For a minute there I thought the hitcounter was busted, then I saw I'd been linked from Instapundit. Welcome to the new readers. Feel free to come back any time.
Posted by: Fred Pruitt ||
05/04/2002 12:03 pm ||
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#1
Ilost you about a month ago when your
old address went dead. Most of the people
who link to you still link the old address.
I've missed you. Love your Semi Blog. Iam
sure glad "His Blogness" Mr renolds linked to
you. Sooner or later I should donate. Thanks
for the great info.
dfp
Search operation for Al Qaeda and Taliban fighters has been shifted to Fata - a semi-autonomous region of Pakistan - and the political administration of South Waziristan Agency has started interrogating the tribals about their possible involvement in providing refuge to the fleeing fighters. Really? That was fast. It's only been... um... eight months.
Official sources said the government wanted to take action against those people who might have provided refuge to the Taliban and Al Qaeda men or helped them in fleeing to other safe areas. This should be good...
Ladha Subdivision Assistant Political Agent Nek Daraz Khan Dawar summoned some tribesmen to his office in Makeen, and told them that the administration had received information about the visits of the fighters to some influential people of the Shabikhel clan - a sub-clan of the Mahsud tribe. But the tribesmen expressed ignorance about any such activity, saying if their fellow tribesmen were found in contact with the suspect terrorists, they would have no objection to any crackdown launched by the government in their agency to nab the culprits. "Nope. Wudn't us. You find any Bad Guys, you can have 'em. Where you thinking of looking for them, hmmm?"
Posted by: Fred Pruitt ||
05/04/2002 01:19 pm ||
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"Who Is Dying In The War?"
By Ross M James
We are fighting a war on terror
The task is noble, just and fair
To start with Taliban was no error
Had to get to the Beast in his lair
The proud Marines arrive in the Stan
They skillfully flex the American might
And who is dying in that fight?
Our poor, rural White!
We switched to the neighbor
To topple dictator Hussein
Spent tons of money and labor
To make that nation free and sane
And who is dying in Iraq?
Our poor, inner-city Black!
Now, the sight of the rifle is set on Iran
Time to ship Marines to Teheran
And who will die in Middle Asia?
And poor kids of South East Asia!
The brass will ask for fresh replacement
Citing "freedom", "tough engagement"
But the rich won't get scared or panic
They will send our poor Hispanic!
Latinos will fight with valor and smile
No gripe or complaints, just toil
The rich will come later in style
To get richer by selling Iranian oil
Big bosses, who send our children to war,
Send theirs to study finance and law
They cannot be distracted beyond their pale
They are busy at Harvard, Princeton and Yale
The ads for the ivy league campus
Are deceptively simple and quiet
No fuss, democratic, not pompous
No cause for attention or riot
But the ads for the poor and loud and slicker
"To serve in the Army is an adventure!"
But the rich just dismiss it and snicker
"To be in the Army is an indenture"
When fighting is done in the Middle East
The rich will scheme for another feast
They never, ever have enough
To satisfy their greed for more
They will invent another "noble" war
And again, poor kids get a deal of raw
They will die for the "New World Order"
The rich will prosper in finance and law
And the poor will still be cannon fodder
To defend our nation and die for its freedom
To preserve its uniqueness and beauty
Should not be the lot of the poor alone
It must be always collective American duty!
Federal authorities said Saturday they had some leads into who may have planted the pipe bombs that exploded in six rural mailboxes in Illinois and Iowa, but they didn't know if one person was responsible or if several people were involved. My guess is still one...
Officials described it as an act of domestic terrorism. Hmm. Yeah. Bombs in mailboxes, I'd call that terrorism, whether it's domestic or imported.
In all, eight devices were found on Friday, said Thomas Ahearn, spokesman for the U.S. Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco and Firearms office in Chicago. Four postal workers and two residents were injured in the explosions, but none had life-threatening injuries. Guess loss of a few fingers isn't life-threatening. Inconvenient, though.
FBI special agent Jim Bogner said at a news conference Saturday that authorities have some promising leads, and he invited whoever was responsible to contact the FBI. There are some large men with truncheons who want to talk to him.
"We want to assure him he has our attention and we want to understand what the situation is, because apparently he has some grievances," Bogner said. "He has our attention and we want to listen now. It's a much better option to exercise than planting bombs and injuring people who have nothing to do with these grievances." The "grievances" are stock kiddy-yammer about how the mean ol' government controls his desires. The world doesn't understand him, 'cause he's so much more sensitive than the rest of us. If Mom'd let him use the car to go to Washington, he'd assassinate somebody. Wotta clod.
A map of marking the bombs forms a jagged circle around the Missisippi River in the northeast corner of Iowa and western edge of Illinois. And Sonny's house is probably right in the middle, 'cause he's a criminal mastermind.
Posted by: Fred Pruitt ||
05/04/2002 12:25 pm ||
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Today there were more of them in Nebraska.
As a postal worker, I hope they catch the perp(s) and put him/them on ice for a long, long time. Say, until the New York Yankees finish last for ten years in a row...
#2
As a follow-up, FoxNews showed the map of the Nebraska bombs and they're laid out in a circle, too. Looks like he's holed up and then goes for a drive when he puts one of the explosives together. Here's hoping one goes off in his car.
Posted by: Fred ||
05/04/2002 18:55 Comments ||
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Text of note left in mailboxes in the Midwest where pipe bombs were found Friday:
Mailboxes are exploding! Why, you ask? As well we might...
Attention people. Whoa! Now that's imperious. Wants to be in charge, doesn't he?
You do things because you can and want (desire) to. Statement of the obvious. Though sometimes we do things because we have to. Like when we track down lunatic attempted murderers.
If the government controls what you want to do, they control what you can do. That sentence isn't connected to the previous sentence.
If you are under the impression that death exists, and you fear it, you do anything to avoid it. (This is the same way pain operates. Naturally we strive to avoid negative emotion/pain.) It's an accurate impression. Death exists, even though it's fairly common for teenagers to doubt it. It comes to all of us, sooner or later. Sometimes we fear it and sometimes we don't and most times we don't think about it because we're rational human beings concentrating on being alive. Same applies to pain. It doesn't necessarily apply to negative emotion, which is not to be confused with pain.
You allow yourself to fear death! Sounds to me like he's concentrating on it a lot more than we are.
World authorities allowed, and still allow you to fear death! Sentence isn't connected with the previous. Americans think about "world authorities" somewhat less than they think about death.
In avoiding death you are forced to conform, if you fail to conform, you suffer mentally and physically. (Are world powers utilizing the natural survival instinct in a way that allows them to capitalize on the people?) Unspoken assumption here is that conformity is a bad thing. In certain respects we all have to conform, except for lunatics.
To "live" (avoid death) in this society you are forced to conform/slave away. Sounds like he doesn't like the idea of having to get a job, doesn't it?
I'm here to help you realize/understand that you will live no matter what! It is up to you people to open your hearts and minds. There is no such thing as death. The people I've dismissed from this reality are not at all dead. Oooh. Messiah complex? "Opening up hearts and minds" implies accepting (dare we say, conforming to) what the writer wants. Anything else is evidence of a close heart and/or mind. Denial of the existence of death is also a pretty good indication of lunacy. Note that he's also making the assumption that he was successful in inducing rigor mortis into mailmen, school kiddies checking the mail, and tax-paying homeowners.
Conforming to the boundaries, and restrictions imposed by the government only reduces the substance in your lives. When 1% of the nation controls 99% of the nations total wealth, is it a wonder why there are control problems? Certainly not a proven assumption. First a regurgitation of tattered hippy twaddle, followed by the statement that 1% controls the 99%, which is regurgitated Chomskytwaddle. Again, the disconnect: if the 1% really controlled the 99% the 1% wouldn't have any control problem, would it?
The United States strives to provide freedom for their people. Do we really have personal freedom? I've lived here for many years, and I see much limitation. Does the definition of freedom include limitation? I've learned about the history of various civilizations in history, and I see more and more limitation. Do you people enjoy this trend of limitation? If not, change it! If he's lived here for "many years" he hasn't understood what he was living in. I still don't think "many years" translates into enough years to make him old enough to vote. The definition of freedom always includes limitations, because one man's freedom is another man's injury. History does backwards, not forward, and it's not hard to find limitations on freedom in history, generally becoming more constricting until one reaches the Middle Ages, when the majority was tied to the land. Try another civilization and you'll find equivalent limitations on freedom.
As long as you are uninformed about death you will continue to say "how high", when the government tells you to "jump". As long as the government is uninformed about death they will continue tell you to "jump" Is the government uninformed about death, or are they pretending? Death has nothing to do with the government. Taxes do. The government doesn't think about death, it thinks about taxes.
You have been missing how things are, for very long. More Messiah/Stranger in a Strange Land stuff. Childish.
I'm obtaining your attention in the only way I can. He can't accomplish anything of substance with his life.
More info is on its way. More "attention getters' are on the way. If I could, I would change only one person, unfortunately the resources are not accessible. It seems killing a single famous person would get the same media attention as killing numerous un-famous humans. There is less risk of being detained, associated with dismissing certain people. No, you can't do the Hinkley thing.
Sincerely,
Someone Who Cares As opposed to the rest of us, who don't.
PS. More info. will be delivered to various locations around the country. He's got Mom's car, and he's on the road.
Based on the contents, I'm not sure if we're dealing with a 17 1/2 year old who writes bad poetry and wears a black trenchcoat or an out-and-out adult nut. I still lean toward the former, but I suppose it could be Son of Kaczynski. Hope we find out soon.
Posted by: Fred Pruitt ||
05/04/2002 06:48 pm ||
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The Jamiat Ulema-i-Islam (Fazl) has demanded the government expel the American marines, which according to the JUI are conducting raids on seminaries in tribal villages along the Pak-Afghan border. Speaking to the members of NWFP Executive Committee and district president of the party, provincial JUI Amir Maulana Amanullah expressed his concern over the presence of the American marines in Federally Administered Tribal Areas (Fata), and termed it repugnant to the national interests. More repugnant to Fazlur Rehman's interests. That's his little fiefdom they're tromping around in.
The committee reviewed the prevailing political situation, 'so-called' referendum and organisational affairs at a meeting held here on Thursday at the Darul Aloom Sarhad. Oooh. "So-called" sour grapes.
He congratulated the people for reposing no-confidence in the leadership of Gen Pervez Musharraf by staying away from what he called 'dubious referendum' on April 30. The successful boycott of the referendum by the nation had exposed the credibility of the rulers, he added. Ummm... Yeah. But he won.
The JUI leader called upon Gen Musharraf to resign forthwith, as the nation had rejected him by staging a dissociation from the referendum exercise on April 30. Ain't gonna happen. Winners don't quit. Non-participants don't win.
Posted by: Fred Pruitt ||
05/04/2002 03:20 pm ||
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Inspector Zeeshan Kazmi, an absconding accused in the Mir Murtaza Bhutto murder case, escaped on Friday from the district and sessions court of East after being denied the pre-arrest bail. Oh, c'mon...
The shirt of Inspector Kazmi was torn off as he scuffled with a cop and the court staff to flee the scene when Judge Ali Sain Dino Matlo rejected his bail application and ordered his arrest. He's watched a lot of action movies, hasn't he?
The police official rushed out of the courtroom and fled away with his associates on motorcycles, leaving behind his shirt, official pistol and two magazines, national identity card, service card and Rs3,520. Well, he won't get far without his pistol, by Gawd!
According to sources, Inspector Kazmi, a proclaimed offender in the Murtaza Bhutto murder case, reached the trial court around 11:45am along with his attorney and moved the application for the bail before arrest. The judge, however, dismissed the bail plea, observing: "Since the accused person has been absconding for more than five years and he was declared a proclaimed offender, he is remanded to custody and this application having become infructuous is dismissed". Guess the judge wasn't dropped on his head, at least. How did the guy stay absconded for five years and still retain his ID car, gun, etc., etc.?
The court also observed that the accused escaped from the court by fighting with the court staff and police guard. Ummm... Yeah. That's probably screw up any bail application.
ASI Abbas Khan pounced on Inspector Zeeshan Kazmi and grabbed him as he tried to run away after the dismissal of his bail application. Inspector Kazmi grappled with the ASI, who was also joined by two peons of the court, they said. However, the sources said, the accused succeeded in his struggle and fled, though he had to leave behind his shirt, containing his cards and cash, and the loaded official pistol. All his belongings were seized on the court orders, they said. Chief Inspector-in-chief Fatty Arbuckle supervised the proceedings.
Mir Murtaza Bhutto, son of late prime minister Zulfiqar Ali Bhutto, was killed along with six others, including his close aide, Ashiq Jatoi, in September 1996 by a heavy contingent of police during an alleged shootout. Besides Asif Ali Zardari, the spouse of former prime minister Benazir Bhutto, former DIG of Karachi, Dr Shoaib Suddle; the then senior superintendent of police, South, Wajid Durrani; former chief of the Intelligence Bureau, Masood Sharif; ASPs Shahid Hiyat and Rai Tahir; and former SHOs, Agha Jameel and Shabbir Qaimkhani are accused in the case. The accused seriously screwed up a hit ordered at the highest levels. Bad move.
Almost all the accused, including Asif Ali Zardari, have obtained bail in this case, which is being tried inside the jail. The case was transferred to the district and sessions judge, East, in September last year after Judge Yasmin Abbasi of Small Case Court had refused to try the case due to 'non-cooperation of the prosecution and defence lawyers'. "You got nuttin' on me, coppers! Nuttin'! An' I ain't sayin' nuttin' widdout me mout'piece!"
Posted by: Fred Pruitt ||
05/04/2002 03:17 pm ||
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Protesting against the sentence of death by stoning in public awarded to Zafran Bibi of Kohat by a trial court, a Peshawar district councillor, Shamim Qaiser Khan, has asked President Gen Pervez Musharraf to take immediate notice of the incident and repeal all the discriminatory laws against women. Now's the time, Perv. It won't come again...
In a statement issued on Friday, she said since the creation of Pakistan successive rulers had been introducing discriminatory laws, and former military ruler General Zia-ul-Haq took the lead from others by introducing the controversial Hudood laws. Shamim said the sentence slapped on Zafran Bibi was the outcome of those discriminatory laws. She regretted that due to the prevailing oppressive laws hundreds of females had to suffer. If Pakland is ever going to cease being a "failed state" one of the things it's going to have to do is enter the 20th century at least, if not the 21st. "We have undermined Islam to a level that people of the world associate it with illiteracy, backwardness, intolerance," Musharraf said last December. Public stoning is pretty much backwardness by definition.
Posted by: Fred Pruitt ||
05/04/2002 05:35 pm ||
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The police on Friday night raided homes of several leaders and workers of Muttahida Quami Movement and arrested scores of them. The LEAs raided the house of Dr Farooq Sattar, and arrested his coordinator, Zubair. They also raided the home of Shoaib Akhter and when they did not find him, they took away with them his brother, Amin Akhter. That's a habit the Pak cops have. If they can't find the perp, the arrest a relative and then beat him or her until the suspect arrives to take his/her place.
The police also raided the Muttahida sector offices in Rizvia and took away records of the party. The police picked up sector chief Mehboob Alam and workers, Nadeem Ansari, Shahid Noor, Arshad and Safdar. A TT pistol was shown as recovery from each of them. All those arrested were out on bail in other cases. "Well, by Gawd, they'll pay higher bail this time!"
The police stormed into the house of sector chief of Gulshan-i-Iqbal Arshad Sabzwari and returned disappointed as he was not in his home. House of one Anjum in the same vicinity was raided but he too was not at home. Cases have been registered against both of them for breach of peace on the day of strike. Guess there weren't any relatives around to arrest.
Dozens of Muttahida activists were picked up in night-long raids in different parts of the city. A police mobile in Al-Falah area was fired upon late last night in which a cop, Basheer suffered a bullet wound. And that really cheesed them off...
According to police, various police teams of Investigation Branch, on Friday arrested 25 persons from the city on charges of violence and causing damage to properties. Probably a bad idea to stage riots and bombings when the dictator's just won a referendum with over 90 percent of the vote.
Posted by: Fred Pruitt ||
05/04/2002 05:52 pm ||
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A gunman holding 13 guests hostage at a hotel in Istanbul surrendered after a 90-minute siege today. Mustafa Yildirim, who is believed to be of Chechen origin, owns a kebab restaurant in the town of Karaman. He walked into the lobby of the Marmara hotel in Istanbul this morning, firing shots into the air. A kebabber? Usually an ad in the local paper'll get you going...
The 13 hostages - four Bulgarians, three Japanese and six Turks - were released unharmed 90 minutes later. Its thought the gunman wanted to draw attention to the situation in Chechnya. And unarmed Bulgarians have what to do with Chechnya?
Posted by: Fred Pruitt ||
05/04/2002 12:09 pm ||
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An Israeli sniper killed a Palestinian security officer sheltering at Bethlehem's Church of the Nativity on Saturday and a new round of talks began on ending the month-old confrontation at the holy site. Bethlehem Mayor Hanna Nasser said top aides to Palestinian President Yasser Arafat and U.S. diplomats were now involved in the negotiations and he expected the long-drawn-out Israeli siege of the church to end in the next few hours. Are the Bad Guys gonna give up? If they give up, it'll be over, won't it?
Posted by: Fred Pruitt ||
05/04/2002 12:29 pm ||
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Egyptian Foreign Minister Ahmed Maher said on Saturday that Israel should first withdraw from re-occupied Palestinian areas before there could be any discussion of a Middle East peace conference. Maher was responding to reporters about plans announced by the United States to hold such a peace conference this summer. They should be done by this summer, we'd think...
Maher said any such gathering should include Israelis and Palestinians, as well as Lebanon and Syria, both of which do not have peace agreements with Israel. He said Egypt and Jordan should also attend alongside Saudi Arabia, which proposed a peace plan that was adopted by Arab states at an Arab summit in March. In addition, he said the "quartet" should be present. I think the idea is to take the Soddi proposal and try and hammer something out based on that. Syria and its lapdog won't want to play. The Saudi Entity will use the meeting as a method of enhancing its prestige in the Arab world and will have its proxies make sure nothing of substance comes of it. You heard read it here first.
Posted by: Fred Pruitt ||
05/04/2002 12:39 pm ||
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Around 350 Maoist rebels have been killed during an offensive by Nepalese security forces in the west of the country. An alleged Maoist training camp at Lisne in Rolpa district was attacked by Nepalese helicopters on Thursday and Friday. This was the most devastating loss suffered by the Maoist rebels in the six years since they started their campaign to overthrow the monarchy. The assault comes about three weeks after Maoists raided three police posts in southwestern Nepal, leaving at least 164 people dead. Guess that one cheesed the government guys pretty good. This 350 probably includes the 90 who were reported iced yesterday.
Posted by: Fred Pruitt ||
05/04/2002 12:13 pm ||
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The European Union on Friday blacklisted the Kashmiri Islamist group Lashkar-i-Tayyaba as a terrorist organization whose financial assets would be frozen across the 15 nation EU.
A new list of terror groups approved by the EU following the Sept 11 attacks on the US also included two Sikh groups, the Babbar Khalsa and the International Sikh Youth Foundation. Other groups added were the PKK or the Kurdistan Workers Party which has, however, since changed its name to KADEK and also proclaimed an end to its long-standing armed struggle for independence from Turkey. But EU diplomats voiced skepticism at the real impact of the name-change and said the list could be revised to include KADEK if needed.
The extensive EU list also includes Egypt's largest Islamist militant group al-Gama'a al Islamia, the Turkish leftist urban guerilla organization DHKP-C and the Iranian Mujahedin-i-Khalq. But diplomats said the "terrorist" designation did not cover the National Council of Resistance of Iran, the political arm of the People's Mujahideen.
Posted by: Fred Pruitt ||
05/04/2002 12:57 pm ||
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The Indian army iced seven crazed killers in south Kashmir on Friday as they tried to cross over the disputed border with Pakistan. The troops had spotted the snuffies at Bhimbergali in the Balakote area. Troops managed to recover five bodies, but two were still lying on the Line of Control as heavy firing by the Pakistanis was making it difficult to approach. Bad day, wasn't it? Maybe they should have stayed home in Pakland. Nice of the Pak army to give them covering fire, though.
Six more Bad Guys were shot dead by the Indian army in the Surankote area of Poonch late on Thursday. A police spokesman said the 13 deaders belonged to Jaish-i-Mohammad, Lashkar-i-Taiba and Harkat-ul-Mujahideen.
Eight Kashmiris also died, including one who was beheaded after being abducted. They like doing that. It's so... so... Islamic.
Posted by: Fred Pruitt ||
05/04/2002 01:11 pm ||
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Authorities raided a suspected al-Qaida-linked terrorist training camp at an Islamic school in the northern Philippines and seized weapons following a clash in which nine militants were arrested. Police said the camp was linked to al-Qaida but not to the Abu Sayyaf, a Muslim rebel group in the southern Philippines with ties to the terrorist network led by Osama bin Laden. Police didn't explain why they believed the camp was connected with al-Qaida. Just off the top of my head, I'd guess Jemaah Islamiyah.
The camp was discovered on Friday based on intelligence from a suspected Islamic militant captured after a clash on Thursday in Anda, in Pangasinan province north of Manila, police said. The camp was in an Islamic school in a mountainous area in Tarlac province bordering Pangasinan. Police said they confiscated high-caliber firearms, nine grenades, a grenade launcher, a night- vision telescope, a revolver and several unspecified documents at the camp. It's a pattern now. Where there's a madrassah, there are gunnies, guns and bombs.
Police chief Reynaldo Berroya, who led the operation, said Thursday's clash followed a gunfight on Wednesday in which police investigating a report of armed men came under fire near the training camp. One of the gunmen in Thursday's firefight was killed by police and nine were arrested, including two suspected training camp caretakers. Police said the suspected Islamic militants had no known connection with any Muslim extremist groups in the southern Philippines. Abu Sayyaf's a dead letter. They've probably written it off by now. MNLF is broken into factions, and MILF is active, but lying low until the Saudis send them more money and guns. Time for a new seed to be planted.
Police said one of the arrested militants claimed the group had been sent to cause havoc in Tarlac city on the May Day holiday, adding that they were new recruits who had been linked to the gunmen in Wednesday's clash. "One of the guys we interrogated told us this group is trying to build a stronger presence" in the northern Philippine island of Luzon, Berroya said. Sent from where, I wonder? First guess would be Indonesia, since Singapore and Malaysia have cracked down and Indonesia refuses to do so.
Posted by: Fred Pruitt ||
05/04/2002 10:26 pm ||
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A multi-volume chronology and reference guide set detailing three years of the Mexican Drug War between 2010 and 2012.
Rantburg.com and borderlandbeat.com correspondent and author Chris Covert presents his first non-fiction work detailing
the drug and gang related violence in Mexico.
Chris gives us Mexican press dispatches of drug and gang war violence
over three years, presented in a multi volume set intended to chronicle the death, violence and mayhem which has
dominated Mexico for six years.
Rantburg was assembled from recycled algorithms in the United States of America. No
trees were destroyed in the production of this weblog. We did hurt some, though. Sorry.
