Sorry for the personal message,but I tried e-mailing OP through his blog and family website(get pop-up that says...can not e-mail through internet shortcut).OP not sure what you need for a reader but I would be glad to try and help.Just e-mail me or give me a call.
w_r_manues@yahoo.com
(928)467-2534
Posted by: raptor ||
11/13/2004 11:34:41 AM ||
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Raptor - just click on my name, and Fred will help you send me an email. 8^)
I don't have problems with any of the following: Opera 7.0, Mozilla Firefox 1.0, Netscape 7.0. I don't use Internet Exploder, even though a friend of mine worked on developing it. HE sent me to Netscape...
Posted by: Old Patriot ||
11/13/2004 14:49 Comments ||
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PS: Than you for reading! 8^)
Posted by: Old Patriot ||
11/13/2004 14:50 Comments ||
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Security forces yesterday arrested five suspected terrorists in two operations in Riyadh and Zulfi and seized weapons including machine guns and live ammunition.
Brig. Mansour Al-Turki, spokesman of the Interior Ministry, said the suspects belonged to the Al-Qaeda group that carried out a spate of terrorist attacks in the Kingdom. "They opened fire at security officers haphazardly but nobody was hurt," the spokesman said. Three of the suspects were held in Zulfi while the others were detained in Riyadh.
Posted by: Dan Darling ||
11/13/2004 12:09:23 AM ||
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That's the bad part about being a Hero of the Islamic Resistance: your victims tend to have long memories.
A suspect in a 1999 apartment-building bombing that killed 64 people and helped trigger Moscow's renewed military campaign in Chechnya was brought to Russia on Saturday after being arrested in the former Soviet republic of Azerbaijan, authorities said. Magomed Salikhov is suspected of helping organize the attack in the Dagestani city of Buinaksk one of four apartment-house blasts that Russian authorities cited as a reason to renew their military campaign in Chechnya. Salikhov was detained in Azerbaijan's capital, Baku, on Friday, Dagestani police spokeswoman Anzhela Martirosova said. NTV television showed Salikhov being led through a building in handcuffs. A date for his trial had not been set.
Two men Alisultan Salikhov, who state-run Rossiya television said was Magomed Salikhov's brother, and Isa Zainutdinov were sentenced to life imprisonment in 2001 after being convicted of organizing the attack. Prosecutors said they were promised 30 pieces of silver $30,000 for the job from Omar Ibn al-Khattab, a Saudi-born militant who led rebel fighters in Chechnya, which neighbors Dagestan. Al-Khattab died in 2002.
Hope they got drunk and laid with the money. That's all over now...
The Sept. 4, 1999, bombing, which destroyed a building housing Russian military officers and their families, was the first of four apartment-building blasts that month. The Kremlin blamed Chechnya-based militants for the attacks, which killed about 300 people, and sent troops back into Chechnya later that month, starting the second of two wars there in a decade. Salikhov, a native of Dagestan, is suspected of other serious crimes besides the Buinaksk bombing, Martirosova said.
Posted by: Fred ||
11/13/2004 10:40:22 AM ||
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Those guys will wish theat they were never born after the Russians get through with them. Those tools that Fred has on display above are just the free introductory offer. The Russians will find every nerve worth finding. Rat bastard terrorists.
Posted by: Alaska Paul ||
11/13/2004 21:44 Comments ||
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#2
"Is it safe?"
Posted by: Frank G ||
11/13/2004 22:00 Comments ||
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(CNN) -- Dutch police say they have raided a suspected paramilitary training ground for Kurdish militants in the southern Netherlands, arresting 29 people. Police said Friday's operation was unconnected the the November 2 killing of Dutch filmmaker Theo van Gogh by a suspected Islamic radical. But they said it may have some links to recent arson attacks on churches and mosques. The raid took place at a campground believed to be used by the Kurdish Workers Party (PKK). The campground's manager was among those arrested.
The Dutch Justice Department's international crime team, which carried out the raid, said it had reason to believe those arrested would be sent to Armenia to fight for the PKK following their training session. Of those arrested, 23 were taking part in the PKK training session, including five women, according to a statement from the Justice Department. The suspects varied in age between 15 and 33.
Earlier this week, Dutch authorities launched an anti-terror raid in The Hague, resulting in a 15-hour stand-off and a grenade attack that wounded three police officers. Three suspects were arrested. At least six suspects are in custody in connection with van Gogh's killing. An Amsterdam court extended the mens' detention, prosecutors said Friday. Thursday's decision means the men, including chief suspect Mohammed Bouyeri, will remain in custody for 30 days while the investigation continues, prosecution spokesman Robert Meulenbroek told The Associated Press.
Van Gogh had been threatened after the August airing of the movie "Submission," which he made with a right-wing Dutch politician who had renounced the Islamic faith of her birth. Van Gogh, 47 -- who said he was the great grandson of the brother of famous Dutch painter Vincent van Gogh, who was also named Theo -- had received police protection after the film's release. His killer left a note threatening more attacks on Dutch politicians in the name of radical Islam, sparking a wave of retaliatory vandalism of mosques. The killing immediately rekindled memories of the 2002 assassination of Dutch anti-immigration politician Pim Fortuyn who was shot dead days before national elections. I'll take "Holland Gets a Clue" for $1,000, Alex.
A Jordanian who was sentenced to four years in prison for helping plan terror attacks in Germany has been granted early release, a German court said Friday. Shadi Abdellah, 28, was sentenced a year ago for assisting a terrorist network headed by Islamic militant Abu Musab al-Zarqawi. He has now served more than half of that time, including the time he spent in custody awaiting trial. While in prison, he served as a government witness in several German terror trials, including that of his alleged co-plotters in the German cell of the Al Tawhid group. In exchange for his testimony, Abdellah entered Germany's witness protection program.
They've dyed his hair blond, and he now answers to "Fritz." He's married a nice lady named Helga, and he's bought a house and a BMW. He's still working on developing a taste for Schweinehachse and Berliner Kindl beer...
While the Duesseldorf court said Friday it had commuted the remainder of the sentence to probation and released him, it would not say where he was. Abdellah, who says he once briefly served as Osama bin Laden's bodyguard in Afghanistan, was arrested along with other alleged members of the Al Tawhid group in Germany in April 2002 on suspicion of plotting imminent terror attacks in the country. During his five-month trial he spoke openly of Al Tawhid's possible targets. Abdellah "has turned away from Al Tawhid and has served the German state as a witness in cases against other suspected members and supporters of the Islamic terrorist scene," the court said in a statement.
Good luck to him. And good luck to the Germans, assuming he's still living there.
Posted by: Fred ||
11/13/2004 11:54:53 AM ||
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Must be that dread "European Street" we've been hearing so much about. Not to worry, though, Al Reuters knows who to blame:
Police said on Thursday they have already arrested "several dozen" people in connection with a wave of arson attacks, bomb threats, letters containing suspicious powder and far-right vandalism since the murder.
.
Must have been those far-right vandals who torched the churches, too.
#3
"Must have been those far-right vandals who torched the churches, too."
Would you have preferred the police to have blamed all Christians instead, rather than just the far right? Would that have been sweeter to your ears?
Or are you arguing that it wasn't the far-right, this was a centrist organization that did it, or perhaps a leftist one? What *exactly* are you arguing?
#4
Chill out, Aris! Are you majoring in English? You seem to have that penchant for "finding" deeper meanings that authors never really intended.
Posted by: Tom ||
11/13/2004 15:26 Comments ||
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#5
dumbass - it's sarcasm. In Amerikkka we have that, and irony too, both or which are in short supply in Arisland
Posted by: Frank G ||
11/13/2004 15:27 Comments ||
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Aris, no one is arguing anything. It's a sarcasm, but you, as a being of density 5 (very, very dense, top of the scale), would not recognize it if it did bit you into your butt.
Posted by: Frank G ||
11/13/2004 15:31 Comments ||
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Tom and Frank> I understand sarcasm and irony too, and am wondering what exactly Atomic Conspiracy's problem is, with the identification of the far-right as likely suspects.
Other than seeming hypocrisy, ofcourse: As I said, perhaps he hates the fact that Reuters didn't blame the whole of Christianity for the torchings.
It's cute, Frank, when you attempt to "teach" me what you've never learned to get.
#15
I note that all of you *yet again* turned the conversation on me, and nobody has yet found a reason why there's a problem with blaming the Far Right, or blaming Reuters for blaming them.
Is this a solidarity thing? Given how they incribed "White Power" and the like, you feel they should be immune from persecution, unlike when it's Koranic verses that are used?
And don't view that as an accusation of racism -- view it as accusation of indifference about racism.
#16
Atleast nine posts by other posters that revolve around my person, none of you caring to actually make a meaningful contribution. Good going, you wanking-each-other circle of idiots.
I'm sure before long it will be me again that will be blamed for increasing the length of this thread.
Posted by: Mrs. Davis ||
11/13/2004 15:50 Comments ||
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Hey, go easy on Aris -- he's a little sensitive right now because he's facing a year of military service at a pay rate of about 9 Euros per month. This is going to put a big dent in his lifestyle, especially the masochist liberal intellectual part.
Posted by: Tom ||
11/13/2004 15:52 Comments ||
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#23
You call an appearance of Saint Sebastian to protect you "predictable"?!
Posted by: Tom ||
11/13/2004 16:07 Comments ||
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#24
My work here is done...
Posted by: Frank G ||
11/13/2004 16:07 Comments ||
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#25
Idiots are getting predictable.
That's the problem I've had with you for months. You're so damned predictable.
Posted by: Robert Crawford ||
11/13/2004 16:12 Comments ||
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#26
AC's comment was the totally gratuitious identification of clearly racist motivations with "far right" politics. I've noticed how those of the left, in order to defame their opponents, make gratuitous connections between the two, when by any objective measure, a fraction of both sides of the political spectrum can be identified as racists: David Duke was a KKK who ran as Republican in Louisiana, and the highest ranking KKK member in politics is Democratic senator Robert C Byrd. It behooves the moderates of both ends of the spectrum to properly denounce the racists in their respective ends of the political specturm and act to neutralize them.
And as best as I can tell, Aris was pointing out that, at least, Reuters wasn't blindly blaming Christians for torching mosques (totally unacceptable), when it's obvious that there are enough secular racists running around in europe to commit crimes like this. You've gotta read him two or three times and be very precise as to what he's saying, because in his mind, he's only responsible for what he says, not what someone else implies he's saying by what he's not saying.
*blinks* ooookay. maybe that didn't make sense...
This is one of those REAL cycles of violence happening, and one can argue when it started and who started it: Did it start with Theo Van Gogh's murder? The Mosque whose door was attacked first after the murder? The making and showing of Van Gogh's "Submission"?
If I recall correctly, The netherlands have a big problem with soccer hooligans, the majority of whom, I daresay, probably haven't ever set foot in a church outside of attending the odd wedding, baptism, or funeral. Makes sense that THEY would attack a mosque, since Christians are SUPPOSED to know that murder is one of those things the State handles, and wouldn't torch a mosque themselves. The muslims, being given permission by their religion to hit back when hit (and I invite Aris or Murat to cite the Koranic equivalent of "turn the other cheek", sura and verse), probably decided that it was safe to hit a church. The hooligans, not exactly caring what the hell happens to ANY place of worship, whether it be mosque, church, or synagogue, must think that their situation is ideal, and continue their evil ways and burn down a school. Muslims hit back at what they THINK is an appropriate symbol of who their attackers are. Voila, Cycle of violence.
#27
Quick disclaimer: I'm with the official at the end who's saying this entire cycle of violence is unacceptable. It goes without saying that torching a building or murdering a man for telling the truth, not what he did, is unacceptable in all circumstances.
#28
You've gotta read him two or three times and be very precise as to what he's saying, because in his mind, he's only responsible for what he says, not what someone else implies he's saying by what he's not saying.
What a pity he never bothers to do this with others.
Posted by: Robert Crawford ||
11/13/2004 16:50 Comments ||
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#29
I'm with the official at the end who's saying this entire cycle of violence is unacceptable
Unacceptable, and entirely predictable. The Europeans still do not grasp the basic principle that underlies successful pluralism: respect religious minorities; provide real economic opportunities so you attract the strivers instead of the resenters among those minority groups; and then leave them alone.
Violence in the Netherlands (and, next, probably Jean Marie Le Pen's stomping grounds) will spure thousands of normal, hardworking, tolerant European muslims and Christians (and jews) to do as so many Europeans have done before them and emigrate to a truly tolerant, pluralist society that will leave them in peace: the USA.
#30
This is becoming a meme in the blogosphere. I can't think where I read it before.
Posted by: Mrs. Davis ||
11/13/2004 17:12 Comments ||
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#31
Lex - you keep assuming the Euro-muslim population is skilled, educated, and willing to work - that doesn't appear to be the case for the majority. We don't want them if they aren't
Posted by: Frank G ||
11/13/2004 17:13 Comments ||
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I'm speaking of the cream, Frank. America tends to attract the smartest and hardworking strivers from any group.
#33
Not fair, I know, and potentially disastrous for the Euros. But we've seen this so many times before. Can't say they haven't had ample warning.
I for one would be delighted if we could attract thousands of tolerant and hardworking scientists, technologists and entrepreneurs, no matter what their faith.
#34
You've gotta read [Aris] two or three times and be very precise as to what he's saying, because in his mind, he's only responsible for what he says, not what someone else implies he's saying by what he's not saying.
That's not true at all. A couple of days back you'll find Aris arguing vehemently that I needed to infer some unstated meaning from his comments rather than merely taking them at face value. Apparently he sees the need for us to find inferential meaning in his statements since he's not particularly good at expressing himself clearly.
Posted by: Tom ||
11/13/2004 17:35 Comments ||
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#37
Or, maybe Aris is just an asshat who's more interested in picking fights than anything else.
Posted by: Robert Crawford ||
11/13/2004 17:35 Comments ||
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#38
RC, You've stumbled on the truth! And he has honed his English also, if he is a Greek.
Posted by: Mrs. Davis ||
11/13/2004 17:37 Comments ||
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#39
Tom> Are you offended or confused that I don't only write about politics, I also have a fannish side and a fandom-related site that I don't even update anymore? (no time)
I'm also a heavy Wikipedia editor, if you want to know even more sides of me. That one I still have *some* time for.
AzCat> No, AzCat -- if you'll see that thread you are referring to ( http://www.rantburg.com/poparticle.asp?HC=Main&D=2004-11-11&ID=48474 ), you'll see it's again about you drawing false implication from what I wrote -- for example when I wrote that pharmacists that don't fulfill prescriptions are unfit for their jobs, you somehow assumed that I was not stating my opinion but rather claiming an undisputable fact -- even though from my second or third post I clearly clarified it to be a difference of opinion.
#40
I'm also a heavy Wikipedia editor, if you want to know even more sides of me. That one I still have *some* time for.
Why don't you spend more time there? I understand they have some goofy shits posting election conspiracy theories and refusing to let anyone post the facts.
Posted by: Robert Crawford ||
11/13/2004 17:46 Comments ||
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#41
Just remember that these are the actions of a few misguided individuals. There is no reason whatsoever to draw the conclusion that Muslims are in any danger. Europe is the Continent of Peace.
#42
BH -- you forgot the bit about "these are not the droids you're looking for".
Posted by: Robert Crawford ||
11/13/2004 17:55 Comments ||
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#43
Just remember that these are the actions of a few misguided individuals.
Before anyone says that I don't understand sarcam, I know that's again sarcastic. Does anybody object if I respond to it normally?
"Few misguided individuals" rarely exist in an ideological vacuum. Whether Islamofascism or Dutch nationalism or racism or whatever, the ones who actually do the violence ride on the forefront of an ideology that provides them with the justification for it.
#47
"Yes, because that's something that asshats do..."
Robert, why are you participating in this thread? Or to put it in another way, why do you still pretend you need to have excuses (based on what I do or don't do) for your attacks on me?
We both know that when you didn't have excuses you still stalked me across threads, either to call me a "cunt" and go away again or to say "I thought you promised to leave".
And you attack *me* for picking fights? Atleast I pick fights for what people actually do or say in the thread in question. The battlefield is that of statements and ideologies, and if Atomic Conspiracy or anyone else wanted to respond to me, that was where they could have fought.
What we get instead is random kindergarten insults, no ideology behind them other than a "we don't like you". I know that *already* and it hardly concerns me because, uh, none of you is a friend -- you are simply fellow participants in a political forum. So repeating it is *wanking*, as I've explained to you already. Liking me, not liking me, if I wanted to date any of you *then* I'd be concerned about it.
You also accuse me of attacking others for what I *infer* they say rather than what they actually say? If that accusation is correct, then the answer is simple: when I question someone about the meaning of their words and accuse them of meaning such-and-such then explain what you *actually* mean. I will accept it. Unlike what AzCat did in the earlier thread in question when he claimed that I didn't actually mean what I said I meant, I must have meant something different instead.
But nobody has explained to me what Atomic Conspiracy meant in this thread, if his implication was different than what I perceived from it. Even though I explicitely asked "What exactly are you arguing?"
#51
Oy vey. I am still making the mistake of treating you people as sentient.
Ptah, thanks for the support, but you are making the mistake of thinking that most of the other people here care about facts -- like what I said or didn't say, what I meant or didn't mean. That'd be what sentient debaters do.
But I wasn't attacked for anything I stated or didn't state, so that's all irrelevant. It's the issue of entering into another pack's territory. See this was urine-marked by the first post of AC as "sarcastic jeering territory", and I entered giving off a "sarcastic defending" scent. My bad.
Posted by: Frank G ||
11/13/2004 19:10 Comments ||
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#53
Yes, Aris, that EU/liberal/Kerry-loving scent of yours is inviting attack even before you rip anyone's words apart and over-analyze them. I Google-searched for you the other night just to confirm my suspicion that that you're a university student, totally cocky and sheltered from the real world. Well, I was right.
Posted by: Tom ||
11/13/2004 19:23 Comments ||
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#54
Once again, Tommie -- the answer to *over*analysis is the simple statement of the plain correct meaning, if one exists. If you want to claim false "over"-interpretation of words on my behalf, then better be willing to tell what the correct interpretation is.
If you are not prepared to do that, then your problem is not any misinterpretation or overanalysis -- it's the fact I *do* understand the words spoken as they are meant.
#57
No Aris, the problem is that you are saying you understand the words as they are spoken and meant to mean, which is bullshit because if it were true, we wouldn't be up to 56 posts where you tell people what they really meant with their words.
F*ck. I can't believe I just wrote that. Poor little Aris.
#58
It's absolutely wrong to fire up a mosque because all that stored gunpowder can explode and put people at risk.
/sarcasm off for Aris who might misunderstand
Yes, Aris, it's all about you:
#5 dumbass
#6 very, very dense
#12 Damn BroadBand comes to the Acropolis!
#14 dense and transparent at the same time
#25 You're so damned predictable.
#34 not particularly good at expressing himself clearly
#37, #44 asshat
#49 a dick
#50 asshat
#57 bullshit
Doesn't that make you proud, Aris? You've presented yourself so, so superbly!
Posted by: Tom ||
11/13/2004 20:24 Comments ||
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#60
And yet Asedwich, nobody can still actually state a *different* meaning for AC's words than what I perceived -- namely an attack on Reuters (or the Dutch, or both) for blaming the far right.
You keep on saying that he didn't mean what I understood -- WHAT THE HELL did he mean then? If you can't answer that, then just shut up.
If any of you could actually state a single different meaning for AC's words, then we would be up to 58 posts, all of you badgering me for supposedly having him all misinterpreted and overanalyzed.
#62
Aris, your outstanding performance on this thread deserves to be acknowledged and you are a recipient of the prestigeous Rantburg award. Well done and congrats!
It lasts for 24 hours. I hope that you can continue in the same track and break the record in consecutive award acquisitions.
#63
Aris worry about issues in your head , then worry about issues in your country , and finally , when both those are done and cured , come back here and post again . In maybe 5 or 6 years ... If you weren't such a warped fuckhead , I would quite like you :P
Posted by: Tom ||
11/13/2004 21:17 Comments ||
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#65
MacNails> I try to worry about the world first, about my country second. Mainly because if my country went to hell (and it's nearly there) the world would still survive, but if the world went to hell then we are all screwed.
Granted, my innate argumentativeness and inherent optimism brings me back to try and debate with non-sentients, but I assure you I do my fair share of worrying about my own country also. I simply don't tend to post it *here*.
Tom> Tom, don't you have any better things to do than googling up information for me? I'm one of the few people who don't like to use pseudonyms and hold a consistent identity across the net, so the work you are doing is hardly a difficult one. With a little more search you could have found this one as well:
#68
'my innate argumentativeness' - isnt this the problem with the world anyway ?
'inherent optimism' - point me to a thread or two where you have shown this please . All i have ever seen you post is bitter anti american rhetoric
'country went to hell (and it's nearly there)' . Well .. there you go , some 'inherent optimism' although I tend to agree with you , but its always been a shithole *shrug*
'try and debate with non-sentients' hehe very amusing , and keep trying
Posted by: Frank G ||
11/13/2004 22:01 Comments ||
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#71
But nobody has explained to me what Atomic Conspiracy meant in this thread, if his implication was different than what I perceived from it. Even though I explicitely asked "What exactly are you arguing?"
That's because no one thinks you deserve an answer when the answer is so goddamned fucking obvious a two-year-old could see it without needing to ask the goddamned question in the first place.
Not every goddamned thing in the world needs the special Aris touch of arrogance and obliviousness. AC's comment that set you off certainly didn't.
Aris, I called you a "cunt" because you start fights over things no one else would ever be bothered with. Because you're an annoying twit with an overinflated sense of self-worth, who inexplicably thinks the flatulence you call "arguing" is worth our wasting time on.
But baiting you and watching you go off on a froth over utterly NOTHING, that's worth our time, because it's so amusing. It's like putting a mirror next to a betta and watching it go into its threat display -- amusing, pathetic, and as predictable as the sunrise.
Posted by: Robert Crawford ||
11/13/2004 22:01 Comments ||
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#72
I smell smoke
Posted by: Frank G ||
11/13/2004 22:13 Comments ||
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#73
That may be the smokescreen we threw up so that we can sneak off to bed before midnight, leaving Aris still awake at 8 a.m.
Posted by: Tom ||
11/13/2004 22:21 Comments ||
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#74
Robert, you called me a cunt because you are a troll who kept on trying to troll me into fighting with you even when I had no interest in doing so. There's a list of posters I've completely written off, and this included you and you couldn't stand it. So then you called me "cunt" once (Frank G. laughing ), and when I refused to take the bait and start a fight again, you (and Frank G) followed me to another new thread and called me that again. And since then you've been following me in several threads, alongside Frank G., for no better reason than to amuse yourselves. You've made Rantburg your troll's playground.
And ooh, that *so* very obvious answer nobody could deign to give because I don't "deserve" it. Yeah, that's the exact wimp-out "argument" I'd expect from you. But the story of the Emperor's new clothes that nobody deserved to see is a very old one, Robbie.
You could have been a bit more imaginative than that though -- perhaps God is testing my faith by providing no alternate explanation than the one my understanding provides. When initially you people began by ridiculously arguing that I didn't understand AC had used sarcasm, there went your credibility.
Nov. 13 (Bloomberg) -- A bomb went off in front of a busy market in Poso in central Indonesia's Sulawesi province on Saturday morning, killing three people and injuring at least seven, local police said.
The bomb exploded at about 9:20 a.m. Sulawesi time, next to a mini bus parked about 50 meters outside the Poso police station, said Abdi Darma, head of the town police. The explosion damaged at least two vehicles parked near the minivan, he said.
``The bomb exploded when the market is full of people shopping'' to celebrate next week's Eid al-Fitr festival, Darma said. The police has tightened security around the town's borders, he said.
Sporadic violence persists in Sulawesi, even after a government-brokered truce in December 2001 ended three years of ethnic conflict between feuding Christians and Muslims. As many as 2,000 people died and 100,000 were forced to flee their homes during the conflict.
Posted by: Mark Espinola ||
11/13/2004 12:56:36 PM ||
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"The bomb exploded when the market is full of people shopping" to celebrate next weekâs Eid al-Fitr festival, Darma said.
Makes it sound like the the poor Muslims were being victimized. But from the other Sulawesi thread: Three people were killed instantly on the bus and six others were injured. Trenggonno declined to identify the victims but acknowledged the bus was heading to the Christian village Silancak. Trenggonno said no one has been arrested but they were searching for two men seen leaving the scene on a motorcycle. "Witnesses saw the men put something in the minibus before running away," he said.
Motorcycles of Doom and bombing of a bus going to a Jewish Christian town. Wonder if the Buddhists did it?
Posted by: ed ||
11/13/2004 13:30 Comments ||
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#2
I'm gonna take a risk on this one and speculate the Religion of Peace⢠might be involved. That OK with you, Aris?
Posted by: Frank G ||
11/13/2004 15:29 Comments ||
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This threat was posted to a jihadi website on 28 October. I'm posting it today so it's part of the RB archive.
Muslim separatists in southern Thailand vowed to carry out revenge attacks after the deaths of 78 protesters who died mainly from suffocation after being crammed on military trucks.
"We swear to Allah from now on, unjust groups cannot sleep well, all property they robbed from us will be destroyed," said the statement posted on the website of the Pattani United Liberation Organisation (Pulo). "They will pay for what they have done, their cities will burn... their blood will pour into land and river," it went on. "Our weapons are fire and oil, fire and oil and fire and oil. We would like to mourn for the dead of people and express sorrow for all injured people ... Your sacrifice will not be wasted but it will be inscribed on our beloved motherland."
The message followed a threat posted on the same website in April to foreigners not to travel to key Thai tourist destinations following the deaths of 108 militants and five security forces during a one-day uprising against Thailand's rule. It warned of attacks on vital resorts for Thai tourism, including Phuket and Krabi, but there have been no strikes in those areas since the threat despite a continuing insurgency in the Muslim-majority south of the country.
Pulo emerged as the largest of a number of Muslim separatist organisations, which formed in the 1960s to re-launch a bid for independence after Thailand annexed a former independent Islamic state in the south 102 years ago.
I never knew those areas had been annexed.
After a wave of violence in the 1970s, a campaign to channel development funds into the area turned the tide, and the election of Thailand's first Muslim politicians helped seal the demise of separatism in the early 1990s. The weakened insurgent groups and their splinter organisations struggled through the 1990s, considered incapable of mounting any serious attacks. But the intifada insurgency sparked back into life in January and more than 415 people have died in violence this year.
Posted by: Seafarious ||
11/13/2004 12:51:40 AM ||
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The kingdom of Siam, now Thailand, wanted a cheap loan from Britain, the colonial overseer in neighbouring Malaya.
So, in 1909 Siam traded four of its restive Muslim feudal states, on the southern fringes of Bangkok's territorial reach, for the £4 million it needed to expand its railway.
The British empire thus crept north. Siam reportedly put the best possible spin on its territorial loss - the Buddhist kingdom had merely cast off some of its distant troublespots. (more in the link)
Posted by: Mark Espinola ||
11/13/2004 4:14 Comments ||
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#2
"Our weapons are fire and oil, fire and oil and fire and oil."
Our chief weapon is surprise...surprise and fear...fear and surprise....
Our two weapons are fear and surprise... and ruthless efficiency....
Our three weapons are fear, surprise, and ruthless efficiency...
and an almost fanatical devotion to the Pope....
Our four... no...
Amongst our weapons... Amongst our weaponry...
are such elements as fear, surprise...
I'll come in again.
Life imitates Python.
Mike
Posted by: Mike Kozlowski ||
11/13/2004 9:05 Comments ||
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A bomb on a minibus exploded on Saturday in Central Sulawesi, killing three people and raising tensions in a region where religious fighting killed nearly 1,000 people three years ago. The bomb exploded at 9:15 a.m. local time as the bus waited in a crowded market in the town of Poso, in Central Sulawesi province, Police Maj. Rudi Trenggono said. Three people were killed instantly on the bus and six others were injured. Trenggonno declined to identify the victims but acknowledged the bus was heading to the Christian village Silancak. Trenggonno said no one has been arrested but they were searching for two men seen leaving the scene on a motorcycle. "Witnesses saw the men put something in the minibus before bravely running away," he said.
Posted by: Dan Darling ||
11/13/2004 12:04:52 AM ||
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A 60-year-old Buddhist man was killed and seven people injured today in a blast at a market, the fourth in less than 24 hours in Thailand's southern provinces. A food seller was killed and three of the injured left in a critical condition from the blast during a busy early morning shopping period in the Than To district of Yala province, police said. The scene of the blast was cordoned off today as forensic teams were brought into investigate, according to police. ''We don't yet know what sort of device was used,'' said a spokesman.
"But apparently, it made a very big 'Boom!' type of sound," he added.
At least 16 people were injured this evening in the first of three obviously apparently coordinated bomb attacks in the neighbouring province of Narathiwat. All 16 were injured in the first of the blasts when a remote control bomb was triggered in a crowded restaurant. Two other bombs went off within two hours of the first but nobody was injured, according to officials. The bomb blasts came hours after a Buddhist teacher was shot dead and confirmed that there is raised fears of a major surge in violence following the deaths of 87 Muslim protestors on October 25. A police spokesman said the first bomb exploded at 6.20pm in the Ungmor restaurant five minutes after a witness saw two men posing as clients plant it in the restaurant before riding away on a motorbike. "Initially we have 14 people injured from the blast," he said, adding that four victims were in a critical condition. About 40 minutes later, a second device went off in a general store at Tak Bai district. A third device hidden in a drain in the Bacho district of Narathiwat went off at 8.15pm but again nobody was hurt. The bomb attacks followed the slaying earlier in the day of a Buddhist martial arts teacher, who was gunned down while returning to his home from a funeral. Also...
With attacks continuing almost daily, defence volunteers in three southern villages had started returning guns to authorities saying they feared being targeted by Islamic militants, the Nation newspaper reported Friday. About 4,000 shotguns have been handed out to village officials by the government in a bid to fend of a wave of hit-and-run attacks aimed entirely at infidels mostly at security forces, state officials, Buddhist civilians and monks.
Posted by: Dan Darling ||
11/13/2004 12:17:36 AM ||
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#1
brought to you by the "religion of bloody borders"
Posted by: SON OF TOLUI ||
11/13/2004 2:03 Comments ||
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Suspected Islamic militants beheaded a 60-year-old Buddhist labourer in Thailand's south. On Tuesday, the decapitated body of Kaew, 60, was found in a hut at the rubber plantation where he worked in Changpeuk village in Narathiwat province, said police Lieutenant Boonserm Klaewatee. The victims's surname was not available. Kaew's head had been slashed repeatedly, apparently by a machete, he said. Police found four handwritten letters with the body that threatened more attacks. "This is not enough," one them read. "More will be killed in revenge for the innocents that were killed in the Tak Bai massacre." Also...
Prime Minister Thaksin Shinawatra said the insurgents in the Muslim-majority southern provinces are arming themselves by stealing guns that the government originally handed out to local officials to fight the militants. On Tuesday, a Buddhist couple - Srinuan Chindai and his wife Korn - were slain by a motorcycle-riding gunman in the Banangstar district of nearby Yala province, said police Lieutenant Colonel Jakarin Bampensamai. Hours before, groups of three to four masked men stormed the houses of village security guards and chiefs in Pattani province and stole 10 shotguns, said police Major General Thanachareon Suwanno. Nobody was injured in the raid, he said.
The insurgents, who have previously been thought to be poorly organised and often armed only with machetes and homemade bombs, have launched a series of raids this year on military installations and other places where weapons are stored. "They will use these stolen guns to kill the innocent people," Thaksin told reporters on Tuesday. "At least four or five innocent people have been killed every day. The lives of innocent people are in serious danger."
Posted by: Seafarious ||
11/13/2004 12:11:48 AM ||
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U.S. troops have "occupied" the entire city of Fallujah, leading Iraqi officials to declare on Saturday the mission "accomplished." There were no more major concentrations of insurgents still fighting, U.S. military officials said. Artillery and airstrikes also ended at nightfall. U.S. military officials said Saturday that American troops had now "occupied" the entire city of Fallujah and there were no more major concentrations of insurgents still fighting. Artillery and airstrikes also ended after nightfall.
They seem to be having trouble with that concept of "occupied."
Iraqi officials acknowledged that the two most wanted figures in the city Jordanian terror mastermind Abu Musab al-Zarqawi and Sheik Abdullah al-Janabi had escaped the fighting.
Ratz. They said the other day Janabi was titzup...
At least 30 of Zarqawi's lieutenants had been killed, officials told FOX News. But after nearly a week of intense urban combat, U.S. officers said resistance had not been entirely subdued and that it still could take several days of fighting to clear the final pockets. At least 1,200 insurgents have been killed since the battle for Fallujah began four days ago, U.S. military officials estimated.
1200 deaders is good...
Officials told FOX News on Saturday they believe about 400 enemy fighters may still be hiding out inside the Sunni Muslim stronghold, with 250 in the south and 150 in the north. Twenty-five American troops were killed and about 170 wounded in the fighting. Officials said seven Iraqi soldiers were also been killed. U.S. Marines rescued two hostages being held captive in an apparent torture chamber, FOX News has learned. Soldiers were led to the chamber by a tip from one of the hostages' relatives and by the hostages' screams.
You're welcome...
Iraq's national security adviser Qassem Dawoud said on national television that about 1,000 insurgents had been killed and another 200 captured during the Fallujah operation. "We are just pushing them against the anvil," said Col. Michael Formica, commander of the 1st Cavalry Division's 2nd Brigade. "It's a broad attack against the entire southern front." Marines in northern Fallujah were hunting for about a dozen insurgents dressed in National Guard uniforms after reports they were wandering the city. "Any [Iraqi National Guard] or [Iraqi special forces] not seen with the Marines are to be considered hostile," Lt. Owen Boyce, 24, of Hartford, Conn., told his men.
That means they'll be shot on site. If they surrender, they can still be shot.
Overnight, two city mosques were hit by airstrikes after troops reported sniper fire from inside. On Saturday, two Marines were killed by a homemade bomb southeast of Fallujah. As the U.S. Army and Marines attacked inside Fallujah from the north, the Marines' 2nd Reconnaissance Battalion blocked insurgents from fleeing. U.S. officials estimate there are about 1,000-2,000 insurgents in the towns and villages around Fallujah who were not trapped inside the city during the U.S.-Iraqi siege, which began Monday.
So now they've got to go root them out...
A U.S. warplane dropped a 500-pound bomb to destroy an insurgent tunnel network in the city, embedded TV correspondent Jane Arraf reported. U.S. officials said they hoped the latest surge would be the final assault on Fallujah, followed by a house-to-house clearing operation to search for boobytraps, weapons and guerrillas hiding in the rubble.
Beebs would call that a "quagmire." Most green-suiters would call it "mopping up."
U.S. and Iraqi officials want to restore control of Fallujah and other Sunni militant strongholds before national elections due by Jan. 31. The fierce fighting has taken its toll on the Americans. More than 400 wounded soldiers have been taken to the U.S. military's Landstuhl Regional Medical Center in Germany, a hospital spokeswoman said. A four-vehicle convoy of the Iraqi Red Crescent carrying humanitarian assistance arrived in Fallujah after the Iraqi and American troops allowed them to pass.
After a thorough search, we hope...
West of Baghdad on a highway stretching toward Fallujah, U.S. airstrikes and clashes between troops and rebels left four people dead and 29 others wounded, police and hospital officials said. Dawoud estimated that 90 percent of Fallujah's residents evacuated before the assault. With resistance in Fallujah waning, U.S. and Iraqi forces began moving against insurgent sympathizers among Iraq's hardline Sunni religious leadership, arresting at least four clerics and raiding offices of groups opposing the assault.
It'd be better if they shot the holy men, too...
Meanwhile, the U.S. military said four American helicopters had been hit by insurgent ground fire in separate attacks near Fallujah. Their uninjured crews returned to base safely.
U.S. troops have "occupied" the entire city of Fallujah, leading Iraqi officials to declare on Saturday the mission "accomplished." There were no more major concentrations of insurgents still fighting, U.S. military officials said. Artillery and airstrikes also ended at nightfall. U.S. military officials said Saturday that American troops had now "occupied" the entire city of Fallujah and there were no more major concentrations of insurgents still fighting. Artillery and airstrikes also ended after nightfall. Iraqi officials acknowledged that the two most wanted figures in the city — Jordanian terror mastermind Abu Musab al-Zarqawi and Sheik Abdullah al-Janabi — had escaped the fighting. At least 30 of Zarqawi's lieutenants had been killed, officials told FOX News. But after nearly a week of intense urban combat, U.S. officers said resistance had not been entirely subdued and that it still could take several days of fighting to clear the final pockets. At least 1,200 insurgents have been killed since the battle for Fallujah began four days ago, U.S. military officials estimated.
Posted by: Mrs. Davis ||
11/13/2004 5:59:42 PM ||
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#1
1200 terr's dead?
That's going to put a dent in their ability to do ops, as well as the loss of a large "safe haven"
U.S. military officials said Saturday that American troops had now "occupied" the entire city of Fallujah and there were no more major concentrations of insurgents still fighting after nearly a week of intense urban combat.
A U.S. officer, speaking on condition of anonymity, said Fallujah was "occupied but not subdued." Artillery and airstrikes also were halted after nightfall to prevent mistaken attacks on U.S. and Iraqi forces who had taken up positions throughout the city.
Iraqi officials declared the operation to free Fallujah of militants was "accomplished" but acknowledged the two most wanted figures in the city — Jordanian terror mastermind Abu Musab al-Zarqawi and Sheik Abdullah al-Janabi — had escaped.
U.S. officers said, however, that resistance had not been entirely subdued and that it still could take several days of fighting to clear the final pockets.
The offensive against Fallujah killed at least 24 American troops and an estimated 1,000 insurgents, and rebel attacks elsewhere — especially in the northern city of Mosul — have forced the Americans to shift troops away from Fallujah.
Exploiting the redeployment, insurgents stepped up attacks in areas outside Fallujah, including a bombing that killed two Marines on the outskirts of the former rebel bastion 40 miles west of Baghdad.
Military activity also surged along the Euphrates River valley well to the north and west of Baghdad, with clashes reported in Qaim on the Syrian border and in Hit and Ramadi, nearer to the capital.
A series of thunderous explosions rocked central Baghdad after sunset Saturday, and sirens wailed in the fortified Green Zone, which houses major Iraqi government offices and the U.S. Embassy. There was no immediate explanation for the blasts, but the Ansar al-Sunnah Army later claimed responsibility for firing several rockets at the zone. The claim's authenticity could not be verified.
A car bomb exploded on the main road to Baghdad airport, and there was fighting near the Education Ministry in the heart of the capital.
Insurgents also attacked a military base outside Baghdad Saturday, killing one coalition soldier and wounding three others, the U.S. military said. The nationalities of the casualties weren't immediately available.
Baghdad's international airport was ordered Saturday to remain closed to civilian traffic for a further 24 hours, according to government adviser Georges Sada.
The airport was closed for 48 hours under the state of emergency imposed last Sunday and has remained shut under a series of one-day extensions ever since.
At least four people were killed and 29 wounded, police said, during a U.S. airstrike on rebels and clashes Saturday in the Abu Ghraib suburb of western Baghdad. One Iraqi was killed and 10 wounded in fighting between U.S. troops and insurgents in the northern city of Tal Afar.
Flames of fire and heavy black smoke were billowing to the sky after saboteurs attacked an oil pipeline north of Baghdad Saturday night, witnesses said.
The oil pipeline carries crude oil from Taji, 12 miles north of Baghdad, to the Dora refinery in Baghdad.
Witnesses said insurgents have virtually controlled the town of Taji for the last several days, distributing leaflets warning people not to leave their houses or open their shops.
The drive against remaining insurgent holdouts in southern Fallujah was aimed to eradicate the last major concentration of fighters at the end of nearly a week of air and ground assaults.
"We are just pushing them against the anvil," said Col. Michael Formica, commander of the 1st Cavalry Division's 2nd Brigade. "It's a broad attack against the entire southern front."
As a prelude to the Saturday assault, a U.S. warplane dropped a 500-pound bomb on an insurgent tunnel network in the city, CNN embedded correspondent Jane Arraf reported.
U.S. and Iraqi forces also have begun moving against insurgent sympathizers among Iraq (news - web sites)'s hardline Sunni religious leadership, arresting at least four prominent clerics and raiding offices of religious groups that had spoken out against the Fallujah assault.
U.S. officials said they hoped the latest attack would finish off the last pocket of significant resistance in Fallujah. Next was a planned house-to-house clearing operation to find boobytraps, weapons and guerrillas still hiding in the rubble.
In Baghdad, Iraqi National Security Adviser Qassem Dawoud proclaimed the Fallujah assault — code-name Operation Al-Fajr, or "Dawn" — was "accomplished" except for mopping up "evil pockets which we are dealing with now."
"The number of terrorists and Saddam (Hussein) loyalists killed has reached more than 1,000," Dawoud said. "As for the detainees, the number is 200 people."
However, Dawoud said al-Zarqawi, whose al-Qaida-linked group was responsible for numerous car-bombings and beheadings of foreign hostages, and the main Fallujah resistance leader, Sheik al-Janabi "have escaped." The United States has offered a $25 million reward for al-Zarqawi.
As U.S. forces pressed their attacks in southern Fallujah, Marines in the northern districts were hunting for about a dozen insurgents dressed in Iraqi National Guard uniforms who were reportedly wandering the city streets.
"Any (Iraqi National Guard) or (Iraqi special forces) not seen with the Marines are to be considered hostile," Lt. Owen Boyce, 24, of Simsbury, Conn., told his men.
U.S. and Iraqi officials want to restore control of Fallujah and other Sunni militant strongholds before national elections scheduled by Jan. 31.
A four-vehicle convoy of the Iraqi Red Crescent carrying humanitarian assistance arrived in Fallujah after the Iraqi and American troops allowed it to pass.
In the southern city of Nasiriyah, interim Prime Minister Ayad Allawi said he expected the operation in Fallujah to conclude by Sunday with a "clear-cut" victory over the insurgents and the terrorists.
"We have captured their safe houses, where they killed people," Allawi said. "We have captured the masks they wore when they slaughtered and decapitated people."
Allawi, a Shiite Muslim, brushed aside suggestions the operation would create a backlash among the country's Sunni minority.
"There is no problem of Sunnis or Shiites," he said. "This is all Iraqis against the terrorists. We are going to keep on breaking their back everywhere in Iraq. We are not going to allow them to win."
Despite the evident military success in Fallujah, U.S. commanders have warned that the insurgency in Iraq will continue — evidenced by the recent spike in violence in the remainder of the Sunni Muslim regions of central Iraq.
The U.S. command withdrew one battalion of the 25th Infantry Division in Fallujah and returned it to Mosul after insurgents attacked police stations, bridges and government buildings Thursday in clashes that killed 10 Iraqi troops and one U.S. soldier.
Mosul was quieter Saturday, but a car bomb exploded as an Iraqi National Guard convoy sent from Kirkuk passed, witnesses said. Seven National Guardsmen were wounded.
The region's governor blamed the uprising on "the betrayal of some police members" and said National Guard reinforcements — many of them ex-members of the Kurdish peshmerga militia taken from garrisons along the Syrian and Iranian borders_ had arrived to help end the violence. The events in Mosul cast further doubt on capabilities of Iraqi forces to maintain order — a key U.S. strategy goal.
Fierce fighting in Fallujah and elsewhere in Iraq has taken its toll on the Americans. More than 400 wounded soldiers have been transported to the U.S. military's Landstuhl Regional Medical Center in Germany, a hospital spokeswoman said.
Weary GIs endure relentless combat
By Tom Lasseter Knight Ridder/Tribune news
Jump out. Kick in door. Spray machine-gun fire. Run to rooftop. Kill enemy. Jump back into armored vehicle. Move to new location. Repeat. So goes the battle for Fallujah as experienced Friday by the exhausted and bewildered soldiers of the 3rd Brigade of the Army's 1st Infantry Division. Flanked by Marines, the bleary-eyed troops led the southern push to corner die-hard Sunni Muslim insurgents who were the last obstacles to full American control of the city. "Our goal right now -- we feel we've broken their back and their spirit -- is to keep the heat on them," Marine Lt. Gen. Thomas Sattler, commander of the offensive, said of the militant holdouts.
That is where the 1st ID comes in. Hyped up on No-Doz and survival instincts, the soldiers thrust toward rebel strongholds with four days of relentless combat showing on their faces. They lost their sense of time and place. They did not know 22 of their colleagues had died or about 170 were wounded in other parts of the city. They did not know what day it was. They were not certain what they were accomplishing. "I'm not sure about stabilizing Iraq," said Spec. John Bandy, 23, of Little Rock, Ark., sucking on a cigarette as bullets ricocheted nearby. "I'm not sure it will be better when we're gone, but it's gotten to the point of retribution for all the things that have happened. The beheadings, the bombings and everything."
In the face of death, little things took on importance. Soldiers wondered how their favorite football teams were doing or where their wives took their kids for dinner. When it rained, they trudged through mud that dried and turned to dust flecking skin, hair and gear. None of them had bathed or changed clothes in nearly five days. Sleep became impossible. Crammed six to a bench in the back of Bradley Fighting Vehicles, they were a sweat-soaked, blood-spattered stinking mess.
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#10
Frank, he could have just jumped out of the vehicle. Also I think it takes a good head to be that collected and grab the grenade and try to get rid of it. I give the guy more credit than you.
#11
no doubt he did a good thing, but I'm a self-preservation first thought guy when it comes to teh media - we'll never know, and I'll gladly join you in assuming the best. Agreed, he deserves nothing less - my bad for being so cynical
Posted by: Frank G ||
11/13/2004 19:09 Comments ||
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#12
" bewildered soldiers"
Talk about slant... THese guys know where they are and what they are doing - and are doing it well.
What the hell is "bewidlering" about that?
This guys bias is leaking in his word choice and diction.
The fighters came to Fallujah last year with piles of cash, strange accents and a militant vision of Islam that was at once foreign and fearsome to residents emerging from nearly 30 years of Saddam Hussein's secular regime.
"Step right in, effendi," the yokels said in unison.
Yet out of custom and necessity, tribal locals offered their Arab guests sanctuary and were repaid with promises to help keep American forces out of the town.
"Yasss! We are much too fearsome for the hated infidel to come in and shoot up your city!
Look! Look at Mahmoud! See the size of his turban!
Look! Look at Ahmed! See the fearsome way he rolls his eys!
Look! Look at Mustafa! See the prickly texture of his enormous beard!
What infidel can stand against manly men like these? We pledge the honor of the al-Kaboomi clan to protect you and your city!"
"But... But the infidels have tanks! Big tanks..."
"Mahmoud! Shoot him!"
This week, with U.S. troops battling their way through the Sunni Muslim stronghold, several Fallujah residents said it had been a grave mistake to trust the foreigners who turned their humble stand against foreign occupation into a sophisticated terror campaign. Once admired as comrades in an anti-American struggle, foreign fighters have become reviled as the reason U.S. missiles are flattening homes and turning Iraq's City of Mosques into a killing field.
"Ummm... That used to be my house."
"Yeah. That used to be my mosque."
"That used to be my house guest."
"Boy. Are you lucky!"
Their promises of protection were unfulfilled, angry residents said, with immigrant rebels moving on to other outposts and leaving besieged locals to face a superpower alone.
"Hi, there, Mr. Infidel. Nice tank you have there."
#1
"I never thought the Americans would be so unmerciful."
No, no, no, Mr. Ehab. We're just doing a little nation building here. Merciless is Plan B. You don't wanna see Plan B.
Posted by: Matt ||
11/13/2004 17:09 Comments ||
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#2
Actually, I think "nation building" -- bringing civilization where it wasn't before -- is part of Plan B, too. Ask the Japanese and Germans how it was to be on the receiving end of Plan B before the "nation building" began.
Posted by: Robert Crawford ||
11/13/2004 17:33 Comments ||
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#3
I'm sure the countdown for the invasion of Syria is well-advanced. After that, it's turning south toward the source of all the money, Saudi Arabia. Once the money's dried up, we can start "negotiating" with Iran. My favorite negotiating tool is 300kt nukes at 700 miles.
Posted by: Old Patriot ||
11/13/2004 19:30 Comments ||
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#4
Old Patriot,
I think you have mastered the basics of negotiating with Arabs (even though, strictly speaking, Iranians are not true Arabs).
BIG STICK... tiny carrot
Posted by: Elder of Zion ||
11/13/2004 19:36 Comments ||
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#5
Oh REALLY, I feel sooooo bad for them. Can't take a play out of the Kerry campaign playbook and have it both ways. Asshats!
Should've backed the Pitbulls, instead you backed the chickens.
Pretty good NYT article
Army tanks and fighting vehicles began blasting their way into the last major rebel stronghold in Falluja at sundown on Saturday after American warplanes and artillery had prepared the way with a savage barrage on the district, called Shuhada. Earlier in the afternoon, 10 separate plumes of smoke rose from southern Falluja, as if etched against the desert sky, and probably exclaiming catastrophe for the insurgents. "It's a broad attack against the entire southern front," said Col. Michael D. Formica, the Army commander in charge of the cordon effort around the city. "We're just pushing them against an anvil."
Mechanized units, mainly M1A2 tanks and Bradley fighting vehicles, have entered Shuhada with their muzzles blazing, blowing apart buildings, rolling over barriers and confronting insurgents holed up in mosques and other refuges. From the city's southeast perimeter, the sound of heavy artillery and machine-gun fire was almost continuous throughout the afternoon, when M1 tanks and Bradleys could be seen pounding rebel positions near the city's southern end, which the Americans, perhaps led by New Yorkers, refer to as Queens, in keeping with their practice of renaming roads and neighborhoods to make them easier to remember. American artillery could also be heard firing from the outskirts in a sequence - the launch, then a soaring sound and then a dull boom - as the rounds detonated and sent dust up over the skyline. The thump of heavy cannons alternated with the chatter of .50-caliber machine-gun fire and the lighter barking sound of the insurgents' AK-47 rifles in response.
In the general direction of Shuhada, a battle could be seen raging late in the afternoon between an American M1 tank and a group of insurgents holed up in buildings around the minarets of a mosque, about 100 yards away. Muzzle flashes from AK-47 fire could be seen at various points around the minarets. The tank, with its rear less than a block from the desert's edge, repeatedly fired its 120-millimeter cannon at the insurgents, sending a sudden dust cloud into the sky as sections of building's masonry collapsed. American airstrikes continued to pound the insurgents, with the groaning sound of an AC-130 gunship audible from above. The fighting inside Falluja in the afternoon was so intense that stray bullets began to kick up dust several hundred yards outside the city. To the south, tanks and armored vehicles assigned to the Marines' Second Reconnaissance Battalion could be seen waiting, part of the American military cordon that is intended to prevent any insurgents from escaping. Other American vehicles patrolled busily along the highway running north and south along the city's eastern edge. Gazing at the battle through his binoculars, Colonel Formica, the Army commander, said, "We're seeing the completion of the liberation of Falluja."
#1
Funny how an election can change the tenor of a reporter's coverage. Dexter's finally beginning to tell it straight. New orders from Bill Keller, maybe?
#2
Too bad Knight-Ridder didn't get the memo. It's going to be hard for the NYT to turn this ship around. And by the time they do, they'll have to start their Blue State cheerleading again.
Posted by: Mrs. Davis ||
11/13/2004 19:16 Comments ||
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#3
Earlier in the afternoon, 10 separate plumes of smoke rose from southern Falluja, as if etched against the desert sky, and probably exclaiming catastrophe for the insurgents
Yeow! NYTimes?????
Posted by: Frank G ||
11/13/2004 19:20 Comments ||
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#4
Maybe Pinch got a spanking from the board members. Adult supervision and all that.
Pakistan's army has demolished several terrorist hideouts and killed 30 to 40 militants but failed to capture a former Guantanamo Bay prisoner accused of targeting security forces in a tense tribal region, officials said Saturday.
"Curses! Foiled again!"
The troops took control of some militant strongholds and seized a weapons cache during the assault, launched this week in South Waziristan to capture foreign fighters and Pakistani militant leader Abdullah Mehsud, said Maj. Gen. Niaz Khatak, the army's field commander. "Our forces this week killed an estimated 30 to 40 militants in the areas of Mehsud," Khatak told reporters. However, he said forces had so far recovered only six bodies and that the operation was continuing in the areas where Mehsud is believed to be on the run. Thousands of soldiers are taking part.
Posted by: Fred ||
11/13/2004 11:11:39 AM ||
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Maybe it's just me, but I don't sit up at night worrying about the fate of the kidnapped Frenchies. I'm assuming at this point that they're either alive or dead...
That would cover all the possibilities ...
France believes that two journalists held hostage in Iraq are still alive, but authorities have lost direct contact with their kidnappers, the foreign minister said Saturday. Reporters Christian Chesnot, 37, of Radio France Internationale, and Georges Malbrunot, 41, of the daily newspaper Le Figaro, disappeared Aug. 20 while driving to the Iraqi city of Najaf. Their Syrian driver, Mohammed al-Joundi, who also was abducted, was rescued Thursday by U.S. Marines in Fallujah. Marines said al-Joundi told them he was separated from the journalists a month ago and had not seen them since. Foreign Minister Michel Barnier said Paris did not know whether all three were together or separated until hearing the driver's account.
Getting real detailed information from those direct contacts, were you?
"We do not have direct contact with the group that kidnapped Christian Chesnot (and) Georges Malbrunot," Michel Barnier told Europe-1 radio. "The situation in Iraq is extremely complex, difficult, dangerous."
"It used to be direct, but now it's not..."
The French government has been extremely tightlipped about its efforts to free the hostages, saying secrecy is essential for the men's safety and the success of any negotiations. "I am unable to say publicly all the information we have," Barnier said. "We think they are alive and well-treated."
"I can say no more!"
Al-Joundi's brother-in-law, Ali Merhebi, said Friday that France's Foreign Ministry told him last month that French officials had found a channel of direct contact with the group believed to have taken the men hostage. "They said, 'We have found the means to contact the group directly, and we hope to have good news in the days to come,'" Merhebi told The Associated Press.
"Quite by coincidence, we bank at the same branch..."
The Foreign Ministry spokeswoman refused to confirm Merhebi's account. "This concerns negotiations, I cannot confirm anything," she said.
"I can say no more!"
Barnier did not specify Saturday when authorities had last communicated with the kidnapers, saying only: "We have had direct contact and we are trying to resume these contacts."
"I can say no more!"
Posted by: Fred ||
11/13/2004 10:49:09 AM ||
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#1
Personals. Cheap yet effective.
Posted by: St Sebastian ||
11/13/2004 16:06 Comments ||
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#2
I consider them sympathetic embeds
Posted by: Frank G ||
11/13/2004 16:13 Comments ||
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Since they sprung 250 Bad Guyz, I guess there's lots of room in the local calaboose. Time to go get more for the catch and release program...
Over 2,000 Pakistani soldiers backed by artillery and sophisticated weapons launched a major operation yesterday against foreign militants and a former Guantanamo Bay prisoner, Abdullah Mehsud, accused of targeting security forces in a tense tribal region near Afghanistan, a military commander said. Lt. Gen. Safdar Hussain, the top commander in northwestern Pakistan, said about 2,000 soldiers also took part in the operation that began at dawn in South Waziristan to capture "foreign miscreants" and Mehsud.
Y'gotta watch those "miscreants." They're the ones responsible for the litter problem in South Waziristan, y'know...
"The troops have met some resistance and the operation will continue till the area is purged of miscreants," he told reporters in Peshawar. The troops were trying to secure militant strongholds northeast of Wana, the main town in South Waziristan's tribal district. Yesterday's operation is part of a broader military drive launched in March to flush out Al-Qaeda. Mehsud is accused of masterminding the kidnapping last month of two Chinese engineers in South Waziristan where they were building a dam. One of the Chinese men was killed and the other was rescued alive by commandos. Mehsud, 28, was freed in March after about two years' detention at the US prison for terror suspects at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba.
He was just a simple tribesman, you know, in the wrong place at the wrong time, all a big misunderstanding. He was actually doing charity work, handing out feed for the baby ducks in the area. Just ask Amnesty International...
Since his return he has emerged as a rebel leader, opposing Pakistan's army as it hunts remnants of Al-Qaeda in the country's semiautonomous tribal regions. Hussain said the troops this week searched Mehsud's home in the South Waziristan village of Nano, about 320 km from Peshawar, the capital of North West Frontier Province, but found no one.
"Yeah. We asked around. Nobody's seen him."
He said Mehsud might be hiding in caves in the area. Hussain vowed the current operation, around Nano and surrounding villages, would continue until Mehsud and other "miscreants" were arrested. "The miscreants are in total disarray. They are on the run and we are chasing them," he said.
"Nano nano! Fly, little brother and be free!"
He said the army was using artillery and helicopter gunships and facing some resistance. In the first few hours of the operation, troops had seized a cache of weapons from militant hide-outs. It was not clear if there had been any casualties.
Posted by: Fred ||
11/13/2004 10:14:06 AM ||
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US forces were in control of most of the insurgent stronghold of Fallujah yesterday and claimed to have cornered the remnants of the terrorists rebels in the south of the city. Lt. Gen. John Sattler, commander of the 1st Marine Expeditionary Force, said US and Iraqi forces now occupy about 80 percent of Fallujah, and clearing operations are continuing to find caches of weapons and ammunition. "They can't go north because that's where we are. They can't go west because of the Euphrates River and they can't go east because we have a huge presence there. So they are cornered in the south," Marine Master Sgt. Roy Meek said.
As the assault entered its fifth day, US tanks rolled freely, while thousands of US troops, backed by Iraqi soldiers, moved house-to-house to root out pockets of insurgents. "What is left (to take), comparatively speaking, is a small piece of what we started with," said Marine spokesman Lt. Lyle Gilbert. A relentless barrage of US firepower over the past week has turned Fallujah into a ghost city. Some troops swept quickly through the city from end to end, seizing key positions such as mosques, schools and government buildings, while others followed with the perilous task of rooting out the rebels, who the Marines say have become more desperate as their stronghold crumbles. The building-to-building searches uncovered Mohammed Al-Jundi, the Syrian driver who was taken hostage with French journalists Christian Chesnot and Georges Malbrunot seized by militants south of Baghdad on Aug. 20. Marines said they blew up one of the houses on Thursday where foreign and Iraqi hostages appeared to have been slaughtered. Inside the building, they said they had found grisly videotapes of captives, a camera and a black flag of the sort used as a backdrop in hostage footage sent by militants to television stations or posted on the Internet. Aid agencies called on US forces and the Iraqi government to allow them to deliver food, medicine and water to Fallujah and said the fighting had turned the city into a "big disaster".
What was it before the assault? A garden of earthly delights?
Despite the military successes, commanders expressed fear that many insurgents had fled Fallujah before the battle for the city started Monday and were now operating in other flashpoint towns.
Posted by: Fred ||
11/13/2004 10:02:16 AM ||
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#1
I suspect these commanders are shedding crocodile tears, knowing full well that the actually banana boat tally is prolly three times the official one.
#2
AnonyMoose (or Anonymous)? You may be correct. However, as long as Iran's Mullahs are in power they will continue to send killers to interfere in Iraq. Almost all of those captured are either Iranian, Syrian or Saudi. Those snake pits will have to be cleaned out over the next 10 to 25 tears or so. This will be a generational war.
I guess that's one way of looking at it. And if you stand on your head, you can see it upside down.
Posted by: Fred ||
11/13/2004 10:00:17 AM ||
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#1
In other news..."Construction crew bogged down in cautious pouring and leveling of foundation for new house. Neighbors decry waste of time on this effort, saying: 'No one ever looks under the house anyway'"
#2
Well they would like to think we are bogged down. Given there isn't even a timetable for completion apperently this is just plain stupid. Then you have to consider the source. I did it's really a laugh.
#3
"Shitass Ragheads Bogged Down in Hopeless Struggle Against U.S. Troops; 'Primitive assholes are doomed', says field commander" would be more accurate.
Posted by: Dave D. ||
11/13/2004 10:19 Comments ||
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#4
I guess the moron that wrote this using pejorative language like "Bogged" has never seen a proper house-clearing. I invite him and his cohorts to go do it "quickly". Be sure your will is made out prior to going.
Seriously, if we didnt care about the people of Fallujah, we'd noe be doing it house to house, room to room. We'd simply call in artillery and walk it from one end of the fire sack to the other, and level all those places. Then they'd be complaining about casualties and baby ducks and dead kittens...
#5
The interesting part for me is not the stupid headline but this: "Clearly they have been killing some of their own," said Captain Drew McNulty.
I guess the shine is wearing off being a jihadi.
Well, if Arab News wants faster results, I suppose we could simply shoot all the residents on sight and raze the whole city to the ground, but they'd obviously find something else to complain about...
#8
Our Marines and Army got 1200 of the terrorist assholes. That is a good beginning. God bless the Marines and the Army. On to Mosul for a good house cleaning.
Hundreds of men trying to flee the assault on Fallujah have been turned back by U.S. troops following orders to allow only women, children and the elderly to leave. The military says it has received reports warning that insurgents will drop their weapons and mingle with refugees to avoid being killed or captured by advancing American troops. As it believes many of Fallujah's men are guerrilla fighters, it has instructed U.S. troops to turn back all males aged 15 to 55. "We assume they'll go home and just wait out the storm or find a place that's safe," one 1st Cavalry Division officer, who declined to be named, said Thursday.
Army Col. Michael Formica, who leads forces isolating Fallujah, admits the rule sounds "callous." But he insists it's is key to the mission's success. "Tell them 'Stay in your houses, stay away from windows and stay off the roof and you'll live through Fallujah,'" Formica, of the 1st Cavalry Division's 2nd Brigade, told his battalion commanders in a radio conference call Wednesday night. Many of Fallujah's 200,000 to 300,000 residents fled the city before the assault, at which time 1,200 to 3,000 fighters were believed in militant stronghold. Later Prime Minister Ayad Allawi imposed a 24-hour curfew on Fallujah and ordered roads in the area closed, providing the legal background for the U.S. blockade. Troops have cut off all roads and bridges leading out of the city. Relatively few residents have sought to get through, but officers here say they fear a larger exodus.
Continued on Page 49
Posted by: (-Cobra-) ||
11/13/2004 3:49:52 AM ||
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#1
This morning's number was 1000 potted and 400 prisoners...
I wonder how many died during the inital bombardment. It's prolly more than I think, but less than I hope. Wonder if the final enemy bod ct will break 2500?
Wonder if the MSM will keep silent as usual when we finish sucessfully? :/
Wonder if someone with the ability to make it stick is going to call the MSM on it? :(
Posted by: N Guard ||
11/13/2004 9:35 Comments ||
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#2
The someone with the ability to make it stick is you. Stop watching and stop buying.
Posted by: Mrs. Davis ||
11/13/2004 9:49 Comments ||
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#3
No doubt the MSM will report on the americans being 'big meanies!' about this in not allowing obvious 'civilians' (meaning people not in uniform - armed or not) to escape.
I notice that they barely mentioned the hostage slaughter houses in Fallujah -- where innocent and defenseless civilians were brutally murdered in cold blood. (But they didn't have to have womens panties on their heads so who cares?).
But since it was Muslims who did it so its A-ok with Jennings, Blather, and the others.....
#5
If today's MSM had been around when Auschwitz was liberated the focus would have been on the terrible pyschological toll killing millions of Jews had ON THE GUARDS. And of course, we'd get in-depth analysis of the long term respiratory effects breathing all those human ashes had on those who lived NEAR Auschwitz. Ultimately it would be exposed that the Jews plotted all along to die en masse in the concentration camps just to fuck up the Germans.
And let's no forget the fun Michael Moore would have had showing fun-filled Ocktoberfest celebrations before we bombed Berlin...and then scenes of Berlin after the war. "Was this war JUST so we could sieze German beer stocks? Who IS Anhauser Busch? Let's connect the dots..."
#7
I've been thinking and saying for over a year that we should be doing a scaled-up version of this in all the main trouble spots in Sunni areas. We have the rosters/lists of intel, police, govt., and party operatives in all these areas, right? (or at least pretty good lists) Why the hell haven't we been preventively detaining, en masse, all of these people? Make it clear what we're doing and why, and what the end-game is -- and through the pressure and isolation we can bring to bear on males and families, "turn" some, bust some, and break the spirit of most of the rest.
Hard to see even the half-assed "insurgency" we've been facing lasting a month if most males with any connection to the former regime are preventively and indefinitely detained. Any Sunni patriots stepping forward to try to carry the torch after the "pros" are behind wire should be dealt with harshly. The guys behind wire can be worked tremendously through bribery, coercion, and blackmail -- dynamite the trust and cohesion of the enemy, which is particularly vulnerable to this due to clan and regional fault lines.
If the Sunni minority (esp. the bulk of it, in al-Anbar and the north) were not a hopelessly outgunned and strategically beleaguered one, it would be prudent to make nice and attempt a smooth path to a new order. Uh uh. This is a civil war wherein the key objective is breaking the spirit of that minority. Eventually they'll be integrated and want to be. In the short term, they need to be crushed -- in whichever form a particular situation calls for, usually just pscyhologically, but physically when required. They're not an important part of Iraq's future, just a speed bump en route to that future.
Fallujah's a start, but it should be coupled with a harsh and aggressive detention/repression policy throughout the Sunni regions. The message should be disseminated ceaselessly and aggressively -- you're not getting the country back, your best bet is to secure a place in the country's future by cooperating and getting on with life. Back up these words with mass preventive detention, economic punishment, and more Fallujah-type aggressive military action.
Before the Sunni minority and can be co-opted and integrated, it's got to be ruthlessly suppressed, and its spirit crushed. Any other approach is criminal incompetence that wastes American and Iraqi lives.
#8
Verlaine, you make it sound so easy ....
These MF,s ( all of them ) have been fighting tribal wars since the the B.C. years. When we finally are succesful in bringing some sort of stability. These " minority" tribes will still be raising hell. The Iraq people need to quit hiding and step up ... I believe we are doing all we can.
Its time for the majority ( not just a few ) to grow some balls and take care of these goons.
#9
Keep an eye out for Saudi masterminds in burkhas.
Posted by: ed ||
11/13/2004 14:18 Comments ||
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#10
One thing I hope is happening is that the troops on the ground are combing the population for individuals who are able and willing to identify rebels that are hiding among the civilians, like that kid that's now in CO. This operation will be wrapped up soon, and weeding out the baddies will be the next task.
#11
"There is nothing that distinguishes an insurgent from a civilian," the 1st Cavalry officer said. "If theyâre not carrying a weapon, you canât tell whoâs who."
And this, ladies and gentlemen, is why the Geneva Convention was written, and why forces that do not follow it do not deserve its protection.
Posted by: Robert Crawford ||
11/13/2004 16:09 Comments ||
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#12
"We assume theyâll go home and just wait out the storm or find a place thatâs safe," ... or die.
For once, we have a chance of success. Only by making Fallujah's male population bear direct witness to how insurgents place their lives in dire peril will there ever be a chance at removing any incentive to help them. This is finally being done.
Want that rooftop sniper removed? Point him out.
Want that car bomb manufacturer stopped? Report him.
The 1,350 Dutch troops in Iraq will be brought home as planned in March, the Defence Ministry said on Friday, but the Netherlands will contribute to a NATO training mission there. The Dutch contingent has been based in the Muthanna province, in southern Iraq, since August 2003 and parliament in June extended their stay until March 2005. "We think that by March 2005 the security situation in Al Muthanna will be stable enough to hand over the task to Iraqi security," Defence Ministry spokesman Otte Beeksma said. "This does not mean we won't have a presence in Iraq at all. We will send about 100 men to provide support and training in the NATO training mission," he said. The Netherlands has been under US and British pressure to keep its troops in Iraq beyond the March deadline as the interim administration tries to contain mounting violence and hold elections. Foreign Minister Bernard Bot recently suggested an extension might be possible, but Defence Minister Henk Kamp said the cabinet had now ruled that out.
Posted by: Mark Espinola ||
11/13/2004 7:11:36 AM ||
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#1
Hey, a "..., but" that swings our way ! How novel !
Posted by: Carl in N.H. ||
11/13/2004 8:18 Comments ||
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#2
Thanks for standing alongside us! I think they may have use of their 'real time' training experience from Iraq at home by March.
Posted by: Don ||
11/13/2004 11:06 Comments ||
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#3
I think the Dutch have figured out they need their experienced fighters at home, to deal with their own islamofruitcakes. Thanks and good hunting, guys - we enjoyed your contribution to the party. Have fun at home!
Posted by: Old Patriot ||
11/13/2004 17:32 Comments ||
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The last phase in the preparation of Bulgaria's fourth infantry unit to set off for Iraq in about a month was completed, the Defense Ministry announced. Despite some reports of decreased staff to take over the currently patrolling Bulgarian soldiers in Diwaniya, the number of the next unit will be the same - 480 soldiers. It will serve under the commandment of Lieutenant Colonel Dimitar Shivikov from Plovdiv. The preparation of the troops started in the mechanized infantry brigade in the town of Karlovo, south Bulgaria, on September 6. Bulgarian base in Iraq has moved from Karbala's Kilo to Diwaniya's Eko base, within the headquarters of Polish multinational commandment.
Posted by: Mark Espinola ||
11/13/2004 7:09:04 AM ||
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#1
Bravo to the former Warsaw Pact - they have shown more brass than any of Nato, excepting the UK and the small contingent of the Dutch.
British Prime Minister Tony Blair vowed he would not move troops out of Iraq during his visit with President George W. Bush in Washington. "I've made it clear all the way through that I'm not going to give up on this or back down on it," Blair said in an interview on ABC's Nightline. UK is the strongest ally of the U.S. invasion of Iraq last year, sending more than 8,500 troops.
Posted by: Mark Espinola ||
11/13/2004 7:07:51 AM ||
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BRAVO!
El Salvador assured U.S. Defence Secretary Donald Rumsfeld yesterday it will keep its elite troops in Iraq, where it is Washington's only Latin American ally. El Salvador has 380 special-forces soldiers serving in Iraq, and although the contingent is fairly small, it has real symbolic value for the Bush administration because the Iraq war is deeply unpopular across most of Latin America. U.S. officials have repeatedly paid tribute to Salvadoran President Tony Saca's conservative government, and Mr. Rumsfeld visited the country this week to reinforce the close alliance. Honduras, Nicaragua and the Dominican Republic sent troops to Iraq but later withdrew them. El Salvador has held firm despite being threatened with retaliation by Islamic militant groups. "You can be sure that Salvadoran soldiers will continue to serve just causes in whatever part of the world humanity requires them," Defence Minister General Otto Romero said yesterday.
Mr. Rumsfeld was to travel to Nicaragua yesterday, where he was to push for the destruction of about 2,000 shoulder-fired anti-aircraft missiles used by the former Marxist government during a civil war against U.S.-backed rebels in the 1980s. In El Salvador, Mr. Rumsfeld met with Mr. Saca and Mr. Romero. At a national commando school, he presented U.S. military Bronze Star medals for valour to six Salvadoran soldiers. On March 5, they saved the lives of six U.S. members of the Coalition Provisional Authority, the body that preceded Iraq's interim government, when a convoy from Baghdad to the city of Najaf came under attack from heavily armed insurgents. The Salvadorans fought their way through the attack. "They risked their lives so that others might live, and so that a people long brutalized might live in freedom," Mr. Rumsfeld said. "It is an honour for me, and it shows we are capable of fulfilling any mission given to us. We have warrior roots," said Lieutenant Carlitos Enrique Echeverria, one of the Salvadoran commandos awarded a Bronze Star.
The United States backed a series of right-wing governments with heavy military aid during El Salvador's civil war against guerrillas in the 1980s, when Central America was a Cold War battleground. Washington aided Contra rebels fighting the Sandinista government in Nicaragua during the same period. Although Nicaragua's civil war ended in 1990 and it has been run by conservative governments since then, it still has about 2,000 anti-aircraft missiles that were sent to the Sandinistas by Cuba and the Soviet Union. Washington now wants them destroyed, and Mr. Rumsfeld was to push the issue in Nicaragua.
Posted by: Mark Espinola ||
11/13/2004 7:05:33 AM ||
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What they would have told Kerry's SecDef?
Posted by: Mrs. Davis ||
11/13/2004 8:14 Comments ||
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Interesting point. Since in the 80s he was on the side of the left wing terrorists and the communist government of Nicaragua (including visiting Ortega), I suspect relations would be a little cool.
Iraq's international airport in Baghdad will remain closed for commercial flights until further notice, the office of Prime Minister Iyad Allawi said on Saturday. Allawi on Monday decided to shut the airport for 48 hours after he declared a state of emergency in a desperate bid to curb unrest engulfing the country. On Wednesday, he extended the closure for another 24 hours. Attacks against symbols of the United States-backed government and security forces have spiked since US and Iraqi forces invaded the rebel epicentre of Fallujah on Monday in a bid to regain control. Curfews have also been imposed on several cities, including Baghdad.
Posted by: Mark Espinola ||
11/13/2004 7:03:56 AM ||
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Mark, would you consider this a demand problem or a supply constraint?
Posted by: Mrs. Davis ||
11/13/2004 8:15 Comments ||
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I would consider Allawi's action a precautionary measure probably based on a tip concerning a passenger airliner or more likely cargo planes being used in an attack due to dangerous lack of checking freight carriers world-wide.
Posted by: Mark Espinola ||
11/13/2004 11:48 Comments ||
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The Marlboro man was angry: He has a war to fight, and he's running out of smokes. "If you want to write something," he tells an intruding reporter, "tell Marlboro I'm down to four packs, and I'm here in Fallujah till who knows when. Maybe they can send some. And they can bring down the price a bit." Those are the unfettered sentiments of Marine Lance Cpl. James Blake Miller, 20, a country boy from Kentucky who has been thrust unwittingly and somewhat unwillingly into the role of poster boy for a war on the other side of the world from his home on the farm.
"I just don't understand what all the fuss is about," Miller drawls on Friday as he crouches - Marlboro firmly in place - inside an abandoned building with his platoon mates, preparing to fight insurgents holed up in yet another mosque. "I was just smokin' a cigarette, and someone takes my picture and it all blows up."
Posted by: .com ||
11/13/2004 3:35:02 AM ||
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#1
But, but, it's bad for his health! How can the military allow this when smoking is prohibited in all righteously enlightened workplaces? There are children in Fallujah, being exposed to the evil of second-hand smoke! Oh, the humanity! Atrocity alert! Worse than Abu Ghraib! Free Mumia, free dope, free lunch! Bush can't talk, worst president in history. Hey, don't bogart that joint, man.
(channeling asshat)
#2
The Brass should promote this soldier on valor alone; he is an inspiration in the war, just as Jessica Lynch was! If he has had the opportunity at enemy kills, bravo the more! He reminds me of the Kurt Russell character in the movie "Soldier"!
#3
Ol Dad tells of being on operations in WWII (aka The Big One) where the only thing taken from rations were the smokes and the candy, it being a different time, them in charge cranked out a new ration of nothing but smokes and candy.
And then, one day, there weren't full packs of smokes, only those 4-cigarette "courtesy packs" they handed out on airlines at the time.
And then there were none.
The virtuous, like the poor, will always be with us...
Posted by: Fred ||
11/13/2004 11:51 Comments ||
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#5
The real danger Corporal Miller is going to face will be when he gets back home to Kentucky and young women start lauching themselves at him like RPG's.
Posted by: Matt ||
11/13/2004 14:30 Comments ||
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#6
Nice relief from the ordeal of Fallujah. Would be nicer if the military's PR flacks could plant or create more stories like this to knock the MSM off-balance and displace their gloom and doom spin.
The farther south the marines push through this rebellious city, the more often they notice that the men shooting at them are wearing tan uniforms with a smart-looking camouflage pattern that is the color of chocolate chips. Those are the uniforms of the Iraqi National Guard. On Friday, after several hours of nonstop gun battles around a mosque in southern Falluja had killed about 100 insurgents, the marines said that those tan uniforms had cost one of their own his life the day before. It happened in what they first called an ambush, but now believe was a case of mistaken identity, combined with quick reflexes by insurgents who are using their wits to deadly effect as they approach their last stand.
The insurgents are also believed to have killed marines in the First Battalion, Eighth Marines, with the help of a network of tunnels gouged beneath Falluja for this fight. And they have apparently found a way to zero in with their mortars on strobes that the marines use to mark their position as a protection against friendly fire - strobes that they thought were invisible to their foe. "You can tell that the quality of the fighters has improved as we've moved south through the city," said Lt. Steven Berch. "They shoot better, they move better, they cover themselves better." That progression, too, seems to have been part of a plan by the rebels. How well it has worked is open to debate, but the 50-man platoon that lost the marine on Thursday had nine other casualties as well - a stunning rate of 20 percent in a single day - all a result of the rebels' skill.
Continued on Page 49
Posted by: Dan Darling ||
11/13/2004 12:25:28 AM ||
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#1
What were the Marines doing dressed as Iraqi soldiers?
Another point of usage...always capitalize "Marine".
#2
typical defeatist spin from the tokyo rose nytimes--dammit this invasion should have been perfect--no deaths-no wounded no problems--like an audie murphy movie--fuck them--btw those stolen uniforms made an appearance on the back of the "insurgents" posing as captured as iraqi forces to crush the morale of those guys--times guy belittles the iraqi guys motivation--the msm is workin' for the enemy--this times guy should be embedded with a nail hammer
Posted by: SON OF TOLUI ||
11/13/2004 1:59 Comments ||
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#3
Don't you love the admiring tone in this story?
"That progression, too, seems to have been part of a plan by the rebels. How well it has worked is open to debate, but the 50-man platoon that lost the marine on Thursday had nine other casualties as well - a stunning rate of 20 percent in a single day - all a result of the rebelsâ skill. "
A "stunning" casualty rate? This guy can't be serious, but of course, he is.
#4
Now we know why those 'Iraqi soldiers' were turned away from the camera in that latest video purporting to have captured 21 Iraqi troops! It was staged, with the perpetrators really being insurgents in simulated coalition uniforms!
Pakistani military personnel accused in the two failed assassination attempts on President General Pervez Musharraf in December last year will be tried by a military court soon, a leading Pakistani newspaper said today. Daily Times quoted an unnamed official as saying that security agencies have arrested civilians and some low ranking officials of the army and the air force on suspicion of links with the plotters and executers of the attacks. The paper, however, did not disclose the number of civilians and military personnel arrested. ''Arrangements are underway for court martial of some army personnel,'' the newspaper quoted an official as saying on condition of anonymity.
Posted by: Dan Darling ||
11/13/2004 12:08:34 AM ||
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#1
any word on these guys' religion?
Posted by: SON OF TOLUI ||
11/13/2004 1:24 Comments ||
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#2
Unitarians, I think. Or maybe Moose limbs...
Posted by: Fred ||
11/13/2004 9:02 Comments ||
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Black Watch soldiers supporting the US assault on Fallujah yesterday intercepted a suicide bombing squad after a series of fire-fights and a helicopter chase across the desert. Two insurgents were last night being interrogated at the troops' Camp Dogwood base after a huge cache of bomb-making equipment was found in their car. Morale soared as word spread among the Black Watch's 850-strong battle group at Camp Dogwood last night. Big snip, go read the rest at the link. Really good writing from embedded reporters about an exciting and successful engagement, including fleeing jihadis shooting at the Brits' helicopter from their car as they tried to drive away.
#3
Congratulations. Enjoy the interrogations, but don't use cameras.
Posted by: Mrs. Davis ||
11/13/2004 8:31 Comments ||
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#4
"The two arrests were made after a cleric pointed out one of the rebels who had tried to blend into a crowd of 100 onlookers."
Maybe there are some moderate clerics!
Posted by: Tom ||
11/13/2004 9:43 Comments ||
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#5
Pay back is a bitch , and we aint even warmed up yet .
#7
Yikes British interrogation! Cold shoulders, sneering looks, quick cuts and horrific browbeating, all designed to force the prisoner to genetically recall that he is but a native.
#10
Tough questions, hard looks, cudgels, pliers, flaming shoots of bamboo under the fingernails, underwear hats, snarling dogs, Lyndie England wearing Fredricks of Hollywood sportingwear...
But eating haggis?
Good God, RJ! There's no need to get carried away!
Posted by: Darth VAda ||
11/13/2004 12:43 Comments ||
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#11
Re #2: The Queen's English for "hooyah" is probably "hurrah!" as in the Admiral's recitative from HMS Pinafore:
Then give three cheers,
I'll lead the way,
Hurrah! Hurrah! Hooray!"
#13
Haggis, and force them to listen to Spice Girls songs alternated wiht Rupert Holmes.
You don't know Rupert Holmes?
Everyone knows Rupert Holmes, although perhaps not by name.
He sang "The Pina Colada Song", also known as "Escape". Everyone knows Rupert Holmes because, given the chance, 95% of us would like to throttle him until his face was purple. The remaining 5% are middle-aged women who, for some reason, find this song entertaining.
#14
The only bummer is that for all their efforts, they only nabbed two out of ten.
They ought to be pissed about that, if it's true (it is according to the accounts I've read). Chasing ten men in three cars, with choppers and light armoured vehicles, and they only nabbed two?! Definitely room for improvement. The Lynx aren't up to the task, methinks, although they may have reached the scene too late to hope to get all the bad guys. We've got Longbows; I think it's time they were moved up for some action. I doubt the goons would have had the opportunity to shoot back at an Apache
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Security forces yesterday arrested five suspected terrorists in two operations in Riyadh and Zulfi and seized weapons including machine guns and live ammunition.
A suspect in a 1999 apartment-building bombing that killed 64 people and helped trigger Moscow's renewed military campaign in Chechnya was brought to Russia on Saturday after being arrested in the former Soviet republic of Azerbaijan, authorities said. 
A 60-year-old Buddhist man was killed and seven people injured today in a blast at a market, the fourth in less than 24 hours in Thailand's southern provinces. A food seller was killed and three of the injured left in a critical condition from the blast during a busy early morning shopping period in the Than To district of Yala province, police said. The scene of the blast was cordoned off today as forensic teams were brought into investigate, according to police. ''We don't yet know what sort of device was used,'' said a spokesman.
Pakistan's army has demolished several terrorist hideouts and killed 30 to 40 militants but failed to capture a former Guantanamo Bay prisoner accused of targeting security forces in a tense tribal region, officials said Saturday.
US forces were in control of most of the insurgent stronghold of Fallujah yesterday and claimed to have cornered the remnants of the 
Hundreds of men trying to flee the assault on Fallujah have been turned back by U.S. troops following orders to allow only women, children and the elderly to leave. The military says it has received reports warning that insurgents will drop their weapons and mingle with refugees to avoid being killed or captured by advancing American troops. As it believes many of Fallujah's men are guerrilla fighters, it has instructed U.S. troops to turn back all males aged 15 to 55. "We assume they'll go home and just wait out the storm or find a place that's safe," one 1st Cavalry Division officer, who declined to be named, said Thursday.
The Marlboro man was angry: He has a war to fight, and he's running out of smokes. "If you want to write something," he tells an intruding reporter, "tell Marlboro I'm down to four packs, and I'm here in Fallujah till who knows when. Maybe they can send some. And they can bring down the price a bit." Those are the unfettered sentiments of Marine Lance Cpl. James Blake Miller, 20, a country boy from Kentucky who has been thrust unwittingly and somewhat unwillingly into the role of poster boy for a war on the other side of the world from his home on the farm.
Pakistani military personnel accused in the two failed assassination attempts on President General Pervez Musharraf in December last year will be tried by a military court soon, a leading Pakistani newspaper said today. Daily Times quoted an unnamed official as saying that security agencies have arrested civilians and some low ranking officials of the army and the air force on suspicion of links with the plotters and executers of the attacks. The paper, however, did not disclose the number of civilians and military personnel arrested. ''Arrangements are underway for court martial of some army personnel,'' the newspaper quoted an official as saying on condition of anonymity.
