, stand up and support what we believe in - not wait for someone else to lead the charge and make it easier and more popular / acceptable before we act, work hard - on a conscious level - to battle cynicism by fighting the habit of taking the easy way out. To borrow and mangle Frank Herbet: Fear isn't the mind-killer, that passes. Cynicism is the real mind-killer. It persists and enters a feedback loop that creates Moonbats. Willfully self-deceiving idiots. Tools of anyone with (yet another) simple answer. We screwed up in supporting Mubarak - and I don't really give a shit why it was "okay" at the time - apologies for the sound of that, but I truly mean it. We knew he was a murderer, complicit in Sadat's death, an asshole dictator-to-be, and we knew there would be consequences. It's a habit we have to break - or else. It's our souls on the line, IMO. Lol, sounds so over-the-top dramatic and corny. But corny isn't bad - it's sincere and honest. It's the essence of anti-cynical. I like loyalty, honesty, principles, and corny shit. They rock, heh.
Posted by: .com || 04/30/2005 20:56 Comments || Top||

#7  I was unaware of any alleged connection between Sadat's death and Mubarak. Please give details.
Posted by: Phil Fraering || 04/30/2005 20:57 Comments || Top||

#8  Ditto, Phil.

.com, could you explain the connection? I believe that some Mooselimb Brotherhood outlet was decidedly responsible. Or did Mubarak pull off a mighty scam?
Posted by: Sobiesky || 04/30/2005 21:11 Comments || Top||

#9  I'm wrapping up a dossier on the Egyptian Islamist groups, and it was a huge conspiracy and 3 years of planning that led to Sadat's death. What eventually became al-Zawahiri's group was a major part of that conspiracy.
Posted by: Dan Darling || 04/30/2005 22:12 Comments || Top||

#10  I hear you .com-- and thanks a thousand times for your passion and insight-- but it seems as if Egypt we've dug ourselves a very deep hole. It's going to take many years for us to get closer to the surface. W's approach is a good start but IINM we've got very little credibility among the good Egyptians, the pro-democracy reformers, and that hurts. I've no idea what the next step should be; all I can say is that the bandwidth we waste on Fwance and Gewmany needs to be redirected, ASAP, to crucial swing nations like Egypt. Ditto for India, and Philippines and Indonesia, maybe Russia as well.
Posted by: thibaud (aka lex) || 04/30/2005 22:17 Comments || Top||

#11  The ur-terrorists are the Muslim Brotherhood. Born and bred in Egypt, and still going strong.
Posted by: thibaud (aka lex) || 04/30/2005 22:19 Comments || Top||

#12  Oops, went out to eat...

Lol, you guys don't ask much...

Dan, you can fill in about the charities and the skimming and corruption? I was led to believe that the money played a large role. I'd like to know if you have any cites that support what I came to believe?

Anyway, I'll post what I can recall. Okay, it was Oct, 1981, and Mubarak was "his hand-picked successor". The blame was put upon the Egyptian Brotherhood -- the very first reference to religious extremists, meaning Islamists, outside of the Israeli - Paleo situation that I can recall.

Note that this predates even the most basic Internet functionality by a full decade. Everything online was, at the very least, a full decade old, thus fully "revised" in hindsight, before it ever went online.

What I recall, that made me begin to believe that Mubarak was actually not Sadat's right-hand, but an accomplice in his murder, was a television documentary. Naturally, I presume it was PBS's FrontLine. I'm on PBS.org looking now. TONS of Sadat links and no guarantee that it wasn't "fixed" later, before it was placed online.

Additionally, and no I can't cite links to what didn't exist, I recall more than one article exploring it.

The gist: Mubarak and his motives and connections - specifically the total breakdown of security that day when the gunmen broke off from the parade to chase Sadat down in the viewing stand and kill him. If you've seen the tape, it took them almost a minute from the time they jumped off the truck and ran toward the viewing stand until they actually caught him and killed him. In the personal security world, that's forever. His security was gone. Not there. Poof. They were military, like Mubarak, not Egyptian Brotherhood. How was it that they were missing? Who could have called them off? Etc. Religious extremists were convenient tools, ably assisted by someone on the inside of Govt with the authority and ability to call of Sadat's personal security. I also recall an interview with Sadat's widow - who refused to answer certain questions, although she was extremely outspoken otherwise, because she said answering would be her death, as she put it.

Back then, I subscribed to Time, NewsWeek, US News & World Report, Foreign Affairs, Scientific American, and Science News. Likely that whatever I read was in one of those.

So I'm digging on PBS to see if I can pick up the thread of what made me a believer. You might find other cites, of course. Under the circumstances, almost 24 yrs later, that's all I can offer you at the moment.
Posted by: .com || 04/30/2005 22:19 Comments || Top||

#13  Bottom line is that Egypt at least since Nasser's passing has been ruled by a basket-case government that barely governs. A lot like Pakistan. Or for that matter, any of the other African regimes that (mis)rule, and steal, and squander, and slaughter their people and their own. Egypt is as African as any other nightmare basket-case kleptocratic butcher African state.
Posted by: thibaud (aka lex) || 04/30/2005 22:34 Comments || Top||

#14  Egypt looks to me a lot like Romania. The West liked Ceacescu cos he stood up to the Russians (or at least he pretended to), but the people hated him. When he fell it happened in weeks. Mubarak is another Ceacescu?
Posted by: phil_b || 04/30/2005 22:41 Comments || Top||

#15  I've run across a link that indicates the group "responsible" for Sadat's assassination was calling itself Al-Gamaa al-Islamiyya (Islamic Group) at the time - led by Karam Zohdy.
Posted by: .com || 04/30/2005 22:58 Comments || Top||

#16  IIRC, there was also some involvement on the part of several Libyans, among others. There was also some heavy-handedness by Mubarak immediately after the shooting, where several of Mubarak's enemies suddenly were found floating in the Nile. Sadat was murdered first because he made peace with Israel, and secondly because he was beginning to crack down on certain mosques and meeting houses of people he considered his enemies. We live with the results.

The best thing we could do with Egypt is to hit Aswan with a tac nuke, floated down the Nile from the Egyptian/Sudan border area. A good Seal/SF team could pull it off and get out before anything happened. The entire world would be wondering who did it, and the list of possibilities would be endless.

Of course, the most important thing we need to do is to cut off the flow of money. That means Saudi Arabia and Iran. No one else has the cash to spread around like those two. As for oil, I think we'd find a way to manage. Didn't the Maltans and Japanese learn to use charcoal to drive their automobiles? We have whole states covered in coal. The longer we wait, however, the harder the shock is going to be on everyone.
Posted by: Old Patriot || 04/30/2005 22:59 Comments || Top||

#17  Nuclear power, now.
Posted by: thibaud (aka lex) || 04/30/2005 23:04 Comments || Top||


Iraq-Jordan
Private Parts England To Plead Guilty....
...Gee, I don't remember them calling Rummy and the Generals like they said they were going to to prove Pvt. Snookums' innocence...
SAN ANTONIO — Pfc. Lynndie England, the Army reservist shown in some of the most notorious photos in the Abu Ghraib (search) prison scandal, will plead guilty to abusing Iraqi detainees in a case that sparked global outrage against the United States and its military.
Smarter move than what your lawyers were originally proposing, Snooks. England, 22, faces a maximum sentence of 11 years in prison as part of the plea deal, which still must be accepted by a military judge, her attorney, Rick Hernandez (search), said Friday. She had been facing up to 16 years.The plea deal came four days before England was scheduled to go on trial in a military court in Fort Hood.
"This is in her best interests," Hernandez said.
No sh*t, Attorney Sherlock.
England was one of seven members of the Maryland-based 372nd Military Police Company charged with humiliating and assaulting Iraqi detainees at the prison near Baghdad. She became a focal point of the scandal after photos of her surfaced, including one that showed her smiling and posing with nude prisoners stacked in a pyramid. In another picture, she is smiling and pointing at a naked detainee's genitals while a cigarette dangles from the corner of her mouth.
Yeah, we know, we KNOW AWREADY!!!!!
England will plead guilty Monday to seven of the nine counts against her: two counts of conspiracy, four counts of maltreating prisoners and one count of dereliction of duty, Hernandez said. The other charges — committing indecent acts and failure to obey a lawful order — will be dropped, he said.
Top military officials first became aware of the Abu Ghraib abuses in January 2004. The scandal after the pictures became public tarnished the military's image in Arab countries and worldwide and sparked investigations of detainee abuses.
England's lawyers have argued that she and others in her unit were acting on orders from military intelligence to "soften up" prisoners for interrogations. But Army investigators testified during hearings last summer that England said the reservists took the photos while "they were joking around, having some fun."
Not that they were ever able to identify/produce any of the guys who gave the 'orders'.
A panel of soldiers will determine England's punishment. Hernandez said the defense will present evidence that England has severe learning disabilities and mental health problems.
Brief pause while all present and former military Rantburgers laugh hysterically.
He also said the defense plans to call Pvt. Charles Graner Jr., a former Abu Ghraib guard and the reputed ringleader of the abuses, as a defense witness during the sentencing hearing. Graner, said to be England's ex-boyfriend and father of her infant son, was convicted in January on a range of abuse charges and sentenced to 10 years in prison.
>...Boy, is that poor kid gonna have issues...

Hernandez said Graner would be called to show "the type of personality that he is and what information he gave her that led her to believe that what she was doing was correct."
In other words, if Private Boyfriend said it was okay, you could do it? Man, there's gotta be a few hundred thousand present and former GIs who would happily strangle her for that piece of idiocy.
The lawyer said it had not been decided whether England will take the stand.
Not if they know what's good for her.
In Fort Bragg (search), N.C., England was initially charged with 19 counts of abuse and indecent acts that carried a combined maximum sentence of 38 years in prison. Prosecutors filed a new, reduced set of charges in February after the case was moved to Fort Hood.
Notice that this comes just a day after Sgt Mooselimb was sentenced to the Long Walk for HIS stupidity. I know Pvt Sweetums couldn't have gotten the needle, but you know her lawyers had to be thinking that this was NOT a good time to challenge a court-martial jury.

Mike
Posted by: Mike Kozlowski || 04/30/2005 2:14:22 PM || Comments || Link || [1 views] Top|| File under:

#1  didn't she drop a baby by Graner too? Jeebus what a horror show
Posted by: Frank G || 04/30/2005 15:25 Comments || Top||

#2  Ignoring the bad PR for a moment, the duration of her sentence will reflect the damage of her behavior to "good order and discipline", minus her new-mommy status, for which military juries can be very soft. Bottom line is: nobody got killed; some poor Mooselimbs got embarassed no worse than if they got caught buggering the family goat; and even if she doesn't serve a day, she goes back to being a trailer park nobody in Podunk. Either that or she gets to eat three expensive meals a day and gets a free mattress courtesy of the military rather than ADC.
Posted by: Anonymoose || 04/30/2005 16:24 Comments || Top||

#3  She was smoking a cigarette? That changes everything. She's guilty of somthing.
Posted by: Shipman || 04/30/2005 16:43 Comments || Top||

#4  When does Karpinski star her Martha Stewart time?
Posted by: Mrs. Davis || 04/30/2005 16:43 Comments || Top||

#5  she already had her 15 minutes of shape blame shifting
Posted by: Frank G || 04/30/2005 16:53 Comments || Top||

#6  Kinda like this, Ship?
Posted by: .com || 04/30/2005 17:28 Comments || Top||

#7  Gen. Karpinski was relieved of command in a forward area, given a letter of reprimand and will liklely never be assigned another command the rest of her career.
Posted by: badanov || 04/30/2005 18:01 Comments || Top||

#8  #7 Gen. Karpinski was relieved of command in a forward area, given a letter of reprimand and will liklely never be assigned another command the rest of her career.

Yeah, unless Hillary becomes President and then Karpinski will become SecDef.
Posted by: JDB || 04/30/2005 19:30 Comments || Top||

#9  hee hee .com. Exactal.
Posted by: Shipman || 04/30/2005 19:56 Comments || Top||


Africa: North
Two women open fire on tour bus in Cairo
Two veiled women opened fire on a tour bus in a historic part of the Egyptian capital Saturday and one of them was killed in a gunbattle with security guards, authorities said. Hours earlier, a suspect in an April 7 bomb attack died in a police chase when an explosive he was carrying blew up as he jumped off a bridge. Seven people, including four foreigners, were injured in the explosion, which occurred by a bus station near an exclusive hotel frequented by foreigners and behind the downtown Egyptian Museum. The Interior Ministry said Ehab Yousri Yassin, an Egyptian suspected in the April 7 bombing at a tourist bazaar, was killed after he jumped from the bridge during a pursuit, setting off the explosion he was carrying.
Y'know, I suspect he may have been involved in terrorism. But it's only a suspicion, mind you...
Less than two hours later, two veiled women opened fire at a tour bus in the Sayeda Aisha part of old Cairo, an area rich with historic mosques and cemeteries. Three people, including one woman, were injured and at least one of the attackers was killed, Egyptian Health Minister Mohammed Awad Tag Eddin told reporters. The minister said it was not known if the injured woman was the second shooter.
Not good for the tourism business. Or for Hosni. snip.
I know it'd be un-Islamic, but if they stopped women from wearing those veils, there wouldn't be as many women with moustaches and falsies running around.
Posted by: Mrs. Davis || 04/30/2005 12:14:26 PM || Comments || Link || [0 views] Top|| File under:

#1  In the BBC TV report, a witness said that a crowd gathered, angry at the attack. They shouted "Haram" (implying the attack was forbidden) "Down with terrorism" but interestingly also "Down with Israel" "Down with America" (who have nothing to do with the attack).
Posted by: john || 04/30/2005 12:27 Comments || Top||

#2  ...but interestingly also "Down with Israel" "Down with America"

Yep, our $2B / yr is really working...
Posted by: Raj || 04/30/2005 12:30 Comments || Top||

#3  They seem to find it impossible to comdemn an atrocity without dragging the koran and america/israel into it.

Killing people at random is (a) a crime everywhere in the word (b) against all religious teachings

The attack isn't wrong because Allah said so. It is wrong because killing is wrong. All human socities prohibit this, irregardless of religion, culture etc.

Why can't they just condemn the killing?

What is wrong with these people?

Posted by: john || 04/30/2005 12:39 Comments || Top||

#4  What is wrong with these people?

Do not look for logic and consistency in the Middle East where they are not to be found.

-- Victor Davis Hanson
Posted by: Bomb-a-rama || 04/30/2005 14:04 Comments || Top||

#5  John, I share your sentiment, but not your love for neologisms that do not make, even remotely, any sense or do not introduce some homorous facet in the scheme of things.

While it is certainly a commonly heard word, its usage is considered substandard because the word is illogical. "Regardless" already means "without regard," so when we add the negative prefix "ir-," we create a double negative. In essence, we end up saying "not without regard," which means, of course, "with regard"--the opposite of what we intend.
Posted by: Sobiesky || 04/30/2005 14:32 Comments || Top||

#6  Typos, like homorous = humorous, though, are fine with me. ;-)
Posted by: Sobiesky || 04/30/2005 14:33 Comments || Top||

#7  "What is wrong with these people?"

They're Muslims.
Posted by: Dave D. || 04/30/2005 14:42 Comments || Top||

#8  Folks,

The topic is the Middle East--I believe the term is 'hummous'?
Posted by: JDB || 04/30/2005 19:26 Comments || Top||

#9  It's always our fault. Ignorance, folly, brutality, diving into the till, stealing the entire boodle, murder, rape, famine, indigestion and the heartbreak of psoriasis...
Posted by: Fred || 04/30/2005 23:16 Comments || Top||


Afghanistan/South Asia
Airstrike in Afghanistan Kills Seven
Warplanes attacked a rebel camp in a Taliban-haunted province of central Afghanistan, killing three civilians including a child as well as four suspected militants, the U.S. military said Saturday.
Was it "Bring Your Kid to Work Day"?
In another sign of instability, protesters in the western city of Herat shouted anti-American slogans and demanded the return of an ousted regional strongman, a day after a woman and her daughter were shot dead in unrest.
"We want our warlord back!"
The airstrike by U.S.-led coalition forces Friday came during a two-day offensive against insurgents in Uruzgan province, the U.S. military statement said. Four militants, an Afghan woman, an Afghan man and a child were killed, the statement said. Two more children were wounded and taken to a U.S. base for treatment, it said. Afghan officials and human rights groups have complained repeatedly about civilian casualties in American-led military operations, saying heavy-handed tactics could stoke sympathy for militants who have maintained a stubborn insurgency since the fall of the Taliban in 2001. American commanders insist they try to avoid hurting civilians and accuse militants of using villagers and passers-by for protection.
How Islamic of them.
Sounds like that's the case in this incident, doesn't it?
Posted by: ed || 04/30/2005 11:11 || Comments || Link || [0 views] Top|| File under:


Iraq-Jordan
50 dead as Zarqawi rants
Insurgents set off at least 17 bombs in Iraq on Friday, killing at least 50 people, including three U.S. soldiers, in a series of attacks aimed at shaking Iraq's newly formed government. An audio tape by one of America's most-wanted insurgents, Abu-Musab al-Zarqawi, warned President Bush there was more bloodshed to come.

The well-coordinated attacks, which also wounded 114 Iraqis and seven Americans, came as political leaders are trying to curb the insurgency by including all of Iraq's main religious and ethnic groups into an uncertain new Shiite-dominated government that takes office Tuesday. Most of the bombing targets were Iraqi security forces and police, whom insurgents accuse of collaborating with the Americans.

An association of Sunni Muslim clerics believed to have links with the insurgency, saw little prospect for peace as long as U.S. forces remain in Iraq. "We don't believe that the government will solve the problems of an occupied Iraq. We don't trust the government," Harith al-Dhari, head of the Association of Muslim Scholars, told Turkey's Anatolia news agency. "We don't see hope because the occupation is continuing."
Continued on Page 49
This article starring:
ABDUL RAZAQ RASHID HAMIDAl-Qaida in Iraq
ABU MUSAB AL ZARQAWIal-Qaeda in Iraq
Ali Fadhil
Brig. Gen. Adel Molan
Brig. Gen. Khalid al-Hassan
Col. Hussein Mutlak
Gen. Wafiq al-Samarie
Greg Kaufman
HARITH AL DHARIAssociation of Muslim Scholars
Lt. Col. Abdul Hadi al-Najar
Lt. Jassim al-Maliky
Association of Muslim Scholars
Posted by: Dan Darling || 04/30/2005 12:09:15 AM || Comments || Link || [2 views] Top|| File under:

#1  "Also in Baqouba, an Iraqi man armed with grenade walked out of the city’s al-Aqsa mosque and threatened to throw it at Iraqi and U.S. forces surrounding the building, the U.S. military said. They opened fire and killed the man, the military said."

...Oooooh, I'm SO sorry Abdul, but so long and thanks for playing!

Mike
Posted by: Ulaique Glise1667 || 04/30/2005 13:15 Comments || Top||


Africa: North
GIA leader captured
Algerian authorities say they have arrested the leader of an Islamic rebel group suspected of killing 14 civilians in an ambush earlier this month, Boulenouar Oukil of the Armed Islamic Group (GIA), the interior ministry said in a statement. It said the security forces also seized a large arms cache in the operation.
Dang. No cross-fire.
Dozens of people have died in recent attacks by militants who oppose the policy of reconciliation of Algeria's President Abdelaziz Bouteflika. The interior ministry statement also said that another GIA member - Mohamed Chama - was also captured during the operation.

The civilians were ambushed by suspected militants on 7 April, when their cars were stopped at a fake roadblock near the town of Larba, about 30km (18 miles) south of the capital, Algiers. The passengers were then forced out and shot dead. One driver escaped and alerted the security forces. The attack happened soon after President Bouteflika had told Algerians that security had been "largely restored across the country".
Oopsies. Shoot a few more bad guys and try that again.

This article starring:
BULENUAR UKILArmed Islamic Group
MOHAMED CHAMAArmed Islamic Group
Armed Islamic Group
Posted by: Dan Darling || 04/30/2005 12:03:17 AM || Comments || Link || [0 views] Top|| File under:


More on the GIA leader's capture
Algerian authorities have arrested the leader of an Islamic rebel unit suspected of killing 14 civilians in an ambush this month near Algiers and seized a large arms cache, the Interior Ministry said on Friday.

The arrest of Boulenouar Oukil of the Armed Islamic Group (GIA) is the first major coup for the authorities since a month-long wave of violence against a government amnesty plan to end more than a decade of conflict.

Militants killed 14 people and burned their bodies after stopping their vehicles at a bogus roadblock near Larbaa, some 20 km (13 miles) south of the capital on April 7. It was the deadliest attack on civilians in six months.

The statement was the first official comment on the ambush, which rattled Algerians who had seen a steady return to normality after a conflict that killed up to 200,000 people.

Algeria's principal rebel movement the Salafist Group for Preaching and Combat (GSPC) and the now largely broken GIA are suspected of killing some 50 people since mid-March. Oukil is also accused of participating in the killing of 16 civilians in Medea in October, the Interior Ministry said in a statement. The arrests and interrogations of Oukil and GIA member Mohamed Chama on April 17 led to the seizure of machineguns, rocket-propelled grenade launchers, guns, rifles, semi-automatic weapons, ammunition, TNT, and logistics equipment and computers. Chama is accused of taking part in a massacre of 82 civilians in Larbaa in 1997, the ministry said.
This article starring:
BULENUAR UKILArmed Islamic Group
MOHAMED CHAMAArmed Islamic Group
Armed Islamic Group
Salafist Group for Preaching and Combat
Posted by: Dan Darling || 04/30/2005 12:27:48 AM || Comments || Link || [1 views] Top|| File under:


Africa: Horn
Turabi Moved From Jail to House Arrest
Sudanese authorities have moved detained Islamist leader Hassan Turabi out of prison and placed him under house arrest north of the capital Khartoum, his wife said yesterday. "We were informed by the security services last night that the sheikh was transferred to a house in Kafouri. My sons, daughters and I went there and stayed with him" until early yesterday, Wisal Al-Mahdi told AFP. She said Turabi, leader of the opposition Popular Congress party and former mentor of President Omar Bashir, seemed to be in good health.
Posted by: Fred || 04/30/2005 12:12:52 AM || Comments || Link || [1 views] Top|| File under:


Africa: North
Police Arrest Over 100 in Cairo Bazaar Blast Case
Egyptian authorities have arrested some hundred more people over their suspected roles in the deadly blast that rocked a central Cairo bazaar on April 7. The latest arrests brought the number of detainees held by the state security over the Khan Al-Khalili attack that killed three foreigners and injured 18 bystanders to at least 160 people.

State security officials said before that they have uncovered links between the 18-year-old perpetrator of the blast and a group of four people who took part in training and recruiting the culprit and in manufacturing the device. Three of the main four suspects: Akram Fawzi, 35, Reda Ahmed, 19, and Tarek Ali, 34, were arrested last week and now face the charges of plotting terrorist acts, belonging to a terrorist group, and possession of illegal weapons and ammunition. Security sources told Arab News that Fawzi, who allegedly masterminded, financed and provided all the data collected from the Internet about how to prepare explosives from primitive substances available on the market, was involved before in some of the terrorist groups in the 1990s. Fawzi, the group's leader and mentor, had been arrested before for being member of a small terrorist organization that adopted the jihadist ideology were taught to make the explosives out of fireworks for their operations that targeted cinemas, tourist hotspots in Cairo. An official at the Interior Ministry who asked not to be identified said Egyptian police managed to arrest the three men and other suspects in a very short time because Fawzi used to work as informer for police. "For a short time Fawzi was recruited by the police securities to inform them about the terrorist groups and their activities," the official said.

Officials at Al-Jihad group told Arab News that at least 54 members of their organization were arrested with other members of Al-Jamaa Al-Islamiya. "Those members have no relation whatsoever with this unknown group behind Al-Azhar bombing," said the Al-Jihad official. "Some of them like Khaled Mohieddin, Samir Hassan and Ashraf Al-Fishawi just happened to be living in the same neighborhood of the bomber and they were arrested and released almost ten years ago after they were proven to be innocent."
"Round up the usual suspects!"
Posted by: Fred || 04/30/2005 12:05:56 AM || Comments || Link || [0 views] Top|| File under:

#1  Meanwhile
Explosion in downtown Cairo kills at least one

Posted by: gromgoru || 04/30/2005 9:43 Comments || Top||

#2  another boomer attack just occurred - MSNBC breaking news
Posted by: Frank G || 04/30/2005 10:35 Comments || Top||


Iraq-Jordan
Car bombs kill 31 in Iraq after Cabinet formation
Insurgents in Iraq unleashed a series of deadly attacks Friday, including 10 car bombings in and around the capital, the day after the country's first democratically elected government was approved. At least 31 Iraqis were killed and more than 100 wounded, ramming home to the new government in Baghdad that insurgents are as strong as ever. Al-Qaeda's leader in Iraq appeared to make the same point in an audio tape, purportedly made by Abu Musab al-Zarqawi last month, in which the Jordanian vowed more suicide attacks.

The onslaught of bombings included nine in Baghdad and the nearby town of Madaen, one in Baquba, a town just north of the capital, and another in the northern Kurdish city of Arbil. A 12th blast struck near a U.S. military camp north of Baghdad, killing a soldier and wounding two, according to the U.S. Army. In total, at least 31 people were killed and more than 100 were wounded, according to Iraqi police and health officials.
Posted by: Fred || 04/30/2005 12:03:21 AM || Comments || Link || [0 views] Top|| File under:


Iraq video shows Sudanese executed
Posted by: Fred || 04/30/2005 00:00:00 || Comments || Link || [0 views] Top|| File under:


Israel-Palestine
Palestinians clash with Israeli police
Several Palestinian protesters and an Israeli police officer have been injured during a protest against a Greek Orthodox patriarch near a Christian site in Jerusalem. The police and clergy said about 500 Palestinians approached the Church of the Holy Sepulchre to protest against Patriarch Irineos I, who has been accused in media reports of selling Greek Orthodox Church land in Jerusalem to Jews. Irineos, who denies the allegations, had been conducting Orthodox Good Friday mass inside the church, said Marwan Toubasi, Greek Orthodox Council chairman in the Palestinian territories.
Posted by: Fred || 04/30/2005 00:00:00 || Comments || Link || [0 views] Top|| File under:


Afghanistan/South Asia
Nepal: State of emergency lifted
Nepal's King Gyanendra has lifted the state of emergency that he imposed after firing the government in February. A palace statement on Saturday said that the king in accordance with the constitution lifted the order of the state of emergency. The king imposed emergency rule on 1 February, taking absolute power and suspending civil liberties. The move was widely condemned both within Nepal and internationally. The announcement came after Gyanendra returned on Friday from visits to China, Indonesia and Singapore, where leaders pressed him to restore democracy in Nepal. Since emergency rule was imposed, hundreds of politicians have been jailed.
Posted by: Fred || 04/30/2005 00:00:00 AM || Comments || Link || [0 views] Top|| File under:

#1  He's praying that he won't have to wear that hat again for a while...
Posted by: Snump Javiling7225 || 04/30/2005 0:54 Comments || Top||

#2  I fear Snump is jealous of HMs satorial splendor. Not everyday you see someone wearing a horses butt. Indeedy it is a real asshat.

Posted by: Hidden Forces || 04/30/2005 11:30 Comments || Top||

#3  Can't buy a better helmet mounted fly swatter.
Posted by: ed || 04/30/2005 11:47 Comments || Top||

#4  Looks like a good mudder.
Posted by: Shipman || 04/30/2005 12:57 Comments || Top||

#5  wasn't that in a Godfather scene?
Posted by: Frank G || 04/30/2005 13:02 Comments || Top||


Nuggets from the Urdu press
Asking for 'lift' from Bharat
Sarerahe in Nawa-e-Waqt stated that no one could stop two kinds of people from going. One was headed for the abode of Allah and the other for India. Now actress Sana was leaving for India to act in Sunni Deol's two films. Even an 'antique' Mehdi Hasan could not be persuaded to get himself treated in Pakistan. He too has gone to his messiahs in India. Our signer Adnan Sami Khan was already in India asking Bharat to give him the lift (lift kara dai) he thought he could not get in Pakistan.

Students attack musical evening
According to Khabrain, a musical gathering arranged during a wedding inside the bridegroom's house in Dera Ismail Khan (NWFP) was attacked by the students of a religious seminary. The students were extremely violent. They broke all property and savagely beat up every member of the wedding party. At night, the clerics of madrassa Darul Ulum in the city learnt about the singing session and armed their students with sticks and axes and ordered them to attack. The wedding party ran away after the students opened fire too. The clerics warned the police that no future musical evenings would be tolerated. The police did not arrest anyone.

Law & Justice Commission wants hand-cutting
Columnist Azam Sultan Suhrawardi wrote in Khabrain that Law and Justice Commission was a body devoted to the education of law among the masses. In its recent press release it had repeated its demand for the punishment of cutting of hand and leg for theft under Islamic law. The law is already in force since 1979 when General Zia promulgated it. No punishment of hand cutting has been carried out in Pakistan but the country has been defamed in the world as a savage state. The government should tell the Law & Justice Commission not to release new press advice about old laws that have not been enforced because they were unenforceable because of defect in the evidence law today. The Commission would serve the country better by publicising laws which have been enforced. Its latest press release has caused a lot of consternation among citizens.

Imran Khan's three facets
Columnist Javed Chaudhry wrote in Jang that Imran Khan had three sides to him: cricket, charity and politics. In the first two departments his services would never be forgotten. He had achieved great success as a cricketer and a philanthropist. But in the field of politics in eight years he had achieved nothing. He should therefore turn away from politics and devote himself to the other two facets of his life.

America imposed first martial law
Quoted in Jang magazine Tariq Ali said that America got General Ayub to impose martial law in 1958 to prevent the election from being held. He said he was told this by Bhutto who said that in a cabinet meeting Ayub Khan said that America's was the only effective embassy in Pakistan. Therefore the martial law was imposed through him.

Ban Cohen's book!
According to daily Pakistan one MA Shaida of Lahore stated that book The idea of Pakistan by Stephen Cohen should be banned forthwith and its publisher in Lahore proceeded against for maligning Pakistan army and defending the politicians even though they were clearly responsible for harming the country. He asked for legal proceedings against the American author and member of a Washington think-tank so that Pakistan's name was saved from being sullied.

The 'pir'-killer of Danga
Daily Jang reported that at Danga in South Punjab one Zulfiqar took out the corpse of his pir from his grave and hung it from a tree. The police were unable to find a law under which to arrest him. Zulfiqar had made it a practice to drag the dead bodies of his spiritual guides and hang them for purposes of black magic. The villagers were shocked to see their dead pir hanging from a tree.

Qazi and non-issues
Writing in Khabrain author Raja Anwar said that Qazi Hussain Ahmad was a great leader who engaged in non-issues like mazhabi khana in passports and retention of General Zia's Islam in textbooks. He gave a non-intellectual definition of secularism by saying that it was against Islam and forgot that his beloved poet Allama Iqbal was the product of a secular system of governance in India.

Passport does show religion!
Reported in Khabrain, the new machine-readable passport immediately shows the religion of the Pakistani passport holder after it is inserted into the machine. However the passport does not show religion when looked at with bare eyes.

Dr Amir Liaquat's fake degrees
According to Khabrain, federal state minister for religion Dr Amir Liaquat Hussain who also hosted the TV programme on religion had fake PhD degrees from an unknown university in Spain. He bought his degrees for BA, MA and PhD from Trinity College and University located somewhere in Spain and got a certificate of temporary acceptance from the registrar of Karachi University in order to qualify for taking part in the 2002 election. His doctorate was done after 20 days of getting his MA degree. When asked to explain the minister declined to answer.

Is English more civilised?
Writing in Khabrain, Azam Sultan Suhrawardi stated that once he was watching Dr Israr Ahmad defending four marriages of men 'because their sexual desire was too much'. Since Dr Israr was talking to ladies, after some time he stopped talking in Urdu and said that he could now defend his stance only in English because 'such things' could not be discussed in Urdu in front of the ladies.

Mushahid Hussain's two-way loyalty
Daily Khabrain quoted senator Mushahid Hussain as saying that he had not been a renegade from the Nawaz League. He was in jail when the party itself fired him. Loyalty was always two-way, he said. He said unlike others he took no plots or other perks when he was in the PMLN government. He added that Senate elections were less 'expensive'.

Well done, Governor Iftikhar Shah!
Writing in Khabrain, Hafiz Sanaullah stated that it was good that General (Retd) Iftikhar Shah had left his post as governor NWFP when did because those who misjudged their time of exit had to pay with their lives. Governor Sikandar Khan Khalil was shot dead. Governor Hayat Muhammad Khan Sherpao was blown up by a bomb. Governor Fazle Haq was shot dead point blank on a road of Peshawar. Many retired governors of NWFP are dead to the people even though alive. But Iftikhar Shah would be remembered. As a young army officer he was an intelligent man and took the homoeopathic medicine called khalifas to activate his mind.

Victimising Aga Khan Board
Writing in daily Pakistan, Syed Asif Hashmi stated that Aga Khan Education Board was attacked by some uncivilised elements in the country when the Board inadvertently distributed a questionnaire about AIDS and other sexual problems to the institutions. Last year textbooks in Punjab were attacked but no one banned the Textbook Board in Lahore. The campaign against the Aga Khan Board was completely unjustified.
Posted by: Fred || 04/30/2005 00:00:00 AM || Comments || Link || [0 views] Top|| File under:

#1  As a young army officer he was an intelligent man and took the homoeopathic medicine called khalifas to activate his mind.

Then it's true. Khalifa is the opium of the Muslim masses.
Posted by: 11A5S || 04/30/2005 0:17 Comments || Top||

#2  ROFL, 11A5S!! Excellent, lol!
Posted by: .com || 04/30/2005 1:05 Comments || Top||

#3  Amir Liaquat Hussain (Pakistani Federal Minister) is being attacked because he exposed the extent of the sexual abuse of children in the madrassas (islamic schools) in Pakistan.
There have been thousands of reported cases of child rape but no successful prosecutions. The religious parties (and their terrorist allies) have threatened him for daring to reveal the perversity of many mullahs.


Posted by: john || 04/30/2005 9:43 Comments || Top||

#4  America imposed first martial law

Standing headline variant - Blame Canada Amerikkka. Real original, guys...
Posted by: Raj || 04/30/2005 9:59 Comments || Top||

#5  I love Urdu nuggets, reminder me of home.
Posted by: Bizzaro Superman 2387 || 04/30/2005 11:33 Comments || Top||


Kashmir Korpse Kount
SRINAGAR, India - Indian troops on Friday shot dead four rebels who infiltrated into Indian Kashmir from the Pakistani-zone of the divided Himalayan state, a police spokesman said. He said the four were shot during a clash with Indian army in southern Poonch district. "Two soldiers also suffered injuries during the clash," the spokesman said.
Posted by: Steve White || 04/30/2005 00:00:00 AM || Comments || Link || [0 views] Top|| File under:



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Two weeks of WOT
Sat 2005-04-30
  Fahd clinically dead?
Fri 2005-04-29
  Sgt. Hasan Akbar sentenced to death
Thu 2005-04-28
  Lebanon Sets May Polls After Syrian Departure
Wed 2005-04-27
  Iraq completes Cabinet proposal
Tue 2005-04-26
  Al-Timimi Convicted
Mon 2005-04-25
  Perv proposes dividing Kashmir into 7 parts
Sun 2005-04-24
  Egypt arrests 28 Brotherhood members
Sat 2005-04-23
  Al-Aqsa Martyrs back on warpath
Fri 2005-04-22
  Four killed in Mecca gun battle
Thu 2005-04-21
  Allawi escapes assassination attempt
Wed 2005-04-20
  Algeria's GIA chief surrenders
Tue 2005-04-19
  Moussaoui asks for death sentence
Mon 2005-04-18
  400 Algerian gunmen to surrender
Sun 2005-04-17
  2 Pakistanis arrested in Cyprus on al-Qaeda links
Sat 2005-04-16
  2 Iraq graves may hold remains of 7,000

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