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Chlorine boom kills 20 in Diyala
Today's Headlines
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Page 1: WoT Operations
11 00:00 newc [4] 
5 00:00 C-Low [3] 
5 00:00 Classical_Liberal [4] 
11 00:00 JosephMendiola [4] 
4 00:00 Shipman [3] 
9 00:00 Eric Jablow [4] 
18 00:00 Pappy [4] 
29 00:00 Jinegum Peacock9131 [3] 
9 00:00 JosephMendiola [3] 
3 00:00 Jackal [3] 
9 00:00 kelly [3] 
7 00:00 Jackal [3] 
13 00:00 Shipman [3] 
6 00:00 Zenster [3] 
3 00:00 Captain America [3] 
3 00:00 wxjames [3] 
7 00:00 Shipman [3] 
0 [3] 
3 00:00 Captain America [3] 
1 00:00 JohnQC [3] 
2 00:00 Captain America [3] 
6 00:00 ed [4] 
14 00:00 Shipman [3] 
4 00:00 mojo [3] 
7 00:00 USN. Ret. [4] 
Page 2: WoT Background
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5 00:00 Angaiger Tojo1904 [5]
3 00:00 DMFD [3]
2 00:00 newc [4]
9 00:00 Zenster [3]
13 00:00 Woozle Elmeter2970 [3]
22 00:00 JosephMendiola [3]
3 00:00 Rob Crawford [3]
2 00:00 Crererong Bonaparte1378 [3]
18 00:00 Anonymoose [3]
2 00:00 JosephMendiola [3]
1 00:00 Glenmore [3]
11 00:00 Zenster [3]
1 00:00 Captain America [3]
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7 00:00 Captain America [3]
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Page 3: Non-WoT
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11 00:00 djohn66 [3]
11 00:00 Grumenk Philalzabod0723 [5]
9 00:00 DMFD [4]
2 00:00 Woozle Elmeter2970 [3]
16 00:00 JosephMendiola [4]
11 00:00 Zenster [3]
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6 00:00 Shipman [3]
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Page 4: Opinion
1 00:00 JosephMendiola [3]
3 00:00 3dc [3]
4 00:00 Jackal [4]
3 00:00 JohnQC [3]
15 00:00 Silentbrick [4]
2 00:00 JohnQC [3]
6 00:00 Zenster [3]
3 00:00 JosephMendiola [3]
Page 5: Russia-Former Soviet Union
5 00:00 mhw [3]
9 00:00 DMFD [3]
21 00:00 Zenster [3]
23 00:00 CrazyFool [4]
13 00:00 JosephMendiola [5]
7 00:00 JosephMendiola [4]
16 00:00 Sneaze [3]
Afghanistan
3 Hostage Swap-ees Killed along with Dadullah
Implanted microphone/transmitter/homing devices pay off? Here's hoping the other two swap-ees are visiting Mullah Omar.

3 Taliban released for Italian journalist killed with top commander

KABUL, Afghanistan: Three Taliban who had been released from prison in exchange for a kidnapped Italian journalist were killed alongside the insurgency's top field commander over the weekend, the Afghan intelligence service said Wednesday.

Mullah Dadullah, a one-legged militant who orchestrated a rash of Taliban suicide attacks and beheadings, died of gunshot wounds in a U.S.-led operation over the weekend in the southern province of Helmand.

An official with Afghanistan's intelligence service identified the three others as Mullah Shah Mansoor — Dadullah's brother — Mullah Hamdullah and Commander Ghafar. They had been freed in March in a prisoner swap for the release of Italian journalist Daniele Mastrogiacomo.

The prisoner swap was widely criticized in Afghanistan in part because two Afghans kidnapped with Mastrogiacomo were not freed as part of that deal and were executed by the Taliban.

U.S.-led coalition forces, with assistance from NATO and Afghan forces, were able to track Dadullah to the village of Sarwan using "modern technology," said the official, reading an intelligence service statement. He spoke on condition of anonymity because of the agency's policy.

In Islamabad, Ronald Neumann, the former U.S. ambassador to Afghanistan, predicted the Taliban leadership would "regenerate" after Dadullah's death, but said the recent demise of several top figures in the insurgency could dissuade others from joining the fight.

Neumann, who stepped down as ambassador last month, mentioned the killing of Mullah Akhtar Mohammad Osmani — in an airstrike in southern Afghanistan in December — and the arrest of former Taliban defense minister, Mullah Obaidullah Akhund.

Neumann's was the first official confirmation of reports from Pakistani intelligence that Akhund was nabbed in the Pakistani city of Quetta in February. He gave no further details, including who was holding Akhund, the highest-ranking Taliban militant to be captured alive since the fall of the Islamist regime in 2001.

"For those Taliban leaders who have been out of the fight and are looking to get back into the fight, the fact that Osmani has been killed, Dadullah has been killed and Obaidullah has been arrested might say something to them about their life insurance policies," said Neumann, visiting Pakistan for talks on Afghanistan.

In Kabul, Lt. Col. Maria Carl, spokeswoman for NATO's International Security Assistance Force, said Dadullah's killing would not have been possible without the help of Afghan civilians and security forces, whose intelligence helped track him down, but gave no details on the nature of the intelligence.

NATO has said that Dadullah was killed after he moved into Afghanistan from his "sanctuary" — a reference to Pakistan, where many Taliban are thought to hide. Another ISAF spokesman, Maj. John Thomas, declined to say if Pakistan provided any intelligence that helped in the operation.

Security officials in Pakistan have hinted that a bombing Tuesday that killed 25 people in a restaurant in the northwestern Pakistani city of Peshawar may have been revenge for Dadullah's killing. They said a relative of Dadullah was arrested in the restaurant a few days earlier.
Posted by: Glenmore || 05/16/2007 19:32 || Comments || Link || [3 views] Top|| File under:

#1  Gee, I wonder if they were unknowingly wearing some tracking devices.
Posted by: Anonymoose || 05/16/2007 20:07 Comments || Top||

#2  Ha HA!
Posted by: DarthVader || 05/16/2007 20:27 Comments || Top||

#3  Bloodhounds keyed on the rare scent of soap.
Posted by: ed || 05/16/2007 20:30 Comments || Top||

#4  smart dust?
Posted by: 3dc || 05/16/2007 21:52 Comments || Top||

#5  For about 300 bucks I can buy a GPS dog collar about the size of my hand (mainly battery), I don't think it impossible with advanced Darpa miniturization and battery tech to make one that size that could last months and have extended range. Click that with a doctor who cares more about US soldgiers than some dam Hajii rights and whoola. The human body cavity is bigger than most understand.

http://www.gizmag.com/go/5352/

http://www.gizmag.com/go/6681/

This tech is not cutting edge we just need some leadership with a sack big enough to sign off. If I was that decision maker I would and I imagine 90% or more of rantburgers would and I hope ole Bush would.

Posted by: C-Low || 05/16/2007 22:04 Comments || Top||


Border attack kills Army major
Maj. Larry J. Bauguess was killed Monday when terrorists militants opened fire on a meeting between 82nd Airborne Division paratroopers and Afghan and Pakistani military officials near the Afghan border.

A Pakistani soldier also was killed and four paratroopers were wounded in the ambush. The paratroopers were being treated in Afghanistan, according to military officials in Afghanistan.

Bauguess 36, of Moravian Falls, was the operations officer for the 4th Brigade Combat Team’s Special Troops Battalion. “He was where he wanted to be; next to his commander, on the ground, in the fight,” said Maj. Kenneth J. Ratashak, executive officer of the 508th Special Troops Battalion. “If he knew (today) would turn out the way it did, he would have gone anyway. That’s just who he was.”

About 6,000 paratroopers from the 82nd Airborne DivisionÂ’s headquarters and its 4th Brigade Combat Team are in Afghanistan.

Monday’s meeting was called to discuss recent fighting between Afghan and Pakistani forces. It was held in Teri Mangal, a small border town opposite Afghanistan’s Paktia province. Gen. Akrem, an Afghan army brigade commander who attended the meeting, told The Associated Press on Monday that terrorists gunmen fired on the participants — including about 15 Americans — as they left a school building after the talks.

A U.S. military official in Washington said U.S. soldiers had gotten into a truck and were preparing to leave when a Pakistani terrorist militiaman walked up and opened fire. U.S. soldiers returned fire and killed the gunman, the official said.
Posted by: Chuck Simmins || 05/16/2007 15:53 || Comments || Link || [3 views] Top|| File under:

#1  A U.S. military official in Washington said U.S. soldiers had gotten into a truck and were preparing to leave when a Pakistani militiaman walked up and opened fire. U.S. soldiers returned fire and killed the gunman, the official said.

Doesn't sound like "militants" to me.
Posted by: tu3031 || 05/16/2007 16:02 Comments || Top||

#2  Guess the Paks haven't been able to sweep it all the way under the rug.
Posted by: Fred || 05/16/2007 16:20 Comments || Top||

#3  Probably Frontier Corps - a paramilitary soldier
Posted by: John Frum || 05/16/2007 16:20 Comments || Top||

#4  Anyone got a clue as to how many troops we can supply via air and the MiscKanStan routes? Time seal off the ISI.
Posted by: Shipman || 05/16/2007 17:54 Comments || Top||


Eleven Talibunnies Wacked; No One Claims Responsibility

Afghanistan's Defense Ministry said 11 Taliban were killed in the Zhari district of Kandahar province early Tuesday, although the provincial police chief said more than 60 suspected insurgents died, including three regional commanders.

>Many other suspected Taliban fighters were wounded in the airstrikes, which were carried out at 3 a.m., said Kandahar Police Chief Esmatullah Alizai. He said no civilians killed or wounded. Alizai said NATO forces carried out the airstrike, but NATO's International Security Assistance Force said it was unaware of any "airstrikes or significant operations" in Kandahar. The separate U.S.-led coalition also said it was not their operation.
Who else has an air force?
Afghans do, of course. They fly F-16s, F-15s, and A-10s. Several squadrons of each, as I recall. They also have several helicopter wings; they fly Apaches and Blackhawks. Fly mostly out of Bagram and Herat but they have some other bases. You can recognize them by the white Afghan 5-pointed star inside a blue circular field on their wings.
Alizai said the airstrikes were based on "good information," and several regional Taliban commanders were killed. The bodies were still being removed from under the mud and rubble of the bombed compounds.
Posted by: Bobby || 05/16/2007 06:06 || Comments || Link || [3 views] Top|| File under:

#1  Who cares who got 'em as long as they got killed.
This isn't a competition.
Posted by: Apostate || 05/16/2007 6:46 Comments || Top||

#2  UFOs?
Or has the CIA reclaimed the Air America name now that the radio network is broke?

Posted by: Glenmore || 05/16/2007 7:00 Comments || Top||

#3  Ok, I did it.
Posted by: Steven || 05/16/2007 10:22 Comments || Top||

#4  Probably Hamas firing Qassams at Israel again.
Posted by: tu3031 || 05/16/2007 10:29 Comments || Top||

#5  http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_Afghan_Air_Force_aircraft
sez all Russian, looks like a handful of choppers.
Posted by: Bobby || 05/16/2007 12:45 Comments || Top||

#6  Ah yes, the white afghan five-pointed star in a blue circular field. LOL.
Posted by: Seafarious || 05/16/2007 12:50 Comments || Top||

#7  Maybe Allan did it. Rumors are Allan has been looking for some goat rapers in ther area.
Posted by: wxjames || 05/16/2007 13:06 Comments || Top||

#8  If no nationality of the striking aircraft was given, then they were probably French or German.
Posted by: crosspatch || 05/16/2007 13:24 Comments || Top||

#9  Indian?
Posted by: 3dc || 05/16/2007 14:09 Comments || Top||

#10  All the signs point to Samoans.
Posted by: Fred || 05/16/2007 15:16 Comments || Top||

#11  Fred nails it again...the Flying Samoans were booked for that area in May!
Posted by: Flomonter Borgia6933 || 05/16/2007 15:59 Comments || Top||

#12  Sea - isn't the white, five-pointed star similar to the WW II Army Air Corps symbol?

Maybe the salmon-fish-colored moderator was jesting?
Posted by: Bobby || 05/16/2007 17:19 Comments || Top||

#13  Rogue Kiwis.
Posted by: Shipman || 05/16/2007 17:55 Comments || Top||


Africa North
Yemen Deports Jihad Leader's Daughter to Egypt
A statement issued in London by a radical organization reveal that Yemeni authorities have extradited the daughter of Adil Awad, head of the military wing of the Egyptian [Islamic] Jihad Group, and her Islamist husband, Isam Muhammad Khalil, also known as Ahmad Bakr (who was sentenced in absentia in the "Returnees From Albania" case in 1999) to Egypt.

In the statement, a copy of which was received by Asharq Al-Awsat, the London-based Al-Maqrizi Center, which is run by Dr. Hani Al-Sibai, an Egyptian Islamist, said: "The Yemeni authorities, with the collaboration of Egyptian intelligence, abducted in Sanaa on Monday, 9 April, Isam Muhammad Khalil, also known as Ahmad Bakr, who was sentenced to five years in prison in the Returnees From Albania case. Two weeks later, they stormed the house of Khalid Afifi Shahin, known as Jalal, and arrested him."

Al-Sibai told Asharq Al-Awsat that Adil Awad, Egyptian [Islamic] Jihad military commander, alias "Abu al-Nadr," was the one who supervised several operations, including the attempt to assassinate the Turah prison warden, and the attempt to assassinate former Interior Minister Hasan al-Alfi. He also personally supervised the assassination of the only witness in the case of the attempt on the life of Atif Sidqi, a former Egyptian prime minister, one day prior to the trial. The assassination took place in front of the witness's auto showroom.

Al-Sibai said that Al-Zawahiri, Bin Laden's deputy, eulogized Abu-al-Nadr, "the ghost man," in the publications of the Egyptian Jihad. He added that Awad, who is known among Islamists as the "ghost man," supervised the botched Salah Salim assassination operation against President Mubarak. He noted that Awad was killed in an ambush in Al-Jizah in 1994.

The statement added: "At 1200 [ 0900 GMT] on Monday, 9 April, Isam Muhammad Khalil, known as Ahmad Bakr, was kidnapped in front of the British school in Haddah street in the capital Sanaa. His house was stormed, searched, and all the documents belonging to him and his family were confiscated. Three weeks later, exactly on 3 May, his wife was deported along with her children. Upon her arrival at Cairo Airport, she was detained by the Egyptian Government until Friday night." The statement said that Mrs Fatimah is the wife of Adil Awad, known as Abu al-Nadr. She has two daughters -- Ruqayah, 9, and Shayma, 7 -- who were deported along with their mother before completing their school year.

The statement added: "Two weeks after the incident, the house of Khalid Afifi Shahin was stormed and his wife and four children were intimidated. Afifi's personal computer and its accessories were confiscated. This is in addition to the confiscation of his and his wife's phones and all the documents belonging to him and his children. His wife was not deported because she is a Yemeni."
This article starring:
ABU AL NADRal-Jihad Group
ADIL AWADal-Jihad Group
AHMED BAKRal-Jihad Group
Atif Sidqi, a former Egyptian prime minister
DR. HANI AL SIBAIAl-Maqrizi Center
Interior Minister Hasan al-Alfi
ISAM MUHAMAD KHALILal-Jihad Group
KHALID AFIFI SHAHINal-Jihad Group
President Mubarak
Al-Maqrizi Center
Posted by: Fred || 05/16/2007 00:00 || Comments || Link || [3 views] Top|| File under:

#1  Great news! Sort of like a Jihadi version of a merry-go-round.
Posted by: Jack is Back! || 05/16/2007 8:41 Comments || Top||

#2  Hmmm...

Wasn't Lorna Gray the spawn of the insidious Dr. Fu Manchu?...
Posted by: mojo || 05/16/2007 15:09 Comments || Top||

#3  She played Vultura in the Perils of Nyoka.
Posted by: Fred || 05/16/2007 16:21 Comments || Top||

#4  Dang. With Clayton Moore, too!

(That's the original Lone Ranger, if anyone cares...)
Posted by: mojo || 05/16/2007 16:50 Comments || Top||


Bangladesh
Held robber killed in Rab 'crossfire'
The suspected robber arrested by Rapid Action Battalion (Rab) on Monday after he allegedly shot a top Rab official was killed in "crossfire" between his accomplices and Rab personnel at Mugdapara in the capital in the early hours yesterday.
"C'mon, Late Akter Hossain! Yer comin' with us!"
"Whuddya mean, 'late'? What'm I late for?"
"Heh heh!"
"Whuddya mean, 'heh heh'?"
Akter Hossain, 35, was arrested with a loaded pistol after he shot and injured Assistant Superintendent of Police (ASP) BM Nuruzzaman, an assistant director of Rab 3, during a tussle between them near Moghbazar intersection.
[Tussle tussle]... [BANG!]... "Ow! He shot me, dammit!...
[Thump!] You have the right to remain silent...
[Thump!] Anything you say can and will be used against you!...
[Thump!] You have the right to an attorney!...
[Thump!]..."
Meanwhile in Chapainawabganj, two 'arms dealers' were killed yesterday in crossfire between criminals and Rab in a mango orchard at Ranihati in Shibganj upazila.
"It's the RAB!"
[BANG! BANG! BANGETY BANG!]
"Rosebud!"
"Rosebud!"
On Monday in Dhaka, the tussle took place when the Rab official challenged a group of six youths upon information that they were preparing to rob a money exchange office in Moghbazar. The five other suspected robbers however managed to flee, reports our staff correspondent.
"It's the RAB!"
"Oh, cheeze!"
"Run for your lives!"
Rab claimed that Akter, accused in four cases filed with different police stations in the capital, was the leader of a robbery gang known as 'Akter Bahini'. In his confessional statement, Akter confessed to having six other accomplices. They are Bahadur, Chora Babul, Mohsin, Ataul alias Hira, Masud Rana and Delu. Akter also confessed to be a member of commissioner Chowdhury Alam's gang.
[Huffa puffa!] "Maw!"
"Wossa motta, Ataul alias Hira?"
"I gotta change my name!"
"Why would you want to do that? Why, Ataul alias Hira's a perfectly nice name! I named you after my grandfather, I did!"
"The RAB's after me!"
"'Herb' is a nice name. I've always liked Herb..."
Several Rab teams were conducting raids at different hideouts to capture the criminals till yesterday evening.
"Maw! They're outside! They're comin' to get me, Maw!... Maw?"
Following Akter's confessional statement, a Rab team along with Akter went to Shantikanan of Uttar Mugdapara area to capture the other members of Akter Bahini.
"Youse'll never take us alive, coppers!"
"Heh heh!"
"Whuddya mean, 'heh heh'?"
Sensing the law enforcers, Akter's gang members opened fire on Rab triggering a 15-minute gunfight between Rab and the criminals.
[BANG! BANG! BANGETY BANG!... KATHWING!]... "Duck, Ataul alias Hira!"
At around 2:45am, Akter was caught in crossfire as a bullet shot by one of his cohorts hit him.
"Aaaaaiiiieeeee!" [THUD!] [Rattle!] "Rosebud!"
The assailants managed to flee the scene, said a Rab press release.
"Run away! Run away!"
A revolver, three bullets and two cartridges were recovered from the spot, added the press release.
"Hey! There were four rounds of bullet here when I signed these out!"
Rab took injured Akter to a local hospital where the doctor declared him dead.
"He's dead, Jim"
Later in the morning, his body was sent to Dhaka Medical College Hospital for an autopsy.
"Morning, class. Now, on the slab in front of you, you'll see an example of what I like to call "Death by RAB"."
A woman named Lata Begum, claiming to be wife of the deceased, identified the body
"Yes! It's him! [Sob!] I'd recognize those remains anywhere!"
and said that her husband's name was Rafiqul Islam, not Akter. "He might have been involved in criminal activities as we had no contact with him in the last six months. All I knew that he was a businessman of garment wastage."

Meanwhile, Ramna police sent Hira, another listed criminal arrested soon after the Rab official shooting on Monday, was sent to a Dhaka court yesterday with a five-day remand prayer.

Our staff correspondent in Rajshahi reports, two 'arms dealers' -- Faruk, 35 and Khoka, 32 of Shibganj upazila -- were killed in crossfire during a gun battle between the criminals and Rab. The incident occurred yesterday in a mango orchard of Ranihati in Shibganj upazila of Chapainawabganj.
No, we don't know where that is

The two had been engaged in illegal arms trade for a long time and were out of reach of the law enforcement agencies, said Rab.

A Rab team from Rajshahi Railway Colony camp in the guise of prospective arms buyers from Dhaka went to the mango orchard and started negotiating with a large group of arms traders at around 2:15pm, according to Rab. The arms dealers displayed a huge cache arms to the Rab men and at one stage they refused to hand over the arms and instead tried to snatch money from the Rab members.

When the Rab personnel exposed their identity and took position around the criminals to capture them, the arms dealers fired two shots in an attempt to flee the scene. Rab also returned fire and two of the criminals -- Khoka and Faruk -- were critically injured. The two were taken to a local health complex where they were declared dead.
"They're both dead, Jim"
Rab with the assistance of villagers and police later recovered a German revolver, four US made 7.65mm pistols, three bullets and three cartridges, claimed Rab.
This is a huge arms cache?
Posted by: Fred || 05/16/2007 00:00 || Comments || Link || [4 views] Top|| File under:

#1  Looks like mango orchards are not condusive to good growth or personal habits.....
Posted by: USN, ret. || 05/16/2007 0:58 Comments || Top||

#2  In Bangla, 'arms dealers' = zip gun makers.
Posted by: Spot || 05/16/2007 6:46 Comments || Top||

#3  Sounds almost like a legit gunfight.
Posted by: Shipman || 05/16/2007 8:48 Comments || Top||

#4  Fred, you are cold. Cold! Hilarious, mind you, but cold!
Posted by: Mike || 05/16/2007 12:29 Comments || Top||

#5  four US made 7.65mm pistols,

Somebody want to translate rab-ese to english
What caliber is that? I know that 8MM is 5/16 inch or .312 thousands, but I never heard of a 7.65MM pistol (that works out to .30592 inch, or about 30 caliber, ain't no such animal)
Posted by: Redneck Jim || 05/16/2007 18:27 Comments || Top||

#6  It's a Commie caliber 7.62x25. The round comes from a Mauser pistol. You seen the Mauser in movies about Soviets. It has the magazine in front of the trigger, not in the pistol grip. The Tokarev TT and cousins "borrowed" much from John Browning's pistol designs, so the confusion.
Posted by: ed || 05/16/2007 19:00 Comments || Top||


Rab officer bullet-hit in fight with robbers
A top official of Rapid Action Battalion (Rab) received bullet injuries yesterday during a tussle with a suspected robber whose gang was preparing to rob a money exchange office at Moghbazar in the capital. The wounded, Assistant Superintendent of Police (ASP) BM Nuruzzaman, is an assistant director of Rab.
Apparently the RAB top officials lead by example, well done.
He was rushed to Shamorita Hospital soon after the incident. He was later transferred to Combined Military Hospital in Dhaka where he underwent surgery in the abdomen. He is now out of the woods, said Rab officials.
As opposed to the shooter, who will soon be led into the woods ...
Rab officials added that Rab has arrested the robber who shot at Nuruzzaman.
Speaking of "examples", I predict said robber will soon be one
No sooner said than done...
It's like the Army of Steve is psychic or somethin'...
Nah. Who do you think wrote "Crossfire for Dummies?"
Upon receiving secret information that a gang of robbers is set to commit robbery at a money exchange office near Piasi Bar at Moghbazar, nine undercover Rab personnel took position at strategic points in the area at noon. ASP Nuruzzaman challenged a suspicious group of six youths in front of hotel Parosh near the Moghbazar intersection and at one time he grabbed one of the suspects.
"Come here, youse youths!"
"Ow! Ow! Let go o' me copper!"
The suspect, Akter Hossain, 35, during a tussle with Nuruzzaman, fired a shot that hit the official in the lower abdomen.
"Ouch! Damm, that's gonna leave a mark."
Bullet-hit Nuruzzaman did not lose his grip till his team members arrested Akter with a US-made pistol loaded with four bullets.
Tough boy, our Nuruzzaman
''U.S. made' pistol? I can see where this is going ...
A bullet cartridge was also recovered from the spot.
I guess we know where the bullet from the cartridge went
The other five suspects however managed to flee the scene.
"Crap, Akter shot a RAB man! Feet, don't fail us now!"
"Akter is a listed criminal and he confessed ...
... thumpity-thumpity thump ...
... to be a member of the gang run by commissioner Chowdhury Alam [BNP leader, currently in jail]," said Sultan Mohammad Nurani, commanding officer of Rab 3.
I'm sure he'd confess to the Lindburg kidnapping if you asked
The attack on Rab official prompted Ramna police to carry out separate raids in the area. Listed criminal Hira, another suspected member of the attempted robbery, was apprehended from hotel Diamond during the raids. Following Hira's confessional statement, a pistol and three bullets were recovered from the same area. Police picked up 15 others from Moghbazar area. They were later produced before a Dhaka court. "The bandits are most likely gang members of top listed criminal Subrata Bain," said AKM Doulat Akbar, officer in charge of Ramna Police Station.

After the attack on the Rab official, Rab personnel charged batons indiscriminately on everyone and injured more than 50 onlookers including beggars and passers-by. The Rab members also dragged locals out of their houses and business establishments and beat them up severely as they failed to provide any information about the assailants.
Cops don't like it when one of their own get shot, they take it personal
Around 200 Rab 3 personnel cordoned off the Moghbazar intersection area and searched residential hotels, shops and business establishments. They also body-searched pedestrians. "The Rab members dragged me out of my shop and beat me up mercilessly on the footpath as I failed to give any information about the incident," said Razzak, owner of Razzak Sanitary near Hotel Parosh.
Ok, maybe they overreacted just a bit
Rab picked up 10 people from the area, but they were released later after questioning.

Rab was conducting raids in possible hideouts of the five other gang members involved in the robbery attempt till 7:00pm.
I see encounters and crossfires in their futures
Posted by: Steve || 05/16/2007 00:00 || Comments || Link || [4 views] Top|| File under:

#1  Nuruzzaman challenged a suspicious group of six youths in front of hotel Parosh near the Moghbazar intersection and at one time he grabbed one of the suspects. The suspect, Akter Hossain, 35, during a tussle with Nuruzzaman, fired a shot that hit the official in the lower abdomen

since when did a 35 yr old qualify as a yout?
Posted by: Frank G || 05/16/2007 11:37 Comments || Top||

#2  I'm sure Akter can look forward to a moonlit meeting with his fellow miscreants in the near future. It'll be a short one...
Posted by: tu3031 || 05/16/2007 12:27 Comments || Top||

#3  I used to be a yout' of 35, sonny!
Posted by: Fred || 05/16/2007 12:27 Comments || Top||

#4  35? Hell, I've got belts older than that. Of course, they seem to have shrunk over the years.
Posted by: Steve || 05/16/2007 13:06 Comments || Top||

#5  ...look forward to a moonlit meeting with his fellow miscreants in the near future.

It was nearer than you thought, check the other story
Posted by: Steve || 05/16/2007 13:08 Comments || Top||

#6  Well, can ya beat that.
It's almost like I'm...psychic or something...
Posted by: tu3031 || 05/16/2007 13:15 Comments || Top||

#7  I knew that tu was gonna say that....
Posted by: USN. Ret. || 05/16/2007 14:23 Comments || Top||


India-Pakistan
Peshawar hotel blast kills over 24
PESHAWAR: More than 24 people killed and several injured when a blast occurred in a hotel situated at main road here on Tuesday.

Interior Ministry has confirmed the killing of 19 people whereas investigations teams have formed on the directives of Frontier chief minister.

Frontier Chief Minister has also announced the compensation of Rs.0.1 million each for deceased and Rs. 50,000 each for injured.

According to police sources, 4 to 5 kilograms of explosives were used in the blast. Governor Sindh Dr. Ishratul Ibad has condemned the Peshawar bomb blast.

According to SSP Investigations Jameelur Rehman, investigations of the incident are underway.

The blast happened in Marhaba Hotel located at crowded Naz Cinema Road close to the centuries-old Mahabat Mosque. The hotel is famous for its variety of food and mostly Afghan nationals are the frequent visitors of the hotel.

The blast had completely destroyed the hotel building. Bodies and injured were shifted to Lady Reading Hospital where many injured were reported in a critical state. Emergency was announced in local hospitals after the blast.

Police had cordoned off the area and investigations are underway. Provincial and federal governments had already issued the security alert for Peshawar.

Security put on high alert in Karachi and Lahore after the Peshawar blast.
Posted by: Glenmore || 05/16/2007 00:00 || Comments || Link || [3 views] Top|| File under:

#1  Chickens? Roost?
Posted by: gromgoru || 05/16/2007 0:11 Comments || Top||

#2  Now that the bomb vest is on the other foot! [/Airplane]
Posted by: Zenster || 05/16/2007 1:24 Comments || Top||

#3  The hotel is famous for its variety of food and mostly Afghan nationals are the frequent visitors of the hotel.

Hey, when you specialize in sheep eye-balls and goat stomachs ala Pushtan, someone is going to get a bad meal.
Posted by: Jack is Back! || 05/16/2007 8:45 Comments || Top||

#4  Owwwww! My other eye!!
Posted by: Just Call Me...Afghan National || 05/16/2007 8:54 Comments || Top||

#5  Other accounts I read of this said he fastened his bill of particulars to his foot so it could be read upon his demise. Blecch.
Posted by: Seafarious || 05/16/2007 11:27 Comments || Top||

#6  Once again, enquiring minds want to know exactly when Pakistan's devout legions of "pure" jihadis will put out a death fatwa against renowned Islamic scholar, Yusuf Qaradawi, for issuing edicts that absolve and sanctify bomb vest killers. The sharp increase in this sort of attack can be traced directly to his pronouncements.

It was all well and fine just so long as these vicious murderers directed their foul attacks against Jews or the West. Now that truck bombs, car bombs and vest bombers are striking against fellow Muslim targets, suddenly they've lost their taste for such torrents of bloodshed.

Most hilarious ironic of all is that, due to Israel's fence and improved Western security measures, internecine fighting amongst Islamic sects now enjoys the vast majority of this type of hideous slaughter. As always, it couldn't happen to a nicer bunch. How fitting that a hyper-violent creed should find one of its most potent and lethal weapons turned against itself by its own followers.
Posted by: Zenster || 05/16/2007 15:50 Comments || Top||


'Paramilitary man shot at ISAF delegates'
A Pakistani paramilitary soldier belonging to areas close to Waziristan shouted Allah-u-Akbar (God is great) and opened fire as he saw Americans on Monday, sources in Kurram Agency said on Tuesday.

A Pakistani and a US soldier were killed moments after they walked out from a school building near the Pak-Afghan border in the Kurram tribal region after a “flag meeting” on Monday. “A paramilitary soldier, who belonged to the Bhittani tribe and was deployed there for the security of American and Afghan military officials, opened fire, and cross-fire followed in which he was killed,” the sources told Daily Times on condition of anonymity. Information regarding the paramilitary soldier’s involvement in the shooting was “obtained from different people”, the sources added.

Military spokesman Maj Gen Waheed Arshad said he had “no information” that linked a Pakistani paramilitary soldier to the killing of the American. “I’ve no such information and an investigation has been ordered,” he told Daily Times. “I don’t have preliminary results of the investigation.” He blamed the attack on unidentified “miscreants”.

The Associated Press quoted an unnamed US military official as saying in Washington that US soldiers had “gotten into a truck and were preparing to leave when a Pakistani militiaman walked up and opened fire. Return US fire killed the gunman.” Arshad said he did not see the Kabul-datelined AP story. The Bhittani tribe lives in areas from Tank to Lakki Marwat along the border with South Waziristan and is regarded as one of “the most conservative and fiercest” of all Pukhtoon tribes.
In Pakland, "treacherous" is the same as "fierce."
Posted by: Fred || 05/16/2007 00:00 || Comments || Link || [3 views] Top|| File under:

#1  Carpet bomb from "Tank to Lakki Marwat along the border with South Wazirista" then. Pakistan is under no ones control but the islamists.
Posted by: Sock Puppet of Doom || 05/16/2007 0:50 Comments || Top||

#2  cross-fire followed in which he was killed... Return US fire killed the gunman.

One up for our guys. Aiming before shooting really impacts the effectiveness of the exercise, it appears. ;-)
Posted by: trailing wife || 05/16/2007 8:18 Comments || Top||

#3  Kill first, talk after
Posted by: Captain America || 05/16/2007 14:51 Comments || Top||


At Least 25 Killed In Suicide Boom In Peshawar
(AKI) - At least 25 people have been killed in the explosion at a hotel in the north-western Pakistani city of Peshawar on Tuesday. According to a report on the website of the Pakistani television channel Geo TV, a suicide bomber blew himself up in the Marhaba Hotel in Peshwar's old city and the blast managed to demolish the building. The hotel was said to be popular with Afghans and was filled with people having lunch when the explosion occurred. Peshawar is the capital of Pakistan's North West Frontier Province (NWFP) which borders Afghanistan.

According to the Geo TV report, 23 of the 25 people killed have been indentified and they include two women and a 7-year-old child. The report quoted the provincial information minister Asif Iqbal Daudzai as saying that the police found two severed legs at the site. One leg was said to bear a marking in the Pashtu language saying "This will be fate of those who are American spies".

Pakistan's interior secretary Syed Kamal Shah confirmed that the blast was an act of terrorism but said that it was still "premature to comment" on who could be behind the attack. He said that a special team had been sent to Peshawar to investigate the incident. Various political and religious groups have condemned the blasts and the chief minister of the province Akram Durrani has said that there will be a 100,000 rupees (1,666 dollars) compensation for the families of the victims.
Posted by: Fred || 05/16/2007 00:00 || Comments || Link || [3 views] Top|| File under:

#1  Paki-wakiland could go unstable very quickly--a serious potential problem.
Posted by: JohnQC || 05/16/2007 10:37 Comments || Top||


Attack On Troops 'Reprisal' For Deadullah
(AKI) A major aerial espionage operation began Monday by US drones over the skies of the remote North and South Waziristan and the Kurram agency in Pakistan, after militants carried out a strike on a meeting of Pakistan, Afghanistan and NATO forces in Kurram agency.
After concluding their discussions, the NATO and Afghan forces returned to the Afghan side of the border and en route were attacked by militants loyal to al-Qaeda leader Abu Laith Al-Libby.
The officials were meeting Monday at Teri Mangal in Kurram agency to consider border fighting between the two neighbours which erupted on Sunday. After concluding their discussions, the NATO and Afghan forces returned to the Afghan side of the border and en route were attacked by militants loyal to al-Qaeda leader Abu Laith Al-Libby. “It is an al-Qaeda led operation in retaliation of Mullah Dadullah’s death”, a North Waziristan based caller, who claimed to represent al-Qaeda, told AdnKronos International (AKI) and added that the scheme was planned by Abu Laith Al-Libby.

Two Americans and few Pakistani soldiers were reported to have been injured, possibly killed in the incident. The Afghan government put the blame on Pakistani soldiers but a Pakistani military spokesperson denied the claim.
This article starring:
ABU LAITH AL LIBYal-Qaeda
MULLAH DADULLAHTaliban
Posted by: Fred || 05/16/2007 00:00 || Comments || Link || [3 views] Top|| File under:

#1  I thought peg-leg wasn't dead? Must be a problem with the Talibunny.
Posted by: anymouse || 05/16/2007 2:06 Comments || Top||

#2  Mullah Dudley chases 72 vurgins with peg-leg...he-he
Posted by: Captain America || 05/16/2007 14:52 Comments || Top||


Iraq
General: Prince Harry won't go to Iraq
LONDON - Britain's Prince Harry will not be sent with his unit to Iraq, Britain's top general said Wednesday, citing specific threats to the third in line to the throne. Army Chief of Staff Gen. Sir Richard Dannatt said the changing situation on the ground exposed the prince to too much danger.

"There have been a number of specific threats, some reported and some not reported, that relate directly to Prince Harry as an individual," Dannatt said. "These threats exposed him and those around him to a degree of risk I considered unacceptable."

Clarence House, the office of Harry's father, Prince Charles, issued a statement declaring Harry's disappointment that "he will not be able to go to Iraq with his troop deployment as he had hoped."

"He fully understands Gen. Dannatt's difficult decision and remains committed to his army career," the statement said. "Prince Harry's thoughts are with the rest of the battle group in Iraq.

The Defense Ministry had long said the decision would be kept under review amid concerns for the security of Harry, a second lieutenant, and other soldiers serving with him. The 22-year-old prince is a tank commander trained to lead a 12-man team in four armored reconnaissance vehicles.

Harry would have been the first member of the British royal family to serve in a war zone since his uncle, Prince Andrew, flew as a helicopter pilot in the Falklands conflict with Argentina in 1982.

There have been reported threats by Iraqi insurgents to kill or kidnap the prince, including claims his photograph had been widely circulated among militants.
Posted by: tu3031 || 05/16/2007 13:04 || Comments || Link || [4 views] Top|| File under:

#1  If Harry were to get whacked it would be a big coup for the Islamofacists worldwide and would embolden them considerably. Good decision.
Posted by: ex-lib || 05/16/2007 13:30 Comments || Top||

#2  Lousy decision. He should take the uniform off and never put it on again. He won't do what the yeomanry's expected to do.
Posted by: Fred || 05/16/2007 13:37 Comments || Top||

#3  I imagine announcing that he's staying home is also a coup for the Islamic imperialists.
Posted by: eLarson || 05/16/2007 13:37 Comments || Top||

#4  I'm with Fred. Why's he even in if he's not gonna do the job? To pad the royal resume, like his father?
Posted by: tu3031 || 05/16/2007 13:44 Comments || Top||

#5  They waited 'til the Queen's return to announce this, I see.
Posted by: Seafarious || 05/16/2007 14:02 Comments || Top||

#6  Well, if Harry doesn't go, I could suggest that Paris Hilton go in his place. This could serve to eliminate the trauma that she is suffering from her jail sentence and her sentence could be eliminated.
Posted by: JohnQC || 05/16/2007 14:25 Comments || Top||

#7  The pussification of the British armee...parades are okay, but real work goes to commoners....
Posted by: Captain America || 05/16/2007 14:54 Comments || Top||

#8  I wouldn't be too hard on Harry. It wasn't his descision. Having said that, if it's too dangerous for Harry then it's too dangerous for any soldier.
Posted by: Deacon Blues || 05/16/2007 14:59 Comments || Top||

#9  Coward. Even if it was daddy who made the decision. The old TV show Branded popped into mind. Break his sword, rip the badges off his uniform, turn their collect backs to him.
Posted by: BrerRabbit || 05/16/2007 15:26 Comments || Top||

#10  Prince Albert in the can, I bet Harry is pissed off over this (at least he should be).
Posted by: Captain America || 05/16/2007 15:27 Comments || Top||

#11  Some common sense, finally. His comrades would spend more time guarding him than fighting the war.
Posted by: trenchsol || 05/16/2007 15:44 Comments || Top||

#12  Brave brave Sir General Richard, responding to dire revenge and dire threats. Another not-so-Trafalger-moment to try and live down.
Posted by: Gromotch Bucket9929 || 05/16/2007 15:56 Comments || Top||

#13  Cripes Harry didn't make the decision. Everything I've read said he wanted to go and would quit the army if he couldn't. He is a huge frickin target and his being there would get more of his fellow troopers killed. Basra is hot and getting hotter.

If you think handing the terr's a propoganda opportunity on a plate is a great idea you should maybe think again.
Posted by: remoteman || 05/16/2007 15:57 Comments || Top||

#14  He won't do what the yeomanry's expected to do.

Damn few do what the yeomanry's expected to do.

/yew
Posted by: Shipman || 05/16/2007 17:59 Comments || Top||

#15  I swear to G-d, the intelligence level and reading ability of Rantburgers has gone to crap.

It wasn't Harry's decision.

It wasn't Harry's decision.

It wasn't Harry's decision.


Does it have to be typed a few more times, so you chuckleheads understand?
Posted by: Pappy || 05/16/2007 21:07 Comments || Top||

#16  So, in a case like this: who holds whose manhood cheap?
Posted by: xbalanke || 05/16/2007 21:32 Comments || Top||

#17  Right. It WASN'T HIS DECISION. Like remoteman said: "He is a huge frickin target and his being there would get more of his fellow troopers killed. Basra is hot and getting hotter." And like I said. Good decision. The royals are prisoners in a very real sense. Sorry Harry can't serve as he desires.
Posted by: ex-lib || 05/16/2007 22:28 Comments || Top||

#18  So, in a case like this: who holds whose manhood cheap

Manhood has nothing to do with it. Harry at this point would be a liability to his unit. Andrew didn't have to deal with the publicity (which painted a nice, fat target on Harry), nor having the enemy specifically targeting him. All this horseshit about 'yeomanry' and 'manhood' and 'Trafalgar' is marvelous until a whole lot of soldiers start getting killed simply because the Islamosfacists want a royal scalp.

Hopefully the prince will be allowed to see action in the future. Right now it is a correct, if disappointing decision.
Posted by: Pappy || 05/16/2007 23:57 Comments || Top||


U.S Military Says It Has Al-Qaeda Kidnap Gang Cornered In Farmland
H/T National Review The Tank -- also, on the way to work this morning, when I started the car, I got in on the tailend of this report. I kinda blinked, and thought I had missed it. Keep those prayers active, praying for all of these guys involved, and that this is true.

May 15, 2007 9:16 p.m. EST

Richard Bowden - AHN Staff Writer

Mahmudiya, Iraq (AHN) - Backed by sniffer dogs and helicopters, U.S. forces in Iraq searching for three soldiers captured by an Al-Qaeda gang on Saturday have said the group is cornered in an area of farmland near Baghdad.

The three soldiers from Fort Drum's 4th Battalion, 31st Infantry Regiment, 2nd Brigade Combat Team, 10th Mountain Division were captured by the gang after being ambushed on a patrol sent to intercept roadside bombs.

"Right now our focus is on searching for the missing soldiers, and we're trying to isolate the areas where we think they could be," said Army Maj. Kenny Mintz, the brigade operations officer for the 2nd BCT, 10th Mountain Division in a Multinational Corps Iraq news release.

"The (captors) don't have freedom of movement; if they have the soldiers, they can't move them from where they are. We're doing a deliberate search of the areas for the people responsible for the soldiers we're looking for," he said.

No confirmation has been received whether the U.S, soldiers are still alive and militants have mocked coalition attempts to rescue the missing soldiers.

Posted by: Sherry || 05/16/2007 12:01 || Comments || Link || [3 views] Top|| File under:

#1  I certainly hope they'll find them alive; if not, that no mercy will be given to the captors and that they'll all end up getting their raisins. In fact, I'd be ok to that even if they find the missing soldiers.
Posted by: anonymous5089 || 05/16/2007 12:11 Comments || Top||

#2  Raisins for them. Raisins for anyone who collaborated with them. Raisins for their brothers. Raisins for their sons and their fathers and their second and third cousins. Raisins for anyone who has the same last name. Raisins for anyone who walks the same way they do. Raisins. All. Round.
Posted by: Excalibur || 05/16/2007 12:27 Comments || Top||

#3  Excalibur--that's the same logic the kidnappers used in retaliation for the rape and murder of the Iraqi girl.
Posted by: ex-lib || 05/16/2007 12:28 Comments || Top||

#4  Good. I'm all for a long and painful interrogation process.

And ex-lib, the point is to show these 7th century camel humpers that the raid me and I raid you mentality that they have been using for centuries will only get their asses killed now. This tit-for-tat shit got us into the mess we are in now. Overwhelming and devastating responses are needed. The Carrot and the Stick. If you play nice and don't blow up crap, we will build your country. Otherwise, we will bury your country.
Posted by: DarthVader || 05/16/2007 12:53 Comments || Top||

#5  that's the same logic the kidnappers used in retaliation for the rape and murder of the Iraqi girl.

Except that the terrorists never cared about the girl, and would have raped her themselves, had they the opportunity. She is just a convenient excuse for what they were going to do anyway. Global warming, or The Jooos, would have done as well for justifying their behaviour

My prayers are with the missing soldiers, and those hunting for them. And may dogs feast on the corpses of the kidnappers, when their god sees fit to let them die.
Posted by: trailing wife || 05/16/2007 13:23 Comments || Top||

#6  Generally I agree, Darth--but the payback thing goes so deep in their culture I'm not sure they would learn anything--they'd just wait until they had an advantage to start again. In this case, I was saying essentially, that our military should (and of course will) punish the kidnappers and not everyone connected to them (as Exacaliber was hoping for--although I completely understand the sentiment). In this case, a lot of Iraqis will be taking note since it has to do with the rape and murder of the little girl and her family. It's definitely a "test case" issue for us, and the proper handling of it, and of the guilty American soldiers who perped the crime, will say much, one way or another.
Posted by: ex-lib || 05/16/2007 13:24 Comments || Top||

#7  "Except that the terrorists never cared about the girl, and would have raped her themselves, had they the opportunity . . ."

You don't know that, tw. It might be true, or it might just be regular guys seeking "justice" for a really disgusting crime. Time will tell.
Posted by: ex-lib || 05/16/2007 13:26 Comments || Top||

#8  True, ex-lib. But if I recall correctly, that rape happened years ago. Why wait so long to seek vengeance?
Posted by: trailing wife || 05/16/2007 13:30 Comments || Top||

#9  And haven't the rapists been tried and convicted already?
Posted by: trailing wife || 05/16/2007 13:31 Comments || Top||

#10  I thought of that too, which is why I'm staying neutral on the matter. Time will tell. You're right, of course, when you point out that just about any excuse will do for the bad guys. These guys may be "amateurs" though, who are genuinely upset. There's at least a 20% chance, right? But if it goes the other way, I wouldn't be surprised. They'd be claiming the reason as a way to rally others behind them.
Posted by: ex-lib || 05/16/2007 13:33 Comments || Top||

#11  None of those facts matter to terrorists tw.
Posted by: Mike N. || 05/16/2007 13:37 Comments || Top||

#12  I think it's all over now, but not sure. But for those in the moslem culture, things are NEVER over . . . Anyway, I really hope they find our guys and ferret out the kidnappers.
Posted by: ex-lib || 05/16/2007 13:38 Comments || Top||

#13  ex-lib, these guys are not amateurs. Amateurs don't have the ability to ambush a U.S. combat unit and take some of them hostage.
Posted by: Mike N. || 05/16/2007 13:39 Comments || Top||

#14  I wonder if Iranian or their agents are the players here. Trying for another show like with the Brit sailors.
Posted by: Procopius2k || 05/16/2007 14:42 Comments || Top||

#15  There should be no more than a pile of burning shit left after rescuing our lads.

Then I want to know why we had such limited numbers having to defend themselves. Obviously these Al-fuckers had time to deploy tactics in advance of their assault.
Posted by: Captain America || 05/16/2007 15:06 Comments || Top||

#16  If so, I hope our soldiers hold out a hell of a lot longer.
Posted by: eLarson || 05/16/2007 15:09 Comments || Top||

#17  In the past US soldieres were execute quickly after being captured. Theese terrorists claim that soldiers are still alive. I hope that they are telling the truth. It seems that kidnappers are not the "ordinary" AQ. Who are they, then ? Maybe Procopius2k is right.
Posted by: trenchsol || 05/16/2007 15:58 Comments || Top||

#18  Except that the terrorists never cared about the girl, and would have raped her themselves, had they the opportunity. She is just a convenient excuse for what they were going to do anyway. Global warming, or The Jooos, would have done as well for justifying their behaviour

Absolutely spot on, tw. Any excuse will do to provide a motive for their incessant bloodshed. If they didn't have one, they would invent it. The rape incident was so long ago, and its perpetrators tried and convicted, that this is old news. Admittedly, it's more of a fresh wound for a culture that can start wars over whose uncle cheated in order to unfairly win some district's camel race three centuries ago.

In the past US soldieres were execute quickly after being captured. Theese terrorists claim that soldiers are still alive.

For the moment, I'm still going with "alive". Had these maggots killed our troops, the beheading videos would already be out on the web. These media whores simply canot contain themselves, so I'm counting that as a good thing.

I believe it was Procopius2k who mentioned yesterday how we need to take DNA samples from whomever is involved in this kidnap. We then need to round up their families, toss their homes and businesses like a couple of volleyballs and generally make their lives exceptionally miserable.

Terrorism runs in the family. It is why we have such a difficult time penetrating terrorists cells. They rely upon familial bonds with all the secrecy and security that they engender. I'm also rather tempted to believe their is a genetic predisposition to psychotic violence that has been given preferential expression by centuries of intermarriage between first cousins. We need to root out the clans that are most involved in terrorism and begin to chlorinate their gene pools.

Excalibur, I believe the proper expression is:

"Give 'em more raisins than Sun-Maid!"

Posted by: Zenster || 05/16/2007 16:53 Comments || Top||

#19  bad part is their brothers and cousins and fathers are all the same ppl
Posted by: sinse || 05/16/2007 18:16 Comments || Top||

#20  Update:
Our troops have captured 4 of the kidnappers. Apparently they were paid money by a middleman to participate in the attack.

Which suggests:
1) The claim the attack was in retaliation for an atrocity is bull****.
2) The reason Al Qaeda hasn't shown a video yet is because they don't have them.
3) The operation was sub-contracted to a bunch of amatuers who were less likely to be tracked by our Intel.
4) The chances of scaring these guys into letting our guys go is actually pretty good.

Al
Posted by: Frozen Al || 05/16/2007 18:43 Comments || Top||

#21  Terrorism runs in the family. It is why we have such a difficult time penetrating terrorists cells.

I hope someone with access to the information has taken a page from Sleeman's book about fighting the Thuggee and has started assembling family trees of the terrorists. Sleeman used the trees to figure out who to look at, who to follow, etc.

I suspect we'd find the same thing useful.
Posted by: Rob Crawford || 05/16/2007 18:58 Comments || Top||

#22  Apparently they were paid money by a middleman to participate in the attack.

Why am I suddenly getting a strong whiff of ayatollah? Great update, FA!
Posted by: Zenster || 05/16/2007 19:11 Comments || Top||

#23  I swear if Iranians had even a sniff of doing this, then mullahs need to die very very horrible deaths.
Posted by: djohn66 || 05/16/2007 19:16 Comments || Top||

#24  The culturally sensitive thing for our politically correct leaders to do is give all captives to Apache women.
Posted by: ed || 05/16/2007 19:18 Comments || Top||

#25  who to look at, who to follow, etc.

Just looks in Saddam's payroll and start shooting.
Posted by: ed || 05/16/2007 19:20 Comments || Top||

#26  I hope that the 3 US soldiers will soon be freed. And that a lot of the islamoterrorists who abducted them, and murdered 5 other US soldiers, will be severely killed.

The US soldiers deployed in Iraq shall be praised for their job.

It's a shame so few European countries deployed soldiers in Iraq along with the US.
Posted by: Leroidavid || 05/16/2007 19:53 Comments || Top||

#27  I swear if Iranians had even a sniff of doing this, then mullahs need to die very very horrible deaths.

And this changes how they've been flooding Iraq with the EFPs (Explosively Formed Projectiles) that have already killed ten times more of our troops than these poor kidnapped blighters?

The ayatollahs need to die, period. Iran's Islamic Theocracy is a festering canker upon our world. Remember, tyrannies have no sovereign rights. This simple fact continues to elude our politicians and even our military with devastating effects.
Posted by: Zenster || 05/16/2007 20:29 Comments || Top||

#28  F.A. - if amateurs, they sure put a hurt on our warriors. It is described as a fairly complex assault.
Posted by: Captain America || 05/16/2007 21:08 Comments || Top||

#29  then mullahs need to die very very horrible deaths.

No problem with this. I think their lives kind of suck too--maybe they wrap the turban too tight or maybe it's the religion thing.
Posted by: Jinegum Peacock9131 || 05/16/2007 21:10 Comments || Top||


More Red on Red
U.S. soldiers find tips flowing from rifts within powerful Shiite militia run by young cleric

BAGHDAD: An Iraqi man wearing a crisp white robe steps from the shadows of a Baghdad mosque. American soldiers whisper greetings. Fumbling nervously with his cigarette, the informant rattles off names of clandestine Shiite militiamen.

The 3 a.m. encounter, witnessed by The Associated Press this month in a Shiite neighborhood of northwest Baghdad, was part of a U.S. attempt to weaken the grip of extremists in the Mahdi Army militia — one of the most powerful forces in Iraq's array of insurgents, militants and gunmen outside government control.

An apparent split emerging in the Mahdi Army — led by anti-U.S. cleric Muqtada al-Sadr — is where the U.S. military hopes to make its gains. They are aided by Mahdi members seeking to purge rivals they describe as "criminal elements."

Those willing to cooperate with the Americans are part of a larger group that calls itself the "noble Mahdi Army" and accuses others in the Mahdi Army of going too far by killing innocent Sunni civilians and embezzling militia funds. The informants also target fighters they claim were trained and armed by Iranians, but offer no further proof or details.

"The true Mahdi Army believes in loyalty to Iraq, but there are thieves and gangsters among them now," said a 54-year-old Shiite in Hurriyah, a northwest Baghdad neighborhood where militiamen drove out thousands of Sunnis last year. He refused to give his name out of fear for his life.

Rooting out the most violent cells from the Mahdi Army would be an important step for U.S.-led forces and the government of Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki. Shiite death squads are blamed for many of the gangland-style executions of Sunnis — which have gradually returned since falling off sharply after a Baghdad security operation was launched in February.

But serious divisions within the Mahdi Army could unleash a bloody power struggle among its tens of thousands of followers. Its leader, al-Sadr, has not been seen publicly for months and has issued statements through intermediaries. U.S. officials claim he has taken refuge in neighboring Iran, raising questions about his hold over the militia — named for a messiah-like figure of Shiite Islam.

The Pentagon already knows how the Mahdi Army can muster its firepower. In 2004, Mahdi fighters waged a fierce struggle against U.S.-led forces in places such as the Shiite holy city of Najaf in southern Iraq.

To protect the "noble" members, American soldiers go through elaborate ruses to hide their role as informants.

If they want to question an informant, American troops will seal off an entire neighborhood, search every house and question all residents. When the soldiers get to the informant's house, they will bang on the door and demand entry.

Inside, officers embrace the informant and sip tea with his family.

Informants have handed over lists of key Mahdi Army figures, along with sworn statements against them. That's the legal ammunition American commanders need to conduct raids against a militia that has ties to powerful Shiite politicians.

In Hurriyah, tips from Mahdi Army moderates and other community members have allowed the U.S. to capture several top militiamen since January, U.S. officials said.

"The guys we talk to call themselves 'noble JAM,'" said Maj. Michael Shaw, using an acronym for the Mahdi Army's Arabic name. He added: "They're more business-minded and realistic about the future."

Similar cracks have been exploited by U.S. forces among Sunnis in other parts of Iraq.

In the western Anbar province, tribal leaders and others have assisted U.S.-led troops against extremist factions including al-Qaida. The local Anbar tribes fear the insurgents could challenge their power and control of lucrative trade and smuggling routes.

The Mahdi rifts began earlier this year.

The prime minister, a Shiite, persuaded al-Sadr to withdraw his armed militiamen from Baghdad streets to avoid a showdown with the Americans during the security crackdown.

But Mahdi Army members have told The Associated Press that some factions in the militia want to step up the fight against U.S. forces. Several thousand members have received training and weapons from Iran, the members said on condition of anonymity for fear of reprisals.

Such claims appear to back up Washington's assertions that Iran — the world's most populous Shiite nation — is funneling arms and aid to Shiite factions in Iraq.

Al-Sadr still wields considerable influence in Iraq — not only through his militia but by a formidable political movement that holds 30 of the 275 seats in parliament. Last month, the six Cabinet members loyal to al-Sadr resigned their posts after al-Maliki refused to demand a timetable for the withdrawal of U.S. and other foreign forces.


U.S. and Iraqi officials are unsure of the degree of control al-Sadr still exerts over his militia, which he founded in 2003 after the collapse of Saddam Hussein's rule. The bipartisan Iraq Study Group estimated the Mahdi strength at up to 60,000 nationwide, but figures vary greatly depending on whether it includes hard-core loyalists or extended to include sympathizers.

Last year, al-Sadr himself had complained publicly about "deviant" groups that were using the Mahdi Army as a cover for murder, extortion and smuggling.

"If Muqtada al-Sadr goes on TV now and asks JAM to lay down their weapons, do you think that all the fighters would obey? Of course not. Maybe 70 percent would," said Col. Abed al-Raadhi, the National Police commander in Hurriyah.

"For some of these people, it's become a purely criminal enterprise," al-Raadhi said.

About a month ago, an elite Mahdi Army unit was dispatched from Najaf — purportedly under orders from al-Sadr himself — to weed out criminal elements, U.S. and Iraq officials said.

Nicknamed the "Golden Mahdi Army," the Najaf unit is trying to hunt down and eliminate rogue militiamen before the Americans can capture and interrogate them, the officials said on condition of anonymity because the information is considered highly sensitive.

In the shadows, the informant in the white robe says he hoped that — with American help — more moderate factions can gain the upper hand in the Mahdi Army, which many Shiites consider their best protection against Sunni extremists.

The informant, who would not give his name out of fear for his safety, said he was worried about Mahdi Army leaders who had received training in Iran.

U.S. military officers are careful not to characterize militia informants as partners or allies and insist none of them has been promised amnesty for any alleged offenses.

"I know these men well — we went through our religious training together — but they are no longer honest. They pretend to be following al-Sadr's orders, but they are really following Iran," the man said.

Posted by: GolfBravoUSMC || 05/16/2007 12:00 || Comments || Link || [3 views] Top|| File under:

#1  But serious divisions within the Mahdi Army could unleash a bloody power struggle among its tens of thousands of followers.

Our goal accomplished, of teasing out the relative moderates from the criminals and Iran's pawns. Plus the possibility of red on red. Well done! for our side. :-D
Posted by: trailing wife || 05/16/2007 13:28 Comments || Top||

#2  Let's see tater whipped, mashed and then fried...
Posted by: M. Murcek || 05/16/2007 13:56 Comments || Top||

#3  A very good sign. If you can cleanly split the Iraqi nationalists from the Shiites working for Iran, it will put a serious crimp in illegal activities.
Posted by: Anonymoose || 05/16/2007 14:41 Comments || Top||

#4  They need to be aware that some of their informers will be simply trying to get us to take out their competition.
Posted by: mojo || 05/16/2007 14:49 Comments || Top||

#5  So what if some of the informers are using us to killing enemies/competitors? They rat out each other to us and we kill them : where is the downside? This is just like when two street gangs snitch on each other to the cops : a win-win for us, since no matter which one we kill, the bad guys are dead.
Posted by: Shieldwolf || 05/16/2007 16:15 Comments || Top||

#6  Also if the local mafias/street gangs are the only Shiite troublemakers left standing, it will be much better for the average Abdulah on the streets of Baghdad : by definition, mobsters do NOT do suicide bombings - they are following orders of the local boss, not Allah. So no 72 virgins for them if they go BOOM in the local market place. Plus, the whole mentality of a mobster goes against the "Die for Allah!" crowd : mobsters want to run the local "Booze, Broads, and Blow" markets for fun and profit; they do NOT wanted to die in a big explosion. Hard to enjoy the air-conditioned Mercedes sedan when you are splattered across the landscape.
Posted by: Shieldwolf || 05/16/2007 16:25 Comments || Top||

#7  Also if the local mafias/street gangs are the only Shiite troublemakers left standing, it will be much better for the average Abdulah on the streets of Baghdad : by definition, mobsters do NOT do suicide bombings - they are following orders of the local boss, not Allah. So no 72 virgins for them if they go BOOM in the local market place. Plus, the whole mentality of a mobster goes against the "Die for Allah!" crowd : mobsters want to run the local "Booze, Broads, and Blow" markets for fun and profit; they do NOT wanted to die in a big explosion. Hard to enjoy the air-conditioned Mercedes sedan when you are splattered across the landscape.
Posted by: Shieldwolf || 05/16/2007 16:30 Comments || Top||

#8  Sorry about the double posting.
Posted by: Shieldwolf || 05/16/2007 16:30 Comments || Top||

#9  BRUSSELSJOURNAL/EU > Many Euro commentators believe that one of the major reasons for internal, inter-Islamist factionalism = ideo civil war is the power struggle between those whom genuinely want to reform Islam, versus those whom do not. IOW, as so-called "GOD-BASED MARXISTS-BOLSHEVIKS-COMMIES-STALINISTS:, we are seeing LENIN vz TROTSKY, TROTSKY vz STALIN REDUX, etc.
Posted by: JosephMendiola || 05/16/2007 20:17 Comments || Top||


Chlorine Bomb Kills 20 in Diyala Province Village
'Religion of Peace'
Twenty people have been killed and 50 injured in a suspected chlorine bomb in Iraq's Diyala province, police say. The attack happened in an open-air market in the village of Abu Sayda at about 2000 (1600 GMT) on Tuesday.
The words you're looking for are "filthy war crime." So far I haven't seen the words come out of AI's or HRW's mouths. All the UN special rapporteurs have remained mum.
A police spokesman in the provincial capital Baquba said doctors at a local hospital believed the nature of victims' burns suggested poison gas. Use of chlorine bombs has become more common since the start of the year, says a BBC correspondent in Baghdad.
More common in Iraq, that is. As far as I know, it's the only place in the entire world where such filthy tactics are used.
Last month a bomb using chlorine and high explosive killed 35 people in Ramadi, west of the capital. Chlorine - widely used as a cleaner and purifier in areas of poor water sanitation - is easy to obtain in Iraq.
It's easy to obtain in most places. Most places still don't use it as a weapon.
Chlorine gas burns the skin on contact and can be fatal after a few breaths. In February the United States military reported finding a bomb factory near Falluja, where chlorine car bombs were being constructed. Diyala province - with its mixed Shia and Sunni Muslim population - has been the scene of frequent violence of a sectarian nature as well as attacks by anti-US insurgents.
Posted by: Glenmore || 05/16/2007 07:38 || Comments || Link || [3 views] Top|| File under:

#1  Something important to keep in mind. As the more capable leadership is picked off, those that remain are going to be the ones who are less disciplined and not quite so "strategic" in their thinking. These individuals are likely to perpetrate crimes that are unspeakable but in the longer term are going to do more harm than good for al Qaida.

So expect a spike in violence, a spike in the horrible nature of the crimes, but also expect them to be be rounded up at an increasing rate. People like that tend to be more emotional in their actions and this will lead to their killing or capture at an increasing rate.
Posted by: crosspatch || 05/16/2007 12:12 Comments || Top||

#2  A viable silver lining. Thanks cp.
Posted by: ex-lib || 05/16/2007 13:29 Comments || Top||

#3  Where are those screaming about the Geneva Convention rights for inhuman savages who make war on their own using weapons banned by all civilized society?
Posted by: doc || 05/16/2007 14:54 Comments || Top||

#4  I want every country that (rightfully) complains about the suffering in Darfur to contribute troops to Diyala.

Here too we have the killing of the innocent.
Posted by: Captain America || 05/16/2007 15:11 Comments || Top||

#5  Reading that makes me glad Saddam Hussein will never threaten the civilized world with WMD's - now if someone destroys Iran's nuclear weapons program the world will be a much safer place.
Posted by: Grumenk Philalzabod0723 || 05/16/2007 20:59 Comments || Top||

#6  So far I haven't seen the words come out of AI's or HRW's mouths.

And you won't. I can't believe that I actually used to donate money to these worthless jackals.
Posted by: DMFD || 05/16/2007 21:18 Comments || Top||

#7  I can't believe that I actually used to donate money to these worthless jackals.

Now that's the kind of metaphor that is simply insulting. Jackals hunt vermin. HRW defends vermin.
Posted by: Jackal || 05/16/2007 22:29 Comments || Top||


An Nasiriyah Prison Supports Iraq Security System
Supporting the security and justice systems in Iraq is one of the main challenges that the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers confronts to help the Iraqi government develop the infrastructure countrywide.

According to Rick Mers, a project engineer with the Gulf Region South District the New An Nasiriyah Maximum Security Correctional Facility, which is built by the Army Corps of Engineers in the Dhi Qar Province, is considered to be the biggest prison in the south of Iraq.

"The prison will hold up to 800 inmates and includes holding areas, laundry, dining facilities, and administrative offices."
Rick Mers, project manager with Gulf Region South District

"The project is a new maximum security correctional facility located near the city of Nasiriyah. The prison will hold up to 800 inmates and includes holding areas, laundry, dining facilities, and administrative offices," he said.

Michael Osborne, a resident engineer with Gulf Region South, said that the prison will help to provide employment for security personnel, medical personnel and support staff. It will also improve the quality of security correctional facilities south of Iraq.

Phase 1 has two maximum-security buildings. Each building will house 400 inmates and has a visitor control building.

“The construction at Phase I started Nov. 2, 2004," Mers said. "It encompasses 26 acres and will have an exercise area, a medical clinic, maintenance buildings, and a kitchen and laundry facility.”

Osborne said that the correctional facility would be self-sufficient with an administrative building, armory, water treatment plant, storage tanks, and a sewage treatment plant.

“It will also be capable of producing its own electric power within its utility area," he added. "There is also a room for prayers and other religious events."

Phase I of the An Nasiriyah Maximum Security Correctional Facility will include two maximum-security buildings which will house 400 inmates each.

Mers explained that the prison will generally run on generatorsÂ’ power because the Dhi Qar Province routinely has outages at the electricity power supply which is caused by the outdated equipment that has been used for years.

“The correctional facility has four generators and fuel tanks, associated transformers and switchgears to provide power,” Osborne said.

Mers said that Phase I projected completion date is October 2007.

“The second phase was just awarded a couple of days ago. The second phase of construction, an additional 400-inmate security building, would be built to further enhance a larger inmate population,” he added.

“The multi-million dollar project is less than half of the way through to completion. The completion of these modern correctional facilities will help improve the quality and availability of inmate incarceration space,” Mers said.
Posted by: Anonymoose || 05/16/2007 00:00 || Comments || Link || [3 views] Top|| File under:

#1  I hope I'm not paying for this. Just shoot them and be done with it.
Posted by: Angaiger Tojo1904 || 05/16/2007 8:03 Comments || Top||

#2  I hope they're not gonna use it for chlorine bombers.
Posted by: treo || 05/16/2007 11:03 Comments || Top||

#3  What? No Olympian prisoner pyramids?
Posted by: Captain America || 05/16/2007 15:13 Comments || Top||


Suspected insurgents detained, weapons caches found in Iraq operations
Iraqi and Coalition forces detained numerous suspected insurgents and discovered multiple weapons caches in Iraq over the weekend, military officials reported.

Soldiers of the 3rd Squadron, 1st Cavalry Regiment, detained a suspected insurgent wanted in connection with a recent rocket attack on a Coalition forces' base near Baghdad Monday. After receiving small-arms fire, troops moved to the suspectÂ’s house and quickly secured the area. The suspect had an AK-47 assault rifle, two ammunition magazines and a cell phone.

In the Iraqi capital Monday, Coalition forces detained a man suspected of conspiring directly with al-Qaeda in Iraq senior leaders. Inside the targeted building troops found a cache containing weapons and explosives, including bomb-making chemicals. An explosives disposal team safely destroyed the materials off-site.

Coalition forces detained four suspected terrorists in Ramadi Monday for having alleged ties to al-Qaeda in Iraq leaders. This raid was part of ongoing operations targeting al-Qaeda in Iraq's command structure, officials said.

Also, troops nabbed three individuals in Hit, Iraq, Monday suspected of supplying foreign fighters and helping them move throughout the region. Coalition forces also detained three suspected terrorists Monday near Karmah,Iraq, for allegedly aiding foreign fighters.

"We continue to actively target al-Qaeda and foreign fighter networks to reduce, and eventually eliminate, their ability to attack people and the institutions of Iraq," said U.S. Army Lt. Col. Christopher Garver, a Multi-National Force-Iraq spokesman.

Additionally, on Sunday, Iraqi Soldiers and U.S. Army Paratroopers captured 25 suspected terrorists in an operation south of Diyarah, Iraq. The raid was aimed at suspects who military officials say are responsible for emplacing improvised explosive devices and conducting mortar attacks.

Soldiers carried out "Operation Mongoose" to capture individuals responsible for recent attacks against Coalition forces and local residents, military officials said...

In other developments throughout Iraq:

Coalition forces detained 11 suspected terrorists during raids Monday morning targeting foreign fighters and al-Qaeda in Iraq senior leadership.

Coalition forces detained three suspected secret cell terrorists Sunday morning, including an alleged senior leader in the organization, during operations in southeastern Baghdad.
Posted by: Anonymoose || 05/16/2007 00:00 || Comments || Link || [3 views] Top|| File under:

#1  The surge is making progress but will the Dims be able to force the withdrawal of U.S. troops before they are even entirely deployed?

A house divided against itself cannot stand...
Posted by: Chinemp Forkbeard8376 || 05/16/2007 4:32 Comments || Top||

#2  sometimes, when I have had too little sleep, I can't help but wonder if Bush is a brilliant genius who allows the enemy to believe that we are a house divided so that while everyone is distracted with what the left hand is doing, the right hand wacks just about everyone in sight.
Posted by: Angaiger Tojo1904 || 05/16/2007 8:10 Comments || Top||

#3  AT, that wouldn't be a brilliant man, rather a very confused, even bipolar man.
I chalk it up to the yin and yang of war.
Posted by: wxjames || 05/16/2007 10:11 Comments || Top||


Israel-Palestine-Jordan
Eyewitness: Carnage in Gaza
With battles raging outside my building and my windows blown out by bullets, I sit in a dark hallway outside my apartment with my wife and baby. It's dangerous inside and outside.

Today I have seen people shot before my eyes, I heard the screams of terrified women and children in a burning building, and I argued with gunmen who wanted to take over my home.

I have seen a lot in my years as a journalist in Gaza, but this is the worst it's been.

Much of the fighting is taking place right here in my neighborhood. I went outside a few times to report, just around the house. I saw a building on fire after Hamas gunmen attacked, and I heard the screams of people who could not get out because of the gun battles.

My building is across from a Palestinian government complex, and both sides are fighting for control of the area. They're taking over rooftops. My apartment is on the top floor of this five-story building. This morning some Fatah gunmen tried to force their way into my apartment so they could shoot from my windows, overlooking the Palestinian government compound. I had an argument with them, and they left.

There have been clashes between Hamas and Fatah before, but there are dangerous new elements this time. Now they are arresting or even shooting people for the way they look. If you have a beard, you might be arrested by Fatah security for looking Islamic. If you have a chain around your neck or on your arm, Hamas gunmen might shoot you because you look secular.

The random use of weapons and explosives is out of control. People who consider themselves the elite, the politicians, sit with the Egyptian mediators at night and then come out with statements about a truce, and in the morning we see the opposite has occurred. These people are not controlling anything.

I saw several people shot right in front of my home today. I'm preparing myself for even worse violence.

Right now there are three couples, neighbors, sitting here on the floor. It's dark because there is no electricity. We are chatting, trying to calm ourselves over the crazy clashes and the sounds of heavy gunfire and explosions, which have not let up since 2 a.m. in our neighborhood.

Each of us has a baby, and they're playing. My baby, Hikmet, is nine-months old. I'm astonished by his behavior. In the morning he was scared by the gunfire and he cried and called "mama," which is his first word. Then he fell asleep for three hours. Since he woke up, he's been calm despite all the shooting.

Tuesday was my 30th birthday. I was born on "al-Naqba" day, "the catastrophe," as Palestinians refer to the creation of Israel. I'm afraid a catastrophe is happening now.
Posted by: Anonymoose || 05/16/2007 21:07 || Comments || Link || [4 views] Top|| File under:

#1  The news is the same old same old.
Posted by: Jinegum Peacock9131 || 05/16/2007 21:15 Comments || Top||

#2  I was born on "al-Naqba" day, "the catastrophe," as Palestinians refer to the creation of Israel. I'm afraid a catastrophe is happening now.

Doesn't get it. Doesn't get it, at all.
Posted by: Pappy || 05/16/2007 21:23 Comments || Top||

#3  I don't see the problem. The scorpions are stinging each other. If this "journalist" had honestly reported on the nature of the Palestinians, the world would have stomped them flat, and her child wouldn't be in danger of catching a stray round.
Posted by: Rob Crawford || 05/16/2007 21:25 Comments || Top||

#4  The entire pseudo-nation of Palestine should be called al-Naqba.
Posted by: ryuge || 05/16/2007 21:34 Comments || Top||

#5  Popcorn?
Posted by: 3dc || 05/16/2007 21:50 Comments || Top||

#6  Eyewitness: Carnage in Gaza

Lions and tigers and bears Cockroaches and scabies and lice, oh my!
Posted by: Zenster || 05/16/2007 22:29 Comments || Top||

#7  The catastrophe was some 1400 years ago. This is simply good news. Even the baby. Nits make lice.
Posted by: Jackal || 05/16/2007 22:31 Comments || Top||

#8  I have seen a lot in my years as a journalist in Gaza, but this is the worst it's been.

Jolly good news! Eh, wot?
Posted by: Zenster || 05/16/2007 22:33 Comments || Top||

#9  Give 'em a state and wall it up!

The paleo question will soon be a self correcting problem.
Posted by: DarthVader || 05/16/2007 22:42 Comments || Top||

#10  you elected em, you live with em. How many news items did this intrepid reporter post regarding the damage possible in electing a more terrorist gang to lead them? Or the value of negotiating a peace with the Joooos? I doubt there were many. Live your consequences, asshole
Posted by: Frank G || 05/16/2007 22:55 Comments || Top||

#11  God will curse you who curse them.
Posted by: newc || 05/16/2007 23:12 Comments || Top||


Paleostinian Violence in Gaza Kills at Least 16
The violence among Palestinians in Gaza accelerated today, with at least 16 dead in fighting between forces loyal to the Fatah faction and those of Hamas, both of which sit together in a unity government that appears to be another failed hudna, but a good failed hudna fracturing.
Reached by telephone, General Shbak said, “After what has happened the options are becoming very tough.” Hamas fighters, he said, “are killing in cold blood and they are executing people, and this has exceeded all limits.”
Even the dreaded red lines?
Israel, for its part, decided to retaliate for days of Qassam rocket fire on the Israeli city of Sderot by launching a helicopter rocket attack on a Hamas command center in the southern Gazan town of Rafah, killing at least four Hamas men and wounding at least 30, five of them seriously.
Partay!
At least 15 rockets were launched at Israel today, and eight landed, four in Sderot, the Israeli Army said. One woman was seriously wounded and another lightly wounded. On Tuesday, 27 rockets were fired, with 17 landing, 10 of them in Sderot.
The Israeli airstrike raised the prospect of harsher military actions to stop the rockets, with options ranging from temporary incursions to the establishment of a buffer zone in northern Gaza, where the rockets are fired.
Get 36 M109s and a few train cars of ammo and fire until empty. Repeat as required.
But there is little appetite in Israel for a major operation in Gaza, which would take weeks and lead to significant casualties. Prime Minister Ehud Olmert of Israel, under attack for his performance in directing last summer’s war against Hezbollah in Lebanon, called in his security team for talks about Gaza. They decided that the army would be authorized to hit at rocket-launching teams “and their commanders,” a move that implies a return to Israel’s policy of assassinating those who direct military action against it.
Uhhhh, no. That is not assassination, that is killing military targets. And lest we forget, civilian leadership is also a valid target
Such a policy would be an end, from the Israeli side, of an often-broken cease-fire with Hamas that was supposed to halt to rockets fired from Gaza and Israeli military actions inside Gaza. The rockets rarely stopped, but for months, Israel has generally not carried out military actions inside Gaza.
This evening, Israel launched another rocket attack at a car with Hamas militants that Israel said were on their way to launch rockets; at least one man was killed.
Partay more!
Mr. Olmert’s spokeswoman, Miri Eisin, said Israel would be cautious. “Israel is not going to be dragged into the Gaza Strip the way that Hamas wants,” she said. “We will choose the time and place to kill these rat bastards respond. The price of any operation must be measured in terms of how effective it would be in stopping rocket fire and the cost in life on both sides and what it would do to Gilad Shalit,” the Israeli corporal held captive in Gaza since June.
Announce that each day Gilad is held or a rocket is fired, another square kilometer of Hamastan reverts to Israel and all of the inhabitants are pushed out.
As the Palestinian president, Mahmoud Abbas, was said to be hiding under his desk planning a meeting on Thursday in Gaza with the Hamas prime minister, Ismail Haniya, Hamas announced that it was declaring a cease-fire this evening. Previous cease-fires have not lasted, but Hamas appeared to be serious about this one. Still, the talk in Gaza was of further conflict, not reconciliation.
Trucefire II: Paleo-logic
A Fatah spokesman, Abdel Hakim Awad, blamed Hamas for the violence in Gaza, saying that its leaders “wanted to turn Gaza into a new Somalia or Darfur.”
Then....hamas wants to improve conditions in Gaza?
Islam Shahwan, a spokesman for the Hamas-dominated Murder, Inc. Executive Force, which had largely stayed out of the fighting in favor of the Hamas military wing, known as the Qassam brigades, said that after today’s attacks, “we have decided to deploy.”
He added: “We’re in a state of erection at the thought of gunsex alert. After being silent and letting the Qassam brigades confront Fatah, we have decided to respond with all our power.”
Many Palestinians watched the new round of fighting with anxiety. “What is happening in Gaza endangers not only the unity government, but the Palestinian social fabric, the Palestinian cause and the Palestinian strategy as a whole,” Saeb Erekat, the Palestinian hamas buttboy negotiator and an aide to Mr. Abbas, told The Associated Press.
The fighting today was largely limited to Gaza City and was marked by bursts of extraordinary violence.
Hamas gunmen ambushed a police jeep carrying their own fighters, who had been arrested by FatahÂ’s Preventive Security forces. The Hamas fighters killed two Fatah men as well as G-d, I love this part five of their own men.
So overcome with bloodlust they will even kill their own.
Fatah retaliated by attacking a position of HamasÂ’s Executive Force, a parallel police force, killing four men. Another Fatah attack on the Executive Force sent the Hamas men to take shelter in an apartment building, collecting the hostages inhabitants into the basement as Fatah forces surrounded the structure and shouted for dire revenge. They fired rocket-propelled grenades into the building the Anour Tower, and set it on fire.
Two hospitals in Gaza City counted the dead. Scores were wounded by crappy paleo marksmanship. The streets of Gaza City were empty except for the gunmen, with shops shuttered and residents remaining indoors, usually in interior rooms farthest from the windows.
And not a Jooo to blame.
Some 200 Gaza residents tried to demonstrate for calm, marching in the center of Gaza City with Palestinian flags. But masked gunmen used the diversion to move toward different positions, and in the following gunfire one demonstrator was wounded and the others fled.
Protesting only works with civilized authorities and you are in a 'stan.
Hamas’s military wing took responsibility for launching many of the Qassam rockets toward Israel, especially on Tuesday, a day that Palestinians have marked in their calendar as the “Nakba,” or “catastrophe,” when Israel declared its independence in 1948. Hamas has more accurate rockets than other groups, and rockets hit homes in Sderot, including one next to the house of the Israeli defense minister, Amir Peretz.
Mr. PeretzÂ’s wife, Ahlama, was seen running for shelter from her black Mitsubishi Pajero sport utility vehicle and shouting at journalists to take cover.
Anat Roytero, 46, said that she was sending her seven children out of the city to her father’s house in Gedera, near Tel Aviv. “We can’t rely on the prime minister, we can’t rely on the defense minister, and the army’s hands are tied,” she said. Pointing to her daughter, Shirtal, 11, Mrs. Roytero said: “The kids are too frightened. I have to send them away so they can sleep at night.”
Force the evacuation of the closest paleo town in response.
HamasÂ’s open admission of responsibility for the rocket firing resulted in IsraelÂ’s retaliation, leading some to suggest that Hamas is trying to draw Israel into the fight to take attention away from the intra-Palestinian bloodletting and provide a pretext for unity.
The elusive unity of the paleos.
TodayÂ’s violence followed another agreement on a cease-fire late Tuesday night, which was almost immediately broken.
Always, ALWAYS.
An Hamas spokesman, Fawzi Barhoum asserted that Fatah violated the agreement first by firing on an Egyptian delegation, including members of the Palestinian government, that were touring the city to check on compliance. One Egyptian diplomat was lightly wounded. “They shot more than 100 bullets at them despite coordination with them in advance,” Mr. Barhoum said.
Jibril Rajoub of Fatah, the former Palestinian terrorist/security chief in the West Bank, said Mr. Abbas had made a mistake by appointing Muhammad Dahlan, the former security chief in Gaza and hated by Hamas, as his national security adviser immediately after the formation of the unity government. Mr. Abbas should have “tried to make Hamas feel more comfortable by bending and dropping trow,” Mr. Rajoub said. He said he had urged Mr. Abbas to replace General Shbak, who is closely allied to Mr. Dahlan, Gaza for the same reason.
Posted by: Ahnuld || 05/16/2007 15:48 || Comments || Link || [4 views] Top|| File under:

#1  Are you ready to rumble? Keep up the good work, boys thugs!
Posted by: Zenster || 05/16/2007 17:29 Comments || Top||

#2  “Israel is not going to be dragged into the Gaza Strip the way that Hamas wants,” she said. “We will choose the time and place to respond."

Translation - theyre killing each other, it would be stupid to go in and have them stop and fight us instead.
Posted by: liberalhawk || 05/16/2007 17:49 Comments || Top||

#3  “Israel is not going to be dragged into the Gaza Strip the way that Hamas wants,” she said. “We will choose the time and place to respond."

Translation - theyre killing each other, it would be stupid to go in and have them stop and fight us instead.
Posted by: liberalhawk || 05/16/2007 17:49 Comments || Top||

#4  too bad they won't learn haow too aim so more of them die
Posted by: sinse || 05/16/2007 18:11 Comments || Top||

#5  What LH Sed. Give Fatah CAS, but stay the hell out of Gaza and try to get Islamic Jihad into the game.
Posted by: Shipman || 05/16/2007 18:16 Comments || Top||

#6  "Previous cease-fires have not lasted, but Hamas appeared to be serious about this one."

Crescent shaped thingey Cross my heart and hope you to die.
Posted by: DepotGuy || 05/16/2007 18:37 Comments || Top||

#7  27 rockets were fired, with 17 landing,

So you mean that ten didn't land? they're just circling and circling?
Posted by: Redneck Jim || 05/16/2007 18:44 Comments || Top||

#8  So overcome with bloodlust they will even kill their own.

I read that as "Dead men tell no tales"
Posted by: Redneck Jim || 05/16/2007 19:03 Comments || Top||

#9  Does this mean the ceasefire is over ? Or is this just the third inning or something ?
Posted by: wxjames || 05/16/2007 19:10 Comments || Top||

#10  If this doesn't stop SOON, and I mean REAL soon, I could run out of popcorn!
Posted by: DMFD || 05/16/2007 21:13 Comments || Top||

#11  JPOST > EGYPTIAN-TRAINED FATAH SOLDIERS CROSS INTO GAZA. Approxi 500 of them to overwatch FATAH interests in Gaza.
Posted by: JosephMendiola || 05/16/2007 22:33 Comments || Top||


Journalists currently under siege in Gaza City
...snicker
Gaza – Ma'an – Journalists, correspondents and other employees at Arab and international news agencies and satellite TV stations are currently under siege in a tower building which hosts the offices of several press agencies. Satellite TV stations are transmitting live images from the spot, and the sounds of gunshots and explosions can be clearly heard inside and outside the besieged building. Fear is apparent on the faces of the journalists at the Shawwa, Husary and Juwhara tower in central Gaza City.

Cross fire continues between rival gunmen who occupied the roof of the building, and others, who are currently shooting at the building where the journalists are besieged.

Wael Dahdouh, a reporter for Qatar-based Al-Jazeera TV, said that more than 30 journalists are besieged in a small room, "where we are seeking refuge from the shelling and shooting inside our offices. Another building with journalists in has been shelled by anti-tank missiles, while gunshots and shrapnel penetrate the walls of the place, every now and then." He added, "We have called all [factional] officials in a bid to avoid us being hit by gunshots."
Do you know who we are!
Journalists in Ramallah city in the central West Bank have announced a sit-in strike in front of the journalists' syndicate office in protest against the situation of the journalists in Gaza.
Posted by: tu3031 || 05/16/2007 15:00 || Comments || Link || [4 views] Top|| File under:

#1  It's Duck Season!
It's Wabbit Season!
It's Duck Season! Shoot!
Posted by: bigjim-ky || 05/16/2007 16:36 Comments || Top||

#2  BUT THERE'S A CEASEFIRE DAMNIT!!!!!!


Oh, they all went wee-wee and reloaded so it's over?? Never mind. Fire when ready Mohamhead.
Posted by: AlanC || 05/16/2007 16:56 Comments || Top||

#3  Stick your cameras out the windows and film the action, why don't ya?...
Posted by: mojo || 05/16/2007 16:58 Comments || Top||

#4  Shit, I'm probably safer then you guys. Ironic, isn't it?
HAW HAW HAW...
Posted by: Alan Johnston || 05/16/2007 17:09 Comments || Top||

#5  Gee, that's sooooo sad.

I'd get out my nano-violin just for them....



But I don't want to get popcorn butter all over it.

Posted by: Barbara Skolaut || 05/16/2007 18:07 Comments || Top||

#6  Fred, while I like the pompom girl, this would have been a GREAT place for the Sympathy Meter.
If all those lying sacks of dog feces journos die bullet-riddled at the feet of the vicious muzzy criminals they've been lionizing for so long, it will only be poetic justice.
Posted by: Mac || 05/16/2007 18:13 Comments || Top||

#7  If all those lying sacks of dog feces journos die bullet-riddled at the feet of the vicious muzzy criminals they've been lionizing for so long, it will only be poetic justice.

In our dreams, Mac, in our dreams. File under: It couldn't happen to a nicer bunch.
Posted by: Zenster || 05/16/2007 18:16 Comments || Top||

#8  Mac, we want to express more than just our sympathy.

We want to encourage them.

Go Team Red! Curse their mustaches! Fight 'em to the Death! We'll sit back and cheer ya on!
Posted by: Steve White || 05/16/2007 19:28 Comments || Top||

#9  I thought it was Elmer Season.
Posted by: Eric Jablow || 05/16/2007 21:39 Comments || Top||


At least four killed as IAF pounds Hamas base in Rafah
At least four people were killed and 30 others were wounded Wednesday when IAF helicopters fired three missiles at a Hamas military installation in the southern Gaza Strip town of Rafah, Palestinian medical officials reported. The IDF said that the attack came in response to some two dozen Kassam rockets fired on southern Israel since Tuesday, adding that it would continue to strike terror targets in Gaza.
UN, EU, USDS screech in 5..4..3
Posted by: gromgoru || 05/16/2007 09:59 || Comments || Link || [3 views] Top|| File under:

#1  CAS for Fatah.
Posted by: Shipman || 05/16/2007 12:53 Comments || Top||

#2  It was about time.

It's impossible to understand why the incompetent Olmert waited so long to give the IDF the order to fight back and kill the palestinut terrorists.

I dont think another democratic country would have waited so long to protect its own citizens.
Posted by: Leroidavid || 05/16/2007 19:57 Comments || Top||

#3  It depends if you consider any of Old Europe "democratic."
Posted by: Jackal || 05/16/2007 22:33 Comments || Top||


Hamas kills five of its own in ambush


Hamas gunmen killed five of their own combatants in an ambush on a Fatah vehicle that had been carrying Hamas detainees, Fatah officials said Wednesday.

Also killed were two members of the Fatah-affiliated Preventive Security force that had been guarding the detained Hamas members, the officials said.

The exact circumstances of the incident were not immediately clear. Hamas radio reported that a Hamas man was killed in another clash.

Four days of intense Palestinian infighting in the Gaza Strip has killed 41 people.

Early Wednesday morning, Hamas gunmen executed six Fatah bodyguards as the Gaza Strip slid further into chaos.

The streets of central Gaza City echoed with the rattle of machine gun fire, and were empty except for gunmen in black ski masks. Terrified residents huddled in dark homes after electricity to some downtown neighborhoods was cut off by a downed power line.

A nurse traveling in an ambulance was shot in the head and killed after being caught in the crossfire, hospital officials said.

Fighting raged close to Palestinian Authority Chairman Mahmoud Abbas's heavily guarded compound, which was also targeted by Hamas mortar fire overnight. Abbas was not present.

Early Wednesday, Hamas gunmen fired mortars and pipe bombs at the home of Fatah security chief Rashid Abu Shbak, before storming inside, lining six Fatah bodyguards up against the wall and shooting them dead, Palestinian security and medical officials said.

Hamas claimed that it men only stormed the home after the bodyguards fired at them.

Abu Shbak and his family were not home at the time of the attack, but the house was guarded by at least a dozen of his guards.

Abdel Hakim Awad, a Fatah spokesman, angrily accused Hamas's leadership of the attack on Abu Shbak's house.

"All (Hamas) are killers from top to bottom, all are implicated," he said, charging that the Islamist group "wanted to turn Gaza into a new Somalia or Darfur."

Late Tuesday night, PA Prime Minister Ismail Haniyeh announced that a new cease-fire deal had been reached between the rival Fatah and Hamas factions.

The truce, which began at 2 a.m., followed yet another day of bloody clashes between Fatah and Hamas militiamen in Gaza, in which least 20 Palestinians were killed and 70 were wounded.

As per the terms of the agreement, all gunmen were ordered to leave the streets in the Gaza Strip, and all Palestinian abductees were to be released.

Shortly after the cease-fire was announced, however, gunmen fired from a passing car at members of an Egyptian delegation who were in Gaza to mediate between the two sides. No one was wounded in the incident.

Meanwhile, Palestinian leaders said Tuesday that Hamas was trying to divert attention from internecine fighting in the Gaza Strip by firing dozens of Kassam rockets at Israel. The group wants to drag Israel into the conflict to embarrass the Palestinian Authority and bring about its collapse, they added.

Earlier, appeals by many Palestinians and Arab governments fell on deaf ears as gunmen continued to fight street battles in different parts of the Gaza Strip.

In addition, most Palestinians ignored appeals from hospitals for blood donations.

"The streets are completely deserted and people are afraid to walk out of their homes," said a local journalist. "This is a real war and people are really afraid."

Hundreds of Fatah and PA policemen surrounded the Islamic University in Gaza City - a stronghold of Hamas - and threatened to storm the premises. Hamas warned that its men would turn the university complex into a "graveyard" for the attackers if they carried out their threat.

Hamas militiamen fired several missiles at the headquarters of the PA General Intelligence Service in the northern Gaza Strip. The movement also threatened to destroy the offices of PA Chairman Mahmoud Abbas in Gaza City.

Tuesday's clashes began when Hamas gunmen killed eight PA security officers near the Karni border crossing. A ninth officer was shot and killed by IDF soldiers as he tried to escape toward the border with Israel.

Fatah and PA officials denounced the attack as a massacre and vowed to avenge the killings.

Fatah legislator Jamal Abu Rub said Hamas and the IDF were responsible.

"The time has come for our people to realize that there is a huge conspiracy by mercenaries to destroy the Palestinian Authority," he said. "The security situation in the Gaza Strip is intolerable. We can't remain idle in the face of the atrocities committed by Hamas and Israel."

Fatah's armed wing, the Aksa Martyrs Brigades, warned Hamas against targeting Abbas and other senior PA figures. Leaflets distributed by the group in Gaza said Hamas would pay a heavy price if it dared to target PA leaders.

In response to the incident near the Karni border crossing, four Fatah legislators announced they were suspending their membership in the Palestinian Legislative Council, demanding an immediate halt to the infighting. They threatened to resign if the fighting continued. They also urged Palestinians to take to the streets to express their outrage at the ongoing violence.
Posted by: PlanetDan || 05/16/2007 09:36 || Comments || Link || [3 views] Top|| File under:

#1  Abdel Hakim Awad, a Fatah spokesman, angrily accused Hamas's leadership of the attack on Abu Shbak's house.

"All (Hamas) are killers from top to bottom, all are implicated," he said,



Who said Pals are incapable of learning?
Posted by: liberalhawk || 05/16/2007 11:36 Comments || Top||

#2  Wait a dad-gum minnit here.

There's a ceasefire, a new and improved one, this COULD NOT happen. Someone's not being 100% truthful.
Posted by: AlanC || 05/16/2007 11:38 Comments || Top||

#3  "Tuesday's clashes began when Hamas gunmen killed eight PA security officers near the Karni border crossing. A ninth officer was shot and killed by IDF soldiers as he tried to escape toward the border with Israel"

Mahmud: Hey, Jews, let me through, the crazed jihadis are gonna KILL me
Avi:Is he on the approved list, Amnon?
Amnon: I dont find his name sir.
Avi: Oh, well, sorry fella.
Mahmud:Rosebud
Posted by: liberalhawk || 05/16/2007 11:38 Comments || Top||

#4  Hope Islamic Jihad can get in on the festivities.
Posted by: Shipman || 05/16/2007 12:58 Comments || Top||

#5  Hope Islamic Jihad can get in on the festivities.

they're havin trouble finding caterers..and the suspense is killing...
Posted by: Clyde Close3559 RD || 05/16/2007 14:13 Comments || Top||

#6  Hamas gunmen killed five of their own combatants in an ambush on a Fatah vehicle that had been carrying Hamas detainees, Fatah officials said Wednesday.

We had to destroy kill our comrades in order to save them.
Posted by: Zenster || 05/16/2007 16:58 Comments || Top||

#7  "D'oh!"
-- Awad Simpson
Posted by: mojo || 05/16/2007 16:59 Comments || Top||

#8  Izdat red-on-red-on-red or what?

"Proceed!"
Posted by: twobyfour || 05/16/2007 18:11 Comments || Top||

#9  Someone get that boy more ammo
Posted by: kelly || 05/16/2007 18:25 Comments || Top||


Hamas and Fatah agree ceasefire
Hamas and Fatah forces have agreed a ceasefire after a day of fighting killed at least 16 people in Gaza, Ismail Haniya, the Palestinian prime minister, has said.
Wadeaminnit! They were in a ceasefire!
More of a cross-ceasefire, actually
Dare we call it a 'trucefire'?
Haniya, also a Hamas leader, said the groups agreed to pull their fighters off the streets at midnight (2100 GMT) on Tuesday. Previous ceasefires have lasted long enough to pee and reload just hours.

At least eight members of Mahmoud Abbas's presidential guard were killed following an attack by Hamas fighters near Gaza's Karni crossing. The fighting, coming on top of the resignation of Hani al-Qawasmi, the interior minister, is the first major crisis facing the unity government set up between Mahmoud Abbas's Fatah movement and Hamas.
Yeah. Everything up to now's been minor, hardly worth mentioning.
One Palestinian man was also killed by Israeli soldiers. Hamas later claimed responsibility for firing five rockets from Gaza into Israel, one of which landed on a house in the town of Sderot. One person was seriously injured in the rocket attack, rescue workers said. It was the first Hamas rocket attack on Israel in three weeks. Hamas members have previously said that they would observe a ceasefire with Israel.
And now they're not.
Colonel Ali Qayssi, of Fatah, said that dozens of members of a Hamas paramilitary force and the faction's military wing, the Izz al-Din al-Qassam Brigades, fired grenades and anti-tank fire on the military base near Karni, where 200 guards are stationed. When other Fatah members arrived to drive off the attacking force, they were ambushed by other Hamas fighters, he said. Fatah men who survived the ambush said that the Hamas men had killed any Fatah men who they had captured. An unidentified Fatah security man who said he had been wounded in the incident told Palestinian television: "They came and shot the wounded. They left me, believing I was dead."

A spokesman for the Hamas paramilitary, the Executive Force, which is controlled by the interior ministry, denied its members were involved and blamed Israel.
"Yeah. It wudn't us. It wuz them Zionists."
Earlier on Tuesday, a fighter from the Izz al-Din al-Qassam Brigades was shot dead and another Hamas supporter wounded in Gaza City, medics and witnesses said. Ibrahim Mounia was killed in eastern Gaza City overnight when unknown armed men ambushed a minibus carrying men from the brigade, sources said.
Betcha that wuz Zionists, too.
Another Hamas loyalist was wounded when fighters opened fire near a checkpoint controlled by national security, a service dominated by Fatah loyalists.

At least 23 Palestinians have been killed in factional fighting since Sunday and more than 60 wounded, dealing a major blow to the unity government just two months after it was formed. Another blow to the administration was al-Qawasmi's resignation which has left Ismail Haniya, the prime minister, assuming responsibility for the interior ministry until a replacement is found. In a bid to clamp down on the street fighting, Haniya is expected to convene a meeting of commanders on Tuesday to discuss a prospective security deployment.
Posted by: Fred || 05/16/2007 00:00 || Comments || Link || [3 views] Top|| File under:

#1  DEBKA > Over 20 rockets fired at SDEROT and nearby areas; + ABBAS's FATAH has allegedly agreed to join HAMAS in NEW ROCKET OFFENSIVE AGZ ISRAEL???
Posted by: JosephMendiola || 05/16/2007 2:01 Comments || Top||

#2  Yeah, Joe, maybe if they can focus their aggeressive tendencies on the Jooos, they wouldn't be killing each other.

Everybody's gotta have an outlet, a hobby as it were.
Posted by: Bobby || 05/16/2007 5:47 Comments || Top||

#3  They came and shot the wounded

Yeah. Put 'em out of their misery. The barbaric joooos would've simply captured them and treated their wounds, in violation of human rights.
Posted by: PlanetDan || 05/16/2007 6:17 Comments || Top||

#4  Peace in our lunchtime. Check back in a few hours...
Posted by: tu3031 || 05/16/2007 8:57 Comments || Top||

#5  one of the wire services says Hamas fired on their own troops, killing 5. (damn, I love it when that happens)

Also IDF helis hit a Hamas command post. 4 gunnies, killed, NO reports of civilians killed. Nice shooting, bachurim.
Posted by: liberalhawk || 05/16/2007 9:41 Comments || Top||

#6  I like their medic uniforms, white pants.
Posted by: wxjames || 05/16/2007 10:18 Comments || Top||

#7  Hamas and Fatah killing each other seemed like a workable arrangement. Please reconsider the truce. Surely, you both can find something to be 'pissed off with' with each other. Rantburgers would be willing to help you find 'shooting' differences over which to disagree.
Posted by: JohnQC || 05/16/2007 10:42 Comments || Top||

#8  for the strike at Hamas HQ, I'll be the IDF had Fatah spotters doing the counting of the deceased.
Posted by: mhw || 05/16/2007 10:43 Comments || Top||

#9  Peace in our lunchtime.

I nominate tu3031 for the best snark of the day!
Posted by: DarthVader || 05/16/2007 13:00 Comments || Top||

#10  Dozens of Gaza residents turned out for a rally on Wednesday to demand an end to factional fighting, only to be caught in crossfire that left eight wounded.

"Just as we used to protect you from the occupation by acting as human shields, we have come to protect you from yourselves," one protester shouted at gunmen, referring to instances when Palestinian civilians positioned themselves between militants and Israeli forces. Placing themselves between warring factions deployed on opposite ends of a Gaza City street, the protesters were forced to run for their lives when a gun battle erupted, witnesses said.

A local hospital said eight people were wounded in the crossfire, one critically.


Well...so much for that idea.
Posted by: tu3031 || 05/16/2007 13:11 Comments || Top||

#11  Lunchtime must be over.
Posted by: wxjames || 05/16/2007 15:14 Comments || Top||

#12  This must be the truce to stop the fighting that stopped the truce to stop the fighting over who is the mas macho muslim organization.
Posted by: Hank || 05/16/2007 17:24 Comments || Top||

#13  Hamas and Fatah agree ceasefire

Boy howdy, I'd hate to see what happens when they really disagree.

I nominate tu3031 for the best snark of the day!

Cheerfully seconded. Great wisecrack, tu3031. Now, if only it were true.
Posted by: Zenster || 05/16/2007 18:07 Comments || Top||

#14  Ceasefires within Trucefires within Armistices, it's like a damn big ass Orange Love Onion, we can peel away layers and layers of the orb until we find the crux of the shell. And it could be that it's the fiver note that abu Malu (the incontinent) lost last weekend.

/You wanted sense?
Posted by: Shipman || 05/16/2007 18:24 Comments || Top||


Southeast Asia
Bali mastermind escapes Philippines blockade
The suspected mastermind of the deadly 2002 Bali bombings appears to have given thousands of Philippine troops the slip, forcing them to shift their hunt to another island in the remote south of the country.

Lieutenant-Colonel Bartolome Bacarro says there were strong indications Dulmatin, a leader of regional Islamic militant group Jemaah Islamiah (JI), had escaped Jolo island and moved to a smaller nearby island despite a naval blockade. "I cannot disclose his exact location ...
"... damned if I know, really ..."
... but there had been sightings of Dulmatin somewhere in the western Mindanao area," Lt Col Bacarro told reporters, four days after the militant's four children were found on an island in the southernmost tip of the archipelago. "Our troops are confident they are on the right track."

Dulmatin's children, aged from two to nine years, were discovered on Simunul island when soldiers raided a suspected rebel hideout after a tip from local residents. Dulmatin was not at the camp but army officials have said privately he was likely to have been nearby.
Heroic Lion of Islam™ defending his kiddies ...
The militant, who has a $US10 million bounty on his head from the US State Department, is a senior member of JI, a militant network that seeks an Islamic superstate in parts of south-east Asia.

Philippine security officials have said Dulmatin and another suspect in the Bali bombing, Umar Patek, were part of a group of up to 10 JI members hiding on Jolo and training local Muslim militant group Abu Sayyaf in bomb-making. Since August, about 8,000 soldiers, backed by US advisers and equipment, have been deployed on Jolo to flush out about 400 Abu Sayyaf rebels and their JI allies.
This article starring:
Dulmatin
Abu Sayyaf
Posted by: Delphi2005 || 05/16/2007 00:00 || Comments || Link || [3 views] Top|| File under:


Syria-Lebanon-Iran
North Korea tests long-range missile in Iran
North Korea has used a launch-pad in Iran to test-fire a new long-range missile capable of hitting American bases in the Pacific, according to reports from Japan and South Korea. The missile, known as a Musudan-type, was shown to the public at a vast military parade in the North Korean capital Pyongyang, according to the reports.

South Korean and American intelligence reports suggest it was then tested not from North Korean soil but from Iran, with which North Korea is known to have close military co-operation. The missile, which could target the US military on the Pacific island of Guam, was previously unrecorded.

North Korea has a known capacity in short and medium-range missiles, including the Taeopodong-1 which it fired over Japan in 1998 to the alarm of Tokyo and its allies in Washington. However, it has had less success developing long-range missiles. It has been working for several years on a Taepodong-2, which would be targeted at the western seaboard of the United States. But a test last July failed, landing in the sea not far from the North Korean and Russian border.

The new missile is said have been identified by American military satellite pictures of the April rally to commemorate the 75th anniversary of the founding of the North Korean army, and to be based on Soviet technology. The Japanese defence ministry said that the new missile might be able to travel 3,000 miles at middle altitude.
Strange reporting. The missile was shipped to Iran, and yet the entire article is devoted to the threat the Musudan poses to Guam. FYI, the distance between Berlin and Tehran is 1899 nautical miles. The distance between Tehran and the offices of the Telegraph is 2380 nautical miles
Posted by: mrp || 05/16/2007 18:00 || Comments || Link || [4 views] Top|| File under:

#1  Covers Oslo and St. Petersburg and points south quite nicely. The 1300 centrifuges already operating will produce enough HEU for a bomb in 18 months. The 50,000 planned centrifuges a bomb every two weeks. The Iranians should have learned much from Pakistan's and NKor's nuclear fizzles since they all three use the same Chinese design.

Expect the US to be chased out of the ME, the jizya to freely flow from the Sauds, Iraqi vassals and Euro dhimmis and the Novo Soviet borders to heat up quite nicely. Gonna be Bush's legacy and a fun time had by all.
Posted by: ed || 05/16/2007 19:15 Comments || Top||

#2  One teensy nagging question: How did these big ole' missile components get all the way from far off North Korea to Iran. Wasn't there a plane we could have shot down or a boat to be sunk? This shit's gotta end. Each North Korean or Iranian missile test needs to be treated like a live fire exercise for our airborne laser platform.

The only upside is that Europe's pucker factor should have increased by an order of magnitude. Sadly, the EU has such a case of numbnuts that it's going to take threat levels at or near "Incoming!" to make them pull their sox up.

Meanwhile, Iran gains even more prestige. It is disgusting that our strategic planners simply do not comprehend how persuasive this sort of sabre rattling is among high context cultures. We may as well be allowing Iran to spray paint anti-American graffiti on the prows of our carrier groups. As previously mentioned, imagine the loss of face if Iran's missile tests consistently exploded a few kilometers about the launch pad. Their military credibility would be zilch and we'd have an impressive set of test data besides. Talk about a win-win.
Posted by: Zenster || 05/16/2007 19:49 Comments || Top||

#3  Iff true, this new missle's PACOA arc covers all of JAPAN + PARTS OF ALASKA [ read, GMD Bases] + VIETNAM + NORTHERN PHILIPPINES [read, Subic-Manila Bay-Aerodome-Clark AFB], i.e. the Motherly Commie Airborne = PLA's strategic direction of offense/attack into WESTPAC + NORPAC. SCARE THE OWG-HAPPY, SURRENDER/ISOLATIONISM-HAPPY USG-NPE INTO PULLING OUT FROM WESTPAC IN FAVOR OF PROTECTING HAWAII-US WEST COAST , THEN LATER DO THE SAME AGZ EASTPAC I.E. HAWAIIIAN ISLANDS, US WEST COAST, NORAMO [North American Operating areas], .........etal. Meanwhile, anti-Amer American Politicos will demand that the future NORTH AMER GOVT + OWG [read, Russia-China dominated] MilPol protect the USA from international belligerence.
Posted by: JosephMendiola || 05/16/2007 20:07 Comments || Top||

#4  RUSSIA > this alleged new missle also SSSSSSSSHHHHHHHHHH covers the areas of heavy = pervasive Chinese-NK emigration into the Russian Far East.
Posted by: JosephMendiola || 05/16/2007 20:10 Comments || Top||

#5  On this, as with so many other issues, there is no final word until the ALL CAPS come out.

A consoling factor for me in the midst of all this geo-political turmoil is that Iran has yet to deal with an all caps UNITED STATES OF AMERICA. Joseph isn't heavy, he's my my ALL CAPS brother. I don't pretend to understand what he says. But I know the meaning. The Mad Mullah mother f*ckers should live in mortal fear that the ALL CAPS US of A has had enough of their bullsh*t and had decided to do something about it.
Posted by: Classical_Liberal || 05/16/2007 23:58 Comments || Top||


Good morning.
Gaddafi To Sue Palestinian News Agency Over Health ClaimsAt Least 25 Killed In Suicide Boom In PeshawarHamas and Fatah agree ceasefire'Paramilitary man shot at ISAF delegates'Yemen Deports Jihad Leader's Daughter to EgyptUN to probe Somalia rights abusesSupreme Court Official Killed in IslamabadRab officer bullet-hit in fight with robbers
Posted by: Fred || 05/16/2007 00:00 || Comments || Link || [3 views] Top|| File under:

#1  Class.
Posted by: Sonar || 05/16/2007 6:33 Comments || Top||

#2  Had I been here during Louise Brook's prime I would have glady measured her for drapes.
Posted by: JohnQC || 05/16/2007 10:34 Comments || Top||

#3  measured her for drapes

"This ol' thang? Jes' sumpin' I saw hangin' in the winder!"
Posted by: AlmostAnonymous5839 || 05/16/2007 10:47 Comments || Top||

#4  in reality it is Rosie's thong.....
(y'all can thank me later)
Posted by: USN. Ret. || 05/16/2007 17:40 Comments || Top||

#5  JQc: Or to see if the carpet matched the drapes?
Posted by: Tibor || 05/16/2007 17:42 Comments || Top||

#6  Made Fan-Dancing passHey. Drape dancing, followed my the Venetian Blind tease became all the rage.
Posted by: Shipman || 05/16/2007 17:49 Comments || Top||

#7  Navy, Tibor and Me all home from woik.
Posted by: Shipman || 05/16/2007 17:50 Comments || Top||



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Two weeks of WOT
Wed 2007-05-16
  Chlorine boom kills 20 in Diyala
Tue 2007-05-15
  Paleo interior minister quits
Mon 2007-05-14
  Extra troops as Karachi death toll mounts
Sun 2007-05-13
  Mullah Dadullah reported deadullah
Sat 2007-05-12
  Poirot concludes his UN report about Hariri's murder
Fri 2007-05-11
  Madrid Bombing Defendants Start Hunger Strike
Thu 2007-05-10
  7/7 Bomber's Widow Among Four Arrested
Wed 2007-05-09
  Iran: Moussavian 'Spied For Europe'
Tue 2007-05-08
  Extra 8,000 AU troops to be sent to Somalia
Mon 2007-05-07
  Morocco breaks up Qaeda recruiting gang
Sun 2007-05-06
  Meshaal rejects U.S. timeline, threatens terrible things
Sat 2007-05-05
  Tater Tots, Badr Brigades clash in Sadr City
Fri 2007-05-04
  Thousands Rally Against Olmert
Thu 2007-05-03
  Muharib Abdul Latif banged; Abu Omar al-Baghdadi said titzup
Wed 2007-05-02
  75 'rebels' killed in southern Afghan offensive: UK officer

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